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The present invention relates to a fiber fabric and a composite material obtained by reinforcing a resin by the fiber fabric.
A load energy absorbing member constructing a bumper apparatus cushioning an impact at a collision of a vehicle absorbs the energy of an impact load applied to a bumper reinforcement constructing the bumper apparatus. In order to save weight of the bumper apparatus, there has been known a composite material in which the bumper reinforcement or the load energy absorbing member is formed by a fiber reinforced resin.
As the fiber for reinforcing the resin, for example, fabrics disclosed in the following publication can be employed.
A fabric disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 63-303145 is structured such that the weft is diagonally woven in the warp. However, since the fabric is woven only by the warp and the weft, threads are bent and meander, and it is disadvantageous in view of improving the strength of the composite material.
In a fabric disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 7-243147, the structure is made such that two perpendicular lines passing through the center of two warp threads or two weft threads adjacent to each other is connected the centerline of one of the warp and the weft, which intersect each other. An angle formed between the connecting line and a line which is in parallel to an arranging direction of the warp or the weft is set to be equal to or less than 1 degrees. That is, a crimp of the threads is small. However, in the case that the crimp exists although it is small, it is disadvantageous for improving the strength of the composite material.
In a fabric disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 7-243149, an auxiliary thread group intersecting a flat reinforced fiber multi filament threads which do not have such a bending that a stress is concentrated is arranged in both sides of a sheet surface of a filament group in which the reinforced fiber multi filament threads are arranged in parallel to each other in one direction and in a sheet shape. Further, a warp direction auxiliary thread group and a weft direction auxiliary thread group keeping pace with the reinforced fiber multi filament thread form a woven texture and integrally hold the filament group. In this fabric, since the flat reinforced fiber multi filament threads are arranged in parallel to each other in one direction and in the sheet shape, the filament group with no crimp can be structured. Accordingly, the fabric is advantageous in view of improving a strength of the composite material and gives excellent moldability.
In order to increase the thickness of a composite material, it is preferable to overlap a plurality of fabrics. However, since the fabric in the Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 7-243149 is the fabric having a single layer sheet shape, the production efficiency in the case of producing the composite material having a large thickness is not good.
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The present invention relates to a semiconductor storage element and a method of manufacturing it.
In order to reduce the power consumption and the size of electronic equipments, there is a demand for a nonvolatile semiconductor storage element which consumes a small electric power and provides a high integration density. To achieve such a semiconductor storage element, the semiconductor storage element is required to be able to be constituted of a reduced number of components and in a small area. A known semiconductor storage device having a highest degree of integration is a DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory) whose memory cells each consist of one transistor and one capacitor. However, the efforts to further increase the degree of integration of the DRAM by simply reducing the size of the memory cells almost reach the limit. One reason for that is that it has become technically difficult to further pursue the fineness or smallness. Even if it is technically possible to do so, use of high techniques is required, so that the cost for manufacturing the DRAM becomes considerably high. Another reason is as follows. In the DRAM, information is stored by accumulating a charge in the capacitor. In order to reliably read a charge amount accumulated in the capacitor, it is necessary for the capacitor to have a certain capacity (several tens of fF/cell). Therefore, it is difficult to form the capacitor in a smaller area.
To overcome the problem, there are proposed the following semiconductor storage elements (1) and (2) each constituted of a small number of components and having an information storage function in a small area (Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 7-111295).
(1) A semiconductor storage element having a source region and a drain region, wherein the source region is connected with the drain region through a channel region; the channel region is connected with a gate electrode through a gate insulation film; a level for capturing at least one carrier is formed proximately to a current path of the channel region positioned between the source region and the drain region; and an effective capacity Cgc between the gate electrode and the channel region satisfies the following inequality: EQU 1/Cgc>kT/q.sup.2 equation (1)
where k: Boltzmann's constant, T: operation temperature, and q: charge amount of electron
(2) A semiconductor storage element having a source region and a drain region, wherein the source region is connected with the drain region through a channel region; the channel region is connected with a gate electrode through a gate insulation film; at least one carrier trap region is formed proximately to a current path of the channel region positioned between the source region and the drain region; a potential barrier is provided between the channel region and the carrier trap region; a capacity C between the channel region and the carrier trap region is set to be greater than a capacity Cgt between the gate electrode and the carrier trap region; and the whole capacity Ctt of the carrier trap region satisfies the following inequality: EQU q.sup.2 /(2Ctt)>kT equation (2)
where k: Boltzmann's constant, T: operation temperature, and q: charge amount of electron
FIG. 4 is a graph showing the dependence of a drain current on the voltage between the gate and the source in each of the semiconductor storage elements (1) and (2). As shown in FIG. 4, when a gate voltage Vgs is vertically swept between Vg0 and Vg1, the conductance between the source and the drain exhibits a hysteresis at the room temperature. That is, whether a carrier has been captured can be detected in terms of the magnitude of electric current. This indicates that a semiconductor storage device can be realized by controlling the semiconductor storage element (1) or (2) with a data line and a word line.
In the Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 7-111295, there are disclosed concrete examples of the semiconductor storage elements (1) and (2) which are shown in FIGS. 5A, 5B, 5C, and 5D and FIGS. 6A and 6B, respectively.
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Recently, a mobile communication terminal provides communication functions such as telephone or text message transmission services as well as various additional functions utilizing personal information such as mobile banking, etc. Accordingly, the necessity of locking devices of the mobile communication terminal is considered more important.
Most existing locking devices applied to the mobile communication terminal used a conventional method of using a password. For example, the conventional method was to apply a locking device to the telephone function, additional function, or international telephone function, etc., and to input the corresponding password in order to use the corresponding function.
However, this method caused inconveniences that it became useless when the password is revealed, the password should be periodically changed to secure stability, a user should memorize the password, etc.
Thus, recently, in order to supplement this method and improve locking effect, terminals with locking devices using fingerprint recognition have been developed in earnest.
In order to mount this fingerprint recognition device on mobile communication terminals which are manufactured compactly, the size of its sensor should be minimized. Accordingly, a fingerprint recognition sensor with ‘a sliding method’ which recognizes a fingerprint by swiping a finger on a bar-shaped sensor which is long from side to side has been developed.
FIGS. 1 and 2 are views illustrating an operation of a fingerprint recognition sensor with a conventional sliding method.
Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, when a user touches a fingerprint sensor 10 with his finger and moves his finger with the sliding method, partial short images P1˜P4 are acquired continuously.
A fingerprint includes various minutiae. Specifically, the fingerprint includes an ending where a ridge is cut off, bifurcation where two ridges are met, etc. The minutiae vary depending on people, so the minutiae derived from short images P1˜P4 also vary depending on people.
As illustrated in FIG. 2, the conventional method of fingerprint recognition utilizes a method of selecting minutiae from short images P1˜P4, matching minutiae derived from each short image P1˜P4 to make one minutiae template, establishing database for the position and number of minutiae, and performing comparison and analysis.
The fingerprint database is made by fingerprint registration by a specific user, and a method for registering a fingerprint is performed in the same manner as the method for fingerprint recognition.
This conventional method for fingerprint registration and fingerprint recognition utilizes a method of matching minutiae of the fingerprint, so matching information needs to be simple, thereby resulting in errors in fingerprint recognition. Additionally, when the registered fingerprint does not match with the recognized fingerprint in terms of direction, etc., there is a problem that the fingerprint will not be matched. Also, the fingerprint is sensed in a small-sized bar-shaped sensor 10, so an entire image of the fingerprint cannot be acquired, and accordingly, there is no doubt that recognition accuracy decreases when only part of the fingerprint image is inputted.
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With the increasing development and deployment of Vista operating system, high-definition video and DX10, high volume and high speed data transmission is growing and its requirement on the bandwidth is also increasing. As a result, USB1.0 and USB2.0 cannot meet the need in the future.
USB 3.0 delivers an unprecedented bandwidth, 10 times that of USB 2.0, and supports full-duplex communication, or the ability to send and receive data simultaneously. It also improves Quality of Service (QoS) and overall bus power consumption thanks to advanced data error checking coupled with smart power savings from USB 3.0 link power management.
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Many real-world networks are described by both connectivity information and features for every node. Many social networks are of this form; on services such as Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn, there are profiles which describe each person. In addition, participants communicate and transact with each other as well. Other examples such as etsy.com in which buyers find small vendors in a large framework are similar to social media. Sites such as reddit.com allow users to find links to medial or comments, providing a framework that could be improved by allowing users to find material they find most interesting. The proliferation of social networks on the web has spurred interest in the development of recommender systems to increase the value derived by participants. There exist challenges in making recommendations based on user information and their activities because people form relationships for a variety of reasons. For example, in Facebook perhaps they share similar parts of their profile such as their school or major, or perhaps they have completely different profiles. There is an on-going need for improvements in this area. In addition there are many systems, such as reddit and etsy, which provide a decent framework that are susceptible to improvement by providing a good recommendation system.
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This applicant has led the world in research and development aimed at realizing biped robots capable of walking activities closely resembling those of human beings. And through the biped robots it proposed up to now has enabled stable robot walking on level ground, upgrades and downgrades, one-leg standing, and ascent/descent of stairs and level differences, thus realizing biped robots capable of adapting to various existing locomotion environments.
Further, it has made feasible use of arms connected to the robot body for operations such as tightening of screws and nuts with a driver (screwdriver) or wrench (spanner), and, in addition, has, by systematically coordinating movements of the legs and arms, made it possible to conduct complex operations such as opening/closing and passing through doors and pushing hand carts. These operations are the result of arm-leg cooperation achieved on a high-order and can be said likely to be a major factor in markedly upgrading compatibility with humans.
Thus the biped robots being researched and developed by the applicant have replaced people in performing various operations in existing operating venues (home, factory etc.) and, for the first time ever, suggested their potential to make coexistence with humans a reality.
In its research and development of these biped robots, however, the applicant has given the robots heights (total length in the vertical direction when in upright posture) of 1600 mm to 1800 mm, near average adult height, not only to make their walking movements close to those of human beings but also to give them a more human-like appearance.
Moreover, various technologies have been put forward regarding biped robots, including diverse proposals with respect to their size. In papers such as “Design and Development of Research Platform for Perception-Action Integration in Humanoid Robot: H6” (5th Robotics Symposia) and “Preliminary Motion Experiments of a Humanoid Robot Saika-3” (18th Annual Conference of the Robotics Society of Japan), for example, biped robots given a height of 1200 mm to 1300 mm are proposed from the aspects of enabling activities in existing operating spaces and achieving small size and light weight.
A number of inconveniences arise when an attempt is made to put a biped robot of the approximately 1600 mm to 1800 mm height adopted by the applicant heretofore into operation in an existing operating space. One that can be mentioned is the amount of battery power consumption. Moreover, greater height is accompanied by increased weight, but the lightest weight possible is preferable when coexistence with people at home, factories and the like is a consideration.
Further, there are many objects subject to operation (working) in an operating space, particularly in a home environment, which are ergonomically located at heights facilitating use not only by adults but also by children, wheelchair users and others, so that it cannot be said that a size near the average adult height (more exactly, the height of the shoulder joints determined therefrom, still more exactly, the arm linkage swing range (height) determined by the shoulder joint height) is necessarily appropriate for the height of the objects subject to operation. Furthermore, in the interest of still better compatibility with people, a robot should preferably be of a size that makes it more likable to people, and from this point also, it cannot be said that a size near average adult height is necessarily appropriate.
On the other hand, points such as weight reduction and likability can be improved by adopting a height of or near 1200 mm to 1300 mm as indicated by the aforesaid prior art. The fact is, however, that the aforesaid prior art etc. has fallen short of giving any consideration to joint height in actually performing operations or to size-related issues such as arm linkage length and the like, and when such a biped robot has actually been set to performing operations, it has been merely scaled down without optimizing the height relationship with the objects, which has made performance efficiency low and led to the following various problems being left unresolved.
For example, in the multi-degree-of-freedom arms of a robot (in a biped robot, the leg linkages and the arm linkages; the shoulder joints of the arm linkages being a particular concern here) there are generally present singularities (singular points) that restrict their movement, and, where consideration is given to performance, these singularities should preferably avoided in determining operation procedures.
Further, in performing different kinds of operations, the position of the object needs to be accurately ascertained with a visual sensor and, therefore, the relative positional relationship between the visual sensor and the object must be thoroughly taken into account.
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The present invention relates to an aromatic polyester preform, a blow molded product and a preform production process. More specifically, it relates to a blow molded product having a small content of acetaldehyde, a preform providing the product and a production process for the preform.
Glass has been heretofore widely used as a material for containers for seasonings, oil, refreshing beverages, beer, Japanese sake, cosmetics, detergents and the like. However, glass is heavy, costly to distribute, and dangerous to handle because of its fragility.
To overcome these defects of glass containers, plastic containers have now been rapidly replacing the glass containers. Of plastic materials for these plastic containers, polyethylene terephthalate is now widely used as a substitute material for glass containers because it has excellent mechanical strength, heat resistance, transparency, gas barrier properties and the like.
However, since a polyethylene terephthalate container may not exhibit a sufficient ultraviolet screening function depending on its application, the irradiation of ultraviolet light from the outside may cause the degeneration of quality and taste of a food contained therein or the discoloration or deterioration of a cosmetic contained therein with the result of a reduction in its trade value. Polyethylene terephthalate itself is a resin having low heat resistance unless it is crystallized, and a polyethylene terephthalate container must be filled with content at a high temperature or showered with hot water after filling for the purpose of sterilization according to the type of the content. Therefore, a material having high heat resistance is desired. High gas barrier properties are also desired to extend the shelf life of content according to the type of the content.
Polyethylene naphthalene dicarboxylate is known as a resin with which the above problems can be overcome.
Polyethylene naphthalene dicarboxylate has higher melt viscosity than polyethylene terephthalate. Therefore, when this resin is molded in accordance with a conventional method for blow molding polyethylene terephthalate into a biaxially oriented bottle, a large content of acetaldehyde is formed and the obtained molded product has a large content of acetaldehyde. Thus, when this molded product is used particularly as a container for a beverage, the flavor of content is spoiled.
It has recently been known that the above problem can be overcome by blending polyethylene naphthalene dicarboxylate with polyethylene terephthalate.
However, when a copolymer resin of ethylene terephthalate and ethylene naphthalene dicarboxylate is produced by a conventionally known copolymerization method, the solid-phase polymerization temperature must be lowered due to a reduction in a melting point, thereby causing a reduction in productivity. This causes not only an increase in costs but also the production of a resin having a different blending ratio for each required quality, thereby increasing production costs and making the control of molding complicated. Since a resin containing 20 to 80 mol % of ethylene naphthalene dicarboxylate is amorphous, handling properties at the time of drying and solid-phase polymerization deteriorate and required physical properties may not be obtained.
As means of obtaining required quality and reducing the production costs of a resin and a molded product, there is proposed a method comprising blending polyethylene naphthalene dicarboxylate with polyethylene terephthalate and molding the blend.
However, since polyethylene terephthalate and polyethylene naphthalene dicarboxylate have low compatibility with each other, a molded product obtained by simply blending these is opaque with low transparency, thereby causing a great reduction its trade value. Even if a transparent molded product can be obtained by selecting severe molding conditions to improve compatibility between them, for example, by raising the injection temperature or increasing the back pressure, a large content of acetaldehyde or oligomers is formed during molding and the oligomers are adhered to the vent portion of the mold of an injection molding machine, thereby causing such problems as burned spot or short shot. In the case of a beverage in particular, the flavor of content is spoiled when the content of acetaldehyde is large.
Since acetaldehyde and oligomers are formed in large quantities during molding, the above problems cannot be solved simply by reducing the content of acetaldehyde or the content of oligomers in a polymer used.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a process for producing a preform having a small content of acetaldehyde from various aromatic polyester materials, which is accompanied by the formation of acetaldehyde during injection molding as described above.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a process for producing a preform having excellent transparency, a small content of acetaldehyde and a small content of oligomers.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a preform having a small content of acetaldehyde and excellent transparency, which is produced by the above process of the present invention.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a biaxially oriented blow molded product obtained by blow molding the above preform of the present invention.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description.
According to the present invention, firstly, the above objects and advantages of the present invention are attained by a process for producing a preform by injection molding an aromatic polyester which comprises at least one aromatic dicarboxylic acid selected from the group consisting of terephthalic acid and 2,6-naphthalenedicarboxylic acid as a main dicarboxylic acid component and ethylene glycol as a main diol component, wherein injection molding is carried out by an injection molding machine, which has at least one vent at the position of a cylinder between a position where the aromatic polyester is substantially molten in the cylinder of the injection molding machine and the position of the front-end of the metering zone of a screw when the molten aromatic polyester is stored in the front-end portion of the cylinder of the injection molding machine for injection molding, while air is exhausted from the vent under reduced pressure.
According to the present invention, there are further provided a preform produced by the above process and a biaxially oriented blow molded product obtained by blow molding the preform.
The aromatic polyester to which the present invention is directed is a polyester comprising at least one aromatic dicarboxylic acid selected from the group consisting of terephthalic acid and 2,6-naphthalenedicarboxylic acid as a main dicarboxylic acid component and ethylene glycol as a main glycol component. That is, the above aromatic polyester includes (1) a polyester comprising ethylene-2,6-naphthalene dicarboxylate as a main recurring unit, (2) a polyester comprising ethylene terephthalate as a main recurring unit and (3) a polyester comprising ethylene-2,6-naphthalene dicarboxylate and ethylene terephthalate as main recurring units.
The aromatic polyester comprising ethylene-2,6-naphthalene dicarboxylate as a main recurring unit in the present invention may be a copolymer obtained through copolymerization by substituting part of a 2,6-naphthalene dicarboxylic acid component with at least one member selected from other aromatic dicarboxylic acids such as 2,7-, 1,5- and 1,7-naphthalenedicarboxylic acids, isophthalic acid, terephthalic acid, diphenyldicarboxylic acid, diphenoxyethane dicarboxylic acid, diphenyl ether dicarboxylic acid, diphenylsulfone dicarboxylic acid and tetrahydronaphthalene dicarboxylic acid; alicyclic dicarboxylic acids such as hexahydroterephthalic acid, hexahydroisophthalic acid and decahydronaphthalene dicarboxylic acid; aliphatic dicarboxylic acids such as adipic acid, sebacic acid and azelaic acid; and other bifunctional carboxylic acids such as oxyacids exemplified by p-xcex2-hydroxyethoxybenzoic acid and xcex5-oxycaproic acid in an amount of 20 mol % or less.
The aromatic polyester comprising ethylene-2,6-naphthalene dicarboxylate as a main recurring unit may be a copolymer obtained through copolymerization by substituting part of an ethylene glycol component with at least one member selected from other diol compounds such as trimethylene glycol, tetramethylene glycol, hexamethylene glycol, decamethylene glycol, neopentyl glycol, diethylene glycol, 1,1-cyclohexane dimethanol, 1,4-cyclohexane dimethanol, 2,2-bis(4xe2x80x2-xcex2-hydroxyphenyl)propane and bis(4xe2x80x2-xcex2-hydroxyethoxyphenyl)sulfonic acid in an amount of 20 mol % or less.
The aromatic polyester comprising ethylene-2,6-naphthalene dicarboxylate as a main recurring unit in the present invention may be a copolymer obtained through copolymerization by substituting each of a 2,6-naphthalene dicarboxylic acid component and an ethylene glycol component with the above copolymer components in an amount of 20 mol % or less.
The aromatic polyester comprising ethylene terephthalate as a main recurring unit in the present invention may be a copolymer obtained through copolymerization by substituting part of terephthalic acid with at least one member selected from other aromatic dicarboxylic acids such as isophthalic acid, 2,6-naphthalenedicarboxylic acid, diphenyldicarboxylic acid, diphenoxyethane dicarboxylic acid, diphenyl ether dicarboxylic acid, diphenylsulfone dicarboxylic acid and tetrahydronaphthalene dicarboxylic acid; and the same alicyclic dicarboxylic acids, aliphatic dicarboxylic acids and oxyacids as those listed above in an amount of 20 mol % or less. The aromatic polyester comprising ethylene terephthalate as a main recurring unit may be a copolymer obtained through copolymerization by substituting part of an ethylene glycol component with at least one member selected from the same other diol compounds as those listed above in an amount of 20 mol % or less.
The aromatic polyester comprising ethylene terephthalate as a main recurring unit in the present invention may be a copolymer obtained through copolymerization by substituting each of a terephthalic acid component and an ethylene glycol component with the above copolymer components in an amount of 20 mol % or less.
Further, the aromatic polyester comprising ethylene-2,6-naphthalene dicarboxylate and ethylene terephthalate as main recurring units in the present invention is preferably a blend of a polyester comprising ethylene-2,6-naphthalene dicarboxylate as a main recurring unit and a polyester comprising ethylene terephthalate as a main recurring unit. As the two polyesters may be used aromatic polyesters having the same compositions as the aforementioned aromatic polyesters.
As for the blending ratio of the two polyesters of the blend, the weight ratio of the polyester comprising ethylene-2,6-naphthalene dicarboxylate as a main recurring unit to the polyester comprising ethylene terephthalate as a main recurring unit is preferably 56:44 to 2:98 for the purpose of reducing the content of acetaldehyde and the content of oligomers in a molded product obtained from this blend and improving the ultraviolet screening function, gas barrier properties and heat resistance of the molded product.
The polyester comprising ethylene-2,6-naphthalene dicarboxylate as a main recurring unit and the polyester comprising ethylene terephthalate as a main recurring unit in the present invention may contain an antioxidant, ultraviolet absorber, plasticizer and the like as required, or may be subjected to a hydrothermal treatment, moisture conditioning treatment or the like after the production of the polymer.
A description is subsequently given of the above blend.
The above two different polyesters used in the present invention can be produced by conventionally known methods. The acetaldehyde content of at least the aromatic polyester comprising ethylene terephthalate as a main recurring unit is preferably controlled to 10 ppm or less, more preferably 2 ppm or less, by solid-phase polymerization.
The above blend preferably contains a germanium compound in an amount of 20 to 90 ppm in terms of Ge atoms and an antimony compound in an amount of 3 to 110 ppm in terms of Sb atoms.
When the content of Ge is smaller than 20 ppm, the polymerization rate for the production of the polymer is remarkably low disadvantageously. On the other hand, when the content of Ge is larger than 90 ppm, the effect of reducing the content of acetaldehyde after molding is not always satisfactory disadvantageously. When the content of Sb is smaller than 3 ppm, the polymerization rate for the production of the polyester is low disadvantageously. On the other hand, when the content of Sb is larger than 110 ppm, the effect of reducing the content of acetaldehyde and the content of oligomers after molding is not satisfactory disadvantageously.
Ge used as a polymerization catalyst is exemplified by such compounds as germanium dioxide and germanium tetrabutoxide and Sb used as a polymerization catalyst is exemplified by antimony trioxide and antimony acetate.
Ge and Sb can be derived from both the aromatic polyester comprising ethylene terephthalate as a main recurring unit and the aromatic polyester comprising ethylene-2,6-naphthalene dicarboxylate as a main recurring unit.
Ge is preferably derived from a polymerization catalyst used for the production of the aromatic polyester comprising ethylene terephthalate as a main recurring unit, and Sb is preferably derived from a polymerization catalyst used for the production of the aromatic polyester comprising ethylene-2,6-naphthalene dicarboxylate as a main recurring unit.
In the present invention, the aromatic polyester comprising ethylene terephthalate as a main recurring unit preferably contains Ge in an amount of 30 to 100 ppm. When the content of Ge is smaller than 30 ppm, the polymerization rate for the production of the polymer is remarkably low, while when the content of Ge is larger than 100 ppm, the effect of reducing the content of acetaldehyde after molding is not satisfactory. The content of Ge is more preferably 40 to 90 ppm, particularly preferably 50 to 80 ppm.
The aromatic polyester comprising ethylene-2,6-naphthalene dicarboxylate as a main recurring unit preferably contains Sb in an amount of 100 to 350 ppm. When the content of Sb is smaller than 100 ppm, the polymerization rate for the production of the polymer is remarkably low, while when the content of Sb is larger than 350 ppm, the effect of reducing the content of acetaldehyde and the content of oligomers after molding is not satisfactory.
The preform production process of the present invention comprises supplying the above aromatic polyesters to an injection molding machine to produce a preform. The injection molding machine used in the process has a vent from which air is exhausted under reduced pressure during injection molding. The location of the vent is important. The vent is located at the position of a cylinder between (i) a position where the aromatic polyester is substantially molten in the cylinder of the injection molding machine and (ii) the position of the front-end of the metering zone of a screw when the molten aromatic polyester is stored in the front-end portion of the cylinder of the injection molding machine for injection molding. A plurality of vents may be created between the positions. Specifying the position (i) more accurately, it is at the downstream end of the metering zone of the screw where the screw backs off the most to the downstream side under the above molding conditions. It can be understood that the position of the downstream end can be changed by molding conditions.
The location of the metering zone of the screw is specified and known in this type of injection molding machine. During injection molding, air is preferably exhausted from the vent at a reduced pressure of 10 mmHg or less. According to the present invention, a preform having a small content of acetaldehyde and a small content of oligomers can be produced repeatedly with good reproductivity. For example, according to the process of the present invention, a preform having an acetaldehyde content of 20ppm or less can be easily produced.
The obtained preform provides a biaxially oriented blow molded product such as a bottle by blow molding. The molded preform may be cooled and reheated before blow molding or blow-molded without being cooled.
A biaxially oriented blow molded product having an acetaldehyde content of 20 ppm or less is also easily provided.
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Industry accepted computer processing standards use the concept of virtual slots, wherein multiple modules, cards or boards are interconnected. Virtual slot techniques permit the use of self stacking modules, cards or boards over a processor bus to allow multiple cards on a system without the burden of backplanes. The processor is logically connected to the stacked cards through the bus, and a connection to the bus is shared by the stacked cards.
Processor resources, such as chip select signals, interrupts, common clocks, etc., are allocated across the stacked cards. Manual settings may be used to associate the cards to the resources. This allows similar or even dissimilar hardware units to be cascaded or stacked with different jumper/switch settings or loaded with configured software, so that resources may be distributed without clash. Such jumper/switch settings, software or other manual settings may require system knowledge to set or configure properly. Lack of such knowledge, or mistakes in making the settings can lead to performance and resource clash issues. Some system flexibility, such as the order cards are stacked, may also be sacrificed with this conventional approach.
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus, an image processing method and a program, and more particularly, to an image processing apparatus, an image processing method and a program which performs image conversion for a two-dimensional image to generate a binocular disparity image corresponding to stereopsis.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the related art, a variety of proposals has been made for apparatuses and methods which convert a two-dimensional image into a binocular disparity image corresponding to stereopsis. The binocular disparity image generated on the basis of the two-dimensional image includes a pair of a left eye image, which is observed by the left eye, and a right eye image, which is observed by the right eye. As the binocular disparity image including the pair of the left eye image and the right eye image is displayed through a display apparatus which can separate the binocular disparity image into the left eye image and the right eye image to respectively provide the separated images to the left eye and the right eye of an observer, the observer can perceive the images as a three-dimensional image.
Such an image generation or display process is disclosed in the following related art techniques.
For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 9-107562 discloses an image processing configuration for a dynamic image moving horizontally. Specifically, according to this configuration, an original image is output as one of a left eye image and a right eye image, and an image delayed in a field unit is output as the other thereof. Through such an image output control, an object moving in the horizontal direction is perceived as being in front of the background.
Further, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 8-30806 discloses an apparatus in which a left eye image and a right eye image are shifted from each other by a preset amount in the horizontal direction for a still image or an image having a small movement and thus the image is perceived as floated.
Further, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 10-51812 discloses a technique in which an image is divided into a plurality of disparity calculation regions, a pseudo-depth is calculated from a characteristic amount of the image in each region, and a left eye image and a right eye image are horizontally shifted in the opposite directions on the basis of the depth.
Further, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2000-209614 discloses a technique similar to Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No, 10-51812, which while changing, on the basis of a delay amount calculated from a characteristic amount of an image, the horizontal delay amount of a left eye image and a right eye image, limits the horizontal delay amount to prevent a retinal image difference from occurring any more than is necessary, thereby preventing a degree of fatigue of the eyes.
Further, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2005-151534 discloses a technique in which characteristic amounts of upper and lower portions of an image are calculated, and the synthesis ratio of a plurality of scene structures indicating preset depth information is adjusted, to thereby express the image as a combination having a simplified structure.
However, the related art techniques as described above have the following problems.
In the image conversion apparatus as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 9-107562, preferable stereopsis can be provided for only an object moving at a constant speed in the horizontal direction. In an image including a plurality of moving objects or complex movements, the binocular disparity is not correctly set, and thus the objects are arranged in unnatural positions or the retinal image difference becomes excessively large. Thus, stereopsis may not be formed.
Further, the image conversion apparatus as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 8-30806 provides only the shift of the entire screen for the still image or the image having a small movement, but has great difficulty in expressing the anteroposterior relation of the objects in the image.
In the image conversion apparatuses as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication Nos. 10-51812 and 2000-209614, the pseudo-depth is estimated from the characteristic amounts of the image, but since the estimation is based on such an assumption that the sharpness, luminance and saturation of the object in the front of the screen are high, the estimation is not necessarily performed in a correct manner. Thus, an incorrect retinal image difference is given to the object having the incorrect depth estimation, thereby resulting in the arrangement in an incorrect position.
The image conversion apparatus as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2005-151534 is configured to allow the structure of the image to be adapted for a simple and limitative structure and suppresses generation of unnatural depth. However, all the related art techniques as described above have the following common problem. That is, a relatively large retinal image difference is generated in the generated binocular disparity image, and the binocular disparity image is three dimensionally displayed using a three-dimensional display apparatus. In general, such a three-dimensional display apparatus is used that the image is observed using special glasses for stereopsis, such as a passive eyeglass-type in which an image is divided through a polarization filter, or a color filter to be observed by the left eye and the right eye or an active eyeglass type in which an image is temporally divided from side to side through a liquid crystal shutter.
When viewing the binocular disparity image having the large retinal image difference, an observer can perceive the stereoscopic effect depending on the retinal image difference with such glasses for stereopsis. However, when viewing the screen without the glasses, the observer comes to view double images in which the left eye image and the right eye image overlap with each other by a large amount and does not view the images as a normal two-dimensional image. That is, the image converted through these related art image conversion apparatuses can be viewed only with the glasses.
Further, the large retinal image difference may affect fatigue of the observer. For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 6-194602 discloses that in a case where the left eye image and the right eye image are each shifted by a large amount, a discrepancy occurs between control of the angle of convergence and adjustment of the lens in a view direction in the real world, so that the discrepancy leads to fatigue in stereopsis using the binocular disparity.
Further, in the image conversion apparatuses as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication Nos. 10-51812, 2000-209614 and 2005-151534, the pseudo-depth is estimated from the image, but it is difficult to detect a detailed depth from a single image. For example, in the case of minute structures such as branches of trees, electric cables or hairs, the depth estimation is not easy. Thus, it is difficult to obtain the stereoscopic effect for minute objects.
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Power management systems for personal computers, in particular for laptop computers are well known in the art. For example, a power management system within a laptop computer monitors the activity of the computer. In case no operations take place, for example no mouse activity and no keyboard activity is detected for a predefined period, a power management system starts a power reducing routine also known as a suspend routine. During the suspend routine a plurality of measurements are taken to save energy. For example, the processor clock speed is slowed down, the hard disk is spun down, not needed peripherals are shut down, a LCD display is turned off, etc. Different stages of low power modes are known. For example, different timings can be set for different devices within the laptop computer system. The display can be turned off after a first time period, whereas the hard disk is spun down after a longer second time period. Many varieties of these low power modes are known in the art. The final low power mode is usually a deep sleep mode in which most of the system components are either shut down completely or put in the lowest possible power consumption mode.
To re-activate a computer system some activity, such as pressing a key, moving a mouse, etc. by a user is necessary. The power management system then restarts the computer and puts the different system components into the same status they had before the suspend routine has been executed. This is called the resume routine. To be able to activate all necessary system components often significant time is necessary. These time periods add up and prevent a instant recovery of the system. Conventional methods of reducing the resume delays is to try to minimize how long each of the resume tasks will take, e.g. reducing the effect of hard disk spin up time by issuing the spin-up command as early as possible. However, the combined time used by the resume routine still adds up and causes significant delays for a user.
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The cold forging of a tubular member into an annular member such as a well hanger or a connector has been known in the past. The cold forging has also been used to form a tubular member into an annular connector in a remote location, such as in a subsea pipeline repair. This is shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,432,916 and 4,330,144. U.S. Pat. No. 4,662,663 discloses the use of pressure compensating material between the two members being cold formed and such material prevents the buildup of pressure which would prevent the proper completion of the cold forming.
A tool previously used in this type of cold forging process is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,388,752. This tool includes an alloy shaft having a shoulder on one end and a ring surrounding the other end and a rubber tube expansion element surrounding the shaft with annular nylon rings engaging the ends of the rubber expansion element and alloy rings supporting the exterior of each of the nylon rings. The radial force is developed by the tool response to longitudinal forced exerted on the expansion element. The nylon rings are provided to prevent extrusion of the rubber expansion element.
Other tools have been suggested which include a resilient tubular member which is exposed to hydraulic pressure internally and secured at its ends and is allowed to exert outward radial forces to cold forge a tubular member into the interior of an annular member.
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a machine tool capable of diagnosing the abnormality of a speed reducer used in a tool changer thereof having a tool magazine.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a method for diagnosing the abnormality of a speed reducer, there has been known a method in which a sensor is installed at a diagnosis target part and the abnormality of the speed reducer is diagnosed based on information from the sensor. According to this method, detection of an abnormality is made after the abnormality occurred, so abnormality prediction is not possible. Further, as a method for predicting abnormality, there has been known a method in which a vibration pattern is detected by a vibration sensor and the vibration pattern is compared with a normal vibration pattern to predict the abnormality in advance (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. H5-52712). However, since noise is contained in a signal from the sensor, the method cannot clearly distinguish between normality and abnormality.
Furthermore, as a method and an apparatus for predicting the abnormality of a speed reducer, there have been known a speed reducer abnormality diagnosis method and a diagnosis apparatus in which disturbance torque is estimated by an observer based on the torque command and the speed feedback of a motor, time-series data on the estimated disturbance torque is subjected to frequency analysis in order to extract a specific spectrum corresponding to a constant multiple of the rotational frequency of the intermediate element of the speed reducer, and abnormality is determined when the amplitude of the specific spectrum exceeds a threshold (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2008-32477). In the method, with no noise being contained in data, the abnormality of the speed reducer can be accurately diagnosed.
With the above speed reducer abnormality diagnosis method in which disturbance torque is estimated by the observer and the abnormality of the speed reducer is detected based on the estimated disturbance torque, it is possible to accurately predict the abnormality of the speed reducer. However, in a case in which the method is applied to a speed reducer used to rotate a tool magazine in the tool changer of a machine tool, inertia on the output side of the speed reducer changes, which results in a change in disturbance torque when tools are replaced. Therefore, the method has a problem with accurately diagnosing the speed reducer when the tools are replaced.
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of digital imaging. More specifically, the present invention relates to the generation and provision of still images.
2. Background Information
In recent years, continuing advances in computing and communication technology have dramatically improved the affordability of high performance computing/communication devices. Increasingly, these relatively low cost high performance computing/communication devices are being used to conduct video communication, e.g. video telephony. Typically, the video communication are conducted over a low bit rate connection, e.g. a standard telephone connection. Due to the bandwidth constraints of the low bit rate connection, the video images exchanged between the communication endpoints are not of the highest quality. Reference is made to International Telecommunication Union - Telecommunication Standardization Section (ITU-T) Recommendation H.324, entitled "Terminal for low bit rate multimedia communication" (currently in draft form).
Nevertheless, quite often, a participant to a video communication will find it desirable to take a snap shot of the remote video images, i.e. to obtain a still image. Under the prior art, because the remote video images received are not of the highest quality, the snap shot or the still image obtained will not be of the highest quality either.sup.1. Such snap shots are especially inferior, when compared with still images generated and sent in accordance with any one of a number of still image techniques or standards known in the art. Typically, these higher quality still images are generated using specialized image generation software, and exchanged over a data link between the communication devices. Reference is made to the ITU-T Recommendation T.81, entitled "Information technology--Digital compression and coding of continuous-tone still images--Requirements and guidelines", and Recommendation T.84, entitled "Information technology--Digital compression and coding of continuous-tone still images--Extensions". FNT .sup.1 Note that it is the recipient of the remote video images who is taking the snap shots or generating the still images.
