A water removal system for removing water from an elevator pit that includes a sump, a pump, a pump input tube, a pump output tube and a switching mechanism. The sump at least partially extends below a lower surface of the elevator pit. The plump mounted outside of the elevator pit. The pump input line is operably connected to the sump and the pump. The pump output line is operably connected to the pump. The switching mechanism is mounted outside of the sump and is operably connected to the pump and the sump.

Elevators have gained significant popularity in modern society as the elevators enable persons even with limited physical capabilities to move between the floors in buildings. As elevators enable buildings to be much taller, society has been able to form into more densely populated business and residential configurations.
Since it is often desirable for the elevators to service all of the floors in a particular building, it is necessary for a pit to be formed beneath the elevator that is adapted to receive a lower portion of the elevator that is below the floor of the lowest level.
Depending on the area in which the building is located, water may be present in the ground that is located beneath the building. Because of the position of the elevator pit beneath the ground level, the presence of water surrounding the elevator pit may cause water to leak into the elevator pit. If such water is not removed from the elevator pit, the water may cause degradation of the elevator components that are located in the elevator pit and thereby impact the safe operation of the elevator.
The ground water may exert hydronic pressure on the components of the building and, if not released, may cause damage to the components of the building. Such damage may ultimately render the building uninhabitable.
One technique for removing water from an elevator pit involves placing a pump in the elevator pit. While this option enables water to be removed from the elevator pit, the building/elevator codes in many parts of the country do not permit mechanical devices other than elevator related equipment to be placed in the elevator pit.
One technique that has been utilized to prevent water from entering the elevator shaft is applying a waterproof coating to the walls and floor of the elevator shaft. While this technique may restrict water from entering the elevator shaft, this technique often fails due to hydronic pressure caused by water in the ground surrounding the elevator pit.
Because of the building components that surround the elevator pit, it is often not possible to excavate the area surrounding the elevator pit to install other water removal systems. Additionally, worker protection regulations also would necessitate the length and width of such a hole to be impermissibly large.

Water removal from a sump using pump and switching mechanism


A method of performing a medical procedure, such as surgery, is provided. A nerve is stimulated in order to adjust the beating of the heart to a first condition, such as a stopped or slowed condition. The medical procedure is performed on the heart or another organ. The stimulation of the nerve is stopped in order to adjust the beating of the heart to a second condition, such as a beating condition. The heart itself may also be stimulated to a beating condition, such as by pacing. The stimulation of the nerve may be continued in order to allow the medical procedure to be continued. A sensor to sense a characteristic of a fluid or tissue, such as an impending contraction, may be also used during the medical procedure. Systems and devices for performing the medical procedure are also provided.

The current leading cause of death in the United States is coronary artery disease in which the coronary arteries are blocked by atherosclerotic plaques or deposits of fat. The typical treatment to relieve a partially or fully blocked coronary artery is coronary artery bypass graph (CABG) surgery.
CABG surgery, also known as "heart bypass" surgery, generally entails using a graph to bypass the coronary obstruction. The procedure is generally lengthy, traumatic and subject to patient risks. Among the risk factors involved is the use of a cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) circuit, also known as a "heart-lung machine," to pump blood and oxygenate the blood so that the patient's heart may be stopped during the surgery.
Conventional CABG procedures are typically conducted on a stopped heart while the patient is on a (CPB) circuit. A stopped heart and a CPB circuit enables a surgeon to work in a bloodless, still operative field. However, there are a number of problems associated with CABG procedures performed while on CPB including the initiation of a systemic inflammatory response due to interactions of blood elements with the artificial material surfaces of the CPB circuit and global myocardial ischemia due to cardioplegic cardiac arrest. For these reasons, avoiding the use of CPB or cardioplegic cardiac arrest may help minimize post-operative complications.
One method, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,651,378 to inventors Matheny and Taylor and in U.S. Pat. No. 5,913,876 to inventors Taylor et al., for facilitating coronary bypass surgery on a beating heart and thereby avoid the use of CPB and cardioplegic cardiac arrest includes stimulating the vagal nerve electrically in order to temporarily stop or substantially reduce the beating of the heart. This may be followed by pacing the heart to start its beating.
Another method, as disclosed in two published PCT applications, WO 99/09971 and WO 99/09973, both to inventor Puskas, involves stopping the beating of the heart during coronary bypass surgery using electrical stimulation of the vagal nerve in combination with administration of drugs. Another method, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,060,454 to inventor Duhaylongsod, involves stopping the beating of the heart during coronary bypass surgery via the local delivery of drugs to the heart.
Although it is desirable to stop the heart for a period of time in order to allow the surgeon to accomplish a required task without interference from heart movement, i.e. a motionless operative field, it is undesirable to have the heart stopped for too long a period of time since the body needs, among other things, a constant supply of oxygen. In fact, it is particularly important to maintain sufficient blood flow, and therefore oxygen flow, to the brain. A system for sensing biological parameters, such as the amount of blood flow or oxygen flow to the brain, could help determine whether these parameters are sufficient during a medical procedure. Stopping the heart for prolonged periods of time may cause damage to the patient.
Moreover, once stopped or still, the heart may still contract occasionally. This is sometimes referred to as an "escape beat." Such an "escape beat" may occur without any warning to the surgeon and the movement associated with the escape beat may interfere with the medical procedure being carried out.
In addition, the field in which the invention is to be performed may be limited in size. For example, when surgery is performed on a particular blood vessel, the vessel's size is usually quite small and a great deal of precision is required to perform the surgery or even to locate the vessel. Such precision requires more time during which the heart is stopped.

Method and system for nerve stimulation and cardiac sensing prior to and during a medical procedure


A tine portion for an implantable medical device includes a hook segment and a distal segment terminated by a tissue-piercing tip, wherein the distal segment extends from the hook segment to the tip. The hook segment, which is elastically deformable from a pre-set curvature, has one of: a round cross-section and an elliptical cross-section, while the distal segment has a flattened, or approximately rectangular cross-section. One or a pair of the tine portions may be integrally formed, with a base portion, from a superelastic wire, wherein the base portion is configured to fixedly attach to the device, for example, being captured between insulative members of a fixation subassembly.

An implantable medical device, for the delivery of stimulation therapy and/or for diagnostic sensing, may include at least one tissue-penetrating fixation component configured to hold the device at an implant location. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram that shows potential cardiac implant sites for such a device, for example, within an appendage 102 of a right atrium RA, within a coronary vein CV (via a coronary sinus ostium CSOS), or in proximity to an apex 103 of a right ventricle RV. FIG. 2 is a plan view of an exemplary implantable medical device 200, which includes a tissue-penetrating fixation component formed by a plurality of tine portions 230. FIG. 2 further illustrates device 200 including a hermitically sealed housing 220 that contains control electronics and a power source (not shown), and which defines a longitudinal axis 2 of device 200. Housing 220 may be formed from a medical grade stainless steel or titanium alloy and have an insulative layer formed thereover, for example, parylene, polyimide, or urethane. With further reference to FIG. 2, device 200 includes a pair of electrodes 261, 262, which may form a bipolar pair for cardiac pacing and sensing; tine portions 230 surround electrode 261 and are configured to penetrate tissue in order to hold electrode 261 in intimate contact with tissue, for example, at one of the aforementioned implant sites, while securing, or fixating device 200 for chronic implantation at the site. Further description of a suitable construction for device 200 may be found in the co-pending and commonly assigned United States Patent Application having the pre-grant publication number 2012/0172690 A1.
With reference to FIG. 3A, device 200 may be delivered to an implant location via a delivery catheter 300. For example, with reference to FIG. 1, if the target implant site is located in the right atrium RA, coronary vein CV, or right ventricle RV, a distal end 310 of catheter 300 may be maneuvered into the heart through a superior vena cava SVC or an inferior vena cava IVC, according to a transvenous delivery method known in the art. FIG. 3A shows a partial cross-section of distal end 310 of catheter 300, which is formed like a cup to hold and contain device 200 for delivery to the implant site. FIG. 3A illustrates device 200 having been loaded into distal end 310 so that a hook segment 231 of each tine portion 230 is elastically deformed, from a pre-set curvature thereof, to an open position, at which a distal segment 232 of each tine portion 230 extends distally toward an opening 313 of catheter distal end 310. Each tine portion 230 is preferably formed from a superelastic material, such as Nitinol. FIG. 3A further illustrates a deployment element 320 abutting a proximal end of device 200 and extending proximally therefrom, through a lumen of catheter 300, and out from a proximal opening 301 thereof. Element 320 may be moved, per arrow M, by an operator to push device 200, per arrow P, out from opening 313 of distal end 310, for example, when opening 313 has been located by the operator in close proximity to tissue at the target implant site.
FIG. 3B, is an enlarged view of distal segment 232 of one of tine portions 230, wherein a tissue-piercing tip 322, which terminates distal segment 232, has just been pushed out through opening 313 of distal end 310 of catheter 300 and into contact with tissue T. FIG. 3B illustrates distal segment 232 supported by the surrounding wall of distal end 310, in proximity to opening 313, so that the push force of deployment element 320 is effectively transferred through tip 322 to first compress the tissue T, as shown, and then to pierce the tissue T for penetration therein, which is shown in FIGS. 3C-D. FIGS. 3C-D illustrate partial tine penetration and full tine penetration, respectively, as deployment element 320 continues to push device 200 out opening 313. It can be seen that the elastic nature of each tine portion 230, once the constraint of the distal end 310 is withdrawn, allows the corresponding hook segment 231 to relax back toward the pre-set curvature thereof within the tissue. The full penetration of tine portions 230, shown FIG. 3D, is representative of acute fixation of device 200 at the implant site, for example, for the evaluation of device performance (e.g., pacing and sensing via electrodes 261, 262). It should be noted that, at some implant sites, tine portions 230 may, at full penetration, extend back out from tissue T, for example, generally toward distal end 310 of catheter 300.
With further reference to FIG. 3D, a tether 350 is shown looping through an eye feature 205 formed at the proximal end of device 200; tether 350 extends proximally through a lumen of deployment element 320 to a proximal end 351 thereof, outside a proximal end of deployment element 320, which may be seen in FIG. 3A. Thus, if the performance of acutely fixated device 200 is unsatisfactory, the operator may use tether 350 to pull device 200 back into distal end 310, thereby withdrawing tine portions 230 from the tissue, so that device may be moved by delivery catheter 300 to another potential implant site. Alternately, if the acutely fixated device 200 performs satisfactorily, proximal end 351 of tether 350 may be severed to pull tether 350 out from eye feature 205 of device 200, and the fully penetrated tine portions 230 continue to fixate device 200 for chronic implant.
The aforementioned co-pending and commonly assigned U.S. patent application Ser. No. '690 discloses suitable embodiments of a fixation component having tine portions similar to tine portions 230, wherein the tine portions exhibit a suitable baseline performance, for example, in terms of a deployment force, an acute retraction force (for repositioning), atraumatic retraction, and acute and chronic fixation forces. Yet, there is still a need for new configurations of tine portions for implantable devices, like device 200, that may further enhance fixation.

