A transatrial intravascular temperature management catheter has a lower heat exchange segment positionable in the inferior vena cava and an upper heat exchange segment positionable in the superior vane cava, with a connecting segment lying between the two and positionable in the right atrium. A temperature sensor on the distal tip of the upper heat exchange segment provides accurate core body temperature signals for feedback purposes since the blood flowing past the sensor has not yet reached the heat exchange segment.

It has been discovered that the medical outcome for a patient suffering from severe brain trauma or from ischemia caused by stroke or heart attack or cardiac arrest is improved if the patient is cooled below normal body temperature (37° C.). Furthermore, it is also accepted that for such patients, it is important to prevent hyperthermia (fever) even if it is decided not to induce hypothermia. Moreover, in certain applications such as post-CABG surgery, it might be desirable to rewarm a hypothermic patient.
As recognized by the present application, the above-mentioned advantages in regulating temperature can be realized by cooling or heating the patient's entire body using a closed loop heat exchange catheter placed in the patient's venous system and circulating a working fluid such as saline through the catheter, heating or cooling the working fluid as appropriate in an external heat exchanger that is connected to the catheter. The following U.S. patents, all of which are incorporated herein by reference, disclose various intravascular catheters/systems/methods for such purposes: U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,881,551 and 6,585,692 (tri-lobe catheter), U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,551,349 and 6,554,797 (metal catheter with bellows), U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,749,625 and 6,796,995 (catheters with non-straight, non-helical heat exchange elements), U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,126,684, 6,299,599, 6,368,304, and 6,338,727 (catheters with multiple heat exchange balloons), U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,146,411, 6,019,783, 6,581,403, 7,287,398, and 5,837,003 (heat exchange systems for catheter), U.S. Pat. No. 7,857,781 (various heat exchange catheters).
Present principles understand that accurately and constantly measuring patient core temperature for feedback purposes and, maximizing the rate of cooling for therapeutic purposes are among the challenges posed by intravascular temperature control. Accurate patient core temperature measurements can be provided by rectal probes, esophageal probes, bladder probes, and the like but such probes are uncomfortable for awake patients. Placing a sensor on the catheter itself in a vein of the patient avoids the need for an uncomfortable separate probe but since the catheter changes the temperature of the blood flowing past the catheter, to avoid the "thermal shadow" of the hot or cold catheter, cooling or heating of the patient periodically must be temporarily suspended long enough for the temperature of the blood near the sensor to stabilize at actual core body temperature. This undesirably prolongs cooling, for instance, when it is desired to cool the patient.
As to maximizing the rate of cooling, the larger the heat transfer area of the catheter, the faster it can cool, but size limits are reached even when using the entire inferior vena cava as a placement site. Existing catheters must accommodate the vein into which they are placed. With the above recognitions in mind, present principles are provided.

Transatrial patient temperature control catheter


There is disclosed a process for improving one or more properties of kaolin comprising:. (a) providing an aqueous suspension of particulate kaolin clay; PA1 (b) introducing into the aqueous suspension a first reagent comprising a source of alkaline earth metal ions and a second reagent comprising a source of carbonate ions to precipitate an alkaline earth metal carbonate in the said aqueous suspension of the said particulate kaolin clay whereby the said particulate kaolin clay present at the start of the process becomes entrained by and bonded to the alkaline earth metal carbonate to form a composite particulate product which may be used in paper making or paper coating or as a filler or extender in compositions for other applications. The alkaline earth metal ions may be calcium ions provided by calcium hydroxide obtained by slaking lime either in the aqueous suspension or separately. The carbonate ions may be provided by carbon dioxide.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the treatment of aqueous suspensions of particulate solid material which comprise kaolin. Additionally, the present invention relates to the recovery and use of solids-containing products produced by the process.
Many naturally occurring mineral materials are subjected to processing steps such as particle size reduction and separation in order to select those particles which have the most desirable distribution of sizes for a particular application. In many cases the natural mineral material or the material obtained by processing, eg grinding, contains a significant proportion of particles which are undesirable for the particular application for which the mineral material is being prepared, and it is necessary to remove these excessively fine particles. When the particle size separation is performed on a mineral material in suspension in a liquid, which would most commonly be water, and when the undesired fine particles have an equivalent spherical diameter of about 1 .mu.m or less, especially 0.5 .mu.m or less, the suspension of the undesired fine particles is often obtained in the form of a dilute suspension which is extremely difficult to dewater by conventional methods. It is generally unacceptable, for environmental reasons, to allow such dilute suspensions of fine mineral particles to be discharged to rivers or lakes, and, as a result, such unwanted suspensions of very fine particles are often retained in lagoons, thus occupying large areas of land which could more profitably be used for other purposes.
Kaolin is a particulate inorganic solid material which finds wide use as a pigment, filler, extender or the like in a variety of applications, eg paper filling and coatings, polymers, plastics, paints, sealants and the like. Kaolin is generally obtained from mineral sources and is treated by a series of processing steps which provide refinement to provide suitable product properties. The treatment may include particle size reduction and/or separation steps as referred to earlier. Such treatment has been practised industrially for many years.
One purpose of the present invention is to provide a method by which properties of a particulate kaolin product may be improved.
Another purpose of the present invention is to provide a method by which a suspension comprising very fine kaolin, separated from a main kaolin product by a particle size separation process, and hitherto regarded as a waste material, may be recovered and re-used.
The present invention, as described hereinafter, is concerned with forming an inorganic precipitate in an aqueous medium containing suspended kaolin particles from a kaolin processing operation, which in some instances may comprise kaolin particles previously regarded as waste because of their fine nature, and thereby forming a useful composite product with the kaolin which can be re-used for example in paper making. Such a process is not suggested in the prior art.
2. Summary of the Prior Art
A chemical process for dealing with the solid material in a paper plant effluent stream is described by O'Brien in U.S. Pat. No. 4,115,188. The solids present are coagulated and flocculated by changes in pH.
Formation of a precipitate in a waste aqueous medium is known per se. For example, such a process is described by Le Compte in U.S. Pat. No. 3,262,877, Spruill in U.S. Pat. No. 3,639,206 and Opferkuch in U.S. Pat. No. 4,076,620 but in these cases there is no disclosure or suggestion of precipitating specifically onto suspended particles and making use in paper making or other processes of the product formed. It is to be noted that Spruill uses lime to provide a flocculating effect on suspended solid material in an effluent stream from the pulping of wood. However, the suspended lime-treated solid material is separated by a clarification step. Although precipitation is subsequently carried out using addition of carbon dioxide the treated aqueous medium contains substantially no suspended solids when the precipitate is formed. Thus, no composite is formed as in the method of the present invention. The waste water which is produced in the various stages of the process described by Spruill is not suitable for treatment to recover a useful composite product therefrom because it is too dilute.

Process for the treatment of an aqueous suspension comprising kaolin


A method and system for automatically creating Bills of Materials. A Building Information Model (BIM) electronic drawing is created on a 3D BIM program using Bill of Material standards. The BIM electronic drawing is exported, filtered and stored into a database with a cloud Software as a Service (SaaS) service on a cloud communications network The data is analyzed to produce in real-time a Bill of Materials accurate down to an individual piece level (e.g., stud, board, pipe, duct, etc.) for desired physical structures (e.g., houses, townhomes, multi-unit housing, etc.). The Bill of Materials includes a report produced in a standard and repeatable format, thereby reducing risk, reducing costs and ensuring a trackable level of quality for the builders of the desired physical structure and eliminating any need for estimating of any quantity, cost, installation time, installation cost or waste factor for any one of the plural physical components used to build the desired physical structure.

