A cutter which is particularly suitable for raw sausage production. Setting out from a knife with a knee and two circular cutting curves of equal radius and an outer edge concentric to the pivot, the base point of a perpendicular drawn from the knee onto the radial through the tip having a spacing from the pivot which is at least 1/4 of the distance from the pivot to the tip, the special feature consists in the fact that the radials to the knee and to the tip enclose an angle of at least 60.degree.. This results in a particularly broad knife blade.

The invention relates to a cutter that is rotatable in a circumferential direction and that has a axial point of rotation. The cutter includes a cutting edge that consists of first and second cutting portions, each having only a convex curve shape having equal radii, and adjoining one another to form one knee therebetween that projects in only a convex curve shape having equal radii, and adjoining one another to form one knee therebetween that projects in the circumferential direction. The cutter further includes an outer edge that is concentric to the axial point of rotation and adjoins the second portion to form a kink therebetween and being distal from the axial point of rotation. Further, a curved rear edge is provided that adjoins the outer edge to form a tip therebetween. The tip and the axial point of rotation define a first radial line, and the knee and the axial point of rotation define a second radial line. An imaginary line extending through the knee perpendicularly intersects the first radial line at a base point whose distance from the axial point of rotation is at least 1/4 the distance between the axial point of rotation and the tip.
For cutting up meat for sausage production, so-called cutters are used which have an annular dish with a substantially semicircular cross-section. A cutter block which is mounted so as to be fixed in operation is arranged tangentially in the annular dish. A plurality of knives are attached to the cutter block at different angular positions and with mutual axial spacings. The cutter block is driven at a high rotational speed and, at the same time, the annular dish rotates about its vertical mid-axis so that the knives always act evenly on the meat.
A known cutter of the generic type is illustrated, for example, in the company brochure of the applicant, described as a "DELTA cutter system". It can be described in a rough approximation as sickle-shaped, but the cutting edge is located on the outside in contrast to a sickle. Accordingly, the direction of rotation is selected such that the cutting edge leads. The known knife serves mainly for producing fine sausage-meat, the intention being to cause an emulsifying effect whilst breaking down the protein molecules. According to experience gained in this application, the knife blade enters to a shallow extent, i.e. the knee is relatively blunt.


A method for producing an implant and the implant itself, particularly an intraluminal endoprosthesis, wherein the implant is produced from a preferably hollow cylindrical semifinished article (10), wherein the semifinished article contains magnesium or a magnesium alloy, the method comprising preparing the semifinished article (10), and shaping the semifinished article at a temperature of between 250° C. and 550° C. using a tool, which has a metallic lubricant containing gallium and/or a gallium compound on at least a part of its surface that will come into contact with the semifinished article.

Medical endoprostheses or implants for the widest range of applications are known in a wide variety from the prior art. Implants within the context of the present invention are understood as endovascular prostheses or other endoprostheses, for example, stents, bone attachment elements, for example, screws, plates or pins, surgical suture material, intestinal clamps, vascular clips, prostheses for hard and soft tissue, and anchor elements for electrodes, particularly for pacemakers or defibrillators.
Today, stents are used with particular frequency as implants for treating stenoses (vascular constrictions). They comprise a body in the form of a tubular or hollow cylindrical base lattice, which is open at both longitudinal ends. The tubular base lattice of an endoprosthesis of this type is inserted into the vessel to be treated, and serves to support the vessel. The use of stents to treat vascular diseases has become particularly common. By using stents, constricted areas of the vessels can be dilated, resulting in increased lumen. By using stents or other implants, an optimal vessel cross-section that is primarily necessary for treatment success can be achieved, however, the permanent presence of a foreign body of this type initiates a whole series of microbiological processes, which can lead to a gradual overgrowth of the stent and in the worst case to vascular obstruction.
One approach to solving this problem consists in producing the stent or other implants from a biodegradable material.
Biodegradation is understood to refer to hydrolytic, enzymatic and other metabolic degradation processes in a living organism, which are caused primarily by the bodily fluids coming into contact with the biodegradable material of the implant, and which lead to a gradual dissolution of the structures of the implant that contain the biodegradable material. This process causes the implant to lose its mechanical integrity at a certain time. The term biocorrosion is frequently used as a synonym for the term biodegradation. The term bioabsorption encompasses the subsequent absorption of the degradation products by the living organism.
Materials that are suitable for the body of biodegradable implants can contain polymers or metals, for example. The body can also consist of a plurality of such materials. The feature that is shared by these materials is their ability to biodegrade. Examples of suitable polymeric compounds are polymers from the group of cellulose, collagen, albumin, casein, polysaccharide (PSAC), polylactide (PLA), poly-L-lactide (PLLA), polyglycol (PGA), poly-D,L-lactide-co-glycolide (PDLLA-PGA), polyhydroxy butyric acid (PHB), polyhydroxy valeric acid (PHV), polyalkyl carbonates, polyortho esters, polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polymalic acid (PML), polyanhydrides, polyphosphazenes, polyamino acids and copolymers thereof, and hyaluronic acid. Each of the polymers can be used in pure form, in derived form, in the form of blends or as copolymers, depending upon the properties desired. The present invention relates to implants containing a metallic biodegradable material based upon magnesium or a magnesium alloy.
Stents that have coatings having different functions are already known in the art. Coatings of this type are used, for example, for releasing medications, positioning an x-ray marker, or protecting the structures that lie beneath said coatings.
In implementing biodegradable implants, the degradability thereof is controlled based upon the desired treatment or the use of the respective implant (coronary, intracranial, renal, etc.). For many therapeutic applications, for example, an important target range involves the implant losing its integrity over a period of four weeks to six months. In this context, integrity, i.e., mechanical integrity, is understood as the property that the implant has virtually no mechanical losses in relation to non-degraded implants. This means that the implant is still mechanically stable enough that, for example, the pressure to collapse drops only slightly, i.e., at most to 80% of the nominal value. Therefore, the implant is still able to perform, with maintenance of the integrity of its primary function, supporting the vessel. Alternatively, the integrity can be defined by the fact that the implant is mechanically stable enough that in its load state in the vessel, it is subject to almost no geometric changes, for example, it is not markedly compressed, i.e., under stress it retains at least 80% of its dilation diameter, or in the case of a stent, has almost no fractured supporting struts.
Biodegradable magnesium implants, particularly magnesium stents, have proven particularly promising for the stated target range of degradation, however, these implants still lose their mechanical integrity or supportive effect too early, and still have a severely fluctuating loss of integrity in vitro and in vivo. This means that with magnesium stents, the collapse pressure decreases too rapidly over time, or the decrease in the collapse pressure has too much variability and is therefore too indeterminable.
Various mechanisms for controlling the degradation of magnesium implants are already described in the prior art. These are based, for example, on inorganic and organic protective layers or combinations thereof, which offer resistance to the human corrosion milieu and the corrosive processes occurring therein. Solutions known in the prior art are characterized in that boundary layer effects are achieved, which involve a spatial and, if possible, defect-free separation of the corrosive medium from the metallic material, particularly the metallic magnesium. For instance, protection against degradation is ensured by various combined protective layers and by defined geometric distances (diffusion barriers) between the corrosive medium and the magnesium base material. Additional solutions in the field of controlled degradation produce predefined fracture effects by the application of physical (e.g., localized cross-sectional changes) and/or chemical changes to the stent surface (e.g., localized chemically differently composed multilayers). However, the above-mentioned solutions have as yet failed, for the most part, to place the dissolution produced by the degradation process and the resulting strut breaks within the required window of time. The result is degradation of the implant that begins either too early or too late, or is too widely variable.
A further problem associated with coatings results from the fact that stents or other implants ordinarily take on two states, specifically a compressed state in which they have a small diameter, and a dilated state, in which they have a larger diameter. In the compressed state, the implant can be inserted by means of a catheter into the vessel to be supported, and can be positioned at the site to be treated. At the treatment location, the implant is then dilated by means of a balloon catheter, for example. This change in diameter subjects the body of the implant to mechanical stress. Additional mechanical stresses on the implant can occur during production or with the movement of the implant in or with the vessel into which the implant is inserted. Therefore, with the stated coatings according to the prior art, the disadvantage results that the coating tears (e.g., formation of microcracks) or is even partially removed during deformation of the implant. This can result in an unspecified localized degradation. In addition, the onset and the speed of degradation are dependent upon the size and the distribution of the microcracks resulting from the deformation, which as defects cannot be easily controlled. This results in a large deviation in degradation times.
Additional examples of known organic or inorganic protective layers for increasing resistance to degradation include galvanic coatings with zinc, coatings based on ionic liquids, conversion coatings involving chemical conversion of the main alloy constituents, vaporization or sputtering with aluminum, thermal spraying, etc.
Higher alloyed parent materials are also used for improving resistance to degradation. For instance, for years, magnesium alloys containing rare earths (e.g., alloy WE 43) have been used as stent material. For many applications, these materials have an advantageous combination of adequate mechanical properties and good corrosion resistance. Therefore, they have a greater potential for use in absorbable implants as compared with non-alloyed magnesium.
From document WO 2011/051424 A1, an implantable medical device is known, which is made at least partially of a material that contains highly pure magnesium or a magnesium alloy with highly pure magnesium and one or more additional highly pure alloy constituents. Highly pure alloy constituents can be the elements indium, scandium, yttrium, gallium and the rare earths, wherein highly pure gallium is present in the alloy in amounts of 0.1 wt % to 5 wt %. The production of such highly pure materials is very costly, and therefore, the costs of the medical apparatus are also high.
Document WO 2007/0207186 A1 lists a series of additives which improve the properties of an implant. In this case, however, the modified properties of the implant are not described in detail in terms of the respective additive.

