Even when there are plural radiographic image detection devices and external devices between which communication takes place, a link with a designated external device may be established easily and reliably. An electronic cassette used in imaging or an electronic cassette that stores generated image data in an image memory is attached to a handle that stores a console ID, which indicates a console that is to be specified as a target of communication. When the attachment of the electronic cassette with the handle is detected by an attachment detection section, a connection request signal is sent to the console indicated by the console ID stored in the handle. When a connection permission signal is received from the console, a link between the electronic cassette and the console is established.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a radiographic image detection device and a radiographic image detection system, and more particularly to a radiographic image detection device and radiographic image detection system that implement exchanges of data with a designated external device.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, flat panel detectors (FPDs) have been realized in which an X-ray-sensitive layer is disposed on a thin film transistor (TFT) active matrix substrate and X-ray information can be directly converted to digital data. Using these FPDs and the like, portable radiographic image detection devices (below referred to as electronic cassettes) have been realized in which image data, which represents a radiographic image that is expressed by radiation passing through a subject which is a subject of detection or the like and being irradiated, is generated and the generated image data is stored.
In a radiographic image detection system that employs an electronic cassette, imaging is carried out in accordance with information, of imaging conditions and the like, that is inputted from a controller or the like, the image data generated by the electronic cassette is transmitted to the controller, and an image based on image data received by the controller is shown at a display or the like. Hence, checking of the captured image is carried out.
Because this electronic cassette is portable and easy to handle, plural electronic cassettes may be employed at the same time. Moreover, controllers may be plurally provided at a common location. In such a case, it is necessary to designate which electronic cassette is to transmit image data to which controller before the data is transmitted.
Accordingly, a radiographic image detection system has been proposed, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 2002-159476, in which barcodes, which represent sheet ID numbers for identifying stimulable phosphor sheets installed in cassettes that are used for imaging, are read by controllers and stored in a server together with control IDs for identifying the controllers. When image data is read from a cassette and is to be transmitted, the sheet ID is read by an image-reading device, the controller ID associated with the sheet ID stored in the server is acquired, and the image data is transmitted to the controller indicated by the controller ID.
In the same radiographic image detection system of JP-A number 2002-159476, it is proposed that the controller ID is transmitted from the controller to the image-reading device to which is inserted a cassette holding image data that is to be transmitted, and when return of the image data is requested, the image data is transmitted to the designated controller.
However, in the radiographic image detection system of JP-A number 2002-159476, it is necessary to carry out registration of controller IDs for each cassette. This is particularly troublesome in cases in which an imaging room is distant from a location where the controllers are disposed, and the like. Moreover, a controller ID once registered in a cassette is retained and the same cassette is always used with that particular controller. Thus, flexibility of use of the cassettes is impeded.
Furthermore, when a cassette holding desired image data is identified by a controller, the cassette may be present in various locations of an imaging room or in another room, there may be cassettes that are of the same type and are difficult to tell apart at first glance, and so forth. In such cases, there may be an error in identification of the cassette. The result in such a situation is that it is not possible to transmit the image data to the designated controller.

Radiographic image detection device and radiographic image detection system


A wireless feeder network comprises feeder base stations coupled to the communications network and feeder terminals coupled to associated access base stations of the access network. A group of wireless network components form elements of a feeder cluster and the elements of the feeder cluster are connected by an additional communications resource configured to be operated in parallel with the wireless resource of the wireless feeder network. Both a primary and secondary element of the feeder cluster seek to decode at least one resource block allocated to the primary element for reception of data. Information derived from the secondary decoded data is transmitted from the secondary element to the primary element via the additional communications resource. The primary element then performs a revised decoding process additionally using the information received from said secondary element to improve its own decode probability.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for controlling a wireless feeder network used to couple access base stations of an access network with a communications network and to various components within such a wireless feeder network.
Description of the Prior Art
Various types of access network which provide a wireless link between end user equipment and a communications network are known, for example using standards such as WiFi, WiMAX, or LTE. The wireless links are formed between the end user equipment and access base stations which provide the connection between the access network and the communications network.
Whilst the access base stations could be coupled to the communications network via fixed, wired connections (a wired "backhaul" connection) it is known that a greater degree of flexibility with regard to the placement and configuration of the access base stations is possible if the connection between the access base stations and the communications network is provided by a dedicated wireless backhaul connection. Yet although such a wireless backhaul solution may provide a connection which is more easily deployed, it instead faces significant challenges with regard to the appropriate use of the scarce radio frequencies which must be allocated in advance to the wireless backhaul connection (as opposed to the frequencies allocated for the access network).
Due to the scarcity of the radio frequencies available for providing this wireless backhaul connection, various techniques have been developed to improve the throughput of such a connection. For example, techniques such as Automatic Repeat Request (ARQ), Hybrid ARQ (HARQ), HARQ with soft combining and so on have been developed to improve the reliability with which data may be transmitted via such a connection. However, although such techniques generally can provide a significant improvement in the data throughput by means of their error detection and correction capabilities, these techniques require a re-transmission of data via the wireless connection if the error correction/detection provided is insufficient to decode that data. Such a retransmission must be scheduled amongst the ongoing data being transmitted via the wireless connection, and will require its own handshake protocols to ensure positive reception of the retransmitted PDU (protocol data unit), all resulting in additional undesirable latency.
An alternative approach to improving the data reception rate of a receiver is given by beam-forming techniques according to which closely located wireless receivers are provided with a wired connection allowing a weighted antenna beam shape to be generated and to improve the wireless throughput of an individual antenna by means of additional contributions from the neighbouring antenna to which it is coupled. However, such beam-forming techniques generally require a large bandwidth wired connection to be provided between the antenna and lack flexibility in the context of a generic wireless connection to be provided between access base stations and a communications network such that it is easily deployed and reconfigured.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide an improved technique for coupling access base stations of an access network with a communications network, which allows freedom in the placement of base stations of the access network, whilst improving the wireless throughput and avoiding the above mentioned prior art drawbacks.

Cooperative components in a wireless feeder network


A semiconductor device includes semiconductor device components, an adhesion promoter structure and a plastic housing composition. The semiconductor device components are embedded in the plastic housing composition with the adhesion promoter structure being disposed between the device components and the housing composition. The adhesion promoter structure includes first and second adhesion promoter layers. The first layer includes metal oxides. The metal oxides being silicates of a reactive compound composed of oxygen and organometallic molecules. The second layer includes at least one polymer.

A lack of adhesion between the embedded components of a device, in particular between a system carrier and a plastic housing composition, has the effect that moisture accumulates in the boundary layer between the system carrier and the plastic housing composition. The moisture expands abruptly if the semiconductor device is heated from room temperature to temperatures of up to 260° C. within a very short time in the course of soldering onto a printed circuit board. The abrupt expansion of the moisture content consequently gives rise to cracks and/or fractures in the plastic housing of the semiconductor device, which is referred to as the "popcorn effect".
In order to prevent the popcorn effect, it is necessary to prevent the accumulation of moisture in the boundary layer between semiconductor device components and plastic housing composition. The accumulation of the moisture can be reduced by improving the adhesion between the surfaces of the semiconductor device components and the surface of the plastic housing composition. Various approaches for improving the adhesion are known. A method for mechanically roughening the surface of a leadframe is known. The roughened surface enables interlocking with the plastic housing composition and consequently a better adhesion. However, this method is cost-intensive and difficult to carry out.
Another method is known by which the surface regions—to be kept free of a protective film—of electrical connection elements of semiconductor device components of a semiconductor device, within a plastic composition, can be kept free prior to the assembly of the components, in which case the protective film may comprise silicon nitrides, silicon oxides, silicon carbides and/or diamond-like carbon.
An electronic device comprising semiconductor chips and system carriers, and methods for producing the same are known for producing a metallic system carrier comprising an electrodeposited adhesion layer composed of metal oxides, in particular the metals zinc and chromium, with the formation of a dendritic morphology. This device and the production method have the disadvantage that it is possible to produce such a dendritic morphology by electrodeposition exclusively on metallic surfaces, so that the adhesion promoter layer cannot be produced for semiconductor device components, such as system carriers composed of ceramic or printed circuit board material, without prior coating with a short-circuiting but metallically conductive layer.
A metal object that is partly provided with nanopores in a surface section is known and can be used as a connection, a carrying or a conduction component for a semiconductor device. In this case, the nanopores in surface regions of the metal object enhance the adhesion to a plastic housing composition of a semiconductor device. This known object, too, has the disadvantage that an adhesion enhancement can only be effected on surfaces of metals and cannot be used for different materials of semiconductor device components of a semiconductor device.

Semiconductor device with semiconductor device components embedded in a plastic housing composition


A process is described for the biological treatment of waste water containing ammonia, wherein the waste water is treated with sludge containing nitrifying bacteria in an aerated reactor, applying a sludge retention time in the reactor which favours nitrite-producing bacteria over nitrate-producing bacteria. The process is characterised by applying a hydraulic retention time in a continuously operated reactor, which is shorter than the sludge retention time as a result of part of the sludge being separated from the reactor effluent and being returned to the reactor. The performance of the nitrification is further improved by applying low oxygen and nitrite concentrations.

