A riding work vehicle that includes a running electric motor unit running and driving a driving wheel unit; a speed setting operation unit operated by a driver to set a target running speed; a working electric motor driving a work device that performs work on a worked object around a vehicle body corresponding to running of the vehicle body; and an exceptional speed controller that performs exceptional speed control to control the running electric motor unit at an exceptional speed lower than the target running speed in a case where load of the working electric motor evaluated by a work load evaluator that evaluates load of the working electric motor is abnormal load higher than a threshold value.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a riding work vehicle that includes a vehicle body having a driver's seat; a driving wheel unit supporting the vehicle body; a running electric motor unit running and driving the driving wheel unit; a speed setting operation unit operated by a driver to set a target running speed of the vehicle body; a running controller controlling the running electric motor based on the target running speed; a work unit having a work device that performs work to a worked object around the vehicle body corresponding to running of the vehicle body and a working electric motor that drives the work device; and a work controller controlling the working electric motor.
2. Description of Related Art
One of such riding work vehicles described above is a riding electric mower having a mower unit to mow the lawn as the work unit. Riding electric mowers have a hybrid vehicle type in which an electric motor supplies rotation power to right and left driving rear wheels and supplies rotation power to a mowing blade of the mower unit, and a battery as an electric source of the electric motor is charged by an engine. Riding electric mowers also have an electric vehicle type that has no engine.
The hybrid vehicle type riding electric mower is described in Related Art 1, for example. The riding electric mower described in Related Art 1 has a running electric motor in which right and left driving rear wheels are independently driven and controlled, and smooth turn is achieved by causing the rotation speed of the right and left driving rear wheels to be different from each other. Related Art 1 only describes that the electric motor rotating the mowing blade is controlled by on-off of a mower starting switch provided in the vicinity of the seat, and the mowing blade is not rotated while a driver is not seated in the seat. There is no description of control in which running and mowing are linked. The electric vehicle type riding electric mower is described in Related Art 2. The riding electric mower described in Related Art 2 uses an electric motor as a driving source of right and left rear wheels that are main driving wheels; a running driving source and a steering driving source of right and left front caster wheels; and a driving source of a mowing blade that is a mowing rotation tool constructing a mower. In this riding electric mower, however, there is no detailed description of rotation control of the mowing blade, and there is no description of linking the mowing blade and the running electric motor.
A walking-type battery-powered electric mower operated by a person while walking is designed to efficiently utilize electric power so as to perform mowing work for a long period of time because the battery is small and the capacity is small. In such an electric mower, described in Related Art 3 for example, a battery is connected to a direct-current electric motor in which a mowing edge is attached to an output shaft, and a control unit increasing and decreasing supply current to the electric motor depending on increase and decrease of load is connected between the electric motor and the battery so as to maintain the rotation number of the electric motor to be substantially uniform at a minimum rotation number or a rotation number close to the minimum rotation number which enables normal operation of the mowing edge even at heavy load. This control unit reduces power consumption of the electric motor to be a minimum necessary for mowing at heavy load; reduces power consumption more than necessary by curbing the rise of the rotation number of the electric motor at low load; and reduces change in the power consumption with respect to change in the load. The riding mower, however, performs mowing work while running at a relatively higher speed than a walking speed by using a motor or an engine. In addition, the variable range of the running speed is large and the mowing load as work load significantly changes corresponding to the running speed, which changes the work results. Taking this into consideration, mowing control in the walking-type electric mower cannot be applied without any change.    [Related Art 1] Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2009-255840 (paragraphs [0027-0089]; FIG. 3)    [Related Art 2] Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2010-184636 (paragraphs [0036-0117]; FIG. 10)    [Related Art 3] Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. H09-201126 (paragraphs [0006-0030]; FIG. 5)


A mechanism is provided for automatic determining of file transfer mode. A locale or an operating system of a client in a file transfer is determined. At least part of a transfer file is downloaded in a first text format to obtain first resulting bytes. The first resulting bytes are analyzed to determine whether the first resulting bytes match a character set of the locale or the operating system of the client above a first predetermined threshold. A determination is made as to whether the first text format should be used for downloading the transfer file based on whether the first resulting bytes match the character set of the locale or the operating system of the client above the first predetermined threshold. Responsive to the first resulting bytes matching above the first predetermined threshold, the transfer file is downloaded in the identified first text format.

This invention relates to the field of network file transfer. In particular, the invention relates to automatic determining of file transfer mode.
File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a standard network protocol used to transfer files from one host to another host over a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) based network, such as the Internet. FTP is built on a client-server architecture and utilizes separate control and data connections between the client and server.
FTP clients allow transfer of data in two modes—binary and text. The binary mode transfers bytes in their raw form. The text mode assumes the data contains text characters and performs any required conversion during puts and gets as specified in the configuration of the FTP server.
An example of this is used by the operating system z/OS (z/OS is a trademark of International Business Machines Corporation), where text data is typically stored on disk using the Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code (EBCDIC) character set. Clients, such as personal computers, work with code pages based on the user's locale, such as American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) data, so when doing an ftp put with the text mode, the conversion from the client codepage, such as ASCII, to server EBCDIC is performed by the FTP server, and vice-versa when doing an ftp get. Files such as source code are typically handled as text, so clients author and store the files as ASCII, z/OS as EBCDIC, and transfers are performed with text conversion taking place across the wire. The default code page to use for conversion is typically a configuration setting on the server, and can be overridden by each client prior to a text transfer taking place.
There are other files which contain text which need to be stored in binary on the server. An example of this is Extended Markup Language (XML) files which have a UTF-8 encoding and need to be processed by server side Java (Java is a trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc.) programs which have been written to read UTF-8 text. An example used by the CICS (Customer Information Control System, CICS is a trademark of International Business Machines Corporation) transaction server is the cics.xml files that are part of a CICS bundle. These kinds of file need to be transferred between client and server in binary mode, so that no character conversion takes place and all characters remain in their raw bytes.
Known solutions to transfer files back and forth between client and server using the correct format may involve one or more of the following:                Having advance knowledge of the file type to be used based on the scenario in which it is being used;        Associating a file extension with a particular type (e.g. FileZilla, and most common ftp clients);        Letting the user specify which transfer type to use (e.g. Rational Developer for System z).
The disadvantages of these solutions are:                Advance knowledge of the file type based on the scenario does not work for a generic solution where the user wants to browse server files and select one to edit based on its path, rather than its usage.        Having to associate a file extension is not always sufficient as the same file extension can be text sometimes, and binary at other times. For example, cics.xml in a CICS bundle is binary, whereas atomservicedefinition.xml is text.        Letting the user specify which transfer type to use means that there is more room for error—the user can make a mistake and corrupt their data—and the user must have knowledge of file type and their usage, meaning the skill level required to use the client software is higher.
There may also arise situations in which the usage of servers has grown from one locale to multiple locales, such as when a business that was US English only has expanded to include customers with other languages and therefore non-ASCII codepage documents. A hybrid mix of documents may be found on a file system where older ones, or ones used by older systems, require storage in the original codepage, in this example ASCII, whereas documents which are stored by users in other locales are held in their respective code pages, and documents which must be accessed by users from more than one locale are stored in a neutral format such as UTF-8.
Therefore, there is a need in the art to address the aforementioned problems.

Automatic determining of file transfer mode


An electroluminescent phosphor powder includes copper-activated zinc sulfide particles that have a size distribution with a D50 value of no more than 10 μm, where no more than 25% of the particles have a size greater than about 15 μm and/or a 24-hr brightness of at least 15 footlamberts. These particles are made by a method that includes first firing copper-doped zinc sulfide mixed with zinc oxide, sulfur and a chloride-containing flux, rapidly cooling the mixture to below 100° C., and then mulling and second firing the mixture to provide a powder. The powder can then be elutriated to provide the electroluminescent powder with a narrow particle size distribution (more than 90% between about 5 and 15 μm). The elutriating step can be avoided (albeit with a slightly wider size distribution) by more tightly controlling the first firing temperature.