Tine fixation components for implantable medical devices


A function-oriented user interface presents users with selections related to what they want to do, rather than selections related to what tool they want to use. Functions may be dragged onto elements (data objects) or elements may be dragged onto functions to initiate activity. The elements themselves may present icons representing functions that are available such as adding a voice note or addressing to another person.

Traditional graphical user interfaces presented by operating systems are oriented toward tools. For instance, some user interfaces present graphical representations or icons of various tools from which a user can select. Icons may have product name or supplier brand identifiers that are not description of the function performed. Even when a name is suggestive of function, such as "Microsoft Word™," the name or its icon may be lost in a sea of icons or long lists of installed applications or other products. However, most novice computer users, and many other computer users as well, have no idea what most, if not all, of those programs will do. This can often leave users confused and frustrated when making a selection of a program, often with no clear idea of the result. They may simply have no idea where to start to perform what should be a simple function. The tool-oriented nature of user interface stems from tool providers desire to promote their products, often with cleaver names and fancy icons, but often without a clear indication of what a program might actually do.


A circuit breaker crossbar assembly includes a crossbar having a first and second segment, the first and second segment each operatively coupled to a respective moveable contact arm assembly. Also included is a coupling segment disposed between the first and second segment, the crossbar and the coupling segment rotatable about an axis. Further included is at least one support assembly operatively coupled to the coupling segment. The support assembly includes a bushing coupled to the coupling segment and rotatable with the crossbar and the coupling segment. The support assembly also includes a support bracket configured for affixation to a stationary structure and disposed adjacent to the bushing, the bushing rotatable relative to the support bracket. The support assembly further includes a fixing bracket engaged with the support bracket and disposed adjacent to the bushing, the bushing rotatable relative to the fixing bracket.

The subject matter disclosed herein relates to circuit breakers and, more particularly, to a support assembly for a crossbar assembly of a circuit breaker.
Circuit breakers are used to protect equipment from overcurrent situations caused, for example, by short circuits or ground faults in or near such equipment. A circuit breaker may be manually switched from an "ON" condition to an "OFF" condition and vice versa. Additionally, the circuit breaker includes a mechanism that is configured to automatically switch the circuit breaker to an "OFF" (e.g., "TRIP") condition in response to an undesirable operating situation, such as a short circuit, for example. Various components are employed to convert the manual input or the automatic initiation of condition switching to rotation of moveable contact arm assemblies that determine a condition of the circuit breaker. One component that may rotate the moveable contact arm assemblies is a crossbar operatively coupled to the moveable contact arm assemblies.
Some crossbar assemblies are formed of multiple segments that are joined together with the entire assembly simply coupled at ends to brackets or the like, thereby leaving little to no support along intermediate locations of the crossbar assembly. Therefore, the crossbar assembly is prone to bending during rotation, which may lead to wear of the components at a rate that is less than desirable.


Various systems, methods, and programs embodied on computer readable mediums are provided relating to classroom attendance tracking. In one embodiment, a method is provided that comprises the steps of harvesting personal identification data from each one of a plurality of students attending a class in conjunction with a conduct of the class using a portable identification capture device, and coupling the portable identification capture device to a client coupled to a server via a network. The method further comprises automatically uploading the personal identification data from the portable identification capture device to the server.

In universities and other institutions, classes are conducted and grades are awarded to students based upon performance on tests, quizzes and the like. In addition, another factor that is often taken into account is the attendance of students to classes associated with a given academic course. Unfortunately, where class sizes are relatively large, the task of taking attendance at the beginning of a class can be burdensome. This is because it is usually a manual process that requires the attention of the professor for a period of time during a class session, thereby reducing the amount of time that a professor can teach the subject matter of the course. Also, sometimes professors can forget to take attendance, resulting in unreliable attendance data that might have to be disregarded when determining grades for students.


Non-reactive test agents may be used to test fire suppression systems in which reactive fire suppression agents may be used to release catalytic fire suppression agents for transport by naturally occurring flows paths downstream to the vicinity of flame holding regions for fire suppression for example, in aircraft.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to techniques for fire suppression and particularly, fire suppression techniques using catalytic suppressants.
2. Background of the Invention
Many techniques are known for fire suppression including techniques using catalytic suppressants. What are needed are improved techniques for fire suppression and detection as well as more convenient techniques for testing such systems.


