An equipment transport rack is mountable on the roof of a vehicle, and provides easy access for loading equipment thereon. The equipment payload is carried on a payload carrier mounted on a movable carriage assembly which has two operational positions. In the transport position, the payload is carried above the roof surface, thus avoiding interference with vehicle doors or windows and preventing safety hazards to passers by.. In the loading position, the carriage assembly extends outwardly and pivots downwardly from the roof area to project the payload carrier at least partially below the height of the roof edge and roof surface. In the loading position, the equipment payload may be easily and conveniently loaded and unloaded from the rack by a user of average height standing next to the vehicle. When the loading or unloading is completed, the carriage assembly pivots upwardly and slides inwardly to be returned to the transport position, where it is latched in position prior to vehicle movement. Various dedicated payload carriers may be interchangeably substituted on the carriage assembly or be integral with it. In a further embodiment, a single payload carrier accommodates multiple equipment types.

Sport utility vehicles have gained widespread popularity in recent years. Generally, these vehicles have a box-shaped cab section and include various features such as four wheel drive and heavy-duty suspensions which allow them to be used in most environments including the off-road environment. Vehicles of this type are therefore particularly well suited for transporting its occupants to remote and possibly difficult to reach outdoor locales for participation in outdoor sports. Examples of such outdoor sports include skiing and snowboarding, canoeing, bicycling, fishing, and camping.
Many of these sports require specialized equipment for their participation. Bicycling requires the bicycles, fishing requires the fishing poles, canoeing requires the canoe, skiing or snowboarding requires the skis, poles or the snowboard, and camping requires the tent. These specialized equipments must be carried along with the user to the remote outdoor locale, and because of the size and shape of the equipment, they most effectively are carried outside the vehicle on roof-mounted racks.
To some extent, the manufacturers of these vehicles have anticipated this need by providing many of these vehicles with generalized racks or load carriers. In basic form, the roof rack comprises a pair of spaced parallel rails or load bars, fixedly attached to the roof and aligned parallel to the centerline of the roof or transversely to it. The rails are elevated a slight distance from the roof surface, generally three to five inches. The ends of the rails have end brackets which attach to the roof by sheet metal screws or the like and hold the rails at the predetermined height. In a common configuration, the brackets for the two transverse rails are adjustably mounted in fixed linear tracks along each side edge of the roof, providing the user with the capability of setting the spacing between the two rails. Also, aftermarket versions of these generalized or multipurpose roof racks are provided that are installable and removable from the vehicle and may include end brackets that screwlock in the vehicle's roof gutters or clamp into the top of the side door openings.
As convenient as these generalized load carriers are, they do not include features for securely holding particular types of sports equipment. The user most often must purchase a dedicated roof rack, which includes features particularized for effectively accommodating one type of sports equipment. A rack for holding skis, for example, includes multiple slots which accept individual pairs of skis and/or pairs of ski poles, plus a securing bar which locks down the skis and poles so they will not be jarred lose by vibrations due to the vehicle motion. In addition, there may be a security lock feature to prevent the skis from being stolen when the vehicle is left unattended by its owner. As another example, a roof-mounted upright carrier for bicycles includes a wheel tray having a linear groove into which the bicycle tires are inserted, wheel straps for securely holding the wheels in the carrier during transport, and a holder to keep the bicycle frame in an upright position. Other dedicated equipment racks include similar specialized features and operations for the particular application.
The equipment is often loaded onto or unloaded off of the dedicated equipment rack a number of times consistent with the use of the equipment it carries. For example, a daylong ski trip will require that a ski rack be initially loaded at the user's home and unloaded at the ski area; at the conclusion of the skiing, the ski rack will be loaded at the ski area and then finally unloaded at the user's home. The repetitive loading and unloading of the dedicated equipment rack serves to multiply the problems inherent in its use.
Most vehicles in the sports utility category as described herein have a nominal height range from ground to roof of 65 inches to 75 inches. Some vehicles, such as the Ford Bronco, manufactured by Ford Motor Company of Detroit, Mich. have an advertised nominal roof height of 79.1 inches. As another example, the Chevrolet Suburban, manufactured by Chevrolet Motor Company of Detroit, Mich. has an advertised nominal roof height of 76.4 inches. From these examples, it is clear that the height of these vehicles and others within this category are for most users above the height of their shoulders or in many cases above the height of their heads. Furthermore, the roof width for vehicles of this type is generally within the range of 60 inches to 70 inches, making most of the roof area including the centerline or middle of the roof beyond the distance which the average user can reach, even when the user is elevated.
For a user to load or unload one of the dedicated equipment racks discussed here above it is often necessary for the user to reach over to access those portions of the rack near the centerline of the roof. In accomplishing this action, the most users must stretch and lean against the vehicle. Besides being physically difficult to accomplish, due to the height and width of the vehicle, the clothing of the user often will often become soiled with dirt, dust, or grease from the sides and roof of the vehicle. Also, apparel worn by the user may typically include metal buckles, zippers, or buttons which may scratch the vehicle's paint. Furthermore, the equipment items placed in the dedicated rack may likewise include metal or abrasive surfaces that may scratch or mar the paint and otherwise cause damage to the vehicle if not handled with appropriate control while being secured in the dedicated rack. This unwanted result is further aggravated by the number of times the rack must be loaded and unloaded as discussed here above.
Conventionally, there are two solutions to elevating the user's height with respect to the height of the roof to improve the user's access thereto. In the first method, the user opens a side door to the cab area and stands at the edge of the open doorway while holding onto the car body with one hand to maintain stability and using the remaining arm to access the dedicated rack. The user may also stand on running board, bumper, vehicle tire, or even tailgate, depending on the structure of the particular vehicle. The first method is inherently unstable and has the drawbacks of leaning against the vehicles discussed here above as well as the danger of injury to the user due to slipping or falling. In the second method, a step ladder or stool is utilized to elevate the user's height with respect to the roof. However, the step ladder or stool must be available at the point of unloading as well as the point of loading, and this necessitates that the step ladder or stool be carried in the vehicle to the remote location. This is a drawback because oftentimes the vehicles may be filled with cargo, for example, camping equipment or vacation luggage, so that little room remains inside the vehicle to utilize for the storage of a step ladder or stool. Also, step ladder and stools are generally dangerous unless placed carefully on solid, level surfaces. However, sport utility vehicles are often unloaded in remote outdoor locations, such as ski mountains, campgrounds, and lake fronts. At these typical locations the ground surface may be non-level and unstable, often being composed of snow, loose dirt, or sand. These uneven and unstable ground surfaces increase the possibility that a stool or step ladder could slip and the user could fall and be injured while trying to unload or reload the dedicated rack. All these problems are compounded when the equipment carried is large and bulky, as in the case of transporting a canoe or small boat.
One solution to this problem has been to provide dedicated racks which carry equipment at a level below the height of the roof. There are known carrying racks for bicycles and skis that attach to the bumper or spare tire mounting bracket at the rear of a vehicle. The drawback of devices of this type is that they interfere with the opening of the rear cargo door or rear window of the vehicle it is installed upon. Also, because these devices extend far outwardly from the vehicle, they present a safety hazard to vehicles, persons, or property in close proximity to the rack.
Another bicycle carrier is known which attaches to the trailer hitch at the rear of the vehicle, under the rear bumper. Upon activation of a release lever, the bicycle rack swings down and away from the rear of the vehicle for loading the rack or opening the rear cargo door of the vehicle. However, because this device extends far from the rear of the vehicle in loading position, it presents greater hazards to vehicles, persons, and property in close proximity thereto.
Another solution to this problem is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,390,837 to Ruffolo, entitled Snowboard Rack. In this patent, a rack for snowboards is disclosed which mounts to any roll-up window on an automotive vehicle by means of a suction cup, bracket, and support arm arrangement. Thus, the loading and unloading of the snowboard is accomplished at a convenient height. However, the snowboard rack has the same drawbacks of restricting access to window and door to which it is attached, and it also presents a safety hazard while it is attached to the vehicle because the rack projects a distance form the vehicle's side while the vehicle is in motion. There is a known ski transport rack for vehicles which clamps to the side window of a vehicle in a similar manner to provide convenient loading and unloading but also has the same drawbacks discussed above.
Although these difficulties in loading and unloading equipment racks are inherent for vehicle types known as sports utility vehicles, the same problems exist with vans and pickup trucks having caps or removable hardtops installed over their cargo decks. Furthermore, conventional equipment racks for automobiles have the same inherent problems, though lessened because automobiles generally have a lower ground to roof height and a smaller roof width. All these vehicle classes present the same difficulty for the user in reaching toward the centerline of the roof to access all portions of a dedicated equipment rack installed thereon.
Also, although the problems discussed here above have been particularized with regard to sporting equipment types carried by sports utility vehicles, the same problems exist in the non-recreational environment. Utility vans, trucks, minivans and related vehicles carry bulky work-related items such as ladders, tools, or building materials on the roofs of the vehicles for convenience. In this situation, the user must overcome the same problems encountered when loading and unloading dedicated or multipurpose equipment racks on sports utility vehicles.
From the forgoing discussion it is clear that a need exists for an equipment rack that may be installed on the roof of a vehicle to securely transport a variety of cargo or equipment while providing features which allow the rack to be easily and conveniently loaded or unloaded while overcoming the drawbacks of the prior art discussed here above.

