A winter weather garment, such as an undergarment or a middle layer of winter wear, which has mittens with an extended forearm section permanently attached to the end of the sleeves so that the elements of winter never come into contact with the wearer's forearm or wrist area. The garment typically precludes the wearer, such as a child, from removing the mitten end without the assistance of an adult. The garment typically has a torso portion for substantially covering the torso of the wearer, a left distal portion, and a right distal portion, with each distal portion being permanently attached to the torso portion and protecting the respective left or right hand, wrist and forearm of the wearer from the outside elements.

Sleeves of thermal-protection garments such as coats, jackets, and undergarments generally end at the wrist, leaving the hands and fingers unprotected from cold, requiring gloves or mittens.
Gloves and mittens traditionally have the disadvantages of needing to be carried separately from the coat or jacket, and so frequently are lost. This can be a serious problem for skiers or outdoor users, and a great nuisance for the parents of small children. Also, since gloves and mittens typically cause the wearer to lose dexterity, both children and adults alike are prone to remove the gloves or mittens in order to more easily grasp ski poles, fashion snowballs, etc., thereby adding to the chance that the removed article will be lost. Indeed, fingerless gloves have been developed to address this problem by keeping the hand properly covered while leaving the fingers, or some portion of the fingers, uncovered for better dexterity. But even fingerless gloves can be lost if they are not attached to a coat or garment.
Numerous systems for preventing glove loss have been developed, such as by a string attached to mittens and looped around the neck, clips, zippers or buttons removably attaching the gloves to the sleeves, and so on. Several garments known in the prior art disclose mittens or gloves permanently attached to a coat or other garment. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 1,296,966 to H. A. Kaufman, U.S. Pat. No. 2,675,554 to P. L. Gertz, U.S. Pat. No. 4,359,784 to Harrington, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,297,746 to Zarbos all disclose outer garments with a combined sleeve and mitten/glove attachment. However, all of these prior art documents disclose a means to remove the hand from the mitten or glove without removing the outer garment. The gloves or mittens typically can be removed by the user through a slit or hole therein, tempting a child or adult to brave the cold and wet in exchange for better dexterity. Further, snow is able to enter through the hole or slit in the mitten and reach the skin, making play uncomfortable.
Some prior art patents disclose garments with gloves or mittens attached to the sleeves in which the hand cannot be removed therefrom, such as through a hole or slit in the mitten. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,815,480 to Martin discloses a garment for abnormal persons having a compulsion for destructive activity. The garment includes large mitts attached thereto for controlling excessive hand activity. Each mitt includes many "envelopes" of material which are designed to completely enclose the hand and keep the wearer from grasping things. While this invention is useful for the particular problem it solves, a normal child or adult playing in the snow should not be so restrained, such that it is highly desirable that any permanently attached gloves or mittens allow the wearer to grasp items.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,016,027 to Kintanar teaches cosmetic gloves which extend up the arm of the wearer and are joined together about the shoulders of the wearer. These gloves are provided for cosmetic purposes and are not suited for keeping the user's hands warm and dry in cold weather. U.S. Design Pat. No. D241,185 to Schlechter shows a cosmetic type fishnet garment which is provided for ornamental purposes wherein fill length arms and gloves are provided; however such a garment is not functional for winter weather use. U.S. Design Pat. No. D449,422 to Massie likewise teaches a mitten garment which extends up the arms and joins about the shoulders; however the mittens are not permanently attached to any garment.
Finally, there have been attempts to keep the mittens or gloves on the wearer, such as a small child, by providing elongated portions attached to the glove which extend up the forearm of the wearer. U.S. Pat. No. 6,363,534 to Clough teaches a protective mitten with a long elasticized snow sleeve or band that covers a major portion of the forearm of a child. While this invention teaches the aspects of wrist protection from the cold and snow, the long sleeve is not attached to an undergarment, is prone to "bunch" and become uncomfortable, and can easily be removed by the wearer.
In light of the above, it would be advantageous to provide a garment which includes mittens or gloves attached to the sleeves. It would also be advantageous to provide a mitten-sleeve combination garment which precludes a child from removing their mittens while out in the snow without the assistance of an adult. It would also be advantageous to provide mittens or gloves which are permanently attached to the sleeve of an undergarment so that they cannot be lost or removed without first removing the garment. It would also be advantageous to provide a garment that adequately prevents snow from coming into contact with the skin around the wrist area, where there is traditionally a gap in the mitten/coat coverage. It would also be advantageous to provide mittens with extended sleeves that are not prone to "bunch" or fall down to the wrist and become uncomfortable to the wearer.

Mitten-sleeve combination for a winter garment


An anastomosis apparatus includes a first rigid element and a second rigid element. The first element defines a first passageway or lumen which extends along its entire length. In construction the first element includes a first tubular portion in association with a first flange disposed on one end of the first tubular portion. The first flange is fixedly secured to the first tubular portion. The second element defines a second passageway along its entire length which is dimensioned to slidably receive and retain the first tubular portion. The second element includes a second tubular portion in association with a second flange disposed on a proximal end of the second tubular portion. An engagement of the first element with the second element about an opening defined in the blood vessel of a patient results in a fixed spatial relationship of the first element relative to the second element whereby the first passageway is retained in a generally fixed spatial relationship with the lumen of the aforesaid blood vessel.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to anastomotic implants. More particularly, the invention is directed for use in effecting an end to side anastomotic juncture.
2. State of the Art
An objective of vascular reconstructive surgery is the reconstitution of blood flow from a blood vessel which has ceased effective operation. The necessity of grafting a replacement vessel to the sidewall of the damaged blood vessel arises with significant frequency. Cardiovascular disease is the current paramount cause of natural deaths in the U.S. Approximately 485,000 coronary bypass procedures requiring vascular anastomosis performed annually plus one million other vascular surgeries requiring vascular anastomosis (ex. shuts, fistular, fem-fem bypass) are performed annually in the U.S. Of the aforesaid 485,000 bypass procedures each bypass procedure requires on average between 2-5 anastomosis procedures to be effected. It follows effectively that end-to-side anastomosis techniques and implants are of critical importance in the medical community. As used herein, "end-to-side" is independent of blood flow direction and, therefore, "end-to-side anastomsis" includes an end-to-side anastomsis as well as a side-to-end anastomosis. Vascular grafts may be formed from autogenous blood vessels harvested from other locations in the patient's body or alternatively may be manufactured from synthetic or non autogenous vessels.
Coronary bypass surgery is the commonly-adopted treatment for coronary ischemic (heart attacks). This surgery is time consuming and requires an inventory of skilled techniques. The general procedure may require between four to six hours and is typically accompanied by the surgeon's stopping the patient's heart in order to facilitate delicate suturing of vascular tissue. The success of such procedures is heavily dependent on the individual skills of the participating surgeons. Vascular anastomosis forms an essential component in a typical coronary bypass procedure.
An anastomosis typically includes a manually sutured junction of the graft vessel with the effected vascular vessel. Understandably, as the size, e.g. diameter, of the involved vessels decrease in size the ability of the surgeon to effect a suture having long-term viability is severely challenged.
The time consumed in suturing the vessels in a bypass procedure can easily exceed fifty percent (50%) of the time involved in the procedure. It follows that any procedure or apparatus which would decrease the time commitment necessitated by suturing holds potential in this environment. Furthermore, significant reduction in the time involved in effecting the anastomosis itself could potentially lead to the elimination of the need for cardiopulmonary bypass, which, in and of itself, would be a considerable step forward in lessening the risk associated with this type of procedure.
Of considerable concern in bypass procedures is the potentiality of vascular graft failure. A principal cause of such failure is turbulent blood flow over a rough suture line. Other concerns include the quality of the involved graft vessel, a potential mismatch in the diameter of the treated vessel and the graft, and an improper angle of bifurcation at the anastomosis juncture.


A method of thermoacoustic imaging of an object includes providing thermoacoustic signals representing a mechanical wave response to a delivery of electromagnetic energy into the imaged object, reconstructing an energy deposition image representing a local energy absorption within the object based on the thermoacoustic signals, and decomposing the energy deposition image into a quantitative absorption image representing a distribution of a local absorption coefficient in the object and at least one further image component.

