A process for producing low-cost atmospheres suitable for annealing, brazing, and sintering non-ferrous metals and alloys from non-cryogenically produced nitrogen containing up to 5%, residual oxygen is disclosed. According to the process, suitable atmospheres are produced by 1) pre-heating the non-cryogenically produced nitrogen stream containing residual oxygen to a desired temperature, 2) mixing it with more than a stoichiometric amount a hydrocarbon gas, 3) passing it through a reactor packed with a platinum group of metal catalyst to reduce the residual oxygen to very low levels and convert it to a mixture of moisture and carbon dioxide, and 4) using the reactor effluent stream for annealing, brazing, and sintering non-ferrous metals and alloys in a furnace. The key features of the disclosed process include 1) pre-heating the non-cryogenically produced nitrogen containing residual oxygen to a certain minimum temperature, 2) adding more than a stoichiometric amount of a hydrocarbon gas to the pre-heated nitrogen stream, and 3) using a platinum group of metal catalyst to initiate and sustain the reaction between oxygen and the hydrocarbon gas.

Nitrogen-based atmospheres have been routinely used by the heat treating industry both in batch and continuous furnaces since the mid 1970s. Because of low dew point and virtual absence of carbon dioxide, nitrogen-based atmospheres do not exhibit oxidizing and decarburizing properties and are therefore suitable for a variety of heat treating operations. More specifically, a mixture of nitrogen and hydrogen has been used extensively for bright annealing non-ferrous metals and alloys such as copper and gold.
A major portion of nitrogen used by the heat treating industry has been produced by distillation of air in large cryogenic plants. The cryogenically produced nitrogen is generally pure and expensive. To reduce the cost of nitrogen, several non-cryogenic air separation techniques such as adsorption and permeation have been recently developed and introduced in the market. The non-cryogenically produced nitrogen is indeed inexpensive, but it contains 0.2 to 5%, residual oxygen, making a direct substitution of cryogenically produced nitrogen with non-cryogenically produced nitrogen in heat treating furnaces very difficult, if not impossible.
Attempts have been made to use reducing gases such as a hydrocarbon and hydrogen along with non-cryogenically produced nitrogen to produce atmospheres suitable for heat treating or bright annealing parts in furnaces but with limited success even with the use of an excess amount of a reducing gas. The problem has generally been related to surface oxidation of the heat treated or annealed parts in the furnace.
A mixture of non-cryogenically produced nitrogen and hydrogen has been used for annealing copper and described in papers titled, "The Use of Non-Cryogenically Produce Nitrogen in Furnace Atmospheres", published in Heat Treatment of Metals, pages 63-67, March 1989 and "A Cost Effective Nitrogen-Based Atmosphere for Copper Annealing", published in Heat Treatment of Metals, pages 93-97, April 1990. These papers describe that a heat treated copper product was slightly discolored when all the gaseous feed containing a mixture of hydrogen and non-cryogenically produced nitrogen with residual oxygen was introduced into the heating zone of a continuous furnace. It is, therefore, clearly evident that according to the prior art, copper cannot be bright annealed with a mixture of non-cryogenically produced nitrogen and hydrogen in continuous furnaces.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,057,164 discloses and claims a method for producing an atmosphere suitable for heat treating metals from non-cryogenically produced nitrogen in continuous furnaces by reacting residual oxygen with hydrogen or carbon monoxide in the heating zone followed by extracting a part of the atmosphere from the heating zone and introducing it into the cooling zone of the furnace. Unfortunately, this process requires a large amount of hydrogen or carbon monoxide to provide a high pH.sub.2 /pH.sub.2 O or pCO/pCO.sub.2 ratio (or reducing environment) in the furnace, making it uneconomical for bright annealing, brazing, and sintering non-ferrous metals and alloys.
Researchers have explored numerous alternative ways of using noncryogenically produced nitrogen for heat treating metals in continuous furnaces. For example, furnace atmospheres suitable for bright annealing copper, brazing copper, and sintering copper and copper alloys have reportedly been generated from non-cryogenically produced nitrogen by converting residual oxygen to moisture with hydrogen gas in external units prior to feeding atmospheres into the furnaces. Such atmosphere generation methods have been disclosed in detail in U.S. Pat. No. 3,535,074, Australian Patent Applications AU45561/89 and AU45562/89 dated Nov. 24, 1988, and European Patent Application 90306645.4 dated Jun. 19, 1990. Unfortunately, these processes are not cost-effective because they require expensive hydrogen to maintain a reducing environment in the furnace.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,931,070 and French Patent Publications 2,639,249 and 2,639,251 dated Nov. 24, 1988 disclose and claim processes for producing atmospheres suitable for heat treating metals from non-cryogenically produced nitrogen by converting residual oxygen to moisture with hydrogen in external catalytic units followed by extraction of moisture prior to introducing the atmosphere into a furnace. These methods are not cost effective because they 1) require expensive hydrogen to maintain a reducing environment in the furnace and 2) there are significant costs associated with extracting moisture from the atmosphere.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,069,728 discloses and claims a process for producing atmospheres suitable for heat treating from non-cryogenically produced nitrogen by simultaneously introducing 1) non-cryogenically produced nitrogen along with hydrogen and carbon monoxide in the heating zone and 2) non-cryogenically produced nitrogen pretreated to convert the residual oxygen to moisture with hydrogen in an external catalytic reactor or nitrogen gas free of oxygen in the cooling zone of a continuous furnace. Unfortunately, this method requires expensive hydrogen or carbon monoxide to maintain reducing environment in the furnace, making it uneconomical for bright annealing, brazing, and sintering non-ferrous metals and alloys.
Based upon the above discussion, it is clear that there is a need for processes for generating low-cost atmospheres for bright annealing, brazing, and sintering non-ferrous metals and alloys from non-cryogenically produced nitrogen. Additionally, there is a need to develop processes which are cost effective and eliminate the need of expensive hydrogen gas.

Atmospheres for heat treating non-ferrous metals and alloys


A lawn mower blade includes support flanges projecting orthogonally relative to the first and second ends of the lawn mower blade arranged to mount blade inserts below each support flange, wherein each blade insert is arranged to project beyond a side wall spaced from the support flange.

1. Field of the Invention
The field of invention relates to lawn mower blade construction, and more particularly pertains to a new and improved lawn mower blade and insert construction wherein the same is arranged to provide for replaceable inserts mounted within lawn mower blades.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Lawn mower blades having removable inserts to permit the economy and ease of the use of inserts of greater efficiency is available in the prior art such as indicated in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,036,654; 4,750,320; 4,651,510; 4,779,407; and 4,594,843.
The instant invention attempts to overcome deficiencies of the prior art by providing for an insert construction arranged for ease of mounting and efficiency of construction relative to a lawn mower blade and in this respect, the present invention substantially fulfills this need.

Lawn mower blade and insert construction


A deactivating hydraulic valve mechanism includes a hydraulic element assembly disposed within a pin housing slidably disposed within a bore in a body. A transverse bore in the pin housing contains selectively-retractable locking pins that engage a groove in the body to selectively lock together the body and the pin housing. A lost motion spring is disposed in an annular chamber between the body and the pin housing. An oil passage from an engine gallery to the hydraulic element assembly includes an axial component and bypasses the lost motion chamber. A ring holds the lifter assembly together and also sets mechanical lash. The ring may be provided as a standard-thickness ring and a shim selected to provided a predetermined amount of mechanical lash in the assembled mechanism to ensure facile engagement and disengagement of the locking pins in the body.