Equipment transport rack for vehicles providing improved loading accessibility


A problem is aimed to provide a liquid supplying technique that can efficiently perform liquid filling by a compact configuration, and an ink jet recording technique that uses this technique. As a solution thereto, in a liquid supplying device (20), a part of a first liquid ejecting passage is arranged at a higher position than a liquid storage (22), a second liquid ejecting passage includes a variable passage resistor (29), and a second opening (24) leading to the second liquid ejecting passage at the liquid storage (22) is arranged at a higher position than a first opening (23) leading to the first liquid ejecting passage.

Patent Document 1 describes an ink jet recording device that includes a recording head that discharges liquid droplets, and a liquid container which stores liquid to be supplied to the recording head and to which the liquid is supplied from a main cartridge, wherein the liquid container includes an opening and closing driving unit having a space for sealing an opening of a container body having the opening by a member with flexibility to house the liquid therein, and having a member for outwardly biasing the member with flexibility in the space, where the container body is provided with an atmosphere opened port for opening the space to atmosphere and with an atmosphere opening valve that opens and closes the atmosphere opened port, and the opening and closing driving unit driving the atmosphere opening valve of the liquid container to open and close; and a control unit that performs control of atmosphere opened filling that drives the opening and closing driving unit to bring the atmosphere opening valve to be in an opened state to supply liquid from the main cartridge to the liquid container, and atmosphere non-opened filling that brings the atmosphere opening valve to be in a closed state to supply liquid from the main cartridge to the liquid container, wherein the control unit performs the atmosphere opened filling when the main cartridge is replaced.

Ink jet recording device, liquid supplying device, and method of controlling ink jet recording device


In an embodiment of the invention, a method for REST service importation in a distributed application development data processing system can be provided. The method can include the specifying a sample uniform resource locator (URL) in a graphical user interface to a REST service importation editor and invoking the REST service at the sample URL in order to receive a response object from the REST service. The method further can include parsing both the sample URL and the response object to identify different request fields and field types of a request object for the REST service and also response fields and field types of the response object. Finally, the method can include displaying a description of the request fields and field types of the request object and also a description of the response fields and field types of the response object in the graphical user interface to the REST service importation editor.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of remote service utilization for distributed computing, and more particularly to the remote service invocation of a REST service.
2. Description of the Related Art
Distributed computing refers to the disposition of programmatic elements for a computing application across multiple different computing sources in a computer communications network. Often embodied as part of a Web distributed application, a user interface to the application can be served from one network location, while different portions of program code for an application can be sourced from different locations in the network. Distributed applications enjoy an important advantage of code reuse such that to deploy a robust application, one need not develop the entire application from scratch. Rather, already proven application components can be combined from different sources through a common user interface to deliver the robust application. In this regard, at its extreme form, a distributed application can be nothing more than an aggregation of existing logical components.
Historically, Web services have driven the advancement of distributed computing. A Web service, strictly speaking, is a server-side application exposing a well-defined application programming interface (API) to access the logic of the server-side application. The Web service and its corresponding API can be published in a network accessible directory such that an interested calling application can recognize a proper format for both invoking the logic of the Web service and also for receiving a result from the invocation of the logic of the Web service. In Web services, the format for the request and the response must conform to a defined schema as published in the network accessible directory.
While Web services have proven helpful in the enterprise and have been all the rage for nearly a decade, the utilization of Web services is not without its challenges. For one, interactions with Web services are not cacheable resulting in performance disadvantages and the inability of Web services oriented applications to scale on demand. Further, communication state must be maintained when accessing remotely disposed Web services. Even further, additional protocol handling logic must be layered to enjoy the benefit of Web services, including support for the simple object access protocol (SOAP). Finally, Web services are entirely dependent on a separate and independent resource discovery system—namely the directory.
Realizing the inherent programs in the use of Web services, information technologists have begun to gravitate towards REST services which do not suffer the disadvantages noted herein. As is understood by those skilled in the art, REST refers to a collection of network architecture principles intended to expose access to resources in a stateless manner. The resources are exposed such that clients can access the resources uniformly without requiring knowledge of the whole resource set. In REST, resources are accessed stateless through commonly understood hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) PUT and GET directives.
The "culture" associated with developers utilizing REST services shuns learning a complex service description language such as the Web Service Definition Language (WSDL) identified with Web services in order to code proper access to a Web service. In fact, at present there is no widely used REST service definition standard though in the past, developers have produced proprietary service definitions for REST. Rather, the culture of the REST technology largely relates to a trial-and-error approach to using a REST service. This trial-and-error approach involves the developer keying a uniform resource locator (URL) into the address field of a Web browser in order to examine the resulting document in the browser.
Based upon the examination of the returned results, the developer can determine the required code in the proper format utilizing proper semantics in order to utilize the REST service from the target application. In addition in order to "import" (use) the REST service within an application, the developer may be required to describe the REST service using a language required by the runtime environment of the application. For example the runtime environment supporting the target application may require that all REST services be described in accordance with a WSDL document.

Representational state transfer (REST) service import editor

International Business Machines Corporation


A device and a method for laterally steering a streamer cable towed underwater behind a seismic survey vessel. The device includes a cable-steering assembly rotatably attached to a streamer cable. The assembly includes a body to which one or more wings are mounted. The wings are arranged to pivot about pivot axes. The assembly is ballasted so that the pivot axes of the wings are largely in a vertical plane. A conventional cable-leveling bird is converted to one version of a cable-steering device by ballasting to maintain the pivot axes of the bird's wings largely vertical. With an orientation sensor for sensing the orientation of the wings, the cable-steering device adjusts the angle of the wings to provide a sideward component of force to steer the streamer.

The invention relates generally to marine seismic prospecting and, more specifically, to devices and methods for controlling the lateral position of streamer cables towed underwater behind survey vessels.
In marine seismic exploration, instrumented cables, known as streamers, are towed underwater by a survey vessel. The streamers are outfitted with a variety of electronic devices, including hydrophones that detect seismic signals transmitted into the water and reflected off geologic structures beneath the sea floor.
Devices known as cable-leveling birds are attached to a streamer at intervals along its length to control the streamer's depth. The birds are equipped with adjustable diving planes, generally referred to as wings, each having a pitch axis about which the wings can be pivoted by a motor to generate the lift needed to maintain the cable at a desired depth. Most commonly, the birds are rotatably attached to the streamer and weighted to hang pendulously from the cable with the pitch axis of the wings below the cable. These birds are effective depth-control devices.
It is not uncommon for a survey vessel to tow six or eight or more streamers of lengths up to 12 km. Because the costs of lost survey time and of replacing a damaged or lost streamer are so high, it is important that the streamers not become entangled during their deployment. Entanglement is more likely to occur in the presence of strong cross currents or while the survey vessel is turning to make another pass across the survey zone. To help avoid entanglement in turns, for example, each streamer is often operated at a different depth. While this technique provides some measure of entanglement control, it also subjects the cables to potentially strong shear layers of current that vary considerably with depth, possibly increasing the risk of entanglement. Generally the most satisfactory way to avoid entanglement with conventional systems is to steer the vessel through wide turns and to overspace the streamers from each other. But these techniques increase cost and reduce the precision of the seismic image.
Paravanes and other devices are used to separate the streamers at their head ends close to the survey vessel. But lateral streamer control and streamer position predictability diminish as cable tension lessens down the lengths of streamers. The wake created by the seismic vessel creates a phenomenon known as "trouser" effect on the array. The streamers fan out port and starboard, creating a large void in the seismic coverage directly aft of the vessel. The streamers assume the shape of trousers. These voids must be resurveyed on subsequent passes known as "in-fill." In-fill can increase the cost of seismic surveying by up to 20%. Lack of repeatability in processes and positional inaccuracies can reduce the quality of the seismic data and increase the cost by necessitating in-fill. Thus, there is a need to provide a technique for lateral streamer positioning to reduce the cost of operation and to improve the quality of the resultant seismic image.
Today's state-of-the-art seismic vessels have the capacity to deploy, tow, and recover up to 18 streamers. Existing deployment schemes limit the degree to which streamers can be simultaneously deployed, which greatly increases the cost of operation. There is a need to provide for lateral streamer control during the deployment and recovery phases to support simultaneous streamer operation without entanglement.

