Certain example embodiments relate to techniques for propagating modification operations for Service-oriented Architecture (SOA) objects in a SOA. The SOA includes at least two SOA objects that are connected by at least one relationship that defines one SOA object as referencing SOA object and another SOA object as referenced SOA object. Steps of an appropriate may include: receiving a request for propagating a modification operation from the referencing SOA object to the referenced SOA object; evaluating at least one propagation rule to determine whether the requested modification can be performed on the referenced SOA object; and if it is determined that the requested modification cannot be performed in accordance with the at least one propagation rule, evaluating at least one approval rule to determine whether the requested modification can be performed on the referenced SOA object.

Service oriented architecture (SOA) is an architecture paradigm for large and complex distributed computing systems. The paradigm allows for the development, operation and control of complex distributed systems by splitting monolithic applications into components, services, or other SOA objects that can be re-used and orchestrated to get new functionality on demand. SOA objects can be connected to each other via relationships. Nowadays, complex systems are set up, comprising a huge set of relationships. In addition to SOA objects and relationships, a SOA typically comprises a SOA registry for the management of SOA objects and their dependencies. Further, SOA governance is responsible for controlling correct operations in a SOA. Operations for example comprise updating a composite relationship.
Those skilled in the art will appreciate that controlling (by SOA governance) the correct operation of a large SOA-based system is a complex and difficult task, while catastrophic impacts on the overall SOA system can arise already if one single service does not operate as expected. Given the high frequency of changes to a typical SOA, it thus has to be ensured that when a certain SOA object is updated or modified, all dependent SOA objects are updated as well in a consistent manner. For example consider a SOA system that operates a transfer system in a bank. If the referencing (source) SOA object comprises the bank account of a client as attribute and the account has been changed, the transfer might still run with the referenced (target) SOA objects conducting the transfer with obsolete bank information. In the worst case, the transferred money is lost. Therefore, it is very important to ensure that the various SOA objects of a complex SOA system are consistent at any time.
Hence, various approaches have been proposed in the prior art for controlling the correct operation of a SOA, i.e. to ensure that all participants (such as services) in the SOA operate as expected. These approaches for controlling the correct operation of a SOA are commonly referred to as "SOA governance" and include among others ensuring that all SOA components interact properly in terms of communication patterns, security rules, response times and/or other performance characteristics (quality of services), ensuring that changing a service does not impose unforeseen consequences on service consumers (change management) and/or ensuring that services evolve within the system only in a controlled manner (lifecycle management).
U.S. Pat. No. 7,512,578 B2 discloses smart containers and a definition to manage associated content without writing or modifying application code. A smart container template can represent a model including for example how items, such as items of managed content become members of a composite object of a type which the template is associated. A policy or operation specified by the definition is applied to an item, comprising the composite object, of the content.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,335,346 shows a system and method comprising an access control list for spanning across object boundaries in an object oriented database. The access control list further provides read and write access permissions and execution semantics which apply to the execution of methods in an object oriented database.
US patent application no. 2009/0024652 A1 discloses an integration server system for mapping data objects on a database schema. The system offers a strongly-typed model API, complex constraint management and association balancing. This system shows improved performance through optimized handling of ordered associations of data object and of string-valued attributes.
Further, US patent application no. 2007/0255685 A1 shows a method and system for modelling data providing a constrained design space in which data is modelled. This document discloses real world entities as objects within an object table or data store. Real world entities may include for example databases and rational links between entity objects. Relationships can be defined in a separate link database or table for referencing entity objects. This described representation of data to be modelled refers to an object hierarchy. The constrained design space allows an improved adaptation of a database in a format as one advantage.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,512,578 B2 discloses composite relationships in the context of management systems. The other above-discussed prior art approaches address a kind of system comprising objects, that may be connected with each other via relationships in databases. However, these documents do not concern service-oriented architectures with complex relationships between a vast amount of SOA objects. Therefore, the above-described prior art lacks ways for ensuring the consistency and security in a SOA system.
It is therefore the technical problem underlying certain example embodiments to provide an approach to guarantee the consistency of SOA objects in a SOA in a flexible and useable way in that SOA governance remains unaffected, thereby at least partly overcoming the above explained lacking aspects of the prior art.
This problem is according to one aspect solved by a method for propagating modification operations for Service-oriented Architecture (SOA) objects in a SOA, wherein the SOA comprises at least two SOA objects connected by at least one relationship which defines one SOA object as referencing SOA object and another SOA object as referenced SOA object. In the embodiment of claim 1, the method comprises the following steps:                a. receiving a request for propagating a modification operation from the referencing SOA object to the referenced SOA object;        b. evaluating at least one propagation rule to determine whether the requested modification can be performed on the referenced SOA object;        c. if it is determined that the requested modification cannot be performed in accordance with the at least one propagation rule, evaluating at least one approval rule to determine whether the requested modification can be performed on the referenced SOA object.
Accordingly, the embodiment defines a method for propagating modification operations between at least two connected SOA objects. The at least two SOA objects are connected by at least one relationship which defines one SOA object as referencing SOA object and another SOA object as referenced SOA object. Typically at least three types of relationships can be considered: Simple association relationship, aggregation relationship and composite relationship.
Importantly, whenever a request for propagating a modification operation from the referencing SOA object to the referenced SOA object has been received (which may be triggered automatically by the system each time the referencing SOA object is modified), it has to be ensured, that the propagation is possible using at least one propagation rule. Certain example embodiments provide further rules for the case that the requested modification cannot be performed in accordance with the at least one propagation rule. In that case, the at least one approval rule is essential for determining if the requested modification can be performed on the referenced SOA object. In other words, certain example embodiments provide a way to consistently propagate a modification along a relationship even though the associated propagation rule does actually not allow said propagation. In this case, an additional rule, namely the approval rule, is evaluated, and if said approval rule confirms the propagation, the propagation can eventually be performed. As a result, it is ensured that modifications to SOA objects are always performed in a consistent and secure manner in that they are correctly propagated to all affected SOA objects.
In one aspect, the modification operation comprises changing at least one permission of the referencing SOA object, updating the referencing SOA object and/or deleting the referencing SOA object. For example, the at least one permission may be a read and/or write permission assigned to at least one user and/or application. In a further aspect, the modification operation comprises updating and/or creating a new relationship.
Accordingly, various modification operations can be propagated. Permissions may include read and/or write permissions and are for example assigned to at least one user. Preferably, a user who has read and write permissions (i.e. full permissions) is capable to change or update the SOA object. For example the at least one permission can be changed or updated on the referencing SOA object by the user with full permissions. Other examples include updating attributes and/or the lifecycle of the referencing SOA object and/or deleting the referencing SOA object. Modification operations are not just allowed for existing relationships, but also comprise operations such as updating/and or creating a new relationship.
In a further aspect, the at least two SOA objects are connected by at least one composite relationship or aggregate relationship.
In a further aspect, a new composite relationship is updated and/or created and propagating a modification operation is performed from the referencing SOA object to all referenced SOA objects, comprising the new SOA relationship with at least two SOA objects.
Considering composite relationships, such relationships establish a kind of hierarchy with the at least one SOA object referencing all other SOA objects. The referenced SOA objects are dependent on the referencing SOA object. If the referencing SOA object is updated according to a modification operation, the operation is propagated to all other referenced SOA objects in the hierarchy. Hence, updating the referencing SOA object implies updating all referenced SOA objects, including the SOA objects of the new relationship in the hierarchy.
In yet another embodiment, the new SOA object, i.e. the SOA object(s) affected by the new relationship, keeps the at least one original modification operation and redundant modification operations are removed. Accordingly, the present method further ensures that the modification operations are propagated to the new SOA objects with the new objects keeping the original modification operations, such as permissions. In addition redundancies are removed that can occur during propagating modification operations. This removal of redundant modification operations may be achieved via merging or alignment of SOA objects.
In a preferred embodiment, the at least one SOA object is a web service. As will be appreciated by the person skilled in the art, the term "SOA object" as used herein generally refers to a representation of a real computing entity, wherein such representation is preferably stored in a SOA registry, e.g. in the form of a WSDL definition.
SOA objects may comprise a set of attributes, including simple attributes, classifications and/or relationship attributes. Simple attributes for example have values like id, name or version. Relationship attributes are already mentioned above, including the composite relationship as one preferred embodiment. Further SOA objects may be defined by distinct types comprising the type "web service".
In a further embodiment, the requested modification cannot be performed in accordance with the at least one propagation rule if at least one user and/or application has no write permission on the referencing SOA object.
As already explained further above the at least one user with full permissions is able to update or even delete relationships. In this case propagation of the modification operation (update or delete) is possible. However, the user might have only a read permission. In this case propagation cannot be performed.
In an aspect, detecting that the requested modification cannot be performed comprises:                Sending a message to a user and/or application; and/or        Storing a notification for being picked up by a user and/or application
In a further aspect, the method further comprises creating a log entry if the requested modification cannot be performed in accordance with the at least one propagation rule.
In another aspect, evaluating at least one approval rule to determine whether the requested modification can be performed on the referenced SOA object comprises getting approval from a user and/or application with read and write permissions and delegating propagation of modification operations from the user and/or application with a read permission to the user and/or application with read and write permissions.
Certain example embodiments include detecting that propagation cannot be performed and storing these cases in a log. In addition if this is the case the at least one approval rule is used to obtain approval preferably from a user with sufficient permissions. Thereby propagation does not fail, but is delegated from the user with insufficient permissions to a user with sufficient permissions.
One advantage of certain example embodiments over the prior art is the support of consistency at any time, with the propagation of modification operations to referenced SOA objects. Further, undesirable requests of users with insufficient permissions are prevented supporting security aspects and in that case delegation of requests is even allowed although the user has insufficient permissions by delegation.
In a preferred embodiment of the implementation, the at least two SOA objects and/or the at least one relationship and/or the at least one propagation rule and/or the at least one approval rule are XML based and/or based on a domain specific language (DSL).
Furthermore, certain example embodiments also provide a computer program comprising instructions for implementing any of the above-described methods.
Certain example embodiments are also directed to a system for propagating modification operations for Service-oriented Architecture (SOA) objects in a SOA, wherein the SOA comprises at least two SOA objects which are connected by at least one relationship, which defines one SOA object as referencing SOA object and another SOA object as referenced SOA object, wherein the system comprises:                a. means for receiving a request for propagating a modification operation from one the referencing SOA object to the referenced SOA object;        b. means for evaluating at least one propagation rule to determine whether the requested modification can be performed on the referenced SOA object;        c. if it is determined that the requested modification cannot be performed in accordance with the at least one propagation rule, means for evaluating at least one approval rule to determine whether the requested modification can be performed on the referenced SOA object.

