An integrated circuit packaging system and method of manufacture thereof including: providing a substrate; forming contact pads on top of the substrate; forming a protection layer on top of the contact pads and the substrate; exposing the contact pads from the protection layer; printing under bump metallization (UBM) layers over the exposed contact pads extended over the protection layer with conductive inks; and forming bumps on top of the under bump metallization layers. It also including: printing an adhesion layer using conductive ink, wherein the adhesion layer comprises interconnected adhesion layer pads; forming additional under bump metallization (UBM) layers and bumps on top of the adhesion layer pads utilizing an electro-deposition process; and removing connections among the interconnected adhesion layer pads.

Semiconductor chips have become progressively more complex, driven in large part by the need for increasing processing power in a smaller chip size for compact or portable electronic devices such as cell phones, smart phones, personal media systems, or ultraportable computers.
Typically, semiconductor chips are interconnected with other circuitry via an integrated circuit package that interfaces with semiconductor chips and attaches to a printed circuit board (PCB). One of the integrated circuit (IC) packages is a ball grid array (BGA) package.
Usually, a BGA package has an array of solder bumps attached to solder bump pads on a bottom external surface of a package substrate. The semiconductor chips or dies are attached to the IC package substrate. The signals of the semiconductor chips or dies are bonded with the package substrate via wires.
One type of the integrated circuit package is a wafer-level BGA package. In a Wafer-level BGA package, solder bumps are mounted directly to I/O pins of the IC chip before the chip is diced from the wafer. Wafer-level BGA package offers smaller footprint with high pin out comparing to other types of IC package.
Typically, I/O pads are adhered to solder bumps with one or more layers of metal, called under bump metallization layers. Under bump metallization (UBM) layers provide connectivity to integrated circuits while also providing greater adhesion for interconnects and protection from the outside. However, creating UBM structures at small scales with the required precision can be a difficult, time-consuming and expensive process.
Thus, a need still remains for a precise and cost-effective way of creating a UBM structure. In view of the shrinking sizes of electronic components, it is increasingly critical that answers be found to these problems. In view of the ever-increasing commercial competitive pressures, along with growing consumer expectations and the diminishing opportunities for meaningful product differentiation in the marketplace, it is critical that answers be found for these problems. Additionally, the need to reduce costs, improve efficiencies and performance, and meet competitive pressures adds an even greater urgency to the critical necessity for finding answers to these problems.
Solutions to these problems have been long sought but prior developments have not taught or suggested any solutions and, thus, solutions to these problems have long eluded those skilled in the art.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Integrated circuit packaging system with under bump metallization and method of manufacture thereof


A gas sensor having a heater layer; and a gas detector that is heated by the heater layer to detect a measurement target gas. The gas detector has a gas sensing layer, a diffusion layer that covers a surface of the gas sensing layer, and an absorption layer that covers a surface of the diffusion layer. The absorption layer has greater absorption of the measurement target gas than the diffusion layer, and the diffusion layer has greater diffusion of the measurement target gas than the absorption layer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a gas sensor capable of detecting trace gas
2. Description of the Related Art
There are developed gas sensors for purposes of detecting gas leakage of methane gas (CH4), propane gas (C3H8), carbon monoxide (CO) and the like, and imperfect combustion, as well as for detecting and analyzing volatile organic compounds (VOC).
When a gas sensor is used as a gas leak detector for methane gas or the like, the gas sensor has only to detect the gas in the order of 1000 to 10000 ppm below the explosion limit, and in the case of imperfect combustion, a gas sensor has only to detect the gas in the order of 10 to 100 ppm in order to prevent carbon monoxide poisoning to people.
On the other hand, when a gas sensor is used as a gas sensor for room environment analysis or a breath sensor for health management, the gas sensor needs to detect trace measurement target gas such as volatile organic compounds in the order of 0.001 to 10 ppm highly sensitively.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2005-17242 (hereinafter referred to as "JP2005-017242") and Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2005-164566 (hereinafter referred to as "JP2005-164566") disclose a gas leak detector for methane gas and a gas sensor for imperfect combustion. On the other hand, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2005-315874 (hereinafter referred to as "JP2005-315874") discloses a gas sensor that is able to detect volatile organic compounds, combustible gas and poisonous gas.
According the invention of JP 2005-315874, a coating layer having ceramic particles of 8 to 30 nm is provided on an electrode and the coating layer is formed, for example of SnO2. According to JP2005-315874, the coating layer itself serves as a gas sensing layer that reacts with a measurement target gas and the measurement target gas is detected by change in resistance value of the coating layer. Thus, according to JP2005-315874, the gas detector has been improved in structure, but no improvement has been made to the layer structure for coating the surface of the gas sensing layer to increase the detection sensitivity.
In the structure where the gas sensing layer has been improved to improve the detection sensitivity as disclosed in JP2005-315874, there appears to be difficulty in improving the detection sensitivity for various kings of trace gases, depending on various purposes, simply and appropriately.
Conventionally there is no gas sensor that is capable of detecting trace measurement target gas such as volatile organic compounds highly sensitively.


An apparatus and method for filtering and dialyzing a suspension including particulates and increasing the concentration of retainable matter wherein the suspension is drawn through the filter in a manner such that a negative pressure gradient is exerted on the suspension to cause the particulates to be drawn away from the filter membrane and avoid clogging the filter membrane. The apparatus comprises a multiplicity of pumps which are located downstream from the filter to thereby suck the suspension out of the filter and away from the filter membrane. The apparatus also comprises a multiplicity of different valve arrangements which permit filtering and dialysis to be performed independently of each other or simultaneously. A multiplicity of different filters, including stacked circular and rectangular filters are utilized such that locations within the system with the greatest clogging potential will be compensated and overcome by a corresponding more negative pressure to decrease the potential of clogging.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to filtration systems. Filtration systems have conventionally been used for either (1) removal of particulate matters from fluid suspensions to result in clear, non-turbid fluids or, (2) removal and discarding of part of the soluble and fluid fraction for the purpose of concentrating the desirable particulate matters. To achieve the first purpose, the filter in the system is used to trap the particulate matters by virtue of the effective pore sizes being smaller than the particulate matters, while allowing the soluble fraction to go through the filter pores and collected for subsequent use. To achieve the second purpose, the ideal filter will allow the soluble fraction to go through the filter pores with only minimal entrapment of the particulate matters which are then returned to collection containers as the "retentate" fraction for subsequent use. In both procedures, clogging of the filter remains a major problem.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The clogging of filter pores is a major problem with prior art filtration and dialysis devices. Clogging of the filter pores quickly reduces the efficiency of the filtration system. As the number of unclogged pores diminishes, filtration rate decreases. Since flow rate is equal to pressure gradient divided by resistance, as more and more filter pores are clogged (increasing resistance), a progressively large pressure gradient is needed to maintain adequate flow rates. Even then, when enough of the filter pores become clogged, flow rate will become for all practical purposes, zero. At that point, particulate matters can no longer be removed from fluid suspensions. In addition, if the purpose is to concentrate suspended particulate matters, clogging of filters will decrease the final yield of the particulate matters and may in fact decrease the concentration of such matters in the retentate.
To minimize the problem of clogging, various approaches have been designed, as reflected in different filtration systems on the market. One approach incorporates designs for vigorous stirring of the suspension physically above, or prior to interaction of the suspension with the filter surface. Examples include the Stirred Cells Series of Amicon Division, W. R. Grace & Co. However, such systems are ineffective because the distance between the stirring mechanism and the filter membrane (typically in millimeters) are several orders of magnitude larger than the diameter of the particles (typically in microns). Once the particulate matters are trapped within the filter pores, with constant positive filtration pressure pressing them against the filter membrane, agitation at a far distance (relative to the size of the particulate matters) will not effectively dislodge them. Moreover, high shearing forces generated by vigorous stirring may cause foaming and denaturation of the particulate matters.
Another approach involves the concept of tangential flow as exemplified by Millipore's Minitan system. Instead of applying pressure perpendicular to the surface of the filter, the suspension is pushed forward by positive pressure from a pump system so that it travels in a direction tangential to the filter surface. In theory, this design allows the particulate matters to travel in a direction tangential to the filter surface while the soluble phase goes through the filter pores in a direction perpendicular to the filter surface. In practice, however, substantial clogging still occurs. The reason is that the particulate matters are carried by the soluble phase of the suspension and will travel in the direction of the immediate fluid surrounding a given particle. Any time a fraction of the soluble phase goes through the filter pores (in a direction perpendicular to the filter surface), a proportional amount of particulate matters will travel with it in the same direction. Regardless of the direction of flow of the rest of the suspension bulk (which may travel in a direction tangential to the filter surface), the fraction that goes through the pores will clog up the pores. With this understanding, it becomes clear that tangential flow filter systems are only different ways of recirculating the bulk of the suspension before its interaction with the filter pores. This design does not substantially alter the clogging potentials of particulate matters at the level of the filter pores because the particulate matters are again pressed onto the pores by the positive pressure used to circulate the bulk of the suspension.
Since both the stirred cell design and the tangential flow systems use positive pressure to circulate the suspension, they both result in trapping of particulate matters within the matrix of the filter membrane. For this reason, these systems are not suitable for the purpose of concentrating particular matters. There exists a need for a novel design where: (1) the filter membrane will not be clogged, and (2) should unexpected change in the filtration condition lead to some clogging, the obstructed pores will become unclogged again. Such a device will allow efficient concentration of valuable particulate matters. In addition, because of the increased life span of the filter membrane, it also allows cost-efficient collection of the soluble phase of the suspension, if the soluble phase is the desirable fraction from the suspension.

Anti-clogging and dialysis device for filtration systems


A tuning device including a conductive housing in which are suspended a dielectric substrate. A pair of first and second resonant circuits is disposed on the substrate in parallel with each other. Each resonant circuit is formed by an elongated conductive film and a capacitive element. A grounded conductive strip film is provided between the transmission lines of the first and second resonant circuits to reduce the interstage coupling between the two transmission lines with a resultant decrease in spacing between them.

