A method for treating a subject is provided, including applying electrical stimulation to a site of the subject selected from the group consisting of: a sphenopalatine ganglion (SPG), a greater palatine nerve, a lesser palatine nerve, a sphenopalatine nerve, a communicating branch between a maxillary nerve and an SPG, an otic ganglion, an afferent fiber going into the otic ganglion, an efferent fiber going out of the otic ganglion, an infraorbital nerve, a vidian nerve, a greater superficial petrosal nerve, and a lesser deep petrosal nerve. The stimulation is configured to excite nervous tissue of the site at a strength sufficient to induce at least one neuroprotective occurrence selected from the group consisting of: an increase in cerebral blood flow (CBF) of the subject, and a release of one or more neuroprotective substances, and insufficient to induce a significant increase in permeability of a blood-brain barrier (BBB) of the subject.

The blood-brain barrier (BBB) is a unique feature of the central nervous system (CNS) which isolates the brain from the systemic blood circulation. To maintain the homeostasis of the CNS, the BBB prevents access to the brain of many substances circulating in the blood.
The BBB is formed by a complex cellular system of endothelial cells, astroglia, pericytes, perivascular macrophages, and a basal lamina. Compared to other tissues, brain endothelia have the most intimate cell-to-cell connections: endothelial cells adhere strongly to each other, forming structures specific to the CNS called "tight junctions" or zonula occludens. They involve two opposing plasma membranes which form a membrane fusion with cytoplasmic densities on either side. These tight junctions prevent cell migration or cell movement between endothelial cells. A continuous uniform basement membrane surrounds the brain capillaries. This basal lamina encloses contractile cells called pericytes, which form an intermittent layer and probably play some role in phagocytosis activity and defense if the BBB is breached. Astrocytic end feet, which cover the brain capillaries, build a continuous sleeve and maintain the integrity of the BBB by the synthesis and secretion of soluble growth factors (e.g., gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase) essential for the endothelial cells to develop their BBB characteristics.
PCT Publication WO 01/85094 and U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,120,489 and 7,190,998 to Shalev and Gross, which are assigned to the assignee of the present patent application and are incorporated herein by reference, describe apparatus for modifying a property of a brain of a patient, including electrodes applied to a sphenopalatine ganglion (SPG) or a neural tract originating in or leading to the SPG. A control unit drives the electrodes to apply a current capable of inducing (a) an increase in permeability of a blood-brain barrier (BBB) of the patient, (b) a change in cerebral blood flow of the patient, and/or (c) an inhibition of parasympathetic activity of the SPG.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,853,858 to Shalev, which is assigned to the assignee of the present application and is incorporated herein by reference, describes apparatus for delivering a Non Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug (NSAID) supplied to a body of a subject for delivery to at least a portion of a central nervous system (CNS) of the subject via a systemic blood circulation of the subject. The apparatus includes a stimulator adapted to stimulate at least one site of the subject, so as to cause an increase in passage of the NSAID from the systemic blood circulation across a blood brain barrier (BBB) of the subject to the portion of the CNS, during at least a portion of the time that the NSAID is present in the blood, the site selected from the list consisting of: a sphenopalatine ganglion (SPG), an anterior ethmoidal nerve, a posterior ethmoidal nerve, a communicating branch between an anterior ethmoidal nerve and a retro-orbital branch of an SPG, a communicating branch between a posterior ethmoidal nerve and a retro-orbital branch of an SPG, a greater palatine nerve, a lesser palatine nerve, a sphenopalatine nerve, a communicating branch between a maxillary nerve and an SPG, a nasopalatine nerve, a posterior nasal nerve, an infraorbital nerve, an otic ganglion, an afferent fiber going into the otic ganglion, an efferent fiber going out of the otic ganglion, a vidian nerve, a greater superficial petrosal nerve, and a lesser deep petrosal nerve.
US Patent Application Publication 2004/0220644 to Shalev et al, which is assigned to the assignee of the present application and is incorporated herein by reference, describes a method for treating a subject, comprising positioning at least one electrode at at least one site of the subject for less than about 3 hours, applying an electrical current to the site of the subject, and configuring the current to increase cerebral blood flow (CBF) of the subject, so as to treat a condition of the subject. The site is selected from the list consisting of: a sphenopalatine ganglion (SPG), a greater palatine nerve, a lesser palatine nerve, a sphenopalatine nerve, a communicating branch between a maxillary nerve and an SPG, an otic ganglion, an afferent fiber going into the otic ganglion, an efferent fiber going out of the otic ganglion, an infraorbital nerve, a vidian nerve, a greater superficial petrosal nerve, and a lesser deep petrosal nerve. Also described is an apparatus comprising an elongated support element having a length of between about 1.8 cm and about 4 cm, and having a proximal end and a distal end; one or more electrodes fixed to the support element in a vicinity of the distal end thereof; a receiver, fixed to the support element in a vicinity of the proximal end thereof; and a control unit, adapted to be coupled to the receiver, and adapted to drive the electrodes to apply an electrical current to tissue of the subject, and configure the current to have a pulse frequency of between about 10 Hz and about 50 Hz, an amplitude of between about 0.2 V and about 10 V, a pulse width of between about 50 microseconds and about 5 milliseconds, and, in alternation, on periods of between about 1 second and about 2 minutes, and off periods of between about 1 second and about 2 minutes.
The following patent application publications, all of which are assigned to the assignee of the present application and are incorporated herein by reference, may be of interest: WO 03/090599, WO 03/105658, WO 04/044947, WO 04/043217, WO 04/043334, and WO 05/030118.
US Patent Application Publication 2003/0176898 to Gross et al., which is assigned to the assignee of the present application and is incorporated herein by reference, describes apparatus for treating a condition of an eye of a subject, comprising a stimulator adapted to stimulate at least one site of the subject, such as the SPG, so as to treat the eye condition.
US Patent Application Publication 2005/0159790 to Shalev, which is assigned to the assignee of the present application and is incorporated herein by reference, describes a method for facilitating a diagnosis of a condition of a subject, including applying a current to a site of the subject, such as the SPG, and configuring the current to increase conductance of molecules from brain tissue of the subject through a blood brain barrier (BBB) of the subject into a systemic blood circulation of the subject. The method also includes sensing a quantity of the molecules from a site outside of the brain of the subject, following initiation of application of the current.
US Patent Application Publication 2005/0266099 to Shalev, which is assigned to the assignee of the present application and is incorporated herein by reference, describes a method for modifying a property of a brain of a patient includes presenting an odorant to an air passage of the patient, the odorant having been selected for presentation to the air passage because it is such as to increase conductance of molecules from a systemic blood circulation of the patient through a blood brain barrier (BBB) of the brain into brain tissue of the patient. The molecules are selected from the group consisting of: a pharmacological agent, a therapeutic agent, an endogenous agent, and an agent for facilitating a diagnostic procedure.
PCT Publication WO 04/010923 to Gross et al., which is assigned to the assignee of the present application and is incorporated herein by reference, describes a chemical agent delivery system, including a chemical agent supplied to a body of a subject for delivery to a site in a central nervous system of said subject via blood of said subject; and a stimulator for stimulating parasympathetic fibers associated with the SPG, thereby rendering a blood brain barrier (BBB) of said subject permeable to said chemical agent during at least a portion of the time that said chemical agent is present in said blood.
PCT Publication WO 04/043218 to Gross et al., which is assigned to the assignee of the present application and is incorporated herein by reference, describes apparatus for treating a subject, including (a) a stimulation device, adapted to be implanted in a vicinity of a site selected from the list consisting of: a SPG and a neural tract originating in or leading to the SPG; and (b) a connecting element, coupled to the stimulation device, and adapted to be passed through at least a portion of a greater palatine canal of the subject.
PCT Publication WO 04/045242 to Shalev, which is assigned to the assignee of the present application and is incorporated herein by reference, describes apparatus for treating a condition of an ear of a subject, comprising a stimulator adapted to stimulate at least one site of the subject, such as the SPG, at a level sufficient to treat the ear condition.
PCT Publication WO 05/030025 to Shalev et al., which is assigned to the assignee of the present application and is incorporated herein by reference, describes apparatus for treating a subject, including an elongated generally rigid support element having a length of at least 1.8 cm, and having a distal end. The apparatus also includes one or more electrodes fixed to the support element in a vicinity of the distal end thereof, and configured to be positioned in a vicinity of a site of the subject, such as the SPG, when the support element is inserted into a body of the subject, such that a portion of the support element remains outside of the body. The apparatus further includes a control unit, coupled to the support element, and adapted to drive the electrodes to apply an electrical current to the site, and to configure the current to increase cerebral blood flow (CBF) of the subject, so as to treat a condition of the subject.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,526,318 to Ansarinia and related PCT Publication WO 01/97905 to Ansarinia, which are incorporated herein by reference, describe a method for the suppression or prevention of various medical conditions, including pain, movement disorders, autonomic disorders, and neuropsychiatric disorders. The method includes positioning an electrode on or proximate to at least one of the patient's SPG, sphenopalatine nerves, or vidian nerves, and activating the electrode to apply an electrical signal to such nerve. In a further embodiment for treating the same conditions, the electrode used is activated to dispense a medication solution or analgesic to such nerve.