The invention concerns a method and a device to determine a descriptor for a signal representing a multimedia item. The method comprises the step of applying to said signal a first bank of directional filters in order to obtain a first set of coefficients. According to the invention the method comprises the steps of:                applying to said signal a second bank of filters in order to obtain a second set of coefficients representing the low-pass filtered signal,        calculating a descriptor representing said multimedia element by making the difference between said first set of coefficients and said second set of coefficients and        calculating associated power of said difference.

In various fields of signal and data processing, e.g. in multimedia asset management, small-sized, compact descriptors are calculated for multimedia items in order to compare two items or to search items in a database similar to a given item.
For instance, images in a database—e.g. personal photographs or images from a video—may have associated descriptors to ease database organization into groups of similar images and retrieval of images similar to a given one.
A problem of descriptors is that they should best reflect similarity of two items while being small-sized.
One type of known and commonly used descriptors is based on a frequency decomposition of the signal of the multimedia item. Therefore, a bank of filters is used to generate each a filtered signal corresponding to a frequency band. Then, often the power of the filtered signals in each band is calculated. The totality of power values builds the descriptor. The use of filter banks is common for example in audio processing. Also for images, filter banks such as wavelets or Gabor filter banks are widely used in image analysis and retrieval.
In order to enhance the capacity of a descriptor to reflect the characteristics of images and the similarity of images, one of the following measures is commonly applied:                1. The number of filters in increased;        2. The repartition and type of filters is optimised;        3. The precision of each filter is increased.
The first measure can be realised for example by taking 12 instead of 8 filters. By this, the signal's frequency spectrum is better described.
The second measure can be realised—in the case of images—by replacing wavelet filters by Gabor filters. While wavelet filters cover the 2-dimensional frequency spectrum by considering horizontal, vertical and diagonal frequencies, Gabor filters are more flexible and can describe frequencies in more directions. Hereby, the images, and notably the texture in images, can be better described.
The third measure addresses the implementation of filters, notably digital filters, and can be realized by increasing the number of samples used to represent the filter kernel. For example, a Gabor filter can be enhanced when replacing a 16×16 kernel by a 32×32 kernel.
A problem of filter banks is often, that the spectrums of filters overlap and thus the frequency bands are not properly calculated. For example, Gabor filters have Gaussian-shaped spectra. These spectra do inherently overlap. This overlap lowers performance of image retrieval notably when one or several filters include considerable parts of frequency zero.
Let us take as an example two images showing stripes. Direction and frequency of stripes is identical in both images. The only difference is a spatially constant offset between both images. We calculate a descriptor for each image based on the power of Gabor subbands. Even if the images show the same type of texture, the descriptors will be the more different the higher the offset is.
Let us take another example of two images showing the same scene at different daytimes. The more different the illumination is the more different the descriptors will be. For example, images showing cars are searched in a database using a given image showing a car at daytime. Then, images showing cars at lower light levels such as in the evening may not be found.
This effect makes the performance of retrieval in databases more difficult, notably when semantically similar items are searched. For example, audio clips are searched having a similar rhythm to a given one. When audio clips have different signal offsets by technical reasons, some audio clips with same rhythm but different offset may not be found.
A negative effect can also occur when descriptors based on filter banks are used to classify multimedia items. Hereby, the descriptor is fed into a classifier that attributes one or several labels to the image. For example, a classifier for outdoor scenes in images can detect an outdoor scene in a given image and generate the label "outdoor" for this image. A classifier is usually trained by a set of typical images. When these images include only daylight images, the classifier may not detect outdoor scenes with lower light level, for example in the morning.

Method and device to determine a descriptor for a signal representing a multimedia item, device for retrieving items in a database, device for classification of multimedia items in a database

Abstract: Application to the classification and retrieval of multimedia items.


Provided is a self-correcting stock price movement predictor built with Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques that are for empirical data and represent trends on a particular day for an identified stock. Robots, Internet bots, and so forth, are used to source events in real time in the World Wide Web and which may have a potential impact on the movement of the stock. When the web is spidered (or browsed), a device is able to capture the data, which might have an impact on the stock. The data may be structured and ranked using various techniques, including AI techniques. These techniques are applied in order to predict the stock behavior and the movement of that particular stock. An output of the tool is provided to automatically determine an action to take relative to an identified stock.

Investment in stocks is performed by individuals and some companies in an attempt to increase revenue. Predicting whether the value of a stock will increase or decrease may yield profit to the individual or the company. There are three broad (overlapping) categories of prediction, namely, fundamental analysis, technical analysis (charting), and technological methods. Fundamental analysis relates to evaluating the company that underlies the stock. Technical analysis seeks to determine a future price of a stock based on trends of the past price of the stock. Technological methods attempt to mimic human thinking. However, all of these prediction techniques fail to adequately address dynamic changes based on social and other influential factors.


A wheelchair cycle apparatus that includes a frame to which is attached a connecting device for connecting the frame to a wheelchair. A drive wheel and driven wheel are attached to the frame. A pair of pedals are attached to either the drive wheel or the driven wheel depending upon whether the user can move his/her own legs. A chain connects the drive wheel to the driven wheel. The wheelchair cycle apparatus may be connected to the frame of a wheelchair to produce a wheelchair assembly that enables a disabled individual to exercise his/her own legs while seated in the wheelchair.

The present invention relates to apparatus for modifying a wheelchair, and to wheelchair assemblies that have been modified with such apparatus. In particular, the present invention relates to apparatus for modifying a wheelchair that enables a disabled individual to exercise his/her legs while in the wheelchair.
The legs of disabled individuals, who are wheelchair confined, may have varying degrees of infirmity. The disabled individual may or may not be able to move his legs. In either instance, however, it is desirable to exercise the legs to stimulate the leg muscles, preventing atrophy of those muscles.
There is a need for an improved apparatus for modifying a wheelchair such that, when attached to a wheelchair, it enables the disabled individual to exercise his/her legs while in the wheelchair.
There is a need for such an apparatus that can be used by wheelchair confined individuals to exercise their legs irrespective of the degree to which such individuals may control movement of their legs, if at all.
There is a needs for such an apparatus that provides a stable, user friendly, structure when attached to a wheelchair.
The wheelchair cycle apparatus of the present invention provides such an apparatus.


A profile includes two end wing portions with substantially a transversal direction (Y), two lateral wall portions having substantially a height direction-(Z), a frontal wall portion having substantially a transversal direction (Y), two curved transition zones (R1, R2) disposed between the lateral wall portions and the frontal wall portion, and two curved transition zones (R3, R4) disposed between the end wing portions and the lateral wall portions. A specific portion of each curved transition zones (R1, R2) between the lateral wall portions and the frontal wall portion has a tensile strength lower than the tensile strength of the rest of the cross-section. This configuration also relates to a longitudinal beam, a cross-member, a pillar, a B-Pillar or a C-Pillar having the profile, and to a vehicle provided thereof.

Structural beams have undergone a great development. Constant evolving regulations in matter of impact tests and new treatments for ultra-high strength steels (UHSS) have given as a result a continuous improvement in these elements.
Some of these structural beams have a particular shape considering the function they perform in a particular location in the body in white structure. Pillars do not usually have exactly the same cross-section as longitudinal beams or cross-members. It can be assumed that Ω-shaped cross-section are representative to any Body-In-White (BIW) component that can be subject to this disclosure (longitudinals, cross-members and pillars).
B-pillars generally consist of a deformed blank resulting in an outer profile, destined, among others, to withstand lateral impacts. A back cover is added to the outer profile, so that a section with high inertia is acquired. In particular, as shown for example in FIG. 1, in the profile a longitudinal direction, a transversal direction and a height direction are defined, the directions being perpendicular therebetween. In case of a B-pillar, when fixed to the body of the vehicle, the longitudinal direction (X) will substantially coincide with the vertical direction, the transversal direction (Y) will coincide with the longitudinal direction of the car and the height direction (Z) will coincide with the transversal direction of the car, which is the direction of a lateral impact.
This outer profile has a Q-shaped cross-section, such that therein are defined:                two end wing portions having substantially the transversal direction;        two lateral wall portions having substantially the height direction;        a frontal wall portion having substantially the transversal direction;        two curved transition zones between the lateral wall portions and the frontal wall portion; and        two curved transition zones between the end wing portions and the lateral wall portions.
B-pillars have some very specific requirements, since they must provide strength and protection for the occupants of a vehicle in the event of a lateral impact, but at the same time they must be ductile enough so that they localize the deformation in specific area to absorb energy and do not let the vehicle occupant vital areas been injured by component uncontrolled collapse.
Many different designs try to fit these requirements, like for example as the B-pillars disclosed in WO 2015/071412 A1, WO 2015/071444 or U.S. Pat. No. 9,849,916.
In some designs, a band of a softer material is used in the lower portion of these B-pillars to enable this deformation localization, for example as taught in EP 2 209 696 B1, US 2012/0319431 A1 or DE 10 2014 112 740 A1.
EP 2541093 A1, JP 2004114912 A, EP 3342684 A1, EP 2610355 A1, WO 2018/174982 A1, WO 2016/046228 A1 and DE 102016103962 B3 are further examples of the background art.
The problem is that the weakened area implies a lower strength and energy absorption of the component, which implies having to give more thickness and resistance to the rest, which in turn leads to an increase in weight.
This is enough for current regulations, but it involves some disadvantages in terms of weight and behaviour.