Building information modeling (BIM) is a process involving the generation and management of digital representations of physical and functional characteristics of physical entities such as buildings, infrastructure components, etc. Building information models (BIMs) are digital files which can be created, extracted, exchanged or networked to support decision-making regarding a building or other physical asset. Current BIM software is used by individuals, businesses and government agencies who plan, design, construct, operate and maintain diverse physical infrastructures, such as water, refuse, electricity, gas, communication utilities, roads, bridges, ports, tunnels, buildings, homes, etc.
A Bill of Materials is a list of materials required by a contractor to complete a contract, or by a supplier or vendor to complete an order. A Bill of Materials typically includes list of all raw materials, parts, intermediates, subassemblies, etc., (with their quantities and description) required to construct, overhaul, or repair something.
Typically, a Bill of Materials is created with a manual process after a contractor or subcontractor receives a set of drawings, either digital or hard copy, then manually counts the quantities for each material type assisted by either a digitizer or set of colored pencils to help keep track along the way.
There are several problems associate with manually creating a Bill of Materials. One problem is that according to a study by McKinsey Global Institute in 2017, since the late 1980s, digital technology has improved most business operations. However, the construction industry has not yet readily adopted digitalization, and remains the second lowest industry on the McKinsey Global Institute industry digitalization index. This results in higher costs, missed deadlines, waste and other problems.
Another problem is that the typical method for estimating quantities and producing a Bill of Materials is inconvenient in that counts and measurements must be made manually (even with the assistance of a digitizer which requires the selection of a start and/or end point) and thus requires a significant amount of time even though the materials were already carefully drawn by an architect or engineer. Another problem is that no Bill of Materials are created down to an individual piece level (e.g., stud, pipe, duct, etc.). Another problem is that there is current no standard for what a Bill of Materials should include or look like.
Another problem is that architects and engineers are not being compensated to draw at a piece level. Even if they did, it would be a digital dead end without an application to utilize that data and the benefits would be limited.
Another problem is that, the methods used to create Bills of Materials known in the art have the weakness of manual error, resulting in the subcontractor who has missed quantities on the drawings winning the bid for the work. Another problem is applying human judgement on items such as waste factors for a Bills of Materials where there are no standards to follow.
Another problem is that if a subcontractor or material supplier has manually calculated quantities for a bid and only receives a moderate percentage of that work, their time has been wasted on the bidding process.
There have been some attempts to solve some of the problems associated with creating Bills of Materials.
For example U.S. Pat. No. 9,875,458, that issued to Iyer teaches "An apparatus for tracking a plurality of built components is provided. The apparatus comprises a reading gate configured to identify at least one fabricated building component arrived at the point of entry of the building site by reading an ID tag of each fabricated building component arrived at the point of entry of the building site and by associating the ID tag with a number imprinted on each fabricated building component. The reading gate is configured to record the timing of arrival of the identified fabricated building component at the point of entry of the building site."
U.S. Pat. No. 7,720,703, that issued to Boughton teaches "System and methods are described for assisting a contractor in managing information associated with a construction project. The amount of information relating to labor, materials, scheduling and billing and the number of individuals accessing the information can be overwhelmingly large for even a simple construction project. As such, the system and methods described are particularly useful for gathering, maintaining and disseminating the voluminous amount of information associated with a construction project. In one method, a drawing from a construction project is provided that has one or more intelligent objects. Information is then gathered relating to labor, materials and schedules for the project. The information is associated with the respective intelligent object and visually represented on the drawing. The drawing is displayed and certain aspects associated with the intelligent objects can be quickly identified. In addition, reports may be generated that quickly and efficiently organize information according to any number of user selected criteria."
U.S. Published Patent Application 20140358617 published by Lepage describes "The present document describes a method for producing a construction plan, a corresponding list of materials and a corresponding cost estimate. The method comprises, at a computing device, receiving a selection of a type of construction project characterized by a predefined set of variables, an initial construction plan, a corresponding initial list of materials and a corresponding initial cost estimate. The method further comprises receiving a modification of at least one of the variables; and producing: an updated construction plan based on the variables; a corresponding updated list of materials based on the variables and on a list of unit materials; and a corresponding updated cost estimate based on the updated list of materials and on a list of unit prices for the list of unit materials."
BIMobject, a company in Sweden, has created a product that teaches "allowing BIM users to create Bill of Materials, tenders, bids and direct orders seamlessly within a BIM project in Autodesk Revit. The solution will allow for cloud-based sharing of the lists of products and materials with Building Product Manufacturers (BPMs) in order to get pricing, quotes or to place direct orders."
However, these solutions still do not solve all of the problems associated with creating Bills of Materials. Thus, it is desirable to solve some of the problems associated with creating Bills of Materials.

Method and system for automatically creating a bill of materials


Enhanced methods, apparatuses and systems are disclosed for the real-time detection and classification of biological and non-biological particles by substantially simultaneously measuring a single particle's characteristics in terms of size and density, elastic scattering properties, and absorption and fluorescence.

There is a growing need for the real-time detection and classification of airborne biological and non-biological particles for indoor and outdoor air quality monitoring, as well as, for the early detection of deliberate releases of biological agent aerosols on the battlefield and in urban environments, such as through a terrorist act. Airborne microorganisms can cause diseases and the real-time monitoring of hospitals, manufacturing operations, sewage plants, animal production houses, and recycling or composting plants can help prevent harmful exposure of microorganisms in these environments. Further detection of particle-sized impurities can benefit quality and production, for example, in chip manufacturing processes. There is a further need to monitor the exposure of humans to organic carbon particulates in urban environments. The majority of organic carbon particulates encountered in the environment from such sources as diesel emissions and burning vegetation contain polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons which are carcinogenic to humans.
The ability to provide a real-time warning of a bio-aerosol attack is a challenging problem. Present state-of-the-art real-time biological point detection involves sensing the auto-fluorescence of biological particulates via the excitation of endogenous fluorophores and by measuring the elastic scattering of particles. There are two primary limitations of the present art. First, is the inability to sense in a reliable manner low levels of cellular and spore type particles in singlet form and protein toxin and viral aggregates that fall below a stated level, e.g. a couple of microns. Second, is the inability to classify biological particles in a manner that produces a low false alarm rate when set for a threat level that corresponds to a low-level attack.
The recent delivery of parcels containing weapons-grade Anthrax, or other biological particles, and the release of these spores into the U.S. postal system demonstrated a spore-type threat delivered primarily in singlet form. Other potential attacks related to terrorist activity could be the release of biological agents into public areas, facilities and government complexes. The dispersal methods employed would determine in what form the biological agent would be packaged. In other words, the dispersal methods employed would determine what size aggregate was generated, or if single cellular or spore-type agents were generated.
For example, with a crop duster or portable crop sprayer, one could assume that a respirable range of aggregates larger than a two to ten (2–10) micron in diameter would be the predominant size generated primarily because of the water droplet diameter that these types of atomizers produce. However, for a covert release in a facility or public area, one could expect a dry powder release or a low output nebulizer could be used that would generate cellular and spore-type agents in single form or viral/protein toxin aggregates that are below 1 micron in size.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. U.S. 2003/0098422 A1 discloses a method and apparatus for biological particle detection and classification using Mie scattering techniques and auto-fluorescence. Such Application is incorporated by reference in its entirety as if made a part of this present application.
In preparing for all threat scenarios, the ability to detect small viral/protein toxin aggregates and the singlet form of cellular and spore-type agents is required, in addition to, the conventional respirable range aggregate (2–10 micron). A further requirement is the ability to classify biological agents of interest and to separate them from commonly encountered biological particulates such as mold spores, pollens, and other biological cells and spores, as well as, other types of commonly encountered aerosols such as diesel soot and inorganic/organic particulates. Efforts directed at classification of most types of aerosols commonly encountered, as well as the biological agents of interest, will have a direct impact on the false alarm rate of real-time biological agent detection.

Multi-spectral optical method and system for detecting and classifying biological and non-biological particles


When a comment and a solution thereagainst are described in any one of a review document, a minute and a pending issue list, a reflecting unit reflects the comment and solution upon a corresponding portion of the document associated with the contents of the comment and solution. When, in connection with the review document, minute and pending issue list to be prepared during review, a specified comment or solution is selected on an editing screen of a system for editing each of the review document, minute and pending issue list, information about positions at which the comment and solution are post-scribed is acquired from a comment-solution management table and displayed on the editing screen of a associated system.