It is well known that overall fuel efficiency in a multiple-cylinder internal combustion engine can be increased by selective deactivation of one or more of the engine valves, especially the intake valves, under certain engine load conditions. For a cam-in-block pushrod engine, a known approach to providing selective deactivation is to equip the hydraulic lifters for those valves with a locking mechanism whereby the lifters may be rendered incapable of transferring the cyclic motion of engine cams into reciprocal motion of the associated pushrods. Typically, a deactivating hydraulic valve lifter (DHVL) includes, in addition to the conventional hydraulic lash compensation element, an outer body and a concentric locking pin housing disposed inside the outer body. The inner locking pin housing and outer body are mechanically connected to the pushrod and to the cam lobe, respectively, and may be selectively latched and unlatched hydromechanically to each other, typically by the selective engagement of one or more locking pins by pressurized engine oil.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,497,207 discloses such a DHVL wherein a lost motion coil spring is disposed between the lifter body and a tower extension of the inner pin housing. The tower extension is hollow and open at the outer end to admit an engine pushrod. This arrangement is functionally satisfactory for many but not all engine designs. In particular, the tower results in a relatively long overall length of the DHVL and, in order for the pushrod to clear the outer edge of the tower extension, the pushrod must be aligned nearly coaxial with the DHVL. Thus, this arrangement may be incompatible with engines having limited axial space for the added length DHVL, or for engines having relatively large pushrod engagement angles.
It is known in the art to shorten the operative length of a body and locking pin housing assembly by packaging the lost motion (LM) spring between the adjacent walls of the outer lifter body and the inner pin housing, thereby obviating the need for a tower and its concomitant length. U.S. Pat. No. 6,321,704 B1 ("the '704 patent") discloses a hydraulic lash adjuster for valve deactivation in a cam-in-head roller finger follower engine having an outer body and an inner locking pin housing wherein the LM spring is disposed in an annular spring chamber between the walls of the body and locking pin housing.
A significant shortcoming of disposing the LM spring between the outer body and inner locking pin housing, as shown in the '704 patent, is that oil being supplied to the hydraulic element assembly (HEA) must pass through the LM spring chamber. Thus the chamber is always filled with oil, which must be pumped out of the chamber with every stroke of the lifter body in deactivation mode. Pumping oil reduces engine efficiency, as during at least part of the pumping stroke the oil pressure generated in the LM chamber opposes the engine's own oil pressure, and may cause valvetrain stability issues, wear, and noise due to induced air bubbles or cavitations. Still further, juxtaposition of the oil passages in the outer body and inner locking pin housing under certain lash conditions can allow for a low oil drawdown (drainage) level in the lash adjuster reservoir during engine shutdown, resulting in significant engine noise at restart.
In addition, the disclosure fails to account for mechanical lash in the deactivation mechanism resulting from inherent manufacturing variability in the deactivation components. The entire assembly is held together by a standard stop clip which is full-fitting in a groove in the outer body member. Thus, the amount of lash between the latching member and the latching surface after assembly, resulting from manufacturing variability in the components, cannot be compensated or adjusted in individual lifter or lash adjuster assemblies.
What is needed in the art is a deactivation lifter or lash adjuster assembly wherein the LM spring chamber is not in communication with the engine oil being supplied to the HEA.
What is further needed in the art is a deactivation lifter or deactivation lash adjuster assembly wherein mechanical lash within the lifter or lash adjuster may be readily set by appropriate shimming during assembly.
It is a principal object of the present invention to provide improved valve deactivation without pumping of deactivation oil in an LM spring chamber in engines requiring short overall length and large pushrod angle capability in a deactivation lifter or deactivation lash adjuster.

Valve-deactivating hydraulic lifter having a vented internal lost motion spring


Compounds represented by the formula:

Hepatitis C virus (HCV), as a particular example of an RNA virus, has infected an estimated 170 million people worldwide, leading to a major health crisis as a result of the disease. Indeed, during the next few years the number of deaths from HCV-related liver disease and hepatocellular carcinoma may overtake those caused by AIDS. Egypt is the hardest hit country in the world, with 23% of the population estimated to be carrying the virus; whereas, in the USA the prevalence of chronic infections has recently been determined to be around 1.87% (2.7 million persons). HCV infections become chronic in about 50% of cases. Of these, about 20% develop liver cirrhosis that can lead to liver failure, including hepatocellular carcinoma.
The NS5B region of HCV encodes a 65 KDa RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) thought to be responsible for viral genome replication. RdRps function as the catalytic subunit of the viral replicase required for the replication of all positive-strand viruses. The NS5B protein has been well characterized, shown to possess the conserved GDD motif of RNA-dependent RNA polymerases and in vitro assay systems have been reported. Cellular localization studies revealed that NS5B is membrane-associated in the endoplasmic reticulum like NS5A, suggesting that those two proteins may remain associated with one another after proteolytic processing. Additional evidence suggests that NS3, NS4A and NS5B interact with each other to form a complex that function as part of the replication machinery of HCV.
The X-ray crystal structure of NS5B apoenzyme has now been determined and three very recent publications describe the unusual shape of the molecule. This unique shape for a polymerase, resembling a flat sphere, is attributed to extensive interactions between the fingers and thumb subdomains in such a way that the active site is completely encircled, forming a cavity 15 Å across and 20 Å deep. Modeling studies showed that the NS5B apoenzyme can accommodate the template-primer without large movement of the subdomains, suggesting that the structure is preserved during the polymerization reaction.
There are only a few reports of weak inhibitors of the polymerase. These include some nucleotide analogues, gliotoxin and the natural product cerulenin.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to develop inhibitors of RNA viral polymerases.

Nucleosides, preparation thereof and use as inhibitors of RNA viral polymerases

Abstract: Compounds represented by the formula:

Abstract: A is (CH2)nR2, —CH═CH2, CH2—CH═CH2, O(CH2)nR2, CH(OH)CH3, CH(OH)CH2OH, CH2—CH(OH)CH3, CH2CH(OH)CH2OH, or CH(OH)CH(OH)CH3,    R,R1 individually is H, NH2OH, Cl, Br, I, aryl, substituted aryl, heterocycle, NR3R4, OR3 or SR3,    R2 is H, OH, F, N3, NH2, CO2H, SH, alkyl, substituted alkyl, S-alkyl, O-acyl, CONH2, or CONH-alkyl,    n is 1-3,    y is O, S or NH,    W is O or S,    Z, Z′ individually is OR3, OR4, O(CH2)m—O—(CH2)xCH3, NH—CH(alkyl)CO2R3, alkyl, substituted alkyl, OCH2CH2S—C(O)CH3, OCH2CH2S—C(O)CH(CH3)2, OCH2CH2S—C(O)C(CH3)3, OCH2CH2—SC(O)aryl, OCH2CH2—S—S—OCH2CH2OH, OCH2OC(O)C(CH3)3, OCH2—O—C(O)OCH(CH3)2, or OCH2—O—C(O)CH(CH3)2     R3, R4 individually is H, alkyl, substituted alkyl, aryl, or substituted aryl;

Abstract: Both R3 and R4 can form a monocyclic ring of 4-7 atoms with N or optionally a further heteroatom in the ring;    m is 1-3,    x is 0-19;and pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof and prodrugs thereof are provided.


A technique for tracking changes in bias conditions of a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) device includes applying an electrode bias signal to an electrode of the MEMS device. The technique includes applying a mass bias signal to a mass of the MEMS device suspended from a substrate of the MEMS device. The technique includes generating the mass bias signal based on a target mass-to-electrode bias signal level and a signal level of the electrode bias signal.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention is related to microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a MEMS transducer converts energy between electrostatic and mechanical forms. MEMS transducers include both sensors that convert motion into electrical energy (accelerometers, pressure sensors, etc.) and actuators that convert electrical signals to motion (comb drive, micromirror devices, oscillators). MEMS devices using capacitive transducers are easy to manufacture and result in low noise and low power consumption sensors and/or actuators.
Capacitive sensing is based on detecting a change in capacitance of a capacitor. If a known voltage is applied across the capacitor, changes in current due to capacitive variations will appear in response to motion of one plate of the capacitor relative to another plate of the capacitor. Typically, fixed DC bias voltages are applied to the mass and electrodes of a MEMS device. Changes in the DC bias voltages can change an apparent acceleration of a mass of a MEMS device and can increase noise in a MEMS sensor system.
Similarly, capacitive actuation is based on variation in capacitance of the MEMS device. A DC operating point is established by applying a DC bias voltage across the capacitor and an AC signal changes the capacitance causing changes in force on a plate of the capacitor. Variations in the DC bias voltage applied across the capacitor can affect the force on the plate and thereby change the resulting mechanical energy of the MEMS device. Variations in the DC transduction bias voltage applied across the capacitor can affect frequency of oscillation of MEMS resonators.
Accordingly, techniques for stabilizing a DC bias voltage across a capacitor of a MEMS transducer are desired.