This invention relates to zinc sulfide-based electroluminescent phosphors which are used primarily in so-called thick-film electroluminescent (EL) lamps. More specifically, the invention relates to a method of making small particle size electroluminescent phosphors and to a powder containing small phosphor particles.
A cross-sectional illustration of a conventional thick-film EL lamp is shown in FIG. 1. The lamp 2 has two dielectric layers 20 and 22. A first conductive material 4, such as aluminum or graphite, coated on a plastic film 12b forms a first electrode of the lamp 2; while a thin layer of a transparent conductive material 6, such as indium tin oxide, coated on a second plastic film 12a forms a second electrode. Sandwiched between the two conductive electrodes 4 and 6 are two layers 20 and 22 of dielectric material 14 which can be, for example, cyanoethyl cellulose or cyanoethyl starch. Adjacent to the first electrode 4 is a layer of dielectric material 14 in which are embedded particles of a ferroelectric material 10, preferably barium titanate. Adjacent to the second electrode 6 is a layer of dielectric material 14 in which are embedded particles of an electroluminescent phosphor 8. The phosphors available for thick-film EL lamps are primarily comprised of zinc sulfide that has been doped with various activators, e.g., Cu, Au, Ag, Mn, Br, I, and Cl. Examples of these phosphors are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,009,808, 5,702,643, 6,090,311, and 5,643,496. Typically, the individual particles of the EL phosphors are encapsulated with an inorganic coating in order improve their resistance to moisture-induced degradation. Examples of such coatings are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,220,243, 5,244,750, 6,309,700, and 6,064,150.
Copper-activated zinc sulfide electroluminescent (EL) phosphors (ZnS:Cu) are well known. Such phosphors are typically co-activated with Cl and/or Mn. Examples of these phosphors and their methods of manufacture are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,859,361, 5,702,643, and 6,248,261. Some of the applications using electroluminescent phosphors require that the phosphors have small particles sizes. For example, EL phosphor paints used for decorating purposes require small particle size EL phosphors in order to make a stable paint suspension. Manufacturers of EL lamps are also interested in small size EL phosphor powders because they can produce more homogeneous EL phosphor layers and also save material costs since less phosphor is needed for a similarly sized lamp.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,643,496 describes how to make EL phosphors with a particle size under 23 μm. U.S. Pat. No. 6,702,958 describes how to make EL phosphors with particle sizes between 10 and 20 μm, with added emphasis on particle size distribution. However, solid state synthesis methods of making small particle size EL phosphors have not been well established. To obtain a material with a particle size under 15 μm, for example, the previously disclosed methods may generate large, wasteful, coarse portions which are subsequently discarded because the as-synthesized particle sizes were normally over 20 μm.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method of making electroluminescent phosphors with small particle sizes and powder with D50 value of no more than 10 micrometers


An activator of the Rse receptor protein tyrosine kinase has been identified which is encoded by growth arrest-specific gene 6 (gas6). Accordingly, the present invention provides compositions comprising gas6 polypeptides wherein the gas6 polypeptides are present in an amount effective for activating the Rse receptor. The present invention is further directed to articles of manufacture comprising gas6 polypeptides such as kits and containers containing gas6 polypeptide compositions and gas6 polypeptide In a liposome or adsorbed to a membrane.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to methods of activating the Rse tyrosine kinase receptor. More particularly, the invention relates to methods of enhancing survival, proliferation and/or differentiation of cells comprising the Rse receptor (such as glial cells) using gas6. The invention also relates to gas6 variants, particularly those which are less .gamma.-carboxylated than gas6 isolated from nature.
2. Description of Related Art
Specific signals that control the growth and differentiation of cells in developing and adult tissues often exert their effects by binding to and activating cell surface receptors containing an intrinsic tyrosine kinase activity. Mark et al. recently described the human and murine complementary DNA sequences of the receptor tyrosine kinase Rse that is preferentially expressed in the adult brain (Mark et al., J. Biol. Chem. 269:10720 [1994]). The extracellular domain of Rse receptor is composed of two immunoglobulin-like (Ig-L) repeats followed by two fibronectin type III repeats. Complementary DNA sequences encoding proteins identical to human (Ohashi et al., Oncogene 9:699 [1994]) and murine Rse (Lai et al, Oncogene 9:2567 [1994]) have been reported independently, and termed Sky and Tyro3, respectively. See also Fujmimoto and Yamamoto Oncogene 9: 693 (1994) concerning the murine equivalent to Rse they call brt and Dai et al. Oncogene 9: 975 (1994) with respect to the human molecule they call tif.
The expression of Rse in various tissues has been investigated. Lai et al., supra, found that, in the adult brain, Rse mRNA is localized in neurons of the neocortex, cerebellum and hippocampus. Schulz et al. similarly found that Rse is expressed at high levels in the cerebral cortex, the lateral septum, the hippocampus, the olfactory bulb and in the cerebellum. The highest levels of Rse expression in the brain were found to be associated with neurons. (Schulz et al. Molec. Brain Res. 28: 273-280 [1995]). In the central nervous system (CNS) of mice, the expression of Rse is detected at highest levels during late embryonic stages and post birth, coincident with the establishment and maintenance of synaptic circuitry in cortical and hippocampal neurons (Lai et al., supra and Schneider et al., Cell 54:787-793 [1988]). This process is believed to be regulated locally, by cells that are in direct contact or positioned close to one another. By Northern blot analysis, Mark et al., supra, found that high levels of Rse mRNA were present in samples of RNA from the brain and kidney. Dai et al., supra found that Rse was highly expressed in human ovary and testes. The expression of Rse in various human cell lines was also analyzed by Mark et al., supra. Little, or no, Rse mRNA was detected by Northern blotting of mRNA samples from the monocyte cell line THP-1 or the lymphoblast-like RAJl cells. However, the Rse transcript was detected in a number of hematopoietic cell lines, including cells of the myeloid (i.e., myelogenous leukemia line K562 and myelomonocytic U937 cells) and the megakaryocytic leukemia lines DAMI and CMK11-5, as well as the human breast carcinoma cell line MCF-7. In the cell lines examined, the highest level of expression was observed in Hep 3B cells, a human hepatocarcinoma cell line.
Rse is structurally related to Axl (also known as Ufo or Ark) and shares 43% overall amino acid sequence identity with this tyrosine kinase receptor. See O'Bryan et al., Mol. Cell. Biol. 11:5016 (1991), Janssen et al., Oncogene 6:2113 (1991), Rescigno et al. Oncogene 5:1908 (1991) and Bellosta et al. 15: 614 (1995) concerning Axl. Rse and Axl, together with c-Mer (Graham et al., Cell Growth Differ. 5:647 [1994]), define a class of receptor tyrosine kinases whose extracellular domains resemble neural cell recognition and adhesion molecules (reviewed by Ruitishauser, U. in Current Opin. Neurobiology 3:709 [1993] and Brummendorf and Rathjen in J. Neurochemistry 61:1207 [1993]). Like Rse, Axl is also expressed in the nervous system, but is more widely expressed than Rse in peripheral tissues.
Putative ligands for the Rse and Axl receptors have been reported. Varnum et al. Nature 373:623 (1995) and Stitt et al. Cell 80: 661-670(1995) recently reported that gas6 (for growth arrest-specific gene 6) is a ligand for Axl. Gas6 belongs to a set of murine genes which are highly expressed during serum starvation in NIH 3T3 cells (Schneider et al., Cell 54:787-793 [1988]). These genes were designated growth arrest-specific genes, since their expression is negatively regulated during growth induction. The human homolog of murine gas6 was also cloned and sequenced by Manfioletti et al. in Molec. Cell Biol. 13(8):4976-4985 (1993). They concluded that gas6 is a vitamin K-dependent protein and speculated that it may play a role in the regulation of a protease cascade relevant in growth regulation. Gas6 is expressed in a variety of tissues including the brain. See also Colombo et al. Genome 2:130-134 (1992) and Ferrero et al. J. Cellular Physiol. 158:263-269(1994) concerning gas6.
Stitt et al., supra further reported that protein S is the ligand for Tyro3. Protein S is a vitamin K-dependent plasma protein that functions as an anticoagulant by acting as a cofactor to stimulate the proteolytic inactivation of factors Va and VIIIa by activated protein C. Reviewed in Easmon et al. Aterioscler. Thromb. 12:135 (1992). Accordingly, protein S is an important negative regulator of the blood-clotting cascade. See Walker et al., J. Biol. Chem. 255:5521-5524 (1980), Walker et al., J. Biol. Chem. 256:11128-11131 (1981), Walker et al., Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 252: 322-328 (1991), Griffin et al. Blood 79: 3203 (1992) and Easmon, D., Aterioscler. Thromb. 12:135 (1992). The discovery that about half of the protein S in human plasma is bound to C4BP further supports the notion that protein S is involved in the complement cascade. Dahlback et al., PNAS(U.S.A.) 78: 2512-2516(1981). The role of protein S as a mitogen for smooth muscle cells has also been reported. Gasic et al., PNAS (U.S.A.) 89:2317-2320(1992).
Protein S can be divided into four domains (see FIGS. 1A, 1C and 1D herein). Residues 1-52 (Region A) are rich in .gamma.-carboxyglutamic acid (Gla) residues which mediate the Ca.sup.2+ dependent binding of protein S to negatively charged phospholipids (Walker, J. Biol. Chem. 259:10335 [1984]). Region B includes a thrombin-sensitive loop. Region C contains four epidermal growth factor (EGF)-like repeats. Region D is homologous to the steroid hormone binding globulin (SHBG) protein (Hammond et al., FEBS Lett. 215:100 [1987]). As discussed by Joseph and Baker (FASEB J. 6:2477 [1994]), this region is homologous to domains in the A chain of laminin (23% identity) and merosin (22% identity) and to a domain in the Drosophila crumbs (19%).
Murine and human gas6 cDNAs encode proteins having 43 and 44% amino acid sequence identity respectively to human protein S.

