A system and methods are shown for providing packet data serving node (PDSN) load balancing and fault tolerance. One exemplary method includes providing an access node with a plurality of packet data serving nodes and at least one system manager, receiving from a radio node on a first packet data serving node a registration request, determining that the first packet data serving node is unable to serve the registration request, and sending a packet data serving node selection request from the first packet data serving node to the system manager. The method further includes determining at the system manager a second packet data serving node to serve the registration request, and providing an address of the second packet data serving node to the first packet data serving node. The method further includes sending a registration reply message from the first packet data serving node to the radio node, where the registration reply message includes the address of the second packet data serving node.

Public packet switched networks can be used to carry traffic to and from a mobile communications device (a mobile node), such as a mobile host, or a router that changes its point of attachment from one network to another. The basic architecture of mobile IP data networking is known in the art and described in several publications, including the Request for Comments ("RFC") document RFC 2002 (1996) (hereinafter "RFC 2002"), which is currently available from the Internet Engineering Task Force ("IETF") at www.ietf.org for more information. Persons skilled in the art of mobile IP data networking are familiar with that document and devices used to implement mobile IP data networking in practice.
In a mobile IP communication network, a mobile node communicates with a target host on an IP network by means of two devices, a "foreign agent" and a "home agent". One example of a mobile IP network that describes that type of communication is presented in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/354,659 entitled "Mobile Internet Protocol (IP) Networking with Home Agent and/or Foreign Agent Functions Distributed Among Multiple Devices," the entire content of which is incorporated herein by reference. Typically, the foreign agent functionality is incorporated into a router on a mobile node's visited network. The foreign agent provides routing services for the mobile node while it is registered with the home agent. For example, the foreign agent de-tunnels and delivers datagrams that were tunneled by the mobile node's home agent to the mobile node.
The home agent is typically incorporated into a router on a mobile node's home network. The home agent maintains current location information for the mobile node. When one or more home agents are handling calls for multiple mobile nodes simultaneously, the home agents are providing, in essence, a service analogous to a virtual private network service. Each mobile node is typically associated with a separate home network and the routing path from that home network, through the home agent, to the foreign agent and mobile node is like a virtual private network for the mobile node.
Mobile IP requires link layer connectivity between a mobile node (a mobile entity) and a foreign agent. However, in some systems, the link layer from the mobile node may terminate at a point distant from the foreign agent. Such networks are commonly referred to as third generation wireless networks. FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a network architecture that is typically employed in the third generation wireless networks. Referring to FIG. 1, a mobile node 10 communicates with a target host 34 on an IP network 30 by means of three devices, a radio network node 16, a packet data serving node 18, and a home agent node 24. The physical layer of the mobile node 10 terminates on the radio network node 16, and the foreign agent's functionality resides on the packet data serving node 18. Typically, the radio network node 16 relays link layer protocol data between the mobile node 10 and the packet data serving node 18, and the packet data serving node 18 establishes, maintains and terminates the link layer to the mobile node 10. For example, the mobile node 10 may be linked to the radio network node 16 via a communication link on a radio access network.
The packet data serving node 18 provides routing services for the mobile node 10 while it is registered with the home agent 24. The packet data serving node 18 de-tunnels and delivers datagrams that were tunneled from the home agent node 24 via an IP network 20 to the mobile node 10. The communication traffic exchanged between the packet data serving node 18 and the home agent 24 includes data traffic as well as control traffic. The control traffic includes registration request or registration reply messages. The control and data traffic is routed via the packet data serving node 18 and terminates at the mobile node 10. The target host 34 may be connected to a home network 26 by any number of networks, such as the IP networks 20 and 30, or it may be directly located on the home network 26. Alternatively, the target host 34 may be connected to the home network by other types of packet switched networks.
The home agent 24 may be implemented on a router on the mobile node's home network 26. The home agent 24 maintains current location information data for the mobile terminal 10 such as foreign agent address, a Network Access Identifier ("NAI") of the mobile node 10, a mobile home address and a secret key shared between the home agent and the mobile node 10. The home agent tunnels data from the target host 34 to the packet data serving node 18, and similarly provides tunneling services in the reverse direction. More information on point-to-point tunnels, such as a Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol ("L2TP") tunnel may be found in the RFC 2661, currently available at www.ietf.org.
The home agent 24, therefore, typically implements at least two distinct tasks for the mobile node 10. First, the home agent 24 performs a registration and authentication process to determine whether the mobile node 10 is authorized to access the home network 26. This may involve, for example, checking the identification of the mobile entity, such as through the use of the mobile entity's unique serial number, NAI, or manufacturing number, password authentication, and possibly checking whether the mobile entity's account is current and paid. The home agent's registration and authentication function may be performed in conjunction with, or with the assistance of, a second device, such as an authentication, authorization and accounting ("AAA") server such as a Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service ("RADIUS") server. More information on a RADIUS server may be found on in the RFC-2138, which is currently available at www.ietf.org for more information. As is known to those skilled in the art, the registration process includes receiving and processing registration request messages from the packet data serving node 18 and sending registration reply messages to the packet data serving node 18.
The packet data serving node 18 also performs four distinct tasks for the mobile node 10. The packet data serving node 18 handles registration and session control for the mobile node 10, including sending registration request messages to the home agent 24 and processing registration reply messages received from the home agent 24. Additionally, the packet data serving node 18 has tunneling responsibilities for forwarding data packets to the home agent 24 for ultimate transmission to the target host 34, as well as de-tunneling data from the home agent 24 for ultimate delivery to the mobile node 10. Further, the packet data serving node 18 provides authentication, authorization and accounting services for the mobile node 10. The packet data serving node may perform the authentication, authorization and accounting functions in conjunction with, or with the assistance of, an authentication, authorization and accounting server, such as a RADIUS server. Additionally, the packet data service node 18 may provide Pi/FA interfaces that provide signaling/data interfaces to/from an AAA server, mobile switching center ("MSC") or a home agent.
When the mobile node 10 initiates a communication session with the radio network node 16 by sending a call setup indication to the radio network node 16 across a radio communication link, the radio network node 16 initiates a registration process with the packet data serving node 18. Typically, the radio network node 16 is configured with a number of packet data serving nodes that may provide services to the mobile node 10. In the known prior art, the radio network node 16 has no status information for any of the packet data serving nodes that are configured to serve the new communication sessions. Thus, when the radio network node 16 initiates the registration process for the mobile node 10, the radio network node 16 randomly selects a packet data serving node for the mobile node 10. In such a system, some of the packet data serving nodes available to the radio network node may be quickly overloaded while the other ones are rarely used. Further, if a number of consecutive packet data serving nodes to which the radio network node 16 sends registration requests are overloaded, such packet data serving nodes will most likely reject registration requests from the radio network node 16, thus, resulting in service delays for the mobile node 10.
The load balancing of user sessions from mobile nodes is an important capability. There are several currently existing methods that may be used for load balancing of user sessions. Typically, a radio network node is programmed with a number of IP addresses of packet data serving nodes, and the radio network node may select one of them to serve an incoming session from a mobile node. According to one existing method, a radio network node may include a packet control function that may calculate a hash value based on, for instance, an International Phone Subscriber Interface (such as a phone number) of a mobile node, and the calculated hash may be used to select a packet data serving node's IP address. The disadvantage to this scheme is that the algorithm does not take into account the current load of each packet data serving node.
According to another alternative method, the packet control function may employ a round robin mechanism to select a packet data serving node. In such an embodiment, the packet control function may assign each subsequent arriving session to the next packet data serving node in its list, wrapping around to the first packet data serving node when the last packet data serving node is reached. The round robin mechanism distributes calls between packet data serving nodes; however, it does not take into account the type of call sessions being forwarded to each packet data serving node, for instance.
Further, according to another method, an external foreign agent control node may select a packet data serving node based on memory usage, or processing power usage of the packet data serving node, for instance. The functionality of the foreign agent control node is described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/881,649 entitled "System and Method for Managing Foreign Agent Selections in a Mobile Internet Protocol Network," the entire content of which is incorporated herein by reference. While the foreign agent control node provides load balancing mechanisms during selection of packet data serving nodes, there are several limitations to its current architecture. First, multiple redundant foreign agent control nodes are not easily supported given a current packet control function selection algorithm. Second, the foreign agent control node requires an additional component to be added to the system architecture, and does not allow user sessions to be saved when a PDSN crashes or otherwise becomes unavailable.
Thus, there is a need for improved system and method for selecting serving nodes, such as packet data serving nodes or home agents, in a mobile IP network.

System and method for packet data serving node load balancing and fault tolerance


This power transmission control device is applied to a hybrid vehicle, includes a manual transmission, a friction clutch, and a speed-reduction-ratio changeover mechanism. The speed-reduction-ratio changeover mechanism can change the speed reduction ratio of a second shaft connected to an output shaft of the manual transmission in relation to a first shaft connected to an output shaft of the vehicle motor. The speed reduction ratio of drive wheels to the output shaft of the vehicle motor is changed by changing the speed reduction ratio of the second shaft in relation to the first shaft. The operation for changing the speed reduction ratio is performed while a driver is operating a clutch pedal. Namely, while the driver is performing some operation, he or she receives a shock generated as a result of speed-reduction-ratio change operation. Accordingly, the driver becomes less likely to sense such a shock.

