The present invention relates to methods and compositions which employ low concentrations of combinations of zinc salts to prevent the irritation of skin or mucous membranes that may be caused by therapeutic agents, by personal hygiene products, by articles such as gloves or condoms, or by various physical, chemical, mechanical, or biological irritants.

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that hospital-acquired infections cost the U.S. healthcare system $4.5 billion a year, and that 80% of these infections are transmitted by direct touch. Although the simple use of soap before and after direct contact with a patient can reduce the transmission of these infections, health care workers often fail to employ this simple measure for several reasons. First, washing with soap and water takes time. Second, such washing necessitates the use of running water, sinks, paper towels and other infrastructural needs that are expensive to provide and maintain and therefore not always immediately accessible by health-care personnel. Thus, most health care workers follow the existing washing guidelines only about 50% of the time.
In response to this problem, the CDC recently issued new hand hygiene guidelines for health care workers. One recommendation is for doctors, nurses and other health care workers to use alcohol-based hand antiseptics rather than traditional water-based soaps to decontaminate their hands between contact with each patient to prevent the spread of infections. This new CDC guideline is expected to reduce the time spent to decontaminate hands and hence increase compliance among health-care workers. Moreover, the recommended alcohol-based products can be carried with the health care worker or installed in several convenient places near patient rooms. The alcohol in the lotion will kill the bacteria, and added emollients should keep the hands soft. Furthermore, the product dries on the hands, so running water, sinks, paper towels, etc. are largely unnecessary.
A product called Avagard™, made by 3M, is commercially available having a combination of emulsifiers, namely Beheneth-10, behenyl alcohol, cetylpalmitate, and diisopropyl dimer dilinoleate with 1% chlorhexidine gluconate solution and 61% ethyl alcohol (w/w).
A product called Prevacare D™, made by Johnson & Johnson, is commercially available having 60% ethanol as its active ingredient, water as a vehicle, liposome-building blocks including glycerol distearate, stearate-10, cholesterol, and polysorbate 80, sodium laureth sulfate as a surfactant, propylene glycol as a moisturizer, and preservatives including diazolidinyl urea, methylparaben, and propylparaben. Prevacare-D™ is a commercially available product having 60% ethanol as its active ingredient, and also includes cyclomethicone as an emollient, polyethylene and silica as viscosity builders, mineral oil as a moisturizer/emollient, propylparaben as a preservative and fragrance.
A principal drawback with the increased use of alcohol-based products such as Avagard™, Prevacare D™, or others presently available or embodied in various issued U.S. or European patents (see e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 3,485,915, U.S. Pat. No. 4,478,853, U.S. Pat. No. 4,956,170, U.S. Pat. No. 5,403,864, U.S. Pat. No. 5,516,510, U.S. Pat. No. 5,776,430, U.S. Pat. No. 5,885,562, U.S. Pat. No. 5,951,993, U.S. Pat. No. 6,022,551, U.S. Pat. No. 6,107,261, U.S. Pat. No. 6,136,771, U.S. Pat. No. 6,204,230, U.S. Pat. No. 6,352,701, and European Patent Application 0604 848) is that certain ingredients in the formulations, including the alcohol itself, may cause irritation and allergic reactions on the skin. This drawback was readily apparent in a recent study of alcohol-based disinfectants among nurses, which showed that adverse reactions occurred in approximately 12% of all individuals following exposure to these products (Cimiotti et al., 2003, Am. J. Infect. Control 31:43-48). The instant invention provides one means of overcoming this problem. Certain zinc salts may be added to alcohol-based gels, hand scrubs or other products to prevent the irritation that may otherwise be caused by the alcohol or other active or inactive ingredients that they may contain (see e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 5,965,610 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,985,918, the contents of which are incorporated by reference herein).
Transmission of infectious diseases is also a serious public health concern outside of the health care setting. For example, a growing number of infectious agents may be transmitted by sexual contact, and public health experts increasingly advocate the use of various devices or substances to reduce or prevent the transmission of infectious agents during sexual contact. Unfortunately, such devices or substances often contain irritating components or ingredients that may cause irritation or the dermis or mucous membranes, thereby actually increasing the risk of infection. For example, male or female condoms are often made from latex or other potentially irritating substances. Genital creams, lotions or ointments often contain potentially irritating microbicides, fungicides or spermicides.
In addition to or as an alternative to antimicrobial topical formulations, gloves are used by health care practioners and in other sectors, such as the food service industry, as a means of preventing spread of infection. However, many persons have or develop sensitivities to gloves, including allergic reactions to latex or dermatologic reactions to moisture retention.
Therefore, the primary means of preventing spread of infection are associated with skin irritation. There is a need to develop products that inhibit or prevent this irritation as a step toward making anti-infective formulations and articles more user-friendly and increasing compliance.
It has been recognized that zinc salts can inhibit irritation caused by a variety of agents. See for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,708,023, 5,965,610, 6,037,386, and 5,985,918, These patents teach the use of relatively high concentrations of zinc, which might be detrimental if taken internally. Apart from the potential for systemic zinc toxicity following the absorption of high concentration water-soluble zinc salts through the skin or mucosa following their use in topical creams or gels, zinc itself may be an irritant at high concentrations. Thus, there is a practical upper limit to the amount of zinc in products designed for internal use. Further, as a result of the ability of zinc to bind to and subsequently inactivate potential irritants such as the contraceptive or antiseptic agent, the inclusion of high concentrations of zinc salts in these products may render them ineffective for their intended functions.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,980,477 and 6,321,750 of Kelly relate to the incorporation of water-soluble, organic salts of zinc as anti-viral agents into genital lubricants or other similar products. Kelly does not appreciate or describe the beneficial anti-irritant effects of low concentrations of combinations of water-soluble, organic salts of zinc.

Non-irritating compositions containing zinc salts

The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York


In an optical wireless network, where light beams are transmitted over-the-air, reflections of the transmitted light beams may cause a receiver of an optical wireless device to detect and subsequently lock onto the signal that it transmitted. By doing so, the network is effectively broken. A method and apparatus to detect the reception of reflected signals using minimal additional hardware and data is presented. Should a reflected signal be detected, the receiver is prevented from locking onto the signal, allowing the receiver to detect and subsequently lock onto light beams originating from other optical wireless devices.

Modern data communications technologies have greatly expanded the ability to communicate large amounts of data over many types of communications facilities. This explosion in communications capability not only permits the communications of large databases, but has also enabled the real-time (and beyond) digital communications of audio and video content. This high bandwidth communication is now carried out over a variety of facilities, including telephone lines (fiber optic as well as twisted-pair), coaxial cable such as supported by cable television service providers, dedicated network cabling within an office or home location, satellite links, and wireless telephony.
Each of these conventional communications facilities involves certain limitations in their deployment. In the case of communications over the telephone network, high-speed data transmission, such as that provided by digital subscriber line (DSL) services, must be carried out at a specific frequency range so as to not interfere with voice traffic, and is currently limited in the distance that such high-frequency communications can travel. Of course, communications over "wired" networks, including the telephone network, cable network, or a dedicated network, requires the running of the physical wires among the locations to be served. This physical installation and maintenance is costly, as well as limiting to the user of the communications network.
Wireless communication facilities overcome the limitation of physical wires and cabling, and provide great flexibility to the user. Conventional wireless technologies involve their own limitations, however. For example, in the case of wireless telephony, the frequencies at which communications may be carried out are regulated and controlled. Furthermore, current wireless telephone communication of large data blocks, such as video, is prohibitively expensive, considering the per-unit-time charges for wireless services. Additionally, since it is common to have multiple users within a certain frequency range, wireless telephone communications are subject to interference among the various users within the nearby area. Radio frequency data communication must also be carried out within specified frequencies, and is also vulnerable to interference from other transmissions and sources of noise. Additionally, radio frequency communications is inherently insecure. This is due to the uncontained propagation of the signals. Satellite transmission is also currently expensive, particularly for bi-directional communications (i.e., beyond the passive reception of television programming).
A relatively new technology that has been proposed for data communications is the optical wireless network. According to this approach, data is transmitted by way of modulation of a light beam, in much the same manner as in the case of fiber optic telephone communications. A photoreceiver receives the modulated light, and demodulates the signal to retrieve the data. As opposed to fiber optic-based optical communications, however, this approach does not use a physical wire for transmission of the light signal. In the case of directed optical communications, a line-of-sight relationship between the transmitter and the receiver permits a modulated light beam, such as that produced by a laser, to travel without the use of an optical fiber as a waveguide. Optical wireless communications is inherently secure because in order to snoop on the transmission, the transmission would need to be broken. A broken transmission link is readily detected.
It is contemplated that the optical wireless network according to this approach will provide numerous important advantages. First, high frequency light can provide high bandwidth, for example ranging from on the order of 100 mega-bits-per-second (Mbps) to several giga-bits-per-second (Gbps), when using conventional technology. Additionally, this high bandwidth need not be shared among users, when carried out over line-of-sight optical communications between transmitters and receivers. Without other users on the link, of course, the bandwidth is not limited by interference from other users, as in the case of wireless telephony. Modulation can also be quite simple, as compared with multiple-user communications that require time or code multiplexing to permit multiple simultaneous communications. Bi-directional communication can also be readily carried out according to this technology. Finally, optical frequencies are currently not regulated, and as such no licensing is required for the deployment of such networks.
These attributes of optical wireless networks make this technology attractive both for local networks within a building, and also for external networks between buildings. Indeed, it is contemplated that optical wireless communications may be useful in data communication within a room, such as for communicating video signals from a computer to a display device, such as a video projector.
It will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art of the present invention that reflections of transmitted light beam from stray surfaces present in the operating environment of the optical wireless network may present themselves as a potential source of concern and compensation for such reflections is of importance to this technology. In fact, should a reflection be detected by an optical sensor of the transmitter that is the source of the transmission, it is possible for the transmitter to consider the reflection as a light beam from another transmitter and lock onto to the reflection of its own origin. Particularly for laser-generated collimated beams, which are particularly intense (i.e., high transmitted power with a small cross sectional area), reflections from stray surfaces may present many images of the transmitted signal with sufficient strength to affect system performance. Especially considering that in many contemplated applications of this technology, the transmitted light beam is transmitted through transparent plastic covers or through glass windows, many possible reflective bodies are present throughout the operating environment of the optical wireless network, providing many reflections of the transmitted light beams.
Therefore, a need exists in the art for an optical wireless link that can detect and determine reflections of its own transmitted light beam and to prevent the optical wireless link from locking onto the reflections.

