The present invention provides radiation synovectomy compositions for treating inflamed synovium containing a radionuclide complex bound to a substantially insoluble particle as the radiolabelled synovectomy agent in a sufficient amount of provide satisfactory synovectomy of the inflamed synovium together with a pharmaceutically acceptable vehicle, the radionuclide being a beta emitter that will substantially ablate the inflamed synovium, but not significantly damage underlying articular cartilage, the radionuclide complex being substantially kinetically stable, and if said radionuclide or radionuclide complex leaks from said joint it will be excreted from the body, the agent having a particle size such that there is essentially little or no leakage of the radionuclide complex from the joint after administration.

The present invention relates to new radiation synovectomy compositions and to the use of such compositions. Certain of the compositions and their methods of preparation are also new.
Over two million people in the United States suffer from rheumatoid arthritis. The major cause of pain and physical disability for these individuals comes from destruction of the diarthroidal or synovial joints. The disease will involve the hands (metacarpophalangeal joints), elbows, wrists, ankles and shoulders for most of these patients, and over half will have affected knee joints. Untreated, the joint linings become increasingly inflamed resulting in pain, loss of motion and destruction of articular cartilage. One medical therapy applied to this disease involves the use of chemicals to attack and destroy the inflamed synovium (chemical synovectomy); however, the agents employed are highly systemically and locally toxic and capable of damaging articular cartilage. Similar toxicity concerns arise when repeated injections of corticoid steroids are used. In several cases where chemical therapy has failed, surgery is employed to remove the inflamed joint lining (surgical synovectomy). However, the difficulty of removing all the diseased synovium often leads to regrowth with recurrence of symptoms. If surgery is successful, freedom from symptoms usually lasts two to five years. When the symptoms reappear, surgical reintervention is not an option due to the presence of fibrosis and scar tissue which result from the previous surgery.
Radiation synovectomy has been used in Europe for many years to substantially ablate or destroy the inflamed synovium. The procedure is simple, involving only the injection of a radionuclide of the appropriate characteristics into the synovial cavity. The primary disadvantage of this technique has been the unacceptable radiation doses to non-target organ systems due to leakage of radioactive material from the cavity and difficulty in delivering a .beta.-particle of the appropriate energy for the size joint being treated. The chemical nature of current radiation synovectomy agents is such that leaked materials tend to be retained by liver, spleen and lymph nodes. The leakage problem is often due either to the difficulty of formulating the correct particle size or to lack of a tight binding of the nuclide to the particle. Another disadvantage is the use of radionuclides that don't have the appropriate beta energy to treat the inflamed synovium.
A radiation synovectomy agent that, would not have the foregoing disadvantages would have the following characteristics:
1. The radionuclide used in the agent should have a beta energy sufficient to penetrate and ablate the enlarged synovial tissues, but not so great as to damage underlying articular cartilage or overlying skin. Any accompanying radiation should not generate an unacceptable extraneous radiation dose to the patent. The nuclide used may vary depending on the size of the joint and the beta energy necessary to ablate the synovial tissues in that joint.
2. The radionuclide should be attached to a particle of sufficient size so that it will not leak to any great extent from the diseased joint but still be able to be phagocytized in the synovium of the joint.
3. The binding between the radionuclide and the particle should be essentially irreversible through the course of radiotherapy (usually this duration of therapy is determined by the half life of the particular isotope).
4. The particle should preferably be biodegradable, i.e., it should be removable from the joint by the normal biological degradation mechanisms in the joint, itself, and should be cleared from the body in standard ways in a rapid manner with little or no toxicological effects.
5. If radioactive material should leak from the synovial cavity, the radionuclide should be released in a chemical form that rapidly egresses from the body, as for example, an anion which is excreted efficiently through the renal system. Preferably, the radionuclide would stay attached to a chelate or some portion of the degraded particle if this would facilitate clearance from the body.
An object of the present invention is to provide radiation synovectomy compositions containing a radiation synovectomy agent meeting substantially all of the foregoing criteria.
This invention relates to a radiation synovectomy composition for treating, e.g., by ablation, the inflamed synovium of a synovial joint of a person suffering from rheumatoid arthritis. It comprises a radionuclide or radionuclide complex bound to a substantially insoluble particle as the radiation synovectomy agent in a sufficient amount to provide satisfactory synovectomy when administered with a pharmaceutically acceptable radiation synovectomy vehicle. The radionuclide is a beta emitter that would substantially ablate or destroy the diseased synovium, but will not significantly damage underlying articular cartilages or overlying skin. The radionuclide complex is substantially kinetically stable, but should degradation lead to leakage from the joint after administration, the radioactive material will rapidly clear from the body. A substantially kinetically stable complex as known to those skilled in the art is a complex which under normal biological conditions is kinetically stable, but not necessarily 100 percent kinetically stable in each and every patient application since biological systems vary somewhat. However, the necessary stability of the complex is determinant upon the half-life of the radioisotope being used. After the isotope has decayed to the point of being insignificant, the stability of the complex is no longer important. The particle size of the agent is of sufficient size such that there is essentially little or no leakage of the intact radionuclide complex-particle unit from the synovial joint after administration. Additionally, the size and properties of the particle can be defined and controlled before it is bound to the radionuclide complex resulting in an agent having good synovectomy properties. Also, the binding of the radionuclide complex can be controlled resulting in better reproductivity and more complete binding and better in vivo clearance.
A further feature of the present invention is the use of the radiation synovectomy compositions to treat inflamed synovia of people afflicted with rheumatoid arthritis. Another feature of the present invention is directed to novel radiation synovectomy agents. Another feature of the present invention is that by the nature of the labelling process, any in vivo decomposition that generates joint leakage produces radioactive materials in a form that clear rapidly from the body.
As mentioned, the radiation agent comprises a substantially insoluble particle which is of suitable size as to not substantially leak from the joint after administration. Normally, the size may be from approximately 0.5 to 40 microns. These particles are preferably biodegradable (but can also be degradable by other mechanisms) and not prone to aggregation under the conditions used to prepare or store the radiation synovectomy agent. The particle should have a density of approximately 0.7 to 2.0 gm/ml, preferably from 0.7 to 3.5 gm/ml, and should be suspendable in pharmaceutically acceptable vehicles. Some of the material from which such particles can be made include latex, derivatized polystyrene, silica, alumina, albumin (such as albumin microspheres), other proteins, polycarbonates, cellulose and inorganics, e.g., sulfur (colloid) glass (beads), hydroxyapatites, calcium phosphates or calcium pyrophosphates. For purposes of this application, the term "hydroxyapatite(s)" shall include materials known as hydroxyapatite(s) and also as hydroxylapatite(s). These two terms have been used previously in the literature to refer to the same materials. Examples of hydroxyapatites for this application include matrix prepared from the bones and or teeth of animals and matrix prepared by inorganic synthesis, each being more amorphous than crystalline in composition. This includes calcium-hydroxy-hexaphosphate (3(Ca.sub.3 (PO.sub.4)2)Ca(OH).sub.2 ; also given as 2[Ca.sub.5 (PO.sub.4).sub.3 OH]). The particles have sites on the surface that permit absorption or covalent binding of the radionuclide or radionuclide complex. Such sites can include but are not limited to--NH.sub.2, --SH, --OH, >C.dbd.O, calcium, hydroxyl, phosphate and similar such sites, and hydrophobic or hydrophilic regions or pockets. In addition to being insoluble, the particles must be non-toxic and preferably non-allergenic. Preferred particles include albumin microspheres, sulfur colloid, hydroxyapatite and hydroxyapatite-like matrix.
When using hydroxyapatite or hydroxyapatite-like matrix, the particle size thereof becomes important. This is because of reports that hydroxyapatite particles may become phagocytosed and solubilized by synovial fibroblasts. In particular, it is believed that the hydroxyapatite particles are first solubilized by phagocytosis and then dissolved in the acidic environment of secondary lyposomes.
Therefore, it is necessary to establish means to maintain the hydroxyapatite of the radiation synovectomy agent for an effective period of time in the synovial cavity. In particular, the rate of solubilization of the hydroxyapatite should optimally be much slower than the half-life of the radioisotope used in the radiation synovectomy agent. In this manner, the radioisotope may completely decay before dissolution of the hydroxyapatite particle. It has been determined that the rate of solubilization and dissolution of hydroxyapatite is a function of particle size, wherein smaller particles are more quickly phagocytosed and dissolved than larger particles. A complete study of rate of solubilization and dissolution as a function of particle size for hydroxyapatite particles has not yet been carried out. However, studies have suprisingly shown that there is no significant lower limit on particle size. In particular, there have been no problems associated with leakage regardless of particle size. For practicle purposes, a particle size of 0.5 microns or greater is preferred, however, smaller particle sizes would be acceptable. It is believed that this is because of the relatively high charge of hydroxyapatite and the tendency of hydroxyapatite particles to aggregate.
Maximum particle size is approximately 40 microns. If particles are too large, e.g. greater than 40 microns, the particles can not be surrounded by cells and will not be easily phagocytosed and dissolved. This can disadvantagously cause dead fibrous areas too occur in the synovium.
In light of the above, when using hydroxyapatite particles as the particles of the radiation synovectomy agent according to the present invention, it is desirable that the hydroxyapatite particles have a particle size of 0.5 to 40 microns.
The radioisotopes that can be used are those that emit beta particles and are such that after administration will ablate the diseased synovium but will not significantly damage the underlying articular cartilage or overlying skin. These isotopes should have an average beta energy between 0.25-2.75 Mev, with or without an imageable gamma ray, with mean soft tissue penetration of about 0.70 and 25.0 mm, and with a half-life of between 0.05 and 700 hours. Examples of preferred beta emitting isotopes include 198-Au, 188-Re, 186-Re, 177-Lu, 176m-Lu, 175-Yb, 169-Er, 166-Ho, 165-Dy, 156-Sm, 153-Sm, 115m-In, 105-Rh, 90-Y, 51-Cr, 77-As, 67-Cu and 32-P, in addition to others of the lanthanide group such as, 141-Ce, 144-Pr, 147-Nd, 148-Pm, 152-Eu, 153-Gd, 157-Tb and 170-Tm. Preferably the isotope would either have an imageable gamma ray or could be doped with an isotope that would contain an imageable gamma ray. This doping isotope could be of the same or different element providing that its chemistry is sufficiently similar to the beta emitting isotope so that its biodistribution in the present use would be close or identical to the beta emitter. Preferred isotopes include: 186-Re, 188-Re, 90-Y, 153-Sm, 77-As, 105-Rh, 177-Lu, 176m-Lu and 166-Ho.
The radionuclide complexes that can be used are those that are stable before and after administration to the synovium joint. Additionally, if such complex leaks from the joint it will be rapidly cleared from the body. This will be the case even if the complex becomes separated from the insoluble particle. The complexes are formed by complexing the radionuclide under complexing conditions with a suitable ligand to provide a complex with the foregoing properties. Ligands that can be used are preferably polydentate, i.e., containing more than two coordinating atoms per ligand molecule. A coordinating atom is defined as one that has a free pair of electrons which can be bonded to the radionuclide. This atom is preferably separated by two or more atoms from any other coordinating atom. The coordinating atoms are chosen from nitrogen, oxygen, sulfur, phosphorus or carbon with nitrogen and/or oxygen and/or sulfur being the preferred coordinating atoms. Examples of chelates include all phosphonate carboxylate and amine carboxylate ligands, MAG.sub.3 (mercaptoacetylglycylglycylglycine), all polycarboxylic acid-amine ligands especially DTPA (diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid), e.g., EDTA (ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid), DADS (N,N'-bis(mercaptoacetamido)ethylenediamine and CO.sub.2 -DADS N,N'-bis(mercaptoacetamido)-2,3-diaminopropanoic acid) and their derivatives (see European Application 0173424 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,673,562), mono- and poly-phosphonates, BATs (N,N'-bis(2-mercaptoethyl)ethylene-diamine) and derivatives (see European Applications 0163119 and 0200211), thiosemicarbazones, PnAO and other amine-oxime ligands (See European Applications 0123504 and 0194843), marcocyclic and open chain tetra-, penta-, hexa-, hepta- and octacoordinating nitrogen-containing compounds with or without other coordinating atoms or unsaturation. Examples of preferred phosphonate ligands include but are not limited to those specified in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,234,562; 3,983,227; 4,497,744; 4,233,284; 4,232,000; 4,229,427; and 4,504,463; preferably HEDP (hydroxyethyldiphosphonate), PYP (pyrophosphate), EDTMP (ethylenediaminetetramethylphosphate), and HMDP (hydroxymethylenediphosphonate).
Other ligands include MAG.sub.3, DTPA, BAT, DADS and PnAO type ligands which have been modified so that they are bifunctional, i.e., can coordinate the radionuclide and also be coupled to the particle. Preferred complexes include: MAG.sub.3, DADS, hydroxyapatite or hydroxyapatite-like matrix complexed with 186-Re, 188-Re, 105-Rh, 153-Sm or 156-Sm.
The radiation agent of this invention can be prepared by attaching or binding to the particle the desired isotope under standard conditions for attachment. This involves coupling a ligand (either with or without a radioactive atom) to the particle with or without the presence of a spacer between the two units. Generally, the coupling can be done by any group(s) attached to the ligand that is (are) not crucial for complexing the radioisotope in a stable manner. This coupling portion of the ligand may consist of any group that can easily and specifically bind covalently to functional groups on the particle or that may simply adsorb very strongly to the surface of the particle. Examples of the covalent coupling would include aminocarboxylate, carboxylate or phosphonate ligands which would combine with Ca.sup.2+ at or near the surface of the particle, activated esters of carboxylic acids which would combine covalently to amine groups, to sylates and acid halides which would combine with OH groups and maleimides which would combine with thiol groups, with the thiol, amine and OH groups assumed to be at or near the surface of the particle.
The following methods of preparing the desired radiation synovectomy agent may be used:
(a) The pre-formed method: One of the previously described radionuclide complexes is covalently bonded to one of the previously described particles having functional groups. Step one--a particle of the optimal size, (e.g., 1-10 microns, 5-50 microns) and composition (e.g., hydroxyapatite, hydroxyapatite-like matrix, albumin, polycarbonate, cellulose, glass, latex) and having appropriate residues (amines, hydroxyls, hydroxide, phosphate, carboxylates, thiols) is selected. Step two--a radioisotope (of the appropriate nuclear characteristics) which has been incorporated into a ligand (i.e., a radionuclide complex) is covalently bonded to the particle.
(b) The post-formed method: A ligand is covalently bonded to one of the previously described particles. Thereafter, one of the previously described radioisotopes is incorporated into the covalently bonded complexing ligand, after the radionuclide has been treated in such a way, e.g., using a transfer ligand such as citrate or tartarate to facilitate transfer of the radionuclide to the ligand, to make it bind more readily to the ligand.

