A biopsy device includes an elongate needle, a proximal portion, a cutter, and a vacuum conduit. The elongate needle defines an internal passage and includes a distal end and a first plurality of openings along an exterior surface of the elongate needle in communication with the internal passage. The first plurality of openings are sized to admit fluid and to resist the prolapse of tissue. The proximal portion is attached to the elongate needle and is positionable to insert the elongate needle into tissue. The cutter is reciprocally received by the elongate needle to sever a tissue sample received in the elongate needle. The cutter includes a cutter tube with a second plurality of openings in communication with the internal passage of the elongate needle. The vacuum conduit is attached to the proximal portion in communication with the internal passage and is coupled to a vacuum source.

When a suspicious tissue mass is discovered in a patient's breast through examination, ultrasound, MRI, X-ray imaging or the like, it is often necessary to perform a biopsy procedure to remove one or more samples of that tissue in order to determine whether the mass contains cancerous cells. A biopsy may be performed using an open or percutaneous method.
An open biopsy is performed by making a large incision in the breast and removing either the entire mass, called an excisional biopsy, or a substantial portion of it, known as an incisional biopsy. An open biopsy is a surgical procedure that is usually done as an outpatient procedure in a hospital or a surgical center, involving both high cost and a high level of trauma to the patient. Open biopsy carries a relatively higher risk of infection and bleeding than does percutaneous biopsy, and the disfigurement that sometimes results from an open biopsy may make it difficult to read future mammograms. Further, the aesthetic considerations of the patient make open biopsy even less appealing due to the risk of disfigurement. Given that a high percentage of biopsies show that the suspicious tissue mass is not cancerous, the downsides of the open biopsy procedure render this method inappropriate in many cases.
Percutaneous biopsy, to the contrary, is much less invasive than open biopsy. Percutaneous biopsy may be performed using fine needle aspiration (FNA) or core needle biopsy. In FNA, a very thin needle is used to withdraw fluid and cells from the suspicious tissue mass. This method has an advantage in that it is very low-pain, so low-pain that local anesthetic is not always used because the application of it may be more painful than the FNA itself. However, a shortcoming of FNA is that only a small number of cells are obtained through the procedure, rendering it relatively less useful in analyzing the suspicious tissue and making an assessment of the progression of the cancer less simple if the sample is found to be malignant.
During a core needle biopsy, a small tissue sample is removed allowing for a pathological assessment of the tissue, including an assessment of the progression of any cancerous cells that are found. The following patent documents disclose various core biopsy devices and are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety: U.S. Pat. No. 6,273,862 issued Aug. 14, 2001; U.S. Pat. No. 6,231,522 issued May 15, 2001; U.S. Pat. No. 6,228,055 issued May 8, 2001; U.S. Pat. No. 6,120,462 issued Sep. 19, 2000; U.S. Pat. No. 6,086,544 issued Jul. 11, 2000; U.S. Pat. No. 6,077,230 issued Jun. 20, 2000; U.S. Pat. No. 6,017,316 issued Jan. 25, 2000; U.S. Pat. No. 6,007,497 issued Dec. 28, 1999; U.S. Pat. No. 5,980,469 issued Nov. 9, 1999; U.S. Pat. No. 5,964,716 issued Oct. 12, 1999; U.S. Pat. No. 5,928,164 issued Jul. 27, 1999; U.S. Pat. No. 5,775,333 issued Jul. 7, 1998; U.S. Pat. No. 5,769,086 issued Jun. 23, 1998; U.S. Pat. No. 5,649,547 issued Jul. 22, 1997; U.S. Pat. No. 5,526,822 issued Jun. 18, 1996; and US Patent Application 2003/0199753 published Oct. 23, 2003 to Hibner et al.
At present, a biopsy instrument marketed under the trade name MAMMOTOME is commercially available from ETHICON ENDO-SURGERY, INC. for use in obtaining breast biopsy samples. These devices generally retrieve multiple core biopsy samples from one insertion into breast tissue with vacuum assistance. In particular, a cutter tube is extended into a probe to cut tissue prolapsed into a side aperture under vacuum assistance and then the cutter tube is fully retracted between cuts to extract the sample.
With a long probe, the rate of sample taking is limited not only by the time required to rotate or reposition the probe but also by the time needed to translate the cutter. As an alternative to this "long stroke" biopsy device, a "short stroke" biopsy device is described in the following commonly assigned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/676,944, "Biopsy Instrument with Internal Specimen Collection Mechanism" filed Sep. 30, 2003 in the name of Hibner et al.; and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/732,843, "Biopsy Device with Sample Tube" filed Dec. 10, 2003 in the name of Cicenas et al. The cutter is cycled across the side aperture, reducing the sample time. Several alternative specimen collection mechanisms are described that draw samples through the cutter tube, all of which allow for taking multiple samples without removing the probe from the breast.
The vacuum assistance presented at the side aperture provides a further benefit of reducing the accumulation of bodily fluids around the probe that may tend to interfere with taking a diagnostic image, may impede subsequent insufflation and marker deployment, leave an undesirable hematoma at the biopsy site, and/or result in external bleeding that is a biohazard and may increase the patient's discomfort.
While these multiple sample core biopsy instruments have numerous advantages, it is believed that the diagnostic and therapeutic opportunities of core biopsy procedures would be more widely used if bleeding associated with a larger core biopsy probe were controlled and/or reduced.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Biopsy device with vacuum assisted bleeding control


The invention is concerned with esters from conjugated linoleic acid and a food allowable alcohol from the group of terpene alcohols and sesquiterpene alcohols. These esters have good taste and display the health effects from the conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) part and from the food allowable alcohol part of the molecule.

Esters from CLA (reaction product of conjugated linoleic acid and an alcohol) are known from eg WO 97/18320 or WO 99/32105. However the esters disclosed in WO 97/18320 are mainly the octylesters and these esters have the disadvantage that the alcohol residue is not food allowable and that therefore the use of these esters in foods is a problem. In this same document also glycerol esters of CLA isomers are disclosed which can be made from glycerol and free CLA by esterification. However during this esterification the enrichment in a specific CLA isomer (in general c9t11 or t10c12 CLA) is low or the reaction rate and/or yield for this conversion is very low. Moreover the products so obtained often are not very active for their desired health effect. Another problem is that the esters disclosed in WO ""105 often are derived from an alcohol that, although being food allowable is not readily available or is difficult to remove from the reaction mixture (eg tocopherol alcohol or ascorbyl alcohols or retinyl alcohols).
We studied whether we could find a solution for above problems. This study resulted in the finding of new esters of CLA isomers that can be made easily in good yields in relatively short times while the products obtained often displayed high enrichment rates in specific CLA-isomers (in particular in c9t11 and/or t10c12 isomers). Moreover the alcohols used herefore are food allowable and easily available and can be separated easily from the crude reaction mix resulting from the partial conversion of the free CLA with the alcohol.
Moreover we found that these esters displayed good health properties and excellent taste properties. In particular the taste of the esters was improved compared to the taste of the free acids.
Therefore our invention concerns in the first instance with esters of conjugated linoleic acid (xe2x88x92 CLA) and a food allowable alcohol wherein the food allowable alcohol is selected from terpene alcohols or sesquiterpene alcohols. In particular the use of the alcohols with general formula I, wherein
R1=H, or forms together with R4 a Cxe2x80x94C bond,
R2=H or CH3
R3=H, CH3 or OH
R4=H or forms together with R1, or with R6 or with R14 a Cxe2x80x94C bond, or forms together with R9 a xe2x80x94Cxe2x80x94 bridge or forms together with R9 a
xe2x80x94Cxe2x80x94Cxe2x80x94Cxe2x80x94Cxe2x80x94 residue
II
(CH3)2 Cxe2x80x94C
R5=H or forms together with R13 or with R14 a Cxe2x80x94C bond
R6=H or forms together with R4 a Cxe2x80x94C bond
R7=H, or OH
R8=H or OH or forms together with R10 a Cxe2x80x94C bond
R9=H, or forms together with R4 a xe2x80x94Cxe2x80x94 bridge or a
xe2x80x94Cxe2x80x94Cxe2x80x94Cxe2x80x94Cxe2x80x94 residue
II
(CH3)2Cxe2x80x94C
R10=H or forms together with R8 or with R12 a Cxe2x80x94C bond
R11=H, i-propyl, i-propenyl, CH3 or forms together with R4 a xe2x80x94C(CH3)2-bridge
R12=H or forms together with R10 a Cxe2x80x94C bond
R13=H, OH, orxe2x80x94C(CH3)xe2x95x90Cxe2x80x94C(OH)xe2x80x94 or forms together with R5 a Cxe2x80x94C bond
R14=H, or forms together with R4 or R5 a Cxe2x80x94C bond lead to excellent results
In particular the invention is concerned with esters derived from an alcohol selected from the group consisting of menthol, isopulegol, methenol, carveol, carvomenthenol, carvomenthol, isobornylalcohol, caryophyllenealcohol, geraniol, farnesol and citronellol. These alcohols are all food allowed, easily available and give high enrichment in specific CLA isomers when converted partially with free CLA (in particular with a 50:50 mix of c9t11 and t10c12 CLA) along an enzymic route. Moreover the esters display good activity with respect to anti inflammatory and anti diabetic or insulin resistance effects and taste far better than the free CLA where they are derived from. The esters can be obtained easily in a form wherein the esters comprise more than 80 wt %, preferably more than 90 wt % and in particular more than 95 wt % of c9t11 plus t10c12 CLA isomers. Depending on the conversion that is applied the esters can be obtained as a mix wherein the c9t11 and t10c12 CLA-isomers are present in a weight ratio of 50:50, or as a mix wherein the c9t11:t10c12 isomers are present in a weight ratio of more than 70:30, in particular more than 80:20. The esters of the enriched isomer mix have the advantage that the mix mainly will display the specific health effects from the specific isomer present in high contents while the other specific health effects of the other isomer hardly will be noticed. This enables us to dose more specifically to achieve a specific health effect, while also the dosage of the CLA compound can be less which is of particular advantage if the esters are applied as food supplement because this will limit the size of the capsules and the smaller the capsules can be, the easier they can be swallowed by the consumer.
A particular preference exists for esters of CLA and menthol wherein more than 80 wt %, preferably more than 90 wt % of the CLA residue of the esters consists of c9t11-CLA, while less than 2 wt % of the total CLA-residue consists of CLA-isomers other than c9t11 and t10c12 and the esters contain less than 5 wt % preferably less than 3 wt % of free fatty acids. Administering of these products means that potentially negative side effects of other components can be avoided.
Our invention further concerns a process for the preparation of esters of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) and a food allowable alcohol as defined above, wherein free conjugated linoleic acid is reacted with the food allowable alcohol in the presence of less than 1.8 wt % water and a lipase. This process will result in esters that can be used in food products as both components of the products are food allowable.
In the instance that an ester is desired wherein higher contents of a specific CLA-isomer is present the above process can be adapted to a process wherein a food allowable alcohol with the formula as defined above is reacted with a mix of free CLA with about 50% of both main isomers (c9t11 and t10c12) and wherein the reaction is performed by partially converting this mixture of c9t11 and t10c12 CLA in the presence of an enzyme than can discriminate between c9t11 and t10c12-CLA isomers and which enzyme preferably is Candida rugosa lipase, whereupon CLA-esters are isolated enriched in c9t11 CLA-isomer and free fatty esters are isolated as unconverted reactant enriched in t10c12 CLA isomer.
Other enzymes that can be applied are lipase D; lipase QL; lipase-SL; Mucor miehei lipase, optionally on a support such as duolite; Cand antartica lipase and lipozyme.
The different products can be obtained by working up the crude reaction product as follows:
first add a diluted base to the crude reaction mixture
then separate the water phase and the organic phase
followed by washing of the organic phase and adjusting the pH of this phase to pH 5-7
and finally by removal of the water from this phase, preferably by distillation.
By this route esters are obtained enriched in the c9t11 CLA isomer.
To obtain a free CLA product enriched in the t10c12 isomer the procedure is as follows:
the water phase of the reaction product obtained according to above process is acidified to a pH less than 3.0, preferably  less than 1.5,
whereupon the mixture obtained is separated in an upper layer and a residue and
the upper layer is washed with water and the water is removed therefrom.
According to another aspect of our invention our invention also concerns food products comprising a fat and a good tasting health component wherein the taste and health component is an ester according to the invention. The food products are specifically selected from the group consisting of spreads (10-90% fat contents); dressings, mayonnaise, cheese, ice cream, ice cream coatings; confectionery coatings or fillings; sauces and culinary products. These food products suitably contain 0.5 to 20 wt % of our novel CLA esters.
Our novel esters can also be used for the preparation of triglycerides containing CLA residues. Therefore an ester composition according to the invention can be converted with glycerol or with a vegetable oil in the presence of a base or an enzyme while in the instance that glycerol is converted the liberated alcohol residue from the esters of the CLA-esters is removed from the reaction mix during the conversion. This removal of liberated alcohol can be done by vacuum distillation or by molecular distillation.
According to a last embodiment our invention also concerns the use of our CLA esters as a good tasting health agent, in particular having anti-inflammatory or anti-diabetic or insulin resistant properties.


