A confocal laser scanning differential interference microscope includes an illumination optical system for radiating a laser light spot onto an object, a focusing optical system for focusing light reflected by the object onto a detection surface, a detection optical system for detecting the reflected light focused on the detection surface, a scanning device for scanning the laser light spot relative to the object, and an optical element arranged between the focusing optical system and the detection optical system, and having a waveguide device for propagating the reflected light focused by the focusing optical system. The waveguide device has waveguides in at least two directions perpendicular to the optical axis of incident light. The waveguides constitute a double-mode transmission waveguide, which selects either of a combination of a 0th-order mode and a 1st-order mode and the 0th-order mode alone in each of the two directions of the reflected light from the object according to amplitude distributions of electric fields in the two directions of the incident light as waveguide modes in the two directions upon propagation of the incident light, and propagates light in the selected modes. The detection optical system receives light emerging from the waveguide, and detects whether the waveguide in each of the two directions is the combination of the 0th-order mode and the 1st-order mode, or the 0th-order mode alone, thereby detecting amplitude distributions of the electric fields, in the two directions, of the reflected light from the object.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a confocal laser scanning microscope.
2. Related Background Art
A confocal laser scanning microscope comprises a laser light source, an illumination optical system for forming a light spot by focusing a light beam emitted from the laser light source onto an object, a focusing optical system for focusing the light beam reflected by the object onto a detection surface, a detection means for detecting the light beam focused on the detection surface, and a scanning means for moving the light spot relative to the object. A laser beam is focused on an object, and optical detection is performed on the detection surface via a pinhole aperture. For this reason, the microscope has an advantage of a very small focal depth, and is used in various applications.
An arrangement for obtaining a differential interference image using such a confocal laser scanning microscope can be realized by using an arrangement of a differential interference apparatus in a conventional optical microscope. However, the arrangement becomes complicated, and requires a special objective lens with a small distortion, Nomarski prism, wavelength plate, and the like. For this reason, it is difficult to manufacture the respective optical components with required precision, resulting in an expensive apparatus.
The present inventors proposed a confocal laser scanning differential interference microscope, which can independently obtain phase information and amplitude information of an object in a compact and simple arrangement using a waveguide, in Japanese Patent Application No. 2-400212 (Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 4-208913). More specifically, a laser beam is focused on an object, a double-mode channel waveguide is arranged at a spot image position of the laser spot by the focusing optical system, and a waveguide branch region for branching the waveguide into a plurality of channel waveguides is subsequently arranged. By detecting a difference between light amounts passing through the branched channel waveguides, a microscopic inclination of an object is detected.
However, the arrangement of the above-mentioned proposal can obtain a differential signal of phase information or amplitude information in the widthwise direction of the double-mode waveguide region, but has no detection capacity of a differential signal in a direction perpendicular to the widthwise direction of the double-mode waveguide region. For this reason, information in the direction perpendicular to the widthwise direction of the double-mode waveguide region can be obtained by rotating the microscope apparatus relative to an object. However, a mechanism for rotating the microscope relative to a sample is then additionally required, and a sample cannot be observed simultaneously in the widthwise direction and the direction perpendicular thereto.

Confocal laser scanning microscope with dual mode waveguide


A device for cooling, drying, and granulating molten strands issuing from nozzles with an outlet channel, the upper end of which is located below the nozzles, a device, generating a current of cooling liquid over the outlet channel, a granulator arranged downstream of the outlet channel and with a dehydrating section that is arranged upstream of the granulator and in which the strands rest on a support provided with orifices for the unrestricted passage of the cooling liquid. The outlet channel in the region following the dehydrating section is provided with inlet nozzles that inject a current of fluid and that are so close together and arranged over such a length in its bottom that the strands are guided with respect to the bottom virtually without friction along the outlet channel in the granulator arranged at its lower end and with a degree of dehydration that enables immediate further processing.

The invention relates to a device for cooling, drying, and granulating molten strands issuing from nozzles and made, e.g., from thermoplastics, with an outlet channel, the upper end of which is located below the nozzles, a device, generating a current of cooling liquid over the outlet channel, a granulator arranged downstream of the outlet channel and with a dehydrating section that is arranged upstream of the granulator and in which the strands rest on a support provided with orifices for the unrestricted passage of the cooling liquid.
Such a device is known from the DE-PS 33 36 032. In this device the dehydrating section comprises zones of which the first zone in the flow direction leads to a water outlet and the second zone is pressurized with an air current, by means of which water clinging to the strands is largely sucked off. These two zones of the dehydrating section are arranged practically directly upstream of the granulator.
The invention is based on the problem of further improving the known device, described above, with respect to its drying efficiency and simultaneously giving the device especially good self-threading properties.
The invention accomplishes this in that the outlet channel in the region following the dehydrating section is provided with inlet nozzles that inject a current of fluid and that are so close together and arranged over such a length in its bottom that the strands are guided with respect to the bottom virtually without friction along the outlet channel into the granulator, arranged at its lower end, with a degree of dehydration that enables immediate further processing.
The result of inserting the region of the inlet nozzles guiding the current of fluid between the dehydrating section and the granulator is the combination of two effects. On the one hand, the strands are dried to the extent that they are processed by the granulator with a degree of dehydration that enables immediate further processing, i.e. the granules that are produced do not require any subsequent drying process. The current of fluid provides that the strands are subsequently guided virtually without friction over the bottom, a feature that is especially significant due to the lack of water, which, when present, acts to some extent as a lubricant. The virtually frictionless guiding of the strands in the region of the inlet nozzles provides that the strands, pushed forward by gravity or the current of cooling liquid, automatically obtain a tendency to self-thread, which is otherwise decreased in the area upstream of the granulator when cooling liquid is lacking.
The tendency for self-threading can be further intensified by sloping the inlet nozzles in the direction of motion of the strands.
Preferably a current of gas, in particular a current of air, is used for the current of fluid. It is also possible to use an inert gas, in particular nitrogen, which is frequently produced in chemical operations as a side product.
To be able to process especially moisture-sensitive substances, a powdery drying agent is added in an advantageous manner to the current of gas. Usually such a drying agent also has the effect of preventing the strands from sticking together. If such a drying agent is undesired for the further processing of the granules since said drying agent adheres to the manufactured granules, the outlet channel between the granulator and the region of the inlet nozzles guiding the current of fluid can be provided with perforations leading to a suction chute. Then a current of air sucked in through the suction chute and the perforations removes the powdery drying agent from the strands so that the strands are conveyed virtually without any drying agent into the granulator.
To increase the feed effect of the sloped inlet nozzles, feed nozzles for blowing a current of fluid against the strands in the direction of movement of the strands can be provided in an advantageous manner in the region of the inlet nozzles above the outlet channel. Preferably the same medium is used for this current of fluid as for the current of fluid directed through the inlet nozzles. These additional feed nozzles also increase the tendency towards self-threading. This is especially advantageous if the inlet nozzles provided in the bottom of the outlet channel pass vertically through the bottom.
To adapt the device to different drying and cooling needs, the region of the inlet nozzles guiding the current of fluid and/or the region upstream of the dehydrating section is/are lengthwise adjustable. To this end, a telescopic construction of the regions in question is especially suitable. In this manner it is possible to combine an especially long section guiding the current of cooling liquid with a shortened length of the region with the inlet nozzles for the current of fluid.
To obtain special drying, cooling or heating effects, the current(s) of fluid can be suitably moderated. Thus, for example, it is desirable to heat fiber-reinforced plastic strands by means of the current of fluid in order to thus remove the load from the granulator. Vice versa it is advantageous for granulating flexible strands to cool them prior to granulating, since in this case better granules are obtained.

Device for cooling, drying and granulating strands


A trailer hitch lock is disclosed that is particularly useful for preventing the theft of trailers that utilize pintle-type hitches. The lock includes a pair of steel plates which are hinged at one end. An upstanding steel projection is located substantially at the center of the interior of one of the plates. When the plates are pivoted toward their closed position, the pin fits within the opening of the trailer hitch pintle. The forward end of each of the plates includes a flat steel locking flange extending toward the other plate. Each steel locking flange has a hole passing therethrough which cooperates with the other when the plates are in their closed positions so that a padlock can be passed therethrough to maintain the device in a closed position. Located to either side of these cooperating locking flanges are a further pair of steel guards which protect the padlock by preventing a cutting tool from reaching the padlock.

