A current mortgage price indicator futures contract (“Mortgage Futures Contract”) that can be traded on a futures exchange is described. The contracts add value over existing hedging and speculating alternatives by meeting the needs of a wide range of mortgage and mortgage-backed securities (MBS) market participants such as portfolio managers, dealers, hedgers, originators, speculators and arbitrageurs. The Mortgage Futures Contract is based upon conventional MBS and has a relatively current coupon composition, thereby resulting in risk properties that appeal to market participants more so than prior contracts based on non-conventional MBS that were not correlated to current MBS production. The Mortgage Futures Contract has a cash settlement feature designed to eliminate complicated and largely uneconomic physical delivery of the underlying security. A options contract corresponding to the Mortgage Futures Contract and that can be traded on a futures exchange is also described.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to financial instruments, and more particularly, to the processing, valuing and trading of mortgage-related financial instruments.
2. Related Art
Consumers who desire to purchase a home usually borrow funds from a lender (e.g., a bank, finance company or the like, who are also called "originators" or "lenders"). As is well known in the relevant art(s), the legal document by which a consumer (i.e., the borrower) uses the mortgaged property as security to guarantee repayment of the loan is known as a mortgage (or mortgage loan).
Today, lenders sell over half of all mortgage loans they originate into the secondary market. By selling mortgage loans into the secondary market, lenders liberate capital in order to have funds to meet additional consumer demand for home mortgages. That is, the secondary market keeps the supply of money for housing widely available and ultimately lowers costs to borrowers.
Within the secondary market, lenders normally sell conventional mortgages (i.e., those not guaranteed or insured by the Federal Housing Administration or Veterans Administration) to a secondary market conduit or wholesaler, or directly to the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation ("Freddie Mac") or the Federal National Mortgage Association ("Fannie Mae"). The majority of these mortgages are sold to Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae (each, an "Agency") for cash or in exchange for mortgage-backed securities. The Agencies pool, or "securitize," the mortgages by creating mortgage-backed securities ("MBS") backed by the purchased mortgages. Each respective Agency guarantees principal and interest payments on the MBS issued by it. Most newly issued MBS are sold (forward, usually one-to-three months) by participants in this market to broker-dealers, banks, pension funds, insurance companies, money market funds or other institutions. In other words, the MBS may be already sold prior to its issuance and/or delivery to the seller of that MBS.
Certain MBS are "TBA" (to-be-announced) eligible. In order to be TBA-eligible, newly-issued MBS must meet requirements determined, from time to time, by the Bond Market Association ("BMA") of New York, N.Y., including requirements relating to pool size and the types and similarity of mortgages within such a pool. In addition to some basic information about the TBA MBS (for example its coupon and issuer), a purchaser of a TBA MBS typically knows only the general characteristics of the mortgages comprising it, such as the original terms (years) of the underlying mortgages. The underlying concept of TBA MBS is that they are fungible. In other words, they are sufficiently similar that it does not or should not matter to an investor which particular MBS it purchases so long as the MBS satisfies the investor's basic requirements as to coupon rate, term and other factors described above. The United States MBS market is the second largest component of the fixed-income investment market, and mortgages comprise almost twenty percent of the financial instrument universe.
In 1999, the Federal Reserve estimated the value of the MBS market at $2.3 trillion in outstanding supply, with $67 billion trading per day. Yet, the United States MBS market is the largest cash market in the world currently without a futures market counterpart. (In the 1970s and 1980s, the Chicago Board of Trade (the "CBOT") launched a series of mortgage-based futures contracts (collectively, "GNMA Futures Contracts") based on mortgage-backed securities guaranteed by the Government National Mortgage Association ("GNMA"), an agency whose guaranty of FHA/VA loans is backed by the full faith and credit of the United States government; yet, issues of timing and contract design eventually led to their demise.)
The total outstanding supply of MBS is second only to that of Treasury securities, and it is projected that the outstanding supply of MBS will eclipse that of Treasury securities within the next few years. In the absence of a viable futures market alternative, the cash forward market has, in many ways, evolved to fulfill the role typically played by a traditional futures market—but without many of the benefits. That is, the cash forward market lacks the efficiency, operational simplicity and credit protection afforded by an exchange-based futures market.
Further, mortgage market participants need a more effective hedging instrument in the wake of increased market volatility and events such as the liquidity crisis of 1998. Hedging, as will be apparent to one skilled in the relevant art(s), is, at its simplest level, a trade designed to reduce risk, such as protecting against a possible loss in an existing asset (e.g., a mortgage commitment) by buying or selling another asset (e.g., an option) that would offset the loss. Generally speaking, a futures contract is a standardized, transferable agreement between parties, which may be exchange-traded, to buy or sell an asset at a specified time in the future for a specified price. Futures contracts typically traded on regulated financial exchanges are marked to market daily (based on their current value in the marketplace). Futures contracts are explained in detail in John C. Hull, Options, Futures, and Other Derivative Securities, Prentice Hall, ISBN 0130224448 (4th ed. 2000), which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
As with futures contracts for other types of assets, a corresponding option contract for MBS would enhance the appeal and utility of both instruments. Basically, an options contract, in this context, is an agreement between parties that represents the right to buy or sell a specified amount of the underlying contract at a specified price within a specified time. The parties to options contracts are purchasers who acquire "rights," and sellers who assume "obligations." Further, a "call" option contract gives one the right to buy the underlying security, whereas a "put" option contract gives one the right to sell the underlying security at a certain price. Typically, the purchaser pays the seller an up-front, non-refundable premium to obtain the option rights. Options contracts are explained in detail in the above-cited Hull, Options, Futures, and Other Derivative Securities.
At present, over-the-counter ("OTC") mortgage option contracts are available, but highly illiquid. The use of option contracts is of particular importance to mortgage originators, mortgage servicers and mortgage derivatives market players, who incur significant basis risk using Treasury futures and Treasury options, since changing spreads have adversely affected their hedging efficiency. Basis risk is the difference between the market value of the mortgages and Treasuries, for example, or such other mortgage hedge utilized.
Given the above, a mortgage a futures contract and a corresponding options contract linked to currently issued MBS coupons would reflect current and recent MBS production (issuance), provide an effective hedge, price transparency, and reduce counter party risks and operational demands.

Method for structuring, pricing and settling a current mortgage price indicator contract


A slenderizing swimsuit including a body covering that has an upper torso portion and a lower torso portion. The lower torso portion has a front portion, a rear portion and side portions that are interconnected. The lower torso portion has a pair of leg openings that are formed in each side portion. Lastly, a girdle is attached to an inside portion of the lower torso portion. The girdle has a front panel, a rear panel and a crotch interconnecting the front and rear panels. The girdle has a first side panel and a second side panel. The first side panel is interconnected with the front and rear panels. The second side panel has first and second edges that are capable of coupling one to the other.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a slenderizing swimsuit and more particularly pertains to providing a lower torso portion that has a multi-panel structure for containing the midriff of a wearer, and further having a mechanism for adjusting the multi-panel structure to the physical needs of the wearer.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of a girdle is known in the prior art. More specifically, girdles heretofore devised and utilized for the purpose of supporting the body are known to consist basically of familiar, expected, and obvious structural configurations, notwithstanding the myriad of designs encompassed by the crowded prior art which has been developed for the fulfillment of countless objectives and requirements.
By way of example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,628,930 to Williams discloses a soothing comfort girdle. U.S. Pat. No. 4,205,397 to Bechis discloses bathing drawers. U.S. Pat. No. Des. 258,770 to Stern discloses a girdle. U.S. Pat. No. 4,928,323 to Nathan discloses a garments and parts thereof. U.S. Pat. No. 4,133,054 to Harper discloses a lower body garment and method. Lastly, U.S. Pat. No. 4,000,746 to Fierst discloses a girdle construction.
While these devices fulfill their respective, particular objectives and requirements, the aforementioned patents do not describe slenderizing swimsuit that allows the multi-panel structure to function as a girdle, when it is attached to the inside area of the body covering at the lower torso portion, and the girdle being adjustable with a hook-type fastener mechanism.
In this respect, the slenderizing swimsuit according to the present invention substantially departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art, and in doing so provides an apparatus primarily developed for the purpose of providing a lower torso portion that has a multi-panel structure for containing the midriff of a wearer, and further having a mechanism for adjusting the multi-panel structure to the physical needs of the wearer.
Therefore, it can be appreciated that there exists a continuing need for a new and improved slenderizing swimsuit which can be used for providing a lower torso portion that has a multi-panel structure for containing the midriff of a wearer, and further having a mechanism for adjusting the multi-panel structure to the physical needs of the wearer. In this regard, the present invention substantially fulfills this need.


A self-pressurized damper, for example, a pressure-sensitive damper is described. At least one suspension spring is used to pressurize the damping fluid, a task typically carried out by a sealed moveable barrier, such as an internal floating piston (IFP) and a pressurized gas. Thus, stroke length may be maximized. Furthermore, the amount of compression damping force produced by the damper may be a function of the force generated by the at least one suspension spring.