Conventionally, there has been widely known a so-called hybrid vehicle which includes an engine and an electric motor (motor generator) as power sources (see, for example, Patent Document 1). In recent years, there has been developed a power transmission control device which is applied to a hybrid vehicle and which includes a manual transmission and a friction clutch (hereinafter referred to as a "power transmission control device for an HV-MT vehicle"). A term "manual transmission" used herein refers to a transmission which does not include a torque converter and whose gear stage is selected in accordance with the shift position of a shift lever operated by a driver (the manual transmission may be abbreviated as MT). Also, a term "friction clutch" used herein refers to a clutch which is interposed between the output shaft of an internal combustion engine and the input shaft of the manual transmission and which is configured such that the engagement state of a friction plate changes in accordance with the operation quantity of a clutch pedal operated by the driver.

Power transmission control device for vehicle


A device and methods of use and manufacture are disclosed for controlled diffusion of chemical substances of interest intraorally. The device includes ported structure formed of material that is substantially impermeable to the substance of interest, an inner wall of which defines a compartment communicating through the ports with the exterior of the device. A dispersed layer is formed in the compartment of material having limited permeability, the layer being formed so that contact is maintained with the inner wall across the ports after formation, the ports and the layer thus providing a region of permeability to diffusion of the chemical substance of interest. In use, either the chemical substance of interest or a composition capable of binding itself to the chemical substance of interest is placed in the compartment and the device is positioned in the mouth of a subject where it may remain for extended periods.

Frequently, sampling of biological fluids from a subject, for example to determine the concentration of a substance or substances in the biological fluid for purposes of diagnosis, and/or delivery of drugs to a subject, for example to control delivery rate and/or adequacy of drug level, requires sustained or repeated sampling or delivery over a defined, and often extended, time period.
By way of example, the availability of chemical substances in the body to tissue is often subject to temporal fluctuations, such that a series of samples taken over time from the biological fluid would reveal a distribution of concentration values of the substance. In general, it is the net effect of this temporal distribution of concentration values over some time interval, rather than the value that is observed at any particular moment, that is of interest. One measurement of the net effect of temporal fluctuations in substance concentration over some time interval is the summation of momentary concentration values over that interval, or the "time integral" of concentration. The time integral, divided by the length of the time interval over which it was obtained, results in the average concentration of the substance of interest over that time interval.
The time interval that may be of interest varies according to the context of the measurement, but is frequently on the order of hours. Time integrated measurements on a scale of hours reflect a more enduring state of the organism than measurements representative only of momentary conditions.
Frequently, concentrations of a substance of interest are measured in blood, rather than saliva, since blood is the primary means of transporting most substances within the body. However the concentration of a substance of interest in blood is not always the same as the concentration available to other tissues, the latter typically being of greater interest in diagnostics. This is so because substances must diffuse across cell membranes in order to arrive at other tissues from the blood, and because frequently the substance of interest exists in multiple forms in the blood, not all of which are equally able to cross cell membranes.
In particular, the substance of interest may form associations with other substances (such as proteins) that have much lower ability to permeate cell membranes than has the substance of interest in its free, or unbound, form. In such a case, the concentration of the substance of interest available to tissues other than blood may be much more closely related to the concentration of the free form than to the associated, or bound, forms, or aggregates thereof. Frequently, the bound forms are very much more abundant than the free form.
Moreover, saliva has many advantages as a medium for assessing the concentrations of substances available to tissue in humans. Not only is saliva much more convenient to collect than blood or urine, but levels of many substance of interest in saliva generally reflect the concentrations of the free fractions of those substances in blood plasma. To the degree that saliva concentration of a substance of interest mirrors that of the free fraction of the substance in plasma, the saliva concentration provides more direct information about the availability of the substance to tissue.
There are, however, some significant problems in the interpretation of salivary concentrations of substances. These problems are due to two factors. First, in practice, saliva is often contaminated to some extent with blood or blood plasma, thus including the bound fraction of the substance of interest that is essentially unavailable to tissue. Second, the concentrations of substances in saliva fluctuate over time just as in other body fluids.
Consequently, the interpretation of substance concentrations measured in saliva samples is difficult, since it is generally not known whether there was some degree of blood plasma contamination of saliva, or whether the concentration observed reflected a momentary fluctuation or a longer-enduring state.
It would thus be desirable to provide saliva sampling devices and methods that can be used to obtain a sample of a substance of interest, such that the abundance of the substance of interest in this sample specifically reflects the time integral of the concentration of the free fraction of the substance of interest in saliva (to the exclusion of bound forms) over some known time interval, and that eliminate or minimize measurement inaccuracy caused by blood or blood plasma contamination of saliva.
While devices and/or methods have been heretofore suggested and/or utilized for collecting saliva samples intraorally (see, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,774,692 and 4,817,632), such devices and methods are not particularly adapted to gathering primarily the substance of interest, rather being directed to gathering saliva samples. Where some filtration of saliva samples has been provided (for example by way of a porous membrane surrounding an osmotically active substance as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,817,632), the concentration of a substance of interest derived from analysis of a saliva sample thus collected has no obvious relation to the average concentration of the free fraction of the substance over the interval of use, or even to the concentration of such substance at any identifiable moment within the interval, but instead most closely approximates the concentration present during periods of rapid fluid uptake inherent in such heretofore known devices.
Devices and methods have also been heretofore suggested and/or utilized for the purpose of measuring the concentration of a substance of interest in interstitial fluid, and have therefore been designed to be implantable under the skin of an animal (see U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,798,207 and 4,594,326, by the inventor of the herein disclosed invention). Such devices have of necessity provided means for inserting and withdrawing the binding composition utilized to capture the substance of interest in the device, and required construction utilizing materials compatible with in vivo implantation.
While the device and methods of this invention share many of the general principles discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,594,326 (relevant portions of the disclosure of which are incorporated herein by this reference), further improvements to adapt the method therein discussed for use in measuring substances of interest in saliva could be utilized.
In particular, means of accumulating a specific substance of interest intraorally from saliva in such a way that the amount accumulated during some time interval is substantially directly representative of the average concentration of the free fraction of the substance (and thus available to other tissue) in the fluid during that time interval could be utilized. In such a case, it would be desirable that such means not depend upon the net accumulation of saliva fluid, nor be limited by volumetric capacity of a device for such accumulation.
By way of further example (in the case of sustained drug delivery), sustained intraoral delivery of an antibiotic such as tetracycline, for the purpose of treating a periodontal infection or the like, would be desirable. In such a case, therapeutic drug levels could be maintained in the oral cavity over a long period of time. This would be advantageous from the point of view of maintaining adequate drug levels at the site of the infection, without exposing other tissues to such high levels of drug, thereby minimizing undesirable side effects. Devices and methods for such sustained intraoral drug delivery could thus be utilized which regulate the transfer of the drug into saliva.

Device for controlled diffusion of a chemical substance


A device for measuring and automatically controlling the volumetric rate of air through an air handling system used in connection with clean rooms. A desired volumetric air rate is maintained by measuring air pressure differentials between different locations in the system. The volumetric air rate is adjusted by using a variable frequency drive to adjust the speed of the fan in response to a measured pressure differential.

Semiconductor fabrication facilities utilize clean rooms for various chip manufacturing operations. Because of the nature of the manufacturing operations, it is usually a requirement that a very precise and constant rate of purified air be supplied to any given clean room. The purified air is fan-driven and purified by one or more filters (generally HEPA filters are used, which are well-known). The manufacturing operations may be adversely affected if a constant volumetric air rate is not maintained.
Over time, the filters become increasingly clogged or loaded with particulate matter which impedes the air rate delivered to the clean room. Filter loading creates a need to make compensating adjustments in order to maintain a constant air rate.
In the past, it was commonplace to use fixed-speed fans to deliver the air. Air adjustments were made by moving or repositioning barriers in the duct work or air path leading into the clean room. These barriers were usually in the form of screens or dampers and functioned to alter the cross-sectional area of the air path. The result was a change in air velocity and rate. With this adjustment method, however, it is difficult to precisely adjust the air.
Alternatively, the air may be adjusted by using a variable frequency drive ("VFD") to control the fan. A VFD adjusts the frequency of the input power to the fan motor, which adjusts the fan speed, thereby adjusting the volumetric air rate. The higher or lower the fan speed, the higher or lower the air rate, respectively.
When VFDs are used in conjunction with clean room air, the clean room operator must repeatedly measure how much the actual volumetric air rate has deviated from a pre-set standard and make corresponding adjustments to fan speed. In the past, the operator made the air rate measurement by using a hand-held measuring device. Then, depending on the measurement, the operator gradually adjusted fan speed until the air rate returned to the pre-set standard. This was, of course, labor-intensive, but it also had a significant drawback in that the air rate could drop out of adjustment a significant amount before the operator detected it via a manual measurement. If the air rate changed too much before detection, it could have an adverse impact on clean room manufacturing operations. The present invention solves these problems.