Profile for a structural beam of a vehicle


A garment for personal protection against both shots from firearms and stabs from stabbing weapons, wherein the garment comprises an outer covering, an inner covering, and a shot-absorbing unit located between the outer covering and the inner covering. The shot-absorbing unit includes: (i) a plurality of first layers of woven fibers with different mesh sizes, the first layers being flexibly fixed relative to one another and being positioned in mutually different directions, (ii) a plurality of second layers of woven fibers with different mesh sizes, the second layers being flexibly fixed relative to one another and being positioned in mutually different directions, and (iii) at least one intermediate member provided between the first layers and the second layers, the intermediate member being flexibly fixed relative to at least one of the first layers and having mutually interlinked and at least partially mutually movable rings which are made of a material which is capable of resisting sharp objects. The first and second layers of the shot-absorbing unit are placed in a direction of potential incidence of a bullet and a stabbing weapon, with the first layers being positioned closest to the outer covering and the second layers being positioned closest to the inner covering. The second layers are greater in number than the first layers and a total number of the first and second layers and a density of each of the first and second layers are such that the garment has as light a weight and as thin a size as possible and such that the garment maintains relative flexibility in order to thereby be adaptable to and accompany movements of a wearer without obstructing the wearer in any essential respect.

Garments designed to achieve personal protection against attack with, especially, firearms are previously known in a number of embodiments. The known garments are heavy and clumsy to handle and wear, since as a rule they make use of rigid plates or the like so as also to be able to provide protection against stabbing weapons of, for example, the knife type.


A gas turbine engine casing includes a cavity 10 separated from the main flow 12 through the engine by an annular array of tip treatment bars 16. The tip treatment bars 16 are hollow which enables the bars to deform or break upon impact by a shed blade 4 or blade fragment. This allows the blade or blade fragment to pass through the tip treatment bars 16. Blade or blade fragments may then be contained within the cavity 10, or embedded in the casing 2, so preventing further damage to the engine. Entire blades, or large blade fragments, may be able to break through the tip treatment bars 16 and through the engine casing 2 so as to leave the engine entirely, causing the minimum of damage.

WO94/20759 discloses an anti-stall tip treatment means in a gas turbine engine, in which an annular cavity is provided adjacent the blade tips of a compressor rotor. The cavity communicates with the gas flow path through the compressor through a series of slots defined between solid tip treatment bars extending across the mouth of the cavity.
Such tip treatments are applicable to both fans and compressors of gas turbine engines, and their purpose is to improve the blade stall characteristics or surge characteristics of the compressor.
In a gas turbine engine, blades of a rotating stage may become damaged or become detached from the rotating hub on which they are mounted. Damage of this type may be caused, for example, by impact or foreign object damage such as a bird strike. The blade, or fragment of a blade, which is shed can cause catastrophic damage to other parts of the engine. The consequential effects of blade shedding can be. particularly serious it the blade in question is in the compressor stage of the engine, and particularly near the front of the compressor stage, since such blades are the largest and heaviest in the engine.
If an entire blade is shed, it is preferable in many cases for the blade to break through the engine. casing to exit the engine, rather than to remain within the engine where it may cause catastrophic failure. Blade fragments, however, are best contained within the engine, but prevented from reaching later compressor or turbine stages.
To minimise the consequential effects of the shedding or disintegration of a blade, it is desirable for the engine to include means for containing blade fragments while enabling whole blades (or very large blade fragments) to break through the engine casing with the minimum of disturbance to the operation of the engine. It is known to provide woven material around the exterior of the engine casing in order to prevent blades or blade fragments from penetrating through the engine casing. Such measures may therefore minimise damage to the engine casing by absorbing the detached blade or fragment, but they do not adequately prevent the travel of the detached blade or fragment through the remaining stages of the engine,
Known tip treatment bars are solid and relatively robust and, in general, are as able as the adjacent parts of the casing to withstand impact from detached blades or blade fragments. They thus serve to keep detached blades and blade fragments within the engine, where they are liable to cause damage.
It is an object of the present invention to reduce the resistance of tip treatment bars to impact from detached blades or blade fragments.
It is a further object of the present invention to minimise the energy loss of a blade or blade fragment breaking through the.tip treatment bars.
It is a further object of the present invention to improve the damping characteristics of tip treatment bars.
According to the present invention there is provided a gas turbine engine casing having hollow tip treatment bars.
By making the tip treatment bars hollow, their resistance to impact from detached blades or blade fragments may be reduced. Consequently, entire blades can break through the tip treatment bars and the engine casing to exit the engine. Blade fragments may also break through the tip treatment bars, but they will lose some of their kinetic energy as they do so, and may then be retained within the cavity, or embedded in the engine casing, outside the gas flow path through the engine. Thus they may be prevented from causing damage to other parts of the engine. Smaller blade fragments may become lodged between the tip treatment bars, again with the result that those fragments are prevented from damaging further parts of the engine.
The tip treatment bars may be mounted between end supports connected to, or forming part of, the casing of the engine. The tip treatment bars may be integral with the end supports.
In a preferred embodiment, the tip treatment bars are thin-walled components, so as to minimise the energy loss of a blade or blade fragment breaking through them.
Tip treatment bars are vulnerable to high cycle fatigue failure, as a result of engine-induced vibration in them. By making the tip treatment bars hollow, in accordance with the present invention, additional measures may be taken to damp such induced vibrations, and so inhibit the initiation and propagation of fatigue cracking. For example, the hollow tip treatment bars may be filled, wholly or partially, with a damping material, Viscoelastic materials are suitable for this purpose and elastomers, such as silicone elastomers may be used.

Tip treatment bars in a gas turbine engine

Abstract: The interiors of the tip treatment bars may be filled with a damping material, to minimize high cycle fatigue failure.


A process and a device are provided for producing hydrogen gas from water and carbon. The process includes introducing steam and powdered carbon in stoichiometric ratio of carbon to water into a preheated oxidization chamber in such a way that a gas plasma is produced in which the steam is decomposed into its hydrogen and oxygen gas components and oxygen is combined with carbon to form carbon dioxide gas in an exothermic reaction at temperatures above 2000° C., and separating the carbon dioxide gas from the hydrogen gas. The device for conducting this process has an oxidization chamber defined in a hollow body and being provided with a preheater and having at least one inlet port for introducing steam into the oxidization chamber, at least one inlet port for introducing powdered carbon into the oxidization chamber, and at least one exit port for carrying off generated hydrogen gas and/or generated carbon dioxide gas from the oxidization chamber.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a process and a device for producing hydrogen gas from water and carbon.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is a constant quest for new sources of energy that are ecologically clean and economical to produce. Since carbon and water are two of the most abundant substances on earth it would be highly appreciated if one could directly combine them in a very efficient process in order to produce pure hydrogen gas and carbon dioxide gas.
Prior to the turn of the century many cities in the United States of America and in Europe produced a form of illuminating gas called water gas which was generated during the day, stored in large floating storage tanks and burned at night in the gas street light system of the city. The water gas generators used simple principals of operation that can be found in many books relating to technical processes. Basically the apparatus used for producing said gas was a closed retort chamber that incorporated a bed of air blown incandescent coke. The air was turned off and the bed of white-hot coke was blown with live steam. Since the threshold of dissociation vapour state water is around 1100° C. the water partially split allowing the oxygen to combine with the carbon to form carbon monoxide leaving the hydrogen gas in the free state. Hydrogen and carbon-monoxide are both combustibles when mixed with air so after a scrubbing state to remove ash a form of illuminating gas was produced and stored for later use.
A person skilled in the art will agree that the above process for producing the illuminating gas is endothermic by the fact that the bed of coke can only be blown with live steam for a short period of time during which the white-hot coke is cooled. At this point air has to be re-admitted to bring the coke back to an incandescent state to provide the threshold dissociation temperatures needed.

Process and device for producing hydrogen


Approaches are described which enable a computing device (e.g., mobile phone, tablet computer) to utilize one or more facial recognition techniques to control access to the device and to detect when artificial representations of a user, such as a picture or photograph, are being used in an attempt to gain access to the device. Evidence indicative of artificial representations may include lack of changes in facial skin color between multiple images captured by a camera, ability to track one or more features of the human face while the camera is rotated or moved, presence of secular reflections caused by an illumination device, absence of shadows in the image, and others.

Conventional facial recognition systems can be used for automatically identifying or verifying a person based on a digital image showing a front view of that person's face. One way to identify the person is by comparing a selected set of facial features, or feature points, from the image to a database of features. Facial recognition systems have been used for a variety of purposes, including for controlling access to secured systems. However, conventional facial recognition systems have a number of shortcomings. For example, one way to potentially trick or "spoof" a facial recognition system is to present a two dimensional representation (e.g., picture, photograph, etc.) of a person in front of the camera, where the image captured by the camera shows a front view of that person, causing the system to identify the user based on the features in the picture or photograph. This can be undesirable since a malicious user may be able to gain access to the secured system by simply procuring a picture or other artificial representation of an authorized user.

