An apparatus for analysing a head CT scan, where the head CT scan includes a plurality of cross-sections, includes a processor configured to select a first cross-section from among the plurality of cross-sections in the head CT scan; and analyse the first cross-section to determine whether the whole head CT scan was taken with contrast. The analyzing includes determining whether the first cross-section shows contrast, based on a presence of bright patches in the first cross-section, determining whether an amount of sulci in the first cross-section is below a threshold amount. In response to determining that the first cross-section shows contrast, determine that the whole head CT scan was taken with contrast, and in response to the determining that the first cross-section does not show contrast and that the amount of sulci is below the threshold amount determining that the whole head CT scan was taken without contrast.

CT scanners take a plurality of X-ray measurements at different angles around a 3D object (e.g. a patient's head). These measurements are processed to create a plurality of cross-sectional images (also known as 'slices') of the 3D object. Hence, the object is represented by a plurality of cross-sections. In other words, a CT scan comprises a plurality of cross-sections.
Areas of the object which absorbed a high proportion of the X-rays during the scan (e.g. bone) are assigned a high CT number, and therefore appear lighter in the cross-sectional images, while areas of the object which absorbed a lower proportion of X-rays (e.g. muscle tissue) are assigned a low CT number, and appear darker. The CT number is measured in Hounsfield units.
CT scans can be taken either with or without contrast. In a CT scan with contrast (i.e. a contrast CT scan), the patient being scanned has been given a contrast agent (e.g. an iodine based compound). For example, the patient may ingest a solution containing the contrast agent, or it may be injected into the patient.
The contrast agent absorbs a high proportion of X-rays. Therefore, when a CT scan takes place, areas with a high concentration of contrast agent (such as blood vessels) absorb more of the X-rays and therefore appear lighter (i.e. have a higher CT number) in the CT scan. Hence, a contrast CT scan helps to highlight areas such as blood vessels.
Due to the function of the contrast agent, each of the cross-sectional images in a contrast CT scan appear different than if contrast was not used in the scan.
Automated processing of medical images, such as CT scans, has increased rapidly with, among other this, the explosive growth of artificial intelligence (AI) applications. This trend includes the detection of brain bleeds and other brain lesions by analysing head CT scans. One of the factors hampering the automated detection of such brain lesions is the fact that head CT scans may have been acquired either with or without a contrast agent. Since the presence of contrast affects the appearance of the cross-sectional images in the CT scan, a correct image interpretation (e.g. classification or detection of brain bleed or brain lesion) hinges on the ability to determine whether or not a contrast agent has been used in the CT scan.
Consider an example in which an AI application comprises a neural network configured to classify brain bleeds in non-contrast head CT scans. In other words, the neural network has been trained using a database of non-contrast head CT scans. In non-contrast head CT scans, a brain bleed would appear fairly dark, having a CT number (i.e. pixel brightness value) of approximately 30 Hounsfield units. Hence, the AI application would be trained to identify groups of pixels with values of approximately 30 Hounsfield units as brain bleeds.
In contrast CT scans, blood is mixed with the contrast agent, which absorbs a high proportion of X-rays. As a result, a brain bleed in a contrast CT scan is shown as a bright patch, having a CT number of over 100 Hounsfield units.
Hence, if a contrast CT scan including a brain bleed was input into an AI application configured to classify brain bleeds in non-contrast CT scans, the brain bleed would be missed. In other words, the AI application would incorrectly classify the CT scan as not having a brain bleed.
Hence, in order to correctly perform automated processing of medical images, there is a need to determine whether the medical images (e.g. CT scans) were taken with or without contrast.
However, when a contrast agent is used in a CT scan, not all cross-sections in the scan show visible evidence of the contrast agent. As such, the lack of contrast in a particular cross-section does not necessarily mean that contrast was not used in the entire CT scan (i.e. other cross-sections may show evidence of the contrast agent).
Since not all cross-sections in a contrast CT scan show evidence of the contrast, conventional methods require a large number of cross-sections to be analysed before it can be determined that a CT scan did not use contrast. Since modern high-resolution CT images have, in some cases, over 1000 cross sections, processing such a large volume of data to determine whether a CT scan includes contrast can be costly and time consuming, causing a delay in the processing pipeline. Hence, there is a need to identify whether a CT scan has been taken with or without contrast, in an efficient manner.
It is an aim to provide a system, apparatus and method that overcomes problems associated with conventional systems and apparatuses.

System for detecting contrast in medical scans


The invention provides processes and apparatus for the production of materials requiring a plurality of chemical reaction steps. In the prior art the number of reaction vessels is minimized by performing two or more reactions together in the same vessel. Instead each process is separated into separate successive steps, in each of which at least two principal components are reacted together, with or without at least one catalyst. In each step the components are reacted under optimum conditions for that reaction, using motion-augmented, sub-Kolmogoroff, micro-agitation provided by a separate discrete motor-operated, micro-agitation means. Such means are much smaller in size, but are extremely flexible as to the flow rate and reaction conditions, so that they can be adjusted to suit the reaction, without compromises dictated by attempting to perform other reactions in the same vessel. Multiple micro-agitation means in parallel and/or in series can be used in each step to increase capacity without scale-up problems, and units can be serviced or capacity reduced without the need to close down the process. Motor-operated micro-agitation means performing a non-chemical action can be provided at any stage of the process. Between each two steps the resultant mixture is separated to give a principal component used in the subsequent step, while at least one new principal component is added in the next step. The materials to be produced preferably comprise organic di-carboxylic acids, and more preferably dimethyl terephthalate and terephthalic acid.

An example of a large group of industrial processes that involve a number of different chemical reactions taking place simultaneously in large, expensive reactor vessels are those involved in the production of organic carboxylic acids particularly terephthalic acid (TPA). TPA is a major industrial chemical product, its principal application being the manufacture of various polymers, particularly polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which has widespread use in the production of synthetic fibers, fabrics and films, and particularly the production by blow molding of transparent food and drink containers. Owing to the quantities required the production of TPA is carried out in large installations in order to achieve economy of scale, the reaction vessels and associated equipment employed being correspondingly very large and expensive. The currently available processes involve a number of different reactions, and it is common to carry out at least some of the reactions simultaneously in a single vessel, in order to reduce the amount of the large, complex and expensive equipment required. The simultaneous performance of such reactions generally means that the conditions of temperature, pressure and concentration within the reactor vessel or vessels is a compromise between those that otherwise would be preferred for the different reactions.
Another result of this need to operate with large size installations (e.g. currently it is considered that a plant for TPA production must have a capacity of at least 100,000 tonnes per annum) is that it has become a major financial decision to begin construction of a new plant, or expansion of an existing plant, when current production has become, or is about to become, insufficient. When the new plant, or expansion, comes on stream the problem then arises that for a considerable period, which may be as long as several years, there is overproduction which depresses the available price and considerably extends the period required before both the new and the existing plants again become sufficiently profitable. The problem is exacerbated if two or more producers decide at about the same time that new production capacity is required, and each builds a plant. A corresponding situation arises when there is a down-turn in the economy necessitating a reduction in production. Producers are faced with the unwelcome choice of whether to keep a plant operating, resulting in overproduction and lowered price, or to shut down completely, itself usually an expensive process with attendant labor difficulties, and with resultant inadequate production. Again, the situation is exacerbated if two or more producers make the same decision at about the same time.
As stated in "Industrial Organic Chemistry-important Raw Materials and Intermediates" of Klaus Weissermel and Hans-Jürgen Arpe, 2nd edition published 1993 by Verlag Chemie, chemically the simplest method for producing PET is the polycondensation via direct esterification of TPA and ethylene glycol, but is only possible if the TPA is of the so-called "fiber grade" of purity. For example, in order to be suitable for the preparation of polyester fibers the TPA must be substantially free of contaminants which lower the melting point of the polyester and/or cause the formation of color bodies. Some impurities in crude TPA, such as 4-carboxybenzaldehyde, are color-forming precursors and can also act as chain terminators preventing the production of polymers of sufficiently high molecular weight. These impurities are difficult to remove from crude TPA, owing to the very low solubility of TPA in polar solvents such as water or glacial acetic acid, even at elevated temperatures and pressures. An early process to obtain TPA of high purity involved converting the crude TPA to the dimethylester, which could economically be brought to fiber grade by crystallization and/or distillation. Older less energy-efficient PET processes employing DMT have largely been superceded by more modern facilities that use the purified TPA in a direct esterification, rather than the lower-yielding, slower-reacting DMT transesterification processes.
A common first stage in the production of TPA is the liquid phase oxidation of p-xylene in large vessels in which the contents are agitated, typically at temperatures in the range 100–200° C., sometimes in the range 140–170° C., and at pressures in the range 4–20 bar, sometimes 4–8 bar, and with residence times in the reactor vessels of up to 22 hours. The oxidation will stop at the stage where p-toluic acid (one methyl group, one carboxyl acid group) is produced unless special steps are taken to convert the second methyl group to the carboxyl acid. There are three main ways in which this has been achieved; many others have been used and proposed but they are of lesser commercial importance.
In a first method the carboxyl group of the p-toluic acid is esterified with methanol, whereupon subsequently the second methyl group can be oxidized. It is usual to use the methanol as a solvent during the oxidation, so that the esterification occurs simultaneously with the oxidation in a single reaction vessel. The method yields dimethyl terephthalate which, after separation and purification to fiber grade, is hydrolyzed readily to the TPA.
In a second method, now usually referred to as the Amoco process, and the predominant process for the manufacture of TPA, a metal salt catalyst, usually a mixture of manganese and cobalt acetate in 95% acetic acid, is employed, together with a co-catalyst or promoter such as ammonium bromide and tetrabromoethane, or a mixture of manganese and cobalt bromides, the bromine ion functioning as a regenerative source of free radicals that continue the oxidation. Temperatures of 190–205° C. and pressures of 15–30 bar are employed; the reaction vessels are extremely large and, together with the associated equipment, must be lined or made with materials able to withstand the corrosive attack of the bromine ions, so that they are correspondingly initially expensive and costly to maintain. Typically titanium or Hastelloy C™ alloys are employed. The TPA obtained must be purified and this is done by dissolving it under pressure at 225–275° C. in water and hydrogenating the solution in the presence of a platinum/charcoal catalyst, whereby the chief impurity 4-carboxylbenzaldehyde is hydrogenated to p-toluic acid. The pure TPA crystallizes out upon cooling the solution. The process is also suitable for oxidizing other methylbenzenes and methylnaphthalenes to aromatic carboxylic acids, e.g. toluene to benzoic acid; m-xylene to isophthalic acid; pseudocumene to trimellitic anhydride; mesitylene to trimesic acid; and 1,4-dimethylnaphthalene to naphthalene-1,4-dicarboxylic acid.
The third method, which is no longer in commercial use, is a co-oxidation process in which the principal reactions are all carried out together in a single vessel. Thus, the oxidation is carried out in the presence of an auxiliary substance which is simultaneously oxidized, and that is capable of supplying hydroperoxides that will complete the oxidation process. In one typical process p-xylene, together with paraldehyde and cobalt acetate in acetic acid solution are introduced at the head of a tall (e.g. 30 meters) bubble column, while air is introduced at the bottom, a typical temperature being 100–140° C. and a typical pressure being 30 bar. The bubbles ascending in the column are relied upon to produce the necessary interaction and chemical reaction between the components. The TPA is removed as a suspension in the acetic acid, separated and purified.