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,405,079 to Ansarinia, which is incorporated herein by reference, describes a method for the suppression or prevention of various medical conditions, including pain, movement disorders, autonomic disorders, and neuropsychiatric disorders. The method includes positioning an electrode adjacent to or around a sinus, the dura adjacent a sinus, or falx cerebri, and activating the electrode to apply an electrical signal to the site. In a further embodiment for treating the same conditions, the electrode dispenses a medication solution or analgesic to the site.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,788,975 to Whitehurst et al., which is incorporated herein by reference, describes an implantable stimulator with at least two electrodes that is small enough to have the electrodes located adjacent to a nerve structure at least partially responsible for epileptic seizures. The nerve structure may include a trigeminal ganglion or ganglia, a trigeminal nerve, or a branch of a trigeminal nerve, a greater occipital nerve, lesser occipital nerve, third occipital nerve, facial nerve, glossopharyngeal nerve, or a branch of any of these neural structures. Electrical stimulation of such targets may provide significant therapeutic benefit in the management of epilepsy.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,716,377 to Rise et al., which is incorporated herein by reference, describes techniques for stimulating the brain to treat movement disorders resulting in abnormal motor behavior by means of an implantable signal generator and electrode. A sensor is used to detect the symptoms resulting from the motion disorder. A microprocessor algorithm analyzes the output from the sensor in order to regulate the stimulation delivered to the brain.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,415,184 to Ishikawa et al., which is incorporated herein by reference, describes a ball semiconductor for stimulating a mass of nervous system brain tissue for therapeutic purposes. The ball is embedded in a mass of nervous system tissue of a brain. Electrical pulses generated and transmitted to the ball by a remote electrical pulse generator system are picked up by a receiving antenna of the ball, and are applied to an electrode pair of the ball to cause the mass of nervous system tissue of the brain located between output pads of the electrode to become stimulated, as therapy for a pathological condition, such as epilepsy.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,606,521 to Paspa et al., which is incorporated herein by reference, describes an implantable medical lead having markings, which aid in the accurate localization of lead electrodes at a specific point of the brain for neurostimulation. Also described is an implantable medical lead having a removable extension that provides a minimal length of excess lead protruding from the lead insertion site. The lead and method of implantation facilitate use of a neurostimulator device that is implanted directly in a patient's cranium.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,591,138 to Fischell et al., which is incorporated herein by reference, describes a system for treating neurological conditions by low-frequency time varying electrical stimulation. The system includes an electrical device for applying such low-frequency energy, in a range below approximately 10 Hz, to the patient's brain tissue. An implantable embodiment applies direct electrical stimulation to electrodes implanted in or on the patient's brain, while a non-invasive embodiment causes a magnetic field to induce electrical currents in the patient's brain.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,343,226 to Sunde et al., which is incorporated herein by reference, describes a quadripolar deep brain stimulation electrode for treating symptoms of central and peripheral nervous system disorders, such as Parkinson's disease, epilepsy, psychiatric illness, and intractable pain. It is important to determine the optimal placement of an implanted electrode. An electrode device is described that allows stimulation of a large volume of neural tissue in combination with simultaneous microelectrode recording. The device is described as allowing for a less traumatic localization of the optimal neural stimulation area by microelectrode recording in combination with the placement of the permanent deep brain stimulation electrode.
US Patent Application Publication 2005/0065427 to Magill et al., which is incorporated herein by reference, describes a method for locating the position of a selected neural center in the central nervous system, including stimulating neurons at a first central nervous system position, measuring the field potential evoked at a second central nervous system position, and comparing the evoked field potential against a known evoked field potential from said neural center.
US Patent Application Publication 2005/0113877 to Spinelli et al., which is incorporated herein by reference, describes implantable devices and methods for treating various disorders of the pelvic floor by means of electrical stimulation of the pudendal or other nerves. Neurophysiological monitoring is utilized to assess the evoked responses of the pudendal nerve, and thereby to provide a method for determining the optimal stimulation site.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,314,495 to Kovacs, which is incorporated herein by reference, describes a microelectrode interface for localizing the stimulation and recording of action potentials at a portion of a nervous system. A circuit is described for applying current only to one or more selected pairs of microelectrodes in an array of microelectrodes. Row and column select lines, switches and multiplexes are used for passing current only between pairs of microelectrodes at selected locations in the array for stimulating a portion of a nervous system only at selected locations.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,432,986 to Levin and PCT Publication WO 99/03473 to Levin, which are incorporated herein by reference, describe techniques for inhibiting a cerebral neurovascular disorder or a muscular headache. The techniques include intranasally administering a pharmaceutical composition comprising a long-acting local anesthetic.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,491,940 to Levin, US Patent Application 2003/0133877 to Levin, and PCT Publication WO 00/44432 to Levin, which are incorporated herein by reference, describe techniques for inhibiting a cerebral neurovascular disorder or a muscular headache. The techniques include intranasally administering a pharmaceutical composition comprising a long-acting local anesthetic. Apparatus for delivering or applying the composition is also described.
US Patent Application 2001/0004644 to Levin and PCT Publication WO 01/43733 to Levin, which are incorporated herein by reference, describe techniques for inhibiting cephalic inflammation, including meningeal inflammation and cerebral inflammation. The techniques include intranasally administering a long-acting local anesthetic. Apparatus for delivering or applying the composition is also described, including a dorsonasally implanted electronic neural stimulator, such as a transepithelial neural stimulation device.
The following patents and patent application publications, all of which are incorporated herein by reference, may be of interest: U.S. Pat. No. 5,756,071 to Mattern et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,752,515 to Jolesz et al., PCT Publications WO 03/084591, WO 03/020350, WO 03/000310, WO 02/068031, and WO 02/068029 to Djupesland, US Patent Application Publication 2003/0079742 to Giroux, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,725,471 and 6,086,525 to Davey et al., PCT Publication WO 02/32504 to Zanger et al., US Patent Application Publication 2003/0050527 to Fox et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,432,986 to Levin, PCT Publication WO 99/03473 to Levin, U.S. Pat. No. 6,491,940 to Levin, US Patent Application 2003/0133877 to Levin, and PCT Publication WO 00/44432 to Levin, US Patent Application 2001/0004644 to Levin, PCT Publication WO 01/43733 to Levin, U.S. Pat. No. 4,867,164 to Zabara, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,341,236 and 6,671,556 to Osorio et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,671,555 to Gielen et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,978,702 to Ward et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,205,359 to Boveja, U.S. Pat. No. 6,470,212 to Weijand et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,640,137 to MacDonald, U.S. Pat. No. 6,735,475 to Whitehurst et al., PCT Publication WO 01/97906 to Whitehurst, U.S. Pat. No. 6,922,590 to Whitehurst, PCT Publication WO 05/062829 to Whitehurst et al., and US Patent Application Publication 2005/0154419 to Whitehurst et al.
Hotta H et al., in an article entitled, "Effects of stimulating the nucleus basalis of Meynert on blood flow and delayed neuronal death following transient ischemia in rat cerebral cortes," Jap J Phys 52:383-393 (2002), which is incorporated herein by reference, report that stimulation of the nucleus basalis of Meynert (NBM) in the rat was accompanied by vasodilatation and increase in cortical blood flow. They suggest that NBM-originating vasodilative activation can protect the ischemia-induced delayed death of cortical neurons by preventing a blood flow decrease in widespread cortices.
Reis D J et al., in an article entitled, "Electrical stimulation of cerebellar fastigial nucleus reduces ischemic infarction elicited by middle cerebral artery occlusion in rat," J Cereb Blood Flow Metab 11(5):810-8 (1991), which is incorporated herein by reference, report that electrical stimulation of the cerebellar fastigial nucleus (FN) profoundly increases cerebral blood flow via a cholinergic mechanism. Utilizing the rat middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) model, they demonstrated that one hour of electrical stimulation of the FN has the capacity to substantially reduce the infarct size at the rim of the cortex dorsal and ventral to the infarction, and medially within the thalamus and striatum corresponding to the penumbral zone. They conclude that excitation of an intrinsic system in brain represented in the rostral FN has the capacity to substantially reduce an ischemic infarction.
Matsui T et al., in an article entitled, "The effects of cervical spinal cord stimulation (cSCS) on experimental stroke," Pacing Clin Electrophysiol 12(4 Pt 2):726-32 (1989), which is incorporated herein by reference, report that cSCS increases regional cerebral blood flow, and, in a cat middle cerebral artery occlusion model (MCAO), reduced the rate of death within 24 hours after MCAO.
Segher O et al., in an article entitled, "Spinal cord stimulation reducing infract volume in model of focal cerebral ischemia in rats," J Neurosurg 99(1):131-137 (2003), which is incorporated herein by reference, demonstrate that spinal cord stimulation increases cerebral blood flow in rats and significantly reduces stroke volume, suggesting that spinal cord stimulation could be used for treatment and prevention of stroke.
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A low cost brake sensor incorporates a sensor portion extending through one of the rivet holes in the backing plate of the brake pad. A locking sleeve snaps onto the sensor portion and secures the sensor to the backing plate. Preferably, the locking sleeve has a lip which snaps into a groove in an outer periphery of a sensor portion. The present invention thus provides a relatively low cost and secure way for attaching the sensor to the brake pad. No modification of the lining or the backing plate is necessary.