Conventional electronic tuning devices comprise a pair of identical resonant circuits disposed on a dielectric substrate, each resonant circuit including a conductive elongated film serving as a transmission line and a voltage-controlled capacitive element. The transmission lines of the resonant circuits are arranged in parallel to each other. Microwave energy is coupled with one of the resonant circuits and the tuned signal is then coupled with the other resonant circuit. With this interstage coupling the passband characteristic of the tuning device has a strong peak at the center frequency of the passband with a bandwidth of 20 MHz or less at the -3 dB point from the peak value. Since the bandwidth is inversely proportional to the distance between the two transmission lines, a narrow bandwidth requirement would result in a tuning device having considerable dimensions. For example, the bandwidth requirement of 20 MHz or less is only obtained with a spacing of more than 22 mm or 27 mm at 470 MHz or 770 MHz, respectively.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


A queue having a xe2x80x98duplicatexe2x80x99 counter associated with each entry whereby duplicate data is not stored in the queue. Before data is placed in the queue, the queue is searched for an entry matching the data to be written. If a match is found, the duplicate counter associated with the entry is incremented. Further, if a match is found and the data stored therein is inconsistent with the current data, the contents of the queue are updated and the duplicate counter associated with the entry is reset to one. If a match is not found, the data is written to the queue and the duplicate counter associated with the entry is initialized to one.

The present invention relates generally to data communications networks and more particularly relates to a queue incorporating a duplicate counter per entry.
Currently, the number of data networks and the volume of traffic carried by these networks is expanding at an ever increasing rate. The network devices used to construct these networks generally consist of specialized hardware designed to move data at very high speeds. Typical networks, such as Ethernet based networks, are mainly comprised of end stations, Ethernet hubs, switches, routers, bridges and gateways. ATM networks are constructed with similar network devices adapted to carry ATM traffic, e.g., ATM capable end stations, edge devices and ATM switches.
With the ever increasing user demand for faster and faster data communications, network devices have had to perform at higher and higher speeds. A primary function of many network devices is to receive frames (packets, cells, etc.) at one or more ingress ports, and forward the frame to an appropriate egress port. Accomplishing this requires that the network device make a forwarding decision about the received frame. This requires processing resources and memory resources to store the frame until the forwarding decision is complete and the packet is placed onto the appropriate one or more output ports.
In particular, when a frame (note that the same applies to cells and packets as well), arrives at a switch, for example, typically only its header is examined and a forwarding decision is made therefrom. The application of the decision to the frame requires that the entire frame be queued to an output port. In some implementations, the frame is not scheduled for transmission until the complete frame is successively received.
In prior art store and forward schemes, the frame is not queued into the output port until the entire frame is received. The forwarding decision is made in an input server after receipt of the header portion. The frame, however, is not queued to an output port until the entire frame is received. Thus, the frame header and the forwarding result must be stored until the complete frame is received.
In such devices, it is common to place entries in a queue whose entries are processed asynchronously at a later time. The entries may comprise the entire received frame or may comprise portions of a frame such as the frame header. For example, a network device may have a learning queue for storing information from received frames such as the header or the MAC source address that is unknown so that the software will read it at a later time and update the internal forwarding tables. In operation, a frame enters the device and the source address is used as a lookup index to the forwarding table. An entry is placed in the learn queue when the MAC source address extracted from the frame does not appear in the hardware tables or does appear but with the wrong information. A software process asynchronously processes the entries placed in the queue whereby the MAC source address is thus learned.
Consider the case wherein a frame is received that does not have an associated forwarding decision. In prior art systems, once it is determined that a MAC source address is to be learned, it is pushed into the learning queue even if the same entry is already present in the queue but has not yet been processed. If, however, many frames with the same source address are received before the software processes the learning queue, then the frame will be entered over and over again into the learning queue. Additional frames received before the first entry is processed are written into the queue. This effects the utilization of the queue, lowering it considerably. It also causes processing time to be spent unnecessarily on all the similar entries in the queue.
Moreover, in the event a station sends a burst of traffic incorporating many frames having the same MAC source address, the MAC source address may be pushed numerous times onto the learning queue before the software has an opportunity to process it.
The present invention solves the problems associated with the prior art by providing a queue having a xe2x80x98duplicatexe2x80x99 counter associated with each entry. Data to be written to the queue is not automatically stored. Rather, before data is placed in the queue, the queue is searched for an entry matching the data to be written. If a match is found, the duplicate counter associated with the entry is incremented. Further, if a match is found and the data stored therein is inconsistent with the current data, the contents of the queue are updated and the duplicate counter associated with the entry is reset to one.
If a match is not found, the data is written to the queue and the duplicate counter associated with the entry is initialized to one. In accordance with the present invention, duplicate entries are not entered into the queue in the event an identical entry already exists. In this manner, the utilization of the queue is greatly increased and the queue size required is reduced significantly.
Optionally, the duplicate entry counter may be read periodically and alternative processing performed on the entry in the event the duplicate counter value exceeds a predetermined threshold. In addition, the value of the duplicate counter may optionally be used to determine priority among the entries in the queue.
It is appreciated that the present invention is particularly suitable in cases where the number of required entries is relatively small, i.e. 1 to 100 entries. This permits an easier implementation of the compare operation whereby a new entry to be entered into the queue is compared with all the existing entries in the queue. Note, however, that queues with a larger number of entries may be constructed in accordance with the present invention using standard Content Addressable Memory (CAM) devices.
There is thus provided in accordance with the present invention a queue comprising a plurality of storage locations, each storage location adapted to store an entry, a plurality of duplicate counters, each duplicate counter associated with a different storage location and processing means operative to search, for each entry to be written to the queue, the plurality of storage locations for a matching entry previously written to the queue, and if a match is found, increment the duplicate counter associated with the matching entry, and if a match is not found, store the entry to be added in an unused storage location and initializing to one a duplicate counter associated with the entry to be added.
There is also provided in accordance with the present invention a learning queue for use by software means in a network device in learning the associations between Media Access Control (MAC) source addresses and corresponding ports in the device comprising a plurality of storage locations, each storage location adapted to store an entry including a MAC source address and corresponding port, a plurality of duplicate counters, each duplicate counter associated with a different storage location and a queue control circuit operative to search the plurality of storage locations for an entry having the same MAC source address as the MAC source address to be learned, and if a match is found, increment the duplicate counter associated with the matching entry, and if a match is not found, store the entry to be learned in an unused storage location and initializing to one a duplicate counter associated with the entry to be learned.

Queue incorporating a duplicate counter per entry


Methods and apparatuses for activating a vehicular-capable terminal to connect to a base station and/or road side unit. Accordingly a vehicular-capable terminal which would otherwise be in idle mode can then participate in vehicular communications, if appropriate.

The "background" description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description which may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly or impliedly admitted as prior art against the present invention.
Mobile telecommunications systems, such as those based on the 3GPP defined UMTS and Long Term Evolution (LTE) and Long Term Evolution Advanced (LTE-A) architecture, are able to support more sophisticated services than simple voice and messaging services offered by previous generations of mobile telecommunications systems. For example, with the improved radio interface and enhanced data rates provided by LTE systems, a user is able to enjoy high data rate applications such as video streaming and video conferencing on mobile communications devices that would previously only have been available via a fixed line data connection.
The demand to deploy fourth generation networks is therefore strong and the coverage area of these networks, i.e. geographic locations where access to the networks is possible, is expected to increase rapidly. However, although the coverage and capacity of fourth generation networks is expected to significantly exceed those of previous generations of communications networks, there are still limitations on network capacity and the geographical areas that can be served by such networks. These limitations may, for example, be particularly relevant in situations in which there is a desire for a group of terminal devices (communications devices) to exchange information with each other in a fast and reliable manner. In order to help address these limitations there have been proposed approaches in which terminal devices within a wireless telecommunications system may be configured to communicate data directly with one another without some or all their communications passing through an infrastructure equipment element, such as a base station. Such communications are commonly referred to generally as a device-to-device (D2D) communications. Many device-to-device communications may be transmitted by one device to a plurality of other devices in a broadcast like manner and so in that sense the phrase "device-to-device communications" also covers "device-to-devices communications".
Thus, D2D communications allow communications devices that are in sufficiently close proximity to directly communicate with each other, both when within the coverage area of a network and when outside a network's coverage area (e.g. due to geographic restrictions on a network's extent or because the network has failed or is in effect unavailable to a terminal device because the network is overloaded). D2D communications can allow user data to be more efficiently and quickly communicated between communications devices by obviating the need for user data to be relayed by a network entity such as a base station. D2D communications also allow communications devices to communicate with one another even when one or both devices may not be within the reliable coverage area of a network. The ability for communications devices to operate both inside and outside of coverage areas makes wireless telecommunications systems that incorporate D2D capabilities well suited to applications such as public protection/safety and disaster relief (PPDR), for example. PPDR related communications may benefit from a high degree of robustness whereby devices can continue to communicate with one another in congested networks and when outside a coverage area. 3GPP has developed some proposals for such public safety D2D use in LTE networks in Release12.
The automotive industry has been working for several years on solutions to enable communication with and between vehicles, e.g. to help improve traffic flow and safety. These techniques can range from automatic tolling technologies to collision prevention mechanisms, and are generally known as Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS). Currently, the main radio technology under consideration in standards projects relating to ITS is a WLAN derivative 802.11p, which would be used for broadcasting ITS information by vehicles or road side infrastructure to other vehicles. This constitutes so-called Dedicated Short Range Communication (DSRC) system that is deployed at 5.9 GHz ITS band in Europe and North America (there may be different ITS bands in use in other regions, e.g. 700 MHz in Japan).
The effective range of DSRC systems is a few hundred meters and the services are broadcast oriented (emergency vehicle notices, for example).
However, there have also been proposals for communications based on those used in mobile telecommunications systems, such as Long Term Evolution (LTE) based networks operating on International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT) bands, to help support ITS applications, for example to provide more capacity and potentially provide for wider and cheaper coverage. In particular, where the existing cellular network already covers roadways the capital expenditure costs associated with using cellular mobile telecommunications techniques for ITS applications may be significantly less than what would be needed for setting up a new DSRC-based ITS network.
Accordingly, an Intelligent Transport System may rely on D2D communications of the kind proposed for mobile wireless telecommunications systems to allow vehicles to communicate with one another and with other terminal devices or network infrastructure equipment, such as a base station or specific road side infrastructure. In this regard, communications associated with connected vehicle systems may be conveniently referred to as V2X (vehicle-to-everything) communications, which may comprise V2V (vehicle-to-vehicle), V2P (vehicle-to-pedestrian) and V2I (vehicle-to-infrastructure). The V2X communications or terminals may also be referred to as vehicular communications or terminals, respectively. Infrastructure in this case may be a roadside ITS related infrastructure element, which may be referred to as a road side unit (RSU), or a conventional Internet or mobile network infrastructure element. Some examples or services in connected a vehicle context are Cooperative Awareness Message (CAM) and Decentralised Environmental Notification (DEN). These constitute applications such as allowing emergency vehicles to broadcast their presence and allowing roadside infrastructure to broadcast speed limit information to vehicles.
While most of the developments in the vehicular communications field have been focussing on the in-vehicle or vehicle-associated devices and systems, it is expected that future vehicular systems will in the future also have to address the situation of Vulnerable Road Users or VRUs. VRU are users or terminals that are V2X-compatible and that are associated with a vulnerable user (e.g. pedestrian, animal, bicycle, etc.). In the case of a pedestrian, the V2X-compatible device is likely to be a smartphone or a wearable device, which have different power consumption requirements than a V2X device installed in a vehicle for example, and even more so in the case of a wearable device. For at least this reason, the level of connected times cannot be expected from a VRU UE compared to an in-vehicle VUE for example. This can present a number of challenging when trying to detect the presence of a VRU (e.g. to inform a vehicle-associated UE and/or the VRU's UE of a potential danger) when the VRU is not always connected or when its presence and/or identity may not be known to the network.

