The invention can be described as a Method Handler (MH), which consists of several parts used to check and create different methods for microfluidic instruments. The part that creates methods can be called the Method Editor (ME). It is used to create a scheme of operations that together with the instrument builds up an application for a specific disc type. MH also checks if a method is executable on a specific instrument. This is done in a part called Batch Run (BR).

The present invention relates to a process for providing a dynamic method set including methods associated to a special microfluidic device type used in a microfluidic system. The present invention also relates to a computer program product, a computer program element and a carrier comprising the computer program product.
The term xe2x80x9cmicrofluidicxe2x80x9d refers to a system or device having one or a network of chambers and/or channels, which have micro scale dimensions, e.g., having at least one cross sectional dimension in the range from about 0,1 xcexcm to about 500 xcexcm. Microfluidic substrates are often fabricated using photolithography, wet chemical etching, injection-molding, embossing, and other techniques similar to those employed in the semiconductor industry. The resulting devices can be used to perform a variety of sophisticated chemical and biological analytical techniques.
Microfluidic analytical systems have a number of advantages over conventional chemical or physical laboratory techniques. For example, microfluidic systems are particularly well adapted for analyzing small sample sizes, typically making use of samples on the order of nanoliters and even picoliters. The channel defining substrates may be produced at relatively low cost, and the channels can be arranged to perform numerous analytical operations, including mixing, dispensing, valving, reactions, detections, electrophoresis, and the like. The analytical capabilities of microfluidic systems are generally enhanced by increasing the number and complexity of network channels, reaction chambers, and the like.
Substantial advances have recently been made in the general areas of flow control and physical interactions between the samples and the supporting analytical structures.
Flow control management may make use of a variety of mechanisms, including the patterned application of voltage, current, or electrical power to the substrate (for example, to induce and/or control electrokinetic flow or electrophoretic separations). Alternatively, fluid flows may be induced mechanically through the application of differential pressure, acoustic energy, or the like. Selective heating, cooling, exposure to light or other radiation, or other inputs may be provided at selected locations distributed about the substrate to promote the desired chemical and/or biological interactions. Similarly, measurements of light or other emissions, electrical/electrochemical signals, and pH may be taken from the substrate to provide analytical results. As work has progressed in each of these areas, the channel size has gradually decreased while the channel network has increased in complexity, significantly enhancing the overall capabilities of microfluidic systems.
The microfluidics technologies/devices are capable of controlling and transferring tiny quantities of liquids to allow biological assays to be integrated and accomplished on a small scale.
Microfluidics is the miniaturization of biological separation and assay techniques to such a degree that multiple xe2x80x9cexperimentsxe2x80x9d can be accomplished on a xe2x80x9cchipxe2x80x9d small enough to fit in the palm of your hand. Tiny quantities of solvent, sample, and reagents are steered through narrow channels on the chip, where they are mixed and analyzed by such techniques as electrophoresis, fluorescence detection, immunoassay, or indeed almost any classical laboratory method.
Today a number of products varying in many respects are available. Laboratory chips may be made from plastic, glass, quartz or even silicon. The fluid may be driven by centrifugal forces, mechanical pressure or vacuum pumps, by inertia, or by one of several electrical methods; fluid flow can be diverted around the chip by mechanical valves, surface tension, voltage gradients, or even electromagnetic forces.
In the technique of using centrifugal forces to drive the fluid a disc that can be spinned is used. Some discs have been of the same physical format as conventional CDs. Samples are placed near the center of the disc and centrifugal forces, created as the disc rotates, push them out through channels cut into the plastic, circumventing the need to design sophisticated electrokinetic or mechanical pumping structures.
As will become evident in the forth-coming description the present invention is in particular applicable to (but not limited to) micro-analysis systems that are based on micro-channels formed in a rotatable, usually plastic, disc, often called a xe2x80x9clab on a chipxe2x80x9d. Such discs can be used to perform analysis and separation on small quantities of fluids. In order to reduce costs it is desirable that the discs should be not restricted to use with just one type of reagent or fluid but should be able to work with a variety of fluids.
Furthermore it is often desirable during the preparation of samples that the disc permits the user to dispense accurate volumes of any desired combination of fluids or samples without modifying the disc. A microanalysis device for fluids provided in a rotatable disc is described e.g. in WO-01/46465
One general object of present invention is to increase the performance of a microfluidic system.
A more specific object of the present invention is to provide powerful tools when creating and performing various processes including sample preparation, treatment of liquids, various chemical and biochemical steps etc in a microfluidic device.
The invention can be described shortly as a method-developing tool, which consists of several parts used to check and create different methods for microfluidic instruments. The part that creates methods can be called the Method Editor (ME). It is used to create a scheme of operations that together with the instrument builds up an application for a specific microfluidic device type. The method-developing tool also checks if a method is executable on a specific instrument. This is done in a part called Batch Run (BR).
The above-mentioned objects are achieved by a process, a computer program product, a computer program element, and carrier according to the independent claims or by any other means suggested herein.
Preferred embodiments are set forth in the dependent claims.
Advantages provided by the present invention are that it offers a faster, more cost effective, more systematic and logical process for developing methods for microfluidic systems. The invention also offers a good survey and handling of available operations and developed methods.


An electrochemical method for defect delineation in thin-film SOI or SOS wafers in which a surface of a silicon wafer is electrically connected so as to control the voltage of the surface within a specified range, the silicon wafer is then contacted with an electrolyte, and, after removing the electrolyte, defects and metal contamination in the silicon wafer are identified.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an electrochemical method for the identification of defects and metal contamination in silicon wafers. More specifically, the present invention relates to an electrochemical method for defect delineation in thin-film silicon-on-insulator or silicon-on-sapphire wafers. The United States Government has rights in this invention pursuant to Contract No. DE-AC04-76DP00789 between the U.S. Department of Energy and AT&T Technologies, Inc.
2. Description of Related Art
Localized clusters of defects in silicon wafers are one of the most significant limiting factors for performance and yield in integrated circuit (IC) fabrication. As a result, identification and elimination of defects are crucial for process control. Defects in silicon include point defects generated during crystal growth as well as stacking faults, dislocations and precipitates generated during processing. In addition, active IC device regions must be completely cleaned, since metal impurities such as iron, copper and nickel impair oxide integrity, reduce carrier lifetime (Hiramoto et al, Ext. Abs., 174th Electrochem. Soc. Meeting, Chicago, 1988, Abs. No. 462), and contribute to high device leakage currents (Honda et al, J. Appl. Phys., 62, 1960, (1987)). In silicon-on-insulator (SOI) fabrication, defects are generated by high fluence, high energy implantation (Separation by IMplanted OXygen-SIMOX or NItrogen-SIMNI) or by crystallization (Zone Melt Recrystallization-ZMR).
Conventional chemical defect delineation methods result in the bulk Si being etched at rates as high as 1-2 .mu.m/min, as reported in Wright Jenkins ("A new preferential etch for defects in silicon crystals," J. Electrochem. Soc.: Solid State Science and Technology, May 1977, Vol. 124, No. 5, pp. 757-762), Secco (J. Electrochem. Soc.: Solid State Science and Technology, Vol. 119, p. 948 (1972)), Sirtl et al (Z. Metallkd., Vol. 52, p. 529 (1961)), and Schimmel (J. Electrochem. Soc.: Solid State Science and Technology, Vol. 123, p. 734 (1976)). This etching rate is unacceptable for thin-film silicon-on-insulator (SOI) and silicon-on-sapphire (SOS) fabrication since the overlying Si layer may be as thin as 0.1 microns. Other conventional methods include the scanned-surface-photovoltage (SSP) technique which disadvantageously requires special instrumentation and is tedious when applied to large areas (Deines et al, "Correlation of electrolytic-etch and surface-photovoltage techniques for the detection of electrically active defects in silicon," Appl. Phys. Lett., 34(11), June 1, 1979, pp. 746-748). Accordingly, it is desirable to provide an electrochemical method for defect delineation in wafers which does not etch bulk silicon and which does not suffer from the other above-noted disadvantages.

Electrochemical method for defect delineation in silicon-on-insulator wafers


Embodiments provide a method comprising receiving, at a cache associated with a central processing unit that is disposed on an integrated circuit, a request to perform a cache operation on the cache; in response to receiving and processing the request, determining that first data cached in a first cache line of the cache is to be written to a memory that is coupled to the integrated circuit; identifying a second cache line in the cache, the second cache line being complimentary to the first cache line; transmitting a single memory instruction from the cache to the memory to write to the memory (i) the first data from the first cache line and (ii) second data from the second cache line; and invalidating the first data in the first cache line, without invalidating the second data in the second cache line.

The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventor(s), to the extent the work is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of riling, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.
With advancement in memory technology, native burst length of memories is also increasing. In an example, a cache is coupled to a memory. If a length of the cache lines of the cache (i.e., a native burst length of the cache) is less compared to a native burst length of the memory (e.g., if the native burst length of the cache is 32 bytes, and the native burst length of the memory is 64 bytes), it may result in a sub-optimal accessing of the memory by the cache.

