A polypeptide comprising the contiguous amino acids 1-198 of SEQ ID NO: 2; a polypeptide, which comprises a contiguous amino acid sequence that is at least about 95% identical to the contiguous amino acids 1-198 of SEQ ID NO: 2, an epitope that is immunoreactive with an antibody that specifically binds to the core protein of hepatitis C virus (HCV), and an epitope that is immunoreactive with an antibody that specifically binds to the NS4 region of HCV; a nucleic acid encoding such a polypeptide; a host cell comprising such a nucleic acid; an immunodiagnostic reagent comprising such a polypeptide; a kit comprising such an immunodiagnostic reagent; and a method of determining the presence, amount, or concentration of anti-HCV antibodies in a test sample.

Patient care as well as the prevention and transmission of Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) by blood and blood products or by close personal contact require sensitive, specific methods for screening and identifying carriers of HCV and HCV-contaminated blood or blood products. Serological determination of HCV exposure relies upon the detection of anti-HCV antibodies present in human blood plasma or sera. These anti-HCV antibodies are directed against a number of distinct structural and non-structural proteins encoded by the virus.
The genomic sequence of HCV is known, as are methods for obtaining the sequence. HCV has a 9.5 kb positive-sense, single-stranded RNA genome and is a member of the Flaviviridae family of viruses. Based on phylogenetic analysis, at least six distinct, but related, genotypes of HCV have been identified (Simmonds et al., J. Gen. Virol. 74: 2391-2399 (1993)).
The virus encodes a single polyprotein having more than 3,000 amino acid residues (Choo et al., Science 244: 359-362 (1989)). The polyprotein is processed co- and post-translationally into both structural and non-structural proteins. The polyprotein is cleaved into the following products: NH2-C-E1-E2-P7-NS2-NS3-NS4a-NS4b-NS5a-NS5b-COOH. Initial cleavage of the polyprotein is catalyzed by host proteases, which liberate three structural proteins, the N-terminal nucleocapsid protein (called "core" and designated "C") and two envelope glycoproteins "E1" (also known as E) and "E2" (also known as E2/NS1), as well as nonstructural (NS) proteins that contain the viral enzymes. The NS regions are termed NS2, NS3, NS4, NS4a, NS4b, NS5a and NS5b.
Most commercial serological assays utilize an indirect format in which anti-HCV antibodies are captured by recombinant HCV antigens present on a solid phase, followed by detection of the anti-HCV antibody by a labeled anti-human antibody conjugate. While some of the antigenic regions of HCV have been identified, peptides and recombinant proteins from these regions exhibit a variable degree of sensitivity and selectivity in detection and diagnosis of HCV carriers. HC43 is one such recombinant protein used for the detection of HCV antibodies in human serum or plasma (SEQ ID NO: 4). HC43 contains the 33c region of the NS3 protein (HCV-1 amino acids 1192-1457) and the core or nucleocapsid structural protein (HCV-1 amino acids 1-150). HC43 is expressed in E. coli as a non-fusion protein by using a plasmid (pKRR826) containing the pL promoter of bacteriophage lambda (described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,846,905), utilizing a codon-optimized sequence from the HCV H strain (i.e., HCV-1; Ogata et al., PNAS USA 88: 3392-3396 (1991)). Two non-HCV coding amino acids separate the NS3 and core sequences. Another such recombinant protein used for the detection of anti-HCV antibodies is C100. This recombinant protein is derived from the NS4 region of the HCV genome (HCV amino acids 1569-1931), and is expressed in yeast with an N-terminal superoxide dismutase (SOD) fusion of 527 amino acids (see, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,350,671). Although 363 amino acids of the HCV genome are present in the recombinant protein, studies have demonstrated that the majority of antibody binding occurs in two smaller regions within the NS4 region. The first region is the 5-1-1 region, which comprises HCV amino acids 1691-1733, and the second is the C100 region compromising HCV amino acids 1921-1940.
Previous attempts to express large regions of the HCV nonstructural regions (i.e., amino acids 1569-1931), including NS4a and NS4b, resulted in poor expression in E. coli. Thus, there is a need for HCV antigens, which comprise core and NS4 epitopes immunoreactive with anti-HCV antibodies and which can be expressed at high levels in bacteria, such as E. coli.
In view of the foregoing, the present disclosure seeks to provide such HCV antigens. This and other objects and advantages, as well as additional inventive features, will become apparent from the detailed description provided herein.

Materials and methods for assay of anti-hepatitis C virus (HCV) antibodies


Enhancement of the alignment between the eye and a laser beam of a laser eye surgery system using a visual fixation system, the fixation system often having an adjustable optical train. The optical train of the fixation system allows an eye having a significant refractive error to be accurately focused at a fixation target. To accommodate the refractive error, the adjustable optical train will often project an image of the target so that the projected image is in focus in front of or behind the plane of the patient's eye.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is generally related to laser eye surgery systems, devices, and methods. In particular, the present invention provides an adjustable focus patient fixation system which can accommodate refractive errors in a patient's eye, presenting a target which appears to the eye to be in focus, and thereby enhancing the patient's ability to stabilize the eye by viewing the target. In some embodiments, the present invention allows patients to maintain accurate focus and enhanced stabilization on a viewing target during changes in the refractive characteristics of the eye by coordinating focus adjustments of the target system with a photorefractive therapy. Hence, the present invention is particularly useful for enhancing the accuracy and efficacy of laser eye surgical procedures such as photorefractive keratectomy (PRK), phototherapeutic keratectomy (PTK), laser in situ keratomileusis (LASIK), and the like.
Selective photoablation of corneal tissues benefits from precise alignment between the eye and a therapeutic laser beam. Known laser eye procedures generally employ an ultraviolet or infrared laser to remove a microscopic layer of stromal tissue from the cornea of the eye to alter its refractive power. The laser removes a selected portion of the corneal tissue, often to correct refractive errors of the eye. Ultraviolet laser ablation results in photodecomposition of the corneal tissue, but generally does not cause significant thermal damage to adjacent and underlying tissues of the eye. The irradiated molecules are broken into smaller volatile fragments photochemically, directly breaking the intermolecular bonds.
Laser ablation procedures can remove the targeted stroma of the cornea to change the cornea's contour for varying purposes, such as for correcting myopia, hyperopia, astigmatism, and the like. Control over the distribution of ablation energy across the cornea may be provided by a variety of systems and methods, including the use of ablatable masks, fixed and moveable apertures, controlled scanning systems, eye movement tracking mechanisms, and the like. These laser eye surgery systems are adapted for use while the patient is awake. The position of the patient's head will often be stabilized using a headrest pillow, a chin rest, a bite bar, or the like. The patient can further enhance alignment between the eye and the therapeutic laser beam by focussing on a target during the procedure.
Known visual fixation targets typically include a light emitting diode (LED) which is optically positioned about 1/4 meter in front of the patient. Unfortunately, patients do not wear corrective lenses during photorefractive surgery. As a result, the target may be blurred or out of focus for many patients. Even more problematic, the optical characteristics of the patient's eye may change significantly during laser eye surgery. As a result, the patient's ability to hold her eye steady by viewing the target can be compromised. In fact, patients have reported losing site of the blurry targets during laser eye surgery. This may cause the patient to look away from the target, degrading alignment between the laser eye system and the eye, and thereby decreasing the accuracy and efficacy of the refractive therapy.
In light of the above, it would be desirable to provide improved ophthalmological systems, devices, and methods. It would be particularly desirable to provide enhanced techniques for stabilizing an eye having a significant refractive error throughout a laser eye surgery procedure. It would further be desirable to provide enhanced methods and devices for initially establishing and maintaining alignment with a patient fixation system to provide enhanced eye stabilization before and during laser eye surgery and other therapeutic or diagnostic procedures for the eye.
2. Description of the Background Art
U.S. Pat. No. 4,478,449, describes an operation microscope which incorporates an eye fixation device. U.S. Pat. No. 5,549,597, describes an in situ axis alignment module for determining the astigmatic axis of a patient, and for aligning the cylindrical axis of a laser ablation system for ophthalmological surgery.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,258,787, describes an ophthalmologic apparatus having an illumination optical system for directing light onto a prescribed point of an eye, and an observation optical system for observing an image of the prescribed point. U.S. Pat. No. 5,557,352, describes a method and apparatus for measuring the visual acuity and refraction of the human eye during and immediately after ocular surgery.

Patient fixation system and method for laser eye surgery


The present invention provides a method for preventing tissue destruction associated with autoimmune inflammatory diseases by utilizing anti-CD44 monoclonal antibodies to induce the loss of the CD44 receptor from cell surfaces, thus preventing the interaction between cell-surface CD44 and extracellular hyaluronan.

