A method, apparatus and computer program product are provided for reporting low rank feedback information for each transmission point up to a maximum rank per transmission point. In this regard, a method includes determining a transmission rank and a precoding matrix for each of at least two transmission points of a plurality of transmission points. A method also includes determining a joint transmission rank based on at least two of the plurality of transmission points. A method also includes selecting a joint transmission precoding matrix based on the determined precoding matrix for each of the at least two transmission points and the determined joint transmission rank. The method further includes causing channel state information “CSI” to be transmitted to an access point, wherein the CSI describes the selected joint transmission precoding matrix.

Release 10 of the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE) specification includes several features related to downlink (DL) and uplink (UL) MIMO, relays, bandwidth extension via carrier aggregation and enhanced inter-cell interference coordination (eICIC). In DL MIMO, in order to meet the peak spectral efficiency requirements of up to 30 bit/s/Hz, Release 10 extends Release 8/9 DL MIMO features by providing support for up to 8 stream transmissions, and hence up to 8×8 MIMO. Furthermore, enhanced support of multi-user (MU) MIMO is enabled in Release 10 and seamless switching between single- and multi-user operations is supported.
Release 10 further provides a double codebook for 8 transmit (Tx) antennas. The double codebook for 8 Tx antennas is based on a modular design (or multi-granular), combining two feedback components from distinct codebooks: one feedback component represents the long-term (e.g. wideband) radio channel properties while the other one targets the short term (e.g. frequency selective) channel properties.
Non-uniform network deployments, also known as heterogeneous networks (HetNet), are potential scenarios considered in Long Term Evolution Release 11 for DL MIMO and coordinated multi-point transmission (COMP). HetNet was considered during Release 10 within the context of enhanced inter-cell interference coordination/cancellation (eICIC) discussions, but Release 10 focused on mainly macro cell and pico cells deployed inside the macro cell, hence only relatively light interaction between the macro cells and the pico cells in the form of time-domain resource partitioning with the exchange of scheduling information and patterns over the backhaul link. One difference between the macro cell and the remote radio head (RRH) lies in the utilized transmit powers, since the macro cell may operate in the range of 46/49 dBm in a 10/20 MHz carrier while the RRHs could operate for example with 30/37 dBm. The HetNet scenarios in Release 11 are considered for both coordinated multipoint transmission and for single cell MIMO enhancements. For CoMP operation, detailed simulation assumptions have been described in R1-111125, CoMP simulation assumptions, which are hereby incorporated by reference.
For example, a macro cell may consist of an array of antennas while a low power RRH may have one or an array of transmit antennas. Each antenna or array of antennas is understood to be a transmission point; hence the macro cell is a transmission point while the RRHs are also transmission points. The RRH and the macro cell are generally connected through optical fiber, hence the feedback delays and capacity over the connection are considered as ideal and unlimited in this case. The RRHs placement may be indoor or outdoor. A particular example may include an instance in which a macro cell is not present while RRHs are connected to a central unit which performs radio resource management (RRM). In a first example, it is assumed that each transmit point has its own physical cell identifier (cell ID) and in a second example it is assumed that all transmit points have the same cell ID. In both example cases there is a central unit which performs scheduling of the radio resources and is located for example at the macro cell. The RRHs, in this example, are arrays of antennas which are typically used in order to improve the spectral efficiency of the cell. Hence they can be also seen as simple radio frequency front ends pulled away from the macro cell and without RRM capability.
In the second example, where all transmit points have the same cell ID, the transmit points may be equipped with various numbers of transmit antennas. From a simulation assumption perspective 3GPP is currently assuming 2, 4 and 8 transmission points for the macro cell and 1, 2 and 4 transmission points for the low power RRHs. In the simulations being carried out in 3GPP, both co-polarized and cross-polarized types of antennas are considered with the restriction that the same type of antennas are used for all transmit points in a given configuration. However, specification-wise it is likely there will be no restriction in terms of number or type of transmit antennas, hence 8 transmission points could be considered also for RRHs.
In this example, mobile terminals are located in a cell formed by the macro cell and lie under the coverage of the RRHs. In a traditional macro cell only scenario, these mobile terminals would be configured to determine the number of transmit antennas existing at the macro cell and report the channel state information (CSI) based on the common reference symbol (CRS) or channel state information reference symbol (CSI-RS) ports. CSI-RS provides support for 1, 2 4, and 8 transmission points. CSI-RS parameters, like the periodicity and pattern, are signaled as mobile terminal-specific information. In this scenario the mobile terminal may hear the RRH (or several RRHs) and the macro cell. In such cases, the mobile terminal signals the specific antenna ports associated with the transmission points on which it performs CSI estimation. For example, if the mobile terminal hears two RRHs and the macro cell, it receives the CSI-RS patterns and parameters of these three transmit points for which to compute the CSI. Once channel estimation is performed, CSI feedback may be computed and reported to a central scheduling unit, such as the macro cell. Both single user (SU) and MU MIMO may be supported; hence the computed feedback for these three transmit points enables closed-loop MIMO operation.
However, currently mobile terminal feedback operates on a single-transmission point basis or single-cell feedback. Hence, with such feedback, the maximum supported rank in the system is limited by the maximum of the individually supported ranks for each of the transmission points. Therefore the mobile terminal would typically report the rank based on the maximum rank supported by one individual transmission point, whereas the rank could in fact be higher if more transmission points were used for transmission and considered in finding the optimal rank.

Method and apparatus for multiple input multiple output distributed antenna arrays


A vibration table having an upper surface defining a plane and on which test products are mounted by bolts that engage spaced internally threaded openings in the upper surface. The vibration table has mounted vibrators for generating vibrations in x-, y- and z-axes lying in the plane of the upper surface. Variation in the magnitude of the vibrations generated in the x-, y- and z-axes over the surface of the table are minimized by providing an upper surface that is circular in the plane of the upper surface.

Vibration tables are used primarily in connection with test fixtures designed to test products under vibrating conditions. The general construction of vibration tables is well known. Generally they include upper and lower plates separated by spacers, with a vibrator mounted on the bottom of the lower plate and a test product mounted on the top of the upper plate. Representative vibration tables are shown in Applicant's U.S. Pat. No. 5,594,177 (which is incorporated by reference) and U.S. Pat. No. 5,402,991.
An object in the design of a vibration table is to provide a table that transmits a high proportion of the vibration energy to the test product over a desired frequency range. In order to accomplish these goals, it is generally desirable to make the table as rigid as possible and yet as light as possible. Rigidity maximizes higher frequency and higher energy transmission and minimizes resonant frequencies at low frequency ranges, while a light weight table minimizes energy loss that results from the mass of a heavy table. To accomplish these goals, tables are frequently made with a hollow or semi-hollow core. In Applicant's U.S. Pat. No. 5,594,177, the table includes spaced upper and lower plates connected together at the periphery by edge spacers and having intermediate spacers interconnecting the plates at intermediate positions.
Another feature of vibration tables is that they are frequently used to test products in high and low temperature environments. Thus, an insulating sheet is often bonded to the top of the upper plate. A metal sheet formed of titanium or the like can be mounted on top of the insulation. A problem with the incorporation of insulation in a shaker table is that the insulation can have a dampening effect on vibration that reduces the energy transmitted by the vibration table and the frequency response of the table. Prior tables typically have been limited to transmission of forces of under about 70 Gs RMS, with the great majority of the force being transmitted in a frequency range of about 1000-3000 Hz. This issue was addressed by Applicant's U.S. Pat. No. 7,886,606, incorporated herein by reference.
A further issue that affects the use of vibration tables, and the consistency of results obtained, lies in the variability of vibrations from point to point over the surface of the table. In a table having a conventional square or rectangular upper surface, the vibration profile (i.e., the amplitude per frequency of the vibrations over a frequency range in each of the x-, y-, and z-axes) can vary up to 20% over the surface of the table (i.e., at various points in the x-y axis) due to resonance of the vibrations reflected and concentrated by the sides and corners of the upper surface.
An object of the present invention is to provide a lightweight table that has improved energy responsiveness and a broader frequency spectrum and provides a means for uniform vibration profiles over the surface of the table. Specifically, it is an object of the present invention to provide a vibration table demonstrating a vibration profile over the surface of the table having a variability of less than 5%, and preferably +/−3%.

Vibration table with circular mounting surface


An electronic component includes a body, a first inductor, and a low expansion portion. The body includes a laminated body including a plurality of insulating layers laminated in a lamination direction. The insulating layers contain a first resin as a material. The first inductor includes a first inductor conductor layer that adjoins one of the insulating layers. The low expansion portion has a coefficient of linear expansion lower than a coefficient of linear expansion of the plurality of insulating layers. The low expansion portion contains a second resin as a material. At least part of the low expansion portion is embedded in the laminated body. The second resin has a coefficient of linear expansion that is lower than a coefficient of linear expansion of the first resin.