Fraud detection for facial recognition systems


A chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP) process for the manufacturing of semiconductor devices is disclosed. The process includes removing a first portion of a first layer of interconnect materials using a first platen and a first slurry, removing a second portion of the first layer using a second platen and a second slurry, removing a first portion of a second layer of the interconnect materials using a second platen and a third slurry, and removing a second portion of the second layer using a third platen and a fourth slurry.

The present disclosure relates generally to the manufacturing of semiconductor devices, and more particularly to a chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP) process utilized in semiconductor manufacturing.
The semiconductor integrated circuit (IC) industry has experienced rapid growth. Technological advances in IC materials and design have produced generations of ICs where each generation has smaller feature sizes and more complex circuits than those from the previous generation.
With the increased number of interconnect layers in a given IC, traditional planarizing techniques, such as sacrificial-resist etchback, thermal flow, and spin-on glass, have become inadequate to achieve the required planarization of metal layers. Chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP) is often used to selectively remove high elevation features by a combination of mechanical polishing and chemical reaction.
A typical system for CMP may have two or three platens, each for performing a separate CMP process. A wafer is mounted on a rotating carrier, the carrier and wafer sequentially moves to each of the platens, and a CMP process is performed at each platen. Typically, an abrasive-containing aqueous slurry is provided during CMP to facilitate the process.
In a more specific example, CMP for a copper interconnect typically employs three steps: polishing the copper (Cu) on the first platen, polishing tantalum nitride (TaN) on a second platen, and then perform oxide buffing on a third platen. However, this process creates bottlenecks, such as on the third platen, and therefore results in higher manufacturing cost.
What is desired is a new and improved system and method for enhancing the CMP process and/or improving the manufacturing throughput through the CMP process.

Chemical mechanical polishing process for manufacturing semiconductor devices

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.


Disclosed are a process of manufacturing a thin-film transisitor sheet and a thin-sheet transistor sheet manufactured by the process, the process comprising providing a gate busline on a substrate, providing, on the surface of the substrate on the gate busline side, an insulation layer capable of receiving a fluid electrode material, supplying the fluid electrode material to the insulation layer, the fluid electrode material being allowed to permeate the insulation layer, forming a gate electrode from the permeated fluid electrode material to be in contact with the gate busline, forming a gate insulating layer on the gate electrode, and forming a semiconductor layer on the gate insulating layer.

In recent years, with the spread of information terminals, there are increasing demands for a flat panel display that serves as a display for a computer. Further, with development of the information technology, there has been increased a chance for information offered in a form of a sheet of paper medium in the past to be offered in an electronic form. An electronic paper or a digital paper is demanded increasingly as a display medium for a mobile that is thin, lightweight and handy.
In the case of a display device of a flat sheet type, a display medium is generally formed using an element that employs a liquid crystal, organic EL or electrophoresis method. In the display medium of this kind, a technology for using an active driving element comprised of a thin-film transistor (TFT), serving as an image driving element, is the main current for ensuring uniform image brightness and an image rewriting speed.
A TFT is ordinarily manufactured by a process comprising forming, on a glass substrate, a semiconductor layer of a-Si (amorphous silicone) or p-Si (poly-silicone) and metal films of source, drain and gate electrodes, in the order. In the manufacture of a flat panel display employing such a TFT, a photolithography step with high precision is required in addition to a thin layer forming step requiring a vacuum line carrying out a CVD method or a sputtering method or a high temperature treatment step, which results in great increase of manufacturing cost or running cost. Recent demand for a large-sized display panel further increases those costs described above.
In order to overcome the above-described defects, an organic thin-film transistor employing an organic semiconducting material has been extensively studied (see, for example, Japanese Patent O.P.I. Publication No. 10-190001 1 and "Advanced Material", 2002, No. 2, p. 99 (review)). Since the organic thin-film transistor can be manufactured at low temperature employing a lightweight substrate difficult to be broken, a flexible display employing a resin film as a substrate can be realized (see, for example, SID '02 Digest P. 57). Further, employing an organic semiconducting material allowing a wet process such as a printing method or a coating method, a display manufacturing process, which provides excellent productivity and reduced cost, is expected to be realized.
A conventional manufacturing process of a TFT or a TFT sheet comprises forming a film of a metal such as chromium, nickel or aluminum according to a sputtering method, and processing the film according to photolithography including etching to form a gate busline or a gate electrode. However, this process has problems in that gate leakage is likely to occur which is caused by minute unevenness of the electrode surface, unevenness (herein also referred to as hillocks) of a layer adjacent to the electrode, which deteriorates smoothness of the electrode surface, or edge portions of the electrode.
Further, there is problem that a TFT or a TFT sheet employing a resin sheet substrate, in which unevenness of the sheet surface deteriorates smoothness of the electrode surface, is likely to leak from the gate busline or the gate electrode, as compared with a conventional TFT or TFT sheet employing a glass plate having a smooth surface.

Thin-film transistor, thin-film transistor sheet and their manufacturing method


The invention relates to optically transmissive, silica-containing compositions which exhibit a small change of refractive index with respect to temperature changes (dn.sub.g /dT). The compositions are derived from silica sols dispersed in liquid organic polymers. The invention relates to optical systems comprising a plurality of elements that are optically interconnected by means of the inventive composition. An especially preferred embodiment of the invention is the use of the composition within a connector to simultaneously align and join optical fibers.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to optically transmissive silica-containing compositions which exhibit a small change of refractive index with respect to changes in temperature, dn.sub.g /dT. The gels are derived from silica sols dispersed in liquid organic polymers. The invention also relates to optical systems comprising a plurality of elements that are optically coupled by means of the inventive composition. An especially preferred embodiment of the invention is use of the composition in optical fiber splices and/or connectors to simultaneously align and join optical fibers.
2. Background of the Art
A persistent problem relating to prior art refractive index matching materials (IMM) used to optically connect optical elements such as optical fibers and waveguides is the sizable change in refractive index that results from changes in ambient temperature dn.sub.g /dT--a value that is also referred to as the temperature coefficient of the refractive index. The change in refractive index causes a variety of problems well known to those schooled in the art, which are further aggravated by the accompanying thermal expansion or contraction of the IMM, the connectors, and the splices forming the interconnections. It is usually the case that the coefficient of thermal expansion is larger in the IMM than in the joined optical elements. Index matching compositions (IMC) as described within the context of this invention are mixtures of two or more materials, often gels, that are used primarily in splices for simultaneously aligning and joining optical fibers or waveguides.
Prior art IMCs tend to consist of liquids (often silicone oils) containing a low concentration of hydrophobic fumed silica. The silica acts as a thixotropic agent to prevent material flow. The gel, having a typical viscosity in the range 1.5-2.0 kPascal-second at 25.degree. C., is filtered to remove particles of size greater than 200 nanometers which would scatter light. At the concentrations used (about 10% by weight), the fumed silica provides no significant reduction in dn.sub.g /dT, where n.sub.g is the refractive index of the IMC. For these conventional silicone based IMCs, dn.sub.g /dT is usually in the range of -3.3 to -3.7.times.10.sup.-4 /.degree.C. For optical fibers made of silica glass, dn.sub.f /dT, is typically of the order of -10.sup.-6 /.degree.C., where n.sub.f is the refractive index of the fiber. The state of the art at present requires IMCs with dn.sub.g /dT smaller in magnitude than -3.3.times.10.sup.-4 /.degree.C., as reduction of this value would result in improved signal transmission and reduced reflective losses through the splice over the desired range of operating temperatures. A large number of patents refer to the use of specific index matching materials such as index matching fluids, gels, adhesives, cements, and films in fiber optic connectors. Of interest are U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,013,123; 4,991,929; 4,856,865; 4,784,456; 4,729,619; and 4,448,483.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,013,123 describes stamped precision lightguide interconnect centering elements made from deformable metals (e.g., aluminum) or polymers that can be formed to define three surfaces that align and clamp the ends of two optical fibers, forming a butt splice therebetween. The text at column 6, lines 21 through 25, describes the use of a gel which has index of refraction matching characteristics similar to the fiber core to improve the continuity of the transmission through the splice. The position of the gel is shown in FIG. 13, ref. numeral 100.
The addition of particulate silica as a reinforcing agent to improve the mechanical properties of silicone polymers is well known in the art. For example U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,996,187 and 3,996,189 (both to Travnicek) describe fumed silica reinforced silicones which have utility in making contact lenses when the silica level is kept between 5 and 20% by weight. Such levels of fumed silica are too low to have an appreciable effect on the temperature dependence of the refractive index. Fumed silica (also called pyrogenic silica) is a colloidal silica powder usually made by condensing silica from a vapor phase at elevated temperatures. The colloidal particles in fumed silica are not electrostatically charged and are therefore clustered into large aggregates. See The Chemistry of Silica by R. K. Iler, 1979, p.464, John Wiley and Sons for greater detail on this material.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,008,198 (Krohberger et al.) teaches that sheets of highly transparent reinforced elastomers with improved tear strength can be obtained by mixing (1) a nitrogen compound containing at least one triorganosilyl group of a particular type, (2) a hexaorganodisilazane, (3) silicon dioxide having a surface area of at least 50 m.sup.2 /g and (4) a polydiorganosiloxane of viscosity higher than 500,000 cS, and kneading the mixture at 150.degree. C. under vacuum until there is no evidence that nitrogen compounds are being evolved.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,418,165 (Polmanteer et al.) describes silicone compositions with improved tensile strength comprising a hydrophobized "reinforcing" silica gel obtained by the alkaline hydrolysis in ammonium hydroxide of a mixture of tetraalkyl orthosilicate (tetraalkoxy silanes) and a hydrophobizing agent. The silica gel is laboriously milled or high shear mixed with a silicone gum to breakup large agglomerates into smaller aggregates. We have found that when mixed with fluids, this form of silica hydrogel yields highly rigid, embrittled composites with inferior luminous transmission when the silica level exceeds 20% by weight.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,898,755 and 4,851,270 describe optically clear inorganic-organic compositions prepared from porous monoliths of hydrolyzed alkoxy silanes and organic compounds exhibiting nonlinear optical responses.
An ideal index matching composition would possess the following four optical characteristics: 1) It would be 100% transmissive at the wavelengths of light employed, 2) Its refractive index would be the same as (i.e matched to) that of the optical element (e.g., a fiber) at this wavelength, 3) The refractive index of the optical element and the IMC would possess the same temperature dependency (i.e., the same change in indices of refraction for the same temperature changes) and 4) The refractive index of the optical element and the IMC would possess the same wavelength dependency.
In reality such an ideal IMC is presently unattainable. 100% transmissivity is virtually impossible to achieve due to light scattering caused by particle aggregation in the gel and/or the mismatch between the refractive indices of the colloidal particles in the IMC and the dispersing polymer phase. In addition, although the refractive indices of the IMC and the optical element may exactly match at one temperature, they cannot be made identical over a working temperature range because the temperature and wavelength dependence of the refractive index of the optical element has been found to be different from the temperature and wavelength dependence of the refractive index of the IMC.
In addition to its optical characteristics, the viscosity of the IMC is important The index matching gel must possess viscosity characteristics that allow it to flow through small orifices during the application of the IMC to the splice element and to wet the surfaces to be connected. This viscosity requirement therefore virtually precludes the use of fumed silica or silica gels at levels much higher than 10% by weight because both of these forms of colloidal silica are extremely efficient thickening agents that would hinder both the prefiltration of the IMC and its application to the connector device.
Prior art IMMs have not sufficiently satisfied all of the above desirable characteristics simultaneously. In particular, a persistent problem relating to IMMs of the prior art is the sizeable change in the materials properties resulting from changes in ambient temperature, i.e. the refractive index, the viscosity, and dimensional changes.
No prior art is known which discloses the beneficial effect of high concentrations of finely dispersed small particle silicas for reducing dn.sub.g /dT in refractive index matching compositions while maintaining the required low viscosity and high level of light transmissivity.

