In one embodiment, the present invention introduces integrated fluid injection and mixing devices to enable pH control in a miniature parallel integrated bioreactor array system. In another embodiment, the environmental conditions of the growth chamber is enabled through fluidic injections in a miniature parallel cell culture system. In still another embodiment, the present invention utilizes gas switches to control oxygen concentration within a miniature parallel integrated bioreactor array.

A critical driving force behind research in bioprocess science and engineering continues to be the demand for fast and accurate analytical information that can be used, for example, to evaluate the interactions between biological systems and bioprocess operations. One significant challenge is to carry out large numbers of experiments rapidly and effectively. This issue is of particular importance since many of the advances in molecular biology now lead to large numbers of potential biological systems that contain evolved biocatalysts, new pathway designs, and a variety of unique biological organisms from diverse sources.
Developing efficient and practical bioprocesses frequently involves testing a large number of different strains and environmental conditions in various combinations. Although the ultimate goal is to identify an appropriate strain and conditions for production on an industrial scale (e.g., in a bioreactor with a 1,000-300,000 liter volume), bioprocess development begins on a much smaller scale. For example, screening of different strains is often conducted in microtiter plates, under relatively uncontrolled conditions and with only limited possibility of monitoring conditions during culture. After identification of strains that appear promising, further screening is performed in shaking flasks with a much larger volume (e.g., 25-100 ml). Such flasks typically allow only partial control over important environmental variables and cannot achieve the high oxygen (O2) concentrations typically used in large-scale fermentation processes. Thus the usefulness of these open loop systems for selecting the organism that will be optimal under actual bioprocess conditions is limited.
Scale-up to bench-scale, closed loop bioreactors, which offer improved control over environmental variables, increased oxygenation, and therefore the ability to achieve higher cell densities, is the next step. However, bench-scale reactors, with typical volumes of between 0.5 and 10 liters suffer from a number of drawbacks. Because of their large size, relatively high cost, and the time and effort required to obtain the data it is typically not practical to test as many combinations of strains and environmental conditions as would be desirable.
The inventors have recognized that there is a large technology gap between microtiter plates/flasks and closed loop controlled bioreactors. The gap is significant because its presence may allow potentially productive strains to be eliminated at the microtiter plate or shake-flask screening stage, due to optimization with respect to uncontrolled physical parameters, or it may allow potentially non-productive strains that do not perform well under typical industrial scale bioprocess conditions, e.g., high cell densities, to proceed to the next stage. There is thus a need in the art for a system to fill this gap. In particular, there is a need for small scale bioreactor systems that allow multiple experiments to be performed in parallel without an accompanying increase in cost, and that offer improved oxygen transfer capacity and control over environmental parameters, such as pH and dissolved oxygen.
Recent efforts to address the need for a parallel bioreactor system with the capabilities of a stirred tank reactor have focused on improving the oxygen transfer rate of microtiter plates (W. A. Duetz, L. Ruedi, R. Hermann, K. O'Connor, J. Buchs, and B. Witholt, Appl. Environ. Microb, 2000, 66, 2641-2646), improving the control capabilities of shake flasks (D. Weuster-Botz, J. Altenbach-Rehm, M. Arnold, Biochem. Eng. J, 2001, 7, 163-170), improving the parallelism of stirred tank bioreactors (J. Altenbach-Rehm, C. Nell, M. Arnold, and D. Weuster-Botz, Chem. Eng. Technol, 1999, 22, 1051-1058; S. R. Lamping, H. Zhang, B. Allen, P. Ayazi Shamlou, Chem. Eng. Sci., 2003, 58, 747-758; Y. Kostov, P. Harms, L. Randers-Eichhorn and G. P. Rao, Biotechnol Bioeng, 2001, 72, 346-352; P. Harms, Y. Kostov, J. A. French, M. Soliman, M. Anjanappa, A. Ram, and G. Rao, Biotechnol. Bioeng., 2006, 93, 6-13; R. Puskeiler, A. Kusterer, G. T. John and D. Weuster-Botz, Biotechnol. Appl. Biochem., 2005, 42, 227-235; R. Puskeiler, K. Kaufmann, D. Weuster-Botz, Biotechnol. Bioeng., 2005, 89, 512-523; D. Weuster-Botz, R. Puskeiler, A. Kusterer, K. Kaufmann, G. T. John, and M. Arnold, Bioprocess Biosyst Eng, 2005, 28, 109-119), or developing microfabricated bioreactor systems (M. M. Maharbiz, W. J. Holtz, R. T. Howe, and J. D. Keasling, Biotechnol. Bioeng., 2004,85, 376-381; F. K. Balagadde, L You, C. L. Hansen, F. H. Arnold, and S. R. Quake, Science. 2005, 309, 137-40; A. Zanzotto, N. Szita, P. Boccazzi, P. Lessard, A. J. Sinskey, and K. F. Jensen, Biotechnol. Bioeng., 2004, 87, 243-254; P. Boccazzi, A. Zanzotto, N. Szita, S. Bhattacharya, K. F. Jensen, A. J. Sinskey, Appl. Microbiol. Biotechnol, 2005, 68, 518-532; Z. Zhang, N. Szita, P. Boccazzi, A. J. Sinskey and K. F. Jensen, Proceedings of Micro Total Analysis Systems, Seventh International Conference on Miniaturized Chemical and Biochemical Analysis Systems, 765-768, Squaw Valley, Calif., USA, 2003; N. Szita, P. Boccazzi, Z. Zhang, P. Boyle, A. J. Sinskey and K. F. Jensen, Lab Chip, 2005, 5, 819-826). Each of these approaches has addressed parallelism, oxygenation, control, automation, and scalability to various degrees. Of these approaches, the miniature arrays of stirred tanks with robotic fluid handling have achieved the highest level of performance in terms of cell density and controlled parameters. However, these systems require expensive pipetting robotics and careful sterilization of the pipette tips to prevent contamination during frequent sampling.
The inventors have recognized that a microfabricated integration approach offers the potential for circumventing the need for robotic multiplexing, however, none of the microbioreactor systems developed to date have utilized microfluidic integration to achieve parallelism. In addition, no existing microfabricated approach has succeeded, even in a single reactor, in providing the oxygen transfer rate and the pH control capabilities of stirred tank bioreactors that are required for high cell density growth.
Current methods for pH control in miniature bioreactor arrays include diffusion of carbon dioxide gas into the liquid medium to generate carbonic acid, see, e.g., "Methods for intense aeration, growth storage, and replication of bacterial strains in microtiter plates," W. A. Duetz, L. Ruedi, R. Hermann, K. O'Connor, J. Buchs, and B. Witholt, Appl. Environ. Microb. Vol. 66, pp. 2641-2646 (June 2000) and "A microfluidic pH-regulation system based on printed circuit board technology," C. Laritz, and L. Pagel, Sensors and Actuators A, 84, 230 (2000), and generation of hydroxide or hydrogen ions by electrolysis of water, see, e.g., "A flow-through cell with integrated coulometric pH actuator," S. Bohm, W. Olthuis, and P. Bergveld, Sensors and Actuators B, 47, 48 (1998) and "Micro-instruments for life science research," B. van der Schoot, M. Boillat, and N. de Rooij, IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement, 50, 1538 (2001). Carbon dioxide diffusion is limited because it cannot compensate for acids generated during microbial growth. While electrolytic methods can compensate for both acids and bases, unintended side reactions can generate unwanted compounds, and their implementation is complicated by the need to integrate a counter electrode with each growth chamber.
Furthermore, because diffusion of acids and bases to enable pH control is often slow at microbioreactor dimensions, controlling pH by simply injecting acid or base is not viable without something to facilitate mixing. Therefore, in order to realize a small scale bioreactor device that allows multiple experiments to be performed in parallel that offers improved oxygen transfer capacity and control over environmental parameters (such as pH and dissolved oxygen), a number of challenges need to be overcome.

Parallel integrated bioreactor device and method


Apparatus and methods are provided for measuring a parameter of a hydrocarbon-bearing well fluid sample while the sample is still in place in the well and at downhole pressure and temperature conditions. A tool is lowered into the well to a downhole location. A well fluid sample is trapped in the tool at the downhole location. While the tool remains within the well, the volume of the well fluid sample is expanded while repeatedly measuring the pressure of the trapped well fluid sample at different volumes and thereby generating pressure versus volume data for the trapped well fluid sample. From this data, various parameters such as bubble-point pressure and compressibility of the sample can be readily obtained. The apparatus is suited for drawing and testing multiple samples in succession. After each sample is tested, it is expelled from the tool so that another sample can be taken. The data can be stored for subsequent analysis at the surface or it can be transmitted to the surface for real time analysis.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to apparatus for measuring downhole the properties of a hydrocarbon-bearing fluid, and more particularly, but not by way of limitation, to an apparatus capable of making multiple downhole measurements without being removed from the well.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
It is often desirable in well testing operations to retrieve downhole fluid samples for inspection and analysis. One portion of the lab analysis which is usually performed on a sample is a determination of the physical properties of a sample. One of the properties which must be determined is the pressure below which the gas present in an oil sample will begin to leave the single-phase oil sample and break out of solution, creating a two-phase oil and gas sample.
This pressure is dependent on the temperature of the sample, and is known as the bubble-point pressure. The bubble-point pressure of a sample is determined by placing the sample into a laboratory cell where the heat and pressure can be controlled. In some cases, a crude bubble-point determination is made at the well site, at ambient conditions. The determined value of the bubble point at ambient conditions is then used to extrapolate or predict the bubble point at downhole temperatures.
In any case, the goal is usually to determine the bubble point for the sample at one or more downhole locations by estimating what happens to the sample properties under these conditions or by trying to recreate the downhole conditions.
One problem with present methods of determining bubble point pressure and other sample properties is with the handling of the sample. The sample is captured downhole, then retrieved to the surface. As the sample is retrieved to surface, it cools down and the sample pressure drops. In some samples, irreversible chemical changes occur as the sample cools down. This problem is unavoidable with present methods.
Another problem which can arise with present sampling techniques, is sample degradation due to long-term storage at ambient conditions. It often takes a long time for samples to be shipped from the well site to a lab for analysis.
Human error in the processes described above can also result in sample corruption, contamination or degradation in some other way. Unclean sample bottles, lab equipment, etc., can also degrade the sample.
Thus there is a need for an apparatus which can readily determine the bubble-point pressure and other desired parameters of a well fluid sample downhole within the well while the sample is still at its natural conditions.