The ability to control inflammatory and immune responses is central to the therapy of a wide spectrum of diseases. General anti-inflammatory agents (corticosteroids and non steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, i.e. NSAIDs, such as aspirin) acting to suppress or regulate immune-mediated reactions throughout the body, are widely used in this context. The modulation of receptors and various functions of leukocytes which participate in, and are responsible for, the local response of the injured tissue, illustrates a new approach in clinical patient care. Biological agents, such as antibodies directed to inflammatory leukocytes or their receptors, provide important control mechanisms through which immune-mediated tissue destruction can be prevented.
Specific receptors with binding affinity for a variety of ligands are found on the surface of cells that participate in the inflammatory response. CD44 (also referred to as PgP-1, phagocytic glycoprotein-1) is a cell adhesion receptor which preferentially binds hyaluronan (Aruffo et al., Cell, 61 (1990) 1303-1313). CD44 is expressed by many cell types (Lesley et al., Adv. in Immunol., 54 (1993) 271-335) and expressed in high levels by synovial cells and leukocytes during joint inflammation (Haynes et al., Arthritis Rheum., 34 (1991) 1434-1443; Mikecz et al., Scand. Rheumatol., 101 (1994) 91-98). The CD44 glycoprotein is expressed in several isoforms as a result of differential splicing (Gunthert et al., Curr Topics Microbiol. Immun., 184 (1993) 47-63; Gunthert et al., Cell, 65 (1991) 13-24; MacKay et al., J.Cell Biol., 124 (1994) 71-82).
Leukocytes responsible for immune-mediated tissue injury, and cells residing in the tissue and extracellular matrix function together to effect an inflammatory response. The extracellular matrix (ECM) fills the space between cells. Although it has long been recognized that the components of the ECM perform an important structural role, it has been realized more recently that the ECM communicates with the cell interior and thus modulates cell adhesion, proliferation, and differentiation (Schubert, Trends Cell Biol., 2 (1992) 63-66). Major constituents of the ECM include collagenous proteins (Linsenmayer, Cell Biology of the Extracellular Matrix, Plenum, N.Y. (1991) 7-44) and proteoglycans. The latter consist of one or more glycosaminoglycans, which are linear polymers of repeating disaccharides covalently bound to a protean core. Hyaluronan (hyaluronic acid, hyaluronate), a glycosaminoglycan macromolecule without a protein core, is one of the major non-structural elements of the extracellular matrix (Laurent et al., FASEB J., 6 (1992) 2397-2404; Aruffo et al., Cell, 61 (1990) 1303-1313; Culty et al., J. Cell Biol., 111 (1990) 2765-2774; Underhill, J. Cell Sci., 103 (1992) 293-298; Toole, Cell Biology of Extracellular Matrix, (1991) Plenum, N.Y.).
The biological roles of hyaluronan include the maintenance of water and protein homeostasis as well as the protection of cells from potentially harmful effects of other cells, microorganisms and macromolecules. To gain access to cells surrounded by hyaluronan-rich matrices, some cells and bacteria use hyaluronidase. Other cells utilize hyaluronan binding receptors such as CD44 (Laurent et al., FASEB J., 6 (1992) 2397-2404; Toole, Cell Biology of Extracellular Matrix, (1991) Plenum, N.Y.; Lesley et al., Exp. Cell Res., 187 (1990) 224-233; Bartolazzi et al., J. Exp. Med., 180 (1994) 53-66; Thomas et al., J. Cell Biol., 118 (1992) 971-977; Herrlich et al., Immun. Today, 14 (1993) 395-399). The interaction of CD44 with hyaluronan facilitates the migration of these cells within the extracellular matrix. Further, hyaluronan molecules have large hydrodynamic volumes that entrap substantial amounts of water and can, hence, control tissue hydration (swelling).
Lymphocytes acquire enhanced binding affinity toward hyaluronan upon activation (Stamenkovic et al., Embo J., 10 (1991) 343-348; Hathcock et al., J. Immun., 151 (1993) 6712-6722). Hyaluronan-binding splice variants of CD44 confer metastatic proclivity to malignant cells (Gunthert et al., Cell, 65 (1991) 13-24). Recombinant CD44H (hemopoietic form) proteins and antibodies that recognize CD44H inhibit both cell adhesion to hyaluronan and migration of cells on hyaluronan-coated surfaces. Taken together, these findings suggest an important role for the CD44-hyaluronan interaction during physiological and pathological events in which cell migration within the ertracellular space is involved.
Researchers have attempted to modulate the immune response by developing antibodies to specific receptors and hence prevent binding of any other ligand to that receptor. A number of patents describe antibodies directed to various adhesion associated molecules. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,147,637 describes a method of inhibiting the influx of leukocytes into the lung and other organs during sepsis or other infectious or non-infectious trauma by administering a therapeutic amount of and anti-CD18 antibody. U.S. Pat. No. 4,695,459 describes a method of treating autoimmune disease, such as multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus by administering a therapeutically effective amount of anti-Leu3 antibody to the patient, which would eliminate T lymphocytes. Further, U.S. Pat. No. 5,019,648 describes the use of anti-CD11b antibodies to inhibit adhesion dependent functions of phagocytic cells. None of these patents describe CD44 receptor, its interaction with hyaluronan or a method wherein antibody binding results in the loss of receptors from the cell surface.
Methods have been described for the therapeutic use of antibodies to prevent leukocyte extravasation in individuals having autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,216,131 describes the therapeutic use of lymphocyte homing receptor protein (LHR) to compete with the normal binding of lymphocytes to lymphoid tissue for the treatment of patients with inflammations due to rheumatoid arthritis or other autoimmune diseases. European Patent Application 303,463 and corresponding U.S. Pat. No. 5,403,919 describe antibodies having recognition for a 58-69 kD mouse endothelial cell surface antigen present on the surface of high endothelial venule (HEV) cells in all lymphoid organs, and a 85-95 kD synovial-specific leukocyte glycoprotein which is a homing receptor for synovial endothelium. The antibodies having recognition for these endothelial cells surface antigens are capable of inhibiting the binding of leukocytes to endothelial cells, thereby inhibiting lymphocyte extravasation via such endothelial cells in vivo.
The antigens described in 5,216,131 and EP 303,463 are structurally and functionally different from CD44. CD44 is not a homing receptor as none of the isoforms of CD44 contain binding sites for endothelial cell-membrane carbohydrates which are commonly recognized by homing receptors, and anti-CD44 antibodies do not disturb normal lymphocyte homing in vivo (Camp et al., J. Exp. Med., 178 (1993) 497-507; Mikecz et al., Nature Med., 1 (1995) 558-563). Further, CD44 is the principal receptor for hyaluronan, which is a component of extracellular or pericellular matrix, and the digestion of lymphoid tissues with hyaluronidase eliminates CD44 binding. Thus, CD44-bearing leukocytes do not recognize endothelial cells directly in either the lymph node or synovial tissue. Leukocyte CD44, however, can bind hyaluronan, which is not an integral part of the endothelial cell, but may be present in the extra- or pericellular matrix around the endothelium, especially in inflamed tissue where hyaluronan is abundantly produced.
CD44 is not synovial specific leukocyte glycoprotein as it has been shown to be expressed in many cell types besides leukocytes (Lesley et al., Adv. in Immunol., 54 (1993) 271-335; Mikecz et al., Scand. J. Rheumatol., 101 (1994) 91-98). EP 303,4463 describes antibodies which are able to inhibit leukocyte binding to the endothelium of target organs by blocking leukocyte-endothelial cell recognition, i.e. the antibodies block cell-cell contact but not hyaluronan-cell interaction. Hence, none of the references describe an antibody having a twofold anti-inflammatory effect provided by binding CD44 receptors on connective tissue cells and leukocyte CD44 receptors such that receptors are lost from the cell surface, hyaluronan binding and associated swelling is reduced, and leukocyte migration is inhibited.
It is thus an object of the present invention to provide an immunotherapeutic method for the treatment of humans or animals to control autoimmune inflammatory diseases.
Another object of the invention is to provide a therapeutic regimen which provides the maximal desired anti-inflammatory effect balanced with the least adverse side effects.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide an immunotherapeutic method wherein antibodies to CD44 receptors are utilized to inhibit the interaction of CD44 receptors with hyaluronan such that tissue swelling is reduced and leukocyte extravasation is inhibited.
It is an additional object of the invention to provide a method wherein the binding of antibodies to CD44 results in the loss of CD44 receptor from the surface of the cell.

Method of inhibiting tissue destruction in autoimmune disease using anti-CD44 antibodies

Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center


Provided are a display device and a method of manufacturing same, whereby deterioration in image display quality due to display unevenness or shadowing is avoided. An open region is disposed in a source driver mounting region in a position thereof that corresponds to a remaining output region 15 of a source driver 4. Next, a common signal line 30, which connects an FPC connecting region 19 to a common transfer electrode 20a, is formed passing through the open region. It is thus possible to shorten the length of the common signal line 30, and to position the common transfer electrode 20a in a desired location. Consequently, variation in the common signal rounding for each position on a common electrode is mitigated, making it possible to minimize image display unevenness. The width of the open region is also increased, allowing the width of the common signal line 30 to also be increased. Consequently, the load on the common signal line 30 can be reduced.

