A new dry powder inhaler is developed as a pulmonary medicine delivery device for dispersing precise tiny dosages (10 μg-50 mg) of pure carrier-free ultra-fine powdered medicament (<5 μm aerodynamics particle size) into a patient's lung. The powder is drawn from the blister cell and dispersed through an outlet tube assisted by two air streams. The first air stream goes through a the blister cell from its upstream side, to significantly fluidize the medicament in the dose to flow upward. The second one extracts the fluidized powder from downstream of the blister cell for further deagglomeration and dispersion of the medicament powder by shear force. The rotating multi-dose blister can hold up to 60 doses, which are pre-metered with pure ultra-fine powdered medicament. So that it has higher drug loading capability in small volumes, compared to most current dry powder inhalers, which usually use some excipient. The inhaler efficiently disperse the aerosolized medicament in the air stream to the deep interior of patient's lung. The fine particle fraction (<4.7 μm) is reported to reach as high as 80% using this inhaler.

Pulmonary drug delivery represents a new drug administration method that provides many advantages. It provides direct and fast topical treatments for respiratory and lung diseases. It avoids the first-pass GI (gastrointestinal) metabolism and can provide targeted delivery to heart and brain. Large molecules such as peptides and proteins can be systemically delivered using the pulmonary channel. Pulmonary drug delivery also allows the use of drugs with low solubility. Most peptide and protein drugs are far more stable in the solid rather than liquid state. Antibiotics and even vaccines can be delivered in this manner. Compared to oral in-take, it provides a fast and much more efficient adsorption. Typically, only a few percent of the medication of the oral in-take is required for pulmonary delivery due to that many drugs degrade in the digestive tract before they are absorbed. Compared to intravenous injection, it provides a painless and safer alternative.
Numerous methods can be employed to generate drug aerosols in therapeutically useful size ranges and concentrations [A. J. Hickey, Inhalation Aerosols: Physical and Biological Basis for Therapy, New York, 1996]. Specifically, these are metered-dose inhalers (MDIs), dry powder inhalers (DPIs), and nebulizers, that can achieve minimally acceptable characteristics in simple, convenient, inexpensive, and portable format.
Nebulizers such as jet nebulizers or ultrasonic nebulizers are used for the delivery of aqueous pharmaceuticals and are generally large in design and complex to operate, so that they are more for clinical use. The precision of the dose administered to the patient is highly dependent on a variety of factors such as atmospheric temperature and humidity, as well as the volume and strength of the patient's breathing. Metered Dose Inhalers (MDI) suspends or dissolves the ultra-fine drug powders into liquid propellants and stores them. When a metered quantity of the propellant is released from the storage canister, the propellant evaporates and expands quickly to disperse the powdered drug or liquid droplet drug into the patients' mouth. The propellant can be a chlorofluorocarbon, a hydrochlorofluorocarbon, or a hydrocarbon, some of which are unfavourable due to environmental concerns. The another key problem with this method is that the quick expansion of the propellant causes the drug to impact in the back of the throat, reducing the amount being inhaled into the lung to about 20-30% [Guidance for Industry: Metered Dose Inhaler (MDI) and Dry Powder Inhaler (DPI) Drug Product, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1998]. More recent developments with improvement in design, such as the new SoftMist inhaler, has claimed a high FPF (fraction of fine particles), which suggests a higher lung deposition rate [M. W. Spallek, J. Geser, H. Reincke, and A. Moser, Scale-up and production challenges of bringing Respimat SoftMist inhaler (SMI) to market, Respiratory Drug Delivery IX, 2004, and R. Dalby, M. W. Spallek, and T. Voshaar, A review of development of Respimat SoftMist Inhaler, Int. J. Pharmaceutics, 2003]. In general, however, the MDI method needs good breath coordination and it is difficult to predict the amount of drug inhaled if the patients' inhalation does not coincide with the drug releasing.
Dry powder inhaler (DPI) is similar to a metered dose inhaler in that it also delivers a precisely measured dose medicine into the lungs, but in dry powder form. It is designed to generate a drug powder aerosol onto or via the inspiratory air flow. It has been proved that powder aerosols can carry approximately five times more drug in a single breath than metered dose inhaler (MDI) systems and many more times than liquid or nebulizer systems.
To facilitate pulmonary delivery, drug powders should normally be less than 5 μm (or equivalent aerodynamic diameter) so that they become airborne during inhalation. However, powders of such small sizes (typical group C powder in the Geldart classification) [D. Geldart, Types of Gas Fluidization, Powder Technology, Vol. 7, 285-297, 1973] have very strong inter-particle forces that make them agglomerate and very difficult to handle. The agglomeration of powder is normally formed prior to delivery due to the inter-particle forces, and possible moisture absorption. Agglomerated drug powders become difficult to dispense completely from the doses, and/or, is dispensed at least partially as larger agglomerates, thereby significantly reducing the lung deposition efficiency.
To overcome the inter-particle forces, current industrial practice applies two different methods; one is the suspension of the powder into liquid in Metered Dose Inhalers (MDIs) as described above, and the other involves mixing the ultra-fine drug powders with large amounts of coarser powder. This method uses a large quantity of excipient (filler) particles that are much larger (normally group A or group A-C powders in the Geldart classification). This makes the small-large powder mixture fluidize easily so that they can be handled easily. It also significantly increases the volume of each dosage so that the dispensing and packing becomes more accurate relatively. This is practiced for most dry powder inhaler (DPI) currently on the market. However, only a small fraction of the small drug particles can detach effectively from the large excipient particles during inhalation and the rest stay with the large particles and land in the mouth. This limits the efficiency of final delivery for DPIs to about 6-14%. [I. J. Smith, M. Parry-Billings, The Inhalers of the Future? A Review of Dry Powder devices on the Market Today, Pulmonary Pharmacology & Therapeutics 16, 79-95, 2003].
The current designs of dry powder inhalers (DPIs) can be divided into two types, the pre-metered and the device-metered ones [Guidance for Industry: Metered Dose Inhaler (MDI) and Dry Powder Inhaler (DPI) Drug Product, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1998] both of which can be driven by patient inspiration alone (Passive dry powder inhaler) or with some power-assistance (Active dry powder inhaler) [Guidance for Industry: Metered Dose Inhaler (MDI) and Dry Powder Inhaler (DPI) Drug Product, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1998] Pre-metered DPIs contain previously measured doses in single or multiple presentations in blisters, capsules, or other cavities that are subsequently inserted into the device during manufacture or by the patient before use. Thereafter, the dose may be inhaled directly from the unit or it may be transferred to a chamber before being inhaled by the patient. Device-metered DPIs have an internal reservoir containing sufficient formulation for multiple doses being metered by the device itself during actuation by the patient.
Passive dry powder inhalers rely on the aspiratory flow as the sole source of energy for powder fluidization, deagglomeration and inhalation. A number of such inhalers have been developed. These include the Ultrahaler (Aventis), the Clichhaler (Asmabec), Turbuhaler (Astra), and Diskus (GlaxoSmithKline) [I. J. Smith, M. Parry-Billings, The Inhalers of the Future? A Review of Dry Powder devices on the Market Today, Pulmonary Pharmacology & Therapeutics 16, 79-95, 2003 and C. A. Dunbar, A. J. Hickey and P. Holzner, Dispersion and Characterization of Pharmaceutical Dry Powder Aerosols, KONA, 16, 7-45, 1998].
The AstraZeneca Turbulhaler is a multiple dose inhaler with 50, 100 or 200 doses of active drug stored in a reservoir [U.S. Pat. No. 6,257,732, U.S. Pat. No. 6,325,061,1. J. Smith, M. Parry-Billings, The Inhalers of the Future? A Review of Dry Powder devices on the Market Today, Pulmonary Pharmacology & Therapeutics 16, 79-95, 2003 and C. A. Dunbar, A. J. Hickey and P. Holzner, Dispersion and Characterization of Pharmaceutical Dry Powder Aerosols, KONA, 16, 7-45, 1998]. The drug is metered into small doses by scrapers inside the inhaler. Air enters the inhaler and passes through the dosing unit, fluidizing the powder by shear force. The turbulence in the narrow inhalation channel, the impaction on the bottom of the mouthpiece, and high shear stress in the swirl nozzle of the mouthpiece help the particle deagglomateration. In this inhaler, it includes two metering and inhalation processes. It is unique in dispensing minute quantity of drug powders without the use of an added carrier.
The Diskus [I. J. Smith, M. Parry-Billings, The Inhalers of the Future? A Review of Dry Powder devices on the Market Today, Pulmonary Pharmacology & Therapeutics 16, 79-95, 2003 and C. A. Dunbar, A. J. Hickey and P. Holzner, Dispersion and Characterization of Pharmaceutical Dry Powder Aerosols, KONA, 16, 7-45, 1998] is a blister pack, unit-dose device. The pack consists of a coiled, double-foil strip of 60 blisters, each containing one dose of drug powder with a lactose carrier. The drug can be in the 50-500 μg range. During inhalation, each blister is moved into place, and its lid-foil is peeled away by a contracting wheel. The inhaled air is drawn through the opened blister, aerosolizing and delivering the dose through the mouthpiece.
Clickhaler [C. A. Dunbar, A. J. Hickey and P. Holzner, Dispersion and Characterization of Pharmaceutical Dry Powder Aerosols, KONA, 16, 7-45, 1998] consists of a metering cone, bulk drug reservoir, and compression spring. It holds 100 or 200 doses of drug. Only one metered dose is present in the inhalation passage at any one time. The inhaler should be held approximately upright during priming and inhalation, and a rapid and deep inhalation is needed for optimal dose delivery.
Active dry powder inhalers have an additional source of energy than that provided by inhalation to fluidize and disperse the powder. The Nektar Pulmonary Inhaler [U.S. Pat. No. 6,089,228] is a gas-assisted dry powder inhaler. It comprises a relatively large transparent holding chamber with a powder inlet at one end of the feed chamber. The powder inlet has a receptacle where a foiled dosage containing the medicament can be penetrated and a pressurization cylinder providing high pressure air stream extract the powdered medicament from the receptacle to the chamber and disperse in flowing compressed gas to form an aerosol. It is claimed that this kind of inhaler provides an efficient pulmonary delivery of accurate, precise, and repeatable dosages of powdered medicaments. A patient pulls a hand pump to compress a small charge of air, inserts a packet of drug powder into the slot, then presses the firing button to disperse the powder into an aerosol cloud The inhaler generates the aerosol independently of patient inspiratory flow rate, and it is Ideal for large and small molecules with 2-5 mg doses.
The SPIROS™ (Dura) has a breath activated, motor driven impeller which provides electromechanical energy to disperse the powder [C. A. Dunbar, A. J. Hickey and P. Holzner, Dispersion and Characterization of Pharmaceutical Dry Powder Aerosols, KONA, 16, 7-45, 1998]. The Prohaler™ (Valois) is a multi-dose powder inhaler where a built-in pump gives compressed air to facilitate dose metering and powder dispersion [C. A. Dunbar, A. J. Hickey and P. Holzner, Dispersion and Characterization of Pharmaceutical Dry Powder Aerosols, KONA, 16, 7-45, 1998].
The additional energy input decreases or eliminates the dependence of the aerosolization process on the patient's breathing ability, increases the fine particle fraction in aerosol flow and ensures effective powder dispersion [C. A. Dunbar, A. J. Hickey and P. Holzner, Dispersion and Characterization of Pharmaceutical Dry Powder Aerosols, KONA, 16, 7-45, 1998]. However, these kinds of inhalers can be big and heavy, are not very convenient for patient use, and also its cost can be much higher than desired. Additionally, breath coordination becomes very important for the active DPIs in most cases, as patient inhalation and aerosolization needs to be synchronized.
Currently, the most popular formulation of powder for DPIs consists of the drug that is usually blended with a carrier (lactose or glucose) to facilitate flow and dispersion. The suitability of a carrier is dependent on its chemical and physical characteristics, which can have direct effect on the performance of the product such as ease of entrainment of the formulation, energy input necessary for dispersion and aerosolization of the active ingredient from the carrier. It would be ideal if the required small quantity of the fine drug powder could be accurately dispensed alone, without any carrier/incipient. When only the pure drug powder is packaged into the inhaler, if the particle aggregates can be dispersed into primary particles (<5 μm), the delivery efficiency is expected to increase significantly. Considering that many drugs are quite expensive, typically being many times more costly than conventional drugs, it is very critical to be able to efficiently deliver the dry powders to the target region of the lung with minimal loss of the drug.
There are various types of inhalers for delivering a dry powdered medicament. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,116,239 discloses an inhalation device for use in delivering a powdered substance to a user. It comprises a holding portion for holding the powder substance, an air entry passageway having an inlet port open to an exterior of the device to direct air entering it and to fluidize the medicament upon inhalation by the user. A hold-up chamber is for holding the fluidized medicament and maintaining the substance in a fluidized state, then to deliver them to the user through an air exit passageway. The hold-up chamber is cylindrically shaped and has a longitudinally extending axis around which air is inhaled. The powder substance is claimed to be effectively deaggregated almost immediately upon inhalation and form a relatively uniform concentration of powder.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,975,076 discloses a dry powder inhaler which comprises a reservoir of medicament powder, a dispensing chamber for receiving a charge of powder to be dispensed, an air passage having an inlet terminating at a nozzle directed downwardly into the dispensing chamber. Air is drawn in through the inlet to enter the dispensing chamber as a jet through the nozzle in a direction which is both downwardly onto the medicament and laterally across the chamber with respect to the mouthpiece.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,921,237 describes a drug powder inhaler including a cover plate pivotally attached to a lid on the inhaler housing. A blister pack disk is rotatably mounted on the housing under the cover plate. An actuator in the housing is most desirably aligned with a lever on the cover plate. When a patient pushes the actuator, it presses to shear open a blister on the blister pack disk and delivers the drug in the dose in the blister into a staging chamber for inhalation by the user.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,006,747, a dry powder inhaler has a multi-dosage medicine containing cartridge attached on the top of the housing, and a cartridge ring with apertures for holding dry powder medicine. The housing includes a mixing or aerosolizing chamber. A pressure switch is located in the housing for actuating the mixing process within the chamber. A lid is pivotally attached to the housing and is used to index or advance the cartridge ring to a next aperture for delivery of successive drug dosages. During inhalation, a pressure differential develops across the venturi air passageway and reaches a predetermined level, then the motor is turned on by the pressure switch.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,055,980 describes a dry powder inhaler comprising: a housing, a mixing chamber in the housing, an impeller within the space of the mixing chamber, a motor linked to the impeller, at least one inlet opening leading into the mixing chamber, and at least one outlet opening leading out of the mixing chamber. The device uses breath-actuation and is generally independent of patient coordination. A motor spins the impeller at high speed. A plunger introduces a dose of powdered medicine into the chamber so that all powder particles are available for intermixing disaggregation and comminution. The drug-laden air flows out of the chamber and into a mouthpiece. It provides a proper mixing of air and powdered drug particles for inhalation by a patient.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,209,538 describes an inhalation-activated dry powder inhaler, that has a primary inhalation passage extending through the housing, and a secondary inhalation passage disposed in communication with the primary inhalation passage and a source of medicament. As the user's inhalation reaches a defined rate, the flow inhibiting mechanism restricts flow through the primary inhalation passage and moves the blocking plate to enable airflow through the secondary passage. The medicament is provided through the secondary inhalation passage, thereby optimizing the delivery of medicament to the lungs.
Most of these dry powder inhalers are ideal for large amount medicament delivery (with 2-5 mg per dose). The formulation of the powder used is usually blended with large particle carriers. There are several problems related to delivery of small quantity of dry powder pharmaceuticals with these inhalers. First, these inhalers all apply an air entry passageway and an air exit passageway on the same side of blister or cartridge. The powder is extracted from its receptacle only by shear force. When the drug receptacle becomes too small drug powder is too cohesive, it becomes difficult to draw entire dry powder completely out from the receptacle and break up the particle aggregates. This will reduce the efficiency of the delivery. Secondly, these devices usually achieve delivery of fine drug particles by a two-step dispersion. It uses a chamber for receiving and maintaining the fluidized drug powder then deliver them to the user. This will cause some waste of expensive drug powder and decrease the accuracy of delivery due to the fine powder stuck on the surface of the chamber. Furthermore, some of the delivery devices are large or expensive, and inconvenient for changing for different medicaments and different dosage sizes.
There is therefore a need for an inhaler that is capable of accurately delivering small precise amounts of expensive powder drugs with minimal powder handling, in a compact and inexpensive instrument which does not require the need for excipients.