Downhole fluid property measurement tool


The present invention discloses uses of a novel phosphodiesterase 4 (PDE4) inhibitor ZL-n-91 in preparing drugs against lung cancer proliferation and metastasis. The mouse survival curves and in vitro cell experiments show that the PDE4 inhibitor ZL-n-91 can significantly inhibit the proliferation and metastasis of lung cancer cells, indicating that this PDE4 inhibitor ZL-n-91 can become an important target for the studies on anti-lung cancer proliferation and metastasis, to provide a basis for preparing drugs against lung cancer proliferation and metastasis, with promising prospect of development and application.

Cancer is an important cause of human death, and lung cancer is one of the malignant tumors with the fastest increase in morbidity and mortality and the greatest threat to human health and life. Globally, lung cancer is the second most common cancer in males. In 2012, almost 1.6 million people died of lung cancer in the world, and the number of such cases accounted for more than one-third. Lung cancer has the highest incidence in males in china, and 80%-85% of them are non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Conventional therapies for lung cancer include topical treatment (including surgery, radiation therapy, etc.) and systemic treatment (including conventional chemotherapy, molecularly targeted drug therapy, etc.). Although great progress has been made in modern medical researches and some progress in the radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and surgical treatment have been achieved for lung cancer, the overall prognosis of lung cancer is still poor, and its 5-year survival rate is less than 15%. Therefore, looking for new method for treating lung cancer has become an issue urgently to be solved by scientists.
Phosphodiesterases (PDEs) have the function of hydrolyzing intracellular second messenger cAMP or cGMP, to affect the second messenger-mediated signaling pathways and regulate cell functions. PDEs include 11 subtypes, of which, PDE4 specifically hydrolyzes cAMP. PDE4 is mainly expressed in a variety of inflammatory cells, including mast cells, macrophages, lymphocytes, epithelial cells, etc. PDE4 is involved in related physiological and pathological processes such as promoting activation of monocytes and macrophages, neutrophil infiltration, proliferation of vascular smooth muscle, vasodilation and myocardial contraction, etc., having influence on central nervous system functions, cardiovascular functions, inflammation/immune system, and cell adhesion, etc. Studies have shown that PDE4 inhibitors (PDE4i) have effects of anti-inflammation, anti-allergy and anti-platelet activation. Its specific mechanisms include the following: 1) inhibiting the release of a variety of inflammatory mediators/cytokines and inhibiting the expression of IL-4 and IL-5 genes; 2) inhibiting leukocyte activation (e.g., respiratory burst) and inhibiting leukocyte migration; 3) inhibiting the expression or upregulation of cell adhesion factor (CAM); 4) inducing the production of cytokines with inhibitory activity, such as IL-6; 5) inducing apoptosis; 6) stimulating the release of endogenous hormones and catecholamines.
At present, PDE4 inhibitors that have been developed or being developed mainly target on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma, inflammatory bowel disease, arthritis, etc. However, many studies have shown that PDE4 inhibitors have a significant inhibitory effect on malignant tumors. Patricia Goldhoff xenografted human glioblastoma U87 cells in nude mice and used PDE4 inhibitors to prolong the survival time of tumor-bearing mice. In 2006, Motoshi Narita found that PDE4i could inhibit the growth of human melanoma cells. Petros X. E. Mouratidis found that, after adding PDE4 inhibitors CC-8075 and CC-8062 to pancreatic cancer cells, cell proliferation was decreased and cell apoptosis increased.
The existing PDE4 inhibitors mainly include Rolipram, Cilomitast, Roflumilast, etc. Since Rolipram and Cilomitast may induce dizziness, headache and nausea, vomiting and other gastrointestinal adverse reactions, the application of these drugs are limited in clinical practices. One of the possible causes of adverse reactions in the gastrointestinal tract is the poor specificity of PDE4 inhibitors, which moderately and selectively inhibits the entire PDE family. For example, Cilomitast inhibits PDE4 with Ki of 92 nM, only 500 to 1000 times of Ki for PDE1, 2, 3, and 5. Therefore, a high dose of Cilomilast can interact with other PDE family members and cause side effects. In fact, most PDE4 inhibitors have a common side effect of vomiting at high doses. Although Roflumilast has been approved by the US FDA for the treatment of COPD with its effect of reducing lung inflammation, resisting oxidative stress, effectively relieving pulmonary fibrosis, enhancing mucosal clearance and remodeling the airway, it has caused adverse reactions such as diarrhea, weight loss, nausea, atrial fibrillation and aggravated mental illness (such as insomnia, anxiety, depression), etc.

Application of phosphodiesterase 4 inhibitor ZL-n-91 in preparation of medications for lung cancer proliferation and metastasis


A control apparatus for controlling an event in accordance with the playback of playback data includes a playback processor performing playback processing on the playback data, an acquisition unit acquiring playback section information associated with the playback data to specify a target playback section of the playback data, an end time point specifying unit specifying an end time point of the event in relation to the playback data on the basis of the playback section information, a time period specifying unit specifying a time period from the start to the end of the event, a start time point specifying unit specifying a start time point of the event on the basis of the end time point and the time period, and a controller controlling the event to be started at the start time point of the event by monitoring a playback status of the playback data.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method in which, in accordance with main content, such as sound, an image, or a motion of an object, to be played back or acted, another content, such as sound, an image, or a motion of an object, can be played back or acted with a certain relationship with the main content.
2. Description of the Related Art
Sound playback-only devices, such as compact-disc (CD) players and mini-disk (MD) players, are widely used. In recent years, however, composite (multiple-function) machines, such as personal computers, digital versatile disc (DVD) players, hard disk recorders, that can process both sound data and video data, are also coming into wide use, which increases the opportunity to play back music in such a composite machine by connecting a monitor receiver, such as a television receiver, to the composite machine. Accordingly, there is an increasing demand for displaying appropriate images on a connected monitor receiver while music is being played back.
To address such a demand, a so-called visualizer is currently used. More specifically, while playing back sound data, the spectrum of sound data is analyzed. Then, based on the analysis results and information concerning the volume of the sound data, geometric patterns are generated in real time while the sound data is being played back, and are displayed on the display screen of a monitor receiver.
For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2001-092434 discloses an information processing apparatus (visualizer) for displaying images in association with sound. In this image processing apparatus, an image to be displayed can be switched in response with a sound change, and a method for generating a synthesized image from a frequency analyzed image and a selected image can also be switched in response with a sound change. By using the technique disclosed in this publication, images can be presented to users by being associated with sound.


Disclosed herein are various embodiments for an augmented reality contextual menu system. An embodiment operates by receiving a request to open a file from a user. A social media channel associated with the user is identified, wherein the social media channel includes shared media. A graphical social icon representing the social media channel is generated based on the shared media. A plurality of icons, including the graphical social icon, are displayed responsive to the request. A selection of the graphical social icon causes at least a portion of the social media channel to be rendered with a computing workspace.

Allowing users to open files is an essential part of any computing system. The types of files that can be opened can vary depending on the capabilities of the particular computing system. The files may include, for example, word processing, spreadsheet, images, videos, models, or other multimedia files. For a user, opening a file usually involves selecting a file based on a particular file name. However, files can be misnamed or file names can be ambiguous or deceiving about what actual contents are included in the file. As such, the only way a user can see what is contained in the file is by actually opening the file, which consumes unnecessary computing resources when the wrong file is opened.
In the drawings, like reference numbers generally indicate identical or similar elements. Additionally, generally, the left-most digit(s) of a reference number identifies the drawing in which the reference number first appears.


A knocking tool comprises a handle having an inclined cambered groove; one end of the cambered groove being at a first end surface of the handle; the first end surface of the handle having at least one insertion hole; an outer lateral wall of the handle having at least one through hole which is communicated to the respective insertion holes; and at least one joint assembled to the first end surface of the handle; one surface of the joint being installed with at least one insertion rod which is inserted into the insertion holes; a retainer being inserted into the respective through hole so as to tightly engage the insertion rod to the insertion hole. A connecting rod is assembled to the insertion groove of the handle; and one end of the connecting rod has a combining portion. The combining portion is formed with combining holes.

