Disclosed are an industrially useful (meth)acrylic polymer particle for use in a plastisol which is excellent in storage stability, particularly under circumstance at 40° C. or above, so that it can suppress gelation and maintain a sol state during storage and which can give a shaped article excellent in flexibility and chipping resistance; a method for producing the (meth)acrylic polymer particle; and a plastisol composition made from the (meth)acrylic polymer particle. Specifically disclosed is a method for producing a (meth)acrylic polymer particle, which comprises polymerizing a monomer or monomer mixture (B) to form a polymer (b) in the presence of a polymer (a) obtained by polymerization of a monomer or monomer mixture (A), wherein a glass transition temperature (Tg) of the polymer (a) as calculated from the FOX equation is 90° C. or above, a solubility parameter of the polymer (a) is 19.90 (J/cm3)1/2 or below, and a solubility parameter of the polymer (b) is 20.22 (J/cm3)1/2 or above.

A plastisol in which polymer fine particles are dispersed in a plasticizer used as a medium has been used in various industrial fields such as automotive undercoats, auto body sealers, wall papers, carpet backings, floor materials, paints, and toys.
Conventionally, plastisols have mostly been vinyl chloride sols using vinyl chloride polymer particles. In recent years, a shift to acrylic sols in which (meth)acrylic polymer particles are used has been investigated from the consideration of global environment and the like. The acrylic sols have an advantage such that they do not generate toxic dioxins or halogenated hydrogen gases that are a cause of acid rain when products produced from the acrylic sols are incinerated because the acrylic sols do not contain halogen elements.
The shift from vinyl chloride sols to the acrylic sols is being positively advanced, in particular, in the uses of automotive undercoats and auto body sealers. This is because, in addition to the above environmental problem, there is a problem such that hydrogen chloride generated from vinyl chloride sols at a melting step of crushed steel in recycling automotives causes damage of equipment.
It is preferable that plastisols can stably maintain a sol state during storage, can have excellent gelation properties that causes fast gelation when the plastisols are heated, and can give coating films or shaped articles that have toughness and flexibility. As such acrylic sols, those containing a plasticizer and (meth)acrylic polymer particles, which are constructed from a core layer giving flexibility of coating films and a shell layer suppressing contact of a polymer in the core layer with the plasticizer and thus giving storage stability, and further compounded with a blocked isocyanate-based adhesive which gives coating films adhesive properties or strength, have been reported in Patent Document 1. Such acrylic sols can satisfy practically desired physical properties, however, they are liable to cause stringiness or sagging when coated if a large amount of the adhesive, which is a highly viscous liquid material, is compounded, and hence further improvement has been desired.
Further, there is a tendency that material costs of the acrylic sols become higher as compared with those of vinyl chloride sols. As main causes of this, the facts that raw material cost of (meth)acrylic polymer particles is high and that adhesives, curing agents, and anti-sagging agents tend to be compounded in large quantities can be listed.
Although various proposals have been offered to solve these problems, the most effective measure among them is the reduction of the content of the adhesives. However, when the content of the adhesives in the acrylic sols is reduced, not only adhesive properties but also chipping resistance or storage stability of shaped articles such as coating films shaped from the acrylic sols are liable to be lowered. Therefore, it has been desired to develop (meth)acrylic polymer particles by which a shaped article such as coating films having excellent chipping resistance and tensile strength can be obtained and whose storage stability is improved. However, (meth)acrylic polymer particles satisfying these demands have not been developed yet.
It has been reported in Patent Documents 2 and 3 that functional group-containing (meth)acrylic copolymer particles having a large particle diameter ranging from about several micrometers to 100 μm and a high glass transition temperature (Tg) are used as a resin component in order to improve storage stability of the acrylic sols. However, the storage stability of the acrylic sol composition described in Patent Document 2 is not sufficient in a practical industrial usage environment at 40° C. or above, though it is guaranteed at room temperature. In addition, as for the acrylic sol composition described in Patent Document 3, flexibility of the coating films obtained therefrom is not sufficient and chipping resistance of the coating films is liable to become insufficient. In addition, these acrylic sol compositions tend to have lowered anti-sagging property because particles having a large particle diameter are used and hence interactions among the particles are weak and hence viscosity is low.
Further, the acrylic sol composition containing a specific plasticizer and core-shell type polymer particles having a specific solubility parameter, which is referred to as Sp value, is proposed in Patent Document 4, however, when a general-purpose plasticizer is used, bleeding of the plasticizer or deficiency in storage stability occurs and chipping resistance of coating films to be obtained tends to be lowered. In addition, it is desired that the acrylic sol composition be improved to have storage stability in a practical industrial usage environment at 40° C. or above.
Further, the acrylic sol composition in which a monovinyl aromatic copolymer covered with a methacrylate polymer whose molecular weight is adjusted by a chain transfer agent, and further ionically crosslinked is used, is proposed in Patent Document 5. However, coating films shaped from the acrylic sol composition have insufficient chipping resistance.    Patent Document 1: International Publication No. WO 2000/001,748    Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Sho 54-117,553    Patent Document 3: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 7-102,147    Patent Document 4: International Publication No. WO 2003/004,568    Patent Document 4: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-352,846

(Meth)acrylic polymer particle, method for producing the same, plastisol composition made from the polymer particle, and article made from the plastisol composition


Embodiments of the present invention disclose a method for implementing shared mesh protection includes: receiving, by a first node, a message of a second type sent by a second node, where the message of the second type carries a second positive incoming sublabel allocated by the second node for a protection path of a first service and the second positive incoming sublabel is used to indicate a specified feature of recovery information of the first service; allocating, by the first node, a first positive outgoing label for the protection path of the first service based on the second positive incoming sublabel, where the first positive outgoing label corresponds to the second positive incoming sublabel; and transmitting the recovery information of the first service to the second node based on an indication of the first positive outgoing sublabel when knowing that a working path of the first service is faulty.

An optical network has a high service transmission rate and therefore is widely applied. A customer service may be transmitted by establishing one or more optical network connections that satisfy a bandwidth requirement of the customer service. Reliability of service transmission is a key performance indicator (KPI) that measures whether the optical network is stable.
The reliability of the service transmission on the optical network may be implemented by using various protection and recovery technologies. For example, a rerouting technology of a control plane may be used to recover an optical network connection. The control plane is a control network that runs in the optical network. The optical network provides a control channel that uses a Generalized Multi-Protocol Label Switching (GMPLS, Generalized Multi-Protocol Label Switching) protocol suite. The GMPLS protocol suite includes a routing protocol and a signaling protocol. The routing protocol is mainly responsible for collecting topology information (including node and link information) of the optical network and calculating a path that a connection passes through. The signaling protocol is mainly responsible for establishing the optical network connection based on the calculated path.
In a case where the control plane is used, a rerouting function may be provided for the connection. That is, when the connection (work connection) that transmits the customer service is faulty, the control plane uses a pre-configured recovery path (or recalculating a path) to establish a new connection (a recovery connection) for transmitting the customer service. This manner does not need to always provide two connections for the customer service. Another available connection needs to be provided only under a case where the connection is faulty. Therefore, bandwidth utilization is high. Fault recovery duration, however, is generally long because a recovery technology of the control plane is used. A connection established by using a GMPLS control plane technology is generally called a label switch path (LSP, Label Switch Path). Establishment of the LSP is triggered by an initial node, and a rerouting process is also triggered by the initial node.
To further improve resource utilization, it is proposed that a shared mesh protection technology is used to provide a transmission service for the customer service. A service transmitted using the shared mesh protection technology is called a shared mesh protection service. Each shared mesh protection service includes a working path and a recovery path. The working paths of two shared mesh protection services are separated and the recovery paths may share channel resources. An automatic protection switching (APS, Automatic Protection Switching) overhead of a channel is used to transmit a shared mesh protection message. A same channel may be shared by multiple services. Therefore, different service messages need to be distinguished in the APS overhead of the channel.
The prior art mainly implements shared mesh protection through manual configuration on a network management system. This manner, however, strongly relies on devices, such as a network management system and a configuration operation is extremely complex. Therefore, a network operation risk is high.

Method and device for implementing shared mesh protection and optical network system


Lightweight, fiber reinforced, cementitious panels possessing exceptional toughness for use as building components in applications such as roofing elements, siding elements, framing and sheathing elements, and substrate elements for installation of floor finishes in residential and other building construction types. The panels employ a continuous phase resulting from the curing of an aqueous mixture of inorganic binder, PVA fibers and lightweight filler. The inorganic binder may be, for example, hydraulic cement alone, or a combination of hydraulic cement and pozzolan/s, or a combination of hydraulic cement, alpha hemihydrate, active pozzolan and optionally lime. The PVA fibers reinforce the continuous phase and are randomly distributed throughout the composite. Typical panels of the invention have a density of 60-85 pcf.