Thermoacoustic imaging is a fast evolving non-invasive modality for high-resolution mapping of local energy deposition in tissue. In particular, optoacoustic (or photoacoustic) tomography aims at reconstructing maps of local optical absorption coefficient of tissue, which can subsequently be related to the concentration of certain intrinsic and exogenously-administered biomarkers and probes. The imaging is performed by illuminating the object or region of interest with short high-power electromagnetic pulses, in particular laser pulses, thus creating an instantaneous temperature elevation and thermal expansion within it. As a result, high-frequency acoustic fields are formed that propagate towards the object's boundary where they can be subsequently recorded. In this way, an image representing local energy deposition within the object can be reconstructed by collecting tomographic information around the object and using optoacoustic inversion algorithms.
While image formation in optoacoustics can be performed in several ways, they require some mathematical inversion for image formation from raw measurements of the optoacoustic response. Ideally, the reconstructed image should represent a quantitative map of the underlying absorption properties of the imaged tissue, which can be subsequently related to distribution of various tissue chromophores and biomarkers. However, in most cases, the detected acoustic signals represent the overall local energy deposition in the imaged object. Thus, the initial optoacoustic image requires further analysis to extract the relevant information. One apparent difficulty is the highly heterogeneous nature of common biological tissues in the visible and near-infrared spectra. This in turn causes highly non-uniform distribution of excitation light within the imaged object owing to scattering and attenuation. In addition, inaccuracies in the currently used optoacoustic inversion models further hinder image quantification.
With further detail, current optoacoustic inversion techniques, which produce the deposited energy image from the acoustic fields, suffer from quantification inaccuracy, low spatial resolution, or inflexibility owing to the absence of appropriate methods to accurately account for experimental and physical propagation factors. Algorithms that currently exist for inversion and image formation can be divided into two groups: those based on a closed form analytical solution of the optoacoustic wave equation and those based on numerical calculations.
The first kind of algorithms refers to back-projection algorithms in which the reconstruction of the optoacoustic image is given as an integral over the measured signals similar to linear Radon-based transformations. These reconstruction methods are usually based on several approximations to the exact optoacoustic equation, thus creating substantial artifacts in the reconstruction. Moreover, the back-projections algorithms are incapable of incorporating multiple instrumentation-based factors into the inversion. For example, it may not be possible to directly take into account the frequency response of the ultrasonic detector or its finite size in the back-projection algorithms.
The second kind of algorithms is model-based inversion in which the acoustic propagation problem is solved numerically and iteratively in either the frequency or time domains by using, e.g., finite-elements method. Model-based thermoacoustic inversion schemes were previously attempted by H. Jiang et al. ("J. Opt. Soc. Am.," vol. A 23, 2006, p. 878-888) and by G. Paltauf et al. ("The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America," vol. 112(4), 2002, p. 1536-44). However, the computational complexity involved with these particular methods has limited their achievable resolution and hindered practical implementations.
Since in most realistic imaging scenarios it is practically impossible to uniformly illuminate the entire region of interest, the initially formed image will represent a coupled map of energy deposition in tissue and absorption, rather than the required quantified absorption coefficient values. In other words, the thermoacoustic image will comprise a product between the optical absorption and the light fluence within the object. Thus, targets deep in the object may appear weaker than targets having similar optical absorption but located close to the illuminated surface. Quantitative reconstructions, especially of volumetric phenomena, were not previously possible owing to limitations in both optoacoustic inversion algorithms, image normalization methods and corresponding system implementations. These inaccuracies limit applicable areas of conventional (qualitative) optoacoustic imaging. Consequently, systems reported so far for opto-acoustic imaging compromise the image quality and quantification, a performance that worsens with depth or volumetric imaging.
Moreover, when analyzing multi-spectral optoacoustic images, i.e., images obtained for several excitation wavelengths, spectral changes in the light fluence may dominate the optoacoustic images and obfuscate the absorption spectrum of targets of interests. This limits the use of Multi-Spectral Optoacoustic Tomography (MSOT), which is described, e.g., in PCT/EP2008/006142 (unpublished on the priority date of the present specification), for mapping the concentration of various targets with spectrally dependant absorptions.
Methods have been proposed for the extraction of the absorption coefficient and quantification improvement. Some approaches are based on solving the diffusion equation that governs light propagation to find and correct for light distribution within the object (B. T. Cox et al. in "Applied Optics," vol. 45, p. 1866-1875, 2006; B. T. Cox B T et al in "Proc SPIE," 6437, 64371T-1-10, 2007). Once a hypothesized light distribution solution is found, it is used to normalize the optoacoustic image and to extract the absorption coefficient. As a further step, the extracted absorption can be used to recalculate the light distribution within the object, which in turn is used to re-normalize the optoacoustic image. This process can be repeated in an iterative manner until convergence is achieved.
However, the above methods rely on empirical assumptions regarding optical properties of the tissue and other experimental parameters. Therefore they suffer from convergence instability that limits the ability for robust quantification accuracy (Jetzfellner et al. in "Appl. Phys. Lett.," 95(1), 2009).
The main deficiency of optoacoustic image normalization methods is that they rely on a light fluence distribution that is modeled based on hypothesized light propagation equations, such as the light diffusion equation. However, these equations require accurate prior knowledge of the optical properties of the medium, which are usually largely unknown, in particular scattering but also absorption. In most cases, an estimated value or structure is prescribed to the optical parameters of the medium. In practice, it has been found however that even small errors in the assigned optical properties can lead to large errors in the reconstruction. Moreover, if an iterative self-correcting approach is applied, convergence to accurate values is rarely possible owing to modeling inaccuracies. Thus, as to date, reliable performance has not yet been demonstrated using these techniques for in-vivo data, i.e., for media where light distribution is spatially heterogeneous.
The above limitations are not restricted to optoacoustics. The corresponding disadvantages generally occur in other thermoacoustic imaging methods wherein, e.g., radiofrequency pulses are used for delivering energy to the object instead of the object illumination with laser pulses.
It could therefore be helpful to provide improved methods and preferred geometry for thermoacoustic imaging capable of avoiding disadvantages and restrictions of conventional qualitative reconstruction techniques. In particular, it could be helpful to provide accurate thermoacoustic imaging methods capable of quantitative imaging with increased precision and reproducibility, not only in surface and subsurface regions, but also volumetrically in entire objects. Furthermore, it could be helpful to provide thermoacoustic imaging device implementations capable of avoiding disadvantages and restrictions of conventional techniques.

Thermoacoustic imaging with quantitative extraction of absorption map

Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen Deutsches Forschungszentrum fur Gesundheit und Umwelt (GmbH)


