An apparatus for the installation of an inverted resin impregnated flexible tubular liner in a lateral passageway from a main passageway while permitting the flow of fluids through the main passageway during the installation process is provided. A cylindrical body with an opening to coincide with and interact with the lateral passageway has an expandable bladder on its outside with an opening coincident with the body opening and an elbow portion on the inside which is firmly attached at the opening. An air supply inflates the bladder. A tubular elbow is attached to a flexible hose at its proximal end, the hose having a gland for injecting fluid into the hose for inverting and curing the liner.

The invention relates to a method and apparatus for the installation of a cured in place liner within the interior of a conduit or pipeline, such as a sewer pipe, and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for installation of a cured in place liner within the interior of a lateral conduit or pipeline which connects to a main conduit while maintaining flow through the main conduit or passageway during installation.
In a sewage system, a main sewer pipe will run underground directly along the line of a main street or thoroughfare, and the users of the system will be connected to the main sewer pipe by means of lateral pipes which extend transversely off the main sewer pipe to user points on opposite sides of the road, street or thoroughfare.
It is generally well known that conduits or pipelines, particularly underground pipes, such as sanitary sewer pipes, storm sewer pipes, water lines and gas lines, that are employed for conducting fluids frequently require repair due to fluid leakage. The leakage may be inward, from the environment into the interior or conducting part of the pipe, or outward, from the conducting part of the pipe into the surrounding environment. Leakage of this type may be due to improper initial installation of the pipe, deterioration of the pipe itself due to normal aging or to the effects of conveying corrosive or abrasive materials, cracking of the pipe or of pipe joints due to environmental conditions such as earthquakes, the movement of large vehicles or similar natural or man made vibrations, or any other such causes. Regardless of the cause, such leakage is undesirable and may result in waste of the fluid being conveyed by the pipe, in damage to the surrounding environment and in the possible creation of dangerous public health hazards.
Because of ever increasing labor and machinery costs, it is becoming increasingly more difficult and less economical to dig up and replace underground pipes, or portions or sections of such underground pipes, that may be leaking. As a result, various methods have been devised for the in situ repair or rehabilitation of the existing pipes, thereby avoiding the expenses and hazards associated with digging up and replacing the pipes or pipe sections. One of the more successful pipe repair or rehabilitation processes that is currently used is called the Insituform.RTM. Process and is described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,009,063; 4,064,211; and 4,135,958, the contents of all of which are incorporated by reference herein.
Briefly, in the Insituform Process, an elongated flexible tubular liner of a felt fabric, foam or similar resin impregnable material that has been impregnated with a thermosetting synthetic catalyzed resin is installed within the existing pipe. The impregnated liner may be pulled into the conduit by a rope or cable, and a fluid impermeable inflation bladder or tube is then everted within the liner. Generally, however, the liner is installed utilizing an inverting (or everting) process, as described in the latter two patents.
The flexible tubular liners generally have a smooth layer of relatively flexible, substantially impermeable material coating the outside of the liner in its initial state. This impermeable layer ends up on the inside of the liner after the liner is inverted. As the flexible liner is installed in place within the existing pipeline, the liner is pressurized from within, preferably utilizing a fluid such as water. The fluid forces the liner radially outwardly to engage and conform to the interior surface of the pipe. The resin is then cured to form a relatively hard, tight fitting, rigid pipe lining that effectively seals any cracks and that repairs any pipe or pipe joint deterioration in order to prevent further leakage either into or out of the pipe. The cured resin liner also serves to strengthen the existing pipe walls so as to provide added structural support.
More recently, there has been a demand for and a need to reline the lateral pipes as well as the mainlines. It is preferable to line the lateral pipeline using a lining tube of the same basic construction as the lining tube which is used for the main sewer pipe. A number of proposals for methods and apparatus have already been made in order to meet this requirement.
Because of the nature of the layout of main sewer pipe and laterals, it is preferable to be able to line the lateral from the mainline. This is referred to as lining from the inside out. A convenient method is to evert the lining tube into the lateral by a "launcher" type apparatus which is positioned inside the main sewer. The principal reason for proceeding in this way is that access to the lateral from the consumer point is inconvenient to the user. Frequently, users will object strongly to working for effecting lateral lining, from a position inside a dwelling or building. It is obviously much better if the contractor can perform the lining operation from inside the main sewer as the consumer is therefore in no way disturbed other than to have the service cut off for a short period while the lateral lining takes place.
Despite the existence of apparatus which are capable of installation of a lateral lining, these prior apparatus do not provide for the continued flow through of the main conduit or passageway. Often a bladder is used to forcingly mate the end of the newly installed lateral lining with the connection point of the lateral to the main conduit or passageway. The bladder expands when pressurized and fills the main conduit or passageway. Accordingly, when installation of a lateral lining is performed, the main passageway is blocked so that sewage and drainage from upstream cannot continue to progress through the main conduit or passageway.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide an improved method and apparatus for the installation of cured in place lining of a lateral connection to a main conduit or passageway which overcomes these limitations.

Method for lining of lateral pipelines with flow-through apparatus


A chemical synthesis apparatus (20) for building chemical compounds includes a head assembly (21) having an array of nozzles (22) with each nozzle or plurality of nozzles coupled to a reservoir (23) of liquid reagent (24), and a base assembly (25) having an array of reaction wells (26). A transport mechanism (27) aligns the reaction wells (26) and selected nozzles (22) in a longitudinal X-direction for deposition of liquid reagent (24) into selected reaction wells (26). A plurality of independently controllable sliders (100) move nozzle columns (41) in a lateral Y-direction for deposition of liquid reagent (24) into selected reaction wells (26). A first sliding seal (30) is positioned between the head assembly (21) and the base assembly (25) to form a common chamber (31) enclosing both the reaction well (26) and the nozzles (22) therein. A plurality of second sliding seals (120) is positioned between head assembly (21) and sliders (100). A gas inlet (70) into the common chamber (31), upstream from the nozzles (22), and a gas outlet (71) out of the common chamber (31), downstream from nozzles (22), sweeps the common chamber (31) of fumes emitted by the reagents.

The present invention is designed as a new and useful improvement to the invention disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,472,672, and 5,529,756, and applications Ser. Nos. 08/452,967 and 08/453,972 (still pending) to Brennan which had provided an Apparatus and Method for Polymer Synthesis Using Arrays. The disclosures of these U.S. Patents and pending applications are incorporated herein by reference and will be herein collectively referred to as "the existing Brennan system."
In the existing Brennan system, various reagents were sequentially added to various reaction wells which were laid out in an array of columns and rows. This array of reaction wells was moved back and forth in a direction parallel to these rows by a transportation mechanism with stationary nozzles for dispensing these reagents positioned in a corresponding array of columns and rows above these reaction wells. These nozzles were connected by tubing to the various reagents and valves were selectively opened and closed as desired allowing the various reagents to pass into these various reaction wells. By moving this array of reaction wells back and forth under this stationary array of selectively opening nozzles, the various reagents were added in various sequences and combinations to the different reaction wells.
In the existing Brennan system, each of the particular reagents to be delivered were typically connected to all of the nozzles in a particular column of nozzles in the nozzle array, and the array of reaction wells was then moved back and forth in a direction parallel to the rows of reaction wells passing under these various columns of nozzles. Using this setup, each reagent could be delivered into any reaction well positioned therebelow. Unfortunately, using this particular setup for synthesis of polymers by sequentially adding various reagents into these various reaction wells was therefore limited in the actual number of reagents it was able to simultaneously utilize because all of the nozzles in each particular column of nozzles were connected to dispense the same reagent. The number of reagents which could be utilized was therefore limited by the number of columns of dispensing nozzles. Alternatively, other setups could conceivably be adapted where the various nozzles in any particular column or columns of nozzles could be connected to dispense different reagents. Unfortunately, all these alternative setups have the limitation that the various nozzles in a particular column of nozzles would not be able to dispense different reagents such that all of the various individual reaction wells in the reaction well array could be positioned so as to receive each of the various reagents being dispersed. This occurs because each row of reaction wells is movable back and forth under only one nozzle in each column of dispensing nozzles. The existing Brennan system is therefore limited in that all of the reagent dispensing nozzles cannot be aligned with all of the reaction wells. Rather, each single row of reaction wells can only be aligned with a particular single row of dispensing nozzles in the nozzle dispensing row positioned thereabove. In addition, the existing Brennan system was limited in that it was directed mainly to specific oligonucleotide polymer synthesis with limited numbers of reagents and not specifically to synthesizing other sorts of chemicals such as small molecule pharmaceuticals.
The present invention improves upon the existing Brennan system to provide the advantages of greater flexibility and a vastly increased number of reagents or other chemical units which can be simultaneously used in the synthesis of all types of chemicals. This invention also provides a method and apparatus for chemical synthesis sequentially adding reagents or other chemical units to an array of reaction wells in which a much greater number of different and more complex compounds can be simultaneously synthesized therefrom.