Radionuclide labelled particles useful for radiation synovectomy


An interconnection network is provided with switch devices for computers for a plurality of computers, respectively, a predetermined number of physical lines for switch devices for computers are bound to form each of logical lines, the physical lines forming the logical lines interconnect the other switch devices for computer via a plurality of switch devices for relay to form a parallel computer system. When a data transmission speed required between the computers is judged to be lower than a line transmission speed determined by the number of physical lines of any switch device for relay, switch setting-off unit turns off power of the whole switch device for relay that has been judged to shut off the switch device for relay from the interconnection network.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a network management method, a program, and a system that manage an interconnection network constructing a parallel computer system in which a plurality of computers are interconnected by switch devices, and more particularly to a network management method, a program, and a system for an interconnection network that enhances line transmission speed (band) by disguising a plurality of physical lines connecting switch devices mutually as one logical line by binding them.
2. Description of the Related Arts
Conventionally, a parallel computer system such as cluster system is constructed using an interconnection network (interconnect) that interconnects a number of computers via switch devices that has a line transmission speed in gigabit order. When the number of computers constructing a parallel computer system is large, it is often the case that a number of switch devices are used in an interconnection network (interconnect) connecting each computer and line transmission speed is enhanced by providing a plurality of lines between the switch devices and logically disguising them as one line so that the line transmission speed (bit rate bps) between the switch devices does not become a bottleneck. The technique in which a plurality of physical lines are bound and disguised logically as one line is called trunking (JP2002-232427). It should be noted that, since line transmission speed defined by bit rate (bps) has a relation that it is increased according to the band expansion of line, the line transmission speed is customarily expressed as line band, and, for example, the expression that line band is broadened (expanded) means line transmission speed becomes higher. Further, in a parallel computer system, many power conservation techniques are applied to components such as processor, memory, and hard disk drive that construct an individual computer. On the other hand, switch devices constructing a network connecting a plurality of computers are in an energized condition at all times and operated in a state that data transmission is always provided at the maximum data transmission speed determined by line transmission speed. Furthermore, as a mode to conserve power consumption of switch devices forming a network, a mode in which disabling and enabling of port function portion are carried out by monitoring arrival of packets is proposed (JA2001-320415).
However, in such a conventional interconnection network where trunking that a plurality of physical lines are disguised as one logical line by binding them is carried out, in many cases, time required for the maximum data transmission speed corresponding to a line transmission speed is short, time is mostly taken for communication at data transmission speed lower than a line transmission speed, and an excessive line communication speed is offered with respect to a required data transmission speed. For example, in JP2002-232427, the line transmission speed is enhanced by providing a plurality of physical lines between switches; however, even when the communication amount is small, the small amount of communication is intended to be uniformly allocated to a plurality of the physical lines, and therefore, the data transmission speed becomes lower with respect to the line transmission speed of the physical lines, which is wasteful. Nevertheless, since all the port portions are operated, power conservation cannot be expected. Further, the mode in JA2001-320415 that disabling and enabling of a port portion are carried out according to the monitoring of arrival of packets gives rise to a problem that, when a port portion is disabled, the network form is deformed because of the logical complete shutting-off of the lines, thereby giving a large side effect to the system.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Network management method, program, and system


A technology for distributing a content to wireless portable terminals through P2P by using a short-haul radio scheme. A wireless terminal detects another wireless terminal capable of communicating with the first wireless terminal, receives a content, receives control information on the content, and carries out control according to the control information. The present invention wherein communication reflects the intention of the content providing side since wireless terminals perform communication according to the control information, a content distributing method, a wireless terminal, a content distribution program, and a content distribution system are disclosed.

