A balloon catheter method of providing same, wherein a balloon catheter defines one or more indentations which provide improved flexibility to at least a portion of the catheter shaft and/or improved folding and rewrapping characteristics to the balloon.

Balloons mounted on the distal ends of catheters are widely used in medical treatment. The balloon may be used to widen a vessel into which the catheter is inserted, force open a blocked vessel and/or deliver a medical device to a body location among other uses. The requirements for strength and size of the balloons vary widely depending on the balloon's intended use and the vessel size into which the catheter is inserted.
Applications such as balloon angioplasty require extremely thin walled high strength relatively inelastic balloons of predictable inflation properties. Thin walls are necessary because the balloon's wall and waist thicknesses limit the minimum diameter of the distal end of the catheter and therefore determine the limits on vessel size treatable by the method and the ease of passage of the catheter through the vascular system.
It is highly desirable for the balloon to be expandable more than once to a reproducible expanded position from an initial folded position. It is also desirable that on deflation the deflated balloon return to its initial configuration. Finally, it is desirable for the balloon and catheter to be easily maneuvered through the body lumen. These properties are determined in large measure by the cone section of the balloon as well as the flexibility of the catheter, and more particularly the catheter distal end region or tip.
There are a number of different approaches in the prior art to designing a balloon catheter having differing physical and mechanical properties in different sections of the catheter and/or balloon.
One such approach involves forming a balloon by stretching and blowing of the balloon from a segment of extruded polymer tubing. Balloons produced by stretching and blowing a tubular preform or "parison" typically have much thicker waist and cone walls than the wall thickness of their body portions. The thicker cone walls contribute to the overall thickness of the catheter, making tracking, crossing and re-crossing of lesions more difficult. Further, thick cones interfere with refolding of the balloon on deflation so that the deflated balloon can only be further inserted or withdrawn with difficulty, occasionally even damaging the blood vessel.
While there have been several solutions proposed for reducing the cone or waist thickness of catheter balloons in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,906,241, 4,963,313, 5,304,340, 5,087,394, EP 318,919, EP 485,903, the procedures involved in these references are quite cumbersome.
Another approach involves the removal of material from the balloon cone, waist or other portion of the catheter balloon such as by chemically etching the balloon, laser ablating the balloon, etc. Such methods are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,733,301 and U.S. application Ser. No. 09/781,388, filed Feb. 13, 2001, to Tomaschko et al. While methods of removing material are useful for a variety of reasons, they may not be particularly useful for encouraging balloon rewrapping and refolding, as well as catheter flexibility and trackability.
It is thus, a goal of the present invention to provide a balloon and/or a catheter device, and methods for producing same, that provide for various patterns and techniques for removing material from one or more regions of the catheter, including but not limited to the balloon cone, or other portion of the balloon, the catheter tip, and/or other regions of the catheter in order to encourage improved balloon refolding and rewrapping.
All US patents and applications and all other published documents mentioned anywhere in this application are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
Without limiting the scope of the invention a brief summary of some of the claimed embodiments of the invention is set forth below. Additional details of the summarized embodiments of the invention and/or additional embodiments of the invention may be found in the Detailed Description of the Invention below.
A brief abstract of the technical disclosure in the specification is provided as well only for the purposes of complying with 37 C.F.R. 1.72. The abstract is not intended to be used for interpreting the scope of the claims.

Balloon catheter and method of making same


To provide a method and a system for creating a mini time key from a time key, a plurality of mini time keys are created within a unit time period. First, a unit time decryption key is prepared immediately after the unit time is created. Then, the last mini time key is created by applying a one-way function to the unit time decryption key. A desired mini time key is created by applying the one-way function to a mini time key following the desired mini time key. In other words, the mini time keys are created as a timed series arranged in a descending order beginning with the last mini time key. In this manner, even when a specific mini time key is externally leaked for a specific reason, a following mini time key in a timed series can not be created by using this mini time key. In addition, even when the mini time keys are sequentially published, the security of the unit time decryption key is maintained.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique for creating a mini time key from a time key with which decryption at a specific time is enabled, and in particular to a technique for reducing the size of the time unit allocated for decryption using a mini time key without a corresponding increase in the number of time keys.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the present invention, a mini time key creation method and a management (transmission and maintenance) method for its use will be explained. Generally, the number of time keys to be managed is increased in order to reduce the unit time allocated for decryption. However, according to the present invention, the unit time can be shortened without a corresponding increase in the number of time keys that are to be managed.
The time key is used for a system to prevent the decryption of data until a specific time has been reached. In this system, a time key manager that manages a time encryption key keeps a time decryption key secret until a specific time, and after that, releases the time decryption key for public use.
In order to shorten the unit time allocated for decryption, many time keys that correspond to the unit time must be created. For a unit time of one day, for example, 365 time keys must be created and managed for one year (a time key for Jan. 16, 1998 or a time key for Jan. 17, 1998). However, for a unit time of one minute, 525,600 time keys must be created and managed for one year (a time key for 10:28 AM on Jan. 16, 1998 or a time key for 10:29 AM on Jan. 16, 1998). As is described, the number of time keys to be managed is normally increased in order to reduce the unit time allocated for decryption. Since a system having the highest security is required for the management of the time keys, the creation of as small as possible number of time keys is desired. Taking into consideration an application that uses a time key, the shorter the unit time is allocated for decryption, the more flexibly can the operation be performed.
A time key employing asymmetric key encryption is described in "Secure Electronic Sealed-Bid Auction Protocol With Public Key Cryptography," M. Kudo, IEICE Trans. Fundamentals Of Electronics, Communications And Computer Sciences, Vol. E81-A, No. 1, 1998. And a time key employing symmetric key encryption is described in "Time-Lock Puzzles And Timed-Release Crypto," R. L. Rivest, A. Shamir and D. A. Wagner, MIT Laboratory For Computer Science, pp. 1-9, 1996 Time-Lock Puzzles. Both references are concerned with the unit time key, and do not teach the method of the present invention whereby a mini time key is created from a unit time key in order to reduce the time unit allocated for decryption without a corresponding increase in the number of time keys.
It is, therefore, one object of the present invention to provide a method and a system for creating a mini time key from a time key.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method and a system for performing encryption using a mini time key and a unit time key.
It is an additional object of the present invention to provide a method and a system for transmitting a mini time key and a unit time key.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method and a system for decrypting encrypted data using a mini time key and a unit time key.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a time key server with which a user can freely use a mini time key and a unit time key.
It is a still additional object of the present invention to provide a time key management method whereby a time key management function does not have to manage an enormous number of time keys when using a mini time key and a unit time key, and a time key management system.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

International Business Machines Corporation


Method for forming an envelope having a tear strip or a tear-off flap portion for aiding in opening the envelope, comprising the steps of providing an envelope blank formed of a material capable of being weakened by the application of ultrasonic frequencies, forming the blank into a finished envelope, and applying ultrasonic energy to the finished envelope to form either a pair of closely-spaced, elongate distress lines or a single, straight distress line at which the fibers forming the material are weakened, thus defining a tear strip or a tear-off flap portion capable of manual separation form the remainder of the envelope. An envelope formed according to the above method comprises a body portion having a front panel, a back panel, and a seal flap extending outwardly from and formed integrally with a side of the front panel. The flap has a pair of closely-spaced, elongate distress lines or a single, elongate distress line extending transversely of the flap at which the fibers forming the material are weakened, the distress lines being formed by the application of an ultrasonic frequency and defining a tear strip or a tear-off portion capable of manual separation form the remainder of the flap. The distress lines forming the tear strip can be straight or serpentine. The distress line forming the tear-off portion is straight.