Processes employing multiple successive chemical reaction process steps and apparatus therefore


Sterically hindered N-hydrocarbyloxyamines are prepared from hindered amine N-oxyl compounds by a process which uses hydrogen peroxide or a hydrogen peroxide equivalent, a catalytic amount of a peroxide decomposing transition metal salt, metal oxide, or metal-ligand complex, a hydrocarbon solvent containing no activated hydrogen atoms, and a relatively inert cosolvent. These compounds are useful as thermal and light stabilizers for a variety of organic substrates.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,921,962 claims a process for the formation of N-hydrocarbyloxy derivatives of sterically hindered amines in which a hindered amine or N-oxyl substituted hindered amine is reacted with a hydrocarbon solvent in the presence of a hydroperoxide and a metal carbonyl, metal oxide or metal alkoxide catalyst.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,374,729 describes a process for the preparation of N-methoxy derivatives of sterically hindered amines from the reaction of hindered amine N-oxyl compounds with methyl radicals produced by the combination of aqueous hydrogen peroxide and a peroxide-decomposing transition metal salt in the presence of dimethyl sulfoxide.
D. H. R. Barton, et al., in Tetrahedron, 1996, 52, 10301-12, describe the formation of N-alkoxy substituted sterically hindered amine derivatives obtained by the reaction of unactivated hydrocarbons with iron(II) and iron(III) salts or metal-ligand complexes, hydrogen peroxide, and pyridine/acetic acid or pyridine/picolinic acid in the presence of 1-oxyl-2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine (TEMPO).
U.S. Pat. No. 6,166,212 claims a process in which an N-oxyl compound is reacted with a peroxide or organic hydroperoxide and a catalytic amount of a metal salt or metal-ligand complex in an alcohol solvent to synthesize N-hydroxyalkoxy substituted hindered amine stabilizer molecules.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,211,378 teaches an environmentally friendly process for the preparation of 4-functionalized sterically hindered N-hydrocarbyloxyamine derivatives of 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidines using hydrogen peroxide to oxidize a hindered amine to an N-oxyl compound which is reacted with one equivalent of a compound having an allylic, benzylic, or activated methine hydrogen.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,629,426, 5,654,434, and 5,777,126 disclose a process for the formation of N-oxyl sterically hindered amines from hindered amines using aqueous hydrogen peroxide.
N-hydrocarbyloxy derivatives of 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidines can be made in a variety of ways, which include the following: a) catalytic hydrogenation of an N-oxyl hindered amine to form a hydroxylamine, as taught in U.S. Pat. No. 4,831,134, followed by alkylation of the hydroxylamine using a strong base such as sodium hydride and an alkyl halide, as taught in U.S. Pat. No. 5,204,473; b) reaction of 2 equivalents of N-oxyl hindered amine with tributyltin hydride and an iodo- or bromo-substituted hydrocarbon in an inert solvent such as chlorobenzene, as taught in U.S. Pat. No. 5,021,577; c) heating a solution of an organic peroxide, such as di-tert-butyl peroxide, an N-oxyl compound, and a hydrocarbon with abstractable hydrogen atoms as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,204,473; d) heating a mixture of an N-oxyl hindered amine, an organic hydroperoxide, a catalytic amount of a molybdenum catalyst, and a hydrocarbon solvent with abstractable hydrogen atoms as taught in U.S. Pat. No. 4,921,962; and e) reaction of a mixture of iron(II) perchlorate or iron(III) chloride, hydrogen peroxide, acetic acid or picolinic acid, adamantane or cyclohexane and an excess of pyridine solvent in the presence of N-oxyl-2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine (TEMPO), as disclosed by Barton, et al., in Tetrahedron, 1996, 52, 10301-12.
The instant process involves the formation of N-hydrocarbyloxy hindered amine derivatives by reacting a mixture of an N-oxyl hindered amine with hydrogen peroxide and a catalytic amount of metal salt, oxide, or metal ligand complex, and where needed, a mineral acid or organic acid, in the presence of a hydrocarbon and a cosolvent.
The instant process does not require specialized reagents such as alkyl halides, sodium hydride, or tributyltin hydride. The instant process offers the advantage of using hydrogen peroxide instead of a more expensive tertiary alkyl hydroperoxide. Furthermore, the by-product from hydrogen peroxide is water, whereas tertiary alkyl hydroperoxides produce alcohol by-products, such as t-butyl alcohol from t-butyl hydroperoxide. These alcohols must be separated from the desired reaction product and disposed of. Products made from solvents which boil near or below 100° C., such as cyclohexane and heptane, are most efficiently made by carrying out the reactions in a pressure vessel in order to obtain the desired 100-150 degree reaction temperature. The instant process does not require a pressure vessel for lower boiling hydrocarbon solvents. For example, reactions with cyclohexane can be effectively carried out at 60° C. The use of lower reaction temperatures in the instant process requires less energy and eliminates safety issues specifically associated with the use of pressure vessels.
The instant process does not require the use of substantial amounts of toxic solvents, like pyridine. In addition to its toxicity, pyridine is difficult to remove from the reaction mixture because of its relatively high boiling point, 115° Celsius. Barton, et al., remove pyridine by an acid work-up involving concentrated sulfuric acid and ice. The instant process obtains excellent yields of N-hydrocarbyloxy products with methanol (bp 65°) or acetonitrile (bp 81°) as a cosolvent. These materials are easy to remove by a solvent strip or simple distillation and have the advantage of being water-soluble.
The instant process does not require the addition of additives such as ascorbic acid or zinc.
The instant invention, though primarily concerned with the formation of N-hydrocarbyloxy amines from their N-oxyl precursors, also teaches a two-step process in which a hindered amine is oxidized to the intermediate N-oxyl compound. The N-oxyl compound is not isolated prior to conversion to the N-hydrocarbyloxyamine. Hydrogen peroxide is an inexpensive and efficient reagent for such an oxidation.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,629,426, 5,654,434, and 5,777,126 disclose a process for the formation of N-oxyl sterically hindered amines from hindered amines using aqueous hydrogen peroxide, a metal passivator, an ammonium or alkali carbonate or bicarbonate, and water as the solvent.
Published methodologies for the oxidation of hindered amines to N-oxyl compounds using hydrogen peroxide and sodium tungstate are described by Yoshioka, et al., in Bull. Chem. Soc. Japan, 1972, 45, 636-638 and Rauckman, et al., in Synthetic Communications, 1975, 5, 409-413.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,961,962 teaches the conversion of hindered amines to N-hydrocarbyloxy derivatives, without isolation of the intermediate N-oxyl compound, using organic hydroperoxides.
The instant invention provides an improved process for the preparation of sterically hindered N-hydrocarbyloxyamines.

Hydrogen peroxide catalyzed process for the preparation of sterically hindered N-hydrocarbyloxyamines


Message delivery approaches in which senders define filters with associated actions for evaluation in relation to specified messages. After creating and storing filters with specified actions, senders dispatch messages to a processing system, which evaluates the filters against the messages. If a match occurs, the processing system performs the specified actions on the messages. The processing system may send the same message multiple times to different receiving systems, and may modify the source IP address and outbound interface of the message for each receiving system. The source IP address or interface may be modified by a filter in response to external events, such as a receiving system blocking another copy of the message. A single message processing system can appear as a large number of virtual message sendingunits.

