An ellipsoidal infinite element is used for the modeling of electromagnetic fields in exterior domains surrounding a structure. This infinite element is based on a multipole expansion that describes scattered and/or radiated fields exterior to the structure. The electromagnetic field is represented in the exterior domain by a pair of scalar potentials, referred to as the Debye potentials.

In many of the predictive and analytical problems of theoretical and applied engineering, it is necessary to solve one or more of the equations of physics that describe a physical field. The field variable that is sought may be, for example, a measure of mechanical deformation, acoustic pressure, an electrostatic or electromagnetic potential, or an electromagnetic field intensity.
The equations that describe these and other fields are differential equations, integral equations, or equations that combine aspects of both, which can be solved exactly, if at all, only by the techniques of calculus. Typically, boundary conditions (and also initial conditions, if time evolution is part of the problem to be solved) must be specified in order to provide a complete definition of the problem that is to be solved. In practical situations, these boundary conditions often involve specifying the field variable, its derivatives, functions of either or both of these, or a combination of some or all of the preceding, on complicated two- or three-dimensional surfaces. As a consequence of the complexity of both the governing physical equations and the boundary conditions, most practical problems are too complex to solve by hand calculations.
Numerical modeling techniques are aimed at providing approximate solutions to these equations that can be performed with the help of a digital computer. Many different numerical modeling techniques are available. One such technique, which has proven extremely fruitful in numerous fields of application, is the so-called finite element method (FEM).
As we describe more fully hereafter, the traditional practice of the FEM calls for the spatial region of interest to be subdivided into a plurality of perfectly juxtaposed cells (i.e., cells that are juxtaposed without overlaps or interstitial voids), which are referred to as elements. Discrete nodes are defined on the inter-element boundaries and, typically, also within the element interiors. The network of elements and nodes is referred to as a mesh.
The FEM does not seek an exact solution to the physical field equation. Instead, it assumes that within each element, the field can be described, to an adequate approximation, by a finite linear combination of simple functions, such as polynomials, that are chosen, inter alia, for convenient analytical properties. The coefficients of the respective polynomials in such a linear combination are referred to as degrees of freedom (DOF). The polynomials are normalized in such a way that the DOF are equal to, or otherwise relate to, the values of the field variable at the nodes. Between the nodes, the polynomials interpolate the values of the field variable in a continuous fashion.
The polynomials themselves are known a priori. Therefore, the problem is solved, within a given element, by specifying the values of the DOF for that element. The DOF are not determined directly from the field equation. Instead, a mathematical condition is derived from the field equation. In essence, this condition demands that a certain measure of error (i.e., between the approximate and exact solutions) must be small. Once this condition has been fully defined, it can be expressed as a set of linear equations, in which the unknowns are the DOF. Linear equations are well-suited to be solved by a digital computer, because all that is required is a large number of repetitive, mechanical manipulations of stored quantities.
The linear equations belonging to a given element are not solved in isolation. Instead, the sets of equations belonging to all of the elements are assembled into a single matrix system. Suitable modifications are made to these system equations to account for the boundary conditions. Then the matrix system is solved automatically by standard methods.
Special challenges arise when attempting to obtain a mathematical solution, either exact or approximate, to any problem involving scattering and/or radiation, e.g., of acoustic or electromagnetic waves, from an object located in an unbounded region (that is, in open or free space). The mathematical solution to all such problems must satisfy a so-called "radiation condition" (often known as the Sommerfeld condition, or, in electromagnetism, in acoustics and as the Silver-Muller condition. The condition states that all waves "at infinity" are only traveling outward toward infinity, not inward from infinity. Thus, all the energy in the problem resides in the radiated or scattered waves, which are traveling outward after their interaction with the object; conversely, no energy is created at infinity. Note that the radiation condition is a condition that exists "at infinity," not at a finite distance. Much of the history of computational methods for such problems has been focused on how to obtain approximate, numerical solutions that satisfy the radiation condition to an acceptable accuracy, while not being prohibitively expensive.
We note that the FEM, because of its extraordinary versatility in handling objects of virtually any geometric shape and material properties, is generally the method of choice for modeling the finite part of the problem, i.e., the object and, sometimes, a finite part of the open region surrounding the object. (The Finite Difference Time Domain method is occasionally used for small problems.) The challenge is how to model the remainder of the infinite region, including the radiation condition at infinity. The methods have generally fallen into three classes.
The first class uses boundary integral equation methods (BIEM). Here, an integral equation that satisfies the radiation condition exactly can be applied directly on the outer surface of the object. Its advantage, which seems compelling at first sight, is that the infinite exterior domain is replaced, with no loss in physical approximation, by a (relatively) small surface, which greatly reduces the computational size of the problem. However, it has a severe disadvantage. The matrices in the resulting discretization of the integral equation are fully populated, making the computational cost prohibitively expensive except for only small-scale problems. (Small-scale means the dimensions of the object are small relative to the relevant wavelengths.)
The second class uses exact solutions to the wave equation in open regions, often expressed as infinite series of known functions, e.g., wave functions or multipoles. These are joined to the solutions in the finite region in a manner that approximately establishes continuity along, e.g., a closed boundary surrounding the object. This approach suffers from the same disadvantage as the BIEM, namely, that the resulting discretized equations are fully populated, hence prohibitively expensive.
The third class, which has comprised most of the research in recent years, is to construct an artificial boundary surrounding the object, then apply a so-called absorbing (or non-reflecting) boundary condition (ABC) that will make the boundary appear as transparent as possible to all outward traveling waves, i.e., the radiated or scattered fields. There have been many variations on this approach. The primary advantage here is that the resulting discretized equations have sparse matrices. This property, by itself, would keep the cost low. However, the disadvantage is that all ABCs, which are applied to a boundary at a finite distance, can only be approximations to the exact radiation condition at infinity. As a consequence, spurious (non-realistic) waves are reflected from the artificial boundary, which then propagate throughout the entire finite region, contaminating the solution everywhere. This effect can be mitigated by moving the artificial boundary farther away from the object, but this only increases the size of the finite region and hence the cost.
An alternative to these approaches is the use of so-called infinite elements, which are finite elements that cover a semi-infinite sector of space. (We note that the term "finite" in the name "finite element method" means non-infinitesimal; it does not mean non-infinite. It is therefore semantically correct to say "infinite finite element," as was done in the early 1970s, but it is now universally called an "infinite element."
Infinite elements have been used to great advantage to solve problems in acoustics. Such uses for infinite elements are described, for example, in the article by D. S. Burnett, "A Three-Dimensional Acoustic Infinite Element Based on a Prolate Spheroidal Multipole Expansion," J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 96 (1994) 2798-2816 (BURNETT 1994). Also pertinent in this regard are U.S. Pat. No. 5,604,891 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,604,893, both assigned to the assignee hereof. Also pertinent in this regard is the currently pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/812,472, also assigned to the assignee hereof.
These acoustic infinite elements have been highly acclaimed by leaders in the academic community as well as by commercial code developers because they have exhibited both high accuracy and extraordinary speed of computation (over 400 times faster than other state-of-the-art methods).
To use these infinite elements, one constructs (similar to the third class of methods above) an artificial boundary surrounding the object. However, instead of using ABCs, one constructs a single layer of infinite elements around the entire artificial boundary. This single layer covers the entire infinite region outside the artificial boundary. Most important to the invention is the fact that because each element extends all the way to infinity, the essential radiation condition can now be applied exactly "at" infinity. This is primarily what accounts for the high accuracy of these infinite elements. This high accuracy, in turn, accounts for the extremely high computational speeds because the infinite elements can be placed extraordinarily close to the object (typically less than half a wavelength), resulting in a much smaller finite computational region (than required with ABCs). Below, we describe an electromagnetic infinite element. We are unaware of any prior use of infinite elements in electromagnetism.
A central challenge to developing an EM infinite element is related to the vector nature of EM fields (as opposed to the simpler scalar nature of acoustic fields). Thus, an EM field is characterized by two coupled vector fields, i.e., the electric field and the magnetic field. Although all the classical field theories permit the representation of (scalar or vector) fields as spatial derivatives of potential functions, in the case of EM the only known representation for general applications (i.e., inhomogeneous and/or anisotropic physical properties) involves a vector-valued potential function, known as the vector potential. The lack of a suitable scalar-valued potential has been a deterrent to the development of an EM infinite element.


Methods and apparatus are described which provide secure interactive communication of the text and image information between a central server computer and one or more client computers, located at remote sites for the purpose of storing and retrieving files describing and identifying unique products, services or individuals. Textual information and image data from one or more of the remote sites are stored separately at the location of the central server computer, with the image data being compressed, and the textual information included in a relational database with associated image identifiers. The central computer has the capability for independent management of both image and textual data, to ensure that all information can be independently retrieved. Requests are made from remote terminals to the central server computer, with the capability of processing multiple, simultaneous requests. Upon a request from a remote terminal, textual and associated image data are recalled and downloaded for review. Various forms of data and image formatting may be employed, including encryption techniques to maintain the security of the data. The server computers may be interlaced with other computers, to provide for the capability for entering images associated with financial transactions, so that they may be accessed as permanent records of the system.

