A cylinder lock comprises a cylinder (10) having a series of locking tumblers (16) which are rotatably mounted around respective axes. The introduction of the key causes rotation of each locking tumbler (16) to an operative position in which the tumblers enable the disengagement of a locking member (17) carried by the cylinder (10) from a seat formed in the stator (8) of the lock.

The present invention relates to cylinder locks of the type comprising a lock body or stator, a cylinder or rotor, rotatably mounted within the body and having a passage for introduction of a key, and a plurality of locking tumblers mounted within the cylinder and having their axes arranged radially, said tumblers being provided for engagement by a key having a predetermined profile in order to be arranged in a condition in which they enable the free rotation of the cylinder within the lock body, wherein each of said locking tumblers is mounted within said cylinder with the possibility to rotate around its axis, said lock further comprising:
means provided on the key and on said tumblers cooperating with each other to cause rotation of each tumbler around its axis, towards a predetermined operative position, upon introduction of the key into the cylinder, and a locking member carried by the cylinder and biased by spring means towards an extracted position in which it engages a cooperating seat within the body, said locking member being free to be withdrawn to a position of disengagement from said seat when the tumblers are rotated to said operative position upon introduction of the key.
Cylinder locks of the above-indicated type are disclosed for example in WO-A-9627724 and FR-A-2736084. In these known locks, each of the above-mentioned rotating tumblers is also slidable axially within a respective bore in the cylinder and is biassed towards the keyway by a respective spring arranged in the bore. The engaging key has a flat surface with a number of spaced apart depressions into which the tumbler tips engage under the action of the biassing springs once the key is fully inserted into the keyway. This arrangement is relatively complicated and costly. Moreover, the provision of the springs renders the device not fully reliable, since the springs may become weaker or be damaged as a result of ambient temperature variations.
The object of the present invention is that of providing a lock of the above indicated type which ensures a high degree of safety and is adapted to provide an extremely high number of different key configurations. A further object of the invention is that of reaching the above indicated result with a lock having a structure which is relatively simple, of low cost and reliable in operation.
In view of achieving the above indicated objects, the lock according to the invention is characterised in that each of said locking tumblers (16) is mounted within said cylinder (10) at a fixed position along the tumbler axis, and in that said means for causing rotation of said tumblers (16) comprises at least one front finger (23) projecting from each locking tumbler (16) and offset relative to the tumbler axis, and at least one shaped continuous slot (23) formed on at least one face (6) of the key (3) and able to receive the offset fingers (23) of the tumblers (16).
In one embodiment, the above mentioned locking rotatable tumblers, are provided in two aligned series on two opposite sides of the passage for introduction of the key. In an alternative embodiment, the lock comprises, in addition to the above mentioned series of rotatable tumblers, a further series of locking tumblers which are radially slidably mounted within the cylinder and are provided to be engaged by the key in order to be arranged in a position in which they enable the free rotation of the cylinder within the body, said rotatable tumblers and said slidable tumblers being arranged in two aligned series on two opposite sides of the passage for introduction of key, said key having a plurality of cavities, adapted to cause actuation of the slidable locking tumblers, on one of its faces, said shaped slot being formed on an opposite face of the key. Preferably, the key has, on its face bearing said cavities, at a position arranged side by side to said cavities, also said means adapted to cause actuation of the rotatable locking tumblers, whereas on the opposite face, at a position arranged side by side to said means for actuating the rotatable tumblers, there is provided a series of cavities adapted to cause actuation of the slidable locking tumblers, so that the key may be used at any one of two positions rotated by 180xc2x0 relatively to each other.
According to a further preferred feature, the key has an axial slot at its end, within which there is arranged a ring mounted with clearance over a transverse pin and adapted to cooperate with an abutment pin which is secured within the cylinder and projects into the passage for the key, so as to push a further locking tumbler carried by the cylinder towards a cylinder freeing position.
Furthermore, the lock according to the invention is preferably characterised in that each rotatable tumbler is constituted by two axially superimposed portions having facing ends having surfaces for there mutual engagement in rotation, so that said portions may be positioned at different relative angular positions, spring means being interposed between said portions for tending to move them axially away from each other, said lock being provided with a first special auxiliary key adapted to be introduced into the passage in the cylinder and able to be withdrawn at a predetermined rotated position of the cylinder, which is intermediate between the opening and closing positions of the lock, at which intermediate position the radially outer portions of the rotatable tumblers are free to engage cooperating cavities in the stator, so that they move apart from the respective radially inner portions of the rotatable tumblers under the action of said spring means, said lock being further provided with one auxiliary change key adapted to be introduced into the cylinder passage when the cylinder is at said intermediate position in order to rotate the cylinder back to the start position, causing again the mutual engagement of the two portions forming each rotatable tumbler, said change key being provided with means for driving rotation of the rotatable tumblers which are different from those provided on the original key of the lock, so that when the two portions constituting each rotatable tumbler return into engagement with each other they assume a different relative angular position, so that the lock is programmed for a key different from the above mentioned original key.


The method for producing an electrode for an electrochemical element of the present invention includes a slurry filling step of filling a slurry containing an active material into continuous pores of an aluminum porous body having the continuous pores, and a slurry drying step of drying the slurry filled, and in this method, after the slurry drying step, an electrode for an electrochemical element is produced without undergoing a compressing step of compressing the aluminum porous body having the slurry filled therein and dried. In the electrode, a mixture containing an active material is filled into continuous pores of an aluminum porous body having the continuous pores, and porosity (%) of the aluminum porous body, the porosity being represented by the following equation, is 15 to 55%.Porosity(%)={1−(volume of electrode material)/(apparent volume of electrode)}×100

Electrochemical elements, such as a lithium battery, an electric double layer capacitor, a lithium-ion capacitor and a molten salt battery, have been widely used as power supplies for portable microelectronics such as mobile phones and laptops, or for electric vehicles (EV).
For these electrochemical elements, generally, an electrode in which a mixture layer containing an active material is formed on a metal foil is used. For example, in the case of a positive electrode for a lithium secondary battery, as shown in FIG. 4, an electrode 31 for a lithium secondary battery, in which positive electrode mixture layers 33 containing a positive electrode active material such as a lithium cobalt oxide (LiCoO2) powder, a binder such as polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and a conduction aid such as a carbon powder are formed on both surfaces of a current collector 32 made of an aluminum (Al) foil, is employed, and such an electrode 31 for a lithium secondary battery is produced by applying a positive electrode mixture in a slurry form obtained through addition and mixing of a solvent onto the current collector 32 made of an aluminum foil and drying the resulting coating film (e.g., Patent Literature 1).
Further, as a means of improving an output in the electrochemical element, methods, in which plural thinned electrodes are layered or an electrode having a larger area is wound into a roll, are generally employed.

Electrode for electrochemical element and method for producing the same


A chuck key tool includes a hub with a magnet positioned on the hub. Spokes project radially from the hub and include chuck keys defined at the end of each of the spokes. The magnetic hub enables storage and easy access to the chuck key tool.

This invention relates to a chuck key tool, and more particularly, to a chuck key tool having a number of separate chuck keys, each one being mounted on a separate spoke emanating from a central hub.
Chuck keys are utilized to rotate the chuck of a power drill or other similar type of tool in a manner which permits insertion and retention of a drill bit or other bit type tool. When repairing vehicles, or when working at a construction site, a worker typically requires the use of tools having various sizes of chucks, thus requiring various chuck keys in accordance with the chuck size of the tool being employed. U.S. Pat. No. 4,467,677 discloses a chuck key tool which includes a plurality of separate chuck keys attached together, each chuck key being a different size so that a tool operator may employ the appropriate chuck key for the appropriate chuck size of a drill or other tool. U.S. Pat. No. 4,981,167 also discloses a similar chuck key tool construction.
While such constructions are quite useful, one of the problems associated with the use of chuck keys is that they are often misplaced or lost. Single chuck keys are typically retained on the cord of the power tool by insertion and retention in a elastic or plastic holder. Such holders are not fool proof and often result in the accidental loss of such a chuck key. Chuck key tools of the type depicted in the referenced patents do not lend themselves to attachment or incorporation in holding devices associated with tools.
Thus, there has developed a need for a chuck key tool comprising multiple chuck keys and having a design which facilitates their storage, retention and accessibility.
Briefly, the present invention comprises a chuck key tool which includes a hub with at least two projecting spokes from the hub. Each spoke defines an axis extending generally radially outwardly from the hub. Each spoke terminates with a separate chuck key formed at the end thereof, the teeth of the chuck key extending radially from the axis of the spoke and a guide pin for the chuck key extending axially from the spoke. The hub further includes a formed pocket therein with magnet material in the pocket. The face of the pocket is in a plane which does not intersect with the teeth of the chuck keys. In this manner, the magnetic material facilitates placement of the chuck key on a magnetizable surface including the housing of a tool, for example, or a work chest for ease of accessibility by a mechanic or other tradesman. In a preferred embodiment, four spokes equally spaced from one another are arrayed in a coplanar array with a separate chuck key formed at the end of each spoke and with a magnetic pocket, filled with magnetic material, positioned transversely to the plane of the chuck key spokes.
Thus, it is an object of the invention to provide an improved chuck key tool having multiple chuck keys.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a chuck key tool having a specially formed magnetic pocket which enables placement of the tool on a flat surface for ease of storage and accessibility.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a chuck key tool which is inexpensive and can be manufactured using casting and other metal forming techniques.
These and other objects, advantages and features of the invention will be set forth in the detailed description which follows.