Cementitious panels have been used in the construction industry to form the interior and exterior walls of residential and/or commercial structures. The advantages of such panels include resistance to moisture compared to standard gypsum-based wallboard. However, a drawback of such conventional panels is that they do not have sufficient flexural toughness to the extent that such panels may be comparable to, if not tougher than, wood-based panels such as plywood or oriented strand board (OSB).
Building structures during their lifetimes are subjected to a variety of impact loads (e.g., hail damage, or damage from objects hurled at the buildings due to tornados or hurricanes). Not all building sheathing panels are sufficiently tough to withstand such impact loads. Where it is necessary to demonstrate impact load resistance, the sheathing panels are measured to determine the impact the panel can resist without failure.
Flexural toughness as characterized in this specification is measured as equal to the total area under the flexural load versus deflection curve for a specimen loaded in four-point bending.
Flexural toughness is measured as the total area under the load versus deflection curve for a flexural specimen loaded in four-point bending according to ASTM C947 test method.
Wood-based panels achieving significant flexural toughness usually are plywood or oriented strand board (OSB), which consist of pieces of wood that are glued together. These panels can provide flexural toughness, but each is combustible and neither is durable when exposed to water. A panel made of hydraulic cement will resist water, but is much heavier than the wood panels and has insufficient flexural toughness. It is believed that there is no panel currently available which can provide the flexural toughness of the present invention, while avoiding the deficiencies of plywood or OSB panels.
Furthermore, the need for cementitious panels configured to behave in the construction environment similar to plywood and OSB, means the panels are nailable and can be cut or worked using conventional saws and other conventional carpentry tools. It is also desirable for cementitious structural panels to have low density to facilitate handling.
The panel should be capable of being cut with the circular saws used to cut wood.
The panel should be capable of being fastened to framing with nails or screws.
The panel should be dimensionally stable when exposed to water, i.e., it should expand as little as possible, preferably less than 0.1% as measured by ASTM C 1185.
The panel should not be biodegradable or subject to attack by insects or rot.
The panel should provide a bondable substrate for exterior finish systems.
After curing for 28 days, the flexural strength of a 0.5 inch (12.7 mm) thick panel having a density of 60 lb/ft3 (961 kg/m3) to 75 lb/ft3 (1200 kg/m3)is at least 750 psi (5.2 MPa), and preferably greater than 1000 psi (6.9 MPa) as measured by the ASTM C 947 test.
It should be evident that the currently available cement-based and wood-based products and composites meet some, but not all, of the above performance characteristics. In particular, there is a need for improved cement-based panels that are lightweight having improved flexural toughness and which exceed the capability of the currently-used cement-based and wood-based by providing non-combustibility and water durability.
Although glass fibers have been used to reinforce cement, they are known to lose strength with time since the glass is attacked by the lime present in cured cement. This may be offset, to some extent, by coating the glass fibers or by using a special alkali-resistant glass. Other fibers have been suggested to reinforce cement, such as metal fibers, wood or other cellulose fibers, carbon fibers, or polymer fibers. Col. 10, lines 1-6, says, "Although they do not provide strength equivalent to glass fibers, it is possible to include some polymer fibers in the panels of the invention. Such polymer fibers, for example polypropylene, polyethylene, polyacrylonitrile and polyvinyl alcohol fibers, are less expensive than alkali-resistant glass fibers and are not subject to attack by lime."
U.S. Pat. No. 6,241,815 to Bonen, incorporated herein by reference, discloses a composition for use in construction materials, which may be substituted for high performance concrete, patching materials, joint compounds, and the like, such as backer boards or panels, which includes a settable calcium sulfate, preferably a hemihydrate, Portland cement, a finely divided pozzolanic material, lime, and an aggregate, optionally including other additives. The volume ratio of the aggregate to the combined calcium sulfate, Portland cement, pozzolanic material, and lime (a cementitious binder) is equal to or greater than 2/1. Panels made from this composition are useful, particularly when exposed to water since they have good dimensional stability.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,199,366 A to Schaefer et al. discloses a fiber-reinforced cement-like material having short polyvinyl alcohol fibers in an amount of at least 2 volume % based on the total volume of the material. These fibers have an elongation at break of between about 4 and 8% and a modulus of more than 130 g/dtex. A process for the preparation of the material is also disclosed. U.S. Pat. No. 4,306,911 A to Gordon et al. discloses a method for the production of a fiber-reinforced hydraulically obtained setting material. U.S. Pat. No. 4,339,273 A to Meier et al. discloses a process for producing a fiber-reinforced, hydraulically setting composition, the composition produced, and the use thereof. U.S. Pat. No. 5,298,071 A to Vondran discloses a fiber-hydratable cement composition comprising a uniform dispersion interground fiber in hydratable cement powder. U.S. Pat. No. 6,528,151 B1 to Shah et al. discloses an extruded fiber reinforced cement matrix composite made by mixing cement, water, water soluble binder, and relatively short, discontinuous reinforcing fibers, preferably short polyvinyl alcohol fibers, to provide an extrudable mixture, then extruding the mixture to shape, and curing the cement. U.S. Pat. No. 6,723,162 B1 to Cheyrezy et al. discloses concrete comprising organic fibers dispersed in a cement matrix, concrete cement matrix, and premixes. Some of its examples employ polyvinyl alcohol fibers. US 2002/0019465 A1 to Li et al. discloses short fiber-reinforced cementitious composites which are self-compacting and can be prepared by adding hydrophilic polymer fibers to a cement composition containing polymeric thickener and superplasticizer. "Fracture Toughness of Microfiber Reinforced Cement Composites", Nelson, et al., J. Mat. Civil. Eng., September/October 2002, discloses the results of fracture toughness tests conducted on thin sheet cement composites reinforced with polypropylene (PP), polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), and refined cellulose fibers under air-dry conditions. However, the cementitious products of these references have a high density. In other words, the present state-of-the-art of cement-based panels reinforced with PVA fibers as presented by these references deals with full density panels and not with the lightweight panels.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/666,294, incorporated herein by reference, discloses a multi-layer process for producing structural cementitious panels (SCP's or SCP panels), and SCP's produced by such a process. After one of an initial deposition of loosely distributed, chopped fibers or a layer of slurry upon a moving web, fibers are deposited upon the slurry layer. Also, it discloses a structural cementitious panel (SCP) produced by its process, and an apparatus suitable for producing structural cementitious panels according to its process.

Lightweight, fiber-reinforced cementitious panels


The dependence of ionizing radiation-induced GADD45 mRNA and protein expression on the presence of functional p53 in mammalian cells is disclosed. First and second oligonucleotide sequences are provided which can form a double-stranded oligomer capable of binding to functional p53 protein. The present invention demonstrates that the dependence of ionizing radiation-induced GADD45 mRNA and protein expression on the presence of functional p53 and the binding of functional p53 to a double-stranded oligomer binding sequence can serve as the bases for methods for determining the presence of functional p53 in mammalian cell lines and tumors.