The power of car is mainly from the engine in that fuel and air are mixed with a predetermined ratio. A spark plug is used to ignite the fuel to combust air to expand rapidly. Thus the piston is pushed to move reciprocally so as to generate power. The power is transferred to a crank through a linkage to drive a car. Other than piston, linkage, crank shaft, the cylinder and air value are also important components for the reciprocal operated engine. The operation of the piston is induced the friction of the wall of the cylinder so that the oil seal will become worse and thus it cannot tightly seal the opening of the cylinder. As a result, oil will flow into the surface of the engine so as to damage the top surface of the plug, inner wall of the cylinder, surface area of the valve, etc., and thus the power is insufficient. Thus the oil sealing must be detached for repair. Thereby above mentioned linkage, crank shaft, bearings, and gears must be updated as they are used for a long time, otherwise the safety of driving will be affected.
Generally, in updating the oil sealing, the old parts must be detached for updating a new one. In the old operation, the oil sealing is engaged to a valve rod and then a force is used to enforce the oil sealing into the valve. Generally, a car has many parts which must be assembled into an engine chamber so that the residue space is very small and the operation for assembling the oil sealing is very difficult. Furthermore, the assembling of bearings, gears, etc., uses a long rod (such as an opener or a socket) to resist against a surface of a part and then a hammer is used to knock the part. Furthermore, the centers of the oil sealing, bearings, and gears have an axial rod. In knocking, it must take care not to damage the surface of the axial rod. Thus in knocking, the position of a resisting tool must be displaced to avoid the parts to be damaged.


In one aspect of the present disclosure, a tissue retraction system may include a first anchor, a second anchor, and an elongate coupling member extending between the first anchor and the second anchor. The system also may include a holder for receiving the first anchor, the second anchor, and the elongate coupling element. The holder may include a proximal portion and a distal portion. The distal portion may have a smaller width than the proximal portion such that the distal portion exerts a force on a proximal end of the first anchor during deployment of the first anchor from the holder. The force may move the first anchor into an open configuration for receiving tissue.

Technological developments have given users of medical systems, devices, and methods the ability to conduct increasingly complex procedures on subjects. The removal of tissue in, for example, a subject's gastrointestinal tract, is a type of procedure in which difficulties may arise. One such area of difficulty involves removing a lesion on tissue. In order to remove the lesion, the user may retract tissue at or around the lesion. This retraction may enable the user to clearly observe a cutting plane for removing the lesion. Having this visualization may aid in preventing unwanted incision errors, such as severing vessels. The visualization also may aid in ensuring that as much of or all of the lesion is removed.
In order to achieve retraction, the user may inject a solution into tissue at or around the lesion to elevate the tissue in preparation for cutting. Reaching and elevating the lesion, and in particular, the base of the lesion, may require making a multitude of injections. This may be time consuming. Moreover, the injections may not provide sufficient tissue retraction to provide the line of sight, or other access, desired by the user. These potential problems are exacerbated when the lesion targeted for removal is a flat lesion.
Solutions that offer retraction, while reducing or eliminating the occurrence of the above-described drawbacks, may lead to better outcomes for users and subjects.

Systems, devices, and related methods for retracting tissue


Metal oxide nanowires are being investigated to make nanodevices and nanosensors. High operation temperatures or vacuum is required in the manufacturing of metal oxide nanowires by existing vapor phase evaporation methods. This invention provides a method of manufacturing metal oxide nanowires by first providing a metal to form a non-linear substantially planar structure defining a surface. The metal is then heated and maintained at a temperature from 300 to 800° C., and then exposed to oxygen and water vapor containing air stream for a sufficient period of time to form the metal oxide nanowires. The oxygen containing air stream flows in a direction substantially parallel to the plane of the structure. Relatively low temperatures may be used and no vacuum is required in this method, thereby reducing the overall manufacturing costs. Further, this method is able to manufacture different densities of the metal oxide nanowires simultaneously.

Metal oxide nanowires are being investigated to make nanodevices and nanosensors. For example, In2O3 and SnO2 nanowires have been tested to form field-effect transistor gas sensors in recent year (D. H. Zhang, Z. Q. Liu, C. Li, T. Tamg, X. L. Liu, S. Han, B. Lei and C. W. Zhou, Nano Letters, 4 (2004) 1910; A. Kolmakov, D. O. Klenov, Y. Lilach, S. Stemmer and M. Moskovits, Nano Letters, 5 (2005) 667). This kind of gas sensors can detected ppb levels gases, such as NO2, NH3 est. In these researches, oxide nanowires are sonicated in a solution and little solution is dropped on substrates to make devices. Therefore, nanowires on devices show a random direction.
One of most popular methods to form oxide nanowires is vapor phase evaporation, which includes: heating the oxide powder to an evaporation temperature of the oxide powder for about 1 hour to about 2 hours at about 200 toor to about 400 torr in an atmosphere comprising argon; evaporating the oxide powder; and forming the oxide nanowires on a substrate (Z. L. Wang, Z. W. Pan, and Z. R. Dai, US Patent 2002/0094450 A1; Z. W. Pan, Z. R. Dai and Z. L. Wang, Science, 291 (2001) 1947). In order to evaporate oxide powders, heating temperature is usually set up to close to melting point of the oxide, for example 1000° C. The growth of oxide nanowires via vapor evaporation often involves a catalyst. A catalyst nanoparticle may present at one end of nanowire, which may affect the properties of the nanowire. A vacuum system is also required to maintain the pressure in a furnace. As high temperatures and vacuum is required for this method, the operation cost is also relatively high.
Another method of synthesis of oxide nanowire is thermal oxidation of a metal. It was shown that CuO nanowires could be formed on Cu foil by thermal oxidation in air. The formation of nanowires is mainly based on samples with small sizes. Generally, furnace temperature in the method of thermal oxidation (about 400-600° C.) is lower than that in vapor phase evaporation (over 1000° C.). Gas pressure in a furnace can keep 1 atm or lower. However, the length of nanowires formed by thermal oxidation is usually not uniform with low densities of nanowires.
Moreover, oxide nanowires formed by vapor phase evaporation or thermal oxidation often show a bending shape. Nanowire has a single crystal structure with spatial orientation. The bending structure of nanowire implies defects in the structures in nanowires.

Methods of manufacturing metal oxide nanowires


A lithium ion secondary battery provided by the present invention has a positive electrode having a current collector and a positive electrode composite layer provided on the current collector. The current collector contains a metal element A as a main component thereof. The positive electrode composite layer contains a two-phase compound containing lithium as a positive electrode active material. The positive electrode composite layer also contains as an additive a compound having a metal element B, in a composition thereof, that has a higher ionization tendency than the metal element A.

Lithium ion secondary batteries are provided with positive and negative electrodes capable of reversibly storing and releasing lithium ions and an electrolyte interposed between both electrodes, and these batteries are charged and discharged by the migration of lithium ions in the electrolyte between both of the electrodes. These batteries are proliferating as power supplies of various types of portable devices due to their light weight and high energy density. In addition, since they are also expected to be used in fields requiring large capacity power supplies in the manner of hybrid vehicles and electric vehicles, there is a need for further improvement of the safety and endurance thereof. Examples of technical documents relating to various improvements in the performance of lithium ion secondary batteries include Patent Literatures 1 and 2.

Non-aqueous electrolyte lithium ion secondary battery


A neural network is made to undergo learning such that at least three characteristic parameters, which correspond to an inputted set of color information values when the set of color information values, including at least three color information values, is inputted and which are obtained by multivariate analysis of the spectral reflectance distribution or the spectral transmittance distribution, are outputted. A subject set of color information values is transformed into the characteristic parameters by using the neural network which has completed learning, and a spectral reflectance distribution or a spectral transmittance distribution is estimated by linear polynomial approximation using the transformed characteristic parameters, eigenvectors obtained by the multivariate analysis, and a mean vector of the spectral reflectance distribution or the spectral transmittance distribution.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for estimating a spectral reflectance distribution or a spectral transmittance distribution suitable for a device-independent color reproduction method and apparatus in, for example, color DTP. More particularly, the present invention concerns a method and an apparatus for estimating a spectral reflectance distribution or a spectral transmittance distribution, which are necessary as a color reproduction process to ensure that the appearance of a color reproduced by any color reproducing apparatus always becomes the appearance of the color of an original by being not only device-independent but illuminant-independent, by using characteristic parameters which are obtained by the multivariate analysis of the spectral reflectance distribution or the spectral transmittance distribution and which are always capable of accurately representing the physical properties of the color irrespective of the kind of illuminant as a device-independent color representation process.
2. Description of the Related Art
A so-called device-independent color reproduction method is conventionally known as a method of color reproduction in which the reproduced color is not dependent on a device and which is capable of reproducing the same color as that of an original even if the color is reproduced by any device. In this device-independent color reproduction method, color information is temporarily transformed into representations which are not dependent on the device, and color correction is then carried out.
In the above-described reproduction method, the same color as that of an original is reproduced with high accuracy without being dependent on the device, by representing the color of the original by using calorimetric values, such as CIE L*a*b*, CIE L*u*v* uniform color space, or CIE XYZ values prescribed by CIE (Commission Internationale de l'Eclairage), and then by effecting transformations between the calorimetric values and device values such as CMYK values.
However, since the CIE L*a*b*, CIE L*u*v*, CIE XYZ values, or the like are defined by the spectral distributions of illuminants, spectral reflectance distributions of the subject surfaces, and color matching functions, the above-described conventional device-independent color reproduction method has a problem in that the reproduced color does not match the color of the original unless the illuminant used for observing the color of the original is the same as the illuminant used in deriving the CIE L*a*b* values or the like.
As described above, the conventional device-independent color reproduction method has the problem that the illuminants allowing the reproduced color to appear to be the same color as the original are restricted, color matching cannot be accomplished only under very limited environments, i.e., illumination.
Meanwhile, there are various types of illumination used for observation of colors, including illumination under an incandescent lamp, illumination under a fluorescent lamp, sunlight, and so on. Therefore, the conventional device-independent color reproduction method disadvantageously makes it impossible to allow the reproduced color to always match the color of the original under such illuminants.