Many identification systems are described in the art, and the methodologies of these approaches cover a wide range of techniques. In some cases, a photograph of a subject or his fingerprint pattern is affixed to an identification card, usually as part of a tamper-resistant assembly. In other approaches, various methods are employed for storing image or password information in a magnetic stripe or in an optically encoded image or pattern which is physically part of the identification card. Still other approaches utilize a "smart card" having its own semiconductor memory capability for information storage. Each of these techniques is effective for specific applications, but in each case the security carries a high cost, either in expense for the materials involved, the complexity of the assembly process for the identification card, or the repetitive cost of applying the method to a plurality of individual identification cards utilized for different circumstances. In addition, since a major part of the identification information is carried in the physical identification card itself, it is subject to tampering, alteration, or replication if it falls under the control of an unauthorized user.


Process to separate particles from a particles-containing gas stream, by subjecting the particles-containing gas stream to a centrifugal separation step, wherein the particles-containing gas stream is separated in a gas rich flow and a particles-rich flow and wherein the particles-rich flow is cooled from a temperature in the range from 600 to 800° C. to a temperature in the range from 200 to 450° C. before it is subjected to a second separation step, wherein particles are separated from the particles-rich flow.

Fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) processes and the related plants wherein hydrocarbon feedstocks are catalytically cracked are well known in the art. In FCC processes a preheated hydrocarbonaceous feedstock of a high boiling point range is brought into contact with a hot cracking catalyst in a riser. The feed is cracked into lower boiling products, such as gas, LPG, gasoline, and cycle oils. Furthermore, coke and non-volatile products deposit on the catalyst resulting in a spent catalyst. The riser exits into a separator wherein the spent catalyst is separated from the reaction products. In the next step the spent catalyst is stripped with steam to remove the non-volatile hydrocarbon products from the catalyst. The stripped catalyst is passed to a regenerator in which coke and remaining hydrocarbonaceous materials are combusted and wherein the catalyst is heated to a temperature required for the cracking reactions. Hereafter the hot regenerated catalyst is returned to the riser reactor zone.
FCC regenerators are generally equipped with first and second stage cyclones. These are normally mounted inside the regenerator vessel. In these systems the outlet duct of the first stage cyclone is coupled directly to the inlet duct of the second stage cyclone. An example is given in "Fluid Catalytic Cracking: Technology and Operation", Joseph W. Wilson, PennWell Publishing company, 1997, ISBN 0-87814-710-1, page 183-185. The cyclone separation step results in a gas rich overflow and a solids rich underflow. The solids of the underflow are directed back to the regenerator vessel.
The overflows of these separators are usually collected in a gas collection chamber, and are called regenerator flue gases. The regenerator flue gas still contains fine catalyst particles. From an environmental standpoint it is undesired to discharge this gas untreated. Therefore, third stage separators (TSS) have been utilized for many years to separate catalyst fines from the regenerator flue gas. Several designs are available. The most widely used design is the Shell separator, which was developed by Shell to protect turboexpanders from catalyst particles in the flue gas. The separator consists of a vessel which contains numerous swirl tube separators. These separators are small axial flow cyclones. Flue gas entering the separator tube passes through the swirl vanes which imparts a spinning motion to the gas flow. The resulting forces move the catalyst particles to the tube wall where they are separated from the gas stream. These swirl tube separators and are for example described in "Fluid Catalytic Cracking: Technology and Operation", Joseph W. Wilson, PennWell Publishing company, 1997, ISBN 0-87814-710-1, page 168-170. The separated particles fall through the bottom of the tubes and are collected in the conical bottom of the separator vessel. The separated particles are discharged from the vessel together with a small quantity of the flue gas. This particles-rich flow is also referred to as the TSS underflow. This TSS underflow is then routed to an underflow separator, or a so-called fourth stage separator (FSS). The TSS overflow is routed to the stack.
Although the TSS has been used as an effective device to remove catalyst fines from the regenerator flue gas, emission to stack is also largely influenced by the catalyst loss from the FSS. In the FSS particles are for instance separated by a so-called 4th stage cyclone. The separation results in a gas overflow that is directed to the stack and particles that are generally removed as waste material.
The basic mechanism for particle separation in gas cyclones is that due to circular motion a centrifugal force pulls the particle against the wall, and at the wall the boundary layer carries the separated particle to the dust outlet. In the case of small particles the centrifugal force may be smaller than the drag force of the particles and thus the separation of these particles can be difficult. However, these small particles are often found in the coarse fraction, even when cyclones are not suitable for separating such small particles. Studies have revealed that some small particles may form larger aggregates, or agglomerates, where particles are interlinked in a stable formation. The small particles in the aggregates stick together due to inter-particles forces, e.g. van der Waals forces, electrostatic forces and capillary forces (see for example "Gas Cyclones and Swirl Tubes: principles, design and operation", A. C. Hoffmann and L. E. Stein, Springer, 2002, ISBN 3-540-43326-0 and S. Obermair et al, Powder Technology 156 (2005) 34-42). To optimise the separation of such small particles it is desirable to retain the agglomerates from one separator when they are fed to a further separator. This may be the case in transporting the TSS underflow to the FSS.


Systems and methods for aiding, supplementing, and/or increasing the monitoring capabilities of responsible persons over a supervised person are disclosed herein. In some implementations, the system includes one or more controlling persons, one or more supervising persons, a supervised person, and a cloud server. Each of the controlling persons and the supervising persons can have a personal electronic device. The supervised person can have a wearable electronic device. The electronic devices allow the controlling persons and the supervising persons to actively communicate with the cloud server to upload data related to the supervised person that is accessibly stored in the cloud server. In turn, the wearable device can include one or more sensors to measure and communicate various bioindicators to the cloud server. The system allows the controlling persons to monitor the health of, development of, and/or current control over the supervised person.

The health and safety of our loved ones is an invaluable aspect of daily life. We closely supervise our children's development through their early years and continue to supervise and care for them as they grow older. Then, as our parents and other family members age, we become increasingly reinvolved in their daily lives, care, and wellbeing. For many of us, the supervision of our children, elderly family members, and other loved ones requires the assistance of caregivers to balance the supervision required with busy work schedules and daily life. For example, American families spend upwards of forty billion dollars on childcare in a typical year, with more than half of American families with a child under the age of five paying for some amount of childcare. However, existing systems for monitoring who exactly is supervising our loved ones; whether the supervised person is happy, healthy, and exercised; and/or whether they experienced a significant event (such as a bad fall) while with a caregiver are outdated. For example, caregivers often cannot adequately report to parents whether each child under their supervision experienced anything noteworthy each day, while those daily experiences can have formative impacts on the child's development. Meanwhile, the young child (e.g., infant/toddler) may be incapable of adequately reporting on their daily experiences themselves, especially with respect to their physical, emotional, and mental development. Similarly, it is difficult to understand which caregivers best provide an environment for physical, emotional, cognitive, and/or social development (or maintaining development) to the people under their supervision even when we receive complete information. Further, it is even more difficult to understand how parents, legal guardians, caregivers, and other supervising persons can change their behaviors to help avoid and/or correct underdevelopment and/or deterioration.
The drawings have not necessarily been drawn to scale. Similarly, some components and/or operations can be separated into different blocks or combined into a single block for the purpose of the discussion of some of the implementations of the present technology. Moreover, while the technology is amenable to various modifications and alternative forms, specific implementations have been shown by way of example in the drawings and are described in detail below. The intention, however, is not to limit the technology to the particular implementations described.