Volumetric airflow indicator and control device


A calibration device measures the maximum pull force developed by a banding tool while tightening a metal band around a tubular sleeve, such as a termination sleeve on an electrical connector housing. The calibration device includes a strain gauge assembly carried by a frame. One portion of the frame includes a releasable jaw assembly for securely capturing the band to allow the pull force of the tool to be measured. Disposed adjacent the releasable jaw assembly is a foot portion of the frame having a slot for receiving a removable nosepiece. The removable nosepiece is formed to the contour of the nosepiece of a particular banding tool. Since the nosepiece is removable, various nosepieces having contours for various banding tools can be utilized. The calibration device also includes a force release assembly for gradually releasing the force on the force sensing element to avoid damage thereto. The force release assembly includes a lever operated cam and a cam follower which allows the force on the force sensing element to be gradually released by rotating the lever.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a calibration device for measuring the maximum pull force developed by a banding tool while tightening a metal band about a tubular sleeve; which includes a force release assembly for gradually releasing the force to prevent damage to the force sensing element.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Various tools are known in the art for terminating a metal band about a tubular sleeve, to secure, for example, an electrical cable shield, such as a woven copper braid, to an electrical connector housing. In order to prevent damage to the tubular sleeve on the connector housing, often made of cast aluminum, various banding tools are known having a preset pull force to avoid damage to the tubular sleeve on the electrical connector housing. For example, both a power operated tool and a manually operated tool are known which have assemblies which prevent the tools from applying more than a predetermined amount of pull force. These tools are assigned to the same assignee of the present invention and are disclosed in copending applications Ser. No. 07/277,325, filed on Nov. 29, 1988, and Ser. No. 07/370,597, filed on Jun. 23, 1989.
A calibration device is generally used to measure the maximum pull force generated by both the manually operated tool and the power operated tool. Known calibration devices for such tools often include a strain gauge assembly and a pair of releasable jaws for holding a portion of a metal band. In order to calibrate the tool, one end of a metal band is placed into the releasable jaws on the calibration device. The other end of the metal band is placed into the tool. The tool is then operated and the maximum pull force is read off a dial on the calibration device. In some power operated tools, the driving motor, whether electrical or pneumatic, is reversible. With such tools the driving motor may be operated in reverse to gradually relieve the force on the force sensing element within the strain gauge assembly. In other power operated tools and known manually operated tools, there are no means to gradually reduce the force on the force sensing element after the maximum pull force has been determined. With such tools, the band is cut between the tool and the calibration device. However, such cutting results in a sudden release of force which can damage the force sensing element. Replacement of damaged force sensing elements can be rather costly.
Another problem with known calibration devices is that it is necessary for the banding tool to be stationary with respect to the calibration device during calibration. This requires that the nosepiece of the tool be held in intimate contact with the calibration device. In known calibration devices, the contour of the nosepiece of the tool is molded into the frame of the calibration device. However, since different banding tools have different nosepiece configurations, such calibration devices can only be used for banding tools with the same nose-piece configuration.


A valve assembly includes a rotary nut unit having a threaded wall portion, a first wall portion near the threaded wall portion and defining a first shoulder, a second wall portion below the first wall portion and defining a second shoulder. A valve stem is disposed within the nut unit, has a lower portion projecting axially and outwardly from the lower end of the nut unit and an upper portion received in the second shoulder. The stem has an axial hole in spatial communication with an axial hole in the nut unit. The upper portion has a head part formed with first and second outward flanges defining a ring-reception recess therebetween. A leak-proof ring is sleeved around the ring-reception recess in the head part to abut hermetically against the second wall portion, thereby providing an air-proof effect between the leak-proof ring and the second wall portion.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an inflating valve assembly, more particularly to an inflating valve assembly, which is adapted to be installed at an outlet vent of an air injection apparatus and which is adapted to complement with several types of adapters such that inflatable articles with different specification air inlets are inflated via the inflating valve assembly of the present invention upon activation of the air injection apparatus.
2. The Prior Arts
An inflating valve is usually installed to an inflatable article, such as motor car tire. When it is desired to pump air into the inflatable article, an air-outlet of an air injection apparatus is attached to the inflating valve such that the article is inflated upon activation of the air injection apparatus.
A conventional inflating valve generally includes a valve stem provided at an air inlet such that when no external is applied on the valve stem, the latter blocks the air inlet hermetically owing to the sufficient pressure within the inflated article so that the pressure within the inflated article is prevented from leaking to an exterior of the inflated article. In case, an external object applies pressure onto the valve stem, the latter retracts inwardly thereof, thereby opening the air inlet. Under this condition, the air within the inflated article can escape to an exterior and alternately air can be injected into an interior of the article upon activation of the air injection apparatus.
Presently, two types of inflating valve are available in the market, namely: (1) Schrader valve assembly (generally known as American valve), (2) Presta valve assembly (generally known as French valve). The French valve includes two-step thread portions (i.e. an outer large diameter thread portion and an outer small diameter thread portion proximate to the distal end and defining a shoulder between the large and small thread portions) while a valve stem projects outwardly from the air inlet of the inflatable article. The American valve includes an externally threaded portion for mating with an air injection apparatus and a valve stem retracts inwardly into the threaded portion.
The America valve is employed in a majority of the inflatable articles when compare to the French valve. If one desires to inject or pump air into an inflatable article provided with a French valve, an adapter compatible with the French valve is required to couple to the air outlet of the air injection apparatus. Only then, air can be injected into the inflatable article via the adapter upon activation of the air injection apparatus. Of course, nowadays there are some air injection apparatuses or air pumps provided with French valves for the consumers to pick and choose. However, in case one desires to inject air into an inflatable article provided with an American valve, another adapter compatible with the American valve is required to couple with the air outlet of the air injection apparatus. Only then, air can be injected into the inflatable article via another adapter upon activation of the air injection apparatus.
As mentioned above, there are adapters with single function (i.e. compatible with French valve or American valve). There is yet another adapter, which is compatible with French valve and American valve simultaneously. Regardless of the inflatable article is provided French valve or American valve, an adapter is still required for the air injection apparatus to pump air into an inflatable article provided with inflating valves of different specifications. However, it is noted that the construction structure of French valve or American valve includes several parts and is complicated to assemble, hence leading to high manufacturing expense for the manufacturers.


The present invention provides a band-pass filter, being capable of fitting a frequency spectrum area having phase information in a frequency spectrum image, to obtain a spectrum information corresponding to the phase information during the process of obtaining the phase information from the frequency spectrum image with respect to an object's surface profile. In another embodiment, the present invention further provides a method to optimize the spectrum range of the band-pass filter so as to enhance measuring accuracy and efficiency while restoring the surface of the object. In addition, by employing the foregoing method, the present invention further provides a measurement system for measuring three-dimensional surface shapes in which a deformed fringe pattern with respect to the measured object's surface is acquired and the phase information is obtained from the fringe pattern according to the foregoing method so as to restore the surface profile of the measured object.