Examples of an existing disclosure relating to an electronic component include a coil component described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-133135. FIG. 15 is a sectional view of the structure of a coil component 500 described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-133135.
As illustrated in FIG. 15, the coil component 500 includes magnetic substrates 501 and 502, a laminated body 510, coils 512 and 513, a magnetic layer 520, and a bonding layer 530. The laminated body 510 is disposed on the upper surface of the magnetic substrate 501. The laminated body 510 is formed by laminating a plurality of insulating layers one on top of another. The coils 512 and 513 each include coil patterns, laminated together with the insulating layers, and a via hole. The coils 512 and 513 are installed in the laminated body 510. Recesses 514 and 515, which vertically extend through the laminated body 510, are formed in the laminated body 510. The magnetic layer 520 is disposed in the recesses 514 and 515 and over the upper surface of the laminated body 510. The bonding layer 530 bonds the upper surface of the magnetic layer 520 and the magnetic substrate 502 together.


A key telephone system comprising a terminal device and a main apparatus which exchanges speech signals with the terminal device, the terminal device having a loudspeaking circuit for providing a predetermined amount of loss to either one of first speech signals selected to be transmitted to the main apparatus and second speech signals received from the main apparatus to prevent howling in a loudspeaking conversation mode, said system comprising: a first communication unit provided in the terminal device, for sending the first speech signals to the main apparatus through a first channel and receiving the second speech signals from the main apparatus through a second channel separated from the first channel; second communication unit provided in the main apparatus and connected to the first communication unit, for receiving the first speech signals from the first communication unit through the first channel and sending the second speech signals to the first communication unit through the second channel; in the first and second communication unit side tones between the first and second speech signals not being generated, whereby the predetermined amount of the loss caused by the loudspeaking circuit can be set to less than a loss which may be required for howling prevention if the side tones are generated.

This invention relates to improvement of the loudspeaking function of key telephone system.
FIG. 1 shows configuration of a key telephone according to the prior art. A block designated reference number 1 is a main apparatus which is connected to a plurality of key telephones 2.sub.1 - 2.sub.n through two-wire speech signal lines 3.sub.1 -3.sub.n and through two-wire control signal lines 4.sub.1 -4.sub.n. In the main apparatus, the speech signal lines 3.sub.1 -3.sub.n are connected through speech signal transformers 5.sub.1 -5.sub.n, two/four wire conversion circuits 6.sub.1 -6.sub.n and CODECs 7.sub.1 -7.sub.n to a time switch 8. Also, the control signal lines 4.sub.1 -4.sub.n are connected through control signal transformers 9.sub.1 -9.sub.n and two/four wire conversion circuits 10.sub.1 -10.sub.n to a control circuit 11. The time switch 8 performs speech pat switching under control of the control circuit 11.
In the key telephone 2, the speech signal line 3 is connected through a speech signal transformer 12 and a two/four wire conversion circuit 13 to mode selector switches 14 and 15. The mode selector switches 14 and 15 select a handset conversation mode or a loudspeaking conversation mode. When contacts a of the switches are on, the handset conversation mode is selected. In the handset conversation mode, a handset 16 is connected to the two/four wire conversion circuit 13 through a received speech signal amplifier 17 and a transmitted speech signal amplifier 18. On the other hand, in the loudspeaking conversation mode in which contacts b are on, a loudspeaking circuit 19 is connected to the two/four wire conversion circuit 13. Received speech signals from the two/four wire conversion circuit 13 are sent through a received voice switching circuit 20 and a speaker amplifier 21 to a speaker 22, and transmitted speech signals from a microphone 23 are sent through a microphone amplifier 24 and a transmitted voice switching circuit 25 to the two/four wire conversion circuit 13. At the same time, the levels of the received speech signals and transmitted speech signals are detected with a received speech detector 26 and a transmitted speech detector 27, respectively, and then supplied to a comparator 28. The comparator 28 compares the received speech signal level, the transmitted speech signal level and a voltage level from a voltage setter 29, and according to the comparison results of the three levels, reciprocally changes losses of the received voice switching circuit 20 and the transmitted voice switching circuit 25. As a result, a loop gain of a closed loop formed by acoustic coupling between the speaker 22 and the microphone 23 is controlled to be less than 1, and howling (oscillation) can be prevented.
One of the problems in the prior-art key telephone system is that the losses of the received voice switching circuit 20 and the transmitted voice switching circuit 25 in the loudspeaking conversation mode must be set to be greater to prevent the howling because there are a plurality of closed loops which may generate howling. Assume that, for example, in FIG. 1, conversation is held between the key telephone 2.sub.1 in the loudspeaking mode and another separate key telephone 2.sub.n. When the separate telephone 2.sub.n is in the handset conversation mode, there are two closed loops which may generate howling. One of the loops is formed by the following processes: the transmitted speech signal from the microphone 23.sub.1 is sent to the two/four wire conversion circuit 13.sub.1 and a part of the sent signal is mixed as a side tone with the received speech signal, and this side tone is sent to the speaker 22.sub.1, then a part of the side tone is supplied again to the microphone 23.sub.1 owing to acoustic coupling. The other loop is formed through the following processes: the transmitted speech signal from the microphone 23.sub.1 is sent to the two/four wire conversion circuit 6.sub.n in the main apparatus and a part of the sent signal is mixed as a side tone with the transmitted speech signal from the telephone 2.sub.n, and this side tone is returned to the telephone 2.sub.n, and then a part of the side tone is fed from the speaker 22.sub.1 to the microphone 23.sub.1 again. When the accompanying telephone 2.sub.n is also in the loudspeaking conversation mode, further another closed loop is added. The loop is formed through the following processes: the transmitted speech signal from the microphone 23.sub.1 is sent to the speaker 22.sub.n and a part of the sent signals is supplied to the microphone 23.sub.n owing to acoustic coupling; the signals supplied to the microphone 23.sub.n are sent to the speaker 22.sub.1, then a part of the sent signals is supplied again to the microphone 23.sub.1.
Because there may be two or more such closed loops as described above, the losses of the voice switching circuits 20 and 25 must be set so large that each loop gain does not exceed 1. As a result, a high voice level is required for switching between the speech signal transmission state (where the loss of the received voice switching circuit 20 is large and the loss of the transmitted voice switching circuit 25 is small) and the speech signal reception state (where the loss of the received voice switching circuit 20 is small and the loss of the transmitted voice switching circuit 25 is large), thus causing the problem of difficulty in transmitting voices mutually.


A method and system for providing personalized search results is disclosed. A computer receives input from a user to navigate to a web site (either directly or as a result of choosing a result from a search result page). The computer navigates to the web site and stores information about the web site in a file. The computer determines web sites associated with a search query of the user as the search query is being entered into a search area of a user interface. The associated web sites are sites that have been previously navigated to by the user. The determining step includes obtaining the web sites associated with the search query from a data structure previously generated from the file. The data structure includes parsed entries of URLs associated with the previously navigated web sites. Based on the determining step, web site links corresponding to the associated web sites are displayed as the search query is being entered.

With the increase in the number of web sites available via the World Wide Web, web searching has become more and more important for users to locate particular web pages. One way a user finds a particular web page is by typing one or more search terms into a search area of a web page or a browser. A web page with the results of the search is then displayed to the user. Results of a search typically include a list of web links to web pages relevant to the search terms. The user can then navigate to a web page of interest.
Current web searching techniques are typically not personal to the user. In particular, the results of a search are the same for different users who enter the same search query. For example, if a first user on a first computer performs a search for a particular term, the results of the search are the same as the results of a search for the same particular term performed by a second user on the first computer (or any other computer) when the first and second users use the same search engine.
The relevancy of search results to a user may be compromised because the search results are not personalized for the user. For example, a user may search for a first search term using a search engine. A result of interest for the user may be found on the fifth page of search results. At a later time, if the user wants to again search for the first search term in order to navigate to the result of interest, the user has to again navigate to the fifth page of search results in order to see the result of interest. This presents a waste of time for the user. Further, users may forget the exact query that they used to find specific information previously. If this occurs, it may take a user multiple queries to find the information again. This also presents a waste of time for the user. Therefore, there remains a need to personalize search results for a user when the user performs a web search.


The present disclosure provides better aspiration and dispensing by a common innovative mechanism by (i) offsetting the diameter of a bottom piston (tube) with a slightly narrower top piston (rod) when the two are swept together by O-rings to give extremely fine resolution, thereby eliminating the need for any filamentous piston and sealing means, (ii) letting the bottom tube be swept alone without offset to give high flow (iii) using a tapered top rod with thick-walled compliant O-ring seals to increase the resolution multiplier another order or magnitude, (iv) an at-the-ready interpiston space for contact-free blowoff, including viscous samples, (v) dead space filler mandrels and an integrated small valve to reduce or eliminate interpiston and disposable tip space prior to aspiration, and (vi) a mechanism for storing energy during disposable tip pickup to shoot dispensed samples contact-free down into long tubes.