The approaches described in this section could be pursued, but are not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated herein, the approaches described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
Use of electronic message communication systems has increased significantly in the recent past. In the specific context of the Internet, electronic mail ("e-mail") is now widely used for marketing campaigns and other communications with actual or prospective customers by manufacturers, merchants, service providers and other bulk senders. Using modern electronic systems, the cost of sending even millions of such messages has been negligible, and a response rate of even less than one percent has been considered worthwhile. Thus, successful delivery of messages to valid in-boxes of recipients normally translates into income for the sender.
In one approach, a sender develops a mailing list consisting of e-mail addresses of targeted individuals. The sender also creates a master message or template for an e-mail directed to the targeted individuals. The master message and the mailing list are provided to a mail gateway or other sending device, which dispatches a copy of the master message to each address on the mailing list.
Typically, the sending device is identified in the Internet by a single Internet Protocol ("IP") address, which is placed in the source IP address field of outbound IP packets representing the messages. Often messages directed to individuals in the list are first received at an inbound mail gateway associated with an Internet Service Provider ("ISP"), large business enterprise or other receiver that receives a large daily volume of messages from various sources.
However, with this approach many of the messages may fail to be delivered, because many such receivers now use filtering and blocking technology intended to prevent delivery of mass unsolicited e-mail messages ("spam"). For example, when the inbound mail gateways of certain receivers detect numerous inbound messages all having the same source IP address, the receivers may refuse to deliver the messages. The receivers also may establish filters that prevent future delivery of similar messages. This may occur even when the messages are not "spam," but rather legitimate communications to members, customers or other individuals who have done business with the sender in the past or agreed to receive its messages.
In one approach, receivers use filtering or blocking technologies that search for keywords in the message subject line and reject or quarantine messages that contain keywords matching a list of prohibited words. In another approach, receivers use "black lists" to identify and prohibit display of messages from suspect senders. Some receivers augment these technologies with personal "white lists" of friends or other acceptable senders; only messages from senders in the "white list" are admitted. The "white lists" and "black lists" also may come from networked sources. Techniques for performing "black list" lookups are described at the document "ip4r.htm" that is available online at the time of this writing at director "/junkmail/support/" of the "declude.com" domain of the World Wide Web.
For legitimate senders, one problem is that legitimate messages do not reach intended receivers because they are blocked by such filtering or blocking technologies. Meanwhile, receivers who use filtering or blocking technologies regularly fail to receive legitimate messages because the filtering and blocking technologies cannot properly distinguish legitimate messages from unwanted messages. Certain industry-standard technical abbreviations may be identical to prohibited keywords, confusing the "spam" filter.
Further, receivers continue to receive large volumes of unwanted messages that are not properly trapped by the "spam" filter. As a result, many receivers now refuse to disclose their address except under limited circumstances. In response, many legitimate senders, such as reputable commercial enterprises, have developed "opt-in" procedures in which the addresses of receivers, such as customers, are not used at all unless the receiver affirmatively agrees to receive messages. Even when this is done, the filtering or blocking technologies may delete or quarantine even those messages from legitimate senders that are directed to receivers who have "opted in."
Consequently, the value of e-mail as a legitimate marketing tool for communications directed to receivers who have "opted in" is decreasing. Many receivers remain essentially defenseless to the daily onslaught of "spam" arriving in their e-mail in-boxes. While many states have enacted legislation that imposes civil or criminal penalties for sending "spam," these remedies are time-consuming for receivers to pursue. In addition, while many Internet Service Providers ("ISPs") actively identify and refuse to communicate or do business with those who send "spam," policing such improper activity imposes a significant cost on the ISP.
ISPs also incur costs associated with processing messages directed to recipients who do not hold an account with the ISP. For these recipients, the ISP's mail system typically generates an automatic "bounce" message that states that the recipient is unknown. Indeed, a "double bounce" may occur when a message bears an invalid sender address, and is sent to an invalid recipient. Costs are associated with maintaining the equipment and software that generates the bounce messages, and for dispatching the bounce messages back into the network to the sender. Thus, there is a need for a system or method that can reduce the number of"bounce" and "double bounce" events experienced by ISPs and derived from unwanted messages.
Thus, the problem of "spam" in the Internet e-mail context is essentially a war of attrition. There are legitimate marketing organizations that send promotional messages by bulk e-mail, and other senders who send valid bulk messages. In general, however, no one benefits from the activities of "spammers," other than the "spammers" themselves. ISPs, business enterprises, and end users all suffer inconvenience, costs, and annoyances.
Further, high-value e-mail messages regularly may be blocked or placed into a "Bulk" mail folder, based on rules that appear, to the end user, as complex, random, changing and secret. This costs e-mail marketers, and causes senders to lose confidence in the benefits of e-mail marketing. Moreover, end users are required to invest time in monitoring, checking, delivering, and negotiating "white lists" and similar mechanisms. Even when ISPs and enterprises use anti-"spam" technologies, large numbers of"spam" messages still arrive in the in-boxes of end users, or erroneously are placed in bulk mail folders.
While the foregoing example problems exist in the context of e-mail, telephone and facsimile communications suffer from analogous problems.
Based on the foregoing, there is a need in this field for a way to permit senders to dispatch messages in a manner that prevents unwarranted blocking by receivers. There is a specific need for an improved e-mail gateway that can send bulk e-mail over the Internet to targeted recipients, without blocking or filtering by spam blocking technology employed by receivers such as ISPs and large enterprises.
One possible alternative approach would be to assign a different mail gateway to each sender. However, this approach is not cost-effective because it requires too much expensive hardware. Further, this approach is an incomplete solution, because bulk senders who initiate multiple different marketing or messaging "campaigns" to different lists of users may find that after receivers receive one campaign, the receivers block all subsequent campaigns. Thus, there is a need for a way to enable multiple different senders each to manage multiple campaigns from a single mail gateway.

Electronic message delivery using an alternate source approach


Circuits for reducing the signal peaks in telecommunications signals are described. The circuits and methods are preferably adapted for reducing the peak to average power ratio of non-constant envelope modulation signals. In one example the circuit includes a band-limiting filter for limiting the bandwidth of a data bearing signal and a predictive filter for predicting peaks in the data bearing signal at the output of the pulse-shaping filter. The circuit also includes a clipping processor for generating a compensation signal in response to one or more signal peaks predicted by the predictive filter and a signal combining device for applying the compensation signal to the data bearing signal prior to amplification of the data bearing signal.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to circuits and methods for reducing the signal peaks in telecommunications signals, and in particular to circuits and methods for reducing the peak to average power ratio of non-constant envelope modulation signals. The present invention is suitable for use in applications involving multi-code Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) signals, Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) signals and critically sampled complex Gaussian signals, and it will be convenient to described the invention in relation to these exemplary applications. It will be appreciated, however, that the invention is not limited to use in these applications only.
2. Description of Related Art
Telecommunications devices that transmit signals with a high peak to average power ratio (PAPR), such as multi-code CDMA signals, require output power amplifiers with large peak power capabilities. Such amplifiers are large and costly, and have high power requirements. If such amplifiers cannot handle the peak power signal levels then the resulting saturation causes inter-modulation products and Adjacent Channel Interference (ACI). A number of techniques exist for reducing the peak to average ratio, but many of these are modulation dependent, for example, coding, partial transmit sequences, or phasing for (OFDM) and Multi-Carrier Spread Spectrum.
FIG. 1 illustrates a portion 1 of the transmission path of a multi-code CDMA transceiver, in which a signal's in-phase and quadrature (I & Q) components are up-converted by an up-converter 2 or a number of upconversion stages for amplification by an amplifier 3, and subsequent transmission. A pulse-shaping interpolation filter 4 or other filtering is used to band limit the signal supplied to the up-converter 2. One effective method of preventing saturation of the amplifier 3 is to introduce a signal peak clipper before the amplifier 3. There are two possible positions in a transmitter for the clipper, namely the placement of a clipper 5 before the filter 4 or the placement of a clipper 6 after the filter 4. Placing a clipper after the filter prevents amplifier saturation, eliminating AM to PM distortion in the amplifier saturation region, but still generates ACI. The latter can be reduced by peak windowing, or eliminated all together by putting the clipper before the filter. However, the placement of the clipper 5 before the filter 4 can cause regrowth of the clipped peaks, which can again cause amplifier saturation. Harder clipping, or over-clipping, can prevent peak re-growth but attenuates the signal more than necessary.

Signal peak reduction circuit for non-constant envelope modulation signals


A method (10) of forming fully-depleted silicon-on-insulator (FD-SOI) transistors (150) and bulk transistors (152) on a semiconductor substrate (104) as part of an integrated circuit fabrication process is disclosed.