1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to a damper and, more particularly, to a damper suitably used as a shock absorber or front fork on the suspension of a bicycle, motorcycle, automobile or other vehicle.
2. Description of Related Art
Dampers (shock absorbers, MacPherson struts, front forks, etc.) for controlling vehicle body motion and handling characteristics during vehicle travel over uneven surface are well-known in the art. Dampers typically comprise a closed hydraulic cylinder with an internal piston connected to a central piston rod, which reciprocates within the cylinder to produce damping forces.
As is well known in the art, the damping forces created by a damper have a major influence on the overall dynamic performance of a vehicle. A wide range of dynamic conditions are encountered during typical vehicle motion over various surfaces and terrain features. For example, these features and conditions include large and small bumps, sharp-edged bumps and round-edged bumps, close-spaced bumps and widespaced bumps, stutter bumps and gradual undulating bumps, and so forth. In addition, conditions include vehicle acceleration and deceleration modes, uphill and downhill travel modes, as well as turning modes.
Besides the factors noted above, different operators of a specific vehicle traversing identical terrain features often prefer significantly different damping characteristics. This is especially true for light-weight vehicles, such as bicycles or motorcycles, where rider weight can be a major portion of total weight, and where rider "style" or "technique" can have a significant influence on overall suspension performance.
As a result of the wide variety of dynamic conditions and individual factors which a vehicle damper responds to, as noted above, it is desirable to provide means for adjusting damping forces to suit particular situations. As is known in the art, damping forces of many dampers can be altered by disassembling the damper and changing internal parts. Also, as is known in the art, various mechanisms have been developed over the years for quickly adjusting damping forces externally, without disassembly of the damper, for example by pre-setting an adjustable knob on the damper.
For example, Fox et al U.S. Pat. No. 6,360,857 teaches a mechanism for externally adjusting damping forces.
In addition to providing for alteration of damping forces via pre-set external adjustments, various constructions have also been taught in the damper art to provide remote adjustment, as well as dynamic, automatic modulation of damping forces based on sensing and reacting to internal or external conditions or inputs.
One example of dynamic modulation of damping forces based on sensing and reacting to internal conditions, common to most conventional dampers, is the velocity-sensitive characteristic, wherein damping forces generally increase as the velocity of the piston increases (there are, however, wide variations in the force-vs-velocity curve shapes and force levels found in various dampers calibrated for specific applications and conditions).
An example of a construction for modulating damping force based on sensing an external condition is shown in the Hein U.S. Pat. No. 2,698,068. In the Hein patent, a damper is shown which includes hydraulic communication from the vehicle braking system to a passage down the center of the piston rod which leads to a valving arrangement in the damping piston. In operation, application of the vehicle brakes acts on the compression valving to provide an "anti-dive" effect at the front of the vehicle. One drawback of this construction is that it is only capable of reacting to one specific condition, the application of the vehicle brakes.
An example of a construction for modulating damping force based on dynamically reacting to an external input is shown in the Engel U.S. Pat. No. 5,207,300. In the Engel patent, a damper is shown which includes an external pressure source input which communicates via a central passage through the piston rod to a valving arrangement in the damping piston which includes a vented pressure intensifier. In operation, variations in the pressure applied by the external source produce dynamic variations in the damping characteristics of the damper. Drawbacks of this construction include its relative complexity and cost, as well as blocked availability to the central passage down the piston rod, which could otherwise be utilized for inclusion of alternate pre-set adjustment mechanisms in communication with the damping piston.
Another example of a construction for automatically modulating damping force based on sensing and reacting to internal conditions is shown in the patent to Curnutt, U.S. Pat. No. 5,190,126.
In the Curnutt patent, a damper is shown which includes a conventional cylinder and a piston rod with an attached first piston which divides the interior of the cylinder into two chambers. Fluid flow through the first piston is controlled by an adjoining, pressure-sealed second piston which is driven by pressure differentials to move relative to the first piston. Motion of the second piston relative to the first piston blocks or unblocks flow passages in the first piston, thus creating the compression damping forces produced. One drawback of this construction is that it produces a relatively "flat" force vs. velocity compression damping curve (a "blow-off" type of damping characteristic), which can be difficult to tune for specific applications and conditions.
The present invention was developed to provide an improved damper which provides automatic modulation of damping forces based on sensing and reacting to internally-generated or externally-generated conditions, and that avoids the above and other drawbacks of the known prior art.

Damper with pressure-sensitive compression damping


A tractor comprises a tractor frame, driven ground engaging means, and an electronic tractor controller. A baler comprises a baler frame coupled or connected to the tractor frame, a crop receiving means, a baling chamber, a bale size sensor associated with the baling chamber, and an electronic baler controller. The baler controller is operable to submit a halt signal to the tractor controller when a bale size signal provided by the bale size sensor indicates that a bale has reached a size equal to or exceeding a first predetermined size. The tractor controller is operable to command the ground engaging means to automatically halt the tractor when receiving a halt signal from the baler controller. A steering controller is connected to a swath position sensor and operable to automatically steer the tractor along a swath based upon the signals of the crop swath sensor and of the bale shape sensor such that a uniform bale shape is obtained.

A tractor/baler combination is used in agriculture to take up crop lying or standing on a field and to press and bind it to a bale. An operator sits at an operator station of the tractor and steers the tractor along the crop. Usually, a baler monitor or a reconfigurable display connected to a bus system is located within the field of view of the operator. The operator has to look at the monitor or display at regular intervals, since it displays information on the actual state of the baler.
In the prior art, the operator also has to obey a number of actions displayed to him or her on the display or monitor, although a number of baler functions have been automated recently, like opening and closing rear doors of the baler to allow a bale to eject. One of these actions is to stop the driving motion of the tractor once a bale is ready to be bound with twine or wrapped with net or sheet material, in order to stop additional crop from entering the baling chamber that would disturb the binding or wrapping action.
Automatic systems have been proposed for controlling the propelling speed of the tractor in a manner such that a desired crop throughput is obtained. They still rely on the operator to stop the tractor once a bale is to be bound or wrapped.
Another duty of the operator is to steer the tractor along the swath. Automatic steering systems recognizing the swath using a video camera and an image processing system or a scanning laser sensor detecting the contour of the swath have been proposed, but they attempt to drive along the center of the swath. This leads to a barrel shaped bale with less crop material at the edges than at its center due to the shape of the swath. Sensors for the shape of the bale have been proposed that give steering information to the operator, but they still rely on a manual steering operation.
The described duties are fatiguing for an operator who has driven and controlled the tractor/baler combination for a longer time. It is thus an object of the present invention to provide a tractor/baler combination with additional automatic functions that make work for the operator less fatiguing.

Tractor and baler combination with automatic baling and tractor halt control


A chassis for mounting components in a photographic film scanning apparatus cabinet includes a planar base member, and bearing mounts integral with the base member. The mounts sized and configured to hold bearings against which an arcuate wear plate of a gate of the scanning apparatus registers. The gate is configured to move in a pendulum-like manner across the bearings, with an aperture in the planar member for rotatably accommodating a shaft of a drive system for moving the gate in the pendulum-like manner. Mounts integral with the planar base member are provided for holding an optical system of the scanning apparatus. A continuous integral rib is arranged on the rear surface of the planar member is tuned to a higher natural frequency than that of the scanning frequency for vibrationally isolating the planar base member from other components in the cabinet.

In conventional scanning apparatus, one approach has been to bolt various mountings for components onto the surface of an optical chassis. More importantly, we have recognized that the chassis used in the known scanning apparatus do not vibrationally and thermally isolate the chassis and its components from the remaining components in the housing, while at the same time, providing for prealignment of the optics so that the optical chassis with all the scanning apparatus (namely the gate, clamp, the gate drive system, the integrating cavity and the lens) can be preadjusted and interchanged with an existing optical chassis in a scanning apparatus.


A computing device, comprising: a computing module, comprising one or more computing units; and a control module, comprising a computing control unit, and used for controlling shutdown of the computing unit of the computing module according to a determining condition. Also provided is a computing method. The computing device and method have the advantages of low power consumption and high flexibility, and can be combined with the upgrading mode of software, thereby further increasing the computing speed, reducing the computing amount, and reducing the computing power consumption of an accelerator.

Neural network algorithms have become the most advanced algorithms in many different fields such as image recognition, speech recognition, and natural language processing, where the most important of these is deep learning. Neural networks perform different operations through neurons of different layers to process input data, and finally obtain corresponding output results. In general, forward operations of a neural network exist during the process of training and testing, thus, the efficiency of forward operations is of great importance for the entire neural network. Furthermore, convolution operations are very important for a neural network, which usually have a large amount of operation and therefore cause large overhead. For instance, in a convolutional neural network, the operation of a convolutional layer accounts for more than 80% of the operating time of the entire network.
However, when implementing the present disclosure, a major technical problem of the existing technology has been found: a neural network may fail to complete forward operations, and particularly convolution operations, rapidly.

SHANGHAI CAMBRICON INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.


A system for exhaust gas purification disposed in the exhaust pipe of an internal combustion engine, includes followings (i) a catalyst giving an excellent light-off performance at low temperatures, including a carrier and a catalyst layer supported thereon, the catalyst layer including a precious metal and a substance having an electron donatability and/or a nitrogen dioxide absorbability and releasability, and (ii) an adsorbent comprising a carrier and an adsorbent layer having a hydrocarbon adsorbability, supported on the carrier. This system for exhaust gas purification can effectively purify the harmful substances contained in the exhaust gases discharged from internal combustion engines of automobiles, etc., particularly the hydrocarbons discharged in a large amount from a gasoline engine during cold start.