Telecommunications apparatuses and methods


Antibodies and antigen-binding fragments thereof that bind interleukin-22 (IL-22), in particular, human IL-22, and their uses in regulating IL-22-associated immune responses are disclosed. The antibodies disclosed herein are useful in diagnosing, preventing, or treating IL-22-associated immune disorders, e.g., autoimmune disorders (e.g., arthritis).

Interleukin-22 (IL-22) is a class II cytokine that shows sequence homology to IL-10. Its expression is up-regulated in T cells by IL-9 or ConA (Dumoutier L. et al. (2000) Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 97(18):10144-9). Further studies have shown that expression of IL-22 mRNA is induced in vivo in response to LPS administration, and that IL-22 modulates parameters indicative of an acute phase response (Dumoutier L. et al. (2000) supra; Pittman D. et al. (2001) Genes and Immunity 2:172). Taken together, these observations suggest that IL-22 plays a role in inflammation (Kotenko S. V. (2002) Cytokine & Growth Factor Reviews 13(3):223-40).
IL-22 is believed to bind to a receptor complex consisting of IL-22R and IL-10R2, two members of the type II cytokine receptor family (CRF2) (Xie M. H. et al. (2000) J Biol Chem 275(40):31335-9; Kotenko S. V. et al. (2001) J Biol Chem 276(4):2725-32). Both chains of the IL-22 receptor are expressed constitutively in a number of organs. Epithelial cell lines derived form these organs are responsive to IL-22 in vitro (Kotenko S. V. (2002) Cytokine & Growth Factor Reviews 13(3):22340). IL-22 induces activation of the JAK/STAT3 and ERK pathways, as well as intermediates of other MAPK pathways (Dumoutier L. et al. (2000) supra; Xie M. H. et al. (2000) supra; Dumoutier L. et al. (2000) J Immunol 164(4):1814-9; Kotenko S. V. et al. (2001) J Biol Chem 276(4):2725-32; Lejeune, D. et al. (2002) J Biol Chem 277(37):33676-82).
CRF2 members are receptors for IFNα/β, IFNγ, coagulation factor VIIa, IL-10 and the IL-0 related proteins IL-19, IL-20, IL-22, IL-24, as well as the recently identified IFN-like cytokines, IL-28 and IL-29 (Kotenko S. V. (2002) Cytokine & Growth Factor Reviews 13(3):223-40; Kotenko, S. V. et al. (2000) Oncogene 19(21):2557-65; Sheppard, P. et al. (2003) Nature Immunology 4(1):63-8; Kotenko, S. V. et al. (2003) Nature Immunology 4(1):69-77). In addition to these membrane receptors, the CRF2 family also includes a soluble protein, IL-22 binding protein (IL-22BP), which is specific for IL-22 and blocks its activity (Dumoutier, L. et al. (2001) J Immunol 166(12):7090-5; Kotenko, S. V. et al. (2001) J Immunol 166(12):7096-103; Xu, W. et al. (2001) Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 98(17):9511-6; Gruenberg, B. H. et al. (2001) Genes & Immunity 2(6):329-34; Wei C-C et al. (2003) Genes & Immunity 4:204-211). While the IL-22 receptor complex is unique for IL-22, however, each chain (i.e., IL-22R and IL-10R2) is shared with other CRF2 members to define functional receptors for IL-20, IL-24 (IL-22R/IL-20), IL28, IL29 (IFN-λR1/IL-10R2) and IL-10 (IL-1/IL-10R2) (Dumoutier, L. et al. (2001) J. Immunol. 167(7):3545-9; Wang, M. et al. (2002) J Biol Chem 277(9):7341-7; Parrish-Novak, J. et al. (2002) J Biol Chem 277(49):47517-23; Kotenko, S. V. et al. (1997) EMBO J. 16(19):5894-903; Spencer, S. D. et al. (1998) J Exp Med 187(4):571-8).
Both chains of the CRF2-composed receptor are necessary for signal transduction. One chain of the composed receptor has been historically defined as a ligand binding chain (e.g., IFNγR1) based on its high affinity for the cytokine. The other chain (e.g., IFNγR2) has been characterized as a helper or accessory chain, and shows minimal affinity for the cytokine alone (Kotenko, S. V. et al. (2000) Oncogene 19(21):2557-65). More recent results suggest that both receptor chains may contribute to the binding affinity, at least for IL-10 and IL-22 (Xie M. H. et al. (2000) J Biol Chem 275(40):31335-9; Kotenko S. V. et al. (2001) J Biol Chem 276(4):2725-32; Logsdon, N. J. et al. (2002) J Interferon Cytokine Res 22(11):1099-112).

Monoclonal antibodies against interleukin-22


Disclosed is an apparatus and method for digital holographic table top display. The digital holographic table top display apparatus includes: a camera array configured to capture a plurality of channel images in an omni-directional range from a table by using a plurality of cameras; a controller configured to detect an observer from the plurality of channel images and to track a position of pupils of the observer in at least one channel image from which the observer is detected; and a display configured to reproduce a digital holographic image in a three-dimensional (3D) space according to the tracked position of the pupils.

1. Field
The following description relates to a three dimensional display technology.
2. Description of the Related Art
Three-dimensional (3D) images currently displayed through a two-dimensional (2D) screen are different from real 3D images. There is a technical challenge in that motion parallax is not seamless as a real image, such that when an image is viewed from a different angle, a user may not see other sides viewed at the different angle. Further, when an observer focuses on an object in a 3D space, an image should be provided in a manner that enables the observer to see the object without feeling fatigue.
However, the existing 2D screen based approach may not be suitable for a 3D image reproduction method that may overcome the above challenge and satisfy the need. Super multi-view images and the like may be used as a substitute, but only the holographic images are optimal to provide perfect 3D images.

Apparatus and method for digital holographic table top display

Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute


A mounting for a lighting fixture is disclosed which includes a T-shaped bracket and a mating plate designed to engage the T-shaped bracket in two positions. The T-shaped bracket is fixed to a desired mounting surface and the mating plate is fixed to the end of a lighting fixture intended to engage the mounting surface. The mounting plate and bracket cooperate to suspend the fixture in a first position below and spaced from the mounting surface while wiring is installed and in a second position against the mounting surface after installation is completed.

The present invention is generally directed to a mounting system which is used for the installation of lighting fixtures. Specifically the present invention provides a mounting bracket which permits hanging the fixture below and spaced from a mounting surface while the electrical connections are made. After installation the fixture is locked into a retrievably permanent position against the mounting surface.
One prior art mounting bracket for lighting fixtures provides hooks for hanging the lighting fixture below a mounting surface while making the electrical connections. The mounting brackets however do not prevent the fixture from being accidentally knocked or bumped from the mount while the electrical connections are being made. After the electrical connections are made the lighting fixture is moved to abut the mounting bracket and a latch on the fixture is moved to a lock position to hold the fixture against the mounting surface. This prior art fixture mounting bracket does not provide the combination of a single unit which safely hangs the light fixture during installation and then, upon rotation of the fixture, retrievably locks the fixture against the mounting surface after the electrical connections are made.


An image intensifier tube includes a microchannel plate (MCP) having conductive input and output surfaces disposed in a housing. A conductive lower support is in electrical contact with the output surface of the MCP, and a conductive upper support is disposed above the input surface of the MCP. A shape memory alloy (SMA) lockdown is disposed between the input surface of the MCP and the upper support. The SMA lockdown is configured to provide a lockdown for the MCP in the housing. An SMA upper surface is configured to provide an axial force against the upper support, and an SMA lower surface is in contact with the input surface of the MCP.