Thus, under the prior art, if high quality snap shots or still images are desired, the video communication must be conducted over a much higher bit rate connection to facilitate the provision of better video images, which means high speed connections such as T1 or Integrated Service Digital Network (ISDN) lines, as standard telephone connections are unable to meet the high bandwidth requirement, or in the alternative, separate image generation software and data link, in addition to the video communication software and video link, must be employed.
Therefore, it is desirable to have a more efficient and effective way for generating high quality "snap shots" of video images.
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(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an appliance support for use by service technicians in assembly or repair work on appliances.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
U.S. Pat. No. 4,674,731 (June 1987) to Stellato proposed a device to tilt the appliance forward, however the device attached to the back of the appliance where the technician was trying to work. The device wound up getting in the way as discussed in Stellato's second U.S. Pat. No. 4,901,989 (February 1990). This device was unnecessarily complicated and did not provide for multiple servicing positions. To be used by service people the appliance support must be simple, effective and light weight.
As will be seen from the subsequent description of the embodiments of the present invention, the shortcomings of the prior art are overcome.
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The present invention relates to microdialysis probes, in particular a microdialysis probe for measuring the concentration of a dissolved substance in a tissue.
Microdialysis probes generally comprise a probe body and an injection needle as probe needle for introduction into, for example, a human or animal tissue, the probe needle being completely surrounded by the tissue. The probe needle comprises an inlet line (or conduit) and an outlet line for a perfusion solution. Moreover, in one area of the line for the perfusion solution, a dialysis membrane is arranged to be in contact with the tissue environment. Between the tissue environment and the perfusion solution, the concentration of permeable substances dissolved in the tissue is equalized along the membrane surface.
Conventional microdialysis probes typically have, for example, a coaxial structure. Two hollow cylinders are arranged one inside the other, the inner hollow cylinder serving as an inlet line for the perfusion solution which, at a transition area in a distal end portion of the probe needle, passes into the area between the inner cylinder and the outer cylinder and is conveyed back within this annular channel. The dialysis membrane can, for example, be arranged in a front area where the perfusion solution turns back or, alternatively, it can form part of the outer hollow cylinder. Microdialysis probes of this type have the disadvantage that the perfusion solution comes into contact with the tissue environment only across a small membrane surface and, at most, across the length of the probe needle, and that a membrane hollow fiber acting as outer cylinder is exposed to the pressure of the tissue, and the outlet line can therefore become blocked. Moreover, in the case of a short probe needle, there is often not enough time left to obtain a complete concentration equalization. By contrast, a long probe needle is unpleasant for the user. With a straight return of the perfusion solution, the flow velocity is too high to permit all of the desired concentration equalization.
DE 199 37 099 A1 discloses microdialysis probes in which the inlet line and outlet line for a perfusion solution are arranged next to one another. For this purpose, two mutually adjacent tubes, for example, are provided which have a flow transfer area for the perfusion solution. It is also possible to arrange, inside a microdialysis membrane in the form of a hollow fiber, a support structure which divides the hollow fiber into different hollow channels, again with the possibility of a flow transfer between the channels being provided. Here too, the inlet line and outlet line have a straight course, with the result that concentration equalization is, in some cases, not optimal.
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An interconnector line of thin film used as a gate line and a source electrode bus-line for a TFT drive type LCD is generally produced by a sputtering method. As materials for such an interconnector line of thin film, Cr, Ti, Mo, Mo--Ta and the like have been used. But, with the enlargement of an LCD screen size, a low-resistance interconnector line of thin film is being needed. For example, a large LCD of 10 inches or more is required to have a low resistant interconnector line of 10 .mu..OMEGA.cm or below. Accordingly, a low-resistance Al is attracting attention as an interconnector line of thin film for a gate line, a signal line and the like.
With the Al interconnector line of thin film, low-resistance interconnector line can be achieved, but the Al interconnector line of thin film has a problem of having protrusions called hillocks due to heating at about 473 to 773K by a heat treatment and a CVD process after interconnector line. In a process of releasing a stress of the Al film involved in heating, Al atoms spread along, for example, grain boundaries. Protrusions (hillocks) are caused involved in the spreading of Al atoms. When the protrusions are formed on the Al interconnector line, an adverse effect is caused in the subsequent process.
Therefore, it is attempted to add a very small amount of metallic elements, e.g., Fe, Co, Ni, Ru, Rh and Ir or rare earth metallic elements such as Y, La and Nd (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. Hei 7-45555). Specifically, an Al interconnector line of thin film is formed using an Al target having a very small amount of such metallic elements added. The above-described metallic elements form an intermetallic compound in cooperation with Al and function as a trap material for Al. Thus, the above-described hillocks can be restrained from being occurred.
And, where the Al interconnector line is applied to source electrode bus-lines of the LCD, the Al interconnector line is stacked with an ITO electrode. When the stacked film of the Al interconnector line and the ITO electrode is immersed in an alkali solution such as a developing solution used in a patterning process, an electrochemical reaction is caused at portions where the Al interconnector line and the ITO electrode are directly contacted. The electrochemical reaction between the Al interconnector line and the ITO electrode is caused because the standard electrode potential of Al is lower than that of the ITO. Electrons are moved between the Al interconnector line and the ITO electrode due to the electrochemical reaction, resulting in a problem that the ITO electrode is colored (e.g., blackening) by being reduced and the Al interconnector line is conversely oxidized to lower electrical characteristics.
In connection with the problem due to the electrochemical reaction between the Al interconnector line and the ITO electrode described above, it is also studied to add various types of metallic elements to the Al interconnector line. In such a case, the Al target with an very small amount of metallic elements added is also used to form the Al interconnector line of thin film containing a very small amount of metallic elements.
However, the above-described Al interconnector line of thin film containing a very small amount of metallic elements suppress the diffusion of Al and the electrochemical reaction with the ITO electrode, but there are problems that the produced intermetallic compound and the added metallic elements cause an adverse effect on the etching property and sputtering property of the Al interconnector line.
Specifically, when dry etching such as CDE (chemical dry etching) and RIE (reactive ion etching) or wet etching is made on the above-described Al interconnector line of thin film, a lot of undissolved remains called residues are produced, causing a serious difficulty in forming an interconnector line network. The added metallic elements and the produced intermetallic compounds are the causes of the residues after etching as described above. And, the Al target containing the metallic elements described above causes a large amount of dust while sputtering, causing a difficulty in forming a good and fine interconnector line network.
Therefore, in the Al target and Al interconnector line of thin film used to form low-resistance interconnector line, it is a subject to restrain the occurrence of residues in etching and the occurrence of dust in sputtering in addition to suppression of the occurrence of hillocks due to the diffusion of Al and the electrochemical reaction with the ITO electrode.
And, in connection with the suppression of the electrochemical reaction between the Al interconnector line and the ITO electrode, it is desired to improve an effect upon reducing the added amount of electrical elements. The electrochemical reaction between the Al interconnector line and the ITO electrode is also studied to be suppressed by having a stacked structure of the Al interconnector line and an Mo film or the like. But, such a stacked film involves a complex LCD structure and a high cost, so that it is desired to suppress the electrochemical reaction with the ITO electrode by the Al interconnector line having a single layered structure.
The above-described subject is not limited to the Al interconnector line of thin film used for the gate line and signal line of the LCD. For example, where the Al interconnector line is applied to a typical semiconductor device such as VLSI and ULSI, electromigration is a problem. The above-described metallic elements have an effect to suppress the electromigration (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. Sho 62-228446 and Japanese Patent Publication No. Hei 4-48854), but there is a problem that residues are caused in etching and dust is caused in sputtering as in the case of the LCD. And, the above-described subject is also an issue in a surface acoustic wave apparatus such as a surface acoustic wave oscillator (SAW), an electronic part using SAW (SAW device), or interconnector line and electrodes for a thermal printer head (TPH).
An object of the invention is to provide a low-resistance interconnector line of thin film with the occurrence of hillocks and etching residues prevented and a sputter target which can form the interconnector line of thin film with good reproducibility with the occurrence of dust in sputtering suppressed. Another object of the invention is to provide a low-resistance interconnector line of thin film which has the electrochemical reaction with the ITO or the like and the occurrence of the etching residues prevented and a sputter target with the occurrence of dust in sputtering suppressed. Besides, it aims to provide an electronic part using such a interconnector line of thin film.
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1. Field
The following description relates to a method of manufacturing a polycrystalline silicon layer, a method of manufacturing an organic light-emitting display apparatus including the same, and an organic light-emitting display apparatus manufactured by using the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
An active matrix (AM) type organic light-emitting display apparatus includes a pixel driving circuit in each pixel, and the pixel driving circuit includes a thin film transistor (TFT) using silicon. The TFT may be formed of amorphous silicon or polycrystalline silicon.
Since a semiconductor active layer having a source, a drain, and a channel is formed of amorphous silicon (a-Si), an a-Si TFT used in the pixel driving circuit has a low electron mobility of 1 cm2/Vs or less. Therefore, the a-Si TFT has been recently replaced with a polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) TFT. The poly-Si TFT has a higher electron mobility and a safer light illumination than the a-Si TFT. Therefore, the poly-Si TFT is appropriate to drive an AM type organic light-emitting display apparatus and/or to be used as an active layer of a switching TFT.
The poly-Si may be manufactured according to several methods. These methods can be generally classified as either a method of depositing poly-Si or a method of depositing and crystallizing a-Si.
Examples of the method of depositing the poly-Si include chemical vapor deposition (CVD), photo CVD, hydrogen radial (HR) CVD, electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) CVD, plasma enhanced (PE) CVD, low pressure (LP) CVD, etc.
Examples of the method of depositing and crystallizing the a-Si include solid phase crystallization (SPC), an excimer laser crystallization (ELC), metal induced crystallization (MIC), sequential lateral solidification (SLS), etc.
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{
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The present invention relates to a muffler, especially for an internal combustion engine of a chain saw, comprising a primary and a secondary chamber through which exhaust gases from the engine in turn flow.
In hand-held power-driven tools such as chain saws it is essential that weight can be kept as low as possible. It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a muffler having a reduced weight. Another object is to provide a muffler with improved acoustic properties.
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A sliding bearing formed cylindrically by abutting a pair of half bearings to each other and provided with a chamfered part and a crush relief on an inner peripheral portion of a joining surface of each of the half bearings is known (See FIG. 6). In a sliding bearing provided with a crush relief such as a notch part, as illustrated in FIG. 6, when lubricant oil is supplied from an oil hole in a crank shaft, foreign substances mixed in the lubricant oil are caught by the crush relief and then discharged to the outside through the crush relief or openings on side parts on the chamfered part.
Sliding bearings in which foreign-substance discharge grooves are formed at required spots on a sliding surface in order to catch and discharge the foreign substances mixed in the lubricant oil to the outside have been proposed (See Patent Literatures 1 to 3, for example).
In the sliding bearing in Patent Literature 1, an oil groove is provided over the whole region in the circumferential direction on the sliding surface of the lower half bearing, and a pair of foreign-substance discharge grooves opened in the end faces in the axial direction of the half bearing is formed by branching the oil groove.
Also, the sliding bearing in Patent Literature 2 is formed by pivotally supporting a rotary shaft by a plurality of arc-shaped pads, a T-shaped groove for catching the foreign substances is formed on the sliding surface of each of the arc-shaped pads, and a magnet is installed on the bottom part of the axial grooves in a T-shaped groove. The magnet adsorbs and catches the foreign substances in the axial groove.
Moreover, in the sliding bearing in Patent Literature 3, a plurality of linear foreign-substance discharge grooves are formed in the axial direction in the vicinity of an joining surface in the lower half bearing.
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to combination mat and carrying bag units.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Numerous attempts have been made to design devices which alternatively function as a utility bag or a beach mat. The prior devices in this field have been unnecessarily complex, however. The purpose of such devices is to provide a mat for use at the beach or for exercising which can be transformed into a carrying bag for articles which the user desires to transport, such as towels, suntan lotion, sun glasses, exercise clothes or the like. Examples of such devices include those shown in the following U.S. patents:
______________________________________ U.S. Pat. No. Patentee Issue Date ______________________________________ D258,035 Fenwick 01/27/81 4,197,891 Comollo 04/15/80 4,164,275 Davis 08/14/79 3,976,113 Kim 08/24/76 ______________________________________
The Fenwick patent is a design patent for beach blanket with storage pocket. For transport, the blanket is apparently folded or rolled with a pair of tie strings used to secure the blanket in a closed position. The Comollo patent discloses a device which is folded for transport. Handles protrude from this device, both when folded and when unfolded. The Davis patent shows a device in which a beach mat is rolled up for transport and which has a small drawstring arrangement at each end of the mat when rolled for securing the mat in its rolled position. Articles to be carried are apparently stuffed into the rolls of the device, and the device has handles for carrying it during transport. The device shown in the Kim patent employs a relatively complex arrangement of zippers to transform the device from a bag to a blanket. This device has detachable handles for use when it is formed as a tote bag.
All of these prior combination mat and carrying bag devices have handles or fastening means which necessarily form a part of the interior of the mat when the device is used as a mat. For example, the Kim device has zippers which cross the interior of the mat, the Comollo and Davis device have handles which lie in the interior of the mat and the Fenwick device has a storage pocket and tie strings which impinge upon the interior of the mat when laid out for use at the beach or exercise. The means for changing these devices from mats into a carrying bags (and vice versa) are also unnecessarily cumbersome. Additionally, much of the potential volume of the carrying bags of these devices is lost due to the manner in which the mat is transformed into a carrying bag.
The combination mat and carrying bag unit of the present invention overcomes all of the stated disadvantages of the prior art. The present invention is quite simple, has no handles or other portions which impinge upon the interior of the unit when it defines a mat, is easy to change from a mat to a bag or vice versa and, by design, maximizes the potential volume of the carrying bag.
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a battery device used as a portable power source, an electronic apparatus in which the battery device is detachably mounted and used, and a battery system including a combination of the electronic apparatus with the battery device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2000-243365 discloses an example of a battery device of the related art as a portable power source. Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2000-243365 discloses a battery pack in which a rechargeable battery cell used as a power source for an electronic apparatus is stored; a battery mounting device on which the battery pack is mounted; and an electronic apparatus including a battery mounting mechanism on which the battery pack is mounted. The battery pack disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2000-243365 includes “a battery cell; a case in which the battery cell is stored; an output terminal which is provided in the case and outputs power of the battery cell; and a second surface of the case which is provided continuously with a first surface of the case having the output terminal and provided approximately perpendicular to the first surface, where a recess is formed with a plurality of steps in an approximate center of the second surface”.
It may be expected that the battery pack having such a configuration may be prevented from being inappropriately mounted on a battery mounting device which is supposed to be incompatible (paragraph [0161] of the specification), for example.
Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Application Publication No. 2005-190929 discloses another example of a battery device of the related art. Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Application Publication No. 2005-190929 discloses a battery device and an electronic apparatus operated using the battery device. The battery device disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Application Publication No. 2005-190929 includes “a case having a width, a thickness, and a length; a rechargeable battery provided in the case; and a battery side terminal provided on a surface of the case and connected to the rechargeable battery, where the battery device is inserted in the length direction into a battery housing chamber of an electronic apparatus and the battery side terminal is connected to a housing chamber side terminal of the battery housing chamber. A guide groove is formed in each side of the case in the crosswise direction, where the guide groove extends in the length direction and is engaged with a protrusion provided in the battery housing chamber to position the case in the thickness direction in the battery housing chamber”.
According to the battery device having such a configuration, it may be expected that “since a guide groove is formed in each side of the case in the crosswise direction of the battery device, where the guide groove extends in the length direction and is engaged with a protrusion provided in the battery housing chamber to position the case in the thickness direction in the battery housing chamber, it is possible to store, in the battery housing chamber, multiple types of battery devices different in thickness of the case, that is, different in volume” (paragraph [0005] of the specification).
However, in the battery device disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2000-243365, a recess formed with a plurality of steps is provided in an approximate center of a rear surface of the case in which the battery cell is stored, and a protrusion corresponding to a shape of the recess is provided in a mounting portion of the electronic apparatus in which the battery device is mounted, in order to discriminate a type of the battery device. As a result, when a new battery device is developed, it may be necessary to increase the number of the steps in the recess of the battery device and provide a protrusion corresponding to the recess in the mounting portion of the electronic apparatus, and thus the recess of the battery device and the protrusion of the mounting portion have complicated shapes.
Further, each of the battery devices disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2000-243365 and Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2005-190929 is formed as an exclusive component that may be mounted only on a mounting portion having a specific configuration of an electronic apparatus. Accordingly, one battery device may be mounted on an electronic apparatus having a mounting portion corresponding to the battery device, and a battery device corresponding to the electronic apparatus may separately be prepared for another type of an electronic apparatus including a mounting portion having a different mounting structure.
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a clutch hydraulic system for a vehicle and to hydraulic system.
2. Description of Background Art
As a clutch hydraulic system for a vehicle and hydraulic system according to the existing art, a system is known that includes two hydraulic systems for connecting and disconnecting an automotive clutch. See, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-open No. Hei 8-296670.
FIG. 1 of Japanese Patent Laid-open No. Hei 8-296670 will be described as follows.
Of the two hydraulic systems, one is a system for operating a master cylinder 5 by a clutch pedal 7, and the other is a system for operating a sub master cylinder 12 by a power cylinder 14. The master cylinder 5 and the sub master cylinder 12 are connected to a release cylinder 3 through a three-port valve 20, and the release cylinder 3 is connected to a clutch 1.
The master cylinder 5 is fitted with oil supplier 6, and the sub master cylinder 12 is fitted with oil supplier 13.
While the oil suppliers (reservoir tanks) 6, 13 are provided respectively in the two hydraulic systems mentioned above, it is necessary to provide the oil suppliers 6, 13 at the highest position in the hydraulic system for the purpose of supplying each of the hydraulic systems with oil, so that a plurality of layout spaces must be secured at the highest site in the hydraulic system for the purpose of arranging the plurality of oil suppliers 6, 13, resulting in that the degree of freedom in designing a clutch control system is reduced. In addition, the arrangement of the two oil suppliers 6, 13 leads to a rise in cost.
Furthermore, since the oil passages of the two systems are changed over by the three-port valve 20, the need to disconnect the clutch 1 by the clutch pedal 7 in the condition where, for example, the clutch 1 is disconnected by the power cylinder 14 cannot be fulfilled. In other words, the two hydraulic systems cannot be operated independently.
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The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing garments and to the use of temporary adhesives in methods of manufacturing garments.
Outerwear garments such as jackets are usually multi-layer garments. For example, a garment can comprise an outer-fabric, interlining, canvas, felt and innerlining.
It is preferable to be able to hold the layers together during manufacture, to allow stitching and then to be able to separate the layers during and/or after manufacture to loosen linings and give the garment a bespoke appearance. Preferably, in a finished garment the outer-fabric should float freely from the interlining to give the same surface effect over the entire garment.
Attempts have been made to temporarily bind the layers of a garment during manufacture. In the past it was necessary to position interlinings against the outer-fabrics by baste stitching them prior to lashing them to various points within the garment.
With advances in adhesive technology attempts have been made to temporarily position interlings by means of an adhesive which is capable of being removed in water washing or drycleaning processes introducing solvents. Use of adhesives in the manufacture of garments has identified problems in that it is difficult to remove adhesive residues from within fine layers. Other problems include uneven delamination and differential shrinkage in solvents.
The present invention aims to provide an improved method for manufacturing a garment using temporary fusible adhesives.
According to the present invention there is provided a method for manufacturing a multi-layered garment comprising the steps of aligning layers where at least one layer is coated with a temporarily fusible adhesive, fusing layers, carrying out at least one conventional manufacturing step, applying heat or a combination of heat and pressure to dissipate adhesive, wherein the adhesive is a low molecular weight adhesive which exhibits a rapid decrease in viscosity upon heating.
Low molecular weight adhesives have molecule weights of less than 5000, more preferably less than 3000, and most preferably less than 1500.
Herein the term multi-layer garment means that there are at least two layers of fabric in one part of a garment when finished.
Preferably the step of applying heat comprises steam pressing the fused fabrics or finished garment.
Preferably at least one layer of the multi-layer garment comprises an interlining base fabric. Suitably the interlining base fabric is chosen from the group comprising a woven canvas, twill, weft insert, condenser fabric or a nonwoven obtainable form textile companies such as William Clark and Sons Ltd.
Preferably the temporary fusible adhesive is coated on the interlining base fabric.
Preferably the fusing step takes place at a temperature of between 40 and 90xc2x0 C. More preferably the temperature is between 55 and 70xc2x0 C. Suitably the fusing step can take between 3 and 30 seconds. This time is dependent on the weight of the fabrics and their moisture content, the adhesive and temperature.
Typically, fusing is carried out by hand iron or on an electrically controlled continuous fusing press using line pressures to the compression rollers of between 40 and 80 psi.
The conventional manufacturing steps may include, for example, formation of darts and/or seams to facilitate shaping of the garment.
In a preferred embodiment the adhesive exhibits rapid decreases in viscosity upon heating to temperatures of between 100xc2x0 C. and 150xc2x0 C.
The advantage of using a low molecular weight adhesive which exhibits a rapid decrease in viscosity upon heating is that the adhesive will flow away from the glue line, mainly and preferably into the base fabric of the interlining.
Preferably the method comprises the step of applying heat in the presence of a vacuum. This causes the interlining to detach itself from the outer fabric.
The invention also provides the use of a temporary fusible adhesive in garment manufacture when the adhesive is a low molecular weight adhesive which exhibits a rapid decrease in viscosity upon heating.
Preferably the adhesive is applied in a regular coating pattern.
In one embodiment between 0.2 mm to 0.55 mm diameter dots of adhesive are applied in a regular pattern with about 6 to 12 dots per 2.5 cm. Suitably the dots are applied via a screen.
Preferably the diameter of the dots are 0.35 mm and ten dots are applied per 2.5 cm.
In an alternative embodiment the adhesive is applied as 45xc2x0 slanting slits. Suitably the width of each slit is 0.35 mm and the length of each slit is 3.5 mm. The number of slits per 2.5 cm is 5. The slits may be angled between 0xc2x0 and 90xc2x0. Slit width may be between 0.2 and 0.5 mm and slit length may be between 2 and 5 mm. The slits can alternate in diration.
In yet another embodiment the adhesive is applied in slits which are arranged longitudinally in line with the direction of the run of threads in a fabric.
Suitable resins for use in the method according to the present invention include resin-based adhesives having low molecular weight and a minimum of molecular entanglement.
Such resins include resins made from natural products i.e. rosin derivatives, polymerised rosin, ester gums, terpenes, rosin acids, shellacs. Also, synthetic resins for example ketone and hydrocarbon resins, coumarone inderie and low molecular weight polystyrene resin may be used. Synthetic resin blends such as low molecular ethylene vinyl acetate copolymer and wax blends may also be used.
Preferably the adhesive is applied as an emulsion. Preferably the emulsion comprises resin in water.
Suitably the emulsion can comprise additives chosen from the group comprising viscosity modifiers, plasticisers, optical bleaching agents and humectants.
Preferably the emulsions are print coated through a rotary screen onto base fabrics and dried to form heat sealable resins with melt temperatures between 55-90xc2x0 C.
Accordingly, the invention provides base fabrics coated with heat sealable resins with melt temperatures between 55-90xc2x0 C.
Alternatively, the low molecular weighs resins may be applied to interlining base fabrics by printing as a hot melt.
Preferably the application equipment and printing screen are heated to prevent the hot melt from solidifying before it is printed on to the base fabric.
An advantage of this method is that no further heat is required once the dot has been printed onto the base cloth. The main disadvantage is that large volumes of the low melting range resin has to be heated and kept in a molten state and oxidation and degradation can occur.
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The use of cable-drawn scrapers or scraping apparatus has also been suggested, in which one or more cables pull a wagon or sledge which holds the scraper at or near the bottom of the basin in a repeating to-and-fro motion. (SE-B-423 968; U.S. Pat. No. 2,866,557; U.S. Pat. No. 2,768,749; U.S. Pat. No. 4,090,966; GB-A-1 504 518). The technology is an improvement over the state of the art concerning chain-driven scrapers, in that it has a significantly simpler, lighter and cheaper construction. Meanwhile, the system means that different equipment must be used to turn the scraper blade and control its rotation from a vertical to a horizontal position and vice versa under the reciprocating movement caused by the cables. The scraper blade, which comprises a metal blade which is arranged with its edge in the transport direction and most often is provided with a rubber edging strip, extends across the width of the basin, at right angles to the direction of transport. Under the reciprocating movement of the scraper blade, the slurry is stirred up, however, to give so-called sludge escape, due to turbulence building up behind the blade and maximum efficiency cannot therefore be reached. The loads on the apparatus also mean that it must be made of metal, and to prevent corrosion from eating away the apparatus too quickly, it must be manufactured in a more acid-resistant material, which increases costs.
An apparatus in a sedimentation basin and the like for displacement of slurry and sediment collected on the bottom of the basin is known from SE-C-454,140, in which transport means is arranged to be moved back and forth near the bottom of the basin, whereby slurry and sediment is displaced by the reciprocating movement to one end of the basin, whereby the transporter consists of a mat comprising means with a wedge-shaped triangular cross-section, said means being arranged substantially perpendicular to the direction of travel of the transporter, and the point of the wedge is arranged in the return direction while the base of the wedge is arranged in the forward direction.
A transport element of a reciprocating scraper is also known from EP-B-O 532 484 for moving slurry in sedimentation basins and the similar objects in water purification plants, said element having a cross-section which has a downwardly-facing surface, a substantially curved convex surface and a substantially vertical concave surface, said concave surface being arranged in the forward, transporting direction.
All transport of slurry takes place with these elements placed in a perpendicular relationship to the longitudinal direction of the transporter, either a chain, net or rod move over the bottom of the sedimentation basin, whereby the chain moves continuously in one direction, and the net and rod move back and forth.
Previous transport elements have always been welded to longitudinally directed draw track, net and the similar on the top of these, which welding on one hand requires special training for the authorization of personal skilled in welding, and on the other hand creates tensions between the different materials, which leads to the fact that the transporting element bends and thereby carry out a less efficient transport. Often layers of sludge are built up underneath the transporting element, which sludge will not become transported but will become compressed and lifts the whole scraping transporter.
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Directory assistance and enhanced operator services systems are capable of providing information in response to a caller's request through automation or via a human operator. In an effort to review operator performance and improve service quality, the interaction between operators and callers is often monitored by a third party. Unfortunately, existing monitoring techniques require a series of connections in a switching fabric of a telephony switch to effectively connect the monitor, caller, and operator to the same call to allow the monitor to listen to the interaction between the caller and the operator. The additional resources required for monitoring generally include additional conference or bridging circuits to effectively connect each party to the call. This use of these additional resources not only imposes expensive inefficiencies in monitoring techniques, but also degrades speech quality due to the need to run the connection through additional resources. There is also excessive control overhead associated with controlling each of the required resources for monitoring. Accordingly, there is a need for a more efficient technique for monitoring operator services.
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Patent literature 1 discloses a signal indicator light formed in a columnar shape which is long in a vertical direction. The signal indicator light includes a plurality of indicator units arranged along the vertical direction and a sound notification unit. An opening portion is formed in a side surface of a cylindrical case of the sound notification unit. A cylindrical portion extending in a horizontal direction is directed inside of the cylindrical case in the opening portion. A lid with an amplification throat portion is attached to this cylindrical portion. A communicating hole is formed vertically downward on an upper portion of an inner wall surface of the cylindrical portion. At an upper side of the communicating hole in the cylindrical case, a sound source installation portion which is a space for housing a speaker and its mounting substrate is formed. Sound waves generated from the speaker advance from the communicating hole to the amplification throat portion and diffuse from the opening portion toward the outside of the sound notification unit.
Patent literature 2 discloses an electric device including a housing with a substantially annular mounting portion for mounting a piezoelectric sounder on an inner surface of the housing. A sound emission hole penetrating the housing is formed at a substantially central position of the mounting portion. A piezoelectric vibrating plate constituting a piezoelectric sounder is attached to the mounting portion via an annular spacer. An empty chamber is formed by the piezoelectric vibrating plate, the spacer, the mounting portion, and the housing. Sound emitted by the piezoelectric vibrating plate is resonated in the empty chamber and is transmitted to the outside from the sound emission hole.
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In an optical communication system, it is important to detect a trouble such as a damage of an optical fiber line or an increase in the transmission loss. Particularly, in a subscriber optical communication system, the point of the trouble must quickly be detected and restored when a trouble such as breakage or increase of the transmission loss occurs in an optical fiber line or optical network unit. The use of so-called Passive Optical Network (PON) system has recently been spreading in the subscriber optical communication system. In the PON system, the connection between a central office and subscribers are made using a first optical fiber line extending from the central office, optical splitters, and a plurality of branched second optical fiber lines. This helps to decrease the cost incurred per subscriber with respect to the first optical fiber line and optical line terminals installed in the central office.
To detect the above-mentioned troubles in an optical communication system, a remote fiber test system is generally provided. A known remote fiber test system is, for example, the system described in Y. Enomoto et al.: J. Optical Networking, vol. 6 (2007) 408 (Non-patent literature 1). This remote fiber test system consists of optical fiber line test equipment, a reflection filter provided in an optical fiber line, and information on installation such as the position of installed reflection filters, etc.
The optical fiber line test equipment, which utilizes a reflectometry technique, detects the position of a fault on the basis of features such as peaks and level differences in the reflectance distribution of an object under measurement such as an optical fiber line. (In this specification, the “reflected light” means Fresnel reflected light and Rayleigh scattered light, unless otherwise specified in particular.) In the PON system, it is necessary to receive reflected light from a plurality of second optical fiber lines at the same time and to detect the respective features of the reflectance distributions by distinguishing each second optical fiber line. Therefore, it is required that the optical fiber line test equipment be capable of measuring reflectance distributions with high spatial resolution.
A known reflectometry technique is Optical Time Domain Reflectometry (OTDR) for measuring reflectance distributions based on temporal variation in the intensity of reflected light that occurs when pulsed probe light propagates through an object under measurement. To obtain a high spatial resolution with the OTDR, it is necessary to make the pulse width of the probe light to be narrow. Also, it is necessary to increase the power of the probe light so as to compensate for the decrease in the signal to noise ratio (SNR) due to decrease in the energy of the probe light. However, if the power of the probe light is increased, the degradation of measurement performance and the interference in the communication signal will occur because of a nonlinear optical phenomenon such as stimulated Brillouin scattering in the object under measurement. Therefore, in the OTDR, the spatial resolution is limited to about several meters.
Another known reflectometry technique is Optical Coherence Domain Reflectometry (OCDR) (For example, K. Hotate and Z. He: J. Lightw. Technol., vol. 24 (2006) 2541 (Non-patent literature 2), T. Saida and K. Hotate: IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett., vol. 10 (1998) 573 (Non-patent literature 3), Z. He and K. Hotate: J. Lightw. Technol., vol. 20 (2002) 1715 (Non-patent literature 4)). In the OCDR, the reflectance at a specific position in an object under measurement is measured by utilizing the principle that the magnitude of interference between reflected light, which occurs when probe light having a comb-shaped optical coherence function due to modulation of light frequency travels through the object under measurement, and reference light, which is a branched part of the probe light, depends on difference in the delay time between the reflected light and the reference light. Moreover, in the OCDR, the reflectance distribution of the object under measurement is sought, changing the position of reflectance measurement by altering the interval of the light frequency modulation in the probe light, or the like. With the OCDR, a higher spatial resolution can be obtained as compared with the OTDR. In Non-patent literature 2, for example, it is shown that the reflection point located at a distance of 5 km can be measured with a spatial resolution of 19 cm.
The optical coherence function is such that the autocorrelation function V(t)V*(t−τ) of an electric field V(t) of the light that is a function of time t as a variable is normalized with the light intensity and also the Fourier transform of optical power spectrum normalized with the light intensity. When light of electric field V(t) is split into two and the delay time difference between these two split light is τ, the magnitude of the interference fringe of these two split light is represented by the real part of the optical coherence function of the light. Also, the absolute value of the optical coherence function is called a degree of coherence, and shows the magnitude of the interference.
Probe light used in the OCDR is, for example, light in which the light frequency is modulated at constant time intervals in a manner such as in the order of f0, f0+fs, f0−fs, f0+2 fs, f0−2 fs, f0+3 fs, f0−3 fs, . . . , or light in which the light frequency is modulated with the modulation frequency fs in a form of sine wave. The optical coherence function of the probe light in which the light frequency is modulated in such manner has peaks (coherence peaks) having a shape similar to a delta function when fsτ is an integer. That is, these probe light have a comb-shaped optical coherence function. When fs changes, the position of coherence peaks also changes.
The comb-shaped optical coherence function has a plurality of coherence peaks arranged at an interval 1/fs. By means of restriction made by a gate with a time width that is shorter than the interval 1/fs of arrangement of the coherence peaks, a pulse of the probe light is cut out so that one of the coherence peaks may exist in the measurement section of the object under measurement.
Non-patent literature 2 describes a technique with which the distance range that can be measured according to the OCDR is expanded. In the technique, light having an optical coherence function including a number of comb-like coherence peaks is generated by periodical frequency modulation of a light source, and by pulsing the generated light, an optical coherence function having a single coherence peak is made. Moreover, the delay time is made coincident with the coherence time of the light source either by altering the delay time of the reference light by switching the delay fiber that is provided in the reference optical path, or by causing the reference light to propagate through a loop circuit including a delay line. In such manner, it is made possible to measure a long distance range on the order of km.
Also, Non-patent literature 3 refers to a technique for expanding the distance range that can be measured with the OCDR. In this technique, the measurement distance range is expanded by choosing a light frequency modulation period so that the coherence peak of the optical coherence function may exist in a distance range that exceeds the coherence length of the output light of a light source. It is mentioned that by way of example the reflected light occurring at a distant point of about 5 km can be measured by forming coherence peaks at about 1 km intervals by a frequency modulation performed at a modulation period of 100 kHz±10 kHz for the light source having a coherence length of 60 m.
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The disclosure generally relates to low-pressure mercury discharge lamps. More specifically, the disclosure relates such lamps having a lamp fill including mercury, bismuth and indium, and methods of dosing the lamp with the fill material using substantially solid mercury-containing pellets of high purity, uniform size, and uniform composition.
Fluorescent lamps are well known and contain a vaporizable lamp fill including mercury. In the manufacture of such lamps, it is necessary to introduce very small amounts of mercury into the light emitting chamber of the lamp. For example, some fluorescent lamps include only about 0.1 mg up to about 10 mg of mercury, depending on the size of the lamp. While it is possible to introduce liquid mercury directly into the lamp, it is very difficult to obtain precise doses of such small quantities of mercury due to the high surface tension of mercury. Consequently, lamps dosed by using liquid mercury usually contain more mercury than is needed for operation of the lamp leading to environmental concerns in the disposal of the lamps. To address these concerns, mercury has been combined with other elements to form a substantially solid lamp fill material, thereby easing the handling and dispensing of the material while providing a means for dosing precise amounts of mercury into the lamp.
Another concern is maintaining the mercury vapor pressure at a level such that the lamp operates efficiently within a range of temperatures. The mercury vapor atoms convert electrical energy into ultraviolet radiation. The mercury vapor pressure is preferably in the range of approximately 2×10−3 to 2×10−2 Torr and optimally, about 6×10−3 Torr. The ultraviolet radiation is in turn absorbed by a phosphor coating on the interior of the lamp wall and converted to visible light. As the operating temperature of the lamp increases, the mercury vapor pressure increases and more of the ultraviolet radiation is self-absorbed by the mercury, thereby lowering the efficiency of the lamp and reducing light output. Thus, the mercury vapor pressure must be controlled. Conventionally, in one type of fluorescent lamp the mercury vapor pressure is controlled by controlling the temperature of the lamp. In another type of fluorescent lamp, the mercury vapor pressure is controlled by adding a mercury vapor pressure regulating material to the lamp.