MEMS mass bias to track changes in bias conditions and reduce effects of flicker noise


An improved valve assembly spout is provided which contains a single hole or port at its uppermost portion. The improved spout is further provided with an inwardly extending, cylindrical straw-like member. Spout cavities are situated to either side of the straw-like member which facilitates entrapment of residual liquid contained within the spout after closure of the valve bridge is effected.

It has long been recognized by this inventor that babies and toddlers require some sort of controlled drinking mechanism when they start the self-feeding process. And this requirement continues for some time thereafter. Such devices have included and ranged from the most elemental type of baby bottle nipple to relatively complex spring-loaded valve mechanisms. In the construction of the inventor's valve assembly and mechanism for actuating and controlling liquid flow from a baby bottle or from a toddler's drinking cup, a spout and a spout insert are included. The spout includes a flanged spout member and a spout cavity through which liquid can flow. The spout overlays and sealingly engages a second flange which is configured as part of the spout insert. The spout insert also includes a pair of upwardly extending posts which project up and into the cavity of the spout. Extending between the posts is a valve bridge. This valve bridge overlays a hole defined in the spout insert through which liquid can flow when a suction force is applied to the spout. The posts and the bridge are constructed of resilient material, unlike the spout which is made of a generally rigid material and is not collapsible by a user's mouth. When no suction force is applied to the spout, the bridge effectively closes the hole.
In practice, the inventor has been apprised of a disadvantage in his system. And that disadvantage is that closure of the resilient valve bridge tends to trap a certain amount of liquid within the spout cavity. This trapped liquid has a tendency to drip from the spout of an inverted baby bottle or drinking cup even when no suction force is applied to the spout.


In a liquid crystal display apparatus, a lower substrate has a transmissive electrode formed in a transmissive area of a first substrate and a reflective electrode formed in a reflective area of the first substrate. An upper substrate has a second substrate, a first insulating layer formed on the second substrate corresponding to the transmissive area, a common electrode formed on the first insulating layer and the second substrate corresponding to the reflective area, and a second insulating layer formed on the common electrode corresponding to the reflective area. Accordingly, the liquid crystal display apparatus may have a uniform cell gap, thereby improving a reflectance and a transmittance thereof.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an upper substrate, a liquid crystal display apparatus having the same and a method of manufacturing the same. More particularly, the present invention relates to an upper substrate capable of improving display quality, a liquid crystal display apparatus having the same and a method of manufacturing the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
A transflective type liquid crystal display apparatus displays an image in a reflective mode using an external light when the external light is sufficient to display the image, and displays an image in a transmissive mode using an internal light when the external light is insufficient to display the image.
A transflective type liquid crystal display apparatus includes a liquid crystal display panel. The liquid crystal display panel includes a lower substrate, an upper substrate opposite to the lower substrate and a liquid crystal layer disposed between the lower substrate and the upper substrate.
The lower substrate includes a thin film transistor (TFT), a transmissive electrode electrically connected to a drain electrode of the TFT and a reflective electrode formed on the transmissive electrode and also connected to the drain electrode of the TFT. An area that the reflective electrode is formed on the transmissive electrode is defined as a reflective area to reflect the external light. An area that only the transmissive electrode is formed is defined as a transmissive area to transmit the internal light.
An organic insulating layer is disposed between the TFT and the transmissive electrode. The organic insulating layer has a contact hole through which the drain electrode of the TFT is exposed. Thus, the transmissive electrode may be electrically connected to the drain electrode through the contact hole.
In order to improve light efficiency and display quality in the reflective mode and the transmissive mode, generally, a transflective type liquid crystal display apparatus has a first cell gap at the reflective area and a second cell gap different from the first cell gap at the transmissive area. That is, the first cell gap at the reflective area is smaller than the second cell gap at the transmissive area.
Thus, the organic insulating layer has a thickness at a position corresponding to the reflective area, which is thinner than that at a position corresponding to the transmissive area, thereby completing a transflective type liquid crystal display apparatus having a dual cell gap. However, in order to manufacture the transflective type liquid crystal display apparatus having the dual cell gap, a complex manufacturing process is needed to adjust a thickness of the organic insulating layer.
As a result, a transflective type liquid crystal display apparatus having a uniform cell gap liquid crystal display and enhanced light efficiency in the reflective mode and in the transmissive mode is required.

Liquid crystal display having an insulating layer on a portion of the common electrode


A compression collar is manufactured for reinforcing an interference fit between an end of a pipe and a fitting. A precursor form is injection molded using a cold-expansion material. The precursor form has a tubular body with an initially closed axial end and a bore initially blind formed in the other axial end. Material is removed from the initially closed axial end to form an opening that connects to the bore thereby forming the compression collar. The opening has an inner periphery with a profile in axial cross section that is different than any profile in axial cross section of an inner periphery of the bore. The collar formed lacks knitlines and includes tabs which help to position the collar on a pipe.

This disclosure relates, in general, to improvements in cold-expansion compression collars or reinforcing rings for making leak-free tube connections. More particularly, this disclosure relates to a method for making compression collars for cold-expansion tubing connections, such as in piping made from polyolefin, polyethylene, cross-linked polyethylene, PEX-a, PEX-b, PEX-c, PERT, or any other similar material.
Cold-expansion tubing has been used in plumbing applications for decades in Europe and now increasingly in the United States. The principle behind its operation is to manufacture a hollow, tubular material and imbue it with shape memory properties (e.g., through cross-linking, irradiation, steam, etc.) such that when the tubing is stretched or deformed, the tubing returns to the shape set in its memory during the manufacturing process. In use, cold-expansion tubing can be widened or belled at its end and allowed to shrink back to its original shape after mere moments at room temperature. The elastic forces within the cold-expansion tubing material can be applied to any object that interferes with the cold-expansion tubing as it returns to its original shape. Thus, cold-expansion tubing can form interference fits or joints with fittings, other piping, etc.
It is known in the state of the art that such a cold expansion fitting connection between a pipe and a fitting may be further strengthen by placing a compression collar around the end of the pipe or tubing prior to cold expansion. See e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,735,554. By forming both the compression collar and the pipe from a cold-expansion material and by placing the compression collar at the axial end of the pipe, both the collar and pipe can be expanded simultaneously, moved over a fitting, and then allowed to return to substantially the same size and shape at room temperature. The addition of compression collar provides additional compressive forces beyond that of just the pipe to create a better seal for the connection and reinforces the interference fit between the pipe and the fitting over which the pipe is received.
However, more so than just the pipe, the compressive collar is subjected to high loads under elastic deformation. Thus, there is a need to attempt to develop compressive collars having more robust structure and increased strength.

Injection molded cold-expansion compression collar


Systems and apparatus for generating bioluminescence, and combinations of these systems and apparatus with inanimate articles of manufacture to produce novelty items are provided. These novelty items, which are articles of manufacture, are designed for entertainment, recreation and amusement, and include toys, paints, slimy play material, textiles, particularly clothing, bubbles in bubble making toys and other toys that produce bubbles, balloons, personal items, such as bath powders, body lotions, gels, powders and creams, toothpastes and other dentifrices, soaps, body paints, and bubble bath, foods, such as gelatins, icings and frostings, beverages such as beer, wine, champagne, soft drinks, and glowing ice, fountains, including liquid "fireworks" and other such jets or sprays or aerosols of compositions that are solutions, mixtures, suspensions, powders, pastes, particles or other suitable formulation. Cartridges for charging and/or recharging the novelty items with bioluminescence generating systems are also provided.

