A process for the production of a fluorinated organic compound, characterized by fluorinating an organic compound having a hydrogen atoms using IF5; and a novel fluorination process for fluorinating an organic compound having a hydrogen atoms by using a fluorinating agent containing IF5 and at least one member selected from the group consisting of acids, bases, salts and additives.

The following are known as fluorinating agents for fluorinating organic compounds: HF, KF, IF, IF5, tetrabutylammonium fluoride, tris(dimethylamino)sulfur(trimethylsilyl)difluoride (TASF), SF4, diethylaminosulfurtrifluoride (DAST), fluorine gas, XeF2, CF3OF, CH3COOF, ClO3F, N-fluoropyridinium triflate, 1-chloromethyl-4-fluoro-1,4-diazoniabicyclo[2.2.2]octane bis(tetrafluoroborate), 1-hydroxy-4-fluoro-1,4-diazoniabicyclo[2.2.2]octane bis(tetrafluoroborate), N-fluorobenzenesulfonimide, etc. (Sheppard, W. A.; Sharts, C. M. Organic Fluorine Chemistry, 1969, W. A. Benjamin: Chambers, R. D.; Fluorine in Organic Chemistry, 1973, Wiley-Interscience: Hudlicky, M. Chemistry of Organic Fluorine Compounds, 1976, Ellis Horwood: Hudlicky; M. and Pavlath, A. E., Chemistry of Organic Fluorine Compounds II, 1995, ACS Monograph 187: N. Ishikawa and Y. Kobayashi, Fluorinated compounds-Chemistry and their application, 1979, Kodansha Ltd.: Outline of chemistry/New fluorine chemistry, 1980, Japan Scientific Societys Press: N. Ishikawa, T. Kitazume, and A. Takaoka, Journal of the Society of Synthetic Organic Chemistry, 1979, 37, 606: T. Umemoto, Journal of the Society of Synthetic Organic Chemistry, 1992, 50, 338: S. D. Taylor, C. C. Kotoris, and G. Hum; Tetrahedron, 1999, 55, 12431: Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 1997-227531, etc.)
Among those fluorinating agents, HF, KF, IF, tetrabutylammonium fluoride, and sulfoniumsilicate (TASF) have low reactivity, and therefore have limited uses. SF4 is a toxic gas having a boiling point at −40.4° C., which is difficult to handle. Fluorine gas is so active that it is difficult to control its reaction. Furthermore, it is reported that CF3OF, CH3COOF, and ClO3F are explosive gases and should be handled with caution. Diethylaminosulfurtrifluoride (DAST), XeF2, N-fluoropyridinium triflate, 1-chloromethyl-4-fluoro-1,4-diazoniabicyclo[2.2.2]octane bis(tetrafluoroborate), 1-hydroxy-4-fluoro-1,4-diazoniabicyclo[2.2.2]octane bis(tetrafluoroborate), N-fluorobenzenesulfonimide, etc., are easy to handle and enable selective fluorination; however, they are expensive reagents and this causes a problem in using them for industrial purposes.
IF5 is an industrially usable fluorinating agent that is a nonexplosive and easy-to-handle liquid having a boiling point at 100.5° C. and a melting point at 9.4° C. Fluorination using IF5 is employed only in a process of adding IF to perfluoroolefin and substituting iodine of the perfluoroiodoolefin with fluorine (M. Sakai, Organic Fluorine Chemistry I, 1970, pp 348-351, GIHODO SHUPPAN Co., Ltd.: A. A. Banks, H. J. Haszeldine, and V. Kerrigan, J. Chem. Soc., 1948, 2188: R. D. Chambers, W. K. R. Musgrave, and J. Savory, J. Chem. Soc., 1961, 3779). However, since it is difficult to control its high oxidizing property, using IF5 for fluorinating organic compounds that have hydroxyl groups, carbonyl groups, etc., was hitherto not known.

Process for the production of fluorinated organic compounds and fluorinating agents


A method and apparatus are provided for managing a real estate unit from a remote location. The method includes the steps of accessing a server from a remote location through a website of the server and downloading a set of options regarding the managing of the rental unit from the website to the remote location. The method further includes the steps of selecting at least one of the options, uploading the selected option from the remote location to the server and executing the uploaded selected option by the server.

Methods of obtaining information over the Internet are known. For instance, many retailers maintain websites providing information on products and services offered by the retailer.
To provide a path to the website, a retailer may identify a series of descriptive terms or keywords that may be associated with a particular product. The descriptive terms and keywords may then be entered into a searchable database of an Internet search engine (e.g., Yahoo, Webcrawler, etc.). Stored in the database along with the descriptive word or keyword is an Internet protocol (IP) address of the retailer.
A user may access the website of the retailer directly (if he knows the IP address of the retailer) or indirectly through the search engine. Once the user has accessed the website, he may first be required to enter a descriptive term or keyword of the desired product.
In response, the search engine may return an identifier of the retailer and an embedded hyperlink to the retailer. The user may then select the retailer and, in turn, be routed to the retailer's website.
Once at the retailer's website, the user may arrive at a home page and be allowed to browse through subsequent pages of the website, going from one page to another. Access to subsequent pages may be provided through a menu downloaded to the user or through a local search engine resident within the website.
While at the website of the retailer, the user may decide to purchase certain merchandise presented through the website. To accomplish a purchase, the user may be requested to enter a credit card number or other indication of financial responsibility. Upon checking the authenticity of any entered credit card number, the retailer may complete the transaction by forwarding the merchandise.
While the use of websites for merchandising has proved successful, the information exchange capacity of Internet websites far exceeds current usage. Accordingly a need exists for a way of expanding website usage to other business purposes, such as property management.


A monohull vessel for laying a pipeline includes tensioners 13 disposed along a Pipelaying path P. The pipelaying path P includes an upstream portion that is substantially horizontal and at least 10 m above the center of rolling R of the vessel and, towards a stern end of the vessel hull, a downstream portion that is downwardly inclined and, in use, enters the water at a location inboard of the stern end of the vessel hull 1.

When laying a pipeline at sea one of two methods is commonly used: either the "S" laying method or the "J" laying method. The two methods are named in accordance with the general shape adopted by the pipeline during laying. In "S" laying, the pipeline leaves the vessel at little or no inclination to the horizontal, adopts a steeper inclination in the water and then returns to a generally horizontal disposition on the seabed. In "J" laying, the pipeline leaves the vessel at a steep or vertical inclination and the inclination steadily reduces until the pipeline is in a generally horizontal disposition on the seabed. As interest in laying pipeline in deep water has increased, so "J" laying has become more attractive because the pipeline naturally adopts a vertical or near-vertical orientation far from the seabed. "J" laying is not, however, preferred in shallower water where the natural path of the pipeline is only ever inclined at a shallow angle as it passes to the seabed and "S" laying is therefore advantageous.
When designing a vessel it is in principle possible to equip it for both "J" laying and "S" laying and then to choose which laying technique to use in any particular case. That is, however, an unsatisfactory solution because of the size and cost of the equipment required. Another solution that has been proposed is to provide a "J" lay vessel in which the "J" lay tower can be pivoted to any of a variety of angles according to the depth of the water. A problem with that solution is that the same tower has to be able to be operated over a wide range of angles, which, for example, makes it difficult to provide welding stations on the tower.
"S" laying can be employed in deep water provided the pipeline being laid can be supported from the vessel until it has reached a relatively steep inclination to the horizontal. That, however, requires a considerable length of support, because the radius of bending to which the pipeline can be subjected is limited, especially in the case of large diameter pipelines.
One approach to providing an "S" laying vessel includes providing a semisubmersible vessel with twin keels. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,257,718 shows such an arrangement. Another approach to providing an "S" laying vessel involves providing a monohull vessel as shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,823,712. An advantage of a twin keel semisubmersible vessel is that it can provide a relatively roll-free environment for the pipe laying and also considerable amounts of space to either side of a central pipe laying path on the vessel (also known to those skilled in the art as "the firing line"). The extra breadth of such a vessel and its relatively large draught are, however, disadvantages compared to a monohull vessel.
In order to benefit from having a monohull vessel, it is desirable to keep the dimensions of the vessel as small as possible, while providing the necessary facilities. When laying small diameter pipes it is sometimes preferred to provide a long length of prefabricated pipeline on a reel and to lay the pipeline by unwinding the reel, but especially for large diameter pipelines it is usual to form the pipeline from discrete lengths of pipe each typically about 12 m long. In this case it is desirable to weld individual lengths of pipe into prefabricated pipe lengths (also referred to herein as "jointed pipe sections") consisting of, say, two, three or four individual lengths of pipe and then to weld the prefabricated pipe lengths to the end of the pipeline as it is being laid. Such a procedure enables the speed of laying to be increased over that which would apply if each individual pipe length were welded in turn to the end of the pipeline as it is laid. Thus the vessel is required to accommodate welding stations and other facilities for preparing prefabricated pipe lengths.
A monohull vessel is susceptible to rolling when at sea and, in order to reduce the effect that the rolling action has, it is desirable to have the welding station(s) at which a new prefabricated pipe length is added to the pipeline being laid close to the axis of rolling; the rolling action then causes only a little oscillating movement at the welding stations.
A monohull vessel of this kind is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,823,712. The vessel has a horizontal pipelaying path in the region of the rolling axis of the vessel and this path extends substantially the whole length of the vessel and accommodates at the upstream (bow) end the necessary welding stations for welding new prefabricated pipe lengths to the pipeline and at the downstream (stern) end tensioners for tensioning the pipeline between the vessel and the seabed. In order to provide controlled bending of the pipeline away from the horizontal a "tail unit" is provided that projects from the stern of the vessel hull and that is of a length comparable to that of about half the length of the vessel hull. The pipeline therefore leaves the stern of the vessel hull at an angle only gently inclined to the horizontal and the tail unit provides a long extension to the vessel.
The arrangement just described is useful in providing a lay path along which to first weld, then tension and then bend the pipeline but has the disadvantages that the part of the pipeline being laid over the tail unit is exposed (which is a particular problem in icy waters) and that the load applied to the vessel by the pipeline is applied at the end of the tail unit which is much further from the barycentre (centre of gravity) of the vessel than the stern of the vessel hull and can therefore apply large moments (torques) to the vessel.
It is an object of the invention to provide a monohull vessel for laying a pipeline and a method of laying a pipeline which overcomes or mitigates at least some of the disadvantages described above.