The present invention is directed to the field of envelopes, and is more specifically directed to envelopes having tear strips or tear-off flap portions or tamper-evident flap portions specifically formed therein.
It is known to make envelopes from a number of different kinds of paper stocks. In recent years, envelopes have been made from spun olefin in the form of heat and pressure high-density polyethylene fibers forming a sheet. The spun bonded olefin is sold by E.I. Du Pont under the trademark TYVEK, and envelopes formed of TYVEK have been sold by Atlantic Envelope Company under the trademark POLYWOVE. The popularity of such envelopes is due in large part to the light weight, high dimensional stability and capacity, great toughness and durability, and low absorption of water of such envelopes. However, the excellent stability, thoroughness and durability characteristics of high-density polyethylene fiber envelopes make them extremely difficult to open because they are highly resistant to tearing, and the strength of the adhesive necessary to bond the flap to the body of the envelope necessitates substantial effort to separate the flap from the body of the envelope once it has been sealed. Such are the characteristics of these envelopes that it is even difficult to open them at the fold line of the flap using a conventional letter opener. It is therefore often necessary to resort to using scissors to cut open the envelope at the top or bottom. However, in doing this, there is often considerable risk or also cutting, and therefore damaging, the contents of the envelope.
The characteristics of these envelopes which make them popular for business use also make them susceptible to undetected tampering. In an increasingly common practice, an envelope is intercepted after leaving the sender, one of the flaps is carefully opened, materials are added or removed, the envelope is resealed and replaced, and in the case of added materials, before being delivered to its destination, the envelope is intercepted, reopened, relieved of the added materials, and resealed. Because of its dimensional stability, toughness, and durability, the envelope can be opened, resealed, reopened, and again resealed at the flap without any outward signs which would alert the intended recipient. Tampering is therefore difficult, if not impossible, to detect. The substantial effort needed to open the flaps, far from being a deterrent, is in fact a kind of incentive, as it falsely leads both the sender and the intended recipient to assume that the envelope is tamper-proof.
Until the present invention, there had been no satisfactory mechanism incorporated into bonded, high-density polyethylene fiber envelopes to enable them to be easily opened or to provide evidence of tampering. I have discovered that ultrasonic energy can be applied to sheets of bonded, high-density polyethylene fibers to form distress patterns at which the fibers are weakened and to provide either a tear strip which can be pulled away from the remainder of the envelope to create an opening in the envelope. I have also discovered that ultrasonic energy can be applied to the seal flap and other closure locations of envelope blanks formed of sheets of bonded, high-density polyethylene fibers to form distress patterns or lines which will function as a tamper-evident feature. Moreover, the inventive method can also be used to create tear strips or tamper-evident strips in envelopes made from standard paper stock, and to create tear-off portions in the flaps of envelopes.
The following documents disclose apparatus for applying ultrasonic energy to plastic or thermoplastic material to emboss designs in the materials, or to fuse them together, or to form a crease in them: U.S. Pat. No. 4,529,473 to Mims; U.S. Pat. No. 4,389,267 to Denslow; U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,326,903 and 4,265,847 to Summo; U.S. Pat. No. 4,247,273 to Pogrzeba et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,237,181 to Tanabe et al; U.S. Pat. No. 4,071,853 to Kuris; U.S. Pat. No. 4,032,382 to Obeda; U.S. Pat. No. 3,893,532 to McDonald et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 3,752,620 to Renoux; U.S. Pat. No. 3,749,620 to Montgomery; U.S. Pat. No. 3,635,609 to Balamuth; U.S. Pat. No. 3,483,066 to Harris et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 3,440,117 to Soloff; U.S. Pat. No. 3,224,916 to Soloff et al.; and Data Sheets PW-31 and FF-2 of Branson Sonic Power Company. However none of these documents disclose or suggest the use or ultrasonic energy to form distress lines defining a tear strip or tear-off portion for use in an envelope of any kind, or the use of ultrasonic energy to form distress line areas defining a tear strip or tear-off portion or to form distress patterns defining a tamper-evident feature in bonded, high-density polyethylene fibers for use in an envelope or for any other purpose.

Method of making envelope with tear line formed by ultrasonic energy


A computer readable medium embodying instructions executable by a processor to perform a method for hosting components implemented in different computer readable languages within one process. The method includes instantiating a container within a single process, creating a hosting environment for each of a plurality of components, and wherein loading the components by respective environments and wherein the hosting environments are objects instantiated within the container and within the one process, and wherein the plurality of components are implemented in respective a computer readable language, and instantiating a container communication framework object within the container and the one process for processing serialized messages of the components, wherein specific language adapters convert data types of the components to a common implementation, wherein the messages of the plurality of components are processed within the container.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to software frameworks, and more particularly to a system and method for enabling software components implemented in different technologies running within one process.
2. Description of Related Art
A container is a runtime entity that provides services to specialized components, e.g. lifecycle management, dependency management and configuration. The container is an application that can host components and provides special services to this components.
Containers are technology specific, for example, written for Java, .NET, etc. For example, an OSGi (Java) container, specified by the OSGi Alliance (formerly known as the Open Services Gateway initiative), is a Java-based service platform that can be remotely managed. The OSGi specification is a framework that defines an application lifecycle model and a service registry. The OSGi container natively supports loading and hosting of Java components but has no support for other technologies.
In a Java Framework implementation, the Java SDK allows hosting C++ components (DLLs) in a Java Virtual Machine (JVM) process. A java function call loads this DLL via the Java Native Interface (JNI), the components of which can be activated and interact with each other. The Java Framework allows only C++ DLLs to be loaded.
Referring to the .NET Framework; The .NET Framework has a function call that loads a C++ component into the .NET virtual machine process. Via PInvoke the two components can interact with each other. The .Net Framework from Microsoft supports only the loading of C++ DLLs.
In each of these technologies, OSGi, Java, and .Net, loading and hosting of different technologies in a single process is not supported.
While communication between processes is possible, it introduces inefficiencies and additional resource overhead. For example, for components hosted in separate application processes, inter-process communication uses, for example, sockets, remote procedure calls (RPC), etc.
Therefore, a need exists for a system and method for enabling software components implemented in different technologies to be hosted in a container implemented as a single process.

Container for disparate software components


A laundry treating appliance for treating laundry according to an automatic cycle of operation, comprising a basket defining a treating chamber for receiving laundry to be washed. The basket has multiple perforations through which liquid may pass. A blade can be rotated about the exterior of the basket creating a suction force acting on the perforations to draw liquid from the treating chamber through the perforations.

Contemporary laundry treating appliances include vertical axis washing machines having a tub, a basket within the tub defining a treating chamber for the laundry. The tub and basket have aligned top openings that provide access to the treating chamber. In current implementations, the basket has perforations and is rotated at a sufficient speed to extract liquid from the laundry centrifugal force, which also causes water to exit the perforations.

Laundry treating appliance having a rotatable blade for liquid extraction


A spectroscope includes an optical fiber 218, a collimator optical system 231 for collimating signal light come out from the optical fiber 218, a spectroscopic element 233 for dispersing the signal light collimated by the collimator optical system 231, a detector 237 composed of a plurality of detector elements 237a disposed at least in a direction of dispersion and detecting the light dispersed by the spectroscopic element 233, and a focusing optical system 236 for focusing the signal light come out from the detector 237 onto a detecting surface of the detector 237. It is set such that the focusing optical system 236 makes a diameter of a spot of the signal light focused on the detecting surface of the detector 237 smaller than an arranged pitch of the detector 237 and a numerical aperture of the collimator optical system 231 is larger than that of the optical fiber 218.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical fiber type spectroscope and a spectroscope system equipped therewith.
2. Related Background Art
As described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-210783, a spectroscope has been known in which an input slit is disposed right behind an exit end of an optical fiber for connecting to a spectroscope. A bundle of rays passed through the input slit is collimated by a collimator optical system, incident on a diffraction grating to be dispersed in a given direction with each wavelength, focused by a focusing optical system, and incident on a one-dimensional detector disposed in a direction of dispersion. The structure is called as a Czerny-Turner type in which the magnification from the input slit to the detector is generally one.
However, in the above-described spectroscope, a signal light is limited by the input slit so as to accomplish a given spectral resolution. Moreover, a signal light is also limited by narrowing the input slit in order to improve aberrations of the collimator optical system and the focusing optical system. Therefore, not all the signal light from the optical fiber can be effectively used.

Optical fiber type spectroscope and spectroscope system equipped therewith


Lifting performance of a work machine is increased while suppressing an increase in a vehicle weight. When a slewing frame is seen from a side, a first reinforcement member is provided from a boom foot section to a front side part of a slewing bearing, a second reinforcement member is provided from the boom foot section to a mast foot section, and a third reinforcement member is provided from the mast foot section to a rear side part of the slewing bearing. Furthermore, a fourth reinforcement member is provided from a middle region (M) located at an upper end portion of the slewing frame and above a rear portion of the slewing bearing to the front side part of the slewing bearing, and a fifth reinforcement member is provided from the middle region (M) to the rear side part of the slewing bearing.

As disclosed in Patent Literature 1, with a work machine such as a crane, an upper slewing body is slewably provided on an upper portion of a lower travelling body through a slewing bearing, for example. The upper slewing body includes a slewing frame slewably attached to the slewing bearing, a boom that performs lifting and the like of a lifting load, and a mast. For example, the work machine includes an upper spreader provided at a distal end portion of the mast, and a lower spreader provided on the slewing frame. The boom is hoisted when the mast is hoisted by a hoist rope wound around the upper spreader and the lower spreader.

Revolving frame for work machine, and work machine provided with same

KOBELCO CONSTRUCTION MACHINERY CO., LTD.


The present invention concerns an eye protector comprising first and second elements intended for attachment respectively to a patient""s upper eye lid and to a region of the patient""s cheek beneath the ye, and fastener means for releasably fastening the elements together; said fastener means being configured to resist release in response to natural eye lid motion but to release more readily when pulled apart for detachment.