This invention relates to a relatively low cost sensor which is easily and securely mounted to a brake pad.
Brakes in modern vehicles typically include a replaceable brake pad with a friction material added to a metal backing plate. One main type of such brake pads is for use in a cam-type brake. In these type brakes, a brake table provides the backing plate and is generally curved along the circumference of a vehicle wheel. A friction material is formed on the top surface of the table and is selectively brought into contact with the wheel.
In another type of brake, a generally planar disc is selectively brought into contact with a rotating member. The discs have friction material formed on a backing plate.
In either type of brake, the friction material is typically riveted to the underlying metal backing plate. The friction material wears with use of the brake, and it is desirable to have a sensor for indicating when the friction material has worn. These sensors provide operator feedback of when the brake pads should be replaced. The sensors have used many diverse algoriths and techniques to identify wear.
In the past, monitoring the sensors have required relatively complex and expensive structures. Often the proposed sensors have necessarily changed the formation of the friction material or the backing plate. Further, the prior art sensors have often required expensive and unique electrical connectors.
As one example, the sensors have sometimes been threaded devices which require threading of the backing plate. This is expensive and undesirable. Some proposed sensors have been inserted through the lining in the brake, and thus require modification to the lining. Such sensors have often required a pigtail connector design, with the connector being attached by the brake pad manufacturer. Further, this type sensor has often required miniaturized connector designs. All of the above result in a brake that is undesirably expensive and less robust than would be desired.
In a disclosed embodiment of this invention, a sensor is attached to a hole in the backing plate, and most preferably, to one of the rivet holes in the backing plate. That is, one of the rivet holes which typically receives a rivet to secure the friction material to the plate is left without a rivet. The sensor is mounted in the rivet hole. The sensor preferably has an outer shoulder which abuts a rear; face of the backing plate, and a forwardly extending sensor portion extending through the hole in the backing plate. Preferably, the forwardly extending portion has an outer diameter that is smaller than the inner diameter of the hole.
The sensor is locked to the backing plate by a locking sleeve received on the sensor from the lining side of the backing plate. The locking sleeve has a shoulder portion which has an outer diameter greater than the inner diameter of the hole such that the locking sleeve abuts one side of the plate and captures the sensor. Preferably, the locking sleeve has a finger which snaps into a groove in the sensor securing the sensor to the sleeve. Most preferably, the finger and groove extend around the entire circumference of the sleeve and sensor portion.
The above-described sensor is relatively easy to assemble and is relatively inexpensive. These and other features of the present invention can be best understood from the following specification and drawings, the following which is a brief description.


The upper portion of a magnetoresistive film is interposed between insulators in the lateral direction of a recording track in a current-perpendicular-to-the-plane structure magnetoresistive element. Domain control magnetic layers sandwich the upper portion of the magnetoresistive film along with the insulators in the lateral direction. The insulators serve to establish a narrower path for electric current between the lower portion of the magnetoresistive film and an upper electrode layer. The substantial width in the lateral direction can thus be reduced in the magnetoresistive film. In addition, a longitudinal biasing magnetic field established between the domain control magnetic layers efficiently acts on the magnetoresistive film. In particular, if a free magnetic layer is included in the upper portion of the magnetoresistive film, the free magnetic layer can be subjected to a larger longitudinal biasing magnetic field. A single domain property can be realized in the free ferromagnetic layer enough. The Barkhausen noise can be reduced.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a magnetoresistive element often utilized in a magnetic recording medium drive such as a magnetic disk drive as well as a magnetic tape drive. In particular, the invention relates to a current-perpendicular-to-the-plane (CPP) structure magnetoresistive element comprising: the lower portion of a magnetoresistive film extending over the surface of a lower magnetic pole layer by a first lateral width; the upper portion of the magnetoresistive film extending over the surface of the lower portion by a second lateral width smaller than the first lateral width; and an upper magnetic pole layer contacting the upper portion of the magnetoresistive film, and a method of making the same.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A magnetoresistive film, such as a spin valve film, usually includes a pinning antiferromagnetic layer, a pinned ferromagnetic layer and a non-magnetic intermediate layer for the lower portion of the magnetoresistive film. The magnetoresistive film further includes the upper portion including a free ferromagnetic layer extending over the surface of the non-magnetic intermediate layer. In the technical field of CPP structure magnetoresistive elements, the upper portion is often reduced in the width in the lateral direction of a recording track as compared with the lower portion in the magnetoresistive film. The upper portion is interposed between insulator layers on the lower portion. The insulator layers serves to establish a narrower path for electric current between the lower portion of the magnetoresistive film and the upper magnetic pole layer. The substantial width in the lateral direction can be reduced in the magnetoresistive film.
The upper portion is carved out of a layered material on the lower portion in the magnetoresistive film. A pair of domain control magnetic layers, namely, biasing hard magnetic layers are subjected to an etching process on the laterally opposite ends of the upper portion of the magnetoresistive film. The level of the domain control magnetic layers gets lowered to the level of the upper surface of the lower portion. The upper portion of the magnetoresistive film gets completely out of the space between the domain control magnetic layers. The longitudinal biasing magnetic field induced between the domain control magnetic layers cannot act enough over the free ferromagnetic layer in the upper portion of the magnetoresistive film. The Barkhausen noise cannot be reduced enough.

Current-perpendicular-to-the-plane structure magnetoresistive element and method of making same


In one embodiment, a method for testing a helmet comprising the steps of: placing a strike helmet on a first headform; placing a target helmet on a second headform, colliding the strike helmet against the target helmet; and measuring the acceleration of the second headform caused by the collision. In a second embodiment, an apparatus for testing a helmet comprising: a strike helmet placed on a first headform; a target helmet placed on a second headform; a motion device for moving the strike helmet to collide with the target helmet.

Many sports require protective headgear. American football, hockey, lacrosse, and baseball are sports that require headgear for at least certain activities that occur during a game.
American football has long required that a player wear a helmet. Most helmets today have a hard shell, a liner, a facemask, and a chinstrap for retaining the helmet on the head of the wearer.
For American football, various entities have promulgated standards to regulate the effectiveness helmets in protecting players. The National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment (NOCSAE), for example, has issued the "Standard Performance Specification for Newly Manufactured Football Helmets, NOCSAE DOC (ND)002-98m05 (Modified July, 2005). Another standard is one issued by the American Society for Testing and Measurement (ASTM), ASTM F717-89(2006) Standard Specification for Football Helmets. These standards measure linear acceleration of a head form resulting from an impact.
Alternative and supplemental standards have been proposed. U.S. Pat. No. 6,871,525 proposes a method and apparatus for testing football helmets. The proposed method includes measurements of linear and rotation head acceleration due to impacts.
Despite the use of improved helmets and despite the existence of standards, however, significant numbers of football players still suffer concussions. It is estimated that over 100,000 football players suffer concussions each year.
One problem with football helmets is that they do not just serve as a means for protection for the wearer. They also serve as a striking instrument in high impact collisions between players. The National Football League, for example, has conducted studies of helmet-to-helmet collisions that caused a concussion. These studies indicate that a "concussion in professional football involves a mean impact velocity of 9.3 m/second (20.8 mph) and a head velocity change of 7.2 m/second (16.1 mph)." Pellman E J, Viano D C, Concussion in Professional Football: Summary of the Research Conducted by the National Football League's Committee on Mild Traumatic Brain Injury, Neurosurgery Focus. 2006; Vol. 21. Helmet-to-helmet impacts at such velocities can easily result in concussion.
Existing standards make no requirement that a striking player's helmet reduce the peak forces transmitted through the striking player's helmet during a collision. Instead, standards only focus on the helmet worn by the player being struck. Unfortunately, in an effort to make helmets better able to withstand impacts, the rigidity of the shell of the helmet is often increased. While a more rigid helmet may marginally better protection to the wearer, it also creates a helmet that is a more devastating instrument in causing concussions in helmet-to-helmet collisions.
The prior art suffers from certain shortcomings or limitations. The purpose of the present invention is to overcome the shortcomings or limitations in the prior art.

