In a method of tracking a user in a communication network supporting a broadcast-multicast service, the network classifies groups of users into tracking areas. Movement of a user may be tracked as the user crosses a boundary between two tracking areas in the network. The method may enable a balance to be achieved between use of uplink overhead and the level or granularity of tracking desired, so as to conserve radio resources.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to tracking users in communication systems or networks supporting Broadcast-Multicast services (BCMCS).
2. Related Art
Current second generation and third generation wireless systems are primarily designed to support unicast voice and data services. The support of these unicast services to the end user has been achieved through various advances in wireless and networking technologies. The current emphasis in international standardization bodies such as 3GPP and 3GPP2 is on the design of protocols and procedures that allow the support of Broadcast-Multicast Services (BCMCS) over evolving networks. BCMCS is a bandwidth-conserving technology that reduces traffic by simultaneously delivering a single stream of information to a large number of recipients. Examples of these services include voice dispatch or Press-To-Talk (PTT) type services, broadcast/multicast streaming, etc.
There has been recent industry interest in the Public Safety Wireless Network (PSWN) context, where support of BCMCS may be especially important in terms of radio resource management. Radio resource management procedures may be needed to achieve low delay in establishment and delivery of BCMCS content, to provide scalability in terms of the number of multicast groups and/or number of users per multicast group, and to provide advanced service capabilities (e.g., ability to monitor/extract content from multiple BCMCS streams). Further, radio resource management procedures may be needed to achieve high spectral efficiency, to provide security (authentication, encryption and identity protection), and to improve mobile station battery life. Thus, radio resource management procedures that improve spectral efficiency and/or provide service flexibility are of interest to network operators.
In the unicast context, tracking of mobile stations within a geographic area is used primarily for the purposes of efficiently paging a mobile station. Mobile station tracking may perhaps become perhaps more important when assigning radio resources in the multicast context. In a cellular network, shared multicast radio channels should ideally be activated in a zone of cells or sectors for reliable reception. Depending on the level, or granularity, of tracking (i.e., accuracy of information at the network regarding the whereabouts of a BCMCS/PTT subscriber), radio resources may not be assigned in the proper sectors. As a result, there could be a significant loss in spectral efficiency for the network operator, and/or loss in quality of service perceived by a BCMCS/PTT subscriber.
Mobile stations that have an active uplink (e.g., those that send traffic or control signaling at regular intervals) can be tracked at the granularity of a sector. However, this is not expected to be the predominant operating mode for BCMCS/PTT where mobile stations are mostly idle or actively monitoring BCMCS content on the downlink. In such cases, it may be impractical for each user to maintain an active uplink, due to potentially large numbers of BCMCS subscribers. For such situations where maintenance of an active uplink is not feasible, tracking is typically accomplished through timer-based or event driven registration procedures. In addition to assisting procedures such as tracking, mobile station registration procedures also provide, to the network, information regarding subscription to specific services, radio priorities, etc. Timer-based procedures require mobiles to register with the network at given intervals (e.g. periodic intervals). Event driven triggers require mobiles to send a registration message to the network when an important event occurs (e.g. mobile decodes a change in location area).
Depending on the options employed for registration, either fine tracking of mobiles down to the granularity of a sector, or coarse tracking of mobiles over a large number of sectors, is possible. If coarse tracking is employed, physical broadcast/multicast (BCMC) radio channels may need to be established in a large number of sectors that are not needed for reliable BCMCS content delivery, resulting in a waste of radio resources. Since it may not be possible to derive the benefits of power control in a network supporting BCMCS the power fractions needed to support a BCMC radio channel can be quite high. This limits the number of BCMC radio channels and/or unicast channels that can be simultaneously supported within a sector. Coarse tracking may therefore be unacceptable and may waste potentially scarce radio resources, as the network may have to transmit a BCMC stream within a large area, including sectors where mobile stations may not be present. On the other hand, tracking at the level of a sector (fine tracking) can result in excessive uplink overhead arising from frequent and sometimes unnecessary registrations by the mobile stations, thus overloading the uplink.
Mechanisms currently proposed for BCMCS registration include timer-based registration; registration on occurrence of certain events (e.g., power on, starting or stopping to monitor a multicast group); Registration Required Indication enabled in broadcast system parameter overhead on a new sector; and use of paging zone updates. These registration mechanisms are not well suited to tracking BCMCS subscribers that have any significant mobility (movement) across the network.
With timer based registrations, short timer values (the timer value may depend on the user mobility and desired accuracy) are needed for accurate tracking, otherwise the time elapsed from the previous registration may be quite long, potentially resulting in considerable ambiguity regarding mobile station location at the start of a BCMCS/PTT call. Long timers require radio resources to be assigned over a larger area to account for tracking uncertainty, thus resulting in spectral inefficiency. Although short timer values allow finer tracking, they result in large uplink overhead and reduce mobile battery life. They also result in repetitive unnecessary registrations from static (stationary) users.
Events such as "power on" and "start/stop monitoring" tend to be quite infrequent and dependent on end user behavior. As a result, these registration 'triggers' are not likely to be sufficient for the purpose of tracking. Relying on alternative fine tracking mechanisms such as the use of a "Registration Required" indicator bit within the broadcast system parameter overhead (i.e., group polling) of each sector may also give rise to a large number of spurious registrations from relatively static mobiles. Since the total number of BCMCS/PTT groups may be quite large, introducing such group polling mechanisms for all possible groups is inefficient.
Paging zone updates have been proposed to reduce downlink paging load for packet data services in cdma2000®, Revision D. Each paging zone is assigned a paging zone identifier which is indicated in the broadcast overhead by all sectors within the paging zone. Mobile stations are associated with the paging zone corresponding to the sector having the strongest received pilot strength. The mobile stations report back to the network every time the paging zone changes. While this paging zone technique is reasonable in the unicast context, it does not allow efficient operation in the case of BCMCS. In particular, since mobile stations do not report updates regarding soft handoff candidates (i.e., sectors from which the received signal strength is sufficiently high) for a BCMC radio channel unless a sector from a different paging zone becomes the strongest in terms of pilot strength, this approach may not be suited to supporting soft handoff at paging zone boundaries. Moreover, hysteresis timers employed in paging zone updates for registration ensure that users will keep sending paging zone registration update messages upon hysteresis timer expiration, even if the paging zone corresponding to the strongest sector is unchanged.

Method for tracking users in a communication network


A method and a system for preventing a network storm from presenting in a multi-ring Ethernet, the method comprises: when a link in the multi-ring Ethernet is failed, at most one ring protecting link is unblocked, the ring protecting link and the failed link being in a same logic area. Wherein each link in the multi-ring Ethernet belongs uniquely to one logic area, when a link in the multi-ring Ethernet is failed, a master node of a logic area to which the failed link belongs unblocks a ring protecting link; or each link in the multi-ring Ethernet respectively belongs to one or more logic areas, each logic area is set with a priority, when a link in the multi-ring Ethernet is failed, the ring protecting link of one logic area which contains the failed link and has a highest priority is unblocked by the master node of the logic area.

With the development of the IP network toward the direction of carrying multiple services, the services such as the Next Generation Network ("NGN" for short), the Internet Protocol Television ("IPTV" for short) put forward higher and higher demands on the reliability and real-time of the network, and the traditional ring network protection Spanning Tree Protocol ("STP" for short) technology of the second-layer network of the access network gradually cannot satisfy the requirements of fast convergence and link switching.
RFC3619 has defined an Ethernet automatic protection switching method. The method solves the problem of slow convergence of network failure of the Ethernet device in a ring-type network topology, and the convergence time can be limited to be within 50 ms by using the method. A RFC3619 ring is formed by connecting a plurality of nodes, wherein one node is defined as a master node, the master node is also called as a ring protecting link affiliation node in some technologies, and other nodes are defined as transit nodes. The two ports of the master node on the ring are defined as a primary port and a slave port respectively, and the link directly connected to the slave port may be called as ring protecting link. The ring protecting link is a link on the ring where the service communication data is blocked when there is not any failure or request in the Ethernet ring so as to prevent a closed ring. When any of the links on the ring is not failed, the master node blocks the service data forwarding function of the slave port, i.e., the master node blocks the ring protecting link, such that the service data cannot pass through the slave port of the master node, which ensures that the service VLAN (Virtual Local Area Network) cannot form a closed loop and prevents the "broadcast storm" caused by the closed loop. When a link on the ring is failed, the master node unblocks the service data forwarding function of the slave port, i.e., the master node unblocks the ring protecting link, such that the service data can pass through the slave port of the master node, which ensures the connectivity of the service data, and the interruption will not occur.
FIG. 1a is a topological diagram of a RFC3619 ring, formed by nodes S1, S2, S3 and S4, wherein the master node (MASTER) is S2, and other nodes S1, S3 and S4 are transit nodes (TRANSIT). The two ports of the master node S2 on the ring are respectively the primary port and the slave port, wherein port 2 is the primary port (P) and port 1 is the slave port (S). As shown in FIG. 1b, when the states of the links on the ring are in good condition, the master node S2 blocks the service data forwarding function of the slave port 1 to prevent a closed loop from presenting in the network to form the "network storm"; and as shown in FIG. 1c, when a link on the ring is failed, the master node S2 unblocks the service data forwarding function of the slave port 1 to make the service data re-connected.
Though the RFC3619 solves the problem of fast convergence of a single physical ring network very well, the actual networking is usually quite complicated and a situation exits that a plurality of physical rings are tangent with each other. As shown in FIG. 2a, a topological structure is shown that a plurality of RFC3619 rings are intersected, S1, S2, S3, S4 in the figure form ring 1, in which S2 is the master node, and port 2 of node S2 is the primary port, port 1 is the slave port; S3, S4, S5, S6 form ring 2, in which S6 is the master node, and port 2 of node S6 is the primary port, and port 1 is the slave port. When any of the links on the rings is not failed, the master nodes S2 and S6 respectively block their respective slave ports. When the shared path of the two rings, i.e., the link between nodes S3 and S4, is failed, as shown in FIG. 2b, a link on ring 1 is failed, the master node S2 unblocks the slave port, and the link in ring 2 is failed, the master node S6 unblocks the slave port, then a closed loop of "super loop" appears on the whole ring, the "network storm" is formed and the network is failed.
The same problem will occur when the other Ethernet ring protection technologies similar to the RFC3619 for protecting the single ring is applied to multiple rings, i.e., the failure of the shared path may make a plurality of ring protecting links unblocked, which finally causes the "super loop" to appear on the whole ring and forms the network failure of "network storm".
In the present text, a port being blocked means that the port is configured not to forward the service data when it is blocked, and a port being unblocked means that the port is configured to forward the service data when it is unblocked, wherein the forwarding of the protocol frame of Ethernet ring protection will not be affected no matter the port is blocked or unblocked. A link being blocked means that one of two adjacent ports of the link is blocked or both ports are blocked, and the service data cannot be forwarded by one of the two adjacent ports of the link and thus cannot pass through the blocked link; and a link being unblocked means that both the two adjacent ports of the link are unblocked, and the service data may be forwarded by the two adjacent ports of the link.