Index matching compositions with improved DNG/DT

Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company


The present invention provides an anti-ovarian cancer bispecific antibody. Said antibody includes two polypeptide domains connected by a polypeptide linker, one is anti-ovarian cancer antibody, or its Fab fragment, single complementarity determining region (CDR) antibody or single chain Fv (scFv) and the other is anti-CD3 antibody, or its Fab fragment, single CDR antibody or scFv. The present invention also provides DNA sequences encoding said antibody, an expression vector containing said DNA sequence, and a host cell containing said expression vector.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an anti-cancer bispecific antibody constructed by gene engineering, nucleotide sequences encoding the said bispecific antibody, the expression vectors containing the said nucleotide sequences and host cells containing the vectors.
2. Description of the Related Art
Different from natural antibodies, two antigen-binding sites of bispecific antibody (BsAb) bear different specificities, therefore, it is bivalent in chemical structure but monovalent in binding function. BsAb directed to both tumor-associated antigens and trigger molecules on effector cells can recruit the immunological effector cells to tumor sites efficiently and activate them to kill tumor cells specifically. BsAbs are hybrid proteins that can be generated by chemical cross-link, hybridoma technology or genetic methods. In the chemical cross-link method, two kinds of monoclonal antibodies and fragments thereof were dissociated by reductants to generate monovalent antibodies and fragments thereof. The resulting BsAb is constructed via chemical cross-linking of two monovalent antibodies and fragments thereof from different parental antibodies. This strategy can be used for rapid production of BsAb in large scale but BsAb can be inactivated sometimes during cross-link and it is difficult to guarantee the homogeneity of products. Another strategy for production of BsAb is hybridoma technology by which an established hybridoma cell line secreting one monoclonal antibody was fused to spleen cells immunized with the other antigen or two established hybridoma cell lines secreting two different monoclonal antibodies were fused each other to create hybrid hybridomas. The former resulting hybridoma is called dimeric hybridoma and tetrameric hybridoma. Generally, BsAb produced by hybridoma technology keeps high bioactivities. However, the procedures are tedious and time-consuming and it is not easy to isolate BsAb from other non-active and unwanted antibodies generated simultaneously. These BsAb formats encountered another predictable problems: too large size and murine components contained in BsAb are immunogenic in patients and will induce the production of human anti-mouse antibodies (HAMA), which may prevent reuse of these BsAbs in clinic. Furthermore, production and purification of these formats of BsAb are expensive, which limits the application of BsAbs in clinic. Replacement of these traditional methods with gene recombination approaches has accelerated progress in this area. Based on the technology of small molecular antibodies, production of BsAb by gene engineering has advantages over those described above, such as the stability of process, large scale production, low cost and easy-to-use. Gene engineering has led to the development of various small molecular BsAb formats by connecting two different kinds of scFvs. There are three kinds of BsAb formats classified by different links. (1) mini-antibodies are heterodimers assembled by connecting two scFv fragments together with an oligomerized domain (e.g. leucine zipper motifs derived from Fos or Jun transcription factors). (2) Diabodies are non-covalently associated dimmers which are assembled by two single chains VH1-VL2 and VH2-VL1, both connected by a short linker that is too short to allow pairing between V-domains from the same chain. Thus, each chain alone is not capable of binding antigen, but co-expression of two chains (VH1-VL2 and VH2-VL1) leads to assembly of heterodimeric diabodies which can bind to two kinds of antigens. (3) ScBsAb: a interlinker was used for connecting two different scFvs with different specificities and ScBsAb was expressed in the host cells as a single polypeptide. The intralinker between two domains within scFv is often (Gly4Ser)3. As for the interlinker between two scFvs, there are two strategies for designing it. For the purpose of avoiding false paring between heterogenous variable regions, the interlinker is often a short peptide linker less than ten amino acid residues such as Gly4Ser. Another strategy is to select a longer linker for the interlinker. In our lab, an interlinker with 25 amino acids named 205c′, devised by Gruber in construction anti-TCR×anti-fluorescent scBsAb, was cited for one of three interlinkers. Another two interlinkers named Fc (26 residues) and HSA were devised, which both result in the proper folding of two scFvs and the formation of BsAb with two antigen-binding sites with high activities. In a word, the most important for designing interlinkers is to ensure the proper pairing between variable domains and folding of proteins, resulting in the formation of BsAb which maintains biological activities and stability. Some novel properties for facilitating purification and extending the plasma half-life time should be introduced.
BsAb-mediated immunotherapy plays a promising role in the clinical biotherapy for tumors. The following is two characteristics of BsAb. First, tumor-killing effects mediated by BsAb are based on stimulating the immune system, highly specific with tumors and free of MHC restriction. Second, due to lacking Fc domain, BsAb is harmless to normal tissues. Therefore, BsAb-mediated therapy is the complementarity of traditional methods such as surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy. The major effect of this approach is based on clearing up sub-clinical residuals and preventing or eliminating the tumor from recurrence and metastasis. BsAb can not only cure tumors but also stimulate the immune system to provide and keep the immune protection for a long time. Based on results of experiments in mouse and clinic, BsAb prepared for trial use should have at least five characteristics as follows: {circle around (1)} It targets to the relevant tumor antigens with high specificity and affinity; {circle around (2)} It can bind monovalently to trigger factors on effector cells-cytotoxic cells and result in cross link only when BsAb binds to tumor antigens due to lack of Fc domain; {circle around (3)} BsAb is able to promote the effective cytotoxicity and inflammation selectively produced by the corresponding group of leukocytes at tumor sites; {circle around (4)} BsAb must be humanized to minimize induction of human anti-mouse response following repeated uses; Finally, {circle around (5)} BsAb should be not only small enough to penetrate into tumors but also large enough to keep in the circulation for a sufficient time.
Based on these points described above, numerous BsAbs triggering many kinds of immune effector cells and targeting different tumor cells have been developed in the past few years, wherein the effector cells include T lymphocytes, NK cells, monocytes, macropghages, neutrophils, LAK cells (lymphokine-activated cytotoxic cells) and TIL cells (tumor infiltrating lymphocytes) etc. T cells are commonly recognized as the major specific cells for immune responses. CD3 expressed on the surface of all mature T cells is the common surface marker for T cells. CD3 binds to TCR non-covalently, forming the whole TCR-CD3 complex, and involves in immune responses against antigen stimulus. Now CD3 is surface trigger molecule on immune effector cells used most widely and successfully. Following anti-CD3 antibody within BsAb binds to CD3 molecule on the surface of T cells, numerous effects as follows will be produced to kill tumor cells. These effects include: (1) proliferation and differentiation of T cells. Firstly, BsAb can activate the rest T cells, resulting in Th cell and Tc cell derived from the premature effector T cells with CD4+ or CD8+. Secondly, BsAb can activate numerous memory cells to proliferate and differentiate into effector T cells which will attack and kill tumor cells. The number of effector cells is directly related to the rate of tumor elimination. (2) release of cytokines: CD4+ Th cells activated by BsAb can secrete a great deal of IL-2. IL-2 not only stimulates the proliferation of Th cells in autocrine, but also activates naive CD8+ T cells in paracrine to become Tc cells, resulting in enlargement of cytotoxicity of Tc cells. In addition, IL-2 is a costimulating signal for activating T cells. Therefore, IL-2 plays a vital role in BsAb-mediated immune effects. Some other cytokines, such as TNF-α and IFN—Y are produced in the process of T-cell activation and can produce 'stander-by' effect by inhibiting the growth of 'stander-by' tumor cells through the medium among cells. (3) cytotoxicity: In vitro experiments indicate that mediated by BsAb, CD8+ Tc interacts with tumor cells directly, releases cytotoxic materials through granule exocytosis and lyses target cells, which takes place rapidly usually within 4-6 hours following targeting tumor cells. The major components in the cytotoxic materials are perforin and serine easterases or granzymes. Perforins can attack the plasma membrane and form ion channels, thus causing entry of plenty of ions and water, resulting in the lysis and necrosis of cells while granzymes are similar to lymphotoxin, capable of activating DNases in the cell, thus causing lysis of nucleic DNA, resulting in the apoptosis of target cells.