Lamps in which a mercury vapor pressure regulating material is utilized for mercury vapor pressure control typically operate with a cold spot temperature of above 75° C. and generally have a small diameter. Such lamps are known as “compact lamps”, and typically require an amalgamative metal in addition to mercury in the lamp fill for mercury vapor pressure control. U.S. Pat. No. 4,157,485 discloses an indium-bismuth-mercury amalgam that is used to control the mercury vapor pressure in a low pressure mercury vapor discharge lamp, i.e., fluorescent lamp, over a wide temperature range. The goal of the amalgam is to maintain the mercury vapor pressure at 6×10−3 Torr (the optimum vapor pressure for a fluorescent lamp) over as wide of temperature range as possible. Although the indium-bismuth amalgam maintains a lower mercury vapor pressure at room temperature than pure mercury, the mercury vapor pressure is sufficient for the lamp to start. At temperatures above about 40° C. (which is the optimum mercury vapor pressure for a lamp with pure mercury) the efficiency of a lamp containing only mercury decreases while a lamp containing an indium-bismuth amalgam remains greater than 90% of the possible light output for temperatures up to about 130° C. The upper temperature limit is determined primarily by the chemical composition and the mercury content of the amalgam. U.S. Pat. No. 4,157,485 discloses an indium-bismuth amalgam wherein the ratio of atoms of bismuth to atoms of indium is between 0.4:0.6 and 0.7:0.3 and the ratio of atoms of mercury to the sum of the atoms of bismuth and indium is between 0.01:0.99 and 0.15:0.85.
The composition of the indium-bismuth-mercury pellets in commercial typically use is 28 to 32 weight percent indium, 64 to 69 weight percent bismuth and 1.5 to 5.0 weight percent mercury. However, the manufacture and production of lamps using an amalgam with this composition is difficult because of a small amount of liquid amalgam present in the pellet. The pellets agglomerate at substantially room temperature and are difficult to separate. Thus the pellets are not “free flowing”, i.e., the pellets tend to stick together when in contact and will not roll over other pellets. The self-agglomeration may occur immediately after the pellets are manufactured or it may occur after several weeks have passed. The poor flow properties of the abovementioned amalgam composition cause significant problems with handling, dosing and lamp manufacture. Self-agglomeration of these amalgams can cause waste in the lamp manufacturing environment and limit the use of these amalgams.
Accordingly, it is an object of the disclosure to address the above-mentioned problems and to provide novel lamp fill materials, methods of dosing fluorescent lamps, and methods of improving the handling characteristics of lamp fill materials containing mercury. It is a further object to provide novel lamp fill materials forming free flowing solids. It is yet another objection of the present disclosure to provide pellets having a composition of mercury, bismuth, indium and another metal wherein the pellets are free flowing an include material that regulates the mercury vapor pressure during operation of fluorescent lamps. It is another object of the disclosure to regulate the mercury vapor pressure within a low pressure mercury discharge lamp with indium-bismuth-mercury amalgam. It is still a further object of the disclosure to improve the manufacture of low pressure mercury vapor discharge lamps with an indium-bismuth-zinc-mercury amalgam. It is yet a further object of the disclosure to provide a novel method of introducing a precise amount of mercury into an amalgam-controlled fluorescent lamp.
These and many other objects and advantages of the disclosure will be readily apparent to one skilled in the art to which the invention pertains from a perusal of the claims, the appended drawings, and the following description.
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A frequency synthesizer to which PLL (Phase Locked Loop) is applied as one of standard signal generators is known. As shown in FIG. 12, in the frequency synthesizer, a voltage-controlled oscillator 201 is subjected to 1/N frequency division by a frequency divider 202 and the frequency-division output is input to one input terminal of a phase comparator 203. In addition, an oscillation output of a crystal oscillator 204 as a reference signal generator is subjected to 1/M frequency-division by a frequency divider 200 and the frequency-division output is input to the other input terminal of the phase comparator 203. The comparison signal therebetween is fed back to the voltage-controlled oscillator 201 through a loop filter 205, thereby constructing PLL (for example, Patent Document 1). When PLL is locked, the frequency fvco of the oscillation output of the voltage-controlled oscillator 201 and the frequency f0 of the oscillation output of the crystal oscillator 204 satisfy the following relationship: fvco/N=f0/M, and thus fvco=(N/M)f0. The frequency divider 202 is constructed by a programmable counter, and the frequency division ratio N can be set on the basis of digital data from the external, so that the frequency of fvco can be freely set.
For example, the frequency synthesizer is applied as a station oscillating unit at a mobile station. That is, at a base station, a predetermined frequency band is allocated to a mobile station. Therefore, it is necessary for the mobile station side to generate an oscillation output of the allocated frequency band, and thus it is required to bring the station oscillating unit with a function of adjusting the frequency. Furthermore, the frequency synthesizer is also used for a test signal source of radio communication equipment, broadcasting equipment or the like.
As described above, for example when the frequency synthesizer is applied in a communication field, it is required that noise is little to avoid cross talk with other channels. Furthermore, since electric waves are congested, it is desired that the frequency can be set as finely as possible. In order to set the frequency finely, the frequency division ratio N described above may be increased. However, if the frequency division ratio is excessively increased, noise becomes large due to elongation of a delay occurring in a loop, and actually the upper limit of N is equal to about 1000.
Therefore, for convenience of description, for example when a frequency synthesizer in which the frequency of about 1000 MHz can be adjusted every 1 Hz is designed, the apparatus of FIG. 12 must be designed in a multistage style. That is, when the upper limit of N is equal to 1000, by setting the frequency (M/f0) of a reference signal input to the phase comparator to 1 MHz, a frequency synthesizer of 1 MHz to 1000 MHz in which the frequency can be set every 1 MHz can be manufactured. Likewise, by setting the frequency of the reference signal to 1 kHz, a frequency synthesizer of 1 kHz to 1 MHz in which the frequency can be set every 1 kHz can be manufactured. Likewise, by setting the frequency of the reference signal to 1 Hz, a frequency synthesizer of 1 Hz to 1 kHz in which the frequency can be set every 1 Hz can be manufactured. By stepwise combining the respective frequency synthesizers, a frequency synthesizer in which the frequency can be set every 1 Hz until 1000 MHz can be obtained.
However, in this case, PLL must be constructed with respect to each synthesizing circuit for synthesizing frequencies, and thus there is a problem that the circuit construction is complicated, the number of parts is increased and noise is increased.
Therefore, the inventor of this application has developed a novel type frequency synthesizer which can finely set the frequency over a broad band by adopting a novel construction which is completely different from the conventional frequency synthesizers on principle, however, has run into trouble in that the frequency entraining range is narrow and the frequency entrainment cannot be surely performed in consideration of the dispersion of products of the voltage-controlled oscillation unit, the temperature characteristic, etc. Accordingly, the above problems must be overcome to put the frequency synthesizer concerned to practical use. Furthermore, this frequency synthesizer comprises analog circuits and digital circuits, and has a problem that noise caused by simultaneous switching of many switching elements in a digital/analog converter must be suppressed.
Patent Document 1
JP-A-2004-274673
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of high impact nylon materials comprising block copolymers of nylon and elastomer segments. More particularly, the present invention relates to cross-linked nylon block copolymers and processes and compositions useful in preparing the cross-linked nylon block copolymers.
Generally, nylon block copolymers may be alternating blocks of polyamide segments and other segments such as segments of elastomeric polymer residues such as residues of polyethers, polyesters, hydrocarbons or polysiloxanes. These nylon block copolymers are generally prepared by copolymerizing lactam monomer and elastomeric polymers and may either be linear or branched depending upon the structure of the elastomeric polymer used. A more detailed discussion of the structure and method of preparing a particular type of nylon block copolymer can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,031,164 issued to Hedrick and Gabbert.
The polyamide segments and segments of elastomeric polymer residues of the nylon block copolymers as defined in the Hedrick and Gabbert patent contribute their respective properties to the final polymer. In order to obtain a higher modulus material, polyamide segments of higher molecular weight and/or of higher weight percent could be employed. Greater tensile elongation and impact properties may be obtained by using higher weight percents of and/or higher molecular weight elastomeric polymers in preparing the nylon block copolymers.
It would be advantageous and an advance in the art to develop other means for varying the properties of nylon block copolymers
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The delivery of bioactive components (proteins, lipids or hydrolysates thereof, and probiotic microorganisms, for example) in food or other ingestible products is constrained by the need to provide a safe product with a useful shelf life while retaining bioactivity. Products with a useful shelf life are said to have a good keeping quality and are less prone to spoilage.
Delivery of bioactive components is desirable at least because such components are physiologically active when ingested and can have positive health benefits, including but not limited to bone health, immune benefits, anti-inflammatory activity, heart health and efficacy in cancer treatment.
Traditional means of ensuring a useful keeping quality have a negative impact on the bioactivity of food products and the like. In particular, thermal processing is not generally suitable for the production of commercially sterile bioactive products. For example, an analysis of immunoglobulin proteins in commercial dairy products revealed that although between 60% and 75% of the immunoglobulins are retained through pasteurisation, levels in UHT or canned (evaporated) milk are negligible (Li-Chan et al, 1995). Commercial sterility in acid foods may be achieved by employing a lower-temperature heating than that used in canning, but the sensitivity of immunoglobulins to denaturing under heating is exacerbated by acidification (Dominguez et al, 2001).
A probiotic microorganism is one that when administered in an adequate amount confers a health benefit on the host. While the live probiotic microorganism exhibits a bioactive effect, an inactivated probiotic microorganism may provide the bioactivity in a stable, less technically restricted format for use and distribution. In applications where it is undesirable to have live microorganisms because of their unwanted activities (such as enzyme or acid secretion, for example), inactivated microorganisms may be advantageous in still providing the bioactivity, without the unwanted activity resulting from their viability. International PCT application WO 20041032655 reports use of high pressure treatment to reduce microbial spoilage in foods and/or to render the food safe for consumption, while retaining viable desired cultures.
There are many processes in the manufacture of bioactive products, ingredients and foods that may result in a partial or complete loss of bioactivity. In the case of dairy-based ingredients and foods, processes that involve heating steps that may affect bioactivity include thermal pasteurisation, homogenisation, thermalisation, evaporation and drying. In the case of food processing, examples of heating steps that may affect bioactivity include heat treatments preceding fermentation, UHT-treatments, retorting, hot filling and hot packing. A bioactive component will typically be subjected to one or more of these heating steps during the manufacture of a food. This is particularly true of dairy-based products where processing always includes an initial pasteurisation step and typically includes further heating steps prior to packaging and sale. Korhonen et al (1998) report that heating to temperatures in the range 60° C. to 90° C. denatures proteins therefore reducing the activity of bioactive proteins.
Drying of products produced using pasteurised milk may be used to improve keeping quality with losses of up to 40% of immunoglobulins (Li-Chan, 1995), but commercial applications are then limited to direct consumption (for example, tablets) or fresh products (for example, yogurt) where the dried bioactive ingredient is not subsequently heated again. Losses due to drying and heating may be compensated for by supplementing intermediate or final products with the bioactive component of interest but this can increase the cost to the end consumer.
Pressure treatment with pressures above about 350 MPa has been reported to achieve commercially-useful improvements in keeping quality for meat, vegetable and fruit-based products (such as cooked ham, avocado products and juices respectively). However, Huppertz et al (2002) report that high pressure denatures whey proteins in milk. Additionally, Korhonen et al (1998) report that pressure treatments at pressures of about 500 MPa and above irreversibly denature proteins in most cases. Felipe et al (1997) report that appreciable levels of immunoglobulin denaturation occur in goat's milk at pressures of 500 MPa.
Masuda et al (2000) report that pressures of 400 MPa and above may not be used to improve the keeping quality of bovine colostrum because such pressures denature the immunoglobulin protein.
Tonello et al (1992) report that pressures of 200 MPa applied for 2 hours may be used to retain at least 85% of the immunoglobulin activity, although the microbial load of colostrum is reduced by less than 2-log cycles. The same process at 63° C. can reduce the microbial load below limits of detection (more than 7-log cycles), but at least 50% of the immunoglobulin activity is lost.
The need exists for a process that can provide a commercially useful keeping quality for a bioactive product such as a food or other ingestible product while retaining the bioactivity of at least one bioactive component.
Therefore it is an object of this invention to provide an improved or alternative method of preventing the growth of unwanted microorganisms while retaining at least a desired level of activity of at least one bioactive component or to at least provide the public with a useful choice.
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Computing devices typically store data and instructions in files on a storage device, such as a hard disk drive, optical disc drive, solid state memory, and so forth. A file system typically interacts with the storage device to create, delete, and/or modify files. This interaction can be direct, or indirect through one or more intermediate components. Oftentimes, when the file system deletes a file it does not communicate the details of the space freed due to the delete operation, in which case the storage device and any intermediate components have no knowledge of the space being freed. This manner of deleting files can be problematic as the storage device and any intermediate components oftentimes have no knowledge of which portions of the storage device do and do not store data for valid files.
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Inkjet printers have a series of nozzles from which individual ink droplets are ejected to deposit on print media to form desired printed images. The nozzles are incorporated in various types of printheads and their proper functioning is critical to the creation of quality images. Thus, any partial or total blockage of even a single nozzle may have a significant impact on a printed image, particularly in the case of a pagewidth printer.
The nozzles are prone to blockage due to their exposure to ever-present paper dust and other particulate matter and due to the tendency of ink to dry in the nozzles during, often very short, idle periods. Prior to ejection, the ink forms a meniscus at the nozzle opening. Exposure to air (frequently warm) evaporates the ink solvent to leave a solid deposit that can block the nozzle.
Servicing systems are conventionally employed for maintaining the functionality of printheads. Such systems provide capping, purging and or wiping. Capping involves the covering of idle nozzles to preclude exposure of ink to drying air. Purging is normally effected by evacuating a capping chamber, thereby sucking deposits from the printhead that block or have the potential to block the nozzles. Wiping is performed in conjunction with the capping and/or purging functions and involves gently sweeping a membrane across the face of the printhead.
Most conventional inkjet printers use a reciprocating printhead which is traverses across the width of a momentarily stationary page or portion of print media. In these printers, service stations are provided at one side of the printing zone and, on command, the printhead is traversed to the service station where it is docked while servicing is performed and or the printer is idle.
The above described servicing system is not feasible for pagewidth printers because of the stationary printhead assembly that extends across the full width of the printing zone. The printhead assembly effectively defines the print zone and it cannot be moved outside of that zone for servicing. Furthermore, a pagewidth printhead has a significantly larger surface area and contains a vastly greater number of nozzles than a conventional inkjet printhead, especially in the case of a large format printer. These factors dictate that the servicing of printheads requires an entirely different approach to that of conventional scanning type printheads.
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a high-pressure discharge lamp, and more particularly to a sealed structure for a high-pressure discharge lamp, and to a method for manufacturing the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Liquid-crystal projector devices and the like have recently been adopted as means for magnifying, projecting, and displaying characters, patterns, and other images. High-brightness, high-pressure discharge lamps are commonly used on a wide scale as light sources because such image projection devices require a certain light output. Such lamps are commonly combined with reflecting mirrors. A need has recently arisen for the distance (arc length) between the electrodes of high-pressure discharge lamps to be reduced in order to increase the light-gathering efficiency of the reflecting mirrors.
Such a reduction in the interelectrode distance, however, is tied to a drop in lamp voltage, resulting in increased lamp current if the goal is to retain the same lamp power. Increased lamp current leads to increased electrode loss, causes the electrode material to vaporize more vigorously, and promotes premature electrode deterioration, that is, reduces lamp life.
This is the reason that attempts are usually made to increase mercury vapor pressure or the like during lamp operation and to prevent lamp voltage from decreasing (lamp current from increasing) when the interelectrode distance is reduced. An example is the high-pressure mercury lamp disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application 2-148561.
The interelectrode distance of the disclosed lamp is 1.2 mm, and the operating pressure reaches about 200 atm when the lamp is lighted at a rated power of 50 W. According to the disclosure, a high lamp voltage (76 V) can be obtained at such a high pressure.
The operating pressure must be sufficiently high in order to obtain an adequate lamp voltage when the interelectrode distance is reduced in such a manner. The lamp must therefore have a sealed structure of sufficiently high pressure resistance capable of withstanding operation at such superhigh pressures.
FIG. 39(a) is a diagram showing part of the overall structure of the sealing component of the high-pressure lamp disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application 2-148561.
In the drawing, 100 is a roughly spherical light-emitting component made of quartz glass, 101 is a lateral tubular component extending from the light-emitting component 100, and 102 is a tungsten electrode for feeding electric current to the light-emitting component 100. 103 is a molybdenum foil; 104, a molybdenum lead wire for introducing outside current. These components constitute an electrode assembly 105, obtained by connecting the electrode 102 to one end of the molybdenum foil 103 (one end of the electrode extends into the light-emitting component 100), and the electric current feeding lead wire 104 to the other end. The electrode assembly 105 is air-tightly sealed in the lateral tubular component 101 by a sealed foil structure in which the elastic deformation of the molybdenum foil 103 is used for absorbing differences in thermal expansion in relation to the quartz glass.
An effective means capable of withstanding high operating pressures (up to 200 atm) with the aid of such a sealed foil structure is described in detail, for example, in "The 7th International Symposium on the Science & Technology of Light Sources (1995), Symposium Proceedings," p. 111.
An overview of the above publication will now be given with reference to FIG. 39(b).
FIG. 39(b) is a cross section of area AA' in FIG. 39a. Part of the electrode 102 is embedded in the lateral tubular component 101, and a non-adhesive area 107 is formed around the electrode 102, as shown by the dots in FIG. 37. According to the aforementioned article, if W is the width of the non-adhesive area 107, the resistance of the lamp to high pressure can be improved by reducing the width W of the non-adhesive area 107. Specifically, it is claimed that using a structure of smaller width W makes it possible to reduce pressure concentration in the non-adhesive area 107 and improves the resistance of the lamp to high pressure.
Meanwhile, a sealed rod structure such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,282,395 is a known example of another sealed structure resistant to high pressures. In this structure, as shown in FIG. 40, electrodes 102 are air-tightly sealed in lateral tubular components 101 through the intermediary of glass (for example, superhard glass 200 with a coefficient of expansion of 32.times.10.sup.-7 /.degree. C.) whose coefficient of thermal expansion lies between that of quartz glass (coefficient of expansion: 5.5.times.10.sup.-7 /.degree. C.) and that of tungsten (coefficient of expansion: 46.times.10.sup.-7 /.degree. C.), in areas B of the lateral tubular components 101 at a distance from the light-emitting component 100. The force with which the electrodes 102 and the quartz glass are bonded via the intermediate glass 200 is much greater than the force with which the molybdenum foil and the quartz glass are bonded by the elastic deformation of the molybdenum foil, providing a structure that is superior to a sealed foil structure in terms of resistance to high pressure.
According to the above-described teaching, the maximum withstand pressure of a lamp with a sealed foil structure is limited in terms of the diameter of the electrodes 102 because the diameter of the electrodes 102 is the minimum value of the width W shown in FIG. 39(b). This is the reason that using a sealed foil structure makes it difficult, for example, to construct the lamp of high operating pressure (up to 200 atm) described in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application 2-148561 as a high-output lamp requiring a large lamp current and a sufficiently thick electrode to accommodate this current. For this reason, all the examples of lamps disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application 2-148561 are limited to low-output lamps of 50 W or lower.
The sealed rod structure depicted in FIG. 40 can endow a lamp with higher resistance to high pressure than a sealed foil structure, making it possible to provide a lamp whose output and operating pressure are higher than those of a lamp with a sealed foil structure. The conventional sealed rod structure depicted in FIG. 40 is unsuitable, however, for lamps in which the light-emitting substance consists of mercury or another substance whose vapor pressure varies widely with the lamp temperature during operation, such as the lamps described, for example, in the aforementioned Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application 2-148561.
This is because the maximum service temperature of the intermediate glass used in the sealed rod structure is lower than the normal value of 900.degree. C. (maximum value: 1100.degree. C.) for quartz glass, as typified by the normal value of 230.degree. C. (maximum value: 490.degree. C.) for superhard glass, requiring that, normally, the electrode be air-tightly sealed near the areas B of the low-temperature portion at the maximum distance from the light-emitting component 100, which develops the highest temperature during operation, as shown in FIG. 40.
Because of this, low-temperature regions (gaps where the lateral tubular components 101 are not bonded to the electrodes 102) designated as areas A form in FIG. 40 inside the sealed light-emitting component 100 of a lamp with a sealed rod structure. Consequently, mercury is sealed as a light-emitting substance with the aid of a conventional sealed rod structure inside, for example, the light-emitting component 100, and this mercury condenses in areas A even when the goal is to obtain the mercury lamp of high operating pressure disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application 2-148561, making it impossible to obtain the desired mercury vapor pressure or to construct a properly operating lamp. When an attempt is still made to ensure that the lamp operates properly by forming a seal near the connection between the light-emitting component 100 and the lateral tubular components 101, the intermediate glass 200 is exposed to high temperatures and is melted during operation, and the bond is broken and the lamp fractured by the difference in pressure between the high-pressure light-emitting component 100 and the outside, which has roughly atmospheric pressure.
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Zilpaterol is a known racemic adrenergic β-2 agonist having the following structure:
The CAS name is trans-(±)-4,5,6,7-tetrahydro-7-hydroxy-6-[(1-methylethyl)amino]-imidazo[4,5,1-jk][1]benzazepin-2(1H)-one.
It is well known that zilpaterol, various zilpaterol derivatives, and various pharmaceutically acceptable salts of zilpaterol and its derivatives may, for example, be used to increase the rate of weight gain, improve feed efficiency (i.e., decrease the amount of feed per amount of weight gain), and/or increase carcass leanness (i.e., increase protein content in carcass soft tissue) in livestock, poultry, and/or fish.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,900,735, for example, Grandadam describes zootechnical compositions of racemic trans zilpaterol and salts thereof that may be used to increase the weight and meat quality of warm-blooded animals, including cattle, pigs, and poultry. And U.S. Patent Appl. Publ. US2005/0284380 describes use of an ionophore/macrolide/zilpaterol dosing regimen to increase beef production, reduce feed intake while maintaining beef production, and reduce incidences of liver abscess in cattle.
Methods for making zilpaterol and salts thereof are known in the art. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,585,770, Frechet et al. describe compounds (and salts thereof) encompassed by a genus characterized as 6-amino-7-hydroxy-4,5,6,7-tetrahydro-imidazo[4,5,l-jk][1]-benzazepin-2[H]-one derivatives and pharmaceutically acceptable acid addition salts thereof. The derivatives correspond in structure to the following formula:
Here, R can be various substituents, and the wavy lines indicate that the bonds to the 6-amino and 7-OH groups have the trans configuration. This genus encompasses racemic trans zilpaterol when R is isopropyl.
Int'l Patent Appl. Publ. WO 2008/119754 discusses making an acid addition salt of zilpaterol free base by mixing the free base with an inorganic or organic acid using various methods known in the art, and specifically mentions HCl.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,585,770 and Int'l Patent Appl. Publ. WO 2008/119754 also discuss the preparation of zilpaterol hydrochloride by dissolving zilpaterol free base in ethanol, adding ethyl acetate saturated with HCl, vacuum-filtering the product to obtain crude zilpaterol hydrochloride, dissolving the crude zilpaterol hydrochloride in hot methanol, adding ethyl acetate, and then filtering to obtain a final zilpaterol hydrochloride product. Int'l Patent Appl. Publ. WO 2008/119754 also describes processes for making zilpaterol and salts thereof. In some such processes, for example, zilpaterol is prepared from 4-(2-oxo-2,3-dihydrobenzimidazol-1-yl)butyric acid using the following generic scheme:
Int'l Patent Appl. Publ. WO 2008/119754 goes on to illustrate such a process wherein the chlorinating agent comprises oxalyl chloride; the Lewis acid comprises AlCl3; the hydrolysis acid following the Friedel-Crafts reaction comprises HCl; the inorganic nitrite comprises NaNO2; the acid used in the oximation comprises HCl; water is added to the oximation product mixture to foster isolation of the oxime product; the base used to form the oxime salt comprises KOH; the catalyst for the first hydrogenation comprises palladium on carbon; the acid used in the formation of the isopropylideneamino compound comprises acetic acid; the catalyst for the second hydrogenation comprises platinum on carbon; and the base and alcohol used to form the zilpaterol free base comprise NaOH and ethanol, respectively:
For some applications, it is desirable for zilpaterol or a salt thereof to be in the form of crystals having one or more characteristics, such as a specific size distribution. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,731,028 discusses the desirability of a particular crystal size distribution when crystalline zilpaterol hydrochloride is used with 300-800 μm corn cob supports. In that context, U.S. Pat. No. 5,731,028 discusses the desirability of zilpaterol hydrochloride crystals that are less than 300 μm in size, with the majority being from 50 to 200 μm. U.S. Pat. No. 5,731,028 also discusses a desirability to avoid particle sizes so small that that the particles appear in the form of dust, particularly where there is a possibility that such dust could endanger the environment or irritate or poison a user by penetrating the user's pulmonary alveoli. U.S. Pat. No. 5,731,028 specifically discloses crystalline anhydrous zilpaterol hydrochloride having a crystal size distribution wherein less than 5% of the crystals are less than 15 μm, and at least 95% of the crystals are less than 250 μm.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,731,028 discusses various crystallization processes to obtain a desired zilpaterol hydrochloride crystal size distribution that may, for example, be useful with 300-800 μm corn cob supports. These processes include the following various alternatives: a) Form a supersaturated solution of zilpaterol hydrochloride in water or aqueous ethanol at a temperature greater than 50° C., cool the supersaturated solution to effect crystallization to zilpaterol hydrochloride monohydrate, further cool the solution to a temperature of less than 20° C. to effect crystallization of zilpaterol hydrochloride trihydrate, and dry the hydrated crystals to form the desired crystalline zilpaterol hydrochloride. b) Dissolve zilpaterol hydrochloride in a minimum of water at 60-100° C., pour the resulting solution into a saturated solution of zilpaterol hydrochloride in aqueous ethanol, seed the mixture with zilpaterol hydrochloride trihydrate crystals while stirring at a temperature of less than 20° C., and dry the resulting zilpaterol hydrochloride trihydrate crystals to form the desired crystalline zilpaterol hydrochloride. c) Form a saturated aqueous zilpaterol hydrochloride solution by dissolving anhydrous zilpaterol hydrochloride in water at a temperature of less than 30° C. to spontaneously form zilpaterol hydrochloride crystals, and dry the resulting zilpaterol hydrochloride trihydrate crystals to form the desired crystalline zilpaterol hydrochloride.
In view of the importance of zilpaterol salts in animal production, there continues to be a need for more cost-effective, greater yielding, and/or more selective processes for making crystalline zilpaterol salts, particularly crystalline zilpaterol hydrochloride. The following disclosure addresses this need.
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1. Field
Golf training and practice devices.
2. Background
An object of the game of golf is to play a specific number of “holes” in the fewest number of “strokes,” each hole ending with a circular “cup” 108 millimeters (mm) in diameter and sunken into the ground at least 100 mm. The hole is found on a specially prepared surface known as a “green.”
A recognized fundamental necessary for achievement in the proper play of the game of golf is the golfer's ability to effectively roll the golf ball toward the golf hole once on the green. To do so, the golfer uses a shafted club known as a putter consisting of a “head” on one end and a “grip” on the other. The head and the grip are connected by a shaft with the grip disposed over a portion of the shaft. The grip typically has a hole in the butt end known as a “bleeder hole” which allows air to escape when the grip is affixed to the shaft. The head is typically flat or slightly rounded on the forward surface which allows for an accurate roll of a ball off the “face” of the head.
In order to reduce the number of strokes, the golfer takes on the green, many techniques have been developed and implemented as well as a multitude of design variations in putter head size and shape. It is, however, widely recognized that one of the most important fundamentals in the technique utilized in putting is the golfer's ability to maintain and repeat a simple pendulum-like movement or “stroke” in which the arms remain in a static position and rotate in cohesion with the shoulders which turn about the spine as a unit independent of the head and body. This position has become widely known as the “triangle” between the shoulders and the arms as the hands hold the putter grip. The golfer's ability to maintain the “triangle” throughout the stroke of the ball toward the hole is paramount in achieving putting success as the large shoulder muscles are much more controllable than are the more impulse sensitive muscles of the forearms and the hands.
Many golfers, in an effort to develop the pendulum putting stroke, experience difficulty maintaining the proper stable relationship between their arms, wrists and hands during the putting stroke. This inability to master the proper stroke leads to an inconsistent putter path which does not impact the golf ball consistently and which manifests itself in higher than desired scores.
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The invention relates to a measuring device as described below for measuring the flow velocity of a medium flowing through a measuring tube as well as to a method as described below for measuring the flow velocity of a medium flowing through a measuring tube.
Devices for magnetically-inductively measuring the flow velocity of a medium are known, for instance, from International patent application publications numbers WO 2008/107460 A1, WO 03/098164 A1 and WO 2007/031053 A2. They usually comprise means for generating a magnetic field perpendicular to the flow direction of the medium as well as electrodes arranged on a wall of a measuring tube in a plane perpendicular to the flow direction of the medium and via which electric voltage building up within the medium is detected. The measurement signal detected by means of the electrodes is then supplied to a measuring unit in which the measurement signal is evaluated.
Magnetic-inductive flow sensors (MID) utilize the fact that a medium flowing in a measuring tube penetrated by a magnetic field will induce an electric field which can be measured via the electrodes in the form of a voltage. Same is directly proportional to the flow velocity of the medium. Based on the flow velocity, the flux of the medium can then be calculated. A galvanic or capacitive signal pick-up can be used for signal decoupling in such measuring devices. Galvanic signal decoupling is mostly used, in which metallic electrodes of small diameters (in general, a few millimeters) equipped with feedthroughs through the inner tube wall are in direct (galvanic) contact with the medium. They need to be reliably sealed against the tube wall. This type of decoupling is characterized by a sturdy and simple construction, but is susceptible to chemical attack, deposits and abrasion of the electrodes and the seals. Controlling high operational temperatures requires careful coordination of the thermal expansion coefficients of the electrode and wall material.
In capacitive signal decoupling, the electrode is not in direct contact with the medium but is surrounded by an insulating layer which is in turn in contact with the medium.
Commercially available magnetic-inductive flow sensors work based on time-variable magnetic fields, so-called alternating fields, in order to eliminate interference signals superimposed on the usable signal and are differentiated according to rapidly changing noise and slowly changing drift components. The essential sources of these interference signals are time-variable, not precisely determinable double-layer potentials at the interface between the flow medium and the coupling element, i.e., in particular the electrode. To take these signal components into account, current-energized field coils are required which are mostly operated in a pulsed mode; i.e., clocked. A time-variable magnetic field of a known magnitude is required in both galvanic as well as capacitive decoupling of measurement signals, entailing additional energy expenditure in generating the magnetic fields. Such measuring devices with alternating fields also only allow a discontinuous measuring with the pulse repetition frequency of the magnetic field. The required pulse repetition frequency of the magnetic field furthermore depends on the frequency spectrum of the interference voltages. Therefore, there are efforts to develop measuring devices which do not require time-variable magnetic fields but make do with one permanent magnet while still enabling the suppression of interference signals.
Due to their considerable influence on measuring accuracy, approaches to create magnetic-inductive systems and components for signal decoupling in magnetic-inductive flow sensors are known which have considerably more favorable properties in terms of their noise and drift behavior than conventional measuring devices comprising purely metallic electrodes of a galvanic signal decoupling structure. Examples of this are described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,517,846 and International patent application publication number WO 98/55837 A1. Both propose coating metallic electrodes with very hard metal oxides such that the flow medium only comes into direct contact with this layer, the latter being of an electrically insulating yet porous structure. This porous structure can be produced in the layer manufacturing process itself or else by subsequent selective processing.
Such a porous layer has the advantage of a noise-reducing and drift-reducing effect defined by medium penetrating into the porous structure. The porous structure creates an enlarged contact surface between the medium flowing within the measuring tube and the solid body, hence the signal decoupling structure. Furthermore, ion channels form within the pores, providing conductivity to the intrinsically insulating layer. The layer is moreover attributed to the capacity of ion storage, which serves as a charge buffer and thus has a noise and drift-reducing effect.
More recent literature also reports on fractal surface structures of layers, e.g., of titanium nitride, which are used with great success in medical technology as noise and drift-reducing layers for signal coupling and decoupling—e.g., in cardiac pacemakers (see E. Wintermantel, “Medizintechnik”, Springer, Berlin, 5th edition, pp. 1338-1343 (2009)). Similar solutions can be expected to also be suitable for signal decoupling from a magnetic-inductive flow sensor and leading to a further suppression of the electrochemically induced noise, drift and step signals there.
It is further desirable to create a magnetic-inductive flow sensor which does not depend on a current flow in the medium. No-current measurement has decisive advantages. In particular, once charge balances have been adjusted, measurements will not disturb them since there is no associated substance transport whatsoever. This has an advantageous effect in terms of further reducing drift. Although most methods for signal decoupling in magnetic-inductive flow sensors require a current flow, a no-current approach is known from German Patent DE 10 2005 043 718 B3. This describes measuring via a purely electric field effect ensuing from the medium flowing in the measurement tube interacting with the magnetic field. The electric field has in this case a controlling effect on the resistance of an adjacent semiconductor. In a specific configuration here, a pair of ISFETs (ion-sensitive field-effect transistors) takes over the signal decoupling, wherein the transistor gate electrodes provided with an insulating layer are each in contact with the flowing medium. In the simplest case, the insulating layer on the gate electrode consists of silicone dioxide. This material is known for being able to store and release H+ ions from its surface (P. Bergveld, “ISFET, Theory and Practice,” IEEE Sensor Conference, Toronto; pp. 1-26 (October 2003)), thereby resulting in a balance of the surface charge contingent upon the pH value of the flowing medium and a double layer voltage induced by said surface charge. The surface of the insulating substance acts like a charge accumulator which stabilizes the double layer voltage due to its buffer action and thus contributes effectively to noise suppression. The supply voltage—superimposed by the difference in the double layer voltage—is measured between the gates of the ISFET pair while the ISFET path resistances are controlled by same.
As stated above, no-current measurement particularly has the decisive advantage that once set, charge balances will not be disturbed by a measurement since there is no substance transport whatsoever associated with the measurement. In practice, however, every insulating substance has a low but finite conductivity so that a no-current measurement is in reality only approximated. The described ISFET system for signal decoupling can therefore also be understood as a combination of a pair of ion storage layers and a differential amplifier having an extremely high input resistance.
The measuring devices for magnetic-inductive measuring described above and known from the prior art have the disadvantage of separately optimizing the measuring device with regard to minimizing noise and interference signals as well as not being possible to realize virtually no-current measurement.
It is therefore the task of the present invention to create a measuring device and a method for measuring the flow velocity of a medium flowing through a measuring tube which combines the advantages of virtually no-current field measurement with the advantages of signal decoupling via non-metallic layers and which can be operated with permanent magnets.
A measuring device having the characterizing features described below is proposed to solve this task. Advantageous configurations of the measuring device are also described below.
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Diesel engines have long been recognized for their economic capabilities and are now widely accepted for automotive and other vehicle applications. Part of this acceptance has been achieved by the introduction of fuel heaters in the engine fuel systems to assure proper operation during cold weather conditions.
That is, diesel fuel contains a waxy constituent which precipitates out as small crystals when the fuel temperature drops below its "cloud point". Typically, this cloud point may be about 30.degree. F. for some grades of diesel fuel. During cold weather operation, these wax crystals can gradually plug the fuel filter, cutting off delivery to the engine. Fuel heaters, such as the Master Fuel Heater Model A-10 manufactured by Stanadyne, Inc. can eliminate this fuel flow problem. As an in-line component of the fuel feed system, it is positioned upstream of the filter, and it is operated responsive to fuel temperature automatically to heat the fuel if the temperature thereof approaches or reaches the "cloud point".
It is the general object of the present invention to improve the efficacy of such heater by reducing the load thereon during its periods of operation.
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The hypertext markup language (or HTML) is commonly used to define the structure for presenting content in a web-page. Web pages that are prepared using HTML can be viewed with a variety of web browser application programs. In addition, HTML web pages can be viewed on different computing systems that may otherwise be incompatible with one another. As such, HTML has been adopted throughout the computing community as a common platform for web page development to provide transportability of content between computing systems.
