An image forming apparatus includes a developing device, a replaceable developing material container that contains developing material, a coupling member that couples the developing device to the developing material container, and a controller. The controller calculates a value obtained by calculating replacement time of the developing material container, on a developing material amount obtained by subtracting a developing material amount filled in the coupling member from a developing material amount contained in the attached developing material container, when the developing material container is attached and an installation sequence to fill the coupling member with developing material is performed. The image forming apparatus further includes a display that displays information indicating the replacement time of the developing material container based on the value calculated by the controller.

1. Technical Field
The present-invention relates to an image forming apparatus and an image forming system.
2. Related Art
Generally, an image forming apparatus is often provided with a replaceable toner cartridge. As this type of image forming apparatus, an apparatus in which the life of such toner cartridge is detected is known.

Image forming apparatus and image forming system


A full-body charger for charging one or more battery-powered devices wherein such devices are configured for implanting beneath a patient's skin for the purpose of tissue, e.g., nerve or muscle, stimulation and/or parameter monitoring and/or data communication. Devices in accordance with the invention include a support structure, typically chair-shaped or bed-shaped, capable of supporting a patient's body while providing a magnetic field to one or more of the implanted devices using one or more coils mounted within for providing power to the implanted devices. Consequently, in a preferred embodiment, a single, generally sequential, charging cycle can charge all of the implanted devices and thus minimize the charge time requirements for a patient and accordingly improve the patient's life style.

The present invention relates to implantable medical devices for stimulating body tissue and sensing body parameters (i.e., microstimulators and microsensors) as are known in the art. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,193,539; 5,193,540; 5,312,439; 5,324,316; 5,358,514; and 5,405,367; each of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. Generally, such implantable devices are referred to herein as microdevices.
Such implantable microdevices are characterized by a sealed housing which contains electronic circuitry for producing small electric currents between spaced electrodes (or sensing body parameters via the spaced electrodes). By precisely implanting the microdevices proximate to targeted tissue, the currents will stimulate the tissue or sense a physiological parameter and thus such devices produce medically beneficial results.
Typically, such microdevices derive operating power from an internal coil that is inductively coupled to an external AC magnetic field produced, for example, by a drive coil placed proximate to the microdevice(s). An AC voltage induced in the internal coil of the microdevice is rectified and filtered to produce a DC operating voltage which is used to power the electronic circuitry or power a battery contained within which in turn powers the electronic circuitry. Such an arrangement requires that the user remain in close proximity to the drive coil to maintain sufficient power transfer to operate the microdevice, e.g., to maintain tissue stimulation.
Alternatively, such microdevices can operate from power received from an internal rechargeable battery. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,164,284; 6,185,452; 6,208,894; and 6,315,721; each of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. Such battery-powered devices can, dependent upon the treatment regimen, be distributed throughout a patient's body. While such battery-powered devices free the user from always remaining in close proximity to the drive coil (to maintain operation of the device), each such rechargeable device still requires periodic charging.

Full-body charger for battery-powered patient implantable device

Alfred E. Mann Foundation for Scientific Research


Noise in a fluorescence image acquired during fluoroscopy is eliminated to present a clear fluorescence image, and the relative positional relationship between the fluoroscopy unit and the specimen can be recognized even while fluoroscopy is in progress. A dark box apparatus for fluoroscopy includes: a dark-box main body enclosing a specimen and a fluoroscopy unit for illuminating the specimen with excitation light with a first spectral band and for detecting fluorescence with a second spectral band generated by the specimen; an illumination light source disposed in the dark-box main body to emit light with a third spectral band different from the first spectral band and the second spectral band; and an observation window disposed in the dark-box main body, the observation window being capable of transmitting light with a fourth spectral band which includes at least part of the third spectral band and does not include the first spectral band and the second spectral band.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to dark box apparatuses for fluoroscopy, fluoroscopy systems, and fluoroscopy methods.
This application is based on Japanese Patent Applications No. 2004-257240, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of Related Art
As a technique for non-invasively examining the interior of a specimen, some known confocal microscopes or multiphoton-excitation microscopes employ a fluoroscopy method for illuminating a specimen with excitation light, such as a laser beam, to examine fluorescence generated by the specimen.
However, since fluorescence generated by a specimen is very weak, it is difficult to acquire a clear fluorescence image due to external noise if fluoroscopy is performed in the presence of extraneous light. For this reason, if fluoroscopy is to be performed in a darkroom, a specimen is first positioned with respect to the microscope apparatus under external light, and then the specimen is illuminated with excitation light with all extraneous light blocked to detect fluorescence emitted from the specimen.
Though in a totally different technical field, a so-called dark-place observation device for examining the influence of particular wavelengths of light upon plants in a place dark enough to prevent the plants from being affected by light is also known (e.g., see Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2002-369624).
For examination with these known dark-place observation devices, plants are first positioned in a dark box completely protected from extraneous light to prevent the plants from experiencing biological effects, such as gene expression, due to extraneous light, and then an infrared light source emitting infrared light with wavelengths that do not affect the plants and an infrared CCD camera are placed in the dark box to observe an image from the infrared CCD camera on a monitor outside the dark box.
If fluoroscopy is to be performed in a darkroom such that a specimen is first positioned with respect to the microscope apparatus under extraneous light and then the specimen is illuminated with excitation light with all extraneous light blocked to detect fluorescence emitted from the specimen, unsuccessful positioning of the specimen, such as a shift of the specimen from the desired examination position, may occur. In this case, the positional relationship between the microscope apparatus and the specimen needs to be re-adjusted. Thus, the positional relationship between the microscope and the specimen may need to be adjusted by feeling with the hands in a darkroom where extraneous light is blocked. This may cause the objective lens of the microscope apparatus to interfere with the specimen, possibly damaging the objective lens or the specimen. In addition, repeating the procedure of introducing extraneous light for positioning and then blocking the extraneous light again for examination is time-consuming and annoying.

Dark box apparatus for fluoroscopy, fluoroscopy system, and fluoroscopy method


The individual pattern of each color of the standard pattern is printed on a copy being made, and when the copy is read by a scanner, the image data of the standard pattern are converted into color region signals in a uniform color space by an HVC converter and a C.multidot.H operation unit. In the case where the saturation of the image data has become lower than the standard saturation of the color region, saturation corrective coefficients are determined by a saturation corrective coefficient calculation unit. After the saturation coefficients have been determined for each color of the standard pattern, the image data of the original are read out, and the saturation corrective coefficients for the color region of the image data are used for saturation correction by a saturation correction processing unit. The image data which have been subjected to the saturation correction are reversely converted into the image data of each color by a reverse HVC converter. According to the reversely converted image data, an image is formed on a copying paper.

(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus, such as a digital color copying machine and a color facsimile machine, which reproduces a full-color image according to image data obtained by performing color-separation on an original image.
(2) Related Art
In an image forming apparatus, such as a digital color copying machine, digital image data of red (R), green (G), and blue (B) obtained by performing color separation on an original are converted into density data of cyan (C), magenta (M), yellow (Y), and black (K) used for color reproduction by an image signal processing unit, and a printing unit forms a reproduction image by transferring the toner of each color onto a copying paper according to the values of the density data.
In such image forming apparatus, the image signal processing unit performs correction on the image data to avoid image defects caused by low scanning accuracy, poor color reproducibility, and other factors. After this correction, the printing unit forms a reproduction image.
In a full-color reproduction image, degradation in saturation is likely to catch the user's attention. When saturation degradation in the reproduction image is anticipated due to the granular characteristics of the toners, saturation correction needs to be performed on the image data by the image processing unit. In a conventional digital color copying machine, saturation correction is performed in accordance with the same saturation corrective condition regardless of the type of the original image.
In the case where the saturation corrective condition is determined invariably as above, however, when copying the reproduced image as an original, there are problems that a decrease in saturation is noticeable, and that the image defects get worse as the generation of a copy becomes newer.
Compared with a silver print, the input and output resolution of a conventional digital color copying machine is limited. The reproducible ranges of color and density are narrow, and the diameter of a toner particle in the printing unit is large. When inspected closely, the reproduction dots of the toner particles have different shapes, which results in uneven density and minute noise in the reproduction image. So, it is imperative that the reproduction image (hereinafter referred to as "hard copy") show a deterioration in saturation. When copying such hard copy as an original (a copy made from a hard copy is called a "generation copy" in the sense that a newer copy is made one generation after another), the density unevenness, the minute noise, and the impurity are increased even more, which causes a further decrease in saturation.
Taking the above problems into consideration, when making a generation copy, it is necessary to set a variety of saturation corrective conditions which can compensate for the image deterioration of the hard copy.

Image forming apparatus having a saturation correction unit


An OFDM communication system, a method and a device for transceiving signal are provided. The method includes: dividing M transmitting antennas into one or more groups to form U transmitting ports, wherein transmitting antennas in different groups are uncorrelated, and M is greater than or equal to U; forming P data flows using a Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) mode, wherein P=U/2, and P is less than or equal to a number of receiving ports; and mapping a group of 2P modulation symbols, including two modulation symbols of each data flow, to a resource element pair to form Space Frequency Block Code (SFBC) coding relationships with each other, and transmitting the group of 2P modulation symbols on the U transmitting ports. The data transmission performance can be improved.

Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) technology effectively improves spectrum utilization by utilizing orthogonal properties between subcarriers and allowing the subcarriers to overlap each other. Duration of data symbols on each subcarrier is greatly increased through a serial-parallel conversion of data flow, and Inter Symbol Interference (ISI) is effectively reduced by adding a cyclic prefix. Because each subcarrier has a narrow bandwidth, equalization operation can be performed on each subcarrier, which reduces complexity of receivers. OFDM technology has been widely used in Long Term Evolution (LTE) systems and WLAN systems.
In current development of wireless communication technology, as user number is rapidly increasing, the most important target of wireless communication technology is to increase system capacity and data transfer rate, so as to improve user experience. For these objectives, multi-antenna technologies have become a mainstream, among which Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) technology is one of the major applications.
In MIMO, a plurality of transmitting antennas and a plurality of receiving antennas are respectively used as a transmitting end and a receiving end. Its basic idea is that, multi-antennas are respectively used at the transmitting end and the receiving end to improve spectrum utilization, communication quality and system capacity by using space-time processing technology to make full use of independent characteristics between the channels. The MIMO technology makes full use of the independent wireless channels between the transmitting end and the receiving end. At the receiving end, the plurality of different data flows transmitted from the transmitting antennas seems to have distinguishable spatial characteristics. Therefore, a combined MIMO channel between the transmitting end and the receiving end can be recognized as including N (N represents the smaller one of the antenna numbers at the transmitting and receiving ends) parallel sub-channels, and the capacity of the MIMO channel equals to a sum of capacities of the N sub-channels.
In a conventional MIMO-OFDM communication system, both the OFDM technology and the MIMO technology are used to improve spectrum utilization, reduce equalization complexity of receiver and improve the transmission rate of the system.
MIMO leads to a result that, a plurality of antennas simultaneously transmits a plurality of data flows on a single physical resource unit, and correspondingly, a plurality of antennas receive these data flows at the receiving end, so as to improve data transmission efficiency on the physical resource unit. In an OFDM system, each single physic resource unit is called a Resource Element (RE). The MIMO technology may multiplex N modulation symbols on a resource element, where N represents the number of data flows, which is greater than or equal to 2. Therefore, the spectrum efficiency can be multiplied by N times. N is determined by the number of antennas or ports at the transmitting end and the receiving end. The number of antennas or ports at both the transmitting end and the receiving end must be greater than or equal to N. The "Large delay CDD scheme" transmission mode, the "Closed-loop spatial multiplexing scheme" transmission mode and the "Dual layer scheme" transmission mode described in the standards of 3GPP TS 36.211 and 3GPP TS 36.123 are typical applications of MIMO technology in LTE system.
As we know, a high Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) is needed in MIMO transmission. However, because there are interferences between the plurality of data flows, Block Error Ratio (BLER) decreases slowly as the SNR increases, which may affect data transmission rate.

OFDM communication system, method and device for transceiving signal

SPREADTRUM COMMUNICATIONS (SHANGHAI) CO., LTD.


The invention is directed to a technique for recalculating a bit interleave parity (BIP) byte for byte interleaved SONET/SDH frames. An interleaved SONET/SDH frame consists of a plurality (N) of base STS-1 frames that are byte interleave multiplexed. Each STS-1 frame contains transport overhead bytes, including a BIP byte (B2) and a remote error indication byte (M1). The M1 byte is associated with error over an entire interleaved STS-N frame and not a particular individual STS-1 frame. Each B2 byte is associated with a particular STS-1 frame and is calculated over selected overhead bytes, including the M1 byte, and all of the payload bytes of the previous STS-1 frame. When SONET frames are multiplexed, the M1 byte values are changed and the B2 parity calculations for each STS-1 frame must be updated. Existing systems generally update the affected B2 bytes by performing the B2 parity calculation over all of the respective overhead bytes and payload bytes for each frame. The techniques of the invention calculates the updated B2 byte using the original and modified M1 and B2 bytes of each affected STS-1 frame. The original B2 byte of the previous frame is EXORed with the affected B2 byte and the result is EXORed with the new B2 byte. The original and modified M1 bytes are likewise EXORed to update the affected B2 byte of the next frame. As a result, the number of EXOR calculations is greatly reduced.

The present invention relates to digital communications, and more particularly, to the calculation of parity bytes for frames of digital data in a synchronous communication system. The invention is advantageous for reducing the number of parity calculations that must be performed when data frames are multiplexed or similarly modified.
Synchronous communication systems organize digital data into frames having a predetermined format for transmission across a data link. It is often advantageous to use parity calculations for monitoring bit errors occurring in transmissions across the data link. In standard synchronous communication systems (e.g. SONET Bellcore GR-253 or SDH G.707), a bit interleaved parity byte, designated B2, is calculated for each basic data frame. The B2 byte calculation is generally calculated over nearly the entire frame and any changes to a frame""s data bytes necessitates the recalculation of the B2 byte. When the basic data frames are multiplexed into higher data rate frames, the transport overhead bytes are changed in certain frame locations and the associated B2 bytes must be recalculated.
Accordingly, there exists a definite need for a technique for efficiently implementing the recalculation of parity bytes in digital communication systems. The present invention satisfies these needs and provides further related advantages.
The present invention provides apparatus, and related methods, for recalculating parity bytes after multiplexing, or similar modification, of frames of digital data in a synchronous communication system. The parity byte calculation technique of the invention greatly reduces the number of parity byte calculations that must be performed when data frames are multiplexed.
The invention is embodied in a method for recalculating a parity byte value related to a frame of synchronous digital data after change to at least one data byte value in the frame from an original data byte value to a new data byte value when the parity byte""s original value resulted from exclusive OR calculations that included the original data byte value. The parity byte value is recalculated by performing, on the original parity byte value, exclusive OR calculations with the original data byte value and with the new data byte value to generate an updated parity byte value. The method of the invention is particularly advantageous for recalculating B2 parity bytes after multiplexing of, for example, four OC-12 SONET data frames into an OC-48 SONET data frame.
Another embodiment of the invention resided in a method, and related apparatus, for multiplexing four OC-12 signals into a single OC-48 signal of framed data bytes for synchronous communication over an optical fiber link. First, the four OC-12 signals are byte interleave multiplexed into the OC-48 signal. The B2 and M1 data bytes of frames of the OC-48 signal are replaced based on B2 and M1 data bytes of the four OC-12 signals. A new B2 byte is determined by performing, on the B2 byte""s initial value, exclusive OR calculations with the initial and resulting B2 bytes of the previous frame and further with the initial and resulting M1 bytes of the previous frame.
Other features and advantages of the present invention should become apparent from the following description of the preferred embodiments, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, which illustrate, by way of example, the principles of the invention.

Sonet B2 parity byte calculation method and apparatus


A control circuit includes: a comparing circuit, having a first input terminal and second input terminal, configured to operably generate a comparison signal according signals received by the first and second input terminals, wherein the first input terminal is utilized for coupling with a reference signal and the second input terminal is utilized for coupling with a feedback signal; a periodic signal generating circuit configured to operably generate a periodic signal and to operably apply the periodic signal to the first input terminal or the second input terminal of the comparing circuit; and a control signal generating circuit configured to operably control an on time of a power switch according to the comparison signal.

The disclosure generally relates to a power converter and, more particularly, to a control circuit and related method for improving the stability of the output signal of the power converter.
In a conventional power converter, a feedback circuit is employed to generate a feedback signal corresponding to the magnitude of an output signal of the power converter. A control circuit of the power converter typically utilizes a comparing circuit to compare the feedback signal with a reference signal to generate a comparison signal. A control signal generating circuit of the control circuit generates the control signal (e.g., the PWM signal) for controlling the operations of the power switch based on the comparison signal.
However, in the applications where the equivalent series resistance on an output capacitor of the power converter is small or the voltage-dividing ratio of the feedback circuit is small, the feedback signal generated by the feedback circuit would have a small magnitude. In this situation, noise occurring in the power converter easily causes the comparing circuit to operate erroneously and thus results in jitters in the comparison signal, thereby causing the output signal of the power converter to be unstable.

Control circuit of power converter with upper limit clamping circuit and related method


Techniques related to forming selective gate spacers for semiconductor devices and transistor structures and devices formed using such techniques are discussed. Such techniques include forming a blocking material on a semiconductor fin, disposing a gate having a different surface chemistry than the blocking material on a portion of the blocking material, forming a selective conformal layer on the gate but not on a portion of the blocking material, and removing exposed portions of the blocking material.

Current integrated operations for replacement gate processes in tri-gate transistor fabrication may include several steps that are complicated and make it difficult to achieve desired structures. For example, in current processes, a dielectric gate spacer material may be deposited over a sacrificial (e.g., dummy) gate as well as the fin in the source and drain contact regions of the fin. The deposition may be non-selective such that the dielectric gate spacer material is formed over desired regions (e.g., the sacrificial gate) and undesired regions (e.g., the source and drain contact regions of the fin). Subsequently, the gate spacers may be formed using a multi-step (e.g., an approximately 10-step) process to form the desired gate spacers such that the sacrificial gate may be removed and replaced and subsequent device fabrication may continue.
Such multi-step processes may be difficult, costly, and may cause damage to the fin (e.g., damage to the channel region of the fin and/or to the source/drain region of the fin) and increased defect levels and the like.
As such, there is a need to achieve simpler, less costly, and higher quality processes for forming tri-gate transistor devices. Such efforts may become critical as the demand for such devices continues to grow.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Selective gate spacers for semiconductor devices


An electronic device includes a power supply, a current measuring unit, a converter, a plurality of devices, and a control unit. The current measuring unit measures a current value of current that is output from the power supply. The voltage and the current from the power supply are input into the converter, and the converter converts the input voltage into voltage of a different voltage value, and outputs the voltage thus converted and the current. The control unit controls the converter to output voltage of a voltage value corresponding to a minimum current value measured by the current measuring unit, in which the voltage is voltage of a voltage value between a maximum value of lower limit voltage and a minimum value of upper limit voltage within an operating voltage range of one or a plurality of devices that operate in the energy saving mode.