Luminescence is a phenomenon in which energy is specifically channeled to a molecule to produce an excited state. Return to a lower energy state is accompanied by release of a photon (h.gamma.). Luminescence includes fluorescence, phosphorescence, chemiluminescence and bioluminescence. Bioluminescence is the process by which living organisms emit light that is visible to other organisms. Luminescence may be represented as follows:
A+B.fwdarw.X*+Y PA1 X*.fwdarw.X+h.nu.,
where X* is an electronically excited molecule and h.gamma. represents light emission upon return of X* to a lower energy state. Where the luminescence is bioluminescence, creation of the excited state derives from an enzyme catalyzed reaction. The color of the emitted light in a bioluminescent (or chemiluminescent or other luminescent) reaction is characteristic of the excited molecule, and is independent from its source of excitation and temperature.
An essential condition for bioluminescence is the use of molecular oxygen, either bound or free in the presence of a luciferase. Luciferases, are oxygenases, that act on a substrate, luciferin, in the presence of molecular oxygen and transform the substrate to an excited state. Upon return to a lower energy level, energy is released in the form of light for reviews see, e.g., McElroy et al. (1966) in Molecular Architecture in Cell Physiology, Hayashi et al., eds., Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, N.J., pp. 63-80; Ward et al., Chapter 7 in Chemi-and Bioluminescence, Burr, ed., Marcel Dekker, Inc. N.Y., pp. 321-358; Hastings, J. W. in (1995) Cell Physiology:Source Book, N. Sperelakis (ed.), Academic Press, pp 665-681; Luminescence, Narcosis and Life in the Deep Sea, Johnson, Vantage Press, N.Y., see, esp. pp. 50-56!.
Though rare overall, bioluminescence is more common in marine organisms than in terrestrial organisms. Bioluminescence has developed from as many as thirty evolutionarily distinct origins and, thus, is manifested in a variety of ways so that the biochemical and physiological mechanisms responsible for bioluminescence in different organisms are distinct. Bioluminescent species span many genera and include microscopic organisms, such as bacteria primarily marine bacteria including Vibrio species!, fungi, algae and dinoflagellates, to marine organisms, including arthropods, mollusks, echinoderms, and chordates, and terrestrial organism including annelid worms and insects.
Bioluminescence, as well as other types of chemiluminescence, is used for quantitative determinations of specific substances in biology and medicine. For example, luciferase genes have been cloned and exploited as reporter genes in numerous assays, for many purposes. Since the different luciferase systems have different specific requirements, they may be used to detect and quantify a variety of substances. The majority of commercial bioluminescence applications are based on firefly Photinus pyralisi! luciferase. One of the first and still widely used assays involves the use of firefly luciferase to detect the presence of ATP. It is also used to detect and quantify other substrates or co-factors in the reaction. Any reaction that produces or utilizes NAD(H), NADP(H) or long chain aldehyde, either directly or indirectly, can be coupled to the light-emitting reaction of bacterial luciferase.
Another luciferase system that has been used commercially for analytical purposes is the Aequorin system. The purified jellyfish photoprotein, aequorin, is used to detect and quantify intracellular Ca.sup.2+ and its changes under various experimental conditions. The Aequorin photoprotein is relatively small .about.20 kDa!, nontoxic, and can be injected into cells in quantities adequate to detect calcium over a large concentration range 3.times.10.sup.-7 to 10.sup.-4 M!.
Because of their analytical utility, many luciferases and substrates have been studied and well-characterized and are commercially available e.g., firefly luciferase is available from Sigma, St. Louis, Mo., and Boehringer Mannheim Biochemicals, Indianapolis, Ind.; recombinantly produced firefly luciferase and other reagents based on this gene or for use with this protein are available from Promega Corporation, Madison, Wis.; the aequorin photoprotein luciferase from jellyfish and luciferase from Renilla are commercially available from Sealite Sciences, Bogart, Ga.; coelenterazine, the naturally-occurring substrate for these luciferases, is available from Molecular Probes, Eugene, Oreg.!. These luciferases and related reagents are used as reagents for diagnostics, quality control, environmental testing and other such analyses. These reagents have not been used in connection with entertainment and recreation for the glow, illumination and color produced upon generation of bioluminescence.
Thus, it is an object herein to exploit bioluminescence for use as a recreational product in combination with articles of manufacture to produce novelty items, including toys, personal items, foods, fountains, beverages, coating compositions, such as paints and inks, textiles, including clothing, toy cigarettes, fish food, particularly for feeding transgenic fish that express a luciferase, jewelry and other such items. It is also an object herein to provide such combinations and to provide means for producing and using such combinations.


A detector unit of a computer tomograph includes a base surface that faces a support ring of a gantry of the computer tomograph in a mounting position, and a detector surface that is angled away from the base surface in an approximately perpendicular fashion, faces an isocentric axis of the gantry in the mounting position, and along which there are fitted a number of detector elements for detecting x-radiation. The base surface has an air inlet fitted in such a way that a cooling airflow applied from outside to the base surface is guided onto the inner side of the detector surface. In the mounting position, the air inlet corresponds with an air channel guided in the support ring or between the rotary carriage and the support ring.

A computer tomograph is an apparatus for producing a three-dimensional image of an object to be examined, in particular of a patient, via x-ray diagnostic methods. A conventional computer tomograph such as is disclosed, for example, in EP 0 296 339 A1 includes a substantially angular supporting frame, denoted as a gantry, having a rotary carriage that can rotate about an isocentric axis, and a support ring, which is stationary with reference to the rotation about the isocentric axis, for bearing the rotary carriage. The rotary carriage and the support ring have a common central opening into which the object to be examined is pushed for imaging. The rotary carriage holds an x-ray emitter for transirradiating the object. The rotary carriage further includes a detector unit that is held on the gantry in a position opposite the x-ray emitter and serves the purpose of recording x-ray projection images of the object.
In the course of a computed tomography examination, such x-ray projection images of the object as the rotary carriage rotates are recorded from a multiplicity of projection directions. Subsequently, a three-dimensional image of the object is calculated in a slicewise fashion via numerical backhand projection methods from the x-ray projection images.
The detector unit of a computer tomograph normally includes a multiplicity of detector elements that are arranged along a detector surface and each have an assigned evaluation electronic. During operation of the computer tomograph, the detector elements and, in particular, their electronic components generate a substantial heat loss that must be dissipated, if only to avoid overheating of the detector unit. Moreover, the maintenance during operation of the computer tomograph of a detector temperature that is as constant as possible is of great importance in order to avoid a so-called temperature drift, that is to say a thermally conditioned change in the recording characteristic of the computer tomograph.
To date, one or more variable-speed fans have frequently been used for cooling such a detector unit, these being directly assigned to the detector and thus being arranged on the rotary carriage. Such a cooling system, in which an oil cooling system is additionally provided, is disclosed, for example, in EP 0 296 339 A1. Because gantry rotational speeds of modern computer tomographs are becoming ever higher with the advancing development, the use of such fans is limited as a consequence of the centrifugal forces occurring and of frequent fan failures thereby caused through bearing damage.
Alternatively, DE 197 04 338 A1 discloses utilizing the airflow caused by the gantry rotation itself to cool electronic power components that are arranged on the rotary carriage of a gantry on a computer tomograph.


An analog control system configured to operate a converter in an electric vehicle battery charging system is provided. The analog control system includes a pulse width modulation (PWM) output unit that is configured to output a PWM signal to the converter and an integrated control unit that is configured to sense an input voltage and an output voltage of the converter. The analog control system may be implemented on a printed circuit board having a first ground voltage stage connected to the PWM output unit, a second ground voltage stage separated from the first ground voltage stage by a first predetermined interval and connected to the integrated control unit. A filtering unit is disposed between the first ground voltage stage and the second ground voltage stage to pass an output signal of a predetermined band from the PWM unit to the integrated control unit.

