Patents Represented by Attorney Cermak & Kenealy LLP
  • Patent number: 7259003
    Abstract: A method for producing an L-amino acid, such as L-phenylalanine or L-threonine, is provided using a bacterium belonging to the genus Escherichia, wherein the L-amino acid productivity of said bacterium is enhanced by enhancing an activity of the protein encoded by the yedA gene.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 25, 2002
    Date of Patent: August 21, 2007
    Assignee: Ajinomoto Co., Inc.
    Inventors: Vitaliy Arkadyevich Livshits, Maria Viacheslavovna Vitushkina, Mikhail Markovich Gusyatiner, Mikhail Kharisovich Ziyatdinov, Valery Zavenovich Akhverdian, Ekaterina Alekseevna Savrasova, Vera Georgievna Doroshenko, Sergey Vladimirovich Mashko
  • Patent number: 7252972
    Abstract: The object of the present invention is to provide a method of producing a heterologous protein by making a coryneform bacterium to produce and efficiently extracellularly secrete (secreto-production) an industrially useful heterologous protein. According to the present invention, a genetic construct is used where a gene sequence encoding an intended protein which is ligated to the downstream of a sequence encoding the signal peptide derived from a coryneform bacterium, the gene construct is introduced into a mutant coryneform bacterium which has a capacity of secreting the heterologous protein at least 2-fold higher than the wild type Corynebacterium glutamicum ATCC 13869, the mutant coryneform bacterium is cultured and the extracellularly released heterologous protein is recovered.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 30, 2003
    Date of Patent: August 7, 2007
    Assignee: Ajinomoto Co., Inc.
    Inventors: Yoshimi Kikuchi, Masayo Date, Yukiko Umezawa, Keiichi Yokoyama, Haruo Heima, Hiroshi Matsui
  • Patent number: 7246930
    Abstract: A light source for vehicles can include a base having a cavity formed on its upper surface, an LED chip mounted in the cavity of the base, a resin portion for sealing the LED chip in the cavity, an optical member disposed above the base and apart from the LED chip, a light shielding portion disposed on the inner surface of the optical member and which forms a cutoff suited for a light distribution pattern, and a fluorescent substance layer disposed at least in regions other than the light shielding portion on the inner surface of the optical member.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 25, 2004
    Date of Patent: July 24, 2007
    Assignee: Stanley Electric Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Yasushi Yatsuda, Mitsunori Harada
  • Patent number: 7244056
    Abstract: A vehicle lamp can include a light source and a reflector whose first focal position lies in the vicinity of the light source, the reflector preferably includes a concave spheroidal surface that reflects light from the light source frontward. A projection lens can be disposed so that its focal point lies in the vicinity of a second focal position of the reflector in front of the light source, the projection lens including an aspherical convex lens that focuses light from the reflector and that irradiates the light frontward. A shutter can be disposed in the vicinity of the second focal position of the reflector, the shutter forming a cutoff for low light distribution. The shutter can be thickly formed so that it is positioned in front of the focal position of the projection lens, and the shutter can be slanted at an end edge that forms the cutoff so that the shutter becomes lower towards the projection lens in relation to the optical axis direction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 20, 2004
    Date of Patent: July 17, 2007
    Assignee: Stanley Electric Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Teruo Koike, Ken Kagaya, Yoshiaki Akiyama, Masanari Tsukada
  • Patent number: 7244569
    Abstract: A plasmid isolatable from Corynebacterium thermoaminogenes, which comprises a gene coding for a Rep protein having the amino acid sequence shown in SEQ ID NO: 8 or an amino acid sequence having homology of 90% or more to the amino acid sequence shown in SEQ ID NO: 8, and has a size of about 4.4 kb or about 6 kb, or a derivative thereof.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 27, 2004
    Date of Patent: July 17, 2007
    Assignee: Ajinomoto Co., Inc.
