The present embodiments relate to systems and methods for treating lumenal valves. Particularly, and in accordance with one aspect, the present disclosure is directed to methods and systems for partial or complete replacement of lumenal valves. An exemplary catheter in accordance with the disclosure includes an elongate body having a proximal end and a distal end, and a retractable sheath mounted on the elongate body proximate the distal end. The sheath and elongate body cooperating to define a first annularly-shaped compartment between the body and sheath. The catheter further includes a valve prosthesis mounted in the compartment, the prosthesis having proximal and distal ends connected to a means for deploying the valve prosthesis from the catheter.

1. Field of the Invention
The present embodiments relate to systems and methods for treating lumenal valves. Particularly, and in accordance with one aspect, the present disclosure is directed to methods and systems for partial or complete replacement of lumenal valves.
2. Description of Related Art
Recently, there has been increasing consideration given to the possibility of using, as an alternative to traditional cardiac-valve prostheses, valves designed to be implanted using minimally-invasive surgical techniques or endovascular delivery (so-called "percutaneous valves"). Implantation of a percutaneous valve is a far less invasive act than the surgical operation required for implanting traditional cardiac-valve prostheses.
These expandable prosthetic valves typically include an anchoring structure or armature, which is able to support and fix the valve prosthesis in the implantation position, and prosthetic valve elements, generally in the form of leaflets or flaps, which are stably connected to the anchoring structure and are able to regulate blood flow.
An advantage of these expandable prosthetic valves is that they enable implantation using various minimally invasive or sutureless techniques. One application for such an expandable valve prosthesis is for aortic valve replacement. Various techniques are generally known for implanting such an aortic valve prosthesis and include percutaneous implantation (e.g., transvascular delivery through a catheter), dissection of the ascending aorta using minimally invasive thoracic access (e.g., mini-thoracotomy), and transapical delivery wherein the aortic valve annulus is accessed directly through an opening near the apex of the left ventricle. Note that the percutaneous and thoracic access approaches involve delivering the prosthesis in a direction opposing blood flow (i.e., retrograde), whereas the transapical approach involves delivering the prosthesis in the same direction as blood flow (i.e., antegrade). Similar techniques may also be applied to implant such a cardiac valve prosthesis at other locations (e.g., a pulmonary valve annulus).
However, to date, such systems have involved delivery of large implantable devices on catheters having very large profiles, necessitating unfavorable methods of delivery. There is thus a continued need in the art for devices and associated approaches for delivering replacement valves percutaneously with minimal adverse effects on the patient. The presently disclosed embodiments provide solutions for these needs.

Systems and methods for treating lumenal valves


A deflection yoke includes ferrite core, horizontal deflection coil, vertical deflection coil, and insulating frame for insulating the horizontal and vertical deflection coils. The deflection yoke has a cross section that satisfies the following A to C. A: A plurality of magnetic substance convex portions projecting toward the tube axis are provided in the vicinity of a position of an inner surface of the ferrite core where a vertical axis crosses. B: Assuming that a minimum value among distances between the respective magnetic substance convex portions and a funnel is D1, the distance between the ferrite core excluding the plurality of magnetic substance convex portions and the funnel is larger than the distance D1 at any point of the ferrite core. C: A part of the vertical deflection coil is wound in a groove between the plurality of magnetic substance convex portions.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a color picture tube apparatus used in a TV, a computer display, or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
In terms of the recent global environmental protection movement and the like, the energy savings in electrical products are being promoted. Even in a color picture tube apparatus, energy-saving technology based on deflection power is being introduced.
In order to reduce deflection power, for example, JP2003-208859A describes a deflection yoke as shown in FIG. 7. FIG. 7 is a partial cross-sectional view of the deflection yoke along a surface vertical to a tube axis. In FIG. 7, an X-axis represents a horizontal axis, and a Y-axis represents a vertical axis. The deflection yoke 100 includes an insulating frame 101, a pair of upper and lower saddle-type horizontal deflection coils 102 provided on an inner surface side of the insulating frame 101, a pair of right and left saddle-type vertical deflection coils 103 provided on an outer surface side of the insulating frame 101, and a core 104 covering an outer surface side of the saddle-type vertical deflection coils 103. Reference numeral 2 denotes a funnel of a color picture tube. A pair of upper and lower magnetic substance projections 104a are provided in the vicinity of positions of an inner surface of the core 104 where the Y-axis crosses. The pair of upper and lower magnetic substance projections 104a extend through between the pair of right and left saddle-type vertical deflection coils 103, and project to the vicinity of the pair of upper and lower saddle-type horizontal deflection coils 102. This enables each top portion of the pair of upper and lower magnetic substance projections 104a to be close to a deflection region of an electron beam. Therefore, the magnetic resistance of a horizontal deflection magnetic field can be decreased, and the horizontal deflection magnetic field in the deflection region can be intensified. Consequently, deflection power can be reduced.
In the above-mentioned conventional deflection yoke 100, as the horizontal width W0 of the pair of upper and lower magnetic substance projections 104a is increased, the effect of reducing the deflection power is increased. However, when the horizontal width W0 is increased, there are the following problems: a horizontal interval between the pair of right and left saddle-type vertical deflection coils 103 is enlarged so as to avoid the interference with respect to the magnetic substance projections 104a, and a barrel magnetic field of a vertical deflection magnetic field is intensified more than necessary, whereby a misconvergence and raster distortion occur.
More specifically, in the above-mentioned conventional deflection yoke, it is difficult to further reduce horizontal deflection power while forming a barrel magnetic field capable of realizing a satisfactory convergence and raster.

Color picture tube apparatus with particular deflection yoke structure

Matsushita Toshiba Picture Display Co., Ltd.


A cable lock device includes a housing, a tampering subsystem, and a cable having a first end and a second end. The first end is attached to the housing and is electrically connected to the tampering subsystem and the second end is selectively attached to the housing. In addition, a switch is disposed within the housing and is electrically connected to the tampering subsystem. The switch is movable between an open state and a closed state to indicate when the second end is attached to the housing. The tampering subsystem includes control circuitry that monitors the position of the switch and the status of the cable to detect removal of the second end from the housing and/or severance of the cable. The control circuitry relays status information of the cable lock device to a control unit via a transmitter to alert a property owner of a security breach.

In today's society it is desirable to protect personal effects in one's dwelling, building, or construction site. In doing so, it is desirable to have a security system that is monitored by a remote monitoring station. Ordinarily, central monitored security systems are secured permanently in the walls of the dwelling or building to protect against entry and/or theft. For those persons who temporarily use a structure or building such as a contractor or lessee, it is cost prohibitive to invest in a security system, which, upon leaving the building, would be left behind. Thus, it is desirable to have a portable security system.
Portable security systems exist which include various types of features. Ordinarily, such portable security systems include a wireless sensor that communicates with the security system. The sensor monitors an area or object and sends a signal to the security system indicative of the state of the area or location of the object. For example, some portable security systems may include a motion sensor positioned within a building or at a construction site to detect unwanted intrusion. In addition, the security system can include a vibration sensor tied to object to sense when the object is moved or otherwise disrupted. In either situation, the sensor produces a signal indicative of the state of the respective sensor and sends the signal to the security system for processing.
The security system receives and processes the signals from the respective sensors. If the security system determines that at least one of the sensors detects a security breach, the system alerts the user via an audible siren and/or a wireless transmission. In any event, such security systems provide the user with the convenience of a security system and the practicability of moving the security system from location to location. Thus, it is justifiable for temporary building users to purchase portable security systems.


Present invention embodiments enable the handling of various index-memory architectures for a virtual supercomputer that would allow for a heterogeneous storage of variable length index words with non-sequential addressing, and also dynamic changes to the index-memory architecture. A computer-implemented system, method, and apparatus allow for different types of node index memory (NIM) architectures for the virtual supercomputer. The first type allows for homogenous NIM segments, and implementing sequential node-number addressing. A second type of architecture allows for heterogeneous IW configurations (variable length and field structure), but sill uses sequential node-number addressing. A third type allows for non-sequential node-number addressing, but still uses homogeneous IW configurations. To implement this, a new virtual hardware element is required, an Index-Word Address Table. The fourth type of architecture is a fully variable random-access architecture, whereby index-words are not sequential, nor are they identically configured. This also requires the Index-Word Address Table.

Technical Field of Endeavor
Present invention embodiments are generally directed to the field of computing and more specifically to the field of information processing, and even more specifically, to the field of high-demand, high-performance, and supercomputing.
Description of the Related Art
Attempts to create optimal solutions to solve specific and complex information processing tasks have focused on creating hardware architectures designed to exploit various features of the information to be processed so that such processing can be performed in an optimal manner. Hardware devices containing specialized vector processing units are one such example. Computing hardware containing multiple dedicated parallel processors are another example. Software written for such hardware formats the information into a form that takes advantage of the hardware's specialization, thus creating a computing environment that is tailored to the specific problem at hand. Such tailored solutions are usually implemented on high-end supercomputing hardware architectures with specialized software. Consequently, this approach is prohibitively expensive for most organizations, often costing millions of dollars. Additionally, once created, tailored solutions of this type are only suitable for a specific problem or class of problems.
The software written to solve specific high-performance computing problems is necessarily constrained by the features of the hardware upon which such software runs. When such software is in machine-readable form, it is tightly coupled to a specific architecture upon which it will run. Further, the underlying hardware machine architecture is almost always static, and only reconfigurable (and only partially so) in a few non-commercial machines not widely available. Even the so-called grid (or network or large-cluster) computing approaches, which rely on large numbers of interconnected physical or virtual machines, are still constrained by running on a few different types of conventional processors. While the topology of the network can be configurable in such approaches, the architecture of the underlying processors is static, and thus not tailored to the problem at hand.