Method and a system for preventing a network storm from presenting in a multi-ring ethernet


According to some embodiments, an authentication server may receive first and second biometric user data from a writing device. The writing device may, according to some embodiments, have a plurality of spatially alternating sensors, including a plurality of sensors of a first type to read the first biometric user data and a plurality of sensors of a second type to read the second biometric user data. The authentication server may also receive a user identifier input by the user via the writing device and verify that the first and second biometric user data are consistent with the user and that the user has a payment account associated with the user identifier input. The authentication server may then determine a payment identifier associated with payment account and transmit a payment authorization indication associated with the determined payment identifier.

People use payment accounts to facilitate transactions. For example, in some cases an account owner may insert a payment card (e.g., a credit card or debit card) into an Automated Teller Machine ("ATM"), enter his or her Personal Identification Number ("PIN"), and receive cash that he or she can then use to purchase items or services. In other cases, an account owner may present his or her payment card at a Point Of Sale ("POS") device (e.g., at a merchant's cash register) to purchase items or services.
Note that using a payment card at an ATM or POS device may be inconvenient for an account owner, such as an account owner who does not want to carry a wallet or purse. Moreover, a person other than the account owner may come into possession of the payment card (or even just a credit card number) and attempt to make a transaction using the owner's account (e.g., when the payment card is lost or stolen). Attempting to verify that a person is actually an account holder, can be an expensive, time-consuming, and error prone task for a merchant or online retailer (e.g., who may ask a person to enter a PIN and/or to present additional identification, such as a statue issued driver's license). This can be especially true when a substantial number of people (perhaps associated with many different card issuers) attempt a substantial number of transactions in many different locations. It would therefore be desirable to provide accurate and efficient systems and methods to identify an account owner when he or she attempts to make a transaction using a payment account.

Simultaneous multi-factor authentication systems and methods for payment transactions


The present invention provides a electrical conductive film for transfer in order to furnish a surface of an article, even an article poor in flexibility such as a board material, with a transparent electrical conductive film having a uniform thickness and having a lower electric resistance value; a method for forming a transparent electrical conductive film using the same; and a transparent electrical conductive film. An electrical conductive film for transfer comprising at least a conductive layer 4 on a support 1, said conductive layer 4 being releasable from the support 1, wherein the conductive layer 4 comprises conductive fine particles and an organic group-containing metal compound of a metal element, an oxide of which exhibits the electrical conductivity. The electrical conductive film for transfer is stuck on a surface of an object article to be furnished with the transparent electrical conductive film through an adhesive layer 5, then the adhesive layer is cured after the sticking and the support 1 is released, and subsequently heat treatment is performed to convert the organic group-containing metal compound in the conductive layer 4 into metal oxide.

At present, the transparent electrical conductive film is produced mainly by the sputtering method. There are various modes for the sputtering method, for example, a method of forming a film by allowing inert gas ions, which are generated by direct current or high-frequency discharge, to be accelerated to hit the surface of a target in vacuum so as to strike out atoms constituting the target from the surface for deposition on the substrate surface.
The sputtering method is excellent in that an electrical conductive film having a low surface electric resistance can be formed even if it has a large area to some extent. However, it has a disadvantage that the apparatus is large, and the film forming speed is slow. If the conductive film is to have a still larger area from now on, the apparatus will be further enlarged. This raises a technical problem such that the controlling precision must be heightened and, from another point of view, raises a problem of increase in the production cost. Further, although the number of targets is increased to raise the speed in order to compensate for the slowness of the film forming speed, this also is a factor that enlarges the apparatus, thereby raising a problem.
An attempt is made to produce the transparent conductive film by the application method. In a conventional application method, a conductive paint having conductive fine particles dispersed in a binder solution is applied onto a substrate, dried, and hardened to form the conductive film. The application method has advantages in that a conductive film having a large area can be easily formed, that the apparatus is simple and has a high productivity, and that the conductive film can be produced at a lower cost than by the sputtering method. In the application method, an electric path is formed by contact of the conductive fine particles with each other, whereby the electrical conductivity is exhibited. However, the conductive film produced by the conventional application method has an insufficient contact, and the obtained conductive film has a high electric resistance value (i.e. is inferior in conductivity), thereby limiting its usage.
As an application method using no binder resin, for example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 8-199096(1996) discloses a method in which a conductive film forming paint comprising tin-doped indium oxide (ITO) powders, a solvent, a coupling agent and an organic or inorganic acid salt of metal, and not containing a binder is applied onto a glass plate and calcined at a temperature of 300° C. or higher. In this method, since the binder is not used, the conductive film has a low electric resistance value.
Also, a process is known in which a film is formed by application using the sol-gel method. An application method using the sol-gel method is suited for forming a film of large area.
By any of the above-mentioned application methods, in the case that the support is one having flexibility such as a film, a conductive film having a large area can be easily formed, however, in the case that the support is one having poor flexibility such as a plate material, the application is difficult as compared with the case of the flexible support, and particularly it is difficult to control a film thickness for uniformity.
Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 6-103839(1994) discloses a method for manufacturing a transparent conductive substrate by transferring.
Also, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2000-207959(2000) discloses a method in which a coating liquid for forming a conductive film containing an organic indium compound, expressed by structural formula In(OH)(OCOR)2 (here, R is alkyl groups that may be a branch or straight chain), and an organic tin compound dissolved in a solvent is applied onto a base material such as glass; and subsequently heat treated to decompose the organic component of the coating liquid by heat thus forming a transparent conductive film. In this method, a conductive film having a low specific resistance can be obtained. In this method, however, when it is tried to obtain a thick conductive film, a crack is produced at the time of heat treatment. Thus, a conductive film having a low surface electric resistance cannot be obtained.
Further, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2001-2954(2001) discloses a method in which a coating liquid for forming conductive film containing a formic acid indium compound, an organic tin compound and an organic amine dissolved in a solvent is applied onto a base material such as glass; and subsequently heat treated to decompose the organic component of the coating liquid by heat thus forming a transparent conductive film.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Conductive film for transfer, method for forming transparent conductive film using same, and transparent conductive film


The present invention provides composition comprising one or more glycosaminoglycan mimetics and uses thereof. The subject glycosaminoglycan mimetics are particularly useful for treatment of neuronal injuries including without limitation spinal cord injuries.

Glycosaminoglycans such as chondroitin sulfate (CS) play a critical role in various physiological processes, including cell division, inflammation, and spinal cord injury. However, the complexity of this class of natural molecules has made correlating structure to function difficult. Furthermore, it has not been retrieval to generate glycosaminoglycan with controllable sulfation pattern.
Comprising 40-200 sulfated disaccharide units, CS is thought to contain "blocks" of high and low sulfation, with highly sulfated regions serving as binding sites for growth factors, cytokines, and other proteins. Although a tetrasaccharide can be sufficient for molecular recognition and neuronal activity, longer sequences are thought to be useful for enhancing protein binding and allowing for the assembly of multimeric protein complexes.
Thus far very few polymers based on glycosaminoglycan structures have been reported. Heparin-like glycopolymers have been synthesized from simple monosaccharides such as N-acetyl-D-glucosamine. However, no high molecular weight glycopolymers have been assembled from disaccharide building blocks found in heparin/heparan sulfate, chondroitin, dermatan, or keratan sulfate glycosaminoglycans. Such glycopolymers would more closely mimic the natural polysaccharides, and hence facilitating explorations into the importance of macromolecular structure (e.g., distance, number, and orientation between protein-binding epitopes, multivalency).