An adapter (11) is of channel shape, having longitudinal projections (25) at its respective sides for engagement with undercut grooves (24) in a face of a casing of a powered grinding tool (10) with which the adapter is intended to be fitted to sharpened chisels or other planar blades, in use, by means of a grinding wheel (20) of the tool. The adapter has an angularly adjustable guide plate (63) which carrier a slidable plate (70) having magnetic means (71a) for holding an attracted blade of an implement to be sharpened, the angle of the guide plate (63) causing the blade to be correctly sharpened by the wheel (20), in use, as the plate (70) is reciprocated across the wheel with the blade held correctly thereon.

This invention relates to an adapter which is intended to be fitted to a powered grinding tool, the tool being primarily for use in the sharpening, smoothing, cutting, abrading, honing etc., of implements, such as drill bits, scissors, knives, chisels, planar blades and the like.
Whilst attachments for an electric drill are known which can carry out one or more of the various operations referred to above, their major disadvantage is of course that the drill cannot be used for its intended purpose whilst the attachment is fitted.
An object of the invention is to provide an adapter for a powered grinding tool in an efficient and convenient manner.


A powder material for three-dimensional modeling includes a base particle and a resin covering the base particle, wherein the resin has a first absorption peak in the range of from 1,141 cm−1 to 1,145 cm−1 and a second absorption peak in the range of from 1,089 cm−1 to 1,093 cm−1 in an infrared absorption spectrum and the intensity ratio of the first absorption peak to the second absorption peak is from 0.40 to 0.70.

Technical Field
The present invention relates to a powder material for three-dimensional modeling, a kit for three-dimensional modeling, a three-dimensional green body, method of manufacturing three-dimensional object, a method of manufacturing three-dimensional green body, a device for manufacturing three-dimensional object, and a device for manufacturing three-dimensional green body
Background Art
Lamination modeling (additive manufacturing) methods using three-dimensional (3D) printers capable of manufacturing more complex and finer 3D objects on demand are introduced to supersede typical methods of manufacturing 3D object by utilizing a shaping die. In particular, powder additive manufacturing methods are used in the case of a 3D object made of metal or inorganic compounds. In one of the powder additive manufacturing methods, 3D objects are manufactured by laminating a powder material for 3D modeling of metal, an inorganic compound, etc., and applying a solution to every single or multiple layers in a predetermined pattern. The solution dissolves the powder material to cause powder particles to adhere to each other.

Powder material for three dimensional modeling, kit for three dimensional modeling, green body for three dimensional modeling, method of manufacturing three dimensional object, method of manufacturing three-dimensional green body, device for manufacturing three-dimensional object, and device for manufacturing three-dimensional green body


A semiconductor apparatus (100) is provided with: a substrate (1); and a thin-film transistor (10). The thin-film transistor has: an oxide semiconductor layer (11) that includes a channel region (11a) and first and second contact regions (11b, 11c); a gate insulating layer (12) that is provided so as to cover the oxide semiconductor layer; a gate electrode (13) that is provided on the gate insulating layer and that overlaps the channel region via the gate insulating layer; a source electrode (14) that is electrically connected to the first contact region; and a drain electrode (15) that is electrically connected to the second contact region. This semiconductor apparatus is further provided with a light-shielding layer (2) arranged between the oxide semiconductor layer and the substrate, and the channel region is aligned to the part of the light-shielding layer overlapping the oxide semiconductor layer.

Today, a display apparatus including an active matrix substrate that includes a switching element in each of pixels (e.g., liquid crystal display apparatus) is in wide use. An active matrix substrate including a thin film transistor (hereinafter, referred to as a "TFT") as a switching element is referred to as a "TFT substrate". In this specification, a portion of the TFT substrate that corresponds to a pixel of the display apparatus may also be referred to as a "pixel".
Recently, it has been proposed to use an oxide semiconductor, instead of amorphous silicon or polycrystalline silicon, as a material of an active layer of the TFT. Such a TFT is referred to as an "oxide semiconductor TFT". The oxide semiconductor has a higher mobility than that of amorphous silicon. Therefore, the oxide semiconductor TFT is operable at a higher speed than an amorphous silicon TFT. An oxide semiconductor film is formed by a simpler process than a polycrystalline silicon film, and therefore, is applicable to a device requiring a large area size.
The oxide semiconductor TFT may be produced by a process substantially the same as that of the amorphous silicon TFT. Therefore, many oxide semiconductor TFTs produced today have a bottom-gate structure, like the amorphous silicon TFT.
Needless to say, a top-gate structure is not unadoptable for an oxide semiconductor TFT. Use of the top-gate structure easily decreases a parasitic capacitance caused by overlapping of a gate electrode and a source electrode/a drain electrode, and therefore, is advantageous to design a circuit operating at a high speed.
A semiconductor device including an oxide semiconductor TFT of a top-gate structure is disclosed in, for example, Patent Document No. 1. FIG. 16 shows a semiconductor device 800 disclosed in Patent Document No. 1.
As shown in FIG. 16, the semiconductor device 800 includes a substrate 801 and an oxide semiconductor TFT 810 supported by the substrate 801. The oxide semiconductor TFT 810 includes an oxide semiconductor layer 811, a gate insulating layer 812, a gate electrode 813, a source electrode 814 and a drain electrode 815.
On the substrate 801, underlying insulating layers 803a and 803b are formed in this order. On the upper underlying insulating layer 803b, the oxide semiconductor layer 811 is formed. The oxide semiconductor layer 811 includes a channel region 811a and low resistance regions 811b and 811c respectively located to two sides of the channel region 811a. On the channel region 811a of the oxide semiconductor layer 811, the gate insulating layer 812 and the gate electrode 813 are formed in this order.
A silicon nitride film 816 is formed so as to cover the oxide semiconductor layer 811, the gate insulating layer 812 and the gate electrode 813. On the silicon nitride film 816, an interlayer insulating layer 806 is formed. In the silicon nitride film 816 and the interlayer insulating layer 806, contact holes respectively exposing a part of the low resistance region 811b and a part of the low resistance region 811c of the oxide semiconductor layer 811 are formed. The source electrode 814 and the drain electrode 815 are respectively connected with the low resistance regions 811b and 811c in the contact holes.
During the production of the semiconductor device 800, an oxide insulating film (e.g., silicon oxide film) that is to be the gate insulating film 812 is deposited so as to cover the oxide semiconductor layer 811, and then the gate electrode 813 is formed. Then, the oxide insulating film is etched using the gate electrode 813 as a mask, so that the gate insulating layer 812 is formed. The etching results in exposing portions of the oxide semiconductor layer 811 that are not covered with the gate electrode 813. Next, the silicon nitride film 816 is formed. Therefore, the portions of the oxide semiconductor layer 811 that are in contact with the silicon nitride film 816 are supplied with nitrogen and thus are decreased in resistance, and as a result, become the low resistance regions 811b and 811c. The remaining portion becomes the channel region 811a.
It is described regarding the semiconductor device 800 in Patent Document No. 1 that since the low resistance regions 811b and 811c are formed in this manner, the oxide semiconductor TFT 810 is obtained by a relatively simple process to have a high on-characteristic.