Dynamic memory management for a virtual supercomputer


A lens incorporates a plurality of lens units including at least one movable lens unit which is movable to change one of the functions of the lens. The lens has an optical low-pass filter on the side of the movable lens unit which is closer to an object. The optical low-pass filter separates a light incident upon it into at least two rays of light and emits the rays in at least in two different directions. The lens is characterized in that, when a coefficient l is given by: EQU l=S+G-SG/F. where F is the focal length of the lens unit disposed on the side of the optical low-pass filter closer to an image forming surface, G is the distance between the front principal plane of the lens unit and the optical low-pass filter, S is the distance between the rear principal plane of the lens unit and the image forming surface, the lens unit satisfies EQU l.sub.MIN /l.sub.MAX >0.7. where l.sub.MAX is the absolute maximum value of l obtained in the overall movable states available in the lens, and l.sub.MIN is the minimum absolute value of the same coefficient.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a lens with an optical low-pass filter incorporated therein and it also relates to a still-picture type camera or a moving-picture type video camera with such lens.
The lens according to the present invention enables the optical low-pass filter to be disposed near a lens unit that is moved along the optical axis of the lens unit. The movement of the lens unit, which is disposed between an object and the low-pass filter, enables the objective distance or the focal length of the lens to be varied, which in turn expands the potential of the design of the lens.
2. Description of the Related Art
Lens for use in a video camera or the like employs an image pickup element, such as a CCD (charge coupled device), capable of reproducing an image by discretely sampling image information received from an object. However, when the information from the object contains components with spatial frequencies exceeding the critical frequency of the image pickup element, moire fringes which do not originally belong to the object appear on the screen. Alternatively, thick stripes of local maxima and minima of density appear in a thin stripe pattern, that is, a so-called "beat disturbance" occurs.
More specifically, the frequency components of the object information which cannot be picked up by a camera cannot be reproduced as image information and this causes what is called wave-form distortion (aliasing).
In a conventional lens for use in, for example, a video camera, this aliasing is restricted by providing an optical low-pass filter in the optical path of the lens. The rays of light coming from the object pass through this optical low-pass filter, whereby they are directed into a plurality of directions. This results in the formation of the image of one spot on the image forming surface as a plurality of spots.
The high frequency characteristics of the object are thus limited so as to limit the effects of the aliasing.
Various types of optical low-pass filters are known. Examples include one which utilizes the double refraction caused by a uniaxial crystal such as rock crystal, and one which utilizes the diffraction effects of a diffraction grating disposed in the optical path of the lens.
The diffraction grating employed in a low-pass filter has a cyclic pattern that is either a, a sine curve or a trapezoidal pattern. A diffraction grating having a trapezoidal pattern is disclosed in the specifications of, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,821,795 and 3,784,734 and Japanese Patent No. sho 45-29614.
In particular, an optical low-pass filter of the type which employs a diffraction grating can be readily manufactured by molding a plastic, and such filter is therefore inexpensive. Accordingly, such filters have been widely used in lenses in recent years.
An optical low-pass filter employing a diffraction grating ensures desired low-pass effects no matter where it is disposed within the optical path of the lens. However, it is desirable to incorporate it into the lens to project it from dust and damage to the lens surface. In addition, incorporating the low-pass filter into the lens reduces the overall size of the lens unit.
However, incorporation of a diffraction grating in the lens can cause the following problems, such as those described below in detail with reference to FIG. 3.
FIG. 3 illustrates the optical function of part of an optical system in which an optical low-pass filter employing a diffraction grating is incorporated in a lens.
In FIG. 3, an optical low-pass filter 1 employing a diffraction grating is capable of separating a beam incident upon it into two bundles of rays 4a and 4b which project in different directions which form an included angle of, for example, .theta.. A movable rear lens unit 2 having a positive refracting power includes at least one movable lens element. The rear lens unit 2 is disposed on the side of the optical low-pass filter 1 closer to an image forming surface 3. The rear lens unit 2 may include another movable lens element or a fixed lens element. A solid state imaging device with a color filter is displaced on the image forming surface 3. The rear lens unit 2 receives the rays of light from the optical low-pass filter, and produces an image 1A.
Rays of light coming from an object pass through a lens unit disposed near the object (not shown) and reach the optical low-pass filter 1. The light incident upon the low-pass filter 1 emerges from the filter as diffracted light having the intensities shown in FIG. 4 due to the spatial frequency characteristics of the optical low-pass filter 1. The two diffracted bundles of rays 4a and 4b having different orders of diffraction emerge from the optical low-pass filter in two separate directions which form an included angle .theta.. The rays then pass through the rear lens unit 2 disposed on the side of the filter closer to the image forming surface, and form two spot images 5a and 5b on the image forming surface 3.
The individual spot images 5a and 5b are equivalent to those formed when the optical low-pass filter 1 having a separation angle of .theta. is disposed at the position of an image 1A formed by the rear lens unit 2 using the rays of light which pass through the optical low-pass filter 1. From this fact, it is apparent that the distance D between the two spot images 5a and 5b formed on the image forming surface 3 is expressed by EQU D=.vertline..theta.' l'.vertline. . . . (1)
where .theta.' is an extremely small angle and l' is the distance between image 1A and the image forming surface 3.
Thus, as long as the distance D between the two spot images 5a and 5b formed on the image forming surface 3 is constant, desired low-pass effects can be obtained without varying the spatial frequency characteristics of the optical low-pass filter 1.
However, when the movable lens unit in the rear lens unit 2 is moved, for example, in zooming or focusing, the position and the magnification of the image 1A formed by the rear lens unit 2 using the rays of light from the optical low-pass filter 1 vary, thus varying the position of the spot images 5a and 5b on the image forming surface 3 and, hence, the distance D between them.
This variation in the distance D varies the spatial frequency characteristics of the optical low-pass filter 1, thus prohibiting the desired low-pass effects from being obtained.
This problem may be avoided in the conventional video camera or the like by disposing the optical low-pass filter on the side of a fixed focal length lens closer to the object or immediately in front of a final lens unit of an optical system which consists of a fixed lens unit. This, however, limits the optical design of the optical system.

Imaging system with optical low-pass filter


The invention discloses a network protection method and device, the method comprises: initiating a protection configuration request through a control plane of an automatically switched optical network (ASON); and realizing a protection configuration on each node of the network according to the protection configuration request. A safe and reliable recovery capability; a reliable efficiency guarantee and an effective guarantee of the coordination of the switching and recovery are provided.

Compared with the traditional protection, a control plane of an automatically switched optical network (ASON) has no significant advantage in service protection recovery capability, protection recovery time and safety and reliability, but has the advantages in network resource utilization rate and service recovery flexibility.
The traditional protection has the significant advantages in recovery time and safety and reliability, but has a low network resource utilization rate. Through planning, the traditional protection adopts the manner of reserving and configuring the resource in a system, and takes the reservation resource in the system as a service protection resource, switches the service loaded on the work path to the reserved protection resource through the manner of fast bridging and switching when the work path has failure, so as to complete the fast recovery capability of the service. The traditional protection has some influences in the fixed occupancy of the network resource, the network traffic and the load balancing, thereby it cannot perform allocation on demand according to the actual network resource.
The ASON control plane (the control plane of ASON) can dynamically and real-timely collect the network resource. According to the occupancy and distribution of the network resource, it can employ load balancing and traffic control strategy to implement routing selection and resource allocation according to call request, and to provide the peer to peer service establishment and the recovery capability through the manner of call control. Although the service switching time and the safety and reliability of the recovery capability provided by the ASON control plane lag behind the traditional protection, the ASON control plane can more flexibly collect and use the network idle resource, and the ASON control plane needs no fixed resource occupancy manner and has a higher resource utilization rate.


A system for facilitating creation of a patient treatment plan includes components configured to receive at least one feature associated with patient data and search a database of previously planned radiation treatments to identify one or more matching plans from the database based on the at least one feature. Parameters corresponding to the identified matching treatment plans may be used to facilitate creation of the patient treatment plan.