Method and system for propagating modification operations in service-oriented architecture


Techniques for associating a physical location with a network interface on an intermediate network node include receiving a data packet from a device connected to a network. Based on data in the data packet, a particular network interface is determined on a first hop intermediate network node. An identity for an entity that originated the data packet is determined based on data in the data packet. A possible physical location for the entity is determined based on the identity. The identity is associated with the possible physical location in an independent data source that is accessible over the network and different from the data packet. The particular network interface is associated with a highest confidence location for the device based on the possible physical location of the entity and any former locations associated with the particular network interface.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to switches and routers at an edge of a network, and, in particular, to associating their ports with physical locations of devices attached to those ports.
2. Description of the Related Art
Networks of general purpose computer systems and specialized devices connected by external communication links are well known and widely used in commerce. The networks often include one or more network devices that facilitate the passage of information between the computer systems and devices. A network node is a network device or computer or specialized device connected by the communication links. An end node is a network node that is configured to originate or terminate communications over the network. An intermediate network node facilitates the passage of data between end nodes.
Communications between nodes are typically effected by exchanging discrete packets of data. Information is exchanged within data packets according to one or more of many well known, new or still developing protocols. In this context, a protocol consists of a set of rules defining how the nodes interact with each other based on information sent over the communication links. Each packet typically comprises 1] header information associated with a particular protocol, and 2] payload information that follows the header information and contains information that may be processed independently of that particular protocol. The header includes information such as the source of the packet, its destination, the length of the payload, and other properties used by the protocol. Often, the data in the payload for the particular protocol includes a header and payload for a different protocol associated with a different layer of detail for information exchange.
The headers included in a packet traversing multiple heterogeneous networks, such as the Internet, typically include a physical (layer 1) header, a data-link (layer 2) header, an internetwork (layer 3) header and a transport (layer 4) header, as defined by the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) Reference Model. The OSI Reference Model is generally described in more detail in Section 1.1 of the reference book entitled Interconnections Second Edition, by Radia Perlman, published September 1999, which is hereby incorporated by reference as though fully set forth herein.
The internetwork header provides information defining the source and destination address within the network. Notably, the path may span multiple physical links. The internetwork header may be formatted according to the Internet Protocol (IP), which specifies IP addresses of both a source and destination node at the end points of the logical path. Thus, the packet may "hop" from node to node along its logical path until it reaches the end node assigned to the destination IP address stored in the packet's internetwork header.
Routers and switches are intermediate network nodes that determine which communication link or links to employ to support the progress of data packets through the network. A network node that determines which links to employ based on information in the internetwork header (layer 3) is called a router.
In many buildings, a router or switch with multiple network interfaces, called ports, is housed in a closet. Cables are laid as communication links from that closet through one or more walls and floors to outlets, called jacks, distributed across one portion of the building, such as one storey or one section of one storey. The cables' terminals in the closet are connected to ports on the router or switch. The cables are out of sight once laid and can not be tracked easily from the closet to the jacks. When a device is to be connected to the network, it is placed in a location in the building and a cable connects it to a convenient jack. In the closet, it is not necessarily apparent which cable terminal and port is associated with the jack and connected device. With only one device connected, power levels on the cable and port can be used to indicate the active port and associate that port with the connected device. With dozens of devices connected it is considerably more difficult to determine which port is associated with which device.
Building and maintaining maps of the physical wiring port layouts is a necessary task for information technology (IT) groups during network establishment and maintenance. People rarely move cables once they are installed, but lots of effort is needed to run and label cables, as well as any additions and changes to the wiring. However, over the occupancy life of a building many adds, moves, and changes occur in the network. To keep current the mapping of jacks to closet terminals and intermediate node ports, continuous, time-consuming and labor intensive manual updates are made. Computer programs and databases have been developed to record this information, such as Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP) available from Cisco Systems, Inc., of San Jose, Calif. However, the source of the information still involves persons at each end of the hidden cable, either one person walking back and forth or two people working together, and manually plugging and unplugging cables from ports, and devices and test equipment (such as ringers) from jacks. If an update is omitted it can take days and months until the omission becomes apparent, often at an inopportune moment, such as during a crisis caused by equipment failure.
The most popular current method is to statically tag the jacks at the office/cube site and the corresponding rack/port in the wiring closet when the cable is pulled. This method does not have a self-correcting check when wires are crossed, tags lost, or new wires laid. To maintain the database, testing of each port for a connection to a specific device is done when needed. This manual testing is time consuming as the device at the each end must be manually verified for the mapping to be correct.
In the wireless world, location is determined by the end device association to the localized access point. This does not work in wired environments because the switches do not have to be in the vicinity of the end user. Some devices have geo-location systems, such as the Global Positioning System (GPS). However, these devices typically do not have the spatial resolution needed to distinguish cubicles and rooms from each other.
Furthermore, with the increased use of internet telephony, an emergency call can be placed. Without reliable information on the physical location of the end device where the call was placed, emergency responders cannot be directed automatically to the correct room to provide aid. Human life and health can depend on the accuracy of the information that maps ports to jacks.
Based on the foregoing, there is a clear need for techniques that automatically and quickly determine a physical location of devices connected to a port on an intermediate network node.