The invention relates to a process for the treatment of water containing ammonia by nitrifying bacteria, wherein ammonia is predominantly oxidised to nitrite.
Such a process is known from EP-A-826639. According to this known process, the waste water is treated in a continuously stirred tank reactor (CSTR) without sludge retention, with adjustment of the hydraulic retention time at about 1xc2xd days. Under such conditions the bacteria which convert ammonia to nitrite, including e.g. the genus Nitrosomonas, have a sufficient growth rate to compensate for the sludge loss from the reactor, while the bacteria which convert nitrite to nitrate, including e.g. the genus Nitrobacter, do not have a sufficient growth rate to be maintained in the reactor. As a result, conversion of nitrite to nitrate is suppressed, which has the advantages of reduced oxygen consumption and reduced electron donor (COD) demand in a downstream denitrification process. This process is sometimes referred to as Single reactor for High activity Ammonia Removal Over Nitrite (SHARON) process.
A drawback of this known process is that the required hydraulic retention time of 1-2 days necessitates the use of large reactors which are loaded to a low level only. This is especially disadvantageous in the treatment of relatively diluted waste water.
Another approach is the use of selected micro-organisms (EP-A-562466). In this process specific mixtures of micro-organisms (such as Pseudomonas, Acinetobacte); Moraxella, Corynebacteriuni, Micrococcus, Flaiobacteriuni and Bacillus) are grown in separate reactors (so called propagators) and continuously or discontinuously dosed from these reactors into the waste water treatment plant. Drawbacks of such a process are the laborious (and therefore costly) cultivation of the selected micro-organisms and the relatively ineffective use of the bioreactors.
EP-A-503546 describes a process characterised in that a waste water containing a high concentration of nitrogen (i.e. reject water) is stored in a tank in which subsequently nitrification/denitrification takes place. The produced biomass is continuously or periodically transferred to the waste water treatment plant. The setbacks are comparable to the setbacks of the SHARON process referred to above, i.e. low sludge concentration, relatively large reactor volume and poor settling characteristics.
A process has been found now which overcomes these drawbacks. In the process of the invention the hydraulic retention time is shorter than the sludge retention time. The sludge retention time is always shorter than the doubling time of the nitrate-producing bacteria. This is effected by separating part of the sludge from the reactor effluent and continuing the use of the separated part in the reactor. The doubling time of the nitrate-producing bacteria can be increased by decreasing the oxygen and nitrite concentrations in the reactor. A low oxygen concentration, especially below 5% air saturation i.e. below 0.4 mg/l, can be effected by supplying less oxygen than the ammonium-oxidising bacteria can consume. A low nitrite concentration can be effected e.g. by combining the nitrification with denitrification in the nitrification reactor, or by recycling liquid from a separate denitrification step.
The essential step of the process of the invention is that the sludge retention time in the nitrification reactor is controlled independently from the hydraulic retention time. The sludge retention time, oxygen and nitrite concentrations are controlled in such a way, that nitrite is the predominant end product of nitrification, in a reactor with a relatively short hydraulic retention time. Thus the reactor dimensions can be reduced and the productivity of the reactor increased. The sludge retention time can be shortened with respect to the hydraulic retention time by separating sludge from the reactor effluent discontinuously or, preferably, continuously, and retaining part of the sludge in the reactor. The part. of sludge that is retained is at least 20 wt. %, preferably between 50 and 99 wt. %, and especially between 65 and 95 wt. % of the total sludge in the reactor.
In a preferred embodiment the process is carried out in an optionally mixed continuous reactor, which is equipped with a sludge separator. The separator causes a partial retention of the sludge in such a manner that nitrifying bacteria remain dominant in the reactor. The sludge separator can be an external separator, from which part of the separated sludge is returned to the reactor. It can also be an internal separator, e.g. a settling chamber in proximity to the liquid outlet of the reactor. In addition to sludge separation and partial recycling thereof from the reactor effluent, sludge can also be taken from the bottom part of the reactor and returned to the reactor after part thereof has been removed.
The water to be treated according to the invention can be any waste water, both of municipal and from industrial, agricultural or any other origin, which contains appreciable levels of ammonia, in particular 50 mg/l or more, or any other aqueous liquid containing these levels of ammonia, such as water used for scrubbing ammonia-containing gas. The water may or may not contain other contaminants and/or organic material. The bacteria to be used in the nitrification reactor comprise nitrifying bacteria such as those of the genus Nitrosonionas as usually present in mixed cultures. They can be obtained from common activated sludge sources.
The hydraulic retention time is shorter than the bacterial sludge retention time. The sludge retention time is between 1 and 2 days with high oxygen and nitrite concentrations (more than 30% air saturation and more than 50 mg NO2xe2x88x92N/l), and can be increased up to 20-30 days with decreasing air saturation and nitrite concentrations (down to about 1% air saturation and less than 30 mg NO2xe2x88x92N/l). The hydraulic retention time is preferably less than half the sludge retention time, for example less than 3 days, preferably less than 1 day, especially from 1 h to 12 h, more particularly from 2 to 8 h. The sludge content of the nitrification reactor generally is between 1 and 30 g/l.
The nitrite and nitrate (if any) produced in the nitrification reactor can be further treated, e.g. by bacterial denitrification to produce nitrogen. Bacterial denitrification can occur in two ways, either by reduction of nitrite (and nitrate) using organic electron donors such as COD: organic waste, carbohydrates, alcohols (especially methanol), etc., as reduction equivalents, or by providing the necessary reduction equivalents as ammonia, which is itself oxidised to produce dinitrogen. The denitrification can be performed by treating the effluent of the nitrification reactor in an anoxic reactor containing denitrifying bacteria. Alternatively, the nitrification reactor can periodically be operated as a denitrification reactor by making it anoxic, i.e. by interrupting the oxygen supply and adding an electron donor (COD or the like).
The biological conversion of ammonia and nitrite to nitrogen (also referred to as the xe2x80x9cAnammoxxe2x80x9d process) can be performed by treating the nitrification effluent (containing nitrite and unreacted ammonium corresponding to the stoichiometry of the Anammox reaction: NO2xe2x88x92+NH4+xe2x86x92N2+2 H2O) in a separate reactor to produce dinitrogen gas. Alternatively, the nitrification reactor can be operated under alternating oxic and anoxic conditions or continuously under oxygen-limiting conditions. In that case, the oxygen consumption by the nitrifying organisms generates anoxic conditions for the Anammox process. Bacteria capable of catalysing the Annamox reaction can also be obtained from common sludge sources; they include planctomycete bacteria. The Anammox reaction corresponds to the second step of the process of WO 98/07664, which is incorporated herein by reference for further details.
The nitrification reactor effluent may also be further treated in a conventional activated sludge plant, optionally together with COD waste water .
Thus, three main variants of the process of the invention can be distinguished: firstly, relatively high dissolved oxygen levels can be used (in the order of 2-6 mg/l), resulting in the production of nitrite (and perhaps some nitrate) with short sludge retention times in the order of 1-2 days; the nitrite can then be treated separately; secondly, intermediate dissolved oxygen levels can be used (in the order of 0.4-2 mg/i), with production of nitrite only and sludge retention times of between 2 and about 20 days; again the nitrite can be treated afterwards, e.g. in an Anammox process; thirdly, at dissolved oxygen levels below about 0.4 mg/l, dinitrogen production in the same reactor is predominant with sludge retention times between about 20 to 30 days.
In an advantageous embodiment of the invention, the process is used in the treatment of ammonia-containing gas. The ammonia-containing gas is contacted with water in a spray column. The water in which the ammonia is absorbed is then treated as described above. Alternatively, the ammonia-containing gas can be contacted with water in a packed column. Nitrifying bacteria grow on the packing material, thus combining the scrubbing step and the nitrifying step. In order to control the sludge retention time, the packing material can be continuously or discontinuously removed from the reactor and reintroduced in the reactor after removal of (part of) the biomass. Such a process of recycling carrier material for biomass is described in EP-A-785911.

Process for the treatment of waste water containing ammonia


A system and method for identifying and establishing preferred modalities or channels for communications based on participants' preferences and capabilities is provided. In one approach, the system attempts to optimize the inferred or directly accessed preferences of a contactee given the accessed or inferred preferences, capabilities and goals of the contactor while keeping the rationale and context of the contactee private. Such optimization can be achieved using preferences and policies concerning handling the attempted contact based on a deterministic specification or through inferring context, content and task under uncertainty by employing decision-theoretic inferences to attempt to maximize the expected utility of the communication to the contactee. The methods may include a consideration of metadata within a standard schema that is transmitted along with a communication attempt, representing information about such attributes as the identity of the contactor, the task at hand, the overall context of the contactor, and the communication capabilities available to the contactor. The invocation of the communication service may be performed in a variety of ways, including single button invocations, and via a communication service that is more deeply integrated with other applications and functionalities. The service can also include automated rescheduling of communications based on a consideration of forecasts of availability of both the contactor and contactee.