The present invention relates to apparatus, method and program for supporting review of materials (documents or the like) and more particularly to apparatus, method and program for efficiently performing a series of work operations such as review, minutes preparation, pending issue management, and correction of review documents.
JP-A-7-146860 discloses that pieces of information for review of a designated document by a plurality of reviewers are taken out in accordance with a display command so that, on the basis of position information in these pieces of review information, a corresponding display position in original document displayed on the screen may be determined to make a display area vacant and the review information may be displayed in the vacant display area, and that it is commanded whether the review information by the plural reviewers displayed on the original document in correspondence with the reviewers is adoptable or non-adoptable and the display form is changed in accordance with the adoption or non-adoption so that only review contents commanded as being adoptable may be extracted to correct the original document in accordance with the review information.
JP-A-6-274493 discloses a document management apparatus in which a plurality of document review processors used by a plurality of document review members to perform review work are mutually connected through a network, one of the plurality of document review processors is defined as a server having a common comment database prepared and used in review work, the server and the plural document review processors constituting the document management apparatus, wherein each of the plurality of document review processors includes review member managing means for managing access to the database of the server from review members cooperatively participating in work of reviewing individual review object documents, means for enabling an examinatorial reader to prepare comments necessary for review, answer preparing means for enabling an answerer to make a response to a comment, comment searching means for searching only a necessary comment from a large amount of comment data, comment display means for adjusting retrieved results and displaying them, comment managing means for managing comments prepared by a plurality of examinatorial readers and data of answers prepared by a plurality of answerers and for printing review results, and review notifying means for managing forwarding of various notice documents necessary for adjusting the work between the review members.
In review, obscurities in a review object document and a solution thereagainst must be clarified. In addition, a series of work operations of putting together the review results in a minutes and a pending issue list and eventually correcting the review object document must be fulfilled.
The aforementioned prior arts, however, fail to describe that a system (application) for editing an object document into which comments are to be inserted differs from a system (application) for displaying and editing the comments collectively. Further, none of the aforementioned prior arts disclose a plurality of object documents prepared by different systems (applications).
Further, in the JP-A-7-146860, review information can be post-scribed in a specified range in a review document but the review information is information for document substitution by which adoption or non-adoption of the review document is determined.
With the JP-A-6-274493, when such work as examinatorial read request, examinatorial read completion, answer request and answer completion is carried out through mail notification, interchange of mails is necessary for a participant to prosecute examinatorial read work. Accordingly, for performing examinatorial read, at least four mail interchange operations of examinatorial read request, examinatorial read completion, answer request and answer completion are necessary. In other words, a considerable amount of work operations are needed for examinatorial read. Further, much time is lost in interchange of mails. In addition, to respond to a comment, a review reader selects an answerer and forwards a mail to the answerer. In failure to obtain any answer, work for reselecting another answerer is needed and expectantly, re-work operations will be done many times.

Apparatus, method and program for supporting a review


A system and method for accelerating relational functions between tables. The method includes: determining a plurality of first index values for a plurality of first unique keys in a first column of a first table; determining a plurality of second index values for a plurality of second unique keys in a second column of a second table; generating a hashed third table based on the first column of the first table and the plurality of first index values; generating a hashed fourth table based on the second column of the first table and the plurality of first index values; and generating a fifth table by performing a JOIN operation between the third table and the fourth table based on at least one third column, wherein each of third column includes a plurality of third unique keys that are common between the third table and the fourth table.

The approaches described in this section are approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section. Similarly, issues identified with respect to one or more approaches should not be assumed to have been recognized in any prior art on the basis of this section, unless otherwise indicated.
In a relational database, JOIN operations combine columns from one table and another, based on common values. In large datasets, this can lead to a high memory utilization, which can increase costs. There is therefore an incentive to provide solutions which would reduce memory utilization and improve upon at least performing such operations as JOIN operations.

Global indexing techniques for accelerating database functions


It is possible to inspect scratches and staining on a wafer surface on the basis of an LPD map obtained from a particle counter 11, by providing a means 21 for detecting aggregation of clustered point defects (LPD) from two-dimensional distribution information 30 for such fine LPD on the surface of a silicon wafer, and an improvement in the inspection efficiency and the precision of judgements of “defective” status can be achieved. Furthermore, the system is devised so that the trend of generation of scratches and staining in a specified process can easily be detected by accumulating wafer surface information such as scratch information, staining information and the like for the wafer surface detected by a wafer surface inspection device 11 (especially as image information or numerical information), and superposing sets of information thus accumulated. Plans for improving processes can be made by both the wafer supplier and wafer consumer by sharing such information with both parties.

In silicon wafer manufacturing processes, the surfaces of silicon wafers that have been cut from a silicon ingot drawn up by the CZ (Czokralski) method or the like are finished to a mirror surface state by a lapping treatment using a polishing liquid containing a polishing agent that has a fine particle size.
Then, after passing through a cleaning process, the surfaces of the silicon wafers that have been subjected to such a surface finishing treatment are inspected visually by a worker, and only wafers in which no scratches or staining are observed are shipped as satisfactory wafers.
In the case of visual inspection of the wafer surfaces by a human being, the methods and judgement criteria used have not been standardized, so that such procedures are inadequate in terms of enhancing the degree of customer satisfaction.
The present invention was devised in light of such problems; a first object of the present invention is to provide a wafer surface inspection device and method which allow the reliable detection of scratches and staining that are cause for a judgement of "defective".
Furthermore, a second object of the present invention is to provide a defective wafer judgment device and method which allow the reliable detection of scratches and staining that are cause for a judgement of "defective" in accordance with characteristic quantities relating to these scratches and staining.
Furthermore, a third object of the present invention is to provide a wafer surface information processing device which accumulates wafer surface information and provides this information for use in wafer treatment processes and other processes.
It is convenient to be able to grasp the types of scratches and haze occurring on the surfaces of wafers in various processes such as wafer treatment processes, conveying processes and the like. This makes it possible to make accurate modifications in various, and is also useful in the planning of modifications and the like.
Furthermore, if mutual understanding of intentions between the wafer supplier (wafer maker) and user is facilitated, the wafer supplier can supply wafers with a quality that accurately meets the requirements of the user, and the user can easily communicate his own requirements to the wafer supplier.
The present invention was devised in light of the abovementioned problems; a fourth object of the present invention is to provide a system which is devised so that trends in the occurrence of scratches and haze in specified processes can easily be detected, and information concerning these trends can be freely exchanged between wafer suppliers and consumers.

Apparatus for inspecting wafer surface, method for inspecting wafer surface, apparatus for judging defective wafer, method for judging defective wafer, and apparatus for processing information on wafer surface


A novel class of cyclins, referred to as D-type cyclins, of mammalian origin, particularly human origin, DNA and RNA encoding the novel cyclins, and a method of identifying other D-type and non-D type cyclins. Also disclosed are a method of detecting an increased level of a D-type cyclin and a method of inhibiting cell division by interfering with formation of the protein kinase-D type cyclin complex essential for cell cycle start.

