Various approaches for activating a traffic control preemption system. A light bar includes a support structure and a plurality of LED modules individually mounted on the support structure. Each LED module includes a plurality of LED groups, and in at least one of the plurality of LED modules, at least one LED group in the module is an infrared (IR) LED group, and at least one LED group in the module is a visible light LED group. A controller is coupled to each module. The controller is configured to trigger an IR light pulse pattern at a first level of IR radiant power from the at least one IR LED group. The pulse pattern and first level of IR radiant power activate preemption in a traffic control preemption system.

Traffic signals have long been used to regulate the flow of traffic at intersections. Generally, traffic signals have relied on timers or vehicle sensors to determine when to change traffic signal lights, thereby signaling alternating directions of traffic to stop, and others to proceed.
Emergency vehicles, such as police cars, fire trucks and ambulances, generally have the right to cross an intersection against a traffic signal. Emergency vehicles have in the past typically depended on horns, sirens and flashing lights to alert other drivers approaching the intersection that an emergency vehicle intends to cross the intersection. However, due to hearing impairment, air conditioning, audio systems and other distractions, often the driver of a vehicle approaching an intersection will not be aware of a warning being emitted by an approaching emergency vehicle.
Traffic control preemption systems assist authorized vehicles (police, fire and other public safety or transit vehicles) through signalized intersections by making a preemption request to the intersection controller. The controller will respond to the request from the vehicle by changing the intersection lights to green in the direction of the approaching vehicle. This system improves the response time of public safety personnel, while reducing dangerous situations at intersections when an emergency vehicle is trying to cross on a red light. In addition, speed and schedule efficiency can be improved for transit vehicles.
There are presently a number of known traffic control preemption systems that have equipment installed at certain traffic signals and on authorized vehicles. One such system in use today is the OPTICOM® system. This system utilizes a high power strobe tube (emitter), which is located in or on the vehicle, that generates light pulses at a predetermined rate, typically 10 Hz or 14 Hz. A receiver, which includes a photodetector and associated electronics, is typically mounted on the mast arm located at the intersection and produces a series of voltage pulses, the number of which are proportional to the intensity of light pulse received from the emitter. The emitter generates sufficient radiant power to be detected from over 2500 feet away. The conventional strobe tube emitter generates broad spectrum light. However, an optical filter is used on the detector to restrict its sensitivity to light only in the near infrared (IR) spectrum. This minimizes interference from other sources of light.

LED light bar for optical traffic control systems


In a distributed computing network having computers interconnected with each other, a method and apparatus of providing policy based provisioning of middleware components to provide a solution for a service. With this invention, the middleware components that are necessary to provide the solution are determined. Then, the configurations of the computers are determined so as to satisfy a selected configuration policy for a selected solution. Finally, the necessary middleware components are installed on the configured computers so that the solution can be provided. Some of the selected configuration policies are: maximization of server utilization policy, provisioning of software components requiring external access based on availability of external resources, and minimization of total time to install said determined components. The progress of installation of the middleware components can also be monitored to make any necessary adjustments in the configuration of the virtual machines so that the selected configuration policy can be satisfied.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to data processing systems and more particularly to a computer implemented method for software and systems management in networked computer environments. Still more particularly, the present invention provides a computer implemented method, data processing system, and computer usable program code for providing policy-based provisioning in a virtualized service delivery environment.
2. Description of the Related Art
Virtualization is being extensively used in the datacenters for the hosting of customer applications since it offers the promise of increased server utilization, and ease of management. However, as solutions become increasingly complex, deployment of each solution requires allocation and provisioning of servers across different application tiers, i.e., multiple software stacks need to be installed across multiple application tiers. By default, datacenters use the fastest provisioning policy, which implies that the deployment of the middleware is started on the server as soon as a server is available. Due to differences in the duration to install different middleware components, installation on the servers in some application tiers completes before others. However, the solution cannot still be configured and enabled until all the servers across the tiers are ready. As a result of using this strategy, servers across different tiers are idle during the provisioning of the solution. Extending a similar strategy for use when the datacenter uses virtualization also results in wasted server utilization.
In the state of the art, two approaches are used for provisioning (1) Provision from scratch in a virtualized environment, and (2) Use of freeze dried Virtual Machine(VM) stacks for hosting of the solutions. In (1), the speed of provisioning the solution is determined by the individual VM configuration, and time to deploy the complete solution is determined by the component that requires the most time to install. Once the provisioning run has started, the VMs are left to run to completion. While the slowest component is installing, the other servers hosting the VM lay idle. In (2), predefined VM images are used to create and start virtual machines. The weakness of this approach is that it requires that various permutation of images to be pre-created and pre-configured for use. This creates a management nightmare whenever any patches for a particular component need to be applied as all images that use that component need to be recreated.

Method and apparatus for policy-based provisioning in a virtualized service delivery environment

International Business Machines Corporation


A magnetometer is provided comprising an atomic vapor in an enclosure, a source of light for preparing the vapor into a state exhibiting electromagnetically induced transparency, a first laser beam passing through the atomic vapor, a phase detector for detecting changes in phase of the first laser beam, and a controller which controls the light source and laser beam and receives the information detected by the phase detector in order to compute from those changes in phase a magnetic field strength in the presence of a selected background magnetic field of at least 0.001 T. Operation in the presence of a background field helps make this magnetometer suitable for diagnostic imaging applications.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has come into very wide use for the imaging of the human body, for example, for the diagnosis of soft tissue abnormalities. MRI as currently practiced requires a large magnet capable of producing spatially uniform fields in excess of 1 Tesla, commonly fields of 1.5 Tesla and up to at least 3 Tesla. To generate such large uniform fields, superconducting electromagnets are normally employed. Commercially viable superconducting electromagnets are only superconducting at temperatures near 4 Kelvin and below. Superconducting electromagnets thus require a costly apparatus and are large and difficult to move.
MRI was an outgrowth of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), which is based on the following principles. Atomic nuclei, consisting of protons and neutrons, have intrinsic magnetic dipole moments which are commonly described as "nuclear spin." In the presence of a magnetic field, spins will align preferentially along the field direction. The energy difference between the two alignments turns out to be quite small for practical fields, much smaller than that required to move an electron to an excited state or the energy of vibrational and rotational states of atoms. Spins will also rotate around the field direction at the Larmor frequency ω=γB where B is the applied magnetic field and γ is a universal constant for each nucleus; this rotation is referred to as "precession."
An NMR analysis is carried out by placing a composition or other system to be analyzed in a high DC magnetic field and determining resonant frequencies at which electromagnetic radiation readily flips the orientation of nuclear spins. The nuclear spins whose resonant frequencies are determined may be, for example, those of the nuclei of the principal isotope of hydrogen, 1H. Those nuclei consist of a single proton.
Because the energy difference between the two nuclear spin orientations is small, the electromagnetic energy to flip the spin orientation lies in the radiofrequency range. In NMR, the resonant frequencies are used to determine properties of the composition or other system being analyzed, for example, its chemical composition. In general, the resonant frequency is equal to or very close to the Larmor frequency. The resonant frequency may differ slightly from the Larmor frequency because the nucleus "sees" a magnetic field slightly different from the applied field B due to the magnetic field being affected by the surrounding electron cloud. These differences due to the surrounding electrons, referred to as "chemical shifts," are used to determine the identity of chemical compounds, a principal application of NMR.
When an object is placed in a high DC magnetic field and subjected to a pulse of electromagnetic energy which changes the orientation of some of its nuclear spins, the spins will gradually return back to an equilibrium configuration. The gradual return is often referred to as "relaxation" of the spins.
In MRI, an object to be imaged, for example a portion of the human body, is placed in a large uniform DC magnetic field, often called the "measurement" field. A further spatially varying magnetic field, called a "gradient" field because its magnitude generally varies linearly with position along a particular direction in the zone of interest, is also applied to the object. Radiofrequency pulses of an appropriate shape and frequency are applied which induce 1H nuclear spins in the object to align in particular directions, for example they can be rendered perpendicular to the direction of the DC magnetic field. After the radiofrequency pulse has died out, and as the spins precess in the DC magnetic field, they undergo a relaxation process whereby their orientation slowly returns to collinear with the field direction, their equilibrium state. The gradient field is varied according to a predefined sequence which commonly involves the magnitude and direction of the gradient field being run through a series of discrete predetermined values which are each sustained for a period of time. The purpose of the gradient field variation sequence is to distinguish spatially (with both phase and frequency) discrete volumes of the object to be imaged. Time varying magnetic fields arising from the nuclear spin relaxation are detected. These fields are subjected to mathematical transformations, generally including a Fourier transform, which produce images of a section of the object which are used by clinicians for diagnostic purposes. The images are typically grayscale. The intensities associated with a position in the section of the object typically reflect some function of the density of 1H atoms in the immediate vicinity of that position and of the time constants for the relaxation process of the nuclear spins of those atoms.
There are many references on MRI. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,070,611 and 4,451,788 were among the early MRI patents. U.S. Pat. No. 5,835,995 describes an MRI imaging modality of particular interest.
There is a strong interest in reducing the strength of measurement fields in MRI. Reducing equipment cost is one reason. Reduced measurement field strengths are also advantageous in that the apparatus can be made more portable if no cryogenic superconducting magnets are employed. In addition, low field measurements are less sensitive to image artifacts caused by the presence of metal implants due to the metal's susceptibility.
A reason why measurement fields in excess of 1 Tesla are employed in MRI is that the magnetic signal which is detected in MRI has a signal to noise ratio proportional to the measurement field strength. See generally, e.g., T. W. Redpath, "Signal to noise ratio in MRI," British Journal of Radiology, 71:704-07 (1998). In order to use a lower magnetic field and yet maintain the quality of the images, it is necessary to be able to reduce the noise in the process of detection of the signal.
The normal way to detect the signal in MRI, a time-varying magnetic field, is to employ coils made of a conducting material. The coils can be made of a large number of thin conductors in parallel ("litz coils"). The time-varying magnetic field produces an electrical signal in the conducting coils as a result of Faraday's law of induction. For large fields with inductive coil detection, noise is limited by body Johnson noise. For small fields coil Johnson noise becomes significant. Johnson noise from a human body section begins to become material as compared to coil Johnson noise at measurement fields greater than a few tenths of a Tesla. Much work has gone into improving the signal to noise ratio in coil detection.
Magnetic field detectors (magnetometers) comprising superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUID) are currently regarded as the most sensitive means of measuring magnetic fields. However, SQUID-based magnetometers require very low temperatures and associated cooling equipment. Cryogenic equipment, in addition to the problems of cost, may have filling factor problems; thermal isolation requirements of sample from detector are a potential concern for signal.
It has been proposed, for example in Published U.S. Patent Application No. 20070205767 and in U.S. Pat. No. 7,145,333, to employ atomic gas magnetometers in order to detect the time varying magnetic fields which contain the signals of interest in NMR.
There are a number of difficulties with conventional atomic gas magnetometers in the MRI application. One difficulty is that some atomic gas magnetometers require an extremely low background field, whereas conventional MRI detects a small time-varying magnetic field in the presence of a large DC background magnetic field.
Thus there remains a need for magnetometers for use in MRI which introduce less noise into the measurement than conventional litz coils but which are suitable for MRI in other senses, such as for example not requiring excessive magnetic shielding, providing sufficient bandwidth, and adapting to background fields found in MRI. Such magnetometers may also have other applications, for example, to NMR.