As the number of possible communication modalities between contactors and contactees has increased, it has become increasingly valuable to identify and choose optimal channel(s) by which communications are carried out to facilitate maximizing the utility of a data communication. For example, communicating parties may be able to communicate by computer (e.g., email, voice over IP, collaborative editing), by telephone (e.g., POTS, cell phone, satellite phone), face to face (e.g., personal meeting, video conference) and/or other methods, with such communication employing one or more channels (e.g., phone and collaborative editing). Maximizing the utility or expected utility of such communications may depend on the identity of the parties, the type of communication equipment available to the parties, the type of equipment used to do the initial signaling, the location of the parties and in what activities, if any, the parties are engaged or are likely to be engaged in the future.
By way of illustration, a first contactee may be employing a first tool and be intensely focused on an important task and thus may not desire to be interrupted via real-time communications except from select people whose desired communication concerns the important task. But a second contactee may be employing no tools and be lightly focused on an unimportant task and thus may not mind being interrupted via real-time communications from colleagues concerning a variety of topics. Conventionally, the contactor had limited means, if any, to determine which, if any, communication method(s) would be best employed to communicate with a contactee (e.g., contacting the contactee's secretary to figure out how and when to contact the contactee). Similarly, the contactee had limited contact control methods (e.g., leaving the phone off the hook, ignoring emails, disabling an email application, leaving instructions with a secretary). Thus, the preferences and needs of the contactees and contactors may not have been observed.
Beyond considerations of real-time methods versus methods that allow users to send potentially disruptive real-time disruptions into an asynchronous (store and forward) communication format (e.g., voicemail, email), a contactee may have preferences, depending on the contactor and the context at hand, for a particular modality. For example, a contactee may prefer to receive an instant message on an important document while working on that document to facilitate cutting and pasting from the instant message, rather than receiving a real-time phone call that would require transcribing the caller's comments. Again, conventionally the contactee had limited means, if any, to have such preferences observed (e.g., a well-trained secretary, considerate colleagues) which often lead to unfulfilled preferences and unwanted interruptions.
While conventional communications between two communicating parties was complicated, identifying and scheduling communications that optimized the utility of a communication between multiple parties (e.g., group meeting, group teleconference) was even more complicated, with the identification, scheduling, and initiating often consuming more time and resources than the actual communication. Such scheduling and initiating problems were exacerbated when the schedulers and initializers did not have complete information concerning the parties.

System and method for identifying and establishing preferred modalities or channels for communications based on participants' preferences and contexts


Methods and systems for signal proxying and modification relating to security and/or automation systems are described. In one embodiments, the methods include receiving, at a proxy device, a data signal transmitted from a first device, receiving a request for the data signal from at least one of two or more other devices, and transmitting the data signal to each of the two or more other devices based at least in part on the received request.

The present disclosure, for example, relates to security and/or automation systems, and more particularly to proxying and/or modifying signals sent from a first device through an intermediate proxy-related device to other devices.
Security and automation systems are widely deployed to provide various types of communication and functional features such as monitoring, communication, notification, and/or others. These systems may support communication with a user through a communication connection or a system management action.
Current systems employ designated communication or transmission lines from certain devices, including peripheral devices like video cameras. These systems use and require a connection between a sending device and every receiving device. As the number of receiving devices increases and as the number of connections down the line increases, the system requirements and usage—including bandwidth needs—also increases. The similar or duplicative connections between the sending device and the other devices limit the network's performance and diminishes user ability to both on a local network and uploading/downloading.
In addition, current systems do not allow efficient management of the signals transmitted from the sending devices to the receiving devices. With the development of security and/or automation systems, new challenges and problems present themselves, including constant and variable data requirements based on video, voice, and/or other data signals. These problems also include, among others, how to efficiently manage signals based on the receiving devices' capabilities and other system performance limitations.


A backpanel connector comprises a first and a second housing, wherein said first housing is provided with a bottom with an opening and four side walls upstanding from the bottom and lying opposite each other two by two and wherein said second housing is provided with four side walls lying opposite each other two by two. The second housing is slidably mounted in the first housing in a z-direction perpendicular to the bottom of the first housing and has a receiving space for a connector plug. Two opposite side walls of the second housing each carry a first stop means and two corresponding side walls of the first housing each comprise a second stop means. The stop means engage each other in a rest position of the second housing directed away from the bottom of the first housing. A spring means loads the second housing in the direction of the rest position.

The invention relates to a backpanel connector comprising a first and a second housing, wherein said first housing is provided with a bottom with an opening and four side walls upstanding from the bottom and lying opposite each other two by two and wherein said second housing is provided with four side walls lying opposite each other two by two, said second housing being mounted slidably in the first housing in a z-direction perpendicular to the bottom of the first housing, the second housing having a receiving space for a connector plug.
Such a backpanel connector is part of a backpanel connector system as described for example in a patent application of the same date of the same applicant. In a known connector system of this type the backpanel connector and the board connector comprise special provisions to guarantee that when disconnecting the plug connector from the backpanel connector the second housing is retracted into a rest position directed away from the bottom of the first housing by the board connector. In this known connector system the bottom of the first housing consists moreover of a separate bottom part which is attached to the first housing after mounting the second housing within the first housing. Thereby the known connector system is rather complicated.


Provided herein are methods and compositions for the prognostic evaluation of a patient suspected of having, or having, cancer by assessing the expression of IMP3 in a biological sample of a patient. Methods can be used at the time of initial diagnosis of malignant tumors to identify a group of patients with a high potential to develop progression or metastasis later. Therefore, methods not only are able to provide very useful prognostic information for patients but also can help clinicians to select a candidate patient likely to benefit from early and aggressive cancer therapy. Methods and compositions for the treatment of cancer associated with expression of IMP3 are also provided.

In spite of numerous advances in medical research, cancer remains a leading cause of death in the United States. Traditional modes of clinical care, such as surgical resection, radiotherapy and chemotherapy, have a significant failure rate, especially for solid tumors. Failure occurs either because the initial tumor is unresponsive, or because of recurrence due to regrowth at the original site and/or metastases. The etiology, diagnosis and ablation of cancer remain a central focus for medical research and development.
While different forms of cancer have different properties, one factor which many cancers share is the ability to metastasize. Distant metastasis of all malignant tumors remains the primary cause of death in patients with the disease. Patients with metastatic disease are typically treated with systemic therapy, which is associated with substantial toxicity. Unless the patient presents with metastatic disease, clinical observation is typically used to prognose the disease following surgical resection. Currently, the methods to determine prognosis and select patients for adjuvant therapy rely mainly on pathological and clinical staging. However, it is very difficult to predict which localized tumor will eventuate in distant metastasis.
Since the chance for complete remission of cancer is, in most cases, greatly enhanced by accurate prognosis, it is desirable that physicians be able to determine the metastatic potential of tumors. However, the metastatic potential of localized cancers is often unpredictable. The development of methods that permit rapid and accurate detection of many forms of cancers continues to challenge the medical community. Thus a major problem in the treatment of cancer remains detection and prognosis, which enables appropriate therapeutic treatment resulting in successful treatment in many cases. Therefore, there is a great need for the identification of biomarkers that can accurately distinguish localized tumors with a high probability of metastasis from those that will remain indolent. Using such biomarkers, one can predict the patient's prognosis and can effectively target the individuals who would most likely benefit from adjuvant therapy.

Use of IMP3 as a prognostic marker for cancer


The invention is directed towards routing a packet using both IPSec and common routing protocols within dynamic network topologies in a VPN. The routing of IPSec packets employs Open System Interconnection (OSI) layer three information. In one embodiment, a tree mechanism is used for looking up layer three information that may be associated with a protected subnetwork. When a packet is identified as being associated with a protected subnetwork, the packet may be encrypted and encapsulated, including the original destination and source IP address header information within another packet employing the IP Encapsulating Security Payload (ESP) protocol. New source and destination IP addresses are provided for the new packet using IP addresses associated with an entry gateway and an exit gateway to the VPN. The new packet may then be routed through the VPN using traditional routing protocols.

A virtual private network (VPN) enables secure communication over an external/untrusted IP network such as the Internet. A VPN provides a relatively secure way to connect nodes on internal trusted networks that are remote from each other, such as clients, servers, and host computers. Encryption and other security mechanisms are typically employed to create secure point to point "tunnels" for plain text messages/packets between authorized users over an untrusted external network. Typically, "plain text" packets are encrypted and inserted into an outer packet. The inner "plain text" packet is subsequently "tunneled" (forwarded) over the untrusted external IP network from one VPN gateway to another VPN gateway where the outer packet is decrypted and the inner "plain text" packet is forwarded towards its destination on the internal network. The other packet serves as a protective shell or encapsulation for the "plain text" packet as it is tunneled from one node to another node over the external untrusted network.
Typically, a gateway in a VPN also operates as a router for IP traffic on their internal networks. For example, upon receiving a "plain text" packet from a node on a trusted internal network, the VPN gateway looks up the destination in a selector list to see whether or not the packet was directed to a destination outside the locally attached internal network and if it should be encrypted for tunneling to the destination. If true, the VPN gateway securely tunnels the "plain text" packet to a particular VPN gateway peer associated with the destination over an external untrusted network. The particular VPN gateway peer determines if the destination of this tunneled packet is on their own selector list. And if so, decrypts the encrypted packet and forwards it to a node on its locally attached internal network. Additionally, if the destination of the "plain text" packet had not been on the selector list but had been an entry in a routing table, the VPN gateway would have forwarded the unencrypted plain text packet to the destination.
As more and more gateways are added to a VPN, a mesh topology may be developed where all of the gateways were aware of every other gateway in the VPN. Also, tunnels may be established between each gateway in the VPN. However, since each tunnel can be associated with a selector in a list kept at each gateway, an administrator may have to update this list at each gateway whenever a new gateway was added to the VPN, or a route was dynamically changed. Thus, as the number of gateways in a VPN grows, the effort required to update each list of selectors on each gateway can become burdensome. Moreover, encryption services employed on the VPN gateway may be unaware of dynamic routing changes.