Method and apparatus for estimating a special reflectance distribution or a spectral transmittance distribution using illuminant-independent characteristic parameters


A method and system for configuring physical resource and signal transmission when communication systems coexist are provided. The method includes: configuring physical resources of the Wimax 16e frame according to LTE frame configuration information by following modes: configuring the number of downlink symbols in the Wimax 16e frame and shift time of the Wimax 16e frame relative to the half frame of the LTE frame according to the condition that the downlink region of the Wimax 16e frame is included in the downlink region of the LTE frame in time domain; and configuring the number of uplink symbols and time length of Transmission/Receive Transition Gap (TTG) in the Wimax 16e frame according to the condition that the uplink region of the Wimax 16e frame is included in the uplink region of the LTE frame in time domain; wherein, the uplink and downlink handover period of LTE frame is 5 ms.

In a wireless communication system, a base station refers to a device providing functions such as initial access, service transmission and resource management etc. to a terminal, and typically, the base station implements the above functions by channel control and message management. The base station communicates with the terminal through an uplink and downlink, wherein, the downlink refers to a wireless link from the base station to the terminal, and the uplink refers to a wireless link from the terminal to the base station.
The Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM for short) technology is a high speed transmission technology under a wireless environment, which enhances the performance of anti-multipath fading by expanding a pulse width of symbols. The implementation principle of the OFDM technology is that the high speed serial data is transformed into multi-path parallel data with a relatively low speed, and the multi-path parallel data are modulated onto sub-carriers which are orthogonal with each other for transmission. The Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA for short) technology is to implement multiple access by enabling users to occupy different sub-carriers on the basis of the OFDM technology. In a wireless communication system using the OFDMA technology, the base station implements mapping of radio resources and allocation of radio resources. For example, the base station determines a system configuration and resource allocation information for the downlink transmission from the base station to the terminal and the system configuration and resource allocation information for the uplink transmission from the terminal to the base station and so on, the base station transmits the system configurations and resource allocation information to the terminal through a control channel, and the terminal receives these information on the determined control channel, and then receives and transmits data to communicate with the base station. In order to maintain timing synchronization when the base station communicates with the terminal, the base station needs to transmit a synchronization signal, which is referred to as a preamble or a preambl or a synchronization sequence in some communication standards, to the terminal in a downlink area.
In addition, in order to adapt various channel conditions, one kind of wireless communication system has multiple frame structures, and how to ensure consistence of the designs of control channels under a condition of multiple frame structures includes whether the locations and numbers of resources for transmitting the control channels are consistent; in the same generation of communication standards, multiple communication systems coexist, and how to design respective control channels to ensure that various communication systems can coexist is also very important; and in the process of the development of one communication system, a previous generation system thereof typically needs to be supported in the evolved system, for example, the IEEE 802.16m system is an evolved system for the IEEE 802.16e system, and the IEEE 802.16e is a previous generation system for the IEEE 802.16m, and therefore, supporting the previous generation system also limits the method for designing the control channels of the evolved system.
Another name of the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (Wimax) 16e is 802.16. Wimax 16e is an emerging broadband wireless access technology, and can provide an Internet oriented high speed connection. Wherein, IEEE 802.16e is a standard of the mobile broadband wireless access, and the Wimax 16e system refers to a communication system based on the IEEE 802.16e standard. The Wimax 16e communication system can be divided into two kinds of modes, i.e., a Partial Usage of Sub-Channel (PUSC) and a Full Usage of Sub-Channel (FUSC) according to a frequency band dividing mode. The PUSC refers to dividing the frequency bands into three sectors, and the FUSC refers to not dividing the frequency bands into sectors, and instead, combining the frequency bands for use. The resources of the Wimax 16e system can have multiple modes such as PUSC, FUSC, Adaptive Modulation and Coding (AMC) etc. in accordance with structures. Wherein, the AMC mode can have multiple modes, including a total of four structures occupying 1, 2, 3 and 6 symbols in time domain.
For the downlink part of the Wimax 16e system, there must be a preamble of one symbol and PUSC resources in units of 2 symbols, and this part of PUSC resources are used to transmit a system control signaling, and the remaining part can be comprised of one or more of various resource blocks such as PUSC, FUSC, AMC etc., i.e., the downlink resources must include a preamble and PUSC resources. For the uplink part, it is comprised of one or two of PUSC and AMC, i.e., the uplink can operate as long as there is one of PUSC and AMC.
The Long Term Evolution (LTE) project is a 3G evolution, and is dated from 3GPP conference in Toronto in 2004. The LTE is a transition between 3G and 4G, and is a global standard of 3.9G, which improves and enhances the air access technology of 3G, and uses OFDM and MIMO as the unique standard for the evolution of the wireless network thereof. The frame structure of the LTE communication system is comprised of data frames of 10 ms, wherein, each frame has 10 subframes, which can further be divided into two half frames of 5 ms, and each of which is comprised of a certain number of uplink symbols, downlink symbols or Guard Periods (GPs). A handover period can be divided into 5 ms and 10 ms according to uplink and downlink.
One frame structure for a 10 ms handover of the LTE communication system is shown in FIG. 1A, one frame with a time length of 10 ms (referred to as LTE frame herein) has one particular subframe S, where a Downlink Pilot Time Slot (DwPTS) is a downlink part in the particular subframe, and is used to transmit downlink symbols, and an Uplink Pilot Time Slot (UpPTS) is an uplink part in the particular subframe, and is used to transmit downlink signals, and a GP is a blank part in the particular subframe, which does not transmit any signal.
The structure of the configured frame for a handover period of 5 ms of the LTE communication system is shown in FIG. 1B, and the difference from the frame structure for the 10 ms handover is that there is one particular subframe S every time length of 5 ms, and there are two particular subframes S in one radio frame with a time length of 10 ms. In the present application, all downlink subframes and the DwPTS constitute the downlink area in the LTE frame, and all uplink subframes and the UpPTS constitute the uplink area of the LTE frame.
There are two kinds of OFDM symbols for the LTE system, one of which is a regular cyclic prefix and the other is a normal cyclic prefix, wherein, the lengths of the two symbols are different in time.
Both the Wimax 16e communication system and the LTE communication system can be divided into a Time Division Duplex (TDD for short) system and a Frequency Division Duplex (FDD for short) system. In the TDD system, for the wireless communication system based on OFDM or OFDMA, the mapping of radio resources thereof is primarily based on the frame structure and resource structure of the wireless communication system, and the frame structure describes the control structure of the radio resource in time domain, and the resource structure describes the control structure of the radio resource in frequency domain. The frame structure divides the radio resources into different levels of units in time domain, such as superframes, frames, subframes and symbols, and implements scheduling control by setting different control channels (such as broadcast channels, unicast and multicast channels etc.). Each superframe, frame, subframe and symbol occupy a certain time in time domain. In the TDD mode of the Wimax 16e communication system, as shown in FIG. 2, a frame length of one Wimax 16e frame is 5 ms, including a downlink area, an uplink area, an idle time period, which is referred to as a Transmission/Receive Transition Gap (TTG for short), between the downlink area and the uplink area, and an idle time period, which is referred to as a Receive/Transmission Transition Gap (RTG for short), between the uplink area and the downlink area. On the time slot of the TTG and the RTG, the terminal and the base station do not transmit any signal.
In the communication system, there may be a condition that the distance between central frequency points of the frequency bands used by two communication systems is rather near and the interval between two frequency bands is small or almost 0, and in such condition, there may be serious interference between the two communication systems, and the two communication systems in such condition are referred to as adjacent frequency communication systems. As shown in FIG. 3, the first communication system and the second communication system are two adjacent frequency communication systems, and the first communication system will produce energy leakage of the frequency band, and leaks a part of energy on the frequency band of the second communication system, which produces a large interference to the communication of the second communication system. Likewise, the second communication system will also produce interference to A. Especially when the second communication system performs uplink communication but the first communication system performs downlink communication at the same time, a terminal belonging to the second communication system will transmit uplink data to the base station, and at this time, a signal transmitted by the terminal of the second communication system will produce a large energy leakage of the frequency band and the energy is added to an antenna of a terminal of the first communication system, which produces a large interference to the reception of the downlink signal by the terminal of the first communication system, that is, the downlink signal of the first communication system and the uplink signal of the second communication system will interference the reception of the signal by the other party, vice versa. When considering adjacent frequency coexistence while two communication systems coexist (refers to the base stations of the two communication systems are located at the same place), the above interference problem will become more serious.