Method and apparatus for implementing EIT magnetometry


In one embodiment, a method of prioritizing formatting actions of a number of data formatters 1) instantiates a number of threads for execution by a processing system, the number of threads sharing thread processing resources, and the number of threads including at least two threads of dissimilar priority; 2) launches a number of data formatters on the number of threads, the number of data formatters including at least two data formatters that are respectively launched on ones of the at least two threads having dissimilar priorities; and 3) periodically requests allocation of the thread processing resources for a number of highest priority active threads, wherein an active thread is a thread executing a data formatter with formatting actions to perform. Other embodiments are also disclosed.

When testing a circuit, test results may be logged in a "raw" format. Often, this raw format is 1) not accepted by the application programs that are used to analyze the test results, and 2) difficult for test engineers and others persons to comprehend.
As a result of the above difficulties that a raw data format presents, raw data is often converted to one or more other formats by, for example, rearranging, sorting, grouping, distilling and/or performing other operations on the data.

Method and system for prioritizing formatting actions of a number of data formatters


Systems and methods for memory page offloading in multi-processor computer systems. An example method may comprise: detecting, by a computer system, a memory pressure condition on a first node; invalidating a page table entry for a memory page residing on the first node; copying the memory page to a second node; and updating the page table entry for the memory page to reference the second node.

In a multi-processor computer system, a processor may access various memory devices in a number of ways ranging from local memory access via a common bus to foreign memory access via other devices, including other processors. For example, in a symmetric multi-processing (SMP) architecture, processors may directly access all memory devices. However, as the number of processors in a computer system increases, providing an adequate bandwidth for symmetric interconnection between processors and memory devices becomes more and more difficult.
In a non-uniform memory access (NUMA) system, requirements to the bandwidth between processors and memory devices are typically alleviated by connecting each processor directly to some memory devices, while providing the processor with indirect connections (e.g., via other processors) to some other memory devices. Hence, in some situations, NUMA systems may perform better than SMP systems since the aggregate memory access bandwidth usually increases as more nodes are added to the NUMA system, while in the SMP architecture the common bus interconnecting processors and memory devices may become a performance bottleneck.

Memory page offloading in multi-node computer systems


A label package consisting of only label stock, in which labels are formed, releasably secured to liner stock, said two ply structure being formed into discrete panels along lines of weakness to thereby provide an accordion folded multi-panel set of panels, together with (a) an aligned hole in the set of accordion folded panels to thereby enable the set to be suspended from prong means and (b) a single staple or other securement means which maintains the set in a structurally self-supporting condition for shipment and display.

Sheeted labels are conventionally sold in retail outlets in one of two forms.
In a first form a plurality of individual sheets, with each sheet carrying one or more labels, are collected and sold as a group of individual sheets in a clear flexible container such as a clear poly bag. Very frequently the bag includes a header card to which the poly bag is stapled and from which the poly bag depends. The header card serves the multiple functions of (a) forming a closure for the poly bag containing the sheets of labels, (b) a display space to identify and advertise the product and disclose its cost, and (c) a means for suspending the bagged products from a display member, such as a prong or hook which projects outwardly from a peg board or other support structure.
In a second form a plurality of individual sheets, with each sheet carrying one or more labels, are formed into a stack and placed on a backer card, the backer card almost invariably being heavier and thicker than the label sheets. The stack of label sheets is then shrink wrapped to the backer card to form a unitary package. The backer card invariably projects upwardly beyond the top of the stacked label sheets to, again, function as (a) a part of the closure, or position maintenance, of the individual label sheets, (b) a display space to identify and advertise the product and disclose its cost, and (c) a means for suspending the shrink wrapped products from a display member, such as a hook, or alternatively, stacking the individual packages in an upright, generally vertical position if the packages are to be displayed on a flat surface such as a shelf
Although both forms of packaging have been widely used, each has certain drawbacks which prevent the system from being considered the ideal, or near ideal, display system.
In the first, or poly bag, form a vertical display space which is considerably higher than the height of the label sheets is required due to the vertical height of the header card and the additional space required to gather the front and back sides of the poly bag preparatory to bringing them together in a flat condition prior to being stapled or otherwise secured to the bottom of the header card. Further, the header card system requires two components in addition to the collected and stacked label sheets, namely the header card and the poly bag. On top of the raw cost of the two additional system components there is an additional cost of assembly and shipping, since the header card requires assembly time and space additional to the space of the group of collected label sheets. Further, the attachment of a poly bag package to a support structure, such as a prong or hook extending outwardly from a peg board, is more difficult and cumbersome by a human operator due to the floppiness of the unit. And once assembled, the poly bag, no matter how clearly transparent it may be, compromises the appearance of the contained product to some extent, and possibly to a significant extent, if the poly bag material only loosely contains the label sheets; folds and creases may be present which tend to distort the appearance of the contents and/or create a lack of definition of indicia on the product resulting from the use of bagging material which is not fully transparent. Indeed, cloudy bagging material may transmit a utilitarian or low quality appearance to the eye of the potential purchaser.
In the second, or shrink wrap, form a vertical display space which is considerably higher than the height of the label sheets is required due to the projection of the top of the backer card above the top of the collected label sheets since the backer card must provide a free, flat surface to which the shrink wrap can be adhered. Further, the shrink wrap system requires two components in addition to the collected and stacked label sheets, namely the backer card and the shrink wrap. On top of the raw cost of the two additional system components there is an additional cost of assembly and shipping, since the backer card requires assembly time and space in addition to the space of the group of collected cards; indeed the additional space requirements are usually greater than the additional space required in the poly bag system, which is usually floppy in final structure, due to the rigidity of the backer card. The thick backer card, together with the enclosing layer of shrink wrap material also requires more space in a stacked direction. Once assembled, the shrink wrap material may compromise the appearance of the contained product to some extent due to lack of definition of indicia on the product resulting from use of shrink wrap material which is not fully transparent.
It will also be appreciated that in both of the above described forms of the conventional product the manufacture of the label sheets is compromised in that the individual label sheets must be manufactured separately from pre-cut, individual pieces of stock, or, if manufactured in a continuous system, each label sheet requires a separate cutting operation--which obviously compromises high speed production.
Accordingly, there is a need for a label system, and packages of labels, in which the labels may be manufactured in a near continuous process, no supplementary packaging components are required, shipping space is needed only for the labels themselves (i.e.: no extraneous space for packaging/display components) and the final impression to the eye of a potential purchaser is maximized by the absence of any material extraneous to the labels.