Semiconductor apparatus and method for manufacturing semiconductor apparatus


A method of accessing In Case of Emergency ICE information in a mobile entity (100); the method comprises the steps of: actuating a state transition of a key (105) of the mobile entity (100); presenting a menu for selecting at least one operational mode of said mobile entity (100) as a response to said actuating of the key (105); wherein said menu further comprises an option of retrieving ICE information accessible from a memory of said mobile entity (100); receiving said ICE information from said memory by selecting said option of retrieving ICE information in said menu among said options representing operational modes of said mobile entity (100); and rendering said ICE information, whereby said ICE information is accessed (303).

A variety of mobile entities (such as smart phones mobile telephones, smart phones, lap tops, tablets/media plates (e.g. iPad®), communicators), are widely used today. The user of a mobile entity has the possibility to store In Case of Emergency (ICE) information in the mobile entity. The ICE information is personal information of the user regarding who to contact and how to contact a person if the user has an emergency of some kind and not themselves is in a state to inform a third person of the ICE information. The ICE information is directed to a third party, such as ambulance personnel, which is not familiar with the mobile entity.
The ICE information is often stored as a contact in the contact book that is stored in a database of the mobile entity. The ICE information is accessible via selecting the menus of the contact book, however, this demands that the mobile entity is turned on and that the user is authenticated to unlock the mobile entity.
To facilitate that a third party can access the ICE information even though they are not familiar with a specific model of a mobile entity, a standard has been drawn up, the 3GPP standard, which in one part defines how ICE information should be accessible. In this standard it is stated that the ICE information should be disclosed in the display of the mobile entity if the "*" key is pressed down 3 times "***". Further it is defined that the ICE information also should be accessible in this way and disclosed in the display if the mobile entity is in a sleeping mode or in a locked mode.
However, many of today's mobile entities do not have a physical key pad and there is a need of an easy and quick way to access ICE information in a mobile entity.

Accessing in case of emergency information in a mobile device


Highly maneuverable utility vehicles having Mecanum wheels capable of traveling in a variety of different directions and turning in a zero turn manner may include one or more controllers in communication with drive units for powering the Mecanum wheels. A multi-axis interface, such as a joystick, may be connected to the controller for proportionally controlling the direction and speed of the vehicle, and for providing different manners in which the vehicle may enter zero-turn mode. The joystick may include at least one pushbutton for switching between programmed travel modes or selecting an auxiliary function. The controller may be programmed to permit the vehicle to operate in different operating modes.

This disclosure is generally related to drive and directional control systems for vehicles, and more particularly to drive and directional control systems and devices for utility vehicles having Mecanum wheels, such as lawn and garden tractors or mowers.
Traditional vehicle maneuverability, such as that of a garden tractor equipped with a hydrostatic transmission and an internal combustion engine, is accomplished by a combination of driven wheels powered by a single transmission, a transmission control, steered wheels, a steering control, and a throttle. The operator of such a vehicle, after startup, first sets the engine speed with the throttle. Next, the operator displaces the transmission control, such as a hand or foot control, to select a forward or reverse direction of travel and also the speed of travel. Simultaneously, the operator steers the vehicle, typically with a steering wheel and mechanical linkage to the steered wheels. This type of vehicle and control may result in limited maneuverability, e.g., a wide turning radius that limits the ability of the vehicle to travel in tight quarters.
In an attempt to improve maneuverability, zero turn vehicles, such as zero turn mowers, were introduced. One type of zero turn vehicle uses independently controlled transaxles to provide steering by selectively speeding up, slowing down, or changing the direction of rotation of the driven wheels on each side of the vehicle. Typically, an operator has a pair of levers that independently control the speed and rotational direction of the output of a transaxle on each side of the vehicle, and thus the speed and rotational direction of the associated driven wheel. If an operator wishes to move the vehicle forward, he presses both levers forward. If the operator wishes to move the vehicle backwards, he pulls both levers back. To steer the vehicle to the left, the right side lever is pushed further than the left, and to execute a very tight turn to the left, the operator can pull the left lever back while pressing the right lever forward to execute a zero radius, or near zero radius turn. Traditionally, zero turn mowers do not have steered wheels per se, but rather a pair of caster wheels at the front of the vehicle which respond to the actions of the driven rear wheels. Zero turn mowers with steering wheels are also available, but they generally have complex mechanical linkages to coordinate the movements of a pair of steered front wheels with the outputs of the driven rear wheels.
An alternate steering input device, such as a joystick and associated controller, may be used to control the outputs of the independent transmissions of a zero turn vehicle. Comparatively speaking, the steering wheel system is easy to operate but may lack the maneuverability and programming flexibility of a joystick control system, and the lever activated differential steering systems may simply be more difficult to use for some vehicle operators.
The wheels on vehicles may include various types of tires, casters, and the like. One particular type of wheel is a Mecanum wheel that has a series of angled rollers attached to the outer circumference of the wheel. Vehicles equipped with Mecanum wheels are omnidirectional in that they can move in any direction by varying the speed and direction of rotation of each of the Mecanum wheels in a coordinated manner. For example, a vehicle with Mecanum wheels can move forward or backward by driving its wheels in the same direction, can rotate in place (zero turn) by driving the wheels on one side of the vehicle in the opposite direction as the wheels on the other side of the vehicle, and can additionally move sideways by driving the wheels on one diagonal of the vehicle in the opposite direction as the wheels on the other diagonal. This disclosure is directed to addressing the problems and needs of drive and steering systems related to highly maneuverable utility vehicles having Mecanum wheels.

Highly maneuverable mowing vehicle with Mecanum wheels


When a digital muldem employs protective switching, a requirement exists to perform revertive switching. The present disclosure illustrates a way to test the failed module after a switch to determine whether the module is actually failed or the decision to switch was based on momentary external conditions. The test is accomplished by looping back the "failed" module, passing data from one of the operative channels through the "failed" module and doing a bit by bit compare of input and output data for identity. If all of the muldems convert signals to a common frequency, only a single compare circuit need be used on a multiplexed basis.

Prior art muldems have been designed for converting between DS3 (approximately 44 megahertz) transmission line signals and one or more of the lower frequency transmission line signals such as DS2 (approximately 6 megahertz), DS1 (approximately 1.5 megahertz) and DS1C (approximately 3 megahertz). In these system concepts, there is always the need for some type of redundancy in the event that one or more parts in the muldem fails. One method is complete redundancy so that any path can be switched into operation as a replacement for the failed component. However, in view of the costs of complete redundancy, especially where there are many demultiplexer, multiplexer and switch modules, etc., of each given type in a box, a single standby unit or module for each type of operational module is used and when an operational module fails or provides an indication of failure, the standby identical module is switched into operation.
It has been found that quite often the apparent failure is merely due to momentary external conditions and the "failed" module is actually operating properly. Thus, there is a requirement that the "failed" module be tested to determine whether the module actually failed or the decision to switch was based on the momentary external conditions. If it is found that the module has not failed, then it is desirable to return operation to normal conditions so that the standby module can be utilized to replace other modules believed to have failed. Otherwise, the spare module would not be available for a true failure.
As a consequence of having standby modules, it is necessary for proper operation of the system to periodically test the standby modules to insure that they are actually available for service. Thus, a properly designed digital muldem provides means of testing both the failed modules and the standby modules used to design the system.
Prior art test devices have used a pseudorandom generator to generate a data stream that is passed through the module being tested and the output of the module is checked to see whether or not the data is passed in a standardized manner. It has been found that a pseudorandom pattern of data does not necessarily generate the same failure mode as does true data. In other words, a module can test operational with a given pseudorandom data pattern and still not pass data, in some other data stream configuration, correctly.
The present invention illustrates a design method for constructing the digital muldem wherein the muldem is designed in two separate stages. The low speed muldem portion provides circuitry to convert the low speed customer interface whether it be DS1, DS1C or DS2 signals through an appropriate plurality of muldems to a common intermediate speed or data occurrence frequency. The signals are then switched or routed to a high speed muldem or its spare which converts from the common frequency to the DS3 frequency while multiplexing the data. In the present invention, economies have been realized by making the common frequency signal the same as the DS2 frequency and format. The low speed muldem spares can be used to replace any one of the identical type (DS1, DS1C or DS2) operational low speed muldems.
In the present invention, data from a low speed active circuit is applied to a failed module for multiplexing as if the failed module were operational, as well as to the spare or other active module. However, the output of the failed module is rerouted from the output of the demultiplexer to the input of the multiplexer in a loopback configuration. (This loopback is from multiplexer to demultiplexer in the high speed circuit modules.) The circuitry for providing the loopback disconnects the failed module from the customer circuitry and thus the customer is isolated from the failed module. Since the demultiplexing and multiplexing of the signal in the loopback configuration produces identical data supplied to and received from the looped-back module in a correctly operating module, a comparator can be used to compare, on a bit by bit basis, the signals input to and output from the failed module thereby ascertaining whether or not the module has actually failed, or the apparent failure, as previously detected, was merely due to some momentary external condition. The same approach can be used for testing the high speed muldem and any of the spares since all of these units have a common frequency, a single comparator circuit can be used to test all of the muldems regardless of their multiplexing frequency.
It is thus an object of the present invention concept to illustrate a method for testing muldems for operability in a muldem switching system.
Another object of the present invention is to present a method whereby a muldem can be designed to simplify the circuitry required by eliminating one or more pseudorandom generators and using, instead, actual data for testing. The invention also includes using a common intermediate frequency in the apparatus so that testing of all of the different frequency muldems can be accomplished using a single test (bit comparator) device.