Today many existing vehicles are mainly powered by gasoline engines. However, since the gasoline engine powered vehicles increase environmental pollution, vehicles powered by electric drive motors have been developed. While the electric vehicles may reduce environmental pollution, such vehicles may generally not be driven for substantial periods of time since such vehicles are battery powered. To resolve disadvantages encountered by both gasoline powered vehicles and electric vehicles as described above, a hybrid vehicle having functions of the gasoline powered vehicles and electric vehicles has been developed.
The hybrid electric vehicle has both the drive functions of vehicles employing the general gasoline engine and those employing the electric motor. In other words, the hybrid electric vehicle may be driven as a gasoline engine powered vehicle or as an electric vehicle. When the hybrid electric vehicle is driven using only battery power, an inverter drives a motor depending on power supplied from a main battery and an auxiliary battery to drive the vehicle. In such a system, the main battery charges the auxiliary battery through a converter and the converter adjusts an output voltage using a pulse width modulation (PWM) signal. The PWM signal is output by a converter analog control device. To detect whether the output voltage of the converter is output at a desired level, a central processing unit (CPU) is configured to sense both the input voltage and the output voltage of the converter analog control device.
In using such a system, noise may occur as a result of sensing the input and output voltages of the CPU, due to the PWM signal output from the converter analog control device. Thus, as illustrated in FIGS. 1A and 1B, an error may occur in the voltage readings sensed by the CPU. FIG. 1A illustrates an example in which as the voltage readings are sensed by the CPU. The output voltage of the converter may be required to remain constant, but instead fluctuates between about 13 V and 14.5 V. As a result, errors may occur. As may be appreciated from the data shown in FIG. 1B, due to the voltages sensed by the CPU, the input voltage of the converter does not remain constant and an error of about 40 V or more may occur. Accordingly, in the related art the control signal or the sensing result of the CPU, (i.e., the sensed voltages) may be distorted due to the noise of the analog control device and thus the analog control device may malfunction. Accordingly, a derating control of the output current may occur, thereby reducing accuracy of estimation of the output current.


The present invention relates to a face recognition method and a face recognition device, the method including: a step for detecting one or more faces in an image frame; a step for updating a face object in a face list by using the one or more pieces of detected face information; and a step for recognizing an identity corresponding to the face object by using a plurality of feature vectors of the face object in the updated face list.

With the development of a deep learning technology, it has become possible to detect and recognize an object with high accuracy within an image through the deep learning technology. Accordingly, research for detecting or recognizing text within an image or detect a face of a specific target within an image from CCTV is actively carried out.
Face recognition is one field of computer vision for extracting features from a face of a subject for photography within an image and determining whose face is a corresponding face, and is most actively researched in fields such as security.
A system for recognizing a face within an image is composed of face detection (finding) and face recognition processes. Face detection is the step of detecting a face of a person within an image. Face recognition includes determining that a detected face corresponds to whose face.
Deep learning technology-based face detection and recognition enable a face to be found and recognized within an image with high accuracy. However, there is a problem in that an execution time is great due to a high computational load necessary for an implementation of the deep learning technology. Accordingly, there exist limitations in processing an image having high resolution in real time.
In particular, as imaging equipment such as CCTV having high resolution is recently widely distributed, there is a need to develop a face recognition system for processing an high resolution image in real time having high accuracy like the deep learning technology.

Face recognition method and face recognition device

UNIVERSITY OF SEOUL INDUSTRY COOPERATION FOUNDATION


An arrangement is provided for generating an error chain in a call stack. A function is invoked to perform a functionality. If an error occurs during performing the first function, errors including the ones contained in an error chain, created based on at least one context specific error state and represented by an error tokan, and the error, occurred during said performing the functionality, are processed. The function then returns to another function that invokes it either with a new token error token representing a new error chain containing the error occurred and the errors contained in the error chain or with an error status. If the function does not error, it returns a normal status to the other function that invokes it.

Aspects of the present invention relate to data transmission. Other aspects of the present invention relate to authenticated data transmission.
In the age of computers, software systems are developed to facilitate various types of services. For example, a bank may develop a series of programs running on a computer and interacting with either a bank personnel or a user to perform different banking tasks. A corporation may develop its web site, offering not only information about the company but also sales of its products.
An application program, simple or complex, is often organized as a hierarchy of functions or subroutines, each of which performs a pre-determined and well-defined functionality. Invoking combinations of different functions allows a system to perform diversified tasks. For example, an application system may invoke first a function to perform calculation of cost of a sale, which subsequently invokes another function, responsible for printing, to print out the calculated cost sheet. In a different task, it may first invoke a function that performs a web-based transaction, which then invokes the same printing function to print out, over the web, a transaction agreement. The printing function here is invoked by different functions and, in both instances, the printing function is running at a lower level in a call stack. In the first task, the underlying call stack consists of at least two levels, including the function to calculate a sale cost and the printing function. In the second task, the underlying call stack consists of also at least two levels, one is the function performing a web-based transaction and the other is the printing function.
At run time, a function in a call stack may error. Such an error may lead to a chain effect. That is, if a called function errors and fails to produce the result its calling function desires, the calling function may subsequently generate errors as well due to a subsequent effect of failing to perform pre-determined functionality using the desired result from its called function. In many software systems, each function that errors may independently output error codes. Such produced error codes are often limited to only programmatic errors. In addition, when a called function errors and outputs its error codes, its calling function may error as well and produce different error codes. In reality, when a running system fails to perform, operators depend on such error codes to determine the cause of the failure and correct the system based on the identified cause. Since most error codes are far from human readable or reasonably understandable, diagnosing the root cause of a run time error often requires extensive expertise and familiarity with the internal design of the software system. This requirement is not only demanding but also often unrealistic.
In a complicated computer application system, a call stack may become very deep. In this case, identifying the root cause based on a long list of error codes without the information associating the error codes from different levels of functions can be a daunting task. Even when human readable error information is provided, since it is often made available immediately after a function call returns, it requires an operator to handle associated error message immediately after the error is reported. In a real scenario, especially with a complex system having a deep call stack, it is usually not feasible.

Providing a chain of tokenized error and state information for a call stack


Data structures and various methods for invoking and creating objects are used in a distributed object system in order to implement subcontracts. A subcontract is a selected grouping of basic features or object mechanisms that a system provides for use in managing objects and has associated functions. A subcontract registry is used for creating object references for server objects. The subcontract registry has any number of subcontract objects within it, and each subcontract object may include: a subcontract identifier that identifies the subcontract object, a quality of service list that contains feature name-value pairs, and a create function unique to the subcontract object. An implementation registry is used for registering any number of implementation definitions. Each implementation definition defines an implementation for an interface within the system, and each implementation definition may include: an implementation identifier that identifies the implementation, a pointer to a subcontract object contained in the subcontract registry, an interface identifier that identifies the interface being implemented, and a set of functions used for creating and invoking a server object that are unique to that implementation. One method creates an object reference for a distributed server object by using the subcontract registry in order to identify the unique create function to be used that corresponds to the subcontract functionality desired. Another technique invokes a method defined on a server object by using an object reference to find the appropriate implementation definition in the implementation registry. Lookup and dispatch functions unique to this definition are used to invoke the method.