With rapid advance in technology along with the development in industrial production, the demands for better precision on surface profilometry with respect to geometrical sizes, surface roughness and free-form surfaces is even increasing. However, since the measurements of all those surface profilometry techniques currently available are easily affected by environment disturbances and thus causing undesired errors in the measurements, it is in urgent needs of improved real-time three-dimensional surface profilometry techniques.
There are already many studies relating to such improved real-time three-dimensional surface profilometry techniques. One of which is a three-dimensional surface profilometry technique disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,768,881, entitled "Method and apparatus for processing holographic interference patterns using Fourier-transforms". Operationally, after projecting a fringe pattern onto an object to be measured, the object is first being imaged by a square-shaped imaging unit for obtaining an spatial image including only the portion of the object in the square area defined by the imaging unit, and then the so-obtained spatial image of the object is transformed into a frequency-domain image which is then being filtered by a band-pass filter for obtaining phase information relating to the frequency-domain image to be further used for reconstructing the three-dimensional surface profile of the object.
Moreover, there is another prior-art surface profilometry method disclosed by Cedric Breluzeau, et al. in "Automated fringe-pattern extrapolation for patterned surface profiling by interference microscopy with Fourier transform analysis', Proceedings of SPIE, vol. 5858, 2005, which uses an adjustable band-pass filter to set a threshold value for the purpose of achieving optimal filtering while preventing causing any measurement error in the intended three-dimensional surface reconstruction. Although different filter shapes in the Fourier space were tested for the determination of valid areas in the interferogram, only the neighboring areas with the most significant spectral signals are selected to be the valid areas by those filters of different shapes. Thus, it does not extract the entire vital spectrum precisely required for accurate phase information reconstruction. Therefore, there may be distortion in the reconstructed surface profile basing upon the aforesaid methods, which is especially true for reconstructing those objects with sharp edges.
It is noted that all the aforesaid surface profilometry measurement techniques use a band-pass filter as a means for defining a valid area in a frequency spectrum of a deformed structured fringe pattern and thus obtaining phase information from the valid area to be used in a calculation for reconstructing surface profile of the object. However, as the valid area defined by the conventional band-pass filters, such as 2-D Hanning filter or circular band-pass filters, used in the aforesaid surface profilometry measurement techniques fails to include all the spectrum areas containing vital phase information of the object's surface profile, the reconstructed surface profile of the object resulting from the foregoing reconstruction calculations may deviate from the actual surface profile of the object in size or in shape which severely affects the accuracy of the surface profilometry. Please refer to FIG. 1A to FIG. 1G, which show various reconstructed images of a ball-shaped object relating to different stages in a surface reconstruction process using a conventional circular band-pass filter. FIG. 1A is a spatial domain image (deformed structured fringe pattern) of a ball-shaped object using fringe projection. FIG. 1B is a frequency domain image obtained by performing a Fourier transformation upon the image of FIG. 1A. FIG. 1C shows a spectrum information which is obtained by circular band-pass filtering the area in the image of FIG. 1B within the +1 order and −1 order frequency spectrum areas. FIG. 1D is an image obtained by performing an inverse Fourier transformation upon the spectrum information of FIG. 1C. For reconnecting the phase discontinuities in the image of FIG. 1D, a Euler transformation and a phase unwrapping process is performed upon the image of FIG. 1D for achieving a continuous phase distribution, as shown in FIG. 1E. Using the information of continuous phase distribution in FIG. 1E, the surface profile of the ball-shaped object can be reconstructed, as the reconstructed three-dimensional image shown in FIG. 1F and a cross-sectional image of the profile illustrated in FIG. 1G.
Please refer to FIG. 1H to FIG. 1L, which show various reconstructed images of a ball-shaped object relating to different stages in a phase unwrapping process using another conventional circular band-pass filter disclosed by Cédric Bréluzeau, et al. FIG. 1H shows an overlapping step-height precision gauge blocks and FIG. 1I is a spatial domain fringe pattern image of the block structure of FIG. 1H. FIG. 1J is a frequency domain image obtained by performing a Fourier transformation upon the image of FIG. 1I. After circular band-pass filtering the area in the image of FIG. 1J for obtaining a spectrum image and then performing an inverse Fourier transformation upon the spectrum information, a Euler transformation and a phase unwrapping process is performed upon the Fourier-inversed image, the surface profile of the overlapping step-height gauge block can be reconstructed, as the reconstructed three-dimensional image shown in FIG. 1K and the cross-sectional image of FIG. 1L. In FIG. 1L, by the reconstruction resulting from the aforesaid conventional circular band-pass filter, the edges between each blocks in reconstructed image of the step-height block are rounded like arcs and not longer preserve the right angles in the original structure.
Therefore, it is in need of a method for acquiring phase information and relating system for measuring three-dimensional surface profile that are free from the aforesaid shortcomings.

Method for acquiring phase information and system for measuring three dimensional surface profiles

National Taipei University of Technology


A method, system and computer readable medium of: providing feature data of at least one organ at risk or target volume of said patient from a database of non-transitory data stored on a data storage device of prior patients data; generating, using a data processor, a distribution of dose points of the at least one organ at risk or target volume of said patient based on said feature data; calculating, using the data processor, at least one of (i) a probability of toxicity for the at least one organ at risk or (ii) a probability of treatment failure for the at least one target volume, based on said distribution of dose points; assessing, using the data processor, a dosimetric-outcome relationship based on the calculated probability; and automatically formulating, using the data processor, a treatment plan using the dosimetric-outcome relationship to minimize the at least one treatment-related risk.

The relationship between radiation dose and treatment related toxicities is complex due to the 3-dimensional (3D) nature of the dose distribution and the complex function of the anatomy of the patient involved. For decades we have studied the impact of radiation related toxicities to whole organs identified by radiation oncologists during the treatment planning. The results have molded the practice of radiation oncology and are critical to the understanding of our medicine. To this point it has been impractical to refine the analysis to the finer substructure of the anatomy or to understand the impact of dosing multiple structures. 'Big Data' and improved methods of refining dosimetric analysis offer an opportunity to better understand how radiation impacts the function of normal anatomy and provide information to further reduce treatment related toxicities.

Method, system and computer-readable media for treatment plan risk analysis


An avatar generator for a virtual environment reflects a physiological characteristic of the user, injecting a degree of reality into the capabilities or appearance. Thereby, many of the incentives of the real world are replicated in a virtual environment. Physiological data that reflect a degree of health of the real person can be linked to rewards of capabilities of a gaming avatar, an amount of time budgeted to play, or a visible indication. Thereby, people are encouraged to exercise. Physiological data that reflect the health and perhaps also mood also improve social interaction in virtual environments. People seeking to meet and become acquainted with particular types of people are not thwarted by the artificiality of avatars. The physiological data can be gleaned from a third party health data collection repository, a healthcare smart card, a real-time physiological sensor (e.g., blood pressure, heart rate, blood glucose, peak flow, pedometer, etc.).

Increasingly, people interact with services, information, or other people through a virtual environment. Typically, these interactions have been largely anonymous, or at least not linked to the physical individual in any way other than in self-provided identification. Often, these interactions are in a virtual space accessible by a large number of other people via a virtual persona. Examples of such virtual personas are avatars that present a sensory representation (i.e., graphical, auditory) of a particular person, often tailored to selected or predetermined characteristics. For example, a person can control an avatar as a player in a video game or as a social entity in a chat room.
This detachment of the avatar from physical limitations of the individual has often allowed exhilarating possibilities. In gaming environments, individuals are able simulate stunts and performances through their avatar that the real person could not achieve. The challenges and virtual rewards presented reinforce interest in playing. Consequently, these engrossing virtual pastimes have substantially replaced real physical exertion for many people. Unfortunately, excessive amounts of time interacting with video gaming or other virtual programming environments have negative health ramifications. This sedentary outlet provides no avenue or incentive to exercise.
The detachment of the avatar from characteristics of the individual also has many advantages in social interaction environments; individuals are able to overcome shortcomings that would otherwise inhibit them, such as pertaining to self-consciousness. However, drawbacks exist with this detachment. Others may prefer some of the cues that are available in meeting someone in person. Physical cues of a person's background, mood, socioeconomic class, ethnicity, and geographic location are readily ascertained in person. These physical characteristics assist in locating a person with aspects in common. Further, it is difficult to ascertain someone's mood, for instance, when such transient physical characteristics require the individual to self-disclose them, which may be inconvenient undesirable to provide although wanted by others. The artificiality of the avatars often results in frustration and miscommunication, thwarting the useful virtual social interaction for many people and reducing the potential for competitive interactions as well.

Avatar individualized by physical characteristic


A single terahertz wave time-waveform measuring device 1 acquires information on an object to be measured 9 by using a terahertz wave, and includes a light source 11, a beam diameter adjuster 12, a separator 13, a terahertz wave generator 21, a light path length difference adjuster 31, a pulse front tilting unit 32, a polarizer 33, a wave synthesizer 41, an electro-optic crystal 42, an analyzer 43, and a photodetector 44. The terahertz wave generator 21 generates a pulse terahertz wave in response to an input of pump light and outputs the pulse terahertz wave. The pulse front tilting unit 32 makes pulse fronts of the terahertz wave and the probe light when being input into the electro-optic crystal 42 nonparallel to each other by tilting the pulse front of the probe light.

Terahertz waves are electromagnetic waves with a frequency of approximately 0.01 THz to 1000 THz corresponding to an intermediate region between light waves and radio waves, and have intermediate characteristics between light waves and radio waves. As application of such a terahertz wave, a technique for acquiring information on an object to be measured by measuring a time waveform of an electric field amplitude of a terahertz wave transmitted through or reflected by the object to be measured (refer to Non-patent documents 1 to 4) has been studied.
The measuring technique for information on an object to be measured by using a terahertz wave is generally as follows. That is, pulsed light output from a light source (for example, a femtosecond laser light source) is two-separated into a pump light and a probe light by a separator. The pump light of these is input into a terahertz wave generating nonlinear optical crystal, and accordingly, a pulse terahertz wave is generated from this nonlinear optical crystal. The generated terahertz wave is transmitted through or reflected by an object to be measured, and accordingly, information on the object to be measured (for example, an absorption coefficient, and a refractive index) are obtained, and thereafter, the wave is synthesized with the probe light by a wave synthesizer, and made incident on a terahertz wave detecting electro-optic crystal at a timing substantially synchronous with the probe light.
In the electro-optic crystal into which the terahertz wave and the probe light are input, birefringence is induced along with propagation of the terahertz wave, and the birefringence changes a polarized state of the probe light in the electro-optic crystal. Therefore, a polarizer is provided on the light path of the probe light between the separator and wave synthesizer, an analyzer is provided on the output side of the electro-optic crystal, and the intensity of probe light transmitted through the analyzer is detected, whereby polarized state changes of the probe light in the electro-optic crystal are detected, and eventually, an electric field amplitude of the terahertz wave is detected, and characteristics of the object to be measured are obtained. Thus, the measuring technique for information on an object to be measured by using a terahertz wave uses an electro-optic effect caused by a pulse terahertz wave on the terahertz wave detecting electro-optic crystal.
Generally, the pulse width of a terahertz wave is on the level of picoseconds, and on the other hand, the pulse width of probe light is on the level of femtoseconds, so that the pulse width of probe light is several digits smaller than that of a terahertz wave. Accordingly, by sweeping an incidence timing of the probe light on a terahertz wave detecting electro-optic crystal, a time waveform of an electric field amplitude of a pulse terahertz wave is obtained.    Non-patent document 1: Jie Shan, et al., Opt. Lett., Vol. 25, No. 6, pp. 426-428 (2000)    Non-patent document 2: Takashi Yasuda, et al., Optical Terahertz Science and Technology (OSA Topical Meeting), Orlando, USA, March 14-16, Technical Digest (CD) TuC6 (2005)    Non-patent document 3: Zhiping Jiang, et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. Vol. 72, No. 16, pp. 1945-1947 (1998)    Non-patent document 4: Zhiping Jiang, et al., Opt. Lett., Vol. 24, No. 16, pp. 1245-1947 (1999)