Currently, Fv fragment is widely used for construction of BsAb, since it is the minimal unit with the complete antigen-binding site, small (about ⅙ of the whole antibody), absence of Fc domain, lower immunogenicity, easily penetration into the wall of blood vessels and solid tumors, easily expressed in E. coli and lower production cost. However, Fv is unstable and easy to dissociate in vivo because the covalent bond between VH and VL domains is unable to generate. In order to improve the stability of Fv fragment, a polypeptide intralinker between VH and VL domains is used to form so called ScFv. The intralinker is commonly a short flexible peptide with 15 amino acid residues in length such as (Gly4Ser)3. In the present invention, the said intralinker was used in both ScFvs. As mentioned above, there are several methods to construct BsAb. In the present invention, we constructed the single-chain bispecific antibody (ScBsAb) connected by an interlinker. The general principle for designing interlinkers is to ensure the proper pairing and folding of variable domains from two antibodies, furthermore keep the biological activities and stability of the said antibody. In addition, the said interlinker should endow BsAb some novel properties, such as easy purification and prolonged half-life time in the plasma etc. Two kinds of interlinkers, Fc and HSA originally designed in the present invention as a useful provide a novel idea for designing interlinkers. 205c′ interlinker cited from literature was used to compare and verify the efficacy of interlinkers designed in the present invention and the value of the said design in construction of anti-ovarian BsAb. (1) Design of Fc interlinker: in order to minimize the immunogenicity and molecule size, small molecular antibodies are absent of Fv domains resulting in lack of several biological function, such as ADCC, CDC and the classic complement activating pathway. To resolve this problem, we devised the interlinkers to make up the said shortcoming of genetically engineered antibodies. IgG1 is the most potent molecule in inducing ADCC and CDC among four subtypes of IgGs. It can induce the classic complement activating pathway by combining to C1q with its C-terminal sequence of CH2, wherein Gly318, Lys320 and Lys322 sites locate in the surface of Fc molecule to form a cluster in conformation and combine to C1q directly. In addition, Asn297 of CH2 contains a glycosylation site which is vital to the effect of ADCC and CDC induced by Fc. Thus, a fragment from 297 to 322 of CH2 in human IgG was selected to construct the interlinker of ScBsAb. It has 26 residues in length and contains the glycosylation site Asn297, the C1q-binding site Glu318, Lys320 and Lys322 etc as well as an EcoRI site at the 5′ end and a SacI site at the 3′ end for the purpose of gene clone. ScBsAb constructed by this strategy is expected to have the prolonged half life time in vivo and the effect for inducing CDC similar to Fc. (2) HSA interlinker: Because of the smaller size, small molecular antibodies have fast renal clearance, which results in a short retention time in immunotherapy thus causing curative effects unperfect although the shorter half life time is benefit for immunoimaging diagnosis of tumors. Therefore, we devised HSA interlinker which is expected to prolong the half life time of ScBsAb in vivo, improve the stability and solubility of ScBsAb. HSA (human serum album) is an important component of human serum. It is widely used as a stable natural vector because of its stability, several week half-life time, lack of specific enzymatic and immunological activities and slow clearance in liver. It was showed in research that the stability of proteins fused with HSA increased 20 to 40 times in animals. HSA molecule with 585 amino acids in length is composed of three domains, wherein the third domain DIII alone possesses the vector function of the whole molecule. Herein, a fragment with 25 residues from 403 to 427 of DIII domain, which is lack of Cys but rich in polar amino acids in HSA was used as another interlinker in construction of BsAb to improve the stability and prolong the half-life time in vivo. (3) 205c′ interlinker: This interlinker is 25 amino acids in length devised by Gruber in construction of anti-TCRxanti-fluorescence scBsAb. The purpose of utilizing 205c′ interlinker was to compare and verify the efficacy of interlinkers designed in the present invention and the value of the said design in construction of anti-ovarian BsAb.
Facing HAMA problem induced by murine antibodies in clinic that strongly limits repeated use and dose, further causing the poor curative efficacy, murine antibodies must be humanized to minimize their heterology, which is the urgent affairs for preparation of antibodies used in clinic. The scFv against CD3 molecule in ScBsAb used in the present invention is a reshaped antibody through humanization. The reshaped antibody, so-called CDR-grafted antibody or humanized antibody, is constructed by grafting complementarity-determing regions (CDRs) from the variable domains of rodent antibodies into the framemork regions of human variable domains. The space structure of antigen-binding sites of antibodies is mainly determined by six CDRs of variable domains. The said CDRs form three loops, which have decisive effects in antigen-antibody recognition, in the upper site of variable domains supported by four β-sheet domains. The said reshaped antibody remains the antigen-binding ability as well as the most characteristics of human antibody, therefore minimizing HAMA response effectively.
Ovarian cancer remains the leading cause of death from gynecologic malignancies. The five-year survival rate maintains only 30%. Because of lack of the effective diagnostic methods for ovarian cancer located deep into pelvic cavity and the vague symptoms associated in the earlier stage, most patients with ovarian cancer present with an advanced stage of cancer. Although methods of surgical operation advance, drugs of chemotherapy renew and treatments of radiotherapy improve stepwise, the prognosis of ovarian cancer didn't improve at all. The easy recurrence after surgical operation and the side effects and drug tolerance after repeated use of chemotherapy strongly influence the effects of treatments. Therefore, specific diagnostic methods for earlier stage of cancer and the timely clearance of residual focuses are the key step for improving prognosis. BsAb against the related antigens of ovarian cells is regarded as powerful tools in clinic.

Anti human ovarian cancer-anti CD3 bispecific antibody

Beijing ABT Genetic Engineering Technology Co. Ltd.


An illumination unit includes a thin and flexible substrate and flexible electrical tracks formed on the flexible substrate. A number of solid-state light generating sources are arranged on the flexible substrate along the electrical tracks and are electrically connected to the electrical tracks. A flexible and optically transparent encapsulant is provided to encapsulate the light generating sources on the substrate such that the illumination unit is both thin and flexible.

Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) are one type of solid-state light generating devices that have found their way in lighting applications, display applications, photo-therapeutic applications, and other applications where a compact, low voltage, rugged, and high efficiency light source is advantageous. In many such applications, a number of LEDs are arranged into an array or other pre-determined arrangement having similar or dissimilar LED types.
In display applications, LEDs emitting in the red, green, and blue colors are closely packed to form a color "pixel" that blends the three colors. In this manner white light can be generated. Alternatively, by selectively varying the optical output intensity of the three colored LEDs, a selected color can be generated. An array of such "pixels" can form a color display or an illuminating surface emitting white light. In lighting or photo-therapeutic applications, an illumination unit or panel containing LEDs arranged in an array can be formed.
The LEDs can also emit only red, blue or green color, not from the combination of the red, green and blue dies as stated above, but having the individual dies on the package itself emitting the different specific colors.
However, several hurdles remain in the use of LEDs in those applications. One problem associated with the prior LED illumination panel or display is its thickness. This means that the unit must be of the appropriate thickness. For example, a relatively thick LED illumination unit typically affects the therapeutic effectiveness of the unit due to reduced optical intensity. On the other hand, patient safety and comfort may be adversely affected if the unit is made too thin.
The other problem is the rigidity (i.e., not flexible to be bent) of the prior LED illumination unit. As is known, many of the above mentioned applications require that the illumination unit to be flexible. For example, in the lighting application where the LED illumination unit is used as a vehicle lamp, the illumination unit needs to be flexible or soft enough to form a desired shape or contour to follow the contour of a vehicle lamp. In the photo-therapeutic applications, the unit must be flexible enough so that it can follow the contour of the human body part in order to provide safe but effective phototherapy to that body part.
Therefore, what is needed is a thin, flexible, and safe illumination unit.