Implant and method for production thereof


The present invention provides methods of isolation and purification of Streptomyces griseus trypsin (SGT) from PRONASE protease mixture in a single affinity chromatography step and uses of the purified SGT.

Trypsin is a serine protease present in the digestive tract of a wide variety of mammals. Its function is the hydrolytic cleavage of peptide bonds, thus reducing the size of large proteins and making them accessible to further degradation by other proteases. Trypsin is used in biotechnological applications, especially in the cultivation of mammalian cells, where it serves as tool for the disintegration of large cell aggregates, or for the removal of cells from surfaces like microcarriers or cultivation trays. Trypsin is also used as a protein degrading enzyme in the processing of non-trypsin sensitive biopolymers. Because of its well known specificity, trypsin is also used as a selective protein cleavage tool in both analytical and preparative processes. Trypsin can be inactivated or inhibited by a number of specific or non-specific protease inhibitors, many of them belonging to the serpine family. The most widely used in biotechnological applications is a trypsin inhibitor from soy beans. As most of these trypsin inhibitors are very specific, they are inactive against other contaminating proteases.
Trypsin is typically prepared from the duodenal glands of various animal species and purified to different grades of purity. The purification of trypsin can be performed by a number of different biochemical processes, including precipitation, ion exchange chromatography and affinity chromatography. It has been shown that prepurified bovine trypsin (Type I) binds to benzamidine immobilized on an insoluble carrier and can be eluted by high concentrations of guanidine or arginine or by decreasing the pH of the eluant (Ellouali et al. (1991) Chromsymp. 2215:255-265). The mammalian pancreas from which trypsin is derived also contains the serine protease chymotrypsin, which is very similar to trypsin in its physiochemical properties, including the interaction with and affinity to amidine derivatives. As a result, these two proteins are difficult to separate. Depending on the purification method, purified trypsin preparations therefore may contain varying amounts of contaminating enzymes, particularly-chymotrypsin. Furthermore, mammalian-derived trypsin may contain adventitious agents, such as viruses and prions. Since the discovery of the action of TSE agents, and the possibility of their transmission to humans, there is an ongoing discussion about the use of human or animal derived materials in biotechnology processes providing pharmaceuticals for human use.
PRONASE protease mixture from the microbial organism Streptomyces griseus(S.g.), is a commercially available alternative to trypsin prepared from animal tissues. PRONASE protease mixture has been used for the preparation of primary cell cultures from tissues and for the detachment of cells from surfaces, microcarrier cell cultures and growth of VERO cells in suspension in serum-free media (Weinstein (1966) Exper. Cell Res. 43:234-236; Manousos et al. (1980) In vitro 16:507-515, Litwin (1992) Cytotechn. 10:169-174). The exact mechanism of its action is not known. PRONASE protease mixture is known to be a mixture of different enzymes, including various types of endopeptidases, (serine and metalloproteases), exopeptidases (carboxypeptidase and aminopeptidase), neutral protease, chymotrypsin, trypsin, carboxypeptidase, aminopeptidase, and neutral and alkaline phosphatase.
After enzyme treatment, the activity of trypsin is usually neutralized by the addition of fetal calf serum, which contains a number of specific and non-specific protease inhibitors. However, media free of serum and protein (particularly from mammalian sources) are preferred in cell culture media used for production of vaccine and therapeutic proteins. Therefore, use of serum-free media, which are devoid of any trypsin inhibitor activity, makes it necessary to identify new sources of inhibitor activity. Because PRONASE protease mixture is a mixture of a variety of proteases, inhibition of protease activity requires a mixture of different inhibitors, leading to a very complex and expensive process. The protein load arising from use of PRONASE protease mixture and the composition of inhibitors in a serum-free culture therefore would be much higher compared to a culture using mammalian-derived trypsin and specific trypsin-inhibitor. Furthermore, the addition of PRONASE protease mixture to the culture medium would also adversely effect the purification process, because more protein is present in the medium.
The trypsin-like activity of PRONASE protease mixture, commonly known as Streptomyces griseus trypsin (SGT) shows a sequence identity of approximately 33% to bovine trypsin (Olafson et al. (1975) Biochem 14:1168-1177). Streptomyces griseus trypsin has been purified by chromatographic techniques using different types of ion exchange resins. These methods typically use stable matrices, which minimize the problem of bleeding of the ligand into the product during elution. These methods, however, have relatively low selectivity, leading to purification factors in the range of <10. As a result, to achieve a high degree of purity, several steps have to be combined, which in turn may cause autodigestion of the trypsin and therefore loss of activity. Purification by ion-exchange chromatography on CM-Sephadex, with further purification performed by rechromatography on an ion exchange column has been described by Jurasek et al. (1971) Can. J. Biochem. 49:1195-1201; and Olafson et al. (1975a) Biochem. 14:1168-1.177; and (1975b) Biochem. 14: 1161-1167. Miyata et al. (1991) Cell Structure and Function 16:39-43, describes a three step cation exchange chromatography process to purify SGT. SGT is found to migrate as a single band in PAGE with a molecular weight of about 30,000 and having an esterase activity higher than bovine trypsin as determined by BAEE assay. However, even SGT purified by three step chromatography purification methods was found to be slightly contaminated by carboxypeptidase B-like activity.
SGT has also been purified from PRONASE protease mixture by affinity chromatography using oligopeptides derived from tryptic digest of salmine as highly specific ligand for SGT. Elution of the trypsin-like activity from the mixture of protease in PRONASE protease mixture with HCl revealed purified SGT which was, however, found to be contaminated by carboxypeptidase B-like activity (Kasei et al. (1975) J. Biochem. 78.:653-662; Yokosawa et al. (1976) J. Biochem. 79:757-763). For analytical purposes only, SGT was also separated from PRONASE protease mixture by affinophoresis using benzamidine as a ligand (Shimura et al. (1982) J. Biochem. 92:1615-1622).
There exists a need for a simple large-scale method for isolation and separation of the active trypsin-like fraction of PRONASE protease mixture. This would allow a controlled system for use in cell culture methods and provide a defined activity of the fraction from a microbial source, which would not bear the risk of contaminants of human pathogens.
There also exists a need to avoid contaminants derived from cell culture medium additives during cell propagation/growth, biomass production and product production process. Reduction of the protein load in a cell culture medium would allow production of highly pure protein products using conventional purification methods.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method of isolation and purification of trypsin from pronase protease and use thereof


Systems and apparatus are provided for maintaining an ultra low oxygen concentration in a shipping container for the purpose of preventing spoilage of perishable food products. The system and apparatus may contain a composition of a mixture of gases including one or more of nitrogen, carbon dioxide, and another inert gas, wherein the mixture of gases positively pressurizes the shipping container with an ultra low oxygen concentration. The system and apparatus may use one or more sensors to monitor the composition of the mixture of gases, and may use one or more controllers to release the compressed gases into the interior of the container. The controller may release the compressed gases at a variable rate of release sufficient to maintain the ultra low oxygen concentration and to ensure consistent concentrations of the mixture of gases with the container.

In a normal atmospheric environment, the storage life of perishable food products is limited. Traditional modified atmosphere packaging replaces the normal atmospheric environment before storage or shipment, but the environment is not modified over time. The traditional modified atmosphere packaging has limitations stemming from no atmosphere modification after sealing until delivery. This can result in premature product spoilage caused by unacceptably high oxygen concentrations due to emissions from the product or interior packaging components, the permeability of the packaging materials or a broken seal. Some prior art modified atmosphere shipping containers rely on gas permeable membranes to regulate the gas composition within a container by molecular separation. Other prior art containers rely on a reactive fuel cell using a chemical process to remove oxygen. The limitations of the current modified atmosphere shipping systems include their high cost, operational complexity, the inability to optimize the ratio of inert gasses, and the limited rate of gas treatment or discharge. These limitations are addressed by the inventions described herein.

Controlled environment shipping containers


A processing system including at least one processor may obtain a first request for delivery of a first data set to a first destination, map the first request to a first information model, obtain a second request for delivery of a second data set to a second destination, map the second request to a second information model, and identify that a portion of data is part of both data sets. The processing system may next determine a plan for configuring data pipeline components for delivering the first data set to the first destination and the second data set to the second destination, the plan comprising: a combination of the first information model and the second information model, and at least one modification to the combination. The processing system may then configure the data pipeline components in accordance with the plan.

