An example operation may include one or more of receiving, by a device, from at least one data source, data related to an occupant of a transport, determining, by the device, a destination of the occupant based on the data related to the occupant, determining, by the device, a departure time of the occupant based on the destination, requesting, by the device, a transport at a location of the occupant at the departure time, and adjusting, by the device, an environment of the transport based on the data related to the occupant and the destination.

Vehicles or transports, such as cars, motorcycles, trucks, planes, trains, etc., generally provide transportation needs to occupants and/or goods in a variety of ways. Functions related to transports may be identified and utilized by various computing devices, such as a smartphone or a computer, or a tablet.
Typically, when an occupant gets inside of a transport, a certain environment (e.g., lighting, temperature, sound, seat(s) positions, etc.) is already set. Then, if the person does not like the certain environmental settings, he or she needs to adjust the settings manually or ask a driver to adjust the settings. An automated adjustment of settings based on known or acquired occupant's preferences is not provided by any existing transport systems.
Accordingly, efficient automated adjustment of an environment of a transport based on a particular occupant is desired.


The present invention provides a method for quantifying the presence of extracellular BPI in body fluids including blood in a subject comprising conducting a BPI immunoassay on body fluid sample obtained from said subject.

The present invention relates to methods for determination of the presence of Bactericidal/permeability-increasing protein in a body fluid sample including a blood sample. Bactericidal/permeability-increasing protein (BPI) is a cationic anti-microbial protein which has been purified from the azurophilic granules of human and animal neutrophils (Weiss et al., J. Biol. Chem., 253:2664 (1978), Elsbach et al., J. Biol. Chem., 254:11000 (1979). BPI binds to the lipopolysaccharide (LPS) component of the outer membranes of gram-negative bacteria (Gazzano-Santoro et al., Infect. Immun., 60:4754 (1992)). Recently, a recombinant form of human BPI (rBPI23) has been characterized and compared to that of native BPI. The rBPI23 fragment consists of the amino-terminal 23 kcDa portion of holo-BPI and retains the LPS binding properties, as well as the anti-microbial activity, of native BPI (Gazzano-Santoro et al., J. Clin. Invest., 90:1122 (1992), Weiss, et al., J. Clin. Invest., 90:1122 (1992)).
BPI levels have not previously been accurately assayed in any body fluids. Because of the potential therapeutic use of rBPI23 and other BPI proteins and protein products, a sensitive and reproducible assay is needed to measure the presence and amount of BPI in body fluids. In particular, measurements of BPI in body fluids may be useful for diagnostic purposes. Pereira et al, J. Immunol. Methods, 117:115 (1989) discloses a competitive ELISA assay for the determination of BPI in crude granule extracts of human neutrophils. Pereira et al. also disclose that non-specific interactions of cationic proteins in an ELISA assay can be minimized by treatment with polyanions such as heparin or dextran sulfate. See also Pesce et al., J. Immunol. Methods, 87:21 (1986). However, the competitive assay of Pereira et al. is characterized by limited sensitivity. Accordingly, there remains a desire in the art for a more sensitive BPI assay capable of measuring endogenous BPI levels in mammalian body fluids. Also of interest to the present application is the disclosure of von der Mohien et al., Abstract, 13th International Symposium on Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine, Brussels (March 1993) disclosing the results of assays for serum levels of BPI in patients with gram-negative sepsis and healthy subjects. The abstract disclosed that no BPI was detectable under the conditions of the assay in the serum of healthy subjects while circulating BPI was detected in all septic patients.
The present invention provides methods for quantifying BPI levels in body fluid samples including blood samples according to the method of conducting a BPI immunoassay on a blood sample wherein the blood sample is plasma. Plasma is the blood fluid which remains after the white and red cells are separated from fresh uncoagulated blood. Serum is the blood fluid which remains when coagulated blood is separated by centrifugation (i.e., plasma without the blood clotting factors.) As one aspect of the invention it is taught that levels of BPI present in serum are not representative of endogenous levels of BPI in circulating blood while levels of BPI in plasma are. As a further aspect of the invention methods are provided for determining the presence of gram negative sepsis in a subject comprising determining the concentration of endogenous extracellular BPI in a plasma sample obtained from that subject and comparing that concentration with a standard value indicative of gram negative sepsis. Such a standard value can be 1.7 ng/mL which is two standard deviations above the mean value of 0.8 ng/mL for normal human plasma BPI. Values in excess of two standard deviations above the mean value for normal human plasma BPI concentrations are therefor indicative of gram negative sepsis.
Preferred methods according to the invention determine the concentration of extracellular BPI in body fluids such as blood plasma using a sandwich immunoassay and further utilize a cationic non-specific blocking agent selected from the group consisting of heparin and dextran sulfate in BPI immunoassays. The BPI immunoassays of the invention may also be used to determine the concentration of BPI in other body fluids including, but not limited to, serum, urine, lung lavages, vitreous fluid, crevicular fluid, cerebralspinal fluid, saliva and synovial fluid.
As a further aspect of the invention, methods for determining the presence of an active inflammatory state in a subject are provided which comprise determining the concentration of endogenous BPI in a fluid sample obtained from the subject and comparing that concentration with a standard indicative of an active inflammatory state. Where the body fluid being assayed to determine the presence of an active inflammatory state is blood plasma the standard indicative of an active inflammatory state can be 1.7 ng/mL which is two standard deviations above the mean value of 0.8 ng/mL for normal human plasma BPI. Values in excess of two standard deviations above the mean value for normal human plasma BPI concentrations are therefor indicative of the presence of an active inflammatory state. The invention further provides methods of determining the presence of active inflammatory states selected from the group consisting of rheumatoid arthritis and reactive arthritis by determining the concentration of endogenous BPI in a sample of synovial fluid obtained from the subject and comparing that concentration with a standard value indicative of an active inflammatory state. In the case of synovial fluid and rheumatoid arthritis and reactive arthritis the standard indicative of an active inflammatory state can be in excess of 152 ng/mL which is two standard deviations above the mean value of 26 ng/mL for synovial fluid BPI in a noninflammatory state.
Urine assays for BPI generally detect little or no BPI, although urine BPI levels may be elevated in subjects having urinary tract infections.

Method for quantifying BPI in body fluids


A light guide body includes a first rod-like light guide portion and second rod-like light guide portions which are spaced from the first rod-like light guide portion in the vertical direction and plate-like light guide portions which are disposed so as to link their circumferential surfaces. Light that reaches the first rod-like light guide portion via the plate-like light guide portions after being emitted from light sources and entering the second rod-like light guide portions is emitted forward of the lamp from the circumferential surface of the first rod-like light guide portion.

Technical Field
The present invention relates to a vehicle lamp having a light guide body.
Related Art
Conventionally, a vehicle lamp configuration is known that includes a light guide body that receives light emitted from a light source and emits guided light forward of the lamp.
In this configuration, in the case where the light guide body is a rod-like one, in general, light emitted from the light source is caused to enter one end face or both end faces of the rod-like light guide body.
Patent document 1 discloses a light guide body of a vehicle lamp having a configuration that includes a first rod-like light guide portion and a second rod-like light guide portion that branches off from a circumferential surface of the first rod-like light guide portion. In this light guide body, light emitted from a light source and entering one end face of the second rod-like light guide portion is guided to the first rod-like light guide portion.
Patent Documents
Patent document 1: JP-A-2012-4004


Apparatus for aligning an associated vehicle door with the cooperating portions of a vehicle body having a lever on an adjustable stand which can be hooked under the vehicle or held separately from the vehicle for alignment of doors that are fully open. The lever carries a hooked head that engages in a latch of the door, or any other known latch engaging devices. The head is attached to the lever by a bolt, and the distance between the head and lever can be adjusted to fit doors with outer walls that extend variable lengths. A plate is threaded onto the bolt between the head and the lever, and after the head is engaged in the latch, the plate is rotated to clamp against a surface of the door outside the latch.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a tool used for alignment of a door in a vehicle.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The alignment of a door in a motor vehicle is typically accomplished by applying force to the door until an area at or near the door hinges is bent and the door is aligned. U.S. Pat. No. 4,399,683 discloses a vehicle door aligning tool that is comprised of a lever that attaches at a first axial location to a lock pin on a door jamb of an associated vehicle body, the lever attaching at a second axial location to an associated door lock of an associated door. Also known to the applicant is a tool much like that described in the above referenced patent, the main differences being that the non-patented tool engages in the door lock by means of a loop rather than a shoulder bolt, has a means for engaging the door lock which is pivotally attached to the lever, and is accompanied by a pair of shims for use at the engagement of the tool with the door lock.
While the above referenced prior art teaches of devices for aligning vehicle doors, several problems exist with those devices.
First, the engagement of the devices taught by the prior art with the door lock leaves some play between the devices and the door lock. Due to this play the devices tend to pivot around the door lock with which they are engaged, when they are used to pry upward or downward the door in order to bend the metal hinges of the door or the area surrounding the hinges. This pivoting can cause damage to the lock, which on occasion may cause the door to open during use, endangering the vehicle's occupants. The surface of the door surrounding the lock, typically made of metal, may be bent by the device or the paint on that surface may be damaged. Vehicle identification numbers and computerized bar codes, both of which are modernly glued on to the door surface near the lock, may also be damaged thwarting their uses.
Second, the tendency of the devices to pivot when used to force a door up or down also causes difficulties to the operator of the devices, as he or she is forced to apply torque to the lever to attempt to avoid the damages mentioned above.
Third, the play between the devices and the door lock makes it difficult for the operator to gauge the amount of adjustment being provided to the door hinge area, resulting in misalignment and repeated adjustments.
Fourth, the prior art devices only allow alignment of the door in a vertical direction with the door almost closed, and do not provide any means for vertical adjustment of the door while it is fully open, which can be needed with any vehicle, and is commonly needed with many modern cars.
Fifth, the prior art teaches no means for dealing with large variations in the distance that the outside wall of the door extends beyond the door lock in the direction away from the door hinges. The doors of many vehicles, especially minivans, have outside walls that extend so far beyond the door lock that a door alignment device used for an average car door will not work on there doors, as the device cannot simultaneously engage in the door lock and the lock pin of the associated vehicle and avoid the outside wall.