Football helmet, testing method, and testing apparatus


The present invention refers to polymeric membranes and its synthesis with combination of innovative characteristics at the level of the bi-soft segment polyurethane material and at the level of the structure as integral asymmetric membranes. The hemocompability properties—non-hemolytic, non-thrombogenic and no platelet adhesion—combined with the high fluxes of permeation of O2 and CO2 have been designed for the use of the membranes in medical equipments that involve contact with blood like extracorporeal blood oxygenators and can be further designed for hemodialysers and imunnisolation barriers.

Extracorporeal blood oxygenators are medical equipments used in surgical operations like open heart surgery where lungs cannot perform their usual gas exchange function of adding oxygen to the blood and removing carbon dioxide from the blood. In 1953 the Gibbon oxygenator was used with clinical success (1). It consisted of an ensemble of vertical metallic screens where the blood circulated adjacently in the downward direction. This ensemble was inserted in a chamber that allowed oxygen to be transferred to the blood and carbon dioxide to be removed from it (1).
In the next two decades this simple equipment triggered numerous developments in two main directions:                1—The bubble oxygenators—these involved the direct bubbling of oxygen through the blood with the diffusion of the oxygen from the bubbles into the bloodstream and in the opposite direction the diffusion of carbon dioxide from the blood into the bubbles.        2—The membrane oxygenators—they incorporated a semipermeable membrane that was interposed between the bloodstream and the gas phase and therefore allowing at a controlled rate the permeation of oxygen into the blood and the passage of carbon dioxide from the blood into the oxygen stream.
In the first ones, the subsequent separation of bubbles and foams was necessary as they presented the risk of damaging the red blood cells. In association with this drawback their use was limited to surgeries involving short times of a few hours. Despite that the use of bubble oxygenators continued till 1980 when they were to a great extent substituted by the membrane oxygenators.
These allowed the support of patients during longer surgery times. They are currently designated by the abbreviation "ECMO" (extracorporeal membrane oxygenator).
Although the ECMO represented a great advancement in decreasing the risks of blood damage and allowing longer times of surgery support they were in the years 1980 still associated to several problems:                the fluxes of oxygen transfer where still lower than the bubble oxygenators;        the costs where high;        there were higher risks of failure due to leakages;        they required higher blood volumes.
These problems have successfully being solved, firstly with the integration of the membrane module with the reservoir of venous blood and then with the incorporation of the improvements made on the manufacture of other extracorporeal equipments like the ones of hemodialysis were leakages where controlled, robustness improved and costs decreased.
However the challenges in the development of membrane blood oxygenators are not only posed at the level of the membrane configurations of flat sheet and hollow fibers modules but mainly at the level of development of new membranes associating properties of hemocompability and higher oxygen permeation rates.
The hollow fiber modules of most of the ECMO in use are frequently made of microporous membranes due to the fact that they are characterized by high gas permeation rates.
However despite the fact that the pores of the microporous membranes are of sufficiently reduced sizes to avoid the passage of the blood components like the red blood cells or the platelets, they are prone to severe fouling caused by adsorption of plasma proteins that leads to the activation of the coagulation cascade, formation of trombin, platelet adhesion and formation of thrombi. This means therefore that these membranes do not have hemocompability. In very general terms a membrane that is hemocompatible does not introduce by contact with blood in circulation any alteration of the blood and particularly does not induce hemolysis, thrombogenicity and platelet adhesion through the activation of the coagulation cascade.
In accordance with British patent GB 1595058 another problem associated with microporous membranes is the passage of water to the gas compartment and the dissolution of carbon dioxide and subsequent decrease of concentration gradients and of the gas permeation rates to values below the average value in the human lungs. The authors of the patent GB 1595058 use a pulsed flux to maintain higher mass transfer rates.
One form to overcome these problems is through the coating of the membranes or through the use of composite membranes as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,622,206 and US 2002/002815611 respectively.
The patent EP1043035A1 mentions another problem connected to microporous membranes which is related to the fact that along the operation time there is occurrence of the intrusion of plasma to the oxygen side and this renders the oxygenator inoperational. The author of this patent EP 1043035A1 refers that this problem can be minimized through the use of a coating that although does not cover some of the very small pores it delays the period of time that the intrusion of plasma can lead to the non-operation of the oxygenator.
Janvier et al. (3) mention that in a membrane of vinyl chloride having local roughness areas of the order of 9 μm, the platelet adhesion was multiplied by a factor of 3 when compared to a membrane with a smooth external surface.
Homogeneous dense membranes either in the form of flat sheets or hollow fibers, may play an important role in the improvement of hemocompability due to the fact that in contrast with the microporous membranes, they display a surface morphology that assures a smoother membrane/blood interface. However, the dense membranes usually present low gas permeation rates that can be lower than the physiological levels required and therefore to meet the necessary oxygenation rate, the membrane surface area of the oxygenator should be increased. And this larger blood/membrane interface may lead to higher risks of blood damage.
Also, the development of non-thrombogenic polymers like the ones reported in the U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,004,461 and 4,521,564 can only be an asset in the solution of these problems if they prove to have film-forming properties and enable the formation of membranes with adequate flux permeate rates and with surface morphologies that associate adequate properties of hemocompatibility.
At present, the clinical use of extracorporeal membrane blood oxygenators and hemodyalizers is always associated to administration of heparin to the patient. This assures that the contact of blood with the membranes and with the equipments does not trigger thrombogenic effects, platelet adhesion and activation of the coagulation cascade. Although there are also reports claiming the minimization of these effects through the additional coating with heparin of the membranes and of the equipment surfaces, Janvier G. et al. (3) refers on the contrary, the occurrence of negative interactions with the systemic heparin.

Process of synthesis asymmetric polyurethane based membranes with hemocompatibility characteristics and membranes obtained by said process


A system and method facilitating diagnostics support is provided. The system includes application(s) instrumented in accordance with a built-in diagnostics (BID) framework, and, trace component(s). The trace component can selectively employ none, some and/or substantially all of the trace point(s) associated with the application. The system can facilitate instrumentation of a managed data access stack, for example, to enhance supportability of the application.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to computer system(s), and, more particularly, to computer system(s) employing built-in diagnostics.
2. Description of the Related Art
As computers and computer applications have become more complicated, the opportunities for computer users to encounter difficulties with their computers have increased. Diagnosing problem(s) has historically been difficult due to incomprehensible, incomplete and/or inaccurate data available from which to make a diagnosis.
Many component developers have included varying levels of tracing in their code using statements such as: TRACE, ATLTRACE, IRTLTRACE, LOGTRACE, LTRACE, OCI_TRACE, TraceParam, TraceLog, TraceHRESULT, bcpLog etc. However, historically tracing has been implemented independently and without cooperation between and/or amongst component developers. As such, investigation of computer problem(s) has proven a difficult task.


A target data storage system comprises a peer-to-peer communication link interface for linking the target to a source data storage system, and data storage for storing point in time copy data received from the source via the peer-to-peer communication link interface. Information is established at the target relating logical identification of the point in time copy data to point in time copy data stored at the target and to point in time copy data stored at the source, such that the information references the data storage system having requested point in time copy data. A controller of the target accesses requested point in time copy data at the target if the table indicates that the requested point in time copy data is available at the target; else obtains the requested point in time copy data from the source via the peer-to-peer communication link interface.