(1). Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system for exhaust gas purification, employed for the purification of harmful substances such as hydrocarbons (HC), nitrogen oxides (NO.sub.x), carbon monoxide (CO) and the like, present in the exhaust gases discharged from internal combustion engines of automobiles, etc., as well as to a method for exhaust gas purification using the above system.
(2). Description of the Prior Art
Various catalyst techniques have heretofore been proposed for the purification of the exhaust gases discharged from internal combustion engines of automobiles, etc.
For example, in WO 93/07363 is disclosed an apparatus for exhaust gas purification, which is an NO.sub.x absorbent disposed in the flow path of exhaust gas so that the absorbent can absorb NO.sub.x when the air fuel ratio of exhaust gas is high (fuel is lean) and can release NO.sub.x when the oxygen concentration exhaust gas is low.
Also in U.S. Pat. No. 4,902,487 is disclosed a technique of collecting the particulates contained in diesel engine exhaust gas by the use of a filter and burning the particulates at low temperatures of about 225.degree.-300.degree. C. by using NO.sub.x as an oxidizing agent.
Further in Catalysis Today, 22 (1994), 113-126, it is disclosed that when a so-called "Pd only catalyst" is used with a basis element and/or a transition metal oxide added thereto, catalyst poisoning by HC is reduced by the electron-donating effect of the added element and/or oxide and, as a result, an improved NO.sub.x purification ability is obtained.
In recent years, it has been one of the major technical tasks to effectively purify the combustible components (e.g. HC, CO and H.sub.2), particularly HC present in the exhaust gas discharged from gasoline engine during its cold start. During the cold start, engines are operated generally at a low air fuel ratio (fuel is rich) and a large amount of HC is contained in the exhaust gas; meanwhile, the catalyst provided in the exhaust gas system does not yet reach the activation temperature and shows a low purification ability; consequently, a large proportion of the HC tends to be released into the atmosphere without being purified. Therefore, there is needed a technique capable of effectively purifying the HC present in the exhaust gas discharged during cold start.
When the above-mentioned conventional techniques are looked at from the above standpoint, the apparatus disclosed in WO 93/07363 aims at the purification of the NO.sub.x discharged from lean burn engine and diesel engine during steady-state operation and does not aim at the purification of the HC discharged during cold start; further, the apparatus includes no idea of effectively utilizing the reaction heat generated. Furthermore, in this apparatus, the air fuel ratio of exhaust gas is intentionally switched from a high side (fuel is lean) to a stoichiometric air fuel ratio or a low side (fuel is rich) before the NO.sub.x absorbent reaches its saturation, whereby the NO.sub.x absorbed by the absorbent is released and reduction and purification are allowed to take place. The switch of air fuel ratio from high side(lean fuel) to stoichiometric ratio or low side (rich fuel) is repeated and the apparatus is used at high temperatures for a long period of time.
The technique disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,902,487 is for the treatment of the particulates contained in diesel engine exhaust gas and, as is so with the apparatus mentioned above, does not aim at the purification of the exhaust gas discharged from gasoline engine during cold start. Further in this technique, while the NO.sub.2 used for burning particulates is generated from the NO contained in exhaust gas, by the catalysis of the Pt used, no idea of using occluded or concentrated NO.sub.2 is employed and therefore it is difficult to supply NO.sub.2 of an amount sufficient to treat the diesel particulates. Furthermore, since the particulates contained in diesel engine exhaust gas are solid particulates having an average particle diameter of about 0.2 .mu.m, the particulates, unlike the combustible components (e.g. HC) contained in gasoline engine exhaust gas, only accumulate on a precious metal (a catalyst) and are not adsorbed thereby; consequently, the probability of diesel particulates to react with NO.sub.2 on the precious metal is considered to be low.
With respect to the technique disclosed in Catalysis Today, 22 (1994), 113-126, even if the electron-donating effect of the added element and/or oxide can enhance the NO.sub.x purification ability of the "Pd only catalyst", i.e. the NO.sub.x light-off performance, said effect alone is unable to effectively purify the HC generated in a large amount during cold start.
In order to increase the purification ability of HC generated during cold start, there was proposed a system for exhaust gas purification disposed in an exhaust gas pipe, comprising (a) a catalyst and (b) an adsorbent (e.g. zeolite) having HC adsorbability, provided upstream of the catalyst. This system aims at temporary adsorption of HC on the adsorbent until the downstream side catalyst reaches its light-off temperature; however, in actuality, the HC adsorbed on the adsorbent begins to be desorbed from the adsorbent when the adsorbent reaches about 150.degree. C., and the downstream side catalyst does not light-off until it reaches about 300.degree.-350.degree. C. Thus, even when the adsorbent is provided upstream of the catalyst, as long as the catalyst is a conventional catalyst having a high light-off temperature, the difference between the initial temperature of HC desorption from adsorbent and the light-off temperature of catalyst is too large, making impossible the effective purification of HC.

System for exhaust gas purification and method for exhaust gas purification using said system


A compound represented by formula (I):

Azo dyes have numerous excellent properties such as high dyeing property, fastness to heat, light, and washing, and low production cost, and thus have been hitherto used widely for dyeing of textile fibers (e.g. cotton, wool, and synthetic fiber), leather, paper, plastic, fur, etc., and for food. At present, in addition to those conventional applications, the azo dyes are used for a paint pigment, for an ink, for inkjet printing, for laser printing, for copying, for image formation by heat-sensitive transfer system, for an optical recording material, for an organic EL luminescent material, for laser, for an organic semiconductor, for a solar cell, for a fluorescent probe, for a nonlinear optical material, for various filters for a solid pickup tube etc., for a display such as a color LCD, for a hair dye, and the like. The azo dye has a dye skeleton most widely used. Industrial Dyes: Chemistry, Properties, Applications (edited by K. Hunger, published by Wiley-VCH, 2003) describes extensively specific application examples of the azo dyes.
However, the azo dyes are known to form aromatic amine compounds when they are metabolized reductively in a living body or organisms, and concerns over their safety has been pointed out recently (see R. K. Lynn et al., Toxicol. Appl. Pharmacol., vol. 56, p. 248, 1980, for example). In consideration of influences in a living body, development of hardly reducible azo dyes has been required.
Synthesis of a novel heterocyclic compound having an azo group in a ring, that is, a 1,10-heterodisubstituted benzo[c]cinnoline derivative has been reported recently (see V. Benin et al., J. Org. Chem., vol. 65, p. 6388, 2000, for example). However, the report focuses on a mechanism of a ring formation reaction and discussion of structural chemistry.

Abstract: A compound represented by formula (I):

Abstract: Formula (I)

Abstract: wherein Z1 and Z2 each are atoms necessary for forming an aromatic ring; V1 and V2 each are a substituent W1 or W2; when at least one V1 is W1, at least one V2 is W2, or when at least one V1 is W2, at least one V2 is W1; r is 1 to 4; s is 1 to 4; M1 is a counter ion; m1 is the number necessary for neutralizing charge; W1 is a hydroxyl, primary- or secondary- or tertiary-amino, acylamino, or sulfonamido group; W2 is a nitro, cyano, alkoxycarbonyl, aryloxycarbonyl, alkyl- or aryl-sulfonyl, carbamoyl, sulfamoyl, alkenyl, alkynyl, aryl, heterocyclic, sulfo, carboxyl, heterocyclic oxy, ammonio, alkyl- or aryl-sulfinyl, alkyl- or aryl-sulfonyl, acyl, or aryl- or heterocyclic-azo group; and the aromatic ring may have a substituent other than V1 and V2.


An actuator comprises: an electro-mechanical conversion element; a driving frictional member mounted onto one side in an extension/contraction direction of the electro-mechanical conversion element, the driving frictional member being frictionally engaged with a driven member; and a weight member mounted onto the other side in the extension/contraction direction of the electro-mechanical conversion element, wherein at least a part of the weight member is disposed at the one side from an end face of the other side of the electro-mechanical conversion element.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an actuator, and in particular relates to an actuator for driving a lens of a digital camera and a mobile telephone with a camera feature.
2. Description of the Related Art
An actuator employing a piezoelectric element has been known as a driving device for a lens of a digital camera. For example, an actuator according to JP-A-2002-142470 is composed of a piezoelectric element, a driving member, and a pedestal base. A driving member is affixed to the end face at one side of the extension/contraction direction of the piezoelectric element, and a driven member is frictionally engaged with the driving member. Also, the pedestal base is affixed to the end face at the other side of the extension/contraction direction. The pedestal base has a function of a weight as an inertia body. Pulse-shaped voltage is applied to the piezoelectric element in such a construction, and movement of the piezoelectric element in the extension direction and the contraction direction is transmitted to the driving member by an inertia action of the pedestal base. Where the piezoelectric element is gradually deformed, the driven member moves along with the driving member, and where the piezoelectric element is rapidly deformed, the driven member remains at the same position by the inertia of the mass thereof. Therefore, by repeating application of pulse-shaped voltage, it is possible to cause the driven member to intermittently move at a minute pitch.
The thus composed actuator generates a problem of resonating among the pedestal base, the piezoelectric element, and the driving member. Further, the actuator according to JP-A-2002-142470 is resiliently supported on the main body by adhering the pedestal base to the main body with a rubber-based adhesive agent so that no influence due to resonance is given thereto when being mounted onto the main body. However, with such a drive system, it becomes very difficult to control the unevenness among the pedestal base, the piezoelectric element and the driving member.
If such resonance is utilized, there is an advantage by which the amount of movement of the driving member is increased. For example, Japanese Patent No. 3171187 describes an actuator utilizing the resonance. According to the actuator, by applying pulse-shaped voltage to displacement of the piezoelectric element when resonating, the amount of displacement of the driven member is increased.
However, since the actuator according to JP-A-2002-142470 or Japanese Patent No. 3171187 has a piezoelectric element, a driving member and a pedestal base (or a supporting member) disposed in line in the driving direction, the size thereof in the driving direction is increased, and where a particularly large pedestal base is used, there is a problem that the actuator becomes large. An actuator that can be downsized is demanded.
Further, since the actuator according to JP-A-2002-142470 or Japanese Patent No. 3171187 utilizes a resonant state generated inside the actuator composed of a piezoelectric element, a driving member and a pedestal base, there arises a problem that the driving member is adversely influenced by resonance, and the driving member is thus displaced in directions other than the extension/contraction direction of the piezoelectric element. For example, as depicted in FIG. 7A and FIG. 7B, there arises a problem that the driving member 2 is displaced in directions other than the extension/contraction direction upon receiving influence of resonance. Therefore, a driving force based on extension and contraction of the piezoelectric element 1 is not accurately transmitted to the driven member 3, wherein it becomes difficult to accurately cause the driven member 3 to move in the extension/contraction direction of the piezoelectric element 1. In particular, if the pedestal base (weight member) is made large to increase the thrust of the driven member 3, resonance is liable to occur, wherein an actuator in which resonance is hardly brought about is demanded.