The present invention is directed toward a locking mechanism and, more particularly, toward a lock for a trailer hitch which is intended to prevent the theft of trailers or similar vehicles.
Many trailer hitches used in trailers for carrying construction equipment and the like and recreational types of trailers such as boat trailers, campers and the like employ standard hitch mechanisms in the form of a socket or the like comprised of a hitch pintle or welded bar which is adapted to engage a standard jaw hitch or eye assembly carried by a towing vehicle. While standard hitching mechanisms such as these have many advantages such as the interchangeability of trailer hitches thereby allowing different vehicles to tow different types of trailers, this also creates several disadvantages. Most particularly, standardizing these hitch mechanisms allows any person having a standard pintle hitch on his vehicle to easily steal an unattended and unattached trailer by simply attaching the trailer to his vehicle and towing the same away. A number of prior art devices have been proposed in the past for protecting trailer hitches in order to prevent the theft thereof. These are shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,226,133; 3,233,913; 3,434,741; 3,605,457 and 3,884,055. These patents, however, are directed primarily toward trailer hitches of the ball type and provide relatively complex mechanisms for protecting the same.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,063,759 describes a security device for a trailer hitch which appears to provide significant protection but, again, is useful only with a ball-type hitch and only with those of particular construction having an outwardly extending flange. This patent does, however, utilize a standard padlock which is well protected by the device so as to prevent unauthorized access thereto.
The only patent of which Applicant is aware that is directed toward a device for preventing the theft of trailers and which can be utilized with a pintle type of hitch is U.S. Pat. No. 4,774,823. This patent shows several embodiments, one of which is specifically directed toward a pintle hitch. While the device shown in this patent may be somewhat useful, the padlock utilized with the anti-theft mechanism is exposed and can be easily tampered with by a prospective thief. It is, therefore, not believed that this prior device would be effective in preventing the theft of a trailer to which it is attached as the locking mechanism can be easily removed utilizing a cutter or saw or the like.
The present invention is designed to overcome the deficiencies of the prior art discussed above. It is an object of the present invention to provide a trailer hitch lock that is particularly useful with a pintle-type trailer hitch.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a trailer hitch lock that is useful with a pintle-type trailer hitch and which effectively locks the same to prevent the unauthorized use or theft of the trailer.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a trailer hitch lock for a pintle-type trailer hitch which can be easily locked into place but which cannot be removed by anyone other than the owner thereof.
In accordance with the illustrative embodiment demonstrating features and advantages of the present invention, there is provided a trailer hitch lock for use with a pintle-type trailer hitch. The trailer hitch lock includes a pair of steel plates which are hinged at one end. An upstanding steel projection is located substantially at the center of the interior of one of the plates. When the plates are pivoted toward their closed position, the pin fits within the opening of the trailer hitch pintle. The forward end of each of the plates includes a piece of flat steel extending toward the other plate. Each piece of steel has a hole passing therethrough which cooperates with the other when the plates are in their closed positions so that a padlock or the like can be passed therethrough to maintain the device in its closed position. Located to either side of these cooperating smaller steel plates are a further pair of steel plates which protect the padlock by preventing a cutting tool or the like from reaching the same.
Other objects, features, and advantages of the invention will be readily apparent from the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment thereof taken in conjunction with the drawings.


Steering knuckle with disk brake for a steerable vehicle wheel. The steering knuckle (3) has a king pin bearing arrangement in the form of a lower thrust and radial bearing (22) and an upper radial bearing (25). The upper extent of the king pin (10) and the radial bearing lies essentially co-planar with the upper side of the knuckle in order to make it possible to place the disk brake yoke (5) above the king pin (10).

Brake yokes for disk brakes are usually fixed asymmetrically on the steering knuckle relative to the swing axis of the knuckle, e.g. at the "rear edge" of the disk. The reason for this is there is often no space above the disk in order to mount the brake yoke directly above the axis of rotation of the knuckle. The disadvantage of an asymmetric placement is not significant for lighter brakes, e.g. disk brakes for passenger cars, but the heavier the vehicle is, the heavier the entire brake equipment will be and the heavier the brake yoke will be. In the heaviest class of trucks the brake yokes will be so heavy that placement of a brake yoke at the rear edge of the brake disk for example would involve significant problems with installation and service, since the yoke must be held up while its screws are inserted into the mounting flanges on the steering knuckle. In the heavier class of vehicles, the king pin is traditionally mounted in an upper thrust bearing which is built-up vertically and limits the space so that the brake yoke cannot be given the ideal placement.


An object of this invention is to obtain a phase voltage detection circuit that can detect a phase voltage signal reliably even when a leak current flows therein and a DC bias voltage of the phase voltage signal varies. A phase voltage detection circuit that detects a phase voltage signal generated by an armature coil of an AC power generator includes a peak hold circuit that determines an envelope of the phase voltage signal using an operational amplifier, a voltage offsetting circuit that shifts an output voltage from the peak hold circuit by a preset offset amount, and a comparator that compares the phase voltage signal with an output voltage from the voltage offsetting circuit, and outputs a phase voltage detection signal.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a phase voltage detection circuit applied to an AC power generator for a vehicle, for example, and a power generation control device employing the phase voltage detection circuit.
2. Description of the Related Art
An AC power generator for a vehicle typically includes a power generation control device, a field coil, an armature coil, and a rectifier. The power generation control device supplies an excitation current to the field coil, and controls a power generation voltage by adjusting the excitation current.
At this time, a phase voltage signal generated by the armature coil is input into the power generation control device, whereupon the phase voltage signal is detected by a phase voltage detection circuit and waveform-shaped so as to form a digital signal. The power generation control device executes processing to detect an engine rotation speed and so on using a digital circuit on the basis of the waveform-shaped phase voltage signal.
Normally, an AC power generator for a vehicle supplies an excitation current to the field coil in order to start generating power upon reception of an activation signal from a vehicle control unit or an activation signal linked directly to an ignition key, these activation signals being transmitted over a signal line connected to the vehicle side. Here, when an open fault or a ground short fault occurs on the signal line, the activation signals cannot be received from the vehicle during engine startup, and as a result, power generation cannot be started.
However, power generation can be started even in this condition by making the vehicle AC power generator capable of independent power generation. More specifically, when the vehicle AC power generator rotates, a miniscule phase voltage signal is generated in the armature coil of the vehicle AC power generator by residual magnetic flux even in a case where an excitation current has not been supplied to the field coil by the power generation control device. As a result, a rotation condition of the engine can be estimated from the generated phase voltage signal.
In this case, it is necessary to detect the miniscule phase voltage signal generated by the residual magnetic flux as described above. Moreover, a frequency of the phase voltage signal is commensurate with the engine rotation speed, and therefore the phase voltage signal must be detected within a rotation range used by the engine. Accordingly, the phase voltage detection circuit is required to detect a phase voltage signal that is generated by residual magnetic flux and has an amplitude of no less than approximately 0.2 V and a frequency range of several hundred Hz.
Note that when a leak current is generated in a diode constituting the rectifier prior to power generation, the leak current flows into the phase voltage detection circuit, leading to an increase in a DC bias voltage of the phase voltage signal. Here, the leak current varies in accordance with manufacturing irregularities, contact resistance, and deterioration over time in the diode, and therefore the DC bias voltage of the phase voltage signal also varies. As a result, the phase voltage signal cannot be detected using a fixed threshold voltage.
Hence, to solve the problem described above, a technique of determining an envelope of the phase voltage signal using a peak hold circuit and generating a variable threshold voltage using the obtained envelope so that the phase voltage signal can be detected even when the DC bias voltage of the phase voltage signal is indefinite has been disclosed (see Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2002-125398, for example).

Phase voltage detection circuit and power generation control device


A furnace having a body in which electrically resistive material is positioned between two electrodes so that heat can be generated by passing a current through the material. The resistive material is a mixture of carbonized plant material and a non-organic material that acts as a insulator at low temperatures and acts as a conductor or semi-conductor at high temperatures.

Conventionally, heat generating furnaces of the present type are constructed by filling a space between two electrodes with carbon particles and applying an electrical potential to the electrodes. Since the resistance value of carbon particles reduces suddenly in a high temperature region, control of the voltage and current is difficult.
An objective of the present invention is to provide a heat generating furnace capable of eliminating such problems.

Furnace for generating heat by electrical resistance


A laser annealing method includes forming a nitrogen-doped layer on a semiconductor layer, the nitrogen-doped layer having a nitrogen concentration of at least 3×1020 atoms/cc, irradiating a first area of the nitrogen-doped layer in a low oxygen environment with a laser beam and irradiating a second area of the nitrogen-doped layer in a low oxygen environment with a laser beam, a part of the second area overlapping with the first area.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of laser annealing a semiconductor layer and semiconductor devices produced thereby.
2. Description of the Related Art
The production of semiconductor devices commonly includes one or more steps of laser annealing a semiconductor layer. Typically, but not exclusively, laser annealing is carried out to crystallize a non-single-crystal semiconductor layer, such as an amorphous semiconductor layer of the semiconductor device before it is further processed.
For example, in the production of flat panel display devices such as liquid crystal displays (LCDs) and organic light emitting diode (OLED) displays, an amorphous silicon (a-Si) layer may be laser-annealed to form a polycrystalline silicon (p-Si) layer, by using which thin-film transistors (TFTs) that control the pixels of the LCD or OLED display may be formed.
Depending on the size of the layer to be annealed and the dimensions of the irradiating laser beam, laser annealing may be carried out in two or more sweeps or scans. For example, in the case where laser annealing is carried out on an a-Si semiconductor layer including a 2×2 array of product regions, the laser beam 104 that is used for annealing has an effective working area having a predetermined length x and width y. Typically, the maximum length x of the laser beam is insufficient to irradiate the entire surface of the array. In most cases, therefore, the laser beam is first scanned across a first area of the array, and then the laser beam is scanned across a second area of the array in the same direction. For instance, as disclosed in Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 7-249591, in order to ensure that the entirety of the array is annealed, the scanning of the laser beam in the second area is overlapped with the first area, creating an overlap region.
Due to the dual exposure to laser annealing, the overlap region generally exhibits undesirable characteristics, such as unacceptable variations in electrical or physical characteristics. To ensure that these undesirable characteristics do not affect the products manufactured from the array, the overlap region is conventionally arranged outside of the product regions.
As described above, since the conventional overlap region of the semiconductor layer is not usable for the fabrication of the product, due to the problems in electrical or physical characteristics of the overlap region, this part of the array becomes useless. Hence it is difficult to efficiently fabricate products from one array. In addition, if a product of a greater size is to be annealed, an overlap region of laser annealing occurs in the product, leading to the difficulty of fabrication.