A liquid crystal display device includes a substrate (hereinafter referred to as a "TFT substrate") on which a plurality of pixels each including a switching element constituted of a thin film transistor (hereinafter referred to as a "TFT") are formed, an opposite substrate disposed opposite to the TFT substrate, and a liquid crystal layer interposed between these substrates. Liquid crystal display devices display images by controlling the light transmittance through liquid crystal by applying a voltage corresponding to an image signal (hereinafter referred to as a "signal voltage") to a pixel electrode formed for each pixel, and applying a common voltage (also referred to as a "common signal") to a common electrode formed on the opposite substrate.
The common signal is supplied from an external source to common transfer electrodes on the TFT substrate through wiring lines (hereinafter referred to as "common signal lines") formed on the TFT substrate. The common transfer electrodes are electrically connected to the common electrode on the opposite substrate, and thus, the common signal is further supplied to the common electrode.
However, because the common electrode is made of a transparent conductive film such as ITO (indium tin oxide), the resistance thereof is high. As a result, the rounding of the common signal varies depending on the position on the common electrode, which increases the susceptibility of the image displayed in the liquid crystal display device to display unevenness. Also, the load on the common signal line becomes high, increasing the likelihood of shadowing in the image. Liquid crystal display devices with a large display are particularly susceptible to these phenomena.
Increasing the number of common transfer electrodes disposed on the TFT substrate and reducing the connecting resistance between the common electrode and the common signal line is effective in order to reduce display unevenness in the image by decreasing variation in common signal rounding depending on the position on the common electrode, and to reduce the occurrence of shadowing by decreasing the load on the common signal lines. Patent Document 1 discloses a configuration in which a plurality of gate drivers and a plurality of source drivers are disposed in order to increase the number of common transfer electrodes, and common transfer electrodes are formed in the spaces between adjacent gate drivers and source drivers.

Display device and method of manufacturing same


A monolithic fuel rail structure is configured to receive and support a fuel injector, and includes a log, an injector cup that protrudes integrally from an outer surface of the log, and a fuel passage. An inner surface of the log defines a main fuel channel, and the injector cup includes a bore that opens at one end of the injector cup. An inlet end of the fuel injector is received in the bore. The fuel passage provides fluid communication between the bore and the main fuel channel, and the fuel passage corresponds to a portion of a hole that extends through the injector cup on each of opposed sides of the injector cup.

A fuel rail may be used to supply fuel to multiple fuel injectors that inject fuel into the intake manifold of an internal combustion engine. The inlet ends of the fuel injectors are often removably secured to the fuel rail using clips or other similar mechanical attachment means, and outlet ends of the fuel injectors may engage corresponding openings or ports in the intake manifold. In some applications, the fuel rail may supply high-pressure fuel through the fuel injectors by directly injecting into corresponding engine cylinders.
Although plastic fuel rails are known, metal fuel rails may be used to deliver fuel at high pressure, and include a main fluid supply pipe referred to as a "log". As used herein, the term "high pressure" refers to pressures greater than 250 bar. The log has a main fuel channel through which fuel is supplied from a fuel tank or fuel pump. The fuel rail includes distribution arms for distributing fuel to the individual cylinders of the engine. The distribution anus protrude from the log and provide fuel passages that communicate with the main fuel channel. The distribution arms each terminate in an injector cup (sometimes referred to as a bushing). Each injector cup includes a bore that receives and retains the inlet end of a fuel injector. The fuel injector inlet end includes a seal that fills the space between the fuel injector and the bore to define a high pressure fuel distribution chamber within the injector cup. Fuel is provided at high pressure to the fuel distribution chamber via the main fuel channel of the log and the fuel passageways of the respective distribution arm. The relative geometry of the log, distribution arms and injector cups is complex, and is dependent on engine geometry and available space within the engine system.

Monolithic fuel rail structure and method of manufacture


A system includes a mass determination module and a torque estimation module. The mass determination module determines a fuel mass injected into a cylinder of a homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) engine for a combustion event in the cylinder. The torque estimation module estimates a torque output of the HCCI engine based on the fuel mass.

The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.
Homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) engines combine aspects of spark ignition (SI) engines and stratified charge compression ignition (SCCI) engines to achieve emissions similar to SI engines and fuel efficiency similar to SCCI engines. In SI engines, air and fuel are mixed together and spark ignites the air-fuel mixture. In SCCI engines, air and fuel are mixed together and combustion occurs at the boundary of the air/fuel mixing due to compression. In HCCI engines, ignition occurs at several places at a time, which combust the air/fuel mixture faster than SI or SCCI engines.
Powertrain control systems and methods have been developed to control powertrain components, such as an engine and an electric motor, in the torque domain to coordinate the torque output of each component. These control systems and methods may estimate the torque produced by SI or SCCI engines. However, these control systems and methods do not estimate the torque produced by HCCI engines.

Control system and method for a homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) engine


A method and system for adapting automated interactions that allows the interactive behavior of an automated system, or the nature of the interaction elements implemented thereon, to be adapted to properties and/or behaviors of users of such systems in order to enhance operating convenience. Interaction adaptation is performed with reference to user groups to which the users are allocated.

Operation of automatic machines occurs, at least, when the operator or user of an automatic machine uses the machine to perform more complex tasks, in many cases based on an interaction conducted between the user and the machine. One example to be considered here is automatic ticket machines that allow the sale of tickets not only for a few specific routes but also for a larger network, for example a national rail system, in consideration of a wide variety of boundary conditions. The user is interactively instructed by the automatic machine to indicate the starting point of his/her journey, the destination, and the desired departure or arrival time, and if applicable to provide further information such as, for example, a preferred seat location, smoking/non-smoking and the like. For this purpose, the machine prompts him/her, for example, by way of a visual display, acoustically, or in audiovisual form. Depending on the configuration of the system, the user inputs the corresponding information by individual buttons, a keypad, other manual control elements, or in spoken form. Modern systems embodied as speech interaction systems are even capable of extracting, from the user's complete sentences, specific data such as departure location or destination. Many systems in which the request to the user to input appropriate information is made in spoken form have the additional capability for interrupting the speech commands (so-called speech prompts) outputted by the system, thus shortening the interaction time.
It is apparent from practical use, however, that users of such interaction systems have very different inhibition thresholds when dealing with automatic machines, and in some cases behave very differently when interacting with the machine. Users can be very roughly divided, for example, into experienced and inexperienced users. Whereas the experienced user deals with a particular interaction system in a practiced and confident manner, and his/her priority is to achieve the purpose of the interaction (i.e. having his/her requests fulfilled) as quickly as possible, for the inexperienced user a gentler interaction that never makes him/her uncertain may be more important. A much greater differentiation between users also exists, depending on the complexity of the system and the tasks to be performed by it, in terms of the personal requirements associated with users and in terms of the users' behavior. It is desirable in this context for automated interaction system to be made as flexible as possible.
Solutions have therefore already been proposed in which the execution of an interaction conducted between the user and the automatic machine or interaction system is adapted to user characteristics and/or to user behavior. Such solutions are often aimed at a direct or immediate adaptation of the interaction to a particular user who is operating the machine. U.S. Pat. No. 5,493,608, for example, describes a solution in which the response speed of speech prompts of an interaction system is adapted to the speed at which the particular user is speaking.
It has also been described, however, not to adjust the interactive behavior of an automated interaction system to the individual user, but rather to adapt it to a group of users, the individual user then being allocated to one of the groups known to the system. A corresponding approach is described, for example, in Komatani, K., et al. in "User Modeling in Spoken Dialogue Systems for Flexible Guidance Generation," Proceedings of EUROSPEECH 2003, GENEVA. According to the aforesaid document, users are allocated to various classes on the basis of their behavior, and the speech interaction is adapted in accordance with the class allocated to a user. Both the nature of the classes (in the document, a subdivision into the classes of experienced users, inexperienced users, and rush users is made) and the adaptation performed in terms of the different classes are, however, absolutely rigid. In other words, there is one fixed interaction path for experienced users, another for inexperienced users, and lastly a further, but still static, interaction path for rush users. The corresponding allocation to user classes, and their linkage to the individual interaction paths, is predefined by the developer of the interaction or the system.
If the interaction is adapted using Bayes networks, as is done inter alia in Hjalmarsson, A., "Adaptive Spoken Dialogue Systems," Centre of Speech Technology, KTH, January 2005, then application of the corresponding underlying statistical procedures and methods requires an enormous calculation effort that often also slows down the execution time of such interactions. In such methods, the interactions and their structures are differentiated by so-called network graphs whose edges, as described in European Patent No. 1 102 241 A1, have transition probabilities from one interaction state to another allocated to them.
Group-based or user-class-based information systems that manage access to information with reference to class have furthermore been described. One example of these is permissions management, known from computer systems and networks, in which the rights of the individual users participating in the system to access portions of the system are controlled and managed. A corresponding solution is described, for example, in German Patent No. 694 273 47 T2. Additionally known in this context are solutions for managing user classes.
Also previously described are speech recognition systems that, from the speech inputs of a user, can determine the language he/she is speaking but can also, for example, draw conclusions as to age or gender. With the aid of emotion detectors associated with speech recognition systems, statements can even be made regarding the user's emotional states such as anger, impatience, or frustration.