Arrangement for interrogating multiple switch conditions employs a single input microprocessor for a plurality of switch elements that are coupled in series with an operating element and a power source. A variable oscillator has a control input and an output coupled to the microprocessor input, providing a periodic signal to the same. A plurality of impedance elements, e.g., resistors, each with a respective value, are coupled between a respective junction between two successive switch elements and the control input of said variable oscillator, such that the rate of said periodic signal varies as a function of the open or closed condition of the respective switch elements. For each switch being tested, the microprocessor looks for one predetermined frequency or pulse rate corresponding to an open condition and another corresponding to a closed condition. The switches can be tested to ensure that they both close and open when directed, and to ensure that none of the switches is locked or frozen into a closed condition. If a given switch does not behave as it is supposed to, a service light will come on to indicate the problem.

The present invention relates to control circuits, e.g., furnace controls, and is more particularly concerned with a control circuit that automatically interrogates the open/closed condition of a multiple of switches that are connected in series. The invention is more specifically concerned with a control circuit that interrogates multiple switch conditions using a single input microprocessor.
In a modern gas furnace, one or more gas burners inject a gas flame through a heat exchanger, and the combustion gases are drawn out the heat exchanger by means of an inducer blower, which exhausts the combustion gases to a vent or flue. A pressure sensor associated with the inducer actuates a pressure switch to indicate a pressure differential between the exhaust and intake of the inducer. The pressure switch provides an indication that the inducer is functioning properly.
An indoor air blower forces air from a comfort zone past the heat exchanger to draw heat from the combustion gases. The warmed air is then returned to the comfort zone. A temperature limit switch on the heat exchanger is normally closed, and opens if the heat exchanger exceeds a predetermined temperature. This limit switch serves as a check on proper air flow and functioning of the indoor air blower.
A thermostat located in the comfort zone closes when the room temperature drops below a predetermined setpoint, and thereby signals a call for heat. When a call for heat is detected, control and timing circuitry for the furnace actuates the inducer blower and then actuates a combustion sequence so that current is supplied to a gas valve. This allows combustion gas to flow to the burners. At this time, igniters are actuated to light the burners, and the furnace begins to produce heat. An infrared detector, rectification, or other mechanism is employed to ensure that there is flame after the gas valve is actuated.
After the burners have been ignited for a predetermined time, the room air blower is powered up, and this creates a flow of warm air to the interior comfort zone.
Conventionally, 24 volt ac thermostat power is supplied through the series arrangement of the limit switch, thermostat, pressure switch, gas valve relay, and gas valve. Optionally, a pilot relay can actuate a line-powered gas valve relay.
As aforementioned, the limit switch, thermostat, and pressure switch are all disposed in series with the gas valve relay, so that no current can flow through the gas valve relay to actuate the gas valve, until the limit switch and pressure switch are both closed. This serves as a check that the room air blower and the inducer blower are functioning properly.
A safety problem can arise if any of the limit switch, pressure switch, or gas valve relay are for some reason locked into a closed condition. In those cases, the gas valve will continue to feed gas to the burners if the heat exchanger experiences overtemperature, or if the inducer fails to produce sufficient draft.
In a modern furnace control unit, a microprocessor circuit has respective inputs connected to the series switches, with a separate microprocessor input coupled to the junction between each switch and the next successive switch or operating element. A control system of this type is described in Erdman U.S. Pat. No. 5,074,780. This type of control demands that, for each switch, the microprocessor requires a separate input circuit. As the cost of the microprocessor depends on the number of input circuits that are needed, the cost of the control circuit can become great. Also, a failure of any one of the input circuits can prevent the device from detecting a switch malfunction or failure condition.
Generally, whenever there is a call for heat, the controller should be able to check the conditions of the pressure switch and the gas valve relay before supplying current to the coil for the gas valve relay. This permits the control circuit to check for switch malfunction and indicate a service condition, if service or repair is required. In the conventional system, each switch has a connection to an associated input. As each switch goes from an open to a closed condition, the respective microprocessor input circuit goes from a low to a high level. Thus when there is a call for heat, the input circuit associated with the thermostat goes to a high, and the microprocessor then is alerted to turn on the inducer blower. This pressure switch closes after the inducer creates a pressure differential, and the associated microprocessor input goes from low to high. Then the gas valve relay is actuated, and the microprocessor input associated with the gas valve relay goes from low to high. This arrangement permits a positive check that the pressure switch and gas valve relay can both open and close.
As aforesaid, the microprocessor requires a separate input circuit for each switch. Thus if additional switch conditions are also to be tested, a microprocessor with more input circuits is required.

Interrogation of multiple switch conditions


A semiconductor device having package-on-package (POP) configuration, primarily comprises a plurality of vertically stacked semiconductor packages and a plurality of electrical connecting components such as solder paste to electrically connect the external terminals of the semiconductor packages such as external leads of leadframes. Each semiconductor package has an encapsulant to encapsulate at least a chip where the encapsulant is movable with respect to the electrical connecting components to absorb the stresses between the vertically stacked semiconductor packages. In one embodiment, a stress-releasing layer is interposed between the vertically stacked semiconductor packages.

In the recent years, more high-tech electronic devices offer lighter, thinner, and smaller features with friendly operation and multiple functions. In order to meet the requirements of smaller footprints with higher densities, 3D stacking technologies are developed such as POP (Package-On-Package) and DOD (Die-On-Die). One of the POP semiconductor devices is to vertically stack a plurality of leadframe-based semiconductor packages together. The leadframe-based stackable packages for POP using leadframes as chip carriers have the lowest overall cost where the external leads extending from the sides of the encapsulants are vertically formed and soldered together to achieve electrical connections. However, the soldered joints between the external leads are vulnerable to break due to thermal stress of CTE mismatch during operations leading to electrical open, or due to mechanical stress of shock, vibration, bending, or drop.
As shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, a conventional leadframed-based POP semiconductor device 100 primarily comprises a first semiconductor package 110 and at least a second semiconductor package 120 stacked above the first semiconductor package 110. The first semiconductor package 110 and the second semiconductor package 120 are leadframe-based packages for flash memory assembly or DDR memory assembly to increase memory capacities or to add more functions. The first semiconductor package 110 comprises a first encapsulant 111, a first chip 112, and a plurality of first external leads 113 (parts of a leadframe) where the first external leads 113 are configured for mounting to a printed circuit board 140 by solder paste 150. The related leadframe-based packages are TSOP (Thin Small Outline Package), QFP (Quad Flat Package), TQFP (Thin QFP), etc.
The second semiconductor package 120 comprises a second encapsulant 121, a second chip 122 inside the second encapsulant 121, and a plurality of second external leads 123 (parts of another leadframe) where the second external leads 123 of the second semiconductor package 120 are extended and exposed from the sides of the second encapsulant 121 and are formed vertically approximately. Conventionally, the second external leads 123 are approximately perpendicular to the marking surface of the second encapsulant 121 and are soldered to the soldering shoulders of the first external leads 113 of the first semiconductor package 110 by soldering materials 130 such as solder paste. Since the soldered joints, where the soldering materials 130 are disposed, between the first external leads 113 and the second external leads 123 are individually formed, therefore, the soldered joints will easily break during TCT (Temperature Cycling Test). After FA (Failure Analysis), the breaks of the soldered joints between the first external leads 113 and the second external leads 123 are due to mismatch of CTE (Coefficient of Temperature Expansion) between the first semiconductor packages 110 and the second semiconductor package 120. Since different material suppliers with different material models will have different material properties, for example, the CTE of the first encapsulant 111 of the first semiconductor package 110 and the second encapsulant 121 of the second semiconductor package 120 are 10 ppm/° C. when below Tg (Glass transition temperature) and 36 ppm/° C. when above Tg where the normal Tg of EMC encapsulant is around 120° C. However, the materials of normal leadframes such as the first external leads 113 and the second external leads 123 are metal or alloy such as Alloy 42 where the CTE is around 4.3 ppm/° C. There is a difference between the CTE of the leadframe such as Alloy 42 and the ones of the encapsulants 111 and 121. When the temperature of the conventional leadframed-based POP semiconductor device 100 becomes higher due to operation, the volume expansion of the first encapsulant 111 and the second encapsulant 121 will be much larger than the corresponding ones of the leadframes, i.e., the first external leads 113 and the second external leads 123, where the expansion differences due to higher temperatures will induce stresses at the second external leads 123 by close contacts between the first encapsulant 111 and the second encapsulant 121, as shown in FIG. 1. Therefore, the soldered joints of the second external leads 123 will experience tensile stresses, especially the second external leads 123 located at the edges of the second semiconductor package 120 leading to soldering breaks. Besides, mechanical stress from ex: shock, vibration, bending, or drop will also cause the soldering points crack easily.