A typical cell cycle of a eukaryotic cell includes the M phase, which includes nuclear division (mitosis) and cytoplasmic division or cytokinesis and interphase, which begins with the G1 phase, proceeds into the S phase and ends with the G2 phase, which continues until mitosis begins, initiating the next M phase. In the S phase, DNA replication and histone synthesis occurs, while in the G1 and G2 phases, no net DNA synthesis occurs, although damaged DNA can be repaired. There are several key changes which occur during the cell cycle, including a critical point in the G1 phase called the restriction point or start, beyond which a cell is committed to completing the S, G2 and M phases.
Onset of the M phase appears to be regulated by a common mechanism in all eukaryotic cells. A key element of this mechanism is the protein kinase p34.sup.cdc2, whose activation requires changes in phosphorylation and interaction with proteins referred to as cyclins, which also have an ongoing role in the M phase after activation.
Cyclins are proteins that were discovered due to their intense synthesis following the fertilization of marine invertebrate eggs (Rosenthal, E. T. et al., Cell 20:487-494 (1980)). It was subsequently observed that the abundance of two types of cyclin, A and B, oscillated during the early cleavage divisions due to abrupt proteolytic degradation of the polypeptides at mitosis and thus, they derived their name (Evans, T. et al., Cell 33:389-396 (1983); Swenson, K. I. et al., Cell 47:867-870 (1986); Standart, N. et al., Dev. Biol. 124:248-258 (1987)).
Active rather than passive involvement of cyclins in regulation of cell division became apparent with the observation that a clam cyclin mRNA could cause activation of frog oocytes and entry of these cells into M phase (Swenson, K. I. et al., Cell 7:867-870 (1986)). Activation of frog oocytes is associated with elaboration of an M phase inducing factor known as MPF (Masui, Y. and C. L. Markert, J. Exp. Zool. 177:129-146 (1971); Smith, L. D. and R. E. Ecker, Dev. Biol. 25:232-247 (1971)). MPF is a protein kinase in which the catalytic subunit is the frog homolog of the cdc2 protein kinase (Dunphy, W. G. et al., Cell 54:423-431 (1988); Gautier, J. et al., Cell 54:433-439 (1988); Arion, D. et al., Cell 55:371-378 (1988)).
Three types of classes of cyclins have been identified to date: B, A and CLN cyclins. The B-type cyclin has been shown to act in mitosis by serving as an integral subunit of the cdc2 protein kinase (Booher, R. and D. Beach, EMBO J. 6:3441-3447 (1987); Draetta, G. et al., Cell 56:829-838 (1989); Labbe, J. C. et al., Cell 57:253-263 (1989); Labbe, J. C. et al., EMBO J. 8:3053-3058 (1989); Meier, L. et al., EMBO J. 8:2275-2282 (1989); Gautier, J. et al., Cell 60:487-494 (1990)). The A-type cyclin also independently associates with the cdc2 kinase, forming an enzyme that appears to act earlier in the division cycle than mitosis (Draetta, G. et al., Cell 56:829-838 (1989); Minshull, J. et al., EMBO J. 9:2865-2875 (1990); Giordano, A. et al., Cell 58:981-990 (1989); Pines, J. and T. Hunter, Nature 346:760-763 (1990)). The functional difference between these two classes of cyclins is not yet fully understood.
Cellular and molecular studies of cyclins in invertebrate and vertebrate embryos have been accompanied by genetic studies, particularly in ascomycete yeasts. In the fission yeast, the cdc13 gene encodes a B-type cyclin that acts in cooperation with cdc2 to regulate entry into mitosis (Booher, R. and D. Beach, EMBO J., 6:3441-3447 (1987); Booher, R. and D. Beach, EMBO J. 7:2321-2327 (1988); Hagan, I. et al., J. Cell Sci. 91:587-595 (1988); Solomon, M., Cell 54:738-740 (1988); Goebl, M. and B. Byers, Cell 54:433-439 (1988); Booher, R. N. et al., Cell 58:485-497 (1989)).
Genetic studies in both the budding yeast and fission yeast have revealed that cdc2 (or CDC28 in budding yeast) acts at two independent points in the cell cycle: mitosis and the so-called cell cycle "start" (Hartwell, L. H., J. Mol. Biol., 104:803-817 (1971); Nurse, P. and Y. Bissett, Nature 292:558-560 (1981); Piggot, J. R. et al., Nature 298:391-393 (1982); Reed, S. I. and C. Wittenberg, Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA 87:5697-5701 (1990)).
In budding yeast, the start function of the CDC28 protein also requires association of the catalytic subunit of the protein kinase with ancillary proteins that are structurally related to A and B-type cyclins. This third class of cyclin has been called the C1n class, and three genes comprising a partially redundant gene family have been described (Nash, R. et al., EMBO J. 7:4335-4346 (1988); Hadwiger, J. A. et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 86:6255-6259 (1989); Richardson, H. E. et al., Cell 59:1127-1133 (1989)). The CLN genes are essential for execution of start and in their absence, cells become arrested in the G1 phase of the cell cycle. The CLN1 and CLN2 transcripts oscillate in abundance through the cell cycle, but the CLN3 transcript does not. In addition, the CLN2 protein has been shown to oscillate in parallel with its mRNA (Nash, R. et al., EMBO J. 7:4335-4346 (1988); Cross, F. R., Mol. Cell. Biol. 8:4675-4684 (1988); Richardson, H. E. et al., Cell 59:1127-1133 (1988); Wittenberg, et al., 1990)).
Although the precise biochemical properties conferred on cdc2/CDC28 by association with different cyclins have not been fully elaborated, genetic studies of cyclin mutants clearly establishes that they confer "G1" and "G2" properties on the catalytic subunit (Booher, R. and D. Beach, EMBO J. 6:3441-3447 (1987); Nash, R. et al., EMBO J. 7:4335-4346 (1988); Richardson, H. E. et al., Cell 56:1127-1133 (1989)).
cdc2 and cyclins have been found not only in embryos and yeasts, but also in somatic human cells. The function of the cdc2/cyclin B enzyme appears to be the same in human cells as in other cell types (Riabowol, K. et al., Cell 57:393-401 (1989)). A human A type cyclin has also been found in association with cdc2. No CLN type cyclin has yet been described in mammalian cells. A better understanding of the elements involved in cell cycle regulation and of their interactions would contribute to a better understanding of cell replication and perhaps even alter or control the process.


According to various embodiments, a method for processing a wafer may include: forming at least one hollow chamber and a support structure within the wafer, the at least one hollow chamber defining a cap region of the carrier located above the at least one hollow chamber and a bottom region of the carrier located below the at least one hollow chamber and an edge region surrounding the cap region of the carrier, wherein a surface area of the cap region is greater than a surface area of the edge region, and wherein the cap region is connected to the bottom region by the support structure; removing the cap region in one piece from the bottom region and the edge region.

In general, there may be a variety of applications in microelectronics, microsystems, biomedical, and other fields for thin chips or ultra-thin chips being formed for example on a carrier having a thickness in the range of about several tens of micrometers, e.g. on a silicon wafer with a thickness less than about 50 μm. One method for fabricating thin or ultra-thin wafers may be wafer grinding. Wafer grinding techniques as commonly applied for thinning wafers based on a mechanical treatment of the wafer may introduce defects into the wafer, and may be difficult to control, which may lead to yield loss and therefore high cost. However, there may be attempts for manufacturing ultra-thin chips based on wafer pre-processing, wherein after the CMOS processing each single chip of a plurality of ultra-thin chips may be removed separately from the pre-processed wafer via a so-called Pick, Crack & Place™ process.

Wafer, a method for processing a wafer, and a method for processing a carrier


An inventory management system includes a wearable cardiac device comprising an associated plurality of separate wearable cardiac device components stored as inventory at a first inventory location; a plurality of communication interface circuits associated with a corresponding one of the plurality of separate wearable cardiac device components and configured to facilitate transmission of inventory information through a network; at least one server device disposed at a central location and comprising a processor; and a memory comprising instructions that cause the processor to receive the inventory information from the plurality of communication interface circuits; receive a prescription for a patient; retrieve one or more prescription parameters based on the prescription; locate, in the inventory information, the wearable cardiac device based on the prescription parameters; determine a deployment status of the wearable cardiac device; and select the wearable cardiac device for the patient.

Cardiac arrest and other cardiac health ailments are a major cause of death worldwide. Various resuscitation efforts aim to maintain the body's circulatory and respiratory systems during cardiac arrest in an attempt to save the life of the patient. The sooner these resuscitation efforts begin, the better the patient's chances of survival. External cardioverters, defibrillators, and/or pacing devices such as manual defibrillators, automated external defibrillators (AEDs), or wearable cardioverter defibrillators (WCDs) have significantly improved the ability to treat these otherwise life-threatening conditions. Such devices operate by applying corrective electrical pulses directly to the patient's heart. Ventricular fibrillation or ventricular tachycardia can be treated by an implanted or external defibrillator, for example, by providing a therapeutic shock to the heart in an attempt to restore normal rhythm. To treat conditions such as bradycardia, an implanted or external pacing device can provide pacing stimuli to the patient's heart until intrinsic cardiac electrical activity returns.
There are a wide variety of electronic and mechanical devices for monitoring and treating patients' medical conditions. In some examples, depending on the underlying medical condition being monitored or treated, medical devices such as cardiac monitors or defibrillators can be prescribed to the patient. Physicians may use these medical devices alone or in combination with drug therapies to treat conditions such as cardiac arrhythmias.
Example external cardiac monitoring and/or treatment devices include cardiac monitoring devices such as the ZOLL® cardiac monitor, the ZOLL LifeVest® wearable cardioverter defibrillator, and the AED Plus, all available from ZOLL Medical Corporation.
Cardiac device and service providers as well as health care providers or their affiliates way maintain an inventory of medical devices that have been serviced, cleaned, their batteries charged, and, in some cases, configured before being deployed to patients.