A multiple plate friction clutch includes clutch plates or discs having reduced frictional (spin) losses and thus reduced heat generation and improved service life. The clutch plates include both leaf springs or spring tabs at the periphery of the clutch plate that axially bias adjacent plates away from one another and a reduced area of friction material that contacts an adjacent reaction plate. On a typical motor vehicle automatic transmission clutch, a total of six or eight leaf springs or tabs are utilized: with three or four offset to one side and three or four offset to the other side.

The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may or may not constitute prior art.
Vast numbers of automatic transmissions installed in motor vehicles utilize a plurality of friction clutches and brakes. Basically these devices include a first plurality of clutch plates or discs coupled to a first member which are interleaved with a second plurality of clutch plates or discs coupled to a second member. An adjacent actuator which may be electrically, hydraulically or pneumatically powered engages and releases the device. If the device is a clutch both members are capable of rotation and one is typically an input and the other an output. If the device is a brake, one member is capable of rotation and the other is grounded (stationary).
As common as these devices are, and because of this, given the engineering effort expended upon them, it may be surprising that they are not without their drawbacks. When these devices are utilized in automatic transmissions, typically between components of planetary gear assemblies, the speed across an open clutch or brake may exceed 5,000 r.p.m. Operation at such speeds invariably results in heat generation which in itself can be an issue but which also results in spin losses and reduces the efficiency of the transmission and the entire powertrain. Reducing the speed across the clutch or brake is one possible solution but it often involves many operational compromises. Accordingly, research directed to the problem of reducing clutch drag at all operating speeds is ongoing and the present invention is the result of such research.


Sacrificial plugs for forming contacts in integrated circuits, as well as methods of forming connections in integrated circuit arrays are disclosed. Various pattern transfer and etching steps can be used to create densely-packed features and the connections between features. A sacrificial material can be patterned in a continuous zig-zag line pattern that crosses word lines. Planarization can create parallelogram-shaped blocks of material that can overlie active areas to form sacrificial plugs, which can be replaced with conductive material to form contacts.

1. Field of the Inventions
The disclosed inventions relate generally to integrated circuit fabrication, techniques for fabrication of computer memory, and contact formation therefor.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a consequence of many factors, including demands for increased portability, computing power, memory capacity, and energy efficiency in modern electronics, integrated circuits are continuously being reduced in size. To facilitate these size reductions, the sizes of the constituent features, such as electrical devices and interconnect line widths, that form the integrated circuits, are also constantly being decreased.
The trend of decreasing feature size is most evident in memory circuits or devices, such as dynamic random access memories (DRAMs), static random access memories (SRAMs), ferroelectric (FE) memories, etc. To take one example, DRAM typically comprises millions of identical circuit elements, known as memory cells.
By decreasing the sizes of constituent electrical devices and the conducting lines that access them, the sizes of the memory devices incorporating these features can be decreased. Storage capacities for a given chip area can thus be increased by fitting more memory cells onto memory devices without increasing the overall size of the devices.
The continual reduction in feature size places ever greater demands on the techniques used to form the features. One well-known technique is photolithography, commonly used to pattern features, such as conductive lines, on a substrate. The concept of pitch can be used to describe the size of these features. For the repeating patterns typical of memory arrays, pitch is defined as the distance between an identical point in two neighboring features. Adjacent features are typically separated by a material, such as an insulator. As a result, pitch can be viewed as the sum of the width of the feature and of the width of the space or material separating that feature from a neighboring feature. Due to optical factors, such as lens limitations and light or radiation wavelength, photolithographic techniques have minimum pitches below which a particular photolithographic technique cannot reliably form features. This minimum pitch is commonly referred to by a variable defining one half of the minimum pitch, or feature size F. This variable is often referred to as a "resolution." The minimum pitch definable by photolithography, 2F, places a theoretical limit on feature size reduction.
One method for improving the density possible using conventional photolithographic techniques is to change the layout of a memory device in order to fit more memory cells in the same area without changing the pitch. Using such a method, the size of the memory device can be reduced without exceeding the minimum pitch, 2F, dictated by optical limitations. Alternatively, the memory device may be configured to hold more memory cells, while maintaining a constant pitch.
Memory layout changes, particularly those accompanied by increased feature density, and other factors have contributed to the need for improved subcomponent configurations and methods for forming subcomponents that are adapted to the memory layout changes.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Disposable pillars for contact formation


An appropriate catalyst is found for synthesis of an unsaturated carboxylic acid and/or a derivative thereof using as a raw material compound a hydroxycarboxylic acid and/or a derivative thereof that can easily be synthesized from a polysaccharide such as biomass-derived cellulose, and an efficient method for synthesizing the unsaturated carboxylic acid and/or the derivative thereof is provided. This method is a method for synthesizing an unsaturated carboxylic acid and/or a derivative thereof, wherein an apatite compound is used as a catalyst to synthesize the unsaturated carboxylic acid and/or the derivative thereof from a biomass-derived hydroxycarboxylic acid and/or a derivative thereof by a dehydration reaction.

Acrylic acid is a raw material monomer for polyacrylic acids or acrylic acid-based copolymers. With increase in the amount of water-absorbing resins (polysodium acrylate) used, its production amount is increasing. The acrylic acid is usually manufactured by synthesizing acrolein from propylene, which is a petroleum-derived raw material, and subjecting the acrolein to catalytic gas phase oxidation to be converted into an acrylic acid (for example, patent document 1).
However, there is a concern that the petroleum-derived raw materials will be depleted in future. From such reasons, studies have been made aimed at obtaining an unsaturated carboxylic acid from biomass. For example, a method for synthesizing an unsaturated carboxylic acid or an ester thereof from an ammonium salt of a hydroxycarboxylic acid is disclosed in patent document 2.

Method for synthesizing unsaturated carboxylic acid and/or derivative of same


The present invention is a method and system for administering nitrous oxide. The system includes a fluid control system for controlling the flow of nitrous oxide and oxygen to the patient. A nitrous oxide and oxygen supply, vacuum source, a breather bag, and a nasal delivery interface system are fluidly connected to the fluid control system and a patient. The fluid control system also includes a safety scavenge system including a mass airflow sensor, master controller, nitrous oxide valve, and alarm. The mass airflow sensor reads the scavenging vacuum pressure which it communicates to the master controller. Depending upon the scavenging vacuum pressure, the master controller can activate an alarm or shut off the flow of nitrous oxide. In operation, the present invention provides a system for administering anesthesia/analgesia gas which prevents excessively high volumes of exhaled nitrous oxide in the operatory environment through monitoring of the scavenge vacuum pressure.