Providing radiation therapy to patients diagnosed with cancer includes creating a radiation treatment plan. Often, where the cancer is localized in the patient's anatomy, such as in a tumor, the creation of the radiation treatment plan involves participation by medical personnel for solving a difficult geometric problem and/or making judgment calls related to the total radiation dose or total dose received by the tumor and nearby healthy tissue, including organs at risk (OARs). Creating the radiation treatment plan can be a time consuming process that involves multiple medical personnel providing multiple iterations of the treatment plan over many days, which may increase the time from diagnosis of the cancer to treatment of the cancer.
In an example of a conventional process for the diagnosis and treatment of tumors, a diagnostic scan, such as a computed tomography (CT) scan, is taken of the patient to localize a tumor and a biopsy of the tumor is taken to histologically verify that the tumor is malignant. Next, treatment contours of the three dimensional envelope defined by the tumor's shape and the shape of the OARs are drawn up and a treatment prescription is developed by a clinician or an oncologist. The treatment prescription prescribes a total radiation dose to be delivered to the tumor over the course of treatment and a maximum level of radiation to be absorbed by the OARs. Next, the treatment prescription is provided to medical personnel, such as a dosimetrist, and a radiation delivery plan is developed by the medical personnel. The radiation delivery plan includes radiation beam orientations, shapes, and fluences using a given radiation type and delivery method to achieve the radiation levels, including the total dose levels, defined by the treatment prescription. Treatment constraints, including at least the treatment prescription and the radiation delivery plan, are iteratively changed by the medical personnel to meet minimum standards and to satisfy the oncologist. The final iteration of the radiation delivery plan is used to treat the patient.
This process for developing a radiation treatment plan can take many days, especially in cases in which the medical personnel, including the dosimetrist and/or the oncologist, change the treatment constraints over a number of iterative cycles.

Multi-objective radiation therapy selection system and method


A cooking vessel sidewall cover is provided with an opening therein and a screen is placed over the opening, with the screen including a layered structured between the cover opening and the vessel to include a non-opaque substrate, a layer of thermochromic colorant that changes from a opaque color to a non-opaque color when exposed to a predetermined temperature, and a layer of indicia material which is visible from an outer side of the substrate opening when the thermochromic ink changes to a non-opaque color. The cover may also include protective transparent or translucent window members on either side of the opening, and the substrate may be attached by way of an adhesive.

A product that has recently gained popularity with campers, hikers and people involved in other outdoor activities is a portable stove that can be used to quickly and efficiently heat a liquid/food item in a containing vessel. One such stove and vessel is described in co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/603,947, assigned to the assignee of the present invention.
As described in that patent application, in order to insulate the vessel from the loss of heat to the atmosphere, and in order to allow the user to freely handle the vessel without touching a hot surface, an insulative cover is provided around the outer side of the vessel. However, either with or without the insulative cover, it is generally been necessary for the user to look inside of the vessel in order to determine whether the contained material has reached the desired temperature. That is, for coffee, for example, it is desired that the temperature of the water within the vessel reaches the boiling point of 100° centigrade. If the user needs to open the lid to view the liquid to determine its temperature, heat will be lost to the atmosphere, each time that this occurs. Further, for desired temperatures below the boiling level, it is difficult to determine by this method, the temperature of the liquid inside the vessel.
What is needed is a method/apparatus for indicating to the user, in a simple and effective manner, when the temperature of the material inside the vessel has reached a predetermined temperature level.

Temperature indicating insulating sleeve for a cooking vessel


The present invention improves the feeling in use when a finger is hooked on a finger grip. This syringe is provided with a cylinder 22, a syringe needle 24, a finger grip 30, and a plunger rod 32. The finger grip 30 is provided with a cylindrical portion and a pair of finger hook portions. The finger hook portion has an inclined curved surface 70 and an end-side curved surface 72. The inclined curved surface 70 is disposed on a side, of a side surface of the finger hook portion, connected to the cylinder 22. In the inclined curved surface 70, the inclination of a base-side region with respect to the center axis of the cylindrical portion is gentler than the inclination of an end-side region with respect to the center axis of the cylindrical portion. The end-side curved surface 72 is disposed at the boundary between the end of the finger hook portion and the inclined curved surface 70. The end-side curved surface 72 extends along the boundary.

Patent Document 1 discloses a syringe. This syringe includes a cylinder having a needle mount and a bypass structure, a finger grip, and a plunger rod. The needle mount is attached to the distal end of the cylinder. A plug accommodating chamber is formed inside the needle mount. A communication groove in the form of a recess is formed in an inner wall of this plug accommodating chamber. A syringe needle is attached to the needle mount at the opposite end from the side connected to the cylinder. At the distal end inside the cylinder is mounted a front plug, and successively from there a middle plug and an end plug. The finger grip is attached at the rear end of the cylinder such as to surround part of the circumference of the cylinder. Further, the plunger rod is attached to the rear end of the cylinder.


The invention relates to a method and system for wavelength stabilization of a broadband optical source. The method and system are based on utilizing an optical power divider to generate two optical signals for each of the broadband source and a reference wavelength source. The difference in the power ratio of the two optical signals derived from the broadband source and the power ratio of the two optical signals derived from the reference wavelength source is determined. Because the power ratios are similarly affected by component aging and changes in environmental factors such as temperature and incident radiation, the difference in the power ratios can be used to adjust the wavelength of the broadband source so that its center wavelength is stabilized to the center wavelength of the reference source.

The invention relates generally to wavelength stabilization of broadband sources and more specifically to a method and apparatus for stabilizing a characteristic wavelength of a broadband source using an optical power divider and a stable reference optical source.
Stable broadband sources are useful in a variety of applications including, for example, telecommunications test equipment, optical tomography systems, optical distance measurement systems, and interferometric fiber optic gyroscopic (IFOG) navigation equipment. Various methods to stabilize a broadband source have been developed. For example, one method employs an unbalanced interferometer stabilized to a Helium-Neon laser reference source. The broadband source to be controlled, however, must have a coherence length at least as long as the difference in the optical paths of the interferometer. Unfortunately, reducing the difference in the optical paths typically reduces the wavelength sensitivity of the method. Thus, this method is highly dependent on the degree of residual coherence in the broadband source.
Another method developed for use with IFOG navigation equipment employs a directional coupler as a wavelength reference. Optical energy from a broadband source is injected into the directional coupler. The coupler separates the optical energy into two output ports. The optical energy is divided between the two output ports according to wavelength. The optical power exiting the two outputs of the directional coupler is balanced, thereby matching the center wavelength of the broadband source to the characteristic center wavelength of the directional coupler, which serves as the wavelength reference for the broadband source. One disadvantage of this technique is that temperature variations change the characteristic center wavelength of the directional coupler. Also, the two photodetectors used to measure the power output from the two output arms of the coupler must have closely matched responsivities. Any systematic influence which affects the responsivity match of the photodetectors and/or changes the center wavelength of the directional coupler results in an unwanted shift in the center wavelength of the broadband source. For precise wavelength control, the directional coupler and photodetectors are typically housed in a temperature-stabilized environment, which can be prohibitive for applications in which space is limited. Additionally, the central wavelength of the directional coupler is sensitive to gamma and neutron radiation exposure, making this method impractical for strategic guidance applications.
A need exists for a method to stabilize broadband sources that is substantially insensitive to environmental factors and not limited by coherence length.
The invention relates to a method and system for wavelength stabilization of a broadband optical source. The method and system are based on utilizing an optical power divider to generate two optical signals for each of the broadband source and a reference wavelength source. The difference in the power ratio of the two optical signals derived from the broadband source and the power ratio of the two optical signals derived from the reference wavelength source is determined. Because the power ratios are similarly affected by component aging and changes in environmental factors such as temperature and incident radiation, the difference in the power ratios can be used to adjust the wavelength of the broadband source so that its center wavelength is stabilized to the center wavelength of the reference source.
In one aspect, the invention relates to a method for wavelength stabilization of a broadband optical source having a center wavelength. The method includes generating a first split broadband optical signal and a second split broadband optical signal in response to a wavelength transfer characteristic and the broadband optical signal. The method also includes generating a first split optical reference signal and a second split optical reference signal in response to the wavelength transfer characteristic and a reference optical signal having a reference wavelength. The method further includes determining a broadband power ratio of the first and second split optical signals, determining a reference power ratio of the first and second split optical reference signals, and determining a difference between the center wavelength and the reference wavelength in response to the power ratios. In one embodiment the method also includes adjusting the center wavelength of the broadband optical signal in response to the difference of the center wavelength and the reference wavelength.
In another aspect, the invention relates to a system for generating a wavelength stabilized optical signal including a broadband optical source, a wavelength reference module and an optical power divider. The broadband optical source is configured to provide a broadband optical signal having a broadband center wavelength and the wavelength reference module is configured to provide a reference optical signal having a reference center wavelength. The optical power divider has a divider input port in optical communication with the broadband optical source and the wavelength reference module. The optical power divider also has a first divider output port and a second divider output port. The optical divider is configured to provide a first split broadband optical signal and a second split broadband optical signal at the first and second divider output ports, respectively, in response to the broadband optical signal. The optical power divider is also configured to provide a first split reference optical signal and a second split reference optical signal at the first and second divider output ports, respectively, in response to the reference optical signal. The power ratio of the first and second split optical signals is responsive to the broadband center wavelength and the power ratio of the first and second split reference optical signals is responsive to the reference center wavelength.
In one embodiment the system also includes a first detector in optical communication with the first divider output port and a second detector in optical communication with the second divider output port. In a further embodiment, the system also includes a wavelength control module in communication with the first and second detectors. The wavelength control module determines the power ratio of the first and second split broadband optical signals and also determines the power ratio of the first and second split reference optical signals. A broadband source control signal is generated by the wavelength control module in response to the power ratios.
In one embodiment the system also includes an optical combiner in optical communication with the broadband optical source, the wavelength reference module and the optical power divider. In another embodiment, the system includes a broadband optical modulator in optical communication with the broadband optical source and the optical power divider. In another embodiment, the system includes a reference optical modulator in optical communication with the wavelength reference module and the optical power divider. In another embodiment, the system includes an optical modulator in optical communication with the broadband optical source, the wavelength reference module, and the optical power divider.