A control method includes controlling a lever, a pusher and a motor so as to arrange the same in a correct position when electric power is supplied to the home appliance, or the user turns on the home appliance. Abnormalities involving an automatic opening of the door through changes in a return/stop switch and an opening sensing switch while the motor operates so as to open the door may be confirmed.

A cooking appliance such as an oven or a microwave oven has a rectangular cuboid shape and includes a cooking chamber that is opened at the front and a door at the front of the cooking chamber.
A door can open in many different ways. One example is a hinge-coupled door that rotates about a rotational axis to open and close the front of the cooking chamber. The door may have a handle or a groove that can be gripped by a user.
For convenience, a function to automatically open and close a door may be added to a cooking appliance. According to a known automatic door opening structure of a cooking appliance, a high output power driver is used to open a door in order to overcome elasticity that is applied to the door so as to add closing force to the door.
A known driver for supplying opening force to open a door is installed near a rotational shaft of a door which has a narrow space. This narrow space restricts the design and installation of the driver. Additionally, the driver often operates incorrectly because it is exposed to heat in a cooking chamber.

Controller and home appliance having automatic opening structure


Misalignments of a 3d printing device may be detected by providing a reference pattern in a print zone of the 3d printing device, wherein the reference pattern comprises a plurality of reference marks, printing a test pattern on the reference pattern by means of the 3d printing device, and comparing the test pattern with the reference marks.

The disclosure relates to additive manufacturing techniques, also known as three-dimensional (3d) printing. 3d printing is rapidly evolving as a versatile manufacturing technique that allows to replace or complement manufacturing techniques such as molding, cutting, or grinding. Candidates for 3d printing include functional and aesthetic components of machinery, consumer products, and industrial products that are produced in short runs and, in particular, highly customized and high value products. These products usually need to be fabricated with carefully-controlled dimensions, smooth surfaces, and good detail. Misalignments of the 3d printing device may lead to geometrical distortions and deviations. The present disclosure is concerned with techniques for detecting and correcting misalignments of a 3d printing device so to enhance the quality of the 3d printing.

Misalignment detection for a 3D printing device

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


In some embodiments, an apparatus includes a layer-2 device operably coupled to a source device and a destination device and disposed within a data path (1) between the source device and the destination device, and (2) includes at least one layer-3 device. The layer-2 device receives a first test data unit from the source device, and defines a quality datum associated with processing the first test data unit. The layer-2 device defines a second test data unit based on the first test data unit that includes the quality datum associated with processing the first test data unit. The layer-2 device sends the second test data unit to the layer-3 device. The layer-3 device defines a quality datum associated with processing the second test data unit at the layer-3 device and defines a third test data unit based on the second test data unit.

Some embodiments described herein relate generally to methods and apparatus for assessing the quality of a data path between a source device and a destination device in an enterprise network that includes both layer-2 (L2) and layer-3 (L3) devices. More specifically, some embodiments described herein relate to methods and apparatus for detecting the data path taken by test data units while traversing between the source device and the destination device and determining the transit delays involved in each intermediate network node along the data path.
Typically, control units such as control packets and/or data units such as data packets sent from a source device to a destination device in an enterprise network can take multiple data paths. Each data path can involve multiple L2 intermediate devices and/or multiple L3 intermediate devices. Such intermediate devices can introduce delays caused by processing the control units and/or data units. Moreover, such delays are neither consistent nor predictable. Hence, such delays often lead to connectivity problems in an enterprise network and can reduce the efficiency of an enterprise network.
Known methods such as the L3 traceroute can be used for displaying the data path taken by control and/or data packets and measuring transit delays of packets associated with intermediate devices in the data path. L3 traceroute however, only displays the internet protocol (IP) address of each intermediate L3 device such as routers in the data path and a quality factor that is indicative of the transit delays associated with the packet in each intermediate L3 hop (i.e., no information on L2 devices can be provided). Other known methods such as a known L2 traceroute can return data path information if the source device and the destination device are in the same Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) such as, for example, the MAC address of the intermediate L2 devices and their associated port identifiers. This known L2 traceroute utility fails if the source device and the destination device are located in different VLANs (i.e., no information on intermediate L3 devices can be provided). Additionally, this L2 traceroute utility also does not provide any quality factor that can be indicative of any transit delays.
Accordingly, a need exists for methods and apparatus for detecting the data path taken by control units and/or data units while traversing between a source device and a destination device in an enterprise network and determining the transit delays involved in each network node along the data path that can involve multiple intermediate L2 and/or L3 devices.

Methods and apparatus for assessing the quality of a data path including both layer-2 and layer-3 devices


A motor-adjustable steering column for a motor vehicle has an outer casing which is held by a support unit that is attachable to a vehicle body. An actuator unit is received in the outer casing to adjust in the longitudinal direction. A steering spindle is coaxially and rotatably mounted in a casing tube in the actuator unit. An adjustment drive and an energy absorbing installation are disposed between the outer casing and the actuator unit. The adjustment drive has a spindle mechanism with a threaded spindle which is rotatably drivable by an electric servomotor engaged in a spindle nut. The energy absorbing installation has at least one energy absorbing element at least indirectly disposed between the spindle nut and the actuator unit. The spindle nut or the threaded spindle has at least one forming element which operatively engages with the energy absorbing element and is plastically deformable.

A steering column for a motor vehicle has a steering shaft with a steering spindle, a steering wheel for introducing steering commands being attached to the end which in the travel direction is the rear end and faces the driver. The steering spindle in the actuator unit is mounted in an inner casing, also referred to for short as the casing tube or the inner casing, so as to be rotatable about the longitudinal axis of said steering spindle. The actuator unit is received in an outer casing, also referred to as the casing unit, swingarm box or guide box, which by way of support unit is held on the vehicle body. The adjustment of the actuator unit in the longitudinal or height direction, respectively, enables an ergonomically comfortable steering wheel position relative to the driver position to be set in the operating position, also referred to as the driving or operator position, in which a manual steering intervention can take place.
An adjustment of the length can be implemented in that the actuator unit is received in the outer casing so as to be telescopically displaceable in the longitudinal direction, this corresponding to the direction of the longitudinal axis, as is described in the prior art, for example in DE 10 2017 207 561 A1 or DE 10 2015 24 602 A1. A linear motorized adjustment drive which is configured as a spindle mechanism with a threaded spindle which is screwed into a spindle nut and which by an electric motor is drivable in a rotating manner relative to the spindle nut is provided herein for carrying out the adjustment movement of the actuator unit relative to the outer casing. The threaded spindle and the spindle nut in the longitudinal direction are supported between the actuator unit and the outer casing such that the actuator unit is retracted or deployed in a telescoping manner relative to the outer casing, depending on the relative direction of rotation.
An adjustment of height can optionally be implemented in that the actuator unit or the outer casing is mounted so as to be pivotable on the support unit and optionally is likewise adjustable by means of an electric adjustment drive.
Motor-adjustable steering columns offer increased driving and operating comfort, in that individual steering wheel positions for different drivers are electronically memorized, for example, and can be recalled and set automatically when required. It is furthermore of particular interest that the steering column in specific operating situations can be adjusted to predefined positions in an automated manner. For example, in autonomous travel no manual steering intervention by the driver is required during travel such that the steering wheel can in principle be moved out of the operating position to a stowage position so as to be able to utilize the vehicle interior space that becomes available on account thereof in an alternative manner.
As an effective measure for improving the safety of occupants in the event of a vehicle collision, the so-called event of a crash, in which the driver impacts the steering wheel at high velocity, it is known for the steering column to be designed so as to be collapsible in the longitudinal direction when a force which exceeds a limit value that arises only in the event of a crash is exerted on the steering wheel. In order to ensure a controlled deceleration of the body impacting a steering wheel, an energy absorbing installation, also referred to as a crash installation, is interposed between the outer casing and the actuator unit which in the normal operation are positioned relative to one another at the set adjustment position. Said energy absorbing installation converts the kinetic energy introduced in the longitudinal direction into the actuator unit by way of the steering wheel to a plastic deformation of an energy absorbing element, for example by tearing a tear-off lug or by bending an elongate flexural element, for instance a flexural wire or a flexural strip.
From DE 195 24 196 C1 or DE 10 2011 083 190 A1 it is known for an energy absorbing installation to be disposed in series with the spindle mechanism between the outer casing and the actuator unit such that the flux of force into the energy absorbing element in the event of a crash takes place by way of the threaded spindle and the spindle nut. To this end, the threaded spindle in DE 10 2011 083 190 A1 is connected to the actuator unit by way of a flexural strip. It is disadvantageous herein that the crash installation requires a relatively large installation space and necessitates a high complexity in terms of assembling.
Thus a need exists for a motor-adjustable steering column which has a compact energy absorbing installation which is better to assemble.