Semiconductor device geometries have dramatically decreased in size since such devices were first introduced several decades ago. The desire for higher performance circuits has driven the development of high-speed sub-100 nanometer (nm) silicon-on-insulator (SOI) complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology. In SOI technology, metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) are formed on a thin layer of silicon overlying a layer of insulating material such as silicon oxide. Devices formed on SOI offer many advantages over their bulk counterparts. For example, SOI devices generally have a reduced junction capacitance, little to no reverse body effect, soft-error immunity, full dielectric isolation, and little to no latch-up. SOI technology therefore enables higher speed performance, higher packing density, and reduced power consumption, among other things, as compared to conventional transistors that are formed on a semiconductor bulk material (e.g., silicon) and not over a layer of insulating material.
One type of SOI device is a fully-depleted (FD-SOI) device. In a FD-SOI device the thin layer of silicon has a thickness that is less than the maximum depletion layer width in the silicon during device operation. Consequently, during operation, the FD-SOI experiences a "full" depletion thereof. FD-SOI devices have an additional advantage over traditional or bulk transistors in that they can be scaled to shorter gate lengths and do not suffer from body effects due to the fact that the body is fully-depleted during device operation. FD-SOI devices are also believed to provide lower off-state leakage currents, higher speeds, fewer soft errors, lower operating voltages and lower gate delay than regular non-SOI transistors.
However, since FD-SOI devices are formed on a thin layer of silicon overlying a layer of insulating material, they can be said to lack a "body tie", or rather a connection to the underlying semiconductor substrate. This makes it very difficult to produce different types of transistors on the same chip and/or the same or similar types of transistors that have different operating characteristics from being produced on the same chip. For example, multiple transistors having different threshold voltages (Vt's) and/or operating speeds would be difficult to be produced at the same time. Likewise, it would be difficult to produce high voltage I/O transistors while low voltage I/O transistors are also produced. Bulk transistors, on the other hand, do allow such different transistors to be made at the same time. More particularly, since these more traditional transistors are formed on bulk semiconductor material (e.g., silicon) that does not overlie a layer of insulating material, they can be said to have a "body tie". Essentially, the thicker substrate that the transistors are formed on can accommodate different types of processing, such as different doping concentrations, for example, that enable different devices to be formed on the same chip.
Consequently, it would be desirable to be able to reliably form both FD-SOI and bulk transistors in a single fabrication process so that either of the devices can be employed based on circuit application requirements.

Building fully-depleted and bulk transistors on same chip


A progressive-starting unit for pneumatic circuits comprises a line inlet and a line outlet interconnected with each other by a regulating valve that is piloted by a pneumatic piloting inlet. The piloting inlet is controlled by the outlet of a progressive-starting device having an inlet connected upstream of said regulating valve. In this manner a progressive-starting unit is obtained which is insensitive to the conditions downstream of its line outlet.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a unit for air flow regulation in pneumatic systems. In particular, the unit implements the so-called progressive-starting regulation in an innovative manner.
2. State of the Prior Art
In pneumatically-operated machines it is always preferred for the compressed air to be gradually supplied on starting of the machine in order to prevent the pneumatic actuators from carrying out sudden movements that are potentially dangerous both for the machine structure and still more for people.
For the purpose, in the known art feeding valves (also called "APR" valves) have been proposed that on opening, gradually and automatically increase the air passage by means of a variable throttling disposed along the feeding line and, therefore, by a flow-rate regulation. The resulting pressure regulation therefore depends on the air request taking place at that moment downstream of the regulator and consequently it is not constant. The behavior of a known progressive starter can therefore be very different at each starting, because in the same machine on switching on, the different pneumatic actuators can be disposed at any position, depending on the actuator state at the moment of a preceding shutting off on occurrence of possible handling operations carried out manually. The intervention velocity of the starter usually takes place in a manner gauged for a medium case, taking into account the average of the air requests of the different actuators in the circuit, for example.
However, in this case the risks of sudden movements of some actuators are not prevented.
For instance, in the rather frequent case of the presence in the same machine of a plurality of actuators of big volume and some actuators of much smaller volume (i.e. in which a relatively reduced air amount is required for supplying wide movements), it may sometimes happen that on switching on, the bigger actuators are already at the end of their stroke and therefore do not move, so that the whole air fed by the regulator acts on one or more of the small actuators to move them, and therefore said small actuators can immediately have an air amount sufficient to produce a wide and quick movement which is potentially dangerous.
There is also a further problem. Since known regulators have a "trigger" point that makes them pass from a throttled feeding to a full and operating feeding of the circuit when a predetermined pressure has been reached downstream of said regulators, it may happen that in case of small leakages in the downstream circuit this trigger pressure is never reached and therefore the machine never succeeds in reaching the operating condition, even if losses by themselves would be negligible during normal operation.
It is a general aim of the present invention to obviate the above mentioned drawbacks by providing a regulating unit for progressive starting which is able to supply a satisfactory progressive starting irrespective of the conditions of the circuit downstream thereof. It is a further aim to supply a regulator which is also able to operate as a piloted regulator.

Progressive-starting unit for pneumatic systems


A physical layer communication device (PHY) transmits and receives signal to and from a communication link using a synchronous protocol. The PHY communicates with a higher-layer device using a packet protocol. Timestamp values contained in timing-related messages in some packets are written or modified by the PHY. Delays incurred in transmitting and receiving the packets are predicted and used in setting the timestamp values.

The present invention relates generally to synchronization of clocks and, more particularly, to synchronization of clocks in a communication network including packets communicated using a synchronous protocol.
It may be advantageous for devices in a networked system to have a common time base. The common time base may be used, for example, to trigger coordinated measurement instances in a network of sensors or to coordinate actions of controllers in an industrial system. In addition to sensors and controllers, the system may include computers and communication devices, such as routers.
The electronics industry has developed several standard protocols for use in synchronizing clocks, for example, the Precision Time Protocol (PTP) of IEEE 1588. PTP includes sending timing-related messages between nodes in a communication network. The timing-related messages include, for example, a node transmitting a time-stamped packet to supply its time base to another node and a node transmitting a packet requesting the receiving node to reply with the time of receipt. A device that forwards timing-related messages from one node to another node may adjust a timestamp in the messages based on the device's delay in forwarding the message. Any errors or inaccuracies in handling the timing-related messages may be detrimental to accurate clock synchronization and the detriment may be cumulative over multiple network devices.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Timestamp predictor for packets over a synchronous protocol


A stress buffer sheet 10 is constituted by arranging external conductive layers 16A and 16B on the front and rear main surfaces of a through electrode layer 13. Columnar internal electrodes 14 are formed using a porous oxide base material 30 formed by anodic oxidation of valve metal; the oxide base material 30 is selectively removed after the internal electrodes 14 have been formed, and a resin 12 is filled in a resultant void space. The resin 12 has a small Young's modulus and can be deformed together with the internal electrode 14. In a structure having a wiring board 20 and an electronic component 24 connected through the stress buffer sheet 10, when stress acts on the joint portion during mounting of the electronic component 24, the whole of the through electrode layer 13 is deformed so that the stress is absorbed or released.

When a chip component is mounted on a printed board, a method is typically used in which the chip component and the printed board are electrically connected through soldering. Further, in order to add a function to vary wiring pitches and a function to perform rewiring, an interposer may be placed between the chip component and the printed board. In general, different constituent materials are used for the printed board, the interposer and the chip component; accordingly, the magnitude of thermal expansion of these parts during a process or under use environment conditions differs from each other. Consequently, stress acts exclusively on solder joint portions in which the printed board, the interposer and the chip component are connected to each other through soldering; thus, poor connection caused by cracks or the like may occur. Therefore, there is a need for a structure which can release the stress acting on the solder joint portion.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2008-244311 (Patent Literature 1) discloses a technique for releasing this stress acting on the solder joint portion. A semiconductor package board described in Patent Literature 1 is characterized by including a first circuit conductive layer electrically connected to a semiconductor device, a second circuit conductive layer having a connecting terminal used for electrical connection with an external component, an insulating layer disposed between the first circuit conductive layer and the second circuit conductive layer, and a via which is a through hole in the insulating layer, used for electrical connection of the first circuit conductive layer and the second circuit conductive layer, and also characterized in that the insulating layer has a dual-layer structure, and Young's modulus of a second insulating layer disposed on the side of the second circuit conductive layer is smaller than that of a first insulating layer disposed on the side of the first circuit conductive layer.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2008-227020 (Patent Literature 2) discloses another example. In Patent Literature 2, an electronic component mounting structure is used in which an electronic component chip having a plurality of protrusion electrodes distributed on the whole mounting surface thereof is mounted via the protrusion electrodes on a substrate. An object of the invention is to release stress produced in the protrusion electrodes caused by temperature rise during the operation of the electronic component and thereby improve the reliability of the electronic component; and a disclosed solution is that the protrusion electrodes are arranged so that the distribution density of the protrusion electrodes becomes higher in a direction from the center to the outer side of the mounting surface of the electronic component chip. In Patent Literature 2, solder bump is given as an illustrative example of the protrusion electrode.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2008-205184 (Patent Literature 3) discloses a mounting structure in which a connecting terminal of a semiconductor device is electrically connected through a connecting member to a circuit board, and the connecting member has a conductive protrusion including a columnar portion, and the cross-sectional area of the columnar portion being the result of cutting the columnar portion by a plane parallel to the surface of the semiconductor device is smaller than the surface area of the connecting terminal of the semiconductor device. The circuit board and the semiconductor device are electrically connected through the conductive portion of the connecting member.