A system for creating an index of textual data stores textual data in memory, and a text analyzing module analyzes the textual data and divides it into a plurality of meaningful strings of characters, punctuation marks, symbols, control codes, etc. A dictionary stores sets of specialized words particular to a field of knowledge related to the textual data in a particular language. An entry selecting module selects as index entries only those strings which match one of those specialized words and notes the location(s) of each occurrence each index entry in the text. A printer outputs the selected index entries together with their occurrence positions. Each entry of the dictionary in the specialized field includes information concerning inflections and variants of that entry. The index is quickly and accurately generated by selecting index entries using a specialized dictionary relevant to a particular, specialized field. Since the selection of index entries is made by referring to such a dictionary, differences in criteria for selection used by different operators can be prevented. Since a specialized dictionary is prepared and updated for each field, the knowledge for generating an index is collected and shared by all the operators.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to apparatuses for automatically creating indexes for books, documents and the like, and more specifically, to an apparatus for automatically generating an index, glossary, concordance, a keyword list and the like and editing the same as required.
2. Description of the Related Art
Indexes are attached to many of manuals explaining operations of machines and computers as well as to many of books systematically describing technical matters. Indexes enhance the value of the books. Without an index, even a value of a book with excellent contents is depreciated by half. No one looks through even half of a bulky book to find just one word.
An index is not only useful for operating a machine. An index is also important for the studies concerning the humanities. If it had not been for a concordance of Bible or the works of Shakespeare, researchers would be at a loss facing the originals.
Indexes had been created as follows before documents could be made up by electrotonic apparatuses such as a word processor.
First, an author and/or an editor of a book or a manual marks strings of characters which are thought to be appropriate as an index entries by a specific code. Thereafter, desirably a plurality of persons copy the marked strings on other pieces of paper together with the occurrence pages of the strings. At this time, one word is entered in one paper. When many strings are expected to extracted, it is preferable that the size of the paper is small.
After all the marked strings are copied on the pieces of paper, all the pieces of paper are rearranged, for example, alphabetically in accordance with the strings entered therein. The strings entered in the rearranged pieces of paper are adopted as index entries in its order.
Creating indexes manually as described above has an advantage of adaptability in extracting entries. For example, any code can be used for use as a mark. There is no limitation on the size of the mark.
However, the above-described manner has the following problems. First, a large number of manhours are required for marking entries, copying the marked strings on pieces of paper and alphabetically rearranging the pieces of paper in which the strings are entered. The more the number of strings to be extracted is increased, the more rapidly the required time is increased.
Secondly, there is a high possibility of occurrence of errors. As the number of strings to be extracted is increased and the number of people working is increased, the number of errors included in the completed indexes is thought to be larger.
The third problem is that it is difficult to create indexes before the completion of the document. In case the document is revised, the index should be looked into to review the strings related to the revision. Even after the completion of the document, such problem can occur.
The fourth problem is that when an author of the document is different from a person creating the index, the created index might not exactly match the contents of the document. Such problem could occur, for example, in the selection of index entries and reference pages. In such a case, one who uses the index will be frustrated failing to find the desired and adequate information.
The fifth problem is that when strings to be adopted as entries are marked by different persons, the completed indexes might be made different. This results from the fact that criteria for use in marking the strings are not shared. The reason for such lack of common criteria is that knowledge necessary for creating indexes is not collected.
A large part of the above-described problems is resolved by the development of computerized text processing system such as a word processor. A document is ordinarily stored as coded textual data in a computer.
Assume that strings to be adopted as index entries in this textual data are given some mark. As long as the marks are distinguishable from other characters used in the document, the computer is capable of rearranging the marked strings very easily in relation with the pages of the occurrences thereof in the alphabetical order or in accordance with other arbitrary rules.
The above-described process is deterministic. A computer is capable of carrying out this process with unerring precision unless a hardware error or a program error occurs. The development of the text processing system supported by the computer eliminates restrictions and errors from the works most requiring manpower in index making.
Even in this case, however, the paper is simply replaced by an electric display apparatus. It is still a task of an author or an expert editor to apply a particular symbol to a string or a strings of characters to be adopted as an index entry. Accordingly, the problem relating to the selection of entries still remains to be solved.
Several methods of solving this problem are proposed. One is described in "Support System of Autoindex of Manuals and Autoglossary" (Collected Articles of the 37th National Conference of '88 society of Information Processing) and the other is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application entitled "System of Extracting Japanese Text Keyword" (Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 63-217418) by Kobayashi et al.
Before explaining the above-described two proposals, characteristics of the Japanese language dealt by the two proposals will be described.
As is well known in the field of linguistics, the Japanese language comprises two types of alphabets "hiragana" and "katakana" each having about 50 syllables and logographic, rather than alphabetic, "kanji"(chinese character). The kanji characters are read in "on" pronunciation originated from the Chinese language and in "kun" pronunciation originated from the Japanese language. The pronunciation of the kanji characters can be resolved by taking words and phrases into consideration.
Conventionally, in the Japanese language, a newly introduced concept has been expressed commonly by "kango" which is a combination of a plurality of kanji characters. Recently, a foreign word expressing a new concept is often transliterated and expressed in "katakana". Accordingly, for example, most of the technical words are expressed in kanji characters or katakana.
The proposal by Takahashi et al. is based on such characteristics of the Japanese language. According to Takahashi et al., the delimitation of a sentence by hiragana enables extraction of words comprising only kango or katakana, thereby enabling extraction of a technical word.
However, this proposal is only applicable to the Japanese language. While Takahashi et al. state that they formed an index creating apparatus having the above-described functions, they do not disclose an constitution thereof.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the apparatus proposed by Kobayashi et al. Referring to FIG. 1, the apparatus comprises a display unit 502, a keyboard 504, a Japanese text file 508, a Japanese text editor 506, a string extracting module 510, a keyword extracting module 512, a non-keyword file 518, a string occurrence tally table 520, a database updating module 516 and a keyword database 514.
Japanese text file 508 is for storing a coded Japanese text. Japanese text editor 506 edits a Japanese text file based on input from keyboard 504 by an operator. String extracting module 510 is for extracting technical words included in the document by selecting a word comprising only kanji or katakana in the same manner as by Takahashi et al.
Non-keyword file 518 is for storing a set of words which are not characteristic of the text. Keyword extracting module 512 is for selecting only an appropriate strings by comparing the string extracted by string extracting module 510 with the set of words, which are thought to be inappropriate for keywords, stored in non-keyword file 518, for extracting strings of frequent occurrence as keywords among the selected strings and for displaying the same in display unit 502. String occurrence tally table 520 is a working table for storing the string occurrence counted by keyword extracting module 512.
Keyword database 514 is for storing the extracted set of keywords. Database updating module 516 is for adding to keyword database 514 appropriate keywords selected by the operator among the keywords extracted by keyword extracting module 512 and displayed in display unit 502 in response to the input from keyboard 504 by the operator. Module 516 is also for adding to non-keyword file 518 the inappropriate keywords among the displayed keywords designated by the operator through keyboard 504.
In the processing of the Japanese language, different and separate ranges of internal codes are assigned to hiragana, katakana and kanji. Accordingly, such distinction among kanji, katakana and hiragana as described above can be easily made by checking the range of codes.
Referring to FIG. 1, this apparatus operates as follows. Keyboard 504 applies Japanese text data to Japanese text editor 506. Japanese text editor 506 converts characters of the inputted Japanese words to internal codes. Japanese text editor 506 stores the coded Japanese text in Japanese text file 508 to enable the later revision.
String extracting module 510 receives the coded text data from Japanese text editor 506. String extracting module 510 makes the determination as to which belong to the inputted characters among hiragana, katakana and kanji by checking the range of the codes as described above and extracts the strings including only katakana and/or kanji.
Keyword extracting module 512 compares each string extracted by string extracting module 510 with the set of non-keywords stored in non-keyword file 518. Module 512 selects only the strings not stored in non-keyword file 518. Every time a keyword considered appropriate occurs, keyword extracting module 512 counts the frequency of the occurrence of the keyword by using string occurrence tally table 512.
Database updating module 516 first displays the keywords extracted by keyword extracting module 512 in display unit 502. The operator checks the list of the keywords displayed in display unit 502. When a word inappropriate for a keyword is displayed, the operator instructs the database updating module 516 through keyboard 504 to exclude the word from the list of the keywords. Database updating module 516 adds to non-keyword file 518 the string designated by the operator as inappropriate for a keyword. Database updating module 516 also adds to keyword database 514 the strings not designated as inappropriate by the operator.
In the apparatus shown in FIG. 1, strings which can be used as keywords are extracted from the text in accordance with the characteristics of the Japanese language. Furthermore, strings inappropriate for keywords are excluded from the extracted strings. No manual operation is required for extracting the strings from the text. In addition, the contents of non-keyword file 518 are referred to in extracting the appropriate keywords. Accordingly, it is considered that the criteria of selection of words in creating the index are normalized to some extent.
However, the proposal by Kobayashi et al. has the following problems. In the apparatus according to Kobayashi et al., extraction of strings is carried out based only on the characteristics of the Japanese language. Kobayashi et al. do not disclose applicability of the apparatus to other languages.
In addition, in the apparatus according to Kobayashi et al, the extracted strings might be deleted by referring to the non-keyword file. Once registered in the non-keyword file, the word will not be adopted as an index entry thereafter. Besides, the determination as to whether or not the word is registered in the non-keyword file is made by an operator. Accordingly, when a plurality of operators use this apparatus, the choice of the keywords is limited because the non-keyword file is a sum of the respective non-keyword files of the operators.
Furthermore, in the apparatus according to Kobayashi et al., the word adopted as a keyword should have high frequency of occurrence in the document. While a word of frequent occurrence in one document is surely thought to be important, the opposite is not true. Namely, there could be a case where a string occurring just once in the document expresses an important concept. It is possible for the apparatus according to Kobayashi et al. to allow such an important word to be left out from the index.
Furthermore, in the disclosure by Kobayashi et al., no consideration is given to a field of knowledge in the document for which the index is used. Thus, difference in words in different fields is ignored. The apparatus according to Kobayashi et al. allows important words to be left out from an index or unimportant words to occur through the document, costing much time in editing the index.