Motor-adjustable steering column for a motor vehicle


A bias ply pneumatic tire 40,80 is disclosed. The tire 40,80 has a tread 42,82 with a plurality of circumferentially continuous grooves 52,72 and a plurality of laterally extending grooves 50,70. The grooves define tread elements 60,90 of parallelogram shape. Each lateral groove 50,70 includes a portion 53,73 extending from a tread edge a distance of at least 5% of the tread width (W). The portion of the groove 53,73 adjacent a tread edge is inclined less than 25.degree. relative to a plane passing through the axis of rotation, preferably inclined 23.degree.. The tread elements 60,90 preferably have radially extending groove walls having an outer portion 69A,79A inclined at 10.degree. and an inner portion 69B,79B inclined at least 30.degree. relative to the radial direction. The tire is particularly well-suited for a rear drive tire for Sprint car racing vehicles.

This invention relates to a pneumatic tire having a unique tread configuration. The tire is particularly well-suited for use on the drive axle of vehicles that race on oval dirt tracks, such as Sprint cars.
Spring car racing is generally conducted on dirt tracks with a few races conducted on asphalt surfaces. The tracks are oval in shape and usually slightly banked. Ideally, race tires have a large amount of rubber in contact with the track. At most paved tracks, race tire treads are "slicks" which have no grooves. On dirt tracks, however, grooved tread patterns yield the best results.
Unlike a paved surface, dirt tracks can vary in consistency and surface conditions can change during a night of racing. The drivers prefer tires with soft rubber tread compounds on clay surfaced tracks and harder tread rubber compounds on the more abrasive racing surfaces. The tracks are watered down to keep dust to a minimum. As the track dries, the surface gets slick and hard. Under these conditions, drivers prefer hard compounds.
Sprint cars run a unique combination of tires. The front tires are the same from left side to right side. Typically the front tires have a wheel size of 8 inches in width.times.15 inches in diameter with the tread width of 8 inches. The front tires weigh about 15.5 pounds and are inflated to about 6-12 psi. The right rear tires have a wheel size of 18 inch width.times.15 inch diameter. The right rear tire has a tread width of about 17.5", weighs 33 pounds and is inflated to 6-8 psi. The rear left wheel is the stagger tire. The left wheel size is 14 inches width .times.15 inch diameter, weighs about 21.0 pounds and is inflated to 5-6 psi. The tread width is about 14.5 inches. Sprint cars are rear wheel drive vehicles. The rear tires provide forward traction while the front tires provide steering.
As illustrated in FIGS. 1 through 4, the prior art Sprint tire tread employed circumferential and lateral grooves having parallelogram shaped tread elements. At the tread edges, the lateral grooves were oriented at an angle .theta. of about 30.degree. relative to a plane passing through the axis of rotation, while the central tread elements were inclined at an angle .theta..sub.2 of about 10.degree. relative to the axis of rotation. The tires exhibited an overall net-to-gross ratio of about 71%.
It has been determined that by adjusting the tread pattern, an improved rear race tire has been developed that is well adopted for the hard slick dirt tracks.


The present invention relates to an oven controlled crystal oscillator that can obtain stable oscillation frequency by reducing a temperature change in an oscillation element. The oven controlled crystal oscillator comprises; a heat-conducting plate mounted on one surface of a circuit board, a crystal resonator mounted on a surface of the heat-conducting plate opposite to the surface of the circuit board, an oscillation element constituting an oscillation circuit together with the crystal resonator, and a thermistor that detects temperature of the crystal resonator, a heating resistance which heats the crystal resonator, and a temperature control element including at least a power transistor, to constitute a temperature control circuit together with the thermistor and the heating resistance. In the oven controlled crystal oscillator, two or more open areas communicating with the heat-conducting plate at least in the thickness direction thereof are formed on the periphery of the heat-conducting plate at positions point-symmetric with respect to the crystal resonator, and one or more of each of the power transistor and the heating resistance are arranged in the same number in all of the open areas.

1. Background of the Invention
In an oven controlled crystal oscillator, in particular because an operation temperature of the crystal resonator can be kept constant, a highly stable oscillation frequency of an order of, for example, 0.1 ppm or less or 1 ppb can be obtained without causing frequency change dependent on a frequency-temperature characteristics. These oven controlled crystal oscillators are used particularly as fixed stations in communication equipment.
2. Prior Art
FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining an oven controlled crystal oscillator in a conventional example described in Patent Document 1, wherein FIG. 4A is a sectional view of the oven controlled crystal oscillator, and FIG. 4B is a plan view of a circuit board as seen from the direction A in FIG. 4A. FIG. 4A is a sectional view on arrow IV-IV in FIG. 4B.
As shown in FIG. 4, an oven controlled crystal oscillator 1 is configured by enclosing and sealing a circuit board 2 having an oscillation circuit and a temperature control circuit formed thereon, in a container comprising a metal base 3 and a metal cover 4. On the circuit board 2 is mounted a heat-conducting plate 6 on which is mounted a crystal resonator 5, an oscillation element 7 constituting an oscillation circuit together with the crystal resonator 5, a thermistor 8 serving as a temperature sensor that detects the temperature of the crystal resonator 5, a heating resistance 9 that heats the crystal resonator 5 depending on the temperature detected by the thermistor 8, and a temperature control element 10 comprising a power transistor 10a and the like constituting the temperature control circuit. Hereunder is a details description.
The oven controlled crystal oscillator 1 includes the circuit board 2 made from a glass epoxy material provided with a wiring pattern (not shown in the drawing). As shown in FIG. 4B, the rectangular heat-conducting plate 6 made of aluminum is mounted on one surface of the circuit board 2. The heat-conducting plate 6 is screw attached to the circuit board 2 by threading screws 11 at the four corners thereof. On the four side faces of the heat-conducting plate 6 there are formed open areas 12a to 12d opened on the four side faces and passing through in a thickness direction of the heat-conducting plate 6. Moreover a central through hole 13 is formed in the center of the heat-conducting plate 6.
The crystal resonator 5 with lead wires (oscillator lead wires 14) extending from an external bottom face (upward in FIG. 4A) is mounted on the surface of the heat-conducting plate 6 opposite to the surface facing the circuit board 2. The crystal resonator 5 has an SC-cut crystal piece (not shown in the drawing) housed thereinside, and the crystal piece is electrically connected to the oscillator lead wires 14. The oscillator lead wires 14 are inserted into through holes formed on the heat-conducting plate 6 to be joined to the circuit board 2, and are electrically connected to the oscillation element 7 constituting the oscillation circuit mounted on the circuit board 2. Here the oscillation element 7 includes, other than the oscillation circuit (for example, a Colpitts-type essential element), a capacitor, an inductor, a transistor as a buffer amplifying circuit, and the like according to application.
Moreover, the temperature control circuit for maintaining temperature of the crystal resonator 5 constant, is formed on the circuit board 2. The temperature control circuit includes the thermistor 8 as a temperature sensor that detects the temperature of the crystal resonator 5, the heating resistance 9 that heats the crystal resonator 5 depending on the temperature detected by the thermistor 8, and the temperature control element 10 comprising the power transistor 10a and the like.
The thermistor 8 is arranged inside the central through hole 13 of the heat-conducting plate 6. Moreover a chip resistance is used as the heating resistance 9, and is arranged inside the open areas 12b and 12d. Furthermore the power transistor 10a is arranged inside the open areas 12a and 12c. An amount of heat discharged by the power transistor 10a together with the heating resistance 9 is used for heating the crystal resonator 5.
Slits 15 are provided around the four corners of the heat-conducting plate 6 provided on the circuit board 2, thereby preventing an amount of heat generation of the heating resistance 9 and the power transistor 10a from escaping to the outside from the heat-conducting plate 6, so as to efficiently heat the crystal resonator 5. Such a circuit board 2 is enclosed and sealed inside the container comprising of the metal base 3 and the metal cover 4.
The metal base 3 is a flat plate in a plan view, and lead wires (oscillator lead wires 16a to 16d) penetrating the metal base 3 are provided at the four corners thereof serving as connecting terminals of the oven controlled crystal oscillator 1 (airtight terminals serving as the lead wires). The oscillator lead wire 16a which is the earth, is connected to the metal base 3 using silver solder 17, and the oscillator lead wires 16b to 16d other than the earth, which are supply terminals, output terminals, or the like, are insulated and connected inside through holes 18a of the metal base 3 by using glass 18.
The circuit board 2 is held by the oscillator lead wires 16a to 16d, and is arranged above the metal base 3. The oscillator lead wires 16a to 16d are electrically connected to the oscillation element 7 and the temperature control device 10 on the circuit board 2. Moreover the metal cover 4 is connected to the metal base 3 by resistance-welding, and the circuit board 2 is enclosed and sealed in the metal cover 4.
In such a conventional example, when the ambient temperature of the oven controlled crystal oscillator 1 changes to change the temperature of the crystal resonator 5, the thermistor 8 detects the temperature change of the crystal resonator 5, and the amount of heat generation of the heating resistance 9 is adjusted by the temperature control circuit. As a result the temperature of the crystal resonator 5 is kept constant (for example, about 85° C.). Accordingly, a change in the oscillation frequency can be suppressed.
[Patent Document 1] Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2005-333315


A stimulation system stimulates anatomical targets in a patient for treatment of dry eye. The system may include a controller and a microstimulator. The controller may be implemented externally to or internally within the microstimulator. The components of the controller and microstimulator may be implemented in a single unit or in separate devices. When implemented separately, the controller and microstimulator may communicate wirelessly or via a wired connection. The microstimulator may generate pulses from a controller signal and apply the signal via one or more electrodes to an anatomical target. The microstimulator may not have any intelligence or logic to shape or modify a signal. The microstimulator may be a passive device configured to generate a pulse based on a signal received from the controller. The microstimulator may shape or modify a signal. Waveforms having different frequency, amplitude and period characteristics may stimulate different anatomical targets in a patient.