Techniques to map switch and router ports to physical locations


An electrical rules checker system and method are provided to report any errors discovered during appraisal of an element at a node in a netlist. In accordance with one aspect of the invention, a method selects a circuit configuration to be identified. Next, identify any element at a node, equal to or virtually equal to said circuit configuration. Then, the element equal to and virtually equal to said circuit configuration is appraised. Finally, any error discovered during appraisal of the element at the node is reported. hi accordance with another aspect of the invention, a system is provided for appraising tri-state logic connected to a selected node of an integrated circuit. The system operates by a code segment selecting a circuit configuration to be identified. A second code segment identifies any element at a node, equal to said circuit configuration, and a third code segment identifies any element at the node virtually equal to said circuit configuration. A fourth code segment appraises the element equal to and virtually equal to the circuit configuration, and a fifth code segment reports any error discovered during appraisal of the element at the node.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to computer-aided circuit design systems, and more particularly to an electrical rules checker system and method for reporting problems with elements having tri-state logic conditions.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Integrated circuits (ICs) are electrical circuits comprised of transistors., resistors, capacitors, and other components on a single semiconductor xe2x80x9cchipxe2x80x9d in which the components are interconnected to perform a variety of functions. Typical examples of ICs include, for example, microprocessors, programmable logic devices (PLDs), electrically erasable programmable memory devices (EEPROMs), random access memory devices (RAMs), operational amplifiers and voltage regulators. A circuit designer typically designs the IC by creating a circuit schematic indicating the electrical components and their interconnections. Often, designs are simulated by computer to verify functionality and to ensure that performance goals are satisfied.
In the world of electrical device engineering, the design and analysis work involved in producing electronic devices is often performed using electronic computer aided design (E-CAD) tools. As will be appreciated, electronic devices include electrical analog, digital, mixed hardware, optical, electro-mechanical, and a variety of other electrical devices. The design and subsequent simulation of any circuit board, very large scale integration chip, or other electrical device via E-CAD tools allows a product to be thoroughly tested and often eliminates the need for building a prototype. Thus, today""s sophisticated E-CAD tools may enable the circuit manufacturer to go directly to the manufacturing stage without having to perform costly, time consuming prototyping.
In order to perform the simulation and analysis of a hardware device, E-CAD tools utilize an electronic representation of the hardware device. A xe2x80x9cnetlistxe2x80x9d is one common representation of a hardware device. As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art of hardware device design, a xe2x80x9cnetlistxe2x80x9d is a detailed circuit specification used by logic synthesizers, circuit simulators and other circuit design optimization tools. A netlist typically comprises a list of circuit components and the interconnections between those components.
The two forms of a netlist are the flat netlist and the hierarchical netlist. Often, a netlist will contain a number of circuit xe2x80x9cmodulesxe2x80x9d which are used repetitively throughout the larger circuit. A flat netlist will contain multiple copies of the circuit modules essentially containing no boundary differentiation between the circuit modules and other components in the device. By way of analogy, one graphical representation of a flat netlist is simply the complete schematic of the circuit device.
In contrast, a hierarchical netlist will only maintain one copy of a circuit module, which may be used in multiple locations. By way of analogy, one graphical representation of a hierarchical netlist would show the basic and/or non-repetitive devices in schematic form and the more complex and/or repetitive circuit modules would be represented by xe2x80x9cblack boxes.xe2x80x9d As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, a black box is a system or component whose inputs, outputs, and general function are known, but whose contents are not shown. These xe2x80x9cblack boxxe2x80x9d representations, hereinafter called xe2x80x9cmodules,xe2x80x9d will mask the complexities therein, typically showing only input/output ports.
An IC design can be represented at different levels of abstraction, such as at the Register-Transfer level (RTL) and the at logic level, using a hardware description language (HDL). VHDL and Verilog are examples of HDL languages. At any abstraction level, an IC design is specified using behavioral or structural descriptions, or a mix of both. At the logical level, the behavioral description is specified using Boolean equations. The structural description is represented as a netlist of primitive cells. Examples of primitive cells are, among others, full-adders, logic gates, latches, and flip flops.
Set forth above is some very basic information regarding integrated circuits and other circuit schematics that are represented in netlists. Systems are presently known that use the information provided in netlists to evaluate circuit timing and other related parameters. More specifically, systems are known that perform a timing analysis of circuits using netlist files. Although the operational specifics may vary from system to system, generally such systems operate by identifying certain critical timing paths, then evaluating the circuit to determine whether timing violations may occur through the critical paths. As is known, timing specifications may be provided to such systems by way of a configuration file.
One such system known in the prior art is marketed and commercially available under the name PathMill, by EPIC Design Technology, Inc., U.S.A. PathMill is a transistor-based analysis tool used to find critical paths and to verify timing in semiconductor designs. Using static and mixed-level timing analysis, the PathMill system processes transistors, gates, and timing models. It also calculates timing delays, performs path searches, and checks timing requirements. As is known, the PathMill system can analyze combinational designs containing gates, and sequential designs containing gates, latches, flip-flops, and clocks. Combinational designs are generally measured through the longest and shortest paths.
Illustrated in FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a prior art static timing analyzer system that illustrates the basic informational flow in such a system and that is generally denoted by reference numeral 2. Specifically, and as previously mentioned, one such system 2 is marketed under the name PathMill. FIG. 1 is a diagram that illustrates the informational flow in such a system 2. At the center of the diagram is a static timing analyzer 10, (i.e., the PathMill program). Surrounding this block 10 are a number of other blocks that represent various input and output files and/or information.
More particularly, the static timing analyzer 10 may utilize a configuration file 12, a file of timing models 14, one or more netlist files 16, a technology file 18, and a parasitic file 20, for various input information. In addition, the static timing analyzer 10 may generate a number of different output files or other output information, including a critical path report 22, a runtime log file 24, an error report 26, a software interface file 28, and a SPICE netlist 30. When started, the static timing analyzer 10 first processes the input netlist file(s) 16, the technology file 18, and the configuration files 12. The information from these files is subsequently used for performing path analyses. Since the static timing analyzer 10, (i.e., the PathMill program) is publicly available and marketed, its function and operation are well known, and therefore need not be discussed in detail herein.
While tools such as these are useful for the design verification process after layout, there are various shortcomings in the static timing analyzer 10, (i.e. the PathMill program) and other similar products. These shortcomings include, but are not limited to, the ability to identify the probable identity of unknown logic gates or particular combinations of logic gates of the circuit. This is because of the pervasive problems in rules checking programs that are unable to inclusively determine all of the time whether certain parts of a design are actually certain types of structures.
With this uncertainty the rules checker program cannot completely certify the circuit design. More specifically, there is sometimes a need to identify combinations of gates that are configured in such a manner that may lead to operational uncertainty or performance problems. There are various reasons why such a gate identification may be desirable, which will be appreciated by those skilled in the art.
There is a need to establish the quality assurance of those elements that are assigned a probable identity. This allows a user to validate the quality of the assumed identity of the circuit identified as a probable structure type. There is some need in the design verification process to communicate errors with regard to identified and probable elements that are positively identified and elements that are identified as probable circuit configurations.
Thus, a heretofore unaddressed need exists in the industry to address the aforementioned deficiencies and inadequacies.
The present invention provides an electrical rules checker system and method for reporting any error discovered during appraisal of an element at a node in a netlist. Tri-state logic is one or more logic elements that can be identified positively as being in a particular circuit configuration, identified probably as being in a particular circuit configuration and not identified positively as being in a particular circuit configuration.
Briefly described, in architecture, the electrical rules checker can be implemented as follows. A first code segment selects a circuit configuration to be identified. A second code segment identifies any element at a node, equal to said circuit configuration, and a third code segment identifies any element at the node virtually equal to said circuit configuration. A fourth code segment appraises the element equal to and virtually equal to the circuit configuration, and a fifth code segment reports any error discovered during appraisal of the element at the node.
The present invention can also be viewed as providing a method for reporting any error discovered during appraisal of an element at a node in a netlist. In this regard, the method can be broadly summarized by the following steps: (1) selecting a circuit configuration to be identified; (2) identifying any element at a node, equal to said circuit configuration; (3) identifying any element at the node virtually equal to said circuit configuration; (4) appraising said clement equal to and virtually equal to said circuit configuration; and (5) reporting any error discovered during appraising of said element at the node.

Electrical rules checker system and method for reporting problems with tri-state logic in electrical rules checking


A distal section of an implantable medical electrical lead body includes a pair of pre-formed arcuate segments between which an approximately straight segment extends. The approximately straight segment includes a first portion extending distally from a first of the pair pre-formed arcuate segments, a second portion extending from the first portion, a third portion extending from the second to a second of the pair pre-formed arcuate segments. An electrode is coupled to the second portion of the approximately straight segment, and the adjacent first portion has a stiffness which is less than that of the first of the pair pre-formed arcuate segments and preferably less than the stiffness of the third portion, so that, when the distal section of the lead body is implanted, for example, within a cardiac vein, the lead buckles to bring the electrode into closer contact with surrounding tissue.

In order to safely and effectively provide electrical stimulation to the left side of a heart, medical electrical leads have been designed for implantation within the coronary venous vasculature. Some of the challenges associated with implanting a lead within a coronary vein include the navigation of one or more electrodes of the lead to particular implant sites and, upon reaching the desired site(s), fixation of the lead to maintain stable stimulation and/or sensing via the electrode(s) thereof. A variety of lead body designs have been proposed to address these challenges, but there is still a need for lead body designs that can further facilitate the positioning of one or more lead electrodes in good electrical contact with surrounding tissue at a variety of sites within the coronary venous vasculature across a population of patients.