Method of laser annealing semiconductor layer and semiconductor devices produced thereby

Toshiba Matsushita Display Technology Co., Ltd.


A charge-pump system with an improved oscillation circuit. An electrically programmable non-volatile semiconductor memory device having the charge-pump system with the improved oscillation circuit includes a memory system equipped with a memory circuit having a non-volatile memory function, a oscillating circuit for generating an signal having a frequency which is increased in response to a decrease of a power supply voltage, and a charge-pump circuit which generates a voltage required to write data into or erase data from memory by charge-pumping the power supply voltage according to the signal generated by the oscillating circuit. A ring oscillator serves as the oscillating circuit and the ring oscillator is constituted of a group of inverter circuits connected circularly to one another via a MOS transistor which serves to transfer an electric charge, a gate electrode of the MOS transistor being connected to an output terminal of a voltage converting circuit which increases a transfer capacity of the MOS transistor as the power supply voltage decreases.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrically reprogrammable non-volatile semiconductor memory device or electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), and particularly relates to the non-volatile semiconductor memory device which includes therein a charge-pump circuit for generating a high voltage necessary for a write/erase operation of the memory device and can be operated by a single power source.
2. Description of the Related Art
As an example of an EEPROM which is capable of performing write/erase using a single power source, for instance, Vcc=5 V, there is known a NAND type EEPROM. The NAND type EEPROM has a plurality of memory cells which commonly share a source and drain neighboring to each other and are arrayed in series so as to form a unit thereof and connected to a bit line through a selection transistor provided between the bit line and the NAND unit. In general, the memory cell has a FETMOS (Field Effect Transistor Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor) structure. The memory cell is, for example, an n channel type and the memory cell array is integrated in a p type well formed on an n type substrate or a p type substrate.
In the EEPROM such as a NAND type EEPROM, a voltage higher than a power supply voltage is usually applied at the time of write/erase operation so that a charge level of a charge storage layer is controlled by a tunnel current or a hot electron injection so as to store data.
For example, a write/erase of data for the above-mentioned NAND type EEPROM is operated as follows. Data writing is performed in the order from the memory cell farthest from the bit line. A high voltage Vpp of, for instance, approximately 20V is applied to a control gate of a selected memory cell, an intermediate potential VppM of, for instance, approximately 10V is applied to a gate of the selection transistor and the control gate of a memory cell located further in the bit line side, and a 0V or the intermediate potential is applied to the bit line in accordance with the data to be stored. When the 0V is applied to the bit line, the potential is transferred to a drain of the selected memory cell, so that an electron injection or tunnel phenomenon occurs from the drain into a floating gate. Thereby, a threshold of the selected memory cell is shifted to a positive direction. Such state is denoted as "1", for instance. When the intermediate potential is applied to the bit line, there will not be caused the electron injection or the tunnel phenomenon. Therefore, the threshold of the selected memory cell is not shifted and remains negative. This state is denoted as "0". Data erasing is carried out simultaneously against entire memory cells in the NAND cell. In other words, all of control gates and selection gates are set to 0V and the bit line as well as the source line are set to a floating state, and a high voltage of, for instance, 20V is applied to the p type well on the p type substrate. Consequently, electrons of the floating gate in every memory cell are discharged into the p type well or the p type substrate. Accordingly, the threshold of every memory cell is shifted to a negative direction.
As described above, even in an EEPROM operated by a single power source, it is generally necessary to generate a voltage, such as Vpp, higher than the power supply voltage. Therefore, the high voltage is conventionally generated using a charge-pump circuit. However, a current supply capacity of the charge-pump circuit generally declines as the power supply voltage decreases. The charge-pump circuit is usually driven by a ring oscillator. An oscillating frequency of the ring oscillator also declines as the power supply voltage decreases. As a result, referring to FIG. 1, in the charge-pump circuit which is designed to operate by a minimum power supply voltage, the charge-pump circuit has a current supply capacity which is well beyond the necessary capacity in case of a maximum power supply voltage value.
Thus, there has been a problem where a power supply has been unnecessarily wasted due to fluctuation of current supply capacity of the charge-pump circuit caused by the fluctuation of the power supply voltage at the time of write/erase.

Semiconductor memory device having charge-pump system with improved oscillation means


A low-microcracked porous cordierite honeycomb ceramic particulate filter having a high strength in combination with a very low pressure drop, a very high filtration efficiency, and a high thermal shock resistance. Little or no microcracking, a fine median pore diameter, and a narrow pore size distribution contribute to high strength. A thin channel wall, high wall permeability, and narrow pore size distribution, contribute to low pressure drop. A fine pore diameter and narrow pore size distribution with a minimum of coarse pores contribute to high filtration efficiency. A high strain tolerance, MOR/E, contributes to high thermal shock resistance. Particulate filters disclosed herein can be useful as a hot gas particulate filter, and particularly as an internal combustion engine exhaust gas particulate filter, such as an exhaust gas filter for a gasoline direct injection engine.

Gasoline direct injection (GDI) engines for automotive and medium-duty applications offer greater power output and higher fuel economy compared to conventional multi-port fuel injection engines. However, GDI engines would produce carbon soot as a component of their exhaust emissions. Although the mass of soot is generally lower than that produced by diesel engines, the particle size of the soot in GDI engine exhaust would be much finer. Because a given mass of fine particles contains many more particles than the same mass of coarse particles, it is likely that an exhaust after-treatment filtration device will be desired for vehicles that are powered by GDI engines.

High-strength low-microcracked ceramic honeycombs and methods therefor


A method for enhanced production and recovery of phosphate starvation inducible (PSI) gene products. A bacterium having C-P lyase activity is cultured using phosphonate or phosphite (or their mixtures) as the predominant phosphorus source for growth so as to enhance PSI gene product accumulation. PSI gene product is then recovered.

The present invention relates generally to methods for producing gene products. More particularly, it relates to a method for enhanced production and recovery of phosphate starvation inducible gene products.
By way of further background, bacteria use phosphate, phosphate esters, or phosphonates as phosphorus sources for growth. However, phosphate is the preferred phosphorus source. When in excess, phosphate leads to repression of genes for use of alternative phosphorus sources, phosphate esters or phosphonates. Genes for use of alternative phosphorus sources are turned on several hundred fold during phosphate limitation. Such genes are phosphate starvation inducible and are thus known as PSI genes. As to utilization of phosphonates, it is known that two pathways for their breakdown exist. These include the carbon-phosphorus ("C-P") lyase pathway and the phosphonatase pathway. As is known, these pathways are distinguishable by substrate specificity and product formation.
Phosphate limitation, which by nature limits growth yield, is a conventional means for the expression of both natural and synthetic PSI genes at a high rate to provide gene products used in assays (e.g. immunoassays), therapies (e.g. growth hormones) and other applications. However, phosphate starvation limits growth yield, and thus the final (total) amount of the PSI gene product is limited, as well.
In light of this background there continues a need for an economical method for enhancing the production and recovery of PSI gene products which does not suffer from limited growth yield. The present invention addresses this need.

Method for enhanced production and recovery of phosphate starvation inducible gene products


An animal enclosure (10) having a partly circular wall or fence (12), at least one barrier (36) located within the enclosure (10), the at least one barrier (36) being rotatable about a vertical axis (26), and actuation means for causing rotation of at least one of the at least one barrier (36), the actuation means being manually operable by an operator, the actuation means including a part or a portion (40) located externally of the enclosure (10) to thereby allow an operator to move the at least one barrier (36) from a location that is external to the enclosure (10). The actuation means includes a handle (40) extending externally of the enclosure (10) and a ratchet wheel operatively connected to the barrier (36).