Method and system for adapting interactions


A gravity balance device for a cross arm of X-ray equipment, the gravity balance device is mounted within the cross arm for maintaining gravity balance of the cross arm, the gravity balance device comprises a counter weight module, configured to move along in a direction opposite to a moving direction of a tube of the X-ray equipment.

A cross arm in a medical X-ray equipment mainly performs the function of supporting a tube and a detector; during use, the cross arm needs to be rotated for taking different X-ray films or images. FIG. 1A shows an X-ray equipment 100 when a cross arm 101 of the medical X-ray equipment 100 is in a horizontal position; FIG. 1B shows the X-ray equipment 100 when the cross arm 101 rotates to a vertical position. When the cross arm 101 is rotated, the distance from a tube 103 to a detector 104 (SID) also needs to be adjusted; since the detector 104 is fixed and cannot move along the cross arm, the adjustment of SID can be realized only by moving the tube 103 along a guide 102 on the cross arm 101. When the tube is moving relatively, the gravity balance of the whole cross arm is broken; here an external force is needed to keep balance of the cross arm, so as to avoid the cross arm from rotating, to keep the center of gravity of the cross arm unchanged during the moving of the tube.
In the prior art, a motor is adopted to control rotation of the cross arm. When SID is adjusted, the motor will bear a higher moment caused by gravity imbalance.
However, for that X-ray equipment in which rotation of a cross arm is manually controlled, the prior art gives no corresponding inspiration regarding how to keep the cross arm balanced when SID is adjusted.

Counter weight means for a cross arm of X-ray equipment and a corresponding X-ray equipment

GE MEDICAL SYSTEMS GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY COMPANY LLC


A confinement and feeding stall for livestock such as horses, cows and the like with side frames spaced so that an animal can stand comfortably but not turn around and narrow enough to prevent other animals from crowding into an occupied stall. A gate is provided at one end of the side panels and a rear closure member may be provided at the other end. The side panels and gate prevent the animal from reaching over or around the side frames to disturb adjoining animals in adjacent stalls. The side frames are connected by elevated top members and flat bottom members to form individual stalls and stalls linked in side-by-side relationship.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a confinement and feeding stall for livestock such as horses, cows and the like that is wide enough so that an animal can stand comfortably but not turn around and narrow enough to prevent other animals from crowding into an occupied stall. The animal can freely enter without being herded and can freely back out. The front of each stall opens outwardly to allow the animal to be brought straight through the stall thus allowing easy access for further handling. When a plurality of stalls are linked together, the livestock will separate themselves into the individual stalls without being forced.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
It is sometimes desirable to feed different rations to different animals. With a herd this is difficult to accomplish without catching and separately penning them. What is needed is a passive system wherein the animals separate themselves into individual stalls such that different rations can be fed. The stall should permit the animals to freely enter and when done to freely back out. Other times, it is desirable to hold the livestock in separate stalls while individual animals are taken straight through for handling, grooming, riding, etc. Clearly the confinement and feeding experience must be pleasant for the animals to be voluntarily repeated and for it to remain a passive system.
No prior art stall provides a passive confinement and feeding system as discussed above. Some previously designed stalls catch or hold the livestock to immobilize them. Other systems require the livestock to be herded or driven into the apparatus. Some require that the animal be already restrained before it is led into the stall. Others are designed to handle only one animal at a time. Representative examples of such stalls are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,205,951, 6,070,555, 6,026,766, 5,634,438, 5,392,731, 5,309,869, 5,289,798, 4,977,856, 4,470,372, 4,432,305, 4,201,158, 4,171,684, 2,659,344, 2,023,774 and 1,209,688.


A brake testing device include a remote operated control module which is installed on a towing vehicle to remotely actuate the brake and turn signal lights for testing purposes. When installed on a truck with air brakes and a connection to air brakes on a connected trailer, auxiliary valves are installed on the truck brake pneumatic control line and the trailer brake pneumatic control line which are controlled remotely through the control module to test activation of the air brakes on the truck and trailer respectively.

When connecting a trailer to a towing vehicle it is commonly desirable to check that the turn and brake indicator signals to the trailer are functioning properly prior to use for safety concerns. Inspection typically requires two persons such that one person can activate the signals from the vehicle operator cab while the other person can visually inspect the indicator on the rear of the trailer. In commercial trucking in particular, routinely inspecting the operation of the indicators is generally part of a required safety inspection by the operator before each trip. Due to the difficulty in a single person both activating and inspecting the condition of the indicators, it occasionally leads to some operators not properly checking the condition of the trailer such that the safety of the operation of the trailer may be compromised.
US Patent Application Publication 2009/0056432 by Steininger discloses a remotely operated brake tester in the form of an actuator which physically depresses the brake pedal in the operator cab when activated by remote. While this permits checking of the brake indicators by a single operator, the actuator is cumbersome to install for each test as it must be removed for normal operation of the vehicle. Furthermore the operator must still make several trips between the operator cab and the rear of the trailer for checking other indicators such as the turn indicators in addition to the brake indicators.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,530,261 by Foster, U.S. Pat. No. 6,154,035 by Aguirre et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,602,482 by Gutierrez and U.S. Pat. No. 5,668,314 by Jones disclose various brake test devices including their own respective power and compressed air supplies for direct connection to a trailer with air brakes to test various conditions of the trailer. Testing is limited to the trailer such that there is no testing provided for the connections between the vehicle and the trailer as required for a safety inspection prior to each trip with a towing vehicle and trailer connected thereto.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,817,234 by Maresko and U.S. Pat. No. 5,467,645 by Skorupski et al. disclose additional examples of brake testing systems, however neither permit remote checking of all indicators on a trailer connected to a towing vehicle prior to operation of the vehicle.
Overall no prior art device readily allows a single operator to check all turn and brake indicators on a vehicle and a connected trailer in a single pass about the vehicle during a pre-trip safety inspection.


An apparatus and a method of automatically compensating a difference between audio signals of an analog broadcast and a digital broadcast depending on a difference of a modulation degree of an analog audio signal and a digital audio signal. The apparatus includes an analog demodulating unit to demodulate an analog audio signal of a tuned analog broadcast channel, a digital demodulating unit to demodulate a digital audio signal of a tuned digital broadcast channel, a switching unit to receive the audio signals from the analog demodulating unit and the digital demodulating unit and to selectively output the received audio signals, an audio amplifying unit to amplify the audio signals output from the switching unit at a predetermined amplification degree, and a central processing unit to control the switching unit to output the audio signal of the digital demodulating unit and to control an amplification degree of the audio amplifying unit as the digital broadcast channel is tuned by a user, to allow the output audio signal of the digital broadcast channel to have the same magnitude as when the corresponding analog broadcast channel is tuned.

1. Field of the Invention
The present general inventive concept relates to an apparatus and a method of automatically compensating a difference between audio signals of an analog broadcast and a digital broadcast in which a magnitude of output audio signals of a simulcast that depend on a difference between modulation degrees thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
Digital broadcasting began in 1998, but analog broadcasting is still being used. Simulcast is used to concurrently broadcast the same contents over a digital broadcast channel and an analog broadcast channel. According to the simulcast, even though the digital broadcast is received, a user can still use an analog television set to view the contents of the analog broadcast. Accordingly, a digital broadcast receiver has been developed for concurrently receiving the analog broadcast and the digital broadcast. Therefore, the same contents are concurrently transmitted over the analog broadcast channel and the digital broadcast channel for the same station, and the user can use the digital broadcast receiver to tune to a predetermined channel and view the contents over the tuned channel.
In a conventional analog broadcast, an audio signal of the analog broadcast channel is modulated and broadcasted according to the National Television Standards Committee (NTSC) standard, the Phase Alternation by Line (PAL) standard, or the SEquential Couleur Avec Memoire (SECAM) standard. In the NTSC standard, the audio signal of the analog broadcast channel is generally FM-standard-modulated and transmitted at a bandwidth of ±25 kHz. In the PAL standard, the audio signal of the analog broadcast channel is standard-modulated and transmitted at a bandwidth of ±50 kHz. The digital broadcast receiver generates and outputs a modulation signal, which causes a magnitude (i.e., an output level) of the audio signal output to a speaker to vary according to a frequency of the modulation signal. If the audio signal of the analog broadcast channel is transmitted at a standard modulation degree and the digital broadcast receiver receives and modulates the audio signal of the analog broadcast channel, there is no difference between the audio signal output of the analog broadcast channel and a corresponding digital broadcast channel that broadcasts the same contents (i.e., for the same station).
A problem lies in the fact that the audio signal of the analog broadcast channel is output using a wide dynamic range of transmission decibels in order to improve a sound quality of a commercial advertisement and an audio output at each broadcast station. The audio signal of the analog broadcast channel is over-modulated for transmission at two to four times a modulation degree of a standard-modulated audio signal. A magnitude of a demodulated audio signal of the analog broadcast channel is determined depending on the modulation degree of a transmitted audio signal. Therefore, the magnitude of the output audio signal of the analog broadcast channel that is over-modulated varies greatly compared to when an audio signal having the same contents is standard-modulated and output over a corresponding digital broadcast channel. Accordingly, since the audio signal output varies between the digital broadcast channel and the corresponding analog broadcast channel, a user is required to control the magnitude of the audio signal (i.e., the output level) whenever the channel is changed which results in an inconvenience to the user.