The present disclosure relates to an electronic device that is capable of setting an energy saving mode for reducing power consumption.
Some types of electronic devices such as a multifunction peripheral and a printer (an image forming apparatus) convert AC voltage into DC voltage, and subsequently convert the DC voltage, which is input to a DC to DC converter, into DC voltage of a different voltage value to be output to each unit (each function). Furthermore, in a case in which a normal mode for operating normal operations to form an image on a paper sheet is switched over to an energy saving mode for reducing power consumption, some types of electronic devices set an output of a DC to DC converter to a lower limit of operating voltage (a power supply specification) of each unit (each function) that operates in the energy saving mode.
However, with the electronic devices as described above, in a case in which the output of the DC to DC converter is set to the lower limit of the operating voltage of each unit (each function), voltage difference between input voltage and output voltage of the DC to DC converter may be increased, resulting in deterioration of the efficiency of the DC to DC converter. In addition, the deterioration of the efficiency of the DC to DC converter adversely increases the power consumption of the electronic device.


The topical application of an opioid analgesic drug to an area of itching and/or skin irritation of a patient, including providing a quantity of an opioid analgesic drug, and mixing the opioid analgesic drug with a non-transdermal carrying agent. Applying the mixture of the opioid analgesic drug and non-transdermal carrying agent to the area of the patient to produce a reduction in itching and/or skin disease.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a method for the topical application of opioid analgesic drugs such as morphine. Specifically, the present invention relates to topical application of the opioid drug and specifically a morphine sulphate in a diluted solution to produce a therapeutic effect in an area of itching and/or skin irritations and without a transdermal migration of the opioid drug into the bloodstream.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Itching is an irritating sensation that has some parallels to pain yet is quite different. The mechanisms of pruritus have been closely studied but still are not fully understood. The most likely initiators of the sensation of itching are chemical substances, including endogenous substances like histamine, prostaglandin, epidermal protease, substance P and endopeptides. Lately, some studies have shown that morphine receptors are involved in the mechanism of itching and are studying the use of narcotic antagonists for treatment of itching.
The sensation of itching is conducted slowly along C nerve fibers. Initiation of itching is understood to be the result of certain mediators acting on free nerves ending on the skin within the epidermal junction. Scratching is a unique response to the sensation of itching, thought to be a reflex to remove noxious agents from the skin surface. Scratching brings about a transient sense of relief and may even give pleasure (due to morphine receptors).
Itching may be a localized or generalized phenomenon. Localized itching includes skin disease like psoriasis or scabies or flea bites, which can all produce pruritus. Generalized pruritus can be the result of certain environmental factors, including an excessively dry or humid climate, dry centralized heating, perspiration, overbathing, and harsh soap. The generalized pruritus can also be caused by primary skin disease. Generalized pruritus can also be the result of diseases like internal diseases affecting the endocrine and metabolic-hepatic-renal-hematological system as well as other processes such as cancer. Other causes of itching include injection of drugs like penicillin, drugs which can be harmful to the liver, and illicit drugs.
Treatment:
The optimal therapy for generalized pruritus is treatment of the underlying disease. However, if the etiology has not been determined or if there is no specific treatment, a number of nonspecific palliative therapies exist. Treatment may be topical or systemic. The cooling effect of menthol and the anesthetic effect of phenol or camphor may offer temporary relief for some patients. Low potency topical steroids are good for short term therapy but they are not recommended for chronic use.
When generalized pruritus is treated systemically, it is usually because topical measures have provided no relief. Oral antihistamines are the most commonly used. They act by competitively blocking peripheral histamine receptors, thereby blocking a mode of conduction of itch impulse. The problem with antihistamines is that they produce a sedative effect and rather than directly controlling the itching they could be working by dulling the perception of itching. The problem also is that antihistamines cannot be effective in all cases.
In addition, there have been multiple topical solutions to treat pruritus, including topical capsaicin (Zostrix), which may remove pruritus from patients on hemodialysis. If the pruritus is associated with liver disease, there has been treatment with agents such as rifampin, which are mostly used for tuberculosis, and they have extreme side effects like depression of bone marrow. Of course, there are many other cases where there is no true treatment of pruritus, such as for patients who have diseases that have nonspecific therapies. For example, pruritus or itching associated with AIDS. In those cases many kinds of treatments have been tried without any success, like ultraviolet lights, capsaicin and antihistamines, all without any major relief. Also, the ultraviolet therapy in AIDS patients is bad because ultraviolet affects the T4 lymphocytes and subsequently immunity.
Regardless of its etiology, pruritus which has been present for a long period of time can cause significant frustration for both patients and physician. Thus, it is important for the physician to regularly assess the patient for possible underlying disease and try to find different therapies which will be helpful to the patient without causing any major side effects.
Topical methods:
Combating the urge of scratching is an important part of therapy, so application of a cool, moist washcloth to the area or application of pressure with the palm of the hand near the pruritus area can abate the urge of scratching. Topical preparations may also be used for moisturizing and emollients to fight dryness, but avoiding products with sensitizing potential is vital. Bath oils are most useful in conditions of the skin. A menthol-phenol preparation, for example Noxzema, is helpful as a counterirritant. The major sensitizing benefit of topical corticosteroids has to be weighed against all their potential side effects like corticosteroid addiction and depression of the steroid system in the body.
Oral antihistamines:
Oral medications have been used to treat pruritus, and antihistamines remain the cornerstone of oral therapy. The use of traditional histamine blockers has been limited by the sedative side effects, but all these medications in addition to working partly on pruritus have major side effects like drowsiness. In addition, many of the new drugs, which have been approved by the FDA, produce change in heart rate.
Morphine is the prototype of the class of opioid analgesic drugs which exert their effects by activating opioid receptors within the brain. When morphine is referred to individually in this application, this reference is meant to encompass other opioid drugs and is not meant to be morphine exclusively. Historically, narcotics have been used since the 18th century in the forms of oral or injectable morphine or opium in order to accomplish pain relief. Morphine is considered to be unsurpassed as an analgesic for severe pain.
Unfortunately, morphine and other opioid drugs have a number of severe side effects which hamper their widespread use and acceptance by both physicians and patients. These side effects include: addiction, nausea, inhibition of breathing, somnolence and dysphoria, all of which are mediated by morphine's action within the brain. It is still the current belief that narcotics ingested or injected will cross to the blood stream and from there go to the brain where there are morphine receptors. At that time, the narcotics are believed to attach to these morphine receptors and create a dullness of the pain but with all of the side effects described above. Of course, the worst potential effect is the addiction that can occur if the morphine is used beyond a few days or weeks on a continuous basis.
Reference is made to my earlier invention, made in conjunction with Dr. Christoph Stein, Ser. No. 08/291,614, filed Aug. 17, 1994 wherein the use of a topical application of opioid analgesic to alleviate pain is disclosed. This prior application discusses in detail the use of the topical application of the opioid analgesic and this discussion is incorporated in this application.

Topical application of opioid drugs such as morphine for relief of itching and skin disease


An apparatus and method for enabling precise, 3-dimensional, photoactivation localization microscopy (PALM) using selective, two-photon activation of fluorophores in a single z-slice of a sample in cooperation with time-gated imaging for reducing the background radiation from other image planes to levels suitable for single-molecule detection and spatial location, are described.