Method and apparatus for stabilizing a broadband source

The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Inc.


A method for providing mosaic channels among multiple client devices is provided. Wherein, the multiple client devices are connected via a data communication network so as to be able to communicate data with each other. At the side of a client device, which is instructed to change to a mosaic channel while the other client device are receiving channel programs from at least one channel program server via a communication for channel programs, the method comprises the steps of receiving channel information of the channel programs from at least one of the other client devices via the communication network for channel programs; and generating a mosaic channel that comprises channel cells for presenting the channel information.

With the technology development, one or more mosaic channels are provided by broadcaster. It allows users to get a clear and convenient overview of current TV broadcasts without manually zapping. A mosaic channel often contains a mosaic view of a collection of elements (usually channels); the representation of elements can be static or dynamic. By "static", it means a picture captured from the video in each of other channels; by "dynamic", it means a video stream retrieved from the video in each of other channels. In some systems, the user can turn to his desired channel by selecting the corresponding channel avatar within the mosaic channel.
For example, WO/2007/030380 discloses an interactive mosaic channel video stream with indicators as to the action on a given video stream. The interactive mosaic channel is displayed on a video monitor, with a plurality of individual video feeds being presented at a given time, comprising a plurality of video cells presenting at least video information, each video cell associated with one of the plurality of individual video feeds, each video cell further comprising an area within the video cell reporting data related to the video feed, and a cursor, which can be moved between the plurality of video cells, for selecting at least one characteristic associated with a selected video cell, such that the user can then directly select a video program associated with the selected video cell
However, the conventional mosaic channel is prepared at the side of the broadcaster and transmitted to user devices.

Method and device for providing mosaic channel


Techniques are described herein for enabling an automated assistant to adjust its behavior depending on a detected vocabulary level or other vocal characteristics of an input utterance provided to an automated assistant. The estimated vocabulary level or other vocal characteristics may be used to influence various aspects of a data processing pipeline employed by the automated assistant. In some implementations, one or more tolerance thresholds associated with, for example, grammatical tolerances or vocabulary tolerances, may be adjusted based on the estimated vocabulary level or vocal characteristics of the input utterance.

Humans may engage in human-to-computer dialogs with interactive software applications referred to herein as "automated assistants" (also referred to as "chatbots," "interactive personal assistants," "intelligent personal assistants," "personal voice assistants," "conversational agents," etc.). For example, users may provide commands, queries, and/or requests (collectively referred to herein as "queries") using free form natural language input which may include vocal utterances converted into text and then processed and/or typed free form natural language input.

Systems and method to resolve audio-based requests in a networked environment


An ink delivery device for depositing ink onto a media includes an ink reservoir, a reaction chamber situated near the reservoir, and a valve situated between the reservoir and the reaction chamber. A method of depositing ink onto a media is also disclosed.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to devices for depositing ink or other fluids or pastes onto media.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, ink cartridges have been widely used in devices using ink. An example of such a device is an ink jet printing device. The ink jet printing device typically includes an ink jet head or print head. The print head is driven to eject ink drops towards a recording medium such as a piece of paper to form images and characters thereon. Typically, the ink cartridge includes an ink reservoir, and the ink accommodated in the reservoir is supplied to the print head.
The ink that has been used in current ink jet systems can be high in cost, and thus can be unattractive for low cost applications like the marking of shipping labels. In addition, the time involved in allowing the ink to dry once it has been deposited onto the media slows down the process. To reduce the time involved with drying, fast evaporating solvents have been added with the ink, but the use of such solvents increases costs and adds to environmental burden. Alternatively, applying heat to the freshly applied ink can be costly due to the equipment used and the costs involved in operating the equipment. Also, increasing the rate at which conventional ink jet delivery systems deposit ink onto the media requires the use of elaborate electronic controls that make the process complex and increases the cost.
The present disclosure is directed to solving one or more of the above-described problems.


A decontamination formulation and method of making that neutralizes the adverse health effects of both chemical and biological compounds, especially chemical warfare (CW) and biological warfare (BW) agents, and toxic industrial chemicals. The formulation provides solubilizing compounds that serve to effectively render the chemical and biological compounds, particularly CW and BW compounds, susceptible to attack, and at least one reactive compound that serves to attack (and detoxify or kill) the compound. The formulation includes at least one solubilizing agent, a reactive compound, a bleaching activator, a sorbent additive, and water. The highly adsorbent, water-soluble sorbent additive (e.g., sorbitol or mannitol) is used to “dry out” one or more liquid ingredients, such as the liquid bleaching activator (e.g., propylene glycol diacetate or glycerol diacetate) and convert the activator into a dry, free-flowing powder that has an extended shelf life, and is more convenient to handle and mix in the field.

The present invention relates to formulations for neutralization of chemical, biological and industrial toxants, and methods of making same.
The present invention is directed to materials and methods for neutralization of toxic chemical, biological and industrial compounds or agents, especially chemical and biological weapons agents, and methods of making same. In particular, the present invention is directed to materials containing solubilizing compounds, reactive compounds, and bleaching activators in powdered form that can be delivered as foams, sprays, liquids, fogs and aerosols to enhance the rate of reactions leading to neutralization of chemical compounds, and other additives which serve to kill or attenuate certain biological compounds or agents. Terrorist threats, potentially involving weapons of mass destruction, are increasing both in the United States and abroad. The use, and threat of use, of chemical and biological agents in the context of weapons of mass destruction are of paramount concern both to national defense as well as to state and local law enforcement.
Certain chemical warfare ("CW") agents known to pose a threat by terrorists share chemical characteristics that present an opportunity for the development of countermeasures. The chemical agents sarin, soman, and tabun (G-agents) are all examples of phosphorus containing compounds which, when altered chemically, can lose their toxicity. Mustard, which is an example of the H-agents, and VX, which is an example of the V-agents, can also be altered chemically and rendered harmless. In addition, certain of the known BW agents include botulinum toxin, anthrax and other spore-forming bacteria, vegetative bacteria, including plague and various viruses can also be deactivated chemically.
A CW or biological warfare ("BW") attack can involve either local placement or wide dispersal of the agent or agents so as to affect a population of human individuals. Because of the flexibility with which CW and BW ("CBW") agents can be deployed, respondents might encounter the agents in a variety of physical states including bulk, aerosol and vapors.
An effective, rapid, and safe (non-toxic and non-corrosive) decontamination technology is required for the restoration of civilian facilities in the event of a domestic terrorist attack. Ideally, this technology should be applicable to a variety of scenarios such as the decontamination of open, semi-enclosed, and enclosed facilities as well as sensitive equipment. Examples of types of facilities where the decontamination formulation may be utilized include a stadium (open), an underground subway station (semi-enclosed), and an airport terminal or office building (enclosed). A foaming version is useful for extending the contact time of the formulation on vertical surface.
Decontamination of chemical compounds has focused primarily on chemical warfare agents, particularly on the nerve agents (such as G agents and V agents) and on the blistering agents (such as mustard gas, or simply, mustard). Reactions involved in detoxification of chemical agents can be divided into substitution and oxidation reactions. Decontamination of biological agents is primarily focused on bacterial spores (e.g., anthrax), which are considered to be the most difficult of all microorganisms to kill. Additional background is discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,566,574, "Formulations for Neutralization of Chemical and Biological Toxants", by M. E. Tadros and M. D. Tucker, which is incorporated herein by reference. A need also exists for rapid, safe, and effective neutralization of toxic industrial chemicals, such as Malathion, Hydrogen Cyanide, Sodium Cyanide, Butyl Isocyanate, Carbon Disulfide, and Phosgene gas.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,566,574 is related generally to an aqueous-based decontamination technology ("DF-100") that rapidly neutralizes chemical and biological warfare ("CBW") agents. The formulation:                is effective for neutralizing both chemical and biological agents;        is environmentally benign (i.e., non-toxic and non-corrosive);        works on a number of anticipated material surfaces; and        can be incorporated into a wide variety of carriers (e.g., foams, liquid sprays, fogs) that satisfy a wide variety of operational objectives.
A major interest for the use of the technology was from the civilian first responder (e.g., fire departments, police departments, and HazMat units who would be the first to arrive at the scene of an attack utilizing CBW agents) followed by a secondary interest in use of the formulation for facility restoration. Technical issues exist with DF-100 that make use of the formulation by the civilian first responder less than optimal. These technical problems include: (1) The pH of the DF-100 must be adjusted to optimally decontaminate each specific chemical and biological agent. In other words, a different formulation may be required to neutralize each specific agent. Although it is relatively simple to adjust the pH of the formulation in the laboratory, this is more difficult in the field and is generally unsuitable for the primary users of the technology (i.e., the civilian first responder). (2) The reaction rate for one chemical agent, Mustard, is rather slow as compared to the reaction rates for other chemical agents. These technical problems limit the effectiveness of DF-100 in actual use. A modified formulation, DF-100A, disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/952,940, addressed the requirement to adjust the pH for each specific agent (i.e., the first technical problem described above). However, while DF-100A does improve upon the performance of the formulation at a single pH, it does not completely solve this problem, and does not even address the second technical problem (i.e., the relatively slow reaction rate with Mustard). Additionally, some versions of DF-100/100A can use short-chain alcohols (e.g., isobutanol, isopropanol), which can cause flammability problems if the formulation is packaged in a concentrated form. Also, some versions of DF-100/100A can use diethylene glycol monobutyl ether (DEGMBE), which can cause false alarms on some chemical agent sensors and detectors (especially older sensors that are used in some military settings). As a point of comparison, the following is an example of a preferred formulation for DF-100:

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Decontamination formulation with sorbent additive


A data processing device 300 according to the present invention comprises difference value computing means 402, 412 that computes a difference value between a pixel value of a target pixel that is each pixel contained in an image and a pixel value of a pixel that is present at a predetermined neighboring relative position of the target pixel, representative value computing means 403, 413 that extracts a pixel group containing pixels that are similarly influenced by shading due to light from the image with respect to each pixel of the image and computes a representative value of difference values of the pixel group according to a statistical technique, feature value computing means 404, 414 that computes the feature value with respect to each pixel contained in the image based on comparison between the difference value with respect to each pixel and the representative value of difference values of the pixel group, and similarity determining means 301 that determines a similarity between the image and a predetermined image based on the feature value with respect to each pixel extracted by the feature value computing means.

Generally, image matching is used to identify a person and letters based on image information. In image matching, a target image in which a target object is captured and a reference image in which the object has been captured and stored are compared for similarity so as to identify a person or letters contained in the captured target image. Images are compared for similarity generally according to SAD (Sum of Absolute Difference), SSD (Sum of Squared Difference), ZNCC (Zero-mean Normalized Cross-Correlation), or the like.
These techniques compare luminance values of a target image and a reference image. Thus, when images of an object are captured, if illumination conditions of the target image and the reference image differ, the luminance values of these images will vary and thereby the accuracy of matching tends to deteriorate.
Non-patent Literature 1 proposes a technique called increment sign correlation that performs robust image matching under illumination variation. The increment sign correlation method extracts only the sign of increment (relationship of magnitude) of luminance values of adjacent pixels in the horizontal direction for each of a target image and a reference image. Let f(x, y) as the luminance value of coordinates (x, y), an increment sign value h(x, y) is defined as Formula (1).
                    [                  Mathematical                                                              Formula                                                              1                ]                                                                      h                                (                          x              ,              y                        )                          =                  {                                                    1                                                              (                                                            if                                                                                f                                                                          (                                                                                x                              +                              1                                                        ,                            y                                                    )                                                                                ≥                                          f                                                                    (                                                  x                          ,                          y                                                )                                                                              )                                                                                0                                                              (                  otherwise                  )                                                                                (        1        )
In the increment sign correlation, the number of pixels of which increment sign value of a target image matches that of a reference image is evaluated to match the images.
When illumination varies, the luminance value of each pixel and contrast (luminance difference) vary. Since the increment sign value represents the sign of the increment (relationship of magnitude) of luminance values of adjacent pixels, the increment sign value is hardly influenced by variation in the luminance value and contrast due to illumination variation.
Patent Literature 1 also proposes a technique that matches images for a target object using a plurality of reference images so as to improve the accuracy of matching. In Patent Literature 1, the increment sign values are obtained for each of a plurality of reference images and the probability of which the increment sign value becomes 1 is computed for each pixel. An image is generated based on computed probability values as pixel values and then the generated image and the target image are matched.
Patent Literature 2 presents a method that detects eyes from a facial image.

Data processing device, image matching method, program, and image matching system


A plastic container includes a base, a neck portion with a dispensing opening, and a body portion. The body portion includes a horizontally-extending annular rib and a grip panel. The horizontally-extending annular rib may extend around the circumference of the body portion. The annular rib includes a variable vertical width and includes a pinch segment that is circumferentially and longitudinally offset from the grip panel. With some embodiments, the plastic container includes two grip panels and/or at least two horizontally-extending annular ribs.

Molded plastic containers for packaging contents at elevated temperatures, such as "hot-fill" beverages, are known in the art. Once liquid contents that fill a container at elevated temperatures are permitted to cool, an internal pressure or vacuum is generated. In the absence of structural features for accommodating such internal pressure or vacuum forces, the container may deform. For example, a round container may experience ovalization, or tend to distort and become out of round.
Conventional hot-fill containers may, for instance, accommodate a vacuum pressure, which can be significant, by employing flex panels in the sidewall portion of the container to accommodate a change in internal pressure. For some conventional containers, vacuum panels and pinch-grip portions may be incorporated together. Moreover, some embodiments of hot-fill containers employ a circumferential rib or ring to help reduce distortions, such as ovalization, of the container.
However, in instances in which a hot-fill container is provided with grip panels, as a panel pulls in the sidewall of a container (e.g., in response to internal vacuum or pressures), the inward flexing of the panel can urge a circumferential rib to "open" in the front and back of the container, i.e., where a grip panel is not positioned. As such a circumferential rib "opens," increased ovalization can be imparted on the container.
It is therefore desirable to, among other things, provide a container having a grip portion that is configured to better resist undesired deformation.

Container with grip panel and annular rib having variable width


A SiC MOSFET has a subject that resistance in the source region is increased when annealing for metal silicidation is performed to a source region before forming the gate insulating film, the metal silicide layer of the source region is oxidized by an oxidizing treatment (including oxynitriding treatment) when the gate insulating film is formed. When a metal silicide layer to be formed on the surface of a SiC epitaxial substrate is formed before forming a gate insulating film interface layer (oxide film), and an anti-oxidation film for the metal silicide is formed on the metal silicide layer, it is possible to suppress oxidation of the metal silicide layer by the oxidizing treatment upon forming the gate insulating film interface layer and the resistance of the source region can be decreased without lowering the channel mobility.

With an aim of utilizing energy at high efficiency, conversion of a material from Si (silicon) to SiC (silicon carbide) has now been under consideration for power MOSFETs (Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistors). This is because SiC is a semiconductor having an dielectric breakdown field strength about seven times and a forbidden band gap about three times as much as those of Si, and is suitable to power MOSFETs capable of operation with less loss and at high temperature.
In recent years, development of SiC MOSFETs has been progressed and a low on-resistance below 10 mΩcm2 at a 600 to 1200 V withstanding voltage is obtained. This is sufficiently low compared with that of Si IGBT (Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor) or Si super junction MOSFET at an identical withstanding voltage. However, in view of intrinsic characteristics to be obtained from the SiC semiconductor, the on-resistance can be further decreased.
One of the subjects concerning the on-resistance of the SiC MOSFET is high channel resistance inherent to SiC. Generally, crystals of 4H—SiC having a Si face on the surface are used for a substrate. In a DMOSFET (Double-Diffused MOSFET) using the Si face as a channel and forming a gate insulating film by dry oxidation or wet oxidation, the mobility is 10 cm2/Vs or less (for example, refer to T. Kimoto et al., "Interface Properties of Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Structures on 4H—SiC {0001} and (11-20) Formed by N2O Oxidation", Japanese Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 44, pp. 1213-1218, 2005). This is because the interface state between a SiC substrate and a gate insulating film is from 1012 to 1013 cm−2 eV−1 which is higher by two digits or more than Si. The low mobility increases the channel resistance and, as a result, hinders decrease in the on-resistance.
Generally, it has been known that JFET (Junction FET) resistance or accumulation resistance can be decreased by changing the device structure from a DMOSFET to a trench MOSFET and the mobility can be improved further in SiC by utilizing the A face as a face vertical to the Si face as a channel (for example, refer to T. Kimoto et al., "Interface Properties of Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Structures on 4H—SiC {0001} and (11-20) Formed by N2O Oxidation", described above. In this case, a mobility of 50 cm2/Vs or more can be expected. Accordingly, by adopting the trench MOSFET for the SiC semiconductor, the mobility is improved and the channel resistance can be decreased.
Further, since the channel can be vertical to the substrate in the trench MOSFET, this is advantageous in view of, the integration degree compared with the DMOSFET where the channel is horizontal to the substrate and, as a result, it can be expected that the channel resistance is decreased further.
A manufacturing method disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication (Translation of PCT Application) No. 2004-522319 has been known as a method of manufacturing a trench MOSFET in the Si semiconductor. In this method, a silicide for obtaining a good low resistance contact with a source electrode is formed in a source region after forming a dielectric layer (gate insulating film) to the wall of the trench.
Further, a manufacturing method disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2006-261624 has been known as a method of manufacturing a silicon carbide device. In this method, for suppressing a thermal load on the semiconductor-gate oxide film interface in a high temperature treatment accompanying ion implantation or annealing for connection metal, a silicide is formed before forming the gate insulating film.