Implantable medical electrical lead bodies providing improved electrode contact


The cosmetic unit has two partial units, each including a receptacle for receiving a cosmetic substance and a closure cap for allowing the closure of the receptacle. The two partial units are inter-connectable by a coupling member engaging with the two closure caps. Each closure cap has a cap recess, extending in the direction of a central axis, on the axial front end facing away from the receptacle of the corresponding partial unit. The coupling member including a central portion with two axial coupling projections being formed thereon wherein each coupling projection engages with one of the two cap recesses when in an assembled state.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a cosmetic unit comprising two partial units of which each comprises a receptacle for receiving a cosmetic substance and a closure cap by means of which the receptacle is closable, the two partial units being inter-connectable by means of a coupling member engaging with the two closure caps wherein each closure cap has a cap recess that is disposed on an axial front end facing away from the receptacle of the respective partial unit and extends in the direction of a central axis.
2. Background Art
Such a cosmetic unit is for example known from EP 1 348 352 B1. The two screw-top receptacles may be filled with the same or different cosmetics, such as nail polish, mascara, eye shadow, lip gloss or products for removing the same. The known cosmetic unit comprises an axial serration as well as additional beaded sections engaging with locking grooves for releasably securing the closure cap to the coupling member designed as a coupling sleeve. The serration ensures a non-rotational connection while the beaded sections engaging with the locking grooves provide for a tight axial connection. Thus, two different connection mechanisms are provided that act independently of one another. This results in a relatively high effort of production.
The same applies to the production of the closure caps that are overlapped by the coupling sleeve and must therefore be provided with a comparatively small external diameter in this area. At the same time, however, the connection between the closure cap and the respective applicator wand is also disposed in this same area, with the result that there is only a small amount of space available for the wall thickness of the closure caps. The manufacture thereof must therefore be carried out in a very precise manner.
The coupling sleeve may for example have a particular graphic design or a specific colour, enabling a different contents of the two partial units as well as the different applications thereof to be identified from the outside of the cosmetic unit according to EP 1 348 352 B1. Consequently, a differently designed coupling sleeve must be provided for any possible combination of contents. This multitude of different coupling sleeves also results in higher production costs.
The cosmetic unit according to EP 1 348 352 B1 has a pleasant appearance, especially when the coupling sleeve is attached. If, however, the coupling sleeve is removed, thereby revealing the outer contour of the closure cap that is defined by the described connection mechanisms, this is only true to a limited extent.

Cosmetic unit comprising two coupled partial units


Methods of using certain kinase inhibitors for treating Gram positive bacterial infections are disclosed. When co-administered with a β-lactam antibiotic, the disclosed compounds increase the susceptibility of infectious Gram positive bacteria to the β-lactam antibiotic.

Listeria monocytogenes is a common environmental Gram-positive bacterium that upon ingestion can cause the serious disease listeriosis (1). Listeriosis is normally contracted from ingestion of contaminated food by at risk populations which include the elderly, the immunocompromised and pregnant women (2-3). Disease symptoms can range from mild gastroenteritis to severe meningitis and spontaneous miscarriage (4). Current therapy calls for high dose aminopenicillins combined with gentamicin (5). Although L. monocytogenes is highly susceptible to this treatment in vitro, the fatality rate from confirmed cases of listeriosis remains high, sometimes reaching ˜30%, suggesting an increased need for better therapeutic strategies for treating listeriosis (6-7).
β-lactam antibiotics have been a critical part of treatment for Gram-positive bacterial infections since they were discovered (8). Unfortunately, due to the increasing frequency of antibiotic resistance, β-lactams are no longer effective against many pathogens, including certain penicillin resistant Streptococci and Enterococci, and most notoriously Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) (9). MRSA strains, including the community associated strains such as USA300, contain the mecA gene which encodes the Penicillin Binding Protein 2A (PBP2A), a PBP that confers resistance to all approved β-lactams with the exception of ceftaroline (10-11). Similarly, resistance to drugs targeting Mycobacterium tuberculosis has been on the increase worldwide, motivating the search for new methods for identifying drug targets and understanding resistance mechanisms in Mycobacterium tuberculosis (see, e.g., Ioerger, Thomas R., et al., Identification of new drug targets and resistance mechanisms in Mycobacterium tuberculosis, PLOS One 8(9), September 2013, e75245, p. 1-13). The alarming increase in the development of antibiotic resistance, particularly to β-lactams, has resulted in a need for new strategies for antimicrobial therapy.
Despite this widely acknowledged need, truly novel antibiotic classes have not been developed for decades. Collectively, the cell wall active β-lactams (various penicillins, cephalosporins, monolactams, and carbapenems) have been the most prescribed antibiotics worldwide since penicillin was discovered and remain so today, despite increasing resistance.
S. aureus, and many other important pathogens, including L. monocytogenes, Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Enterococcus faecalis, express a bipartite membrane-associated eukaryotic-like serine/threonine kinase that has one or more extracellular repeat of a homologous family of PBPs (12). This family of proteins is known as the Penicillin binding protein and Serine-Threonine kinase associated protein (PASTA) kinases (12). PASTA kinases have extracellular penicillin binding domains that have previously been shown to bind fragments of peptidoglycan, likely generated by cell wall damage or remodeling, and an intracellular serine threonine kinase domain, similar to those found in eukaryotic cells (13).
While the substrates and function of the PASTA kinases are incompletely defined, they appear to have varied functions in different organisms ranging from playing a role in biofilm formation (Streptococcus mutans) to being essential in some organisms (M. tuberculosis) (14-15). Deletion of Stk1, the PASTA kinase in S. aureus, reverses the methicillin resistant phenotype in MRSA (16-17). In addition, deletion of the PASTA kinase in E. faecalis, PrkC, led to a >100-fold sensitization to certain β-lactam antibiotics (18). However, the mechanism for this effect remains unclear.
Rajagapol et al. (WO 2013/066469) disclose the use of certain kinase inhibitors to increase the sensitivity of bacterial pathogens to β-lactam antibiotics. As is well-known in the art, kinase inhibitors encompass a large family of compounds that vary substantially in structure, specific target, and targeting mechanism, and the successful use of a specific kinase inhibitor for a given therapeutic purpose can not be predictably applied to other kinase inhibitors. This is particularly true for inhibitors having a substantially different core structure than those that have been previously disclosed. Thus, there is a need in the art for other compounds that can be used to increase the susceptibility of bacterial pathogens to β-lactam antibiotics.

Use of kinase inhibitors to increase the susceptibility of gram positive bacteria to beta lactam antibiotics

Abstract: The disclosed kinase inhibitors have either of the general formulas:

Abstract: or the specific formula:


Provided are nucleic acid molecules comprising at least a functional fragment of the capreomycin biosynthetic gene cluster, polypeptides encoded by the cluster and recombinant host cells transformed with any of the nucleic acid molecules disclosed herein. Various methods using any of the vectors or expression cassettes that encode one or more of the gene products of the cluster are provided for heterologous production of capreomycin and capreomycin derivatives.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the causative agent of tuberculosis, has been causing disease in humans since the beginning of civilization (8). Despite more than 50 years of vaccine and antibiotic development, it has been estimated that 225 million new cases of tuberculosis will arise between the years 1998 and 2030, with 79 million tuberculosis-related deaths (25). One of the challenges in treating this disease is the wide-spread development of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB), defined as an infection that does not respond to treatment with either first-line drug isoniazid or rifampicin (9). The development of MDR-TB has resulted in an increased emphasis on the use of second-line drugs to treat these infections. One of these second-line drugs is capreomycin (CMN), a collection of four structurally related peptide antibiotics (FIG. 1). The importance of CMN for the treatment of MDR-TB is reflected in this drug being included on the World Health Organization's "List of Essential Medicines" (36). There is additional interest in CMN because of the recent finding that this drug is bactericidal against nonreplicating M. tuberculosis, suggesting the potential use of CMN to treat latent tuberculosis infections (15). While of most interest for treatment of tuberculosis, capreomycin is known in the art to be more generally active against a number of gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria.
CMN and a structural analog viomycin (VIO) (FIG. 1) (see also U.S. Pat. No. 7,326,782 for details of the VIO cluster and biosynthesis thereof) disrupt the growth of Mycobacterium spp. by interfering with the function of the ribosome (22-24, 37-43). This conclusion is based on the isolation and characterization of resistant strains along with in vitro analysis of ribosome binding and disruption of peptide synthesis. There were two surprising results from these studies that emphasize the distinct mechanism of action of CMN and VIO. First, resistance to VIO in M. smegmatis was conferred by mutations in either the 16S or 23S rRNA, suggesting this antibiotic interferes with the function of both ribosomal subunits (41). The second result was the recent finding that M. tuberculosis resistance to CMN and VIO can also arise from a mutation in the gene tlyA (22). Subsequent analysis determined that the TlyA enzyme likely catalyzes methylation of both the 16S and 23S rRNA, and these methylations are essential for CMN and VIO sensitivity, possibly forming part of the binding site of these antibiotics (18). Thus, resistance to CMN and VIO can arise from point mutations in the 16S or 23S rRNA or from the loss of modifications to these rRNAs.
While the CMN and VIO resistance mechanisms in Mycobacterium spp. involve mutations in the rRNA or a gene coding for an rRNA modifying enzyme, the bacteria that naturally produce these antibiotics are proposed to have resistance mechanisms that are independent of ribosome modification (2, 28, 33). VIO resistance by Streptomyces sp. strain ATCC11861 (previously known as Streptomyces vinaceus) occurs via antibiotic inactivation by Vph, a VIO phosphorylase (2). CMN, while commonly referred to as a single molecule, is actually a mixture of four structural derivatives (FIG. 1). The structural differences between these derivatives are particularly relevant in the context of resistance genes carried by the producing bacterium. For example, a gene coding a homolog of Vph was isolated from the CMN-producer Saccharothrix mutabilis subsp. capreolus (previously Streptomyces capreolus), but this only conferred resistance to CMN IA and IIA, leaving CMN IB and IIB active. This selectivity is due to Cph catalyzing the phosphorylation of the hydroxyl group of residue 2 of CMN IA and IIA that is absent from CMN IB and IIB (FIG. 1) (28, 33). A second gene, cac, was identified and conferred resistance to all four derivatives of CMN (28, 33). The coded enzyme is proposed to catalyze the acetylation of the α-amino group of residue 1 of the cyclic pentapeptide core, thereby inactivating CMN. Consistent with this proposal, Cac did not confer resistance to VIO because of the β-lysine attached to the α-amino group of residue one of VIO.
CMN and VIO are peptide antibiotics with subtly different cyclic pentapeptide cores that can be decorated by carbamoylation, hydroxylation, or acylation with β-lysine (FIG. 1). A series of precursor labeling studies have been performed on CMN and VIO to investigate how these unusual antibiotics are assembled by the producing bacteria (4, 5, 12, 35). We outlined a biosynthetic mechanism for the assembly of VIO using these labeling experiment results in combination with bioinformatic and biochemical analysis of the VIO biosynthetic gene cluster and the enzymes it codes (19, 34) (U.S. Pat. No. 7,326,782). We predict that CMN biosynthesis follows similar mechanisms, but with some differences to account for the structural differences between these antibiotics.
Our interests in deciphering how this family of antibiotics is biosynthesized are in two areas. First, we address the basic biological question of how these unusual cyclic peptides, consisting of rare nonproteinogenic amino acids, are assembled. Second, we explore harnessing of the biosynthetic machinery of CMN and VIO production to generate new structural derivatives of these antibiotics through the use of metabolic engineering. Here we present the isolation and sequencing of the CMN biosynthetic gene cluster from S. mutabilis subsp. capreolus strain ATCC 23892. Bioinformatics analysis of this gene cluster provides a molecular blueprint for CMN biosynthesis and explains the structural differences between CMN and VIO. The integration of this biosynthetic gene cluster into the chromosome of Streptomyces lividans 1326 resulted in the heterologous production of CMN by this naturally non-producing bacterium. This is a significant finding because S. mutabilis subsp. capreolus has proven intractable to genetic manipulation (27). Thus, metabolic engineering of CMN biosynthesis was not previously possible in the natural producer. The results presented here circumvent this problem. Finally, while previous work suggested that S. mutabilis subsp. capreolus does not alter its ribosomes to become resistant to CMN, we present data that strongly suggests ribosome modification is a natural CMN resistance mechanism for this bacterium.