Device for laterally steering streamer cables


A transient voltage surge suppressor comprises a first series circuit formed of a normally-off voltage surge-responsive gas discharge tube and a first voltage clamping device connected across input terminals to which a line voltage is applied. It also includes a second series circuit formed of a first electrical energy absorbing impedance element and a second voltage clamping device connected across the first voltage clamping element, thereby forming a voltage-clamping, voltage divider circuit which clamps the voltage across the first voltage clamping element at a voltage level reduced in comparison with that obtained by the first series circuit alone. When the gas discharge tube turns on, it places both voltage clamping devices in the circuit simultaneously, so that the let-through voltage appearing across output terminals can be reduced to the voltage clamped by the voltage-clamping, voltage divider circuit. An overcurrent protection device is coupled in circuit with the surge suppressor circuit to prevent damage to the surge suppressor that may be caused by excessive thermal energy buildup or by a large magnitude current spike capable of destroying one or more components of the suppressor and thereby preventing the suppressor from performing its intended function. The overcurrent protection device comprises a pair of series-connected switches, physically configured as alterable conductor portions, so that severing either of the conductor portions will effectively decouple the line terminals from the surge suppressor circuit.

Current state of the art electrical energy surge suppressors, such as AC outlet-mounted devices and stand alone devices, to which the power supply leads of one or more electrical appliances or electronic equipments are connectable, customarily include one or more interconnected passive, series impedances, such as inductors, and one or more non-linear voltage-limiting elements, such as gas discharge tubes, metal oxide varistors (MOVs), and solid state devices, such as silicon avalanche diodes (SADs), which serve to attenuate or clip the surge at a prescribed threshold level and limit the extent to which the magnitude of the surge exceeds the rated line voltage.
Examples of conventional surge suppressors are illustrated diagrammatically in FIGS. 1, 2 and 3, each having a pair of input terminals 11, 12 (line and neutral, respectively) across which the line voltage VL (e.g. 110 VAC) is applied, and a pair of output terminals 21, 22, to which the power supply leads of the equipment to be protected are connected. Coupled in circuit with either one or both of the input and output terminal pairs is one or a pair of series impedance elements, such as an inductor 31 coupled in series with terminals 11 and 21 in the devices of FIGS. 1 and 3, or respective series inductors 31, 32, series-coupled between terminals 11, 21 and 12, 22 in the device of FIG. 2. Connected across the line and neutral or ground, namely between each of the respective input and output terminal pairs 11, 12 and 21, 22 are non-linear voltage-limiting devices of the type referenced above. In the surge suppressor circuits of FIGS. 1 and 2, voltage-limiting elements 51 and 52 may comprise MOVs or SADs. In the configuration of FIG. 3, a gas discharge tube 53 is additionally coupled in series with element 51 across input terminals 11-12.
In response to the application of a line voltage transient (characteristically shown at 61) across input voltage terminals 11 and 12, the non-linear voltage limiting elements operate to limit or clamp the input voltage in accordance with their rated capability, while the series inductance(s) resist the flow of current to the secondary elements 51, 52 so as to reduce the surge from a typical peak value on the order of 6 kV to a voltage level on the order of 280-330 volts, depending upon the circuit employed, as shown by the suppressed surge characteristic 62.
In the circuit of FIG. 3, for example, gas discharge tube 53 turns on when the surge voltage exceeds a value on the order of 500-600 volts. The voltage across turned-on gas discharge tube 53 drops to a value on the order of 20 volts and places clamping MOV element 51, typically rated at 95 volts, in series with the tube. With the absorbing action of inductor 31 and clamping element 52, the let-through voltage appearing across output terminals 21-22 can be reduced to a value on the order of 280 volts, which may still be larger than that tolerated by a variety of electronic systems.

Transient voltage surge suppressor with I.sup.2 R/I.sup.2 T overcurrent protection switch


Provided are an anti-PD-L1/anti-PD-1 natural antibody structure-like heterodimeric bispecific antibody and a preparation thereof. In particular, provided are a highly stable heterodimeric anti-PD-L1/anti-PD-1 bispecific antibody with characteristics of a natural IgG and without mismatches heavy chain-light chain, and a preparation thereof. The bispecific antibody can bind to both target molecules and is more effective in treating a complex disease.

Monoclonal antibodies are highly specific antibodies that act only on a single antigenic epitope and have been widely used in the treatment of numerous diseases, such as cancers, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, and infectious diseases. However, because of the complexity of diseases, none of such therapeutic molecules exhibits sufficient efficacy when used alone. For example, cancers or inflammatory diseases are often associated with various disease-mediating molecular pathways and interactions of the signaling pathways. Under these circumstances, a single-targeted molecule may not provide optimal therapeutic effects, while the therapeutic effects may be improved by molecules simultaneously blocking multiple targets or multiple sites on a single target. In the meanwhile, dual-targeted therapy using a multi-specific, such as a bispecific, molecule, may simplify the development of new drugs, because such a molecule is a single molecule. Compared with combined administration of a plurality of monospecific molecules, it would be more convenient to both patients and health workers.
Many different formats of bispecific antibodies or bifunctional molecules have been reported in this field. The first bispecific antibody was obtained by chemical methods using bifunctional coupling reagents to link two existing IgG molecules, Fab′, or (Fab′)2 fragments together. However, such a chemically coupled bispecific antibody has many limitations, such as in the work intensity of production, purification of heterologous conjugates, complexity in the removal of homologous conjugates and original monospecific antibodies or fragments, and low yield.
Another method for producing bispecific antibodies utilizes the technique of hybrid-hybridoma (or quadroma), which is produced by somatic fusion of two hybridoma cell lines that secrete different antibodies. Due to arbitrary pairing of immunoglobulin heavy and light chains, the desired functional bispecific antibody accounts for only one-tenth of the antibody mixture, which complicates the purification process and reduces the production yield.
WO2013060867 describes a method of mass-production of a heterodimeric bispecific antibody, wherein two homodimeric antibodies are reduced firstly in a mixture; then the asymmetric amino acid mutations are introduced into CH3 regions of the two homodimeric antibodies to promote Fab arm exchange between the different antibodies; a stable bispecific antibody is finally formed by oxidization of interchain disulfide bonds of the hinge regions.
WO2009089004 describes a method of preparing a heterodimeric protein, wherein, amino acids at the CH3-CH3 interface are mutated into charged amino acids such that the formation of heterodimer is electrostatically favorable, while the formation of homodimer is electrostatically unfavorable.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,731,168 describes a method of preparing a heterodimer IgG according to a "protuberance-into-cavity" strategy, wherein "protuberances" are constructed by replacing small amino acids at the interface of the CH3 region of a first chain with larger amino acids; at the same time, "cavities" are created by replacing corresponding large amino acids at the CH3 interface of a second chain with smaller amino acids. The protuberance and cavity interaction is favorable to the formation of heterodimeric IgG, but unfavorable to the formation of homodimer.
WO2012058768 describes a method of preparing a stable and highly specific heterodimer IgG. This method combines both negative and positive designs along with techniques of computational structural modeling-guided protein engineering to mutate a plurality of amino acids in the CH3 domain of IgG1, thereby forming a stable heterodimer IgG with a low content of homodimeric impurities.
As an effective means to improve the efficacy of antibodies, a bi-functional antibody capable of recruiting effector cells can be designed. Until now, the utilization of the function of CD3 molecule has been studied most. By activating killer T cells with CD3 molecule, the tumor of interest can be effectively eliminated (Haas C. et al., Immunobiology, 214:441-453, 2009). Among the above, BiTE which is a recombinant bifunctional T cell-stimulating antibody developed by Micromet, Inc., has shown great promise. However, the biggest problem is that its serum half-life is very short and its half-life in the human body is only 1 hour (Loffler A. et al., Blood, 95:2098-2103). This is attributed to BiTE's own structure, which is composed of two single-chain antibody fragments with a molecular weight only 60 kDa, and lacks Fc fragments in antibody molecules, which have significant effects on half-life extension.
Catumaxomab, as another promising multi-functional antibody, is a hybrid Ig molecule targeting CD3 and EpCAM. Currently, this product is approved for the treatment of ascites cancer (Jager M. et al, Cancer Res, 72:24-32, 2012). Still another multi-functional antibody under Phase-II clinical trial is ertumaxomab which targets CD3 and PD-L1. One heavy chain and one light chain of the hybrid antibody are derived from rat IgG and target CD3; another heavy chain and light chain are derived from mouse IgG and target PD-L1. Consequently, there is problem that the production of such product is quite difficult, since a quadroma capable of expressing a bifunctional anti-CD3/anti-PD-L1 antibody is required to obtain the cell line expressing bifunctional ertumaxomab. The quadroma is obtained by firstly obtaining a diploid hybridoma strain expressing CD3 antibody and a diploid hybridoma strain expressing a PD-L1 antibody, and then hybridizing the two hybridoma strains. In contrast, only one diploid hybridoma strain is required for the production of a conventional single-targeted antibody. In comparison therewith, the production process of a bifunctional antibody is more complicated, as it is even more difficult to obtain a quadroma. Moreover, the murine-origin results in its extremely high immunogenicity.
Furthermore, the most obvious side effect caused by anti-CD3 antibody is the burst of cytokines in vivo in a short time, which is also called cytokine storm. Accordingly, there is a need for a novel bifunctional antibody that recruits immune cells to the surface of tumor cells at the same time.
Programmed death receptor-1 (PD-1) is an immune checkpoint that has recently attracted much attention. PD-1 is a member belonging to CD28 family. Unlike other members of the CD28 family, such as CTLA4, capable of forming a covalent dimer via disulfide bond, PD-1 exists in monomeric form. The structure of PD-1 mainly includes an immunoglobulin variable region-like extracellular domain, a hydrophobic transmembrane domain, and an intracellular domain. The intracellular domain contains two independent phosphorylation sites: an immunoreceptor tyrosine-based inhibitory motif (ITIM) and an immunoreceptor tyrosine-based switch motif (ITSM), respectively. PD-1 is mainly inducibly expressed on the surface of activated T cells, and also on B cells, NK cells, monocytes, and DC cells. PD-1 mainly involves in the negative control of T cell activation, and may regulate the strength and duration of immune responses. The ligands of PD-1 include PD-L1 (programmed death ligand 1) and PD-L2 (programmed death ligand 2). These ligands belong to the B7 family. In the above, PD-L1 is inducibly expressed on the surface of various immune cells including T cells, B cells, monocytes, macrophages, DC cells, and endothelial cells, epidermal cells, etc., while PD-L2 is inducibly expressed only on some immune cells, including macrophages, DC cells and B cells. PD-L1 not only acts as a ligand for PD-1, but also acts as a ligand for CD80, transmits negative regulatory signals to T cells and induces immune tolerance of T cells (Autoimmun Rev, 2013, 12(11):1091-1100. Front Immunol, 2013, 4:481. Nat Rev Cancer, 2012, 12(4): 252-264. Trends Mol Med. 2015 January; 21(1): 24-33. Clin Cancer Res. 2012 Dec. 15; 18(24):6580-7).
Under normal circumstances, PD-1 and PD-L1 can mediate and maintain the autoimmune tolerance of organism tissues, prevent immune system from over-activating and impairing self-tissues in the inflammatory processes, and have positive effects on the avoidance of occurrence of autoimmune diseases. Under pathological circumstances, they participate in the tumor immunity, and occurrence and development of various autoimmune diseases. There are several publications report that PD-L1 is highly expressed in various tumor tissues, and PD-1 is highly expressed in tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes. Further, the over-expression of PD-L1 and PD-1 is closely associated with the poor clinical prognosis of tumors (Anticancer Agents Med. Chem. 2015; 15(3):307-13. Hematol Oncol Stem Cell Ther. 2014 March; 7(1):1-17. Trends Mol Med. 2015 January; 21(1):24-33. Immunity. 2013 Jul. 25; 9(1):61-73. T Clin Oncol. 2015 Jun. 10; 33(17):1974-82). Blocking PD-1/PD-L1 and PD-1/PD-L2 with PD-1 mAb, or blocking PD-1/PD-L1 and CD80/PD-L1 with PD-L1 mAb, has shown satisfactory anti-tumor effects in both pre-clinical and clinical trials. At present, PD-1 mAb has been approved by U.S. FDA for the treatment of various tumors, including non-small cell lung cancer, melanoma, head and neck cancer, etc. PD-L1 mAb has also been approved for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer and urothelial cancer. However, only a small part of tumor patients could benefit from such monoclonal antibody therapy, while most patients do not respond to such monoclonal antibodies (Expert Opin Ther Targets. 2014 December; 18 (12): 1407-20. Oncology (Williston Park). 2014 November; 28 Suppl 3:15-28).
Therefore, it is necessary to develop a novel, more potent, bifunctional antibody that simultaneously blocks PD-1/PD-L1, PD-1/PD-L2 and CD80/PD-L1 and that recruits immune cells to the surface of tumor cells.