It will be clearly understood that, if a prior art publication is referred to herein, this reference does not constitute an admission that the publication forms part of the common general knowledge in the art in Australia or in any other country.
When handling herding animals, and in particular cattle, sheep, goats or pigs, it is often required to herd them into a set of handling yards and often within the confines of those yards there are further smaller areas for segregating the herds into smaller, more manageable numbers. Often such yard installations contain a dedicated confined space for assisting the animal handler to group the animals into a tightly packed group to perform various animal handling operations, some examples of which are counting and loading the animals into vehicles, performance of animal husbandry operations, branding, veterinary treatments, visual inspection, sorting, selling, weighing, drafting, chemical treatments and other similar animal handling operations.
To aid the herder in managing such operations safely and moving the animals efficiently it is common practice and well known in the industry that animals will flow and move more constantly and with less stress when directed or corralled to travel in a consistent circular path or motion.
It is also common practice within such animal handling and herding operations to have within the boundaries of the animal holding yards or corals, a circular or semi-circular confined space known commonly by various names, some common examples being a circular force tub, force tub, circular force, crowd, crowding pen, and are called such due to their operational nature, construction and appearance. The said circular or semi-circular structures have a defined opening at one point in their circumference to allow the animals to enter the confined circular or semi-circular area and there is also provided a defined exit at another separate opening at some further point in the circumference of the structure to allow the animals to exit the confined circular or semi-circular area after they have moved in a circular motion around the central axis without interrupting the flow of the following entering animals. The structure is so designed with a separated entrance and exit to enable the continuous flow of animals to enter into the structure, circulate around within, and exit the structure, without coming into physical or visual contact with the other entering animals who are yet to be processed within the structure. The size of the outer circumference of the structures may vary in diameter to accommodate various numbers of animals within the confined circular, semi-circular area depending on the herd size and the numbers of animals regularly handled at each property. There are also commonly installed within the circular, semi-circular confined area at least one pivoting moveable barrier (gate), such moveable barrier pivots around the inner circular space created by the outer circular structure, providing a moveable separating barrier between the two groups of livestock. The said moveable barrier is generally sheeted or clad to prevent the animals from seeing through the moveable barrier and is generally made to such a height as to prevent the animals from jumping over the moveable barrier. The moveable barrier is capable of being locked to prevent the animals from pushing against the moveable barrier and moving it in a backwards direction within the confined circular, semi-circular enclosure. The moveable barrier operates in such a fashion to firstly allow the animals to enter the confined circular, semi-circular enclosure and when the appropriate number of animals are within the confined circular, semi-circular area so as to fill it, the moveable barrier will be rotated in the same direction as the desired movement of animal travel, moving in behind the animals and thereby creating a barrier behind the first segregated group of animals and in front of the second segregated group of animals. The moveable barrier will be moved by the operator to continue to follow behind the first group of animals, until they exit the confined circular, semi-circular area.
In some devices available on the market the moveable barrier is unable to rotate in a continuous 360 degree motion, in such cases the operator is required to reverse the direction of the moveable barrier back to the starting position so as to allow the second group of animals to enter into the circular, semi-circular area and repeat the operation again and again. In some instances the operator is required to be within the confines of the circular, semi-circular area to perform the actuation of the moveable barrier.
In some more expensive and motorised installations there is a second moveable barrier to prevent the animals from heading in the opposite direction of flow, towards the exit portion of the confined area. The second moveable barrier creates a variable sized wedge shaped exclusion zone within the circular, semi-circular area. Once the first allotted group have moved in a circular motion around the circumference they are able to see the exit portion of the confined area and begin to exit the confined circular, semi-circular area and the first moveable barrier continues to rotate behind the animals to such an extent that it then moves past the exit opening and approaches the second moveable barrier which is normally situated at the commencement of the entry opening.
In these installations once the first moveable barrier moves past the furthest portion of the exit opening and all the animals have exited the confined area, the second moveable barrier then begins to move in the same direction as the intended animal flow and follows the path of the first moveable barrier, the first moveable barrier then moves into the original position of the second moveable barrier located at the commencement of the entry opening, thereby blocking off access to the exit portion for the incoming animals, and the second moveable barrier continues to move in a circular motion to follow the path of the first moveable barrier. This sequence is intended to be a continuous action allowing separated groups of animals to enter, move around the confined circular, semi-circular area and exit into another section of the yards without the possibility of them reversing direction once they are contained within the circular, semi-circular enclosure. The moveable barriers can be prevented from travelling in a backwards direction for operator safety and to ensure animals cannot move in an unintended direction.
Such confined circular, semi-circular structures are regularly constructed of materials strong enough to withstand the forces exerted on them by the animals when crowded and confined into the circular, semi-circular area. Such structures commonly have curved internally clad walls to prevent the animals from being distracted by movement outside the enclosed area or providing the animal with what they may consider as other potential paths of travel. The walls and moveable barriers are constructed to a suitable height to safely contain the animals and prevent them from jumping over the walls of the structure.
There are also commonly constructed (radial) supporting struts which emanate horizontally and then downwardly from the central axis of the said circular, semi-circular area, force tub, circular force, crowd or crowding pen structure, at a height well above the animals, such struts connect at regular intervals around the exterior walls that define the outer circumference of the confined circular, semi-circular area to provide structural support to the external walls to eliminate any potential collapsing of the structure due to significant animal pressure being exerted on the walls when the animals are forced into the confined area.
For many various reasons the animals regularly stop "flowing" in the intended direction as described above. Further, they can stop moving all together, and in both scenarios the operator is then required to encourage and, in some instances, force the animals to keep moving in the intended forward direction. This is most often accomplished by the operator entering into the animal zone behind a moveable barrier in the confined circular, semi circular area and then directly pushing the moveable barrier behind the animals and forcing them forwards in the intended direction. In other situations the operator may be required to stand outside the circular, semi-circular area wherein the said moveable barrier is located, and lean over the top perimeter wall of the circular, semi-circular area and manually force the moveable barrier in the intended direction to encourage or force the animals to move in the intended direction. Both these operations are dangerous to the operator as they are required to be situated amongst the animals or lean over the perimeter wall of the circular, semi-circular area and potentially be caught or wedged between the moveable barrier and one of the many supporting struts connected to the perimeter of the circular, semi-circular structure.
If the operator is required to get into the animal zone to force the moveable barrier in the intended direction as described above, such action significantly slows down the desired flowing effect of the animals as the following animals are baulked and stop flowing into the confined circular, semi-circular area upon seeing a person within their immediate environment.
There are alternative systems available that use various types of pneumatic and hydraulic motors to drive the moveable barriers continuously in a 360 degree motion, which can eliminate the need for operators to be physically situated in the animal zone to actuate the moveable barrier. However, these systems are very expensive and are rarely cost efficient for smaller operators.

CHEYL PTY LTD AS TRUSTEE FOR ISAIAH 61 FAMILY TRUST


The disclosure relates to a welding torch with a flexible welding torch head. The head is in the form of a ball and socket with a fluid passage and is biased in position by disc springs which also have fluid passages.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to arc welding torches, and, in particular, to an arc welding torch having a biasing arrangement characterized by a high compression-to-length ratio, such as an array of Belleville springs.
2. Description of the Prior Art
U.S. Pat. No. 3,909,585, issued to Harold D. Sanders and Thomas C. Landreth and assigned to the assignee of the present invention, generally relates to an arc welding torch wherein a plurality of coaxially disposed ball and socket joints are provided within the body to permit the welding head to assume any predetermined angular orientation with respect to an axis through the torch. The coaxially disposed ball and socket joints are biased into abutting contact one with the other by the provision of an axially extending wire secured at one end to a stationary butt and at the other to a spring retainer. A compression spring serves to impart a biasing force to maintain a compression force on adjacent mated surfaces of the ball and socket joints.
The ball and socket joints and biasing arrangement therefor occupies approximately one-half of the axial length of the torch embodying the teachings of the above-referenced patent. It is believed advantageous to provide a welding torch wherein the head is permitted to occupy any of a wide range of angular orientations with respect to the torch axis, yet, at the same time, provide a biasing arrangement that is more compactly disposed within the torch. It is therefore believed to be of advantage to utilize a biasing arrangement characterized by a high compression-to-length ratio to snugly maintain the torch head in a predetermined angular orientation. It is believed to be of further advantage to provide a torch arrangement whereby the head may be locked in a given angular orientation.

Flex head welding torch having disc spring biasing elements


A method for signaling to a central facility a fault of at least one subscriber line connected to a switching center via a respective connection line having a UK0 interface includes permanently activating the at least one subscriber line using the switching center. Each of the at least one subscriber line is monitored using a respective monitoring device looped into a UK0 interface on the respective connection line. A connection to the central facility is established via a separate subscriber line in response to a fault of a first of the at least one subscriber line detected by the respective monitoring device. An item of information related to the first subscriber line is transmitted to the central facility.

The present invention relates to a method for signaling a fault of at least one subscriber line to be monitored to a central facility as well as to a monitoring system for monitoring such a subscriber line.
The acceptance of public telecommunications networks among the customers essentially depends on their reliability of operation and performance. Therefore, a major task of the network operators is to monitor established connections or connections to be established within these telecommunications networks and, if necessary, to perform a fault diagnosis.
One possibility of monitoring ISDN telecommunications networks is to measure and log ISDN basic accesses at the S0 interface at the telephone subscriber end (see, for example, the operating instructions of the ISDN S0 basic access measuring and testing device Pegasus from the Festo Didactic KG company, Esslingen, as of 02/95; page 85).
German Patent DE 197 29072 describes a method for measuring or logging an ISDN basic access which can also be executed independently of the telephone subscriber to be monitored. This is achieved by opening the UK0 interface at a point of the connection line that is convenient for measurement or logging. In the opened UK0 interface, the line signals arc converted into IOM signals, and the IOM signals are in turn converted into S0 frames. Consequently, all data of the tapped S0 interface are available to already existing S0 measuring devices at the point where the connection line is opened.

Method and monitoring system for monitoring at least one subscriber line


A balun is constructed by rolling a strip of flexible dielectric into a loop which has conductive strips on each face.