Heterologous production of capreomycin and generation of new capreomycin derivatives through metabolic engineering


The present invention provides methods and systems for allowing object-based navigation between business objects and applications where the target application is specific to the use context in which the user selects a navigation element. Context criteria on which the target view depends include the source business object, the user's role, and the source application.

Object-based navigation (OBN) is a way of navigating between components of a complex system, such as a business management system. In such a system, a user accesses functions and components of the system via applications that display instances of business objects. As a specific example, an application provides a user access to an order management system, where selecting a field or other navigation element displayed in an instance of a business object, such as a customer, order, or contract, allows a user to view and manipulate information about that business object instance. By accessing an instance of a business object via an application, a user manipulates information stored in a business object, for example by viewing and modifying outstanding orders within an instance of a sales orders business object.
Generally, when a user selects a field in a business object instance, the user navigates to a different application. The target application displays other instances of business objects, where the instances and business objects displayed are the same or different than those displayed in the first business object. FIG. 1 shows a navigation process in a system implementing object-based navigation. A source business object instance 120 within a source application 110 may display fields 121 and 122. These fields may be, for example, customer names, account numbers, or other information. Each field may be a business object instance. When a user selects a field 122, he may navigate to a target application 150. A field or instance of a business object may be displayed in multiple views and applications. A field displayed in an application may be an instance of a business object, or it may be part of the business object instance displayed by the application. In FIG. 1, a second source application 130 is shown that provides user access to a second business object instance 140. The second business object instance 140 may display fields 141 and 122. The applications 110 and 130 may be the same applications, with the business object instances 120 and 140 being different, or the applications 110 and 130 may be different applications and the business object instances 120 and 140 instances of the same business object. Similarly, instances of different business objects may display some of the same fields. For example, in FIG. 1 the business object instances 120 and 140 may both display the same field or instance 122.
When a user selects a field displayed in a business object instance, he may navigate to a new application, business object, or both. In FIG. 1, when a user selects a field 122 in the first source application 110, he navigates to a target application 150 displaying an instance of a target business object 160. The target business object may also display fields 161, 162 allowing for further navigation. As shown in FIG. 1, a user will navigate to the same target application 150 regardless of the context in which the field 122 linked to the target application 150 is selected. That is, the source applications 110 and 130 and source business object instances 120 and 140 may be very different applications or business objects semantically, but the same target application 150 and target object instance 160 are displayed regardless.
As described above, in an object-based navigation system the target application is the same regardless of the context in which the field was selected. There is therefore a need for a system and method allowing for navigation to different applications in an OBN system based on the context in which a field is selected.

Source-context aware object-based navigation


A flip-chip packaged SMD-type (surface-mount device) light emitting diode is provided. The light emitting diode chip is packaged in flip chip packages and is connected with an electrostatic protection device such as a transient voltage suppressor (TVS) or a Zener diode. The electrostatic protection device is attached with a substrate so as to form a flip-chip packaged SMD-type light emitting diode. The light emitting diode chip is connected to a lead frame of the substrate by a high electrical and heat conductive component thus the device needs no wire bonding. Due to the electrostatic protection device, the device has static control effect.

The present invention relates to a flip-chip packaged SMD-type (surface-mount device) light emitting diode, especially to a light emitting diode having an electrostatic protection device with function of standing electrostatic discharge (ESD) and without the need of wire bonding.
Light emitting diode (LED) is a fine solid-state light source made of semiconductor material. The device that turns electricity into light features on the compact structure, long lifetime, low driving voltage, fast response, and good shock resistance. It can also be applied in various appliances with light weight and compact design and is quite popular in our daily lives.
According to wavelength, LED is divided into visible LED and invisible LED. The visible LED is used for display. Moreover, the general LED and high brightness LED are differentiated by the brightness—one candle. The former is applied to indoor display systems while the later is suitable for outdoor display such as center high-mounted stop lamp, outdoor LED display and traffic signs. And the invisible light such as infrared LED is applied to sensor for defecting the size of copy paper, remote control of home appliances, auto-detection in plants, automatic doors and auto flush controllers.
During mass production of LED devices, the production of LED are divided into the upper, middle, and the lower streams. The main products of the upper stream are single chips and epi-wafers. Single crystals are substrate for raw materials and most of them are binary III-V group compound semiconductor such as gallium arsenide (GaAs) or gallium phosphide (GaP). While the epi-wafers are multiple layers of single crystal films with various thickness growing on the single crystal substrate such as AlxGa1-xAs/GaAs, AlxGayIn1-x-yP/GaAs, and InxGa1-xN/GaN. The common techniques used include Liquid Phase Epitaxy (LPE) and Metal Organic Vapor Phase Epitaxy (MOVPE). During the middle stream, according to the demands for the device, the epitaxy wafer is etched and metallized, and then cut into individual chips. The techniques used include photomask etching, dry/wet etching, vacuum evaporation and dicing. The lower stream means the packaging process. The chips are attached on the leadframe and then are packaged to form lamps, digit displays, dot matrix LED or surface mount devices.
Refer to FIG. 1, a conventional surface-mount device LED is disclosed. The LED 1′ is composed of a LED chip 10′ is on top of an electrode 16′ over a circuit board 20′. The LED chip 10′ is electrically connected with the electrode 16′by a wire 12′.
As to the gallium nitride-based III-V group compound semiconductor device using the sapphire substrate, the p-type electrode and the n-type electrode needs to be configured on the same side of the device. Thus the upward light-emitting surface of the devices packaged by conventional methods is shielded by electrodes, and lead to a certain upward light loss. The so-called flip chip structure is reversing the device and set a reflecting layer with higher reflectance on top of the p-type electrode. Thus the light originally emitted from the top of the device can also be emitted from other surface such as the top of the sapphire substrate. Thus the light loss on the electrode is reduced so that more light is emitted, compared with the device made by traditional packaging method. On the other hand, inside the flip chip structure, the heat dissipation structure of the package structure contacts the electrodes or bumps directly, the heat dissipation efficiency of the device is dramatically improved so as to avoid destruction of the device caused by heat.
Refer to FIG. 2, a schematic diagram of a prior art of conventional LED flip-chip products is disclosed. The device is composed of a LED chip 10′, placed on a base 30′. The LED chip 10′ having a substrate 110′, a first conductivity type semiconductor layer 120′, a second conductivity type semiconductor layer 130′, a first electrode 122′ formed on a confining area of the first conductivity type semiconductor layer 120′, a second electrode 132′ formed on a confining area of the second conductivity type semiconductor layer 130′. Two metal solders 40′ are arranged between a first lead frame 32′ and the first electrode 122′, a second lead frame 34′ the second electrode 132′ respectively.
Furthermore, a package structure of LED with protection device is disclosed in Taiwanese application No. 091103964, dated Jul. 5, 2002. Refer to FIG. 3, a structure of conventional lead-type LED flip chip products is shown. The device comprises a LED chip 10′ connected with an electrical and heat conductive pad 50′ by a solder 40′ while the electrical and heat conductive pad 50′ is attached on an electrical and heat conductive base substrate 60′. The n-type electrode of the LED chip 10′ connects with an electrostatic protection device 70′ by a solder 50′. The LED chip 10′ further includes an electrically conductive substrate 110′. By a wire 80′, the LED chip 10′ is connected with a second lead frame 92′ while the electrical and heat conductive base substrate 60′ is connected with a first lead frame 94′.
A conventional SMD (surface-mount device)-type LED with an electrostatic protection device is disclosed in FIG. 3A. The LED chip 10′ is connected with the electrostatic protection device 70′ by a solder 50′ while the electrostatic protection device 70′ is further connected with the first lead frame 94′ by the wire 80′. The above embodiment has the following disadvantages:
1. A stress appears during the wire bonding process of the device and causes the deformation or destruction of the devices so that the yield rate is reduced.
2. After wire bonding, a packaging process is performed. After the packaging, the wire always falls off. Thus this also causes the reduction of the yield rate.
3. Due to the need of wire bonding, the thickness of the light-emitting device can't be dramatically reduced.
Therefore, there is a need for improving the conventional flip-chip packaged light emitting diode. A flip-chip packaged SMD-type LED with antistatic function and having no wire bonding is provided to improve the above defects of wire bonding and also reduce the package area.