The present invention relates to a technology for distributing content to wireless portable terminals by using a short-haul radio scheme or the like such as Blue-tooth (registered trademark) or IEEE 802.11/802.11b.
With speeding-up of a radio technology, it is now possible to transfer content such as music or videos to a wireless terminal such as a portable telephone within a relatively short time. In fact, services for distributing such content to a wireless terminal have been rendered (Patent Documents 1 to 4).
This has been accompanied by use of the wireless terminal such as a portable telephone as an advertisement medium. At present, the advertisement using the portable telephone includes "Mobile Advertisement". The Mobile Advertisement is designed to distribute characters/images as ads by electronic mail to the portable telephone connectable to Internet.
Additionally, as shown in FIG. 8, because of a P2P (Peer to Peer: network type which needs no servers and through which clients directly communicate with each other), a system for realizing content distribution by communication between portable terminals is now a focus of attention.
For example, a communication system for emitting electric waves to detect a terminal located nearby, and relaying data by dynamically setting routes has been provided (Non-patent Document 1).
[Patent Document 1]JP 2002-163182 A[Patent Document 2]JP 2001-523025 A[Patent Document 3]JP 2000-83024 A[Patent Document 4]JP 2002-259584
[Non-Patent Document 1] Reported by okada, Apr. 12, 2002, Impress Corporation, "INTERNET Watch" Editorial Department, retrieved from the Internet on Jan. 20, 2003 <http://www.watch. impress.co.jp/internet/www/article/2002/0412/p2pc3.htm>


A data encoding apparatus, applicable for example to a facsimile apparatus, increases the degree of image data compression that can be achieved by a variable length encoding scheme, by limiting the maximum amount of data outputted from the encoding apparatus for each scan line to the amount of unencoded image data in a scan line. Generation of increased amounts of data in the case of certain types of image content, as a result of the variable length encoding, is thereby eliminated with a consequent increase in encoding efficiency.

1. Field of Applicable Technology
The present invention relates to an image data encoding apparatus for converting image data to compressed form, for use in the data transmission section of a facsimile apparatus, etc. In particular, the invention relates to an image data encoding apparatus of the type in which increased encoding efficiency is achieved by a variable-length encoding method.
2. Description of the Related Art
With a prior art image data encoding apparatus of this type, image data derived by converting an original image to successive data values extending along successive scan lines (e.g. with the scan lines being horizontal and occurring successively along the vertical direction) are encoded using variable length code, e.g. a one-dimensional encoding arrangement such as the Modified Huffman (MH) code or a two-dimensional encoding arrangement such as the Modified Read (MR) code. The MH and MR codes are described in the CCITT Recommendation T.4 (pages 22 to 34), being designated therein as a one-dimensional run length coding scheme and a two-dimensional coding scheme respectively. In the following, for simplicity of description, it will be assumed that each data value of the image data is a single bit, representing one of two possible colors (e.g. the white or black states) of a bi-level picture element, with such a picture element being referred to as a dot. With such encoding, a variable-length code table of the form shown in FIG. 1 is utilized to obtain increased encoding efficiency. FIG. 1 is a code table for the MH encoding scheme mentioned above. In the image data that are to be encoded, a succession of dots which are the same color is referred to as a "run", and each run is encoded as a single predetermined code. For example, if there is a run of four successive white dots in the image data to be encoded, then that will be expressed by the code 1011 in the encoded data, whereas a run of four successive black dots will be expressed by the code 011. Such an encoding method generally provides compression of the amount of data which are outputted from the encoding apparatus, by comparison with the original image data, as is illustrated in the example of FIG. 2. In FIG. 2, an example is shown in which a run of 11 white dots is followed by a run of 3 black dots, with that sequence of 11 white dots and 3 black dots then again occurring, i.e. for a total of 28 bits in the original image data (the latter being referred to in the following as the raw data). Since each run of 11 white dots is expressed by the code 01000 (i.e. five bits) in the encoded data while each run of 3 black dots is expressed by the code 10 (i.e. two bits), it can be seen that the entire 28 bits of raw data can be converted to 14 bits of encoded data, so that the amount of data to be transmitted has been compressed by 14 bits.
Such a variable lengths encoding method however has the disadvantage that in the case of certain types of image, instead of achieving a compression of data by the encoding operation, the amount of encoded data may (at least in some of the scan lines) become substantially greater than the raw data expressing that image. An example of this will be described referring to FIG. 3. In this case, a portion of the raw data for an image is assumed to consist of five dots which are successively white, black, white, black and white, i.e. the run length in each case is 1. An isolated white dot (expressed in the raw data by one bit) is expressed in the encoded data by the code 000111, while a single black dot is encoded as 010. Hence as shown in FIG. 5, the five bits of raw data are expressed by a total of 24 bits in the encoded data, i.e. the amount of data has been increased by 19 bits. It can thus be understood that in the case of an image in which a number of isolated black and white dots occur along some of the scan lines, such a variable length encoding method may result in a considerable increase in the amount of encoded data that is generated for these scan lines, by comparison with the raw data for these scan lines. This is a basic disadvantage of such a prior art image data encoding apparatus.

Image data encoding apparatus providing increased encoding efficiency with reduced dependency on image content

Matsushita Graphic Communication Systems, Inc.


A method and virus for decreasing the levels of the disease-causing protein in Huntington's disease (mhtt) are described. Increased expression of human TXNDC10, and TXN1 in diseased cells decreases levels of toxic mhtt in cell models of disease. Genetically increasing the expression of the genes producing these proteins using viral vectors, or small molecule chemical activators of gene expression or stimulators of enzymatic activity, may be used to treat Huntington's disease in the asymptomatic carrier or affected human. Since other protein misfolding neurodegenerative diseases have many features in common with Huntington's disease, including the structure of the misfolded protein, the present method may be applicable to other protein misfolding neurodegenerative diseases.

Protein misfolding neurodegenerative diseases are placing an increasing burden on society due to the aging population and lack of adequate treatment options. For example, Huntington's disease affects about 30,000 people in the United States, and has a slowly progressive course where patients can live with the condition for 10-20 years before death occurs. Huntington's disease is caused by a CAG repeat expansion within the huntingtin gene which results in a polyglutamine repeat expansion in huntingtin protein (htt). The mutant huntingtin protein (mhtt) misfolds and accumulates primarily in brain neurons where it mediates toxic effects resulting in neuronal dysfunction and loss, which ultimately results in loss of brain functions and disease manifestations such as involuntary movements, lack of coordination, loss of balance, memory loss, and dementia. Decreasing the level of mutant huntingin protein in the brain is predicted to be of therapeutic benefit in Huntington's disease; however, this has not been achieved in human Huntington's disease patients.

Method for reducing protein misfolding and accumulation in Huntington'S disease cells


A radiation system for providing a projection beam of radiation in a lithographic apparatus is disclosed. The radiation system includes an EUV source for providing EUV radiation, and a contamination barrier that includes a plurality of foil plates for trapping contaminant material coming from the EUV source. The foil plates are arranged in an optically closed arrangement so that at least one of the foil plates reflects EUV radiation passing the contamination barrier at least one time.

A lithographic apparatus is a machine that applies a desired pattern onto a substrate, usually onto a target portion of the substrate. A lithographic apparatus can be used, for example, in the manufacture of integrated circuits (ICs). In that instance, a patterning device, which is alternatively referred to as a mask or a reticle, may be used to generate a circuit pattern to be formed on an individual layer of the IC. This pattern can be transferred onto a target portion (e.g. comprising part of, one, or several dies) on a substrate (e.g. a silicon wafer). Transfer of the pattern is typically via imaging onto a layer of radiation-sensitive material (resist) provided on the substrate. In general, a single substrate will contain a network of adjacent target portions that are successively patterned. Known lithographic apparatus include so-called steppers, in which each target portion is irradiated by exposing an entire pattern onto the target portion at one time, and so-called scanners, in which each target portion is irradiated by scanning the pattern through a radiation beam in a given direction (the "scanning"-direction), while synchronously scanning the substrate parallel or anti-parallel to this direction. It is also possible to transfer the pattern from the patterning device to the substrate by imprinting the pattern onto the substrate.
In addition to EUV radiation, radiation sources used in EUV lithography generate contaminant material that may be harmful for the optics and the working environment in which the lithographic process is carried out. Such is especially the case for EUV sources operating via a laser induced plasma. Hence, in EUV lithography, a desire exists to limit the contamination of the optical system that is arranged to condition the beams of radiation coming from an EUV source. To this end, it is known to use a so-called foil trap, for instance, as disclosed in EP1491963. A foil trap uses a high number of closely packed foils aligned generally parallel to the direction of the light generated by the EUV source. Contaminant debris, such as micro-particles, nano-particles and ions can be trapped in walls provided by foil plates. Thus, the foil trap functions as a contamination barrier trapping contaminant material from the source. Generally, these foil traps are designed to have a sufficiently large dimension to trap virtually any contaminant particle traveling through the trap. Indeed, a large fraction of debris is captured since the velocity directions are mostly non parallel to the foil plates so that impact of the contaminant material follows eventually. Also, smaller particles are traveling in typical random diffusion like paths, where eventually most of the particles are trapped. However, a small fraction travels in a direction and at a velocity such that it is able to travel through the foil trap, and thus able to cause undesired contamination of the optics.