Anti-PD-L1/anti-PD-1 natural antibody structure-like heterodimeric bispecific antibody and preparation thereof


A switching circuit is described having an input stage having an input referred offset voltage associated therewith. An output stage has an output offset voltage associated therewith which is due at least in part to the input referred offset associated with the input stage. Offset cancellation circuitry is operable to cancel a portion of the input referred offset voltage before switching of the output stage is enabled thereby resulting in cancellation of the portion of the output offset voltage after switching of the output stage begins. The offset cancellation circuitry is further operable to release the input referred offset voltage after switching of the output stage begins thereby allowing the output offset voltage to drift.

The present invention relates to switching amplifier and regulator architectures, and more specifically reducing DC offset voltages in such architectures.
In virtually any amplification system, a standard design goal is the minimization of DC offset voltage. DC offset voltage is defined as a non-zero DC voltage observed at the amplifier output when zero DC voltage is applied to the input. In an audio amplifier, the DC offset voltage can appear suddenly at the output terminals (and thus at the speakers) at the instant the amplifier is energized or activated, producing an unpleasant thump or pop. This phenomenon is observed in both linear and switching (class-D) amplifiers and comes from a variety of sources.
Minimization of DC offset voltage can be achieved by the use of carefully matched circuit elements, by adaptive (i.e., self-adjusting) mechanisms, or both. Some amplification systems are designed with relays between their output stages and the speakers that are open at the time the amplifier is energized and close only after a very slow acting continuous time servo loop has had sufficient time to null the output offset. The use of relays is costly, however, and can impact reliability as well. The slow acting servo loop also requires a time constant that is large (it must be significantly greater than the period of the lowest audio frequency being amplified) and is therefore difficult to integrate onto a silicon chip. Digital implementation of this same form of slow, real-time servo loop requires a large number of bits (e.g., 16 or more) which is also prohibitive.
Other digital solutions have proven to be highly effective in reducing or eliminating both transient and steady-state DC offset voltages in a variety of applications. Such solutions are described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,724,248 for DC OFFSET SELF-CALIBRATION SYSTEM FOR A DIGITAL SWITCHING AMPLIFIER issued Apr. 20, 2004, and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/807,903 for DC OFFSET SELF-CALIBRATION SYSTEM FOR A SWITCHING AMPLIFIER filed Mar. 23, 2004, the entire disclosures of both of which are incorporated herein by reference for all purposes. However, not all applications, e.g., audio applications, require the ongoing mitigation of steady-state DC offset provided by such complex solutions. Rather, such applications could benefit in reduced area and complexity (and therefore cost) from a simpler, more straightforward approach to the problem of DC offset.

Offset cancellation in a switching amplifier


A low temperature, low cost method of encapsulating organic light emitting diodes (OLED) that avoids damage to the OLED device. A metal passivation layer is formed using a plasma, UV-ozone, or wet chemical treatment, wherein the metal passivation layer serves to encapsulate and protect the OLED from moisture and oxygen. Alternatively, a buffer layer and a metal layer are formed onto the OLED and the metal layer is treated using a plasma, UV-ozone, or wet chemical treatment, to form a metal passivation layer that serves to encapsulate and protect the OLED from moisture and oxygen.

OLEDs are a type of light emitting diode in which the emissive electroluminescent layer is a film of an organic compound that emits light in response to an electric current. The organic material is sandwiched between two electrodes at least one being a transparent electrode. OLEDs exhibit high luminescence, high efficiency and require low driving voltage and are therefore good candidates for use in display screens, e.g. for televisions, computer monitors, mobile phone screens, etc. OLEDs can effectively be used for large panel areas and full color displays with extremely high resolution.
However, the use of OLEDs for displays requires special treatment. In particular, exposure to moisture or oxygen can do extensive damage to the organic luminescent layer. Therefore, encapsulation of the OLED is critical to protect the device from moisture and oxygen. There are several methods used for encapsulation, but all of them have disadvantages. In particular, one method of encapsulating OLEDs is to cover the device with a metal or glass layer secured by an epoxy resin. A desiccant material, such as calcium oxide or barium oxide is normally incorporated into the device when using an adhesively attached metal or glass encapsulation layer. This method of encapsulation is high in cost and fairly low in effectiveness. It also results in a final device having a relatively high profile.
Another method of encapsulating OLEDs is to use an inorganic, organic or hybrid layer; e.g. SiNx, SiOx or Al2O3 deposited onto the device. This layer may be deposited by any one of many standard deposition techniques, including chemical vapor deposition (CVD), physical vapor deposition (PVD), or atomic layer deposition (ALD). All of these deposition techniques require temperatures that exceed the normal limits of the OLED device and therefore may damage the device, especially the organic luminescent layer during processing. Further the equipment required for such depositions is costly and deposition times are relatively long thereby adding significant cost to the manufacturing of the devices.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for improvements to encapsulation techniques for OLEDs.