Flip-chip packaged SMD-type LED with antistatic function and having no wire bonding


An apparatus includes a first differential transmission line and a second differential transmission line. The second differential transmission line is parallel to the first differential transmission line through an overlap region. The first differential transmission line includes a first line and a second line. The first differential transmission line includes N crossovers along the first differential transmission line through the overlap region at which the first line and the second line switch lanes with each other. N is equal to 1+INT {L/(λ/C)}, where L is a length of the overlap region, λ is a wavelength of a differential signal carried by the first or second differential transmission line, C is a constant, and INT {L/(λ/C)} is {L/(λ/C)} rounded down to the nearest integer.

Transceiver or radio frequency (RF) integrated circuits (ICs) often have one or more differential transmission lines carrying clock and/or voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) signals over most or all of the length and/or width of the IC. Differential transmission lines are susceptible to noise from nearby circuitries and/or interconnections, which could potentially cause de-modulation, crosstalk, and spurs that may negatively affect differential signals carried on the differential transmission lines.
In a specific example involving carrier aggregation, two differential transmission lines may be placed side-by-side on an IC, where the differential transmission lines carry VCO signals with different frequencies to different transmitter/receive (TX/RX) mixers. Because the differential transmission lines are located near each other, a high degree of unwanted coupling may occur between the signals carried by the differential transmission lines without sufficient isolation.
The subject matter claimed herein is not limited to embodiments that solve any disadvantages or that operate only in environments such as those described above. Rather, this background is only provided to illustrate one example technology area where some embodiments described herein may be practiced.

Isolating differential transmission lines


The present invention describes reagents and methods for using concatermized double-stranded oligonucleotide molecules (CODN) for transcription factor decoys. In one embodiment, the concatemers consist of a variable number of end-to-end copies of a short dsDNA containing a sequence or sequences that act as transcription factor decoys.

Nucleic acids show great promise as new therapeutics to treat both acquired and inherited diseases. One of the greatest challenges with the successful application of nucleic acid drugs is the development of an efficacious delivery method.1 Delivery systems are needed to compact genetic material into nanostructures that can be taken up by cells, protect nucleic acids from enzymatic damage during cellular transport, and provide the possibility of targeting the delivery to specific cell types.2 Viral vectors are still the most effective and commonly used method of DNA transport even though many problems with this delivery method have been revealed.2,3
Polymer-mediated gene delivery has recently emerged as a viable alternative to viral-based transduction systems since polymers may not induce immune and inflammatory responses, have a lower cost of synthesis, and have a large nucleic acid loading capacity.1,2 Several studies have shown that polycations bind DNA electrostatically and form polyplexes (polymer+DNA complexes) that are endocytosed by many cell types and deliver DNA with varying degrees of delivery efficiency and toxicity.4,5 Although synthetic delivery systems show great promise, difficulties with polymer toxicity and low delivery efficiency have hampered clinical application of these vectors.1,2 For example, polyethylenimine (PEI), a polymer of ethylenediamine, exhibits efficient gene delivery but is also very cytotoxic.6 Conversely, chitosan, a polymer of glucosamine, is completely nontoxic yet reveals low delivery efficiency in many cell lines.7 Progress towards rationally-designed synthetic delivery systems has also been stalled by a lack of understanding of the fundamental polymer structure-biological property relationships that exist for synthetic delivery vehicles.4,5
Drug delivery is an important field for both clinical applications and research. Some biological systems possess unique delivery challenges.
In recent years gene therapy has received a greater amount of attention in academic and scientific circles. The potential for gene therapy for pharmaceutical, commercial, and clinical applications is tremendous. Gene transfection, the addition of a gene to a cell, is a critical component of gene therapy.
Presently there are several approaches to gene transfection. These include the use of viral based vectors (e.g., retroviruses, adenoviruses, and adeno-associated viruses) (Drumm, M. L. et al., Cell 62:1227-1233 (1990); Rosenfeld, M. A. et al., Cell 68:143-155 (1992); and Muzyczka, N., Curr. Top. Micro. Immuno. 158:97-129 (1992)), charge associating the DNA with an asialorosomucoid/poly L-lysine complex (Wilson, J. M. et al., (1992)), Charge associating the DNA with cationic liposomes (Brigham, K. L. et al., (1993)) and the use of cationic liposomes in association with a poly-L-lysine antibody complex (Trubetskoy, V. S. et al., Biochem. Biophys. Acta 1131:311-313 (1993)).
Viral vectors have exhibited the highest levels of transfection efficiency to date for nucleic acids. Viral vectors have been particularly effective in in vivo systems, where other transfection systems have fallen short. Viral vectors do have a tremendous downside, namely the potential to illicit a potentially life-threatening immune response. (Kingman, Bioworld Int., 1(20):1 (1996)). This happens because the viral carrier actually infects the cell as part of the method of transfection.
Although non-viral based transfection systems have not exhibited the efficiency of viral vectors, they are still receiving significant scientific attention because of their probable increased safety for in vivo systems. This has also led to increased attention for in vitro systems as well. Synthetic cationic molecules have been reported to "coat" the nucleic acid through interactions on the cationic sites of the transfection reagent and the anionic sites on the nucleic acid. The positively charged coating reportedly interacts with the negatively charged cell membrane to facilitate the passage of the nucleic acid into the cytoplasm via non-specific endocytosis. (Schofield, Brit. Microencapsulated. Bull., 51(1):56-71 (1995)).
Past attempts at nucleic acid transfection have also experienced difficulty with DNA precipitating out of solution. The problem is especially acute in in vivo applications where typically higher concentrations of DNA are present. These higher concentrations create solubility problems for the DNA/carrier systems. DNA precipitation can be avoided by increasing the concentration of mono- and polyvalent cations. In the past this had partly solved the DNA solubility problem, but it also increased the toxic effects upon the transfected cells.


Process and installation for crystallising an inorganic substance in a fluidised bed of crystals (14), which is generated by subjecting a solution supersaturated in the substance to be crystallised to an ascending circulation across a distributor (12), located below the bed (14), of a fluidised-bed reactor, a fraction (22) of the supersaturated solution being taken off upstream of the distributor (12) and being recycled downstream of the distributor (12) into the fluidised bed (14) or into the mother liquor from the crystallisation, and the mother liquor being supersaturated for reconstituting the said supersaturated solution.