This invention is an improved digital data storage magnetic tape transport servo-control system comprising a tape supply reel and supply reel motor, a tension transducer, a head drum having at least one read/write head secured thereto and coupled to a head drum motor, a capstan and a capstan motor, a pinch roller, a take-up reel and a take-up reel motor. A processor provides programmable digital control signals to and responsive to signals from the supply reel, the supply reel motor, the tension transducer, the head drum, the head drum motor, the capstan, the capstan motor, the take-up reel, and the take-up reel motor. The processor controls tape tension in cooperation with the supply reel motor and the tension transducer, controls tape speed in cooperation with the capstan and the capstan motor, controls take-up reel torque in cooperation with the take-up reel and the take-up reel motor, and controls head drum speed in cooperation with the head drum and the head drum motor.

A magnetic tape storage systems is an efficient and inexpensive means for providing computer data storage functions such as disk back-up, archival storage, software distribution, data interchange, and real-time data recordation. Digital audio tape (DAT) provides flexible, high performance storage applicable to a wide variety of tasks. However, prior art DAT drives are primarily designed for audio systems and thus do not provide the required performance, reliability, or diagnostics necessary for computer data storage. Prior art DAT systems for computer storage typically use audio mechanisms and electronics with adapter chips to operate with the computer. Computer peripheral application of tape drives requires better data integrity and many more start/stop and high-speed search operations than audio tape drives, which were designed primarily for the continuous play of music or voice. Because of the more strenuous and more stringent requirements of computer data storage, such prior art systems do not provide the required performance and are not sufficiently reliable for such use.
A typical prior art digital audio tape (DAT) system has a read/write head coupled to a read/write amplifier and an interface unit communicating with a host unit, for example a computer. A tape transport control unit communicates with the head amplifier and the interface and with a digital capstan control unit having a power amplifier and a reel servo-control unit serving a supply reel and a take-up reel and their motors. A capstan and pinch roller is positioned between the read/write head and the take-up reel and controls tape speed over the head. Tape speed control is important for the generation of accurate track angles during writing. Controlled stopping is particularly important to avoid overshoot and tape creep. Typical DAT recording speeds of 8.15 mm/s require accelerations of 2 m/s.sup.2 exerting considerable stresses on the tape.
Video recorders and some audio recorders utilize a rotating head for read and write. A typical rotating head-helical scan head is embedded between stationary upper and lower mandrels with the tape helically wrapped around the mandrels. The tape moves at a lower angular velocity than the rotating head to produce helically-written data of very high spatial density because of close track spacing. Addressing the closely-spaced tracks then requires accurate control of the linear positions of the tape around the head unit. By pressurizing the mandrels the tape is hydrostatically supported over the head by an air film at higher tape speeds. Tape speeds may be as high as 40 m/s in rotating head-helical scan systems. At such high data densities and tape speeds, accurate sensing requires precise head and tape speeds control and tape tracking control.

