1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the manufacture of reinforced concrete. In particular the present invention relates to reinforced concrete wherein the rebar within the reinforced concrete is secured with a plastic tie fastener or a substantially similar device. Furthermore, the present invention relates to a method for manufacturing reinforced concrete using plastic tie fasteners or a substantially similar device. The present invention also relates to devices for securing rebar in reinforced concrete.
2. Description of the Related Art
The process of manufacturing steel reinforced concrete begins by forming a two or three dimensional grid of steel rebar around which concrete is poured. The individual lengths of rebar 10 are secured to one another to form this grid. Currently the industry standard is that the lengths of rebar are secured to one another at the grid intersections either by wrapping metal (usually steel) wire 12 around all lengths of rebar which form the grid at the intersections or by securing the grid intersections with spring steel wire clips (see FIGS. 1a, 1b and 2).
If metal wires 12 are used to prepare the grid, the free ends of the metal wire are twisted to tension the tie, securing the crossed bars in place. The free ends of the tie wire are then cut off or bent away from the concrete surface above the twist.
If the spring steel wire clips are used, the intersections are held together by the spring force of the spring steel wire clips.
If the concrete product is to be placed in a hostile environment (such as salt water, basic or acidic soil, etc.), the additional step of coating the metal tie wires or spring steel wire clips with some sort of protective coating or of using stainless steel metal tie wires must be taken.
There are a few drawbacks of the present uses of steel wire 12 and/or steel spring clips. The first drawback is the added time required by a construction worker to twist the free ends of the metal wires to tension the ties. Furthermore, the twisting of the wire fatigues the metal wire 12 at the twist site. This could cause the wire to break and allow the rebar 10 to become unsecured either prior to the pouring of concrete or even worse after the concrete has been poured. If the rebar becomes unsecured after the concrete has been poured the concrete may not have the reinforced strength that is required.
Another drawback of using metal wire ties is that the act of the construction worker attaching a machine to twist the ends of the wire tie, or the act of twisting the wire tie by hand is a time consuming task. Furthermore, the act of twisting wires requires an amount of area next to the rebar to twist the wire. Many times there are so many rebars 10 used to reinforce the concrete that there is little room between adjacent rebars to twist the steel wire 12.
Another drawback, which was alluded to above, is that the steel wires 12 or clips will rust if the concrete product is placed in a hostile environment. The rusting may weaken the overall structure and or produce unsightly stains on the structure. Rusting of the steel wire or clips cannot be completely avoided, but can be inhibited to some degree by coating the wires or clips with a protective coating. The extra coating step is costly and not always successful due to incomplete coating of the wires, having a twisted end which is difficult to completely coat, and if the end is removed or breaks off during the process an exposed end is left.
The present invention relates to the manufacture of reinforced concrete structures wherein plastic tie fasteners are used to secure the rebar structure within the concrete structure. Furthermore, the present invention relates to a method of securing rebar by using plastic tie fasteners. The plastic tie fasteners are looped about the rebar bars and tightened using a unidirectional force. The plastic tie fasteners can be looped and tightened via hand or an applicator or tensioning apparatus. The plastic tie fasteners offer the unexpected advantages of strength, flexibility, and ease of use to the reinforced concrete industry. Furthermore, the plastic tie fasteners do not rust or require rust retardant coatings. Still furthermore, the present invention prescribes a rebar securing apparatus comprising a plastic strip with a means for securing an end of said plastic strip in a looped configuration. The securing apparatus"" means for securing can be a ratcheting or slip resistant receptacle. Furthermore, the means for securing can be designed to disallow the loop from becoming larger or can be designed to allow the loop to become larger without damaging the securing apparatus.
The present invention provides a multitude of advantages which include, but are not limited to being incapable of rusting and staining a concrete structure, decreasing the amount of time required to secure rebar bars, an ease of use due to a simple technique for tightening the loop of the plastic tie fastener about the rebar, requiring only one hand of a construction worker to attach the plastic tie fastener to the rebar, and decreasing construction costs.


The present invention relates generally to data processing. More particularly, the present invention relates to processing image data in mosaic form.
A variety of devices such as mobile phones are now equipped with image sensors such as charge-coupled-devices (CCD). These devices comprise an array of elements, each of which is filtered so as to sense only one color of light, typically red, green or blue. For each element the sensor provides a pixel value representing the intensity of the color of light detected by that element. These pixel values are referred to as “raw data” or “mosaic data.” Because images represented by mosaic data (referred to herein as “mosaic images”) are not pleasing to the eye, they are “demosaiced” (that is, converted into RGB images) before display. Each pixel in an RGB image is represented by three pixel values, each representing the intensity of one of the respective colors.
In conventional devices, demosaicing is performed before any further image processing, such as color processing, compression and decompression, and image enhancement. One disadvantage of this approach is that, because the volume of RGB data is three times that of mosaic data, more resources are consumed when processing RGB data.


This invention relates to an information communicating apparatus connected to a telephone subscriber line, such as a modem device, a telephone set, a facsimile machine, etc., and, more particularly, to a line interface circuit.
In the field of communication, in order to provide for both protection of network facilities having high public use and protection of terminals, a high insulation quality is required at the boundary between a network and a terminal, and, for that reason, compact transformers for communication which make provision for a high insulation quality have been used previously. However, a problem has occurred in that, in proportion to the popularization and evolution of personal terminals, it is required for transformers which are further miniaturized and reduced in weight to be used for a portable terminal; however, this requirement can not be satisfied sufficiently only with improvement in the material and arrangement of parts in the transformers. In light of this, the possible use of an isolator has been examined.
Also, in the application of this technology to the field of measurement, medical treatment or the like, it may be necessary to isolate a signal detecting part and a signal handling part, e.g. a sensor and a signal processing circuit. It is known that an isolator can be used as an isolation and separation means in this case.
For the purpose of making the isolator miniature, reliable and low-cost, a capacitive isolator has been developed. A ceramic capacitor for power application and surge protection, which is made on the basis of a high voltage capacitor technique providing an individual part constituting an-isolation barrier, is known; and, a circuit block for signal transmission using this capacitor is referred to as a capacitive isolation amplifier or a capacitive isolation coupler. This device has been used Since the 1970s.
Also, what is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open N6-.62-260408 (1987) achieves isolation and separation of an analogue signal transmission in which a pulse signal obtained by the modulation of the analogue signal is transmitted to the secondary side, which is insulated and separated by a capacitor; and, after decoding, the analogue signal is regenerated.
Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 11;136293 (1999) entitled xe2x80x9cIsolator Circuit and Monolithic Isolatorxe2x80x9d and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 11-317445/1999 entitled xe2x80x9cIsolator and Modem Device using itxe2x80x9d disclose a technique by which an isolator is formed on an LSI so that it has an isolation and separation function. This technique also provides means for achieving a system LSI including an insulation and separation function for the modem, etc.
A system LSI for a modem including the insulation and separation function according to the above-mentioned technology dispenses with an insulation transformer and a photo coupler, which were needed for insulation previously, whereby it is possible to reduce the number of parts, the cost and the size of the mounting area. It also enables more suitable system design by improving the degree of freedom for chip division without encountering a restriction of the insulating location.
Also, by using electric power supplied from the system switch to operate the line side of two regions (line side: subscriber line side, host side: microprocessor side) on the LSI insulated by an isolator, it is possible to reduce the power consumption of the host side by a large amount. Therefore, it is possible to extend the life of a battery driving the host side in a portable terminal.
However, in the system LSI for a modem including the insulation and separation function disclosed in the above-mentioned Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 11-136293 (1999) and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 11-317445 (1999), further consideration needs to be given to supplying power to a circuit used at the time of the reception of the caller identification information (Caller ID).
In the above-mentioned prior art, the supply of power from the system switch uses a loop current which determines whether a telephone set is in an on-hook condition or an off-hook condition. In general, it is required that a loop current of 20 to 120 mA is caused to flow to inform the system switch of the fact that the telephone set is in an off-hook condition, depending upon the standards defined by the government. Also, in order to inform the system switch of the fact that the telephone set is in the on-hook condition, the loop current must be maintained below a predetermined constant value (for example, 3 mA). Further, at the time of the reception of the Caller ID indication, the on-hook condition must be established in many countries (for example, in Japan), and a circuit for the reception of the Caller ID indication must operate with the consumption of electric power below a predetermined constant value (for example, 3 mA).
In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention utilizes the following means:
(1) An isolator interface has a parallel/serial conversion circuit for converting the output of a digital analogue converter having plural bits to a serial signal, or a multiplexer for transmitting in a time divisional manner the output of the analogue digital converter and the status information of a line interface circuit. At the time of a normal operation, the output of the analogue digital converter is input to the isolator via the isolator interface, and at the time of the reception of a call signal, or at the time of the reception of a caller identification signal, the output of the analogue digital converter is input directly to the isolator.
(2) The isolator interface has a parallel/serial conversion circuit for converting the output of the analogue digital converter having plural bits to a serial signal, or a multiplexer for transmitting in a time divisional manner the output of the analogue digital converter and the status information of the line interface circuit, and a clock generating circuit for producing a clock signal of a first frequency and a clock signal of a second frequency lower than the first frequency. At the time of normal operation, the analogue digital converter and the isolator interface are driven by the clock signal of the first frequency output from the clock generating circuit, and, at the time of the reception of the call signal, or at the time of the reception of the caller identification information, the analogue digital converter and the isolator interface are driven by the clock signal of the second frequency output from the clock generating circuit.


