Patents Represented by Law Firm Oliff & Berridge, PL
  • Patent number: 6660472
    Abstract: The invention concerns a lysis method for a biological sample comprising at least one micro-organism of the bacteria type, for releasing a nucleic material of interest belonging to said micro-organism, which consists in: providing in a container a biological sample in liquid medium; providing in said container at least one particulate material, relatively hard, and substantially inert with respect to the nucleic material; submitting the biological sample and particulate material mixture to a movement. The invention is characterised in that in combination, the selected movement is of the vortex type, and satisfies the following conditions: the particulate material consists of beads with diameter between 90 and 150 &mgr;m; and the apparent volume of the beads (Vb) and the volume of the liquid sample (Ve) are linked by the relationship Ve=&agr;. Vb, with &agr; ranging between 1.4 and 10 when the container is tubular in shape, and &agr; is not more than 2.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 17, 2000
    Date of Patent: December 9, 2003
    Assignees: Bio Merieux, Gen-Probe Incorporated
    Inventors: Lise Santoro, Sophie Lopez, Bruno Colin, Corinne Jay, Cécile Paris, Kathleen Ann Clark Dickey
  • Patent number: 6081042
    Abstract: A hybrid drive system for a motor vehicle, wherein a controllable device such as an automatic transmission or a center differential device is disposed between drive wheels of the vehicle and a drive power source consisting of an engine operated by combustion of a fuel, and an electric motor operated with an electric energy, and the engine and/or the electric motor is/are operated for driving the motor vehicle in different running modes. The controllable device is controlled by a control device on the basis of an input torque received by the controllable device. The control device is adapted to estimate the input torque of depending upon a currently selected one of the running modes, or effect learning control of the controllable device in different manners corresponding to the different running modes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 20, 1997
    Date of Patent: June 27, 2000
    Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Atsushi Tabata, Yutaka Taga, Ryuji Ibaraki, Tsuyoshi Mikami, Hiroshi Hata