Channel looping apparatus for failure analysis


This invention relates to a fastener (100, 400, 700, 1000, 1300) for clothing or lingerie. The fastener comprises a front element (200, 500, 800, 1100, 1400) having at least one seat cavity (201) and a back element (300, 600, 900, 1200, 1500) having at least one bump (301) for location in the seat cavity. The front element and back element each comprise magnets (235, 329) to assist in the location of the bump in the seat cavity. The front and back elements additionally comprise a plurality of complementary catch faces (203, 205, 211, 213, 501, 303, 305, 311, 313, 601) which secure the engagement of the front and back elements and are operable to prevent inadvertent release of the back element from the front element when the back element is subjected to forces in any of a plurality of disparate directions.

There are many different types of fastener used for clothing and lingerie. Perhaps the most common of these is the so-called hook and eye fastener that comprises one or more metal hooks and one or more complementary eyes for engagement by the hook. Although effective in operation, there are several shortcomings with these types of fastener. For example, it can be relatively difficult to engage the hook in the eye. This problem is exacerbated when the fastener is located to the rear of the garment and even more so if the wearer has problems with dexterity and/or flexibility.
One fastener that attempts to address these problems is that described in the applicant's own U.S. Pat. No. 8,935,835. The fastener described therein comprises a front element with a backwardly open seat cavity and a back element formed with a forwardly projecting bump. Both the bump and the seat cavity have magnets that aid the location of the bump in the seat cavity. The front and back elements have co-operating catch faces that act against unintentional separation of the fastener elements. Although a significant improvement on the existing fasteners, there is scope for improvement of the fastener described in U.S. Pat. No. 8,935,835.
Throughout this specification the fasteners are described as being used between the back wings of a brassiere, and the terms "front" and "back" are used in that context. The invention however is not limited to such use or orientation and would work equally well if reversed or applied to another application. For example, the present invention could be used as a front or side closure of a brassiere or could be used instead of buttons or as an auxiliary fastener such as next to a zip on an item of clothing or piece of luggage.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a fastener that overcomes some of the problems with the known fasteners and that provides a useful alternative to the consumer.


An apparatus for trapping insects having a radiation means and a semiochemical attractant means such that insects enter an air stream and are carried into a housing to trap them. The device further contains radiation pulsing means and a power supply to power a motor which drives a propeller to induce a flow of air into the trap.