A ground support equipment cart contains one or more removable equipment modules. The cart contains a rectangular module containing airplane air conditioning components mounted upon the cart and extending the width of the cart but occupying substantially less than half of the cart's length. The cart also contains one or more rectangular equipment modules removably mounted upon the cart, one or two of the removable modules containing electrical power converting components. And the cart contains a rectangular module containing power generating components mounted upon the cart and occupying substantially the remainder of the cart. The cart separates into two parts, one part containing the module containing power generating components. The cart also contains a control module having a display and controls for, and that is networked to, the other modules. One or more of the removable modules slide out on a tray and may be locked in position.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of airplane ground support equipment and more specifically to airplane ground support equipment having extractable modules.
2. Description of the Related Art
When an airplane is on the ground with its engines shut down, the airplane is typically unable to provide power for its electrical systems and chilled air for its air conditioning systems; and some airplanes are also unable to provide liquid coolant for some critical electronic (or "avionic") components. It is customary to connect such a grounded airplane to an airplane ground support equipment system. Such a system may have its components mounted upon a mobile equipment cart that is called an airplane ground support equipment cart and that may be parked, placed or mounted conveniently close to an airplane requiring ground support. Such a cart typically contains an air conditioner that can provide conditioned and cooled air to an airplane plus an electrical power converter that can transform power drawn from the local power grid into power of the proper voltage (AC or DC) and frequency required by the airplane. Such an airplane ground support equipment cart may also contain a diesel engine connected to an electrical generator that enables the cart to provide both air conditioning and also electrical power for an airplane without any connection to the local power grid. And if an airplane requires a source of cooled liquid for its electronics, some carts may also include a source of liquid coolant.
In the past, particularly with regard to military airplanes, such ground support equipment carts have been custom designed to meet the specialized needs of a single particular type or class of airplane. Hence, a cart designed to support the specific requirements and needs of a first type or class of airplane cannot be used to support the differing specific requirements and needs of other types or classes of airplanes. Different airplanes typically may require different pressures and volumes of cooled air, different amounts of electrical power, different electrical voltage levels, and different electrical frequencies (or direct current). And different airplanes typically may require differing pressures and volumes of cooled liquid for use in cooling onboard electronics. Accordingly, every airport must be supplied with as many different types of ground support equipment carts as there are different types or classes of airplanes that may land and take off at each airport or military base. Problems arise when more airplanes of a particular type arrive at a specific location than there are ground support equipment carts suitably designed to service the needs of that particular type or class of airplane.
As an example of an airplane cart arrangement that provides air and electrical conditioning for an airplane, PCT patent application No. PCT/US2006/043312 (Intl. Pub. No. WO 2007/061622 A1 published on May 31, 2007) discloses an airplane ground support cart that has a modular design of its electrical conditioning components. This cart provides air conditioning and electrical power conditioning as well as optional electrical power generation services to airplanes. FIG. 5 reveals that the cart disclosed in this patent application may receive interchangeable, modular power conversion modules. Thus, a module 72, which generates 3-phase 115 volt 400 Hz A.C. power, may be removed and replaced with a module 78, which generates 270 volt D.C. power. FIG. 6 illustrates that this cart may also accept a module 92, which generates 28 volt D.C. electrical power.
FIG. 2 of the above PCT patent application illustrates a typical arrangement of the mechanical components of a dual air conditioning system within an airplane ground support equipment cart 14. The air conditioner's mechanical components are spread all across the entire length of the cart 14. Two sets of condenser coils 34 are positioned at one end of the cart 14; and the thickness of the coils 34 and their housing, together with the thickness of the associated cooling fans, occupies roughly one-fifth of the cart's overall length. A filter and upstream evaporation coil 30 and a downstream evaporation coil 40 and outlet connection 42 (to which can be attached a duct leading to an airplane) are positioned at the other extreme end of the cart 14, occupying somewhat less than one-fifth of the cart's overall length. A blower fan 32, a discharge plenum 38, and two compressors 36 are shown positioned in the central portions of the cart 14. These mechanical components of the air conditioning system are not confined within a rectangular module within a portion of the volume of the cart 14—these components are spread all across the cart 14 and thus cannot be conveniently removed from the cart for servicing or for use away from the cart 14. Other cart components, such as a diesel engine 54 and generator 56 (shown in FIG. 4 of the PCT application) and an electrical power converter unit 72 (shown in FIG. 5 of the PCT application) are squeezed in among the air conditioning components wherever there is room. This intermixing of non-air-conditioning components with the air-conditioning components greatly complicates servicing of all the components, since they are all crowded into the same cramped space. A service man working on the air conditioner compressors or blowers may find the diesel engine 54 and generator 56 are in the way of these components, for example.
The present invention has as its goal the realization of modules of similar design, both large and small, that may be installed on such a cart, interchanged with one another, and removed for convenient servicing. Larger modules might contain air conditioning equipment or power generation equipment, while smaller modules may contain power conversion equipment, such as units that can convert 3-phase 460 volt 60 Hz A.C. incoming power into 270 volts DC or 115 volts 400 Hz A.C. Other modules may contain control panels and displays and computers and other such equipment.
These modules should be strong enough so that they may be lifted and moved about without damage. They should be relatively easy to disassemble so that repairs can be carried out without great difficulty, but there should be no loose parts that could be sucked up into a jet turbine engine, causing serious damage. The module design should lend itself readily to electromagnetic shielding when necessary. They should be relatively water and weather resistant, but there should be a minimum of internal enclosed channels where moisture could collect and do serious damage. The design of these modules should scale easily up or down into large or small modules as required by the nature of the ground support equipment being housed.

Airplane ground support equipment cart having extractable modules and a generator module that is seperable from power conversion and air conditioning modules


The present invention relates to a method for producing multitone image data from data representative of an original image and, in particular, for producing multitone image data with a set of N output darkness levels U greater than 2 from original darkness values V.sub.o representative of an original image.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method for producing multitone image data from data representative of an original image and, in particular, for producing multitone image data with a set of N output darkness levels U greater than 2 from original darkness values V.sub.o representative of an original image.
2. Description of Related Art
Any photograph, painting, etc., consisting of a broad range of tones or gradation of tones is known as a continuous tone image or picture. In paintings, changing the pigment concentration or the amount of deposit of the printing media on a substrate modulates the color values throughout an entire picture. In photography, the different tones are created by varying amounts of silver, which appears black, in image areas.
In most forms of printing, tones cannot be reproduced by varying concentrations or amounts of ink. Many printing processes can print only a solid density of a color in an image area, while no ink prints in a non image area. In order to reproduce the varying tones of a continuous tone original image, a halftone process can be used to convert the original image into a pattern of very small and clearly defined dots. More specifically, the original image can be scanned with a light beam using an image scanner to obtain an electronic signal containing image information in the form of intensity levels or optical density variations corresponding to elemental picture areas, known as pixels, of the original picture. Then a thresholding technique can be used to generate data or an output that can cause ink to be printed in a pixel of the halftone reproduction if the intensity level or optical density variation of the corresponding pixel in the original image exceeds a predetermined value. The output can be stored in a memory or used directly to drive a recorder, such as an exposing device, a printer or a computer display.
In halftoning processes, each dot in the reproduced image has the same tonal value or optical density. Various tones in the original are represented in the halftone image by a large number of evenly spaced dots which can have different sizes. Larger dots produce darker tones. Smaller dots or fewer dots make lighter tones. Halftones have the appearance of continuous tone images because of the limited resolving power of the human eye. When viewed at a normal reading distance, the individual dots blend into and appear like a "continuous" tone.
In the reproduction of color images, the original multicolored image is typically scanned through separate sets of colored filters to produce four separate image signals, corresponding to three primary colors and, possibly, black. The chosen primary colors for color printing are typically cyan, magenta and yellow. The chosen primary colors for a color computer display are typically red, green and blue. The separate signals are processed as described above. In other words, a color separation signal representative of a pattern of very small and clearly defined dots is generated for each of the colors where the dots in each of the patterns has the same tonal value or optical density throughout that pattern. Then the patterns for each color must be combined.
For instance, an exposing device may produce black and white film transparencies, corresponding to each of the cyan, magenta, yellow and black color separation signals, known as color separation transparencies or color separations for short. The color separations are used to make printing plates. The printing plates are mounted on a printing press to print, in registration, four overlapping single colored images to reconstruct the multicolored original.
The electronic output signals may also be used to directly drive a color printer or a computer display to produce a reconstructed multicolored image without ever producing actual color separations or printing plates.
It is desirable to provide a method for producing a multitone image using a set of at least 3 output darkness values (or levels) for at least one output color from data representative of an original image.


A tamper-evident cap is disclosed having a circular closure member, a cylindrical annular wall depending generally from the periphery of the closure member terminating with a base and having a plurality of serrations, and a tamper-evident band circumferentially positioned around the base having teeth and attached to a portion of the base. The tamper-evident band may be mounted to the base by at least one of the teeth or attached by at least one of the serrations extending below the base. The interior and/or exterior of the cylindrical wall may be stepped. The tamper-evident band may have a groove between the teeth for retaining the tamper-evident band on a neck finish. A neck finish having at least one set of teeth and optional raised portions for securing the tamper-evident band in place is also disclosed. The neck finish may be stepped to correspond with a cap having a cylindrical wall with a stepped interior. A cap and neck finish combination for a container is also disclosed.

Various types of caps have been used for removably sealing containers, such as blow molded or injection molded bottles. One such cap has spiral threads extending along an interior surface which threads match corresponding threads along an exterior surface of a bottle neck. Such caps may also have a tamper-evident band projecting outward along a lower rim of the cap to show evidence if the cap has been removed or otherwise tampered with. The rim can be helpful for positioning the band circumferentially around the cap, but it can also add to the bulk and weight of the cap. Further, the threads along the cap interior surface can be long thus requiring significant rotation to securely apply and attach the cap to the bottle neck.