Architecture for routing and IPSec integration


A method and system to improve the power management for an I/O subsystem. In one embodiment of the invention, the power management of an upstream port of the I/O subsystem is improved by increasing the upstream link utilization when the upstream port is an active power state and by increasing or prolonging the power saving period of the upstream port when the upstream port is in a low power state.

FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram 100 of a prior art I/O subsystem 110. The prior art I/O subsystem 110 has an upstream port 120 and the downstream ports 1-4 130, 140, 150 and 160. The I/O data is routed among the upstream port 120 via the communication links 125 and 170 and the downstream ports 1-4 130, 140, 150 and 160 via their respective communication links 135, 145, 155 and 165.
While waiting for packets from each of the downstream ports 1-4 130, 140, 150 and 160, the upstream port 120 typically remains in a full power-up state. This causes the I/O subsystem to consume high power even when the upstream port 120 is not servicing any of the downstream ports 1-4 130, 140, 150 and 160.

Power mangement techniques for an input/output (I/O) subsystem


A method for detecting ply wire anomalies in a tire carcass ply having a plurality of spaced apart ply wires extending across a tire carcass, the method comprising the steps: constructing a green tire carcass in a diametrically expanded toroidal configuration, the carcass comprising a pair of beads, the carcass ply extending from bead to bead, at least one crown layer covering the carcass ply and having a peripheral skirt region; and sidewalls covering the carcass ply and extending from the beads to the crown layer and having edge portions intersecting the crown layer; mounting a wire sensor apparatus proximal to the tire carcass ply, the wire sensor apparatus including a wire sensor for detecting the presence of a proximal ply wire; establishing relative movement between the wire sensor and the tire carcass whereby the plurality of spaced apart ply wires are sequentially placed into proximal relationship with the wire sensor; and generating sequential data from the wire sensor indicative of at least one ply wire parameter of the plurality of spaced apart ply wires.

Certain categories of tires are manufactured utilizing a steel cord body ply in which steel cords are embedded into a ply extending from tire bead to bead. In the manufacture of such tires, an initially flat steel cord body ply and other tire components are applied to a building drum at a band diameter to form a green tire. The green tire is subsequently diametrically expanded into a toroidal shape at a toroidal diameter prior to final curing and processing. In the process of changing the carcass from flat to toroidal shape, the cord spacing and cord ends per inch (epi) of wire cords changes. Should ply wire spacing anomalies occur, structural defects in the finished tire can result. Structural defects may be identified at final inspection of the finished tire, requiring the tire to be scrapped, resulting in costly waste. Structural defects in a tire that are not detected at a final inspection may cause tire failure later when the tire is put into use. For example, ply wire anomalies may result in sidewall bulge during the useful life of the tire if the spacing between ply wires is not carefully controlled during carcass expansion. In addition to ply wire spacing anomalies, the integrity and tightness of ply splice regions in the carcass and upstream component preparation of ply splices must be carefully maintained. Compromise of the splice regions as the tire carcass is converted from flat to toroidal shape should be avoided to eliminate structural defects in the finished tire. It is, therefore, important that the integrity of splice regions be maintained during toroidal expansion.
Thus, there is a need for a sensor system that can ascertain the disposition and condition of ply wires in a tire. Evaluating ply wire parameters preferably will occur relatively early in the tire manufacturing process so as to avoid scrapping the finished tire. Evaluating ply wire parameters, however, cannot be accurately conducted when the tire is in a pre-toroidal configuration because subsequent diametric expansion of the tire carcass may alter the condition and disposition of the ply wires and the integrity of splices within the tire carcass.
Commercial systems are available to scan blocks of ply wire as produced from steel cord calenders, or from specialized steel ply making systems. These commercial systems scan steel cords in the flat, unstretched, high epi condition. However, when tires are diametrically expanded on a building drum, typically on the order of 150% to 190% of flat build diameter, the epi count goes down and tire anomalies may appear. Since available systems function in a pre-expansion environment, they are ill suited to detect ply wire anomalies in a post-expansion tire carcass condition. Therefore, such commercially available systems represent a less than adequate solution to the needs of the industry.
A continuing need, accordingly, remains for a method of evaluating ply wire parameters in a manner that provides accurate assessment of ply wire spacing, condition, and location in a post-expansion tire carcass. Such a method should further be capable of functionally checking the integrity and tightness of ply splice regions and upstream component preparation ply splices and determining whether the rubber coat gauge on the steel ply wires is within tolerance limits.

Method for evaluating ply wire anomalies in a tire


The invention is a method for authenticating a device which comprises a chip and a body carrying the chip. The body comprises a graphical security feature. The method comprises the steps of:                running a first physical unclonable function for generating a first response representative of the chip,        extracting a first reference from the graphical security feature,        authenticating the device by checking that said first response and first reference are linked by a preset mathematical function.

A Physical Unclonable Function (PUF) is a function that is embodied in a physical structure and is easy to evaluate but extremely difficult to predict. An individual PUF component must be easy to make but practically impossible to duplicate, even given the exact manufacturing process that produced it. When a physical stimulus is applied to the structure, it reacts in an unpredictable way due to the complex interaction of the stimulus with the physical microstructure of the component. This exact microstructure depends on physical factors introduced during manufacture which are unpredictable. The applied stimulus is called the challenge, and the reaction of the PUF is called the response. A specific challenge and its corresponding response together form a challenge-response pair which is specific to a given component. Such a challenge-response pair is assumed to be steady. The identity of the component is established by the properties of the microstructure itself.
It is known to authenticate one component of a device by using the result of a PUF execution. For instance, the plastic body of a smart card may be authenticated via a PUF as explained in EP0583709-A1 publication. Such an authentication is limited to the identifying of a single component belonging to a device.
A known attack may be performed by replacing the genuine chip of a device by a fake one. As a result, a genuine body may be associated to a fake chip.
There is a need for increasing the authentication of the genuineness of an electronic device.

Abstract: The extracting step and the authenticating step are carried out by a machine distinct from the device.


The present invention relates to a continuous gas phase process comprising passing a recycle stream through a fluidized bed in a gas phase fluidized bed reactor, wherein the recycle stream comprises a low molecular weight dew point increasing component and a high molecular weight component, polymerizing an alpha-olefin monomer in the presence of a catalyst, and controlling an amount of the low molecular weight dew point increasing component in the recycle stream such that a dew point approach temperature of the recycle stream is less than the dew point approach temperature when operating with the higher molecular weight dew point increasing component alone.