A fluid bearing includes a rotary body with a rotor having a cylindrical surface to be borne and a thrust plate arranged at least at an end of the rotor, and a housing including a radial bearing section arranged vis-a-vis the surface of the rotor and a thrust bearing section arranged vis-a-vis the thrust plate. The thrust plate has a hole bored around the axis of rotation of the rotary body and the inner diameter of the hole is greater at the rotor side than at the opposite side.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a fluid bearing adapted to support a rotary body such as a rotating shaft of a machine tool in a non-contact fashion by means of the static or dynamic pressure of the fluid found in the bearing clearances of the bearing and also to a rotary drive apparatus using such a fluid bearing.
2. Related Background Art
Fluid bearings including gas bearings such as static pressure gas bearings and dynamic pressure gas bearings are advantageous in that the movable member such as a rotating shaft supported by the bearing can move lightly, smoothly and accurately because the bearing produces little frictional resistance. Therefore, such bearings are popularly used with high speed rotating shafts of precision machine tools and other tools that require an enhanced level of operational precision.
Generally, static pressure gas bearings have orifices for releasing a jet stream of gas into the bearing clearances between the bearing and the rotary body supported by it, which orifices may be of the self-formation type, the surface type or the porosity type. The bearing of this type structurally comprises a radial bearing section for radially supporting the rotary body and thrust bearing sections for axially supporting the rotary body, which bearing sections define respective bearing clearances with the rotor and the thrust plates of the rotary body that face them respectively, into which a jet stream of gas is released through any of the orifices in order to support the rotary body in a floating state. The bearing clearances of a static pressure gas bearing are very narrow and normally between several microns and tens of several microns.
In the case of dynamic pressure gas bearings, on the other hand, helical or herring-bone-shaped dynamic pressure generating grooves that are several to tens of several microns deep are formed on the rotor and the thrust plate of the rotary body supported by the bearing or the bearing surfaces facing them and dynamic pressure is generated by drawing the air in the bearing clearances between the rotor and the thrust plate of the rotary body and the corresponding bearing surfaces into the dynamic pressure generating grooves in order to support the rotary body in a floating state. As in the case of static pressure gas bearings, the bearing clearances of a dynamic pressure gas bearing are very narrow and normally between several microns and tens of several microns.
Note that the rotor and the thrust plate of a rotary body supported by a fluid bearing may be partly integral with each other or bonded to each other by means of one or more than one bolt.
FIG. 1 of the accompanying drawings is a schematic cross sectional view of a known fluid bearing having a configuration as described above. Referring to FIG. 1, the rotary body comprises a rotor 111 having a cylindrical surface to be borne on the bearing and a pair of thrust plates 112 bonded respectively to the opposite ends of the rotor 111 by means of bolts (not shown). The rotary body is rotatably supported by a bearing housing 101 in a non-contact fashion. The bearing housing 101 comprises a radial bearing section having a pair of porous radial bearing pads 102 having surfaces arranged vis-à-vis the cylindrical surface of the rotor 111 of the rotary body and a pair of thrust bearing sections having respective porous thrust bearing pads 103 having surfaces arranged vis-à-vis the respective surfaces of the thrust plates 112. The radial bearing pads 102 and the thrust bearing pads 103 are rigidly secured to the bearing housing 101 by means of shrinkage fitting, adhesive or some other appropriate measure.
Pressurized gas fed from a high pressure gas supply source (not shown) is delivered to each of the radial bearing pads 102 and the thrust bearing pads 103 by way of pressurized gas supply port 101a of the bearing housing 101 and made to hit the surfaces of the rotor 111 and the thrust plates 112 facing the respective bearing sections before being moved away to the outside by way of the outer periphery of the surfaces of the thrust plates facing the bearing sections and the exhaust port 101b. The rotary body is supported by the bearing in a non-contact fashion under the effect of the static pressure of the fluid injected into the bearing clearances.
The thrust plates 112 and the rotor 111 are provided with a central through hole formed around the axis of rotation of the rotary body and the inner peripheral surfaces 112a of the through holes of the thrust plates 112 define a uniform inner diameter A0.
However, the above described known fluid bearing has a drawback that, as the gas bearing is driven to rotate at high speed, the rotor and the thrust plates are deformed by the generated centrifugal force to allow the thrust plates to fall and locally reduce the sizes of the bearing clearances. As a result, problems such as scoring and seizure occur. More specifically, a rotating cylindrical or disk-shaped member produces an outward displacement that is proportional to the outer diameter thereof so that the thrust plates having an outer diameter greater than that of the rotor is displaced much more than the latter to consequently change the sizes of the bearing clearances.
FIG. 2 of the accompanying drawings schematically shows the rotor and the thrust plates in cross section when they are stopped (as indicated by S1) and when they are rotating (as indicated by S2). It is known that, as the rotor and the thrust plates that are dimensionally differentiated from the rotor are bonded to each other and driven to rotate, the thrust plates fall toward the rotor. In other words, since the thrust plates that are trying to move outward are arrested by the rotor at the bonded areas, the rotor that is pulled by the thrust plates expands at and near the bonded areas while the thrust plates that are pulled by the rotor tend to fall onto the rotor. In FIG. 2, R denotes the axis of rotation of the rotary body.
As the rotary body is deformed in this way, the bearing clearances of the radial bearing section and the thrust bearing sections are locally dimensionally reduced so that those sections eventually contact the rotor and the thrust plates to give rises to problems such as scoring and seizure. If the bearing clearances are dimensionally reduced too much, those sections easily come to contact the rotary body to make the gas bearing inoperative once the gas bearing is driven to rotate.
The problem of falling thrust plates may be avoided by arranging an object having a profile same as the rotor to the other side of each of the thrust plates. However, the other side is often used to arrange there a motor or a jig whose profile is mostly determined as a function of the operating conditions and the purpose of its use so that it is highly difficult to make it show a profile that is optimal for suppressing the deformation of the thrust plates.
Meanwhile, there have been proposals for designing the parts of the rotor and the thrust plates that are apt to be deformed most or the corresponding parts of the bearing so as to accommodate the deformation produced as a result of the falling phenomenon of the thrust plates. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 63-176817 describes such a rotor while Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2711584 discloses such a thrust plate.
However, the bearing clearances are designed to show an optimal profile after the rotor and the thrust plates are deformed as a result of rotation of the rotary body. In other words, they do not show an optimal profile when the rotary body is stationary and therefore the gas bearing performs only poorly at the time when the rotary body starts rotating or when it is rotating at low speed.
In view of the above circumstances, it is therefore the object of the present invention to provide a fluid bearing that can effectively prevent the phenomenon of falling thrust plates that can be caused by the centrifugal force generated when rotating at high speed without sacrificing the performance of the bearing at the start and during the low speed rotary operation and also a rotary drive apparatus using such a fluid bearing.
According to the invention, the above object is achieved by providing a fluid bearing comprising:
a rotary body including a rotor having a cylindrical surface to be borne and at least a thrust plate arranged at an end of the rotor in the sense of axis of rotation; and
a housing including a radial bearing section arranged vis-à-vis said surface of said rotor and a thrust bearing section arranged vis-à-vis said thrust plate;
said thrust plate having a hole bored around the axis of rotation of the rotary body, the inner diameter of said hole being greater at the rotor side than at the opposite side.
In another aspect of the invention, there is also provided a fluid bearing comprising:
a rotary body including a rotor having a cylindrical surface to be borne and at least a thrust plate arranged at an end of the rotor in the sense of axis of rotation; and
a housing including a radial bearing section arranged vis-à-vis said surface of said rotor and a thrust bearing section arranged vis-à-vis said thrust plate;
the outer diameter of said thrust plate being greater at the rotor side than at the opposite side.
In still another aspect of the invention, there is provided a rotary drive apparatus comprising a fluid bearing according to the invention and a motor for driving said rotary body to rotate.

Fluid bearing and rotary drive apparatus using the same


An angular rate sensor includes a plurality of spaced apart vibrating beams, for example, four beams, defining a pair of outer beams and a pair of inner beams. Each outer beam is mechanically coupled to an inner beam by way of an interconnecting member. The outer beams are excited to cause them to vibrate in the plane of the beams and 180 degrees out of phase with the inner beams. In order to compensate for bias errors due to geometric mismatches between the beams, electrode patterns are deposited on the beams up to the point of inflection of the beam during vibration. The electrodes enable an electric field to be applied either parallel or normal to the longitudinal axis of the drive beams, which, in turn, cause the beams to twist about their longitudinal axis. Such twisting forces the quadrature acceleration components to cancel and thus electrically compensates for such bias errors due to quadrature acceleration components.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an angular rate sensor and more particularly to an angular rate sensor which includes a plurality of vibrating beams. The sensor includes electrical compensation for bias errors due to differences in the beam geometry, thus obviating the relatively labor-intensive mass balancing compensation method of the beams currently used in the art.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Angular rate sensors are generally known in the art. Examples of such sensors are discussed in detail in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,510,802; 4,590,801; 4,654,663; 4,665,748; 4,799,385; and 5,396,797. Such sensors are used to provide a signal representative of the rate of change of angular motion relative to the longitudinal axis of the sensor for use in navigational and inertial guidance systems.
In a known implementation of an angular rate sensor, for example, as disclosed in the '663 patent, a plurality of vibrating beams are mounted to the structure whose angular rate is to be sensed by way of a gimballed mounting structure. The vibrating beams are typically made from a flat sheet or web of a crystalline material, often piezoelectric quartz. The beams are configured in a spaced-apart, parallel relationship and are excited to vibrate at their resonant frequency in the plane of the web, 180 degrees out of phase with one another. Angular motion about an axis parallel to the longitudinal axis of the beams causes a force generally perpendicular to the plane of the vibrating beams, known as a Coriolis force. The Coriolis force amplitude modulates the vibrating frequency of the beams, which, in turn, provides a measure of the Coriolis force and hence the angular rate of motion relative to the longitudinal axis of the sensor.
Unfortunately, small differences in the beam geometry can result in bias errors in the sensor output. Such bias errors are discussed in detail in the '385 patent, hereby incorporated by reference. More particularly, quadrature acceleration components resulting from acceleration of the beams during excitation are normally equal and thus cancel out since the beams are 180 degrees out of phase with one another. However, when the beams are not perfectly matched, the quadrature acceleration components of the beams may vary in magnitude and phase relative to one another and thus may not cancel out. The quadrature acceleration components are normally orders of magnitude larger than the angular rate signal. As such, the quadrature acceleration components can result in significant bias errors in the angular rate signal.
Typically, such bias errors are compensated by mass balancing of the beams. More particularly, gold is normally added to both vibrating beams and selectively removed by way of a laser until the biasing errors are either minimized or eliminated. Unfortunately, the process is relatively labor intensive and requires the balancing to be done by trial and error techniques.
One attempt to solve the problem of mass balancing of vibrating beams is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,113,698. In that system, a drive signal is provided to each beam to cause the beams to vibrate at a frequency that is relatively close to the isolated resonant frequencies of one of the beams in order to improve the mechanical Q of the sensor. However, the mechanical Q of an angular rate sensor is generally of little significance. More importantly for an angular rate sensor is that the quadrature acceleration components cancel.

Angular rate sensor misalignment correction


A system, computer-readable storage medium storing at least one program, and a computer-implemented method for providing three-dimensional operations in an isometric projection are presented. A graphical user interface may be presented to a user that presents an isometric projection of a virtual environment. A placement event corresponding to a user initiating a placement of a game object within the virtual environment may then be detected. The game object may be modeled with a two-dimensional model. Selection coordinates associated with the placement event are then obtained. Using the selection coordinates, it may be determined that the user selected one of a plurality of surface areas of an existing game object. Then, the game object is then inserted within the virtual environment relative to the one of the plurality of surface areas of the existing game object.

