An apparatus and method position a patient for rapid and effective endotracheal intubation. The apparatus includes a pillow, which has a plurality of independently inflatable and deflatable sections which may be grouped together to position a patient so that a pinna of an ear of the patient and a sternum of the patient are aligned in the same horizontal plane. The plurality of inflatable and deflatable sections include at least a back support section and a base support section, which, when grouped together, can lift an upper body of the patient in order to facilitate the positioning of the patient. When the plurality of sections are grouped for the aforementioned positioning of the patient, the base section is located beneath the back support section. The plurality of inflatable and deflatable sections may further include a head rest section and a head tilt adjustment section.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an inflatable pillow configured to facilitate the alignment of the oropharyngeal, laryngeal, and tracheal axes of the airway of an individual in the supine position prior to induction of anesthesia and placement of an endotracheal tube. The present invention also relates to a modification of the inflatable pillow to provide left lateral tilt of the uterus as well as facilitating endotracheal intubation in pregnant patients undergoing a Cesarean section.
2. Background of the Related Art
Obesity is an epidemic in the United States and is a leading cause of morbidity and premature mortality. It is estimated that 300,000 deaths a year are related to obesity and close to $100 billion are spent on obesity-related health care costs. Obesity is a chronic condition associated with several comorbid disorders such as hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, and sleep apnea. In the United States, the prevalence has been increasing over the past several decades and in recent published US data (1999 to 2000), 67% of men and 62% of women are overweight. Further, 28% of men and 34% of women are considered obese with 5-7% in the morbidly obese category. The overweight population represents a large segment of the surgical caseload and presents significant challenges to the anesthesiologist, particularly during endotracheal intubation.
One of the most important tasks of an anesthesiologist is the management of the patient's airway during the administration of anesthesia. In order to maximize visualization of the larynx during endotracheal intubation, the anesthesiologist must place the patient's head and upper back in the "sniffing" position to properly align the oropharyngeal, laryngeal, and tracheal axes. The obese patient presents a challenge for proper alignment because of excess tissue in the upper back, neck, and oral pharynx.
Physiological changes occurring during pregnancy further complicate airway management in the pregnant patient. Fluid retention, weight gain, enlarged breasts, incompetent lower esophageal-gastric sphincter and friable mucosal tissue all add to the difficulty of visualization of the larynx during endotracheal intubation. Accordingly, failed intubation during anesthetic induction occurs almost ten times more frequently in pregnant patients than in non-pregnant surgical patients.
Endotracheal intubation is a medical procedure in which an endotracheal tube is inserted through the oral cavity into the trachea to provide controlled or spontaneous ventilation and to protect the lungs from gastric acid contamination. This protection is provided by a balloon on the tip of the tube that is inflated when the tube is in the proper location above the carina. Prior to the induction of anesthesia, a pillow or pad is placed under the patient's head to elevate the head above the shoulders in the "sniffing" position. This "sniffing" position helps align the oropharyngeal, laryngeal, and tracheal axes and facilitates the placement of the endotracheal tube into the trachea. After anesthetic induction, the anesthesiologist or nurse anesthetist places a laryngoscope blade into the mouth, the tongue and jaw are slightly elevated, the trachea and vocal cords are visualized and the endotracheal tube is introduced through the mouth into the trachea. The laryngoscope blade is then removed, the tube balloon is inflated, and proper ventilation of the lungs is confirmed. This procedure is typically carried out in the operating room. However, it is also performed in emergency situations outside of the operating room such as the emergency room, hospital room, or at the scene of accidents.
When the obese patient is supine on the operating table, a standard pillow or pad does not elevate the neck and head adequately above the shoulders to provide the necessary "sniffing" position. As a result, a known current regimen involves placing several layers of blankets under the upper back, neck, and head of the patient to create a ramp in order to elevate an obese patient's upper body so that the pinna of the ear and the sternum are in the same horizontal plane. This may require ten to fifteen blankets in the morbidly obese patient. Although this method of support is efficacious, there are several disadvantages. First, health care professionals are put at risk for injuries as a result of lifting the obese patient for pre-induction blanket positioning as well as lifting the patient to remove the blankets after intubation. Blankets must also be removed so that the patient's shoulders and arms are level with each other in order to minimize the risk of a brachial plexus stretch injury. In addition, the endotracheal tube may become dislodged while lifting the patient to remove the blankets. Further, the cost of laundering the large number of blankets used in each case is significant. Moreover, it is difficult and time-consuming to adjust the blanket placement for proper positioning after the patient is on the operating room table.
The pregnant patient undergoing a Cesarean section, or other surgical procedure, presents two major concerns to the anesthesiologist. In addition to the physiological changes that occur during pregnancy that increase the risk of a difficult intubation, the enlarged, gravid uterus can partially obstruct the venous return to the heart by compressing the inferior vena cava if the patient is left in the supine position on the operating room table. This syndrome can cause a 25-30% decrease in cardiac output resulting in maternal hypotension and decreased blood flow to the fetus. In order to alleviate the decrease in venous return, the right side of the pregnant patient is tilted up 15-30 degrees to the left side of the patient to move the uterus away from the inferior vena cava. Presently, this "left lateral tilt" is obtained by either placing a liter saline bag under the right side or manually inflating a bladder bag under the patient's right side. The former method is non-adjustable and does not allow adequate tilt in large patients. The latter method is burdensome and time-consuming during the critical part of pre-induction preparation and oxygenation.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved device that allows for specific adjustments in the position of a patient's upper back, neck and head to obtain the best alignment of the oropharyngeal, laryngeal, and tracheal axes in obese and pregnant patients so that endotracheal intubation can be performed quickly with minimal trauma to patients. There also exists a need for a device that prevents injury to health care professionals performing endotracheal intubation by eliminating the need to lift obese patients before and after induction of anesthesia. There is a further need for a device that allows anesthesiologists to quickly and adequately obtain a left lateral tilt in pregnant patients irrespective of the patient's anatomy.

Apparatus and method to position a patient for airway management and endotracheal intubation


A multi-user receiving apparatus is provided for achieving a reduction in the amount of processing for single-carrier FDMA signals and an improvement in reception characteristics. A DFT unit converts single-carrier FDMA received signals of all users to signals in a frequency domain commonly. A demapping unit selects part of sub-carriers for each user from sub-carriers supplied from the DFT unit. A reception filter separates a user signal and suppresses noise. A demodulator demodulates the user signal, and detects a timing thereof.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multi-user receiving apparatus for use in a base station with which a plurality of mobile stations each assigned to a respective use simultaneously communicate in accordance with a single-carrier frequency division multiple access scheme.
2. Description of the Related Art
In an uplink radio system for next-generation mobile communication packet access, importance is attached to a high transmission power efficiency of terminals, and radio transmissions free of interference between users who simultaneously make accesses, in order to expand communication areas. As a radio scheme that satisfies these requirements, a frequency division multiple access (FDMA) scheme which employs a single carrier (SC) having a low peak to average power ratio (PAPR), has been under consideration. The SC-FDMA scheme divides a frequency band of a system into sub-bands, each of which is utilized by multiple users. Each user performs a single carrier transmission having a band that is variable in accordance with a required transmission rate. A feature of the SC-FDMA scheme is that each of the user signals is not subjected to interference because of their different carrier frequencies, and the scheme is therefore suitable for packet transmissions which are difficult to apply a highly accurate transmission power control, as compared with a code division multiple access (CDMA) and the like. FIG. 1 shows a frequency spectrum of a SC-FDMA signal when three users U1, U2, U3, for example, make simultaneous accesses.
FIG. 3 illustrates a block diagram of a conventional, typical receiving apparatus for SC-FDMA signals. The conventional SC-FDMA signal receiving apparatus comprises K (where K is an integer not less than one) user receivers 101-k (where 1≦k≦K), each being associated with respective users. Each user receiver 101-k converts the frequency of an SC-FDMA received signal, and filters and demodulates the frequency-converted SC-FDMA signal. Each user receiver 101-k is comprised of frequency converter 102, reception filter 103, and demodulator 104. Frequency converter 102 is supplied with a SC-FDMA received signal, and converts the carrier of each user signal to a zero frequency. Reception filter 103 limits the band of each user signal to separate the user signal and suppress noise. As reception filter 103, a raised cosine roll-off filter is typically used. Demodulator 104 performs such processing as timing detection, transmission channel estimation and equalization, and outputs a demodulated signal. A variety of methods may be employed to demodulate a single-carrier signal. For example, consideration is given to using a frequency domain equalizer which can significantly reduce the amount of processing, by performing multi-path equalization through frequency-domain signal processing (D. Falconer, S. L. Ariyavisitakul, A. Benyamin-Seeyar, and B. Didson, "Frequency Domain Equalization for Single-Carrier Broadband Wireless Systems," IEEE Comun. Mag., vol. 40, no. 4, pp. 58-66, April 2002.).
FIG. 2 shows an exemplary format for a packet signal when a frequency domain equalizer is used. The packet signal is made up of a plurality of blocks, each of which contains a pilot or data. In the illustrated example, the first block contains a pilot signal, followed by a plurality of sequential blocks each containing a data signal. A guard interval (GI) is provided at the beginning of each block in order to avoid multi-path interference from a previous block during DFT (Discrete Fourier Transform) processing. As the GI, a cyclic prefix is typically used which adds the last data in each block to the top thereof.
Demodulator 104 comprises delay profile generator 105, timing detector 106, transmission channel estimator 107, serial/parallel (S/P) converter 108, DFT unit 109, weight calculation unit 110, guard interval (GI) remover 111, S/P converter 112, DFT unit 113, equalizing filter 114, inverse discrete Fourier transform (IDFT) unit 115, and parallel/serial (P/S) converter 116. Delay profile generator 105 receives a signal, the band of which has been limited by reception filter 103, and generates a delay profile based on a detected sliding correlation of a pilot signal multiplexed on the received signal to a known pilot code. Timing detector 106 receives the delay profile generated by delay profile generator 105, and detects timings of a plurality of paths, at higher levels, including a timing of the first path. The timing of the first path is used for controlling a DFT timing, and the timing of other paths is used for estimating each transmission channel. Transmission channel estimator 107 is supplied with the received signal, the band of which has been limited by reception filter 103, and with path timings detected by timing detector 106. Transmission channel estimator 107 then estimates a transmission channel estimate for each path using a pilot signal included in the received signal S/P converter 108 performs a serial to parallel conversion of a transmission channel response sequence that is an alignment of the transmission channel estimates for respective paths on a time axis. DFT unit 109 receives the transmission channel response sequence converted by S/P converter 108, and outputs a transmission channel estimate converted into a frequency domain. Weight calculation unit 110 receives the transmission channel estimate output from DFT unit 109, and calculates weight for an equalizing filter in accordance with a minimum mean square error (MMSE) method, a zero forcing method or the like. GI remover 111 is supplied with the received signal, the band of which has been limited by reception filter 103, and with the DFT timings detected by timing detector 016, and GI remover 111 removes a portion of the received signal corresponding to GI. S/P converter 112 performs a serial to parallel conversion of the received signal, from which the GI has been removed by GI remover 111. DFT unit 113 receives the received signal converted by S/P converter 112, and converts the received signal into a frequency domain. Equalizing filter 114 receives the received signal, which has been converted into the frequency domain, and the equalization weight calculated by weight calculation unit 110, and multiplies the received signal by the equalization weight for each sub-carrier to equalize the received signal. IDFT unit 115 receives the equalized signal in the frequency domain output from equalizing filter 114, and performs IDFT on the equalized signal for conversion into a time domain. P/S converter 116 performs a parallel to serial conversion of the equalized signal converted into the time domain to generate a demodulated signal.
The conventional SC-FDMA signal receiving apparatus shown in FIG. 3 is problematic in that processing in frequency converter 102 and processing in reception filter 103 which is required to accomplish a variable bandwidth are made complicated by the increase of users. Additionally, the method of performing timing detection and transmission channel estimation using a detected correlation with pilot codes in the time domain is problematic in that it requires a large amount of processing, and the reception characteristics are degraded due to the influence of multi-path interference.