A sensor for monitoring a monitored area, having a transmitting unit which emits radiation, wherein the sensor is capable of detecting objects in the monitored area. According to the invention, the sensor comprises means, using which the instantaneous and/or average power per unit area applied to a detected object of energy incident on the object, such as electromagnetic radiation of the transmitting unit, can be determined. In addition, adaptation means are provided in order to not let the instantaneous and/or average power per unit area of energy incident on the object, such as electromagnetic radiation of the transmitting unit, exceed a predetermined value during the detection of an object in the monitored area, the sensor being configured to first measure whether objects are located in a predetermined proximal area to the transmitter unit using a comparatively low power which can create no or no noticeable hazard potential for people.

From DE 20 2007 009 722, an optoelectronic device having an illumination device is known which has a coherent light source and an expansion device for expanding the light emitted by the light source in an expansion axis. Furthermore, the device has a housing with a front disk for the exit of light. The expansion device is arranged for expanding the light in such a manner, and/or the light source point of the light source is arranged with respect to the front disk in such a manner that in operation, the light in the expansion axis emerges over a large proportion of the width of the front disk in order to eliminate hazards due to light for people and their eyes.
The subject of eye-safety becomes more and more prominent with the increase in power of light sources, particularly infrared LEDs which are used for optoelectronic safety devices.

3-D sensor with adaptive transmitting power for monitoring an area


A fishing hook is plated with, coated with, or contains an antimicrobial substance to treat the impalement wound of a fish caused by the hook. Specifically the hook includes at least one shank; at least one bend that extends from the shank; at least one point defined by a free end of the bend, wherein the fish hook contains a substance whose purpose is to minimize infection and to treat the puncture wound of a fish that is caught. The substance optionally acts to sterilize the hook to reduce the entrance of microbes into the wound when the puncture occurs. The substance may also contain an anti-inflammatory or a pain reliever to reduce the suffering of the fish or of others accidentally injured by the hook.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to fishing tackle. More particularly, this invention relates to an improved fish hook that has antimicrobial properties to reduce the chance of infection in fishes that are caught and released during the course of fishing and reduce the chance of infection to anglers and others that may be accidentally impaled on the hook.
2. Background Information
Fishing as an activity is almost as old as man, with some studies showing that man regularly consumed fresh water fish dating back to the beginning of the Paleolithic period about 40,000 years ago. Recreational or sport fishing is an activity that is enjoyed by many people. In several states in the United States, fishing is the number one outdoor sport with one in four Americans participating at least once each year. The most common type of recreational or sport fishing is done utilizing a fishing rod which usually consists of a rod, a reel attached to the rod, a line attached to the reel, and a hook attached to the line. The practice of catching or attempting to catch fish with a hook is generally known as angling, and the practitioners as anglers. A basic fishing rod can be made by tying a hook to a line and tying the line to a stick. To fish, the angler uses the fishing rod to cast the hook into the water. The goal is to have the fish take the hook into its mouth so that the fish can be snagged and the angler can reel in the fishing line with the fish attached via the hook. Some fishing is also done whereby the hook is dragged across the fish's body so that the fish hook snags the fish externally. Fishing with a hook in most cases always results in the fish being wounded by the hook. Fishing to some is considered inhumane because of the nature of how the hook is used to impale the fish to catch it.
Fish Hooks
A "fish hook" is a device for catching fish generally, as noted above, by impaling them in the mouth or, more rarely, by snagging the body of the fish. Fish hooks have been employed for centuries by fisherman to catch fresh and saltwater fish with early examples found dating to 7000 BC. In 2005, the "fish hook" was chosen by Forbes as one of the top twenty tools in the history of man. There is an enormous variety of fish hooks in the world of fishing. Sizes, designs, shapes, and materials are all variable depending on the intended purpose of the fish hook. Fish hooks are designed to hold various types of artificial, processed, dead or living, baits (generally classified as Bait fishing); to act as the foundation for artificial representations of fish prey (e.g., Fly Fishing); or to be attached to or integrated into other devices that represent fish prey (e.g. Lure Fishing).
Despite the almost endless variety of fish hook designs there are some generally common components of a fish hook 10, as shown in FIG. 1, which is a useful basis for the discussion of any fish hook related development. The commonly referred to parts of a fish hook are the point 12, which is the sharp end that penetrates the fish's mouth or flesh; the barb 14, which is the projection extending backwards from the point 12 and which secures the fish from unhooking (although the barb 14 has been minimized or omitted from some "barbless" hooks 10 designed for catch and release applications); the eye 16, which is the end of the hook 10 that is connected to the fishing line or lure; the bend 18 and the shank 20 which are those portions of the hook 10 that connects the point 12 and the eye 16; and the gap 22, which is the distance between the shank 20 and the point 12. Another common attribute of a hook 10 is the bite 24 which is the distance from the point 12 to the bottom of the bend 18. Additionally common are "single" hooks 10, one of which is shown in FIG. 1, double hooks which can be described as two hooks having a shared or merged shank and eye one of which is also shown in FIG. 1, and triple hooks which can be described as three hooks having a shared or merged shank or eye, an example of which is also shown in FIG. 1.
Fish hooks 10 have been known to have been crafted from all sorts of materials, including wood, animal and human bone, horn, shells, stone, bronze, iron, plastic, steel, alloys and the like. Presently hooks 10 are most commonly manufactured from either high-carbon steel, steel alloyed with Vanadium, or stainless steel, depending on application. Most quality fish hooks 10 available presently are covered with some form of corrosion-resistant surface coating. Additionally, coatings are applied to color and/or provide aesthetic value to the hook. Hooks 10 have been coated with clear lacquer, gold, nickel, Teflon® polymer, tin and a variety of other materials.
Catch and Release
Many anglers practice "catch and release" whereby once the fish is caught and reeled in, the hook 10 is removed and the fish is returned to the water before experiencing serious exhaustion or injury. There are many reasons for releasing the fish back into the water. Sometimes catch and release is mandated as a conservation measure. Sometimes the angler simply does not want to keep the fish and merely enjoys the sport. Other times the angler catches a non-target fish and releases it back into the water. In some cases an angler catches a fish that is out of season and it cannot be kept. Other times there may be a limit on the size that the fish must be before the angler is allowed to keep the fish. Sometimes an angler has caught and kept their daily limit of fish but wants to continue fishing and must return any new fish that are caught back into the water. Sometimes anglers fish at waterways which are pay fishing spots. The angler must pay for any fish they keep. If the angler does not want to keep the fish then they will return the fish to the water. Regardless of the reason for returning the fish, with catch and release fishing, the hook is removed if possible and the fish is returned to the water.