HTML employs a set of standard codes or “markup tags” that are used to define the format (e.g., text color, font size, etc.) and location associated with text, images, and other content. In general, a web browser builds a web page by retrieving the text file associated with the web page and interpreting the markup tags in the text file to format the web page for viewing. An example web page typically includes text, graphic images, and links to other web pages. Graphics images and remote executable programs such as binary executables are downloaded onto the local machine so that the web page can be built appropriately.
Typical web browsers will prompt a user for a decision on installing executable programs that are necessary for the display of content associated with a web page. Example executables include plug-ins, active-x controls, as well as others. In some instances, the web browser does not prompt the user for a decision based on MIME type information that is being reported to the browser. For example, a .JPG file is a graphics image that may be associated with an HTTP request. In this example, the web browser will simply display the image without requiring user interaction.
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Automobile diagnostic data, such as Diagnostic Trouble Codes (DTCs), form compact, informative messages. Diagnostic data was designed to allow vehicle controllers to indicate a system fault and/or a need for repair.
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to new cephem derivatives represented by the general formula ##STR4## in which the Acyl substituent is a group of the formula ##STR5## where Ar is an optionally substituted lipophilic phenyl, naphthyl or pyridyl group, R.sup.1 represents either the residue of a heterocyclic amino acid or a C.sub.2 -C.sub.10 alkyl group substituted by both a carboxyl or sulfonyl group and a group of the formula --NR.sup.9 R.sup.10 or ##STR6## in which R.sup.9 and R.sup.10 are each independently hydrogen or C.sub.1 -C.sub.6 alkyl, said C.sub.2 -C.sub.10 alkyl group being optionally interrupted by one or more nitrogen atoms or carbonyl groups, and R.sup.2 and R.sup.3 are each independently hydrogen, alkyl or aminoalkyl. The derivatives are gram-positive antibacterial agents, especially useful in the treatment of diseases caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (also referred to below as MRSA or methicillin-resistant S. aureus).
2. Description of the Prior Art
The literature discloses a vast number of cephem derivatives having a wide variety of C-3 and C-7 substituents. Applicants are not aware, however, of any literature disclosing compounds with the combination of C-3 and C-7 substituents found by applicants to give good activity against MRSA organisms. There are, however, references which disclose cephalosporins having the type of 7-substituents or the type of 3-substituents present in the compounds claimed in the present application.
For example, there are references which disclose applicants' C-7 substituents. Among such references disclosing 7-substituents of the type ##STR7## where Ar is an aromatic group are the following:
U.S. Pat. No. 4,056,676 discloses cephem derivatives of the general formula ##STR8## where Z is hydrogen or fluorine; and when Z is hydrogen, each of X and Y is hydrogen or chlorine selected so that the phenyl ring is substituted with 1 or 2 chlorine atoms and so that when one chlorine atom is present said chlorine atom is in the 3-position, and when two chlorine atoms are present said chlorine atoms are in the 3,4-, the 3,5-or the 2,5-positions; and when Z is fluorine, said fluorine is in the 3- or 4-positions of the phenyl ring and each of X and Y is hydrogen or chlorine selected so that when the phenyl ring is substituted with 1 or 2 chlorine atoms, one of the chlorine atoms is in the 3- or 4-position of the phenyl ring; R.sup.1 is hydrogen, dicyclohexylamine, or a pharmaceutically acceptable cation; and R is, inter alia, N-pyridino. Among the compounds specifically disclosed are those of the formulae: ##STR9## The compounds disclosed are said to be useful for treating and inhibiting the growth of MRSA organisms.
The cephalosporin derivative of the formula ##STR10## is disclosed in Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy--1966, pg. 573-580 at page 576 (Compound No. 48).
J. Antibiotics, 26(12), 737-744, 1973, discloses the compound of the formula ##STR11##
U.K. Patent 998,265 discloses cephem derivatives of the general formula ##STR12## in which R.sup.1, taken alone, is --OH, C.sub.1-C.sub.8 acyloxy, or tertiaryamino, R.sup.2 is -OH when R.sup.1 is --OH, R.sup.2 is --OH when R.sup.1 is C.sub.1 -C.sub.8 acyloxy, R.sup.2 is --O-- when R.sup.1 is tertiaryamino, R.sup.1 and R.sup.2, when taken together, are --O--, R.sup.3 and R.sup.4 represent hydrogen, alkyl radicals having from 1 to 6 carbon atoms, alkenyl radicals having from 2 to 6 carbon atoms, cycloalkyl radicals having from 5 to 7 carbon atoms, or alkoxyalkyl radicals having from 2 to 6 carbon atoms; n represents 0 to 4; and R.sup.5 represents an alkyl radical having from 1 to 6 carbon atoms, an alkenyl or alkynyl radical having from 2 to 6 carbon atoms, a cycloalkyl radical having 5 or 6 carbon atoms, phenyl, .beta.-furyl, .beta.-thienyl, thienyl, or naphthyl, or a fluoro, chloro, bromo, nitro, trifluoromethyl, C.sub.1 -C.sub.4 alkyl, C.sub.1 -C.sub.4 alkylmercapto, or C.sub.1 -C.sub.4 alkoxy substitution product of such radicals.
U.K. Published Application No. 2,007,221 A discloses cephalosporin derivatives of the formula ##STR13## wherein Y is hydrogen, chlorine, bromine, C.sub.1 -C.sub.4 alkyl or C.sub.1 -C.sub.4 alkoxy; Z is a bond, oxygen or sulfur; W is hydrogen, methyl amino, hydroxy, SO.sub.3 H or COOR.sub.4 wherein R.sub.4 is hydrogen or 5-indanyl with the proviso that when Z is oxygen or sulfur, W is other than hydroxy; R.sub.1 is hydrogen or methoxy; R.sub.2 is hydrogen, acetoxy, 1,3,4-thiadiazol-2-ylthio, 5-methyl-1,3,4-thiadiazol-2-ylthio, tetrazol-5-ylthio, 1-methyltetrazol-5-ylthio, 1,3,4-oxadiazol-2-ylthio, 5-methyl-l,3,4-oxadiazol-2-ylthio, 1,3,4-triazol-2-ylthio, 5-methyl-l,3,4-triazol-2-ylthio, 1,2,3-triazol-5-ylthio, pyridinium or 4-aminocarbonylpyridinium; R.sub.3 is hydrogen, a negative charge when R.sub.2 is pyridinium or 4-aminocarbonylpyridinium, a cation of an alkali metal or an alkaline earth metal, ammonium or organic ammonium cations, C.sub.1 -C.sub.4 alkyl, (C.sub.2 -C.sub.5 alkanoyloxy)methyl, (C.sub.2 -C.sub.5) alkanoylamino)methyl, [C.sub.2 -C.sub.5 alkanoyl(C.sub.1 -C.sub.4 alkoxy)carbonyl(C.sub.1 -C.sub.4 alkyl)-amino-methyl, p-(C.sub.2 -alkanoyloxy)benzylamino(C.sub.2 -C.sub.15 alkanoyloxy)methyl, (C.sub.1 -C.sub.4 alkyl)amino(C.sub.2 -C.sub.15 alkanoyloxy)methyl or di(C.sub.1 -C.sub.4 alkyl)amino(C.sub.2 -C.sub.15 alkanoyloxy)methyl; and pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,217,000 discloses cephem derivatives of the formula ##STR14## wherein Thi is 2-thienyl or 3-thienyl and R is a substituent at the 3 or 4 position of the pyridino ring selected from the group consisting of cyano, carboxy, carbamyl, N-methylcarbamyl, carbo(C.sub.1 -C.sub.4 alkoxy), hydroxy and (C.sub.1 -C.sub.4)alkanoyl; and the salts thereof with pharmaceutically acceptable acids.
There is also literature disclosing cephalosporins having 3-substituents of the type ##STR15## where R is an optionally substituted aliphatic or aromatic group. Among such references are those of the following:
U.S. Pat. No. 4,758,557 discloses cephalosporin derivatives of the general formula ##STR16## wherein A represents an alkanoyloxy group having 2-5 carbon atoms; a carbamoyloxy group; an azido group; or an unsubstituted or substituted pyridylthio group of the formula ##STR17## where n is 0 or an integer of 3-5; R.sup.1 and R.sup.2 may be the same or different and each represents a hydrogen atom, a halogen atom, a carboxyl group or an optionally halogen-substituted lower-alkyl group having 1-5 carbon atoms; or an unsubstituted or substituted pyridiniumthio group of the formula ##STR18## where n, R.sup.1 and R.sup.2 have the same meanings as above; R.sup.3 represents a linear or branched-chain alkyl group having 1-5 carbon atoms, a halogen-substituted alkyl group, a cyclopropyl group, a cyclopropylmethyl group, an alkenyl group, an oxygen afore or a group of (--CH.sub.2).sub.m --B where m is an integer of 0-3 and B represents a hydroxyl group, an alkoxy group, an amino group, an alkyl-substituted amino group, a carboxyl group, a carbamoyl group, a sulfonic acid group, a sulfonic acid amide group, a hydroxamic group, a cyano group, a thiol group, an alkylthio group, a methanesulfonylaminocarbonyl group or an acetamidosulfonyl group; or an unsubstituted or substituted pyridinium group of the formula ##STR19## where n has the same meaning as above; R.sup.4 and R.sup.5 may be the same or different and each represent a hydrogen atom, a linear or branched alkyl group having 1-5 carbon atoms, a carboxyl group, a carbamoyl group, a sulfonic acid group, a sulfonic acid amide group, a linear or branched alkylthio group having 1-5 carbon atoms, a halogen-substituted alkylthio group, a cycloalkanothio group, a carbamoylalkylthio group, an alkoxyalkylthio group or an alkyl-substituted aminoalkylthio group; or a 5- or 6-membered heterocyclicthio or bicycloheterocyclicthio group of the formula EQU --S--Het
wherein Het represents an optionally substituted thiazole, isothiazole, 1,2,3-thiadiazole, 1,3,4-thiadiazole, 1,3,4-triazole, 1,2,3,4-tetrazole, pyrimidine, 1,2,4-triazine, benzothiazole, benzimidazole, benzoxazole, 1,3,4-triazaindolidine or 2,3-dihydro-1H-indolidinium group.
Illustrative of the compounds encompassed by U.S. Pat. No. 4,758,557 is MT0703 having the structure ##STR20## which is disclosed in J. Antibiotics 43(2), 189-198, 1990.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,786,633 discloses cephalosporin derivatives of the formula ##STR21## wherein R.sup.2 is a substituted or unsubstituted heterocyclic group having 1-3 hetero atoms selected from the group consisting of nitrogen and sulfur. The R.sup.2 group may be, for example, a group of the formula ##STR22## where R.sup.4 is lower alkenyl, lower alkyl, or a lower alkyl group substituted with a carbamoyl group and R.sup.5 and R.sup.6 are the same or different and each represent hydrogen or lower alkyl.
Published European Patent Application 409,164 A2 discloses cephalosporin derivatives of the formula ##STR23## wherein R.sup.1 is an amino group or acylamino; R.sup.2 is hydrogen or methoxy; R.sup.3 is hydrogen or a mono- or divalent substituent; R.sup.4 is optionally protected vic-dihydroxyaryl; R.sup.5 is straight or branched lower alkylene; R.sup.6 is hydrogen, a carboxy-protecting group or a negative charge when combined with Y; X is oxygen, sulfur, or sulfinyl; and Y is an anion or a negative charge when combined with R.sup.6 ; and the dotted line shows the presence or absence of a bond.
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At present, widely provided to organizations such as corporations is a knowledge management system having an object to improve achievements of an organization by allowing the whole organization to share and utilize its information and knowledge that are dispersed across individuals and departments. Such a knowledge management system is disclosed in, for example, MATSUI KUNIO, TANAKA HOZUMI, “Knowledge Management: The Latest Developments of Knowledge Management”, Joho Shori, Information Processing Society of Japan, April 2006, Vol. 47, No. 4, p. 421-424 (Non-patent Document 1).
Further, in the world of the Internet, there exist sites dedicated to question/response, on which one person wishing to obtain information posts a question or a thing about which he/she wishes to know while another person makes a reply thereto (that is, information provision), and the sites are attracting a large number of participants.
For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application (JP-A) No. 2004-185341 (Patent Document 1) discloses an information provision service system including: reply candidate retrieval means for excerpting a keyword from a sentence of each question written to a question server and comparing relevances to matters regarding the past schedules of the respective users registered in schedule management means to thereby assign a highly-relevant user as a reply candidate with respect to the question; and contacting means for contacting the assigned user to make a request for a reply to the question.
Further, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application (JP-A) No. 2007-34965 (Patent Document 2) discloses a technology provided with a knowledge information database that indicates a relationship between an attribute of a knowledge worker and a document created by the knowledge worker, in which document creating means registers a document in the knowledge information database in association with the knowledge worker if the document is created by the knowledge worker, and in which knowledge exchanging means acquires information on the document and the knowledge worker from the knowledge information database and registers the document in a place for knowledge exchanges (including a mailing list, an electronic bulletin board, and a community site that exist on a network) which is accessible to a plurality of knowledge workers.
Further, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application (JP-A) No. 2001-273310 (Patent Document 3) discloses a various inquiry/reply service system provided with an automatic response unit for searching a response example database and a knowledgebase with regard to a question received through a Web page or electronic mail sent from a client or from inside a company via a communication line, and automatically returning a reply of a result thereof.
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This invention relates to the type of lubricant injector described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,705,432, assigned to Lincoln Industrial Corporation of St. Louis, Mo. and incorporated herein by reference. While the lubricant injector systems described in this application are commercially successful, there is a need for a more compact design.
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Interest in sports is increasing globally. The continued globalization of sports is enhanced through the mass media and the increased coverage of events. Moreover, participation in sports at all youth and adult recreational levels is burgeoning. Subsequently, increased access is driving demand and as a result, a favorable economic environment has been created that has trickled into the allied supportive industries, such as sports turf management.
Sports turf management involves the establishment and maintenance of athletic fields for the purpose of providing aesthetically pleasing, wear resistant, and safe surfaces for competition. Estimates from surveys indicate that the maintenance of sports turf is a burgeoning industry and is continuing to grow with the interest in a variety of sports and the development of new sports facilities. However, there is continued pressure to maintain superior aesthetic quality under intense use regimes of multiple sports clubs, for the purposes of promoting a high quality television and video product, and maintaining safety at the recreational levels.
Multi-use facilities that host a variety of sporting events must continually confront the problem of residual marking paint used to determine boundaries. Present systems and compositions for removal of paint from turf often are ineffective and hence do not thoroughly remove the previously applied paint. The painting and marking compositions and the compositions for their removal may significantly distort the visual appearance of the turf, discolor the turf, or damage the turf in other ways, or cause the affected areas of turf to be killed. This is of particular concern to sports clubs and associations that share facilities with other sports clubs for logistical and economic reasons. When sporting events are televised, residual marking paint from other sporting events detracts from the quality of the product. In addition, all levels of sports (from town and scholastic to collegiate and professional) are faced with sharing facilities that require a variety of marking patterns.
There are many other situations where a plant or surface needs to be temporarily marked or painted, and then the marking substance or paint later removed without harming the plant or surface. Examples include the surveying industry, such as for road construction or the marking of underground cable, gas, or electrical lines. Other examples include decorative uses, such as Christmas trees or other holiday decorations.
Therefore, there is a need for a non-phytotoxic system of marking and removing plant and other surfaces.
The present invention provides a removable marking system. The system comprises a removable paint formulation comprising zinc oxide, water and an adjuvant, and an aqueous removal formulation having a pH of about 4 to 8, comprising an acid and a buffering agent.
The present invention further provides method of using the system described above by applying the paint formulation and removal formulation to a plant or non-living surface.
The invention is described with reference to various specific embodiments and techniques, however, it should be understood that these specific embodiments and techniques are non-limiting, and that many variations and modifications may be made while remaining within the scope of the invention.
In general, paint compositions used in many industries, including the turf and surveying industries, function by depositing a layer of pigment onto a substrate such as turf or other plants, the ground, rocks, buildings, or other structures. The pigment is typically suspended or solubilized within a carrier fluid that volatilizes or dries after the paint composition is applied, leaving behind a hardened pigment film. Thus, the key performance characteristic of both organic solvent-based and water-based paints is to deposit a permanent film for decoration and/or demarcation. Further, current paints that are designed for application onto plants, such as marking paint for grass on ball fields, contain organic solvents that remove the natural waxy layer on the surface of the grass so that the paint permanently adheres to the plant. Thus, it is not possible to remove these paints from the surface of the blades of grass without harming the grass.
By contrast, the paint formulation of the present invention is non-phytotoxic. In other words, the paint can be applied to the surfaced of a targeted plant and not harm or kill the plant. The paint formulations do not contain organic solvents, as these could potentially harm a target plant.
Further, a key performance characteristic of the paint of the present invention is to deposit a temporary film that easily may be removed without harming or discoloring the surface to which it had been applied. Thus, the aqueous paints of the invention can be used, for example, to mark turf on athletic fields. They may be used by surveyors and landscapers for ground marking, utility line identification or as road markers. Paints of the invention are also very useful for marking tanks and lumber for identification purposes. The paint of the present invention is preferred over presently available formulations in that if it were accidentally sprayed onto surrounding plants, it would not harm the plants, and could be readily removed from the plants without harming the plants.
The system of the present invention also provides a removal formulation that is non-phytotoxic and does not contain organic solvents. When the removal formulation is applied to the paint formulation of the present invention that has been applied to a living or non-living surface, the acid in the removal formulation combines with the zinc oxide to produce harmless zinc acetate. The paint formulations and removal formulations will be described in detail below, as well as a description of the method of using the paint and removal formulation.
I. Paint Formulations
The paint formulations of the present invention are water-based and contain zinc oxide. Zinc oxide is useful because it is relatively inexpensive and is commercially available from several suppliers (e.g., Aldrich Chemical Company, Milwaukee, Wis., U.S.A. and the Sigma Chemical Company, St. Louis, Mo., U.S.A.). Zinc oxide is also useful because it is white, the preferred color for most athletic fields. Also, colored pigments can be easily added to the paint formulation if other colors are desired. Colored pigments useful in the formulations of the invention are readily available from commercial suppliers. The zinc oxide of the present invention is present in the paint formulation at a concentration in the range of about 10% to 30%. In particular, the concentration of the zinc oxide is about 20%.
A propellant can be combined with aqueous paint suspensions of the invention to provide an aqueous aerosol paint. Suitable propellants do not react with any of the other components of the paint and do not adversely affect the film-forming properties of the paint when sprayed onto a substrate surface. For example, the propellant can be condensed air, or CO2. The paints of the invention may be formed by adding an amount of aqueous paint suspensions into an aerosol can or tube, crimping a valve onto the shoulder of the can or tube, drawing a vacuum on the sealed and filled can or tube, and then charging the filled can or tube through the valve stem with an appropriate amount of propellant.
An adjuvant, also called a surfactant in the industry, is added to the paint formulation and/or removal formulation. Such adjuvants assist in allowing the paint or removal formulation to be evenly spread onto the target surface and to prevent it from beading up on the target surface. The adjuvant also assists in having the paint remain adhered to the target surface, such as grass, even if it comes into contact with another surface, such as the feet of a soccer player. The adjuvant also assists in having the paint in being xe2x80x9crainfast,xe2x80x9d i.e., the paint remains oh the target surface through a rain or irrigation event. The adjuvant used in the present invention includes spray adjuvants. In particular, the adjuvant is a non-ionic spreader/sticker, including, but not limited to, synthetic latex and organosilicone surfactants: polymers of xcex1-pinene: alkanolamine surfactants, alkylaryl polyethoxyethanol sulfates, and 1,2-propanediol; and di-1-p-menthene. Examples of adjuvants useful in the present invention include COHERE(copyright) brand adjuvant alkanolamine surfactants, alkylaryl polyethoxyethanol sulfates, and 1,2-propanediol), TACTIC(copyright) brand adjuvant (synthetic latex and organosilicone surfactant fluid) LASTICK(copyright) brand adjuvant (di-1-p-menthene) and TRANSFIX(copyright) brand adjuvant (polymer of xcex1-pinene). COHERE(copyright) brand adjuvant is commercially available from Helena Chemical Company, Memphis, Tenn., USA; TACTIC(copyright) brand adjuvant is available adjuvant from Loveland Industries, CO, USA; LASTICK(copyright) brand adjuvant is available adjuvant from Helena; and TRANSFIX(copyright) brand adjuvant is available adjuvant from Cenex, MN, USA. In a preferred embodiment, COHERE(copyright) brand adjuvant is selected.
Thus, the removable paint formulation of the present invention is an aqueous paint that contains zinc oxide, an adjuvant, and optionally colored pigments and/or a propellant. It should be noted that the paint formulation of the present invention can adhere to the outer natural surface of a plant, such as the natural waxy substance on the surface of a blade of grass. It does not require the removal of this waxy substance in order to sufficiently adhere like other field paints that use organic solvents to permanently adhere the paint to the plant surface.
II. Removal Formulations
The removal formulations of the present invention are aqueous formulations with a pH of about 4 to 8 containing an acid and a buffering agent. The formulations may optionally contain a propellant. Like the paint formulation of the present invention, the removal formulation of the present invention is non-phytotoxic.
Acids useful in the present invention are weak acids. The preferred acid is acetic acid (e.g., Aldrich Chemical Company, Milwaukee, Wis., U.S.A. and the Sigma Chemical Company, St. Louis, Mo., U.S.A.). The acid in the removal formulation is present in a concentration range of about 3.5% to 6%. Preferably, the acid is present at a concentration of about 4.5%.
The pH of the removal formulation is important so that it does not harm the target plant. The range of the removal formulation should be about 4 to 8, even about 4.5 to 7.5. The preferred pH is about 6 to 6.5.
The buffering agent in the removal formulation can be a weak base. Preferably, the buffering agent is NH4OH. The buffering agent in the removal formulation is present in a concentration range of about 1.5% to 3%. Preferably, the buffering agent is present at a concentration of about 1.875%.
The removal formulation does not contain organic solvents, as these could harm a target plant.
III. Method of Use/Administration of Removable Marking System
The method of the present invention involves the application of a paint formulation of the present invention onto a plant or non-living surface, followed by the application of a removal formulation of the present invention. The removal formulation may be followed with a water drench. For example a wash step may be applied within about five minutes of the application of the removal formulation.
The paint and removal formulations may be administered repeatedly to the same target, such as a ball field. The paint and removal formulations will not harm a living surface, such as turf grass, even with repeated administrations.
When used herein, the term xe2x80x9cadministerxe2x80x9d includes, but is not limited to, the direct application of a paint formulation to a plant or non-living surface via spray, dusting, or direct application by hand. For purposes of this invention, the paint and/or removal formulations can be applied singly or repeatedly. The formulations can be applied as a liquid, as a crude mixture, or as an agronomic formation. Agronomic formulations include, for example, solutions, liquid suspensions, emulsions, wettable powders, dusts, emulsifiable concentrates, aerosols, and granular formulations. In general, the paint formulations are present in a dispersed or readily dispersible form. Dispersibility promotes thorough and uniform coverage of, or contact with, any plant or turf, or any target plot of soil. In some situations a wetting or dispersing agent, or other active ingredients may be added. The paint and/or removal formulations can be applied to the target surface through available turf marking paint equipment, or other commercially available applicators.
It will be understood, of course, that a choice of concentration of paint formulation depends upon the method of application as well as the type of formulation and the degree of decoration or demarcation desired.
The following examples are intended to illustrate but not limit the invention.
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Use of bispecific antibodies (bsAbs) to redirect effector T cells for the targeted killing of tumor cells has shown considerable promise both pre-clinically and clinically (see, e.g., Topp et al., 2012, Blood 120:5185-87; Bargou et al., 2008, Science 321:974-77). The bispecific antibodies developed to date contain a first binding site specific to CD3 for T-cell recruitment and activation and a second binding site for a targeted disease-associated antigen, such as CD19 (Bassan, 2012, Blood 120:5094-95). The bispecific antibody brings CD3+ T cells into direct contact with targeted disease cells and induces cell-mediated cytotoxicity (Bassan, 2012). Anti-CD3×anti-CD19 bispecific antibodies have been reported to produce a complete and durable molecular remission at very low concentrations in approximately 70% of adult patients with MRD+ ALL (Topp et al., 2012, Blood 120:5185-87). Bispecific antibodies recognizing gliomas and the CD3 epitope on T cells have been successfully used in treating brain tumors in human patients (Nitta, et al. Lancet 1990; 355:368-371).
Leukocyte redirecting bsAbs are not limited to T cells. The bispecific killer engagers (BiKEs) comprising scFvs against the NK cell antigen CD16 and a tumorassociated antigen (e.g., CD19, CD22, CD33) have also shown potent anti-cancer activity (e.g., Miller, Hematology Soc Hematol Educ Pogram 2013:247-53). Other alternatives include trispecific killer engagers (TriKEs), such as anti-CD16×anti-CD19×anti-CD22 (Miller, 2013; Gleason et al., 2012, Mol Cancer Ther 11:2674-84). An anti-CD16×anti-CD33 BiKE was used to treat AML and myelodysplastic syndrome (Miller, 2013; Wiernik et al., 2013, Clin Cancer Res 19:3844-55). In refractory AML, a CD16×CD33 BiKE led to potent tumor cell killing and cytokine production by NK cells. Inhibition of ADAM17 enhanced the CD16×CD33 BiKE response (Miller, 2013). Other trispecific, trivalent constructs, for example against CD16/CD19/HLA-DR, have been reported (Schubert et al., 2012, mAbs 4:45-56).
Numerous methods to produce bispecific antibodies are known (see, e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 7,405,320). Bispecific antibodies can be produced by the quadroma method, which involves the fusion of two different hybridomas, each producing a monoclonal antibody recognizing a different antigenic site (Milstein and Cuello, Nature 1983; 305:537-540). The fused hybridomas are capable of synthesizing two different heavy chains and two different light chains, which can associate randomly to give a heterogeneous population of 10 different antibody structures of which only one of them, amounting to ⅛ of the total antibody molecules, will be bispecific, and therefore must be further purified from the other forms. Fused hybridomas are often less stable cytogenetically than the parent hybridomas, making the generation of a production cell line more problematic.
Another method for producing bispecific antibodies uses heterobifunctional cross-linkers to chemically tether two different monoclonal antibodies, so that the resulting hybrid conjugate will bind to two different targets (Staerz, et al. Nature 1985; 314:628-631; Perez, et al. Nature 1985; 316:354-356). Bispecific antibodies generated by this approach are essentially heteroconjugates of two IgG molecules, which diffuse slowly into tissues and are rapidly removed from the circulation. Bispecific antibodies can also be produced by reduction of each of two parental monoclonal antibodies to the respective half molecules, which are then mixed and allowed to reoxidize to obtain the hybrid structure (Staerz and Bevan. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 1986; 83:1453-1457). An alternative approach involves chemically cross-linking two or three separately purified Fab′ fragments using appropriate linkers. All these chemical methods are undesirable for commercial development due to high manufacturing cost, laborious production process, extensive purification steps, low yields (<20%), and heterogeneous products.
Discrete VH and VL domains of antibodies produced by recombinant DNA technology may pair with each other to form a dimer (recombinant Fv fragment) with binding capability (U.S. Pat. No. 4,642,334). However, such non-covalently associated molecules are not sufficiently stable under physiological conditions to have any practical use. Cognate VH and VL domains can be joined with a peptide linker of appropriate composition and length (usually consisting of more than 12 amino acid residues) to form a single-chain Fv (scFv) with binding activity. Methods of manufacturing scFv-based agents of multivalency and multispecificity by varying the linker length were disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,844,094, 5,837,242 and WO 98/44001. Common problems that have been frequently associated with generating scFv-based agents of multivalency and multispecificity are low expression levels, heterogeneous products, instability in solution leading to aggregates, instability in serum, and impaired affinity.
Several bispecific antibodies targeting CD3 and CD19 are in clinical development. An scFv-based bispecific antibody construct, known as BITE® (Bispecific T-cell Engager), employs a single polypeptide containing 2 antigen-binding specificities, each contributed by a cognate VH and VL, linked in tandem via a flexible linker (see, e.g., Nagorsen et al., 2009, Leukemia & Lymphoma 50:886-91; Amann et al., 2009, J Immunother 32:453-64; Baeuerle and Reinhardt, 2009, Cancer Res 69:4941-44). Another bispecific antibody called DART® (Dual-Affinity Re-Targeting) utilizes a disulfide-stabilized diabody design (see, e.g., Moore et al., 2011, Blood 117:4542-51; Veri et al., 2010, Arthritis Rheum 62:1933-43). Both BITE® and DART® exhibit fast blood clearance due to their small size (˜55 kDa), which requires frequent administration to maintain therapeutic levels of the bispecific antibodies.
Interferons are critical role players in the antitumor and antimicrobial host defense, and have been extensively explored as therapeutic agents for cancer and infectious disease (Billiau et al., 2006, Cytokine Growth Factor Rev 17:381-409; Pestka et al., 2004, Immunol Rev 202:8-32). Despite considerable efforts with type I and II interferons (IFN-α/β and γ), their use in clinic settings have been limited because of the short circulation half-life, systemic toxicity, and suboptimal responses in patients (Pestka et al., 2004, Immunol Rev 202:8-32; Miller et al., 2009, Ann NY Acad Sci 1182:69-79). The discovery of the IFN-λ, family in early 2003 brought an exciting new opportunity to develop alternative IFN agents for these unmet clinical indications (Kotenko et al., 2003, Nat Immunol 4:69-77; Sheppard et al., 2003, Nat Immunol 4:63-8).
The therapeutic effectiveness of IFNs has been validated to date by the approval of IFN-α2 for treating hairy cell leukemia, chronic myelogenous leukemia, malignant melanoma, follicular lymphoma, condylomata acuminata, AIDs-related Kaposi sarcoma, and chronic hepatitis B and C; IFN-β for treating multiple sclerosis; and IFN-γ for treating chronic granulomatous disease and malignant osteopetrosis. Despite a vast literature on this group of autocrine and paracrine cytokines, their functions in health and disease are still being elucidated, including more effective and novel forms being introduced clinically (Pestka, 2007, J. Biol. Chem 282:20047-51; Vilcek, 2006, Immunity 25:343-48). The effects of combination of various interferons with antibody-based therapies also remain under investigation.
Antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) are a potent class of therapeutic constructs that allow targeted delivery of cytotoxic agents to target cells, such as cancer cells. Because of the targeting function, these compounds show a much higher therapeutic index compared to the same systemically delivered agents. ADCs have been developed as intact antibodies or antibody fragments, such as scFvs. The antibody or fragment is linked to one or more copies of drug via a linker that is stable under physiological conditions, but that may be cleaved once inside the target cell. ADCs approved for therapeutic use include gemtuzumab ozogamicin for AML (subsequently withdrawn from the market), brentuximab vedotin for ALCL and Hodgkin lymphoma, and trastuzumab emtansine for HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer (Verma et al., 2012, N Engl J Med 367:1783-91; Bross et al., 2001, Clin Cancer Res 7:1490-96; Francisco et al., 2003, Blood 102:1458-65). Numerous other candidate ADCs are currently in clinical testing, such as inotuzumab ozogamicin (Pfizer), glembatumomab vedotin (Celldex Therapeutics), SAR3419 (Sanofi-Aventis), SAR56658 (Sanofi-Aventis), AMG-172 (Amgen), AMG-595 (Amgen), BAY-94-9343 (Bayer), BIIB015 (Biogen Idec), BT062 (Biotest), SGN-75 (Seattle Genetics), SGN-CD19A (Seattle Genetics), vorsetuzumab mafodotin (Seattle Genetics), ABT-414 (AbbVie), ASG-5ME (Agensys), ASG-22ME (Agensys), ASG-16M8F (Agensys), IMGN-529 (ImmunoGen), IMGN-853 (ImmunoGen), MDX-1203 (Medarex), MLN-0264 (Millenium), RG-7450 (Roche/Genentech), RG-7458 (Roche/Genentech), RG-7593 (Roche/Genentech), RG-7596 (Roche/Genentech), RG-7598 (Roche/Genentech), RG-7599 (Roche/Genentech), RG-7600 (Roche/Genentech), RG-7636 (Roche/Genentech), anti-PSMA ADC (Progenics), lorvotuzumab mertansine (ImmunoGen), milatuzumab-doxorubicin (Immunomedics), IMMU-130 (Immunomedics), IMMU-132 (Immunomedics) and antibody conjugates of pro-2-pyrrolinodoxorubicin. (See, e.g., Li et al., 2013, Drug Disc Ther 7:178-84; Firer & Gellerman, J Hematol Oncol 5:70; Beck et al., 2010, Discov Med 10:329-39; Mullard, 2013, Nature Rev Drug Discovery 12:329, Provisional U.S. Patent Application 61/761,845.) Because of the potential of ADCs to act as potent anti-cancer agents with reduced systemic toxicity, they may be used either alone or as an adjunct therapy to reduce tumor burden.
Another promising approach to immunotherapy concerns use of antagonistic antibodies against immune checkpoint proteins (e.g., Pardoll, 2012, Nature Reviews Cancer 12:252-64). Immune checkpoints function as endogenous inhibitory pathways for immune system function that act to maintain self-tolerance and to modulate the duration and extent of immune response to antigenic stimulation (Pardoll, 2012). However, it appears that tumor tissues and possibly certain pathogens may co-opt the checkpoint system to reduce the effectiveness of host immune response, resulting in tumor growth and/or chronic infection (see, e.g., Pardoll, 2012, Nature Reviews Cancer 12:252-64; Nirschl & Drake, 2013, Clin Cancer Res 19:4917-24). Checkpoint molecules include CTLA4 (cytotoxic T lymphocyte antigen-4), PD1 (programmed cell death protein 1), PD-L1 (programmed cell death ligand 1), LAG-3 (lymphocyte activation gene-3), TIM-3 (T cell immunoglobulin and mucin protein-3) and several others (Pardoll, 2012, Nature Reviews Cancer 12:252-64; Nirschl & Drake, 2013, Clin Cancer Res 19:4917-24). Antibodies against several of the checkpoint proteins (CTLA4, PD1, PD-L1) are in clinical trials and has shown unexpected efficacy against tumors that were resistant to standard treatments.
A need exists for methods and compositions to generate improved bispecific antibody complexes with longer T1/2, better pharmacokinetic properties, increased in vivo stability and/or improved in vivo efficacy. A further need exists for combination therapies to improve efficacy of treatments directed to inducing immune response against various diseases, such as cancer or infectious disease.
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Customer service counters with specialized equipment may be used in airports and other settings. Customer service counters in an airport may be used, for example, for ticketing, check-in, and baggage drop off services. Such counters may typically include one or more work surfaces for a worker at the counter as well as one or more work surfaces for a customer. The counter will typically include equipment for the attendant to use including a computer including a display and specialized equipment such as one or more printers for baggage tags, tickets and/or boarding passes, etc.
The layout and/or configuration of equipment at a counter may need to be customized or changed for different workers (e.g. between shifts) or in order to perform different customer services using the counter. For example, it may be desirable to swap out equipment at the counter. However, it may be cumbersome and/or arduous to make such equipment changes in conventional counters.
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1. Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure relates to storing food items, and more particularly, to a method for providing consumers with a kit for relatively long term freezer storage by home consumers of bulk purchased food items.
2. Background of the Related Art
Buying food items in large quantities typically provides cheaper options for consumers. Further, bulk packaging at the retail point of sale is also recognized as a more environmentally friendly delivery method. However, for perishable items, home storage and consumption before spoiling can be challenging. Despite storage in a refrigerator or even a freezer, spoilage from freezer burn and the like can reduce the benefits of bulk buying and even prevent consumers from utilizing such efficient methods.
In an effort to overcome food storage challenges, a great deal of technology has been developed. For example, vacuum bags, double layer bags, and bags with specialized preservative inner coatings have been developed to help maintain freshness and/or provide enhanced storage and protection. See U.S. Pat. No. 5,704,670 issued on Jan. 6, 1998 entitled Glove Bag; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,394,652 issued on May 28, 2002 entitled Flexible Bags Having Stretch-To-Fit Conformity To Closely Accommodate Contents In Use. Also see U.S. Patent Application Publication Nos.: 2002/0064582 published on May 30, 2002 entitled Shelf Stable Food Product And Mix Kit; 2003/0232112 published on Dec. 18, 2003 entitled Packaging System Assembly For Carry-Out Food; and 2005/0281921 published on Dec. 22, 2005 entitled Multiple-Option Meal Kit.