Reflection detection in an optical wireless link


A method and device for short circuit monitoring of a three-phase load connected to a three-phase grid, to improve short circuit monitoring of a three-phase load, the device having at least one current sensor arranged in the current path of one phase of the three-phase grid, and a processing unit for evaluating the measurement values of the at least one current sensor, having a respective port for each current sensor, to which the respective current sensor is connected via a connecting line. The processing unit is configured to detect a short circuit on the three-phase load through evaluation of the measurement values determined by the current sensor. The evaluation includes a plausibility check of the determined measurement values in order to distinguish between a short circuit and an influence on the determined measurement values by electrical and/or electromagnetic interference.

In three-phase systems, also known as three-phase alternating current systems, a three-phase load operated on the three-phase system, such as a motor, a heating element, or a lamp, requires short circuit monitoring for reasons of electrical safety.
Usually, for this purpose, current sensors are used to monitor the amperage in the current paths connecting the three-phase load to the conductors of the three-phase grid, and a short circuit on the three-phase load is noticeable by sudden jump-type changes in the measured amperage.
AC sensors, also referred to as current transformers, usually consist of a toroidal core and are configured like a transformer. The alternating magnetic field of a conductor which carries the alternating current to be detected induces an alternating current in the measuring coil, which is proportional to the measured amperage, via the reciprocal ratio of turns.
Current sensors in three-phase applications thus provide a proportional image of the input signal, with the operating principle of the converter being based on a Rogowski coil, a Hall sensor, or a transformer, for example. Also, current clamps configured for alternating current and having large openings are known, for example, which can be clamped around the current conductor to be measured.
By appropriately choosing the ratio of turns of the coils involved, a large measurement range can be covered without appreciably affecting the primary circuit. Current transformers based on this principle usually do not require any external power for operation.
For short circuit monitoring in three-phase applications using current sensors, the amperage data are usually first acquired as analog values. The waveform of the detected current data is checked for possible jump-type changes that indicate a short circuit, for example by a device for monitoring the motor current.
From DE 10 2011 001340 A1, for example, an electrical device is known for short circuit protection of a three-phase load in a three-phase system, in which a means for detecting a short circuit is provided on the three-phase load, the means for detecting a short circuit comprising a current sensor, and a means for identifying a switching threshold, which is configured so as to detect a short circuit when a predefined switching threshold is exceeded.
The output signal of the sensors may be affected by electrical and/or electromagnetic interference. Especially current sensors which are dimensioned for short circuit currents have the property of providing a signal which is similar to an interference, due to the high rise rates of the useful signal.
Switching operations in the three-phase system might affect the output signal of the current sensors by introducing magnetic or electrical interference. A device for short circuit monitoring is typically operated with an operating voltage of 24 V, for example, while the voltage between two conductors of the three-phase grid is about 400 V. These voltage differentials, but also the coupling capacity of the lines and parallel routing of the lines play a crucial role for the introduction of interference. The interfering current that causes the interference is usually fed to the device via cables and introduced through device interfaces. The interfering current may flow through parasitic capacitances as well as via cable shielding capacitances. It easily reaches the interior of the device via galvanic connections. A few picofarad of parasitic coupling capacity of galvanically separating interfaces are sufficient.
From DE 43 29 919 A1, a method and a device are known for operating a power consumer in a vehicle, the device comprising switching elements, and the current is detected by each switching element and individually monitored for reaching or exceeding a predetermined maximum value. If a short circuit would be assumed in the vicinity of the power consumer and a shutdown effected at each such exceedance event, a shutdown would also be caused in the event of an interference caused by interfering radiation, for example. In order to avoid shutdown of the device upon each such short-term interference, a timer is started when the maximum current is exceeded, and an error is only detected when this exceedance persists for a predetermined time.
A drawback of the method described in DE 43 29 919 A1 is that a short circuit is detected with a time delay and that false detection can only be avoided in the case of short-term interferences.
The present invention is therefore based on the object to provide a way for improved short circuit monitoring of a three-phase load.

Method and device for short-circuit monitoring of a three-phase load


An image capture position and direction estimation device includes a region determination unit that determines a plurality of regions to be associated between a query image and an image with position and direction, a depth estimation unit that estimates a depth of each region, and an image capture position and direction estimation unit that estimates a direction in the region with a large depth estimated by the depth estimation unit and estimates a position in the region with a small depth estimated by the depth estimation unit.

As methods of estimating a self-position at the time of image capture based on an image captured by a camera, methods (Patent Documents 1 and 2) of estimating a self-position from a plurality of landmarks detected from an image and a method (Non-Patent Document 1) of performing matching with a previously captured image group to which a position and a direction are assigned have been suggested. Here, the self-position refers to information indicating a position and an image capture direction at the time of image capture.
Patent Document 1 discloses a technology for estimating a self-position based on position information, in which a building, a mark, or the like used as a landmark is positioned in advance by a highly accurate GPS (Global Positioning System) device, and a camera parameter of an image capture device.
In the estimation method, an angle is calculated per pixel from a camera parameter of the camera used to capture an image, a constrained circle in which there is a probability that the self-position is present is defined from the maximum angle of nip and the minimum angle of nip between landmarks, and a score is calculated using a model which defines a likelihood of an angle of nip. Further, the score calculated for each of the spaces between the landmarks is added to a coordinate position and the coordinate position with the maximum score is estimated as the self-position.
Patent Document 2 discloses a method of estimating a self-position in consideration of the degree of coincidence when landmarks are detected. In the estimation method, the degree of coincidence between an object in a captured image and a landmark is calculated using a database that stores the positions of landmarks on a map and an amount of a characteristic. Thereafter, a self-existence range used to estimate the self-position in the order of the higher degree of coincidence of the landmark is determined. Accordingly, when a plurality of landmarks are extracted, a position error of a landmark with a low degree of coincidence can be reduced, and thus the self-position can be estimated with high accuracy.
Non-Patent Document 1 discloses a method of estimating a self-position by associating an image database with an input image. In the estimation method, a panorama image to which a position and a direction are assigned in advance is generated for each intersection. Characteristics extracted from the input image are associated with characteristics of a panorama image group and a vote is cast for a panorama image in which the association is possible. The position of a panorama image with the most vote results is determined as the self-position. Next, Homography between the input image and the panorama image is calculated, and the input image is projected on the panorama image using the calculated Homography, and the projection center is determined as a direction. In this case, a position at which the panorama image is captured is used as the position.

Image capture position and image capture direction estimation device, image capture device, image capture position and image capture direction estimation method and program


Earloops with improved post design for increased reliability and quality for over-the-ear style headsets are disclosed. The earloop includes an earloop main body having connecting and stabilizer portions and a post extending from the connection portion for insertion into a corresponding opening in an audio receiver/transmitter assembly. An embedded hardened steel member extends from the post into the connection portion. The stabilizer portion is configured to be positioned over, around and behind a user's ear. The earloop may be incorporated in a headset that includes the audio receiver/transmitter assembly that defines an opening to receive the post therethrough. The audio assembly may be positionable along a length of the post and rotatable about the post. The hardened steel member increases the stiffness and strength and minimizes breakage of the post and thus increases the reliability, quality, and useful life of the earloop and/or headset.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to headsets for use in telecommunications, telephony, and/or multimedia applications. More specifically, earloops with improved post design for increased reliability and quality for over-the-ear style headsets are disclosed.
2. Description of Related Art
Communication headsets are used in numerous applications and are particularly effective for telephone operators, radio operators, aircraft personnel, and for other individuals for whom it is desirable to have hands free operation of communication systems. Accordingly, a wide variety of conventional headsets are available.
One type of communication headset is a monaural headset. Monaural headsets are headsets that have only a single audio receiver for placement near one ear. Often, such headsets are implemented with an earloop or earhook that is configured to fit around the ear to secure the receiver in place. Such headsets may be very compact.
One example of a monaural headset includes as an earloop to which an audio receiver/transmitter assembly is attached. The audio receiver/transmitter assembly may be in the form of a microphone boom, for example. The earloop may provide a post for insertion into a mating opening in the audio receiver/transmitter assembly. The post and opening preferably provide a frictional fit therebetween to removably and rotatably secure the audio receiver/transmitter assembly to the earloop. In particular, the audio receiver/transmitter assembly may be rotated about the post of the earloop so as to adjust the position of the microphone relative to the earloop and thereby locate the microphone at a desired location relative to the user's mouth.
However, because of the large natural variations in the size, shape, and orientation of human ears, over-the-ear style headsets often do not provide an optimal fit for many potential users and/or require the user to make various adjustments to the earloop and/or the audio receiver/transmitter assembly to try to achieve a proper fit. For example, earloops often do not fit snugly and thus may be unstable and/or uncomfortable for a large spectrum of potential users. In addition, the ergonomic goals of stability and comfort are often in conflict since a snug fit that provides a secure attachment for the headset often pinches the ear or creates pressure points that are uncomfortable for many users, particularly when the headset is worn for an extended period of time.
Although the earloop may provide various adjustable features, the post of the earloop is typically provided only for engagement with the audio receiver/transmitter assembly and is not meant to be adjusted for proper fit to the ear. Nonetheless, the user may attempt to bend or otherwise adjust the post in an attempt to achieve a better fit. The post may thus break under fatigue with the user's repeated attempts at adjusting the post, reducing the useful life of the headset.
Thus, what is needed is an earloop that provides increased reliability and quality to minimize breakage of the earloop. Ideally, the earloop would provide the increased reliability and quality while still providing adjustability to ensure proper fit.