Radioactive stents used in angioplasty on sclerotic coronary arteries without the risk of restenosis can be produced by ion injecting .sup.133 Xe into the surfaces of stents as a nuclide that has a shorter half-life and emits a smaller maximum energy of .beta.-rays than .sup.32 p Uniform ion injection is accomplished using an apparatus capable of uniform irradiation of the stents with .sup.133 Xe ion beams. The source of .sup.133 Xe is a nuclear fission product generated from .sup.235 U in the fuel rods in nuclear reactor.

This invention relates to angioplasty as a means of treating arterioscleorosis of coronary arteries. More particularly, the invention relates to a radioactive stent capable of preventing restenosis of blood vessels and a process for producing it.
Stated more specifically, the present invention relates to a radioactive cylindrical stent that has been ion injected with .sup.133 Xe and which will later emit .beta.-rays, .gamma.-rays and internal conversion electrons ejected by .gamma.-decay. The invention also relates to a process for producing the stent. The radioactive stent of the invention is placed within a blood vessel and prevents its restenosis by inhibiting abnormal growth of the smooth muscular cells in it. The advantage of the .sup.133 Xe radioactive stent of the invention is not limited to preventing blockage recurrence after angioplasy with a balloon or an ordinary non-radioactive stent; it can also replace the balloons and ordinary non-radioactive stents commonly used in angioplasy.
To treat arteriosclerosis of coronary arteries, angioplasy is performed using balloons and stents; however, postoperative stenoses often occur and the frequency is 30 -40% in the case of using balloons and 10-30% with stents. Opened blood vessels are believed to occlude mainly from abnormal growth of smooth muscular cells and it has recently been found that intravascular exposure to radiations is an effective way to prevent postoperative restenoses (Waksman R. et al., Circulation, 91, (1995) 1533-1539).
One of the ways to implement the intravascular exposure to radiations is by using a stent that has been rendered radioactive on its own and this technique is gaining increasing attention from researchers. However, the only case that has been reported on radioactive stents that are prepared by ion injection is about a .beta.-emitting radioactive stent that has been ion injected with .sup.32 p (Hehrlein C. et al., Circulation, 93, (1996) 641-645).
A problem with this prior art technique is that due to the comparatively long half-life (14.3 days) of .sup.32 p, the time of exposure to the emitted .beta.-rays is unduly prolonged to interfere with the regeneration of vascular endothelia, potentially inducing thrombus formation. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a stent that has been rendered radioactive by means of a shorter-lived radioisotope and which is capable of preventing restenosis of blood vessels without interfering with the regeneration of vascular endothelia.
In addition, in view of the fact that restenosis of a blood vessel occurs in that area of the vessel which is in contact with any surface of the inserted stent, it is required that the entire surface of the stent be uniformly ion injected with a radioactive isotope. Considering the number of patients with arteriosclerosis who are currently under treatment, mass production of radioactive stents is also an important factor.

Xenon-133 radioactive stent for preventing restenosis of blood vessels and a process for producing the same


An improved method of validating pulse-like, heartbeat-induced physiologic events, such as blood-pressure pulses, is described in relation to vital signs monitoring apparatus that is also capable of monitoring R-waves obtained from an ECG sensor. The method includes the steps of monitoring the occurrence of an R-wave followed by an event of interest, and validating such event based upon analyzing, along with other preselected criteria, a time relationship extant between the R-wave and the event. The validating step includes the steps of noting the time period between selected points of the two occurrences, labeling the time period based on preselected timing criteria, and using the label with other criteria to validate the event. Events whose immediate validation is questionable are placed in a "wait and see" category for future review. The disclosed method further includes the step of repeating the monitoring, noting and labeling steps for successive R-waves and pulses, thus to establish a first measurement cycle. Also, disclosed is a step for adapting the preselected timing criteria based upon already analyzed time relationships.

The present invention relates to a noninvasive method for assisting in determining parameters related to pulse-like physiologic events resulting from a heartbeat, and more particularly to a time-based method for "predetermination" validation of such events.
Examples of physiologic events resulting from a heartbeat include but are not limited to oscillometric pulses, K-sounds, invasive arterial blood-pressure pulses, tonometric non-invasive arterial blood-pressure pulses, plethysmographic pulses due to absorption of infrared and near-infrared light by a living subject's blood, heart sounds, cardiogenic oscillations in thoracic impedance waveforms, cardiogenic oscillations in capnograms, and pulsatile components of the airway pressure waveform. With each such event, there is a clearly detectable pulse-like activity with respect to which predetermined points may be selected for reliable time-relationship examination in accordance with the teachings of the present invention.
To illustrate the present invention, a description thereof will be given in the context of validating oscillometric pulses, with the understanding that the invention may be practiced in connection with heartbeat-related physiologic events such as those mentioned above.
Regarding oscillometry, it is known to measure blood pressure noninvasively by monitoring and analyzing pressure pulsations occurring in a blood-vessel-occluding cuff that has been inflated to a supra-systolic pressure and then gradually deflated in steps to below diastolic pressure.
To provide an accurate method of determining blood pressure, there is a need for addressing the problem of artifact, i.e. non-blood-pressure-induced, pulse-like information. Regardless of what is causing such artifact, it is important to provide a method of determining when pulse-like, or pulsatile, information is true (i.e. blood-pressure induced) and when it is false (i.e. non-blood-pressure induced) so that corresponding monitoring apparatus can be smart enough to recognize the difference and discard the false data.
In circumstances where unmistakenably "true" pulse information is not clearly available, it is important also that the method of the invention accept, alternatively, promising "borderline" information.
Similar artifact issues are involved with other heartbeat-resultant physiologic events.
Various conventional methods have been proposed to deal with the problem of artifact. Such methods include the use of a monitored time relationship between an R-wave from an ECG sensor and an oscillometric pulse from a blood-pressure monitor.
For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,974,597 there is disclosed a method of verifying an oscillometric pulse by checking whether a single pulse is detected between successive QRS complexes sensed by an ECG monitor.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,216,779 illustrates a Korotkov-based blood-pressure monitoring system that accepts, preliminarily, a first K-sound if it is detected within a predetermined time period after a heartbeat is detected. Then, the first K-sound is accepted ultimately if a second, later K-sound is detected within the time period.
Other such methods are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,349,034 to Ramsey, III, 4,889,133 to Nelson et al. and 4,949,710 to Dorsett et al., which focus on artifact rejection based on criteria such as pulse slope, pulse period, pulse amplitude, pulse area and pulse-area prediction. These criteria are referred to herein as other preselected criteria. It should be understood that other criteria as used herein may include any conventional criteria, including but not limited to those listed above.
An important object of the present invention is to deal with the above-identified problem by providing an improved method of validating heartbeat-induced physiologic events, such as pulsatile blood-pressure information.
A further object of the invention is to provide a way of validating such information by analyzing, along with other preselected criteria, a time-interval relationship extant between pairs of oscillometric pulses and R-waves.

Method of validating physiologic events resulting from a heartbeat


An adjustable spring mounting assembly having a first lug with a first elongated opening with a first channel and a second lug with a second elongated opening and a second channel. A mounting pin extends through the first and second elongated openings. First and second spacers received in the first and second channels hold the mounting pin in one of at least two mounting positions.

Multi-axle trailers are relatively common in the art. As a result of a permanent unbalanced weight distribution on the trailer or other circumstances, the axles of the trailer may become partially misaligned. The present invention relates to an adjustable leaf spring mounting assembly or hanger that may be utilized to correctly align those axles. By eliminating misalignment between axles, the tread on the tires wears evenly, the tires run cooler and the risk of blowouts is reduced. In addition, towing resistance is reduced and gas mileage is improved.


An engine valve having composite structure comprising a valve stem and a valve head which are made from Ti--Al based alloy and a tail end formed with heat resisting steel are produced by joining a stem end member made from the heat resisting steel to an end of the valve stem made from the Ti--Al based alloy opposite to the valve head by, for example, brazing.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an engine valve and a method for producing the engine valve used as an exhaust valve and an inlet valve of an automotive engine.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The exhaust valve and the inlet valve of the engine for automobiles are required to be excellent in corrosion resistance and oxidation resistance, to say nothing of high temperature strength, and further required to have excellent abrasion resistance at the positions to be in contact with a valve seat, a valve guide and a push rod.
Recently, demands become strong for increasing rotational speed and generating power of the engine and for improving efficiency and fuel consumption of the automotive engine, and lightening and further improvement of the heat resistance are requested earnestly concerning the engine valve.
Heretofore, Ni-alloyed heat resisting steel and Ni-based heat resisting steel have been used as materials for the engine valve and a method of making the valve stem hollow in core has been introduced in order to reduce the weight of the engine valve, but it is not possible to say that the demand for lightening is satisfied sufficiently.
On the other side, Ti-based alloys are tried to be used as lightweight materials and put into practice in some engines. Although Ti-based alloys are applicable as materials for the inlet valve, it is not suitable to use as materials For the exhaust valve of high powered engine since Ti-based alloys are merely proof against high temperature up to about 500.degree. C.
Accordingly, in recent years, intermetallic compound materials, which are lightweight and excellent in the strength at high temperature, are tested to be used as material for valve motion-related members of the engine such as the engine valve.
Among them, application of Ti--Al based alloy including intermetallic compound is disclosed as materials for the valve in Japanese Patent disclosure (Kokai) No. 61-229907/86 and No. 2-47278/90, for example. The engine valve made of Ti--Al based alloy of this kind has a shape as shown in FIG. 5, for example.
An engine valve 51 shown in FIG. 5 is made of Ti--Al based alloy and provided with a valve head 53 at an end of a valve stem 52, the valve head 53 has a head face 53a, a valve face 53b and head back 53c, and the valve stem 52 has a groove 54 and a tail end 55 at the opposite end thereof.
However, in the conventional engine valve 51 formed from Ti--Al based alloy, there is a problem in that the abrasion resistance of the engine valve 51 is unsatisfactory at the tail end 55.