Simultaneous eviction and cleaning operations in a cache


An implantable knee joint prosthesis which comprises a tibial tray, an articulating tibial insert attached to the tibial tray, and a femoral condylar component adapted to cooperatively bear upon the tibial insert. The femoral component has an intercondylar recess having parallel lateral side walls and posterior and anterior bearing members defining the boundaries of the recess. The tibial insert includes an eminence extending superiorly into the intercondylar recess and dimensioned and shaped to provide defined stabilization limits for preventing posterior-anterior dislocation while allowing limited translation and essentially free rotation and angulation throughout most of the total range of articulation. Metal reinforcements serve to secure the insert to the tray. Bearing surfaces of the eminence and the intercondylar recess are so shaped as to increase the area of contact between them as the degree of flexion of the leg increases to thereby limit the contact stress transmitted to the eminence and to reduce wear of the eminence.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to implantable knee joint prostheses for replacement of the engaging surfaces of the femur and tibia of a dysfunctional human knee joint, and particularly to a modular system for allowing the physician to select and connect together appropriately sized components which provide posterior stabilization of the knee while allowing essentially free translation, rotation and angulation through the range of articulation of the knee, while still avoiding dislocation.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
Implantable knee prostheses for diseased and/or damaged human knees have typically employed three components, namely, the femoral, tibial and patellar replacement components. These components are surgically implanted in patients whose knee joints have deteriorated resulting from injury, arthritic disease processes or failed previous prostheses. Surgical procedures involve the trimming of the femur and tibial joint surfaces to accommodate the appropriately sized components of the prosthesis. Typically, the surgeon is required to have available a number of differently sized and configured knee joint prostheses on hand in order to make a judgment as to which prosthesis to employ in the surgical procedure with the particular patient. In the past, the components of the knee prosthesis have been factory assembled or, as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,936,853 and 4,822,366, separate modular component parts of the complete knee prosthesis are maintained at hand for assembly in the operating room at the time of surgical implantation.
The selection of a particular prosthesis for a knee joint is based largely on the condition of the patient's knee and depends upon whether there is little disease or injury of the bones, ligaments and other tissues or whether there are severely damaged joints which require implantation of components that have greater inherent stability and augments for enhancing component fixation.
The knee joint prosthesis described and shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,837,009 is exemplary of a posterior stabilized prosthesis. It includes a post that extends upwardly from the tibial component into a slot between the femoral condyles in the femoral component. An axle affixed to the femoral component and passes through an elongated hole of carefully designed shape and size in the post. Forces that are transmitted between the axle and hole can be very large, and they act at a relatively great distance from the tibial plateau; as a result, there is a fairly high degree of risk of the tibial component becoming dislodged from the tibia. A number of other known knee joint prostheses of the type that are designed to impart stability to the knee joint by mechanical action are similarly subject to failure. In some cases, the implantation of the prosthesis requires removal of a considerable amount of bone, and failure may include fracture of the remaining, weakened bone.
Between the two extremes requiring simple, small components (see, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,774,244) on the one hand and prostheses constructed to have inherent mechanical stability on the other is a relatively wide range of damaged knee joints in which most of the articulating surface at the joint must be replaced but most ligaments and other tissues that provide stability in the anatomical knee joint are undamaged or can be repaired so that essentially normal restraint and control of joint function are provided by remaining soft anatomical elements. Prostheses constructed for replacement of substantially all articulating surfaces of the bones at the joint are often referred to as "total" condylar joint prostheses, and a number of total knee joint prostheses of the condylar type have been proposed (see, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,748,662, 3,816,855 and 3,869,729).
Generally, a total knee joint prosthesis of the condylar replacement type includes a tibial component having a platform portion which replaces all of the superior surface of the tibial plateau and substitutes for the anatomical tibial condylar surfaces. The femoral component has laterally spaced-apart condylar portions joined by an intercondylar bridge and a patellar surface and thus affords replacement of substantially all of the surfaces of the femur that engage the tibia and patella. Whether or not the cruciate ligaments are retained in a condylar replacement prosthesis depends on the design.
The tibial component typically includes a tibial tray and stem (which may be integral or modular) for surgical attachment to the tibia and a modular articulating surface member (also referred to as a tibial insert) that is attached by a variety of mechanisms to the superior surface of the metal tibial tray. The tibial insert is constructed of a ultra high molecular weight polyethylene, a known polymer used for prosthesis bearing surfaces, and is shaped from a pair of laterally spaced concavities to receive the pair of laterally spaced-apart femoral condylar portions. The condylar portions of the femoral component are smoothly curved in the anterior-posterior direction generally to match in lateral profile the shapes of the condylar surfaces of the femur and smoothly convexly curved in all cross sections along their anterior-posterior extents.
Modular knee prostheses of this general description include both non-stabilized and posterior stabilized types. A non-stabilized modular knee prosthesis does not provide any substantial restraint against rotational and translational freedom of movement nor any mechanism to inhibit anterior-posterior dislocation on hyperextension or flexion and are exemplified by the above referenced '244 patent as well as the more recent U.S. Pat. No. 4,938,769. These total knee prostheses require only minor resection of bone for implantation, do not require severance of the posterior cruciate ligaments, and are suitable for relatively mild deterioration of the knee joint.
Posterior stabilized knee prostheses are used in posterior cruciate ligament deficient knee joints. They are characterized by an eminence extending superiorly between the parallel concavities of the tibial insert and into a recess or box-like intercondylar portion of the femoral component. The cruciate ligaments are normally severed, although the collateral ligaments and tendons remain intact.
The intercondylar recess is formed usually with parallel lateral side walls spaced-apart by anterior and posterior bridge members which may act as camming members for bearing against anterior and posterior camming surfaces of the eminence through virtually the entire range or a portion of the range of flexion to inhibit dislocation of the joint at hyper extension and flexion.
A number of posterior stabilized knee prostheses have been proposed and introduced for clinical use, including those disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,209,861, 4,298,992, 4,213,209 and 5,007,933. The eminences and intercondylar portions disclosed in these patents have a variety of slows and dimensions to which greater or lesser degrees of restraint and freedom of relative movement are attributed. In the '861 patent, virtue is ascribed to virtually total contact of the posterior camming surface and camming member through the entire range of flexion, and the lateral side walls of the eminence and the recess are quite closely spaced to allow minimal translation or varus-valgus movement and virtually no rotational movement.
The '992 patent discloses an eminence and recess shaped to provide positive camming surface and member contact only after substantial flexure. The lateral side walls of the eminence and recess disclosed in the '992 patent appear to be parallel and closely spaced, permitting little if any lateral translation or rotation. The eminence and recess lateral side walls disclosed in the '209 patent are not parallel. The lateral walls of the eminence converge superiorly and away from the lateral side walls of the recess and also converge anteriorly.
The '209 patent shows the spaced concavities of a tibial articulating surface member being smoothly radiused with the rising side walls of the eminence to accept femoral condylar portions shaped to contact at least a portion of the side walls during articulation, rotation and translation. The degree of divergence between the side walls of the eminence and the walls of the recess superiorly limits the degree of lateral angulation and prevents extreme translation.
The '933 patent discloses an eminence and recess shaped to provide posterior camming surface and member contact from about 30.degree. through full flexion. The lateral side walls of both the eminence and recess are relatively closely spaced and the parallel portions of both tend to converge superiorly. As in the '209 patent, at least a portion of the lateral side walls of the eminence are angled to converge anteriorly. The angulation of the '933 patent is relatively small to provide relatively limited rotation of the femoral and tibial components within a relatively limited range of flexion in comparison with the configuration disclosed in the '209 patent.
The physiology of the normal knee is such that as the leg is flexed, the net force component tending to translate the femoral condyles anteriorly of the tibial insert (referred to sometimes as a shear force) increases. As mentioned above, forward displacement of the femur is resisted, in the case of posterior stabilized knee prostheses, by contact between the respective posterior bearing surfaces of the tibial eminence and the intercondylar recess. The posterior bearing surface of the femoral component shown in the '933 patent is sharply rounded and makes essentially point or line contact with the confronting bearing surface of the tibial eminence throughout the range of flexure of the leg. In somewhat similar fashion, the area of contact between the posterior bearing surfaces of the components shown in the '992, '861 and '209 patents appears to be essentially constant throughout the range of flexure in which these surfaces are in contact.
In conjunction with posterior stabilized knee prostheses having a pronounced eminence, the forces brought to bear against the eminence requires secure attachment of the tibial insert to the tibial tray. Various attachment mechanisms of tibial insert to tibial trays have been used in the past; e.g., the matching dovetail and slot "snap-lock" system of the AXIOM.TM. Total Knee System or the dovetails and locking pin of the CPD (Central Post Design) tibial components, both sold by the assignee of the present invention. In the context of a posterior stabilized knee prosthesis, such locking mechanisms have been disclosed in the '209 patent and in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,714,474 and 5,007,933.
Thus a number of posterior stabilized knee prosthesis have been proposed that provide varying degrees of restrained to unrestrained relative anteroposterior, rotational and translational movement of the femoral and tibial components. A need remains for a knee joint prothesis that provides appropriate roll back and a high degree of rotation and angulation to mimic the freedom of movement of the normal knee while advantageously limiting anteroposterior dislocation (subluxation).