The p53 protein was first detected in a complex with the SV40 large T antigen in rodent cells transformed by simian virus SV40 (Lane, D. P. et al. (1979) Nature, 278:261-263). Subsequently, p53 was shown to be complexed with adenovirus and oncogenic papillomavirus oncoproteins (Sarnow, P. et al. (1982) Cell, 28:387-394; Werness, B. A. et al. (1990) Science, 248:76-79). Initially, p53 protein was considered to be a cellular proto-oncogene but recent observations have indicated that the gene encoding p53 in its native form is a tumor suppressor gene. Experimental support for the role of p53 as a tumor suppressor has been provided by the demonstration that the p53 gene can suppress the growth of transformed murine or human cells and that mutation or deletion of the p53 gene results in loss of this suppressor function (Eliyahn, D. et al. (1989) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A., 86:8763-8767; Baher, S. J. et al. (1990) Science, 249:912-915; Mercer, W. E. et al. (1990) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A., 87:6166-6170). To date, such mutations of the p53 gene have been demonstrated in tumors of the colon, breast, lung, ovary, bladder, and several other organs, making the p53 gene the most commonly mutated gene yet identified in human cancers (Vogelstein, B., (1990) Nature, 348:681-682). Based on the association of tumor progression with alterations in the p53 gene, major research efforts have been devoted to elucidating the potential biological function of p53.
Recent evidence strongly suggests that one function of p53 protein may be in the regulation of gene transcription. Several groups have demonstrated sequence-specific binding of p53 to DNA (Bargonetti et al. (1991) Cell, 65:1083-1091); Kern et al. (1991) Science, 252:1708-1711) and a genomic consensus sequence has been elucidated that consists of two copies of a symmetric 10 base pair (bp) motif separated by 0-13 bp (El-Deiry et al. (1992) Nature Genet., 1:45-49). Placement of this consensus sequence adjacent to a basal promoter linked to chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT) or luciferase reporter genes resulted in induction of the reporter gene when these constructs were cotransfected with a p53 expression vector into mammalian cells (Kern et al. (1992) Science, 256:827-830; Funk W. D. et al. (1992) Mol. Cell. Biol., 12:2866-2871). In addition, the amino-terminus of p53 has been shown to behave as an acidic transcriptional activation domain when fused to GAL4 (Fields, S. et al. (1990) Science, 249:1046-1049).
More recently, wild-type (wt) p53 protein has been shown to directly activate transcription in vitro (Farmer, G. et al. (1992) Nature, 358:83-86). However, despite the experimental evidence supporting a role for p53 protein in transcriptional activation and the high interest in the potential involvement of p53 in tumorigenesis, there are currently only a few methods available for determining the presence of wt or mutant p53 protein in mammalian cells. One widely used method involves laborious DNA sequencing of the p53 gene itself. A major drawback of this approach is that the presence of a normal p53 DNA sequence is not necessarily an accurate predictor of the presence of functional p53 protein in the cells assayed since interference of p53 function by viral proteins or by abnormal binding of p53 protein to endogenous cellular proteins can occur (Momand, J. et al. (1992) Cell, 69:1237-1245; Oliner, J. D. et al. (1992) Nature, 358:80-83). In addition, this approach is both costly and time-consuming.
Another method used for determining the presence of wt or mutant p53 involves the use of antibodies capable of distinguishing between these two forms of p53. However, this approach also has several limitations. First, many of the mutations which arise in the p53 protein are point mutations and not all such mutations would be expected to be distinguished by a limited number of antibodies. Second, since p53 is the most commonly mutated protein identified in human cancers, the number of antibodies necessary to detect all of the different mutant forms of p53 may be quite high; therefore, this method would be impractical and costly. Finally, the use of anti-p53 antibodies to determine the presence of functional p53 in the cell is not an accurate predictor of functional p53 presence for the reasons cited above for the DNA sequencing method. Therefore, while currently used assays can detect the presence of wild-type or mutant p53 protein in mammalian cells, they cannot accurately determine the presence of functional p53 protein in these cells.
One potential approach to developing a method for determining the presence of functional p53 protein in mammalian cells would be to identify a specific gene whose expression is dependent on the presence of functional p53. Recent studies demonstrating a role for p53 protein in the G1 arrest of the cell cycle following damage of DNA by ionizing radiation (Kastan, N. B. et al. (1991) Cancer Res., 51:6304-6311; Kuerbitz, S. J. et al. (1992) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A., 89:7491-7495). These studies suggested that genes that are differentially regulated after DNA damage and growth arrest may be candidates for p53-inducible genes.
Five gadd (growth-arrest and DNA-damage inducible) genes have been isolated on the basis of induction after DNA-damage in Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells. Subsequently, these genes were found to be induced by DNA-damaging agents or other treatments eliciting growth-arrest, such as serum reduction, in a wide variety of mammalian cells (Fornace, A. J. et al. (1989a) Mol. Cell. Biol., 9:4196-4203). In particular, the GADD45 and GADD153 genes have been found to be rapidly and coordinately induced by agents such as methyl methanesulfonate (MMS) that produce high levels of base damage in DNA in every cell line examined, including human, hamster, murine, and rat cells (Fornace, A. J. et al., (1989a); Fornace, A. J. et al. (1992) Ann. NY Acad. Sci., 26:505-524). Recently, the human GADD45 gene was found to be rapidly induced by ionizing radiation (IR) in lymphoblasts and fibroblasts (Papathanasiou, M. A. et al., (1991) Mol. Cell Biol., 11:1009-1016)). This IR response appeared to be distinct from the "gadd" response to MMS and other base-damaging agents because only GADD45 was strongly induced, and induction occurred with doses of IR that produced relatively little DNA base damage. In addition, a recent report (Fornace, A. J. et al. (1991) in Chapman, J. D., Dewey, W. C., Whitmore, G. F. (eds): "In Radiation Research: A Twentieth-Century Perspective", Academic Press, San Diego, p. 213) demonstrated that IR induction of GADD45 is absent in some human tumor cell lines. Taken together, this information suggests a potential role for p53 in the IR response of GADD45.

Method for determining the presence of functional p53 by measuring GADD45 protein expression


The present invention relates to methods for preventing and treating Alzheimer's disease (AD). An Aβ42 mimotope is used for vaccination against AD. The mimotope induces the production of antibodies against Aβ42 but not against the native APP. The mimotope is functionally similar to, but not structurally identical with DAEFRH (SEQ ID NO: 1) which is a part of the naturally-occurring Aβ42 sequence.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to methods for preventing and treating Alzheimer's disease (AD).
2. Description of Related Art
Amyloid-β peptide (Aβ) plays a central role in the neuropathology of Alzheimer's disease (AD) (Roher et al 1993: "β-Amyloid-(1-42) is a major component of cerebrovascular amyloid deposits: Implications for the pathology of Alzheimer disease" PNAS 90:10836). Familial forms of the disease have been linked to mutations in the amyloid precursor protein (APP) and the presenilin genes. Disease-linked mutations in these genes result in increased production of the 42-amino acid form of the peptide (Aβ42), which is the predominant form found in the amyloid plaques of Alzheimer's disease. An animal model for the disease is commercially available. The PDAPP transgenic mouse, which over-expresses mutant human APP (in which the amino acid at position 717 is F instead of V), progressively develops many of the neuropathological hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease in an age- and brain-dependent manner (Games et al 1995: "Alzheimer-type neuropathology in transgenic mice overexpressing V717β-amyloid precursor protein" Nature 373:523).
Vaccination studies with a "normal", not mimotope-based vaccine have already been performed. Transgenic animals were immunized with aggregated Aβ42, either before the onset of AD-type neuro-pathologies (6 weeks) or at an older age (11 months): Immunization of young animals prevented the development of plaque formation, neuritic dystrophy and astrogliosis. Treatment of older animals markedly reduced AD-like neuropathologies. This experimental vaccination approach induced the development of antibodies against Aβ42 able to cross the blood-brain barrier and at-tack amyloid plaques (Schenk et al 1999: "Immunization with amyloid-β attenuates Alzheimer-disease-like pathology in the PD-APP mouse" Nature 400:173). The plaques are subsequently removed by several mechanisms, including Fc-receptor mediated phagocytosis (Bard et al 2000: "Peripherally administered antibodies against amyloid β-peptide enter the central nervous system and reduce pathology in a mouse model of Alzheimer disease" Nature Med 6:916). This vaccine was also able to delay memory deficits (Janus et al 2000: "Aβ peptide immunization reduces behavioural impairment and plaques in a model of Alzheimer's disease" Nature 408:979).
A highly promising immunization therapy for AD has been in clinical trials since late 1999. Immunization is presumed to trigger the immune system to attack the plaques and clear these deposits from the affected human brain, although the precise mechanism underlying needs to be characterized in more detail.
These clinical trials were conducted by the pharmaceutical company Elan in conjunction with its corporate partner, American Home Products (therapeutic vaccine AN-1792, QS21 as adjuvant). Phase I trials were successfully completed in 2000. Phase II trials were begun late 2001 to test efficacy in a panel of patients with mild to moderate AD.
Now these phase II trials have been permanently discontinued due to neuroinflammation in several patients (Editorial 2002 "Insoluble problem?" Nature Med 8:191). The symptoms included aseptic meningoencephalitis leading to the immediate halt of these world-wide trials. In the worst case scenario, affected patients will be shown to have mounted an autoimmune response—a risk inherent in many immunotherapies. Autoimmune complications could have been anticipated given the ubiquity of APP, which of course bears antigenic determinants in common with its proteolytic product. More recently, additional studies concentrated on the nature of aggregated Aβ42 immunization-induced antibodies (in humans and mice) revealing that most antibodies recognize a small domain between amino acid 4 and 10 of Aβ42 (Aβ4-10). The mouse antibodies were able to block Afl fibrillogenesis and disrupted pre-existing Aβ fibers (McLaurin et al 2002: "Therapeutically effective antibodies against amyloid-β peptide target amyloid-β residues 4-10 and inhibit cytotoxicity and fibrillogenesis" Nature Med 8:1263). Of note, the human antibodies do not react with APP exposed on the surface of cells or any other non-aggregated proteolytic product of the precursor (Hock et al 2002: "Generation of antibodies specific for β-amyloid by vaccination of patients with Alzheimer disease" Nature Med 8:1270).
A clear difference was observed between human and mouse sera: In contrast to human antibodies, mouse antibodies detect monomeric, oligomeric, and fibrillar Aβ. This is of importance and may be a prerequisite for the therapeutic potency since evidence is accumulating that small oligomers of Aβ, which are not recognized by human anti-AO, are the major toxic players in the disease (Walsh et al 2002: "Naturally secreted oligomers of amyloid β protein potently inhibit hippocampal long-term potentiation in vivo" Nature 416:535). Thus, a potential new strategy is the immunization with a vaccine containing β-amyloid amino acids 4-10 (instead of aggregated Aβ42). Despite unknown efficacy this strategy may also face autoimmune problems since patients shall be directly immunized with a (linear B cell) "self" epitope.
Despite these disappointing developments in recent AD vaccination strategies, an Aβ vaccine is still regarded as the most promising way for combatting AD. However, there is an urgent need for improvements and new strategies in AD vaccination. Especially, such a vaccine should not induce autoreactive T and/or B. cells.

Methods for preventing and treating Alzheimer's disease

AFFIRIS Forschungs-und Entwicklungs GmbH


A method for searching a signal to capture a target signal. Integrated correlation values are acquired with all code phases by setting a plurality of frequencies at intervals of 1,000 Hz into a single group. A peak correlation value that is a highest integrated correlation value with each frequency forming the group is acquired. The peak correlation values of the respective frequencies are compared to each other, a highest value thereof is set to be a highest peak value, and a second highest value thereof is set to be a highest noise value. If a ratio between the highest peak value and the highest noise value is lower than a threshold, it is determined that cross-correlation occurred, and if the ratio is higher than the threshold, the highest peak value is determined to be from the target signal, and the signal is captured.