Apparatus for automatically generating index


In a Turk's head stand, double inner frames are disposed inside an outer frame. A first inner frame is disposed so as to be adjusted in the vertical direction, and a second inner frame is disposed so as to be adjusted in the horizontal direction. Four-way straightening rolls and position adjusting devices are incorporated inside the second inner frame. Mechanical structures for convexo-concave engagement are disposed on faces of the respective roll chocks and yokes and the inner frames opposed to each other, thereby to guide the respective roll chocks and yokes, by utilizing descending motions of the inner frames, after connection with a pressing device has been released, to form the stack body in series, and to enable the stack body to be withdrawn from the roll stand.

In an electric resistance welded pipe producing process for producing a round pipe from a metal coil or strip material having a desired length, there are a preliminary step for uncoiling the metal coil to supply it to a forming step, an initial forming step to be executed by breakdown rolls, cluster rolls, and fin pass rolls, a welding step for welding edge portions of the strip material opposed to each other with high frequency for example, a finishing step for correcting roundness and straightness of the pipe by straightening rolls, and a cutting step for cutting a produced metal pipe into a predetermined length.
In the finishing step described above, an element pipe which has been welded into the round pipe is reduced in diameter to have a desired outer diameter by a sizing stand, and thereafter, a deflection or bend is straightened by a Turk's head stand thereby to obtain a straight electric resistance welded pipe. On the other hand, in case of producing a rectangular pipe from the round pipe which has been thus obtained, after a forming step for gradually flattening respective four arcs of a circumference is executed in a four-way rolls stand having a plurality of stages, finally, in a shaping step, such a Turk's head stand as disclosed in Patent Document 1 (FIG. 1) and Patent Document 2 (FIG. 6) is used to obtain the rectangular pipe.
As a representative structure, the Turk's head stand is so constructed that jacks are mounted on four corners of a housing (face plate) in a shape of a rectangular plate having a round hole in its center part, for example, and straightening rolls are disposed in an outer peripheral part of the round hole so that positional adjustment can be made with respect to the center of the housing by means of the jacks. This housing is supported in a cantilever manner at one side of a stand which is erected, and a position of the housing itself can be adjusted in a vertical direction by the jacks which are provided on the stand. Further, a position of the stands can be adjusted in a horizontal direction thereby to adjust the position of the housing in the horizontal direction.


An embodiment of a system for gathering physiologic data related to a human body includes a sensor device implanted in the human body, an inductive coil communicably coupled to the implanted sensor device; and a manager device in communication with the implanted sensor device via the inductive coil. The coil may be wrapped around the sensor device or attached to the sensor device fixation. An embodiment of a method for gathering physiologic data related to a physiologic parameter in a human body includes communicably coupling an inductive coil to communication circuitry of an implantable medical device (IMD), deploying the inductive coil and the IMD into a vessel of the human body, and inducing current in the inductive coil via the communication circuitry, the current representative of data associated with the IMD.

Medical devices can be implanted in the bodies of patients for various purposes. Some medical devices detect physiologic events and may apply therapy in response to certain events of interest. For example, a cardiac pacemaker can detect a lull in the beating of the patient's heart and apply an electrical pulse to stimulate the heart into beating again. Implantable sensors are preferably small so that they can be maneuvered and deployed in areas of the human body that are difficult to access.
Implantable sensor devices typically include components that require power to operate. For example, the sensor may require some small amount of power to sense the physiologic parameter of interest (e.g., blood pressure). An implantable sensor device may also have the ability to transmit and receive data via communications circuitry that requires power. As such, implantable sensor devices typically include a battery.
Some implantable sensor devices are connected by wires to another device, such as pulse generator, which is also implanted in the body. The wires can be used for communication to and from the other device and/or for power delivery. These wires can add to the difficulty in maneuvering and deploying the implantable sensor in the body, particularly at locations that are not easily accessible.

Implantable medical device with inductive coil configurable for mechanical fixation


The present invention relates to a display device using a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) and to a manufacturing method thereof. A display device using a MEMS includes a first substrate comprising a first index of refraction; a second substrate facing the first substrate; a reflective layer formed on the first substrate and having a first aperture; a transparent layer covering the first aperture and comprising a second refractive index; and a shutter arranged on the second substrate, wherein a difference between the first refractive index and the second refractive index is equal to or less than 0.1.

1. Field of the Invention
Exemplary embodiments of the present invention relate to a display device using a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) and a manufacturing method thereof.
2. Discussion of the Background
Various flat panel displays have been researched as next generation display devices. A flat panel display is a display device that is thin compared with the size of the screen thereof, and a display device forming a minute modulator by using microelectromechanical system (MEMS) fabrication techniques for every pixel has recently been researched. The MEMS is a micro-minute processing technique, and an electronic device system produced therefrom has a size from several nanometers to several millimeters. Display devices using the MEMS may have a high photo-efficiency as compared with a liquid crystal display.
The display device using the MEMS includes a first display panel including an aperture passing light from a backlight unit, a second display panel facing the first display panel and including a shutter, and a space between the first display panel and the second display panel. The space between the first display panel and the second display panel is generally filled with a fluid such as a gas or an oil. Filling the fluid material and creating a display device using the MEMS, particularly a manufacturing process of a display device with a large display size, may be complicated, and the processing may take a long time. Problematically, the operation voltage of the display device may be increased, thereby increasing the power requirements of the display device.

Display device using MEMS element and manufacturing method thereof


A monocycle comprising of a single tyred wheel, a handlebar and engine means, stabilized by a gyro flywheel means having substantially large moment of inertia.

1. Field of the Invention.
This invention relates generally to a single wheeler power driven vehicle which can be used as a means of road transport and fun.
2. Description of the Prior Art.
A conventional monocycle (or unicycle) mainly consists of a single wheel, a pedal mechanism to drive the wheel, and a seat at the top for the rider. A conventional Monocycle is used mostly in a circus or such other places of entertainment. Because riding it indeed is a balancing act, it is never available as a convenient means of road transport to the common man.