With the increasing popularity of object-oriented programming languages and systems, the development of distributed object systems has presented new challenges regarding the creation, referencing, invocation and use in general of the objects within these distributed systems. It has become common to provide remote procedure call (RPC) facilities that extend the semantics of local procedure calls to these distributed object systems. This often takes the form of remote object invocation. However, rather than there being a single set of obvious semantics for all remote objects, there appears to be a wide range of possible object semantics, often reflecting different application requirements. For example, there are distributed object systems that include integrated support for the features of replication, atomic transactions, object migration, and persistence. But there are also distributed object systems that provide only minimal features and instead concentrate on high performance.
One possible reaction to this diversity is to attempt to design a single distributed object system for remote objects that includes all possible features. Unfortunately, the list of possible features is continually expanding, and not all features are necessarily compatible. For example, a high performance system may not want its objects to include support for the features of persistence or atomicity. Moreover, there are often a variety of different ways of implementing a given set of semantics. Having a single system prevents applications from exploiting new and improved features that may better reflect their real needs. For example, in order to increase reliability, it may be desired to support the feature of object replication. However, it would not be desirable to have client application code doing extra work simply to talk to replicated objects, so it would be preferable to support replication "underneath the covers", as part of the object's invocation mechanism. But there are many different ways of implementing replication, and it is undesirable to build in support for some particular set of features while implicitly rejecting others.
There are a wide variety of features or object mechanisms that a distributed object system might provide. By way of example, a distributed object system may provide such features such as replication, atomic transactions, object migration, persistence, naming, event notification, relationships, server activation, clean shutdown, transactions, security, and enablement of filters (compression, encryption, tracing, debugging, etc.). These features may also be called services and may be provided by an Object Services module as part of a distributed object system. Past distributed object systems have suffered in that they were unable to provide a flexible subset of these features for different applications, much less for different objects within an application. Past systems only provided a fixed set of these features.
This deficiency may be addressed through the notion of a subcontract. Subcontracts and their use are described in the above-referenced patent application Ser. No. 08/554,794. The notion of a subcontract is also described in "Subcontract: A Flexible Base for Distributed Programming" by G. Hamilton, M. Powell and J. Mitchell, published by Sun Microsystems Laboratories, Inc., 1993. Subcontracts and their associated functionality may be implemented in many different ways.
Through the use of subcontracts, an application may specify which of the various above features (among others) it wishes to take advantage of, or may even specify different groups of features that may be used by different objects within the application. A group or a permutation of these features is termed a subcontract. Thus, each object within an application may utilize a particular subcontract (or group of features). A group of desired features is also termed a desired a quality of service. And these desired features may be represented in a quality of service list. A subcontract, then, delivers a particular quality of service within a distributed object application. An object may have one subcontract associated with it at a given time. Subcontracts are separate from object interfaces and object implementations. Thus, it is easy for object implementers to either select and use an existing subcontract, or to implement a new subcontract. Correspondingly, application level programmers need not be aware of the specific subcontracts that are being used for particular objects. A subcontract associated with an object allows the business of implementing an object to be separate from the business of implementing the object mechanisms or features provided by the system.
One of the reasons that subcontracts are effective is because they separate out the business of implementing objects from implementing object mechanisms. The availability of subcontracts enable object implementers to choose from a range of different object mechanisms (or features) without requiring that every object implementer must become familiar with the details of the object implementation machinery. The set of features that subcontracts provide are the right levers for obtaining control within a distributed environment. By design, all of the key actions taken on remote objects will involve the object's subcontract in one way or another. By way of example, actions such as object creation, object reference creation and method invocation involve the object's subcontract. Subcontracts provide an effective way for plugging in different policies for different objects and are successful in reducing the functionality that must be provided by the base system.
However, conventional distributed object system have not utilized the functionality of subcontracts and are not well adapted to integrating subcontracts. The common object request broker architecture (CORBA), defines the notion of an object adaptor. Among other tasks, an object adaptor creates servant objects and dispatches requests to a server. Object adaptors provide a limited set of choices about the server-side object mechanisms. However, most object adaptors are supplied as part of the basic object machinery, and it is not realistically possible for application writers to implement new object adaptors, or for the object machinery to discover and install new object adaptors at run time. For example, the Basic Object Adaptor (BOA) defined under CORBA is very limited in that it only provides a fixed set of features. As discussed above, it is less than desirable that an object only be provided with a fixed set of features. And even if all features are supplied, this comes at the expense of performance, and vice-versa. However, one object in a particular application may only need to utilize a limited set of features, as contrasted with a different object in the same application that needs a different set of features. Thus, prior art object adaptors may unnecessarily burden objects with extra features resulting in high overhead and increased use of CPU time.
Accordingly, the creation of a mechanism that is able to implement some of the traditional object adaptor functions, while at the same time, being capable of taking advantage of the use of subcontracts would be desirable. Such an object adaptor would overcome the shortcomings of fixed Object Adaptors in that it would permit different objects within a distributed system to take advantages of some, but not necessarily all of the features provided by the distributed object system.


A data analyzing method, apparatus, and a method for supporting data analysis includes creating or storing a semantic entity repository, wherein the semantic entity repository includes a structured entity set of entities and properties thereof, reference ranges describing the possible values of the properties, and the mappings between the entities and properties and a data structure of a data warehouse. When aggregating data, the entities, properties, and/or property values to be analyzed are selected from the semantic entity repository, and how to calculate at least one measure is defined. The data corresponding to the selected entities, properties, and property values are loaded from the data warehouse according to the mappings, and the at least one measure as defined is calculated.

Data processing systems such as the OLAP (OnLine Analytical Processing) System has been growing in popularity due to the increase in data volumes of information in business and the recognition of the value of business analysis. OLAP data processing provides a multidimensional conceptual view of the data, including full support for hierarchies, which is the most natural way to analyze businesses. For instance, an OLAP data processing model for sales evaluation can be organized as two dimensions: "geography" and "time." A time dimension might contain levels of year, month, and day. Similarly, a geography dimension can represent country, state, and county or the like.
The OLAP System organizes facts in terms of dimensions which are ways that the facts can be categorized for analysis. OLAP data analysis system is a valuable and rewarding business intelligence tool in helping evaluate balanced scorecard targets, producing reports etc. This data analysis process allows users to find the rules and trends in the data, such as the most popular products purchased by certain group of people or in a certain region, and the sales results of a company or an industry.
To this end, OLAP data processing organizes the data according to dimensions in such a way that a so-called "cube" is created. An OLAP data cube is not strictly three-dimensional geometrically, but can have multiple dimensions greater or fewer than three dimensions. In other words, the term "data cube" is used just for the convenience of understanding and description. Its essence is to organize the data in multiple dimensional representation. Once the dimensions, which depend on the subjects to be analyzed and the analysis object, are determined, the frame of a data cube is formed. If the data cube happens to be three-dimensional and is represented with a chart or a drawing, then a visible cube can be obtained.
A data cube can be developed according to business units such as sales or marketing. A data cube may convert data into usable information by allowing data aggregation. With a data cube, a business user can slice and dice data at will according to the requirements of a business analysis.
In a word, OLAP data processing is valuable because of its flexibility and powerful business analysis ability. Once the facts and dimensions are defined within an OLAP data analysis server, data processing tools provide an easy way to analyze data by simply dragging and dropping dimensions and facts.
Currently, the method of constructing an OLAP data analysis model is to directly define the dimensions and measures that a data cube should have. Such a method only focuses on defining what dimensions are needed and ignores the relationship and structure existing among the dimensions. Moreover, it is hard for business people to reuse these dimensions. People may have to try very hard to find all useful dimensions for analysis when they design a data cube. What further complicates the problem is that there may be some dimensions which are time-dependent, e.g., the credit rating of a company. Most of the existing data analysis systems can not obtain correct analysis results when processing data cubes with time-dependent dimensions.