A coupled oscillator arrangement is provided comprising first and second VCOs (voltage controlled oscillators), and a bi-directional interconnect which injection locks the first and second VCOs to each other. Advantageously, this provides a mechanism which effectively eliminates the phase jitter between the phase of first and second VCOs which makes them suitable for use in a diversity receiver, while at the same time providing a redundancy arrangement in which the failure of one of the VCOs does not effect the functionality of the other. The use of a bi-directional interconnect minimizes the complexity and cost of coupling the two VCOs. Preferably, the bi-directional interconnect injects a first signal representative of an output signal of the first VCO to the output of the second VCO and injects a second signal representative of an output signal of the second VCO to the output of the first VCO.

Dual-diversity reception systems feature a pair of receivers configured to provide both diversity reception functionality, and redundancy such that should one of the receivers fail, the remaining receiver can take over thereby avoiding any loss of service. Such dual-diversity arrangements are common in wideband receivers.
There is a common relatively low frequency reference oscillator used by each receiver to drive the frequency of a respective much higher frequency local oscillator through a phase locked loop. Two independent higher frequency local oscillators are required for redundancy.
Diversity outputs are often combined using maximum ratio combining. It is important that the relative phase of the diversity outputs be somewhat constant within a burst for this maximum ratio combining to be effective. Using conventional phase locked loops avoids the requirement for complex custom multiloop phase locked loops. However, these phase locked loops utilize dividers with large local oscillator-to-reference frequency ratios, for example as large as 50000. This means that the high frequency oscillators in the two receivers are updated relatively infrequently, for example every 0.2 .mu.s. The relative phases of the two local oscillators are thus allowed to drift relative to one another. The result is considerable phase jitter between the two oscillators' output frequencies even though they are derived from the same reference.
While it would be possible to have both receivers configured to exist on the same circuit board using a common oscillator, this defeats one of the advantages of having a diversity reception system, namely that protection is provided against single point failure. If one receiver fails, the remaining of the two receivers can continue to be used with some reduction in sensitivity. The fact that the two receivers are implemented on separate circuit boards further complicates the task of getting the oscillators to operate in phase.

Method and apparatus for the injection lock of redundant oscillators


A human-powered vehicle control device includes an artificial intelligence processor, an operation device, and a communication device. The artificial intelligence processor is configured to generate second information for controlling an electric component of a human-powered vehicle in accordance with first information related to at least one of the human-powered vehicle, a rider of the human-powered vehicle, and an environment of the human-powered vehicle. The operation device operates the electric component. The communication device is configured to communicate with an external device. The artificial intelligence processor is configured to change a process for generating the second information in accordance with the first information and an operation of the operation device. The communication device is configured to transmit third information related to a process for generating the second information to the external device.

The present disclosure relates to a human-powered vehicle control device, an electronic device, and a human-powered vehicle control system.
Patent document 1 discloses an example of a human-powered vehicle control device configured to execute various controls in accordance with an output of a detector provided in a human-powered vehicle.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2012-144061

Human-powered vehicle control device, electronic device, and human-powered vehicle control system


An electric machine has a housing, a rotor shaft mounted in the housing, a rotor laminate stack arranged on the rotor shaft and having axial cooling channels and radial cooling channels, and a stator laminate stack having radial cooling channels which are open radially inwards and radially outwards and interact with the radial cooling channels of the rotor laminate stack. The housing has a lateral surface to delimit the housing interior in a radial direction and radial dividers arranged between end windings of the stator winding and the axial ribs, when viewed in the radial direction, and are spaced in the radial direction from the lateral surface delimiting the housing interior and forming tangential cooling air channels for the cooling air.

The present invention relates to an electric machine.
Electric machines are generally known.
The known electrical machine has a housing. In the housing a rotor shaft is mounted in bearings such that it is capable of rotating about a shaft axis. The housing has two end faces and a lateral surface. The housing axially delimits a housing interior with the end faces. The housing radially delimits the housing interior with the lateral surface. A rotor laminate stack is arranged on the rotor shaft in a manner fixed against rotation. The rotor laminate stack has axially running cooling channels and radially running cooling channels. The radially running cooling channels of the rotor laminate stack are open radially outwards and extend radially inwards at least as far as the axially running cooling channels. The housing has two axial dividers, which extend radially inwards starting from the lateral surface, but end in front of the rotor shaft. The axial dividers are arranged between the rotor laminate stack and the end faces, when viewed in the axial direction. The housing has axial ribs, which are arranged so as to be distributed over the circumference of the lateral surface, run axially at least between the axial dividers and extend radially inwards. They bear a stator laminate stack. The stator laminate stack interacts electrically with the rotor laminate stack. The stator laminate stack has radially running cooling channels, which are open radially inwards and radially outwards and interact with the radially running cooling channels of the rotor laminate stack. The stator laminate stack bears a stator winding. The stator winding has end windings, which protrude axially on both sides out of the stator laminate stack. The axial dividers extend radially inwards to such an extent that they overlap the end windings, when viewed in the radial direction.
The lateral surface has, in a first tangential region, two inlet openings and an outlet opening for cooling air. The inlet openings are arranged between in each case one of the end faces and in each case one of the axial dividers, when viewed in the axial direction. The outlet opening is arranged between the axial dividers, when viewed in the axial direction.
In the electric machine from the prior art, the cooling air is introduced into the rotor laminate stack axially from both sides. The cooling air flows first through the rotor laminate stack and then through the stator laminate stack. The cooling air emerges radially outwards from the stator laminate stack. Then the cooling air either emerges on the outside directly via the outlet opening or flows axially into a region in which the end windings are arranged. There, the cooling air flows tangentially until it reaches the first tangential region. There, the cooling air flows through the outlet opening and emerges from the electric machine.
A second proportion of the cooling air does not flow through the rotor laminate stack but directly through the end windings. This proportion of the cooling air emerges directly radially outwards after flowing through the end windings and is mixed with the first proportion of cooling air. Sometimes, the first and second proportions of cooling air impede one another in this process.
It is known in the prior art to accept that the proportions of cooling air will impede one another in this way and to swallow the decreased utilization of the electric machine associated therewith. It is furthermore known to use relatively strong fans which bring about a correspondingly large cooling air flow. It is furthermore known to use completely different cooling air guides.

Electric machine having radial dividers for guiding cooling air


A mobile terminal is operated by receiving a first signal and a second signal, determining a signal strength of the first signal, and determining an indoor location of the mobile terminal based on the signal strength of the first signal and the second signal. The first signal is a radio frequency signal and the second signal is an audio frequency signal.

The present invention relates to location detection and, more particular, to location detection of electronic devices in indoor environments.
In many outdoor environments, the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), of which the Global Positioning System (GPS) is a part, provides locations for electronic devices, such as mobile terminals, with an accuracy of around 15 meters. These types of systems use satellites to function, and, in obstructed outdoor and indoor areas, the satellite signals may be too weak to enable accurate positioning. One approach to performing indoor location detection is to place a radio frequency beacon, such as a BLUETOOTH™ low energy beacon, at suitable locations in the indoor facility. Placing one beacon in each room, for example, may theoretically provide room level accuracy of the location of a mobile device by scanning for hearable beacons and selecting the one with the strongest signal as the indoor location. In practice, radio waves and multi-path components from beacons in other rooms can in many cases be stronger than the beacon in the room that the user of the mobile terminal is in. To address this problem, trilateration of several hearable beacons and/or fingerprinting algorithms based on signal strength reference data collected may be used. These fingerprinting techniques may be sensitive to environmental or people density changes and may require periodic recalibrations of the reference data. Techniques using beacons that transmit audio signals, such as ultrasound signals, may also be used for device location detection, but these techniques may be limited as the ultrasound signals may be blocked by walls or other structures. Moreover, the ultrasound signals may have bandwidth limitations that may make it more difficult to transmit data to uniquely identify a transmitting beacon.

Indoor location detection using combined radio frequency signal and audio frequency signal beacon system


A method for assembling an apparatus including a display sheet having a non-transparent part in at least a part of the display sheet, has a bonding step of bonding the display sheet to a housing. The bonding step has a first step of attaching the display sheet to the housing via a UV curable adhesive, and a second step of causing an ultraviolet light emitting apparatus to irradiate, from an external surface side of the display sheet. The display sheet is attached to the housing with ultraviolet light after the first step so that the ultraviolet light passes through at least a part of the non-transparent part of the display sheet and cures the UV curable adhesive.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a method for assembling an apparatus by bonding a display sheet such as an identification plate to a housing of the apparatus.
2. Background Art
A display sheet such as an identification plate is often bonded to a housing (=cabinet: refers to "outer shell" including a case, a package, a housing, a box, an enclosure, and the like) of an apparatus such as an electronic component for the purpose of displaying a product name, a trademark, characters, a product number, design, etc.
In addition, such a display sheet is often bonded to a housing for the design purpose of visually concealing an inner structure of an apparatus and thereby improving appearance of the apparatus.
For example, Patent Literature 1 describes, as a commonly-used technique, a technique of bonding a decoration-designed label to an entire surface of a card-like receiver.
As illustrated in FIG. 19, the label 100 includes (i) a transparent sheet-like substrate 101 (thickness: 0.1 mm to 0.2 mm) made of a flexible material such as polycarbonate or polyester, (ii) a print part 102 on which the decoration design is printed, and (iii) an adhesive part 103 such as a double-sided adhesive tape. The print part 102 and the adhesive part 103 are provided on the transparent sheet-like substrate 101. In a case 104 whose one side is opened, a metal panel and an insulating panel 106 are stored in a combined manner, and the label 100 is bonded to surfaces of these components via the adhesive part 103.
Patent Literatures 2 through 9 also disclose that a display member such as an identification plate or a display device and other members are bonded to a base member such as a main body or a housing via a double-sided adhesive tape.
Moreover, there is a method of bonding a display member to a base member with the use of a thermosetting adhesive. Patent Literature 10 discloses that an optical member is fixed to a substrate with the use of a thermosetting adhesive layer. Patent Literature 11 discloses that a lid member covering a through-hole is fixed with the use of a mixed resin of a thermosetting resin and a thermoplastic resin.
Patent Literatures 10, and 12 through 17 each disclose a method of bonding a transparent member to a base member with the use of a UV curable adhesive or a photocurable adhesive.
Patent Literature 16 discloses a key sheet 200 with illuminated resin key tops. As illustrated in FIG. 20, the key sheet 200 is arranged such that a resin key top 201 having a punched-out character-shaped display part 202 provided on a rear surface of the resin key top 201 is fixed to a surface of a rubber-like elastic key sheet 203 via a fixing part 204.
The display part 202 is constituted by a light-transmitting part 202a which transmits light and a light blocking part 202b which blocks light. The fixing part 204 has light transmittance, and is formed, for example, by irradiating a UV curable acrylic resin adhesive with ultraviolet light.
Furthermore, Patent Literature 18 discloses assembly using a waterproof elastic sheet or an elastic adhesive, Patent Literature 19 discloses assembly utilizing laser welding, and Patent Literature 20 discloses bonding using a highly water-resistant adhesive sheet.