Image intensifier devices multiply the amount of incident light they receive and provide an increase in light output, which can be supplied either to a camera or directly to the eyes of a viewer. Image intensifiers are constructed for a variety of applications and hence vary in both shape and size. These devices are particularly useful for providing images from dark regions and have both industrial and military applications. For example, image intensifiers are used in night vision goggles for enhancing the night vision of aviators and other military personnel performing covert operations. They are employed in security cameras and in medical instruments to help alleviate conditions such as retinitis pigmentosis (night blindness).
As known, three major components of image intensifier tubes are the photocathode, phosphor screen (anode), and the MCP disposed between the photocathode and anode. These three components are positioned within an evacuated housing or vacuum envelope, thereby permitting electrons to flow from the photocathode through the MCP and the anode. In order for the image intensifier tube to operate, the photocathode and anode are normally coupled to an electric source, whereby the anode is maintained at a higher positive potential than the photocathode. Similarly, the MCP is biased and operates to increase the density of the electron emission set forth by the photocathode. Furthermore, since the photocathode, MCP and anode are all held at different electrical potentials, all three components are electrically isolated from one anther, when retained within the vacuum housing.
Referring to FIG. 1, there is shown a cross-sectional view of a conventional Gen III image intensifier tube 10 of the type manufactured by ITT Night Vision of Roanoke, Va. The prior art Gen III image intensifier tube 10 includes an evacuated housing 12 made from the assemblage of several separate components. Within housing 12, positioned are photocathode 14, microchannel plate (MCP) 16, and an inverting fiber optic element 18, the latter supporting phosphor screen 20. The construction for vacuum housing 12 forms an air tight envelope between photocathode 14 and fiber optic element 18.
The photocathode 14 rests upon a conductive support ring 22 at one end of vacuum housing 12. The abutment of photocathode 14 against support ring 22 creates an air tight seal, thereby closing one end of vacuum housing 12.
The lower end of vacuum housing 12 is sealed by the presence of an output screen flange 72. The output screen flange 72 is joined to fiber optic element 18 and forms an air tight envelope, thereby closing the other end of vacuum housing 12.
Between support ring 22, and screen flange 72 are additional elements providing annular spacers and electrical terminals for MCP 16 and fiber optic element 18. These elements are described in detail in U.S. Pat. No. 5,994,824, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
Completing the description of FIG. 1, an upper MCP terminal 32 extends into vacuum housing 12, where it conductively engages a metal hold down ring 36 and a contact ring 38. The contact ring 38 engages the conductive upper surface 42 of MCP 16, while the hold down ring retains the MCP within the housing. Consequently, an electrical bias may be applied to upper surface 42 of MCP 16 by applying the electrical bias to upper MCP terminal 32 on the exterior of vacuum housing 12. Similarly, a lower MCP terminal 48 extends into vacuum housing 12 and engages the lower conductive surface 44 of MCP 16. As such, the lower conductive surface 44 of MCP 16 may be coupled to ground by connecting the lower MCP terminal 48 to a ground potential external of vacuum housing 12.
Referring next to FIGS. 2 and 3, two examples are shown of how MCP 16 is fixed into position and sandwiched between an upper electrical terminal contacting upper MCP surface 42 and a lower electrical terminal contacting lower MCP surface 44. In FIG. 2, a ceramic ring 78 is positioned below support ring 22 (FIG. 1), and joined to the support ring during a brazing operation. The brazing operation creates an impervious seal between support ring 22 and ceramic ring 78. The ceramic ring 78 is part of ring assembly 86 for retaining the MCP.
The ring assembly 86 includes ceramic ring 78, conductive snap ring 77, MCP ceramic ring 46, and MCP lower support terminal 48. The ceramic ring 78 includes a first metalized surface 88 in electrical contact with conductive snap ring 77, and a second metalized surface 89 for providing electrical contact external to the housing and permit an electric source to be applied. The conductive snap ring 77 is formed of a metal or a metallic alloy. Snap ring 77 has a surface 77B conductively engaging the upper surface 42 of the MCP, and another surface 77A bonded to surface 88 of ceramic ring 78.
As illustrated, the conducting snap ring 77 is positioned between ceramic ring 78 and the MCP upper surface 42. The MCP rests against and is retained by snap ring 77 and ceramic ring 78. The MCP insulator ceramic ring 46 is positioned below and coupled to metalized surface 89 by a brazing ring (not shown) interposed between the two elements. The MCP insulator ceramic ring 46 is brazed to both metalized surface 89 and MCP lower support 48.
Thus, snap ring assembly 86 retains the MCP by using metalized ceramic 78 in combination with metalized snap ring 77 to provide both the lockdown and electrical contact. This feature eliminates the need for complex metal parts including mechanical rings and tabs used in other image intensifiers to hold the MCP in a fixed position.
In another example, as shown in FIG. 3, the MCP lower support 48 is employed to both laterally center and axially support MCP 16. The lower support structure provides a tab portion 48A, which is disposed laterally to surface 16C of the MCP, to prevent lateral dislocation of the MCP, and at the same time to maintain sufficient distance from the snap ring conductive surface in order to prevent short circuiting the device. The upper support structure 32, on the other hand, is curved downwardly toward snap ring 77 at its end portion 32A. The spring force of snap ring 77 is effective in forming a normal force against end portion 32A, so that the snap ring becomes wedged between the MCP and the upper support structure 32. In this manner, the upper surface 42 of the MCP is provided with an electrical potential by way of both the snap ring and the upper support structure. In addition, the MCP is fixed and locked down into position within the image intensifier tube.
A top view of snap ring 77 is shown in FIG. 4. In the example shown, the outer diameter 77G of the snap ring is 1.3 inches, whereas the ceramic ring 78 (FIG. 2) has an aperture with an inner diameter of 1.24 inches (for example). As a result, the snap ring includes dual cavities 77F, which are carved out of the ring's surface, for compressing the ring with the help of pliers. After compressing its outer diameter, snap ring 77 fits into the recess formed by the chamfer of metalized surface 88. In this manner, snap ring 77, at surface 77A, conductively engages metalized surface 88. In addition, at surface 77B, the snap ring conductively engages the upper surface 42 of MCP 16. The snap ring also secures and locks down the MCP into a fixed position within the housing.
The above described method of securing the MCP with the snap ring results in some drawbacks. One drawback is the extra effort required to compress the snap ring with pliers, and properly release the compression after the snap ring is placed on top of the MCP. Another drawback is the possibility of cracking the MCP, when the compression of the snap ring is unevenly released. The present invention, as will be explained, provides a solution to these drawbacks.


A surface treated steel materials coated with manganese having a film of MmOOH (manganic hydroxide) formed thereon, which show excellent corrosion resistance, workability and weldability. The surface treated steel materials may be further coated with zinc as a base coating underlying the manganese coating or further coated with a coating of at least one selected from the group consisting of P, B, Si, Cu, Mn, Cr, Ni, Co, Fe, Zn, Al, Ca, Mg, Ti, Pb, Sn, inorganic carbon and their compounds and still further coated with an organic coating. The film of MmOOH (manganic hydroxide) is formed by a treatment in an aqueous solution containing Cr.sup.6+.

