A powertrain includes an engine operatively connected to a primary power consuming device to transmit power thereto. The powertrain also includes a motor and a pump. The power output of the motor is independent of the power output of the engine. An epicyclic geartrain includes first, second and third members. The first member is operatively connected to the engine to receive power therefrom. The second member is operatively connected to the motor to receive power therefrom. The third member is operatively connected to the pump to transmit power thereto.

A typical powertrain includes an engine and several pumps, including an engine oil pump, a cooling fan, a transmission pump, a coolant pump, and various compressors. The rotors of the pumps are typically driven by the engine crankshaft, and therefore the rotational speed of the rotors, and the power delivered to the pumps, are dependent on the speed of the crankshaft. However, the speed of the crankshaft is dictated by the requirements of a primary power consuming device, such as a vehicle drivetrain or electrical generator, and not the requirements of the pumps.
Accordingly, some pumps must be sized to achieve maximum required pressure or fluid flow at low crankshaft speeds; therefore, the pumps may produce more pressure or fluid flow than is actually required by the powertrain when the crankshaft rotates at higher speeds. When producing more pressure or fluid flow than is actually necessary or desired, the pumps use more power from the crankshaft than is actually necessary, thereby reducing the efficiency of the powertrain.
For example, maximum required oil flow occurs when an engine operates at peak torque output. Peak torque output may occur at a crankshaft speed that is less than a typical operating crankshaft speed range. Thus, the oil pump must be sized to achieve the maximum required oil flow at a crankshaft speed that is lower than the typical engine operating speed range; when the engine is operated within the typical operating crankshaft speed range, the oil pump produces more oil flow than is required, and a pressure bypass valve diverts excess pump flow, resulting in unnecessary pump power usage and parasitic energy loss from the powertrain.
Similarly, the amount of fluid flow required to be produced by a pump, and accordingly the amount of power required by the pump, may vary significantly with various powertrain operating parameters and conditions. However, because the speed of the pump rotor, and accordingly the power used by the pump, is controlled by the speed of the crankshaft, the pump must be sized to produce the maximum flow rate that may be required at any given crankshaft speed.
For example, an engine cooling fan is typically driven by the crankshaft. Although the amount of air flow required by the powertrain may vary significantly with vehicle speed, ambient atmospheric temperature, etc., the fan must be sized to produce the maximum amount of air flow that may be required at any given engine speed. Accordingly, the fan may generate more air flow than conditions require, and therefore may use more power from the crankshaft than conditions require.
Similarly, a transmission pump is typically driven by a crankshaft and provides pressurized fluid to lubricate and cool the transmission parts, and to actuate torque transmitting devices such as clutches and brakes to effectuate speed ratio changes. However, the amount of fluid flow and pressure to the transmission may vary depending on speed ratio shift activity, engine speed, engine load, etc. Accordingly, the transmission pump may generate more fluid flow and pressure than conditions require; excess fluid from the pump is typically exhausted to a reservoir.
Various prior art mechanisms attempt to overcome the shortcomings inherent in having pump speed directly determined by crankshaft speed. In hybrid vehicles driven by an engine and a motor, a mode of operation is possible in which the engine is off and the vehicle is driven solely by the motor. The prior art includes powertrains with two pumps, one being driven by the crankshaft of the engine, and another being driven by the rotor of the motor when the engine is off. However, having two pumps results in additional mass, cost, and mechanical complexity. Moreover, the motor in such hybrid vehicles also drives the vehicle, and, therefore, the speed of the motor-driven pump may be dictated by the requirements of the vehicle drivetrain and not by the pump, which results in the same inefficiencies noted above pertaining to crankshaft-driven pumps.
Some prior art powertrains, such as the one disclosed by Moses et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 6,964,631, include a motor that drives a pump via a freewheel clutch only when the speed of a motor-driven element exceeds the speed of a crankshaft-driven element. Accordingly, when the engine is off, the motor can drive the pump.
The prior art also includes pump systems, such as the one disclosed by Kopko in U.S. Pat. No. 5,947,854, in which a primary motor and an auxiliary motor are connected to a pump via an epicyclic gearing system. The primary motor is operated at a constant speed, and the auxiliary motor is driven at variable speeds to control the speed of the pump rotor. However, the speed of the primary motor is constant, and both the primary and auxiliary motors drive only the pump. Accordingly, the pump system of Kopko is not applicable to typical powertrains in which the speed of the engine is variable and is dictated not by the pump, but by another power consuming device.
In U.S. Pat. No. 2,505,713, Lucia discloses a supercharger compressor that is connected to an engine crankshaft via epicyclic gearing to be driven thereby. An exhaust driven turbine is selectively connectable to the epicyclic gearing via a freewheel clutch when the turbine speed exceeds the speed of a crankshaft-driven member. However, the speed of the turbine is dependent upon the speed of the crankshaft (the amount of exhaust driving the turbine is related to engine speed and engine load), and therefore the turbine's efficacy in providing power to the supercharger is directly related to crankshaft speed.
Dougan et al. disclose, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,695,589 a transmission pump that is driven by an electric motor. However, the motor must be of sufficient size to power the pump by itself, which may increase the mass of the powertrain and require additional packaging space. Moreover, driving the pump solely by the electric motor introduces inefficiencies since, assuming that the power source for the electric motor, such as a battery, is charged by the engine, energy losses are incurred when rotary power from the crankshaft is converted to chemical energy in the battery, and when the chemical energy is converted to electrical energy for the motor, and again when the electrical energy is converted to rotary power in the motor.
The present disclosure is directed to one or more of the problems set forth above.

Powertrain with powersplit pump input and method of use thereof


Provided is an organic light emitting device comprising: a substrate; and a plurality of sub-pixels, each sub-pixel comprising a thin film transistor formed on the substrate; a planarization layer formed on the thin film transistor, and having a contact hole exposing a portion of a source electrode or a drain electrode of the thin film transistor; a contact electrode formed on the planarization layer, and electrically connected with the source electrode or the drain electrode of the thin film transistor through the contact hole; a first electrode spaced apart from the contact electrode, the first electrode formed on the planarization layer; an insulating layer formed on the first electrode and the contact electrode, the insulating layer comprising a first opening exposing a portion of the first electrode and a second opening exposing a portion of the contact electrode; a light emitting layer formed in the first opening; a second electrode formed on the light emitting layer and electrically connected with a portion of the contact electrode through the second opening.

1. Field
The present invention relates to an organic light emitting device and a method for manufacturing the same.
2. Description of the Background Art
Organic Light emitting device (OLED) refers to a device for injecting electrons and holes from an electron injection cathode and a hole injection anode into a light emitting layer, respectively, and emitting light when excitons, which are combinations of the injected electrons and holes, are transited from an excited state to a ground state.
The organic light emitting device is classified into a Passive Matrix Organic Light emitting device (PMOLED) and an Active Matrix Organic Light emitting device (AMOLED) depending on its driving method. A thin film transistor for driving the active matrix organic light emitting device is classified into several kinds depending on its forming method and material, such as amorphous silicon (a-Si) and polycrystalline silicon (p-Si, Low Temperature polycrystalline Silicon: LTPS).
The active matrix organic light emitting device using a polycrystalline silicon thin film transistor has a disadvantage that its cost competence is very low compared with the a-Si.
The active matrix organic light emitting device using an amorphous silicon thin film transistor has an excellent cost competence compared with the p-Si, but has a disadvantage that a cathode should connect with a source or drain electrode and an organic light emitting diode should be inversely formed since the active matrix organic light emitting device is of a source type.
A drawback of the conventional organic light emitting device will be described with reference to FIGS. 1A and 1B.
FIG. 1A is a cross-sectional view illustrating conventional organic light emitting device. FIG. 1B is a cross-sectional view illustrating organic layer of conventional organic light emitting device of FIG. 1A.
As shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B, in the conventional organic light emitting device 100, a thin film transistor 130 and a light emitting diode 140 are formed on a substrate 110. A passivation layer 160 is formed and covers the thin film transistor 130 and the light emitting diode 140. A cover substrate 120 is provided and protects a device formed on the substrate 110. The substrate 110 and the cover substrate 120 are sealed using sealant 170. When the organic light emitting device 100 is a top emission type, the cover substrate 120 is formed of transparent glass.
In detail, a gate electrode 131 is formed on the substrate 110 and a gate insulating layer 132 is formed on the substrate 110 comprising the gate electrode 131. An active layer 133 is formed of amorphous silicon on the gate insulating layer 132. Ohmic contact layers 134 are formed on both sides of the active layer 133. A source 135 and a drain 136 are formed on the ohmic contact layers 134, thereby constituting the thin film transistor 130.
A planarization layer 150 is formed on the thin film transistor 130 so that a light emitting diode 140 can be formed uniformly over the thin film transistor 130. The planarization layer 150 has a contact hole for electrically connecting the underlying thin film transistor 130 with light emitting diode 140. A cathode 141 is formed on the planarization layer 150, and connected with the drain 136 of the thin film transistor 130 through the contact hole.
An Organic layer 143 is formed on the cathode 141, and an anode 144 is formed on the organic layer 143, thereby constituting the light emitting diode 140. The light emitting diode 140 emits light by driving the thin film transistor 130. As shown in FIG. 1B, the organic layer 143 comprises an emission layer (EML) 143c formed of an organic material and further comprises a hole injection layer (HIL) 143e and/or a hole transport layer (HTL) 143d between the emission layer 143c and the anode 144, an electron transport layer (ETL) 143b and/or an electron injection layer 143a (EIL) between the emission Layer 143c and the cathode 141. The organic layer 143 is formed on a portion of the cathode 141 exposed by the insulating layer 142.
In the above organic light emitting device 100, the light emitting diodes 140 should be all formed inversely (generally, in case of inverted top type) because the thin film transistor 130 comprises amorphous silicon layer. In general, the cathode 141 is formed of aluminum (Al). It is difficult to apply the aluminum (Al) to a device because oxide is generated when the cathode 141 is patterned by photolithography process or deposited under atmosphere.
Therefore, in an alternative manner, after forming a metal layer for the cathode 141 under vacuum, the organic layer 143 is formed on the metal layer for cathode 141 under vacuum and directly, and the cathode 141 is formed by the pattering the metal layer. Then, there occurs a drawback that it is impossible to form the cathode pattern.
In addition, in case of inverted top type OLED, the anode 144 is formed using a thin metal layer or a conductive material (Indium Tin Oxide: ITO). In this case, there occurs a drawback that the organic layer 143 of the light emitting diode 140 is damaged when the anode 144 is formed by sputtering using conductive material.