Compositions comprising gas6 polypeptides and articles of manufacture comprising the same


A method is provided for significantly reducing the distortion and crossfeed from any selected order harmonic for any number of vibratory seismic sources operated concurrently, at the same time providing for separation of the signals from the different sources and for improving the signal-to-noise ratio. After determining the highest order harmonic likely to cause distortion, a number of sweeps of each source in each position is selected. This number depends upon the number of sources and the highest order harmonic to be suppressed. Initial phase angles for each sweep of each source are then selected to permit signal separation while suppressing harmonics up to and including that highest order harmonic.

This invention relates to a method of coding signals from multiple geophysical vibrational energy sources used simultaneously in a geophysical seismic survey so that the seismic signals from each source can be separated in processing, at the same time providing for reduction of harmonic distortion and crossfeeding harmonics from the vibrational sources.
A common seismic survey method employs a single seismic source in conjunction with multiple geophone detector arrays arranged equally spaced along a line from the source. The source is activated a number of times in the same position, in order to improve the signal to noise ratio, and then the source and detector arrays are moved along the same line a short distance and the procedure repeated. This procedure is repeated along the predetermined length of the survey line and other designated survey lines in the area to be surveyed. The recorded data is then processed, usually by a digital computer at a headquarters processing department.
It is now common to use vibrational sources of seismic energy for seismic surveying. Typically, the energy is emitted in the form of a sweep of regularly increasing (upsweep) or decreasing (downsweep) frequency in the seismic frequency range. The vibrations are controlled by a control signal, which can control the frequency and phase of the seismic signals.
When only one seismic source is used, the survey procedure can be very time-consuming. With modern signal processing methods, the most expensive part of the seismic survey process has become the field survey period. This period could be shortened if more than one seismic source could be used simultaneously. However, multiple sources can only be used if some means for distinguishing between signals emanating from the different sources can be provided. Further, the vibrational source generates harmonics which, in certain circumstances, can have an energy approaching or even exceeding the fundamental, and which can crossfeed with signals from other sources, giving misleading results when the signals are processed to separate the signals from each source. In addition, the harmonics are a source of noise and can mask weak reflection signals from deeper layers.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,885,225 to Anstey et al proposes a method to distinguish between multiple sources. Anstey et al is directed to a method and apparatus for broad-line seismic profiling, using several vibrators simultaneously emitting signals. The normal emission frequency bandwidth is divided into several parts which are allocated to individual vibrators in a sequence of separate emissions, in such a way that mutually exclusive frequencies are radiated by the several vibrators at any one time. The detected signals are separated on the basis of frequency to represent the individual signals from each vibrator. However, the frequency limitation on each individual vibrator reduces the sensitivity of the survey. Further, the '225 patent admits that harmonic distortion in the vibrators or their coupling with the ground can impair the capacity of the correlation process to separate the signals from different generators, but makes no attempt to remove or reduce this distortion.
Another method of separating signals from multiple vibratory sources using phase shifting of the signals on different sweeps is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,715,020 to Landrum. However, the problem of harmonic distortion and crossfeed is not even mentioned in this patent. On the other hand, U.S. Pat. No. 4,042,910 to Rietsch does provide a method of suppressing harmonics using phase shifting, but only for a single vibratory source. Obviously, when there is only one vibrator, crossfeed is not a problem, so this aspect of harmonic suppression is not even discussed by Rietsch.
A recent patent, U.S. Pat. No. 4,823,326 to Ward, does claim a method for producing separate seismic records derived from multiple, concurrently operated vibrational seismic sources, with reduced harmonic distortion. However, the specification only teaches how to achieve this result for two sources, and there is no clue as to how the method could be extended to more than two sources. The selection of suitable initial phase angles for the sources by trial and error, which appears to be what Ward used, becomes almost impossible with larger numbers of sources. For example, when four sources are used, with sixteen sweeps for each source, there are over 1800 possible combinations to be investigated. Further, Ward does not even mention the problem of crossfeed of the harmonics from one source into the signal from another source, and there is no teaching how to solve this problem.

Method of source coding and harmonic cancellation for vibrational geophysical survey sources