Method and system for physical resources configuration and signal transmission when communication systems coexist


A processing method uses a probe of a scanning probe microscope. A fine marker is formed in a processing material by thrusting the probe, which is made of a material harder than the processing material, into a portion of the processing material disposed in the vicinity of an area of the processing material to be processed by the probe during a processing operation. A position of the fine marker on the processing material is detected during the processing operation. A drift amount of the area of the processing material is calculated in accordance with the detected position of the fine marker. A position of the area of the processing material is corrected in accordance with the calculated drift amount.

The present invention relates to a processing method using a probe of a scanning probe microscope and, more specifically, to a method of correcting drift of a processing position.
A microprocessing technology on the order of nanometer is required for improvement of level and degree of integration of functions, and research and development regarding processing technologies, such as local anodic oxidation or fine scratch processing using a scanning probe microscope (SPM), has been extensively carried out. Not only has microprocessing become important, but also processing with high degree of accuracy is now increasingly required.
In order to improve the accuracy of microprocessing, not only is the microprocessing capability or a highly accurate positioning technology important, but also reduction or correction of drift, such as thermal drift unavoidably generated during processing, have to be performed since processing using the SPM takes time. As a method of correcting drift on the order of 1 nm, a method of correcting a processing range in real time using a laser interferometer has been employed. The method using the laser interferometer has an advantage of real time, but since the amount of displacement of a mirror mounted to a stage is observed instead of the position near the processing point, there may be the case in which the amount of drift correction is different from that actually required. In particular, when the sample is a large sample such as a photomask or a wafer, the distance from the mirror and the actual processing point increases, and hence the tendency of being different from the actually required amount of drift correction increases correspondingly. When the temperature between the sample and the mirror is different, the laser interferometer cannot measure the thermal drift of the sample accurately, and hence the processing is performed after having waited until the sample and the mirror are thermally balanced.
In the processing using the SPM, the influence of the drift is reduced by performing the drift correction with the measured value of the laser interferometer or by repeating the process of observing the area including the processing point in an observation mode in the course of processing and then redefining the processing area before restarting the processing. In the method of observing in the observation mode and redefining the processing area before restarting the processing, if the processing area is large and observation is performed to an extent sufficient for the drift correction, it takes long time for observation, and hence there may arise a difference between the result of observation and the actually required amount of the drift correction, and in addition, the throughput is deteriorated. When the observation is made roughly, it does not take long time, but the accuracy of drift correction is disadvantageously deteriorated. Although a method of observing a characteristic pattern at the portion near the processing point in the course of processing and then performing the drift correction by pattern matching is also conceivable, there is a problem that there is no guarantee that a pattern which can be used for pattern matching both in X-direction and Y-direction always exists at the portion near the processing point.
In the case of defect correction of a photomask or manufacturing a sample for a transmission electron microscope using a focused ion beam, a method of processing including steps of opening small holes with a concentrated ion beam at positions near the processing point as drift markers, selectively scanning the area of several micrometers including small holes which are formed regularly by interrupting the processing in the course of the processing, obtaining the drift amount from displacement of the center of gravity of the small holes, and correcting the range of processing is employed, whereby the processing with high degree of accuracy of 20 nm or below is realized (for example, JP-B-5-4660 (P. 2, FIG. 11)). However, in the processing using the SPM, such a method has not been employed.
An atom-tracking method is developed as a method of tracking a substance of an atomic level size on the surface with atomic level accuracy. The atom-tracking method is a method developed for the scanning tunneling microscope (STM) which enables tracking of surface diffusion of an atomic size atom, in which a probe is rotated at a high speed substantially in radius of an atom in a horizontal plane, detecting a varied signal which depends on the position of a tunneling current by a lock-in amplifier, and giving feed-back to X-Y scanning (for example, B. S. Swartzentruber. Phys. Rev. Lett. 76 459-462(1996)), and has a potential for correcting the drift of 1 nm level in real time. However, it has not been used for the aforementioned drift correction.
The present invention is intended to enable processing with high degree of accuracy in a processing machine in which a scanning probe microscope is applied.

Processing method using probe of scanning probe microscope


The present technology provides a dual chemical sensor for zinc and nickel ions and a chemical sensor for copper ions. Also provided are methods of making and using the chemical sensors. The chemical sensors have the structure of formula I, wherein R1, and R2 are defined as set forth herein.

Zinc, nickel and copper are metals that are necessary in trace amounts for proper functioning of various metalloenzymes in humans and animals. For example, zinc deficiency may be associated with anorexia, impaired immune, neural and reproductive functions. Nickel may act as a co-factor for the absorption of iron in the intestine, and copper deficiencies may lead to neurological problems. However, high levels of these metals are also deleterious to human and animal health.
Overdoses of zinc and some of its compounds such as oxides, sulfates, sulfides and chlorides may cause effects in the respiratory tract such as bronchopneumonia and pneumonitis, developmental defects, inflammatory reactions and even death. Prolonged oral exposure to zinc may cause reduced absorption of copper. Estimates of the minimal risk levels of zinc may range from 77-600 mg/m3 for inhalation and 0.3 mg/kg/day for oral exposure.
Like other heavy metals, nickel overexposure may be associated with a wide variety of toxic effects. Acute effects of nickel toxicity may include respiratory distress and hematuria. Whereas subchronic nickel exposure may lead to hepatic and renal toxicity, chronic nickel exposure may cause adenocarcinoma, immune suppression, genotoxicity and neurotoxicity.
Thus, simple, sensitive and accurate methods for assessing low levels of zinc, nickel, copper in both biological and other sample types are important.

Chemical sensors of zinc, nickel, and copper ions


A protective glove pad for use by a baseball player configured to be positioned between the palm of the player's hand and the interior of a baseball glove to protect the palm of the hand from injury when catching a baseball comprising an enlarged palm pad portion of graduated thickness having an elongated finger pad portion extending outwardly therefrom to selectively position and retain the protective glove pad in the baseball glove.

1. Field of the Invention
A protective glove pad for use by a baseball player to protect the palm of the hand from injury when catching a baseball.
2. Description of the Prior Art
When playing baseball, the player's hand is struck repeatedly while catching a baseball. As a result, the palm of the hand as well as the joints and bones of the hand are often bruised or otherwise injured despite the use of a conventional baseball glove. Baseball gloves include a pocket with minimum padding to receive the ball in the area of the pocket with flexibility essential for manipulation of the glove during use. Unfortunately the padding in such gloves is ineffective.
To eliminate the sting and reduce bruising players often remove the index finger from the glove through the aperture located across the back of the glove hand. In an effort to overcome the undesirable consequences which attend the use of the glove in this manner and increase the protection of the player's hand without decreasing the player's ability to control the glove, attempts have been made to protect the player's hand with limited success and effectiveness.
For example, protective palm pads have been used. But such pads are usually difficult to maintain in the proper location and reduce hand flexibility within the glove because of the excess padding in the glove pocket.
In addition, batting gloves are ineffective for use as an inner glove inside the baseball glove because such gloves have no padding and are designed solely to increase the batter's grip. All purpose gloves have been designed, but, because of the differences in the optimum design characteristics between a batting glove and a protective glove for catching, such all purpose gloves fail to encompass the optimum design parameters, including proper location, thickness and cushion properties, necessary for proper functioning of a protective glove or glove pad.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,890,648 shows a protective device positioned between the palm of the player's hand and a conventional glove to protect the palm of the hand, knuckle joints and associated carpal and metacarpal bones from injury due to impact forces on the palm during the act of catching.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,617,684 discloses a protective palm pad comprising a pad together with a small and large fastening loop. The small loop encircles the base of the user's forefinger; while, the large loop extends around the back of the user's hand. These two loops hold the player's protective palm pad securely in the desired position on the user's palm.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,987,611 teaches a protective pad for use by a baseball player worn under a catcher's mitt supported on the thumb of the user and extending across the palm to protect the palm from injury.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,748,690 relates to a glove comprising protective shock-absorbing cushions which cover each inner finger and upper palm finger pads. Two optional cushions may be provided to cover the palm from the outer edge of the palm extending inward and upward toward the bottom of the uper palm finger pads cushion and the thumb pad and inner palm below the thumb. The cushions are attached to the glove and are covered by an outer layer of leather.
Additional examples of the prior art are found in U.S. Pat. No. 2,067,791; U.S. Design 243,132 and U.S. Design 243,133.


An apparatus including a first buffer, a second buffer and a priority switch circuit. The first buffer is configured to store data of a first data stream having a first priority. The second buffer is configured to store data of a second data stream having a second priority. The priority switch circuit is coupled to the first buffer and the second buffer and is configured to interrupt a transmission of the first data stream from the first buffer upon detection of data of the second data stream and transmit data of the second data stream.