A data pipeline is a set of data processing elements connected in series, where the output of one element is the input of the next. The elements of a data pipeline may operate in parallel or in a time-sliced fashion. In addition, some amount of buffer storage may be provided between other elements. One subset of data pipelines includes extract, transform, and load (ETL) systems, which extract data from a data source, transform the data, and load the data into a database or data warehouse. ETL pipelines may run in batches, meaning that the data is moved in one large chunk at a specific time to the target, e.g., in regular scheduled intervals. A data pipeline is a broader term that refers to a system for moving data from one or more sources to one or more targets in a computing network environment. The data may or may not be transformed, and it may be processed in real time (or streaming) instead of batches. When the data is streamed, it may be processed in a continuous flow which is useful for data that is continuously updating, such as a data from a traffic monitoring sensor. In addition, the data may be transferred to any number of targets, which may include databases or data warehouses, as well as any number of automated systems, operator/user terminals, and so forth.

Data blending for multiple data pipelines


A portable stove for burning charcoal and other solid fuel has a continuous vertically oriented insulative side wall. This wall has a continuous bottom edge and its surrounds and defines a hollow fuel chamber. The fuel chamber has an open top. A grate is positioned adjacent the insulative wall proximal to the bottom edge of the insulative wall. As so positioned the grate forms the bottom of the fuel chamber. The insulative wall has a plurality of apertures located along its bottom edge with the apertures spaced around the insulative wall in an array immediately adjacent the grate. A reflector plate is positioned below the grate. An air chamber for channeling combustion air surrounds the reflector plate, the underside of the grate and the bottom most portion of the insulative side wall including the apertures therein. An air control damper is located in the air chamber for controlling the introduction of air into the air chamber.

This invention is directed to a portable stove suitable for burning charcoal or other solid fuel in an efficient manner.
Charcoal is utilized as a fuel for cooking and heating by a large segment of the world's population. In many under developed third world urban centers modern fuel distribution means such as electricity, natural gas or propane are not available. The populace of these urban centers generally utilize charcoal as their sole fuel source because it is available in a sufficient quantity at an affordable price. Charcoal derived from real wood burns with a very hot flame. It is quite distinct from so called "charcoal briquettes" that include large amounts of ash, sometimes exceeding 20% ash.
In our U.S. Pat. No. 4,730,597, we described a biomass stove that is particularly suited for utilizing biomass as its fuel. The dampers and air passageways of this stove allow for efficient burning of biomass including small pieces of wood, grasses, dung and other such fuels. A further biomass stove is described in our U.S. Pat. No. 4,471,751. These two stoves are both very efficient. Further, they both can be constructed utilizing hand labor and unsophisticated tools with materials that are readily available in most areas of the world. However, they are more suited for the combustion of biomass as compared to charcoal and thus are more suited for rural users as opposed to urban users since, while charcoal is generally available to the urban user, biomass is not.
With ever increasing shrinkage of our planet's fuel supplies, including biomass and charcoal formed therefrom, efficient usage of fuel is important for all of the earth's populace. Aside from a conservation standpoint, fuel efficiency is also very important from an economic standpoint since there are large segments of the world's population who are very poor.
While the human race has made great technological strides in many areas, for a great number of the world's population needs are very basic. These basic needs include the need for high efficiency cooking stoves that are essentially low tech in construction and do not require exotic or unavailable material for such construction.


A computer implemented method of routing service requests to service instances in a service mesh. The method comprises monitoring one or more performance characteristics of each of a plurality of network links to service instances. The method further comprises making a prediction of the network latency of transmitting a service request via each of at least two of the plurality of network links and selecting one of the plurality of service instances and routing the service request thereto based on the predictions of the network latencies.

Microservices are self-contained software components which may be built and deployed independently to perform specific functions. A single application may comprise or use a plurality of microservices which each separately perform individual functions of the application. Microservices are widely used to define modular cloud-native applications.
In use, copies, or instances, of microservices may be deployed on virtual processing and networking resources, such as within containers (within virtual machines) which are run on hardware resources such as servers. A single application may at any one time consist of a plurality of instances of a plurality of microservices, the microservice instances being deployed on different intercommunicating hardware resources within one or more networks, which in some cases may be a distributed cloud infrastructure. The deployment of microservices is performed by a container orchestration manager such as Kubernetes®.
The plurality of microservices of an application communicate with each other using a service mesh, which is a dedicated infrastructure layer for handling service-to-service communication. Service meshes operate by providing an array of service proxies, each of which is associated with a single microservice, or with a group, or pod, of multiple such microservices. Communications between the microservices are transmitted via the proxies and a communication network defined therebetween.
Service meshes consist of a data plane and a control plane. The data plane comprises the service proxies, the microservices and their communications, all of which are intercepted and transmitted via the service proxies. The control plane distributes policies and monitors the data plane.
Policies are distributed by the control plane to the service proxies of the data plane and control proxy behaviour without directly interacting with the service-to-service communications. Examples of policies include network management or security policies.
Policies distributed by the control plane are implemented by the service proxies and determine how service-to-service traffic is routed within the data plane, thereby allowing dynamic routing of service requests; for example, based on the type of request or to facilitate load balancing between the distributed and networked resources.
In addition to distributing policies to the service proxies, the control plane monitors the data plane and collects performance metrics thereon. Control planes may also perform other functions in service mesh, such as respond to queries from their associated data plane or assigning certificates to microservices.
Examples of widely used service meshes include Istio® and Linkerd®.
Where the microservices of an application are distributed across multiple hardware resources in a network, some or all of the communications between microservices must be transmitted between different hardware resources via the network.
Service meshes have historically been supported by high reliability, low latency networks. However, in some circumstances it may be advantageous to implement service meshes on dynamic networks which may experience changes in network performance. For example, a service mesh may be hosted on networks comprising both cloud resources, which are dynamically scalable in a cost effective manner, and local edge resources communicating via local network connections which may offer higher bandwidth and lower latency performance.
Changes in network performance are common on local wireless networks and wide area network connections will have limited capacities. Service-to-service communications in a service mesh hosted on such hybrid cloud edge networks may therefore experience changes in network performance.
In known cloud based service mesh solutions, performance statistics have been measured and used to determine how service requests should be routed. For example, wherein the control plane of a service mesh monitors the overall latency of service requests to specific microservice instances within the service mesh and implements routing policies to the proxies in response thereto. The overall latency of a service request to a microservice includes both the network or link latency of the communication to the microservice and the processing latency of the microservice itself, which are not distinguished in known monitoring solutions.
Such approaches consider the service mesh to be homogenous and to have high bandwidth network connections. The latency at a particular node of the service mesh has therefore been considered to be independent of the origin of service requests transmitted thereto and requests have only been routed and throttled in response to common shared information, such as historical service request latency statistics. In order to monitor the latency of individual links, it is helpful to know how virtual links between service proxies map onto physical links between the resources on which the microservices associated with the service proxies are hosted, which is not performed in known approaches.
Therefore, this approach has not accounted for variation in the performance of network links between hardware resources on which the microservices of the service mesh are run. Such performance variation occurs if nodes of the hosting are connected by wireless or lower bandwidth connections, which can cause performance bottlenecks.
An aim of the present embodiments described herein is to provide improvements to the routing of service requests in service meshes which account for variable network performance.


An improved electrocautery method and instrument includes interlock features which enable the instrument to be safely operated under convenient manual controls including a slide element and control buttons and interlock switch positioned on the instrument.

Field of Invention
This invention relates to electrocautery surgical instruments and more particularly to an electrocautery scalpel system having variably extendable suction and electrode elements to facilitate electrocautery surgery at deep locations within surrounding tissue.
Electrocautery instruments commonly rely upon high-voltage, high-frequency electrical signals of various waveforms to selectively sever, clamp or coagulate living tissue during surgical procedures. In addition, many such electrocautery instruments include integral vacuum conduits and associated suction apparatus for evacuating tissue fluids and volatized tissue materials that commonly accompany electrocautery incision of living tissue. Devices of these types are disclosed in the literature (see, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,311,494; 1,963,636; 2,002,594; 2,894,512; 3,662,151; 3,682,162; 3,828,780; 3,835,842; 3,850,175; 3,884,237; 3,902,494; 3,906,955; 3,974,833; 3,987,795; 4,011,872; 4,112,950; and 4,562,838; and French Patent No. 73.30854). Electrocautery instruments of these types also commonly employ a retractable electrode or a vacuum port to enhance the utility of the instrument during surgical procedures. One difficulty encountered with certain electrocautery scalpels having extendable and retractable electrodes is that the geometry of the instruments usually limits the depth in tissue to which the instruments can conveniently penetrate without expanding the incision to accommodate the surgeon's hand. As certain surgical procedures progress and penetrate deeper into a surgical site, it is frequently desirable to extend the instrument to longer dimension with control over the retractable electrode in order to facilitate advancing the surgery into deep, confined sites.