Engine valve and method for producing the same


A three-dimensional puzzle of a familiar object, the puzzle including a puzzle substrate and a plurality of interlocking puzzle pieces that engage an outer surface of the substrate to form a representation of the familiar object. The edges of the puzzle pieces are beveled to reduce or eliminate binding between interlocked pieces as each piece is positioned in the puzzle. The puzzle may include a release mechanism for separating one or more of the puzzle pieces from the substrate.

The present invention relates to the field of puzzles, and more particularly to the field of three dimensional puzzles.
1. Field of the Invention
Many three-dimensional puzzles utilize pieces that interlock to form a structural or decorative shape. An example of this is found in U.S. Pat. No. 6,085,067, which describes interlocking planar elements united through male-female joints into predetermined three-dimensional configurations.
2. Description of the Related Art
Another form of puzzle utilizes a variety of connector elements for interconnecting the decorative and structural elements into a predetermined three-dimensional shape. U.S. Pat. No. 6,015,150 illustrates this form of puzzle as being a kit of parts that includes of generally flat structural and decorative components for forming a three-dimensional puzzle.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,987,318 describes a three-dimensional puzzle having a base form for receiving projecting pegs on puzzle pieces forming a predetermined shape. The pieces are configured to interlock with each other and with a central portion. These puzzles require assembly in a predetermined order and do not complement the same detail, shape, dimensions, feel and appearance of an existing object.
A disadvantage of previous designs is the complexity and resulting high cost of design and manufacture. In addition, previous three-dimensional puzzles do not have the same exterior detail, shape, dimensions, feel, and appearance of the original object.


A sample analyser for bulk materials such as sugar cane includes a shredding means which finelly divides the material and deposits a sample on an endless conveyor (2). The sample is compressed and its upper surface (30) is levelled, to ensure a fixed presentation height relative to the reading head of an analyser (48) such as an infrared spectrometer. A plate (20) may be used to control the presentation height of a moving sample. Alternatively, the sample may be deposited in compartments mounted on the conveyor, smoothed mechanically or manually, and then moved beneath the analyser (48). Each sample is placed on top of the remnant, if any, of a previous sample, thus preventing contamination of the upper surface (30) by the latter.

This invention concerns an automated sample analysis system.
The present system will be described in relation to biological material specifically sugarcane but those skilled in the art would appreciate that timber forage, animal products, food products generally including raw and processed materials are handled by such systems. The system may be modified to handle plastics, rubber and mineral products. The analysis utilises a near infra red (NIR) spectometer but ultrasound, microwave, nuclear irradiation and capacitative testing devices are described in the literature. It is useful if the system is capable of receiving input from control or recognition devices and controlling other devices as part of its place in a production or information chain.
It is customary for a growers"" payment to depend on the extractable sugar. The grower can be penalised or rewarded of the factors such as excess fibre and impurities.
Mills commonly provide laboratories adjacent the growers"" truck entry to the Mill where samples are prepared manually by appropriate grinding. Wet chemistry processes follow and a result is generated in 4-8 hours. Automating such a process presents a variety of problems, typically the creation of a physical form which can be read by the testing device. A sample must be representative of the tissue extract. It must be presented suitably for a reading to emerge. The current sample must not be contaminated by the previous sample. The sample must be disposed of so that a new reading is obtainable. The procedure must offer precision in reading and require minimal human supervision. Preferably the apparatus should be automated as by logic circuit or micro processor control.
WO 93/15470 describes a system suitable for monitoring coal input to electricity generating stations. A motor driven, endless conveyor drives multiple coal samples beneath a linear array of sensors. It stops and starts to give each sensor in turn exposure to the sample. Infrared, microwave and gamma ray radiation are utilised to give information about the ratio of Cxe2x80x94H to Oxe2x80x94H bonds; free moisture and S/H/O ratios. A mathematical matrix is generated and thereafter coefficients are calculated.
Biological materials present additional problems. A sample carrying fruit juice, blood or other adhesive liquid tends to contaminate subsequent samples.
The apparatus aspect of this invention provides apparatus for radiation analysis of finely divided test material comprising a radiation sensor and means capable of conveying the sample past the sensor at a controlled presentation height and surface condition. Preferably the apparatus performs spectrographic analysis of samples of finely divided biological material and comprises a spectrographic sensor and means capable of conveying the sample past the sensors such that the surface of the sample remains at a predetermined reading distance from the sensor. Usually the apparatus utilises predetermined factors. For some materials adjustment may be necessary and therefore control is useful.


Apparatus for moving tubes (10) which are displaceable upon operation of an actuator (40) inside fixed guides (20) integral with the tower (1a) of submarines (1) and the like, said actuator (40) consisting of at least one pair of linear motors (41).

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for moving tubular parts of submarines, which comprises actuating elements or means comprising at least one pair of linear motors.
2. Description of Related Art
It is known in the technical sector relating to submarines that there exists the need to raise outside the water, when the submarine is at periscope height, a certain number of sensors of the passive and active type such as radar and/or radio antennas, optronic heads and the like which are normally housed inside the tower (or sail) of the submarine and, when required, are displaced vertically by suitable hydraulic raising devices until they emerge outside the free surface of the water situated above the tower.
It is also known that these vertical displacement apparatus must: operate in a particularly silent manner in order to avoid identification by means of acoustic sensors; be able to withstand the underwater pressure which is produced at the navigation depth of the submarine; and resist corrosion by the seawater and be able to raise the sensor support tube, overcoming not only the weight thereof, but also the friction produced by the hydrodynamic thrust of the water, owing to the movement of the submarine, on the tube sliding guides said transverse thrust being mainly responsible for the overall resistance to displacement in the vertical direction.
For this purpose, in the art apparatus which envisage the use of oil-operated actuating systems are known, these, however, requiring a hydraulic system comprising among other things a pumping station with consequent constructional complications and an increase in the need for maintenance in order to prevent the oil from being contaminated by water infiltration.

Linear-motor apparatus for moving sensor-support tubes of submarines


An apparatus, methods, systems, and computer program products are provided that can detect touch events on touch panels in a more effective and less costly manner. According to an embodiment, a touch system includes a touch panel and a plurality of radiation sources located at a first edge of the touch panel. The intensity of light emitted from each of the plurality of radiation sources is modulated with a respective modulation frequency. The touch system further includes an optical receiver that is located at a second edge of the touch panel and is configured to receive the light emitted from each of the plurality of radiation sources.

Field
The present disclosure relates generally to touch sensitive systems and more specifically to identifying location(s) of touch events on a touch sensitive system using frequency modulated radiation sources (such as light emitting diodes (LEDs)).
Background Art
Touch panels are provided to detect two-dimensional coordinate information. A touch panel can be an opaque track pad. Another example of a touch panel can include a transparent touchscreen that can be placed in front of a display such as a liquid crystal display. Touch panels can be based on a variety of sensing technologies, for example, resistive, capacitive, surface acoustic wave, infrared (IR) grid, IR acrylic projection, optical imaging, acoustic pulse recognition, etc.
As one example, infrared (IR) touch panels can include an array of X-Y light emitting diodes (LEDs) and detectors. The detectors can detect the two-dimensional coordinate of a touch on the IR touch panel when the touch disrupts the beam of radiation from the LEDs. In this example, the LEDs and the detectors are located on the edges of the IR touch panel. In some conventional IR touch panels, only one of the LEDs is on (emitting light) at a time and therefore, for large size touch panels, where there is a large area to scan, it is technically challenging to achieve a suitably fast response time and minimize the cost.

Frequency multiplexed optical touchscreen


This circuit provides output detection pulses in response to interrogation signals for transponder systems which require a high degree of sensitivity and a low degree of false alarms. This circuit includes a tracking arrangement which monitors the level of noise and adjusts a control signal to exclude noise below a certain threshold. A comparator generates detection pulses in response to the input interrogation signals and the control signal. As a result, detection pulses are produced only for interrogation signals on a one-for-one basis. At the same time, the circuit adjusts its sensitivity so that low power interrogation signals (sufficiently above the noise level) may be accurately detected without responding excessively to noise. In addition, an active clamp circuit increases the gain and sensitivity of the circuit by clamping the noise level to approximately a ground state. The circuit is totally insensitive to the interrogation pulse amplitude and relatively insensitive to the interrogation pulse rate.