1. Field of the Invention:
The present invention relates to surface treated steel materials having a manganese coating and MnOOH (Manganic hydroxide) formed electrolytically or chemically on the manganese coating, which steel materials show excellent corrosion resistance, workability and weldability, and to a process and an apparatus producing the same.
2. Description of Prior Arts:
As means for providing steel materials, the metallic coatings have been most widely used, and zinc-coated steel materials, in particular, have been and are used in tremendous amounts for manufacturing materials for buildings, automobiles, electric appliances and also used in the forms of wires and sections.
However, as zinc-coated steel materials have been increasingly used in various applications as mentioned above and under severe service conditions, a conventional single zinc coating or single metal coating has not always been able to satisfy requirements and recent trends are that a composite or alloy coating is applied to steel materials so as to improve the properties.
This is due to discoveries and knowledges obtained through long-year experiences that the corrosion protecting effect of zinc (or zinc alloy) based on its nature that it is electrochemically baser than iron, namely due to its sacrificial anodic action, cannot be maintained if the corrosive media is very severe and the dissolution of zinc is so rapid.
For example, referring to a painted galvanized iron, which has been widely used for building materials, a zinc-coated or alloyed zinc-coated steel plate is used.
However, the environments to which the zinc-coated or alloyed zinc-coated steel sheet is exposed usually contain corrosive media, such as water, oxygen and salts, so that the coated zinc dissolves in a very short period of service, thus developing red rust due to the corrosion of the base steel sheet, and further promoting the corrosion of the base steel sheet itself. Therefore, the zinc-coated steel sheet is seldom used without a further surface treatment.
Hereinbelow, mention will be made to steel plates for automobiles, for example. In U.S.A., Canada and European countries, salt is sprayed on highway roads in winter seasons for prevention of freezing of the roads, and the amount of salt to be sprayed has been steadily increasing each year. For this reason, corrosion of the automobile bodies has been an important problem, and the Canadian Department of Consumer and Corporate Affairs has proposed a general guidline in connection with corrosion of the automobile bodies as shown in Table 1 and calls for assistance from the automobile industry.
TABLE 1 ______________________________________ Guideline for Corrosion Protection Proposed by Department of Consumer & Corporate Affairs, Canada 1978 1979 1980 1981 ______________________________________ year year year year No Rust 1 1 1.5 1.5 No Pitting 3 3.5 4 5 No damage on Structural Parts 6 6 6 6 ______________________________________
Meanwhile, the automobile industry has been practising the following corrosion protection measures:
(1) Improvements of pretreatments, such as degreasing and chemical conversion treatments, as well as substitution of the anion type electrodeposition coating;
(2) Improvement of corrosion protecting paints, particularly improvement of resistance to chipping;
(3) Employment of zinc-coated steel materials and zinc-rich paint precoated steel materials.
The measures of the above (1) are useless for portions such as door inner or pointed portions which are accessible to the pretreatments or electrodeposition coating, although effective for the outer skins. Also the measures of the above (3) have defects that when the amount of zinc coating is increased, for example, for improving the corrosion resistance, the weldability and the workability are damaged, while in the case of the precoating, the weldability and the corrosion resistance at worked portions are satisfactory. Therefore, up to now, no satisfactory steel materials are available which can well guarantee the Governmental guidelines shown in Table 1, particularly guarantee of "no pitting" and "no damage" for 5 to 6 years as aimed at in 1981.
Therefore, strong demands have been made for developments of new surface treated steel materials which show far better corrosion resistance than the conventional surface treated steel sheets and at the same time provide workability, weldability and paintability similar to those of ordinary cold rolled steel sheets, all together in a well balanced condition. Therefore, it is an urgent task for the steel industry to satisfy the above demands from the points of safety assurance and material savings.
The corrosive environments to which the automobiles are exposed usually contain corrosive substances, such as water, oxygen and salts, and automobiles are exposed over a long period of time to water and salt confined within their recesses. Therefore, when zinc-coated steel sheets are used in such environments, the coated zinc dissolves in a very short period of time and red rust is caused by the corrosion of the base steel sheet and in more severer cases pitting and damages of structural parts are caused. Thus in the corrosion of automobiles, there is a close relation among the temperature, humidity (time for which the automobile is kept in a wetted condition) and the salt content as has been confirmed by the present inventors. The test results are shown in Table 2 from which it is understood that the salt spray test (JIS-Z-2371) widely used in the steel industry provides the most severe corrosive condition, while the atmospheric exposure test provides the least corrosive condition, and thus the humidity is the most important factor.
TABLE 2 __________________________________________________________________________ Comparison of Corrosion Rates (g/m.sup.2 /year) in Various Environments 5% CaCl.sub.2 + 3% NaCl 5% NaCl + Dry-Wet Atmospheric + Air 0.05% Na.sub.2 SO.sub.4 Repeti- Salt Exposure Exposer + Air Exposure tion Spray Test Test Test Test Test __________________________________________________________________________ Semi-Rural Once a Once a Immersion 3% NaCl District day (15 min) day 15 (min) into 3% 35.degree. C. 3% NaCl spraying NaCl for 100% R.H spraying aqueous 5 min. followed solution drying at by atmos- of above 50.degree. C. for pheric stated 25 min. exposure salts, followed by atmospheric exposure Ordinary 280 1,440 10,500 8,000 7,800- Steel 11,800 Zn 15 60 3,000 180 6,000- 8,640 __________________________________________________________________________
In the salt spray test, zinc dissolves at a corrosion rate of about 1 g/m.sup.2 /hr and if the corrosion resistance is relied solely on the anodic self-sacrificial corrosion protection of zinc, the zinc coating must be made in an amount as large as several hundred grams to one kilogram per square meter, and steel sheets with such a large amount of zinc coating canot be welded, ad the Fe-Zn alloy layer formed between the base steel and the zinc coating is very susceptible to cracking when subjected to workings, such as press forming. This cracking damages the corrosion resistance of such worked portions. Further, from the necessity of energy saving, efforts and trials have been made in reducing the weight of automobiles for the purpose of improving the fuel consumption ratio, and thus it is not desirable to increase the amount of zinc coating indefinitely.
What is more critical matter for the zinc-coated steel sheet is the problem of "contact corrosion" which is caused when the zinc-coated steel sheet is used in combination with an ordinary cold rolled steel sheet as often used in the automobiles. In the automobile industry, the zinc-coated steel sheet is used in combination with a non-coated cold rolled steel sheet into a white body, which is subjected to degreasing, washing, phosphate treatment, electrodeposition paint coating, intermediate coating and upper coating. In this way, when different metals, e.g. zinc and iron are brought into contact with each other in a wetted condition, a galvanic cell is formed between them and promotes dissolution of zinc and as the dissolution is promoted, swelling of the upper paint coating is caused, resulting in damgaes of the paint coating. Thus as shown in FIG. 1, (one sheet of 70.times.100 m/m (A) and another sheet of 70.times.90 m/m (B) were spot welded on two spots, uniformly paint coated and scratched), test pieces by combining a cold rolled steel sheet with a zinc-coated steel sheet by spot welding, and subjecting this combined sheet to a standard phosphate treatment, anionic electrodeposition coating and upper coating, and the test pieces were scratched by a knife cutting the paint coating to the base steel, subjected to 20-day salt spray test (JIS-Z-2371) and the adhesion of the paint coating near the scratched portions was determined by the tape stripping test. The results are shown in FIG. 2. It has been revealed that the adhesion of the paint coating, which is satisfactory good when a cold rolled steel sheet is combined with a cold rolled steel sheet, is definitely lowered near the welded portion between the zinc-coated steel sheet and the cold rolled steel sheet, and this lowered adhesion results in easy peeling-off of the paint coating.
Also zinc-coated steel products are usually subjected to a chemical conversion treatment, such as chromating and phosphating, fitted to the zinc coating, and further subjected to an organic coating compatible to the chemical conversion treatment for the purpose of improving the corrosion resistance and the ornamental value. However, even when the steel products are surface coated by zinc coating, chemical cnversion treatment and organic coating, the zinc coating is first attacked by a corrosive substance, such as water, oxygen and salt which penetrate through the organic coating, and the organic coating itself is damaged by the corrosion product.
As mentioned above, in the case when a zinc-coated steel material having an organic coating on the zinc coating, the corrosion resistance of the zinc coating itself is very important, just as when the zinc-coated steel material is used without an organic coating thereon, and for this reason the recent technical tendency is directed toward inhibition of the sacrificial anodic action of the coated zinc and commercial trials have been made to artificially make the galvanic electrode potential of the zinc coating approach to that of iron by alloying the zinc coating with iron, aluminum, nickel, molybdenum, cobalt, etc. resulting in developments of Zn-Fe alloy coated, Zn-Al alloy coated, Zn-Ni alloy coated, Zn-Mo-Co alloy coated steel products, which are now in the market.
These alloyed zinc coatings are said to have a corrosion resistance two or several times better than that of the conventional zinc coating, but the Zn-Fe alloy coating has difficulty in working, the Zn-Al alloy coating has difficulties in workability, weldability and paintability, and the zinc-nickel alloy coating is hard to obtain in a uniform structure and has a disadvantage that a continuous performance of spot welding is hardly achieved due to its low electric resistance as low as the zinc coating, thus failing to provide a coated material with satisfactorily balanced properties. Although the Zn-Mo-Co alloy coating seems to provide the desired balanced property, it is very difficult to form the alloy coating of uniform composition, because each of the component metals shows a different electrodeposition speed depending on the electroplating conditions.
Therefore, in recent years strong demands have been made in various fields for the balanced property, namely for a comercial development of a surface coated steel material having excellent workability and weldability as well as satisfactory paintability and adaptability to chemical conversion treatments, but up to now, there is no surface coated steel material which can meet with the above requirements.
For improving the corrosion resistance of a steel material by coating the steel material with other metals and utilizing the corrosion resistance of the coated metals, there are two groups of coating methods, as classified electrochemically; the first group in which a metal nobler than iron is coated, for example chromium plating; the second group in which a metal baser than iron is coated, for example, zinc plating. For the first group of methods, many studies have been made and many arts have been established. However, when the metal coating itself has pinholes, or when the thickness of a coating increases, the coating is susceptible to cracking, as seen in the chromium coating. In either case, the metal coating has a defective portion, so that the steel substrate is first attacked because iron is electrochemically baser than the coated metal, just contrary as in the zinc coating, so that pitting corrosion is apt to occur, thus deteriorating the reliability of the coated steel material.
In view of the above facts, it may be concluded that a metal, such as zinc, which shows the sacrificial anodic action is more advantageous for protecting steel materials from corrosion. The present inventors made systematic studies in consideration of the above technical points of view, and have found that among various coated steel materials, a manganese coated steel material having an MnOOH (manganic hydroxide) formed thereon shows the best corrosion resistance. As clearly understood from the galvaic series of metals in an aqueous solution, as manganese is electrochemically baser than zinc, it has been undoubtedly expected that manganese has an inferior corrosion resistance as compared with zinc.
Regarding the electrodeposition of manganese, many various studies have been made including "Electrolytic Manganese and Its Alloys" by R. S. Dean, published by the Ronald Press Co., 1952; "Modern Electroplating" by Allen G. Gray, published by John Willey & Sons Inc., 1953;"Electrodeposited Metals Chap.II, Manganese" by W. H. Safranek, published by Ammerican Elsevier Pub. Co., 1974, and "Electrodeposition of Alloys", Vol. 2 "Electrodeposition of Manganese Alloys" by A. Brenner, published by Academic Press, 1963.
According to R. S. Dean, the electrodeposition of manganese and its alloys act self-sacrificially anodically just as zinc and cadmium in the aspect of rust prevention, and a steel sheet having 12.5.mu. thick manganese coating can well resist to the atmospheric exposure for 2 years, and R. S. Dean reported by citing "Sheet Metal Industry", 29, p.1007(1952) that a satisfactory protective effect can be obtained by a thick manganese coating and that the electrolytic manganese becomes black when exposed to air, but this can be prevented by an immersion treatment in a chromate solution.
Further, according to N. G. Gofman, as reported in "Electrokhim Margantsa" 4, pp.125-141(1969), the electrodeposited manganese corrodes in the sea water at a rate by 20 times faster than zinc, but the corrosion rate of manganese can be decreased when a chromate film is provided on the manganese.
What is more interesting is reported by A. Brenner. He pointed out the following three defects of the manganese or its alloy coatings, although he mentioned a protective film for steels or low alloyed steels as one of the expected applications of the manganese or manganese alloy coatings.
(1) Brittleness PA1 (2) Chemical reactivity (a short service life in an aqueous solution or outdoors) PA1 (3) Dark color of corrosion products (unsuitable for ornamental purposes, yet suitable for a protective coating).
Regarding the brittleness, manganese electrodeposited from an ordinary plating bath, has a crystal structure of .gamma. or .alpha., and the .gamma. structure which is softer transforms into the .alpha. structure when left in air for several days to several weeks. Therefore, in practice, considerations must be given to the .alpha.-manganese. In this case, the hardness and brittleness are said to be similar to those of chromium, i.e. 430 to 1120 kg/mm.sup.2 expressed in microhardness according to W. H. Safranek.
Regarding the chemical reactivity, A. Brenner reported that the manganese or its alloys can be stabilized by a passivation treatment in a chromate solution, and the thus stabilized manganese or its alloys can stand satisfactorily stable for a long period of time in the indoor atmosphere, but he pointed out that for outdoor applications an eutectoid with a metal nobler than manganese should be used.
Therefore, judging from the fact that a zinc coated steel sheet with zinc coating of 500 g/m.sup.2 by hot dipping can protect the steel sheet against corrosion for 30 to 40 years, a zinc coating of 90 g/m.sup.2 by hot dipping which corresponds to a manganese coating of 12.5.mu. can be predicted to resist the atmospheric corrosion at least for 5 to 6 years, therefore a manganese coating which can resist to the atmospheric corrosion for only 2 years cannot be said to have a better corrosion resistance than a conventional surface treated steel sheet.
Up to now no trial or study has ever been made to improve the corrosion resistance of a steel material by manganese coating thereon, except for the invention made by the present inventors as disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Specifications Sho 50-136243 and Sho 51-75975.
The present invention is clearly distinctive over these prior arts in the following points.
The Japanese Laid-Open Patent Specification Sho 50-136243 discloses a surface treated steel substrate for organic coatings, which is obtained by electro-plating 0.2.mu. to 7.mu. manganese coating on the steel material, and by subjecting the manganese coated steel material to a chromate treatment or a cathodic electro-chemical treatment in a bath of aluminum biphosphate or magnesium biphosphate or both. The technical object of this prior art is to facilitate the conversion treatments by coating manganese because it is difficult to apply in substitution for zinc coating conversion treatments such as the chromate treatment and aluminum biphosphate and magnesium biphosphate treatments directly to the steel material, and also it has an object to improve the paintability and further the corrosion resistance.
The Japanese Laid-Open Patent Specification Sho 51-75975 discloses a corrosion resistant coated steel sheet for automobile, which comprising a steel substrate containing 0.2 to 10% chromium and at least one layer of coating of zinc, cadmium, manganese or their alloys in a total thickness of 0.02.mu. to 2.0.mu.. This prior art is based on the fact that when the chromium content exceeds 0.5%, the crystal formation on the surface becomes increasingly scattered during the phosphate treatment, for example, and when 3% or more of chromium is contained, completely no phosphate crystal is formed, so that an excellent corrosion resistance of a steel substrate can be obtained, and that it is effective to apply only on the steel surface a single layer or multiple layers of coating of zinc, cadmium, manganese or their alloys which are very reactive to the conversion treatments.
As explained above, the prior arts which were also made by the present inventors utilized the nature of manganese that it has a stronger chemical reactivity than zinc for improvement of applicability of a steel material to chemical conversion treatments, and provide a steel substrate for paint coating. Therefore, these prior arts are completely different from the present invention, in which the MnOOH (manganic hydroxide) is intentionally formed on the manganese coating electrolytically or chemically.
Thus the passivation obtained by the conventional chromate immersion is a kind of chemical conversion, just as the chromate treatment usually done on a zinc-coated steel sheet, which is intended to form a chromate film thereby improving the corrosion resistance. Therefore, a large amount of Cr.sub.6+ or Cr.sup.3+ naturally remains in the film. Contrary to this, the electrolytic or chemical treatment in chromic acid used in the present invention is not intended to form a film of Cr.sup.6+ or Cr.sup.3+, but is intended to intentionally promote conversion of the hydrated manganese oxide into the MnOOH(manganic hydroxide) as clearly shown from Table 3. Thus, no Cr ion can be detected in the film of oxyhydrated manganese compound even by the atomic absorption analysis.
The reason why the manganese coating in the prior arts exhibits excellent corrosion resistance is that the thin layer of the oxygen-containing manganese compound formed on the metallic manganese coating is hardly dissolved in water, and serves as a kind of passivated film and contributes to corrosion resistance as contrary to a pure manganese metal which is very reactive.
Thus when metallic manganese is electrochemically deposited using a usual sulfate bath, the metal manganese reacts with oxygen in the air, and manganese hydroxide formed in a thin film during the electro-plating is oxidized by the air and the oxygen-containing manganese compound is formed according to the following formulae (1) and (2). EQU 2Mn(OH).sub.2 +O.sub.2 .revreaction.2H.sub.2 MnO.sub.3 ( 1) EQU H.sub.2 MnO.sub.3 +Mn(OH).sub.2 .revreaction.Mn.multidot.MnO.sub.3 +2H.sub.2 O (2)
This oxygen-containing manganese compound hardly dissolves in a neutral salt solution or in water and provides a very stable corrosion resistant film, completely different from the metallic manganese.
An oxygen-containing metal compound, such as the oxygen-containing manganese compound, is known to contribute to corrosion resistance just as a stainless steel exhibits excellent corrosion resistance due to its passivated surface film of a hydrated oxide containing 20 to 30% water, and a thinly chromium coated tin-free steel exhibits excellent corrosion resistance and excellent paintability due to its oxyhydrated chromium compound film containing about 20% water. It is also known that the rust of steel exposed to the air for a long period of time contains non-crystalline oxyhydrated iron compound, FeOOH, and that the rust layer of an atmospheric corrosion resistant steel which exhibits excellent resistance to atmospheric corrosion contains much of such oxyhydrated iron compound.