Extendable electrocautery surgery apparatus and method


A mobile robot, comprising: a body and a drive system for driving a movement of the mobile robot, a light emitter for emitting light toward a surface to be detected, a photoelectric sensor responsive to light from an environment and/or emitted by the light emitter, a variable impedance unit connected to the photoelectric sensor and having a reduced impedance when the photoelectric sensor is responsive to light of a preset intensity, and a control unit, where the light emitter is controlled by the control unit to form at least two operating states in which light is emitted at different intensities, and in the operating state other than the last operating state, if a sampling difference value determined when the light emitter is in the OFF state and ON state does not satisfy a preset condition, an operating state of the light emitter is changed to prevent misjudgment.

The existing ground detection system and wall surface detection system of a mobile robot each comprises at least one set of an infrared emission tube and an infrared receiving tube, the infrared emission tube is used for emitting infrared light, and the infrared receiving tube is used for receiving infrared light. The infrared light emitted by the infrared emission tube is reflected by the ground or a wall surface, and then is partially received by the infrared receiving tube. Different intensities of the infrared light received by the infrared receiving tube exhibit signals of different magnitudes. In the prior art, a signal of the infrared receiving tube (denoted as X1) is captured by turning on the infrared emission tube for a period of time, and then the infrared emission tube is closed for a period of time to capture the signal of the infrared receiving tube (denoted as X2), a difference (denoted as X3) is calculated between X1 and X2, and it is judged (determined) whether X3 stays within a preset threshold range so as to judge in which environment the mobile robot is placed.
However, once the design of the mobile robot is finalized, the sensitivity of the infrared receiving tube is fixed, and it is difficult to ensure that the ground detection system and the wall surface detection system can operate normally in three special environments, for example, on a ground or wall surface irradiated by (exposed to) strong light, a ground or wall surface with normal brightness, and a ground on which a black carpet is laid or a wall surface covered by a black light-absorbing material. In the environment of the ground or wall surface irradiated by strong light, no matter whether the infrared emission tube is turned on or turned off, since ambient light contains infrared light components, the infrared light with higher intensity is received by the infrared receiving tube, so that the infrared receiving tube is always in a saturated state, there is almost no difference between X1 and X2, and then the mobile robot misjudges that the ground is in a cliff state, and thereby takes an action to avoid danger; or moves away from the wall surface and cannot get close to the wall edge to perform actions such as sweeping, mopping, and the like. In the environment of the ground on which a black carpet is laid or the wall surface covered by a black light-absorbing material, no matter whether the infrared emission tube is turned on or turned off, the infrared light emitted by the infrared emission tube is mostly absorbed by the black carpet or the black material, and the small part of the infrared light is not enough to exhibit a significant change in magnitude of the signal of the infrared receiving tube, thus it is also misjudged that it is in a cliff state or cannot get close to the wall edge.

SHENZHEN SILVER STAR INTELLIGENT TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.


A pulsed Hall thruster system includes a Hall thruster having an electron source, a magnetic circuit, and a discharge chamber; a power processing unit for firing the Hall thruster to generate a discharge; a propellant storage and delivery system for providing propellant to the discharge chamber and a control unit for defining a pulse duration xcfx84 less than 0.1d3xcfx81/{dot over (m)}, where d is the characteristic size of the thruster, xcfx81 is the propellant density at standard conditions, and {dot over (m)} is the propellant mass flow rate for operating either the power processing unit to provide to the Hall thruster a power pulse of a pre-selected duration, xcfx84, or operating the propellant storage and delivery system to provide a propellant flow pulse of duration, xcfx84, or providing both as pulses, synchronized to arrive coincidentally at the discharge chamber to enable the Hall thruster to produce a discreet output impulse.

This invention relates to a pulsed Hall thruster system and more particularly to a such system in which either the propellant flow or the electrical power or both is pulsed.
Pulsed Hall thruster systems can be used for: propulsion of small spacecraft which lack sufficient power for steady state operation; attitude control in large spacecraft; and in spacecraft where steady state propulsion and/or delivery of small impulse bits are needed. One type of competing pulsed system, a cold gas thruster, uses pressurized gas expanded through a nozzle to create thrust. Such systems suffer from low specific impulse or thrust per unit mass flow. One such cold gas thruster is the Model 50-673 cold gas thruster triad available from Moog Space Products Division, East Aurora, N.Y. Another pulsed system, a pulsed plasma thrust (PPT) system employs an electrical arc to ablate a Teflon surface to create and accelerate a gasified Teflon. This suffers from low efficiency, potential for spacecraft contamination and produces impulse bits with low uniformity. Mueller, Juergen, xe2x80x9cThruster Options for Microspacecraft: A Review and Exaluation of State-of-the Art and Emerging Technologiesxe2x80x9d, Micropropulsion for Small Spacecraft, Edited by Michael M. Micci and Andrew D. Ketsdever, AIAA Progress in Astronautics and Aeronautics Vol. 187. See also: Spanjers, Gregory G., McFall, Keith A., Gulczinski III, Frank S., and Spores, Ronald A., xe2x80x9cInvestigation of Propellant Inefficiencies in a Pulsed Plasma Thrusterxe2x80x9d, Paper AIAA-96-2723, Joint Propulsion Conference, Orlando, Fla., Jul. 1-3, 1996; Hruby, V., Pote, B., Gamero-Castano, M. Kolencik, G., Byrne, L., Tedrake, R., and Delichatsios, M., xe2x80x9cHall Thrusters Operating in Pulsed Modexe2x80x9d, IEPC-01-66, International Electric Propulsion Conference, Pasadena Calif., Oct. 15-19, 2001; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,150,764 to Hruby et al. entitled xe2x80x9cTandem Hall Field Plasma Acceleratorxe2x80x9d.
Typically, Hall thrusters are started by establishing the magnetic field and then applying the starting voltage which typically exceeds the steady state discharge voltage. This results in hard starts, high initial current spikes and often non-repeatable discharge initiation: therefore they are not perceived as likely pulsed devices which could produce precisely controlled, repetitive impulses.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a Hall thruster system capable of both pulsed and steady state operation.
It is a further object of this invention to provide such a pulsed Hall thruster system which precisely controls impulses.
It is a further object of this invention to provide such a pulsed Hall thruster system which produces variable impulses.
It is a further object of this invention to provide such a pulsed Hall thruster system which can produce very small impulses for accurate spacecraft positioning and attitude control.
It is a further object of this invention to provide such a pulsed Hall thruster system which provides discrete or repetitive impulses.
It is a further object of this invention to provide such a pulsed Hall thruster system which can operate in steady state or pulse mode.
It is a further object of this invention to provide such a pulsed Hall thruster system which has high efficiency and high specific impulse.
It is a further object of this invention to provide such a pulsed Hall thruster system which can be powered by a capacitor, power processing unit, or even directly from a solar photovoltaic array or other power sources.
The invention results from the realization that a pulsed Hall thruster system which can vary yet precisely control discrete and repetitive impulses with high efficiency and specific impulse can be achieved by pulsing either the power to the Hall thruster or the propellant flow to the thruster discharge chamber with a duration of xcfx84 where xcfx84 less than 0.1d3xcfx81/{dot over (m)} as defined hereinafter or by pulsing both power and flow for approximately the same time and having them appear coincidentally at the discharge chamber.
This invention features a pulsed Hall thruster system including a Hall thruster having an operating electron source, a magnetic circuit and a discharge chamber. There is a power processing circuit for firing the Hall thruster to generate a discharge; and a control unit for operating the power processing unit to provide to the Hall thruster a power pulse of a pre-selected duration xcfx84 less than 0.1d3xcfx81/{dot over (m)} where d is the characteristic size of the, xcfx81 is the propellant density at standard conditions, and {dot over (m)} is the propellant mass flow rate. A propellant storage and delivery system is responsive to the control unit for providing a synchronized propellant pulse of pre-defined duration approximately the same as the pre-selected duration of the power pulse and coincident to the discharge chamber with the power pulse for enabling the Hall thruster to produce a discrete output impulse.
The invention also features a pulsed Hall thruster system including a Hall thruster having an operating electron source, a magnetic circuit, and a discharge chamber. A power processing unit fires the Hall thruster and the control unit operates the power processing unit to provide to the Hall thruster a power pulse of pre-selected duration xcfx84 less than 0.1d3xcfx81/{dot over (m)}, where d is the characteristic size of the thruster, xcfx81 is the propellant density at standard conditions, and {dot over (m)} is the propellant mass flow rate. A propellant storage and delivery system is responsive to the control unit for providing a steady state supply of propellant to the discharge chamber for enabling the Hall thruster to produce a discrete output impulse.
The invention also features a pulsed Hall thruster system including a Hall thruster having an operating electron source, a magnetic circuit and a discharge chamber. A power processing unit fires the Hall thruster and a control unit operates the power processing unit to provide a continuous discharge voltage to the Hall thruster. A propellant storage and delivery system is responsive to the control unit for providing a propellant pulse of a pre-defined duration xcfx84 less than 0.1d3xcfx81/{dot over (m)}, where d is the characteristic size of the thruster, xcfx81 is the propellant density at standard conditions and {dot over (m)} is the propellant mass flow rate for enabling the Hall thruster to produce a discrete output impulse.
In preferred embodiments the Hall thruster may include a propellant conduit system with an input port and an output port proximate to the discharge chamber and the propellant storage and delivery system may include a propellant accumulator proximate the input port and a valve between the accumulator and the input port. The accumulator may maintain approximately constant pressure in the propellant conduit system and the propellant may provide the synchronized propellant pulse to the discharge chamber. The pre-selected duration of the firing pulse and the pre-defined duration of the propellant pulse may be the same. The valve may be integral with the Hall thruster to reduce discharge chamber filling time. The power pulse width may be variable and the control unit may set the width of the power pulse. The power pulse repetition rate may be variable and the control unit may set the repetition rate. The power processing unit may include a capacitor for supplying the power of the power pulse. The magnetic circuit may be segmented to reduce eddy currents and reduced magnetic flux rise time. The magnetic circuit may have high electrical resistivity to reduce eddy currents and reduce magnetic field rise time. The propellant conduit system fill time may be approximately equal to the magnetic rise time of the magnetic circuit. The magnetic circuit may include an electromagnet. The electromagnet may be energized in series with the Hall thruster discharge. The electromagnet may be energized by an independent source which can lead or lag the Hall thruster discharge. The magnetic circuit may include a permanent magnet.