Our invention relates to the use of PAMPLEFLEUR.RTM. having the structure: ##STR1## (2,4-dimethyl-4-phenyl-1-butanol), VIOLIFF.TM. which contains a major quantity of the compound having the structure: ##STR2## (methyl-4-cyclooctenyl carbonate), ORANGE FLOWER ETHER having the structure: ##STR3## (1-methyl-4(2'-methoxy-2'-propyl)-1-cyclohexene, INDISAN.TM. containing a major proportion of the compound having the structure: ##STR4## and diethyl phthalate having the structure: ##STR5## for repelling blood feeding arthropods, species of mosquitoes, house flies and horn flies, as well as apparatus for determining repellency and attractancy of semiochemicals such as the aforementioned materials against and for such blood feeding arthropods.
Ethers, esters and alcohols are known for repelling insects and the prior art contains many references pertaining to same. Thus, the use of the compound having the structure: ##STR6## as a repellent against various insect species is disclosed in application for U.S. patent Ser. No. 08/007,287 filed on Jan. 21, 1993, assigned to the assignees of the instant invention.
Nothing in the prior art however sets forth the unexpected, unobvious and advantageous insect repellency properties of the alcohols, ethers and esters of our invention so useful in repelling the species of insects set forth herein.
The prior art is replet with references showing various traps for insects including U.S. Pat. No. 4,759,228 issued on Jul. 26, 1988 and including the above-mentioned application for U.S. patent Ser. No. 08/007,287 filed on Jan. 21, 1993. Other prior art showing such insect traps is:
Griffiths and Bowman, Acarology VI, Volume 2, published by Ellis Horwood Limited 15.5, "Sampling techniques for burrow-dwelling ticks in reference to potential African swine fever virsu vectors", (Butler et al) PA1 Garcia, R., (1962), Ann. Entomol.Soc.Amer., 55 605-606. PA1 Garcia, R., (1965), Amer.J.Trop.Med. Hyg., 14 1090-1093. PA1 Hair, J. A., Hoch, A. L., Barker, R. W., Semtner, P. J., (1972), J. Med. Entomol., 99 153-155. PA1 Holscher, K. H. Gearhart, H. L., Barker, R. W. (1980) Ann.Entomol.Soc.Amer., 73 288-292. PA1 Koch, H. G. & McNew, R. W., (1981), Ann. Entomol.Soc. Amer., 74, 498-500. PA1 (4) Completely encompassingly traversing in a substantially tight fitting manner the area between (i) the first side walls of said first outer hollow housing and (ii) the second side walls of said second inner hollow housing along the directional vectors of said rib components and in a curvilinear plane below and substantially contiguous to said rib components, a continuous substantially macroporous mesh substance having such a mesh size as to be impenetrable by arthropods sought to be entrapped, but pervious to gas and liquid and, in addition, radiation transmittable, and capable of supporting a matrix article containing sustainably releasable semiochemical (for example, nylon mesh having a mesh size in lines per inch of from about 10 up to about 200); PA1 (i) published Canadian Patent Application 2,040,615 published on Oct. 17, 1992 (title: "Cel-Alert" An Easy To-Use Emergency Strobe-Light Road Safety Device"; PA1 (ii) the Stroboscope/Tachometer marketed by the Edmund Scientific Company of Barrington, N.J.; PA1 (iii) the "Realistic Wide Angle Strobe Light" Catalog No. 42-3009A marketed by the Radio Shack Division of Tandy Corporation of Ft. Worth, Tex.; PA1 (iv) the Enerlite Personal Strobe, Catalog No. 61-2506 marketed by the Radio Shack Division of PA1 (a) Musca domestica L.(Diptera:Muscidae); PA1 (b) Aedes aegypti; PA1 (c) Aedes albopictus; PA1 (d) Anopheles spp.; PA1 (e) Coquillettidia perturbans; PA1 (f) Culiseta Spp.; PA1 (g) Culex spp.; PA1 (h) Psorophora spp.; PA1 (i) Culicoides spp.; PA1 (j) Lutzomyia spp.; PA1 (k) Aedes spp.; PA1 (l) Culex nigripalpus; PA1 (m) Aedes atlanticus; PA1 (n) Culex salinarius; PA1 (o) Aedes vexans; PA1 (p) Simuliidae spp.; PA1 (q) Psorohora ferox; PA1 (r) Aedes infirmatus; PA1 (s) Drosophila melanogaster; PA1 (t) Coccinellidae; PA1 (u) Anopheles crucian; PA1 (v) Psorophora columbiae; and PA1 (w) Haemotobia irritans (L.) PA1 (a) Musca domestica L.(Diptera:Muscidae); PA1 (b) Aedes aegypti; PA1 (c) Aedes albopictus; PA1 (d) Anopheles spp.; PA1 (e) Coquillettidia perturbans; PA1 (f) Cullseta spp.; PA1 (g) Culex spp.; PA1 (h) Psorophora spp.; PA1 (i) Culicoides spp.; PA1 (j) Lutzomyia spp.; PA1 (k) Aedes spp.; PA1 (l) Culex nigripalpus; PA1 (m) Aedes atlanticus; PA1 (n) Culex salinarius; PA1 (o) Aedes vexans; PA1 (p) Simuliidae spp,; PA1 (q) Psoroforia ferox; PA1 (r) Aedes infirmatus; PA1 (s) Drosophila melanogaster; PA1 (t) Coccinellidae; PA1 (u) Anopheles crucian; PA1 (v) Psorophora columbiae; and PA1 (w) Haemotobia irritans (L.) PA1 (a) Musca domestica L.(Diptera:Muscidae); PA1 (b) Aedes aegypti; PA1 (c) Aedes albopictus; PA1 (d) Anopheles spp.; PA1 (e) Coquillettidia perturbans; PA1 (f) Culiseta spp.; PA1 (g) Culex spp.; PA1 (h) Psorophora spp.; PA1 (i) Culicoides spp.; and/or PA1 (j) Lutzomyia spp.; PA1 (k) Aedes spp.; PA1 (l) Culex nigripalpus; PA1 (m) Aedes atlanticus; PA1 (n) Culex salinarius; PA1 (o) Aedes vexans; PA1 (p) Simuliidae spp.; PA1 (q) Psorophora ferox; PA1 (r) Aedes infirmatus; PA1 (s) Drosophila melanogaster; PA1 (t) Coccinellidae; PA1 (u) Anopheles crucian; PA1 (v) Psorophora columbiae; and PA1 (w) Haemotobia irritans (L.) PA1 1. The Welex "Super Twinch" 3.5" extruder manufactured by Welex Incorporated, 850 Jolly Road, Blue Bell, Pa. 19422; PA1 2. Krauss-Maffei twin screw extruder manufactured by the Krauss-Maffei Corporation/Extruder Division, 3629 West 30th Street South, Wichita, Kan. 67277; PA1 3. Modified Sterling Model 4000 and 5000 series extruder manufactured by Sterling Extruder Corporation of 901 Durham Avenue, South Plainfield, N.J.; PA1 4. CRT ("Counter-Rotating Tangential") Twin Screw Extruder manufactured by Welding Engineers, Inc.1 of King of Prussia, Pa. 19406; PA1 5. The Leistritz Twin Screw Dispersion Compounder manufactured by the American Leistritz Extruder Corporation of 198 U.S. Route 206 South, Somerville, N.J. 08876; PA1 6. The ZSK Twin Screw Co-Rotating Extruder manufactued by the Werner & Pfleiderer Corporation of 6763 East Crescent Avenue, Ramsey, N.J. 07446; PA1 7. The Farrel Extruder manufactured by Farrel Connecticut Division, Emhart Machinery Group, Ansonia, Conn. 06401; PA1 8. The MpC/V Baker Perkins Twin Screw Extruder manufactured by the Baker Perkins Inc. Chemical Machinery Division of Saginaw, Mich. 48601; and PA1 9. The Berstorff single screw, twin screw, or foam extrusion equipment manufactured by Berstorff Corporation, P.O. Box 240357, 8200-A Arrowridge Boulevard, Charlotte, N.C. 28224. PA1 (a) DYLAN.RTM. brand of low density polyethylene DYLAN.RTM. is a trademark owned by the Atlantic Richfield Company of Los Angeles, Calif.; PA1 (b) DYLITE.RTM. of expandable polystyrene compositions. DYLITE is a trademark of the Atlantic Richfield Company of Los Angeles, Calif.; PA1 (c) SUPER DYLAN.RTM. is a high density polyethylene. SUPER DYLAN.RTM. is a trademark of the Atlantic Richfield Company of Los Angeles, Calif.; PA1 (d) Blended polyethylene and carbon black as specifically taught in U.S. Pat. No. 4,369,267 issued on Jan. 18, 1983, the specification for which is incorporated by reference herein; PA1 (e) Polystyrene as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,369,227 issued on Jan. 18, 1983, the specification for which is incorporated by reference herein; PA1 (f) Polyene/alpha-olefin as exemplified and disclosed U.S. Pat. No. 4,369,291, the specification for which is incorporated by reference herein; PA1 (g) Poly-alpha-olefins as exemplified in Canadian Letters Patent No. 1,137,069 issued on Dec. 7, 1982; PA1 (h) Polymeric compositions as disclosed in Canadian Letters Patent No. 1,137,068 issued on Dec. 7, 1982; PA1 (i) Poly-alpha-olefins disclosed in Canadian Letters Patent No. 1,137,067; PA1 (j) Polyolefins described in Canadian Letters Patent No. 1,137,066; PA1 (k) Polyethylene oxides as disclosed in Canadian Letters Patent No. 1,137,065 issued on Dec. 7, 1982; PA1 (l) Olefin polymers and co-polymers as disclosed in Canadian Letters Patent No. 1,139,737; Canadian Patent No. 1,139,737 was issued on Jan. 18, 1983; PA1 (m) Polyolefins disclosed in Canadian Letters Patent No. 1,139,738; Canadian Patent No. 1,139,738 was issued on Jan. 18, 1983; PA1 (n) Chlorinated PYC as disclosed in Polymer 1982, 23 (7, Suppl.), 1051-6 abstracted at Chem. Abstracts Volume 97:145570y, 1982; PA1 (o) Polyepsilon caprolactone co-polymers made by means of alcohol initiated polymerization as disclosed in J.Polym.Sci.Polym.Chem. Ed., 1982, 20(2), pages 319-26, abstracted at Chem. Abstracts Volume 96:123625x, 1982; PA1 (p) Styrene acrylonitrile co-polymers as disclosed in Diss. Abstracts, Int. B, 1982, 42(8), 3346 and abstracted at Chem. Abstracts Volume 96:143750n (1982); PA1 (q) Co-polymers of epsilon caprolactone with 1,4-butane diol as disclosed at Kaucho Rezine, 1982, (2), 8-9, abstracted at Chem. Abstracts Volume 96:182506g (1982); PA1 (r) Polyesters as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,326,010, the specification for which is incorporated by reference herein; PA1 (s) Chlorinated polyethylene as disclosed by Belorgey, et al, J.Polym.Sci.Polym., Phys.Ed, 1982, 20(2), 191-203; PA1 (t) Plasticized polyepsilon caprolactone co-polymers containing dimethyl phthalate plasticizers as set forth in Japanese Patent No. J81/147844, abstracted at Chem. Abstracts Volume 96:69984y (1982); PA1 (u) Maleic anhydride modified adducts of polyepsilon caprolactone polyols and ethylenically unsaturated monomer as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,137,279 issued on Jan. 30, 1979, the specification for which is incorporated by reference herein; PA1 (v) Polyurethane polymers having lactone backbones as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,156,067 issued on May 22, 1979, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein; PA1 (w) Polyurethane polyether resins wherein the resin is obtained by reacting a polyfunctional lactone with a long chain polyalkylene diol and a urethane precursor as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,355,550 issued on Mar. 10, 1981, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein; and PA1 (x) Resins having polyurethane backbones as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,975,350 issued on Aug. 17, 1976, the specification for which is incorporated by reference herein. PA1 (i) Under high pressure, ethylene, methane, propane, butane, propylene, methyl chloride, methyl bromide, vinyl chloride and methylene dichloride as more specifically described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,387,730, the specification for which is incorporated hereby by reference herein; PA1 (ii) Ordinarily liquid material such as n-pentane, iso-pentans, cyclopentane, texans and petroleum ether fractions or halogen hydrocarbons such as CFC.sub.3, CF.sub.2 Cl.sub.2, Ch.sub.3 Cl, CH.sub.2 Cl.sub.2 separately or in admixture with one another as set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 3,758,425, column 4, lines 1-5, the specification for which is incorporated hereby by reference herein; PA1 (iii) Dichlorohetrafluoroethane, tetramethylmethane, monochlorodifluoromethane, dichlorodifluoromethane, and dichlorotetrafluoroethane as specifically described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,948,664 and 2,948,665 issued on Aug. 9, 1960, the specification for which is incorporated hereby by reference; and PA1 (iv) Azo bis(formamide)l diazoaminobenzene; N,N'-dinitrosopentamethylene tetramine; N,N'-dimethyl-N,N'-dinitrosoterephthalamide; p,p'-oxy-bis(benzene sulfonyl semicarbazide); azo bis-(isobutyronitrile); p,p'-oxybis(benzene sulfonyl hydrazide); p,p'-diphenyl-bis (sulfonyl hydrazide); benzene-sulfonyl hydrazide; m-benzene-bis(sulfonyl hydrazide) as more specifically described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,298,975 issued on Jan. 17, 1967, the specification for which is incorporated hereby by reference herein. PA1 (b) Aedes aegypti; PA1 (c) Aedes albopictus; PA1 (d) Anopheles spp.; PA1 (e) Coquillettidia perturbans; PA1 (f) Culiseta spp.; PA1 (g) Culex spp.; PA1 (h) Psorophora spp.; PA1 (i) Culicoides spp.; and/or PA1 (j) Lutzomyia spp.; PA1 (k) Aedes spp.; PA1 (l) Culex nigripalpus; PA1 (m) Aedes atlanticus; PA1 (n) Culex salinarius; PA1 (o) Aedes vexans; PA1 (p) Simuliidae spp.; PA1 (q) Psorophora ferox; PA1 (r) Aedes infirmatus; PA1 (s) Drosophila melanogaster; PA1 (t) Coccinellidae; PA1 (u) Anopheles crucian; PA1 (v) Psorophora columbiae; and PA1 (w) Haemotobia irritans (L.) PA1 (I) from 5 up to 100% by weight of an efficacious perfume/insect repellent composition consisting essentially of at least one of the alcohols, esters and/or ether useful in our invention, e.g., a mixture of PAMPLEFLEUR.RTM. having the structure: ##STR15## and VIOLIFF.TM. having a major proportion of the compound having the structure: ##STR16## (II) from 0 up to 95% of a standard perfuming substance (not necessarily insect repellent) which may be one a combination of the following materials: PA1 (i) a thermoplastic polyamide resin formed from linoleic acid polymerized with a polyamine compound; PA1 (ii) an alkanol amide or alkanol amine; and PA1 (iii) a stearic acid compound. PA1 (a) from about 35% up to about 85% by weight of an oil which is normally liquid at room temperature chosen from the group consisting of light mineral oil and natural oils having iodine values substantially within the range of 40-135; PA1 (b) from about 7% up to about 40% by weight of a long chain polyamide having a molecular weight substantially within the range of 6000-9000 and a softening point substantially within the range of 18.degree. C.-48.degree. C.; and PA1 (c) from about 7% to about 30% of an alcohol selected from the group consisting of 8 to 12 carbon primary alcohols.
Nothing in the prior art sets forth the trap of our invention.

House fly, horn fly, and mosquito repellents and apparatus useful in testing efficacy of same


A safety isolation bag is a pneumoperitoneum device for intra-abdominal, endoscopic procedures, power morcellation and vaginal morcellation for facilitating safe removal of body mass from within the abdominal cavity. It comprises of an expandable and collapsible enclosed internal space (5) having a neck portion (4) with mouth (3) having retractor means (2) and provided with markings, colour coded indicating how much the bag is to be pulled out for the removal of large, medium and small tissue mass, and also having one or more non-return valves (6) attached with long looped threads (8) on one of the surface in the wall of the safety isolation bag below the neck as a means for introducing the surgical instruments and accessories into the enclosed internal space at the right place and to close the puncture hole after the procedure. It is made of one or more layers of flexible biocompatible/medical grade plastic film.