Stress buffer layer and method for producing same


This invention addresses the problem of radar target detection in severely heterogeneous clutter environments. Specifically, we present the performance of the normalized matched filter test in a background of disturbance consisting of clutter having a covariance matrix with known structure and unknown scaling plus background white Gaussian noise. It is shown that when the clutter covariance matrix is low rank, the (LRNMF) test retains invariance with respect to the unknown scaling as well as the background noise level and has an approximately constant false alarm rate (CFAR). Therefore, a technique known as self-censoring reiterative fast maximum likelihood/adaptive power residue (SCRFML/APR) is developed to treat this problem and its performance is discussed. The SCRFML/AP method is used to estimate the unknown covariance matrix in the presence of outliers. This covariance matrix estimate can then be used in the LRNAMF or any other eigen-based adaptive processing technique.

The invention relates generally to radar receivers, and more specifically, it relates to a low rank approximation to interference covariance for target detection in non-Gaussian clutter.
This invention addresses the problem of signal detection in interference composed of clutter (and possibly jamming), having a covariance matrix with known structure but unknown level and background white noise. The technique developed in this paper ensures invariance with respect to the unknown level and the background noise power. The research is motivated by the problem of space-time adaptive processing (STAP) for airborne phased-array radar applications. Typically, a radar receiver front end consists of an array of J antenna elements processing N pulses in a coherent processing interval. We are interested in the problem of target detection given the JN×1 spatio-temporal data vector.
Patented art of interest includes the following U.S. Patents, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference:
U.S. Pat. No. 6,771,723 entitled Normalized parametric adaptive matched filter receiver issued to Davis
U.S. Pat. No. 5,640,429 issued to Michels and Rangaswamy;
U.S. Pat. No. 5,272,698 issued to Champion;
U.S. Pat. No. 5,168,215 issued to Puzzo;
U.S. Pat. No. 4,855,932 issued to Cangiani; and
U.S. Pat. No. 6,266,321 issued to Michels, et al.
The Davis patent describes an apparatus and method for improving the detection of signals obscured by either correlated Gaussian or non-Gaussian noise plus additive white noise. Estimates from multichannel data of model parameters that described the noise disturbance correlation are obtained from data that contain signal-free data vectors, referred to as "secondary" or "reference" cell data. These parameters form the coefficients of a multichannel whitening filter. A data vector to be tested for the presence of a signal passes through the multichannel whitening filter. The filter output is then processed to form a test statistic.
Cangiani et al. disclose a three dimensional electro-optical tracker with a Kalman filter in which the target is modeled in space as the superposition of two Guassian ellipsoids projected onto an image plane. Puzzo offers a similar disclosure. Champion discloses a digital communication system.
Michels et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,226,321, hereby incorporated by reference, discloses implementations, for a signal that has unknown amplitude. For the signal of unknown amplitude, Michels et al. teaches us how to incorporate the estimated signal amplitude directly into the parametric detection procedure. Furthermore, Michels teaches two separate methods, namely, (1) how to detect the signal in the presence of partially correlated non-Gaussian clutter disturbance and (2) how to detect the signal in the presence of partially correlated Gaussian clutter disturbance. Furthermore, the method to detect the signal in the presence of partially correlated non-Gaussian clutter involves processing the received radar data and requires the use of functional forms that depend upon the probability density function (pdf) of the disturbance. Thus, the latter method requires knowledge of the pdf statistics of the non-Gaussian disturbance. The method does not teach how to process the data in such a manner that would not require knowledge of the disturbance processes. Furthermore, it does not teach how to process the data with one method that would detect the signal in either Gaussian or non-Gaussian disturbance. Thus there exists a need for apparatus and method of processing the data with a detection method that does not require knowledge of the clutter statistics. Furthermore, there exists a need for a method that detects the signal in either Gaussian or non-Gaussian disturbance.
The performance improvements of the presently disclosed invention relative to prior art are detailed in J. H. Michels, M. Rangaswamy, and B. Himed, "Evaluation of the Normalized Parametric Adaptive Matched Filter STAP Test in Airborne Radar Clutter," IEEE Internationals Radar 2000 Conference, May 7-11, 2000 Washington, D.C. and J. H. Michels, M. Rangaswamy, and B. Himed, "Performance of STAP Tests in Compound-Gaussian Clutter," First IEEE Sensor Array and Multichannel Signal.
Previous efforts derived the normalized matched filter (NMF) test for the problem of detecting a rank one signal in additive clutter modeled as a spherically invariant random process. The NMF test is given by             Λ      NMF        =                            ❘                                                    e                H                                                          R                c                                  -                  1                                                          x                                                  ❘              2                                                            [                                          e                H                                                          R                c                                  -                  1                                                          e                        ]                                          [                                          x                H                                                          R                c                                  -                  1                                                          x                        ]                                            ≷                  H          0                          H          1                                  λ        NMF              ,where x is the observed data vector, e is the known spatio-temporal signal steering vector, and Rc is the known clutter covariance matrix. A statistic similar in spirit was also considered in for vector subspace detection in compound-Gaussian clutter.

Normalized matched filter—a low rank approach

The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Air Force


An automatically marking, reading and distinguishing apparatus, which programmingly controls a conveyance of a printed circuit board, includes a table, an information label generator, at least one flipping device, and an image reading and distinguishing device. The table includes a first area and a second area. The information label generator is disposed corresponding to the first area for generating and labeling an information label on the printed circuit board. The image reading and distinguishing device is disposed corresponding to the second area to determine whether the information label is readable. The flipping device is located under the table and has a rotating part and at least one set of jigs for flipping the labeled or readable printed circuit boards.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an automatically marking, reading and distinguishing apparatus. Particularly, the present invention relates to an automatically marking, reading and distinguishing apparatus for marking, reading, and distinguishing a printed circuit board.
2. Description of the Relative Art
Quality control is an important issue for the printed circuit board manufacture process. During the manufacture, each connection between the element and the printed circuit board has to be checked one by one. In order to trace the printed circuit board during the manufacture process and afterward, a bar code is printed or attached on the printed circuit board. Once any piece of printed circuit board has problem, the whole manufacture process information may be traced through the bar code.
Taiwanese Patent Publication No. 536104 dated on Jul. 15, 2002 discloses a base 1, a main holder 2, a marking system 3 and a computer 5. The marking system 3 further comprises a laser bar code printer 6 and a bar code reader 4 having a charge coupled device (CCD) which is disposed on the main holder 2. As FIG. 1 shows, the relative art device positions a printed circuit board 7 and uses the computer 5 to control a transmission device 8 to adjust the position of the printed circuit board 7. The relative device may handle only single printed circuit board and single side at one time. In addition, the relative art device gives a warning, shuts down the process, and manually marks the defective printed circuit board.

Automatically marking and reading/distinguishing apparatus and method of use


A beaker for a sample dyeing machine comprises a hollow beaker body and a longitudinal sliding cylinder with flanges on both its ends. The outer wall of the cylinder is uniformly perforated for wrapping of a sample yarn or cloth to be dyed. A plurality of grooves is separately formed on the periphery of either one of the flanges to guide the flow of a dye solution. An annular passage is formed in the interior of the cylinder from one end to the other for allowing a dye solution to flow between the passage and the perforated wall of the cylinder. The beaker thus constructed can dye a sample uniformly and efficiently due to sufficient contact between a sample and a dye solution. The beaker also comprises a hollow tube outside the beaker body for one-way flow of a dye solution, and/or a dispensing device screwed on the top thereof for liquid addition to the beaker. A sample dyeing machine comprises a plurality of the beakers in a fixed rack. Under the rack is a magnetic plate having a plurality of strong magnets so separately arranged on the plate that the pole of each magnet is opposite to that of adjacent magnets. The cylinders inside the beakers are moved up and down by magnetic force while the magnetic plate is slid back and forth on a screw driven by a motor.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a beaker for a sample dyeing machine, in which a cylinder is placed inside the beaker. The beaker thus constructed can dye a sample uniformly and efficiently due to sufficient contact between the sample and the dye solution. The present invention also relates to a sample dyeing machine which can drive the cylinder in the beaker by magnetic force.
2. Description of the Prior Arts
It is well known that each type of textile or fabric requires unique processing procedures. In the case of dyeing procedures, it is desirable to dye a series of test lots of each material on a small scale so as to determine the optimal processing parameters before production is undertaken on a large scale. Several kinds of sample dyeing machines suitable for laboratories have been developed to allow an artisan to gather useful information in the light of the test dyeing results. A material to be dyed, such as a yarn or cloth, is usually put into a beaker containing a liquid such as a dye solution, a fixing agent, or the like. After closing the beaker, the beaker is shaken or rotated in order to bring the material into as uniform contact with the liquid as possible and to obtain accurate coloration for reference.
FIG. 1 shows a longitudinal cross-section of a conventional beaker, which substantially comprises a beaker body 1 and a lid 2. A helical rack 3 is installed in the beaker, on which a sample yarn or cloth 4 to be dyed is wrapped. FIG. 2 illustrates the steps of wrapping a sample yarn for insertion into a conventional beaker. First, a yarn 4 is wrapped on a palm with fingers closed. Then, transfer the wrapped yarn 4 onto the helical rack 3 while opening the fingers. Finally, the helical rack 3 wrapped with the yarn 4 is put into the beaker body 1 for dyeing treatment. Said helical rack 3 may be in the form of a spring. By means of shaking or rotating the beaker, a dye solution or a desirable liquid is supposed to impregnate the interior of the yarn.
There is, however, a drawback of the above beaker structure. Simply by means of shaking or rotating the beaker, a dye solution randomly flows in the space enclosed by the beaker body and the lid. Moreover, in view of the ratio of liquid to solid, one part of material to be dyed is usually in contact with about ten parts, for example, of a dye solution. The capacity within the space enclosed by the beaker body and the lid is usually from about 300 c.c. to 400 c.c. but the amount of a dye solution added is usually only about 100 c.c. Therefore, a dye solution is just splashed onto the yarn surface when shaking or rotating the beaker so that it is difficult to sufficiently dye the interior of a yarn in a short time, resulting in a dyed yarn with poor uniformity in coloration.
On the other hand, a controlled addition of additive and/or a dye solution into a beaker at a selected time is also desirable in order to control a uniform dyeing. In case of a conventional sample dyeing machine as shown in FIG. 3, several beakers (beaker bodies 1 with lids 2) are arranged along the periphery of a circular disk 5 in such a manner that their longitudinal axes extend slanted in different planes with respect to the axis of rotation of the circular disk 5. A dye solution flows more irregularly in those beakers while rotating so it is not confirmed whether a yarn or cloth to be dyed is thoroughly impregnated. Besides, it is difficult to dispense a liquid to selected beakers while they are moving.