Multi-user receiving apparatus converting SC-FDMA received signals of all users to signals in a frequency domain commonly


A method for estimating a fly screen effect of an image capture unit is described, having a plurality of image sensors for providing an item of light intensity information. The method includes a step of determining an image property of an item of image information, based on a plurality of items of light intensity information and on a plurality of parameters, each of the plurality of parameters being associated with each of the plurality of image sensors. This method also includes a step of ascertaining a plurality of parameter values for the plurality of parameters, in which the image property is at least made to approximate an ideal image property, the plurality of parameters representing the fly screen effect in a model of the image capture unit.

Methods of correcting the fly screen effect are sufficiently well known in the industries of modern display equipment design and modern image capture. In most applications, however, the fly screen effect (English and technical literature: also fixed pattern noise, FPN) is estimated during manufacture and additionally or alternatively in a separate laboratory environment.
A few scene-based methods for reducing the fly screen effect are also found in scientific publications, e.g., in R. C. Hardie, M. M. Hayat, E. Armstrong and B. Yasuda, "Scene-based nonuniformity correction with video sequences and registration," Optical Society of America, Applied Optics No. 8, vol. 39, pp. 1241-1250, 2000 or in United States Published Patent Appln. No. 2009/0257679. However, the methods used there are based mainly on the assessment of the optical flow or other methods and sequences closely related thereto.

Method and device for estimating a fly screen effect of an image capture unit


A screenings washer having a hopper, a grinder downstream of the hopper, and a washer downstream of the grinder. The washer includes an auger rotor that receives the screenings ground by the grinder, a spray wash system that sprays a wash fluid directly onto a portion of said auger rotor and the ground screenings, a perforated trough, and tubular casing directly coupled to the discharge end of said auger rotor and having a severe bend proximate to the discharge end of said auger rotor. The severe bend partially obstructing transportation of the ground screenings transported by said auger rotor so as form a compaction zone that compacts and de-waters the ground screenings.

The demand for improved screenings treatment systems to process screenings from waste water continues to increase, with the demand being greatest for screenings treatment systems that are compact, that have low installation and maintenance costs, and that process screenings to produce a clean, odorless discharge with a significantly reduced volume for lower transport and landfill costs.
One such screenings treatment system developed by JWC ENVIRONMENTAL is the SCREENINGS WASHER SYSTEM. This system includes a hopper, a grinder disposed beneath the hopper, and an inclined wash system beginning below the grinder and extending upwards beyond the hopper. The wash system includes an inclined auger rotor, a spray wash system, and an inclined screen that are housed in a straight discharge tubular structure. In operation, the hopper receives screenings captured by a bar screen and gravity feeds the screenings to the grinder for solids reduction. The ground screenings are then gravity fed to the wash system. Softer organics (such as fecal material) and wash fluid from the spray wash system pass through openings in the inclined screen. The unwanted solids are captured and transported upwards by the auger to the discharge end of the tubular structure for disposal. The soft organics and the wash fluid are returned to the plant's waste stream.
Since the SCREENINGS WASHER SYSTEM is a "pull" type system that uses an inclined auger to wash and transport the screenings, the discharged screenings are fragmented, and, therefore, take up considerable space compared to compacted screenings that are formed into plugs. Furthermore, the inclined washer results in a system that requires a relatively large space.
WO 93/02800 discloses a screenings treatment system that includes a hopper, a coarse material separator disposed in the hopper, a mechanical reduction unit disposed below the hopper, a mixing trough with a horizontal mixer and a wash fluid sprayer disposed below the mechanical reduction unit, a de-watering and compaction unit adjacent the mixing trough, and a discharge pipe coupled to a discharge end of the de-watering and compaction unit.
In operation, the hopper receives screenings onto the coarse material separator, which removes coarse material. The remaining screenings are fed into the mechanical reduction unit, which shears the screenings. The sheared screenings are received by the mixing trough overflowing with water sprayed from wash fluid sprayer. The horizontal mixer swirls the water and the screenings to wash the screenings and dissolve the soluble matter contained therein. The dissolved soluble matter and screenings near the top of the mixing trough are carried by the overflowing water over an overflow edge of the mixing trough and into the de-watering and compaction unit. The de-watering and compaction unit includes a conveyor and de-watering screw arranged inside a screen housing that discharges liquid into a drain. The conveyor and de-watering screw transports the washed screenings that remain in the screen housing to an axial end of the screen housing. There, the end of the conveyor and the de-watering screw projects into the discharge pipe. The discharge pipe is curved upwards and rises up to an elbow whose discharge end is located above a container for final disposal. The screenings transported into the discharge pipe form a friction plug in the pipe. This causes the screenings to be compacted and simultaneously de-watered.
One disadvantage with the screenings washer system disclosed in WO 93/02800 is the provision of the mixing trough with its own horizontal mixer and wash fluid sprayer and the separate de-watering and compaction unit adjacent the mixing trough. This complicates the system significantly, requiring an additional motor to operate the horizontal mixer. In addition, the mixing trough operates on the principle that the screenings will overflow from the top edge of the trough. However, in reality, screenings may collect at the bottom of the mixing trough. Furthermore, since the fluid sprayer sprays into the mixing trough and not onto the screw and screen housing, the screw and screen housing are not continuously washed with clean water, thereby adding to the maintenance costs.
This invention is directed to an improved screenings washer that overcomes one or more of the problems set forth above.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