POP (package-on-package) semiconductor device


The present invention provides a method for producing a semiconductor laser device having at least a light emitting section, a cap layer and an electrode successively formed on a semiconductor substrate, the light emitting section including a light emitting layer located approximately in a middle of a thickness of the device. The method includes the step of growing the light emitting section and the cap layer using a vapor phase epitaxy method, wherein a growth rate of the cap layer is greater than a growth rate of the light emitting section.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for producing a semiconductor laser device used as a light source for performing reading operations from an optical disk. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method for producing a semiconductor laser device using a vapor phase epitaxy (VPE) method, where the thickness of a cap layer is increased to reduce tracking errors due to return light.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, optical disks such as CDs (Compact Disks) and MDs (Mini Disks) have rapidly become popular, as they can provide high sound quality without noise while they do not deteriorate through wear, in contrast to conventional analog records.
In an analog record, a pick up (the tip of a stylus) traces a groove on the record. In an optical disk, the pick up is not in contact with the disk, whereby it is necessary to detect positions of the signal pits and to move the pick up along the disk to detect the signal pits.
At present, the three beam tracking servo mode (hereinafter, "three beam mode") is widely used for this purpose, where light from a light source is divided into a main beam and primary diffraction light.
However, the three beam mode has the following problems.
As shown in FIG. 5, laser light 102 is emitted from a laser chip 100, passes through a diffraction grating 101, is reflected by a half mirror 103, passes through an objective lens 104, and is incident upon an optical disk 105. Reference numeral 106 denotes a stem upon which the laser chip 100 resides. Then, the reflected light returns through the same optical path to be received by a light receiving section (not shown) after passing through the half mirror 103. However, a portion of the reflected light returns back to an emission end face of the laser chip 100 through the diffraction grating 101. This portion of light is reflected again (indicated at "A" and "A" in FIG. 5) by the end face of the laser chip 100 ("A" in FIG. 5), which adversely influences the signal detection.
The position on the chip end face upon which the reflected primary diffraction light will be incident varies depending upon the optical system used, but is typically about 60 .mu.m above or below the emission region.
Conventionally, to address this problem, the light emitting region (light emitting layer) of the laser chip 100 is located so that the primary diffraction light will not be incident upon the emission end face, as shown in FIG. 6A. Particularly, the light emitting region is located approximately in the middle of the semiconductor laser chip 100.
As shown in FIG. 6B, the specific thicknesses may be Le.ltoreq.60 .mu.m, Ls.ltoreq.60 .mu.m, where Le denotes the thickness of an epitaxial layer 101a above the light emitting region while Ls denotes the thickness of an epitaxial layer and the substrate below the light emitting region.
Herein, if the wafer thickness of the laser chip 100 is less than about 70 .mu.m, a crack or a chip in the wafer may easily occur, which hinders the fabrication process. Therefore, there is provided an additional condition: Le+Ls.gtoreq.70 .mu.m.
Thus, the thickness Le of the epitaxial layer above the light emitting region will be 10 .mu.m.ltoreq.Le .ltoreq.60 .mu.m.
The liquid phase epitaxy (LPE) method has been used to realize such a layer thickness in the conventional structure shown in FIGS. 6A and 6B. The LPE method has been used since it has a relatively high growth rate and is able to grow a thick film within a short period of time, thereby providing a better production efficiency, compared to the VPE method, which has a relatively low growth rate, thus requiring a longer period of time to grow a thick film.
However, in the LPE method, dopant impurities in the vicinity of the light emitting region diffuse due to the high growth temperature (up to about 800.degree. C.). This diffusion factor deteriorates the performance of the product.
Moreover, a quantum well structure obtained by depositing thin films having thicknesses of several to around twenty .mu.m, when exposed to such a high temperature, results in the migration of material atoms as well as the impurity diffusion, whereby the quantum well structure is destroyed. Thus, such a high temperature during the film growth phase hinders the production of a high performance semiconductor laser device using the quantum well structure.

Method for producing semiconductor laser device with high growth rate for capping layer


An imaging member with a surface-grafted material having an inorganic material, a linking group, and a charge transport moiety capable of transporting holes or electrons, and the charge transport moiety is grafted to a surface of the inorganic material via the linking group, and further, an image forming apparatus having the imaging member.

Disclosed herein are inorganic materials surface grafted with charge transport moieties, imaging members having surface grafted inorganic materials as fillers in at least one layer, and methods for grafting charge transport moieties onto inorganic materials. The grafted inorganic materials may have many uses such as fillers in layers of imaging members. Imaging members include photosensitive members or photoconductors useful in electrostatographic apparatuses, including printers, copiers, other reproductive devices, including digital and image-on-image apparatuses. In embodiments, the inorganic materials can be metal oxides. In other embodiments, the inorganic materials can be nano-sized fillers. The grafted inorganic materials provide an imaging member having increased wear resistance (including increased abrasion and scratch resistance), good dispersion quality, and improved electrical performance (including environmental cycling stability). In embodiments, the grafted inorganic materials can be present in layer(s) for imaging members, such as the charge transport layer, undercoat layer, or other layer. Other uses for the grafted inorganic materials include use in optoelectric devices such as solar cells, sensors, and the like.
Electrophotographic imaging members, including photoreceptors or photoconductors, typically include a photoconductive layer formed on an electrically conductive substrate or formed on layers between the substrate and photoconductive layer. The photoconductive layer is an insulator in the dark, so that electric charges are retained on its surface. Upon exposure to light, the charge is dissipated, and an image can be formed thereon, developed using a developer material, transferred to a copy substrate, and fused thereto to form a copy or print.
Many advanced imaging systems are based on the use of small diameter photoreceptor drums. The use of small diameter drums places a premium on photoreceptor life. A major factor limiting photoreceptor life in copiers and printers is wear. The use of small diameter drum photoreceptors exacerbates the wear problem because, for example, 3 to 10 revolutions are required to image a single letter size page. Multiple revolutions of a small diameter drum photoreceptor to reproduce a single letter size page can require up to 1 million cycles from the photoreceptor drum to obtain 100,000 prints, a desirable goal for commercial systems.
For low volume copiers and printers, bias charging rolls (BCR) are desirable because little or no ozone is produced during image cycling. However, the microcorona generated by the BCR during charging, damages the photoreceptor, resulting in rapid wear of the imaging surface, for example, the exposed surface of the charge transport layer. More specifically, wear rates can be as high as about 16 microns per 100,000 imaging cycles. Similar problems are encountered with bias transfer roll (BTR) systems.
One approach to achieving longer photoreceptor drum life is to form a protective overcoat on the imaging surface, for example, the charge transport layer of a photoreceptor. This overcoat layer must satisfy many requirements, including transport holes, resisting image deletion, resisting wear, and avoidance of perturbation of underlying layers during coating. One method of overcoating involves sol-gel silicone hardcoats.
Another approach to achieving longer life has been to reinforce the transport layer of the photosensitive member by adding fillers. Fillers that are known to have been used to increase wear resistance include low surface energy additives and cross-linked polymeric materials and metal oxides produced both through sol-gel and gas phase hydrolytic chemistries.
Problems often arise with these materials since they are often difficult to obtain in, or reduce to, the nano-size regime (less than 100 nanometers). Fillers with larger particle sizes very often are effective scatterers of light, which can adversely affect device performance. Also, dispersion in the selected binder then often becomes a problem. Even with suitably sized material, particle porosity can be a major problem as pores can act as traps for gases and ions produced by the charging apparatus. When this occurs the electrical characteristics of the photoreceptor are adversely affected. Of particular concern is the problem of deletion, a phenomenon that causes fogging or blurring of the developed image.
Japan Patent No. P3286711 discloses a photoreceptor having a surface protective layer containing at least 43 percent by weight but no more than 60 percent by weight of the total weight of the surface protective layer, of a conductive metal oxide micropowder. The micropowder has a mean grain size of 0.5 micrometers or less, and a preferred size of 0.2 micrometers or less. Metal oxide micropowders disclosed are tin oxide, zinc oxide, titanium oxide, indium oxide, antimony-doped tin oxide, tin-doped indium oxide, and the like.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,492,081 B2 discloses an electrophotographic photosensitive member having a protective layer having metal oxide particles with a volume-average particle size of less than 0.3 micrometers, or less than 0.1 micrometers.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,503,674 B2 discloses a member for printer, fax or copier or toner cartridge having a top layer with spherical particles having a particle size of lower than 100 micrometers.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/379,110, U.S. Publication No. 20030077531 discloses an electrophotographic photoreceptor, image forming method, image forming apparatus, and image forming apparatus processing unit using same. Further, the reference discloses an electroconductive substrate, the outermost surface layer of the electroconductive substrate containing at least an inorganic filler, a binder resin, and an aliphatic polyester, or, alternatively, the outermost surface layer of the electroconductive substrate containing at least an inorganic filler and a binder resin and the binder resin is a copolymer polyarylate having an alkylene-arylcarboxylate structural unit.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/985,347, U.S. Publication No. 20030073015 A1 discloses an electrophotographic photoreceptor, and image forming method and apparatus using the photoreceptor including an electroconductive substrate, a photosensitive layer located overlying the electroconductive substrate, and optionally a protective layer overlying the photosensitive layer, wherein an outermost layer of the photoreceptor includes a filler, a binder resin and an organic compound having an acid value of from 10 to 700 mgKOH/g. The photosensitive layer can be the outermost layer. A coating liquid for an outermost layer of a photoreceptor including a filler, a binder resin, an organic compound having an acid value of from 10 to 700 mgKOH/g and plural organic solvents.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,074,791 discloses a photoconductive imaging member having a supporting substrate, a hole blocking layer thereover, a photogenerating layer and a charge transport layer, and wherein the hole blocking layer contains a metal oxide prepared by a sol-gel process.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,645,965 discloses photoconductive members with perylenes and a number of charge transport molecules, such as amines.
Therefore, there exists a need in the art for an improved photoreceptor surface with decreased susceptibility to marring, scratching, micro-cracking, and abrasion. In addition, there exists a need in the art for a photoreceptor with a transparent, smoother, and less friction-prone surface. Further, there exists a need for a photoreceptor that has reduced or eliminated deletion. Also, there exists a need for a photoreceptor having improved electrical performance, including environmental cycling stability. Moreover, there is a need in the art for an improved filler, which has good dispersion quality in the selected binder, and has reduced particle porosity.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Imaging member having inorganic material filler surface grafted with charge transport moiety


A surface pressure releasing plate and a surface pressure releasing bar are slidable relative to each other smoothly by compressing compression springs uniformly. A surface pressure applying device for a slide valve according to the present invention compresses compression springs uniformly in applying and releasing surface pressure and makes a surface pressure releasing plate and a surface pressure releasing bar smoothly slide relative to each other by matching an arrangement center of projections on the surface pressure releasing plate with an arrangement center of the compression springs.