    Inventors: Yumi Matsuzaki, Eiichiro Kimura, Tsuyoshi Nakamatsu, Osamu Kurahashi, Yoshio Kawahara, Shinichi Sugimoto
  • Patent number: 7241138
    Abstract: In a burner (1) having an interior space (22) surrounded by at least one shell (8, 9) in which burner (1) fuel is injected through fuel nozzles (6) arranged at the burner shells (8, 9) into a combustion air stream (23) flowing within the interior space (22), the fuel/air mix which is formed flows to a flame front (3) in a combustion chamber (2) within a delay time (?), where it is ignited, the formation of combustion-driven thermoacoustic oscillations is avoided by virtue of the fact that means (24), which allow fuel to be injected into the combustion air stream (23) via at least two fuel injection holes (25) distributed over the length of the means (24) are arranged so as to project from the burner base (27) into the interior space (22) substantially in the direction of the combustion chamber (2), so that the delay time (?) between injection of the fuel and its combustion at the flame front (3) corresponds to a distribution (12) which avoids combustion-driven oscillations in premix operation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 24, 2004
    Date of Patent: July 10, 2007
    Assignee: ALSTOM Technology Ltd.
    Inventors: Peter Flohr, Christian Oliver Paschereit
  • Patent number: 7242122
    Abstract: An electric motor has a dimensional arrangement of both the rotor and stator even at high level of torques that eliminates a flip-flop effect, which is typical for conventional step motors. Stator segments (3), on which coils (4) are placed, making up the poles of the motor, are compensated and are neutral from the point of view of forces FFe. The arrangement satisfies simultaneously a number of interrelationships including the number and design engineering arrangement of the permanent magnets of the rotor (2), the number and design engineering arrangement of the stator segments (3) made from soft magnetic material, the number of the motor phases, and the number and position of stator coils (4) that make up the poles of the motor installed on every segment (3) depending on the number of motor phases.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 14, 2006
    Date of Patent: July 10, 2007
    Inventor: Ing Václav Konfrst
  • Patent number: 7240673
    Abstract: A flange (1) for optical flame observation in a gas turbine includes at least one bore for optical observation, in which bore there is arranged at least one pane (9, 10) for separating the flame-side space, which is in substantially direct communication with a combustion chamber in which the at least one flame that is to be monitored is arranged, from the outside space, from which the observation of the at least one flame can take place. In a flange (1) of this type, fogging of the at least one pane (9, 10) is made possible in a simple manner which can be guaranteed over a prolonged period of time by virtue of the fact that two panes (9, 10), which delimit a sealed intermediate space (22) in the bore for optical observation, are arranged one behind the other with respect to the optical axis (8), and that a device (24) for dehumidifying the sealed intermediate space (22) is includes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 29, 2004
    Date of Patent: July 10, 2007
    Assignee: ALSTOM Technology Ltd.
    Inventors: Michael Class, Marcus Gall
  • Patent number: 7237385
    Abstract: A combustion chamber 10 for a gas turbine that operates in a highly diluted mode of combustion has a substantially toroidal plenum 30. At least one combustion fluid injector is located at the periphery of the plenum. The shape of the plenum and the disposition of the combustion fuel injectors are such that a vortex flow 2 is established in the combustion chamber in use. Gasses are entrained in the vortex which provides high enough levels of flue gas re-circulation to allow for the onset of highly diluted combustion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 30, 2006
    Date of Patent: July 3, 2007
    Assignee: ALSTOM Technology Ltd.
    Inventor: Elisabetta Carrea
  • Patent number: 7235223
    Abstract: In a method for operating a flue gas purification plant (10) including a plurality of parallel of absorber chambers (11), in which in each absorber chamber (11), CO and NO are simultaneously oxidized by a catalyst in a first absorber (15) according to the SCONOx principle and the resulting NO2 is absorbed on the catalyst surface, in which SO2 is furthermore oxidized by a catalyst in a second absorber (14) upstream of the first absorber (15) according to the SCOSOx principle and the resulting SO3 is absorbed on the catalyst surface. The absorber chambers (11) are successively regenerated by a regeneration gas containing hydrogen and/or hydrogen compounds in regularly repeating regeneration cycles affecting all the absorber chambers (11). In order to improve reliability and reduce operating costs in such a method, the regeneration time of the second absorber (14) within the regeneration cycle is respectively selected to be long enough to guarantee sufficient regeneration of the second absorber (14).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 12, 2003
    Date of Patent: June 26, 2007
    Assignee: Alstom Technology Ltd.