Apparatus for diverse chemical synthesis using two-dimensional array


An actuating motion detection device for a mechanically actuated gyrolaser including at least one fastening ring coaxial with an actuation axis of the gyrolaser. The fastening ring includes a hub held at a center of a rim by radial flexible strips distributed about the hub, and the radial flexible strips are configured to act as springs and to vibrate under an actuating motion. The motion detecting device includes torsion detectors having a pair of piezoelectric plates disposed at a radial position along one radial flexible strip. The piezoelectric plates have respective remanent magnetic fields aligned in opposite directions, and each piezoelectric plate has two electrodes positioned on opposite sides of the piezoelectric plate with one of the two electrodes contacting the radial flexible strip. The electrodes are connected to a common output. In response to deformations of the flexible strips due to rotational motions along the actuation axis, the torsion detectors generate electrical signals of a same polarity that collect at the common output. In response to deformations of the flexible strips coming from motions not along the actuation axis, the torsion detectors generate electrical signals that cancel at the common output.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to mechanically actuated laser gyrometers used in certain inertial units to measure rotational speeds.
2. Discussion of Background
The principle of a single-axis laser gyrometer is based on the use of two monochromatic light beams that are propagated in opposite directions in a plane along one and the same closed-loop pathway. When the plane of the pathway of the two counter-propagating monochromatic light beams is animated by a motion that is rotational with respect to its axis, the effective lengths of the pathways travelled by the two beams change, giving rise to a difference in frequency between the two beams since the oscillation frequency of a laser is dependent on the length of the path travelled by its beam. This difference in frequency, which can be measured by obtaining the interference of the two beams in a photodetector, then gives a measurement of the speed of rotation of the plane of the pathway of the two light beams about its axis which is the sensitive axis of the gyrometer. However, when the difference in pathways between the two beams is small, the two light beams tend to get coupled and oscillate at one and the same frequency, so much so that it is difficult to measure low rotational speeds. To overcome this lack of sensitivity of single-axis laser gyrometers to low rotational speeds, there are known ways of giving them a mechanical vibrational motion of oscillation about their sensitive axis in order to increase their apparent rotational speed and enable the measurement of the low rotational speeds. This mechanical oscillatory motion is called actuation. The shift that occurs in the rotation measurement given by the gyrometer is subsequently eliminated by appropriate processing when the gyrometer signal is exploited.
The mechanical vibrational actuating motion is generally obtained by mounting a single-axis laser gyrometer in a hollow cylindrical jacket using two fastening rings that are coaxial with its sensitive axis and have a certain degree of flexibility in rotational torsion. These fastening rings are fixed by their hub or inner periphery to the body of the gyrometer and by their rim or outer periphery to the hollow cylindrical jacket which is itself mounted in a casing by means of several elastic shock absorbers evenly distributed on its edge. One of the fastening rings is fitted out with a piezoelectric oscillatory motor used to generate and sustain the actuating oscillations.
Triaxial laser gyrometers are constituted by a rigid assembly of three single-axis laser gyrometers having their sensitive axes oriented along the three axes of a trirectangular trihedron and, as the case may be, by common elements. To remedy their lack of sensitivity to low rotational speeds, they are actuated by a single oscillatory vibrational motion about an axis that is oriented differently from their sensitive axes in a direction such that this motion has same-amplitude components of oscillation about the three sensitive axes of the three single-axis laser gyrometers. To obtain this actuating motion, the three single-axis laser gyrometers constituting a triaxial laser gyrometer unit are mounted, like a single-axis laser gyrometer, inside a hollow cylindrical jacket by means of two fastening rings that are coaxial with the actuation axis of the gyrometer unit. As in the above case of a single-axis gyrometer, these rings have a certain degree of flexibility in rotational torsion. They are fixed by their hub or inner periphery to the triaxial laser gyrometer unit and by their rim or outer periphery to the hollow cylindrical jacket which in its turn is fixed in a casing by means of several elastic shock absorbers evenly distributed on its rim. One of the fastening rings is provided with a piezoelectric oscillatory motor used to generate and sustain the actuating oscillations.
When a single-axis or triaxial laser gyrometer is subjected to mechanical actuating oscillations, it is necessary to determine the proportional share of these actuating oscillations in the measurement or measurements of rotational speeds delivered so as to eliminate this share and keep only that part which corresponds to the measurements of the true rotational speeds of rotation of the carrier of the gyrometer. To achieve this and also to adjust the excitation of the piezoelectric motor, it is useful to know the effective amplitude of the actuating vibrations. This is done in a known way by fitting out the motor-driven ring with an actuating motion detector.
The fastening rings of a mechanically actuated gyrometer usually have the form of a spoked wheel with a hub held in the center of a rim by flexible radial strips, positioned in transversal planes and evenly distributed around the hub, that act as springs.
The piezoelectric motor consists of piezoelectric ceramic plates provided on their sides with excitation electrodes and bonded to several radial strips that fixedly join the hub to the rim of the motor-driven, fastening ring. These piezoelectric plates, when excited appropriately by a voltage, give rise to a bimetallic effect on the radial strips. This bimetallic effect, when it is repetitive, causes rotational oscillations between the hub and the rim of the motor-driven fastening ring.
The actuating motion detector commonly used consists of a torsion detector consisting of a single piezoelectric plate cross-polarized polarized by a remanent magnetic field, coated on its sides with two electrodes and bonded to one of the radial strips of the motor-driven fastening ring that has no driving piezoelectric plates. The piezoelectric plate of the torsion detector is not excited electrically and, between its electrodes, it gives electrical charges like a capacitor. The number and polarization of these electrical charges are a function of the deformations undergone by the radial strip that carries the plate. The plate has the drawback of being sensitive not only to mechanical actuating vibrations but also to parasitic mechanical vibrations originating in external mechanical disturbances. Indeed, an impact or vibrations applied to the casing of the gyrometer dictate an acceleration on the suspended part of the gyrometer. This acceleration deforms the flexible strips of the fastening ring. These deformations are detected by the piezoelectric ceramic plate of the torsion detector in the same way as those due to the actuating vibrations. They are the cause of a noise in the output signal of the torsion detector which gets added to the useful component due to the actuating vibrations and is difficult to eliminate by signal processing because it occupies a very wide frequency range that overlaps the frequency range of the actuating vibrations.
It is an aim of the present invention to provide an actuating motion detector for gyrolasers that has lower sensitivity to external mechanical disturbances.
An object of the invention is an actuating motion detection device for mechanically actuated gyrolasers fitted out with at least one fastening ring that is coaxial with its actuation axis and comprises a hub held at the center of a rim by radial flexible strips positioned in transversal planes and evenly distributed about the hub, that act as springs and go into vibration under the effect of the actuating motion. This actuating motion detection device comprises several torsion detectors with piezoelectric plates polarized by remanent magnetic field, each coated on their sides with two electrodes that are positioned differently on the flexible strips of the fastening ring, and having their electrodes parallel-connected or antiparallel-connected to a common output so that, in response to deformations of the strips due to rotational motions along the actuation axis, they generate electrical charges with the same polarity that collect at the common output and, in response to deformations of the strips coming from other motions, they generate electrical charges with opposite polarities that cancel each other out at the common output so as to favor the response to the deformations due to rotational motion along the actuation axis over the response to any other deformation.
Advantageously, the actuating motion detection device has at least one pair of torsion detectors with piezoelectric plates polarized by remanent magnetic field, coated on their sides with two electrodes that are positioned so as to face each other on one and the same flexible strip of the fastening ring with their remanent magnetic fields in opposite directions and their electrodes in antiparallel connection to the common output.
Advantageously, the actuating motion detection device has several torsion detectors with piezoelectric plates polarized by remanent magnetic field each coated on their sides with two electrodes, these torsion detectors being distributed on the flexible strips of the fastening ring in accordance with a symmetry of revolution with respect to the actuation axis and having their electrodes parallel-connected to the common output.
Advantageously, the actuating motion detection device comprises several pairs of torsion detectors with piezoelectric plates polarized by remanent magnetic field, coated on their sides with two electrodes, each pair of torsion detectors having their two piezoelectric plates positioned so as to face each other on one and the same flexible strip of the fastening ring with their electrodes antiparallel-connected to intermediate output terminals and the different pairs of torsion detectors being distributed on the flexible strips of the fastening ring in accordance with a symmetry of revolution with respect to the actuation axis and having their intermediate output terminals in parallel connection.

Device for detecting activation movement for laser gyroscope


In the case of the materials according to the invention, the charge carrier mobility in the correspondingly prepared films is achieved if the molecules are composed in such a way that side chains—consisting of conjugated aromatic or heteroaromatic systems—are attached in direct conjugation to a central aromatic or heteroaromatic ring so that the total molecule acquires an octupolar structure. This octupolar structure permits an effective π-π interaction of the molecules with one another in a manner such that stacking of a plurality of molecules along an imaginary axis (central ring) can take place and various stacks from among these stacks can interact with one another by intermeshing of the side chains. The electronic properties of the materials are determined both by the arrangement of the molecules in a layer and by the molecular design. The type of side chains and of the central ring which is electronically coupled to the side chains and ideally reinforces the effects in comparison with side chains considered in isolation is important for this purpose.