Wearable device for monitoring the health and supervision of a supervised person and related systems and methods


The present invention relates to a probe for determining the orientation of electron beams being profiled. To accurately time the location of an electron beam, the probe is designed to accept electrons from only a narrowly defined area. The signal produced from the probe is then used as a timing or triggering fiducial for an operably coupled data acquisition system. Such an arrangement eliminates changes in slit geometry, an additional signal feedthrough in the wall of a welding chamber and a second timing or triggering channel on a data acquisition system. As a result, the present invention improves the accuracy of the resulting data by minimizing the adverse effects of current slit triggering methods so as to accurately reconstruct electron or ion beams.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to beam profiling electron and/or ion beams, and more particularly to a trigger diagnostic and method for determining the orientation of profiled electron beams.
2. State of Technology
Many of the diagnostic methods for measuring the power density distribution in electron beams are variations of the Faraday cup. A version of the Faraday cup diagnostic method can include an electrically conductive trap, which contains and measures a beam current. In order to measure the power density distribution of the beam, modifications to the Faraday cup are required so that only a selected portion of the beam enters the cup at any one time. One type of Faraday cup isolates a portion of the beam by placing a single slit or knife-edge above the Faraday cup while the beam is swept over this slit. This technique measures the beam intensity along the sweep direction and provides a one-dimensional profile of the beam. By maximizing the amplitude of the profile measured through the slit while adjusting the focus, the minimum beam width, which corresponds to the sharpest focus along this direction, can be determined. This technique provides a one-dimensional view of the beam along the sweep direction and is useful for inspecting beams with radial symmetry; however, if the beam is non-circular or has an irregular power distribution, more sophisticated techniques are required to map the power density distribution in the beam.
Pinhole devices have also been used to measure the power distribution of irregularly shaped electron beams. Pinhole measurements are made using a small aperture (<10% of the beam diameter) placed over a Faraday cup. The electron beam sweeps over the pinhole several times at regularly spaced intervals to provide enough information to map the power density distribution in the beam. The drawbacks of this technique are that variations in the side-to-side position of the beam on successive sweeps can lead to errors in the measured power density distribution and that this device has a relatively low signal-to-noise ratio since the pinhole collects only a small percentage of the beam current.
Computed tomography (CT) coupled with a modified Faraday cup (MFC) technique was developed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory as an improvement to the above methods for measuring the power density distribution of electron beams used for welding. The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory device includes a Faraday cup assembly within an electrically insulating ceramic cup, a tungsten disk containing 17 thin radially positioned slits (0.1 mm wide each), and a cylindrical copper heat sink that holds the tungsten disk above the Faraday cup. During operation, the electron beam deflection coils are used to sweep the beam in a circle of known diameter and at a constant frequency over the tungsten slit disk. The majority of the beam current is intercepted by the tungsten disk and is conducted by the copper heat sink to ground. However, when the beam passes over a slit, a portion of the beam current passes through the slit and into the Faraday cup where it can be measured as a voltage drop across a known resistor.
A current versus time profile is collected using a fast sampling analog to digital converter as the beam passes over each slit, wherein each slit provides a profile of the beam at an angle perpendicular to that slit. Such profiles are then compiled and tomographically reconstructed in order to determine the size, shape, and power density distribution of the beam. When defocused, the electron beams are asymmetric in both shape and power density distribution. The beam orientation is currently determined by the positioning of an oversized radial slit on the tungsten disk. Since this one slit is wider than the others, its profile is larger than the others and can be easily identified by the reconstruction software. However, such an oversized slit can adversely affect the reconstruction of the beam, especially in cases in which the width of this slit is no longer small relative to the width of the beam.
Background information for systems and methods of profiling power distributions within an electron beam can be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,300,755, 5,468,966, 5,554,926, 5,382,895 and 5,583,427. Further background information on such diagnostic methods and devices is described by J. W. Elmer et al. in, "Tomographic Imaging of Non-Circular and Irregular Electron Beam Power Density Distributions," Welding Journal 72 (ii), p. 493-s, 1993; A. T. Teruya et al.; "Fast Method for measuring power-density distribution of non-circular and irregular electron beams," Science and Technology of Welding and Joining, 3(2):51 Elmer, J. W. and Teruya A. T.; "An Enhanced Faraday Cup for Rapid Determination of Power Density Distribution in Electron Beams," Welding Journal 80(12), pp. 288-s to 295-s, Elmer, J. W. and Teruya A. T.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved method and system of identifying the orientation of ion /electron beams being profiled. The present invention is directed to such a need.

Trigger probe for determining the orientation of the power distribution of an electron beam

The Regents of the University of California


A communication adapter that includes an RJ45 jack with a plurality of plug interface contacts and an ARJ45 plug including a plurality of plug contacts. The plug interface contacts are in electrical communication with the plug contacts. The RJ45 jack and the ARJ45 plug are connected by a housing.

The IEEE P802.3bq Task Force is currently working on a standard for 40GBASE-T. This standard includes requirements for a wide variety of parameters such as requirements for the PHY to PHY link 100 shown in FIG. 1. A PHY refers to a semiconductor chip in equipment, such as switch, which interfaces to the physical layer, and which transmits and receives data sent over a channel. This PHY to PHY link 100 includes the structured cabling 101 with elements such as a jack 102, horizontal cable 104, and patch cords 106. It also includes elements on the equipment 107 like a medium dependent interface (MDI or jack on the equipment) 108, magnetics on the equipment 110, and circuit board equipment traces 112 connecting the MDI to the magnetics and PHY chip 114. The overall performance of this PHY to PHY link 100 may be critical as better performance in this PHY to PHY link 100 implies that the PHY semiconductor chip 114 consumes less power and is be easier to design and manufacture, minimizing the time to market and maximizing the broad market potential.
The overall PHY to PHY channel performance for parameters like return loss and NEXT is essentially a summation of the structured cabling 101 and the elements on the equipment 107. Whatever PHY to PHY element has the worst performance generally dominates the overall channel performance and make improvements to any other element meaningless. The weakest point in a channel is may be magnetics 110, such as isolation transformers or other similar devices. Magnetics 110 provide port isolation but can cause parameters like return loss to be excessively high.
If it is decided to improve the performance or remove the magnetics, a limiting factor in the channel performance may be the structured cabling channel 101. Currently there are at least two approaches: an RJ45 path using F/UTP cabling and a switchable RJ45 path using S/FTP cabling. U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 13/864,924 and 61/889,723, both of which are herein incorporated by reference in their entirety, show an ARJ45 plug design and a switchable jack design, respectively.
However, if equipment vendors decide to not adopt a switchable connector for the MDI 108 due to reliability or cost concerns, they may choose to adopt the simpler ARJ45 connector which offers the same benefit in performance without the backwards compatibility to RJ45. This may or may not present a compatibility concern depending on how the copper structure cabling solution is deployed.
Switchable RJ45 jacks can work well under a 40GBASE-T End of Row deployment. In this deployment scenario, copper is used to connect servers to a 40GBASE-T access switch. This can be done through switchable RJ45 switch cabinet jacks, horizontal cable, switchable RJ45 server cabinet jacks, and patch cords. In this case, if the servers are 10GBASE-T servers with RJ45 jacks, they can interface to the 40GBASE-T access switch by using Category 6A patch cords as patch cords. If the servers are upgraded to 40GBASE-T with ARJ45 jacks, then it is only necessary to switch patch cords to ARJ45 patch cords.
A Top of Rack deployment is becoming increasingly common within today's data centers, and is a likely deployment scenario for 40GBASE-T. The switchable RJ45 jack may not provide any benefit under a 40GBASE-T Top of Rack deployment. In the case of a Top of Rack deployment, copper patch cords may be used to directly connect servers to a fabric extender (which also can be an access switch). If a 40GBASE-T switch with an ARJ45 jack needs to interface with a 10GBASE-T server with an RJ45 jack, a hybrid patch cord is required with an ARJ45 plug on one end and a RJ45 plug on another end.
Many data center managers do not like having to maintain this extra hybrid patch cord inventory. There are also some concepts that suggest putting a switching RJ45 on the equipment as the MDI which can interface to both RJ45 plugs and ARJ45 plugs; however, this requires support for the MDI manufacturers. These MDI manufacturers may be cost sensitive and reluctant to invest in tooling for a complicated switching jack for which they may have low profit margins.
Therefore, it may be desirable to connect a non-switching ARJ45 jack on switch equipment with a 10GBASE-T port on a server, or other end equipment, using Category 6A RJ45 to RJ45 patch cords.


A note-pad holder with incorporated page mark includes an adjustable Velcro attachment support member for attachment to a hardback book with a compartment for accessories and holding device for a writing utensil.

Many people find that the need for a pen and writing paper can arise frequently as they go about their daily routines particularly when reading. Women can store pens and writing paper in their handbags, but since men do not typically carry handbags, they may find carrying writing materials to sometimes be problematic. Similarly, there are times when a person desires to carry only the minimal or optimal accompaniments along with their reading material. Of course, it can happen that one has either a pen, or paper, but not both in their possession at the time it is required.
A review of the prior art describes several implement holders, but none provide the advantages of the present invention. Many of the prior art devices accommodate only a single pencil or pen. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,072,686 (1991), Falco describes a combination bookmark and pen holder which retains a range of different diameter pens. However, the device does not incorporate means for attachment to a surface, and retains only a single pen. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,564,668 (1971), Kirk describes an apparatus which holds a plurality of pens or pencils within a series of parallel semi-tubular clips. However, the adjacent clips are supported on the outer surface of the book cover and would therefore interfere with carrying the book or with stacking of the book against other books or surfaces. In addition, the clips are susceptible to being bent or broken.
None of the above inventions and patents taken either singly or in combination is seen to describe the instant invention as claimed. Accordingly, it is among the objects of the present invention to provide a novel article and bookmark device which is compact, simple to manufacturer, and economical in cost. Another objective of the present invention is to provide a holder which may be releasibly attached to the cover of a book or other surface. Still another objective is to provide a holder for accommodating a plurality of articles of varied dimensions.