Techniques and systems are described hereafter for reducing medical non-adherence by (1) developing the adherence-profile of a member, (2) using the profile to automatically generate a set of interventions, (3) categorizing, prioritizing and selecting the interventions, (4) incorporating the selected interventions into a personalized member user interface page, (5) serving the selected interventions to the member at the appropriate times via multiple channels, (6) observing and measuring member responses, (7) recording member responses in a database and analyzing the responses, (8) adapting the interventions, based on the analysis, to keep the member actively engaged, (9) escalating the interventions if the member response is inadequate, (10) updating the member's adherence profile based on analysis of the database, (11) providing member reports to authorized parties for purposes of paying member incentives, predicting member's utilization of high-cost healthcare services, etc., and (12) providing aggregate de-identified reports for purposes of predicting future risk reserve set asides, drug production and supply chain replenishment requirements.

Based on age, gender, genetic background, lifestyle and other health risk factors, people generally have health problems and chronic illnesses at different points in their lives. Some of the risk factors are modifiable. By intervening appropriately to reduce the modifiable risk factors, we can improve overall health outcomes, delay or even prevent the onset of diseases, and thus reduce healthcare expenses. The reduction in healthcare expenses represents savings for organizations that pay for the healthcare services.
According to this invention, the key to reducing health risks is improving medical adherence (defined above). Since treating diseases in their early stages is much more effective and cheaper, proper screenings can reduce costs by detecting emergent diseases before they become overt problems. For people who have not been diagnosed with any disease, but may be at risk, the objective is to keep them healthy by improving their participation in wellness and prevention programs. These programs delay or even prevent the onset of chronic diseases. Once diseases have taken root, however, wellness and prevention are not enough; medications or treatments become necessary to keep diseases under control. Thus, for people who have been diagnosed with disease(s), the objective is to retard or prevent the natural progression of the disease(s) by improving their medication or treatment adherence, in addition to improving their participation in wellness and prevention programs.
Medication adherence is characterized in terms of what the patient does after receiving a prescription from the doctor or nurse. Studies show that around 14 percent do not even fill the prescription at a pharmacy, and overall medication adherence is only around 50 percent. Medication non-adherence takes place in various modes: missed drug, wrong drug, missed dose, wrong dose, or wrong time. Any of these modes would make the drug-taking different from the controlled conditions of the clinical trial under which the drug's efficacy has been established. Thus the patient, taking the drugs in these non-adherence modes would not experience the expected health outcomes to the same level of effectiveness.
There are several reasons why medication adherence is so low. According to a detailed study of non-compliance, patients: (1) forget, (2) cannot get prescriptions filled or delivered, (3) do not want the side effects, (4) cannot afford the drug, (5) do not think they need the drug, or (6) do not know how to use the drug. Other cited reasons include personal feelings or beliefs, such as: (1) "I don't have symptoms", (2) "I feel fine", (3) "I am not convinced I need the drug or of the drug's benefit", (4) "It can't happen to me", (5) "I am afraid to take the drug because of adverse effects", (6) "the side effects are too uncomfortable", (7) "I can't remember to take the drug", (8) "The drug is too expensive", (9) "I think my health problem has been fixed"—and discontinue drugs as soon as they feel better, or (10) "If more is better, let me increase the dosage to speed up the cure".
Current interventions predominantly address a particular singular reason for non-adherence. For example, there are several 'reminder' services that automatically send a voice or SMS message to the individual's cell phone at the appropriate times of day to remind him or her to take their medicine. This is very useful for individuals who tend to forget, but only an irritant for those who are quite regular and don't forget. Another example is the suspension, by health plans, of co-pay or co-insurance for drugs that are used to control certain diseases, such as diabetes, in an effort to get individuals to at least fill their prescriptions (the hope is that they will later take the medicines as prescribed). This may help diabetics who are currently not filling their prescriptions because of cost considerations, but it may not be necessary for diabetics who can afford the copays and were going to fill their prescriptions anyway. Further, this only removes the cost barrier for diabetics to fill their prescriptions. It does not necessarily influence or enable them to take them as prescribed, at the right times and dosage strengths. In addition, there is no feedback loop to confirm that individuals are indeed taking the drugs as prescribed. A combination of the above two interventions might be quite effective for diabetics who not only have financial constraints that keep them from filling their prescriptions, but also tend to be forgetful. Thus, even with two potential interventions, we can see that the effective applicability can be quickly narrowed down to a small subset of individuals.
In general, there are hundreds of potential interventions and each intervention only works for a small segment of the population, at a particular time, so any single intervention will only have a small impact on overall adherence. This invention seeks to overcome this drawback by first selecting appropriate interventions based on the individual's needs and preferences, then personalizing the interventions, and further adapting the interventions as the individual's needs change. An individual's needs change with the natural (uncontrolled) progression of medical conditions over time, starting with a 'healthy, but at-risk' phase towards an 'early signs or symptoms' phase, followed by a 'diagnosis' phase, and, if diagnosed, a subsequent 'treatment and follow-up' phase. If left uncontrolled, some medical conditions may progress towards complications, disabilities and even death. At each phase, the individual needs to act in different ways.
There are yet other reasons for poor adherence, and these are very specific to individual patients. In terms of the 'State of Health', the reasons for non-adherence are different depending on the disease, whether it is hypertension, high cholesterol, depression, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and so on. In terms of the 'Health Beliefs', adherence depends a lot on the patient's perceived susceptibility, severity, barriers, benefits, cues to action, trust in doctors, trust in medicines, and so on. In terms of behavioral 'Stage of Change', much depends on whether patients acknowledge their health issues or are in denial; specifically on whether they are in 'Pre-contemplation', 'Contemplation', 'Decision', 'Action', or 'Maintenance' stages. Following a diagnosis, patients may go through the stages of 'Denial', 'Anger', 'Bargaining' and 'Depression' before finally 'Accepting' that they have the diagnosed condition and that they need to actively seek and adhere to proper medical treatment.
Demographics also play a key role; age, gender, race, income, family size, family arrangements, education, and so on have an impact on the level of adherence. Personal factors, such as caregiver availability, type of job, hobbies, travel patterns, daily commute, personality type, inertia level, desire for secrecy and peer influences, enter into the picture as well.
These reasons are not only very specific to individuals, but they also vary over time for the same individual, since at any particular time, the individual is subject to various situational factors. These factors interact with the individual's current behavioral state and health beliefs, and produce a current level of receptivity to specific types of influences and information. Given this, merely transmitting pre-planned messages, even if they are somewhat personalized, has a reduced chance of being received and acted upon by the subject individual. If the individual does not consider the message or content to be relevant or of value, he or she may simply ignore it, or worse, tend to ignore subsequent messages from the same source—this is all well-known. It is also well known that individuals' receptivity and response to interventions improves when the number of interventions at any time is small. Faced with a large list of 'things to do', over long periods of time, as is the case with many web sites or services that deal with specific medical conditions, individuals find it difficult to decide which action to perform at any time, and end up procrastinating or doing things that are easier but not necessarily effective. The chances of getting the individual to act effectively are much higher if he only has to perform a few actions, over the course of a given day. Accordingly, in order to maximize the chances of being received and acted upon, a main goal of this invention is to provide timely interventions that are highly personalized, relevant and matched to each individual's current medical and behavioral stage, and also organized by daily, weekly, monthly, or other user-specified time windows, in an effort to present the smallest number of the most actionable interventions at any particular time.
Effecting change in behavior, such as going for health screenings, participating in wellness activities or medicine-taking, requires a consistent set of messages to get through to the subject individual for a certain length of time, at a frequency that keeps the messages from being forgotten. Studies on memory formation and forgetting are useful in setting the intervention frequency, and the often-cited cybernetic view that it takes three to four weeks for a new habit to develop is also useful in setting the duration of interventions. Thus not only do the interventions (that convey the messages) have to be highly personalized, relevant and matched to the current medical and behavioral stages, they must also be provided at a frequency that maximizes the likelihood of being received and not ignored. If the interventions are too frequent, the individual may turn them off, considering them a nuisance. On the other hand, interventions that are too infrequent have limited or no effect in changing the behavior. Interventions must provide some value to the individual, such as imparting interesting information, pointing them to useful hints and tips, and so on. Also, the content must be fresh and engaging—the same content repeated multiple times loses the effect. Accordingly, another goal of this invention is to select the interventions such that relevant, but possibly different, content is provided at different times. Yet another goal is to match the frequency of the interventions to the individual's preferences at a particular time.
Personalization of interventions based on static knowledge about the individual is a good starting point, but the impact is rapidly lost if the personalization is not refreshed based on the individual's response. Continuing to send interventions similar to those that have been ignored or dismissed by the individual serves no useful purpose and may even alienate the individual. On the other hand, avoiding these interventions can help. Modeling future interventions around those to which the individual has responded positively, is more likely to sustain the interest and level of engagement of the individual. Accordingly, a goal of this invention is to seek individual responses to interventions, in terms of usefulness, relevance, value etc., and to use these responses to model and adapt further interventions.
Existing approaches to improve adherence in general do not concern themselves with what happens after the patient fills the prescription; in other words, adherence equals 'possession'. However, what matters to good health outcomes is not whether the patient fills the prescription, but whether the patient actually takes the medication as prescribed. Accordingly, this invention seeks to improve adherence in terms of how well the patient follows the prescription, i.e., whether the right drug was taken at the right time, at the right dosage, and whether all the prescribed drugs were taken.
Some approaches provide interventions in the form of a one-time plan generated on the basis of static information about the patient. The patient is required to perform the activities in the plan, and there are periodic (e.g. quarterly) follow-ups. Issues of cost due to the reliance on physical mailings or expensive nurse labor may dictate this infrequent follow up. It is known that interactive and frequent interventions work better, so while these approaches are getting some results, much better results are possible with more frequent and personalized follow up. This invention, as mentioned previously, seeks to provide interventions frequently enough to change behavior, but limits the frequency to individual patient preferences in order to minimize the chances of being ignored.