The apparatus includes a fluid suspended, inner member, which has printed upon it a series of position bull""s eyes, which are connected by a path printed on the inner member. The inner member is contained within a transparent, watertight outer housing, which has a sighting marking printed upon it. The device is attached to the user""s head in a manner such that when the user moves his head, the outer member can move relative to the inner member. This allows the user to follow the path to visually track his correct head position through the posterior canalith repositioning maneuver sequence. Also attached to the user apparatus is an assistant apparatus which includes a hollow ball containing a liquid sufficient to form a small bubble which allows an assistant to follow a second path which corresponds to that seen by the user when he follows the user path.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method and apparatus for resolving benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV).
2. Background
BPPV
BPPV is classically used to refer to vertigo caused by loosened otoconia crystals in the posterior semicircular canal, the most common inner ear semicircular canal effected by loosened otoconia. To those trained in the art, given the current understanding of the pathophysiology of BPPV, the definition of BPPV is positional vertigo caused by loosened crystals in any of the membranous semicircular canals moving in response to gravity. This more generalized definition is the one used in this application. I will refer to classic posterior semicircular canal positional vertigo as posterior BPPV or PBPPV, horizontal BPPV as HBPPV and superior semicircular canal BPPV as SBPPV.
Pathophysiology of BPPV
BPPV is caused by 1) naturally occurring calcium carbonate crystals becoming dislodged and falling from their normally occurring position on the utricular macula and 2) a significant number of the crystals coming to be located in a membranous semicircular canal. When the patient places the head such that a particular semicircular canal is vertical, the loosened crystal(s) causes motion of the rotation sensor causing the patient to sense vertigo. These symptoms typically resolve when the loosened crystal dissolves in the surrounding endolymphatic fluid. If the loosened crystals can be moved out of the affected membranous SCC then the patient symptoms are markedly decreased or resolved.
Incidence of BPPV
90 million Americans (42% of the population) will experience vertigo some time in their life. Approximately three million people of the 250 million people in the US suffer some vertigo each year. Vertigo is the most common physician visit diagnosis in patients over 65 years of age. Seventeen percent of patients who have dizziness have benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV). According to Fife1, 91% of the BPPV patients were thought to have involvement of the posterior semicircular canal, 6% involvement of the horizontal canal (7.8% according to Takegoshi2), and 3% involvement of the superior (or anterior) semicircular canal. This application is directed to a new method and apparatus for the diagnosis and treatment of posterior BPPV and the treatment of benign paroxysmal positional vertigo in the horizontal and superior semicircular canals.
Types of BPPV
Posterior BPPV
PBBPV""s hallmark is vertigo when the patient moves into the affected ear downward position. The patient may also have symptoms of dizziness with looking up, or looking down. The diagnosis is clinically confirmed by placing the patient in the affected ear down position and watching a characteristic rotary motion of the eyes. Although some cases of BPPV follow head trauma, most cases have spontaneous onset of unknown origin. The natural history of positional vertigo is one of spontaneous remission, typically over 6 weeks. Recurrence is common and can last from weeks to months.
One ear is usually involved but reports of up to 15% of bilateral ear involvement have been made.
PBPPV is caused when a significant number of the loosened crystals come to be located within the posterior semicircular canal.
PBPPV Treatments
In 1980 Brandt Daroff3 described a sequence of maneuvers in which the patient sat on the edge of a bed/surface and lay down laterally with the head touching the surface. After the symptoms resolved he sat up and lay down on the opposite side. This was done every three hours while awake and terminated after two symptom-free days. This maneuver was thought to free the otolithic debris which was attached to the cupula of the posterior semicircular canal ampulla.
Semont4 described what he called a Liberatory maneuver in which the patient was rapidly moved from a sitting position to the provoking position and kept in that position for 2-3 minutes. The patient was then rapidly brought up through the sitting position to lie on the contralateral side with the head turned downward 45 degrees. The therapist maintained the alignment of the neck and head on the body. The patient stayed in this second position for 5 minutes. In this second position the vertigo reappears and resolves. After the vertigo resolved the patient was slowly returned to a seated position and remained vertical for 48 hours thereafter. This technique was thought to work by causing the debris within the posterior semicircular canal to fall out of the canal.
Norre5,6,7 described the use of vestibular rehabilitation maneuvers for the treatment of BPPV. Some support for this use of this compared to the liberatory and Epley canalith repositioning maneuvers has been expressed.
Epley8,9 studied and refined Semont""s Liberatory maneuver4. Epley""s maneuver is now thought to be the most effective technique for moving the crystals out of the posterior membranous SCC (posterior canalith repositioning maneuver).
This maneuver is defined by Epley8,9 as being made up of 6 positions: Start, and Positions 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. The start position is the patient seated upright in an examination chair or on a table looking forward with the operator behind the patient and a mastoid oscillator applied to the effected ear behind the ear (ipsilateral mastoid area). In position 1, the patient is lying supine with the neck extended 20 degrees and the head turned 45 degrees toward the effected ear downward position. In position 1, while the neck continues to be extended 20 degrees, the head is turned 90 degrees toward the unaffected ear i.e. 45 degrees from vertical in the direction of the unaffected ear into position 2. To go from position 2 to position 3, the neck is kept extended 20 degrees, the patient rolls onto the unaffected ear side of their body and the head is rolled into position 3. In position three, the head (nose) is pointed 135 degrees downward, affected ear upward, from the supine position. Keeping the head (nose) in the 135 degrees downward position, the patient is brought up to a sitting position, position 4. In position 5, the head is turned forward and the chin downward 20 degrees. Each position is held until the induced nystagmus stops (xe2x80x9capproaches terminationxe2x80x9d).
Harvey10 described a modification of Semont""s Liberatory maneuver which is very similar in its positions to that of Epley""s canalith repositioning maneuver.
Katsarkas11 showed a modification of the Epley canalith repositioning maneuver which he developed. In his maneuver, after the Epley position 3, he extends the neck as far as is reasonably possible to allow (he believes) the otoconia to fall into and through the common crus portion of the posterior semicircular canal crystal removal route.
Best PBPPV Treatment Observations
One skilled in the art will recognize that the head maneuver to relieve PBPPV can be done in an large (theoretically infinite) number of positions. That is, this maneuver could be done using the same head movement sequence outlined by the six positions of the posterior CRP maneuver, but it could be done such that instead of Epley positions 1, 2 and 3 being 90 degrees from the previous positions, the maneuver could be divided into five positions each 45 degrees from the position that preceded it and 45 degree from the position that follows it. If resolution of clinical vertigo caused by each position was used as the indicator to proceed to the next position, this theoretical five position maneuver would be as effective in the resolution of BPPV as Epley described in his positions 1, 2, and 3.
In the same way, those skilled in the art will recognize that this rotation of the head could be broken up into many (theoretically an infinite number of) positions. To one skilled in the art, the clinical use of a complex multipositioned maneuver is not clinically possible because of the increased difficulty of correct and consistent positioning when a multipositional maneuver is done manually. This difficulty is increased further for the occasional performer, and markedly more for the less educated and therefore less physiologically understanding occasional performer.
Those skilled in the art recognize that the posterior CRP technique teaches that the Epley positions 1, and 2 are done with the patient""s head extended 20 degrees, the patient""s head is supine and rotated 45 degrees in the effected ear downward position (position one) and rotates toward the unaffected ear downward (into position two) and then into position three with the nose pointed 135 degrees downward from supine (position three).
Theoretically the best sequence of head positions for clearing crystals from the posterior SCC is the position sequence which would cause position two to have the top of the patient""s head directly downward. Positions one and three could be approximately the same as Epley classically described. That is, those skilled in the art will recognize that the greater the patient""s neck is extended (up to 90 degrees) in positions one and two but especially in position two, the greater the chances that the maneuver will effectively clear the symptom-causing crystals from the posterior SCC.
This technique of total patient rotation in the plane of the posterior semicircular canal has been done by Epley8 using a specially build chair and rotation apparatus. Lempert12 performed a similar procedure demonstrating the value of the Epley position one to the Epley position three through an Epley position two in which the patient""s head was pointed directly downward.
Understanding that this head extension greater than 20 degrees and up to 90 degrees makes the maneuver more effective, the current invention discloses devices which cause the head extension up to 110 degrees. Based on this teaching, this invention includes not only the current configuration but devices which cause the neck to be extended greater than or equal to 10 degrees and up to 110 degrees in the Epley positions one and two.
A Clinical Perspective
The posterior canalith repositioning maneuver technique is currently used by medical and paramedical personnel worldwide for the relief of the symptoms of posterior semicircular canal BPPV. The technique, although easy to do and successful after it is learned, is difficult to successfully teach.
The maneuver requires significant experience by the performer to be consistently successful. Attempts to teach the maneuver to patients have been unsuccessful. The present invention accurately, consistently and inexpensively provides the user visual feedback as to his head position at any given moment, and provides a path for the user to follow to move his head correctly through the series of positions to accomplish the canalith repositioning maneuver.
Horizontal BPPV
Horizontal BPPV (HBPPV) was first recognized by McClure13 who reported 7 cases with brief episodes of positional vertigo associated with horizontal direction changing positional vertigo. Subsequent studies have reported several variation in the type of nystagmus produced by horizontal canal BPPV, including geotropic and ageotropic direction changing positional nystagmus.
The clinical characteristics are 1) brief episodes of positional vertigo and 2) paroxysmal bursts of horizontal positional nystagmus and 3) lack of any other identifiable central nervous system disorder.
Geotropic horizontal direction changing paroxysmal nystagmus has been found in HBPPV in 90% by Nuti14, and 73% by Takegoshi2 and 84% by Fife1. Takegoshi2 reported finding BPPV in both the posterior and horizontal semicircular canals. Nuti14, McClure13 and Herdman15 reported finding horizontal canal BPPV after canalith repositioning maneuver for relief of PBPPV.
HBPPV Treatments
Fife1 described three maneuver techniques for treating HBPPV.
The first maneuver was a three-quarter contralateral roll in which the patient""s head was moved in 90 degree increments away from the side with the most intense nystagmus to achieve a 270 degree turn. This maneuver was largely unsuccessful in the small number of patient upon whom it was used.
The second maneuver was a single full contralateral roll. This second maneuver was similar to the first, except that the head was rotated the entire 360 degree turn from supine face up to supine face up, again turning toward the presumably unaffected ear.
The third maneuver was the iterative full contralateral roll. These exercises were performed once or twice in the clinic and the patient was encouraged to continue these at home for 7 days or until the symptoms subsided. The head was maintained in 30 degree flexion throughout the maneuver.
Epley describes treating horizontal canal HBPPV with a 360 degree xe2x80x9cbarrel rollxe2x80x9d away from the involved ear, keeping the horizontal canal in the earth vertical plane. To avoid dumping particles from the utricle back into the horizontal canal at the end of the procedure, the patient was returned to upright without first moving to the straight supine position. Epley notes that in the less agile patients, success can still be obtained by turning the head only 135 degrees from supine, opposite the involved ear.
Superior BPPV Treatments
Treatment maneuver to remove loosened otoconia from the superior (or anterior) semicircular canal has only been described by one author. Epley notes xe2x80x9cthe anterior canals can usually be cleared of canaliths by using the same positioning sequence as for centralateral posterior canalithsxe2x80x9d.
BPPV Diagnostic
The classic clinical description of PBPPV includes rotary nystagmus in the effected ear down Dix-Hallpike position. Because head placement is difficult to describe in a manner that a non medical person could accurately and consistently perform, and because the accuracy of which posterior semicircular canal is not detected perfectly by the questionnaire, there will be described a device which will guide the user""s head into the right Dix-Hallpike and the left Dix-Hallpike positions. While in these positions the user can detect and understand which ear down causes the greatest amount of vertigo symptoms and hence which (right or left) post SCC is effected by the loosened otoconia. The ear which is effected is the ear which is initially placed downward in the treatment maneuver. That is, the treatment maneuver is effected-side-specific.
Based on this information and the fact that the studies of BPPV, response to head maneuvers all start from the knowledge of which ear is effected. A device to guide the user""s head into each of the two Dix-Hallpike positions is conceived and described herein. There are no prior art devices to this applicant""s knowledge which guide the user""s head into the Dix-Hallpike positions for diagnostic purposes.
Prior Art
A device for sale by Medical Surgical Innovations 1 Ocean Drive, Jupiter, Fla. consists of a combination of head band and skull vibrator.
The headband is worn around the head like a tennis sweat band. It is made from colorful neoprene and is of adjustable tension by varying the tightness of the attaching VELCRO(copyright) strip. Attached to the VELCRO(copyright) head band at the lateral side of the forehead on both sides in a plane parallel to the posterior semicircular canal on the opposite side is a small clear tube filled with water and containing a small amount of sand. This tube is intended to give the medical/paramedical person performing the maneuver for the patient, a visual feedback technique to see that the position sequence into which they are positioning the patient will cause the sand suspended in water to move around the tube of water in the same way that the loosened crystalline otoconia are being moved around and out of the posterior membranous semicircular canal. This device is intended for use by medical/paramedical personnel to judge the success of the positioning sequence that they are performing for the user.
The head band is used to hold a vibrator against the skull behind the effected ear for several minutes before and during the PCRP.
The skull vibrator is a small hand held, battery operated vibrator within a smooth plastic case. This vibrator was held against the mastoid surface behind the ear which was thought to be causing the BPPV symptoms.
Two authors (Epley8, Lempert12) have reported seating the patient in a device and completely rotating the patient in the plane of the posterior semicircular canal (with the capability to rotate the patient in the plane of any of the semicircular canals). These large devices represent the most accurate method of CRP for any of the canals. Ownership and self operation of these devices is certainly not feasible for the vast majority of patient suffering from BPPV.
The application discloses a visual feedback method and apparatus which attaches to a person""s head allowing a user to 1) establish or help establish a) a diagnosis of BPPV and b) determine which ear in PBPPV is involved and 2) to treat the user""s BPPV.
The user device attaches to the user""s head to measure head position and uses any of several embodiments to give the user visual feedback about his head position or series of head positions.
The device is sensitive to different spatial positions for displaying information sufficient to allow the person to see and follow a given path with the person""s head when the device is coupled to the person""s head. As the path is followed by the person""s head, the person""s head is moved through the diagnostic Hallpike positions and the relief head positions of the Epley maneuver.
It has been determined that movement of the user""s head into the diagnostic Hallpike positions and through the relief head positions sequences of the Epley maneuver is a complex maneuver. The times during which the goggle device will be used is further complicated by the user being dizzy with the associated loss of orientation in space. Additionally the diagnostic Hallpike position and the first head position of the relief Epley maneuvers puts the user""s head in the position that maximally stimulates his/her vertigo. Because of these factors there is a desire for an assistant to the user.
Thus, there is provided an assistant apparatus attached to the user apparatus which allows an assistant to monitor the process of the user and to instruct the user in the process.
The preferred embodiment of the assistant apparatus comprises a hollow ball or chamber member attached to the user apparatus with a liquid located in the ball sufficient to form a bubble which allows the assistant to follow a path on the exterior of the ball which corresponds to that seen by the user when the user follows the user path.
This embodiment of the bubble in water assistant apparatus may be coupled to the patient""s head and used by itself by the assistant for the diagnosis and treatment of BPPV without the use of a user feedback apparatus.
In one embodiment of the user apparatus, there is provided a fluid suspended, inner member upon which is formed a numbered series of position bull""s eyes which are connected by a path. This inner member is contained within a clear plastic water tight outer housing which has a sighting device printed upon it. This device is held at a fixed distance from the eye with the appropriate lens to allow the user to focus upon the inner member position bull""s eye. The device is attached to the user""s head in a manner that the outer housing sighting device and an aligned inner ear position bull""s eyes can be seen by the user. The user moves his head such that the outer housing sighting device and inner member""s position bull""s eyes are sequentially aligned. Between each position bull""s eye and the next, the sighting device is kept aligned with the path. Together these provide a pathway for the user to visually track his correct head position through the posterior canalith repositioning maneuver sequence.
The housing-inner member device also may be used for diagnostic purposes.
In another embodiment of the user apparatus the horizontal axis orientation of the buoyancy neutral inner member is provided by an entrapment mechanism between the outer housing and inner member.
Another embodiment employs of the user apparatus employs sand in a liquid contained in a torodial shaped tube for BPPV diagnosis and treatment.
In another embodiment of the user apparatus, a rolling ball located in an outer sphere with a guiding path on the inside of the outer sphere is employed for BPPV treatment.
In still another embodiment of the user apparatus, a small gravity sensitive object hanging from a string attached to a central location is used. Around the central string attachment area are a series of targets. The hanging object is brought close to this series of targets by the user moving his head. Between these positions is identified a path giving the user a visual feedback regarding the head motion path he is to take from one position to the next.
In still another embodiment of the user apparatus, the user places a device upon his head in a desired manner. The device contains a small LED screen which is visible to the user. Gravity sensors and a small microprocessor are used. The microprocessor is programmed such that a visual feedback is shown on the small LED screen giving the patient visual information about the position of his head and how he is to move his head to complete the PCRP.
Different combinations of certain of these embodiments may be used as a user apparatus and as an assistant apparatus for the diagnosis and treatment of BPPV.