In an electronic mail system, an apparatus and method for providing, in addition to the conventional “Inbox” directory in which all incoming e-mails are normally received, a plurality of appropriately labeled directories for containing e-mails suspected of being spam, grading the level of spaminess of the incoming e-mails and then moving or copying the incoming e-mails into one or more of the spam directories based upon the e-mails' respective levels of spaminess.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to processing unsolicited electronic mail. More particularly, this invention relates to classifying electronic mail into multiple directories based upon their spam-like properties.
2. Description of the Background Art
Electronic mail ("e-mail") is a common form of communication for many individuals and most organizations throughout the world. Unfortunately however, e-mail recipients are often the targets of unsolicited mass mailings sent by mass marketers offering their products or services. Reminiscent of excessive mass solicitations via postal services, facsimile transmissions and telephone calls, an e-mail recipient may receive hundreds of unsolicited e-mails over a short period of time. Similar to the task of handling "junk" postal mail and faxes, an e-mail recipient must laboriously sift through his or her incoming mail simply to sort out the unsolicited "junk" e-mail from legitimate e-mails. Such unsolicited "junk" e-mail is in common parlance referred to as "spam".
Many vendors of electronic mail servers, as well as many third-party vendors, offer spam-blocking software to detect, label and sometimes automatically remove spam. Presently, there exist many methods for detecting, labeling and removing spam. Representative methods are taught in the following U.S. patents, the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference herein:
Pat. No.Title5,999,932System and Method for Filtering Unsolicited ElectronicMail Messages Using Data Matching and HeuristicProcessing6,023,723Method and System for Filtering Unwanted Junk E-MailUtilizing a Plurality of Filtering Mechanisms6,029,164Method and Apparatus for Organizing and AccessingElectronic Mail Messages Using Labels and full Text andLabel Indexing6,092,101Method for Filtering Mail Messages for a Plurality of ClientComputers Connected to a Mail Service System6,161,130Technique Which Utilizes a Probalistic Classifier to Detect"Junk" E-Mail by Automatically Updating A Training andRe-Training the Classifier Based on the Updated TrainingList6,167,434Computer Code for Removing Junk E-Mail Messages6,199,102Method and System for Filtering Electronic Messages6,249,805Method and System for Filtering Unauthorized ElectronicMail Messages6,266,692Method for Blocking All Unwanted E-Mail (Spam) Using aHeader-Based Password6,324,569Self-Removing Email Verified or Designated as Such by aMessage Distributor for the Convenience of a Recipient6,330,590Preventing Delivery of Unwanted Bulk E-Mail6,421,709E-Mail Filter and Method Thereof6,484,197Filtering Incoming E-Mail6,487,586Self-Removing Email Verified or Designated as Such by aMessage Distributor for the Convenience of a Recipient6,493,007Method and Device for Removing Junk E-Mail Messages6,654,787Method and Apparatus for Filtering E-Mail
As taught by several of the above-referenced patents, there exist spam filters that grade the spaminess of incoming e-mail by processing the e-mail for spam-like properties along a scale (e.g. 0-100) and if the incoming e-mail is graded to have a spaminess level above a predetermined numeric threshold (e.g., above 80), the e-mail is automatically moved from the recipient's Inbox into a spam directory. Ideally, all of the spam will be moved to the spam directory, thereby obviating the need for the recipient to read the e-mail in the spam directory. As used herein, the term "spaminess" may include undesired or unsolicited e-mails determined on a variety of objective and subjective scales including but not limited to politics, pornography and marketing scams.
Many algorithms exist for processing incoming e-mail and grading the spaminess of the e-mail. Some representative algorithms are taught in the foregoing patents whereas others are taught in the following publications, the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference herein.
Hooman Katirai, Filtering Junk E-Mail: A Performance Comparisonbetween Genetic Programming and Naïve Bayes, Sep. 10, 1999.Jefferson Provost, Naïve-Bayes vs. Rule-Learning in Classification ofEmail, Technical Report AI-TR-99-284.Mehran Sahami, Susan Dumais, David Heckerman & Eric Horvitz, ABayesian Approach to Filtering Junk E-Mail, www.paulgram.comPaul Graham, Stopping Spam, August 2003, www.paulgram.comPaul Graham, So Far So Good, August 2003, www.paulgram.comPaul Graham, Filters That Fight Back, August 2003, www.paulgram.comPaul Graham, Better Bayesian Filtering, January, 2003,www.paulgram.com
Unfortunately, it is often the case that the predetermined threshold, coupled with the inherent inaccuracies of the algorithm employed for grading of the incoming e-mail for spaminess, results in some e-mail being misclassified as spam when it is not, or visa versa. Obviously, as incoming mail is assigned a high score based upon its level of spaminess, the likelihood of classifying incoming e-mail as spam increases as the threshold is decreased. However, this disadvantageously results in a greater likelihood of non-spam e-mails being misclassified as spam and consequently being overlooked and not read by the recipient. Conversely, increasing the threshold decreases the chance that non-spam e-mails are misclassified as spam.
The use of a spaminess threshold thus results in a paradox of being, on the one hand, too guarded of potentially misclassifying non-spam e-mails as spam by raising the threshold too high whereupon a significant number of spam e-mails would fail to be identified as spam and remain in the recipient's Inbox and, on the other hand, being too aggressive by reducing the threshold resulting in non-spam e-mails being classified as spam. Consequently, the recipient is often faced with the dilemma of having an inbox with significant amounts of spam or having to frequently scan the presumed spam e-mail in the spam directory to verify that a legitimate e-mail was not improperly moved to the spam directory.
Therefore, it is an object of this invention to provide an improvement which overcomes the aforementioned inadequacies of the prior art and provides an improvement which is a significant contribution to the advancement of the art of filtering spam.
Another object of this invention is to provide an apparatus and method for handling incoming e-mail based upon the e-mail's spam-like properties.
Another object of this invention is to provide an apparatus and method for grading incoming e-mail for spaminess and, based upon the e-mail's spaminess grade, moving the incoming e-mail to at least one of a plurality of appropriately labeled directories.
The foregoing has outlined some of the pertinent objects of the invention. These objects should be construed to be merely illustrative of some of the more prominent features and applications of the intended invention. Many other beneficial results can be attained by applying the disclosed invention in a different manner or modifying the invention within the scope of the disclosure. Accordingly, other objects and a fuller understanding of the invention may be had by referring to the summary of the invention and the detailed description of the preferred embodiment in addition to the scope of the invention defined by the claims taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Classification of electronic mail into multiple directories based upon their spam-like properties

International Business Machines Corporation


Disclosed herewith is a load controller and waist strengthening and rehabilitating apparatus using the same. In the apparatus, a support unit is constructed by assembling all or some of a footrest, a backrest, a pedestal, a handle and related frames. The waist exercises are conducted utilizing a backrest frame operated in conjunction with a load controller with the lower part of his body being fixed to the support unit. The apparatus further comprises lower body holding means mounted on said support unit, said lower body holding means being comprised of a front thigh holder for tightly holding the front portion of the thigh and a rear thigh holder for tightly holding the rear portion of the thigh.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to waist strengthening and rehabilitating apparatuses for strengthening and rehabilitating the waist including the lumbar vertebrae and the lumbar muscles, and more particularly to a waist strengthening and rehabilitating apparatus and load controller used in conjunction with the apparatus to produce desired load by controlling the flow direction and amount of working fluid.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Generally, around the waist region, the pelvis is connected to the vertebrae and two hip.joints are connected to the pelvis. Various lumbar muscles are connected to both pelvis and vertebrae, so that the pelvis can conduct movement relative to the vertebrae.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,928,112 discloses one of conventional waist strengthening and rehabilitating apparatuses that are used to strengthen or rehabilitate the waist.
However, the conventional waist strengthening and rehabilitating apparatus has a problem in a user's performing bending exercises in which the user sits up upright from a position where the waist is bent while the lower part of his body is firmly held by a thigh holding belt, as described below.
As shown in FIG. 1, the lower part of the body including the pelvis 1 is tightly held by the conventional apparatus in such a way that the knee 4 is raised up by a footrest 10 pushing the feet and the center portion of the thigh 3 is tied around al seat plate 12 by a belt 11 to bring the pelvis 1 into contact with the seat plate 12. However, in accordance with the conventional apparatus, only the femur 7 is tightly held by the belt 11, while the pelvis 1 is movable forward and rearward.
In more detail, in the conventional waist strengthening and rehabilitating apparatus, the knee 4 is raised up by elevating the footrest 10 from a position where the rear portion of the pelvis 1 is supported by a pelvis support 13, the feet 6 rest on the footrest 10 and a knee support 14 is situated at a proper height. As a result, the knee 4 is brought into contact with the knee support 14, but the lower portion of the thigh 3 becomes spaced apart from the seat plate 12. In this state, the center portion of the thigh 3 is tightly tied by the wide belt 11 to bring the pelvis 1 into contact with the seat plate 12.
When the center portion of the thigh is downwardly pushed by the belt 11, the waist seems to be tightly held by the conventional strengthening and rehabilitating apparatus, since the pelvis 1 is brought into contact with the seat plate 1 and the rear portion of the pelvis 1 is supported by the pelvis support 13. However, only the femur 7 is tightly held by the belt 11 and the pelvis 1 is movable forward and rearward, so that the pelvis 1 can be rotated around the hip joint 2, thus causing the lower part of the body to be somewhat freely movable.
Additionally, the rear portion of the pelvis 1 seems to be supported by the pelvis support 13, but shock absorbing space exists between the rear portion of the pelvis 1 and the pelvis support 13. Accordingly, this cannot be called a safe holding from the medical point of view.
When the center portion of the thigh 3 is tightly held by the belt 11 with the knee raised up by the footrest 10 pushing the feet 6, the pelvis 1 is brought into tight contact with the seat plate 12, but space is created between the thigh 3 and the seat plate 12. The space allows the thigh 3 to be moved, so that the thigh 3 is not tightly held by the apparatus.
In practice, when a user performs bending exercises in which he sits up straight from a position where the waist is bent, force resulting from the bending exercises is transmitted to feet through the pelvis 1, the femur 7 and the calf 5. The force exerted on the footrest 10 is increased in proportion to the force applied by a user. The sequential transmission of the reaction proceeding from the pelvis 1 to the feet 6 means that the bones and joints ranging from the pelvis 1 to the feet 6 are not properly held by the apparatus.
Though the waist seems to be tightly held by the conventional waist strengthening and rehabilitating apparatus because feet are laid on the footrest 10 and the buttocks is supported by the pelvis support 13, shock absorbing space exists between the pelvis 1 and the pelvis support 13. Consequently, the pelvis 1 should be moved rearward till the pelvis. 1 is brought into tight contact with the pelvis support 13, and the belt is tightened correspondingly.
The belt 11 is tightened to the center portion of the thigh 3. As a result, it is difficult for the pelvis 1 to be brought into contact with the seat plate 12 and a user may experience pain in his thigh caused by the tightening of the belt 11 so as to bring the pelvis 1 into the seat plate 12.
When a user performs bending exercises in which he sits up straight from a position where the waist is bent, force exerted on the footrest 10 and the tightness of the belt 11 are increased in proportion to force applied by the user. These prove that the waist is not held properly.
The holding of the lower part of the body should be performed so as to suppress the movement of the lower part, since force resulting from the bending exercises of the upper part of the body is exerted to the lower part, causing the lower part to move. However, the conventional waist strengthening and rehabilitating apparatus does not prevent the lower part from moving due to force resulting from the bending exercises of the upper part.
The lumbar vertebrae constituting the principal element of the waist consists of a plurality of vertebrae directly connected to one another without the aid of an additional support bone, and spinal nerves pass through the lumbar vertebrae, so that the lower part of the body including the pelvis should be tightly held during waist exercises. However, in the conventional waist strengthening and rehabilitating apparatus, the knees are held by a holding plate and the center portion of the thighs are tied to a seat by a belt, so that strengthening or rehabilitating effect is poor and accidents such as the fracture of a bone may occur in the case of the elderly and osteoporosis sufferers.
In addition, the conventional waist strengthening and rehabilitating apparatus has shortcomings in that it is difficult for a user to recognize the degree of tightness of the thigh holding belt and the thigh holding belt cannot be rapidly loosened in case of excessive tightening. When pain is excessive during strengthening or rehabilitation or preparation therefor, the thigh holding belt is not easily loosened, thereby causing a problem in safety.