An auto-adapting fitting for releasably connecting in an end-to-end orientation, a first tube end to a second tube end having an outer diameter within a specified range for use between the ammunition feed port of a paintball gun and the outlet port of a paintball magazine. The fitting is formed onto the end portion of the gun inlet tube. The fitting comprises a resilient sleeve-shaped collar having a number of radially, inwardly extending projections that pass through corresponding radially penetrating holes through the side wall of the end portion of the feed port near its upper opening. The projections bear against the outer surface of the magazine outlet tube. Magazine outlet tubes of a larger outer diameter will cause the collar to be resiliently pushed outwardly.

The ever-increasing popularity of war games in which frangible paintballs are shot to mark a living target, has prompted many improvements designed to enhance the rapid and sustained firing of a large quantity of paintball projectiles. As shown in FIG. 1, most recent models of paintball guns 1 use a substitutable magazine 2 for carrying a quantity of spherical paintball projectile ammunition 3 as disclosed in Lorenzetti, U.S. Pat. No. 5,166,457 incorporated herein by this reference. The magazine 2 mounts to the upper section of the gun by engaging its tubular outlet port 4 to the tubular feed port 5 of the gun. When so mounted, both ports are generally arranged coaxially to form a cylindrical passage through which the projectiles freely flow.
Magazines are often manufactured having dissimilarly dimensioned outlet port tubes thereby resulting in a magazine which is loosely fitted to the gun which can allow for unintentional disorientation or even dislodgement of the magazine leading to an interruption in rapid and sustained firing.
Various solutions have been proposed including intermediate adapters having opposite ends each sized to fit particular magazine sizes to various gun feed port tube sizes. Such solutions increase the bulkiness of the magazine and typically require the user to have a different adapter for each different size magazine. Further, such adapters often increase the length of the cylindrical passage. The change in the diameter of the passage can lead to fouling or otherwise less than a smooth rapid flow of paintballs.
The present invention is an attempt to overcome the above-identified problems.


Provided are a method, system, and program for selecting a path to a device to use when sending data requests to the device. Data requests are submitted to the device on a first path. Device information is maintained indicating a position of a data transfer mechanism of the device that performs the submitted data request. A second path to the device is selected if the first path fails. Data requests are submitted to the indicated position at the device on the selected second path.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method, system and program for selecting a path to a device to use when sending data requests to the device.
2. Description of the Related Art
In certain system configurations, a host may include multiple host bus adapters (HBAs) that provide multiple physical paths to a device, such as a dual ported tape device. In the prior art systems, the host would configure two logical paths to connect to the tape device, where each logical device address provides a separate physical path to the tape device. If a host application, such as a backup application, is writing to a tape drive using one logical device address corresponding to a physical path and experiences a failure, such as a permanent path error (e.g., a failure in the HBA or cable), then the application would cease operating down the failed path. In such case, the administrator may initiate a manual failover to restart the application down the alternate path. However, when restarting down the alternate path, the application would have to start operations from the beginning of the set of operations, losing any I/O requests performed prior to the failure. In the prior art, the application must restart from the beginning, because with sequential devices, such as tape drives, the application is not aware of the location on tape being accessed when failure occurred.
The prior art failover techniques that require the application to start operations from the beginning can be quite costly because the host application may have to resubmit a substantial amount of I/O requests from the time the application started using the path, even if the previously submitted read and write operations successfully completed. For instance, if a backup application encounters a failover while backing up a large storage space to the tape driver, where the application may have been performing the backup for several hours, the backup application would have to restart the backup job from the beginning when switching over to the remaining available path.
For these reasons, there is a need in the art for improved techniques for managing operations with respect to sequential devices, such as tape drives.

Method, system, and program for selecting a path to a device to use when sending data requests to the device

International Business Machines Corporation


The present invention is directed to a processes for the synthesis of trans isomer of 4,6-disubstituted-tetrahydro-furo, thieno, pyrrolo and cyclopenta-[3,4][1,3]dioxoles (Formula I). The process comprises the steps of: (a) obtaining a compound of Formula II, which is a mixture of cis and trans-diastereomers, and (b) chemically decomposing the compound of Formula II in a solution comprising a solvent and an acid that is a hydrogen donor or an electron pair acceptor, whereby the cis diastereomer is decomposed and the compound of Formula I is obtained. The compounds prepared by the present invention are useful in treating diseases or conditions associated with platelet aggregation and/or platelet activation.

An active area of research is in the discovery of P2Y12 antagonists. Different methods have been described for the synthesis of tetrahydro-furo[3,4][1,3]dioxole cores [D. Lipkin et al., Tetrahedron Lett., 1959, 21, 18-21; H. G. Korana et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc., 1962, 84(3), 430-440.; A. Hamilton et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc., 1965, 87(23), 5481; H. Wakuda, Nippon Kagaku Kaishi, Journal of the Chemical Society of Japan, Chemistry and Industrial Chemistry, 1998, 1, 40]. Although these methods appear to be general in scope, they do not adequately address the selective preparation of either cis or trans diastereomer, or to produce diastereomerically enriched products. In addition, these methods described in the literature are very time consuming (lasting over four days), and they sometimes involve the use of highly flammable solvents.
There is a need for a practical process for the preparation of a trans diastereomer of 4,6-disubstituted-tetrahydro-furo, thieno, pyrrolo and cyclopenta-[3,4][1,3]dioxoles.

Process for the preparation of 4,6-disubstituted-tetrahydro-furo, thieno, pyrrolo and cyclopenta-[3,4][1,3]dioxoles


A zoom lens system has, in order from an object side, a first lens unit having a positive refractive power, a second lens unit having a negative refractive power, an aperture stop, a third lens unit having a positive refractive power, and a fourth lens unit having a positive refractive power; during magnification change, the first lens unit, the second lens unit, the third lens unit, the fourth lens unit and the aperture stop move; the first lens unit includes a negative lens and a positive lens in order from the object side; the second lens unit includes a negative lens and a positive lens in order from the object side; the third lens unit includes three or less lenses including one positive lens and one negative lens; and the fourth lens unit includes one positive lens.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a zoom lens system and an electronic image pickup apparatus using the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, instead of a silver halide film camera, a digital camera has been a mainstream which photographs a subject by use of a solid-state image pickup device such as a CCD image sensor or a CMOS type image sensor. Furthermore, the camera has a large number of categories in a broad range from a highly functional type for business to a compact popular type. In the present invention, the category of the compact popular type is especially noted.
A user of such a popular type of digital camera would like to readily enjoy photographing in a broad scene anywhere and anytime. Therefore, the user would like a small-sized camera, especially a digital camera of a thin type which is conveniently carried with a good storage property in clothing and bag pockets and which has a small size in a thickness direction.
On the other hand, a zoom ratio of the digital camera of a compact type has been generally about three, but there is a further demand for a camera having a zoom ratio higher than that of a conventional camera in order to broaden a photographing area.
As a compact zoom lens system having a comparatively high zoom ratio, a type is known which has, in order from an object side, a first lens unit having a positive refractive power, a second lens unit having a negative refractive power, a third lens unit having a positive refractive power and a fourth lens unit having a positive refractive power (e.g., see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 2001-133687 and 11-119100).

Zoom lens system and electronic image pickup apparatus using the same


A camera using a film cartridge having a shaft for winding a film and intercepting light, includes: a cartridge chamber for accommodating the film cartridge; a driving unit; a driving source for generating force for driving the driving unit; a transmitting device; and a limiting device. The driving member engages the shaft of the film cartridge accommodated in the cartridge chamber, and rotates the shaft in the film unwinding direction to remove the film from the film cartridge. The transmitting device is provided between the driving source and the driving unit, and transmits the force generated by the driving source to the driving unit. The limiting device is provided in the transmitting device, and limits the force to be transmitted to the driving unit so as to feed the film in the film unwinding direction.