Thin film encapsulation of organic light emitting diodes


A system, method, and computer program product for calibrating a stimulation device such as an implantable pulse generator (IPG). An IPG, whether it is a self-contained implantable pulse generator (SCIPG) or externally-powered implantable pulse generator (EPIPG), communicates with an external programmer to determine the characteristics of the stimuli delivered to the lead electrodes. An external programmer is used with patient feedback to determine initial threshold levels, and using the initial threshold levels, to determine threshold levels for combined electrode arrays.

The present invention relates to stimulation systems, for example, spinal cord, peripheral, and deep-brain stimulation systems. A spinal cord stimulation system is an implantable pulse generating system used to provide electrical stimulation pulses from an electrode array placed epidurally or surgically near a patient's spine. An implanted pulse generator (IPG) may operate independently to provide the required electrical stimulation, or may interact with an external programmer, which delivers programming and/or control information and/or energy for the electrical stimulation, typically through a radio-frequency (RF) or other wireless signal.
Spinal cord stimulation (SCS) is a well accepted clinical method for reducing pain in certain populations of patients. SCS systems typically include an implanted device, lead wires, and electrodes connected to the lead wires. The implanted device receives signals from an external programmer, and transmits corresponding electrical pulses that are delivered to the spinal cord (or other tissue) through the electrodes which are implanted along the dura of the spinal cord. In a typical situation, the attached lead wires exit the epidural space and are tunneled around the torso of the patient to a subcutaneous pocket where the device is implanted.
Spinal cord and other stimulation systems are known in the art. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,646,940, there is disclosed an implantable electronic stimulator that provides timed sequenced electrical impulses to a plurality of electrodes so that only one electrode has a voltage applied to it at any given time. Thus, the electrical stimuli provided by the apparatus taught in the '940 patent comprise sequential, or non-overlapping, stimuli.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,724,467, an electrode implant is disclosed for the neurostimulation of the spinal cord. A relatively thin and flexible strip of physiologically inert plastic is provided with a plurality of electrodes formed thereon. The electrodes are connected by leads to an RF receiver, which is also implanted, and which is controlled by an external controller. The implanted RF receiver has no power storage means for generating electrical stimulations, and must be coupled to the external controller in order for neurostimulation to occur.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,822,708, another type of electrical spinal cord stimulating device is shown. The device has five aligned electrodes which are positioned longitudinally on the spinal cord and transversely to the nerves entering the spinal cord. Current pulses applied to the electrodes are said to block sensed intractable pain, while allowing passage of other sensations. The stimulation pulses applied to the electrodes are approximately 250 microseconds in width with a repetition rate of 5 to 200 pulses per second. A patient-operable switch allows the patient to change which electrodes are activated, i.e., which electrodes receive the current stimulus, so that the area between the activated electrodes on the spinal cord can be adjusted, as required, to better block the pain.
Other representative patents that show spinal cord stimulation systems or electrodes include U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,338,945; 4,379,462; 5,121,754; 5,417,719, 5,501,703, and 6,516,227. All of the patents noted above are hereby incorporated by reference.
A typical IPG is self contained, having a multi-year battery pack and a single treatment program, and is generally programmed during or immediately following implantation in the patient's body.
Other SCS systems have no implanted power source, but receive power and programming and/or control information from an external transmitter. These systems will convert the RF signals from the transmitter to provide power to the implanted receiver, and use the RF programming information to determine the intensity, location, and duration of the electrical pulses delivered to the electrodes.
In either case, before the IPG can be properly programmed, stimulation thresholds must be determined so that the pulse stimuli the IPG delivers is strong enough to effectively treat the patient, but not so strong that the treatment is uncomfortable or painful for the patient.
Unfortunately, this process is generally inconvenient and time consuming for both the patient and the professional performing the threshold determination. For example, typical systems start each electrode amplitude at zero and ramp linearly until a maximum tolerance is determined. In some known cases, this process is shortened by only determining a small number of the lead electrode parameters, and estimating or guessing proper parameters for the remaining electrodes. This method can lead to ineffective or uncomfortable treatments.
There is, therefore, a need in the art for a system, process and device for improved IPG calibration techniques.

System and method for stimulus calibration for an implantable pulse generator


A system and method of estimating a motion of an image using block sampling are provided. The motion estimation system includes: a block sampling unit to divide a frame of an input image into a plurality of blocks and sample the plurality of blocks based on a lattice structure; a first motion vector determination unit to determine a motion vector of a first current block using motion vectors of neighboring blocks of the first current block with respect to the sampled blocks; and a second motion vector determination unit to determine a motion vector of a second current block based on features of motion vectors of sampled neighboring blocks of the second current block wherein the second current block is not sampled.

1. Field of the Invention
Aspects of the present invention relate to a system and method of estimating a motion of an image using block sampling, and more particularly, to a system and method of estimating a motion of an image which can estimate a motion of an image by classifying a sampled block and an unsampled block.
2. Description of the Related Art
A motion estimation scheme in a frame is generally used to improve a frame rate of an input image. The conventional motion estimation scheme can perform a motion estimation with respect to all blocks that are included in each frame of the input image. With developments in an image input/output system, the definition of an image also is improved. In the case of a high definition image, a computation complexity increases in the motion estimation process.
Specifically, in the case of the high definition image, a number of pixels to be processed increases and thereby a search region for motion estimation of each pixel also increases. Therefore, increases in pixels and search regions increase the computation complexity. For example, when applying the conventional motion estimation scheme to an image that represents an ultra definition (UD) of more than four times in comparison to a full high definition (FHD), the number of pixels and the size of search region can increase by more than four times respectively. Therefore, when the definition increases by more than four times, and in this state, the existing motion estimation algorithm is applied, a total amount of computation can increase by more than 16 times. A greater amount of time and efforts may be needed to process the computation.
Accordingly, there is a need for a method that can reduce an amount of computation, and can have high accuracy in a motion estimation process for converting a frame rate, when an input image is a high definition image.

System and method of estimating motion of image using block sampling


The present invention presents an improved power control scheme for RF power amplifiers. The gain control signal used to control the power amplifier is subjected to pre-distortion (Hpre) before being supplied to the power amplifier, in order to reduce variations in control loop gain.

The requirements for output power control in mobile telephones can often be difficult to achieve. The requirements for GSM, for example, can be found in the ETSI specification "05.05 Digital cellular telecommunications system; Radio transmission and reception". There are three critical parameters concerning the transmitter output power.                Output power level during a constant power part ("mid part") of a transmitted burst.        Power vs. time, i.e. output power during up-ramping and down-ramping parts of a transmitted burst.        Spectrum due to switching (up- and down-ramping).
Several output power classes are specified in the 05.05 document. These power levels should be kept within well-defined tolerances.
The "power vs. time" requirements state that the transmitted power should fit within a specified template, of output power versus time. The template can be illustrated as a graph of power vs. time. Adjusting the telephone parameters so that they fit the power vs. time template can be a very time-consuming task during development and critical during manufacturing.
The spectrum due to switching requirement means that the spectrum caused by the ramping (switching) process should fit in a specified spectrum mask. It is therefore necessary to have a "good" (reliable) power vs. time behaviour, not only to fulfil the power vs. time template but also to avoid spectrum contamination.
It is to be noted that, although the GSM system is used as an example, the ideas presented in this specification could be used in any TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access) system, or any system that requires fast and/or accurate power control, such as CDMA.
Arranging the power control so that the telephone fits the power vs. time template and the spectrum due to switching mask, can be a very time-consuming task. In production, good yield is necessary.
In FIG. 1 of the accompanying drawings, the principle of today's power control solution is shown. A power amplifier 1 is connected to receive an RF input RFin. The power amplifier operates to output an amplified RF signal RFout to an antenna 2, as is known and understood.
In order to control the power output of the power amplifier, the current, Ic, used by the PA (Power Amplifier) 1, is measured (through a resistor R). This current value provides an indirect measurement of the PA output power. The measurement provided by voltage x4=RIc, is fed back for comparison with an input control signal x1 in an error detection unit 3. A difference (or error signal), x2, is filtered by a loop filter, HLP, to produce a control signal x3, which is used for controlling the PA RF output power. Signal x3 is often called Vapc (apc=amplifier power control). Ideally, the measurement signal x4 should track the input control signal x1.
The total transfer function for the control system (Htot=x4/x1) can be found from the following:x4=x3HPA=x2HLPHPA=(x1−x4)HLPHPA  (1)x4(1+HLPHPA)=x1HLPHPA  (2)
                              H          tot                =                                            x              4                                      x              1                                =                                                    H                LP                                                          H                PA                                                    1              +                                                H                  LP                                                                  H                  PA                                                                                (        3        )
Minimizing the difference between x1 and x4 would provide an ideal control loop. This means that x4/x1≈1, or HLPHPA>>1.
Ideally, the transfer function HPA=x4/x3 should be constant(=Ic/Vapc). However, in practice, this is not generally the case. As illustrated in FIG. 2, the transfer function of the feedback loop typically varies, i.e. the feedback loop gain varies. This variation is due to the variation of the PA transfer function HPA with the control voltage Vapc. Thus, the maximum achievable error reduction of the control system will vary. In the FIG. 2 example, the loop is practically "open" for low Vapc and high Vapc values, causing poor tracking ability in the control system. For medium Vapc values however, the tracking ability is good, since the loop gain is high.
The non-constant behaviour of HPA will also result in implementation difficulties for the loop filter since the risk of instability is high. The reason for this is that the loop filter must have sufficient gain to achieve good error reduction and fast control even at low or high Vapc values (where HPA is small). On the other hand, this means increased risk for instability at medium Vapc values (where HPA is large).