Digital data storage magnetic tape system comprising a single chip processor to control a tape tension servo, and a head drum servo


A vehicle air conditioner control system has an air conditioning device has a compressor, a condenser, an expansion valve, and an evaporator, a compressor running rate control device, a deceleration fuel cutoff executing device, and a fuel supply recovery executing device that cancels cutoff of fuel supply and recovers fuel supply at a higher vehicle speed during vehicle deceleration fuel cutoff period with air-conditioner ON than during vehicle deceleration fuel cutoff period with air-conditioner OFF. The compressor running rate control device increases the compressor running rate for a predetermined period just before a fuel supply recovery time with air-condition ON during the deceleration fuel cutoff period more than during non-execution of the deceleration fuel cutoff, and subsequently decreases the compressor running rate at or just before the fuel supply recovery time with air-condition ON equal to or less than during non-practice of the deceleration fuel cutoff.

1. Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure relates to control a vehicle air-conditioner, particularly during vehicle deceleration fuel cutoff.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, there have been proposed and developed various fuel cutoff systems which are designed to reduce exhaust emissions and fuel consumption by cutting fuel supply to the engine cylinder or cylinders through the fuel cutoff control. The fuel cutoff control is frequently performed under certain required engine/vehicle operating conditions, such as during vehicle deceleration, coasting, or down-hill operations. Deceleration fuel cutoff is defined as the fuel cutoff control during deceleration of the vehicle.
On the other hand, many cars are equipped with automatic transmissions with lock-up torque converters which act to mechanically couple the engine crankshaft to the transmission output shaft. When a lock-up device incorporated in the lock-up torque converter assumes its converter state (corresponding to a lock-up clutch release position), the engine crankshaft and the transmission output shaft are coupled via fluid in the torque converter in normal operation. On the contrary, when the lock-up device assumes its locked-up state (corresponding to a lock-up clutch engagement position), the engine crankshaft and the transmission output shaft are directly coupled to each other by a mechanical connection (via engagement the lock-up clutch), thus disabling or locking up the torque converter. The converter state will be hereinafter referred to as "lock-up OFF state," while the locked-up state will be hereinafter referred to as "lock-up ON state."
The control technique of an air-conditioner compressor which is subject to running rate is described in Patent Document 1. The running rate of the compressor is increased from the rate of the lock-up OFF state when the lock-up ON state is starting. The increasing of the running rate is finished when a predetermined time Tup has passed from the start of lock-up ON state. The running rate is then decreased to the rate of the lock-up OFF state.
[Patent Document 1]
Japanese Patent No. 4399989


The present invention provides methods and systems for a biomaterial medical implant device for treating patients with HF and/or intractable dyrhythmia. It either is implanted inside the cardiac cavity(ies), ICI, or after their removal, TAH.

The currently available methods to treat heart failure are numerous. However they present less hope to survival and quality of life than expected. Among the newest tools in fighting heart failure there stands stem cell therapy. Stem Cell Therapy aims at the rejuvenation of the inactive weak cardiac muscle cells through the introduction of stem cells which are capable of homing, resynthesis of and replacing myocardial cells. Stem cell therapy has proved limited success with concerns about the safety and prognosis.
Another relatively recent method is cardiac resynchronisation therapy 'CRT'. This entails the introduction of a third lead in a position behind the left ventricle where it can be paced. Through this timed event, the intraventricular as well as the interventricular dyssynchrony may be corrected. This mode of treatment has proved effective in increasing the 6-min walk test and patient symptoms and signs. CRT still poses questionable results and benefits. Also choosing the candidate with potential future success has many limitations as well.
Cardiac transplantation is a more solid treatment option of adding somebody's heart to replace another heart, a human heart from a dead donor to a heart failure recipient. There are a wealth of difficulties to the donor and recipient. Difficulties to the donor include a rarity of donor's hearts which is <3000/year worldwide, heart preservation, transportation, laboratory tests, intrinsic heart disease, ABO blood type compatibility, Donor-Recipient size disparity, transmissible diseases, a 2-5 fold mortality risk to recipient with higher donor age, coronary artery disease, allograft rejection, allograft vasculopathy, and transplanted organ rejection (4%/year).
Difficulties to the recipient include immunosuppressive and cytotoxic medications that lead to malignancy and multi system organ failure, right ventricular (RV) failure, and absence of chronotropic response with the dennervated transplanted heart.
Most patients awaiting a heart transplant are awarded a pretransplant procedure; a ventricular assist device 'VAD'. They are either short-term, or long-term, i) Pulsatile; or ii) Non-Pulsatile.
They are temporarily placed and lasting in proper function from few months to a maximum of 3 years. Infection is common due to the extracorporeal nature of cable connections, drive lines, console-controllers, . . . etc. Some require adequate intrathoracic space to accommodate; (needs BSA>1.7 m2). Pulsatile devices need inflow and outflow valves. An inadequate cardiac output (COP), approximately 4-6 L/min, which does not permit physiological augmentation of COP with exercise. This method introduced abnormal metabolic and neurohumoral changes with the non-pulsatile devices due to the continuous nature of organ perfusion. All devices are pump-operated through inflow and outflow catheters. This pump operation will not solve any cardiac serious dysrhythmias; a common event in such terminal patients. Pump problems may include diaphragm rupture in 35% at 2 years.
Lastly, two common shared difficulties to both VAD's and heart transplantation have been clearer; both can help systolic dysfunction, but not diastolic dysfunction or diastolic heart failure. Both are helpless when cardiac dysrhythmias (Brady-, or Tachycardia) occur. They are unable to deliver DC shock, defibrillate or pace the slowing heart.
In developed countries, around 1-2% of adults suffer from heart failure, with an estimated annual mortality of approximately 21% in men and 17% in women. In the USA there are more than 5 million patients under treatment from congestive heart failure, with an estimated 550,000.00 new cases occur each year. Approximately one-half of the patients have moderately to severely reduced left ventricle (LV) systolic function. Approximately, these patients will need more than medical control to gain a better quality of life. The figure waiting for artificial hearts &/or cardiac transplantation is very huge.
The ICI-TAH embodiment targets patients with diseased heart muscle. Not only those with systolic failure who benefit from this embodiment, but patients with diastolic failure as well. Therefore, it targets the patient with right ventricular (RV) and/or LV Dilated-, Restrictive, and/or Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy as well as other patients with serious pathology (e.g. native or prosthetic valvar pathology, septal defects, aneurysmal chamber dilatation, CABG-difficult patients) associated with heart failure. Patients as well with primary cardiac tumors will benefit from the embodiment. Also patients with critical intractable supraventricular or ventricular dysrhythmia, originating from whatever chamber, whether isolated or in the course of cardiomyopathy, will be candidates for the embodiment. Finally, installation includes; a stepped approach. First through surgical implantation by means of open heart surgery, with a second, more advanced, step of percutaneous catheter implantation that follows, when "ICI" is planned. A step, through transapical installation is another option.

Intracardiac implant—total artificial heart

Abstract: The embodiment consists of 2 layers. Layer 1 (16) is immobile and adherent to the basement. Layer 2 (17) reflects from layer 1 and faces the cavity. Layer 2 moves inwards (systole) and backwards (diastole) by between-layers Concertina-like elastic fibers and/or a spring (22), on-surface diagonally crossing elastic fibers (27), or sheets (29&30) of electromagnetic coils (34), that are adherent to both layers from the inside. Layer 2 moves through the electromagnetic coil causing its attraction to layer 1, when polarities are different and repulsion when polarities are similar.


The invention relates to a composition comprising, related to a daily dose of the composition, as its active ingredients L-lysine ranging from ≧750 mg to −9 g, suitable as a nutritional supplement or prophylactic and/or therapeutic treatment in cases of herpes infections and/or inflammations of the oral and pharyngeal zones, particularly in acute therapy.