Waist strengthening and rehabilitating apparatus and load controller therefor


An air conditioning system is disclosed employing a common plenum in which an evaporator airflow passage is formed through an inner side wall and out through a top wall and a condenser airflow passage is formed through a bottom wall and out through an outer side wall. Dual stage operation is provided by a pair of evaporator coils which are interleaved about a common evaporator core, and by a pair of condenser coils which are interleaved about a common condenser core.

As used herein, the term "recreational vehicle" broadly refers to mobile homes, motor homes, travel trailers, fifth wheelers, recreational vans and the like. Air refrigeration and conditioning may be provided by a compressor/condenser/evaporator unit mounted internally or externally of such vehicles. The air conditioning unit for some recreational vehicles is mounted on the roof of the vehicle. An opening is made in the roof for delivering conditioned air from the evaporator coil of the air conditioner to the interior of the vehicle. Other recreational vehicles have a window mounted air conditioner unit or an internal floor mounted evaporator console with an external compressor/condenser.
The recreational van is a multiple purpose vehicle which is especially popular among couples and families with small children. It makes an excellent camping rig for weekends and short vacations. To overcome rising construction costs and fuel costs, the trend in van construction has been toward smaller van body sizes. Accordingly, the location and space for an air conditioning unit must be carefully planned and allocated in the construction of modern recreational vehicles.

Air conditioning system for a recreational vehicle


The present invention relates to an injection device comprising a housing (10, 100), a container holder (12) arranged within said housing having a container (20) adapted to contain medicament to be delivered through a needle, plunger drive means (40), an energy accumulating member (80) adapted to accumulate and transfer energy to said plunger drive means wherein said device further comprises container driver means (30) arranged and designed to be connected to the plunger drive means and to the container holder for holding the container and its needle stationary within said housing before said energy is provided to the drive means and for urging the container towards the proximal end of the device when said energy is provided to the drive means whereby a needle penetration and respectively an injection are performed.

The present invention relates to injection devices for injecting medicament in fluid form having high viscosity which means that these devices require high forces in order to press the fluid through a needle when injecting the medicament.
Auto-injectors, or pen-injectors have been on the market for many years. One of the first auto-injectors was developed for war-times, which was activated by pressing the injector against a body part for activating it. The main concern was to have the medicament injected as fast as possible, without much concern for the patient or for handling safety aspects. During the recent years some medicaments have been developed such that these have to be injected by the patients themselves. Therefore, depending on the intended use and type of medicament, it has also been developed injection devices having a varying degree of automatic functions to facilitate the injection of medicaments in a reliable and safe way for patients and even for trained personnel; e.g. physicians, nurses.
Auto-injector devices having an automated injection function often comprises a housing, a spirally wound compression spring acting on a plunger rod which in its turn acts on a stopper inside a medicament container for expelling the medicament through an attached needle to the container. Normally, one end of the spring is often abutting an inner end surface of the housing, which means that the housing has to be dimensioned to the force of the spring. When fluids with high viscosity are to be injected using an auto-injector, high forces are required to expel the medicament through a fine needle. Consequently, the spring becomes very large both regarding the diameter of the wound spring and also the diameter of the thread of the wire. The size of the spring means that the device becomes large, and for some applications and customers, such sizes of the devices are not acceptable.
A solution to said problem is disclosed in document EP 1 728 529 which discloses a medicament delivery device arranged with an energy accumulating member, e.g. a flat spiral spring, capable of providing an output torque to a plunger rod driving member which is adapted to engage a threaded plunger rod. The rotation of the plunger rod driving member due to the output torque of the spring rotates the plunger rod and allows said rod to be driven forwardly within a medicament container for expelling said medicament. When said device is used as an injection device; a user e.g. a patient, a physician or trained personal; has to penetrate the needle manually. Though, said device comprises a needle shield sleeve for activating the injection step and for covering the needle after the medicament has been injected, some users experience this manually penetration as an unpleasant step.
A solution to this problem is disclosed in document U.S. Pat. No. 5,104,380 which discloses an injection device having a rotatable dose metering cap which compresses a coil spring. When a dose is to be injected, a latch body is pressed against an injection site such that a compression spring can be decompressed for performing an auto-penetration. That action also brings a drive gear out of engagement permitting the coil spring to unwind and thereby rotating a drive plunger rod. Said rotational movement is accompanied by axial movement to cause medicament to be discharged from a cartridge and injected through a needle. This design cannot be utilised when larger forces for injecting a high viscous medicament are required. This design also requires an extra latch body comprising an extra spring for auto-penetration, which increases the physical size and manufacturing cost for such device.

Automatic injection device with needle insertion


An indoor unit of an air-conditioning apparatus includes a heat-medium heat exchanger, an air vent valve, a drain pan, and a hose. The heat-medium heat exchanger is provided in a housing to cause heat exchange to be performed between a heat medium and indoor air. The air vent valve allows air to escape from a heat medium passage that allows the heat medium to flow in the heat-medium heat exchanger. The drain pan is provided below the heat-medium heat exchanger to receive condensation water generated at a surface of the heat-medium heat exchanger. The hose has flexibility, and is attached to the air vent valve, and provided to let out the air along with the heat medium from the heat medium passage to the inner space in the drain pan. The hose has a double-wall structure and an upper end portion of the hose is fixed to the air vent valve.

Conventionally, for example, when an indoor unit is installed, air is mixed in a heat medium in a heat medium passage. As a result, in a heat-medium heat exchanger, the flow of the heat medium is obstructed, or the efficiency of heat exchange is reduced. As a countermeasure against such a problem, air in the heat medium passage is escaped from the heat medium passage.
In an air escape from the heat medium passage, air that flows in an air-vent hose connected to an air vent valve that is in an opened state is caused to escape along with a heat medium from the heat medium passage. A distal end of a lower end portion of the hose is accommodated in a drain pan that is provided to receive condensed water generated from the heat-medium heat exchanger during the operation of the indoor unit. Thus, the heat medium that flows along with the air out of the heat medium passage during the air escape is collected in the inner space in the drain pan, and is then made to flow out of the drain pan to the outside of the indoor unit.
The number of hoses prepared for the above purpose is one (see, for example, Patent Literature 1).

Indoor unit of air-conditioning apparatus and air-conditioning apparatus


An integrated power supply device and a power supplying method for controlling power supply to a computer system having a main computer body and a monitor. The integrated power supply device includes a wake-up sensor for generating a wake-up signal when the computer system is in use; a power supply controller responsive to said wake-up sensor to control the power supply to the monitor and the main computer body; a power input unit connected to an external power source to transform an alternating current voltage received from the external power source into a constant direct current voltage; a monitor power supply unit responsive to the power supply controller to transform the constant direct current voltage output from the power input unit into a first predetermined voltage and to supply the first predetermined voltage to the monitor for operation; a main body power supply unit responsive to the power supply controller to transform the constant direct current voltage output from the power input unit into a second predetermined voltage and to supply the second predetermined voltage to the main computer body for operation; and a subsidiary power supply unit coupled to the power input unit to transform the constant direct current voltage output from the power input unit into a third predetermined voltage and to supply the third predetermined voltage to the power supply controller for controlling the power supply to the monitor and the main computer body to minimize power consumption.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a power supply device and a power supplying process for a computer system, and more particularly, to a power supply device for efficiently supplying power from a central power supply source to a main computer system and the monitor.
2. Background Art
Conventional personal computer systems generally consist of a main unit (which may have built-in storage devices such as floppy disks, hard disks and CD-ROM), a keyboard and a monitor. The main unit may also be connected to a printer and other peripheral devices. In normal usage, it is common for the monitor and other peripherals to be turned on and to remain on for as long as the computer is running, even though the peripherals are actually used only a small percentage of the time. A typical color video monitor, for example, may consume as such as 50 to 80 percent of the total electrical energy consumed by a personal computer (PC). If the monitor consumes valuable energy only to remain idle, not only the valuable energy resources will be wasted but the life of the monitor will decrease rapidly. Obviously, power can be conserved if the user turn the computer system off or utilizes a standby mode each time the computer system is no longer in use for an extended period. This requirement is, however, impractical. Therefore, a system should be designed to automatically conserve valuable energy resources when the computer system is not in use.
In principle, automatically saving energy by turning off the computer system is fairly easy. Portable computers such as laptop computers disclosed, for example in U.S. Pat. No. 4,980,836 for Apparatus For Reducing Computer System Power Consumption issued to Carter et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,163,124 for Method And Apparatus For Controlling Power To Device In A Computer System issued to Yabe et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,218,704 for Real-Time Power Conservation For Portable Computers issued to Watt, Jr. et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 5,249,298 for Battery-Initiated Touch-Sensitive Power-Up issued to Bolan et al., contain such power saving features for several years. Typically, the portable computer is invariably designed so that if there is no activity from the keyboard or from other external inputs during a specified time, the computer system is turned off or placed in a standby mode to save energy. Only minimal logic is kept active to detect when the keyboard or other external inputs are becoming active again so as to turn the computer system back on. In portable computers, this power saving feature is fairly simple to implement, since the monitor display is integrated with the computer system. However, for normal desktop personal computers in which a monitor is physically separated from the main computer unit, turning off the external monitor automatically from the main computer unit is much more difficult because most monitor systems are based on standardized data protocols such as VGA, EGA, MGA and CGA that contain no special lines or special commands to turn the power on or off.
Conventional power saving features for normal personal computers having monitors as separate items are disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,059,961 for Screen Blanker For A Monitor Of A Computer System issued to Cheng, U.S. Pat. No. 5,375,245 for Apparatus For Automatically Reducing The Power Consumption Of A CRT Computer Monitor issued to Solhjell et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,389,952 for Low-Power-Consumption Monitor Standby System issued to Kikinis, U.S. Pat. No. 5,408,668 for Method And Apparatus For Controlling The Provision Of Power To Computer Peripherals issued to Tornai, and recent U.S. Pat. No. 5,483,464 for Power Saving Apparatus For Use In Peripheral Equipment Of A Computer issued to Song and assigned to the same assignee of the present invention. Usually, the monitor is shut down during the period of inactivity with the exception of a small amount of power necessary to detect when the computer system becomes active again so as to resume operation of the monitor. Conventional personal computers, however, require separate AC power supply sources for supplying power to the main computer unit and the monitor. This requirement, as I have observed, restricts the efficiency of the power saving feature and fails to control the power supply efficiently. Moreover, using additional expensive power supply devices result in the undesirable increase of production cost.