This invention relates to eye protectors and it relates more especially to eye protectors of the kind in which an eyelid may be held closed by a releasable means.
Such eye protectors are disclosed in my U.S. Pat. No. 4,549,539, and comprise first and second elements for attachment respectively to an upper eye lid and to a part of the cheek beneath the eye. The two elements are capable of repeated attachment to, and detachment from, one another, and they are arranged so that the eye can be held comfortably in a closed position when the two elements are attached to one another, but can temporarily be allowed to open, for example to permit treatment to be administered, by detaching the two elements from one another.
The respective attachment of the two elements to the eye lid and to the cheek is effected by hypoallergenic adhesive, and the releasable attachment between the two elements may be effected by means such as a cooperative stud and tab, or by the provision, on facing surfaces of the two elements intended in use to overlap, of a material configured to comprise large numbers of hooks and eyes, such as that sold under the Trade Mark VELCRO. In practice, and in commerce, it has been preferred to use the latter technique but in any event it is arranged that the two elements, once having been detached to allow opening of the eye, can be reattached in substantially the same relative disposition as they adopted when the eye was originally closed.
These protectors have found market acceptance, but exhibit a problem in that, when detaching the two elements from one another, it is possible for the lower element to become detached from the cheek by the force used to separate the two elements, or at least to so weaken the lower element""s attachment to the cheek that normal eyelid movements may pull the lower element from the cheek. The principal problem caused by detachment of the lower element from the patient""s cheek is that it is difficult to re-attach the lower element in a satisfactory manner. As a result, a complete new eye protector is required. Moreover, any failure of the eye protector to hold the patient""s eye shut clearly can also be dangerous to the wearer since the eye is not properly protected. Furthermore, such failure involves wastage of materials and means that the eye area will have to be prepared again to receive the new lower element. Such preparation can involve pain, or at least discomfort, associated with the cleaning of potentially highly sensitive regions close to the patient""s eye.
It is an object of this invention to address the above problems.
According to the present invention, there is provided an eye protector comprising first and second elements intended for attachment respectively to a patient""s upper eye lid and to a region of the patient""s cheek beneath the eye, and fastener means for releasably fastening the elements together; said fastener means being configured to resist release in response to natural eye lid motion but to release more readily when manually pulled apart for detachment. Such an arrangement provides an eye protector which is less likely to fail by detachment of the second element on attempted unfastening of the first element therefrom.
Preferably, said fastener means comprises co-operatively retentive material carried by surfaces of respective components forming part at least of each of said first and second elements and intended in use to assume an overlying and contacting relationship. Such material may be of the type available under the Trade Mark VELCRO which exhibits particular advantages in its flexibility in position of attachment.
Most preferably, the first element is provided with a strip-like dependent portion extending downwardly, across the patient""s eye, and bearing said retentive means configured to overlie co-operative retentive means carried by the second element, the arrangement being such that the area of overlap between the retentive means borne by said strip-like portion and that carried by the second element is relatively small compared with the area of the second element as affixed to the patient""s cheek.
In a particularly favoured arrangement, the second element carries a strip of said retentive material, said strip extending, in use, substantially orthogonally to the said strip-like portion depending from said first element.
Conveniently, though not of course necessarily, the said element intended for attachment to the patient""s upper eye lid comprises a tab portion not provided with retentive material and intended to be manipulated to detach the two elements from one another. The provision of such a tab portion not provided with retentive material enhances the ease of unfastening the first and second elements, since the tab portion is thereby discouraged from fastening itself in an orientation in the direction of natural eye lid motion. The tab portion may be formed to have a memory for orientating itself away from the eye in use.
In other embodiments of the invention, which may be used alternatively to or in combination with the preferred embodiment described above, the retentive material carried by at least one of said overlying components conforms to a pattern which presents a relatively wide profile facing the patient""s eye and a profile of reduced width facing said tab portion. As such, the first and second elements will more readily separate when pulled apart manually from the tab portion. Said pattern may link said relatively wide profile to said profile of reduced width by means of at least one substantially linear slant or by means of at least one outline conforming to one of an exponential, logarithmic or sinusoidal form.
Conveniently, either or both of said first and second elements includes a component shaped to present a wider profile towards the patient""s eye than away therefrom.
The second element (that intended for attachment to the patient""s cheek) may conveniently be configured for attachment to an area overlapping the lower part of the eye socket of the patient. In this manner, the element intended for attachment to the patient""s cheek can be securely anchored near the lower part of the patient""s eye socket.
The retentive means provided on the second element is preferably carried only on a portion thereof. In this regard, such retentive means provided to the second element conveniently extends only to an area intended to be affixed near the lower edge of the patient""s eye socket and does not overlap the same when attached thereto in use. The second element may be provided with alignment means to facilitate its attachment to the patient""s cheek, namely it may be marked or shaped so that the fastener means provided thereto can be readily aligned with the lower edge of the eye socket. As such, the attachment of the second element to the patient""s cheek is enhanced to resist separation on detachment of the fastener means.
With such an arrangement, the tab portion on the first element tends to be orientated at least partially out of the direction of natural eye lid motion, thereby enhancing the ease of detachment of the fastener means.
According to a second aspect of the present invention there is provided an eye protector comprising first and second elements intended for attachment respectively to a patient""s upper eye lid and to a region of the patient""s cheek beneath the eye, and fastener means for releasably fastening the elements together; wherein said first element is provided with a strip-like dependent portion extending downwardly, and bearing VELCRO (trade mark) retentive means configured to overlie co-operative VELCRO (trade mark) retentive means carried by the second element, the arrangement being such that the ratio of the area of the second element as affixed to the patient""s cheek and the area of overlap between the retentive means borne by said strip-like portion and that carried by the second element is in excess of 2.5:1.


A soliton or soliton-like pulse-based optical communication system comprises a length of optical fibre divided into a plurality of sections arranged so that the average dispersion of the length of fibre is significantly different from the dispersion of each section.

This invention relates to optical fibre communication systems and, in particular to communication systems which employ solitons or soliton-like pulses for data transmission. It is also applicable to systems in which the launch pulse may be phase modulated return-to-zero (RTZ). In such systems, which are not obviously soliton-like, after travelling a distance, the pulses are transformed into soliton-like pulses.
It has recently been shown that a new class of optical solitons occur in dispersion managed systems where alternating sections of negative (anomalous) and positive (normal) dispersion fibre are used. (See, for example, Suzuki, M., Morita, I., Edagawa, N., Yamamoto, S., Taga, H., and Akiba, S., xe2x80x98Reduction of Gordon-Haus timing jitter by periodic dispersion compensation in soliton transmissionxe2x80x99, Electron. Lett., 1995, 31, (23), pp. 2027-2029, Smith, N. J., Knox, F. M., Doran, N. J., Blow, K. J., and Bennion, I., xe2x80x98Enhanced power solitons in optical fibres with periodic dispersion managementxe2x80x99, Electron. Lett., 1996, 32, (1), pp54-55 and Smith, N. J., Forysiak, W., and Doran, N. J., xe2x80x98Reduced Gordon-Haus jitter due to enhanced power solitons in strongly dispersion managed systemsxe2x80x99, Electron. Lett., 1996, 32, (22), pp2085-2086.
In a further paper entitled xe2x80x98Energy scaling characteristics of solitons in strongly dispersion-managed fibresxe2x80x99, Opt. Lett., 1996. 21, (24), ppl981-1983, Smith et al. derived an empirical relationship for the enhanced power of these solitons, where the average dispersion is anomalous and significantly less (in magnitude) than the dispersion in the two segments. These lossless calculations showed the importance of the launch point in the map (the minimum chirp is at the centre of either section), but did not establish the exact pulse shape, nor the long term stability of the pulses.
We have discovered that by using dispersion management, in which an optical communication system uses alternative sections of fibre of opposite sign of dispersion, that transmitted pulses are not distorted (neither dispersively nor effectively nonlinearly) provided the correct form of the pulse is selected. It is possible to have stable pulses (solitons) where the net dispersion is zero, normal or anomalous. There are no solitons for normal dispersion, but pulses are also stable in this regime. This permits wavelength multiplexing around the zero dispersion since, although the dispersion depends on wavelength, it is unavoidable that both signs will occur. However, the new arrangement permits solitons to be used for a wide range of wavelengths.
We have found that the shape of pulse is significant. For these systems it is important to pre-chirp the pulse in an appropriate way. The degree of chirp and pulse duration depends on the data rate required and how the map is designed.
We have also discovered that for zero net dispersion there appears a preferred pulse duration for a particular map. The ratio                               β          ¨                                  xe2x80x83                        l                    τ        2              ∼    4    ,
where {umlaut over (xcex2)} is the fibre dispersion, xcfx84 is the pulse duration and l is the fibre length. It means that the system (for the zero dispersion case) is specified by the pulse duration (effectively the data rate) and the dispersion of the fibres i.e. the length of each section can be immediately inferred. For example if xcfx84=20 ps (10 OGb/s) and {umlaut over (xcex2)}xcx9c20 ps2/km (standard fibre), then the fibre lengths should be 80 km. Alternatively, if {umlaut over (xcex2)}=1 ps2/km (dispersion shifted fibre typical number) then 1600 km is ideal. Numerical modelling indicates that there are stable nonlinear transmission pulses for periodically dispersion managed systems where the path average dispersion may be either anomalous, zero, or even normal.
A new class of stable pulses is demonstrated to exist when the average dispersion is zero or even normal. The discovery of these stable pulses allows the use of solitons in WDM systems around the zero (average) dispersion, where due to dispersion slope effects both signs of dispersion are inevitable.
According to one aspect of the present invention there is provided a soliton or soliton-like pulse-based optical communication system comprising a length of optical fibre divided into a plurality of sections wherein the average dispersion of the length of fibre is significantly different from the dispersion of each section. According to a further aspect of the present invention there is provided a soliton or soliton-like pulse-based optical communication system comprising a length of optical fibre divided into a plurality of sections wherein the average dispersion of the length of fibre is significantly different from the dispersion of each section and wherein the pulse duration t is substantially equal to xc2xc{umlaut over (xcex2)}l where {umlaut over (xcex2)}is the fibre dispersion, xcfx84 is the pulse duration and l is the fibre length.