Laparoscopic morcellation is commonly used in surgeries to remove bulky specimens from the abdomen using minimally invasive techniques. Historically, morcellation was performed using a device that required the surgeon or assistant to manually 'squeeze' the handle. Other reports describe using a scalpel directly through the abdomen to create small specimens that can be drawn out of the abdominal cavity. Power Morcellation is associated with spreading of cellular material of the morcellated tissues.
Hence using an isolation bag during morcellation is one of the options in minimally invasive endoscopic surgeries. Morcellation within an insufflated isolation bag is a feasible technique and methods for morcellating uterine tissue in a contained manner may provide an option to minimize the risks of open power morcellation while preserving the benefits of minimally invasive surgery. It is also reported that the patients who underwent endometrial morcellation, using a normal isolation bag, during minimally invasive hysterectomy or myomectomy, the possibility of spread of tissue beyond the isolation bag and additional punctures to the bag during the procedure cannot be ruled out causing postoperative pain, infection and the potential to spread undetected malignancy.
Hence the quality and the design of the isolation bag is of paramount importance as during the procedure it could result in tiny punctures in the bag or could spread microscopic cells beyond the bag.
A number of patents are there related to "safety isolation bags" for intra abdominal, endoscopic procedures, power morcellation and vaginal morcellation. In this connection U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,176,687; 5,524,633 A (WO1995009666A1); US 20130184536 A1; U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,685,628 B2; 7,547,310 B2; and 8,585,712 B2 are mentioned here by way of reference. One of the drawbacks of the prior art patents is that it requires more number of steps in introducing the bag and instrumentation as well as for the retrieval of the specimen. In addition, this causes enhanced procedural time. Further learning curve associated with other isolation bags appears to be very high as it involves complicated steps in comparison with the safety isolation bag of the present invention. The procedural outcome also is not evident in the similar bags used for laparoscopic surgery.
None of the prior art patents has any similarity with the features of the safety isolation bag disclosed according to the present invention. According to other prior art technologies/products that are similar to the invention are endo bags with two tail openings, endo bags with one opening, normal plastic bags, urinal bags etc. (traditional methods). Recently even the USFDA has given a strict warning on using power morcellation. Hence doctors are scared and are trying to use different models of bags like urine bags or simple plastic bags for placing the surgical specimen for morcellation. Therefore, there is a need for an alternate easy and safe solution for power morcellation and tissue removal. Hence to overcome the above drawbacks, I have come out with a state of the art safety isolation bag with better safety features and ease of utilizing in laparoscopic procedures. The safety isolation bag according to the present disclosure will offer a great solution for the same. At present most of such procedures are done without using any safety devices or bags.

Safety isolation bags for intra abdominal, endoscopic procedures, power morcellation and vaginal morcellation


A gyro compass according to the present invention includes an inclinometer for detecting inclination of the spin axis of a rotor with respect to the earth's surface, a horizontal axis torque applying device for exerting a torque about the horizontal axis of the rotor, a vertical axis torque applying device for exerting a torque about the vertical axis of the rotor, and an equilibrium tilt angle storing device for storing an inclination angle of the rotor while the gyro compass is in the equilibrium state. An inclination adjustment controlling device for adjusting an inclination angle stored of the rotor to the inclination angle in the equilibrium state by controlling the vertical axis torque applying device.

In general, a gyro compass causes the gyro rotor to precess depending on the rate of the Earth's rotation to seek the north. In its normal operation precession is produced depending on a vector component of the rate of the Earth's rotation about the true vertical and the other vector component of the rate of the Earth's rotation about the north/south horizontal at a latitude on the Earth's surface to stably point the spin axis of the rotor to the north.
However, if the spin axis of the rotor is deviated from the north, or the inclination angle of the spin axis of the rotor with respect to the Earth's surface is departed from an inclination angle thereof in the equilibrium state when the gyro compass is started to be driven, precession is caused to be produced due to a vector component of the rate of the Earth's rotation about the north/south horizontal and the other vector component of the rate of the Earth's rotation about the true vertical so that the north seeking end of the axis of the rotor draws an elliptical trace and is brought to point an equilibrium direction a long time after the compass is started. During a time period from an instant at which the gyro compass is started to another instant at which it is brought to an equilibrium state, a bearing can not be measured precisely. Accordingly, this time period for stabilization should be made as short as possible.


The present invention provides a robust, highly stable and vertically compact when folded-up wheelchair lift suitable for placement on a variety of vehicles such as vans and mini-vans. The lift has an elongate horizontal support member that is pivotally attached to a post fixed to the undercarriage of a vehicle. The horizontal support member supports the lifting mechanism and the wheelchair platform and is powered to swing the platform and lifting mechanism between a use position and a storage position. The lifting mechanism uses a pair of connecting links spaced lengthwise on the support member and connecting to the wheelchair platform in a four bar linkage arrangement generally in the form of a parallelogram. Both connecting links are rotated by bell cranks both of which are powered by the same hydraulic cylinder.

This invention relates to lifts. More particularly, it relates to wheel chair lifts for vehicles.
Lift mechanisms which enable large and/or unwieldy articles to be transferred into and out of vehicles have been in existence for some time.
A number of lifts have been adapted for passenger vehicles to provide access for people with handicaps. Most of the prior art wheelchair lifts which are stowable on the exterior of vehicles require relatively extensive track systems or support structures on the undercarriage of the vehicles. These extensive tracks and support systems add weight to the vehicle and take up substantial amounts of space which limits their usage to certain full size vans or other large vehicles.
The prior art wheelchair lifts, which do not utilize the track systems or extensive support structures will typically provide attachment points that are quite close to each other on the wheelchair platform. This can cause stability problems and extreme stress in the areas of attachment between the platform and the lifting links. Attempts to increase the stability and rigidity such as by providing reinforcing structure on the platform will necessarily increase the weight which will be raised and lowered requiring more power and thus stronger and heavier structures for supporting the up and down drive lifting means. Examples of prior art lifts follows.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,263,835 to Lugash discloses a lift that is rotatably attached to an undercarriage of a truck. The lift comprises a platform which is raised or lowered by two sets of rotatable "pantographic" arms located at the sides of the platform and which are concurrently actuated by a hydraulic cylinder. This lift takes up a substantial amount of vertical space and thus would be difficult to use as a wheelchair lift mounted below the undercarriage on modern mini-vans.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,711,613 to Fretwell discloses a wheelchair lift rotatably attached to an undercarriage of a vehicle. The lift comprises a platform which is raised or lowered by a pair of adjacent parallel links located at one side of the platform. Power to the parallel links is provided by a hydraulic cylinder one end of which is attached to one of the parallel links, the other end of which is attached to the rotational support assembly. The platform is attached to the links at a centrally positioned region at two points quite close to each other on the side of the platform. This may cause operating difficulty or instability, particularly when the weight of the wheelchair is forward or rearward on the platform.
Another lift which is rotatably attached to a vehicle is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,026,387 to Abreu. In Abreu, a platform is attached at one corner to a dual purpose mechanism which is attached to an exterior side of a vehicle adjacent a door opening. The dual purpose mechanism raises and lowers the platform by means of powered telescoping shafts which serve to raise and lower the platform. The dual purpose mechanism also permits the platform to be rotated between operative and storage position. When the platform is in its stored position, the top surface of the platform abuts the undercarriage of the vehicle and frictionally retains the lift in its storage position. Again, the closely spaced attachment points of the lift mechanism to the platform can create operating and stability problems particularly when the weight of the wheelchair is distally positioned on the platform.
Another type of lift is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,134,504 to Salas. In Salas, a lift is attached to an undercarriage of a vehicle and is horizontally extended and retracted between operative and storage positions by a somewhat complex cable system. The lift comprises a platform which is raised or lowered by two sets of parallel arms located at the sides of the platform, and which are concurrently actuated by a hydraulic cylinder. Only one of the parallel arms of each set is powered.
Yet another type of lift is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,556,250 to Fretwell. The Fretwell '250 is similar to the Salas lift mechanism in that Fretwell '250 provides two sets of parallel arms located at the sides of a platform, the parallel arms are concurrently actuated by a hydraulic cylinder, and the lift mechanism is linearly extended and retracted between operative and storage positions by a complex gear and chain driven track system. Fretwell '250 also discloses an enclosure, attachable to the undercarriage of a vehicle into which the lift mechanism is positioned for storage.


Television signal receiver (television apparatus, video recorder, CDI player) in which the plurality of processing operations to be executed (sync separation, subcarrier regeneration, color decoding, teletext) is executed by a central processing unit (4). Each processing operation is stored in the form of a control program in a memory (10). The processing operations to be actually executed are selected and time-sequentially executed by the processing unit. The control programs to be executed are selected in dependence upon operating signals (TXT, PIP) or signal recognition (PAL, NTSC). Qualitatively different versions of some control programs are stored and the version which can be executed at the available processing capacity is selected.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a television signal receiver comprising a plurality of processing means for executing respective processing operations on a received television signal. A receiver of this type is, for example a television apparatus, a video recorder or a CDI player.
2. Description of the Related Art
Receivers of the type described in the opening paragraph are generally known. The signal received from a tuner, tape or disc is subjected in the receiver to a plurality of processing operations each having a predetermined function. For example, a television apparatus comprises, inter alia the following processing means:
a sync separator which separates synchronizing signals from the video signal from which it derives horizontal and vertical deflection signals for a display screen; PA1 a color decoder which splits the television signal into chrominance signals and PA1 a luminance signal from which it generates three elementary color signals R, G and B; PA1 a teletext decoder which regenerates a data signal in the vertical retrace period of the television signal, stores the data of a selected page and reads, decodes and displays these data at a desired picture frequency; PA1 an audio decoder for decoding the audio signal; PA1 an operating circuit.
In the known television receivers said processing means are realized in the form of specially developed integrated circuits (ICs). Each IC has a given processing power for executing the processing operation which is determined to a considerable extent by previously fixed requirements of picture quality, sound quality and convenience of operation. The processing power of an IC becomes manifest in the quantity of chip surface area. The plurality of ICs and peripheral components in the receiver represents the overall processing power of the receiver. This overall processing power is also dependent on the extent to which the receiver has features such as teletext, picture-in-picture, stereo sound and multistandard reception.
The overall processing power of the known television receiver is determined by the sum of the processing power of all processing means. The processing power is fixed as soon as the ICs have been chosen and interconnected and is independent of the fact whether a given processing operation is executed or not executed. The functionality of the known receiver is also fixed invariably.


A telecommunications system includes a first (home) mobile telecommunications network A5 second (roamed) mobile telecommunications network B and a third (virtual) mobile telecommunications network C. The virtual network C does not have its own radio access network but uses the radio access network of network B in accordance with a commercial contract between networks B and C. Network C is a MVNO. When a mobile telecommunications device that has network A as its home network roams to network B, the mobile telecommunications device initially registers with network B as the roamed network. Conventionally, communications between network A and network B would be transmitted via a fixed communication link (25) (such as a leased line). However, in the embodiment described, the network A transmits a command to the mobile telecommunications device, instructing that device to de-register from network B and to re-register with virtual network C. The home network A and the virtual network C include IP routing servers (29,29C) which enable voice over IP calls to be routed between the home network A and the virtual network C via the Internet (31). The calls can subsequently be routed from the virtual network C to the mobile device via the radio access network on network B. In this way, use of the fixed communication link (25) between network A and network B is reduced, thereby potentially reducing the cost of making and receiving calls while roaming.