Power supply device and a power supply method for a computer system


This invention provides methods useful in aiding in the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease. The methods involve measuring the amount of amyloid-β peptide (x-≧41) in the cerebrospinal fluid of a patient. High levels of the peptide generally are inconsistent with a diagnosis of Alzheimer's. Low levels of the peptide are consistent with the disease and, with other tests, can provide a positive diagnosis. Other methods involve measuring the amounts of both Aβ(x-≧41) and tau. Low levels of Aβ(x-≧41) and high levels of tau are a positive indicator of Alzheimer's disease, while high levels of Aβ(x-≧41) and low levels of tau are a negative indication of Alzheimer's disease.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to methods for diagnosing or monitoring Alzheimer's disease. More particularly, the present invention relates to measuring the amount of tau protein and/or the amount of β amyloid peptide (x-≧41) in patient fluid samples and using these amounts as a diagnostic indicator.
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a degenerative brain disorder characterized clinically by progressive loss of memory, cognition, reasoning, judgment and emotional stability that gradually leads to profound mental deterioration and ultimately death. AD is a very common cause of progressive mental failure (dementia) in aged humans and is believed to represent the fourth most common medical cause of death in the United States. AD has been observed in all races and ethnic groups worldwide and presents a major present and future public health problem. The disease is currently estimated to affect about two to three million individuals in the United States alone. AD is at present incurable. No treatment that effectively prevents AD or reverses its symptoms or course is currently known.
The brains of individuals with AD exhibit characteristic lesions termed senile plaques, and neurofibrillary tangles. Large numbers of these lesions are generally found in several areas of the human brain important for memory and cognitive function in patients with AD. Smaller numbers of these lesions in a more restricted anatomical distribution are sometimes found in the brains of aged humans who do not have clinical AD. Senile plaques and amyloid angiopathy also characterize the brains of individuals beyond a certain age with Trisomy 21 (Down's Syndrome) and Hereditary Cerebral Hemorrhage with Amyloidosis of the Dutch-Type (HCHWAD). At present, a definitive diagnosis of AD usually requires observing the aforementioned lesions in the brain tissue of patients who have died with the disease or, rarely, in small biopsied samples of brain tissue taken during an invasive neurosurgical procedure. The principal chemical constituent of the senile plaques and vascular amyloid deposits (amyloid angiopathy) characteristic of AD and the other disorders mentioned above is an approximately 4.2 kilodalton (kD) protein of about 39-43 amino acids designated the amyloid-β peptide (Aβ) or sometimes βAP, AβP or β/A4. Aβ was first purified and a partial amino acid sequence reported in Glenner and Wong (1984) Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 120:885-890. The isolation procedure and the sequence data for the first 28 amino acids are described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,666,829. Forms of Aβ having amino acids beyond number 40 were first reported by Kang et al. (1987) Nature 325:733-736.
Roher et al. (1993) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 90:10836-840 showed that Aβ(1-42) is the major constituent in neuritic plaques (90%) with significant amounts of isomerized and racemized aspartyl residues. The authors also showed that Aβ(17-42) also predominates in diffuse plaques (70%), while Aβ(1-40) is the major constituent in the meningovascular plaques, comprising 60% of the total Aβ and, in parenchymal vessel deposits Aβ(1-42) represents 75% of the total Aβ. Iwatsubo et al. (1994) Neuron 13:45-53 showed that Aβ42(43)-positive senile plaques are the major species in sporadic AD brain.
Molecular biological and protein chemical analyses conducted during the last several years have shown that Aβ is a small fragment of a much larger precursor protein, referred to as the β-amyloid precursor protein (APP), that is normally produced by cells in many tissues of various animals, including humans. Knowledge of the structure of the gene encoding APP has demonstrated that Aβ arises as a peptide fragment that is cleaved from the carboxy-terminal end of APP by as-yet-unknown enzymes (proteases). The precise biochemical mechanism by which the Aβ fragment is cleaved from APP and subsequently deposited as amyloid plaques in the cerebral tissue and in the walls of cerebral and meningeal blood vessels is currently unknown.
Several lines of evidence indicate that progressive cerebral deposition of Aβ plays a seminal role in the pathogenesis of AD and can precede cognitive symptoms by years or decades (for review, see Selkoe (1994) J. Neuropath. and Exp. Neurol. 53:438-447 and Selkoe (1991) Neuron 6:487). The single most important line of evidence is the discovery in 1991 that missense DNA mutations at amino acid 717 of the 770-amino acid isoform of APP can be found in affected members but not unaffected members of several families with a genetically determined (familial) form of AD (Goate et al. (1991) Nature 349:704-706; Chartier Harlan et al. (1991) Nature 353:844-846; and Murrell et al. (1991) Science 254:97-99). Suzuki et al. (1994) Science 264:1336-1340 showed that in persons with the 717 mutation, there is a higher percentage of Aβ(−42) than Aβ(−40).
In addition, a double mutation changing lysine595-methionine596 to asparagine595-leucine596 (with reference to the 695 isoform) found in a Swedish family was reported in 1992 (Mullan et al. (1992) Nature Genet 1:345-347) and is referred to as the Swedish variant. Genetic linkage analyses have demonstrated that these mutations, as well as certain other mutations in the APP gene, are the specific molecular cause of AD in the affected members of such families. In addition, a mutation at amino acid 693 of the 770-amino acid isoform of APP has been identified as the cause of the Aβ deposition disease, HCHWA-D, and a change from alanine to glycine at amino acid 692 appears to cause a phenotype that resembles AD in some patients but HCHWA-D in others. The discovery of these and other mutations in APP in genetically based cases of AD argues that alteration of APP and subsequent deposition of its Aβ fragment can cause AD.
Neurofibrillary tangles are composed mainly of the microtubule protein, tau. Z. S. Khachaturian (1985) Arch. Neurol. 42:1097-1105. Recent studies have shown that tau is elevated in the CSF of Alzheimer's disease patients. M. Vandermeeren et al. (1993) J. Neurochem. 61:1828-1834.
Despite the progress which has been made in understanding the underlying mechanisms of AD, there remains a need to develop methods for use in diagnosis of the disease. While the level of tau is of some help in diagnosing Alzheimer's disease (M. Vandermeeren et al., supra) more markers, and more specific markers would be helpful. It would be further desirable to provide methods for use in diagnosis of Aβ-related conditions, where the diagnosis is based at least in part on detection of Aβ and related fragments in patient fluid samples. Specific assays for Aβ detection should be capable of detecting Aβ and related fragments in fluid samples at very low concentrations as well as distinguishing between Aβ and other fragments of APP which may be present in the sample.
2. Description of the Background Art
Glenner and Wong (1984) Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 120:885-890 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,666,829, are discussed above. The '829 patent suggests the use of an antibody to the 28 amino acid Aβ fragment to detect "Alzheimer's Amyloid Polypeptide" in a patient sample and diagnose AD. No data demonstrating detection or diagnosis are presented.
Numerous biochemical electron microscopic and immunochemical studies have reported that Aβ is highly insoluble in physiologic solutions at normal pH. See, for example, Glenner and Wong (1984) Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 122:1131-1135; Masters et al. (1985) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 82:4245-4249; Selkoe et al. (1986) J. Neurochem. 46:1820-1834; Joachim et al. (1988) Brain Research 474:100-111; Hilbich et al. (1991) J. Mol. Biol. 218:149-163; Barrow and Zagorski (1991) Science 253:179-182; and Burdick et al. (1992) J. Biol. Chem. 267:546-554. Furthermore, this insolubility was predicted by and is consistent with the amino acid sequence of Aβ which includes a stretch of hydrophobic amino acids that constitutes part of the region that anchors the parent protein (APP) in the lipid membranes of cells. Hydrophobic, lipid-anchoring proteins such as Aβ are predicted to remain associated with cellular membranes or membrane fragments and thus not be present in physiologic extracellular fluids. The aforementioned studies and many others have reported the insolubility in physiologic solution of native Aβ purified from AD brain amyloid deposits or of synthetic peptides containing the Aβ sequence. The extraction of Aβ from cerebral amyloid deposits and its subsequent solubilization has required the use of strong, non-physiologic solvents and denaturants. Physiologic, buffered salt solutions that mimic the extracellular fluids of human tissues have uniformly failed to solubilize Aβ.
Separate attempts to detect APP or fragments thereof in plasma or CSF have also been undertaken. A large secreted fragment of APP that does not contain the intact Aβ region has been found in human cerebrospinal fluid (Palmert et al. (1989) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 86:6338-6342; Weidemann et al. (1989) Cell 57:115-126; Henriksson et al. (1991) J. Neurochem. 56:1037-1042; Palmert et al. (1990) Neurology 40:1028-1034; and Seubert et al. (1993) Nature 361:260-263) and in plasma (Podlisny et al. (1990) Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 167:1094-1101). The detection of fragments of the carboxy-terminal portion of APP in plasma has also been reported (Rumble et al. (1989) N. Engl. J. Med. 320:1446-1452), as has the failure to detect such fragments (Schlossmacher et al. (1992) Neurobiol. Aging 13:421-434).
Despite the apparent insolubility of native and synthetic Aβ, it had been speculated that Aβ might occur in body fluids, such as cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) or plasma (Wong et al. (1984) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 92:8729-8732; Selkoe (1986) Neurobiol. Aging 7:425-432; Pardridge et al. (1987) Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 145:241-248; Joachim et al. (1989) Nature 341:226-230; Selkoe et al. (1989) Neurobiol. Aging 10:387-395).
Several attempts to measure Aβ in CSF and plasma have been reported by both radioimmunoassay methods (WO90/12870 published Nov. 1, 1990) and sandwich ELISAs (Wisniewski in Alzheimer's Disease, eds. Becker and Giacobini, Taylor and Francas, N.Y. pg. 206, 1990; Kim and Wisniewski in Techniques in Diagnostic Pathology, eds. Bullock et al., Academic Press, Boston pg. 106; and WO90/12871 published Nov. 1, 1990). While these reports detected very low levels of Aβ immunoreactivity in bodily fluids, attempts to directly purify and characterize this immunoreactivity further and determine whether it represented Aβ were not pursued, and the efforts were abandoned. The possibility of Aβ production by cultured cells was neither considered nor demonstrated.
Retrospectively, the inability to readily detect Aβ in bodily fluids was likely due to the presence of amyloid precursor fragments with overlapping regions or fragments of Aβ that obscured measurements and to the lack of antibodies completely specific for intact Aβ. This is presumably because the antibodies used by both groups would cross-react with other APP fragments containing part of Aβ known to be present in CSF thereby interfering with the measurement, if any, of intact Aβ. These difficulties have been overcome with the use of monoclonal antibodies specific to an epitope in the central junction region of intact Aβ (Seubert et al. (1992) Nature 359:325-327).
Seubert et al. (1992) Nature 359:325-327 and Shoji et al. Science (1992) 258:126-129 provided the first biochemical evidence for the presence of discrete Aβ in bodily fluids. Vigo-Pelfrey et al. (1993) J. Neurochem. 61:1965-1968 reported the identification of many Aβ species in cerebrospinal fluid.