Systems and methods for device inventory management and tracking


A shift lever assembly includes a cross-car-beam. The assembly includes a shift lever supported by the cross-car-beam. The assembly includes a fitting fixing the shift lever to the cross-car-beam. The fitting includes a base for inserting the shift lever therein. The fitting includes a first wall fixed to the cross-car-beam. The fitting includes a second wall extending from the base transversely of the first wall and fixed to the cross-car-beam.

The present invention relates to a shift lever assembly. Specifically, the present invention relates to a shift lever fitting structure which efficiently receives and absorbs an excessive impact load inputted to a shift lever during vehicle crash and the like.
When a shift lever is fitted to a vehicle body, the shift lever is fixed to a cross car-beam by use of a steel bracket. This bracket is formed in an approximately U-shaped cross section. The bracket has both side walls which extend in a vehicle longitudinal direction and are supported by the cross-car-beam (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Hei 5-280621, for example).


Embodiments of the present invention may include a vehicle seat having a seatback and a headrest. The headrest has a first headrest portion, a second headrest portion and a headrest cover. The first headrest portion is connected to the seatback. The second headrest portion is provided nearer to a user seated in the seat than the first headrest portion. The second headrest portion is provided on the first headrest portion so as to be vertically movable. The headrest cover covers the first headrest portion and the second headrest portion. The headrest cover includes an elastic region. When the second headrest portion moves vertically with respect to the first headrest portion, the elastic region is deformed so as to allow movement of the second headrest portion.

Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention relate to vehicle seats. More specifically, the embodiments relate to vehicle seats having a headrest that has a portion facing the head of a user which is movable in the vertical direction.
Description of the Related Art
A conventional vehicle seat has a headrest supporting a head of a user. A pad exhibiting an adequate elastic force is packed into the headrest. When, for example, a vehicle is hit from behind (rearward collision), the headrest assuredly supports the head of the user seated in the seat.
A rearward collision may be of various types. For example, in a first type of collision, the user is pressed backwards as shown in FIGS. 13 to 16, and then his body moves upwards. In a second type of collision, the user is pressed backwards as shown in FIGS. 17 to 21, and then his body moves downwards. In a third type of collision, his body moves upwards first, and then moves downwards.
In the case of the first type of collision, the head of the user is supported by the pad of the headrest. However, when his body moves upwards, the head receives a backward rotational force (as indicated by the arrow Rc in FIG. 15). As a result, the user may sustain a whiplash injury. In the case of the second type of collision, the head of the user is supported by the pad of the headrest. However, due to the downward movement of his body, his head receives a forward rotational force (as indicated by the arrow Rd in FIG. 20). As a result, the user may sustain a whiplash injury.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2008-149862 discloses a technique in which there is provided a tension spring for biasing a movable headrest. The headrest is retained in a position where the headrest is under a biasing force. When a sensor predicts a rearward collision, the biasing force of the tension spring is released by using a solenoid. As a result, the movable headrest moves instantaneously upwards. The headrest moves upwards not at the instant that the rearward collision occurs but at the instant that the rearward collision is predicted. Thus, there is the possibility that the upward movement of the headrest does not coincide with the upward movement of the body of the user.
As a result, in some cases, it is impossible to effectively suppress the backward rotation of the head of the user. The movement distance of the headrest is fixed. Thus, even when the movement of the headrest coincides with the movement of the body, the movement distance of the headrest may be excessive or deficient. As a result, in some cases, it is impossible to sufficiently suppress the backward rotation of the head of the user. In the case where the body of the user moves downwards at the time of collision, ascent of the headrest may aggravate the forward rotation of the head further. A conventional headrest requires a complicated structure for its movement.
Thus, there has been a need for a headrest capable of further reducing burden on a user's neck when the user's body moves at the time of rearward collision. It is more desirable for the headrest to be simple.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Headrests and vehicle seats having the same


A roller clutch arranged to transmit rotation in only one direction includes an outer ring, an inner ring, a plurality of rollers, a retainer, a cam surface, and a plurality of spring members. The inner ring is disposed on the inner peripheral surface of the outer ring. The rollers are disposed between the inner ring and the outer ring in a circumferential direction and are allowed to frictionally engage the outer and inner rings. The retainer includes a plurality of holding portions disposed among the rollers, and shaft portions that protrude from the holding portions toward the rollers. The cam surface is an oblique surface on the inner peripheral surface of the outer ring and arranged to contact the outer peripheral surface of the rollers. The spring members are disposed on the outer peripheral side of the shaft portions and urge the rollers to frictionally engage the cam surface.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a roller clutch. More specifically, the present invention relates to a clutch that is configured to transmit rotation in only one direction.
2. Background Information
A fishing reel, particularly a spinning reel, is provided with an anti-reverse rotation mechanism for preventing a rotor from reversing in a line-releasing direction during casting or line-winding. The anti-reverse rotation mechanism is constructed of a one-way clutch that is disposed between a reel unit and a rotor. Conventionally, a roller clutch is adopted for reducing the play (or clearance) produced during reverse rotation and is commonly known as an anti-reverse rotation one-way clutch.
In general, a roller clutch includes an outer ring, an inner ring, and a plurality of rollers. The inner ring is allowed to rotate relative to the outer ring. The rollers are disposed between the outer ring and the inner ring and are allowed to frictionally engage both of the rings while being interposed there between.
Also, the roller clutch generally comes in two forms: the inner ring idling type and the outer ring idling type. With respect to the outer ring idling type, a cam surface is formed on the outer peripheral surface of the inner ring. With respect to the inner ring idling type, a cam surface is formed on the inner peripheral surface of the outer ring. The roller clutch of this type is provided with a retainer for disposing rollers at predetermined intervals in a circumferential direction (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2001-25338).
According to conventional practice, a retainer in the inner ring idling type roller clutch includes a washer shaped attachment portion, a part of which is disposed on an end portion of an outer ring, and a plurality of holding portions that protrude from one surface of the attachment portion on the inner peripheral side. Accordingly, the attachment portion is disposed not only on the outer peripheral side of the holding portions but also among the holding portions. The holding portions are disposed among a plurality of rollers, and respectively include a curved surface on one surface in a circumferential direction. The curved surface is configured to engage with the outer peripheral surface of each of the rollers. In addition, the holding portions respectively include a recessed portion for accommodating a spring member on the other surface in the circumferential direction. The spring member is constructed of a coil spring for urging the rollers in a direction that the rollers frictionally engage a cam surface. The recessed portion is constructed to be opened and have a circular shape on the other surface in the circumferential direction so that the roller is allowed to be urged in the direction that the rollers frictionally engage the cam surface.
According to the conventional configuration in which a recessed portion is formed in a holding portion and a spring member composed of a coil spring is accommodated in the recessed portion, the outer diameter of the coil spring is restricted to be equal to or less than the inner diameter of the recessed portion. Because of this, when the holding portion is designed to have a small size, the recessed portion is accordingly constructed to have a small size. Therefore, the outer diameter of the spring member must be formed to have a small size. When the outer diameter of the spring member is formed to have a small size, it will be difficult for the recessed portion to hold the spring member. For example, an operation of embedding the spring member into the recessed portion by picking the spring member with tweezers will be difficult.


An optical device includes a block of optical material. The block includes a first and second end face, and a portion of the first end face includes at least one convex arcuate portion.