It is known that a subscriber of a GSM, GPRS or UMTS mobile telecommunications network (their "home network") may use their mobile device when located in the coverage area of a roamed network. An agreement exists between that home network and the roamed network which allows data to be shared therebetween in order to allow appropriate routing of the calls and so that the user of the mobile device can be levied a charge in dependence upon costs incurred by both the home network and the roamed network in handling the call. A fixed communication link, typically a leased telephone line, connects the home network and the roamed network and calls between the networks are routed along this link. The use of such a communication link incurs significant costs for the home network and/or the roamed network, and these are passed on to the user of the mobile device. It is partly these costs that generally make both receiving and making calls while a mobile device is roaming considerably more expensive than other types of call.

Routing communications between telecommunications networks


Exemplary embodiments are directed to wireless power communication. In one aspect a wireless power receiver configured to receive wireless power from a wireless power transmitter is provided. The wireless power receiver includes a switchable element configured to couple a receive coil to a ground voltage. The wireless power receiver further includes a detector coupled to the receive coil and configured to detect an externally generated pulse.

Field
The present invention relates generally to wireless power. More specifically, the present invention relates to methods and devices for communication within a wireless power system.
Background
Approaches are being developed that use over the air power transmission between a transmitter and the device to be charged. These generally fall into two categories. One is based on the coupling of plane wave radiation (also called far-field radiation) between a transmit antenna and receive antenna on the device to be charged which collects the radiated power and rectifies it for charging the battery. Antennas are generally of resonant length in order to improve the coupling efficiency. This approach suffers from the fact that the power coupling falls off quickly with distance between the antennas. So charging over reasonable distances (e.g., >1-2 m) becomes difficult. Additionally, since the system radiates plane waves, unintentional radiation can interfere with other systems if not properly controlled through filtering.
Other approaches are based on inductive coupling between a transmit antenna embedded, for example, in a "charging" mat or surface and a receive antenna plus a rectifying circuit embedded in the host device to be charged. This approach has the disadvantage that the spacing between transmit and receive antennas must be very close (e.g. mms). Though this approach does have the capability to simultaneously charge multiple devices in the same area, this area is typically small, hence the user must locate the devices to a specific area.
In a wireless power system, it may be beneficial for communication between devices to achieve power control for improved system efficiency. For example only, communication may assist in near-field communication (NFC) device detection, rogue receiver detection, and rectifier voltage control. Further, to be compliant with FCC Part 18 regulations, forward link communication in a wireless power system is not allowed, and all reverse links must be passive in terms of load modulation.
Additionally, in order to achieve charge port concurrent continuous charging for multiple devices (e.g., mobile telephones), communication must not interrupt the charging and, therefore, charging and communication should happen concurrently. Moreover, each chargeable devices needs to sync with each other to avoid collision, as there is no forward link to sync the receivers.
A need exists for methods, systems, and devices for enhancing communication between devices within a wireless power system.

Wireless power peer to peer communication


Shaving equipment which includes a mirror, a first attachment device for releasably attaching the mirror to a wall or the like, and a second attachment device for releasably attaching a razor to the equipment. The first and second attachment devices are disposed respectively behind and in front of the mirror. Preferably, the first attachment device, for example a sucker, is hidden from normal view.

This invention relates to shaving equipment.
It is, of course, commonplace to use a glass mirror permanently mounted on a wall or bathroom cabinet as a shaving mirror. Also, portable glass shaving mirrors are known which can be stood on a shelf or ledge. However, these known portable shaving mirrors are of little use if a suitable shelf or ledge is not available, for example in a shower, and furthermore, in this case, there may be nowhere close to hand to put the razor after a shave. Also, these known mirrors are prone to misting up in a bathroom atmosphere.
This invention is more particularly concerned with shaving equipment of the type comprising a mirror, first means for releasably attaching the mirror to a wall or the like, and second means for releasably attaching a razor to the equipment.
An example of such equipment is known from patent specification U.S. Pat. No. 4,655,559. In that known equipment, the mirror is provided on the front of a reservoir, from the bottom of which a pin projects. The pin fits into a socket in a bracket which is connected by a ball and socket joint to a sucker for attachment to a wall. The bracket also has a rack for holding a grooming article, such as a razor. By disconnecting the pin and socket joint, the mirrored reservoir can be removed for emptying and recharging with hot water to reduce the tendency of the mirror to fog-up. The equipment of U.S. Pat. No. 4,655,559 is complicated and is not particularly aesthetically pleasing. Also, the pin and socket connection provides a weak link susceptible to breakage.
In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, shaving equipment of the general type mentioned above is characterised in that the first and second attaching means are disposed respectively behind and in front of the mirror. Accordingly, the first attaching means (to the wall or the like) can be hidden from normal view.
Preferably, the first and second attaching means are attached to the mirror at or adjacent the same location on the mirror, and, in particular, the first attaching means may comprise a member which passes through a hole in the mirror and also forms at least part of the second attaching means. This therefore provides a simple rugged and reliable construction, it being simpler to provide a hole through the mirror rather than a projecting pin as in U.S. Pat. No. 4,655,559.
In one embodiment, the member has a sucker portion behind the mirror for attachment to a wall or the like, a stem portion which passes through the hole in the mirror, and a loop or hook portion in front of the mirror to which a razor can be attached. The sucker can therefore be hidden from normal view, leaving just the mirror and the loop or hook portion visible.
In another embodiment, the member has a sucker portion behind the mirror for attachment to a wall or the like, a stem portion which passes through a hole in the mirror, and means for attaching the stem portion to a razor cassette in front of the mirror to which a razor can be attached. Again, therefore, the sucker can be hidden from normal view, leaving just the mirror and razor cassette visible. In this embodiment, the means for attaching the stem portion to the razor cassette may conveniently comprise a further sucker in front of the mirror, or a tab which can be secured through a slot in the razor cassette.
For simplicity, the member may be a one piece element. Alternatively, the first and second elements may be joined in the region of the stem portion.
In the case where a sucker is provided, a venting means may also be provided to facilitate release of the sucker from the wall, rather than requiring the sucker simply to be ripped away from the wall. Once released, the equipment may be held under the shower or other hot water supply for a few seconds and then re-attached to the wall. It has been found that, when used in a shower, holding the mirror under the shower for about five seconds will heat the mirror sufficiently to prevent it fogging up for the time taken to have a shave.
For stability, the first and second attaching means may be disposed towards the top of the mirror, unlike the equipment of U.S. Pat. No. 4,655,559 which is top heavy.
As mentioned above, in the equipment of U.S. Pat. No. 4,655,559, a razor can be hung on a rack, and the rack is shown as a pair of lugs.
In accordance with a second aspect of the present invention, shaving equipment of the general type mentioned above is characterised in that the second attaching means comprises a cassette for a plurality of razor heads and to which an assembly of a razor head and razor handle can be attached. This second aspect of the invention therefore takes advantage of the popularity of razor assemblies of this type, for which replacement heads are sold in a cassette, to provide not only for attachment of the razor to the mirror, but also for storage of spare razor heads in a convenient place, i.e. by the mirror.
In one embodiment of the first aspect of the invention, the razor cassette is held to the mirror by a further sucker or a tab. Such means may be used in the second aspect of the invention, or alternatively the cassette may be attached to the mirror by a double sucker. Alternatively, in the second aspect of the invention, the first attaching means (for attaching the mirror to the wall or the like) may comprise a wall tile having a recess to receive the mirror, and the tile may have a second recess to receive the razor cassette.
In both aspects of the present invention, the mirror may be a simple plate-like mirror, there being no necessity for the complication of providing a reservoir behind the mirror as in U.S. Pat. No. 4,655,559.


A temperature measuring apparatus or device for measuring the temperature of an object or a series of closely adjacent objects through the measurement of relative infrared radiation is normally referred to as an infrared thermometer. Known infrared thermometers can be modified so as to be useful in making stress-degree measurements as are needed in determining when plants or crops should be watered or irrigated by including within such devices a temperature detector capable of providing an electrical signal. Such modified thermometers include a circuit which relates the signal produced by the temperature detector to the signal produced by the infrared radiation detector used in such a device so as to display the difference between the temperature detected by the infrared detector used and the temperature detected by the temperature detector.

The invention set forth in this specification pertains to new and improved infrared thermometers which are primarily intended for use in making stress-degree measurements for irrigation purposes.
So-called infrared thermometers are in effect temperature measuring apparatuses or devices for use in measuring the temperature of an object or a series of closely adjacent objects through the measuring of relative infrared radiation levels by the use of an infrared detector--frequently a thermopile. In these devices a circuit is used to convert the signal produced by the infrared detector and associated circuitry such as, for example, an amplifier and a linearization circuit, into an output signal capable of indicating a numerical value. This output signal is then utilized in a meter type structure such as a digital display or a known meter movement in order to indicate a numerical temperature value.
The temperature indicated corresponds to the temperature of an object or a series of objects as indicated by the relative levels of radiation of such an object or series of objects and of the infrared detector itself. Such infrared thermometers are considered to be very desirable for many purposes. They normally are constructed as hand-held, gun-like instruments which can be easily and conveniently used.
Unfortunately such infrared thermometers do not fulfill a current need for devices which can simply and easily make stress-degree measurements as are required or desirable for a number of agricultural applications. These measurements require a comparison of the temperature of a plant or of a crop canopy with the ambient temperature adjacent to the plant or crop canopy. Such a comparison is desirable in determining whether or not a plant or crop is "stressed" in the sense that it is not transpiring a desired amount of water vapor.
Normally the transpiration of water vapor by a plant lowers the temperature of the plant with respect to the surrounding air temperature. Normally the amount of water that a plant transpires is related to the amount of moisture available to the root system of the plant. Hence, the need for watering or irrigating a plant or a crop can be determined by the differential between the temperature of the plant or crop and the temperature of the ambient air. This differential may be expressed in temperature--degrees or stress-degrees.
Such stress-degrees are normally considered with reference to the number of days when a plant is experiencing moisture stress as the result of inadequate moisture being available to the roots of a plant so as to obtain a composite figure indicating when a plant or crop should be watered or irrigated. The resultant stress-degree-day figure as obtained with reference to the temperature differential between the plant or crop and the ambient air on a number of successive days is important for irrigation and similar watering purposes. Although plants can withstand comparatively restricted periods of a comparatively large amount of moisture stress, the total amount of moisture stress experienced by a plant or crop over a period can have significant effects upon plant growth or yield.
The need for new and improved infrared thermometers in accordance with the invention for making stress-degree measurements is related to the fact that such measurements should be capable of being easily and conveniently made. In the past such stress-degree measurements have been made utilizing both known infrared thermometers and conventional ambient air measuring devices such as conventional mercury thermometers and the like. Such use of two different items of measuring equipment to obtain stress-degree measurements is disadvantageous. With such use of two different items of measuring equipment a limited amount of arithmetic is required. Such arithmatic computations as required while not significantly difficult for many individuals, have proved undesirable because of the frequency of errors. Frequently those employed to make stress-degree measurements can be best described as not being overly literate.