Radiation system and lithographic apparatus


Embodiments include techniques for a method and system for an augmented reality-based aircraft cargo monitoring and control system. The embodiments include a controlling device in communication with a master control panel (MCP), wherein the controlling device include a capturing module that is configured to receive an image and an object identification module that is configured to detect an identifier of an object from the image. The controlling device also includes a tracking module that is configured to track movement of the object, a rendering module that is configured to overlay an indicator over the image, and a microprojector that is configured to project the image on a display, wherein the display configured to display the mode and status of the object.

The present disclosure generally relates to a system and method for cargo loading management, and more specifically, to an augmented reality-based aircraft cargo monitoring and control system.
The items to be shipped by aircraft cargo are generally are loaded onto unit load devices (ULDs). The ULDs are specially configured pallets or specially configured that are available in various sizes, shapes, and capacities. Once the ULD is loaded, the ULDs are moved in the cargo compartment by power drive units (PDUs) mounted at the floor level at fixed intervals that run the length of the cargo compartment. Upon reaching its final position, the ULD is restrained by means of a mechanical or electro-mechanical restraint system. Turntables can be installed in and forward of the doorway and can steer the ULDs to various positions as needed for in/out, forward/aft, or pallet rotation operations. Multiple ULDs are brought onboard the aircraft and each is placed in its respective stowed position. The PDUs and turntables are hereinafter referred to as line replaceable units (LRUs).
The movement of the ULDs is controlled using a master control panel (MCP) and/or outside control panel (OCP) and/or local control panels (LCPs). The cargo systems provide a dedicated display to enable the operator to monitor the status of ULD position and the status of the cargo LRUs. The MCP provides the control system operation status and cargo system status display. The display additionally enables the operator to perform various maintenance operations on the cargo systems. The MCP, OCP, LCPs, and cargo maintenance display unit (CMDU) are referred to as the primary components of the cargo handling system and are permanently fixed to the aircraft.

Augmented reality-based aircraft cargo monitoring and control system


Disclosed are methods of controlling a speed of a fuser cleaner web in a fuser apparatus, and the corresponding fuser apparatus. The method utilizes a fuser cleaner web for cleaning a fuser roll and being disposed between the fuser roll and a web nip roll, the fuser cleaner web being unwound from a web supply roll and wound onto a take up roll, the take up roll being driven by a motor. The method determines an angular displacement of the motor from a start of the fuser cleaner web being unwound from the web supply roll, and controls a speed of the motor to maintain a substantially constant fuser cleaner web speed, wherein the speed of the motor is controlled based on the determined angular displacement of the motor and a changing diameter of the take up roll.

Disclosed are fuser apparatus having a fuser cleaner web and corresponding methods.
In a typical electrophotographic or electrostatographic printing process, a photoconductive member is charged to a substantially uniform potential so as to sensitize the surface thereof. The charged portion of the photoconductive member is exposed to selectively dissipate the charges thereon in the irradiated areas. This records an electrostatic latent image on the photoconductive member. After the electrostatic latent image is recorded on the photoconductive member, the latent image is developed by bringing a developer material into contact therewith. Generally, the developer material comprises toner particles adhering triboelectrically to carrier granules. The toner particles are attracted from the carrier granules either to a donor roller or to a latent image on the photoconductive member. The toner attracted to a donor roller is then deposited as latent electrostatic images on a charge retentive surface which is usually a photoreceptor. The toner powder image is then transferred from the photoconductive member to a copy substrate. The toner particles are heated to permanently affix the powder image to the copy substrate.
In order to fix or fuse the toner material onto a support member permanently by heat and pressure, it is necessary to elevate the temperature of the toner material to a point at which constituents of the toner material coalesce and become tacky. This action causes the toner to flow to some extent onto the fibers or pores of the support members or otherwise upon the surfaces thereof. Thereafter, as the toner material cools, solidification of the toner material occurs causing the toner material to be bonded firmly to the support member.
One approach to thermal fusing of toner material images onto the supporting substrate has been to pass the substrate with the unfused toner images thereon between a pair of opposed rolls at least one of which is internally heated. During operation of a fusing system of this type, the support member to which the toner images are electrostatically adhered is moved through the nip formed between the rolls with the toner image contacting the heated fuser roll to thereby affect heating of the toner images within the nip. In a conventional two roll fuser, one of the rolls is typically provided with a layer or layers that are deformable by a harder opposing roller when the two rollers are pressure engaged.
In typical fusing systems, the fuser roll can be cleaned by a web. The web provides a textured surface for removing particles of toner that remained on the fuser roll after the paper with the toner image has passed through the fuser. The web may be drawn from a replaceable supply roll and be moved at a relatively slow rate relative to the movement of the fuser roll. The motion of the fuser roll relative to the web causes the fuser roll to rub against a small area of the web. Because the web is moving slower than the fuser roll friction of the web to the fuser roll surface causes a supply of clean web at a reasonable rate to clean toner from the fuser roll. Ideally, the web would be typically run at a substantially constant speed high enough to clean the fuser roll.

Fuser apparatus having fuser cleaner web and corresponding methods


In a non-limiting, exemplary system for in-situ monitoring of a composite workpiece, at least one ultrasonic testing transducer is mounted to a surface of a composite workpiece and configured to transmit and receive ultrasonic energy to and from the composite workpiece during mechanical loading of the composite workpiece. An ultrasonic pulser/receiver is operatively coupled to the at least one ultrasonic testing transducer. A computing system is operatively coupled to the ultrasonic pulser/receiver. The computing system includes a data acquisition component configured to acquire data from the ultrasonic pulser/receiver and a data analysis component configured to analyze the acquired data. The data analysis component may be further configured to analyze the acquired data for initiation of failure of the composite workpiece and/or growth of failure of the composite workpiece. Further, failure of the composite workpiece may include cracking and/or delaminating and/or disbonding.

Various parts and structures are currently designed and built using composites, many of which are bonded together using adhesives. The study of bonded and co-cured composite interface behavior under load is important to the proper design and use of these structures. For example, structural analysis codes are used to predict locations and load levels for failure initiation. Composite manufacturers and manufacturers of structures using composites employ various mechanical testing machines to stress representative composites to failure in order to validate and refine structural performance codes.
Accurately defining the onset of structural failure would be desirable for generating structural analysis codes. However, currently it is not possible to determine the initiation of failure due to the start of a disbond or delamination or cracking from the load-displacement curve produced during mechanical testing (such as bending, tension, compression, and the like). For example, there is no "knee" in the curve that would indicate that a structure has begun to fail. Crack wires and conductive paint can sometimes be used in cases where a delamination initiates at a re-entrant corner, but they cannot be used to detect growth from an internal feature or an existing internal delamination. Many times, test engineers cannot verify where damage is initiating or growing.
In addition, currently a non-destructive inspection (NDI) technician or other operator is required to periodically inspect locations of a structure under test. In such cases, testing has to be stopped (that is, the load is removed from the structure under test) for personnel safety purposes. This is because an operator currently must hold an ultrasonic testing (UT) transducer in place to inspect the unit. However, for personnel safety reasons, an operator can not hold a transducer onto a structure while load is being applied to the structure. Therefore, currently load is removed from the structure, the operator places the transducer on the structure, and the unloaded structure is then inspected. This process can mean that a high-use test machine, possibly with a backlog of testing, may sit idle while waiting for a shift change so the NDI technician can check for cracking or delamination or disbond growth. Moreover, the precision of the dimensional measurement is limited by the damage marking precision (to define the physical extent of the damage) and the technician's ability to discern small changes.
Therefore, improvements may be possible regarding increases in sensitivity, accuracy, and repeatability of measurement data, regarding determining the initiation of failure, and regarding reductions in schedule and labor costs.
The foregoing examples of related art and limitations associated therewith are intended to be illustrative and not exclusive. Other limitations of the related art will become apparent to those of skill in the art upon a reading of the specification and a study of the drawings.

System and method for in-situ monitoring of composite materials


A per-phase quick response generation circuit generates a quick response signal to determine a quick response pulse to be inserted into a pulse width modulation signal of the corresponding phase. The quick response pulse will force the upper power switch of the corresponding phase on to increase the current supply ability during load transition. A multi-phase voltage regulator with the quick response generation circuit can have different quick response pulse widths for the interleaved phases, so as to decrease the current imbalance period of the voltage regulator after load transition.