When data or files may be updated or used for testing, etc., point in time copying is used to preserve an original copy of the data as of one point in time. Point in time copying is conducted in a data storage system to preserve the data without waiting for all the data to be physically copied. At a point in time, the data at that time is considered original data, and any subsequent updates to the data modify that data, which is then called updated data. Access to the point in time data may be conducted with the original point in time copy directly from the source if the data has not been updated, and from the target if the original data at the source was updated.
Point in time copying is as of a point in time, unlike synchronous mirroring which is a continuous process of copying data as it updated, but which prevents any updating from occurring by failing to complete the updating storage transaction for the data at a source until after that updating data has also been stored at a target. Asynchronous mirroring also is continuous, but may appear to be quicker, and is a complex process that requires that the updating data is first stored by the source data storage, and requires that safeguards are in place to assure that it will ultimately be stored at the target data storage.
Customers would prefer the point in time copy target to be at a location remote from the source, or at a separate data storage machine. Copying point in time data to a remote location or to another data storage machine typically is accomplished by a host system which copies the data to the remote location or another data storage machine, and the data is typically not immediately available from the target, which must wait until all the point in time data has been copied.

Point in time copy between data storage systems

International Business Machines Corporation


In one embodiment, a method and apparatus for minimizing unload times in a tape drive system is disclosed. The method includes: writing to a tape in serpentine format; reaching a comparison point on the tape, wherein at the comparison point an actual capacity is compared to an expected capacity; utilizing the comparison at the comparison point to estimate a distance from the comparison point until a guaranteed capacity for the tape is reached; and determining a turn-around point on the tape based on the estimated distance, wherein at the turn-around point a tape drive writing to the tape to stop writing in a first direction and then continue writing in a second direction opposite from the first direction and towards a physical beginning of the tape. Other embodiments are also disclosed.

Advanced tape storage devices write data on multiple data tracks on media tapes, which run parallel to each other over the length of the tape. Often times, data is written to the tape in a serpentine format. While using the serpentine format, a tape head of the tape drive begins writing at the start of the tape continues to the end of the length of the tape. Then, the drive steps the head to the next track below, reverses direction, and writes back to the beginning of the length of the tape, and so on. In this manner, the tape head traces a "serpentine-like" figure on the tape as it moves along the tape writing data.
Currently, tape drive systems that guarantee a fixed capacity allocate more recordable media than the fixed capacity requires. The extra recording space is used for write defect skipping. In this way, a system can guarantee, within some probability of defective media events, that the media will hold the advertised capacity.
For linear tape recording systems utilizing serpentine formats that traverse a tape from beginning to end many times, the actual logical end of the tape is at the beginning of the tape closest to its unload point. In this way, minimum unload times for the tape are realized. However, in such a system, when the tape reaches its advertised guaranteed capacity limit, the tape drive ceases to accept more data. A problem arises because the point on the tape where this may occur can be some distance from the beginning of the tape, and therefore unload time for the tape is increased.
For example, one type of media tape may measure 800 meters in length. For a system utilizing a serpentine format, a "wrap" of the tape is known as a single pass of the tape head on the tape before it changes tracks and writes in the opposite direction for another wrap. In some cases, each wrap that runs the length of the tape may hold on the average of approximately 22 Gigabytes (GB) of data. Furthermore, there may be 24 wraps that a tape head will perform while writing data to the tape, resulting in a total writable media space of 528 GB on the tape.
Continuing with the example, assume that the advertised capacity limit of the tape is 500 GB and 500 GB of data is written to the tape without any errors that would require expansion into the extra writing defect space on the tape. In this case, the tape head will stop writing at a point that is about 95% actual capacity of the tape. However, this point is only about two-thirds down the length of the 23rd wrap of the tape, or 533.33 meters away from the physical beginning of the tape.
As a result, when the media drive unloads the tape when it has completed writing, a time delay occurs due to the rewinding of the tape to its physical beginning in order to unload it from the drive. If this problem is magnified over many tapes, then the time delays accumulate and create a significant burden on the tape storage system. A system that reduces the unload time for tapes written in a serpentine format would be beneficial.

Mechanism for minimizing unload times in a tape drive system


A capacitor fabrication method may include atomic layer depositing a conductive barrier layer to oxygen diffusion over the first electrode. A method may instead include chemisorbing a layer of a first precursor at least one monolayer thick over the first electrode and chemisorbing a layer of a second precursor at least one monolayer thick on the first precursor layer, a chemisorption product of the first and second precursor layers being comprised by a layer of a conductive barrier material. The barrier layer may be sufficiently thick and dense to reduce oxidation of the first electrode by oxygen diffusion from over the barrier layer. An alternative method may include forming a first capacitor electrode over a substrate, the first electrode having an inner surface area per unit area and an outer surface area per unit area that are both greater than an outer surface area per unit area of the substrate. A capacitor dielectric layer and a second capacitor electrode may be formed over the dielectric layer. The method may further include forming rugged polysilicon over the substrate, the first electrode being over the rugged polysilicon. Accordingly, the outer surface area of the first electrode can be at least 30% greater than the outer surface area of the substrate without the first electrode including polysilicon.

Capacitors are common devices used in electronics, such as integrated circuits, and particularly semiconductor-based technologies. Two common capacitor structures include metal-insulator-metal (MIM) capacitors and metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS) capacitors. One important factor to consider when selecting a capacitor structure may be the capacitance per unit area. MIS capacitors may be advantageous since a first electrode as the semiconductor may be formed of hemispherical grain (HSG) polysilicon that exhibits a higher surface area in a given region compared to a planar surface of amorphous silicon. The higher surface area provides more capacitance per unit area occupied by a capacitor.
However, a high K factor (also known as dielectric constant or "κ") dielectric material may be desirable to further enhance capacitance. Ta2O5 is one example of a high K factor dielectric, but it inherently forms an interfacial dielectric layer of SiO2 when formed on a capacitor electrode comprising HSG. The interfacial dielectric exhibits a lower K factor than Ta2O5 an us reduces the effective dielectric constant for the capacitor construction. Such reduction may be significant enough to eliminate any gain in capacitance per unit area otherwise achieved by using HSG instead of a planar electrode. Use of other oxygen containing high K dielectric materials has proved to create similar problems.
Because it may be desirable to provide area enhancement of an electrode in a MIM structure using HSG, one attempt at addressing the stated problem is forming a silicon nitride insulative barrier layer over the HSG. The silicon nitride barrier layer may be formed by nitridizing the silicon of the outer surface of HSG. Unfortunately, silicon nitride exhibits a K factor of only about 7, less than the K factor of some high K factor dielectrics that are desirable. Accordingly, even the silicon nitride barrier layer reduces the effective dielectric constant of the capacitor.

Capacitor fabrication methods including forming a conductive layer


Systems and methods for performing clustering of a document image are disclosed. A property of an extracted mark from a document is compared to the properties of the existing clusters. If the property of the mark fails to match any of the properties of the existing clusters, the mark is added as a new cluster to the existing cluster. One property that can be utilized is x size and y size, which is the width and height, of the existing clusters. Another property that can be employed is ink size, which refers to the ratio of black pixels to total pixels in a cluster. Yet another property that can be utilized is a reduced mark or image, which is a pixel size reduced version the bitmap of the mark and/or cluster. The above properties can be employed to identify mismatches and reduce the number of bit by bit comparisons performed.