Currently, as one of GNSSs (Global Navigation Satellite Systems), there is GPS (Global Positioning System).
In GPS, positioning of a receiver is performed by receiving GPS signals transmitted from a plurality of GPS satellites, and using code phases and carrier phases of the received GPS signals. In GPS, a different diffusion code is set for every GPS satellite, and each GPS signal is code-modulated by the different diffusion code.
In such GPS, the GPS signal from a GPS satellite different from a target GPS satellite may be mistakenly captured as a target GPS signal and tracked. Such a phenomenon is called cross-correlation.
As a method of preventing cross-correlation, in Patent Document 1, in code phases with a single search frequency, by comparing integrated correlation values at respective code phase points, whether the acquired integrated correlation values are obtained from the target GPS signal or from cross-correlation is determined. FIG. 1 is a chart illustrating a concept of the signal searching method described in Patent Document 1.
With the method of Patent Document 1, an integrated correlation value is acquired at each code phase with a single search frequency, and these values are compared to each other. With the method of Patent Document 1, an integrated correlation value Vpk1 that is the highest value among the integrated correlation values at all the code phases is detected. Next, with the method of Patent Document 1, an integrated correlation value Vpk2 that is the second highest value among the integrated correlation values at all the code phases is detected. With the method of Patent Document 1, a ratio between the integrated correlation value Vpk1 which is the highest value and the integrated correlation value Vpk2 which is the second highest value is calculated. With the method of Patent Document 1, if the ratio is higher than a predetermined threshold, a code phase Cpk1 corresponding to the integrated correlation value Vpk1 which is the highest value is considered to be produced by the target signal, and the signal of the code phase Cpk1 is captured. On the other hand, if the ratio is lower than the threshold, the signal search continues.
Moreover, in Patent Document 2, the following method is used. First, a strong signal is detected based on a result of calculating an integrated correlation value in a fixed integrating period of time at a predetermined frequency interval. By utilizing that a difference between a frequency of the detected strong signal and a frequency of a capturing target has a predetermined connection with a signal level, a detection of cross-correlation is performed. Then, when the detected strong signal is determined to be cross-correlation, the signal search continues.
As described above, with the conventional signal searching methods, an integrating period of time for each code phase and frequency is fixed until the search can be carried out over a searching range, in other words, an entire code phase range and an entire frequency range in which the signal search is performed. Then, if the target signal is not successfully detected after such an entire search is completed at least once (a plurality of times depending on the case), the integrating time period is extended and the signal search is performed.
Moreover, in a case of detecting a weak signal, the integrating time period is set to be longer than the integrating time period for strong signal detection.

Method and device for searching signal, GNSS signal reception apparatus and information equipment terminal


Input/output circuitry for electrically protecting an internal element includes an input/output terminal connected to the internal element, a pair of first and second power terminals applied with a bias voltage, a series connection of a diode and a bipolar transistor between the pair of first and second power terminals so that an intermediate point between the diode and the bipolar transistor is connected to the input terminal, and a parasitic resistance connected between a base of the bipolar transistor and the diode so that the diode is connected between the parasitic resistance and an emitter of the bipolar transistor. An electrostatic pulse applied to the input/output terminal is clamped by the series connection of the diode and the bipolar transistor to protect the internal element from an electrostatic pulse applied to the input/output terminal.

The present invention relates to an input/output protection circuit for protecting an internal element.
A conventional input/output protection circuit will be described with reference to FIGS. 1A and 1B. FIG. 1A is a fragmentary plane view illustrative of the conventional input/output protection circuit FIG. 1B is a fragmentary cross sectional elevation view taken along an line IB--IB of FIG. 1A. The conventional input/output protection circuit is formed on a p-type semiconductor substrate 501. The conventional input/output protection circuit has a p-channel MOS off-buffer diode region 530 and an n-channel MOS off-buffer diode region 540. An n-well region 535 is selectively formed in an upper region of the p-channel MOS off-buffer diode region 530 in the p-type semiconductor substrate 501. Field oxide films 505 are selectively formed on a surface of the p-type semiconductor substrate 501 so that the field oxide films 505 define first and second active regions in the p-channel MOS off-buffer diode region 530 and the n-channel MOS off-buffer diode region 540 respectively. A p-channel MOS off-buffer diode is formed in the first active region in the p-channel MOS off-buffer diode region 530. An n-channel MOS off-buffer diode is formed in the second active region in the n-channel MOS off-buffer diode region 540. An inter-layer insulator 506 is formed which extends over the field oxide films 505 and the p-channel and n-channel MOS off-buffer diodes in the first and second active regions. An input/output pad 502 is selectively formed on the inter-layer insulator 506 in a region spaced from the p-channel and n-channel MOS off-buffer diode region 530 and 540. A high voltage power interconnection 503 is formed in the p-channel MOS off-buffer diode region 530. A low voltage power interconnection 504 is formed in the n-channel MOS off-buffer diode region 540. The p-channel MOS off-buffer diode has a looped gate electrode 531 which is connected to the high voltage power interconnection 503. The p-channel MOS off-buffer diode also has a p-type drain region 532 with a high impurity concentration which is connected to the input/output pad 502 and also connected to the looped gate electrode 531. The p-channel MOS off-buffer diode also has a p-type source region 533 with a high impurity concentration which extends around the p-type drain region 532 and which is connected to the high voltage power interconnection 503 and also connected to the looped gate electrode 531. The p-channel MOS off-buffer diode also has an n-type back gate 534 with a high impurity concentration which extends around the p-type source region 533 and which is connected to the p-type source region 533 and the field oxide film 505. The n-channel MOS off-buffer diode has a looped gate electrode 541 which is connected to the low voltage power interconnection 504. The p-channel MOS off-buffer diode also has an n-type drain region 542 with a high impurity concentration which is connected to the input/output pad 502 and also connected to the looped gate electrode 541. The p-channel MOS off-buffer diode also has an n-type source region 543 with a high impurity concentration which extends around the n-type drain region 542 and which is connected to the low voltage power interconnection 504 and also connected to the looped gate electrode 541. The p-channel MOS off-buffer diode also has a p-type back gate 544 with a high impurity concentration which extends around the n-type source region 543 and which is connected to the n-type source region 543 and the field oxide film 505. The above prior art is disclosed in Japanese laid-open patent publication No. 63-202056.
The p-type drain region 532 is surrounded by the p-type source region 533 and the n-type back gate 534 in order to separate or distance the p-type drain region 532 from the outside portion whereby an electrostatic pulse and the like are absorbed in the p-channel MOS off-buffer diode. Also the n-type drain region 542 is surrounded by the n-type source region 543 and the p-type back gate 544 in order to separate or distance the n-type drain region 542 from the outside portion whereby an electrostatic pulse and the like are absorbed in the n-channel MOS off-buffer diode.
In recent years, the number of input/output terminals has been on the increase. In this case, it might have been required to narrow a pitch of the input/output terminals, wherein a protection circuit is connected to each of the input/output terminals. The provisions of the protection circuits for the individual input/output terminals result in the increase in chip area, for which reason it is required to scale down or shrink the individual protection circuits.
In order to reduce the occupied area of the individual protection circuit, it is required to reduce a distance between the p-channel and n-channel MOS diodes used as the protection circuits.
FIG. 2 is a circuit diagram illustrative of an equivalent circuit of the input/output protection circuit of FIGS. 1A and 1B. An input terminal 602 is connected to an internal element 606. The equivalent circuit has a series connection of the p-channel and n-channel MOS off-buffer diodes 630 and 640 between the high voltage power terminal 603 and the low voltage power terminal 604 which is grounded. The p-channel MOS off-buffer diode 630 is connected to the high voltage power terminal 603. The n-channel MOS off-buffer diode 640 is connected to the low voltage power terminal 604. The input terminal is connected between the p-channel and n-channel MOS off-buffer diodes 630 and 640. The p-channel MOS off-buffer diode 630 has a parasitic n-well resistance 635. The n-channel MOS off-buffer diode 640 has a parasitic p-well resistance 645. The internal element is connected to the high voltage power terminal 603 and also connected to the ground line. A parasitic thyristor 607 is further formed between the p-channel and n-channel MOS off-buffer diodes 630 and 640. Since the parasitic thyristor 607 is formed, it is required for suppression of the operation of the parasitic thyristor 607 to ensure a sufficient distance between the p-channel and n-channel MOS off-buffer diodes.
In contrast, however, in order to increase the density of integration of the circuits, it is required to narrow the distance between the p-channel and n-channel MOS off-buffer diodes. Narrowing the distance between the p-channel and n-channel MOS off-buffer diodes, however, results in a certain possibility of operation of the parasitic thyristor due to a trigger of external noise whereby a problem with a latch-up generation is raised.
In the above circumstances, it had been required to develop a novel input/output protection circuit free from the above problems as described above.


A modular fuel storage system can include a container, a cover, a storage tank and fuel fill and delivery lines. The container can define an interior space therein and the cover can be configured to engage the container to enclose the interior space. The storage tank can be configured to store and selectively deliver a gaseous fuel. The fuel fill and fuel delivery lines can each be fluidly connected to the storage tank. The fill and delivery lines can each have a coupling connector extending external to the container and terminating in a recess formed in an exterior of the container. The modular fuel storage system can be configured to be assembled in the vehicle such that the cover forms a portion of a floor of the vehicle.