Another drawback is that currently available interventions are not frequent or granular enough to enable individuals to take specific and timely actions. They periodically advise individuals by means of a list of various activities they need to perform, but do not provide an adequate framework for decision-making ('decision support') or action-planning ('action support'). The individual has to separately research each item on the list in order to decide on which activities to perform and within what timeframe, and then has to break the activities down to actionable tasks to perform the selected activities. For example, if the activity is to 'get a cholesterol screening', the actionable tasks may be: (a) making an appointment, (b) fasting before the appointment, (c) going for the appointment, (d) obtaining the screening results, etc. It is typically up to the individual to break each activity into such actionable tasks and remain vigilant in order to make sure that the tasks are being performed in a timely manner. All this imposes a large burden, especially for working individuals whose busy schedules leave little room for this sort of vigilance and perseverance; as a result, they frequently fail to perform their required health-related tasks. In other words, individuals are expected to remember and take a number of health related actions on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual basis, but with very little by way of day-to-day support. One of the aspects of this invention is that it provides the necessary day-to-day 'hand-holding' support that enables individuals to perform the required health related tasks in a timely manner.
Individuals with multiple chronic medical conditions or susceptibilities are required to perform a number of regularly scheduled health-related actions on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly or annual basis in order to keep their conditions under control. They interact with medical professionals for a very small fraction of the time, during which they are instructed about these actions, but are pretty much 'on their own' for the majority of the time during which they have to take these actions. Typically, individuals cannot recall much of the instructions even after a day or two, so it is very difficult to remember them on a long-term basis. There is a need for a way to help individuals find out what actions they should be taking, to help them decide which actions to take immediately ('decision support') and to assist them in actually performing these actions ('action support') on a day-to-day basis. There is a need for far greater granularity in identifying the actions than is provided by existing interventions. This invention provides a health action calendar on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually or individually specified periodic basis, in order to inform the individual about various actions in different timeframes. Further, this invention provides detailed information, relevant to each action, in order to assist the individual to 'learn more', understand 'why do it' and see instructions on 'how to do it', as well as 'what to ask the doctor', and so on, in an attempt to help individuals make decisions about performing specific actions. Information about relevant products and services may also be provided, all in the same user interface.
Such detailed information in the categories of 'learn more, or 'how to do it' etc., are provided on many web sites, using clickable links to the information—these links are typically static urls that can be deleted or changed or otherwise become inaccessible over time because they are maintained by third parties. This requires continued investment, in the form of constant vigilance and maintenance of these links. The present invention is novel in the way in which the detailed information is displayed—links to detailed information are dynamically retrieved, created and presented to the individual, in real time. This is done using pre-configured search words associated with the specific action and information category. The search words are passed to free web search engines (e.g. Google, Yahoo, etc.), and the search engines return the search results, or dynamic links, which are summarized and displayed in the user interface. Upon clicking on any of the dynamic links, the system opens a browser window and displays the detailed information. Thus there is no need for any investment in maintaining any links since the relevant and up to date detailed information is retrieved from the web upon clicking on any of the dynamic links. Links to 'certified' or 'trusted' or 'custom' content can also be provided in a similar manner.
Yet another drawback of existing approaches is that the emphasis is on 'telling' the patient what to do, but not sufficiently 'motivating' the patient to take charge of their own health. 'Telling', especially in strong terms indeed has an impact on adherence, but it disappears soon after the intervention is removed. Change in behavior resulting from being motivated has a sounder basis and thus has a better chance of maintaining itself as circumstances change. Accordingly, another goal of this invention is to first understand the 'stage of change' of an individual in terms of target health behaviors (such as medicine-taking or going for health screenings or participating in weight-loss or smoking-cessation programs), then construct a personalized intervention plan. Individuals progress serially through the stages of: (a) pre-contemplation, when they are not even thinking about the target action, to (b) contemplation, when they have begun to consider the target action, to (c) decision, when they are making a decision about taking the target action, to (d) action, when they are actually taking the target action, to (e) maintenance, when they are continuing to take the target action on a regular basis. At any stage, individuals can revert to a previous stage (such as in a relapse), and the progression is restarted from the reverted-to stage. As an example, if an individual is not even contemplating going for health screenings, he needs to be influenced to do so, using interventions with compelling content designed to increase his awareness of screenings, and his perception of susceptibility to disease because of age, gender, ethnicity, lifestyle, etc. The objective is to move the individual to the point of contemplating screenings; once this objective is achieved, a different set of interventions might serve to move the individual to the subsequent decision-making stage, and so on. Thus by using different sets of interventions targeted at different stages of change, the individual is moved forward (i.e. motivated) towards self-efficacy. Accordingly, a key objective of this invention is to progressively 'activate' the individual into taking specific health actions on a regular basis.
An individual may not respond sufficiently to interventions; when this happens, it is necessary to escalate the content in an attempt to increase the urgency or awareness of severity in an attempt to improve responsiveness. A different set of interventions, featuring content designed to increase his perception of seriousness, e.g., what can happen if he lets a condition to progress uncontrolled for too long, and so on. A good example of content in this regard is the TV commercial of a young man who has gone blind because he neglected getting screened for diabetes. Another goal of this invention is to provide a method by which interventions are escalated automatically, based on member response or non-response, through one or more levels. For example, a non-response to an intervention may initially be escalated, after a certain elapsed time, to an alternate contact; on continued non-response, it may be escalated to an authorized caregiver; on further continued non-response, an exception may be generated, and the physician, pharmacist or other authorized provider may be alerted so that proactive measures may be taken, such as a personal phone call for coaching or triage intervention.
Interventions that involve personalized, human-interactions with individuals have so far been the most successful of the different approaches in current use—nurses or other qualified persons contacting individuals by phone or email on a regular basis to ask questions about heath, symptoms, side effects, adverse effects and so on. Coupled with these questions is some motivational interviewing designed to improve medication or treatment adherence. Due to the high cost of nurse-labor, these interventions are reserved for the sickest patients who might otherwise end up in the emergency room or hospital, and are not made available to the moderately-ill or healthy population. Additionally, a very large number of nurses would be needed to handle the latter population, at a time when there is a significant national nursing shortage, which makes this type of labor-intensive interventions impractical—it is inherently non-scalable to large populations.
Existing approaches to improving health can be categorized into: (1) nurse-labor-intensive, highly personalized 'case management' interventions for the highest-risk patients, (2) marginally personalized mass-produced 'disease management' interventions for the lower-risk patients, and (3) voluntary, self-service 'wellness management' programs for the healthy population. The highly personalized interventions have been shown to work well, and will likely do so for the lower-risk and healthy populations in improving medical adherence. However, because of the dependence on skilled nurse labor, these interventions are both expensive and non-scalable for these populations.
There is thus a need for an approach that can: (1) provide deeply personalized and motivational decision support and action support, (2) frequent interventions at low cost, and (3) be scaled-up to service the demands of a large population of healthy and medium-risk patients. This approach would keep the medium-risk patients from deteriorating towards high-risk and the healthy population from deteriorating towards medium risk. The objectives of this invention are to address these needs. Doing so would significantly reduce the estimated $100 billion annual costs of treating medical problems due to non-adherence in the US alone. In addition, improving adherence would recapture some of the $30 billion worth of unfilled prescriptions every year, and thus increase pharmaceutical industry revenues. Accordingly, a key goal of this invention is to provide a deep level of personalization and adequate frequency in the interventions, but at greatly reduced cost, through automation. A further goal is to eliminate the barriers to scalability, also through automation using readily available personal devices such as cell phones, as opposed to distributing special purpose devices.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,642,731 monitors the disease process and health of a patient undergoing drug treatment by using a microprocessor embedded in a drug dispenser to record a variety of clinical information such as symptoms, side effects, adverse drug reactions and so on. It seeks to improve disease management by capturing the date and time of the dosage, analyzing the data and downloading instructions to alter patient behavior in taking medication. This invention mechanizes the recording of when patients are opening the medication containers to ostensibly take their medicines, as well as the recording of clinical information, so it addresses the need for recording actual adherence. However, it does not address the motivational issues around taking the medications—patients may take the medicine as long as this invention is present and stop thereafter, or they may go through the motions of opening the container but not actually ingest the medications. Further, they may not accurately enter all the information required.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,234,964 and 6,770,029 describe a system that performs disease management in a fully automated manner using periodic interactive dialogs with the patient to obtain health state measurements, to assess the patient's disease and adjust therapy, and to give the patient medical advice. They also describe features and a metric based on subjective and objective health measurements that are used to tailor disease management interventions to individual patients. The system builds a profile of the frequency and patient's reasons for using the system, understanding of the disease, response to various treatments and preferences. The system interacts with patients through regularly scheduled sessions. This invention automates the traditional approach to following up on patients with chronic diseases—gauging health status, risks, clinical results, etc. and developing therapy-oriented intervention plans.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,974,328 describes an adaptive interactive teaching system for the remote education that selects and provides lessons based on a patient's profile. The lessons offer the patient information reflecting the patient's health, and offers the patient's healthcare provider information regarding the patient's study of the lessons, the patient's health, and the patient's medical appointments.
US Patent Application 2002/0169635 (Shillingburg) uses a custom device for transmitting messages, whereas the present invention uses cell phones or PDAs or whatever devices the individual already possesses, and requires no distribution of special hardware. The custom device described in the above application also has storage compartments for dispensing medication at the proper time. Adherence is measured in the above application by means of recording the time of opening of the medication compartment. The technical act of measurement described in the above application provides little by way of motivational value, whereas the 'self-report' technique is inherently designed to motivate the individual to improve adherence. The drawback is that self-reporting over-estimates adherence, but the motivational value, over time, is expected to reduce the over-estimation.
In general, the above-mentioned examples address specific parts of the overall problem and are lacking in the depth of personalization, matching to individual health states, frequency of intervention, obtaining and incorporating feedback from members and in adapting to the changing needs of the individual members. The system described hereafter introduces novel elements and builds on some of the existing solutions, or parts thereof, and provides a more comprehensive solution.