Note-pad holder with incorporated page mark/cover strap and writing utensil holder


Systems and methods for automated accident analysis such as automatic multi-device accident detection and verification, automated multi-device information capture, and automated geospatial and geo-relational digital scene recreation.

Car accidents in the United States average around six million (6 million) per year1 and result in approximately twenty-seven and a half billion dollars ($27.5 billion) in claimed insurance collision losses alone, annually2. With so much liability and insurance exposure at stake, processes for detecting and managing accidents, as well as for reporting and analyzing insurance claims resulting therefrom can be extremely advantageous. Existing on-board crash detection systems assist in expediting the summoning of emergency services to an accident scene, for example, and applications that allow insurance customers to submit digital photos of damage to an insurance company facilitate expedited claims processing. 1 For 2015, estimated at six million two hundred and ninety-six thousand (6,296,000) police-reported traffic crashes by the National Highway Transportation and Safety Administration (NHTSA), U.S. Department of Transportation: https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/812376.2 The Auto Insurance Database Report (2012/2013) published by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, at pg. 176: http://www.naic.org/documents/prod_serv_statistical_aut_pb.pdf.


A system for rehabilitation of a hearing disorder which comprises at least one acoustic sensor for picking up an acoustic signal and converting it into an electrical audio signal, an electronic signal processing unit for audio signal processing and amplification, an electrical power supply unit which supplies individual components of the system with current, and an actuator arrangement which is provided with one or more electroacoustic, electromechanical or purely electrical output-side actuators or any combination of these actuators for stimulation of damaged hearing, wherein the signal processing unit has a speech analysis and recognition module and a speech synthesis module.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a system for rehabilitation of a hearing disorder which comprises at least one sensor which picks up sound, an electronic signal processing unit for audio signal processing and amplification, an electrical power supply unit which supplies individual components of the system with current, and one or more electroacoustic, electromechanical or purely electrical output-side actuators or any combination of these actuators for stimulation of damaged hearing.
2. Description of the Related Art
Hearing systems are defined here as systems in which the acoustic signal is picked up with at least one sensor which converts the acoustic signal into an electrical signal (microphone function), which is electronically further processed and amplified, and whose output-side signal stimulates the damaged hearing acoustically, mechanically or electrically or by some combination of these three forms of physical stimulation.
The expression "hearing disorder" is defined here as all types of inner ear or retro-cochlear damage, combined inner ear and middle ear damage, and also temporary or permanent noise impression (tinnitus).
Conventional hearing aids with output-side acoustic stimulation of damaged hearing, especially of the inner ear, in recent years have undergone major improvements with respect to electronic signal processing which are based especially on use of modern fully digital signal processors. Using these processors and the corresponding signal processing software, the rehabilitation of a hearing disorder can be optimized by refined matching to the individual hearing damage. In particular, for the first time, noise or interfering signal-suppressing algorithms can be implemented which especially take into account the circumstance that mainly those with sensorineural hearing damage have major problems in understanding of speech of individuals when they are in a noisy environment.
In recent years rehabilitation of sensorineural hearing disorders with partially implantable electronic systems has acquired major importance. In particular, this applies to the group of patients in which hearing has completely failed due to accident, illness or other effects or in which hearing is congenitally non-functional. If, in these cases, only the inner ear (cochlea), and not the neural auditory path which leads to the brain, is affected, the remaining auditory nerve can be stimulated with electrical stimulation signals. Thus, a hearing impression can be produced which can lead to speech comprehension. In these so-called cochlear implants (CI), an array of stimulation electrodes, which is controlled by an electronic system (electronic module) is inserted into the cochlea. This electronic module is encapsulated with a hermetical, biocompatible seal and is surgically embedded in the bony area behind the ear (mastoid). The electronic system contains essentially only decoder and driver circuits for the stimulation electrodes. Acoustic sound reception, conversion of this acoustic signal into electrical signals and their further processing, always takes place externally in a so-called speech processor which is worn outside on the body. The speech processor converts the preprocessed signals into a high frequency carrier signal which, via inductive coupling, is transmitted through the closed skin (transcutaneously) to the implant. The sound-receiving microphone is always located outside of the body, and in most applications, in a housing of a behind-the-ear hearing aid worn on the external ear. The microphone is connected to the speech processor by a cable. Such cochlear implant systems, their components, and the principles of transcutaneous signal transmission are described, by way of example, in published European Patent Application EP 0 200 321 A2 and in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,070,535, 4,441,210, 5,626,629, 5,545,219, 5,578,084, 5,800,475, 5,957,958 and 6,038,484. Processes of speech processing and coding in cochlear implants are described, for example, in published European Patent Application EP 0 823 188 A1, in European Patent 0 190 836 A1 and in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,597,380, 5,271,397, 5,095,904, 5,601,617 and 5,603,726.
In addition to rehabilitation of congenitally deaf persons and those who have lost their hearing using cochlear implants, for some time, there have been approaches to offer better rehabilitation than with conventional hearing aids to patients with a sensorineural hearing disorder which cannot be surgically corrected by using partially or totally implantable hearing aids. The principle arises, in most embodiments, in stimulating an ossicle of the middle ear or directly stimulating the inner ear via mechanical or hydromechanical means, and not via the amplified acoustic signal of a conventional hearing aid in which the amplified acoustic signal is supplied to the external auditory canal. The actuator stimulus of these electromechanical systems is accomplished with different physical transducer principles, such as, for example, by electromagnetic and piezoelectric systems. The advantage of these devices is seen mainly in the sound quality which is improved as compared to conventional hearing aids, and for totally implanted systems, in the fact that the hearing prosthesis is not visible.
Such partially and fully implantable electromechanical hearing aids are described, for example, by Yanigahara et al. "Implantable Hearing Aid", Arch Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg-Vol 113, 1987, pp. 869-872; Suzuki et al. "Implantation of Partially Implantable Middle Ear Implant and the Indication", Advances in Audiology, Vol. 4, 160-166, Karger Basel, 1988; H. P. Zenner et al. "First implantations of a totally implantable electronic hearing system for sensorineural hearing loss", in HNO Vol. 46, 1998, pp. 844-852; H. Leysieffer et al. "A totally implantable hearing device for the treatment of sensorineural hearing loss: TICA LZ 3001", HNO Vol. 46, 1998, pp. 853-863; H. P. Zenner et al. "Active electronic hearing implants for patients with conductive and sensorineural hearing loss—a new era of ear surgery", HNO 45: 749-774; H. P. Zenner et al. "Totally implantable hearing device for sensorineural hearing loss", The Lancet Vol. 352, No. 9142, page 1751; and are described in numerous patent documents among others in published European Patent Applications EP 0 263 254 A1, EP 0 400 630 A1, and EP 0 499 940 A1, and in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,557,775, 3,712,962, 3,764,748, 5,411,467, 4,352,960, 4,988,333, 5,015,224, 5,015,225, 5,360,388, 5,772,575, 5,814,095, 5,951,601, 5,977,689 and 5,984,859. Here, the insertion of an electromechanical transducer through an opening in the promontory for direct fluid stimulation in the inner ear is described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,772,575, 5,951,601, 5,977,689 and 5,984,859.
Recently, partially and fully implantable hearing systems for rehabilitation of inner ear damage have been in clinical use. Depending on the physical principle of the output-side electromechanical converter, and especially its coupling type to the ossicle of the middle ear, it happens that the attained results of improving speech understanding can be very different. In addition, for many patients, a sufficient loudness level cannot be reached. This aspect is spectrally very diverse; this can mean that, at medium and high frequencies, for example, the generated loudness is sufficient, but not at low frequencies, or vice versa.
Furthermore the spectral bandwidth which can be transmitted can be limited, thus, for example, to low and medium frequencies for electromagnetic converters and to medium and high frequencies for piezoelectric converters. In addition, nonlinear distortions, which are especially pronounced in electromagnetic converters, can have an adverse effect on the resulting sound quality. The lack of loudness leads especially to the fact that the audiological indication range for implantation of an electromechanical hearing system is very limited. This means that patients, for example, with sensorineural hearing loss of greater than 50 dB HL (hearing loss) in the low tone range can only be inadequately supplied with a piezoelectric system. Conversely, pronounced high tone losses can only be poorly supplied with electromagnetic converters.
Many patients with inner ear damage also suffer from temporary or permanent noise impressions (tinnitus) which cannot be surgically corrected and for which, to date, there are no approved drug treatments. Therefore, so-called tinnitus maskers (International Patent Application Publication WO-A 90/07251, published European Patent Application EP 0 537 385 A1, German Utility Model No. 296 16 956) are known. These devices are small, battery-driven devices which are worn like a hearing aid behind or in the ear and which, by means of artificial sounds which are emitted into the auditory canal, for example, via a hearing aid speaker, psychoacoustically mask the tinnitus, and thus, reduce the disturbing noise impression, if possible, to below the threshold of perception. The artificial sounds are often narrowband noise (for example, third-band noise). The spectral position and the loudness level of the noise can be adjusted via a programming device to enable adaptation to the individual tinnitus situation as optimally as possible. In addition, the so-called retraining method has been developed recently in which, by combination of a mental training program and presentation of broadband sound (noise) near the auditory threshold, the perceptibility of the tinnitus in quiet conditions is likewise supposed to be largely suppressed (H. Knoer "Tinnitus retraining therapy and hearing acoustics" journal "Hoerakustik" February 1997, pages 26 and 27). These devices are also called "noisers".