Advances in polymerization and catalysts have resulted in the capability to produce many new polymers having improved physical and chemical properties useful in a wide variety of superior products and applications. With the development of new catalysts, the choice of polymerization-type (solution, slurry, high pressure or gas phase) for producing a particular polymer has been greatly expanded. Also, advances in polymerization technology have provided more efficient, highly productive and economically enhanced processes. Regardless of these technological advances in the polyolefin industry, common problems, as well as new challenges still exist. For example, the stable operation of a gas phase process at high production rates utilizing dew point increasing components remains a challenge, which can particularly be dependent on the polymer being produced, the catalyst system employed, and the particular dew point increasing component employed.
Unstable fluidization, agglomeration, fouling, sheeting and/or static generation in a continuous gas phase process, in, for example, the fluidized bed, heat exchangers, distributor plates, and probes, can lead to the ineffective operation of various reactor systems. In a typical continuous gas phase process, upward flowing cycle gas fluidizes a bed of resin particles. The cycle gas is removed from the top of the reaction vessel as a recycle stream, compressed and passed through a cooler, and returned back into the bottom of the reaction vessel. This recycle system is employed for many reasons, including the removal of heat generated in the process by the polymerization reaction. An interruption, diversion, or blockage of the flow of cycle gas through any part of the fluidized bed can result in significant operating problems.
It is well known that stable operation of fluidized bed reactors used in the production of polymers requires the avoidance of conditions that lead to sticky polymer or fusion of resin particles in the fluidized bed. Sticky, or cohesive polymer causes a range of problems in the gas phase reactor systems. For example, sticky polymer can reduce the quality of fluidization that occurs within the reactor, and can reduce the degree of internal mixing below the minimum levels required to disperse the catalyst and maintain stable temperature control. The most common result of excessive resin stickiness is the formation of small rounded agglomerates that accumulate above the plate and disturb fluidization. In addition, stickiness of the polymer can lead to the deposition of polymer product on the walls of the reactor expanded section, which often leads to the formation of dome sheets (solid masses of polymer material deposited on the walls of the "dome", or expanded section of the reactor). In many cases, these dome sheets are large and massive, containing as much as 1000 kg of agglomerated polymer. These dome sheets eventually fall from the dome and become lodged on the distributor plate, where they interfere with fluidization. In some cases, the dome sheets block the product discharge port, and force a reactor shutdown for cleaning. In more extreme cases, a large dome sheet can disrupt fluidization in a localized region above the plate and lead to formation of a chunk. For these reasons it is desirable to have means of preventing excessive stickiness of the polymer product.
Polymer stickiness is thought to be a function of several process and product variables within the reactor. The relevant process variables include the reaction temperature and the concentrations (or partial pressures) of condensable components such as 1-butene and isopentane in the reactor gas phase. In general, stickiness of the polymer is promoted by higher reaction temperature and higher concentrations of condensable materials. Important product properties include the resin density, molecular weight (or melt index), and the molecular weight distribution (MWD). In general, stickiness of the polymer is promoted by lower resin density, lower molecular weight (higher melt index), and broader molecular weight distribution (Mw/Mn=MWD).
It is also well known that polymer leaving the gas phase reactor contains significant quantities of dissolved gases, including monomers, comonomers, and dew point increasing components. Furthermore, a quantity of reactor cycle gas is also entrained with the polymer leaving the reaction system. These dissolved and entrained gases are separated from the polymer in a polymer purging system. The entrained gases, dissolved gases, and other gases exiting the reaction system are recovered in vent recovery systems using methods of compression, chilling, and condensing.
Fluidized-bed reactors used to produce polyethylene resin are normally operated at a relatively high reaction temperature. For example, in the production of a typical low density film resin (0.917 g/cc density, 1 dg/min melt index) produced with metallocene or Ziegler-Natta catalyst, the reaction temperature is typically operated at 85° C. A relatively high reactor temperature provides for a relatively high temperature differential over the cooling water temperature (which typically operates at 25 to 35° C.). This, in conventional practice, is thought to provide for maximum heat removal capability for maximum production rates.
It would be desirable to have a polymer production process that is free of polymer agglomeration or stickiness. It would also be desirable to have a process that allows higher concentrations of condensable materials and/or higher dew point temperatures in the reactors for higher production rates. It is even further desirable to operate with a higher level of condensable components while improving the recovery of these condensable components from the purge vessel and other reactor vent streams.
Our findings indicate that when low molecular weight dew point condensing components are included in the reactor cycle gas, the previously determined maximum dew point of the cycle gas relative to the bed temperature had been unnecessarily limited due to concerns regarding polymer stickiness. We found that it is possible to operate with a dew point that is closer to the bed temperature than previously thought by increasing the amount of low molecular weight dew point increasing component and actually increase maximum production rates, while avoiding problems of resin stickiness. We also found that the recovery of condensable components from the purge bin and reactor vent streams can be improved through the use of an enhanced recovery system.

Low molecular weight induced condensing agents


The sensor interface includes a sensor, an optical fiber, a Bragg grating disposed on the optical fiber, and an optoelectronic circuit. The sensor communicates with the Bragg grating such that the sensor imposes a strain on the Bragg grating that is a function of the parameter sensed. The optoelectronic circuit reads the sensor by interrogating the Bragg grating with a light pulse carried by the optical fiber and detecting the timing and/or frequency of the light reflected by the Bragg grating. The timing and/or frequency of the light reflected is a function of the strain imposed on the Bragg grating.

The present invention relates to a sensor interface. More specifically, but without limitation, the present invention relates to an open system sensor interface using Bragg gratings and optical fiber.
Existing instrumentation and control systems use electrical interfaces and wiring harnesses to drive and acquire signals from sensors. Each sensor usually has unique electrical interface characteristics that in turn require tailored analog electrical interface circuitry in the associated electronic device (typically a display, recorder or control unit). This increases life cycle cost and impedes initial development and later changes to sensor configurations.
One solution often used to solve this problem is utilizing a standard electronic data bus that is connected to multiple sensors equipped with embedded data bus interfaces. This enables flexible application and connection of sensors to electronic controls with only software changes to accommodate different sensor arrangements. However, the embedded data bus interface electronics add costs and may be impracticable for sensors located in severe environments, particularly for any sensors used in military applications such as, but without limitation, a propulsion system.
Thus, there is a need in the art to provide a sensor interface that incorporates the listed benefits without the limitations inherent in present methods.

The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy


An energy storage apparatus that includes at least one inlet for incoming process gas, at least one outlet for expanded process gas and a plurality of energy storage sub-systems configured to be arranged in series with each other and with a compressed gas store. The first of the plurality of energy storage sub-systems includes a first compressor, a first expander, a first thermal store and a first heat transfer device associated with the first thermal store. The second of the plurality of energy storage sub-systems includes a second compressor, at least a second expander, a second thermal store and a second heat transfer device associated with the second thermal store.

Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES) is well known, having been first implemented on a large scale at Huntorf in Germany in 1978. In such a system, electricity is converted into compressed air energy using compressors. The compressed air is then stored, in Huntorf's case in salt caverns beneath the plant. When electricity is wanted from the plant, the compressed air is expanded to generate (or to help generate) it, that is, for the electricity regeneration process. In Huntorf's case, the regeneration process is achieved by mixing compressed air with natural gas and then feeding this mixture into a gas turbine to generate electricity: the addition of the compressed air increases the efficiency of the gas turbine. There has been a similar implementation since 1992 in Macintosh, Ala., USA. Many similar schemes have been proposed but not implemented since.
During compression, significant amounts of heat are generated. Likewise, during expansion the air needs to absorb significant amounts of heat if it is not to be very cold. This is inescapable due to the first law of thermodynamics, and reduces the intrinsic efficiency of CAES as measured by the ratio of electricity out to electricity in. Therefore in order to increase the intrinsic efficiency of CAES, some or all of the heat generated during compression must be stored, and re-used later to heat (whether wholly or partially) the air as it expands, or during the generation process, or in the exhaust process following generation.
The Adele Project, proposed in the year 2000 by GE of America and RWE of Germany, envisages a system whereby this heat is stored in a solid heat store, such as one comprising bricks, stones or ceramic materials. The hot compressed air is passed through the solid heat store and transfers much of its heat to it. During the energy recovery process the cooled compressed air is passed back through the heat store, heating it up prior to electricity regeneration. Because the heat transfer, storage and recovery process is never perfect, supplementary heating is provided. All this has been in the public domain since the year 2000.
WO-A-2011/053411 describes an adiabatic CAES system wherein, during the charging part of the cycle, a thermal energy storage (TES) subsystem receives heat from the compressed air after each stage of compression, by transferring the heat through a heat exchanger into a liquid medium. This medium is stored in a single container, from which it is extracted in order to heat the air during the discharging part of the cycle by heat transfer through heat exchangers prior to the air entering each turbine.
Such an arrangement requires very careful balancing of the system. Firstly, all compression stages must have substantially the same compression ratio as each other, otherwise the temperature of the TES fluid would be substantially different exiting each heat exchanger during the compression cycle, and heat the air with differing amounts of adequacy at each stage of the expansion cycle. Secondly, all expansion or turbine stages must have substantially the same expansion ratio as each other, otherwise they would either require pre-heating to different temperatures or output the expanded air at substantially different temperatures at each stage, leading to inefficiencies of excessively hot and/or cold air at different states. Thirdly, all heat exchangers are after compressors and before turbines, whereas they may be constructed more economically as multi-stage compressors with intercoolers and multi-stage turbines with interheaters. Fourthly, no provision is made for providing additional heat to compensate for thermal losses during heat transfer and storage. Fifthly, TES fluid temperatures need to be kept below boiling point, and therefore compression and expansion ratios need to be kept low, because the TES system is not pressurised. Sixthly, the system does not envisage the conversion of other forms of energy to and from compressed air and heat.
DE-A-102010/055750 envisages using a saline solution (various saline solution options are cited) at ambient pressure in order to reduce the capital cost of the plant. This restricts the temperature to which the TES fluid can be heated, which in turn restricts the available compression and expansion ratios. This document also envisages the use of a single TES fluid store, which has the same draw-backs of requiring very careful system balancing as described in the previous paragraph.
As such, existing energy storage apparatuses tend to be complex systems, requiring careful balancing as described above, which can make the apparatuses difficult and expensive to implement and run. The complexity also makes them more prone to problems arising, which can lead to heat and energy inefficiencies, and to high operating and maintenance costs, which is all clearly detrimental to the function of an apparatus whose purpose is to store energy cost-effectively.
It would be desirable to provide an energy storage apparatus and method that overcomes one or more problems associated with existing compressed air energy storage systems, whether discussed above or otherwise.


According to one embodiment, a disk device includes a housing, recording medium, a magnetic head, an internal wireless communication device, and an internal component. The housing has an internal space. The internal wireless communication device generates at least either of: an electric signal representing information to be written to the recording medium, the electric signal corresponding to light, a magnetic field, or an electric field generated by an external wireless communication device; and light, a magnetic field, or an electric field toward the external wireless communication device, the light, the magnetic field, or the electric field corresponding to an electric signal representing information read from the recording medium. The internal component in the internal space is electrically connected to the magnetic head, the internal component that communicates with an external component located outside the housing through the internal wireless communication device and the external wireless communication device.

As for disk devices such as a hard disk drive, their housings are typically sealed. For the purpose of communications between the inside and outside of the housing, such a housing is provided with a through-hole, and a connector is mounted on a substrate hermetically closing the through-hole. For example, components outside and inside the housing communicate with each other through the connector.
For example, as the storage capacity of the disk device increases, the number of terminals of the connector increases. The increase in the number of terminals may result in increasing the connector, the substrate, and the through-hole in size, impairing the sealing performance of the housing.