Severe Dry Eye is a debilitating disease that affects millions of patients worldwide and can cripple some patients. Millions of these individuals suffer from the most severe form. This disease often inflicts severe ocular discomfort, results in a dramatic shift in quality of life, induces poor ocular surface health, substantially reduces visual acuity and can threaten vision. Patients with severe Dry Eye develop a sensitivity to light and wind that prevents substantial time spent outdoors, and they often cannot read or drive because of the discomfort. There is no cure for Dry Eye disease, and current treatment options provide little relief for those suffering from severe conditions. Current options include artificial tears, punctal plugs, humidity goggles, topical cyclosporine, and tarsorrhaphy. None of these treatments provides sufficient relief or treatment of the disease. What is needed is a system for restoring adequate tear production in patient's having severe Dry Eye disease.

Systems and methods for treatment of dry eye

The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University


A collapsible crab trap is provided with a centrally-located bait feeder made of wire mesh material. The trap and bait feeder are movable between a collapsed configuration and an assembled configuration. When in a collapsed configuration, it is easy to store or transport. The centrally-located bait feeder apparatus is constructed in such a manner that the crabs cannot remove an entire piece of bait from the bait feeder. Another feature of this crab trap is that the two side panels are weighted along their upper edges to positively open the side panels when on the ocean bed for the catching of crabs. These weighted side panels also provide a stable placement of the crab trap in strong moving currents.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention is related to a collapsible crab trap and, more particularly, to a crab trap which has a center bait feeder for easy access to supply bait and weighted side panels to insure the immediate opening of those side panels to catch crabs.
2. Description of Prior Art
U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,968,758 and 1,383,992 are examples of the prior art. They have the disadvantage of being a square box-type design, and they are cumbersome to assemble because the top and bottom members are of different size measurements. Another disadvantage of crab traps of this type is that a square box profile does not appear to be as enticing to crabs as a profile which is rectangular in shape.
Still another disadvantage of these crab trap designs is in not having a bait holder or bait feeder cage. Accordingly, the bait must be tied to the mesh bottom panel, and the crabs have a tendency to pull off an entire piece of bait from the trap.
Finally, another disadvantage of crab traps of this type is that they show no stability in their open state when on the ocean bed in strong tidal currents, as they tend to roll around or turn over, thus preventing the crabs from entering the trap.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,044,493 is a more recent example of the prior art. However, this patent has the disadvantage of not having a bait housing or bait feeder cage, whereas the bait is tied to the U-shaped support members or the bottom mesh panel, and the crabs have a tendency to pull off entire pieces of bait from the trap.
Another disadvantage of a crab trap of this type of design is that the side and end panels have a tendency to get stuck in the top member panel when in the closed position when lowering or pulling up the crab trap from the ocean water.
Still another disadvantage of this type of crab trap design is their lack of being stable in strong tidal currents, as they tend to roll around or turn over in those moving currents.

Collapsible crab trap with a center bait feeder and weighted side doors


A cast metal article is formed with an internal cavity. The internal cavity is formed by a ceramic core which is removed from the cast metal article to leave the cavity. The ceramic core is formed with a cavity to facilitate removal of the core from the cast metal article. To remove the core from the cast metal article, the cavity in the core is filled with a leaching liquid.

The present invention relates to a new and improved method of forming a cast metal article which contains a cavity.
Many different cast metal articles have been formed with an internal cavity. To form the internal cavity, a core may be positioned in a mold and molten metal poured around the core. After the molten metal has solidified to form a cast metal article, the core is removed from the cast metal article. Removal of the core from the cast metal article leaves a cavity in the cast metal article.
In the past, cores have been removed from cast metal articles by exposing the cores to a leaching liquid. To facilitate the removal of cores from cast metal articles, various systems have been proposed to increase the efficiency with which a leaching liquid is utilized. Some of these systems are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,563,711; 3,694,264; and 5,332,023 and in U.S. Published Patent Application No. 2010/0000700. However, difficulty is still encountered in removing cores, particularly ceramic cores, from cast metal articles.


An object of the present invention is to provide a replaceable-blade-type saw in which a handle fitting part can be insertably engaged in a guide member even if the width dimension of the handle fitting part is greater than the width dimension of the guide member. In a handle fitting part 3 of a saw blade 1 is formed a slit part 8, which is configured from a first slit part 6 formed inward from the side edge part of the handle fitting part 3, and a second slit part 7 formed as a continuation of the first slit part 6 as well as being formed toward the distal end side of the handle fitting part 3 from an inner end part 6A of the first slit part 6, and a slit outer-side part 9 positioned on the outer side of the slit part 8 of the handle fitting part 3 is elastically moved or elastically deformed inward by the slit part 8 when bearing external force exerted inward from the side-edge-part side.

A replaceable-blade-type saw has a saw blade mounted in a grip handle so as to be capable of being detached and replaced. When a handle fitting part at the base portion of the saw blade is inserted into the grip handle, the inserted handle fitting part is insertably engaged and positioned in a guide member housed within the grip handle. In this state of being positioned within the guide member, the handle fitting part is restrained by a restraining mechanism provided to the grip handle and fixedly positioned in the guide member, whereby the saw blade is fixedly mounted in the grip handle.
In this replaceable-blade-type saw, for the saw blade to be mounted in the grip handle in a precisely fixed state with no rattling, the handle fitting part inserted into the grip handle must be precisely positioned (fixed) in the guide member inside the grip handle with no rattling occurring; therefore, in the prior art, the handle fitting part and the guide member have been designed with strict dimensional tolerance such that when the handle fitting part is insertably engaged in the guide member, there is almost no clearance between the handle fitting part and the guide member.
Therefore, when dimensional tolerance is only at the acceptable minimum due to machining error, there is no clearance between the handle fitting part and the guide member, and simply due to a slight change in the insertably engaged orientation (positional misalignment) of the handle fitting part in the guide member, which is caused by a load during use, an adverse event sometimes occurs in which the handle fitting part cuts into the guide member and the saw blade cannot be easily taken out of the grip handle.
When the dimensional tolerance requirement is not met and the width dimension of the handle fitting part is greater than the width dimension of the guide member, the handle fitting part can no longer be precisely insertably engaged in the guide member up to the end (up to a prescribed position), and as shown in FIG. 6, positional misalignment occurs between a handle-fitting-part-side insertion hole 20 which is provided to the handle fitting part and through which a restraining mechanism (e.g., a lock pin) is inserted and a guide-member-side insertion hole 21 provided to the guide member, the restraining mechanism cannot be inserted through these insertion holes, and the restraining mechanism cannot be operated, inevitably resulting in a defective product in which the saw blade cannot be fixedly mounted in the grip handle.
Thus, prior-art replaceable-blade-type saws are problematic in that machining error eliminates the clearance between the handle fitting part and the guide member, and due to the width dimension of the handle fitting part being greater than the width dimension of the guide member, a saw blade mounted in the grip handle will not come out, and the saw blade can also not be mounted in the grip handle.
In order to resolve such a problem with engaging clearance (machining error) between the handle fitting part and the guide member, it has been proposed in the prior art to design to dimensions allowing for an appropriate amount of clearance between the handle fitting part and the guide member, to interpose a plate spring or another urging body in this clearance, and to fixedly press and urge the handle fitting part into the guide member by an urging body without being affected by the change in clearance (dimension variation caused by machining error), as is shown in, for example, Patent Document 1.
Though not a handsaw type in which a saw blade is mounted in a grip handle, what is also proposed in a replaceable-blade finger cutter such as is disclosed in Patent Document 2 is the concept that a slit is formed in a proximal part of a blade body, a spring effect (elastic deformation effect) is produced in the blade body proximal part by this slit, and, due to contracting elastic deformation caused by this spring effect, the blade body proximal part, which is set to a width dimension greater than the width dimension of an engaging part for mounting the blade body, can be insertably engaged.


Hydraulic powered assemblies 10 and 110 are disclosed. The assembly 10 includes a support unit 12, a hydraulic motor 14, and a driven member 16 that is integral with the hydraulic motor 14. The hydraulic motor 14 includes a power group 32 that includes six gerotor power units 34a-34f. Each gerotor power unit 34a-34f includes an inner rotor 40 that is fixed to a stationary through-shaft 24 and an outer rotor 42 that is mounted for hypocycloidal movement relative to the inner rotor 40. The driven member 16 includes segments 51 that support the outer rotors 40 within the segments 51. The segments 51 carry a winch cable receiving member 60 when the assembly 10 is used as a winch. The hydraulic powered assembly 110 is an alternative embodiment that includes two power groups 131 and 132. The power groups 131 and 133 may be symmetrical or asymmetrical.