X-ray diffraction and other scattering techniques (e.g. neutron diffraction) are powerful characterization tools for providing 3-dimensional structural information on the scale of atoms for crystalline materials. Such coherent scattering methods fail for many soft, disordered materials, and optical methods for structural determination, such as laser scanning confocal fluorescence microscopy, are used to determine 3-dimensional structure at length scales >1 μm. However, at smaller length scales, optical methods are limited in resolution by the wavelength of light used for observation (approximately 500 nm for visible light).
Optical microscopy methods exceeding the diffraction limit of light by relying on the fact the central position of a single fluorescent molecule (fluorophore) can be determined to a much higher accuracy (presently, having precision ˜2 nm) than the width of its diffraction-limited image have been investigated, and will likely attain wide-spread use in the exploration of the finer details of cellular structure. In addition to biological structures, these single-molecule localization microscopy techniques hold promise for nano-scale imaging of many materials. In contrast to electron microscopy, single molecule localization microscopy is applicable to materials that have little or no contrast in electron density and for materials immersed in a wet or aqueous environment. Moreover, in contrast to surface-specific scanning probe techniques, such as near-field scanning optical microscopy, single-molecule localization microscopy has the potential for enabling full 3-D imaging of materials at near nanometer resolution.
As an example, while quantum dots have a diameter of 10 nm, diffraction blurs the image of a single quantum dot into a circular "blob" a few hundred nanometers across. However, one can determine the central position of the blob to a much greater accuracy than the width of the blob, with 2 nm resolution obtainable under certain favorable circumstances. Using the fact that a single fluorophore can be located in 2 dimensions with this high accuracy, one can generate a pseudo image using known calculation techniques, such that each point in this new image has a width given by the uncertainty in the determining the central position of the original diffraction limited spot. When these localization methods are combined with a method for selectively activating a small number of fluorophores for imaging, high resolution images (in two spatial dimensions) that reflect the underlying molecular density can be obtained.
Photo-activated or photo-switchable fluorophores and single-molecule detection are utilized for such high-resolution imaging methods, as molecules must be individually imaged such that their diffraction limited spots do not overlap in the image plane. For structures densely labeled with a fluorescent species, imaging individual molecules is accomplished by using a photo-activatible or photo-switchable fluorescent reporter, such as photo-activatible green fluorescent protein, PA-GFP. PA-GFP is normally in a dark (non-fluorescent) state, but can be activated into a fluorescent state upon excitation with ultra-violet radiation. In photoactivation localization microscopy, (PALM), these photoswitchable proteins are fused to a structural protein of interest. A weak UV light pulse is then applied to activate only a few molecules. These molecules are imaged, their central locations calculated, and the activated molecules are subsequently photo-bleached. Another UV light pulse is then applied to activate a few more molecules, beginning another imaging cycle. This activation, imaging, and bleaching process is repeated many times. The results from each imaging cycle are combined to form a composite pseudo-image from the entire data set. A review of the PALM procedure may be found in "Imaging Intracellular Fluorescent Proteins At Nanometer Resolution" by Eric Betzig et al. in Science 313 (15 Sep. 2006), 1642-1645, wherein photoactivatable green fluorescent protein (PA-GFP) was employed. The single-molecule localization microcopy method of Betzig et al. was limited to 2D slices.
In addition to activation of PA-GFP with ultraviolet radiation, one can also activate this molecule via two-photon excitation methods. In this activation method, two photons of near-infrared wavelengths (˜800 nm) are used to convert the chromophore from a non-fluorescent to a fluorescent state. The two-photon activation of PA-GFP was recently demonstrated in "Two-Photon Activation And Excitation Properties Of PA-GFP In The 720-920-nm Region" by Marc Schneider et al. in Biophysical J. 89 (August 2005) 1346-1352. Further, in "Two-Photon Laser Scanning Fluorescence Microscopy" by Winfried Denk et al. in Science 248 (6 Apr. 1990) 73-76, molecular excitation by the simultaneous absorption of two photons in laser scanning fluorescence microscopy is described.
Another useful photoactivatable molecule is caged fluorescein which has large nitrophenyl rings that cleave off the molecule upon excitation with UV light, increasing the fluorescence quantum yield of the fluorophore ˜500 fold. See, e.g., T. J. Mitchison in "Polewards Microtubule Flux In The Mitotic Spindle Evidence From Photoactivation Of Fluorescence," J. Cell Biology 109 (1989) 637-652. Caged fluorescein has a bright/dark ratio of 500:1, whereas PA-GFP has a ratio closer to 100:1. This superior bright/dark ratio for caged fluorescein is one reason this molecule is a promising contrast reagent for high resolution localization microscopy. Other reasons include the fact that caged fluorescein is commercially available (with or without an amine-reactive linker), and there is a large difference in fluorescence lifetimes between the caged (dark) and uncaged (bright) forms of this molecule. The fluorescence lifetime of the caged/quenched dye is ˜210 ps, whereas the activated fluorophore has a fluorescence lifetime of 3.4 ns. This difference in fluorescence lifetime means time-gating can dramatically reduce the contribution of un-activated molecules to the background; for example, if one applies a >2-ns time-gate to the data, the fraction of photons that pass through the time-gate for the activated molecule is ˜0.55 (e−2/3.4), whereas the fraction of the photons that pass through the time-gate for the un-activated (quenched) fluorophores also present in the field of view is almost four orders of magnitude less, ˜0.00007 (e−2/0.21). This reduction in background is essential for high-resolution imaging of samples densely labeled with fluorescent reporters, as will be encountered in any sample labeled with the appropriate contrast agent throughout a volume of hundreds of microns.
The optical resolution is therefore not limited the wavelength of light used for observation, but rather by the accuracy an individual fluorescent molecule can be located. This localization accuracy is typically around 20 nm, and depends upon the total number of photons emitted by the molecule prior to photobleaching and the background noise level the molecule is imaged upon. It can be shown that the localization accuracy is strongly dependent upon the background—molecules where only a few photons are detected can still be located to sub-20 nm precision, if done so in a low background environment. Therefore, reducing the background light is important for increasing localization accuracy for a fixed image integration period.
The primary background in these measurements comes from un-activated molecules in the field of view. In particular, an un-activated PA-GFP is not completely dark. As stated hereinabove, the ratio of the fluorescence from an activated PA-GFP to an un-activated PA-GFP is roughly 100:1. The construction of a high-resolution PALM image requires a large density of activatable molecules. For example, assuming that the single molecule stipple points in a final PALM image are ˜50 nm apart, then, prior to any activation, a small 0.5 by 0.5 μm field of view contains ˜100 photoactivatable fluorophores, which provides a weak fluorescence background. If a single fluorophore in this window is activated on the first PALM cycle, and 250 photons from the activated molecule are measured before it bleaches, the detected photons are measured with a background of approximately an additional 250 photons due to the 100 weakly emitting un-activated molecules also present in the small fitting window. The localization accuracy for this molecule would be quite poor (˜320 nm), and the molecule would not be used in the final image reconstruction. Rather, a composite PALM image is formed from "hand-picked" molecules that lie in the tail of two distributions: (a) those that emit a large number of photons prior to bleaching; and (b) the last molecules activated which are imaged in a nearly background-free environment, as all other fluorescent molecules in the field of view have, by this time, photo-bleached. This "cherry-picking" for finding favorable molecules limits the speed of image acquisition: as originally developed, each PALM image required ˜1 day to acquire, although use of superior fluorescent proteins has decreased this time to approximately 2 minutes per image.
In "Time-Gated Biological Imaging By Use Of Colloidal Quantum Dots" by M. Dahan et al., Optics Letters 26 (1 Jun. 2001) 825-827, the long fluorescence lifetime of CdSe semiconductor quantum dots was exploited to enhance fluorescence biological imaging contrast and sensitivity by time-gated detection. The inorganic quantum dots emit light slowly enough that most of the autofluorescence background is over by the time emission occurs, but fast enough to maintain a high photon turnover rate.
Advances in this field have extended single-molecule localization methods to three dimensions. In "Tracking of Single Fluorescent Particles In Three Dimensions: Use Of Cylindrical Optics To Encode Particle Position" by H. Pin Kao and A. S. Verkman in Biophysical J. 67 (September 1994) 1291-1300, and in "Three-Dimensional Super-Resolution Imaging By Stochastic Optical Reconstruction Microscopy" by Bo Huang et al. 319 Science (8 Feb. 2008) 810-813, 3D stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy (STORM) has been demonstrated using astigmatism to determine both axial and lateral positions of individual fluorophores with nanometer accuracy using optical astigmatism or ellipticity generated by introducing a cylindrical lens into the imaging path. Bo Huang et al. describe obtaining ˜30 nm resolution in 3 spatial dimensions, limited to sparsely labeled cellular structures over a z-depth of less than 1 μm.

3-dimensional imaging at nanometer resolutions


A composition and therapeutic methods therefore for pharmacologically strong acid solutions comprising a mixture of strong and weak acids.

The present invention relates to compositions of strong acid solutions and therapeutic methods therefore.
More particularly, the invention relates to the use of a composition comprising a mixture of strong and weak acids, the final composition acting as a buffer and having a pH of 1 or below.
Scientists are engaged in a constant battle to identify new therapeutics for treatment and prevention of disease in animals in general, and specifically in humans. The search for active agents which are useful against cancer is particularly acute. At present, a number of drugs are approved for treatment of cancer. Recent approvals include Taxol® (paclitaxel), Cisplatin®, Taxotere® (docetaxel). None of these products are active against all forms of cancer, all of them have significant side effects due to their cytotoxic effect on otherwise healthy cells. Due to the extreme toxicity of most cancer therapeutics, treating the cancer with such agents requires that the attending physician walk a fine line between treating the cancer and killing the patient. Patients experience severe discomfort and a noted reduction in quality of life due to side effects of chemotherapy such as alopecia, general disruption of the digestive system and feelings of malaise and general lack of well being. Despite the power of modem cytotoxic agents, many cancers such as glioblastoma are treated with only limited success using currently accepted medical practices. As such, there is a long felt need for additional cancer therapeutics. There is a particular need for therapeutics that offer efficacy, low side effects and generally improve a patient's quality of life.
Acids have been used in pharmaceutical chemistry for decades, primarily in the creation of acid addition salts of bases having therapeutic application. Lists of pharmacologically acceptable acids for the creation of such salts are well known and are exemplified throughout the patent literature. See U.S. Pat. No. 4,281,654 for a typical example.
The use of strong acids alone or in combination as a therapeutic is relatively unknown to the scientific community. However, there are a number of uses of acids as stabilizing agents. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,733,888 and 5,977,164, entitled Injectable Composition and Stabilized Pharmaceutical Composition, issued to David Carver, et al., describe and claim the use of various acids for stabilizing a pharmaceutical formulation. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 5,504,102 also discloses the use of acids to stabilize a pharmaceutical composition.
The use of acid compositions alone is relatively unknown in the literature. U.S. Pat. No. 5,552,389 describes and claims a method of using Phosphoric acid diesters to treat liver cancer. Santillo, M., et al., Inhibitors of Ras Farnesylation Revert the Increased Resistance to Oxidative Stress in K-Ras Transformed NIH 3T3 Cells, 229(3) Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 739–45 (December 1996) discloses that phosphonic acid may suppress certain tumor genes. Kwun, K. B., et al., Treatment of Metabolic Alkalosis with Intravenous Infusion of Concentrated Hydrochloric Acid, 146(3) Am J Surg 328–30 (September 1983) discloses the intravenous infusion of hydrochloric acid. Harguindey, S, et al., Effects of Systemic Acidification of Mice with Sarcoma 180, 39(11) Cancer Res 4364–71 (November 1979) discloses that mineral acidification of food decreased tumor growth and increased the rate of tumor regression.
Strong acid solutions having unique properties are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,675,120, issued to David J. Martucci, which describes and claims an acid composition comprising water, hydrochloric acid, phosphoric acid, oxalic acid, citric acid and hydrofluoric acid useful for crude oil recovery.
Topical cosmetic or disinfectant uses of a strong acid composition similar to that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,675,120 are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,512,200, which describes and claims a four acid core composition having very low pH comprised of a first and second inorganic acid and third and fourth organic acids. Inorganic acids disclosed include sulfuric, hydrochloric, hydrofluoric and phosphoric. Organic acids disclosed include oxalic and citric acids. The first and second acids are present in a concentration between 5 and 20%. The third and fourth inorganic acids are present in an amount between 1 and 5% of the final composition. The above composition is said to be useful when applied topically as an antibacterial or antifungal agent.
To date there has been no apparent development of strong acid solutions for pharmaceutical use. Particularly, there has been no effort to explore the potential internal uses for these unique agents.