The electronic changes which occur in chemical or biological molecules when interacting with other molecules provide a sensitive and convenient method of studying molecule/molecule association. For example, technology capable of recording the electronic changes which occur in specific DNA/RNA sequences has been of great importance in numerous applications, such as in medical research and clinical diagnosis.
In general, DNA/RNA array sensors are based on single-stranded oligonucleotide (ODN) probes (of known sequence) immobilised on a physical substrate.
Addition of tagged ODNs in the sample may result in immobilisation of tagged ODNs via Watson-Crick base pairing (or hybridization) if the sequences are complementary. The resulting double stranded ODN is immobile, being anchored by the probe, as well as tagged by prior sample tagging.
The immobilisation of tagged ODNs provides the basis of sample detection and the resulting pattern is detected by (for example) fluorescence or chemiluminescences from the tag. The main disadvantages of such detection methods are cost, complexity and inefficiency of tagging reactions.
A number of alternative ‘label-free’ methodologies have also been developed, such as acoustic (Okahata et al., 1992; Ma, et al., 2002), optical (Piunno et al., 1994; Isola et al., 1998) and electrochemical (XU et al., 2000; Wang et al., 2001, 2003; Hashimoto et al., 1994; Napier et al., 1997; Pividori et al., 2000) methods which seek to detect the hybridization event directly. Electrochemical approaches using metal complexes (Takenaka et al., 2000), organic redox indicators (Millan et al., 1993) or nano particles (Wang et al., 2001, 2003) have also been investigated for their suitability to report hybridization.
Conducting polymers are attractive substrates for nucleotide sensors as they can act as an electronic transducer for charged species binding to their surface, and several methods for the immobilisation of ODN probes onto conducting polymers have been reported. In addition, the rich chemistry associated with fabrication of conducting polymer sensors and electrodes allows the detection of a broad range of chemical or biological materials according to the selection of probe and the capacity of the conducting polymer to bind the probe (Janata & Josowicz, 2003; Saxena & Malhotra, 2003).
Initial approaches to construct conducting polymer ODN sensors included direct adsorption of the ODN probes onto oxidized polypyrrole (PPy) films by electrostatic attractions (Palecek, 2002; Minehan et al., 1994) or incorporation of the ODN probe into the polymer film as a macro-counterion (Wang et al., 1999). However, these methods constrain the orientation of the ODN probe resulting in high steric and kinetic barriers to hybridization, and the possibility of oxidative damage to the ODN probes. The result is that such methods have poor sensory properties.
To overcome steric constraints, several groups have electro copolymerised N-position substituted pyrroles with pyrrole to functionalise the polymer for ODN probe linkage to the substrate (Wang et al., 2000; Livache et al., 1995; Lassalle et al., 2001). However, the resulting poly(N-substituted pyrrole) possessed lower conductivity, possibly due to a lack of ring planarity in the resulting polymer.
Of most interest has been a report that a 3-substituted pyrroles gave rise to a polymer film with higher conductivity (Delabouglise et al., 1989). A probe may be chemically coupled to a polymer by an amino-modified ODN.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,096,825 discloses such a conducting polymer formed from a 3-substituted polypyrrole polymer. The conducting polymer includes a linker unit located in the 3-position of pyrrole monomers. The linker is bound to the pyrrole, at one end, and to the probe at the other end.
The linker connecting the probe to the polymer represents a key feature in electrochemical transduction between the probe and the polymer. Typically short saturated organic chains of 2- to 4-carbon atoms have been used to connect the probe to the polymer (see also H. Peng et al Label-free electrochemical DNA sensor based on functionalised conducting polymer Biosensor and Bioelectronics 20 (2005) 1821-1828).
There is a continuing need to synthesize new conducting polymers, and in particular linkers which enhance or improve electronic transduction between the probe and the polymer backbone. In addition, there is a continuing need to provide conducting polymers which have negligible effect on the chemical or biological sensory properties of probes they are attached to.
Throughout this specification reference is made to “unsaturated” or “conjugated” organic chains. The words “unsaturated” and “conjugate” refer to double or triple bonds between two or more atoms. The words are used interchangeably throughout the specification.
Throughout the specification reference is made to “probes”. The use of the word “probe” in this specification is intended to be interpreted inclusively and including any chemical or biological species which may be tethered via a linker to a polymer backbone. A probe may include a single or double stranded ODN, a virus, a protein, a cell, a peptide nucleic acid (PNA), a polysaccharide, a drug, or an RNA, for example.
Throughout the specification reference is made to the phrase “sensory properties” in relation to a probe interaction with other chemical or biological molecules or species. Sensory properties should be interpreted as the ability of the probe to hybridize and/or otherwise interact through non-covalent bonding or the like with another chemical or biological molecules or species and to be efficiently transduced into a useful signal. Ideally a biological probe, for example, which is bound to a conducting polymer as far as possible, retains its natural sensory properties.


The present invention relates generally to integrated circuit chip package technology, and more particularly to a unique package design that facilitates the efficient placement of the leads therein.
Integrated circuit dies are conventionally enclosed in plastic packages that provide protection from hostile environments and enable electrical interconnection between the integrated circuit die and an underlying substrate such as a printed circuit board (“PCB”).
Semiconductor packages employing micro lead frames (“MLF”) typically include a metal lead frame (often made from copper (Cu)), an integrated circuit die, bonding material to attach the integrated circuit die to the lead frame, bond wires which electrically connect pads on the integrated circuit die to individual leads of the lead frame, and a hard plastic encapsulant material which covers the other components and forms the exterior of the package.
The lead frame is the central supporting structure of such packages. A portion of the lead frame is internal to the package, i.e., completely surrounded by the plastic encapsulant. Portions of the leads of the lead frame extend externally from the package or are partially exposed within the encapsulant material for use in electrically connecting the die to the underlying substrate. Due to the relatively short electrical path from the die to the lead, such MLF packages can exhibit improved electrical efficiency in comparison to conventional Quad Flat Package (“QFP”) designs.
One of the drawbacks associated with certain MLF semiconductor packages is the limited surface area available to accommodate leads. Modern integrated circuit dies often include larger numbers of input and output pads than previous dies. To accommodate these additional pads, increasing numbers of leads must also be provided with semiconductor packages. Unfortunately, conventional MLF designs typically require these leads to be located on the bottom surface of the semiconductor package around the perimeter of a die paddle portion of the lead frame. Thus, the limited surface area available for lead placement on such packages can significantly impact the number of leads provided.
The present invention addresses this problem by providing various chip on lead configurations (“COL”) which position portions of leads underneath the integrated circuit die, thereby allowing more efficient use of the semiconductor package bottom surface area.


Since the introduction of the personal computer, in addition to the typical desktop supplies such as pencils, pens, sticky notes and paper clips, items associated with the personal computer, such as diskettes, CD ROM disks and CD marking pens, are required to be readily available, and preferably close at hand to the desktop. Storage of such items upon the desktop reduces the amount of desktop space available, which is compounded by the reduction in desktop space occasioned by the placement of the computer keyboard and monitor upon the desktop. Various desktop organizers, for holding pens, pencils, paper clips, sticky notes, rubber bands and the like have been known prior to the introduction of personal computers, and are used and directed toward the optimization of useable desktop space. Further, since the introduction of the computer, various desktop organizers and storage devices have been devised which are attached to the computer's components and are directed toward organizing supplies and optimizing usable desktop space where a computer is involved. However, these prior art devices which provide storage of desktop supplies and sundry computer related items, are separate component accessories and still occupy precious desktop space.
In an effort to address the shortcomings of the prior art devices, an integral keyboard and storage organizer of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/053,747 was created by DeVolpi. Since the creation of the device of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/053,747, further improvements have been made that enhance its utility including the addition of, latching means, various locking means, and configurations allowing access to electronic components and batteries incident to wireless embodiments.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved integral keyboard and storage organizer which can store desktop supplies, sundry computer related items, and personal items, such as keys without necessitating the use of any additional space near the keyboard and incorporate latching means, various locking means, and configurations allowing access to electronic components and batteries incident to wireless embodiments.


1. Field
Methods and apparatuses consistent with exemplary embodiments relate to estimating a malignant tumor in an object, and more particularly, to analyzing medical images of an object to estimate a malignant tumor.
2. Description of the Related Art
A probability that a woman develops breast cancer at some point in her life is more than 8%. At present, the most effective method of diagnosing breast cancer at an early stage is by a mammography image.
A mammography image may include a lump-like mass, and a medical professional may detect the mass and determine whether the detected mass is benign or malignant.
The accuracy of mammography image analysis depends on the experience and knowledge of the medical professional, and an accuracy of 65% to 75% is possible.
A device for analyzing a mammography image to determine whether a malignant tumor exists in the mammography image may use computer-aided diagnosis (CADx), and when a medical professional performs analysis using a CADx system, accuracy of the analysis may increase. However, the related art CADx system may miss detecting a feature suitable for determining a presence of malignant tumor.
Thus, an efficient CADx system is needed to increase the accuracy of a mammography image analysis.


A gate valve is a valve that opens by lifting a round or rectangular gate out of the path of the fluid. The gate valve has sealing surfaces between the gate and seats that are planar, leading to gate valves being used when a straight-line flow of fluid and minimum restriction is desired. Generally, gate valves are used to permit or prevent the flow of liquids, for example in a pipe line system.
Liquid is able to flow when the gate of the gate valve is linearly retracted to open the flow path, whereas the liquid is prevented from flowing when the gate is linearly extended to a closed position. In the closed position liquid impinges a front side face of the gate and is prevented from passing between the gate and a body of the gate valve by rubber valve liners that surround the gate. Typically, the rubber valve liners are fixed in the body of the gate valve and rub against the gate as the gate opens and closes causing the rubber valve liners to wear away and lose their sealing ability. Furthermore, increasing compression of the rubber valve liners against the gate increases the wear rate of the rubber valve liners. Some gate valves employ spring components to maintain compression of the rubber valve liners, but compression force decreases as the rubber valve liners wear.