Injury to Fish
As noted a fish hook 10 is designed to function by impaling the fish and remaining attached to the fish as the angler reels in a line that is attached to the hook 10. This impalement naturally creates a wound in the fish. Compounding the severity of the wound is that the fish hook 10 is typically not sterile. This occurs for many reasons such as the addition of bait that is added to a hook 10 or lure to increase the chances of catching a fish. These baits may contaminate the hook 10 with microbes. When a fish is impaled by a contaminated hook 10, microbes can be inserted into the wound. As with any wound, a chance of infection is created and often this infection results in the ultimate death of the fish. Even if the infection does not kill the fish, the infection causes it to suffer for a period of time, especially if the hook 10 is left in upon its return to the water.
It is advantageous to ensure the recovery of a fish that is caught and then released for many reasons. In "pay waterways" such as pay lakes, where the angler pays a waterway owner for the privilege to fish or based on the size of fish caught, fish are sometimes returned to the water because they are undersized or a non-target species. It would be advantageous to the pay waterway owner to increase the survival rate of fish returned to the water. Often waterways are stocked with fish by the state or local conservation authorities. It would be advantageous to increase the fish survival rate so that less fish would need to be stocked. Some people like to fish, but are saddened by the thought of killing the fish. It would be advantageous to them to be able to fish in such a way as to improve the odds of the fish's recovery. Many water ways such as ponds and lakes only have a certain number of large fish. It would be advantageous to help with the recovery of the fish so that there are more large fish to be caught by other anglers. It is also humane to treat an injured animal.
Currently anglers have no way to constantly sterilize their hooks, or treat the puncture wound caused by their hooks which results in the suffering and sometimes the death of the fish. The angler merely removes their hook and returns the injured fish to the water. It would therefore be advantageous and convenient for the angler to use a fish hook that has antimicrobial properties to sterilize the hook, reduce the chance of infection, and to treat the wound.
Injury to Anglers (and Spectators)
Fish hooks 10 are not limited to causing injury to fish. Anglers, and sometimes those merely in the area, can become hooked on a misplaced fish hook 10. Standard texts for emergency medicine include sections on treating fish hook injury, including descriptions of the "push through and cut off" technique for fishhook removal and the "string flick" technique for fishhook removal. While data on fishhook injuries is sparse, some emergency departments in heavily fished areas report more than 600 cases per year. This number obviously does not address the number of injuries that are self treated. The injury to humans from a fish hook is also quite susceptible to infection if left untreated. A smaller subset of non-fish fish hook injuries is represented by pets, which also are susceptible to infection. Thus, it would also be advantageous to use an antimicrobial fish hook in case the angler accidentally hooks themselves, which often happens. This would reduce the chance of the infection in the angler.
Fish Hook Prior Art Developments
There have been many improvements to the fish hook over the last few centuries.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,159,357 and 6,910,297 disclose composite fish hook designs that allege increased strength and penetration capability. U.S. Pat. No. 6,085,456 describes a fish hook designed to be stamped out of sheet metal for increased hook production. U.S. Pat. No. 6,055,763 discloses a glowing fish hook to increase attraction of the fish to the hook. U.S. Pat. No. 5,875,584 describes a hook for greater hooking and holding power. U.S. Pat. No. 5,024,020 describes a plastic fish hook that is designed to provide a "shock absorber action" during catching of a fish. U.S. Pat. No. 2,511,117 discloses a fishing lure in which the body of the lure, including the hook, is formed of translucent material to more nearly simulate an insect. U.S. Design Pat. D276,360 discloses an ornamental design for a transparent fishing hook. U.S. Published Patent Application 2008-0209794 discloses a fish hook formed of "an in situ composite of bulk-solidifying amorphous alloy" generally used in commercial fishing applications. US Published Patent Application 2004-0261311 describes an improved fishing hook that is coated with titanium to reduce the drag of the hook as it impales the fish. "Ornamental" fish hooks are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. D617,412; D616060; D615,148; D609,304; D600,316 D556,292; D522,087; D507,034; D469,502; D467,989; D440,275; D404,795; D370,048; D315,593; D283,830; D252,336; D244,133
A number of the patentable improvements are particularly related to catch and release applications. U.S. Pat. No. 7,225,582 discloses a modified fish hook for catch and release applications intended to minimize the wound to the fish. U.S. Pat. No. 6,753,004 discloses a biodegradable fishing lure formed of fish digestible materials. U.S. Pat. No. 5,890,316 discloses a fish hook improvement designed to assist the fish in catch and release applications that have embedded hooks (hooks that cannot be easily removed), specifically disclosing a biodegradable fishhook. Similarly U.S. Pat. No. 4,715,142 discloses a "self-destructing" fish hook designed to corrode rapidly if left embedded in the fish in catch and release applications. U.S. Pat. No. 5,339,562 is entitled a "Pointless releasable fish hook", however it is actually a non-piecing tong type devise that is not a "fish hook" but rather a game trapping device, but it is designed for catch and release applications. Other "barbless" or retractable barb designed hooks for catch and release are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,998,375; 4,922,649; 4,858,371; 4,723,372; 4,570,373; 4,028,838; and 3,624,690. U.S. Design Pat. No. D242,919 discloses an ornamental design for what is called a "retrievable fish hook."
The above identified patents and applications, incorporated herein by reference, provide a brief overview of the many developments in the fish hook field, as well as illustrating the wide variety of fish hooks available. None of these improvements aid in sterilizing, treating, or reducing the effect on the wound itself of the impaling of the fish.
Thus one of the objects of the present invention is to treat the wound via an antimicrobial substance that is located on or in the hook. Yet another object of the invention is to sterilize the hook before it impales the fish to minimize the amount of foreign microbes that are injected into the wound. It is yet another object of the invention to continue to provide antimicrobial treatment to the fish, for a period of time. It is yet another object of the invention to provide temporary pain relief to the fish upon impalement.
Other advantages of the present invention will become apparent from a perusal of the following detailed description of presently preferred embodiments of the invention.
It is an object of the present invention to address the deficiencies of the prior art discussed above and to do so in an efficient, cost effective manner.