A jet engine has a central turbojet stream and a peripheral ram jet stream which can be in turn obstructed or freed by flaps. The flaps can be opened outwardly and are located on an intake cone and at an inlet of the peripheral stream. The operation of the flaps is a function of the sought operating mode. This arrangement permits a very good guidance of gases.

Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a combined jet engine provided with means for switching between two operating states such as a turbojet operation and a ram jet operation.
Turbojet operation is preferred up to an aircraft speed roughly four times the speed of sound (Mach 4), but it is necessary to pass into the ram jet mode for obtaining even higher speeds (up to Mach 7 or 8). As the air then reaches a very high temperature, it must be made to skirt the gas turbine mainly forming the turbojet and it is for this purpose that the jet engine stream is subdivided over part of its length between a central turbojet stream where the turbine is located and a peripheral stream surrounding the latter and where the ram jet burners are located. However, it is necessary to provide means for obstructing one or the other of the two streams in order to guide all the air into the stream associated with the chosen operation mode.

Combined jet engine provided with means for switching between two operating states

Societe Nationale d'Etude Et de Construction de Moteurs d'Aviation "SNECMA"


An instrument for implanting an acetabular cup prosthesis in a patient's acetabulum. The cup is gripped on the base of the instrument and is aligned and inserted in accordance with a plane normal to the plane in which a patient is positioned and normal to a line between the right and left anterior/superior iliac spines. With the acetabular cup so aligned, the cup is impacted to be retained in a prepared acetabulum. The instrument is actuated for gripping the cup for the aforenoted alignment, insertion and impaction and is thereafter actuated for releasing the cup so that the instrument can be removed from the cup without disturbing the position thereof.

A total hip replacement procedure has been developed by Howmedica Division of Pfizer Hospital Products, Inc., Rutherford, N.J., and is described in a monograph entitled The P.C.A. Primary Hip System Surgical Technique prepared and published by Pfizer Hospital Products, Inc. in 1988. Howmedica and P.C.A. are registered trademarks of Pfizer Hospital Products, Inc.
The described surgical technique includes implanting an acetabular outer shell or cup prosthesis after appropriately preparing the acetabulum for the implantation. The actual implantation includes orienting, inserting and impacting the acetabular cup in the acetabulum.
Prior to the present invention, a variety of separate instruments have been required to accomplish the implantation. This has been found to be disadvantageous, particularly in view of the time and inconvenience required in switching from one instrument to another, which prolongs the overall operative time. In this connection it will be noted that a major problem encountered in performing surgical procedures such as herein referred to is the risk of infection of the operative area. This risk increases as the operative time increases, and hence it is most desirable to shorten the operative time to the greatest extent possible. Moreover, due to the nature of the procedure, it is imperative that it be performed under circumstances most auspicious to the patient and to the surgeon.
The present invention overcomes the aforenoted disadvantages and simplifies the implantation, in that only one instrument is required for all of the segments of the procedure. With the instrument to be herein described, an estimated fifteen to twenty minutes of operative time is saved, which is desirable for the reasons aforenoted.
Accordingly, it is the object of the present invention to provide a single instrument for orienting, inserting and impacting an acetabular cup in a prepared acetabulum as part of a total hip replacement procedure, whereby said procedure is simplified, made more convenient and is performed in a time less than would otherwise be the case.

Instrument for orienting, inserting and impacting an acetabular cup prosthesis


A method and system for using laser-induced structures to direct light to exit the bottom of a leaky mode device, and further to divide leaky mode light into multiple orders, and to implement one or more pulsing/strobing patterns such that a field of view is increased for a viewer, or the view zone is increased for a viewer. A leaky mode device may comprise a substrate, a surface acoustic wave (“SAW”) transducer, a waveguide having a higher refractive index than the substrate, an input region for input light, and laser induced structures such as grating. The SAW transducer may be positioned on a top surface of the substrate, and may be configured to emit a SAW wave to propagate across the substrate. The waveguide may be positioned below the SAW. The input wave region may be configured to couple light onto the waveguide. When light is coupled onto the waveguide, the refractive index may change such that the light in the waveguide exits the waveguide as leaky mode light and interacts with the laser-induced grating, which is below the waveguide. The laser-induced grating is configured to divide the leaky mode light into multiple orders, each bent at a different angle.

Leaky mode systems may be used for holographic video, e.g., flat-screen, scanned aperture, and near-eye holographic video systems. In a leaky mode system, which generally comprises multiple leaky mode devices, surface acoustic waves ("SAW") for a leaky mode device are generated by a transducer that encodes electrical information as a pattern of surface acoustic waves. This surface acoustic wave pattern acts both to mode couple light so that it is no longer guided and also to encode the light with holographic information. The leaky mode light propagates to form part or all of a holographic image.
One of the shortcomings in leaky mode light systems is that light exits the edge, rather than the bottom, of the device. This means that the device output aperture depends on the device thickness. Larger apertures mean thicker, more expensive, harder-to-process devices. Because in existing leaky light mode devices light exits the edge, but not the bottom, such devices can be combined only in one-dimensional arrays (which might themselves be one dimensional arrays). Otherwise, the light exit would be blocked. FIG. 6 shows an example of a one-dimensional array 600 of leaky mode devices 605, with respective transducers 610, respective SAWs 620, and respective light 630 exiting from side of leaky mode device 605n.
Additionally, fabricating gratings in leaky mode devices can be difficult and expensive when gratings have high spatial frequency. A grating in a leaky mode device is a periodic structure, usually etched into the bottom surface of the leaky mode substrate. The period of these gratings is typically around 300 nm. This grating structure takes leaky mode light traveling at approximately 10 degrees internally and bends it to 90 degrees as it exits the bottom surface of the device substrate. Standard photolithographic processes can be used to create patterns down to 1 μm features size. However, output gratings in lithium niobate meant to outcouple leaky mode light typically have grating periods around 300 nm. At this feature size, interference lithography, contact lithography, or more commonly, ebeam lithography must be used. But these fabrication techniques are difficult, expensive, and suffer from other shortcomings. Interference lithography has limited control of the grating pattern (only uniform gratings). Contact lithography requires special, thin, fragile flex masks that degrade with use. Ebeam lithography writes the pattern serially and is considered a low-throughput, high cost technique.
Another problem is that a bottom exit grating will reduce the field of view of a leaky mode near-eye display as compared with an edge-exit leaky mode display. Leaky mode modulators change the angle of light during mode conversion by adding or subtracting the spatial frequency of a surface acoustic wave to the spatial frequency of the light in the guide input mode. A grating output coupler adds or subtracts spatial frequencies in opposition to the grating formed by surface acoustic waves, essentially undoing some of the angular deflection.
Additionally, even when bottom exit gratings are used to direct and guide light to exit out the bottom of a leaky mode device, when a user moves it ay appear that that a virtual point is shifting with the user, rather than appearing to the user that the virtual point remains at the same point in space regardless of how a user has shifted,
What is needed is improvements to leaky mode devices to facilitate non-grating light exit from the bottom of a leaky mode device and/or to mitigate and/or overcome edge exit for leaky mode light devices, and further to mitigate obstacles and other issues associated with bottom exit in leaky mode devices.

Structures for modifying leaky mode light


A multilayer composite vascular access graft and a method of constructing such a graft are disclosed. The mcVAG has improved performance characteristics, which include desirable handling characteristics such as ease of suturing, kink resistance and the ability to serve as a cannulation route soon after the implant procedure.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to prosthetic vascular access grafts. More particularly, this invention relates to multilayer composite vascular access grafts and their method of construction.
2. Description of the State of the Art
Vascular access is the method used to access the bloodstream for hemodialysis patients. Hemodialysis removes blood from the body and routes it to an artificial kidney machine where the blood is cleansed and returned to the patient. Hemodialysis patients require easy and routine access to the bloodstream. The most common forms of vascular access are an arteriovenous (A/V) fistula, a central venous catheter (CVC) for temporary access and a prosthetic vascular access graft (VAG). The A/V fistula generally takes 1 to 4 months after surgery to develop, and a CVC is generally inserted until the fistula is ready for use. A VAG is a synthetic tube that is implanted under the skin in your arm and connected to an artery and a vein. The VAG is the most widely used vascular access device for long term vascular access in the hemodialysis patient, since there are a variety of factors that prevent the use of an A/V fistula. More than 60% of the hemodialysis patients in the United States have a VAG.
Hemodialysis patients have benefited from high-flow cannulation VAGs for decades. A primary material used in the construction of a VAG is expanded polytetrafluoroethylene (ePTFE). The ePTFE graft has become a standard among vascular surgeons due to its high kink-resistance, conformability and biocompatibility. The primary disadvantage of the ePTFE graft is that it must be allowed to "mature" for at least two weeks after the implant procedure to ensure that sufficient tissue in-growth has occurred and, although not necessarily required, it is often hoped that cell endothelialization has occurred as well. This maturation time helps to provide hemostasis, long-term healing ability and patency to the graft.
Polyurethane VAGs have been introduced into the U.S. marketplace over the past three years and are beneficial in that they are available for cannulation immediately after implant, are self-sealing, and as a result, provide rapid post-cannulation hemostasis. There are a number of disadvantages with these grafts including undesired handling characteristics that make it difficult for the surgeon to create an anastomosis, particularly with smaller blood vessels. In addition, the high elasticity of polyurethane can result in pulling and kinking in the region of the anastomosis. Accordingly, one of skill in the art in the field of VAGs would benefit from the introduction of a VAG with improved performance characteristics, which include handling characteristics such as ease of suturing, kink resistance and the ability to serve as a cannulation route soon after the implant procedure.