The present invention relates to a system for administering gas. More particularly, the present invention relates to a system for administering anesthesia/analgesia gas which provides convenient, direct access by a medical practitioner, a clear line of vision for the medical practitioner, and flexibility to accommodate the patient and medical professional's needs.
N2O analgesia has been used for over a century to successfully relax and sedate dental patients. Originally and until recently the application of these gages was virtually unrestricted and thus the supply system required was relatively unencumbered. With the advent of mandatory scavenge systems for nitrous delivery, these units became much more bulky and difficult to use in day to day practice and this utilized rate declined.
Typically, the compressed medical gages are delivered to the practitioner's facility in gas cylinders. These cylinders either connect to a central distribution system, serving multiple operating rooms, or they are portable and are mounted on rolling carts which serve one operating room and patient. These cylinders are connected via hoses or piping to a regulating system which controls delivery pressure, flow rate and blended ratio. There are monitors, gages and other devices to provide information to the practitioner regarding the delivery parameters. From the control device, gas flows via flexible hoses to a nasal delivery interface device. As shown in FIG. 1, vacuum scavenging of expelled gases flows from the nasal delivery interface device, via flexible tubing, into the centralized building vacuum utility system.
These essential components are incorporated into support systems. Systems commonly found in the art fall into three general categories: a) cart mounted tanks and controls, b) cart mounted controls and c) wall or stationary cabinet mounted controls.
Cart mounted tanks and control systems utilize an open or closed, wheeled cart. (FIGS. 4, 9). Portable O2 and N2O tanks are mounted on the cart. The control system and breather bag are usually mounted on a center pole attached to an open cart or supported by the shell of an enclosed cart. The patient supply tubing connects the cart outlet to the nasal delivery interface device. Referring to FIG. 2, the scavenging tubing connects the nasal delivery interface device via flexible tubing into the centralized building vacuum utility system.
As illustrated in FIGS. 1-2, current systems running from the control devices to the nasal delivery interface device use multi lumen hose systems which are long, heavy, complex and somewhat stiff. They pull on the patient's head and limit practitioner accessibility to the patient's mouth area. As a result they also limit the ability of the practitioner to reposition the patient's head.
Cart mounted control systems are similar to those above, except that the O2 and N2O are supplied from a central source via floor or wall gas outlets rather than from in situ tanks. Flexible hoses route the gases from the outlet to the control system. The control system and breather bag are mounted on a center pole attached to an open, wheeled cart. The patient supply tubing connects the cart outlet to the nasal delivery interface device. The scavenging tubing connects the nasal delivery interface device via flexible tubing into the centralized building vacuum utility system.
As illustrated in FIG. 3, wall and cabinet mounted systems have the O2 and N2O gas supplied via flexible or rigid tubing from a central source. This tubing is enclosed in the walls of the operatory with other centralized utilities. The control system and breather bag are mounted to the wall or cabinet unit. The mounting may be a flush mount, surface or articulated arm mount design. Long patient supply tubing connects the control systems to the nasal delivery interface device on the patient. Long scavenging system tubing connects the nasal delivery interface device into the centralized building vacuum utility system.
Also, wall mounted systems are typically separated from the patient chair by a work surface or passageway. Wall mount systems have long hose lengths between the control devices and the nasal delivery interface device. The longer the hose length, the longer the latency period between changing a control setting and the patient actually receiving that changed gaseous output. In addition, the hose position and length interferes with operator positioning. Tubing runs from the wall mounted, control system outlet to the nasal delivery interface device. This tubing crosses a passageway or work surface and blocks or encumbers which ever of these it traverses.
As illustrated in FIGS. 4-8, cart mounted systems can be located behind one of the practitioners or tucked under the back of the patient chair. In either case, visual monitoring of critical information in impeded. This is a dangerous situation because unknown changes occurring in the gaseous anesthetic system can be detrimental to the patient. Additionally, excess gas expelled into the operatory is harmful to the practitioners.
Also, carts located in the passageways, or workplace around the patient chair, cause inference as the practitioners move around the patient. Staff can trip over the carts and be injured and the flow of other technology and emergency access is impeded. As well as the cost of damaging an anesthetic system, rupturing any high pressure, 2000 psi, system can be very dangerous to all occupants of the operatory.
There are two main drawbacks of the systems describe above. First, current systems usually put the system controls out of direct reach of the medical professional when he/she is seated in normal treatment positions. This limitation is especially burdensome with wall mounted systems. This makes it difficult for the medical professional to accomplish anesthetic system adjustments without walking around or reaching around the patient. This awkward arrangement slows access and response to emergency situations. Second, current systems often put monitoring device displays and gauges out of direct view of the doctor and assistant.
Therefore, it would be particularly desirable to provide a system or method for anesthesia/analgesia gas delivery provides a nitrous oxide anesthetic administration system which provides convenient, direct access by a medical practitioner line of vision for the medical practitioner, and flexible to accommodate the patient and professional's needs. Currently, there is no known nitrous oxide anesthetic administration system in the prior art which provides these benefits.

Nitrous oxide anesthetic administration system


A vacuum process apparatus has a plurality of cassettes for holding samples; a transporting means for transporting the samples; a plurality of vacuum process chambers each for processing samples one by one; an evacuation means for evacuating the vacuum process chambers; a load chamber and an unload chamber communicating with the vacuum process chambers; and an apparatus control means for controlling transporting and processing of the samples. The apparatus control means operates to measure a time period of transporting each of the samples and a time period of processing in each of the vacuum process chambers, and determines a next extracting order of extraction of the samples from the plurality of cassettes based on the measured time periods.

The present invention relates to a vacuum process apparatus comprising a control means for determining an order of loading samples of the vacuum process apparatus having a plurality of process chambers and a method of operating the vacuum process apparatus. More particularly, the invention relates to a vacuum process apparatus and a method of operating the vacuum process apparatus, which can improve the efficiency of processing samples in the operation of parallel processes using a plurality of process chambers.
A vacuum process apparatus having a control means for determining the order of loading samples into a plurality of process chambers is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 10-189687. This vacuum process apparatus has a system connecting a plurality of process chambers in which process scheduling is performed based on a priority order of the samples to be processed.
Further, a vacuum process apparatus for performing processing in parallel using a plurality of process chambers is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 63-133532. In a case where processing is performed in the vacuum process apparatus of a system connecting a plurality of process chambers to a transfer chamber in parallel, samples are loaded in the order of loading samples to the two process chambers so that the numbers of the samples from two sample cassettes become equal to each other.
In the case where processing is performed in a plurality of process chambers in parallel, since the processing time will not always be equal in all of the process chambers, even if samples are loaded in the order of loading samples to the two process chambers so that the numbers of the samples from two sample cassettes become equal to each other, there is a problem in that useless waiting time occurs in loading the samples into the process chambers.
An object of the present invention is to provide a vacuum process apparatus with the aim of improving the efficiency of sample processing in the overall vacuum process apparatus in operation of parallel processing using a plurality of process chambers and a method of operating the vacuum process apparatus.
In order to attain the foregoing object, the present invention is characterized by a vacuum process apparatus comprising a plurality of cassettes for containing samples; a transporting means for transporting said samples; a plurality of vacuum process chambers each for processing said samples one by one; an evacuation means for evacuating said vacuum process chambers; a load chamber and an unload chamber communicating with said vacuum process chambers; and an apparatus control means for controlling transporting and processing of said samples, wherein
said apparatus control means measures a time period during which each of said samples is transported and a processing time period in each of said vacuum process chambers, and determines the next extracting order of said samples from said plurality of cassettes based on said measured time periods.
Another feature of the present invention involves provision of a vacuum process apparatus comprising a plurality of cassettes for containing samples; a transporting means for transporting said samples; a plurality of vacuum process chambers each for processing said samples one by one; an evacuation means for evacuating said vacuum process chambers; a load chamber and an unload chamber communicating with said vacuum process chambers; and an apparatus control means for controlling transporting and processing of said samples, wherein
said apparatus control means calculates a required time until completion of preparation of the start of processing of a newly loaded sample using a time period of sample loading to and a time period of sample unloading from each of said vacuum process chambers, and a processing time period of each of the samples, and loads a sample from a cassette corresponding to a vacuum process chamber having the shortest required time among said vacuum process chambers to said vacuum process chamber.
Another feature of the present invention involves provision of a vacuum process apparatus comprising a plurality of cassettes for containing samples; a transporting means for transporting said samples; a plurality of vacuum process chambers each for processing said samples one by one; an evacuation means for evacuating said vacuum process chambers; a load chamber and an unload chamber communicating with said vacuum process chambers; and an apparatus control means for controlling transporting and processing of said samples, wherein said apparatus control means comprises:
a transporting and processing time measuring means for measuring and calculating a time period of sample loading to and a time period of sample unloading from each of said vacuum process chambers, and a sample processing time period in each of said vacuum process chambers;
a sample processing waiting time estimating means for calculating and estimating a required time until completion of preparation of the start of processing of a newly loaded sample using said time period of sample loading to and said time period of sample unloading from and said sample processing time period in each of said vacuum process chambers;
a sample processing order determining means having a function to determine a next extracting order of said samples based on data on said time period of sample loading to and said time period of sample unloading from and said waiting time period obtained; and
a sample transporting and processing control means having a function to control the overall vacuum process apparatus so as to perform sample processing and sample transporting based on the result determined by said sample processing order determining means.
The vacuum process apparatus in accordance with the present invention selects a vacuum process chamber among the plurality of vacuum process chambers which has the shortest required time period from completion of sample processing under way now to completion of preparation to load a new sample. That is, in the vacuum process apparatus performing processing in parallel using a plurality of vacuum process chambers, in order to shorten the waiting time period until loading of a sample transported to the vacuum process apparatus into the vacuum process chamber, it is necessary to select a vacuum process chamber among the plurality of vacuum process chambers which has the shortest required time period from completion of sample processing under way now to completion of preparation to load a new sample.
According to the vacuum process apparatus in accordance with the present invention, the order of processing samples is determined by taking the waiting time period into consideration. Therefore, the sample processing efficiency can be improved because a vacuum process chamber series capable of fast processing can process second and third samples, while a process chamber series of slow processing is processing a first sample.
According to the vacuum process apparatus in accordance with the present invention, the waiting time period in the vacuum process apparatus can be minimized. Further, it is possible to shorten the time period from extracting a sample from a sample cassette and performing processing to returning the sample to the cassette.
Furthermore, since the time period for completing processing for each sample can be shortened, the processing time period for one sample cassette can be shortened.
Still further, by shortening the time period of processing for a first sample cassette, the timing to start processing of a second sample cassette can be made earlier. Therefore, there is an effect in that it is possible to improve the sample processing efficiency of the overall vacuum process apparatus per unit time.