A hydraulic fluid powered driven member commonly includes a driven member and a hydraulic motor. The driven member may be a sprocket, a sweeper brush, a screw, a gear, a winch, a cutter, a horizontal or vertical drilling or boring assembly, or any other device. When the driven member is a winch, the winch commonly includes a spool upon which a cable is wound and a motor to provide power to the spool. The spool is connected to the motor, generally through a gear train. Operation of the motor results in rotation of the spool for, depending upon the direction of rotation, extending or retracting an amount of cable from the spool.
Hydraulic motors powered by hydraulic fluid from a fluid pressure source, and electric motors powered by electricity from an electrical power source, are both commonly used to power spools. Applications for motor driven spools include winches as mentioned above, in which the winch cable is wrapped around the spool multiple times. Other applications for motor powered spools may include conveyor belts and drive belts, in which an endless conveyor belt or drive belt wraps partially around the spool and is driven by the spool to convey goods or to drive other devices. Hydraulic motors may offer an advantage over electric motors to drive spools, and particularly spools that are used in winches, by offering a higher power density (power per unit of volume) than electric motors.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,095,500 discloses the use of low speed high torque hydraulic motors for powering a hydraulic winch spool. According to the disclosure of that patent, the motors are either gear reduction motors, which may use a complicated series of gears to lower the speed and achieve higher torque for the spool, or radial piston motors, which may require a complicated fluid system for providing fluid to the various pistons and their associated cylinders.
It is also known to directly drive the spool of a winch with a hydraulic motor. U.S. Pat. No. 7,261,277 discloses a hydraulic motor that is located adjacent an end of a winch spool and that is operable to rotate the spool when a clutch is engaged.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,457,677 discloses a low speed high torque hydraulic motor in which an outer ring of the assembly is fixed to and rotates with a drive shaft. An inner star is held against rotation by a universal shaft assembly.
Additionally, high efficiency, high flow, two speed hydraulic gerotor motors are known that use two separate power elements on a common rotating output shaft. An integral selector valve shifts between a parallel fluid connection among the power elements to provide high torque low speed operation and a series fluid connection among the power elements to provide low speed high torque operation. In the high torque low speed parallel operation mode, the motor provides twice the torque and half the speed relative to the low torque high speed series operation mode. The selector valve can be open center or closed center and may be actuated by an external pilot or optional solenoid valve. This type of hydraulic motor is available from Parker Hannifin Corporation, Hydraulic Pump and Motor Division, as a series 700 hydraulic motor and is further described at www.parker.com.
Increasing the line pull (force applied to the cable by the winch) and the length of the line while decreasing the overall dimensions and weight of the winch may be desirable for any winch. Also, decreasing the complexity and cost of the winch may be desirable. This may be particularly true with non-stationary winches, including those carried on vehicles where space may be limited and added weight may negatively affect vehicle performance.


Compositions for cleansing are disclosed that are not irritating to human skin. A composition is disclosed that includes at least 2% of a mixture of a salt of an alkyl sulfoacetate and a salt of an ethoxylated alkyl sulfosuccinate, at least 3% of a salt of an ethoxylated alkyl sulfate, at least 1% of an amphoteric surfactant, at least 0.05% of an alkyl glucoside, and at least 0.005% of a phospholipid. A composition for cleansing is disclosed that includes about 2% to 70% of a mixture of a salt of an alkyl sulfoacetate and a salt of an ethoxylated alkyl sulfosuccinate, about 3% to 40% of a salt of an ethoxylated alkyl sulfate, about 1% to 40% of an amphoteric surfactant, about 0.05% to 10% of an alkyl glucoside, and about 0.005% to 10% of a phospholipid. A cleansing composition is further disclosed that includes about 41% of a mixture of alkyl sulfoacetate and ethoxylated alkyl sulfosuccinate, about 34% of an ethoxylated alkyl sulfate, about 22% of an amphoteric surfactant, about 2% of a alkyl glucoside, and about 0.5% of a phospholipid. A composition for cleansing is also described which includes about 2% to 50% of a mixture of a salt of a sodium lauryl sulfoacetate and Disodium Laureth Sulfosuccinate, about 3% to 35% of Ammonium Laureth Sulfate, about 1% to 30% of Cocamidopropyl Betaine, about 0.05% to 8% of Coco-Glucoside and Coconut Oil, and about 0.005% to 5% of a phospholipid. A method of cleaning is also described, which includes contacting a surface to be cleansed with the composition of the invention. The composition can be used in a variety of personal care or household cleansers, such as contact lens care products, shampoos, soaps, body washes, mouthwashes, toothpastes, oral rinses, facial and wound cleansers, eye makeup removers, laundry and dishwashing detergents, and others.