The present invention relates to a process for crystallising an inorganic substance, using a bed of crystals, which is traversed by a solution supersaturated in the substance to be crystallised.
The "OSLO" crystalliser is an apparatus well known for crystallising inorganic substances (British Chemical Engineering, August 1971, Volume 16, No. 8, pages 681 to 685; The Chemical Engineer, July/August 1974, pages 443 to 445; British Patent GB-A-418,349). This known apparatus comprises a vertical cylindrical cell and a vertical tube which is disposed axially in the cell and ends in the immediate vicinity of the bottom of the latter; an annular vertical chamber is thus defined between the axial tube and the cylindrical wall of the cell. In the operation of this known apparatus, a bed of crystals in the annular chamber is used, through which a solution supersaturated in the substance which it is desired to crystallise is caused to flow (for example an aqueous supersaturated solution of sodium chloride). This solution is introduced into the apparatus via the axial tube, in such a way that it radially penetrates the annular chamber, close to the bottom thereof, and subjects the crystals of the bed to a common rotation, comprising an ascending translation along the wall of the cell and a descending translation along the axial tube.
In this known apparatus, the purpose is to produce regular crystalline grains of spherical shape, whose mean diameter should be controllable by an appropriate choice of the dimensions of the apparatus and of the operating conditions. In practice, however, this known apparatus is rather unsuitable for obtaining large spherical grains, particularly due to the fact of attrition generated within the bed of crystals and of the common rotation, to which these are subjected.
In the document EP-A-0,352,847 (SOLVAY & Cie), a process and equipment are described which eliminate the said drawbacks. In this process and this equipment, a fluidised-bed reactor is used and the solution supersaturated in the substance to be crystallised is caused to circulate upwards across a distributor in such a way that, above the latter, the fluidised bed of crystals is generated; the mother liquor from the crystallisation is collected above the bed and recycled to a point upstream of the bed, after it has been supersaturated to reconstitute the original supersaturated solution.
The invention perfects the process and equipment of document EP-A-0,352,847 by providing a means which reduces the risk of parasitic crystal formation below the fluidised bed.
Starting from this situation, the invention relates to a process for crystallising an inorganic substance in a fluidised bed of crystals, which is generated by subjecting a solution supersaturated in the substance to be crystallised to an ascending circulation across a distributor, located below the bed, of a fluidised-bed reactor, the mother liquor from the crystallisation being collected at the bed exit and being supersaturated to reconstitute the said supersaturated solution; according to the invention, a fraction of the supersaturated solution is taken off upstream of the distributor and recycled to a point downstream of the distributor, before the mother liquor is collected.
In the process according to the invention, the crystals of the bed serve as seeds for the crystallisation of the inorganic material by desupersaturation of the supersaturated solution. They are generally small regular crystals of the inorganic substance which it is intended to crystallise.
The level of supersaturation of the supersaturated solution depends on various parameters, in particular the nature of the inorganic material, on its temperature and on the possible presence of solid or dissolved impurities. In practice, everything else being equal, it is advantageous to establish a maximum supersaturation level, which must always be limited in order to avoid accidental crystallisations on the walls of the crystallisation equipment upstream of the crystal bed, and also primary and secondary seeding within the solution.
The solvent of the solution is not critical, and water is generally preferred.
The temperature of the supersaturated solution is not critical. Nevertheless, it has been observed in practice that the rate of crystal growth in the bed is higher, the higher the temperature of the solution. It is advisable, however, for the temperature of the solution to remain below its boiling point at the pressure prevailing in the crystallisation chamber. For example, in the case where the process is applied to the crystallisation of sodium chloride, aqueous sodium chloride solutions can advantageously be used which have a degree of supersaturation of between 0.3 and 0.5 g/kg at a temperature of between 50.degree. and 110.degree. C. The degree of supersaturation expresses the mass of excess inorganic material relative to the mass corresponding to saturation of the solution.
The bed of crystals is a fluidised bed in accordance with the generally accepted definition (Givaudon, Massot and Bensimon--"Precis de genie chimique [Chemical engineering principles]"--Volume 1--Berger-Levrault, Nancy--1960, pages 353 to 370). To fluidise the bed, the stream of the supersaturated solution is caused to pass through a distributor disposed underneath the bed of crystals, in accordance with the usual technique for fluidised-bed reactors. The distributor is a fundamental element of fluidised-bed reactors. Its function is to divide the stream of solution into preferably parallel and vertical thin jets and additionally to impose thereon a defined pressure drop, controlled as a function of the bed dimensions, of the nature of the particles forming the bed, and of the solution (Ind. Eng. Chem. Fundam.-- 1980--19--G. P. Agarwal et al.--"Fluid mechanical description of fluidized beds. Experimental investigation of convective instabilities in bounded beds"--pages 59 to 66; John H. Perry--Chemical Engineers' Handbook--4th Edition--1963--McGraw-Hill book company--pages 20.43 to 20.46). It can, for example, be a horizontal plate perforated by regularly distributed orifices, a grate or a horizontal lattice, or an assembly of vertical channels.
Downstream of the bed of crystals, the mother liquor from the crystallisation is collected. This is a solution saturated in the substance to be crystallised. It is treated for converting it into a supersaturated state and then recycled into the supersaturated solution upstream of the distributor. The means used for obtaining supersaturation of the mother liquor are not critical. The supersaturation of the mother liquor can, for example, be obtained by altering its temperature or by subjecting it to partial evaporation.
Details regarding the operation of the fluidised bed, the supersaturated solution, the recycling of the mother liquor and the regeneration of the supersaturated solution are described in the document EP-A-0,352,847 (SOLVAY & Cie).

Process and equipment for crystallizing an inorganic substance


A syringe encapsulation device having a melt chamber heated by forced hot air to sufficient temperature to melt the plastic bodies of the syringes, where the melt chamber is coaxially mounted onto a rotating shaft and rotated when the plastic is in the molten state such that the molten plastic is centrifugally driven to the outer periphery of the melt chamber to safely encapsulate the needles once the molten plastic has hardened.

This invention relates generally to the field of devices for the destruction, encapsulation or disposal of potentially hazardous plastic waste, especially such waste comprising used medical syringes with attached sharp needles or lancets, the needles or lancets being made of metal and having high melt temperatures. More particularly, the invention relates to such devices which melt and compact the plastic waste in a way to completely encapsulate the needles into a sterile, easily disposable slug. Even more particularly, the invention relates to such devices which accomplish the compaction or condensing of the molten plastic waste by centrifugal force.
It is necessary to dispose of used medical syringes, lancets and blood test strips in a manner which minimizes the possibility of injury or infection to persons handling the syringes, at the initial point of use and disposal as well as all along the handling chain to final disposition in a land fill or the like. Syringes, needles and other similar objects are well-known in medical situations for use in delivering treatment fluids into the bloodstream or for removing blood samples. There are numerous blood borne diseases, including HIV, TB, and Hepatitis B & C, which can be accidentally transferred from the carrier to another person coming into contact with the disease-laden blood. Unfortunately, medical personnel must routinely deal with potentially contaminated syringes and needles and are thereby often exposed to such diseases during the handling, storage and disposal of the used syringes and needles.
Numerous methods or devices have been developed to address this problem. Some such devices provide means to cap or enclose the needle, but enclosure of the needle by a physical housing requires the person to perform an additional physical act where inadvertent contact is possible and does not address the need to sterilize the syringes to kill infectious organisms. Devices are also known which provide protection from the syringe needles by melting the plastic portions of the syringes such that the needles are encased in the resulting plastic mass. This technique is an improvement over the capping method, since the used needle is simply deposited into the disposal device with minimal handling. The temperature achieved within the melt chambers of these devices is greater than that required to melt the plastic in order to also sterilize the waste material.
Examples of such combination disposal and sterilization devices are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,860,958 to Yerman and in U.S. Pat. No. 5,207,994 to Suzuki. These devices provide a cylindrical melting chamber with a reciprocating piston. The waste syringes are placed into the chamber, heated and compressed to form a puck or slug to encapsulate the needles. The plastic slug is then removed by opening separate access plates or doorways and disposed of. Both of these devices, as well as all other similar known devices, involve multiple joints, doorways, hinges and other components which are susceptible to fouling from plastic flash. Plastic flash is molten plastic which escapes from the melting chamber due to the effects of gravity or pressure from the compacting piston. Syringe plastic contains paraffin, which becomes a highly viscous liquid at temperatures well below those required to sterilize the plastic waste. The sterilization step requires temperatures in excess of 350 degrees F. to achieve sterilization in a relatively short time period. During the melting process, at about 275 degrees F., the paraffin becomes a highly viscous liquid which is forced past the seals and joints in the known devices. To counter this, highly efficient seals and joints must be constructed with very tight precision. These air and fluid tight seals prevent the escape of water vapor, steam and other outgas products produced during the melting process. Since they cannot escape and are non-compressible, they recondense on or within the waste slug and create gaps and voids within the slug through which the needle points may be exposed.
It is an object of this invention to provide a device for the destruction, sterilization and encapsulation of hazardous plastic waste products, and in particular waste such as used medical syringes with attached needles, lancets or the like which are made of metal, which provides a safe and efficient means to melt the plastic waste to form a disposable plastic slug with the needles securely encased therein by combination of pressure and temperature, where the pressure or force to compact the molten plastic waste is provided by centrifugal rotation of the melt chamber. It is a further object to provide such a device which eliminates the problems associated with plastic flash by eliminating the need for a compaction piston or ram.

Device for the encapsulation of plastic syringes


There are provided a magnetic coupling unit and a magnetic coupling system which are capable of reducing energy loss when operations using magnetic coupling between magnetic devices are performed. The magnetic coupling unit includes: one or more magnetic devices each capable of being magnetically coupled with other magnetic device in other unit; and one or more coupling reinforcing sections each reinforcing the magnetic coupling.