This invention relates to the hot rolling of elongated product, such as steel bars. More specifically, the invention concerns means and methods of in-line heat treating and finishing of the product.
Various systems are known for heat treatment of hot rolled products, such as bars. However, when the billets or blooms are produced in a caster such processes and facilities normally utilize off-line heat treating of the cast and hot rolled stock. It is known to perform certain limited heat treatments on the cast product before rolling. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,634,512 describes in-line thermal surface treatment of continuously cast blooms using cooling sprays to produce a bloom surface temperature of about 400-900xc2x0 C. after tempering caused by the hot core of the bloom. U.S. Pat. No. 4,786,338 discloses a system wherein product from a finishing mill is followed by a cooling line made up of a quenching zone and a temperature recovery zone before being passed to cooling beds for obtaining low temperature toughness. Japanese Published Patent Application No. Hei 63-149316 describes a method of producing steel bars and wire rods through continuous hot rolling for obtaining a directly spheriodized structure in which spheriodizing annealing is facilitated or possibly even eliminated.
Such prior art has the drawback of being limited in the capability of producing a wide variety of metallurgical structures in the rolled stock. Off-line heat-treatments to produce various microstructures normally require treatment times of 10-15 hours.
The apparatus of this invention is disposed in an intermediate position between a hot-rolling mill and a cold-finishing area for cleaning the rolled stock, cutting it to final form, bundling and packaging it for in-line production of a final product. The apparatus includes, in-line, and downstream of a hot rolling mill train, a thermocontrolled rolling device including a controlling temperature device and a sizing mill, shears, a quenching box, optionally an induction heater, a layers preparation system where layers of cut stock, such as bars, are consolidated prior to transfer to an annealing furnace, and thereafter to a cooling bed.
By selection of particular ones of these apparatus elements for use in particular cases of heat treatment, and by selection of the conditions of heat treatment, a great variety of product structures can be achieved, for example, a spheroidized steel product, a shearability or workability annealed product, a recrystallation annealed product, a solution annealed product, a quenched product (martensitic or bainitic quenching), or a quenched and tempered (quenched and stress-relieved) product.
With practice of the in-line heat treatments of this invention, prior art off-line treatment times of 10-15 hours can be reduced to about 1 to 2 hours.
For a better understanding of the invention, its operating advantages and the specific objectives obtained by its use, reference should be made to the accompanying drawings and description which relate to preferred embodiments thereof.


1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a parallel plate plasma CVD (Chemical Vapor Deposition) apparatus, and in particular, to a parallel plate plasma CVD apparatus used in production of a titanium oxide thin film, which is used for a microwave monolithic IC (hereinafter referred to as MMIC).
2. Description of the Related Art
Various methods for forming metal oxide thin films or dielectric thin films have been proposed. Examples of such methods are disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Publication (Kokoku) Nos. 59-37566, 60-12773, and 7-25545. Included in these publications is a report that a titanium oxide thin film can be formed using a CVD process. However, to carry out this method the substrate temperature must be high, for example, 500.degree. C. or more, during the film deposition step. This adversely affects the underlying substrate used for the device formation as well as other devices formed on the substrate. For example, if the temperature is high when MMIC capacitors are formed, characteristics of the underlying substrate such as GaAs and transistors deteriorate. To reduce this problem, a film deposition method which uses plasma generated in a deposition chamber during a CVD process (herein after referred to as a plasma CVD process) has been frequently used.
In a conventional parallel plate plasma CVD apparatus using a radio-frequency generator (13.56 MHz), a gaseous mixture is supplied into a glow discharge region between a top electrode (a radio-frequency input electrode) and a bottom electrode (a ground electrode), and activated for reaction in the mixture to deposit a film on a substrate located on the bottom electrode. The plasma must have a considerably high power density to decompose the gases sufficiently.
However, since the surface of the substrate on which the film is deposited is located near the plasma generation region, high-energy particles generated by plasma discharge frequently attack the substrate surface. This may cause deterioration of film characteristics, that is, the film may be damaged or deposited abnormally by the impact of particles having excessive energy.
In order to solve the problem, proposals have been made to moderate the particle impact by, for example, controlling the self-bias near the substrate. For example, J. W. Coburn et al. disclosed a method for controlling ions and radicals incident on the substrate by applying a direct current flow without grounding the bottom electrode supporting the substrate in J. Appl. Phys., 43, 4965 (1972). A. Matsuda et al. disclosed a triode configuration consisting of parallel plate electrodes and a mesh electrode interposed therebetween in Thin solid Films, 92, 171 (1982).
FIG. 3 is a schematic view illustrating the fundamental components of a conventional triode-type plasma CVD apparatus. A bottom electrode 2 and a top electrode 3 are arranged opposite to one other in a reaction chamber (not shown). The bottom electrode 2 is connected to an external DC electrical power source 4. A substrate S on which a dielectric thin film is to be formed is placed on the bottom electrode 2. The top electrode 3 is connected to a radio-frequency generator 5. A grooved mesh electrode 6 is located between the bottom electrode 2 and the top electrode 3 and a DC bias current is applied between the mesh electrode 6 and the bottom electrode 2.
In all of the above-mentioned methods for moderating particle impact, the bottom electrode must float electrically. However, as shown in FIG. 3, the bottom electrode of the conventional plasma CVD apparatus is generally connected to the body of the reaction chamber and grounded. Thus, the conventional plasma CVD apparatus cannot be used to carry out the foregoing methods.
Accordingly, there is a need for a parallel plate plasma CVD apparatus which moderates damage to the substrate during the film deposition process, forms high-quality dielectric thin films, and permits the use of a modified conventional plasma CVD apparatus.