This invention relates to 4:1 baluns.
The construction of 4:1 baluns using coaxial cable or twisted pair transmission lines is known in the art, and is illustrated on page 344 of "The Radio Amateur's Handbook", published by The American Radio Relay League in 1961, which details practical considerations and design techniques for baluns using coaxial cable and twisted pair lines.
One application in which baluns are used is impedance matching of broadband circuits for transmitters and receivers that operate in frequencies up to the megahertz range. For the design application, reference can be made to an article entitled "Designing Toroidal Transformers to Optimize Wideband Performance" by Herbert L. Krauss and Charles W. Allen, published in Electronics, Aug. 16, 1973, pp. 113-116. In the article, there is disclosed the use of toroids and twisted pairs for designing transformers which have impedance ratios of 4:1.
A prior art balun is shown in FIGS. 1a and 1b. In FIG. 1a, there are two conductors which may be coaxial wires or twisted pairs 1 and 2. Conductor 1 has an A terminal on one end and an A1 terminal on the other end, and conductor 2 has a terminal B on one end and terminal B1 on the other end. In FIG. 1b, the conductors 1 and 2 are arranged in a balun configuration which is terminal B being joined to terminal A1 and terminal B1 being connected to the reference plane 3. An input signal is applied across terminal A and the reference plane, and the output signal is removed from terminal A1 and the reference plane. The impedance of the balun of FIG. 1b is the characteristic impedance Z.sub.o of the twisted pair wire or coaxial cable used.


A method performed by a wireless device for reporting an RSTD value to a network node of a wireless communication network. The method includes receiving a configuration of positioning reference signals (PRSs) from the network node, the configuration indicating a plurality of PRS identities for respective transmission points (TPs) of the wireless communication network, determining an RSTD value for a TP based on the received configuration, and reporting the determined RSTD value for the TP to the network node. A first frequency reuse factor for the PRSs that is lower than a default second frequency reuse factor may be used.