Tamper-evident container cap and neck finish


A system for sensing the diameter of stalks of plants senses the position of a laterally movable member arranged to contact a stalk of a plant located within an elongate gap in a row harvesting unit to determine and map the stalk diameters.

A number of different arrangements for determining the throughput of agricultural harvesting machines have been proposed in the past, like sensing the torque for driving the feederhouse or cross auger of a platform or corn head. The sensed value can be used for controlling the propelling speed of the harvesting machine or recorded and geo-referenced in a map for agronomic purposes, like determining fertilizer amounts. These arrangements provide information about the mass or volume of plants per land area unit.
Corn plants are harvested with corn heads mounted at the front of agricultural harvesting machines, like combines or forage harvesters. During operation, stalk rolls pull down adjacent rows of corn plants and the ears of corn of the plants are snapped by stripper plates. The corn heads comprise a number of row harvesting units arranged side by side, each of the row harvesting units has a pair of stalk rolls, or one stalk roll interacting with a rigid wall, for pulling the plants down. The stripper plates are mounted above the stalk rolls, forming a forwardly extending elongate gap, through which the plant is pulled down by the stalk rolls. The distance between the stripper plates is generally manually adjustable and selected such that the stalk can pass, while the ears are removed from the stalks by the stripper plates and fed by a conveyor, usually a chain conveyor, to a cross auger feeding the ears to the interior of the harvesting machine.

System and method for sensing and mapping stalk diameter


The subject matter of this specification can be embodied in, among other things, an electric actuator driver that includes a first input port configured to receive an analog electrical servo control signal, a second input port configured to receive a position feedback signal, a first output port, a second output port, and a conversion circuit configured to determine one or more electric motor coil control current levels based on the analog electrical servo control signal and the position feedback signal, provide the one or more electric motor coil control currents based on the determined electric motor coil control current levels at the first output port, determine a feedback signal based on the analog electrical servo control signal, and provide the determined feedback signal at the second output port.

Hydraulic prime mover controllers are used to control hydraulic actuators in many different types of applications, such as fuel metering valves and variable geometry valves. However, hydraulic controllers and actuators present several failure modes that are unique to hydraulic actuation. These older control systems were designed and built to drive a bi-directional hydraulic servo valve and receive feedback from a variable differential transformer (VDT) or other electrical position feedback device on the hydraulic actuator. In addition, safety detection systems in these older controllers are designed to monitor and detect failures of the control system, components of the older hydraulic systems, or interface wiring.
Many older prime mover controls cannot easily be upgraded to electronic-based actuation because it is prohibitively expensive to replace or modernize the entire control system to accommodate the standard 4-20 mA proportional interfaces or digital interfaces provided on most modern electronic controllers for actuator control and feedback.

Setpoint identification on retrofit electric actuation


There is provided a camera module including: a lens barrel including at least one lens disposed on an optical axis; a housing having the lens barrel disposed therein; a circuit board disposed below the housing; and a shield-can coupled to the housing and enclosing an outer surface of the housing, wherein the circuit board is provided with a ground pad, and a contact surface of the shield-can contacting the ground pad is formed to have a convex-concave shape.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a camera module.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, portable communication terminals such as mobile phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), portable personal computers (PCs), and the like, have had the ability to transmit image data, in addition to text or voice data.
In order to transmit image data or conduct video calls according to this trend, a portable communication terminal has been standardly equipped with a camera module.
Generally, the above-mentioned camera module generates electromagnetic waves while being driven, and when such electromagnetic waves are discharged externally, other electronic components may be negatively influenced, to thereby cause communications problems or malfunctions.
Therefore, in order to block electromagnetic interference (EMI) as described above, a shield-can formed of a metal is commonly used, wherein the shield-can covers each of, or a group of, electronic components to serve to block the electromagnetic interference negatively influencing these electronic components and to protect these electronic components from external impacts.
Here, the shield-can may be electrically connected to a ground pad on a circuit board, and the electrical connection between the shield-can and the ground pad is performed by a conductive bond.
However, when using the conductive bond, electrical resistance for shielding electromagnetic waves may be increased, whereby efficiency in shielding electromagnetic waves may be decreased.


The present invention provides a method for a cost-saving telephone service, comprising: receiving a request for telephoning a third party client device from a communication resources using device, wherein the communication resources using device and the third party client device are connected to a first and a second telephone service networks respectively; selecting a communication resources providing device from a plurality of client devices registered to the cost-saving telephone service and connected to the second telephone service network; and having the communication resources providing device telephone the third party client device through the second telephone service network such that the communication resources using device communicates with the third party client device via the communication resources providing device.

1. Technical Field
The invention relates to a method and an apparatus for a telephone service, and particularly relates to a method and an apparatus for a cost-saving telephone service.
2. Related Art
Along with development of wireless communication technology and a development trend of miniaturization of electronic apparatuses, smart phones are greatly popularised, and become a mainstream of current mobile phones. A user can use the smart phone to connect a data network and a telephone service network at any time anywhere. Along with progress and popularisation of the wireless communication technology, although a phone call charge rate of the mobile phones has a declining trend year by year, various telecommunication practitioners still provide various promotional schemes for their long-term clients. However, the charging rate of phone calls between the telecommunication service providers (an inter-network charge rate) is still high. Therefore, various cost-saving communication software and services are vigorously developed, such as "Skype" or "Line". The common concept among such type of software is to provide a free or low-cost telephone service based on a characteristic that the electronic apparatus or the smart phone is connected to the data network.
Taking the software "Line" as an example, such type of communication software and service could be exemplarily characterized by FIG. 1. In a communication network 100, a smart phone 101 and a smart phone 102 are all installed with such communication software, and are registered to such service. During registration, client devices (e.g., the smart phones) provide telephone numbers thereof to the service. The smart phone 101 and the smart phone 102 are connected to a server 104 providing such communication service through a data network 103 (the Internet). In case that the users of the smart phone 101 and the smart phone 102 know existence of each other and agree a mutual communication there between (add each other as friends), the users of the smart phone 101 and the smart phone 102 can communicate with each other through the data network 103 and the server 104, and the communication method includes a voice service. In this way, even if the smart phone 101 and the smart phone 102 are respectively connected to telephone service networks of different telecommunication service providers, the users of the smart phone 101 or the smart phone 102 can communicate with each other without making an expensive inter-network phone call.
In the aforementioned example, the smart phone 101 and the smart phone 102 are all required to install the same communication software and required to register on the same communication service; otherwise the communication or phone call between the smart phone 101 and the smart phone 102 cannot be implemented. However, the software "Skype" not only provides the communication method of the aforementioned example, but also integrates Type II Telecommunications services, i.e. the user can make cost-saving phone calls as long as the user registers to the communication service. As shown in FIG. 2, in a communication network 200 of FIG. 2, a smart phone 201 registers to a cost-saving telephone service (e.g., Skype). When the smart phone 201 intends to call a mobile phone 202 that does not register on the cost-saving telephone service, where the mobile phone 202 is connected to a telephone service network 205, the smart phone 201 is connected to a server 204A providing such communication service through a data network 203 (the Internet), and the server 204A is connected to a machine room 204B rented by the cost-saving telephone service provider, where the machine room 204B is connected to the telephone service network 205, such that the server 204A can establish a communication connection between the smart phone 201 and the mobile phone 202 through the machine room 204B. Certainly, in such service, the cost-saving telephone service provider still charges a service fee from the user to cover the cost of renting the machine room.
In the current technique, if two terminals of the cost-saving telephone service are not registered to the same cost-saving telephone service, such as the two smart phones to be communicated with each other are not installed with the same communication software, or one terminal of the phone call is not a smart phone, or one terminal of the phone call is a telephone using public switched telephone network, the cost-saving telephone service relies on the machine room rented from the telecommunication service provider by the cost-saving telephone service provider (i.e. a Type II telecommunication service). Such system structure is lack of flexibility and has a high cost, and the service users have to cover the cost of renting the machine room. The current cost-saving telephone technique does not fully integrate resources of the data network and the telephone service networks, and does not fully exploit the characteristic of the modern smart phone capable of simultaneously connecting the data network and the telephone service network.