Antimicrobial containing fish hook and method of using and manufacturing same


The present invention provides a method of adjusting uplink load variance due to a change of a beam direction turning from towards a current beamforming control cell to towards a target beamforming control cell, comprising: estimating an uplink load increment of the target beamforming control cell due to the change of the beam direction, before the beam direction turning from towards the current beamforming control cell to towards the target beamforming control cell; comparing the estimated uplink load increment with an available uplink load headroom of the target beamforming control cell; and adjusting an uplink load grant of a user equipment if the uplink load increment is larger than the available uplink load headroom, so that an uplink load increment is not beyond the available uplink load headroom, so that the uplink load increment is not beyond the available uplink load headroom.

Uplink Beam Forming
Currently, the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) is evaluating the potential benefits of uplink transmit diversity in the context of High-Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA) (see 3GPP Tdoc RP-090987, 3GPP Work Item Description: Uplink Tx Diversity for HSPA). With uplink transmit diversity, UEs that are equipped with two or more transmit antennas are capable of utilizing all of them. This may be achieved by multiplying the transmit signal s(t) with a weight factor W=[w1, w2, . . . , wi, . . . , wM]. The term weight factor can also be referred to as a precoding vector. Referring to FIG. 1, which shows a schematic diagram of uplink transmit diversity. Note that i=1 . . . M, where M denotes the number of transmit antennas. The rationale behind uplink transmit diversity is to adapt weights so that the user and network performance can be maximized in case of beam forming where the UE can transmit from more than one antenna simultaneously at a given time-instance.
According to whether there is an explicit feedback from a Node B, the uplink beam-forming can be divided into two types:                Open Loop Beam Forming (OLBF): the UE autonomously decides the antenna weights. The UE selects the precoding vector with the assist of the existing feedback from the Node B, such as Uplink Transmit Power Control (UL TPC), Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) feedback, etc.        Close Loop Beam Forming (CLBF): the Node-B provides an explicit feedback to the UE stating which weights the UE should use when transmitting the signal.
The study on Open Loop Transmit Diversity (OLTD) was disclosed in 3GPP TR 25.863, Uplink transmit diversity for High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) (Release 10). For a UE in an OLBF mode, the uplink beam direction is adjusted by the UE based on the received uplink TPCs.
When the UE is in soft handover, uplink TPC commands from all connected Node Bs in a slot are combined according to the following policy: the combined TPC is UP if the TPCs received from all connected Node Bs are UP and the combined TPC is DOWN if any of the TPCs received from the connected Node Bs is DOWN.
The best connected Node B in uplink for a UE in soft handover has higher opportunity to generate uplink TPC DOWN than other connected Node Bs. Hence, the best connected Node B is dominant in TPC combining according to this TPC combining policy. The UE in OLBF mode does channel sounding by adjusting the uplink beam direction in opposite directions and compares the uplink TPCs corresponding to the two opposite directions. If a TPC DOWN is received in one direction and a TPC UP is received in the opposite direction, then the UE turns the uplink beam towards the former direction. As the best cell is dominant in TPC combining for a UE in soft handover, the UE turns the uplink beam towards the best connected Node B gradually. If the best Node B in uplink changes, the uplink beam changes gradually towards the new best Node B. When the uplink beam direction adjustment is done at a side of the UE in the OLBF mode, the network is not notified.
Currently, the investigation of Close Loop Transmit Diversity (CLTD) was started and driven by the main vendors of wireless communication systems in 3GPP. In case of CLBF, it is not decided whether only a serving cell (or a Node B) determines a precoding vector or non-serving cells can also generate and determine the precoding vector. In order to avoid RoT oscillation due to frequent uplink beam direction change from one active cell to another, it is better that a servicing Node B rather than a non-serving Node B generates and determines the precoding vector. It is also possible that a non-serving cell (or a Node B) generates and determines the precoding vector for some other purpose. The uplink beams of a UE in CLBF mode direct to the active cell that generates and determines the precoding vector.
Hereinafter, a CLBF/OLBF UE means a UE in CLBF/OLBF mode rather than a CLBF/OLBF capable UE only, and the cell to generate and determine the precoding vector for a UE in uplink beam forming (BF) mode is referred to as BF-control cell for this UE. For an OLBF UE, a cell having the best uplink quality is usually a BF-control cell.
Uplink Beam Direction Change During Handover
When a BF-control cell of a CLBF UE changes from one cell to another, the uplink beam of the CLBF UE turns from towards the current BF-control cell towards the target BF-control cell as well. Refer to FIG. 2, which shows an example of uplink beam direction change. As shown in FIG. 2, Cell A and Cell B are two active cells of a UE. Before uplink beam direction of the CLBF UE is changed, Cell A is the BF-control cell of the UE and experiences interference from the main lobe while Cell B is one non-BF-control cell and experiences interference from a weaker lobe. After the beam is changed, Cell B turns to be the BF-control cell and experiences interference from the main lobe while Cell A turns to be one non-BF-control cell and experiences interference from a weaker lobe. When the beam changes from Cell A to Cell B, the uplink load of Cell A due to this CLBF UE is suddenly decreased but the uplink load of Cell B due to this CLBF UE is suddenly increased.
The uplink beam direction change for an OLBF UE is not clear for the network because the network does not explicitly control precoding of uplink beams. Dependent on algorithms for selecting the precoding vector in the UE and fading changes, the required time of BF-control cell change can be quite different. If the uplink beam direction changes too fast for an OLBF UE, there can be uplink stability problem for a cell connected with the OLBF UE.
The beam direction changes as the BF-control cell changes. The beam direction change is unavoidable and can be very often due to mobility of users.
Uplink Load Estimation
The uplink load of a UE can be estimated based on CIR of DPCCH. Suppose a UE has N parallel uplink channels, the total uplink load that a UE generates can be estimated based on DPCCH CIR as (see "WCDMA for UMTS—Radio Access For Third Generation Mobile Communications", third Edition, Harri Holma, Antti Toskala, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference):
                              Load          =                                                    CIR                DPCCH                            ·                              (                                  1                  +                                                            ∑                                              i                        =                        1                                                                    N                        -                        1                                                                                pwroff                      i                                                                      )                                                    Antgain              +                                                (                                      1                    -                    orthogonality                                    )                                ·                                  CIR                  DPCCH                                ·                                  (                                      1                    +                                                                  ∑                                                  i                          =                          1                                                                          N                          -                          1                                                                                pwroff                        i                                                                              )                                                                    ,                            (        1        )            where CIRDPCCH is a (estimated) DPCCH CIR and can be either a target DPCCH CIR or a measured DPCCH CIR; Pwroffi is a power offset of the ith channel with respect to DPCCH; Antgain is an (estimated) antenna gain; and orthogonality is a (estimated) channel orthogonality.
For uplink beam-forming users, when a BF-control cell for an uplink beam-forming UE changes, the beam direction changes from the current BF-control cell to the target BF-control cell can result in sudden uplink load decrease in the current BF-control cell and sudden uplink load increase in the new BF-control cell, which further causes the RoT oscillation in both current BF-control cell and target BF-control cell. Take FIG. 2 as an example. Before the uplink beam direction change (i.e., BF-control cell change), Cell A is a BF-control cell and Cell B is a non-BF-control cell, and uplink loads generated by UEs in Cell A and Cell B are LA,0 and LB,0, respectively. After the uplink beam direction change, Cell A turns to be a non-BF-control cell while Cell B turns to be the BF-control cell, and uplink loads generated in Cell A and Cell B are LA,1 and LB,1, respectively. Because uplink beam forming is used, the load generated by the UE in Cell A is decreased (LA,1<LA,0) and the load generated by the UE in Cell B is increased (LB,1> LB,0) if the uplink load grant of UE is not changed during BF-control cell change. According to 3GPP protocols, an uplink load grant is the maximum power offset of the load, which can be used by the user, with respect to the uplink DPCCH power, and an uplink load grant for a user determines the maximum number of bits in uplink transport data blocks for the user. One active cell of an UE may evaluate using such a parameter the maximum allowed uplink load generated by the UE in the cell.
This RoT oscillation in the cell is serious when one or more of the following conditions are satisfied:                The target BF-control cell already has a high uplink load        The uplink beam-forming UE is causing a high uplink load        The UE has good uplink beam forming capability
The similar problem also exists when the BF mode is activated for a UE from the other modes (e.g., a default mode). The uplink load of the UE in the BF-control cell can also increase due to the main lobe directs to this cell compared to without uplink beam-forming.
Due to the change of the UE beam direction, the caused RoT peak in the new BF-control cell (i.e., the target BF-control cell) can exceed the RoT target quite much and triggers congestion actions, which deteriorates the uplink performance.

Method and base station of adjusting uplink load variance due to uplink beam direction change


The invention relates to a magazine for a handgun, comprising a chamber that accommodates the ammunition and a magazine head that is suitable for being accommodated by the magazine shaft in the breechblock housing of the gun, characterized in that according to the invention an ejector plate is arranged on the magazine head and means are provided for changing the relative position of said ejector plate in the magazine shaft when a magazine is inserted. The solution according to the invention makes it possible to change the position of the magazine head in the magazine shaft by means of an adjusting mechanism and thus to also change the relative position of the ejector plate, which is now on the magazine head, in the magazine shaft. In the process, the position of the ejector plate relative to the feeding web of the breechblock generally changes. By adjusting the position of the magazine head, the ejection angle and/or the ejection path of the cartridge case and the position of the fed cartridge relative to the cartridge chamber of the weapon can also be changed if applicable.

This invention relates to a magazine for a handgun comprising a chamber that accommodates the ammunition and a magazine head that is suitable for being accommodated by the magazine well in the breech block housing of the firearm, and a handgun equipped with a magazine of that type.
A magazine for a handgun of the type mentioned above is known from U.S. Pat. No. 7,398,615 B2, for instance. Magazines of this type are especially used for cartridges with an ignition edge, wherein the cartridges have a staggered arrangement because of the ignition edge to the effect that the uppermost cartridge is positioned in the direction of firing with its ignition edge in front of the ignition edge of the cartridge underneath it, because it will only be ensured in that case that the uppermost cartridge will go into the firing channel in a controlled manner. A curved side contour results for the magazine from the staggered arrangement of the cartridges because the cartridges are narrower in front than they are in the rear area. The magazine described in the above-mentioned US document is intended to be used with 10/22 model guns of the company Ruger, for instance. It is comprised in principle of a curved magazine chamber that holds the ammunition and a magazine head that is somewhat broader vis-a-vis this chamber in an upper area. The firearm is frequently equipped with a different magazine with less capacity as a standard feature, for instance with a rotating drum magazine. The basic idea of a variable adjustment of the magazine head to the receptacle provided for it (magazine well) in the breech block housing of the firearm via a more or less major unscrewing of upward-projecting screws provided on the magazine head is already found in this document. The mechanism for the ejection of the cartridge case is still located on the breech block housing in this well-known firearm, however.
It could be the case that the magazine head is not accommodated by the breech block housing with a precise fit when the magazine is replaced due to the fact that the various models and construction years frequently have dimensional deviations in the area of the breech block housing that holds the head of the magazine in these firearms. That can in turn lead to interference with the functions of the firearm, for instance with the ejection of the cartridge case after the shot. An ejector that interacts with the extractor is customarily used for ejection; the ejector is located on the breech block housing and it carries out its function, meaning the ejection of the cartridge case, during the movement of the breech after the firing of the cartridge.
This invention starts off here. The task of this invention is to provide a magazine for a handgun of the type mentioned above that permits an adjustment for dimensional deviations of the firearm caused by different models or construction years, especially with regard to the function of the ejector.
A magazine for a handgun of the type mentioned above with the characterizing elements of the main claim solves this problem.


A piston including a crown and at least one pin tower coupled to the crown. The pin tower has an opening therein configured to receive a pin therein along a pin axis. The piston further includes a skirt extending generally away from the crown, the skirt including a pair of opposed skirt panel portions. The skirt has a generally non-circular oval shape having a major axis extending generally parallel to the pin axis, wherein the panel portions are offset from the major axis.

Pistons used in internal combustion engines are subjected to high levels of stress during operation. Accordingly, pistons are designed to have sufficient stiffness and resistance to loads. However, it is also desired to minimize weight of the piston (which improves inertial response), to reduce surface area, particularly on the radially outer surfaces (which reduces dynamic friction), and to account for various other design considerations.

Piston with improved side loading resistance

PERFORMANCE MOTORSPORTS INTERNATIONAL, INC.