The present invention generally pertains to transponders and more particularly to circuitry for dynamically adjusting the threshold level of a transponder to detect low power interrogation signals while not responding excessively to noise as a result of temperature variation, aging of components or other environmental conditions.
Transponders must be designed to respond to a wide range of input interrogation levels. At low interrogation power levels, the transponder's threshold must be adjusted to detect interrogation signals while rejecting noise. If a transponder responds to noise instead of interrogation signals, errors are generated in the transponder system. As the error rate increases, transponder performance decreases.
As mentioned above, modern transponders require response to low power interrogation signals. If transponder thresholds are set sufficiently high to insure that they will not respond to noise, these low power interrogation signals may be ignored as well. A high threshold setting will have the affect of reducing the false alarm rate, that is responding to noise instead of interrogation signals, but will decrease the sensitivity of the transponder. Thereby, low threshold settings may substantially raise the false alarm rate for modern transponders since these transponders must respond to low power level interrogation signals. These high threshold settings also reduce the sensitivity of the transponder.
To maintain transponder sensitivity at low threshold settings, the transponder circuitry must be very stable. This invention will minimize variations in the transponder's performance. This stability requirement considerably increases the cost of a transponder.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an adaptive threshold control circuit which reduces the cost and increases the reliability of a transponder while maintaining high sensitivity to low power interrogation signals and disregarding noise.


Mechanisms and techniques allow a host computer system to control memory management techniques within a data storage system. The host computer system can detect a requirement of the computer system to access data in the data storage system and can identify a data access policy based on the requirement of the computer system to access data. The host can then include, within a data access request, a data access policy identifier that corresponds to the identified data access policy. The host then transmits the data access request including the data access policy identifier to the data storage system. The data storage system receives the data access request and selects a data access policy based on the data access policy identifier. The selected data access policy defining a memory management technique to use within the data storage system. The data storage system configures itself to operate according to the memory management technique and services the data access request according to the data access policy.

The rapid growth of information service and data processing industries has resulted in a need for data storage systems to efficiently manage and store large amounts of data. Typically, a data storage system that serves this need includes a plurality of high-capacity high-performance disk drives along with some processing circuitry that can store data to and retrieve data from the disk drives. To achieve high-performance when either storing or retrieving data on behalf of computer systems coupled to the data storage system, some data storage systems include an internal cache memory system that serves as an electronic buffer for data being transferred into (i.e. written) or out of (i.e., read from) the disk drives that operate within the data storage system. Since disk drives are highly mechanical in nature, they provide relatively slow access to data as compared to a cache memory system that is fully electronic. As such, a data storage system can use an internal cache memory system as a high-speed storage area for data for which host computer systems require access.
Certain conventional data storage systems are equipped with logic or processing circuitry that attempts to efficiently utilize an internal memory system such as a cache according to various memory management techniques. Efficient use of a cache memory system is generally preferable because a typical cache memory system is limited in size and is often shared for use by all host computer systems that request access to data within the data storage system. For example, if two host computer systems are coupled to the data storage system and are attempting to concurrently read respective streams of data from the data storage system, the data storage system may use a memory management technique to buffer portions of the stream of data into the cache. One conventional memory management technique that attempts to optimally utilize an internal cache memory system in this manner is called "predictive caching."
Predictive caching can detect a sequence of sequential or related access requests to sequentially located data locations within the data storage system. Upon detecting such a sequence, a predictive caching process in the data storage system can read ahead from a current physical storage location (e.g., from a most recent read operation) and can fill up a portion of the cache memory system with data that the predictive caching process "predicts" will be needed by future read requests. In this manner, predictive caching attempts to use data access pattern recognition techniques such as detecting multiple sequential reads from successively incremental physical disk locations to predict what data will be requested in the future. Based on this prediction, the predictive caching process can then access and cache data before the data storage system actually receives access requests for data.
To illustrate a more specific use of predictive caching, consider a scenario in which a host computer system is performing a sequential file access operation, such as might occur during a backup operation of a large file stored within the data storage system onto a tape. The sequential file access operation operates by reading the entire contents of the file byte by byte from physical data storage locations, starting at the beginning of the file and continuing to the end of the file. Without predictive caching, a data storage system would handle each read operation within the sequential file access operation as a separate and relatively slow access to data within the disk drives in the data storage system. However, a data storage system that uses predictive caching can detect the sequential pattern of data accesses and can read ahead from the current location in the sequence to place data into the cache memory system. Then, for subsequent read operations that occur during the sequential file access operation, the data storage system can attempt to service those read operations faster by using data from the cache memory system instead of having to service each read operation using disk drive processing circuitry that tends to be slower. By detecting access to sequential locations in the disk drives and reading data into the cache memory system before that data is requested, and by servicing future data access requests from the cache using that data, performance of the data storage system using predictive caching is somewhat increased.
Other conventional memory management techniques for use in a data storage system exist as well. For instance, some data storage systems, such as certain data storage systems of the Symmetrix line manufactured by EMC corporation of Hopkinton, Mass., include a cache control software interface which allows an application on a host computer system to externally control caching of data within the internal cache of the data storage system. For example, an application that routinely uses a specific file can include embedded calls to functions that are available within a cache control software interface which can instruct the data storage system to permanently cache the file within its internal cache memory system. In other words, specific cache control commands can be included within the software code of an application program. These commands use a cache control software interface provided by the data storage system to allow the application to specifically control how the data storage system is to perform memory management techniques on behalf of read and write requests (i.e., data access requests) from that application. After operating or executing a cache control call using such a software interface, as the application executes on the host computer system and requests access to the file from the data storage system, the data storage system can provide such access from its internal cache memory system instead of having to service such access requests via access to the disk drives in the data storage system.

Methods and apparatus for controlling access to data in a data storage system


Disclosed herein is a Bi-CMOS IC which includes a semiconductor substrate of one conductivity type, a semiconductor layer of an opposite conductivity type formed on the substrate, a buried region of the opposite conductivity type formed between a first part of the semiconductor layer and the substrate and elongated under a second part of the semiconductor layer to form an elongated buried portion, a bipolar transistor formed in the first part by using the first part as a collector region thereof, a semiconductor region of the one conductivity type formed in the second part in contact with the elongated buried portion separately from the substrate, and an insulated gate transistor formed in the semiconductor region.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an improvement in a semiconductor integrated circuit device including bipolar and CMOS transistors fabricated on a single semiconductor substrate. Such a device is called a Bi-CMOS IC in general.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A Bi-CMOS IC has been widely used recently because it performs logic operations at a high speed with low power consumption. The Bi-CMOS IC requires, however, an element isolation technique as is employed in a bipolar IC. That is, the bipolar and MOS transistors are formed in a semiconductor layer of one conductivity type (for example, an N-type) formed on a semiconductor substrate of the other conductivity type (i.e., a P-type). More specifically, the Bi-CMOS IC includes an N-type epitaxial layer formed on a P-type substrate. The epitaxial layer is divided into a plurality of island regions by a P-type isolation region, and the bipolar transistors, in particular NPN transistors, are formed respectively in the island regions by using each island region as each collector region. In addition to the island region, N-type well regions and P-type well regions are formed selectively in the epitaxial layer. N-channel transistors are formed in the P-well regions and the P-channel transistors are formed in the P-well regions, respectively.
Although no particular isolation region is required to isolate MOS transistors from one another, the P-well regions are formed generally in contact with the substrate. For this region, each P-well region (i.e., the so-called substrate region of each N-channel MOS transistor) is supplied with the same voltage as that supplied to the substrate.
On the other hand, with requirement for high integration and high speed, each MOS transistor is required to be scaled down. The withstand voltage of each MOS transistor is lowered accordingly. Accordingly, it is desired to form each P-well region isolately from the substrate.
For this purpose, it was announced in IEEE international Solid-State Circuits Conference, Digest of Technical Papers, pp. 52-53, 1991 that an N-type buried layer was inserted between the P-well region and the substrate to electrically isolate the P-well region from the substrate.
In such a Bi-CMOS IC, however, the P-well region is required to be formed perfectly within the buried region. An extra margin for alignment between the buired region and the P-well region is thus needed, to reduce the integration density of the Bi-CMOS IC.

Bi-cmos integrated circuit device having buried region use in common for bipolar and mos transistors


Implementations and techniques for asymmetrical chaotic encryption are generally disclosed. One disclosed method for asymmetrical encryption includes determining a ciphertext control block from data, where the ciphertext control block is based at least in part on one or more Chebyshev polynomials. The method also includes encrypting at least a portion of the data into an encrypted ciphertext block, where the encrypted ciphertext block is based at least in part on Logistic Mapping, and in which a final ciphertext includes the encrypted ciphertext block and the ciphertext control block

Chaotic dynamics techniques have been utilized in encryption. Such chaotic dynamics techniques have some features such as sensitive dependence on initial conditions, ergodicity, and/or cycle tending to infinity. Such chaotic dynamics techniques may be utilized to generate pseudo-random numbers under the control of certain parameters. Therefore, chaotic cryptography has aroused extensive attention, and many scholars have proposed their chaotic cryptosystems in recent years. However, some chaotic cryptosystems based on these chaotic dynamics techniques may have relatively lengthy encryption times and/or may produce resultant ciphertext that may be several times longer as compared to an initial plaintext file.


This invention relates to the production of an essentially colorless alkali meal oxide-Al.sub.2 O.sub.3 and/or B.sub.2 O.sub.3 -SiO.sub.2, wherein at least a portion thereof contains silver ions resulting from an ion exchange reaction wherein Ag.sup.+ ions from an external source are exchanged with alkali metal ions in the glass. The amount of exchange can be varied across a portion of the glass to impart a gradient in refractive index thereto. Such technology is especially suited to the optical engineering field, particularly the making of high performance fiber-optic components.