The mobilities of charge carriers in organic semiconductors are at present not more than 1–2 cm2/Vs. The maximum operating frequency of transistors and hence of the electronic switching is limited by the mobility of the charge carriers (holes or electrons). Although mobilities of the order of magnitude of 100 cm2/Vs are sufficient for driver application in the production of TFT active matrix displays, high-frequency applications are generally excluded.
For technical reasons, wireless information transmission (RF-ID systems) can be effected only above a certain minimum frequency. In systems which are supplied directly from the alternating electromagnetic field and hence also have no independent voltage supply, the carrier frequencies 125 kHz and 13.56 MHz are widely used. Fields of use are identification and marking technology (smart cards, ident tags (bar code replacement), electronic postage stamps, etc.).
On the one hand, products which contain a silicon-based chip are too expensive for many applications. For example, a silicon-based ident tag is not suitable for marking foods (price, expiry date, etc.).
On the other hand, polymers or organic semiconductors have the potential that cheap printing techniques can be used for their structuring and application.
However, the mobilities of the charge carriers in these materials are too low for the applications discussed above.
Processes for applying the semiconducting molecules (for example pentacene, oligothiophenes) in a manner which is as ordered as possible, for example by vacuum sublimation, have been developed. Ordered deposition of the organic semiconductor leads to an increase in the crystallinity of the semiconductor material and, owing to an improved π—π overlap between the molecules or the side chains, reduces the energy barrier [1]. These are substantially molecules having a linear structure.
Substitution of the semiconducting molecular units by bulky groups leads to the formation of liquid crystalline-like domains in the deposition of the organic semiconductor from the liquid or gas phase [2].
In the area of polymers, synthesis processes in which as high a regioregularity as possible is achieved by the use of asymmetric monomers have been developed [3].
In [4], various octupolar oligothienyl compounds are described. However, these have only a relatively low charge carrier mobility, in order to enable them to be advantageously used as organic semiconductors and are for the most part irreversibly oxidizable or reducible.
Kotha et al., Synlett 1999, No. 10, 1621–1623, disclose octupolar molecules based on benzene having short thiophene side chains.

Octupolar molecules used as organic semiconductors


A method for acid treatment of a wellbore in a carbonate formation is provided. The method includes dropping spacer solids into the well to fill the wellbore to perforations in a casing, dropping acidic solids into the wellbore on the top of the spacer solids, allowing the acidic solids to dissolve on top of the spacer solids forming an acidic solution, and injecting water into the wellbore to force the acidic solution into the carbonate formation.

Oil reservoirs are often found in marine sedimentary layers, such as carbonates. Carbonate reservoirs may lack porosity and permeability, forming what is termed a tight formation. Acid stimulation is a common practice to enhance the well productivity of carbonate reservoirs. To begin, injection testing with water is performed to confirm that the acid can reach the formation and open channels in the rock. Otherwise, if stable injection is not possible, acid cannot be pumped as it may exceed the acid inhibition time, and damage the tubulars of the well, potentially causing a well integrity risk.
Improving flow into the reservoir, if injection testing indicates that stable injection is not achieved, may involve spotting and squeezing acid across the target formation using coiled tubing. In some case, extra perforation intervals may also be added. Both options are expensive and slow down the progress of the well completion.

Using acidic balls for acid stimulation in carbonate reservoirs


A nitric oxide generator generates nitric oxide from a mixture of nitrogen and oxygen such as air treated by a pulsating electrical discharge. The desired concentration of nitric oxide is obtained by controlling at least one of a frequency of the pulsating electrical discharge and duration of each electrical discharge pulse.

This invention discloses a method and apparatus for the production of nitric oxide (NO) in controlled and accurate amounts, with low levels of impurities by controlling electric discharges between two electrodes in an oxygen nitrogen gas mixture.
Nitric oxide is known to have many applications in biological systems of both plants and animals.
In plants it is known that modifying the local atmospheric concentration of nitric oxide can stimulate a number of beneficial effects including, improved growth (U.S. Pat. No. 6,242,384), reduction in seed dormancy (Bethke, 2006 and Sarath, 2006), protection from fungal infections and disease (Lazar, 2008 and Hong, 2007) and preservation of cut flowers and fruit (U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,451,363 and 6,720,017).
In medical applications, gaseous nitric oxide administered to the patient is known to have multiple applications as disclosed in the following examples.
Anti-microbial: Nitric oxide has been demonstrated to reduce bacterial infections as shown during in-vitro testing (Ghaffari, 2006) and in clinical applications such as skin tissue infections (Ghaffari, 2007) and cystic fibrosis lung infections (Sagel, 2009).
Wound Healing: Nitric oxide has been demonstrated to improve healing times in both sterile and infected wounds (Shekhter, 2005).
Hemoglobinopathy: (U.S. Pat. No. 5,885,621) with application in sickle cell disease, where nitric oxide significantly reduced pain associated with vaso-occlusive crisis in sickle cell patients as compared to placebo (Head, 2010).
Selective pulmonary vasodilatation: (U.S. Pat. No. 5,485,827) with application in hypoxic respiratory failure of the newborn, where nitric oxide therapy selectively dilates the pulmonary vasculature and improves oxygenation, with no negative impact on systemic blood pressure (Clark, 2000).
Anti-inflammatory: (U.S. Pat. No. 6,656,452) with application in reducing ischemia reperfusion injury and the infarct size after myocardial infarction (Liu, 2007).
It is clear that with all these potential commercial applications that make use of the biological effects of nitric oxide, there needs to be an apparatus to deliver nitric oxide in an accurate and controlled amount that is reliable and efficient. One issue that has to be taken into account when considering a method of nitric oxide delivery is that of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) generation. Nitric oxide, when in the presence of oxygen, reacts to form nitrogen dioxide, which is am irritant to biological systems. To resolve this issue, there are two main approaches for generating and then controlling the delivery of nitric oxide to biological systems. A first approach is to produce nitric oxide from chemical precursors, for example, through the oxidation of ammonia and to store the nitric oxide with a diluent gas that does not contain oxygen (the gas used is normally nitrogen) in a high pressure cylinder. As the nitric oxide is needed, a delivery system (for example, a metering valve) controls the flow of nitric oxide gas from the cylinder to provide the amount of nitric oxide needed for any given application. The benefit of this approach is that it is relatively easy to control the amount of nitric oxide gas needed for a specific application and the purity of the nitric oxide can be ensured by a well controlled production process in a centralized production manufacturing location. The main problem with this approach is that the cylinders of compressed nitric oxide gas are large and heavy and are logistically difficult and expensive to ship from the centralized location to the site of application.
A second approach is to generate the nitric oxide gas in-situ from room air, using a controlled electric discharge to ionize the gas at a locally higher temperature to form a plasma, where oxygen and nitrogen in the air break down and reform to produce nitric oxide. This nitric oxide generating approach has the advantage that it does not have the logistical problems of the gas cylinder storage method. It is however, more difficult to accurately and controllably produce the required amounts of nitric oxide with the required purity.
Before providing a description of the invention an overview of background art will be described.
The use of electric discharges to produce nitric oxide in a plasma reaction has a long history, a good summary of which is included in U.S. Pat. No. 4,287,040 by Alamaro. This early prior art was focused on the bulk production of nitric oxide as an intermediary to the production of nitrogen based fertilizers and describes a process that is not concerned with the accuracy, purity and safety of the nitric oxide generated.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,396,882 (Zapol) was the first to disclose a system for producing nitric oxide by electric discharge for use in medicine. In this method, there is an electrically insulated reaction chamber where a high voltage circuit is used to induce an electric arc discharge between two electrodes that are separated by an air gap to produce nitric oxide. The patent discloses gas filters in the inlet conduit to the reaction chamber to remove liquid droplets or solid particles from entering the reaction chamber, and a soda lime filter in the outlet conduit of the reactor chamber for removing impurities such as nitrogen dioxide that may be formed in the plasma along with the nitric oxide. Also described is a gas analyzer such as a chemiluminescence analyzer for measuring the amount of nitric oxide produced. The high voltage circuit includes a step up transformer, which takes standard AC power of 110V and 60 Hz (230V and 50 Hz in Europe) in the primary coil, and steps up the voltage so that the peak voltage is sufficient to induce an electric arc across the electrode air gap. There is a capacitor on the secondary side of the transformer, which is charged up to the breakdown voltage, and subsequently discharged across the gap when the breakdown voltage is reached. The current to the primary side of the transformer is regulated by an autotransformer (Variac), which controls the power to the capacitor and hence on to the electric arc discharge. The current from the capacitor is not controlled once break down voltage has occurred, and this results in an arc discharge which is quick and intense with a high current and high gas temperatures. The system describes producing nitric oxide continuously and controls the amount generated by controlling the current to the transformer, it also describes controlling the amount of diluting gas flow to provide the desired concentration.
There are a number of problems with this type of system which include: electric arc discharges cause high current at high temperatures which cause vaporization of the electrode material which leads to excessive wear of the electrodes. Electrode wear is a function of the intensity of the discharge across the electrodes, which translates into the higher the current the higher the electrode wear. The high temperature can also result in higher levels of nitrogen dioxide being formed, which is not desired in a number of biological applications. In addition, due to the electrode wear, the amount of nitric oxide generated in this system is not accurately predictable over periods of time and it requires a nitric oxide gas analyzer to ensure the expected amount of nitric oxide is being generated accurately. A gas analyzer adds expense, bulk and requires the user to calibrate it prior to use, which makes it undesirable for an optimum nitric oxide generation system. The patent discloses a filter for removing nitrogen dioxide from the nitric oxide gas mixture. However the soda lime filter material disclosed has a finite life, and if it is not changed when the life of the filter material is exhausted, the system would allow the nitrogen dioxide to be delivered to the biological system, and this could result in harm to the biological system.
In EP 0719159 (Jacobson), the problem of high energy arc discharges eroding the electrodes was addressed by disclosing a method of controlling the current across the air gap to a low level to produce a "glow discharge" to produce nitric oxide. The invention described multiple ways of initiating the glow discharge such as; using a separate high voltage spark circuit, reducing the pressure in the chamber or initially bringing the two electrodes closer together to initiate the spark. Once the glow discharge was established it was continuously maintained. To control the nitric oxide concentration to be delivered to the biological system the nitric oxide output was diluted with additional gas flow. The disadvantages of this approach are that there is a limited range of current that allows a glow discharge to be formed, and once formed the glow discharge needs to be continuously maintained. This limits the controllable range of the nitric oxide that can be produced. The required nitric oxide concentration to the biological system is achieved through diluting the nitric oxide flow from the reactor chamber with an additional diluting gas flow. However, this means both the gas flow rate and nitric oxide concentration cannot be controlled independently. If lower concentrations of nitric oxide at low gas flow rates are required, then a large portion of the nitric oxide generated is discarded resulting in low efficiency of operation and an additional apparatus associated with safely disposing of the unused nitric oxide gas flow.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,296,827 & 6,955,790 (Castor, et al.) disclose an alternative approach to avoiding electrode wear due to high energy arc discharges. These patents disclose an apparatus where a dielectric barrier material covers one of the electrodes and a corona discharge is produced in high frequency discharge pulses to avoid electrode wear. The reactor chamber has to be operated between 400° C. and 800° C. so the non-thermal plasma generates nitric oxide instead of nitrogen dioxide (NO2). The device also discloses the use of a catalyst operated at an elevated temperature to convert any NO2 formed to nitric oxide. The temperature in the reactor is kept below 800° C. to avoid electrode erosion caused by oxygen radicals and above 400° C. to avoid NO2 being formed instead of nitric oxide. The apparatus disclosed that the nitric oxide gas flow is diluted by additional gas to produce the desired concentration of nitric oxide that is needed clinically. The disadvantage of this apparatus is that it requires extra electrical power to heat the gas to 400° C. to 800° C. and then requires the gas to be actively cooled after the reactor chamber before it can be used clinically. This significantly increases the power and complexity of the apparatus. It also has the same problem as EP 0719159, in that it provides a limited controllable range of nitric oxide being produced, and also relies on gas dilution to produce the desired nitric oxide concentration. Therefore it has the same limitation as described in EP 0719159 in that in some applications, it will result in unwanted nitric oxide gas flow that will need to be discarded resulting in inefficient operation and the need for additional apparatus for the safe disposal of the unused nitric oxide.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,498,000 (Pekshev, et al.) discloses a device for forming a nitric oxide containing gas flow using a continuous stationary DC arc discharge. The arc discharge is maintained at a constant voltage level of approximately 120V at 2.3 A, which maintains an arc temperature of 3500° K to 4000° K. The gas flow is then quenched in a water ethanol cooled chamber where it is rapidly cooled to approximately 1000° K to fix the nitric oxide that was generated in the arc discharge, it then goes on to a further cooling area where it is cooled to a temperature of 150° C. before it exits the outlet. The arc discharge is initiated with a high voltage spark discharge from a 5 kV circuit, and uses a stabilization electrode to maintain the arc discharge. The nitric oxide gas concentration at the apparatus outlet is shown in FIG. 14 as 4,000 ppm nitric oxide, and the concentration is shown to decrease as a function of the distance from the outlet, dropping to about 500 ppm nitric oxide at a distance of 200 mm. This drop in nitric oxide concentration is due to the gas mixing with ambient air, and means a large part of the nitric oxide generated never gets to the intended biological target. It also means the user has to be very careful about the distance of the apparatus outlet to the biological target so the intended nitric oxide concentration is delivered correctly. The apparatus disclosed has the same problems as previous art in that the amount of nitric oxide generated is not well controlled and relies on wasteful dilution of the nitric oxide prior to delivery to the biological target. In addition there is no effort made to remove harmful NO2 that will also be formed in the arc discharge.
The prior art have the following disadvantages:
1) The prior art does not disclose apparatus that can control the amount of nitric oxide over a wide range of gas flows and nitric oxide concentrations so that the device can be used for multiple distinct dosing regimens depending on the target application.
2) The prior art does not disclose apparatus that allows for a wide range of nitric oxide outputs without requiring additional gas flow dilution. This results in excess nitric oxide generation that has to be safely disposed of, causing extra cost and complexity.
3) The prior art that uses high voltage electric arc discharges to generate nitric oxide has high electrode wear due to electrode vaporization caused by the intense electric arc discharges.
4) The prior art that uses corona discharges require high reaction chamber temperatures to be maintained that needs additional power, and then require gas cooling systems to bring the gas flow back down to acceptable temperature levels prior to administration, thus adding to the cost, complexity and poor efficiency of the system.
5) None of the prior art provides a simple way of monitoring the correct functioning of the arc discharge so the amount of nitric oxide generated can be accurately predicted.
6) None of the prior art discloses a consumable filter for removing NO2 and other adulterants from the nitric oxide gas flow that when consumed, can provide the nitric oxide apparatus with a means of alerting the user that it needs to be replaced.