Herpes is an infectious disease caused by viruses. There are many different herpes viruses. The herpes viruses pathogenic to humans include the Herpes simplex viruses herpes virus type 1 (HSV-1) and herpes virus type 2 (HSV-2) which causes in particular genital herpes (Herpes genitalis). The herpes viruses pathogenic to humans furthermore include the varicella zoster virus which causes chickenpox or shingles (Herpes zoster), the Epstein-Barr virus which causes glandular fever, the cytomegalovirus which causes infection of the salivary gland and the human herpes virus type 6 (HHV-6) which causes three-day fever.
The Herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) in particular is widely encountered. It is estimated that about 90% of the population of Central Europe is infected with herpes virus type 1. In most cases, the primary infection occurs during the first years in someone's life. This infection is frequently latent; however, some children come down with herpetic gingivostomatitis (Gingivostomatitis herpetica). Since the viruses remain latent in the body, about 15% to 30% of those infected repeatedly suffer from eruptions of cold sores (Herpes labialis) in the later years of life. Triggers can be a cold and fever, physical exhaustion, stress, hormonal imbalances, sun or heat exposure and also feelings of disgust.
Currently, there are no known active compounds capable of killing herpes viruses in the body or capable of removing the viruses from the body. Customary methods for the treatment of cold sores comprise the application of lip creams comprising chemical active compounds which are supposed to inhibit the replication of the virus (virustatics), for example aciclovir. Creams or gels comprising zinc sulfate, which also has antiviral action, are likewise known. However, topical administration of zinc solutions may cause painful or irritating side-effects.
In the literature, there are furthermore references concerning the administration of vitamin C, zinc or the amino acid L-lysine as a preventative measure or when the first symptoms appear. Here, vitamin C acts by enhancing the defenses, whereas zinc stimulates the immune system. Since the herpes virus requires the amino acid L-arginine for replication, arginine-rich food should be avoided if possible, whereas more lysine-rich food should be consumed by virtue of its ability to inhibit arginine uptake. Although a lysine-rich and arginine-poor diet may represent a prophylactic measure to prevent a herpes outbreak, this is not suitable as a treatment. There is therefore a need for a composition which can provide an effective treatment for cold sores.

Composition containing lysine as a nutritional supplement or treatment in the case of herpes


A traction control system in vehicle comprises a detector for detecting a monitored value which changes according to a degree of a drive wheel slip; a condition determiner for determining whether or not the monitored value meets a control start condition and whether or not the monitored value meets a control termination condition; and a controller for executing traction control to reduce a driving power of the drive wheel during a period of time from when the condition determiner determines that the monitored value meets the control start condition until the condition determiner determines that the monitored value meets the control termination condition; the condition determiner being configured to set at least the control start condition variably based on a slip determination factor which changes according to a vehicle state and such that the control start condition changes more greatly according to the vehicle state than the control termination condition.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a traction control system built into a vehicle such as a motorcycle.
2. Description of the Related Art Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application Publication No. Hei. 7-103009 discloses a conventional traction control system in a vehicle. The conventional traction control system is configured to monitor a value indicating the degree to which a drive wheel slips. The degree to which the drive wheel slips tends to be high when a vehicle is driving on a road surface (hereinafter also referred to as a bad road surface) such as a rough road surface, or a slippery road surface which is wet due to rain or the like and has a low friction coefficient. It is expected that the monitored value increases as the degree to which the drive wheel slips increases. The traction control system determines whether or not the monitored value exceeds a threshold. When it is determined that the monitored value exceeds the threshold, the traction control system initiates traction control for reducing a driving power transmitted to the drive wheel to suppress a slip.
Conventionally, in some cases, the threshold is merely a predetermined value. In other cases, also, the threshold used to determine whether or not to initiate the traction control is the same as the threshold used to determine whether or not to terminate the traction control. Even in a case where the threshold used to determine whether or not to initiate the traction control and the threshold used to determine whether or not to terminate the traction control are set to different values, the two thresholds might merely have simple hysteresis. In principle, the traction control is used to suppress a slip. Therefore, during execution of the traction control, the monitored value is a suppressed value and the monitored value changes a little with time. For this reason, it is difficult to, using the above set values, correctly distinguish between a case where a slip is mitigated after the vehicle has exited a road of a bad road surface condition and a case where the vehicle is now driving on a bad road surface and a slip is suppressed effectively by the traction control. At a time point when the vehicle has exited the road of the bad road surface condition, the traction control should be terminated immediately. On the other hand, during driving on the bad road surface, the traction control should not be terminated. According to the conventional traction control system and technique, the traction control cannot be terminated desirably.

Traction control system in a vehicle, vehicle including traction control system, and traction control method


In order to provide a battery module control system able to reuse an arbitrary secondary battery module through a simple, inexpensive system, the present invention includes: a plurality of battery modules that are connected to each other in parallel; switch circuits that are provided on charge and discharge routes of a plurality of the battery modules; an average impedance value calculation section (control section) that calculates average impedance values of a plurality of the battery modules; a maximum allowable charge-and-discharge rate input section (input section) that inputs maximum allowable charge-and-discharge rates of a plurality of the battery modules; an allowable voltage difference calculation section (control section) that calculates allowable voltage differences of a plurality of the battery modules on the basis of the average impedance values calculated by the average impedance value calculation section and the maximum allowable charge-and-discharge rates input by the maximum allowable charge-and-discharge rate input section; a common voltage detection section (control section) that detects a voltage of a common charge and discharge route of a plurality of the battery modules; and a plurality of voltage detection sections (control section) that detect voltages of a plurality of the battery modules, wherein, when a difference between the voltage detected by the common voltage detection section and the voltage detected by the voltage detection section corresponding to a predetermined battery module is greater than an allowable voltage difference of the predetermined battery module, a switch circuit provided on a charge and discharge route of the predetermined battery module is so controlled as to be turned OFF.

The present invention relates to a battery module control system and a battery module control method which are used to control a battery module including one or more battery cells.
It is expected that, as awareness of environmental problems grows, vehicles driven by electric motors, such as electric vehicles (EV) and hybrid electric vehicles (HEV), systems that store electricity generated from sunlight, or the like will rapidly become popular. In such vehicles and electricity storage systems, lithium ion batteries, nickel-metal hydride batteries, lead batteries or any other secondary batteries are used. In the future, it is expected that large amounts of batteries used once in the vehicles or electricity storage systems will be collected. Various measures for effectively reusing the collected, used batteries are now under consideration.
By the way, as is commonly said, when a plurality of batteries connected are used, it is prohibited to use batteries that are different in degradation level, capacity and other characteristics in such a way that the batteries are connected in parallel. The reason is that, when the charge and discharge associated with a reverse current between batteries become large, the reverse current involves risks, such as heat generation. Accordingly, when batteries that are different in capacity characteristics are connected in parallel and used, safety needs to be guaranteed by means of a reverse current prevention function or the like. However, even when the reverse current prevention function is provided, large variations in capacity between batteries could lead to dependence on a battery having the worst degradation level (or a small capacity). Therefore, it tends to be impossible to extract the original capacity.
Depending on usage histories, the batteries are different in degradation level, capacity and other characteristics. Therefore, when a battery module is reused, it is necessary to somehow acquire data about the collected battery module. The methods to acquire the data have been so far proposed.
For example, what is disclosed in Patent Document 1 (JP-A-2007-141464) is a battery information management device, which includes a battery information storage section that stores, as battery information, at least electrical characteristic information of the battery information management device or usage history information and which is connected to a secondary battery module, with the battery information management device also including: an information processing section, which is so formed as to contain at least a CPU and a memory; an output section, which outputs an information processing result by the information processing section; and an interface section, which connects the secondary battery module to the information processing section. The information processing section uses the interface section to read the battery information, which is stored in the battery information storage section of the secondary battery module, and classifies the battery information according to grade on the basis of one or more threshold values that are separately defined in advance and of the battery information read in order to reuse the secondary battery module. The classified-by-grade information, which is obtained as a result of classifying according to grade, is output to the output section. The battery information management device also includes a battery information database, which accumulates the battery information read by the interface section in such a way that the battery information becomes associated with identification information of the secondary battery module that outputs the battery information.
According to what is disclosed in Patent Document 1, it is necessary to provide the secondary battery module with the battery information storage section, in which the battery information, such as electrical characteristic information of the battery information management device or usage history information, is stored, or to provide the device with a section that reads the battery information stored in the battery information storage section. Therefore, the problem is that the configuration required to reuse the secondary battery module becomes extremely complicated and expensive. Moreover, the reusable secondary battery module is provided with the battery information storage section that complies with the standards as described above. Therefore, the problem is that an arbitrary secondary battery module cannot be reused.

Battery module control system and battery module control method


A lubricating oil composition excellent in the wear resistance and a refrigerator oil composition excellent in the oxidation stability using the lubricating oil composition are provided by a lubricating oil composition containing a base oil (A) and a phosphine derivative (B) having one or more oxygen atom in a molecule.

In association with the increase in speed, the increase in pressure, and the reduction in size of industrial machines in recent years, hydraulic machines, compression machines, turbines, gear elements, and machine elements, such as bearings, are being operated under severer conditions, and a lubricating oil used for the machines is demanded to have such a lubrication capability that sufficiently secures the lifetime of the machine for a prolonged period of time even under the severe conditions.
For the purpose of the enhancement of the lubrication capability of the lubricating oil, various additives are blended with the lubricating oil. Among these, tricresyl phosphate (which may be hereinafter referred to as "TCP") has been used as an additive for enhancing the wear resistance.
For example, PTL 1 describes a reinforcing agent for a lubricating oil that is characterized by blending the prescribed amount of tricresyl phosphate as a phosphorus based extreme pressure agent with a base oil formed of a mineral oil, a synthetic oil, or a mixed oil thereof.