Disk device and electronic device with internal space in housing

TOSHIBA ELECTRONIC DEVICES & STORAGE CORPORATION


The present disclosure provides a 3D spectacle lens and a method for driving the same, and a 3D glasses and a method for driving the same. The 3D spectacle lens includes: a first substrate and a second substrate arranged opposite to each other; and a guest-host liquid crystal layer arranged between the first substrate and the second substrate, the guest-host liquid crystal layer including liquid crystal molecules and dichroic dye molecules.

The 3D display technology is to receive different images respectively by the left and right eyes of a person, then to superimpose and reproduce the image information by the brain to form front-back, up-down, left-right, far-near images and other images having stereoscopic effects. At present, the commonly used 3D display technology is a glasses-type 3D display technology, that is, a 3D display is realized by a display screen and a shutter-type 3D glasses. In operation, the display image is divided into two parts by frame, to form two sets of images corresponding to the left and right eyes respectively. The two sets of images are successively displayed alternately through the display screen, while an infrared signal transmitter synchronously controls the left and right lens switches of the shutter-type 3D glasses, such that the left and right eyes are capable of seeing the corresponding images at the right moment.
The spectacle lens of the shutter-type 3D glasses in the related art generally includes two independently controllable TN mode liquid crystal screens, and polarizers being orthogonal to each other arranged in front and behind each of the liquid crystal screens. When a user watches a 3D image by using a 3D glasses, it is necessary to ensure that the angle of the absorption axis of the front polarizer matches the angle of the absorption axis of the linearly polarized light beam emitted by the display screen, and then to control the liquid crystal molecules in the liquid crystal to deflect the liquid crystal, such that the screen is switched between a light-passing through state and a non-light-passing through state, thereby allowing a user to watch a 3D image by wearing the 3D glasses. However, when a user wears a 3D glasses to view a 3D image, it is required that the angle of the absorption axis of the front polarizer of the 3D glasses matches the angle of the absorption axis of the linearly polarized light beam emitted by the display screen. Thus, when a user wears a 3D glasses to view a 3D image, the user may only watch the 3D image horizontally rather than inclinedly, otherwise the quality of the watched 3D image will be reduced, and even a problem of being unable to watch the 3D image arises.

3D spectacle lens and method for driving the same, and 3D glasses and method for driving the same

CHENGDU BOE OPTOELECTRONICS TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.


A storage system failure detection and failover application includes a command execution engine that loads and interprets both user-defined storage system management functions, and vendor-defined storage system management functions. The user-defined storage system management functions allow the system to detect and handle failure conditions indicating both the current state of an active storage system, and the current state of one or more applications that consume a storage service or services provided by the active storage system. The user-defined storage management functions also allow the system to perform failover processing in a way that allows applications to perform application-specific processing during storage system failover.

As it is generally known, various types of storage services can be used to provide external data storage from storage server systems ("storage systems") to other computer systems. For example, Network-Attached Storage (NAS) systems provide file-based storage services over a network. File-based storage services provide external storage in the form of externally stored files, so that the files can be accessed as if they were located on local storage. NAS systems may use various specific protocols to provide file-based storage services, including but not limited to the Network File System (NFS) distributed file system protocol, the Server Message Block (SMB)/Common Internet File System (CIFS) application-layer network protocol, and/or Apple Filing Protocol (AFP).
Block-based storage services provide external storage in the form of blocks served by storage systems from remote disk storage devices. For example, block-based storage services may employ the Internet Small Computer System Interface (iSCSI). iSCSI is an Internet Protocol (IP)-based storage networking standard for linking data storage resources, and allows access to external storage from the storage system as if it were from a locally attached disk. Block-based storage services may also use Fibre Channel (FC) network technology, and/or the Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) protocol or the like in the context of Direct Attached Storage (DAS).
In order to improve the availability of storage services, user data may be replicated across multiple storage systems. In a basic configuration, an active storage system is used to provide one or more storage services, while a duplicate copy of the user data stored on the active storage system is concurrently maintained on one or more backup storage systems. In the event that the active storage system fails, one of the backup systems can seamlessly take over providing the storage services, thus improving continuity of service.

User-defined storage system failure detection and failover management


A full face respirator comprising a mask (10) having a transparent viewing portion (12) and a port portion (16), and exhalation port (22) disposed in said port portion (16), a face seal configured (14) to seal the mask (10) over a wearer's eyes, nose and mouth, in use, and an orinasal assembly (2) including a flexible, cup-shaped orinasal (2) having an orifice (2a) and being configured to fit over a wearer's nose and mouth, in use; wherein the orinasal assembly (2) further includes generally tubular connecting portion (24), integrally formed with and extending outwardly from the periphery of the orifice (2a), the connection portion (24) being shaped and configured to extend through the exhalation port (22) from the inner region to the outer region of the mask (10) and including an exhalation valve mount (28) for receiving a one-way exhalation valve (4).

WO98/13103 describes a full face respirator comprising a face shield, including a transparent viewing portion and a face seal for sealing the face shield over a user's face, in use. The face shield comprises upper and lower frame members, the lower frame member including a port portion located below the transparent viewing portion. The port portion includes a pair of air intake ports, each having a connector for receiving a filter cartridge, and a central exhalation port. A nose cup or orinasal is provided, which fits over a user's nose and mouth in use and includes a central orifice having circumferential connecting regions on the inner rim thereof. The full face respirator further comprises a centre adapter comprising a base having a generally cylindrical end portion on which a gasket is fitted. The base is configured to receive an exhalation valve, and connecting members are provided on the outer wall of the cylindrical end portion. When it is required to assemble the device, the cylindrical end portion is inserted through the central exhalation port (to the inner region of the mask) and is received within the central orifice of the orinasal, the connecting members of the cylindrical end portion of the base thus engaging with the connecting regions on the inner rim of the central orifice of the orinasal to releasably connect the base (including the exhalation valve) to the orinasal at the inner region of the mask such that the exhalation valve is located outside the mask against the periphery of the central exhalation port. A protective cover is removably mounted over the exhalation valve.
Full face respirators of this type have been in widespread use for many years by, for example, firefighters, military personnel and industrial/construction operatives, where a clean air supply is required because the surrounding environment may be contaminated with toxic substances. In addition to supplying a clean air supply, such full face respirators include a mask that provides a seal around the entire face with a flexible face seal to protect both the eyes and the face from the potentially toxic substances.
However, there are a number of issues associated with known full face respirators. Firstly, most full face respirators, including those of the type described above, are designed to be disassembled for cleaning and maintenance purposes. However, re-assembling such devices for use can be difficult to achieve efficiently. The internal connecting or mounting points in the rim of the orinasal, and the flexibility of the orinasal structure at the location of its central orifice, can make the task of re-connecting the base (and exhalation valve assembly) to the orinasal fiddly. This process usually results in repeated deformation of the orinasal, which in turn can lead to premature failure. Even prior to complete failure thereof, it may become warped, leading to a loss of its correct and intended shape, which results in poor face fitment, increased breathing resistance and/or greater risk of inward leakage.
It is an object of aspects of the present invention to address at least some of these issues.