Apparatus and method for generating nitric oxide in controlled and accurate amounts


A climate control system having a control means for receiving cool call signals and heat call signals from a plurality of thermostats. The control means blocking action by conflicting calls when the system is in a heat mode or cool mode. The system also preventing a single zone from dominating the mode of the control system and allow a conflicting call to be received after the control system has been in a particular mode for a maximum period or the conflicting call has been waiting for longer than a maximum period. The control system also properly adjusting the dampers to allow purging of ducts after heating and cooling mode and to allow zone or system ventilation upon request.

Heating Ventilating and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems are well known. These systems typically use forced air to heat, cool and ventilate an area, zone or room. A heater and a cooler is provided which can heat or cool or just circulate the air, and the air is sent to each zone by means of damper controlled ducts and a fan.
U.S. Pat. 4,530,395 as well as 4,931,948 to Parker et al describes a single zone HVAC controlled for operation in multiple zone arrangement utilizing a variable volume air distribution method. In this system there is need for computerized thermostats in addition to the central control system 10 for the HVAC equipment In addition, the modulating dampers are directly controlled by the computerized thermostats. This system bases its control by voting on which mode of energy or type of air to supply to a zone. Many such systems base the control of the damper by the thermostat directly and therefore require a delivered air temperature sensor in the damper to decide whether to open or close the damper. The voting is then done by feeding the thermostat information back to the central control equipment. Such systems are usually very costly and can still starve a minority zone.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,092,394 to Foster and assigned to the present assignee, describes a switching panel and system for controlling zone heating and cooling systems. This reference only controls a manually selected mode, either the heating or the cooling. The system cannot satisfy a zone calling for cooling while the system is in the heat mode even if there is no present heat call or visa-versa.
Most of the prior art systems require a manual mode change to determine if they will control either the heating or the cooling, but cannot operate sequentially using automatic changeover based on the zone requirement. There are some other systems which automatically change to the other mode based on an outdoor or building-wide sensing device. However, they are based on separate thermostats, such as a thermostat in the system return air duct, or outside of the building. There are also some systems which use a voting or counting method of the individual zones. However, none of these systems can satisfy each of the zones in turn, when there are conflicting calls, nor do they provide the equipment protection in the simple manner to be described.
Many patents, such as U.S. Pat. No. 4,997,030, assigned to Toshiba, describe the control of a variable air volume system which is based on the principle of allowing air into a zone via a modulating damper controlled duct when the zone is above or below the set point which matches the temperature of the delivered air. It then limits the amount of air until the damper is closed when the zone temperature exceeds the differential. This method assumes that the duct is the source of the energy and that the zone will only dissipate that energy. If the source of the energy is within the zone such as many electrical appliances or enters via another route, such as sunny windows, the control system does not always provide a comfort range control.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,897,798 assigned to AT&T, attempts to adapt the set point of the system based on the thermal properties of the building.
In each case there is an attempt to emulate an individual set of equipment for each zone. The purpose of the system to be described, is to allow each zone to demand its own comfort range while insuring that no zone is ignored.

Multi-zone automatic changeover heating, cooling and ventilating control system


Disclosed is a silver halide photographic light-sensitive material comprising a support having thereon at least one silver halide emulsion layer, a hydrazine compound is contained in said silver emulsion layer or at least one of other layers, wherein said material contains at least one compound represented by Formula I or Formula II, ##STR1## wherein R.sub.1 and R.sub.2 each independently represent an alkyl group, an alkenyl group or an alkynyl group respectively; R.sub.1 and R.sub.2 may form a ring; R.sub.3 represents a hydrogen atom, an alkyl group, an alkenyl group, an alkynyl group, an aryl group or a heterocyclic group; L.sub.1 represents a divalent linking group; X represents a --[S--L.sub.2 --Y--(L.sub.3)n]-- group or a [--(L.sub.3)n--Y--L.sub.2 --S--]-- group, L.sub.2 represents an alkylene group or an alkenylene group, Y represents a carbonyl group, a sulfonyl group, a sulfoxy group, a phosphoryl group, L.sub.3 represents ##STR2## wherein Z.sub.1, Z.sub.2 and Z.sub.3 each independently represent a hydrogen atom, an alkyl group, an alkenyl group, an alkynyl group, an aryl group or a heterocyclic group; n is an integer of 0 to 1; ##STR3## wherein R4, R5 and R.sub.6 each independently represent an alkyl group, an alkenyl group or an alkynyl group, further Formula II comprises a thioether structure and a --O--Y).sub.l structure, Y represents an alkylene group, an alkenylene group or an arylene group, l is an integer of 2 or more.. The silver halide photographic light-sensitive material is capable offering high contrast.