This invention relates to an optical part or an optical device, and particularly to an optical part or an optical device having an optical material on which minute, generally spherical or aspherical convex or concave arcuate faces are formed and a process of producing the same. Further, the present invention relates to an optical device having an optical path of a great length such as, for example, a higher harmonic wave converting device and a short wavelength laser apparatus employing such optical device.
Conventionally, as a laser resonator, a laser resonator is known of the structure wherein a pair of concave reflecting mirrors are disposed in an opposing relationship to each other on the opposite sides of a laser medium. One of the reflecting mirrors is a total reflecting mirror while the other reflecting mirror is a mirror which passes part of laser light therethrough. In order to miniaturize such a laser system, it is necessary to make the spacing occupied by the reflecting mirrors as small as possible. Further, as miniaturization of systems proceeds, it is necessary to decrease the distance between the reflecting mirrors.
Meanwhile, non-linear optical devices are used which convert a frequency of light making use of a non-linear mutual action of light waves in a substance. The non-linear mutual action may be, for example, production of a second harmonic wave, optical parametric oscillation, production of a difference frequency or the like. Such an optical device is constituted from an optical resonator consisting of two such concave reflecting mirrors as described above, and an optical material in the form of non-linear optical crystal placed between the concave reflecting mirrors. A microlens, which is one of optical parts, is used for an optical communication system or optoelectronics. Since light emerging from a laser or an optical fiber spreads at the angle of 10 to 40 degrees or so, the microlens is used to convert such light into parallel light or further converge such light into a small spot. As one of methods of producing a microlens, there is a method wherein a mask pattern having a necessary circular opening is formed on a glass substrate using the technique of photolithography and ion exchanging is performed through the opening so that the refractive index of a portion of the glass substrate corresponding to the opening is made different from that of the other portion of the glass substrate.
While various optical devices are described so far, if such optical devices can be manufactured by forming a convex arcuate face integrally on an end face of an optical material, then this is very advantageous for miniaturization of an apparatus and so forth. By the way, if it is attempted to form a spherical or aspherical convex arcuate face on a surface of an optical material, one of most popular methods is a method by polishing. Accordingly, it is possible to work only one or several works, and consequently, optical devices cannot be manufactured in a mass at a low cost. Further, where such polishing is involved, there is a problem that, from a physical restriction, a plurality of convex arcuate faces cannot be formed in the proximity of each other on a surface of an optical material. A Fresnel lens is known as an example of an aggregate of small lenses. In this instance, since an electron beam picture drawing apparatus is employed for production of a Fresnel lens, the equipment is very expensive and the mass productivity is low. Further, while it is possible to manufacture, by molding, a microlens on which a plurality of convex arcuate faces are provided, the material of the microlens is limited to such material that is suitable for molding. Accordingly, there is a problem that it is impossible to manufacture a microlens using such a material as a single crystal material or a high melting point amorphous material.
By the way, since generally a laser is limited in output wavelength, there is a method wherein laser light is converted into coherent light of another wavelength making use of a non-linear optical phenomenon in order to obtain laser light of a shorter wavelength. As a representative example of the same, there is a method wherein laser light is converted into a higher harmonic wave by means of a higher harmonic wave generator (SHG). This depends upon the fact that, if laser light of a frequency .omega..sub.o is introduced into crystal of a non-linear medium, then light of the frequency 2.omega..sub.o is outputted from the crystal. Such higher harmonic conversion has been attempted in accordance with various methods, and it is known that a higher harmonic output thus converted increases in proportion to an input power to the second power or an internal power to the second power of a resonator and a length to the second power of the non-linear medium (however, at an optimum focus, the higher harmonic wave output increases in proportion to a length of the non-linear medium). Accordingly, in order to increase the higher harmonic wave output, it is necessary to increase the internal power or the length of the non-linear medium.
As a method for higher harmonic conversion which is conventionally employed, there is a method of direct conversion wherein non-linear crystal is cut into a piece, and low reflection coatings are applied to the polished opposite end faces of the non-linear crystal piece, and then exciting light is irradiated upon the non-linear crystal piece. With the present method, direct conversion making use of a semiconductor laser is possible, but since generally it is difficult to obtain a long non-linear crystal piece, there is a problem that the available higher harmonic wave output is very low. Further, there is another method wherein a non-linear medium is disposed in a laser resonator. With the present method, since the internal power of the resonator can be made equal to 100 times or so the intensity of incidence light readily, a comparatively high higher harmonic output can be extracted. However, there are problems that the system is complicated and that a separate modulator is required because direct modulation by the semiconductor laser is not performed. Further, as a method which efficiently raises the Incidence power and artificially satisfies a phase matching requirement, there is a method wherein exciting light is enclosed by means of a waveguide structure to effect higher harmonic conversion. The method, however, has problems that technical difficulty is involved in production of the waveguide and besides that it is very difficult to introduce exciting light into the waveguide and efficiently extract a higher harmonic wave from the waveguide. Also, there is a problem that, since it is difficult, from a restriction in manufacture, to obtain a symmetrical structure with respect to an optical axis and consequently it is actually difficult to extract a higher harmonic wave of a single mode, it is limited in application.
As described so far, with the methods proposed till now, the output is too low, and if the case is considered wherein an optical device is used as a light source, for example, for an optical disk, then the situation is such that it is difficult t o provide a light source device which has a higher harmonic wave output of 1 mW or so and can effect simple modulation.
By the way, a solid-state laser which is longitudinally excited by a laser diode can present a high gain due to a wide spectrum and pumping having a spatial characteristic. Various laser devices of the high output type (including multi-facet pumping devices, LD multiplexing devices and fiber bundle pumping devices) have been developed till now. However, in order to scale up the longitudinal excitation to increase the output power, generally it is necessary to make a cavity large so that the laser device may stand a higher basic mode. Further, if the longitudinal excitation is scaled up, then the gain is decreased due to double refraction or aberration which is caused by heat.
On the other hand, as a method for scaling up the longitudinal excitation while keeping the cavity compact, there is a method wherein, making use of a thermal lens effect which is caused by exciting light introduced into a solid-state laser medium, a pair of flat mirrors are disposed on the laser medium so that multi-array excitation may take place (Oka, M. et al. CLEO '91, p.40). However, this method has problems that, since it makes use of a thermal lens effect, the threshold level in laser oscillation is high and the oscillation efficiency is low.

Optical device and method of manufacturing the same


A desiccant dehumification system uses an air heater incorporating air feedback from the exhaust and/or the return air fans. The air and gas are mixed in a single step, two step, or continuous modulation mixing valve. An outdoor cooking grill style burner allows a small unit to be made with tight air heating system. One system cools the return air making it cool and humid. A portion of this air is then dried by a desiccant dehumidification system which makes hot and dry output air. The remaining return air is then dried by desiccant dehumidification system output air to deliver processed air in a controlled comfort range. A second system mixes return air with fresh air making mixed return air which is dried in a desiccant dehumidification system and then cooled to a desired comfort range without condensation.

1. Field of the Invention
It has always been a desire to manipulate atmospheric conditions for comfort and to meet specific conditions required for certain facilities. Typically, these prior art systems have directly heated or cooled the outside air or air return from a structure and then exhausted the air into the structure. One of the effects of heating or cooling an air stream is the resulting change in the moisture content of the air. It is well recognized that the comfort of a structure is not only dependent on the temperature of the atmosphere but also on the humidity level. It is also desired to maintain specific temperature and/or humidity levels in structures.
There is a need for an economical and efficient system that can treat air to achieve a determined zone of humidity and temperature within a structure and/or within a zone of a structure. The present invention provides a system for conditioning air that meets these demands in an economical and efficient manner.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of systems for conditioning air of known design and configurations is known in the prior art. More specifically, systems for conditioning air of known design and configurations previously devised and utilized for the purpose of conditioning air are known to consist basically of familiar, expected, and obvious structural configurations, notwithstanding the myriad of designs encompassed by the crowded prior art which has been developed for the fulfillment of countless objectives and requirements.
By way of example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,826,434 to Belding discloses a high efficiency outdoor air conditioning system. U.S. Pat. No. 6,199,388 to Fischer discloses a system and method for controlling temperature and humidity. U.S. Pat. No. 6,003,327 to Belding discloses a method and apparatus for cooling warm moisture-laden air. U.S. Pat. No. 5,667,560 to Dunne discloses a process and apparatus for dehumidification and VOC odor remediation. U.S. Pat. No. 5,649,428 to Calton et al. discloses a hybrid air-conditioning system with improved recovery evaporator and subcool condenser. Lastly, U.S. Pat. No. 5,632,954 to Coellner et al. discloses a method for killing microorganisms.
While these devices fulfill their respective, particular objectives and requirements, the aforementioned patents do not describe a desiccant dehumidification system that allows removing humidity from the air while maintaining a desired comfort factor corresponding to a desired combination of temperature and humidity.
In this respect, the desiccant dehumidification system according to the present invention substantially departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art, and in doing so provides an apparatus primarily developed for the purpose of removing humidity from the air while maintaining a desired comfort factor corresponding to a desired combination of temperature and humidity.
Therefore, it can be appreciated that there exists a continuing need for a new and improved desiccant dehumidification system which can be used for removing humidity from the air while maintaining a desired comfort factor corresponding to a desired combination of temperature and humidity In this regard, the present invention substantially fulfills this need.