Single terahertz wave time-waveform measuring device


A shear/seal ram provides a knife edge at the shearing edge and the knife edge is inclined to minimize the cutting force required and to leave a clean cut edge. The knife edge is presented in an opening of the ram, thus the opening is positioned at the axis of the BOP, and consequently the coiled tubing, before the coiled tubing is run through the BOP. A biasing means, such as for example a Bellville spring, forces a sealing sleeve against the underside of the ram to prevent leakage of pressure from below the BOP. Similarly, a plurality of biasing means, referred to herein as “skates”, forces the ram down against the sealing sleeve to seal pressure from above the BOP.

Various arrangements have been used to shear elongated objects such as tubular members or coiled tubing extending through a blowout preventer (BOP) and then attempting to block or seal off communication through the BOP after the tubular object has been sheared. Some of such devices include shear arrangements which are generally rectangular in configuration but the configuration or arrangement is such that it may collapse or crush the ends of the tubular member being severed, particularly where the member is thin walled. Also, the sealing arrangement employed with such shear blades is generally unsatisfactory in that it may not adequately and positively seal or block off communication through the BOP after the tubular members or other object has been severed.
A solution to these and other problems was disclosed in my earlier U.S. Pat. No. 4,646,825. In the '825 patent, opposed rams were sealably and reciprocally mounted in a body with opposed shear blades projecting from one end of each ram for movement toward each other to sever an elongated object extending between the rams and blades. A seal was provided on each blade and configured to sealingly receive therein the exposed portion of the opposed blade after the object has been severed, and each ram was provided with a cut out portion to receive the adjacent severed end of the elongated object to inhibit crushing thereof.
While the structure disclosed in the '825 patent has proved successful, it still suffers from the drawback that the ram element requires a polymeric seal component. It is known that polymeric components of all types become brittle with age, particularly in the harsh environment of a blowout preventer. If the seal element becomes brittle, then the seal can leak by, reducing the effectiveness for which the BOP was installed.
Other typical shear/seal-type rams include a well head gate valve to shear coiled tubing and the well pressure. Such a gate valve does not have any exposed elastomer on the gate, which acts as the shearing member, but does indeed include an O-ring or similar polymeric seal on the piston rod and sealing seat. The gate valve shear seal arrangement, however, introduces its own drawbacks. For example, once the gate valve shear ram is shut, it cuts the coiled tubing at the top and the bottom of the gate, since the gate presents a square edge against the surface of the coiled tubing. Then, when the gate is opened once more, the resulting stub or severed segment of the coiled tubing may drop into the well.
Also, the square edge of the gate is not an efficient shearing device, requiring high shearing forces to shear the coiled tubing and therefore limiting the size and wall thickness of the coiled tubing that can be sheared. Further, the sheared tubing is not cut cleanly, and is prone to damaging the gate as it passes over the ragged edge of the sheared tubing. This phenomenon can cause the valve to leak.
This type of known shear also suffers from the drawback in that the tubing is completely or almost completely closed, which may impair circulation and recovery operations. The shear/seal function of a BOP is used in the event of an emergency requiring control of the well to prevent flow of gas or liquids, and normal operations will be performed to bring the well back to controlled condition. Control involves reconnecting to the "fish" (the portion of tubing left in the well), pumping fluid, generally weighted to a higher specific gravity than the fluids in the well at the time of the emergency, through the fish, and returned to the surface reservoir, to clear the well of gas, or light hydrocarbons. Connecting to a flattened tubing, and then pumping fluids through it is not possible without remedial operations to mill away the flatten portion of the tubing. This is not easy anytime, but becomes a delicate operation with high pressure gas at the wellhead. The double cut piece of tubing (biscuit) may also become a problem, fouling some piece of down hole equipment.
Thus, there remains a need for a shear/seal ram-type BOP that provides an effective seal without a polymeric seal component on the ram, although polymeric components may be used in other components of the BOP that remained sealed. The shear/seal should cleanly shear the coiled tubing, and not result in a cutoff stub or biscuit that can fall into the well. The shear/seal ram should allow for circulation through the tubing to promote recovery operations, and it should increase the size and wall thickness of coiled tubing that can be efficiently sheared, relative to shear/seal rams currently in place. The present invention is directed to filling these and other needs in the art.


Controllers in a Software Defined Network (SDN) automatically discover and authenticate each other as part of the control plane operations, without any need for manual configuration of other controllers. The new capability of such controllers is based on Controller-Advertisement messages transferred between controllers in the same or different SDNs. In doing so, multiple controllers can be used for load sharing, improved reliability under failure of a controller by enabling seamless take over and recovery. Moreover, controllers can cooperate to enable end-to-end services to work across multiple SDNs. Controller-Advertisement messages are also used to check the health statuses of discovered controllers in the same or different SDNs.

1. Field of Invention
The disclosed invention generally relates to the controller component of a Software Defined Network (SDN). In particular, it relates to such controllers automatically discovering and authenticating each other as part of the control plane operations, without any need for manual configuration of other controllers as it is being done in prior art. The system of this invention is a new capability of the controller that receives Controller-Advertisement messages from other controllers in the same or different SDN, performing authentication and subsequently performing control plane information exchange. The Controller-Advertisement messages used for discovery are also used to periodically check the health of the pool of discovered controllers. Multiple controllers can be used for load sharing, improved reliability under failure of a controller by enabling seamless take over and recovery. Also, controllers can cooperate to enable end-to-end services to work across multiple SDNs.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Software-Defined Networking (SDN) is a new paradigm where the control of computer and communication networks is accomplished via programmatic interfaces. There are a number of approaches to SDN. In the most popular approach, the data and control planes that typically reside in a switch are separated and the control plane is moved to a separate device, commonly referred to as the controller as described in the article "OpenFlow: Enabling Innovation in Campus Networks" by Nick McKeown et al., which appeared in ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review, vol. 38, no. 2, April 2008 and also in the Pre-Grant Application by Casado et al. (2009/0138577). When triggered, the controller calculates the most appropriate route through the network between two nodes and programs all switches along this route accordingly. The controller can be a physical server, a virtual machine or an appliance. There can be multiple controllers in a computer network in this approach. It is possible to divide the network into regions and have different controllers control each region. It is also possible to have multiple controllers control a single switch for reliability and/or performance issues, where each controller may control different ports, or different flow types, or flows with different end nodes. In this approach, a well-defined protocol, OpenFlow, is used for communication between the network forwarding devices and the controller. The controller also has a northbound application programming interface so that different, custom control applications that use the OpenFlow data may be installed on the controller. This approach is advocated by the Open Networking Foundation (ONF) that aims to standardize the OpenFlow protocol. The latest version of the OpenFlow protocol may be accessed via the ONF web page. It is also possible to use a protocol other than OpenFlow to enable proper operation of this approach. FIG. 1 illustrates the OpenFlow-based SDN concept with a single controller 100 and a plurality of switches 109, 110, 111, and 112. In FIG. 1, dotted lines 101, 102, 103 and 104 represent control plane connections between the controller and the switches, while solid lines 105, 106, 107, and 108 represent the switch-to-switch data plane connections. All interactions in FIG. 1 between the controller and the switches use a clearly defined protocol, such as OpenFlow. This protocol allows for the control plane operations, wherein the controller programs the switches to specify the route of data paths (or flows, slices). The controller programs the switch by simply uploading one or more forwarding table(s) (or table entries).
In a second approach to SDN, virtual switches, as described in the Pre-Grant Application by Casado et al. (2010/0257263), are deployed as part of an overlay network on top of the existing network infrastructure using protocols such as VXLAN or NVGRE, which are defined in IETF Internet Drafts, draft-mahalingam-dutt-dcops-vxlan-00.txt and draft-sridharan-virtualization-nvgre-01.txt, respectively. In this approach, the data and control planes are still kept separate in the overlay, and the controller (or a group of controllers) is used to control the virtual switches.
In a third SDN approach, the data and control planes are not physically separated. Instead, every forwarding device in the network uses programmatic interfaces for network control, on which custom control applications may be installed. This vendor specific approach may be visualized as having an SDN controller in each forwarding device and using a vendor-specific protocol for communication between the controller and the forwarder.
The Pre-Grant Publication to Kato (2012/025049) describes a Load Distribution System, Load Distribution Method, and Program for SDN. In Kato, the load distribution amongst controllers is made possible using a proxy server that is situated between the switches and the controllers. The proxy server enables transparency of the different controllers to each of the switches. It also enables seamless load-balancing amongst the controllers unbeknownst to the switches in the network.
The Pre-Grant Publication to Yamato et al. (2011/0317701) describes one possible method to formulate routing decisions in a SDN architecture where multiple controllers are deployed. The routing decision, as calculated by the controller that controls the switch from which the route originates, is communicated to the other, relevant controllers in the network by this controller using a message that includes the forwarding path information.
In Kato as well as Yamata et al., as with the remainder of the prior art, when multiple controllers are used, a manual configuration step is needed to program each controller with the information of the other controller(s). The present invention eliminates this manual step by providing a system and method that allow each controller to automatically discover and authenticate other controllers in the network.
Embodiments of the present invention are an improvement over prior art systems and methods.