    Inventor: Gisbert Wolfgang Käfer
  • Patent number: 7232247
    Abstract: A vehicle lamp can include a plurality of light source modules each having an LED as a light source, and optical systems for distributing light from each of the light source modules frontward toward predetermined areas or predetermined patterns that are different from each other and which make up a light distribution pattern. Each of the optical systems can be optimized to emit light to a predetermined area, and each of the light source modules' LEDs can be optimally arranged for each of the corresponding optical systems.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 21, 2005
    Date of Patent: June 19, 2007
    Assignee: Stanley Electric Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Yasushi Yatsuda, Teruo Koike, Takuya Kushimoto, Takashi Futami, Ryotaro Owada
  • Patent number: 7231713
    Abstract: A method of reconditioning a rotating blade (1) with a shroud (8) following the operation in a gas turbine, includes the application of a barrier (14) placed on the edge of the shroud (8) facing the edge of a shroud (8) of an adjacent blade having creep deformation. The barrier (14) prevents hot gas ingestion into a shroud cavity (10). It is pre-fabricated or built-up layer-by-layer by welding or laser cladding or other methods. Additionally, the mass of the shroud (8) is reduced in order to re-establish the initial mass of the shroud. A thermal barrier coating (15) is additionally applied to the surfaces of the shroud (8) that are exposed to the hot gas of the turbine. The method significantly increases the lifetime of the blade (1).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 16, 2004
    Date of Patent: June 19, 2007
    Assignee: ALSTOM Technology Ltd.
    Inventors: Andreas Boegli, James George Ritchie, Slawomir Slowik, Heinrich Stuessi
  • Patent number: 7232308
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a method and a device (1) for affecting thermoacoustic oscillations in a combustion system (6) comprising at least one burner (7) and at least one combustor (8). In order to improve the action of affecting the thermoacoustic oscillations, a gas flow forming in the e region of the burner (7) is excited acoustically, modulated injection of fuel is carried out, the acoustic excitation of the gas flow and the modulated injection of the fuel are coordinated in order to affect the same interference frequency.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 3, 2003
    Date of Patent: June 19, 2007
    Assignee: ALSTOM Technology Ltd.
    Inventors: Ephraim Gutmark, Christian Oliver Paschereit
  • Patent number: 7223572
    Abstract: An L-amino acid is produced by culturing a Methylophilus bacterium which can grow by using methanol as a main carbon source and has L-amino acid-producing ability, for example, a Methylophilus bacterium in which dihydrodipicolinate synthase activity and aspartokinase activity are enhanced by transformation through introduction into cells, of a DNA coding for dihydrodipicolinate synthase that does not suffer feedback inhibition by L-lysine and a DNA coding for aspartokinase that does not suffer feedback inhibition by L-lysine, or a Methylophilus bacterium made to be casamino acid auxotrophic, in a medium containing methanol as a main carbon source, to produce and accumulate an L-amino acid in culture, and collecting the L-amino acid from the culture.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 7, 2000
    Date of Patent: May 29, 2007
    Assignee: Ajinomoto Co., Inc.
    Inventors: Yoshiya Gunji, Hisashi Yasueda, Shinichi Sugimoto, Nobuharu Tsujimoto, Megumi Shimaoka, Yuri Miyata, Manami Oba
  • Patent number: 7220099
    Abstract: A sealing arrangement for a rotor of a turbomachine includes a blade (2), a heat shield (3, 4) and a sealing element (5, 6) for sealing between the blade (2) and the heat shield (3, 4) when the blade (2), heat shield (3, 4) and sealing element (5, 6) are assembled for use in the rotor. The heat shield (3, 4) includes a first slot (7, 8) for accommodating a first member (11, 12) of the sealing element (5, 6), and a root portion of the blade (2) includes a second and third slot (9, 10) for accommodating a second member (13, 14) of the sealing element (5, 6). The first slot (7, 8) extends in a direction which is substantially mutually perpendicular to a direction in which the second and third slot (9) extends, and the first member (11, 12) extends in a direction which is substantially mutually perpendicular to a direction in which the second member (13, 14) extends.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 13, 2004
    Date of Patent: May 22, 2007
    Assignee: ALSTOM Technology Ltd.