Pharmacologically active strong acid solutions


Compositions comprising a nucleic acid molecule that encodes TB esat-6 proteins are disclosed. Methods of inducing an immune response against TB an individual are disclosed. Method of treating an individual who has been diagnosed with TB are disclosed. Method of preventing TB infection in an individual are disclosed.

Tuberculosis (TB) is a major infectious disease with significant morbidity and mortality worldwide. The only currently licensed vaccine against TB is the Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine. Unfortunately, this vaccine confers poor protection against adult pulmonary TB and has been associated with adverse events. Therefore, the development of a novel, effective vaccine that induces long-term protection against TB is urgently needed. However, due to a variety of factors only a few antigens which have been determined to induce T cell immunity against TB have been studied so far. These include Ag85A, Ag85B, ESAT6, TB10.4, and Mtb39a. One issue is that there are many TB antigens from which to choose and current technologies for delivering TB antigens are limited and expensive.
There remains a need for economical and effective TB vaccines and methods that can induce immune responses against immunogenic TB antigens, protect against TB infection and provide effective treatment to individual who are infected with TB. There is also a need for a cost-effective delivery system to enable mass prophylactic vaccination against TB.

Synthetic immunogens for prophylaxis or treatment of tuberculosis

THE TRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA


A display control program causing a processor to execute display control process includes: specifying relationship between a first page screen and a second page screen; allocating the first page screen and the second page screen respectively to a first unit region and a second unit region in one display window in a case that the specified relationship is dependent relationship; and displaying the one display window having the first page screen and the second page screen placed in the first unit region and the second unit region.

In recent years, mobile terminals are increasingly diversified and the screens provided in the mobile terminals also have the sizes of a wide variety. For example, between a smart phone and a tablet terminal, both utilizing the Internet, there is a considerable difference in size of the screen devices, i.e., the displays. The optimal screen placement in a "display window" displayed by a web browser application becomes different in accordance with the size of the display.
With that, there is a technique of altering a configuration and placement of a screen that is displayed in a display window and configures one page (hereinafter, may be referred to as a "page screen") in accordance with a display environment, such as a display size. In this technique, by introducing a screen drawing description (for example, CSS: cascading style sheets) that mainly defines the style as well as a screen configuration description (for example, HTML: hypertext markup language), the configuration and placement in one page screen can be altered.
W3C "CSS Media Queries", 2010 Jul. 27 is an example of related art.
As a display of a mobile terminal becomes larger, it is desired that more information is displayed on the display at the same time.
However, in a screen display method in the past, since the configuration and placement in one page screen is altered, the amount of information displayed in the display window does not increase even when the display gets larger.

Screen display based on the inter-screen relationship


The present invention discloses a flat fluorescent lamp which improves discharge efficiency and luminance with an increase of a current density per discharge channel by forming multiple discharge channels of an independent serpentine layout and an exhaust channel and minimizes non-light emitting regions caused from the external electrode. The flat fluorescent lamp comprises: side walls for forming closed spaces between a front substrate and a rear substrate; partitions formed on the rear substrate and for forming multiple discharge channels of an independent serpentine layout; an exhaust channel formed on the rear substrate, connected to the respective discharge channels and used for vacuum exhaustion or discharge gas injection; and discharge electrodes arranged on both opposite ends of the starting and ending points of the multiple discharge channels of an independent serpentine layout and for discharging the discharge channels in parallel.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a flat fluorescent lamp, and more particularly to, a flat fluorescent lamp with improved discharge efficiency which improves discharge efficiency and luminance with an increase of a current density of discharge channels by forming multiple discharge channels of an independent serpentine layout and an exhaust channel, reduces a firing potential with the enhancement of an electrode structure and eliminates non-light emitting regions caused from an external electrode with the design of electrode spaces having a width larger than the discharge channels.
2. Description of the Background Art
In a liquid crystal display (LCD), which is a passive type one of flat panel displays, a backlight unit as a light source, includes a cold cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL), an external electrode fluorescent lamp (EEFL), an external internal electrode fluorescent lamp (EIFL), a flat fluorescent lamp (FFL), an electro luminescence (EL), a light emitting diode (LED) and the like. Among them, the CCFL is widely used in thin film transistor liquid crystal displays (TFT LCDs) since the CCFL has a long life, low power consumption, and is commercialized.
The CCFL type can be categorized into a direct type and an edge light type. Of them, the direct type CCFL is problematic in that the use of tens of lamps makes it difficult to acquire the reliability of the lamp of a liquid crystal display, and decreases the economic efficiency depending on an increase of an assembly unit cost. The edge type CCFL has a limitation in luminescence required for a large-sized liquid crystal display panel since a light is emitted from the end portions.
Therefore, the utilization of a flat fluorescent lamp (FFL) as a backlight unit is being positively examined. The flat fluorescent lamp satisfies both luminescence and lamp reliability, enhances optical efficiency and reduces the production cost of a liquid crystal display.
The flat fluorescent lamp is mostly divided into a CCFL type and an EEFL type according to the arrangement of electrodes.
Every discharge channels of the CCFL type flat fluorescent lamp is divided by a partition and extends to a serpentine layout channel. The starting region of the discharge channel is disposed in opposite of the ending region, and a phosphor layer is coated in the long discharge channel.
The above-described conventional CCFL type flat fluorescent lamp requires a high firing potential in proportion to the length of a discharge channel since it has a long discharge channel. In other words, the CCFL type flat fluorescent flat fluorescent lamp needs a high voltage of tens of kilovolts for lighting. Accordingly, the output voltage of an inverter is increased, and a power loss can be occurred due to an electromagnetic wave failure phenomenon and a leakage voltage. Therefore, in a case that the CCFL type flat fluorescent lamp is employed as a backlight unit, it is hard to use the liquid crystal display for home use.
To eliminate the above-said disadvantages, a method of dividing a discharge channel into a plurality of ones may be proposed. In this case, however, it is difficult to smoothly solve the problem of exhaustion for an individual discharge space, and there occurs an additional problem that respective inverters have to be connected to divided discharge channels, thereby increasing the manufacturing cost.
On the other hand, in the EEFL type flat fluorescent lamp, electrodes are located only on the outer parts of both ends of a glass substrate on which discharge channels are formed, and thus discharging is done within a relatively short distance as compared to the CCFL type. Hence, the EEFL type flat fluorescent lamp enables discharging even at a low voltage to achieve a stable discharging. Further, the EEFL type flat fluorescent lamp is very convenient to install electrodes.
However, the EEFL type flat fluorescent lamp has a demerit that a desired luminescence can be obtained by acquiring a wide electrode area in order to flow a sufficient current with the use of an external electrode. Thus, the dead space of the lamp becomes larger to deteriorate the outer appearance of the lamp.
Besides, in the EEFL type flat fluorescent lamp, a plurality of discharge channels in a transverse direction is embodied. Thus, there arouses a problem that an excessive power is consumed for getting a proper current density for respective discharge channels.
Further, in a case that the cross sectional area of a discharge channel is reduced for getting a proper current density in the EEFL type flat fluorescent lamp, the number of discharge channels is increased and the width of a partition is increased too. This increase of the number of discharge channels increases power consumption, and this increase of the width of a partition brings about a larger dark portion by the partition. Besides, there occurs an additional problem that the thickness of a backlight unit is increased to overcome the dark portion problem.
The present inventor has made many attempts to solve the problem of the deterioration of the efficiency of the above-described planar discharge type flat fluorescent lamp. As a result, the present inventor applied for the techniques involved with flat fluorescent lamps such as Korea Laid-Open Patent No. 2002-0072260 (Sep. 14, 2002) 'lamp assembly utilizing flat fluorescent lamp', Korean Laid-Open Patent No. 2004-14037 (Feb. 14, 2004) 'flat fluorescent lamp and lamp assembly using the same', Korea Laid-Open Patent No. 2004-0013020 (Feb. 11, 2004) 'backlight unit utilizing flat fluorescent lamp' and Korea Laid-Open Patent No. 2004-0004240 (Jan. 13, 2004) 'flat fluorescent lamp and backlight unit utilizing the same', and the present inventor suggested a method of improving the optical efficiency of a flat fluorescent lamp by enhancing the structure and arrangement of electrodes and acquiring luminance uniformity by minimizing a non-light emitting region.
With this series of research results, the present inventor devised a flat fluorescent lamp having a plurality of discharge channels of a serpentine layout and utilizing a particular exhaust channel. Further, the present inventor devised a flat fluorescent lamp with combined internal and external electrodes in order to maximize efficiency.
A fluorescent lamp utilizing a hybrid electrode was disclosed in Korea Patent Registration No. 0392181 (Jul. 8, 2003) 'discharge lamp and backlight unit employing the same'. Referring to FIG. 6 of the Korean Patent Registration No. 0392181, a CCFL type lamp having a hybrid electrode is disclosed.
Further, another fluorescent lamp employing a hybrid electrode was disclosed in Korea Patent Registration No. 0399006 (Sep. 8, 2003) 'hybrid discharge-type flat fluorescent lamp', and the Korea Patent Registration NO. 0399006 discloses a flat fluorescent lamp with combined direct current type electrode and alternating current type electrode. By this, it is possible to solve the problem that it is difficult to perform a stable discharge control at a low luminance by the control of a current of a direct current discharge type electrode having a direct current flowing since a metal electrode is exposed to a discharge space and the problem that it is difficult to achieve a high luminance due to a low current of an alternating current discharge type electrode with a dielectric layer coated on both opposite ends.
However, in case of the flat fluorescent lamp with combined direct current type internal electrode and alternating current type external electrode as shown in FIG. 6 of the Korean Patent Registration No. 0399006, discharge channels partitioned by partitions are all connected at both opposite ends, there may arouse a serious crosstalk in which every channel gathers to one channel having a relatively low firing potential. This crosstalk phenomenon is caused from the characteristic that a discharge occurs well at a region with the lowest resistance.
Subsequently, the above-described conventional technique has a restriction on the manufacture of a large-scale lamp due to the demerit that it is difficult to implement a discharge in the entire discharge channels and also has a restriction on the enhancement of optical efficiency.