In a device for treating blood vessels with a laser, the laser provides a beam in a wavelength range from 750 to 850 nm, preferably 805 nm. The device has a measuring unit which measures the concentration of a chromophore (preferably indocyanine green) administered to the patient in the patient""s blood vessels. The device further comprises a control unit which controls the power of the laser in a contrary sense to the measured concentration.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a device for treating growing, dilated or malformed blood vessels with a laser which emits radiation in a wavelength range from 750 nm to 850 nm.
2. Description of the Related Art
WO 97/31582 has already disclosed the treatment of, for example, tumors by administering to the patient a dye or chromophore having an absorption maximum in a wavelength range from 770 nm to 840 nm, and treating the diseased area of the body with light having a wavelength in the stated range. Indocyanine green is proposed as dye or chromophore. A diode laser is a preferred light source.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,394,199 discloses the production of angiographic images of the capillary network of the eye (choriocapillaris) using indocyanine green in order to use them for precise adjustment of the therapeutic laser.
xe2x80x9cOphthalmic Surgeryxe2x80x9d, March 1994, Vol. 25, No. 3, pages 195-201 discloses the selective removal of choroidal neovascular membranes with administration of ICG and treatment with a diode laser having an emission wavelength of 805 nm.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,304,170 discloses the destruction of carotene-containing body tissue with a laser with an emission wavelength of 504 nm. It is provided for this purpose to increase the carotene content by administering carotene.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,071,417 discloses an apparatus for fusion of biological material using a laser. Since the progress of such a fusion is often difficult to observe with the naked eye, the apparatus is equipped with a reflectance monitor which establishes the change in the reflectance characteristics of the tissue material caused by the fusion and thus indicates the success of the fusion to the therapist.
WO 91/18646 discloses a device for laser photothermotherapy. In the disclosed device, tissue which contains endogenous or exogenous chromophore is irradiated with a laser. The temperature of the treated tissue is measured, and the measured signal is used to control the pulse energy and the rate of repetition of the laser pulses.
WO 93/03793 discloses a medical light treatment apparatus, in particular for acupuncture. With the apparatus, the light reflected by the biological tissue is detected and, on the basis of this detection, the energy of the light directed into the tissue is controlled.
In summary, concerning the prior art discussed above it can be stated that most known devices are not intended and not suitable for treating blood vessels, in particular for treating small blood vessels (spider veins). The known devices chiefly make use of endogenous chromophores such as, for example, hemoglobin for absorbing the laser light. The problem which therefore arises on treatment of blood vessels is that vessels which are too small contain too little hemoglobin whereas blood vessels which are too large cannot, because of the poor absorption properties of hemoglobin and the increased heat convection, be heated sufficiently and thus in both cases a sufficient thermal effect with subsequent coagulation of the vessel is not achieved.
The invention is by contrast based on the object of providing a device for treating growing, dilated or malformed blood vessels with a laser, which is distinguished in that the blood vessels are effectively coagulated and adverse effects on the surrounding tissue are minimal. It is further object of this invention to provide a method for treating biological material with a light beam.
These objects are achieved according to the invention with a device and a method for treating growing, dilated or malformed blood vessels with a laser which emits radiation in a wavelength range from 750 nm to 850 nm and which has a measuring unit which measures the concentration of an exogenous chromophore which absorbs the laser beam in a blood vessel to be treated, and which also has a control unit which controls the power of the laser in a contrary sense to the measured concentration. The measurement according to the invention of the concentration of an exogenous chromophore, i.e. chromophone which has been administered to the patient, and the corresponding control of the laser power makes it possible to meter the laser power optimally. As long as the concentration of the exogenous chromophore in the blood vessel to be treated is high, a lower laser power is sufficient. If over the course of time, as a consequence of the breakdown or excretion of the exogenous chromophore from the blood circulation, the concentration thereof falls, in the device according to the invention the power of the laser is controlled in the contrary sense, i.e. increased. It may be pointed out in this connection that power means the energy per unit time (with watt as unit of measurement) introduced into the vessel by the treatment.
The concentration of the exogenous chromophore in the blood vessel can be measured in a variety of ways, for example also by taking a blood sample.
However, a particularly advantageous measuring unit is designed as a reflection measuring unit because this operates non-invasively and is accordingly associated with less stress for the patient. A certain fraction of the laser light which impinges on the surface of the skin is, owing to the different refractive indices of air and skin, reflected (reflection coefficient R).
P1 is P0xe2x88x92RP0=P0(1xe2x88x92R)
where P1 is the reflected and P0 is the originally emitted power. The fraction P2 of the original power P0 which arrives, after passing through the epidermis and part of the dermis, at the blood vessel emerges from the following formula:
P2=P1 exp(xe2x88x92xcex1mel(xcex)z)xe2x88x92P1RH=P1[exp(xe2x88x92xcex1Mel(xcex)z)xe2x88x92RH]
P2=P0(1xe2x88x92R)[exp(xe2x88x92xcex1MEL(xcex)z)xe2x88x92RH}].
In this, the factor xcex1H(xcex)z describes the attenuation of the laser light in the direction of propagation z from the surface of the skin until the particular blood vessel is reached. The factor xcex1Mel(xcex)z depends on the melanin content of the particular section of skin. The absorption, mediated by the chromophore concentration, of the laser light of power P is thus
P=P2(1xe2x88x92T)
P=P0(1xe2x88x92R)[exp(xe2x88x92xcex1Mel(xcex)z)xe2x88x92RH][1xe2x88x92exp(xe2x88x92xcex1CH((xcex,t)z)]
The attenuation of the laser light by the reflection R, the internal reflection RH and by the factor exp(xe2x88x92xcex1Mel(xcex)z) does not, in contrast to the chromophore concentration xcex1CH(xcex,t), vary with time. It is possible by measuring the reflected proportion of the incident light to determine, by the above calculation, the changing chromophore concentration in the blood vessel (xcex1CH((xcex,t)). The control unit controls, on the basis of the measured chromophore concentration, the power of the laser in the contrary sense to the measured concentration, i.e. the power of the laser is set at a comparatively low level when the concentration is high, whereas a comparatively high laser power is applied when the concentration is relatively low.
Another advantageous embodiment of the invention provides for the control unit, in order to measure the concentration of the chromophore, to cause a pilot light pulse to be emitted, the power of which is so small that it causes no permanent changes in the blood vessel or the tissue surrounding the latter. There is merely determination of the chromophore concentration on the basis of the pilot light pulse, so that this concentration can be set appropriately beforehand, i.e before starting the treatment. The control unit can moreover be programed so that such a pilot light pulse can be emitted at regular intervals or, for example, before emitting each therapeutic pulse, in order to detect changes in the chromophore concentration in good time.
A computer unit then determines the chromophore concentration from a power of the pilot light pulse and the reflected light power, measured by the measuring unit, using the formula indicated above.
It may also be provided in one embodiment for the measuring unit to use its own measuring light source. The light from the measuring light source can be directed onto the therapy area, but with this embodiment there is also the possibility of directing the light from the measuring light source onto another body area on which the chromophore concentration in the patient""s blood can easily be measured.
It has proven advantageous in the control of the laser power for the latter to be controlled in inverse proportion to the chromophore concentration found. The product of the applied laser power and measured concentration therefore remains essentially constant during the treatment. The laser beam is preferably emitted in the form of pulses, preferably in the form of rectangular pulses with a duration not exceeding 10 ms, preferably with a duration of from 1 to 5 ms. The use of such short light pulses in conjunction with a relatively high power ensures that the therapeutic light can penetrate into the vessel and pass through the vessel, and the coagulation process induced by the heat is restricted to the vessel. In some applications, however, it has also proven advantageous to control the laser so that the pulses can be executed not as single pulses but as double pulses with a pause of less than 5 ms. A pause of less than 5 ms is below the thermal relaxation time so that the therapeutic effect of the second pulse is also still ensured. On the other hand, however, the pause allows interim cooling of the surrounding tissue, especially of the tissue located in front of the blood vessel, so that this mode of operating the laser has proven to be harmless to tissue.
In another advantageous embodiment of the invention, the control unit is designed so that the pulse length is controlled in a contrary sense to the power. This is because it has proven advantageous for vessel treatment if the pulse length is increased, for example if the power of the laser beam is reduced because of a high chromophore content, so that the total energy of a light pulse introduced into the vessel is kept approximately constant
The laser advantageously used is a diode laser with a power of from 100 to 800 watts and an emission wavelength of 805 nm.
In order to guide the laser light with great accuracy onto the patient""s vessels to be treated, an advantageous embodiment provides for the laser to be connected via a light guide to a handpiece. The hand-piece can have a transparent contact area for contact with the patient""s skin. It is also possible to provide in the handpiece, similar to a dermatoscope, an illumination unit and a magnifier, and a scale for measuring the vessels to be treated. The laser beam is guided into the dermatoscope-like handpiece by a spectrally selective mirror, preferably a dichroic mirror, it being possible for the therapist to observe the therapy area through the mirror from behind it. The therapist is able by means of an aiming mark, which is preferably attached on the transparent contact area, in the handpiece, to direct the laser beam specifically onto the vessel to be treated. The therapist is able to establish the size of the vessel by a scale in the handpiece.
An advantageous embodiment of the invention provides in the handpiece an adjustable aperture with which the diameter of the laser beam can be limited so that only the vessel is irradiated and irradiation of tissue beyond the margins of the vessel is avoided.
A particularly advantageous embodiment provides for the control unit to block emission of laser light by the laser when the chromophore concentration found by the measuring unit is below a preset lower threshold. Below a particular lower threshold of chromophore concentration it would be necessary for the power of the laser to be high to compensate for this low concentration, which would not be optimal for the therapy. The blocking of the device therefore avoids such inappropriate treatment in the region where the chromophore concentrations are too low.
Surprisingly, it has also emerged that a treatment may be insufficient if the chromophore concentrations are too high. A further advantageous embodiment of the invention therefore provides for the control unit to block emission of light pulses by the laser when the chromophore concentration found by the measuring unit is above a preset upper threshold. This is because it has been found that when the chromophore concentrations are too high the therapeutic laser light is absorbed so strongly that it is unable to penetrate sufficiently through the vessel to be treated. On the contrary, the laser light is absorbed exclusively on the margin of the vessel so that the coagulation does not extend over the complete vessel cross section, and the vessel thus cannot be sclerosed as desired.
A further advantageous embodiment of the invention provides an intensity sensor, which is preferably accommodated in the handpiece. The intensity sensor is able to measure the light reflected at the treatment site in order to determine the exogenous chromophore concentration. However, it is also possible, instead of accommodating the intensity sensor in the handpiece, to arrange an outcoupling mirror in the laser light path to pass reflected light to the intensity sensor. In this case, the intensity sensor can advantageously be arranged near the laser.
An advantageous embodiment is also one in which the handpiece is connected to a video camera. The therapy area can be displayed by the video camera on a monitor, in which case a false color display of the chromophore concentration facilitates the finding by the therapist of the blood vessels to be treated. In a further advantageous embodiment of the invention, the handpiece is provided with a cooling unit, preferably a Peltier element. This can remove the heat which is released during the treatment and frequently felt to be unpleasant by the patient.
Other features, characteristics and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of the invention, which refers to the accompanying drawings:

Device for treating growing, dilated or malformed blood vessels and method for treating biological material


According to a first aspect, the invention relates to a multimodal optical sectioning microscope (200, 400, 600) for full-field imaging of a volumic and scattering sample comprising: —a full-field OCT system for providing an image of a first section in depth of the sample comprising an illumination sub-system (201, 401, 601) and a full-field imaging interferometer with a detection sub system (208, 408, 608) and an optical conjugation device for optically conjugating the sample and said detection sub system, wherein said optical conjugation device comprises a microscope objective (203, 403, 603), —a supplementary full-field optical sectioning imaging system for providing a fluorescent image of a second section in depth of said sample comprising a structured illumination microscope with an illumination sub system (623), means (421, 422) for generating at the focal plane of said microscope objective of said full-field imaging interferometer a variable spatial pattern illumination and a detection sub system (624), optically conjugated with said focal plane of the microscope objective.

The present invention is in the technical field of biomedical imaging, more particularly in the technical field of optical microscopy and more particularly in the technical field of optical sectioning microscopy.
Optical sectioning microscopy refers to the imaging of a section in depth of a sample, the section being in the focal plane of a microscope objective, while removing the background in the image due to out-of-focus light and scatter. When microscopy is applied to biological samples such as cells or tissues which exhibit strong scattering, optical sectioning dramatically improves the quality of the images obtained. It is thus of paramount importance for biological as well as medical purposes. Among the techniques that are used for high resolution imaging in the micrometer range, confocal microscopy (see for example U.S. Pat. No. 3,013,467—Minsky) and non-linear microcopies (e.g. two Photon—see for example Denk W, Strickler J, Webb W (1990). "Two-photon laser scanning fluorescence microscopy". Science 248 (4951): 73-6) are now widely used. They take advantage of large numerical aperture microscope (NA˜0.8 to 1.4) objectives to achieve the required limited depth of field that insures good sectioning ability.
Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) is an efficient optical sectioning technique for in-depth imaging of biological tissues. OCT relies on interferometric selection of ballistic photons (see for example J. G. Fujimoto et al., Optical biopsy and imaging using optical coherence tomography, Nature Med. 1, 970-972 (1995)). It has proved to be a highly valuable tool for biomedical imaging in particular in the field of eye examination. Concerning the other tissues of the human body that are dense and exhibit a very large scattering cross-section it is more difficult to get sharp images at the cellular level of virtual thin slices at large depths.
In contrast with most of the available OCT approaches (e.g. time domain OCT or Fourier domain OCT) Full Field OCT (FF-OCT) (see for example A. Dubois et al., High-resolution full-field optical coherence tomography with a Linnik microscope, Appl. Opt. 41, 805-812 (2002)) directly takes "en face" high resolution images (typically 1 μm, isotropic) using megapixels cameras coupled to gel or water immersion microscope objectives for a better matching of the refractive index of tissues.
The principle of a full-field OCT system is represented on FIG. 1. It relies on the use of thermal sources or arcs or LEDs that are spatially and temporally incoherent, coupled to an imaging interferometer, for example in the Linnik configuration as shown on FIG. 1. The FF-OCT system 100 comprises a source of partially coherent light 101, e.g. an halogen light source, optically integrated in a Köhler illuminator so as to provide uniform illumination in the sample, a beamsplitter 102, e.g. a non-polarizing beamsplitter cube, defining two interferometric arms. For a Linnik configuration, both arms include a microscope objective of the same characteristics 103 and 104. In one arm, further named the reference arm, a uniform reflective surface 105 is positioned at the focal plane of the objective and linked to an oscillator 111, allowing modulation of the optical path length of the reference arm, e.g. a piezo electric transducer. In the other arm, further called object arm, a volume and scattering sample 106—to be imaged—is positioned at the focal plane of the objective 103. An adjustable dispersion balance system is included in both arms, e.g. rotating glass plates 109 and 110. A tube lens 107 is placed at the output of the interferometer in order to conjugate the focal planes of both objectives 103 and 104 with a multichannel detector 108, e.g. a CCD or CMOS matrix. The magnification of the imaging interferometer is fixed, defined by the focal characteristics of the microscope objective 103 and tube lens 107. The adjustment in depth of the device 100 relative to the sample 106 is performed using translation means, e.g. a motorized linear translation stage.
Due to the broad spectrum of the source, interferences occur only when the optical path lengths of the two arms of the interferometer are identical within typically 1 μm. Moreover the spatial incoherence of the source prevents cross talk between pixels. The signal is extracted from the background of incoherent backscattered light using a phase-shifting method. Due to the randomness of the tissues structures, it is possible to record only two interferometric images, using a CCD or a CMOS camera for example, the phase being changed by π in the interferometer reference channel between each image and to compute the tomographic image by calculating the normalized difference of the interferometric images.
The FF-OCT system—or at least part of its components—can be displaced to move the focal plane at different depths within the sample in order to obtain 2D images at different depths that can be further reconstructed into 3D images, which we will call 3D tomographic images. En face capture allows the FF-OCT system to operate with high lateral resolution (typically ˜1 μm) using medium aperture microscope objectives (for instance, but not limited to 10× or 20× water immersion objectives with 0.3 to 0.5 numerical aperture). In addition, micrometric displacement of the FF-OCT system will enable 3D tomographic images at a 1 micron or less vertical resolution.
FF-OCT allows for ultra high resolution (typically ˜1 μm in 3D) images of scattering samples such as biological tissues, in depth, using a non-invasive process. Typical morphologic structures of tissue show sizes starting from a few microns to a few tens of microns. For example the size of a cell nucleus is typically between 5 and 10 μm, the size of a typical adipose cell between 25 and 50 μm. Due to its high resolution capabilities, the FF-OCT technique is able to provide cellular resolution images of morphologic characteristics of tissues, compared to conventional OCT techniques such as Time-Domain OCT or Fourier-Domain OCT, which have a limited transverse resolution of about 10 μm, preventing from resolving fine cellular structures. It has been proven that the use of the FF-OCT on various tissues is of great interest for pathologists (see "Jain M, Shukla N, Manzoor M, Nadolny S, Mukherjee S. Modified full-field optical coherence tomography: A novel tool for rapid histology of tissues. J Pathol Inform 2011; 2:28"), as a new tool for fast, non-invasive, non-sacrificial assessment method on freshly excised tissue. Applications such as biobanking, embryology, or surgery guidance have been raised by pathologists. For example FF-OCT might be used in the future for evaluation of surgical margins, or as a confirmation tool for assessing the adequacy of biopsied tissue for subsequent definitive histopathological diagnoses. The main advantage is that, for some clinical situations, the technique can provide significant pathological and architectural information within minutes, without the need to prepare histology slides, which a time-consuming, operator-dependant process.
However, compared to histology slides, which are the "Gold Standard" in pathology, the information given by standard FF-OCT images is mainly limited to morphology and architecture. Indeed, the contrast provided by FF-OCT results from the local variation of the amount of ballistic photons due to local refractive index variations linked to tissue structures. The contrast risen by the FF-OCT technique on particular metabolic structures such as tumorous areas of a tissue, is not always enough to perform an accurate diagnostic. In standard histology, pathological areas are often revealed using chemical coloration, such as H&E staining (Hematoxylin and Eosin). After coloration and histology slide preparation, cancerous tissue usually appears in a different color compared to the surrounding healthy tissue, with sharp contrast based on coloration. Moreover, such a contrast can be used at high magnification on a microscope to observe fine cellular structures such as cell nuclei. The size and density of nuclei is often considered as a good indicator of cancerous invasion, the size of the nuclei of cancerous cell being larger than the nuclei of healthy cells. As a consequence, when using FF-OCT microscopy on biological tissues, it may be useful for pathologists to enhance the contrast of specific cellular structures, such as cell nuclei or cancerous tissue areas. Such an additional contrast can provide both morphologic and metabolic information in a single image, approaching the information given by standard histology slides.
In standard microscopy, this additional contrast can be obtained using coloration fluids in histopathology, or fluorescent agents such as GFP (Green Fluorescent Protein) in biology. For example fluorescence spectroscopy has been used to detect early dysplasia in various organs (see Ramanujam N., Fluorescence spectroscopy of neoplastic and non-neoplastic tissues, Neoplasia 2 (1-2), 89-117 (2000)). The principle of fluorescence microscopy relies on the addition of a fluorescent agent to the sample—sometimes with specificity to a cellular structure—followed by the illumination of the sample using light with a spectrum corresponding to the absorption spectrum of said fluorescent agent. The subsequent fluorescence emission is characterized by a shifted spectrum compared to the absorption spectrum, usually towards higher wavelengths.
In conventional fluorescence microscopy of biological objects, the illumination light passes through a volume of the sample, so that the emission of fluorescence also occurs at out of focus planes. The resulting image is then blurred by a fluorescent background noise. As a consequence, fluorescence microscopy is usually used in combination with an optical sectioning technique, which allows for collecting light only coming from the sectioning plane, thus removing out of focus fluorescent noise.
However, OCT techniques, including the FF-OCT technique, are not compatible with fluorescence microscopy as light coming from the emission of fluorescence of the sample is incoherent with the light source. The properties of fluorescent photons are not correlated to the properties of the low-coherence source used for coherence tomography. Consequently, the optical path length equalization between the two interferometric arms is not possible anymore, and interference signals necessary to coherence tomography techniques can not be obtained.
One objective of the present invention is to provide additional contrast(s) in an FF-OCT system.