A system for sealing thermoplastic film includes one or more bag sealing units, each comprising a lower vacuum platen and a vacuum chamber cover adapted for sealing engagement on the platen to form a vacuum chamber. A sealing bar assembly includes a sealing bar designed for constant heated operation and a pair of cooling plates which function as heat sinks. The sealing bar assembly is pneumatically reciprocated between a raised, disengaged position and a lowered position with the sealing bar engaging the neck of a bag for hermetically sealing same. The cooling plates clamp the bag neck against a sealing support assembly. A method of sealing a thermoplastic film bag includes the steps of placing a packaging object in a thermoplastic bag and placing the bag on a cradle with the bag neck extending over a bag support assembly. A. vacuum chamber cover is placed on the platen and evacuated to form a vacuum chamber. A sealing bar assembly melds the thermoplastic to form a sealed area across the bag neck. A cutoff knife blade severs the end of the bag beyond a sealed area, which extends across its neck.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to vacuum packaging, and more particularly to an apparatus and system for thermally sealing bags using a constant temperature heat source located adjacent to one or more heat sinks.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is known in the prior art to seal perishable items, such as food products, by placing the item in a plastic bag, evacuating a substantial portion of the air within the bag to form a partial vacuum, and heat-sealing the bag opening to hermetically seal the bag and preserve the vacuum. Typically, this process is performed within a vacuum chamber. The bag containing the item or items to be packaged is placed into the chamber, and the chamber is closed. Air is evacuated from the chamber and the open end of the bag is sealed using a heat-sealing bar. As the bar comes into contact with the plastic, the plastic of both walls of the bag is melted, thereby causing the walls to meld or adhere to one another.
Ordinarily, the vacuum chamber comprises two major elements or assemblies, an upper lid or cover assembly that houses the heat sealing mechanism and a blade for trimming excess bag material, and a lower base or platen assembly that holds the bag and product to be packaged, valves, sealing support device, cutting support device, and vacuum pump.
A significant problem in food packaging applications relates to "leakers", which result from defective seals. For example, meats and other packaged foods commonly have natural juices, fat particles, preservatives and other substances trapped in their bags. These substances are sometimes trapped in the bag openings as they are sealing, and prevent the thermoplastic film from closing air-tight across the mouths of the bags. Bag closures can thus be compromised with leak channels that form where the bag portions do not completely seal, which create leakers allowing fluid to leak out and other substances to leak in and potentially contaminate the packaged food products. Leakers tend to be aesthetically unacceptable for retail merchandising because they create unattractive packages, which customers tend to avoid. They can also discharge substances onto surrounding packages, store displays, shipping containers, etc. Leakers can occur in approximately 7%-20% of the thermoplastic bags sealed with current technology. Therefore, achieving complete, fluid-tight seals with minimal "leakers" is an important criterion in the design and operation of bag sealing equipment. A design strategy for eliminating leak passages involves providing a relatively wide area of engagement with crisscrossing sealing lines whereby a leak passage would have to cross multiple sealing lines in order to compromise the bag. On the other hand, equipment designs which place total reliance on single seal lines for bag closures tend to be more susceptible to being compromised by leak passages. For example, much of the current bag sealing equipment provides sealed areas that are only about 3 mm wide, and are thus susceptible to leak channels.
A heat sealing method commonly used in the prior art is known as impulse sealing. Impulse sealing includes the intermittent application of electric current "impulses" to a heating element in a sealing bar. The sealing bar was formed of metal or other materials that transmit heat to the plastic bag. As the sealing bar was brought into contact with the plastic to be melted, an impulse of electrical current was applied to the heating element, which heated the sealing bar long enough to fuse or melt-weld ("meld") the plastic bag. The heating element was then deenergized, thus allowing the sealing bar to cool until the next heating/cooling cycle began.
Such heating/cooling cycles tended to cause operating problems with prior art equipment. For example, delays occurred and energy was wasted as components, such as heating bars, were brought up to operating temperatures and then allowed to cool. Therefore, prior art components with substantial thermal mass tended to incur substantial operating delays and consumed considerable amounts of energy due to their cyclic operations. Moreover, heating/cooling cycles tended to expand and contract thermally conductive components, such as metals and ceramic-core heating elements. The resulting expansion/contraction cycles subjected the equipment to wear. Operators of prior art impulse-type bag sealing equipment thus incurred operating expenses for replacement parts, repairs and downtime.
On the other hand, constant-temperature sealing bars can benefit from greater thermal mass because they tend to be less affected by heat loss to the workpieces. For example, equipment for sealing thermoset plastic bags tends to operate more efficiently and with less wear if operating temperatures are maintained relatively constant. However, thermal energy from constant-heat sealing bars can dissipate throughout the equipment and cause other problems. The present invention addresses these and other problems with the prior art by providing heat sinks on both sides of a heating bar, thus focusing and directing the radiant heat output along a relatively narrow strip or "heat zone".
Heretofore there has not been available a bag sealing system and method with the advantages and features of the present invention.


The present invention provides a biodegradable formulation and its use as a surfaces restoring agent, said formulation allows a substantial savings when restoring the existing paint on different surfaces, since it mainly cleans and restores the surface or paint contaminated by the environment, damaged due to the sun and the processes of the different industries, in addition to being friendly to the environment, making it a useful technology in any industrial branch that involves cleaning and restoring large areas. It is worth noting that the modifications to the original formula were made to optimize the results in the different applications and improve its biodegradability.

Within the state of the art, various technologies have been detailed that have been developed to reduce the damage caused by the passage of time, as well as to eliminate residues and/or corrosion on industrial surfaces, mainly metallics, for various types of applications.
One of these technologies is described in document WO2019112542A1, which relates to a formulation in three variants, in which two variants of the formulation contain epoxy resin (polyester or vinyl ester) as the base, iron powder and carbonyl radiotechnical iron as filler, and dibenzoyl peroxide as hardener, in different proportions of components. The third formulation contains an acrylic resin as the base, a filler in the form of radio technical carbonyl iron and a hardener for the acrylic resin. Depending on the degree of damage to the metal surface of a vehicle body, the proposed formulations can be used in the described sequence or individually; the use of the proposed formulations allows to obtain a coating for a damaged surface: eliminating obvious defects, irregularities, dents and weld seams, minor irregularities and scratches, filling small cavities, minor irregularities and smoothing out irregularities on a prepared surface before applying a coat of paint. After performing repair and renovation work (filling, priming, painting, lacquering), the metal surface of a motor vehicle, verified with a depth gauge, becomes as close as possible to the factory standards for the depth of the coating of paint.
In the same way, document WO2018067859A1 provides a protective coating composition for the temporary protection of a spray paint booth where the compositions comprise an aqueous liquid that when applied to a surface of said paint booth dries to form a drop down white film thereon, where said liquid coating comprises a former liquid film which when applied to a surface and dries forms a drop down film, where former said liquid film comprises a polyvinylbutyral (PVB) and a pigment wherein said pigment comprises a rutile titanium dioxide sulfate process and where the protective coating composition is more resistant to yellowing than the same composition when formulated with a titanium dioxide chloride process.
Another technology included in document RO132714A0, refers to a composition used for the restoration of paint surfaces affected by the formation of metallic soap, and a process to prepare and apply it. According to the invention, the composition consists of 0.6-1.18% of Ca (NO) x4HO, 0.66-0.78% of (NH) HPO, 98-98.9% of faujasite in fine powder with particles of 0.053-0.1 μm, deionized water, and NHOH, to adjust the pH value to 9-10. Its process consists of mixing the components in aqueous solution and adding the faujasite powder at the temperature of 40° C., stirring the mixture for 1.5 h, while maintaining the pH at a value of 9-10 by means of a mixture of ammonium hydroxide, to result in a precipitate which, after filtration, washing and drying, is ground to a size of 74-80 μm, and the resulting powder is placed in cloth bags in amounts of 10 g per each one. The application process consists of applying the composition thus packaged on the paint layer affected by the metallic soap and keeping it for 30 minutes.
Likewise, the technology contained in the Chinese document CN204583543U, presents a utility model that refers to a metal surface restoring agent with a preparation spraying device that includes a base, which includes a mixed cavity in case of depositing various amounts of sap, also provides three feed stores: feed warehouse A that is connected to feed warehouse B and feed store C in the same mixing cavity, everything is provided with a measuring device in said feed warehouse A, feed warehouse B and the feed store C, the middle part of the lower surface of the base is provided with a motor A; a stirring rod A is powered by a motor and is provided with a feeding tube to deposit in the sap cavity on the upper surface of the left side, it is also provided with the pump on the inner right flank of the sap cavity. It also includes a configuration with a nozzle to take a hose, making its implementation convenient for your application. It has a simple structure and low costs.
Another technology is described in WO2013090755A1, which provides a cleaning formulation and method that uses a polysiloxane for superior cleaning and to create a protective coating with "easy-to-clean" properties on many types of surfaces, including metals, paints marine and gel coated surfaces; cleaning and protecting them from the effects of all kinds of accretions, including the most pernicious diesel exhaust soot. The polysiloxane is used with a solvent cyclomethicone, preferably pentacyclomethicone and/or hexacyclomethicone. The preferred method of application is by direct contact and application of the cleaning formulation to the treated surface through a microfiber cloth wrapped around a firm rubber blade or the like.
The American Application US2017203315A1 provides a system for the restoration of metallic surfaces that includes: a liquid solution, where the liquid solution includes a mixture of water, resin, polymer, liquid wax, plasticizer, mold remover and a sealant; a container, where the container contains the liquid solution during use; and a manual spray attached to the container, where the manual spray allows the application of the liquid solution on a metal surface. The system preferably includes a hose, where the hose connects the manual spray to the container. Manual spraying can also include a nozzle and a trigger, where the user presses the trigger to release the liquid solution out of the nozzle. Similarly, WO02066400A1 is directed to a surface restoration composition that includes an organic acid, a metal oxide, and a plasticizer. Optionally, dispersants, thickeners and water can be included in the composition, which is applied to a stone surface and polished to dryness to achieve the desired level of shine. European Document EP1074311A1 refers to a method for cleaning structural surfaces by applying a film-forming liquid on the surface and removing said film with the constituents to be removed, in which the surface to be cleaned is treated with an aqueous dispersion of elastomeric polymer and by removing the elastomer, a film is obtained that remains after the treated surface has dried.
It should be noted that although these technologies comprise devices or formulations for the restoration of surfaces, they do not have the same composition of the present invention, they are not biodegradable and they do not have the same cleaning and restoration results after their application.