Apparatus and method of automatically compensating a difference between audio signals of an analog broadcast and a digital broadcast


An insertion tool for insertion of a ring into a body defining an internal recess for receiving the ring including a ring holder and a plunger. The ring holder includes a ring end and a handle end. The ring end includes a stationary shoulder for engaging the body. The ring end includes at least one relief for receiving and positioning the ring. The ring holder defines a plunger channel extending between the ring and the handle ends. The plunger is slidingly positioned in the plunger channel. The plunger has a radius end adjacent the ring end and an actuation end adjacent the handle end. The radius end includes at least one radius for engaging the ring.

The present invention is directed to an insertion tool for a ring into a body. More specifically, the invention is directed to an insertion tool for insertion of a ring into a body defining an internal recess for receiving the ring in which the tool includes a ring holder and a plunger slidingly positioned in a plunger channel defined by the ring holder.
Insertion tools for inserting O-rings and the like into bodies are known in the art. Examples of such tools are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,180,015; 3,553,817; 3,704,505; 4,222,161; 4,571,804; 5,050,282; and 5,138,752.
It has been found that there is a need for a relatively inexpensive insertion tool that can quickly and efficiently insert a back-up ring and an O-ring into a body that defines internal recesses for receiving the rings. There is also a need for an insertion tool that can insert a retaining ring with the back-up ring and the O-ring. The present invention satisfies these needs.


A compact image steering and focusing device has a generally rotatable platform that carries a pan/tilt mirror. The rotatable platform, at least one motor driven lens and a camera are mounted on a housing. Two drive motors each with an associated cable are provided to rotate the rotatable platform and tilt the mirror. Light reflected from a subject is captured by the mirror and directed through the lens to the camera. The device can fit behind the cover plate of an automated teller machine. This system is preferably used with a narrow field of view camera and two wide field of view cameras. Images from the wide field of view cameras are used to focus the narrow field of view camera on one eye of the automated teller machine user to identify the user by iris analysis and comparison to an iris image on file.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a device for directing light reflected from an object in a scene through at least one lens and into a camera.
2. Background of the Invention
There are several methods known as biometrics for recognizing or identifying an individual. These methods include analyzing a signature, obtaining and analyzing an image of a fingerprint and imaging and analyzing the retinal vascular patterns of a human eye. Recently the art has used the iris of the eye which contains a highly detailed pattern that is unique for each individual and stable over many years as a non-contact, non-obtrusive biometric. This technique is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,641,349 to Flom et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 5,291,560 to Daugman. The systems described in these references require the person being identified to hold at least one of their eyes in a fixed position with respect to an imaging camera which takes a picture of the iris. While this procedure is satisfactory for some applications, it is not satisfactory for quick transactional activities such as using an automated teller machine, access control or automated dispensing.
The iris identification techniques disclosed by Flom and Daugman require a clear, well-focused image of the iris portion of the eye. In a present commercial embodiment an image is obtained and an iris code is derived from the image. That code is stored in an image file for a particular individual thereby completing an enrollment process. When that person asks to be identified a new image is used to compute the iris code which is then compared with the iris code on file. In this way the person can be identified quite rapidly. However, prior to the present invention there has not been an optical system which could rapidly acquire a sufficiently clear image of an iris of the person to be identified unless that person positioned his eye in a fixed position relatively close to an imaging camera. There is a need for an optical system which will rapidly obtain a clear picture of the iris of a person standing remotely from the optical system and in an uncertain position. This system would be particularly useful to identify users of automated teller machines as well as individuals seeking access to a restricted area or facility or other applications requiring user identification.
Automated teller machines, often called ATMs, are compact, sophisticated electrical devices which have a large number of electrical and electromechanical subsystems arranged in a restricted volume. However, there are small spaces immediately behind the cover plates of the automated teller machine or around the bezel of the display in which a very compact optical system could be placed. The location and size of that space may differ among automated teller machines. Yet, there are several manufacturers of these machines, two of which are NCR and OKI Electric. Each manufacturer offers several models, but the products in each manufacturer's ATM product line are quite similar. Although there are several basic types of ATMs, the NCR machine and the OKI machine are representative. Any optical system for iris identification of ATM users should be suitable for use in the various types of ATM machines. The system must also be able to rapidly obtain a clear image of the iris of the person using the automated teller machine and direct it to a camera. The camera records the image and transmits that image to a digital processor. The processor compares the iris code of the user's image with a file copy of the iris code defined by an enrollment process to complete the identification.
Many automated teller machines and similar financial transaction machines are equipped with video cameras typically positioned above the display panel. These video cameras are used for security purposes and are positioned to take a picture of the head and shoulders of the person using the machine. These cameras are not equipped to rapidly focus on a small region of the user's face. It is not possible for these cameras to obtain a sufficiently detailed image of the iris of the user of the machine which iris image could be used to identify the user. Therefore, there is a need for an optical system which can rapidly acquire and provide a clear, detailed image of the iris of the user which image is sufficient for identification of the user based upon iris analysis. Preferably, at least one of the cameras used with this optical system could be used as a conventional security camera.

Cable driven image steering and focusing device


An electric power system includes: a switching power supply converting an AC into a DC and operating in an on mode and an off mode; a power supply control unit activated when electric power is supplied from the AC power supply, and the power supply control unit being configured to control an oscillation operation of the switching power supply according to the mode designation signal; a mode control unit generating the mode designation signal; and an auxiliary power supply configured to supply electric power to the mode control unit when the switching power supply does not oscillate. In one of the on mode and off mode, the mode control unit performs outputs a consecutive-pulse signal to the power supply control unit. In the other mode, the mode control unit performs a restriction process of restricting output of the consecutive-pulse signal.

The present disclosure relates to an electric power system and an image forming apparatus having the electric power system, and more specifically, to a technology for controlling an oscillation operation of a switching power supply of a power supply according to a pulse signal.
In the related art, a technology for controlling an oscillation operation of a switching power supply of a power supply according to a pulse signal is known. In such a related art, a switch control unit is provided so as to control oscillation of a switching power supply according to a control pulse signal which is supplied from a mode control block (a power supply key control IC), and stops the output of the switching power supply according to the control pulse signal.
If disturbance noise is generated, for example, during an operation of an electric power system, it is feared that the switch control unit (power supply control IC) may mistakenly recognize the disturbance noise as a control pulse signal for switching the oscillation operation, and stop the oscillation of the switching power supply.

Electric power system and image forming apparatus


An image forming apparatus for a display that is configured to display at least one of a foreground or a background includes a display control unit and a determining unit. The display control unit configured to cause the display to display, in the foreground, a first screen corresponding to a first input by a user. The display control unit is also configured to cause the display to display, in the background, a second screen corresponding to a home screen of the user. The display control unit is also configured to cause in response to receiving a clear input from the user, the display to display, in the foreground, the second screen and display, in the background, the second screen separately from the second screen displayed in the foreground. The determining unit is configured to determine a first duration that a third screen is displayed in the foreground.

An image forming apparatus is often shared by a plurality of users. Accordingly, the image forming apparatus needs to prevent operation information of a certain user from being seen from the other users. The image forming apparatus clears the operation information of the certain user to prevent the operation information from being seen from the other users. In this case, the image forming apparatus returns a screen displayed on a display to a home screen. However, the image forming apparatus takes time for processing of home screen generation for displaying the home screen on the display. Related art is described in, for example, JP-A-2010-244317.

Image forming apparatus and control method for image forming apparatus


Provided herein are compositions and methods for treating cancer. In particular, provided herein are compositions, methods, and uses of inhibitors of ARlnc1 for treating cancer.

27,000 Americans will die from prostate cancer (PCa) in 2017. PCa is the most common cancer in men and the number two killer overall. For patients with metastatic PCa that fail hormone therapy, the last line of defense are the taxane-derived chemotherapeutic agents docetaxel (Taxotere) or cabazitaxel (Jevtana). Response to taxane therapy is not durable. Progression-free survival on docetaxel treatment approaches 0% by 3 years (see, e.g., Petrylak D P, et al., New Engl J Med. 2004; 351(15):1513-20).
There is a need for additional diagnostic and treatment options, particularly treatments customized to a patient's tumor.

Compositions and methods for treating cancer

The Regents of the University of Michigan


Provided are a method, system, and article of manufacture, wherein a controller receives encrypted data from a first storage unit coupled to the controller. The received encrypted data is stored in a second storage unit coupled to the controller, wherein the controller is capable of accessing the second storage unit faster in comparison to the first storage unit. The encrypted data is maintained in the second storage unit, until at least one condition is satisfied.