Methods for aiding in the diagnosis of alzheimer's disease by measuring amyloid-β peptide (X->41) and tau


A protected-membrane roof paving system (10) and blocks (12) for use therein. Rectangular ballast blocks (12) are laid in rows. The blocks (12) have channels providing for drainage and equalization of air pressure above and below the blocks (12) under adverse wind conditions.

Recent developments in roof paver technology have resulted in the introduction of single-ply protected-membrane roof systems which are especially suitable for low-sloped roofs and decks. They usually include a single-ply water-impermeable membrane, with or without thermal insulation layers, held in place and protected from the elements by ballast systems of various types and configurations. Basic systems include loose-laid well-rounded stones such as river gravel, standard paving blocks, composite tongue-and-groove board, and lightweight interlocking ballast blocks. In general, ballast systems are often the preferred system of choice in areas where exposure to high wind conditions may be anticipated because they are capable of withstanding greater wind velocities than conventional built-up roofing systems. Studies have also shown that ballast systems which utilize interlocking blocks perform even better under adverse (strong) wind conditions than non-interlocking ballast systems.
The interlocking blocks are usually extruded or pre-cast concrete of flat rectangular shape laid over a roof membrane in a contiguous grid pattern. However, even this construction does not assure dislodgement of the ballast blocks under certain weather conditions. High velocity winds, such as of hurricane-force, passing over irregular or critical roof locations may induce an aerodynamic pressure differential across the blocks to lift them out of place. Instead of simply making ballast blocks heavier and the roof supports stronger, various designs have evolved for resisting the lifting force, such as the aforementioned lightweight ballast blocks secured to each other by interlocking edges. However, despite these design efforts, the net upward aerodynamic loading acting on the ballast blocks may lift them into the airstream like flying missiles and endanger people and other structures in the vicinity as well as expose the underlying roof membrane and substructure to damage.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,377,468, there is disclosed an improved aerodynamically stable ballast block and roof system providing several features. These features include positive interlocking of the blocks, and complete protection of the roof membrane from ultra-violet radiation. The blocks and system are suited for use in a wide range of geographical areas subject to a wide range of atmospheric conditions.
There may be conditions and applications in which less than all of the advantages of the patented blocks would be required.
For instance, in regions where ultra-violet radiation on the roof membrane is of less concern, block vents which do not provide a labyrinthine flow path across the blocks may be utilized. In other situations, where less than a continuous interlock is adequate, the blocks may be provided with other edge structures which operatively engage one another to resist lifting. The present invention provides blocks and a roof system intended to address these conditions.

Aerodynamically stable roof system and ballast blocks


A container for housing a food dish includes a receiving shell defining a first cavity and a cover shell that is releasably lockable to the receiving shell for providing a cover with a second cavity over the first cavity. The cover shell has side walls with inward projections for entrapping the food dish seated within the receiving shell when the cover shell is releasably locked to the receiving shell.

It is known to use containers for packaging and transporting bakery goods. In packaging, for example, a lemon meringue pie, the pie and associated pie tin are packaged in a container for storage and shipping. Because existing containers do not stabilize the pie tin, the lemon meringue pie may be tossed upward within its container during shipping, causing the meringue to contact a lid of the container. As a result, the appearance and quality of the pie may become damaged.
Another problem of such containers concerns vulnerability of the pie tin to deformations, should the container bump external objects. If the bottom of the pie tin rests directly on the floor of the shipping container, then the bottom of the tin can be deformed when struck, via the floor of the container, by an external object. Similarly, the side walls of the pie tin are vulnerable to this type of damage if disposed in direct contact with associated walls of the container.
In the past, containers have included bottom and top portions hinged together by an interconnecting hinge member. In folding the top portion over the bottom portion, the hinged member may not fold predictably. As a result, the top portion may become misaligned with respect to the bottom portion during packaging.
Accordingly, there exists a need for a way to house and transport pies and the like that avoids the structural and functional disadvantages associated with conventional pie tin containers.


A trigger assembly for a crossbow comprises a string retainer and a trigger mechanism. The trigger assembly can further comprise a piston, a safety mechanism, a secondary safety mechanism, a bolt sensor, or a pair of rotating sears. The string retainer can comprise a pair of opposed jaws.

The field of the present invention relates to crossbows. In particular, a safety trigger for a crossbow is disclosed herein.
A wide variety of trigger mechanisms are available for crossbows. Some of these are described in:                U.S. Pat. No. 5,085,200 entitled "Self-actuating, dry-fire prevention safety device for a crossbow" issued Feb. 4, 1992 to Horton-Corcoran et al;        U.S. Pat. No. 5,598,829 entitled "Crossbow dry fire prevention device" issued Feb. 4, 1997 to Bednar;        U.S. Pat. No. 5,649,520 entitled "Crossbow trigger mechanism" issued Jul. 22, 1997 to Bednar;        U.S. Pat. No. 5,884,614 entitled "Crossbow with improved trigger mechanism" issued Mar. 23, 1999 to Darlington et al;        U.S. Pat. No. 6,205,990 entitled "Dry-fire prevention mechanism for crossbows" issued Mar. 27, 2001 to Adkins;        U.S. Pat. No. 6,736,123 entitled "Crossbow trigger" issued May 18, 2004 to Summers et al;        U.S. Pat. No. 6,802,304 entitled "Trigger assembly with a safety device for a crossbow" issued Oct. 12, 2004 to Chang;        U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2006/0144380 entitled "Crossbow" published Jul. 6, 2006 in the name of Kempf; and        U.S. Pat. No. 5,598,829 entitled "Safety trigger for a crossbow" issued Aug. 10, 2011 to Yehle.


A computer implemented method searches for keywords within a document and displays a surrounding context. A keyword search term and a view area size for the document are received. A plurality of occurrences of the search term is identified within the document. A view area size surrounding each occurrences of the search term is identified to form a plurality of view area sizes. An edited view of the document is displayed. The edited view includes a sequence of the plurality of view area sizes, wherein each of the plurality of view area sizes are separated by one of a plurality of interactive virtual boundary lines, and each of the a plurality of interactive virtual boundary lines have an indicator to form a plurality of indicators.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to computer implemented methods. More specifically, the present invention relates to a computer implemented method for selectively displaying searched keywords and the surrounding contexts within a document.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the increasing amount of information that is available to users via today's computer systems, efficient techniques for locating information of interest are becoming essential. Even if a user locates a document of interest, often times, information is scattered throughout the document. A user is then forced to review, or search the document for occurrences of the specific topic of interest.
However, when searching documents, it is often difficult to identify and display the useful information distributed in a document in a format that is easily accessible to the user. Different occurrences of the topic of interest can be distributed throughout the document, such that simultaneous display of those occurrences within a browser window is difficult at best. If a user wants to simultaneously display several occurrences of remotely located useful information in a document within a browser window, the user will typically have two choices. First, a user can launch multiple browser window screens for the same document application, and then locate appropriate occurrences of the topic for display in the separate browser windows. Alternatively, if the browser application has a split screen functionality, the user can split the individual portion of the window. A search can then be performed for the appropriate occurrences of the topic for display, and those occurrences displayed within each split view.