In a communications network, switching devices ("switches") receive data at one of a set of input interfaces and forward the data on to one or more of a set of output interfaces. Users typically require that such switching devices operate as quickly as possible in order to maintain a high data rate. Switches are typically data link layer devices that enable multiple physical network (e.g., local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN)) segments to be interconnected into a single larger network. In the most general sense, these types of networks transport data in the form of frames. Generally, a frame is a logical grouping of information sent as a data unit over a transmission medium. Frames typically include header and/or trailer information that surrounds user data contained in the unit. The terms cell, datagram, message, packet and segment are also used to describe logical information groupings at various layers of the Reference Model for Open Systems Interconnection ("OSI reference model") and in various technology circles. As used herein, the term "frame" should be understood in its broadest sense, and can encompass other terms such as cell, datagram, message, packet, and segment, and the like.
FIG. 1 illustrates a simplified block diagram of a switching network 100, such as a LAN switching network. In this example, a switch 102 includes switching fabric 110 and multiple line cards 120 and 130. Switch 102 connects various network devices 122, 124, 132, and 134 to each other through switching fabric 110 via line cards 120 and 130. Network devices 122, 124, 132, and 134 can, in general, include a variety of different devices including computer systems, output devices, storage devices, communications devices, or other network components such as routers, other switches, and even other networks.
It will be noted that the variable identifier "N" is used in FIG. 1 to more simply designate the final element (e.g., line card N 130) of a series of related or similar elements. The repeated use of such variable identifiers is not meant to imply a correlation between the sizes of such series of elements, although such correlation may exist. The use of such variable identifiers does not require that each series of elements has the same number of elements as another series delimited by the same variable identifier. Rather, in each instance of use, the variable identified by "N" may hold the same or a different value than other instances of the same variable identifier.
Switching network 100 can employ one or more of a variety of different communication protocols enabling data communication between network devices. Line cards 120 and 130 generally take the form of an I/O interface card that typically performs data frame analysis as part of the switching process. Switching fabric 110 can also be implemented in a variety of ways. Three common types of switching fabrics are single-bus architectures, shared-memory architectures, and crossbars. Single-bus switching fabric architectures use a central fabric element within the switch to which all the ports of the switch communicate. Each port arbitrates for access to this fabric because there is one central switching element. With shared-memory architectures, a shared memory stores data frames and a high-speed ASIC reads and writes to the memory. Frames come into the architecture, a switching core places them in memory and then queues them to their outbound port. Buffering is internal to the switching fabric in this architecture, and buffers may be either fixed or dynamic. Crossbars use a mesh within the switching fabric to connect all the ports or all the line cards at high speed. Crossbars can be highly efficient for "balanced traffic," e.g., if port 1 and port 2 are communicating, and port 3 and port 4 are communicating then the crossbar directs those transmissions onto different paths.
It is increasingly desirable that switches support network administrative features including access control, accounting, quality of service (QoS), class of service (CoS) features, and other similar features. Accordingly, it is desirable to have data frame prioritization and interrupt techniques, and line cards and switch fabrics in support thereof, to provide additional features for network switches while allowing such switches to provide high bandwidth and throughput.

System and method for switching high priority traffic with low latency


An apparatus for filling a plurality of containers with a predetermined amount of a particulate or granular material. The apparatus comprises a hopper for holding a supply of material. The hopper has an upper end, a lower end and at least one tapered side wall. A plurality of discharge nozzle assemblies extend downwardly from the lower end of the hopper. A transport assembly is provided for uniformly transporting each of the containers directly under a corresponding one of the discharge nozzle assemblies. A frame supports the hopper above the transport assembly. Each of the discharge nozzle assemblies has an auger mounted thereabove for assisting the delivery of material to the same. Each of the discharge nozzle assemblies also includes a valve which is adapted to open and close the open bottom end of a corresponding discharge nozzle assembly in order to control the flow of material from the nozzle.

The present invention is directed toward an apparatus for filling a plurality of containers with particulate or granular material and, more particularly, to such an apparatus which includes a hopper with a tapered front wall, a plurality of discharge nozzle assemblies, and a transport assembly adapted to move each of the containers into proper position directly beneath a corresponding one the discharge nozzle assemblies.
There are many known devices for filling containers with particulate or granular material. Such devices typically include a hopper into which the material is poured. The material exits the hopper from one or more discharge nozzle assemblies which extend downwardly from the bottom of the hopper. The hoppers associated with these devices often have a circular cross-section. While such a hopper configuration is satisfactory for discharging material when there is only one discharge nozzle, it does not promote the uniform withdrawal of material when there are a plurality of discharge nozzle assemblies associated therewith.
The discharge nozzle assemblies of the filling devices of the type described above often cannot operate properly if material from the hopper is not properly delivered to the nozzle assembly. Even further, such filling devices do not include means for properly transporting each of the containers directly underneath a corresponding one of the discharge nozzle assemblies.

Apparatus for filling a plurality of containers with particulate or granular material


According to the invention, a safety device for a pre-filled syringe comprises a hollow support body having a releasable mounting means adapted to mount a pre-filled syringe within the support body, a hollow outer body sildably arranged with respect to the support body and adapted to receive the support body and a release collar non-rotatably arranged within the support body. The release collar is movable relative to the support body and adapted to release the mounting means. A guide track is formed into at least one substantially planar side wall of the support body. The release collar comprises at least one flexible arm with a guide pin that extends from the flexible arm and protrudes through the guide track. The guide pin is movable within and along the guide track in a plane defined by the substantially planar side wall. A guide rail is formed into at least one substantially planar inner surface of the outer body. The guide rail is adapted to abut against the guide pin to guide the movement of the guide pin along the guide track when the outer body is slid relative to the support body.

Pre-filled syringes that are filled with a selected dosage of a medication are well known injection devices for administering the medication to a patient. Safety devices for covering a needle of a pre-filled syringe before and after use are also well known. Typically, these devices comprise a needle shield that is either manually moved or moved by the action of a relaxing spring to surround the needle.
A different type of safety devices known in the state of the art solves the object of providing needle safety by arranging the pre-filled syringe movable relative to a body, whereas the pre-filled syringe is retracted into the body after the injection.
Document WO 2006/111864 A1 describes an injection assisting device suitable for housing a syringe. The injection assistance device comprises a hollow sleeve and a sleeve tube that are able to move with respect to each other. The sleeve tube is coupled to a piston plunger. The piston plunger may be depressed into the syringe and the medicament disposed therein may be expelled by manually translating the sleeve tube with respect to the hollow sleeve. The sleeve tube further comprises a substantially planar side wall with a cam formed thereinto. A peg is coupled to the hollow sleeve by a flexible tab. The peg moves within and along the cam when the hollow sleeve and the sleeve tube are axially translated relative to each other to control the movement of the hollow sleeve. After the injection is completed, the interaction of the peg and the cam prevents any further axial displacement of the sleeve tube and the hollow sleeve so as to lock the hollow sleeve into a position wherein a needle of the syringe is covered.
The U.S. Pat. No. 5,279,579 discloses a sleeve cover that is slidably engaged to a hub of an injection needle assembly or syringe. The sleeve cover has a longitudinal groove disposed in the side wall that is adapted to guide a pin protruding radially from the hub between protective and unprotective positions.
Document US 2005/0113750 A1 a safety needle for use with a syringe. The safety needle has a cylindrical casing in which a sleeve is slidably mounted. A locking mechanism prevents re-exposure of the needle. The locking mechanism includes a plurality of fingers connected to the sleeve. At least one of the fingers has a projection that travels along a track system disposed in the inner surface of the casing when the sleeve is translated with respect to the casing.

Safety device for a pre-filled syringe and injection device


A relay apparatus that transfers data with an identifier corresponding to a transfer rate attached thereto and stores data as a transfer target to adjust the transfer rate, the relay apparatus includes multiple buffers that are respectively associated with multiple time regions that serve as targets to be successively read from a current point of time onward, each buffer having a capacity to store an amount of data determined in accordance with the transfer rate of the identifier, and a controller that reduces a size of a buffer corresponding to a second time region to be smaller than a size of a buffer corresponding to a first time region prior to the second time region in accordance with a time difference between the current point of time and the second time region.

A variety of apparatuses are linked to each other via a network. The network includes at least one relay apparatus. The relay apparatus transfers received data to a destination apparatus. The network is used for communications of various users and services. The relay apparatus identifies each piece of traffic occurring in communications of users and services by a unit called a flow in accordance with a specific identifier attached to the data.
Multiple flows occur over the network, and there is a limitation on a band of a line of the network. If an amount of flowing data exceeds the band of the line, resulting congestion may delay communications. The relay apparatus may thus perform quality of service (QoS) such as policing or shaping.
Policing is a technique of discarding data in excess if a transfer rate of data exceeds an upper rate. Shaping is a technique of storing data in excess onto a buffer if a transfer rate of data exceeds an upper rate, and then outputting the data in excess after a specific period of time has elapsed. Using these techniques, the transfer rate of the data is guaranteed on a per flow basis.
In the shaping, scheduling is performed in order to output the data stored on the buffer later. For example, in one disclosed technique, an input packet is stored on a buffer, and then the output end time of the input packet is calculated beforehand in accordance with the length of the input packet on each flow, and a packet output interval defining a preceding packet output end time and a desired transmission rate. By outputting the input packet at the calculated output end time from the buffer, even a variable length packet may be output at a desired transmission rate on a per flow basis.
In another disclosed technique, a unit to discard data rather than storing the data onto a buffer is used on a per connection basis. Multiple connections are stored on the same buffer while a minimum band is ensured for each connection.
As described above, the shaping employs a buffer to temporarily store data exceeding a limitation rate. For example, it is contemplated that multiple buffers that may store data of multiple flows are arranged and that scheduled data is then distributed among the buffers. The buffer as a target to be read is successively switched at specific time intervals, and data stored on the buffers is then successively output. An amount of data that may be stored on a single buffer on a per flow basis is limited by the transfer rate of each flow. More specifically, it is contemplated that a relatively larger amount of data is permitted to be stored in a flow having a relatively higher transfer rate, and that a relatively smaller amount of data is permitted to be stored in a flow having a relatively lower transfer rate.
A buffer capacity of a flow having a relatively low transfer rate is smaller than a buffer capacity of a flow having a relatively higher transfer rate. If a buffer capacity is insufficient to perform scheduling, data will be discarded. On the other hand, a memory size of multiple buffers is limited. Given a limited memory size, the challenge is to increase a buffer capacity of a flow having a relatively low transfer rate.
The techniques described above are disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication Nos. 2006-197235 and 11-112527.