1. Field
The disclosure relates to a method, system, and article of manufacture for the decryption of data in storage systems
2. Background
Encryption of data in a network may be categorized into two different types—encryption of "data in motion" and encryption of "data at rest". Encryption of "data in motion" provides security to data as the data is moving across the network between a sender and a recipient. "Data in motion" may also be referred to as "data in flight". Encryption of "data at rest" is the encryption of data that is being stored in a storage medium and is not undergoing transmission. For example, the encryption of data stored in a disk or the encryption of data in a database may be referred to as encryption of "data at rest".
Encryption of "data at rest" is desirable for protecting data stored in a disk. Encryption of data performed via hardware is referred to as hardware encryption, and encryption of data performed via software is referred to as software encryption. While hardware encryption is faster in comparison to software encryption, such hardware encryption may not be available in many situations, e.g., hardware encryption may not be available on certain disk Fibre Channel interfaces. In many cases, software encryption is used for the encryption of "data at rest".
Certain disk staging algorithms perform speculative prefetching of data from secondary storage to the cache to improve the read hit ratio on the cache. Performing decryption on the speculatively prefetched data can lead to performance degradation. Reducing the amount of data that is speculatively prefetched can reduce the amount of decryption to be performed. However, reducing the amount of data that is speculatively prefetched may lower the read hit ratio and degrade performance. Speculative prefetching is often used in storage systems because once the disk head is positioned on the desired data, transferring additional data to cache along with the desired data takes very little additional time in comparison to the time taken to position the head on the desired data.

International Business Machines Corporation


An arithmetic processing device includes arithmetic processing units, each having a calculator unit; a scheduler that controls a push instruction to write data to a register file in one of the arithmetic processing units and a pull instruction to read data from the register file; a pull request bus to which the scheduler outputs a pull request and which is connected to the arithmetic processing units; a push request bus to which the scheduler outputs a push request and which is connected to the arithmetic processing units; and a pull data bus that inputs, into the scheduler, pull data read from the register file in response to the pull request. Each of the arithmetic processing units includes a pull data turn-back bus that propagates pull data read from its register file to the pull data bus.

An arithmetic processing device, also known as a processor, includes a plurality of arithmetic processing units (processor cores or simply cores, or core circuits) and a memory interface provided between the processor cores and a main memory. Each core includes an instruction control unit for decoding instructions and controlling execution of the instructions, and a calculator unit for executing calculation instructions. The processor is realized by an integrated circuit provided on a single semiconductor chip, for example.
A processor may include a large number of cores that execute special calculation instructions in parallel to implement arithmetic processing at high speed, in this type of processor, the large number of cores share a bus to the memory interface, and therefore, when the large number of cores execute memory access individually, bus traffic between the large number of cores and the memory interface increases. An increase also occurs in the amount of circuit resources of the bus wiring provided between the large number of cores and the memory interface.
Japanese National Publication of International Patent Application No. 2009-531746 and Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2001-92772 disclose a memory access configuration by a plurality of cores provided in a multicore processor access a memory.

Arithmetic processing device having multicore ring bus structure with turn-back bus for handling register file push/pull requests


A golf putting swing training aid that may be attached to any golf club that may force a golfer's hands into the proper grip position for various types of golf putting shots is provided. The device and methods of the present disclosure may further allow a golfer to practice these shots to build muscle memory and to ingrain the proper grip and form positions into memory to allow for repeated and consistent shot performance.

Golf is a sport enjoyed by people with a wide range of skill levels from those amateur weekend players to professionals. Every year those same players spend millions of dollars on golf equipment, lessons, and training aids all with the aim of improving their scores by increasing their precision, accuracy, and power of every swing taken.
The arm and hand posture on a golf putting club is one of the primary factors that determines how well a golfer plays golf and for that reason considerable time and money is invested by golfers to improve their strokes and in particular for this aid, the putting stroke. Putting is when the golf ball is close to the hole and the golfer uses their skill to hit the golf ball softly but with enough power and in the right trajectory with a putting club to get the ball into the hole. A golfer hitting the golf ball with a fundamentally sound golf putting swing can ensure that the ball is hit with power, precision, and accuracy more consistently. In a fundamentally sound golf putting swing, the golf club in relation to the body can be in positions at appropriate times or in the proper sequence during the golf putting swing to help the golfer hit the ball more efficiently. When done properly, the golf swing can look fluid and natural.
Getting into fundamentally sound positions during the golf putting swing can often feel awkward and hard to come by and even unnatural for the average amateur weekend golfer. The average golfer may proceed to swing in a way that is comfortable for them, but fundamentally less than ideal, and hit the ball poorly because of it. This can lead to frustration and bad scores, which can be avoided through the improvement of the golf putting swing.
Golf instruction can be based on the golfer learning by feel and their own intuition. In this method, the golfer instinctively feels the proper way to swing the golf club rather than being told the proper, generic, and standardized body and golf club positions or what the proper swing should look like. In one approach, some instructors ask golfers to place their hands on the golf club where it feels comfortable for them and to then generate the putting swing force in whatever way is comfortable for them and to then hold a position in their golf putting swing (such as the top of the strong arc stroke), then modify to whereby the hand position on the club is correct and to lock the wrists so that the swing force is generated by the large left and right deltoid muscles so the golfer can feel the difference between the fundamentally unsound motion and hand position versus a fundamentally sound hand position motion arising from the use of the deltoid muscles. This approach does not allow the golfer to hit the golf ball in one fluid motion. So, although the golfer gets the feeling of what the correct motion is, the golfer does not necessarily know what that motion feels like during the fluid and constantly moving golf putting swing.
A golfer can experience any number of problems during the golf putting swing, such as a series of flaws during the golf putting swing or one flaw leading to another.


An electrode assembly includes a first surface to be placed adjacent a person's skin and a second surface including a plurality of reservoirs of conductive gel. The plurality of reservoirs of conductive gel are disposed on sections of the electrode assembly that are at least partially physically separated and may move at least partially independently of one another to conform to contours of a body of a patient. The electrode assembly is configured to dispense an amount of the electrically conductive gel onto the first surface in response to an activation signal and to provide for a defibrillating shock to be applied to the patient through the amount of the electrically conductive gel.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to medical electrodes, and more particularly, to flexible medical electrodes that may be used with a wearable medical device, such as a defibrillator.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Cardiac arrest and other cardiac health ailments are a major cause of death worldwide. Various resuscitation efforts aim to maintain the body's circulatory and respiratory systems during cardiac arrest in an attempt to save the life of the victim. The sooner these resuscitation efforts begin, the better the victim's chances of survival. These efforts are expensive and have a limited success rate, and cardiac arrest, among other conditions, continues to claim the lives of victims.
To protect against cardiac arrest and other cardiac health ailments, some at-risk patients may use a wearable defibrillator, such as the LifeVest® wearable cardioverter defibrillator available from ZOLL Medical Corporation of Chelmsford, Mass. To remain protected, the patient wears the device nearly continuously while going about their normal daily activities, while awake, and while asleep.

Flexible and/or tapered therapy electrode


An orthodontic bracket is provided for use with an arch wire. The bracket includes a bracket main member having upper, middle and lower portions. The middle portion includes a slot formed therein for receiving the arch wire. Wings are formed on the upper and lower portions of the bracket main member for enabling a ligature to be tied therewith to secure the arch wire in place in the slot. Engaging portions are formed on the wings for enabling the ligature to be held in a tied state on the wings such that the ligature avoids pressured contact with the arch wire, thereby allowing the bracket to move smoothly along the arch wire during orthodontic treatment requiring such movement.