Selective display of target areas in a document


A device (10) for supporting articles (11) in a pile so that any one of the articles in the pile can be removed without disrupting the orderly arrangement of the pile. The device (10) comprises a guide means (13) and a plurality of spacing elements (20) mounted on and slidably movable along the guide means (13). The spacing elements adjacent to one another when in a spaced apart relationship define a storage zone (29) each for receiving and storing one of the articles. The spacing elements (20) serve to maintain at least partial separation between articles in the pile to permit any one of the articles to be removed without disrupting the pile. As each article (13) is removed from the pile, the spacing elements above it slide down along the guide means (13) to progressively decrease the height of the pile.

Where articles are assembled in a pile, it can be difficult to remove some of the articles without disrupting the orderly arrangement of the pile. This is particularly so with articles such as bath towels and blankets which are commonly stored in a pile on a shelf. When one of the articles is required for use, it may be that the article required is not at the top of the pile and so it has to be pulled from between other articles in the pile with the result that the orderly arrangement of the pile may be disrupted.


A method, apparatus, and computer instructions for authorizing a user to access grid resources. A request is received from the user to access a resource on the data processing system. This request includes a certificate. An authentication process is performed using the certificate when the request is received. In response to successfully authenticating the user in the authentication process, a first host name for the certificate is requested from a trusted source. A reply containing the first host name is received. Access to the resource is provided if the first host name returned by the trusted source matches a second host name for the user from which the request originated.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to an improved data processing system and in particular to an improved method and apparatus for managing network resources. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to a method, apparatus, and computer instructions for authorizing a user to access resources on a network and detecting intrusions on a network.
2. Description of Related Art
Network data processing systems are commonly used in all aspects of business and research. These networks are used for communicating data and ideas, as well as, providing a repository to store information. In many cases, the different nodes making up a network data processing system may be employed to process information. Individual nodes may have different tasks to perform. Additionally, it is becoming more common to have the different nodes work towards solving a common problem, such as a complex calculation. A set of nodes participating in a resource sharing scheme are also referred to as a "grid" or "grid network". For example, nodes in a grid network may share processing resources to perform complex computations, such as deciphering keys.
The nodes in a grid network may be contained within a network data processing system, such as a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN). These nodes also may be located in different geographically diverse locations. For example, different computers connected to the Internet may provide processing resources to a grid network. By applying the use of thousands of individual computers, large problems can be solved quickly. Grids are used in many areas, such as cancer research, physics, and geosciences.
The setup and management of grids are facilitated through the use of software, such as that provided by the Globus Toolkit and the IBM Grid Toolkit. The Globus Toolkit is an open source toolkit used in building grids. This toolkit includes software services and libraries for resource monitoring, discovery, and management, plus security and file management. The toolkit was developed by the Globus Alliance, which is based at Argonne National Laboratory, the University of Southern California's Information Sciences Institute, the University of Chicago, the University of Edinburgh, and the Swedish Center for Parallel Computers. The IBM Grid Toolkit is available from International Business Machines Systems, Inc. (IBM) for use with its systems.
Access to grid resources is provided through an authentication process that is executed when a user requests access to the resources. Authentication processes may involve entering a user name or a password. With most grid systems, a certificate is sent as part of the authentication process. In particular, X.509 certificates are used in many grids. These certificates, however, are vulnerable to theft. An unauthorized user may steal the certificate and place that file on other data processing systems and masquerade as the user. In this manner, the thief may obtain access to resources on the grid and perform tasks without permission. With this type of theft, processing resources revenues may be lost to unauthorized use of grid resources.
Therefore, it would be advantageous to have an improved method, apparatus, and computer instructions for authenticating users requesting access to resources on a network data processing system, such as a grid.

Method and apparatus for detecting grid intrusions


An all permanent magnet Electron Cyclotron Resonance, large diameter (e.g., 40 cm) plasma source suitable for ion/plasma processing or electric propulsion, is capable of producing uniform ion current densities at its exit plane at very low power (e.g., below 200 W), and is electrodeless to avoid sputtering or contamination issues. Microwave input power is efficiently coupled with an ionizing gas without using a dielectric microwave window and without developing a throat plasma by providing a ferromagnetic cylindrical chamber wall with a conical end narrowing to an axial entrance hole for microwaves supplied on-axis from an open-ended waveguide. Permanent magnet rings are attached inside the wall with alternating polarities against the wall. An entrance magnet ring surrounding the entrance hole has a ferromagnetic pole piece that extends into the chamber from the entrance hole to a continuing second face that extends radially across an inner pole of the entrance magnet ring.