Multilayer composite vascular access graft


An assembly for connection to at least one medicant supply tube, includes (a) a septum assembly including a distal end cap having opposite first and second ends, an outer peripheral wall extending between the first and second ends and a bore extending therethrough from the first end to the second end; a septum cap including a puncture sealing section positioned over the first end and a securing section integrally formed with the puncture sealing section and positioned in fluid sealing contact with the peripheral wall adjacent the first end so as to secure the septum cap to the distal end cap; and a proximal connector connected with the distal end cap in covering relation to the septum cap, the proximal connector including a bore extending therethrough and a connection at one end thereof; and (b) an external adapter fitting having a septum piercing tube for piercing the puncture sealing section when the external adapter fitting is connected with the proximal connector, and a luer lock connection cooperating with the connection of the proximal connector for connecting the external adapter fitting to the proximal connector.

This invention relates generally to an assembly that connects an adapter and needle to a tube for fluids such as a catheter or feed line for chemicals and the like.
In medical applications, it is often necessary to disconnect a drug delivery system connected to a catheter, for example, for the purpose of changing reservoirs or moving the patient. As a result, contaminants from the air or the surroundings may enter the open end of the tube that has been disconnected, adversely affecting the sterility of the line.
Related thereto, outpatient treatment for various illnesses frequently necessitates repeated injections of drugs by the patient at home. As a result, it is necessary to continuously remove and reinsert a catheter in the patient's body. Accordingly, hard teflon catheters have generally been used for such purpose. It would, however, be more desirable to utilize a soft catheter made of, for example, polyurethane, which could stay in the patient's body for an extended period of time on the order of a plurality of weeks or a month. Such soft catheters could be made much smaller, for example, having an outer diameter of 0.014 inch and an inner diameter of 0.004 inch, and would be more comfortable to the patient. However, in order to maintain such a catheter in the body for a long period of time during numerous reservoir changes, the internal catheter lumen must remain sterile in order to prevent contamination at the injection site.
In this regard, U.S. Pat. No. 4,659,043 discloses an assembly including a locking septum fitting which permits the disconnection and reconnection of a drug delivery system to an inserted catheter line while still maintaining sterility and leakproof characteristics within the catheter. In this regard, an assembly is disclosed therein which includes a septum disc that is compressed between a distal end cap and proximal connector connected to the distal end cap, so as to provide a self sealing, sterile, static barrier to a fluid being fed from a septum piercing tube, such as a needle, in an external adapter fitting connected to the proximal connector. However, the assembly of this Patent uses a seal that depends upon compression by the mating distal end cap and proximal connector. As a result, sealing occurs at the opposite faces of the septum disc which are contacted by respective portions of the distal end cap and proximal connector. In other words, the seal is not very efficient and because of the compression that is used to provide such seal, the seal may fail over a period of time, which could be disastrous to the patient. Also, because of such sealing arrangement, the component tolerances of the distal end cap and the proximal connector must be maintained very closely to insure proper sealing, thus greatly increasing the cost. Also, this arrangement limits the types of material that can be used for the septum itself. Specifically, some portion of the material must be sufficiently rigid to provide the proper support, while also allowing for repeated puncture.
However, the proximal connector and the distal end cap in this Patent are bonded together in order for the device to be operative. Thus, the proximal connector and the distal end cap must be held together in compression during the bonding operation. The bonded seam must also provide a static seal, as well as maintaining compression on the septum.
This Patent also discloses a taper sealing with a threaded lock connection between the external adapter fitting and the proximal connector.
An extension set and injection site is also sold by ICU Medical, Inc., 5200 Warner Avenue, Suite 108, Huntington Beach, Calif. 92649. With such device, the extension set includes a septum cap covering the end of an end cap. Such septum cap, however, is exposed at one end thereof, and as such has no secondary seal when connected to the external adapter fitting. In addition, an external adapter fitting which includes the needle extends over the septum cap during piercing thereof by the needle. However, an external snap-securing device is provided on the external adapter for securing the same to the extension set. This device complicates the assembly and makes it difficult to work with. This snap-securing device does not in itself provide a seal. The seal only takes place through the septum.
In the ICU device, there is a cowling that extends over the needle to provide a stickless needle.

Septum adapter assembly and external needle adapter fitting


A trim system reduces NO.sub.x output from a cannular gas turbine by trimming fuel flow rates to equalize the fuel-air ratio in each combustor can. The system includes a main valve fluidly connected to the fuel inlet of each can and a trim valve fluidly connected to each fuel inlet in parallel with the main valve. Each trim valve has a flow resistance which is about 30-100 times greater than the flow resistance of each main valve. A controller is provided for controlling the opening of the trim valves in response to the level of NO.sub.x emitted from the gas turbine. The controller receives a signal corresponding to the NO.sub.x emissions from a NO.sub.x sensor and outputs suitable control signals to the trim valves. In one preferred control scheme, the controller sequentially perturbs the fuel flow rate to each can and monitors the resulting changes in NO.sub.x emissions. The controller establishes influence coefficients for each combustor can which are defined as the ratio of the change in NO.sub.x output to the change in fuel flow rate to that can. Baseline fuel flow adjustments are then made in the direction of negative influence coefficients. This is continued until NO.sub.x emissions are minimized.

This invention relates generally to fuel-air optimization in cannular gas turbine combustors and more particularly concerns a system for continual on-line trimming of the fuel flow rate to each can of a cannular combustor.
FIG. 1A shows a conventional gas turbine apparatus which includes a compressor 2, a combustor 3 and a turbine 4. Fuel is mixed with compressed air from the compressor 2 and burned in the combustor 3. The resulting flow of combustion products out of the combustor 3 drives the turbine 4 which in turn drives a generator 5 as well as the compressor 2. The exhaust from the turbine 4 is eventually released to the atmosphere. One type of combustor commonly used today is the so-called cannular combustor which comprises a plurality of separate cans, wherein each can is connected to the compressor 2 and the fuel supply and outputs to the turbine 4.
FIG. 1B schematically shows a single can 10 of a conventional cannular combustor. The can 10 defines a tubular combustion chamber 11 to which a fuel-air mixture from a premixer 12 is injected. Air at compressor discharge conditions enters the premixer 12 via an air line 13 and fuel enters via a fuel line 14. A main valve 15 is disposed in the fuel line 14 to throttle the flow of fuel into the premixer 12. Alternatively, the fuel and air may be directly injected into the combustion chamber 11 without premixing. This results in near-stoichiometric, high temperature combustion which leads to copious production of NO and NO.sub.2 which are generally referred to as NO.sub.x. Premixing the fuel and air prior to combustion results in lean premixed combustion which produces lower flame temperatures and thus lower NO.sub.x emissions.
Reducing emissions of harmful gases such as NO.sub.x into the atmosphere is of prime concern. Gas turbine-based power plants burning natural gas offer a means for dramatically reducing these emissions. Natural gas-fired gas turbines produce no measurable particulates or SO.sub.x and, if the combustion process is properly controlled, very little NO.sub.x or CO. NO.sub.x emissions are very sensitive to fuel-air ratio, increasing exponentially with respect to the fuel-air ratio. Because of the non-linear increase, total NO.sub.x emissions for a prescribed amount of total fuel can be minimized when the fuel-air ratio is the same in all cans of a cannular combustor. However, uniformity of air flow to each can cannot be controlled to better than 3-4% and the can-to-can variation is not known in real time. These uncontrollable can-to-can variations in air flow mean that unless individual can fuel inputs can be accurately controlled, the fuel-air ratios between cans will not be uniform and excess NO.sub.x will be produced.
Accordingly, there is a need for real time, on-line trimming of the fuel flow to each can of a cannular combustor in accordance with minimizing total NO.sub.x emissions. There is an additional need for a trim system to carry out the real time, on-line trimming which is retrofittable to existing cannular gas turbines. The trim system must be such that its failure will not affect the baseline operation of the gas turbine apparatus.

Retrofittable trim system for fuel-air optimization in cannular gas turbine combustors


A light-emitting module having a light-emitting efficiency. The light-emitting module that emits light includes a semiconductor light-emitting element operable to emit light, and a sealing member operable to seal the semiconductor light-emitting element with materials that transmit the light emitted from the light-emitting module, in which the semiconductor light-emitting element includes a sapphire substrate that transmits light toward the sealing member to send the transmitted light from a facing face facing the sealing member and forms a sub-wavelength grating for reducing reflection of light on the facing face in grid periods shorter than a wavelength of the light transmitted through the sapphire substrate, and a semiconductor layer that is formed on a rear face of the facing face in the sapphire substrate by crystal growth and emits light toward the sapphire substrate.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a light-emitting module and a lamp.
2. Description of Related Art
In a light-emitting module such as a light-emitting diode module, a semiconductor light-emitting element is sealed by a sealing member that is formed of resin having light transmittance in order to improve light-emitting efficiency (e.g., see OhmMOOK Light series No. 1 "Optical device", Ohm-sha, Nov. 25, 2001). In this case, the sealing member is formed of materials having a refractive index that is larger than that of air and smaller than that of a semiconductor light-emitting element.
However, when a refractive index of the sealing member is high, total reflection of light occurs on an interface between the sealing member and air. For that purpose, light could not conventionally be sent from the sealing member to air with high efficiency in some cases. In this way, it was not possible to efficiently utilize light emitted from a light-emitting module in some cases.