Pipetting is the one of the most common laboratory tests in the world. Virtually every laboratory uses pipettors and pipetting methods. There is, therefore, abundant data and information about how practitioners experience, adapt and feel about pipetting devices and procedures. Practitioners know that, in pipetting, either the thumb or the motor in an automated unit pulls up to suck a sample in and push down to push it out. Practitioners know that traditional pipetting procedures yield hanging drops that must be touched-off-and-dragged to fully deliver the sample to its intended location or receptacle. Practitioners have increasingly accepted the rationalization that touching the tip off or putting the tip under water and flushing it out during delivery is an unavoidable part of pipetting to get the remaining portion of a sample out of the tip, or to deliver a small sample at all. Each user also knows that when he or she is manually aspirating small volumes (anything below about 20 μL) that she will need to visually inspect each and every tip to make sure it isn't empty or has a visibly "short sample", as it is called. Such a step is necessary because practitioners often experience the misses and short samples that do occur, and must accordingly check after each dispensing operation. This causes eye strain and mental stress yet is an accepted part of what practitioners have to endure during regular, manual pipetting. Disciplined laboratory managers planning the automated system work flows will plan for doing many of their automated runs in duplicate or usually triplicate to protect against the occasional missed or "short outlier" aspiration that happens and will necessarily factor the large and expensive waste into their budgets.
Practitioners often welcome the new features of new devices, such as handles that feel a little nicer, tip ejections that are a little easier, prettier displays, and to a limited extent the attachment of integrated motors. Practitioners also desire an adjustable unit, but accept that about 10× is the maximum range for very high precision (1-10 μL or 2-20 μL) dispensing. Some may accept a group of fixed volume units that are color-coded that one can grab and use, but they need to be very cheap. But overall practitioners require that their hand operate in the usual and intuitive way for pipetting and are so accustomed to dispensing by angling a tip for touchoff-and-drag that they tend to angle it for aspiration as well.
What is needed therefore is a device and methodology to overcome the aforementioned shortcomings in a way that is economical, effective, efficient and comfortable to experienced technicians—but which feels like the pipetting they know so well—who may be hesitant to new or altered procedures.


A connecting element for the detachable connecting of two frame components, which, within a casing, has at least one retaining element, with which the connecting element and also the frame profile can be connected in a detachable manner with the support profile. Within the casing, an eccentric cam is rotatably positioned to conduct the retaining element in a longitudinally movable manner in the casing so that a component of the retaining element projecting out of the frontal side of the casing can be brought into engagement with an undercut longitudinal groove of the support profile. In the discharge position of the retaining element, the eccentric cam head of the eccentric cam can be pressed into the casing against the force of a spring to be engaged in a boring of a frame profile. A safety mechanism prevents, in the insertion position of the retaining element, the axial movability of the eccentric cam. In order to prevent an unintentional pressing in of the eccentric cam, it is provided that the safety mechanism consists of a projection provided on the eccentric cam, and a recess is constructed in the casing. The projection and the recess are positioned to one another in such a manner that the projection, in the discharge position, can be pressed into the recess, and thereby permit an axial movability of the eccentric cam, but, in the insertion position, can not be pressed in, so that the eccentric cam is thereby prevented from having any axial movability.

The invention concerns a connecting element for the detachable connecting of two frame components, particularly of a support profile and of a frame profile, whereby the connecting element is positioned in a stationary manner in the frame profile which is constructed as a hollow profile and has, within a casing, at least one retaining element with which the connecting element, and thereby the frame profile as well, can be connected with the support profile in a detachable manner, and whereby an eccentric cam is positioned within the casing in a pivot-supported manner, which cam has at least one eccentric head, one eccentric cam disk and one support stud, by means of which the retaining element is conducted in a longitudinally movable manner in the casing, through which a component of the retaining element projecting out of the frontal side of the casing can be brought into contact with an undercut longitudinal groove of the support profile, and whereby the eccentric head of the eccentric cam which can be pressed into the casing against the force of a spring can be locked into a boring of the frame profile, as well as with a safety mechanism preventing the axial mobility of the eccentric cam into the insert position of the retaining element.
Such types of connecting elements are known in various forms of construction, and are used in particular for the connecting of support profiles and frame profiles, by means of which trade exhibition booths, among other types, are constructed. This connection should, on the one hand, be extremely solid, but, on the other hand, it should also be easy to produce and to detach again. For the easy installation and disassembly of a connecting element in a frame profile, the spring-loaded eccentric cam can be pressed, in the manner of a pushbutton, into the casing of the connecting element.
In order that this insertion not take place in an incorrect manner, and in particular not when the profile bars have been assembled, it has been proposed, in DE-C-31 53 232, to provide a stationary catch as a safety mechanism in the interior of the support casing, which, relative to the end part of the retaining element serving for the installation of the eccentric cam in the direction of insertion, is positioned in such a manner that the catch, in the discharge position of the retaining element is indeed positioned outside the end part, and thus permits its cross-swivelling capacity, but, in the insert position of the retaining element, it lies under the end piece, and blocks its cross-swivelling capacity.
Such a prevention of insertion has the disadvantage that the geometry of the casing must permit the application of a catch which is solid with the casing, whereby the retaining element must, to be sure, be inserted far enough into the casing and through the eccentric disk, on the one hand, that a secure connection of the frame profile with the support profile is ensured, but, on the other hand, however, the eccentric cam must be insertable if the retaining element is located in the discharge position. This has in practice as its consequence that the catch which is solidly attached to the casing is so dimensioned that it essentially only comes to lie below the retaining element in the end phase of the tightening process, and thereby blocks its cross-swivelling capacity.
It has, however, proven desirable that the eccentric cam be prevented from an unintended pressing inward, even during an early stage of the connecting process.
In EP-B-O 160 196, a connecting element has thus already been proposed, in which the eccentric disk is conducted, almost throughout the entire connecting process, into an aperture in a casing of the connecting element, so that the eccentric cam can not be pressed into the casing. Also, in such a type of prevention of inwardly pressing motion, the geometric relations of the connecting elements must permit the eccentric cam disk to be located in the aperture of the casing during the connecting process. Only if the retaining element is in its discharge position should it be able to be pressed inwardly. If the retaining element has been solidly tightened, the eccentric cam disk no longer need be located in the aperture of the casing, since the force-closure of the retaining element already prevents its insertion capacity itself.
It is thus the task of the present invention to create a connecting element of type already stated, in which a safety mechanism is provided which, in one defined range of the connecting process, prevents an unintended pressing in of the eccentric cam, but, however, within a likewise predetermined range, and particularly in the discharge position of the retaining element, permits the axial movability of the eccentric cam.


A phosphor composition consisting essentially of particles of zinc sulfide electroluminescent phosphor activated with from about 0.7% by weight of about 1.3% by weight of manganese, based upon the total weight of the phosphor composition, wherein the electroluminescent emission of the phosphor has an x color coordinate value of from about 0.522 to about 0.532 and a y color coordinate value of from about 0.460 to about 0.470 and an efficiency of greater than about 5.6 lumens per watt at 115V/400 Hz. A solid state process for producing the foregoing phosphor comprises a multiple firing in order to incorporate manganese, chloride and copper ions into the zinc sulfide lattice. Controlled levels of manganese yield highly efficient electroluminescent phosphors.

Compositions of yellow emitting zinc sulfide electroluminescent phosphors are disclosed in the following U.S. Pat. Nos.: 2,743,238; 2,772,242; 3,076,767 and 3,775,173.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,743,238 teaches that a zinc sulfide electroluminescent phosphor can be activated with copper in the range of 0.05% to 1% by weight and manganese in the range of from 0.1% to 10% by weight. The patent also teaches that the brightness of the phosphor is improved by mixing the zinc sulfide with about one third of its weight with zinc oxide, which is washed out of the phosphor with an acetic acid wash subsequent to the firing of the materials. In an alternate process a portion of the zinc sulfide is converted to zinc oxide by controlled oxidation during the firing process.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,772,242 teaches that the addition of a small amount of lead further improves the phosphor and the use of a wash to dissolve free zinc oxide after firing also increases the luminescence. This patent teaches against the use of zinc oxide because of excessive conductivity. From about 0.0001 to about 0.03 gram-atom of manganese per mole of ZnS, corresponding to about 0.01% to about 14.5% by weight of manganese, is the disclosed level of manganese.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,076,767 teaches that when a phosphor is prepared by first forming a zinc sulfide material containing copper and chloride, and thereafter, that material is etched with hydrogen peroxide, then manganese carbonate and copper sulfate are added and the material is refired, the brightness of the resulting phosphor is better than the unetched phosphor. The level of retained manganese is not disclosed, however, it is stated that after drying, 4% manganese (as manganese carbonate) is added and the material is fired at 800.degree. C. The phosphor has an efficiency of 4.4 lumens per watt.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,775,173 teaches that an electroluminescent zinc sulfide phosphor activated with manganese is improved by immersing the activated material in and aqueous solution of a copper salt. The level of retained manganese is disclosed as being from 0.1% to 0.5 % by weight. Manganese chloride is used as the manganese source.
Commerical electroluminescent zinc sulfide phosphors are activated with about 1.3% by weight of manganese, about 0.03% by weight of chloride and about 0.05% by weight of copper and have and a lumens efficiency of about 5.2 lumens per watt when measured at 115/400 Hz using conventional electroluminescent lamps.