Method and apparatus for cost-saving telephone service


The invention relates to a pocket-sized knife sharpening device comprising two sharpening bars which are arranged in a housing and which are rotationally mounted. The sharpening bars are guided with the other ends thereof into arc-shaped recesses in the front wall and the rear wall of the housing. They are loaded onto each other by means of springs and cross each other in a knife opening which is formed by slits extending in a parallel manner in relation to each other in the front wall of the rear wall.

Provided here on a base is a vertical plate having the sharpening rods mounted thereon with pins which are inserted through a recess in the plate and fastened with a counterscrew on the other side of the plate. Similarly, pins secured with corresponding counterscrews reach at the side of the plate. Similarly, pins secured with corresponding counterscrews reach at the other end of the sharpening rods through the curved guides formed as slots in the plate.
The known apparatus has proved extremely useful, but it is too large and too heavy to be transported in a pocket.
It is therefore the problem of the invention to provide such a knife sharpening apparatus in pocket size.


The present invention provides methods and uses of phospholipid ether analogs as diagnostic and therapeutic agents for numerous cancers.

The invention generally relates to diagnostic imaging of tumors and specifically relates to diagnostic imaging of tumors using phospholipid analogs.
The early detection of cancer has been one of the primary goals of modern imaging technology, since the identification of a suspected tumor in a localized stage significantly improves the chances for successful treatment and elimination of the cancerous tissue. A large number of imaging strategies have therefore been designed, using a variety of techniques and modalities, to aid the physician in making an accurate diagnosis as early as possible.
Unfortunately, conventional imaging techniques such as computerized tomography (CT) and MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) are limited in their ability to afford a conclusive diagnosis of a suspected lesion, since they are only capable of observing differences in the density or morphology of tissues. A more invasive and costly biopsy procedure is often necessary to provide a definitive diagnosis. In contrast, nuclear medicine techniques such as positron emission tomography (PET) and single photon emission tomography (SPECT) can provide functional or biochemical information about a particular organ or area of interest. However, the success of these nuclear imaging techniques depends in large part on the selective uptake and detection of appropriate radiopharmaceuticals. Selective uptake, in turn, depends upon the development of radiopharmaceuticals with a high degree of specificity for the target tissue. Unfortunately, the tumor-localizing agents developed thus far for oncological applications have had only limited application.
For example, one of these prior art compounds, 67Ga gallium citrate, was originally identified for its ability to accumulate in tumor tissue. Unfortunately, 67Ga gallium citrate is taken up by a variety of other non-cancerous lesions as well, including inflammatory lesions, and unacceptable amounts of radioactivity can also accumulate in liver and spleen tissue. The rapid buildup of a radiopharmaceutical in these organs can seriously interfere with the imaging of nearby lesions and also negatively impacts the dosage that can safely be given to a patient.
An alternative approach has been to develop radiolabeled monoclonal antibodies (Mabs) directed to tumor-specific antigens. However, these monoclonal antibodies are specific only to the particular tumor tissue for which they have been produced, and therefore will not localize generally in neoplastic tissue. Moreover, the use of Mabs for diagnostic imaging has lead to additional problems, including varying degrees of antigen expression, low tumor uptake, non-specific binding and adverse immunogenic reactions.
In an attempt to address these problems, the present inventors have recently identified and developed a series of novel compounds demonstrating useful tumor specificity. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,925,649; 4,965,391; 5,087,721; 5,347,030 and 6,417,384; all of which are herein incorporated by reference. It is believed that these radioiodinated phospholipid ether analogs take advantage of a unique biochemical characteristic of malignant tumor cells; i.e. the large concentration of naturally-occurring ether lipids in the tumor cell membranes relative to corresponding normal tissues. Although the precise mechanism of action is not fully understood, the prevailing hypothesis is that the phospholipid ether analogs become entrapped in tumor membranes. Accordingly, these compounds localize in tumor tissue and remain in place for diagnostic and/or therapeutic applications.
The selective retention of the radiolabeled phospholipid ether analogs described in the above patents has been demonstrated in a variety of rodent and animal tumor xenografts and not in spontaneous tumor models which are thought to more closely mimic the human disease. Unfortunately, the data obtained from these studies has also demonstrated a relatively rapid clearance of the radiopharmaceutical compound from the blood, and an undesirable accumulation by non-target tissues. As noted above, non-target tissue uptake can decrease the efficacy of radiodiagnostic imaging by creating high background activity, or by causing excessive exposure of radiosensitive tissues to the injected radioactivity.
Accordingly, there remains a significant need in the art for radiopharmaceuticals which exhibit a rapid clearance from non-target tissues as well as an extended half-life in the plasma, while still retaining its specificity and avidity for neoplastic tissue. Such an agent should not only assist in the non-invasive imaging of primary tumors and metastases, but should also serve as a carrier for a cytotoxic agent for site-specific eradication of malignant tumor tissue, especially as it relates to most frequently diagnosed forms of cancers. It is further desirable that radiopharmaceuticals are selective for malignant tumors and not precancerous tissues including adenomas and hyperplasia.
Approximately 147,000 new cases of colorectal cancer are diagnosed each year in the United States. Thus colorectal cancer is the fourth most common cancer, accounting for 60,000 deaths per year.1 Treatment depends primarily on the cancer stage, but may include surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, and/or radiofrequency or cryo ablation. In routine follow-ups for colorectal cancer patients, however, determination of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), a colorectal tumor marker, and repeat colonoscopies5 fail to detect recurrent disease in over 50% of patients.6 Therefore, there is a need for development of additional methods for detection of recurrent disease. Further, during treatment and diagnosis using CT scanning and RF ablation, functional information from CT scans is difficult to obtain. With contrast-enhanced helical CT, the tumor vascularity may be assessed to some degree, but there is no way of accurately determining if viable tumor cells remain within the RF lesion. In addition, the thermal lesions created by RF normally have a rim of inflammation surrounding them on post procedure CT scans for up to 6 months post-procedure. PET scanning has been used to follow post-ablation patients, but the rim of inflammation surrounding RF thermal lesions normally displays increased uptake, even in the absence of viable tumor. This decreases the sensitivity and specificity for early detection of recurrent tumor. Accordingly, agents like NM404 that are selective for and retained indefinitely by malignant tumor cells are preferable, unlike FDG which is not selective for tumor cells and goes to infectious sites and hyperplasias (Barret's Esophagus). Moreover, compounds like NM404 containing 124I which has a 4 day physical half-life and can be shipped anywhere in the world, are preferable as compared to FDG which has a 110 minute half-life and therefore may only be have limited distribution within 200 miles of the production site. Further compounds like NM404 that undergo prolonged retention (not metabolized) are preferable since it is more likely that they may have significant therapeutic potential when mated with an appropriate radioisotope like 131I. Also, compounds like NM404, which can be labeled with a variety of iodine isotopes and have expanded versatility (diagnosis and therapy as well as a tool for experimental animal studies) are preferable as compared to FDG, which is limited to 18F for PET scanning or potentially 19F (stable) for magnetic resonance imaging albeit at very low sensitivity levels. Regardless of its tumor targeting ability, FDG due to its rapid metabolism in tumor cells, does not have potential for therapy. Therefore, other compounds are needed to investigate post RF local recurrences. Likewise, if the tumor becomes metastatic, either by progression or recurrence of the local tumor, a hybrid imaging modality (PET and CT combination), replacing post-procedure separate CT and PET scanning is highly desirable.
Moreover, even where chemotherapy is the mode of treatment, improved monitoring of the response to chemotherapy is essential. Therefore, development of an early marker to study response to chemotherapy to allow physicians to quickly discontinue use of ineffective chemotherapeutic regimens without exposing patients to the toxicity of prolonged treatments is desirable. Where External Beam Radiation Therapy is an alternate treatment for patients with tumors of similar histology, tumors may have dramatically different responses to curative-intent external radiation therapy (XRT). Some patients with rectal cancer treated with pre-operative radiation will have a complete response, while others with similar histology (at the light microscopy level) will have a poor response to treatment and disease will recur. Response to radiation is a predictive factor for ultimate tumor control and survival for many cancers, including many gastrointestinal cancers, lung cancer, head and neck cancer, and gynecologic cancers. Most response characterization methods, while very predictive of response, are performed after completion of treatment. While some intra-treatment clinical assessments are useful in adjusting treatment,14 in most cases there is no accurate method of predicting tumor response during actual treatment. Such a test, especially one applicable to a broad range of tumor sites and histologies, would obviously be very useful and desirable. Other treatment and diagnostic methods include molecular assays that have been proposed to predict response to therapy, and recent efforts include use of DNA microarrays to identify genetic changes that correlate with response or lack of response to treatment. These are investigational and none are in routine clinical use.
Yet other methods of diagnosis and treatment include use of imaging modalities to predict response during XRT treatment. Intra-treatment PET scans using FDG are under active investigation, wherein the isotope uptake in the primary tumor midway through radiation therapy is compared to the pre-treatment uptake. Several retrospective studies suggest patients with continued strong uptake during treatment have poorer tumor control outcomes than patients whose tumors are less FDG-avid during treatment.15 However, more effect screening, diagnostic and treatment methods for various cancers are extremely desirable.