In modern voltage regulator systems for microprocessor core voltage controlling, multi-phase control has been a popular control method for adapting high power density and high current slew rate requirements. However, conventional multi-phase control method is still insufficient to meet these ultra high load transient requirements in recent generations' voltage regulator (VR) specifications defined by Intel, especially during load application transient. Accordingly, an open-loop control mechanism called quick response was developed to overcome the undershoot problem. During load application transient, the quick response mechanism will instantaneously turn on all phases' upper gate (UG) to fully supply heavy load current demand, and the output voltage droop can therefore be controlled into correct load line specification. Even so, the quick response function still has some defects. For example, inaccurate turn-on or turn-off of quick response may result in unexpected ring back or second undershoot of output voltage.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an interleaving pulse width modulation (PWM) voltage regulator system with conventional quick response control scheme, which includes N phases, phase 1, phase 2, . . . , phase N, where N is a natural number, parallel connected between a power input VIN and a power output VOUT. Each phase has a power stage 10 connected to the power input VIN and power output VOUT, and a PWM comparator 12 to decide a pulse width modulation signal PWMj, j=1, 2, . . . , or N, for the power stage 10 of this phase. In order to generate the per-phase pulse width modulation signals PWM1, PWM2, . . . , PWMN, voltage divider resistors R1 and R2 divide the output voltage VOUT to generate a feedback signal VFB, an error amplifier 14 compensates the error between the feedback signal VFB and a reference signal VREF and provides an amplified error signal VCOMP into the positive inputs of each PWM comparator 12, and each PWM comparator 12 compares the error signal VCOMP with a ramp signal VRAMP to decide the pulse width modulation signal PWMj of the corresponding phase. Each of the power stages 10 is controlled by the pulse width modulation signal PWMj of the corresponding phase to switch one or more power switches thereof, so as to generate the phase currents IL1, IL2, . . . , ILN, whose combination is the load current ILOAD supplying for the load 16. The function of quick response is implemented by a quick response generation circuit 18 and per-phase combiners 20. The quick response generation circuit 18 monitors the error signal VCOMP to decide a quick response signal QR which triggers a quick response pulse when a load transient occurs. Each combiner 20 inserts the quick response pulse into the pulse width modulation signal PWMj of the corresponding phase. Alternatively, the quick response generation circuit 18 monitors the output voltage VOUT or the feedback signal VFB instead, in order to trigger the quick response pulse.
FIG. 2 is a simplified block diagram of a per-phase feedback control circuit extracted from FIG. 1 for detailed description about the conventional quick response control scheme. In order for particular distinction, the reference signals for the error amplifier 14 and the quick response comparator 22 are denoted by VREF1 and VREF2 respectively. The positive and negative inputs of a quick response comparator 22 receive the reference signal VREF2 and feedback signal VFB respectively, to decide the quick response signal QR. The input voltages of the quick response comparator 22, VREF2 and VFB, are so designed to meet the circumstance that under steady state operation, VREF2 will always be lower than VFB and hence the output of the quick response comparator 22 will always be zero. Therefore, the pulse width modulation signal PWM will always be determined only by the output of the PWM comparator 12 in steady state. Moreover, VREF2 is so designed to meet the circumstance that VREF2 will approach VFB, either VREF2 rising or VFB falling, during load application. When VREF2 is higher than VFB, the output QR of the quick response comparator 22 goes high and the output of the combiner 20 goes high according to the quick response pulse. Hence, during load application, the pulse width modulation signal PWM is determined not only by the output of the PWM comparator 12 but also by the output of the quick response comparator 22. In other words, the quick response pulse will be inserted into the normal pulse width modulation signal PWM and dominates the PWM pulse width during instant load application.
FIG. 3 is a timing diagram illustrating an operation mode of the conventional quick response control scheme in a four phase voltage regulator. At time t1, the load current ILOAD transits from IMIN to IMAX, and the output voltage VOUT of the voltage regulator drops accordingly. At the moment the output voltage VOUT drops, the quick response comparator 22 will assert the quick response signal QR to instantaneously turn on all the pulse width modulation signals PWM1-PWM4 of the interleaved phases to supply this high load current demand. At time t2, the quick response period ends and the per-phase inductor currents are raised to a higher level, but the delay of gate signal transmission and per-phase inductor current imbalance cause the output voltage VOUT to exhibit a period of ringback phenomenon 24. After time t2, the pulse width modulation signal PWM3 restarts its original PWM pulse and the subsequent PWM pulses will automatically adjust their pulse widths to regulate the output voltage VOUT to the desired level. However, the system will suffer a long period of current imbalance until the end of time t3. The time length of current imbalance depends on the quick response trigger point, quick response duration, inductor current level, restart point of the pulse width modulation signal PWM, . . . etc. This current imbalance phenomenon may cause unexpected ringback or short-term ringing of output voltage VOUT and hence increases the amount of output bulk or decoupling capacitors.
In order to resolve these defects of conventional quick response, a circuit and method of per-phase current balancing and pulse width adjustment of quick response is proposed. Altogether, the proposed new algorithm of quick response can achieve perfect adaptive voltage positioning (AVP) function without unnecessary undershoot or ringback of output voltage during load transient.

Quick response width modulation for a voltage regulator


The present invention provides a method of manufacturing a seat comprising a skin material, a cushioning pad and a seat frame by bonding the skin material and the cushioning pad to each other by using a reactive hot melt adhesive, wherein the method comprises a step of coating an adhesive to the cushioning pad, a step of assembling the seat frame to an attaching die in which a movable press bonding plate is disposed, a step of attaching a cushioning pad to the seat frame assembled to the attaching die, provisionally assembling the skin material to the surface of the cushioning pad on the side of coating the adhesive and then moving the press bonding plate thereby arranging the seat frame, the cushioning pad and the skin material on an attaching die main body, a step of applying heating by a heating die from the side of the skin material attached in the assembling step and a cooling/press bonding step of applying cooling under pressure after the heating step by a cooling die from the surface of the skin material to the attaching die.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns a method of manufacturing, for example, a vehicle seat comprising a skin material, a cushioning pad and a seat frame and, more in particular, it relates to a method of manufacturing a seat using an adhesive capable of forming the seat during a state of assembling also to a seat frame when the cushioning pad and the skin material are integrated by using the adhesive.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In existent vehicle seats in which a skin material and a cushioning pad are bonded by using an adhesive, the skin material and the cushioning pad are disposed between upper and lower dies, and then integrally bonded by heating with the upper and lower dies while a hot melt adhesive in the form of an adhesion film or a solvent type adhesive is present between the skin material and the cushioning pad, and then the integrated skin material and cushioning pad are assembled together with a seat frame in a separate step.
In the step of using the hot melt adhesive, not only is a high heat resistance is required for the skin material and the cushioning pad but also a thermal load is applied to the skin material and the cushioning pad since a higher temperature is necessary for melting the adhesive for bonding. The solvent type adhesive involves a disadvantage in that the cushioning pad and the skin material are bonded during contact since adhesion has already been caused when coating with the adhesive.
For overcoming the foregoing problems in the adhesive, there has been proposed a technique of using a reaction type hot melt adhesive (refer, for example, to Japanese Patent Laid Open Hei 3-68391).
However, also in the technique proposed above, when the skin material and the cushioning pad are bonded, the skin material is disposed in either of the upper or the lower dies, while the cushioning pad is disposed in the other of the dies, and the seat is produced by coating an adhesive an at least one of the opposed surfaces of the cushioning pad and the skin material, followed by heating under pressure and, further, applying cooling on the side of the skin material.
In the technique as described above of placing the skin material and the cushioning pad respectively in the upper and lower dies for bonding them, it is necessary that assembling of the cushioning pad to the die and the assembling of the skin material to the die have to be conducted separately during the step of bonding the skin material and the cushioning pad. Further, when the skin material and the cushioning pad are separately placed in the upper and lower dies, it is necessary that one of the upper and the lower dies be cooled and heated in order to make the molding cycle satisfactory. Heating and cooling of one identical die after bonding the skin material and the cushioning pad makes the molding cycle longer since the identical die is heated and cooled, which decreases the production efficiency. Furthermore, since the cushioning pad and the skin material are heated, cooled and press-bonded by one identical die, lodging or lay down of fluffs in the napped skin material is caused.
Then, for integrally forming the skin material and the cushioning pad together with the seat frame, another separate step of attaching the integrated skin material and cushioning pad to the seat frame is required.

Method of manufacturing a seat using adhesive


A synthetic absorbable monofilament comprising glycolide and epsilon caprolactone is provided. The monofilament exhibits physical characteristics equivalent to or superior than gut sutures. The monofilaments can be fabricated into a wide variety of surgical devices such as sutures, meshes, and the like.