Vacuum process apparatus and method of operating the same


According to the present invention, a subject is prompted to take breaths that are different at least in depth, and the subject's motion associated with respiration is captured. A timing when the subject is scanned is controlled according to the captured motion of the subject associated with respiration. A two-dimensional detector formed like a two-dimensional plane detects an X-ray beam having passed through the subject. Data is collected from the two-dimensional detector to acquire volume data on the subject.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an X-ray computed tomography (CT) apparatus acquiring image data on a tomographic plane of a subject, for example, a patient, in synchronism with the subject's respiratory action, and in particular, to an X-ray CT apparatus including a two-dimensional detector detecting cone-beam X-rays emitted by an X-ray source and spreading in the direction of the subject's body axis (cone-beam [CT]).
2. Description of the Related Art
X-ray CT apparatuses are classified into, for example, fan beam (single slice) X-ray CT apparatuses, multi-slice X-ray CT apparatuses, and cone-beam X-ray CT scanners. Scan schemes for the X-ray CT apparatuses include, for example, helical scan and respiratory-gated scan (prospective-gating). Projection data acquired by helical scan is reconstructed by, for example, respiratory-gated reconstruction (retrospective-gating).
The fan beam X-ray CT operates as follows. The X-ray source emits fan-like X-ray beams. A plurality of detectors are arranged in a line in fan form so as to provide, for example, nearly 1,000 channels. The dose of X-rays having passed through a subject is detected by the plurality of detectors. The dose of X-rays detected by the plurality of detectors is digitally converted and collected by a data collection circuit. The data collection is performed about 1,000 times during one revolution of the X-ray source and the plurality of detectors revolved around the subject. Images are reconstructed based on the collected data.
The multi-slice X-ray CT includes an X-ray source emitting conical X-ray beams and a two-dimensional detector. The two-dimensional detector is made up of a plurality of detection elements arranged on a cylindrical plane so that N fan beam detection rows each of a plurality of (M) detection elements are stacked in the direction of a Z-axis (the direction of the subject's body axis). For the two-dimensional detector, the numbers of channels and segments are defined as M and N, respectively. The distance between the focus and the center of rotation and the diameter of an effective visual field are defined as FCD and FOV, respectively.
In the cone-beam X-ray CT scanner, the X-ray source emits wider X-ray beams in the direction of the subject's body axis. In the cone-beam X-ray CT scanner, data detected by the two-dimensional detector and collected from one direction corresponds to two-dimensional projection data. The cone-beam X-ray CT scanner performs three-dimensional image reconstruction based on two-dimensional projection data from multiple directions. The cone-beam X-ray CT scanner acquires voxel data on a certain volume simply by allowing the X-ray source and the two-dimensional detector to make one revolution.
For the cone-beam X-ray CT scanner, since the latter half of 1980s, research and development efforts has focused mainly on a system using an X-ray image intensifier as a two-dimensional detector. For example, the document "Volume CT of anthropomorphic phantoms using a radiation therapy simulator Michael D. Silver, Yasuo Saito, et al., SPIE 1651, 197-211, 1992" describes discussions on the results of scan of anthropomorphic phantoms using an experimental system that is a combination of a turntable and an image intensifier. The cone-beam X-ray CT scanner using the image intensifier has been used in some applications in order to capture the shape of an object offering a high contrast, for example, a bone or an imaged blood vessel.
A proposed cone-beam X-ray CT scanner includes scintillator similar to the multi-slice CT and photodiodes serving as detection elements. The proposed cone-beam X-ray CT scanner is combined with a continuously rotatable slip ring frame. The cone-beam X-ray CT scanner is described in, for example, the document "Large area 2-dimensional detector for real-time 3-dimensional CT (4D-CT), Yasuo Saito et al., SPIE 4320, 775-782, 2001".
An X-ray CT scanner using helical scan continuously revolves an X-ray tube and a detector around the subject, while moving a bed top plate with the subjected lying thereon, in the direction of the subject's body axis. Thus, the X-ray tube follows a spiral track relative to the subject.
To reconstruct an image, the X-ray CT scanner performs scan at a timing for a preset phase of respiratory movement obtained using a device monitoring the subject's respiratory action to collect data corresponding to a certain portion of the track of the X-ray tube. The monitoring device monitoring the subject's respiratory action may be, for example, a pressure sensor attached to the subject's chest, an air flow sensor measuring the flow rate of the subject's breath, or a device determining the respiratory movement by allowing software to analyze the subject's motion the image of which is captured by a camera.
The X-ray CT scanner uses a 360° interpolation method or a 180° interpolation method. The 360° interpolation method uses data for 180° on the opposite sides of a slice plane. The 180° interpolation method uses data for a total of 180° across the slice plane which is obtained using opposite beams.
The respiratory-gated scan adjusts scan timings in synchronism with the subject's breath during the scan. The monitoring device monitors the subject's respiratory action. The monitoring device may be, for example, a pressure sensor attached to the subject's chest, an air flow sensor measuring the flow rate of the subject's breath, or a device determining the respiratory movement by allowing software to analyze the subject's motion the image of which is captured by a camera, as described above. The respiratory-gated scan is performed at a timing for a preset phase of the subject's respiratory movement monitored by the monitoring device.
A technique is available for acquiring images of the same respiratory phase over a broad range in the direction of the subject's body axis. The technique repeats performing a scan in which the X-ray tube and the detector make one revolution around the subject at rest and moving the subject.
Specifically, first, the subject is moved in order to allow an image of a required slice position of the subject to be acquired. In this condition, the scan is performed at a timing for a preset respiratory phase. Then, the subject is moved in order to allow an image of the next required position of the subject to be acquired. The subject waits for the scan to be performed at the timing for the preset respiratory phase. If such a scan is performed to acquire volume data at different respiratory phases, the above-described series of operations are repeated at different respiratory phases.
In the respiratory-gated reconstruction, a postprocess is executed in which projection data acquired by the helical scan and which is consecutive in the directions of time and the subject's body axis is reconstructed into volume data for any respiratory phase. The monitoring device monitoring the subject's respiratory action may be, for example, a pressure sensor attached to the subject's chest, an air flow sensor measuring the flow rate of the subject's breath, or a device determining the respiratory action by allowing software to analyze the subject's motion the image of which is captured by a camera, as described above. The monitoring device monitoring the subject's respiratory action monitors the subject's respiratory action to output respiratory monitoring signals, for example, gate pulses or waveforms.
To perform the respiratory-gated reconstruction, the respiratory monitoring signals output by the monitoring device are stored together with the projection data. In the respiratory-gated reconstruction, data required to reconstruct the respiratory phase specified based on the respiratory monitoring signal is extracted from the projection data, to reconstruct an image covering the specified range. To allow an image for any position and any respiratory phase to be reconstructed, data on the same slice position needs to be collected for one cycle of respiratory time interval. Thus, the range of helical pitch is limited by the respiratory cycle, the number of detector rows, and the like.
However, one respiratory-gate scan allows volume data to be obtained for only one particular type of respiratory phase. Thus, images involving the subject's motion associated with the respiratory movement cannot be observed. By repeating the scan with the specified respiratory phase varied, volume data can be obtained for some respiratory phases. However, this is still insufficient for observing the subject's consecutive motions associated with the respiratory movement.
The respiratory-gated reconstruction enables the subject's motion to be observed under the precondition that the same breath is repeated. However, because of the precondition that the same breath is repeated, the respiratory-gated reconstruction is limited to resting respiration. Thus, the respiratory-gated reconstruction fails to enable diagnostic functional analysis based on motion associated with a conscious deep breath, for example, the motion between the maximal expiration and the maximal inspiration. For example, during the subject's maximal expiration or maximal inspiration, images of a site that cannot be observed at a resting respiratory level, for example, images of a tumor site, can be observed.
However, the respiratory-gated reconstruction is limited to the resting respiration, and thus has difficulty acquiring images during, for example, the subject's maximal expiration or maximal inspiration.
Such a cone-beam X-ray CT scanner is described in, for example, Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2001-242253.
An object of the present invention is to provide an X-ray CT apparatus allowing volume data to be obtained for any respiratory phase of the subject's motion associated with deep respiratory movement, even during a non-reproducible breath such as a conscious deep breath.


The invention is directed to a structured liquid fabric treatment composition comprising as added components one or more silicone-based cationic fabric care ingredients preferably selected from the group consisting of cationic silicone polymers comprising one or more polysiloxane units and one or more quaternary nitrogen units; a structuring system comprising a structuring agent, a nonionic emulsifier and an anionic emulsifier; a cationic scavenging agent for the anionic emulsifier and a liquid carrier.