A surface pressure applying device for a slide gate described in JP 08-117985A and a surface pressure applying device for a slide valve described in JP 2003-200256A can be given as examples of this type of conventional surface pressure applying device for a slide valve.
A common slide valve device is placed at a bottom of a vessel for molten metal, and includes two or three plate bricks with an opening for controlling an outflow of the molten metal by sliding one of the plate bricks. While in use, the plate bricks receive pressure in proportion to the depth and density of the molten metal, but resist the pressure from the molten metal by keeping in close contact to each other utilizing the repulsive force of distorted springs. It is therefore common that the required spring force amounts to a few to ten-odd tons.
The structure disclosed in JP 08-117985A distorts the springs and thus applies pressure to the plate bricks by making a surface pressure bar and a roller engage with each other.
The structure disclosed in JP 2003-200256A relieves the surface pressure with a large-diameter roller which is attached to a surface pressure control bar and climbs over a mountain-like tapered portion formed on the top surface of a surface pressure releasing bar, thus depressing the surface pressure releasing bar and distorting the springs.
The structure of JP 08-117985A, the surface pressure bar and the roller are engaged with each other to distort the springs and apply pressure to the plate bricks, cannot avoid insufficient spring distortion which results from the friction between and deformation of the surface pressure bar and the roller. When the springs are not distorted enough, there is a possibility that the pressure applied to the plate bricks cannot withstand the pressure from the molten metal, thus inviting an accident in which the molten metal leaks.
In the structure of JP 2003-200256A, a large-diameter roller attached to a surface pressure control bar climbs over a mountain-like tapered portion formed on the top surface of a surface pressure releasing bar, thus depressing the surface pressure releasing bar, distorting the springs, and relieving the surface pressure, the tapered portion on the side on which the large-diameter roller climbs up needs to have as small an angle as possible to reduce the resistance met during the climb. The mountain-like tapered portion formed on the top surface of the surface pressure releasing bar is therefore given an asymmetric shape, making it difficult to match a spring arrangement center with the center between the peaks of two mountains. As a result, different loads are applied to two large-diameter rollers, and the one climbing over the mountain-like tapered portion that is nearer to the spring arrangement center receives an excessive load to be deformed and galled. The deformation and galling could prevent smooth movement.
The problem to be solved resides in that smooth movement of the plate bricks is hindered by the asymmetric shape of the mountain-like tapered portion of the surface pressure releasing bar which makes it difficult to match a spring arrangement center in the lateral direction with the arrangement center between the peaks of two mountains, or by insufficient distortion of the springs or the like.
The present invention is most characterized in that compression springs are distorted with an even force without allowing a shift of a surface pressure releasing bar to move engagement points with projections by making a spring arrangement center coincide completely with a projection arrangement center.
A surface pressure applying device for a slide valve according to the present invention makes a spring arrangement center coincide completely with an arrangement center around which projections formed on surface pressure releasing plates are arranged, and at the same time prevents a shift of a surface pressure releasing bar from moving engagement points with the projections. This enables the surface pressure applying device to distort the compression springs always with an even force, so that surface pressure is applied to and released from plate bricks steadily without fail.
In a case where the projections are constituted of rollers, the present invention makes the surface pressure releasing bar slide more smoothly.
The surface pressure releasing bar can slide smoothly also because an upper roller placed on a lower surface of a housing is in slidable contact with the surface pressure releasing bar.

Surface pressure load device of slide valve


To prevent degradation in printing precision with low cost even when a toner container is exposed to a high-temperature atmosphere, the toner container includes a resin molded article having a heat-insulating layer in it. The toner container may be multilayered, wherein at least one layer is a resin material including a heat-insulating material. The toner container may also be a resin molded article including a foam layer. The toner container may have a toner-filled-side surface, which is a fine-discontinuous-microstructure surface and a surface thereof not in contact with the toner, which is a smooth surface.

Conventionally, to manufacture a toner container, several types of components are molded from a resin material such as polystyrene in accordance with injection molding, are then filled with toner, and are assembled. To fix the toner on paper or the like, a high temperature of 180° C. to 280° C. and a pressure of 2 kg to 7 kg are applied. In recent years, due to the requirements for energy conservation and higher quality, the particle size of the toner has decreased remarkably, and a heat fusion temperature for the toner has also decreased, so the fixing temperature tends to decrease consequently.
As the nature of the toner changes, two major problems anse. One problem is agglomeration accompanying a particle size decrease of the toner. The higher the temperature and humidity, the more clearly agglomeration occurs. When the toner agglomerates, it causes printing precision degradation such as a change in line width of printed characters. The other problem is as follows. To decrease the fixing temperature, the fusion temperature of the toner itself cannot but be decreased. Hence, when the toner container is exposed to a high-temperature atmosphere, the toner fuses to degrade the printing precision simultaneously.
Conventionally, to prevent a temperature increase in the toner container, the toner container is packaged a number of times. For transport, a temperature-adjustable trailer or the like is used. Also, a fan for decreasing the internal temperature is attached to the main body of a printer or copying machine which is to incorporate the toner container. In either case, however, the cost is high, thus degrading the productivity.


There are disclosed alpha-helix mimetics and methods relating to the same for imparting or stabilizing alpha-helicity to a peptide or protein. In one aspect, the alpha-helix mimetics contain eleven- to fourteen-membered rings covalently attached at the end or within the length of the peptide or protein. The alpha-helix mimetics render the resulting peptide or protein more stable with regard to thermal stability, as well as making the peptide or protein more resistant to proteolytic degradation. In addition, the alpha-helix mimetics may be used in standard peptide synthesis protocols.

Proteins are polymers of amino acids in which the carbon atoms and amide groups alternate to form a linear polypeptide, with the amino acid side chains projecting from the .alpha.-carbon atom of each amino acid. The sequence of amino acids and location of disulfide bridges (if any) are considered the "primary" protein structure. The "secondary" structure of a protein refers to the steric relationship of amino acid residues that are in close proximity to one another in the linear sequence. Such steric relationships give rise to periodic structure, including the alpha-helix.
The alpha-helix is a rod-like structure wherein the polypeptide chain forms the inner part of the rod, and the side chains extend outward in a helical array. The alpha-helix is stabilized by hydrogen bonds between the NH and CO groups of the polypeptide chain. More specifically, the hydrogen of the NH group of each amino acid (i.e., amino acid residue "n") is hydrogen bonded to the oxygen of the CO group that is located four amino acid residues behind in the linear polypeptide (i.e., amino acid residue "n-4"). Such hydrogen bonding is illustrated below: ##STR1## While only a single hydrogen bond is depicted above for purpose of illustration, each of the CO and NH groups of the linear polypeptide are hydrogen bonded in the alpha-helix. In particular, each amino acid is related to the next by a translation of 1.5 .ANG. along the helix axis and a rotation of 100.degree., which gives 3.6 amino acid residues per turn of the alpha-helix. The pitch of the alpha-helix is 5.4 .ANG. (the product of the translation, 1.5 .ANG., and the number of residues per turn, 3.6), and the diameter of the alpha-helix is 2.3 .ANG.. The "screw sense" of the alpha-helix can be right-handed (clockwise) or left-handed (counter-clockwise). While a few left-handed alpha-helixes do exist, most alpha-helixes found in naturally occurring proteins are right-handed.
In the absence of interactions other than hydrogen-bonding, the alpha-helix is the preferred form of the polypeptide chain since, in this structure, all amino acids are in identical orientation and each forms the same hydrogen bonds. Thus, polyalanine (i.e., --NHCH(CH.sub.3)CO--!.sub.n) exists as an alpha-helix. However, the presence of other amino acids within the polypeptide chain may cause instability to the alpha-helix. In other words, the amino acid side chains do not participate in forming the alpha-helix, and may hinder or even prevent alpha-helix formation. A striking example of such side chain dependency on alpha-helix formation is polylysine (i.e., --NHCH((CH.sub.2).sub.4 NH.sub.2)CO--!.sub.n). At a pH below 10, the NH.sub.2 moiety in the side chain of lysine is charged (i.e., NH.sub.3.sup.+), and electrostatic repulsion totally destroys the alpha-helix structure. Conversely, at a pH above 10, the alpha-helix structure is preferred.
The alpha-helix constitutes one of the principle architectural features of peptides and proteins, and are important structural elements in a number of biological recognition events, including ligand-receptor interactions, protein-DNA interactions, protein-RNA interactions, and protein-membrane interactions. In view of the important biological role played by the alpha-helix, there is a need in the art for compounds which can stabilize the intrinsic alpha-helix structure. There is also a need in the art for methods of making stable alpha-helix structures, as well as the use of such stabilized structures to effect or modify biological recognition events which involve alpha-helical structures. The present invention fulfills these needs and provides further related advantages.

