A one-piece floating spring nut that has overlying upper and lower flattened leaves that extend from separated free ends into connection with a u-shaped spring hinge that resiliently joins the arms at their inboard ends. The upper leaf has a centralized nut locating and retaining collar extruded therefrom that also serves as a guide and through passage for a threaded fastener. The lower leaf has an extruded sleeve portion aligned with the locating and retaining collar, which is internally threaded to threadly receive the threaded fastener. The locating and retaining collar has a generally cylindrical configuration that extends with clearance into an opening in a support member to retain the spring nut in a pre-assembled position on the support member. The collar further cooperates with the edge of the enlarged opening to establish the amount of adjustment that the nut can float relative to the support. The float permits the nut to be adjusted on its support so that it can be aligned with an opening in the article being attached to the support by threaded fasteners that thread in to the sleeve portion of the nut.

Prior to the present invention, various spring nut units have been devised to be preassembled onto support structures to subsequently receive threaded fasteners so that another structure can be attached thereto. These units include a wide arrangement of J and U type spring nuts to function with a variety of threaded fasteners. U.S. Pat. No. 3,426,818 issued Feb. 11, 1969 to MT Derby for Yielding Nut Retainer and U.S. Pat. No. 4,798,507 issued Jan 17, 1989 to B. Otah for Sheet Metal U-Nut disclose some examples of prior art spring nuts.
While such spring nuts generally meet requirements for basic attachment purposes, they do not meet new and higher standards for improved assembly of different components to one another particularly where the different components are produced in quality with large limit stack or tolerances. The resilient retainer ring "R" of the prior art spring nut "N" of FIG. 3B securely holds the spring nut in an installed and nonfloating position in the locating hole or opening "O" in support "S" and further reduces the ramping of the nut on the support and thereby the misalignment of the opening in a panel being attached with the threaded retainer "T" of the nut.
In contrast to prior art fixed nut constructions, the present invention is drawn to a new and improved floating spring nut having an extruded adjustment limiter collar extending downwardly from the upper spring leaf that fits into an enlarged fastener receiving opening in the support that allows limited adjustment of the nut on the support or a first component so that a second component can be aligned therewith and securely fastened thereto with a threaded fastener. The spring nut of this invention is generally retained in any position by the collar and spring action of the upper and lower leaves or arms on a supporting component. The nut after appropriate adjustment efficiently receives and guides a threaded fastener into threaded connection with the nut so that the components can be readily connected to one another by the fastener extending through aligned holes in the components.
More particularly, the floating spring nut of this invention is, in one preferred embodiment, generally U shaped in cross section, provides improved retention and adjustment in its fastening plane and features a cylindrical locating and retaining adjustment collar instead of an inclined resilient locating and retaining ring found on a typical prior art U nut. However, the collar of this floating U nut fits with some clearance in the locating hole of the prior construction of FIG. 3B so that there is some float for adjustment purposes. However, the locating hole in the support for the floating nut preferably has a sufficiently larger tolerance diameter wise to provide additional clearance in any direction in its plane for optimized float of the spring nut. With such larger diameter holes, a relatively large tolerance zone is established in which the nut can be adjusted in the plane of the support component.
The ability of the spring nut to float provides greater flexibility in assembly and connection of a wide range of different and mass-produced components to one another. This invention accordingly enhances the assembly of structures from various sub-components manufactured with large tolerance and eases the effect of manufacturing tolerance stack-ups This adjustability is important to the proper installation and location of many components, particularly finishing components where positioning and adjusting trim panels and other structures is often needed for close fits.
A feature of this invention is in the new and improved locating and retaining collar extruded or otherwise formed in one of the leaves of the spring nut. This collar in cooperation with the edge of the hole in the support establishes the distance that the spring nut is allowed to float.
Moreover the present invention is easily used with a wider range of thickness in support structures and provides assured alignment of the fastener opening provided by the collar in the upper arm with the screw receiving sleeve in the lower arm. This invention accordingly provides a new and improved method of fastening components to one another having a wide tolerance range

Floating spring nut for threaded fasteners


The invention relates to apparatus which includes stimulating electrodes (2,3) through which electrical signals are applied to an extremity of a patient (1). Detecting electrodes (30,40) are disposed along the patient's spine and on the crown of the patient'head. The apparatus also includes signal amplifiers (7,8), a loudspeaker (9) or the like to which an amplified signal is applied for physiological feedback purposes, an A/D-converter and a computer (20). Samples of signals are collected so as to obtain from the distributed electrodes means value curves from which the transport time of the nerve signals from respective extremities can be determined.

Apparatus are known and used for diagnosing certain types of nerve damage. For example, it is usual to apply electrical stimulating pulses to a heel of a patient with the patient lying flat on his stomach, and to measure the arrival time at the brain cortex, by attaching two electrodes to the skin of the crown of the patient's head, wherewith in the case of a normal person a signal of the order of 0.5-3 .mu.V will occur between the electrodes after a time lapse of 39.5.+-.3.3 ms from the time of administering the stimulating pulses. Although this signal contains a fair amount of noise, it is possible to obtain a summation signal from which the transport time can be determined with the aid of graphic methods or the like, by adding together a large number of signals.
Endeavours have also been made to obtain a more complete picture of the transport of the nerve signals, by positioning detectors along the spine, for instance so as to ascertain whether or not the function is influenced by defects in the spinal column. In this case, however, the disturbances which emanate from the muscles and the heart are much more troublesome. In order to eliminate these disturbances, incisive methods have been attempted, in which electrodes are inserted into the vertebral canal. Endeavours to measure the transport time of nerve signals have also been made with a combination of long measuring periods and patient relax periods, in which the patient is put to sleep or medicated. These investigations, however, cannot be carried out in polyclinics and are expensive, time consuming and somewhat unpleasant for the patient.

Apparatus for measuring the transport time of nerve signals


An essentially u-shaped discharge lamp (13) comprises a gaz fill and a pair of electrodes (15) at its ends. The lamp (13) way be comprised in a handpiece (1) for treating a surface by means of electromagnetic radiation.

At the present time, techniques of removing excess hair are no longer applicable solely to women with problems of hirsutism or hypertrichosis, but are commonly practiced on patients of both sexes, who are not necessarily suffering from specific diseases, but may require treatment for purely cosmetic purposes. The procedures commonly used for this purpose can be classified according to the duration of the results. According to this classification, there are short-term systems (razors, tweezers, cold and hot waxing, creams, gels and electrical depilators), and long-term systems which, after a certain number of sessions, can even yield permanent results. Some examples of this second group of systems are electrocoagulation needles, radio frequency scalpel needles, non-coherent light and lasers. Among the long-term treatment methods, the greatest success has been obtained with the use of systems based on the theory of selective photothermolysis, which cause damage to the hair bulb by means of the electromagnetic energy absorbed by the melanin present in the hair or by the hemoglobin of the follicle blood vessels.
Non-coherent light and laser depilation systems are more effective when they strike the hair in the growth phase ("anagen"). The growth of hair is not continuous, but cyclical: a rest period called "telogen" follows each growth period called "anagen"; the transition period between the two phases is known as "catagen". The duration of the cycle is different in the different regions, varying from 2–6 years for the head hair to only 4–8 weeks for the eyebrows. According to current biological models, the cells giving rise to the follicle are located in what is known as the "bulge area". These cells form the new hair matrix, thus initiating the growth phase. In the initial part of this phase, when the follicle is shorter, the papilla is closer to the skin surface; subsequently it increases its length, proliferating for a period which varies according to the anatomical location. It is in the initial phase of anagen, or anagen 1, that the "target" structures of the follicle (such as the papilla and the bulge area) with its vascular system are closer to the hair and to the skin surface; as the papilla and the end part of the hair become closer, there is a greater probability that the "light" energy absorbed by the melanin of the skin, and that which arrives directly, will cause irreparable damage to the papilla, permanently blocking its ability to make a hair grow. From what has been stated above, it is evident why the action of a "photodepilation" system is more effective in the anagen phase.
In a non-coherent light depilation system, use is made of a discharge lamp, normally consisting of a cylindrical container of material which is transparent to the electromagnetic radiation in the visible band and in the near infrared. Inside the container, at a suitable pressure, there is a pure gas or a mixture of gases, according to the characteristics to be obtained for the emitted light spectrum. At the ends of the container there are two electrodes, positioned in glass-metal seals so that one end of each electrode faces the internal environment, where the desired gaseous atmosphere has been created, while the other end forms an externally accessible current lead for the electrical power supply. The structure of the discharge lamp is typically rectilinear. When the lamp is excited by suitable levels of voltage and current, according to time-based control laws, a discharge is initiated in the mixture contained in it, generating the emission of the radiation. The lamp has to be very close to the skin, or more generally close to the surface to be treated, in order to obtain the maximum intensity. To maximize the effectiveness of the treatment, the handpiece must not mask any part of the surface to be treated with portions, such as the electrodes and current leads, which are not active because they do not emit radiation. A good illustration of this point is provided by the depilatory application. In this case, the irradiation of the skin must be carried out in a uniform way, in order to avoid having untreated areas or areas in which treatment is repeated, especially in adjacent areas affected by two successive treatments. In other words, the operator must take great care when maneuvering the application unit containing the lamp, in order to provide continuity of treatment in the areas adjacent to the area concerned. It is therefore very important for the operator to have a full view of the portion of skin or other surface concerned on which the radiation is to be made to act, wherever the application unit is positioned.
The conventional structure of the lamps described above does not allow the irradiated portion to be viewed satisfactorily, since the application handpiece has two inactive areas, namely the parts occupied by the electrodes and by the current leads, where there is no discharge and consequently no emission of radiation.
To overcome this problem of masking by inactive parts, application handpieces have been developed with conventional lamps, in which optical guide structures are placed in the emitting region of the lamp to guide the light towards the surface to be treated, thus enabling the light source to be moved away from said surface. However, these handpieces are of complicated design, and do not fully overcome the aforementioned problems.