A coupler for connecting two seismic streamer sections together consists of a two-part hollow quick-disconnect fitting. The fitting has an internal diameter sufficient to contain a multicontact connector strip for electrically interconnecting the signal wires from the two streamer sections. When assembled the two parts of the housing are non-rotatable with respect to each other.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention lies within the field of seismic streamer cables for marine use and in particular relates to a means for interconnecting a plurality of sections to form a complete streamer cable.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In marine seismic surveys, a ship tows a neutrally buoyant streamer cable through the water along a line of survey. The complete streamer is composed of a plurality of separate active sections that are interconnected by suitable coupler sections. Typically each active section may be 200 to 300 feet long. Fifty or more such sections may be employed to make up the complete streamer which may be more than two miles long. When not deployed for use, the streamer cable is wound on a huge cable reel mounted on the stern of the ship.
Typically, each section consists of a hose-like cylindrical jacket of plastic such as polyvinyl chloride about 2.5 to 3.0 inches in outside diameter. A plurality of plastic spacers are disposed inside the jacket at desired intervals along the length of the section. Two or more steel stress members are threaded through holes around the periphery of the spacers to absorb the towing tension. A plurality of hydrophones are mounted inside the jacket at suitable locations between the spacers. A plurality of conductor pairs, for transmitting signals from the hydrophones to a recording device aboard the ship, are laced into a wire bundle that is threaded through central holes in the spacers. There may be 225 or more conductor pairs.
Each end of the section is sealed by a terminal bulkhead. The terminal bulkhead fits snugly inside the ends of the jacket. The jacket is then fastened tightly to the terminal bulkhead by metal bands to form a water-tight seal. After assembly, the cable section is filled with a low-specific-gravity kerosene through an oil-fill valve in the terminal bulkhead to render the section neutrally bouyant. The stress members protrude through the terminal bulkheads at each end of the section, extending one or two feet beyond the section ends. The stress members are terminated by aircraft-type clevises. The conductor pairs also extend through and beyond the terminal bulkhead. The conductor pairs are soldered to the terminals of miniature flat pin-and-socket connector plugs. Each plug may include about 25 contact pairs so that nine such plugs are needed for a 225-pair wire bundle. The plugs are staggered longitudinally with respect to each other over a distance of one to three feet beyond the ends of the section so that no two connector plugs abut one another. The holes through which the stress members and the wire bundle penetrate the terminal bulkheads are sealed so as to be watertight.
The structure of typical streamer cables are described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,465,696 to Paslay, U.S. Pat. No. 3,290,645 to Pavey, Jr. et al and U.S. Pat. No. 4,092,629 to Siems et al.
Various ways have been devised to connect two adjacent cable sections together. Commonly the mating stress-member clevises, from the two sections to be connected, are coupled together by suitable pins which are locked in place by cotter pins. The respective mating connector plugs are joined and locked in place. The combined lengths of the coupled protruding stress members associated with the two cable sections are adjusted so that the wire bundles are slack when the stress members are under tension. Upon completion of the mechanical and electrical connections a short protective boot, consisting of a length of plastic hose, is slipped over the exposed connector plugs and stress members. The boot, usually two to six feet long, is filled with kerosene for buoyancy and electrical insulation purposes. The boot is secured to the terminal bulkheads of the adjacent cable sections by metal bands thereby protecting the electrical connector plugs and stress members from water invasion. See particularly U.S. Pat. No. 3,376,948 to Morrow, FIGS. 1, 1a for an illustration of conventional couplers.
Despite its seeming simplicity, the coupler section above described is unsatisfactory for a number of reasons. The metal housings of the connector plugs, being necessarily in intimate contact with portions of the wire bundles, chafe the insulation of the conductors when the streamer cable is wound on or off the storage reel. Chafing causes short circuits and sometimes wire breakage. It is often necessary to disassemble the coupler sections in the field for repair. Disassembly is time-consuming and tedious because the metal bands must first be cut away, the kerosene poured out and the boot removed. Thereafter, the stress members must be disconnected. Reassembly is equally tedious. Additionally, since the coupler section is filled with kerosene, when the coupler section is disassembled the wires and plugs are oil-saturated, creating a messy work area and a potential fire hazard. Furthermore, a coupler section for use with streamer cables having 200-300 conductor pairs may be up to six feet long so that the connector plugs can be properly spaced apart. For a 50-section cable, the coupler sections add up to an extra 300 feet of cable that must be stored on the cable reel which has an inherently limited capacity.
There is a need therefore for a clean, more convenient, shorter coupler section that can be easily and quickly disassembled and reassembled in the field.