In a photographic plate-making process, a step to convert a document with continuous gradation to dot images is included. For this step, a technology employing infectious development has been used as a photographic technology capable of offering super high contrast image reproduction.
Litho-type silver halide photographic light-sensitive materials used for infectious development are, for example, composed of silver bromochloride emulsion having an average grain size of 0.2 .mu.m and high silver chloride content ratio (at least 50 mol % or more) wherein grain size distribution is narrow and the shape of grain is uniform. By processing the above-mentioned litho-type silver halide photographic light-sensitive material with an alkaline hydroquinone developing solution with low sulfite ion density, images having high contrast, high sharpness and high resolution can be obtained.
However, since the above-mentioned litho-type developing solutions are subjected to air oxidation, it is extremely inferior in preservability. Therefore, it is also difficult to keep the quality of development constant in continuous use.
Methods for obtaining images having high contrast rapidly without employing the above-mentioned litho-type developing solutions are known. As shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,419,975 and Japanese Patent Publication Open to Public Inspection (hereinafter, referred to as Japanese Patent O.P.I. Publication) Nos. 16623/1976, 20921/1976 and 106244/1981, it represents a method to contain hydrazine derivatives in silver halide light-sensitive materials.
Due to the above-mentioned method, sulfite ion density in a developing solution can be kept high and processing can be conducted while keeping high preservability.
However, in the above-mentioned method, processing had to be conducted with developing solution having pH of 11 or more in order to utilize the high contrast property of hydrazine derivatives to a full extent. Though developing solutions having pH of 11 or more is more stable than a litho-type developing wherein the developing agent is easily oxidized when it is exposed to air, it often fails to offer super high contrast images due to the oxidation of developing agent.
In order to complement the above-mentioned defect, silver halide photographic light-sensitive materials containing nucleating agents which make images contrast-increasing even in a developing solution with relatively low pH are disclosed in Japanese Patent O.P.I. Publication No. 29751/1988 and European Patent Nos. 333,435 and 345,025.
However, when silver halide photographic light-sensitive materials containing the above-mentioned nucleating agents are processed with developing agent having pH of less than 11, it is the present situation that contrast-increase is incomplete and satisfactory dot properties cannot be obtained.
On the other hand, in European Patent No. 364,166 and Japanese Patent O.P.I. Publication Nos. 222241/1987, 140340/1985, 250439/1987 and 280733/1987, contrast-promoting compounds for accelerating contrast-increase are described. It is sure that dot properties are improved by adding the above-mentioned compounds into emulsion layers. However, it turned out that a problem of sand-like and pinhole-like fogging in dots, so-called pepper fog, occurred damaging the quality of dot images.
Therefore, there has been demanded a light-sensitive material solving the above-mentioned problems and employing effective nucleating agents and contrast-promoting compounds.

Silver halide photographic light-sensitive material


An adhesive of the invention for polarizing plates used for forming an adhesive layer in a polarizing plate in which a polarizer and a transparent protective film is are adhering with each other via the adhesive layer, wherein the adhesive for polarizing plates is an aqueous solution containing a polyvinyl alcohol-based resin having an acetoacetyl group and a crosslinking agent, and the aqueous solution has a pH of 4.3 or less. The adhesive of the invention for polarizing plates is good in durability and long in pot life.

In LCD, for example, it is indispensable to dispose polarizers on both sides of a glass substrate providing a surface of a liquid crystal panel according to an image formation scheme adopted in the display. A polarizer is generally obtained in a procedure in which a polyvinyl alcohol-based film is dyed with a dichroic material such as iodine, thereafter, the film is crosslinked with a crosslinking agent and then, mono-axially stretched to thereby form a film. Since the polarizer is manufactured by stretching, it is easy to shrink. Since a polyvinyl alcohol-based film comprises a hydrophilic polymer, the film is very easily deformed especially in a humidified condition. Since the film itself is weak in mechanical strength, there has been a problem that the film is torn. Hence, adopted is a reinforced polarizing plate manufactured in a procedure in which a transparent protective film or transparent protective films each made from triacetyl cellulose or the like are adhered to on one side or both sides of a polarizer. The polarizing plate is manufactured by adhere the transparent protective film onto a polarizer using an adhesive. As an adhesive for polarizing plates used in adhesion of the polarizer and the transparent protective film to each other, an aqueous type adhesive is conventionally preferable and, for example, a polyvinyl alcohol-based adhesive obtained by mixing a crosslinking agent into a polyvinyl alcohol aqueous solution has been employed.
In recent years, improvement on image uniformity and a quality thereof has been requested in company with progress toward higher definition and higher functionality of LCD. Further, durability such as high temperature resistance, moisture resistance or water resistance has also been requested in order to cope with diversification of a use environment. Decrease in thickness and reduction in weight have also been requested due to such as portability of LCD in recent years. Such required characteristics of LCD has rendered another requests imposed on higher performance and a higher functionality, such as uniformity, moisture resistance, heat resistance and decrease in thickness, of a polarizing plate for LCD.
A polyvinyl alcohol-based adhesive is insufficient in moisture and heat resistance and water resistance, and a case of peeling arises at the interface between a polarizer and a transparent protective film in a humidified environment. This is considered because a polyvinyl alcohol-based resin, which is a main component of the adhesive, is a water-soluble polymer and a possibility of dissolution of an adhesive occurs in a situation of dewing.
In order to cope with the problem, a proposal has been offered of an adhesive for polarizing plates containing a polyvinyl alcohol-based resin having an acetoacetyl group, and a crosslinking agent (see, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 7-198945:Patent Literature 1). An adhesive for polarizing plates described in Patent Literature 1 makes improvement on durability such as moisture resistance and heat resistance and water resistance. However, the adhesive for polarizing plates described in Patent Literature 1 does not show a sufficient pot life. That is, since a pot life and durability of an adhesive have a relationship of a trade-off therebetween, an adhesive laying emphasis on a pot life but insufficient in durability has been used in manufacturing a conventional polarizing plate in consideration of productivity.

Adhesive for polarizing plate, polarizing plate, method for producing same, optical film and image display


An extension screed is for a paving vehicle screed assembly that includes a main screed. The extension screed includes two base members movably connectable with the main screed and two vertical actuators each extending between the main screed and a separate base member. Each vertical actuator linearly displaces the connected base member with respect to the main screed in opposing vertical directions. A carriage preferably includes an inner frame movably connected with the base members and an outer frame slidably disposed about the inner frame and configured to support a screed plate. The vertical actuators vertically displace the carriage and alternatively pivot the carriage within a vertical plane. Further, a first horizontal actuator displaces the inner frame with respect to the two base members in opposing horizontal directions and a second horizontal actuator displaces the outer fame with respect to the inner frame in opposing horizontal directions.

The present invention relates to paving vehicles, and more particularly to extension screed assemblies for paving vehicles.
Screed assemblies for paving vehicles are known and generally include a main screed having a frame connectable with a paver tractor and one or more screed plates mounted to the bottom of the frame. Often, screed assemblies often include extension screeds mounted to the front or rear of the main screed so as to be laterally movable with respect to the main screed. Such extension screeds provide the capability of forming a wider mat of paving material when the extensions are displaced laterally outwardly and to produce narrower mats when the extensions have been displaced inwardly toward the center of the main screed.


A tool for removing a protection strip of car comprises mainly a handle, a stem part and a shovel blade; the stem part has an elongate straight rod with a S-shaped plate at one end thereof; the outer end of the S-shaped plate at one end thereof; the outer end of the S-shaped plate has a wider part wided together with the shove blade; the shovel blade is a L-shaped plate including two symmetrical triangle plates; the outer ends of the two triangle plates each has an edge part; when the tool is used for removing a protection strip of a car, the edge part of a plate of the L-shaped angle is set in contact with the protection strip, and is pushed with a pressure; in that case, the adhesive under the protection strip can be cut and removed easily and quickly; simultaneously, the space between the S-shaped plate and the plate part can be used for providing a guide function to the cut pressure.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a tool for car body, and particularly to a tool for removing a protection strip of a car.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the conventional art, both sides of a car are usually adhered with soft protection strips respectively in order to prevent the car body from being scratched upon car passing or parking in a narrow passage; the protection strip is usually slightly higher than the surface of a car body, and it is deemed the first protection means to a car body. Since the protection strip is the first protection strip to contact or scratch to an outer thing, it is usually glued to a car body with a strong adhesive; consequently, the protection strip can only be removed later with a sharp tool.
In the conventional art, there is no particular tool so far for removing a protection strip of a car; as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a scraper is used as a scraping tool, which includes a handle 10 and a flat scraping plate; the front end of the scraping plate is furnished with an edge part, which is to be plugged into a slit between the protection strip and the car body 20 before lifting up the protection strip 25 with a suitable force. Since the protection strip is glued to the car body with a strong adhesive, the worker must scrape the protection strip continuously with force, and it is rather a hard work aside from the slow scraping work; further, the car body is subject to scratching because of the scraping tool being in close contact with the car body 20.