Acidic biodegradable formulation and its use as a surface restorative agent


An EEPROM system includes flash EEPROM cells organized into subarrays. Pairs of subarrays share row address decoders by sharing word lines, and individual subarrays have dedicated column address decoders and data registers. Each row decoder has an associated row address latch, and each column decoder has an associated column address latch. Multiple data chunks are concurrently written into the subarrays by first latching chunk addresses into the row and column address latches, and corresponding chunks of data into the data registers, then activating a programming signal to initiate concurrent programming and verifying the programming of the data chunks.

In a conventional EEPROM, data is written one addressable data chunk at a time. Accordingly, a multi-chunk write operation includes several repetitions of providing an address and a data chunk to be written at that address, then programming and verifying the programming of the data chunk into that address. Since the time for programming and verifying the programming of each chunk of data generally far exceeds the time required for providing the address and the data for each chunk of data, such multi-chunk write operations in a conventional EEPROM tend to be very slow.

Concurrent write of multiple chunks of data into multiple subarrays of flash EEPROM


The method of the invention assumes there is a security manager and mechanism present for defining, attaching, and evaluating external authorization policy to file resources based on the file's path name. In this invention, protected symbolic links and the resources that the link points to are stored in a protected object database. When a system access attempt occurs, the file attribute is extracted from the file used in the access. The file attribute is then used to search the protected object database. If a matching system resource is found, and that resource is protected but does not have independent security policy on it, then the resource will have the security policy of a symbolic link that points to it. In this case, the security of each protected symbolic link pointing to the system resource has to grant access in order for allowance of the access attempt. This approach insures that the most restrictive outcome prevails.

A symbolic link can be viewed as a file, which contains the name of the target to which it points. Symbolic links in computer operating systems are a powerful file system object type, which allow the creation of alternate names for file resources. For example, a file named /usr/bin/X11/xint might have a symbolic link called /bin/xinit. The link allows the file to be accessed as /bin/xinit instead of its primary name of /usr/bin/X11/xinit. Symbolic links are frequently exploited on UNIX platforms to create simplified or unified file tree name spaces. For example, it is common in UNIX distributions from different vendors to encounter slightly different locations for a small number of system utilities. Administrators can create symbolic links on the varying platforms such that a utility is accessible by the same name across all the implementations. In this example of creating a unified name space, the link on each system type points to the actual location of that utility on the system. The use of symbolic links can create various computing system configurations with respect to locating and referencing system resources. In one instance, with the use of symbolic links, there can be multiple symbolic links on a system pointing to the same system resource. In another instance with multiple machines, there can be symbolic links with the same name on each system where each link has a different name for its target. This case could even exist if the target is in fact the same functional entity. As an example, one system may have a link /bin/ftp which points to the primary name of /usr/sbin/ftp, while another system may have a link /bin/ftp which refers to /usr/lbin/ftp. In both cases, the link points to the utility ftp, which happens to reside in different directories on the two systems. However, with the symbolic link, /bin/ftp can be used universally to access the ftp program. The possibility also exists that on one system a name might be a symbolic link while another the name is in fact the actual resource (primary name), and not a link. Take the case of the above example with ftp and add a third system where /bin/ftp is in fact the actual ftp program.
Although the symbolic link is a very powerful tool, the symbolic link contains no security relative to its target. In other words, a user can have unrestricted access to file system resources through the symbolic link. With symbolic links, the security permissions on the target to which it points are applied when accessing the target via the link. If permissions are changed (chmod) against the link name, then the permission changes occur on the link's target, not the link. This happens within the underlying file system implementation. Once an alternate name is created for a resource using a symbolic link, it is common to manage the target via the link, since usually the link was created to provide a more convenient name.
Implementing an external security manager with respect to symbolic links that provides enhanced access controls and has the benefits of centralized cross platform security administration on UNIX file resources presents major security challenges. With an external security manager, extended security policy is attached to various system resources like files. The auxiliary policy might reside in a database local to the target system or perhaps somewhere in a network. In an enterprise security model, there would likely be a centralized policy database that acts as a security template for a large collection of subscribing systems. Optimally, policy would be administered and applied based on common resource names including symbolic link names for resources. Additionally, the creation of policy would be possible independent of access to the subscribing system(s) where the policy would be enforced. Symbolic links add security challenges because they create the potential for multiple names and therefore multiple access paths to a file system resource. On some systems, a resource name might be a symbolic link while on another it may not. On some systems, there may be many symbolic links all pointing to the same object. In addition, any user on a UNIX system has the ability to create a symbolic link and point it at a file system resource. Such a creation only requires the permission to create a file resource and this permission is not subject to any security restrictions with respect to the target until an access is attempted against the target. The existence of multiple names, symbolic links versus actual resources, and the unbounded creation of new names for a given resource reduces the effectiveness of an external security manager if the security administrator has to be responsible for understanding the details of symbolic link ramifications. If the administrator has to have knowledge of all links, which names were links versus actual resources, and actually know of all newly created links in order to apply security policy with an external security manager, then administration would be too complex and the potential for security exposures would be high. Therefore an external security manager must be capable of handling environments with symbolic links, such that at a minimum, an administrator can apply security policy on one name for a resource without regard for what type of resource. That policy should be enforced for that resource whether it is accessed by the name used in the policy, or accessed using an alternate name for the resource which might be a symbolic link, or potentially the primary name in the case of the protected name being a symbolic link.
In current computing file systems there is a need for a file system security policy that can identify symbolic links that represent protected system resources. This security policy should provide for placing protections on a file system resource by placing the protections on one or more symbolic links that point to the file system resource. This security means should be able to detect all protected symbolic links that point to a specific system resource. The security policy should have the ability determine whether a file system resource is the object of a protected symbolic link. This security policy should be able to detect access attempts to a protected file system resource through symbolic links that point to the resource, but are not listed with the security policy. This detection should result in enforcement of the protected resource's protections when the attempted access to the resource is through an unprotected symbolic link pointing to that protected resource.

Method for adding external security to file system resources through symbolic link references

International Business Machines Corporation