Illumination unit with a solid-state light generating source, a flexible substrate, and a flexible and optically transparent encapsulant


A planar optical waveguide is provided. The planar optical waveguide includes a polymer substrate having a coefficient of thermal expansion, a first cladding disposed on the substrate, and a core disposed on at least a portion of the first cladding. The core is a halogenated polymer having an absorptive optical loss of less than approximately 2.5×10−4 dB/cm in the range from about 1250 to 1700 nm. The core has a thermo-optic coefficient and a refractive index, a product of the thermo-optic coefficient and the reciprocal of the refractive index being approximately equal to the negative of the coefficient of thermal expansion.

Planar optical waveguides can be formed in polymers by using a core polymer and a cladding polymer with the core polymer refractive index slightly higher than that of the cladding polymer across the near infrared region of the optical telecommunication window from approximately 1200 to 1700 nanometers. A general approach to making such polymer optical waveguides is to dispose an undercladding polymer film layer on a silicon substrate and then a polymer core layer on top of the undercladding layer. The polymer core layer subsequently undergoes patterning, such as by lithography and etching processes, from which a rectangular cross-section channel is formed. An overcladding polymer film layer is then disposed on top of the waveguide core and the exposed undercladding film layer.
Various optical devices such as integrated splitters, couplers, arrayed waveguide gratings, and optical waveguide amplifiers can be formed with optical waveguides. In phase sensitive optical waveguide devices, such as directional couplers, Mach-Zender interferometers, arrayed waveguide gratings (AWG), etc., the wavelength responses of the devices vary significantly with environmental temperature changes, as shown in FIG. 1. This variance is due to the large thermal expansion coefficient and the large optic coefficient of polymer materials. Due to these large coefficients, operation of these optical waveguide devices requires temperature control, thereby increasing device complexity and manufacturing cost.
Keil et al. "Athermal all-polymer arrayed-waveguide grating multiplexer," Electronics Letters, Vol. 37, No. 9, Apr. 26, 2001, have disclosed fluoroacrylate-type polymers such as a terpolymer of pentafluorostyrene, trifluoroethylmethacrylate, and glycidylmethacrylate disposed on a polymer substrate as AWG's. However, these fluoroacrylate-type polymers contain numerous C—H bonds. Polymers with C—H bonds typically have high absorption in the infrared region where the optical communication signals reside, at approximately 1.5 μm. This absorption causes optical communication signal loss.
Suh et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,100,371, disclose using a polyimide polymer. However, polyimides disclosed by Matsuura et al. contain numerous C═O bonds.
Joo-Heon Ahn et al. "Polymeric 1×8 Arrayed Waveguide Grating Multiplexer using Fluorinated Poly(ether ketone) at 1550 nm," Proceedings of SPIE, Terahertz and Gigahertz Photonics, Vol. 3795, pg. 568–575, Denver, Colo. (July 1999), disclose a waveguide grating having a silicon substrate and use synthesized polyetherketone as the core material.
It is desirable to have polymer waveguide devices that are intrinsically athermal, i.e., the wavelength responses of the devices are have reduced sensitivity to environmental temperature changes, but exhibit low absorption loss around the 1.5 μm infrared communication wavelength, as well as exhibit a reduced amount of birefringence.

Athermal polymer optical waveguide on polymer substrate


A bi-directional, redundant, optical transport system is configured to provide a non-blocking, bi-directional, multi-channel, protocol independent optical transport system for the simultaneous transfer of digital, analog, and discrete data between a plurality data terminal equipment. The optical transport system includes a light transmission line for transmitting light bi-directionally and a plurality of nodes, connected in series by the light transmission line for receiving, extracting and passing signal light. Each node comprises: data terminal equipment for issuing and receiving electrical signals; an electro-optical interface device, associated the data terminal equipment, for converting electrical signals issued by the associated data terminal to signal light for insertion onto the light transmission light and for converting signal light, extracted from the light transmission line into electrical signals to be received by the associated data terminal; a translation logic device connected between the optical interface device and the data terminal equipment, for performing required protocol translation for the data terminal equipment and an optical interface device, connected to the electro-optical interface device and the light transmission line, for extracting signal light from the light transmission line to be converted into electrical signals by the electro-optical interface device for receipt by the data terminal equipment, for inserting, onto the light transmission line, signal light received from the electro-optical interface device and for passing signal light bi-directionally on the light transmission line.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an optical transport system for transmitting, extracting, and inserting light bi-directionally on a light transmission line, and more particularly to a redundant, non-blocking, bidirectional, multi-channel, protocol independent optical transport system for the simultaneous transfer of multiple, optically encoded signals.
2. Background Discussion
A variety of different topologies are employed to manage the transmission of data on an electrical data bus. Known network topologies include: 1) broadcast, such as utilized on a data bus; 2) point-to-point electrical and optical repeater links, such as seen with the ring configuration; 3) and logical star, where all data is transmitted to and from a central location for retransmission to an intended recipient.
One particular problem with these known network topologies is that they cannot be easily integrated with one another. In essence, once a particular topology and protocol are chosen for managing the transmission and receipt of data on a given network, that topology and protocol must always be used by the network. This lack of adaptability is a particular detrimental problem when new or more useful topologies are developed but cannot be applied to existing data transmission networks which are locked into archaic, less efficient topologies.
Recent advances in data transmission technology have been directed to increasing the bandwidth or data capacity of the network, i.e., increasing the amount of data that can be transmitted by the network.
Physics imposes data rates limits on standard optical networks which encode data in pulses of laser light and dispatch them through wires made of glass. Very fast data rates require very short pulses, which tend to smear into one another as they travel through kilometers of fiber. Electronic devices staggered along the path can clean up the signal, but they are expensive and can work on at most 50 billion bits per second using current technology.
To increase the data capacity, researchers have transmitted many signals simultaneously over a single fiber by encoding them in different wavelengths or channels. Transmission networks that use this technique, known as wavelength division multiplexing (WDM), have boosted the capacity of existing fiber twenty fold or more.


A solar lighting apparatus includes a controlling portion, having a first conjugating surface, a button with a plurality of lights, and electrodes hidden in the controlling portion; and an energy collecting portion, having a second conjugating surface, a solar panel to absorb sunlight, and corresponding receiving holes to receive the electrodes of the controlling portion, wherein a magnetic force is generated between the controlling portion and the energy collecting portion to tightly bind these two portions, and the electrodes are attracted out from the controlling portion by the magnetic force to plug into the receiving holes to form an energy conversion circuit to convert solar energy collected by the solar panel to other forms of energy.

Recently, solar energy becomes more and more popular to convert sunlight into other types of energy such as electricity and heat. Solar power is advantageous in situations where other power sources are unavailable because solar energy can be collected during the daytime via solar panels and the collected energy can be used to power other devices during the nighttime. In some situations, the solar cell can directly power a device, but it is more common to have the solar cell charged and maintain an energy storage device.
An LED (light-emitting diodes) lamp is a type of solid-state lighting that utilizes LEDs as a source of illumination. Recently, the use of LEDs for various lighting purposes has increased because LEDs have a very long lifespan (at least 100,000 hours), compared with common incandescent and fluorescent sources. Also, with newer doping techniques, LEDs are becoming increasingly efficient, and colored LED sources currently available may consume an order of magnitude less power than incandescent bulbs of equivalent light output. Because of these advantages, LEDs have been widely used in solar lighting devices in recent years.
Solar lighting devices can be disposed at some outdoor gears. U.S. Pat. No. 6,837,255 to Bunch et al. discloses an illuminated umbrella assembly having self-contained and protected lights. More specifically, Bunch et al. discloses an illuminated umbrella assembly that has a removable lighting protected from damage by being internally placed within the umbrella assembly. Also, the lighting is powered by solar panels disposed on the umbrella, as shown in FIG. 1. Even though the lighting fixture of the illuminated umbrella assembly is movable, the movement thereof is very limited because the solar panel is fixed on the umbrella assembly, and the connection and wiring between the solar panel and lighting fixture are fixed on the umbrella assembly. In other words, the lighting fixture and the solar panel are not portable and cannot be easily transferred to other outdoor gears such as other outdoor umbrellas or tents.
U.S. Pub. No. 2005/0254228 to Li discloses an outdoors umbrella which incorporates with a solar lighting system for providing illumination utilizing solar energy as an external energy source, as shown in FIG. 2. Thus, the solar lighting system is environmentally friendly and economical to operate. Also, the electrical operation of the solar light system is substantially unaffected by the folding and unfolding operation of the outdoors umbrella so that it is capable of fully operating while the outdoors umbrella is partially or inclinedly erected. However, the solar panels are fixed on the umbrella as well as the lighting fixtures, so the lighting fixture and the solar panel are not even portable and cannot be easily transferred to other outdoor gears such as tents.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,497,583 to Ma also discloses a light provider for an umbrella and stand assembly. More specifically, Ma discloses a portable, multi-purpose lighting device which can be easily fastened to, as well as un-fastened from, a pole-like object such as an umbrella stand, and without the trouble of having an electrical cord hanging undesirably from it. A plurality of solar panels are disposed near the post of the umbrella, as shown in FIG. 3. Even though Ma mentions that the lighting device is portable, the lighting fixtures along with the solar panels are too bulky to carry, let alone transferring them to other outdoor gears.
Therefore, there remains a need for a new and improved solar lighting system that is indeed portable, light weight, and easy to transfer to other outdoor gears to overcome the problems stated above.