This invention relates to methods and preparations for cleansing, specifically to methods and compositions that do not irritate the skin.
Cleansing products come in many types and forms, but are generally divided into personal care cleansers and household cleansers. The personal care cleansers most commonly thought of by consumers are skin cleansers (including bar soaps) and shampoos. However, this class of product also includes body washes, personal hygiene cleansers, contact lens cleansers, dental cleansers, facial cleansers, and makeup removers (including eye makeup removers). The general class of household cleansers includes laundry detergents, hard surface cleansers, porous surface cleansers, dishwashing detergents, window cleansers, scouring cleansers and disinfectant cleansers. Although each of these products contains a specific set of specialized ingredients depending upon the particular end use of the product, they all contain surfactants.
The most common type of cleansing product is a liquid or a powder formulation. However, cleansing products can also be in such forms as an aerosol, a mousse, a gel, an emulsion, a discrete packet, or impregnated on a towelette. Although these cleansers come in many different forms, they all have in common the presence of a surfactant.
In view of their ubiquitous use, surfactants in cleansing products often come into contact with human skin. Although this contact may be brief or even secondary (as for instance clothing washed with laundry detergent), it is desirable that cleansing products have a minimal dermatologic effect. Unfortunately, surfactants often cause irritation, dryness, cracking and peeling of the skin. Additionally, there are known case reports in the dermatological literature documenting allergic dermatitis in response to contact with a cleansing product. The allergic reaction can be caused by the fragrance contained in the cleansing product, or by the surfactant itself. In general, if a surfactant system can be applied directly to human skin without causing irritation, it will be safe for use in products used to cleanse materials that contact the skin (such as laundry detergent), or in products with limited direct contact with the skin (such as household products, including hard surface cleansers, window cleansers, and automotive cleansers).
Numerous patents have issued which concern cleansing products that include surfactants, and mixtures of surfactants, which are designed to be mild to the skin (e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,908,617; U.S. Pat. No. 5,785,979; U.S. Pat. No. 5,663,137; U.S. Pat. No. 5,632,978; U.S. Pat. No. 5,567,359; U.S. Pat. No. 5,562,912; U.S. Pat. No. 5,480,633; U.S. Pat. No. 5,322,643; U.S. Pat. No. 5,252,246; U.S. Pat. No. 5,096,608; U.S. Pat. No. 5,084,212; U.S. Pat. No. 5,073,293; U.S. Pat. No. 5,015,414; U.S. Pat. No. 4,968,450; U.S. Pat. No. 4,812,253; U.S. Pat. No. 4,673,525). However, each of these formulations has limitations. These limitations include limited foam volume, an undesired skin feel of the foam, instability, etc. that require the addition of other agents, some of which are not commercially available. Thus there is a need for a surfactant composition that is mild to the skin and eyes and can be easily produced.
A surfactant composition has been discovered that is mild to the skin, leaves the skin barrier intact, is stable, can be formulated into any type of cleansing preparation, and uses commonly available surfactants. In addition to being gentle to the skin, the surfactant composition is extremely mild to eye tissue, and is therefore suitable for contact lens solutions or other cleansers (such as shampoos) that contact the eye. The surfactant composition has a stable viscosity and an acceptable skin feel without the addition of polymeric materials.
A composition for cleansing is disclosed. The composition includes at least about 2% of a mixture of a salt of an alkyl sulfoacetate and a salt of an ethoxylated alkyl sulfosuccinate, at least about 3% of a salt of an ethoxylated alkyl sulfate, at least about 1% of an amphoteric surfactant, at least about 0.05% of an alkyl glucoside, and at least about 0.005% of a phospholipid.
A cleansing composition is also disclosed that includes about 2% to about 70% of a mixture of a salt of an alkyl sulfoacetate and a salt of an ethoxylated alkyl sulfosuccinate, about 3% to about 40% of a salt of an ethoxylated alkyl sulfate, about 1% to about 40% of an amphoteric surfactant, about 0.05% to about 10% of an alkyl glucoside, and about 0.005% to about 10% of a phospholipid.
In addition, a cleansing composition is disclosed that includes about 41% of a mixture of alkyl sulfoacetate and ethoxylated alkyl sulfosuccinate, about 34% of an ethoxylated alkyl sulfate, about 22% of an amphoteric surfactant, about 2% of an alkyl glucoside, and about 0.5% of a phospholipid.
A method of cleaning, including contacting a surface to be cleansed with a composition of the invention, is also described. The invention also includes cleansing compositions to which the surfactant has been added.
The foregoing and other objects, features, and advantages of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of particular embodiments.
Compositions including a combination of surfactants have been found that are very mild (gentle) to the skin and eye tissues such that they cause minimal, if any, irritation of these tissues. Although materials contained in the compositions are generally recognized as safe, the combination causes less irritation to the tissues than would be expected based on the irritation caused by the components individually. The compositions do not require the presence of any known anti-irritant compounds to achieve the level of safety found.
The compositions are unique for several additional reasons. They do not require the presence of ancillary materials to achieve levels of foam generally desired by consumers, and do not require the presence of polymeric materials to achieve a stable viscosity or skin feel often desired by consumers. Moreover, the compositions do not require the presence of solubilizers and stabilizers to achieve a suitable product shelf life, even when stored at the extremes of temperature, such as high temperatures (as high as 50xc2x0 C.) or low temperatures (less than 4xc2x0 C.). This combination of effects is both unexpected and unique among surfactants.
The terms xe2x80x9caxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cthexe2x80x9d include the plural as well as the singular, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise.
The term xe2x80x9csurfactantxe2x80x9d refers to a surface-active agent that reduces surface tension when dissolved in water or an aqueous solution, or which reduces interfacial tension between two liquids, or between a liquid and a solid. Detergents, wetting agents and emulsifiers are examples of surfactants.
An xe2x80x9camphotericxe2x80x9d surfactant refers to a surfactant that has the capacity of behaving either as an acid or a base. Specific, non-limiting examples of an amphoteric surfactant are betaine, sultaine, hydroxysultaine, imidazoline, aminoalkanoate, and iminoalkanoate surfactants.
The term xe2x80x9cphospholipidxe2x80x9d refers to a lipid compound that yields on hydrolysis phosphoric acid, an alcohol, a fatty acid, and a nitrogenous base. Phospholipids include, but are not limited to, Coco Phosphatidyl PG-Dimonium Chloride, Linoleamidopropyl Phosphatidyl PG-Dimonium Chloride, Cocamidopropyl Phosphatidyl PG-Dimonium Chloride, Borageamidopropyl Phosphatidyl PG-Dimonium Chloride, Stearamidopropyl Phosphatidyl PG-Dimonium Chloride, lecithin, and derivatives of lecithin.
The term xe2x80x9calkylxe2x80x9d refers to a cyclic, branched, or straight chain alkyl group containing only carbon and hydrogen, and unless otherwise mentioned contains one to thirty carbon atoms. This term is further exemplified by groups such as methyl, ethyl, n-propyl, isobutyl, t-butyl, pentyl, hexyl, heptyl, adamantyl, and cyclopentyl. Alkyl groups can either be unsubstituted or substituted with one or more substituents, e.g. halogen, alkyl, alkoxy, alkylthio, trifluoromethyl, acyl, acyloxy, hydroxy, mercapto, carboxy, aryloxy, aryl, arylalkyl, heteroaryl, amino, alkylamino, dialkylamino, morpholino, piperidino, pyrrolidin-1-yl, piperazin-1-yl, or other functionality.
The term xe2x80x9clower alkylxe2x80x9d refers to a cyclic, branched or straight chain monovalent alkyl radical of one to seven carbon atoms. This term is further exemplified by such radicals as methyl, ethyl, n-propyl, i-propyl, n-butyl, t-butyl, i-butyl (or 2-methylpropyl), cyclopropylmethyl, i-amyl, n-amyl, hexyl and heptyl. Lower alkyl groups can also be unsubstituted or substituted. The term xe2x80x9chigher alkylxe2x80x9d refers to a cyclic, branched or straight chain monovalent alkyl radical of eight to thirty carbon atoms. Higher alkyl groups can also be unsubstituted or substituted.
The term xe2x80x9cglycosidexe2x80x9d refers to an organic compound which can be reduced by hydrolysis into sugars and other organic substances, known as glycones. The term xe2x80x9cglucosidexe2x80x9d refers to a glycoside which has glucose as the sugar constituent. An xe2x80x9calkyl glucosidexe2x80x9d includes the linear or branched chain alcohols, including but not limited to those from coconut oils, palm oils, etc. or mixtures thereof.
xe2x80x9cHydroxylxe2x80x9d refers to xe2x80x94OH.
xe2x80x9cAlcoholxe2x80x9d refers to R-OH, wherein R is alkyl, especially lower alkyl (for example in methyl, ethyl or propyl alcohol), but can also be a higher alcohol (for example decyl or dodecyl). An alcohol may be either linear or branched, such as isopropyl alcohol.
xe2x80x9cCarboxylxe2x80x9d refers to the radical xe2x80x94COOH, and substituted carboxyl refers to xe2x80x94COOR where R is alkyl, lower alkyl or a carboxylic acid or ester.
xe2x80x9cSaltxe2x80x9d refers to the compound formed when the hydrogen of an acid is replaced by a metal or its equivalent (e.g., an NH4 radical). The salts include the monovalent ions (lithium, sodium and potassium, etc.), the divalent ions (barium, calcium etc.), the trivalent ions (aluminum, etc.), or the ammonium based ions (ammonium, monoalkyl-, dialkyl-, and trialkylammonium ion, such as triethanolammonium ion) or mixtures thereof.
Other chemistry terms herein are used according to conventional usage in the art, as exemplified by The McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Chemical Terms (1985) and The Condensed Chemical Dictionary (1981).


The embodiments disclosed herein describe vehicles, systems and methods for multi-resolution fusion of pseudo-LiDAR features. In one aspect, a method for multi-resolution fusion of pseudo-LiDAR features includes receiving image data from one or more image sensors, generating a point cloud from the image data, generating, from the point cloud, a first bird's eye view map having a first resolution, generating, from the point cloud, a second bird's eye view map having a second resolution, and generating a combined bird's eye view map by combining features of the first bird's eye view map with features from the second bird's eye view map.

Light detection and ranging (LiDAR) is frequently used in autonomous vehicle applications to detect objects within the environment of the autonomous vehicle. A LiDAR sensor emits a plurality of beams into the environment and receives a plurality of reflected beams that are reflected by objects in the environment. The time of return of the reflected beams enable the depth of objects in the environment to be detected. The result of the reflected beams is a point cloud representing the objects.
This point cloud may be used by an object detection algorithm, such as a classifier neural network, to detect the types of objects found in the point cloud data. In some cases, the point cloud, which is three dimensional, is converted to a "bird's eye view map" by projecting the three dimensional data onto a two dimensional plane. This bird's eye view map is then inputted into the object detection algorithm to detect objects in the environment.
Although LiDAR works well in automotive applications, the sensors themselves are costly, and cost much more than camera sensors. Further, current LiDAR sensors are limited by the number of beams they can produce, which results in sparse point cloud data.
Accordingly, alternative object detection sensors having more dense point cloud data for less cost are desired.

Systems and methods for multi-resolution fusion of pseudo-LiDAR features


Systems and methods for dynamically creating Entity-Specific Views from one or more Data Warehouses are provided. The system may involve multiple data sets within a Data Warehouse and may provide a Target Result data set which excludes fields of information not relevant to the desired view. The system may involve the use of derived fields and logical decision structures for the assignment of overriding boundary date information.

A Data Warehouse is the repository of an organization's electronically stored data. Data Warehousing is the process of building a data warehouse and of facilitating the reporting and analysis of information in the data warehouse.
A Change Data Capture ("CDC") is a set of software design patterns used to determine the data that has changed in a dataset so that action can be taken using the changed data. A CDC may allow for the capture and preservation of data states across time.
An Online Transaction Processing data set ("OLTP") refers to the data set created or accessed by transaction-oriented applications, typically for data entry and retrieval transaction processing. For the purposes of this application, "transaction" may refer to a computer or database transaction such as a database read or write. "Transaction" in this context may also refer to a business or commercial transaction such as a sale or bank withdrawal. Online transaction processing systems typically respond in real-time to user requests.
A Data Warehouse ("DW") may be derived from one or more OLTPs. A DW may be created by periodically applying a CDC to an OLTP.
A DW may not necessarily retain the data structure and format of an OLTP from which it is derived. For instance, it is typical in the banking context for transactions within an OTLP to be recorded with a granularity approaching real time but the DW derived from that OLTP to be recorded with only daily granularity.
The DW derived by the application of a CDC to an OLTP over time will contain records and fields. A record is defined for the purposes of this application as a collection of fields. A field, for the purposes of this application, can contain a single data point, a pointer to another record, or another record.
When a CDC is applied to an OLTP, the changes recorded may concern changes at the record level, such that a change to a single field within a record will be recorded by the CDC as a change to the entire record.
Records, including records in a DW may have boundary dates, consisting of an effective date and an end date. The effective date may be the date on which the data reflected by a particular record becomes valid, and the end date may be the latest date on which the data reflected in a particular record is valid, or the date one increment before that data is changed. Before a particular record is changed, or when the record as changed remains current, it may be assigned a theoretical maximum end date, such as Dec. 31, 9999.
Boundary dates may be dates, or can be members of any totally ordered set as that term is understood mathematically, whether or not bound to a progression external to the data. Where boundary dates are not dates per se, terms such as "earlier," "later," and "historical" are given meanings that are analogous to those terms when used in the context of dates per se.
An element-specific view ("ES view") is a view of a DW that reflects a CDC on only a subset of the fields or records normally analyzed when creating or updating a DW. An ES view may also maintain historical information for that subset.
Conventionally, creating an ES view requires the application of an Extract, Transform and Load ("ETL") process to archived or original OLTP datasets, essentially creating a new DW structured to support the ES view.
Conventionally, creating an ES view from an existing DW requires parsing the DW so as to reverse-engineer an "echo" of the OLTP datasets over time, and then applying an ETL process to those datasets.
In either case, the ETL creates a series of "deltas," which reflect the changes in the OLTP dataset or any existing or created archive of OLTP datasets, filtered for the fields.
An example of a possible relationship between fields, records, and boundary dates is provided in FIGS. 4-6, discussed below.
Conventionally, returning an ES view specific to a particular element requires either returning to the OLTP or archives thereof and running an ETL process over those datasets, tuned to extract the particular element and exclude other record changes, transforming that information for format and granularity, and then loading that information as a separate dataset, consisting of an initial state and a series of "deltas" recording the changes in that state. Alternately, the DW could be mechanically parsed, essentially creating an OLTP archive, and then running an ETL process over that recreated OLTP archive.
Typically, ETL processes may be very resource- and time-intensive. Further, the newly created element-specific DW may be a very large file. Further, the element-specific DW may create multiple duplicative data points distinct from the original DW, giving rise to data integrity issues.
Typically, users may require many different ES views, magnifying the problems presented by the conventional approach.
It is desirable, therefore, to provide systems or methods for ES views to be generated from the original DW virtually or dynamically.