Automatic discovery of multiple controllers in Software Defined Networks (SDNs)

ARGELA YAZILIM VE BILISIM TEKNOLOJILERI SAN. VE TIC. A.S.


Provided is a resin composition which is a material for ink supply tubes and which has excellent moisture barrier performance, air barrier performance, and kink resistance. The resin composition contains a thermoplastic elastomer (A) containing a (b)-(a)-(b)-type isobutylene triblock copolymer containing polymer blocks (a) having isobutylene units and polymer blocks (b) having styrene units and also contains a lubricant (B). The content of the thermoplastic elastomer (A) in the resin composition is 70% to 95% by mass. The content of the lubricant (B) in the resin composition is 5% to 15% by mass. The content of the (b)-(a)-(b)-type isobutylene triblock copolymer in the resin composition is 50% to 95% by mass. The content of the polymer blocks (a) in the (b)-(a)-(b)-type isobutylene triblock copolymer is 80% to 90% by mass. The content of the polymer blocks (b) in the (b)-(a)-(b)-type isobutylene triblock copolymer is 10% to 20% by mass.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a resin composition for ink supply tubes and also relates to an ink supply tube.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional ink jet recording apparatuses make records on recording media in such a manner that inks are ejected from ink jet recording heads. In such an ink jet recording apparatus, a carriage equipped with an ink jet recording head is moved over a recording medium in a main scanning direction and ink is ejected from the ink jet recording head while moving to perform recording. After a main scan is performed once, the recording medium is moved by a certain amount in an auxiliary scanning direction and the carriage is moved in the main scanning direction again to perform recording. A desired pattern can be recorded on the recording medium by repeating this operation.
A type of ink supply unit for use in the ink jet recording apparatus is equipped with a replaceable tank (ink tank), filled with ink, separate from the carriage. In the ink jet recording apparatus, the ink tank is connected to the ink jet recording head, which is aboard the carriage, through an ink supply tube placed therebetween such that ink is supplied to the ink jet recording head. This type is suitable for the purpose of using a relatively large amount of ink because the volume of the ink tank can be readily increased.
When the ink jet recording apparatus is used for recording, the ink supply tube, which connects the ink tank to the ink jet recording head, is pulled or twisted due to the reciprocating motion of the carriage, which equipped with the ink jet recording head, and therefore is increased in flexural rigidity. If the ink supply tube has high hardness, fatigue failure may possibly occur therein. Therefore, the ink supply tube needs to have flexibility enough to cope with reciprocation. In particular, the ink supply tube needs to cope with reciprocation with a smaller curvature and needs to have higher flexibility because of the recent downsizing of ink jet printers.
If moisture evaporates from ink present in the ink supply tube to leak out of the ink supply tube, the viscosity of the ink therein will increase. This may cause serious problems such as improper ink ejection and a reduction in print quality due to the change in composition of the ink. In addition, if gases such as air permeate through the ink supply tube, the gases will dissolve in the ink in the ink supply tube to cause a reduction in the degree of deaeration of the ink or the creation and growth of bubbles in the ink. This may possibly cause improper ink ejection and a reduction in print quality. Therefore, the ink supply tube needs to have high moisture barrier performance and air barrier performance.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 9-300652 discloses an ink supply tube for ink jet recording. This ink supply tube has a layered structure consisting of an inner layer in contact with ink, an outer layer in contact with air, and an intermediate layer made of a material with low gas permeability, the inner and outer layers being made of a material having ink resistance, low permeability, and low rigidity. In particular, the inner and outer layers are made of polyethylene and the intermediate layer is made of an ethylene-vinyl alcohol copolymer or polyvinylidene chloride.
Techniques for using highly flexible thermoplastic elastomers to prepare ink supply tubes for ink jet recording are being investigated. Such thermoplastic elastomers include olefinic thermoplastic elastomers, urethane thermoplastic elastomers, ester thermoplastic elastomers, styrenic thermoplastic elastomers, and polyvinyl chloride thermoplastic elastomers. In particular, the styrenic thermoplastic elastomers have excellent flexibility and rubber elasticity. Examples of the styrenic thermoplastic elastomers include styrene-butadiene-styrene (SBS) block copolymers, styrene-isoprene-styrene (SIS) block copolymers, styrene-ethylene-butylene-styrene (SEBS) block copolymers, and styrene-ethylene-propylene-styrene (SEPS) block copolymers. In recent years, styrene-isobutylene-styrene (SIBS) block copolymers have been developed.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-305878 discloses a resin composition, containing a thermoplastic elastomer, for ink jet recording. In particular, the resin composition contains a styrene-isobutylene-styrene (SIBS) block copolymer, a polyolefin, and liquid polybutene and has excellent gas barrier performance, excellent moisture barrier performance, and good flexibility.

Resin composition for ink supply tubes and ink supply tube


A retractable step for entering and exiting rail vehicles. The retractable step has a surface which can be walked upon and is configured to be extended in an essentially linear direction to bridge a gap between the rail vehicle and a platform. The retractable step includes a leading edge and has at least one sensor configured to prevent a collision with objects during an extension operation of the retractable step. The strip is movably connected to the retractable step and extends over an entire length L of the retractable step.

The present disclosure relates to a retractable step. A retractable step is understood as meaning an entry aid for assisting the entering and exiting of vehicles, particularly rail vehicles. The retractable step has a surface which can be walked upon being extended from the vehicle essentially in a linear direction in order to bridge the gap between the vehicle and the platform or the like.
Depending on the positioning between the vehicle box body and the platform, the retractable step, generally toward the end of its extension movement, comes into the region of the platform . There is the risk of it moving laterally into the essentially vertically extending platform wall. This problem is overcome by sensors in the region of the leading edge of the retractable step.
Another problem is that, in the case of an extended retractable step, a change in height of the retractable step may occur during the time the vehicle spends in the station. This may take place within a short period by the suspension yielding, by the vehicle load changing as passengers get in and out, by the wind load stressing changing, and by more of the same sort of reasons. The greatest possible change in height is defined here by various parameters of the vehicle (type of suspension, position of the stops, length of the lever arms of the retractable step relative to the pivot axis, etc.) and is called maximum change in height below. The actual change in the height position within the context of this maximum change in height may result in luggage or passengers becoming trapped, or the retractable step being damaged if the retractable step is correspondingly lowered. Since the objects at risk generally do not extend over the entire width of the retractable step and it cannot be predicted in which region of the retractable step they are located, detection has hitherto been impossible and the risk of body parts or objects becoming trapped or of the retractable step becoming damaged has had to be accepted.
The present disclosure relates to a device with which it is possible to carry out a detection of the above-mentioned type in a satisfactory and cost-effective manner.
According to the present disclosure, this is achieved in that a strip is connected movably to the retractable step. The strip extends essentially over the entire length of the retractable step and, in the activated state, being located essentially under the front edge of the retractable step. In addition, at least one sensor is provided which detects the position of the strip and/or the force transmitted by the strip to the retractable step.
As a result, every impermissible approach toward the upper side of the platform can be detected as can the imminent risk of an object or body part becoming trapped. The positioning of the strip makes it possible, during the extension of the retractable step, also to detect the space (detection space) in which, during a lowering operation, the retractable step could move and thus makes it possible to safeguard it. An activated state is taken up by the strip at least during the extension of the retractable step.
The movable connection between strip and retractable step makes it possible to bring the strip into the desired position, if appropriate automatically, during the extension of the retractable step. The monitoring of this position remains activated during the extension of the retractable step into its end position.
If a change in the position of the strip is detected, the extension movement is stopped and the retractable step is moved back by a predetermined length by which a safe distance from the object is ensured. In addition, for example, an acoustic and/or optical alarm signal may be emitted. Of course, a different reaction is possible if this is desired by the operator.
The strip itself may either execute an extension movement which is oblique with respect to the direction of extension of the retractable step but is essentially linear. It may also execute a rotational movement and be swung out.
Depending in each case on the design and movement of the strip, a very wide variety of sensors, which can be designed as switches or strain gauges or based on an electrodynamic or piezoelectric effect, are suitable as the actual sensor. The sensors may be arranged either directly in the strip and measure the force between an underlying surface and the strip, or they are accommodated in the region of the bearings of the strip and measure the forces between the strip and retractable step, which forces may originate from the first-mentioned forces.
The transition of the strip from the passive position into the active position can take place by the dead weight of the strip, a slotted-guide mechanism and possibly a spring. Of course, it is also possible to provide a motor drive.
In accordance with the present disclosure, if the retractable step is to be retracted if a trapping risk is established, it is favorable that, during this retraction movement, the strip releases any objects already trapped as rapidly as possible without further loading and does not trap and keep hold of them.
Other aspects of the present disclosure will become apparent from the following descriptions when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.