Removing tool removing a protection strip of car


The invention relates to compositions comprising oligomers antisense to bacterial 16S or 23S rRNA and capable of selectively modulating the biological activity thereof, and methods for their use. More particularly, the invention relates to antisense oligomers directed to 16S or 23S rRNA found in one or more particular bacteria, or generally conserved among bacteria in general, and to pharmaceutical compositions and methods of treatment comprising the same.

Currently, there are several types of antibiotics in use against bacterial pathogens, with a variety of anti-bacterial mechanisms. Beta-lactam antibiotics, such as penicillin and cephalosporin, act to inhibit the final step in peptidoglycan synthesis. Glycopeptide antibiotics, including vancomycin and teichoplanin, inhibit both transglycosylation and transpeptidation of muramyl-pentapeptide, again interfering with peptidoglycan synthesis. Other well-known antibiotics include the quinolones, which inhibit bacterial DNA replication, inhibitors of bacterial RNA polymerase, such as rifampin, and inhibitors of enzymes in the pathway for production of tetrahydrofolate, including the sulfonamides.
Some classes of antibiotics act at the level of protein synthesis. Notable among these are the aminoglycosides, such as kanamycin and gentamycin. These compounds target the bacterial 30S ribosome subunit, preventing the association with the 50S subunit to form functional ribosomes. Tetracyclines, another important class of antibiotics, also target the 30S ribosome subunit, acting by preventing alignment of aminoacylated tRNA's with the corresponding mRNA codon. Macrolides and lincosamides, another class of antibiotics, inhibit bacterial synthesis by binding to the 50S ribosome subunit, and inhibiting peptide elongation or preventing ribosome translocation.
Despite impressive successes in controlling or eliminating bacterial infections by antibiotics, the widespread use of antibiotics both in human medicine and as a feed supplement in poultry and livestock production has led to drug resistance in many pathogenic bacteria. Antibiotic resistance mechanisms can take a variety of forms. One of the major mechanisms of resistance to beta lactams, particularly in Gram-negative bacteria, is the enzyme beta-lactamase, which renders the antibiotic inactive. Likewise, resistance to aminoglycosides often involves an enzyme capable of inactivating the antibiotic, in this case by adding a phosphoryl, adenyl, or acetyl group. Active efflux of antibiotics is another way that many bacteria develop resistance. Genes encoding efflux proteins, such as the tetA, tetG, tetL, and tetK genes for tetracycline efflux, have been identified. A bacterial target may develop resistance by altering the target of the drug. For example, the so-called penicillin binding proteins (PBPs) in many beta-lactam resistant bacteria are altered to inhibit the critical antibiotic binding to the target protein. Resistance to tetracycline may involve, in addition to enhanced efflux, the appearance of cytoplasmic proteins capable of competing with ribosomes for binding to the antibiotic. Where the antibiotic acts by inhibiting a bacterial enzyme, such as for sulfonamides, point mutations in the target enzyme may confer resistance.
The appearance of antibiotic resistance in many pathogenic bacteria, in many cases involving multi-drug resistance, has raised the specter of a pre-antibiotic era in which many bacterial pathogens are simply untreatable by medical intervention. There are two main factors that could contribute to this scenario. The first is the rapid spread of resistance and multi-resistance genes across bacterial strains, species, and genera by conjugative elements, the most important of which are self-transmissible plasmids. The second factor is a lack of current research efforts to find new types of antibiotics, due in part to the perceived investment in time and money needed to find new antibiotic agents and bring them through clinical trials, a process that may require a 20-year research effort in some cases.
In addressing the second of these factors, some drug-discovery approaches that may accelerate the search for new antibiotics have been proposed. For example, efforts to screen for and identify new antibiotic compounds by high-throughput screening have been reported, but to date no important lead compounds have been discovered by this route.
Several approaches that involve antisense agents designed to block the expression of bacterial resistance genes or to target cellular RNA targets, such as the rRNA in the 30S ribosomal subunit, have been proposed (Good et al., 1998; Rahman et al., 1991). In general, these approaches have been marginally successful, presumably because of poor uptake of the antisense agent (e.g., Summerton et al., 1997), or the requirement that the treated cells show high permeability for antibiotics (Good et al., 1998).
There is thus a growing need for new antibiotics that (i) are not subject to the principal types of antibiotic resistance currently hampering antibiotic treatment of bacteria, (ii) can be developed rapidly and with some reasonable degree of predictability as to target-bacteria specificity, (iii) can also be designed for broad-spectrum activity, (iv) are effective at low doses, meaning, in part, that they are efficiently taken up by wild-type bacteria or even bacteria that have reduced permeability for antibiotics, and (v) show few side effects.

Antisense antibacterial method and composition


A weight plate securing strap having a stretchable strip with a first end, a second opposite end, a first side, a post on the first end, and a plurality of apertures near the second opposite end. A first gripping flap is positioned at the first end and a second gripping flap is positioned at the second opposite end. The gripping flaps are also positioned on the first side. The gripping flaps are constructed so that fingers and thumbs of a user remain on the first side of the strip as the user grips the gripping flaps, stretches the strip around the barbell, and inserts the post into the aperture. The use of the gripping flaps thereby prevents the fingers and thumbs of the user from interfering with the insertion of the post through the aperture. The strip wound and stretched around the barbell creates high resistance to movement of the strip along the length of the barbell. The strip can be made in one piece and entirely of rubber.

Weightlifting is a past time that often requires barbells to perform certain exercises. A barbell is equipment used in weightlifting that comprises a long bar or shaft that is typically metal. Heavy adjustable, removeable weight plates having central apertures therein are positioned over each end of the barbell. Once attached, a weightlifter can perform exercises by, for example, lifting the barbell in any number of different exercises.
There are various ways of securing the weight plates to the barbell. There are quicklee collars that are approximately 3-inch-long metal or plastic tubes that have a slightly narrower tube therein. With a quicklee collar, the weightlifter pulls an outer layer of the tube away from an inner layer and slides the collar on to the end of the barbell.
There are also spin-lock collars that comprise two layers coupled via one or more screws. To secure weights on a barbell using a spin-lock collar, the weightlifter unscrews the two layers so that the collar is loose enough to slide on the end of the barbell.
Clamp collars are pressurized spring coils that secure weights to the barbell. In this regard, a piece of metal is coiled four or five times before branching into two padded prongs. To insert the clamp collar over the end of the barbell to secure the weights, the weightlifter squeezes the prongs on the clamp to loosen the coiled metal, slides the clamp onto an end of the barbell, then releases the prongs, thereby securing the clamp to the barbell. Other collars that may be used include screw-on collars and pressure collars.
Prior art products are heavy and may add a significant amount of weight to the barbell assembly. Current products lack durability and are often made of many small parts that can be lost or broken. Many current products use two or more inches of sleeve length in order to fasten the collar securely, making the entire apparatus bulky. Furthermore, current inventions do not accommodate all sizes of barbell sleeves equally due to the limited range of their clamping force.


A secure bootloader for securing software and systems in a digital device 110 by ensuring only encrypted and authenticated boot software is loaded and executed in the digital device 110. The encrypted boot software is read into the device 110 and authenticated. If the boot software is not authenticated, then the digital device 110 does not boot.

The Internet (the Information Superhighway) has provided the world with a way to rapidly and easily share vast amounts of information. Unfortunately, a large percentage of the information being disseminated is without the consent of the information's owner. There are numerous websites, Usenet newsgroups, and distributed-server networks located on the Internet whose express purpose is the illicit exchange of software programs and copyrighted materials such as music, movies, books, and art.
The illegal distribution of copyrighted music is particularly rampant, with some of the more popular distributed-server networks exchanging millions of compressed music files every day. In an attempt to reduce future lost revenue and preserving the rights of the copyright owners, a forum of more than 180 companies and organizations has created a set of guidelines known as the Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI).
SDMI specifies many guidelines concerning securing digital audio, but there are two primary security factors: security of content files and security of software and systems located inside a digital device. The securing of the content files is relatively simple and usually involves the use of some sort of encryption algorithm and an encryption/decryption key(s). Companies such as Liquid Audio and Intertrust have developed Digital Rights Management (DRM) software to protect content files stored on external media.
Providing security for the digital device playing the secured content file is more difficult because it involves protecting software executing on an inherently insecure programmable processor. Securing the digital device is difficult because the user has physical possession of the digital device while the manufacturer and the content provider do not. The user may attempt to hack the digital device through the software by using test equipment, logic analyzers, etc. or via physical means by replacing memory chips and other components in the digital device.
Since the user has physical possession of the digital device, the manufacturer cannot physically protect the hardware anymore than making it difficult for the user to physically modify circuitry inside the digital device. An extreme form of protection for the circuitry would be having circuitry that can detect tampering and would automatically self-destruct. Because the digital device costs money, the destruction of the digital device due to hacking when it was paid for with hard-earned money will deter most casual hackers.
In order to fully protect the software portion of the digital device, the manufacturer must provide security for all operational aspects of the digital device. From the very first operation that the digital device performs when it is first turned on to the last operation immediately before powering off, the software must be protected. Perhaps the most opportune time to hack into the software of a digital device is during its power-on sequence, also commonly referred to as the boot-up sequence. This is because during the power-on sequence, several different programs pass around the control of the digital device. If the hacker can cause the digital device to load up a program of his own design, he will gain complete control of the digital device.
Many inventions have attempted to provide power-on security for digital devices.
Some require the use of adjunct security processors or chips. While this solution may be viable for complex and expensive devices such as computers, but for high-volume, low-profit margin digital devices such as audio players, active picture frames, and other digital appliances, the use of adjunct security processors is simply not a viable solution. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,421,006 and 5,379,342 present secured boot models using verification of the boot block of the operating system before control is transferred to the operating system.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,185,678 (the '678 patent) presents a secure model that includes securing both the verification program and the memory storing the operating system. This patent uses cryptographic certificates that expire with time and limits the validity of steps within the power-on sequence to small slots of time. The security model presented in the '678 patent is therefore, unnecessarily complex.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,937,063 presents a system to prevent unauthorized replacement of boot-up firmware embedded in modifiable memory such as flash memory and erasable-programmable read-only memory using the encryption and decryption of commands and instructions. This patent uses a secured boot device with its own built-in cryptographic unit.
Solutions that use executing programs in a protected memory space or a security coprocessor to provide security have a significant disadvantage in their requirement of a significant addition to the overall hardware requirements of the system. The increased hardware requirement results in a system with greater die area and hence greater costs. A need has therefore arisen for a method and apparatus for providing a simple and secured power-on sequence for digital devices and their protected contents.