Process for producing electroluminescent yellow zinc sulfide phosphors


Described are medical devices which are or can be used to form tubular medical devices, and related methods. Preferred devices include tubular grafts of biomaterial having lumen walls which present no seam edge that traverses the entire length of the lumen, illustratively including devices having lumen walls which have a discontinuous seam presenting multiple seam edges. Such a device may include a tubular structure formed by inserting a plurality of extensions of a biomaterial sheet through a plurality of corresponding apertures of the sheet.

It has become common to treat a variety of medical conditions by introducing an implantable medical device into the alimentary, circulatory, coronary, urological, renal, and other organ systems. For example, coronary vessels via delivery catheters, such as balloon catheters.
In the case of aneurysm treatment, an aneurysm is caused by a weakening of the vessel wall, which causes an invagination of the vessel wall. Blood flow is inhibited at the neck of the aneurysm due to turbulence caused by blood entering and exiting the lumen of the aneurysm. Current medical treatment of aneurysms include the use of metal coils, such as the FDA approved Gugliemi Detachable Coil, inserted into the lumen of the aneurysm. However, this platinum coil is relatively soft and does not provide a complete packing of the aneurysm lumen. It is not uncommon for the aneurysm to re-canalize, enlarge, and even rupture. The heavy metal used in the coils provide the necessary radiographic visualization to ensure that the coils are localized properly and whether, during a subsequent examination, the coils remain in the situs.
However, there are problems associated with using synthetic materials, which include thrombus formation, immune response leading to rejection, and undesired occlusion of the vessel. Therefore, a better material for implantation in any application, such as coronary, vascular, body wall repair, orthopaedic, tissue graft, dermal, and other industries is needed. One such material is a newly discovered biomaterial comprising tissue mucosa, tissue serosa, or tissue submucosa.
Tissue implants in a purified form and derived from collagen-based materials have been manufactured and disclosed in the literature. Cohesive films of high tensile strength have been manufactured using collagen molecules or collagen-based materials. Aldehydes, however, have been generally utilized to cross-link the collagen molecules to produce films having high tensile strengths. With these types of materials, the aldehydes may leech out of the film, e.g. upon hydrolysis. Because such residues are cytotoxic, the films are poor tissue implants.
Other techniques have been developed to produce coliagen-based tissue implants while avoiding the problems associated with aldehyde cross-linked collagen molecules. One such technique is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 5,141,747 wherein the collagen molecules are cross-linked or coupled at their lysine epsilon amino groups followed by denaturing the coupled, and preferably modified, collagen molecules. The disclosed use of such collagen material is for tympanic membrane repair. While such membranes are disclosed to exhibit good physical properties and to be sterilized by subsequent processing, they are not capable of remodeling or generating cell growth or, in general, of promoting regrowth and healing of damaged or diseased tissue structures.
In general, researchers in the surgical arts have been working for many years to develop new techniques and materials for use as implants to replace or repair damaged or diseased tissue structures, for example, blood vessels, aneurysms, muscle, ligaments, tendons and the like. It is not uncommon today, for instance, for an orthopedic surgeon to harvest a patellar tendon of autogenous or allogenous origin for use as a replacement for a torn cruciate ligament. The surgical methods for such techniques are known. Further, it has been common for surgeons to use implantable prostheses formed from plastic, metal and/or ceramic material for reconstruction or replacement of physiological structures. Despite their wide use, surgical implanted prostheses present many attendant risks to the patient.
Researchers have also been attempting to develop satisfactory polymer or plastic materials to serve as functional tissue structures and/or other connective tissues, e.g., those involved in hernia and joint dislocation injuries. It has been discovered that it is difficult to provide a tough, durable plastic material which is suitable for long term connective tissue replacement. The tissues surrounding the plastic material can become infected and difficulties in treating such infections often lead to the failure of the implant or prostheses.
As mentioned above, various collagen-based materials have also been utilized for the above-mentioned tissue replacements; however, these materials either did not exhibit the requisite tensile strength or also had problems with infection and other immunogenic responses, encapsulation, or had other problems. In a related patent, U.S. Pat. No. 5,372,821, it is disclosed that a submucosa collagenous biomaterial may be sterilized by conventional techniques, e.g., aldehyde tanning, propylene oxide, gamma radiation and peracetic acid. No specific processing steps are disclosed except that the submucosa layer is first delaminated from the surrounding tissue prior to sterilization treatment.
Some materials considered desirable are biological materials (biomaterials) from autogenous, allogenous, or xenogeneic (heteroplastic) sources. Biomaterials are desirable as they can be malleable and less likely to be rejected as foreign. One such biomaterial is collagen. Collagen is a protein molecule that comes in many types. For example, collagen Type I constitutes a significant amount of the collagen in the body. Type I is a heterotrimeric molecule, has a helical configuration, and is characterized by a Glycine-X-Y amino acid repeating sequence. Due to its abundance in the human body, collagen is being examined for its uses in medical treatment.
One of the problems associated with biomaterials includes leakage or seepage from the tubular graft. Particularly, a graft made by suturing two ends of a flat sheet together cause holes to extend from the lumenal side to the outside, thus providing small channels for lumenal fluid to seep. A reduced seepage biomaterial construct is desired and would be well-received.
Problems associated with synthetic grafts are well-documented. For example, it is known that the mechanical properties of synthetic grafts degrade over time, as described in Vinard et al, Stability of Performances of Vascular Prostheses Retrospective Study of 22 Cases of Human Implanted Prostheses, Vol. 22(7) Jour. of Biomedical Materials Research pg. 633-648(July 1988); and Manfredi et al., Vascular Prostheses, vol. 12(3) Emergency Medicine Clinics of North America pg. 657-77 (August 1994). A graft that gets stronger over time is more desirable than one that degrades over time.
One other problem associated with synthetic or biomaterial grafts include the occlusion of the lumen itself. Often times, the graft materials come loose or the layers comprising the graft separate, thus causing material to hang into the lumen. This debris causes thrombogenesis and reduces patency of the graft. If the thrombus were to dislodge, disastrous effects will soon follow.


A method and apparatus for early detection and classification of retinal pathologies, especially glaucoma and macular edema. The method comprises; (a) illuminating predetermined locations on the retina; (b) receiving light returning from predetermined locations; (c) generating a series of primary graphs corresponding to the light intensity with respect to retinal depth of predetermined locations on the retina; (d) separating the component curves of said graphs; (e) analyzing said component curves to produce data including data corresponding to the front slope and/or the back slope, and/or the area of at least one of said component curves; (f) comparing said data to analogous pre-specified data.