The present invention relates to a camera and more particularly, to the camera using a film cartridge in which a film, wound by a winding shaft provided in the film cartridge, can be contained with intercepting light coming from outside of the film cartridge.
Film cartridges of various constructions for use in a camera are proposed. One of them proposes that the winding shaft of the film cartridge is rotated in the film unwinding direction so as to take out the film from the passing slit of the film cartridge.
According to such film cartridge, the film cannot be fed out from the cartridge if the leading end of the film is caught by something in the film cartridge or contacts dust or the like. If the rotation of the winding shaft continues in the film unwinding direction, the film cannot be fed out through the film passing slit of the cartridge. As a result, the film loosens in the cartridge, but is incapable of loosening beyond a certain extent. As a result, a portion of the film positioned in the vicinity of the winding shaft is bent, and turned over or cut, which may damage the film.
A method for stopping the rotation of the winding shaft by detecting the abnormality of the film can be considered, but it is difficult to specify the abnormal portion of the film in the cartridge. Although a method for weakening force for feeding the film may be considered, it is also difficult to maintain the driving force at a constant magnitude and in addition, it is necessary to regulate the inertia force of the winding shaft.
Additionally, it is necessary to provide the camera body with an ejecting mechanism for removing the cartridge from its cartridge chamber. The cartridge may be taken out from the cartridge chamber by pressing a button, but it is convenient to provide the camera body with a mechanism for interlocking the cartridge removing operation with the operation for opening the cover of the cartridge chamber.
According to the interlocking mechanism, with the opening operation of the cover, the cartridge is pressed upward from the cartridge chamber. Therefore, it is difficult to insert the cartridge into the cartridge chamber when the cover has been opened. Even though the cartridge is inserted into the cartridge chamber while the cover is pivoting to close the opening of the cartridge, the base portion of the cover contacts the corner of the upper portion of the cartridge, thus preventing the cover from moving downward.


The present invention provides a projection method of 3D ray tracing, so as to construct a geometric factor required for the reconstruction of a medical image in the imaging field. The present invention mainly projects a radiation field and a voxel detected by each detector on two 2D planes, then calculates the geometric ratio of a rectangular unit, corresponding to each voxel on the two 2D planes, to the radiation field, respectively, and multiplies the geometric ratios to obtain a sub-geometric factor with respect to the voxel. The sub-geometric factors gij of all voxels i corresponding to all detectors j are combined to form a geometric factor matrix Gij.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to an image reconstruction technology, and more particularly to a projection method of 3D ray tracing applicable to image reconstruction.
2. Related Art
With the development of science and technology, a medical image becomes an effective diagnosis tool developed in modern times. The principle of a medical image involves establishing a mathematical model by using signals received by detectors during imaging and then reconstructing a 3D image by using an image reconstruction technology. To achieve a desirable image quality, technical improvements in hardware, the technology of establishing a reconstructed mathematical model, and the technology for finding a numerical solution, are all very important links. When a matrix model for describing the physical phenomenon of a system is more precise, the reconstructed image is more correct. A system matrix is subject to many factors such as penetration, detection efficiency, and spatial geometry. Therefore, the computation of a system matrix takes most of the time spent for the reconstruction. The focuses in the early development of the reconstruction technology are how to achieve effective storage and reduce computation. It becomes a trend in the development of the technology to introduce a precise model to the reconstruction technology. By comparison, conventional geometric modeling achieves low resolutions and will gradually fall short to meet the demands of practical applications in the future.
The description of image reconstruction can be represented by the following equation:[P]mxn[ fi]nx1=[ Cj]mx1,
where m denotes the total number of rays, that is, the number of ray responses that the system is capable to generate, for example, a LOR (line of response) in a positron emission tomography (PET) system, n denotes the total number of voxels, P denotes the model of the detection system, fi denotes an image to be reconstructed, and Cj denotes a detection result detected by a detection module.
The main component of Pmxn is a geometric distribution phenomenon, in which the basic definition of the matrix G of the spatial distribution is as follows:
            G              m        ×        n              =                  (                                                                                g                ij                                                                                )                    m        ×        n              ,
where gij represents a sensed geometric detection effect of the ith voxel with respect to the jth ray. Because a detector, at a different position, has a different probability to receive various rays, the information of gij needs to be fed back to the reconstruction process to correct the differences of spatial distribution, and is also referred to as a geometric factor.
Ray tracing is a conventional technology, and the specific optimized implementation solution of the process can be referred to the reference by Siddon R. L. (1985), which has gained wide use already. The ray tracing technology has significant influences and serves as the basis for the development of all types of image reconstruction technologies in the early period. Nowadays this technology is still used in physical calibration of crystal penetration or simulation of the trajectory a photon in space.
In ray tracing, according to the path of a detection ray in space, the length of the line segment passing through the voxel is taken as the geometric factor, or the length of a ray passing through the entire image space (field of view, FOV) is divided by the length of the ray passing through the image unit as an approximate value of the geometric factor. In this approach, a discrete-continuous problem occurs, when lines connecting the centers of detectors are used for approximation, the phenomenon that detectors cover an area fail to be described, and at the same time non-uniform model of source is fail to be described. When a voxel size is smaller than a detector, some voxels are evenly not passed through. To solve these problems, the number of detection rays needs to be increased, that is, to become sub-samples of detector. For example, the approach of Huesman R. H. (2000) is applicable to nuclear medicine imaging, in which a system model is introduced. Although a more accurate image result can be calculated, the computation cost grows geometrically. By taking this reference document as an example, when each detection unit is divided into 3×3 sub-detectors, because two group of detection units are divided by 9 times, and photons are received in pair, the total number of detection rays becomes 729 sub-rays as large. Although compression and simplification can be done by using the slope and ratio of detection rays, the effect is limited with respect to the price of O(n4). A ray tracing model is simple and has the advantages in computation, but to meet higher and higher requirements for the accuracy of imaging result, the technology needs to perform reconstruction processing on multiple detection sub-rays, the computation time is significantly increased, making it inapplicable in practice.
According to the accuracy demands in reconstruction, detection rays are divided into multiple detection sub-rays for computation, the computation cost becomes very high and makes it very difficult to apply the new-generation model-based image reconstruction technology in industry. Therefore, as for most commercially available imaging systems at present, to obtain an image result rapidly, a compromise is made with an image with a barely acceptable resolution, and a shift and add algorithm or conventional ray tracing is still used as the kernel for reconstruction.

INSTITUTE OF NUCLEAR ENERGY RESEARCH ATOMIC ENERGY COUNCIL, EXECUTIVE YUAN


Multiple devices that are each suitable for use at a selected one of multiple locations are managed using a network of links that are each assigned to one of the locations. Each link is selectable between a state in which a device is not using the link and a state in which one or more devices are using the link. Links that are in use by the devices are identified and the locations at which the devices are used are determined based on the identities of the links that are in use.

This invention relates to interconnecting multiple patient care devices to a central location (such as a nurses' station) for observation and control.
A wide variety of patient care devices (PCDs) are currently available. Examples include vital signs monitors (which measure such parameters as ECG, non-invasive and invasive blood pressure, pulse oximetry, etc.), ventilators, and infusion pumps. PCDs typically are not permanently installed beside each bed in every hospital room in the general care areas of the hospital. One reason is, of course, the expense of such an arrangement, but another, equally practical reason is that patients who are cared for in these areas generally do not require routine use of PCDs.
Often, vital signs monitoring and use of infusion pumps are necessary temporarily, for example, for a few hours after the patient returns to the room from surgery. This is typically accomplished with portable PCDs brought to the patient's bedside. Thus, portable PCDs are used in general care areas on an ad hoc basis and it is common for a given PCD to be used in several rooms over the course of a few days. It therefore is difficult for a health care provider to determine the locations of the PCDs and of the patients who are using them, other than by physically looking in every room on the floor. Moreover, it is often helpful to a patient's recovery process to allow the patient to ambulate during the period that he or she is connected to the PCD; locating such a patient is usually done visually by searching the hallways.
General care patients that are using the PCDs are typically the most acute (i.e., medically unstable) patients on the floor (i.e., the patients that bear the closest monitoring by the floor's staff of health care providers). Concomitantly, the presence of a PCD at a bedside serves as a flag to indicate that the patient should be monitored carefully. But because the PCDs are located inside of the room, they often cannot be seen from the nurses' station, and alarms generated by the PCDs (for example, warning that the patient's cardiac functions have fallen outside of preset limits) may not be easily detected. Consequently, the patient sometimes is moved to another room that is closer to the nurses' station to reduce the possibility that alarms may go undetected.
An alternative is to move the patient to a specialized, advanced care unit, such as an intensive care unit (ICU) or "stepdown" unit for the short time that vital signs monitoring is needed. In the ICU, special purpose devices dedicated to, e.g., ECG monitoring, are permanently mounted in each patient's cubicle. The devices are connected via a private network (i.e., a network having a communication protocol not available for general purpose use) to special purpose displays located at the nurses' station so that all of the devices can be observed centrally. The displays typically can only display limited information (e.g., heart waveforms and heart rate) and are thus unsuitable for general purpose use. Moreover, the patients generally cannot ambulate throughout the unit while connected to the monitoring devices.
Ambulation is possible in stepdown units, which generally monitor, by RF medical telemetry, exclusively patients' electrocardiogram (ECG). ECG RF transmitters worn by the patients transmit ECG data to antennas connected to a central nurses' station for observation. The telemetry antenna is permanently mounted near the patients' rooms and hard-wired to the nurses' station.