In a motor vehicle having at least one drive engine, the vehicle is made ready for travel, at least as concerns the starting of the drive engine and preferably also the establishment of a frictional connection between the drive engine and driven wheels, by way of a combination operating element which is actuated manually by the driver, without relying on a manually actuated operating element provided for at least the first starting of the drive engine upon the operational start of the vehicle. The vehicle is made ready for travel when at least one manually generated command to select a gear is given by the driver via actuation of the combination operating element.

The invention presents a novel intuitive operating concept for preparing a vehicle for travel.
The invention proceeds from conventional motor vehicles which are started for operation by means of an ignition switch which is actuated, by way of example, via an ignition key or an engine start/stop button, wherein particularly a drive engine—most commonly in the form of an internal combustion engine—is first started. Next, to continue to prepare the vehicle for travel, a gear is selected and a clutch is engaged to produce a frictional connection between the drive engine and the driven wheels. This can occur manually by means of gear shifters, or automatically by electronically-controlled automatic transmissions.
The problem addressed by the invention is that of simplifying the preparation of a vehicle for travel.
In the method according to the invention, in a motor vehicle having at least one drive engine, the vehicle is made ready for travel—at least as concerns the starting of the drive engine (for example starting an internal combustion engine and/or starting a high-voltage system of an electric engine), and preferably also as concerns the establishment of the frictional connection between the drive engine and the driven wheels—by way of a combination operating element which is actuated manually by the driver, without relying on a manually actuated operating element (e.g. an ignition key or an engine start/stop switch) which is provided for at least the first starting of the drive engine when the vehicle is started, when at least one manually generated command to select a gear is given by the driver by way of actuation of a combination operating element.
The invention is based on an understanding of the following. Modern vehicles with an increasing number of electrical and electronic convenience equipment are no longer used only in two modes of use—particularly park or drive—as earlier. Rather, vehicle users are increasingly occupying their vehicle as an inhabitable space offering an array of computer-based functions which can be used without the vehicle being made ready for travel. Therefore, the invention particularly proceeds from three modes of use—particularly "park," "inhabit" or "drive."
In this case, the concrete desire to start the drive engine is more of a secondary concern. Rather, a modern vehicle user thinks of functions as park, inhabit or drive. In addition, a sufficient number of sensors are included in current vehicles to effectively detect the desire of the vehicle operator to start the drive function of the vehicle. Therefore, it is sufficient for the vehicle to detect that the driver wants to utilize a drive function at this point. The vehicle then itself initiates the required measures as a result. The function instilled earlier [in drivers] of first starting the drive engine, is made obsolete by the invention. The driver is liberated.
Method steps for automatically stopping and re-starting a drive engine following a first start when the motor vehicle is turned on are further possible according to the invention after the vehicle is made ready for travel—but are subordinate. The invention only relates to the first start of a drive engine, particularly proceeding from an "inhabit" mode.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of one or more preferred embodiments when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Method in a motor vehicle having at least one drive engine

Bayerische Motoren Werke Aktiengesellschaft


Provided herein, in some embodiments, are methods and compositions (e.g., cell compositions) for the treatment of cancer. The methods and compositions involve genetically engineered immune cells (e.g., T cells), in which the endogenous CD70 gene is disrupted by genetic editing, for example, the CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technology.

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy uses genetically-modified T cells to more specifically and efficiently target and kill cancer cells. After T cells have been collected from the blood, the cells are engineered to include CARs on their surface. The CARs may be introduced into the T cells using CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technology. When these allogeneic CAR T cells are injected into a patient, the receptors enable the T cells to kill cancer cells.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Methods and compositions for treating cancer


A mobile terminal is configured to perform a method of editing a document. The method may include storing data corresponding to a copying event, sensing an input for attaching the data, and attaching at least part of the data corresponding to the input.

Recent mobile terminals have been equipped with complex functions, such as photographing of photographs or moving images, playback of music files or moving image files, gaming, reception of broadcasting, and support of wireless Internet, and have been implemented in the form of complex multimedia players. Accordingly, recent mobile terminals have been developed in a new form from hardware and software viewpoints in order to satisfy user needs and also to enhance portability and convenience.
As convenience of mobile terminals is improved, users want to use a letter input and editing function, such as transmission of a memo, e-mail, and a message through the mobile terminal, more conveniently.
In some letter input and editing functions, when attaching data temporarily stored in a clipboard to a specific input region, all of the data is automatically attached to the input region. Accordingly, a user who wants to attach only part of the data has to inconveniently perform an additional edit process after all of the data is attached.
For this reason, a user may demand a function with improved convenience that is capable of selecting desired data in various ways and storing the selected data in a clipboard or selectively attaching the stored data.

Method of editing document in mobile terminal and mobile terminal using the same


A method implemented by a network device in a communication network is provided. The network device is operable to communicate with a User Equipment UE and a Narrow Band Internet Of Things NB-IoT terminal device in the communication network. Said method may comprise configuring NB-IoT Physical Resource Blocks PRBs. Said method may further comprise when scheduling said UE, if said configured NB-IoT PRBs have not been allocated to said NB-IoT terminal device and if available PRBs other than said configured NB-IOT PRBs are not enough for said UE, attempting to allocate said configured NB-IoT PRBs for said UE. A network device performing said method is also provided. Further, a communication network comprising said network device is also provided.

This section introduces aspects that may facilitate better understanding of the disclosure. Accordingly, the statements of this section are to be read in this light and are not to be understood as admissions about what is in the prior art or what is not in the prior art.
Wireless communication networks are widely deployed to provide various communication services such as voice, video, packet data, messaging, broadcast, etc. These wireless networks may be multiple-access networks capable of supporting multiple Users by sharing the available network resources. Examples of such multiple-access networks include Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) networks, Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) networks, Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) networks, Orthogonal FDMA (OFDMA) networks and Single-Carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA) networks.
A wireless communication network may include a number of base stations that can support communication for a number of terminal devices. A terminal device may communicate with a base station via the downlink and uplink. The downlink (or forward link) refers to the communication link from the base station to the terminal device, and the uplink (or reverse link) refers to the communication link from the terminal device to the base station.
With the development of technology, the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) introduced a narrowband Internet-Of-Things (NB-IoT) design into its Release 13 specifications of the Long-Term Evolution (LTE) wireless mobile communications standard. NB-IoT improves indoor coverage, supports for massive number of low throughput devices, low delay sensitivity, ultra low device cast, low device power consumption. NB-IoT terminal device can be deployed in three different modes of operation: stand-alone operation, guardband operation and in-band operation. For in-band deployment, NB-IoT cell will occupy a frequency band of 180 KHz within host cell, which corresponds to one physical resource block (PRB) in a transmission following the current 3GPP regulation such as WCDMA or LTE as shown in FIG. 1. For simplicity, we call this PRB as "NB-IoT PRB" in following description.
For NB-IoT, downlink Narrowband Reference Signal (NRS) is carried in NB-IoT PRB for measurement purposes, such as Radio link monitoring, uplink power control, mobility in RRC_IDLE state and so on.
It is specified in 3GPP Release 14 that NRSs will be carried in at least one downlink sub-frame per radio frame. However, NRS is unknown to those UEs following the current 3GPP regulation such as WCDMA or LTE as no such signals in specification. Thus, if a NB-IoT PRB is allocated to a UE when it's not used by a NB-IoT terminal device, the NRS is interference to the UE.
In the current solution of in-band NB-IoT deployment, one PRB is always reserved to NB-IoT terminal device when a NB-IoT cell is enabled. When there is no NB-IoT traffic, the reserved PRB will be wasted.
Moreover, if resource allocation type 0 is used in host LTE cell, the host LTE downlink scheduler is only capable of scheduling Users with a resolution of the Resource Block Group (RBG) size, so the capacity consumed from the host LTE cell for the NB-IoT cell is a whole RBG instead of one PRB.
The capacity consumed from the host LTE cell for the NB-IoT cell is larger than 1 PRB and can be the following:                20 MHz: 4% (4/100) instead if 1% (1/100)        10 MHz: 6% (3/50) instead of 2% (1/50)        5 MHz: 8% (2/25) instead of 4% (1/25)
If the host LTE cell deploys with more than one in-band NB-IoT cells, the situation will become even worse. The capacity consumed from the host LTE cell for the NB-IoT cells will enlarged greatly.