In the fields of video games, the technique of using an isometric projection has been popular because of the ease with which 2 dimensional (2D) sprite- and tile-based graphics can be made to represent or "simulate" a 3 dimensional (3D) gaming environment. Because objects in an isometric projection do not change size as they move about the game environment, the gaming systems do not scale sprites or do the complex calculations used by traditional 3D gaming environments. The relative simple computations used to render isometric projections allow such systems as 8-bit, 16-bit game systems, and, more recently, handheld and mobile devices (e.g., mobile phones) to simulate large 3D gaming environments easily.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Three dimensional operations in an isometric projection


A vehicle body includes a bottom sillboard, the inner and outer profile parts of which are joined together, as viewed in the vehicle transverse direction, at upper and lower flange connections, to which bottom sillboard a pillar base of a body pillar element is attached, which, in the event of a side collision is supported with a first support profile against the upper flange connection of the bottom sillboard, and with a second support profile against a sillboard outer wall between the two flange connections. According to the invention, a force transmission element is provided in the hollow space of the bottom sillboard. In the event of a side collision, the force transmission element provides an additional force path between the second support profile and a sillboard inner wall.

A generic vehicle body is known from US 2011/0095567 A1. This body includes a bottom sillboard, the inner and outer profile sections of which, as viewed in the vehicle transverse direction, are joined together at upper and lower flange connections. Attached to the bottom sillboard is a pillar base of a body pillar element (i.e., the aforementioned reinforcing element). In the case of a side collision, the pillar base is supported against the bottom sillboard. In the event of such a side collision, the upper flange connection in particular of the bottom sillboard is severely stressed to the point that the risk of a material failure exists, which is disadvantageous in terms of the deformation behavior of the vehicle body.
Another vehicle body having a bottom sillboard, which also supports a body pillar element, is known from DE 10 2005 044 820 A1. The bottom sillboard also includes a corrugated sheet metal plate with which the bottom sillboard is reinforced in the vehicle transverse direction. This ensures that the transverse rigidity of the bottom sillboard is increased in the event of a side collision.


An apparatus for analyzing rule-based security event association includes a rule management unit to check whether an security event is a candidate security event requiring association analysis, and an event management unit to analyze the candidate security event and check whether the analyzed security event is the candidate security event requiring association analysis. An association processing unit analyzes whether an association event of a rule DB corresponding to a user ID of the candidate security event is matched with a user event list to generate an association analysis result.

Generally, conventional technology for the association analysis of security events is restrictively applied to only the area of IT security apparatuses, for example, a fire wall, an intrusion detection system, an intrusion prevention system, anti-virus system, etc., or a physical security apparatus such as an access control system, etc. is partially applied to the IT security apparatuses in level of the conventional technology.
Security events generated in the security apparatuses are collected, normalized, and stored in a database. Whether there is an external intrusion is determined through the association analysis of the security events stored in the database.
However, since the conventional technology stores security events in a database and then analyzes association between the security events, it is difficult to detect an external intrusion and respond to the detected intrusion in real time. Also, since the conventional technology performs the association analysis of security events based on an Internet protocol (IP) address, it is difficult to analyze association between an IP address-based IT security event and a user identifier (ID)-based physical security event.

Apparatus and method for analyzing rule-based security event association

Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute


A holder for a profiled rail comprising a holding edge and a for carrier component includes a base body, a clamping element, a screw connection, and a rotary joint. The base body comprises a supporting surface configured to have the profiled rail be placed thereon, a holding-down strip which holds down the holding edge against the supporting surface, and a first opening. The clamping element comprises a second opening. The screw connection passes through the first and second opening and is fixable on the carrier component. The rotary joint comprises an axis of rotation arranged parallel to the supporting surface and to the holding-down strip. The clamping element clamps the profiled rail against the base body with the screw connection. On the base body, the clamping element is guided radially with respect to the axis of rotation between an open and a closed pivot position with the rotary joint.

EP 2 009 293 A2 describes a holder for a profiled rail with a holding edge. The holder comprises a base/bodymain body, a clamping wedge and a screw connection. The base body has a supporting surface for the profiled rail, a holding-down strip protruding from the supporting surface and an inclined ramp. The clamping wedge is arranged on the ramp and is pulled into an open position by a rubber ring. The clamping wedge and the ramp are penetrated by the screw connection, wherein a round hole is contained in the clamping wedge and an elongated hole is contained in the ramp. The screw connection comprises a head screw and a nut. When the screw connection is actuated, the clamping wedge displaces the profiled rail parallel to the supporting surface until the holding edge passes under the holding-down strip and abuts against the latter. The holder is at the same time clamped against a carrier component by means of the screw connection, wherein the nut is arranged in an opening in the carrier component. The base body may be undesirably displaced out of the original installation position on the carrier component when the screw is tightened. The installation of the rubber ring by machine is complex. A main disadvantage is that the nut must be inserted in a previous step into the opening of the carrier component before the holder is placed onto the carrier component. As a result, the holder and the nut must be provided separately.


A method and system for tracking entities in a computer network. A method includes receiving node information related to a node coupled to a computer network. The method further includes determining whether an entity associated with the node has been previously identified in the computer network. If the entity has been previously identified in the computer network, the node information is linked to an entry for the entity in the database. If the entity has not been previously identified in the computer network, a new entry is created in the database, and the node information is linked to the new entry.

Many systems exist to provide some measure of security in a computer network. For example, network intrusion detection systems (NIDS) use sophisticated detection techniques to monitor network traffic on a specified segment of a network. One drawback with NIDS is that they are reactive instead of proactive. For example, NIDS perform a rule-based analysis of data packets by looking for signatures in the data packets. A signature is a sequence of data that indicate a security risk. Upon detecting a security risk, NIDS generate an alarm that identifies the source and destination nodes involved in the security risk. The nodes are identified by host and destination addresses in the headers of the analyzed data packets. Unfortunately, the alarm identifies the nodes by Internet Protocol (IP) address, which is often dynamic. That is, those nodes can have a different IP address at a later point in time. Therefore, the alarm report must be acted upon before the nodes' IP addresses change, which is not always practical. For example, remediation efforts typically lag the reception of the alarm report.
Moreover, unfortunately the NIDS system generates too many false alarms because it has no mechanism for determining if the signature that caused the alarm will actually cause a security problem in the system. That is, while typical NIDS know that a potential security risk has arisen because a specific signature was detected, they do not know whether the nodes are actually at risk. For example, the nodes may have a security patch in place unbeknownst to the NIDS.
One conventional way to reduce false alarms is to use adaptive scanning techniques. Adaptive scanning techniques validate NIDS events by determining if a destination node is actually threatened by the signature detected by the NIDS. For example, the destination node may have in place a security patch and thus is not actually at risk. Adaptive scanning techniques also rate legitimate attacks by assigning a priority to them. However, although conventional adaptive scanning techniques actively probe a network for vulnerabilities, they react to the NIDS event and hence are not proactive. Moreover, because they trigger based on a NIDS event, adaptive scanning techniques are based on IP addresses. This is acceptable for networks with devices with statically assigned IP addresses. However, another approach is desirable for networks with computer systems that do not have a static IP address.
Computer systems without a static IP address provide security challenges for the conventional methods discussed above. Mobile computer systems are especially problematic. However, even a non-mobile computer system that has a dynamically assigned IP address can present security problems for conventional methods. Remediation, such as updating a new virus protection program on all computer systems in a network, is a particular problem. However, the security challenge exists in situations other than remediation. As an example of the unique security challenge, when a laptop physically moves in a network, it will generate multiple alarms in a NIDS due to its multiple IP addresses. Even a computer system that does not move, but that uses a dynamically assigned (DHCP) IP address will cause multiple alarms in a NIDS. A conventional NIDS cannot correlate these multiple alarms to a single a computer system. Hence, remediation efforts are very difficult. Moreover, security issues other than remediation are negatively impacted by changing identifiers of computer systems.
Therefore, it would be advantageous to provide a method and system that facilitates remediation efforts in a computer network. Such a method and system would advantageously be proactive. It would be further advantageous if the method and system is able to determine that an entity that physically moves in a network is the same entity that was previously recognized elsewhere in the network. It would be still further advantageous to correlate multiple alarms having different IP addresses associated therewith as being related to the same computer system.