Network for portable patient monitoring devices


A method for stabilizing and optimizing angiogram cine runs. The method for stabilizing involves reducing abrupt motion from the last frame to the first frame by refining the choice of the estimates of first and last frame indices provided by the user and by performing image registration so that a feature of interest is nearly in the same position between the last and first frame. According to another aspect, a network accessible system for storing and playing back angiographic images and presenting patient information is provided. The most diagnostically relevant subset of frames are extracted from selected cine runs and made available over a wide area network (WAN) such as the Internet. The process of identifying a subset of frames encompassing a few cardiac cycles from the most relevant cine runs makes it possible for authorized users to view the images on a web page interface from remote locations like homes or offices using the Internet which otherwise suffers from bandwidth limitations that restricts the amount of data that can be transmitted within a reasonable delay.

The present invention relates to digital x-ray imaging systems, and in particular to a method for stabilizing and optimizing angiogram cine runs and network accessible system for storing and playing back angiography images.
Angiography is a well-known technique that allows real-time detailed visualization, typically in the form of x-ray images, of the cardiac anatomy and function. A typical x-ray angiographic system comprises an x-ray source, an x-ray image intensifier (XRII) and a video camera. The x-ray image intensifier converts the x-ray signal into a light signal which is recorded by a video camera. This technique provides real time video images which, with the injection of a radio-opaque dye, show the motion of the coronary anatomy. The video signal is digitized to yield a series of frames acquired at rates of 15-30 frames/sec. These frames are stored on a hard disk and provide real time playback in the form of a cine angiogram.
In a typical angiographic exam, a large number of images are generated. For example, a single 5 second angiographic cine run generates approximately 16 Megabytes of data (assuming 512xc3x97512 pixel images, 1 byte/pixel, 30 frames/s) and a single diagnostic procedure can involve the acquisition of 5-15 angiographic cine runs. Each angiogram cine run in turn comprises a set of 60 to 125 x-ray images with each cine run providing a detailed view of a different aspect of the cardiac anatomy. Known lossless compression techniques can reduce storage requirements by approximately 60%. Excessive storage requirement is the primary reason why angiograms are typically not stored on-line in Picture Archive Capture Systems (PACS) as is done with many other imaging modalities. Instead the angiographic cine run images are archived on portable media like compact disks.
The angiographic cine runs are played back by a cardiologist in the diagnosis of the patient""s condition. In a medical clinic, a physician will typically view the entire cine run(s) to observe the arteries or ventricle opacify in response to the dye being injected into the patient and then a few more cardiac cycles are viewed when the arteries are fully opacified followed by the loss of the signal due to the interruption of the dye injection. However, if the angiogram cine run is truncated, then displaying the cine run as a repeating movie loop results in poor visualization due to the mis-registration of features of interest between the last frame and first frame in the looped cine run. Each time cine run loop displays the last frame followed by the first frame, the arteries may appear to move abruptly. As a result, the human visual systems of the examining physician (e.g. cardiologist) loses track of a feature of interest for an amount of time which can be significant relative to the time required to display one or two cardiac cycles.
Abrupt motion of the heart from the last to first frame of the movie loop subset can be the result of a poor choice of the last frame relative to the first frame where the last frame corresponds to a very different phase of the cardiac cycle than the first frame. Abrupt motion from last frame to first frame can also be caused by bulk patient motion. Similarly, motion caused by a patient""s breathing together with small amounts of panning which some physicians perform during cine acquisition to reveal structures that are at the edge of the field of view also causes abrupt motion from the last frame to the first frame.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,293,574 (Roehm et al.), the problem of mis-registration between the last frame and first is avoided by not looping the last frame with the first frame. Instead Roehm discloses showing the frames in temporal order until the last frame of interest is shown and then in reverse temporal order until the first frame of interest is shown and repeating this entire sequence over and over again. While this approach avoids the problem of last frame and first frame registration, it leads to an angiogram cine run where the heart beats conventionally 50% of the time and backwards for the other 50% of the time. It will be appreciated that this does not provide a true rendition of the cardiac physiology.
Accordingly, there remains a need for a method for generating angiogram cine run loops where the problem of mis-registration between the last and first frames is eliminated and a true physiological rendition of the cardiac cycle is provided.
The present invention provides a process for generating and running an angiogram cine run as a continuous movie loop. In another aspect, the present invention also provides a process for extracting a subset of frames from an angiogram cine run and presenting these frames as a movie loop which can displayed continuously.
According to one aspect of the invention, it has been determined that not all the frames in all cine runs generated by an angiographic study are needed to illustrate the salient features of a patient""s case. This is because the cine runs constitute a record of a systematic search for pathologies obtained with differing acquisition geometries allowing close scrutiny of all major coronary artery segments to reduce the possibility of overlooking any lesions. The most relevant views are those that best reveal the lesions of interest.
Accordingly, a more manageable subset of the most relevant frames and cine runs are selected from all the cine runs stored for a patient on removable media (e.g. compact disc (CD) media) and made available on-line. Furthermore, because motion is periodic, providing a subset of frames from one cine run spanning one or two cardiac cycles will often suffice. The extraction of subsets of data from angiographic exams allows physicians and patients to view images from a remote location over the Internet where bandwidth limitations would otherwise restrict the amount of data that can be transmitted within a reasonable delay. According to another aspect of the present invention, a server arrangement for angiogram cine runs is provided. The server is network accessible over a local area network or a wide area network, for example over the World Wide Web (WWW) via the Internet.
The process according to the present invention reduces abrupt motion from the last frame to the first frame by refining the choice of the estimates of first and last frame indices provided by the user and performing image registration so that an a feature of interest, e.g. anatomical features such as arteries or ventricles, will be in nearly the same configuration between the last and first frame.
According to this aspect of the invention, the part of the cardiac cycle is selected which best corresponds to the transition from the last to the first frame. Typically, this occurs when there is the least motion (i.e. end systole and end diastole) because the frame rate is limited and it is more likely that a similar heart configuration will be encountered at some later frame when motion is minimized. It has been found that if an attempt is made to match frames in different cycles when motion is rapid there may not exist a pair of frames that closely resemble each other due to the coarse nature of temporal sampling (i.e. frame rate) and the fact that exact timing for the acquisition of the last and front frames cannot be controlled. Furthermore, it is preferable to select the end diastole as opposed to end systole as the first frame because advantageously it is known that the configuration of the heart is more reproducible during this phase.
According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a network accessible system for storing and playing back angiography images and cine angiograms. The most diagnostically relevant image frames are selected from the angiogram cine runs for each patient and stored on the network accessible system. In addition to the extraction of the diagnostically relevant images, a report including diagrammatic information for each patient is generated. The report describes the case for the patient under diagnosis. The extracted angiogram images, the report and the diagrammatic information for each patient are packaged together (or separately) and may be sent from a remote location either over the phone lines or through a dedicated network connection to a central server in the network accessible system. The central server includes web server computer software for providing secure access via the Internet to the angiographic procedure reports to authorized users (e.g. physicians) at remote locations (e.g. the office for the patient""s physician or a teaching hospital). The angiographic procedure report for a patient preferably includes one or more angiogram cine run loops, diagrammatic information and textual information. To facilitate the transmission and storage of the angiogram cine run loops for each patient, preferably the cine run loops comprise the most diagnostically relevant image frames.
In a first aspect, the present invention provides a method for generating a movie loop from a sequence of image frames, the method comprises the steps of: (a) selecting a plurality of image frames from the series wherein the selected image frames define a sequence associated with the internal anatomy; (b) registering a first image frame and a last image frame in the selected image frames; (c) wherein the step of registering the last and the first image frames comprises minimizing differences in a feature of interest appearing in the first and last image frames; and (d) forming a movie loop from the selected image frames and the registered first and last image frames, wherein the movie loop includes intermediate image frames between the first and the last image frames, the intermediate image frames being compensated for differences in the appearance of the feature of interest in the last registered image frame and the first image frame.
In a second aspect, the present invention provides a system for storing angiogram movie loops associated with one or more patients and making the angiogram movie loops available over a network, the system comprises: (a) a memory for storing the angiogram movie loops; (b) a network interface for interfacing the system to the network; (c) a command interface for processing requests from a computer connected to the network and making one or more of the angiogram movie loops available to the requesting computer.

Method and apparatus for stabilization of angiography images


A gas turbine engine includes a fan driven by a fan shaft and retractable axial retainer of the shaft mounted on a stator element and movable between a first operational position and a second non-operational position. The retractable axial retainer may include a fluid supply configured for supplying at least one cavity with fluid. In some examples, the retractable axial retainer is mounted movably or slidingly so as to generate movement of the retractable axial retainer between the operation and non-operational positions.