Alpha-helix mimetics and methods relating thereto


Provided herein are compositions and methods for diagnosis, risk assessment, research, and therapy related to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and ALS-related disorders. In particular, the present invention relates to mutations in the UBQLN2 gene that cause dominantly inherited chromosome X-linked ALS and ALS/dementia.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a paralytic disorder characterized by degeneration of motor neurons in the brain and spinal cord. Though most cases of ALS are sporadic, about 5-10% occur in familial clusters. Mutations in superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1) (1, 2), (TAR) DNA-binding protein TDP-43 (3-5) and fused in sarcoma/translated in liposarcoma (FUS/TLS) (6, 7) represent the causes for significant fractions of classic familial ALS. Mutations in several other genes have also been reported to cause ALS or ALS-like syndromes (8-15). Altogether, mutations in the known genes account for approximately 30% of familial ALS cases, but causes for the other forms of familial ALS and the vast majority of sporadic ALS are unknown. The central pathogenic mechanism underlying motor neuron degeneration in ALS remains to be understood.

Molecular targets for ALS and related disorders


A method for forming a stereoscopic video of a scene from first and second input digital videos captured using respective first and second digital video cameras, wherein the first and second input digital videos include overlapping scene content and overlapping time durations. The method includes determining camera positions for each frame of the first and second input digital videos, and determining first-eye and second-eye viewpoints for each frame of the stereoscopic video. First-eye and second-eye images are formed for each frame of the stereoscopic video responsive to the corresponding video frames in the first and second input digital videos and the associated camera positions.

Stereoscopic videos are regarded as the next prevalent media for movies, TV programs, and video games. Three-dimensional (3-D) movies, such as Avatar, Toy Story, Shrek and Thor have achieved great successes in providing extremely vivid visual experiences. The fast developments of stereoscopic display technologies and popularization of 3-D television has inspired people's desires to record their own 3-D videos and display them at home. However, professional stereoscopic recording cameras are very rare and expensive. Meanwhile, there is a great demand to perform 3-D conversion on legacy two-dimensional (2-D) videos. Unfortunately, specialized and complicated interactive 3-D conversion processes currently required, which has prevented the general public from converting captured 2-D videos to 3-D videos. Thus, it is a significant goal to develop an approach to automatically synthesize stereoscopic video from a casual monocular video.
Much research has been devoted to 2-D to 3-D conversion techniques for the purposes of generating stereoscopic videos, and significant progress has been made in this area. Fundamentally, the process of generating stereoscopic videos involves synthesizing the synchronized left and right stereo view sequences based on an original monocular view sequence. Although it is an ill-posed problem, a number of approaches have been designed to address it. Such approaches generally involve the use of human-interaction or other priors. According to the level of human assistance, these approaches can be categorized as manual, semiautomatic or automatic techniques. Manual and semiautomatic methods typically involve an enormous level of human annotation work. Automatic methods utilize extracted 3-D geometry information to synthesis new views for virtual left-eye and right-eye images.
Manual approaches typically involve manually assigning different disparity values to pixels of different objects, and then shifting these pixels horizontally by their disparities to produce a sense of parallax. Any holes generated by this shifting operation are filled manually with appropriate pixels. An example of such an approach is described by Harman in the article "Home-based 3-D entertainment—an overview" (Proc. International Conference on Image Processing, Vol., 1, pp. 1-4, 2000). These methods generally require extensive and time-consuming human interaction.
Semi-automatic approaches only require the users to manually label a sparse set of 3-D information (e.g., with user marked scribbles or strokes) for some a subset of the video frames for a given shot (e.g., the first and last video frames, or key-video frames) to obtain the dense disparity or depth map. Examples of such techniques are described by Guttmann et al. in the article "Semi-automatic stereo extraction from video footage" (Proc. IEEE 12th International Conference on Computer Vision, pp. 136-142, 2009) and by Cao et al. in the article "Semi-automatic 2-D-to-3-D conversion using disparity propagation" (IEEE Trans. on Broadcasting, Vol. 57, pp. 491-499, 2011). The 3-D information for other video frames is propagated from the manually labeled frames. However, the results may degrade significantly if the video frames in one shot are not very similar. Moreover, these methods can only apply to the simple scenes, which only have a few depth layers, such as foreground and background layers. Otherwise, extensive human annotations are still required to discriminate each depth layer.
Automatic approaches can be classified into two categories: non-geometric and geometric methods. Non-geometric methods directly render new virtual views from one nearby video frame in the monocular video sequence. One method of the type is the time-shifting approach described by Zhang et al. in the article "Stereoscopic video synthesis from a monocular video" (IEEE Trans. Visualization and Computer Graphics, Vol. 13, pp. 686-696, 2007). Such methods generally require the original video to be an over-captured images set. They also are unable to preserve the 3-D geometry information of the scene.
Geometric methods generally consists of two main steps: exploration of underline 3-D geometry information and synthesis new virtual view. For some simple scenes captured under stringent conditions, the full and accurate 3-D geometry information (e.g., a 3-D model) can be recovered as described by Pollefeys et al. in the article "Visual modeling with a handheld camera" (International Journal of Computer Vision, Vol. 59, pp. 207-232, 2004). Then, a new view can be rendered using conventional computer graphics techniques.
In most cases, only some of the 3-D geometry information can be obtained from monocular videos, such as a depth map (see: Zhang et al., "Consistent depth maps recovery from a video sequence," IEEE Trans. Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, Vol. 31, pp. 974-988, 2009) or a sparse 3-D scene structure (see: Zhang et al., "3D-TV content creation: automatic 2-D-to-3-D video conversion," IEEE Trans. on Broadcasting, Vol. 57, pp. 372-383, 2011). Image-based rendering (IBR) techniques are then commonly used to synthesize new views (for example, see the article by Zitnick entitled "Stereo for image-based rendering using image over-segmentation" International Journal of Computer Vision, Vol. 75, pp. 49-65, 2006, and the article by Fehn entitled "Depth-image-based rendering (DIBR), compression, and transmission for a new approach on 3D-TV," Proc. SPIE, Vol. 5291, pp. 93-104, 2004).
With accurate geometry information, methods like light field (see: Levoy et al., "Light field rendering," Proc. SIGGRAPH '96, pp. 31-42, 1996), lumigraph (see: Gortler et al., "The lumigraph," Proc. SIGGRAPH '96, pp. 43-54, 1996), view interpolation (see: Chen et al., "View interpolation for image synthesis," Proc. SIGGRAPH '93, pp. 279-288, 1993) and layered-depth images (see: Shade et al., "Layered depth images," Proc. SIGGRAPH '98, pp. 231-242, 1998) can be used to synthesize reasonable new views by sampling and smoothing the scene. However, most IBR methods either synthesize a new view from only one original frame using little geometry information, or require accurate geometry information to fuse multiple frames.
Existing Automatic approaches unavoidably confront two key challenges. First, geometry information estimated from monocular videos are not very accurate, which can't meet the requirement for current image-based rendering (IBR) methods. Examples of IBR methods are described by Zitnick et al. in the aforementioned article "Stereo for image-based rendering using image over-segmentation," and by Fehn in the aforementioned article "Depth-image-based rendering (DIBR), compression, and transmission for a new approach on 3D-TV." Such methods synthesize new virtual views by fetching the exact corresponding pixels in other existing frames. Thus, they can only synthesize good virtual view images based on accurate pixel correspondence map between the virtual views and original frames, which needs precise 3-D geometry information (e.g., dense depth map, and accurate camera parameters). While the required 3-D geometry information can be calculated from multiple synchronized and calibrated cameras as described by Zitnick et al. in the article "High-quality video view interpolation using a layered representation" (ACM Transactions on Graphics, Vol. 23, pp. 600-608, 2004), the determination of such information from a normal monocular video is still quite error-prone.
Furthermore, the image quality that results from the synthesis of virtual views is typically degraded due to occlusion/disocclusion problems. Because of the parallax characteristics associated with different views, holes will be generated at the boundaries of occlusion/disocclusion objects when one view is warped to another view in 3-D. Lacking accurate 3-D geometry information, hole filling approaches are not able to blend information from multiple original frames. As a result, they ignore the underlying connections between frames, and generally perform smoothing-like methods to fill holes. Examples of such methods include view interpolation (See the aforementioned article by Chen et al. entitled "View interpolation for image synthesis"), extrapolation techniques (see: the aforementioned article by Cao et al. entitled "Semi-automatic 2-D-to-3-D conversion using disparity propagation") and median filter techniques (see: Knorr et al., "Super-resolution stereo- and multi-view synthesis from monocular video sequences," Proc. Sixth International Conference on 3-D Digital Imaging and Modeling, pp. 55-64, 2007). Theoretically, these methods cannot obtain the exact information for the missing pixels from other frames, and thus it is difficult to fill the holes correctly. In practice, the boundaries of occlusion/disocclusion objects will be blurred greatly, which will thus degrade the visual experience.


An imaging apparatus includes: a face detector that detects a face of a subject from images captured by an imaging unit; a display controller that causes a display unit to display a guide image for prompting the subject to change a direction of the face; an angle calculation unit that calculates an angle of turn of the face of the subject from a reference position of the direction of the face when the guide image is displayed, based on pieces of image data before and after a change in the direction of the face; a distance calculation unit that calculates a distance between the imaging apparatus and the face based on the calculated angle; and an image processing unit that performs image processing on at least one of the pieces of image data, according to the change in the direction of the face, based on the angle and the distance.