Method and system for tracking entities in a computer network


A diagnostic tool is adapted to include the capability of initiating one or more diagnostic tests, collecting the raw data from the diagnostic test(s) and transporting the raw diagnostic data to an OSS. The OSS interprets the raw diagnostic data and stores the results in a database. The stored results can be searched, sorted, manipulated, analyzed, and the like. The results of any of these operations can then be, for example, displayed to one or more entities such as customer support, network operators, network planners, or the like.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to communication systems. In particular, an exemplary embodiment of this invention relates to the acquisition, transmission and analysis of diagnostic information.
2. Description of Related Art
The exchange of diagnostic and test information between transceivers in a telecommunications environment is an important part of a telecommunications, such as a DSL, deployment. In cases where the connection is not performing as expected, for example, where the data rate is low, there are many bit errors, or the like, it could be advantageous to collect diagnostic and test information from, for example, a remote transceiver, such as a Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) modem. This is typically performed by dispatching a technician to the remote site, e.g., a truck roll, which can be time consuming, expensive and labor intensive.
In DSL technology, communications over a local subscriber loop between a Central Office (CO) and a subscriber premises is accomplished by modulating the data to be transmitted onto a multiplicity of discrete frequency carriers which are summed together and then transmitted over the subscriber loop. Individually, the carriers form discrete, non-overlapping communication subchannels of limited bandwidth. Collectively, the carriers form what is effectively a broadband communications channel. At a receiver, the carriers are demodulated and the transmitted data recovered.
DSL systems experience disturbances from other data services on adjacent phone lines, such as, for example, ADSL, HDSL, ISDN, T1, or the like. Furthermore, DSL systems can experience disturbances from other environmental factors such as, for example, temperature changes, radio interference, and the like. DSL systems can also experience disturbances from in-home devices such as telephones that may be connected to the same phone line with or without microfilters. Since DSL is envisioned as an always-on service, the effect of these disturbances should be reduced.

Telecommunication diagnostic information management


A first X-ray image is obtained by imaging a target in a first direction and at a first elevation angle, and a second X-ray image is obtained by imaging the target in a second direction and at a second elevation angle. Based on these two X-ray images, cross-section data of the target is obtained. The first and second X-ray images are converted into first and second thickness data, and first cross-section data based on a first surface side of the target and second cross-section data based on a second surface side of the target are obtained based on the first thickness data. Similar third cross-section data and four cross-section data are obtained based on the second thickness data. The cross-section data of the target is obtained by partially extracting and synthesizing cross-section data of a highly reliable region from these pieces of cross-section data.

At present, an X-ray inspection is used for a wide range of industrial products. The X-ray inspection is used also for a printed circuit board on which various electronic components are mounted. For example, an inspection, as to whether or not a BGA (Ball Grid Array), which is an ultra-small LSI component, is properly soldered to a board is made using X-rays. Generally, the BGA includes a solder ball terminal on an electrode pad thereof and is held in a state where the solder ball terminal is held in contact with a solder layer formed on a board-side electrode pad and, subsequently, a heating process is applied to melt solder balls (and the solder layer) to fix the BGA to the board. In the X-ray inspection, data on cross-sectional shapes of the melted solder balls is obtained. This is because the solder ball is deformed into a barrel shape by the heating process in a normal state, whereas it is deformed into a shape different from the barrel shape in a defective state.
An X-ray CT (Computed Tomography) method is known as an X-ray inspection method aimed at boards as described above. For example, Japanese Patent Publication No. 3665294 discloses an X-ray inspection method utilizing vertical slice imaging. In this inspection method, a multitude of horizontal slice images of a melt of the solder ball are imaged and a vertical slice image of the melt of the solder ball is formed utilizing these. However, this method requires several tens of X-ray images to be obtained for one inspection target, wherefore there are problems that it takes time for an imaging operation and an X-ray exposure dose of an inspection target increases.
Further, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2010-127810 discloses an X-ray inspection method for obtaining a three-dimensional X-ray CT image by iteration using a plurality of X-ray sources and X-ray detectors. According to this method, a three-dimensional shape of an inspection target can be obtained, but an enormous number of X-ray images are necessary. Thus, an imaging time and an X-ray exposure dose of the inspection target are a problem similarly to the above case.


A holder for a beverage container including a vertical back plate having arms for engaging the side wall of a beverage container, a base member including a flat plate and first and second sidewalls attached to the base plate, and a collapsible bracket which can be engaged with the base member in an upright position, or stored within the holder when in its collapsed configuration.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to holders for cups and other beverage containers, and more specifically to a collapsible beverage container suitable for use in an automobile.
2. Background of the Invention
Beverage container holders for use in automobiles, and particularly cupholders which are supported on the door of an automobile are widely known. Beverage container holders may be either collapsible or not, although the collapsible type holders provide the additional. Examples of known cupholders are those disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,828,211 and 4,984,772. A beverage container of upholder of this type will accommodate beverage containers of various sizes and shapes.
It is an object of this invention to provide a collapsible holder for beverage containers of various sizes which can be adjusted for use with a variety of container shapes and sizes, and which can be folded and stored in place between uses.
It is a second object of this invention to provide a collapsible holder for beverage containers of various sizes which can be adjusted for use with a variety of container shapes and sizes.
It is another object of this invention to provide a holder for beverage containers which is inexpensive to manufacture, and which includes a minimum number of moving parts.

Collapsible holder for a beverage container


Disclosed is an image sensing apparatus comprising a plurality of two-dimensionally arrayed pixels each having a photodiode and a floating diffusion area for temporarily storing a charge signal that has accumulated in the photodiode; an output unit that outputs the charge signal, which has been transferred to the floating diffusion area, successively pixel by pixel; a scanning unit having a reset mode for resetting the photodiodes and floating diffusion areas successively by prescribed unit, a first transfer mode for transferring the charge signal, which has accumulated in the photodiodes, to the floating diffusion areas successively by the prescribed unit at prescribed time intervals upon lapse of a prescribed period of time from start of reset, and a second transfer mode for transferring the charge signal, which has been transferred to the floating diffusion areas, to the output unit. Before operation of the second transfer mode is performed with respect to a plurality of the prescribed units, the scanning unit transfers the charge signal, which has accumulated in the photodiodes, to the floating diffusion areas successively by the prescribed unit at the prescribed time intervals with respect to the plurality of prescribed units.