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Some of the refrigerating air conditioners for use in air conditioners or refrigerating machines comprise, in order to improve the COP (Coefficient of Performance), a main compressor for compressing a refrigerant and an expander including an expansion mechanism for expanding the refrigerant and a sub-compression mechanism for converting the expansion energy in the expansion mechanism into a mechanical energy. In such the refrigerating air conditioner, in order to prevent the decrease in the reliability of the main compressor and the expander due to the sticking or abnormal wear of the machine parts, the oil levels in the main compressor and the expander must be regulated so that shortage of the lubricating oil does not occur.
Therefore, in the conventional refrigerating air conditioner, the pressure within the hermetic vessel of the main compressor is arranged to be maintained at the suction pressure, the suction pipe to the main compression mechanism is disposed within the hermetic vessel, its opening portion is positioned above the oil level of the lubricating oil maintained in the hermetic vessel, and an oil recovery hole is provided below the opening portion and at the upper limit position of the adequate oil level within the hermetic vessel of the main compressor (see Patent Document 1, for example).
Also proposed is a refrigerating air conditioner having a first compressor and a second compressor and an equalizing oil pipe communicating the bottom portion of the first compressor with the bottom portion of the second compressor is provided (see Patent Document 2 and Patent Document 3, for example).
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-325019 (page 8, FIGS. 8 and 9).
Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 7-103594 (pages 3-4, FIG. 1).
Patent Document 3: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 6-109337, (page 3, FIG. 1)
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Numerous rhodamine and fluorescein dyes are available that are useful for labeling nucleic acids, proteins and other molecules. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,184,379 and 6,552,199; European Patent Publications 0 543 333 and 0 567 622, and references cited therein.
Labeling methods for attaching rhodamine and fluorescein dyes and other non-radioactive compounds to various molecules are well developed. Non-radioactive labeling methods were initially developed to attach signal-generating groups onto proteins. This was achieved by modifying labels with chemical groups such that they would be capable of reacting with the amine, thiol, and hydroxyl groups that are naturally present on proteins. Examples of reactive groups that were used for this purpose include activated esters such as N-hydroxysuccinimide esters, isothiocyanates and other compounds. Consequently, when it became desirable to label nucleotides and nucleic acids by non-radioactive means, methods were developed to convert nucleotides and polynucleotides into a form that made them functionally similar to proteins. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 4,711,955 discloses the addition of amines to the 8-position of a purine, the 5-position of a pyrimidine and the 7-position of a deazapurine. The same methods that could add a label to the amine group of a protein could thus be applied towards these modified nucleotides.
Dyes have been synthesized with arms containing functional groups with iodoacetamide, isothiocyanate or succinimidyl esters that react with sulfhydryl groups on proteins (Ernst et al., 1989; Mujumdar, et al., 1989; Southwick, et al., 1990). Another series of modified dyes contain a sulfonate group on the phenyl portion of an indolenine ring that increased the water solubility of the dyes (Mujumdar et al., 1993). Those dyes were activated by treatment with disuccinimidyl carbonate to form succinimidyl esters that were then used to label proteins by substitution at the amine groups. Other activating groups have also been placed on dyes. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,627,027 and 5,268,486 describe dyes which comprise isothiocyanate, isocyanate, monochlorotriazine, dichlorotriazine, mono or di-halogen substituted pyridine, mono or di-halogen substituted diazine, aziridine, sulfonyl halide, acid halide, hydroxy-succinimide ester, hydroxy-sulfosuccinimide ester, imido esters, glyoxal groups, aldehydes or other groups, all of which can form a covalent bond with an amine, thiol or hydroxyl group on a target molecule.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,110,630 describes cyanine dyes prepared with a series of reactive groups derived from N-hydroxynaphthalimide. These groups include hydroxysuccinimide, para-nitrophenol, N-hydroxyphtalimide and N-hydroxynaphtalimide, all of which can react with nucleotides modified with primary amines. The same chemical reactions described above were also described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,114,350 where the constituents where reversed. There, the cyanine dyes were modified with amine, sulfhydryl or hydroxyl groups and the target molecules were modified to comprise the appropriate reactive groups.
Labeled nucleotides have been used for the synthesis of DNA and RNA probes in many enzymatic methods including terminal transferase labeling, nick translation, random priming, reverse transcription, RNA transcription and primer extension. Labeled phosphoramidite versions of these nucleotides have also been used with automated synthesizers to prepare labeled oligonucleotides. The resulting labeled probes are widely used in such standard procedures as northern blotting, Southern blotting, in situ hybridization, RNAse protection assays, DNA sequencing reactions, DNA and RNA microarray analysis and chromosome painting.
There is an extensive literature on chemical modification of nucleic acids by means of which a signal moiety is directly or indirectly attached to a nucleic acid. Primary concerns of this art have been (a) which site in a nucleic acid is used for attachment, i.e. sugar, base or phosphate or analogues thereof, and whether these sites are disruptive or non-disruptive (see, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,711,955 and 5,241,060); (b) the chemistry at the site of attachment that allows linkage to a reactive group or signaling moiety that can comprise a spacer group usually consisting of a single aromatic group (U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,952,685 and 5,013,831) or a carbon/carbon aliphatic chain to provide distance between the nucleic acid and the reactive group or signaling moiety and a reactive group at the end of the spacer, such as an OH, NH, SH or some other group that can allow coupling to a signaling moiety; and (c) the nature of the signaling moiety.
Although the foregoing have all been descriptions of the various aspects that are concerned with the synthesis of modified nucleotides and polynucleotides, they have also been shown to be significant factors with regard to the properties of the resultant nucleotides and polynucleotides. Indeed, there have been numerous demonstrations that the modified nucleotides described in the present art have shortcomings compared to unmodified nucleotides. These factors can have a major impact on the ability of these modified nucleotides to be incorporated by polymerases. A consequence of this is that when using a modified base as the sole source of that particular nucleotide, there may be a loss in the amount of nucleic acid synthesis compared to a reaction with unmodified nucleotides. As a result, modified nucleotides are often employed as part of a mixture of modified and unmodified versions of a given nucleotide. Although this restores synthesis to levels comparable to reactions without any modified nucleotides, a bias is often seen against the use of the modified version of the nucleotide. As such, the final proportion of modified/unmodified nucleotide may be much lower than the ratio of the reagents at the beginning of the reaction. Users then have a choice of either using nucleic acids that are minimally labeled or of decreased yields. When comparable modified nucleotides are used that only comprise a linker arm attached to a base (such as allylamine dUTP) difficulties with incorporation are seldom seen. As such, the foregoing problem is likely to be due to the interactions of the label with either the polymerase or the active site where synthesis is taking place.
Difficulties in the use of polymerases can be bypassed by the use of oligonucleotide synthesizers where an ordered chemical joining of e.g., phosphoramidite derivatives of nucleotides can be used to produce labeled nucleic acids of interest. However, the presence of signal agents on modified nucleotides can still be problematic in this system. For instance, a phosphoramidite of a modified nucleotide may display a loss of coupling efficiency as the chain is extended. Although this may be problematic in itself, multiple and especially successive use of modified nucleotides in a sequence for a synthetic oligonucleotide can result in a drastic cumulative loss of product. Additionally, chemical synthesis is in itself not always an appropriate solution. There may be circumstances where labeled nucleic acids need to be of larger lengths than is practical for a synthesizer. Also, an intrinsic part of synthetic approaches is a necessity for a discrete sequence for the nucleic acid. For many purposes, a pool or library of nucleic acids would require an impractically large number of different species for synthetic approaches.
An example of a method to increase the yield of labeled oligonucleotides or polynucleotide is to use a non-interfering group such as an allylamine modified analogue during synthesis by either a polymerase or an oligonucleotide synthesizer. Labeling is then carried out post-synthetically by attachment of the desired group through the chemically reactive allylamine moieties. However, in this case, although incorporation or coupling efficiency may be restored, there may still be problems of the coupling efficiencies of attachment of the desired group to the allylamine. For instance, coupling of labels to allylamine moieties in a nucleic acid is dramatically less efficient for double-stranded DNA compared to single-stranded targets. In addition to potential yield problems, the functionality of the modification may be affected by how it is attached to a base. For instance if a hapten is attached to a base, the nature of the arm separating the hapten from the base may affect its accessibility to a potential binding partner. When a signal generating moiety is attached through a base, the nature of the arm may also affect interactions between the signal generating moiety and the nucleotide and polynucleotide.
Attempts to limit these deleterious interactions have been carried out in several ways. For instance, attachment of the arm to the base has been carried out with either a double bond alkene group (U.S. Pat. No. 4,711,955) or a triple bond alkyne group (U.S. Pat. No. 5,047,519) thereby inducing a directionality of the linker away from the nucleotide or polynucleotide. In addition, deleterious interactions can be limited by having the arm displace the active or signal group away from the nucleotide or polynucleotide by lengthening the spacer group. For instance, a commercially available modified nucleotide includes a seven carbon aliphatic chain (Cat. No. 42724, ENZO Biochem, Inc. New York, N.Y.) between the base and a biotin moiety used for signal generation. This product was further improved by the substitution of linkers with 11 or even 16 carbon lengths (Cat. Nos. 42722 and 42723, ENZO Biochem, Inc. New York, N.Y.). A comparison was also carried out using different length linker arms and a cyanine dye labeled nucleotide (Zhu et al., 1994). A direct improvement in efficiency was noted as the length was increased from 10 to 17 and from 17 to 24.
Another approach was taken in U.S. Pat. No. 5,948,648, which describes the use of multiple alkyne or aromatic groups connecting a marker to a nucleotide.
It is noted that the above-described difficulties do not occur with the use of polymerases with labeled probes (e.g., labeled phosphoramidite probes), where the probes are extended along a template using unmodified nucleotides or derivatives, since the polymerase does not encounter the label-modified nucleotide during the extension reaction. Thus, probes that are utilized in extension reactions and are synthesized chemically can employ a greater variety of conjugation methods and linkers than oligonucleotides or polynucleotides that are labeled enzymatically.
Amplification of nucleic acids from clinical samples has become a widely used technique. The first methodology for this process, the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,683,202. Since that time, other methodologies such as Ligation Chain Reaction (LCR) (U.S. Pat. No. 5,494,810), GAP-LCR (U.S. Pat. No. 6,004,286), Nucleic Acid Sequence Based Amplification (NASBA) (U.S. Pat. No. 5,130,238), Strand Displacement Amplification (SDA) (U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,270,184 and 5,455,166) and Loop Mediated Amplification (U.S. Pat. No. 6,743,605; European Patent Publication 0 971 039) have been described. Detection of an amplified product derived from the appropriate target has been carried out in number of ways. In PCR as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,683,202, gel analysis was used to detect the presence of a discrete nucleic acid species. Identification of this species as being indicative of the presence of the intended target was determined by size assessment and the use of negative controls lacking the target sequence. The placement of the primers used for amplification dictated a specific size for the product from appropriate target sequence. Spurious amplification products made from non-target sequences were unlikely to have the same size product as the target derived sequence. Alternatively, more elaborate methods have been used to examine the particular nature of the sequences that are present in the amplification product. For instance, restriction enzyme digestion has been used to determine the presence, absence or spatial location of specific sequences. The presence of the appropriate sequences has also been established by hybridization experiments. In this method, the amplification product can be used as either the target or as a probe.
The foregoing detection methods have historically been used after the amplification reaction was completed. More recently, methods have been described for measuring the extent of synthesis during the course of amplification, i.e. “real-time” detection. For instance, in the simplest system, an intercalating agent is present during the amplification reaction (U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,994,056 and 6,174,670). This method takes advantage of an enhancement of fluorescence exhibited by the binding of an intercalator to double-stranded nucleic acids. Measurement of the amount of fluorescence can take place post-synthetically in a fluorometer after the reaction is over, or real time measurements can be carried out during the course of the reaction by using a PCR cycler machine that is equipped with a fluorescence detection system and uses capillary tubes for the reactions (U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,455,175 and 6,174,670). As the amount of double-stranded material rises during the course of amplification, the amount of signal also increases. The sensitivity of this system depends upon a sufficient amount of double-stranded nucleic acid being produced to generate a signal that is distinguishable from the fluorescence of a) unbound intercalator and b) intercalator molecules bound to single-stranded primers in the reaction mix. Specificity is derived from the nature of the amplification reaction itself or by looking at a Tm profile of the reaction products. Although the initial work was done with ethidium bromide, SYBR Green™ is more commonly used at the present time. A variation of this system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,323,337, where the primers used in PCR reactions were modified with quenchers thereby reducing signal generation of a fluorescent intercalator that was bound to a primer dimer molecule. Signal generation from target derived amplicons could still take place since amplicons derived from target sequences comprised intercalators bound to segments that were sufficiently distant from the quenchers.
Another method of analysis that depends upon incorporation is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,866,336. In that system, signal generation is dependent upon the incorporation of primers into double-stranded amplification products. The primers are designed such that they have extra sequences added onto their 5′ ends. In the absence of amplification, stem-loop structures are formed through intramolecular hybridization that consequently bring an energy transfer (FRET) quencher into proximity with an energy donor thereby preventing fluorescence. However, when a primer becomes incorporated into double-stranded amplicons, the quencher and donor become physically separated and the donor is then able to produce a fluorescent signal. The specificity of this system depends upon the specificity of the amplification reaction itself. Since the stem-loop sequences are derived from extra sequences, the Tm profile of signal generation is the same whether the amplicons were derived from the appropriate target molecules or from non-target sequences.
In addition to incorporation based assays, probe based systems can also be used for real-time analysis. For instance, a dual probe system can be used in a homogeneous assay to detect the presence of appropriate target sequences. In this method, one probe comprises an energy donor and the other probe comprises an energy acceptor (European Patent Publication 0 070 685). Thus, when the target sequence is present, the two probes can bind to adjacent sequences and allow energy transfer to take place. In the absence of target sequences, the probes remain unbound and no energy transfer takes place. Even if by chance there are non-target sequences in a sample that are sufficiently homologous that binding of one or both probes takes place, no signal is generated since energy transfer requires that both probes bind and that they be in a particular proximity to each other. Advantage of this system has been taken in U.S. Pat. No. 6,174,670 for real time detection of PCR amplification using the capillary tube equipped PCR machine described previously. The primer annealing step during each individual cycle can also allow the simultaneous binding of each probe to target sequences providing an assessment of the presence and amount of the target sequences. In a further refinement of this method, one of the primers comprises an energy transfer element and a single energy transfer probe is used. Labeled probes have also been used in conjunction with fluorescent intercalators to allow the specificity of the probe methodology to be combined with the enhancement of fluorescence derived from binding to nucleic acids. This was first described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,868,103 and later described with amplification reactions in PCT Publication WO 99/28500.
Probes have also been used that comprise an energy donor and an energy acceptor in the same nucleic acid. In these assays, the energy acceptor “quenches” fluorescent energy emission in the absence of appropriate complementary targets. In one system described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,118,801, “molecular beacons” are used where the energy donor and the quencher are kept in proximity by secondary structures with internal base pairing. When the target sequences are present, complementary sequences in the molecular beacons allow hybridization events that destroy the secondary structure thereby allowing energy emission. In another system that has been termed Taqman, use is made of the double-stranded selectivity of the exonuclease activity of Taq polymerase (U.S. Pat. No. 5,210,015). When target molecules are present, hybridization of the probe to complementary sequences converts the single-stranded probe into a substrate for the exonuclease. Degradation of the probe separates an energy transfer donor from the quencher thereby releasing light from the donor.
U.S. Patent Publication 2005/0137388 also describes various formats for utilization of FRET interactions for various nucleic acid assays.
Because fluorescent dyes are used widely, e.g., for labeling nucleic acids, proteins and other molecules, there is an ongoing need for new dyes to provide more options for labeling methods and linker arm selections, spectral profiles and energy transfer (FRET) pair selection. The present invention addresses that need.
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a novel electrocaloric material.
2. Description of the Related Art
When an electric field is applied to an electrocaloric material, heat is released from the electrocaloric material to the outside thereof. As a result, the temperature of the electrocaloric material rises. On the other hand, when the application of the electric field to the electrocaloric material is stopped, the temperature of the electrocaloric material lowers. As a result, the electrocaloric material absorbs heat from the outside thereof.
J. F. Scott, “Electrocaloric Materials”, Annual Review Materials Research, 2011, Vol. 41, p. 229-240 discloses electrocaloric materials. FIG. 4 is a duplicate of FIG. 3(a) included in J. F. Scott, “Electrocaloric Materials”, Annual Review Materials Research, 2011, Vol. 41, p. 229-240. In FIG. 4, the electrocaloric element is in contact with a constant temperature heater which is maintained at approximately 294.8 K. Right after an electric field of 300 kV/cm is applied to the electrocaloric element, the temperature of the electrocaloric element rises to approximately 295.2 K. Since the electrocaloric element is in contact with the constant temperature heater, the temperature of the electrocaloric element gradually returns to approximately 294.8 K. After the temperature of the electrocaloric element returns to 294.8 K, the application of the electric field to the electrocaloric element is stopped. Right after the application of the electric field is stopped, the temperature of the electrocaloric element lowers to approximately 294.4 K. Since the electrocaloric element is in contact with the constant temperature heater, the temperature of the electrocaloric element gradually returns to approximately 294.8 K.
Xinyu Li, et al. “Pyroelectric and electrocaloric materials”, Journal of Materials Chemistry C, 2013, vol. 1, p. 23-27 discloses using ceramics and organic materials as the materials of the electrocaloric element.
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The present invention relates to an archery broadhead system or more specifically to an archery broadhead having primary blades that are axially offset from the central axis of the arrow and having cutting paths that are connected by a central bleeder blade. The archery broadhead of the present invention creating a “Z” shaped penetration.
Early in the evolution of hunting, man certainly recognized that a sharpened stick could be used to harvest an animal, and somewhere shortly thereafter, they found that by attaching a shaped stone point to the stick, a larger more lethal opening could be inflicted. This allowed them to more effectively harvest game, challenge larger animals and ultimately allow the species of man to survive. This record is clearly recorded in petroglyphs, rock painting and the numberless obsidian, slate and flint arrowheads scattered across the globe. The obsidian points of Neolithic man and the American Indians are the ancient predecessors of the modern broadhead.
Modern two blade broadhead points are typically triangular in shape with the point in front and extending back toward the arrow shaft. The broadhead blades are razor sharp and approximately two inches long and an inch wide at the base, this shape allows for maximum penetration into the animals vital organs; the planer blades slicing through blood vessel and veins and opening a large wound path which allows the animal to “bleed out” quickly and die with minimal suffering. However, since the two blade broadhead creates a substantially planer cutting path, the blades may enter the animal aligned parallel with surface of an organ or, length of a vein, and may pass very close to the vital structure without actually cutting into the structure and creating the necessary bleeding for a quick kill. Because of this issue, there are broadhead points that have three or four fixed blades, or replaceable “bleeder blades”, which create an off plane cutting path to intercept vital structures as the arrow penetrates the animal.
Also, when analyzing broadhead cutting paths and effectiveness, it logically occurs that a wider broadhead will create a larger cutting path, with a higher likelihood of intercepting vital structures. However, there are limitations to broadhead width, if a broadhead becomes too wide the surface area of the broadhead will have a propensity to steer the arrow and create a less accurate or even unpredictable flight. To overcome this, the industry has introduced numerous mechanical broadhead points, having one or more blades that retract against the broadhead body or ferrule and mechanically extend to wide cutting width once the arrow impacts the target, such as the broadhead point of US Patent Application 20140155202, filed Mar. 15, 2013 by Young. However, the limitations of this type of broadhead include durability once the moving blades have contacted a target, difficulty in manufacture and overall cost of the broadhead.
The durability issue also arises when a broadhead point strikes a heavy bone in the animal. Most blades or points will slice through rib bones and will cause a heavy bone such a leg bone or hip to fracture. These strikes may be effective at stopping a large animal but will cause a broadhead with replaceable blades to come apart, leaving a lost blade or portion of blade in meat that is intended for consumption and again broken blades are a cost consideration. Also, if a bone is struck on entry and the replaceable blades are broken off, the remaining ferrule point will no longer effectively cut a wound channel as the arrow penetrates and the wounded animal may be lost. There are some heavy cast or forged broadhead points that are designed to break through bone, such as, the point of U.S. Pat. No. 8,771,113, filed Feb. 5, 2013 issued to Patton. Weight versus the overall size and cutting path of the broadhead may become an issue.
What is needed is an archery broadhead system that creates an effective cutting path, has effective penetration, accurate, easily manufactured and durable.
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In recent years, the development of a through-electrode substrate arranged with a conducting part which conducts the front and rear surfaces of a substrate as an interposer between LSI chips is progressing. A through-electrode is formed in such a through-electrode substrate by filling a conductive material into a through-hole by electrolytic plating. As a conventional technology of a through-electrode substrate, a through-electrode substrate manufactured using a SOI wafer for example is disclosed (see Japanese Laid Open Patent Publication No. 2005-38942). This through-electrode substrate is arranged with a blind via hole having a depth which reaches a buried insulation layer in a support substrate layer of a SOI wafer, and a through-electrode is arranged by forming an inner wall insulation layer on an inner wall of the blind via hole. In addition, a contact hole is arranged in a section corresponding to a through-electrode in a buried insulation layer exposed by removal of a silicon layer.
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3D mesh models are usually composed of triangles, each of which are represented by associated position, colour and normal components. The position is given by floating-point coordinates of its three corners, or vertices. Each vertex has a normal component associated, which is also a floating-point value. The normal component gives the spatial vertex orientation. In compressing such 3D mesh models, each of the position, colour and normal components are separately compressed. [D95]1 describes such compression. In [D95], a normal sphere, on which the end points of unit normals lie, is divided into eight octants and each octant consists of six sextants. Further subdividing a sextant, normals are referenced by the mean of the normal on the 1/48 sphere. However, the approach given in [D95] is only suitable when the model normals are spherically uniform distributed. Based on the observation that normals of 3D mesh models are usually not evenly distributed, [DYH02]2 proposes k-means clustering of normals for improved compression. However, in this approach the number of clusters k is fixed. Moreover, it always a hard task to decide k beforehand. Further, advantages available in [D95], such as the normal encoding parameterization, are not available any more in [DYK02].
Complex 3D mesh models are composed of several components, which are called connected components. These are defined in SBM013 as follows. Two polygons are neighbouring polygons if they share an edge. There exists a path between polygons pi and pj if there is a sequence of neighbouring polygons. A subset Oc of the mesh model O is called a connected component if there exists a path between any two polygons in Oc. Such mesh model is called a multi-connected model. Further, for multi-connected models, an effective compression scheme may discover the repeating features and then compress the transformation data. The orientations are one of the important parts of transformations data.
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(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a non-chromate metal surface treating composition for increasing the adhesion of a metal's surface to any one of a group of layers applied thereto, such as corrosion resistant layers, and method of applying same. More particularly, the present invention relates to a metal surface etching solution wherein a chromate, such as sodium dichromate dehydrate, or an oxide of chromium, such as chromium trioxide, is replaced with a titanate, namely sodium metatitanate or an oxide of titanium, namely, titanium dioxide, respectively.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
It is known that solutions containing hexavalent chromium can be used to treat the surface of a metal as etching agents to increase the adhesion of layers which are subsequently applied thereto, such as protective coatings. However, although hexavalent chromium-containing solutions are efficient etching agents, they are also highly toxic and adversely affect the environment and human health. For this reason, many chromate-free solutions for treating metal surfaces have been proposed.
Thus, various non-chromate metal surface treatments, such as disclosed in Tomlinson U.S. Pat. No. 5,759,244, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein, have been disclosed which can increase the adhesion of a metal's surface to a layer subsequently applied thereto. Many of these metal treatments are based on group IV-B metals such as titanium, zirconium and hafnium. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,868,872 to Karmaschek et al discloses a chromium-free aqueous bath solution for non-rinse treatment of aluminum and its alloys. The solution comprises zirconium and titanium, orthophosphate, fluoride and a water-soluble or homogeneously water-dispersible organic film former. When applied, the solution is dried on the surface of the aluminum without rinsing. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 5,897,716 to Reghi et al discloses a chemically and thermally stable chromate-free aqueous liquid treatment for metals which increases the adhesion of protective layers to the metals' surfaces. The chromate-free aqueous liquid comprises components selected from the group consisting of H2TiF6, H2ZrF6, H2HfF6, H2SiF6, H2GeF6, H2SnF6, HBF4, and mixtures thereof.
The shortcoming of conventional non-chromate metal surface treatments, such as those described above, is that they cannot be integrated into and employed in place of chromium-containing compounds in current metal treatment solutions which otherwise would contain chromium. As such, conventional non-chromate metal surface treatments are usually so different from previously employed chromate-containing metal surface treatments that significant changes are required to be made in the metal treating process and in the production of the metal surface treatment itself. These changes can amount substantial expenditures and usually require additional approval from Department of the Navy. Thus, there is a need for “drop-in replacements” that can be employed in place of chromium-containing compounds, such as sodium dichromate, now used in conventional chromate-containing metal treatment solutions. “Drop-in replacement” refers to a compound that can be employed in a metal surface treatment solution in lieu of a chromium-containing compound without requiring any or substantial changes in the make-up of the metal surface treatment process or metal surface treatment solution.
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Carrier aggregation allows increased bandwidth and, as such, increased data rates to a user equipment by aggregating carriers. For example, a user equipment may be allocated a primary carrier serving a primary cell (PCell) and one or more secondary carriers serving corresponding secondary cells (SCells). These carriers may be continuous within the same frequency band, non-contiguous within a given frequency band, or non-contiguous among frequency bands.
Blind SCell configuration refers to a network configuring one or more SCells for a user equipment, without the user equipment first detecting and/or reporting the SCells to the network. As such, before the user equipment detects and/or reports a cell to the network, the network has blindly configured the cell as a SCell for the user equipment, so the SCell is available for the user equipment when the user equipment subsequently detects SCell and SCell is activated. Although the network knows when configuring a given SCell blindly that the user equipment has not yet detected the SCell, the network presumes the user equipment (given its current location based on for example a current serving PCell) will at some point detect the SCell and activate the SCell to enable data transmission through the SCell.
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The present invention relates to an improved apparatus and method for placing a flexible tubular membrane within a body passage to shield the passage from abrasion by an instrument which is later passed through the membrane.
The invention is particularly concerned with such a membrane or sheath which may be used to accommodate the passage of instruments into delicate body passages for diagnostic or therapeutic purposes. The passages ay take the form of open body passages, such as the urethra, or normally closed body passages such as blood vessels and arteries which are entered percutaneously.
In the prior art, various techniques have been used to reduce the friction between a body passage and an instrument introduced into the passage. The most common of these use pre-dilation of the passage and/or lubrication of the instrument. Although these reduce friction between the instrument and the walls of the body passage, they do not eliminate it. Another technique is to line the body passage with a membrane or sheath which shields the passage from the instrument. With this technique, the instrument is passed through the sheath and friction between the body passage and the instrument is eliminated. U.S. Pat. No. 4,493,711 discloses a TUBULAR EXTRUSION CATHETER which provides such a membrane or sheath.
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1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an endoscope system including a light source apparatus for supplying illumination light to an endoscope in which light adjustment is controlled according to an upgraded sequence.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, an endoscope having an elongated insertion unit has prevailed in the field of medicine. The insertion unit is inserted into a body cavity and thus enabling diagnosis of a lesion or the like in the body cavity without the necessity of incising it, or if necessary, enabling insertion of a treatment instrument into the body cavity for the purpose of cure.
Illumination light emanating from a light source apparatus or the like is propagated to the distal part of the insertion unit over a light guide or the like. The illumination light is irradiated to an object region such as a lesion via an illumination optical system through the distal part. An image of the object region such as a lesion is formed by an objective lens located in the distal part of the insertion unit. An optical image is transmitted to an eyepiece unit by means of an optical transmission means. An eyepiece optical system then enables the optical image to be viewed.
The optical transmission means varies depending on the usage or purpose of use. For example, a fiber bundle is used for a flexible endoscope, while a relay lens is used for a rigid endoscope.
In an electronic endoscope, which includes a solid-state imaging device, (for example, a CCD) in the distal part of an insertion unit, an optical image is formed on the image formation surface of the CCD via an objective lens. The CCD photoelectrically converts the optical image so as to provide image information in the form of an electrical signal. The image information is subjected to various kinds of image processing, and thus a desired image of an object region is displayed on a monitor or the like.
In recent years, image processing techniques have greatly improved. With the improved techniques, various kinds of image processing can be performed on the image information. For example, an endoscopic image can be enlarged, an image of a lesion or the like can be processed, or relevant images can be compared with each other. This leads to easy and accurate diagnosis. This kinds of processing of endoscopic images can be achieved even in an endoscope having a conventional optical transmission means. That is to say, when a camera head having a CCD or the like located in an eyepiece unit is freely detachably attached to the endoscope having a conventional optical transmission means, an optical image can be converted photoelectrically and processed in the form of image information.
An image produced by the foregoing electronic endoscope suffers from problems since a distance from the distal part of the insertion unit to an object is variable. If an object such as lumina or a quite irregular object must be imaged, irregular illumination occurs to being about a phenomenon that halation happens to a near object in the same picture but a far object becomes too dark to be visible.
For coping with the problem of irregular illumination, the prior art has proposed a technique of adjusting the light emanating from a light source apparatus by controlling a diaphragm drive circuit, which is included in the light source apparatus and supplies illumination light to an endoscope. The light control is accomplished according to a light adjustment signal produced from an image signal sent from a CCD. This prior art technique alleviates the irregular illumination and is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 62-155689.
However, when an endoscope is removed from a human body, the amount of source light emanating from a light source apparatus should preferably be decreased. When the endoscope is removed from a human body, since an object to be illuminated by the light source apparatus disappears, the level of a video signal is lowered. A light adjustment unit described in the Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 62-155689 controls the diaphragm drive circuit in the light source apparatus according to the light adjustment signal produced from the image signal. Upon removal of the endoscope from the body, since the level of the video signal is lowered, the diaphragm drive circuit is controlled so that the amount of light emanating from the light source apparatus will be increased. This poses a problem that it becomes impossible to simultaneously control the source light so as to decrease the amount of source light.
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The goal of hybrid development is to combine, in a single hybrid, various desirable traits. For field crops, these traits may include resistance to diseases and insects, resistance to heat and drought, reducing the time to crop maturity, greater yield, and better agronomic quality. With mechanical harvesting of many crops, uniformity of plant characteristics such as germination, stand establishment, growth rate, maturity, and plant and ear height is important. Traditional plant breeding is an important tool in developing new and improved commercial crops.
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{
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Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a data security mechanism, and particularly a malicious code analysis method and system, a data processing apparatus, and an electronic apparatus.
Description of Related Art
With the advancement and innovation of technology, the Internet not only promotes worldwide information exchange, but the lifestyle of more and more people is shifting from the real world to the virtual world. However, quite a few ill-intended people carry out malicious attacks through the Internet, and computer viruses are one of the malicious programs that cause programs to self-reduplicate, infect other normal programs in a computer, or damage a computer system and accordingly stop the computer from functioning normally.
“The computer virus immune system” originates from the biological immune technology. The application of an anti-virus system is conceptualized as injection of a type of virus vaccine. The injection enables a computer to generate natural resistance against this virus. However, existing anti-virus software cannot formulate a method for removing a virus until the virus occurs and cannot take protective measures against unknown viruses.
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Any discussion of the prior art throughout the specification should in no way be considered as an admission that such prior art is widely known or forms part of the common general knowledge in the field.
PCR technologies for quantification of gene expression have improved through the development of rapid thermocylers and the introduction of fluorescence monitoring of amplified products after each cycle (real-time PCR). Quantification of gene expression occurs through the use of dyes, particularly fluorescent dyes, and the detection of increasing fluorescence during the exponential phase of PCR amplification proportional to the amount of nucleic acids in the sample at the beginning of the reaction. Quantification is based on the threshold cycle, i.e. the first cycle with detectable fluorescence, and can be performed in absolute manner with external standards (usually a synthetic gene) or in relative manner with a comparative normalizing reference gene serving as an internal calibrator (i.e. housekeeping gene). Control genes or housekeeping genes are used to normalise mRNA levels between different samples.
It is critical that the selected reference gene does not fluctuate since even marginal variations in gene expression will alter the relative quantification profile of the target gene. Pipetting and dilution errors also alter the level of amplification and thus alter the quantification profile.
Genes such as glyceraldehyde -3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH), porphobilinogen desaminase (PBGD), beta 2-microglobin or beta-actin are often used as internal calibrators in real-time PCR. However, the aforementioned genes have been shown to move in response to experimental conditions or treatments. Genes that are abundantly expressed, such as 18S, are also not ideal reference genes as PCR conditions need to be restricted so as not to swamp the reaction.
Thus, suitable housekeeping genes should be adequately expressed in the tissue of interest, and most importantly, show minimal variability in expression between the samples and under the experimental conditions or treatments used.
Many of these control genes however can show unacceptable variability in expression. It has been shown that the expression level of such genes may vary among tissues or cells and may change under certain circumstances i.e. different treatments. Thus it is crucial to validate housekeeping genes in any new experimental system. It is often a time consuming and difficult task to find a housekeeping gene or reference gene that is suitable for use in a specific experimental system. In some situations this may not be possible.
The use of external standards (i.e. a synthetic sequence) in gene expression studies generally requires that the gene of interest be cloned to provide the synthetic reference gene. In this method, known amounts of the synthetic reference gene sequence are serially diluted then subjected to amplification to produce a standard curve. Production of the cloned sequence for this method is generally a time consuming, labour intensive task and dilution errors are amplified exponentially which can lead to inaccurate assessment of nucleic acid levels. Stability and preservation of highly diluted cloned sequences can also cause difficulties.
Thus, there remains a need for a quick and efficient universal method of quantifying nucleic acids, that is applicable to any experimental situation or treatment condition, that does not require the use of a housekeeping gene or a synthetic gene of interest to normalise data.
It is an object of the present invention to overcome or ameliorate at least one of the disadvantages of the prior art, or to provide a useful alternative.
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1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to a vehicle assembly line, and more specifically to a vehicle underbody assembly line.
2. Description of the Related Art
For example, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2009-1182 (JP-A-2009-1182) describes a technology related to a vehicle assembly line for producing vehicles such as automobiles.
As shown in FIG. 15A, in a vehicle assembly line 100 described in JP-A-2009-1182, multiple vehicle bodies 110 are conveyed along the assembly line. More specifically, the vehicle bodies 110 are supported by respective floor friction carriers 120, and the floor friction carriers 120 aligned along the conveyance direction (direction in which the vehicle bodies 110 are moved down the vehicle assembly line 100) are moved along the conveyance direction. In accordance with the movement of the floor friction carriers 120, the vehicle bodies 110 are conveyed. In this case, because the vehicle bodies 110 are supported in such a manner that the longitudinal direction (see an arrow A in FIG. 15A) of the vehicle bodies 110 is parallel to the conveyance direction, the vehicle bodies 110 are conveyed with the longitudinal direction of the vehicle bodies 110 kept parallel to the conveyance direction.
Usually, a worker fits vehicle underbody parts to each of vehicle bodies that move down a vehicle assembly line (performs a fitting work). The worker sequentially performs this fitting work on the vehicle bodies that are conveyed from the upstream side. When fitting the vehicle underbody parts to each vehicle body, the worker fits the vehicle underbody parts to the vehicle body from below the vehicle body. For example, when the worker fits a vehicle underbody part A to a vehicle body a with the use of a tool X, fits a vehicle underbody part B to the vehicle body a with the use of a tool Y, and fits a vehicle underbody part C to the vehicle body a with the use of a tool Z, the worker performs a work 1) in which the worker goes get the vehicle underbody part A and the tool X and then fits the vehicle underbody part A to the vehicle body α. When fitting of the vehicle underbody part A is completed, the worker performs a work 2) in which the worker goes get the vehicle underbody part B and the tool Y and then fits the vehicle underbody part B to the vehicle body α. When fitting of the vehicle underbody part B is completed, the worker performs a work 3) in which the worker goes get the vehicle underbody part C and the tool Z and then fits the vehicle underbody part C to the vehicle body α. The worker sequentially performs the works 1) to 3). When performing these works, the worker fits the vehicle underbody parts A, B and C from below the vehicle body α. Therefore, if the tools X, Y and Z and the vehicle underbody parts A, B and C are located under the vehicle body α, it is possible to minimize the distance between the worker, and the tools X, Y and Z and the vehicle underbody parts A, B and C. As a result, it is possible to efficiently perform the fitting works on the vehicle body α. That is, if the tools used to fit the vehicle underbody parts to the vehicle body (hereinafter, referred to as “tools”) and the vehicle underbody parts are located under the vehicle body when the vehicle underbody parts are fitted to the vehicle body, it is possible to efficiently perform the works for fitting the vehicle underbody parts to the vehicle body.