Method for assembling apparatus including display sheet and apparatus including display sheet


This invention provides a digital auto-phase-controlled retiming circuit which automatically locates the retiming clock phase in the center of input data eye pattern by detesting the phase difference between retiming clock and data and tracking adoptively the mutual phase variation in a case that the mutual phase difference between data and retiming clock is uncertain and changes according to time in digital transmission and/or digital signal processing systems.

The present invention relates to a digital auto-phase-controlled retiming circuit for preventing retiming error as a retiming clock is automatically retiming input data in the center position of input data eye pattern.
To process data inputed from outside in all communication and/or digital processing systems, the retiming process with a reference clock without retiming error must be preceded above all.
At this time, the reference clock can be extracted from external input data or provided in the system itself and the phase relation between a retiming clock and input data is not invariable due to various factors such as circuit implementation, temperature and aging variations, etc.
As the digital auto-phase-controlled retiming circuit can be used in all communication and/or digital processing systems, the objective range of conventional technology which can be considered is very wide, but it is able to discuss on two following aspects.
First, it is the case of retiming input data with a clock extracted from input data in a digital data transmission repeater.
The received data are usually contaminated by signal attenuation through transmission channels, noise generated in transmission channels or receivers, and intersymbol interference due to insufficient transmission bandwidth, etc., thus clean waveforms must be recovered by retiming those data with the extracted clock.
For recovering a clock from input data, commonly used are a tuning circuit, a SAW filter and a PLL clock recovery circuit which are classified into self-timed clock extraction circuits.
In the tuning circuit or the SAW filter, the mutual phase difference between the extracted clock and the input data is greatly varied due to practical circuit implementation, temperature variation and the filter aging, etc., and accordingly, the phase of the retiming clock must be adjusted to the center of input data eye pattern using of a delay device which delays the input signal by a fixed amount. However, since it is so cumbersome that the mutual phase difference in every individual retiming circuit should be measured and adjusted. Moreover, the signal delay time is fixed, so that the retiming clock phase may be irrelevant against temperature, aging and supplied power level variation.
A circuit which is retiming by detecting the phase difference between the recovered clock and input data (here, input data phase means data transition moment with respect to clock phase and clock phase means the significant instant) and then shifting automatically the clock phase to the center of input data eye pattern, is utilize.
Those examples are as follows; `Automatic Timing Alignment for Regenerative Repeater published in Electronics Letters, Vol. 21, No. 24`, `An Unedersea Fiber-Optic Regenerator Using an Integrated Substrate Package and Flip-Chip SAW Mounting published in IEEE Jr. SAC, Vol. 2, No. 6`, `Novel Regenerator Having Simple Clock Extraction and Automatic Phase-Controlled Retiming Circuit published in Electronics Letters, Vol. 25, No. 1`.
However, a Gilbert cell or varacter diode, etc. being used at this time, which are component of an analog phase shifter, has a disadvantage for supplied power level changes.
Also, it is not easy to handle the phase shift control signals. In addition they are bulky in low frequency operation.
A timing recovery circuit, which utilizes a PLL clock recovery circuit, can be designed so that the significant instant of clock is retiming automatically in the center of input data eye pattern. One example is `Self-Correcting Clock Recovery Circuit with Improved Jitter Performance published in Electronics Letters, Vol. 23, No. 2`. But since utilizing an analog loop filter and voltage-controlled-oscillator this circuit has defects that are bigger in size and more complicated than the case of utilizing a SAW filter, etc.
Second, SONET (synchronous optical network), switching and subscriber systems are made up of many signal processing units and require data transmission between each unit.
At this time, because the reference clock is provided from the center clock supply station, it is not necessary to extract clocks from input data in each of signal processing units but to do retiming with provided clocks in the center of input data eye pattern.
As clocks and input data are transmitted to each unit through independent paths, it is difficult to know exactly their mutual phase relation between clock and data in each processing unit.
In a case of retiming by shifting the clock phase with the use of devices having fixed signal delay, there are defects which not only adjust and measure the phase difference between data and clocks against each of signal processing units, but also can be retiming in inappropriate position against temperature, supplied power level changes and aging variation.
As another example, there are also above problems in a case of applying data and clock into BER (bit error ratio) measuring equipments used always to test the performance of communication systems.
A conventional digital retiming circuit published in `Switching of 140 Mb/s Signal in Broadband Communication System in Electrical Communication Vol. 58, No. 4` has defects that it cannot be retiming in the center of input data eye pattern, and also a digital retiming circuit which consists of DPLL (digital PLL) has restriction in operation speed because an oscillator of higher frequency is necessary.

Digital auto-phase-controlled retiming circuit

Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute


The present invention comprises a skid that includes at least one stackable pedestal having a continuous wall, the continuous wall enclosing an opening that extends from a first pedestal end to a second pedestal end. The stackable pedestal includes at least two support blocks, each support block having a top surface height that places a stacked pedestal at a raised position over a previously placed pedestal to prevent surface-to-surface contact between the adjacent stacked pedestal walls. A yoke is demountably coupled to the second pedestal end of a single pedestal, or to the second pedestal end of a last stacked pedestal in the skid, and the yoke includes a cradle shaped to support a pipe.

In state-of-the-art pipeline construction, individual lengths of pipes called "joints" are welded together into a continuous length of pipe called a "section." Pipe joints are taken from a stockpile and loaded onto specialized trucks that haul the joints to a construction site where the joints are off loaded with a side-boom tractor that strings the joints end-to-end along the pipeline right-of-way. Joints measuring up to 80-feet (24.4 meters) long and between about 2 inches (5.08 cm) up to about 72 inches (182.9 cm) in diameter are used in such pipeline construction applications. The joints are usually, but not always, surface coated with a corrosion resistant material for long-term protection.
Prior to offloading the pipe joints, 4″×6″ by 4′-0″ long wood timbers, called skids, are delivered to the jobsite on steel frame structures known as skid baskets. Each skid basket holds approximately 300 wood skids and a tractor-trailer can hold two skid baskets. Alternatively, skids are pallet stacked on a tractor-trailer for delivery and forklift unloading at the job site. A 40-foot tandem-axle tractor-trailer float can carry between 2,000 to 2,500 skids to the jobsite, and a single tractor-trailer float delivery does not normally provide enough skids to complete a one-mile long section. Simultaneous with the laying of the joints, the skids are stacked in alternating layers at spaced apart locations along the pipeline right-of-way to provide a continuous line of skid structures that position the joints at a predetermined work height adjacent a trench. After teams of workers weld the joints together, the assembled section is removed from the skids and buried in the trench. The welded pipeline section is generally lowered into the trench with side-boom tractors. The trench is backfilled and clean-up crews carefully replace the soils. The cleanup crews reload the skids into the skid baskets or onto the tractor-trailer for delivery either to a new location down the line or to a storage area. Such assembly and disassembly of wood skids is labor intensive and costly.
Wood skids are problematic because they are bulky and heavy, making them both awkward to use, and difficult to move to and from construction sites. Their excessive weight causes a variety of lifting and dropping injuries that include strained muscles to broken bones and their tendency to splinter causes a variety of puncture wounds. Additionally, stacked wood is unsatisfactory for use as a pipeline support structure because wood has a high Relative Coefficient of Sliding Friction (RCSF). The high RCSF between the wood skid support structure and coated joints causes the skid support structures to have a propensity for collapsing in response to unexpected movement along lengths of supported sections. For example, it is not uncommon for a worker to bump a section with a vehicle or other piece of equipment during the construction phase. Such impacts, even when minor, tend to generate a lateral force along the partially completed section, and the high RCSF between the wood skid support structure and pipe surface causes supported sections to collapse. Such a section collapse results in extensive damage to the pipe and to its protective corrosion coating. A section collapse is also a major cause of injuries and fatalities at a pipeline construction site. Proper repair of damaged joints along a collapsed section requires numerous man-hours of intensive labor to reassemble collapsed wood skids, elevate the fallen section, and repair any damaged to the joints and/or the corrosion coating.
Another problem associated with wood skids, as well as with other high friction materials used for pipeline support structures, is related to ambient temperature changes at the construction site. Fluctuating temperatures alternately heat and cool the supported section. This causes expansion and contraction along the section and generates a lateral force against the skid support structures. Such lateral forces can cause the skid support structures to collapse when the pipe section is not able to slide freely along the contacting surfaces.