Secure bootloader for securing digital devices


A fishers lure including a spine having a first eye on a first end of the spine adapted to attach a fishing line and a second end on spine adapted to receive a hook. A flexible body surrounding the spine such that the first eye protrudes from the front of the flexible body. A fisher can bend the spine and flexible body into a bent shape and the spine will retain the shape and hold the body in the bent shape. The bent shape will give the lure unique movement in the water that can be adjusted by the fisher re-bending the spine. The flexible body further includes a holographic film that can be molded into the body. A method of forming a plurality of lures from a single mold operation is also disclosed.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to fishers lure with bendable spline enabling bending of the fishers lure so that a variety of movements may be imparted to the fishers lure by a fisher.
2. Background Information
Plastic lures, when retrieved by a fisher tend to come straight back to the fisher with little side motion.
This is a disadvantage for the fisher in the historic struggle of the fisher to prove he is smarter than the fish.
As will be seen from the subsequent description, the preferred embodiments of the present invention are improvements over the existing struggle for the mastery of the fisher over the fish.

Bendable fishers lure with method of manufacture and assembly


In accordance with the method, a gas bearing is energized to center the piston in the cylinder prior to rigidly attaching the planar spring or springs between the piston and the compressor frame. This automatically and very accurately centers the piston in the cylinder to provide the added stiffness of a planar spring and gas bearing in an easily manufactured configuration. Various exemplary embodiments are disclosed, including embodiments having the piston cantilevered from one end using a single or multiple springs, an embodiment having a spring on each end of the piston, a double piston embodiment and embodiments using and not using the gas bearing during operation of the compressors.

1. Field of the Invention
This innovation pertains to compressors utilizing linear motor drive and clearance seals. These compressors utilize a linear motor to drive the piston and a spring to provide energy storage to create a mechanical resonant moving mass (piston assembly) and axial restoring force to properly locate the piston.
2. Prior Art
The typical gas bearing compressor system utilizes a piston that is allowed to move radially with little resistance, which in turn allows the gas bearing to center the piston in the cylinder and prevent piston to cylinder contact. This type of gas bearing system is described in patent U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,293,184 and 5,525,845. Another method for preventing piston to cylinder contact is to use a "planar spring" supported piston. This system utilizes flat springs to provide a very stiff radial spring constant that will guide the piston and prevent contact with the cylinder. A key difficulty of this latter design is obtaining proper alignment while securing the springs. The typical radial gap between piston and cylinder in these oil free clearance seals is 0.0001 to 0.0003 inches. This mechanical alignment approach requires expensive precise tooling and significant labor costs, and is hence incompatible with a low cost, mass produced device. If this alignment is not correct, the springs, which are very stiff in the radial direction, will force the piston against the cylinder and cause premature wear and failure.

Method of fabricating planar spring clearance seal compressors


The invention relates to a method for wireless cellular indoor communications, the method comprising at least one base station connected to a cell management unit through a first digital connection interface, the cell management unit connected to at least one RF hub through a second digital connection interface, and the at least one RF hub connected to at least one remote radio head through a third digital connection interface, the at least one remote radio head providing service in a certain cell area inside a confined environment, and the cell management unit comprising means for providing efficient load balancing at and between base stations through adaptive cell reconfiguration; means for mapping carriers, time, frequency or time-frequency allocations to individual radio heads; means for alignment of individual delays accumulated on the digital connections between the cell management unit and each of the radio heads; means for synchronization of the signals between the cell management unit and the individual remote radio heads; and means for failure detection of the individual digital links between the cell management unit and the remote radio heads.

The invention is based on the priority application EP 06301157.1 which is hereby incorporated by reference.
The present invention relates to indoor communications systems, and particularly to wireless cellular communications systems in buildings and tunnels.
Wireless communications systems are becoming an increasingly widespread phenomenon of modern communications. Since many users place an increasing number of cellular calls or data transmissions within buildings or other confined structures, there is a need to achieve high quality indoor coverage at appropriate capacity.
A conventional configuration to extend a wireless communications service e.g. GSM or UMTS, from an outdoor environment to an indoor area is shown in FIG. 1 and is characterized by the utilization of a repeater R that is typically located within a building B to retransmit within the building a wireless signal Ws received at an external antenna A1 or retransmit outside the building the wireless signals Ws of mobile stations Ms, e.g. mobile phones, handheld computers and the like, located inside the building B. In the downlink, that is when the wireless signals Ws from the external environment are transmitted to the mobile stations Ms inside the building B, said outdoor wireless signals are passed along a first connection Co1 to the repeater R which forwards the signal along a second connection Co2 to a plurality of inter-connected amplifiers Am, the amplifiers amplify the signals which are then transmitted over the in-building antennas A2 to A4. In the uplink direction, that is, when the wireless signals Ws from the mobile stations Ms are transmitted to a wireless infrastructure outside the building B, the repeater R receives said signals along connection Co2 and transmits them along connection Co1 to the external antenna A1.
It is also possible that the repeater R of the indoor communications structure is replaced by a base station connected to a communications core network along connection Co1. Typically, the information is distributed via analogue signals inside the buildings and confined areas.
Another known indoor communications system providing wireless cellular service is shown in FIG. 2. A core network CN is connected to a base station Bs. The radio frequency (RF) signals from the base station or an off-air repeater OAR are digitized into base band signals in a base station interface BSI (and vice versa in uplink transmission) and distributed in the form of data packets using data cables, e.g. category 5 (CAT5) or optical fiber, to at least one Ethernet switch ES. The Ethernet switch ES then distributes the information to the corresponding remote radio heads RH1 to RH4 serving a particular cell area C1 and C2. An example of such system is disclosed in Patent Application US 2005/0157675 A1. An advantage of such systems is that they provide a cost-effective solution due to the use or re-use of low cost distribution cabling which is usually already present, totally or partly, in buildings and used for other types of digital communications e.g. local area network LAN structures using Ethernet protocol.
Using standard Ethernet switches, cell configurations can be achieved due to the sectorization of data flow. Normally, an Ethernet hub is needed in each Ethernet sector for data distribution in downlink and data packaging in uplink. The hub function is placed in at least one of the associated remote radio heads. In complex systems, series of Ethernet switches are necessary and bottlenecks of data flow are evident due to the 1 to n distribution characteristic of the Ethernet switch resulting in limiting the capacity of the network.

Method and system for wireless cellular indoor communications


The present invention relates to processes for enhancing a refiner's production rate and/or reducing the specific energy consumption for a freeness target through the use of lubricant(s) or carrier(s)/frictionizer(s), respectively.