In some cases, the tools are placed on a tool wagon in advance, the worker selects a necessary tool depending on the type of a vehicle underbody part, and uses the selected tool to fit the vehicle underbody part to the vehicle body. If the tool wagon is located under the vehicle body when the vehicle underbody parts are fitted to the vehicle body, it is possible to minimize the distance between the worker and the tools. As a result, it is possible to efficiently perform the works for fitting the vehicle underbody parts to the vehicle body. The worker uses the same tools to fit the vehicle underbody parts to each of the vehicle bodies that are sequentially conveyed. Therefore, if it is possible to form a path along which the tool wagon is conveyed (hereinafter, referred to as “conveyance path”) and which connects the spaces under the vehicle bodies to each other, the tool wagon is moved along the conveyance path. As a result, the tool wagon moves under the vehicle bodies. Thus, the tool wagon is located under the vehicle body when the vehicle underbody parts are fitted to the vehicle body. In addition, it is possible to fit the vehicle underbody parts to the vehicle bodies with the use of the same tools.
If the vehicle underbody parts are located under the vehicle body when the vehicle underbody parts are fitted to the vehicle body, it is possible to minimize the distance between the worker and the vehicle underbody parts. As a result, it is possible to efficiently perform the works for fitting the vehicle underbody parts to the vehicle body. In recent yeas, the types of vehicle underbody parts vary depending on the types of vehicles (types of vehicle bodies) due to diversification of the types of vehicles. Therefore, in order to minimize occurrence of an error in selection of vehicle underbody parts when the vehicle underbody parts are fitted to the vehicle body and to make it easier to deal with various types of vehicles, a set of vehicle underbody parts for each one of the vehicle bodies is prepared in advance, the vehicle bodies and the sets of vehicle underbody parts corresponding to the respective vehicle bodies are associated with each other, and then the vehicle bodies and the vehicle underbody parts are moved down the assembly line. Therefore, if a space in which the vehicle underbody parts are placed (hereinafter, referred to as “part space”) is formed under each vehicle body, a set of vehicle underbody parts for each one of the vehicle bodies is placed under the vehicle body in advance, the vehicle bodies and the sets of vehicle underbody parts corresponding to the respective vehicle bodies are associated with each other, and then the vehicle bodies and the vehicle underbody parts are moved down the assembly line. Thus, the set of vehicle underbody parts is located under the corresponding vehicle body when the vehicle underbody parts are fitted to the vehicle body.
As described above, if the conveyance path is formed in the vehicle assembly line and the part space is formed under each vehicle body, the tools and the vehicle underbody parts may be located under the vehicle body when the vehicle underbody parts are fitted to the vehicle body. As a result, it is possible to efficiently perform the works for fitting the vehicle underbody parts to the vehicle body. In order to avoid the situation where the tool wagon hits the vehicle underbody parts when the tool wagon is moved, the conveyance path and the each part space need to be formed so as not to overlap with each other.
As shown in FIGS. 15A and 15B, in the vehicle assembly line 100 described in JP-A-2009-1182, a conveyance path 130 that connects the spaces under the vehicle bodies 110 to each other in the conveyance direction is formed, and part spaces are formed under the vehicle bodies 110. In this case, because the vehicle bodies 110 are conveyed with the longitudinal direction of the vehicle bodies 110 kept parallel to the conveyance direction, the conveyance path 130 is the space that connects the spaces under the vehicle bodies 110 to each other in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle bodies 110. Thus, in order to form the part space under each vehicle body 110 separately from the conveyance path 130, the part space need to be offset from the conveyance path 130 in the lateral direction of the vehicle body 110 (the direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the vehicle body 110, for example, the direction of an arrow B in FIG. 15B). However, the lateral length of the vehicle body does not greatly vary depending on the types of vehicle bodies, and is usually set to a value that is within a range from 1700 mm to 1800 mm and that is obviously shorter than the longitudinal length of the vehicle body. Accordingly, if the conveyance path 130 is formed, it is difficult to form the part space under each vehicle body 110. With the technology described in JP-A-2009-1182, it is difficult to sufficiently meet the demand to locate the tool and the vehicle underbody parts under the vehicle body when the vehicle parts are fitted to the vehicle body, and, consequently, it is difficult to contribute to an improvement in the efficiency of the works for fitting the vehicle underbody parts to the vehicle body.
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Present direct-view, night-vision, image intensifiers employ photoelectron emission for the primary photodetection process, and thus are limited to visible, near-infrared wavelengths not greater than one micron, e.g., provided by moonlight or starlight, in order to obtain the energy necessary for photoelectron emission. In these devices microchannel plates are typically used to amplify the electrons, which are then directed to a phosphor screen, to provide a visible image.
Imaging systems for middle-infrared radiation (i.e., resulting from heat), which has insufficient energy for photoelectron emission, are indirect, employing arrays of semicondcutor elements connected to display devices by pluralities of wires. These systems are thus complicated, large, heavy, and expensive.
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1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a hair brush provided with a coating member for coating a liquid substance to hair.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There is occasionally occurred a case in which a liquid substance is coated on hair and brushing is applied to hair.
For example, there are some cases that split hair preventive (for example, silicone) is sprayed to hair in order to prevent split hair, hair dye agent is applied to hair in order to dye gray hair and hair liquid is applied to hair in order to adjust hair.
In the foresaid cases, when brushing is carried out while liquid substances such as split hair preventive, hair dye and hair liquid are being coated to hair, the hair brush must be held with one hand to perform brushing while a container such as a spray container or a bottle for storing the liquid substances is being held with the other hand to effect the coating to hair, and this operation is troublesome. In addition, in the case that these containers are large in size to cause inconvenience in carrying them, resulting in that in particular, when a short distance trip is to be taken, it is necessary to pour these substances from the large-sized containers into a small-sized one.
Further, direct coating of the liquid substance to hair from the container such as a bottle and the like causes the coated state of the liquid substance to be nonuniform, so that the substance is occasionally coated to hair after being applied to hand. In this case, hand is stained therewith, so that the hand must be washed with soap after coating. In addition, in the case that a coating is manually effected, coated amount for hair portions which the hand initially contacts is apt to be increased, resulting in that nonuniformly coated state is not so eliminated as expected.
In Unexamined Japanese Utility Model Publication HEI 1-154830 is proposed a coating tool provided with a cylinder for holding a liquid substance in order to solve the aforesaid problem, wherein the liquid substance in the cylinder is discharged by proper amount through capillary phenomenon caused by a bundle of fiber cores applied to an extremity end of the coating tool. Although use of such coating tool as described above enables the liquid substance to be uniformly coated without contaminating the hand, in the case that coating of the substance and brushing are concurrently performed, the coating tool is held with one hand and the brush is required to be held with the other hand.
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With the recent spread and progress of appliances such as a cell phone, a higher capacity battery as a power source has been asked for. In such situation, a metal air battery has drawn attention as a high capacity battery superior to a lithium-ion battery which is currently used generally, since an oxidation-reduction reaction of the oxygen is performed at a positive electrode (air electrode) by utilizing oxygen in the air as an active material for the positive electrode, and an oxidation-reduction reaction of a metal constituting a negative electrode is performed at the negative electrode, so that charging and discharging are possible allowing high energy density (Non Patent Literature 1).
However, there remain drawbacks to be overcome in a metal air battery. For example, it has been proposed that high surface area SiO2 should be mixed into a positive electrode material so as to improve capacity or coulombic efficiency (Patent Literature 1).
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1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a fuel cell membrane electrode assembly.
2. Description of Related Art
A fuel cell is a power generating device which can convert chemical energy into electrical energy through an electrochemical reaction. The fuel cells are usually classified as alkaline fuel cells, solid oxide fuel cells, and proton exchange membrane fuel cells. Recently, the proton exchange membrane fuel cells are rapidly developed and have attracted great interests.
A membrane electrode assembly is an important component of the proton exchange membrane fuel cell and includes a proton exchange membrane and two electrodes. The proton exchange membrane is sandwiched between the two electrodes. The electrode commonly includes a catalyst layer and a gas diffusion layer. The catalyst layer is sandwiched between the gas diffusion layer and the proton exchange membrane. The catalyst layer commonly includes a catalyst, a catalyst carrier, a proton conductor, and adhesive. In general, the catalyst carrier is carbon particles, and the catalyst is nano-scale precious metal particles uniformly dispersed in the catalyst carrier. A catalytic efficiency of the catalyst layer can influence the property of the fuel cell. The catalytic efficiency can be increased by increasing the three-phase reaction interfaces between the precious metal particles and reaction gas, and protons and electrons. Specifically, the reaction gas such as hydrogen can reach the surfaces of the precious metal particles through gas passages and generate protons and electrons from a catalytic reaction. The protons can move toward the proton exchange membrane through proton passages defined by a network composed of the proton conductor. The electrons can transfer toward the gas diffusion layer through a conductive network composed of the catalyst carrier. If the transfer passages are obstructed, the electrochemical reaction of the fuel cell will be frustrated.
The catalyst layer is commonly formed on the surfaces of the gas diffusion layer and the proton exchange membrane by brush coating, spraying, or printing. The catalyst layer has a disordered stack structure composed of a plurality of aggregates. It is difficult to catalyze the electrochemical reaction because the precious metal particles are embedded in the aggregates. Thus, the utilization rate of the catalyst in the catalyst layer having the disordered stack structure is low.
What is needed, therefore, is to provide a fuel cell membrane electrode assembly having a high catalyst utilization rate.
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Music-visualizers have become an integral part of the music listening experience and a mainstay for most media devices. However, most related art music-visualizers use a repeating, or a semi-repeating, pattern of colors, movement, or shapes to provide an abstract interpretation of music being played. These visualizers usually typically run “canned” complex animation algorithms or “canned” mathematical formulas on a central processing unit (CPU), akin to what can be seen on computer screen-savers. This related art approach works well on powerful personal computer (PC) platforms having substantial processing power, but the related art approach is not amenable to low power embedded platforms.
Currently, the conversion from a sound signal to a video signal, in the related art, is performed by a central processing unit (CPU) of a personal computer (PC) due to the ease and flexibility of its programming environment and the ample processing power available on most modern PC platforms. Typically, these PC-based conversions use a traditional music-visualizer algorithm, involving analyzing the music, associating the analyzed data to a plurality of preset or “canned” animation parameters, and calculating a preset or “canned” visual representation of music using the plurality of preset animation parameters. In the related art, graphics processing units (GPUs) are typically used to “parallel” a three-dimensional drawing in general. Most related art applications use the graphics pipeline for solely rendering data at high frame rate.
Currently, the related art is not known to combine rendering with animation in a music-visualizer application for an embeddable platform, e.g., a television device, a set-top box device, and a hand-held device. Most of the related art music visualizers provide “canned” displays in relation to “canned” musical interpretations. Further, the current related art is not known to use shader-based methods for music visualization, especially with television or set-top box platforms. Therefore, a long-felt need is seen to exist in the related art for a real-time music-visualizer for displaying a real-time animated visual representation of music that directly corresponds to the characteristics of the music being played for embeddable platforms, such as television platforms or set-top box platforms, rather than merely relating to a preset or “canned” visual representation on a PC.
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In order to maintain competitiveness of a 3rd generation mobile communication system in the field of communications, to provide a mobile communication service that is higher in rate, lower in delay and more personalized for a user, and to reduce an operation cost of an operator, a 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) standard working group is being devoted to research on an Evolved Packet System (EPS).
FIG. 1 is a structure diagram of access of a Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN) to a Packet System (PS). As shown in FIG. 1, the whole PS may be divided into a 3rd Generation (3G) Radio Access Network (RAN) and a 3G Core Network (CN).
The 3G RAN may include a base station (e.g. a NodeB) and a 3G Radio Network Controller (RNC). The 3G RAN is mainly responsible for transmitting and receiving a radio signal, communicating with a terminal through an air interface, managing and scheduling radio resources of the air interface, and performing access control.
The 3G CN may include a Home Location Register (HLR), a Serving General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) Support Node (SGSN) and a Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN).
FIG. 2 is a structure diagram of access of an Evolved UTRAN (E-UTRAN) to an EPS. As shown in FIG. 2, the whole EPS may be divided into a 4th Generation (4G) RAN and a 4G CN.
The 4G RAN may include a base station, e.g., an evolved NodeB (eNodeB). The 4G RAN is mainly responsible for transmitting and receiving a radio signal, communicating with a terminal through an air interface, managing and scheduling radio resources of the air interface, and performing access control.
The 4G CN may include a Home Subscriber Server (HSS), a Mobility Management Entity (MME), a Serving Gateway (S-GW) and a Packet Data Network (PDN) Gateway (P-GW).
In the field of broadband communication, a Content Delivery Network (CDN) may be provided to cache contents at different places and orientate a user request for acquiring contents to a nearest cache server through a technology such as load balancing, thereby increasing a network access response speed of a user. The CDN may provide a service in response to a user request in a more efficient manner based on judgment of user proximity and server loads.
To fully utilize advantages of the CDN, a mobile network operator desires to deploy the CDN in a mobile network and to combine the CDN with the mobile network, thereby accelerating content delivery of a mobile user, increasing the response speed and saving bandwidths. The CDN may be deployed over a GGSN or a P-GW and may be naturally supported. However, a problem of deployment of the CDN at other positions of a mobile network, e.g., further sinking of a CDN to a radio network, has not been solved.
Any effective solution has not been proposed yet for a problem that a network element supporting both a network function of a CDN and a network function of a mobile network cannot be selected to process a packet data service in a current system.
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1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a sequentially controlled single evaporator refrigerator/freezer which is energy efficient and provides improved temperature and humidity performance within the individual compartments.
2. Description of the Background Art
Sequentially controlled single evaporator refrigerators have been known to include a single evaporator fan and temperature responsive solenoid actuated dampers which direct the flow of air to cool either a refrigerator compartment or a freezer compartment. Solenoid actuated dampers have been found to be somewhat unreliable in that the dampers can freeze in either an open or closed position preventing cooling of one of the compartments. Further, waste heat generated by the actuation of the dampers provides an added heat load to the interior of the refrigerator.
These known single evaporator refrigerators have been controlled to operate with the evaporator fan continuously running, and with the compressor being energized in response to the actual temperature within each of the compartments. Because the compressor is operated in response to the actual temperature within a compartment, a short term rise in the temperature will cause the compressor to turn on. Further, because the compressor operation is independently controlled by the temperature within each of the individual compartments, transient losses occur when the compressor is de-energized by one compartment and rapidly thereafter energized by the other compartment resulting in a low coefficient of performance. Rapid cycling of the compressor can also cause the compressor to lock-up and overload due to adverse starting pressures.
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The best teaching methods include physical demonstrations of the subject-matter being taught. When the new knowledge can be seen, heard or touched, it is easier to assimilate and to be retained by students. If the demonstration apparatus also stimulates the imagination, the new knowledge being taught is more effectively absorbed and remembered.
The properties of gases and fluid mechanics in particular are difficult subjects to teach because gases are invisible and impalpable. Other that hot air balloons, which are impractical devices for use in a classroom environment, teaching methods on gas properties are limited to chalk and blackboard explanations.
It is believed that there is a need in the education system for an apparatus that can be used to demonstrate gas densities, buoyancy and the diffusion rates of different gases. It is believed that there is a need for a classroom or lecture hall size educational device that can be used to visualize the presence of a gas therein, and to feel the buoyancy force exerted by that gas on a floating balloon.
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1. Field
Advancements in multi-radio mesh networks are needed to provide improvements in performance, efficiency, and utility of use.
2. Related Art
Unless expressly identified as being publicly or well known, mention herein of techniques and concepts, including for context, definitions, or comparison purposes, should not be construed as an admission that such techniques and concepts are previously publicly known or otherwise part of the prior art. All references cited herein (if any), including patents, patent applications, and publications, are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties, whether specifically incorporated or not, for all purposes.
Multi-radio mesh networks have a higher potential traffic carrying capacity than single radio networks. Each wireless interface (or radio) of a mesh node is selectively tunable to a different channel and is selectively usable in parallel with the other wireless interfaces of the node. In an ideal scenario, a node with N wireless interfaces has N times the capacity of a node with a single wireless interface. Of course in non-idealized implementations, when more than one node is involved, the capacity does not scale exactly as in the ideal scenario because, for example, the resulting capacity also depends on environmental conditions.
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A knitted article consists of consecutive rows of loops, called stitches. Stitches in a row of a knitted article are linked vertically to stitches above and below each row. As each row is created, a new loop is pulled through an existing loop to link the rows. The active loops are held on a knitting needle until a new loop is pulled through them and they are linked to the previous row. In knitting, dropping a stitch occurs when a stitch is inadvertently released from one of the knitting needles without being properly attached to the next row. A dropped stitch will progress down through the knitted article resulting in a series of horizontal ladder rungs filling the gap where the stitch was dropped. In order to repair a dropped stitch in a knitted article it is necessary to locate the last remaining intact loop of the dropped stitch and properly attach the intact loop to the subsequent row of the knitted article thereby recovering the dropped stitch on that row. This process must be repeated until the dropped stitch is properly attached to each of the subsequent rows and the stitch that was inadvertently released is placed back onto the knitting needle.
Various methods are known in the art for repairing a dropped stitch, or other knitting mistake, in a knitted article. One prior art method utilizes a single device, such as a crochet hook, knitting needle or finger, to reattach the dropped loop to the subsequent row in the knitted article. However, when using a single device to repair a garter stitch comprising a combination of both knit stitches and purl stitches, after the knit stitch is recovered from the front side of the article, the recovered knit stitch must be released from the crochet hook to recover the next purl stitch from the opposite side of the article. After releasing the recovered knit stitch from the device, recovering the purl stitch can be accomplished by either pulling the purl stitch through the released knit stitch from the back side of the article or by turning the article over and then pulling the purl stitch through the released knit stitch from the front side of the article. With this method the stitch must be released between recovering a knit stitch and a purl stitch, which greatly increases the chance that the stitch will be dropped again. Releasing the knit stitch from the crochet hook, holding onto the loop of the knit stitch and then reinserting the crochet hook into the loop to repair the purl stitch often results in distortion and uneven stitches in the knitted article. Additionally, turning the article over each time to recover the next stitch greatly increases the time necessary to make the repair. Alternatively, two devices, such as two crochet hooks, a crochet hook and a knitting needle, etc. could be used to recover the alternating knit and purl stitches by passing the recovered stitch from one device to the other device. With this method it is not necessary to turn the article over each time to recover the next stitch, but the stitch must be passed between the two devices which are placed on opposite sides of the article. As such, the recovered stitch must be released from one device and transferred to another device to recover the next stitch. Manipulating the two devices simultaneously is difficult to accomplish and transferring the stitch between the two devices often results in another dropped stitch. Additionally, when passing the stitch from one device to the other it is easy to accidentally pick up additional rows of the knitted article and inadvertently create twisted stitches or other undesirable effects. When utilizing two devices to repair the article, the devices must be properly matched to create stitches that are similarly sized. In addition, even if the two devices are substantially similar in size, passing the stitches from one device to the other inadvertently results in distortion of the stitches as the size and shape of the stitch are altered during the transfer. Uneven stitches are an undesirable result of utilizing two different devices to repair a knitted article.
Crochet hooks having a hook on both ends are known in the art. Such double-ended crochet hooks are used for two-sided crocheting commonly referred to as an Afghan stitch. Double-sided crochet hooks known in the art are commonly ten or fourteen inches in length. In creating an Afghan stitch, the length of the double-ended crochet hook used is necessary to retain the stitches on the hook while crocheting back across the article. Double-ended crochet hooks have not been previously used in the art to repair a knitted article. The design of double-ended crochet hooks known in the art, having a length of at least ten inches, are cumbersome to handle in attempting to repair a knitted article. Additionally, the necessary length of the double-ended crochet hooks increases their weight. The additional weight of the hooks makes them awkward for use in the repair of a knitted article. The relatively long length and relatively heavy weight of the double-ended crochet hooks known in the art renders such a device impractical and inefficient for the repair of a knitted article. As such, double-ended crochet hooks known in the art cannot be reasonably used for repairing a knitted article.
There is an unmet need in the art for a device for repairing a dropped stitch in a knitted article that does not require releasing a previously recovered stitch from the device prior to recovering the next stitch.
There is an unmet need in the art for a device for repairing a dropped stitch in a knitted article that does not require rotating the knitted article 180° after recovering a first stitch in order to recover the next stitch.
Thus, there is a need for an improved device and method for efficiently repairing a knitted article. In particular, there is a need in the art for a device and method for repairing a knitted article that does not require the use of two independent repair devices or require that the stitch being repaired be released from a repair device to recover the next stitch to complete the repair. Additionally, there is a need in the art for a device and method for repairing a knitted article that does not require turning the knitted article to accomplish the repair.
There is a need in the art for a method of repair that will allow the knitter to follow a complicated pattern and make repairs from the front side of a knitted fabric keeping the right side of the fabric on the top to follow the pattern and execute the stitches necessary to accomplish the repair.
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1. Technical Field
The present invention generally relates to a polishing apparatus (or system) useful in the fabrication and processing of semiconductor wafers. More particularly, the invention relates to a device and related method adapted to detect a malfunction related to a pad conditioner in the polishing apparatus.
This application claims the benefit of Korean Patent Application No. 10-2004-0071967, filed Sep. 9, 2004, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
2. Discussion of Related Art
The typical sequence of processes used to manufacture semiconductor devices is a long and complicated one. Many individual semiconductor devices are manufactured on a single substrate. This substrate is usually provided in the form of a thin wafer of semiconductor material.
Over time, semiconductor devices have been formed a wafer with ever increasing height profiles. Increased height profiles result from higher integration densities and increased use of multi-layer structures. These interconnected multi-layer structures are generally formed layer by layer. To accomplish this, multiple planarization processes are performed prepare an upper surface of one structure or layer to receive another structure or layer.
A great variety of conventional, wafer planarization processes exist, including as examples, spin on glass (SOG), etch back, and reflow. Many of these processes include mechanical polishing and/or chemical polishing. Chemical and mechanical polishing has respective advantages and disadvantages. For example, a chemical polishing is preferred where a mechanical polishing might damage (e.g., grind) a delicate surface. However, it is often difficult to obtain a truly flat surface (e.g., an accurate topology) using only chemical polishing.
So, conventionally, some mix of mechanical polishing and chemical polishing has been required to accurately planarize a surface. In fact, the mutual presence of both chemical and mechanical polishing in conventional planarization processes is commonly referred to as Chemical-Mechanical-Polishing (CMP).
There are many types and variations of conventional CMP processes. Several examples are described here.
CMP is conducted at a polishing table. A wafer is attached to a polishing head using surface tension or vacuum pressure. A rotating polishing pad provided at the polishing table is forced into contact with the wafer under constant force. The pad rotation and the resulting forcible agitation polish the wafer. That is, using the weight of the polishing head and the applied force, the wafer surface and the polishing pad come into contact. The resulting plane of contact is typically washed with a slurry of polishing solution containing grinding particles and/or polishing agents (e.g., chemicals). The grinding slurry serves to remove polishing debris and grinding particles and supply polishing agents to the surface.
One example of a conventional polishing apparatus is found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,975,994.
A similar conventional polishing apparatus is illustrated on Figure (FIG.) 1. Within this apparatus, a wafer 12 is vacuum attached to a polishing head 10 which is attached to rotatable motor 26. A platen 20 attaching a polishing pad 16 is rotated in a direction contrary to the rotation direction of motor 26. Polishing head 10 is lowered until the facing surface of wafer 12 contacts polishing pad 16 while a slurry is supplied. A conditioning disc 24 driven by a motor 28 and attaching a conditioning pad 22 is typically provided as part of the foregoing polishing apparatus. Conditioning pad 22 is applied to polishing pad 16 in order to maintain a proper (e.g., planar) surface.
Polishing apparatuses like the one shown in FIG. 1 have been widely used in the industry for many years with excellent results. However, one notable exception to this excellent track record is reoccurring problems with a conditioning pad installed in opposition to the platen. Such conditioning pads have a frequent rate of malfunction. This frequent state of malfunction can cause larger problems, because if the conditioning pad is not regularly applied to the polishing pad (typically before and/or after each polishing process) problems arise, such as inadequate polishing rates and degraded polishing uniformity. These results threaten the reliability of semiconductor devices formed on the wafer.
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The present invention relates to the preparation of amine oxides and more particularly to a method for preparing aromatic amine oxides rapidly in high yield.
The preparation of aliphatic amine oxides from tertiary amines is a known process. The preferred oxidizing agent therefor is a peroxidizing agent, such as hydrogen peroxide, typically provided in aqueous form, though peracids additionally may be used as the oxidizing agent. Relatively mild oxidation conditions for such process typically comprehends temperatures of about 60.degree.-80.degree. C. or thereabouts under sub-atmospheric, atmospheric, or super-atmospheric pressure. Reaction times can range from as short as a few hours on up to 10-15 hours or more depending upon the oxidation conditions and particular reactants used.
Unfortunately, the preparation of aromatic amine oxides from aromatic amines is not so simple a procedure as is the preparation of aliphatic amine oxides. For example, hydrogen peroxide is too weak of an oxidizing agent to be effective. Thus, the use of peracids is dictated. Shaw et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc., 72, 4362 (1950) oxidizes 2-bromopyridine with perbenzoic acid or peracetic acid to form the corresponding aromatic amine oxide. Reported reaction times amount to several days with 60-70 percent yields resulting. Finger and Starr, J. Org. Chem., 24, 2674 (1959) show the preparation of 2-chloropyridine-N-oxide by reacting 2-chloropyridine with glacial acetic acid and 40 percent peracetic acid. An 80 percent yield is reported after about 22 hours reaction time.
Semenoff, U.S. Pat. No. 2,745,826, oxidizes 2-bromopyridine with 40 percent peracetic acid to obtain a 71 percent yield of the desired amine oxide product in about 4 hours. Ochiai, J. Org. Chem., 18, 534 (1953) also shows the use of glacial acetic acid and 35 percent aqueous hydrogen peroxide to form pyridine-N-oxide in about 96 percent yield after 12 hours reaction. Quinoline-N-oxide was similarly prepared using 29 percent aqueous hydrogen peroxide to obtain the desired product in about 92 percent yield after an unspecified reaction time.
Common in these prior proposals in the preparation of aromatic amine oxides only after extended reaction times and then generally to no more than about a 60-80 percent yield. Also, cumbersome and time consuming purification of the resulting products are reported. While such yields may appear to be satisfactory at first glance, it must be remembered that the aromatic amine reactants, eg. 2-chloropyridine, often range in price to several dollars per pound. The high cost of such reactants necessarily dictates that a very efficient commercial process be employed in order to provide a commercially, economically viable process. Moreover, a simple method for recovery of the desired product also is necessary. Even if these objectives were accomplished, economics of the marketplace also dictate that reaction times be reduced substantially in order to make the process more commercially viable and attractive. The present invention provides an answer to the commercial need for the preparation of aromatic amine oxides rapidly, at moderate reaction conditions, and in essentially stoichiometric yields.
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In a conventional color printer, four photosensitive drums each corresponding to one of four colors of yellow, magenta, cyan and black are juxtaposed. Four developing cartridges are provided each for one of the photosensitive drums. Each developing cartridge includes a developing roller for supplying toner to the corresponding photosensitive drum.
For forming a colored image, an electrostatic latent image is formed on each photosensitive drum. The electrostatic latent image is then developed into a visible toner image when toner is supplied thereto from the corresponding developing roller. The toner image is then transferred onto a sheet, which is conveyed by a conveyer belt, either directly or indirectly via an intermediate transfer belt, thereby forming a black-and-white image or a colored image on the sheet.
The toner transferred from the photosensitive drum is deposited on the conveyor belt. A cleaning member is therefore provided for collecting toner from the conveyor belt. The toner collected (removed) from the conveyor belt is conveyed to and stored in a waste toner accommodating unit.
There has been proposed a developing cartridge that is integrally formed with a waste toner accommodating unit. Under this construction, when toner within the developing cartridge is used up and the developing cartridge is replaced with a new developing cartridge, the waste toner accommodating unit is also replaced with a new one that is integrated with the new developing cartridge.
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an input device and a mobile terminal including the same, and more particularly, to an input device having a plurality of light emitting units that can be turned on/off to provide one or more illumination patterns and a mobile terminal including the same.
2. Description of Related Art
A mobile terminal, including a mobile phone or a PDA, is one of many mobile electronic devices that allow a user to wirelessly transmit/receive and read/process information while the user moves about.
While users demand that mobile terminals become ever smaller, the mobile terminals still need to provide sufficient mechanical support to implement various functions within the mobile terminals and also provide an interface environment that allows users to conveniently and easily use the various functions.
Generally, a conventional mobile terminal includes a keypad unit to operate various functions or to perform inputting operations. In addition, the mobile terminal uses an illumination system such as an LED to allow marks of keys to be seen and manipulated in the dark.
For example, as seen in FIG. 1, a conventional keypad unit 1 includes multiple keys 5. Each key 5 includes a dome switch 4 mounted on a board 3 and a key button 6 that operates the dome switch 4. The key button 6 is supported by a terminal mechanism 2 so as not to be released therefrom, and a pressing protrusion 7 is formed at a lower surface of each key button 6 in order to press the dome switch 4. A certain gap is formed between the key buttons 6 and the board 3, between which an LED 8 is located.
With such a construction, a user may press each key button 6 to operate a corresponding dome switch 4 to perform an inputting operation. Light emitted from the LED 8 illuminates all the key buttons 6, informing the user about positions of the respective keys 5 and marks of the key buttons 6 so that the user can easily recognize the keys 5 in the dark.
However, the related art keypad unit 1 is disadvantages in that because the LED 8 is devised only for backlighting of the keys 6, its utilization is minimized.
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A major use of natural benzaldehyde is an ingredient in "natural" cherry flavor and other flavors for augmenting or enhancing the aroma or taste of consumable materials including foodstuffs, chewing gums, medicinal products, toothpastes, chewing tobacco, smoking tobacco and smoking tobacco articles.
A major use of natural acetaldehyde is as an ingredient in "natural" orange flavor and other flavors for augmenting or enhancing the aroma or taste of consumable materials including foodstuffs, chewing gums, medicinal products, toothpastes and chewing tobacco.
Natural benzaldehyde has been used in natural cherry flavors in the form of apricot kernel derivative as is taught in U.S. Pat. No. 1,416,128 issued on May 16, 1922. An undesirable feature of the known processes for preparing natural benzaldehyde from apricot kernels or reground press cake is that along with the benzaldehyde, toxic hydrocyanic acid is produced which must be separated completely from the benzaldehyde and from the rest of the oil prior to use. Other techniques for producing natural benzaldehyde are known but these techniques produce it in such yields as to cause the resulting process to be uneconomical. For example, Hockenhull, et al, Biochem. J., 50, 605-9, (1952) (Title: "Oxidation of Phenylacetic Acid by Penicillium chrysogenum" discloses production of benzaldehyde starting with phenylacetic acid through either benzyl alcohol or mandelic acid via the sequences: ##STR2##
Towers, et al, Can. J. Zool. 1972, 50(7), 1047-50 ("Defensive secretion:biosynthesis of hydrogen cyanide and benzaldehyde from phenylalanine by a millipede") discloses a biosynthetic pathway for the production of benzaldehyde from dietary phenylalanine in Oxidus gracilis, thusly: ##STR3##
Halpin, et al, Biochemistry, 1981, Volume 20, pages 1525-1533 (Title: "Carbon-13 Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Studies of Mandelate Metabolism in Whole Bacterial Cells and in Isolated, in Vivo Cross-Linked Enzyme Complexes") discloses the biochemical pathway from mandelate ion to benzaldehyde thusly: ##STR4##
Reeves, et al, TAPPI 48(2), pages 121-5, (1965) (Title: "Reaction Products Formed Upon the Alkaline Peroxide Oxidation of Lignin-Related Model Compounds") discloses the effect of alkaline hydrogen peroxide oxidation on cinnamaldehyde whereby the cinnamaldehyde is split at the double bond with the formation of the corresponding benzaldehyde and benzoic acid according to the reaction: ##STR5##
At page 124, column 1, paragraph 1, Reeves, et al theorizes that a "reverse aldol reaction" is not responsible for the formation of veratraldehyde due to the fact that acetaldehyde the other product of the potential "reverse aldol reaction" was not obtained. Therefore, our discovery of the "retro-aldol" reaction taking place, to wit: ##STR6## was unexpected and unobvious. The "retro-aldol" reaction, to wit: ##STR7## Indeed, took place due to the different reaction conditions from those proposed and set forth in Reeves, et al; different insofar as temperature of reaction and time of reaction are concerned; longer times of reaction and higher temperatures of reaction being the conditions in our "retro-aldol" reaction as opposed to shorter times of reaction and lower temperatures insofar as the Reeves, et al reaction is concerned.
In our own invention, no reagents other than naturally occurring cinnamaldehyde, base, water and nonionic emulsifier are utilized to carry out the "retro-aldol" reaction of our invention, to wit: ##STR8##
The process of our invention thus gives rise to unobvious, unexpected and advantageous results and represents an advance in the art in the production of "natural" benzaldehyde taken alone or in combination with "natural" cinnamaldehyde; and, further, in the production of "natural" acetaldehyde.
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic music box which is driven by a motor and electronically creates music.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A shown in FIG. 1, the conventional motor driven music box ha a cylinder structure 1 and a comb shaped scale springs 2. The rotation of the cylinder structure 1 contacting the scale spring creating sound. The melody is created by the projections on the cylinder. However, the conventional music box by the design of the cylinder structure, in that it can play only simple melodies. Also any one music box can have only one melody. A conventional music box can't emulate an integrated circuit sound synthesizer which can imitate 1) several melodies, 2) various animal sounds, 3) train sound and ambulance sound, and 4) various sounds of artificial phonetics. In contrast, the conventional motor driven music box has very little variation. It also can't drive an LED to flash according to the melody. Moreover, the conventional music box requires experts to design the cylinder structure and the comb shaped scale springs. It also requires high accuracy during production in order to create the correct melody. Thus, production costs are greatly increased. Additionally, if you want to extend the playing time, you need to match the limit-position switch 3 and the cylinder structure in order to make the cylinder rotate one cycle to turn off the limit-position switch. So, the conventional motor driven music box requires more components and higher cost.
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to novel acylmethylene-1,3-dioxolanes and acylmethylene-1,4-dioxanes, and to a novel process for their preparation.
Acylmethylene-1,3-dioxolanes and acylmethylene-1,4-dioxanes are important intermediates for the preparation of pyrazoles and anthranilamides, which can be used as insecticides.
2. Description of the Related Art
The literature has already described how certain dioxolane derivatives in the presence of acid anhydrides have a tendency towards spontaneous polymerization (Spontaneous co-polymerization of 4-methylene-1,3-dioxolanes with maleic anhydride, Fukuda, Hiroyuki; Hirota, Masahiro; Nakashima, Yoshihiro, Nagoya Munic. Ind. Res. Inst., Rokuban, Japan, Journal of Polymer Science, Polymer Chemistry Edition (1982), 20 (6), 1401-9.) The acylmethylene-1,3-dioxolanes and acylmethylene-1,4-dioxanes according to the invention, however, are not described; a process for their preparation is not described in the literature either.
It was therefore an object to provide a process which allows acylmethylene-1,3-dioxolanes and acylmethylene-1,4-dioxanes to be prepared in a simple manner without the disadvantages described in the prior art and on an industrial scale from known 4-methylene-1,3-dioxolanes and 6-methylene-1,4-dioxanes.