Personalized medical adherence management system


The device comprises a rotationally driven surgical instrument incorporating a hand-held element having a mount rotatably installed therein for reception of interchangeable cutting and milling inserts, a driving motor for driving the mount receiving the tool inserts, a control unit for controlling the driving motor with means of setting the rotational speed and of preselecting the rotational speed range and direction of rotation as well as a digital indicator for displaying the rotational speed set up in each case. For the purpose of accessible storage of setting data, the control unit incorporates a non-volatile read-write memory for digital storage of rotational speeds, a code carrier as well as a coding/decoding arrangement.

The invention relates to a device comprising a rotationally driven surgical instrument having a hand-held element provided with a mount rotatably installed therein for reception of interchangeable cutting and milling inserts, a driving motor for driving the mount receiving the tool inserts, a control unit for controlling the driving motor with means of setting the rotational speed and of preselecting the rotational speed range and direction of rotation, as well as a digital indicator for display of the rotational speed set in each case.

Device with a rotationally-driven surgical instrument


A method of treating biomass material includes: placing biomass material in a container; then setting an initial condition of the container including (a) an oxygen containing atmosphere, (b) a temperature range from 55 degree Celsius to 80 degree Celsius,(c) a pressure range from atmospheric pressure to 15 atmospheric pressure, and (d) carbon monoxide concentration equal to or greater than 100 ppm; increasing temperature of the biomass material over 80 degree Celsius; setting a continuation condition including (i) the oxygen containing atmosphere, (ii) the pressure range from atmospheric pressure to 15 atmospheric pressure, and (iii) a carbon monoxide concentration equal to or greater than 100 ppm; and maintaining the continuation condition, in order to spontaneously increase temperature of the biomass material over at least 150 degree Celsius, and to achieve volume reduction or carbonization of the biomass material.

With increase in recognition of recycling usage of biological resources, a lot of kinds of organic wastes have recently been composted and reduced to the earth as resource. Livestock excreta which is feces of the livestock and food wastes such as food scraps (hereinafter these are collectively referred to as "feces of the livestock and the like") that are most expected to be composted and/or resourced, often has high moisture, or so-called in a quagmire state, at the time of generation. For such feces of the livestock and the like, there are difficulties, such as that oxygen is hardly introduced inside the feces of the livestock and the like because of the quagmire state, that the biochemical reaction by the ordinary microbial degradation is difficult to occur, and that the feces of livestock and the like are difficult to be composted. As a result, conventionally, a method which reduces a water content ratio in order to easily take in the oxygen inside the feces of the livestock has been adapted.
As one of the means to reduce the water content ratio, there is a method to provide heat energy, air distribution and the like to the organic waste. However, such a method is not realistic due to an issue of the cost. In addition, as another means, as in the case of the feces of the livestock which are the livestock excreta, there is a method to mix agricultural by-products, such as sawn wood, rice straws, rice husk and the like, with the organic waste. This method reduces the moisture contained in the organic waste and, as a result, to ease the airflow to promote the biochemical reaction by microbial degradation. However, the agricultural by-products may be difficult to procure in some regions, or the cost for procuring the agricultural by-products may increase. Moreover, even when the agricultural by-products can be obtained, the cost may further increase due to the additional processing of the agricultural by-products. Furthermore, in this method, there is a difficulty that the mixture of such agricultural by-products causes an increase in costs as the total amount of treatment increases.
It has been considered to reduce the volume of the organic waste and return to the natural world without composting and resourcing the organic waste. However, even in that case, the water content ratio must be decreased for the organic waste in the quagmire state. This results in the problem similar to the above. Moreover, when the water content ratio of the organic waste in the quagmire state is simply lowered and dried, the reaction for composting the waste by the microbial degradation does not occur. Therefore, the dried organic waste would return to the original organic waste in the quagmire state when returned to the natural world. Moreover, in this method, cost for sewage process similar to those for human excreta cannot be incurred.
On the other hand, patent document 1 proposes a method of treating the waste to achieve volume reduction or carbonization of the waste by pressurizing and heating up the waste including food scraps in a steam kiln. Patent document 2 proposes a method of controlling the supplied amount of air in a gas furnace so that amount of carbon monoxide, which is generated by partial combustion of municipal waste, is maximum. Patent document 3 discloses a dry method of organic products and the like that monitors concentration of carbon monoxide included in an atmosphere gas, which contacts to a dray product, and that maintains the concentration of carbon monoxide at a predetermined value over 10 ppm and below 100 ppm. Patent document 4 proposes a mixture method of kitchen waste performing wet combustion treatment process. The wet combustion treatment process produces slurry by mashing kitchen waste and mixing the mashed kitchen waste with sewage water, pressurizes the slurry by high-pressure pump and feeds high-pressure gas including oxygen or high-pressure air into the slurry, and heats up the pressurized slurry by temperature at which kitchen waste in the pressurized slurry is oxygenized. Patent Document 5 proposes subcritical water degradative treatment method that executes subcritical water degradative treatment at reaction temperature of 130-374 degrees Celsius and reaction pressure over saturated vapor pressure of the reaction temperature.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method for treating biomass material and method for using heat energy