A solution for forming a superconductive thin film prepared by dissolving a mol of a compound selected from group A consisting of alkoxides and alkoxyalkoxides of a rare earth metal element; b mol of a compound selected from group B consisting of alkoxides and alkoxyalkoxides of Ba, Sr and Ca; and c mol of a compound selected from group C consisting of alkoxides and alkoxyalkoxides of Cu in e liter of a compound selected from group E, a solvent selected from alcohols together with d mol of a compound selected from group D for inhibiting hydrolysis action such as an amine, a ketone and a glycol, such that the following relationships: EQU 0.1.times.(a+b+c).ltoreq.d.ltoreq.3.times.(a+b+c) EQU and EQU 0.01.ltoreq.[(a+b+c)/e].ltoreq.3. can be satisfied.

This invention relates to a method of forming, on a heat-resistant substrate, a superconductive thin film having high onset transition temperature and also a narrow temperature range in which transition to superconductor occurs, which is suitably used as a magnetic coil material in fusion reactors, magnetohydrodynamic generators, accelerators, rotary electric appliances, magnetic separators, linear motor cars, nuclear magnetic resonance devices, magnetic propulsion ships, various laboratory equipments, etc.; as a power transmission material for transmission cables, energy storage device, transformers, rectifiers, phase modifiers, etc., where electrical loss is a serious factor; further as various elements such as a Josephson element, a SQUID element, etc.; and also as various sensors such as a magnetic sensor, IR sensor, etc., and to a solution for forming such superconductive thin film.
In recent years, it is practiced to form a thin film of a superconductive material comprising an oxide of a ceramic which can exhibit excellent superconductive characteristics on the surfaces of various types of substrates.
As the method of forming a thin film of a superconductive material comprising an oxide of a ceramic on the surface of a substrate, known are sputtering and screen printing.
On the former sputtering method, the following studies are disclosed: "Compositional and Structural Analyses for Optimizing the Preparation Conditions of superconducting (La.sub.1-x Sr.sub.x CuO.sub.4-.delta.) Films by Sputtering", Japanese Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 26, No. 4, Apr., 1987, pp L388-L390, M. Kawasaki et al.; "High TC thin Films of (La.sub.1-x M.sub.x).sub.y CuO.sub.4-.delta. (M=Sr, Ba, Ca) Prepared by Sputtering", ibid.; Vol. 26, No. 4, Apr., 1987, pp. L410-L412, S. Nagata et al.; "Deposition of Sr.sub.x La.sub.2-x CuO.sub.4-y Thin Films by Sputtering", ibid.; Vol. 26, No. 4, Apr., 1987, pp. L508-L509, N. Terada et al.; "Josephson Junctions Observed in La.sub.1.8 Sr.sub.0.2 CuO.sub.4 superconducting Polycrystalline Films", ibid.; Vol. 26, No. 4, Apr. 1987, pp. L521-L523, K. Moriwaki et al.; "Hall Effect in superconducting (La.sub.1-x Sr.sub.x).sub. 2 CuO.sub.4 Single Crystal Thin Films", ibid.; Vol. 26, No. 4, Apr., 1987, pp. L524-L525, M. Suzuki et al.; "Preparation and Characterization of superconducting Y-Ba-Cu-O Thin Films", ibid.; Vol. 26, No. 5, May 1987, pp. L709-L710, H. Adachi; "Meissner Effect in High-Tc Superconductive Thin Films", ibid.; Vol. 26, No. 5, May, 1987, pp. L724-L725, S. Hatta et al.; "High Tc Yb-Ba-Cu-O Thin Films Deposited on Sintered YSZ Substrates by Sputtering", ibid.; Vol. 26, No. 5, May, 1987, pp. L738-L740, M. Kawasaki et al., etc.
On the latter screen printing method, following studies are disclosed: "Preparation of (La.sub.1-x Sr.sub.x).sub.2 CuO.sub.4-.delta. superconducting Films by Screen Printing Method, Japanese Journal of Applied Physics; Vol. 26, No. 4, Apr., 1987, pp. L399-L401, H. Koinuma et al.; "High-Tc Superconductivity in Screen Printed Yb-Ba-Cu-O Films", ibid.; vol. 26, No. 5, May, 1987, pp. L761-L762, H. Koinuma et al., etc.
However, in the former sputtering method, when a superconductive thin film having a homogeneous multicomponent composition is to be formed on the surface of a substrate according to the above method, it is difficult to form a thin film as a single phase having the desired composition, and phases of undesired compositions may also be present, resulting in poor superconductivity.
On the other hand, the latter screen printing method, where a film is formed by coating the surface of a substrate with a paste containing particles of oxides, followed by calcination, involves a problem that a thin film having a homogeneous composition may not be obtained if the particles do not have a homogeneous composition to be liable to make the film thickness nonuniform, and further cracks and the like may readily be formed on the film.

Organometallic solutions for forming oxide superconducting films


A system for providing position-related information to a mobile user includes a mobile unit and a central site server. The mobile unit includes circuitry for determining present position information from position signals which may emanate from, for example, GPS satellites. The mobile unit further includes circuitry for establishing a wireless bidirectional communications link with the central site server via a terrestrial network, which may be accessed via a cellular telephone network. The central site server includes circuitry for receiving the present position information from the mobile unit. A table stored at the central site server includes different response information in correspondence with possible positions of the mobile unit. The response information may further be in correspondence with user preferences. The central site server uses the received present position information to retrieve corresponding response information from the table, and sends the retrieved response information to the mobile unit via the bidirectional communications link. The mobile unit further includes circuitry, such as a loudspeaker, for supplying the response information to the mobile user. In another aspect of the invention, communications between the mobile unit and the central site server are encrypted. Furthermore, the mobile unit may include components for preventing position information from being supplied to the loudspeaker, thereby eliminating distracting noise from being presented to the user.