The amount of information available via computers has dramatically increased with the wide spread proliferation of computer networks, the Internet and digital storage means. With such increased amount of information has come the need to transmit information quickly and to store the information efficiently. Data compression is a technology that facilitates effectively transmitting and storing of information
Data compression reduces an amount of space necessary to represent information, and can be used for many information types. The demand for compression of digital information, including images, text, audio and video has been ever increasing. Typically, data compression is used with standard computer systems; however, other technologies make use of data compression, such as but not limited to digital and satellite television as well as cellular/digital phones.
As the demand for handling, transmitting and processing large amounts of information increases, the demand for compression of such data increases as well. Although storage device capacity has increased significantly, the demand for information has outpaced capacity advancements. For example, an uncompressed image can require 5 megabytes of space whereas the same image can be compressed and require only 2.5 megabytes of space. Thus, data compression facilitates transferring larger amounts of information. Even with the increase of transmission rates, such as broadband, DSL, cable modem Internet and the like, transmission limits are easily reached with uncompressed information. For example, transmission of an uncompressed image over a DSL line can take ten minutes. However, the same image can be transmitted in about one minute when compressed thus providing a ten-fold gain in data throughput.
In general, there are two types of compression, lossless and lossy. Lossless compression allows exact original data to be recovered after compression, while lossy compression allows for data recovered after compression to differ from the original data. A tradeoff exists between the two compression modes in that lossy compression provides for a better compression ratio than lossless compression because some degree of data integrity compromise is tolerated. Lossless compression may be used, for example, when compressing critical text, because failure to reconstruct exactly the data can dramatically affect quality and readability of the text. Lossy compression can be used with images or non-critical text where a certain amount of distortion or noise is either acceptable or imperceptible to human senses. Data compression is especially applicable to digital representations of documents (digital documents). Typically, digital documents include text, images and/or text and images. In addition to using less storage space for current digital data, compact storage without significant degradation of quality would encourage digitization of current hardcopies of documents making paperless offices more feasible. Striving toward such paperless offices is a goal for many businesses because paperless offices provide benefits, such as allowing easy access to information, reducing environmental costs, reducing storage costs and the like. Furthermore, decreasing file sizes of digital documents through compression permits more efficient use of Internet bandwidth, thus allowing for faster transmission of more information and a reduction of network congestion. Reducing required storage for information, movement toward efficient paperless offices, and increasing Internet bandwidth efficiency are just some of many significant benefits associated with compression technology.
Compression of digital documents should satisfy certain goals in order to make use of digital documents more attractive. First, the compression should enable compressing and decompressing large amounts of information in a small amount of time. Secondly, the compression should provide for accurately reproducing the digital document. Additionally, data compression of digital documents should make use of an intended purpose or ultimate use of a document. Some digital documents are employed for filing or providing hard copies. Other documents may be revised and/or edited. Many conventional data compression methodologies fail to handle re-flowing of text and/or images when viewed, and fail to provide efficient and effective means to enable compression technology to recognized characters and re-flow them to word processors, personal digital assistants (PDAs), cellular phones, and the like. Therefore, if hard copy office documents are scanned into digital form, current compression technology can make it difficult if not impossible to update, amend, or in general change the digitized document.
Digital documents generally include a large amount of textual information. Without any compression, a single 8.5 by 11 inch document at 200 dots per inch (dpi) uses almost 2 MB of storage space. But, textual information has properties, which afford for compression. One approach to compress textual information is to perform optical character recognition (OCR) on the text and represent the document as a sequence of character codes in a standard alphabet such as ASCII. However, there are some drawbacks to using OCR in that OCR is not completely reliable, particularly with respect to poor quality documents. Noise in the document, varying typefaces and unusual characters all can produce OCR errors. Additionally, special fonts, foreign languages and mathematical formulas create special problems.
Another approach for compressing digital documents is to use clustering. Clustering involves finding connected components (a connected component is a set of pixels of a given color which are connected) of a document, and the connected components are searched and analyzed to locate similarly connected components referred to as clusters. The clusters generally, can greatly increase compression and can avoid some of the reliability problems of OCR. For example, a single paged 8.5 by 11 inch document at 200 dpi uses almost 2 MB of storage space uncompressed, but uses only about 200 k with clustering. The reason for the sharp reduction in file size, is that each connected component can be summarized by a position, and a pointer to a shape belonging to a dictionary of shapes. The clustering part of the algorithm determines which shape(s) should belong to the dictionary, and which shape is the closest to each connected component. Typically, the dictionary of shapes is a fraction of the size of an original document image, and can even be shared across pages. The pointers to the shapes can be characterized by a position in the page (X and Y), and a shape number. The X and Y position can be compressed using previous position, while the shape indices are compressed using context or a language model. Thus, clustering can greatly increase compression; however analyzing connected components to find similar connected components (clusters) is generally, a computationally intense process. A single page or multi page document can easily have thousands of connected components or more that are compared in order to find similar connected components.


A blade outer air seal for use in a gas turbine engine, the BOAS including a plurality of first diffusion and impingement cooling air cavities separated by stiffener ribs, each diffusion and impingement cavity being connected to a cooling air supply cavity through a first metering and impingement hole. Each diffusion and impingement cavity is connected to a plurality of trenched diffusion slots that open onto the surface of the BOAS and form a series of V-shaped slots. A plurality of second metering and impingement holes connect each slot to the respective first diffusion and impingement cavity. The trenched diffusion slots are angularly offset from a normal direction to the BOAS surface, and the second metering and impingement holes are offset at about 90 degrees from the slots so that both diffusion and impingement cooling occurs within the slots. The array of separated diffusion and impingement cavities and metering holes allow for the cooling flows and pressures to be regulated for each area of the BOAS.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a gas turbine engine, and more specifically to a blade outer air seal and the cooling thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37 CFR 1.97 and 1.98
A gas turbine engine includes a compressor to deliver a compressed air to a combustor, the combustor combines the compressed air with a fuel to produce a high temperature gas flow, and a turbine that receives the hot gas flow and converts the high temperature flow into mechanical energy to drive a rotor shaft. The efficiency of the gas turbine engine can be improved by increasing the temperature of the flow into the turbine. Prior art turbines include stationary vanes and rotor blades made of high temperature resistant materials in order to maximize the temperature exposure to these parts. Complex cooling circuit are used in the first stage rows of vanes and blades in order to provide cooling such that these parts can be exposed to even higher temperatures that would normally melt the parts.
Another method of increasing the efficiency of the gas turbine engine is to reduce the flow leakage between the rotor blade tips and the shroud casing that forms the blade gap. A plurality of shroud segments that form an annular shroud is fixedly joined to the stator casing and surrounds the rotor blades. The shroud segments are suspended closely atop the blade tips to provide for a small gap or tip clearance between the shroud and the blade tip. In order to reduce the flow leakage across the tip clearance, the tip clearance should be as small as possible to provide for an effective fluid seal during engine operation for minimizing the hot gas flow leakage. However, because the rotor disk and blade have a different thermal expansion and contraction that the casing and shroud segments, the blade tips occasionally rub against the inner surface of the shroud segments and cause abrasion.
The blade tips are directly exposed to the hot gas flow and are difficult to cool properly. The life of the blade is therefore limited because of this difficulty in cooling the tips. Also, when the blade tips rub against the surrounding shroud segments, the blade tips and shroud segments are additionally heated by the friction which also affects the blade useful life. The friction heat generated during a blade tip rub further increases the radial expansion between the tips and the shroud segments, and therefore further increases the severity of the blade tip rub.
Since the shroud segments are also exposed to the hot gas flow through the turbine, the shroud segments are also cooled. Prior art turbine shrouds are cooled by passing cooling air onto the outer surface for impingement cooling to provide backside convective cooling. In addition, film cooling holes are formed in the shroud segments to pass cooling air onto the inner surface of the shroud on which the hot gas flow is exposed. Higher efficiency cooling mechanism such as external film cooling technique has not been widely used in the cooling design. This is primary due to film cooling slots being subject to smear by the passing blade row against the BOAS. Subsequently it loses film cooling capability and shuts off the cooling flow. As a result, over temperature or burn through for the BOAS occurs due to the blade rubbing effect.
Since blade tip rub is unavoidable for maximizing efficiency of the engine, both the turbine shrouds and the blade tips are subject to abrasion wear. U.S. Pat. No. 6,155,778 issued to Lee et al on Dec. 5, 2000 entitled RECESSED TURBINE SHROUD as represented in FIG. 1 discloses a shroud segment used in a gas turbine engine, in which the shroud segments include an inner surface (#50 in this patent) exposed to the hot gas flow, a plurality of recesses (#62 in this patent) opening onto the inner surface 50, and cooling holes to supply cooling air from above the shroud to the recesses 62 to provide film cooling to the shroud inner surface. The recesses 62 are provided for the purpose disclosed in the Lee et al patent for reducing surface area exposed to the blade tips so that during a blade tip rub with the shroud, reduced rubbing of the blade tip with the shroud occurs for correspondingly decreasing frictional heat in the blade tip (see column 3, lines 60-66).
The prior art backside convective cooling used in blade outer air seal (BOAS) cooling design provides cooling to the shroud, but does not provide cooling to the inner shroud surface or the blade tips. Higher efficiency cooling mechanism such as external film cooling has not been widely used in the cooling design. This is primary due to film cooling slots being subject to smear by the passing blade row against the BOAS. Subsequently, it loses film cooling capability and shuts off the cooling flow. As a result, over-temperature or burn out for of the BOAS occurs due to the blade rubbing.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide for improved cooling of the shroud segments in a gas turbine engine in order to require less cooling air to provide adequate cooling for the shroud and therefore improve engine efficiency.
It is another object of the present invention to provide for less heat generation due to blade tip to shroud rubbing, and therefore extend the useful life of the rotor blades and shroud segments in the gas turbine engine.
It is another object of the present invention to provide cooling for a BOAS that utilizes both backside multi-impingement compartment cooling and multi-metering plus diffusion cooling for the entire blade outer air seal hot surface.
Another object of the present invention is to provide for a BOAS cooling arrangement in which blade rub will not cause plugging of the cooling holes by the passing blade row against the BOAS.