Application handpiece with lamp of novel shape


A perceptual reaction analyzer transmits content to the terminals, receives the perceptual reaction information, generates perceptual reaction change information, estimates the presence/absence of interest of the users based on the perceptual reaction change information to classify the users into groups corresponding to the presence/absence of the interest, generates a certainty level which indicates a degree of certainty of the presence/absence of interest, and tries, for a low certainty user, an operation on the content corresponding to the perceptual reaction by which the same presence/absence of interest of the low certainty user is estimated again, based on the perceptual reaction information of a user of which presence/absence of interest is the same as the low certainty user. The perceptual reaction information receiving, the perceptual reaction change information generating and the user grouping are performed after the trial processing, so as to re-estimate the presence/absence of interest of the low certainty user.

In response to a perceived object, such as an object seen or heard, people exhibit a perceptual reaction, such as making a facial expression or gesturing to express emotion. After perceiving the same object a plurality of times, the perceptual reaction of a person to the object may differ from the first time, therefore it is difficult to predict the perceptual reaction of the person simply based on skill or attributes such as gender and age.
Conventionally a technique to estimate human emotion by analyzing perceptual reaction is known. Such a technique is sometimes used for estimating whether a user has an interest, concern or eagerness to receive information (hereafter collectively referred to as "interest") about the content, for example, based on the expression or the like of a user who is looking at the content, such as images, distributed by a server. Thereby the interest of the user about the content can be known, and the result can be fed back for improvement of the content.

Perceptual reaction analyzer, and method and program thereof


A sawing machine includes a base, a worktable tiltable relative to the base, a tilt control mechanism coupled between the base and the worktable for tilting the worktable relative to the base, and a tilt angle indicator for indicating a tilt angle of the worktable. The tilt angle indicator includes a wheel, which is pivoted to a bottom side of the worktable and has an indication zone, a spring member provided between the wheel and the worktable for providing a torsional force to the wheel, and a pull cord connected between the base and the wheel for driving the wheel to rotate when tilting the worktable relative to the base.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a sawing machine, such as a scroll saw, band saw and the like, and more particularly, to such a sawing machine that is provided with a tilt angle indicator.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 8 shows a scroll saw 70 according to the prior art. According to this design, the scroll saw 70 comprises a bottom seat 71, an arched suspension arm 72 formed of an upper arm member 721 and a lower arm member 722 arranged in parallel, a worktable 73 pivoted to the lower arm member 722, and a scroll saw blade 74 connected between the free end of the upper arm member 721 and the free end of the lower arm member 722 and extended through the worktable 73. The worktable 73 has an arched opening 731 at the bottom side on the middle, a series of teeth 732 arranged along one side of the arched opening 731, and a scale 733 connected to the bottom wall. A rotary knob 75 is rotatably located in the arched opening 731, having a gear (not shown) meshed with the teeth 732. Rotating the rotary knob 75 causes the worktable 73 to tilt relative to the bottom seat 71. Further, the scale 733 has angle-measurement graduations 734. By means of the indication of the angle-measurement graduations 734, the operator can accurately adjust the tilt angle of the worktable 73.
By means of the rotary knob 75 and the indication of the angle-measurement graduations 734 of the scale 733, the operator can conveniently and accurately adjust the tilt angle of the worktable 73. However, because the scale 733 is provided at the bottom side of the worktable 73, the operator cannot see the indication of the angle-measurement graduations 734 of the scale 733 from the top side of the worktable 73. When adjusting the tilt angle of the worktable 73, the operator may have to bend the body in order to see the indication of the angle-measurement graduations 734 of the scale 733. Further, when tilting the worktable 73 over a predetermined angle, the rear end edge of the worktable 73 may block the indication of the angle-measurement graduations 734 of the scale 733.


A hot water unit fluid supply control system comprises a switching device coupled to a hot water unit, a rainwater tank and a potable water source. The switching device is configured to selectively switch between a first state, which allows fluid communication between the hot water unit and the rainwater tank, and a second state, which allows fluid communication between the hot water unit and the potable water source. The hot water unit fluid supply control system comprises a control unit configured to: receive fluid characteristic information associated with fluid in the hot water unit from one or more sensors; activate or deactivate a pump of the rainwater tank based on a comparison of a fluid characteristic parameter of the fluid characteristic information with requirements of the hot water unit to thereby cause the switching device to assume the first or second state.

It is desired to address or ameliorate one or more shortcomings or disadvantages associated with known systems and methods for controlling fluid supply to a hot water unit.
Any discussion of documents, acts, materials, devices, articles or the like which has been included in the present specification is not to be taken as an admission that any or all of these matters form part of the prior art base or were common general knowledge in the field relevant to the present disclosure as it existed before the priority date of each claim of this application.
Throughout this specification the word "comprise", or variations such as "comprises" or "comprising", will be understood to imply the inclusion of a stated element, integer or step, or group of elements, integers or steps, but not the exclusion of any other element, integer or step, or group of elements, integers or steps.

Hot water unit fluid supply control systems and methods


A method for constructing an ALA production bacterial strain, the method enhances the activity of related enzymes promoting the synthesis of oxaloacetate and in the 5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA) production bacterial strain, or introducing exogenous related enzymes promoting the synthesis of oxaloacetate, such as phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase or pyruvate carboxylase, and/or reducing the activity of related enzymes in the downstream metabolic pathway of succinyl coenzyme A in the bacterial strain, such as succinyl coenzyme A synthetase or succinate dehydrogenase, and/or reducing the activity of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylated kinase and/or malic enzyme. An ALA high-yield bacterial strain constructed by utilizing the method, and method for utilizing the bacterial strain to prepare ALA.

5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA) is a precursor for synthesizing tetrapyrrole compounds, such as heme, chlorophyll, vitamin B12, in an organism, and tetrapyrrole compounds are important components for cytochromes, hemoglobin, and chloroplast protein, which play an important role in life activities. ALA is widely used in medicine, agriculture, animal husbandry, commodity chemicals and other areas, and is an important high-value-added bio-based chemical, due to its advantages, such as biodegradability, nontoxicity and no residues. ALA can be used in cancer therapy, tumor diagnosis and treatment of skin diseases as a new generation of photodynamics drugs; can be used to significantly promote the growth of flowers, plants and vegetables, and raise the quality of crops, fruits, and vegetables as plant growth regulators; and ALA can be used to enhance metabolism and immunity of animals as animal feed additives. Recently, ALA is also used as a main additive ingredient in the development of cosmetics and healthcare food, and relevant products have been marketed.
However, at present, ALA is mainly prepared by chemical synthesis, and there are some shortcomings such as multiple reaction steps, low conversion-rate, high production cost, high energy and material consumption, toxic raw materials used during the preparation, severe environmental pollution and high price. Currently, on the Chinese market, the producer price for ALA hydrochloride is about 17,000-19,000 RMB/kg, while the reagent grade price is up to 2,000 RMB/gm. High manufacturing cost has become a limiting factor in ALA application.
With the development of society and science and technology, replacing chemical synthesis by clean and efficient fermentation methods for producing ALA has become the focus of research. At present, the methods for producing ALA by, using microorganisms are generally two types: the first one is that photosynthetic bacteria is mutated for breeding high-yielding ALA mutants and the obtained mutant is cultured in a specific medium for accumulating high concentrations of ALA, however, the fermentation period of such method is relatively long, the controlling conditions are complex, and the addition of substrates and inhibitors will increase the production cost. The second one is that the metabolic pathway of a microorganism is modified through metabolic engineering, and an excess accumulation of ALA is achieved by strengthening ALA synthesis. In microorganisms, there are mainly two pathways for synthesizing ALA, one of which is C4 pathway, wherein ALA is synthesized by ALA synthetase using succinyl CoA and glycine as precursors; another one of which is C5 pathway, wherein ALA is synthesized by using glutamyl tRNA as precursor through a two-step reaction. Xie et al (Xie L, Hall D, Eiteman MA, Altman E, Appl Microbiol Biotechnol, 2003, 63 (3): 267-273) reported that 5.2 g/L of ALA yield can be obtained by using wild type E. coli MG1655 expressing ALA synthetase from Rhodobacter sphaeroides and through optimization of fermentation conditions. Jianping Lin et al., (CN200710068168.6, CN201210013562.0) reported that 6.6 g/L of ALA yield can be obtained by expressing ALA synthetase gene from Rhodobacter sphaeroides in E. coli Rosetta 2 (DE3) through optimization of fermentation process, and upon further optimization, 9.4 g/L of ALA yield can be obtained in a 15 L fermentor, which is the highest yield reported in the literature. All of the above studies focused on a relatively simple C4 pathway, and the effects are achieved mainly by expressing exogenous ALA synthetase in E. coli and adding in an enriched LB medium substrates (succinic acid and glycine) and inhibitors of downstream metabolic pathways. Higher level of ALA yield has been obtained by the above methods, however, the control of fermentation process is complex due to the use of LB medium and addition of substrates and inhibitors, and the production costs are increased, thereby limiting the large-scale industrial applications. Shin et al (Shin J A, Kwon Y D, Kwon O H, Lee H S, Kim P, J Microbiol Biotechnol, 2007, 17 (9): 1579-1584) reported that ALA synthetase from Rhodobacter sphaeroides was co-expressed in E. coli with NADP-dependent malic-enzyme of the E. coli itself, and under anaerobic conditions, ALA yield can be improved in an enriched medium without adding succinic acid. However, in terms of improvement degree of ALA, the overall yield is still low, and can not meet production requirements. In Kang et al. (Kang Z, Wang Y, Gu P, Wang Q, Qi Q, Metab Eng, 2011, 13 (5): 492-498), optimized C5 pathway was used and ALA transporters was expressed in E. coli. And in a 5 L fermentor, 4.13 g/L of ALA yield can be obtained, and ALA can be produced through fermentation by using a synthetic medium with glucose as being the main carbon source. However, the fermentation period is long, and glucose conversion rate is low, which is only 0.168 g/g (molar ratio of about 0.23). In the above studies, some effort have been made to intracellular supply of the substrate for synthesizing ALA, however, the overall effect is not good. Therefore, till now, exogenous addition are generally used for the supply of substrates for synthesizing ALA, especially for the most commonly used C4 synthetic pathway in the synthesis of ALA. No report can be found that ALA can be produced through fermentation by using engineered strains with C4 pathway in a medium containing glucose, which is cheap, as the main carbon source.
Summing up, it is urgent to develop an efficient, low-cost, low-pollution preparation method for ALA.