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for the early detection and classification of retinal pathologies. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus for early detection and identification of retinal pathology, including glaucoma and macular edema associated with diabetic retinopathy. In particular, the system of the present invention can be used to measure the relative amount of live fibers in a region of the Nerve Fiber Layer (hereinafter referred to as the xe2x80x9cNFLxe2x80x9d) of the retina to detect glaucoma at its very early stages, the opacification of the retina to detect edema, and changes in optic disk topography to detect the presence and/or progression of glaucoma.
Various retinal pathologies are known that can have moderate to severe effects on vision. Chief among them are glaucoma and edema associated with diabetic retinopathy. Glaucoma, characterized by nerve fiber loss (especially in the Nerve Fiber Layer of the retina) and ganglion cell loss, produces a progressive reduction in visual function beginning at the periphery of the field of vision and progressing inwardly to cause xe2x80x9ctunnel vision.xe2x80x9d If left untreated, it can lead to total blindness. Edema, a thickening of the retina (particularly in the macular region), results from leakage of blood vessels and causes a reduction in visual acuity. When a reduction in visual acuity occurs in a patient, it is up to the ophthalmologist to determine where the source of the problem is in the eye so that a suitable treatment can be planned. One way often used to test for the edema is by using flourescein angiography. However, this method is invasive, time-consuming, not quantitative, and the intensity of the fluouscence is not directly related to the edema.
The retina is both thin and transparent, and identification of problems in the retinal layers is difficult. In the case of glaucoma, changes in the retina have traditionally been able to be detected only after irreversible visual loss or damage has occurred. Considering that up to 50% of nerve fibers at a predetermined retinal region may be lost before a detectable vision problem occurs, it would be of significant advantage to be able to identify and quantify retinal changes before visual damage occurs. In particular, it would be of utmost benefit to be able to detect and quantify changes in the NFL (an indicator of glaucoma) and opacification of the retina (an indicator of edema) at a previously unattainable early stage.
One way ophthalmologists can diagnose glaucoma is through the use of Perimetry. Perimetry, however, detects only the functional irreversible damage in the retina that has already resulted in irreversible visual loss and does not detect the preceding physiological changes.
It is therefore the primary object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for the early detection and classification of retinal pathologies, including edema and glaucoma. Particularly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus and method for detecting retinal pathologies by determining and quantifying particular characteristics in the light scattering patterns of the different sublayers and regions of the retina. It is also an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus capable of precisely detecting retinal pathologies that is both noninvasive and capable of detecting problems before visual loss or damage occurs.
These and other objects of the present invention will become more apparent from the summary of the invention and detailed description of the drawings that follows.
The present invention relates to a method for early detection of retinal pathologies, especially glaucoma and diabetic macular edema. The method comprises the steps of: (a) illuminating a sequence of predetermined locations on the retina; (b) receiving light returning from said predetermined locations on the retina; (c) generating a series of primary graphs corresponding to the light intensity with respect to retinal depth of each of said predetermined locations on the retina; (d) separating the component curves of said primary graphs (one main component curve corresponds to light returning substantially from the Nerve Fiber Layer; a second main component curve corresponds to light returning substantially from the Retinal Pigment Epithelium); (e) analyzing said component curves (according to predetermined algorithms) to obtain data including, but not limited to, data corresponding to the front and/or back slopes and/or the area of at least one of the component curves; (f) comparing said data to analogous pre-specified data (to quantify changes and/or classify pathologies of the retina.)
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the method further includes the step of determining the retinal thickness for each of said predetermined locations of the retina, by employing, for example, the calculated distance between the component curves of the primary graph (it is appreciated that other approaches may be appropriately employed for determining retinal thickness.)
It should be appreciated that the sequence of predetermined locations on the retina need not be linearly spaced. Rather, said sequence of predetermined locations may refer to any particular region or area of the retina that may further be divided into sub-regions that are illuminated in a sequential manner (for a predetermined period) for the purpose of obtaining information about the light scattering pattern and/or changes in the light scattering pattern occurring over a region of the retina.
It should also be appreciated that separation of the component curves may be accomplished through any appropriate method such as by using curve-fitting methods including fitting a Lorenzian function of the primary graph and translating the Lorenzian to delineate a component curve corresponding substantially to the light returned from the Retinal Pigment Epithelium according to appropriate Lorenzian tables and, thereafter, subtracting the component curve corresponding to the Retinal Pigment Epithelium from the primary graph to obtain a second component curve corresponding substantially to the light returned from the NFL.
In accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the method further comprises the step of generating at least one three-dimensional map. Said map may correspond, for example, to the retinal thickness of the sequence of the predetermined locations of the retina. It is appreciated that a three-dimensional map may be generated corresponding to any one or more of the parameters measured (two dimensions corresponding to the position on the retina and one dimension corresponding to the measured parameter value). In one preferred embodiment, the method further comprises the step of generating at least one three-dimensional map representative of the relative amount of cells in the Nerve Fiber Layer of the retina over the sequence of predetermined locations on the retina (this map is preferably generated based on the calculated area of the component curves of the primary graphs that correspond to the NFL).
In further preferred embodiments of the present invention, the data is arranged in a matrix for enabling comparison with pre-specified data that is arranged in an analogous format.
In still further preferred embodiments of the present invention, the data corresponds to the area of the component curve that corresponds to the Nerve Fiber Layer of the retina.
Moreover in accordance with other preferred embodiments of the present invention, the data corresponds to the ratio of the area of the component curve corresponding to the Nerve Fiber Layer to the area of the component curve corresponding to the Retinal Pigment Epithelium.
In another preferred embodiment of the present invention, the data corresponds to the ratio of the area of component curve corresponding to the Nerve Fiber Layer to the area of the primary graph.
Moreover, in another preferred embodiment of the present invention, the data corresponds to differences between the Line Spread Function of the component curve corresponding to the Nerve Fiber Layer and the Line Spread Function of the component curve corresponding to the Retinal Pigment Epithelium. It is appreciated that a comparison between the two Line Spread Functions (LSF""s) may include calculation and comparison of a variety of different measurements. In one preferred embodiment, the back slope (i.e., the slope of the descending portion) of the component curve corresponding to the Retinal Pigment Epithelium is compared with the front slope (i.e., the slope of the ascending portion) of the component curve corresponding to the Nerve Fiber Layer.
In one preferred embodiment of the present invention, the pre-specified data is obtained from normal retinas. For example, if the region of the retina being illuminated includes the optic disk, the resultant data can be compared to data obtained from known normal (i.e., healthy) optic disks. In another preferred embodiment of the present invention, the pre-specified data is obtained from an earlier examination of the retina being examined. In another preferred embodiment of the present invention, the pre-specified data contains data obtained from known normal (i.e., healthy) optic disks and from an earlier examination of the retina being examined.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the regions of the retina are illuminated successively according to a predetermined illumination sequence useful for the detection of a specific predetermined retinal region.
The present invention also relates to an apparatus for mapping the inner structure of the retina using the method hereinbefore described, that is especially useful for the early detection of retinal pathologies including glaucoma and diabetic macular edema. The apparatus comprises; (a) illuminating means for illuminating a sequence of predetermined locations on the retina and for receiving light returning from said predetermined locations on the retina; (b) computing means adapted to producing a series of primary graphs corresponding to the light intensity with respect to retinal depth of each of said predetermined locations of the retina, for resolving the component curves of said primary graphs, for analyzing the component curves to obtain data including data corresponding to the front and/or back slopes and/or the area of at least one of said component curves, and for comparing said data to analogous pre-specified data (to quantify changes and classify pathologies in the retina.)
It is appreciated that the illuminating means may be of any appropriate type known in the art for enabling production of optical cross section images from each location of the retina. For example, the illuminating means may comprise an instrument having a helium-neon laser, operating at a length of 543 nm, mounted on a slit-lamp biomicroscope. The expanded laser beam is directed toward the eye by a beam splitter and focused by the objective of the biomicroscope. The image of the intersection of the slit with the retina may be recorded on film via a second objective of the biomicroscope.

Method and apparatus for early detection and classification of retinal pathologies


A memory card decodes three bits of data stored in one memory cell and belonging to different pages, each being a unit of reading, by iterative calculation using probability based on eight threshold voltage distributions. The memory card includes a word line controlling section configured to select one required to read 1-bit data belonging to one of the pages to be read from among seven voltage sets which are composed of seven reference voltages for hard bit reading and a plurality of intermediate voltages for soft bit reading and perform control to apply the voltages of the selected voltage set as read voltages to the memory cell, a log likelihood ratio table storing section, and a decoder configured to decode read data using a log likelihood ratio.

Developments associated with encoding and decoding of digital data using an error-correcting code are being performed in the communications field, in the broadcasting field, and in the field of storages such as semiconductor memories.
Error-correcting codes can be broadly divided into codes to be subjected to algebraic hard-decision decoding and codes to be subjected to soft-decision decoding by iterative calculation based on probability.
In hard-decision decoding, when a threshold voltage corresponding to an amount of electric charge injected into a charge accumulation layer of a memory cell is applied to a word line, so-called hard bit data is read. However, memory cells have different threshold voltages even when the memory cells store same data, due to, e.g., manufacturing variations between the memory cells or conditions of the memory cells after charge accumulation. That is, threshold voltages for a plurality of memory cells storing the same data each have predetermined distributions. The reliability of data read at a voltage near a center of a peak of each threshold voltage distribution is high while the reliability of data read at a voltage near an upper limit or a lower limit of each threshold voltage distribution is low.
In soft-decision decoding, decoding is performed by iterative calculation using probability on a basis of soft bit read data read by applying intermediate voltages higher and lower than a hard bit read voltage.
Low density parity check codes (hereinafter referred to as "LDPC codes") belonging to a group of codes to be subjected to soft-decision decoding are attracting attention. LDPC codes were first proposed by R. G. Gallager in 1963. After that, excellent performance approaching the Shannon limit that is a theoretical limit of code performance has been reported with an increase in a code length of an LDPC code.
For semiconductor memory devices having a NAND semiconductor memory section, storage of a plurality of bits of data in one memory cell, i.e., implementation of a so-called multi-level memory contributes largely to implementation of higher-density semiconductor memory devices.

Semiconductor memory device and decoding method


The present invention provides a method for improving adhesion of polyorganosiloxane to plastic, such as polycarbonate substrates. In a preferred embodiment, a tertiary amine is added to a polyorganosiloxane coating composition to achieve an improved abrasion coating.