Generally, mechanical and/or chemical treatments of cellulosic plant substances (e.g. wood) are used in the papermaking process to generate pulp, the basis and raw material for making paper products. Pulp may be generated either chemically or mechanically by removing the cellulose fibers from the wood matrix, which typically occurs in a refiner. In the context of the paper and pulp industry, a "refiner" is a piece of equipment used to grind up wood, typically wood chips, between two rotating surfaces (e.g., rotating discs) having refiner plates attached thereto. In particular, a disc refiner uses two refiner plates for treating pulp and paper fibers in order to develop strength in the paper product made from such fibers. The fibers pass between two plates, one or both of which rotate and apply pressure to the fibers. Thus, the liberation of fibers from a wood matrix is commonly referred to as "refining".
The chemical treatment of wood, also referred to as chemical pulping, essentially uses chemicals in the digestion of wood where solutions of various chemicals eliminate or dissolve lignin, non-fibrous materials or other impurities to result in the generation of pulp. Mechanical treatment, also referred to as mechanical pulping, utilizes a grinding mechanism such as the above-described disc refiner to liberate fibers from a wood matrix, wherein the pulp is liberated via mechanical force rather than by chemical means.
Typical mechanical processing systems consist of several steps, including wood chipping and handling, mechanically sorting the wood chips, washing the chips, preheating or steaming (atmospheric or pressurized) of the chips, 1st stage refining, an optional 2nd stage refining (often multiple refining stages are used), latency removal, screening, bleaching, and storage before the pulp is sent to a paper machine.
As known in the art, mechanical pulping processes require the consumption of a significant amount of energy. There is a desire within the industry to reduce these energy requirements to generate the pulp necessary for the production of paper and paper additives. Attempts have been made in the art to reduce the energy demands of refiners, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,388,148 (Yahrmarkt et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 5,007,985 (Engstrand et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 5,338,405 (Paft et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 5,454,907 (Hayashi) and U.S. Pat. No. 6,159,335 (Owens et al.).
Another method of realizing energy savings is to increase the production rate of a refiner without increasing the specific energy consumption, as specified in the technical article titled "The Effect of Production Rate on Specific Energy Consumption in High Consistency Chip Refining", by Strand B. C. et al. IMPC Conference, Oslo 1993, p. 143-151. Thus, the refiner would provide a greater amount of pulp without a simultaneous increase in the specific energy consumption. There have been attempts within the industry to increase the production rate of a refiner, as is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,808,090 (Logan et al.), however, such attempts have proven unsuccessful.
Additionally, the industry has noted the use of chemicals and/or secondary processes to treat the wood chips for greater ease of processing, for example, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,767,499 (Simonson et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 2,947,655 (Eberhardt); and a technical article titled "Groundwood Mills use Specialty Chemicals to Solve Pitch Problems" Pulp & Paper, by Rying, S., March 1978, p. 177-179.
The embodiments of the process provided by the present invention address the needs of the papermaking industry due to the enhancement of the refiner production rate and/or the reduction of the specific energy necessary for a freeness target. The embodiments of the present invention provide costs savings with respect to the number of refiners needed in a given process to produce a particular tonnage of pulp per day as well as a potential reduction in the energy consumption for the refining process.
Additionally, the embodiments of the present invention are advantageous because they do not pose a health risk to operators of the refiner because highly alkaline and toxic substances such as sodium aluminate are not used.

Process for increasing the refiner production rate and/or decreasing the specific energy of pulping wood


A method and apparatus are used for training adjustment in sports, particularly in running sports, in which light is radiated into the body tissue of a test person by at least one light source, the light intensity reflected in the body tissue is measured via at least one light sensor, a temporally oscillating measurement quantity is derived from the measured light intensity via an evaluator, a minima in the time curve of the measurement quantity are determined, and a performance rating from which the current metabolic state of the test person can be read out is generated via analysis of a plurality of temporally successive minima and displayed.

The invention concerns a method for training adjustment in sports, particularly running sports. The invention furthermore concerns an apparatus for execution of the method.
To generate muscle power, a muscle, specifically a human muscle, requires oxygen that must be supplied by the organism. The greater the power, the greater the need for oxygen. At a certain power limit, the body will go into what is known as "oxygen debt". This means that the blood contains too small of an oxygen ratio to be able to supply the oxygen necessary to generate power. The metabolism in the muscle then passes into the anaerobic range marked by oxygen deficiency. In contrast to this, the metabolism given sufficient oxygen supply is designated as aerobic.
Complete burning of the energy carrier glucose drawn on by the body does not ensue in the muscle in the anaerobic range. As a result of this, "combustion shortfalls" accumulate in the body that can no longer completely metabolized as a result of the oxygen deficiency. The muscle thus stressed becomes "acidic" and requires a longer time in order to regenerate after the stress.
In sport types that are connected with high body stress, particularly running sports, it is therefore important that the training is implemented predominantly in the aerobic range, and only a small portion in the anaerobic range. In an amateur athlete, for example, the aerobic training phase should amount to approximately 80% of the overall training.
For training adjustment, it is typical in sports medicine to determine the "lactate balance point" (LBP). Lactate (lactic acid) is a metabolic product of glucose that—as specified previously—is created when the oxygen in the organism is no longer sufficient for combustion. In the anaerobic range, lactate therefore accumulates in the body, while in the aerobic range excess lactate is metabolized again.
At the threshold between aerobic metabolism and anaerobic metabolism, the lactate level in the organism remains in balance. This defines the LBP. In reverse, the LBP is subsequently used as a synonym for the performance threshold at which the metabolism of the test subject passes from the aerobic range into the anaerobic range. The LBP is approximately characterized by associated measurement quantities of the organism, for example, an associated heart rate. If the heart rate of an athlete corresponding to the LBP is known, the athlete can optimize his training accordingly.
In running sports, a wearable pulse sensor is frequently used that determines the heart rate by way of a pulse band worn on the upper body of the athlete. However, using this pulse sensor, only a comparably rough training adjustment is possible. Using only the heart rate, only an imprecise estimate can be made as to whether the athlete temporarily undershoots or overshoots the LBP, and thus whether the athlete is temporarily located in the aerobic or anaerobic range.
The LBP can be determined via direct measurement of the lactate value. The lactate value is conventionally determined with a lactate measurement device which effects an analysis of blood that is extracted from the athlete at different degrees of stress. Physiological fundamentals and a method for lactate measurement are, for example, specified in German Patent Document No. DE 199 09 852 A1. The known solution is, disadvantageously, an invasive method, especially as blood samples must be extracted from the athlete to be tested (hereinafter, "test person"). This is, on the one hand, sometimes painful for the athlete. On the other hand, the blood extraction is always connected with a risk of infection, for example, with hepatitis or HIV, for both the test person and for the examiner. To reduce this infection risk, high hygiene standards are in turn necessary that make the method elaborate and expensive.

Method and apparatus for training adjustment in sports, in particular in running sports


An object identifying device includes: an input request unit for requesting an input for starting a shooting operation; an input unit for receiving the input for starting the shooting operation and a control unit for controlling them. The control unit performs a truth and falseness deciding process for comparing an input operation of the input for starting the shooting operation that is received by the input unit with a normal operation previously registered as a normal operation to decide a truth or a falseness, a matching process for matching the object on the basis of the shot image obtained by the shooting operation and the registered data of the object that is previously registered and an identifying process for identifying the object to be relevant when both a decided result by the truth and falseness deciding process and a matched result by the matching process are true.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an object identifying method, an object identifying device, and a mobile phone for shooting an object to be shot such as the face, the iris or the palm mark of a human being to identify the object.
2. Related Art
As a system for identifying the person himself or herself, various kinds of identifying systems have been hitherto proposed. For instance, exemplified are a face identifying system for shooting a face to identify the face of the person himself or herself, an iris identifying system for shooting an iris to identify the iris of the person, a palm mark identifying system for shooting a palm mark to identify the palm mark of the person, etc.
These identifying systems serve to identify the person himself or herself by shooting an object to be shot such as the face, the eye or the hand. Thus, an impersonation by photographs or a wrong recognition needs to be rejected.
As a method for rejecting the impersonation or the wrong recognition, an individual identifying device for matching a plurality of objects is proposed (see JP-A-2003-36442). In the individual identifying device, not only a plurality of matching is matched, but also a matching process is carried out again when there is an indefinite part so as to suppress a wrong recognition rate to a low level.
However, when a plurality of matching processes is performed, a problem arises that not only much processing time, but also a labor is required for a user.

Object identifying device, mobile phone, object identifying method, program executable on computer for operating the object identifying device and computer-readable medium including the program


There is provided a cartridge for a medication dispensing apparatus having a roll-rotating drum, the cartridge including a cartridge case having an open outlet formed on a bottom thereof so as to dispense medication; a drum installed inside of the cartridge case so as to selectively open and/or close the outlet; and a cartridge base having the cartridge case installed thereto, wherein projections projected downward and grooves recessed upward are formed on a bottom of the drum, alternatively, and a concave-convex part having protruding portion protruding upward are formed on a bottom surface of the cartridge case at intervals.

1. Field
The following description relates to a cartridge for a medication dispensing apparatus having a roll-rotating drum, the drum configured to open and/or close an outlet of a cartridge case and capable of rolling up and down.
2. Description of the Related Art
In order to solve drawbacks of pharmacist manually dispensing medication, a medication dispensing apparatus is needed. If a doctor orders medication for a prescription using a computer, the medication dispensing apparatus automatically divides medication into dose per serving. Such a medication dispensing apparatus includes a medication cabinet for keeping medication separate according to types, and a packing unit which is disposed below the medication cabinet and packs medication supplied from the medication cabinet.
The medication cabinet is configured to include a plurality of medication cartridges. A medication cartridge stores the same type medication, and dispenses the medication to the packing unit in accordance with a prescription signal. A case of the medication cartridge includes a cartridge case, having an outlet on the bottom thereof so as to dispense stored medication; a drum installed inside of the cartridge case so as to selectively open and/or close the outlet; and a cartridge base having the cartridge case installed thereon.
In the case when the drum simply repeatedly rotates on a horizontal state, it is possible to open an outlet of the cartridge case but there are some drawbacks. That is, medication contained in the cartridge case may not be distributed evenly to each cell of the drum, and it is hard to secure a time for dispensing medication regularly. In particular, if there is a large amount of medication, the medication may be not distributed effectively to each cell of the drum due to the medication's weight and pressure.

Cartridge for medication dispensing apparatus having roll-rotating drum