Lubricating oil composition and composition for refrigerator


Systems and methods are described for constructing predictive models, based on statistical machine learning, that can make forecasts about traffic flows and congestions, based on an abstraction of a traffic system into a set of random variables, including variables that represent the amount of time until there will be congestion at key troublespots and the time until congestions will resolve. Observational data includes traffic flows and dynamics, and other contextual data such as the time of day and day of week, holidays, school status, the timing and nature of major gatherings such as sporting events, weather reports, traffic incident reports, and construction and closure reports. The forecasting methods are used in alerting, the display graphical information about predictions about congestion on desktop on mobile devices, and in offline and real-time automated route recommendations and planning.

Electronic storage mechanisms have enabled accumulation of massive amounts of data. For instance, data that previously required volumes of books for recordation can now be stored electronically without expense of printing paper and with a fraction of space needed for storage of paper. In one particular example, deeds and mortgages that were previously recorded in paper volumes can now be stored electronically. Moreover, advances in sensors and other electronic mechanisms now allow massive amounts of data to be collected in real-time. For instance, GPS systems can determine location of an individual or entity by way of satellites and GPS receivers. Electronic storage devices connected thereto can then be employed to retain locations associated with such systems. Various other sensors and data collection devices can also be utilized for obtainment and storage of data.
Collected data relating to particular contexts and/or applications can be employed in connection with data trending and analysis, and predictions can be made as a function of received and analyzed data. Such prediction is, in fact, human nature, and individuals frequently generate such predictions. For instance, a person traveling between a place of employment and a place of residence can determine that during certain times of day within weekdays traffic conditions are subject to high levels of congestion. Thus, prior to leaving a place of work, an individual can predict when and where he will most likely to be slowed in traffic, and can further predict how long they will be subject to congestion. The individual's predictions can further be a function of other variables, such as weather, whether a day is a holiday, events that are geographically proximate, and the like. Thus, when an individual has access to contextual information and has access to (e.g., by way of memory) historical data, the individual can generate predictions.
Predictive models utilized on computer systems can often produce more accurate predictive results than a human, as computer systems may have access to a substantial amount of data. For instance, a computer application can have access to data that represents traffic patterns over twenty years, whereas an individual may have experienced traffic patterns for less than a year. These predictive models can be quite effective when generating predictions associated with common occurrences.
Predictive models, however, can fail when associated with events that are atypical or surprising. Reasons for failure can include lack of understanding of a situation, lack of contemplation of a situation, infrequency of occurrence of an event, and a variety of other factors. Alerting an individual of a surprising event, however, is more critical than alerting the individual of a typical event, because such individual may very well have predicted the typical event without aid of a predictive application. Developing a methodology for identifying events that one or more users would find surprising can be valuable as users do not need to be alerted about situations that they expect. A system could provide value to users by reasoning about when the information would surprise a user. Moreover, a system that could predict when a user would be surprised in the future would be valuable in giving forewarning to users about future states of the world, giving them time to take action such as finding a new alterative or developing a modified plan.

Traffic forecasting employing modeling and analysis of probabilistic interdependencies and contextual data


A method of preparing high refractive index nanoparticles includes adding a polymer stabilizer to a solvent, and forming high refractive index nanoparticles by adding high refractive index nanoparticle materials to the solvent and stirring the same. The high refractive index nanoparticle materials may have a refractive index equal to or greater than 1.8, and sizes of the high refractive index nanoparticles may be determined by adjusting a content of the polymer stabilizer to control an amount of the polymer stabilizer adsorbed to surfaces of the high refractive index nanoparticles.

1. Field
Example embodiments relate to methods of preparing high refractive index nanoparticles, nanoparticles prepared by the methods, and/or photonic crystal devices using the nanoparticles.
2. Description of the Related Art
High refractive index nanoparticles, which strongly interact with light, are important materials in the optical field. Accordingly, many attempts to use high refractive index nano particles, e.g., TiO2, CdS, SnO2, ZnO, ZrO2, and CdSe, in the optical field have recently been made.
From among high refractive index materials, Group II-VI or III-V compound semiconductors may control bandgaps by using a chemical method or a quantum confinement method, and thus are considered desirable optical materials. Although research on such materials has been actively conducted, existing materials are nanoparticles having a size equal to or less than 50 nm or particles having a size close to a micro size. Accordingly, there is a limitation in preparing nanoparticles having a uniform mesoscopic size distribution.
Because particles having a mesoscopic size may interact with light in a visible band, the particles having a mesoscopic size may be used in various fields including displays. For example, particles having a mesoscopic size may constitute photonic crystals by using self-assembly. Photonic crystals have a grid structure in which two or more materials having different refractive indices are regularly arranged in a two-dimensional (2D) or three-dimensional (3D) manner. Such photonic crystals having a grid structure have a photonic bandgap through which light having a specific wavelength may be blocked or passed due to a periodic distribution of refractive indices.

Method of preparing high refractive nanoparticles, nanoparticles prepared by the method, and photonic crystal device using the nanoparticles


An error correction algebraic decoder and an associated method correct a combination of a B-byte burst of errors and t-byte random errors in a failed sector, by iteratively adding and removing an erasure (N−B) times until the entire failed sector has been scanned, provided the following inequality is satisfied: (B+2t)≦(R−1), where N denotes the number of bytes, B denotes the length of the burst of errors, t denotes the total number of random errors, and R denotes the number of check bytes in the failed sector. This results in a corrected sector at a decoding latency that is a generally linear function of the number of the check bytes R, as follows: Decoding Latency=5R(N−B).

The use of cyclic error correcting codes in connection with the storage of data in storage devices is well established and is generally recognized as a reliability requirement for the storage system. Generally, the error correcting process involves the processing of syndrome bytes to determine the location and value of each error. Non-zero syndrome bytes result from the exclusive-ORing of error characters that are generated when data is read from the storage medium.
The number of error correction code (ECC) check characters employed depends on the desired power of the code. As an example, in many present day ECC systems used in connection with the storage of 8-bit bytes in a storage device, two check bytes are used for each error to be corrected in a codeword having a length of at most 255 byte positions. Thus, for example, six check bytes are required to correct up to three errors in a block of data having 249 data bytes and six check bytes. Six distinctive syndrome bytes are therefore generated in such a system. If there are no errors in the data word comprising the 255 bytes read from the storage device, then the six syndrome bytes are the all zero pattern. Under such a condition, no syndrome processing is required and the data word may be sent to the central processing unit. However, if one or more of the syndrome bytes are non-zero, then syndrome processing involves the process of identifying the location of the bytes in error and further identifying the error pattern for each error location.
The underlying mathematical concepts and operations involved in normal syndrome processing operations have been described in various publications. These operations and mathematical explanations generally involve first identifying the location of the errors by use of what has been referred to as the "error locator polynomial". The overall objective of the mathematics involved employing the error locator polynomial is to define the locations of the bytes in error by using only the syndrome bytes that are generated in the system.
The error locator polynomial has been conventionally employed as the start of the mathematical analysis to express error locations in terms of syndromes, so that binary logic may be employed to decode the syndrome bytes into first identifying the locations in error, in order to enable the associated hardware to identify the error patterns in each location. Moreover, error locations in an on-the-fly ECC used in storage or communication systems are calculated as roots of the error locator polynomial.
A specific concern facing the data storage industry is the combination of poor read/write conditions and low signal-to-noise ratio data detection that are likely to cause read hard errors. A read hard error is comprised of an arbitrary mixture of B-byte burst errors and t-byte random errors in data sectors stored on a disk or data storage medium.
Typically, byte-alphabet, Reed-Solomon codes are used to format the stored sector data bytes into codewords, protected by redundant check bytes and used to locate and correct the byte errors in the codewords. Long codewords are more efficient for data protection against long bursts of errors as the redundant check byte overhead is averaged over a long data block. However, in data storage devices, long codewords cannot be used, unless a read-modify-write process is used because the logical unit data sector is 512 bytes long and the computer operating system assumes a 512-byte long sector logical unit. Each read-modify-write process causes a loss of a revolution of the data storage medium. Losing revolutions of the data storage medium lowers the input/output (I/O) command throughput. Therefore, frequent usage of the read-modify-write process becomes prohibitive.
Rather than uniformly adding check bytes to short codewords to correct more random errors in the short codewords, a method has been proposed for generating check bytes that are not rigidly attached to a short codeword but are shared by several short codewords in an integrated sector Reed-Solomon Error Correction Coding (ECC) format.
The combination of low signal to noise ratio and poor read/write conditions may result in both random errors as well as long bursts of byte errors ("mixed error mode") becoming more and more likely at high areal densities and low flying heights, which is the trend in HDD industry. The occurrence of such mixed error mode combinations of random as well as burst errors is likely to cause the 512-byte sector interleaved on-the-fly ECC to fail, resulting in a more frequent use of a data recovery procedure that involves rereads, moving the head, etc.
These data recovery procedures result in the loss of disk revolutions, which, in turn, causes a lower input/output throughput. This performance loss is not acceptable in many applications such as audio-visual (AV) data transfer, for example, which will not tolerate frequent interruptions of video data streams. On the other hand, uniform protection of all single sectors against both random as well as burst errors, at the 512-byte logical unit sector format, would result in excessive and unacceptable check byte overheads. Such check byte overheads also increase the error rate due to the increase in linear density of the data.
Furthermore, the decoding latency, is typically a function of the square of the number of the check bytes (R2), which could further decrease the throughput performance of the storage system.
Therefore, it would be desirable to have an algebraic decoder and associated method for correcting an arbitrary mixture of burst errors and random errors with an improved decoding latency. The decoder is not limited to a specific number of random errors, such as 1 or 2 random errors. Further, the decoding latency should be a linear function of the overhead as compared to a conventional quadratic latency function (e.g., in the case of 2 random errors).