Infrared thermometer in making stress-degree measurements for irrigation purposes


A method is disclosed for supporting sequential batch applications within a data processing system which permits the continued enumeration of a sequence of objects across a transaction commit, roll-back or system failure. A query is defined which specified a set of objects and a named cursor is associated with the query, each cursor including at least one scan which may be utilized to evaluate and enumerate the query. Selected cursors may be designated as persistent cursors and stored, along with the state of any associated scan(s) and a query evaluation state in a persistent cursor table (PCT) in response to a transaction commit. Thereafter, the evaluation and enumeration of the query may be reestablished at the point of a persistent cursor by utilizing the information stored within the persistent cursor table (PCT). In the event of a subsequent rollback of a transaction prior to the next commit point the query may be reestablished at the previous commit point utilizing the information stored within the persistent cursor table (PCT). A cursor may also be designated as a restartable cursor and stored, along with all information within the persistent cursor table (PCT), in non-volatile memory. Thereafter, in the event of a system failure the evaluation and enumeration of the query may be reestablished at the point of a restartable cursor by utilizing the information stored within non-volatile memory.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to the field of database applications and in particular to the field of database applications which support sequential batch applications. Still more particularly the present invention relates to database applications which support sequential batch applications and permit the continued evaluation and enumeration of a sequence of objects across a transaction commit, roll-back or system failure.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The storage and manipulation of data records or objects within a database application is well known in the prior art. As database applications have become larger and more complex a problem has arisen with regard to the need to apply application processing operations to a large set of data objects.
In database applications the objects which require processing are specified utilizing a non-procedural, relational calculus expression known as a "query." A named "cursor" may be associated with a query and utilized to evaluate and enumerate the query by operations known as "open" and "fetch." Typically, a plan is generated and utilized to map these cursor operations to lower level operations which operate on single relations within the database.
Examples of lower level operations include "scans" and the creation of so-called "temporary relations." Scans are enumerators over sequential access paths of single relations. An access path may comprise a sequential access scan through the records of a table in physical or numerical order, or an index scan through the keys of an index. A temporary relation contains or buffers those intermediate results which are utilized by the query plan in the construction of the query result set.
At any given time the state of an active cursor in a database application is embodied in the state of any associated temporary relations and the position of one or more access path scans. Cursor state also includes control status which may be utilized to track the progress of the query plan. In most database applications cursors are closed at the termination of a transaction. That is, upon the achievement of a state of atomicity a transaction may "commit" and release all underlying scans, temporary relations and locks associated with all cursors rendering any changes permanent. Similarly, if a transaction is terminated prior to achieving atomicity, the state of all activities therein will be "rolled-back", utilizing temporary log entries, to return the database to the previous state of atomicity represented by the last "commit."
As a result of the necessity of maintaining the atomicity of a database, a problem exists when a large number of operations must be processed. Under systems known in the prior art the entire number of records to be processed must be "locked" and maintained in that condition until all processing is complete. While this method permits some assurances that a large number of operations may be successfully accomplished, concurrent access to those records by others is prohibited during such operations.
As a result of the above several systems have been proposed in an attempt to permit the processing of a large batch of records without disrupting real time, on-line transaction processing. For example, a mechanism known as "Commit Hold" has been proposed which allows a database application to hold the locks associated with selected scans across a transaction boundary. However, there exists no method specified within this system which permits the application to specify which scans should be held. More seriously, scan positions in this system are lost in the event of a transaction roll-back. Since a roll-back may be initiated by the system without operator input the "Commit Hold" system is not generally useful.
In "Consistency of Transactions and Random Batch", ACM Transactions on Database Systems, Volume 11, Number 4, Dec. 1986, a system was proposed which constrains the ordering of batch application accesses relative to the accesses of on-line applications. This method ensures serializable execution for all involved; however, it requires a very careful synchronization between batch and on-line applications. A failure in the synchronization area within this system may result in a roll-back in either the batch or on-line application.
In View of the above it should be clear that a need exists for a database application system which permits the processing of large numbers of objects without disrupting real time, on-line transaction processing by allowing the batch application to frequently commit updates and release locks while continuing to process a set of objects defined by a query.

Method and system for supporting concurrent use during sequential batch applications utilizing persistent cursors

International Business Machines Corporation


A liquid developer apparatus comprises a developer unit for applying a liquid developer to an electrostatic latent image formed on a recording medium, and a switch circuit for selectively outputting to the developer unit one of a first bias voltage and a second bias voltage which has the same polarity as that of the electrostatic latent image and is higher than the first bias voltage. The switch circuit outputs the second bias voltage during a predetermined period of time other than a period of time in which the electrostatic latent image is developed.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a liquid developer apparatus and method for bringing a liquid developer into contact with a recording medium having an electrostatic latent image, and more particularly to a liquid developer apparatus and method with a function for removing surplus toner in a liquid developer and cleaning the apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
A liquid developer apparatus for forming an electrostatic latent image on a recording sheet such as a recording paper sheet, and developing the image on the recording sheet with the use of a liquid developer containing toner has conventionally been used as a recording apparatus for recording an image on a recording sheet of a large size such as "A0" size.
Such a conventional liquid developer apparatus is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Application KOKAI Publication No. 1-185569. This apparatus has a single electrostatic recording head and a plurality of liquid developer units for liquid developers of different colors. In the apparatus, a color image is recorded on a recording paper sheet by reciprocating the sheet.
In general, to develop, by a developer apparatus, an electrostatic latent image of a minus potential recorded on a recording medium, a liquid developer containing a toner charged with plus electricity is used. In this case, application of a minus voltage to the developer unit prevents movement of plus electricity-charged toner particles toward an image background portion of the recording medium, thereby preventing occurrence of fog in the background portion.
However, there is a case where the liquid developer contains toner particles charged with electricity of an opposite polarity (i.e. a minus potential) because of insufficient adjustment of electric characteristics. Furthermore, the liquid developer may gradually deteriorate with the passing of time, resulting in an increase in the amount of toner particles charged with electricity of the opposite polarity. Thus, if a minus voltage is applied to the developer unit which receives a liquid developer containing both toner particles charged with electricity of a predetermined polarity and those charged with electricity of a polarity opposite to the former, the toner particles charged with electricity of the opposite polarity, i.e. charged with minus electricity, repel the developer unit charged with minus electricity, and stick to the electrostatic recording paper sheet, thereby increasing the degree of fog in the image background portion.
Moreover, there is a developer unit with a developer groove formed in its upper surface, which groove serves as a passage of a liquid developer when a recording paper sheet has been placed on the developer unit to close the groove. In this developer unit, that portion of the upper surface of the unit which contacts the recording paper sheet serves as a developer electrode. Toner particles between the upper surface and the recording paper sheet are attracted by the recording paper sheet and adhered thereto when an electrostatic latent image has been formed thereon. Therefore, when that portion of the recording paper sheet which has a high potential has passed a corresponding upper surface portion of the developer unit, toner particles on the corresponding upper surface portion are completely removed, and the corresponding upper surface portion has its metal ground exposed (in other words, the upper surface portion is cleaned).
On the other hand, toner particles remain on that upper surface portion of the developer unit on which the high potential portion of the recording paper sheet has not passed. If in this state, the developer unit is moved downward and separated from the recording paper sheet, the toner particles remain on the unit, and stick thereto after the solvent of the developer evaporates. Where toner particles cover part of the upper surface of the developer unit, the characteristics of the developer unit as a developer electrode are degraded, and an image formed on that portion of the recording paper sheet which corresponds to the toner-covered portion of the developer unit will inevitably have a low toner concentration.
If a different image is recorded on a new recording paper sheet by means of the above-described partially toner-coated developer unit, that portion of the image which corresponds to the completely toner-removed portion of the developer unit has a high toner concentration, and the other portion of the image has a low toner concentration. This means that the newly recorded image is influenced by the previously recorded image.

Liquid developer apparatus and method using two different bias voltages for preventing fog in the background of an image


A collision-avoidance safety apparatus for a car has a reaction force absorber for absorbing at least some of a reaction force of an impact of an object upon the car pivotally mounted on a supporting component fixed to a frame of the car. The reaction force absorber is a swinging component having an up end with a steel or hard rubber plate and a spring mounted thereon. It is attached to the supporting component by a middle portion inserted into a hole in the supporting component. A down end with a wheel mounted thereon contacts the ground when a force acts on the up end.

The increasing number of accidents of car traffic, particularly on highways, has caused various specialists to design special fixtures installed at the front or back of a car to reduce accident casualties. According to Newton's Third Law, an action force acting on a structure imparts a reaction force equal in magnitude, but opposite in direction. The conventional safety fixtures are scarcely successful in reducing damage, as the reaction force is still reflected directly to this fixture and to the car.

Collision-avoidance safety apparatus for a car