The use of gaseous fuels, such as hydrogen or compressed natural gas, for vehicles is generally known. Such fuels can represent an alternative to petroleum as a fuel source for motor vehicles, but are generally required to be stored at an elevated or high pressure in a storage tank. Typical storage tanks and their associated mounting systems for compressed gaseous fuels include various components that can raise the cost and complexity of manufacturing an alternative fuel vehicle. In addition, such storage tank systems often result in a loss of interior cabin volume or trunk volume in an automotive vehicle. Thus, there remains a need in the relevant art for a modular fuel storage system that overcomes the aforementioned and other disadvantages.


A developing device includes: a housing made of resin; a developer carrier, which is rotatably supported by the housing, and which is configured to carry developer on a circumferential surface thereof; a receiving-side coupling member, which is provided rotatably to one of end portions of the developer carrier and is configured to couple with a driving-side coupling member in the rotational axial direction to transmit driving force to the developer carrier; a blade, which is provided along the rotational axial direction, and which configured to contact the circumferential surface of the developer carrier to regulate a layer thickness of the developer on the circumferential surface; and a support member, which is bent into an L-shape as viewed from the rotational axial direction, and which supports the blade, wherein the receiving-side coupling member is overlapped with a bending portion of the support member, as viewed from the rotational axial direction.

As a developing device, there is known a developing cartridge that is detachably mounted on an image forming apparatus and is configured to develop an electrostatic latent image on a photosensitive drum (for example, refer to JP-A-2001-249592)
The developing cartridge described in JP-A-2001-249592 includes a resin housing which accommodates toner and rotatably supports a developing roller configured to carry the accommodated toner. In forming an image, the developing roller contacts a photosensitive drum over an entire area thereof in an rotational axial direction of the developing roller and is rotated to supply toner to an electrostatic latent image formed on the photosensitive drum. Accordingly, it is possible to develop the electrostatic latent image on the photosensitive drum.
Herein, a coupling member is provided at one end portion side of the housing in the axial direction of the developing roller. An input axis, which is provided at an outside (a main body-side of the image forming apparatus) of the developing cartridge, is connected to the coupling member, so that driving force for rotating the developing roller is transmitted to the developing roller through the input axis and the coupling member.
According to the above-described developing cartridge, the driving force from the outside is applied to the one side (biased position) of the housing in the axial direction of the developing roller. As a result, distortion may occur in the resin housing.
When such distortion occurs in the housing, the developing roller cannot uniformly contact the photosensitive drum over the entire area in the axial direction thereof. Therefore, toner cannot be supplied to the photosensitive drum uniformly from the developing roller in the axial direction, so that an image quality may be deteriorated.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A contact spring for an electrical bush contact includes bottom and top springs. The bottom spring has a boxlike housing as a spring arm base with two wide sides, two narrow sides and two opposite ends. The bottom spring has a connection part integrally adjoining one of the ends of the spring arm base, at least two independent resilient contact tongues disposed on each of the wide sides of the bottom spring at the other of the ends of the spring arm base, the contact tongues being angled relative to one another for defining an insertion funnel and touching one another in a position of repose, and additional side tongues disposed on each of the narrow sides of the bottom spring. The top spring is form-lockingly held on the bottom spring and encloses and fits over the spring arm base and the contact tongues of the bottom spring boxlike on four sides. The top spring has wide and narrow sides, spring buckles disposed on the wide sides of the top spring for urging the contact tongues of the bottom spring toward one another and spring buckles disposed on the narrow sides of the top spring and associated with the side tongues.

Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a contact spring for an electrical bush contact, having a bottom spring with a boxlike housing as a spring arm base, two wide sides and two narrow sides each, a connection part integrally adjoining the spring arm base on one end, and resilient contact tongues angled relative to one another, defining an insertion funnel and formed onto the two wide sides of the opposite end of the spring arm base, the tongues touch one another in the position of repose, and having a top spring form-lockingly held on the bottom spring, the top spring encloses the spring arm base of the bottom spring on four sides and urges the contact tongues of the bottom spring toward one another with spring buckles disposed on the wide sides. A form-locking connection is one which connects two elements together due to the shape of the elements themselves, as opposed to a force-locking connection, which locks the elements together by force external to the elements.
Such contact springs are known in the prior art. For instance, German Utility Model DE 92 02 365 U1 describes a contact spring which is preferentially used widely as a plug connector in automotive engineering. The top spring serves the purpose primarily of increasing the contact force of the contact spring and, by forming detent tongues, of enabling releasable locking of the contact spring to an insulating housing.
Another structure for mutual locking of the top spring to the bottom spring is known from German Patent DE 32 48 078 C2. The spring arm base of the bottom spring provided in that patent is boxlike in cross section and has integrally formed-on top parts bent over by 90.degree. on upper edges of side walls. A boxlike top spring is fitted over the assembly and engages a recess in the top part of the bottom spring from behind through the use of a detent tongue.
In practically all of the contact assemblies with flat spring contacts, various problems arise. Along with the lack of the requisite contact security and a highly conductive electrical connection, problems can result from inadequate heat dissipation, excessive plugging forces and mechanical damage from inadequate protection of the contact assembly.
In order to eliminate those disadvantages, various options have been utilized, such as a floating spring construction or longer spring travel with longer spring legs, or increasing the contact normal force along with high plugging forces for inserting counterpart contacts, or using expensive materials with improved conductivity.
All of the contact structures with flat spring contacts known thus far offer only partial solutions for what are quite complex needs.


The Invention comprises a versatile AC dynamo-electric machine comprising isolated dual stators, each both concentrated windings energizable with single-phase AC, and main windings and a single high inertia sleeve and drive place connected to a rotor shaft. The sleeve contains independent electrical rotors, one for each stator. Each rotor has an innermost layer of magnetizable permanent magnetic material in which the concentrated coils in the stator produce a desired pattern of magnetic poles reacting with the rotating field of the main windings. The machine can function as a synchronous AC motor, or a constant frequency output dual AC generator or as an AC motor-generator with long ride-through time. A UPS system comprises the machine in the motor-generator mode, with clutch means to connect an engine to the rotor shaft to start the engine.

Need for Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS)
Scientific, commercial, medical, governmental military, communications and industrial activities, as well as offices, businesses, schools and homes, need electrical power to carry out many of their functions. A sudden interruption or failure, even of brief duration, of electrical power is not only inconvenient, but may be damaging and costly to any of these activities. Computer data may be lost, work in progress damaged, or lives may be put in jeopardy. Sometimes it takes many days of time and work effort to restore manufacturing operations and to recover from the damage and losses so incurred from electrical power failures.
Many of these facilities and activities have gas or diesel engine generators or other standby electrical power equipment that require several seconds to activate and put into service to replace the suddenly unavailable electrical power. The several second lapse of time while an engine is being started and when no electrical power is available can cause serious disruption or even damage or loss to such facilities.


Disclosed are a β-crystal form nucleating agent composition for polypropylene and an application thereof. The composition is prepared by proportionally mixing barium tetrahydrophthalate, calcium tetrahydrophthalate and the like with adjuvants, such as hydrotalcite or calcium carbonate. The composition has better functions than a single-component β-nucleating agent. The impact strength of polypropylene subjected to nucleation modification by the β-crystal form nucleating agent composition can be improved by up to 6 times, and the heat distortion temperature is improved by about 10° C. to 20° C.; in addition, while the impact strength is improved, the flexural modulus of polypropylene can be improved, namely, the rigidity of polypropylene is improved. Therefore, the mechanical and thermal properties of polypropylene are improved. The use amount of the composition is low, and the application range of polypropylene is expanded; the β-crystal form nucleating agent composition for polypropylene can be widely used in the processing application of polypropylene resin.