In an image sensing apparatus that employs a solid-state image sensing device such as a CCD or CMOS, the exposure time of the image sensing device is controlled using a mechanical shutter, which is a mechanical light-shield member. To realize a short exposure time, it is necessary to drive the shutter at high speed. This requires mechanical precision and involves difficult control at the same time. Although optical-plane shutters of improved control precision are used in some image sensing apparatus, these are high in cost because they require a complicated mechanism and high precision. Thus, since there are limitations upon exposure-time control with mechanical shutters, electronic-shutter operation is essential in order to realize shutters of higher speed.
An example of an electronic shutter that employs an image sensing device employing an XY-address-type scanning method according to the prior art will now be described.
An electronic shutter operation can be achieved by first executing reset scanning, namely by eliminating unnecessary electric charge, which has accumulated in the pixels of the device, on a per-pixel or per-line basis, and then reading out signal charge upon elapse of a prescribed period of time pixel by pixel or line by line. Such an electronic shutter is referred to as a "rolling electronic shutter".
The structure of a conventional image sensing device and the operation of a rolling electronic shutter will be described with reference to FIGS. 6 and 7.
FIG. 6 illustrates the structure of an image sensing device that employs an XY-address-type scanning method. The image sensing device includes unit pixels 101. In order to simplify the drawing of FIG. 6, only a 4×4 array of the unit pixels 101 is illustrated. In actuality, however, a very large number of such unit pixels are arrayed in two dimensions. Each unit pixel 101 includes a photodiode 102 for converting light to electric charge; a floating diffusion area 104 that temporarily stores electric charge; a transfer switch 103 for transferring electric charge, which has been produced by the photodiode 102, to the floating diffusion area 104 by a transfer pulse φTX; a MOS amplifier 105 that functions as a source follower; a selection switch 106 for selecting the pixel in response to a selection pulse φSEL; and a reset switch 107 for eliminating electric charge, which has accumulated in the floating diffusion area 104, in response to a reset pulse φRES. A floating depletion amplifier is constructed by the floating diffusion area 104, MOS amplifier 105 and a constant-current source 109, which is described later. Signal charge in the pixel selected by the selection switch 106 is converted to voltage and the voltage is output to a read-out circuit 113 via a signal output line 108. The constant-current source 109 has the MOS amplifier 105 as its load. A selection switch 110, which is for selecting an output signal from the read-out circuit 113, is driven by a horizontal scanning circuit 114. An output amplifier 111 is for outputting a signal to the outside of the image sensing device. A vertical scanning circuit 112 is for selecting the switches 103, 106 and 107.
Pulse signals applied to, e.g., an nth scanning line scanned and selected by the vertical scanning circuit 112 are denoted φTXn, φRESn and φSELn with regard to the pulse signals φTX, φRES and φSEL, respectively.
FIG. 7 illustrates driving pulses and the operating sequence relating to the operation of the rolling electronic shutter. In order to simplify the description regarding FIG. 7, the description rendered below will relate to control for driving four lines, namely line n to line n+3, scanned and selected by the vertical scanning circuit 112.
First, from time t31 to time t32 in regard to line n, a reset operation is performed by applying the pulse signals φRESn and φTXn, thereby turning on the transfer switches 103 and reset switches 107 to eliminate unnecessary electric charge that has accumulated in the photodiodes 102 and floating diffusion areas 104 of the nth line. A charge accumulating operation, in which the transfer switches 103 are turned off and photoelectric charge produced by the photodiodes 102 is accumulated, starts at time t32. Next, at time t34, a transfer operation is performed by applying the pulse φTXn, thereby turning on the transfer switches 103 to transfer photoelectric charge, which has accumulated in the photodiodes 102, to the floating diffusion areas 104. It should be noted that it is necessary to turn off the reset switches 107 in advance of the transfer operation. In control of drive illustrated in FIG. 7, the reset switches 107 are turned off at the same time as the transfer switches 103 are turned off at time t32. Accordingly, charge accumulation time is from time t32, at which the reset operation ends, to time t35, at which transfer ends.
By applying the pulse φSEL to turn on the selection switches 106 following the end of the transfer operation for the nth line, electric charge held in the floating diffusion areas 104 is converted to voltage and the voltage is output to the read-out circuit 113. Signals held temporarily by the read-out circuit 113 are output successively by the horizontal scanning circuit 114 at time t36. Let T3read represent the period of time from the start of transfer at time t34 to the end of read-out at time t37, and let T3wait represent the period of time from t31 to t33. Similarly, with regard to other lines, T3read is the period of time from the start of transfer to the end of read-out, and T3wait is the period of time from start of reset of a certain line to the start of reset of the next line.
There is a MOS-type image sensing device that performs a batch electronic shutter operation, in which the reset operations are performed all at once and the read-out operations are performed all at once. This operating sequence is illustrated in FIG. 8.
As shown in FIG. 8, reset operations for all lines are executed simultaneously from time t41 to time t42, and transfer operations are carried out simultaneously from time t43 to time t44. Such an electronic shutter is referred to as a "batch electronic shutter". When a batch electronic shutter is implemented, the accumulation time period is t42 to t44 for all lines, and the accumulation timings can be made the same from the top to the bottom of the screen (for example, see the specification of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-17677).
A problem with the operation of the rolling electronic shutter of the prior art described above is that the accumulation timings at the top and bottom of the screen differ by the length of time necessary for scanning of the screen. This is because T3wait, which is the length of time from reset and transfer scan of a certain line to reset and transfer scan of the next line, is required to be greater than the time period T3read from start of transfer to end of read-out. The reason for this is that if T3wait is shorter than T3read, the image signal of the next line is output to the read-out circuit before the read-out operation of the present line is completed, as a result of which accurate image information cannot be obtained. Accordingly, read-out and scanning of image signals cannot be performed at high speed and a large disparity develops between the accumulation timings at the top and bottom of the screen, especially in a case where the screen is composed of a large number of pixels.
In the conventional batch electronic shutter operation described above, the reset and transfer operations are such that selection is performed collectively, and the read-out operation is such that scanning is performed line by line. This means that a circuit for implementing a batch selection operation is required anew. This invites a rise in cost, which accompanies an increase in the surface area of the semiconductor chip.
In a case where a still picture is taken using an electronic shutter, often the accumulation of charge is started after each pixel is cleared by the electronic shutter, and light is blocked by a mechanical shutter upon elapse of a prescribed period of time, thereby terminating charge accumulation, which is followed by read-out, as described above. The reason for this is that in a case where the CCD used as the image sensing device is a frame-transfer CCD or an interline two-field readout CCD, it is necessary that read-out of electric charge be performed in a state in which light is blocked. Further, even in the case of other CCDs, it is necessary to perform read-out upon blocking light to the CCD in order to achieve an improvement in image quality by positively preventing smear (a phenomenon in which electric charge that has overflowed from CCD pixels flows into the transfer portion and light appears so as to produce streaks along the vertical direction of the screen).
Further, if use is made of a MOS-type image sensing device, photoelectric charge will be produced in the floating diffusion area in a case where the image sensing device has such a structure that light leaks into the floating diffusion area. This means that the light must be blocked by a mechanical shutter after the transfer of charge to the floating diffusion area. With a mechanical shutter such as a focal-plane shutter and a batch electronic shutter, shutter scanning time of the batch electronic shutter, which decides the start of exposure, differs from the shutter scanning time of the mechanical shutter, which decides the end of exposure. As a consequence, exposure unevenness develops in the scanning direction of the mechanical shutter and this results in a decline in image quality.

Image sensing apparatus having a two step transfer operation and method of controlling same


Systems and methods for repairing a weakened or fractured bone are disclosed herein. A system for repairing a fractured bone includes a delivery catheter having an elongated shaft with a proximal end, a distal end, and a longitudinal axis therebetween, wherein the delivery catheter has an inner void for passage of bone cement components and an inner lumen for passage of a mixing element; an internal bone fixation device releasably engaging the distal end of the delivery catheter, wherein the internal bone fixation device moves from a first compact state to a second expanded state when the bone cement components are delivered to the internal bone fixation device and mixed within the internal bone fixation device; and a spinning mechanism engaged to a rotatable shaft, wherein the spinning mechanism is inserted into the internal bone fixation device.

Fracture repair is the process of rejoining and realigning broken bones. Fracture repair is required when there is a need for restoration of the normal position and function of the broken bone. Throughout the stages of fracture healing, the bones must be held firmly in the correct position and supported until it is strong enough to bear weight. In the event the fracture is not properly repaired, malalignment of the bone may occur, resulting in possible physical dysfunction of the bone or joint of that region of the body.
The addition of bone cements or other compounds to a fractured bone for repairing bone and, for example, joining bones are known in the art and typically requires at least two steps. Conventional bone cement injection devices are similar to a household caulking gun. Typically, the injection device has a pistol-shaped body, which supports a cartridge containing the bone cement. Bone cements are usually found as two component systems (powder and liquid) and must be mixed in a mixer and transferred into the cartridge for injection. In conventional bone cement mixers, the mixing element or stirrer is inserted into the mixing vessel after the bone cement powder and monomer liquid have been placed in the vessel. When mixing is complete, the stirrer is withdrawn from the cement and the cement is manually transferred from the mixing vessel to the injection device. Stirrer withdrawal from the cement exposes a large surface area of the cement to room air and undesirably introduces significant amounts of monomer liquid vapor in the ambient air. This process is unpleasant for individuals mixing the cement, since the mixed cement often contains an offensive, noxious odor. Furthermore, removal of the mixed cement from the mixing vessel into the cartridge of the injection device is cumbersome, time consuming, and has the potential for being mishandled and/or dropped.
Once the bone cement has been added to the cartridge of the injection device, the bone cement is delivered to the site of the bone fracture. Because the bone cement may be quite thick and viscous, delivering the bone cement from the injection device often requires a great deal of effort applied to the device plunger. Thus, both strength and dexterity are required on the part of the medical professional performing the procedure. The bone cement itself may cause complications including the leakage of the bone cement to an area outside of the fractured bone site, which can result in soft tissue damage as well as nerve root pain and compression. Other reported complications include pulmonary embolism, respiratory and cardiac failure, and death.
Thus, there is a need in the art for devices that can be used to repair a weakened or fractured bone in an effective, efficient and safe manner.

Internal bone fixation system with integrated mixer


Various embodiments relate to a system and related method for scanning active instances of an application within a system. Unique identifiers in the form of fingerprints, tags, or metadata can be associated with a target application. A manager can then scan the process tables and file system directories of the servers within the system to find active processes and stored files that include the unique identifier. In some embodiments, the manager scans the active processes while they are running to search for the unique ID within the process' command line structure. In some embodiments, the manager also finds processes or files that do not have the unique identifier, but were previously associated with the unique identifier. The manager can then report the server and application information to user. Such information can include which of the one or more servers has the target application as an active process.

IT managers regularly use various network and system management products to maintain enterprise-wide administration of computer systems. The system management products can include various programs and hardware that enable IT managers to engage in various tasks, such as the monitoring of servers, security management, and software inventory. In large systems, however, it is difficult to determine which applications are installed and regularly used on specific servers within the system. Ineffective monitoring of such applications can slow down the system, as redundant applications may be installed on the same server, while sparse installation of applications throughout the remaining servers within the network can lead to other performances issues, such as long delays and processor overload.
Previous solutions to track application implementation include the mapping of the entire IT infrastructure. However, such solutions required IT managers to manually input and update all the applicable data. Such solutions are therefore hard to scale for large infrastructure or maintain after a high number of changes.

Business application fingerprinting and tagging


A silver halide light-sensitive material for color filter is disclosed, comprising a support having provided thereon at least three silver halide emulsion layers containing couplers and having color sensitivities different from each other and at least light-insensitive interlayer, wherein the total amount of the binder in the silver halide light-sensitive material is from 3 to 10 g/m.sup.2, the equivalent ratio of silver halide to couplers in each silver halide emulsion layer is from 1 to 2, and the average grain size (in the case of tabular grains, determined by the thickness) in each silver halide emulsion is from 0.05 to 0.9 .mu.m, or wherein the proportion of organic compounds other than polymers to all organic compounds in each silver halide emulsion layer is 55 % by weight or less. Also disclosed are a preparation method of a color filter using the silver halide light-sensitive material and a color filter prepared according to the method.