Orthodontic brackets may be used with arch wires in orthodontic treatment for straightening teeth. The brackets, which are attached to the surfaces of the teeth, typically include a main member portion with a generally U-shaped slot formed in the center therein for holding the arch wire. A pair of wings are formed integrally in the upper and lower portions of the bracket main member, enabling ligature means to be tied to the bracket to retain the arch wire in the slot. Tensile and bending forces from the arch wire can thereby be applied to the tooth.
During orthodontic treatment, the brackets are first attached to tooth surfaces using adhesives. The arch wire is then positioned within the slots in each bracket main member, and ligature means are tied to the wings to retain the arch wire in the slots. Stainless ligature wire or elastomeric ligature rings are conventionally used as the ligature means.
The arch wire is generally firmly tied to the brackets. However, when prescribed shifting of teeth is required during orthodontic treatment, the brackets attached to the teeth must be capable of shifting or moving along the arch wire as the teeth shift. Proper tooth shifting is difficult unless the brackets can move smoothly along the arch wire.
Moreover, it is now possible to apply weak continuous loads to the teeth using superelastic arch wires. It is, therefore, important that brackets be able to move along the arch wire without excessive friction therebetween.
When stainless steel ligature wire is used as the ligature means with prior art brackets, the arch wire is firmly tied to the bracket as the ligature wire is in contact with the underside of the wings and with the arch wire under strong pressure. The arch wire thereby becomes firmly attached to the bracket. As a result, shifting the bracket smoothly along the arch wire is difficult because of friction between the arch wire and the bracket.
If ligature wire is to be used in orthodontic treatment that requires the bracket to shift along the arch wire, it is necessary to form a gap between the ligature wire and the arch wire by positioning the ligature wire away from the arch wire. This type of ligature work is, however, difficult.
Elastomeric ligature rings may also be used as the ligature means to secure the arch wire within the slot. Use of elastomeric ligature rings is relatively simple because of the elasticity of the rings. However, even with elastomeric ligature rings, the arch wire becomes firmly attached to the bracket main member because a portion of the ligature ring will be under strong elastic pressure against the arch wire. As a result, it is difficult to shift the bracket smoothly along the arch wire.
In an attempt to solve the problems with prior art brackets, an improved bracket 10 shown in FIG. 9 was described in Japanese Patent Public Disclosure Hei 3-21236. The bracket 10 includes a bracket main member 11 having a U-shaped slot 12 formed in a central portion therein for holding an arch wire (not shown). A pair of wings 13 for retaining ligature means (not shown) are formed on the upper and lower portions of bracket main member 11. The bracket 10 differs from prior brackets in that shoulder portions 14 for supporting the ligature means are integrally formed outside the slot 12 on both sides of bracket main member 11.
With the improved bracket 10, regardless of whether stainless steel ligature wire or elastomeric ligature rings are used as the ligature means, the arch wire is tied to the bracket so that a gap is formed beneath the ligature means and the arch wire. The ligature means is supported on the upper surfaces of shoulder portions 14 on both sides of bracket main member 1, thereby enabling the gap to be formed between the ligature means and the arch wire. As a result, there is no pressured contact between the ligature means and the arch wire. Consequently, as the tooth shifts during orthodontic treatment, the bracket attached to the tooth surface can shift smoothly along the arch wire.
The shoulder portions 14 of the bracket are integrally connected to the sides of bracket main member 11, enlarging the width of the bracket 10 at the two shoulder portions 14. Small brackets are, however, preferred for orthodontic treatment. The presence of the shoulder portions 14 increases the difficulty of pushing the arch wire inside the slot 12. This problem is particularly apparent when using the brackets on the front row of teeth in the lower jaw where distances between brackets are small. Also, the process of forming the shoulder portions 14 on the bracket 10 is difficult and expensive. ,
The presence of shoulder portions 14 makes it possible to reduce pressured contact between the ligature means and the arch wire, which is desirable for cases in which the bracket 11 should shift along the arch wire. However, for orthodontic treatment requiring the bracket 10 to be firmly tied to the arch wire, the presence of the shoulder portions 14 makes firm attachment of the arch wire and bracket main member 11 difficult.


A patient support platform contains medical supplies which are anatomically arranged about the supported patient. The supply compartments and envelopes have see-through closures with pull tabs to make easy identification and access of the items possible. Resilient backing members push the items in the compartments to the front where they are readily accessible. A collapsible IV support pole is stored within the platform and a plurality of apertures provide support locations for the pole. The platform can be rolled up like a bedroll and stored in a satchel for storage and transport.

The present invention is directed to the field of medical care. More particularly, the present invention is directed to a portable resuscitation organizer platform which can be used in a medical emergency.
In most medical emergencies, time is of the essence. A matter of one minute can make the difference between resuscitating a victim to complete health and losing them to a persistent vegetative state or, perhaps, being unable to revive them at all. Within hospitals, equipment stored in cabinets and on shelves and in "crash carts" are used to handle emergencies requiring Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) and a variety of invasive medical procedures constituting advanced life support. The "crash carts" are typically quite bulky and frequently left outside the immediate vicinity of the patient, necessitating calling out for items which are retrieved by others and passed in, or running back and forth to obtain and apply the necessary medical equipment. These carts are entirely unsuitable for dealing with medical emergencies outside of the hospital setting such as at the scene of a vehicle crash or in an ambulance as the patient is transported to the hospital. In the pre-hospital setting, equipment and supplies are stuffed into packs and kits stored in compartments in the interior or exterior of the vehicle. The difficulties of initiating Emergency Medical Service (EMS) resuscitations in the field are compounded by weather conditions, poor lighting, vehicle motion and lack of assistance.
Various attempts have been made to store medical equipment in transportable devices to enable paramedics to revive victims at accident scenes or in transport vehicles. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,986,505 to Power stores supplies for emergency burn treatment and U.S. Pat. No. 4,513,866 to Thomas discloses a medical satchel with pockets for storing supplies for medical emergencies. Other similar devices include U.S. Pat. No. 5,931,303 to Salvadori which provides a storage roll for sterile medical equipment for such procedures as urethral catheterization. These prior art devices suffer from a number of deficiencies. They are little more than glorified knapsacks; while they do provide space for storage, they do not put the needed supplies at the caregiver's fingertips, in the immediate vicinity of the patient, or at the immediate anatomical site of use. Searching for the right medical equipment results in critical time delays which jeopardize the survival of the patient. Further, these devices are not intended to support the victim during the procedure. An ambulance stretcher, gurney or hospital bed has a cushion or mattress which renders cardiac compressions during CPR ineffective. Thus, a piece of plywood, or similar board, is typically placed under the patient before beginning CPR.
These shortcomings of the prior art are overcome by the portable resuscitation organizer platform (P.R.O.P.) of the present invention. The platform is designed to underlie the patient and the necessary medical equipment is anatomically arranged around the patient in regions adjacent specific body portions where items contained in the compartments will be needed for procedures performed on the patient. The patient support zone has a recessed portion for receiving and retaining the patient's head. This region may have additional padding for the patient's comfort. The storage compartments are provided with see-through closures to enable the contents to be quickly determined without the need for opening the compartments. Some of the compartments are provided with a resilient backing means to push the contents to the front of the compartment where they may be quickly accessed. The platform can be collapsed for easy transport to the location of the emergency, where it is unrolled, and the patient placed upon it. The platform can be stored in an enclosing carrier bag for extended periods of storage between uses. The carrier bag also facilitates transport to and from the location of the emergency. The P.R.O. platform is provided with a collapsible intravenous (IV) support stand and a plurality of receptacles which can receive it during use.
Various other features, advantages and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art after a reading of the following specification.

Portable resuscitation organizer platform


A rubber composition for a tire tread contains styrene-butadiene rubber in a compounding amount of 100 parts by weight, silica in a compounding amount of 90 to 170 parts by weight, and an aromatic modified terpene resin in a compounding amount of 10 to 30 parts by weight. The styrene-butadiene rubber contains 40 to 100% by weight of solution-polymerized styrene-butadiene rubber (S-SBR1) and 60 to 0% by weight of solution-polymerized styrene-butadiene rubber (S-SBR2), the total content thereof being 100% by weight. The S-SBR1 has a styrene content of 30 to 38% by weight and a vinyl content of 60 to 80% by weight, the total content thereof being 100% by weight, a glass transition temperature of −20 to −5° C., and a weight average molecular weight of 1,000,000 to 1,800,000.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a rubber composition for a tire tread, and more specifically to a rubber composition for a tire tread that provides a pneumatic tire having excellent wet grip performance, steering stability, and abrasion resistance.
2. Related Art
A pneumatic tire for a high-performance vehicle (hereinafter simply referred to as "tire") is required to have many performances. Further, examples of the performances include excellent steering stability during high-speed traveling, stability (wet performance) on a wet road surface, and abrasion resistance. In addition, when a vehicle travels at a high speed on the expressway (e.g., autobahn), a circuit or the like for a long period of time, further performance is required for a tire. For example, suppression of change of tire performance is required for a tire. Specifically, a tire is required to suppress a so-called worn tire which exhibits a state of wear of tire surface. Further, a tire is also required to suppress so-called degeneration due to heating in which the steering stability deteriorates by generating heat from the traveling tire rubber. For example, a competitive tire for travel on a wet road surface is required to have excellent wet performance, that is, to have not only excellent wet performance and grip performance, but also to suppress the generation of worn tire and degeneration due to heating when the tire travels at a high speed for a long period of time. Therefore, heretofore, a rubber composition constituting a pneumatic tire, particularly a tread unit thereof for ground contact (hereinafter referred to as a "rubber composition for a tread" or simply referred to as a "rubber composition") has been intensively researched and developed.
JP-A-2007-321046 discloses a rubber composition for improving the grip performance of a tire in a semiwet state. This rubber composition contains styrene-butadiene copolymer rubber (SBR) having a glass transition temperature (Tg) in a predetermined range. That is, the rubber composition contains 100 parts by weight of styrene-butadiene copolymer rubber (SBR) including any one of single SBR having a glass transition temperature (Tg) of −30 to 0° C. or a blend obtained by mixing two or more kinds of SBR and having an average Tg of −30 to 0° C.; 80 to 180 parts by weight of a filler containing 50 parts by weight or more of silica; and 5 to 60 parts by weight of a resin having a softening point of 100 to 150° C. However, only adjustment of the Tg of the SBR does not necessarily sufficiently satisfy the requirements of users for the wet grip performance, steering stability, and abrasion resistance of a tire.
The present disclosure has been made in view of the problems of conventional techniques. An object of the present disclosure is to provide a rubber composition to be used for a tire tread having excellent wet grip performance, steering stability, and abrasion resistance as compared with a conventional rubber composition.