This disclosure relates to a magnetic coupling unit having a magnetic device such as a coil, and to a magnetic coupling system including a plurality of such magnetic coupling units.
In recent years, a feed system (a non-contact feed system, a wireless charging system) performing non-contact power supply (power transmission) to CE devices (consumer electronics devices) such as mobile phones and mobile music players has attracted attention. Accordingly, charging is allowed to be started by not inserting (connecting) a connector of a power supply such as an AC adapter into a unit but placing an electronic unit (a secondary-side unit) on a charging tray (a primary-side unit). In other words, terminal connection between the electronic unit and the charging tray is not necessary.
As a method of performing non-contact power supply in such a way, an electromagnetic induction method (for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2010-93180) is well known. In addition, a non-contact feed system using a so-called magnetic resonance method which uses magnetic resonance phenomenon has attracted attention. In the non-contact feed system using the magnetic resonance method, power transmission is achievable with a distance larger than that in the electromagnetic induction method because of a principle of the magnetic resonance phenomenon. In addition, transmission efficiency (feeding efficiency) is less likely to be degraded even if an axial alignment is not enough. Incidentally, in the magnetic resonance method and in the electromagnetic induction method, the non-contact feed system uses the magnetic coupling between a feed source (a power transmission coil) and a feed destination (a power reception coil).
On the other hand, similarly to the non-contact feed system, there are a large number of systems (magnetic coupling systems) performing a predetermined operation with use of magnetic coupling between coils (magnetic devices). Examples of such systems include a wireless communication system performing local wireless communication between an electronic unit and a non-contact integrated circuit (IC) card (for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2006-178713) and a transformation system converting a voltage value of an AC power into a different voltage value. In addition, examples of such systems further include an induction heating system heating a metal product (for example, a metal pot) without contact with use of magnetic coupling between a coil and the metal product (for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2004-267466).

Magnetic coupling unit and magnetic coupling system


A blow tube unit includes a retainer insert assembly with a restrictor and an injector blow tip. The restrictor includes restricting means to prevent the communication of a thermosetting fluent material from a reservoir to a sand core mold in the absence of blow cycle pressure. Constructed from a single block of metal, the restrictor is detachably secured to a lower portion of the blow tube unit in order to allow for removal and cleaning. The injector blow tip is made from an elastomeric material and is detachably secured to a lower portion of the restrictor.

The present invention relates to an improvement in blow tube units which are used in blow plate assemblies. A blow plate assembly is described generally in U.S. Pat. No. 3,461,948 to Londal et al. The blow tube unit described in Londal et al. is used in conjunction with pressure applied during a blowing cycle to communicate a thermosetting fluent material such as sand from a reservoir to an associated sand core mold. The sand that is being conveyed has a moisture content. As a result, at the end of the blow cycle when the pressure is released, the sand typically compacts within the blow tube unit and stops flowing into the mold.
When a fluent thermosetting material such as dry coated shell sand is used however, no compaction takes place since this type of sand has very little if any moisture content. Therefore, the shell sand continues to communicate between the reservoir and core mold via the blow tube unit even when no blow cycle pressure is applied. This is undesirable, particularly since only a fixed amount of sand is needed to form a sand mold.


A device is provided to prevent erroneous operation of an object to be controlled connected to the controller if the clock is interrupted. When a clock monitoring unit (15) detects that no clock pulse signal (CL) is generated from a clock generating unit (14) in a controller (10), a D flip-flop (13) is forcibly turned off, so that no drive signal is given to the actuator that is the object to be controlled. Moreover, a clock monitoring unit (42) in a controller (40) detects whether a clock pulse signal (CK1) is being sent from a controller of the preceding stage or not. When the clock pulse signal (CK1) is being received, the clock monitoring unit (42) sends the clock pulse signal (CK1) to the actuator that is the object to be controlled via a data processing unit (44). When the clock pulse signal (CK1) is not detected, a clock pulse signal (CK2) of a self clock generating unit (41) is sent to the actuator that is the object to be controlled via the data processing unit (44).

FIG. 9 shows a concept of an arrangement of a controller which performs its internal control based on a clock pulse as a reference generated at intervals of a constant time to controllably drive actuators.
As shown in the drawing, when a control signal including control data for driving of actuators 201 and 202 is applied to a controller 100, a data processing unit 101 in the controller extracts the control data from the received control signal and outputs it to an output signal latching circuit 102. During this operation, the data processing unit 101 is operated in synchronism with a clock pulse signal received from a clock generating unit 104. The latching circuit 102 latches the received control data and outputs the latched control data to an interface circuit 103. During this operation, the latching circuit 103 is similarly operated in synchronism with the clock pulse signal received from the clock generating unit 104. The interface circuit 103 subjects the input signal to a predetermined Level conversion and outputs the converted control data to the actuators 201 and 202 to controllably drive these actuators 201 and 202. Assume that the latching circuit 102 is made up of such a sequential circuit as, for example, a D flip-flop.
However, there sometimes occurs that the output of the clock pulse from the clock generating unit 104 is interrupted. This causes the subsequent clock pulse signal to remain at its logical level "0". Accordingly, when the output of the latching circuit 102 (D flip-flop) prior to the interruption of the output of the clock pulse remains at its logical level "1", the logical level "1" is maintained even after the stoppage of the output of the clock pulse. This results in that the interior of the controller is riot normally operated so that the actuators 201 and 202 become uncontrollable.
Therefore, the safety of the system will be remarkably deteriorated.
Also shown in FIG. 10 is a concept of an arrangement of a serial control system in which nodes (which will be referred to as the controllers, hereinafter), which respectively perform their internal controlling operation based on a clock pulse generated at intervals of a constant time to detect sensor signals and/or controllably drive associated actuators, are connected in a daisy chain form.
A data processing unit 103' in a controller 100' shown in the drawing generates control data for control of driving operation of a group of actuators 105' and outputs it to an interface circuit 104'. During this time, the data processing unit 103' is operated in synchronism with a clock pulse signal received from a clock generating unit 102'. The interface circuit 104' subjects the input signal to a predetermined level conversion, and outputs the converted control data to the group of actuators 105' to controllably drive these actuators 105'. And a clock pulse signal CK issued from the clock generating unit 102' as well as a data signal DT subjected at the data processing unit 103' to the data processing operation are transmitted through respective signal lines 400' and 500' to respective data processing units 203' and 303' of controllers 200' and 300' of the next and subsequent stages. In this case, the data processing unit 203' of the controller 200' receives the aforementioned clock pulse signal CK and data signal DT to operate in synchronism with the received clock pulse signal CK. That is, the data processing unit adds the received data signal DT to detection data from a group of sensors 205' through an interface circuit 204'. On the other hand, the data processing unit 303' of the controller 300' similarly receives the clock pulse signal CK and the data signal DT transmitted through the controller 200' to operate in synchronism with the received clock pulse signal CK, so that the data processing unit 303' controllably drives a group of actuators 305' through an interface circuit 304' on the basis of the received data signal DT, as in the above data processing unit 103'.
In the respective controllers 100', 200' and 300', the data processing units 103', 203' and 303' and the clock generating units 102', 202' and 302' are made as signal processing units 101', 201' and 301' respectively in the form of a single package of gate array (a sort of integrated circuit (IC) known as ASIC designed for specific applications). In this way, in spite of the fact that the controllers 200' and 300' contain their own clock generating units 203' and 303', the controllers use not output clocks of their clock generating units 203' and 303' but the output clock of the clock generating unit 103' of the controller 100'. This is because, when the clock pulse signal CK and the data signal DT are separately transmitted through the signal lines 400' and 500' to the next and subsequent stages of the controllers 200' and 300', hit synchronization can be completely achieved and thus reliable communication can be realized.
The signal lines 400' and 500' are connected to connectors 150' and 250' respectively between the controllers 100' and 200' and between the controllers 200' and 300'.
For this reason, in the case where such a serial control system is mounted within the interior of a machine such as a car or a press machine tool, which generates a strong vibration, there may take place that the vibration causes the aforementioned connectors 150' and 250' to be disconnected, resulting in a broken line between the controllers. This leads to the fact that the controllers 200' and 300' located downstream of the broken line fail to receive the clock pulse signal CK that is to be sent from the controller 100', whereby the interiors of the controllers 200' and 300' are not normally operated so that the data detection of objects to be controlled by the controllers 200' and 300', i.e., of the sensor group 205' as well as the driving control of the actuator group 305' become disabled. As a result, the system safety is deteriorated to a large extent.
In view of such circumstances, the present invention has been made, and an object thereof is to provide a device which can avoid a control object from being put in its uncontrollable state, even when a clock within a controller is stopped or a broken line between controllers causes the failure of transmission of a clock signal.

Device for preventing erroneous operation when the clock is interrupted in a controller

c/o Kabushiki Kaisha Komatsu Seisakusho Research Institution, 1200, Manda