1. Technical Field
The disclosure relates to an imaging apparatus, an imaging method, and a computer-readable recording medium for capturing images of a subject to generate image data of the subject.
2. Related Art
In recent years, a technology in an imaging apparatus such as a digital camera has been known which can rotate a display screen of a display monitor on which an image is displayed, from a photographer side to a subject side with respect to a main body generating image data (see Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2013-175802). This technology can shoot a self-portrait photograph, which is the shooting of a photographer himself/herself as a subject, by rotating the display monitor from the photographer side to the subject side.

Imaging apparatus, imaging method, and computer-readable recording medium


A spark plug for a motor vehicle internal combustion engine, substantially elongated in shape, and including: two coaxial electrodes of an inner central electrode and an outer base electrode enclosing the central electrode; and an electrically insulating annular block, interposed between the central electrode and the base electrode and including an annular shoulder. The insulating annual block includes an annular groove located at the shoulder.

The invention relates to a spark plug for the internal combustion engine of a motor vehicle, of essentially elongated general shape, comprising:                two coaxial electrodes: an inner electrode with an axis called a central electrode and an outer electrode called a body surrounding the central electrode; and        an electrically insulating block called an insulator, placed between the central electrode and the body, of annular shape and having an annular shoulder.
Plasma-generating plugs are high frequency multi-spark ignition systems, capable of providing the best quality ignition conditions in controlled-ignition engines, while at the same time reducing polluting emissions, in particular with a lean mixture. On the other hand, they are subject to fouling, in particular when cold.
Like all plugs, they are classified in terms of a heat range. This heat range takes into account their thermal behavior at particular moments of engine operation. It expresses in particular their ability to withstand temperatures which are high enough to remove the fouling by pyrolysis, without causing any 'pre-ignition'.
The publications FR2,859,830, FR2,859,869 and FR2,859,831 mention a multi-spark plug, called a cold plug because its temperature does not rise fast enough to prevent fouling. On such plugs, in fact, the accumulation has been observed of a deposit of carbon on the insulator, which significantly reduces the insulation which is required between the tip of the central electrode and the body. With poor insulation, the high voltage supply of the plug could then be too low to be able to cause the required spark-generating 'flashovers'.
To prevent the formation of deposits containing carbon, in particular when cold, on the insulator of the plug exposed to the environment in the combustion chamber, an effort can be made to increase the temperature of the insulator, so as to promote the destruction of the deposits by the phenomenon of pyrolysis, of which the efficiency depends on the thermal resistance of the plug assembly, including that of the insulator.
The measures usually taken to increase the temperature of the insulator are limited by the occurrence of 'pre-ignition' on the plugs, when they reach operating temperatures which are too high.

Spark plug for motor vehicle internal combustion engine


A lighting module adapted for use in a keypad device includes a circuit substrate board, a transparent light guide plate stacked on the circuit substrate board, and at least one light emitting diode embedded in the light guide plate and connected electrically to the circuit substrate board. By having the light emitting diode embedded in the light guide plate, the overall thickness of the lighting module can be reduced to permit miniaturization.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a lighting module, more particularly to a lighting module for use in a keypad device.
2. Description of the Related Art
In order that keys on a keypad can be easily identified in a relatively dark environment to facilitate operation of the same, a light source is generally provided behind each key such that light from the light source can pass through a transparent portion of the key to enable the user to discern and operate the keys. However, when applied to a portable electronic or communications device that has a large number of keys, such an arrangement would be conceivably expensive since a large number of light sources is required.
A more economical approach is, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,083,240, to provide a light guide plate which is disposed between a light source and keys on a keypad and which extends along the respective keys. The light from the light source is dispersed evenly to each of the keys by total reflection. The number of light sources is therefore considerably decreased, thereby reducing costs.
However, although the use of light guide plates can cut costs, the overall thickness of the device is increased, which goes against the current trend toward miniaturization of portable electronic or communications devices. Therefore, improvements on the structure of the device are required to keep up with the current trend and to enhance the market competitiveness of the device.

Lighting module for use in a keypad device


Polyesters are described which are substantially the condensation products of at least one dicarboxylic acid, at least one volatile diol and at least one hydroxyl-functional component with functionality greater than 2 which controls ultimate viscosity. The products are suitable vehicles for the formulated thixotropic gels for centrifugal separation of fluids such as serum into high and low density components of, for example, separation of mixtures of cells on the basis of density.

The polyester fluids of the invention are conveniently formulated into a partitioning composition for use in a blood collection vessel in which the blood sample is subjected to centrifugation until the cellular portion and serum or plasma are completely separated.
Note that while blood is the most usual candidate for physiological separation, conceivably urine, milk, sputum, stool solutions, meconium, pus, semen, spinal fluid and the like could all be subject to physiological separation and assay for therapeutic agents and the subsequent discussion, while focusing on blood for clarity, is not meant to be limited to blood.
The physical and chemical properties of the partitioning composition are such that a continuous, integral seal is provided between the separated blood phases, thereby maintaining separation of the phases after centrifugation and simplifying removal of the serum or plasma from the blood collection vessel. The high volume testing of blood components in hospitals and clinics has led to the development of various devices to simplify the collection of blood samples and preparation of the samples for analysis. Typically, whole blood is collected in an evacuated, elongated glass tube that is permanently closed at one end and sealed at the other end by a rubber stopper having a diaphragm which is penetrated by the double-tipped cannula used to draw the patient's blood. After the desired quantity of blood is collected, the collection vessel is subjected to centrifugation to yield two distinct phases comprising the cellular portion of the blood (heavy phase) and the blood serum or plasma (light phase). The light phase is typically removed from the collection vessel, e.g., via pipette or decantation, for testing.
It has been proposed heretofore to provide manufactured, seal-forming members, e.g., resilient pistons, spools, discs and the like, in blood collection vessels to serve as mechanical barriers between the two separated phases. Because of the high cost of manufacturing such devices to the close tolerances required to provide a functional seal, they have been supplanted by fluid sealant compositions. Fluid sealant compositions are formulated to have a specific gravity intermediate that of the two blood phases sought to be separated, so as to provide a partition at the interface between the cellular and serum phases. Such compositions typically include a polymer base material, one or more additives for adjusting the specific gravity and viscosity of the resultant composition, and optionally, a network former. Representative fluid sealant compositions developed in the past include: styrene beads coated with an anti-coagulant; silicone fluid having silica dispersed therein; a homogenous, hydrophobic copolyester including a suitable filler, e.g., silica; a liquid .alpha.-olefin-dialkylmaleate, together with an aliphatic amine derivative of smectite clay or powdered silica; the reaction product of a silicone fluid with a silica filler and a network former; and a mixture of compatible viscous liquids, e.g., epoxidized vegetable oil and chlorinated polybutene, and a thixotropy-imparting agent, e.g., powdered silica, and liquid polyesters. Also, random copolymers have been made of a diol and large quantities of a dicarboxylic acid with pendent, long (C.sub.9 to C.sub.13) olefin groups as well as random copolymers of a diol and large quantities of a dicarboxylic with a long olefin along its backbone, such as a C.sub.36 dimerized fatty acid. Such polyester compositions have proved useful as functional blood partitioning compositions having reduced affinity for therapeutic agents present in blood such as phenobarbital and imipramine. See, for example, W. L. O'Brien, U.S. Pat. No. 5,124,434, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated by reference in the present specification, as if set forth herein in full.
Ideally, a commercially useful blood partitioning composition should maintain uniform physical and chemical properties for extended time periods prior to use, as well as during transportation and processing of blood samples, readily form a stable partition under normal centrifugation conditions and be relatively inert or unreactive toward the substance(s)in the blood, therapeutic and otherwise, whose presence or concentration is to be determined.

Branched polyesters prepared from hydroxyfunctional components with functionality in excess of two and their use in physiological separation vehicles


A steam condensate tempering system for a steam sterilizer uses a fast temperature sensor to measure the temperature of combined water and steam condensate from a sterilizer, and a controller for controlling the flow of cool water to mix with the steam condensate in response to the temperature sensed by the temperature sensor.

In steam sterilizers used in hospitals, universities, and other facilities in which it is necessary to sterilize equipment, steam can be used to perform the sterilization. One type of steam-based sterilizer has a sterilization chamber into which the components are put, and an outer jacket around the chamber for warming and insulating the sterilization chamber. Steam is introduced into the jacket to insulate and heat the chamber, and separately into the chamber to sterilize the components. The steam from the jacket and chamber is collected in steam traps that provide steam condensate toward a drain.
Building codes typically specify that water provided from equipment to a drain not be hotter than a certain temperature, such as 140.degree. F., to minimize damage to the pipes and leaching of heavy metals. Consequently, the steam condensate must be cooled before it is provided down the drain. In typical sterilizers currently in use, the steam condensate provided from the steam traps is mixed with cooling water from a cool water line, typically a municipal water line. The combined cooling water and steam condensate is provided to a funnel that has an air gap to prevent drain water from mixing into lines in the sterilizer. The combined water is then provided down the drain.
The cool water line is typically connected to provide cooling water continuously at a rate of 0.5 to 5 gallons per minute, depending on the particular sterilizer system. Furthermore, there is typically a separate municipal water line serving the jacket and the chamber steam condensate lines. Such a cooling system thus causes a very large amount of cool water to be provided down the drain, even if much of that cool water is excessive for meeting building code requirements.

Condensate tempering system for use with steam sterilizers