Algebraic decoder and method for correcting an arbitrary mixture of burst and random errors

International Business Machines Corporation


An access door has a rectangular outer frame adapted to be set in a wall and having two longitudinal sides and two transverse sides defining four corners and a rectangular inner frame congruent to the outer frame, having longitudinal and transverse sides and four corners, and dimensioned to fit within the outer frame. Hinges at corners at ends of one of the longitudinal sides hold the inner frame in the outer frame and allow pivoting of the inner frame in the outer frame generally about the one longitudinal side. Two transversely effective spring latches are provided at the other longitudinal side near ends thereof between the inner and outer frames, and two longitudinally effective spring latches are provided at the transverse sides near the other longitudinal side between the inner and outer frames.

In construction it is frequently necessary to provide occasional access to valves, switches, punch-down blocks, and the like that are behind the wall or ceiling. Such a door typically comprises an outer frame that is permanently set in the wall and an inner frame and panel that are secured to the outer frame by hinges along one edge and a releasable latch along an opposite edge. The access door need not be complex, as it is used infrequently, but must be unobtrusive when installed, that is typically be flush so it can be finished like the wall, and centered in its opening so it presents a nice appearance.
Thus a standard access door comprises as described in German patent 37 36 060 or EP 0,567,731 a pair of annular L-section frames, one within the other. The outer wall frame is typically set permanently in the wall, and the inner panel frame is adapted to hold a wall or ceiling panel and is releasably retained in the wall frame by some sort of hinge/latch assembly. In a typical installation the panel frame is adapted to hold one or two thicknesses of standard gypsum board, with in some instances a thin steel plate on the back face of the inset panel. The frames are formed with centering bumps that keep the inner frame at a uniform spacing withing the outer frame.


A collision avoidance system for use in a vehicle. The system facilitates the avoidance of other vehicles and other potential hazards or obstacles. A sensor subsystem is used to capture sensor data relating to one or more areas outside the vehicle. Sensor data is sent from the sensor subsystem to a threat assessment subsystem for generating a threat assessment from the sensor data. The threat assessment is then sent to a feedback subsystem so that if appropriate, a response is generated by the system. The response can take the form of a visual, audio, and/or haptic warning. The response can also take the form of changes with respect to the vehicle itself, such as an automatic reduction in speed. The system can incorporate user-based attributes, vehicle-based attributes, and environment-based attributes in evaluating potential threats and contemplating system responses to those threats. A wide variety of different heuristics can be applied by the system. The system can be configured to minimize nuisance alarms and accommodate distinctions between users based on user preferences, user history, and other factors.

This invention relates generally to collision avoidance systems for use in vehicles. More specifically, the invention relates to collision avoidance systems that utilize external vehicle sensors to capture data that is analyzed in order to identify potential collisions in sufficient time to facilitate avoidance of the potential collision.
People are more mobile than ever before. The number of cars and trucks (collectively "automobiles") on the road appear to increase with each passing day. Moreover, the ongoing transportation explosion is not limited automobiles. A wide variety of different vehicles such as automobiles, motorcycles, satellites, planes, trains, boats, forklifts, mobile industrial and construction equipment, and other transportation devices (collectively "vehicles") are used to move people and cargo from place to place. While there are many advantages to our increasingly mobile society, there are also costs associated with the ability to move. Accidents are one such cost. It would be desirable to reduce the number of accidents and/or severity of such accidents through the use of automated systems configured to identify potential hazards so that potential collisions could be avoided or mitigated. However, collision avoidance systems in the existing art suffer from several material limitations.
The diversity of human users presents many difficulties to the one-size-fits-all collision avoidance systems of the existing art. Every user of a vehicle is unique in one or more respects. People have different: braking preferences, reaction times, levels of alertness, levels of experience with the particular vehicle, vehicle use histories, risk tolerances, and a litany of other distinguishing attributes. It would be desirable for a collision avoidance system to incorporate user-based attributes in determining how the collision avoidance system reacts to a particular situation outside of the vehicle.
Similarly, attributes of the vehicle itself (e.g. vehicle-based attributes) can also present significant difficulties to a one-size-fits-all collision avoidance system. A large truck will require more time to stop than a small compact car. A large boat or train will require a substantially greater period of time than the large truck. It would be desirable for a collision avoidance system to incorporate vehicle-based attributes in determining how the collision avoidance system reacts to a particular situation while remaining a broad-based system than can be incorporated into a wide variety of objects.
User acceptance of collision avoidance systems provide a significant obstacle to the effectiveness of such systems. Warnings to users are only useful if users listen to the warnings. A system that generates an unacceptable rate of false alarms or nuisance alarms is not likely to be desired by consumers, or incorporated into the products of manufacturers. Thus, it would be desirable that concerns regarding the adverse effects of nuisance alarms and/or false alarms be effectively incorporated into the decision as to whether the system should identify a particular situation as a cause for concern. It would be desirable for a collision avoidance system to anticipate the reality that a user may already have initiated corrective action by the time that a system detects the potential threat. It would also be desirable for heuristics to be developed that effectively distinguish between a nuisance alarm and an alarm that would be valued by the user.


A new approach is proposed that contemplates systems and methods to support automatic timing adjustment of a plurality of paths carrying metadata of incoming data packets in a network switch to meet their respective timing constraints. First, the paths for transmitting different pieces of metadata of incoming packets are identified in the network switch. Once the metadata paths are identified, the proposed approach identifies the timing constraints that the metadata paths need to satisfy in order for the network switch to function properly. The proposed approach then calculates the current delays of the metadata paths and determines optimal timing values of each of the metadata paths in order to meet the timing constraints. The optimal timing values of the metadata paths are then compared to the current delays of the metadata paths to identify the paths which current delay values need to be adjusted. These identified metadata paths are then adjusted accordingly to meet the timing constraints at the minimum cost in terms of additional areas taken by devices and interconnect wires need to be included in the layout of the network switch.

Network switches/switching units are at the core of any communication network. A network switch typically has one or more input ports and one or more output ports, wherein data/communication packets are received at the input ports, processed by the network switch through multiple packet processing components and stages in the network switch, and routed by the network switch to other network devices from the output ports according to control logic of the network switch.
When a data packet is routed through the network switch, a copy of the data encapsulated in the packet (packet data) can be temporarily maintained in a memory/buffer of the network switch. Various components of the network switch can access and process the copy of the packet data in the buffer via a buffer manager without having to maintain multiple identical copies of the data by themselves. During their operations, the various components of the network switch may each perform a plurality of operations on the data of the packet, and may each generate one or more pieces of metadata associated with the packet data. Here, the metadata of the packet is information that is of interest to the network switch and can be utilized by the components of the network switch to process the data of the packet. For non-limiting examples, various pieces of metadata of a packet may include length and/or buffering location(s) of the packet, timing constraints on the packet, destination of the packet, reference count to the copy of the data of the packet in the buffer, number of copies of the packet that need to be created or deleted, etc.
During operation of the network switch, various pieces of metadata of the packet are routed along different (metadata) paths among the various components of the network switch, wherein each path includes one or more cells/components and a plurality of segments of interconnect wires/bus connecting these cells/components. Transmitting the pieces of metadata over the metadata path will encounter timing delay, which includes the internal delay of the cells/components on the metadata path and the interconnect delay over the interconnect wires of the segments of the path. For proper operation of the network switch, the various pieces of metadata may be timing correlated or timing dependent on each other. For a non-limiting example, a first piece of metadata of a packet that includes instructions to increase the reference count to the data of the packet must arrive at a component (e.g., buffer manager) before a second piece of metadata that includes instructions to decrease the reference count to the data of the same packet in order to avoid the so called race condition/problem, where copy of the packet data is deleted from the buffer prematurely because reference count is reduced to zero.
It is thus desirable to be able to automatically determine the timing constraints imposed by the metadata of a packet on the network switch and to adjust the metadata paths of a network switch to meet such timing constraints.
The foregoing examples of the related art and limitations related therewith are intended to be illustrative and not exclusive. Other limitations of the related art will become apparent upon a reading of the specification and a study of the drawings.

Systems and methods for timing adjustment of metadata paths in a network switch under timing constraints


A method and system for managing a computer user, comprising initiating a user session for the computer user based on user data stored in one partition on a removable computer readable medium. The user data is associated with a user ID, and the user ID is stored on a second partition of the removable computer readable medium. The user ID is used to identify the user data to the computer user. The computer user is authenticated as being associated with the user data based in part on the user ID. Also described is an article of manufacture for creating a partition on a removable computer readable medium for storing user data and associating it with a second partition storing an associated user ID on the removable computer readable medium.