The trend to substitute glass with other transparent plastics, also known as organic glass, has become widespread. Transparent windows are now utilized in transportation vehicles which have higher impact and shatter resistance due to the use of this synthetic organic glass. Optical lenses and especially ophthalmic eyeglasses often use organic glass to obtain lightweight, yet high impact resistant lenses.
One widely used transparent material is the thermoplastic polycarbonate such as Lexan® sold by General Electric Company, which provides major advantages over ordinary glass such as impact resistance, light weight and high refractive index. Polycarbonate has become widely used to replace glazing glass in transportation vehicles, building windows and optical lenses such as ophthalmic eyeglasses. One major drawback of polycarbonate is that the material is easily scratched and therefore typically requires surface protection for articles made from such polycarbonates.
Polycarbonate substrates are usually coated with a thin protective film to reduce their tendency to be abraded, resist corrosion, and to provide a sacrificial surfaces. It is also generally desirable that protective coatings have good weathering and adhesion properties. It is also desirable that such coatings be resistant to thermal shock, mechanical shock, heat, humidity, and common chemicals. In addition, the coatings must be practical to prepare, apply, dry, and cure.
Much effort has been exerted in this field, and several different technical approaches have been described. In particular, work has been carried out on the development of polyorganosiloxanes crosslinked by the condensation of silanol groups. The coatings described by the prior art, however, have numerous drawbacks such as poor adhesion or short pot life.
It is known in the art that polyorganosiloxane coating compositions with a basic pH such as those with amine functional compounds may have improved adhesion to plastic substrates. The resulting coating solutions, however, tend to increase viscosity over time and have a relatively short pot life. Pot life is known in the art as the time interval between completely mixing the coating elements together and the time when the coating solution becomes too viscous to satisfactory apply. In some circumstances, the pot life is known in the art as the gel time, or the time interval between complete mixing of the coating solution and gelation of the coating solution.
It is also known in the art that polyorganosiloxane coating compositions with an acidic pH, especially from pH of 3 to 5, result in more stable coating solutions. However, the application of such coatings to plastic substrate often requires the use of a primer prior to application of the coatings.
Some of these techniques can be seen in the prior art patents discussed below. The contents of each of these patents are herein incorporated by reference.
Mayazumi, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,837,876, describes a polymer formed by reacting an aminosilane with an epoxysilane, dissolving the resulting product in a solvent, and then coating various substrates with the solution of the product. Ender, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,166,527, describes the mixing of an epoxysilane with an aminosilane, then coating surfaces with both the unreacted mixture and the reacted (partially polymerized) mixture. The coating is cured by standing at room temperature for a longer period of time or by heating for a shorter period of time. The coatings described, however, would gel at room conditions within hours.
Treadway and Carr, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,378,250, describe the use of aldehydes or ketones as blocking agents in polymeric compositions derived from certain aminosilanes and epoxysilanes. The reference also describes the nuance of increasing the hydrolysis of the silanes to above 40%. The reference describes greater abrasion resistance in the cured product and longer pot life in the curable composition because of the presence of the ketone acting to retard the reaction between the amine functionality and the epoxy functionality on the various reactants. However, the coating solution still gels within a short time, for example a few days. Further, the required method of preparation can be long and is further restricted by a limited dye tintability range that can be obtained by varying the ratio of epoxy to amino within the bounds of the compositions described for attaining the desired level of abrasion resistance. Replication of these compositions shows crosslink equivalent weights of at least about 173 when fully cured.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,057,040 describes an alkine bridged bis-aminosilanes that may form a crosslinked polymeric coating. At least one of the polymerizable compounds comprises an alkine-bridged bis-(aminosilane) and another preferred polymerizable compound in the composition comprises an epoxy-functional silane. The coatings provided from these compositions are highly crosslinked and therefore display excellent mar resistance as well as increased tintability. As noted in the art, this combination is unusual since where one of these properties increases, it is done at the expense of the other property.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,346,331 B2 describes an epoxy bridged polyorganosiloxane coating compositions containing a glycidoxy functional silane, a tetrafunctional silane and a multi-functional organic compounds selected from the group consisting of multifunctional carboxylic acids, multifunctional anhydrides and combinations thereof. The coatings provided from these compositions have excellent abrasion resistance. However, these coatings do not adhere to polycarbonate substrates and therefore require the use of a primer prior to the application of the coatings.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,607,590 describes an organic-inorganic hybrid polymer arising from tetraalkyl orthosilicate, epoxyalkylalkoxy silanes, (math)acryaloxyalkylalkoxy silanes and solvent, coatings made from those coating compositions, and articles made from these coatings. The coatings have high scratch resistance based on a Bayer test. However, these coatings are described as not providing satisfactory adhesion to high index and polycarbonate lens materials. An activator or primer is typically required to apply these coatings to high index and polycarbonate lens material.
Other U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,976,497, 3,9886,997, 4,027,073 described mar-resistant coating compositions formed from mixtures of silica, such as colloidal silica or silica gel, and hydrolyzable silanes such as alkoxy silanes in water or alcohol medium. These polysilicic coatings, especially when acidic, don't have good adhesion to many plastic, especially polycarbonate substrates.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,413,979 Frye suggests the use of aggressive solvents such diacetone alcohol to improve adhesion. The solvents, however, are typically not sufficient to provide adequate adhesion to some plastic materials such as polycarbonate.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,783,347 introduced a method to improve adhesion of protective silicone coatings to plastic without the use of primers by shock curing the coated substrates at a temperature not substantially below 140 C. The shock curing temperature, however, is very close to the glass transition temperatures (Tg) of many plastic materials. For example polycarbonate has Tg of 150 C. The shock curing then can affect the optical properties of the articles produced and optical applications are where polycarbonate is used most.
It is an unexpected result to the inventor that when adding tertiary amines into polyorganosiloxan coating compositions at acidic conditions, the adhesion of the coating to many plastic, especially polycarbonate substrates, are improved substantially. The resulting coating solutions, however, still have sufficient pot lives. The presence of the tertiary amines also increases abrasion and scratch resistance of the resulted coatings.

Primer-less abrasion coating for organic glass articles


A distributed content architecture is provided the de-coupled site management and presentation from asset inventory management and publishing. An active content cell is provided which manages the inventory and publishing aspects of the information. A content management server is provided that resides at any site and that effects content commerce. The active content cell resides at a content publisher's site and is under content publisher's control. Thus, the invention enables a virtual content market in which content is controlled by the content publisher while commercial transactions are separately controlled by a content management server. Active content cells are site independent such that multiple active content cells can co-exist in one location or be geographically dispersed. Further, active content cells have a unique IP address and register the location just as any other site although their behavior is different. The invention further provides a transaction protocol as effected between the active content cells and contents managers.

1. Technical Field
The invention relates to asset inventory management publishing and related asset transactions. More particularly, the invention relates to a distributed content architecture supporting commercial transactions.
2. Description of the Prior Art
At this point there is not much to be added to the Internet discussion. It is a well known and accepted medium that is used everyday by millions of people for transactions of all sorts. What can be said is that new uses are being found for the Internet all the time. One example of such use is the popular website eBay which provides an efficient market for the exchange of items between buyers and sellers using an auction metaphor. EBay demonstrates that the Internet is a very good mechanism for brokering transactions between many sellers and many buyers, where both the sellers and buyers are individuals or small organizations having limited infrastructure. Such medium could also provide an efficient market for the sale and licensing of content, e.g. art, music, information, and video, for example for artists, photographers, scholars, or musicians.
Much work has already been performed in this regard. See, for example the following:
A. Mourad, Method and apparatus for buffered video playback of video content distributed on a plurality of disks, U.S. Pat. No. 5,590,381 (Dec. 31, 1996) discloses playback of video content distributed on disks in successive data blocks for a plurality of viewers. The disclosed technique involves accessing data for each viewer from a different one of the blocks on the disks within a time cycle, placing the accessed data from each block in respective buffers, reading out the data in the buffers sequentially in common cycles, and reading out the cycles. Preferably, the content is in successive blocks over the discs on a round robin basis, and accessing includes accessing different blocks on the same disk within the time cycle. This patent covers video served from multiple drives into a buffering hierarchy.
Y, Zhao, Two-level content distribution system, U.S. Pat. No. 6,081,840 (Apr. 25, 2000) discloses a system for efficiently distributing computer data files to remotely located end users over a communications network, such as the Internet. A source server is maintained with all of the data files for use by the end users. Several local servers are connected to the source server and contain subsets of the data contained in the source server. Users connect to a local server and request a data file. If the file is located at the local server, it is provided by the local server without the need to contact the source server. If the file is not located at the local server, the source server is contacted by the local server to get the file for the user. The local server monitors data file usage and can update the data it maintains locally based upon the determined usage. Various management functions are used at the source and local servers to coordinate the file transfers and inventory table updating. Different communications protocols are used for the data transfers to enhance the security of the system from user access to data only available to servers.
B. Krishna, J. Melbin, D. Latham, Automatic page converter for dynamic content distributed publishing system, U.S. Pat. No. 6,055,522 (Apr. 25, 2000) disclose a Page Builder software program that operates in connection with a dynamic content publishing program, such as FutureTense Designer™. The Page Builder program accepts a dynamic content publication file as input and generates one or more hypertext markup language (HTML) pages for each navigable state of the dynamic content file. As a result, the dynamically specified content is encapsulated in a set of Web pages that may be displayed by a browser which does not have a viewer program applet or plug-in. This provides a capability for producing dynamic content publications, such as Web pages, while eliminating the need to download specialized Viewer applets or otherwise to make use of modified or programming-enabled browser programs.
Y, Zhao, Multi-level category dynamic bundling for content distribution, U.S. Pat. No. 5,920,864 (Jul. 6, 1999) discloses a system and method for retrieving the contents of a digital information system by multi-level categorization. The system uses a file table, a category table, and a category bundling table. Headings and directions are displayed on navigation pages to guide the user to the desired file. The description and hierarchy relationship of categories, sub-categories, and files are stored in the tables. When the user selects a category or file and the direction of navigation, the system returns the file, or consults the tables and returns a list of new categories and files for a new navigation page. Moving down and then up through a category usually produces a different navigation page. Dynamic updating of the system categories and files can be accomplished by altering the content of the tables.
J. Tsevdos, R. Cook, N. Ring, R. Barnhill. G. Hamblin, K. Milsted, C. Kindell, S. Waefler, C. Portela, B. Anderson, Digital information accessing, delivery and production system, U.S. Pat. No. 5,734,719 (Mar. 31, 1998) disclose a digital data on-demand turnkey system at a customer premise wherein N number of servers provide for 100% of content distribution of remotely stored digitized information, which information may be previewed in real-time, and product incorporating selected digitized information can be manufactured on-site and within a short response time to a customer's request at a point of sale location. In a retail environment customers, at a point-of-sale location, are able to exhaustively search and preview the content database using graphics-based touch screens at consumer kiosks. Previews including audio and video segments are made available. Prompting screens allow customers to make purchasing decisions by stipulating content which is available from any number of categories of subject matter including music. The selected media for the manufacture and production of the digital data may be from a myriad of different selections and can include CD's, cassette tapes, CD ROM technology, reel-to-reel tapes, and video disks, as an example. A master server is situated geographically so as to be accessible to chain and network subservers. Its geographic and networked location is dependent upon communication network systems and subsystem costs and availability in order to best serve a customer's premise, whether it is a retail store or similar point-of-sale or other end-user location. Security mechanisms that require centralized database authorizations prior to the transmission of content and/or the manufacture of any of the products is provided in addition.
None of the prior art addresses the issue of a virtual marketplace for content where many content providers seek to market their content across a ubiquitous distribution channel, such as the Internet, without the need to surrender control of such content to a central repository. It would be advantageous to provide a distributed content architecture that de-couples site management and presentation from asset inventory management and publishing to facilitate such virtual marketplace for content.