A device (10) for editing an electronic medical record (EMR) is provided. The device includes a mobile device (12) including a touch-sensitive display (14), a communication link (16), and at least one electronic processor (18) programmed to cause the mobile device to perform an EMR data entry method. The method includes: displaying a medical document (20) on the touch-sensitive display: overlaying an EMR data entry fillable form (22) having user-editable fields (24) on the touch-sensitive display as a partially transparent overlay (26) superimposed on the displayed medical document; transferring text content (28) from the medical document into at least one of the user-editable fields of the overlaid EMR data entry fillable form; and after filling out the overlaid EMR data entry fillable form by operations including at least the transferring, uploading at least the content of the user-editable fields of the filled out EMR data entry fillable form to an EMR (32) via the wireless communication link.

It is desired to achieve seamless collection of the health information in an electronic health or medical record (EHR or EMR) via flow of digital information through hospital IT infrastructure. The EHR is ultimately intended to provide a "paperless" electronic medical records environment. Unfortunately, in current practice, reports are still printed on paper or image portable document format (PDF) form for the foreseeable future, due for example to legacy systems without sufficient electronic connectivity, receipt of medical reports from outside laboratories lacking electronic connectivity with the hospital, or so forth. Hence, such information has to be transferred back into a corresponding electronic record. For example, paper medical reports from outside laboratories may be scanned and stored in the EMR as a portable document format (PDF) object or some other portable format such as Office Open XML (OOXML or OpenXML) or Open Document Format (ODF). Although relevant pieces of information might be automatically identified in the PDF and matched with the corresponding EHR fields by automated processing algorithms, it cannot be expected that such algorithms will operate with sufficient sensitivity and specificity required in clinical applications.
Presently, such a PDF report is handled as follows. The physician (other another user such as a nurse or technician) reads the PDF report, identifies relevant information (e.g. patient name, demographic data, personal data such as smoker/non-smoker, medical data, or such) and manually re-types or enters the information into appropriate EHR data entry fields. This is a slow and error-prone process. Moreover, physicians are expected to increasingly use mobile devices such as cellphones or tablet computers to perform this task while on-the-go, and the small screen and awkward user interface (touch screen and/or virtual keyboard) make transcription of relevant information from a PDF form into the EHR even more tedious. Conventional copy-and-paste tools may be used, but these are inefficient as the physician must open the PDF window, copy relevant text, and then switch to the EHR data entry window and paste the text into the appropriate GUI dialog. Copy-and-paste user interfacing with mobile devices requires special dexterity, as the user must precisely mark start-and-stop points using the touchscreen.
Further, there is an increasing requirement for structured reporting on patient information, e.g. in cancer registries, disease specific portals or broad studies. These systems have the same issue that information on the patient needs to be converted to a specific electronic form from a variety of sources.
As a result, physicians may still need to read the entire report to identify the required information and/or provide additional cues for semi-automated schemes. While manual form filling by a physician having all reports available (e.g. paper or PDF) is the most reliable form and still standard today, it requires a lot of time, is tedious and inefficient. On the other hand, natural language processing (NLP) algorithms and automated text processing modules do exist, but are not reliable enough to be used regularly in the clinic and require significant manual corrections.
The following provides new and improved devices and methods which overcome the foregoing problems and others.

Intelligent electronic data capture for medical patient records


A multilayer printed circuit board reducing cross-talk noise between signal interconnection layers and between through-holes for connecting the signal interconnection layers is disclosed. The multilayer printed circuit board has printed substrates each formed thereon an interconnection layer, and prepreg sandwiched therebetween. The prepreg comprises an reinforcement lattice cloth formed of rovings of a electroconductive material maintained at a ground potential and a dielectric resin impregnated thereinto and forming a dielectric solid layer having through-holes penetrating therethrough. The electroconductive reinforcement lattice cloth functions as a ground layer between signal interconnection layers and between through-holes . The rovings may be of a metal or a semiconductive material such as carbon fiber. The multilayer printed circuit board is superior in heat resistance, dimensional stability and mechanical strength.

The present invention relates to a multilayer printed circuit board, and more particularly, to a multilayer printed circuit board capable of reducing generation of cross-talk noise.
(b) Description of the Related Art
Accompanied with a recent progress in electronic technology, a great need has arisen for fabricating electronic equipment of a high speed and a high performance with a light weight as well as a small size. In order to meet such need, a high density interconnection structure should include wires of a smaller width and finer throughholes. However, in case that signal lines are arranged in a long distance or with the space between them being very small, or in case that electronic equipment itself has a high frequency circuit, a considerable noise is generated in the electronic equipment due to the coupling capacity existing between signal lines. It is generally called cross-talk noise which is generated due to interference between signal lines.
In order to avoid such cross-talk noise, a material having a low dielectric constant may be provided between the signal lines, or a short distance may be provided between the signal lines and the ground plane, both of which will be considerably effective. However, the thickness and the dielectric constant of substrates having a printed circuit thereon cannot be well adjusted to have low cross-talk noise. That is, the coupling capacity between the signal lines is not reduced to a satisfactorily low value so that cross-talk due to the mutual interference between the signal lines may be readily induced, resulting in a reduction in operational reliability of the electronic equipment.
FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a conventional multilayer printed circuit board adopted in electronic equipment. In FIG. 1, two signal interconnection layers 5a and 5b are disposed having signal lines in directions perpendicular to each other with a heat resistant dielectric resin substrate 12 sandwiched therebetween. Besides, ground layers 6a and 6b are disposed so as to sandwich the heat resistant dielectric resin substrates 12 as well as the signal interconnection layers 5a and 5b between the ground layers 6a and 6b.
With the multilayer printed circuit board as described above, if the space between the adjacent signal layers 5a and 5b is small, tile cross-talk noise accompanied by the transmitted signal will be large, resulting in a deterioration of the transmitted signals. For improving such disadvantages, such circuit structure is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 63(1988)-136694 in which the signal interconnection layers and ground layers are disposed alternately in one layer. With the circuit structure disclosed in the publication, however, a large cross-talk noise will be still induced between the signal lines and between the through-holes in a printed circuit board of a higher density construction. As a result, there arises the problem that satisfactory signal transmission cannot be obtained.
An object of the present invention is therefore to provide a multilayer printed circuit board capable of reducing cross-talk noises between interconnection layers and between through-holes electrically connecting the interconnection layers.


Headphones with a pair of glasses include two headphone bodies, a glasses headband, and two engaging members. Each headphone body includes an engaging protrusion having a plurality of dentate portions. The glasses headband includes a glasses frame, two lenses on the glasses frame, and two extension sheets extended outwardly from two side ends of the glasses frame. Each engaging member is movably engaged with one of extension sheets and includes an annular ring having an inner peripheral face with a plurality of engaging teeth. The engaging protrusion of each headphone body is received in an associated annular ring, and the dentate portions of the engaging protrusion are coupled with the engaging teeth of the associated annular ring. Each annular ring is capable of rotating relative to an associated engaging protrusion, allowing a headphone user to use a pair of glasses simultaneously.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to headphones and, more particularly, to a pair of circumaural headphones equipped with a pair of glasses.
2. Description of the Related Art
The models of electronic music players such as MP3, MP4, PDA, and mobile phone have been diversified with development of digitalized music files, allowing people to listen music given off by music players outdoors. To enjoy acoustic fidelity without affecting other people, a user uses a music player in conjunction with headphones to output music from an audio source via the headphones. The models of headphones available in the market can be divided into earbud headphones, ear-clip headphones, and circumaural headphones. In general, a pair of circumaural headphones completely covering ears prevents sounds from leakage or distortion when sounds are delivered via the headphones. In addition, existing circumaural headphones based on moving-coil speakers are designed to have a larger volume, so that the moving-coil speakers encased in shells can create corresponding sound chambers to effectively promote quality of sound effects and sound fields. Accordingly, a pair of circumaural headphones is regarded as the model rendering acoustic fidelity superior to others.
Conventional circumaural headphones generally include a headband-like hoop with an elastic holding function to engage two audio receivers. To listen music, a headphone user may adjust a length of the hoop to be placed over his/her head and to take two audio receivers to cover ears. However, the fact that a glasses user demands acoustic fidelity but has no chance to pick up a pair of headphones has been a noteworthy issue because the circumaural headphone user with ears covered by ear pads cannot wear a pair of glasses (e.g., sunglasses, glasses for nearsightedness, or artistic plain glass spectacles). Moreover, the stereotypical structure of circumaural headphones based on prior arts cannot encourage consumers' appetite to buy headphones.