An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus includes plural ultrasonic transducers, a catheter signal detection unit and a position detection unit. The plural ultrasonic transducers are arrayed two-dimensionally for transmitting and receiving ultrasonic waves to and from an object. The catheter signal detection unit is configured to acquire a reception signal of a frequency modulated continuous wave from reception signals from at least three of the plural ultrasonic transducers. The frequency modulated continuous wave is transmitted from a catheter inserted in the object. The position detection unit is configured to detect a position of the catheter based on the acquired reception signal of the frequency modulated continuous wave.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus and a catheter tip part detection method, and more particularly, to an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus and a catheter tip part detection method which make it possible to detect a position coordinate of a tip part of a catheter, an ultrasonic probe having a thin diameter or the like inserted into a body of an object.
2. Description of the Related Art
The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus performs ultrasonic transmission/reception in a plurality of directions in a patient body using an ultrasonic probe with a plurality of transducers arranged therein, and displays, on a monitor, ultrasonic image data generated based on reflected waves obtained during the ultrasonic transmission/reception. Because the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus allows two-dimensional images or three-dimensional images in the body to be observed in real time by a simple operation of bringing an ultrasonic probe into contact with the body surface, it is extensively used for shape diagnosis or functional diagnosis of various organs.
Performing a treatment such as transcatheter arterial embolization (TAE), percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA), percutaneous transluminal coronary recanalization (PTCR) or radiofrequency ablation (RFA), or various diagnoses, while ascertaining the position of the tip part of a catheter or a small-diameter ultrasonic probe inserted into a blood vessel or a digestive tract, or a puncture needle inserted into body tissues (hereinafter these are collectively referred to as a "catheter"), under the observation of real-time displayed ultrasonic image data, allows the accuracy and safety in an examination or treatment to be drastically improved. In addition, the diagnosis/treating method using ultrasonic image data has an advantage in being free of X-ray exposure compared with that using X-ray image data which has hitherto been executed for the same purpose.
However, when attempting to concurrently acquire information on the body tissues and information on the catheter tip part using the ultrasonic probe arranged on the body surface of an object, it has been difficult to make a constant observation of the catheter tip part, on the ultrasonic image data, because ultrasonic waves radiated from the transducers in the ultrasonic probe make specular reflections (mirror reflections) on the smooth surface of the catheter.
Specifically, since a diameter of a general catheter is about 2-3 mm, it is impossible to observe a general catheter on an ultrasonic image with enough accuracy though the catheter can be observed to a certain extent. Particularly, when an RITA (radio frequency interstitial tissue ablation) needle is attached with a catheter for RFA, it is impossible to observe the RITA needle on an ultrasonic image absolutely since the diameter of the RITA needle is not over 1 mm.
In order to solve such a problem, a method has been proposed wherein a minute transducer for receiving ultrasonic waves is mounted on the catheter tip part, and ultrasonic waves radiated from transducers in the ultrasonic probe arranged on the body surface of the object are received using the transducer at the catheter tip part to thereby detect the tip position thereof (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application (Laid-Open) No. 4-129543).
Another method has also been proposed wherein ultrasonic waves radiated from the transducer mounted on the catheter tip part are received by each of three discrete transducers in the ultrasonic probe arranged on the body surface of the object, and the tip position of the catheter is detected based on delayed times between the three obtained reception signals (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application (Laid-Open) No. 2002-315754). According to this method, a display of position information on the catheter tip part can be superimposed on a display of three-dimensional image data on blood vessels or the like acquired by the ultrasonic probe, or a display of endoscopic image data as seen from the viewpoint of the catheter tip part (so-called fly-through image data) can be achieved.
By the above-described methods which are described on Japanese Patent Application (Laid-Open) No. 4-129543 and Japanese Patent Application (Laid-Open) No. 2002-315754, the catheter tip part can be detected independent of the material and the shape of the catheter, and the incident angle of ultrasonic waves radiated from the transducers in the ultrasonic probe.
However, in these methods, broadband ultrasonic pulses radiated from the transducer mounted on the catheter tip part or the transducers in the ultrasonic probe arranged on the body surface are received by the transducers in the ultrasonic probe or the transducer mounted on the catheter tip part, and arrival times (delayed times) of the obtained pulses are measured to thereby detect the position of the catheter tip part. Therefore, if a non-negligible ultrasonic attenuation occurs in the body tissues intervening between the ultrasonic probe and the catheter, the reception sensitivity of ultrasonic pulses in the transducers in the ultrasonic probe or the transducer at the catheter tip part is deteriorated, and also, in the above-described ultrasonic pulses having a broadband frequency spectrum, the higher the frequency of a pulse component, the larger becomes the attenuation that the component undergoes. As a result, the waveforms of the ultrasonic pulses are significantly deformed, thereby making it difficult to accurately measure the arrival times of the ultrasonic pulses.
Furthermore, according to the above-described methods which are described on Japanese Patent Application (Laid-Open) No. 4-129543 and Japanese Patent Application (Laid-Open) No. 2002-315754, when sound speeds of ultrasonic waves in body tissues are uneven, it is undesirably difficult to accurately detect the position of the catheter tip part even if the above-described arrival times are accurately measured, because the arrival times of ultrasonic pulses depend on positions of transducers in the ultrasonic probe or body tissues.

Ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus and catheter tip part detection method


A fuel injector is described that includes a polymeric housing, pole piece, filter assembly, coil assembly, spring member, armature assembly and metering assembly. The housing has a passageway extending between an inlet opening and an outlet opening along a longitudinal axis. The pole piece is disposed in the passageway and has a through opening. The filter assembly has a portion disposed in the through opening of the pole piece. The coil assembly is disposed in the housing to surround the pole piece. The spring member is disposed partly in the pole piece and includes a spring portion contiguous with the portion of the filter assembly. The armature assembly is disposed in the passageway in a first position confronting the end face of the pole piece and in a second position contiguous to an end face of the pole piece. The metering assembly has a seat secured to a polymeric support member. The seat has a first surface contiguous to the closure member in one position of the closure member and a second surface spaced apart from the first surface. The metering disc is secured to the second surface of the seat such that the metering disc is at the outermost end of the fuel injector.

Examples of known fuel injection systems use an injector to dispense a quantity of fuel that is to be combusted in an internal combustion engine. The quantity of fuel that is dispensed is varied in accordance with a number of engine parameters such as engine speed, engine load, engine emissions, etc.
Known electronic fuel injection systems monitor at least one of the engine parameters and electrically operate the injector to dispense the fuel. It is believed that examples of known injectors use electromagnetic coils, piezoelectric elements, or magnetostrictive materials to actuate a valve.
A known fuel injector utilizes a plethora of internal components such as a metallic inlet tube connected to a valve body via a non-magnetic shell with a pole piece interposed therebetween. The inlet tube, valve body, non-magnetic shell and pole piece are generally affixed to each other after a closure assembly and a metering assembly are disposed in the valve body. A solenoid coil is inserted over the assembled components and the entire assembly is molded into the fuel injector.
It is believed that one known fuel injector utilizes a plastic body molded over a solenoid coil to provide a plastic inlet fuel passage with a metallic valve body being coupled to the solenoid coil.
It is believed that another known fuel injector utilizes two separate subassemblies to form the fuel injector. The first subassembly can include a complete coil assembly and electrical connector molded into an outer casing to provide a power group. The second subassembly can include an inlet tube, pole piece, non-magnetic shell valve body, closure assembly and metering assembly affixed together to form a stand alone fuel group. The two sub-assemblies are formed separately and coupled together to provide an operable fuel injector.
While the known fuel injectors are suited to the task of metering fuel, it is believed that the known fuel injectors may have certain assembly or component drawbacks that require extensive manufacturing process to be undertaken to ensure that the injector are suitable for commercial applications. They can include, for example, the necessity for multiple seal points between components to provide leak integrity in the injector and a large number of manufacturing steps that are undertaken. These seals can be effectuated by elastomeric seals, such as, O-rings, or multiple hermetic welds to ensure structural and leak integrity of the known fuel injectors. Others include the potential manufacturing difficulties associated with thermal distortion in welding multiple metallic components at close proximity to each other or the need for a metal valve body with internal resilient seals for leak integrity. Yet another drawback can include the utilization of lift setting components that must be inserted into the valve body of the fuel injector. Thus, it would be advantageous to reduce or even eliminate some of these drawbacks.

Fuel injector with a metering assembly with a polymeric support member and an orifice disk positioned at a terminal end of the polymeric housing