Imaging apparatus including a photoreceptor, a charging station operative to charge the photoreceptor including an active length of corona wire operatively juxtaposed with the photoreceptor and a corona wire dispenser containing an undispensed length of corona wire contiguous with the active length and at least as long as the active length. The apparatus also includes an exposure station operative to selectively discharge portions of the photoreceptor to form a latent image thereon and a developer operative to develop the latent image. The corona wire dispenser is operative to dispense an appropriate length of the undispensed corona wire to replace the active length of corona wire. The corona wire dispenser preferably includes a dispensing bobbin around which the undispensed corona wire is wound, a lever-plate on which the dispensing bobbin is rotatably mounted, a friction pin and apparatus operating on the lever-plate for forcing an edge of the dispensing bobbin into contact with the friction pin with a given force whereby the undispensed corona wire is dispensed from the dispensing bobbin when tension in the corona wire is greater than a first threshold tension which is directly proportional to the given force and wherein wire continues to be drawn so long as the tension in the corona wire is greater than a second threshold tension.

Charging devices play an important role in electrostatographic imaging. Prior to each exposure, a photoreceptor is charged to an essentially uniform high potential (around 1000 V) by a charging device. The charge potential can be negative or positive, depending on the type of photoreceptor used. In one widely used technique for charging the photoreceptor surface, a charged-particle depositing corona wire is activated near the surface, raising the potential of the photoreceptor by a prescribed voltage (around 1000 V). Two types of chargers employ the corona wire technique, namely the Corotron and the Scotorton. The Corotron uses the corona wire directly by simply mounting a tensioned corona wire charged to a high voltage close to the photoreceptor, while the Scotorton is a Corotron that also employs an intermediate biased grid which controls the charging level. Many versions of Corotrons and Scorotrons are used in practice; one example being a Double Scorotron, which employs two parallel corona wires in charging the photoreceptor.
All of the above mentioned charging devices employing a corona wire have a common problem of corona wire contamination resulting from oxidation and contaminant accumulation; this causes irregularities in the charging process and causes an inhomogeneous potential on the photoreceptor. Consequently, corona wires or the entire corona structure must, occasionally, be replaced manually or cleaned. Manually replacing the wire has two drawbacks, first, it adds an extra maintenance burden, and second, there is a noticeable decline in image quality over time, after each replacement of wire.
A great variety of patents are concerned with the problems associated with corona wire replacement and corona wire cleaning. The Patents range from automatic wire-cleaning devices to instruments which aid a substantially manual wire replacement.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,023,748 describes a motor-driven corona wire cleaning device. A driving-wire drives a cleaning member along the corona wire and removes foreign particles which have previously accumulated on the wire. While the device is useful in removing some of the contaminant accumulation off the corona wire thus extending its working life span, it still does not obviate the need to frequently replace the corona wire.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,074,484 describes a Corotron rewiring tool, which is not part of the Corotron, for aiding manual replacement of corona wire. The tool consists of a spool of fresh corona wire from which the wire is manually drawn under low tension, and a member which locks the wire at a fixed position during manual wire tensioning in order to prevent the undrawn wire from being tensioned. A technician may use this tool for replacing corona wire, but it is still the technician who actually performs the replacement.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,008,538 describes a corona charging apparatus including properly prelocated and pretensioned corona wire. Whenever necessary, the assembled apparatus is replaced by a simple procedure with a new assembled apparatus.
U.S Pat. No. 4,746,796 describes a means for supplying a corona charger with corona wire of variable length, in accordance with the width of the processing material used by a photocopier. The invention includes a spring-loaded reel in a cassette for dispensing the corona wire, and means for pulling out the end of the wire to a desired working position. This Patent further provides means for cleaning the wire as it moves in and out of the cassette. The used wire is not replaced by the mechanism of this Patent, rather it is reused until the entire cassette is replaced when the wire is exhausted.

Charging apparatus operative to charge a surface


An equipment for the management of hospital activities as medical tests and pharmacological treatment in conditions of certainty against the mistaking of patients is described. The equipment comprises a bed unit (1) associated with the bed of each patient, at least one cabinet unit (2) associated with every ward and a computerised tray cart (3) that is movable among said units (1, 2). The computerised tray cart (3) comprises a computer (10) provided with display, a reader (11) of computer data connect with said computer (10) and approachable to the bed of the patient for the reading of computer data and their transfer to said computer (10), a plurality of drawers (14-16) with opening controlled by said computer (10), and a printer (17)controlled (10). The bed unit (1) comprises a display (18) connected with a computer for the visualisation of data relative to the patient. The cabinet unit (2) comprises a computer (22), a reader (23) of computer data connected with said computer (23), containing spaces and drawers (24-27) with opening controlled by said computer (22). The computerised tray cart (3), the bed unit (1) and the cabinet unit (2) are connected to each other by a computer network.

The present invention concerns an equipment for the management of hospital activities as laboratory tests, pharmacological treatment, dieting and instruments diagnostic that is operating in conditions of certainty against the mistaking of patients and/or of the products destined to it.
One of the greatest risks for patients staying in a hospital or other health care institute consists in the possibility that the data relative to the tests and to the dispensing of drugs are mistaken by error between one patient and the other or that they are not objectively interpreted. Therefore, a different disease that is consequently treated in different way can be diagnosed to a patient affected by a certain disease or, even in the presence of an exact diagnosis, drugs that are suitable for a different disease can be given to him/her.
This problem has been faced in its most general aspects by European patents n. 0491900 and n. 0516782, the first one being specifically addressed to blood tests or other biological samplings, the second being addressed to the dispensing of drugs, the latter term meaning also the dispensing of blood plasma.
Both patents provide for the use of a computer data support that is applied to the patient in such a way that it cannot be removed until the end of hospitalisation, in substance a wrist-band that is fastened to the wrist of the patient. The computer data which are read on the wrist-band with appropriate optical reader allow, in the case of collection and testing of biological samples, to then mark the container of the collected biological sample in a substantially permanent way with the same data, which therefore accompany the same container until the testing laboratory, thus avoiding the mistaking of samples between one patient and the other. In the case of dispensing of drugs the reading of the computer data on the wrist-band, in combination with the reading of additional computer data on a drug container or on the same drug, allows in turn to give the drug that was prescribed for that given patient with absolute certainty.
In European patent n. 0516782 there is also described in general terms the use of a tray cart provided with computer means for the reading, processing and confirm, that can be moved from the patient to the site where the drugs are being dispensed and vice-versa in order to assure the perfect correspondence between the prescribed therapy and the drug being taken.
In the same European patent a possible implementation of a machine is described that is capable to feed, to mark and to fill up with drugs and finally to close drug containers, once again by using computer data corresponding to the ones being read on the wrist-band of the patient.
Nothing is provided instead at the patient""s bed, but the presence of a wrist-band that is fastened to the wrist of the same patient.
Scope of the present invention is now to provide an equipment that, by using the teachings provided by the two aforesaid European patents, allows to manage in a complete way the hospital activities of medical tests and pharmacological treatment (extending such concept to dieting) while preventing errors due to the mistaking of patients.
According to the invention such scope is attained with an equipment comprising a computer data support that is fastened to every patient in a substantially permanent way, a bed unit associated with the bed of every patient, at least one cabinet unit associated with each ward and a computerised tray cart that is movable among said units, characterised in that:
a) said computerised tray cart comprises a computer provided with display and mouse control for the processing of computer data, a reader of computer data connected with said computer and movable near the bed of the patient for the reading of computer data and their transfer to said computer, a plurality of drawers with opening controlled by said computer for the housing of containers for biological samples to be collected and of drug containers to be dispensed, a printer controlled by said computer for the printing of labels with computer data corresponding to the ones being read by said reader which are destined to said biological samples containers, and sensors of the patient""s vital parameters communicating with said computer;
b) said reading unit comprises a display that is connected with a computer for the visualisation of data relative to the patient, sensors for the detection of data relative to the patient (for instance: presence);
c) said cabinet unit comprises a computer, a computer data reader connected with said computer, spaces and containing drawers with opening controlled by said computer;
d) said computerised tray cart, said bed unit and said cabinet unit are connected with each other by a computer network.
The equipment according to the invention, which is obviously integrable with specific devices and instruments that are considered as being more appropriate each time, allows a safe management of all hospital activities as medical tests and pharmacological treatment and dieting, while eliminating any possibility of error due to the mistaking of patient (including not correct relationing of objective data regarding the patient) from the origin. All data are in fact taken, transmitted, verified and compared via computer without the operator being able to influence the exactness or less of the operation.