A method, system and computer program product for managing hardware components in a cloud computing environment. Each hardware component in a data center of the cloud computing environment detects and identifies other hardware components within a communication range of the hardware component using a wireless protocol. Furthermore, each hardware component determines its actual location as well as its relative location with respect to the detected hardware components, such as based on a triangulation of the wireless signals. Such information is transmitted to an administrative server. An inventory of the hardware components in the data center, including their current location, is then compiled by the administrative server. In this manner, a hardware component can be more easily located after being relocated in the data center. Furthermore, the administrative server will be able to balance a workload across these hardware components based on their location.

In a cloud computing environment, computing is delivered as a service rather than a product, whereby shared resources, software and information are provided to computers and other devices as a metered service over a network, such as the Internet. In such an environment, computation, software, data access and storage services are provided to users that do not require knowledge of the physical location and configuration of the system that delivers the services.
The functions of the cloud computing environment are performed by a data center, which includes various types of hardware components (e.g., storage controllers, network switches, physical compute machines). In a large data center, there may be multiple units of the same type of hardware component (e.g., hundreds of the same compute blade). As a result, when a hardware component is relocated from its original location (e.g., relocating a compute blade from one chassis to another chassis on a different rack), it may be difficult to locate that hardware component at its new location, especially in a large data center that may be spread out over a large geographic area. Consequently, a user may end up spending lots of time in attempting to locate the hardware component's new location thereby causing a time consuming and frustrating experience for the user.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Determining location of hardware components in a cloud computing environment based on hardware components self-locating other hardware components


A mechanical brake system for inline skates that utilizes all four wheels for braking. The brake is applied by the skater straightening the leg, or both legs if there are brakes on both skates, to a predetermined adjustable position. This causes the adjustable and spring loaded trigger rod, mounted on the pivoting ankle support behind the heel to push the brake lever that extends from behind the heel on both sides of the frame to the front where it is hingedly attached to move downwards. At the mid-point of the skate the brake rail positioned above the wheels and extending the whole length of the skate is connected to the brake lever. The downward movement of the brake lever and brake rail causes the brake rail to contact the wheels causing friction and thereby braking in direct proportion to the force by which the skater is straightening the leg(s). The brake rail is inflexible and shaped to fit the curvature of the wheels thereby facilitating even wheel wear both regarding shape and diameter. Two brackets mounted on the underside of the skate and passing through slots in the brake rail ensure centering of the brake rail. The spring loading of the trigger rod ensures smooth and controllable braking. The spring tension of the spring loaded trigger rod is adjustable so that skaters with different body weight can have optimum braking power without wheel lock-up.

This invention relates to a brake system for inline skates and seeks to improve the inline skaters stability when braking, and also to provide smooth and effective braking.
Inline skate brakes presently in use are almost exclusively limited to a piece of rubber mounted behind the heel of one of the skates.
In order to brake, the skater has to lift the front of the skate thus having only one wheel rolling on the ground while pushing the rubber piece to the ground.
Rolling on one wheel with one skate becomes an unstable position. This instability is further increased when scraping the rubber piece on the ground.
One improved brake system uses a lever device to push the rubber piece to the ground when the lower leg is straightened without having to lift the front of the skate, thus rolling on all wheels, greatly improving stability, but still having rough and ineffective braking.

Four wheel mechanical brake system for inline skates


An apparatus and method for sensing chemical and/or biological analytes includes a deflectable arm of a microcantilever at least partially embedded within a sensing element. A gaseous or liquid medium which may include the analyte being detected is introduced to the sensing element. The sensing element undergoes volumetric expansion or contraction in the presence of the analyte sought to be detected, typically by adsorbing the analyte. The volumetric change of the sensing element causes the deflectable arm to deflect. The deflectable arm includes at least one measurable physical property which changes when the arm deflects. Detecting means are provided to measure the change in the physical property to determine the presence and amount of analyte present. An array of microcantilevers in which each microcantilever is dedicated to detecting a particular analyte which may be included in the medium, is also provided.

The present invention provides a method and apparatus for determining the presence and quantity of biological and/or chemical analytes using a deflectable arm of a microcantilever that is at least partially embedded within a sensing material formed on a surface. The sensing material is chosen to undergo a volumetric expansion or contraction in response to the presence of an analyte or analytes desired to be detected. A volumetric change, with a component in a vertical direction of the sensing material causes the embedded portion of the arm to move vertically and places a measurable strain on the arm. The microcantilever arm includes at least one measurable physical property which changes when stress is applies to the arm. This change is measured to determine the presence and quantity of the analyte or analytes of interest.

Embedded piezoelectric microcantilever sensors

Arizona Board of Regents, A Body Corporate of the State of Arizona, acting for Northern Arizona University


A self-centring and energy dissipating seismic isolation device of the elastomeric frictional-type for structures and industrial equipment comprises: first and second metal plates respectively joined, one to the structure or equipment and the other to its foundations, the first metal plate being fixed thereto and the second metal plate being rotatably joined thereto by a column; at least one elastomeric ring between the plates; and a central restrictive bar orthogonally joined to the first plate and extending through the elastomeric ring and through a central through-hole in the second plate, a nut being screwed to the free end of the bar and having a spherical curved-convex bottom in sliding contact and corresponding with a spherical curved-concave inner surface part of the central through-hole. An isolation system can comprise several of these devices and columns or just one pair of devices at the ends of a central column in combination with sliding support pillars.

There are numerous seismic isolation devices available on the market. The best known are elastomeric isolators with or without a lead core and sliding frictional pendulum isolators. The first ones consist of rubber and steel sheets bonded together by vulcanization, in which the lateral flexibility is provided by the rubber exerting shear work. The second are devices that function as a sliding bearing on a concave (generally spherical or cylindrical) surface with friction. For light structures only the latter are appropriate, since the period of isolation does not depend on the weight of the structure, but on the radius of curvature of the concave surface. However, its cost is relatively high due to machining of the concave surface. This cost increases even more when the isolating devices are required to resist tensile strength, as is the case with lean structures.
Some low-cost systems for seismic isolation of lightweight equipment and structures have been proposed in the literature. Among the most representative we can mention the following:
(i) the so-called static dynamic interchangeable-ball pendulum system or, in abbreviated form, the SDI-BPS (Tsai C., Lin Y., Chen W., and Su H., Tri-directional shaking table tests of vibration sensitive equipment with static dynamics interchangeable-ball pendulum system. Earthquake Eng & Eng Vib (2010) 9: 103-112); and
(ii) the so-called precast prestressed pile or, in abbreviated form, the PPP (Pinochet J., De La Llera J., and Lüders C. Analysis of a kinematic self-centering seismic isolator, Earthquake Engng. Struct. Dyn. 2006; 35: 1533-1561).
The SDI-BPS system is an isolation system that works by rolling between two facing spherical surfaces. A perspective drawing of the SDI-BPS is shown in FIG. 1 of the Tsai et al. document, while FIG. 3 shows the operating conditions of the device under service and seismic loads. Experimental results on a vibrating table show that the SDI-BPS can provide significant damping to rolling isolation systems, in order to reduce displacement and size of the device, and avoid the concentration of stresses that can cause damage to the rolling surface. However, these results correspond to a case of industrial equipment of only 200 kgf of weight mounted on 4 devices. No results are known for heavier structures.
The PPP system for its part is a seismic isolator consisting of a reinforced concrete column with a central pre-stressed cable and two rolling steel surfaces at the upper and lower ends (see FIG. 1). By varying the shapes of the rolling surfaces (see FIG. 6), different relations constitutive of force-deformation for the isolator can be obtained (see FIG. 7). Energy dissipation can be introduced by means of passive reinforcement bars in the rolling interface. This system was initially proposed as a low-cost solution for the seismic protection of social housing, usually located on the outskirts of large cities, where the quality of the soil is usually poor, so the device also works as a foundation pile. However, though its cost would be between 25% and 50% of a conventional rubber isolator, it still represents a high cost if applied to industrial equipment. Furthermore, it is not designed to withstand tensile loads.
On the other hand, U.S. Pat. No. 5,597,240 describes an elastomeric bearing capable of absorbing bending rotations. An embodiment of the device is shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, consisting of a perforated rubber disc between two steel plates. An internal bushing located on the central axis operates as an elastic ball joint allowing relative rotation between the steel plates. Because the bushing must transmit shear stresses, it can only absorb maximum rotations of around 20 milliradians, such as those typically produced by service loads on bridge supports. Larger rotations produce metal-to-metal contact. FIGS. 3 and 4 show another embodiment of the device, formed by a homogeneous disk and four bolts threadedly joined to one of the plates and connected by bushings to the other plate. The relative rotation between the plates has the same limitations as the previous case. Therefore, these bearings are not designed to absorb large rotations such as those required for seismic isolation systems, which can be of the order of 200 milliradians. None of the mentioned embodiments can absorb tensile forces.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide an anti-seismic solution for lightweight structures or industrial equipment, as well as lean structures, which could solve the problems and shortcomings of prior art isolators for this type of application.