Silicon carbide semiconductor device and manufacturing method thereof


A glass run channel is configured for mounting a vehicle window therein. The glass run channel includes a base portion, an inboard lip extending from the base portion to form a first wall of the channel, and an inboard glass seal portion extending from the inboard lip. A leap seal portion extends from one of the inboard lip and the inboard glass seal portion, along at least a portion of the glass run channel.

A glass run channel may be mounted along a window-receiving cavity formed in a vehicle door. The glass run channel may include features which resiliently contact the window glass to form one or more seals which help prevent wind, noise, moisture, etc. from migrating from an exterior of the vehicle into the occupant compartment. However, road noise, wind and any other noise from outside the vehicle may pass through the outer panel of the door and into the door interior. This noise may then travel into the vehicle occupant compartment through any open sound paths available. In addition, mechanisms inside the vehicle door may also produce noise that may enter the occupant compartment. For example, in a vehicle sliding door, a pulley mechanism may be housed inside the door to aid in automatically opening and closing the door. This mechanism generates noise that may enter the occupant compartment through openings in the door structure.

Glass run channel with integral leap seal portion for engaging window molding

Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc.


The present application relates to methods, kits and compositions for improving a subject""s recovery from CNS injury. In certain aspects, methods of the invention comprise administering to a subject cells and a neural stimulant. Recovery may be manifest by improvements in sensorimotor or cognitive abilities, e.g., improved limb movement and control or improved speech capability. In certain embodiments, subject methods can be used as part of a treatment for damage resulting from ischemia, hypoxia or trauma.

The central nervous system (CNS) is particularly vulnerable to insults that result in cell death or damage in part because cells of the CNS have a limited capacity for repair. As a result, disorders of the CNS often result in debilitating and largely irreversible degradation of a patient""s cognitive and sensorimotor functions. Conditions that result in nerve cell death and damage range from degenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer""s disease, to ischemic episodes, such as stroke, to trauma.
Injury to the central nervous system (CNS) is an important cause of death and disability worldwide. For example, stroke is the third leading cause of death and disability in the U.S., with an estimated incidence of 700,000 cases annually (Furie et al. (1998) xe2x80x9cCerebrovascular Diseasexe2x80x9d in The Atlas of Clinical Neurology, R. N. Rosenberg, Ed. Current Medicine: Philadelphia). Two-thirds of stroke patients survive the first year following stroke, for an average of seven years, leading to more than 4.8 million stroke survivors currently in the U.S. Stroke costs the U.S. economy in excess of $30 billion per year in terms of medical costs and lost wages.
After several hours, little can be done to prevent the direct damage to the CNS caused by CNS disorders. For example, stroke treatments must typically be administered within six hours of onset. Depending on where the injury occurs in the brain, patients may be paralyzed on one side, may lose the ability to speak or see, and may have difficulty walking, among other symptoms. Gradual recovery of these functions is common, although recovery may be incomplete, and depends on the size and location of injury, among other factors.
Since damaged brain tissue does not regenerate, recovery must come from the remaining intact brain, which reorganizes itself, or rewires, in order to compensate for some of the function lost by the damage. Indeed, studies in animals and humans provide ample evidence of such reorganization of brain function following stroke. In particular, remaining neurons in both the damaged hemisphere and in the opposite intact hemisphere grow new processes (both axons and dendrites) and form new connections (synapses), which most likely contribute to recovery (Kawamata et al. (1997) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 94: 8179-8184; Jones et al. (1994) J. Neurosci., 14: 2140-2152; Stroemer et al. (1998) Stroke, 29: 2381-2395; Cramer et al. (1997) Stroke, 28: 2518-2527).
As an example, stroke treatment has focused on limiting the extent of damage within the first few hours. Stroke is generally due to a blockage of an artery leading to the brain, resulting in the death of brain cells supplied by that artery. Current treatments for stroke have centered on treatments to prevent arterial blockages (control of blood pressure, lipids, heart disease, etc.), and treatments to prevent brain damage once the blockage has occurred. These latter treatments include xe2x80x9cthrombolytic agentsxe2x80x9d (xe2x80x9cclot bustersxe2x80x9d such as tPA) to break up arterial clots, and xe2x80x9cneuroprotective agents,xe2x80x9d designed to protect brain tissue at risk for stroke. Such thrombolytic and neuroprotective agents must be administered within hours after the onset of stroke in order to be effective.
Currently there are only a few available methods of promoting recovery in patients after cell death and injury has already occurred. Methods of treating stroke after the initial phase of damage are mechanistically different from methods used in the first few hours. Treatments to promote recovery typically focus on encouraging neuronal growth and rewiring.
Direct application of neurotrophic growth factors to the brain can enhance spontaneous functional recovery occurring in animal models of stroke (Kawamata et al. (1997) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 94: 8179-8184; Kawamata et al. (1996) J. Cereb. Blood Flow Metab., 16: 542-547; Kawamata et al. (1999) Exp. Neurol. 158: 89-96; Alps et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,733,871, Fisher et al. (1995) J. Cereb. Blood Flow Metab., 15: 953-959; Jiang et al. (1996) J. Neurol. Sci., 139: 173-179). For example, basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) is a protein that supports survival and axonal outgrowth from neurons. When bFGF is administered starting a day or more after stroke, animals recover more quickly and to a greater extent on tests of sensorimotor function of the impaired limbs (opposite to the side of the stroke). This recovery is not due to a decrease in magnitude of the original brain damage. Instead, data suggests that this enhancement of recovery may be due to enhancement of new neuronal sprouting and synapse formation in the intact remaining brain tissue. Such remodeling appears to occur in both the damaged and undamaged hemispheres. Other mechanisms of recovery may include stimulation of endogenous neural stem cells within the brain that then differentiate into neurons, replacing to some extent neurons lost by stroke.
Another potential approach to a treatment for stroke recovery includes the use of neural stem cells. These are pluripotential cells already present in the developing and mature mammalian brain that, given the appropriate stimulation, can differentiate into brain neurons and/or glial cells. Several investigators have been successful in separating and cloning out such neural stem cell lines from both the murine and human brain (Snyder et al. (1997) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 94: 11663-11668; Gage et al. (1995) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 92: 11879-11883; Kuhn et al. (1997) J. Neurosci., 17: 5820-5829; McKay et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,270,191; Johe, K., U.S. Pat. No. 5,753,506; Carpenter, M., U.S. Pat. No. 5,968,829; Weiss et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,750,376). When such stem cells are reintroduced into the developing or mature brain, they can divide, migrate, grow processes, and assume neural phenotypes, including the expression of neurotrarsmitters and growth factors normally elaborated by neurons. Thus, use of neural stem cells may be advantageous for stroke recovery in at least two ways: (1) by the stem cells partially repopulating dead areas and re- establishing neural connections lost by stroke, and (2) by secretion of important neurotrarsmitters and growth factors required by the brain to rewire after stroke. Efforts to promote recovery from brain injury in animals using neural stem cells have been described (Park et al. (1999) J. Neurotrauma 16: 675-687; Park et al. (1995) Soc. Neurosci. Abs. 21: 2027; Stroemer et al. (1999) Soc. Neuroscience Abs. 25:1310). Efforts using a line of teratocarcinoma-derived cells have also been described in animals (Borlongan et al. (1993) Int. J. Devl. Neuroscience 11: 555-568) and humans (Kokaia et al. (1998) Eur. J. Neurosci., 10: 2026-36).
Methods currently available for promoting recovery from CNS damage allow only partial recovery of neurological functions. In patients suffering from debilitating neurological deficits, incremental improvements in function may have a significant effect on quality of life. Given the large number of affected patients and the limitations of current methods, there is an urgent need for additional and improved methods to promote recovery from damage to the nervous system. The modes of treatment presented herein promote a greater degree of recovery from CNS damage than is currently available with other known treatment methods.
One aspect of the present application relates to methods for improving a subject""s recovery from CNS injury or damage. In one aspect, the invention comprises administering to a subject cells, preferably stem cells, and a neural stimulant in sufficient amounts to improve the subject""s sensorimotor or cognitive abilities, e.g., improved limb movement and control or improved speech capability.
In another aspect, the invention provides kits for the treatment of CNS damage. In certain embodiments, kits of the invention comprise stem cells and a neural stimulant. In other embodiments, the kits of the invention comprise a neural stimulant and a device for obtaining a stem cell-containing sample from a subject. In preferred embodiments, the kits comprise a polypeptide growth factor, and more preferably a polypeptide at least 30% identical but most preferably at least 40%, 50%, 60%, 70%, 80%, 90%, 95%, 98%, 99% or 100% identica of the polypeptides of SEQ. ID. Nos. 1-3.
In a further aspect, the invention provides pharmaceutical preparations comprising stem cells, a neural stimulant and one or more pharmaceutically acceptable reagents.
In preferred embodiments, stem cells for use in the invention are cells capable of giving rise to brain cells, eg. neurons, oligodendroglia or astroglia. In particularly preferred embodiments, stem cells are neural stem cells, hematopoietic stem cells, teratocarcinoma-derived cells or embryonic stem cells. In other preferred embodiments, stem cells are obtained from the subject, and optionally cultured or enriched in vitro prior to administration.
In other embodiments, stem cells of the invention may be induced to proliferate in vitro by transfection with a gene encoding one or more proliferation promoting factors, such as vmyc, SV40 T antigen, polyoma virus large T antigen, the neu oncogene or the ras oncogene. In preferred embodiments, the gene is strongly expressed in vitro, promoting proliferation, and poorly expressed after the cell has entered the central nervous system, such that the cell does not proliferate rapidly in vivo.
In a further embodiment, the neural stimulant is a polypeptide growth factor. Preferred polypeptide growth factors comprise a polypeptide that is chosen from among the following polypeptide families: fibroblast growth factor family members, neurotrophin family members, insulin-like growth factor family, ciliary neurotrophic growth factor family members; EGF family members, TGFxcex2 family members, leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF); oncostatin M, interleukin-11; interleukin-6; members of the platelet-derived growth factor family, and VEGF family members. It is contemplated that, in certain embodiments, combinations of factors may be used. Preferred polypeptides comprise a polypeptide with a sequence that is at least 30%, 40%, 50%, 60%, 70%, 80%, 90%, 95%, 98%, 99% or 100% percent identical to an amino a sequence shown in any of SEQ ID Nos. 1-3.
In still other embodiments, the neural stimulant is a modulator of neurotrarsmitter activity (eg. an agonist or antagonist). In preferred embodiments, the neural stimulant is an antidepressant, such as Prozac, an amphetamine, Ritalin, a tricyclic antidepressant such as Elavil, or combinations thereof. In another embodiment, the neural stimulant is a promoter of neuronal differentiation such as retinoic acid. In yet another embodiment, the neural stimulant is a so-called guidance molecule such as a netrin, a semaphorin, a neuropilin or an ephrin. In yet an additional embodiment, the neural stimulant may be transcranial magnetic stimulation.
In another aspect, the invention comprises conjoint administration of cells with a bioactive compound that is not a neural stimulant. Preferred bioactive compounds include immunosuppressants such as immunophilins (eg. cyclosporin, FK506, and thalidomide) and antibiotics, such as tetracycline.
A range of techniques for administering the cells and neural stimulants of the invention are contemplated. Cells and neural stimulants do not need to be administered in the same way or at the same time, but they are preferably administered such that their effects overlap. In preferred embodiments, administration is carried out at least 6, 10, 12 or 24 hours after the injury has occurred.