1. Technical Field
The present invention generally relates to nucleating agent compositions and, more particularly, to a β-crystal form nucleating agent composition for polypropylene and use thereof.
2. Description of Related Art
Due to desirable tensile strength, compression strength, rigidity and folding resistance, polypropylene has been widely used in packaging containers, household appliances, automobile components and tubular products to substitute some engineering plastics, such as ABS. Moreover, polypropylene has small density and desirable processing and molding properties. However, compared with engineering plastics, polypropylene has lower heat distortion temperature and undesirable impact resistance, particularly low temperature impact resistance, which limits the further popularization of polypropylene. Therefore, in recent years, efforts have been focused on modification of polypropylene at home and abroad.
As known in the art, blend and multiphase copolymerization have been used to improve the impact properties of polypropylene. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 3,562,790 disclosed a polymer blend having desirable impact strength and transparency. However, other properties of polypropylene, for instance rigidity, heat resistance property and processing performance are adversely affected. β-crystal form polypropylene belongs to hexagonal system and has desirable impact toughness and high heat distortion temperature, which can be used to overcome the disadvantages of copolymerized polypropylene. Appropriate melting temperature, crystallization temperature, temperature gradient, stress and nucleating agent are necessary conditions to obtain β-crystal form polypropylene resin, wherein adding β-crystal form nucleating agent into polypropylene is one of the simplest way. Adding β-crystal form nucleating agent to polypropylene can remarkably improve the crystallization temperature and crystallization rate of polypropylene and, subsequently, improve the content of β-crystal form polypropylene in polypropylene and improve the impact resistance of polypropylene.
DE-A-3610644, EP0682066, CN1004076B, EP0887475, CN1210103, CN1114651C and CN102181092A disclose various aspects of β-crystal form nucleating agents. However, none of these prior arts provides suggestion that adjuvant can be used to improve properties of the nucleating agent, or adjuvant(s) can be used to overcome the disadvantage in prior art that the flexural modulus of polypropylene will reduce when the amount of the β-crystal form nucleating agent being added increases.
Generally, there are two ways to add nucleating agent. One way is melt blending, as disclosed in CN 1944515A, wherein the formula containing β-crystal form nucleating agent is added to polypropylene resin and, then β-crystal form polypropylene composition is obtained via extrusion granulation. The other way is to add nucleating agent during polymerization process, as disclosed in CN 101429259A, wherein dried β-crystal form nucleating agent is added to a reaction kettle for bulk polymerization or for slurry polymerization. The bulk polymerization or slurry polymerization of propylene is catalyzed by Ziegler-Natta catalytic system to obtain composite powder of polypropylene and β-crystal form nucleating agent. The composite powder is heated or extruded via an extruding machine, to obtain β-crystal form polypropylene resin. Melt blending is widely used due to simple progress. However, the use amount of nucleating agent in melt blending is high and the components can hardly disperse evenly. Adding nucleating agent during polymerization process is very complicated and is rarely used in actual production.
The other disadvantage of using β-crystal form nucleating agent in prior art is although β-crystal form nucleating agent can improve the impact strength of the polypropylene, it will lead to reduction of one of the other key mechanical properties of polypropylene, i.e. flexural modulus. The rigidity of polypropylene will reduce when amount of β-crystal form nucleating agent added increases.

B-crystal form nucleating agent composition for polypropylene and use thereof


A battery pack is provided. The battery pack includes a battery cell assembly including at least a battery cell, a heat dissipation member, and a plate member; and an exterior case. The heat dissipation member and the plate member are disposed in this order on one or both of an electrode of the battery cell and a side surface of the battery cell along a direction in which the battery cell assembly is assembled in the exterior case.

The present technology generally relates to a battery pack, more particularly to a battery pack, a vehicle, a power storage system, an electric tool, and an electronic device.
In recent years, a demand for a battery pack is rapidly expanding in technical fields such as electronic devices such as personal computers and mobile communication terminals, automobiles such as an electric automobile, and new energy systems such as wind power generation.
For example, a battery unit includes a main accommodation case including a power supply output terminal, at least one submodule accommodated in the main storage case, and a controller that is accommodated in the main accommodation case and controls at least one of charging and discharging of a unit battery. In the submodule, at least two battery blocks each of which includes a plurality of unit batteries are accommodated in a sub accommodation case such that a terminal is not exposed, and the battery blocks are connected to each other by an electric connection member.


Techniques, including systems and methods, take frequent captures of data sets for the purpose of forensic analysis. The data set captures are taken at the block level in various embodiments. Data set captures are used to instantiate forensic storage volumes that are attached to computing instances. The computing instances can access data in the forensic storage volumes at a state corresponding to a specified capture time. A user can select different capture times to re-instantiate the forensic storage volume to see how the forensic storage volume changed between captures.

Computing resources, including networked computing environments, continue to grow in terms of both the number and type of computing components, as well as the complexity of component arrangements in the computing environments. Various innovations make larger and more powerful computing systems available to increasing numbers of users. Distributed computing services, for example, allow users to utilize computing resources maintained by others without having to make large hardware investments. While the growth in complexity and availability of such computing resources generally proves quite useful for a wide variety of purposes, this growth also introduces additional issues.
Increased complexity in computing resources, in many instances, increases the likelihood of problems arising due to malfunction, software bugs, incorrect configurations, and the like. With distributed computing services operated by a third party, for example, a customer can sometimes utilize the third party's resources in a way that adversely affects others, either maliciously or inadvertently. The customer can, for instance, make a programming error that causes excessive use of bandwidth and, therefore, makes less bandwidth available for use by other customers. In some instances, the customer may intentionally use the third party resources to cause harm to others with viruses, denial of service (DoS) attacks, and the like. Generally, advances in computing technology create many opportunities in all computing environments for problems to arise.

Frequent data set captures for volume forensics


The present invention provides a human vesicle trafficking protein (HVTP) and polynucleotides which identify and encode HVTP. The invention also provides expression vectors, host cells, agonists, antibodies and antagonists. In addition, the invention provides methods for producing HVTP and for treating or preventing disorders associated with expression of HVTP.

Vesicle trafficking is defined as the vesicular transport of materials between different subcellular compartments of eukaryotic cells. Vesicles bud from a donor membrane and fuse with a recipient one carrying internalized materials from one site to another. Several protein complexes involving integral proteins of the vesicle and target membranes, such as Sec proteins and Rab proteins, help regulate vesicular transport by directing the vesicles to and from the correct membrane surface.
SEC22, BET1, and BOS1 are yeast genes involved in endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-to-Golgi protein transport. These genes code for small integral membrane proteins, named Sec22p, Bet1p, and Bos1p, respectively, with molecular masses ranging from 16 to 28 kDa. The amino-termini and the central regions of the proteins are hydrophilic, and the carboxy termini contain a transmembrane anchor. Sec22p, Bet1p, and Bos1p have all been identified as integral components of ER-to-Golgi vesicles (Lian, J. P. and Derro-Novick, S. (1993) Cell 73: 735-745; Rexach, M. F. et al. (1994) J. Cell Biol. 126: 1133-1148). SEC22 and BOS1 are further shown to cooperate in activating vesicles for docking or fusion with the Golgi membrane (Lian, J. P. et al. (1994) Nature 372: 698-701). Large protein complexes containing Sed5p, Bet1p, Bos1p, Sed22p, Sly1p, and Sec17p as well as several previously unknown proteins have been immunoprecipitated from detergent extracts of yeast cells arrested at a late step in ER-to-Golgi protein transport (S.o slashed.gaard, M. et al. (1994) Cell 78: 937-948). This is consistent with the notion that vesicle targeting and fusion require protein complex formation involving integral proteins of the vesicle and target membranes.
Rat homologs of Sec22p and Bet1p, rsec22 and rbet1, respectively, have recently been identified (Hay, J. C. et al. (1996) J. Biol. Chem. 271: 5671-5679). Recombinant rsec22 and rbet1 proteins are integral membrane components of 28 and 18 kDa, respectively, and each shows a predicted transmembrane domain near the carboxyl terminus. The two proteins are found to be active at the opposite ends of the ER-Golgi transport process, rsec22 on the ER surface and rbet1 on the Golgi surface. This suggests that rsec22 and rbet1 are involved in the trafficking of vesicles in opposite directions of transport between the ER and Golgi. Hay et al. (supra) suggest that rbet1 may also interact with or function in retention in the intermediate compartment between ER and Golgi.
The discovery of a new human vesicle trafficking protein and the polynucleotides encoding it satisfies a need in the art by providing new compositions which are useful in the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of disorders associated with cell proliferation and inflammation.


An implantable medical device is provided having circuitry to control operation of the implantable medical device and a receiver configured to receive communication signals on an allocated band of a plurality of communication channels separated in frequency by a channel spacing. The receiver includes an oscillator and a signal source configured to apply a quench signal to the oscillator. The quench signal has a frequency corresponding to the channel spacing. The receiver is enabled to receive on all of the plurality of communication channels simultaneously by applying the quench signal.

Medical device systems may use wireless communication for transmitting data from one device to another. For example, an implantable or external monitoring or therapy delivery device may receive programming commands or operational parameters from a programmer. The monitoring or therapy delivery device may transmit data to the programmer to enable a clinical or technical expert to review data acquired by the device.
Telemetry circuitry in an implantable medical device (IMD) is normally in a minimum power or OFF state, sometimes referred to as a "sleep" state. Since the implanted device does not know when an external device might be attempting to communicate with the implanted device, the receiving circuitry of an IMD is typically powered up periodically to enable the implanted circuitry to poll for a "wake-up" signal from an external device that may be sending one. If a wake-up signal is received, the telemetry circuitry is fully powered-up to enable bi-directional communication with the external device.
If no wake-up signal is received, the implanted receiver is powered down again, or put back into the sleep state. The receiver may be enabled to "listen" for a wake-up signal as often as once per second or fraction thereof. As such, considerable power is used to enable the receiver to listen for a wake-up signal even when no wake-up signal is actually received. Since it is desirable to flexibly establish communication with the implanted device at any time with a quick response time by the implanted device, it is desirable to enable frequent "listening" periods while minimizing the power requirements of the receiver each time it is powered-up for listening for a wake-up signal.
Generally, implantable medical devices have a limited size and therefore limited battery space and power capacity. By reducing the power consumed by the telemetry receiver when enabled to listen for a wake-up signal, the size of an implanted device can be reduced, the longevity of the implanted device can be increased, and/or the conserved power can be utilized for other functions performed by the device. External devices, for example wearable devices, may not have the same size limitations as implantable devices, but power conservation may still be a goal to allow a patient to be ambulatory without frequent battery changes or charges and allow flexible communication with another device without requiring patient intervention. Accordingly, a need remains for communication systems for use with medical device systems that reduce the power requirements for establishing a communication link between a patient monitoring or therapy delivery device and a programmer or other communication device while still enabling flexibility in the frequency and timing of establishing the communication link.