A method and a system to re-align onto a detector array a holographic image of a Fourier region hologram stored in a medium, with the medium spinning around a first axis, and the hologram being generated by a reference beam and a signal beam. In generating the hologram, the reference beam is incident on the medium with respect to a second axis at a second-axis-incident angle, and a third axis at a third-axis-incident angle, such that the holographic image of the hologram when reproduced by the reference beam is aligned onto the detector array. Also, the three axes are substantially orthogonal to each other. As the medium spins, the medium's orientation can change through tilting with respect to the second and the third axes so that the holographic image when reproduced by the reference beam is not aligned onto the detector array. In one embodiment, the holographic image is re-aligned onto the detector array by tilting the reference beam such that when re-aligned, the incident angle of the reference beam on the medium with respect to the second axis is intentionally tilted to be different from the second-axis-incident angle, and with respect to the third axis to be different from the third-axis-incident angle.

The present invention relates generally to holography and more particularly to aligning holographic images of Fourier region holograms.
Holograms store information based on the concept of a signal beam interfering with a reference beam at a holographic medium, which stores the interference pattern as a hologram. The signal beam may be reconstructed to generate the image of the hologram by illuminating the hologram with the reference beam at the same incident angle that the hologram was created.
One approach to store holograms is to record them on a disk, such as radially or spirally, as in typical compact disks. When the disk spins, many holograms can be stored on the disk. One can increase storage capacity through multiplexing. For example, each spot on the spiral track can store a number of holograms by steering the reference beam to different incident angles to illuminate that spot.
During readout, the disk, illuminated by the reference beam, can spin continuously. The signal beams re-generated are focused to get the holographic images, which are typically measured by a detector array.
When holographic images are read from the spinning disk, they could be defocused, shifted, rotated or distorted. These may be due to disk wobbling, disk decentration from its rotation axis, or deformation of the disk substrate. Such defects may degrade or introduce error to the signals measured by the detectors.
Unlike typical compact disk where every image consists of one pixel, in holographic storage, every image can include hundreds of thousands of pixels. It is not uncommon to have an array with hundreds of thousands of detector elements just to measure one hologram. All of the pixels, not only for one hologram, but for every hologram on the disk, should be in focus, and located at correct positions relative to the detector array. Correct alignment for so many pixels in the holograms is not an easy task.
One way to reduce the alignment problem is to over-sample the readout image. This can be done by using a detector array with many more detector elements than there are pixels in the holographic image. Then, based on error-correction codes, post processing may be able to re-create a defect-free image. However, this approach may not be able to solve de-focusing problem. Also, over-sampling requires a higher clock speed to retrieve data from the detector array. One way to operate at a slower clock rate is through parallelism. However, parallelism increases the size and the cost of the detector array. And sophisticated post processing may introduce extra bottleneck to the system's operating speed.
One approach to reduce cost and increase operating speed is to have a detector array whose pixels are one-to-one matched to the pixels of each holographic image. However, in order to be pixel matched for all the holograms, the holographic medium's mechanical position and orientation should be detected, with errors corrected.
As the disk spins, there are three degrees of freedom translationally, and three degrees of freedom rotationally. Relative to the detector array, during readout, the holograms may be shifted laterally, have changed its elevation, or tilted rotationally. Such mechanical position errors can be due to the disk being removable and the holder of the disk having limited precision. Removing the disk from and replacing it back into the holder may lead to alignment changes. Also, the disk is not perfectly flat, and is malleable. For instance, the manufacturing tolerance on bending in conventional CD-ROM disks is about 1.2 degrees. Thus, mis-aligning the holographic images to the detector array, and losing data in the images can easily occur.
It should have been apparent from the foregoing that there is still a need for methods and apparatus to properly track the disk to maintain alignment between the holographic images and the detector array, and to correctly read holographic images from holograms stored in disk format without introducing significant cost and bottleneck to the system.

Method and system to align holographic images


The light bulb socket burnishing tool is a device used to remove surface corrosion from the interior of common light bulb sockets without their removal from a base, restoring to operation and extending the life of the socket.

Public, private and commercial use of light bulbs (outside of halogen light bulbs and special purpose light bulbs) consists mostly of "standard" light bulbs, all with common features and construction, using one of three standard bases:                1. The Edison base.        2. The intermediate base.        3. The "candelabra" base.Such light bulbs consist of three major elements:            1. A glass bulb of some shape, gas-filled and containing a filament to produce light when electricity is applied.    2. A "base" (in one of the three forms listed above) which is a conductive metal cylinder lining the outside circumference of the base, with screw-like threads. This threaded cylinder is typically made of aluminum or brass.    3. In the center of the light bulb base there is a small circular and cone-shaped or rounded contact point. This conductive point provides an electrical path through the filament to the threaded base.
A light bulb socket is designed to accommodate a light bulb, and also consists of three major elements:    1. An outside framework, typically cylindrical in form, and made of plastic or other non-conductive material.    2. A conductive metal cylinder lining the inside circumference of the outside framework, with screw-like threads matching those of the size light bulb which is to be inserted therein. Herein, this will be referred to as the "socket base". This conductive cylinder has an electrical path terminating in one wire of the pair feeding the light fixture. This cylinder is typically made of copper, aluminum or brass, which are subject to corrosion.    3. At the very base and in the center of the light bulb socket there is a small circular and cone-shaped or rounded contact point, which will be referred to herein as the "socket pin". This conductive point has an electrical path terminating in the other wire of the pair feeding the light fixture.
All light bulb sockets are degraded over time by environmental conditions; particularly those exposed directly to uncontrolled environments such as outside light fixtures. Industrial environments in particular may have above average corrosive properties.
The socket base element of the socket is subject to corrosion from oxidation, age, use and the environment. Oxidation on the contact surfaces can cause resistance which causes heat, which causes further oxidation, arcing and heat; and the cycle can repeat leading to detrimental operation of the socket. The small resistance can cause a voltage drop which causes a dimming of the light output. Replacement with new bulbs will not improve the light output significantly because the resistance caused by oxidation is still there.
The socket pin element of the socket is subject to those same factors, plus a "spot welding" effect which may result from a bulb not being fully seated and in complete contact. This can happen from improper initial insertion or from vibration over time. Such a condition is typically noticeable visually by a low-frequency variation in light output from the bulb, and it may even emit a slightly audible noise. There is a sparking effect, leading to heat buildup on the socket pin element and pits in that element, and perhaps a blackened or corroded status.
Either or both problems may eventually progress to a state where the operation of a bulb becomes intermittent or ceases. When this condition is present, it requires total replacement of the light bulb socket, including rewiring to the new socket, or extremely resourceful attempts to clean the metal components of the old socket, typically without great success.
The object of this invention is to provide a burnishing tool for cleaning the electrical contacting surfaces of a light bulb socket.


A portable door lock having a base which can be attached to or inserted in a door jamb to extend therefrom into a room to be locked. An arm is attached to the base and is biased to a retracted postion where the door is free to swing open. The arm can be moved against the bias to a postion where the door is blocked from swinging open. A peg is used to lock the arm in this position. Thus, the lock prevents the door from being opened unless the peg is removed and the bias moves the arm back to the retracted postion.

It is often desirable to be able to lock a door in order to obtain privacy or protection. In some cases, a door may not have a lock installed or a lock which is operable. In other cases, such as where a key lock is installed, the lock may be suspect in its exclusiveness and added security may be desirable.
Portable door locks have been developed to provide privacy and protection in such cases. Prior art door locks are usually securable to a door jamb by hooking a tooth of an elongate base into the aperture present in the striker plate when a door is in an open position. As the door is closed, the door deflects a spring arm attached to the base and biased into the path of the door. When the door has passed the spring arm and is in the closed position, the bias returns the spring arm to its original position in the path of the door thus preventing the door from opening. To open the door, the spring arm is manually deflected out of the path of the door so that the door can be swung open. The lock can then be removed from the striker plate and kept in a pocket or a suitcase.
While this type of prior art lock obtains the necessary end result, there are some difficulties which need to be overcome. The first is that as the door deflects the spring arm, the door can become undesirably marked due to the force of the spring arm upon the door. Further, if the door lock is secured to the door jamb and then the door closed from outside of the room, the room becomes locked with no one to unlock the door and the door or a window may have to be broken to gain access to the room. Also with this type of door lock, it is inconvenient to unlock the door because as the spring arm is being manually deflected from the path of the swinging door, the fingers used for the operation are in a vulnerable position in the path of the opening door. This is especially dangerous if someone were to open the door from the outside.
Therefore, it is among the objects of the invention to provide an improved auxiliary door lock which overcomes the aforementioned difficulties.