The color filter is being used as a color face plate for a cathode-ray tube display, a photoelectric conversion device plate for copying, a filter for a single tube-type color television camera, a flat panel display using liquid crystal or a color solid pickup element.
The color filter in common use is constituted by primary colors of red, green and blue which are regularly disposed, however, some color filters are constituted by four or more color hues, if desired. For example, in case of a color filter for a camera tube or a color filter for a liquid crystal display, a black pattern (black matrix) is required for various purposes.
Specific examples of the disposition method of red, green and blue include a mosaic disposition, a stripe disposition and a delta disposition, and these disposition methods may be appropriately selected according to the need.
With respect to the method for producing a color filter, evaporation, dyeing, printing, pigment dispersion, electrodeposition, and electrodeposition transfer of a resist have been conventionally known. However, the color filter obtained by these methods is deficient in that a complicated production process is required, pinholes or flaws are readily generated, the yield is low, and accuracy is not ensured.
In order to overcome these problems, a method for producing a color filter according to an external development method (as described in, e.g., JP-A-55-6342, the term "JP-A" as used herein means an "unexamined published Japanese patent application") or an internal development method (as described in, e.g., JP-A-62-148952 and JP-A-62-71950), using a silver halide color light-sensitive material, have been investigated. In the former case, the color development must be performed at least three times, thus, the production process never be simple. In the latter case, the layer thickness increases and for example, in the production of LCD panel, the layer may be peeled off upon rubbing or breaking of the line may be readily caused. In particular, when a light-sensitive material comprising a large number of light-sensitive layers as described in Japanese Patent Application No. 6-155726 is used, the layer thickness is further increased and a measure must be taken therefor. In order to overcome these problems, it may be considered to reduce the coating amount of binder, however, if this is practiced, there arise problems such that mixing of colors is readily caused, the ratio of organic compounds having a low melting point relatively increases in the coated layers, and the dye produced readily diffuses at a high temperature to cause blurring of the pixel pattern. The color filter is, for example, in the case of use for a color liquid crystal display, obliged to come under a high temperature condition of 150.degree. C. or higher in the after processing such as coating of a protective layer, deposition of a transparent electrode, and application of an orientation layer. Hence, the dye is required to have fastness to these temperatures and also to undergo no heat diffusion.

Preparation method of color filter using a silver halide light sensitive material


Systems, methods, and other embodiments associated with application source code scanning for database migration are described. In one embodiment, a method includes identifying a subset of application source code files that are likely to require modification to access a destination database. The subset of application source code files is scanned for artifact expressions that access a source database and should be changed to access the destination database.

Database migration is the process of transferring data from a source database to a destination database. The source database and the destination database are usually different types of databases with different instruction formats. For example, an enterprise may transfer data stored in a Sybase database to an Oracle database. Many tools are available for transferring the data stored in the database. However, mixed language applications that are configured to access data in the first type of database will need revision as part of the migration process. For example, database calls in an application that accessed the source database will likely need to be revised to access the destination database. Analyzing all source code files associated with a mixed language application to identify portions of the application that should be revised has proven to be an impractical solution.

Application source code scanning for database migration


A communications device for separating source signals provided by M signal sources includes an antenna array comprising N antenna elements for receiving at least N different summations of the M source signals. A respective in-phase and quadrature module is connected downstream to each antenna element for separating each one of the N different summations of the M source signals received thereby into an in-phase and quadrature component set. A blind signal separation processor forms a mixing matrix comprising at least 2N different summations of the M source signals, with each in-phase and quadrature component set providing 2 inputs into the mixing matrix. The mixing matrix has a rank equal up to 2N. The desired source signals are separated from the mixing matrix by the blind signal separation processor.

Blind source separation (BSS) involves recovering source signals from a composite signal, wherein the composite signal includes a mixture of the source signals. The separation is "blind" because it is often performed with limited information about the signals, the sources of the signals, and the effects that the propagation channel has on the signals.
An example is the familiar "cocktail party" effect when a person at a party is able to separate a single voice from a combination of all the voices in the room. Blind source separation is particularly applicable to cellular and personal wireless communications devices, where many frequency bands have become cluttered with numerous radio frequency emitters, often co-existing in the same spectrum. The problem of co-channel emitters is expected to only worsen in years to come with the development of low power, unlicensed wireless technologies such as Bluetooth and other personal area networks.
Three commonly used blind signal separation techniques are principal component analysis (PCA), independent component analysis (ICA) and singular value decomposition (SVD). PCA involves first and second moment statistics of the source signals, and is used when the signal-to-noise ratios of the source signals are high. Otherwise, ICA is used which involves PCA processing followed by third and fourth moment statistics of the source signals. As an alternative, SVD may be used to separate a source signal from the mixture of source signals based upon their eigenvalues.
Regardless of the blind signal separation technique that is applied, a plurality of sensors is used to receive different mixtures of the source signals from the various signal sources. Each sensor outputs a mixture of the source signals, which is a unique sum of the source signals. In general, both the channel coefficients and the original source signals are unknown to the receiver. The unique sums of signals are used to populate a mixing matrix. The appropriate blind signal separation technique is then applied to the mixing matrix for separating desired source signals from the mixture of source signals.
As an example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,799,170 discloses the separation of an independent source signal from a mixture of source signals using ICA. A plurality of sensors receive the mixture of source signals, and a processor takes samples of the mixture of source signals over time and stores each sample as a data vector to create a data set. Each sensor outputs a mixture of the source signals, which is a unique sum of the source signals. An ICA module performs an independent component analysis of the data vectors to separate an independent source signal from other signals in the mixture of source signals.
The sensors are spatially separated from one another, and the processor generates only one data vector for each respective sensor to create the data set. The '170 patent also discloses that the number of sensors N is equal to or greater than the number of sources M, i.e., N≧M for populating the data set. A problem with such an implementation is that as the number of sources M increases, then so does the number of sensors N. Small portable communications devices have little available volume for a large number of sensors N, and mounting the sensors on the outside of the communications devices is a problem for the users.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,931,362 discloses another method for separating signals using blind signal separation. The disclosed blind signal separation technique forms a mixing matrix with hybrid matrix-pencil adaptive array weights that minimize the mean squared errors due to both interference emitters and Gaussian noise. The hybrid weights maximize the signal to interference plus noise ratio. As with the '170 patent, the sensors are also spatially separated from one another, and the number of sensors N is equal to or greater than the number of sources M for populating the mixing matrix. Moreover, each sensor provides a single input to the mixing matrix resulting in a larger volume area for a portable communications device.

Blind signal separation using I and Q components


A method for compiler optimization particularly well suited to object-oriented language that permit dynamic class loading. The method permits the compiler optimization of code associated with a potentially polymorphic object that is a call parameter to a virtual procedure where the procedure is a candidate for devirtualization through inlining. The method includes steps for guarded devirtualizing of the procedure, insertion of code to ensure privatization of the object before the procedure is executed, creation of a guard assumptions associated with the object and application of known optimization techniques to the code associated with the object.