The National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA) has determined a need to develop a long life plasma generator (source) for use as an ion propulsion device (e.g., an ion thruster) in long duration space missions. Requirements for the plasma source include: long life without maintenance, low power operation, high plasma density, and high plasma uniformity across its diameter.
Propulsion systems capable of providing very high specific impulse (6000-9000 seconds) are desirable as primary propulsion options for far term missions to the outer planets and beyond. Gridded ion thrusters systems are capable of satisfying such mission requirements. Ion thruster systems used for such an application will be required to operate continuously for perhaps as long as 5-10 years. Such long continuous operation times place stringent lifetime requirements on thruster components and subsystems. In general, thruster lifetime is limited by essentially four potential failure modes: 1) discharge cathode failure, 2) neutralizer failure, 3) ion optics failure and 4) electron backstreaming. Failure modes 1 and 2 are related primarily to hollow cathode failure. Failure mode 3 is related to screen and accelerator grid degradation via erosion as well as grid to grid shorts arising from such erosion phenomena. Electron backstreaming becomes more and more of a problem as accelerator grid apertures widen due to erosion. High levels of backstreaming electrons can destroy the discharge cathode. One potential solution to this problem is the use of a magnetic grid. Potential design solutions also exist for increasing the lifetime of the ion optics such as the use of different electrode materials such as titanium or carbon or by simply increasing the electrode thickness. Hollow cathode failure can occur after prolonged operation due to physical erosion or to the depletion of barium in the insert brought on by barium diffusion and subsequent evaporation or the formation of tungstates that tie up the barium. Because of such phenomena, ion thruster hollow cathodes have a life of order 28,000 hours, which is not sufficient for those missions requiring more than three years of continuous thruster operation. The present invention focuses on the elimination of the discharge cathode and its failure modes.
NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) has initiated an effort to eliminate the lifetime issues associated with conventional hollow cathodes by investigating electrodeless plasma production approaches. Microwave electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) discharge was selected as the plasma generation method based on a parametric comparison with other electrodeless plasma production approaches. In the ECR process, electrons resonantly absorb energy from an imposed electromagnetic field. The input radiation field is set at the electron cyclotron frequency. At this resonance, the electrons can gain energy continuously. This resonant process takes place on surfaces of constant magnetic field B that are established by the magnetic circuit. B=875 G for a microwave frequency of 2.45 GHz (Giga-Hertz). The hot electrons produced during this process ionize neutral gas, thereby generating the discharge plasma completely electrodeless. This approach has been successfully implemented on the Institute for Space and Astronautical Sciences (ISAS) MUSES-C asteroid rendezvous spacecraft in which a 400 W (watt) microwave ion thruster will be used for primary propulsion. Compared to the present invention, the MUSES-C thruster device is considerably smaller (10 cm beam diameter); it operates at 4.2 GHz (a more expensive frequency range, since higher frequency microwave tubes are less efficient than 2.45 GHz tubes); and primarily small volume, ring ECR plasmas are produced in the device. Also, the MUSES-C device suffers from cut-off issues associated with the way the microwaves are launched into its chamber (its microwave input port can be obstructed by the formation of a "throat" plasma in the port); the plasma source size is inherently small owing primarily to its higher frequency; power required to create a plasma ion is higher because ECR takes place closer to magnet rings, thereby increasing plasma losses to walls; and the device is inherently power limited because of the aforementioned throat plasma problem. The present invention is intended to improve upon all these limitations of the prior art such as the MUSES-C thruster.
Electromagnets can be used to produce the magnetic fields needed for ECR plasma generation, but power demands of electromagnets preclude their use for low power space propulsion. Furthermore, electromagnet coils produce magnetic fields that are highest at the coil axis. Magnetic field geometries more suitable for the formation of uniform ECR plasmas and improved plasma containment can be obtained with permanent magnet arrangements. Efficient plasma containment is possible with permanent magnet arrangements.
The application of permanent magnet ECR to generate an ion thruster discharge plasma has been investigated by NASA in the past. A cylindrical 30 cm (centimeter) diameter, permanent magnet ECR ion engine with power up to 700 W (watts) was studied by a NASA GRC contracted activity in the 1980s as a study looking into the possibility of using ECR for ion thrusters. The conclusion of the study was that rather than the permanent magnet approach tested, an all electromagnetic configuration might perform better, given that the permanent magnet version never could be optimized. During this effort, ECR plasma sources with discharge losses less than 150 W/A (watts per amp) at 5 GHz were tested. However, this device did not generate uniform plasmas (a consequence of its microwave injection scheme), and there was difficulty reaching predicted plasma densities. Additionally, it operated at 5 GHz, an expensive frequency range; the method of microwave injection made it inherently difficult to generate uniform, larger area plasmas; and the device tended to "mode jump" (i.e., the plasma was not stable at all conditions). The present invention overcomes these difficulties and achieves a well optimized permanent magnet configuration.
The present invention disclosure is based on more recent microwave ion thruster research activity at NASA GRC that focused on the development of a higher power ion thruster system (40 cm diameter, 5 kW (kilowatt)). The goal of this activity was to develop an extremely long life version of the NASA Evolutionary Xenon Ion Thruster (NEXT). The early stages of this development activity have utilized 2.45 GHz as the operating frequency. This operating frequency affords one a cost effective means of mapping out general operation characteristics of a multipole plasma source. Issues such as magnetic circuit optimization, DC isolation, impedance matching, and power injection issues can all be studied using this test-bed plasma source. The beam current design goal for this 2.45 GHz ECR test-bed ion thruster was 1.1 A at a microwave input power of 300 W or less.
The maximum extractable current from a plasma is proportional to the product of the plasma density and the square root of the electron temperature. Thermal background electron temperatures are expected to range between 2 and 5 eV. To first order, the maximum plasma density obtainable depends primarily on microwave excitation frequency. The plasma in the ECR zones can reach a maximum density determined by the condition where the microwave frequency equals the local plasma frequency. Normally, at plasma frequencies higher than the microwave frequency, the microwaves are no longer absorbed, but reflected instead. Scaled up embodiments of the present invention will require a microwave frequency of 5 GHz or greater to achieve the required beam currents for the 5 kW operating condition. The higher frequency will also significantly reduce the discharge losses. Teachings from the present 2.45 GHz source embodiment will be implemented in the 5 GHz design.
The prior art evidenced in patent literature shows various microwave, permanent magnet, ECR plasma sources, but they suffer from limitations that the present invention overcomes.
US Patent Application Publication 2003/0006708 (Leung et al.; 2003) discloses a compact microwave ion source with permanent magnet rings (12). Gas in the 10 cm diameter chamber (14) is ionized by electron cyclotron resonance to produce plasma. A microwave antenna (22) is immersed in the plasma. The plasma density can be increased by boosting the microwave ion source by the addition of an RF antenna (42).
U.S. Pat. No. 5,975,014 (Dandl; 1999) discloses a large diameter, permanent magnet ECR plasma source with high density and uniformity. It uses a coaxial resonant multi-port microwave applicator (12) to introduce microwave power uniformity. An essential design element of the coaxial resonant multiport antenna array (60, in the plasma chamber—see FIGS. 2-3) is the geometric configuration of individual radiating stubs (62), that are formed in openings (63) in an outer conductor (64) of a coaxial line or coaxial waveguide (66) coupled to the power source (54), together with the spacing of successive stubs (62).
U.S. Pat. No. 5,133,825 (Hakamata et al.; 1992) discloses a plasma generating apparatus wherein a pair of hollow diskshaped rare earth magnets (21a, 21b) are provided around an outer periphery of a vessel wall (20) of a plasma generating chamber (1). A microwave transmissive window (24) is provided in one end plate of the plasma generating chamber, while a waveguide (3) is installed adjacently to the window, and a microwave generator (10), such as a magnetron, is provided on the waveguide. Hakamata's FIG. 5 illustrates an apparatus provided with a plurality of microwave generators (10) and preliminary plasma chambers (91) with respect to one main plasma chamber (94), wherein the size of the main plasma chamber is enlarged in diameter by increasing the number of the preliminary plasma chambers (91). Hakamata's FIGS. 6, 10, 12, and 13 illustrate several arrangements of apparatus wherein the cross-sectional area of the plasma generating chamber is substantially continuously increased from the waveguide-connecting side to the ion extraction side. Accordingly, the average intensity of the magnetic fields inside the plasma generating chamber becomes maximal at an axial position offset to the waveguide, and the magnetic field intensity decreases gradually toward the ion-extraction side, thereby expanding the plasma diameter. In addition, the plasma which is generated in the plasma chamber is pushed to the ion-extraction side by virtue of the action of the gradient in the magnetic field intensity.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,620,522 (Ichimura et al.; 1997) discloses a microwave plasma generator wherein a permanent magnet ring (3) forms an intense magnetic field exceeding an intensity of an ECR magnetic field at a microwave exit (6a) of a dielectric body (6) in an electron heating space chamber (1). The intensity of the magnetic field formed by the permanent magnet (6) decreases rapidly to zero at a point (14) in the vicinity of the boundary of the electron heating space chamber (1) and a plasma generating space chamber (2). A gas introducing means (7) is shown at the top of the plasma generating space chamber (2).
It is an object of the present invention to overcome limitations of the prior art. For example, microwave antennas, electrodes, and such should be eliminated from the plasma chamber where they can erode, thereby producing contamination and reducing lifetime of the device. For example, dielectric bodies (microwave windows) between the microwave source and the plasma chamber should be eliminated because in applications with metal vapor in the plasma, deposition of films on the dielectric window would prevent microwaves from entering the discharge chamber and/or from coupling into the source. (It should be noted that conducting vapor fluxes are intentionally part of various plasma processing environments, and can also occur during ion thruster operation due to low level grid sputtering. Furthermore, a microwave window can itself be a contamination source.)

The United States of America as represented by the Administrator of The National Aeronautics and Space Administration


Systems and methods for enabling proximity operations with long-range wireless communication interfaces are described. In an illustrative, non-limiting embodiment, a method may include transmitting a plurality of data packets using a WiFi interface of a first device, where each data packet has a signal strength following a predetermined pattern; and receiving an indication, via the WiFi interface, of whether the predetermined pattern has been identified by a second device.

The following discussion sets forth the inventor's own knowledge of certain technologies and/or problems associated therewith. Accordingly, this discussion is not an admission of prior art, and it is not an admission of the knowledge available to a person of ordinary skill in the art.
The need for positive presence validation is quite a common task in a large variety of use cases that involve wireless communications. It is primarily a result of the fact that typically when a wireless medium is involved, peer devices can be physically located elsewhere (theoretically, anywhere in the network). There are use cases in which co-location of the parties is important and cannot be avoided. In these cases, mechanisms for ensuring device co-location are necessary. The various use cases may be clustered into several domains, including, but not limited to: (a) registration during authentication, (b) peer validation or verification, and (c) personalization or customization.
Registration during authentication ensures that the party involved in a registration or authentication procedure is indeed physically located in the close vicinity of one another and therefore may be trusted. An example of registration during authentication includes the initial pairing with an access point (AP) or with another peer (P2P) device. Peer validation or verification is another mechanism for presence detection. For instance, peer validation may be used for admission control, allowing only users at certain physical distance to gain access (e.g., a café hotspot that limits access to a certain range, rather than the full WiFi range). Personalization or customization involves the use of dynamically enabled services. For example, dynamically personalized data may be presented by a system if the system knows that the data is being observed by a relevant peer (e.g., a vending machine or other electronic terminal displays preferences or payment options specific to a nearby user).
Conventionally, proximity has been determined by causing a user to physically press a button on the peer device thereby proving physical access to it, or by asking that the user type a personal identification number (PIN) code or the like presented by the peer device as way of proving it is actually being observed by the user. Nowadays, proximity may also be determined using dedicated wireless communication technologies—e.g., Near Field Communications (NFC) or Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)—that are entirely distinct from the main wireless communication technology (e.g., WiFi, WiMAX, etc.).

Enabling proximity operations with long-range wireless communication interfaces


A constant velocity joint is provided that includes an outer race having a bore with an inner surface, a cage arranged within the bore of the outer race, an inner race having an outer surface, a plurality of balls arranged within the cage, and a shaft connected to the inner race. The cage, outer race, inner race, and balls interrelate to center and support the cage. The cage remains in a non-supporting state with the outer race and the inner race through a no angle and a high angle position of the shaft.

Constant velocity joints (CV joints) are common components in automotive vehicles. Typically, constant velocity joints are employed where transmission of a constant velocity rotary motion is desired or required. Common types of constant velocity joints are a plunging tripod, a fixed tripod, a plunging ball joint, and a fixed ball joint. These joints can be used in front wheel drive vehicles, or rear wheel drive vehicles and on the propeller shafts found in rear wheel drive, all wheel drive and four wheel drive vehicles. The plunging constant velocity joints allow for axial movement during operation without the use of slip splines, but they sometimes initiate forces that result in vibration and noises. Plunging-type CV joints allow angular displacement along with the axial displacement along two axes thereof. The fixed-type constant velocity joints generally only allow angular displacement between two axes. The fixed constant velocity joints are better situated for higher operating angles than that of a plunging-type constant velocity joint. All of these constant velocity joints are generally grease lubricated for life and sealed by a sealing boot when used on shafts. Thus, the constant velocity joints are sealed in order to retain grease inside the joint while keeping contaminates and foreign matter, such as dirt and water, out of the joint. The sealing protection of the constant velocity joint is necessary because contamination of the inner chambers causes internal damage and destruction of the joint which increases heat and wear on the boot, thus possibly leading to premature boot and grease failures and hence failure of the overall joint. The problem of higher temperatures in high speed fixed constant velocity joint is greatly enhanced at the higher angles. Thus, the increased temperatures and increased stresses on the boot caused by higher angles may result in premature failures in conventional constant velocity joints.
Generally, conventional fixed-type constant velocity joints included a bulky and heavy outer race having a spherical inner surface and a plurality of grooves. The joints also include an inner race, having a spherical outer surface with guide grooves formed therein. Many conventional fixed-type constant velocity joints use six torque-transmitting balls, which are arranged between the grooves of the outer and inner races of the constant velocity joint by a cage retainer. The balls allow a predetermined displacement angle to occur through the joint and thereby transmit a constant velocity rotary motion through the shafts of the automotive driveline system.