This invention has for a specific objective the production of gradients in the refractive index of glass articles through the use of ion exchange techniques, such technology being applicable to the optical engineering field, particularly the making of high performance fiber optic components.
The current interest in making high performance fiber optic components has led to a resurgence of efforts to further pursue optical engineering technologies. One such technology being developed combines ion exchange techniques with photolithography for integrating optical waveguides in a glass substrate. Optical waveguides can be embedded in a glass substrate to create a wide variety of optical circuits and passive optical functions for devices such as splitters, stars, wavelength division multiplexers, and optical power taps. These functions are readily integrated into a single glass substrate to facilitate component miniaturization and controlled performance.
Such research was presented by Kaps, Karthe, Muller, Possner, and Schreiler in "Glasses for Optoelectronics," ECO Proceedings, Paris, France, Vol. 1128, Apr. 24-27, 1989, wherein a special glass type that is favorable for silver-sodium ion exchange is described. This special glass is used for fabricating channel waveguides and waveguide devices whereby the glass substrate is covered with a metal film. Patterns are generated by photolithography and a wet etching technique using electron beam written masks.
Ion exchange, a technique for producing gradients in the refractive index of glass articles, has been in use since the early sixties. The essence of this method lies in the exchange of ions having different polarizabilities, viz., exchanging one alkali ion for another. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,524,737 and 3,615,322 describe glass strengthening techniques whereby the sodium ion in glass is replaced by potassium and copper ions, respectively. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 3,615,323 describes a similar glass strengthening technique, yet with the sodium ion being replaced by a lithium ion. Modest changes in refractive index are achieved by such exchanges.
Thallium has commonly been chosen over other elements as a doping ion to create regions with a higher refractive index. Large changes in the refractive index of glasses have been achieved by the ion exchange of thallium; however, the use of thallium is limited to some extent by its toxicity. Nevertheless, thallium is the ion most often used today in ion exchange processes in spite of its inherent toxicity problems.
The instant invention discloses a promising alternative to thallium in creating large gradients in the refractive index of silica-based glasses--the exchange of Ag.sup.+. The exchange of silver for an alkali metal produces a change in refractive index comparable to that produced by the thallium exchange, yet without the inherent toxicity problems. The potential advantages of this exchange have not been previously realized because the introduction of more than minimal amounts of silver into a silicate glass by ion-exchange techniques has invariably led to extensive chemical reduction of silver, with attendant increase in attenuation in the optical path. Hence, the intense color which characterizes the formation of colloids when silver is reduced is unacceptable for optical waveguide applications and, indeed, for most optical applications where an essentially colorless, transparent glass is required.
From the studies on silver dissolved in borosilicate glass, particularly in the photochromic glasses, it can be deduced that reduction of silver ions can result from the extraction of electrons intrinsic to the glass network. Furthermore, the relative ease with which this extraction occurs varies strongly with the composition of the glass. Indeed, glasses were found in which no reduction occurred.
Polyvalent impurities such as arsenic or tin can, of course, provide electrons leading to the reduction of a small amount of silver and consequently can cause a small degree of coloration. It is unrealistic, however, to believe that the small levels of impurities typically found in these glasses can be responsible for the considerable coloration observed in alkali silicate glasses upon the introduction of modest amounts of silver. Moreover, scrupulous efforts to exclude polyvalent ions from the glass failed to prevent extensive silver reduction. It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a prescription for making glasses in which the physical properties can be varied within moderately wide limits, but in which the amount of silver reduction does not exceed that caused by polyvalent ion impurities.

Essentially colorless silver-containing glasses through ion exchange


Peptide conjugates in which cytocidal and cytostatic agents, such as polyamine analogs or naphthoquinones, are conjugated to a polypeptide recognized and cleaved by enzymes such as prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and cathepsin B are provided, as well as compositions comprising these conjugates. Methods of using these conjugates in the treatment of prostate diseases are also provided.

Despite advances in early diagnosis, prostate cancer remains a disease with high and increasing annual incidence and mortality. Prostate cancer is now the most frequently diagnosed cancer in men. This cancer is often latent; many men carry prostate cancer cells without overt signs of disease. Autopsies of individuals dying of other causes show prostate cancer cells in 30% of men at age 50; by age 80, the prevalence is 60%. Further, prostate cancer can take up to 10 years to kill the patient after initial diagnosis. Prostate cancer is newly diagnosed in over 180,000 men in the U.S. each year, of which over 39,000 will die of the disease. In early stage cancers, metastasis occurs to lymph nodes. In late stage, metastasis to bone is common and often associated with uncontrollable pain.
In addition to cancer, two other significant diseases of the prostate are BPH and prostatitis. The cost of treating these three diseases is immense. The annual treatment of prostatic diseases in the U.S. requires about 4.4 million physician visits and 850,000 hospitalizations, and costs billions of dollars. Although treatments for prostatic diseases exist, these are generally only partially or temporarily effective and/or produce unacceptable side effects.
Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) causes urinary obstruction, resulting in urinary incontinence. It occurs in almost 80% of men by the age of 80. BPH is often treated surgically with a transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP). This procedure is very common: 500,000 TURPs are performed in the U.S. each year and BPH is the second most common cause of surgery in males. Unfortunately, a side-effect of TURP is the elimination of the ejaculatory ducts and the nerve bundles of the penis, resulting in impotence in 90% of patients.
An alternative therapy for prostate cancer involves radiation therapy. A catheter has been developed which squeezes prostate tissue during microwave irradiation; this increases the therapeutic temperature to which the prostate tissue more distal to the microwave antennae can be heated without excessively heating nearby non-prostate tissue. U.S. Pat. No. 5,007,437. A combination of a radiating energy device integrated with a urinary drainage Foley type catheter has also been developed. U.S. Pat. No. 5,344,435. However, cancerous prostatic cells generally demonstrate a slow growth rate; few cancer cells are actively dividing at any one time. As a result, prostate cancer is generally resistant to radiation therapy.
This slow growth rate also makes prostate cancer resistant to chemotherapy, although several such methods are now in use or in development. Pharmacotherapy for the treatment of BPH is currently aimed at relaxing prostate smooth muscle (alpha1 blockade) and decreasing prostate volume (androgen suppression). Clinical trials have been undertaken to evaluate selective alpha1 blockers, antiandrogens, and 5-alpha reductase inhibitors for the treatment of BPH. Finasteride, a 5-alpha reductase inhibitor, has shown an ability to cause regression of the hyperplastic prostate gland in a majority of patients. Mocellini et. al. (1993) Prostate 22:291; and Marberger (1998) Urology 51:677-86.
Additional therapeutic techniques for prostate cancer include using chemical forms of medical castration by shutting down androgen production in the testes, or directly blocking androgen production in the prostate. For the treatment of prostate cancer oral estrogens and luteinizing releasing hormone analogs are used as well as surgical removal of glands that produce androgens (orchiectomy or adrenalectomy). However, estrogens are no longer recommended because of serious, even lethal, cardiovascular complications. Luteinizing hormone releasing hormone (LHRH) analogs are used instead. However, hormonal therapy invariably fails with time with the development of hormone-resistant tumor cells. Furthermore, since 20% of patients fail to respond to hormonal therapy, it is believed that hormone-resistant cells are present at the onset of therapy.
Estramustine, a steroidal nitrogen mustard derivative, was originally thought to be suitable for targeted drug delivery through conjugation of estrogen to toxic nitrogen mustard. Clinical trials, however, have been disappointing when survival is used as an endpoint. Finasteride, a 4-aza steroid (Proscar® from Merck & Co.), inhibits the enzyme responsible for the intracellular conversion of testosterone to dihydrotestosterone, the most potent androgen in the prostate. Casodex® (bicalutamide, Zeneca, Ltd.), a non-steroidal anti-androgen, is thought to inhibit cellular uptake of testosterone by blocking androgen receptors in the nucleus. However, almost all advanced cancer prostate cells fail to respond to androgen deprivation.
An additional method for treating prostatic diseases involves administration of inhibitors of polyamine synthesis. Dunzendorfer (1985) Urol. Int. 40:241-250. Naturally-produced polyamines include spermidine and spermine and their precursor, diamine putrescine, which are secreted by the prostate gland and are abundant in the seminal fluid. Polyamines are required for cell division, and probably for differentiation. Spermine apparently stabilizes the DNA, which is tightly packed in the heads of sperm cells. Polyamines may be essential for stability of actin filament bundles and microtubules. However, polyamine biosynthesis inhibitors such as alpha-difluoromethylornithine (DFMO) cause toxicities, including severe hearing loss, these toxicities sometimes forcing the cessation of treatment. Splinter et al. (1986) Eur. J. Cancer Clin. Oncol. 22:61-67; and Horn et al. (1987) Eur. J. Cancer Clin. Oncol. 23:1103-1107. Another inhibitor, methylglyoxal-bis-guanylhydrazone (MGBG), caused side effects so extreme that, in one study, drug deaths occurred in over half of treated animals. Dunzendorfer (1985); and Herr et al. (1984) Cancer 53:1294-1298.
A related type of therapy for prostate cancer involves using polyamine analogs, such as DENSPM (N1,N11-diethylnorspermine or BE-333). Mi et al. (1988) Prostate 34:51-60. While the precise role(s) of naturally-produced polyamines have not been clearly defined, interactions with DNA and RNA have been convincingly implicated. Since the nature of these interactions is highly structure-dependent, polyamine analogs have been designed to effectively disrupt polyamine function by competition with naturally-occurring polyamines. Several polyamine analogs have been developed that exert marked inhibition of human tumor cell growth both in culture and in nude mice xenografts. Polyamine analogs such as BE-4444 [1,19-bis(ethylamino)-5,10,15-triazanonadecane], BE-373 [N,N′-bis(3-ethylamino) propyl)-1,7-heptane diamine], and BE-333 are particularly effective in inhibiting prostate xenograft tumors in nude mice. Zagaja et al. (1998) Cancer Chem. Pharm. 41:505-512; Jeffers et al. (1997) Cancer Chem. Pharm. 40:172-179; Feuerstein et al. (1991) J. Cell. Biochem. 46:37-47; and Marton et al. (1995) Ann. Rev. Pharm. Toxicol. 35:55-91. However, polyamine analogs can cause systemic toxicity. BE-333, for example, causes side effects such as headache, nausea and vomiting, unilateral weakness, dysphagia, dysarthria, numbness, paresthesias, and ataxia. Creaven et al. (1997) Invest. New Drugs 15:227-34. In one test, administration of BE-333 caused labored breathing, convulsive movements and acute death in rats. Kanter et al. (1994) Anticancer Drugs 5:448-56. This toxicity limits many polyamine analogs to a small therapeutic window.
None of the above techniques for treating prostate diseases has been universally successful. Following localized therapy, up to 40% of patients with advanced disease, and a large proportion of all patients, eventually develop metastatic disease. Treatment for advanced disease initially involving hormonal manipulations and palliative radiotherapy have demonstrated symptomatic relief, but not long-term disease-free survival. The use of cytotoxic agents in the management of hormone-resistant advanced prostate cancer remains poorly defined. A few single agents have become "standard therapy", although demonstration of their efficacy, by contemporary standards, is lacking. Combinational chemotherapy is frequently employed, although its contribution to overall patient management is largely unsubstantiated, especially when critical assessment of efficacy parameters are used. Newer approaches using chemohormonal therapy and hormonal priming therapies have failed. High-dose chemotherapy with transplant regimens are not well-tolerated in an elderly population, to which most victims of prostate cancer belong. A growth factor inhibitor, suramin, has shown promising initial results, but also many side effects. Allolio et al. (1989) Dtsch. Med. Woschenschr. 114:381-4; and Broder et al. (1985) Lancet 2:627-30. However, no therapy to date has been demonstrated to improve overall survival in patients with advanced hormone refractory prostate cancer.
Approximately one out of every four males above the age of 55 suffers from a prostate disease. Due to the aging U.S. population, the incidence of BPH, prostatitis and prostate cancer is likely to increase and to become an even more severe problem.
It would be advantageous to develop a new treatment of prostate cancer which retains the potency of chemotherapy without being subject to the various side effects and disadvantages of current therapies.
All references cited herein are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.