Head apparatus and assistant device for the treatment of BPPV


This invention generally relates to a method for promoting growth and increasing feed utilization efficiency in animals, and, more specifically, to combinations comprising zilpaterol (and salts thereof) and melengestrol acetate. Included within this invention are treatment methods comprising the administration of such combinations to animals, compositions comprising such combinations, uses of such combinations to prepare medicaments, and kits for using such combinations.

In many countries, commercial livestock rearing systems have become commonplace. Commercial animal husbandry techniques have been used to rear, for example, livestock, poultry, and fish. These techniques have resulted in greatly increased production of food products from such animals. Successful commercial raising of animals, particularly for food, requires maximization of the growth rate and feed utilization efficiency to reduce the unit cost of production. This has led to the development and widespread use of feed additives.
Zilpaterol is a known adrenergic β-2 agonist corresponding in structure to Formula (I):
The IUPAC name for zilpaterol is 4,5,6,7-tetrahydro-7-hydroxy-6-(isopropylamino) imidazo[4,5,1-jk]-[1]benzazepin-2(1H)-one. The Chemical Abstracts name for zilpaterol is 4,5,6,7-tetrahydro-7-hydroxy-6-[(1-methyl-ethyl)amino]-imidazo[4,5,1-jk][1]benzazepin-2(1H)-one.
Zilpaterol hydrochloride is sold by Intervet Inc., a part of Schering-Plough Corporation, under the trademark ZILMAX®. It is approved in the United States for cattle fed in confinement for harvest at daily doses ranging from 60 to 90 mg/animal to increase the rate of weight gain, improve feed efficiency, and increase carcass leanness during the last 20 to 40 days on feed. See NADA No. 141-258.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,585,770, Fréchet et al. discuss compounds, such as zilpaterol, encompassed by a genus characterized as 6-amino-7-hydroxy-4,5,6,7-tetrahydro-imidazo[4,5,1-j-k][1]-benzazepin-2-(1H)-one derivatives and acid addition salts thereof. Fréchet et al. state that such compounds may be used as an active ingredient for inducing antihypertensive and hypotensive activity in a warm-blooded animal.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,900,735, Grandadam discusses a zootechnical composition comprising zilpaterol and acid addition salts thereof. Grandadam states that such a composition may be used to increase the weight of cattle, pigs, sheep, and poultry. Grandadam also discusses combination therapies that further comprise the administration of a steroid corresponding in structure to Formula (II):
Here, X is selected from the group consisting of hydrogen, optionally unsaturated alkyl of 1 to 6 carbon atoms wherein one of the carbon atoms may be replaced by oxygen, and acyl of an organic carboxylic acid of 1 to 18 carbon atoms. Such compounds include trenbolone acetate, wherein X is —C(O)CH3. Trenbolone acetate is approved in the United States for use, alone and in combination with other active ingredients, in various implants in cattle to increase the rate of weight gain and improve feed efficiency. See NADA Nos. 138-612, 140-897, 140-992, 414-043, 141-269, 200-221, 200-224, 200-346, and 200-367. Grandadam goes onto discuss combinations that further comprise the administration of zeranol or estradiol (i.e., 17β-estra-1,3,5(10)-triene-3,17-diol). Zeranol is approved in the United States for use in implants to increase the rate of weight gain and improve feed efficiency in cattle and sheep. See NADA Nos. 038-233 and 141-0192. Estradiol and estradiol benzoate are approved in the United States for use in combination with other active ingredients in various implants for increasing the rate of weight gain and improving feed efficiency in cattle. See NADA Nos. 009-576, 011-427, 110-315, 118-123, 135-906, 140-897, 140-992, 141-043, 141-269, 200-221, 200-346, and 200-367.
In U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,731,028 and 5,847,124, Chevremont et al. discuss crystallized anhydrous zilpaterol hydrochloride, and particularly crystallized anhydrous zilpaterol hydrochloride wherein less than 5% of the crystals have a size of less than 15 μm, and at least 95% of the crystals have a size of less than 250 μm. According to Chevremont et al., such crystals may be incorporated into animal feed to increase body weight and meat quality. Chevremont et al. provide methods for making such crystals, and discuss using the crystals to make animal premixes in which the crystals are secured to a corn cob support having a greater particle size. They also discuss monohydrate and trihydrate intermediates that can be useful in, for example, making the crystals.
In U.S. Pat. No. 7,207,289, Montgomery discusses methods for increasing beef production, reducing feed intake while maintaining beef production, and reducing incidences of liver abscess in cattle. These methods comprise administering a feed comprising an ionophore and macrolide antibiotic during an initial period, and then administering a feed comprising zilpaterol (including zilpaterol hydrochloride) with essentially no ionophore or macrolide antibiotic
Melengestrol acetate (or "17α-acetoxy-6-methyl-16-methylenepregna-4,6-diene-3,20-dione") corresponds in structure to Formula (III):
It is reported to be an orally-active progestogen that inhibits estrus and ovulation, and increases weight gain in heifers. It is commercially available from Pfizer Animal Health under the trade name MGA®. U.S. Pat. No. 3,359,287 discusses preparation of melengestrol acetate by dehydrogenating 17α-hydroxy-6α-methyl-16-methylenepregn-4-ene-3,20-dione 17-acetate with chloranil. U.S. Pat. No. 4,154,748 discusses an alternative process wherein melengestrol acetate is prepared by a process comprising acetylation of 17α-hydroxy-6-methyl-16-methylenepregna-4,6-diene-3,20-dione.
Melengestrol acetate is approved in the United States for feeding to heifers for harvest at doses ranging from 0.25 to 0.50 mg/heifer daily to increase weight gain, improve gain efficiency, and suppress estrus. See NADA 034-254, 039-402, and 200-343. It is generally fed to heifers for 90 to 150 days before harvest. It also has been approved in the United States for the following combinations:                a) With oxytetracycline to increase the rate of weight gain, improve feed efficiency, suppress estrus, and reduce liver condemnation due to liver abscesses. See NADA 046-718 and 046-719        b) With monensin sodium to increase the rate of weight gain, improve feed efficiency, suppress estrus, and prevent and control coccidiosis due to Eimeria bovis and Eimeria zuernii. See NADA 124-309, 125-476, and 200-422.        c) With tylosin phosphate to increase the rate of weight gain, improve feed efficiency, suppress estrus, and reduce incidence of liver abscesses. See NADA 138-995, 139-192, and 200-427.        d) With lasalocid to increase the rate of weight gain, improve feed efficiency, and suppress estrus. See NADA 139-876, 140-288, and 200-451.        e) With monensin sodium and tylosin phosphate to increase the rate of weight gain, improve feed efficiency, suppress estrus, prevent and control coccidiosis due to Eimeria bovis and Eimeria zuernii, and reduce incidence of liver abscesses caused by Fusobacterium necrophorum and Actinomyces (Corynebacterium) pyogenes. See NADA 138-792, 138-870, and 200-375.        f) With tylosin phosphate and lasalocid to increase the rate of weight gain, improve feed efficiency, suppress estrus, and reduce incidence of liver abscesses. See NADA 138-904, 138-992, and 200-430.        g) With monensin sodium and ractopamine hydrochloride to increase the rate of weight gain, improve feed efficiency, suppress estrus, increase carcass leanness, and prevent and control coccidiosis due to Eimeria bovis and Eimeria zuernii. See NADA 141-234 and 200-448.        h) With monensin sodium, tylosin phosphate, and ractopamine hydrochloride to increase the rate of weight gain, improve feed efficiency, suppress estrus, increase carcass leanness, prevent and control coccidiosis due to Eimeria bovis and Eimeria zuernii, and reduce liver abscesses caused by Fusobacterium necrophorum and Actinomyces (Corynebacterium) pyogenes. See NADA 141-233 and 200-424.U.S. Pat. No. 3,417,182 discusses using melengestrol acetate to control estrual periods and stimulate growth of domestic birds and other animals.
There still exists a need for alternative methods and compositions for increasing the rate of weight gain and improving feed efficiency in animals, particularly animals raised for food, such as livestock, poultry, and/or fish. The following disclosure describes such methods and compositions.