Pipeline skid and a skid system for use in pipeline construction


A medical catheter tube containing a tetrafluoroethylene polymer, which has a wall thickness of 0.1 mm or below and exhibits a tensile strength (S1) at 1.0 mm displacement of 5.0 N/mm or above; and a process for the production of medical catheter tubes, characterized by molding a composition both a tetrafluoroethylene polymer and a lubricant having high affinity for the polymer by paste extrusion. The invention provides thin-wall medical catheter tubes excellent in elongation resistance, kink resistance and internal cavity lubricity.

Less-invasive intravascular operation of inserting a catheter percutaneously into the blood vessel for treatment of vascular lesion is mainly practiced recently for reduction of physical and temporal loads applied on patients. Examples of such operation include a percutaneous blood vessel-forming operation of enlarging the stricture site of blood vessel or removing thrombus from thrombus-clotted blood vessel by applying negative pressure to the catheter, an intravascular operation called embolotherapy of injecting a thrombolic substance or a coil to lesions such as aneurysm, arteriovenous malfunction, and hemangioma often found in brain and other blood vessels.
The catheters for use in the percutaneous blood vessel-forming or intravascular operation demand, for example, the following properties.
(1) Favorable Operational Convenience and High Safety:
The catheter should be delivered rapidly and accurately to a lesion in the body without damage on vascular wall and others during insertion into the body. It is related to the efficiency of positional adjustment, for example, for reliable transmission of the surgeon's operation from the proximal region to the distal region during insertion or withdrawal of the catheter into or out of blood vessel and others.
Specifically, the positional adjustment efficiency is dependent on the resistance of catheter to elongation (stretch resistance), the efficiency of transmitting the torque from proximal region on the catheter, and the like.
(2) Preservation of Lumen Diameter and Reduction of Frictional Resistance of Lumen Surface:
These properties are related to the lumen lubricity and pressure resistance of catheter that are needed to inject a medicine such as contrast medium or thrombolic substance into the patient's internal lesion through the tube lumen, which is formed by a catheter internal layer resin, to remove intravascular substances such as thrombus and debris (foreign matter) smoothly out of the blood vessel for example by suction, or to deliver another treatment device such as guide wire less forcibly.
Specifically, it is needed to have a favorable guide wire-delivery efficiency of inserting and withdrawing the catheter smoothly along a previously-installed guide wire without damaging the internal wall of bent blood vessels. The catheter is desirably compatible with blood or organs. In addition, the catheter tube also demands favorable kink resistance prohibiting folding in the curved or bent area of blood-vessel when the distal end of catheter tube reaches a desired position and then the guide wire is removed and favorable distal-region flexibility keeping the shape favorable for the blood vessel without damaging it. It is necessary to reduce the external diameter of the tube for reduction of the frictional resistance with vascular wall and also to thin the internal layer of the catheter extremely (thinning) for prevention of decrease in medicinal flow rate and also in the flow resistance of intravascular substances and for increase of internal diameter.
To satisfy the requirements described above, this kind of catheter has, for example, a configuration having a multi-layer structure consisting of internal and external layers containing a resin and/or an elastomer and a reinforcement layer having a metal wire and/or a synthetic resin wire and also having a highly flexible distal region and a relatively rigid main body, wherein the rigidity of the catheter tube varies gradually from the distal region to the main body.
In particular, a fluoroethylene polymer (fluoroplastic), for example, is used as the material for the internal layer, for reduction of the frictional resistance on the lumen surface and thus for easier movement of the medicine or treatment device through the lumen. Specifically, tetrafluoroethylene polymers (PTFE's) superior in chemical resistance, low friction, and electric insulation efficiency are used widely.
As for the production method for catheter using PTFE, for example, Patent Documents 1, 2 and 3 disclose methods (dipping methods) of producing a catheter, by coating a core wire such as copper wire with a PTFE dispersion, forming an external resin layer thereon after sintering, and withdrawing the core wire.
However, the methods disclosed in the Patent Documents 1 to 3 gave catheters unsatisfactory in tensile strength because of absence of orientation and also in lumen lubricity during insertion or withdrawal of the guide wire because of separation of the PTFE particles. In addition, the catheters obtained by the method disclosed in the Patent Documents 1 to 3, which are not oriented, were unsatisfactory in kink resistance and positional adjustment efficiency (including stretch resistance and torque-transmitting efficiency). Further, it was necessary to repeat coating and sintering of a dispersion several times before obtaining a PTFE tube having a desired wall thickness, which caused problems of low productivity and local fluctuation in thickness by uneven coating.
In addition to the dipping methods disclosed in Patent Documents 1 to 3 above, extrusion molding methods are also used for producing catheters. The extrusion molding methods include melting extrusion molding and paste-extrusion molding. PTFE resins, which are very higher in melt viscosity, are molded not by melting extrusion molding, but normally by paste-extrusion molding.
For example, Patent Document 4 discloses a PTFE-based resin tube and a production method thereof, by extruding a PTFE-based resin, for example, by tube molding such as paste extrusion, sintering the extruded resin, and then, drawing and thus thinning the resin tube in the longitudinal direction by a drawing machine.
Patent Document 5 discloses an amorphous fluorine polymer superior in tensile strength allowing paste-extrusion molding, a PTFE composition containing a fluorine-containing chemical, and a production method thereof.    Patent Document 1: Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2000-316977    Patent Document 2: Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2000-51365    Patent Document 3: Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2002-45428    Patent Document 4: Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2004-340364    Patent Document 5: Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2000-136280

Medical catheter tubes and process for production thereof


The present invention relates to an air conditioner system, in which an air-cooled condenser mounted on a refrigerant circulation line between a water-cooled condenser and an expansion valve and a blower fan for blowing air to the air-cooled condenser are arranged at one side of the water-cooled condenser in a state of being disposed in a row in the air flow direction and are arranged within the width of the one side of the water-cooled condenser, thereby enabling the enhancement of installability and assemblability inside an engine room by simplifying and reducing the package, reducing noise of the blower fan and securing adequate cooling performance because of the blower fan disposed between two air-cooled heat exchangers even when inflowing air is insufficient, such as in an idling condition.