Polyamine analog conjugates and quinone conjugates as therapies for cancers and prostate diseases


Example embodiments are directed to a bandwidth synchronization circuit and a bandwidth synchronization method. The bandwidth synchronization circuit includes an upsizer and a syncdown unit. The upsizer includes a sync packer and a sync unpacker operating according to a first clock. The syncdown unit is connected to the upsizer and performs a syncdown operation on data of the upsizer in response to a second clock of a frequency lower than a frequency of the first clock.

Example embodiments relate to a data processing system, and more particularly, to a bandwidth synchronization system in mobile systems, for example, smart phones or navigation devices or the like.
In mobile systems such as smart phones, personal navigation devices, portable Internet devices, portable broadcasting devices, and/or multimedia devices, high performance mobile application processors operating at a high frequency are used on a System on Chip (hereinafter, referred to as "SoC") to support various applications.
Since the mobile application processors perform arithmetic operation, logic operations and/or program command execution, the mobile application processors are elements that are resource intensive (for example, memory intensive) and may affect performance of a mobile SoC. The mobile application processors may include an on-chip secondary cache, referred to as an L2 (level 2) cache, to enable integration of various functions such as wireless communication, personal navigation, camera, portable gaming, portable music/video player, unified mobile TV, and/or Personal Digital Assistant (PDA). The L2 cache may increase the performance of the mobile system during instances of high memory utilization by the processor.
For efficient design of the SoC, selection of a bus system for mutual communication between a plurality of Intellectual Properties (IPs) (for example, memories, controllers, drivers, or the like) integrated on one chip is of high importance. A typical example of a bus system is an AMBA 3.0 Advanced eXtensible Interface (AXI) bus system based on AMBA protocol from Advanced RISC Machine (ARM) Inc.
Because of limitations in, for example, development time and manpower, peripheral functional blocks such as Direct Memory Access Controller (DMAC), Universal Serial Bus (USB), Peripheral Component Interconnection (PCI), Static Memory Controller (SMC), and/or Smart Card Interface (SCI) that are parts of SoC may be purchased as separate IPs. These purchased peripheral functional block IPs may then be integrated on a chip along with a Central Processing Unit (CPU) and other data processing functional blocks to constitute the SoC.
With an increase in demand for high performance mobile application processors, the operating frequency of a CPU and a cache controller in a SoC is in the order of several gigahertz (GHz). On the contrary, because the frequency of the bus may not be increased to a level of several GHz, a data bus width wider than that of the CPU is used to satisfy bandwidth requirements. For example, when the data bus width of a CPU having an operating frequency of about 1 GHz is 64-bit, the operating frequency of the bus system may be designed to have an operating frequency of about 200 MHz and a data bus width of about 128-bit.
A syncdown logic and 64-bit to 128-bit upsizer circuit may be connected to a cache controller and may synchronize about 1 GHz to about 200 MHz between a CPU having a 64-bit data bus width and a 1 GHz operating frequency and a bus system having a 128-bit data bus width and a 200 MHz operating frequency.
In this case, a part of a synchronized syncdown point operating at 64-bit 200 MHz has a bandwidth of about 1.6 GBps, which acts as a bandwidth bottleneck compared to a CPU bandwidth of about 8 GBps or an upsizer bandwidth of about 3.2 GBps. Accordingly, performance of a high frequency CPU as well as a high data width bus system may be reduced.
Therefore, a bandwidth synchronization technology is required to improve the system performance by solving the bandwidth bottleneck in a mobile system.

Bandwidth synchronization circuit and bandwidth synchronization method


A power supply disabler that can be retrofitted to a battery-operated device includes a resettable timer, a switch and a pair of electrodes, all of which are fitted in a thin profile case. The case is configures to fit between a pair of series-connected batteries while the batteries are installed in the battery-operated device. When the battery-operated device is turned on, the switch is closed and the timer is reset and started so that power saving device provides a conductive path between the batteries. After a predetermined time period, the timer causes the switch to open-circuit the conductive path, thereby disabling the power supply. Thus, the power supply is prevented from supplying power to the battery-operated device. The timer is reset when the battery-operated device is subsequently turned on for the next use.

The present invention relates to power saving apparatus for use with battery-operated devices and, more particularly, power saving apparatus that can be inserted between series connected batteries within the battery-operated device to disable the power supply.
There are many battery-operated devices that use two or more series-connected batteries. However, many of these battery-operated devices do not have any mechanism for conserving power other than the user turning the device on or off. For example, two xe2x80x9cDxe2x80x9d size batteries are often used in series in a standard flashlight. Once the flashlight is turned on, the flashlight continues to consume power from the batteries until the user turns off the flashlight. One problem is that the user may forget to turn off the flashlight when finished, or the flashlight may be accidentally turned on when stored in a toolbox, drawer, etc. Of course, many other battery-operated devices (e.g., toys, radios, etc.) are susceptible to this problem.
One solution to this problem is to provide a xe2x80x9csmartxe2x80x9d device that can monitor the status of the batteries. For example, many devices have a xe2x80x9csleepxe2x80x9d mode that turns off the device or reduces the power consumption of the device after a predetermined period of time during which the device was not used or had no activity. However, this solution does not address the problem of existing devices that do not have this capability. Accordingly, there is a need for a power saving apparatus that can be easily and inexpensively retrofitted to existing battery-operated devices.
In accordance with aspects of the present invention, a power supply disabler that can be retrofitted to a battery-operated device is provided. In one aspect of the invention, the power supply disabler includes a resettable timer, a switch and a pair of electrodes, all of which are fitted in a thin profile case. The case is configured to fit between a pair of series-connected batteries while the batteries are installed in the battery-operated device. In operation, the power saving apparatus is inserted between a pair of batteries of the battery-operated device. Initially, the timer is turned off and the switch is closed so that the power saving device provides a conductive path between the batteries. When the battery-operated device is turned on, the timer is reset and initiated while the switch maintains the conductive path. After a predetermined time period, the timer causes the switch to open-circuit the conductive path, thereby disabling the power supply. Thus, the power supply is prevented from supplying power to the battery-operated device. In one embodiment, the predetermined time period is about twenty minutes. The timer is reset when the battery-operated device is subsequently turned on for the next use.


An imaging structure such as a mask or reticle may be fabricated using a patterning layer on an imaging layer. The patterning layer may have substantially different etch properties than the imaging layer. A first etch process may be selective of the patterning layer with respect to a resist layer. A second etch process may be selective of the imaging layer with respect to the patterning layer.