Beaker for sample dyeing machine and sample dyeing


Extreme ultraviolet (EUV) exposure apparatuses and methods, and methods of manufacturing a semiconductor device by using the exposure method, which minimize an error caused by a mirror in an EUV exposure process to improve an overlay error, are provided. The EUV exposure apparatus includes an EUV source configured to generate and output EUV, first illumination optics configured to transfer the EUV to an EUV mask, projection optics configured to project the EUV, reflected from the EUV mask, onto an exposure target, a laser source configured to generate and output a laser beam for heating, and second illumination optics configured to irradiate the laser beam onto at least one mirror included in the projection optics.

The inventive concepts relate to exposure apparatuses and/or exposure methods, and more particularly, to an exposure apparatuses and/or methods using extreme ultraviolet (EUV).
Recently, as a semiconductor circuit line width becomes finer, a light source having a shorter wavelength is needed. For example, EUV is being used as an exposure light source. Due to an absorption characteristic of EUV, a reflective EUV mask is being used in an EUV exposure process. Also, illumination optics for transferring EUV to an EUV mask and projection optics for projecting EUV reflected from the EUV mask onto an exposure target may each include a plurality of mirrors. As a technical level of an exposure process increases progressively, a small error occurring in the EUV mask or the mirrors may cause a severe error in forming a pattern on a wafer.

Extreme ultraviolet exposure apparatus and method, and method of manufacturing semiconductor device by using the exposure method


A process of administering a probiotic composition containing bacteria effective for eliminating, inhibiting or controlling salmonellae colonization in reptiles and/or amphibians, for example, in their intestine, e.g., small intestine, caecum, colon, and/or fecal matter or other excreta or secreta. The probiotic may contain bacteria including:. (a) at least one Lactobacillus species; PA1 (b) at least one Bacillus species; PA1 (c) at least one Bifidobacterium species; PA1 (d) at least one Aspergillus species other than Aspergillus flavus; and PA1 (e) at least one Enterococcus species.. Optionally, the probiotic composition may be further formulated with a suitable carrier including, but not limited to, lactose, dried milk, dextrose, mixtures thereof and the like.

The invention is directed to a method for controlling or inhibiting salmonellae colonization in reptiles and/or amphibians. More particularly, the present invention is directed to a method comprising administering a probiotic composition for the effective control, elimination or inhibition of salmonellae colonization in reptiles and/or amphibians such as iguanas, turtles, snakes, frogs and the like and to prevent such reptiles and/or amphibians from harboring the salmonellae in amounts sufficient to infect animals and humans.
It is well recognized that reptiles and/or amphibians are typically asymptomatic carriers of salmonellae. Often, the salmonellae are present within the intestine, e.g., small intestine, colon, caecum, and/or fecal matter of the reptile and/or amphibian. The spread of salmonellae from asymptomatic reptilian and/or amphibian carriers presents a substantial health hazard to animals and to humans. For example, the most recognized reptilian contaminant condition among zoo personnel and their families is Salmonellosis. All salmonellae serotypes should be considered potential pathogens. See D. R. Mader, MS, DVM, Reptiles Zoonoses and Threats to Public Health, Reptile Medicine & Surgery, Chapter 3, pp. 21-24 (1996).
Further examples are noted below. Health officials blamed the death of a newborn infant on prior contact by the baby's mother with an iguana. See, Richards, B., Man's New Best Friend: the Scaly Iguana, The Wall Street Journal (Jul. 17, 1995). Indirect contact with the family iguana led to the death of a three week old boy in Indiana. See also, The Associated Press News, The News Journal, Bridgeville, Ind. (Feb. 2, 1996); Nancy Armour, Infant's Death May be Linked to Pet Iguana, The League of Florida Herpetological Societies, Reptiles in the News, Associated Press, pp. 4-5 (July 1996); Iguana Blamed for Baby Death, The Associated Press News Service, Dateline, Southbend, Ind. (Feb. 1, 1996); Reptile Associated Salmonella Q & A, California Zoological Supply, Rev. March 1996, Reference Sheet #1101; and Reptile Associated Salmonella, California Zoological Supply, Rev. March 1996, Reference Sheet #1101. Approximately fifty people were stricken with Salmonellosis as a result of contact with a Komodo dragon at the Denver zoo. See, Health Authorities Trace Denver Zoo Lizard as Cause of Salmonella Outbreak, American Press, Lake Charles, La. (Mar. 2, 1996); and Carnivorous Lizards Make 50 People Sick, The Vivarium, Herp News from Around the World, Vol. 8, Issue 1 (1996). A forty year old man was hospitalized because of an acute illness after having cleaned an aquarium inhabited by two iguanas that tested positive for salmonellae. Each year about 25,000 children five years old and under catch a salmonellae infection from pet iguanas. See, Risky Reptiles, PARENTS, p. 30 (January 1996). See also, J. M. Corliss, Herp Health SALMONELLA--A Possible Health Threat, Captive Breeding, Vol. 3, No.1, pp. 17-18; and M. D. Fox, Recent Trends in Salmonella Epidimeology, JAVMA, Vol. 165, No. 11, pp. 990-993 (1974).
Of the two million cases of human Salmonellosis in the United States between 1970 and 1971, 280,000 (14%) were linked to pet turtles. As many as 78.8 percent of snakes appear to be harboring Salmonella arizona. The percent of reptiles harboring salmonellae of various species may be as high as 83.6 to 93.7 percent. See R. J. Chiodini et al., Salmonellosis in Reptiles: A Review, Vol. 5, American Journal of Epidemiology, pp. 494-499 (1981). In 1994 and 1995, health departments in 13 states reported unusual strains of salmonellae bacteria that were tracked back to reptiles. See, N. Armour, The Associated Press News Service, (Feb. 1, 1996); and Expect salmonella "resistance transfer" flap, Pro Farmer, Vol. 25, No. 15 (Apr. 12, 1997).
Despite the efforts of researchers and public health agencies, the incidence of human Salmonellosis has increased over the past 20 years. The number of actual reported cases of human salmonellae infection exceeds 40,000 per year. However, the Center for Disease Control estimates that the true incidence of human Salmonellosis in the United States may be as high as 2 to 4 million per year.
Given these numbers and the knowledge that a high proportion of reptiles and/or amphibians are asymptomatic carriers of salmonellae wherein fecal carriage rates may be more than 90 percent, there is an ongoing and growing need to effectively inhibit, eliminate and/or effectively control the presence of salmonellae in reptiles and/or amphibians.
The literature and research is absent of any showing of a probiotic (a direct-fed-microbial or DFM) having the ability to inhibit, control or eliminate pathogens such as salmonellae from reptiles and/or amphibians. Further, as noted, the reported literature is replete with zoonotic concerns of Salmonellosis. Current laboratory findings have shown that reptiles and/or amphibians can harbor more than one species of salmonellae. Other laboratory findings have now shown that healthy reptiles, for example, iguanas can flourish and survive in the absence of any salmonellae infestation or even colonization so that salmonellae may be inhibited, eliminated or controlled from an infected reptile without detriment to its health. Thus, it is most preferable to eliminate salmonellae altogether from the reptiles and/or amphibians that harbor them, especially the asymptomatic carriers of salmonellae. However, it may suffice to merely reduce the level of salmonellae infestation or colonization in reptiles and/or amphibians to the degree that human infection through exposure to reptilian and/or amphibian secretions and/or excretions including fecal matter including or through handling or contact with reptiles and/or amphibians is substantially eliminated.
While antibiotics have been used for reducing salmonellae colonization in reptiles, antibiotic use has been futile. Antibiotic use has ultimately led to the growth of antibiotic resistant strains of salmonellae. Moreover, once antibiotic treatment is discontinued, the salmonellae once again become active. Thus, the use of probiotics which are relatively immune to promoting the growth of resistant strains of salmonellae appears more and more attractive.
Uses of probiotics in poultry are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,308,615 (DeLoach et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 5,589,168 (Allen et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 5,604,127 (Nisbet et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 5,478,557 (Nisbet et al.) and U.S. Pat. No. 5,340,577 (Nisbet et al.) However, none of these patents are directed to the use of probiotic compositions in reptiles and/or amphibians for the elimination, inhibition or control of salmonellae infestation.