The present invention relates generally to a sludge treatment system for treating sludge, such as sewage sludge received from a municipality, and more particularly to an improved sludge treatment system which produces a pelletized fertilizer or soil amendment product from the sewage sludge.
Other systems have been used to produce a pelletized product from sewer sludge. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,872,998 to Dausman et al. discloses an apparatus and process for forming a uniform pelletizable sludge product. The sludge is received by a holding tank which agitates the sludge to keep the solids in suspension with the liquid. The sludge is released from the holding tank through a control valve for mixing with flocculation and coagulation promoting chemicals and is then transported to a belt-type dewatering press. After the dewatering step, the sludge has 10-45% solids and is transported to a temporary storage tank. The sludge is fed from the temporary storage tank to an indirect dryer which is heated by either steam or hot oil from a boiler. Water vapor and other volatiles are driven off during the drying stage and pass from the dryer into a cyclone which removes the airborne dust. The resultant air and vapors are then pulled through a water jet scrubber to remove any remaining particles. This complete removal of all particulate matter is understood to be critical to subsequent process steps, and is believed to be a significant disadvantage of this process. The remaining particulate-free exhaust air is then passed to an odor control system. Alternatively, this remaining exhaust air may be returned to the boiler where the combustible components are ignited with the fuel used to heat the boiler. The dried sludge is fed from the indirect dryer to a storage tank or to a pelletizer. The pelletized material is then fed to a pellet storage tank. Thus, the Dausman et al. system processes the sludge without recycling of any previously heat-processed sludge.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,963,471 to Hampton discloses a method for pelletizing sewage sludge for use as a fertilizer. Sludge is dewatered by adding coagulation and flocculation chemicals thereto and then passing the mixture through a dewatering press to form sludge cake. The dewatered sludge cake is mixed with a portion of the pellets constituting the final product which are in a hot, dried state. This mixing step lowers the heat required in the dryer to produce the final product and thereby prevents formation of clinkers and ignition of the organic material in the dryer. The larger the percentage of final product returned to the mixing chamber, the smaller in size are the resultant pellets formed in the dryer.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,977,214 to McLellan discloses a method for pelletizing dried sewage sludge. The dried sludge is compacted between two compacting rollers into a rigid highly frangible sheet. A rotating breaker fragments the sheet into gross flakes or chunks. The Chunks are gravity fed from the compactor to a granulator. The granulator includes two sets of corrugated granulating rollers which grind the chunks received from the compactor. A screening mechanism sorts the granulated sludge into undersized, oversized and acceptable sized granules. The undersized granules are recycled to the compactor, and the oversized granules are recycled to the granulator.
The reissued U.S. Pat. No. RE.31,185 to Greenfield et al. discloses a process for dehydrating sewage sludges in a multistage evaporator. Oil is added to the sludge in the evaporator to yield a liquid pumpable mixture, which remains pumpable even after water removal. Vapors are removed at each stage of the multistage evaporator and used as a combustion source for the preceding step in the process. A portion of the anhydrous slurry containing sludge and the oil removed from the last stage is recycled back to a position upstream of the first stage, thereby controlling the viscosity of the evaporator feed. After the final evaporator stage, the resultant dry solids and oil are passed through a centrifuge for separation, and the separated oil is recycled. The solids from the centrifuge may be used for fertilizer or to fuel the boiler-furnace which supplies steam to the multistage evaporator.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,321,151 to McMullen discloses a process for converting sewage sludge into energy useful for operating a sewage treatment plant. Raw settled sludge is withdrawn from the treatment stream early in the process sequence to preserve the energy content of the sludge. The withdrawn sludge is dewatered, caked and fragmented for pyrolysis to produce a combustible gas which may be used to fuel a gas turbine-generator to power the plant. The combustible gas is cleaned by removing the suspended tars and oils therein. The dried feed stock is pneumatically conveyed for pyrolyzing to a combustion boiler-pyrolyzer, and a portion is diverted to a rotary mixing device or blender. In the blender, the dried feed stock is blended with residual tar, oil and char (pyrolysis by-products) produced from pyrolysis of mixed and dried feed stock. The blended stock is directed to a pelletizing unit to produce pellets one inch in diameter and one and one-half inches long. The pellets are pneumatically conveyed to a combustion zone of the boiler-pyrolyzer.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,960,725 to Bjermo et al. discloses a method of converting heavy-metal hydroxides into heavy-metal oxide powders or granules using concentration sintering. Before sintering, the sludge is dewatered and deposited on a media carrier in a 1-5 mm thick film and the film is then dried. This method is useful for eliminating the toxicity of the metal hydroxy sludge for environmental considerations.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,097,378 to St. Clair discloses a method for removing water from peat and various sludges. The sludge is mixed with oil and fed into a condenser where it is heated by direct contact with steam. Liberated uncondensed gases are routed to a conventional vent system.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,402,834 to Bastgen et al. discloses a continuous dewatering process for sludges principally involving filtration. The raw sludge is mixed with a flocculating agent in a rotary filter drum. The thickened sludge is conveyed through a filtering assembly and subjected to dewatering forces including vacuum, centrifugal, static pressure or pressure while moving along the filter surfaces.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,795,568 to Chen discloses a waste water treatment system using excessive amounts of pressurized oxygen gas to oxidize the waste water solution and increase the evaporation of waste therefrom. The oxidized liquid effluent undergoes a series of flashing steps to produce a saturated solution Which crystallizes upon cooling.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,342,731 to Baumann discloses a method of dewatering fresh or digested sludges or concentrate resulting from centrifuging fresh or digested sludge. After centrifuging, the sludge is further dewatered by filtering and the dewatered sludge is then incinerated. The ash resulting from the incineration of the dewatered sludge is added to the digested sludge or fresh sludge, along with lime for improved filterability. The lime remaining after incineration of sludge that has been treated with the ash and lime may be recycled by mixing it with the fresh lime and ash to be added to the sludge.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,915,240 to Putnam discloses a sewage purification system where lime and ferric chloride are mixed with the sludge to kill bacteria, oxidize and deodorize the treated mass and to promote flocculation. The sludge is centrifuged or-otherwise dewatered then dried in a sludge dryer and ground for delivery to a storage bin. The resulting dried ground sludge may be used as a fertilizer or burned as fuel in the dryer. Alternatively, instead of dewatering, drying and grinding the sludge for fertilizing or heat, the sludge may be passed directly from a dewaterer and processed through a retort to produce char or carbonized particles. This resulting char product is introduced into the raw sewage before the chemical treatment step to absorb the gases and putrescible matter and increase the speed at which the solids settle from the liquid.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,025,151 to Berg discloses a method for digesting solids separated from sewage sludge. The separated solids are mixed with a biological culture and aerated at a controlled temperature to decompose the fibrous cellulose, reduce the grease content of the sewage and remove objectionable odors from the solids. The resulting product may be pelletized for use as a fertilizer.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,676,074 to Shibayama et al. discloses a cylindrical rotary tank having an air pipe along the axis thereof. Organic materials are fed into the cylindrical tank and fermented using aerobic bacteria and thereby causing substantially no odor nuisance. The fermentation process also heats the tank to aid in drying the organic waste and produce a solid granular material which may be used as a fertilizer.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,660,628 to Solberg et al. and 3,800,865 to Onarheim et al. each disclose rotary heat exchangers wherein the heating or cooling medium is passed through a hollow shaft having a plurality of fins extending outwardly therefrom. The shaft is enclosed within a container which receives the moist, solid or semi-solid materials which are to be heated or cooled.
The Japanese Patent No. 5,439,372 illustrates the method of adding aluminum sulfate to waste sludge for settling, and thereafter adding a macromolecule type aggregating agent. The mixture is then centrifugally separated and the solid matter heated for solidification in a drying furnace at 200-500% C to obtain a dried cake.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,695,432 to McCrink discloses a sewage disposal system which pumps solid wastes separated from sewage through a heating retort. The solids are mixed with a non-oxidizing gas such as ammonia, methane or propane which is injected therein under pressure, and the mixture is heated to produce a fine powdery ash. The gases produced during the process are passed through a flame curtain prior to exiting the system to remove all odors therefrom.
U.S. Pat. No. 548,561 to Lamb discloses an apparatus for making fertilizer from refuse. The refuse is filtered through sand and then evaporated using steam passing through a coil and then further dried using steam or hot air to produce a fertilizer. Odors produced by this system are conducted to the furnace for destruction therein.
U.S. Pat. No. 659,503 to Wood discloses a sewage treating apparatus which receives sludge solids in a vibrating and oscillating hopper comprising a filter-bed holder. Water is removed by the vibrating and oscillating hopper, and the resulting solids entrapped therein pass to a drying cylinder. F where the material is thoroughly dried and granulated by heating and revolving the drying cylinder to produce a fertilizer.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,909,410 to Neukamm discloses a sewage sludge treating process wherein the sludge slurry is continuously distributed in a rotating contactor drum onto preheated aggregate pieces which are continually fed into the drum. A portion of the slurry instantaneously adheres to the heated aggregate and the non-adhering slurry exits the drum for recycling. The coated aggregate is collected from the drum and heated during travel to a tumbler drum. In the tumbler drum, the sludge coating is broken away from the aggregate and pulverized into a powder or dust which is the product. The decoated aggregate is recycled into the rotating contactor drum.
Furthermore, raw primary or a mixture of raw primary and activated sewage slush solids contain a significant portion of fibrous materials which is derived from paper products or other substances. When the sludge solids are dried, the fibrous material becomes visible and undesirable and is referred to as "fluff", because it tends to expand greatly in volume Prior art drying systems typically remove the fluff and dispose of it as a separate waste product, or process the fluff off-site. If raw primary sludge or a mixture of raw primary and activated sludge solids is digested in an aerobic or anaerobic digestion process, a large portion of the paper or cellulose is converted and the fluff is substantially reduced.
None of the above sewage treatment systems is understood to process the sewage sludge into a pelletized fertilizer having a long shelf life, such as on the order of seven months. Furthermore, none of these known systems is understood to make use of waste oil, such as transformer oil, crankcase oil, and other reclaimed oil in a heating stage of the sewage treatment process without venting significantly detectable amounts of gaseous pollutants thereby produced to atmosphere. Furthermore, none of the above sewage treatment systems is understood to fulfill such deficiencies with a minimal odor dispersing apparatus which may be used in a urban setting.
Thus, a need exists for an improved sludge treatment system for pelletizing sewage sludge, including that which contains significant amounts of fibrous materials, such as may be used to produce a pelletized fertilizer or soil amendment product, which is not susceptible to the above limitations and disadvantages.


A spiral inductor shows a skin effect where, as frequency is increased, current is concentrated on a surface of a conductor. A spiral inductor also shows a proximity effect where upon bringing another conductor in proximity with the spiral inductor, a high frequency current is more intensively flowed into a portion close to the other conductor. In order to represent these two effects in an equivalent circuit of the inductor, a coupling form of a 2-π equivalent circuit model that is a modification of an existing single-π model was recently disclosed in an article and is shown in FIG. 1.
However, the 2-π equivalent circuit model has problems in that the extraction of the model is complicated and a large error can be generated in the value of the extracted parameter.