Flat fluorescent lamp with improved discharge efficiency


Methods of treating cancer and autoimmune and inflammatory diseases are provided.

Neoplastic diseases, also referred to as cancers, are a leading cause of illness and death throughout the world. Neoplastic diseases can be grouped into different classes, based on the types of cells involved. Solid tumors can originate from numerous cells types and generally form masses in a patient. In contrast, non-solid tumors, such as hematological malignancies, generally originate from cells of the blood, bone marrow or lymphatic system.
Some current therapies for hematological malignancies, e.g., various types of leukemia, are able to achieve a high rate of remission. Therapy to induce remissions typically involves dosing with regimens of cytotoxic agents (e.g., low or high dose cytarabine and daunomycin) and/or targeted delivery of cytotoxic agents (e.g., Mylotarg®, gemtuzamab ozogamicin, Wyeth). Such treatments are able to induce remissions. For example, treatment of patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) an induction regimen of cytarabine and anthracycline can induce remissions in most younger patients (i.e., less than 60 years of age). Consolidation regimens that include high-dose cytarabine, autologous or allogenic transplantation can extend remission intervals in younger patients with AML and can cure approximately one third of such patients who achieve remissions. Many patients, however, and in particular elderly patients, are untreatable with such agents because they cannot tolerant high doses of chemotherapeutic agents. In addition, a large percentage of such patients who achieve remission ultimately relapse. While a large body of work has addressed the early detection of relapse and of minimal residual disease, effective strategies for treating patients in remission to prevent or delay relapse or recurrence of the underlying hematological malignancy are lacking.
Although controversial, it has been suggested that non-malignant effector or accessory cells (e.g., monocytes and macrophages) may contribute to cancer growth and metastasis through the secretion of inflammatory mediators and growth factors, and the production of proteases. Tumor growth and progression have been linked to inflammation and the presence of tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) (see, e.g., Colombo and Mantovani, 2005, Cancer Res. 65:9113-9116). Monocytes and macrophages form a major component of the inflammatory infiltrate associated with many carcinomas. Monocytes differentiate into macrophages (i.e., TAMs) in the cytokine- and chemokine-rich environments provided by the infiltrating cells and the tumor cells. TAMs secrete numerous pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines that enhance and promote the growth and metastases of tumors. High numbers of TAMs in cancer tissues have been linked to poor prognosis and patient survival in many cancers, including those of the breast, prostate, bladder, kidney, and esophagus (see, e.g., Lewis and Pollard, 2006, Cancer Res. 66:605-612).
Non-malignant monocytes and macrophages, including TAMs, may also play a role in cancer-associated cachexia. Patients with neoplastic disease often experience related cancer-associated challenges. Cancer-associated cachexia (also referred to as cancer cachexia) is a condition that occurs at high frequency in cancer patients and involves wasting, fever, night sweats and weight loss, often accompanied by anorexia. Cancer-associated cachexia is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in advanced cancer patients, in particular with cancers of the breast, prostate, lung, pancreas, and gastrointestinal tract. The cause of cancer-associated cachexia is still unknown; however, this condition is associated with a chronic, systemic inflammatory response and the elevation of acute phase proteins (see, e.g., Esper and Harb, 2005, Nutr. Clin. Pract. 20:369-376; Tisdale, 2001, Nutrition 17:438-442; Gordon et al., 2005, Q. J. Med. 98:779-788).
Inflammatory mediators, cytokines, chemokines and growth factors produced by non-malignant effector cells, alone or in concert with the tumor cells, include, but are not limited to, tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), interleukin-1-beta (IL-1β), interleukin-6 (IL-6), interferon-gamma (IFN-γ), leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF), IP-10 and proteolysis-inducing factor (PIF). These inflammatory mediators, cytokines, chemokines and growth factors may play a role in cancer growth and progression, and are thought to contribute to the persistent inflammatory condition associated with cachexia.
A variety of pharmacological agents have been administered to patients with cancer-associated cachexia and/or tested in animal models. These treatments have been met, however, with only limited success (see, e.g., Illman et al., 2005, J. Support. Oncol. 3:37-50; Gordon et al., 2005, Q. J. Med. 98:779-788).
Just as in cancer, monocytes and macrophages are a major source of cytokines and chemokines believed to contribute to the pathology of acute and chronic autoimmune or inflammatory diseases (e.g., rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, peritonitis, psoriasis, atopic dermatitis, psoriatic arthritis, and multiple sclerosis). These cells are involved in the recruitment, differentiation and maturation of more macrophages to the inflamed regions and in the release and activation of proteases that destroy tissues (see, e.g., Ma and Pope, 2005, Curr. Pharm. Design 11: 569-580; Bruck et al., 1996, Immunobiology 195:588-600; Liu and Pope, 2004, Rheum. Dis. Clin. N. Am. 30:19-39).
While there are no known cures for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases (e.g., rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis), therapies are available to reduce inflammation and pain and tissue destruction. These therapies are not effective, however, in all patients and are associated with many side-effects.
New therapies are needed, therefore, for treating cancer, cancer-associated cachexia and autoimmune and inflammatory diseases to improve the quality of life and survival rates for patients with cancer or an autoimmune or inflammatory disease.

Methods of treating neoplastic, autoimmune and inflammatory diseases


A procedure for determining active code sequences of a plurality of overlaid code sequences (ca(v)·ga), wherein the active code sequences have a greater gain factor (ga) than the inactive code sequences, includes: (1) formation of a cost function (L) dependent upon unknown estimated values ({tilde over (g)}a,ĝa) of the gain factors (ga) of composite code sequences (ca(v)·ga), (2) partial differentiation of the cost function (L) in accord with the unknown estimated values ({tilde over (g)}a ĝa) of the gain factors (ga), (3) formation of an equation system from the presupposition that all partial differentials of the cost function (L) are zero and a minimum of the cost function (L) is present, (4) determination of the estimated values ({tilde over (g)}, ĝa) of the gain factors (ga) by solving the equation system, and (5) determining that an active code sequence exists, if the estimated values ({tilde over (g)}a, ĝa) of the corresponding gain factors (ga) are greater than a specified threshold value.

The invention concerns a procedure for the determination of active code sequences, in particular, of identification sequences (midambles) in mobile radio systems, especially for the TDD-Mode of the Standards 3GPP.
The employment of Time Division Duplex (TDD) for the uplink (connection of the mobile station to the base station) and the downlink (connection of the base station to the mobile station) for various mobile radio standards has been made known, for example, by T. Ojanperä, R. Prasad "Wideband CDMA for Third Generation Mobile Communications", Artech House, 1998, ISBN 0-89006-735-X, Pages 261 to 277. Therein, a TDD Modus is presented, in which each downlink and uplink slot of the TDD framework is split up into a plurality of code channels with an orthogonal spreading code. Each code channel comprises a first data zone, a second data zone and an identification sequence (midamble) placed between the said data zones. Although the data chip sequences, because of multiplication with orthogonal spreading codes, are orthogonal to one another, the identification sequences (midambles) are not orthogonal to each other.
In certain operational situations checks must be made, to see which identification sequences (midambles) are active. Fundamentally, this could be done by correlation of the received data sequence in the midamble area, inclusive of all allowable midambles (identification sequences). By the squaring of the correlation-coefficients, a capacity centered evaluation can be achieved. If the square of a defined correlation coefficient, in relation to the entire capacity of the sum of the midambles oversteps in a logarithmic scale a certain threshold, then the conclusion could rest on an active midamble, and hence on an active code channel. This procedure adapts itself, however, only to the detection of the active midambles, providing that the midamble-code-sequences exhibit a satisfactory cross-correlation characteristic. In the case of short midamble-code-sequences and a high degree of disturbance, then, because of the poor cross correlation characteristics, erroneous or failed detection comes to the fore, because no clear-cut threshold can be found, which separates a valid hypothesis from a faulty hypothesis.
All references cited herein are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.

Procedure for the recognition of active code sequences


In a battery system for use in a vehicle as power supply, a plurality of battery groups, each configured to output a rated voltage while being charged, in parallel to an input/output system line by a system connection device, BMU devices monitor the battery groups, respectively, determining whether the battery groups enter an abnormal state, and any battery group entering the abnormal state is designated and disconnected from the input/output system line. If a predetermined of battery groups are found to enter an abnormal state, as determined by the BMU devices, a system controller generates an alarm, informing the user that the battery system may not provide power in the required amount.