A spinal disc prosthesis used to replace a natural human spinal disc that has been damaged by trauma or disease and a method of using the same. The spinal disc of the present invention includes, in one form thereof a flexible fluid filled nucleus, a flexible braided fiber annulus, and a pair of woven metallic end-plates comprising micro-fixation means for initial fixation to adjacent bone and a bone in-growth surface, wherein the spinal disc comprises a generally anatomic structure and shape.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to spinal disc prostheses used to replace human spinal discs damaged by trauma or disease.
2. Description of the Related Art
As humans age, the water content of the nuclei in their spinal discs decreases. At the same time, the collagen content of the nuclei increases; such disc degradation results in a more rigid nucleus that is more like the surrounding annulus. These changes in the disc can make the annulus more prone to traumatic injuries, such as circumferential tears. Multiple tears in an annulus can create a xe2x80x9cgapxe2x80x9d through which the nucleus can escape. This is event is commonly referred to as a herniated disc, which causes pain as the displaced nucleus presses against adjacent nerves.
Disc degradation also disrupts the loading patterns within the spine. Moreover, experts have observed a direct correlation between disc degradation and the formation of laterally growing osteophytes which can result in pressure being applied to adjacent neural tissue. Generally, disc degradation ultimately results in pain. Most frequently, the degradation occurs in the lumbar region (lower back) of patients and results in sciatica, a pain that begins in the lower back an travels down the sciatic nerve in the leg.
There are two standard surgical procedures used to treat problems associated with intervertebral (or spinal) disc degradation; these are discectomy and arthrodesis. Discectomy is the removal of part or all of a spinal disc. The procedure involves the removal of disc material that may be impinging on surrounding nerves, thereby relieving any associated lower back or leg pain. However, discectomies can sometimes result in redistributed spinal loading stresses, post operative spinal instability, or other problems. Some statistics report that although 48% to 86% of discectomies are initially successful, i.e. the patient experiences no more pain after surgery, the pain often returns over time. Ten years after surgery 60% to 70% of patients experience back pain again, and 25% to 30% have recurrent sciatica.
Arthrodesis (or spinal fusion) is another common surgical treatment for spinal disc degradation problems. Spinal fusion is used to prevent the spine from moving in a specific area of the spine and is often performed in conjunction with a discectomy. The procedure increases the stability of a patient""s spine around affected vertebrae of a damaged or removed disc, and prevents further degradation of the treated area.
Between 50% and 94% of patients have good to excellent results immediately after arthrodesis1. However, years after surgery problems can arise including spinal stenosis, vertebral osteophyte formation, and disc degeneration adjacent to the treated location. These problems generally result in a return of pain.
A need exists, therefore, for a method for and means of treating spinal disc degradation and related problems that reduces or eliminates the long term problems associated with presently employed treatments, such as discectomy or arthrodesis. Those of skill in the art have realized that a solution to the problems described above requires a prosthetic spinal disc. A viable prosthetic disc may result in a variety of additional benefits including shorter patient recovery time, a decrease in number of people who experience chronic back pain, and a decrease in revision spinal fusions. Generally, those of skill in the art employ one of three prosthetic disc design concepts, all of which have disadvantages that ultimately limit there success. These concepts include nucleus replacement, mechanical discs, and composite discs.
Nucleus replacement involves removal and replacement of a damages nucleus. This approach assumes that the annulus and end-plates are uncompromised. Consequently, nucleus replacement is useful only during the early stages of disc degeneration where minimal segment collapse has occurred. Also, nucleus replacement requires placing a hole in the annulus to insert the prosthetic nucleus. Because the prosthetic nucleus is thereafter unsecured, it is sometimes ejected from the disc through the hole.
Mechanical discs and composite discs, the second and third disc replacement concepts, generally comprise a polymer center bounded by metallic end-plates having growth promoting surfaces for long term fixation to surrounding bone and prongs or spikes to accommodate short term fixation to the same. These discs require a relatively invasive surgical procedure in which a large incision is made directly anterior to the affected area, and a path is generated between the anterior incision and desired surgical location. Furthermore, mechanical and composite discs generally comprise parallel end-plates, which do not correspond to natural end-plates which normally have non-parallel adjacent vertebrae. This inconsistency between prosthetic discs known to those of skill in the art and natural discs may result in loading and deformation problems for a patient""s spine.
Thus, a need exists for an artificial spinal disc and method of using the same for treating disc degradation and related problems that restores or maintains the spinal function at all stages of disc degeneration.
A further need exists for an artificial spinal disc and method of using the same for treating disc degradation and related problems, wherein the disc includes a prosthetic analog for each component of a natural disc.
A further need exists for an artificial spinal disc and method of using the same for treating disc degradation and related problems that can be employed in a manner that is minimally invasive to the patient.
A still further need exists for an artificial spinal disc and method of using the same for treating disc degradation and related problems that employs a more anatomically correct prosthetic disc.
The present invention, in one form thereof, is a prosthetic artificial disc comprising an annulus, a nucleus, and a pair of endplates. The prosthetic disc of the present invention is expandable such that it may be inserted into a patient""s body in a minimally invasive manner.
The present invention, in broad terms, comprises an expandable, generally ring shaped annulus having, when expanded, the shape, functional properties and mechanical properties of a natural spinal disc annulus. The annulus surrounds a prosthetic spinal disc nucleus. The nucleus of the present invention comprises an expandable shell, having, when expanded, the shape, functional properties and mechanical properties of a natural spinal disc nucleus. Finally, the invention comprises a pair of flexible spinal disc endplates that are attached superiorly and inferiorly to the prosthetic annulus, thereby containing the prosthetic nucleus within the annulus. The endplates provide stability to the prosthetic disc and a means of fixation to vertebra that are adjacent to the treated area.
The present invention further comprises a method of inserting a prosthetic spinal disc in a human body using relatively less invasive techniques than prior art surgical methods.
An advantage of the present invention is that the disc of the present invention is useful in treating disc degradation and related problems, and it restores or maintains spinal function at all stages of disc degeneration.
Another advantage of the present invention is that the disc of the present invention includes a prosthetic analog for each component of a natural disc.
Yet another advantage of the present invention is that it can be used in treating disc degradation and related problems in a manner that is minimally invasive to the patient.
A still further advantage of the present invention is that it employs a more anatomically correct prosthetic disc.


A system comprises an external medical device configured to communicate with a first implantable medical device (IMD). The external medical device includes a communication circuit and a display. The communication circuit is configured to receive information associated with cardiovascular pressure from the IMD. The external medical device is configured to annotate a waveform on the display to indicate one or more events associated with cardiovascular pressure.

Implantable medical devices (IMDs) are devices designed to be implanted into a patient. Some examples of these devices include cardiac function management (CFM) devices such as implantable pacemakers, implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs), cardiac resynchronization devices, and devices that include a combination of such capabilities. The devices are typically used to treat patients using electrical or other therapy or to aid a physician or caregiver in patient diagnosis through internal monitoring of a patient's condition. The devices may include one or more electrodes in communication with one or more sense amplifiers to monitor electrical heart activity within a patient, and often include one or more sensors to monitor one or more other internal patient parameters. Other examples of implantable medical devices include implantable diagnostic devices, implantable drug delivery systems, or implantable devices with neural stimulation capability.
Additionally, some IMDs detect events by monitoring one or more electrical heart activity signals. In addition to electrical events, CFM devices may measure and monitor one or more hemodynamic parameters related to heart chamber filling or contraction. These parameters may provide an indication of the metabolic need of a patient for a particular level of cardiac output, for example. The parameters may be useful to track the progression of disease, such as congestive heart failure, for example. Measuring and monitoring the parameters may also be useful to detect a sudden episode such as acute myocardial ischemia. As technology used in IMDs increases, the devices are able to collect data from multiple types of sensors. However, this can complicate the task of data management for caregivers.

Cardiovascular pressure annotations and logbook


A wireless communication device is disclosed. The wireless communication device includes a frequency hopping communication circuit, a power spectral density circuit and a control circuit. The frequency hopping communication circuit includes a channel map. The frequency hopping communication circuit selects one of channel in a channel map to connect to another frequency hopping communication circuit according to the channel map. The power spectral density circuit for generating a power spectral density signal by measuring spectrums on all channels connected to the frequency hopping communication circuit. The control circuit receives the power spectral density and output statistical distribution data to the frequency hopping communication circuit. The frequency hopping communication circuit updates the channel map according to the statistical distribution data.