1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to N-substituted benzene sulfonamides which inhibit β-amyloid peptide release and/or its synthesis and, therefore, are useful in the prevention of cognitive disorders in patients susceptible to cognitive disorders and/or in the treatment of patients with cognitive disorders in order to inhibit further deterioration in their condition.
2. State of the Art
Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is a degenerative brain disorder characterized clinically by progressive loss of memory, cognition, reasoning, judgment and emotional stability that gradually leads to profound mental deterioration and ultimately death. AD is a very common cause of progressive mental failure (dementia) in aged humans and is believed to represent the fourth most common medical cause of death in the United States. AD has been observed in races and ethnic groups worldwide and presents a major present and future public health problem. The disease is currently estimated to affect about two to three million individuals in the United States alone. AD is at present incurable. No treatment that effectively prevents AD or reverses its symptoms and course is currently known.
The brains of individuals with AD exhibit characteristic lesions termed senile (or amyloid) plaques, amyloid angiopathy (amyloid deposits in blood vessels) and neurofibrillary tangles. Large numbers of these lesions, particularly amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles, are generally found in several areas of the human brain important for memory and cognitive function in patients with AD. Smaller numbers of these lesions in a more restrictive anatomical distribution are also found in the brains of most aged humans who do not have clinical AD. Amyloid plaques and amyloid angiopathy also characterize the brains of individuals with Trisomy 21 (Down's Syndrome) and Hereditary Cerebral Hemorrhage with Amyloidosis of the Dutch Type (HCHWA-D). At present, a definitive diagnosis of AD usually requires observing the aforementioned lesions in the brain tissue of patients who have died with the disease or, rarely, in small biopsied samples of brain tissue taken during an invasive neurosurgical procedure.
The principal chemical constituent of the amyloid plaques and vascular amyloid deposits (amyloid angiopathy) characteristic of AD and the other disorders mentioned above is an approximately 4.2 kilodalton (kD) protein of about 39–43 amino acids designated the β-amyloid peptide (BAP) or sometimes Aβ, AβP or β/A4. β-Amyloid peptide was first purified and a partial amino acid sequence was provided by Glenner et al., Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun., 120: 885–890 (1984) The isolation procedure and the sequence data for the first 28 amino acids are described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,666,829.
Molecular biological and protein chemical analyses have shown that the β-amyloid peptide is a small fragment of a much larger precursor protein termed the amyloid precursor protein (APP), that is normally produced by cells in many tissues of various animals, including humans. Knowledge of the structure of the gene encoding APP has demonstrated that β-amyloid peptide arises as a peptide fragment that is cleaved from APP by protease enzyme(s). Sequential processing of the precursor protein by the enzymes referred to generically as beta- and gamma-secretases, give rise to the β-amyloid peptide fragment. Both enzymes have now been molecularly cloned, and characterized to differing levels.
Several lines of evidence indicate that progressive cerebral deposition of β-amyloid peptide plays a seminal role in the pathogenesis of AD and can precede cognitive symptoms by years or decades. See, for example, Selkoe, Neuron, 6:487–498 (1991). The most important line of evidence is the discovery that missense DNA mutations at amino acid 717 of the 770-amino acid isoform of APP can be found in affected members but not unaffected members of several families with a genetically determined (familial) form of AD (Goate et al., Nature, 349:704–706 (1990); Chartier Harlan et al., Nature, 353:844–846 (1989); and Murrell et al., Science, 254: 97–99 (1991.) Another such mutation, known as the Swedish variant, is comprised of a double mutation changing lysine595-methionine596 to asparagine595-leucine596 (with reference to the 695 isoform was found in a Swedish family) was reported in 1992 (Mullan et al., Nature Genet., 1:345–347 (1992). Genetic linkage analyses have demonstrated that these mutations, as well as certain other mutations in the APP gene, are the specific molecular cause of AD in the affected members of such families. In addition, a mutation at amino acid 693 of the 770-amino acid isoform of APP has been identified as the cause of the β-amyloid peptide deposition disease, HCHWA-D, and a change from alanine to glycine at amino acid 692 appears to cause a phenotype that resembles AD is some patients but HCHWA-D in others. The discovery of these and other mutations in APP in genetically based cases of AD prove that alteration of APP metabolism, and subsequent deposition of its β-amyloid peptide fragment, can cause AD.
Despite the progress which has been made in understanding the underlying mechanisms of AD and other β-amyloid peptide related diseases, there remains a need to develop methods and compositions for treatment of the disease(s). Ideally, the treatment methods would advantageously be based on drugs which are capable of inhibiting β-amyloid peptide release and/or its synthesis in vivo.
One approach toward inhibiting amyloid peptide synthesis in vivo is by inhibiting gamma secretase, the enzyme responsible for the carboxy-terminal cleavage resulting in production of β-amyloid peptide fragments of 40 or 42 residues in length. The immediate substrates for gamma secretase are β-cleaved, as well as α-cleaved carboxy-terminal fragments (CTF) of APP. The gamma-secretase cleavage site on β- and α-CTF fragments occurs in the predicted transmembrane domain of APP. Inhibitors of gamma-secretase have been demonstrated to effect amyloid pathology in transgenic mouse models (Dovey, H. F., V. John, J. P. Anderson, L. Z. Chen, P. de Saint Andrieu, L. Y. Fang, S. B. Freedman, B. Folmer, E. Goldbach, E. J. Holsztynska et al. (2001). “Functional gamma-secretase inhibitors reduce beta-amyloid peptide levels in brain.” J Neurochem 76(1): 173–81.)
Gamma secretase is recognized to be a multi-subunit complex comprised of the presenilins (PS1 or PS2), Nicastrin, Aph-1, and Pen 2 (De Strooper, B. (2003). “Aph-1, Pen-2, and Nicastrin with Presenilin generate an active gamma-Secretase complex.” Neuron 38(1): 9–12; Edbauer, D., E. Winkler, J. T. Regula, B. Pesold, H. Steiner and C. Haass (2003). “Reconstitution of gamma-secretase activity.” Nat Cell Biol 5(5): 486–8; Kimberly, W. T., M. J. LaVoie, B. L. Ostaszewski, W. Ye, M. S. Wolfe and D. J. Selkoe (2003). “Gamma-secretase is a membrane protein complex comprised of presenilin, nicastrin, Aph-1, and Pen-2.” Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 100(11): 6382–7). Much evidence indicates that PS comprises the catalytic moiety of the complex, while the other identified subunits are necessary for proper maturation and sub-cellular localization of the active enzyme complex (reviewed in De Strooper, B. (2003). “Aph-1, Pen-2, and Nicastrin with Presenilin generate an active gamma-Secretase complex.” Neuron 38(1): 9–12.) Consistent with this hypothesis: PS knock-out mice exhibit significant reductions in β-amyloid production (De Strooper, B., P. Saftig, K. Craessaerts, H. Vanderstichele, G. Guhde, W. Annaert, K. Von Figura and F. Van Leuven (1998). “Deficiency of presenilin-1 inhibits the normal cleavage of amyloid precursor protein.” Nature 391(6665): 387–90; Haass, C. and D. J. Selkoe (1998). “Alzheimer's disease. A technical KO of amyloid-beta peptide.” Nature 391(6665): 339–40; Herreman, A., L. Serneels, W. Annaert, D. Collen, L. Schoonjans and B. De Strooper (2000). “Total inactivation of gamma-secretase activity in presenilin-deficient embryonic stem cells.” Nat Cell Biol 2(7): 461–2); point mutations of putative active site aspartate residues in PS trans-membrane domains inhibit β-amyloid production in cells in a dominant negative fashion (Wolfe, M. S., W. Xia, B. L. Ostaszewski, T. S. Diehl, W. T. Kimberly and D. J. Selkoe (1999). “Two transmembrane aspartates in presenilin-1 required for presenilin endoproteolysis and gamma-secretase activity.” Nature 398(6727): 513–7; Kimberly, W. T., W. Xia, T. Rahmati, M. S. Wolfe and D. J. Selkoe (2000). “The transmembrane aspartates in presenilin 1 and 2 are obligatory for gamma-secretase activity and amyloid beta-protein generation.” J Biol Chem 275(5): 3173–8); active site directed substrate-based transition state isosteres designed to inhibit gamma secretase directly conjugate to PS (Esler, W. P., W. T. Kimberly, B. L. Ostaszewski, T. S. Diehl, C. L. Moore, J. Y. Tsai, T. Rahmati, W. Xia, D. J. Selkoe and M. S. Wolfe (2000). “Transition-state analogue inhibitors of gamma-secretase bind directly to presenilin-1.” Nat Cell Biol 2(7): 428–34; Li, Y. M., M. Xu, M. T. Lai, Q. Huang, J. L. Castro, J. DiMuzio-Mower, T. Harrison, C. Lellis, A. Nadin, J. G. Neduvelil et al. (2000). “Photoactivated gamma-secretase inhibitors directed to the active site covalently label presenilin 1.” Nature 405(6787): 689–94); finally, allosteric gamma secretase inhibitors have likewise been demonstrated to bind directly to PS (Seiffert, D., J. D. Bradley, C. M. Rominger, D. H. Rominger, F. Yang, J. E. Meredith, Jr., Q. Wang, A. H. Roach, L. A. Thompson, S. M. Spitz et al. (2000). “Presenilin-1 and -2 are molecular targets for gamma-secretase inhibitors.” J Biol Chem 275(44): 34086–91.)
Current evidence indicates that in addition to APP processing leading to β-amyloid synthesis, gamma-secretase also mediates the intra-membrane cleavage of other type I transmembrane proteins (reviewed in Fortini, M. E. (2002). “Gamma-secretase-mediated proteolysis in cell-surface-receptor signalling.” Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 3(9): 673–84, see also Struhl, G. and A. Adachi (2000). “Requirements for presenilin-dependent cleavage of notch and other transmembrane proteins.” Mol Cell 6(3): 625–36.) Noteworthy among the known substrates of gamma-secretase is mammalian Notch 1. The Notch 1 protein is important for cell fate determination during development, and tissue homeostasis in the adult. Upon ligand engagement via the Notch ecto-domain, Notch undergoes sequential extra-cellular and intra-membrane processing analogous to APP. The intra-membrane processing of Notch mediated by gamma secretase leads to release of the Notch intracellular domain (NICD). The NICD fragment mediates Notch signaling via translocation to the nucleus, where it regulates expression of genes mediating cellular differentiation in many tissues during development, as well as in the adult.
Disruption of Notch signaling via genetic knock-out (KO) results in embryonic lethal phenotype in mice (Swiatek, P. J., C. E. Lindsell, F. F. del Amo, G. Weinmaster and T. Gridley (1994). “Notchl is essential for postimplantation development in mice.” Genes Dev 8(6): 707–19; Conlon, R. A., A. G. Reaume and J. Rossant (1995). “Notchl is required for the coordinate segmentation of somites.” Development 121(5): 1533–45.) The Notch KO phenotype is very similar to the phenotype observed PS1 KO mice, and precisely reproduced by PS1/PS2 double KO mice (De Strooper et al. (1998). “Deficiency of presenilin-1 inhibits the normal cleavage of amyloid precursor protein.” Nature 391(6665): 387–90; Donoviel, D. B., A. K. Hadjantonakis, M. Ikeda, H. Zheng, P. S. Hyslop and A. Bernstein (1999). “Mice lacking both presenilin genes exhibit early embryonic patterning defects.” Genes Dev 13(21): 2801–10; Herreman, A., L. Serneels, W. Annaert, D. Collen, L. Schoonjans and B. De Strooper (2000). “Total inactivation of gamma-secretase activity in presenilin-deficient embryonic stem cells.” Nat Cell Biol 2(7): 461–2.) This convergence of phenotypes observed in knock-out mice of either the substrate (Notch) or the enzyme (PS) suggests that inhibitors of gamma secretase that also inhibit Notch function may be limited as therapeutic agents owing to the importance of Notch function in adult tissues (Fortini, M. E. (2002). “Gamma-secretase-mediated proteolysis in cell-surface-receptor signalling.” Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 3(9): 673–84.) As APP knock-out mice develop normally and without an overt phenotype Zheng, H., M. Jiang, M. E. Trumbauer, R. Hopkins, D. J. Sirinathsinghji, K. A. Stevens, M. W. Conner, H. H. Slunt, S. S. Sisodia, H. Y. Chen et al. (1996). “Mice deficient for the amyloid precursor protein gene.” Ann N Y Acad Sci 777:421–6; Zheng, H., M. Jiang, M. E. Trumbauer, D. J. Sirinathsinghji, R. Hopkins, D. W. Smith, R. P. Heavens, G. R. Dawson, S. Boyce, M. W. Conner et al. (1995). “beta-Amyloid precursor protein-deficient mice show reactive gliosis and decreased locomotor activity.” Cell 81(4): 525–31, the cumulative evidence, therefore, suggests that preferred gamma secretase inhibitors would have selectivity for inhibiting gamma secretase processing of APP over gamma secretase processing of Notch.