The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) is responsible for the standardization of Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS), and Long Term Evolution (LTE). LTE is also sometimes referred to as Evolved Universal Terrestrial Access Network (E-UTRAN). LTE is a technology for realizing high-speed packet-based communication that can reach high data rates both in the downlink and in the uplink, and is a next generation wireless communication system relative to UMTS. LTE brings significant improvements in capacity and performance over previous radio access technologies.
The Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN) is the radio access network of a UMTS and E-UTRAN is the radio access network of an LTE system. In an UTRAN and an E-UTRAN, a wireless device, also called a User Equipment (UE), is wirelessly connected to a Radio Base Station (RBS) commonly referred to as a NodeB (NB) in UMTS, and as an evolved NodeB (eNodeB or eNB) in LTE. An RBS is a general term for a radio network node capable of transmitting radio signals to the UE and receiving signals transmitted by the UE. The area served by one or sometimes several RBSs may be referred to as a cell.
Wireless devices, which are referred to as UE in 3GPP terminology, may comprise, for example, cellular telephones, personal digital assistants, smart phones, laptop computers, handheld computers, machine-type communication/machine-to-machine (MTC/M2M) devices or other devices or terminals with wireless communication capabilities. Wireless devices may refer to terminals that are installed in fixed configurations, such as in certain machine-to-machine applications, as well as to portable devices, or devices installed in motor vehicles. Hereinafter, a wireless device may sometimes be referred to as a UE or simply as a device or terminal.
Location-based services and emergency call positioning drives the development of positioning in wireless networks and a plethora of applications and services in terminals take advantage of the position. Positioning in LTE is supported by the positioning architecture schematically illustrated in FIG. 1, with direct interactions between a UE and a location server, sometimes also referred to as an Evolved-Serving Mobile Location Centre (E-SMLC), via the LTE Positioning Protocol (LPP). The information transmitted between the location server and the UE will be handled by the eNodeB transparently, i.e., the eNodeB will control the transmission over the wireless link (LTE-Uu interface) to the UE but will not decode the actual information. Moreover, there are interactions between the location server and the eNodeB via the LPPa protocol, to some extent supported by interactions between the eNodeB and the UE via the Radio Resource Control (RRC) protocol. The E-SMLC is connected to the Mobility Management Entity (MME). An SLs interface is defined between the E-SMLC and MME and the MME is connected over the S1 interface to the eNB.
The following positioning techniques are considered in LTE (GPP TS 36.305 V13.0.0 (2015-12)):                Enhanced Cell ID: Essentially cell ID information to associate the UE to the serving area of a serving cell, and then additional information to determine a finer granularity position.        Assisted Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS): GNSS information retrieved by the UE, supported by assistance information provided to the UE from E-SMLC.        Observed Time Difference of Arrival (OTDOA): The UE estimates the time difference of reference signals from different base stations and sends to the E-SMLC for multi-lateration.        Uplink Time Difference of Arrival (UTDOA): The UE is requested to transmit a specific waveform that is detected by multiple location measurement units (e.g. eNodeBs) at known positions. These measurements are forwarded to E-SM LC for multi-lateration
The OTDOA is a UE-assisted method, in which the UE measures the time of arrival (TOA) of specific positioning reference signals (PRS) from multiple cells (or eNBs), and computes the relative differences between each cell and a reference cell. These reference signal time difference (RSTD) values are quantized and reported via LPP to the E-SMLC together with an accuracy assessment. Based on known positions of eNBs and their mutual time synchronization, it is possible for the E-SMLC to estimate the UE position from the RSTD values and covariance reports using multi-lateration. The accuracy depends on the radio conditions of the received signals, number of received signals, as well as the deployment, which means that the accuracy will vary spatially. FIG. 2 illustrates the multi-lateration in OTDOA when eNB1 is considered as the reference cell. For this case it is the measure of the relative difference between TOA of PRS from eNB3 and eNB1 (t3−t1) and the measure of the relative difference between TOA of PRS from eNB2 and eNB1 (t2−t1) that are relevant.
One of the factors which significantly impacts the performance of OTDOA, is the assumptions made for the UE receiver model and how it estimates the TOA.
How to Determine TOA
Wireless channels are usually modelled as multipath channels, meaning that the receiving node receives several distorted and delayed copies of the transmitted signal through multiple reflections and diffraction, etc. The multi-path effect can be modelled by considering the following tapped delay link channel.
      h              (      t      )        =            ∑              l        =        0            L                                            a        l                          δ                          (                      t            -                          τ              l                                )
L is the number of multipath taps, i.e., number of signals received at the UE, αl denotes the complex attenuation of the l-th tap (i.e., attenuation of the l-th signal received), τl indicates the time delay of the l-th tap and δ(t) is the delta function, which is one when t=0 and zero otherwise. In order to determine geographical distance between the transmitter and receiver antennas, one should measure τ0 which is the time delay corresponding to the line-of-sight (LOS) tap, and scale it with the speed of light.
TOA of the signal can be measured based on a reference signal that is known to the receiver. Assuming that the transmitted signal is denoted "x(t)", then the received signal "y(t)" subject to multipath channel is given by
      y              (      t      )        =                    ∑                  l          =          0                L                                                              a          l                                  x                                (                          t              -                              τ                l                                      )                                +          w                    (        t        )
w(t) models additive noise and interference. Based on the received signal y(t) and the prior knowledge of the transmitted reference signal x(t), the receiver is interested in computing time delay of the first channel tap τ0, i.e., TOA of the LOS signal or the signal that arrives earliest if there is no LOS, since that translates to the distance between transmitter and receiver. However, since the received signal is embedded in noise and interference, it is not always easy to determine the first channel tap if it is not strong enough, which is usually the case in indoor scenarios.
There can be different methods to determine TOA at the receiver. A simple and widely used method is to cross-correlate the received signal with the known transmitted reference signal,
            R                    [        τ        ]              =                  ∑                  i          =          0                K                                                              y                                [            i            ]                                                        x            *                                          [                          i              -              τ                        ]                                ,where K is the length of the received signal discrete domain representation. The cross-correlation function R(τ) gives channel impulse response. The absolute value of R(τ) corresponds to the Power Delay Profile (PDP) of the channel. The next step is to determine the first channel tap, which can be estimated by determining the first peak in R[τ] that is above a certain threshold ζ.
      τ    ^    =      argmin                      {                                                                          R                                                  [                  τ                  ]                                                                                  max                                            {                                                    R                                                  }                                              ≥          ζ                }            .
Finding the LOS component based on the cross-correlation as discussed above, is not an easy task for a UE. The UE needs to find a proper threshold in order to find the LOS component since the LOS tap is typically not the strongest tap. If the threshold is too low, the receiver can falsely detect noise as first channel tap and if the threshold is too high, the receiver may miss a weak LOS signal. Therefore, there is typically a trade-off between LOS detection and robustness to noise. In general, a higher SINR can improve the robustness to detect an LOS peak, that is, a higher SINR can mitigate the TOA estimation error caused by a strong non-LOS (N LOS) signal component.
For example, FIGS. 3a and 3b show situations where a UE fails to estimate a proper TOA when using a threshold-based peak detection. The graphs show how the cross-correlation values depend on the distance. The threshold is in the figures illustrated by a horizontal solid line (max peak/2). In FIG. 3a the leftmost vertical line (exact time) indicates the exact time (corresponding to a distance in meters) of the peak corresponding to the TOA of the LOS signal, and the rightmost vertical line (estimated) indicates the estimated time of the peak corresponding to the TOA of the LOS signal. In FIG. 3b it is the opposite and the leftmost vertical line (estimated time) indicates the estimated time of the peak corresponding to the TOA of the LOS signal, and the rightmost vertical line (exact time) indicates the exact time of the peak corresponding to the TOA of the LOS signal. These two example situations thus indicate some problems with a threshold-based peak detection. FIG. 3a exemplifies a situation where a lower threshold value would have improved the TOA estimation considerably. FIG. 3b exemplifies a situation where a higher threshold value would have improved the TOA estimation considerably.
PRS and PRS Configuration
In principle, it is possible to measure RSTD on any downlink signals, such as Cell-specific Reference Signals (CRS). However, in OTDOA the UE requires a detection of multiple neighbor-cell signals, and the CRS suffer from poor hearability and is therefore not suitable. Hence, PRSs have been introduced to improve OTDOA positioning performance. FIG. 4a and FIG. 4b illustrate the arrangement of the PRS assigned resources (black squares) for one resource block (RB) and for two different antenna port configurations using normal Cyclic Prefix (CP) and extended CP respectively. In such PRS subframes, no Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) data is carried in order to reduce the interference with neighbor cells. Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) and CRSs are retained in the subframe, while PRSs are distributed in a "diagonal" way between CRSs. Alike CRS, a cell-specific frequency shift is applied to the PRS pattern. The number of frequency shifts is given by Physical Cell Identity (PCI) modulo 6, for avoiding time-frequency PRS collisions in up to six neighbor cells. Using a PRS pattern with a frequency shift given by PCI modulo 6 results in a frequency reuse factor of six. The frequency reuse factor is the rate at which the same PRS frequency can be used in the network. It is denoted K (sometimes 1/K) where K is the number of cells which cannot use the same frequencies for PRS transmission. A higher frequency reuse factor provides less time-frequency resource collisions for PRS, at the cost of less PRS resources per cell. Less PRS resources in a cell causes lower Signal to Interference and Noise Ratio (SINR).
The PRS sequence that is transmitted on antenna port 6 is created using the pseudo-random sequence generator that is initialized with:
            c      init        =                            2          10                ·                  (                                    7              ·                              (                                                      n                    s                                    +                  1                                )                                      +            l            +            1                    )                ·                  (                                    2              ·                              N                ID                cell                                      +            1                    )                    +              2        ·                  N          ID          cell                    +              N        CP                        N      CP        =          {                                    1                                              for                                                                                normal                                                                                CP                                                            0                                              for                                                                                extended                                                                                CP
where NIDcell denotes the PCI of the Transmission Point (TP) that transmits the PRS, ns corresponds to the slot index within the radio frame, and l indexes the OFDM symbol within the slot.
New PRS Sequence Generation
For OTDOA, 3GPP has reached an agreement for a new PRS sequence and frequency shift (Vshift) generation per TP introduced in Rel.14. The pseudo-random sequence generator shall be initialized with:
      c    init    =                    2        28            ·              ⌊                              N            ID            PRS                    512                ⌋              +                  2        10            ·              (                              7            ·                          (                                                n                  s                                +                1                            )                                +          l          +          1                )            ·              (                              2            ·                          (                                                N                  ID                  PRS                                                mod                                                                                512                            )                                +          1                )              +          2      ·              (                              N            ID            PRS                              mod                                                              512                )              +          N      CP      where the quantity NIDPRS equals cell NIDcell unless configured otherwise by higher layers. NIDPRS is a value of a PRS identity, hereinafter referred to as prsID, which is a special identity of the PRS sequence as such, uncoupled from the cell (with a certain PCI corresponding to the cell NIDcell) that transmits the PRS sequence. In a similar way, the cell-specific frequency shift is given by vshift=NIDPRS mod 6, where the quantity NIDPRS equals NIDcell unless configured otherwise by higher layers. The range of the prsID values or NIDPRS is 0 to 4095. The new PRS sequence generation in Rel.14 is introduced to decouple the PRS from the PCI by introducing the prsID NIDPRS. This is performed in order to support more PRS sequences and to enable TPs with an associated macro cell in a shared cell identity scenario to be assigned with orthogonal PRS sequences. In a shared cell identity scenario, the same PCI is shared by multiple TPs. The current signaling proposal to enable the use of prsID with value NIDPRS is detailed in 3GPP R2-166548, "CR on OTDOA Enhancements for the Shared Cell-ID Scenario".
The IE OTDOA-ProvideAssistanceData is used by the location server to provide assistance data to enable UE assisted downlink OTDOA. One of the OTDOA Assistance Data Elements is the IE PRS-Info which provides the information related to the configuration of PRS in a cell. PRS-Info is according to the proposal extended as follows (new parts in bold):
-- ASN1STARTPRS-Info ::= SEQUENCE {prs-BandwidthENUMERATED { n6, n15, n25, n50, n75, n100, ... },prs-ConfigurationIndexINTEGER (0..4095),numDL-FramesENUMERATED {sf-1, sf-2, sf-4, sf-6, ...},...,prs-MutingInfo-r9CHOICE {po2-r9BIT STRING (SIZE(2)),po4-r9BIT STRING (SIZE(4)),po8-r9BIT STRING (SIZE(8)),po16-r9BIT STRING (SIZE(16)),...}OPTIONAL-- NeedOP [[ prsID-r14INTEGER (0..4095)OPTIONAL,--Need ON]]}-- ASN1STOP
Another of the OTDOA Assistance Data Elements is the IE OTDOA-ReferenceCellInfo which is used by the location server to provide assistance data related to reference cell information. The OTDOA-referenceCellInfo is extended with the field tpld which specifies the identity of a TP associated with a cell identified by a PCI (physCellId). The tpld field together with the physCellId and/or the prsID may be used to identify the TP when the same PCI is shared by multiple transmission points.
-- ASN1STARTOTDOA-ReferenceCellInfo ::= SEQUENCE {physCellIdINTEGER (0..503),cellGlobalIdECGIOPTIONAL,-- Need ONearfcnRefARFCN-ValueEUTRAOPTIONAL,-- CondNotSameAsServ0antennaPortConfigENUMERATED {ports1-or-2, ports4, ... }OPTIONAL,-- CondNotSameAsServ1cpLengthENUMERATED { normal, extended, ... },prsInfoPRS-InfoOPTIONAL,-- Cond PRS...,[[ earfcnRef-v9a0ARFCN-ValueEUTRA-v9a0OPTIONAL-- CondNotSameAsServ2]] ,[[ tpId-r14INTEGER (0..4095)OPTIONAL-- Need OR]]}-- ASN1STOP
The OTDOA Assistance Data Elements also comprises IE OTDOA-NeighbourCellInfoList used by the location server to provide neighbour cell information. The OTDOA-neighboringCellInfoElement is also extended with the tpld field as shown below:
-- ASN1STARTOTDOA-NeighbourCellInfoList ::= SEQUENCE (SIZE (1..maxFreqLayers)) OF OTDOA-NeighbourFreqInfoOTDOA-NeighbourFreqInfo ::= SEQUENCE (SIZE (1..24)) OF OTDOA-NeighbourCellInfoElementOTDOA-NeighbourCellInfoElement ::= SEQUENCE {physCellIdINTEGER (0..503),cellGloba1IdECGIOPTIONAL,-- Need ONearfcnARFCN-ValueEUTRAOPTIONAL,-- CondNotSameAsRef0cpLengthENUMERATED {normal, extended, ...}OPTIONAL,-- CondNotSameAsRef1prsInfoPRS-InfoOPTIONAL,-- CondNotSameAsRef2antennaPortConfigENUMERATED {ports-1-or-2, ports-4, ...}OPTIONAL,-- CondNotsameAsRef3slotNumberOffsetINTEGER (0..19)OPTIONAL,-- CondNotSameAsRef4prs-SubframeOffsetINTEGER (0..1279)OPTIONAL,-- CondInterFreqexpectedRSTDINTEGER (0..16383),expectedRSTD-UncertaintyINTEGER (0..1023),...,[[ earfcn-v9a0ARFCN-Va1ueEUTRA-v9a0OPTIONAL-- CondNotSameAsRef5]] ,[[ tpId-r14INTEGER (0..4095)OPTIONAL-- Need OR]]}
The current PRS design has a fixed frequency reuse factor of K=6 which is adequate, for example, when a UE is measuring RSTDs in a dense deployment. However, when considering sparsely deployed scenarios, or deep indoor scenarios such as MTC or Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) scenarios, where the UE is only capable of hearing a few number of cells, then the frequency reuse factor of K=6 results in an inefficient resource usage for PRS.

Methods and apparatus for reporting RSTD values


A thermally conductive material according to the present invention is prepared by allowing silicon carbide having an average particle size of 10 μm or more and less than 50 μm, aluminum hydroxide having an average particle size of 1 μm or more and less than 10 μm, and magnesium hydroxide having an average particle size of 0.5 μm or more and less than 1 μm to be contained in a polymer obtained by polymerizing a monomer containing acrylic acid ester.

The present invention relates to a thermally conductive material for use in audio equipment, information-related equipment, information transmission equipment, and the like. Specifically, the present invention relates to the thermally conductive material having vibration-damping properties besides thermal conductivity.
Conventionally, an optical disk such as a CD-ROM, a Mini Disc, and a DVD, a magneto-optical disk, and equipment such as a hard disk are equipped with a vibration-damping material that damps vibration because they are sensitive to vibration due to their mechanisms. When silicone-based resin is used as a vibration-damping material, there is a possibility that siloxane gas is generated to adversely affect electronic equipment, which is undesirable. On the other hand, it is also required to provide thermal conductivity to the vibration-damping material because the vibration-damping material transfers heat generated in the CD-ROM or the like to a member such as a casing, which functions as a heat sink.
Therefore, a thermally-conductive and vibration-damping material is proposed that is prepared by allowing silicon carbide having an average particle size of 50 to 100 μm and magnesium hydroxide having an average particle size of 0.5 to 1.0 μm to be contained in a polymer obtained by polymerizing a monomer containing acrylic acid ester. Such a material has excellent vibration-damping properties and thermal conductivity and, what is more, is free from fear of generating siloxane gas because the material is an acrylic-based (see, for example, Japanese Patent Publication No. 4679383).