Relay apparatus and buffer control method


A high speed, low distortion amplifier is implemented with all npn transistors by providing a correction circuit that responds to changes in the amplifier's input voltage by substantially reducing current variations in the input stage. This is accomplished with the use of a current source resistor for the second branch of the differential input stage, together with a correction circuit that diverts a portion of the resistor's current away from the input stage's second branch. The diverted current varies negatively with the input voltage, and thus compensates for input stage current variations that would result in the absence of the correction circuit. A differential amplifier with one branch biased in response to the input voltage and the other branch held at a constant bias is preferably used to establish the correction current. The invention is applicable to open loop amplifiers, fed forward closed loop amplifiers and bootstrapped closed loop amplifiers.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to electrical amplifier designs and methods, and more particularly to amplifiers that use npn bipolar transistors.
2. Description of the Related Art
The schematic diagram of a conventional open loop, unity gain active load amplifier circuit is given in FIG. 1. As explained below, it has low distortion but suffers from slow speed.
The amplifier includes a two-branch input stage, with an npn transistor Q1 in one branch and series connected diodes D1 and D2 in the other branch. The base of transistor Q1 is connected to an input terminal 2 that receives the amplifier's input voltage, while its collector is connected to a positive voltage bus Vcc and its emitter supplies current to an input stage current source I1; the current through the second branch diodes D1 and D2 also flows into I1.
An output stage, consisting of npn output transistor Q2 and an output current source I2 that draws current through the collector-emitter circuit of Q2, provides a voltage signal to an output terminal 4 that is taken from the emitter of Q2. The base of Q2 is biased by the diodes D1 and D2, with another constant current source I3 directing a constant current through the diode branch. The current through diodes D1 and D2 remains nearly constant as the input voltage Vin (and hence the output voltage Vout) vary. As a result, the current through Q1 is also nearly constant; these near constant currents for the input stage result in a highly linear relationship between Vout and Vin, and also produce a low distortion level. However, the transistor base-emitter voltage varies non-linearly with current, leading to distortion for any varying current.
Amplifier stages with active loads such as I3 are discussed in general in Grebene, Bipolar and MOS Analog Integrated Circuit Design, John Wiley & Sons, 1984, pages 232-239. The current source I3 is generally implemented as a pnp transistor. However, to include a pnp transistor in an npn integrated circuit (IC) process, the pnp device is currently implemented as a lateral transistor with high capacitance and is therefore slow, resulting in poor AC performance. This lack of speed limits the resolution of various circuits into which the amplifier can be incorporated. If a faster off-chip pnp transistor is used, the parasitic capacitance and inductance associated with its connection to the chip can significantly reduce its effective speed, in addition to the problem of not being able to include all of the circuit elements on a single chip. Non-monolithic designs are also more expensive and bulky, and less reliable.
The slow speed problems inherent in integrating a pnp current source into a npn amplifier circuit can be avoided by replacing the pnp device with a resistor R1, as illustrated in FIG. 2. This makes high speed operation possible, while simplifying the circuit by eliminating a current source. However, the resistor R1 allows the current through the diode branch to vary as the input voltage changes. As Vin rises, the voltage at the base of Q2 also rises. This reduces the current through R1 and increases the collector current of Q1 (since I1 is constant). This current variation introduces distortion and degrades the amplifier's linearity. The reduction in performance could at least theoretically be mitigated by increasing Vcc from a typical value of 5 volts to a substantially higher value such as 12 volts. This would reduce the effects of voltage variations across R1 due to changes in the input voltage, thereby making the current in the diode branch less sensitive to input voltage variations. But typical power supplies are limited to .+-.5 volts, and in any event increasing Vcc would have the undesired effect of raising the circuit's power consumption.

High speed, low distortion amplifier design and method


A stir pot is provided including a stirring unit having an outer stir portion with an outer edge. Such outer edge defines a size and shape corresponding to a vertical cross-section of an interior surface of the pot along a diameter thereof. As such, the stirring unit is rotatably situated within the pot and adapted to rotate about central axis of the pot and the outer edge is adapted to scrape the interior surface of pot when rotating. Further provided is a rotating mechanism for selectively rotating the stirring unit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to pot stirring systems and more particularly pertains to a new automatic stirring and scraping device for stirring food within a pot and preventing the same from being burned.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of pot stirring systems is known in the prior art. More specifically, pot stirring systems heretofore devised and utilized are known to consist basically of familiar, expected and obvious structural configurations, notwithstanding the myriad of designs encompassed by the crowded prior art which have been developed for the fulfillment of countless objectives and requirements.
Known prior art pot stirring systems include U.S. Pat. No. 5,372,422; U.S. Pat. No. 5,013,158; U.S. Pat. No. 5,193,441; U.S. Pat. No. 4,952,069; U.S. Pat. No. 4,856,910; and U.S. Pat. Des. No. 300,799.
In these respects, the automatic stirring and scraping device according to the present invention substantially departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art, and in so doing provides an apparatus primarily developed for the purpose of stirring food within a pot and preventing the same from being burned.


The arithmetic processor of a digital computer system has means for performing, on its output operands while they are in transit to memory for storage, such manipulations as operand alignment, conversions between packed and zoned format, insertion of signs, and insertion of predetermined characters for edit functions. Two registers are provided, each having a capacity equal to that of a memory word. Each register is provided with segmented input selection means for selecting from among calculation results, residual data retained from operand fetching, signs, and constants. The two registers are OR'd together to produce desired words for storage in the system's memory.

A digital computer system typically includes a memory for storing instructions (collectively said to constitute a "program") and operands (collectively constituting "data") to be operated upon by the instructions. It typically also includes means for fetching the instructions from memory, decoding them, fetching from memory the operands called for by the instructions, performing upon the operands the operations called for by the instructions, and storing the modified operands back in memory.
Some of the operations called for by the instructions may be arithmetic operations, requiring two operands to be added or multiplied, one to be subtracted from the other, or one to be divided into the other.
A memory unit typically has a certain number of bits that it can store and retrieve in a single operation, commonly known as the "word size" of the memory. The data paths ("buses" and registers) within the computer system typically are provided to handle the same word size. Typical word sizes are sixteen or thirty-two bits.
For most efficient operation of a computer system, operand size should be limited to the word size; however, such an approach might not suit the needs of the user. Therefore, many computer systems have provision for performing computations on operands that must be stored and passed around the system in several words.
To enhance the flexibility of computer systems, there typically is a great deal of latitude regarding the manner in which operands are to be stored in memory. A typically sized word may hold several digits of an operand, but typically it is not required that operands be limited to occupying one word, or to beginning or ending on word boundaries; an operand may thus begin at some point within a word, may span several words, and may end at some point within a word.
Also, the user is typically permitted to store operands in any of several different forms--such as binary integers, floating point, "packed" decimal (typically BCD), or "zoned" alphanumeric data (typically ASCII code or EBCDIC code). Further, the user is typically permitted to request computation on two operands of different types, requiring internal conversion to a common type prior to performing the computation, and conversion to the destination operand's type subsequent to computation.
This requires that manipulations be performed upon the output of the computation means prior to storing a resultant operand back in memory: such manipulation might include inserting appropriate sign codes, inserting zone fields to convert a packed BCD result to zoned result, or replacing certain bytes or digits within an operand with predetermined codes (e.g., leading zero suppression, inserting asterisks for check protection, or inserting dollar signs, commas, and decimal points in numeric operands).
Also, manipulation is required when storing results back in an operand position where the current operand occupies only a portion of a word, since the other contents of that word ("residual data") must not be disturbed. These manipulations represent a significant overhead above and beyond the actual computations requested.
It is thus a general object of the present invention to provide improved digital computer systems.
It is a particular object of the present invention to increase the efficiency of the arithmetic elements of computer systems.
It is a more particular object of the present invention to provide the arithmetic elements of digital computer systems with apparatus for performing manipulations and transformations of computed results while those results are in transit, thus reducing overhead and inefficiency.

Alignment of sign, data, edit byte operand results for storage in memory


A belt drive monitoring system comprising a driver, a driven, the driver and driven connected by an endless member, a first magnetic member having a magnetic field attached to the driver, a second magnetic member having a magnetic field attached to the driven, a first sensor disposed to detect a changing magnetic field caused by passage of the first magnetic member, a second sensor disposed to detect a changing magnetic field caused by passage of the second magnetic member, a first transmitter configured to wirelessly transmit to a receiver a first data signal from the first sensor and a second transmitter configured to wirelessly transmit to the receiver a second data signal from the second sensor, and the receiver configured to manipulate the data signal whereby a system parameter is calculated and provided to a user.