Other well observed tumors include malignant gliomas that are the most common type of primary brain tumors. Despite aggressive treatment with surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy, most patients harboring these tumors have less than a two-year survival after diagnosis. Recent advances in neuroradiology and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have made a significant impact in early diagnosis and treatment of these tumors. Most malignant gliomas, however, have an infiltrative component, which is poorly differentiated from edematous brain tissue by present imaging techniques. It is often this component of the tumor that is most difficult to treat and responsible for local recurrence. Undoubtedly, better visualization of invasive glioma cells is desirable for significant therapeutic treatment.
Likewise, pancreatic cancer is a highly lethal disease with the poorest likelihood of survival among all of the major malignancies. It is the fifth leading cause of cancer death in the United States and of all the newly diagnosed cancers in the United States, 2% per year are due to pancreatic cancer. However, it is one of the most highly lethal diseases which accounts for 5% of all cancer deaths. Miller B A, et al. NIH Pub. No. 96-4104. Bethesda, Md. 1996. This is demonstrated by the fact that there are no five-year survivors in patients with unresectable disease. In addition, although surgical resection offers the only hope for cure, the five-year survival after resection is only 20%. Geer R J, Brennan M F. Am J Surg 1993; 165:68-72; Yeo C J, Cameron J L, et al., Ann Surg 1997. Although PET scanning with 18-FDG has shown promise in imaging a variety of other primary cancers, it appears to have only limited ability to improve upon the imaging capability of CT scan for patients with pancreatic cancer, particularly in assessing for metastatic disease. Kasperk R K, Riesener K P, et al., World J Surg 2001; 25:1134-1139; Sendler A, Avril N, et al., World J Surg 2000; 24:1121-1129. Thus, there remains a need for a method of accurately imaging patients with occult metastatic pancreatic cancer.
Hepatocellular cancer is the most common solid organ malignancy worldwide, due to its common etiology of chronic liver damage from hepatitis or alcoholism. Incidence rates vary markedly, from 2.1 per 100,000 in North America to 80 per 100,000 in high-incidence regions of China. The risk of developing HCC in patients with cirrhosis is 1-6% per year. Although resection is the only curative option, only 10-30% of patients are candidates for surgery at the time of presentation, due to either poor hepatic reserve or the presence of unresectable or metastatic disease. Attesting to the aggressive nature of this disease, the five-year survival is only 15-35% after curative resection. Treiber G. Digestive Diseases (2001) 19:311-323.
Breast cancer is a major health concern for women in the United States today. It was anticipated that nearly 216,000 women in the US alone would be diagnosed with breast cancer in 2004 and of these 40,000 were expected to die. Accurate assessment of local, regional and distant metastatic spread is critical for optimal disease treatment and management. The development of a non-invasive imaging modality that would allow detection and or characterization of local or distant breast cancer metastases including lymph node involvement would represent a significant advancement in the management of this disease. Although mammography is the current screening method of choice for initial detection of breast cancer, histologic confirmation and regional spread to neighboring lymph nodes are typically evaluated via biopsy. More sophisticated imaging methods including scintigraphic scanning with 99mTc-Sestamibi and 18F-FDG PET scanning have now been extensively examined, but have not impacted treatment planning significantly due mainly to unpredictable specificity. Wahl R L. Quart J of Nucl Med (1998) 42:1-7. The role of PET scanning has indicated efficacy, however, in monitoring tumor response to chemotherapy. Smith I C, Welch A E, et al., J of Clin Oncol (2000) 18:1676-1688; Schelling M, Avril N, et al., J of Clin Oncol (2000) 18:1689-1695. Radiation therapy has a well-established role in the treatment of breast cancer due mainly to the sensitivity of many solid epithelial tumors, including infiltrating ductal carcinoma, to ionizing radiation. DeVita V, Hellman S, Rosenberg S. Cancer: Principles and Practice of Oncology, 6th edition. Philadelphia (Pa.): Lippincott, Williams and Wilkins, 2002, pp. 1667-1680. The most common indication for radiation in breast cancer is as adjuvant treatment following lumpectomy or mastectomy. In this context, radiation therapy has been shown to dramatically decrease the incidence of local and regional recurrence by sterilizing microscopic deposits in these tissues. Chemotherapy is offered when the patient has metastatic disease or is deemed to have an increased risk for occult metastases. In this latter indication, that of adjuvant chemotherapy administration, studies confirm improved survival in patients receiving adjuvant chemotherapy or hormonal therapy. Radiation is also used in the palliative setting with good effect in reducing the pain and volume effects of metastases in solid organs and bone. Many patients relapse after definitive therapy for reasons that are multifactorial. Acquired resistance to radiation and chemotherapy undoubtedly contributes to recurrence after primary therapy. Additionally, the use of radiation is associated with specific toxicities which are generally late-occurring and dose-limiting. Fibrosis, nerve damage, and soft tissue necrosis can be severe if excessive doses of radiation are used. Arm lymphedema is the most common and dreaded toxicity for breast cancer patients, and results most commonly from the combination of axillary dissection (done for diagnostic purposes) and adjuvant radiation to the axilla.
In contrast to new anticancer drugs that are largely targeted to receptors or molecules specific to each particular tumor type, new compounds that rely on a common mechanism applicable to a variety of different tumor types are extremely desirable.
Hence, there remains a dire clinical need for noninvasive breast cancer imaging techniques that afford both high sensitivity and specificity. Moreover, the potential to deliver a therapeutic dose of iodine-131 simultaneously to both primary and metastatic tumors is a significant added benefit.
Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the leading cause of cancer death in the United States today. Surgical resection in appropriately selected patients offers the best chance for long-term survival and may be curative. Accurate pre-operative assessment of local, regional and distant metastatic spread is thus critical for optimal management. Evaluation of the mediastinal lymph node status is essential because nodal metastasis, which occurs in nearly half of all patients with NSCLC, is probably the most frequent barrier to cure. Accurate staging may also spare patients the morbidity of unnecessary, non-curative surgical procedures.
Imaging with FDG-PET scanning is quickly becoming the gold standard for imaging NSCLC, due to improved sensitivity rates, particularly when compared with CT imaging. However, this is an expensive imaging test which is not available in most community practices. Hence, there remains a need for an imaging technique which is sensitive, specific, and uses resources which are readily available to most patients.
Positron-emission tomography (PET) scanning with 18F-FDG has generated considerable interest as an imaging technique. A recent study prospectively compared the ability of a standard approach to staging for NSCLC (CT, ultrasound, bone scanning, etc) and PET scanning to detect metastases in mediastinal lymph nodes and distant sites. Pieterman R M, vanPutten J W G, Meuzzelaar J J, Mooyaart E L, Valburg W, Koeter G H, Fidler V, Prium J, Groen H J M. Preoperative Staging of Non-Small Cell Lung cancer with Positron-Emission Tomography. New Eng J Med 343:254-261, 2000. Mediastinal involvement was confirmed histopathologically, and distant metastases were confirmed by other imaging tests. The sensitivity and specificity of PET for detecting mediastinal metastases were 91% and 86%, respectively; for detecting distant metastases, 82% and 93%, respectively. This compares to sensitivity and specificity for CT scanning of mediastinal involvement 75% and 66%, respectively. Another study compared imaging with FDG-PET, CT, and histology results. Overall sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of PET for staging mediastinal nodes (n=168 in 54 patients) was 96%, 93% and 94%, as compared to 68%, 65%, and 6% with CT. Gupta N C, Graeber G M, Bishop H A. Comparative efficacy of positron emission tomography with fluorodeoxyglucose in evaluate of small (<1 cm), intermediate (1 to 3 cm), and large (>3 cm) lymph node lesions. Chest 117(3):773-778, 2000. Limitations of PET scanning, however, include the cost, limited availability, inability to detect lesions under 1 cm, and lack of specificity, particularly in patients with inflammatory or granulomatous disease. Stokkel M P, Bakker P F, Heine R, Schlosser N J, Lammers J W, Van Rijk P P. Staging of lymph nodes with FDG dual headed PET in patients with non-small cell lung cancer. Nucl Med Communications 20(11):1001-1007, 1999; Kapuco L O, Meltzer C C, Townsend D W, Keenan R J, Luketich J D. Fluorine-18-fluoro-deoxyglucose uptake in pneumonia. J Nucl Med 39(7):1267-1269, 1998.
Conventional anatomic imaging techniques such as CT scanning are also not good at predicting survival following treatment despite tumor shrinkage following therapy. In a recent study involving 56 NSCLC patients receiving treatment with concurrent cisplatin-based chemo/radiotherapy or radiotherapy alone for advanced disease, response by conventional CT imaging did not correlate with survival. MacManus M P, Hicks R J, Wada M, Hoff A, Matthews J, Wirth A, Rischin D, Ball D L. Early F-18 FDG-PET response to radical chemoradiotherapy correlates strongly with survival in unresectable non-small cell lung cancer. Proc ASCO 19:483a, 2000. Response by FDG-PET scans, however, did correlate strongly with survival (p=0.0006). Survival from the date of a follow-up PET scan was 84% and 84% at 1 and 2 years respectively for 24 patients who had achieved a complete response on PET, but only 43% and 31% of the 32 patients who did not (p=0.010). These results corroborate similar findings reported recently by other authors. Patz E F Jr, Connolly J, Herndon J. Prognostic value of thoracic FDG PET imaging after treatment for non-small cell lung cancer. Am J Roentgenology 174(3):769-774, 2000; Vansteenkiste J F, Stroobants S G, Dupont P J, DeLeyn P R, Verbeken E K, Deneffe G J, Mortelmans L A, Demedts M G. Prognostic importance of the standardized uptake value on (18)F-fluoro-2-deoxy-glucose positron emission tomography scan in non-small cell lung cancer: An analysis of 125 cases. J Clin Oncol 17(10):3201-3206, 1999; Ahuja V, Coleman R E, Herndon J, Patz E F Jr. The prognostic significance of fluorodeooyglucose positron emission tomography imaging for patients with non-small cell lung carcinoma. Cancer 83(5):918-924, 1998.
Therefore, a readily available radiopharmaceutical that could accurately identify and potentially treat early metastatic disease in the patients with NSCLC would have an important impact on patient care, in terms of both staging and response to therapy. Although PET imaging procedures are gaining effectiveness in this area, the cost and inaccessibility severely limits its practical application. There remains a need for an accurate functional imaging technique based upon a tumor-specific function that can non-invasively screen the whole body using relatively inexpensive and widely available imaging devices.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Phospholipid analogs as diapeutic agents and methods thereof