(a) Technical Field
The invention generally relates to a wireless communication system and more particularly to a wireless communication system implementing adaptive frequency hopping.
(b) Description of the Related Art
A Bluetooth communication system is a frequency hopping communication system. Bluetooth includes an Adaptive Frequency Hopping (AFH) for selecting good channels to connect to other wireless device with AFH to prevent interference on a specific channel. A conventional "frequency hopping" technology is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,027,418 and 7,570,614. If two Bluetooth devices are connected to form a pico-net, one of the two Bluetooth devices is a master device and the other is a slave device. The AFH of Bluetooth includes an AFH channel map. One Bluetooth device may notify the other device which channel is good or bad according to the AFH channel map. The summation of good and bad channels is 79, as stipulated by the Bluetooth Specification. The AFH channel map is determined by the master device and the method of determination includes the following.
(1) The master device determines whether the channel is good or bad according to the status of reception and transmission on the channel.
(2) The master device transmits a signal to poll the channel status of the slave device. The slave device responds to the master device the channel status. Thus the master device can update the AFH channel map according to the channel status of both the master device and slave device.
Thus, it is clear that both of the master device and the slave device should be able to detect the performance of channels.
However, the conventional Bluetooth with AFH may only detect the channel quality of the channels currently in use but cannot acquire the channel quality of the rest of channels (which are not hopping in). Therefore, the problems have arisen:
(1) Once the channels in the AFH channel map are divided into a good and bad channel group, the AFH of Bluetooth implements frequency hopping and measures the channel quality within the good channel group. However, if there is an error made by the AFH channel map statistics or caused by temporary interference, in a good channel, the good channel is determined to a bad channel. After updating the AFH channel map repeatedly, the number of good channels becomes fewer. For example, there are 79 good channels in the AFH channel map. After that, AFH of Bluetooth repeatedly implements frequency hopping and measures the channel quality during a period of time, 30 channels may become bad channels. These 30 channels include actually bad channels, error in statistics, or temporary interference. Thus the number of good channels becomes 49. Then the master device updates the AFH channel map and notifies the slave device. As a result, the number of good channels may become fewer than the AFH standard threshold (at least 20 good channels) defined in the Bluetooth Specification after AFH repeatedly updates the AFH channel map.
(2) When the AFH of Bluetooth detects that the number of good channels are fewer than the standard threshold or wants to add good channels, the AFH of Bluetooth needs to set some of bad channels into good channels and update the AFH channel map. However, since the actual status of the new good channels originally considered as bad channels are unknown, Bluetooth transmission might be influenced. If the channel quality of the new channels is bad, the quality of frequency hopping by Bluetooth is seriously affected. In addition, the AFH of Bluetooth cannot remove the bad channels that are added by mistake until the AFH of Bluetooth updates the AFH channel map again.
Furthermore, more and more system manufacturers want to combine Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) and Wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN) in a dual-mode. WLAN can cover farther transmission distance and provide a higher transmission speed to thereby communicate with external networks. For example, WLAN can use Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) to connect an external internet. WPAN can provide the peer-to-peer data transmission in Digital Home system and cover closer transmission distance. The characteristic of WPAN is simple and electricity-saving.
Bluetooth has the highest marketing share and maximum number of users, and is the most widely used system In WPAN. WLAN and WPAN can be separately integrated into the transceiver of a Digital Home system. A Digital Home system may be a personal computer (PC), a notebook (NB), a smart phone, a set-top box, a television, a game console . . . etc. In this manner, the manufacturer may suffer from more complex design and higher cost, and take more time to develop products of WLAN and WPAN.
Despite the above mentioned limitations, Bluetooth has other advantages described below. First, Bluetooth and WLAN operate within a bandwidth of 2.4 GHz (ISM-band), which is free of charge. Bluetooth operates within 1 MHz bandwidth and includes 79 channels from 2402 MHz to 2480 MHz. On the other hand, WLAN operates within a bandwidth of 20 MHz in the G-mode and operates within a bandwidth close to 40 MHz in the 11 N-mode. The center frequency within the first channel of WLAN being the lowest frequency is 2412 MHz and the center frequency within the 11th channel of WLAN being the highest frequency is 2462 MHz. Further the center frequency within the 14th channel of WLAN is defined as 2484 MHz in some countries. Therefore, the channels used by Bluetooth and WLAN almost entirely overlap with each other. For example, if Bluetooth transmits data via a bandwidth which overlaps that of WLAN, the transmission quality of WLAN within the overlapped bandwidth can be seriously affected, and vice versa.

Method and device for implementation of adaptive frequency hopping by power spectral density


A section of a gas turbine engine according to an exemplary aspect of the present disclosure includes, among other things, a thermally isolated area, and a first rotor disk and a second rotor disk. Each of the first and second rotor disks are provided within the thermally isolated area.

Gas turbine engines typically include a compressor section, a combustor section, and a turbine section. The compressor and turbine sections may include alternating series of rotating blades and stationary vanes that extend into the core airflow path of the gas turbine engine.
During operation of the gas turbine engine, the components of the turbine section are typically cooled with cooling fluid. In one known example, the components of a high pressure turbine are cooled by multiple, separate flows of cooling fluid provided to various areas of the high pressure turbine section. The separate flows of cooling fluid are from different sources and are independently directed to various areas of the high pressure turbine section (e.g., they do not mix).

Gas turbine engine having section with thermally isolated area


Provided is a low-power variable gain amplifier having a direct-current (DC) bias stabilizer. The low-power variable gain amplifier includes: a load block through which first and second load currents flow from a first source voltage; a first differential input signal source including a terminal connected to a second source voltage and the other terminal connected to a variable gain amplifying block and sinking currents corresponding to a value of a first differential input current signal; a second differential input signal source including a terminal connected to the second source voltage and the other terminal connected to the variable gain amplifying block and sinking currents corresponding to a value of a second differential input current signal; a variable gain amplifying block sinking first and second differential output current signals that are branch currents of the first and load currents, respectively, and first and second destructive-compensation current signals, in response to first and second gain control signals and the first and second differential input current signals; and the DC bias stabilizer processing the first and second destructive-compensation current signals and first and second bias currents that are branch currents of the first and second load currents, respectively, to enable the first and second load currents to include fixed DC current components, wherein the currents sunk to the first and second differential input signal sources include DC current components and AC current components, the DC current components of the first and second differential input signal sources have the same value, and the AC current components thereof have a phase difference of 180°.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a variable gain amplifier which is widely used for an analog integrated circuit in a communication system, and more particularly, to a low-power variable gain amplifier having a direct current (DC) bias stabilizer.
2. Description of the Related Art
A variable gain amplifier is used to maintain a strength of an output signal when a strength of an input signal is changed or change a strength of an output signal when a strength of an input signal is constant by changing a gain value.
FIG. 1 is a circuit diagram illustrating a conventional variable gain amplifier without a direct-current (DC) bias stabilization scheme.
Referring to FIG. 1, the variable gain amplifier 100 without the DC bias regulation scheme includes a variable gain amplifying unit 110, two load resistors 115 and 116, two differential input signal sources Iin+ and Iin−.
The first and second differential input signals Iin+ and Iin− are defined by Equations 1 and 2.Iin+=IDC+IAC  [Equation 1]Iin−=IDC−IAC  [Equation 2]
Referring to Equations 1 and 2, the first and second differential input current signals Iin+ and Iin− have the same DC current IDC and have alternating-currents (AC) IAC having a phase difference of 180°.
The AC currents IAC of the first and second differential input current signals Iin+ and Iin− pass through the variable gain amplifying 110 including first, second, third, and fourth transistors 111, 112, 113, and 114 and are changed into voltages by the first and second resistors 115 and 116 that are the toad resistors to form first and second differential output voltage signals Vout+ and Vout−.
The sum of currents flowing through the first and second transistors 111 and 112 is the same as a current of the first differential input current signal Iin+. Similarly, the sum of currents flowing through the third and fourth transistors 113 and 114 is the same as a current of the second differential input current signal Iin−.
Voltage levels of the first and second gain control signals Vcp and Vcn that control an output gain determine currents flowing through the first to fourth transistors 111 to 114. Here, the current of the first differential output current signal Iout+ passing through the first transistor 111 determines the voltage level of the first differential output voltage signal Vout+, and the current of the second differential output current signal Iout− passing through the fourth metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) transistor determines the voltage level of the second differential output voltage signal Vout−.
A gain k of the variable gain amplifier 110 is defined as a ratio of a current value of the first differential input current signal Iin+ to a current value of the first differential output current signal Iout+, or a ratio of a current value of the second differential input current signal Iin− to a current value of the second differential output current signal Iout−. Therefore, as the currents flowing through the first and fourth transistors 111 and 114 increase, the gain increases, and this means that the voltage level of the first gain control signal Vcp has to be higher than that of the second gain control signal Vcn.
The first and second differential output current signals Iout+ and Iout− are represented by Equations 3 and 4 as follows.Iout+=kIin+=k(IDC+IAC)  [Equation 3]Iout−=kIin−=k(IDC−IAC)  [Equation 4]
The conventional variable gain amplifier illustrated in FIG. 1 has a problem in that the DC currents flowing through the first and second resistors 115 and 116 are changed, as the gain is changed by controlling the voltage levels of the first and second gain control signals Vcp and Vcn. Therefore, a DC voltage dropped across the first and second resistors 115 and 116 is changed, and reference voltage levels of the two differential output voltage signals Vout+ and Vout− output from the variable gain amplifier are changed.
In order to solve the problem, two capacitors 117 and 118 are used to transmit only an AC signal. However, there is another problem in that the low-frequency differential output voltage signals Vout+ and Vout− are blocked by the capacitors so as not to be transmitted to a next function block.
In order to solve the problem, a variable gain amplifier using a DC bias stabilization scheme is proposed.
FIG. 2 is a circuit diagram illustrating a conventional variable gain amplifier having a DC bias stabilization scheme.
Referring to FIG. 2, the variable gain amplifier 200 having the DC bias stabilization scheme includes a second variable gain amplifying unit 220 having the same structure as that of a first variable gain amplifying unit 210. The second variable gain amplifier 220 is connected with two auxiliary current sources 250 and 260. A DC current that has the same value as the first and second differential input current signals Iin+ and Iin− of the first variable gain amplifier 210 flows through the added two auxiliary current sources 250 and 260. However, an AC current does not flow therethrough.
The second variable gain amplifier 220 includes four transistors 221, 222, 223, and 224. Connection relationships between the four transistors 221, 222, 223, and 224 and the first and second gain control signals Vcp and Vcn are opposite to those of the first variable gain amplifier 210.
In a structure in which the two variable gain amplifiers 210 and 220 and the two gain control signals Vcp and Vcn are crossed and connected, when a voltage of the first gain control signal Vcp increases, a DC current and an AC current that flow through the first and second resistors 215 to the first transistor 211 increases. However, the DC current and the AC current that flow to the eighth transistor 224 decreases. Here, only the DC current flows through the second auxiliary current source 250, so that only the DC current flows through the eighth transistor 224, and the AC current of the first differential output current signal Iout+ is not affected.
On the other hand, as the voltage of the first gain control signal Vcp is decreased, the DC current and the AC current flowing from a first source voltage Vdd through the first and second resistors 215 and 216 to the first transistor 211 decreases. However, the DC current and the AC current flowing through the eight transistor 224 increase.
As described above, a constant DC current flows through the first and second resistors 215 and 216, irrespective of the voltage of the first gain control signal Vcp, so that constant DC voltages of output nodes Vout+ and Vout− are maintained.
However, the conventional variable gain amplifier 200 having the DC bias stabilization scheme illustrated in FIG. 2 requires two times the current of the conventional variable gain amplifier 100 illustrated in FIG. 1, so that relatively high power consumption is required. Therefore, the aforementioned scheme cannot be applied to a low-power apparatus.