Belt drives are replacing a significant number of problematic roller chain drives due to performance and cost advantages. When designing belt drives to replace roller chain drives, traditional drive design procedures may yield drives with greater than needed capacity. Because the actual running load may or may not be known, the following three approaches are used to determine an appropriate design load: use the actual load when available; estimate the load with measurements; use the power rating of the existing roller chain drive to calculate a drive design load. In order to prevent over-sizing belt drives, the design should be based upon the actual system running load, estimation techniques lead to lost capacity.
Belt drives are often difficult to access. Monitoring the belt and drives is inconvenient and costly. Guarding has to be removed, machine down-time is incurred, inspection is limited to visual clues on belt condition. Furthermore, these belt drives may be situated in remote locations where inspection is hindered. A convenient means of probing the belt and belt drive performance characteristics would be useful for flagging eminent failure, determining service life, and scheduling maintenance.
Representative of the art is U.S. Pat. No. 8,662,290 which discloses a conveyor belt monitoring system that uses sensors to measure magnetic disruptions ("events") in a conveyor belt which are indicative of one or more splice joints, rip panels and reinforcing cord damage. The system may comprise a plurality of sensing components, including coils or Hall effect sensors for sensing rip panels, splices and generalized reinforcing cord damage. The system may also have RFID-based rip panels and may use RFID chips to identify various belt components. A PLC-based control system may communicate with the aforementioned components via an Ethernet link. Data received by the control system is used to chart belt wear and damage trends and to provide user alarms when signal levels exceed predetermined norms. The system may stop the belt when imminent belt failure is predicted. The PLC-based control system is scalable and will integrate easily into existing conveyor control systems and facility-wide monitoring systems.
What is needed is a belt drive monitoring system comprising non-contact sensors and wireless transmission of data signals to determine a system operating condition. The present invention meets this need.


A netpen for breeding, storage or transport of fish in the sea, in particular completely or in part in open sea regions outside the skerries is provided. The netpen may be lowered in the sea to a desired depth. The netpen may be elevated to a half or approximately half submerged state for various work operations, such as maintenance and inspection of the netpen or harvesting. The netpen has a substantially spherical geometry. The netpen consists of a framework of stays, a horizontal through center pole also serving as a buoyancy adjusting element for elevation and lowering of the netpen, a horseshoe-shaped working platform having an integrated dock for working vessels. The entire working platform including dock is liftable and lowerable through buoyancy adjustment using a designated element. The working deck is mounted on an extended axle on the center pole. The netpen may be rotated inside said working deck.

During the past 30 years, marine breeding has seen a formidable growth through establishment in countries naturally suited for fish farming, such as Norway, Chile, Canada, Ireland, and Japan. These countries have been able to offer easily accessible fish farming localities being well protected from the most wearing environmental forces in their long fjords, bays, or other regions of sheltered waters. Today, the aquaculture industry in these countries has grown to become a very successful industry.
In the last few years, several expert groups have concluded that the international growth potential for the industry is huge. This is the case not only for those breeds that are already being raised, but nonetheless for new breeds that will gradually grow to become successful commercial products. Moreover, it is also expected that the demand for fish and fish products will increase as a result of the rapid population growth. Internationally, among experts, it is commonly agreed upon that the main growth in the world's fish production must occur within sea farming, as the total take in the fisheries are approaching an upper defensible limit of about a 100 million tons per year.
An absolute requirement for further growth within the aquaculture industry is that the production capacity can be increased, and then for more breeds of farmed fish. With the current situation for the international fish farming industry, the potential for increasing the production capacity is very limited. This is due to the global lack of available sheltered inner coastal areas, and to that the existing technology is unable to provide for an efficient, safe, and profitable fish farming in open sea regions.
With the existing technology, coastal states without any form of, or with limited access to inner sheltered sea regions, are not able to develop large scale marine breeding. Existing fish farming installations commonly have a very simple configuration, generally including a seine freely suspended from a framework on the surface. Even at relatively slow current velocities however, the seines of these netpens undergoes appreciable deformations. At more exposed localities, the deformations may become severe. In addition, maintenance work and harvesting generally are both time consuming as well as expensive. Huge, heavy, and unmanageable seines also present a problem in connection with cleaning, impregnation, and replacement of the seine, as well as during harvesting. If the seine becomes damaged or worm, it is necessary to replace the entire seine or to bring it onshore for repair, which also involves removing the fish from the netpen. Furthermore, some maintenance operations require that parts of the work are performed under water, necessitating the use of expensive divers. This work is potentially dangerous.
The existing fish farming industry also has a problem in that diseases, infections, algal invasions, and various natural phenomena, such as "Super Chill", air horns, and the like put stress on and kill the farmed fish, which every year brings along great losses for the breeders. The cause of these problems is a combination of insufficient technology, the fish farming localities, and natural phenomena. Open sea breeding as such can be beneficial to the fish. Increased current velocity will ensure a good water throughput rate in the netpen, result in a greater oxygen uptake and better trim for the fish, as well as an increased water replacement and thereby less fouling inside the netpen. In addition, the water temperature and salinity are generally more stable in the open sea outside the skerries. These are all factors that might improve the welfare, health and reproduction of the fish.
Outside the fish farming installations, the environment is contaminated by debris or waste, such as fodder residues and excrements from the farmed fish. Such waste (nutrients) accumulates in such big amounts that it is effectively pollution, and is thereby a problem both for marine animals as well as for human beings that travel in the sheltered water regions. In addition, many people also find the fish farming installations visually offensive.
Besides contributing to free up regions in sheltered waters and reduce the area conflicts, open sea fish farming also will provide beneficial environmental effects. Larger water depths, more rapid currents, and a greater distance to the shore will result in a reduction of the contamination of the sea floor and the inshore zone, as well as in a relief of the threat against wild extermination-threatened fish breeds, such as the wild salmon, for example.
As a consequence of the above problems, many people are convinced that the most important factor for a future sustainable growth within the aquaculture industry will be the ability to establish fish farms in the open sea outside the skerries. This would make possible the operation of a sound breed of a larger number of fish species in more countries, regardless of whether or not the particular country has access to a sheltered coastline.
Internationally, several attempts have been made at providing fish farming installations intended for deployment in open sea. Unfortunately however, none of these attempts have resulted in a commercially viable installation for operationally efficient, safe, and profitable fish farming outside the skerries. A few of the installations have had a limited commercial success however, although in more sheltered regions. The present situation confirms this in that the occurrence of open sea fish farms is in fact very limited, in spite of the fact that states having an exposed coastline have expressed high ambitions of running a large scale fish farming. Generally, the previous attempts at establishing open sea fish farming installations have failed because the installations have suffered from one or more essential shortcomings preventing a safe, ethical, and economically lucrative fish breeding. The most successful approach to an open sea fish farming installation is believed to be an installation provided by the American company Ocean Spar Technologies, disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,617,813. This installation has been used for fish farming in, among other countries, Hawaii, Ireland, and the United States of America. However, even though the installation has been utilized for raising a few broods of fish, it does by no means provide any substantial contribution to the large-scale establishment of aquaculture industry in the open seas outside the skerries. The shortcomings of the installation are, among other things, that it is difficult to maintain as much work must be performed under water by divers, that it is difficult to harvest the fish, that one has poor visual control of the fish from the surface, that it is impossible to dock to the installation with larger boats without damaging the installation, that the seine needs to be cleaned under water, that each day dead fish must be picked up by divers, and that the installation is limited in depth to about 35 meters, owing to the divers.
The U.S. Pat. No. 4,312,296 describes a spherical netpen. This installation never became a commercial success. The netpen is very small, having a volume of about 1200 m3. The construction is composed of aluminum stays and a grating or lattice. Aluminum as construction material is very rigid and brittle, and therefore susceptible to fatigue, which is unfavorable when the concept is to be implemented offshore, where the environmental loads are continual, cyclic, and large. In addition, this installation may only be lowered to slightly below the surface, and is thus exposed to considerable wave loading.
Moreover, the installation neither includes a working platform for personnel nor a docking station for boats.
The U.S. Pat. No. 4,312,296 relates to a spherical netpen having a vertically extending center pole.
The PCT application WO 92/03921, like the U.S. Pat. No. 4,312,296, relates to a spherical netpen having a through center pole. This netpen obviously bear close resemblances to the one in the above patent, both the construction material and the arrangement for buoyancy control through separate floatation bodies in each end of the center pole being identical.
The U.S. Pat. No. 5,617,813 relates to a netpen having a vertical center pole, as well as a weighting organ attached thereto.
Even today, examples are found of netpens that are being used for other purposes than fish farming, such as for storing various kinds of wild fish. The most common case is that inshore fishermen store the fish in netpens while awaiting delivery to an onshore reception facility. It can be easily appreciated that this use of netpens would be much more widespread if cost effective, efficient and enduring netpens became available for use in open sea. A future scenario could be that fishing boats deliver their catch, or parts thereof, on a regular basis to huge netpens by the fish fields outside central marketing places, thereby making it possible both to adapt to the current demand and to at any time deliver ultra fresh, or even living fish. A netpen having a permanently outstretched seine could also be used in transporting huge amounts of living fish. Currently, huge amounts of living fish are being transported in fish carrier boats or seine bags. However, a problem associated with such transport is that the fish are put under stress due to a large density of fish per m3. Transporting fish in a permanently outstretched netpen will not put the fish under the same stress, making it feasible to transport the fish over great distances, such as tuna fish from Europe to Japan, for example.