Medical device communication system and method


An oil and gas well assembly is provided that includes a wireline cable having at least one optical fiber; a downhole tool having at least one optical fiber; and a cablehead having a first end connected to the wireline cable, a second end connected to the downhole tool. The cablehead further includes at least one optical fiber which transmits data between the at least one downhole tool optical fiber and the at least one wireline cable optical fiber.

Wireline logging operations are performed in a well to measure one or more physical properties of the formation with respect to depth and/or time in or around a wellbore. Such operations are typically performed by connecting a string of logging tools to a wireline cable and lowering the logging tools into a well adjacent to an area of interest within the well. Once within the area of interest, the logging tools are used to make measurements of the physical properties of the formation of interest, as well as wellbore parameters, and to transmit data indicative of the measured properties to the surface of the well through the wireline cable.
Such data transmission is commonly performed by sending electrical signals through electrical lines from the logging tool to the wireline cable, and up the wireline cable to the data acquisition equipment at the well surface. Power transmission to the logging tool is similarly commonly performed by use of electrical lines connecting the logging tool and the wireline cable. However, during such operations, depending on the downhole environment, such electrical data and power transmission can encounter several problems. For example, electrical data transmission lines often experience electromagnetic interference from nearby high voltage conductors, motors, cables, or other electromagnetic devices; electrical data transmission occurs at a relatively slow speed; electrical lines are relatively expensive to maintain; and electronic signals often need to be amplified and/or strengthened in order to be transmitted effectively.
Also, some downhole logging tools gather enormous volumes of data which need to be transmitted uphole at faster rates for real time high speed data and image processing than can be accomplished by transmission across electrical lines. In such situations, the logging tool's logging speed has to be reduced in order to compensate for the relatively slow data transmission across the electrical lines and to prevent data overload. This results in undesirable delay in the overall job completion.
Accordingly, a need exists for a method and a device for improving the speed of data transmission in a wireline logging operation.

Electro-optic cablehead and methods for oilwell applications


An improvement to a subsonic passenger aircraft is provided. The passenger aircraft has a fuselage including a main passenger seating deck (14) including forward, middle, and aft regions. The fuselage includes an upper forward deck (16) located above the main passenger seating deck forward region and accessible thereto. Both the main deck and upper forward deck having doors (30), (26) therein for passenger and supplies ingress and egress. The fuselage includes an aft upper deck (18) located above the main passenger seating deck aft region and accessible from the main deck. An upper middle region (20) is located above the main deck middle region. In one embodiment, the upper middle region (20) is of a height elevationally less than either of the forward and aft upper decks. The cross-sectional area of the fuselage at the upper middle region is less than the cross-sectional area of the fuselage at either the forward upper deck region or the aft upper deck region. In another embodiment, the forward upper cabin and the aft upper cabin are separate, longitudinally non-adjacent cabins for accommodating seated passengers.

The profitability of an airline is directly related to the number of passengers and the amount of cargo-carrying space its planes are equipped to transport. The greater the passenger seating space, the greater the potential passenger revenues. Similarly, the greater the cargo-carrying space, the greater are the potential cargo revenues. Therefore, an airline can increase its profitability by increasing passenger seating space and cargo-carrying capability.
One method of increasing airplane passenger and cargo space is to increase the length of the craft's fuselage. This process is commonly known as "stretching". There are a number of problems associated with stretching an airplane, including a reduction in the aft body rotation clearance, disproportionate growth of the lower cargo space, a reduction in airplane maneuverability in and around airports, and a reduction in the ability to park the aircraft in length-constrained airport gates.
A second method of increasing passenger and cargo space is to use a full length main seating deck and an additional upper seating deck provided either over the entire length of the fuselage, over a forward upper area, or over an aft upper area. Increasing passenger space by use of a forward, an aft, or a full upper deck is generally preferred to stretching an aircraft because the resulting airplane is easier to maneuver at airports and is capable of larger rotation angles during takeoff and landing. Such a craft also has reduced fuselage wetted area per seat and hence reduced skin friction drag on a per seat basis.
There are a number of problems associated with attempting to design a viable full upper deck airplane. One problem is that it is difficult to design a large airplane with a full upper deck that includes non-conflicting escape routes from both the main and upper decks. For a full upper deck or cabin airplane configuration, a sufficient number of doors fitted with deployable escape slides must be provided on the upper deck as well as on the main deck, in order to allow all passengers to quickly exit the plane during an emergency situation. These doors must be spaced no more than sixty feet apart longitudinally in order to meet United States Federal Aviation Regulations. In many cases, there will be a resulting high risk that upper deck slides, while deploying or deployed, are impacted by or otherwise conflict with nearby lower deck slides and/or with the wing of the airplane. This becomes a particularly challenging issue for a large airplane configuration with a long root chord, low wing. Another problem in designing a viable full upper deck configuration, is that dual deck craft have distributions of area-rule cross-sectional area verses longitudinal position that are significantly non-optimal. Thus, full upper deck configurations typically suffer from relatively high levels of transonic drag.
Accordingly, a need exists for an improved large airplane configuration having increased seating capacity relative to a single deck configuration, without an excessively long fuselage body and without incurring the evacuation challenges or performance disadvantages of a full upper deck. The present invention is directed to fulfilling this need.


In a computer graphics system, an address generator processes physical and virtual addresses using a common command set. A separate translator provides conversion from generated virtual addresses to physical addresses. The address generator formulates addresses as a function of distance from the origin of desired destination area in destination memory to the requested position in the destination area. A plurality of drawing graphics commands specify different raster drawing operations. A plurality of context graphics commands is used to define a desired context in which drawing graphics commands operate. The defined context includes destination location for resulting data, type and plane depth of graphics operations, foreground and/or background color of resulting data. Different parts of the context are changeable/redefinable independently of the other parts.

A typical computer graphics system employs a memory source of data to be displayed, an address generator, a graphics controller, and a video display unit (e.g., CRT and the like). Graphics commands are transmitted from a host processor and are written to a register interface. Operands of the graphics commands are stored on the graphics controller. Common variations of this include:
(1) the graphics controller reads graphics commands only from main memory via physical dma;
(2) the graphics controller reads graphics commands from physical main memory and can move operands between graphics controller memory and main physical memory. However, graphics operations cannot occur until the data is in graphics controller memory.
The stored operands include source addresses (i.e., main memory addresses) of data to be displayed and so-called destination addresses (i.e., memory locations in a frame buffer that supports the video display). Under the control of timing signals, the address generator provides appropriate pairs or sequences of operand addresses while the graphics controller sequentially operates on respective data to generate desired screen views on the video display unit. In particular, the graphics controller reads memory data into the frame buffer with respective source data being placed at respective destination addresses in the frame buffer. Thereafter, graphics controller provides display of data through the display unit by enabling sequential reading of the contents of the frame buffer. That is, the frame buffer supports raster scanning from a first line through succeeding lines of the screen view on the display unit such that the screen view is continuously refreshed.
Existing problems or disadvantages of computer graphics systems of the prior art include:
Lack of direct access of virtual memory and lack of write access to main memory;
The address generator can only draw to its own memory, i.e., the frame buffer or a graphics-private memory. This is a cost disadvantage, and in the case of large operands can be a perfomance disadvantage;
The application/program (client) requesting execution of a graphics command is required to provide physical addresses if the graphics controller has the capacity to access main physical memory. Furthermore, if a graphics operation spans virtual pages, the client program must segment and translate virtual memory boundaries for each graphics operation so they don't span physical pages;
High overhead for context setup, i.e., setup commands, to support a series of graphics operations and clip list processing commands.

Graphics command processing method in a computer graphics system


A system and method are capable of ensuring that one or more text strings will be able to be fully rendered in a target area of a user interface or a target area of a graphics file. The system and method determine the number of pixels of first and second reference text that fit in the target area in the horizontal direction and the vertical direction, respectively, determine the number of pixels of string text in the horizontal direction and the vertical direction, and compare the number of pixels in the horizontal direction of the first reference text and the vertical direction of the second reference text respectively to the number of pixels in the horizontal direction and the vertical direction of the text string that is desired to be rendered in the target area to determine whether the text string will fit in the target area.