A semiconductor device (10) having a termination structure (25) and a reduced on-resistance. The termination structure (25) is fabricated using the same processing steps that were used for manufacturing an active device region (21). The termination structure (25) and the active device region (21) are formed by etching trenches (22, 23) into a drift layer (14). The trenches (22, 23) are filled with a doped polysilicon trench fill material (24), which is subsequently planarized. The semiconductor device (10) is formed in the trenches (22) filled with the polysilicon trench fill material (24) that are in the active region. The trenches (23) filled with the polysilicon trench fill material (24) in a termination region serve as termination structures.

The present invention relates, in general, to semiconductor devices and, more particularly, to power semiconductor devices.
Power semiconductor devices are well known and are used in many applications including automotive electronics, portable electronics, power supplies, and telecommunications. Manufacturers of these devices typically use a thick field oxide together with diffused field limiting rings and channel stop regions to reduce device leakage, reduce undesirable parasitic effects, and to enhance device breakdown. All of these approaches serve to address the same basic problem of maximum electric field relaxation of a planar junction. Each termination approach possesses a set of innate advantages and disadvantages, and the designer attempts to minimize the negative aspects of an approach while simultaneously exploiting the positive aspects. Among these approaches, field-limiting rings are one of the least costly in regards to semiconductor device manufacturing investment, as the same diffusion step used to form the PN junction of the main device can often be used to form the field-limiting rings.
Another device characteristic that semiconductor device manufacturers try to optimize is the on-resistance of the semiconductor devices. The value of this parameter is governed by the concentration of dopant in the semiconductor material in which the semiconductor device is fabricated as well as the thickness of this material. Since it is desirable to have a low on-resistance, it is preferable that the semiconductor material be thin and heavily doped.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to have a semiconductor device and method for its manufacture that includes a termination structure and is designed to have a high breakdown voltage and a small on-resistance. It would be of further advantage for the method of manufacture to be cost efficient and integrable with available processing techniques.

Semiconductor device and method of manufacture

Semiconductor Components Industries, LLC


Embodiments of the present technology relate to a system for providing intrusion detection for industrial control systems, comprising serial data links to communicate with serial-based networks, Ethernet interfaces to communicate with industrial and enterprise networks, a protocol recognition engine to break down an incoming data packet by protocol and integrate the data into an Ethernet framework, an industrial control system recognition application to detect intrusions, a traffic analytics application to analyze traffic activity for abnormal traffic activity, a logfile creation application to poll industrial equipment and create a logfile of equipment statuses, a long term system deviation analysis application to monitor raw data of the industrial equipment to create a profile of long term system activity, a rule set to allow data that matches the rule set and flag data that does not match the rule set, and an alerts engine to alert a system administrator of suspect activity.

Traditionally, networks for ICSs, including but not limited to industries such as water, oil, gas, electrical, automated manufacturing, transportation, and industrial autonomous vehicles, were segregated from and physically incompatible with corporate information technology (IT) systems. However, modern demands for production and maintenance information has led to the integration of corporate IT systems and ICS systems, resulting in increased risk to both business and critical infrastructures.
The Stuxnet virus was the first major virus to attack physical ICS networks by compromising the programmable logic controllers (PLCs) at the center of the control process. In addition to compromising the service laptops at a nuclear enrichment facility, new software was installed to the PLC and, a rootkit was installed within the PLC code to run malicious code that compromised the system control loop.
It should be apparent from the foregoing that there is a need to provide network intrusion detection in ICS networks.


An sealing system includes a frame, a ferrite core disposed within the frame, and a litz wire coil disposed proximate to the ferrite core for producing an electromagnetic field within the ferrite core, where the ferrite core and litz wire coil are adapted to direct the electromagnetic field toward a foil to seal an opening of a container with the foil. The sealing head is air cooled within the induction sealing unit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an induction sealing apparatus which seals a foil sheet or liner to the opening of a container and more particularly to an induction sealing apparatus which is air cooled.
2. Related Art
Induction sealing units for sealing, hermetically sealing or tamper-proof sealing a container with a foil liner are typically included in conveyor systems for high volume applications. These systems usually have flat or tunnel sealing heads mounted above a conveyor, which conveyor carries a plurality of containers to be sealed into proximity with the sealing head.
The containers to be sealed are preconditioned to include a foil liner disposed over the opening of the container. Usually, the foil liner is held in place by a screw-on or snap-on cap as is known in the art. Sometimes a wax compound and a paperboard portion are included above the foil liner.
Once the preconditioned container is brought within a predetermined distance from the sealing head, a coil within the sealing head produces an electromagnetic field near the foil liner which is disposed within the cap. The electromagnetic flux produced by the field causes current to flow in the foil liner which causes the foil liner to heat and melt the lip of the container (and wax compound if used). The molten plastic adheres the foil liner to the opening of the container and, when the plastic cools, a seal is produced. The downward force supplied by the cap ensures a proper bond between the foil liner and the opening of the container, particularly when the molten plastic is cooling.
Typically, power supplies which include solid state switching circuits generate high frequency currents for delivery to the coil within the sealing head to produce the requisite electromagnetic field for heating the foil liner. In addition, the coil in the sealing head is disposed around dense ferrite materials to channel the electromagnetic field and direct the field flux towards the foil liner for improved performance. Generally, the power supplies deliver approximately 2 to 4 kilowatts of power to the sealing head in order to properly seal the container.
In conventional systems, high currents are produced in the coil of the sealing head and, due to the relatively high resistance of the coil, results in a drastic elevation of the temperature of the coil and any surrounding structures. Therefore, the induction sealing units of the prior art employ hollow copper tubing when forming the coil in the sealing head to permit cooling water to flow through the hollow copper tube coil and cool the sealing head.
Unfortunately, the water cooling systems which cool the sealing heads (via hollow copper tubing coils) are expensive, bulky and inefficient. Such water cooling systems require tubing, radiators, radiator fans, circulators, pumps and the like in order to adequately cool the system.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an induction sealing unit which does not require expensive and bulky water cooling systems.
Another object is to provide such an induction sealing head which includes an air cooled sealing head.
A further object of the present invention to provide an induction sealing head which is more energy efficient.
It is also an object to provide such an induction sealing head that is easy to use, manufacture and maintain.
It has been found that the above and other objects of the present invention are attained in a cap sealing unit having a frame; a ferrite core disposed within the frame; and a litz wire coil disposed proximate to the ferrite core for producing an electromagnetic field within the ferrite core. The ferrite core and litz wire coil are preferably adapted to direct the electromagnetic field toward a foil to seal an opening of a container with the foil.
The cap sealing unit may also include a heatsink coupled to the housing, where at least part of the ferrite core is bonded or operatively coupled to the heatsink for transferring heat thereto.
According to another aspect of the invention, the cap sealing unit includes a ferrite core; a litz wire coil having a resistance, the coil being disposed proximate to the ferrite core producing an inductance; a tuning capacitor operatively coupled in series with the coil forming a resonant circuit having a resonance frequency; and a power supply unit adapted to provide output current at an output frequency to the tuned circuit, the power supply unit including a control circuit adapted to control the output frequency to substantially match the resonance frequency of the resonant circuit.
Other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of the invention which refers to the accompanying drawings.


A method for treating angina, epilepsy and hypertension by achieving vasodilation, anti-angina or anti-convulsant effect in a patient is described. The method involves transdermally administering to a patient in need of vasodilation or anti-convulsant effect the compound known as (+)(2S,3S)-acetoxy-8-chloro-5-(2-dimethylaminoethyl)-2,3-dihydro-2-(4-meth oxyphenyl)-1,5-benzothiazepin-4-(5H)-one in an amount sufficient to achieve desired systemic vasodilation, anti-angina or anti-convulsant levels of the compound.