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Along with the development of low temperature poly-silicon (LTPS) technology, high PPI (pixel per inch) products have gradually become the mainstream. The defects of high-PPI products comprise the reduction of the storage capacitance area, and hence additional storage capacitance must be produced to compensate the reduced storage capacitance area. The corresponding countermeasure is to additionally arrange a shielding layer at the undermost layer of an array substrate and allow the shielding layer to be connected with a common electrode. In this way, the storage capacitance between the shielding layer and active layers is additionally used to compensate the reduced storage capacitance.
FIG. 1a is a structural planar view of an LTPS array substrate, and FIG. 1b is a sectional view of the LTPS array substrate. FIG. 1b is a structural sectional view of three areas. The three areas are a common electrode connecting area, a display area and a drive area from left to right in sequence.
The conventional process for manufacturing the LTPS array substrate comprises: depositing a shielding layer film on a substrate and forming a pattern of a shielding layer 201 by one patterning process; depositing an insulating buffer layer and an amorphous silicon (a-Si) layer on the substrate provided with the shielding layer; crystallizing a-Si into poly-silicon (p-Si) by a p-Si formation process; forming a pattern of an active layer by one patterning process; forming a gate insulating layer on the substrate provided with the active layer; forming a gate electrode on the substrate provided with the gate insulating layer, in which a gate electrode for a positive channel metal oxide semiconductor (PMOS) (PMOS gate electrode) in a drive area is formed by one patterning process, and boron ion (B) implantation is performed, and a gate electrode for a negative channel metal oxide semiconductor (NMOS) (NMOS gate electrode) in a display area and a drive area are formed by one patterning process again, and phosphorous ion (P) implantation is performed, and the gate electrode for PMOS and the gate electrode for NMOS are provided on the same layer; subsequently, forming an intermediate insulating layer on the substrate provided with the gate electrode for NMOS; forming through holes for connecting a source/drain electrode layer and the active layer by one patterning process, in which the through holes run through the intermediate insulating layer; forming a through hole for connecting the shielding layer and a source/drain electrode layer by one patterning process, in which the through hole runs through the intermediate insulating layer and the gate insulating layer; depositing a source/drain metal film on the substrate provided with the through holes for connecting the source/drain electrode layer and the active layer and the through hole for connecting the shielding layer and the source/drain electrode layer; and forming the source/drain electrode layer by one patterning process.
As the through holes for connecting the source/drain electrode layer and the active layer and the through hole for connecting the shielding layer and the source/drain electrode layer are formed by two patterning processes, the process is relatively complex. However, if two kinds of through holes are formed by one patterning process in order to simplify the process, as the through hole for connecting the source/drain electrode layer and the active layers and the through hole for connecting the shielding layer and the source/drain electrode layer have different depths, the required etching time periods are also different from each other, and hence the through holes for connecting the source/drain electrode layer and the active layers will be overetched and the through hole for connecting the shielding layer and the source/drain electrode layer will be not enough etched.
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During combustion, an internal combustion engine oxidizes gasoline and combines hydrogen (H2) and carbon (C) with air. Combustion creates chemical compounds such as carbon dioxide (CO2), water (H2O), carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NOx), unburned hydrocarbons (HC), sulfur oxides (SOx), and other compounds. During an initial startup period after a long soak, the engine is still “cold” after starting and combustion of the gasoline is incomplete. A catalytic converter treats exhaust gases from the engine. During the startup period, the catalytic converter is also “cold” and does not operate optimally.
In one conventional approach, an engine controller commands a lean air/fuel (A/F) ratio and supplies a reduced mass of liquid fuel to the engine to provide compensation. More air is available relative to the mass of liquid fuel to sufficiently oxidize the CO and HC. However, the lean condition reduces engine stability and adversely impacts vehicle drivability.
In another conventional approach, the engine controller commands a fuel-rich mixture for stable combustion and good vehicle drivability. A secondary air injection system provides an overall lean exhaust A/F ratio by injecting air into the exhaust stream during the initial start-up period. The additional injected air heats the catalytic converter due to the exothermic reaction of oxidizing the excess CO and HC. The warmed catalytic converter oxidizes CO and HC and reduces NOx to lower emissions levels.
This approach, however, includes distinct disadvantages. One disadvantage is that the secondary air injection system increases cost and complexity of the engine control system and is only used during a short initial cold start period. Another disadvantage is that the additional liquid fuel produces a fuel film that coats the engine components and contributes to uncontrolled HC emissions, oil contamination, spark ignition problems and increased fuel consumption.
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The present invention relates to a video processing circuit for adjusting video luminance and chrominance levels as well as chroma hue, and particularly to such a circuit for selectively adjusting these factors relative to synchronizing information without reconstituting the latter.
It is frequently desirable to adjust the various components of a color video signal relative to one another, to suit individual preference or to compensate for misadjustment of other circuitry. Thus, one may wish to adjust the video output from video camera equipment, or adjust the input or output of a video recorder to improve transmission or recording capabilities as well as for improving picture quality. Although adjustments are usually available on television receiving or tuning equipment, alteration of the video signal may be desired between a tuner and hard-to-reach television projection equipment.
Heretofore, video processing circuitry of this type has often been expensive and designed primarily for the professional user. Usually the synchronization information, i.e. the horizontal and vertical synchronizing pulses, color burst, etc. are reformed or regenerated, while the video luminance and chrominance information is separately adjustable. Time delays are usually associated with the reconstituted sync and proper blanking in the video signal may be somewhat clumsy.
Unfortunately, the equipment heretofore provided for the professional market is not appropriate for adjusting signals of various levels from a wide variety of equipments as may be encountered by the consumer or home user of video apparatus. The professional equipment usually generates a synchronization pulse of predetermined amplitude and consequently the remainder of the video signal must be adjusted relative thereto.
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The present invention relates to a convertible garment such as a jumpsuit having camouflage markings on the outer surface thereof which is used by hunters in the field. The garment is designed to serve as a full-sized jumpsuit when worn and additionally provides an arrangement whereby the garment can be stored within a built-in storage pouch when not in use. The garment may be folded into a very small bundle and stuffed into the storage pouch in a very compact manner so that the garment when in stored position occupies a minimum of space and can be used, for example, as a pillow and to store small hunting accessories.
Garments of this type are used at different times of the year, and accordingly, it is desirable to provide a garment that can be used in very hot weather as well as at subzero temperatures. One of the requirements of a garment to be used under such circumstances is to provide adequate ventilation of the garment during hot weather, and further providing means to keep heat inside the garment during cold weather.
It is therefore a principal objective of the invention to provide a garment which provides adequate ventilation not only when the garment is worn, but also when the garment is in stored position. In order to provide proper ventilation of the garment during hot weather, flow of air through the garment should be maximized so as to provide the desired cooling of the person wearing the garment.
Prior art garments of this type have employed constructions which are rather complex and expensive to manufacture. It is therefore another important objective of the invention to provide a construction which is simple and economical to manufacture.
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As a result of ongoing inflow of water over an extended period of time into a water heater, sediment tends to gather and build up in the bottom of the water heater. This sediment adversely affects performance particularly with respect to heating of the water in the water heater.
Until recently, only limited water heater developments have been made in an attempt to reduce the sediment build up problem. The developments that have been made, are in the form of turbulating devices, e.g. devices designed to cause a turbulation or swirling of the sedimet at the bottom of the tank so that it can then be drained from the tank.
There are primarily two different types of water feeds to a conventional water heater. One of these water feeds is provided through a radial inlet near the base of the water heater. A specific type of turbulator has been designed for the base inlet water heater and this turbulator is in the form of a large ring having a series of venturi like openings around the ring.
The other type of water heater feed is through a dip tube which is a plastic pipe extending axially from the top down into the water heater. A specific turbulator attachment as shown in Canadian Pat. No. 922,597 to Taylor issued Mar. 13, 1973 has been previously designed for the dip tube water feed.
In principle, the Taylor design, is effective for turbulating the sediment at the bottom of the water heater. However, from a practical standpoint, the turbulator device of Canadian Pat. No. 922,597 places a torque factor on the dip tube which because of both its plastic construction and its extended length is not particularly suited to stand up to any type of a bending force. Added to this is the fact that the Taylor turbultor is specifically designed to provide a venturi unidirectional high speed water flow at right angles to the axis of the dip tube making it very susceptible to breaking.
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Lightweight articles such as plastic lids, spoons, bowls, baby bottles and similar devices are often placed in either the upper or lower dishwasher rack. Often these articles will become dislodged from the dishwasher rack due to high pressure streams of water being upwardly projected thereagainst. When these articles become displaced during the wash cycle, they often become filled with water preventing them from being rinsed properly usually requiring them to be washed again. Sometimes the dishes fall near the heating element on the bottom of the dishwasher and are melted. The present invention overcomes these problems by providing a retaining device that can be used on either the top or bottom dishwasher rack and which also has a plurality of storage pockets thereon for securing items such as lids and silverware thereby increasing the capacity of the dishwasher.
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a modular transmission assembly, and more particularly to a modular transmission assembly for an exercise bicycle, with which the user is able to readily have access to all the components such that maintenance is easy.
2. Description of Related Art
Normally, an exercise bicycle is equipped with a transmission assembly fully enclosed inside a casing so that the overall appearance of the exercise bicycle is smooth and appealing. Although the appearance of the exercise bicycle is of particular concern for promoting the market consumption, there is one major drawback for users having this compact exercise bicycle. Because the transmission assembly within the exercise bicycle is compact and fully enclosed inside the casing, the user will have to remove the casing first to proceed to maintenance. Sometimes, the maintenance work is not able to be performed in that the transmission assembly of the exercise bicycle is still further concealed in a housing. Therefore, the user will have to go through a series of dismantling operations until the specific part is exposed to enable maintenance or repair.
To overcome the shortcomings, the present invention provides an improved modular transmission assembly to mitigate the aforementioned problems.
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A voltage comparator is useful as a sense amplifier which produces an output current that is related to the differential voltage input. U.S. Pat. No. 4,656,374, which issued on Apr. 7, 1987, and is assigned to the assignee of the present invention, discloses such a circuit which was useful in static memory devices. The teaching in this patent is incorporated herein by reference. Basically, such a circuit produces an output current which flows when the noninverting input voltage rises above the voltage on the inverting input. Thus, it is essentially digital in operation. By employing a relatively high gain comparator the region of linear response is made small in relation to the d-c potentials normally applied to the input terminals. Generally speaking, the shape of the voltage to current transfer function is not controlled and the output current is made large with respect to a subsequent digital input threshold.
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Computer networks are almost constantly under the risk of computer worm (also referred to as worm) attacks. A worm is a self-replicating computer program (code) which can use the network to send copies of itself to other hosts in the networks, doing it without any human intervention. The spread of a worm usually involves exploiting a vulnerability that exists on the target node.
A vulnerability is a weakness of a computer or another device caused, for example, by software bugs or mis-configurations.
The exploitation of vulnerabilities can enable the worm to remotely achieve some level of control on the target node, a control which is used by the worm for infecting the target node with a copy of itself.
Worms might also combine in their propagation methods, other methods which require human intervention such as mass-mailing and infection through a malicious web site. In that way desktops and laptops that were infected by a worm (for example, via email) might be the source for a self propagation of the worm within the network of an organization. The Internet and connections of the computer network of an organization to other networks might be also the source for a worm attack on the network of the organization.
Worms might affect the network and its nodes by consuming bandwidth, installing their code and the code of backdoors on network nodes, performing DDoS attacks, removing files, encrypting files, sending documents found on a network node using e-mail, sending spam, etc.
Security personnel and network administrators try to secure their networks, by using various counter measures such as patching services known to include vulnerabilities, limiting access using firewalls and access rules within routers, installing intrusion prevention systems (IPS), and other protection mechanisms.
Security personnel and network administrators however, have very limited information on how vulnerable is their network to worms—the worm which has just been released and reported in the world in the last hours, or the worms that might be released in the next weeks or months.
They also have very partial tools to understand what current weaknesses in their network are more important to be resolved to effectively reduce the risk of potential worms.
There is a growing need to provide efficient methods, system and computer program products for evaluating consequences and risks of potential work attacks.
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Significant effort is currently being expended researching methods for suppressing or compensating for disease-causing mutations in genes. Antisense technologies are being developed using a range of chemistries to affect gene expression at a variety of different levels (transcription, splicing, stability, translation). Much of that research has focused on the use of antisense compounds to correct or compensate for abnormal or disease-associated genes in a myriad of different conditions.
Antisense molecules are able to inhibit gene expression with exquisite specificity and because of this many research efforts concerning oligonucleotides as modulators of gene expression have focused on inhibiting the expression of targeted genes such as oncogenes or viral genes. The antisense oligonucleotides are directed either against RNA (sense strand) or against DNA where they form triplex structures inhibiting transcription by RNA polymerase II. To achieve a desired effect in specific gene down-regulation, the oligonucleotides must either promote the decay of the targeted mRNA or block translation of that mRNA, thereby effectively preventing de novo synthesis of the undesirable target protein.
Such techniques are not useful where the object is to up-regulate production of the native protein or compensate for mutations which induce premature termination of translation such as nonsense or frame-shifting mutations. Furthermore, in cases where a normally functional protein is prematurely terminated because of mutations therein, a means for restoring some functional protein production through antisense technology has been shown to be possible through intervention during the splicing processes (Sierakowska H, et al., (1996) Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 93, 12840-12844; Wilton S D, et al., (1999) Neuromusc Disorders 9, 330-338; van Deutekom J C et al., (2001) Human Mol Genet 10, 1547-1554). In these cases, the defective gene transcript should not be subjected to targeted degradation so the antisense oligonucleotide chemistry should not promote target mRNA decay.
In a variety of genetic diseases, the effects of mutations on the eventual expression of a gene can be modulated through a process of targeted exon skipping during the splicing process. The splicing process is directed by complex multi-particle machinery that brings adjacent exon-intron junctions in pre-mRNA into close proximity and performs cleavage of phosphodiester bonds at the ends of the introns with their subsequent reformation between exons that are to be spliced together. This complex and highly precise process is mediated by sequence motifs in the pre-mRNA that are relatively short semi-conserved RNA segments to which bind the various nuclear splicing factors that are then involved in the splicing reactions. By changing the way the splicing machinery reads or recognises the motifs involved in pre-mRNA processing, it is possible to create differentially spliced mRNA molecules. It has now been recognised that the majority of human genes are alternatively spliced during normal gene expression, although the mechanisms invoked have not been identified. Using antisense oligonucleotides, it has been shown that errors and deficiencies in a coded mRNA could be bypassed or removed from the mature gene transcripts.
In nature, the extent of genetic deletion or exon skipping in the splicing process is not fully understood, although many instances have been documented to occur, generally at very low levels (Sherrat T G, et al., (1993) Am J Hum Genet 53, 1007-1015). However, it is recognised that if exons associated with disease-causing mutations can be specifically deleted from some genes, a shortened protein product can sometimes be produced that has similar biological properties of the native protein or has sufficient biological activity to ameliorate the disease caused by mutations associated with the target exon (Lu Q L, et al., (2003) Nature Medicine 9, 1009-1014; Aartsma-Rus A et al., (2004) Am J Hum Genet 74: 83-92).
This process of targeted exon skipping is likely to be particularly useful in long genes where there are many exons and introns, where there is redundancy in the genetic constitution of the exons or where a protein is able to function without one or more particular exons (e.g. with the dystrophin gene, which consists of 79 exons; or possibly some collagen genes which encode for repeated blocks of sequence or the huge nebulin or titin genes which are comprised of ˜80 and over 370 exons, respectively).
Efforts to redirect gene processing for the treatment of genetic diseases associated with truncations caused by mutations in various genes have focused on the use of antisense oligonucleotides that either: (1) fully or partially overlap with the elements involved in the splicing process; or (2) bind to the pre-mRNA at a position sufficiently close to the element to disrupt the binding and function of the splicing factors that would normally mediate a particular splicing reaction which occurs at that element (e.g., binds to the pre-mRNA at a position within 3, 6, or 9 nucleotides of the element to be blocked).
For example, modulation of mutant dystrophin pre-mRNA splicing with antisense oligoribonucleotides has been reported both in vitro and in vivo. In one type of dystrophin mutation reported in Japan, a 52-base pair deletion mutation causes exon 19 to be removed with the flanking introns during the splicing process (Matsuo et al., (1991) J Clin Invest. 87:2127-2131). An in vitro minigene splicing system has been used to show that a 31-mer 2′-O-methyl oligoribonucleotide complementary to the 5′ half of the deleted sequence in dystrophin Kobe exon 19 inhibited splicing of wild-type pre-mRNA (Takeshima et al. (1995), J. Clin. Invest., 95, 515-520). The same oligonucleotide was used to induce exon skipping from the native dystrophin gene transcript in human cultured lymphoblastoid cells.
Dunckley et al., (1997) Nucleosides & Nucleotides, 16, 1665-1668 described in vitro constructs for analysis of splicing around exon 23 of mutated dystrophin in the mdx mouse mutant, a model for muscular dystrophy. Plans to analyse these constructs in vitro using 2′ modified oligonucleotides targeted to splice sites within and adjacent to mouse dystrophin exon 23 were discussed, though no target sites or sequences were given.
2′-O-methyl oligoribonucleotides were subsequently reported to correct dystrophin deficiency in myoblasts from the mdx mouse from this group. An antisense oligonucleotide targeted to the 3′ splice site of murine dystrophin intron 22 was reported to cause skipping of the mutant exon as well as several flanking exons and created a novel in-frame dystrophin transcript with a novel internal deletion. This mutated dystrophin was expressed in 1-2% of antisense treated mdx myotubes. Use of other oligonucleotide modifications such as 2′-O-methoxyethyl phosphodiesters are described (Dunckley et al. (1998) Human Mol. Genetics, 5, 1083-90).
Thus, antisense molecules may provide a tool in the treatment of genetic disorders such as Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD). However, attempts to induce exon skipping using antisense molecules have had mixed success. Studies on dystrophin exon 19, where successful skipping of that exon from the dystrophin pre-mRNA was achieved using a variety of antisense molecules directed at the flanking splice sites or motifs within the exon involved in exon definition as described by Errington et al. (2003) J Gen Med 5, 518-527”.
In contrast to the apparent ease of exon 19 skipping, the first report of exon 23 skipping in the mdx mouse by Dunckley et al., (1998) is now considered to be reporting only a naturally occurring revertant transcript or artefact rather than any true antisense activity. In addition to not consistently generating transcripts missing exon 23, Dunckley et al., (1998) did not show any time course of induced exon skipping, or even titration of antisense oligonucleotides, to demonstrate dose dependent effects where the levels of exon skipping corresponded with increasing or decreasing amounts of antisense oligonucleotide. Furthermore, this work could not be replicated by other researchers.
The first example of specific and reproducible exon skipping in the mdx mouse model was reported by Wilton et al., (1999) Neuromuscular Disorders 9, 330-338. By directing an antisense molecule to the donor splice site, consistent and efficient exon 23 skipping was induced in the dystrophin mRNA within 6 hours of treatment of the cultured cells. Wilton et al., (1999), also describe targeting the acceptor region of the mouse dystrophin pre-mRNA with longer antisense oligonucleotides and being unable to repeat the published results of Dunckley of al., (1998). No exon skipping, either 23 alone or multiple removal of several flanking exons, could be reproducibly detected using a selection of antisense oligonucleotides directed at the acceptor splice site of intron 22.
While the first antisense oligonucleotide directed at the intron 23 donor splice site induced consistent exon skipping in primary cultured myoblasts, this compound was found to be much less efficient in immortalized cell cultures expressing higher levels of dystrophin. However, with refined targeting and antisense oligonucleotide design, the efficiency of specific exon removal was increased by almost an order of magnitude (see Mann C J et al., (2002) J Gen Med 4, 644-654).
Thus, there remains a need to provide antisense oligonucleotides capable of binding to and modifying the splicing of a target nucleotide sequence. Simply directing the antisense oligonucleotides to motifs presumed to be crucial for splicing is no guarantee of the efficacy of that compound in a therapeutic setting.
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Card games are useful for amusement, entertainment, and education. Most card games typically require two or more players who play against each other to determine a winner. There are, however, a few card games that require or can be played by only one player.
One well-known game for one player, commonly referred to as solitaire, is played with a deck of face cards. Most decks of face cards typically have four suits of thirteen cards each, beginning with numbered cards two through ten, a jack, queen, king, and an ace. The object of the game is to randomly draw cards from the deck and place them face up on a playing surface in four columns corresponding to the four suits. The rules of the game require that cards be placed in their respective suit in ascending or descending order. If a card drawn from the deck cannot be played in one of the four suits, it is either placed in a discard pile or placed back into the deck where it can be later drawn and played. Depending on the rules, it is possible to either complete the game or to reach a point where there are not more cards to be drawn and the unplayed cards in the discard pile are in an order such that it would be impossible to complete the four suits.
While this and other card games for one player provide some interest and challenge, they generally lack any educational value. For instance, the terminology and identifying characters used with the deck of the face cards described above is of ancient origin and, while interesting, provides no useful information to the player. Hence, there is a need for a card game designed for one player that provides education and intellectual stimulation as well as amusement and entertainment for not only adults but also children.
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{
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1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a needle which may be used with a hypodermic syringe, IV Catheter, and for any medical or industrial purpose. The needle is a self blunting instrument which upon use will prevent needle stick injuries.
2. Background
The present invention has been made to protect the health of medical and non-medical persons who face the potential risk of needle stick injury. Although syringes and needles have been widely used in the medical field or industry for over a hundred years, their potential hazardous nature and their implications on health care and other workers have only recently been studied. Safety-Engineered Medical Devices (SEMDs) are specially manufactured versions of these sharp and potentially injurious medical products, designed for safer use by medical professionals.
The world market for SEMD's totaled an estimated $780 Million in the year 2001 alone and is projected to exceed to $1.6 billion by 2005, based on 20% predicted growth. There are approximately 800,000 to 1 Million exposures to blood borne pathogens in US every year due to needle stick injuries. Of which approximately 2% are HIV exposures resulting in 16,000 new infections. More than 20 diseases can be transmitted due to Needle Stick Injuries like AIDS, Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C exposures.
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{
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
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1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to novel, pyrogenically produced aluminum-silicon mixed oxides, a method for their production, the production of corresponding dispersions and to their use as a component in inks or dyes for inkjet media.
2. Background Information
EP 0 023 588, EP 0 585 544 and EP 1 048 617 teach flame-hydrolytically produced, powdery aluminum-silicon mixed oxides with an amorphous structure. Thus, EP 0 023 588 describes the production of aluminum-silicon mixed oxides with a BET surface of 50 to 200 m2/g and an aluminum oxide content of 0.5 to 20% by wt.
EP 0 585 544 describes the production of aluminum-silicon mixed oxides with a BET surface of 50 to 200 m2/g and an aluminum oxide content of 65 to 72.1% by wt. Al2O3.
EP 1 048 617 describes the production of an aluminum-silicon mixed oxide with a BET surface of 50 to 300 m2/g and an aluminum oxide content of 1 to 99.999% by wt. Al2O3.
The known aluminum-silicon mixed oxides have the disadvantage that the degree of gloss, color intensity and resolution are insufficient in inkjet printing.
The present invention addresses the problem of producing an aluminum-silicon mixed oxide that does not have these disadvantages.
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{
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Producing electricity with permanent magnet generators is well known. Such generators generally operate by rotating a shaft having permanent magnets affixed to its surface in a stator, that is generally comprised of copper windings, to produce an electromagnetic current. The permanent magnet generators in general use generally employ rotors comprise of rare earth magnet shafts rotating at speeds, on the order of 150 rpm to 20,000 rpm, within a generator stator. Due to the high strength of the magnets and high operating speed or the very large magnets required at low speeds, the generators are able to produce very high output power densities (defined as the ratio of power output to generator volume). Significant heating of both the generator stator and the rotor is associated with the power density, and this heat can damage the generator windings and demagnetize the rotor if it is not effectively removed from the generator.
The damage and demagnetization caused by excessive heat can result in electo-echanical failure, power loss, or erratic power fluctuation. In some applications such as generator providing electricity for welding generators excessive heat can result in very short and repetitive peak electrical loads
One method of cooling generators is the use of fluids in a closed system within the generator. The disadvantage of fluid cooling generators is that it does not cool the generator rotor shaft, is fairly complex, requiring a circulating pump and a radiator, and it also has the potential to leak fluid and cause damage to the system.
Conventional generator systems are typically cooled by air or hydrogen, both in the form of a forced convective flow within channels and turning regions. An industry requirement for the stator bars within the generator core is that the central region temperature between conducting bars not exceed a preset limit. Many factors influence the maximum central region temperature experienced in operation, including the stator bar design and insulation, the magnetic flux field, the core design, and the cooling design. Air-cooled systems have also been used in permanent magnet generators with varying degrees of success in that most known air-cooled systems can not adequately cool the rotor.
It is known to connect cooling devices to the stator and in this way reduce the heating of the generator and its components. However, due to the spatial arrangement of the stator and the rotor, it is very difficult to provide cooling devices in certain regions of the generator, such as the rotor, that are not very accessible.
Therefore, a need exists for a method or device that can be used for effectively cooling all of the components of a permanent magnet generator, or for a generator that has such a device integral to the generator itself. Such generators, methods, or devices that do not interfere with the spatial arrangement of the stator and rotor, do not run the risk of leaking fluid in the generator, and can effectively cool the rotor would be a significant advantage over the prior art.
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Technical Field
The technology presented herein relates to a computer-readable storage medium having stored therein an activation control program for selecting one of a first predetermined number of pieces of software where the first predetermined number of pieces of software is greater than or equal to two, and activating the selected software, and an activation control apparatus, and more particularly to a computer-readable storage medium having stored therein an activation control program for controlling activation of application software (=game program) for executing a game, and an activation control apparatus.
Description of the Background Art
Conventionally, used as a method for activating software desired by a user through a one-time operation is a method for receiving an instruction issued by a user by, for example, tapping on one of icons, on a screen, corresponding to a plurality of pieces of software installed. However, there is a problem that, when the method as described above is used for a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) having a relatively small display, or the like, the number of icons which can be simultaneously displayed may be reduced.
In order to solve the aforementioned problem, various methods, various apparatuses, and the like have been suggested. For example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2004-348601 discloses an information processing apparatus in which a curvature slider which can be slid by a user is displayed, and the number of application icons which can be simultaneously displayed in a normal display area can be increased in accordance with the curvature slider being slid from left to right, without reducing the size of each application icon.
However, in the information processing apparatus, although the number of icons which can be simultaneously displayed can be increased, positions of undisplayed icons may be recognized only by performing scrolling, or the like. Further, the information processing apparatus does not help a user activate a specific application.
The present technology is made to solve the aforementioned problems, and a feature of an example embodiment presented herein is to provide an activation control program and an activation control apparatus capable of easily selecting and activating desired software.
The present embodiment has the following features to attain the above. The reference numerals and figure numbers in the parentheses indicate an exemplary correspondence with the drawings in order to aid in understanding the present embodiment and are not intended to limit, in any way, the scope of the present embodiment.
An activation control program (240) according to the present embodiment is an activation control program executed by a predetermined information processing apparatus (10) which selects and activates one of a first predetermined number (for example, 40) of pieces of software, and the first predetermined number of pieces of software is greater than or equal to two.
A first aspect is an activation control program for causing a computer (21) to function as: first display control means (218); second display control means (219); display change means (214, 217); and activation execution means (220). The first display control means (218) selectively displays, in a first display area (801: see FIG. 17) on a monitor (12), a second predetermined number (here, 3) of first objects (801b, 801c, 801d: see FIG. 17) among first objects corresponding to the first predetermined number (for example, 16) of pieces of software, respectively, and the second predetermined number is smaller than the first predetermined number.
Further, the second display control means (219) displays, in a second display area (802: see FIG. 17) different from the first display area (801: see FIG. 17) on the monitor (12), a position designation image (802b: see FIG. 17) representing subject software among the first predetermined number (for example, 16) of pieces of software, at a position based on positions in the order set for the first predetermined number of pieces of software.
Furthermore, the display change means (214, 217) receives an operation input from outside, and changes, based on the operation input having been received, the second predetermined number of first objects (801b, 801c, 801d: see FIG. 17) to be displayed in the first display area (801: see FIG. 17). In addition, the activation execution means (220) receives an operation input from outside, and selects, based on the operation input having been received, one of the second predetermined number of first objects (801b, 801c, 801d: see FIG. 17) displayed in the first display area (801: see FIG. 17), and activates software corresponding to the selected one of the second predetermined number of first objects.
The first objects are objects corresponding to the first predetermined number (for example, 16) of pieces of software, respectively, and are displayed in the first display area. The activation control means (220) selects one of the first objects displayed in the first display area, so as to activate the software corresponding to the selected first object. The first object is preferably an object by which each piece of software is identified. However, it may be difficult to identify each piece of software by the first object (for example, one object may correspond to different pieces of software).
The activation control program according to the present embodiment has a predetermined algorithm or table by which a position in the second display area is determined based on the order set for the first predetermined number (for example, 16) of pieces of software. Based on the algorithm or table, for example, the position is determined such that the smaller the position-in-order number is, the closer the position is to one end portion (for example, the left end, the top left end, or the like) of the second display area, and the greater the position-in-order number is, the closer the position is to the other end portion (for example, the right end, the bottom right end, or the like) thereof. At this time, the second object corresponding to the software for which the position in the order is set smaller is displayed near the one end portion of the second display area, and the second object corresponding to the software for which the position in the order is set greater is displayed near the other end portion thereof.
Further, when a coordinate is inputted on the second display area, the display change means (214, 217) displays, in the first display area, the first object corresponding to the software for which the position in the order is set smaller in a case where the coordinate is inputted near the one end portion of the second display area, and displays, in the first display area, the first object corresponding to the software for which the position in the order is set greater in a case where the coordinate is inputted near the other end portion of the second display area. The display change means (214, 217) may gradually change the first objects to be displayed in the first display area, in accordance with the order thereof, by means of a predetermined scrolling means (hardware key, touch key, or the like).
According to the present embodiment, the “subject software” is software for which the position designation image is displayed in the second display area.
Although the subject software includes, for example, the following software, the subject software is not limited thereto.
(1) Predetermined specific software (for example, software having a specific title)
(2) Software for causing the computer (21) of the information processing apparatus (10) to perform a specific processing. In particular, software for executing a process (for example, communication process) using a predetermined function (for example, communication function) of the information processing apparatus (10).
(3) Card software in a case where both incorporated software and card software are able to be activated.
(4) Downloaded software (which may be all downloaded software or only unused software having been downloaded)
(5) Software which are frequently used by a user (this can be realized when the number of times each software is activated is stored in a non-volatile manner)
The “position designation image” is an image displayed at a position, in the second area, determined based on a position of the subject software in the order, and any display method can be used. When the “position designation image” is displayed, a user can recognize a position of the “subject software”. Based on this, the display change means (214, 217) appropriately changes the first objects displayed in the first display area, and displays, in the first display area, the first object corresponding to the subject software, and the activation execution means (220) is able to activate the subject software.
Although the “position designation image” includes, for example, the following images, the position designation image is not limited to the following examples.
(1) An object or the like is constantly displayed at a position of the “subject software” in the order in the second display area. The object or the like in this case is the “position designation image”. The object may be an image by which each software can be identified, or an image by which each software cannot be identified. In the case of (1), in the second display area,
(1-1) objects or the like may be displayed at positions based on the order set for the first predetermined number of pieces of software, and only “the subject software” may be displayed so as to represent an object different from objects corresponding to other software.
(1-2) an object may be displayed only at a position corresponding to a position, of the “subject software”, in the order.
Further, when predetermined requirements are satisfied, the “position designation image” may be displayed. For example, when predetermined requirements are satisfied in (1-1) or (1-2) described above, the display state of the object or the like corresponding to the subject software may be changed or the object or the like may be highlighted. When, for example, the display state is changed, or the object is highlighted as described above, a user takes notice of a position of the “subject software”. The change of the display state or the highlighting as described above is equivalent to the “position designation image”.
(2) The first predetermined number of pieces of software may be displayed in the second display area (each software may be displayed such that the identification thereof is impossible), and when predetermined requirements are satisfied, only the “subject software” is displayed in a manner different from that for other software.
In other words, according to the present embodiment, the “position designation image” represents both display for indicating a position of the subject software, and display for causing the subject software to be noted, and one of the displays may be made, or both of the displays may be made. The second display area is preferably narrower than the first display area.
An activation control program according to a second aspect is the activation control program based on the first aspect, and the display change means (214, 217) receives an operation input from outside on the second display area (802: see FIG. 17), and changes, based on the operation input having been received, the second predetermined number of first objects (801b, 801c, 801d: see FIG. 17) to be displayed in the first display area (801: see FIG. 17). Therefore, it is possible to easily select and activate the subject software.
An activation control program according to a third aspect is the activation control program based on the first aspect, and the computer (21) is caused to further function as enablement determination means (211, 214) for determining whether or not a predetermined function of the predetermined information processing apparatus (10) is able to be used. Further, when the enablement determination means (211, 214) determines that the predetermined function is able to be used, the second display control means (219) displays the position designation image (802b: see FIG. 17) at a position corresponding to a position of the subject software in the order, among the first predetermined number of pieces of software. The subject software is software for causing the computer (21) to execute a predetermined process using the predetermined function. It is possible to easily select and activate software for causing the computer (21) to execute a predetermined process using a predetermined function
An activation control program according to a fourth aspect is the activation control program based on the third aspect, and the computer (21) is configured such that a communication function for enabling a communication with a predetermined communication apparatus (4) is able to be used as the predetermined function. Further, the enablement determination means (211, 214) determines whether or not the communication with the predetermined communication apparatus (4) is enabled by using the communication function. Furthermore, the second display control means (219) sets, as the subject software, software for causing the computer (21) to perform a predetermined process using the communication function, among the first predetermined number of pieces of software, and displays the position designation image (802b: see FIG. 17) at a position corresponding to a position of the subject software in the order. Therefore, it is possible to easily select and activate software for causing the computer (21) to execute a predetermined process using the communication function.
An activation control program according to a fifth aspect is the activation control program based on the third aspect, and the first display control means (218) displays a first object (871c, 881c: see FIG. 24, FIG. 25) corresponding to the subject software, in a manner depending on a determination result obtained from the enablement determination means (211, 214), and the first object corresponding to the subject software is among the first objects corresponding to the first predetermined number of pieces of software. Therefore, it is possible to easily determine, in a visual manner, whether or not the predetermined function is able to be used, based on the display state of the first object (871c, 881c: see FIG. 24, FIG. 25) displayed in the first display area.
An activation control program according to a sixth aspect is the activation control program based on the first aspect, and the second display control means (219) displays, in the second display area (802: see FIG. 17), second objects (802a, 802b: see FIG. 17) which are each smaller than the first objects, and which correspond to the first predetermined number of pieces of software, respectively, and displays, as the position designation image, a second object (802b: see FIG. 17) which corresponds to the subject software, and are among the second objects corresponding to the first predetermined number of pieces of software, so as to be distinguishable from the second objects (802a: see FIG. 17) other than the second object corresponding to the subject software. Therefore, it is possible to easily determine, in a visual manner, the position of the subject software in the order, based on the second object displayed in the second display area.
The second objects represent the respective software, and displayed in the second display area. The respective software may not be identified by the second objects (for example, one object may correspond to different pieces of software). However, the respective software may be identified by the second objects. Although a certain second object corresponding to the subject software may be the “position designation image”, all the second objects do not correspond to the “position designation image”. For example, in an example shown in FIG. 17 described below, the second object corresponds to, for example, the objects, 802a and 802b, and, among them, the second object 802b corresponds to the position designation image, and the second object 802a and the third object 802c do not correspond to the position designation image.
An activation control program according to the seventh aspect is the activation control program based on the six aspect, and the computer (21) is caused to further function as enablement determination means (211, 214) for determining whether or not a predetermined function of the predetermined information processing apparatus (10) is able to be used. Further, when the enablement determination means (211, 214) determines that the predetermined function is able to be used, the second display control means (219) displays the second object (872b, 882b: see FIG. 24, FIG. 25) corresponding to the subject software, in a manner depending on a determination result obtained from the enablement determination means (211, 214). Therefore, it is possible to easily determine, in a visual manner, whether or not the predetermined function can be used based on the second object displayed in the second display area.
An activation control program according to an eighth aspect is the activation control program based on the sixth aspect, and the second display control means (219) displays, as the position designation image, the second object (802b: see FIG. 17) corresponding to the subject software so as to be blinked. Therefore, the second object (802b: see FIG. 17) displayed in the second display area (802: see FIG. 17) enables the position of the subject software in the order to be recognized in a visual manner with enhanced easiness.