Data analyzing method, apparatus and a method for supporting data analysis

International Business Machines Corporation


A method and system for treating a patient having an acute myocardial infarction. Such system may comprise at least one tank having a pressurized gas contained therein, at least one housing having a shell and being adapted to at least partially surround a body segment of the patient, a hose/valve device for supplying the compressed gas from the tank to the housing; and a control device for controlling the flow of compressed gas from the tank to the housing in accordance with cardiac systole and cardiac diastolic of the patient to vary the pressure in synchronization with the patient's heart function. The system may be arranged within a moving vehicle, such as an ambulance, an airplane, or a ship.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an external counterpulsation cardiac assist device which may apply positive and/or negative relative pressure to one or more limbs of a patient and, more particularly, to such device having a housing which may be used for applying positive and/or negative relative (to atmospheric) pressure to the limbs in counterpulsation with heart function, which is adapted to be assembled in situ to provide customized fit and which may use a relatively small amount of gas.
2. Description of the Related Art
A method of assisting the circulation without invading the vascular system by the external application of intermittent pressure to the body has been known. Studies have shown that application of a positive relative pressure pulse to the lower extremities during cardiac diastole can raise the diastolic pressure by 40% to 50% while the application of negative relative pressure (vacuum), during cardiac systole can lower the systolic pressure by about 30%. Hereinafter, by "relative" pressure, it is meant relative to the atmospheric (gauge) pressure.
This externally applied positive and negative relative pressure increases the venous return to the heart because of the unidirectional valves in the peripheral venous bed. In cariogenic shock accompanied by myocardial ischemia, the increased coronary flow may improve cardiac function and thus indirectly affect the hemodynamic response to this procedure. It is further believed to promote the growth of collateral channel blood vessels feeding heart tissue and to reduce the symptoms of angina.
The therapeutic results of the above-mentioned method have been well documented. However, as a practical matter, an apparatus previously used to externally apply positive and negative relative pressure to the limbs has been extremely inefficient and therefore the procedure has not found wide acceptance. More specifically, such apparatus employed for this purpose included a prefabricated hinged conical metal housing or shell housing. Within the housing, a hollow cylindrical inflatable rubber balloon-like tube was placed, within which the limb segment was situated. The balloon-like rubber tube was filled with water, which was pressurized to inflate the tube, thereby filling the interior of the housing and applying pressure to the surface area of the limb segment. To apply negative relative pressure, the water was first pumped out of the rubber tube, leaving an air gap between the rubber tube and the limb. An impermeable, rubber-like coated fabric was placed around the exterior of the housing, and was sealed around the limb to trap the air between the limb and the rubber tube. By pumping out the air trapped within the sealed fabric, the fabric first collapsed around the housing, and then negative pressure began to form within the gap between the limb and the rubber tube.
This previous apparatus or system had numerous operational difficulties. Due to high resistance to flow, pressurizing the rubber tube and pumping the water out of the rubber tube fast enough to match the heart beat was very difficult if not nearly impossible. As the result, even the process of applying positive relative pressure was very difficult. The process was made even more difficult since a prefabricated housing could not be made to closely fit every patient. As a result, a relatively large gap may have been left between the rubber tube and the limb to be filled by the expanding rubber tube. In such situation, the amount of air that had to be pumped out of the rubber-coated fabric enclosed space around the housing and in between the limb and the rubber tube was relatively large, thereby requiring large air pumping action. In addition, due to the flexibility of the rubber-coated fabric, it would tend to deform and enter the space between the limb and the rubber tube, thereby making it difficult to achieve the desired level of negative pressure (vacuum) around the limb.
Other apparatus or applicators may utilize a prefabricated and relatively non-extensible fabric within which a balloon-like element is located. The balloon-like element with its enclosing housing or cuff is wrapped around the limb and secured by straps equipped with hook and loop tape, commercially known as VELCRO. Such applicators may be or may have been supplied from Vassmedical, Inc. of Westbury, N.Y.
During operation, the balloon is pressurized by air, thereby applying pressure to the surface of the enclosed limb. Due to the bulging and deformation of the cuff as the balloon is pressurized, a relatively large volume of air is required to achieve the required limb surface pressure. This is the case even though the cuff material is relatively non-extensible and the cuff may be applied snugly to the limb segment. As the result, large capacity pumps are required to drive the apparatus because of the large volume of air which has to be rapidly moved in and in most cases out of the balloons, to alternatively inflate and deflate the balloons, to apply the required pressure to the limb. Additionally, this applicator and all variations thereof that use balloons to apply pressure, cannot be used to apply relative negative pressure to the limb. Another disadvantage of such applicators is that due to the requirement of a large air volume, the system is rendered non-portable, and hence cannot be made available outside a fixed treatment room and may not be available in emergency situations.
An attempt was made to develop design concepts with a rigid or semi-rigid outer shell which surround an inflatable balloon-type interior. An applicator of this type is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 5,554,103 issued Sep. 10, 1996 to Zhang, et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 5,997,540 issued Dec. 7, 1999 to Zhang, et al., both of which are owned by Vasomedical, Inc. of Westbury, N.Y. Those applicators are described to be wrapped around the limb and held in place with some means such as straps of VELCRO. However, such prefabricated applicator designs cannot closely fit the limb and thus still require a large volume of air to provide the required limb surface pressure level. This is the case since such prefabricated applicators cannot be made to precisely fit a limb segment, thereby leaving a significant dead space between the balloon-like tube and the limb.
The aforementioned patents propose to fill the dead space by spacers to reduce the amount of air required for the operation of the applicator. These spacers have to be cut in various shapes and thicknesses and therefore are highly cumbersome and impractical.
The outer shells and applicators may be custom made to fit the limb segments. A large number of applicators of various sizes and shapes may also be fabricated to nearly accommodate the contour of the limbs of various patients. As is to be appreciated, custom made applicators may be impractical. As also is to be appreciated, fabricating and/or maintaining an inventory of a large number of applicators of different sizes and shapes suitable for a wide variety of different size patients such as for a hospital may also be impractical.
In addition, since such applicators may operate by pressurizing balloon-like tubes around the limb segment, they cannot be used to apply negative relative pressure to the limb segment.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

External counterpulsation (ECP) device for use in an ambulance or the like for heart attack patients to limit heart muscle damage


A method for measuring the resistance component current included in the leakage current is provided. In a monitoring apparatus and system for measurement the signal waveform of at least one AC cycle is sampled. The resistance component leakage current is measured by dividing the average of integrated value of the instantaneous leakage current values and the instantaneous voltage values by the square root of average of squared instantaneous voltage values. In addition, a voltage signal of the target measurement circuit is obtained the waveform of the leakage current signal and the voltage signal for one cycle is sampled and stored; the leakage current signal and the voltage signal are expanded to N-th higher harmonic wave component respectively, and the resistance component that relates to the leakage current is calculated.

This invention relates to a method for measuring the resistance component current included in a leakage current and resistance value, namely insulation resistance to monitor the insulation of a distribution system, and relates to an instrument, apparatus, or system to which this measurement method is applied.
(A) a direct measurement method in which a zero-phase current transformer is provided to a distribution circuit or a grounding conductor of a transformer, (B) a measurement method in which a voltage is applied externally on a grounding conductor of a transformer or a distribution circuit, or (C) a method in which a leakage current is measured based on the output of a zero-phase current transformer and the voltage of a distribution circuit have been proposed as the method for measurement of the leakage current or insulation resistance of a conventional distribution system.
The exemplary disclosure that belongs to (A) includes Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H2-129556, the exemplary disclosure that belongs to (B) includes Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. S63-238470, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H1-143971, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H2-83461, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H4-52565, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H6-258363, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H9-318684, and Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H11-304855, and the exemplary disclosure that belongs to (C) includes Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H3-179271, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H4-220573, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H6-339218, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H2001-225247, and Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H2001-21604.
These disclosures are summarized in FIG. 9.
FIG. 9 is a structural diagram showing a leakage current measurement system. In FIG. 9, 40 denotes a transformer, 41 denotes a breaker, 42 denotes a primary circuit of a distribution system, 43a, 43b, and 43c denote loads of electric components, 44 denotes a grounding conductor of the transformer 40, 45 denotes an apparatus for measurement of the leakage current based on the received output of a current transformer 46, 47a, 47b, and 47c denote electrostatic capacities generated on the distribution path, 48a, 48b, and 48c denote power switches of the loads 43a to 43c, and 49 denotes an electrostatic capacity of a noise filter provided to the load. 50 denotes a voltage application apparatus for applying a voltage on the ground conductor 44 of the transformer 40, and 51 denotes the insulation resistance of the load 43a or the insulation resistance of wiring of the primary circuit 42 for the purpose of convenience.
Iz denotes a leakage current of the primary circuit, Ic denotes a capacitative current (reactive component current) that flows in the electrostatic capacity, and Igr denotes a resistance component current (active component current) that flows in the insulation resistance component.
In FIG. 9, in the above-mentioned measurement method (A), the zero-phase current transformer is provided to the grounding conductor 44 of the transformer 40 to measure the leakage current. In the measurement method (B), a voltage of about 1 Hz/1 V is applied from the voltage application apparatus 50 so that a current does not flow to the electrostatic capacities 47a to 47c to eliminate the effect of the electrostatic capacity, and a signal generated from the zero-phase current transformer 46 is measured by use of the instrument 45. In the measurement method (C), the measurement is carried out based on the voltage applied from the primary circuit 42 of the distribution system and the output of the zero-phase current transformer 46.
FIG. 10 is a vector diagram showing the leakage current Iz, the capacitative that flows in the electrostatic capacity, and the resistance component current that flows in the insulation resistance component. In FIG. 10, the phase angle between the phase voltage and the line voltage is 30 degrees in the case of the three-phase alternating voltage. The capacitative current Ic is 90 degrees different from the resistance component current Igr, and the leakage current Iz is the composite current of the current Ic and the current Igr, namely vector sum. However, the capacitative current varies depending on the magnitude of the loading. For example, when all the loads 43a to 43c are loaded, the capacitative current increases as shown with Ic′. As the result, the leakage current Iz changes to Iz′. In other words, the currents Iz′ and Ic′ change depending on the variation of the load.
The above-mentioned method (A) is involved in a problem of incapable measurement of the resistance component current if the electrostatic capacity is large due to a noise filter because reactive component current is predominant.
The above-mentioned method (B) is also involved in a problem of complex system structure due to the requirement of external application of a voltage and the requirement of no effect on the loading apparatus.
One exemplary method of the above-mentioned method (C) is involved in a problem of unsuitability for a plurality of distribution circuits because an auxiliary impedance element is provided and the insulation resistance is determined.
Another exemplary method of the above-mentioned method (C), in which the phase angle is determined to calculate the resistance component current and resistance value and to further detect the insulation deterioration phase, is involved in the difficulty in determination of the correct phase angle in the small current region because of the characteristic of the current transformer.