The invention relates to mobile information systems, and more particularly to systems and methods for providing information to mobile users, which information is based upon the user's position and tailored to the user's interests.
For a number of reasons, it may be desirable to dynamically provide a mobile user with information that is particularly related to the user's present location. Such reasons may include, but are not limited to, the desire to assist and/or inform the user as he or she tours a particular locale or exhibit, and the desire to assist the user as he or she attempts to navigate from one location to another. A number of techniques for providing such position-related information are known, and will now be described.
To begin with, a variety of methods have been employed for the purpose of presenting observers with information that is related to exhibits (e.g., art displays, zoological displays, and the like) or sights (e.g., tours of historic sights, natural wonders, urban settings, theme parks, and the like) which are in the proximate vicinity of the observer and for guiding or controlling the observer's physical movements through an exhibit, display, or geographic locale. The most common and most widely used of these presentation and touring methods include:
Guided tours in which the customer accompanies a tour guide on a walking tour or in a vehicle (e.g., bus, boat, helicopter);
Personal tours in which the sightseer reads a brochure and follows a map or floor plan;
Personal tours in which the sightseer reads informative sign boards, or obtains information from a kiosk or diorama;
Loudspeaker broadcasts of information at preselected (i.e., fixed) locations;
Portable playback devices rented by the sightseer which play an audio tape, compact disk, or video tape; and
Portable receivers rented by the sightseer which trigger short range infrared (or similar technology) transmitters located at various points of the exhibit, and which play back a description keyed to the location of the transmitter.
The above-mentioned techniques variously suffer from one or more of the following drawbacks: 1) a lack of automation, such as in the case of human tour guides; 2) a failure to detect the user's location, thereby requiring the user to expend some effort to ensure receipt of the appropriate information at the right time; 3) an inability to provide information at more than a few fixed locations; and an inability of the user to select the type of information that will be received at any given location.
Recognizing the increasing mobility of society and the growing need and quest for concise, rapid, accurate and readily available information, the proprietors of information and entertainment venues, aircraft and automobile manufacturers, electronic equipment providers, and recreational equipment providers have attempted to install or provide access to on-demand information. These providers have come to realize that people prefer on-the-spot information at a time and place of their own choosing that is relevant to their current location and tailored to their particular interests.
Several types of devices and equipment have been created which have attempted to afford the user freedom from interpreting written material. Guided and unguided tours, for example, employ pre-positioned audio and video information which is delivered when the user either pushes a button to announce his presence or when his approach is detected by the triggering of a sensor. Such a system readily determines that a viewer is at a particular predefined location. However, the system is limited in that position-based information is restricted to those locations at which the provider can economically and practically position the sensor stations. Users who are proceeding in a vehicle or are, of necessity, continually on the move either cannot maintain contact with the fixed information source or will quickly find themselves located at a point where the provided information is no longer relevant. Another drawback stems from the fact that the quality of the audio or video at fixed stations is dependent on close proximity to the location, and tends to deteriorate with continuous usage.
Tour bus and van manufacturers have installed audio and visual devices which can provide position related tour and scenic information keyed to the vehicle's location as determined by the driver or tour guide. Listeners use channel selectors mounted to their seats to select what prerecorded information they will receive in their headsets or monitors. This system provides whatever information the tour company has preselected and the staff must either continually correlate the content with the position of the vehicle or prepare a sequential presentation of content that will hopefully match the predicted position of the vehicle.
A class of individual and personal mobile information systems have also been created based on "on-board" storage technologies and the use of signs, sensors, and user inputs to establish the current position of the vehicle or individual. The position information, which may be automatically obtained via the fixed sensor or else manually determined by the individual from external signs, maps, and the like, and then entered by means of a keyboard or selection switch, triggers the playback device to output the corresponding audio or visual information stored locally (on-board or on the individual) on an audio cassette, compact disk (CD) read only memory (ROM), compact disc, or similar storage system.
The drawback with systems whose position information is derived from fixed sensors and signs is that they tend to be obtrusive and, as a practical matter, the scope of their coverage is limited to those locations where they may be feasibly and legally placed.
The drawback with on-board systems requiring user involvement in the determination and inputting of current location is that the conduct of these activities may be distracting and even dangerous, particularly if the user is mobile and responsible for the safe control of a vehicle.
The advent of universal and accurate navigation systems, such as the global positioning system (GPS), has made it possible to rapidly determine the position of a mobile object or individual with high precision. For background information on these techniques, reference may be made to U.S. Pat. No. 4,114,115 and its included references. Briefly, a plurality of artificial satellites are utilized so that at least four observed satellites are always capable of providing a mobile receiver with a meaningful signal with which to determine orbiting data of each satellite. The present position of each satellite is obtained by applying detected orbit data to solve Kepler's equation. A distance from the ground-based mobile object to each satellite can be obtained by measuring the propagation time of the signal transmitted from the satellite. The mobile receiver's present position is determined by the solution of simultaneous equations relating the position of each of the multiple satellites with the distance between the mobile receiver and each respective observed satellite. The resulting position information is displayed to the user as his location at the time of observation.
Such capabilities enable accurate and rapid determination of current position by people at fixed positions or on the move. The advent of this technology means that the traveler need no longer be dependent upon pre-positioned sensors or upon the manual determination and inputting of current location to provide the position trigger for information sources such as those described above. As a result, a number of systems have been devised which allow the occupant of a mobile vehicle to retrieve information contained on an installed cassette tape, compact disk or similar storage device, which information is based on the accurate GPS position data entered into an onboard computer. Such systems are particularly suited for mobile navigation as employed, for example, in the system described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,396,254. This system incorporates a position recognition system and an onboard map or location database. While this system provides map information generated from an onboard database including the display of the mobile unit's current position and surrounding geographic features, another system described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,410,486 goes further to display onboard generated routing information for locations specified by the operator. Yet another system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,406,492, wherein audio instructions derived from an onboard computer processing unit (CPU) are provided to the traveler to effect preselected routing, thereby freeing the operator from interpreting visual instructions and pictorial information as required in the system described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,410,486.
Also known in the art is a personal guidance system for blind pedestrians developed by Jack Loomis, Reginald Golledge, and Roberta Klatzky, as described in P.
Tyson, "High-Tech Help for the Blind", Technology Review pp. 19-21, April 1995. As described in this article, the system incorporates a GPS monitor, laptop computer, headphones, and associated equipment into a twenty-eight pound backpack unit which is intended to be worn by a blind pedestrian. As the pedestrian walks through an area, the GPS information is used by the computer to retrieve, and deliver to the user, audio information indicating the structures and landmarks in current proximity to the pedestrian.
The disadvantage in each of these systems is that the derivation of information from an on-board storage device necessitates the collection and entry of that information into the computer's mass storage device long before the journey is commenced. Consequently, the routing guidance and other information is based on static information from the moment it is entered into the database of the onboard system. If the information is of a perishable nature, such as in the nature of highway traffic conditions, construction and repair progress, seasonal availability or cost information, the on-board database is only as good as the most recent edition received and loaded by the user.
Equally limiting is the scope and breadth of the onboard database. Normally entered into a finite space and capacity, any travel beyond the dimensions of the loaded data is of necessity unsupported by the installed information system.
Furthermore, in the case of the personal guidance system for blind pedestrians, the employment of "on-board" processing and storage of the information database necessitates that the pedestrian constantly carry the "on-board" equipment from location to location.
The limitations suffered by solutions relying on on-board information storage systems are partially addressed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,812,843 to Champion et al. In a described embodiment, this traffic information system permits direct access to information maintained and kept current by a service provider. Information concerning the current status of traffic conditions along a specific metropolitan commuter route is maintained in a high capacity dynamic data base and is available to customers on demand. Additional information reports which may be of interest to a subscriber, including airline flight and surface travel information as well as stock information, may be queried. Subscribers are provided such information by wireline telephone, mobile telephone, or computer.
The employment of a centralized information system which is remotely located from the mobile vehicle solves the problem of local storage limitations and additionally permits the provider to rapidly update the information disseminated to customers. However, the system described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,812,843 requires that subscribers personally determine their current position and provide that position information via the input device, whether that be digitally via modem or via a dual tone multiple frequency (DTMF) capable telephone. In addition, the travel information system is geared specifically toward urban vehicular commuters by providing information on traffic conditions and optimum routing given those conditions. The system does not address the needs of pedestrians including tourists, travelers, students, and the local populace in general for a broad range of position-dependent information in urban, rural or remote locations.
As described in Better Homes and Gardens p. 214, July 1995, another known system utilizes GPS technology to locate the current position of a vehicle and to use this information provide an emergency service. At the touch of a button, buyers of the 1996 Lincoln Continental automobile (manufactured by the Ford Motor Company) will be able to access a worldwide emergency tracking system. This system, which is known as the Remote Emergency Satellite Cellular Unit (RESCU), uses global positioning satellite technology and the cellular phone network to put a driver in voice contact with an operator at a special response center. The operator at the response center pinpoints the vehicle's location, guides the appropriate emergency service to the vehicle, and stays in voice communication with the customer until help arrives. A special password setup protects against false alarms or unauthorized attempts to turn the system off.
In essence, the RESCU system provides an enhanced version of the standard 911 emergency call in which the location of the customer is automatically relayed to the emergency center instead of being verbally communicated by the customer over the voice circuit. As such, the RESCU system is an emergency service for vehicular customers that utilizes GPS positioning technology. It should be noted, however, that the information content received by the customer is in all relevant aspects identical to that which would be received by a customer using a wireline or cellular phone to make a standard 911 call. That is, the information is not automatically retrieved from a data base as a function of the caller's position, but rather is whatever the operator at the response center happens to say to the caller. Thus, the position information is only relevant with respect to the dispatch of emergency personnel and is largely unrelated to the information content received by the vehicular customer. Additionally, the RESCU system is designed specifically to serve customers riding in properly equipped automobiles and is not applicable to pedestrians in distress.

Method and apparatus for providing position-related information to mobile recipients


Technique(s) to mitigate creep and/or cascade failure in high temperature heat pipe reactor cores may include gas loading each heat pipe such that when one or more heat pipes in the heat pipe array fail, the adjacent heat pipes can accommodate added heat load with little change in temperature.