5-aminolevulinic acid high-yield bacterial strain, preparation method and use thereof

Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences


A weather-based activity advisor that provides activity recommendations to a user based on location and a time parameters. The activity recommendations are based on assessments of the desirability of potential activities such as weather-based index values. The weather-based activity advisor may present recommended activities, facilities offering the activities, information about the activities, and information about weather conditions influencing the desirability of the activities. The activity advisor may also present supplemental information such as advertisements and related web links.

The Internet is a rapidly developing source of weather related information. Consumers of weather information generally fall into three categories: weather enthusiasts who genuinely have an interest in weather itself, weather planners who use weather information in planning their activities and travel, and consumers who view weather as a commodity. The weather sites on the Internet are generally focused on providing weather information and have limited content for the weather planners or enthusiasts.
Furthermore, consumers generally have to go through several layers of navigation before reaching weather information that is useful for planning purposes. The weather information that is available for planning purposes is generally a subset of weather information that may be of interest for planning an event or activity. Some of the weather sites are therefore cumbersome and complicated to use for weather planning purposes. For a more in depth explanation of the deficiencies of weather information for weather planning purposes see U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/766,295 to Ryan, et al. entitled "Weather Information Delivery Systems and Methods Providing Planning Functionality And Navigation Tools" and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/707,335 entitled "Targeted Weather Information Delivery Systems and Methods," both incorporated herein by this reference.
A need exists for weather sites that can provide better services to the weather enthusiasts and weather planners and, in particular, merge weather information and other content with activities-based content. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/766,295 to Ryan ("the Ryan application") has partially addressed this concern by presenting navigation and planning functionality that ties weather information to specific activities, such as golf at a particular course or weather conditions for an outdoor sporting event. The Ryan application provides a What/Where search tool that consumers can use to plan a certain activity at a certain location. As described, if a consumer is interested in playing golf in Abilene, Tex., for example, the consumer can search using "Abilene, Tex." (the where) and "plan for golf" (the what) and receive golf planning information such as weather and other information specific to golfing in Abilene, such as a list of golf courses near Abilene, current observations at those courses, distance of the golf courses from the geographical location of interest, cost of the courses, availability at the courses, and level of difficulty.
The Ryan application also describes the use of an activity index page such as a golf index page. The golf index is described as "a measure of a set of weather conditions that influence the game of golf, such as temperature, humidity, lightning conditions, wind conditions, and precipitation." This allows consumers to more easily plan their activities by giving consumers the weather information tightly integrated with golf information.
In spite of the many uses and benefits of the weather-based activity planning tools described in Ryan, there continues to be a need for additional and more powerful weather-based activity planning functionality. Specifically, consumers desire a tool that can help them choose from among different activities. Consumers may not know what activities are available in a given area. Current systems also do not allow users to conveniently and easily compare activities. For example, a consumer must manually compare the results of a golf index with a fishing index to determine on a particular day which activity is favored by the current or forecasted weather conditions. Furthermore, there is a need for a system which can utilize information about a user, such as activity preferences and financial preferences and provide information and suggestions on activities.


Disclosed is a membrane-electrode assembly for a fuel cell including an anode and a cathode with a polymer electrolyte membrane placed between them. At least one of the anode and the cathode includes a catalyst layer including a catalyst metal with a hydrophilic polymer layer on the catalyst metal.

A fuel cell is a power generation system that converts chemical energy obtained from a reaction between oxygen and hydrogen in a hydrocarbon-based material such as methanol, ethanol, or natural gas, to electrical energy.
A fuel cell can be classified as a phosphoric acid type, a molten carbonate type, a solid oxide type, a polymer electrolyte type, or an alkaline type of fuel cell depending upon the kind of electrolyte used. Although each fuel cell operates in accordance with the same basic principles, the kind of fuel, the operating temperature, the catalyst, and the electrolyte are all dependent on the type of cell selected.
Recently, a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC), which has power characteristics superior to those of other fuel cells, an operating temperature that is lower, and starting and response characteristics that are quicker, has been developed. It has advantages in that it can be applied to a wide array of fields, such as a transportable electrical source for an automobile, for distributed power such as for houses and public buildings, and as a small electrical source for electronic devices.

Membrane-electrode assembly for fuel cell and fuel cell comprising the same


A sound attenuation canopy for reducing levels of sound passing through an opening comprises a sound absorbing member. The sound absorbing member is comprised of a flexible sound absorbing material and has a first end, a second end and an intermediate portion extending between the first end and the second end. The first end is configured to attach to a periphery of the opening at a first location, the second end is configured to attach to a periphery of the opening at a second location and the intermediate portion is configured to be spaced apart from the opening. When the first end and the second end of the sound absorbing member are attached to the periphery of the opening, at least one side opening is at least partially defined by the intermediate portion and the perimeter of the opening, and a sound transmission flow path through open space between the opening and the side opening comprises at least one change of direction greater than 45 degrees.

High sound levels in work settings can have negative effects on worker concentration and productivity as noise can be a distraction. Even office spaces with offices separated by walls and doors transmit sound between them. As office buildings optimize space use, the outcomes often result in a decrease of the average amount of space allotted for each person, office, or work area. With more office workers in a given area, the noise levels in that area are increasing beyond acceptable levels.
Some gains in controlling unwanted sound transmission can be made by addressing the composition or construction of the walls and doors that separate adjacent spaces. In addition, any voids or penetrations which could transfer sound between an office and the adjoining spaces that can also be sealed or insulated. However, these more conventional approaches still do not deliver the degree of sound mitigation often desired in a work setting.
Within the space above the suspended interior ceiling, many modern office buildings often have a plenum cavity common to a number of offices and adjoining spaces. The plenum cavity is typically an unconditioned horizontal space usually encompassing the entire ceiling area of a floor. The purpose of the ceiling plenum is to house building infrastructure systems such as heating, air conditioning, ventilating, lighting, cabling, fire sprinkler, telecommunications and/or structural elements, among some of the more common elements. The ceiling plenum is considered a non-occupiable area and is enclosed at its base by the suspended ceiling system which consists of the suspended ceiling grid and the lay-in tiles of the grid. In addition, this ceiling assembly is penetrated by various items such as: light fixtures, air supply and return devices, sprinkler heads, telecommunication devices and fire egress devices. Given the nature of conventional suspended ceiling assemblies and the plenum spaces which they create, occupied work areas on a given floor are subjected to various penetrations. Each penetration is a potential area for sound transmission allowing sound to carry from one work area to another through the ceiling plenum and the various penetrations within the suspended ceiling assembly. The ceiling openings, which are typically fitted with return air grilles, are designed to allow air flow back into the plenum naturally allowing ventilation of occupied spaces via air flow. This method of air return has been conventionally applied to commercial office buildings since the beginning of the 20th century and is recognized as a viable, cost effective method. These return air grilles also act as pathways by which sound travels from one occupied office through the ceiling plenum to another occupied office.
Prior efforts to reduce unwanted sound transmission through return air grilles have had limited success. Providing enclosed ducting for each return air grille is costly and time consuming to install, and is often not feasible due to vertical space constraints within the plenum. In addition, installers are required to enter the plenum with frequency to address maintenance of the buildings systems housed in this area. The plenum areas can be dusty and have other debris—a common condition in buildings which, when disturbed, can create unacceptable air quality conditions for workers. Conventional sound attenuators positioned over return air grilles or other lay-in ceiling penetrations have not proven to provide a cost effective reduction in unwanted sound transmission, tend to be heavy stressing the lay-in ceiling grid, are often bulky to handle and install, and are an impediment when accessing the ceiling plenum for routine maintenance throughout the life-cycle of the building.