Absorbable copolymers of randomly polymerized glycolide and caprolactone are described. Processes for making the copolymers and surgical articles made totally or in part from such copolymers, including sutures, are also described.
Bioabsorbable surgical devices made from copolymers derived from glycolide and epsilon-caprolactone are known in the art. Such bioabsorbable surgical devices include surgical sutures.
A desirable characteristic of a bioabsorbable suture is its ability to exhibit and maintain desired tensile properties for a predetermined time period followed by rapid absorption of the suture mass (hereinafter xe2x80x9cmass lossxe2x80x9d.)
Synthetic absorbable sutures are known in the art. Absorbable multifilament sutures such as DEXON sutures (made from glycolide homopolymer and commercially available from Davis and Geck, Danbury, Conn.), VICRYL sutures (made from a copolymer of glycolide and lactide and commercially available from Ethicon, Inc., Sommerville, N.J.), and POLYSORB sutures (also made from a copolymer of glycolide and lactide and commercially available from United States Surgical Corporation, Norwalk, Conn.) are known in the industry as short term absorbable sutures. The classification short term absorbable sutures generally refers to surgical sutures which retain at least about 20 percent of their original strength at three weeks after implantation, with the suture mass being essentially absorbed in the body within about 60 to 90 days post implantation.
Long term absorbable sutures are generally classified as sutures capable of retaining at least about 20 percent of their original strength for six or more weeks after implantation, with the suture mass being essentially absorbed in the body within about 180 days post implantation. For example, PDS II sutures (commercially available from Ethicon, Inc., Sommerville, N.J.), are synthetic absorbable monofilament sutures that reportedly retain at least about 20 to 30 percent of its original strength six weeks after implantation. However, PDS II reportedly exhibits minimal mass loss until 90 days after implantation with the suture mass being essentially absorbed in the body about 180 days after implantation. MAXON suture (commercially available from Davis and Geck, Danbury, Conn.) is another absorbable synthetic monofilament that reportedly generally fits this absorption profile.
Most recently, United States Surgical Corporation has introduced BIOSYN monofilament sutures which exhibit good flexibility, handling characteristics, knot strength and absorption characteristics similar to those of presently available short term absorbable multifilament sutures.
Another attempt to provide an acceptable synthetic absorbable monofilament sutures resulted in MONOCRYL, a suture fabricated from an absorbable block copolymer containg glycolide and caprolactone, commercially available from Ethicon, Inc.
However, no synthetic absorbable monofilament sutures exist today which approximate the strength retention, mass loss, and modulus of sutures commonly referred to in the art as xe2x80x9ccatgutxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cgutxe2x80x9d sutures. It is well known in the art that the term gut suture refers to a collagen based suture of any type or origin often fabricated from the mammalian intestines, such as the serosal layer of bovine intestines or the submucosal fibrous layer of layer sheep intestines. Gut sutures exhibit the unique combination of two week strength retention and about 75 day mass loss while maintaining acceptable modulus and tensile strength; and thus are still widely used in gynecological surgery.
It would be advantageous to provide a synthetic absorbable suture which exhibits physical properties similar to the gut suture.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,700,704 to Jamiolkowski does teach that sutures can be fabricated from random copolymers of glycolide and epsilon-caprolactone, and more specifically from random copolymers containing from 20 to 35 weight percent epsilon-caprolactone and from 65 to 80 weight percent glycolide. Moreover, Jamiolkowski reports that sutures fabricated from glycolide/epsilon-caprolactone copolymers containing over 35% caprolactone under are not orientable to a dimensionally stable fiber. Jamiolkowski further reports that some sutures fabricated from glycolide/epsilon-caprolactone copolymers containing 15% caprolactone are also not orientable to a dimensionally stable fiber. Furhermore, Jamiolkowski also reports the undesirable combination of low modulus and low tensile strength for the glycolide/epsilon-caprolactone copolymers which he was able to fabricate into sutures.
Therefore, it would be unexpected that sutures made from random copolymer of glycolide and epsilon-caprolactone would provide the strength retention and mass loss characteristics approximating those of gut sutures while maintaining an acceptable modulus and tensile strength.
It has now surprisingly been found that absorbable surgical articles formed from a random copolymer of glycolide and caprolactone exhibit strength retention, mass loss and modulus similar to that of gut sutures. Preferably, the copolymers used in forming surgical articles include between about 25 and about 32 weight percent of hydroxy caproic acid ester units and between about 75 and 68 weight percent of glycolic acid ester units.
In particularly useful embodiments, the random copolymers can be spun into fibers. The fibers can be advantageously fabricated into either monofilament or multifilament sutures having physical properties similar to those of gut sutures.
In addition, a process of making such synthetic absorbable monofilament sutures from the above described caprolactone/glycolide random copolymers has been found. The process, for a given size suture, comprises the operations of extruding the random caprolactone/glycolide copolymer at an extrusion temperature of from about 70xc2x0 C. to about 215xc2x0 C. to provide a monofilament fiber, passing the solidified monofilament through water (or other suitable liquid medium) quench bath at a temperature of from about 15xc2x0 C. to about 25xc2x0 C. or through in air (or other suitable gaseous medium) at from about 15xc2x0 C. to about 25xc2x0 C., stretching the monofilament through a series air ovens at an overall stretch ratio of from about 7:1 to about 14:1 to provide a stretched monofilament. In a particularly useful embodiment, the monofilament is stretched through three air ovens by four godet stations. The first air oven is maintained at ambient temperature, whereas the second air oven is heated to a temperature above the crystalization temperature of the glycolide/epsilon caprolactone copolymer at about 80xc2x0 C. to about 110xc2x0 C., and the third air oven is set at about 85xc2x0 C. to about 120xc2x0 C. The draw ratio between the first and second godet station ranges between about 5:1 to about 8:1. The draw ratio between the second and third godet station ranges between about 1.3:1 to about 1.8:1. The draw ratio between the third and fourth godet station ranges between about 1.04:1 to about 1.06:1. The suture then may be annealed with or without relaxation at a temperature of from about 80xc2x0 C. to about 120xc2x0 C. to provide the finished suture.

Absorbable copolymers and surgical articles fabricated therefrom


Devices, systems and methods for improving reliability and security of a memory system are described. An example method includes receiving a seed value and a data stream, generating, based on the seed and using a physical unclonable function (PUF) generator, a PUF data pattern, generating, based on the seed, a pseudo-random data pattern, performing a first logic operation on the PUF data pattern and the data stream to generate a result of the first logic operation as a first data sequence, and performing a second logic operation on the pseudo-random data pattern and a second data sequence that is based on the first data sequence to generate a result of the second logic operation as a third data sequence for storage on the memory system, wherein the PUF generator is selected at least in-part based on one or more physical characteristics of the memory system.

Data integrity is an important feature for data storage and data transmission. Using data scramblers, which provide uniform data distribution, to improve reliability is recommended for various types of data storage devices including NAND flash memory devices.
Solid-state drives (SSDs) use multi-level NAND flash devices for persistent storage. However, multi-level NAND flash devices can be inherently unreliable and generally need to use scramblers, which rely on a pseudo-random number generator (PRNG) to allow the uniform distribution of data. There is a demand for increasingly secure PRNGs and scramblers that can provide data protection with higher reliability.

Data scramblers with enhanced physical security


A wireless reception device includes a resource information acquisition section that is configured to acquire silent resource setting information showing that a silent resource which indicates that no signals are allocated in a predetermined resource among distributed resources in which a resource unit defined in a frequency-time domain is divided along a time direction and distributed at a predetermined frequency interval, a receiver that is configured to receive a signal including the distributed resources in which the silent resource is allocated; and an inter-cell interference measurement section that is configured to measure an inter-cell interference pertaining to an amount of interference affected by another cell based on the silent resource setting information and by use of the silent resource allocated in the distributed resources.

In relation to a wireless communication system, such as a cellular system, improvement of frequency use efficiency for an OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) scheme has been studied. Specifically, the improvement is achieved by applying adaptive modulation or frequency scheduling to each of resource blocks into which a plurality of sub-carriers are bundled. Adaptive modulation is a scheme for determining a coding rate and a modulation scheme so as to satisfy a predetermined packet error ratio depending on a state of a propagation path observed by a receiving side. The scheme is also called adaptive MCS (Modulation and Coding Scheme) control. Further, frequency scheduling is achieved through the following operation. Namely, a plurality of mobile stations of a wireless communication system report states of propagation paths in respective resource blocks observed by receiving sides. A base station collects the states of the propagation paths and allocates favorable resource blocks to the respective mobile stations according to a predetermined scheduling algorithm. A value of a report on a state of a propagation path used for adaptive modulation or frequency scheduling is called channel information, i.e., Channel State Information (CSI).
In order for the CSI report, a reference signal used for acquiring various indices of a propagation path or a transmission signal is introduced into the wireless communication system, such as a cellular system. FIG. 11 is an explanatory operation diagram schematically showing CSI reporting operation performed when adaptive modulation and frequency scheduling are carried out. A reference signal is transmitted from a base station (nodeB) that is a transmission device to terminals (UE A, UE B) that are reception devices, and a CSI report is transmitted from each of the terminals to the base station. The base station performs adaptive modulation and frequency scheduling based on a reported CSI from each of the terminals, and then allocates terminals to respective resource blocks and determines a coding rate and a modulation scheme.
For instance, a reference signal (Reference Signal: RS) is employed for LTE (Long Term Evolution) of a next generation communication system discussed by the 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) that is an international standard setting organization of mobile communication. During downlink communication from the base station to the terminal, a reference signal to be transmitted from a transmission device (the base station) to a reception device (the terminal) is used primarily in use applications; for instance, (1) estimating a propagation path for demodulation purpose and (2) measuring quality of adaptive modulation or frequency scheduling. In LTE, a multi antenna system to which MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) is to be applied transmits a reference signal in units of predetermined wireless resources. In LTE-advanced (hereinafter called "LTE-A") that is a communication system resultant of further advancement of LTE, introduction of high-order MIMO (employing; e.g., eight transmission antennas), coordinated multipoint (CoMP) transmission/reception, and the like, have been discussed to achieve further advancement. In order to address upgrading of frequency use efficiency, such as that mentioned above, there is required measuring a state of a propagation path with a higher degree of accuracy.
In addition to the channel information (CSI), inter-cell interference is mentioned as another factor that contributes to control of adaptive modulation or frequency scheduling. Specifically, whether or not the reception device can detect and demodulate a signal without failure by means of a resource block allocated a transmission device, a coding rate, and a modulation scheme depends on intensity of a desired signal against noise and interference; namely, an SINR (Signal-to-Interference plus Noise Ratio). Therefore, it is desirable that the reception device should measure inter-cell interference affected by other cells and should report intensity of a desired signal against the inter-cell interference as channel information. Incidentally, other cell signals that actually interfere with the desired signal fluctuate according to states of allocation of data to other cells.
FIG. 12 is an explanatory operation diagram schematically showing inter-cell interference and a status of traffic with other cells. When a signal is transmitted from a base station (nodeB) that is a transmission device to a terminal (UE A) that is a reception device, the terminal (UE A) receives, as an interference signal, a signal originated from a base station (Interfering nodeB) for another cell in place of a desired signal to be acquired. When the terminal observes an interference signal (another cell signal) from another cell in order to measure inter-cell interference, there mixedly exist a case where data are allocated (white blocks in the drawing) and another case where data are not allocated (hatched blocks in the drawing) depending on observation timing and a frequency resource to be observed. In ordinary operation, a terminal does not have any means for grasping control information about allocation of data to another cell; hence, the terminal cannot ascertain a state of allocation of another cell signal. An averaging procedure over a long time and a wide range is mentioned as means that enable easing of influence caused by a change in state of data allocation.