The battery system for use in vehicles is generally a double-redundancy system in consideration of abnormality that may develop while the system is operating. The double-redundancy system comprises a main battery unit and an auxiliary battery unit totally identical to the main battery unit. In operation, the battery system fails to output the rated power even if only one of the battery modules constituting the main battery unit enters an abnormal state. In this case, the main battery unit is disconnected from the output system, and the auxiliary battery unit is connected to the output system and used in place of the main battery unit. Inevitably, twice as many battery modules must be mounted on the vehicle in order to provide the rated power.
The battery system, particularly one mounted on a special vehicle, such as a submersible vehicle and a flight vehicle, should keep operating once it has been started. Therefore, the battery modules cannot be replaced by other modules. Thus, each battery module must have high reliability. The reliability of the battery module is, however, technically limited.

Battery system and method of operating the battery system


A vane pump includes a rotor including a first annular groove and a second annular groove. The rotor further includes a cylindrical portion projecting axially from a radial inner side of the first annular groove and fitting over a drive shaft, and a slide contact portion formed on a radial inner side of the second annular groove. The cylindrical portion is slidably received in a bearing hole formed in a first side wall of a housing, whereas the slide contact portion abuts slidably on an inside wall surface of a second side wall of the housing. There is further formed, in the first annular groove, a recessed portion making a pressure receiving area of one of the first and second annular grooves greater than a pressure receiving area of the other of the first and second annular grooves.

The present invention relates to a vane pump for supplying oil to sliding contact portions of an internal combustion engine, a variable valve actuating apparatus or other apparatus.
A vane pump of such a type is disclosed in a patent document: JP S60-102488U. This vane pump is fixed to a front end of a cylinder block of an internal combustion engine. The vane pump includes: a pump housing made up of a housing member and a pump cover closing an open end of the housing member; a rotor received rotatably in the housing and arranged to receive rotational force through a drive shaft from a crank shaft; and a plurality of vanes received, respectively, in slits formed radially in an outer circumferential portion of the rotor and arranged to slide radially in the slits, respectively. The vane pump further includes a cam ring disposed around the rotor with a predetermined eccentricity with respect to the rotor. The forward ends of the vanes are arranged to slide on the inside circumferential surface of the cam ring and to define pumping chambers each varying the volume with rotation of the rotator for pump action.
The drive shaft includes an engaging portion having two flat outside surfaces, and the rotor includes a center engaging hole having two flat inside surface and engaging with the engaging portion of the drive shaft to transmit rotation from the drive shaft to the rotor.


Disclosed are hierarchically porous carbon materials with a plurality of discreet nanoparticles dispersed on their carbon phase. The materials possess a continuous network of pores that spans the porous material, permitting the flow of fluids into and through the material. The porous materials can be used as heterogeneous catalysts.

Heterogeneous catalysts, including inorganic nanoparticles supported on carbon, are widely used to increase the rates of many chemical reactions. For small scale applications typical of research or development environments, catalysts are often provided in the form of a fine powder to provide maximum surface area. Catalyst powders are then added to a liquid containing the reactants. Once the reaction is complete, the catalyst must be separated from the solution, typically by filtration. When performing reactions at larger scales, such as in industrial settings, catalysts are often provided in the form of a fixed bed of particles or pellets. In these cases, reactions are typically performed as the reactants flow over or though the fixed bed. For example, the fixed bed is then contacted with the fluid reactants, with the reaction proceeding while the fluid is in contact with the catalyst. After an appropriate time in contact with the fixed catalyst bed, the fluid, which now contains the product of the chemical reaction, continues on for further processing.
Despite the wide use of heterogeneous catalysts in both industrial and research settings, existing catalysts suffer from a number of shortcomings; among these are inefficient use of precious metals, limited life time, and a tendency to be pyrophoric in contact with air. For research and development environments, the need to carry out a filtration step can be disadvantageous, particularly in the case of finely divided and/or pyrophoric catalysts. For larger scale applications in which a fluid containing the reactants flows over a fixed catalyst bed, the transport of the fluid through the catalyst bed can limit the rate of the reaction, and require larger pumps because of the pressure drop through the catalyst bed. Further, unwanted reactions can produce high molecular weight products which clog the pore spaces within and between the catalysts decreasing the activity of the catalyst, and the effective lifetime of the catalyst.

Catalysis by metal nanoparticles dispersed within a hierarchically porous carbon material

Board of Trustees of The University of Alabama


The present invention reveals an iodine-containing nasal moisturizing saline solution and a method for the prevention and/or treatment of sinusitis and related conditions associated with nasal congestion. The nasal moisturizing saline solution is made of water, sodium chloride, iodine, buffer, and a preservative. The iodine-containing nasal moisturizing saline solution is buffered and made isotonic. In the method for the prevention and/or treatment of sinusitis and related conditions associated with nasal congestion, the nasal moisturizing saline solution is administered to the nostrils of a patient in need thereof.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention discloses an iodine-containing nasal moisturizing saline solution and a method for the prevention and/or treatment of sinusitis and related conditions associated with nasal congestion. The nasal moisturizing saline solution is buffered, isotonic, and contains at least 0.001% iodine by weight. In the method for the prevention and/or treatment of sinusitis and related conditions associated with nasal congestion, the iodine-containing nasal moisturizing saline solution is administered to the nostrils of a patient in need thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
The nose is a specialized structure that serves dual functions as the organ for the sense of smell and as an entry to the respiratory tract. Nerve receptor cells within the nose detect odors that enter via the nostrils and transmit signals to the brain through the olfactory nerve. The sense of smell also enhances the sense of taste. The ability to smell is more refined than the ability to taste. Therefore, when a cold blocks nasal passages, food may seem bland or even tasteless.
As part of the respiratory tract, the nose moisturizes and warms incoming air and filters out foreign materials. Small glands within the lining of the nose secrete mucus, a sticky substance that lubricates the walls of the nose and throat. Mucus humidifies the incoming air and traps bacteria, dust, and other particles entering the nose. Many bacteria are dissolved by chemical elements in the mucus or transported to the entrance of the throat by the tiny, hairlike structures called cilia. In the throat, bacteria are then swallowed and killed by acids and other chemicals produced in the stomach. This line of defense protects the body against the billions of bacteria that continually enter the nose.
Connected to the nose are sinuses or air-filled cavities located within certain facial bones. There are four groups of sinuses, namely, frontal, sphenoidal, ethmoidal, and maxillary. The sinuses are lined with a mucous membrane and are normally kept clear when mucus drains through them into the nasal passages. If they are obstructed for any reason, such as from the congestion present during a cold, normal drainage cannot occur and infection of the sinuses can result.
Sinusitis and inhalant allergy are two of the most common conditions affecting the nasal passages. Sinusitis is an infection, usually bacterial, of one or more of the sinuses. A sinus infection may be triggered by anything that prevents the mucus in the sinuses from draining properly into the nasal passages. Possible causes include swimming and diving, injuries, abnormal structure of the facial bones, congestion from the flu or a cold, allergies, or an abscess in a tooth which may penetrate the sinuses and allow bacteria to enter them. Many different types of bacteria can cause sinusitis, including some of the same strains that lead to pneumonia, laryngitis, and middle ear infections.
Sinusitis is characterized by pain and tenderness above the infected sinus, which is felt in the face and forehead, behind the eyes, in the eyes, near the upper part of the nose, and even in the upper teeth. This facial pain may be accompanied by headache, slight fever, chills, sore throat, nasal obstruction, and a discharge of pus from the nose.
Sinusitis usually lasts about two weeks, with the pain often subsiding in the morning and worsening as the day goes on, or fluctuating as the patient moves about and changes positions. There is evidence that smokers are more likely to suffer from sinusitis than are nonsmokers. Those who frequently have colds are also more susceptible to sinusitis. Avoiding smoking and exposure to persons with colds may help to prevent sinusitis.
The sinuses cannot be seen directly, so diagnostic evaluation may include X-ray examination to check for the presence of fluid or abnormalities in the sinuses and to determine which of the sinuses are infected. Computed tomography is an excellent tool for evaluating serious sinus problems.
Sinusitis is treated by encouraging drainage of the sinuses. Nasal decongestants, nasal moisturizers, and moist heat work to aid sinus drainage. The nasal moisturizers may be in the form of a nasal spray or nasal drops. In addition, physicians will usually prescribe an antibiotic that will kill the bacteria that most commonly trigger sinusitis.
Inhalant allergens are those that are breathed in, including such substances as dust, pollen, feathers, and animal dander. Hay fever is an inhalant allergy in which the mucous membranes react to various inhaled substances, usually the pollens associated with the changing seasons. Year-round "hay fever" may actually be a reaction to pet dander, feather, mold, or dust.
The symptoms of hay fever are usually the same, regardless of the allergen. Common symptoms include itching of the nose and roof of the mouth; a thin watery discharge constantly draining from the nose; itchy, watery eyes; sneezing; headache; irritability; a feeling of exhaustion; insomnia; loss of appetite; and in advanced cases, coughing and wheezing.
A severe case of hay fever may be best treated by changing the environment, that is by removing the allergen causing the trouble or reducing the patient's exposure to it. Those who react to weed pollen may need to move to a more urban location with a lower concentration of pollen in the air. Many hay fever suffers will benefit from using an air conditioner, which filters the air and thus keeps pollen levels in the home to a minimum. There is no way to prevent hay fever, but avoiding the allergens as much as possible may at least help to relieve some of the discomfort.
Several medications are available for the hay fever sufferer: oral antihistamines, which counteract the histamine that is released by the body in reaction to the allergen; corticosteroids, which reduce inflammation; eye drops, which relieve itching and redness; and desensitization shots, which cause the body to develop tolerance to the allergen. In addition, nasal moisturizers work to aid sinus drainage. The nasal moisturizers may be in the form of a nasal spray or nasal drops.
Several nasal moisturizers are presently commercially available as over-the-counter or non-prescription medications, e.g., Afrin.RTM. Moisturizing Saline Mist, Ayr.RTM. Saline Nasal Mist, NaSal.TM. Saline Moisturizer, and Ocean.RTM.. Basic nasal moisturizers are made of an aqueous solution of sodium chloride, a preservative, and a buffer.
Numerous examples of nasal solutions, methods of use, and variations thereof have been reported. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,622,724 (Bryce-Smith) discloses a method for treating the symptoms of the common cold by administering a spray solution containing a nontoxic, symptom effective treating amount of a solution of a substantially unchelated ionic zinc compound to the nostrils and respiratory tract of a patient.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,562,908 (Geria) discloses nasal compositions effective for relieving mammalian sinus headache associated with inflamed or congested turbinates, containing an anesthetically effective amount of a non-addictive, rapidly absorbable anesthetic component, i.e., an acid addition salt of dyclonine or pramoxine. The anesthetic component is the sole active ingredient in the composition or is combined with a decongestant of the sympathomimetic amine class.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,508,282 (Tulin-Silver et al.) discloses a stable, non-irritating composition and method for treating, without side effects, acute or chronic rhinosinusitis and its associated upper airway symptoms. The composition and treatment are useful for relieving the symptoms, and shortening the duration, of acute or chronic rhinosinusitis. The composition comprises a therapeutically effective solution having a pH of about 6.0, of ascorbic acid and caffeine, in combination with other soluble vitamins, natural ingredients and preservatives in a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier. The method includes the steps of preparing and administering the composition to the nasal membranes of a patient in the form of a nasal spray or drops.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,478,565 (Geria) discloses a topically applicable nasal composition capable of relieving mammalian sinus headache. The composition contains (i) an anesthetically effective amount of an acid addition salt of dyclonine or pramoxine and (ii) an adrenergically effective amount of an acid addition salt of a sympathomimetic amine decongestant selected from the group consisting of an arylalkylamine, imidazoline and a cycloalkylamine incorporated in a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,169,849 (Kiechel et al.) discloses a liquid nasal pharmaceutical composition which contains as an active agent a pharmaceutically effective amount of dihydroergotamine which is capable of depressing the ciliary function and an effective amount of a xanthine which is capable of increasing the ciliary function. The weight ratio of the dihydroergotamine to the xanthine is from 0.1:1 to 10:1.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,940,728 (Postley) discloses a method for treating sino-nasal congestion, viral nasopharyngitis, allergic rhinitis, and related conditions associated with nasal congestion. The method comprises applying to the nasal mucosa a solution comprising ascorbic acid, a pharmaceutically acceptable salt or ester of ascorbic acid, or combinations thereof dissolved in a pharmaceutically acceptable liquid carrier in an amount effective to treat sino-nasal congestion.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,603,131 (Bernstein et al.) discloses a method and composition for preventing irritation of a mucous membrane of the nose caused by allergies, chemical pollutants, or physical irritants manifested by sneezing, discomfort, stuffiness or mucous discharge. The method comprises applying topically to a mucous membrane of the nose a therapeutically effective amount of a tri-cyclic anti-depressant.
Iodine is a halogen element of a peculiar odor and acrid taste. Iodine is characterized by the chemical symbol I, has an atomic number of 53, and an atomic weight of 126.904. It is a nonmetallic element, occurring in heavy, grayish black plates or granules. Iodine is essential in nutrition, being especially abundant in the colloid of the thyroid gland. One gram of iodine dissolves in 2950 ml of water or in 12.5 ml alcohol. Internally, iodine is used for treatment of goiter, hyperthyroidism, and as an antidote to alkaloid poisons. Topically, iodine has been used as an antiseptic.
In addition, iodine has been used to destroy viruses. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,355,021 discloses a substantially dry, impregnated wipe having iodine and a means for retaining the iodine. The iodine is present in the wipe in an amount from about 1% to about 15% by weight of the wipe and in an amount sufficient to provide virucidal activity. The iodine is preferably present in an amount of from about 2% to about 5%. A flexible paper is preferred, and the most preferred substrate is facial tissue.
However, none of the cited patents disclose a nasal moisturizing solution containing iodine. It is, therefore, an object of this patent application to disclose an iodine-containing nasal moisturizer solution. The iodine-containing nasal moisturizer solution is useful for the prevention and/or treatment of sinusitis, sino-nasal congestion, acute or chronic rhinosinusitis, viral nasopharyngitis, allergic rhinitis, inhalant allergy, and related conditions associated with nasal congestion.
It is a further object of this patent application to disclose a method of use for the iodine-containing nasal moisturizer solution, where the solution is used to prevent and/or treat sinusitis, sino-nasal congestion, acute or chronic rhinosinusitis, viral nasopharyngitis, allergic rhinitis, inhalant allergy, and related conditions associated with nasal congestion.