Magnetically coupled solar-powered lights


A method and a device for controlling a method for controlling the power in an asymmetric soft handover condition in a communication network, including at least two cells                each cell being served by a first type network device adapted to serve second type network devices in the respective cell. The method comprises:        temporarily adjusting (step S3) a communication parameter of at least one second type network deviceto set up and/or maintain the communication of the second type network device with the first type network device of at least one of said cells.

In mobile communication technologies like, e.g. UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunication System), base stations—so-called first type network devices—serve a limited number of mobile users—so-called second type network devices—according to the current location of the users. As long as a user is in a cell area of certain base station, he can obtain mobile services from that base station. The overall performance and the quality of the service depends—among others—on propagation conditions, cell type, cell size, load distribution and on the power level of the various signal transmissions, particularly of the pilot signal provided by each base station.
The pilot signal transmitted by each base station carries a bit sequence or code known by the mobile stations. The bit sequence can be base station and sector dependent. The power level of the pilot signal received by the mobiles is used by the mobile stations to measure the relative distance between different base stations that could be used for communication. Thus, the power level of the pilot signal of a base station determines how far a mobile can "hear" the base stations; i.e. the power of the pilot signal is an indication to the mobile station of its ability to successfully use the signal from that base station which is transmitting that pilot signal.
In Code Division Multiple Access networks (WCDMA-Systems for example) the cell selection, re-selection and the selection of the active set of cells which are used for communication is based on the relative strength of the received pilot signal power (CPICH Ec/Io, wherein Ec/Io=chip energy to total interference spectral density) from different cells. Thus, the borders of a cell are determined by the relative strength of the pilot signal received from different cells. Hence, the power level of the pilot signal determines the pilot power coverage, i.e. the area of the cell in which the pilot signal is sufficiently powered to be properly decoded by the mobile stations.
In the CDMA-Systems tight and fast power control is an important aspect, particularly on the uplink channel to avoid that one single overpowered mobile station blocks a whole cell. The solution is a fast closed-loop power control. By this control, the base station performs frequent estimates of the received Signal to Interference Ratio (SIR) and compares it to a target SIR. If the measured SIR is higher than the target SIR, the base station will command the mobile station to lower the power. If it is too low, it will command the mobile station to increase its power. The closed loop power control will thus prevent power inbalance among all the uplink signals received at the respective base station.
Additionally, a slower Outer Loop Power Control (OLPC-function) is provided which adjusts the target SIR in the base station according to the needs of the individual radio link and aims at a constant target quality, usually defined as a bit error rate (BER) or block error rate (BLER). As one would waste much power capacity if one would set the target SIR to the worst case, i.e. for high mobile speeds, the target SIR floats around a minimum value that just fulfils the required target quality. The target SIR will change as a function of time, speed and the propagation environment of the mobile changes. When the Outer Loop Power Control adjusts the target SIR in the respective base station, the fast closed loop control will react correspondingly and bring the SIR-value received in the associated base stations back to the target SIR value.
During a Soft Handover situation (SHO) a mobile station is in the overlapping cell coverage area of two cells belonging to different base stations. The communications between mobile station and the base stations take place concurrently via two air interface channels downlink from each base station separately. In uplink direction, the code channel of the mobile station is received from both base stations, but the received data is then routed to the associated radio network controller (RNC) for combining. Then, the RNC selects the better communication between the two possible radio links, and this selection takes place periodically, i.e. every 10 to 80 milliseconds.
In WCDMA-systems base stations are not synchronized, which is different to other current CDMA technologies and the synchronization of a new radio link between a mobile station and the base station takes place during the radio link set up procedure. The uplink synchronization will be achieved and maintained only if the base station can receive a strong enough signal from the mobile, i.e. if the transmission power of the mobile station is high enough. The transmission power of the mobile, is however, controlled by the power control of the "stronger" radio link. In this application the stronger link is defined as radio connection requiring less transmission power from the mobile, and the weaker link is defined as radio connection requiring more transmission power from the mobile. The "stronger" cell is defined to be the cell with the stronger link, and the "weaker" cell is defined to be the cell with the weaker link.
If the links in a soft handover area are strongly asymmetric, the transmission power of the mobile station may not be high enough to reach the other base station(s) where the link is weaker. This implies that for the cell included in the active set of cells and requiring significantly higher transmission power from the mobile, the uplink synchronisation will not be achieved or maintained, and the link set up to establish a soft handover procedure or the maintaining of the soft handover will practically fail.
This applies to any communication system where the transmission of a second type network devices (e.g. mobile) is received by more than one first type network device (e.g. base station) to setup and/or maintain a communication link but its transmission power cannot be adjusted individually to each first type network devices.

Method and device for controlling the power in an asymmetric soft handover condition


The present invention extends to a dental appliance having a set of rigid flanges conforming to a patient's mandibular bone structure and a stabilizer for securing and resisting movement of the dental appliance once set. The stabilizer reduces movement of a lower denture. The stabilizer extends perpendicularly from a flange of the lower denture and reduces denture movement during chewing. The stabilizer has one surface making contact with the bottom of the tongue and another surface making contact with the Genioglossus muscle when a user is chewing. The stabilizer does not require a dental implant for maintaining lower denture stability.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to devices for retaining and stabilizing mandibular (lower) dental appliances. More particularly, the present invention relates to the inclusion of one or more stabilizers placed in an appropriate area on a mandibular denture or partial denture with either lateral or bi-lateral distal extensions; thus increasing stabilization and security for greater masticatory (chewing) ability, stability and comfort.
2. Related Art
Lower dentures present an accepted problem for both the wearer and the dental provider—those problems are related to looseness and movement. There have been numerous attempts to overcome this dilemma by a variety of protocols; all of which did little to resolve the condition; and in some cases exacerbated it.
Today, the accepted protocol to overcome this problem is the placement of implant abutments. Implant abutments are mechanical devices consisting of a male and a female counterpart. The male portion must be surgically inserted through the periosteum (tissue covering the bone surface) and then into the osseous (bone) portion of the mandible. This technique requires anywhere from 2-4 or even more implants and typically costs multiple thousands of dollars. Further, the implants can fail because of the patient's biologic or physiologic rejection of the devices or due to poor placement causing breakdown of the supportive osseous (bone) hard tissue. Additionally, the patient is required to maintain more dentist visits so the dentist can monitor the health of the tissues supporting the implants causing additional expenses to the patient.
Further, conventional dentures or the like, especially mandibular and distal extension partial dentures are predominantly designed to be placed over the gums, and generally rely on gravity, tooth clasps, and/or adhesives to retain them in place. Various denture retaining devices are available in the prior art, but have up to now met with limited success. For example, some techniques use three piece lower dentures wherein two side pieces extend lower than a middle piece. Upon placement in the mouth, the pieces are attached together through interlocking tongue and groove or other construction which allow movement in a vertical direction. Besides the relative difficulty in maneuvering the three pieces in the user's mouth, any sufficient force on the central piece of these dentures from the incisor load may not be effectively transferred to the side pieces. This may lead to shear separation of the connections between the central piece and side pieces.
Other techniques use a device for retaining a lower denture having an externally fixed element, a retaining tongue which slides within a fixed element, and a cover piece which covers the fixed element and a portion of the retaining tongue. To use this device, the fixed element is secured to a lower denture such that the retaining tongue slides downward. After placement in the mouth, the user must slide the tongue below the mylohyoid ridge, and then place the cover piece to secure the retaining tongue in position. Besides the necessity for complex user manipulation, this device applies pressure to the cavity below the mylohyoid ridge on a relatively small surface area. Further, the protruding structure of this device may lead to irritation and abrasion, thereby reducing the comfort with which the attached denture may be worn.
Further techniques, use flexible dentures which grip the gums of users. However, these dentures do not extend below the mylohyoid ridge or any other like bone ridges to provide support.
Additional techniques appear to be spring loaded and spanning the length of the flange extension and embedded within said flange extension. The material providing the hinged action expresses a rigid flanged denture with a hinged portion to fit into the natural undercuts of the mylohyoid ridge.