There are two types of heat pipes—variable conductance heat pipes and fixed conductance heat pipes. When non-condensable gas is added to a (fixed-conductance) heat pipe, the heat pipe becomes a variable conductance heat pipe. In this case, the non-condensable gas stays in a gaseous state, i.e., the gas does not have a phase change. For heat pipes operating above cryogenic temperature, non-condensable gas may include helium, argon, or neon, for example. When there is a vaporization in the hot zone, vapor and non-condensable gas is pushed to the cold end. The vapor condenses and returns to the evaporator, while the non-condensable gas stays at the cold end. With non-condensable gas staying at the cold end, the non-condensable gas creates a cold nonactive region (or zone). The non-condensable gas may block part of the condenser, preventing heat transfer to a heat exchanger. Further, if power is raised in the heat pipe by 20 percent, for example, the heat pipe becomes hotter and vapor pressure goes up. This causes the non-condensable gas to be pushed further down the heat pipe, reducing the heat pipe temperature.
When a fixed conductance heat pipe (with no gas within) fails, the local temperature of the reactor core increases near the failed heat pipe. For example, assume there is a core block with a plurality of heat pipes. When one of these heat pipes fails, adjacent fuel pins transfer heat to the other heat pipes, which surround the failed heat pipe, raising local temperature and creating hot spots.
To prevent these hot spots, the power of the reactor core can be reduced. However, by reducing the power of the reactor core, the overall reactor core temperature is reduced. If, for example, the failed heat pipe increases in temperature, the temperature of the heat pipe reactor core must be reduced to keep the reactor core materials from creeping. This reduction in overall temperature may be large enough to cause the heat pipes to stop operating.
When a heat pipe fails, the heat pipes, which are near the failed heat pipe, may absorb heat from the fuel pins, which are adjacent to the failed heat pipe. This heat may move the adjacent heat pipes closer to limit curves, often times referred to as the capillary or boiling limit curves. With variable conductance heat pipes, the adjacent heat pipes are placed on a different trajectory with respect to the heat pipe limits, e.g., the capillary limit. When the heat pipes adjacent to the failed heat pipe reach one or more limit curves, the adjacent heat pipes may begin to fail one after another, causing other heat pipes to fail leading in a cascading failure of heat pipes in and/or across the reactor core.
Thus, an alternative technique to mitigate creep and cascading failure in a high temperature reactor core may be beneficial.

Creep and cascade failure mitigation in heat pipe reactors


A computer case includes a chassis (70), a cage (10) pivotably engaging with the chassis, a securing member (50) and an intermediate member (30). The cage has a locked position and a unlocked position. The securing member is mounted to the chassis. A receiving portion (57) is formed at the securing member. The intermediate member pivotably connects with the securing member and the cage respectively, and includes a resilient portion (35) corresponding to the receiving portion. When the cage is in the locked position, the resilient portion engages in the receiving portion. When the cage is in the unlocked position, the resilient portion disengages from the receiving portion.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a computer case, and more particularly to a computer case with a simplified configuration and convenient to use.
2. Description of Background
A typical computer case usually accommodates various data storage devices for communication and handling of data. Such devices include, for example, hard disk drives, floppy disk drives and Compact Disk-Read Only Memory (CD-ROM) drives. With the development of information technology, computer performance is rapidly improved, and many inner modules should correspondingly be upgraded. So, expansibility and convenience are important for computer design. Moreover, computers are more and more miniaturized, and computer inner space is getting more and more crowded. Drive cage of storage devices and some other frameworks occupy main inner space, so assembly and disassembly of function modules is unduly inconvenience.
A typical computer case includes a chassis and a drive cage. The drive cage receives a plurality of data storage devices. The drive cage and the chassis respectively define a shaft hole, and a shaft rotatablely connects the drive cage and the chassis by getting through the shaft holes. The drive cage forms a hook, and the chassis forms a resilient securing member engaging with the hook of the drive cage so as to mount the drive cage to the chassis. When the securing member of the chassis is pressed to disengage from the hook of the drive cage, the drive cage can be rotated out from the chassis. However, as described above, restrictive configurations to limit the rotation range of the drive cages are not disclosed.
Accordingly, what is needed is to provide a computer case having a rotatable cage which can vacate space for installation and removal of function modules of computer.

Hong Fu Jin Precision Industry (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd.


The present invention discloses a low impedance, water-absorbing, ionically-conductive, hydrophilic pressure sensitive adhesive composition comprising an ionically-conductive, hydrophilic, pressure sensitive adhesive hydrogel and crosslinked poly(N-vinyl lactam) in an amount sufficient to retain low electrical impedance and maintain hydrogel adhesion and cohesion during use of the composition in the presence of water and other moisture tending to plasticize the hydrogel. Crosslinked homopolymers and copolymers of poly(N-vinyl pyrrolidone) having Swelling Capacity of at least 15 milliliters of water per gram of poly(N-vinyl pyrrolidone) are preferred. Adhesion values upon removal from mammalian skin after about four hours of adhesion are not greater than initial adhesion removal values, demonstrating ease of removal of electrodes of the present invention from skin.

Modern medicine uses many procedures where electrical signals are received from or delivered to a mammalian patient's body through skin. The interface between medical equipment used in these procedures and the skin of the patient is usually some sort of biomedical electrode. Such biomedical electrodes typically include a conductor which must be connected electrically to the equipment, and a conductive medium adhered to or otherwise contacting mammalian skin.
Because all biomedical electrodes are based on the transmission of electrical signals to and from mammalian skin, good electrical conductivity is required, as free as possible from electrical impedance during a diagnostic, therapeutic, or electrosurgical procedure. Electrical impedance is disruptive to diagnostic or therapeutic procedures where low voltages or low currents are transmitted to or received from a patient's body. Lowering electrical impedance for biomedical defibrillation electrodes can lower the possibility of a less than effective electrical circuit at a moment of criticality for live-saving measures. Further, in the case of dispersive electrodes, an increase in impedance at one part of the contacting surface can increase the current density in places where the impedance is relatively lower. Electrical burns are a known problem in the use of dispersive electrodes when the current density in a region of the electrode becomes too high. Biocompatible, hydrophilic pressure-sensitive adhesive compositions (hereafter "PSA hydrogels") can be employed as the conductive medium for biomedical electrodes because such PSA hydrogels have excellent adhesion to a variety of types of mammalian skin, and good mechanical strength, and, with inclusion of an electrolyte, good electrical conductivity. Examples of PSA hydrogels based on copolymers plasticized with water and humectant that are preferred for biomedical electrodes are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,524,087; 4,539,996; 4,554,924; and 4,848,353 (all Engel), which also describe constructions of biomedical electrodes suitable for use as dispersive biomedical electrodes. Also, EPO Publication 0 322 098 (Duan) describes another PSA hydrogel based on plasticized poly(N-vinyl lactam) which can be used as the conductive medium for biomedical electrodes. The disclosures of all of the co-assigned Engel patents and Duan European Patent Publication are incorporated by reference herein.
Mechanical and electrical properties of a PSA hydrogel useful in a biomedical electrode are dependent on the content of water or moisture in the PSA hydrogel as formed and then as stored and used. In each of the Engel patents and the Duan publication, water is employed in the formation of the PSA hydrogel and water is required for electrical conductivity by interaction with an electrolyte. These PSA hydrogels are one phase compositions which are both hypoallergenic pressure sensitive adhesives and ionically-conductive media for transmission or reception of electrical signals.
By contrast, U.S. Pat. No. 4,588,762 (Mruk et al.) describes a heterogenous, pressure-sensitive, electrically conductive adhesive for disposable biomedical electrodes, consisting of two phases: a viscoelastic polymeric adhesive phase and an electrically conductive aqueous phase containing a water receptive polymer, a humectant, and an electrolyte. The humectant is present in the aqueous composition phase to minimize evaporation of water or moisture present during formation of the adhesive from the aqueous zones extending through the thickness of the composition. However, there is no electrical conductivity in the viscoelastic polymeric adhesive phase. Further, a two phase pressure-sensitive system described by Mruk et al., having regions without electrical conductivity is otherwise unsuitable for dispersive biomedical electrodes.
European Patent Publication 0 085 327 (Cahalan et al.) describes electrically conductive compositions useful for biomedical electrodes wherein the conductive composition comprises an interpenetrating polymer network consisting essentially of a hydrophilic crosslinked polymer formed from a water soluble monomer (such as an N-sulfohydrocarbon-substituted acrylamide, hydroxymethylmethacrylate, and potassium acrylate polymers) and a hydrophilic polymer which is not crosslinked (such as polyacrylic acid, polyvinylpyrrolidone, and non-crosslinked N-sulfohydrocarbon-substituted acrylamides), a humectant, and water.
Incorporation of water swellable polymers into other materials has been used for bandage and wound dressing type products.
European Patent Publication 0 297 769 (Cilento) discloses a pressure sensitive acrylic adhesive mass which is made hydrophilic by blending one or more water moisture absorbing, water moisture transmitting substances into the acrylic mass. These substances can be water soluble or swellable hydrocolloids (such as cellulosics, gums and the like) or super absorbents (such as substantially water insoluble, starch-acylonitrile graft copolymers, water insoluble, cross-linked sodium carboxymethylcellulose, or water insoluble, crosslinked dextran). European Patent Publication 0 107 376 (Thompson et al.) discloses polypyrrolidone gel dressings prepared by dissolving between 15% and 25% by weight of polyvinylpyrrolidone in water and cross-linking the polypyrrolidone by means of ionizing radiation. Various reinforcing materials, such as nylon gauze, cellulose, reticulated polyethylene or polypropylene, can be included as reinforcing agents.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,477,325 (Osburn) discloses a skin barrier composition of a ethylene and vinyl acetate copolymer (EVA) resin, at least one water absorbing particulate hydrocolloid polymer, and a water-insoluble, dry tack-providing elastomer such polyisobutylene, to be useful as an ostomy appliance and the like. After mixing and molding, the composition is subjected to ionizing irradiation to form cross-linked polymer networks.