The United States of America as represented by the Secretary, Department of Health and Human Services


Cartons are formed from two or more continuous webs that can individually or concurrently provided with cuts, scores, or other lines of disruption.

Conventional cartons may include features such as closure devices, lids, and other convenient features. Features of a certain complexity, however, may require the carton blank to be prepared in a batch process, where features or articles can be individually cut and/or glued to the carton blank. Batch processing is slow when compared to continuous processes, and may involve higher costs.

Packages, blanks for making packages and associated methods


Method and apparatus for treating and controlling neuropsychiatric disorders including schizophrenia, depression, and borderline personality disorder by selectively applying a predetermined electrical signal to the patient's vagus nerve for stimulation thereof to alleviate the symptoms of the disorder being treated. The electrical signal may be applied continuously, periodically, or intermittently to the vagus nerve depending, in part, on the nature of the disorder being treated. In certain instances, the electrical signal is applied upon detection of an event indicative of onset of the disorder. In other instances, the electrical signal is selectively applied at will to the vagus nerve, such as by patient activation of the signal generator. Parameter values of the electrical signal including pulse width, output current, frequency, on time and off time, are selectively programmable.

The present invention relates generally to methods and apparatus for treating or controlling medical, psychiatric or neurological disorders by application of modulating electrical signals to a selected nerve or nerve bundle of the patient, and more particularly to techniques for treating patients with neuropsychiatric disorders by application of such signals to the vagus nerve, using an implantable neurostimulating device. Specifically, the invention is directed toward treating the symptoms of neuropsychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, depression, and borderline personality disorder, by selective modulation of vagus nerve activity.
Schizophrenia was initially thought to have only psychological origins. Advances in psychobiology and psychopharmacology have revealed that the illness is primarily organic in nature. Electrophysiologic studies of patients with schizophrenia have supported an organic etiology. Although not entirely consistent, electroencephalogram (EEG) studies have tended to reveal abnormalities in these patients. Also, some parallels have been found between schizophrenia and epilepsy.
In Psych. Res. ((1989) 29:419-420, Meuller reported finding increased beta (17.5 Hz) wave activity over the left central-temporal region during acute psychotic episode, whereas before and after the episode the frequency distribution in the EEG was normal. Williamson et al. in Can. J. Psych. (1989) 34:680-686, reported that a review of EEG mapping studies revealed that abnormalities exist, with some studies finding asymmetric fast activity while others reported primarily slowing. In Comprehensive Psych. (1990) 30(1):34-47, Keshaven et al. reported that sleep EEG studies in schizophrenic patients consistently showed abnormalities, and that although not specific to schizophrenia, patients tended to show impaired sleep continuity and reduced total sleep, but not all patients showed these abnormalities.
Gruzelier et al. reported in Int. J. Psychophysiol. (1990) 8:275-282, that in normal subjects the power of the beta II region of the EEG spectrum is decreased in cortical areas associated with specific mental tasks, this focal reduction in power being consistent with the thalamocortical EEG desynchronization response, and being decreased or absent in patients with schizophrenia. In Psychopathol. (1989) 22:65-140, Diehl indicated that acute psychotic episodes may be manifestations of temporal lobe epilepsy, and expressed the belief that disorders may exist in the ictal as well as the interictal phase. Kido et al. discussed six patients with seizures followed by schizophrenia-like states, in Japan J. Psych. Neurol. (1989) 43:433-438. In Intern. J. Neuroscience, Ardilla et al. described three cases in which patients diagnosed as psychotic were actually found to have complex partial status epilepticus.
Turning to depressive disorder, developments in psychobiology and psychopharmacology have provided considerable evidence that major depressive disorder and bipolar depression are biological rather than psychological diseases. Deficiency of brain neurostimulators has been associated with depression. In particular, abnormally low concentrations of serotonin and its metabolites have been found in depressed patients, as reviewed by Stark et al. in J. Clin. Psychopharmacol. (1985) 46[3, Sec.2]:7-13. Several serotonin uptake inhibitors, which increase the amount of serotonin at the synapse have been shown to be effective antidepressants. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter known to be involved in the brain stem projections of the vagus nerve in animals (Kilpatrick et al. in Eur. J. Pharmacol. (1989) 159:157-164) and in humans (Reynolds et al. Eur. J. Pharmacol. (1989) 174:127-130). It is postulated, then, that increased activity of the vagus nerve would be associated with release of more serotonin in the brain.
The conclusion that depression has a biological basis is also supported by numerous electrophysiological and endocrine studies.
A paper by Pollock et al. in Biol. Psychiatry (1990) 27:757-780, reported that a review of studies of the EEG in awake depressed patients reveals that alpha and beta activity are increased compared to controls. Elevations of delta and theta frequency ranges were possibly present as well. It was also felt that increased beta activity may be particularly prominent in patients with coexistent anxiety. Buysee et al. reported in Arch. Gen. Psych. (1988) 45:568-575, finding that sleep EEG of patients with primary depression and secondary dementia showed a higher percentage of rapid eye movement (REM) and more phasic REM activity and intensity than patients with primary dementia and secondary depression.
A strong relationship has been found to exist between sleep and depression. One of the most effective treatments for depression is sleep deprivation, which, however, is not a practical long term therapy. As with schizophrenia, a relationship also appears to exist between depression and seizures.
A substantial body of data suggests that anti-convulsant compounds have a spectrum of therapeutic efficacy in a variety of psychiatric syndromes which have not been associated with an epileptoid process. Pathological degrees of neuronal excitability and/or dysregulation may be associated with marked alterations in behavior, which are potentially treatable with anticonvulsant compounds, even in the absence of a concurrent seizure disorder.
The use of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) to induce seizures is a primary treatment in acute depressive disturbances. ECT appears equal or superior to traditional psychopharmacological treatment modes with tricyclic antidepressants. Although the precise mechanism by which the effect of ECT is achieved is not fully known, it is thought to be related to biochemical changes in the brain resulting from synchronous discharges associated with seizures. Antidepressant drugs may produce similar changes but without inducing seizures.
Certain anticonvulsant agents such as carbamazepine are used in psychiatric disorders. Some studies have indicated dramatic improvement by carbamazepine in affective and schizophrenia-like syndromes associated with epilepsy. Non-epileptic patients with nonspecific EEG abnormalities who suffer from marked psychiatric disorders have also been shown to respond favorably to this drug. In this group, improvements in violent behavior, irritability, emotional lability, depression, agitation, and apathy have been reported. Anticonvulsant compounds thus appear to have an important spectrum of clinical activity in neuropsychiatric syndromes in addition to their clinical utility in the treatment of epileptic disorders.
Borderline personality disorder is a poorly understood, but recognized psychiatric disorder which seems to have some overlap of schizophrenia and depression. Patients tend to be poorly functional without florid psychosis or overt depression. Lahmeyer et al reported, in J. Clin. Psych. (1989) 50(6):217-225, that sleep architecture in patients with borderline personality disorder is disturbed in that REM latency is decreased and REM density is increased. This was found to be particularly true if patients suffered coexisting depression, a history of affective illness or a family history of psychopathology. Sleep abnormalities were reported to appear similar to those seen in affective disorders.
In addressing a therapy involving nerve stimulation to treat such neuropsychiatric disorders, observation should be made of existing knowledge that most nerves in the human body are composed of thousands of fibers, having different sizes designated by groups A, B and C, carrying signals to and from the brain and other parts of the body. The vagus nerve, for example, may have approximately 100,000 fibers (axons) of the three different types, each of which carries such signals. Each axon of that nerve only conducts in one direction, in normal circumstances. The A and B fibers are myelinated, that is, they have a myelin sheath in the form of a substance largely composed of fat. On the other hand, the C fibers are unmyelinated.
Myelinated fibers are typically larger, have faster electrical conduction and much lower electrical stimulation thresholds than the unmyelinated fibers. Along with the relatively small amounts of electrical energy needed to stimulate the myelinated fibers, it is noteworthy that such fibers exhibit a particular strength-duration curve in response to a specific width and amplitude of stimulation pulse.
The A and B fibers are stimulated with relatively narrow pulse widths, from 50 to 200 microseconds (.mu.s), for example. A fibers exhibit slightly faster electrical conductivities than the B fibers, and slightly lower electrical stimulation thresholds. The C fibers are relatively much smaller, conduct electrical signals very slowly, and have high stimulation thresholds typically requiring wider pulse widths (e.g., 300-1000 .mu.s) and higher amplitudes for activation. Although the A and B fibers may be selectively stimulated without also stimulating the C fibers, the magnitude and width of the pulse required for stimulating the C fibers would also activate A and B fibers.
Although electrical stimulation of the nerve fiber typically activates neural signals in both directions (bidirectionally), selective unidirectional stimulation is achievable through the use of special nerve electrodes and stimulating waveforms. As noted above, each axon of the vagus nerve normally conducts in only one direction.
In a paper on the effects of vagal stimulation on experimentally induced seizures in rats (Epilepsia 1990, 31 (Supp 2): S7-S19), Woodbury has noted that the vagus nerve is composed of somatic and visceral afferents (i.e., inward conducting nerve fibers which convey impulses toward a nerve center such as the brain or spinal cord) and efferents (i.e., outward conducting nerve fibers which convey impulses to an effector to stimulate it and produce activity). The vast majority of vagal nerve fibers are C fibers, and a majority are visceral afferents having cell bodies lying in masses or ganglia in the neck. The central projections terminate, by and large, in the nucleus of the solitary tract which sends fibers to various regions of the brain (e.g, the hypothalamus, thalamus, and amygdala); others continue to the medial reticular formation of the medulla, the cerebellum, the nucleus cuneatus and other regions.
Woodbury further notes that stimulation of vagal nerve afferent fibers in animals evokes detectable changes of the EEG in all of these regions, and that the nature and extent of these EEG changes depends on the stimulation parameters. Chase, in Exp Neurol (1966) 16:36-49, had also observed that vagal activation can affect the EEG activity of certain parts of the brain. The applicants herein postulate that synchronization of the EEG may be produced when high frequency (>70 Hz) weak stimuli activate only the myelinated (A and B) nerve fibers, and that desynchronization of the EEG occurs when intensity of the stimulus is increased to a level that activates the unmyelinated (C) nerve fibers. Woodbury also observes that vagal stimulation can produce widespread inhibitory effects on seizures and certain involuntary movements.
Extra-physiologic electrical stimulation of the vagus nerve has previously been proposed for treatment of epilepsy and various forms of involuntary movement disorders. Specifically, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,702,254 issued Oct. 27, 1987 to J. Zabara (referred to herein as "the '254 patent"), a method and implantable device are disclosed for alleviating or preventing epileptic seizures, characterized by abnormal neural discharge patterns of the brain. The '254 patent describes an implantable neurocybernetic prosthesis (NCP) which utilizes neurocybernetic spectral discrimination by tuning the external current of the NCP generator to the electrochemical properties of a specific group of inhibitory nerves that affect the reticular system of the brain. These nerves are embedded within a bundle of other nerves, and are selectively activated directly or indirectly by the tuning of the NCP to augment states of brain neural discharge to control convulsions or seizures. According to the patent, the spectral discrimination analysis dictates that certain electrical parameters of the NCP pulse generator be selected based on the electrochemical properties of the nerves desired to be activated. The patent further indicates that the optimum sites for application of the NCP generator output to produce the desired effects are the cranial nerves in general, and the vagus nerve in particular.
The NCP disclosed in the '254 patent may be activated either manually or automatically, to provide treatment for the duration of the seizure. Manual activation is performed when the patient experiences the aura at onset of the seizure. Alternatively, automatic activation may be triggered upon detection of instantaneous changes in certain state parameters immediately preceding or at onset of a seizure. Additionally, a prophylactic or preventive mode may be employed in which the NCP is activated periodically to reduce the occurrence and/or the intensity of the seizures. The NCP stimulator of the '254 patent is implanted in the patient's chest and is connected to electrodes installed at the selected point of signal application at the nerve site with the more negative electrode situated closer to the brain and the positive electrode further from the brain, along the vagus nerve.
It is a principal object of the present invention to apply the techniques of selective modulation of vagus nerve electrical activity, using a neurostimulator device which may be implantable, or used external to the body with only a small portion of the circuitry implanted or with only the nerve electrode(s) and associated lead(s) implanted percutaneously in the body, to the treatment of neuropsychiatric disorders including schizophrenia, depression, and borderline personality disorder.