The time required to execute computer executable instructions (i.e. programs) can be reduced by applying compiler optimizations. Programs that consist of many short procedures benefit in particular from inter-procedural optimizations. The object-oriented approach to programming promotes the use of short procedures (commonly known as methods) to encapsulate functionality and to provide modularity and abstraction. These procedures are frequently virtual procedures.
A common inter-procedural optimization technique is inlining. Inlining reduces the overhead of a procedure call by replacing the procedure call with a called (i.e. target) procedure directly in the body of a calling procedure. Inlining also increases the opportunities for applying other compiler optimization techniques. An exemplary description of inlining is provided in A Comparative Study Of Static And Dynamic Heuristics For Inlining, Matthew Arnold, Stephen Fink, Vivek Sarkar, and Peter F. Sweeney, ACM SIGPLAN Workshop on Dynamic and Adaptive Compilation and Optimization, January 2000 which is incorporated in its entirety herein by reference.
When a virtual procedure call is executed, a declared procedure or one of several procedures that can override it is actually invoked. The declared procedure and the overriding procedures are known as target procedures of the virtual procedure call. The overriding of a target procedure for a virtual procedure call is a function of the dynamic class definition (i.e. polymorphism) of an object containing the virtual procedure. The dynamic nature of virtual procedures creates important challenges for implementing inter-procedural optimizations. An approach known as call devirtualization can be used to introduce compiler optimization in the case of a virtual procedure call.
Many devirtualization techniques are known for reducing the runtime overhead of virtual procedure calls for various object-orient languages by inlining of the procedure or replacing the virtual procedure call with a direct procedure call. One such technique is guarded devirtualization. In guarded devirtualization a class or method (i.e. procedure) test is used to ensure that the inlined procedure or the direct call to a target method is valid. This technique is highly effective in dynamically-typed object-oriented languages but is much less effective in statically-typed object-oriented languages such as, for example, Java. Exemplary descriptions of guarded devirtualization are provided in Inlining of Virtual Methods, David Detlefs and Ole Agesen, ECOOP '99 and Thin Guards: A simple and Effective Technique for Reducing the Penalty of Dynamic Class Loading (2202), Matthew Arnold, Barbara G. Ryder, Proceedings of the Sixteenth European Conference on Object Oriented Programming (Malaga, Spain, June 2002) which are incorporated in their entirety herein by reference.
Another devirtualization technique known as direct devirtualization eliminates the guard test by applying whole program analysis and optimizations using a static compiler. Direct virtualization is generally based on a closed-world assumption in which no dynamic class loading is allowed. Therefore, this technique is less effective when applied to languages such as Java™ which permit dynamic class loading without placing generally unacceptable constraints on the use of important features of the language.
Yet another technique known as direct devirtualization with code patching employs inlining of a target procedure at the virtual procedure call site. The inlined instructions are executed until an assumption that permits devirtualization is invalidated such as, for example when the target procedure is overridden. When the assumption is invalidated, the compiler performs code patching to cause the virtual procedure call to be executed instead of the inlined procedure.
In dynamic languages dynamically loaded classes may be encountered at runtime. Call devirtualization based on inter-class analysis may be invalidated when new classes are loaded. A mechanism for dealing with new classes that appear at runtime is to detect invalidated optimizations at runtime and to correct them using recompilation. Such a deoptimization mechanism can discover if a newly loaded class invalidates any existing inlinings and correct every such inlining by recompiling the appropriate procedures. A difficulty with this mechanism occurs when a procedure that needs to be recompiled is currently executing. There is a set of circumstances (known as preexistence) that avert this complication. Currently-executing procedures that contain invalidated inlinings are allowed to continue executing the original code until they exit. Only subsequent invocations of the procedure are to execute the recompiled code.
A further refinement of this approach is to correct invalidated inlining by replacing a single instruction with a jump to the original virtual call. This reduces the runtime penalty associated with recompiling and is known as code patching. An exemplary description of code patching is provided in A Direct Devirtualization Technique with the Code Patching Mechanism, Kazuaki Ishizaki, Toshiaki Yasue, Motohiro Kawahito, Hideaki Komatsu, IPSJ Transactions on Programming Vol. 43 No. SIG08-011, which is incorporated in its entirety herein by reference.
Invariant argument preexistence (herein after preexistence) is said to occur when the receiver object for a procedure call has been allocated before the invocation of a caller procedure. When preexistence occurs, the class of the receiver object does not change in the scope of invocation of the caller procedure. Even when a class loading event that overrides the called procedure occurs, the called procedure associated with the receiver object will not be overridden during the execution of the caller procedure. This property can be exploited in implementing compiler optimizations such as direct devirtualization. When preexistence occurs, the caller procedure does not need to be recompiled during the execution of the calling procedure and therefore mechanisms such as backup paths, on-stack replacement and other similar mechanisms are not required. The caller procedure does need to be recompiled or code patched at its next invocation in which the called procedure has been overridden. An exemplary description of preexistence is provided in Inlining of Virtual Methods (supra).
What is needed is a method that permits additional inter-procedural compiler optimizations of computer executable instructions associated with objects subject to run-time polymorphism.

Compiler optimization with privatizing of a non-final object

International Business Machines Corporation


A method and apparatus of feeding back channel state information in a multi-node system are provided. The method includes receiving a reference signal of N nodes, wherein N is a natural number equal to or more than 2, aligning the N nodes in an order of preferring the N nodes based on a result of measuring the reference signal, generating channel state information for the aligned nodes, and transmitting the generated channel state information to the base station, wherein the channel state information is generated with respect to N node combinations configured from the aligned nodes, and wherein the N node combinations are obtained by adding next highest-priority nodes to a first node combination one by one, the first node combination consisting a highest-priority node among the aligned nodes.

The recent advent of M2M (Machine-to-Machine) available and high data processing devices including smart phones or tablet PCs has led to an increase in data transmission over a wireless communication network. To satisfy increasing data transmission, more attention is being directed toward cognitive radio (CR) and carrier aggregation (CA) for efficient use of more frequency bands and multi base station collaborative and multi antenna technologies for increasing data capability within a limited frequency resource.
The wireless communication network is evolving to have a higher density of nodes accessible by a user. The "node", which is sometimes referred to as an antenna or antenna group spaced apart from a distributed antenna system (DAS), may have a broader meaning. For example, the node may be one of a macro base station, pico cell base station (PeNB), home base station (HeNB), RRH (Remote Radio Head), RRU (Remote Radio Unit), relay, or distributed antenna (group).
With a higher density of nodes, a wireless communication system may exhibit higher system capability through collaboration between the nodes. For example, even more excellent system capacity can be achieved when each node operates as an antenna or antenna group for one cell while its transmission/reception is managed by one control station rather than when each node operates without cooperation with another with respect to a base station. Hereinafter, a wireless communication system including multiple nodes is referred to as a "multi-node system."
In a multi-node system, a base station may assign a node set to a terminal in a semi-static or static manner. The base station may dynamically select the nodes included in a subset of the node set and may transmit a signal to the selected nodes. In such case, to select the optimum nodes, the base station theoretically requires channel state information for all the subsets included in the node set. If the terminal feeds back the channel state information for all the sub sets to achieve such purpose, the calculation of the terminal may be more complicated together with more consumption of resources for feedback information.
There is a need of a channel state information feedback device and method that can optimize capability of a multi-node system.

Channel state information feedback method and apparatus in a multi-node system


The Automatic Base-Mounted Container Illuminator is a new and improved illumination device for use and attachment on the base of a liquid container. The Illuminator attaches to the container due to a high level of friction between the outer surface of the container and the outer surface of the Illuminator's liquid-proof coating. The Illuminator contains a power source and a light source. The power source and light source are connected by an electrical switch mechanism so that when the liquid container and attached Illuminator are lifted from a standing position the circuit is completed until the container is placed back onto its base in a standing position. When the Illuminator is engaged the liquid and the bottle itself become illuminated. This effect is useful for advertising and attracting business, and it is pleasing to the eyes of nearby observers. Thus, the Illuminator can be simultaneously used as an advertising agent and a visual stimulant.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a novelty item in the form of an automatic base-mounted container Illuminator (hereinafter "Illuminator") that attaches to the base of a liquid container and has a light source therein. The Illuminator incorporates an electrical switch mechanism that causes the device to engage and illuminate the liquid container when the liquid container and attached Illuminator are lifted from a surface. The switch mechanism disengages and stops illuminating the container when the container and Illuminator are placed upon a surface. The invention causes a visually pleasing effect when the liquid container that the Illuminator is attached to is being used to dispense liquid. The Illuminator illuminates the liquid inside of a container and the container itself. The Illuminator is useful as a promotional or novelty item for a business or product. It is also useful for personal enjoyment and the visual effect is pleasing to observers.
2. Description of the Related Art
Products for illuminating liquid containers are well know in the art. For example, bottle glorifiers as frequently seen in restaurants and bars (as seen on www.creativemag.com/plast1102.html, last visited Feb. 12, 2005) are described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,344,113. These glorifiers are designed to illuminate a bottle while the bottle is resting on top of the glorifier. Moreover, these glorifiers are designed to act as a pedestal upon which the bottle rests. Further, U.S. Pat. No. 6,065,848 and application #20030076672 describe illumination devices that attach to the base of a bottle. These illumination devices operate with a manual switch and do not work automatically. The present invention improves upon the prior art in that the Illuminator automatically illuminates the liquid container and any liquid contained therein when the container that is attached to the Illuminator is lifted from a surface. It ceases illuminating the liquid container and any liquid contained therein when the container that is attached to the Illuminator is returned to a surface.

Automatic base-mounted container illuminator


An attachable rear viewing vehicle mirror for viewing inaccessible areas about a motor vehicle. The device consists of a uniplanar support frame attachable by suction cups and extending support arms at an obtuse angle thereto for adjustably supporting a wide angle mirror.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device that can be temporarily placed on a vehicle to provide visual contact with inaccessible zones and, more particularly, but not by way of limitation, it relates to an improved type of attachable mirror for positioning on or about a vehicle to encapture a trailer hitch or the like within the field of view during hook-up procedure.
2. Prior Art
There have been a number of devices developed in the past for use in providing a view of inaccessible areas in or about a vehicle. Indeed, the necessity for viewing a trailer hitch during trailer attachment operations has necessitated a number of variations. U.S. Pat. No. 4,925,287 discloses a multi-pod device wherein a plurality of pods or legs are attachable by suction cup to the vehicle external surfaces to support an adjustable arm which supports a reflection device as directed toward a trailer hitch or other point of interest. The reflecting device is a paraboloid type of mirror which provides greater than one-to-one field of view coverage so that visual coverage is supplied for an associated hitch and trailer tongue during hook-up.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,111,342 provides another type of hitch-viewing mirror assembly which uses a combination of suction cups and anchor points to affix a supporting frame on or about a vehicle. The supporting frame supports an adjustable viewing device in proper field of view to include the hitch and surrounds. This device utilizes both suction cups and other latch-type connecting arms of adjustable type so that the device can be installed on various types of vehicle, i.e., pickups, station wagons, and the like. U.S. Pat. No. 4,624,539 discloses a portable mirror device for rear view observation that also attaches by means of suction cup to glass or other smooth surface to support a conventional spring clip which is also attached to an adjustable viewing device.