Combination therapies using melengestrol acetate and zilpaterol or its salts


A ferrite-martensite dual-phase stainless steel has satisfactory corrosion resistance and workability for a material for the body of a freight car and excellent low-temperature toughness. The ferrite-martensite dual-phase stainless steel has a specified chemical composition, in which inequalities (I) and (II) below are satisfied, and a steel microstructure including a dual phase of a ferrite phase and a martensite phase, in which the content of the martensite phase is 5% or more and 95% or less in terms of vol. %:10.5≤Cr+1.5×Si≤13.5  (I)1.5≤30×(C+N)+Ni+0.5×Mn≤6.0  (II),                where Cr and Si in inequality (I) above and C, N, Ni, and Mn in inequality (II) above respectively represent the contents (mass %) of the corresponding chemical elements.

As the length of railways increases globally, the amount of freight transportation by rail is increasing year by year. Freight cars such as railway wagons and containers are used for railway freight transportation, and ferritic stainless steel is nowadays used as a material for freight cars.
However, there is a problem in that ferritic stainless steel, which has insufficient low-temperature toughness, is not suitably used in cold areas in, for example, inland regions of the Eurasian Continent having an atmospheric temperature of −30° C. or lower in the winter. In particular, a material for the body of a freight car carrying liquids such as oil is required to have excellent low-temperature toughness.
Moreover, in ferritic stainless steel, there is a problem of further deterioration in the toughness of a welded heat-affected zone due to coarsening of grains. Therefore, in cold areas, it is difficult to use ferritic stainless steel in applications to a structure formed by welding.
As an example of stainless steel to be used for a railway wagon, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2012-12702 discloses a stainless steel in which the corrosion resistance of a weld zone is improved by forming a martensite phase in a welded heat-affected zone and in which the occurrence of surface defects is suppressed by specifying an FFV value. However, that stainless steel has insufficient low-temperature toughness.
As an example of stainless steel sheet having excellent toughness, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 11-302791 discloses a high-strength high-toughness stainless steel sheet having excellent bendability. In that high-strength high-toughness stainless steel sheet, bendability is improved by controlling the length of MnS-based inclusion particles in the rolling direction to be 3 μm or less and by controlling the ratio of the length in the rolling direction to the length in a direction at a right angle to the rolling direction of the MnS-based inclusion particles to be 3.0 or less. However, in JP '791, corrosion resistance, in particular, the corrosion resistance of a weld zone, which is required for a material for the body of a freight car, may be insufficient and further low-temperature toughness may be insufficient, in some cases.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 61-136661 discloses a thick martensitic stainless steel having excellent toughness in which formation of δ ferrite is inhibited. However, since the strength of that stainless steel is excessively high, it is difficult to perform press forming on that stainless steel to use it for a railway wagon or a container for railway freight. In addition, in the stainless steel described in JP '661, low-temperature toughness may be insufficient in some cases.
In addition, as an example of a ferritic stainless steel having improved low-temperature toughness of a welded heat-affected zone, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-3242 discloses a ferritic stainless steel having excellent toughness of a welded joint. However, coarsening of grains in a welded heat-affected zone is inhibited by causing fine Mg-based oxides to be dispersed and precipitated in steel.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 4-224657 discloses a ferritic stainless steel having excellent toughness of a welded heat-affected zone. However, the toughness of a weld zone is improved by adding Co.
However, JP '242 and JP '657 are not sufficient to provide toughness of a welded heat-affected zone to be used in a cold area having an atmospheric temperature of −30° C. or lower.
As described above, the stainless steels described above are not suitable as a material for a freight car carrying liquids such as oil in a cold area because of their insufficient low-temperature toughness. In addition, the stainless steels disclosed above do not have satisfactory corrosion resistance or workability which is required for a material for the body of a freight car.
Moreover, since there is a further deterioration in the low-temperature toughness of a welded heat-affected zone, those stainless steels are not suitably used in applications in which a structure is formed by welding.
It could therefore be helpful to provide a ferrite-martensite dual-phase stainless steel having satisfactory corrosion resistance and workability required for a material for the body of a freight car, and having excellent low-temperature toughness and to provide a method of manufacturing the stainless steel.
In addition, it could also be helpful to provide a ferrite-martensite dual-phase stainless steel to be used as a material for a welded structure excellent in terms of the low-temperature toughness of a welded heat-affected zone in addition to the properties described above and a method of manufacturing the stainless steel.

Ferrite-martensite dual-phase stainless steel and method of manufacturing the same


Provided are a static eliminator capable of performing quick static elimination while having a good ion balance, an electronic balance including the static eliminator, and a static eliminating method of the static eliminator. A static eliminator is provided which is configured to eliminate static from a static eliminating object by ions generated by applying high voltages to static eliminating needles, and has a high-speed static eliminating mode configured to eliminate static from a static eliminating object at a high speed, and a relaxation static eliminating mode to be executed by a voltage application method different from that of the high-speed static eliminating mode and configured to regulate ion balances of the static eliminating object and the area around of the static eliminating object. With this configuration, a static eliminator capable of quickly eliminating static from a specimen while having a good ion balance can be provided.

An electronic balance to be used for precision analysis, etc., has an extremely high weighing sensitivity, and even static electricity of a specimen becomes a factor in causing a weighing error. On the other hand, an electronic balance with a windshield, including a static eliminator (ionizer) that neutralizes the electrical charge (hereinafter, referred to as "eliminating static") of a specimen by generating ions has been proposed (Patent Literature 1).
Here, when voltage application to a static eliminating needle that is provided in the static eliminator and emits ions is by the AC method, both of positive ions and negative ions can be emitted by one static eliminating needle, whereas the distance of static elimination is short and a fan or the like is required, and the amount of ions is small, so that static elimination takes time. When the DC method is used, at least two static eliminating needles are required, however, the amount of ions that are emitted is larger than that of the AC method, and ions can scatter far without wind, and the static eliminating time is short (refer to FIGS. 12 and 13).
As a voltage application method to further shorten the static eliminating time, a pulsed DC method is available. This is a method in which short-time plus-like DC voltage application/interruption are alternately repeated to a total of two static eliminating needles consisting of a positive electrode and a negative electrode to cause these static eliminating needles to emit negative ions and positive ions alternately (refer to FIG. 14). Ions can be scattered far as in the DC method, and in addition, the alternate emission of positive ions and negative ions prevents ions from being bonded to each other, so that the amount of ions to be used for static elimination is large, and the static eliminating time can be further shortened than that by the DC method.