Treatment of neuropsychiatric disorders by nerve stimulation


Disclosed herein methods, devices, and systems for detecting and diagnosing a diabetic disease or disorder in a subject from a prime electrocardiogram which comprises calculating at least one distribution function of the prime electrocardiogram and determining whether the distribution function is indicative of the presence of absence of the diabetic disease or disorder.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of detecting and diagnosing diabetic diseases and disorders using electrocardiogram analysis.
2. Description of the Related Art
For over a hundred years since the invention of the electrocardiograph which produces a graphical recording (i.e., an electrocardiogram (ECG) which may be recorded on paper or stored as electronic data) of electrical activity of a heart over time. In the prior art there are two main perspectives in the study of the heart's electrical signals: (1) morphology, the meaning of the different deflections that appear to repeat from beat to beat, and (2) rhythm (or arrhythmology as used herein), the meaning of the different periodicities of these signals. Morphology is the study of electrocardiograms and is focused on the detection of muscular or conductional abnormalities within a beat such as myocardial ion exchange abnormalities, myocardial ischemia, hypertrophies, bundle branch blocks, and the like. Arrhythmology is the study of electrical firing and conduction abnormalities such as ventricular premature beats, conduction blocks, and the like. An electrocardiogram as used herein may be a recording of a part of one (heart) beat, a complete beat, or more than one beat.
Myocardial ion exchange abnormalities are traditionally detected by morphological analysis, where an abnormally elevated or depressed deflection of the ST-segment within each beat indicates possible ischemia. It is noted, however, that prior art methods of electrocardiogram analysis and interpretation, mainly visual inspection of the time-domain electrocardiogram, have never before enabled the detection and diagnosis of diabetes. Instead, prior art methods of diabetes detection require a resource-rich observation (RRO), e.g., blood sampling from the subject for glucose measurements, which are invasive and require stringent testing procedures, e.g., fasting, and are subject to a wide degree of error.
Thus, a need exists for a method of detecting and diagnosing diabetes using a resource-limited observation (RLO) that is non-invasive, inexpensive, and time-efficient such as a conventional ECG.

Methods, systems and devices for detecting and diagnosing diabetic diseases and disorders


An apparatus for selectively driving a pivotable knotter includes a rack, a pinion in driving communication with the rack, a knotter drive gear connected to the knotter and a linear actuator. The linear actuator is connected to the knotter and pivots the knotter about a pivot axis. Upon pivot, the knotter drive gear is engaged with the rack.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to wire knotters and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for individually and selectively driving a plurality of wire knotters.
2. Related Art
Wire baling of bulk materials benefits from increased speed and reduced materials cost through automation. Bulk materials include fibrous bulk materials such as cotton and nylon. Fibrous materials are commonly formed into bales by simultaneous compression and binding. There is a continuing need in the automated baling art to improve the efficiency, reliability and accuracy of the bale binding process.
Baling wire performance requirements vary depending upon the bulk material being baled. Such requirements range from industry standard specifications to general operational parameters, such as minimum speeds required for profitability. The Cotton Council issues standard baling constraints specifying particular ranges for the length of wire around the bale and the tension that the wire must withstand.
Current automated baling machines use an articulated track to guide wire around bales of bulk material, while that bale is under compression. Part of the wire guide track in current automated balers must be removable to a second position after the ends of the baling wire have been tied together, in order to allow ejection of the bale and insertion into the baler of the next unit of material for baling. Material to be baled is typically introduced into the automatic baler under vertical compression. Typical pressures for an industry standard 500 pound, 20 by 54 inch bale are in excess of 300 tons. Horizontal plates called follower blocks apply compression through platens which contact the surface of the cotton or other material being compressed. The platens incorporate slots which run laterally to the longitudinal axis of the bale. The Industry Standard number of binding wires for cotton bales is six. Accordingly, there are six slots in the platens. These allow the baling wire to be wrapped around the bale while it is still under compression. The lateral slots have lateral channels behind them for insertion of wire guide tracks in both the upper and lower platens in automatic balers.
A knotter is connected to each track. Knotters operate internally by a receiving a leading end of a bale wire after it has been driven in a circle around the bale and overlapping that end with the trailing end of the wire that has been cut to the appropriate length. Each wire end is seated in a slot in a gear. The gears in the knotter are arranged to twist the ends in opposite directions, effectively twisting them together in a knot. These gears are driven by a shaft, which is in turn driven from outside.
Current machines, if they are to provide the desired feature of selectively engaging individual knotters, or disengaging other individual knotters, must individually drive each knotter. That is, a separate drive apparatus, typically a servo motor, must be engaged with the knotter drive shaft on each individual knotter. This solution to the problem of selectable individual engagement is obviously quite expensive. There is a need in the art for a more economical method and apparatus for achieving individual engagement selected.
It is not uncommon for a wire being looped around the bulk material to bind up in the track or otherwise misfeed. In this case, it is necessary to remove the bound up wire and retie the bale. Presently, there exists no easy or convenient method for retying the bale. Either the wire can be looped manually which presents some hazard to the operator, or alternatively the tied wires may be cut and the process begun again. There remains a need for an automatic baling apparatus that can correct mis-feeding errors.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,528,364 issued to Freund on Sep. 15, 1970 illustrates the problem in the existing art. The Freund patent discloses an apparatus for tying bales of material after it is compressed in a baling machine. In the Freund device, material is compressed into a bale, wire is looped around the bale, and both ends of the loop are placed in a twisting apparatus. The twisting apparatus consists of a several pinions and a vertical rack. Each pinion includes two diametrically opposed slots, and the loop ends are placed in these slots. When the vertical racks are displaced, the pinions rotate thereby twisting together the two ends of the loop. Because the pinions are in constant contact with the rack it is not possible to knot a single loop of wire.
There remains a need in the art for a more reliable and durable wire knotter drive that is capable of selective engagement of either a single knotter or a plurality of knotters.