When consumers launder fabrics, they desire not only excellence in fabric cleaning, they also seek to impart superior fabric care benefits. Such desired fabric care benefits can be exemplified by one or more of: superior garment appearance; excellent tactile characteristics, such as fabric feel; fabric softness; reduction, removal or prevention of creases or wrinkles in garments; color care; superior ease of ironing; garment shape retention and/or shape recovery; and fabric elasticity. Compositions which can provide fabric care benefits during laundering operations are known, for example in form of rinse-added fabric softening compositions. Compositions which can provide both cleaning and fabric care benefits, e.g., fabric softening benefits, at the same time, are also known, for example in the form of "2-in-1" compositions and/or "softening through the wash" compositions.
Fabric treatment compositions for use in laundering operations have been known for many years. They are available in solid form, e.g. in form of granules, in form of compressed tablets, and in liquid forms, e.g. as liquid compositions. Current liquid fabric treatment compositions comprise a fabric care ingredient, which is typically a cationic compound. More typically the cationic fabric care ingredient is a cationic silicone polymer comprising one or more polysiloxane units and one or more quaternary nitrogen units. WO 02/18 528 (P&G, published Mar. 07, 2002) describes fabric care compositions comprising a cationic silicone fabric care component and a nonionic surfactant.
Cationic fabric care materials such as the silicone-based quaternary nitrogen materials just described are generally insoluble in liquid fabric treatment compositions. Accordingly they are generally found in such liquid products in the form of emulsions or dispersions. These liquid compositions will thus frequently contain, in addition to the fabric care agent, a structuring system comprising an emulsified structuring agent. Such a structuring system serves to stabilize the cationic fabric care materials within the liquid fabric treatment compositions and to provide such liquid compositions with suitable rheological characteristics.
The structuring systems for liquid fabric care compositions, typically in the form of emulsified, crystal-forming stabilizing agents, are frequently prepared as a premix and then added to the liquid products which contain the cationic fabric care ingredients. In preparing such emulsified premixes of structuring agent, care is generally taken not to employ any emulsifiers which would be incompatible with the cationic fabric care materials in the fabric care compositions with which the emulsified structuring system will be combined. Accordingly, such structuring systems will generally comprise a mixture of a structuring agent and nonionic, and/or amphoteric emulsifiers.
It has been found that addition of small amounts of anionic emulsifiers to structuring systems for cationic fabric care compositions can greatly enhance the ability of the structuring system to provide structured liquid fabric care compositions of especially desirable stability and rheology. However, it has also been observed that the fabric care performance of the silicone-based cationic active decreases dramatically with the addition of a structuring system containing even very low levels of anionic emulsifier. Without being bound by theory, it is believed that the decrease in the fabric care performance occurs due to an interaction of the anionic emulsifier with the cationic fabric care ingredient, e.g. via ion-ion-pair formation of the anionic emulsifier of the structuring system and of the cationic fabric care ingredient.
The present invention addresses this technical problem and provides a solution to overcome this problem. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide fabric care compositions showing improved stability and rheology, in terms of good emulsification, structuring, and viscosity, and still provide superior fabric care.
It has been surprisingly found that the addition to the compositions herein of a cationic scavenging agent for the anionic emulsifier of the structuring system solves the problem set forth hereinabove. Without being bound by theory, it is believed that the addition of a cationic scavenging agent prevents the interaction of the anionic emulsifier of the structuring system with the silicone based cationic fabric care ingredient.

Structured liquid fabric treatment compositions


On a channel region enclosed by a pair of diffusion layers 13A, 13B, a first insulating layer 15, a charge accumulative layer 17, and a second insulating layer 19 are stacked up in this order, and on the second insulating layer 19, two control gate layers 21A, 21B spaced across a gap G1 are disposed in the middle of the channel width direction. The charge accumulative layer 17 has discrete charge traps, and, accordingly, movement of charge in the layer is limited. In the charge accumulative layer 17, the charges injected depend on the writing voltage applied in control gate layers 21A, 21B and can be localized beneath the control gate layers 21A, 21B through which a writing voltage is applied. The presence or absence of charges can be controlled in every charge accumulative region beneath the control gate layers 21A, 21B, so that multi-value storage in the memory cell can be realized.

To realize a nonvolatile memory device capable of storing multiple values in a nonvolatile memory cell, hitherto, it has been proposed to provide a nonvolatile memory cell with plural states. That is, the electric charge injected in the floating gate is controlled in gradual steps and the threshold voltage of the nonvolatile memory cell is changed in gradual steps so that multiple values can be stored.
For example, when the writing charge is adjusted in four steps, two bits of data can be stored in each memory cell. In this case, as shown below, the data is written in at least two steps of applying writing voltage.
In the first step, a first voltage is applied to a memory cell in an erased state, and an electric charge is injected into the floating gate as the first step charge. In the second step, depending on the data to be stored, charges are injected into each memory cell by applying a second voltage or a third voltage higher than the second voltage in order to achieve a second step charge or a third step charge larger than the second step charge. As a result, the nonvolatile memory cell holds three writing states having different threshold voltages depending on the injected charge amount. With the addition of an erased state, two-bit data of four states may be stored. When reading out the data, differences in reading current amounts is detected depending on differences in threshold voltages of the nonvolatile memory cell.
In Japanese unexamined patent publication No. 2001-156275 (hereinafter referred to as Patent Document 1), as shown in FIG. 25, a memory transistor Trmc has a gate insulating film 120 including discrete traps and a control gate electrode 170. Switch transistors Trsw having switch gate electrodes 160-1, 160-2 are provided at both sides, and diffusion layers 140-1, 140-2 connected to source lines/bit lines are formed at the outer side. By writing locally into the gate insulating film 120, one memory cell operates as a multi-storage device, accumulating information of at least two bits.
The electric charge captured in the gate insulating film including discrete traps can hardly be moved in the horizontal direction on the substrate surface from the initially captured position. At present, a silicon nitride film, and a gate insulating film including fine particles of silicon nitride are known materials for the gate insulating film including discrete traps.
The writing operation is performed by injection from the source side. When the carrier passes the closed channel of either switch transistor Trsw, it is accelerated and energy is enhanced, while the carrier jumping into the channel of the memory transistor Trmc feels a high bias in the direction of control gate electrode 170 and is discretely captured in traps. Charges are accumulated with a certain distribution in the source region of the memory transistor Trmc. By conduction of the channels beneath the switch gate electrodes 160-1, 160-2 provided at both sides of the memory transistor Trmc, charges are accumulated at both sides of the gate insulating film 120 and two-bit data is stored.
In order to inject from the source side, the writing operation is conducted at the source side. The reading channel current may also be in the same direction.
In Japanese unexamined patent publication No. 2003-282741 (hereinafter referred to as patent document 2), as shown in FIG. 26, gate insulating films (SiO2 films) 250, 260 are formed on a silicon (Si) substrate 210, a pair of floating gates 270a, 270b are formed on the silicon oxide film 260, an ONO film 280 is formed to cover the floating gate 270 and silicon oxide films 250, 260, and a control gate 290 is formed as a word line on the ONO film 280. The pair of floating gates 270a, 270b are disposed independently on a source 230 and a drain 240 so that electrons from the source 230 and drain 240 can be individually injected and extracted. The floating gates 270a, 270b are side walls formed on a side wall of an insulating film which is later removed.
During the writing operation, electrons advancing in the channel from the source 230 toward the drain 240 gain a high energy near the drain 240 and become hot electrons, partly jumping over the silicon oxide film 260 to be injected into the floating gate 270b. Injection into the floating gate 270b can also be performed by inverting the bias relation of the source 230 and drain 240.
During the reading operation, while there is no electrons in the floating gates 270a, 270b, the channel is linked, and a current flows between the source 230 and drain 240, and data "1" is read out. While electrons are injected, the channel is cut off, and current does not flow between the source 230 and drain 240, and data "0" is read out. Thus, by writing, erasing, and reading out independently in the pair of floating gates 270a, 270b respectively, the storage capacity can be doubled.

Nonvolatile memory device, and its manufacturing method


A heat-pump type air-conditioner includes a potentiometer provided to output a voltage corresponding to a position of a slidable terminal movable on a register element. Based on the magnitude of the output voltage, one of a cooling mode, a stop mode and a heating mode is set, as is the speed of the compressor consequently, both the modes selection and the temperature control can be performed with one switch operation.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a control device for an air-conditioner, and in particular to a control device for an automotive heat-pump type air conditioner which can be shifted between heating and cooling modes through a valve, for example an electromagnetic valve, a three-way valve, a four-way valve or a check valve.
2. Description of Related Art
A typical heat-pump type air-conditioner or climate control system is described hereinafter. The heat-pump type air-conditioner generally includes a first heat-exchanger disposed within an air-conditioning duct, a second heat-exchanger disposed outside the air-conditioning duct, refrigerant expanding means such as an orifice or an expansion valve which are disposed between the two heat exchangers, a four-way valve for changing a flow direction of refrigerant in the two heat-exchangers, a compressor for compressing the refrigerant, and a receiver tank. The air-conditioner thus constructed is switched from a cooling mode into a heating mode or vice versa by shifting the four-way valve to change the flow direction of the refrigerant flowing in the first and second heat exchangers. Such a heat-pump type air-conditioner has an advantage in that both the heating and cooling modes can be accomplished by using one heat-exchanger, the heat exchanger functioning as a condenser for heating the air passing therethrough in the heating mode and as an evaporator for cooling the air passing therethrough in the cooling mode.
However, it is impossible in this type of air-conditioner, and also in other conventional air-conditioners such as those which use a three-way valve and/or an electromagnetic valve with no reversal of the refrigerant flow, as described in Japanese U.M. publication Nos. 50-21710 and 61-101020, to consecutively shift the heating mode into the cooling mode and vice versa while varying the temperature in a linear manner, and thus such air-conditioners must have two separate switches, i.e. a shift switch for shifting the air-conditioner between the heating mode and the cooling mode and a temperature adjustment switch for controlling the heating or cooling capacity of the heat exchanger, that is, for increasing and decreasing a rotational number or speed of the compressor.
Therefore, a driver or passenger must operate two switches in order to implement a particular temperature control request, which increases the difficulty of operating the air-conditioner, impeding safe operation of the vehicle.


A sex aid apparatus is disclosed utilizing an extended geometrical shaped handle for interchangeable attachment to intra-vaginal or anal penetration appliances and the manual manipulation thereof.