Actuators typically are mechanical devices that are used for moving or controlling a mechanism, system or the like and typically convert energy into some type of motion. Examples of actuators can be found in any number of applications encountered in everyday life including automotive, aviation, construction, farming, factories, robots, health care and prosthetics, among other areas.
Mobile robotics and advanced prosthetics will likely play important roles in the future of the human race. Actuators frequently are used in these applications that enable movement of a robot or user arm or other appendage or item as desired.
Most existing mobile robots and advanced prosthetics, however, lack the strength and speed necessary to be effective. This is because they suffer from poor specific power (strength×speed/weight) which determines how quickly work can be done compared to another actuator of the same weight.
For example, if such devices are capable of lifting significant weight, they must do so very slowly, which inhibits their adoption for most applications. On the other hand, devices that can move more quickly are just not capable of handling anything more than the smallest weight.


1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an article for reducing or eliminating parasitic oscillation (PL) and amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) in solid state lasers. More specifically, it relates to a thin film attached to strategic facets of a solid state laser gain material to frustrate the total internal reflection of parasitic oscillation and amplified stimulated emission.
2. Description of Related Art
The architecture of most high average power solid state lasers consists of a laser medium interposed between a highly reflecting mirror and an output coupler. Solid state zigzag slab lasers are typically used when high average power is needed because the optical path utilizes more gain medium and tends to average out index of refraction gradients caused by the thermal loading. Diode lasers or flashlamps are often used to optically excite the gain medium. In slab lasers, the medium is optically excited through the two largest exposed planes which are parallel to the optical axis. The laser medium must be cooled due, in part, to the high optical fluxes coupled into the slab by the pumping mechanism. If not properly designed, the stored energy density in slab lasers decreases. This performance reduction is caused by the complementary effects of amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) and parasitic oscillations that occur in the slab laser. [see for example, "Fluorescence Amplification and Parasitic Oscillation Limitations in Disk Lasers", by J. B. Trenholme, NRL Memorandum Rep.2480, July 1972; J. E. Swain et al., J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 40 p.3973, (1969); and J. M. McMahon et al., IEEE J. Quantum Electron., QE-9, p.992, (1973); and U.S. Pat. No. 4,849,036].
Edge claddings are used on solid state laser material to absorb the amplified spontaneous emission and to suppress the onset of parasitic oscillations that would otherwise reduce the stored energy. In general, these claddings consist of a material that is refractive index matched to the laser glass and which contains a dopant that absorbs at the laser (ASE) frequency. A number of different materials have been used for cladding, ranging from sprayed-on glass frits to liquids to castings of monolithic glass. [See, for example, G. Dube and N. L. Boling, Applied Optics, Vol. 13, p.699, (1974); G. Guch, Jr.,Applied Optics, Vol. 15, p.1453, (1976); and D. Milam et al., "Platinum Particles in the Nd:doped Disks of Phosphate Glass in the Nova Laser", Laser Induced Damage in Optical Materials 1985: Proceedings of the Boulder Damage Symposium, Boulder, Colo., November 1985] In the 100-kJ Nova pulsed laser system at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, claddings of monolithic glass doped with ionic copper that absorbs at 1 micrometer have been used. Although the performance of this latter cladding works well in high peak power lasers, the heat transfer properties are not adequate for use in high average power solid state lasers.
Parasitic lasing (PL) severely limits the performance of high gain solid state zigzag slab lasers by depleting energy in the upper laser level. The problem is enhanced because solid state laser materials have a higher index of refraction than the surrounding media. The traditional method for suppressing ASE and PL, as stated supra, has been to bind a relatively thick layer of weakly absorbing material with closely matched index of refraction to the edges. Index matching suppresses the reflection of light rays at the boundary between the two media, enabling the absorption of radiation within the bonding material. These traditional edge absorbers for ASE and PL suppression work adequately for high peak power, low average power lasers, but, due to unacceptable heat transfer properties, are not suitable for high average power lasers.
It is desirable to have a thin film attached onto the otherwise reflective surfaces of a solid state laser medium to bring about suppression of total internal reflections and reduction in the internal reflectivity for wide angular incidence without use of the doped index matching material. The present invention provides such an article.


Modern cotton harvesters typically include a relatively large high volume receptacle mounted to the frame of the harvester. Recently, the receptacle or basket assembly of cotton harvesters has been designed such that the height and, thus, the capacity of the basket assembly is adjustable. The receptacle or basket assembly on recent cotton harvester designs includes a lower basket portion mounted on the frame of the harvester with an upper basket portion being movably mounted and supported for elevational movement relative to the lower basket portion under the influence between an extended field working position and a retracted storage position.
A conventional cotton harvester further includes a plurality of harvesting row units arranged across a front end of the harvester. Each harvesting unit has duct structure operably associated therewith for receiving cotton materials harvested by the respective harvesting unit and for delivering the cotton materials into the receptacle. To optimize receptacle capacity, the cotton conveying structure extends upwardly from a respective harvesting row unit to a top forward portion of the upper basket portion of the receptacle wherein one or more openings are provided in registry with an exhaust end of the cotton conveying duct structure. To promote the delivery of cotton from the duct structure into the receptacle, the upper basket portion of the receptacle can include hood structure that extends vertically over and in operable combination with the discharge end of the duct structure.
Although beneficially increasing the capacity of the receptacle, maintaining the upper basket portion in an extended field working position presents certain problems and drawbacks. Because of shipping size limitations, the upper basket portion must be moved to its retracted storage position when the harvester is freighted by rail or truck. Because of power lines and the like, the increased height of the receptacle, with the upper basket portion in a raised field working position, makes it difficult to transport the harvester from one location to another. Moreover, the normal height of barn doors makes moving the harvester indoors for repairs or storage a problem because of the increased height added to the receptacle by the upper basket portion. Thus, and after the cotton materials are removed from the receptacle, the upper basket portion of the receptacle is lowered into its retracted position to facilitate transportation of the harvester.
While the height of the duct structure can exceed the height of the cab region, it is beneficial for transportation purposes to lower the height of the duct structure along with reducing the height of the receptacle. Some cotton harvesters have a plurality of duct structures extending upwardly toward the opening in the receptacle from each harvesting row unit. As will be appreciated, removing portions of each duct structure to reduce the height thereof is a labor intensive manual process. Reassembling each duct structure to return the machine to an operational condition also involves a labor intensive effort. A customer, for example, who desires to transport his cotton harvester from one location to the other must often spend a considerable number of man hours in tearing down and setting up the receptacle, thereby reducing the overall productivity of the harvester.
Thus, there is a need and a desire for a large capacity receptacle for a cotton harvester having arranged in combination therewith duct structure designed to accommodate shipping and transportation of the harvester and which obviates the need for tearing down and setting up the entire duct structure in response to the position of the upper basket portion of the receptacle.


In drug discovery research, proper evaluation of incorporation, metabolism and excretion of a drug or the like in the hepatic tissue of a living body is extremely important. Further, for simply carrying out large-scale drug screening, or from an ethical point of view, an in vitro test method has been demanded. As a means for such a test, cultured cells are used, and their culture is preferably carried out under conditions reflecting those in a living body as much as possible. For example, as a culture system for hepatocytes, one which can excellently reproduce the proper polarity of the hepatic tissue of a living body, wherein, for example, the cell membrane is clearly differentiated between the blood vessel side and the bile canaliculus membrane side, is demanded
For example, Patent Document 1 describes that it is thought that, by binding a binding protein or an adhesion protein to a microscale substrate and culturing hepatocytes thereon, formation of a bile canaliculus is promoted. Further, Patent Document 2 describes that, by culturing small hepatocytes on a polycarbonate porous sheet covered with collagen, a bile canaliculus-like structure was formed on Day 30 of the culture.
In the above-described three-dimensional culture methods, preparation of hepatocytes having the polarity from the primary cultured cells takes several weeks to several months.
On the other hand, in cases where the collagen gel sandwich method (Non-patent Document 1: LeCluyse et al., Am J Physiol Cell Physiol, 1994, vol. 266, pp. 1764-1774) is used, formation of a bile canaliculus and the bile component excretion activity begins to be detected about 3 or 4 days after deposition of a collagen gel. However, even in the cases where the collagen gel sandwich method is used, several days are required before the bile component excretion activity is obtained. Further, metabolites cannot be continuously analyzed in such cases since a bile duct having an outlet, as is the case in a living body, is required for the continuous analysis. There is also a problem in that the number of bile canaliculi is too small and the activity is too low, to be used in drug screening.
Further, in Non-patent Document 2 (Tissue Engineering vol.13 Number 8 2007 2105-2117) and Non-patent Document 3 (Acta Biomaterialia 5 2009 613-620), it is shown that, when hepatocytes are to be cultured on gas-permeable PDMS (polydimethylsiloxane), adhesion of the cells can be maintained for 3 days by coating the surface of the PDMS with PEM or by forming thin pillars having a diameter of 1 to 3 μm. However, the adhesion cannot be maintained for a long time and hence those cultured cells are problematic in view of stable use in a test. Further, it has been generally thought that PDMS is not suitable for adherent culture of hepatocytes.


1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a method for RF output power control of a wireless communication device and, more particularly, to a method for output power control by switching the wireless communication device between different modes according to a state parameter corresponding to a received beacon.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In recent years, applications in fields such as mobile communications as well as wireless local area network (WLAN) have attracted considerable attention. For wireless communication devices such as mobile phones, base stations, wireless network interface cards and access points, and so forth, it is necessary to reduce power consumption so as to prevent ageing and degradation of the components. Especially, portable wireless communication devices require batteries as power supply; therefore, it is necessary for such devices to reduce power consumption so as to prolong the battery lifetime. Moreover, in order to prevent human from absorbing the electromagnetic waves, it is required that the RF energy of the nuisance radiation from the wireless communication devices must be conserved when the devices are not operating or operating at a short distance.
In view of the power consumption, most of the power is consumed by the transmitter of wireless communication devices when the transmitter is transmitting RF signals. Accordingly, the present invention provides a method for RF output power control of a wireless communication device so as to reduce power consumption and eliminate nuisance radiation on one hand and leave the link quality of signal transmission unaffected on the other.