In general, as shown in FIG. 1, an air conditioner system for a vehicle has a refrigeration cycle that includes: a compressor 1 for compressing and discharging refrigerant; a condenser 2 for condensing the refrigerant of high pressure discharged from the compressor 1; an expansion valve 3 for throttling the refrigerant condensed and liquefied in the condenser 2; and an evaporator 4 for exchanging heat between the liquefied refrigerant of low pressure throttled by the expansion valve 3 and air blown to the interior of the vehicle and evaporating the refrigerant to cool the air discharged to the interior of the vehicle due to heat absorption by evaporative latent heat, and that the compressor 1, the condenser 2, the expansion valve 3 and the evaporator 4 are connected with each other via refrigeration pipes. The air conditioner system cools the interior of the vehicle through the following refrigerant circulation process.
When a cooling switch (not shown) of the air conditioner system is turned on, first, the compressor 1 inhales and compresses gas-phase refrigerant of low-temperature and low-pressure while driving by driving power of an engine or a motor, and then sends the refrigerant in the gaseous phase of high-temperature and high-pressure to the condenser 2. Then, the condenser 2 condenses the gas-phase refrigerant into liquid-phase refrigerant of high-temperature and high-pressure by exchanging heat with outdoor air. After that, the liquid-phase refrigerant of high-temperature and high-pressure sent from the condenser 2 rapidly expands by a throttling action of the expansion valve 3 and is sent to the evaporator 4 in a wet-saturated state of low-temperature and low-pressure. The evaporator 4 exchanges heat between the refrigerant and air blown to the interior of the vehicle by a blower (not shown). Then, the refrigerant is evaporated in the evaporator 4 and discharged in a gaseous phase of low-temperature and low-pressure. After that, the gas-phase refrigerant is inhaled into the compressor 1, and then, recirculates the refrigeration cycle as described above.
In the refrigerant circulation process, as described above, the air blown by the blower (not shown) is cooled by evaporative latent heat of the liquid-phase refrigerant circulating inside the evaporator 4 and discharged to the interior of the vehicle in a cooled state so as to cool the interior of the vehicle.
Meanwhile, the condenser 2 which is an air-cooled condenser is mounted at the front side of the vehicle to cool the refrigerant using traveling wind from the front of the vehicle.
However, if the air-cooled condenser is mounted at the front side of the vehicle, a cooling module package mounted at the front side of the vehicle becomes excessively bigger. Moreover, when the vehicle idles, because air of high-temperature in an engine room flows backward toward the front side of the vehicle and is induced into the air-cooled condenser, temperature of the air induced into the air-cooled condenser gets higher, and it causes deterioration in air-conditioning performance.
Recently, in order to enhance air-conditioning performance, a water-cooled condenser 20 and an internal heat exchanger 25 are applied to an air conditioner system. Referring to FIG. 2, the water-cooled condenser 20 heat-exchanges the refrigerant discharged to the compressor 1 with coolant to condense the refrigerant.
That is, coolant circulating inside a water-cooled radiator 50 mounted in an engine room of the vehicle is supplied into the water-cooled condenser 20 and exchanges heat with the gas-phase refrigerant discharged from the compressor 1, so that the gas-phase refrigerant is cooled and condensed to be changed into a liquid-phase refrigerant.
The water-cooled radiator 50 exchanges heat between the coolant flowing inside the water-cooled radiator 50 and the air by a water pump (WP) to cool electronic units of the vehicle, such as a battery, an inverter, a motor and so on.
Moreover, the internal heat exchanger 25 exchanges heat between the refrigerant discharged from the water-cooled condenser 20 and the refrigerant discharged from the evaporator 4.
Therefore, the refrigerant discharged from the water-cooled condenser 20 enhances air-conditioning performance through supercooling because being further cooled in the internal heat exchanger 25 and flowing to the expansion valve 3.
In the meantime, a receiver drier 30 which separates the refrigerant passing through the water-cooled condenser 20 into gas-phase refrigerant and liquid-phase refrigerant is mounted.
Furthermore, not shown in the drawings, but, the water-cooled condenser 20 is partitioned into a condensing region and a supercooling region through a baffle (not shown). In this instance, the refrigerant passing through the condensing region of the water-cooled condenser 20 is induced into the receiver drier 30, and the refrigerant induced into the receiver drier 30 flows to the supercooling region of the water-cooled condenser 20 to be supercooled, and then, is induced into the internal heat exchanger 25.
However, in the conventional air conditioner system, when the vehicle idles or when the outdoor temperature rises, temperature of the coolant passing the water-cooled radiator 50 also rises. In this instance, when temperature of the coolant rises, temperature of the refrigerant of the water-cooled condenser 20 which exchanges heat with the coolant also rises so that the refrigerant is induced into the internal heat exchanger 25. After that, the refrigerant is induced into the expansion valve 3 and the evaporator 4, and it causes deterioration in air-conditioning performance.
Additionally, due to the limit of the outdoor temperature which cools the coolant of the water-cooled radiator 50, temperature of the coolant of the water-cooled radiator 50 is high and the water-cooled condenser 20 does not provide sufficient condensation in the condensing region, and hence, gas-liquid separation is not achieved smoothly in the receiver drier 30 due to high quality of the refrigerant induced into the receiver drier 30. Finally, because not only the liquid-phase refrigerant but also the gas-phase refrigerant are induced to the supercooling region of the water-cooled condenser 20, the receiver drier 30 cannot carry out its performance well.
In addition, because the water-cooled condenser 20, the receiver drier 30 and the internal heat exchanger 25 are arranged disorderedly, the package becomes excessively bigger and it is not easy to mount them inside the engine room of the vehicle.


A release assembly is provided to aid the reversible and repositionable deployment of a defect occluder. The release assembly includes an occluder tether having a distal portion comprising at least one suture loop, and a snare structure having a distal portion comprising a snare element. The at least one suture loop is receivable through at least a portion of the defect occluder, and reversibly looped over an anchor element so as to permit reversible collapse the defect occluder for selective ingress and egress from a delivery catheter. The snare element is reversibly engageable with the anchor element so as to reversibly retain the at least one suture loop upon the anchor element, and thereby hold the defect occluder in a posture for reversible free-floating tethered deployment in a defect while being observable in a final position prior to release.

The term "septal defect" generally refers to a perforation or other type hole (i.e., a defect) which passes through a thin wall of muscle or other tissue (i.e., a septum) which divides or separates "areas" within the body. Such defects can occur, either congenitally or by acquisition, between chambers of the heart (i.e., atrium or ventricle) or the great vessels (interatrial and interventricular septal defects or patent ductus arteriosus and aortico-pulminatry window respectively), causing shunting of blood through the opening.
Atrial septal defects were initially corrected by open heart surgery which required the surgeon to open the chest of a patient and bypass the heart temporarily (e.g., by means of a mechanical heart or a "heart-lung machine"). The surgeon would then physically cut into the heart and suture small defects closed. In the case of larger defects, a patch of a biologically compatible material would be sewn onto the septum to cover (i.e., "patch") the defect. Balloon catheters, similar to that disclosed by Landymore et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 4,836,204, have been used by physicians to temporarily occlude septal defects, as a stabilizing measure, prior to implementation of corrective open heart surgical techniques.
To overcome limitations of surgical closure, a variety of interventional transcatheter closure techniques have been attempted. In such techniques, an occluding device is delivered through a catheter to the septal defect site. Once the closure device is positioned adjacent the defect, it must be attached to the rest of the septum in a manner which permits it to effectively block the passage of blood through the defect.
One such early closure device, U.S. Pat. No. 3,874,388 (King et al.), includes a pair of complex mechanical umbrellas, each having a plurality of arms extending radially from a central hub. The hubs of the two umbrellas are mechanically connected to one another and each umbrella includes a fabric covering over the arms, much like a common umbrella. The ends of each arm are provided with barbs which are anchored into the septum to hold the occluder in place. The complex umbrellas prove rather difficult to unfold after passage through a catheter, requiring an array of cables to deploy the arms. This makes proper placement of the device difficult, and the barbs on the arms prevent retraction or repositioning of the device once it is in place.
Although much progress has been made in the field since the King et al. device, heretofore known defect occluding systems, whether they be of a traditional atrial umbrella style (e.g., the ClamShell Septal Umbrella (ClamShell I, C.R. Bard, Inc.), the CardioSEAL device (Nitinol Medical Technologies, Inc.), the Sideris Buttoned Occluder (Sideris, U.S. Pat. No. 4,917,089), or the ASD Occlusion System (ASDOS, Dr. Osypka GmbH, Grenzach-Wyhlen, Germany), or other emerging plug style (e.g., The Monodisk System (Pavenik et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,643,317), Angel Wings (Das, U.S. Pat. No. 5,578,045), the Amplatzer® Septal Occluder, or the HELEX Septal Occluder (W.L. Gore & Associates, Inc.), all suffer from a variety of common shortcomings.
These, and other such devices, generally rely on the caudal and cranial ends of the device being larger than the opening of the defect itself to physically trap the device across the opening. To accommodate transcatheter delivery techniques, the resulting device configurations have become unduly mechanical in nature, often including multiple components (e.g., ASDOS) and/or requiring the sequential delivery of device components, as well as the use of loading jigs (e.g., ASDOS, CardioSEAL) to prepare the device for insertion. Furthermore, many of these devices require assembly across the defect post delivery (e.g., ASDOS), thereby increasing the complexity of the transcatheter equipment, and delivery process, as for instance, by requiring two separate catheter entry points (e.g., ASDOS).
Further still, and of primary importance, heretofore known defect occluders do not optimally conform to the size (i.e., contour, dimensions and/or geometry) of the septal defect. Such devices therefore require great care in placement to ensure that the closure members entirely cover the defect. Because previously known devices typically use expanding frames to support the closure members that can straddle the opening of the defect, or otherwise become caught, complications may arise during implantation of such devices.
Generally, a great deal of remote manipulation and repositioning is required for proper device deployment because heretofore known defect occluder systems hold or retain the occluder in such a way that the device cannot be observed in its final, fully expanded position within the defect until the device is completely released. Extensive remote manipulation, such as by applying tension to one or more cables in order to deploy the arms of an umbrella, for instance, or to anchor the device in place, not only increases the difficulty of the procedure, but tends to increase the likelihood that the device will be improperly deployed, or suffer material fatigue leading to device strut fracture, a fundamental and well documented problem of the aforementioned umbrella type devices. Further still, the likelihood of retrieval of such devices post deployment is great, and in some cases retrieval is required so as to effectively occlude the defect and minimize the risk of embolization.
Occluder systems generally have either a single "hard point" connection (i.e., the occluder is held for deployment by a substantially rigid "hard point" connection until final release thereof within a defect), or a dual point connection, namely a hard point connection in combination with a "soft" secondary release mechanism (e.g., a release cord or suture used to provide emergency retrieval post hard point release). With the single hard point connection, a cyclical flexing of the occluder is possible therewith, however, once the hard point is disengaged from the occluder, further adjustment and retrieval is no longer possible.
For example, the Amplatzer® and ASDOS single hard point systems push the occluder from the catheter into the defect using an externally threaded rod (i.e., torquer catheter) that mates with a threaded nut, or the like, integral to the occluder, with release of the device thereafter once the occluder is adequately seated in the defect. A major shortcoming of this method is that the position of the catheter tip in the heart in relation to the fully deployed occluder usually pulls the occluder into an unintended, and unnatural position. This distorts the septum of the heart, and the physician must trust that upon release of the occluder from the delivery system, the septum will return to a natural position and the occluder will adequately seal the defect. The single hard point connection does not permit the physician to observe the occluder as it would sit naturally in the heart until it is released.
The dual point connection, which specifically addressed the shortcomings of the single hard point connection, provides a mechanism by which the occluder may be emergently retrieved in the case of mis-deployment after hard point release. The dual point CardioSEAL and HELEX systems permit the physician to better observe the occluder in a more "natural" condition or state, having previously disengaged the occluder from the single hard point connection, thereby effectively minimizing potential cardiac distortion. However, due to the nature of the soft point connection, no effective repositioning may be effectuated once the hard point connection has been disengaged without fear of damaging the occluder and thereby causing malfunction: only retrieval is possible should mis-deployment of the occluder be suspected. A further disadvantage to this method of occluder attachment is that occluder redeployment is not possible: having disengaged the hard point "control" connection, redeployment, in addition to repositioning, is no longer possible, with occluder retrieval via the soft point connection typically destroying the device. The soft point attachment is generally released by cutting the suture or cord at the rear of the delivery system, and drawing the full length of the suture from the occluder and through the entire delivery system—a procedure which effectively opens a fluid pathway from the rear of the delivery system into the area of the defect, especially of concern when occluding an atrial or ventricle defect, thereby creating attendant risks with such release arrangement and procedure.
It is, therefore, advantageous to provide a defect occluder system capable of reversibly retaining an occluder so as to be observable in its final position prior to release. More particularly, it is highly desirable to provide a delivery system release assembly which allows the device to free float in the defect, while maintaining the ability to reposition and or retrieve it, at any time prior to final release, without implicating occluder integrity. Further still, it is desirable to provide in a defect occluder delivery system a soft occluder release accomplished with reduced attendant patient risk, such as the elimination of problems associated with opening the fluid pathway from the rear of the delivery system into the heart.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Defect occluder release assembly and method