Various types of sexual aids for use in sexual stimulation have been in use since the dawn of man. A great number of mechanical and manual manipulative devices have been patented having a variety of shapes for both vaginal and anal penetration. Many such devices, also called dildos, are designed to simulate the male sexual organ in a manner so as to increase sexual stimulation through known methods and practices. Although the use of such devices is very well known within the art and are used by both men and women alone or as couples, women often seek solitary sexual gratification by artificial means for a number of reasons. For example, sexual dysfunction between married partners may render conventional sex between partners impossible due to disease and resulting medications. Further, a great many women simply have no partners and do not wish to subject themselves to potential harm from strangers who may be disease carriers.
Conventional therapeutic devices currently available include various types of vibrators and automated mechanical sex aids. Many of these sex aids require the use of another partner, either male or female. Such aids also include electro-mechanical reciprocating devices that are mounted stationary using springs or elastic harnesses and the like. Such devices generally require unnatural positioning and are awkward to use at best. Many are simply artificial, hand held tools, such as plastic or rubber vibrators, that provide stimulation but fail to gratify a woman who wants not only the ultimate gratification but also the feeling that she is actually having sex with a partner. Although there are a large number of sexual devices that closely resemble the male sex organ, they have been found to be heavy, expensive, and require a great deal of awkward manipulation and imagination to achieve any significant gratification. The problem with manually manipulated devices is that they require the user to hold a portion of the appliance in a manner that prevents the user from relaxing during penetration. In addition most appliances are not interchangeable to allow for a variety of shapes to be quickly exchanged and used with the same apparatus. Therefore, a long-felt but unfilled need still exists in the art for a therapeutic apparatus that more closely resembles sexual intercourse and that can be used at any tempo, manner, or degree of gentleness or roughness, as desired, by the user in a more natural position.
The present invention solves many of the unnatural positioning problems associated with manual manipulation of the prior art sex aids.


A method of wireless medium access for establishing a decentralized wireless network, the method comprising broadcasting of beacon frames by each of a plurality of devices; listening, at each device, for beacon frames of other devices; identifying, at each device, other devices who's beacon frames have been heard; and forming the decentralised wireless network as at least two dynamic networks, each dynamic network being centered around one of the devices and having said other devices who's beacon frames have been heard by said one device as network members.

The Open System Interconnection (OSI) standard established by the International Standards Organization (ISO) provides a seven-layered hierarchy between an end user down to a physical device through which different systems can communicate. Each of these seven layers performs different tasks and they are specified by the OSI standard for their inter-layer as well as inter-device interaction.
The physical layer defines the physical and electrical characteristics of the network. It provides the hardware means of sending and receiving data on a carrier. The data link layer defines the access strategy for sharing the physical medium. It also describes the representation of bits on the physical medium as well as defining the format of messages on the medium. In addition, it is also responsible for proper synchronization of data sending in blocks (or frames). The network layer provides a means for communicating open systems to establish, maintain and terminate network. In addition, it also handles routing and forwarding of data to proper destinations. The transport layer manages the end-to-end control and error checking to ensure complete data transfer, data reliability and integrity. The session layer provides for two communicating presentation entities to exchange data with each other. The presentation layer is where application data is packed/unpacked, ready for use by the running application. Protocol conversions, encryption/decryption and graphics expansion also takes place in this layer. The application layer is where end-user and end application protocols such as telnet, ftp and mail (pop3 and smtp) are found. Here, communication partners, quality of service and any constraints on data syntax are identified, and user authentication and privacy are considered.
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802 LAN/MAN committee, which develops Local Area Network (LAN) and Metropolitan Network (MAN) standards, has developed a three-layered architecture that corresponds to the physical layer and data link layer of the OSI standard.
The IEEE 802 standard includes a physical layer (PHY), which essentially has the same role and functionalities as the physical layer of the OSI standard. The data link layer of the OSI standard is broken down into media access control (MAC) layer and logical link control (LLC) layer. Together, the MAC layer and LLC layer shares the same functionality of the data link layer of the OSI standard. Individually, the LLC layer places data into blocks/frames that can be communicated at the PHY layer whereas the MAC layer manages communication over the data link, data transmission and reception, as well as data acknowledgement (ACK) frames.
FIG. 1 shows the block diagram of two wireless networks, for example (100) and (102), each is wireless personal area network (WPAN) that could use the IEEE 802 standard. Both networks apply to network settings whereby bandwidth is to be shared among several users, such as wireless local area networks (WLAN), or any other appropriate wireless network.
In FIG. 1, the first network (100), for example a WPAN, consists of a central controller (104) of the first network (100), as well as dependent devices, for example (106), (108), (110), (112), that connect to the central controller (104). The radio range (114) of the central controller (104) determines the overall coverage of the first network (100). Each device, for example (106), (108), (110), (112) in the first network (100) is able to communicate via unidirectional/bi-directional radio links, for example (116), (118), (120), (122) with the central controller (104). Devices connected to the first network (100) may establish direct peer-to-peer unidirectional/bi-directional links, for example (124), (126) with each other for communication, depending on their radio range or security issues. The central controller (104) controls the time allocation and the media access of the first network (100).
Typical wireless networks like the ones illustrated in FIG. 1, that each has a central controller to which other dependent devices connects to, use a MAC layer based on centralized control. One such example of centralized MAC is the IEEE 802.15.3 High Speed WPAN standard. Centralized control schemes for MAC layer have the key advantage of predictability of data throughput performance. This is due to the fact that the central controller allocates and manages the media usage of all devices in the network. However, centralized control schemes pose problems as described below.
The main problem of a centralized control is the dependency of all devices on a central entity for timing allocation. When the central control device goes out of range or switched off, the wireless network collapses unless another device takes over the role of the central controller. Such situations may occur frequently especially in ad hoc networks where devices are highly mobile. Thus, a centralized control based MAC layer is not suitable for ad hoc networks where the devices are highly mobile.
A second problem with a centralized control scheme is that devices in such a network are not guaranteed to be able to communicate with peer devices also in the same network, due to limited radio range. Being in a centralized network only ensures that each device is able to communicate with the central controller. With reference to FIG. 1, device 5 (112) is in the WPAN (100). To device 5 (112), device 1 (104), 2 (106), 3 (108) and 4 (110) are also in the same WPAN (100). Yet, device 5 (112) can only communicate with device 1 (104) and not the rest of the members of the WPAN (100) due to its range limitation.
A third problem with a centralized control scheme is illustrated using FIG. 1. Here, the network environment (128) consists of, for example two WPANs (100) and (102) respectively, centred around controllers device 1 (104) and device 6 (130) respectively. Due to the fact that device 4 (110) and device 7 (132) belong to different WPANs, ie. (100) and (102) respectively, they are not able to communicate although they are positionally close to each other. From an end user point of view, for the case of an ad hoc device, this is an inconvenience issue. For example, a typical such scenario will be when a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) device placed by a user onto a desk in the office near a notebook PC and digital camera only for the user to find that the PDA can only communicate with the digital camera because the notebook PC is a member of a separate WPAN centred around another wireless device further away.
A fourth problem associated with a network based around a central controller is the issue of interference from neighbour networks. With reference to FIG. 1, device 4 (110) is out of range of device 6 (130), which is the central controller of WPAN (102). Likewise for device 7 (132), it is out of range of device 1 (104), which is the central controller of WPAN (100). This means that device 1 (104) and device 6 (130) has no idea of the existence of device 7 (132) and device 4 (110) respectively as well as their relative close proximity, due to both belonging to different networks, for example (100) and (102). Therefore, interference may occur when device 1 (104) or device 3 (108) sends data to device 4 (110) and simultaneously, when device 7 (132) sends data to device 6 (130). Since device 7 (132) is relatively close to device 4 (110), interference may be experienced at the receiving device 4 (110).

Medium access for de-centralized wireless network

Matsushita Electrical Industrial Co., Ltd.