Integrated circuits are formed by patterning successive layers on a substrate such as a silicon wafer. Patterns are transferred to the substrate using lithography.
FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary lithography process. Light 105 is incident on a mask 110. Mask 110 includes a chrome layer 112 and a quartz layer 114, where a pattern of the chrome layer 112 is configured to transfer the desired pattern to the surface of a substrate 120 by interacting with a photoresist layer 122 on the surface.
Light 106 incident on chrome layer 112 is substantially reflected and/or absorbed by chrome layer 112. Light 107 incident on quartz layer 114 is substantially transmitted to the surface of a substrate 120.
The transmitted light interacts with photoresist layer 122, and changes the properties of the photoresist. For example, the light may break bonds in the photoresist so that illuminated portions may later be removed, or form bonds in the photoresist so that illuminated portions will not be removed. Substrate 120 with photoresist layer 122 may then be processed further to "develop" the pattern on the surface.
A similar process is used to form mask 110. For example, a photoresist layer is formed on an unprocessed chrome layer, and lithography is used to pattern the chrome layer with the desired features.
Like reference symbols in the various drawings indicate like elements.

Advanced mask patterning with patterning layer


A combustor having bundled tube fuel nozzles is provided. At least one of the fuel nozzles has a dynamics-mitigating adapter removably coupled thereto. The adapter includes a mounting body defining at least one flow passage aligned with an inlet of at least one tube of the at least one fuel nozzle. The at least one flow passage extends an axial length of the at least one tube. The adapter may include extenders aligned with each tube of the fuel nozzle, and the extenders may have identical or different lengths. Adapters may be used for each fuel nozzle of the combustor. The mounting body may be a monolithic unit through which the flow passages are defined or may include a plurality of extenders affixed to and extending upstream of the mounting body.

A gas turbine generally includes a compressor section, a combustion section having a combustor, and a turbine section. The compressor section progressively increases the pressure of the working fluid to supply a compressed working fluid to the combustion section. The compressed working fluid is routed through one or more fuel nozzles that extend axially within a forward, or head, end of the combustor. A fuel is combined with the flow of the compressed working fluid to form a combustible mixture. The combustible mixture is burned within a combustion chamber to generate combustion gases having a high temperature, pressure, and velocity. The combustion chamber is defined by one or more liners or ducts that define a hot gas path through which the combustion gases are conveyed into the turbine section. In a can-annular type combustion system, multiple combustion cans (each having its own fuel nozzle(s) and liner) produce combustion gases that drive the turbine section.
The combustion gases expand as they flow through the turbine section to produce work. For example, expansion of the combustion gases in the turbine section may rotate a shaft connected to a generator to produce electricity. The turbine may also drive the compressor by means of a common shaft or rotor.
In some combustion systems, the fuel nozzles are bundled tube fuel nozzles that include a plurality of parallel mixing tubes within a common shroud or housing. The mixing tubes extend between an upstream plate and a downstream plate, such that a fuel plenum is defined by the housing, the upstream plate, and the downstream plate. The mixing tubes have an inlet defined through the upstream plate, an outlet defined through the downstream plate, and one or more fuel injection ports defined through the mixing tube itself between the upstream plate and the downstream plate. The one or more fuel injection ports is in fluid communication with the fuel plenum, such that fuel from the fuel plenum flows through the one or more fuel injection ports and into the interior of the mixing tubes where the fuel is mixed with air introduced via the tube inlet. The fuel and air mix within the tube, and a fuel/air mixture is delivered through the outlet of the tube and into the combustion zone.
Under some conditions, bundled tube fuel nozzles have exhibited combustion dynamics that are in-phase with the resonant tones of the combustor. Thus, a readily adaptable device for mitigating such combustion dynamics is desirable.

Dynamics-mitigating adapter for bundled tube fuel nozzle


Provided herein are electrochemical cells having improved heat collection and transfer systems. For example, one electrochemical cell includes a drawn can having a blind side and a second side opposite the blind side. The cell also includes a positive terminal disposed in the blind side of the can and electrically coupled to at least one positive electrode disposed within the can and a negative terminal disposed in the blind side of the can and electrically coupled to at least one negative electrode disposed within the can. The cell further includes a base coupled to a substantially flat edge disposed on the second side of the can. A bottom surface of the base is adapted to maintain a substantially flat configuration when coupled to a heat sink.

Vehicles using electric power for all or a portion of their motive power may provide a number of advantages as compared to more traditional gas-powered vehicles using internal combustion engines. For example, vehicles using electric power may produce fewer undesirable emission products and may exhibit greater fuel efficiency as compared to vehicles using internal combustion engines (and, in some cases, such vehicles may eliminate the use of gasoline entirely, such as in certain types of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles). As technology continues to evolve, there is a need to provide improved power sources, such as battery systems or modules, for such vehicles. For example, it is desirable to increase the distance that such vehicles may travel without the need to recharge the batteries. It is also desirable to improve the performance of such batteries and to reduce the cost associated with the battery systems.
The use of newer battery chemistries and the desire to enhance performance of electric vehicles have given rise to new design and engineering challenges. For example, due to the desire to closely monitor and/or regulate the operating temperature of, for example, lithium-ion cells, in order to improve operating cell efficiency, there is a continuing desire to improve the efficiency of heat transfer through the cell. Unfortunately, many current systems continue to experience inefficiencies as heat is transferred through the cells. For instance, many current cells rely on forced convection for regulation of cell temperature due in part to the irregular shaped surfaces of the formed components, which render heat conduction from the base of the cell inefficient. These same irregular shaped surfaces, such as between the base of the cell and the case of the cell, have limited the ability to truly hermetically seal the cell. Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide an improved system for use, for example, in vehicles using electric power, that addresses one or more of these challenges.

Electrochemical cells with improved heat collection and transfer systems


A spirit level including a frame having parallel working surfaces and a web interconnecting the working surfaces. One or more vial openings of regular octagonal configuration are formed in the web. A vial case member having an octagonal wall is selectively positionable in the opening in the web with the vial extending either parallel to or perpendicular to or at an angle of forty-five degrees to the working surfaces. A second vial case member is disposed at the side of the web opposite the first mentioned case member and bonded to the octagonal wall on the case member to hold the case members in assembled relation on the web. A pair of case covers of like configuration are mounted at opposite sides of the web with hook portions on the cover members extending through openings in the web.

Spirit levels have heretofore been made with various different arrangements for mounting the level vial on the web portion of an I-shaped level frame and for orienting the level vial relative to the working surfaces of the frame. In some prior levels such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,311,990; 3,738,015; 3,835,549; and 4,407,075, the level vials are mounted in diametrically opposed notches formed in the periphery of a vial opening in the frame, and vial case members are mounted on opposite sides of the web to retain the vials in the notches. The diametrically opposed notches must be precision formed to ensure that the vial is accurately positioned with respect to the working surfaces of the level body and, when it is desired to make a level in which level vials are mounted at several different angles with respect to the working surface, it is necessary to provide a plurality of pairs of such diametrically opposed notches. In some other prior levels such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,810,206; 3,190,010; 3,593,428; 4,011,660 and 4,492,038, the level vials are mounted on or between a pair of opposed vial case members and the vial case members are attached to opposite sides of the web of the level frame by bolts or screws. Such arrangements usually require some angular adjustment of one or both case members in order to properly position the level vial with respect to the working surfaces of the frame, and this increases the cost of manufacture. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,124,940, one vial case member is provided with ears that extend into notches in the web of a level frame and the level vial is mounted on a second case member that is angularly adjustable relative to the first case member, to enable angular positioning of the vial with respect to the working surfaces of the level, and the case members are thereafter bonded together to hold the level vial in its adjusted position. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,581,828, the web is formed with a square opening and the level vial is mounted on one vial case having four pairs of tabs for engaging the opening in the web at the corners, and four camming posts are provided on the other vial holder to cam the tabs outwardly into engagement with the opening in the web, when the vial case members are drawn together against opposite sides of the web by screws that interconnect the case members.


A communications apparatus includes at least a first processor logic unit obtaining a support band list, a second processor logic unit generating a frequency search list for a first operating band and a frequency search list for a second operating band listed in the support band list, and a third processor logic unit performing power scan and cell search according to the frequency search lists. The frequency search list includes information regarding operating frequencies located in the corresponding operating band to be searched. The second operating band includes one or more operating frequencies overlapped with that of the first operating band, and the one or more operating frequencies of the second operating band overlapped with that of the first operating band is/are listed only in one of the frequency search list for the first operating band and the frequency search list for the second operating band.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to several efficient network search methods, and more particular, to efficient full band network search methods with greatly reduced network search time.
2. Description of the Related Art
The term "wireless" normally refers to an electrical or electronic operation that is accomplished without the use of a "hard wired" connection. "Wireless communications" is the transfer of information over a distance without the use of electrical conductors or wires. The distances involved may be short (a few meters for television remote controls) or very long (thousands or even millions of kilometers for radio communications). The best known example of wireless communications is the cellular telephone. Cellular telephones use radio waves to enable an operator to make phone calls to other parties from many locations world-wide. They can be used anywhere, as long as there is a cellular telephone site to house equipment that can transmit and receive signals, which are processed to transfer both voice and data to and from the cellular telephones.
In order to improve network search performance of a mobile communications device, such as a cellular telephone, a portable electronic device, a tablet computer, or any electronic device that can support wireless communications, several improved methods for full band search are provided.

Methods for performing an efficient network search and communications apparatuses utilizing the same