A laser-diode-pumped solid-state laser includes a semiconductor laser for emitting a pumping laser beam, a solid-state laser crystal of an ion crystal of a paramagnetic substance doped with neodymium, for producing a laser beam in response to being pumped by said pumping laser beam, a resonator for oscillating the laser beam produced by said solid-state laser crystal, and an optical wavelength converter in said resonator for converting the wavelength of the oscillated laser beam into another wavelength. The solid-state laser crystal has a neodymium ion concentration higher than 3 at %. The solid-state laser oscillates stably in a single longitudinal mode at all times to produce a highly intensive laser beam of short wavelength.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a laser-diode-pumped solid-state laser having a solid-state laser crystal that is pumped by a semiconductor laser in the form of a laser diode, and more particularly to a laser-diode-pumped solid-state laser having a wavelength conversion capability.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 62(1987)-189783, for example, discloses a laser-diode-pumped solid-state laser having a solid-state laser crystal doped with a rare-earth element such as neodymium (Nd), the solid-state laser crystal being pumped by a semiconductor laser. One widely used material of the solid-state laser crystal is an ion crystal of a paramagnetic substance such as YVO.sub.4, YAG(Y.sub.3 Al.sub.5 O.sub.12), or the like that is doped with Nd.
According to one conventional design involving such a laser-diode-pumped solid-state laser, the resonator houses a bulk single crystal of a nonlinear optical material for converting the wave of a solid-laser-oscillated beam into a second harmonic thereby to produce a laser beam of a shorter wavelength, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,124,999 and Laser Research, Vol. 18, No. 8 (1990), pages 94-99, for example.
The laser-diode-pumped solid-state laser should preferably be oscillated in a single longitudinal mode in order to suppress output fluctuations due to a longitudinal mode competition. In applications using laser-diode-pumped solid-state lasers, there is a demand for an increase in the pumping intensity of the semiconductor laser for a higher output power.
Laser Research, Vol. 18, No. 8 (1990), page 646, has reported that the wave of an oscillated beam from Nd:YVO.sub.4 (with an Nd ion concentration of 1.1 at %) is converted in wavelength into a second harmonic by a KTP crystal disposed in a resonator, the second harmonic having an output power of 12.8 mW in a substantially single longitudinal mode in response to an input power of 760 mW from a semiconductor laser. It has also been reported in the preprint of the symposium Laser/Atomic Oscillator And Ultimate Light Quantum Engineering (sponsored by Applied Physics Society and Quantum Electronics Society), E-2 (1990), page 56 that Nd:YVO.sub.4 (with an Nd ion concentration of 2.02 at %) and a KTP crystal having a thickness of 7.0 mm are used to obtain a second harmonic output power of 9.1 mW when the input power from a semiconductor laser is 740 mW.
With the conventional laser-diode-pumped solid-state lasers, however, it is necessary to control the resonator length strictly with a piezoelectric element or the like so as to obtain an output power in the single longitudinal mode. Even if the resonator length slightly varies on account of a temperature change or a mechanical vibration, the oscillation in the single longitudinal mode easily changes to an oscillation in a multi-longitudinal mode, resulting in mode completion noise. Therefore, the conventional laser-diode-pumped solid-state lasers have not been put to practical use because of such a problem.
According to IEEE JOURNAL OF QUANTUM ELECTRONICS, Vol. 26, No. 9 (1990), page 1457, the condition to be met for achieving an oscillation in a single longitudinal mode is given by: EQU Pin/Pth.ltoreq.Wth (1)
where Pin is the pumping intensity of a semiconductor laser, Pth is the oscillation threshold value of a solid-state laser, and Wth is the threshold value of the relative pumping intensity of an oscillation in a multi-longitudinal mode. Under this condition, the oscillation in the single longitudinal mode is stable even when the resonator length somewhat varies due to a temperature change or a mechanical vibration. For such a stable and practical oscillation in the single longitudinal mode, the pumping intensity of the semiconductor laser has to be set to a level lower than a certain upper limit. Since, however, the upper limit for the pumping intensity in the conventional laser-diode-pumped solid-state laser is relatively low, it has been difficult for the laser-diode-pumped solid-state laser to meet both requirements for a stable oscillation in a single longitudinal mode and a higher output power. The conventional difficulty in meeting those requirements will be described below.
The threshold value Wth in the equation (1) above increases with the pumping optical absorption coefficient .alpha. of a solid-state laser crystal. Inasmuch as the optical absorption coefficient .alpha. is proportional to the Nd ion concentration, it is effective to increase the Nd ion concentration for increasing the threshold value Wth to achieve an increase in an upper-limit pumping intensity Pin for a stable oscillation in the single longitudinal mode.
If the Nd ion concentration is increased, however, the oscillation threshold value may often increase due to concentration quenching, with the result that the solid-state laser crystal may either fail to oscillate or may produce an extremely small output power upon oscillation. A resonator loss L of a solid-state laser crystal and an oscillated beam intensity Pc of the solid-state laser crystal are related to each other as follows: EQU Pc.varies.(Pin-Pth)/L (2)
The fluorescence lifetime .tau. of the solid-state laser crystal and the cross-sectional area .sigma. for stimulated emission are related to the oscillation threshold value Pth as follows: EQU Pth.varies.L/(.sigma..tau.) (3)
The fluorescence lifetime .DELTA. and the fluorescence intensity (which is proportional to .sigma..tau.) are related to the Nd ion concentration in Nd:YVO.sub.4 as shown in FIG. 3 of the accompanying drawings, which is cited from OPTRONICS (1990), No. 12, page 60. It is known that the illustrated relationship holds true for other ion crystals of paramagnetic substances. As shown in FIG. 3, if the Nd ion concentration exceeds 1 at % in the ion crystals of paramagnetic substances, the value of .sigma..tau. sharply drops due to concentration quenching. Then, as can be understood from the equation (3) above, the oscillation threshold value Pth increases to a value higher than, or very close to, the pumping intensity Pin. As a result, the oscillated beam intensity Pc may become zero or extremely small, as can be seen from the equation (2).
Because of such a phenomenon, the Nd ion concentration in the ion crystals of paramagnetic substances should optimally be in the order of 1 at % as described in OPTRONICS and Laser Research, Vol. 18, No. 8 (1990), page 646, as referred to above. A maximum possible value of 3 at % for the Nd ion concentration is only reported in IEEE JOURNAL OF QUANTUM ELECTRONICS, Vol. 26, No. 9 (1990), page 1457.
Heretofore, the Nd ion concentration has been set to a value less than 3 at %, usually of about 1 at %. Consequently, the optical absorption coefficient .alpha. is relatively small, and the threshold value Wth is of a small value of at most 7. Therefore, as can be seen from the equation (1), the pumping intensity Pin must be reduced to enable a solid-state laser to oscillate in a single longitudinal mode. The oscillated beam intensity Pc of the beam from the solid-state laser that oscillates in the single longitudinal mode is also relatively low.
The technical limitation that the Nd ion concentration is preferably of about 1 at % or at most 3 at % has been widely accepted with respect to all laser-diode-pumped solid-state lasers which employ ion crystals of paramagnetic substances. Accordingly, it has been difficult for the laser-diode-pumped solid-state lasers to meet both requirements for a stable oscillation in a single longitudinal mode and a higher output power in applications to obtain short-wavelength laser beams through wavelength conversion.


Methods for predicting the presence of haemostatic dysfunction in a patient from a time-dependent measurement profile include performing a time-dependent measurement on an unknown sample and measuring a respective property over time so as to derive a time-dependent measurement profile. The slope of the time-dependent measurement profile is computed prior to clot formation. A biphasic waveform is detected in the time-dependent measurement profile based on the computed slope. The presence of haemostatic dysfunction in the patient is predicted based on the detected biphasic waveform.

Blood clots are the end product of a complex chain reaction where proteins form an enzyme cascade acting as a biologic amplification system. This system enables relatively few molecules of initiator products to induce sequential activation of a series of inactive proteins, known as factors, culminating in the production of the fibrin clot. Mathematical models of the kinetics of the cascade's pathways have been previously proposed.
In B. Pohl, C. Beringer, M. Bomhard, F. Keller, The Quick Machine—a Mathematical Model for the Extrinsic Activation of Coagulation, Haemostasis, 24, 325–337 (1994), a dynamic model of the extrinsic coagulation cascade was described where data were collected for 20 samples using quick percent, activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT), thrombin time (TT), fibrinogen, factor (F) II, FV, FVII, FX, anti-thrombin III (ATIII), and factor degradation product (FDP) assays. These data were used as input to the model and the predictive output compared to actual recovered prothrombin time (PT) screening assay results. The model accurately predicted the PT result in only 11 of 20 cases. These coagulation cascade models demonstrate: (1) the complexity of the clot formation process, and (2) the difficulty in associating PT clot times alone with specific conditions.
Thrombosis and hemostasis testing is the in vitro study of the ability of blood to form clots and to break clots in vivo. Coagulation (hemostasis) assays began as manual methods where clot formation was observed in a test tube either by tilting the tube or removing fibrin strands by a wire loop. The goal was to determine if a patient's blood sample would clot after certain materials were added. It was later determined that the amount of time from initiation of the reaction to the point of clot formation in vitro is related to congenital disorders, acquired disorders, and therapeutic monitoring. In order to remove the inherent variability associated with the subjective endpoint determinations of manual techniques, instrumentation has been developed to measure clot time, based on (1) electromechanical properties, (2) clot elasticity, (3) light scattering, (4) fibrin adhesion, and (5) impedance. For light scattering methods, data is gathered that represents the transmission of light through the specimen as a function of time (an optical time-dependent measurement profile).
Two assays, the Prothrombin Time (PT) and Activated Partial Thromboplastin Time (APTT), are widely used to screen for abnormalities in the coagulation system, although several other screening assays can be used, e.g. protein C, fibrinogen, protein S and/or thrombin time. If screening assays show an abnormal result, one or several additional tests are needed to isolate the exact source of the abnormality. The PT and ANT assays rely primarily upon measurement of time required for clot time, although some variations of the PT also use the amplitude of the change in optical signal in estimating fibrinogen concentration.
Blood coagulation is affected by administration of drugs, in addition to the vast array of internal factors and proteins that normally influence clot formation. For example, heparin is a widely-used therapeutic drug that is used to prevent thrombosis following surgery or under other conditions, or is used to combat existing thrombosis. The administration of heparin is typically monitored using the APTT assay, which gives a prolonged clot time in the presence of heparin. Clot times for PT assays are affected to a much smaller degree. Since a number of other plasma abnormalities may also cause prolonged APTT results, the ability to discriminate between these effectors from screening assay results may be clinically significant.
Using a sigmoidal curve fit to a profile, P. Baumann, T. Jurgensen, C. Heuck, Computerized Analysis of the In Vitro Activation of the Plasmatic Clotting System, Haemostasis, 19, 309–321 (1989) showed that a ratio of two coefficients was unique for a select group of blood factor deficiencies when fibrinogen was artificially maintained by addition of exogenous fibrinogen to a fixed concentration, and that same ratio also correlates heparin to FII deficiency and FXa deficiencies. However, the requirement for artificially fixed fibrinogen makes this approach inappropriate for analysis of clinical specimens. The present invention makes it possible to predict haemostatic dysfunction for clinical samples from a time-dependent measurement profile without artificial manipulation of samples.
The present invention was conceived of and developed for predicting the presence of congenital or acquired imbalances or therapeutic conditions of an unknown sample based on one or more time-dependent measurement profiles, such as optical time-dependent measurement profiles, where a set of predictor variables are provided which define characteristics of profile, and where in turn a model is derived that represents the relationship between a congenital or acquired imbalance or therapeutic condition and the set of predictor variables (so as to, in turn, utilize this model to predict the existence of the congenital or acquired imbalance or therapeutic condition in the unknown sample). In addition, the present invention is directed to predicting the presence of Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation in a patient based on a time dependent profile, such as an optical transmission profile, from a clotting assay run on the patient's blood or plasma sample.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method and apparatus for predicting the presence of haemostatic dysfunction in a patient sample