A cutting tool is provided for removing the exposed pintail of a set fastener, such as blind fastener of the type commonly used in the aerospace industry. The tool comprises an air motor for rapidly rotating a relatively thin cutting disk made from a highly abrasive material. The tool is provided with an adjustment mechanism to control the distance of the cutting disk with respect to the surface in which the fastener is set. In operation, the cutting disk rapidly cuts through and removes the pintail so that it is substantially flush with the surrounding surface. A vacuum system also is provided inside the tool for collecting the severed pintails and related debris that results from the pintail cutting process.

This invention relates to cutting tools and, more particularly, to a cutting tool for removing the exposed pintail of an aerospace blind fastener.
Blind fasteners, rivets and similar types of fastening elements commonly are used, for example, in the aerospace industry to connect overlapping structural panels forming part of an aircraft. Examples of one type of well known blind fastener are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,643,544 and, more recently, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,772,167. In general, these patented fasteners comprise an internally threaded fastener body adapted for insertion into aligned holes in two panels to be joined together, and an externally threaded stem passing in threaded engagement through the fastener body. The inserted or inner end of the stem has an enlarged head, and the outer end of the stem has a wrench engaging portion. An optional drive nut (shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,772,167) also may be provided on the outer end of the stem for engagement with the outer surface of the fastener body. Upon turning motion of the stem relative to the fastener body, the stem is moved in an axial outward direction through the fastener body. This axial outward movement causes a deformable sleeve on the stem between the stem head and the inner end of the fastener body to deform around the fastener body until it reaches a fully set condition against the inner panel, as is known in the art.
In most cases, the fastener stem also is provided with a localized weakened region or breakgroove adapted to shear the stem along the breakgroove at a predetermined torque, after the deformable sleeve reaches its fully set condition. Ideally, the breakgroove is located axially along the stem such that the stem breaks off in substantially flush relation to the outer end of the fastener body, i.e., the fastener body head. Thus, if the fastener body head is received in a flush, countersunk relation to the surface of the outer panel, the portion of the stem remaining with the set fastener, ideally, also will be flush with the surface of the outer panel. In actual practice, however, the stem may break off approximately one-eight of an inch (i.e., 0.125 inches) above or below the outer surface of the fastener body head, an accepted industry tolerance. If an aerodynamic surface is desired, it becomes necessary to remove any exposed or protruding outer portion of any stem, this protruding portion being commonly referred to as a "pintail". According to present aerospace industry standards, the pintail may not protrude from the outer surface of the fastener body head by more than 0.006-0.008 inches. If it does, then it must be milled down or shaved to an acceptable level. Otherwise, the exposed pintails, which could number in the thousands per aircraft, would create too much turbulence and drag and adversely affect the aircraft's performance.
Over the years, various tools have been designed and employed to remove fastener pintails to achieve a flush aerodynamic panel surface. One such tool comprises a hand-held tool with a cylindrical cutter, usually made of carbide, positioned at the end of the tool. The cutter has helical cutting grooves or flutes on the outer circumferential surface of the cutter. The tool rotates the cutter in two rotational directions at the same time, i.e., around the cylindrical axis of the cutter and around an axis that is transverse or perpendicular to the cylindrical axis. This dual rotation of the tool cutter is designed to enable the operator to manually position the end of the tool over the pintail so that the rotating cutter can shave off the pintail without leaving any high spots or so-called "dead center points".
While the tool described above has been used for years for its intended purpose of removing pintails of set fasteners, there are several recognized disadvantages and drawbacks resulting from its use. For example, from the operator's standpoint, the tool is relatively heavy (weighing in some instances as much as 5-1/2 pounds), and it is cumbersome to use. The tool also tends to shake and vibrate during use due to the fluted/helical nature of the cutting grooves of the cylindrical cutter, which makes the tool prone to "dancing" on the pintail during cutting. Another operator drawback is that it usually takes about one minute to remove each pintail, depending on the height and diameter of the pintail, and the operator must apply significant force during the entire time to prevent such dancing. As a result, many operators have suffered hand and wrist injuries requiring medical treatment necessitating absence from work.
The tool discussed above also has several disadvantages from an economic standpoint. Perhaps the most significant drawback is tool maintenance. For example, the cylindrical cutter of the tool can shave off anywhere between 300-1,000 pintails, depending on the hardness of the material comprising the pintail. In a typical high volume aerospace assembly operation, it would not be unusual to shave off 1,000 pintails per tool per day. Thus, it may be necessary in the worst case to change the tool's cutter up to three times per day. Since it generally takes about 20-30 minutes to change a cutter, significant time is consumed, and down time will result unless a replacement tool is available. Significant expense also is involved, since each cutter presently costs about $300 (and each tool presently costs about $3,000). If many tools are used, the cost is multiplied even further. Yet another disadvantage is the marring and gouging of the panel surface that occurs if the cutter dances completely off the pintail during cutting. Not only is the damage unsightly, but costly repair of the surface often is necessary, especially if the damage occurs on a wing or tail section of the aircraft. While tool stabilizers have been developed to attempt to inhibit the undesirable dancing of the tool, they are relatively bulky and add further weight to the tool. Moreover, stabilizers may not be used in tight or difficult-to-access areas, since they are relatively large.
There also presently is no effective means for recovering the fragments of the pintail that are removed by known tools. This results in a messy work area and requires frequent clean up. More significant, however, is the fact that any metal scrap or debris left inside an airframe structure after it is closed up (i.e., fully assembled) can cause severe damage. Also, debris left on the surface of the wing or tail sections of the aircraft can be stepped on while working in this area and cause scratches and other damage to these skin surfaces.
Accordingly, there has existed a definite need for an effective and economical tool adapted to quickly remove the exposed pintail of a fastener without vibration. There further has existed a definite need for such a tool which also recovers the pintail and related debris resulting from the pintail cutting process. The present invention satisfies these needs and provides further related advantages.


A mirror which is attached to an underwater diver's wrist or arm. By placing the mirror in front of his face mask and controlling the line of sight reflected by the mirror, the diver can inspect equipment on his body or easily access equipment with the hand not wearing the mirror. In addition, the diver's peripheral vision is improved so he or she can see objects, fish or a diving partner located behind them. The mirror is attached to the diver's wrist or arm by a wrist strap made of water resistant material such as nylon or rubber. Alternate embodiments include a pouch containing the mirror on a flexible strap and a diver's handheld console with a hinged plate containing the mirror.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to accessories for underwater divers and more particularly relates to an underwater mirror that can be used by the diver to see and check the diver's own equipment or to see behind him or her.
2. Description of Related Art
The underwater environment is both beautiful and dangerous. Divers must rely on their senses and mobility to avoid harm. However, the protective equipment and accessories necessary for the diver to survive in this environment have an ancillary and detrimental effect on visibility and mobility. Because a diver's visibility and mobility are restricted, a cardinal rule in diving is to always dive with a partner or "buddy." The diving partner can view a diver's immediate surroundings and warn of danger and can also assist a diver in adjusting or checking his or her equipment.
Three distinct categories of divers are typical. Free or snorkel divers use little equipment other than swim fins, a face mask and a snorkel that consists of a mouth piece attached to a tube extending above the water surface and allowing the diver to breathe while his or her head is slightly below the surface of the water. SCUBA (self contained underwater breathing apparatus) divers, on the other hand, wear a tank or tanks of compressed air allowing them to swim for extended periods of time at depths significantly below the surface of the water. The compressed air tank(s) are attached by one or more tubes to a breathing regulator to control the flow of air from the tank to the diver and to control or route exhaust from the diver's lungs to the environment. Because SCUBA divers can remain underwater for extended periods of time, they usually wear additional equipment to protect them from the environment, to enhance their enjoyment of the surroundings, and to allow them to accomplish work tasks while they are underwater. Examples of equipment used by SCUBA divers include a wet suit to protect them from cold water, a weight belt to counteract buoyancy, a vest to hold tools and equipment, a buoyancy compensator to adjust buoyancy, an accessory console to hold gauges, as well as cameras, spear fishing equipment, knives and various other accessories. Hard hat divers wear more substantial protection to allow them to descend to depths greater than those achievable by SCUBA divers. The hard hat diver wears a water impervious suit with a metal or composite material helmet attached. Air is provided to the diver by a tube extending to the surface and fed by an air compressor at the surface. Again, the hard hat diver uses various accessories to enhance his enjoyment of the surroundings, protect against the environment, provide for safety, or accomplish work related tasks.
All of these divers suffer restricted mobility and vision because of the equipment used. Some of the equipment restricts movement of the diver's head and therefore restricts the diver's view of his surroundings and especially the diver's view of equipment and accessories attached to his body. All diver's wear some form of face mask to insulate their eyes from the water. The face mask contains clear lenses held in front of the diver's eyes by a generally opaque rubber or silicon frame that seals out water from the diver's face. Because of this construction, a diver's face mask severely limits his or her peripheral vision. In the case of the free or snorkel diver, the face mask and snorkel restrict downward movement of his head, thus preventing a clear view of the upper portions of his body. The problem is compounded with the SCUBA diver where the air regulator, buoyancy compensator and wet suit further restrict his downward or side-m-side movement of his head. The problem is extreme with the hard hat diver as his peripheral vision is severely limited and he is totally unable to see his upper body.
This restricted mobility and restricted visibility make it extremely difficult for the diver to manually access or visually check equipment worn on his body and especially his upper torso or head. Often, it is necessary to have a diving partner check the diver's equipment or assist the diver in grasping equipment. Additionally, it is sometimes difficult in this hostile environment to locate a diving "buddy" or other divers due to the restricted peripheral vision and mobility. What is needed is a simple and effective device for improving a diver's peripheral vision. The improved peripheral vision assists the diver in gaining manual access or sight of equipment worn by the diver on his body or head, and provides an effective means for locating another diver, diving "buddy" or other objects without fully turning the body.