Process for control, elimination or inhibition of salmonellae in reptiles and/or amphibians


A membrane electrode assembly for polymer electrolyte fuel cells consisting of a polymer electrolyte membrane, both faces of which are in contact with porous reaction layers and gas distributor layers. The reaction layers contain noble metal catalysts supported on carbon and a proton-conducting polymer, a so-called ionomer. At least one of the two reaction layers also contains a noble metal black.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention provides fuel cells, in particular PEM fuel cells in which a solid polymer is used as electrolyte.
2. Description of Prior Art
Fuel cells convert a fuel and an oxidising agent which are spatially separated from each other at two electrodes into electricity, heat and water. Hydrogen or a hydrogen-rich gas may be used as the fuel and oxygen or air as the oxidising agent. The process of energy conversion in the fuel cell is characterised by particularly high efficiency. For this reason, fuel cells in combination with electric motors are becoming more and more important as an alternative to traditional internal combustion engines.
The so-called polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEM fuel cell) is suitable for use as an energy converter in motor vehicles because of its compact structure, its power density and its high efficiency.
The PEM fuel cell consists of a stacked arrangement ("stack") of membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs), between which are arranged bipolar plates for supplying gas and conducting electrical current. A membrane electrode assembly consists of a polymer electrolyte membrane, to both sides of which are applied reaction layers and gas distributor layers. One of the reaction layers is designed as an anode for the oxidation of hydrogen and the second reaction layer is designed as a cathode for the reduction of oxygen. The arrangement of reaction layer and gas distributor layer is called an electrode for the membrane electrode assembly in the context of this invention. The gas distributor layers usually consist of carbon fibre paper or a non-woven carbon cloth and facilitate good access by the reaction gases to the reaction layers and effective removal of the cell current. The reaction layers for anodes and cathodes contain so-called electrocatalysts which catalytically support the particular reaction (oxidation of hydrogen or reduction of oxygen). Metals from the platinum group in the Periodic Table of Elements are preferably used as the catalytically active components. In the majority of cases, so-called supported catalysts, in which the catalytically active platinum group metal has been applied in highly dispersed form to the surface of a conductive support material, are used. The average crystallite size of the platinum group metals is between about 1 and about 10 nm. Finely divided carbon blacks have proved useful as support materials.
The polymer electrolyte membrane consists of proton-conducting polymer materials. These materials are also called ionomers for short in the following. A tetrafluorethylene/fluorovinylether copolymer with acid functions, in particular sulfonic acid groups, is preferably used. Such a material is sold, for example, under the tradename Nafion® by E.I. DuPont. However, other, in particular fluorine-free, ionomer materials such as sulfonated polyetherketones or arylketones or polybenzimidazoles may also be used.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,229,490 discloses a process for producing a fuel cell electrode. This process comprises hydrophobizing a carbon fibre paper and then coating with a graphite/platinum black/PTFE mixture and sintering. Fuel cell electrodes produced in this way have a high platinum load and do not contain a proton-conducting polymer. Thus only a small part of the platinum used is contacted in such a way that it can take part in the electrolytic process.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,876,115 describes a process for treating a porous gas diffusion electrode which has a catalyst load of less than 0.5 mg/cm2 on carbon particles. The electrode is impregnated with a solution of a proton-conducting material. This coats the surfaces of the carbon particles with the proton-conducting material.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,234,777 discloses a membrane electrode assembly which consists of a polymer electrolyte membrane and a layer formulated from a platinum supported catalyst and an ionomer. This layer is characterized in that it is less than 10 μm thick and the platinum supported catalyst is dispersed uniformly in the proton-conducting ionomer. The platinum load on the electrode is less than 0.35 mg/cm2. The electrode layers are in contact with the polymer electrolyte membrane.
Various processes are described for producing membrane electrode assemblies according to U.S. Pat. No. 5,234,777. In one embodiment, the Pt/C supported catalyst is dispersed in an alcoholic solution of the ionomer. This dispersion, also called an ink, is applied to a PTFE film release blank (PTFE: polytetrafluorethylene), dried and laminated onto the opposite faces of a polymer electrolyte membrane by hot pressing.
In another embodiment, the polymer electrolyte membrane is coated directly with an ink of a Pt/C supported catalyst and a solution of an ionomer. The applied layer is dried at a temperature of at least 150° C.
The reaction layers according to U.S. Pat. No. 5,234,777 are characterized by a homogeneous distribution of catalyst in the ionomer. As a result of hot pressing, dense and pore-free layers with a thickness of less than 10 μm, preferably 5 μm and with platinum loads of less than 0.35 mg Pt/cm2 are produced. In the case of membrane electrode assemblies according to U.S. Pat. No. 5,234,777, due to the dense, pore-free reaction layer, access by the reaction gases to the catalyst is restricted. This has a negative effect on the electrochemical performance of the PEM cell, in particular when operating with dilute gases such as air or reformate gas. The possible use of air and reformate gas instead of oxygen and hydrogen, however, is an important prerequisite for the economically viable use of fuel cells in motor vehicles.
A further disadvantage of the process described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,234,777 is the high drying temperature of at least 150° C. Under these conditions, solvent vapours in contact with the catalyst layers can ignite and destroy the membrane electrode assembly.
DE 196 02 629 A1 discloses a process for producing a membrane electrode assembly in which a noble metal catalyst on a carbon support is used, on which the ionomer is adsorbed as a colloid. To achieve this, a colloidal solution of the ionomer is prepared in a suitable organic solvent and the supported catalyst is treated therewith. The supported catalyst coated with colloid is processed to form an ink and an electrode is prepared therewith which is compression moulded with the polymer electrolyte membrane.
Membrane electrode assemblies produced according to DE 196 02 629 A1, however, do not exhibit improved access by the reaction gases to the catalyst. Furthermore, it is difficult to achieve defined and reproducible distribution of the ionomer in colloidal form on the supported catalyst. The stability of the colloidal ionomer is limited. Transfer of the process to mass-production is thus possible to only a limited extent.
EP 0 797 265 A1 describes a membrane electrode assembly for PEM fuel cells with a high total porosity and improved electrochemical performance. The high porosity is achieved by using pore-producers in combination with a specific spray process. The process has the disadvantage that the pore-producers lead to contamination and additional steps are required in order to remove the pore-producers from the membrane electrode assembly.
For wide commercial use of PEM fuel cells in motor vehicles, further improvement in the electrochemical cell performance and a clear reduction in the system costs is required. This is a prerequisite for electrical drives using power supplied by fuel cells being able to compete successfully with traditional internal combustion engines.
In order to increase the efficiency, the performance of fuel cells when operated under a part load, that is to say at low current density, must be further increased. In order to achieve this, the structure of the reaction layers containing the electrocatalyst has to be further improved.

Membrane electrode unit for polymer electrolyte fuel cells and a process for the production thereof


The present disclosure provides a manufacturing method of an aluminum alloy composition. The manufacturing method includes the following steps in the sequence set forth: (S1) providing an aluminum master alloy, wherein the aluminum master alloy comprises aluminum and copper; (S2) adding chromium to the aluminum master alloy and performing a first melting; (S3) adding a tantalum-chromium alloy and performing a second melting; and (S4) adding silver and performing a third melting to form the aluminum alloy composition.

The density of aluminum alloy material is about one third of that of copper or steel. The corrosion resistance, the processability, the thermal conductivity and the electrical conductivity of the aluminum alloy material are excellent. Moreover, the surface treatment characteristics of the aluminum alloy material are good. Therefore, the aluminum alloy material has been widely used in the fields of aerospace, automobiles, bridges, construction, machinery manufacturing, electrical furniture, semiconductors and so on.
In response to the requirements of different application fields, the mechanical properties of the aluminum alloy material are improved by adding other ingredients to an aluminum master alloy. Taking the application of a speed reducer or a force sensor as an example, the aluminum alloy material must meet the basic requirements of corrosion resistance, fatigue resistance, wear resistance, high-temperature resistance, and high mechanical strength. It is a common way to improve the mechanical strength of aluminum alloy by adding a copper alloy or a copper-magnesium alloy to the aluminum master alloy. Thereby, an aluminum-copper-magnesium alloy with high mechanical strength is formed. However, while the mechanical strength of the aluminum-copper-magnesium alloys is improved, the problems of such as poor corrosion resistance, poor fatigue resistance, poor wear resistance and poor high-temperature resistance are caused. It fails to meet the basic requirements of speed reducer or force sensor.
Therefore, there is a need of providing an aluminum alloy composition with corrosion resistance, fatigue resistance, wear resistance and high-temperature resistance, and a manufacturing method thereof, so as to address the above issues encountered by the prior arts.

Aluminum alloy composition and manufacturing method thereof


A scroll shaping drum useful in the construction of tires and including an internal air cylinder having an inner sleeve member and a roller member positioned about the inner sleeve member includes a plurality of cam follower assemblies anchored within the inner sleeve member. Each cam follower assembly includes a hub and a cam follower member positioned about the hub, and the cam follower member of each assembly is accepted by an appropriately-shaped slot defined in the roller member. The inner sleeve member defines an internally-threaded opening for accepting the hub of each assembly, and each hub includes a mounting portion positioned within a corresponding internally-threaded opening of the inner sleeve member. In addition, an externally-threaded insert member having a length which is larger than the thickness of the wall of the inner sleeve member is threadably accepted by the internally-threaded opening of the inner sleeve member and has a central through-opening within which the mounting portion of the hub is force-fitted.