A mold fill coupling combined with a pinch fill valve and an overflow valve permits filling of a mold at one station and disconnecting the fill valve without rotating the mold.

The invention relates to a coupling to permit filling and sealing of a pressurizable casting mold with a flowable polymer, the polymer being delivered through a nozzle which is inserted into a port on the mold. In such a coupling, the nozzle relates to pinch valves and the port relates to spherical closure valves. The coupling is useful with the mold fill system generally disclosed in U.K. No. 2,052,359 where an undefined closure element provides pressure-tight access to a casting runner. Such a system generally requires significant manual effort to use. Timely cleaning is required during the filling process.
It is sometimes desirable to fill such a mold from the bottom to facilitate removal of air from the mold during filling. With such a coupling as in U.K. No. 2,052,359, the mold must be reoriented so the port is above the fluid level before the nozzle is removed and the port capped, otherwise, the flowable fluid would run out of the mold.
Pinch valves of a type that may be useful in a coupling nozzle are known. U.S. Pat. No. 4,268,005 features a pressure-closable elastomeric sleeve inside an outer sleeve. The construction of such a valve is especially adapted for use with large size ducts and conduits of 8 to 12 feet in diameter. Such a valve, even if it could be scaled down to be suitably incorporated into an inch-scale diameter nozzle, requires an internal ring to retain and seal the elastomeric sleeve to the housing; such a ring restricts flow of fluid through the sleeve and creates stagnant flow areas for the fluid.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,982,723 discloses a pinch valve of simple construction where a thin wall flexible tube is folded back over the end of a tubular housing. End tubes are passed over the folded end and compressed by external clamps to retain and seal the flexible tube to the housing. Conduits are inserted at the ends of the valve and are held by the compressed end tubes. The external clamps on the tube ends would prevent insertion of the complete end of the valve into a close fitting hole.
Spherical closure elements useful in a coupling are known. U.S. Pat. No. 1,043,451 provides a door or closure on a boiler which can be opened and closed readily and will permit the free introduction of a nozzle without permitting the escape of fluids that pass into the boiler while the nozzle is in place in the closure. This is achieved by providing, at an opening into the boiler, a spherical bearing or support and mounting therein a spherical closure which has through it an aperture to permit the passage of the nozzle. The spherical closure can be turned, when the nozzle is removed, so as to close the aperture completely. The nozzle must be removed completely before the closure can be turned to close the aperture. During the time the nozzle is removed and before closing the aperture, any pressurized fluid in the boiler, such as would be the case where the aperture is located at the bottom of the boiler, can escape through the aperture, which is undesirable. The spherical closure of U.S. Pat. No. 1,043,451 also must have a projecting pin by which it can be turned to expose or conceal the aperture. This pin and the nozzle must be separately engaged, such as by an operator, to effect the closure; the nozzle to be removed and the pin to turn the spherical element. This complicates automation of the nozzle and closure handling.


A battery box, which is suitable for use in an electric vehicle, comprises a box body and a reinforcement member. The box body accommodates therein a plurality of batteries for powering the electric vehicle and is mounted to the electric vehicle. The reinforcement member is provided with the box body and supports at least respective portions of all the batteries in the box body. The reinforcement member is mounted to the frame of the electric vehicle whereby the weight of each of the batteries is reliably supported by the reinforcement member on the vehicle frame. The weight is reduced and yet the rigidity of the battery box is improved.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a battery box for accommodating therein a plurality of batteries for driving an electric vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a power supply for driving an electric vehicle there has normally been used a power supply of the type wherein a plurality of batteries are electrically series-connected to one bother. When a battery of 12 V is used, for example, it is necessary to electrically series-connect nine or more batteries to one another to produce desired electric power and to mount the connected batteries to the electric vehicle. Therefore, a space for accommodating the batteries therein greatly increases.
Each of the batteries is heavy in weight. Therefore, a proposal for disposing such heavy batteries under the floor so as to lower the center of gravity of the electric vehicle has been made (see Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 51-27047, GB 1555773 A, etc.).
When, however, all the batteries are placed under the floor, crossmembers cannot be mounted between the sideframes of the vehicle body insufficiently close spacing because of the amount the space required for positioning the large number of batteries between the sideframes. It is therefore difficult to effectively maintain the rigidity of the frame of the vehicle body.
When, on the other hand, the batteries are suspended under the floor to avoid interference with the crossmembers in a state in which the batteries have been accommodated in a battery box, nine or more batteries are so heavy in weight that it becomes necessary to greatly increase the strength of the battery box for holding the batteries therein. It is therefore considered necessary to increase the thickness of the materials forming the battery box to ensure its strength. However, this creates the problem that the battery box becomes heavy in weight, thereby increasing the entire weight of the vehicle body and reducing the rigidity of the vehicle body.
It is also considered necessary to affix the battery box to a frame member by tightening members such as bolts, etc. from below the frame member in order to use the battery box as a portion of the rigid body of the vehicle. However, all the bolts, which are the tightening members, are positioned and tightened so as to extend in the vertical direction. Therefore, when an impact or the like is applied to the vehicle body so as to exert a horizontal external force on the battery box, the external force is directly exerted on the bolts as a shearing force which may result in shearing of the bolts and detachment of the battery box from the vehicle.


The present description refers to a computer implemented method, computer program product, and computer system for receiving a resource request at an in-memory database platform that includes an application server and an in-memory database, generating a Hadoop connection function call based on the resource request, forwarding the Hadoop connection function call to a function call conversion service, identifying which of a plurality of Hadoop interface services correspond to the Hadoop connection function call, generating a Hadoop interface service function call corresponding to the Hadoop connection function call based one or more parameters included in the Hadoop connection function call, and forwarding the Hadoop interface service function call to the identified Hadoop interface service to initiate processing by a Hadoop cluster.

An in-memory database system (IMDS) is typically a database management system that stores all, or at least most, data in main memory while storing the data on disk or SSD for durability and recovery reasons. This contrasts to traditional on-disk database systems. Because working with data in-memory is much faster than reading data from and writing data to disk systems, the IMDS can typically perform data management functions much faster and with more predictable response times than traditional database systems.
Hadoop is a distributed processing platform that allows data-intensive operations to be processed in a distributed fashion. A Hadoop cluster commonly includes a master node and a group of worker nodes. A job request may be divided into a plurality of tasks, and the tasks may be distributed to a group of worker nodes within the Hadoop platform to be processed in parallel.

Hadoop access via hadoop interface services based on function conversion


The present invention provides, among other things, improved carrier proteins for antigen-based vaccines, including polysaccharide-based vaccines. An aspect of the invention advantageously employs tetanus toxin Fragment C.

Conjugation of a polysaccharide to a carrier protein can effectively make that polysaceharide more immunogenic. Tetanus toxoid has been used for decades in this capacity as a carrier, and its safety profile has been established, at least in the context of past uses.
The structural gene for tetanus toxin has been cloned and sequenced. Fairweather et al., J. Bacteriol. 165: 21-27 (1986); Fairweather et al., Nuci. Acid Res. 14: 7809-7812 (1986). These studies have confirmed the structure of tetanus toxin as a 150 kD protein comprising 1315 amino acids. Fragment C, which constitutes the binding portion of native tetanus toxin, is a 52 kD polypeptide generated by papain cleavage of the toxin and corresponds to the 451 amino acids at the C-terminus. See FIG. 1.
Tetanus toxoid has been found to contain 2 to 3 universal T-cell epitopes. Demotz et al., J. Immunol 142: 394-402 (1989). This feature makes tetanus toxoid highly effective in humans. Fragment C of the toxoid has been shown to be nontoxic. This fragment also contains at least one of the universal immunogenic T cell epitopes recognized by primed donors. Valmori et al., J. Immunol 149:717-2 1 (1992); Panina-Bordignon et al., Eur. J. Immunol. 19: 2237 (1989).
Capsular polysaccharides (CP) conjugate vaccines targeting a variety of bacterial infections are currently under development and clinical evaluation. The inclusion of multiple CP serotypes combined in a single injection is currently under study. The combination of CP conjugate vaccines into a single multivalent injection, however, can result in competition among the different components and adversely affect the immunogenicity of any individual conjugate. Fattom et al., Vaccine 17:126-33 (1999).
Tetanus toxoid is finding increased use in polysaccharide vaccines. There is now concern arising that the vaccinated population will be over exposed to Tetanus, with the risk of inducing tolerance and/or hypersensitivity throughout the population. For example, injection of mice with an immunogenic dose of carrier followed by immunization with hapten-carrier conjugate selectively suppresses antihapten antibody response. This carrier-induced epitopic suppression may be related to the induction of carrier-specifics T cells which in turn could inhibit selectively antihapten response. Epitopic suppression may induced through the expansion of the clones specific for the carrier epitopes and antigenic competition between hapten and carrier epitopes. Schutze et al., J. Immunol. 37: 2635-40 (1989). In humans, it has been demonstrated that prior immunity against a carrier protein modulates the serological response to synthetic conjugate vaccines. Di John et al., Lancet 2 (8677):1415-8 (1989). Barrington et al. (Infect. & Immun. 61: 432-8, 1993) have shown that epitopic suppression of antibody response to Haemophilus influenzae type b conjugate vaccine by preimmunization with vaccine components was observed. More recently, Burrage et al. (Infect. & Immun. 70: 4946-54, 2002) have shown some epitopic suppression of antibody response to meningococcal C conjugate vaccine by preimmunization with the tetanus carrier protein. In mice, epitopic suppression to the antibody response of pneumococcal and meningococcal polysaceharide-tetanus conjugates was observed after high doses of carrier priming with tetanus toxoid (Peeters et al. Infect & Immun 59: 3504-10, 1991). Due to these potential adverse consequences, tetanus toxoid should no longer be administered as it has in the past, and therefore improved carriers are needed.