An oil deflector includes a segment array extending radially from a sleeve portion defining a longitudinal axis and configured for mounting on a shaft. The segment array includes a plurality of segments arranged circumferentially relative to the longitudinal axis and defines at least one oil diverting feature configured to create a pressure differential proximate the segment array or across a surface of the segment array during rotation of the oil deflector about the longitudinal axis. The segment array may define an oil diverting feature configured as a radially tapered peripheral surface, an axially inclined annular surface, at least one slot inclined relative to an annular surface of the array, and/or a combination of these configured to divert oil axially and/or radially from the oil deflector during rotation by the shaft in use.

A turbocharger typically includes an exhaust gas driven turbine wheel mounted on a rotatable shaft within a turbine housing and a compressor wheel mounted on the opposing end of the rotatable shaft within a compressor housing. The compressor wheel delivers compressed air to the intake manifold of the engine, thereby increasing engine power. The turbocharger shaft is conventionally supported by journal and thrust bearings. A lubricating system is provided within the central bearing housing to provide lubricating oil to the bearings. A sealing system is required to prevent oil leakage from the central bearing housing into the compressor and/or the turbine housing. Low boost pressures which may cause a significant drop in pressure from the bearing housing to the compressor housing and/or high crankcase pressures during engine idling may encourage oil leakage, especially into the compressor housing. The oil sealing systems may typically include a sealing ring located between turbocharger shaft and the sealing plate separating the central housing from the compressor housing, through which the shaft extends. Known methods to reduce oil leakage include keeping the crankcase at vacuum, and/or using more than one sealing ring to seal the interface between the bearing and compressor housings, both methods contributing increased system complexity and cost.


There is disclosed a method of making a metallic or ceramic component, such as a cutting or forming tool, from at least two distinct powder precursors. In one embodiment, the method comprising forming a first mixture comprised of a plurality of coated particles, such as Tough-Coated Hard Powder (TCHP) composite particles created by encapsulating extremely hard core particles with very tough binder and structural materials, and at least one support powder, such as a carbide, typically WC—Co. The mixture is formed into a green body and sintered to form a functionally graded or multicomponent article. Non-limiting examples of the articles made from the disclosed methods are also disclosed and include drills, mills, cutting tools, forming tools, wires dies and mechanical components.

Tool life is determined by the tool's resistance to several types of wear and its response to heavy loads and to shock, with the reality that wear resistance is generally increased at the expense of strength. Today, the best tools exhibit the best compromises, and therefore are limited to use in special applications. To limit such compromises, coating techniques have been used to permit not only longer tool life but also increased cutting speeds and feeds. Powder metallurgy and sintering have lead to the development of new materials with enhanced hardness and toughness. Adding a hard coating to the sintered alloy such as by chemical vapor deposition (CVD), physical vapor deposition (PVD), or plasma-assisted chemical vapor deposition (PACVD) has increased wear resistance.
Mechanical properties have been improved by various engineering modifications, including lamination, part geometry, and by additional mechanical and/or thermal processes to enhance localized wear resistance. However, these additional processes add cost and lead times and often require more process steps such as brazing, forging, heat treatment, grinding, or lapping.
The external coating solution has several major disadvantages, including coating delamination and cracking in use (from different coating and substrate thermal expansion rates and from bending and surface loads) and the high CVD process temperatures required (900° C.-1200° C.) may not be consistent with the heat-treatment needed for the strength or the geometry of the sintered part.
Moreover, even with the use of high performance coatings on the surface of tools, the coatings eventually fail, and as the properties of the underlying material are insufficient to operate at cutting speeds the tool fails very quickly. While such tools could be rejuvenated by reapplying a CVD coating, the reapplication of a coating or multiple coatings is generally not economically feasible.
Accordingly one object of the invention to provide a novel Functionally Graded Material (FGM) having properties that can be altered at different locations in the tool or article without exhibiting failure at the interface between the different areas in the tool or article. This novel FGM is assembled of green sinterable powders, which may be plasticized powders, with common or compatible matrix and binder materials that enable designed interface transitional gradients and a bonding strength many times greater than in conventional laminar interfaces.
Another object of the invention is to provide an increase with respect to conventional wear laminates in the extremes of the wear, coefficient of friction, and toughness properties available at the working surfaces and cutting edges of the tool or article.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a designed and engineered transition of properties rather than accepting natural or weaker interfaces. Still another object of the invention is to provide economy of manufacture by (a) reducing amounts of expensive materials needed, (b) using continuous extrusion, powdered injection molding (PIM), or calendering of plasticized powdered metals and ceramics, or dry powder layering of powdered metals and ceramics, and (c) reducing cost by reducing the number of process steps or process steps necessary to produce a tool or part.
These objectives are achieved by forming the tool or article from different types of the compacted and sintered material, such as the Tough-Coated Hard Powders (TCHP), disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,372,346, which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety. Such a material exhibits the combination of properties needed to provide superior metal cutting tools and articles. Because of the nature of the binder materials that bond the particles into the sintered article comprised of TCHP, the interface between the laminations is unusually strong. This strength is further enhanced by gradually transitioning the materials using extrusion or injection dies, rollers, or mold forms that provide unique grooves that interlock the different materials at their layered interfaces.