Optical tissue sectioning using full field optical coherence tomography


Systems and methods for locating building equipment in a building management system (BMS) are provided. An HVAC system includes an HVAC controller and an HVAC device. The HVAC device includes processing circuit including a memory and a processor. The processing circuit automatically determining a location of the HVAC device reporting the location of the HVAC device to the HVAC controller.

The present invention relates generally to building management systems. The present invention relates more particularly to systems and methods for locating building equipment in a building management system.
A building management system (BMS) is, in general, a system of devices configured to control, monitor, and manage equipment in or around a building or building area. A BMS can include a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system, a security system, a lighting system, a fire alerting system, another system that is capable of managing building functions or devices, or any combination thereof. BMS devices may be installed in any environment (e.g., an indoor area or an outdoor area) and the environment may include any number of buildings, spaces, zones, rooms, or areas. A BMS may include a variety of devices (e.g., HVAC devices, controllers, chillers, fans, sensors, etc.) configured to facilitate monitoring and controlling the building space. Throughout this disclosure, such devices are referred to as BMS devices or building equipment.
Locating building equipment is often the first step required to service, inspect, or repair the building equipment. For example, a service technician may arrive at a customer site for the purpose of repairing a faulty article of building equipment. Before the equipment can be serviced, the technician must locate the building equipment. Locating building equipment can be difficult when the service technician is unfamiliar with the building and/or if the building equipment is hidden or obstructed (e.g., behind a wall, above a ceiling tile, etc.).

HVAC equipment having locating systems and methods


An apparatus has a holder unit for sample vessels and reaction vessels, a dispensing unit and a washing unit; wherein, (i) the holder unit involves a sample-vessel holder including a linear array of holes for receiving the sample vessels, a reaction-vessel holder including a linear array of holes for receiving the reaction vessels, a coupling arrangement for coupling together the sample-vessel holder and the reaction-vessel holder so that the linear arrays of the holes of the holders are arranged parallel to each other, and a moving arrangement for horizontally moving the coupled sample-vessel holder and the reaction-vessel holder, (ii) the dispensing unit is movable in the direction orthogonal to the horizontal-moving direction of the sample-vessel holder and the reaction-vessel holder, and (iii) the washing unit supplies cleaning liquid to the reaction vessels and absorbs the liquid-phase component from the reaction vessels.

The present invention relates to an assaying apparatus which can be used in the field of biochemistry and immunochemistry, and a vessel holder unit in use with the assaying apparatus. More particularly, the present invention relates to a biochemistry and immunoassay apparatus, simple in construction and small in size, for handling samples, e.g., blood, serum, and urine, whose temperatures for storing them and for assaying them are different from each other, and also a small and simple vessel holder unit in use with the biochemistry and immunoassay apparatus.
In an immunochemical analysis apparatus, organism samples, e.g., serum, which are supplied in a state that those are contained in sample vessels, are transported to dispensing positions where the samples are dispensed by a dispensing device. The samples are absorbed from and discharged into reaction vessels into which a reagent necessary for reaction, e.g., a labeled antibody, which is transported in another route, has been put or is put anew. The resultant is placed under a temperature condition suitable for antigen-antibody reaction for a fixed period of time and then fluorescence emitted therefrom is measured.
In the immunoassay apparatus, it is a common practice that the sample vessels are transported to the dispensing positions (absorbing positions) where the sample dispensing is carried out by the dispensing device, while being held by hold/transporting member, such as a turn table, a snake chain, and a rack. On the other hand, the reaction vessels are usually transported to the dispensing positions (absorbing positions) where the sample dispensing is carried out by the dispensing device, while being held by hold/transporting member adjusted to a fixed temperature, such as a turn table, a snake chain, and a rack, or after the samples are dispensed, the reaction vessels are transported to the temperature adjusted hold/transported member. In a case where a reagent necessary for reaction is dispensed into the reaction vessels in the process of the immunoassay, a reagent vessel is held by the rack, for example, and the reagent is dispensed into the reaction vessel held by the turn table, for example, by use of the dispensing device.
Thus, in the conventional immunoassay apparatus, the sample vessels, the reaction vessels, and the reagent vessels are transported while being held by separate hold/transporting member, such as turn table, snake chain, rack and the like. For this reason, a plural number of hold/transporting member are included in one immunoassay apparatus. The construction causes the apparatus size to increase. Further, the dispensing device must be moved among those hold/transporting devices. This results in complexity of the moving mechanism.
In the conventional immunoassay apparatus that is increased in size and complicated in construction and operation, it is difficult to have an adjustment operation for adjusting each the devices which have been incorporated into the apparatus, and also to have an maintenance operation for the apparatus.
In addition to this, in some of the conventional immunoanalysis apparatus, the samples are not required to control in their temperature, the reaction vessels are usually subjected to a temperature adjustment, and only some type of reagents requiring their temperature adjustment are subjected to a temperature adjustment. Therefore, two temperature adjusting mechanism are required: one for the reaction-vessel holder and the other for the reagent-vessel holder. Further, in the case where both of the reagent vessel for the reagent requiring its temperature adjustment and the reagent vessel for the reagent not requiring its temperature adjustment are simultaneously utilized, the reagent-vessel holders must be provided for these reagent vessels, respectively.

Assaying apparatus and a vessel holder device in use with the assaying apparatus


A method for architecting enterprise data security solutions for an enterprise having multiple levels is provided. The method includes analyzing the enterprise levels and a workflow related to the plurality of levels and analyzing a data element having a security requirement. The method includes providing a reference model including the data element. The reference model associates the data element and the security requirement with the workflow. The method includes determining a vertical component of the data element using the reference model. The vertical component identifies the security requirement for the data element based on the workflow for each of the plurality of levels of the enterprise. The method includes identifying a technical component using the reference model and the vertical component. The technical component is operable to provide the security requirement of the data element for the workflow across each of the plurality of levels of the enterprise.

Securing data is an important aspect of any enterprise or application. The challenges in securing data in a particular system continue to change however. In a given environment, it may be necessary to secure all data at multiple levels of a particular application, whereas in other environments, it may be necessary to secure only particular data throughout all levels of the application. Thus, there exists a need for security implementations that provide all of the necessary security for a given system, and yet maintain sufficient flexibility and efficiency so that the security is implemented only on data requiring such security.

Method and system for architecting enterprise data security


An article storage facility includes an elevating scaffold capable of ascending/descending in a movement space across a withdrawal height that is set on an upper side and a plurality of working heights that are set in intermediate locations in the movement space in the vertical direction. A plurality of support bodies that support the elevating scaffold are provided in the vertical direction so as to respectively correspond to the plurality of working heights, and at least a support body other than the lowermost support body of the plurality of support bodies is configured to be movable to an acting position at which the support body protrudes toward the movement space so as to support the elevating scaffold and a withdrawal position at which the support body retracts toward the article storage shelf so as not to come into contact with the elevating scaffold moving up and down.