Self-centring and energy-dissipating seismic isolation device and system of the elastomeric-frictional type

PONTIFICIA UNIVERSIDAD CATÓLICA DE CHILE


The present invention seeks to estimate a dedicated channel of the downlink transmission from a base station (BS) to a subscriber station (MS) in a mobile radio communications system with antenna diversity. To this end, the subscriber station (MS) calculates a first estimation of the dedicated channel from an estimation of a global channel (CPICH) while using a weighting vector (W, W′) used by the base station (BS) for the beam forming of the dedicated channel.

The present invention relates to a method for operating a mobile radio communications system, as well as to a subscriber station and a base station which are suitable for implementing such method.
In a mobile radio communications system, such as the UMTS system, several antennas are employed on a base station for the purpose of exploiting spatial diversity. For transmitting data on dedicated channels to individual base stations, the antennas are respectively weighted with different weighting factors. Such weighting factors are generally complex numbers consisting of an amount component and a phase component. A set of weighting factors employed simultaneously for a dedicated channel is also referred to by the term weighting vector. As a result of weighting, a radiation beam in the direction of the location of the respective mobile radio station is produced for each subscriber station in a cell (beam forming).
To allow correct decoding of the useful data symbols transmitted on a dedicated channel, a subscriber station requires a channel estimation indicating at least the phase shift occurring on the channel. Such channel estimation is conventionally performed by transmitting pilot bits on the dedicated channel which are known to the subscriber station so that it can determine the channel's phase shift by comparing received symbol phases of the pilot bits with expected phases.
A first preferred application of the present invention is estimating the dedicated channel of the downlink transmission from a base station to a subscriber station in a mobile radio communications system with antenna diversity.
Channel estimation via the dedicated channel's pilot bits (also referred to below as dedicated pilot bits) is conventionally of poor quality and very noisy. This occurs because, like the rest of the channel, the dedicated pilot bits are transmitted at a power level selected as low as possible in order to minimize interference on other subscriber stations for which the dedicated channel is not intended.
A method of channel estimation is also known, particularly in the case of CDMA systems, whereby global pilot signals, which like the dedicated pilot bits are pre-defined signals, are transmitted from the base station. Being transmitted unweighted, they can be received throughout the mobile radio cell provisioned by the base station (or within the provisioned cell sector in the case of a sectorized base station). Since global pilot signals contain useful information for all the mobile stations within the cell's domain, there is the possibility of the global pilot signals interfering with the dedicated channels. The global pilot signals are therefore transmitted at a higher level of power than the dedicated pilot bits and permit a higher quality estimation. It must be added, however, that an estimation obtained by the subscriber station for a global channel is not automatically transferable to a dedicated channel because the relative phases with which a global and dedicated channel are transmitted from the individual antennas of the base station differ depending on the weighting vector employed. If the subscriber station is aware of the weighting vector employed, it can calculate an estimation of the dedicated channel from an estimation of the global channel. However, this knowledge is only present in the case of a system employing what is termed closed-loop beam forming, where the subscriber station is aware of the weighting vector to be used by the base station having selected it itself and having specified it to the base station. The subscriber station will, however, lack this knowledge in that case if it is prevented by an interruption in transmission from receiving the base station's global pilot bits or from transmitting the selected weighting vector, or if it has not yet had an opportunity to specify a weighting vector to the base station when closed-loop beam forming is being initialized. Calculation is generally not possible in the case of open-loop systems where the base station selects the weighting vector.
Another preferred application of the present invention is controlling beam forming in a mobile radio communications system whereby, from a multiplicity of long-term weighting vectors, a base station selects or linearly combines a short-term weighting vector employed for downlink beam forming with the aid of short-term feedback information supplied by the subscriber station. A system of this type is described, for example, in German patent application DE 100 32 426.6 submitted by the applicant on Jul. 4, 2000.
A provision of conventional systems of this type is that the long-term weighting vectors are respectively determined and transmitted to the base stations by the subscriber stations. The transmission capacity available for transmitting both the short-term feedback information and long-term weighting vectors is limited to a total of one bit per timeslot of the uplink signal. The short-term feedback information has to be transmitted frequently to allow beam forming to adapt quickly to fast fading; this, however, is blocked or will respond more sluggishly if new long-term weighting vectors have to be transmitted to the base station.
Each individual subscriber station within the system must, in a system of this type, also be able to determine the long-term weighting vectors, which increases the complexity of the subscriber stations.

Method for operating a mobile radio communications system and stations thereof


An automated notification system for use in a facility, including a telephone system, a controller, a paging system, and a warning system. The warning system includes warning lights, warning speakers, and warning displays. The telephone system includes extension handsets, and the paging system includes paging speakers. The extension handsets, paging speakers, warning speakers, warning lights, and warning displays are distributed throughout the facility. An alert condition may be activated using one of the extension handsets or by an activation device within the facility. Upon detection of an alert condition, the controller actuates the warning system and uses the paging system to provide audible and visual warnings throughout the facility, and provides outgoing notification to emergency personnel through the telephone system. Remote units located in outlying areas around the facility are wirelessly signaled by the control unit to provide appropriate warnings in such locations.

When an emergency situation occurs at a highly populated facility, such as a school, rapid and clear communication is often the difference between experiencing minimum and massive casualties. Scores of examples exist where casualties were directly attributed to a communication failure.
Among the possible emergency situations that might arise, a mass shooting probably the most ominous. Mass shootings at schools and other institutions has become a frightening reality that has occurred with increasing frequency over the past several years. In response, schools have sought to take every available precaution and safety measure in preparation for the unthinkable.
It is especially the case in school shootings that having effective procedures in place, coupled with immediate notification to initiate those procedures, is the most effective way to save lives. Clearly then, the completeness of any notification solution is a function of both the ease with which the emergency notification system can be triggered when an emergency occurs, and the comprehensiveness of the measures taken in response.
Most currently available or proposed solutions fall short in the ease of triggering the system when necessary. This problem sometimes stems from the difficulty of activation—such as by requiring cumbersome authentication or some other requirement that is difficult to carry out in the course of an emergency. It may also stem from 'lack of coverage'—where the physical locations from which the system can be activated are not always convenient to all areas where an emergency situation may be spotted. As a result, when the system is inconvenient to activate, it greatly increases the possibility that lock down, shelter in place, or other emergency procedures, will not be initiated when necessary.
Many systems also fall short in the comprehensiveness of measures taken in response to its activation. In particular, notification of the emergency situation might not reach all key personnel—placing them and others at risk. This is often the case when a facility, such as a school, extends beyond a single building, or has significant outdoor facilities. It is often not feasible to provide a wired solution that effectively covers such a facility. The result is that many people at risk might not be notified of the emergency.
Perhaps even more important, many systems fall short because they are prone to human error or require personnel to take significant action during what is obviously a very stressful situation. Thus, it is unrealistic to place the onus on personnel to call emergency services, inform them about the situation, and simultaneously make a public address that calmly and clearly informs others of the situation, and activate any emergency alarm system—all while serious and potentially life threatening events are unfolding.
It is well known that in such situations, time is everything. Often the situation will have fully played out well before law enforcement arrives on the scene. The speed on activation is critical, and this is where most solutions fail to provide an effective solution.
While these units may be suitable for the particular purpose employed, or for general use, they would not be as suitable for the purposes of the present disclosure as disclosed hereafter.
In the present disclosure, where a document, act or item of knowledge is referred to or discussed, this reference or discussion is not an admission that the document, act or item of knowledge or any combination thereof was at the priority date, publicly available, known to the public, part of common general knowledge or otherwise constitutes prior art under the applicable statutory provisions; or is known to be relevant to an attempt to solve any problem with which the present disclosure is concerned.
While certain aspects of conventional technologies have been discussed to facilitate the present disclosure, no technical aspects are disclaimed and it is contemplated that the claims may encompass one or more of the conventional technical aspects discussed herein.


Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser (VCSEL) on silicon substrate. One embodiment described herein includes an apparatus with functionality for communicating optical signals on a silicon integrated circuit chip. The apparatus includes a silicon based integrated circuit chip die. An optical waveguide is formed at the silicon based integrated circuit chip die. A vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) is mechanically coupled to the silicon base integrated circuit chip die and optically coupled to the optical waveguide.

1. The Field of the Invention
The invention is generally related to integrating lasers with silicon integrated circuits. More specifically, the invention is directed to integrated vertical cavity surface emitting lasers with silicon integrated circuits.
2. Description of the Related Art
Computers and computing systems have affected nearly every aspect of modern living. Computers are generally involved in work, recreation, healthcare, transportation, entertainment, household management, etc. Computer processors have generally been fabricated using silicon semiconductor technology. Silicon semiconductor technology is rapidly approaching its limit in terms of speed and device size. Specifically there is a physical limit to transistor size on silicon substrates. As such there is a corresponding limit to the speed at which electronic signals can be transmitted.
One solution that has been proposed to overcome this inherent limitation to silicon semiconductors is to use optical signals for some data transmissions on a chip. Signals that are transmitted across the chip are sent using optical paths as opposed to the current electrical paths. This would help to alleviate electromagnetic limitations of copper based transmission lines and thus increase the speed at which signals could be sent. Shorter transmissions could still be accomplished using traditional approaches.
Specifically, some have proposed using silicon lasers powered from an external separate laser. Alternatively, edge emitter lasers based on indium phosphide glued to a silicon laser cavity have been proposed. However, current designs are costly in terms of power usage and semiconductor real estate. Edge emitter lasers typically have relatively high power supply requirements and are relatively large.
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 exemplary technology area where some embodiments described herein may be practiced.


A proximity detection system for determining when a single channel receiver becomes proximate to any point on a wireless closed boundary continuously generated by a transmitter. The transmitter includes a magnetic field generator broadcasting a composite, modulated, time-varying magnetic field signal of a particular carrier frequency. The receiver forms a measure of the broadcast magnetic field intensity incident to the location of the receiver or a measure of the power or energy of incident field.

1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to a method and apparatus for generating and sensing an electromagnetic field defining a wireless boundary. More specifically, this invention relates to a method and apparatus for determining the proximity of a receiver to an electromagnetic field boundary generated by a wireless transmitter, especially for animal containment.
2. Description of the Related Art
The present invention relates in general to proximity monitoring systems for determining when a second device (i.e., receiver module) is proximate to a first device, (i.e., transmitter), (which is the functional equivalent to determining when a second device is proximate to a wireless boundary encompassing and defined relative to the location of the first device) and is particularly directed to a high sensitivity, low cost proximity detection system which employs a modulated, quasi-static magnetic field and requires a small, very low cost and very low power second device as in a wireless pet containment application.
Proximity detection devices are used in a variety of applications for determining the relative nearness of an object, animal or person to a designated area or location or to the location of another object or person. One important area of application would be to determine if a child strays too far away from a certain location or from a parent or guardian. Another application would be to determine if an institutionalized individual or a tagged equipment item has strayed or been carried away from a designated area. Still another important area of application would relate to determining when a device is proximate to a kiosk for the purpose of establishing wireless communications only when the proximity is a prescribed distance. Still another important application would be for a pet containment system where a device worn by the pet must self-detect when it is proximate to a fixed wireless boundary.
Prior art methods for these types of proximity detection applications can generally be classified according to whether an implementation of the proximity detection method requires the second device (typically the portable, mobile device) to have both transmit and receive functionality or whether the method can be implemented with a receive-only second device. Examples in the prior art of systems requiring both transmit and receive functionality in the second device include those methods which rely on the transit time or phase shift properties of an ultrasonic or radio frequency signal. One major disadvantage of all such prior art methods is the relatively low battery life resulting from the relatively high power dissipated when the device is transmitting. Other major disadvantages are the relatively higher cost and larger size required for implementing transmit and receive functionality as compared to implementing a receive only device.
Proximity detection methods which can be implemented with a receive only second device can generally be sub-classified as systems which determine proximity by detecting the received signal strength of a propagating radio frequency signal (typically above a few hundred kHz) or systems which determine proximity by detecting the received signal strength of quasi-static, low-frequency (below 500 kHz and more typically below 100 kHz) magnetic field signal. The accuracy and repeatability of proximity detection based on radio frequency received signal strength is generally known in the prior art to be severely affected by multipath reflections from stationary or mobile reflecting surfaces and by field distortion variations caused by antenna proximity to conductors such as body tissue. Consequently these kinds of methods are not generally suitable for most proximity detection applications including wireless pet containment.
One prior art proximity monitoring system based on quasi-static magnetic fields is the wireless pet containment method of Weinberg which employs a stationary, unmodulated 1-axis magnetic field generator and a pet-worn receiver that requires a multiplicity of 1-axis sensing antennas and a corresponding multiplicity of single conversion receivers to form a measure of the incident magnetic field that is substantially independent of the receiver orientation. Major disadvantages of this method are the increased receiver circuit complexity, cost, size and battery current associated with the requirement for a multiplicity of sensors and receiver channels. Also, this method for detecting the signal strength of an unmodulated carrier cannot achieve very low noise bandwidths needed for maximum receiver sensitivity unless tightly matched and expensive oscillator crystals are used in both the signal generator and receiver. Another proximity monitoring system based on quasi-static magnetic fields is the child monitoring method of Belcher which employs a plurality of orthogonal magnetic fields modulated in a time sequential fashion using on-off amplitude keying at rates in excess of 1 kHz. This method also requires a multiplicity of receiver sensor antennas and a corresponding multiplicity of receivers to achieve an orientation-independent proximity detection performance. It therefore suffers the same disadvantages of increased complexity, size, battery current and cost. Also the relatively fast response time required to amplitude demodulate the on-off keyed carrier is not compatible with achieving the very low noise bandwidths needed to maximize receiver sensitivity.
There remains a need for a proximity monitoring and wireless pet containment system based on low-frequency magnetic fields and having minimum receiver size and cost in addition to maximum receiver sensitivity and battery life.

Wireless boundary proximity determining and animal containment


The present invention automatically signs or logs a user in to access secured features within a software application without prompting manual intervention when a user starts the software application having secured features. When the software application is started and an automatic sign-in condition is enabled, the software application transitions to a signed-in or logged-in state as long as security criteria are met. As a result, unnecessary and repetitive steps are avoided when signing-in. The automatic sign-in condition may be enabled through initial system setup, from a prompt to enter a credential, or through a service options menu. The present invention improves network efficiency by limiting network transmissions to an as needed basis. The automatic sign-in condition is capable of roaming to other computers within a network, thereby following mobile users. Further, the automatic sign-in condition is controllable by network administrative policy, giving network administrators the ability to disable its functionality when desired.

Today's software applications are manufactured with network service capability that requires users and computers to verify their identity by signing-in to access secured features within software applications and thereby connecting to authentication services.
Authentication services such as PASSPORT.NET available from MICROSOFT CORPORATION of Redmond, Wash. are becoming an integral part of software applications needing to authenticate users for access to secured features. These authentication services control access to secured features within software applications and provide identity and authentication services for network users. For instance, a secured network fax service used from within a word processing application would require the entry of a username and password to authenticate the identity of the user and authorize use of the network fax service. Once identity is authenticated, the authentication operation acts as an authentication gateway by allowing users to securely access network services within the word processing application without entering a username and password at every network service or website accessed during the signed in session.
However users must still enter a username and password or click a sign-in button to initially access secured features within a software application. One drawback of current sign-in operations is their pervasiveness, requiring user intervention with an interface to sign-in to secured software features on a repetitive basis. This must be done every time a user signs-in after closing a software application with secured features. For instance, if a user wants to use a secured feature within a software application the user must start the application and either type in a username and password or click on an interface button to enter a saved password. If the user changes computers the benefit of a saved password is lost and the user is again prompted to enter a username and password. These drawbacks have an annoying affect on users who access secured features on a regular basis.
Further, some web-based cookie operations save passwords and usernames but still have a number of drawbacks. First of all the web-based systems still require user prompts and intervention with saved password displays. Secondly, the 'save password' functionality is lost if the user changes computers. Lastly, sign-in operations are not controllable by network administrative policy and are not adaptable to network preferences.
It is with respect to these considerations and others that the present invention has been made.

Signing-in to software applications having secured features