Usability of personal computers is facilitated by the operating system that provides an interface between the user and the computer's hardware and software functions. One feature common to most modem operating systems is the concept of user accounts, which provides a mechanism for the operating system to manage multiple individuals or users who use a single computer. User accounts enhance usability by enabling the operating system to compartmentalize data among the individuals sharing a computer and to maintain customized settings for each of them. In an alternative use, an individual may have more than one user account on a single computer, in order to compartmentalize the different modes in which he or she uses the computer. For example, an individual may maintain one user account for personal use, and another user account for professional use. The term 'user' will be used in this description to denote a distinct user—i.e. an individual using a particular user account.
User accounts can be described as "native" to a particular computer. A user account is typically created on a computer when a particular user makes his or her first use of the computer. After the creation of the user account, the account exists on the computer as a means for that user to use the computer. All data and settings that the user creates or modifies are associated with that user account, and are stored on that computer, to which the account is native. The data and settings associated with the user account are typically not usable on other computers to which the account is not native. Some systems have centrally managed accounts, which are not native to a specific computer, but store and manage user accounts in a central network location. Such central account management systems typically require a backend server managed by an IT (information technology) department.
Two key concepts within the framework of user accounts are persistence and user sessions. Persistence involves presenting the computer to each user in the same state that the user left it the last time he or she used it, regardless of whether other users used it in the intervening period. The user state can include, but is not limited to, internet bookmarks, internet browsing history, email account settings, email contacts, desktop and graphical user interface (GUI) appearance, recently opened files, and contents of personal directories (such as the home directory in the LINUX® operating system, or the 'Documents and Settings\$USERNAME' directory in the MICROSOFT WINDOWS® operating system). All trademarks used herein are intended to identify a source of a product or goods; all trademarks are the properties of their respective owners. Persistence is enabled by the user session, which is a period of time during which the computer is used by a single user.
A user session is started when a user is granted access to a computer. The user commences the user session by "logging in," selecting his or her account from a list of accounts existing as native to the computer, or available from a central account manager. Alternatively, a user may create a new account if he or she is using the computer for the first time as a particular user. Once the user session has commenced, the user may use the computer—creating, modifying, and deleting files, or customizing settings such as appearance, look, and feel. When the user is done, he or she ends the session by "logging-out."
During a user session, a user is typically only allowed to use or modify files associated with his or her user account. Files associated with other user accounts are generally hidden. Similarly, during a user session, a user sees the computer in the same state as it existed when the user terminated his or her most recent user session. The user state is maintained by the operating system such that it is restored at the start of the user session. Thus, the user-account/user-session framework allows each user to enjoy a personalized view of the computer that persists across sessions, uncluttered by files belonging to other users. The user-account/user-session framework further provides for privacy and security of data by hiding files belonging to one user from other users.
Unfortunately, the information associated with a user account is typically confined to the computer on which it is native, on which it was originally created. In the case of centrally managed accounts, user account information is typically confined to the computers that are part of the IT system. A user who wishes to use a computer other than the one which he or she normally uses cannot create a user session associated with his or her usual user account on that machine. The only option typically available to such a user is to log in on the "Guest" user account. While this solution allows the user to use the host computer, it does not provide him or her with any of the state or data available to the user on his or her usual computer. A further drawback is privacy—information related to the tasks performed on the guest user account will remain on the host computer, which can be especially undesirable in situations where a user wishes to perform tasks related to his or her personal affairs on a computer owned by the user's employer.
If a user knows exactly what data he or she may need to use on a host computer, he or she can store that data on a portable media device (such as a USB drive, or "thumb-drive") as a work-around, using the portable media device on the guest user account. The thumb-drive-plus-guest-account work-around is by no means ideal, as it requires foreknowledge of exactly which files will be needed, and does not save customized preferences or solve the privacy problem outline above.
Another work-around involves carrying a full operating system installation on a portable media device, and booting the host computer into that installation. The portable OS installation solution presents problems stemming from the data space it requires, as well as the inconvenience of requiring a full reboot to start and end the session. Furthermore, not all systems support booting from a portable media device.


A sheet depositing device for a sheet processing apparatus, includes a feeding section for sequentially feeding sheets or sets of sheets from the sheet processing apparatus, at least one sheet stacking element movable along a guide, for facilitating depositing the sheets or sets of sheets fed by the feeding section, and a sensor arrangement for detecting the position of a sheet stacking element along the guide. The sensor arrangement includes a stationary linear array of active elements and a passive element moving in unison with the sheet stacking element. The active and passive elements are of a kind that interact through the use of electric or magnetic fields. Examples of such sensors are an array of conductive fields arranged in parallel to a conductive strip or a second array of conductive fields, and a conductive plate connected to a capacitance meter; and an array of Hall-effect sensors and a magnet.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sheet depositing device for a sheet processing apparatus, comprising a feeding section for sequentially feeding sheets or sets of sheets from the sheet processing apparatus, at least one sheet stacking element movable along a guide, for facilitating the deposition of the sheets or sets of sheets fed by the feeding section in the sheet depositing device, and a sensor arrangement for detecting the position of a sheet stacking element along the guide, wherein the sensor arrangement includes a stationary linear array of active elements and a passive element moving in unison with the sheet stacking element.
2. Discussion of Background Art
An array of active sensors for determining a sheet stacking tray is known from U.S. Pat. No. 6,318,718 B1. This document is directed to a printer having a copy stacking tray that can be lowered to accommodate more sheets, and at the same time keeping the upper end of the sheet stack close to the sheet ejecting port of the print engine. Since the load of sheets on the tray increases with the tray position, the motor that moves the tray is provided with a gear box. A number of sensors are positioned along the path of the tray. When the tray passes one of the sensors, the gear ratio is adjusted for that position. However, the sensors are placed relatively far apart so that the arrangement is thus not suitable for a continuous tray position determination. No information as to the kind of sensors used is given.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US 2001/054791 A1 is directed to a printer in which the height of a sheet stack on a movable tray is determined by lowering a flat element onto the stack. In one embodiment, the exact position of the flat element is determined using a row of optical sensors.
Optical sensors have the advantage that they need no physical contact with the object they sense. However, a disadvantage of optical sensors is that they have an on/off behaviour, such that the resolution of the position determination is equal to the pitch of the optical sensors. If a high resolution is required, then many optical sensors must be mounted per mm, leading to high cost. Further, optical sensors are quite sensitive to dust pollution. In a sheet depositing device, dust, in the form of paper fibres, is omnipresent. Thus, sensor errors or failure are quite common when the optical sensors are used, the more so when small optical sensors are used to give a high resolution.


In many telecommunication systems, message signals which include a predefined sample bit sequence (training sequence) are transmitted, to improve the signal processing in the receiver, particularly the equalization. For this purpose, on the basis of the sample bit sequence, the channel pulse response is estimated within an iterative method. Extending the sample bit sequence by those bits which result from the reconstruction of the transmitted signal is known. It is here proposed that the equalization stage is synchronized to the received signal, by using at least the second channel pulse response which is estimated using the extended sample bit sequence. For this purpose, the receiver includes suitable synchronization means. In this way, it is achieved that the equalization is precisely adapted to the temporal course of the channel pulse response, so that the equalization of the received signal can be significantly improved. In tests, improvements to the signal-to-noise ratio of about 0.5 dB were achieved. Preferably, for the iterative channel estimate, the extended sample bit sequence is divided into two or more parts in the case of rapid channel changes such as can occur in mobile communication systems.

The invention is based on a priority application EP 01 440 265.5 which is hereby incorporated by reference.
The invention concerns a method of equalizing a received signal, which is derived from a transmitted signal which is transmitted encoded via a transmission channel, and which includes a predefined sample bit sequence according to the pre-characterizing clause of claim 1.
The invention also concerns a receiver, which includes an equalization stage, and a receiving station which is equipped with it according to one of the accompanying claims.
In many telecommunication systems, message signals which include a predefined sample bit sequence are transmitted and received. There are both wire-connected and wireless telecommunication systems such as the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), in which such message signals are transmitted. Unlike the so-called "payload" part of the message signal, the sample bit sequences do not carry useful data, but signaling data which is used to improve the signal processing in the receiver and also to identify the message packets. These sample bit sequences are often called "training sequences". If they are included at the start or middle of the message signal, they are also often called briefly "preamble" or "midamble".
In the published patent application U.S. Pat. No. 2001/0004390 A1, a receiver for TDMA message signals, particularly TDMA radio signals, is described. This includes an equalizer in which iterative channel estimation is carried out (see, for instance, page 1, first three paragraphs). First, using the predefined sample bit sequence ("training sequence"), a first channel estimate of the transmission channel is carried out, and a first estimated channel pulse response is determined (see page 1, Section 0010 "generating an initial estimate of the pulse response of the radio channel"). Then, using the first estimated channel estimate, the received signal is equalized in an equalization stage of the receiver (see page 1, Section 0011). A second channel estimate is also made (see page 1, Section 0015 "generating an updated estimate"), so-called "feedback information" being used. The method is described there in more detail on the basis of FIG. 2, on page 3, Section 0038 ff, particularly Section 0041. According to that, the "feedback information" corresponds to an extended sample bit sequence ("sample sequence with more known symbols"), which includes bits of the predefined sample bit sequence ("training sequence") as well as bits of a signal which is fed back through blocks "206" and "207", these bits being adapted to the values of the original transmitted signal (see Section 0040 "are compatible with the original sample vector y"). This means that a reconstructed transmitted signal is formed by blocks "206" and "207" using the equalized received signal, and then, using an extended sample bit sequence, at least one second channel estimate ("updated channel estimate") of the transmission channel is carried out and at least one second estimated channel pulse response is determined. This known iterative method improves the channel estimate directly by using an extended sample bit sequence, but the equalization itself is only improved indirectly, to the extent of the quality of the calculated channel pulse response.