Method and apparatus for driving multiple knotters


Apparatus for sealing the side edges of flaps of a propulsion nozzle of an engine and the walls of a casing of the nozzle by sealing elements carried by the flaps and extending across a clearance between the side edges of the flaps and the walls. The sealing elements are carried in slots in the side edges of the flaps with clearance for capability of movement towards the walls. The sealing elements contact the walls to form a primary seal therewith. The flaps are formed with chambers carrying a pressure medium and plungers are supported in the flaps for being subjected to the pressure of the pressure medium and bearing against the sealing elements to urge the sealing elements against the surfaces of the walls. A differential pressure exists on both sides of the flaps and acts on the sealing elements in the clearance to press the sealing elements against respective side surfaces of the slots to form a secondary seal thereat.

The geometry of propulsion nozzles for aerospace engines can be made variable by means of fixedly arranged wall elements on one side and variable primary and secondary flaps arranged opposite them on the other side. In this arrangement, a need exists for variable primary and secondary nozzle flaps and for fixedly arranged or adjustable wall elements alike to seal a clearance extending alongside the outer edges of the flaps and wall elements, respectively, relative to wall sections of a nozzle casing. A need often exists to seal a hot gas stream of the propulsion nozzle relative to the environment enclosed by the nozzle casing (pressure chambers) or relative to the atmosphere.
A clearance must also be provided between the fixedly arranged wall elements and adjoining nozzle casing walls to permit free expansion of the wall elements under differing service temperatures relative to the casing walls. The movable or variable flaps require means to bridge and seal the clearance, and allowance must be made for differential thermal expansion and for thermally induced wall distortions or warping.
In a conventional sealing means of the above type, primary sealing is achieved by means of a contact sealing effect produced exclusively by the differential pressure between the two chambers on opposite sides of the seal. Because of potential thermally induced distortions of a carrier of the seal in a slot and, thus, of the slot and the sealing element, the differential pressure required for the primary seal may not be safely developed at least in areas alongside the sealing clearance. In the worst case, the seal is made unserviceable by local jamming of the sealing element.

Seal arrangement for adjoining walls of a propulsion nozzle of an engine

MTU Motoren-und Turbinen-Union Munchen GmbH


A method of decoding a stream of encoded data the method comprising, at a decoder: receiving an encoded dataset comprising multiple tiles; receiving a data structure, said data structure indicative of the amount of data required to encode a plurality of tiles; identifying a portion of the encoded dataset to be decoded by: identifying the tiles associated with the portion to be decoded; determining the location of data related to the tiles based on the amount of data required to encode said tiles; extracting the identified portion of the encoded dataset from the encoded dataset; and decoding said identified portion of the encoded data set.

It is known to encode data, such as image data and video data, for storage or streaming in order to reduce the amount of storage space needed to store the data or the bandwidth required for transmission of the data. By way of example, techniques to encode and decode video data are well known and commonly used, for example the H.264/AVC standard uses a combination of image compression and motion-based estimation techniques to encode video data into an encoded video stream, and then to decode the encoded video stream into a very close approximation of the original video data.
An encoded video stream is typically encoded at a bitrate. The bitrate will vary depending on several factors, one of which is the bandwidth available for streaming the encoded video stream. The lower the bandwidth, the lower the available bitrate of the encoded video stream. Ultimately, the bandwidth defines the quality of the video stream delivered because relatively low bitrates require relatively coarse quantization, i.e. a relatively large quantization parameter (QP). Where a large bandwidth is available, then a finer quantization can be used, i.e. a relatively small quantization parameter (QP). This process is part of a broader rate control mechanism employed when creating encoded video streams.
Video data may be encoded in real time at a bitrate altered in accordance with the amount of available bandwidth between the encoder and a decoder, or encoded and stored in advance of demand and decoding, either as a single bitrate encoded video stream, or in segments representing video data encoded at different bitrates, so that multiple video streams exist and a stream is selected based on the available bandwidth. A decoder may switch between the different bitrate streams dynamically as the bandwidth changes. It is also known to encode video data in a hierarchical manner. In such encoding techniques, residual data (i.e. the data required to correct relatively low quality information present in the base layer) is used in progressively higher levels of quality. All of this results in increasingly complex and sophisticated techniques for encoding and decoding data, such as image or video data.
Metadata can be used to provide a better understanding of the underlying data, especially at a decoder, and as such enable improved rate control techniques and ultimately improved data reproduction quality. However, the improvements to data reproduction quality that arise with the use of metadata must be balanced with the associated processing and time cost of calculating the metadata, storage cost for storing the metadata, and bandwidth cost for transmitting the metadata. There exists a need for improved metadata techniques for data encoders and decoders to alleviate one or more of these problems, especially for image or video encoding and decoding. In particular, there exists a need for new metadata structure which allows for at least one of lower processing cost in generating the metadata, lower storage costs for storing the metadata and lower bandwidth requirements for transmitting the metadata. Also, there exists a need to create a metadata structure which enables more efficient decoding of an encoded data stream.


A relay device includes: a processor; and a memory which stores a plurality of instructions, which when executed by the processor, cause the processor to execute, receiving a page from a server device; partitioning a second region other than a first region of the page in which the page is displayed by a client terminal into one or more partition regions; calculating the number of partition regions transmitted to the client terminal during a time difference between an acquisition time taken to acquire the entire page from the server device and a transmission time taken to transmit the first region to the client terminal; and transmitting an image corresponding to the first region and images corresponding to the partition regions of the calculated number to the client terminal.

A system called a thin client is known. In the thin client system, the system is configured such that a client terminal only has minimal functions to manage a resource such as an application, a file, or the like in a server.
The thin client system functions as if the client terminal performs processes as a main body, or stores data, while actually displaying the processing result performed by the server or the data stored in the server on the client terminal.
As described above, when screen data which is displayed on the client terminal is transmitted between the server and the client terminal, a screen update is generated according to operations. When the screen update is generated in the thin client system, differential screen data with respect to before and after the screen update is transmitted to the client terminal from the server. Here, for example, when a Web page is displayed in a Web browser, and when the Web page is vertically long, only a portion of the Web page is displayed on a display region of the Web browser. At this time, when operational information for scrolling the Web page is transmitted to the server from the client terminal, the differential screen data according to a scroll amount is transmitted with respect to the remaining portion of the Web page.
For example, at the time of displaying the Web page by the Web browser, when the display size of the Web page exceeds the screen size of the client terminal, the Web page may be displayed on the screen by narrowing the size to a portion of the Web page. At this time, when the remaining portion which is not displayed on the screen is browsed, after the scrolling operation which is received by the client terminal is notified to the server, the update screen after the scrolling is transmitted to the client terminal from the server as a difference. The thin client system of the related art is, for example, disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 6-214533, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2004-349965, and Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2008-40529.

Relay device, relay method and thin client system


An illumination device and a light-emission module suppressing a change in color temperature when light emitted from a light-emission unit passes through an optical member. The illumination device has a lighting apparatus that includes: a first light-emission part emitting light of a daylight color temperature; a second light-emission part emitting light of an incandescent lamp color temperature; and the optical member, which is disposed on an optical path of the light emitted from the light-emission parts. A correlated color temperature of the light emitted from the second light-emission part is set to 2238 K. Due to this, in a spectrum of the light emitted from the second light-emission part, a maximum intensity within a wavelength range from 400 nm to 500 nm is no greater than one-tenth of a maximum intensity within a wavelength range from 300 nm to 800 nm.

Various types of LED illumination devices using light-emitting diodes (LEDs) as light sources are being developed. Examples of such LED illumination devices include downlight-type LED illumination devices and desk stand-type LED illumination devices (refer to Patent Literature 1, for example).
For example, a typical LED illumination device includes: a light-emission module including a plurality of light-emission parts each of a different color temperature; an optical member that is a lens, a reflection member, etc., disposed on an optical path of light emitted from the light-emission parts; and a lighting circuit for lighting light-emission elements included in the light-emission parts. Each of the light-emission parts includes: a light-emission element that is an LED. In addition, each of the light-emission parts includes a wavelength conversion member that is disposed so as to cover the light-emission element. The wavelength conversion member includes fluorescent material, and converts some light emitted from the light-emission element. Light emitted from each of the light-emission parts is provided with a desired color temperature by mixing the light emitted from the light-emission element and the wavelength-converted light output from the wavelength conversion member. For example, a typical LED illumination device whose light color is adjustable includes a light-emission part of an incandescent lamp color, which corresponds to a color temperature of around 2500 Kelvin (K) on the black body curve, and a light-emission part of a daylight color, which corresponds to a color temperature of around 8000 K on the black body curve. Note that in the present disclosure, the unit K (Kelvin) indicates a correlated color temperature. Further, in the context of the present disclosure, the term "correlated color temperature" is used for both correlated color temperatures on the black body curve and correlated color temperatures that are not exactly on the black body curve.
When driving the LED illumination device and adjusting the color temperature of the illumination light from the LED illumination device to a desired color temperature, the light-emission part of the incandescent lamp color and the light-emission part of the daylight color are caused to light simultaneously, and the color of the light emitted from the light-emission part of the incandescent lamp color and the color of the light emitted from the light-emission part of the daylight color are mixed. By mixing the light colors of the different light-emission parts, the color temperature of the illumination light from the LED illumination device is adjustable within a wide range of color temperatures from approximately 2500 K to approximately 8000 K.