Method and a device for sharing resource


An electromagnetic projectile launcher provides acceleration of a superconducting projectile through the diamagnetic repulsion of the superconducting projectile. A superconducting layer is provided aft of the projectile, either directly on the projectile or on a platform upon which the projectile is carried, and a travelling magnetic field is caused to propagate along a magnetic field drive coil in which the projectile is disposed. The resulting diamagnetic repulsion between the superconducting projectile and the travelling magnetic field causes the projectile to be propelled along the coil. In one embodiment, a segmented drive coil is used to generate the travelling magnetic field.

Numerous electromagnetic accelerators have been designed for the purpose of providing projectile propulsion. An example of such an accelerator is a electromagnetic coaxial launcher (ECL) disclosed in Kolm et al, "Basic Principles of Coaxial Launch Technology," IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, Vol. Mag-20, No. 2, pp. 227-230 (March 1984). That launcher employs a pair of coaxial coils to generate a traveling solenoidal magnetic field. The ECL includes a segmented stationary drive coil which extends over the length of the coaxial accelerator and generates a traveling magnetic field therein. A second coil, mounted on the projectile, generates a static magnetic field which interacts with the travelling magnetic field of the drive coil. The projectile coil is activated either by pulsing the drive coil to induce current in the projectile coil or by direct electrical connection via brushes to the drive coil. The projectile is propelled the length of the coaxial accelerator by the repulsion force produced between the traveling magnetic field of the drive coil and the static magnetic field of the projectile coil. Thrust is determined by the amount of drive current applied. The drive current comprises pulses which must be precisely synchronized with the transit of the projectile coil through each drive coil. Consequently, the voltage of the system must increase as the velocity of the projectile increases and a high voltage commutation capability must, therefore, be provided. This is a major disadvantage of the ECL in that high launch velocities cannot, in general, be achieved due to limitations in high voltage commutation technology.
Another example of an electromagnetic launcher, the helical launcher, uses a continuous helix as the drive coil. This launcher is described in Mongeau, "Analysis of Helical Brush commutation," IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, Vol. Mag-20, No. 22 (March 1984). The interior surface of the continuous helix provides a linear commutating surface. Sliding brushes attached to the projectile excite a limited section of the drive helix. In the helical launcher, the projectile coil is excited by conventional slip rails. Since a projectile coil is required, and high voltage commutation is thus needed, the helical launcher is subject to limitations similar to those suffered by the ECL.
Other projectile accelerators of possible interest include that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,432,333 (Kurherr) which discloses a multi-coil electromagnetic projectile accelerator.
In addition to the disadvantages imposed by the need to provide high voltage commutation, previous electromagnetic projectile launchers suffer from other problems such as arcing, melting, and projectile deformation caused by the high induction in the coils.

Electromagnetic Meissner effect launcher

The United States of America as represented by the Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration


A clutching device of an automatic transmission includes: a clutch drum connected with a first rotation element, a clutch connected with the clutch drum and also a second rotation element, and a piston unit to operate the clutch. In particular, the piston unit includes: a first piston forming a first sealed space with the first rotation element and the clutch drum and moving toward the clutch to directly press the clutch by a hydraulic pressure supplied to the first space, a second piston forming a second sealed space with the first piston and the first rotation element, a spring retainer arranged on the first rotation element and forming a third sealed space with the first and second pistons and the first rotation element, a first return spring disposed between the first and second pistons, and a second return spring disposed between the spring retainer and the second piston.

The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
An environmentally-friendly technology of a vehicle is a core technology which controls survival of a future automobile industry, and advanced car makers have focused their energy on the development of an environmentally-friendly vehicle to achieve environmental and fuel efficiency regulations.
For enhancing fuel consumption, a high efficiency engine, various approaches, such as a high efficiency transmission, a light-weight vehicle body, etc. are under investigation, and in particularly, in the transmission field, a double clutch transmission and an automated manual transmission are also under research to compromise efficiency of a manual transmission and convenience of an automatic transmission.
In such a transmission, dry or wet clutches are used to transmit an engine torque, and a clutch used for a transmission desires a large torque capacity and precise control.
Until friction members of clutch disks and clutch plates of such a clutch meet each other, a rapid operating speed is desired for immediate starting of power transmission, and after the friction members have met, large engaging force is desired for ensuring power delivery through the clutch.
We have discovered that a clutch designed for rapid operating speed and large engagement force undermines operating efficiency due to the lack of precise control to determine when the rapid operating speed and large engagement force are both required or not based on operation condition of the transmission.
Furthermore, the clutch may be damaged by fatigue accumulation by repeated application of a large engagement force and a rapid operating speed.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the present disclosure and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known to a person of ordinary skill in the art.

Clutching device of an automatic transmission


An electromagnetic band gap (EGB) structure includes a substrate made of an isolating material. A plurality of identical planar transmission line segments are formed one under another in conductor layers embedded in the substrate. Vertical transitions connect one by one the plurality of planar transmission line segments. Adjacent ones of the vertical transitions are equally spaced on a predetermined distance in a direction parallel to the transmission line segments, thereby the vertical transitions serve as periodical inclusions forming the EBG structure.

Modern communications and computer technologies greatly stimulate development of compact devices and systems. In particular, it can be related to filters, managing frequency responses, which are indispensable components in electronic systems including wire and wireless devices. Artificially-created periodicity in arrangement of same elements is one of the most fundamental approaches to design new materials and new types of microwave and optical components.
In particular, such approach is realized in forming an Electromagnetic Band Gap (EBG) structure (known also as Photonic Band Gap (PBG) structures, or Photonic Crystals, or Electromagnetic Crystals). In particular, these structures demonstrate an extremely-high attraction as filters because a band gap can be used to stop effectively signal transmission and a region out of the band gap can be applied for the pass of signals. Also, a defect in the EBG structure can lead to filters showing high Q (quality-factor) pass characteristics within the band gap.
Printed board technologies are widely applied as a cost-effective approach to develop different types of electronic equipment. Various planar transmission line structures based on these technologies are applied to obtain band gap effect and, as results, to develop different types of filtering components. However, the EBG structure can be considerably extended in dimensions, because a number of periodic cells to achieve a high-quality EBG effect can be large enough. This is a significant limitation of application of the EBG structure in actual devices, especially, at microwaves.
The application of the EBG concept to design compact components including filters is strongly limited, especially at microwave, because a band gap effect occurs due to periodical perturbations in a transmission medium. In this case, a lattice constant of such medium can be approximately equal to a half of the wavelength in the medium. As a result, dimensions of the structure providing the band gap effect in a planar periodical transmission line formed in a substrate can be considerably larger than the operating wavelength and cannot be acceptable for an electronic device. Also, the EBG structure based on a defected ground surface in a substrate can lead to a considerable increase of radiation (leakage losses) from the structures that can excite EMI problems in a designing device.
In conjunction with the above description, an antenna apparatus is disclosed in Japanese Laid Open Patent application (JP-P2003-304113A). In this conventional example, a monopole antenna excited through a coaxial line is provided at a center portion of a metal plate, on whose surface, a dielectric plate is formed. Thereby, the monopole antenna resonates at a specific frequency to the plate as a first substrate. Small regular hexagonal shaped metal plates are arranged in a 2-dimensional array in a constant interval on the surface of the dielectric plate in an external circumferential portion. A contact is formed to connect between the small metal plate and the metal plate, and an HIP substrate is formed as a second substrate which has a band gap to prevent propagation of electromagnetic wave of the above-mentioned specific frequency. Thus, the radiation of the electromagnetic wave of the specific frequency excited by the monopole antenna from a back side is restrained by the second substrate. In this way, the radiation from the back surface of the plate board is suppressed and enough antenna gain can be obtained to attain the resonance of the antenna.
Also, a connection structure of a strip line is disclosed in Japanese Laid Open Patent application (JP-P2006-246189A). In this conventional example, the connection structure of the strip line connects a first strip line and a second strip line, which are formed in different layers of a dielectric substrate, in a laminate direction through a connection section. A first removal section is formed where a grounded conductor pattern is removed, such that a strip conductor pattern connecting conductor constituting the connection section by connecting a tip portion of the strip conductor pattern of the first strip line and a tip portion of the strip conductor pattern of the second strip line, can penetrate without electrical contact with the grounded conductor pattern which is provided for the dielectric substrate between the first strip line and the second strip line. Second removal sections where the grounded conductor pattern is removed are provided periodically or approximately periodically for the grounded conductor of the first strip line and the grounded conductor of the second strip line.
Also, EBG material is disclosed in Japanese Laid Open Patent Application (JP-P2006-253929A). In this conventional example, a plurality of inductance elements are formed on the front surface of a first substrate. A second substrate has a dielectric substance provided on a rear surface side of the first substrate, and a conductor plate arranged on the opposite side to the first substrate with respect to the dielectric substance. A plurality of small metal plates are arranged above the plurality of inductance elements to be equally distanced to each other. The plurality of small metal plates are connected with the plurality of inductance elements by a plurality of connecting sections, respectively.