BOAS with multiple trenched film cooling slots


A loudspeaker control circuit includes a bit splitter, a complement module and a digital-to-analog converter. The bit splitter divides a data item representing an acoustic signal into a high order bit group and a low order bit group. The complement module determines a complement of at least one of the high order bit group and the low order bit group. The complement module may be connected in series to the digital-to-analog converter. The digital-to-analog converter converts the high order bit group and the low order bit group from a digital format to an analog format.

1. Priority claim
This application claims the benefit of priority from European patent application No. 044 50105.4, filed May 11, 2004, which is incorporated herein in its entirety by this reference.
2. Technical Field
The invention relates to loudspeakers and in particular, loudspeaker control circuits.
3. Related Art
Loudspeakers may be used to reproduce analog audio signals. Audio signals recorded in a digital format may need to be converted into analog audio signals for reproduction by the loudspeakers. Digital-to-analog converters ("D/A converters") may be used to convert the digital signals to analog signals. Depending on sound applications, D/A converters with different resolutions may be used. Unsophisticated speech applications such as speech synthesis systems in toys may operate with low resolution D/A converters. Low resolution D/A converters, however, may not properly convert high frequency signals and any interfering signals. Reproduced audio signals with the low resolution D/A converters may be prone to distortions. Higher resolution D/A converters may be prohibitively expensive.


A motor vehicle lock with a latch and a ratchet, the latch being movable out of a fully latched position into a release position and vice versa, and the ratchet being movable out of an engagement position which keeps the latch in the fully latched position into a raised position which releases the latch, and optionally, into an overtravel position and vice versa. To achieve reliable opening, a forced opening mechanism is provide which is actuated by the movement of the ratchet or of the drive which moves the ratchet, and the ratchet or the drive causes the forced opening mechanism to positively engages the latch or an element which is dynamically connected to the latch so as to forcibly move the latch toward the release position.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a motor vehicle lock with a latch and a ratchet, the latch being movable out of a fully latched position into a release position and vice versa, the ratchet being movable out of an engagement position which keeps the latch in the fully latched position into a raised position which releases the latch, and optionally, into an overtravel position and vice versa. Preferably, a motorized drive being provided for movement of the ratchet. The motor vehicle lock is especially suited as a rear hatch lock, but can also be used as a side door lock, rear door lock or hood lock.
2. Description of Related Art
A known motor vehicle lock (U.S. Pat. No. 5,020,838 A) has a ratchet and a latch which are connected to one another by means of a spring. The spring is arranged such that the ratchet is loaded in the direction of its engagement position. When the ratchet is moved by means of a motorized drive into its raised position, the spring loads the latch in the direction of the release position of the latch. This is intended to ensure that the latch is reliably opened. However, opening is not reliable, for example, when the door is iced over and the motor vehicle door therefore is not pressed by the door seal in the direction of the open position. The latch is then held by the lock pin in its fully latched position and the ratchet is moved back into the engagement position as a result of the spring force. Thus, under certain circumstances, reliable opening is not possible.
In order to prevent the ratchet from re-engaging the engagement position after completed lifting of the ratchet, providing a mechanical lever, a so-called snow load lever, on the motor vehicle lock is known. The snow load lever engages relative to the ratchet when the raised position of the ratchet is reached, such that the ratchet is held in the raised position until the latch has reached its release position. In this position of the latch, the snow load lever is pivoted free of the ratchet so that it is operable again with respect to the fully latched position of the latch. This mechanical technology is proven and advantageous since it solves the problem of a hatch or a door which does not open itself, for example, when loaded by snow, when the reset force of the seal is not enough, or when the seal is frozen solid. However, the additional lever constitutes an additional cost factor and additional risk factor (jamming, breaking, etc.).
The re-engagement of the ratchet with the engagement position can be precluded using purely control engineering for ratchets which are driven by a motor. To do this, it is necessary to scan the motion of the latch by means of microswitches until the release position is reached. However, this version is both expensive and fault-susceptible.
Moreover, a motor vehicle lock is known (U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2004/0227358 A1, which is commonly owned with the present application) in which the force or work which is to be applied for release of the latch is minimized. This is achieved in that the ratchet interacts with ratchet kinematics and the latch is not held directly by the ratchet in its fully latched position, but indirectly by means of the ratchet kinematics. In this motor vehicle lock, there are no special provisions for reliable opening when the door is iced up. The disclosure of U.S. Patent Application Publication 2004/0227358 A1 is hereby incorporated by reference.
The motor vehicle lock for multi-catch motor vehicle locks (U.S. Pat. No. 5,934,717 A) which forms the starting point of this invention calls for a ratchet which can return to the engagement position only after the latch moves into the release position. This is accomplished in that the ratchet with the latch in the preliminary catch position has an overlap and the ratchet is made such that it can return again to the engagement position by its motorized drive only after the latch is shifted into the release position. Here, the overlap between the latch and ratchet is made such that scanning of the ratchet by sensors can be omitted. However, the disadvantage here is that this concept can only be used for multi-catch motor vehicle locks. Moreover, when the doors are frozen tight, an increased force must be applied by the operator to open a motor vehicle door.


Improved efficiency in monitoring environmental conditions in the vicinity of an unattended computer system includes using the existing communication systems between the computer system and a network, to provide immediate information to users, emergency responders and anyone connected to the network. The system may also include an ability of the unattended computer system to receive a return message from the user ordering a physical action in response to the reported environmental condition, for example turning on a fire suppression system in response to a smoke alarm. The system may also include storage of environmental conditions and analysis of variations over time, as well as any interactions of various types of environmental conditions, such as giving more weight to a high temperature reading in conjunction with an elevated but not critical level of smoke.

Some computer systems operate in highly controlled environments. For example, certain advanced server and storage systems, for which downtime tolerance is very low, operate in a specifically designed raised floor computer room having temperature and humidity control as well as various safety systems such as fire alarms and fire suppression systems.
In some cases, users of such computer systems operate at locations that are remote from the computer systems. In such a scenario, the user relies on the safety and monitoring systems to lower the risk of particular catastrophic causes of computer system downtime.
A conventional approach to monitoring the environment in the vicinity of an unattended computer system involves one or more sensing devices individually wired, for example, to an audible fire alarm, or to a response center specific to the sensor, such as a local fire department. The conventional approach uses separate sensors individually connected to selected response locations using communication methods separate from the computer system.

Environmental alert for computer systems


Provided are methods and systems for determining score consistency.

Typical real estate underwriting procedures require three credit scores for assessing a consumer's credit worthiness, one score from each of the three credit reporting companies (CRCs). Lenders require that these scores are not only predictive of credit risk but also are highly consistent in their absolute value. Scoring algorithms that provide inconsistent scores can increase the risk exposure that a lender takes on and offers the borrower less attractive products and pricing.
Inconsistent scores occur largely due to score algorithm differences among CRCs, timing submission and content variations in data reported by creditors. A credit score for a consumer can vary by more than 60 points between the CRCs.
Measuring score consistency is challenging for the reasons stated previously and additionally due to the fact that scores often use different ranges. Thus, for example, a consumer may score 650 using two different algorithms yet have very different risk profiles. It is possible that the former algorithm has a range of 300 to 700 where 650 indicates low risk and the latter algorithm has a range of 600 to 900 where 650 indicates high risk.
As lenders look to improve the quality of their underwriting processes, a framework is necessary for evaluating the consistency of generic risk score algorithms.