An activation control program according to a ninth aspect is the activation control program based on the sixth aspect, and the second display control means (219) performs, as a predetermined display, a display of the first predetermined number (for example, 16) of the second objects (802a, 802b: see FIG. 17) so as to linearly arrange the first predetermined number of the second objects. Therefore, the second objects (802a, 802b: see FIG. 17) displayed in the second display area (802: see FIG. 17) enable the position of the subject software in the order to be recognized in a visual manner with enhanced easiness.
An activation control program according to a tenth aspect is the activation control program based on the ninth aspect, and the second display control means (219) displays scroll buttons (804a, 804b: see FIG. 17), near both ends of the second display area (802: see FIG. 17), respectively, for scrolling the first display area (801: see FIG. 17) in which the second predetermined number (here, 3) of first objects (801b, 801c, 801d: see FIG. 17) are displayed. Further, when an operation input for scrolling the first display area in which the second predetermined number of first objects are displayed is received through one of the scroll buttons, the display change means (214, 217) scrolls, by means of the first display control means (218), the first display area in which the second predetermined number of first objects are displayed so as to change the second predetermined number of first objects to be displayed. Therefore, it is possible to easily change the second predetermined number of first objects displayed in the first display area.
An activation control program according to an eleventh aspect is the activation control program based on the sixth aspect, and, when an operation input for selecting the second object (832b: see FIG. 20) which corresponds to the subject software and is displayed by the second display control means (219) is received, the display change means (214,217) displays, in the first display area, a first object (841c: see FIG. 21) which corresponds to the subject software and is among the first objects corresponding to the first predetermined number of pieces of software, by means of the first display control means (218). Therefore, it is possible to easily activate the subject software by using the second predetermined number of first objects displayed in the first display area.
An activation control program according to a twelfth aspect is the activation control program based on the sixth aspect, and the computer (21) is caused to further function as classification means (221) for classifying the first predetermined number of pieces of software into a predetermined number of types, and the predetermined number of types is greater than or equal to two. Further, the second display control means (219) displays the second objects which correspond to the first predetermined number (for example, 16) of pieces of software, respectively, and which are classified into the predetermined number of types by the classification means (221), so as to be each identified by one of the predetermined number of types. Therefore, it is possible to easily recognize, in a visual manner, the position-in-order for the software desired to be activated.
An activation control program according to a thirteenth aspect is the activation control program based on the sixth aspect, and the second display control means (219) displays third objects (802c: see FIG. 17) so as to be distinguishable from the first predetermined number of the second objects (802a, 802b: see FIG. 17), and a number of the third objects is a number corresponding to a difference obtained by subtracting the first predetermined number (for example, 16) from a third predetermined number (here, 40) which is a maximum number of pieces of software which can be activated by the activation control program (240). Therefore, it is possible to easily recognize, in a visual manner, the number (here, (the third predetermined number)−(the first predetermined number)) of pieces of software which can be added.
An activation control program according to a fourteenth aspect is the activation control program based on the thirteenth aspect, and the computer (21) is caused to further function as number increasing means (216) for determining whether or not predetermined requirements are satisfied, and increasing the third predetermined number (here, 39) by a predetermined amount (here, one) when it is determined that the predetermined requirements are satisfied. Therefore, for example, software which is needed for a predetermined usage is preinstalled, and when a user needs the software (when it is determined that predetermined requirements are satisfied), it is possible to visually recognize the software, thereby enabling improvement of usability.
An activation control program according to a fifteenth aspect is the activation control program based on the fourteenth aspect, and the computer (21) is connected to a predetermined communication apparatus (4) so as to enable communication therebetween, and the computer (21) is caused to further function as communication enablement determination means (211) for determining whether or not the communication with the predetermined communication apparatus (4) is enabled. Further, the predetermined requirements are requirements that the communication enablement determination means (211) determines that the communication with the predetermined communication apparatus (4) is enabled, and an operation input for starting the communication with the predetermined communication apparatus (4) is received. Therefore, when the communication with the predetermined communication apparatus (4) is started, the first object (871c: see FIG. 24) and the second object (872b: see FIG. 24) each corresponding to communication software for executing the communication with the predetermined communication apparatus (4) can be visually recognized, thereby enabling improvement of usability.
The activation control program according to a sixteenth aspect is the activation control program based on the first aspect, and the display change means (214, 217) receives an operation input from outside by displaying the position designation image (842b: see FIG. 21) in the second display area (842: see FIG. 21), and displays, based on the operation input having been received, a first object (841c: see FIG. 21) which corresponds to the subject software and is among the first objects corresponding to the first predetermined number of pieces of software, in the first display area (841: see FIG. 21). Therefore, it is possible to easily activate the subject software.
The activation control program according to a seventeenth aspect is the activation control program based on the first aspect, and the second display control means (219) displays an image, in a visual manner, indicating a position, of the software selected as software to be activated, in the order set for the first predetermined number of pieces of software, before the activation execution means (220) activates the software selected as the software to be activated. Therefore, it is possible to easily recognize, in a visual manner, the position-in-order for the software selected by the activation execution means (220).
The activation control program according to an eighteenth aspect is the activation control program based on the first aspect, and the second display control means (219) displays an image (803: see FIG. 17), in a visual manner, indicating positions, of software corresponding to the second predetermined number (here, 3) of first objects, respectively, displayed by the first display control means (218), in the order set for the first predetermined number of pieces of software. Therefore, it is possible to easily recognize, in a visual manner, the order of the second predetermined number of first objects displayed by the first display control means (218).
The activation control program according to a nineteenth aspect is the activation control program based on the first aspect, and, when the computer (21) performs a predetermined process, the second display control means (219) sets, as the subject software, software corresponding to the predetermined process, and displays the position designation image at a position which corresponds to a position, of the software corresponding to the predetermined process, in the order set for the first predetermined number of pieces of software. Therefore, it is possible to easily activate software associated with a predetermined process (for example, detection as to whether or not the storage medium (17) is mounted) performed by the computer (21).
The activation control program according to a twentieth aspect is the activation control program based on the eighteenth aspect, and the computer (21) is provided in a housing (13) to which a storage medium (17) storing software is detachably mounted. Further, the activation control program (240) is operable to activate first software corresponding to the software stored in the storage medium (17), and second software corresponding to software stored in a non-volatile storage medium (24a) in the housing, and the first software and the second software form the first predetermined number of pieces of software. Furthermore, the second display control means (219) sets the first software as the subject software, and displays the position designation image at a position corresponding to a position of the first software in the order set for the first predetermined number of pieces of software. Therefore, it is possible to easily activate the software (=the first software) stored in the storage medium (17).
The activation control program according to a twenty-first aspect is the activation control program based on the twentieth aspect, and the computer (21) is caused to further function as medium detection means (213) for detecting whether or not the storage medium (17) is mounted to the housing (13). Further, the second display control means (219) displays the position designation image (852b: see FIG. 22) when the medium detection means (213) detects that the storage medium (17) is mounted. Therefore, it is possible to easily activate the software (=the first software) stored in the storage medium (17).
The activation control program according to a twenty-second aspect is the activation control program based on the twentieth aspect, and the second display control means (219) displays, in the second display area (802: see FIG. 17), second objects (802a, 802b: see FIG. 17) which are each smaller than the first objects, and correspond to the first predetermined number of pieces of software, respectively. Further, the second display control means (219) displays, as the position designation image, a second object (802b: see FIG. 17) which corresponds to the subject software and is among the second objects corresponding to the first predetermined number of pieces of software so as to be distinguishable from the second objects (802a: see FIG. 17) other than the second object corresponding to the subject software. Therefore, it is possible to easily recognize, in a visual manner, the position-in-order for the subject software based on the second object displayed in the second display area.
The activation control program according to a twenty-third aspect is the activation control program based on the twenty-second aspect, and the second display control means (219) displays a second object (802a: see FIG. 17) corresponding to the second software. Further, the second display control means (219) displays, as the position designation image, a second object (802b: see FIG. 17) which corresponds to the first software and is distinguishable from the second object corresponding to the second software. Therefore, it is possible to easily recognize, in a visual manner, a position-in-order for the first software (=the software stored in the storage medium (17) corresponding to the subject software, based on the second object displayed in the second display area.
The activation control program according to a twenty-fourth aspect is the activation control program based on the twenty-second aspect, and an order of the first software for a case where the storage medium (17) is mounted is set regardless of whether or not the storage medium (17) is mounted in the housing (13). Further, the second display control means (219) displays, as the position designation image, a second object (852b: see FIG. 22) corresponding to the first software, at a position based on positions in the order for the first software when the medium detection means (213) detects that the storage medium (17) is mounted. Furthermore, third objects (832c: see FIG. 20) which correspond to the first software and are distinguishable from the second object are displayed at positions corresponding to positions in the order for the first software when the medium detection means (213) does not detect that the storage medium (17) is mounted. Therefore, it is possible to easily determine, in a visual manner, whether or not the storage medium storing the first software (=the software stored in the storage medium) corresponding to the subject software is mounted.
The third object is an object which does not correspond to any of the first predetermined number (for example, 16) of pieces of software, and, in an example shown in FIG. 20, the third object corresponds to objects (832a) which are displayed, when the memory card 17 (see FIG. 2) is not mounted, at positions (the third position from the left) corresponding to positions-in-order for card programs (programs stored in the memory card 17) to be displayed when the memory card 17 is mounted.
Moreover, the “order” is set for the first predetermined number (for example, 16) of pieces of software. Based on this, determined are the positions in display order at which the first objects corresponding to the respective software are displayed in the first display area. However, as described below, when the memory card 17 is detachably mounted to the information processing apparatus 10, and card programs stored in the memory card 17 are able to be activated, the order of the card programs is set as follows.
Specifically, in a state where no card is mounted, the position-in-order in which each software in the memory card 17 is to be displayed when the memory card 17 is mounted is previously set. When the memory card 17 is mounted, each software in the memory card 17 is assigned to the position-in-order having been previously set. Thus, when a memory card 17 is mounted, each software in the memory card 17 is assigned to the position-in-order having been previously set regardless of what the software is. For example, a card program A is stored in a memory card A, and a card program B is stored in a memory card B. When the position-in-order, “3”, is previously set to both the card programs A and B, the second object corresponding to the card program A is displayed at a position corresponding to the position-in-order, “3”, when the memory card A is mounted, and the second object corresponding to the card program B is displayed at a position corresponding to the position-in-order, “3”, when the memory card B is mounted. When the memory card 17 is not mounted, a predetermined image may be displayed in the second display area at a position corresponding to the position-in-order, “3”. The “predetermined image” corresponds to the third object (832a: see FIG. 20) described above.
The activation control program according to a twenty-fifth aspect is the activation control program based on the twenty-second aspect, and an order of the first software for a case where the storage medium (17) is mounted is set regardless of whether or not the storage medium (17) is mounted in the housing (13). Further, the second display control means (219) displays second objects (832a, 832b: see FIG. 20) such that a portion of the second objects correspond to the first software, and a remaining portion of the second objects correspond to the second software. Furthermore, an image (852b: see FIG. 22) obtained by changing display state of the second objects corresponding to the first software is displayed as the position designation image when the medium detection means (213) detects that the storage medium (17) is mounted. Therefore, it is possible to easily determine, in a visual manner, whether or not the storage medium storing the first software (=the software stored in the storage medium) corresponding to the subject software is mounted.
The activation control program according to a twenty-sixth aspect is the activation control program based on the twenty-first aspect, and the medium detection means (213) detects whether or not the storage medium (17) is mounted in the housing (13) after the predetermined information processing apparatus (10) is powered on. Therefore, it is possible to easily activate the software stored in the storage medium (17).
The activation control program according to a twenty-seventh aspect is the activation control program based on the first aspect, and the computer (21) is connected to another computer (4) so as to enable communication therebetween, and the computer (21) is caused to further function as communication enablement determination means (211) for determining whether or not communication with the another computer (4) is enabled. Further, the second display control means (219) sets, as the subject software, software for causing the computer (21) to execute the communication with the another computer 4, among the first predetermined number of pieces of software, and displays the position designation image (872b: see FIG. 24) at a position corresponding to a position of the subject software in the order. Therefore, it is possible to easily activate communication software corresponding to the software for executing the communication with the another computer (4).
The activation control program according to a twenty-eighth aspect is the activation control program based on the first aspect, and the computer (21) is connected to another computer (6) so as to enable communication therebetween, and the another computer is capable of transmitting software, and the computer (21) is caused to further function as acquisition determination means (212) for determining whether or not the software is acquired from the another computer (6). Further, the second display control means (219) sets, as the subject software, the software determined, by the acquisition determination means (212), as having been acquired from the another computer (6), among the first predetermined number of pieces of software, and displays the position designation image (802b: see FIG. 17) at a position based on positions in the order set for the first predetermined number of pieces of software. Therefore, it is possible to easily activate the software acquired from the another computer (6).
The activation control program according to a twenty-ninth aspect is the activation control program based on the first aspect, and the computer (21) is caused to further function as order change means (215) for receiving an operation input from outside, and changing, based on the operation input having been received, a display order of the first objects corresponding to the first predetermined number of pieces of software. Therefore, it is possible to change the order of the first objects as desired by a user.
The activation control program according to a thirtieth aspect is the activation control program based on the first aspect, and at least one of the display change means (214, 217) and the activation execution means (220) receives an operation input through a touch panel (15) which is integrated with the monitor (12). Therefore, it is possible to improve operability.
The activation control program according to a thirty-first aspect is the activation control program based on the first aspect, and the computer (21) is caused to further function as object storage means (241, 242) for storing order information representing an order and first object information both of which are associated with the first predetermined number of pieces of software. Further, the first display control means (218) reads, from the object storage means (241, 242), the first object information determined to be displayed in the first display area by means of the display change means (214, 217), and displays an image represented by the first object information. Therefore, the first object designated by the display change means (214, 217) can be displayed in the first display area by using a simplified configuration.
The activation control program according to a thirty-second aspect is the activation control program based on the first aspect, and the first objects are associated with positions, respectively, in the second display area (832: see FIG. 20), based on the order, and the display change means (214, 217) receives an operation input, from outside, on the second display area (832: see FIG. 20), and displays, in the first display area (841: see FIG. 21), one of the first objects (841c: see FIG. 21) based on the operation input having been received. Therefore, it is possible to easily display the first object corresponding to the software desired to be activated, thereby enabling desired software to be easily activated.
The activation control program according to a thirty-third aspect is the activation control program based on the thirty-second aspect, and the display change means (214, 217) receives a position input from outside on the second display area (832: see FIG. 20), and displays, in the first display area (841: see FIG. 21), one of the first objects (841c: see FIG. 21) based on the position input having been received. Therefore, it is possible to display, with enhanced easiness, the first object corresponding to the software desired to be activated.
The activation control program according to a thirty-fourth aspect is the activation control program based on the first aspect, and the second display control means (219) displays an order of a fourth predetermined number of pieces of software by using a display order of second objects corresponding to the fourth predetermined number of pieces of software, respectively, and the fourth predetermined number of pieces of software is greater than or equal to the second predetermined number of pieces of software, and is smaller than or equal to the first predetermined number of pieces of software, and the fourth predetermined number of pieces of software includes the second predetermined number of pieces of software included in the first predetermined number of pieces of software. Further, the display change means (214, 217) receives an operation input from outside based on the fourth predetermined number of the second objects (832a, 832b: see FIG. 20) displayed in the second display area (832: see FIG. 20), and displays, in the first display area (841: see FIG. 21), the second predetermined number of first objects (841b, 841c, 841d: see FIG. 21) including a first object of software corresponding to one of the second objects, which is designated through the operation input having been received. Therefore, it is possible to easily display the first object corresponding to software desired to be activated, thereby enabling easy activation of the desired software.
An activation control program according to a thirty-fifth aspect is the activation control program based on the first aspect, and the predetermined information processing apparatus is provided in a game apparatus (10), and the software is application software for executing a game. Therefore, it is possible to realize a game apparatus capable of easily selecting and activating application software.
An activation control apparatus (21, 24, 24a) according to the present invention is an activation control apparatus (21) for selecting and activating one of a first predetermined number (for example, 40) of pieces of software, and the first predetermined number of pieces of software is greater than or equal to two.
Further, the activation control apparatus (21) comprises first display control means (218), second display control means (219), display change means (214, 217), and activation execution means (220). The first display control means (218) selectively displays, in a first display area (801: see FIG. 17) on a monitor (12), a second predetermined number (here, 3) of first objects (801b, 801c, 801d: see FIG. 17) among first objects corresponding to the first predetermined number (for example, 16) of pieces of software, respectively, and for which an order is set, and the second predetermined number is smaller than the first predetermined number.
Further, the second display control means (219) displays, in a second display area (802: see FIG. 17) different from the first display area (801: see FIG. 17) on the monitor (12), a position designation image (802b: see FIG. 17) representing subject software among the first predetermined number (for example, 16) of pieces of software, at a position based on positions in the order set for the first predetermined number of pieces of software.
Furthermore, the display change means (214, 217) receives an operation input from outside, and changes, based on the operation input having been received, the second predetermined number of first objects (801b, 801c, 801d: see FIG. 17) to be displayed in the first display area (801: see FIG. 17). In addition, the activation execution means (220) receives an operation input from outside, and selects, based on the operation input having been received, one of the second predetermined number of first objects (801b, 801c, 801d: see FIG. 17) displayed in the first display area (801: see FIG. 17), and activates software corresponding to the selected one of the second predetermined number of first objects.
The activation control program (240) and the activation control apparatus (21, 24, 24a) according to the present invention display the position designation image (802b: see FIG. 17) at a position corresponding to a position, of the subject software, in the order of the first predetermined number (for example, 16) of pieces of software, and therefore it is possible to easily select and activate desired software (here, the subject software).
In other words, based on the position designation image (802b: see FIG. 17), the second predetermined number (here, 3) of first objects (801b, 801c, 801d: see FIG. 17) to be displayed in the first display area may be determined, and when one of the second predetermined number of first objects (801b, 801c, 801d: see FIG. 17) displayed in the first display area (801: see FIG. 17) is selected, the subject software is able to be activated, thereby enabling easy selection and activation of the subject software.
These and other features, aspects and advantages of the present embodiment will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the present embodiment when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
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There are many applications in which the detection of a sinusoidal signal is required. For example, in a multipoint data network, the beginning of a transmission by one station on the network may be indicated by a timing signal formed by one or more sinusoidal signals. Such a timing signal is recognized by receivers on the network as an indication that a packet of data will follow on the network. Accurate and rapid detection of a sinusoidal signal is critical in such an application. However, this is merely one example of the use of a sinusoidal signal detector.
Other examples of applications in which sine wave detection is used includes position detectors (U.S. Pat. No. 5,801,835), and speech recognition devices. In most applications, it is desirable to make the determination that the signal is a sinusoidal signal as quickly as possible. It is also desirable to do so in a manner that employs a relatively minimal amount of logic to implement the detection scheme.
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1. Field of the Invention
The invention deals with the field of materials science. It relates to a nickel-base superalloy, in particular for the production of single-crystal components (SX alloy) or components with a directionally solidified microstructure (DS alloy), such as for example blades or vanes for gas turbines. However, the alloy according to the invention can also be used for conventionally cast components.
2. Discussion of Background
Nickel-base superalloys of this type are known. Single-crystal components made from these alloys have a very good material strength at high temperatures. As a result, by way of example the inlet temperature of gas turbines can be increased, so that the gas turbine becomes more efficient.
Nickel-base superalloys for single-crystal components, as are known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,643,782, EP 0 208 645 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,270,123, for this purpose contain solid-solution-strengthening alloying elements, for example Re, W, Mo, Co, Cr, and xcex3xe2x80x2-phase-forming elements, for example Al, Ta and Ti. The level of high-melting alloying elements (W, Mo, Re) in the basic matrix (austenitic xcex3 phase) increases continuously with the increase in the alloy loading temperature. For example, standard nickel-base superalloys for single crystals contain 6-8% of W, up to 6% of Re and up to 2% of Mo (details in % by weight). The alloys disclosed in the abovementioned documents have a high creep rupture strength, good LCF (Low Cycle Fatigue) and HCF (High Cycle Fatigue) properties and a high resistance to oxidation.
These known alloys were developed for aircraft turbines and were therefore optimized for short-term and medium-term use, i.e. the loading duration is designed for up to 20,000 hours. By contrast, industrial gas turbine components have to be designed for a loading duration of up to 75,000 hours.
By way of example, after a loading duration of 300 hours, the alloy CMSX-4 described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,643,782, when used in tests in a gas turbine at a temperature of over 1000xc2x0 C., reveals considerable coarsening of the xcex3xe2x80x2 phase, which is disadvantageously associated with an increase in the creep rate of the alloy.
It is therefore necessary to improve the oxidation resistance of the known alloys at very high temperatures.
A further problem of the known nickel-base superalloys, for example the alloys which are known from U.S. Pat. No. 5,435,861, consists in the fact that the castability for large components, e.g. gas turbine blades or vanes with a length of more than 80 mm, leaves something to be desired. It is extremely difficult to cast a perfect, relatively large directionally solidified single-crystal component from a nickel-base superalloy, since most of these components have defects, for example small-angle grain boundaries, freckles (i.e. defects caused by a sequence of uniaxially oriented grains with a high eutectic content), equiaxial scatter boundaries, microporosities, etc. These defects weaken the components at high temperatures, so that the desired service life or operating temperature of the turbine is not reached. However, since a perfectly cast single-crystal component is extremely expensive, industry tends to allow as many defects as possible without the service life or the operating temperature being impaired.
One of the most frequent defects is grain boundaries, which are particularly harmful to the high-temperature properties of the single-crystal article. Although small-angle grain boundaries have only a relatively small influence on the properties of small components, they are highly relevant with regard to the castability and oxidation characteristics at high temperatures in the case of large SX or DS components.
Grain boundaries are regions of high local disorder of the crystal lattice, since the adjacent grains abut one another in these regions and therefore there is a certain misorientation between the crystal lattices. The greater the misorientation, the greater the disorder, i.e. the larger the number of dislocations in the grain boundaries which are necessary for the two grains to fit together. This disorder is directly related to the performance of the material at high temperatures. It weakens the material when the temperature rises above the equicohesive temperature (=0.5xc3x97melting point in K).
This effect is known from GB 2 234 521 A. For example, in a conventional nickel-base single-crystal alloy, the fracture strength drops greatly at a test temperature of 871xc2x0 C. if the misorientation of the grains is greater than 6xc2x0. This was also recorded with single-crystal components with a directionally solidified microstructure, and consequently opinion has tended to be not to allow misorientations of greater than 6xc2x0.
It is also known from the abovementioned GB 2 234 521 A that enriching nickel-base superalloys with boron or carbon with directional solidification results in microstructures which have an equiaxial or prismatic grain structure. Carbon and boron strengthen the grain boundaries, since C and B cause the precipitation of carbides and borides at the grain boundaries, which are stable at high temperatures. Moreover, the presence of these elements in and along the grain boundaries reduces the diffusion process, which is a primary cause of grain boundary weakness. It is therefore possible to increase the misorientations to 10xc2x0 to 12xc2x0 yet still achieve good properties of the material at high temperatures. Particularly in the case of large single-crystal components made from nickel-base superalloys, however, these small-angle grain boundaries have an adverse effect on the properties.
Accordingly, one object of the invention is to avoid the abovementioned drawbacks. The invention is based on the object of developing a nickel-base superalloy which has an improved castability and a higher resistance to oxidation compared to known nickel-base superalloys. Moreover, this alloy is to be particularly suitable, for example, for large gas-turbine single-crystal components with a length of greater than 80 mm.
According to the invention, this object is achieved through the fact that the nickel-base superalloy is characterized by the following chemical composition (details in % by weight):
7.7-8.3 Cr
5.0-5.25 Co
2.0-2.1 Mo
7.8-8.3 W
5.8-6.1 Ta
4.9-5.1 Al
1.3-1.4 Ti
0.11-0.15 Si
0.11-0.15 Hf
200-750 ppm C
50-400 ppm B
remainder nickel and production-related impurities.
The advantages of the invention consist in the fact that the alloy has very good casting properties and also has an improved resistance to oxidation at high temperatures compared to the previously known prior art.
It is particularly advantageous if the alloy has the following composition:
7.7-8.3 Cr
5.0-5.25 Co
2.0-2.1 Mo
7.8-8.3 W
5.8-6.1 Ta
4.9-5.1 Al
1.3-1.4 Ti
0.11-0.15 Si
0.11-0.15 Hf
200-300 ppm C
50-100 ppm B
remainder nickel and production-related impurities. This alloy is eminently suitable for the production of large single-crystal components, for example blades or vanes for gas turbines.
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The use of mobile communications networks has increased over the last decade. Operators of the mobile communications networks have increased the number of base stations in order to meet an increased demand for service by users of the mobile communications networks. The operators of the mobile communications network wish to reduce the running costs of the base station.
Nowadays active antenna arrays are used in the field of mobile communications networks in order to reduce power transmitted to a handset of a customer and thereby increase the efficiency of the base transceiver station. The base transceiver station has an antenna array connected to it by means of a fibre optics cable and a power cable. The antenna array typically comprises a plurality of antenna elements, which transceive a radio signal. The base transceiver station is coupled to a fixed line telecommunications network operated by one or more operators.
Typically the base transceiver station comprises a plurality of transmit paths and receive paths. Each of the transmit paths and receive paths are terminated by one of the antenna elements. The plurality of the antenna elements typically allows steering of a radio beam transmitted by the antenna array. The steering of the beam includes but is not limited to at least one of: detection of direction of arrival (DOA), beam forming, down tilting and beam diversity. These techniques of beam steering are well-known in the art.
The active antenna arrays typically used in mobile communications network are uniform linear arrays comprising a vertical column of antenna array elements. The active antenna array is typically mounted on a mast or tower. The active antenna array is coupled to the base transceiver station (BTS) by means of a fibre optics cable and a power cable.
Equipment at the base of the mast as well as the active antenna array mounted on the mast is configured to transmit and receive radio signals using protocols which are defined by communication standards. The communications standards typically define a plurality of channels or frequency bands useable for an uplink communication from the handset to the antenna array and base transceiver station as well as for a downlink communication from the base transceiver station to the subscriber device.
For example, the communication standards “Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM)” for mobile communications use different frequencies in different regions. In North America, GSM operates on the primary mobile communication bands 850 MHz and 1900 MHz. In Europe, Middle East and Asia most of the providers use 900 MHz and 1800 MHz bands. Other examples of communications standards include the UMTS standard or long term evolution (LTE) at 700 MHz (US) or 800 MHz (EU).
As technology evolves, the operators have expressed a desire for an active antenna product which is as small and cost-effective as possible. The antenna gain should be maximized without significant increase of antenna size and cost, and without significantly sacrificing the tilt range of the antenna.
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{
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5,7-Diamino-4,6-dinitrobenzofuroxan (CL-14) has a positive heat of formation and high density which leads to a better than predicted detonation velocity. The explosive properties of CL-14, trinitrotoluene (TNT) and RDX are compared in Table 1.
TABLE 1 ______________________________________ COMPARISON OF EXPLOSIVE PROPERTIES Explosive CL-14 TNT RDX ______________________________________ Impact sensitivity, cm 129 50 19 Detonation velocity 8.05 6.67 8.95 (calculated) mm/.mu.s Detonation velocity 8.22 6.96 8.85 (measured) mm/.mu.s ______________________________________
CL-14 is much less sensitive to impact than either TNT or RDX, is much more powerful than TNT and approaches RDX in power (detonation velocity).
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{
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The present invention relates to a silver halide photographic material, in particular, a super-high contrast negative photographic material suitable for a silver halide photographic material for use in photomechanical process.
In photomechanical process of the field of graphic arts, a continuous tone photographic image is converted to a so-called halftone dot image expressing the nuances of light and dark of the image by the sizes of dot areas and combined with a photographed image of characters and line images, to thereby make a printing plate precursor. A silver halide photographic material for use for such a purpose is required to have super-high contrast photographic characteristics of distinct discriminability of an image area and a non-image area to well reproduce the characters, line images and halftone dot image.
As the system to respond to the desire for super-high contrast photographic characteristics, a so-called lith developing system is known, which comprises the step of processing a silver halide photographic material comprising a silver chlorobromide with a hydroquinone developing solution of an extremely low effective concentration of a sulfite ion, to thereby form a high contrast image. However, since the sulfite ion concentration in the developing solution is low according to this method, the developing solution is exceedingly unstable to air oxidation and a great amount of a replenisher must be replenished for maintaining liquid activity stable.
As the image-forming systems solving the problem of instability of image formation by the lith developing system, and capable of obtaining super-high contrast photographic characteristics by processing a photographic material with a developing solution having a good storage stability, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,166,742, 4,168,977, 4,221,857, 4,224,401, 4,243,739, 4,269,922, 4,272,606, 4,311,781, 4,332,878, 4,618,574, 4,634,661, 4,681,836 and 5,650,746 are exemplified. These are systems of processing a surface latent image type silver halide photographic material containing a hydrazine derivative with a developing solution containing hydroquinone/metol or hydroquinone/phenidone as a developing agent containing 0.15 mol/liter or more of a sulfurous acid preservative and having pH of from 11.0 to 12.3 to thereby form a super-high contrast negative image having a xcex3 value of more than 10. According to these systems, super-high contrast and high sensitive photographic characteristics can be obtained and a sulfite of high concentration can be added to a developing solution, accordingly the stability to air oxidation of the developing solution is extraordinarily improved as compared with conventional lith developing solutions.
For sufficiently exhibiting a super-high contrast image due to a hydrazine derivative, it has been necessary to perform processing with a developing solution having a pH value of 11.5 or higher. Although a sulfurous acid preservative of high concentration has made it possible to heighten the stability of a developing solution, it is necessary to use a developing solution having a high pH value as described above to obtain a super-high contrast photographic image. A developing solution is liable to be air-oxidized and unstable even when a preservative is used, therefore various means have been contrived to realize a super-high contrast image with a lower pH value aiming at further improvement of stability.
For example, methods of using highly active hydrazine derivatives and nucleating accelerators for obtaining a super-high contrast image with a developing solution having pH of lower than 11.0 are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,269,929 (corresponding to JP-A-61-267759 (the term xe2x80x9cJP-Axe2x80x9d as used herein means an xe2x80x9cunexamined published Japanese patent applicationxe2x80x9d)), U.S. Pat. No. 4,737,452 (corresponding to JP-A-60-179734), U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,104,769, 4,798,780, JP-A-1-179939, JP-A-1-179940, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,998,604, 4,994,365 and JP-A-8-272023.
Also, a high contrast material containing a dimeric hydrazine derivative is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,228,566.
Since silver halide photographic materials for use in such an image-forming system contain highly active compounds, they are accompanied by various problems, such as the problems of storage stability, e.g., sensitivity fluctuates and fog increases during storage, and the aging stability of a coating solution at production is poor and the sensitivity fluctuation of the photographic material produced is large. Many of the causes are attributable to the fact that the sensitivity of emulsions is high, therefore further techniques of high sensitization have been desired.
An object of the present invention is to provide a high contrast and high sensitive silver halide photographic material.
The above object of the present invention has been achieved by the following means.
(1) A silver halide photographic material comprising a support having provided thereon at least a silver halide emulsion layer, which contains at least one compound represented by the following formula (I), and has a characteristic curve of gamma value being 5.0 or more in optical density of from 0.3 to 3.0 on the characteristic curve shown on the orthogonal axis of coordinates having equal unit length expressed by logarithmic exposure amount (x axis) and optical density (y axis):
(X)lxe2x80x94(L)mxe2x80x94(Axe2x80x94B)nxe2x80x83xe2x80x83(I)
wherein X represents a silver halide-adsorptive group having at least one of N, S, P, Se and Te atom, or a light absorptive group; L represents a divalent linking group having at least one of C, N, S and O atom; A represents an electron donative group; B represents a releasing group or a hydrogen atom, which forms radical A. by releasing or deproton after oxidation; l and m each represents an integer of from 0 to 3; and n represents 1 or 2.
The gamma value is preferably from 5.0 to 100, particularly preferably from 5.0 to 30.
(2) The silver halide photographic material as described in the above item (1) which contains a hydrazine compound.
(3) The silver halide photographic material as described in the above item (1) or (2), wherein the pH of the film surface of the emulsion layer side is 6.0 or less.
The film surface pH is preferably from 4.5 to 6.0, because when the film surface pH is less than 4.5, the progress of film hardening of the emulsion layer is liable to be delayed.
(4) The silver halide photographic material as described in the above item (1), (2) or (3), wherein the hydrazine compound is a dimer comprising monomers containing both an acylhydrazide moiety and a nicotinamide moiety linked by a linking group.
(5) The silver halide photographic material as described in the above item (4), wherein the dimer comprising monomers containing both an acylhydrazide moiety and a nicotinamide moiety linked by a linking group is represented by the following formula (1) or (2):
wherein each monomer linked by linking group L may be the same or different; J represents a nicotinamide residue; E represents a substituted aryl group or a heterocyclic ring; one of A1 and A2 represents a hydrogen atom and the other represents a hydrogen atom, an acyl group or an alkyl- or aryl-sulfonyl group, any of which may be substituted; D represents a blocking group; L represents a divalent linking group; and Xxe2x88x92 represents an anionic counter ion.
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{
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
}
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The ethanol manufacturing process starts by the cleaning and then the dry-milling of maize grains. The ground grains are mixed with water and enzymes (amylases) to produce a mash where starch hydrolysis occurs. This mash is cooked to kill bacteria that produce undesirable lactic acid. Enzymes are added to the mash to transform starch into dextrose (a saccharification step). After saccharification, yeast is added to start the fermentation process, which produces a beer-like material and carbon dioxide (CO2). The beer passes through a continuous distillation column to yield alcohol at the top of the column. The product that remains at the bottom is whole stillage, which in current practice is separated to produce distillers corn oil (DCO) and distillers' grains. Both byproducts are used as energy and protein sources for ruminants and the distillers corn oil can be used a feed stock for biodiesel production. This invention allows the separation of whole stillage into additional streams contain valuable bio-materials mainly fibers, oil and protein. Greater volumes of oil are recovered for use as a biofuel, animal energy source or for cooking. The ability to separate more DCO creates significant carbon reduction when it is converted to biodiesel rather than being used as an animal feed.
The protein recovered from this invention is in a more concentrated form which increases its value as a protein source for both monogastric and ruminant animals. In addition the main protein in corn is Zein which has been used in the manufacture of a wide variety of commercial products, including coatings for paper cups, soda bottle cap linings, clothing fabric, buttons, adhesives, coatings and binders, recently this protein has been used as a coating for candy, nuts, fruit, pills, and other encapsulated foods and drugs. Additionally Zein can be further processed into resins and other bioplastic polymers.
The fibers recovered from the process of the present invention comprise mostly corn kernel fibers which can be used as raw materials for the production of lignocellulosic ethanol or butanol as well as other chemicals that use glucose and xylose as building blocks.
The present invention results in a significant reduction in energy needed for the grain ethanol co-product separation process and in reduction in the carbon intensity associated with production of grain based ethanol.
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{
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
}
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Medical appointments are commonly associated with notoriously long wait times. According to numerous reviews from patients, the number one complaint is the wait time to see the doctor. For instance, online review sites allow patients to comment and provide corresponding star ratings for service providers. On these sites, low star ratings for physicians are often associated with comments citing long wait times. Often, reviewers complain of waiting from between thirty minutes to two hours. These reviews indicate that patient satisfaction with a physician's care can be heavily influenced by wait times, and that excessive wait times can lead to negative reviews of a physician's services.
Accordingly, improving the wait time for a patient can greatly improve the patient's satisfaction with the physician. In turn, this satisfaction will improve the patient's subjective feelings about their care, which can lead to more effective treatment and service. Specifically, when the patient is in a positive frame of mind at the beginning of the examination, the appointment naturally flows more smoothly. In addition, physicians often note that when they are behind schedule, they often spend time apologizing to the patient about being late, which reduces the amount of time available for actual patient care. By reducing or eliminating patient wait times, physicians can be more efficient and patients can have more positive experiences at appointments. Consequently, there is a need for improving patient wait times for medical appointments.
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{
"pile_set_name": "USPTO Backgrounds"
}
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