The claimed method and system identifies faults and/or deterioration of components in a process control valve. The system may use different sensor combinations to provide the necessary data to compute irregular component integrity. Alerts may be generated to indicate potential component integrity problems. In particular, the system may detect potential deterioration and/or faults in actuator springs, pneumatic tubing and piping, and bellows seals. The claimed system may be communicatively coupled to a process control network to provide a more elaborate alarm system. Moreover, additional statistical methods may be used to refine the detection accuracy of the system.

Failure of a control valve in an industrial process almost always impacts plant operation. Generally, control valve failures may impact the response of the control valve to control signals. In particular, a control valve may become less-responsive or sluggish to a control signal, which may lead to degradation in control performance that induces process variability, which is costly to the plant operators or worse, may lead to hazardous conditions. Thus, early detection of control valve degradation or deterioration may allow for orderly scheduled maintenance of a control valve in a manner that would prevent disruption of operation to a process plant.
Control valve performance degradation may occur for a number of reasons. Generally, deterioration of component parts may be a primary factor. Deterioration of parts, however, is typically detected only upon degradation of control valve operation to the point where the control valve malfunctions, due to, for example, a component failure, at which point it may be too late to perform preventative maintenance. One approach to preventative maintenance may be to physically inspect the components of a control valve on a periodic basis. This option, however, is costly as it requires that the process control loop using the control valve be shut down and/or that the control valve be removed and disassembled for review.

Diagnostic method for detecting control valve component failure


The present disclosure relates to methods and apparatus for audio coding. A method of encoding a portion of an audio signal comprises determining whether the portion of the audio signal is likely to contain dense transient events, and if it is determined that the portion of the audio signal is likely to contain dense transient events, quantizing the portion of the audio signal using a quantization 5 mode that applies a substantially constant signal-to-noise ratio over frequency for the portion of the audio signal. The present disclosure further relates to a method of detecting dense transient events in a portion of an audio signal.

Perceptual or lossy audio codecs (such as MP3, MC, HE-MC, AC-4, for example) are known to have problems with compressing audio signals including dense transient events, such as applause, crackling fire, or rain, for example, without loss of perceived audio quality. Conventional efforts to increase compression efficiency typically tend to lead to vastly increased computational complexity at the encoder-side and/or to a loss of perceived audio quality.
The present disclosure addresses the above issues related to audio coding of audio signals including dense transient events, such as applause, crackling fire, or rain, for example, and describes methods and apparatus for improved coding of such audio signals. The present disclosure further deals with detecting dense transient events in audio signals to enable appropriate treatment thereof.

Low complexity dense transient events detection and coding


A plurality of waveforms are time-divisionally obtained from a waveform generator in one sampling period under the control of a controller. The sampling period is equally divided into a plurality of module periods. Each module period is also divided to correspond to the number of waves which are obtained time-divisionally. The waveform generator includes a selector which uses waveform data produced in a preceding module in the sampling period as that for waveform generation in the following module.

The present invention relates to a waveform generator, which generates musical tone waveforms for an electronic musical instrument.
Various methods or apparatuses for generating musical tone waveforms are known. Such methods or apparatuses include:
(A) A method or apparatus for storing a waveform corresponding to each tone color in a memory, and reading it out. More specifically, such a method or apparatus is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,639,913 (issued on Feb. 1, 1972), U.S. Pat. No. 3,882,751 (issued on May 13, 1975), and the like.
(B) A method or apparatus for multiplying a sine wave of a fundamental frequency and a sine wave of each harmonic component with a Fourier coefficient and synthesizing resultant products to produce a waveform in accordance with a Fourier synthesis method, i.e., ##EQU1## anain n.omega..sub.0 t (where .omega..sub.0 is a fundamental frequency. Such a method or apparatus is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,809,786 (issued on May 7, 1974).
With method or apparatus (A), various waveforms cannot be stored in a memory unless the memory has a large storage capacity. More specifically, the storage capacity poses a problem. In addition, waveforms other than those stored in the waveform memory cannot be produced.
With method or apparatus (B), in order to obtain a musical tone having desired harmonic overtone components, calculations must be performed a plurality of times corresponding to the number of harmonic overtone components, or sine wave generators corresponding in number to the harmonic overtone components must be required.
In addition, the following method or apparatus is known.
(C) A method or apparatus in accordance with FM modulation.
More specifically, waveforms are produced in accordance with the following equation: EQU Y2=Asin(.omega..sub.c t+Isin.omega..sub.m t)
(where .omega..sub.c is a carrier angular frequency, .omega..sub.m is an angular frequency of a modulated wave, I is a modulation index, and A is an amplitude.) Such a method or apparatus is disclosed in U.S. Pat . No. 4,018,121 (issued on Apr. 19, 1977).
With this FM modulation method, waveforms including many harmonic overtone components can be generated by a relatively small sine wave generating system. However, when resultant waveforms are evaluated in terms of their spectra, a waveform with a moderate spectrum envelope cannot be generated, and a waveform string whose spectrum distribution gradually changes, cannot be generated.
(D) A method or apparatus in accordance with a PD (phase distortion) method.
This method or apparatus relates to a content previously proposed by the present assignee (e.g., U.S. Ser. No. 788,669 filed on Oct. 17, 1985). With this method, phase angle signals for reading a sine wave stored in a single musical tone waveform memory are modified by a phase angle modifying circuit, and various waveforms such as a sawtooth wave and a sine wave can be generated.
However, in a detailed circuit arrangement for method (D), the phase angle modifying circuit is constituted by dividers, resulting in a bulky apparatus.

Waveform generator for electronic musical instrument


An error injection tool for injecting errors into a computer channel wherein the error injection is under microcode control in the channel itself. Error injection may be random or precise, based upon inputted parameters. The injection can be either immediate or delayed, as desired. The resulting error injection may be layered such that an event may be set up to trigger a later error injection, with the layered error injection occurring in the true running environment of the channel. A time of day log may be constructed for timing the exact initiation and recovery time of an error.

The present invention relates to error injection methods and apparatus used in the testing of electronic data processing systems, and more particularly relates to the injection of errors into a channel of an electronic data processing system and means to time the recovery of the system from the injected error.
As electronic data processing machines have become more sophisticated, tools and techniques for testing these data processing machines have become more sophisticated. Typically, testing tools have been external devices which depended upon stimuli such as electrical signals for indicating the state of the machine or portion of the machine being tested. Faults or errors are then injected in response to the stimuli to test machine's reaction to a fault in that particular state.
D. G. East et al., Error Injector for Testing a Data Processing Unit, IBM Technical Discl. Bulletin, vol. 17 no. 6, Nov. 1974, pp. 1691-1692, discloses a tool for injecting errors in which the unit under test produces a multibit signal which identifies the particular operations of the unit during the test. The multibit signal is compared by match logic which includes a set of manual switches to determine when an error is to be injected. The injector includes circuitry to delay the error injection for a set count after the multibit signal is matched, and circuitry to stop the error pulses after a preset count.
J. N. Gaulrapp et al., Error Injection Tool, IBM Technical Discl. Bulletin, vol. 20 no. 8, Jan. 1978, p. 3286, discloses an error injection tool for injecting error pulses into circuitry to test hardware and software error recovery. The disclosed tool includes a trigger circuit, which, when triggered, injects an error into a circuit under test after a user set number of counts have been received by a counter. The width of the injected error may also be set by a width counter.
E. J. Cerul et al., Synchronized Error Injection, IBM Technical Discl. Bulletin, vol. 24 no. 5, Oct. 1981, p 2331, discloses a reloadable control store in the director to establish error states in synchronism with central processor execution of an I/O related function. The reloadable control store contains control word microprograms for operating the director and may be loaded with a special control word for initiating a synchronized error injection mode of operation in the director.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,149,038 to Pitroda et al. for Method and Apparatus for Fault Detection and PCM Multiplexed System Apr. 10, 1979, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,393,490 to Culley for Digital Telecommunications Switches Network with In-Built Fault Identification issued Jul. 12, 1983. Both of these patents disclose telecommunications networks into which parity errors or error patterns are deliberately injected to find faults.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,719,626 to Ogasawara for Diagnostic Method and Apparatus for Channel Control Apparatus issued Jan. 12, 1988 and discloses a data processing system in which errors are sent to a pseudo-input/output control unit to test the common bus interface of a channel control. External errors are injected from an outside source into the functional channel unit to provide data for diagnostic purposes.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,759,019 to Bently et al. for Programmable Fault Injection Tool issued Jul. 19, 1988 and discloses an external tool for injecting faults into a system under test in response to sensed external hardware events to determine the state of the system under test. The disclosed tool includes a user interface to give parameters to a microprocessor which can be programmed to control tests of a system wherein the test is responsive to the sensed state of the system.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,779,271 to Suzuki for Forced Error Generating Circuit for a Data Processing Unit issued Oct. 18, 1988 and discloses an external circuit for generating errors for a data processing unit responsive to a signal for starting a period for causing the error and a forced error generating instruction.

International Business Machines Corporation