Wireless reception device, wireless transmission device, and wireless communication method

PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY CORPORATION OF AMERICA


A suture-based vessel closure device can perform the dilation of an arteriotomy puncture and does not require previous dilation of the arteriotomy puncture by a separate device or by a procedural sheath dilator. The suture-based vessel closure device can place one or more sutures across the vessel access site such that, when the suture ends are tied off after sheath removal, the stitch or stitches provide hemostasis to the access site.

The present disclosure relates generally to medical methods and devices. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to methods and devices for suture "pre-closing" a vessel, in other words, deploying closure sutures for puncture wounds into blood vessels wherein the sutures are applied before the vessel is accessed with a sheath or cannula.
Medical procedures for gaining intravascular arterial access are well-established, and fall into two broad categories: surgical cut-down and percutaneous access. In a surgical cut-down, a skin incision is made and tissue is dissected away to the level of the target artery. Depending on the size of the artery and of the access device, an incision is made into the vessel with a blade, or the vessel is punctured directly by the access device. In some instances, a micro-puncture technique is used whereby the vessel is initially accessed by a small gauge needle, and successively dilated up to the size of the access device. For percutaneous access, a puncture is made from the skin, through the subcutaneous tissue layers to the vessel, and into the vessel itself. Again, depending on the size of the artery and of the access device, the procedure will vary, for example a Seldinger technique, modified Seldinger technique, or micro-puncture technique is used.
Because arteries are high-pressure vessels, additional maneuvers may be required to achieve hemostasis after removal of the access device from the vessel. In the case of surgical cut-down, a suture may be used to close the arteriotomy. For percutaneous procedures, either manual compression or a closure device may be used. While manual compression remains the gold standard with high reliability and low cost, closure devices require less physician time and lower patient recovery time. In addition, closure devices are often required for procedures with larger access devices and/or for patients with anti-coagulation and anti-platelet therapy. Examples of closure devices include suture-based closure devices such as the Abbott Vascular PERCLOSE or ProStar family of devices or the Sutura SUPERSTITCH device. Other closure devices include clip closure devices such as the Abbott Vascular STARCLOSE device, or "plug" closure devices such as the Kensey Nash/St. Jude Medical ANGIOSEAL device.
In certain types of procedures, it is advantageous to "pre-close" the arteriotomy, for example if the arteriotomy is significant in size, if the arteriotomy site is difficult to access, or if there is a heightened risk of inadvertent sheath removal. The term "suture pre-close" refers to deploying closure sutures for puncture wounds into blood vessels wherein the sutures are applied before the vessel is accessed with the procedural sheath or cannula. The ability to gain rapid hemostatic control of the access site can be critical. In an open surgical procedure, a suture is sometimes placed into the vessel wall in a U-stitch, Z-stitch, or purse-string pattern prior to vessel access. The arteriotomy is made through the center of this stitch pattern. The suture may be tensioned around the sheath during the procedure, or the suture may be left loose. Generally, the two ends of the suture exit the incision and are anchored during the procedure, for example with hemostatic forceps. If the sheath is inadvertently removed from the arteriotomy, rapid hemostasis may be achieved by applying tension to the ends of the suture. After removal of the sheath from the arteriotomy, the suture is then tied off to achieve permanent hemostasis.
In percutaneous procedures, it is not possible to insert a closing suture in the manner described above. In these procedures, if suture pre-close is desired, a percutaneous suture-based vessel closure device would need to be used. However, current percutaneous suture-based vessel closure devices require previous dilatation (widening) of the initial needle puncture to be inserted into the vessel, and are designed to be placed after the procedural sheath has been inserted into, and in some cases removed from the arteriotomy. In this manner, the dilatation has been accomplished by the procedural sheath and dilator itself. In view of this, current suture-based vessel closure devices have certain limitations for use in pre-closure of an arteriotomy. To accomplish pre-closure with these devices, a dilator or dilator/sheath combination needs to be initially inserted into the vessel over a guidewire to dilate the arteriotomy puncture, and then exchanged for the closure device, with the difficulty of maintaining hemostasis during this exchange.
Another limitation is that once the suture is placed in the vessel with the suture-based vessel closure devices, it is likewise difficult to maintain hemostasis during removal of the suture-based vessel closure device and insertion of the procedural sheath. Similarly, once the procedural sheath is removed, it is difficult to maintain hemostasis before the final suture knot is tied. Or, if the suture is pre tied, it is difficult to maintain hemostasis before knot is pushed into place. In addition, current suture-based vessel closure devices do not have any means to gain rapid access to the suture ends to apply tension in the instance of inadvertent sheath removal.
Certain procedures, for example intervention of the carotid arteries, offer additional clinical challenges. In a transcervical approach to treatment of the internal carotid artery and/or the carotid artery bifurcation, the distance from the access site to the treatment site is usually less than 5-7 cm. Therefore it is desirable to limit the length of the pre-closure device or any associated accessories (needle puncture, guidewire, micro introducer, dilator, or sheath itself) to 3-4 cm, to remove risk of incursion into the plaque zone and reduce the risk of generating embolic particles. In the case of the Abbott ProStar or Perclose, the vessel entry device requires about a 15 cm length into the vessel. With other devices, there are no methods or features for limiting or controlling the amount of egress of these device components in the vessel. In addition, the consequences of failure of the closure devices to achieve complete hemostasis are great. If the suture closure did not achieve full hemostasis, the resultant hematoma may lead to loss of airway passage and/or critical loss of blood to the brain, both of which lead to severe patient compromise and possibly death.


A vial washer in which the vials follow a serpentine path through several stages of cleaning. A sheet having the serpentine path in the form of an elongated slot guides the vials through their washing. Conveyor belts moving in opposite directions underneath the elongated slot move the vials in the directions through the equipment. The conveyor belts have an open grid allow for the passage of the cleaning liquids through them. The sheet with the cut-out slot may be replaced with a similar sheet with a different width of opening for bottles of differing sizes. The cleaning may include one or more stages of a detergent wash, water rinse, and air and vacuum drying. Slight deviations in the straight sections of the elongated slot will cause the vials to rotate so that all sides become clean. Using a sheet with an appropriately shaped elongated slot and reversing the directions of some of the conveyor belts changes the number of straight path segments and thus the length of the overall path of the vials through the equipment. The adjacent belts may have slightly different speeds, with the higher speeds at the beginning of the path, to force the vials towards each other where they may support each other in an upright position. Cleaning the bottles involves passing them along the predetermined path having the straight segments connected by curved sections.