Undesirable behavior patterns of computers on a network impact network performance. A system and method are provided for limiting the impact of undesirable behavior of computers on the network. The network, through which packets of data are interchanged between the computers, includes one or more forwarding devices that are controlled or instructed by one or more packet traffic monitors. Each of the packet traffic monitors is configured for monitoring the packets; for determining if the information about the pattern of behavior from any of the computers is trustworthy; for determining, upon discovering that one or more of the patterns of behavior is undesirable, a type of the undesirable pattern behavior; and for determining a proper action for mitigating that type of undesirable behavior. The proper action is performed by mitigation means controlling the one or more forwarding devices.

Computer networks connect and provide a data communications service between addressable devices (or nodes), including computers, servers, printers and the like. Computer networks are generally classified according to their geographical extent as local area networks (LANs), metropolitan area networks (MANs) and wide area networks (WANs). The present invention is related to and can be implemented in any of these network classes.
Ethernet is one technology of choice upon which data networks are built. Ethernet is typically characterized as a multi-access packet-switched communications network for carrying data among locally distributed computers. The shared-communications channel in Ethernet is a passive broadcast medium with no packet address recognition or central control. The passive broadcast medium forms a backbone of the Ethernet network and a transmission medium that is shared between two or more addressable devices. A LAN in the Ethernet network is a network segment that covers a relatively small geographic area. Although LANs offer a high-speed communications and data sharing service, LANs have basic limitations such as the number of addressable devices, bandwidth and physical extent. By comparison, MANs and WANs offer a greater physical extent and larger number of addressable devices but slower communications speed.
To extend the benefits of a LAN beyond its basic limitations, forwarding devices (referred to also as stations) such as switching, routing or bridging devices are often used to form an extended network. Forwarding devices are multi-port addressable devices interposed between any number of LAN backbones or between LAN backbones and the long distance backbones of a MAN or WAN.
In making data traffic forwarding decisions, these devices use unique identifiers (UIDs) of the computers (also referred to as hosts or end stations). Specifically, computers communicate by sending and receiving packets or groups of packets that in addition to payload include MAC (media access control) addresses (or UID) of the source and destination computers (the MAC address is considered a low-level address as compared to an internet protocol, IP, address).
In forwarding data traffic, the forwarding devices distinguish packets by their destination address type. For example, a unicast packet is a packet with a particular host address as its destination. A packet that is sent to a group of hosts is a multicast packet. In this case, the packet includes a group address UID as its destination. A group address dedicated to the group of all hosts is a broadcast address and a multicast packet addressed to all hosts is a broadcast packet. One type of broadcast packet, known as an ARP (address resolution protocol) request, is sent for requesting the Ethernet address (UID or MAC address) of a host in the network. The ARP request contains the IP address of the host to be queried and that host, upon recognizing the IP address as it own returns a MAC address answer. ARP is the protocol used to map IP addresses to MAC (Ethernet) addresses for transport of data traffic from the Internet to hosts via the local network (Ethernet segment).
In providing the foregoing data communications service, networks can be distinguished based on the type of forwarding device(s) they include. Forwarding devices commonly used in networks include hubs, repeaters, switches, bridges and routers. A repeater is physical layer (layer 1) device used to interconnect the conductor segments of an extended network and enables them to be treated as a single conductor. The repeater amplifies and restores the timing margins of packet bit streams, but it does not use addressing for packets forwarding. A hub is a physical layer device that connects multiple hosts via dedicated conductor, and in some respects it functions as a multi-port repeater. The hub receives a packet in one port and re-transmits it to all of its other ports. However, in a shared media comprising a hub-connected Ethernet segment all hosts are competing for a limited amount of bandwidth.
A switch is also a physical layer device although more intelligent than the hub. A switch is a multi-port device designed with logic for knowing to which port of the switch each device (e.g., host or another switch) is connected. The switch isolates each port and makes it appear that the network attachment to that port is the only one. Any data received at one of the ports is then switched, using the logic in the switch, to a specific destination port. The switch will flood packets to every port if it is not sure where the destination of such packets is or if the destination address in the packets is a broadcast address. Since the switch operates at the physical layer it switches in hardware. Thus, in extended networks, this faster throughput and higher port density make switching technology a more dominant complement to routing than bridging.
A bridge is a data layer (layer 2) device that switches in software, and it is concerned with addresses of network devices and not the actual paths between them. The bridge enables devices on different LAN segments to communicate with each other as if they were on the same switch or hub, and it interconnects LANs of unlike bandwidth. The Bridge can filter packets based on data-layer information contained within the MAC address, protocol, etc. Moreover, the bridge will flood packets to every host in the topology network if it is not sure where the destination of such packets is or if the destination address in the packets is a broadcast address. Thus, bridges propagate ARP request broadcasts like any other Ethernet broadcast and transparently bridge (forward) the ARP answers. Bridges respond to ARP requests for hosts known to them or, alternatively, they send their own ARP requests on the network. Notably ARP requests are transparent to bridging but not to routers. In a bridge-based network, when the one or more bridges forward packets by flooding or forward broadcast traffic (including ARP requests), the bandwidth of the network is limited to the bandwidth of a single LAN. This limitation is present even with richly connected network segments, especially since redundant connections are inactive standby connections.
By comparison, in a switch-based network switches are faster but switches do little to restrict passage of broadcast traffic in the network. Broadcast traffic is not restricted in a switch based network since switches will flood packets to every port if they are not sure where the destination of such packets is or if the destination address in the packets is a broadcast address. Generally, a switch-based network as shown in FIG. 1 is characterized in that it does not discard any packets except during reconfiguration of the network. FIG. 1 illustrates a switch-based network 10 where the forwarding devices (switches) 112 are interconnected in an arbitrary topology. Their larger scale makes switch-based networks particularly vulnerable to common network pathologies including broadcast storms, ARP fights, stolen MAC addresses or any other undesirable behavior. Such pathologies exist in traditional, shared broadcast media, but are more relevant in switch-based networks because of their large scale and modem pressure for Internet addresses. And, they may happen either by accident or through malice by rogue computers.
ARP fights occur when two hosts with different MAC (layer 2 hardware) addresses conflict for the same IP address. ARP fights occur for example as a result of misconfiguration or buggy implementations of DHCP (dynamic host configuration protocol) which is a protocol for dynamically allocating IP addresses to computers on a LAN.
A stolen Ethernet (MAC) address situation occurs when two IP addresses map to the same MAC address. ARP is not suited for resolving conflicting responses, and it could be used by an unruly host in a man-in-the-middle attack. Such attack is characterized in that the unruly host illegally intercepts the ARP request communications and adopts other hosts' MAC addresses.
Broadcast storms occur when a buggy or malevolent host emits a continuous stream of broadcast packets. With the emission of a broadcast storm, even a single host can impose a limit on the practical size of a network through consumption of too many network resources. For example, a single host can execute a denial-of-service attack on all other hosts on the same subnet. In larger networks, disruptive behavior, including behavior akin to broadcast storms, can be frequently exhibited simply because there are numerous hosts.
In order to isolate broadcast storms, a switch-based network (or bridge-based network) can be broken into discrete broadcast domains, referred to a virtual LANs (VLANs), which are connected through routers. A router is a network layer (layer 3) device that uses network addressing and a routing protocol in forwarding packets. Unlike a bridge, the router is concerned with the paths between devices. The router analyzes the addresses of all packet traffic coming in through its ports and if the traffic is not local, the router sends the traffic out through one of its other ports. Thus, when a host sends a packet to a router it sends that packet addressed to the router's physical layer (MAC) address with the network layer (protocol) address of the destination host. As it examines the destination hosts protocol address the router determines that it either knows or doesn't know how to forward the packet to the next hop (router). If the router knows the next hop, it changes the MAC address to that of the next hop and forwards the packet to that hop; and, alternatively, if it knows the destination address the router forwards the packet to the destination host. As mentioned before, ARP requests are transparent to bridging but not to routers. Routers do not propagate the ARP request broadcasts because routers are network level (3) devices, and Ethernet, Token-Ring, FDDI (fiber distributed data interface) and ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) are data-link protocols (data layer (2) protocols). For propagating a packet, the host must first use its routing protocols to select the proper router (i.e., the proper IP address of the proper router) that can be reached via Ethernet ARPs. The proper router responds to an ARP request containing its IP address with its MAC (Ethernet) address. Then, the packet is transmitted to the MAC address of the router through which it is re-transmitted toward its actual destination.
To improve throughput performance, many scaled networks utilize Ethernet switches (e.g., Gigabyte Ethernet switches) between routers in a routed backbone. Switch-based Ethernet networks that are scaled through routers isolate the broadcast domains and are able, in turn, to isolate traffic between different pairs of hosts for performance and security. Moreover, their aggregate bandwidth allows switched networks to scale larger than broadcast networks using hubs. However, routers are inherently slower because of the added processing they do in packet analysis. Namely, routers introduce bottlenecks in data traffic. And routers do not solve others of the above described network pathologies.
Accordingly, there remains a need to address network communications problems. To that end, the present invention provides solutions that address the above-mentioned pathologies.

Method and system for limiting the impact of undesirable behavior of computers on a shared data network

Hewlett Packard Development Company L.P.