The state of the art comprises, for example, French patent documents FR-A1-2 866 068, FR-A1-2 866 069, FR-A1-2 955 895, FR-A1-2 877 046 and FR-A1-2 965 298, the disclosures of which are incorporated by reference.
In an emergency situation, it is necessary to protect the engine so that the aircraft can be diverted towards the closest airport. In case of partial or total loss of a fan blade, the fan is unbalanced and oscillates. This condition is known to a person skilled in the art as "orbiting of the fan". These oscillations generate significant forces. To guarantee safety, the forces during the sizing of the engine and aeroplane structures must be considered, which makes the engine heavier with respect to a standard engine which is only designed to support the forces during normal flights.
To limit the dynamic loads of the fan and to lighten the engine, a decoupling device which makes it possible to limit high-speed forces is known through patent application FR-A1-2 877 046, which is incorporated by reference in its entirety. In practice, for a turbofan engine body comprising a low-pressure shaft and a high-pressure shaft, the decoupling system is arranged to decouple the bearings which support the low-pressure shaft for driving the fan with respect to the intermediate casing, these bearings being known to a person skilled in the art as "bearing 1" and "bearing 2".
After decoupling the fan, the modal situation of the engine is called "hypercritical", the only functioning mode of the engine is thus low-speed. Advantageously, the dynamic loads of the fixed structures are thus highly reduced at high speed. At high speed, the dynamic loads in the shaft remain significant and the risk of breaking the low-pressure drive shaft increases.
Referring to FIG. 1, a twin spool turbofan engine 1 is shown comprising a low-pressure shaft 2 rigidly connected to a fan 4 and a high-pressure shaft 3 rotating around an axis X of the engine. Subsequently, the terms "upstream" and "downstream" are defined with respect to the circulation of gases in the engine, the gases circulating from upstream to downstream. Likewise, by convention in the present application, the terms "inner" and "outer" are defined radially with respect to the axis X of the engine represented in FIG. 1. Thus, a cylinder extending along the axis of the engine comprises an inner face turned towards the axis of the engine and an outer surface, opposite the inner surface thereof.
Still referring to FIG. 1, the low-pressure shaft 2 is guided in rotation in an intermediate casing 5 of the engine 1 by the bearings 51, 52. As shown in FIG. 1, the intermediate casing 5 comprises an outer ferrule 57 and an inner axle 58 connected by the structural arms 59. The high-pressure shaft 3 is guided in rotation in the intermediate casing 5 of the engine 1 by a bearing 53.
As shown in FIG. 1, the engine 1 comprises a separating casing 15, also called "separating nozzle", rigidly connected to the axle 58 of the intermediate casing 5, arranged to internally guide a primary flow and externally, a secondary flow. The engine 1 further comprises a low-pressure compressor, known to a person skilled in the art under the name thereof, "booster", which comprises stator blades 62 rigidly connected to the separating casing 15 and mobile blades 61 rigidly connected to a drive drum 6 to compress the primary flow circulating upstream to downstream in the engine 1. A decoupling device 10 is disposed between the axle 58 of the intermediate casing 5 and the bearings 51, 52 in order to loosen the structure of the engine in hypercritical mode as explained above.
In case of breakage of the low-pressure shaft 2 downstream from the bearing 52 and failure of the bearing 52, a catcher device 20 is provided, known as a "catcher", which makes it possible to axially retain the downstream part of the low-pressure shaft 2 rigidly connected to the fan 4. This catcher device 20 comprises, on the one hand, a ferrule 21 extending radially towards the inside from the axle 58 of the intermediate casing 5 and, on the other hand, an annular ring 22 extending radially towards the outside from the low-pressure shaft 2. Thus, in case of breakage of the low-pressure shaft 2 downstream of the bearing 52, the part of the low-pressure shaft 2 situated upstream of the breaking zone is moved towards upstream, if the annular ring 22 comes into contact with the ferrule 21 to retain it axially. In other words, the upstream part of the low-pressure shaft 2 is "caught" by the catcher device 20 in case of breakage of the low-pressure shaft 2.
Such a catcher device 20 is satisfactory in case of breakage of the low-pressure shaft 2 downstream of the bearing 52 but is ineffective in case of breakage upstream of the bearing 52.
In the fortunately highly improbable case of the shaft breaking downstream of the bearing 52, the low-pressure compressor can assist the user in retaining the fan when these two members are rigidly connected. If a system common to machines with and without a reduction gear or for a turbine engine where the low-pressure compressor is not connected to the fan shaft is sought to be produced, a new solution must however be found that does not require the low-pressure compressor.
In order to remove at least some of the disadvantages cited above, axial retention means have already been proposed in pending application FR-A1-2 965 298, arranged to come into contact with the drive drum and the fan so as to prevent an axial movement of this drum in case of the shaft 2 breaking upstream of the bearing 52. Pending application FR-A1-2 965 298 is incorporated by reference in its entirety.
Thus, the drive shaft is axially retained, indirectly, via the integral drive drum of the fan. The retention means make it possible to catch the whole "drum-fan-low-pressure shaft" reliably, the breaking zone of the drive shaft being unimportant. Thus, even if the shaft breaks in the immediate proximity of the fan, the fan is not ejected upstream, but retained by the drum. The above-mentioned disadvantages of the prior art are thus removed.
However, the zone of the engine wherein the retention means are installed is generally obstructed and it can prove to be difficult to assemble these means here. It is particularly the case of a reduction gear engine, of which the fan shaft is driven by a low-pressure shaft by way of a reduction gear, for example, of the epicycloidal type. In order to ensure the correct functioning of this reduction gear, it is necessary to limit the axial movements of the shafts. That is why thrust bearings 52, 53 (generally ball bearings) are used for the input and output shafts of the reduction gear.
In the state of the art, there are no retention means particularly configured for a reduction gear engine.

Axial retention of a fan shaft in a gas turbine engine


A surf stand which can be used for surf fishing, life guard stands, and other marine functions. The lightweight stand can be easily manufactured and assembled from common, inexpensive materials. The surf stand features a unique construction which permits the application of suction forces within the legs to help set the stand firmly in the bottom soil or sand for stability and safety. The unique construction also permits pressurization of the legs to help dislodge them from the bottom when relocation or removal is desired.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to surf stands.
2. Background Information
This invention relates to a surf stand which can also be used for other marine functions. It is well known in the art that surf stands are subjected to wave action forces which diminish their stability in the water. These wave action forces vary widely and most surf stands are designed to be heavy and permanently attached to the bottom. Floating surf stands float freely but they must also be attached to a pier or piling that is firmly attached to the bottom.
The state of the art teaches heavy surf stands which resist wave action and remain stable because of their weight and because their piers go deep below the bottom surface. The surf stand taught by this invention is not disclosed or made obvious by prior art.


A blank construction for a foot orthotic is formed of a first section and a second section smaller than the first section and which is joined to the first section. The first section has a shape generally the same as a bottom inside surface of a shoe. The blank construction is heat softened at a temperature between about 65.degree. C. and about 85.degree. C. at a pressure up to about 5 psig.

This invention relates to a blank construction for making corrected custom orthopedic devices, or orthoses, for the foot can be fabricated. Such devices are commonly referred to as "foot orthotics".
The human foot is formed of a complex array of twenty-six bones. The human foot performs two main functions, support and locomotion. Ideally, the foot functions as a tripod, supporting the body's weight on the heel and across the metatarsal arch. The foot is capable of a wide range of movement. Under stressed conditions, one of the most important of these movements is the side to side rotation of the foot, either to the outside ("supination") or to the inside ("pronation"). This rotation increases or decreases the height of the foot's arch, and if excessive, can put the foot in a weakened, unbalanced, condition. The foot is said to be in a "neutral" position when it is neither pronated nor supinated, i.e., then the heel bone is vertical and is directly in line with the talus bone above it. The neutral position provides good skeletal support for the body's weight.
It is well known that activities which involve movement of the body, including walking, running, skiing, and skating, place very large stresses on the bones and joints of the leg and the foot. These stresses are larger when the bones and joints of the foot are not in the proper position, and are maximized when the knee is additionally out of proper alignment.
Improper foot structure and position have been treated in part through custom-molded foot orthotics which fit into the shoes and which support the foot, or parts of the foot, in a "corrected" position. This corrective function of a foot orthotic distinguished it from a mass-produced foot pad or other shoe insert designed strictly for comfort.
Orthotics are made from a custom impression or image of the foot. Impressions are typically made by plaster casting or by a mold of low density foam. Images of the feet also can be made by scanning or digitizing the foot and capturing that data in a computer database. Impressions are usually made with the subtalar joint in the neutral position. Depending on the process used, impressions can be taken in a weight bearing, semi-weight bearing or non-weight bearing position. At this point, generally through a practitioner's diagnosis, adjustments will be made to the impression or image to correct for biomechanical deficiencies. These adjustments are referred to as `postings`.
Postings can be placed into two general categories. Postings which involve modifications to the foot form are generally considered intrinsic postings as making an excavation in the foot form to accommodate a dropped metatarsal head. The result is a positive metatarsal lift in the orthotic molded over this form. The opposite type of posting is referred to as extrinsic. An example of this modification is to place a pad on the foot form directly over the dropped metatarsal head. An orthotic molded over this form has a relief pocket under the metatarsal head.
Other modifications can be added to an orthotic. These include but are not limited to rearfoot and forefoot wedges, heel lifts and metatarsal raise pads.
Orthotics can be fabricated either manually or by an automated process. Typically, a laboratory is used to fabricate the appliance. Most labs have cast scanning capability that work either with their own milling machine or a downstream miller. Due to the high cost of CAD-CAM milling, labs may not be able to afford their own miller. Central or shared fabrication facilities are common. Relay stations exist which scan and modem data to a central fabrication facility. Quite often casts are being measured, interpreted and then milled in three different sites and quite possibly by three different organizations. Usually, three or four visits to the medical practitioner are required while the shape of the patient's foot adjusts to the orthotic in use to progress to a final foot shape most comfortable to the patient.
A wide spectrum of materials are available to the practitioner to fabricate an orthotic. All orthotic materials have a certain degree of flexibility and a certain degree of rigidity. Materials as common as leather and cork can be used to fabricate orthotics. Other materials such as ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA), polyethylene and polypropylene are employed. These materials can be used alone or in combination with each other. Also important to the function of the orthotic is thickness and form.
There are several problems associated with the existing methods for fabricating foot orthotics. The single largest disadvantage is the impression processes employed. They do little to change the positioning and/or alignment of components of the foot. The molding and scanning processes used simply duplicate the structure of the foot. All modifications are done through the evaluation of the practitioner. Education and experience aid a practitioner in making proficient adjustments. However, these adjustments are still based on judgement.
Another disadvantage to the present processes is the time delay associated with fabricating the orthotic. Once the impression of a person's feet have been taken, a wait of several days or even several weeks is usually required before the orthotic is finished. When a patient has come to a practitioner with a foot problem, they usually require a remedy as soon as possible.
The break-in period associated with most presently available orthotics is also a disadvantage. Since modifications and adjustments to the impression are based on the inexact ability and judgement of the practitioner, the fabricated orthotic is often too uncomfortable for a person to wear for long periods of time when they first begin to wear it. Often, patients are told to wear the orthotics for short periods of time every day, increasing the amount of time over a period of weeks.
A foot orthotic must be suffiently flexible to provide comfort to the patient when positioned in the patient's shoe and must be sufficiently stiff to provide support under the weight of the patient during normal use of the patient. Foot orthotic blanks are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,813,090; 4,503,576 and 4,803,747. A method and apparatus for forming a foot orthotic is described in U.S. Pat. No. 1,044,171.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a blank for a foot orthotic which conforms with the entire weight supporting surface of the foot. Furthermore, it would be desirable to provide such a foot orthotic which can be easily adjusted to a variety of foot sizes. Also, it would be desirable to provide such a foot orthotic which is sufficiently flexible to provide comfort to a patient and which is sufficiently stiff to promote support to the patient to provide therapy for the patient.