    Inventors: Igor A. Bekrenev, Arkadi Fokine, Frank Hummel, Igor Ossipov, Sergey Trifonov
  • Patent number: 7221003
    Abstract: A light-emitting device can include a blue LED chip that is covered in a sealing resin composed of a filling resin mixed with a wavelength conversion material, such as a yellow fluorescent material. Light from the blue LED chip is mixed with a light from the yellow fluorescent material to obtain white light emission having a mixed color. The sealing resin has a light emission surface, which can be symmetrical about the normal line passing through the center of the blue LED chip. An optical multi-layered film including layered high- and low-refractive index films can be provided on the light emission surface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 16, 2006
    Date of Patent: May 22, 2007
    Assignee: Stanley Electric Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Kazuhiko Ueno, Hiroshi Kotani
  • Patent number: 7220570
    Abstract: The present invention provides polypeptides and polynucleotides involved in amino acid biosynthesis in Methylophilus methylotrophus and methods of producing amino acids in microorganisms having enhanced or attenuated expression of these polypeptides and/or polynucleotides.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 22, 2005
    Date of Patent: May 22, 2007
    Assignee: Ajinomoto Co., Inc.
    Inventors: Yoshihiro Usuda, Yousuke Nishio, Hisashi Yasueda, Shinichi Sugimoto
  • Patent number: 7216486
    Abstract: Relevant fuel-gas properties (XG) are measured on an ongoing basis while a gas turbine group is operating. The C2+alkane content of the fuel gas is of particular interest in this context, since it has a significant influence on the ignitability of the fuel gas in the combustion chamber. The operating parameters of the gas turbine group are acted on directly as a function of the measured fuel-gas properties. In particular, in the case of the example of a gas turbine group with sequential combustion, the distribution of the fuel mass flows ({dot over (m)}EV, {dot over (m)}SEV) between the combustion chambers (4, 8) of the gas turbine group is varied. Furthermore, if there is provision for inert media, such as water or steam, to be introduced, it is possible for the mass flow of inert media ({dot over (m)}ST) to be controlled as a function of the measured fuel properties.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 20, 2004
    Date of Patent: May 15, 2007
    Assignee: ALSTOM Technology Ltd.
    Inventors: Klaus Doebbeling, Ken-Yves Haffner, Rolf Rüetschi, Hanspeter Zinn
  • Patent number: 7217543
    Abstract: The present invention describes a method for producing an L-amino acid comprising culturing a microorganism having an ability to produce an L-amino acid in a medium, whereby the L-amino acid accumulates in the medium, and collecting the L-amino acid from the medium, whereby said microorganism comprises a methanol-utilizing bacterium having the Entner-Doudoroff pathway in which 6-phosphogluconate dehydratase activity and/or 2-keto-3-deoxy-6-phosphogluconate aldolase activity is enhanced.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 20, 2003
    Date of Patent: May 15, 2007
    Assignee: Ajinomoto Co., Inc.
    Inventors: Yoshiya Gunji, Hisashi Yasueda
  • Patent number: 7217101
    Abstract: A rotor blade for a gas turbine engine includes a blade root (3) and an aerofoil projecting therefrom, the aerofoil having a leading edge and a trailing edge (5), a generally concave pressure surface (2) and a generally convex suction surface (1). The aerofoil shape of the blade varies in section along the length thereof such that: the chord-wise convex curvature of the rear suction surface decreases towards the tip (4) of the blade; the convex curvature of the early to mid suction surface increases towards the tip; the stagger of the aerofoil section increases towards the tip; and the trailing edge (5) is a straight line.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 14, 2004
    Date of Patent: May 15, 2007
    Assignee: ALSTOM Technology Ltd.
    Inventor: Neil Wiliam Harvey