Quick coupler for seismic streamer sections


Transfer films comprising a carrier film, a sacrificial template layer deposed on the carrier film and comprising reentrant forming template features, and a thermally stable backfill layer having a first surface conforming to the reentrant forming template features and forming reentrant features and an opposing planar second surface; and methods of making transfer films are disclosed.

Nanostructures and microstructures on glass substrates are used for a variety of applications in display, lighting, architecture and photovoltaic devices. In display devices the structures can be used for light extraction or light distribution. In lighting devices the structures can be used for light extraction, light distribution, and decorative effects. In photovoltaic devices the structures can be used for solar concentration and antireflection. Patterning or otherwise forming microstructures on large glass substrates can be difficult and cost-ineffective.

Lamination transfer films for forming reentrant structures


An apparatus and method for reproducing the color of blended colorants on an electronic display such as a cathode ray tube, liquid crystal display or other type of electronic device that utilizes RGB values. Predictions of blended colorants on or in substrates can be made from XYZ measurements of samples prepared with no colorants, one colorant, and pairs of colorants. The calculation method uses light absorption, light scattering, and light absorption blend coefficients. An image digitizer can be used to obtain XYZ values from samples. Furthermore, image digitizer RGB values are converted into XYZ values with a non-linear model using a simple method. Furthermore, the above process to generate XYZ values from image digitizer RGB values can be used to generate RGB values from XYZ values for electronic display.

This invention relates to a method and apparatus for reproducing the color of blended colorants on an electronic display.
The most accurate ways of computing color formulation are either very difficult to use, or computationally impractical. The most successful simple mathematical theory for predicting the color of mixtures is the Kubelka-Munk Model. For some applications, the model is overly simplistic. The Kubelka-Munk Model assumes light falls exactly perpendicular onto a perfectly flat media containing the colorants. The colorants must be perfectly mixed into the substrate media, and the resulting colored substrate must be isotropic. The index of refraction of the media and colorants is assumed to be the same as air, so internal and external specular reflection and refraction are ignored.
Assume these conditions are met, and the substrate is optically thick. In this case, Kubelka-Munk Theory predicts the following simple relationship: K/S=(1-R).sup.2 /2R. K and S are physical properties of the colored media. R is the measured color. The relationship expressed by the equation holds at each wavelength of light in the visible spectral band. R denotes the fraction of light reflected by the sample. K and S are light absorption and light scattering coefficients of the colorant mixture, respectively. It is more convenient to deal with K/S rather than R. This is because the physical properties of a mixture (K and S) are, to a good approximation, proportional to the physical properties of each colorant in the mixture, namely the corresponding coefficients K.sub.i and S.sub.i of colorant i. The proportionality constants are component concentrations C.sub.i. Therefore, for simple colorant formulation calculations, one assumes for N colorants that K=K.sub.1 C.sub.1 +K.sub.2 C.sub.2 +. . . K.sub.N C.sub.N and S=S.sub.1 C.sub.1 +S.sub.2 C.sub.2 +. . . S.sub.N C.sub.N. As before, these equations hold at each wavelength of light. By inverting the earlier formula (K/S=(1-R).sup.2 /2R) that connects K/S to R, and by using the above equations connecting K and S to K.sub.i and S.sub.i, a connection is obtained between colorant concentrations C.sub.i and measured color R. Values of absorption and scattering coefficients of colorants are typically extracted from least squares calculations involving sample color measurements.
For applications requiring a high degree of accuracy, this simple Kubelka-Munk Theory must be modified. Corrections for substrate surface reflection, internal refraction, and colorant interactions are necessary. Sometimes it is necessary to extend spectral measurements into the ultraviolet to deal with colorant fluorescence. The texture of some targets (e.g., textiles) have a gloss that cannot be easily subtracted by measurement or compensated for by mathematical modeling. This means computed values for K.sub.i and S.sub.i must be cautiously interpreted, and perhaps further modified, before subsequent colorant formulation predictions are accurate.
In computer aided design (CAD), visual feedback is desirable during color formulation. One way to do this is to simulate a product on an electronic display. Performing Kubelka-Munk calculations, with the corrections noted above, involves a great deal of computation. Spectral data at many wavelengths must be stored on computer. Color measurements are traditionally made with spectrophotometers. These devices are relatively expensive and require uncommon technical expertise to operate. The usual way of converting spectral data into color coordinates appropriate for electronic display involves complex nonlinear equations. Computer aided design is one example of an application where color precision requirements are less demanding than, say, textile dye formulation. The present invention solves these problems, in a manner not disclosed in the known prior art, for less demanding applications.

Method and apparatus for reproducing blended colorants on an electronic display


A digital value comparator circuit for comparing in magnitude first and second digital values, each represented by n-bit binary signal (n is an integer larger than 1) is disclosed to comprise first and second signal converters for receiving the first and second digital signals, each converter including a parallel connection of first to n-th FETs with powers, respectively, m.sup.0, m.sup.1, m.sup.2, m.sup.3, . . . , m.sup.n-1 times (m is an integer larger than 1) of a predetermined power and having respective gates connected to the n bits of the supplied digital signal sequentially from its least significant bit, and an adder circuit for generating an output signal indicative of a sum of currents flowing through drain-source circuits of the first to n-th FETs, and a decision circuit connected to the first and second signal converters for comparing the output signals thereof and generating a signal representing the result of comparison.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a circuit for comparing the magnitude of digital values.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various digital circuits use a circuit for comparing digital values as shown, for example, TEXAS INSTRUMENTS, ADVANCED BIPOLAR LOGIC FAMILY DATA BOOK, p.p. 4-658.about.4-665, 1990. One of such comparator circuits, for example, has a configuration as shown in FIG. 4. This circuit is for comparing the magnitude of values of digital signals A and B expressed in n-bit binary signals applied to terminals 40 and 42.
In this circuit, the digital signal A applied to the terminal 40 is supplied to an adder-subtractor circuit 44. The digital signal B applied to the terminal 42, on the other hand, is supplied to a complementation circuit 46 for converting the supplied signal to a complement of 2n. This conversion to a complement can be effected by inverting the binary signal "0" to "1" and "1" to "0" of each bit of a n-bit digital signal, adding "1" to the result of inversion, and deleting "1" which may be carried to the order of 2.sup.n. The adder-subtractor 44 adds the digital signal A and the complement of the digital signal B to each other, and produces "A-B". A decision circuit 48 decides that A>B, when the "A-B" is positive, and that A<B, when "A-B" is negative, and produces an output indicating the result of decision.
The conventional digital value comparator circuits including the one illustrated in FIG. 4 are configured of gate circuits in multiple stages. A signal is delayed each time it passes a gate circuit. A considerable delay, therefore, is unavoidable due to accumulation of delays before the final result of comparison is obtained after application of signals to be compared. Especially when using an adder-subtractor of a ripple carry type as the adder-subtractor 44 in FIG. 4, it takes a considerable time to transmit the carry information from the least significant bit to the most significant bit of the adder, thereby leading to disadvantage that the delay time is greatly increased with the number of bits.
Also, in the digital value comparator circuit shown in FIG. 4, the complementation circuit 46 and the decision circuit 48 require almost as many transistors as the number of bits of the digital value to be compared, and in addition, more than ten transistors per bit are required for making up the adder-subtractor circuit. For this reason, the number of all transistors required greatly increases as the number of bits of the digital value increases. Since the space occupied by large scale integration of the circuit elements increases greatly with the increase in the number of transistors as described above, high density and high integration are hampered.

Digital signal comparator for comparing n-bit binary signals


An insulating coating material including an insulating film, and an adhesion layer on at least one side of an insulating film. The insulating film satisfies Formula (1) a=k×b3 . . . Formula (1) where a is a loop stiffness value in g/cm of the insulating film, b is a thickness in μm of the insulating film, and k is 0.000105 or more.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an insulating coating material and its use, in particular, relates to an insulating coating material having excellent abrasion resistance used for electric wires and cables and the like for aerospace applications.
Description of Background Art
For an insulating coating material for electric wires and cables for aerospace applications, in addition to heat resistance, electrical insulation, chemical resistance and flame resistance, durability characteristics such as abrasion resistance and cut through resistance (cut resistance) are demanded.
For example, as materials for electric wires and the like for aerospace applications, multilayer polyimide-fluoropolymer insulating structures and insulated wires and cables and the like having excellent cut resistance, have been developed (for example, Patent Documents 1-5).
Patent Document 1 relates to a multilayer polyimide fluoropolymer insulating material, and is mainly intended to improve dynamic cut resistance (cut through resistance). As insulating films used in an insulating coating material, specifically, a polyimide copolymer base layer of polyimide that is derived from pyromellitic acid dianhydride and 4,4′-diaminodiphenyl ether and has a thickness of 2 mils or 1 mil, a polyimide copolymer base layer that is derived from 40 mol % of 3,3′,4,4′-biphenyltetracarboxylic acid dianhydride, 60 mol % of pyromellitic acid dianhydride, 60 mol % of p-phenylenediamine, and 40 mol % of 4,4′diaminodiphenyl ether and has a thickness of 0.5 mils, and a polyimide copolymer base layer that is derived from 100 mol % of pyromellitic acid dianhydride, 60 mol % of p-phenylenediamine and 40 mol % of 4,4′diaminodiphenyl ether and has a thickness of 0.75 mils are disclosed. However, there is no specific description about abrasion resistance.
Patent Document 2 is mainly intended to improve heat seal strength, and an Apical AV is used as an insulating film that is used for an insulating coating material. However, there is no description of specific evaluation of abrasion resistance.
Patent Document 3 is intended to also improve abrasion resistance (abrasion wear). However, Patent Document 3 discloses that, when a relatively thin polyimide film having a thickness of 0.65 mils is used, the best abrasion resistance is 111 times.
Patent Document 4 discloses a wire wrapping composition that includes a polyimide layer and a bonding layer of a fluorine resin. According to Patent Document 4, although there is disclosure on a scraping (abrasion) property, the scraping property is not evaluated as a property.
Patent Document 5 discloses a polyimide film that has a specific loop stiffness value and a specific linear expansion coefficient. Patent Document 5 is intended to improve thermal dimensional stability and sliding flexibility, which are properties that are required for a polyimide film used in a flexible printed circuit board. Patent Document 5 discloses a polyimide film for a flexible printed circuit board, in which a polyimide film that is formed from 4,4′-oxydianiline and p-phenylenediamine and has an average linear expansion coefficient of 1.0-2.5×10−5 cm/cm/° C. in a temperature range of 100-200° C. is used at a specific ratio. However, attention is focused on applications and characteristics different from those of an insulating coating material for electric wires and cables, and a structure is also different. Further, a loop stiffness value of 0.4-1.2 g/cm is a relatively low value.
Currently, as insulating coating materials that can be used, An Oasis manufactured by DuPont and an Apical (Type AF) manufactured by Kaneka North America are known.    Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Hei 10-100340 (published on Apr. 21, 1998).    Patent Document 2: U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0282488.    Patent Document 3: U.S. Pat. No. 7,022,402.    Patent Document 4: Japanese Translation of PCT International Application Publication No. 2013-512535 (published on Apr. 11, 2013).    Patent Document 5; U.S. Pat. No. 7,018,704.