A level shifting circuit can include a first driver junction field effect transistor (JFET) having a source coupled to a reference supply node and a second driver JFET of a second conductivity type having a source coupled to a boosted supply node, and a first charge pump circuit. The first charge pump circuit can be coupled between the first driver control node and an input node coupled to receive an input signal, and can couple a first terminal of a first capacitor between a reference supply node and a power supply node in response to an input signal. The power supply node can be coupled to receive a power supply potential, the reference supply node can be coupled to receive a reference potential, and the boosted power supply node can be coupled to receive a boosted potential. The reference potential can be between the power supply potential and the boosted potential.

Level shifting circuits can translate an input signal that varies within one voltage range, to an output signal that varies within another, different voltage range. Typically, level shifting circuits can be utilized to translate between logic signals operating at different signal voltage levels (e.g., TTL to CMOS). Level shifting circuits for metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) type technologies, particularly CMOS type technology are well known.
In addition, "back biasing" MOS circuits are known that bias well or substrate regions of an integrated circuit to voltage levels less than ground. Such a back biasing of n-channel MOS transistors can reduce leakage in dynamic random access memory (DRAM) memory cell arrays, for example.
Co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/452,442 filed on Jun. 13, 2006 and U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/799,787 filed on May 11, 2006, both by Ashok K. Kapoor, show examples of novel circuits that include junction field effect transistors (JFETs) that operate at relatively low voltage levels (e.g., 0 to +0.5 volts). Such circuits can form integrated circuits that include few, or preferably no MOS type transistors. Accordingly, CMOS type level shifting circuits are of no benefit in shifting a low voltage internal signal (e.g., 0 to +0.5 volts) to some low output signal level (e.g., some negative voltage).

Level shifting circuit having junction field effect transistors


Apparatus and methods are disclosed for providing a bias, comprising a bias generator circuit including a high voltage (HV) circuit configured to generate a regulated high voltage (HV) from an HV line and provide the regulated HV at an HV regulated line and a low voltage (LV) circuit configured to generate a low voltage (LV) differential from the HV line and to provide the LV differential at an LV line.

Memory devices commonly use high-voltage (HV) devices within a source gate to connect a bit line and source line in a NAND string to allow operations to be performed on the NAND string (pillar or array). For example, the source gate may connect the bit line and the source line to erase the NAND string. Some memory devices require relatively high voltages for specific memory operations. For example, flash memory devices can require voltages greater than 12 volts (e.g., up to 30 volts or more) for specific memory operations, such program or erasure of memory cells. Some operations, such as an erase operation, require a high voltage to be applied to the source line and the bit line to bias the selected NAND string. In an erase operation, gate-induced drain leakage can be used to deplete the NAND cells of charge by quantum tunneling causing the cell to be erased. To handle the high voltage, HV devices can be used.
Both low-voltage (LV) and high-voltage devices (e.g., transistors, other semiconductor components, etc.) typically include one or more dielectric layers, such as a silicon dioxide layer or one or more other dielectric or oxide layers. Devices are commonly rated for a limited voltage that may be safely applied across the dielectric layer, with estimated time-to-failure increasing exponentially with the voltage applied across the dielectric layer. Accordingly, the voltage applied across the dielectric layer should be managed to avoid damaging the device and to ensure industry standard reliability specifications.
Low-voltage devices are rated for relatively small voltages. Existing low-voltage devices commonly have voltage thresholds of 4 volts or less. In certain examples, the term "low voltage" is relative to voltage thresholds of similar, higher-voltage devices. Existing high-voltage devices commonly have voltage thresholds substantially greater than 4 volts, such as 30 volts or more. As technology advances, such terms will evolve.
Dielectric layers (e.g., a silicon dioxide layer) in a low-voltage device are thinner than corresponding layers in a similar, high-voltage device. The relatively thinner dielectric layer of low-voltage devices has a smaller voltage threshold that may be safely applied across the dielectric layer. Voltages above this threshold applied across the dielectric layer may damage such layers or devices and may decrease the time-to-failure for the device. Accordingly, for safe operation, voltages across the dielectric layer should be less than the threshold for low-voltage devices.
High-voltage devices have thicker dielectric layers, in contrast to low-voltage devices, which allow high-voltage devices to operate with higher voltages applied across the dielectric layer. For example, high-voltage devices may safely operate at 30 volts. High-voltage devices tend to be larger, less conductive, and slower than low-voltage devices. Accordingly, low-voltage devices may be preferred for performance of analog, digital, and mixed signal applications. Low-voltage devices, however, are not typically used within high-voltage devices, such as charge pumps or high-voltage bias circuits, due to the strict control requirements of voltages over the dielectric layer of the low-voltage device to ensure safe operation. Using low-voltage devices for some components in analog and/or mixed signal applications, such as charge pumps or bias circuits, would provide performance and/or efficiency benefits in such applications.
In NAND design, circuits may be located below the NAND strings in what is commonly referred as CMOS Under Array (CuA). Analog, digital, and sensing/muxing of bit line circuitry can be located in this area. Decreasing the size of the sensing/muxing circuitry increases the area available for other circuitry. HV devices can be 5× to 10× larger in size compared to LV devices of similar transconductance. Accordingly, replacing HV devices with LV devices below the NAND strings can create additional area that can be used for additional circuitry. The high voltage needed for operations, however, presents various challenges to safely using LV devices.

Low-voltage bias generator based on high-voltage supply


An interactive implantable medical device system includes an implantable medical device and a network-enabled external device capable of bi-directional communication and interaction with the implantable medical device. The external device is programmed to interact with other similarly-enabled devices. The system facilitates improved patient care by eliminating unnecessary geographic limitations on implantable medical device interrogation and programming, and by allowing patients, physicians, and other users to access medical records, history, and information and to receive status and care-related alerts and messages anywhere there is access to a communications network.