LED illumination device and LED light-emission module

PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.


Apparatus and accompanying methods for the detection and subsequent destruction or disablement of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) while maintaining a satisfactory level of human safety. Operationally, our inventive method and apparatus detects the IED using one or more methods including: detecting internal battery components; detecting magnetic signature(s) of the IED; detecting a characteristic energy spectrum of the IED; and/or detecting characteristic chemical signatures of the device(s). Once detected, the device may be further characterized and then subsequently deactivated and/or destroyed by a shaped pulse charge directed at the device or its power source (battery) from a safe distance.

Enemies of the United States have resorted to the use of improved explosive devices often made from widely available components to attack, disrupt U.S. personnel and assets. The devices being used for remote control activate and detonate such destructive actions in general use electronics that require power. A promising strategy is to detect, deactivate, disrupt and eliminate the power source from providing energy to the IED sensing and actuation electronics and related power supply components.

Improvised explosive device detection/destruction/disablement

The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Army


A weight plate having a detachable locking cartridge by which the weight plate is releasably connected to a lifting element (e.g., a center post) whereby one or more weight plates carried by the lifting element may be lifted by a user. The weight plate also has a plate body with a central bore in which to receive the lifting element. In one embodiment, the detachable locking cartridge is mounted flush against one side (e.g., the bottom) of the weight plate body so as to lie entirely external to the plate body. In an alternate embodiment, the detachable locking cartridge includes a stabilizer extension that is received within a cavity recessed in the one side of the plate body. The detachable locking cartridge includes a manually-accessible toggle lever switch arm that is adapted to rotate within a housing of the cartridge between locked and unlocked positions to thereby control the displacement of a locking pin relative to the lifting element within the central bore of the plate body.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a weight plate of the kind common to physical fitness weight lifting equipment to be coupled to a lifting element (e.g., a center post) of such equipment and lifted during a body building exercise. The weight plate includes a detachable locking cartridge having a manually-controlled locking pin that slides reciprocally through the plate body so that the weight plate can be either positively attached to or separated from the lifting element.
2. Background Art
My co-pending patent application Ser. No. 11/349,101 filed Feb. 8, 2006 discloses a weight plate that is associated with weight lifting equipment by which the weight plate or a stack of weight plates can be lifted during a body building exercise. This weight plate includes a plate body and a locking cartridge connected to the plate body. The displacement of a locking pin through the weight plate body is controlled by a manually-accessible toggle lever arm that is located within the locking cartridge and coupled to the locking pin. When the toggle lever arm is rotated to an on or locked position, the locking pin is correspondingly caused to slide in a first direction through the plate body to engage a connection union mounted in an adjacent weight plate. When the toggle lever arm is rotated to an off or unlocked position, the locking in is caused to slide in an opposite direction through the plate body to be disengaged from the connection union.
It would be advantageous to be able to detachably connect the locking cartridge to the plate body of a weight plate. In this manner, the locking cartridge can be attached to a conventional plate body so that the weight plate can be selectively and reliably attached to a lifting element of the weight lifting equipment so as to be lifted with a stack of similarly-attached weight plates during a body building exercise.

Weight plate with detachable locking cartridge


The invention relates to the use of sulfite, including metabisulfite, as melanogenesis-inhibiting or depigmenting agent. The invention enables preparing melanogenesis-inhibiting or depigmenting cosmetic compositions and optionally advantageously pharmaceutical compositions for treating pathologies.

The present invention relates essentially to the use of sulfites or metabisulfites in cosmetics, or for manufacturing a pharmaceutical composition, notably a dermatological composition, with melanogenesis-inhibiting effect or with depigmenting activity.
The invention also covers cosmetic compositions or pharmaceutical compositions, notably dermatological compositions thus obtained, with melanogenesis-inhibiting effect or with depigmenting activity.
The invention further covers a method of cosmetic depigmenting treatment which uses sulfites or metabisulfites as actives towards depigmentation.
It is known that in order to fight against sun's rays, the skin possesses different cells which are particularly adapted to this function: melanocytes.
During a complex process, melanogenesis, these cells produce a dark pigment, melanin, the effect of which is to protect the cutaneous structures and to increase the time needed for contracting sun-burn.
However, not every one of the melanins is protective, and there exists in particular a form of melanin, called phaeomelanin, which is extremely phototoxic. Capable as every melanin is of reacting with certain forms of free radicals, phaeomelanin causes the formation of free radicals which are even more toxic, which can cause irreversible damage to the genetic material of the keratinocytes.
On the other hand, certain disorders linked to a disfunctioning of the melanization unit can cause a hyper-pigmentation which is sometimes unaesthetic.
Thus, the use of inhibitors of melanin synthesis is particularly interesting in cosmetics, not only for applications wherein a real depigmentation is sought-after, as in the case of the blanching of highly pigmented skin or the inhibition of hyper-pigmentation in certain unaesthetic aspects for example, but also for applications aiming at lightening the tint, giving brightness to the skin, and a sparkle to the surface tissues.
This inhibition of the melanin synthesis may also be particularly interesting within the context of therapeutic treatment for treating a real pathology.
The invention does however aim at a simple cosmetic use although a pharmaceutical use within the context of pathology treatment is also envisaged and is also part of the invention.

Compositions comprising a depigmenting agent consisting of sulfites and metabisulfites and plant extracts for use in inhibiting melanogenesis or for depigmenting


Different materials (glass, paper, etc.) may be coated with extremely stable and transparent thin films. An organic chemical solution is formed by at least 75% by volume of an organic solvent selected from linear saturated hydrocarbons, benzene, toluene, dodecylbenzene, bicyclohexyl linear monoamides and preferably saturated isoparafinic hydrocarbons (electroate dispersants) and an active compound selected from linear hydrogenated, perfluorinated or hydrogenated-fluorinated trichlorosilane molecules is employed and the coated surface exhibits super hydrophobic properties.

1. Field of the Invention
The instant invention relates to a composition for producing a hydrophobic film on the surfaces of various materials and, more particularly, it relates to coating compositions by means of which deposition on a surface of a stable and transparent monomolecular film may be obtained for providing such surface with super-hydrophobic properties, i.e. water-repelling properties, at the same time maintaining the appearance of said surface.
2. Description of the Related Art
Although several substances are known in the art for treating surfaces of different materials, providing such surfaces with different properties, no commercial composition is known which permits the formation of extremely thin film, e.g. a stable and transparent monomolecular film of several angstroms thickness or even thinner, providing super-hydrophobic properties.

Composition for producing a monomolecular film, on surfaces of various materials


A tractor canopy attachment system includes a pair of vertical mounting brackets which are attachable on respective upright posts of a tractor roll bar and a horizontal mounting bracket which is attachable to a cross member of the roll bar. A canopy attachment frame includes a cross member attached to the canopy near the rear thereof, with a mounting flange attached to the cross member which cooperates with the horizontal mounting bracket to hold the canopy in place on the roll bar. A pair of angled braces are attached to respective ends of the cross member, with each brace being removably attachable to a respective one of the vertical mounting brackets. A plurality of easily removable pins hold the canopy mounting flange in position on the horizontal bracket and a single pin holds each angled brace in position on its respective vertical mounting bracket. With the inventive installation system, the entire canopy structure is easily installed or removed in a few minutes by a lone operator.

In the United States alone more than 60 deaths per year occur from agricultural tractor rollovers. In order to minimize deaths and injuries from such rollovers, modern agricultural tractors are often equipped with roll bars which surround the operator's position and protect the operator in the event of a rollover. However, these roll bars necessarily have a high profile, thus making it impossible to use the tractor in a confined space, such as a low ceilinged barn or storage shed. The roll bars are also bulky and heavy, and are thus difficult to remove and replace. A solution has been to break the upright supports of the roll bar and attach a locking hinge such that the upper roll bar portion can be hinged backward to minimize overall tractor height, but can also be locked in place for outdoor use.
It has also become a common practice to attach a canopy, typically made of fiberglass, to the roll bar to protect the operator from the elements, including both sun and rain. Such canopies have typically been rather heavy and awkward and are usually attached via a number of bolts and nuts extending through the roll bar. These canopies are difficult to install and remove, a task often taking upwards of an hour for a lone operator. Thus, the advantages of a hinged roll bar are largely lost when a canopy is installed on the roll bar.
It is clear then, that a need exists for an improved canopy attachment system for tractor roll bars, including hinged roll bars, which system allows a lone operator to quickly and easily attach and remove the canopy.


A medical image diagnosis apparatus according to an embodiment includes a storage circuitry and processing circuitry. The storage circuitry is configured to store therein workflow information indicating a plurality of procedures related to a preparation for an imaging process. The processing circuitry is configured to analyze an image obtained by a camera. The processing circuitry is configured to identify which of the plurality of procedures has been performed on the basis of the workflow information and a result of the analysis performed on the image and to cause an informing device to provide information about one or more of the procedures corresponding to a result of the identifying.