Often the exteriors of vials and other small bottles, even after they have received their contents, must undergo a thorough cleaning. Thus, for example, where the contents take the form of a powder, some of this material may adhere to the vials' exterior during the filling process. This can prove esthetically unacceptable.
Furthermore, the subsequent use of the vials may impose a requirement of cleanliness. In the ultimate, vials finding use in an operating room environment may have to have their exteriors extremely clean. These vials must undergo a very thorough cleaning prior to their use in this fashion.
Various types of cleaning and handling equipment have found use for vials and other containers. Thus, some cleaners have employed one or more star wheels which entrain the vials in pockets on their outer edges. The wheels then turn the vials or bottles through arcs of varying degrees during which time they may undergo cleaning. One star wheel bottle duster that has received acclaim appears in U.S. Pat. No. 4,701,973, issued on Oct. 27, 1987, to W. J. McBrady et al. This equipment finds use in cleaning bottles passing along an installed conveyor belt. Fitting over that conveyor, it removes the bottles, subjects them to a blast of ionized air, vacuum, and brushing and redeposits them on the same conveyor. However, even in this advancement, the bottles spend only a limited time within the cleaning apparatus. Thus, this equipment may prove marginal for conducting additional stages of cleaning such as detergent rinses, water rinses, and air drying.
The Seidenader Company of Germany has gone further and produced a unit employing two star wheels in tandem. A first wheel takes the bottles off a mass conglomeration pushed together by an end-feed mesh belt. The first wheel then rotates the bottles through approximately 270 degrees and subjects them to various cleaning operations. The bottles then transfer to the second wheel which, with somewhat more than 270 degrees, subjects them to further operations.
The use of two wheels, as in the Seidenader equipment, extends the distance the vials travel and thus the number of work stations that may operate upon them. However, it does not quite double the linear distance available from a single wheel since the two wheels require a distance between them to transfer the bottles from one to the other. Moreover, the use of two wheels requires an extensive horizontal area for the machine. This is turn requires more equipment and entails greater expense. Furthermore, the openings in the wheels themselves and the exact positioning of the workstations appears suited for a single diameter of vial. The equipment also does not illustrate a facile interchange to permit its use for larger or smaller vials than that originally intended.
Furthermore, the mesh end-feed belt which accumulates a large number of vials together over a large area also provides difficulty in controlling the containers. Vials typically have a narrow width. As a consequence, knocking against each other in this arena may result in a number of them falling over. This clearly proves undesirable at the intake of the first star wheel.
In fact, the handling of a large number of vials and other containers represents an important task in itself. The Garvey Corporation of Blue Anchor, N.J., has a "Bi-Flo" unit (covered by U.S. Pat. No. 4,401,207) in which adjacent conveyor belts can move in either the same or opposite directions. This equipment can take items feeding in from one or more sources and provide them at a single or multiple outlets.
A somewhat similar type of equipment appears as the Unscrambler from McBrady Engineering, Inc. This equipment employs several adjacent conveyor belts moving in the same or different directions. This unit takes a large number of incoming containers and provides them at a discharge port. As the units move over conveyors traveling in the same direction, it finds that the speed of each succeeding conveyor has increased. This gradual acceleration unscrambles and separates the conveyors for the discharge port. A subsequent reverse conveyor prevents jamming by removing excess containers that might otherwise clog the outlet.
Although these units facilitate the handling of containers in general, they have not found applicability to improving the equipment which actually cleans and dries vials. The search continues for such equipment which can wash and dry vials thoroughly but utilizes a minimum of space and equipment. Furthermore, the handling of vials in a facile fashion also constitutes a continuing objective.


A rotor of a permanent magnet embedded motor according to this invention includes: a rotor iron core formed by stacking a predetermined number of electromagnetic steel plates perforated in a predetermined shape; a plurality of permanent magnet insertion holes formed along an outer circumferential section of the rotor iron core; permanent magnet end gaps provided at both ends of the permanent magnet insertion hole; a permanent magnet inserted in the permanent magnet insertion hole; and a plurality of slits formed in an iron core section on the outer side of the permanent magnet insertion hole. The width in the radial direction of a slit thin section of each of the slits between the slit and the rotor iron core outer circumference gradually increases from an inter-electrode side toward a magnetic pole center and changes in a sine wave shape having a peak in the magnetic pole center.

A rotor of a permanent magnet embedded motor having a configuration explained below has been proposed in the past. The rotor of the permanent magnet embedded motor includes a rotor iron core formed by stacking a plurality of electromagnetic steel plates, permanent magnet insertion holes formed in an axial direction of the rotor iron core and formed in regions corresponding to sides of a substantially regular polygon centering on the axis, permanent magnets inserted into the permanent magnet insertion holes, a plurality of slits formed in outer circumferential iron core sections of the permanent magnet insertion holes and arranged away from one another along the permanent magnet insertion holes, and outer side thin sections provided between radial direction outer side ends of the slits and the outer circumference of the rotor iron core, the width in the radial direction of the outer side thin sections gradually increasing from a magnetic pole center to an inter-electrode section. With such a configuration, it is possible to reduce a harmonic component of a magnetic flux density waveform of the inter-electrode section and reduce harmonics of an induced voltage and cogging torque (see, for example, Patent Literature 1).

Rotor of permanent magnet embedded motor, compressor, and refrigeration and air conditioning apparatus


A brake control system is comprised of a vehicle environment recognition device for obtaining vehicle environment including a road condition, an actuator for applying hydraulic pressure set at a target value to each wheel cylinder, and a controller for calculating the target value on the basis of the vehicle environment. The controller controls the wheel cylinder pressure by driving the actuator so as to adjusting the wheel cylinder pressure at the target value. Therefore, it becomes possible to ensure the same braking distance by the same depression degree of the brake even in various road conditions.

The present invention relates to a brake control system for a vehicle, and more particularly to an improved brake control system which is arranged to optimize its brake control according to the information from a vehicle environment recognition means.
A variety of vehicle brake systems have been proposed and in practical use. A Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. 1-164656 discloses a typical brake system which has a function for preventing a reaction of nose-down pitching in the braking by the anti-skid brake system (ABS). This brake system is arranged to prevent the reaction of the nose-down pitching by slightly decreasing the brake pressure just before the vehicle stops and further to suppress troubles such as undesired elongation of the braking distance caused by the operation for preventing the nose-down pitching reaction upon taking account of the road inclination.
However, this brate system varies braking distance according to the road inclination even if a driver depresses a brake pedal in a constant manner. That is, this conventional brake system varies the braking distance before the control for preventing the reaction of the nose-down pitching during traveling on a sloop. More particularly, on a down-slope, the braking distance tends to be elongated since the gravitational acceleration reduces the braking force.


A system for satisfying a request from a client for a send-then-commit transaction includes a front-end information management system (IMS) server. Shared message queues (SMQ) communicate with the front-end IMS server and plural back-end IMS. The front-end IMS server receives the request from the client and transmits the request to the SMQ. A back-end IMS server accesses the SMQ and generates a transaction output in response to the request. The back-end IMS server transmits the result to the front-end IMS server and the front-end IMS server interfaces with the client to communicate the response thereto. The back-end IMS server and front-end IMS server operate in separate system images, but work together in a resource recovery services (RRS) environment to commit or backout the transaction output.

By some estimates, nearly seventy percent (70%) of corporate data in the United States and abroad resides on mainframe computers, e.g., S/390 mainframes manufactured by International Business Machines. Moreover, business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce is expected to grow at least five times faster than the rate of business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce. Many transactions involving this corporate data, e.g., bank account data, insurance data, inventory data, archival data, etc. can be initiated by Windows/NT servers, UNIX servers, and other servers but the transactions must be completed on the mainframe using existing legacy applications residing thereon, e.g., information management system (IMS) applications.
Much of this information can be accessed via the Internet using computers. In many cases, the information is accessed and/or updated using a "commit-then-send" process. In a "commit-then-send" process, an IMS server receives an input message from a web client computer. The IMS server processes the input message and completes the change or update requested by the input message. After the input message is processed, the IMS server sends a transaction output to the web client computer. The web client computer does not have an option to commit or backout.
Another process that can be used to access and/or update the IMS information is the "send-then-commit" process. In this process, an IMS server receives an input message from a web client computer. The input message is processed at the IMS server and the resulting output transaction is sent to the web client computer. The web client computer then indicates whether or not to commit to the update or change of the data managed by the IMS server. If commit is indicated, the changes are made permanent. On the other hand, if a backout is indicated, the changes are not made. A typical "send-then-commit" transaction request is processed in only one IMS server. Currently, no method has been provided by which a "send-then-commit" transaction request can be processed simultaneously in two or more IMS servers in order to balance the workload.
Accordingly, there is a need for a system and method which will allow "send-then-commit" transaction requests to be processed in multiple IMS servers.

System and method for processing transactions in a multisystem database environment

International Business Machines Corporation


A ball chain assembly may be used to form tessellated patterns of ball chains. The ball chains include a series of balls and intermediate links of a breadth less than the breadth of said balls. A chain connector of one-piece construction defines a circular array of ball-receiving sockets. Each of the sockets are sized to receive a ball of one of said chains. A ball of the chain can be inserted into one of the sockets of the chain connector where a link of the inserted ball passes through the slot extending from the socket, such that a chain can be connected to each of the sockets.

Ball chains are presently used as light weight yet strong chains for holding various objects, particularly keys and other small objects carried together in a purse or pocket. The ball chains are formed by a series of balls inter-connected by intermediate links. A chain connector is used to connect the free ends of the chains. The chain connector usually is one piece of steel formed into a ball-receiving slotted tube with sockets at its opposite ends, so the balls at the ends of the chain can be moved into the sockets with the links passing through the slots.
The chain connector is an element that has a central aperture through which the terminal ball of a ball chain is inserted. This central aperture is connected by narrow slits at each end of the chain connector to end openings, and after each terminal ball is inserted in the central aperture, it is pulled to a mounted position at one end of the chain connector by sliding the link attached to the ball through the respective slit until the link extends through the end opening. The slit is slightly narrower than the diameter of the link so that it resists movement of the ball back toward the central aperture and thereby retains the chain end in coupled position within the chain connector. Such chain connectors have been known and widely used. Although this type of chain connector has been known, it does not provide for more than two connections. Further, it does not allow a user to easily modify the existing ball chain connections.
Other prior art disclosures describe chain connectors for ball chains that can connect more than two ends of ball chains, such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1.259,388, Re. 17,970, 1,814,710, and 2,557,970, but they are formed of more than one piece of material and/or do not allow for easy connection and disconnection of the chains.
Thus, a heretofore unaddressed need exists in the industry to address the aforementioned deficiencies and inadequacies.

Ball chain and connector for tessellated patterns