Methods of forming a metallic or ceramic article having a novel composition of functionally graded material and articles containing the same


A dual screen displaying device for displaying two NTSC video signals on the left and right sides of a monitor is disclosed. The displaying device comprises two tuners for receiving wireless signals from an antenna and generating two video signals V1 and V2, two digitizing circuits for digitizing the video signals V1 and V2, a control circuit for merging the outputs of the two digitizing circuits, a digital-to-analog converter for converting the merged digitized signals back to a combined video signal, and a display control circuit for displaying the combined video signal. Asynchronous condition may happen when displaying different fields of the two video signals V1 and V2 in the same time. And the control circuit uses a storage method which controls the storage of a specific field of the video signal V2 or a data retrieval method which controls the retrieval of a specific field of the video signal V2 to solve the asynchronous problem.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a displaying device, and more particularly, to a dual-screen displaying device for displaying two video signals on the left and right sides of a monitor.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Wide screen monitors of aspect ratio 16:9 have become more and more popular in the market. But traditional wide screen televisions can only display one video signal at a time. When displaying conventional 4:3 video frame of a NTSC video signal over a wide screen monitor, two blank areas will occur over the left and right sides of such a monitor. If two video frames generated by two incoming NTSC video signals can be displayed in the same time over the left and right sides of a wide screen monitor, the monitor users can then enjoy watching two TV programs at the same time while the distortion over each of the video frames is usually tolerable.


A quaternary ammonium salt represented by formula (5)

It has been known that a cyclopropane compound such as (1R,2S)-1-(N-phenylmethylene)amino-2-vinylcyclopropanecarboxylic acid ester is useful as a production intermediate of pharmaceuticals such as an anti-hepatitis C agent [for example, see Organic Process Research & Development, vol. 14, pages 692 to 700, (2010)].
Concerning a method for producing a cyclopropane compound, a method of reacting N-phenylmethylene glycine ester with (E)-1,4-dibromo-2-butene in the presence of a N-benzylcinchonidinium compound and sodium hydroxide to obtain (1R,2S)-1-(N-phenylmethylene)amino-2-vinylcyclopropanecarboxylic acid ester is known in the above document. In the above-described method, 0.03 mol of a N-benzylcinchonidinium compound is used as an asymmetric catalyst, based on 1 mol of N-phenylmethylene glycine ester, and further, the reaction is carried out in the presence of sodium hydroxide.
The N-benzylcinchonidinium compound used as an asymmetric catalyst in the above method is not always satisfactory in stability under basic conditions. Therefore, when the N-benzylcinchonidinium compound is used in the reaction in the presence of sodium hydroxide, the N-benzylcinchonidinium compound sometimes decomposes during the reaction. In this case, there was a problem that a large amount of N-benzylcinchonidinium compound has to be used.
Therefore, the development of a new catalyst excellent in stability under basic conditions has been required.

Abstract: (wherein R1 represents an alkyl group having 1 to 4 carbon atoms, R2 represents an alkyl group having 1 to 10 carbon atoms, R3 represents an alkyl group having 1 to 10 carbon atoms that is optionally substituted with one or more phenyl groups; or a phenyl group that optionally has one or more groups selected from the group consisting of alkyl groups having 1 to 10 carbon atoms and a trifluoromethyl group, R4 represents an alkyl group having 1 to 4 carbon atoms, R5 represents an alkyl group having 1 to 10 carbon atoms, C* represents an asymmetric carbon atom, and X− represents a halide ion) can be used as a catalyst having good stability under basic conditions.


A housing includes a conductive metal base, a number of metal patterns, and a number of insulating fillers. The metal patterns are formed on the base and spaced from each other. Each of the plurality of insulating filler is situated between two adjacent metal patterns of the plurality of metal patterns.

Metal housings are widely used in electronic devices such as mobile phones because of the advantages of mechanical strength, resistance to deformation, and tactile sensation. However, the metal housings may shield and interfere with signals radiated by antennas of the electronic devices and negatively influence radiation performance of the antennas.

Housing and electronic device using same


A localized wireless communication system for communication between a plurality of circuit boards, and between electronic components on the circuit boards. Transceivers are located on each circuit board and electronic component. The transceivers communicate with one another over spread spectrum radio frequencies. An asynchronous transfer mode protocol controls communication flow with asynchronous transfer mode switches located on the circuit boards.

1. Field of the Invention (Technical Field)
The present invention relates to wireless communication between electronic circuit boards and between circuit components on circuit boards.
2. Background Art
Printed circuit boards provide for the interconnection of a variety of electronic components such as integrated circuits (ICs), application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), and programmable logic devices (PLDs). Communication amongst these components is typically accomplished through etched copper traces in the circuit board. These fixed communication paths limit the flexibility of a given circuit board design, even if implemented with the latest programmable logic devices, to be reconfigured for multiple uses. Changes in the communication paths require redesign and manufacturing of a new circuit board, an expensive and time consuming proposition.
Communication between individual printed circuit boards is achieved by hardwiring one board to the next with conductive wires and mechanical connectors that connect input and output (I/O) pins on one circuit board to the next. As more data is moved between printed circuit boards at higher transmission rates, board-to-board communication becomes increasingly difficult. A high number of I/O pins in connectors having limited space can lead to connector failure, and a high density of I/O pins operating at high speeds can lead to crosstalk and errors between data lines.
One limitation encountered in printed circuit wiring technology and wire connections from one circuit board to the next is that the transmission paths from one electronic component to the next or from one circuit board to the next, once defined, cannot change. The etched copper traces and the wiring configurations are established during the manufacturing process and these paths then remain fixed. Highly integrated PLDs have been developed to combat the problem of hard coded digital logic in digital logic gates, but these devices offer only a partial solution to the problem of inflexible interconnects. A solution is needed that provides reconfigurable interconnects amongst electronic components on circuit boards as well as between circuit boards so that the destination of transmitted information can be controlled, and communication made more efficient.
One method of communicating electrical signals from one circuit board to the next is by free space optical communications. Free space optical communications, such as laser communication, eliminate the need for etched copper traces or hardwire connections, thereby increasing the reconfigurability of the communication transmission path. However, while these techniques have been demonstrated, they are inherently difficult to implement because of the need for tight alignment tolerances between sending and receiving units. There must be a clear transmission path from the transmitter to the receiver to inhibit interference so that the receiver can accurately receive the transmission.
One type of communication scheme that is typically used for communicating over extended distances includes radio frequency (RF) communications. Radio frequencies are used to transmit information from one remote location to another, such as from a radio station transmitter to an individual radio. Basically, a transmitter transmits a modulated signal at radio frequencies to a receiver that receives and demodulates the signal into a frequency band that can be used to communicate information in the signal to the receiving entity. For example, the received signal may be converted into an electrical signal for transmission to an audio speaker.
With the advent of silicon integrated circuits, it is now possible to reduce RF transceiver circuitry into single chip components. This has enabled the use of RF communications for digital data exchange between small hand-held devices such as Personal Data Assistants (PDAs). These same components can be used to provide reconfigurable communication routing between electronic components on circuit boards and between circuit boards.
Complex communication systems, whether RF or conventional communication systems on and across circuit boards, require management of information flow. A variety of protocols have evolved to control signal routing and flow. The asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) communication protocol is one such methodology for controlling communication flow between two or more sites. ATM networks are more fully described in: Martin DePrycker, Asynchronous Transfer Mode, 2nd Edition, Ellis Horwood, Ltd. (1993), and Abhijit S. Pandya and Ercan Sen, ATM Technology for Broadband Networks, CRC Press (1999). The entire disclosures of these references are herein incorporated by reference.
The present invention solves the problems encountered in prior art circuit board communication by implementing low power RF as the communication means, thereby enabling reconfigurable communication paths between circuit boards and between electronic circuit components on circuit boards. An ATM protocol is used to control communication flow.

Localized radio frequency communication using asynchronous transfer mode protocol