1. Field
The invention relates to implantable medical device systems, and more particularly to implantable medical device systems having the ability to communicate with devices outside of a patient for programming, interrogation, data retrieval, and other purposes.
2. Background
Epilepsy, a neurological disorder characterized by the occurrence of seizures (specifically episodic impairment or loss of consciousness, abnormal motor phenomena, psychic or sensory disturbances, or the perturbation of the autonomic nervous system), is debilitating to a great number of people. It is believed that as many as two to four million Americans may suffer from various forms of epilepsy. Research has found that its prevalence may be even greater worldwide, particularly in less economically developed nations, suggesting that the worldwide figure for epilepsy sufferers may be in excess of one hundred million.
Because epilepsy is characterized by seizures, its sufferers are frequently limited in the kinds of activities they may participate in. Epilepsy can prevent people from driving, working, or otherwise participating in much of what society has to offer. Some epilepsy sufferers have serious seizures so frequently that they are effectively incapacitated.
Furthermore, epilepsy is often progressive and can be associated with degenerative disorders and conditions. Over time, epileptic seizures often become more frequent and more serious, and in particularly severe cases, are likely to lead to deterioration of other brain functions (including cognitive function) as well as physical impairments.
The current state of the art in treating neurological disorders, particularly epilepsy, typically involves drug therapy and surgery. The first approach is usually drug therapy.
A number of drugs are approved and available for treating epilepsy, such as sodium valproate, phenobarbital/primidone, ethosuximide, gabapentin, phenytoin, and carbamazepine, as well as a number of others. Unfortunately, those drugs typically have serious side effects, especially toxicity, and it is extremely important in most cases to maintain a precise therapeutic serum level to avoid breakthrough seizures (if the dosage is too low) or toxic effects (if the dosage is too high). The need for patient discipline is high, especially when a patient's drug regimen causes unpleasant side effects the patient may wish to avoid.
Moreover, while many patients respond well to drug therapy alone, a significant number (at least 20-30%) do not. For those patients, surgery is presently the best-established and most viable alternative course of treatment.
Currently practiced surgical approaches include radical surgical resection such as hemispherectomy, corticectomy, lobectomy and partial lobectomy, and less-radical lesionectomy, transection, and stereotactic ablation. Besides being less than fully successful, these surgical approaches generally have a high risk of complications, and can often result in damage to eloquent (i.e., functionally important) brain regions and the consequent long-term impairment of various cognitive and other neurological functions. Furthermore, for a variety of reasons, such surgical treatments are contraindicated in a substantial number of patients. And unfortunately, even after radical brain surgery, many epilepsy patients are still not seizure-free.
Electrical stimulation is an emerging therapy for treating epilepsy. However, currently approved and available electrical stimulation devices apply continuous electrical stimulation to neural tissue surrounding or near implanted electrodes, and do not perform any detection—they are not responsive to relevant neurological conditions.
The NeuroCybernetic Prosthesis (NCP) from Cyberonics, for example, applies continuous electrical stimulation to the patient's vagus nerve. This approach has been found to reduce seizures by about 50% in about 50% of patients. Unfortunately, a much greater reduction in the incidence of seizures is needed to provide clinical benefit. The Activa device from Medtronic is a pectorally implanted continuous deep brain stimulator intended primarily to treat Parkinson's disease. In operation, it supplies a continuous electrical pulse stream to a selected deep brain structure where an electrode has been implanted.
Continuous stimulation of deep brain structures for the treatment of epilepsy has not met with consistent success. To be effective in terminating seizures, it is believed that one effective site where stimulation should be performed is near the focus of the epileptogenic region. The focus is often in the neocortex, where continuous stimulation may cause significant neurological deficit with clinical symptoms including loss of speech, sensory disorders, or involuntary motion. Accordingly, research has been directed toward automatic responsive epilepsy treatment based on a detection of imminent seizure.
A typical epilepsy patient experiences episodic attacks or seizures, which are generally electrographically defined as periods of abnormal neurological activity. As is traditional in the art, such periods shall be referred to herein as "ictal."
Most prior work on the detection and responsive treatment of seizures via electrical stimulation has focused on analysis of electroencephalogram (EEG) and electrocorticogram (ECoG) waveforms. In general, EEG signals represent aggregate neuronal activity potentials detectable via electrodes applied to a patient's scalp. ECoG signals, deep-brain counterparts to EEG signals, are detectable via electrodes implanted on or under the dura mater, and usually within the patient's brain. Unless the context clearly and expressly indicates otherwise, the term "EEG" shall be used generically herein to refer to both EEG and ECoG signals.
As is well known, it has been suggested that it is possible to treat and terminate seizures by applying electrical stimulation to the brain. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 6,016,449 to Fischell et al., and H. R. Wagner, et al., "Suppression of cortical epileptiform activity by generalized and localized ECoG desynchronization," Electroencephalogr. Clin. Neurophysiol, 1975; 39(5): 499-506. And as stated above, it is believed to be beneficial to perform this stimulation only when a seizure (or other undesired neurological event) is occurring or about to occur, as inappropriate stimulation may result in the initiation of seizures.
It is especially beneficial to be able to tailor the operation of a neurostimulator (i.e., a device, preferably implantable, that delivers responsive electrical stimulation therapy as described above) to the specific needs of the patient. Accordingly, many neurostimulators and other implantable medical devices available and in development (in particular cardiac devices, such as pacemakers and implantable cardioverter-defibrillators, or ICDs) are programmable to some extent. Typically, however, programming and interrogation are performed with an expensive custom piece of equipment kept by the patient's hospital or clinic. To the extent a handheld or portable programmer is available to a patient, it is generally a standalone unit provided with a limited number of features and functions to avoid undesirable interference with the implantable device's clinical objectives.
With traditional solutions, device interrogation and programming can generally only be accomplished locally, i.e., in close proximity to the device being interrogated or programmed. Programmers and handheld control devices are relatively commonplace, but generally are not very sophisticated. Handheld devices are generally restricted to controlling a relatively small number of device parameters. Even other types of programmers typically are not sophisticated enough to be tied into multiple other devices or to have any ability to update or examine a patient's comprehensive treatment history, especially if the patient has not used that programmer before. Interaction with implantable medical devices has traditionally been limited by geographical considerations in the past.
It will be appreciated that it is desirable to have improved flexibility in managing patient care by enabling remote interrogation, programming, and interaction with implanted medical devices.
Modern implantable medical devices, such as neurostimulators, pacemakers, and ICDs, are capable of not only monitoring patient condition and delivering therapy, but also can store detailed data and diagnostics relating to a patient's condition for later retrieval. Analysis of this data can improve patient care dramatically, and allow fine-tuning the performance of the implantable devices by programming them with new operational parameters. Interrogation of an implantable medical device allows data stored in the device to be retrieved by an external device (which, presumably, is better equipped to analyze the data in great detail). After analysis, reprogramming the device allows its performance to be optimized based on the interrogated data.
In addition to the clinical utility provided by flexible interrogation and programming capabilities as described above, it is also desirable to be able to provide additional communications features to keep patients involved, informed, and invested in their own care. Traditional implantable medical devices, even those using programmers or hand-held control devices, are not well suited for this. Long-term care of epilepsy and cardiac patients, among others, requires a serious commitment from not only medical and clinical personnel, but also from patients. As described above, anti-epileptic drugs often have unpleasant side effects, so patients taking them should be made to feel like they have the information and control they need to effectively manage their disease, or they may become complacent and non-compliant. The same is true for patients with implantable medical devices—there is a danger that patients will take their devices for granted unless they are sufficiently involved.
Finally, it should be recognized that several tasks involved in the long-term care and management of neurological and cardiac patients are either labor-intensive or require inconvenient periodic office (or hospital) visits, even when the patient is being managed very well. It would be desirable to provide a mechanism for remote welfare-checks on patients with implantable devices, to allow their progress to be checked and data analyzed without the need for frequent office visits. Such a capability would preferably allow the user to store logs and notes regarding his or her condition, and would also facilitate the remote administration of examinations or surveys, as desired by the patient's treating medical team or physician.
Several others have attempted to leverage modern communications capabilities in the context of an implantable medical device system.
Medtronic, Inc. has tested an implantable diagnostic monitor for use in treating high-risk cardiac patients. See D. Sherman, "High-Tech Heart Devices Deliver Data Over the Web," Reuters News Service (Aug. 8, 2001). However, the Medtronic devices used in the "Chronicle Study" appear to be monitors only and do not appear to provide therapy. It would be preferable to have a device that is not only a continuous monitor, but is also a closed-loop treatment system that can be programmed and optimized with information obtained via the monitoring function.
Medtronic also has available a programmable implantable pulse generator for treating neurological disorders, particularly tremor. The "Activa" device has several programmable settings, but is not enabled for diagnostic data storage and upload, and generally provides only continuous (or semi-continuous) pulse streams, not closed-loop therapy responsive to the detection of a relevant event. It is not adapted for remote control or administration.
Another company has developed a PDA-based system for monitoring patient status. See "MedSearch Technologies, Inc. Develops a Revolutionary Home-Care Wireless Technology Using PDAs—Personal Organizers—as Patient Monitors," Business Wire (Sep. 25, 2000). However, the MedSearch system uses disposable sensors, and does not appear to tie into an implantable device system. Although a system such as the one from MedSearch might provide some additional convenience in the form of reduced office visits, it is not directly involved in a closed-loop treatment system and hence would not facilitate comprehensive remote patient care and management, only monitoring.
St. Jude Medical, Inc. developed the Housecall trans-telephonic data link system for implantable cardiac care devices. This device enabled the transmission of stored data and diagnostics from the implantable device to a remote location. However, the apparatus was relatively cumbersome, and it took a relatively long time to complete a single session of data transmission, leading to patient non-compliance. Like the systems described above, the Housecall system was intended to provide a remote monitoring function only, and did not serve as part of a closed-loop treatment system providing remote patient care.
Cyberonics, Inc. markets an implantable device for treating epilepsy; it is now also being tested for treating other disorders. The Cyberonics "NCP" (Neurocybemetic Prosthesis) is, in essence, an implantable pulse generator adapted, in this case, to apply electrical stimulation to the patient's vagus nerve. Like the Medtronic Activa, it applies a continuous or semi-continuous pulse stream, and only a few basic settings are programmable. It is not adapted to collect data or to provide responsive therapy, and no integrated system for network communications is available.
Clearly, an interactive implantable medical device system with enhanced network communications capabilities, geographic independence, and closed-loop treatment functionality would be desirable as it would greatly improve patient care and management for numerous diseases and disorders now treated with implantable devices that have only limited communications capabilities.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Systems and methods for interacting with an implantable medical device


An article of footwear includes an upper and a sole structure secured to the upper. The sole structure includes an outsole secured to the upper and a plurality of gripping elements extending outwardly from the outsole. A heel plate extends downwardly and rearwardly from a midfoot portion of the outsole. A first support column extends between the outsole and the heel plate, with the first column being positioned in a lateral portion of a heel portion of the outsole. A second support column extends between the outsole and the heel plate, with the second column being positioned in a medial portion of the heel portion of the outsole.