In many areas of technology, it is common to have a primary electronic device with a user interface (e.g., a graphical user interface) that is designed to interact with any number of other devices (e.g., peripheral devices). These other devices can, for example, expand the functionality of the primary device. In a situation where a peripheral device is connected to a primary device, it is not uncommon for information (i.e., data) associated with or collected by the peripheral device to be rendered on a target area of the user interface of the primary device. Additionally, these peripheral devices can also be used to provide information that will be rendered in a target area of a graphics file that is to be displayed, printed, or otherwise referenced. It is noted that the term "render" means the generation of pixels that represent text to be displayed or to be placed into a graphics file.
However, a potential issue with rendering information from the peripheral device, such as a text string, on the user interface of the primary device or in a graphics file, is the size of the target area of the user interface of the primary device or the graphics file. That is, if the text string transmitted by the peripheral device to the primary device or the graphics file is too large to be rendered on the target area, the text string potentially could only be partially rendered or not rendered at all on the target area.
In addition to not being user friendly, the failure to properly and completely render the text string from the peripheral device on the target area could be extremely dangerous depending on the area of technology. An example of this is in the area of medical devices. In such a scenario, the primary device could be a patient monitoring system that is used to monitor a patient in the hospital and the peripheral device could be a pulse oximeter that monitors the oxygen saturation of the patient's blood. If the pulse oximeter transmits data detailing the patient's current blood oxygen level as a text string that is too large to be properly rendered on a target area of the user interface of the patient monitoring system, the hospital worker monitoring the user interface of the patient monitoring system might not be able to determine if the patient's blood oxygen level falls to a dangerously low level.
In an attempt to prevent a situation where a text string generated by a device does not fit in the target area of a user interface of a primary device, there is a system whereby the size of the target area of the primary device is provided in terms of a maximum number of characters (i.e., a character count) of a given font and font size that will fit in the target area of the user interface of the device. With this system, the manufacturers of peripheral devices can design their devices to use text strings that do not exceed the number of characters associated with the target area of the user interface of the primary device to which they intend to have their peripheral device connect.
However, a significant problem with using the maximum number of characters of a given font and font size as the basis for determining whether a text string will fit in the target area of the user interface of a device is that characters do not all have the same width and height. As such, character counts have only a loose correlation to the actual width of the text string. Therefore, even if a text string has a character count that is no greater than the maximum number of characters designated for a target area of a user interface, there is still the possibility that, for example, the text string will be too wide (i.e., long) for the target area of the user interface.
Further, there is another system in which string size is calculated based on pixels. In this system, the size of the target area of the primary device is provided in terms of a maximum number of pixels in the horizontal direction and a maximum number of pixels in the vertical direction. The system obtains the text string, determines the numbers of pixels of the text string in the horizontal direction and the number of pixels of the text string in the vertical direction, and compares the number of pixels of the text string in horizontal direction to the maximum number of pixels in the horizontal direction and the number of pixels of the text string in the vertical direction to the maximum number of pixels in the vertical direction to determine whether or not the text string will fit in the target area of the primary device.
While this system does rely on pixels to determine whether the text string will fit in the target area of the primary device, it still has a number of problems associated with it. A first problem is that the system requires a user to manually input the maximum number of pixels in the horizontal direction and the maximum number of pixels in the vertical direction. Due to the lack of standardized size categories, there are no safeguards to ensure that the string size maximums in the horizontal and vertical directions are input correctly. Therefore, the system is unable to identify a situation where a user has incorrectly entered the maximum number of pixels in the horizontal direction and/or the vertical direction.
Another problem with this system is that the size of the target area of the primary device is input as a maximum number of pixels in the horizontal and vertical directions, while the text string is input as a string of text. The system then determines the number of pixels of the text string in the horizontal and vertical directions prior to comparing these pixel counts to the maximum pixel numbers. However, software programs do not all render text in the same manner. Thus, depending on how a given software program renders text (e.g., the number of pixels per inch), different software programs can determine that the same text in the same font and font size has different heights and/or widths in terms of the number of pixels. As a result, even if this system determines that a text string will be properly rendered in the target area of a primary device based on its determined number of pixels in the horizontal and vertical directions for the text string, this determination might not be accurate if the software program of the primary device renders the string text in a different manner than the system performing the determination.
In light of the above problems associated with the current systems, there is a need for a system and method that is capable of verifying whether a text string will be properly rendered (i.e., fit) in a target area of a user interface or graphics file.

System and method for verifying whether text will be properly rendered in a target area of a user interface and/or a graphics file


A method of operating a non-invasive blood pressure (NIBP) monitor that includes a blood pressure cuff and a pressure transducer. The method initially inflates the blood pressure cuff to a level above systolic pressure and begins to deflate the pressure cuff using a continuous or linear deflation technique. During the linear deflation of the pressure cuff, the oscillation pulses from the pressure transducer are obtained and compared to predicted pulse estimates. If the obtained oscillation pulses vary from the predicted pulse estimates, the linear deflation technique is interrupted and the pressure cuff is then deflated in a sequence of distinct pressure steps. During each pressure step, the oscillation pulses are obtained and the pressure cuff is not deflated to the next pressure step until the oscillation pulses correspond to each other.

The present invention generally relates to a method of controlling the operation of an automatic, non-invasive blood pressure (NIBP) monitor. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method of controlling the operation of a NIBP monitor to utilize both a linear deflation technique and step deflation technique to determine blood pressure.
Automated blood pressure monitors employ an inflatable cuff to exert controlled counter-pressure on the vasculature of a patient. One large class of such monitors, exemplified by that described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,349,034 and 4,360,029, both to Maynard Ramsey, III and commonly assigned herewith and incorporated by reference, employs the oscillometric methodology.
In accordance with the Ramsey patents, an inflatable cuff is suitably located on the limb of a patient and is pumped up to a predetermined pressure above the systolic pressure. The cuff pressure is then reduced in predetermined decrements, and at each level, pressure fluctuations are monitored. The resultant arterial pulse signals typically consist of a DC voltage with a small superimposed variational component caused by arterial blood pressure pulsations (referred to herein as "oscillation complexes" or just simply "oscillations"). The oscillation amplitudes measured from the cuff can range from a fraction of a mmHg to as much as 8 mmHg.
After suitable filtering to reject the DC component and to provide amplification by a scale factor, peak oscillation amplitudes measured above a given base-line are stored. As the cuff pressure decrementing continues, the peak amplitudes will normally increase from a lower level to a relative maximum, and thereafter will decrease. These amplitudes form an oscillometric envelope for the patient. The lowest cuff pressure at which the oscillations have a maximum value has been found to be representative of the mean arterial pressure (MAP) of the patient. Systolic and diastolic pressures can be derived either as predetermined fractions of the oscillation size at MAP, or by more sophisticated methods of direct processing of the oscillation complexes.
The step deflation technique as set forth in the Ramsey patents is the commercial standard of operation. A large percentage of clinically acceptable automated blood pressure monitors utilize the step deflation rationale. When in use, the blood pressure cuff is placed on the patient and the operator usually sets a time interval, typically from 1 to 90 minutes, at which blood pressure measurements are to be made. The noninvasive blood pressure (NIBP) monitor automatically starts a blood pressure determination at the end of the set time interval.
Generally, conventional NIBP monitors of the type described in the afore-mentioned patents use oscillation pulse amplitude matching at each pressure level as one of the ways to discriminate good oscillations from artifacts. In particular, pairs of oscillation pulses are compared at each pressure level to determine if they are similar in amplitude and similar in other attributes, such as shape, area under the oscillation curve, slope, and the like. If the oscillation pulses compare within predetermined limits, the average pulse amplitude and cuff pressure are stored and the pressure cuff is deflated to the next pressure level for another oscillation measurement. However, if the oscillation pulses do not compare favorably, the attributes of the earlier oscillation are typically ignored and the attributes of the latter oscillation are stored. The monitor does not deflate; instead, the monitor waits for another oscillation to compare with the one that was stored. This process continues until two successive oscillation pulses match or a time limit is exceeded.
Although the step deflation technique described above can eliminate or reduce the effect artifacts have in the blood pressure determination, the step deflation technique typically requires the detection of two oscillation pulses during each pressure step. Sometimes under artifact free circumstances an attempt can be made to obtain only one pulse at each step; however, there are still time inefficiencies even in this case. Even when the detected oscillation pulses are very clean and artifact free, the step deflation technique has an inherent delay in order to control the pressure level of each step. Therefore, the amount of time required to make a blood pressure determination will be extended by the time that the technique uses at each pressure step to control the pressure.
An alternate method of obtaining a blood pressure measurement is to operate the NIBP monitor using a continuous deflation from an initial inflation pressure to a final pressure. Typically, the recommended continuous deflation pattern is linear. During the linear deflation, the cuff pressure is decreased at a specific rate (mmHg/second) and the oscillation pulse amplitudes are measured for the cuff pressure as the pressure is continuously decreased. Since, in the case when the oscillometric signal is not corrupted by artifact, the NIBP system does not need to maintain pressure at a defined step to obtain high quality pulses, an NIBP system utilizing the linear deflation technique can often obtain a blood pressure measurement more quickly than a system utilizing the step deflation technique. However, note that other factors, like pulse pressure and heart rate, do influence the time it takes to complete a blood pressure determination for either the linear or step deflate patterns.
However, since the pressure of the blood pressure cuff is deflated continuously, if any one of the oscillation pulses is inaccurate due to an artifact introduced by the patient or some other external variable, the linear deflation technique does not include a mechanism to compare recorded oscillation pulse amplitudes, as is possible when utilizing the step deflation technique. Therefore, it can be understood that operating an NIBP monitor utilizing either a step deflation technique or a linear deflation technique has relative drawbacks in certain types of situations. Selectively operating an NIBP monitor utilizing both the step deflation technique and the linear deflation technique would be an improvement over the state of the art.

Method of controlling blood pressure cuff deflation