The invention relates to a method of treating a catabolic dysfunction in an animal, which comprises administering to an animal a therapeutically effective amount of glutamine, or an analog thereof.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for treating or preventing tissue damage in an animal afflicted with a catabolic dysfunction.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Catabolic dysfunctions are those physiological conditions in which the degradation of an anatomical structure occurs. Anatomical structures commonly affected in this manner are skeletal muscle and the lining of the gut. Often such catabolic activity occurs following surgery, sepsis, burn injury, cancer chemotherapy, radiation therapy/injury, glucocorticoid therapy or, often, inadequate food intake. Such catabolic dysfunctions are a major cause of death and disability and are characterized by abnormal glutamine metabolism.
Glutamine is a non-essential amino acid which can be synthesized by most tissues. Unlike most amino acids, glutamine has two amine moieties: an alpha-amino group and an amide group. It is the presence of the amide group which enables glutamine to remove ammonia from the peripheral tissues of the body and transport nitrogen to visceral organs. In addition, it is common for tissues that remove glutamine from the circulation to utilize the carbon skeleton for energy.
Glutaminase and glutamine synthetase are the two principal enzymes involved in the regulation of glutamine metabolism. Glutaminase catalyzes the hydrolysis of glutamine to glutamate and ammonia, while glutamine synthetase catalyzes the synthesis of glutamine from glutamate and ammonia. While most tissues have both of these enzymes, usually one is more active than the other, depending on the particular tissue.
Glutamine synthesis and exportation occurs primarily in skeletal muscle and the brain. In turn, glutamine is consumed by such replicating cells as fibroblasts, lymphocytes, tumor cells and intestinal epithelial cells. Characteristically, these cells possess high levels of glutaminase activity and low levels of intracellular glutamine. This fact may also be clinically significant for patients having large wounds, inflammation associated with infection, or a gastrointestinal dysfunction which precludes normal enteral feeding since, in these cell types, the desirable proliferation of cells in these conditions may depend on the availability of sufficient levels of glutamine.
In the gastrointestinal tract, glutamine is used as a respiratory fuel. The enteral administration of glutamine results in increased uptake of luminal glutamine by the gut mucosa accompanied by a simultaneous decrease in uptake of glutamine from the circulation. Thus, the consumption of glutamine by the gut is balanced between these two sources of glutamine.
Most of the glutamine taken up by the gastrointestinal tract occurs via the epithelial cells lining the villi of the small intestine. The glutamine metabolism which occurs in the small intestine provides a major source of energy for the gut and produces precursors for hepatic ureagenesis and gluconeogenesis by processing nitrogen and carbon from other tissues.
Evidence of the essential role of glutamine in the maintenance of normal intestinal structure and function was suggested in a study by Baskerville et al., British Journal of Experimental Pathology, 61: 132 (1980). These authors lowered the concentration of plasma glutamine to undetectable levels by infusing purified glutaminase into rhesus monkeys, marmosets, rabbits, and mice. As a result of this treatment, these animals displayed vomiting, diarrhea, villus atrophy, mucosal ulcerations, and intestinal necrosis.
Martin et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 2,283,817) disclose a composition containing glutamine which is used as a detoxicant, rather than a dietary supplement. In the patent, glutamine is combined synergistically with other amino acids to act directly on a toxin to inhibit any deleterious effect.
In Shive et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 2,868,693), the patentees disclose glutamine-containing compositions for the treatment of peptic ulcers.
Further evidence of the potential protective effect of glutamine was shown by Okabe et al., Digestive Disease, 20: 66 (1975), who found that glutamine could protect against aspirin-induced gastric ulcerations in humans.
This visceral glutamine requirement may be even greater during critical illness, when glutamine metabolism by the small intestine is known to be increased (Souba et al., Surgery, 94(2): 342 (1983)).
At present, the nutritional requirements of patients who are unable to feed themselves adequately are met through the administration of enteral or parenteral diets. Enteral diets are usually administered using small-bore tubing which is placed through the nose into the gastric, or duodenal regions, or through surgical implantation as in, for example, gastrostomy, or jejunostomy. Those enteral formulas which are presently available can be divided into four basic categories: elemental, polymeric, modular, and altered amino acids. These formulae contain glutamine. The levels of nutrients present in the enteral diets, however, are generally based upon the dietary requirements of a normal individual and not that of a patient suffering from a catabolic disease.
Elemental formulas require minimal digestive action and are composed primarily of small peptides and/or amino acids, glucose oligosaccharides, and vegetable oil or medium-chain triglycerides.
In polymeric formulas, complex nutrients such as, for example, soy protein, lactalbumin, or casein are utilized as a source of protein; maltodextrins, or corn syrup solids as a source of carbohydrate; and vegetable oils, or milk fat as a source of fat.
Modular diets can be produced by combining protein, carbohydrate, or fat with a monomeric or polymeric formula to meet special nutritional requirements.
Formulas which are composed of altered amino acid compositions are used primarily for patients with genetic errors of nitrogen metabolism or acquired disorders of nitrogen accumulation, the object here being to limit the intake by the patient of certain amino acids which may be detrimental.
Parenteral diets are usually administered intravenously. These intravenous fluids are sterile solutions composed of simple chemicals such as, for example, sugars, amino acids, and electrolytes, which can be easily assimilated.
The term "total parenteral nutrition" (TPN) is used to describe formulas for use in patients who derive their entire dietary requirements intravenously. Total parenteral nutrition formulas, unlike enteral formulas, do not normally contain glutamine. The absence of glutamine from parenteral formulas is due, in part, to concern with respect to its instability at room temperature, and the resulting generation of ammonia and pyroglutamic acid. There has also been concern about the generation of glutamic acid from glutamine because of the potential toxicity of glutamic acid as a neurotransmitter. In fact, these concerns do not appear to be justified. At a pH just below neutrality, glutamine degrades very slowly (Souba, S.C.D. Thesis in Harvard Medical School Library, June, 1984).
Total parenteral nutrition results in villus atrophy, a phenomenon which is generally reversible when oral feedings are resumed. Since TPN formulas lack glutamine, the body's requirements for this amino acid must be derived from synthetic pathways in body tissues.
In patients with critical illnesses, net protein catabolism is associated with markedly diminished muscle glutamine pools (Askanazi et al., Annals of Surgery, 192: 78 (1980); Askanazi et al., Annals of Surgery, 191: 465 (1980)), reduced plasma levels of glutamine (Askanazi et al., Annals of Surgery, 192: 78 (1980); Askanazi et al., Annals of Surgery, 191: 465 (1980)), and a presumed increase in intestinal glutamine utilization (Souba et al., Archives of Surgery, 120: 66 (1985); Souba et al., Surgery, 94(2): 342 (1983)). Glucocorticoids are known to increase glutamine consumption by the small intestine (Souba et al., Surgical Forum, 34: 74 (1983)).
None of the prior art studies have shown that the breakdown of skeletal muscle, the atrophy of intestinal villi, or other catabolic dysfunctions, which occur during total parenteral nutrition, can be prevented through the administration of high levels of glutamine.

Method of treating catabolic dysfunction


A semi-conductive media transport is used with an ink jet printing system. A belt is held flat and slides across a conductive platen, causing electrostatic charges on the belt. The belt is made semi-conductive to prevent charge buildup. The belt has an effective surface resistivity between a lower limit to preclude a buildup of electrostatic charges, and an upper limit to enable electrostatic tacking of the media to the belt. The resistivity limits vary depending upon belt velocity, thickness, material, belt and media dielectric constant, and slot width. A pair of charged nip rollers tacks the media substrate to the belt. An AC corotron is disposed above the belt to establish a net neutral charge state on the media substrate and the belt. Platen slots directly below the ink jet print heads will maintain the net neutral charge state on the media substrate and the belt.

In media handling assemblies, particularly in printing systems, strong, consistent, and reliable tacking of the substrate media, such as a sheet of paper, to the media transport (hold-down transport in the print zone or image transfer zone, in this case a belt) is necessary. FIG. 1 depicts an exemplary production printing system that could make use of the semi-conductive media transport. Media is transported from a storage tray onto the belt using a traditional nip based registration transport with nip releases. As soon as the leading edge of the media is acquired by the belt, the registration nips are released. The substrate media is generally conveyed within the system in a process direction.
In order to ensure good print quality in direct to paper (DTP) ink jet printing systems, the media must be held extremely flat in the print zone. The belt itself is held flat against a platen. Further, once accurate registration of the substrate media is achieved, the media cannot be allowed to move out of registration as it is delivered to the print zone. Contemporary systems transfer media by means of laterally spaced apart drive rollers in registration nip assemblies. The rollers do not hold the media flat, and can subject the media to misalignment. Media acquisition by the belt can be by electrostatic tacking. The electrostatic tacking has the advantages of holding the media flat, and eliminating registration shift. In addition, a vacuum on the platen may be used to ensure flatness. A problem arises in that friction induced tribo-electric charges between the belt and the platen (and elsewhere) generate undesirable electrostatic fields in the ink ejection area which may adversely affect print quality. The use of a conductive belt will circumvent this but this can make it difficult to achieve desirable low, controlled fields between the media and a print head over a wide range of media properties.
One problem sometimes encountered in electrostatic tacking is charge migration and subsequent loss of tacking force between the media and the belt. This problem can be minimized by utilizing an insulating belt as a media transport. To avoid tribo-induced electric fields, a belt with sufficient conductivity, that is, a semi-conductive belt is desirable.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide an apparatus capable of holding the media flat by electrostatic tacking, and of ensuring tacking performance, while reducing tribo-induced electric fields, thereby avoiding the problems associated with the prior art.

Semi-conductive media transport for electrostatic tacking of media


A system and method for washing a gas turbine engine. The method for washing the gas turbine engine includes coupling a pressurized air supply assembly to an air supply and to a secondary air system, cranking a compressor rotor assembly of the gas turbine engine, supplying pressurized offline buffer air from the air supply to the pressurized air supply assembly, and spraying a cleaner into the compressor.

Over a period of operating time the compressor section of a gas turbine engine may accumulate deposits of ingested material and consequently become dirty. Dirt build up in the compressor will reduce its efficiency; this results in a poorer overall engine efficacy and therefore power output. Accordingly, the compressor requires periodic cleaning (sometimes referred to as "water wash"). There are primarily three types of wash systems: on-line wash system, offline crank wash system, and manual wash system. On-line washing basically consists of a process where by a cleaning fluid is sprayed into the air intake of the engine while running at full speed and loaded. Here, demineralized water is used and the droplets are sized to be large enough so that the drag forces are dominated by the inertia forces that tend to cause the droplets to impinge on the hardware of the compressor and provide the cleaning action. Offline washing is wherein the gas turbine engine spun by an external crank. Manual washing is where the gas turbine engine is shut down, and the gas turbine engine's components are washed manually.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,659,715 issued to Kuesters et al. on Dec. 9, 2003 shows an axial compressor and method of cleaning an axial compressor. In particular, the disclosure of Kuesters et al. is directed toward an axial compressor that includes a nozzle for injecting a cleaning fluid. The cleaning fluid is injected through the nozzles in a flow duct during operation, so that rear blading rows are also cleaned.
The present disclosure is directed toward overcoming known problems and/or problems discovered by the inventors.

Compressor wash with air to turbine cooling passages


Information from monitored systems is displayed in three dimensional cyberspace representations defining a virtual universe having three dimensions. Fixed and dynamic data parameter outputs from the monitored systems are visually represented as graphic objects that are positioned in the virtual universe based on relationships to the system and to the data parameter categories. Attributes and values of the data parameters are indicated by manipulating properties of the graphic object such as position, color, shape, and motion.