(a) Field of Invention
The invention relates to the use of transdermal delivery devices for controlled administration through the skin of benzothiazepine calcium antagonists to maintain a sustained systemic therapeutic amount of the drug for an extended period of time in a patient. More particularly, the invention relates to transdermal administration of (+)(2S,3S)-3-acetoxy-8-chloro-5-(2-dimethylaminoethyl)-2,3-dihydro-2-(4-me thoxyphenyl) -1,5-benzothiazepin-4-(5H)-one for treatment of diseases such as hypertension, angina and convulsions.
(b) State of the Art
Pharmaceutically active drugs are commonly administered to patients in need of treatment in periodic doses given orally or by injection to maintain adequate systemic therapeutic levels of the drug. For a variety of reasons, it is often advantageous to administer certain drugs, e.g. drugs which act on the cardiovascular system, in a single daily oral or injected sustained release dose. However, many drugs are not efficiently administered in such a single daily dosage regimen, because of incomplete absorption from the gastrointestinal tract and/or so-called first-pass metabolism by the liver.
As a result of these problems, techniques for administering drugs by absorption through the skin to afford sustained systemic levels in a patient have been developed. In accordance with these techniques, transdermal delivery devices have been developed which administer a wide variety of drugs, including hormones, antibiotics, vasoactive drugs and others. Transdermal devices for administering nitroglycerine and scopolamine are commercially available at present.
In a transdermal device, the drug is commonly incorporated into a polymeric reservoir material, such as a silicone elastomer or acrylic polymer matrix, for controllable release of the drug through the skin. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,996,934 and 4,460,371 which teach such devices. The device also has means by which it may be affixed to the skin of the patient for delivery of the drug. Experimentation to determine which delivery system is best for a particular drug is often required, however, because it is well known that a particular transdermal delivery system which is useful with one drug, may not be useful with others.
Moreover, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,615,699, incorporation of permeation enhancers into the transdermal delivery system is often required to potentiate or enhance permeation of the drug through the skin to obtain effective serum levels. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,645,502 teaches a transdermal delivery device for efficient delivery of highly ionized fat insoluble drugs, including the ionized forms (i.e., salts) of various drugs. The invention is premised on the observation that unionized forms of most drugs are more permeable through skin than their ionized forms, i.e., generally the salt of a particular drug cannot be delivered through the skin, absent some way of enhancing permeation. The '502 patent provides such a transdermal delivery device which incorporates a permeation enhancer element to achieve efficient permeation of ionized drugs through the skin.
Transdermal delivery of vasodilator drugs, primarily nitroglycerine, and other cardiovascular drugs such as beta receptor antagonists (e.g., propranolol) and cardiac glycosides (e.g., digoxin) is particularly attractive as a means of maintaining sustained levels of such drugs in a patient. A variety of devices for delivering such drugs has been developed. See e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,460,562, 4,573,996 and 4,668,232 and published European Application No. 0159168.
Calcium antagonists are an important group of vasodilators which have found wide clinical use in the treatment of cardiovascular problems, such as angina and hypertension. Chemically, calcium antagonists form a diverse group of organic compounds, all of which inhibit the flux of calcium ions through calcium channels in cell membranes. Four chemical classes of calcium antagonists are generally recognized: (1) the dihydropyridines, exemplified by nifedipine and nimodipine; (2) the phenylalkylamines, such as verapamil; (3) the diphenylalkylamines, such as flunarizine and (4) the benzothiazepines, such as diltiazem. Generally, such drugs are orally administered to a patient, often in several doses per day to maintain adequate therapeutic levels. A once a day sustained release dosage, if feasible, would be preferable for these drugs, however.
Various devices which can provide transdermal delivery of calcium antagonists have been developed. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,637,930 discloses transdermal delivery of nicardipine hydrochloride, which has both cerebral and coronary vasodilating properties. Because of the drug's poor permeability through skin, however, the '930 patent teaches that permeability enhancers, including propylene glycol, 2-4 carbon monohydric alcohols, thioglycol, 6-12 carbon mono- and di-fatty acid esters of glycerol, 6-12 carbon mono- and di-fatty acid esters of sorbitol and urea, must be included in the transdermal delivery system to promote or potentiate permeation of the drug through the skin in order to achieve adequate serum levels for therapy.
Likewise, U.S. Pat. No. 4,668,232 provides an improved transdermal delivery system where drugs, including vasodilators, are present in a rubber and adhesive reservoir together with a water-swellable polymer to enhance permeation of the incorporated drug. The device can be used to administer calcium antagonists, with verapamil being exemplified.
U.S Pat. No. 4,690,683 specifically teaches a transdermal delivery device for administration of verapamil at a high rate of delivery. Verapamil, as a free base, is dispersed in an electroneutral lipophilic polymer matrix, e.g., a silicone elastomer. According to this patent, the verapamil should exist essentially in its electrically neutral non-ionic form (i.e., verapamil base) in order for the drug to be efficiently released from the polymer matrix (col. 4, lines 5-20). Enhancing agents, such as a saturated aliphatic alcohol, may be included in the delivery system to enhance permeation of the drug.
Nifedipine and other dihydropyridine calcium antagonists which have been incorporated into transdermal delivery systems are disclosed in Japanese applications, Derwent Nos. 61129140 and 58038213. These references also teach various enhancing agents to potentiate drug permeation.
Several references have disclosed transdermal devices for delivery of diltiazem. For example, European Patent Application No. 0159168 discloses a "soft patch" device comprising a drug, a water soluble protein having an absorption promoting effect (i.e., a permeation enhancer), a polyhydric alcohol, a tackifier and an oleaginous substance. Numerous drugs, including diltiazem and other calcium antagonists, either in a non-ionized form or as an ionized acid or base addition salt form, can be used in the delivery system.
Transdermal delivery of diltiazem hydrochloride is also the subject of Japanese unexamined Patent Disclosure No. 132828-1987. The reference acknowledges the poor percutaneous absorption of diltiazem hydrochloride which is due to its hydrophilic nature and teaches that absorption of the drug may be enhanced by the inclusion of non-ionic water soluble macromolecules in the delivery system.
Recently, several new 8-chloro-1,5-benzothiazapine derivatives with calcium channel blocking activity have been described. A particularly promising drug with potent vasodilating activity for treatment of hypertension and angina is (+)(2S,3S)-3-acetoxy-8-chloro-5-(2-dimethylaminoethyl)-2,3-dihydro-2-(4-me thoxyphenyl)-1,5-benzothiazepin-4-(5H)-one ("TA-3090"), exemplified in U.S. Pat. No. 4,567,175. However, a once-a-day oral dose of TA-3090 to achieve a sustained systemic therapeutic level does not appear to be feasible because of incomplete oral absorption and/or first pass metabolism of the drug by the liver.

Transdermal delivery of (+) (2S,3S)-3-acetoxy-8-chloro-5-(2-dimethylaminoethyl)-2,3-dihydro-2-(4-met hoxyphenyl)-1,5-benzothiazepin-4-(5H)-one


A system of monitoring and controlling an operation, comprising: an input means, the input means is adapted for user to input user-defined parameters, a middleware application in connection with the input means via a network, the middleware application is in communication with a directory database and also a relational database management system via communication means, a data management system being installed as a slave program in the middleware application and as a slave program in one more external server or external device, the middleware application is in communication with the external servers or device via communication means, whereby the master-slave relation allows exchange of data between the middleware application and the server architecture.

Large-scale production of diamond has long been an objective of both research and industry. Diamond, in addition to its gem properties, is the hardest known material, has the highest known thermal conductivity, and is transparent to a wide variety of electromagnetic radiation. It is valuable because of its wide range of applications in a number of industries, in addition to its value as a gemstone. However, a diamond can have low fracture toughness that will make it unsuitable for many applications, such as high impact machine tools.
There exist many systems and methods with the objective of producing diamonds at a large scale. More specifically, an example of such a system and method of producing diamonds at a large scale is described as follows.
A machine is adapted to produce diamonds. To cope with the demand of the diamonds, the production rate of the diamonds has to be increased. The existing method makes use of multiple machines to increase the production rate of the diamonds. Each machine is provided with a Human Machine Interface (HMI) mounted thereto to allow user to control the operation of the production of diamonds therein.
A drawn back of the above described example is that the HMI is mounted onto each machine. The HMI is not portable. In addition, the HMI is costly too. In order to operate the multiple machines, the user has to go to each of the individual machines to operate the production of the diamonds via the HMI on the machine at every regular time interval. The user has to manually record the parametric values on a data sheet for every machine at the same time interval. It is submitted that the present method is tedious, error-prone, unproductive, inefficient and time consuming. In addition, manpower and labour cost goes up if there is a need to deploy more users to operate multiple machines for producing diamonds.
It is an objective of the present invention to provide a method and system of controlling the operation of the production of diamonds in multiple machines by using an input means from a remote location. The manpower and labour cost goes down as it is possible to have only one user to control the entire operation.
In addition, the security of operation of production of diamonds in multiple machines is also improved as only approved personnel can access the system. The system is also more user-friendly and thus facilitating new user to learn how to use the system faster and easier. In addition, the paperwork is significantly reduced as most of the work is now done electronically by the system. Furthermore, the system also allows the addition of new machines if the production rate needs to grow in view of increasing demand. The user's experience with the system is thus significantly enhanced since the user can have a better control of the system. It is submitted that the system improves the overall productivity and efficiency of the production of diamonds.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, wherein, by way of illustration and example, an embodiment of the present invention is disclosed.

System of monitoring and controlling the operation of multiple machines for producing diamonds and a method thereof


Shading device for a transparent surface part of a motor vehicle having a flexible shading structure, two non-parallel lateral guide arrangements fixed with respect to the vehicle and having a dimensionally stable pull-out profile displaceable in parallel fashion by in each case one guide carriage in the respective lateral guide arrangement via a drive device, lateral shading structure sections protruding, in a manner dependent on the displacement travel of the shading structure, into lateral receiving spaces fixed with respect to the vehicle. To the lateral shading structure sections, there are fastened in each case two support bodies spaced apart from one another in the pulling-out direction of the shading structure and the thickness of which is greater than a thickness of the respective shading structure sections. The support bodies are guided in transversely supported fashion with play in complementary support channel sections of the receiving spaces.