A device and method for preventing and removing carbon deposit build-up on a piston/cylinder assembly of an engine, including a diesel engine, is disclosed. The device includes a cylinder having an inner sleeve for receiving a piston, a carbon scraping ring positioned on the cylinder sleeve, the carbon scraping ring including an inner surface, and an abradable coating applied to the inner surface of the carbon scraping ring providing a wearable surface between the piston and the cylinder sleeve. The abradable coating has a wearable surface, which conforms to the shape created by the movement of the piston and the cylinder sleeve and carbon scraping ring, creating a substantially zero clearance fit between the piston and the carbon scraping ring. The clearance may reduce oil consumption and improve sealing of the cylinder and piston, thereby reducing blow-by.

In an internal combustion engine, such as a diesel engine, carbon from the combustion process can build up on the land of the piston above the upper compression ring. The carbon build-up typically does not form uniformly due to dimensional variations between the piston and the cylinder sleeve, non-uniform heat distribution and secondary motion of the piston. Excessive carbon build up may lead to problems characteristic of current commercial internal combustion engine piston-cylinder assemblies, namely, excessive crevice volume, premature ring fatigue failure, and excessive blow-by of fluids or induced oil combustion. Blow-by or migration of combustion gases or fluid oil past the piston rings is a continuous problem for piston assembly design. Blow-by of combustion gases to the crank case reduces engine compression and robs the engine of its designed power. Therefore, it is necessary and desirable to prevent these potential issues, as well as, remove any carbon deposits on a regular basis.
Carbon build-up has been dealt with, for example, by increased clearance between the top land of the piston and the cylinder sleeve and reduced oil consumption through refinements in the piston and piston design rings. Additionally, a carbon scraping ring or anti-polishing ring helps to scrape the carbon that builds-up on the top land of the piston. However, the carbon scraping ring still has to provide clearance between the ring and the piston to allow for thermal expansion, deformation due to pressure load, the back and forth motion of the piston (piston secondary motion), and the non-uniform heating to the piston.
Thus, there is a need for effective prevention and removal of carbon build-up while addressing the potential issues described above. The present device provides a carbon scraping ring or anti-polishing ring having an abradable coating applied thereto. The abradable coating provides a surface that will intentionally wear to the shape created by the motion of the piston within the cylinder liner sleeve regardless of the dimensional variation in the piston and/or cylinder sleeve, as well as, any variation in operating conditions. The abradable coating reduces the clearance between the carbon scraping ring and the piston, while creating an improved fit having a substantially zero clearance between the piston and the cylinder sleeve and carbon scraping ring. The present device prevents carbon build-up and facilitates removal of carbon deposits on the top land of the piston, as well as, reduces lube oil consumption and improves the consistency of the combustion process.

Carbon scraping ring with abradable coating

International Engine Intellectual Property Company, LLC.


In a lighting unit (UT1) of the present invention comprising a light guiding plate (3), casings (5, 6) covering at least a pair of side portions and a lower surface 3f of the light guiding plate so as to form a column-shaped light source unit storage space (103) along a side surface (3a) of one of the side portions, a reflecting sheet (4) disposed between the lower surface of the light guiding plate and a bottom surface of the casing such that an end (4a) thereof protrudes into the light source unit storage space, and a light source unit (L) inserted into the light source unit storage space and having a light source (1), a reflector (2), and a light source holding component (7), wherein the light source is bar-shaped and disposed along the side surface (3a) of the light guiding plate, the reflector is plate-shaped and encloses the side surface (3a) of the light guiding plate such that the light source is located inside thereof and one end thereof is located under the end (4a) of the reflecting sheet, and the light source holding component is disposed on the reflector for holding both the end portions of the light source, a structure (A) for inhibiting the end (2a) of the reflector from entering between the light guiding plate and the reflecting sheet when the light source unit is inserted into the light source unit storage space or for confirming whether or not the end of the reflector has entered is provided.

Since a liquid crystal display device is small and light, and consumes small electricity as compared to a Braun tube (cathode-ray tube), technologies of research, development, fabrication, and the like have rapidly made progress in recent years, and various liquid crystal display devices are commercialized and widely used.
FIG. 8 is a side view showing a liquid crystal display device LCD5 using a conventional lighting unit UT5, and FIG. 9 is an exploded perspective view of the lighting unit UT5. The conventional lighting unit UT5 comprises a fluorescent lamp 1 as a light source, a reflector 2 enclosing the fluorescent lamp 1 and configured to reflect light therefrom, a light guiding plate 3 disposed in the vicinity of the fluorescent lamp 1 for guiding the light therefrom, a reflecting sheet 4 disposed on a lower side of the light guiding plate 3 for reflecting the light, a housing 5 for holding these components from above and an outer peripheral side, and a rear surface cover 6 for holding the same from below. By disposing a liquid crystal display panel P on an emanating surface side of the lighting unit UT5, and by attaching a front side frame 8 or the like to the lighting unit UT5, the liquid crystal display device LCD5 is formed. In the liquid crystal display device LCD5 thus structured, a column-shaped light source unit storage space 103 is formed along a light-incident surface 3a of the light guiding plate 3 by means of the housing 5 and the rear surface cover 6, and a light source unit L to be described below is stored in the light source unit storage space 103. Reference numeral 102 denotes a clearance (exaggeratedly shown) formed between the reflector 2 and the housing 5. And, reference numeral 101 denotes another housing disposed so as to be opposed to the housing 5 for holding the light guiding plate 3 and the liquid crystal panel P.
The fluorescent lamp 1 as the light source is a fluorescent discharge tube such as a cold cathode tube. Rubber lamp holders 7, 7 are attached to both ends of the fluorescent lamp 1 and fixed to both ends of the reflector 2, and thereby the lamp 1 and the reflector 2 are integral with each other to form the light source unit L.
The light guiding plate 3 is a rectangular plate-shaped component made of transparent acrylic resin or the like for transmitting the light emitted from the fluorescent lamp 1 to an entire rear surface of the liquid crystal display panel P, and has the light-incident surface 3a corresponding to a side surface which the light from the fluorescent lamp 1 enters, two side surfaces 3b and 3c (not shown) both disposed adjacently to the light-incident surface 3a, an opposing light-incident surface 3d opposing to the light-incident surface 3a, an upper surface 3e, and a lower surface 3f.
The reflecting sheet 4 is a rectangular sheet disposed along the lower surface 3f of the light guiding plate 3 for reflecting the light emanating from the light guiding plate 3 into the same again. One end 4a of the reflecting sheet 4 on the fluorescent lamp 1 side protrudes from the light guiding plate 3.
The reflector 2 is a sheet folded in U-shape in cross-section and has a high reflectivity. One end 2a of the reflector 2 on a lower side is disposed between the end 4a of the reflecting sheet 4 on the fluorescent lamp 1 side and the rear surface cover 6, for holding the end 4a of the reflecting sheet 4 on the fluorescent lamp 1 side from below by means of the end 2a of the reflector 2.
When the lighting unit UT5 thus structured is assembled, the light source unit L is incorporated (inserted) into the light source unit storage space 103 through an insertion opening E in the direction of insertion (direction indicated by arrow in FIG. 9) and disposed on a predetermined portion, in a state in which the light guiding plate 3 and the reflecting sheet 4 are disposed between the housing 5 and the rear surface cover 6.
In a case where the light source unit L is replaced due to a defect, break, or the like, the light source unit L is taken out of or inserted through the insertion opening E in the same manner. The end 2a of the reflector 2 is disposed between the reflecting sheet 4 and the rear surface cover 6, and the end 4a of the reflecting sheet 4 on the light source side protrudes from the light guiding plate 3 in order to inhibit an abnormal emission of light in the vicinity of the light source.
In the above-described liquid crystal display device LCD5, the light emanating from the fluorescent lamp 1 is collected by the reflector 2, and guided within the light guiding plate 3 while being reflected by the reflecting sheet 4, and, an entire rear surface of the liquid crystal display panel P is irradiated therewith. Thereby, characters and images are visually recognized.
However, in the lighting unit UT5 thus structured, when the lighting unit UT5 is assembled or the light source unit L is replaced, the end 4a of the reflecting sheet 4 protruding toward the fluorescent lamp 1 contacts the lamp holder 7 and is pressed down, by incorporating (inserting) the light source unit L through the insertion opening E. So, a clearance is generated between the light guiding plate 3 and the reflecting sheet 4, and the end 2a of the reflector 2 may enter the clearance in some cases. And, there has been a problem that, when such lighting unit UT5 is used in the liquid crystal display device LCD5, a display portion corresponding to the end 2a of the reflector 2 is brighter than other display portions and display quality is deteriorated. Therefore, when using the conventional lighting unit UT5, it has been impossible to stably obtain a liquid crystal display device with high display quality. And, when the end 2a of the reflector 2 enters the clearance between the light guiding plate 3 and the reflecting sheet 4, there has been no means to confirm and inspect this, and a problem that the reflecting sheet 4 may come off downwardly (toward rear surface cover 6) has occurred.