JP 2009-073627A (Patent Document 1) discloses an example of article storage facilities as described above. With the configuration of Patent Document 1, an elevating scaffold capable of ascending and descending in a movement space in front of article storage shelves is provided. This allows a maintenance work for lower portions of the article storage shelves to be performed from the floor without using the elevating scaffold, and, for higher portions of the article storage shelves, for which the operator on the floor is unable to perform a maintenance work, allows the operator to perform a maintenance work on the article storage shelves by climbing on the elevating scaffold. In other words, the elevating scaffold is configured to be capable of moving up and down across a withdrawal height that is set on the upper side from the movement range in the above-described movement space of the transfer device included in the transport device in the vertical direction and a working height that is set in an intermediate location in the movement space in the vertical direction. Also, in a state in which the elevating scaffold is caused to descend from the withdrawal height to the working height, and the elevating scaffold is supported by a support body for supporting the elevating scaffold located at the working height, the operator climbs on the elevating scaffold and performs a maintenance work. Accordingly, when the elevating scaffold has been lowered to the working height, the elevating scaffold is supported on the support body, and thereby the elevating scaffold is stabilized, making it easy for the operator to perform a maintenance work in a state in which he or she is on the elevating scaffold. When no maintenance work is performed, the elevating scaffold is elevated to the withdrawal height, thus allowing the transport device to transport articles using the space below the elevating scaffold.
For article storage facilities, article storage shelves having large heights may sometimes be installed in order to increase the article storage efficiency. In such a case, the range for which the operator on the floor cannot perform a maintenance work in the vertical direction of the article storage shelves is wide in the vertical direction. However, in the article storage facility of Patent Document 1, only a single working height is set in the vertical direction, and therefore the range for which a maintenance work can be performed from the elevating scaffold at the working height is limited in the vertical direction. Accordingly, there will be locations in the article storage shelves for which a maintenance work cannot be performed.
It is conceivable to set a plurality of working heights in order to eliminate locations for which a maintenance work cannot be performed. However, the support body that supports the elevating scaffold protrudes toward the movement space, and thus the elevating scaffold cannot be moved below the height at which the support body is located. This has made it impossible to set a plurality of working heights.
As such, the method disclosed in Patent Document 1 poses a problem in that an appropriate maintenance work cannot be carried out for article storage shelves with large heights.


An accelerated bit scanning nonvolatile memory device and method. A nonvolatile memory device including a memory cell array including a plurality of memory cells, each memory cell corresponding to program data, a data scanning unit to detect the program data having a first value, and a programming unit to program the memory cells corresponding to the detected portions of the program data responsive to the scanning.

Nonvolatile memory devices maintain stored data in memory cells when its power supply is cut off. One type of nonvolatile memory widely used in computers, memory cards, and the like, for its ability to electronically erase and store data, is flash memory.
Flash memory is categorized as either NOR or NAND type according to their memory cell structure. The NOR type flash memory connects two or more memory cells in parallel to each bit line, while the NAND type flash memory serially connects two or more memory cells to each bit line. The NOR type flash memory stores, or programs, data to memory cells using channel hot electron injection and erases data stored in memory cells using Fowler-Nordheim tunneling (F-N tunneling). The NAND type flash memory both stores and erases data in memory cells using F-N tunneling. With channel hot electron injection implementation, the NOR type flash memory programs cells more quickly than NAND type flash memory. A trade-off to this improved performance is that the NOR type flash memory dissipates more memory cell current adversely affecting large-scale integration.
To program or store data in NOR type flash memory, a program command, a program address, and program data are provided to the flash memory. The program command may indicate the type of operation to be performed on the flash memory, e.g., a program operation. The portion of the flash memory to be programmed is typically erased prior to execution of the programming operation, where erasing sets each erased memory cell to a first predetermined value, e.g., logic high or "1". The program address and program data may select memory cells to be programmed responsive to the program command. For instance, the program address may activate a word line and the program data may indicate which memory cell(s) coupled to the activated word line will be programmed. Typically a programming operation programs a second predetermined value, e.g., logic low or "0," to each selected memory cell and maintains the erased first predetermined value otherwise.
The flash memory internally designates a preset time for the completion of each programming operation. The program operation includes a verify operation for determining whether the program data is successfully programmed in each addressed memory cell. During the preset time, the programming and verify operations are repeated until the program data is programmed in each addressed memory cell.
To execute the programming operation, a program voltage corresponding to each second predetermined program data value (e.g., "0") is applied to each corresponding bit line. Since NOR type flash memory is programmed using channel hot electron injection, typically only 2 to 4 memory cells may be concurrently programmed by the program voltage during a single programming operation. For instance, when four memory cells may be synchronously programmed during a single program operation and when the program data is "1001101111110111", four programming operationsof"1001", "1011", "1111", and "0111" are required even though only four memory cells, e.g., those cells with a corresponding "0" in the program data, are physically being changed by the programming operations.
Therefore, the program time, or the time required to program the program data to the flash memory, is always uniform regardless of whether the program data is a first or second predetermined value.

Non-volatile memory device with scanning circuit and method


A new and distinct cultivar of Ageratum plant named ‘Sage80091’, characterized by its tall, upright and mounded plant habit; freely branching habit; dense and bushy plant habit; dark green-colored leaves; freely flowering habit with numerous inflorescences per plant; and inflorescences rayless with white-colored disc florets.

The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Ageratum plant, botanically known as Ageratum houstonianum and hereinafter referred to by the cultivar name 'Sage80091'.
The new Ageratum is a naturally-occurring whole plant mutation of the Ageratum houstonianum cultivar Bavaria, not patented. The new Ageratum was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a plant within a population of plants of the cultivar Bavaria in a controlled environment in Ter Aar, The Netherlands in 2001. The selection of the new Ageratum was based on its compact plant habit, strong plant growth, large inflorescences and attractive floret coloration.
Asexual reproduction of the new Ageratum by terminal cuttings in a controlled environment in Ter Aar, The Netherlands since October, 2002, has shown that the unique features of this new Ageratum are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.


A sleeve housing for a motor includes a bearing member, which includes a cylindrical portion and a collar portion and is formed by press working or by forging. The bearing member is retained by a retaining portion which is a portion of a cutting tool and which relatively rotates with respect to the cutting tool in a concentric manner with a predetermined rotation axis in order to execute a cutting process on a lower portion of the collar portion with reference to an upper portion thereof, so as to effectively form the sleeve housing with very high precision.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a manufacturing method of a bearing member used in a fluid dynamic bearing of a motor, and to a manufacturing method of a sleeve unit.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a recording disk drive device such as a hard disk drive includes a spindle motor (hereinafter, referred to as a "motor") for driving a recording disk. In recent years, there has been great demand for a motor including a bearing mechanism which utilizes a dynamic pressure. Such a bearing mechanism has a configuration in which a thrust bearing portion or a radial bearing portion utilizing a dynamic pressure of lubricating oil which is provided in a space between a shaft (and a portion connected thereto) and a sleeve or the like.
For example, a technology related to a thrust bearing portion having a configuration in which an annular shaped flange portion is provided at a top side of a sleeve housing surrounding the sleeve, and a top surface of the flange portion having formed thereon a plurality of dynamic pressure grooves and a bottom side of a rotor hub are opposed to one another has been disclosed. Also, a technology in which a bottom surface of the flange portion and a discoid member which is attached to the rotor hub are opposed to one another, whereby preventing the rotor hub from being pressured upward in an excessive manner while the motor is in motion, has been disclosed.
Also, a technology in which the annular shaped flange portion which is arranged between, in an axial direction, the bottom surface of the rotor hub and the top surface of the discoid member is provided at the top of the sleeve or the sleeve housing, wherein the sleeve housing is formed by press working, has been disclosed.
While the motor as described above is in motion, due to a floatation of the rotor hub, a minute gap will be generated between the top surface of the flange portion and the bottom surface of the rotor hub, and between the bottom surface of the flange portion and the top surface of the discoid member. Because the gaps are influential factors on the characteristics of the motor, the gaps are precisely designed, and therefore, a dimensional tolerance of an axial thickness of the flange portion used therein is extremely small.
Also, when the sleeve housing including the flange portion as described above is formed by press working, due to an abrasion of a die used therein, it becomes difficult to maintain a predetermined thickness for the flange portion in a continuous manner. Also, burrs formed at an edge of the flange portion during press working may have a negative impact on the characteristics of the motor. Also, there is a possibility that particles of metal powder of the flange portion after press working or those of a die assembly used during the process may be attached to the bottom surface of the flange portion, thereby contaminating the lubricating oil.

Manufacturing method of bearing member and manufacturing method of sleeve unit