Methods, compositions and kits for promoting recovery from damage to the central nervous system


A polymer composition that contains at least one high performance polymer and at least one aromatic amide oligomer is provided. The oligomer can serve as a flow aid that lowers the overall viscosity of the polymer matrix under shear.

High performance thermoplastic polymers, such as polyetherimide ("PEI") and polyetheretherketone ("PEEK"), have been used to fabricate parts for numerous engineering applications. Each application requires particular tensile and flexural properties, impact strength, heat distortion temperature, and resistance to warp. These thermoplastic polymers are characterized by a high glass transition temperature, typically above 100° C., which makes them suitable for use in applications that require exposure to high temperatures. One drawback to these materials, however, is that they exhibit poor melt flow properties, which makes processing difficult. As such, a need continues to exist for high performance polymers with excellent melt flow properties. Furthermore it would also be advantageous to enhance the thermo-mechanical properties of the molded articles, through such a process by either mechanically reinforcing it or by allowing for easier melt processing to get better parts resulting in enhanced thermo-mechanical properties of the final product.

High performance polymer composition with improved flow properties


A method and apparatus for managing the persistent data of a pre-installed application in an elastic virtual machine instance is disclosed, the method comprising: in response to installing an application into a master virtual machine image, obtaining a persistent data point of a function component of the application, the persistent data point comprising a file directory for storing the persistent data of the function component; in response to launching an elastic virtual machine instance from the master virtual machine, creating a storage volume, attaching the storage volume to the elastic virtual machine instance, and mounting the storage volume to the file directory based on the persistent data point. Other features and aspects may be realized, depending upon the particular application.

In an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) cloud computing service like Amazon EC2 (Elastic Cloud Computing), ISAAC (IBM Service Agility Accelerator for Cloud), RHEV (Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization), etc., elastic virtual machine instances can be provisioned with high scalability. Elastic virtual machine instances are launched from a master virtual machine image in response to users' requests. The master virtual machine image represents a specific configuration of hardware resources such as computing and storage, an operating system platform, and applications etc. All the elastic virtual machine instances launched from a master virtual machine image share common files and data of the master virtual machine image, and a virtual machine instance only stores minimal modified data locally using the Copy-On-Write technique, thus saving the maintenance costs and disk data. In addition, applications can be pre-installed into and configured in the master virtual machine image, so that each user does not have to install and configure applications in his launched virtual machine instance separately, thus saving a lot of time and efforts, lowering the maintenance and storage costs, and shortening the time to value.
However, in such an IaaS solution, all the computing resources are divided into two domains: computing domain and storage domain. The computing domain consists of computing nodes, and provides computing resources (mainly including CPUs, memories and network cards, etc.), however, all the data therein are deemed disposable. The storage domains consist of storage nodes, and provide storage resources for storing data deemed by the user as needing to be retained. An elastic virtual machine instance runs on a computing node, and any data changes stored on the computing node by it using the Copy-On-Write technique is not persistent. If the hardware on which the instance is running fails, or the instance is terminated or shut down, all the newly generated data will be lost. This is because, the elastic virtual machine instance runs on a local temporary image on the computing node based on the master virtual machine image, and the changed data in the temporary image is not stored in the storage domain; while its master virtual machine image does not allow write back, since it is read-only and shared by many users.
Such changed data generated after the virtual machine instance is launched represents the user's actual business data, thus should be stored in the storage volume for the user in the cloud. Currently, cloud service provides some persistent storage solution, namely the storage domain in a cloud environment as described above, so that a user can store any data that he desires to store. For example, Amazon provides the persistent storage using Amazon EBS (Elastic Block Storage), ISAAC provides the Volume solution. A user can create any number of storage volumes that he desires, attach the storage volume to a virtual machine instance as a raw block storage device like an unformatted hard disk, format it using any file system, and mount it to a file directory or logical disk. When the elastic virtual machine instance is terminated, the storage volume remains on the storage node, thus it can be re-attached to a newly launched elastic virtual machine instance. However, such a persistent storage solution is only applicable for the persistent storage of data of an application newly installed and configured after the elastic virtual machine instance has been launched and the storage volume has been created, attached, formatted and mounted, since in the prior art, obviously only after an elastic virtual machine instance has been launched, and a storage has been created, attached, formatted and mounted, can an application be installed and configured so that the data generated during its running can be stored persistently in the volume. While for those applications already pre-installed and pre-configured, the data generated during their running cannot be stored in the volume.
In order to provide persistent storage of user data for a pre-installed and pre-configured software application in a master virtual machine image, presently cloud service providers provides the following three solutions:
1) install and configure all the software applications in one or a set of master virtual machine images; after launching virtual machine instances, for each virtual machine instance, configure the database or file system backup solution as backing up data to a storage volume.
Such a solution can well realize the sharing of pre-installed and pre-configured software applications, thus a virtual machine instance with the configured applications can be launched quickly. However, if a virtual machine instance is terminated, all the data after the last backup operation will be lost. Moreover, such a solution needs to additionally manage a backup solution for each virtual machine instance, even though there is always an overall backup solution for the entire storage provided by cloud service provider to ensure the data security.
2) Launch one virtual machine instance with OS only; create storage volumes and attach them to the instance; then install software applications and configure them to store the persistent data in the storage volumes directly.
This solution actually is used by many users manually, and it is also easy to automate it by IT technology. However it can not provide a virtual machine with installed applications quickly, because it takes a lot of time to install applications, especially some large complex software applications. For example, it will take about 10 hours to finish the installation of IBM Maximo Asset Management application v7.5, and it may take about 80 hours to install a more complex solution. And the application installation can not be shared between different users, and each user needs to install desired applications separately. And for the same user, if the virtual machine instance dies, it is needed to install the application again.
3) Some cloud solution provides a persistent virtual machine instance to resolve this issue. In this case, when a virtual machine instance needs to be launched, a new image(storage volume) is copied from the master virtual machine image on the storage node, and the computing node is connected to the image remotely. The computing node will no longer generate a temporary image using the Copy-On-Write technique. Thus, application data will be stored in the storage volume in the storage domain, therefore when the virtual machine or the host computer is shut down, the application data is still persistent.
This solution needs to copy the whole master virtual machine image, which will take a long time. For example, when copying a master virtual machine image of 100 G, it will take about half an hour. And also because the image in the storage volume is independent of the master image after copying is finished, the system administrator needs extra effort to maintain this image for OS patches, application patches, etc. So if there are 1000 instances, for example, the system administrator' effort will be increased by 1000 times.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for a solution for managing the persistent data of a pre-installed application in a compute cloud elastic virtual machine instance that can overcome the drawbacks described above.