Iodine-containing nasal moisturizing saline solution


A digitally controlled optical delay apparatus providing optical signal delays electrically selectable in the picosecond to nanosecond range by way of selectable signal path lengths. Path lengths are incremented in physical length and path delay time according to digital ratios. The delay element includes micro-miniature path changing mirrors controlled in path length selecting positioning by input signals of logic level magnitude. Fiber optic coupling of signals to and from the delay element and a combination of fixed position and movable mirror included optical signal path lengths are included.

In the generation of test and simulated images for a laser radar apparatus, for example, there is need for delaying optical signals for selectable time intervals in the sub nanosecond time range. Similarly, in the performance of signal processing for other light-based optical systems it is also desirable to introduce small digitally selected signal delays for scanner-free imaging, diffraction/holographic imaging, optical mixing, and delay-measurements.
Although such generation of optical signal delays has doubtless been heretofore accomplished in the signal processing art, it is notable that the use of digitally incremented signal delays, i.e., digital delay devices, appears to have been omitted from this art. The present invention addresses this omission.

The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Air Force


The invention is a method for improving the color and color stability of oleic acid by a two column distillation process in which the oleic acid to be color improved is introduced into a first distillation zone containing an enriching section and a stripping section providing a minor amount of a topping product and a major amount of underflow containing the oleic acid and passing the oleic acid to a bottom portion of a second distillation zone having an enriching section to recover the improved oleic acid with improved color and color stability as a top product from the second distillation zone.

The invention relates to a process for improving color and color stability of oleic acid.
1. Background of the Invention
Oleic acid has many industrial and commercial uses and applications in which color is a major consideration. When oleic acid is introduced into many consumer products, a colorless or light colored material is required. In addition, when oleic acid is utilized in chemical processes as a reactant, color stability can be important if colorless or light colored products are required.
2. Related Art
It is known that the color and color stability of oleic acid is influenced by small amounts of minor components in oleic acid. The minor components and the effect on color and color stability are discussed in a series of articles which appeared in JAOCS, Vol. 59, No. 1 (January 1982) pgs.42-51; Sherman S. Lin et al., CHARACTERIZATION OF MINOR CONSTITUENTS IN COMMERCIAL OLEIC ACID, JOACS, Vol. 59, No. 1 (January 1982) pgs. 42-46; Yokunobo Murase et al., ORIGIN OF MINOR CONSTITUENTS OF COMMERCIAL OLEIC ACID; JAOCS, Vol. 59, No. 1 (January 1982) Pgs. 47-50; and Sherman S. Lin et al. qualitative and quantitative COMPARISON OF MINOR CONSTITUENTS IN DIFFERENT COMMERCIAL OLEIC ACIDS. JAOCS, Vol. 59, No. 1 (January 1982) Pgs. 50-51.
The articles disclose that about 1.2% of impurities in commercial oleic acid are responsible for the color and color instability of oleic acid. A portion of the color causing materials are present in the tallow (raw material) from which the oleic acid is produced and a portion of the color causing materials are formed during the production of oleic acid from tallow.
The articles disclose that the color causing materials (minor constituents) can be removed from oleic acid by adsorption on activated silicic acid. The method effectively removes the minor components from oleic acid. However, the adsorption method is generally not suitable for a commercial process due to the difficulty in regenerating the activated silicic acid or disposal of the spent solid.
Commercially, high purity, color stable oleic acid is produced by a combination of distillation and absorption methods with the consequent difficulty associated with handling and disposal of the solid adsorbent material. It would be useful to provide a commercial process which effectively improved the color and color stability of oleic acid without need for an absorption step. A number of distillation processes for fatty acids are disclosed in Diechelmann, G and Heinz, H. J., THE BASICS OF INDUSTRIAL OLEOCHEMISTRY, Peter Pomp GmbH (ISBN 3-89355-008-9), pages 52-74.
The color and color stability of oleic acid can be improved by a distillation process which comprises introducing an oleic acid feed into a first distillation zone having an enriching section and a stripping section to separate a minor amount of a topping product and a major amount of a bottoms product containing the oleic acid and introducing the bottoms produced containing oleic acid into a lower portion of a second distillation zone having an enriching section and removing the purified oleic acid as the top product and a residue fraction from the bottom of the second distillation zone.
The process effectively reduces the amounts of the minor components which are responsible for color formation and color instability and produces a commercially useful, color stable oleic acid without need for an adsorption step. The oleic acid produced by the process of the present invention can be superior to, or at least equivalent to, commercially available oleic acid produced by a distillation and adsorption method without the concomitant difficulties associated with handling and disposal of solid materials.

Process for improving color and color stability of oleic acid