Method of equalizing a received signal, receiver and receiving station for it


A storage system is configured to comprise a processor in operable communication with a storage device and a metadata journal comprising metadata configured to store information associated with a change to be made to information stored on the storage device. While the storage system is booted up and responsive to I/O requests from a host, a scan is performed of a first portion of metadata that is loaded into storage system memory during the bootup, to check for existence of a metadata inconsistency condition comprising at least one of: (a) dirty tree (DT) entries in the metadata associated with an invalid logical unit (LU) index; (b) hash tree (HT) entries in the metadata which do not have corresponding DT bits; and (c) DT bits set without having a corresponding HT entry. Based on the results of the first scan, a determination is made about whether a first metadata inconsistency condition exists.

Computer data is vital to today's organizations, and content addressable storage systems (such as DELL EMC XTREMIO)(hereinafter "XtremIO") can support a rich set of advanced data services such as single data instance, compression, snapshots, etc., by decoupling storage access, logical volume address space, and physical on-disk location of data. In systems such as this, volume and physical layout metadata can offer tremendous flexibility in decoupling and virtualization. Logical volume metadata used with these systems can provide flexible mapping from logical address to data content references, also known as a hash handle. The logical volume metadata also can make snapshot and dingle instance storage operations highly efficient.
In network environments where high-availability is a necessity, system administrators am constantly faced with the challenges of preserving data integrity and ensuring availability of critical system components, such as data systems and file systems. A significant part of protection of computer data against disasters is focused on data protection and on providing ways for computer systems to recover from disasters and other disruptions. Storage systems sometimes experience failures. For example, a storage device, such as a disk drive, may malfunction making the data stored therein inaccessible (at least temporarily). In addition, data and/or metadata stored on a storage system, or used by a storage system, may become corrupted. To protect against data loss as result of data and/or metadata corruption, file system corruption, and/or hardware failure, storage systems frequently use one or more protection strategies, such as mirroring and use of RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks), by taking systems offline to run diagnostic tools, perform manual corrections, etc. These solutions do not always detect all issues and can be limiting because they limit access to the computer system. In addition, these solutions do not always detect corruption issues until an application or other entity interacting with the storage system already has had issues with data corruption.

Online address to hash (A2H) metadata scanner


A method and mechanism for managing a time-indexed block map in a file system configured to store multiple versions of file data. A file system includes inodes or other structures corresponding to files in the system. Responsive to creating a file, one or more blocks are allocated for use in storing the file data. A block map is maintained for the file and is updated to include an identification of the blocks storing the file data and a timestamp corresponding to the stored data. In response to creating a file, data corresponding block map is maintained. In addition, a new entry is created in the block map which identifies the newly allocated blocks. Further, an entry of the block map is updated to (i) identify the particular blocks to which the write was directed and (ii) include a timestamp corresponding to the time of the write.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to computing systems and, more particularly, to file systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
As is well known, file system backups in computing systems may take a considerable amount of time and storage space. In many file systems, a significant portion of the data is not changed after its creation or after an initial period of access. Generally speaking, the conventional approach to data backup includes periodically performing a full backup of everything in the file system, for example once a week or once a month, and performing incremental backups between full backups, for example every day. Typically, this conventional approach makes a copy of all of the data in the file system, even though a large percentage of that data may not have changed since the previous full backup. In order to perform a restore from a previous backup, the most current full backup is typically restored, and then any changed data since the full backup is restored from incremental backups performed subsequent to the current full backup.
While a variety of backup and restore approaches similar to that above are available, such approaches may not meet the needs of a particular enterprise. Given that data may only be backed up on a periodic basis, numerous versions of a given file may have come and gone between backups and may not be recoverable. In addition, performing a conventional restore operation tends to be very time consuming and often results in recovery of far more data than is requested. Consequently, in recent years, alternative approaches to data protection have arisen. In particular, approaches sometimes referred to as "Continuous Data Protection" (CDP), or "continuous backup", have arisen to meet the needs of enterprises. In addition, versioning file systems have been proposed and developed to address some of the above described concerns.
In contrast to conventional approaches to backup and restore, continuous data protection may typically involve the use of additional hard drive storage to mirror main storage and also keep an up to date record of changes to the data storage in a continuous, and time based, manner. Should data corruption occur, a state of the data immediately prior to the corruption may be identified and used to restore the data. As the approach is generally hard drive based, restoration may be achieved in a relatively quick manner as compared to restoration from tape. In addition, as changes to data are monitored and recorded in a generally real-time manner, all changes or versions a given file may be recoverable. Accordingly, continuous data protection approaches may address some of the perceived problems with conventional backup and restore approaches. It is noted that CDP is typically used to enhance the data protection abilities of a given enterprise, rather than replace traditional backup and restore operations. Consequently, periodic backups of a more conventional type may continue to be performed.
On the other hand, versioning file systems are generally configured to retain earlier versions of files within the file system. By maintaining earlier versions of files, it may be possible to recover data from a previous known good state in the event, of data corruption. As may be appreciated, the granularity of prior versions retained, and the length of time prior versions are retained, may have a significant impact on the amount of data which must be maintained. Consequently, a variety of approaches exist for determining which versions to retain, and how existing data may be pruned to reduce the amount of data maintained.
As may be appreciated, file systems and the amount of data being backup up or otherwise protected may be very large. Consequently, catalogs, indices, and other metadata associated with such data can also be very large. For example, catalogs for some large file systems may exceed 500 GB. For an enterprise utilizing the enhanced capabilities of continuous data protection, or a versioning file system, there may exist certain expectations. One of the advantages of such data protection schemes is the rapidity with which a restore operation may be performed. As the amount of metadata can be very large, and can include very large numbers of objects or entities (e.g., some identifiable object for every change that occurs with respect to the data being protected), management of the metadata itself is an important factor in overall system performance. In addition, the particular approach used for managing the metadata may also impact how much space is required for the metadata.
Accordingly, an effective method and mechanism for retaining earlier versions of data in a file system is desired.


A method is provided for provisioning time-varying traffic demands in an optical transport software-defined network. The method includes pre-provisioning an amount of bandwidth for best effort traffic. The method further includes iteratively applying, using a processor, an iterative simulated annealing-based traffic provisioning procedure to determine candidate bandwidths for the best effort traffic in a set of iterations. The method also includes selecting a particular candidate bandwidth that has a corresponding blocking value lower than a given blocking requirement β and that requires a minimum amount of spectrum as compared to other candidate bandwidths. The iteratively applying step includes varying the amount of bandwidth for best effort traffic in each iteration to determine the candidate bandwidths. The iteratively applying step further includes varying an amount of shared bandwidth between neighboring channels, out of the amount of bandwidth for best effort traffic, in each iteration, to further determine the candidate bandwidths.

Technical Field
The present invention relates to signal processing, and more particularly to provisioning time-varying traffic in software-defined flexible grid transport networks.
Description of the Related Art
While designing a flexible grid network for a time-varying traffic demands, an open challenge is how to provision these demands using adaptive optical channels, such that the maximum required spectrum to support the given demands is minimized for the given blocking probability of incremental traffic. The problem is referred to as the time-varying traffic provisioning problem.

Provisioning time-varying traffic in software-defined flexible grid transport networks


An apparatus includes an active vibration isolation system that includes a vibration isolator, a dual fluid pump in fluid communication with the vibration isolator and a hydraulic system, wherein the dual fluid pump is configured to segregate a tuning fluid from a hydraulic fluid and an electric-hydraulic servo valve in fluid communication with the dual fluid pump.

The rotor system of an aircraft, such as a helicopter or tiltrotor aircraft, can act as a source of vibration during operation of the aircraft. The aircraft can include a vibration isolation or suppression system to attenuate the vibration as it is transmitted from the rotor system to the airframe. Isolating the vibration as it is transmitted to the airframe can serve to mitigate material fatigue, flight control problems, or other issues that can arise from excessive levels of vibration within the airframe. The amount of attenuation or isolation provided by a passive vibration isolation system can be reduced when acted upon by a vibration of a frequency outside of a designed or tuned frequency range of the passive isolation system.


A nuclear reactor seismic isolation assembly includes an enclosure that defines a volume; a plastically-deformable member mounted, at least in part, within the volume; and a stretching member moveable within the enclosure to plastically-deform the plastically-deformable member in response to a dynamic force exerted on the enclosure.

Seismic isolation may be utilized to control or reduce the response of a component or structure to vertical and horizontal ground-input motions or accelerations. Seismic isolation may accomplish this by decoupling the motion of the component/structure from the driving motion of the substructure. In some instances, hardware (e.g., springs) may be positioned between the substructure and superstructure. Use of such hardware may minimize the dynamic response of the structure by increasing the fundamental period of vibration for the component or structure, resulting in lower in-structure accelerations and forces. To further reduce spectral response amplitudes (e.g., deflections, forces, etc.), other mechanisms may be employed that effectively reduce the peak amplitude to manageable levels.

Managing dynamic forces on a nuclear reactor system