A coating composition for glass containers containing medium chain fatty acid triglyceride, medium chain fatty acid triglyceride and/or long chain unsaturated triglyceride and squalane, or (a) at least one selected from medium chain fatty acid triglyceride, long chain unsaturated triglyceride and liquid paraffin and (b) fatty acid isopropyl as essential ingredient(s).

The present invention relates to a coating composition for glass containers, which is coated onto the outer surface upon recycling glass containers for beer, juice, mineral water, etc. to enhance the appearance as well as masking scratches.
The glass containers for beer, juice, mineral water, etc. are repeatedly used by a collection system. When repeatedly using these bottles, scratches can generate on the outer surface due to mutual rubbing of bottles in the filling and distribution process to injure the appearance and to decrease the commercial value of bottled beverages. Upon recycling, therefore, it is necessary to coat a coating agent onto the portion of scratches, thus masking the scratches inconspicuous and enhancing the appearance at the same time. The portions of bottles violently generating the scratches are approximately fixed; for example, in the case of common beer bottles in Japan, the generation of scratches are violent at the positions of 1 to 2 cm, 5 to 7 cm and 13 to 15 cm from the bottom. For this reason and other various conditions, partial coating such as two or three-stripe coating or the like, wherein the coating liquor is applied only onto the portions of violent scratches, is generally carried out. However, the scratches sometimes generate at positions other than those fixed positions, thus improvement in the working process is required for beautifully finishing even such portions.
In order to cope with such problems, some coating compositions for the scratches of glass containers have so far been proposed. For example, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Sho 57-179053, a composition using dimethylpolysiloxane together with aminomethylpolysiloxane is disclosed. Also, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Sho 59-145259, a composition having liquid paraffin as a major ingredient and using small amounts of higher alcohol fatty acid ester and polyhydric alcohol fatty acid ester in combination is disclosed. Furthermore, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Sho 62-128951, a composition containing acetylated glycerine fatty acid ester as an essential ingredient has also been disclosed. While these are favorable compositions for said partial coating processes, they are unsuitable in several points when considering overall coating process by the shower or spray method of coating liquor or with sponge aiming at the improvement in the partial coating process and the beautiful finishing of overall bottle surface. If considering the coating liquor for overall coating, such matters that it dries rapidly, that it does not allow slippage where handled, that it does not adversely affect the label (exudation and easy stripping off) and that it allows good transportability (no rubbing in the printed area of label) are desired in addition to the performance desirable for the coating liquor by the conventional system (masking property, appearance, non-tackiness, water resistance and washing property).
The purpose of the invention is to provide a coating composition for glass containers having solved said problems.
As a result of diligent investigations for obtaining a coating composition for glass containers having solved said problems, the inventors have reached the invention.

Coating composition for glass containers


A process for fabricating an ultra-low-resistance superconducting joint that has high shielding characteristics. The process includes: corroding copper on the outer surface at the end of a NbTi/Cu superconducting wire to form terminal NbTi superconducting filaments; inserting same number of NbTi superconducting filaments into each through hole of the niobium layer of a Nb/NbTi/Cu multilayer composite rod; pressing at the outside of the Nb/NbTi/Cu multilayer composite rod to combine the Nb/NbTi/Cu multilayer composite rod and NbTi superconducting filaments together to form a joint; and inserting the joint into a YBCO tube, and then filling the YBCO tube with molten bismuth-lead-tin-cadmium (BiPbSnCd) alloy solder to form a superconducting joint with high shielding and low resistance characteristics.

1. Technical Field
Present invention relates to a process for fabricating a superconducting joint, particularly to a process for fabricating a superconducting joint for high magnetic field superconducting magnets.
2. Background Art
Low-resistance superconducting joints are key techniques to develop high stability, high magnetic field superconducting magnet systems. Such magnet systems are mainly used in scientific instruments, medical diagnosis, special electric equipments and so on. Generally, due to special application requirements of high magnetic field scientific instruments, the resistance of joints for superconducting wires should be less than 10−13 ohm to 10−14 ohm. The low resistance of joints for superconducting wires is important to achieving a highly stable magnetic field in superconducting scientific instruments. Therefore, it is desirable to develop a process for fabricating special joints to achieve stable magnetic field characteristics, and to carry out testing of material structures and realize special functions. At present, the superconducting magnets prepared with superconducting materials such as niobium-titanium (NbTi) and niobium-tin (Nb3Sn) and the like can generate relatively high magnetic fields. Generally, if the magnetic field provided by superconducting magnets is 10 T or less, NbTi superconducting wires can be used to develop superconducting magnets to meet this requirement. If the magnetic field of superconducting magnets is 10 T or more, a combination of NbTi and Nb3Sn needs to be used. To achieve magnets operated in persistent mode, it is necessary to connect superconducting magnets using joints with ultra low resistance via superconducting switches, to form a magnetic field with a very low rate of field decay.
At present, the processes for fabricating joints of high magnetic field superconducting magnets mainly include cold welding, ultrasonic welding, laser welding and resistance brazing, etc. Since the resistance of a superconducting joint depends on different processes and conditions, and meanwhile magnets are large in size, the processes for fabricating the joints should be as simple and reliable as possible. When the background magnetic field is relatively high, the critical transmission current decreases greatly. In order to obtain superconducting joints having high transmission current and low contact resistance under high magnetic field, it is desirable to develop a process for fabricating more advanced magnet joints.

Process for fabricating an ultra-low-resistance superconducting joint having high shielding characteristics

Institute of Electrical Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences


An LED lamp having a metal PCB bent polyhedrally and a method for manufacturing the LED lamp is provided, where a base constituting the metal PCB has a rectangular or geometric shape and is configured to have a plurality of base stepped grooves formed spaced apart from each other on the underside thereof in such a manner as to be bent upward or downward from the base to form reflection surfaces continuously, so that at the time when both ends of the base come into contact with the plane, the base has a geometric shape in which the base is located in space through the reflection surfaces continuously arranged.

The present invention relates to an LED lamp having a metal PCB bent polyhedrally and a method for manufacturing the LED lamp wherein a base constituting the metal PCB has a rectangular or geometric shape and is configured to have a plurality of base stepped grooves formed spaced apart from each other on the underside thereof in such a manner as to be bent upward or downward from the base to form reflection surfaces continuously, so that at the time when both ends of the base come into contact with the plane, the base has a geometric shape in which the base is located in space through the reflection surfaces continuously arranged.
Generally, a printed circuit board (PCB) on which electronic components are mounted is a wiring board made for electrically connecting the electronic components or signal lines together.
Further, a method for manufacturing the PCB includes the step of attaching a copper foil to one side or both sides of an insulation plate made of a phenolic resin and an epoxy resin, forming conductive patterns corresponding to circuits, performing etching for unnecessary portions to remove the copper foil and thus constituting the circuits, punching via holes for connecting electronic components to the PCB and plating the via holes, and applying photo solder resist (PSR) ink to top and underside of the PCB.
Furthermore, LEDs have no large quantity of power consumed, provide long lifetime, and do not produce any environment pollutants, and accordingly, they are generally used for LCDs of cellular phones, display boards, vehicle meter panels, and so on.
As the application range of the LEDs becomes widened, recently, the LEDs have been applied to car indoor lamps, sign boards, back light units (BLU) of liquid crystal displays, lamps for general lighting, car headlights, and the like.
Particularly, an LED lamp module (M) applied to a vehicle includes a reflector for reflecting the light generated from LEDs, a PCB for controlling the LEDs mounted through power supply, a heat sink for radiating the heat generated from the LEDs to the outside, and a back cover for mounting the heat sink.
By the way, the PCBs used for various components as well as the LEDs have relatively low heat radiation effects, and so as to solve such problem, accordingly, a metal PCB, which is made of a metal material such as aluminum, copper alloys, or the like, becomes recently popular on the market.
In addition to the demand for the metal PCB for mounting LEDs, especially, the demand for the metal PCB capable of performing mechanical molding such as bending or pressing has increasingly emerged.
A conventional metal PCB assembly for a car lamp is disclosed in Korean Patent No. 1589017, and as shown in FIG. 1, the metal PCB assembly for a car lamp includes: a metal PCB 14; at least one unit pattern 22 whose three edges are incised and whose one edge is connected to the metal PCB 14 in such a manner as to protrude from the metal PCB 14 in a state of being inclined at a given angle; and an injection molded material coupled to the metal PCB 14 and having a support protruding from the horizontal plane thereof to support the unit pattern 22 to allow the unit pattern 22 to be maintained at the given angle, wherein the metal PCB assembly further includes bent grooves 24 formed to a given depth on the underside of the metal PCB 14 to allow the unit pattern 22 on which LEDs are mounted to be pushed forward around each bent groove 24, so that the metal PCB assembly has a shape of a stair even with a small force.
At this time, the three outer edges 20a, 20b and 20c of the unit pattern 22 are incised and one outer edge 20d thereof is connected unitarily to the metal PCB 14, so that the unit pattern 22 protrudes from the metal PCB 14 to the given angle in such a manner as to allow one side thereof to be connected with the metal PCB 14, while being not completely separated from the metal PCB 14.
According to the conventional metal PCB assembly for a car lamp, however, it is hard to install the metal PCB assembly on a place having a geometric shape because the metal PCB 14 is flat, and also, the three outer edges 20a, 20b and 20c of the unit pattern 22 should be incised, so that disadvantageously, it is difficult to take a desired shape.
In addition, the bent groove 24 for bending work is formed, without any separate standard, so that cracks may occur during the bending work to cause reliability in a product to be undesirably deteriorated.