In the two aforementioned methods for hardware treatment of tinnitus, hearing aid-like, technical devices must be carried visibly outside on the body in the area of the ear; these devices stigmatize the wearer and, therefore, are not willingly worn.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,795,287 describes an implantable tinnitus masker with direct drive of the middle ear, for example, via an electromechanical transducer coupled to the ossicular chain. This directly coupled transducer can preferably be a so-called "Floating Mass Transducer" (FMT). This FMT corresponds to the transducer for implantable hearing aids which is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,624,376.
In commonly owned, co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 09/372,172 and 09/468,860, which are hereby incorporated by reference, implantable systems for treatment of tinnitus by masking and/or noiser functions are described, in which the signal-processing electronic path of a partially or totally implantable hearing system is supplemented by corresponding electronic modules, such that the signals necessary for tinnitus masking or noiser functions can be fed into the signal processing path of the hearing aid function and the pertinent signal parameters can be individually adapted by further electronic measures to the pathological requirements. This adaptability can be accomplished by storing or programming the necessary setting data of the signal generation and feed electronics by using hardware and software in the same physical and logic data storage area of the implant system, and by controlling the feed of the masker or noiser signal into the audio path of the hearing implant via the corresponding electronic actuators.
The above described at least partially implantable hearing systems for rehabilitation of inner ear damage, which are based on an output-side electromechanical transducer, differ from conventional hearing aids essentially only in that the output-side acoustic stimulus (i.e., an amplified acoustic signal in front of the eardrum) is replaced by an amplified mechanical stimulus of the middle ear or inner ear. The acoustic stimulus of a conventional hearing aid ultimately leads to vibratory, i.e., mechanical, stimulation of the inner ear, via mechanical stimulation of the eardrum and the subsequent middle ear. The requirements for effective audio signal preprocessing are fundamentally similar or the same. Furthermore, in both embodiments on the output side a localized vibratory stimulus is ultimately routed to the damaged inner ear (for example, an amplified mechanical vibration of the stapes in the oval window of the inner ear).
Basically, in this routinely used rehabilitation of inner ear damage by active hearing systems (regardless of whether the rehabilitation is by an external acoustic stimulus or by an implanted electromechanical stimulus), at present, there is a major drawback which is described below in summary for understanding of this invention: most cases of sensorineural deafness are based on more or less pronounced damage of the outer hair cells in the inner ear. These outer hair cells, which in large number are located in the organ of Corti along the basilar membrane, form part of the so-called cochlear amplifier which, depending on local excitation of the basilar membrane as a result of traveling wave formation, actively mechanically de-attenuate this local stimulation range at low levels, and thus, small traveling wave amplitudes, which leads to an increase in sensitivity. This active amplification is based on a very complex, efferently controlled process which is not described here. Furthermore, it is assumed that, at very high levels of inner ear stimulation as a result of the high loudness, this effect is reversed in its action, and thus, locally reduces and actively attenuates the traveling wave amplitude. These nonlinear characteristics of the cochlear amplifier, which is located along the organ or Corti in several hundred functional units with locally limited action, are of decisive importance for the function of the healthy inner ear. In partial or total failure of the outer hair cells, in addition to a loss of sensitivity, which leads to a rise in the hearing threshold, other disadvantages arise: the described active de-attenuation of the basilar membrane leads to high Q-factors of the envelopes of the traveling waves (tuning curves) which are essentially responsible for the frequency differentiation capacity (tone pitch differences). If this high quality is lacking due to failure or partial damage of the outer hair cells, the affected individual can perceive tone pitch differences much more poorly. The rise of the hearing threshold leads, moreover, to a reduction of the dynamic range since the upper sensory boundary (discomfort threshold) in labyrinthine deafness does not rise at the same time. This reduction of dynamics results in an increased perception of loudness which is called positive recruitment. The described effects, which are caused by damage or failure of the outer hair cells, lead, in the overall effect for the affected individual, to a reduction in speech comprehension, especially in a noisy environment (summary description in Zenner, H. P.: Hearing, Georg Thieme Verlag Stuttgart, New York, 1994, pages 20-23, 107 and 108, and LePage, E. W., Johnstone, M. B.: "Non-linear mechanical behavior of the basilar membrane in the basal turn of the guinea pig cochlea." Hearing Research 2 (1980), pp. 183-189).
An important consequence of this described mechanism is that, as indicated above, both in conventional acoustic hearing aids and also in partially or fully implantable hearing systems, the important functions of the damaged outer hair cells, and thus, of the cochlear amplifier, cannot be replaced or at least partially restored. U.S. Pat. No. 6,123,660 discloses a converter arrangement for partially or fully implantable hearing aids for direct mechanical excitation of the middle ear or inner ear, which is provided with a piezoelectric converter element and also with an electromagnetic converter which are accommodated in a common housing and the two can be coupled via the same coupling element to the middle ear ossicle or directly to the inner ear. Furthermore, implantable hearing systems are known (U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,997,466 and 6,005,955) which work with two or more output-side electromechanical converters in one or locally separate arrangements. These embodiments are, however, uniquely described in that a system design with more than one converter enables a linear superposition of the deflection frequency responses of the individual converters which, as a result, allows an output-side excitation form of the cochlea which is adjustable or programmable depending specifically on frequency or spectrally optimized as much as possible and thus will lead to a spectrally balanced and sufficient loudness impression of the implant system. Rehabilitation of the cochlear amplifier with the aforementioned features is, however, not possible by these embodiments or described signal preprocessing methods.
In cochlear implants (CI), solely electrical stimulation signals are now used as the actuator stimuli. After implantation of a CI in completely deaf patients, training is generally necessary for rehabilitation of hearing, since the artificial stimuli must be learned, because the artificial stimuli do not fundamentally correspond to thee biologically proper form of stimulation of the inner ear. Conversely, this rehabilitation phase is omitted after implantation of an electromechanical hearing system in those with hearing difficulties since the mechanical form of stimulation is biologically suitable, as described above, and since the mechanical form of stimulation ultimately largely corresponds with a hearing aid at least with respect to the basic function, i.e., the stimulation at the input of the inner ear is of a vibratory nature.
Recently, it has become scientifically known from CI implantations that even for incomplete deafness cochlear implants (CIs) can be successfully used when sufficient speech discrimination can no longer be achieved with a conventional hearing aid. Interestingly, it was demonstrated that the important inner ear structures which enable residual acoustic hearing capacity can be maintained in part or largely stably over time when a CI electrode is inserted into the cochlea (S. Ruh et al.: "Cochlear implant for patients with residual hearing", Laryngo-Rhino-Otol. 76 (1997) pp. 347-350; J. Mueller-Deile et al.: "Cochlear implant supply for non-deaf patients?" Laryngo-Rhino-Otol. 77 (1998) pp. 136-143; E. Lehnhardt: "Intracochlear placement of cochlear implant electrodes in soft surgery technique", HNO 41 (1993), pp. 356-359). In the foreseeable future, it certainly will be possible, in case of residual hearing capacity, to clinically place CI electrodes intracochlearly in a manner such that the remaining inner ear structures can be preserved over the long term, and thus, can continue to be stimulated in a biologically proper manner, i.e., vibrationally, and lead to a usable hearing impression.
Therefore, the recent patent literature contains new approaches to "replacing" the damaged cochlear amplifier by a multichannel intracochlear converter array with a purely mechanical or mixed mechanical/electrical form of stimulation (commonly owned co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 09/833,704, 09/833,642, 09/833,643). Whether these solutions will lead to a clear improvement of speech understanding especially in a noisy environment however cannot yet be foreseen.
Therefore, in all the described processes in currently available systems, there remains the serious defect that especially speech understanding in a noisy environment is greatly reduced. This applies especially in cochlear implants in which, due to a physiologically improper form of electrical stimulation, the patients must more or less learn a new language, the understanding or interpretation of which is of course more prone to interfering signal portions.
Especially in fully implantable hearing systems can this defect be reduced by an optimized microphone position near the eardrum (see published European Patent Applications EP 0 831 673 A2, EP 0 831 674 A1 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,814,095) since, in this way, the natural directional action of the outer ear is used. These directional effects are approached in conventional hearing aids by the suitable wiring of several, locally separate microphones. But these measures are relatively ineffectual when the useful and interfering sound comes from the same direction.
This serious defect can be reduced only to a certain extent by modern digital speech process algorithms with interfering signal reduction. For example, the input signal is divided into several frequency bands. In each band, using simple signal-statistical criteria (for example modulation parameters) it is evaluated whether it is a speech or an interference signal in this band. Bands in which the algorithm detects speech signals are raised in their amplification, conversely bands in which mainly interfering sound predominates are attenuated. It is important here that this process which is frequently used today cannot change the signal-noise ratio in a band and thus cannot improve it. It is common to all the analysis processes used that they use only elementary signal-statistical parameters (for example, amplitude modulation depth and frequency).
Further, it is common to all the described rehabilitation processes that they do analyze, process and amplify the audio signal or speech signal, and in cochlear implants, code it into a new form of stimulation. Transmission of direct speech information in more or less real time is however preserved. This results in that interfering signal portions can also be approximately recognized by analysis processes and reduced. Genuine separation of speech and noise information however does not occur.