Managing the persistent data of a pre-installed application in an elastic virtual machine instance

International Business Machines Corporation


There are provided systems and methods for inter-connectable multi-track media-based cards. There is provided a card for media playback, the card comprising a media output, a memory storing at least one of a plurality of media tracks of a media, a communications interface inter-connectable with one or more additional cards storing other media tracks of the plurality of media tracks of the media, and a media processor. The media processor is configured to detect, via the communications interface, any of the one or more additional cards connected to the communications interface to determine connected cards, and cause a playback of at least one of the plurality of media tracks in the memory in combination with at least one of the other media tracks of the plurality of media tracks on the connected cards. This enables concurrent playback of multi-track media-based trading cards, providing entertainment and collectible value for users.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to collectible and trading cards. More particularly, the present invention relates to media-based collectible and trading cards.
2. Background Art
Trading cards can be purchased almost anywhere, not just at specialized card and collectible storefronts but also at more mundane locations such as supermarket checkout counters and newspaper stands. Their ubiquitous presence and easy accessibility are testaments to their enduring appeal. For over a century, the trading card has not changed very much in basic functionality, often providing a picture of a person or a thing and including some descriptive written material, such as statistics or trivia, on a thin piece of cardboard or paper. Although recently developed trading card systems offering competitive gaming features such as "Magic the Gathering" and "Yu-Gi-Oh" have enjoyed widespread popularity, they still rely on the traditional trading card paradigm with no novel technology.
Another product with a firmly established commercial presence is the audio compact disc, which is still in use more than two decades since its introduction. However, recent sales of music on physical media such as audio compact discs have stagnated as users demand better value propositions for their dollars. Consumers are seeking new, exciting ways of experiencing their favorite artists and performers, and discs with digital music tracks are no longer attracting the same attention they once did in the past. In today's highly networked and technology conscious society, people take pride in having the latest and greatest technology amongst their peers. Both vanilla trading cards and traditional media records fail to address the modern computerized and networked lifestyles.
Accordingly, there is a need to overcome the drawbacks and deficiencies in the art by providing a new wave of cards, such as trading cards with value-added functionality that enable users to satisfy their entertainment and modern lifestyle needs.

System and method for inter-connectable multi-track media-based trading cards


A semiconductor structure is provided. The semiconductor structure includes a first dielectric layer formed on a base structure that has one or more recesses, each comprising contours formed at two or more planar levels. The first dielectric layer is formed along the contours of the one or more recesses. A first electrode is formed on the first dielectric layer. A second dielectric layer is formed over the first dielectric layer and the first electrode. A second electrode is formed over the second dielectric layer. The first electrode, the second dielectric layer and the second electrode form a non-planar capacitor.

The present invention relates to forming components in semiconductor integrated circuits, and more specifically to forming metal-insulator-metal (MIM) capacitors.
In semiconductor integrated circuits (ICs or chips), a MIM capacitor may typically be formed as a planar capacitor patterned during a middle-of-line (MOL) process or back-end-of-line (BEOL) process. The term BEOL generally refers to the portion of integrated circuit fabrication during which interconnects are formed. However, the planar MIM capacitor can consume a significant amount of chip area in order to achieve a required amount of capacitance. Attempts have been made to increase the capacitance density by reducing the thickness of the dielectric layer formed between top and bottom metal electrodes and by using high dielectric constant materials. However, reducing the dielectric thickness can lead to undesired effects such as increased leakage currents. Additionally, the use of special dielectric materials may not be cost effective.

Non-planar metal-insulator-metal capacitor formation


This image forming apparatus (100) is equipped with: a document set detector (3a, S1, S5); a document size detector (3a, S2, S3, S5); a manual feeder (6) with a manual feed tray (61) that is not equipped with a sensor for detecting the size of set manually-fed paper; a printer (5) that performs printing on the basis of image data; an operation panel (4) that receives setting for feeding paper from the manual feeder (6); and a controller (7) that recognizes the size of a set document and performs manually-fed-paper automatic setting for recognizing the recognized size of the set document as the size of the manually-fed paper.

An image forming apparatus such as a multi-functional peripheral, a copy machine, or a printer is provided with a paper sheet cassette that houses paper sheets to be used for printing and performs paper feeding. Generally, paper sheet sizes placeable in the paper sheet cassette are regular sizes such as an A-type size and a letter size. Furthermore, in addition to the paper sheet cassette, a manual feed tray may be provided in the image forming apparatus. A paper sheet on the manual feed tray is replaced with another paper sheet, which then is brought to a state of being able to be fed. The manual feed tray, therefore, is advantageous in that changing to a paper sheet of a different size is easier compared with the paper sheet cassette. Furthermore, in a case where printing is performed by using a paper sheet of a size (a custom size) other than the regular sizes, the paper sheet is placed on the manual feed tray.
Patent Document 1 describes one example of such an image forming apparatus provided with a manual paper feed function. Specifically, Patent Document 1 describes an image forming apparatus that has the manual paper feed function, stores an image that should be formed, determines, based on the stored image and a set duplication magnification, a size of a recording paper sheet that should be fed manually, and informs a user of the thus determined size of the recording paper sheet. By this configuration, it is intended to inform a user of a size of a recording paper sheet that should be placed and thus to eliminate a burden on the user in an operation of placing a paper sheet (see Patent Document 1: claim 1 and paragraph [0004]).

Image forming apparatus and control method for image forming apparatus


Hydrogen is generated through the use of a fuel solution that is prepared using solid fuel component, e.g., a metal borohydride, and a liquid fuel component, e.g. water. Both of these components are dispensed in response to control signals. The solid fuel component can take different forms, including but not limited to granules, pellets and powder. Various devices, which operate in response to control signals, are disclosed for dispensing predetermined amounts of the solid and liquid components. Advantageously, this solution can be prepared, as needed, so as to obviate the need for storing and disposing of large amounts of highly alkaline fuel and discharged fuel solutions.

The hydrolysis reactions of many complex metal hydrides, including sodium borohydride (NaBH4), have been commonly used for the generation of hydrogen gas. The governing chemical reaction may be expressed as:
where MBH4 and MBO2 respectively represent a metal borohydride and a metal metaborate. The hydrolysis of sodium borohydride is typically slow at room temperature and heat or a catalyst, e.g., acids, a variety of transition metals, such as ruthenium, cobalt, nickel, or iron, or corresponding metal borides in solution or deposited on inert supports or as solids, can be used to accelerate the hydrolysis reaction. In addition, the rate of decomposition of the complex metal hydride into hydrogen gas and a metal metaborate is pH dependent, with higher pH values hindering the hydrolysis. Accordingly, solutions of a complex metal hydride, such as sodium borohydride, a stabilizer, such as sodium hydroxide (NaOH), and water are used as the fuel, i.e., the consumable element, from which the hydrogen gas is generated. To expedite the production of the hydrogen gas, the fuel is passed over a catalyst. The output of this process is hydrogen gas and a discharged fuel solution. When the complex metal hydride is sodium borohydride, the discharged fuel is a slurry of sodium metaborate. To meet the demands of commercial applications, most hydrogen generating systems also store the fuel and such storage gives rise to several disadvantages. One disadvantage arises from the presence of the stabilizer. The function of the stabilizer is to raise the pH value of the fuel solution and, thereby prevent the hydrolysis until the solution contacts the catalyst. As the stabilizer does not participate in any chemical reaction, both the fuel and discharged fuel solutions have a high pH value. Typically, both the fuel and discharged fuel solutions have pH values between 13 and 14. This high pH requires that the transport of both the fuel and discharged fuel solutions comport with governmental regulations which would increase the cost of hydrogen generation. The presence of these high pH solutions is also an impediment to the commercialization and public acceptance of the process. Additional costs are imposed by the presence of these high pH solutions as they react with a variety of metals. To avoid these reactions, non-reactive materials, such as stainless or non-reactive plastics, must be used in the hydrogen generation system.
While solid complex metal hydrides in a variety of forms, including powder, pellets and granules, are manufactured for pharmaceutical applications, their use in commercial systems for the controlled and measured generation of hydrogen has not been provided.
Based on the foregoing, it would be extremely desirable if a hydrogen generation system could be devised which meets the needs of commercial applications and which overcomes the problems associated with the use of premixed fuel solutions.

Method and system for generating hydrogen by dispensing solid and liquid fuel components