Insulating coating material having excellent wear resistance


Novel stem cell factors, oligonucleotides encoding the same, and methods of production, are disclosed. Pharmaceutical compositions and methods of treating disorders involving blood cells are also disclosed.

The human blood-forming (hematopoietic) system is comprised of a variety of white blood cells (including neutrophils, macrophages, basophils, mast cells, ecosinophils, T and B cells), red blood cells (erythrocytes) and clot-forming cells imegakaryocytes, platelets).
It is believed that small amounts of certain hematopoietic growth factors account for the differentiation of a small number of "stem cells" into a variety of blood cell progenitors for the tremendous proliferation of those cells, and for the ultimate differentiation of mature blood cells from those lines. The hematopoietic regenerative system functions well under normal conditions. However, when stressed by chemotherapy, radiation, or natural myelodysplastic disorders, a resulting period during which patients are seriously leukopenic, anemic, or thrombocytopenic occurs. The development and the use of hematopoietic growth factors accelerates bone marrow regeneration during this dangerous phase.
In certain viral induced disorders, such as acquired autoimmune deficiency (AIDS) blood elements such as T cells may be specifically destroyed. Augmentation of T cell production may be therapeutic in such cases.
Because the hematopoietic growth factors are present in extremely small amounts, the detection and identification of these factors has relied upon an array of assays which as yet only distinguish among the different factors on the basis of stimulative effects on cultured cells under artificial conditions.
The application of recombinant genetic techniques has clarified the understanding of the biological activities of individual growth factors. For example, the amino acid and DNA sequences for human erythropoietin (EPO), which stimulates the production of erythrocytes, have been obtained. (See, Lin, U.S. Pat. No. 4,703,008, hereby incorporated by reference). Recombinant methods have also been applied to the isolation of cDNA for a human granulocyte colony-stimulating factor, G-CSF (See, Souza, U.S. Pat. No. 4,810,643, hereby incorporated by reference), and human granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) [Lee, et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 82, 4360-4364 (1985); Wong, et al., Science, 228, 810-814 (1985)], murine G- and GM-CSF [Yokota, et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. (USA), 81, 1070 (1984); Fung, et al., Nature, 307, 233 (1984); Gough, et al., Nature, 309, 763 (1984)], and human macrophage colony-stimulating factor (CSF-1) [Kawasaki, et al., Science, 230, 291 (1985)].
The High Proliferative Potential Colony Forming Cell (HPP-CFC) assay system tests for the action of factors on early hematopoietic progenitors [Zont, J. Exp. Med., 159, 679-690 (1984)]. A number of reports exist in the literature for factors which are active in the HPP-CFC assay. The sources of these factors are indicated in Table 1. The most well characterized factors are discussed below.
An activity in human spleen conditioned medium has been termed synergistic factor (SF). Several human tissues and human and mouse cell lines produce an SF, referred to as SF-1, which synergizes with CSF-1 to stimulate the earliest HPP-CFC. SF-1 has been reported in media conditioned by human spleen cells, human placental cells, 5637 cells (a bladder carcinoma cell line), and EMT-6 cells (a mouse mammary carcinoma cell line). The identity of SF-1 has yet to be determined. Initial reports demonstrate overlapping activities of interleukin-1 with SF-1 from cell line 5637 [Zsebo et al., Blood, 71, 962-968 (1988)]. However, additional reports have demonstrated that the combination of interleukin-1 (IL-1) plus CSF-1 cannot stimulate the same colony formation as can be obtained with CSF-1 plus partially purified preparations of 5637 conditioned media [McNiece, Blood, 73, 919 (1989)].
The synergistic factor present in pregnant mouse uterus extract is CSF-1. WEHI-3 cells (murine myelomonocytic leukemia cell line) produce a synergistic factor which appears to be identical to IL-3. Both CSF-1 and IL-3 stimulate hematopoietic progenitors which are more mature than the target of SF-1.
Another class of synergistic factor has been shown to be present in conditioned media from TC-1 cells (bone marrow-derived stromal cells). This cell line produces a factor which stimulates both early myeloid and lymphoid cell types. It has been termed hemolymphopoietic growth factor 1 (HLGF-1). It has an apparent molecular weight of 120,000 [McNiece et al., Exp. Hematol., 16, 383 (1988)].
Of the known interleukins and CSFs, IL-1, IL-3, and CSF-1 have been identified as possessing activity in the HPP-CFC assay. The other sources of synergistic activity mentioned in Table 1 have not been structurally identified. Based on the polypeptide sequence and biological activity profile, the present invention relates to a molecule which is distinct from IL-1, IL-3, CSF-1 and SF-1.
TABLE 1Preparations Containing Factors Activein the HPP-CFC AssaySource1ReferenceHuman Spleen CM[Kriegler, Blood, 60, 503(1982)]Mouse Spleen CM[Bradley, Exp. Hematol. TodayBaum, ed., 285 (1980)]Rat Spleen CM[Bradley, supra, (1980)]Mouse lung CM[Bradley, supra, (1980)]Human Placental CM[Kriegler, supra (1982)]Pregnant Mouse Uterus[Bradley, supra (1980)]GTC-C CM[Bradley, supra (1980)]RH3 CM[Bradley, supra (1980)]PHA PBL[Bradley, supra (1980)]WEHI-3B CM[McNiece, Cell Biol. Int. Rep., 6, 243(1982)]EMT-6 CM[McNiece, Exp. Hematol., 15, 854 (1987)]L-Cell CM[Kriegler, Exp. Hematol., 12, 844 (1984)]5637 CM[Stanley, Cell, 45, 667 (1986)]TC-1 CM[Song, Blood, 66, 273 (1985)]1CM = Conditioned media.
When administered parenterally proteins are often cleared rapidly from the circulation and may therefore elicit relatively short-lived pharmacological activity. Consequently, frequent injections of relatively large doses of bioactive proteins may be required to sustain therapeutic efficacy. Proteins modified by the covalent attachment of water-soluble polymers such as polyethylene glycol, copolymers of polyethylene glycol and polypropylene glycol, carboxymethyl cellulose, dextran, polyvinyl alcohol, polyvinylpyrrolidone or polyproline are known to exhibit substantially longer half-lives in blood following intravenous injection than do the corresponding unmodified proteins [Abuchowski et al., In: "Enzymes as Drugs", Holcenberg et al., eds. Wiley-Interscience, New York, N.Y., 367-383 (1981), Newmark et al., J. Appl. Biochem. 4:185-189 (1982), and Katre et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 84, 1487-1491 (1987)]. Such modifications may also increase the protein's solubility in aqueous solution, eliminate aggregation, enhance the physical and chemical stability of the protein, and greatly reduce the immunogenicity and antigenicity of the protein. As a result, the desired in vivo biological activity may be achieved by the administration of such polymer-protein adducts less frequently or in lower doses than with the unmodified protein.
Attachment of polyethylene glycol (PEG) to proteins is particularly useful because PEG has very low toxicity in mammals [Carpenter et al., Toxicol. Appl. Pharmacol., 18, 35-40 (1971)]. For example, a PEG adduct of adenosine deaminase was approved in the United States for use in humans for the treatment of severe combined immunodeficiency syndrome. A second advantage afforded by the conjugation of PEG is that of effectively reducing the immunogenicity and antigenicity of heterologous proteins. For example, a PEG adduct of a human protein might be useful for the treatment of disease in other mammalian species without the risk of triggering a severe immune response.
Polymers such as PEG may be conveniently attached to one or more reactive amino acid residues in a protein such as the alpha-amino group of the amino-terminal amino acid, the epsilon amino groups of lysine side chains, the sulfhydryl groups of cysteine side chains, the carboxyl groups of aspartyl and glutamyl side chains, the alpha-carboxyl group of the carboxyl-terminal amino acid, tyrosine side chains, or to activated derivatives of glycosyl chains attached to certain asparagine, serine or threonine residues.
Numerous activated forms of PEG suitable for direct reaction with proteins have been described. Useful PEG reagents for reaction with protein amino groups include active esters of carboxylic acid or carbonate derivatives, particularly those in which the leaving groups are N-hydroxysuccinimide, p-nitrophenol, imidazole or 1-hydroxy-2-nitrobenzene-4-sulfonate. PEG derivatives containing maleimido or haloacetyl groups are useful reagents for the modification of protein free sulfhydryl groups. Likewise, PEG reagents containing amino, hydrazine or hydrazide groups are useful for reaction with aldehydes generated by periodate oxidation of carbohydrate groups in proteins.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a factor causing growth of early hematopoietic progenitor cells.

Method for increasing hematopoietic progenitor cells by stem cell factor