Low impedance pressure sensitive adhesive composition and biomedical electrodes using same

Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company


Disclosed is a green toner for developing a static latent image containing a binder resin and a colorant, and the colorant contains C.I. Solvent Green 5 and colorant compound X represented by Formula (1), and content ratio of C.I. Solvent Green 5 in whole amount of the colorant is 5 to 50% by weight,

Recently, opportunity to form a full color image is increasing in addition to conventional monochrome image using a toner for developing a static latent image ("toner") in an image forming method via an electrophotography. The full color image forming method via an electrophotography is broadly used in a convenient printing field since necessary numbers of printed material can be manufactured on demand because of no printing plated is not necessary.
IT revolution commenced in 1990's introduces the circumstances of printing field to digital process markedly, RGB original has been normalized, and the data has been shifted to broader color reproduction area.
However, since full color image forming method by an electrophotography displays colors via subtractive color process by refractive light, color reproduction range is too small in comparison with display having a light source by itself via an additive color process, and therefore there is such a problem that it is difficult to reproduce a full color image shown on the display on a transfer material such as paper.
Particularly, there is a problem that color reproduction property of in high brightness region of secondary color prepared by overlapping two kinds of toners is poor. Practically, a toner image by yellow toner and a toner image cyan toner are superposed to reproduce green color, for example, chroma and brightness are reduced, and therefore color reproduction area of the green area becomes smaller than the color reproduction area via additive color process.
Therefore, toner giving minimized color turbidity and clear hue has been desired via subtractive color process in the full color image forming.
On the other side, for example, full color image forming method using six or more color toners including orange toner and green toner in addition to conventional four color toners composed of yellow toner, magenta toner, cyan toner and black toner is proposed as one of technologies to enlarge color reproduction area in the full color image forming method via subtractive color process. That is, hue represented through 360° by Munsell hue circle is not reproduced by three color toners of yellow toner, magenta toner and cyan toner, but color reproduction area is enlarged by using orange toner and green toner in addition to three color toners.
For example, green toner composed of non-metal phthalocyanine pigment and isoindoline type pigment in combination is proposed (for example, Patent Document 1).
However, the toner composed of non-metal phthalocyanine pigment and isoindoline type pigment in combination causes color turbidity, and chroma and brightness are not sufficient.
It is preferable to add another toner as green toner to improve brightness and chroma in green area, to yellow toner and cyan toner. For this purpose, green toner giving high brightness and chroma is required. However, green toner using existing green pigment is added, it is difficult to obtain green area color reproduction of sufficient brightness.

Green toner for developing static latent image and full color image forming method

Abstract: in the Formula (1), M1 is a metal atom of Group 14, Q is independently a monovalent substituent, m and n are each 0 or 1, at least one of m and n is 1, and A is independently an atomic group forming an aromatic ring which may have a substituent.

Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.


Delivery of audiovisual data may be accomplished using a satellite system. The user may have a set-top box connected to a satellite dish and a network connection. An operator server may receive a request for a title from the user via the network connection. The operator server may then determine if the title is in a transmission schedule and add it to the schedule if it is not. The data corresponding to the request may be encrypted using an encryption algorithm, and a corresponding decryption key may be generated. The key may then be forwarded to the user via the network connection. Then, according to the transmission schedule, the database containing the data will forward the data to a transmitter where it is communicated to a satellite in orbit, which then communicates the data to the satellite dish. The data may be stored in the set-top box for later playback.

Watching movies has been a favorite pastime for many years. In the early days of television (TV), the only way to watch a movie at home would be if one of the television networks decided to broadcast it. The invention and popularization of the video cassette recorder (VCR) allowed consumers to watch movies in their homes whenever they wished. This spawned a multibillion dollar industry for video rentals. Cable television also provided a source for at-home movies.
Currently, there are three main methods used for delivery via digital broadcast:                Satellite transmission        Terrestrial digital transmission        Digital cable networks
In most cases the format for delivery of video is MPEG-2, which has now become the de-facto standard.
Currently, however, there are no technologies available to properly fit the Video-on-demand market. This is mainly due to the absence of user interaction or feedback. Currently the only interaction provided is by primitive means such as telephone. However, the user cannot influence the transmission schedule.
Another method for delivering Video-on-demand is via classic Internet. This allows the user full interaction in selecting the movies. However, this method is not available to everyone, mainly due to the lack of possible connectivity or access to a link with high enough bandwidth to allow an efficient means of movie delivery.
Thus, currently the most popular video on demand services are through satellite television and digital cable. Again, the major drawback of these movies, however, is that they must be viewed at particular times. While the extra channel bandwidth provided by satellite and digital cable allow for starting times every half hour for most movies, this may still be inconvenient for many viewers, who may want to begin watching a movie whenever they wish. Additionally, pausing the movies is not possible if the viewer is interrupted during the show (such as by a telephone call).
Therefore, a need exists for a more effective video-on-demand service.

Delivery of data via omnidirectional digital transmission


A multicore optical fiber comprising: a depressed index common-cladding region having a refractive index Δcc; and a plurality of core portions disposed within the depressed index common-cladding region, wherein each core portion comprises: a central axis, a core region comprising a relative refractive index Δ1, an inner-cladding region encircling and directly contacting the core region comprising a relative refractive index Δ2, a trench region encircling and directly contacting the inner cladding region comprising a relative refractive index Δ3, and an outer-cladding region encircling and directly contacting the trench region comprising a relative refractive index Δ4, wherein the refractive index of the depressed index common-cladding region Δcc is less than the refractive index of the outer-cladding region Δ4, and wherein a difference between the refractive index of the depressed index common-cladding region Δcc and the refractive index of the first outer-cladding region Δ4 is greater than 0.05% Δ.

Increased bandwidth requirements are driving the use of Space Division Multiplexing (SDM) in telecommunication systems. Multicore optical fibers are one class of SDM fibers. The need to pack an increased number of cores in the multicore fibers while still keeping the outer nominal diameter of the optical fiber close to the conventional fibers (e.g. about 125 microns) results in a proximity of the cores to each other and to the outer periphery of the optical fiber. This proximity results in increased cross-talk and radiation losses, thereby negatively impacting the attenuation for each of the cores, particularly the end cores. Traditional methods of reducing cross-talk and radiation loss has been to have cores with smaller Mode-Field-Diameters (MFD) such that the field overlap between the adjacent cores and between core and fiber edge is minimized. However, these MFDs are not matched to nominal MFDs of conventional fibers and result in increased coupling losses when connected to such conventional fibers.
Accordingly, the inventors have developed improved multicore fibers having core portions with a relative refractive index profile including a trench and having depressed index common cladding.

Multicore optical fiber with depressed index common cladding


An insulating lid includes a cover having an outer edge and a base. The base includes an upper surface, a lip projecting upwardly from the upper surface about an outer perimeter of the base to define an inner area, and a plurality of spacer members extending upwardly from the upper surface positioned within the inner area. The plurality of spacer members are configured to space the cover a distance from the upper surface of the base to define an insulating space between the cover and the upper surface of the base.

The subject matter described herein relates generally to an insulating lid and, more particularly, to an insulating lid for a food container and a method of making the same.
Many known containers are configured to house products that should be maintained at a temperature either below or above ambient temperature (e.g., food or beverage products), and these known containers tend to be at least partially insulated. Some of these containers are configured to insulate a product for an extended period of time (e.g., days or weeks) such that they are intended for repeated use applications (e.g., a cooler or thermos that can be used, cleaned, and stored for future use). Other known containers are used to insulate a product for a shorter period of time (e.g., a few minutes or hours) such that they are intended for disposable use applications (e.g., point-of-sale applications in which a disposable coffee cup is sold to a consumer with coffee therein or a disposable soup bowl is sold to a consumer with soup therein).
Because the containers that are typically used to insulate for extended periods of time often have a foam-filled or vacuum-sealed chamber between two adjacent sidewalls of rigid plastic or metal, these containers are generally fabricated using materials and/or processes that are more expensive such that these containers are not practical for use in disposable applications. On the other hand, the containers that are typically used for disposable applications are often fabricated from materials and using processes that are less expensive (e.g., via a thin wall of flexible plastic that may be lined on the exterior with a thin sheet of bubble-wrap or foam).
The lids of many known disposable containers tend to be rather ineffective at insulating the container, but are typically inexpensive to make. In contrast, the lids of many known reusable containers tend to be more effective at insulating the container, but can be very expensive to make. Accordingly, what is needed is an insulating lid for use with a food container that is both inexpensive to make, and sufficiently insulating such that it provides improved insulating properties that can be used in either a disposable application or a reusable application.

Insulating lid for a food container and method of making the same