Electric neutralizer, electronic scale equipped with electric neutralizer, and neutralization method


To devise a tempered glass and a glass to be tempered each of which is lowered in density and viscosity at high temperature, hardly deteriorates a KNO3 molten salt, and is excellent in thermal shock resistance. The tempered glass having a compression stress layer in a surface thereof, including as a glass composition, in terms of mol %, 50 to 80% of SiO2, 5 to 30% of Al2O3, 0 to 2% of Li2O, 5 to 25% of Na2O, and 0 to 5% of K2O, and being substantially free of As2O3, Sb2O3, PbO, and F.

Devices such as a cellular phone, a digital camera, a PDA, a touch panel display, a large-screen television, and contact-less power transfer show a tendency of further prevalence.
A tempered glass, which is produced by applying tempering treatment to glass through ion exchange treatment or the like, is used for those applications (see Patent Literature 1 and Non Patent Literature 1).
In addition, in recent years, the tempered glass has been more and more frequently used in exterior parts of, for example, digital signage, mice, and smartphones.
A related-art device includes a display module, a touch panel sensor, and the tempered glass (protective member). In recent years, a method involving forming the touch panel sensor on the tempered glass has started to be adopted in order to achieve a reduction in weight or a reduction in thickness. As a result, such protective member is required to: (1) have high mechanical strength; (2) have high flaw resistance; (3) be less costly; (4) have low density; (5) have sufficiently high acid resistance for preventing denaturation of its surface in acid treatment at the time of formation of the touch panel sensor; and (6) be free of a substance having a high environmental load.

Strengthened glass, strengthened glass plate, strengthened glass container, and glass for strengthening


According to one embodiment, an information processing apparatus comprises a memory to store a first operating system used in a first mode and a second operating system used in a second mode, where the first operating system supports a greater number of functions than the second operating system. The information processing apparatus further comprises a processor to execute the first operating system and the second operating system, a cooling unit, and a driving unit to drive the cooling unit in accordance with the operating load in the first mode, and to drive the cooling unit in a predetermined level regardless of the operating load in the second mode.

1. Field
One embodiment of the invention relates to an information processing apparatus and a cooling method for an information processing apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, personal computers have been implemented with a cooling unit that operates to cool the environment inside the computer housing, responding to a temperature rise inside the computer housing. In addition, the cooling unit may perform cooling operations based on an indirect measured value, such as whether or not the computer is powered by a commercial alternating power source or powered by a battery or a direct temperature measurement represented by a temperature indication number. An example of such a personal computer is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication (KOKAI) No. 9-198166.
A temperature management method described in this reference determines a desired state of at least one cooling option such as a fan on the basis of a detected temperature and an indirect input. For example, a fan speed is set to any of 0%, 50%, 75%, and 100%.
Moreover, personal computers have been implemented with audio visual (also referred as "AV") functionality. As an example, personal computers may include a TV tuner is incorporated to view a TV program and an MPEG-2 encoder, a hard disk drive (also referred as "HDD"), or a digital versatile disk (also referred as "DVD") drive is incorporated to compress, encode, and record the TV program in accordance with the MPEG-2 system.
In such an AV viewing environment, the computer is used as an AV device instead of as a personal computer, and thus, a lower noise output by the computer would be preferable. Since it is possible to execute an application in a multi-task manner in a general personal computer use environment, a cooling capability is fulfilled so as to achieve its function even at the time of a maximum load.
Therefore, it is necessary to increase a cooling capability according to an operating load of a system, and the number of rotations of a fan is controlled in a multi-stepped manner. Since the control system is also applied to the AV viewing environment as is, a user recognizes that the number of rotations of the fan changes during viewing of an AV program, and it is expected that the user feels the change to be noisy. Further, if the number of rotations of the fan increases, it leads to noise generation.

Information processing apparatus and cooling method


The present invention relates to a diagnostic system for complex systems such as avionics systems. The diagnostic system acquires a description of the system from a variety of design tools and creates a causal network model as an intermediate step. From the causal network model, the diagnostic system builds and compiles a Q-DAG model of the system, which is then embedded in the central maintenance computer of the aircraft. The present invention integrates two elements, a graphical user interface (GUI), which acts as a data capture tool and graphical display of the avionics system and an inference system, which acts as a diagnostic tool with a presenter. The presenter permits diagnosis of faulty sub-systems and a report may be relayed to remotely located maintenance crews to minimize repair time upon arrival of the aircraft.

(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a diagnostics system and more particularly to an enterprise diagnostic system, based on distributed objects and Internet Inter-ORB protocol (IIOP), for diagnosing faults in avionics systems.
(2) Description of Related Art
Explosive growth in technology has made possible increasingly complex avionics systems for use in aviation, missilery and astronautics. In particular, the development of electrical and electronic devices have ushered in an era where avionics systems now assist the flight crew in virtually every aspect of operating modern aircraft.
Reliable operation of the aircraft therefore depends on avionics systems that not only perform their intended functions but are also reliable. In operation, however, vibration, rapid attitude changes, rapid environmental changes and other similar influences can affect performance and reliability of the avionics system. By way of example, the avionics system may include electrical and electronic sub-systems having an intended use in communications, navigation, aircraft control, remote sensing (such as the amount of on-board fuel), wiring and power distribution, life support, electronic warfare equipment (in military aircraft and missilery) and various sensors that provide vital real-time information. Accordingly, those concerned with flying and maintaining the aircraft, in particular, require methods of verifying the correct operation of the avionics systems both in-flight and during maintenance periods. For this reason modem aircraft include a real-time diagnostic system to monitor the avionics and other systems.
It will be appreciated that system level diagnostics of avionics systems are necessarily complex especially in view of the potential for interaction between the various sub-systems. Due to this interaction and complexity, diagnostic capability has, in the past, been tightly coupled to the system definition. This tight coupling makes it difficult to improve or upgrade the diagnostic system thereby rendering prior art diagnostic systems obsolete as the avionics system is improved. Accordingly, there is a great need to provide a method for updating diagnostic systems concurrently with the improvement or upgrade of the avionics system in an efficient and inexpensive manner.
Modern commercial aircraft (such as the Boeing 747 and the Boeing 777 models provided by the Boeing Company) include diagnostic systems based around a central maintenance computer (CMC). This system collects, processes and evaluates avionics system information to verify normal operation by comparing sensor inputs against pre-defined rules to detect operational failures.
For example, the diagnostic system on the Boeing 747-400 aircraft uses loosely structured Boolean logic equations to perform its diagnostic evaluation. The primary disadvantage of this diagnostic system stems from the complexity of the rules (i.e., logic equations) and the difficulties engineers have in maintaining the rules over the life of the aircraft. Another disadvantage suffered using this approach is that diagnostic accuracy is limited by lack of standards for the various sub-systems that comprise the avionics system and by lack of large-scale system simulation capability. Unfortunately, even though the implementation of the diagnostic system on the 747-400 took a significant amount of time and expense to mature, its adaptation or implementation on other aircraft is not possible. Thus, this time and expense must be incurred for each type or model of aircraft. Further, upgrades or additions to the avionics system during the life of the aircraft often require additional expensive and time-consuming effort to update the model to reflect the changes to the diagnostic system.
To overcome the problems associated with the above-described diagnostic system, the Boeing 777 aircraft adopted a shallow model-based approach based on a simple relational database structure. This diagnostic system segments the primary diagnostic functions such as signal validation, cascade-effect removal and fault isolation and correlation into a series of sequentially processed tasks. This approach, however, is limited since the shallow low-fidelity model paradigm focuses on reporting faults rather than evaluating physical system-level failure characteristics. Further, this model-based approach does not easily support analysis of the complex relationships among fault signals.
Another shortcoming of the Boeing 777 diagnostic system is that it is text based. Thus, it offers very limited design or analysis capability and offers no simulation capability. Further still, this diagnostic system offers only limited fault coverage leading to large ambiguity groups and "no fault found" conditions for line replaceable units (LRUs) pulled from the aircraft during the repair effort.
If changes are made to the avionics systems, both of the diagnostic systems described above must regenerate an entirely new model or set of rules, an expensive and technically demanding process. Traditional avionics system diagnostic system architecture tightly couples diagnostic interfaces (such as graphic displays, control panels, sensor inputs, keyboards) data storage and retrieval, and the application code in a single black box. This architecture provides for a focused diagnostic system that meets the diagnostic requirements of one avionics system. However, such diagnostic systems are difficult to modify, expand or upgrade since it requires detailed knowledge of the entire avionics system. Further, the process of modifying the model or amending the rules to incorporate the changes to the avionics system is a non-trivial task that is time consuming, expensive and susceptible to error. Further still, such diagnostic systems do not provide any system level visibility of how sub-systems work together so it is difficult for pilots and ground crew to visualize the overall system and the inter-relationship of the various sub-systems. This lack of system level visibility makes trouble shooting unnecessarily complicated, expensive and time consuming.
Few current diagnostic systems provide the capability to model an avionics system on a system level incorporating the design of various sub-systems from many different manufacturers into a cohesive model. Further, no current diagnostic system provides the capability to perform detailed simulation and diagnostic testing of the avionics system to guarantee rapid generation of a rule set that fully defines all potential failure modes. Further still, no current diagnostic system provides real-time diagnostic inference of avionics system failure in a visual manner so that the inter-relationship between various sub-systems is readily apparent to both the flight crew and a ground based maintenance crew. Thus, whatever the merits of the above described prior art diagnostic systems for avionics systems, they do not achieve the benefits of the present invention. Clearly, what is needed is a diagnostic system for avionics systems that provides greater flexibility, expansion, and maintainability than prior art solutions. What is also needed is a user-friendly system for modeling the interaction of the various sub-systems comprising an avionics system and for diagnosing system failure modes based on this model. Further, since the available memory and diagnostic computing power is typically limited on board an aircraft, it is desirable that the diagnostic system consume a minimum of computer resources while at the same time providing full coverage of the potential failure modes of the avionics system.