The present invention is directed to methods of preparing a conjugate of a cell-binding agent and a drug (such as a cytotoxic compound). The methods comprise the use of an imine reactive compound to enable efficient conjugations of cytotoxic compounds with cell binding agents.

Monoclonal antibodies are increasingly being explored as therapeutic agents against cancer. Several monoclonal antibodies against cancer cell-surface antigens have already been approved for cancer treatment, such as rituximab for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, trastuzumab for breast cancer, cetuximab for head and neck and colorectal cancer, cetuximab, panitimumab, and bevacizumab for colorectal cancer, and alemtuzumab for chronic lymphocytic leukemia (Strome, S. E., Sausville, E. A., and Mann, D., 2007, The Oncologist, 12, 1084-1095). However, the cytotoxic activity of a "naked" antibody can be limited to the mechanisms of receptor function inhibition, complement-dependent cytotoxicity (CDC), and antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC).
An approach to enhance the cytotoxic activity of antibody toward target cancer cells is by linking antibody with cytotoxic effectors (A. D. Ricart, and A. W. Tolcher, 2007, Nat. Clin. Pract. Oncol. 4, 245-255; Lambert, J., 2010, Drugs of the Future 35, 471-480). The antibody-cytotoxic drug conjugate (ADC) binds specifically to cancer cells, followed by conjugate internalization and degradation, which results in the intracellular release of the toxic drug and ultimately to the death of the cancer cells. The cytotoxic drugs that have been employed in linkage with antibodies include antitubulin drugs such as maytansinoids and auristatins, DNA-binding drugs such as calicheamicin that causes sequence-specific double-stranded DNA cleavage. Another class of DNA-binding cytotoxic drugs includes imine-containing pyrrolobenzodiazepines (PBD) such as N-2-imidazolyl alkyl substituted 1,2,5-benzothiadiazepine-1,1-dioxide, U.S. Pat. No. 6,156,746), benzo-pyrido or dipyrido thiadiazepine (WO 2004/069843), pyrrolo[1,2-b][1,2,5]benzothiadiazepines and pyrrole[1,2-b][1,2,5]benzodiazepine derivatives (WO2007/015280), tomaymycin derivatives (e.g., pyrrolo[1,4]benzodiazepines), such as those described in WO 00/12508, WO2005/085260, WO2007/085930, EP 2019104, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,156,746). Other DNA-binding benzodiazepine drugs are described in US Patent Publication No. 2010/0203007A1. These benzodiazepine drugs containing imine bonds bind to the minor groove of DNA and interfere with DNA function, resulting in cell death.
There is a need for new methods for preparing conjugates of cell-binding agent and cytotoxic drugs bearing an imine group.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A joint assembly for use in a drive train permits limited transverse component displacement along at least two axes in response to non-coaxial forces in the drive train. The joint assembly includes a first subunit and a second subunit, each subunit having a transverse C-shaped opening in a first end each thereof. A connecting body has a first transverse cylindrical member extending from a first end thereof and a second transverse cylindrical member extending from an opposite second end of the connecting body. The first transverse cylindrical member is received into the transverse C-shaped opening in the first subunit to permit limited displacement along a first axis parallel to such opening. The second transverse cylindrical member is received into the transverse C-shaped opening in the second subunit to permit limited displacement along a second axis parallel to such opening.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a joint assemblies for use in drive trains and, more particularly, to drive trains within downhole rotational tools.
2. Description of Related Art
Subterranean fluids, such as oil, gas and water, are often pumped or "lifted" from wellbores by the operation of downhole pumps, such as by electric submergible pumping systems (ESP's). ESP's typically use an elongated electric motor installed within the wellbore to rotate a multistaged centrifugal pump. While centrifugal pumps are widely used for the recovery of subterranean fluids, such centrifugal pumps have difficulty in lifting viscous fluids, such as from Southern Calif., and fluids with relatively high concentrations of sand and other abrasive materials, such as from the tar sands area of Alberta, Canada. Thus, there is a need for a downhole pump that can lift such fluids.
Canadian Patent 924,181 discloses a solution to the problem using an ESP to recover viscous fluids and fluids with relatively high concentrations of sand with an ESP, and the solution consists of connecting a Moineau pump or a progressive cavity pump (PCP) though a gear reduction system to an ESP's electric motor. Progressive cavity pumps have been proven efficient in recovering relatively viscous fluids and fluids with relatively high concentrations of sand. Examples of progressive cavity pumps are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,627,453; 4,080,115; and 5,048,622. One major hindrance to the successful operation of such a pumping system has been that the progressive cavity pump inherently causes oscillations and gyrations that propagate through the pumping system's drive train. These oscillations and gyrations are hereinafter referred to as "non-coaxial" forces, and have been found to be of sufficient magnitude to damage the bearings in the ESP's electric motor and thus cause the ESP to prematurely fail. The failed ESP must then be removed from the wellbore, which causes the operator to suffer loss of production, loss of revenue and additional repair costs.
The non-coaxial forces are caused by the rotor in the progressive cavity pump being in the shape of a helix contained within a cavity or a flexible lining within a housing, referred to as the stator. The rotor rolls with respect to the stator so that the rotor and stator form a series of sealed cavities which are approximately 180 degrees apart. As one cavity increases in volume, its counterpart cavity decreases in volume, at exactly the same rate. The driving motion of the rotor is quite complex in that it is simultaneously rotating and moving transversely with respect to the stationary stator's liner. The rotation of the true center of the rotor traces a circle progressing the opposite direction to the rotation of the rotor, but with the same speed. Thus, the rotor driving motion is simultaneously a rotation, an oscillation, and a reverse orbit. It is a combination of these motions acting at the point of interconnection of the rotor to the electric motor that cause the undesired non-coaxial forces to be destructively transmitted to the bearings in the ESP's electric motor.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,408,622 discloses a dual universal joint mechanism for interconnecting a progressive cavity motor with a drill bit. The dual universal joint mechanism disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. '622 tries to solve the same problem of non-coaxial forces as above described by permitting limited non-parallel axial deflection or "buckling" of the drive train in response to such forces about two conventional dual-yoked universal joints. However, it has been found that this "buckling" causes the overall length of the assembly to be reduced thereby requiring an additional slip joint connector. Further, once the universal joint has been deflected or "buckled out of parallel axial alignment", and compression forces are added, there is no way for the universal joint to un-buckle and be realigned so that it can move in response to noncoaxial forces.
There is a need for a joint assembly for use in the drive train of a downhole tool that can efficiently and reliably reduce or eliminate such non-coaxial forces so that a progressive cavity pump can be successfully connected to and used with an ESP's electric motor.

Joint assembly permitting limited transverse component displacement


A field-effect transistor includes a plurality of unit elements which include a semiconductor layer having a first surface, a plurality of gate electrodes, drain electrodes, and source electrodes. Each of the plurality of gate electrodes is provided to define a drain electrode formation region which is surrounded by each of the plurality of gate electrodes. Each of the source electrodes is disposed in a source electrode formation region surrounded by the plurality of gate electrodes of the plurality of unit elements which are adjacent to each other. A source-gate distance between the each of the source electrodes and the each of the plurality of gate electrodes of the plurality of unit elements is shorter than a drain-gate distance between each of the drain electrodes and the each of the plurality of gate electrodes. The source electrode formation region is smaller than the drain electrode formation region.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a field-effect transistor.
2. Description of the Related Art
A field-effect transistor includes a source electrode, a drain electrode and a gate electrode. The electrode structures with the source electrode, the drain electrode and the gate electrode is important factor to obtain a high maximum current and a low on resistance. As such an electrode structures, JP 2004-320040 A discloses an electrode structure having a finger-like shape (see FIG. 1 of JP 2004-320040 A) and an electrode structure in which gate electrodes are formed in a mesh-like shape (see FIG. 2B of JP 2004-320040 A). In addition, JP 2007-048842 A discloses an electrode structure in which drain electrodes are disposed in an island-like shape. As such a electrode structure, JP 2007-048842 A discloses an electrode structure in which gate electrodes are formed around respective drain electrodes having a quadrangle or hexagonal shape and source electrodes are formed across a plurality of elements in respective outside regions of the gate electrodes.