System for rehabilitation of a hearing disorder


A unitarily formed diverter valve assembly for use in liquid chromatography. The valve assembly comprises a plurality of inlet and outlet ports, diverter valve systems, chambers, and a tortuous network of passageways all of which are arranged to accommodate the flow of fluids in a liquid chromatography system. The valve assembly is configured so as to direct the flow of fluid coming from an inlet port through the valve body where it can then be reversibly directed into or out of a chromatography column. On returning from the column, the fluid reenters the valve assembly where it is directed to an outlet port in order to exit the system. The valve assembly can also be configured so as to bypass the column altogether. Since the entire valve assembly is machined out of a single block of material having smooth liquid passageways, and since all flow compartments are shared and fully flushed when a flow-through valve is opened, dead-legs are virtually eliminated from the system.

Only about 15% of the known compounds lend themselves to analysis by gas chromatography owing to insufficient volatility or thermal instability. Liquid column chromatography, on the other hand, does not have these limitations. The interchange or combination of solvents can provide special selectivity effects that are absent when the mobile phase is a gas. Ionic compounds, labile naturally occurring compounds, polymers, and high molecular weight polyfunctional compounds are conveniently analyzed by liquid chromatography. While liquid flow in traditional liquid chromatography was achieved by gravity, modern liquid column chromatography uses high pressure pumps with relatively short narrow-bore columns containing small particles of packing.
One of the most important parts in a liquid chromatography setup is the solvent delivery system. Such a system must be able to precisely deliver a solvent (or a mixture of different solvents) over a relatively broad flow range. Sampling valves are essential components of this solvent delivery system, allowing the sample to be reproducibly introduced into the column without significant interruption of the flow. Sampling valves are also used for connecting and disconnecting the chromatography column to the process piping (e.g., for flushing purposes).
An exemplary prior art liquid chromatography valve setup is schematically depicted in FIGS. 1A-1D. FIG. 1A shows a valve assembly 10 comprising valves 12a, 12b, 14a, 14b, 16a, and 16b. Liquid enters the system from the entrance process piping 20 and can be directed through the valve assembly 10 by controlling the afore-mentioned valves as will be later explained. The system gives the user the flexibility to have the product fluid flow through a chromatography column (not shown) in a forward (FIG. 1B) or reverse (FIG. 1C) direction, or the product fluid can be made to completely bypass the column (FIG. 1D). Liquid leaves the valve assembly through the exit process piping 22.
Fluid can flow through the prior art valve assembly 10 depicted in FIG. 1A in any one of the three directions depicted in FIGS. 1B-1D. The fluid flow is represented by arrows 25 in these figures. In FIG. 1B, which represents the forward product flow through the column, valve 14a is opened allowing the fluid to flow from the process piping into the valve assembly 10. Valve 16a is also opened allowing the fluid to flow into the chromatography column (not shown). The fluid returns from the chromatography column passing through valve 16b and reentering the valve assembly. The fluid leaves the valve assembly passing through valve 14b on its path back to the process piping. Valves 12a and 12b remain closed during this process. According to the reverse process flow depicted in FIG. 1C, fluid entering the valve assembly 10 from the process piping can flow through valves 12a and 16b into the column, returning from the column through valve 16a, and exiting the valve assembly through valve 12a back through the process piping. Valves 14a and 14b remain closed during this process. The column may be bypassed altogether according to the process flow depicted in FIG. 1D, where the liquid entering into the valve assembly from the process piping encounters opened valves 12a, 14a, 12b and 14b, exiting the valve assembly without entering the chromatography column which remains inaccessible by closing valves 16a and 16b.
Prior art liquid chromatography valve assemblies like the one described above are typically fabricated using either six independent valves or two two-way diverter valves with two independent valves, connected either by sanitary tri-clams or welded to tee fittings. The problem encountered with these systems, which is especially prevalent in those using the tee fittings, is the existence of dead-legs. Dead-legs are areas of liquid that have become trapped in the valve assembly when the flow of liquid in a particular branch of the system is halted. In dead-legs, fluid can stagnate causing contaminants to accumulate or micro-organisms to grow. This presents a serious problem in liquid chromatography where such contaminants can adversely affect the results of a particular analysis. Hence the need for a diverter type valve assembly in which all flow compartments are shared and fully flushed when a flow through valve is opened clearly exists.
Diverter valves are not particularly new, and, in fact, the prior art includes many examples of different types of these valves. An example of such a valve is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,273,075 to R. A. Skaer entitled DIVERTER VALVE. The valve described in this patent comprises a diaphragm type valve with a single inlet port and two outlet ports, and is set up such that the flow of fluids can be directed from the inlet port to one or the other outlet ports. The valve operates by closing a diaphragm against an edge or weir of a partition with the valve housing which prohibits fluid flow to the one port while accommodating flow to the other port. This specific diverter valve is made for use with systems that require only a single inlet port and no more than two outlet ports, and hence, such a valve system would not accommodate the intricate plumbing necessary to operate a liquid chromatography system. Moreover, the valve assembly described above requires specialized components, including a specific housing that itself is the subject of a U.S. patent (U.S. Pat. No. 5,427,150 to Skaer et al. Entitled HOUSING FOR A DIVERTER VALVE).
The problem with most prior art diverter valve assemblies revolves around the fact that they are not manufactured out of a single block of material. These valve assemblies are therefore relatively expensive to manufacture, and are, in general, difficult to clean in place due to the dead-legs present when tee fittings are used in them. When these valves are fully assembled, they also take up a large volume in space requiring more installation volume. Since it is the object of most bio technology and pharmaceutical firms to minimize dead-legs and to make process piping and valve assemblies as compact as possible, a new valve assembly which ameliorates these difficulties is sorely needed.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a compact unitarily formed diverter type valve system for use in liquid chromatography in which dead-legs between the valves are eliminated and in which the installation space needed for the system is minimized.


A method of processing page description data for printing on a printing device having a print engine for printing on an output media. The method includes receiving page description data comprising objects to be placed on the output media where each object has a position on the output media. An area to be printed on the output media is divided into a first and subsequent bands. The objects are interpreted one object at a time to produce display list data. When all objects that intersect the first band have been interpreted, display list data for the first band is rendered without regard to whether objects or portions of objects in subsequent bands have been interpreted.

The invention relates generally to methods and systems for printing computer-generated images and more particularly to a method and apparatus for accelerating the process of printing a sheet on a output display device.
A computer system can output data to a wide variety of output display devices. Output display devices such as laser printers, plotters, imagesetters, and other printing devices produce an image or "visual representation" on a sheet of paper, a printing plate or the like. A printing device can print dots on a piece of paper corresponding to the information of a bitmap or pixelmap (where a pixelmap is characterized as having a depth of two or more bits). A "raster" printing device creates a visual representation by printing an array of pixels arranged in rows and columns from the bitmap.
One type of printing device is a printing press. A printing press may be used to produce books, newspapers, pamphlets, posters and other single and multi-page printed matter. The printing press advantageously prints multiple pages of printed matter at the same time onto a single sheet. Other devices used for printing multiple pages at the same time include imagesetters and plate setters.
When printing multiple pages, the individual pages are arranged in one or more sheets. Each sheet includes a layout of pages that may be ordered or otherwise optimized to facilitate post-printing processes. For example, the layout of the sheet may be arranged such that individual pages are in sequence when folding occurs.
Printing devices that produce output in response to page description language input are widely used. A page description language (PDL) is a high level language for describing objects to be displayed by an output device. A printing device may receive page description data in the form of a PDL file. In order to produce a finished sheet, a printing device typically interprets all of the objects contained in the PDL file. Thereafter, the printing device renders objects within the data into bitmaps and prints the sheet. Depending on the printing device, printing of a band may begin as soon as the objects within that band are rendered or printing may not begin until all of the objects for the sheet have been rendered.
Imposition is a process of arranging the pages for a sheet to achieve a proper sequence or position of each page relative to other pages. Imposition is performed to facilitate post-printing processes including fold and cut operations and binding. Conventional imposition processes are executed on a computer workstation prior to the printing process. A conventional imposition process operates on one or more PDL files or image data files and layout information for a given sheet. The PDL files are representative of the various pages (or sub-pages) of content to be displayed on a given sheet. The layout information describes how the pages are to be arranged to achieve the desired output result. The output of an imposition process is generally of the form of a single PDL file that includes all the data required (including external references, if any) for a printing device to print the sheet.