A shading device of said type is known from EP 1 800 922 B1. The known shading device is provided for a rear window arrangement of a passenger motor vehicle. The shading device comprises a web-like shading structure of rectangular form. The shading structure is held, such that it can be wound up and unwound, on a winding shaft which is mounted rotatably underneath a rear parcel shelf of the vehicle interior. On a front face end region of the shading structure as viewed in the pulling-out direction, there is provided a pull-out profile on which the face end region of the shading structure is held by means of a transverse guidance strip. The pull-out profile is, at opposite face sides, guided displaceably in parallel fashion in non-parallel guide arrangements which are fixed with respect to the vehicle. In each lateral guide arrangement there is furthermore provided a drive transmission means in the form of a flexible shaft which linearly displaces a guide carriage on which the pull-out profile is arranged. By corresponding parallel displacement of the pull-out profile, the shading structure is displaced between its rest position and its shading position. Since the shading structure is of rectangular form, but the guide arrangements are however oriented non-parallel to one another, it is the case that, over the displacement travel of the shading structure, lateral shading structure sections protrude into the lateral guide arrangements. For this purpose, in the region of the lateral guide arrangements, there are provided receiving spaces which receive the lateral shading structure sections protruding therein.


According to one embodiment, an ultrasound diagnosis apparatus includes an image processing circuit and a processing circuit. The image processing circuit generates an ultrasound image. The processing circuit receives a medical image acquired by another medical image diagnosis apparatus, and aligns the ultrasound image and the medical image. The processing circuit has a function of recognizing identification information held by the medical image when the ultrasound image and the medical image are displayed side by side on a display. The processing circuit also has a function of retrieving diagnostic protocol information corresponding to the identification information and displaying it on the display, and a function of performing examinations and processes based on the diagnostic protocol information displayed.

Medical treatment has been performed with the support of a medical image diagnosis apparatus based on the technological progress of modality (medical image diagnosis apparatuses). In addition, various medical image diagnosis apparatuses are used when a doctor conducts a diagnosis or when the disease state of a patient is determined. However, upon determining the disease state using a medical image diagnosis apparatus, for example, when the disease state to be determined is of a severe disease such as cancer, in many cases, the disease state is not determined only by information obtained from one medical image diagnosis apparatus. This is to more accurately determine the disease state. In this case, a plurality of medical image diagnosis apparatuses are used.
Among the medical image diagnosis apparatuses is an ultrasound diagnosis apparatus. The ultrasound diagnosis apparatus can noninvasively examine the internal structure and blood flow state of a patient. For example, the ultrasound diagnosis apparatus is used as one medical image diagnosis apparatus for determining a disease state relating to the abdomen and extremities. For example, after a medical image illustrating internal information of a patient is acquired by using an X-ray CT apparatus, the disease state of the patient may be determined based on the medical image displayed on the ultrasound diagnosis apparatus together with an ultrasound image.
When the X-ray CT apparatus is used first and then the ultrasound diagnosis apparatus is used as above, the doctor looks at the medical image acquired by the X-ray CT apparatus and marks a part or an area that bothers him/her. This mark indicates a part or an area desired to be the object of an examination conducted by using the ultrasound diagnosis apparatus. Then, the marked part or area is examined with the ultrasound diagnosis apparatus to collect information leading to the final determination of the disease state.
When an examination is performed using the ultrasound diagnosis apparatus, if a medical image acquired by the X-ray CT apparatus and an ultrasound image acquired by the ultrasound diagnosis apparatus are displayed on the same screen, the mark on the medical image is also displayed. Accordingly, the examination is performed more accurately.
In order to determine the disease state of a patient, the part or area marked on the medical image is examined with a medical image diagnosis apparatus different from the one which has acquired the medical image. On this occasion, for example, in the case of an experienced operator, he/she can accurately perform the examination necessary for determining the disease state based on the mark displayed on the screen. However, if the operator is not experienced in the examination, he/she may not be able to acquire as much information as necessary to make the final determination of the disease state compared to the experienced operator. Even if the examination is performed reliably, the final determination of the disease state is made by individual doctors. As a result, the determination may vary depending on the doctors.

Ultrasound diagnosis apparatus, medical image diagnosis apparatus, and computer program product


A fluid mount (10) for an exposure apparatus (32) includes a first subsystem (12) and a second subsystem (14). The first subsystem (12) includes a first cylinder (18) and a first piston (20). The first piston (20) moves within the first cylinder (18) along a first axis (26). The second subsystem (14) includes a second cylinder (22) and a second piston (24). The second piston (24) moves within the second cylinder (22) along a second axis (28). Importantly, (i) the second subsystem (14) is stacked on top of the first subsystem (12), (ii) the second axis (28) is substantially coaxial with the first axis (26), and (iii) the first piston (20) is connected to the second piston (24) with a piston connector (16). The resulting fluid mount (10) has a relatively high load carrying capacity and a relatively small footprint.

The present invention is directed to a fluid mount. More specifically, the present invention is directed to a multiple chamber fluid mount for an exposure apparatus and a method for making a multiple chamber fluid mount for dampening vibration. Additionally, the present invention is directed to an exposure apparatus having improved isolation.
Exposure apparatuses are commonly used to transfer images from a reticle onto a semiconductor wafer during semiconductor processing. A typical exposure apparatus includes an apparatus frame, a measurement system, a control system, an illumination source, an optical assembly, a reticle stage for retaining a reticle, and a wafer stage for retaining a semiconductor wafer.
The apparatus frame typically supports the measurement system, the illumination source, the reticle stage, the optical assembly, and the wafer stage above the ground. The measurement system monitors the positions of the stages relative to a reference such as the optical assembly. The optical assembly projects and/or focuses the light that passes through the reticle. One or more movers precisely position the reticle stage relative to the optical assembly. Similarly, one or more movers precisely position the wafer stage relative to the optical assembly.
The size of the images and the features within the images transferred onto the wafer from the reticle are extremely small. Accordingly, the precise positioning of the wafer and the reticle relative to the optical assembly is critical to the manufacture of high density, semiconductor wafers.
Unfortunately, mechanical vibrations and deformations in the apparatus frame of the exposure apparatus can influence the accuracy of the exposure apparatus. For example, the movers utilized to move the stages generate reaction forces that vibrate and deform the apparatus frame of the exposure apparatus. Further, the ground can transfer vibration to the apparatus frame.
The vibrations and deformations in the apparatus frame can move the stages and the optical assembly out of precise relative alignment. Further, the vibrations and deformations in the apparatus frame can cause the measurement system to improperly measure the positions of the stages relative to the optical assembly. Additionally, vibration of the optical assembly can cause deformations of the optical elements within the optical assembly and degrade the optical imaging quality. As a result thereof, the accuracy of the exposure apparatus and the quality of the integrated circuits formed on the wafer can be compromised.
One attempt to solve this problem involves the use of one or more air mounts to secure the apparatus frame to the ground. The air mounts reduce the effect of vibration of the ground causing vibration to the apparatus frame. Similarly, one or more air mounts can be used to secure the components of the exposure apparatus to the apparatus frame. Unfortunately, existing air mounts with adequate dampening capacity have a relatively large footprint. As a result thereof, the resulting exposure apparatus is larger. Further, the existing air mounts may reduce the access to the other components of the exposure apparatus.
In light of the above, there is a need for an exposure apparatus with an improved isolation system. Additionally, there is a need for a fluid mount having relatively small footprint with relatively high dampening ability. Further, there is a need for an exposure apparatus capable of manufacturing precision devices, such as high density, semiconductor wafers.
The present invention is directed to a fluid mount for an exposure apparatus that satisfies these needs. The fluid mount includes a first subsystem and a second subsystem. The first subsystem includes a first cylinder and a first piston. The first piston moves within the first cylinder along a first axis. The second subsystem includes a second cylinder and a second piston. The second piston moves within the second cylinder along a second axis.
Importantly, the second axis is substantially coaxial with the first axis. Further, the first piston and the second piston are mechanically coupled together. Moreover, the second subsystem is stacked on top of the first subsystem. As a result of this design, the fluid mount has a smaller footprint with relatively high load carrying capacity.
As provided herein, the first piston cooperates with the first cylinder to define a first chamber and the second piston cooperates with the second cylinder to define a second chamber. Further, the first chamber can be in fluid communication with the second chamber.
Additionally, the fluid mount can include a third subassembly stacked on top of the second subassembly. The third subassembly includes a third cylinder and a third piston moving within the third cylinder along a third axis. The third axis is substantially coaxial with the first axis and the second axis. In this embodiment, the first piston, the second piston and the third piston are coupled together and move concurrently. Further, each of the pistons can be connected to the load.
The present invention is particularly useful as part of an exposure apparatus. For example, one or more fluid mounts can be used as part of a frame isolation system that secures an apparatus frame of the exposure apparatus to a mounting base. With this design, the frame isolation system reduces the effect of vibration of the mounting base causing vibration on the apparatus frame and the components that are secured to the apparatus frame.
Further, one or more of the fluid mounts can be used to secure one or more subassemblies of the exposure apparatus to the apparatus frame. For example, one or more fluid mounts could be used as part of an isolation system to secure a stage subassembly or an optical subassembly to the apparatus frame. With this design, the isolation system reduces the effect of vibration of the apparatus frame causing vibration on the stage subassembly or the optical subassembly.
The present invention is also directed to a device made with the exposure apparatus, a wafer made with the exposure apparatus, a method for making a fluid mount, a method for making an isolation system, a method for making an exposure apparatus, a method for making a device, and a method for making a wafer.