The invention provides methods and compositions for improving crop yield. The methods involve application of tryptophan compounds to the canopy of plants. The compositions comprise tryptophan compounds for use with the methods of the invention.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to methods of improving productivity of crop plants. In particular it relates to the application of compositions comprising tryptophan and/or tryptophan derivatives to plants.
2. Background of the Invention
Plant hormones (i.e., plant-growth regulators) play an important role in controlling plant growth and development. These compounds are useful for altering a plant's life processes or structure in some beneficial way so as to enhance yield, improve quality or facilitate harvesting. Growth-regulating compounds which are produced by plants are generally classified as one of four types of hormone: auxins, gibberellins, cytokinins and inhibitors. Many synthetic compounds mimic the activity characteristic of natural plant-growth regulators.
One class of plant hormone, auxins, and their synthetic mimics are of particular interest. Auxin-like activity is known to affect a number of plant processes, such as cell division, rooting at the basal end of shoots, shoot elongation, apical dominance, phototropic responses and control of abscission of organs such as buds, flowers, fruits, leaves and the like. Plant-growth regulators with auxin-like activity comprise an important class of chemicals for use in agriculture. As of 1994, there were approximately 29 compounds with auxin-like activity approved for agricultural use worldwide. Of these compounds, 21 were approved for use in the United States (KIRK-OTHMER ENCYCLOPEDIA OF CHEMICAL TECHNOLOGY, 4th Ed., Kroschwitz et al., Eds., John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1994). A particularly widely used synthetic auxin is 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D). Among its many uses, 2,4-D is sprayed on the foliage of citrus trees in California and Florida (also in citrus growing countries such as Israel, Spain, Morocco, South Africa, etc.) to prevent preharvest fruit drop and to increase fruit size.
The agricultural application of exogenous chemicals to food crops is coming under increased scrutiny by many segments of society including the agricultural industry, advocates for agricultural laborers, environmental groups and consumers. In the United States, agricultural industry concerns stem from the fact that plant growth regulators must be officially registered with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) before they can be used or sold. Additionally, as plant-growth regulators are often applied closer to harvest than are pesticides, the actual practical requirements for their safety are more stringent.
The screening process associated with the official registration is both time-consuming and expensive. This process includes evaluation of a plant-growth regulator's safety hazards to humans, the environment and nontarget species. Further, acute and chronic toxicity must be determined. The agricultural industry shoulders a portion of the costs of the preregistration program in higher prices. Further, the industry typically bears part of the financial burden for reregistering the compound for a particular use. For example, the California citrus industry paid approximately two million dollars to effect the reregistration of 2,4-D as a preharvest fruit drop inhibitor. In addition to these financial concerns, the potential toxicity of synthetic plant-growth regulators raises additional concerns regarding the safety of their use.
The concerns of environmental groups, advocates for agricultural laborers and consumers arise from the potential toxicity of plant-growth regulators. For example, auxin mimics such as 2,4-D and related phenoxy acids have moderately acute toxicity and are moderate in their local effects upon the skin or eyes (Gehring et al. Ecol. Bull. (Stockholm) 27:122 (1978)). Results of cytogenic studies in Sweden indicate that, in practice, 2,4-D constitutes a cytogenic hazard to man (Jenssen et al. Chem. Biol. Interaction 14:291 (1976)). Additionally, 2,4-D has been found to exhibit central nervous system toxicity (Elo et al. Acta Pharmacol. Toxicol. 41:280 (1977)).
In light of their utility in preventing preharvest fruit drop and increasing fruit size, coupled with the expense of registration, reregistration and the potential toxicity of auxin mimics, alternatives to the use of synthetic auxins are being actively sought.
The application to plants and soils of natural auxins and natural auxin precursors is a particularly promising alternative to the use of synthetic auxin mimics. For instance, L-tryptophan has been reported to serve as precursor for the microbial formation of indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) (see, e.g., Arshad and Frankenberger Plant Soil 133:1-8 (1991)). Further, the synthesis of IAA upon application of tryptophan to soil has been shown to promote plant growth. For instance, growth of Douglas fir was increased by application of tryptophan and inoculation with a fungus capable of producing IAA from tryptophan (Frankenberger and Poth Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 53:2908-2913 (1987)). When tryptophan was applied to soils under aseptic conditions (i.e., steam-sterilized soil), L-TRP conversion to IAA was not observed (Martens and Frankenberger Soil Science 155:263-271 (1993)). Thus, it was concluded that the conversion of tryptophan to IAA was a microbe-mediated process.
Whether intact plants, in the absence of the soil microorganisms, are capable of converting tryptophan to IAA remains an open question which numerous experiments have attempted to answer. In spite of preliminary evidence that excised segments of plant are capable of converting tryptophan to IAA (see, e.g., Kutacek and Kefeli Biologia Plantarum (Praha) 12:145-158 (1970) and Bertling and Lovatt, Annual Meeting of the American Society for Horticultural Science, Aug. 7-10, 1994, HortScience 29, Abstract #752 (1994)), the question still remains whether the delivery to intact plants of tryptophan would result in auxins being synthesized to an extent sufficient to give rise to an auxin response in the plant.
When tryptophan is administered to intact, growing plants, yield data points to an absence of uptake or conversion of tryptophan. For example, in an experiment with radish plants which compared the effects of the foliar application of tryptophan to whole plants with the application of tryptophan to the soil, the application of tryptophan to the soil was found to promote radish growth. In contrast, the foliar application of tryptophan in dosage amounts between 10.sup.-2 M and 10.sup.-10 M had no effect on the growth of the radishes. Thus, it was concluded that tryptophan was not taken up by intact leaves and that the site of entry for tryptophan was through the soil and root (Frankenberger et al. Plant Soil 129:235-242 (1990).
A need exists for inexpensive, non-toxic and effective methods and compositions for improving crop productivity. If such methods and compositions were also as effective as the currently used treatment of plants with 2,4D they would indeed represent a significant advance over the current state of the art. Quite surprisingly, the present invention provides such methods and compositions.

Use of tryptophan and analogs as plant growth regulators

The Regents of the University of California


A modular display structure that has a base and a transparent cover. The base and cover may separate to allow insertion of a collectible and may then join to close them and contain the collectible. The base and cover cooperate to define a top, a bottom and sides. A stationary display structure has a column sandwiched between two compartment holders. Each holder is wider than the column and defines partitions spaced apart from each other. The partitions on one holder are in registry with counterparts in the other holder. The modular display structure may be inserted between any pair of neighboring partitions of both holders that are in registry and then snapped into place. The stationary display structure may have levels of compartment holders spaced apart by respective columns, thereby permitting stacking.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a point of purchase display case and display modules for use in the home. Collectibles, such as stuffed animals, dolls, miniatures or toys may be housed within the display case.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Point of purchase display cases and merchandise racks for use in commercial establishments are well known. Since they are designed for commercial use, they are generally not found in the home.
Collectibles have become increasingly popular as the current BEANIE BABIES craze has shown, which has created a need for owners to store their collectibles in the home. In addition to mere storage, owners want their collectibles displayed for their enjoyment and for show to others. Further, in addition to storage and display, the owners may want contamination of their collectibles minimized. A display case or merchandise rack would fulfill these objectives, but it must be designed for use in the home to meet commercial acceptance by individual collectible owners.