This invention relates generally to a scroll shaping drum used in tire construction and relates, more particularly, to the means by which components of the shaping drum are made to follow a predetermined path as an internal air cylinder within the shaping drum is actuated or de-actuated.
The class of scroll shaping drums with which this invention is to be compared includes those which have an internal air cylinder whose inner wall is provided by the outer cylindrical surface of a sleeve member (i.e. of thin wall construction) and whose outer wall is provided by the inner surface of a roller member encircling the sleeve member. The roller member supports a plurality of linkage members which are pivotally connected thereto and which are partly responsible for the expansion and contraction of the diameter of the shaping drum as the linkage members are guided between collapsed and expanded conditions as the roller member is moved vertically along the sleeve member in response to the actuation and de-actuation of the internal air cylinder.
Furthermore, there is provided between the sleeve member and the roller member positioned thereabout a plurality of cam follower assemblies which are each anchored within the inner sleeve member by way of a hub and has a cam follower member secured about the hub. Furthermore, the cam follower members of these cam follower assemblies are slidably accepted by appropriately-shaped slots defined in the roller member so that upon actuation or de-actuation of the internal air cylinder, the roller member is urged along the length of the sleeve member as the movement of the roller member is guided by the cooperation between the cam follower members and the slots defined in the roller member.
Heretofore and after several cycles, or prolonged use, of a shaping drum of the aforedescribed class, the cam follower assemblies, and in particular, the hubs thereof, have broken in two and permitted the cam follower members thereof to free themselves from the roller member slots within which they are accepted. If, however, the cam follower members are ever freed from the roller member slots, the shaping drum is rendered inoperative.
It would be desirable to provide a new and improved shaping drum of the aforedescribed class whose cam follower assemblies are provided with an improved resistance to damage which can result from repeated cycling of the shaping drum.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a new and improved shaping drum having a construction which provides its cam follower assemblies with an increased resistance to damage due to repeated cycling, or prolonged use, of the shaping drum.
Another object of the present invention is to provide such a new and improved shaping drum whose construction enables its cam follower assemblies to resist forces to which the cam follower assemblies are normally exposed during use of the shaping drum.
Still another object of the present invention is to provides such a new and improved shaping drum which is uncomplicated in structure, yet effective in operation.

Cam follower assembly for thin walled cylinder of scroll shaping drum used in tire construction


A method of reading data from a memory device is disclosed. The method comprises accessing preexisting data from a location in the memory device in response to a read command and identifying an error in the preexisting data. The identified error is corrected for transmission as corrected data. Error information representing the identified error is stored while the preexisting data is retained in the location of the memory device in uncorrected form.

Error correction codes (ECC) are used in a variety of signaling applications to detect and correct errors relating to data transmission and storage. The codes generally provide redundancy to the original data so that, when the data is encoded via a particular ECC algorithm, a certain number of data errors may be identified and corrected upon decoding. The redundant portions of the encoded data may take the form of checksums, parity bits, or the like, depending on the type of ECC employed.
Memory systems have employed ECC to encode write data stored in a memory array. As the encoded data is accessed and decoded in response to a read operation, errors are detected and corrected. The corrected read data may then be transmitted back to the requesting device (such as a host or memory controller), and written back into the memory device as corrected data.
As memory density (through decreased device size and the storage of multiple bits per cell) and signaling rates increase, and with them, corresponding bit error rates, operations to re-write corrected data back into a given memory array may be expected to rise. Numerous re-writes may be problematic for memory devices that are susceptible to write endurance issues, such as flash or phase change memory devices. Moreover, numerous write operations to a flash or phase change array dissipate a significant amount of power.


A record within a destination virtual file is generated on a destination node of a distributed data storage system. The record comprises (i) a link directed to a partition of a source virtual file stored on a source node and (ii) partition criteria characterizing the partition. The source virtual file is mapped to a chain of linked pages stored in a page buffer of the distributed data storage system and the partitioning criteria is used by at least one of the source node and the destination node to identify data associated with the partition. A request is later received at the destination node to access data defined by the destination virtual file. Data is provided, in response to the request, from the partition of the source virtual file stored on the source node using the link and the partitioning criteria. Related apparatus, systems, techniques and articles are also described.

In a distributed data storage system, data containers sometimes become so big that they must be partitioned/split over several nodes due to memory limitations and/or performance issues. Partitioning a data container means splitting a data container into several parts as well as combining smaller data containers into a single data container and moving associated data to another node. With some conventional database systems, this requires not only moving the data but also moving one or more logs tracking changes to such data container. These operations can be processor intensive and can also consume additional storage.

Partitioning data within a distributed data storage system using virtual file links


A system for trading Certificates of Deposits, Discount Notes, CMOs, Corporate Bonds, High Yield Bonds, Illiquid Agency Securities, Mortgage Pass-Through Securities, Secondary Zero comprises an updatable offering inventory module and a price discovery module. The system allows users to send Request for Quotes (RFQs) to pre-determined dealers and capture dealer responses thereto. Traders who send RFQs have the ability to accept the best dealer response and execute a trade as an agent or to improve the best dealer response and execute the trade as a principal.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system and method for trading taxable and non-taxable securities and/or financial instruments; and more particularly to a computer-implemented system for automatically executing market orders for Certificates of Deposits, Discount Notes, CMOs, Corporate Bonds, High Yield Bonds, Illiquid Agency Securities, Mortgage Pass-Through Securities, Secondary Zero Instruments, and Municipal Securities.
2. Description of the Prior Art
New client demands, technological innovations and tighter regulatory controls are changing the shape of the money management industry. A new trend in asset management now provides clients with systems that allow execution of trades without concomitant fees. The evolution of the Internet and the development of new technological capabilities are pressing security houses to develop methods that facilitate the need for electronic trading. In traditional asset management, customers may be advised by financial advisors/investment executives who work with traders to execute securities trades on behalf of the customers. When a customer desire to trade securities, the ability of a trader to communicate efficiently with dealers can be the difference between profitability and un-profitability for the customer. Therefore, the need for highly efficient electronic trading is extremely valuable.
With the growth of electronic trading, however, comes concerns about the lack of price transparency and liquidity of securities. Accordingly, the SEC and other regulatory bodies have called on the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) to: (1) adopt rules requiring dealers to report transactions to the NASD and to develop systems to receive and redistribute transactions prices on an immediate basis; and (2) create a system for transactions to enable regulators to take a proactive role in supervising the corporate debt market rather than only reacting to complaints brought by investors. Levitt, Arthur, Chairman of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, Sep. 9, 1998, The Importance of Transparency in America=s Debt Market, Speech at the Media Studies Center, New York, N.Y. As stated by Chairman Levitt, A[t]ransparency, disclosure and accountability . . . are the essential ingredients to confidence. And without [confidence] . . . markets can neither sustain long term growth not adapt to a rapidly changing environment. Ibid.
The prior art has recognized the need to adopt computerized trading systems. U.S. Pat. No. 4,942,616 to Linstroth et al. discloses an apparatus and method for use by a broker that includes a memory for holding a number of market prices, each corresponding to a security or a commodity. A speech synthesizer provides price quotes to customers over the telephone. The apparatus is also capable of reporting price trigger violations to a pre-determined telephone number.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,758,328 to Giovannoli teaches a computerized system and method for forming a computer-based communications network, which includes network buyers or network vendors. The system allows for the processing of requests for quotations for goods and services through at least one central processing unit.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,674,044 to Kalmus et al. teaches a data processing apparatus that creates an automated trading market for one or more securities. This reference discloses a system that includes means for retrieving the best obtaining bid and asking prices from a remote database.
None of these or other references, however, teach a system or method that includes a price discovery module for sending Requests for Quotes (RFQ) to pre-determined dealers and for receiving/capturing dealer responses to the RFQs. Moreover, the prior art fails to show a system having means for participants to access historical data for price and trade information. In addition, there is needed a system or method that allows a user who sent the RFQ to either accept the best response and execute the trade as an agent or improve the best response and execute the trade as a principal.

System and method for trading taxable and non-taxable securities


An instrument and method for measuring the invert of a sewer pipe relative to a manhole employs a horizontal bar which spans the manhole and rests upon its rim. A sight rod is slideably mounted on a sleeve fixed to the bar. The sleeve has adjustments for mounting the bar in true vertical and plumb position with a spirit level. Removably connected to the lower end of the rod is an arm which extends laterally and below the rod at its distal end. The rod is lowered until the distal end of the arm contacts the invert of the pipe. The vertical distance between the bottom of the arm at contact with the invert and the intersection of the rod with the bottom of the horizontal bar yields the desired elevation. It may be read directly off the sight rod when the rod is specially marked with corrected graduations.

This invention relates to surveying instruments and more particularly to an instrument for measuring the elevation of sewer pipes relative to manholes, to determine the flow line.
When surveying sewer lines, it is necessary to determine the elevation of the sewer pipes where they enter the box union. The vertical distance from the lowest point of the interior of the pipe, or "invert", to the upper edge of the manhole frame at the top of the box is currently measured by an awkward and labor intensive procedure. Surveying a sewer line requires making this measurement frequently at considerable cost. The measurement is critical in certifying that proper slope is maintained for drainage. Because the measurement is so awkward, it is subject to considerable error.

Sewer invert elevation measuring instrument