Distributed maintenance system based on causal networks


The wavelength conversion member includes: a first substrate; a second substrate; and a wavelength conversion layer disposed between the first substrate and the second substrate and including quantum dots which are excited by excitation light to emit fluorescence. The wavelength conversion layer is a cured layer obtained by curing a polymerizable composition which includes the quantum dots and a polymerizable compound having a molecular weight of 200 or lower, and the number of bubble-shaped defects having a diameter of 0.1 mm or more in the wavelength conversion layer is less than 10 per 100 cm2.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wavelength conversion member, a backlight unit including the wavelength conversion member, a liquid crystal display device, and a method of manufacturing a wavelength conversion member, the wavelength conversion member including a wavelength conversion layer including quantum dots which emit fluorescence when irradiated with excitation light.
2. Description of the Related Art
A flat panel display such as a liquid crystal display device (hereinafter, also referred to as "LCD") has been more widely used as a space-saving image display device having low power consumption. A liquid crystal display device includes at least a backlight and a liquid crystal cell and typically further includes a member such as a backlight-side polarizing plate or a visible-side polarizing plate.
Recently, a configuration in which a wavelength conversion layer including quantum dots (QDs) as a light emitting material is provided in a wavelength conversion member of a backlight unit in order to improve color reproducibility of a LCD has attracted attention (refer to US2012/0113672A). The wavelength conversion member converts the wavelength of light incident from a light source so as to emit white light. In the wavelength conversion layer including the quantum dots as a light emitting material, white light can be realized using fluorescence which is emitted by excitation of two or three kinds of quantum dots having different light emitting properties caused by light incident from a light source.
The fluorescence emitted from the quantum dots has high brightness and a small full width at half maximum. Therefore, a LCD using quantum dots has excellent color reproducibility. Due to the progress of such a three-wavelength light source technique using quantum dots, the color reproduction range has been widened from 72% to 100% in terms of National Television System Committee (NTSC) ratio.
Quantum dots have a problem in that the emission intensity decreases due to a photooxidation reaction when coming into contact with oxygen. Regarding this point, JP2014-523634A reports a wavelength conversion member in which quantum dots are embedded in an acrylic resin having excellent heat resistance and oxygen barrier properties in order to protect the quantum dots from oxygen and the like.

Wavelength conversion member, backlight unit including wavelength conversion member, liquid crystal display device, and method of manufacturing wavelength conversion member


In a storage medium such as a DVD+R or DVD+RW disc having a plurality of recording layers, the maximum address (i.e., the maximum physical sector number of a layer) of a user-data-recordable region (data zone) in each recording layer is recorded as physical format information in a wobbling groove. Based on the information, a recording/reproducing apparatus checks the maximum address of a data zone in each recording layer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a storage medium such as a data-recordable disc having a plurality of information recording layers and to a recording/reproducing apparatus and a recording playback method for the storage medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
Optical discs, optical cards, and so on have been known as optical storage media to and/or from which information can be optically recorded and/or reproduced. Information is recorded to or reproduced from such optical storage media by using laser light of a semiconductor laser or the like as a light source, converging the laser light into a tiny light beam through a lens, and illuminating the optical storage media with the light beam.
For the optical storage media, techniques for increasing the recording capacities are under intense development. Conventional approach for increasing the information recording density of optical discs has been focused on increasing the recording density of recording surfaces of the discs. For example, attempts have been made to reduce the track pitch and to increase the recording density in the direction of linear velocity at recording and reading/scanning, in combination with a reproducing operation performed by a reproducing system and a reduction in the wavelength of a light source that emits a recording beam.
However, shortening the wavelength of a light source is limited to an ultraviolet region and the size of pits can only be reduced to a size transferable to a disc during a cutting process. As a result, attempts to improve the recording density will eventually encounter a limit in a two-dimensional disc region.
Accordingly, an approach to increasing the capacity from the three-dimensional perspective has also been made. That is, attention has been directed to a multilayer disc formed by laminating information recording layers to increase the density of recorded information in the disc thickness direction.
A multilayer storage medium having laminated recording layers can multiply the recording capacity according to the number of recording layers and can readily be integrated with another high-density recording technology. As multilayer storage media, for example, DVD-ROM (digital versatile disc read only memory) discs, which are read-only discs, are already put to practical use.
For example U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,682,372, 5,740,136, 5,793,720, and 6,424,614 disclose configurations of read-only optical discs having two recording layers and technologies applicable to recording and reproducing information to and from such optical discs.
In the future, in addition to ROM discs, it is anticipated that recordable multilayer storage media having laminated recordable recording-layers containing phase-change material, magneto-optical material, dye material are put to practical use. For example, in the case of DVD discs, it is also expected that multilayer recording layers are incorporated into write-once discs, such as DVD-R and DVD+R, and rewritable discs, such as DVD-RW, DVD+RW, and DVD-RAM.
Naturally, for a write-once or rewritable multilayer storage medium, user data is recorded in each layer. Thus, a recording apparatus needs to check a maximum position where user data can be recorded (i.e., a maximum address in a region where user data can be recorded) in each layer.
In general, for a write-once recordable disc or rewritable disc, a user-data-recordable region (data zone) is set based on a format, but information of the first address and the maximum address is recorded on the disc. Thus, based on the information, a recording/reproducing apparatus can check a region for the data zone to control a recording operation.
For example, for a dual-layer disc, a data zone exists in both a first layer (layer 0) and a second layer (layer 1) and thus the first address of the data zone is located at a certain address in layer 0 and the maximum address is located at a certain address in layer 1. That is, when only layer 0 is considered, the maximum address of the data zone is not recorded therein.
In essence, however, the maximum address is defined as a disc physical format. Thus, even when the maximum address for each layer is recorded in the disc, this does not directly lead to inconvenience in a recording/reproducing operation. That is, with respect to a disc loaded, it is sufficient for the recording/reproducing apparatus to perform operation by considering the maximum address of a data zone in each layer as an address value defined by the format, without checking a physical address recorded on the disc.
Such a situation, however, is not preferable when future format changes, including an expansion and a change in the recording capacity, are considered.
In order to allow a recording/reproducing apparatus to flexibly deal with format changes of a disc having a plurality of recording layers, the recording/reproducing apparatus needs to be able to easily check the maximum address of a data zone in each layer for each disc.
By way of example, for DVD+R and DVD+RW discs, addresses, which are known as ADIP (ADress In Pre-groove), and physical format information are pre-recorded by wobbling recording tracks.
The physical format information contains the first address and the maximum address of a data zone. For dual-layer discs, however, since a data zone lies across two recording layers, the maximum address of layer 0, which address being logically located at an intermediate position, is not recorded. Thus, the recording/reproducing apparatus performs operation using a maximum address specified by the format, which makes it difficult to deal with a change in the format and so on.

Storage medium, recording/reproducing apparatus, and recording/reproducing method


An approach is provided that generates a current coverage area by receiving beacon position data of current beacon locations, with at least some of the beacons being moveable beacons. Object position data is retrieved for current locations and trajectories of moveable objects in a geographic area that are currently being tracked by the beacons. An anticipated coverage area is computed based on comparing the object position data with the current coverage area. Instructions are then wirelessly transmitted to some of the moveable beacons in order to move the beacons to a different set of locations based on the anticipated coverage area.

Technical Field
This disclosure relates to mobile signal sources and, more particularly, relates to adaptively positioning mobile signal sources based on needed coverage for an area.
Description of Related Art
The current positioning technologies focus on a stationary infrastructure of signal sources. These signal sources include fixed access points, beacons and the like. Due to the dynamic nature of environments, such a stationary infrastructure is difficult to provide consistent performance over time or at different locations. For many applications such as a disaster response/rescue application, it is imperative to keep and maintain high precision positioning of first responders and victims.

Adaptively position objects through mobile signal sources