In-RIP sorting of objects in the slow scan direction


A mobile communication terminal allows a user to receive broadcast programming. A separate recording unit, which can be remote from the communication terminal, records that programming. One or more signals from the mobile terminal identify the broadcast frequency to which the mobile terminal is tuned and cause the recording unit to tune to the identified broadcast frequency. The signals from the mobile terminal also cause the recording unit to record at least a portion of a program being broadcast on the frequency to which the mobile terminal is tuned. The recording unit may buffer portions of broadcast programming being received on the identified frequency. A portion of the buffer contents can subsequently be transmitted to the mobile terminal, permitting the terminal user to replay the portion and identify a start point for the broadcast program. A signal from the mobile terminal can also cause the recording unit to automatically identify the start point in the buffer contents. After the start point is identified by the user or automatically by the recording unit, the recording unit is able to record substantially an entire broadcast program that is identified by the user after the program begins.

Mobile communication devices have become an important part of modern life. Originally, many such terminals only offered wireless telephone service (e.g., a cellular telephone). Increasingly, however, such mobile communication devices are being equipped with a wide variety of features, including games, Internet access, e-mail and other types of services and features. One such feature is the ability to receive broadcast programming such as, e.g., music or other audio information. For example, many mobile terminals are now equipped with an AM/FM radio receiver. A mobile terminal user is thereby able to listen to music, news or other conventional broadcast programming with his or her wireless telephone or other type of mobile terminal.
Although this represents an added convenience for a mobile terminal user, new challenges are presented. One such challenge involves recording a portion of a broadcast. For example, a user may hear a song broadcast by an FM radio station and wish to record the song. However, the primary functions of a mobile terminal (e.g., two-way communication) may require that significant portions of its hardware be dedicated to other uses. The terminal may thus have limited memory and other resources to use for recording. As a general rule, it is also desirable to minimize the size of a mobile terminal so as to enhance its portability and convenience. Without increasing the size of the device, it can be difficult to add significant recording ability to the terminal. Moreover, the quality of audio reception by a mobile terminal can be less than that of a more conventional AM/FM radio. While the decreased audio quality may be acceptable when listening to live programming, the recording process may further degrade the audio quality.
Recording a broadcast program presents other challenges that are not necessarily unique to mobile terminals. Often, a person may not wish to record a song or other broadcast until it has already begun. A person may begin listening to a song, and subsequently decide that he or she would like to record it. Although the person could commence recording at that point, he or she would not be able to record the entire song.
In light of these and other challenges, there remains a need for improved systems and methods for recording broadcasts received on a wireless telephone or other mobile communication terminal.


Ophthalmic lenses, such as corneal contact lenses, include a lens body made of a composition including a lens body made of a composition including a first crosslinked polymer material which is water swellable, and a second polymeric material, other than the first material, selected from water soluble polymeric materials, water swellable polymeric materials and mixtures thereof. The second material is physically immobilized by the first material. Such lenses provide increased water retention and/or increased water content and/or increased modulus and/or reduced friction which increases lens wearer comfort. Compositions and methods for providing such lenses and compositions are also provided.

The present invention relates to ophthalmic lenses, compositions useful for inclusion in such lenses, and methods for producing such lenses and compositions. More particularly, the invention relates to polymeric ophthalmic lenses, such as corneal contact lenses and the like, polymeric compositions useful included in ophthalmic lenses and methods for producing such lenses and compositions.
Hydrophilic lenses, such as corneal contact lenses, are often formed from covalently cross-linked polymers based on hydrophilic derivatives of acrylic or methacrylic acid, hydrophilic vinylic monomers such as vinylpyrrolidone, and the like. When hydrated, these hydrophilic cross-linked polymers can be referred to as hydrogels and include relatively large quantities of water without dissolving. Such polymers may include minor amounts of polymeric units derived from less hydrophilic, or even hydrophobic, monomers to confer mechanical strength and other useful properties.
Although conventional hydrophilic polymer or hydrogel lenses are useful and effective, some problems do present themselves, from time to time. For example, conventional hydrophilic contact lenses, particularly after long periods of in-the-eye use, do have a tendency to lose water content. Reduction in water content tends to detrimentally affect the physical structure and/or optical properties of the lens. This reduction in water content can lead to lens wearer discomfort and even to actual irritation or other damage to the eye. In addition, such conventional lenses may lose lubricity or exhibit relatively large amounts of friction with the corneal surface, which also can cause lens wearer discomfort and/or eye irritation and the like. Such reduced lens water content and/or reduced lubricity can result in the lens wearer perceiving that his/her eye is dry. Such "dry eye" phenomenon can be overcome through the use of eye drops and/or lubricants. However, it would be advantageous to reduce or even substantially eliminate these problems without the need for eye drops or separate lubricants.
In short, there is a continued need for enhanced ophthalmic lenses, e.g., corneal contact lenses, enhanced materials of construction for such lenses and enhanced methods for producing such lenses and materials.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Ophthalmic lenses and compositions and methods for producing same


A pressure relief valve for releasing fluid through a vent in a railway tank car, tank trucks and similar vessels. A valve disk is normally biased in a closed position by a plurality of constant-force springs of laminated steel tapes on drums supported on upright angle brackets symmetrically arranged around a valve seat. The pressure at which the valve opens is determined by a preselection of the number of springs, laminated tapes per spring, and the restoring force of each tape.

Certain liquids and gases transported in railway tank cars or tank trucks are particularly hazardous and at elevated temperatures may expand within the tank and increase the internal pressure to a dangerous level. Government regulatory agencies therefore require operators of these vehicles to install safety pressure relief valves which are set to open automatically above a specified pressure level and vent at a specified rate of discharge.
Presently employed pressure relief valves are generally biased to the closed position such as by a coil spring or a constant-force spring. Coil spring valves usually require the pressure in the tank to continue to increase beyond the initial opening pressure in order to reach the maximum venting capacity. The constant-force spring valves, on the other hand, have the advantage of opening to a maximum venting capacity instantly at the initial opening pressure without any further increase in pressure. Notwithstanding this advantage, size, complexity and cost of the constant-force spring valve have mitigated their general acceptance in the industry. Space restrictions and design constraints also limit the number of springs to only a few making the valve more difficult to "tune" for a precise initial opening pressure, or to maintain the valve element aligned with the valve seat for positive closure.