1. Technical Field
Embodiments relate to semiconductor devices. More particularly, embodiments relate to a semiconductor device and a floating prevention method thereof, which may prevent a portion of signal line from floating when a signal line is an open state.
2. Description of the Related Art
Semiconductor devices, e.g., DRAM, etc., generally employ a redundancy scheme for replacing a defective memory cell with a spare memory cell.
For efficiency, in the redundancy scheme, a replacement may be obtained in a unit of a column selection line or a normal word line enable signal. For example, when a defective column selection line is replaced with a spare column selection line, the defective column selection line is maintained at a ground level.
However, e.g., when a line open state occurs in a defective column selection line, a portion of the defective column selection line may be in a floating state. Thus, electrical coupling with an adjacent column selection line may occur.


The present invention relates to a semiconductor memory device and a manufacturing method thereof. More particularly, the present invention relates to a ferroelectric memory device in which a ferroelectric film is used for a gate insulating film and a manufacturing method thereof.
Recent advances in thin-film technology have produced nonvolatile memory devices using ferroelectric films (i.e., ferroelectric memory devices), which can perform high-speed read/write operations by using the polarization reversal and retention characteristics of the ferroelectric film. Since the polarization reversal of a ferroelectric film is caused by a transition at the atomic level, a ferroelectric memory device operates 10.sup.4 -10.sup.5 times faster than other types of nonvolatile memories (e.g., EEPROM or flash memory devices) and thus can achieve read-cycle speeds comparable to that of a DRAM device, i.e., in the hundreds of nanoseconds. Also, since polarization reversal only requires a low supply voltage, e.g., two to five volts, the memory device does not require the higher supply voltage, e.g., ten to twelve volts, necessary for EEPROM or flash memory read operations.
Broadly speaking, there are two types of conventional ferroelectric memory devices: one which detects the amount of charge stored in a capacitor and one which detects a change in the resistance caused by the spontaneous polarization of a ferroelectric.
The first type comprises two transistors and two capacitors or of a single transistor-capacitor pair. Memory devices of this type are widely adopted in DRAM devices and are generally formed of CMOS transistors, with a thick interlayer insulating film separating the transistors from a ferroelectric capacitor formed on top. In this structure, although the impact of the ferroelectric electrode material on the underlying CMOS device can be reduced, a destructive read-out problem persists in that the stored data is ultimately destroyed by being read. This destructive read-out becomes of greater concern as the number of read/write operations in a memory device increases.
The second type of ferroelectric memory device endeavors to overcome this destructive read-out problem. An example of the second type of ferroelectric memory device is called a metal-ferroelectric insulator semiconductor field-effect transistor (MFIS FET). Such a device provides for nondestructive read-out, which makes it appropriate for increased read/write operations. In principle, this type of memory device, which has a single transistor compared to a DRAM having both a transistor and a capacitor, reduces the cell area without altering the cell structure in accordance with typical MOS FET scaling rules. Moreover, its read time need not be as long as that of a flash memory which is a nonvolatile memory, and data can be retained after a read-out operation. The memory device employs a metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS) structure using a ferroelectric film as a gate insulating film, in which a read-out operation is performed by forming an inversion layer in a channel region of a transistor. The inversion layer is formed by controlling the potential on a silicon interface based on the polarization retention of a ferroelectric.
However, there are additional problems encountered with the use of the MFIS FET. The major problem derives from the fact that in the MFIS FET a ferroelectric film is formed directly on a silicon semiconductor substrate. When an oxide ferroelectric film, such as PZT (PbZr.sub.x T.sub.1-x O.sub.3), is formed directly on a silicon substrate, oxygen atoms are injected from the oxygen-rich ferroelectric film into its interface with the silicon substrate, thereby resulting in the formation of a superfluous thin film, e.g., an SiO.sub.2 film. As a result, either the composition ratio of the ferroelectric film is locally destroyed, or a higher operating voltage is required. Furthermore, charged particles are injected into the film by trap levels resulting from stress of the ferroelectric film, thereby erasing the charge produced by polarization retention. Also, if the film is formed at a high temperature, constituents of the ferroelectric are apt to diffuse into the silicon substrate and alter the characteristics of the field effect transistor. In addition, if a non-oxide ferroelectric, e.g., BaMgF.sub.4, were used instead of an oxide ferroelectric, fluorine ions are apt to penetrate into the gate insulating film, resulting in the elimination of the polarization characteristics.
Accordingly, since a ferroelectric film is not compatible with a silicon substrate in terms of lattice constant and thermal expansion coefficient, it is very difficult to form a high-quality ferroelectric film on the silicon substrate. Furthermore, to form the source/drain regions by self-alignment, a film showing tolerance to a thermal process at approximately 1,000.degree. C. would be required.
In an effort to solve the above problems, an MFIS FET in which a PbTiO.sub.3 film is deposited on a CeO.sub.2 film and aluminum is used for the electrodes has recently been reported. FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing a conventional MFIS FET using a CeO.sub.2 film.
Referring to FIG. 1, the MFIS FET includes a p-type silicon substrate 1, a field oxide film 2, a source/drain region 3, a CeO.sub.2 film 5, a PbTiO.sub.3 ferroelectric film 6, and an aluminum gate electrode 7. In this device, the hetero-epitaxial growth of PbTiO.sub.3 ferroelectric film 6 is realized by using the CeO.sub.2 film 5 as a gate insulating film. Since the forming of the gate electrode in this structure occurs after high-temperature process of forming the ferroelectric film, aluminum can be used as the electrode material and the structure becomes suitable for integration. Thus, the MFIS FET can be applied to a memory device.
However, although the CeO.sub.2 film 5 shown in FIG. 1 exhibits little lattice mismatching (approximately 0.35%) with a (111) substrate, it has no great advantage with respect to a (100) substrate. Furthermore, the electrical characteristics of this MFIS FET have not been completely verified.


The present invention relates generally to a connector and, more particularly, to a unique tool for removing contacts from a connector body.
While the present invention will be described specifically in connection with a tool for removing contacts from an electrical connector, it will be appreciated that the tool could also be utilized for removing ferrules from fiber optic connectors.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,110,093 to Johnson, there is disclosed an electrical connector of the type wherein one or more contacts, each connected to a wire, are inserted from the rear into a contact receiving bore in a connector body or insulator after the connector has been otherwise completely fabricated or assembled. The insulator includes a retaining clip or other locking means between the individual contacts and their respective bore walls for retaining the contacts in their operative position in the insulator. The Johnson patent also discloses a suitable tool for insertion into clearance space between the contact and the bore wall from the rear of the insulator to disengage the locking device and thereby permit manual withdrawal of the contact from the rear of the insulator by pulling on the wire attached to the contact. While this arrangement works well when a wire is present, the tool is ineffective fr an unwired contact in that the wire receiving portion of the contact normally does not extend beyond the rear of the insulator to permit the contact to be gripped for withdrawal.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,380,141 Rofer discloses a tool for removing an unwired contact which, when inserted into the contact bore from the rear of the insulator, releases the locking means therein and frictionally engages the rear of the contact so that it may be withdrawn from the bore.
French Pat. No. 2,240,600 discloses a front release contact retention assembly, in contrast to the rear release arrangments disclosed in the aforementioned Johnson and Rofer patents, wherein a contact extraction tool is inserted through the contact bore from the front of the insulator to release the contact locking means therein. The tip of the tool is longitudinally slotted and dimensioned so that it will frictionally engage the contact. Thus, as in the Rofer arrangement, the contact locking means is released while the tool frictionally engages the contact, thereby allowing the contact to be removed from the insulator. If manufacturing tolerances are not closely held in the forming of the prior art tools, it will be appreciated that adequate frictional engagement of the tool with the contact may not occur with the result that the tip of the tool may slip off the contact when the tip is withdrawn from the contact bore. Furthermore, even if the tool initially frictionally engages the contact with adequate force to allow the contact to be withdrawn from the insulator, continued use of the tool can result in the tip of the tool wearing so that it no longer firmly engages the contact.
It is the object of the present invention to provide a contact extraction tool which embodies manually operable gripping jaws which will assure that a firm gripping force can be applied to the contact so that the contact will be pulled out of the insulator when the tip of the tool is withdrawn from the contact bore.


A data center is a facility that physically houses various equipment, such as computers, servers (e.g., web servers, application servers, database servers), switches, routers, data storage devices, load balancers, wire cages or closets, vaults, racks, and related equipment for the purpose of storing, managing, processing, and exchanging data and information between hosts. A host typically corresponds to a computer system, a processor with associated physical memory, or a processor with shared memory and/or resources. Data centers also provide application services and management for various data processing functions, such as web hosting internet, intranet, telecommunication, and information technology.
Data centers are a unique environment because all the machines and services provided to clients are within a controlled and well-monitored environment. Specifically, data centers are managed by one or more administrators. In order to provide the application services and data processing functions, software is installed by an administrator on each host of the data center. Typically, installing the software on each host is performed remotely. Provisioning is the act of installing the software. One type of software that is typically provisioned is the operating system (OS) on bare hardware.
Provisioning an OS in a data center is challenging because data centers are typically large and heterogeneous with respect to different operating systems (e.g., Solaris™ developed by Sun Microsystems, Inc. (a trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc. located in Santa Clara, Calif.), Redhat Linux® developed by Red Hat, Inc. (a registered trademark of Red Hat, Inc. located in Raleigh, N.C.), SUSE® Linux developed by Novell, Inc. (a registered trademark of Novell, Inc. located in Waltham, Mass.), Windows® developed by Microsoft Corporation (a registered trademark of the Microsoft Corporation located in Redmond, Wash.), etc.) and types of hosts (i.e., different hosts use different hardware).
Further, each OS has a separate provisioning program that orchestrates the provisioning of the OS on the host. Each provisioning program typically has different input parameters, configuration file formats, and configuration steps. Accordingly, provisioning the different types of operating systems requires the administrator to be knowledgeable about the different input parameters, configuration file formats, and configuration steps.