Lighting device, and liquid crystal display device using the same

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


A sublaminar wire for connecting a spinal column corrective device to a spinal column has first and second end portions. A flat center portion extendable under the lamina of a vertebra of the spinal column has a larger cross-sectional area than each of the cross-sectional areas of the first and second end portions.

The present invention relates to a new and improved sublaminar wire for connecting a spinal column corrective device to a spinal column. More specifically, the present invention relates to a sublaminar wire having a center portion positionable under the lamina of a vertebra of the spinal column and having a larger cross-sectional area than each of the cross-sectional areas of first and second end portions of the sublaminar wire.
A known sublaminar wire has the same circular cross-sectional area along its entire length. The cross-sectional area of the sublaminar wire is relatively small. As a result, the sublaminar wire may break at a portion of the sublaminar wire inside the spinal canal where it may engage the spinal cord and cause harm. The known sublaminar wire of relatively small cross section also may tear through the lamina of the vertebra releasing the spinal column corrective device from the spinal column.


A battery pack includes a battery, a pair of output terminals connected to the battery, a switch inserted between the battery and one of the pair of output terminals, an acceleration sensor detecting a shock and outputting a detected value dependent thereon, and a control unit of a protection circuit. When a detected value of the acceleration sensor is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold value, the control unit turns off the switch and thereby cuts off a current path between the battery and the pair of output terminals to cut off the current.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a battery pack and an electronic device, and more particularly to a battery pack and an electronic device which detects a shock and disables the battery pack in a predetermined case, the battery being used in the electronic device being capable of carried.
2. Description of the Related Art
Electronic devices such as a note-type or lap-top type personal computer (notebook computer) or digital camera uses a battery (or cell), and can be brought and used in the outdoors where electricity is not available. However, it is possible that the electronic device is inadvertently dropped and a shock is given on the electronic device, when they are carried,
Thus, for example, there has been proposed that, when a strong shock is given on the mobile phone, the shock is detected to create a history of the degree of shock, the number of shocks and the like by an acceleration sensor which is mounted on a mobile phone (refer to Patent Document 1; Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-119484). Accordingly, it is possible to check a history of shock by then such as what degree of shock has been given on the mobile phone and how often shocks have been given.
When a shock is given on an electronic device such as a mobile phone, a battery pack also receives the shock which is mounted therein as the power source of the electronic device. There is no problem which has been raised by the shock given on a battery pack until now.
However, since the output voltage of a battery pack has been increased, a shock given on the battery pack has become not negligible. More specifically, a lithium-ion battery is mainly used as a battery for electronic devices such as a notebook computer or digital camera at present. The output voltage of lithium-ion battery is 4.2 V/cell, for example, being significantly high. Particularly, in a notebook computer, a plurality of lithium-ion batteries are combined to constitute a pack (a battery pack). Accordingly, the output voltage of the battery pack becomes much higher. For example, when four lithium-ion batteries are connected in series, an output voltage is 16.8 V.
I studied on a battery pack and found, when the battery pack of lithium-ion battery which has received shocks several times in the past continues to be used, the following problem may arise.
An additional shock of a certain strength is further given after shocks have been given several times in the past. In this case, there may occur a short circuit in the inside of a lithium-ion battery constituting the battery pack, and bring into fire. Also, the battery pack of lithium-ion battery for a notebook computer is constituted of an assembled battery (a combination of a plurality of batteries). Accordingly, when a shock of a certain strength is given, the balance between individual lithium-ion batteries is broken. As a result, charging or discharging phenomena may concentrate to a particular lithium-ion battery, and overcharge or over-discharge is likely to concentrate. This is very dangerous.
Thus, when a battery pack of lithium-ion battery receives a strong shock, the output current from the battery pack must be cut off, and change the battery pack to a disabled state to prevent troubles such as catching-fire caused by a short circuit in the inside of the lithium-ion battery, and overcharge or over-discharge cause by a breakdown of the cell balance between the lithium-ion batteries.


A gas bag lateral impact protective device for vehicle occupants is provided. The gas bag lateral impact protective device is integrated in a vehicle door and includes a compressed gas source and a head protecting gas bag which is to be inflated by the compressed gas source and which deploys on inflation in a space to the side of the vehicle door. The head protecting gas bag is connected with the vehicle door by a peripheral portion of an inflation opening and in addition by an attachment part which, with respect to a longitudinal direction of the vehicle, is spaced from the inflation opening.

Such a protective device serves to prevent, in the case of a lateral impact, contact between the vehicle occupant and parts of the vehicle such as the B column or the inner side of the door or with movable or stationary objects like other vehicles or posts, intruding into the vehicle. One problem with such protective devices is that the head protecting gas bag must be exactly and reliably positioned so that even if the impact of the vehicle occupant's head is not exactly central there will be no displacement of the head out of a position ensuring proper protection. A further problem is in connection with the safety belt which normally extends from the B column to the upper body of the vehicle occupant and which may obstruct deployment of the head protecting gas bag.

Gas bag lateral impact protective device


A audio data collection and management system is provided for extracting music data from an optical media and managing the music data. The system is configured to extract at least a portion of an initial track of music data at an extracting rate that is different than the recording rate. The system simultaneously records the extracted portion of the initial track of music data to a storage media at the extracting rate while performing the extracting. The system is configured to be implemented in an automobile, a home stereo system, or a personal computer system.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to digital audio equipment and, more particularly, to software for computer systems and digital audio equipment used in audio stereo systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many home and car stereo systems are equipped with devices for playing digitally recorded media. Such devices may include compact disc (CD) players, digital video disc (DVD) players, and mini disc players. In a conventional stereo system, a CD player may be substituted for a compact disc (CD) changer.
FIG. 1 shows a conventional car stereo system. The system includes a head unit 10, a CD changer 14, speakers 16, and a power supply 12. The head unit 10 includes the control display for the system and is typically mounted into the dashboard of a car. The CD changer 14 is typically mounted in the trunk of the car. The speakers 16 are mounted at desired locations, typically two in the front and two in the back of the car's interior. The system is powered by the power supply 12, which is typically the car battery. The CD changer 14 allows the convenience of loading multiple CD's in the CD changer 14. The user can thereby listen to several CD's without the inconvenience of reloading every time a different CD is desired. CD changers in car stereo systems typically allow the user to load between 3 and 10 CD's.
Unfortunately, the conventional stereo system of FIG. 1 has some disadvantages. Designers of CD changers are, for example, faced with the challenge of designing CD changers that will not "skip" during CD playback. Because CD changers use lasers having high precision reading accuracy, skipping may occur during playback due to any jolt to the system caused by adverse road conditions.
Another disadvantage of the conventional stereo system is the inconvenience of unloading an old set of CD's and loading a new set of CD's. Many users may not want to replace the CD's in the CD changer every time a different set of CD's is desired. Many users may find it more convenient, yet less desirable, to simply keep old CD's in the CD changer rather than change the old CD's for a new set.
In view of the foregoing, what is needed is a car stereo system that will allow the storage of more CD's without the inconvenience of constantly having to unload and load CD's, like in the conventional car stereo system. There is also a need for providing skip-free playback on such a system.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Audio system for storing audio data files