Equipment for the management of hospital activities such as pharmaceutical treatment

Diagnostica E Ricerca San Raffaele S.p.A.


An object of the present invention is to provide an excellent binder agent composition solving problems such as the decrease in a charge/discharge capacity that occurs in a case where a silicon-containing active material is used, a slurry composition and an electrode in which the binder agent composition is used, and a method for preparing the electrode. The present invention relates to “a binder agent composition containing (A) one or more kinds of polymers containing polyacrylic acid, (B) a bivalent to decavalent alcohol, and (C) water”, “a slurry composition for lithium batteries, containing 1) a silicon-containing active material, 2) a conductive assistant, and 3) the binder agent composition”, “an electrode for lithium batteries that has 1) a silicon-containing active material, 2) a conductive assistant, 3) a binder agent derived from the binder agent composition, and 4) a current collector”, and “a method for preparing an electrode for lithium batteries, including coating a current collector with the slurry composition and drying the slurry composition after the coating”.

As secondary batteries, lithium batteries are used as power sources of various portable devices such as cellular phones. In recent years, research and development have been actively conducted regarding large batteries expected to be used in automobiles and the like. Therefore, it is essential to further increase the energy density of current lithium batteries. In order to increase the capacity of the lithium batteries, the use of silicon materials instead of carbonaceous materials as active materials is drawing attention. Silicon can electrochemically cause an alloying reaction with lithium at room temperature. As this reason, it is considered that, in a case where silicon materials are used in lithium batteries, the electric capacity is further increased than in a case where carbon is used.
However, it is known that in a case where silicon is used as an active material, the silicon causes a great volume change (equal to or greater than triples the original volume) at the time of charge and discharge. Furthermore, unfortunately, the volume change results in the destruction of the electrode structure at the time of charge and discharge, and consequently, a charge/discharge capacity is reduced.
On the other hand, there have been various attempts to increase the capacity of batteries and improve the stability of batteries by using a binder agent (Patent Literature 1 and 2). However, these attempts focused mainly on carbon materials as active materials, and did not aim to solve the problems which arise in a case where silicon is used.
In addition, there has been an attempt to inhibit the reduction in a charge/discharge capacity by coating a silicon active material with a thermosetting resin (Patent Literature 3). However, because a heating treatment at 400° C. is required for coating, the attempt is not a method which makes it possible to simply manufacture an electrode using silicon as an active material.

Binder agent composition for lithium battery


According to an embodiment, an apparatus and method are disclosed for dynamic gesture recognition from stereo sequences. In an embodiment, a stereo sequence of images of a subject is obtained and a depth disparity map is generated from the stereo sequence. The system is initiated automatically based upon a statistical model of the upper body of the subject. The upper body of the subject is modeled as three planes, representing the torso and arms of the subject, and three Gaussian components, representing the head and hands of the subject. The system tracks the upper body of the subject using the statistical upper body model and extracts three-dimensional features of the gestures performed. The system recognizes the gestures using recognition units, which, under a particular embodiment, utilizes hidden Markov models for the three-dimensional gestures.

The field of gesture recognition for computer systems has been developing in recent years. In general, a gesture recognition system will recognize physical gestures made by an individual and respond according to an interpretation of the gestures. Gesture recognition may be used in a computer interface, for interpreting sign language, in industrial control, in entertainment applications, or for numerous other purposes. The challenge in gesture recognition systems is to provide a simple, easy to use system that is also highly accurate in interpretation of gestures.
In conventional gesture recognition systems, the process may proceed as shown in FIG. 1. A video sequence is captured, process block 100, from a video source, such as a conventional video camera. The process of background removal, process block 110, attempts to eliminate the portion of an image from the video sequence that contains the background, which is any portion of the image that doesn't include the subject performing the gestures that are being interpreted. If the video frame is the first frame of the video sequence, process block 120, the process continues to the manual initialization stage, process block 130. In manual initialization, process block 120, the position and orientation of the visible parts (generally the head, hands, arms, and torso) of the subject are determined. Conventional systems generally utilize manual initialization processes in which, for example, the process may initialize by requiring the subject to begin by holding his or her arms and hands in a predetermined position. In other systems the system may initialize on the subject by the process of the subject placing colored gloves on his or her hands or colored markers on the subjects' hands and head.
If the video frame is not the first frame in the sequence, process block 120, the conventional system then proceeds with the process of tracking the upper body of the subject, process block 140. Upon initializing the system or tracking the upper body of the subject to its new position, the process of feature extraction, process block 150, is the process of determining the features that best describe hand gestures and best discriminate among various gestures. Often the features used in dynamic hand gesture recognition are derived from the position of the hands in the image plane or from the relative position of the hands to the head of the subject. In the conventional system, the input is an image in two-dimensional form and the upper body may be characterized as six Gaussian "blobs", which comprise the head, trunk, two arms and two hands of the subject. The conventional system then continues with operation of the recognition units 160, which are intended to identify the gesture made by the subject. The recognition units may include hidden Markov models (HMM).
A conventional gesture recognition system is limited in a number of ways. The use of two-dimensional images may provide insufficient depth of field information to properly detect upper body positions, which may lead to misinterpretation of gestures. The need to initialize a gesture recognition system with specified gestures or the use of special devices creates additional difficulty in using a system and may discourage users from attempting to access a system that incorporates gesture recognition.

Dynamic gesture recognition from stereo sequences


A method is provided for determining a network address for an Media Terminal Adapter (MTA) associated with a given Cable Modem (CM) in a cable data network. The CM is embedded in the MTA. The method begins by providing a network address for the CM and identifying a first Management Information Base (MIB) table for the CM and MTA that includes information pertaining to interfaces of the CM and the MTA. Next, a first entry is located in the first MIB table, which first entry denotes an MTA-type interface. Based on the first entry, a second entry is located in the first MIB table associated with the MTA. The second entry uniquely identifies an interface of the MTA. A second MIB table is identified for the CM and MTA that includes addressing information pertaining to network addresses of the CM and MTA. A third entry is located in the second MIB table that is equal in value to the second entry in the MIB table. Based on the third entry, a fourth entry is located in the second MIB table. The fourth entry is the network address of the MTA associated with the CM.

Hybrid Fiber Coaxial (HFC) networks are rapidly evolving to support a variety of telecommunications services in addition to traditional broadcast type video services. In particular, HFC networks are being utilized for data services, including high speed Internet access. Cable network operators are expected to be providing medium to high penetration rate telephony services in the near future.
In an HFC network, telecommunications services such as telephone services can be provided through the use of a unit located at the side of the home or in a centralized location in the residence (or business). This unit, which forms the interface between the HFC network and the telephony Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) can be referred to as a Media Terminal Adaptor (MTA). The MTA contains line cards that provide an interface between the HFC network and traditional telephones. This may be accomplished through the use of a Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) card located in the MTA. The MTA can also be in communication with other CPE including PCs and set-top boxes. The MTA transmits and receives signals over the HFC network using a known protocol, for example the Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS), which uses a Media Gateway Control Protocol (MGCP) as the signaling protocol for telephony applications. Another protocol that has been defined to deliver Internet Protocol services of the HFC network is the PacketCable specification, which employs DOCSIS as its underlying platform.
The utilization of such an MTA unit allows the simultaneous delivery of voice, data and video services to the same subscriber. A cable modem (CM) serves as the device interface between the MTA and the HFC network. Under DOCSIS, the MTA and CM may be identified by a single pair of IP and media access control (MAC) addresses for purposes of monitoring and maintenance. The PacketCable standard, on the hand, requires that the CM and MTA each have its own pair of IP and MAC addresses. In order to accomplish this, each MTA must be associated with one of the CMs in the network. Accordingly, given the identity of a CM in the network, it is necessary to provide a method for identifying its associated MTA by finding its IP and MAC addresses.

Method and apparatus for associating a media terminal adapter with a cable modem in an HFC network