This invention relates to the expression of fructose 1,6 bisphosphate aldolase (FDA) in transgenic plants to increase or improve plant growth and development, yield, vigor, stress tolerance, carbon allocation and storage into various storage pools, and distribution of starch. Transgenic plants expressing FDA have increased carbon assimilation, export and storage in plant source and sink organs, which results in growth, yield and quality improvements in crop plants.
Recent advances in genetic engineering have provided the prerequisite tools to transform plants to contain alien (often referred to as xe2x80x9cheterologousxe2x80x9d) or improved endogenous genes. These genes can lead either to an improvement of an already existing pathway in plant tissues or to an introduction of a novel pathway to modify product levels, increase metabolic efficiency, and or save on energy cost to the cell. It is presently possible to produce plants with unique physiological and biochemical traits and characteristics of high agronomic and crop processing importance. Traits that play an essential role in plant growth and development, crop yield potential and stability, and crop quality and composition include enhanced carbon assimilation, efficient carbon storage, and increased carbon export and partitioning.
Atmospheric carbon fixation (photosynthesis) by plants represents the major source of energy to support processes in all living organisms. The primary sites of photosynthetic activity, generally referred to as xe2x80x9csource organsxe2x80x9d, are mature leaves and, to a lesser extent, green stems. The major carbon products of source leaves are starch, which represents the transitory storage form of carbohydrate in the chloroplast, and sucrose, which represents the predominant form of carbon transport in higher plants. Other plant parts named xe2x80x9csink organsxe2x80x9d (e.g., roots, fruit, flowers, seeds, tubers, and bulbs) are generally not autotrophic and depend on import of sucrose or other major translocatable carbohydrates for their growth and development. The storage sinks deposit the imported metabolites as sucrose and other oligosaccharides, starch and other polysaccharides, proteins, and triglycerides.
In leaves, the primary products of the Calvin Cycle (the biochemical pathway leading to carbon assimilation) are glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate (G3P) and dihydroxyacetone phosphate (DHAP), also known as triose phosphates (triose-P). The condensation of G3P and DHAP into fructose 1,6 bisphosphate (FBP) is catalyzed reversibly by the enzyme fructose 1,6 bisphosphate aldolase (FDA), and various isozymes are known. The acidic isoenzyme appears to be chloroplastic and comprises about 85% of the total leaf aldolase activity. The basic isoenzyme is cytosolic. Both isoenzymes appear to be encoded by the nuclear genome and are encoded by different genes (Lebherz et al., 1984).
In the leaf, the chloroplast FDA is an essential enzyme in the Calvin Cycle, where its activity generates metabolites for starch biosynthesis. Removal of more than 40% of the plastidic aldolase enzymatic activity by antisense technology reduced leaf starch accumulation as well as soluble proteins and chlorophyll levels but also reduced plant growth and root formation (Sonnewald et al., 1994). In contrast, the cytosolic FDA is part of the sucrose biosynthetic pathway where it catalyzes the reaction of FBP production. Moreover, cytosolic FDA is also a key enzyme in the glycolytic and gluconeogenesis pathways in both source and sink plant tissues.
In the potato industry, production of higher starch and uniform solids tubers is highly desirable and valuable. The current potato varieties that are used for french fry production, such as Russet Burbank and Shepody, suffer from a non-uniform deposition of solids between the tuber pith (inner core) and the cortex (outer core). French fry strips that are taken from pith tissue are higher in water content when compared to outer cortex french fry strips; cortex tissue typically displays a solids level of twenty-four percent whereas pith tissue typically displays a solids level of seventeen percent. Consequently, in the french fry production process, the pith strips need to be blanched, dried, and par-fried for longer times to eliminate the excess water. Adequate processing of the pith fries results in the over-cooking of fries from the high solids cortex. The blanching, drying, and par frying times of the french fry processor need to be adjusted accordingly to accommodate the low solids pith strips and the high solids cortex strips. A higher solids potato with a more uniform distribution of starch from pith to cortex would allow for a more uniform finished fry product, with higher plant throughput and cost savings due to reduced blanch, dry and par-fry times.
Although various fructose 1,6 bisphosphate aldolases have been previously characterized, it has been discovered that overexpression of the enzyme in a transgenic plant provides advantageous results in the plant such as increasing the assimilation, export and storage of carbon, increasing the production of oils and/or proteins in the plant and improving tuber solids uniformity.
The present invention provides structural DNA constructs that encode a fructose 1,6 bisphosphate aldolase (FDA) enzyme and that are useful in increasing carbon assimilation, export, and storage in plants.
In accomplishing the foregoing, there is provided, in accordance with one aspect of the present invention, a method of producing genetically transformed plants that have elevated carbon assimilation, storage, export, and improved solids uniformity comprising the steps of:
(a) Inserting into the genome of a plant a recombinant, double-stranded DNA molecule comprising
(i) a promoter that functions in the cells of a target plant tissue,
(ii) a structural DNA sequence that causes the production of an RNA sequence that encodes a fructose 1,6 bisphosphate aldolase enzyme,
(iii) a 3xe2x80x2 non-translated DNA sequence that functions in plant cells to cause transcriptional termination and the addition of polyadenylated nucleotides to the 3xe2x80x2 end of the RNA sequence;
(b) obtaining transformed plant cells; and
(c) regenerating from transformed plant cells genetically transformed plants that have elevated FDA activity.
In another aspect of the present invention there is provided a recombinant, double-stranded DNA molecule comprising in sequence
(i) a promoter that functions in the cells of a target plant tissue,
(ii) a structural DNA sequence that causes the production of an RNA sequence that encodes a fructose 1,6 bisphosphate aldolase enzyme,
(iii) a 3xe2x80x2 non-translated DNA sequence that functions in plant cells to cause transcriptional termination and the addition of polyadenylated nucleotides to the 3xe2x80x2 end of the RNA sequence.
In a further aspect of the present invention, the structural DNA sequence that causes the production of an RNA sequence that encodes a fructose 1,6 bisphosphate aldolase enzyme is coupled with a chloroplast transit peptide to facilitate transport of the enzyme to the plastid.
In accordance with the present invention, an improved means for increasing carbon assimilation, storage and export in the source tissues of various plants is provided. Further means of improved carbon accumulation in sinks (such as roots, tubers, seeds, stems, and bulbs) are provided, thus increasing the size of various sinks (larger roots, tubers, etc.) and subsequently increasing yield and crop productivity. The increased carbon availability to these sinks would also improve composition and use efficiency in the sink (oil, protein, starch and/or sucrose production, and/or solids uniformity).
Various advantages may be achieved by the aims of the present invention, including:
First, increasing the expression of the FDA enzyme in the chloroplast would increase the flow of carbon through the Calvin Cycle and increase atmospheric carbon assimilation during early photoperiod. This would result in an increase in photosynthetic efficiency and an increase in chloroplast starch production (a leaf carbon storage form degraded during periods when photosynthesis is low or absent). Both of these responses would lead to an increase in sucrose production by the leaf and a net increase in carbon export during a given photoperiod. This increase in source capacity is a desirable trait in crop plants and would lead to increased plant growth, storage ability, yield, vigor, and stress tolerance.
Second, increasing FDA expression in the cytosol of photosynthetic cells would lead to an increase in sucrose production and export out of source leaves. This increase in source capacity is a desirable trait in crop plants and would lead to increased plant growth, storage ability, yield, vigor, and stress tolerance.
Third, expression of FDA in sink tissues can show several desirable traits, such as increased amino acid and/or fatty acid pools via increases in carbon flux through glycolysis (and thus pyruvate levels) in seeds or other sinks and increased starch levels as result of increased production of glucose 6-phosphate in seeds, roots, stems, and tubers where starch is a major storage nonstructural carbohydrate (reverse glycolysis). This increase in sink strength is a desirable trait in crop plants and would lead to increased plant growth, storage ability, yield, vigor, and stress tolerance.
Fourth, the invention is particularly desirable for use in the commercial production of foods derived from potatoes. Potatoes used for the production of french fries and other products suffer from a non-uniform distribution of solids between the tuber pith (inner core) and the cortex (outer core). Thus, french fry strips from the pith regions of such tubers have a low solids content and a high water content in comparison to cortex strips from the same tubers. Therefore, the french fry processor attempts to adjust the processing parameters so that the final inner strips are sufficiently cooked while the outer cortex strips are not overcooked. The results of such adjustments, however, are highly variable and may lead to poor quality product. Transgenic potatoes expressing fda will provide to the french-fry and potato chip processor a raw product that consistently displays a higher tuber solids uniformity with acceptable agronomic traits. In the french fry plant production process, inner pith fry strips from higher solids uniformity tubers will require less time to blanch, less time to dry to a specific solids content, and less time to par-fry before freezing and shipping to retail and institutional end-users.
Therefore, with respect to potatoes, the present invention provides 1) a higher quality, more uniform finish fry product in which french fries from all tuber regions, when processed, are nearly the same, 2) a higher through-put in the french fry processing plant due to lower processing times, and 3) processor cost savings due to lower energy input required for lower blanch, dry, and par-fry times. A raw tuber product that displays a higher solids uniformity will also produce a potato chip that has a reduced saddle curl, and a reduced tendency for center bubble, which are undesirable qualities in the potato chip industry. Reduced fat content would also result; this would contribute to improved consumer appeal and lower oil use (and costs) for the processor. The increase in solids uniformity will also translate to an increase in overall tuber solids. For both the french fry and chipping industries, this overall tuber solids increase will also result in higher through-put in the processing plant due to lower processing times, and cost savings due to lower energy input for blanching, drying, par-frying, and finish frying.