LED lamp having metal PCB bent polyhedrally and manufacturing method thereof


Disclosure includes fluid-circulating heat exchange catheters, systems and related methods useable for controlling a patient's body temperature.

Pursuant to 37 CFR 1.71(e), this patent document contains material which is subject to copyright protection and the owner of this patent document reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.
In modern medicine there are numerous clinical situations in which it is desirable to control or modify body temperature of a patient. For example, hypothermia can be induced in humans and some animals for the purpose of protecting various organs and tissues against the effects of ischemic, anoxic or toxic insult. For example, hypothermia can have neuroprotective and/or cardioprotective effects in patients who suffer an ischemic event such as a myocardial infraction or acute coronary syndrome, post-anoxic coma following cardiopulmonary resuscitation, traumatic brain injury, stroke, subarachnoid hemorrhage, fever or neurological injury. Also, studies have shown that hypothermia can ameliorate nephrotoxic effects of radiographic contrast media (e.g., radiocontrast nephropathy) in patients who have pre-existing renal impairment.
One method for inducing hypothermia—or otherwise modifying or controlling a patient's body temperature—involves insertion of an endovascular heat exchange catheter into the patient's vasculature and circulation of a heat exchange fluid, such as warmed or cooled saline solution, through a heat exchanger located on the catheter. This results in exchange of heat between the circulating heat exchange fluid and blood that is coursing through the patient's vasculature. Because the blood circulates throughout the patient's entire body, this technique can be effective to change the patient's core body temperature to a desired target temperature and to thereafter maintain the target core body temperature for a period of time.
In some clinical situations, it is desirable to induce hypothermia as rapidly as possible. Once such example is in the treatment of acute myocardial infarction. Patients who are diagnosed with acute myocardial infarction are often treated with a coronary intervention or surgery (e.g., angioplasty or coronary artery bypass surgery) to reperfuse the ischemic myocardium. In at least one study, it was observed that patients with anterior wall infarctions whose core body temperature had been lowered to at least 35° C. prior to reperfusion by angioplasty had significantly smaller median infarct size than other patients with anterior wall infarctions whose core body temperature was greater than 35° C. at the time of reperfusion. This observation is not explained by other factors such as time-to-presentation, lesion location or quantity of antegrade coronary flow (TIMI Flow) prior to the angioplasty. This would suggest that, at least in acute myocardial infarction cases, it is desirable to lower the patient's body temperature to at least 35° C. as rapidly as practical so that reperfusion may also be accomplished as rapidly as practical after such hypothermia has been induced.

High efficiency heat exchange catheters for control of patient body temperature


An example method includes receiving radio frequency (RF) signals from a cable modem termination system (CMTS) in a small form factor pluggable optical transmitter; converting the RF signals to optical signals in the small form factor pluggable optical transmitter; and transmitting, by the small form factor pluggable optical transmitter, the optical signals on a network. More specific embodiments can include RF signals that are modulated, where a modulation error ratio (MER) of the RF signal varies substantially linearly with Carrier to Composite Noise (CCN), and the converting is implemented by a laser transmitter. Other, more specific, embodiments include routing the RF signals through a pre-distortion RF amplifier RF variable attenuator, and coupling the optical transmitter to a chassis of the CMTS.

Most of today's cable transport systems are straining to handle an increasing volume of Internet traffic and an expanding array of video services. For example, internet protocol (IP) video is consuming cable bandwidth and it is expected to grow exponentially. Subscribers are increasingly demanding "many services to many screens." Essentially, modern users desire the convenience of having services available anytime, anywhere, and on any device. To address these market requirements, cable companies are transitioning their cable systems to all-digital delivery: requiring flexible management of an expanding array of converging services at low cost.
As cable headends converge, new technology advances in cable television (CATV) headend access optics drive a need to: (1) improve off-line power efficiency; (2) reduce space requirements due to limited space and limited heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) capacity; (3) improve monitoring and control to provide a unified customer interface; and (4) reduce cost. Further, to deliver many services to many screens, cable operators are seeking an innovative, converged infrastructure that enables the delivery of current services more efficiently, while also providing the means to deliver tomorrow's new, application-intensive residential and commercial services. Deploying solutions that provide enhanced network intelligence, integration, and overall flexibility can not only provide cable operators with short-term relief, but also ultimately enable them to combat competitive pressures and address new market opportunities.

System and method for facilitating fiber access transport using pluggable radio frequency optics


There is described a nonwoven material comprising a multilayered stack, the multilayered stack comprising discrete interconnected layers, each of the layers, which may be the same or different, comprising a composite fibre of from about 80 to 100% w/w leaf or stem fibre and from about 1 to 20% w/w of a polymer, wherein the polymer is fusible at a temperature of about 180° C. or less. There is also described a novel method of enzyme degumming leaf and/or stem fibres.

The present invention is based on research on a wide range of natural leaf or stem fibres, including, for example, pineapple leaf fibre (PALF).
The main sources of pineapple originate from Brazil, Thailand and the Philippines. In 2008 the top 20 pineapple producing countries produced more than 17 million MT of pineapple as is illustrated in Table I below:
2008ProductionProduction% of top 20RankCountry(Int $1000)(MT)production1Brazil481922249197414.22Thailand440651227856613.03Philippines427263220933612.64Costa Rica32453216781259.65China27114414020608.06India25252813058007.57Indonesia24613912727617.38Nigeria1740519000005.19Mexico1326276858053.910Viet Nam908934700002.7Source UN Food and Agriculture Statistics
In Brazil, Thailand, the Philippines and elsewhere, when the pineapple fruit is harvested, the pineapple leaves are mostly left to rot. Hitherto, a small amount has been used to extract pineapple leaf fibre, which is used as a filament or blended with cotton, nylon or similar natural or synthetic based fibres and spun into yarn. The yarn produced may be used in the making of woven textiles, etc.
The pineapple leaf fibres used to make the new natural nonwoven material hereinafter described are a by-product of the pineapple fruit harvest. Currently they are left to decompose after the fruit harvest. Thus, the income of pineapple farmers in Thailand, the Philippines and elsewhere, would be enhanced by the fibre extraction processes needed in the production of this new natural nonwoven material hereinafter described. The technology, when completed, will be transferable to other regions of the world which are large producers of pineapple.
A suitable use of pineapple leaf fibre would be economically beneficial to pineapple farmers, it would also provide a material from renewable resources, that is otherwise often discarded as waste material.
The natural nonwoven material is environmentally advantageous because, inter alia, it does not require additional land, energy and fertiliser for the crop, as is the case for other natural fibres such as cotton. Nor does it compete for land resources used in the food industry which contrasts to cotton and PLA.
The present invention provides a material based on a biodegradable material that has good tensile strength and a fine denier. Furthermore, inter glia, the natural nonwoven fibre, e.g. pineapple fibre, material is stitchable and can be used as a substitute material in making, for example, furnishings, clothing, home interiors, panels, bags, luggage, the car industry, shoes, accessories, etc.
The present invention provides that such a natural nonwoven fibre may have a variety of utilities, including, but not limited to, artificial leather as hereinbefore described.
European Patent application No. 1 013 290 describes a multilayer absorbent composite comprising an absorbent core of cellulose wood pulp fibres. The absorbent composite is produced by an air laying process.
In the preparation of natural nonwoven fibres from plant leaf and stem material it is necessary to treat the leaf and stem material to remove the gum that holds the leaf and stem material together. Conventional methods of degumming natural fibres comprise chemical processes, usually the use of a base such as aqueous sodium hydroxide or ammonium hydroxide. However, the use of caustic soda can damage the fibre itself and usually a coarse fibre may be produced which may require the use of an additional softening agent.