The operation of many complex systems requires an operator to monitor status of the system by assimilating a large amount of real-time status data received from various system components. Complex systems of this type include spacecraft operations, industrial plants, financial trading activities, and hospital monitoring of medical data from patients. All of these systems require important decisions to be made, sometimes quickly, in response to a myriad of data. Once the status of the system or the nature of a problem is understood, the system operator takes appropriate actions to implement decisions or to remedy the problem. In extreme cases, these actions may save the system from serious undesirable consequences. It is very important that this complex data be presented clearly and concisely so that the operator can obtain any information needed for diagnostic purposes as easily and quickly as possible.
Existing data display systems often use numerical or two-dimensional displays which require the operator to interpret and analyze the data and its relationship to other data. Some of the features of these kinds of displays are illustrated in FIGS. 1a-1c, which graphically illustrate how the composition of total information conveyed to a user varies over time for various interface types. The total information conveyed in these graphs is equal to the amount of "navigation data" plus the amount of "destination data". Navigation data is defined as that class of information that orients a user in time, space, location and direction; informs the user of progress in relative and/or absolute terms; and that contains addresses, instruction to proceed, and/or warnings not to proceed. Destination data is defined as that class of information that satisfies the user's desire for information, for example, by answering a question.
Typically, the goal of a user interface is to maximize the volume of available destination data while minimizing the delay in making the destination data available. As shown in FIG. 1a, an operator of a command-driven interface has very little destination data available initially and spends roughly half of the time traversing alphanumeric menus ("navigation data") to get to the desired data display ("destination data").
An operator of a menu-driven interface (FIG. 1b) typically can access a larger volume of destination data somewhat faster after first navigating through one or more menu items. However, the operator can become frustrated upon encountering several layers of sub-menus before being able to access the bulk of the destination data. This results in a drop-off (at time D in FIG. 1b) in the amount of available destination data.
In a graphical user interface ("GUI"), the operator traverses through various windows and screens to get at the destination data in a step-wise fashion as illustrated in FIG. 1c. Certain destination data may not be accessible until the operator has stepped through a number of windows, thus diminishing the operator's efficiency. These graphs were presented by Michael Benedikt in the article "Cyberspace: Some Proposals" which appears in the book Cyberspace: First Steps.
These shortcomings of command, menu and GUI driven interfaces are magnified in data intensive operational environments of the kind described above. The inventors recognized a need in these environments for an improved user interface that makes more information available in less time. Destination data is one example of such data. These problems are well illustrated in the example of spacecraft operation control.
During a typical spacecraft mission, data parameters from many different domains are monitored and/or analyzed in real time to ensure that the spacecraft and its instruments are working properly. A mission control site receives this data from the spacecraft by telemetry. In this setting high volumes of data are received at very frequent intervals. Monitoring this data poses a daunting and complex challenge. This is especially true when multiple spacecraft missions are being monitored simultaneously by a single system.
Early spacecraft data monitoring systems employed a panel of discrete, hardwired lights, each light corresponding to an individual data parameter. A team of human operators (e.g., flight controllers or analysts) monitoring the spacecraft mission, would continually observe the various lights to ensure that the spacecraft and its instruments were operating properly. A trained operator could readily determine whether error or alarm conditions were present simply by scanning the panel for the appropriate color light. For example, a green light might mean that a particular data parameter was within normal ranges, while a red light might indicate that acceptable levels for that parameter had been exceeded. The lights provided a dramatic and immediately comprehensible indication of system status. This early light-panel monitoring system hence had the advantage of providing the operator with an intuitive sense of system health.
As spacecraft and their associated instruments became more sophisticated, light-panel monitoring systems became inadequate to handle the volume and complexity of the telemetry data that was being collected. Light-panel systems also were difficult and labor-intensive to adapt for new types of telemetry data that changed with each mission.
The next generation of data monitoring systems attempted to solve this problem. A computer system (for example, a work station) received telemetry data and displayed it in textual (i.e., alphanumeric) form on the display monitor. FIG. 2 shows a sample output of a typical text-based data monitoring system. The necessarily high volume of telemetry data causes the display screen to become cluttered and difficult to read. An operator relying on the text-based monitoring system in FIG. 2 is required to study and understand large amounts of alphanumeric information to accurately monitor the health of spacecraft. That task requires extensive training and considerable diligence on the operator's part. Even with sufficient training, using a text-based system to monitor data is fatiguing for the operator and frequently results in missed alarm conditions or slow responses to alarm conditions.
In short, text-based data monitoring systems do not generate easily recognizable indicators of changes in system status. Rather, a change in system status (even a potentially catastrophic one) is signalled merely by changing one or more alphanumeric characters to other lphanumeric characters on a display screen. The screen typically contains several hundred such alphanumeric characters, and even the most vigilant human operator can occasionally overlook an important alarm condition. Thus, there is a need for a system that can present a large amount of information to a user in a way that is readily understandable and in a way that conveys important conditions in a very noticeable way.
The data monitoring system of the present invention uses a three dimensional simulated space representation, (sometimes called a "cyberspace representation,"), to interface with, and to communicate complex, real-time information to an operator. A cyberspace representation utilizes various elements (e.g., time, space, sound, travel, and user presence in the computer environment) to convey information to the operator. The root word "cyber" comes from the Greek word "kybernan" which means "to steer or control." Literally, cyberspace means to steer or control space.
The cyberspace data monitoring system of the present invention may be implemented in conjunction with artificial reality or virtual reality systems. The cyberspace interface of the invention provides a graphically-oriented user interface where the operator is figuratively positioned within the user interface environment. The invention uses a visual representation to communicate information to the user. The interface appears to the user as a perspective view of a three-dimensional space from a particular vantage point. The user may move around within the three dimensional space, and thus change his view through manipulation of a cursor input device. As the user navigates through the three-dimensional space, the display changes to reflect the operator's new position within the space. This movement may reveal objects that were not previously visible from the operator's prior vantage point.
The use of this cyberspace representation allows the present data monitoring system to realize a "textless" or "minimal text" display that allows a human operator to assimilate and comprehend large quantities of data at a rate and to a degree much greater than previously possible. This is because the user interface of the invention is in a form similar to that used to comprehend real-world events. Rather than representing information in the form of multiple rows and columns of alphanumeric characters, data is depicted in the form of graphic symbols or objects which are positioned within a three-dimensional virtual universe. The respective dimensions of the virtual universe correspond to categories of information from various domains. For example, in one embodiment of the invention, these categories may include: the various spacecraft missions being monitored, various user-defined categories of data parameters that are relevant to the application, attitude control system, propulsion, Alarm Log and User-Defined. The Alarm Log category records all anomalous data values until they are acknowledged by the user. The User-Defined category allows copies of data values from any other category to be grouped together. A third dimension may correspond to certain user-defined alarm limits of state value for each of the data parameter categories.
The shape, motion, position, color and behavior of the graphic symbols are configured to convey an extensive amount of information about the current values of the data parameters to the human operator in an easily understandable and instantly recognizable manner.
FIG. 1d shows the Total Information to User graph for a cyberspace-driven interface. A cyberspace-driven interface does not require an operator to enter alphanumeric commands or to traverse menu items or windows before destination data is available. Rather, as illustrated in FIG. 1d by the three exemplary curves of cyberspace-driven interfaces, the operator has essentially instantaneous access to a considerable amount of destination data. This results in a greater amount of usable information being conveyed to the operator in less time.
Another advantage provided by the cyberspace-driven system of the invention is that its visual abstraction of data allows an operator to assess the qualitative status of the various spacecraft with not much more than a mere glance at the display screen. For example, in one embodiment of the cyberspace system of the invention, information about alarm severity is conveyed by the height of a pole extending from the graphical objects. In a text-based system, in contrast, severity information may be obtained only by manually referring to the alphanumeric alarm limits of the parameters of interest.
The cyberspace system also permits more data to be displayed on the screen at any one time. Only a part of one screen is used in the cyberspace system (in contrast to the multiple screens that are used for text-based systems), hence all of the telemetry data for an entire system can be displayed unambiguously in a fraction of the screen real-estate that has been previously required.
Yet another advantage of the cyberspace data monitoring system is that it allows multiple systems to be monitored simultaneously, and further allows related data parameters to be grouped (and re-grouped) by the operator logically in space. Thus, the cyberspace system is easily tailored to the specific needs of a particular system or to the preferences of a particular operator.
Standard computer graphics manipulation techniques are used to facilitate navigation through this virtual universe of data to alter the relative vantage point within the universe. Hence the operator may move between different monitored systems (such as different spacecraft missions) to inspect a particular data parameter or group of parameters in more detail than might be possible at a different vantage point within the universe.
The cyberspace data representation provided by the invention eliminates the need for an operator to read large volumes of textual material in order to determine system status. Rather, merely by scanning the attributes of the graphic symbols displayed on the screen, an operator gleans an intuitive understanding of the system status that extends far beyond the knowledge that could be imparted by a visual inspection of either a light-panel display or a text-based display.
Other advantages of the cyberspace data monitoring system include the following: an operator is able to recognize impending alarm conditions earlier and with greater reliability due to the intuitive nature of the cyberspace interface; operators may be trained faster and with greater efficiency; a plurality of sub-systems can be operated as a single system instead of as collections of sub-systems because the status of the entire system can be understood from one display; fewer operators may be required by enabling a single operator to effectively monitor larger components of a system; operators can become aware of problem situations before actual alarms occur and without needing to manually assess collected trend data; and operations differences between non-identical systems can be minimized.

Monitoring and analysis of data in cyberspace