Methods and systems for score consistency


A video recorder for playing video recordings recorded on magnetic tapes, these recordings being available with different playback qualities, and including a reproduction apparatus for scanning a magnetic tape and for supplying a playback signal; and a playback-signal processing apparatus for processing the playback signal and including at least one controllable signal-influencing stage for controllably influencing at least one component (luminance signal Y) of the playback signal, and an entry device for cooperating with the video recorder and providing entry of characteristic information which characterizes different playback qualities of video recordings; and a control apparatus for generating control information corresponding to the characteristic information. The at least one controllable signal-influencing stage is controlled depending on the control information.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a video recorder for the reproduction of video recordings recorded on magnetic tapes, these recordings being available with different playback qualities, comprising reproduction means for scanning a magnetic tape and for supplying a playback signal representing a video recording, and playback-signal processing means for processing the playback signal and including at least one controllable signal-influencing stage for controllably influencing at least one component of the playback signal.
2. Description of the Related Art
Such a video recorder of the type defined in the opening paragraph is known, for example, from European Patent Specification EP 0 464 772 B1, corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 5,257,109, and divisional U.S. Pat. No. 5,249,064, 5,400,149, 5,416,641 and 5,446,539. In this known video recorder, the playback-signal processing means comprises several signal-influencing stages, such as an FM equalizer stage, a peaking stage, a horizontal noise cancellation stage and a vertical noise cancellation stage, which are controllable with the aid of control means so as to change their signal-influencing qualities, the control means controlling said stages in dependence upon the characteristics of different magnetic tapes, thereby enabling said stages to be adapted to different characteristics or properties of different magnetic tapes in order to achieve an optimum reproduction of video recordings made on magnetic tapes having different properties. By means of the known video recorder, it is possible to achieve a correct reproduction of video recordings from magnetic tapes having different characteristics or properties. However, apart from this advantageous feature, this known video recorder has a limitation as a result of which a wholly satisfactory reproduction of video recordings is not guaranteed in some cases.
It is an object of the invention to avoid the aforementioned limitation and to provide an improved video recorder of the type defined in the opening paragraph. To this end, according to the invention, a video recorder of the type defined in the opening paragraph is characterized in that there have been provided entry means which cooperates with the video recorder and which is adapted to enter characteristic information which characterizes different playback qualities of video recordings, and the video recorder includes control means arranged to receive the characteristic information and adapted to generate control information corresponding to the characteristic information, and the at least one controllable signal-influencing stage is adapted to be controlled in respect of its controllable influencing of at least one component of the playback signal in dependence upon the control information generated by the control means. Thus, it is achieved with simple means and with only a very small additional expenditure, that the at least one controllable signal-influencing stage for controllably influencing a playback signal can be adapted to different playback qualities of video recordings in an easy manner, and in accordance with the wishes and requirements of a user of the video recorder, by the playback-signal processing means which includes said stage. In principle, the different playback qualities of video recordings are determined by the relevant program material, i.e., whether it is a video recording which has never been played before, or a video recording which has been played very frequently, for example, a rental cassette, or a video recording in the form of an animated cartoon, or a studio-quality video recording made in a studio by high-quality video cameras, or a lower quality but very up-to-date reporter""s video recording made by a portable camera, or a sports video recording. When a user introduces a magnetic tape, which for this purpose is accommodated in a cassette, into a video recorder in accordance with the invention, the user practically always knows the playback quality of the video recording made on the introduced magnetic tape, as a result of which, the user can select a setting corresponding to this playback quality for the at least one controllable signal-influencing stage of the playback-signal processing means with the aid the entry means, after which the control means included in the video recorder automatically controls the at least one controllable signal-influencing stage of the playback-signal processing means in accordance with the user""s wishes.
In a video recorder in accordance with the invention having the characteristic features described above, it has proven to be advantageous, in addition, that the playback-signal processing means includes a plurality of controllable signal-influencing stages for controllably influencing at least one component of the playback signal, and all the controllable signal-influencing stages are controllable in dependence upon control information generated by the control means. In this way, it is achieved that by merely entering characteristic information using the entry means, the user of the video recorder can simply and particularly reliably control a plurality of signal-influencing stages for an optimum reproduction of a video recording having a given playback quality and set these stages to the best possible influencing mode.
In such a video recorder in accordance with the invention, it has proven to be very advantageous, in addition, that the video recorder further comprises input means for receiving the control information generated by the control means, and for deriving stage control information corresponding to the control information, the stage control information being applied to the signal-influencing stages for controlling the manner in which the signal-influencing stages influence the at least one component of the playback signal. Tests have proven that such an embodiment is particularly advantageous for controlling a plurality of signal-influencing stages in an as simple and reliable as possible manner.
In such a video recorder in accordance with the invention, it has prove to be very advantageous, in addition, that the playback-signal processing means includes an FM equalizer stage, a vertical noise-cancellation stage, a first horizontal noise-cancellation stage, a second horizontal noise-cancellation stage, and a picture-sharpness control stage, wherein each of these five signal-influencing stages receives stage control information via the input means. With such an embodiment, the signal-influencing stages in the playback-signal processing means can be adapted to different playback qualities of video recordings in a particularly suitable and differentiated manner.
In such a video recorder in accordance with the invention, it has proven to be particularly advantageous, in addition, that the five signal-influencing stages are realized in an integrated device connected to the control means via a bus line forming part of the input means. This is particularly advantageous for a simple construction and for a simple and faultless control of the controllable signal-influencing stages.
In a video recorder in accordance with the invention having the characteristic features described above, it has further proven to be very advantageous, in addition, that the entry means enters first characteristic information characterizing the playback quality of a video recording being played for the first time or having been played only a few times, and second characteristic information characterizing the playback quality of a video recording having already been played many times. In this way, it is achieved that the user can simply adapt the at least one controllable signal-influencing stage in the playback-signal processing means to the playback quality of a video recording which is played for the first time or which has been played only a few times, as well as to the playback quality of a video recording which has already been played many times, as, for example, recorded on the magnetic tape of a so-called rental cassette.
In such a video recorder in accordance with the invention, it has proven to be very advantageous, in addition, that the entry means, in addition, enters third characteristic information representing the playback quality of a video recording of an animation film. Such an embodiment, in addition, enables the at least one controllable signal-influencing stage in the playback-signal processing means to be adapted to the playback quality of a video recording representing a trick film.
In such a video recorder in accordance with the invention, it has proven to be very advantageous, in addition, that the entry means, in addition, enters at least one further item of characteristic information. In this way, the at least one controllable signal-influencing stage in the playback-signal processing means can, in addition, be adapted to at least one further playback quality of video recordings.
The aforementioned aspects as well as further aspects of the invention will be apparent from the embodiment described hereinafter by way of example and will be elucidated on the basis of this embodiment.

Video recorder having playback-signal processing means adaptable to different playback qualities of video recordings


In some examples, a vehicle includes a plurality of network controllers, a WI-FI wireless local area network (WLAN) over which at least a first network controller and a second network controller of the plurality of network controllers are to communicate, wherein a link between the first network controller and the second network controller through the WI-FI WLAN is a synchronized link.

In a vehicle, an electronic control unit (ECU) can refer to an embedded system that controls one or more subsystems in the vehicle. Traditionally, ECUs are connected using wired connectors with data communications performed over a field bus. A vehicle can potentially include a large number of ECUs.
Throughout the drawings, identical reference numbers designate similar, but not necessarily identical, elements. The figures are not necessarily to scale, and the size of some parts may be exaggerated to more clearly illustrate the example shown. Moreover, the drawings provide examples and/or implementations consistent with the description; however, the description is not limited to the examples and/or implementations provided in the drawings.


A power tool includes a motor including a rotation shaft; an output shaft to which a cutting blade is attachable; a belt for transmitting a rotational force of the rotation shaft to the output shaft; an intermediate shaft positioned between the rotation shaft and the output shaft on a transmission path of the rotational force; a plurality of pulleys including a first pulley provided on the rotation shaft and rotatable integrally with the rotation shaft and a second pulley through which the intermediate shaft is inserted and having a diameter greater than that of the first pulley, the first pulley and the second pulley supporting the belt and being rotatable in accordance with rotation of the rotation shaft; and a transmission restricting part provided on a transmission path for transmitting rotation of the second pulley to the cutting blade and configured to interrupt or limit transmission of a rotational force.

Conventionally, tabletop cutting machines have been widely used as power tools for cutting workpieces such as wood, pipes, and the like.
In the tabletop cutting machine described in Patent Document 1, for example, rotation of a motor shaft is transmitted to an intermediate rotation shaft through a first-stage transmission mechanism including a first pulley mounted on the motor shaft, a second pulley mounted on the intermediate rotation shaft, and a first belt looped over the first pulley and the second pulley. Further, rotation of the intermediate rotation shaft is transmitted to a saw blade shaft in order to rotate a saw blade mounted on the saw blade shaft through a second-stage transmission mechanism including a third pulley mounted on the intermediate rotation shaft, a fourth pulley mounted on the saw blade shaft, and a second belt looped over the third pulley and the fourth pulley. Since rotation of the motor can be reduced and transmitted to the saw blade without employing gears, this configuration has the advantage of not generating noise caused by the meshing engagement of gears.