Conventionally, some medical image diagnosis apparatuses such as Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) apparatuses and X-ray Computed Tomography (CT) apparatuses require a large amount of information when performing imaging processes. For example, a magnetic resonance imaging apparatus requires information indicating a method for selecting tools used for an imaging process such as a Radio Frequency (RF) coil, a pad, and the like, as well as a method for setting the examined subject. For this reason, for example, methods are known by which methods for operating the apparatus are indicated in an instruction manual or methods for operating the apparatus are displayed on a display device of the medical image diagnosis apparatus.

Medical image diagnosis apparatus and magnetic resonance imaging apparatus


A filler bracket assembly for closing gaps in new or existing sneeze guard assemblies is disclosed. The filler bracket assembly includes dual housings which fit together to provide a cylindrical housing central aperture having an internal diameter sized to receive and affix to a sneeze guard elongated support member. A cap portion is sized to fit on top of the slotted cylindrical housing, and together with gaskets and the filler sneeze guard panel, be affixed thereto by at least one fastener. The split cylindrical housing components allow for easy retro-fit adaptation of a filler bracket assembly to existing, installed sneeze guard assemblies.

Food shields or sneeze guards to help prevent cross contamination and provide customers with a secure sense that the food on display is protected are well known in the art. These assemblies typically comprise an upright or elongated support member, some separate assembly for supporting one or more sneeze guard panels, and apparatus for moving the sneeze guard along or around the elongated support member(s).
Designing and assembling sneeze guards can be complicated since dimensions, load factors, code requirements, and aesthetics converge to present brackets which are labor and component intensive. Often sneeze guards will have many component parts and require several tools for assembly. Moreover, with current technology, installing sneeze guards or the positional adjustment of an assembled sneeze guard requires more than one person and is time consuming.
Sneeze guards for food display and service must meet local health department regulations for installation and maintenance. These local regulations are often shaped by findings from the National Sanitation Foundation (NSF) to standardize sanitation and food safety requirements. The NSF has conducted testing that shows even when sneeze guard panels are installed, these installations often are deficient in protecting displayed food from particles expelled by the forces of a sneeze of cough. Human sneeze forces have been measured at a high of 4.5 meters per second, or 10 miles per hour. That's comparable to the velocity of air expelled by coughing—and a violent cough can push up a larger volume of air, which supplies even more force. Expectorate projected by a sneeze or cough may include bacterial infections, such as bronchiectasis, bacterial pneumonia, pertussis, sinusitis, or Mycobacterium bovis (tuberculosis).
Many ready to assemble sneeze guards and existing sneeze guards utilize location dependent uprights or support members that multiply the effort needed to design and assemble the sneeze guard components and that intensify the complexity of the process. Presently, most sneeze guards are installed by the seller because of the complexity of assembling. Thus, many sneeze guards are handled fully or most fully assembled which presents bulky cargo that takes up considerable amount of space and that is difficult to transport.
Often, new or existing sneeze guards present one to two inch gaps between elongated support and/or partition posts and sneeze guard panels. It is not uncommon, therefore, for adjacent sneeze guard panels to likewise have gaps between the panels exposing a portion of the protected food on display below the panels. These gaps allow expectorate to reach the displayed food, despite the presence of sneeze guard assemblies. There is a need for a simple, inexpensive and easily adaptable sneeze guard filler bracketing assembly to close such sneeze guard assembly and/or sneeze guard panel gaps.
Additionally, when one part of a piece of sneeze guard assembly is damaged, often the entire product must be returned instead of the damaged part. For example, when an upright or support member fails or is defective, often the entire sneeze guard assembly must be replaced. Similarly, any sneeze guard filler bracketing assembly should be easily replaceable, without requiring extensive disassembly or replacement of the underlying sneeze guard supports and/or assembly.
Finally, the sneeze guards need to be supported by adequate and aesthetically pleasing attachment components for securing sneeze guard panels to one or more fixed support structures. Any sneeze guard filler bracketing assembly necessarily likewise needs to provide adequate and aesthetically pleasing components for enhancing the security of the overall sneeze guard assembly.

Adjustable filler bracket assembly for sneeze guards


A method of obtaining a representative online polling sample is disclosed. The first step is to provide a polling web site with polling information for a user to select or otherwise interact with. However, that polling web site has a domain name that differs from the domain name of a web site the user intends to reach, the polling web site being reached when the user makes a typing or other address input error and inadvertently enters the polling web site domain name. Hence, for example, Google could harvest the many thousands of users who inadvertently type in gogle.com instead of google.com and direct them to an online polling page, instead of simply redirecting them to the google.com web site. This approach substantially eliminates coverage bias from the sample.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method of obtaining a representative online polling sample.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In order to identify a representative random sample of the larger population in any public opinion poll, whether conducted online, by print survey or by telephone, it is necessary to eliminate as much as possible the "coverage bias" of those targeted for polling. Coverage bias is eliminated when every potential respondent in the entire population has an equal probability of being surveyed. Unless the entire population (e.g. for a national population) is approached to complete the survey or poll, it is generally considered impossible to target a group of respondents from a given population, all of whom have an equal probability of being presented with the option of completing the survey. In the context of telephone surveying, for example, substantial coverage bias creeps into any such survey since people with cellular phones are more inaccessible to the surveyor than are other potential respondents; people who work outside the home are less accessible than are other potential respondents who stay at home during the work day; furthermore, the rising number of individuals who block out telemarketing companies from reaching them by telephone are also excluded as potential respondents.
The end goal for any surveyor is to obtain a representative random sample of the population of interest (e.g. Canadians, Britons, Australians) in the final group of respondents. Given the presence of coverage bias and a number of other biases that creep into any survey that might make the non-respondent pool statistically different than the respondent pool—notably, the fact that some individuals sharing certain characteristics (gender, age, income, or psychological profile) may be more willing to answer a certain type of survey than will others—a survey that seeks to be scientific can engage in a number of approaches to reduce, but never eliminate altogether, such biases. The first and most critical method is to increase the sample size of those polled; this in turn reduces the "margin of error" of the final result, or the chance that the result observed is due to random chance rather than due to the actual data observed. Another approach is a type of multi-stage sampling or cluster sampling, where the surveyor assumes a number of variables a priori that can potentially affect the outcome, such as geographic area; the surveyor then proceeds to survey a representative number of people from one geographic area, or cluster, before moving to the next cluster or block (e.g. area code, in the case of telephone surveys). The final method is stratification: after the data have been collected, the surveyor corrects for a number of variables that could potentially skew the final results. In the stratification approach or in the cluster sampling approach, the possible criteria for which the surveyor will correct are inherently subjective; the most commonly used criteria in political polling are socioeconomic income, age, and gender. It is impossible for the surveyor to know all the possible variables that are exogenous to the question posed and which therefore require adjusting to the survey results.
The difference between cluster sampling and stratified sampling is that in cluster sampling the cluster is treated as the sampling unit so analysis is done on a population of clusters. In stratified sampling, the analysis is done on elements within strata. In stratified sampling, a random sample is drawn from each of the strata, whereas in cluster sampling only the selected clusters are studied. The main objective of cluster sampling is to reduce costs by increasing sampling efficiency; with stratified sampling, the main objective is to increase precision.
Given the many substantial challenges of obtaining a representative random sample, all forms of polling—notably online polling—have been criticized by methodologists. Online polling is especially prone to bias since there is very little randomization, if any, in the process of identifying potential survey respondents. Online respondents who, for example, take a political survey on a media website are, by definition, overly representative of people interested in that particular news media site. Accordingly, it would require the recruitment of a very large group of potential respondents online in order to assume that the respondent pool was sufficiently representative. The goal of obtaining a representative sample is therefore exceptionally challenging online. The challenge would be overcome if one could create a system where the universe of potential respondents surveyed each has an equal probability of taking the survey. Inevitably, there would still be some bias in those who actually respond to the survey if these probabilities were to be equalized—since some individuals have more time to answer a survey or may be more inclined to respond to the particular survey for whatever reason. However, if one could equalize the probability of every Internet user taking a particular survey, one would substantially increase the likelihood of obtaining a representative global sample prior to adjusting, ex post, for any additional biases or non-random effects. The number of people needing to be surveyed in order to achieve a representative random sample would drop dramatically, as would the number and complexity of the possible stratifications, or risk adjustments (e.g. for age, gender, psychological profile, etc.) to be done after the survey data have been collected. Such an invention would dramatically reduce the time and labor that companies, governments, nonprofit corporations, researchers or others would need to invest in order to conduct a scientifically valid survey online and to thereby obtain a representative random sample.

Method of obtaining a representative online polling sample


A battery and straps for a battery are disclosed. The battery according to various embodiments comprises a number of straps which connect a number of battery cells in series. The battery straps may pass through cutouts provided in a cell divider wall. The cutouts and straps may define a common headspace. The battery may have five connecting straps and two end straps.

It is known to provide for a battery having one or more battery cell elements in a flat-plate format that may be used for deep cycle, SLI (Starting, Lighting, Ignition) or other applications. Such known batteries typically include a variety of shapes and configurations. In batteries with multiple cell elements, the cells are connected in series by conductive straps. These conductive straps comprise conductive material, which typically requires substantial additional material costs and weight. However, such known batteries do not realize certain advantageous features and/or combinations of features.