A tip tool guide apparatus is brought into a water chamber of a steam generator of nuclear power equipment, and guides a tip tool, such as a shot peening head, along a necessary region. For this purpose, a tip tool guide apparatus 1000 is composed of a swivel support portion 100, a slide table 200, and a manipulator 300. The swivel support portion 100 is self-supported and fixed within the water chamber, and turns the slide table 200 connected thereto. The slide table 200 connects the manipulator 300, and moves the manipulator 300 slidingly in a fore-and-aft direction. The manipulator 300 grasps the tip tool at its leading end. For bringing into the water chamber, the swivel support portion 100, the slide table 200, and the manipulator 300 are separated from each other, brought in individually, and assembled within the water chamber to constitute the tip tool guide apparatus 1000.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a tip tool guide apparatus, and a method for bringing in the tip tool guide apparatus.
The tip tool guide apparatus of the present invention is an apparatus which is brought into a water chamber of a steam generator of nuclear power equipment, and guides various tip tools, necessary to perform shot peening, along a necessary processing region.
The method for bringing in the tip tool guide apparatus according to the present invention is a method for efficiently bringing the tip tools into and out of the water chamber of the steam generator of nuclear power equipment via a manhole formed in the water chamber.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 39 shows a primary system of pressurized light water reactor nuclear power equipment. As shown in this drawing, a reactor vessel 1, a pressurizer 2, a steam generator 3, and a pump 4 are sequentially connected by a main coolant pipe 5 to form a primary circulating path. In this primary circulating path, a main coolant (primary water) 6 pressure-fed by the pump 4 flows in a circulating manner.
The primary water 6 at a high temperature and a high pressure, which has been heated in the reactor vessel 1, is supplied to the steam generator 3 through the main coolant pipe 5 while being maintained at a constant pressure by the pressurizer 2. This primary water 6 enters an inlet-side water chamber 3b from an inlet pipe nozzle stub 3a of the steam generator 3, further flows through many inverted-U-shaped heat transfer tubes 3c, enters an outlet-side water chamber 3d, and exits from an outlet pipe nozzle stub 3e.
On this occasion, secondary water 10 returned from a turbine is heated and evaporated by a group of the heat transfer tubes 3c, within which the high temperature primary water 6 flows. Steam 11 thus generated is separated upon steam-water separation by a steam separator 12, and supplied to the turbine (not shown) to drive the turbine. This driving of the turbine rotationally drives a generator (not shown) to generate electric power.
A lower portion of the steam generator 3 is shown enlarged in FIG. 40. As shown in FIG. 40, the inlet-side water chamber 3b and the outlet-side water chamber 3d are separated from each other by a partition plate 3f. The inlet pipe nozzle stub 3a is installed in a downwardly inclined posture when viewed from the inlet-side water chamber 3b, while the outlet pipe nozzle stub 3e is installed in a downwardly inclined posture when viewed from the outlet-side water chamber 3d.
FIG. 41 shows a welded joint structure for welding between the nozzle stub 3e (3a) and the main coolant pipe 5. The nozzle stub 3e (3a) is formed from a material which is carbon steel or low alloy steel. The interior of the nozzle stub 3e (3a) has been subjected to build-up welding with stainless steel 30, and a buttering portion 31 of a nickel-chromium-iron alloy (600-alloy) is applied to an end portion of the nozzle stub 3e (3a).
A safe end 32 formed from stainless steel is welded to the buttering portion 31 with the use of a weld zone 33 of 600-alloy. The main coolant pipe 5 is welded to the other end of the safe end 32 with the use of a welding material 34 of stainless steel.
The 600-alloy material, as a nickel-chromium-iron alloy, in the pressurized light water reactor nuclear power equipment may undergo stress-corrosion cracking as the equipment is very aged, if high stress occurs in the presence of primary water at a high temperature.
Residual stress has been generated in the 600-alloy buttering portion 31 and the 600-alloy weld zone 33 because of welding during manufacture. To suppress the stress-corrosion cracking of the 600-alloy buttering portion 31 and the 600-alloy weld zone 33 contacting the primary water, it is effective to decrease the residual stress generated in the 600-alloy buttering portion 31 and the 600-alloy weld zone 33.
In the existing nuclear power equipment, therefore, it has been considered an effective method to withdraw the main coolant (primary water) 6, and perform shot peening of the surfaces of the 600-alloy buttering portion 31 and the 600-alloy weld zone 33 (their inner peripheral surfaces) from the inner peripheral surface side of the nozzle stubs 3a, 3e, thereby decreasing the residual stress of this region. FIG. 42 shows a peening width W of a processing region which is subjected to shot peening. Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2004-169100 is available as a document showing an earlier technology.
However, the shot peening performed from the inner peripheral surface side of the inlet pipe nozzle stub 3a and the outlet pipe nozzle stub 3e posed the following problems:
(1) With the existing nuclear power equipment, the dose rates within the water chambers 3b and 3d are extremely high. To ensure safety, therefore, the time for which an operator stays within the water chamber 3b or 3d needs to be limited to a minimum required time.(2) As shown in FIG. 43 which is a sectional view taken along line X-X in FIG. 40, a manhole H of a small diameter (about 400 mm) is formed in the outlet-side water chamber 3d. Similarly, a manhole H of a small diameter is formed in the inlet-side water chamber 3b. To enter the water chamber 3b or 3d and apply shot peening to the inner peripheral surface of the nozzle stub 3a or 3e, this narrow manhole H is the only passage leading to the water chamber 3b or 3d.
Thus, an apparatus brought into the water chamber 3b or 3d for the shot peening operation needs to be a compact and lightweight one of a shape allowing passage through the manhole H.
The apparatus also needs to be contrived such that it can be easily brought into the water chamber 3b or 3d.
(3) It is also necessary that the shot peening operation can be performed accurately and promptly.
It is true that if shot peening of the inlet pipe nozzle stub 3a and the outlet pipe nozzle stub 3e can be performed from the inner peripheral surface side thereof, the stress-corrosion cracking of the 600-alloy buttering portion 31 and the 600-alloy weld zone 33 can be suppressed. However, there has been no concrete instrument which can apply shot peening accurately and promptly while solving the above-mentioned problems.

Tip tool guide apparatus and method for bringing in tip tool guide apparatus


The invention relates to a method of inhibiting the cytotoxic activity of extracellular histones in a subject, comprising administering an effective amount of a polyanion to the subject. In particular the invention relates to a method for the treatment of patients who are suffering from sepsis and employs polyanions to rapidly form complexes with and thus neutralize or inhibit the cytotoxic activity of extracellular histone proteins, for example, those found in the blood circulation of sepsis patients.

Sepsis is a systemic inflammatory response to infection or trauma associated with and mediated by the activation of a number of host defense mechanisms including the cytokine network, leukocytes, and the complement and coagulation/fibrinolysis systems. Sepsis may be caused by bacterial, fungal, viral and other infections as well as by non-infective stimuli such as multiple trauma, severe burns, and organ transplantation. Within hours or days sepsis can progress to spontaneous clotting in the blood vessels, severe hypotension, multiple organ failure, and death.
Despite the clinical use of modern antibiotics, there remains a significant level of mortality due to ineffective treatment of patients with sepsis. Patients who are immunocompromised due to e.g. prophylaxis against graft rejection are also at increased risk. More leukemia patients die from sepsis than from their leukemia. It is estimated that there are 500 000 episodes of sepsis per year in the USA with a 35% crude mortality rate and 200 000 episodes of septic shock with a 40-70% mortality rate. Sepsis is the leading cause of death in non-coronary intensive care units. 40% of hospital deaths after injury are due to multiple organ dysfunction syndrome caused by sepsis.
Several attempts have been made in recent times to find an effective new therapy for sepsis patients. Considerable effort has been made to produce monoclonal antibodies against key mediators of inflammation, e.g. anti-tumour necrosis factor monoclonal antibodies, but these have proved clinically ineffective and have also been found to have dangerous side effects in sepsis patients. Another approach has been to use purified human coagulation factors, such as activated protein C (APC) including recombinant human APC (e.g. Xigris®). However, these APC based sepsis therapies have had little clinical impact. There are a number of reasons for this which include the anti-coagulant activity of APC which leads to an increased risk of haemorrhage thus the drug is excluded for sepsis which develops in patients post surgery or post trauma. For the same reason APC based sepsis therapeutics are excluded for leukemia patients who are at high risk of bleeding. Sepsis can progress rapidly and the relatively slow mode of action of APC based sepsis therapeutics is a disadvantage relative to the rapid progression of acute sepsis. Xigris was withdrawn from sale on Oct. 25, 2011.
Histones are small basic proteins that function in the cell nucleus to regulate gene expression and complex with DNA to form nucleosomes which assemble into chromatin structure. Xu et al, (Nat. Med. 2009. 15:1318-21) have reported a cytotoxic activity for histones released in response to inflammatory processes with the extracellular histones acting as mediators of endothelial cell dysfunction, organ failure and death in sepsis.
The present invention is predicated on the finding that polyanions can complex with extracellular histones in the circulation of a living animal and inhibit their cytotoxic activity. In addition the polyanions can complex with extracellular histones and prevent histone accumulation in organs. Further, these polyanions may have insignificant anticoagulant properties.