Tank transport pressure relief valve assembly

P.O. Box 336 - 1204 Meetinghouse Rd, Apartment S9


A toner including toner particles including a binder resin, and a colorant, and an external additive present on a surface of the toner particles, wherein the external additive includes a silica having an average primary particle diameter of from 100 to 500 nm and a BET specific surface area of from 800 to 1000 m2/g. An image forming method including forming an electrostatic image on an image bearing member; developing the electrostatic image with the toner to form a toner image; and transferring the toner image on to a receiving material. An image forming apparatus including an image bearing member bearing an electrostatic image; a developing device developing an electrostatic image with the toner to form a toner image on the image bearing member; a transfer device transferring the toner image to a receiving material; and a fixing device fixing the toner image on the receiving material.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a toner for developing an electrostatic image. In addition, the present invention also relates to an image forming method, an image forming apparatus and a process cartridge using the toner.
2. Discussion of the Background
Electrophotographic image forming methods typically include the following processes:    (1) charging an image bearing member such as photoreceptors (charging process);    (2) irradiating the charged image bearing member with imagewise light to prepare an electrostatic latent image on the image bearing member (light irradiating process);    (3) developing the electrostatic latent image with a developer including a toner to prepare a toner image on the image bearing member (developing process);    (4) transferring the toner image onto a receiving material such as sheets of paper optionally via an intermediate transfer medium (transfer process); and    (5) fixing the toner image on the receiving material upon application of heat and pressure thereto (fixing process).
Dry developing methods for use in developing an electrostatic latent image are broadly classified into two component developing methods using a two component developer including a toner and a carrier, and one component developing methods using a one component developer including a toner and no carrier. Two component developing methods have an advantage in that images with relatively good image qualities can be produced but have drawbacks in that image qualities change after long repeated use due to deterioration of charging ability of the carrier, change of the ratio (T/C) of the toner (T) to the carrier (C) in a developer, etc.; it is troublesome to control the ratio (T/C) in a developing device; and the image forming apparatus becomes large in size. Therefore, recently one component developing methods, which do not have the above-mentioned drawbacks, attract attention.
In one component developing methods, a toner (i.e., a developer) is typically fed by at least one developing roller to a developing region at which the developing roller faces an image bearing member bearing an electrostatic latent image thereon. The electrostatic latent image is developed with the thus fed toner at the developing region, resulting in formation of a toner image on the image bearing member. In this regard, the toner layer formed on the developing roller is preferably as thin as possible. In particular, when a one component developer (i.e., toner) with a high electric resistance is used, the toner has to be charged in the developing device. Therefore, the toner layer formed on the developing roller has to be extremely thin.
If a strong mechanical stress is applied to the toner in such a thin toner layer forming process, problems in that the external additive of the toner is released from and/or embedded into toner particles of the toner after repeated image formation operations occur, and the surface of the developing roller changes its property or is abraded occur. In these cases, charging properties and fluidity of the toner change, and feeding properties of the toner on the surface of the developing roller change, thereby forming images with low image density or uneven image density and images having streaks.
In addition, when an external additive on toner particles is released therefrom or embedded thereinto, problems in that the toner is adhered to image forming members such as contact chargers tend to be caused. In attempting to solve the above-mentioned problems (releasing and embedding of an external additive, and application of strong stress to toner particles, developing rollers and image bearing members) on the toner side, toners including a porous material as an external additive or an internal additive have been proposed recently.
For example, published unexamined Japanese patent application No. (hereinafter referred to as JP-A) 08-137130 discloses a toner including toner particles including a resin having a low softening point as a main component, and a small particulate hollow or porous resin material covering the toner particles. It is described therein that the purpose thereof is to impart a good combination of fixability and durability to the toner. However, as a result of the present inventors' experiments, it is found that the toner particles cannot be fully covered with the particulate hollow or porous resin material when they are mixed using a hybridizer, and therefore the desired effects cannot be fully produced (specifically, the toner has poor durability).
JP-A 06-148931 discloses a toner including a mixture of toner particles and an agent (such as porous carbon) capable of absorbing toxic materials. It is described therein that the toxic material absorbing agent can efficiently absorb ozone adhered to the surface of an image bearing member, and thereby the life of the image bearing member can be prolonged. However, the method for mixing the toner particles with the absorbing agent is not described therein. As a result of the present inventors' experiments, it is found that the particle diameter of the absorbing agent has to be considerably large to absorb ozone. In such a case, the adhesiveness of the absorbing agent to the toner particles is weak, and thereby defective images (such as images with white spots) are formed.
Japanese patent No. 3592501 (i.e., JP-A 11-109824) discloses a technique in that a particulate porous material such as crosslinked polymers having elasticity (e.g., crosslinked polymethyl methacrylate) is supplied to the surface of an image bearing member to reduce the mechanical stresses applied to the toner particles and the developing roller.
JP-A 11-327303 discloses techniques in that an abrasion reducing agent (such as fluorine-containing materials) is included in a toner as an internal or external additive or is coated on the surface of carrier particles; and a porous material (such as molecular sieves (e.g., zeolite)) including such an abrasion reducing agent is used for a toner to reduce abrasion of the image bearing member used. The details (such as specific surface area and particle diameter) of the porous material are not described therein.
JP-A 02-171759 discloses a toner including a porous material having an internal specific surface area of not less than 500 m2/g and JP-A 2000-29237 discloses a technique in that a porous material is added to a developer before the developer starts to be used, to eliminate odor. In order to produce such effect, the porous material has to have a large particle diameter. In that case, the adhesiveness of the porous material to toner particles is low, and thereby defective images (such as white spot images) tend to be formed.
JP-A 2005-17660 discloses a toner including a ring-form polyolefin resin serving as a binder resin (substitute for a polyester resin) and a porous silica with a specific surface area of from 500 to 700 m2/g which serves as an internal additive and which is added to improve the fixability and transparency of the toner. However, the porous silica cannot prevent occurrence of the problems in that the external additive is released from or embedded into toner particles of the toner after repeated image forming operations, and the surface of the developing roller changes its property or is abraded.
Japanese patent No. 2752410 (i.e., JP-A 02-221964) discloses a toner including a porous material, which has a primary particle diameter of from 2 to 15 μm and into which a silicone oil penetrates, to impart good offset resistance to the toner. However, the toner has insufficient charge properties. In addition, Japanese patent No. 3604267 (i.e., JP-A 11-184140) discloses a toner including a particulate inorganic material serving as an external additive which has a porous structure or a high-order structure and includes a release agent in the spaces in the structure, to impart good offset resistance to the toner.
JP-A 2005-241670 discloses a toner including as an external additive a porous titanium oxide having a BET specific surface area of not less than 90 m2/g so that the external additive is hardly released from toner particles and can be easily removed by cleaning even if released from toner particles, resulting in prevention of occurrence of a background development problem. As a result of the present inventors' experiments, it is found that the exemplified porous titanium oxide, which has a specific surface area of from 90 to 100 m2/g, cannot prevent occurrence of the problems in that the external additive is released from or embedded into toner particles of the toner after repeated image forming operations, and the surface of the developing roller changes its property or is abraded.
Because of these reasons, a need exists for a toner which can maintain a good combination of charging property and fluidity and has a long life without being adhered to image forming members (such as chargers) and without damaging the image forming members because the external additive thereof is hardly released from or embedded into toner particles thereof.

Toner for developing electrostatic image, and image forming method and apparatus and process cartridge using the toner


A method, a computer program product, and a computer system identifies a last person of a queue. The method includes receiving an image of the queue where the image includes a plurality of individuals comprising the queue. The method includes determining positions and facing directions of the individuals comprising the queue. The method includes identifying the last person of the queue based on a vector field analysis according to the positions and the facing directions of the individuals comprising the queue. The method includes generating instructions to join the queue based on the identified last person of the queue. The instructions include a modified image indicating the last person of the queue in the image.

The exemplary embodiments relate generally to queues, and more particularly to processing individuals lined up in a queue to identify a last person standing in a given queue.
A queue may form when a surplus of individuals arrives at a destination within a period of time that does not allow at least a portion of the surplus of individuals from being serviced. As more individuals comprise the surplus, a length of the queue may increase. As a queue grows in length, new arrivals at the destination may be unfamiliar with where the queue begins and where the queue ends, particularly when the queue is formed in an illogical manner at first glance. As forming and joining a queue is a relatively important social behavior, identifying the last person in the queue is necessary for various applications that require following social norms such as guiding applications for sight impaired individuals to join the queue after the current last person in the queue. A new arrival utilizing a map application may also arrive at the destination only to be met by the queue where the last person in the queue may be a significant distance away from the destination.

International Business Machines Corporation


A method of providing redundancy in a ternary content addressable memory (TCAM), the method including detecting a defective entry in building block in a ternary content addressable memory (TCAM), configuring a failover logic to redirect a software query toward a spare building block and away from the building block with the defective entry, and avoiding in using the building block with the defective entry.

In an integrated circuit (IC) chip, it is a common current practice to include RAMs (random access memories) on the chip, and large sized RAMs would be implemented with redundant columns and rows. Defects are common in IC chips, and a defect may cause a RAM in the chip to not function properly. If redundancies are not implemented on large sized RAMs, the yield will be very low for the chip parts. The redundant rows and columns for RAMs permit the yield for the chip parts to dramatically increase. For example, redundancies for a chip can increase the yield by as much as approximately 50% or more. Increased yield leads to much lower manufacturing cost for chips. Therefore, it is a common practice to implement redundancies in IC chips.
Defective locations also occur in a TCAM (ternary content addressable memory) and also in CAMs. As known to those skilled in the art, a CAM is a type of memory that provides a mechanism for fast searching of the memory contents. A CAM is externally supplied with data, and searches are made within the contents of the CAM for a match with the externally-supplied input data. The address(es) where a match occurs are output by a comparison logic in the CAM. As also known to those skilled in the art, a TCAM is a form of the CAM that supports the storing of zero (0), one (1), or don't care (X) bits. A TCAM cell (in the TCAM) includes a main RAM cell to store a logic "1" state or a logic "0" state, and a mask RAM cell to store mask data. A comparison result of the externally supplied input data with the data stored in the main RAM cell is masked with the mask data such that the comparison result of the masked data bits does not affect a corresponding match. Therefore, the TCAM offers more flexibility to determine which data bits in a word will be masked and is not used during a compare operation.
The TCAM is presently the dominant type of CAM since the longest-prefix routing is a common requirement in networking products such as, for example, routers. For example, TCAMs are used for address searching by routers in a network. As another example, TCAMs are used for access control lists (ACLs) which are typically used for security applications. As known to those skilled in the art, TCAMs and CAMs may be used in different applications.
Defects in a TCAM can decrease the yield of parts and can increase the part cost. Current methods do not address on solving the negative impact on yield due to defects in TCAMs. Additionally, TCAMs and RAMs differ in attributes and characteristics, and therefore, the particular method of implementing redundancies in a RAM may not be a suitable for a TCAM. It would be desirable to achieve higher yield of parts that may have TCAM defects with the addition of redundancy. It would also be desirable to add redundancy to a TCAM at a much lower cost.
Therefore, the current technology is limited in its capabilities and suffers from at least the above constraints and deficiencies.

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.