Track shoes used by sprinters are highly specialized articles of athletic footwear. They include an upper formed of leather, synthetic materials, or a combination thereof, which receives the foot while providing ventilation and protection from the elements. A sole of the shoe includes multiple layers that are conventionally referred to as an insole, midsole, and outsole. The insole is a thin, padded member located adjacent to the foot that improves the comfort of the shoe. The midsole forms the middle layer of the sole and often incorporates a resilient foam material that attenuates shock and absorbs energy when the shoe makes contact with the ground. The outsole includes gripping elements, or spikes, on its lower surface in the forefoot region in order to improve traction. The outsole is fashioned from a rigid material in order to carry the forces transmitted by the spikes.
When a sprinter is running, their heels are elevated and preferably do not come into contact with the ground. Rather, the initial impact with the ground occurs with ball of the foot, and, more specifically with the lateral portion of the ball of the foot. After initial impact, the typical rolling movement occurs, with the foot rolling toward the medial side and the toes to the toe-off or launch position.
Often a sprinter will tire as they approach the end of the race, and their ability to keep their heels elevated decreases. As the user's heels start to drop, their ability to effectively and efficiently transfer power through the spikes in the ball of their foot decreases as well.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,949,476 to Anderíe discloses a running shoe having a front sole of hard plastic material from which a plurality of gripping elements protrude. The sole extends rearwardly past the ball region of the foot into the over a wedge-shaped element formed of a foam material that is relatively hard but elastically pressure-deformable. In certain embodiments, a low heel member is provided in the heel region. The heel member is shallow enough so that it does not contact the track surface when the user is sprinting, but merely acts as a safeguard against tipping back. Anderíe is limiting in that it provides support for the user's foot only through the midfoot, and does not provide any support for the heel when the user is running in the event that the user's heel starts to drop.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a track shoe with a heel plate and support columns that reduces or overcomes some or all of the difficulties inherent in prior known devices. Particular objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art, that is, those who are knowledgeable or experienced in this field of technology, in view of the following disclosure of the invention and detailed description of certain preferred embodiments.

Track shoe with heel plate and support columns


A retractable access ramp for improving the accessibility of a variety of commercial and other related structures. The retractable access ramp includes a housing that has a plurality of walls that define an interior space. The housing has an aperture through the housing. The aperture is for providing access to the interior space. The housing is adapted for being coupled to the steps such that a top wall of the housing is flush with a top surface of the steps. A base assembly is coupled in the interior space of the housing. The base assembly is selectively extendable from the housing. A ramp assembly is coupled to the base assembly. The ramp assembly is selectively extendable from the base assembly when the base assembly is extended from the housing. The ramp assembly is adapted for providing a smooth surface over the steps for wheeled vehicles.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to retractable ramps and more particularly pertains to a new retractable access ramp for improving the accessibility of a variety of commercial and related structures.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of retractable ramps is known in the prior art. More specifically, retractable ramps heretofore devised and utilized are known to consist basically of familiar, expected and obvious structural configurations, notwithstanding the myriad of designs encompassed by the crowded prior art, which have been developed for the fulfillment of countless objectives and requirements.
Known prior art includes U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,912,796; 4,528,711; 4,601,632; 4,726,516; 4,900,217; and U.S. Pat. No. Des. 354,603.
While these devices fulfill their respective, particular objectives and requirements, the aforementioned patents do not disclose a new retractable access ramp. The inventive device includes a housing that has a plurality of walls that define an interior space. The housing has an aperture through the housing. The aperture is for providing access to the interior space. The housing is adapted for being coupled to the steps such that a top wall of the housing is flush with a top surface of the steps. A base assembly is coupled in the interior space of the housing. The base assembly is selectively extendable from the housing. A ramp assembly is coupled to the base assembly. The ramp assembly is selectively extendable from the base assembly when the base assembly is extended from the housing. The ramp assembly is adapted for providing a smooth surface over the steps for wheeled vehicles.
In these respects, the retractable access ramp according to the present invention substantially departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art, and in so doing provides an apparatus primarily developed for the purpose of improving the accessibility of a variety of commercial and related structures.
In view of the foregoing disadvantages inherent in the known types of retractable ramps now present in the prior art, the present invention provides a new retractable access ramp construction wherein the same can be utilized for improving the accessibility of a variety of commercial and related structures.
The general purpose of the present invention, which will be described subsequently in greater detail, is to provide a new retractable access ramp apparatus and method which has many of the advantages of the retractable ramps mentioned heretofore and many novel features that result in a new retractable access ramp which is not anticipated, rendered obvious, suggested, or even implied by any of the prior art retractable ramps, either alone or in any combination thereof.
To attain this, the present invention generally comprises a housing that has a plurality of walls that define an interior space. The housing has an aperture through the housing. The aperture is for providing access to the interior space. The housing is adapted for being coupled to the steps such that a top wall of the housing is flush with a top surface of the steps. A base assembly is coupled in the interior space of the housing. The base assembly is selectively extendable from the housing. A ramp assembly is coupled to the base assembly. The ramp assembly is selectively extendable from the base assembly when the base assembly is extended from the housing. The ramp assembly is adapted for providing a smooth surface over the steps for wheeled vehicles.
There has thus been outlined, rather broadly, the more important features of the invention in order that the detailed description thereof that follows may be better understood, and in order that the present contribution to the art may be better appreciated. There are additional features of the invention that will be described hereinafter and which will form the subject matter of the claims appended hereto.
In this respect, before explaining at least one embodiment of the invention in detail, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and to the arrangements of the components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. The invention is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced and carried out in various ways. Also, it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology employed herein are for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting.
As such, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the conception, upon which this disclosure is based, may readily be utilized as a basis for the designing of other structures, methods and systems for carrying out the several purposes of the present invention. It is important, therefore, that the claims be regarded as including such equivalent constructions insofar as they do not depart from the spirit and scope of the present invention.
Further, the purpose of the foregoing abstract is to enable the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the public generally, and especially the scientists, engineers and practitioners in the art who are not familiar with patent or legal terms or phraseology, to determine quickly from a cursory inspection the nature and essence of the technical disclosure of the application. The abstract is neither intended to define the invention of the application, which is measured by the claims, nor is it intended to be limiting as to the scope of the invention in any way.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a new retractable access ramp apparatus and method which has many of the advantages of the retractable ramps mentioned heretofore and many novel features that result in a new retractable access ramp which is not anticipated, rendered obvious, suggested, or even implied by any of the prior art retractable ramps, either alone or in any combination thereof.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a new retractable access ramp, which may be easily and efficiently manufactured and marketed.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a new retractable access ramp, which is of a durable and reliable construction.
An even further object of the present invention is to provide a new retractable access ramp which is susceptible of a low cost of manufacture with regard to both materials and labor, and which accordingly is then susceptible of low prices of sale to the consuming public, thereby making such retractable access ramp economically available to the buying public.
Still yet another object of the present invention is to provide a new retractable access ramp, which provides in the apparatuses and methods of the prior art some of the advantages thereof, while simultaneously overcoming some of the disadvantages normally associated therewith.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a new retractable access ramp for improving the accessibility of a variety of commercial and related structures.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a new retractable access ramp, which includes a housing that has a plurality of walls that define an interior space. The housing has an aperture through the housing. The aperture is for providing access to the interior space. The housing is adapted for being coupled to the steps such that a top wall of the housing is flush with a top surface of the steps. A base assembly is coupled in the interior space of the housing. The base assembly is selectively extendable from the housing. A ramp assembly is coupled to the base assembly. The ramp assembly is selectively extendable from the base assembly when the base assembly is extended from the housing. The ramp assembly is adapted for providing a smooth surface over the steps for wheeled vehicles.
Still yet another object of the present invention is to provide a new retractable access ramp that would require less manpower to deploy and retract than other ramp systems.
Even still another object of the present invention is to provide a new retractable access ramp that is sturdy, corrosion-resistant metal construction would make it highly resistant to wear and could enable it to be employed outdoors.
These together with other objects of the invention, along with the various features of novelty, which characterize the invention, are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this disclosure. For a better understanding of the invention, its operating advantages and the specific objects attained by its uses, reference should be made to the accompanying drawings and descriptive matter in which there are illustrated preferred embodiments of the invention.