Leakage current or resistance measurement method, and monitoring apparatus and monitoring system of the same


An example operation may include one or more of generating a snapshot of a state of a permissioned blockchain, generating a unique identifier of the state snapshot that distinguishes the state snapshot from other state snapshots of the permissioned blockchain, storing the state snapshot in a data store, and storing proof of the state snapshot including the unique identifier and a storage location of the state snapshot on a public blockchain.

A centralized database stores and maintains data in a single database (e.g., a database server) at one location. This location is often a central computer, for example, a desktop central processing unit (CPU), a server CPU, or a mainframe computer. Information stored on a centralized database is typically accessible from multiple different points. Multiple users or client workstations can work simultaneously on the centralized database, for example, based on a client/server configuration. A centralized database is easy to manage, maintain, and control, especially for purposes of security because of its single location. Within a centralized database, data redundancy is minimized as a single storing place of all data also implies that a given set of data only has one primary record.
However, a centralized database suffers from significant drawbacks. For example, a centralized database has a single point of failure. In particular, if there are no fault-tolerance considerations and a hardware failure occurs (for example a hardware, firmware, and/or a software failure), all data within the database is lost and work of all users is interrupted. In addition, centralized databases are highly dependent on network connectivity. As a result, the slower the connection, the amount of time needed for each database access is increased. Another drawback is the occurrence of bottlenecks when a centralized database experiences high traffic due to a single location. Furthermore, a centralized database provides limited access to data because only one copy of the data is maintained by the database. As a result, multiple devices cannot access the same piece of data at the same time without creating significant problems or risk overwriting stored data. Furthermore, because a database storage system has minimal to no data redundancy, data that is unexpectedly lost is very difficult to retrieve other than through manual operation from back-up storage.
Two common types of blockchains are public blockchains (open to the public) and permissioned blockchains (only members can access). The open/public use of a public blockchain enables it to be distributed over multiple heterogenous cloud contributors which can guarantee near 100% uptime. In contrast, a permissioned blockchain commonly exists in a private cloud environment. In this scenario, if the private cloud goes down due to an unplanned outage, etc., peer nodes of the permissioned blockchain can become out of sync from each other due to lack of communication. As such, what is needed is a solution that overcomes these drawbacks and limitations.

Database snapshot for managing state synchronization


An information-discriminating circuit has a biasing device that superposes bias voltage on an input signal, and a comparator that discriminates information by comparing an output signal from the biasing device with a threshold value. The difference between the bias voltage and the threshold value is continuously adjusted such that a noise margin is varied according to the amplitude of the input signal.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an information-discriminating circuit which is suitable for use as an interface of ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network).
2. Prior Art
As information-oriented society has advanced in these days, it is demanded to transmit a large amount of information. ISDN is provided to meet such demand, and the residence of a subscriber thereof is normally provided with two 64-kbps channels and a 16-kbps channel. In such a case, information is transmitted in the form of a ternary signal over telecommunication lines such as a telephone line. Therefore, a receiving side, such as facsimile terminal equipment and a MODEM, has to be equipped with an information-discriminating circuit for discriminating information in the ternary signal transmitted thereto.
The ternary signal supplied to the receiving side is transmitted through various transmission lines, such as a telephone line, relay stations, and terminal equipment, and therefore the signal input to the receiving side varies in amplitude depending on characteristics of the transmission lines. If the input signal thus varying in amplitude is compared with a fixed threshold value to discriminate information in the signal, a sufficient noise margin cannot be obtained, to thereby increase the bit error rate. To overcome this inconvenience, the conventional information-discriminating circuit changes the threshold value according to the amplitude of the input signal.
The conventional information-discriminating circuit will now be described hereinbelow with reference to FIGS. 1 to 3.
FIG. 1 shows the circuit arrangement of the conventional information-discriminating circuit. In the figure, a transformer T has an output terminal t3 on a secondary side thereof, which is connected to a junction P3 between resistances 13 and 14. Resistances 11, 12, 15, and 16, and the resistances 13 and 14 are serially connected between a power supply and ground, to divide supply voltage. The values of the resistances 11 to 16 are set so as to be symmetrical with respect to the junction P3 between the resistances 13 and 14. More specifically, the values of the resistances 11 and 16 are set to a value R1, the values of the resistances 12 and 15 to a value R2, and the values of the resistances 13 and 14 to a value R3, respectively. A capacitor C is connected between the output terminal t3 and ground and functions as a bypass capacitor for eliminating an AC component of a signal input thereto to stabilize the voltage. A selector 21 has input terminals A and B thereof connected to junctions P1 and P2 of the resistances 11, 12 and 13, and a selector 21 has input terminals A and B to junctions P4 and P5 of the resistances 14, 15 and 16, respectively. In the illustrated example, voltage at the input terminal A of the selector 21 is equal to Vc+V2, and voltage at the input terminal A of the selector 22 is equal to Vc-V2. On the other hand, voltage at the input terminal B of the selector 21 is equal to Vc+V3, and voltage at the input terminal B of the selector 22 is equal to Vc-V3.
When an input signal Vin is supplied to input terminals t1 and t2 of the transformer T, a DC component of the input signal Vin is eliminated by the transformer T, and the resulting input signal Vin is supplied from an output terminal t4 of the transformer T to an input level-detecting circuit 30. The input level-detecting circuit 30 detects the amplitude of the input signal Vin (hereinafter referred to as "the input level"), and compares the detected amplitude with a predetermined value, to thereby generate a control signal which controls the selectors 21 and 22. In the illustrated example, when the input level exceeds the predetermined value, the voltage at the input terminal A of the selector 21 or 22 is selected, whereas when the input level is below the predetermined value, the voltage at the input terminal B of the selector 21 or 22 is selected. Further, output voltage from the selector 21 is applied to a negative input terminal of a comparator 41, and output voltage from the selector 22 to a positive input terminal of a comparator 42, respectively, the both output voltage values being used as threshold values for discriminating information in the input signal Vin.
Next, description will be made of how the conventional information-discriminating circuit operates when the input level is so low that it is below the predetermined value, with reference to a timing chart of FIGS. 2A to 2C. FIG. 2A shows a waveform of the input signal Vin supplied to the comparators 41 and 42, which fluctuates with respect to the voltage Vc as a central value. In this case, the threshold values of the comparators 41 and 42 are set to Vc+V3 and Vc-V3, respectively. As a result, the comparators 41 and 42 generate output voltages V(+) and V(-) as shown in FIGS. 2B and 2C, respectively.
Further, description will be made of how the circuit operates when the input level is so high that it exceeds the predetermined value, with reference to a timing chart of FIGS. 3A to 3C. FIG. 3A shows a waveform of the input signal Vin supplied to the comparators 41 and 42, which fluctuates with respect to the voltage or central value Vc. In this case, the threshold values of the comparators 41 and 42 are set to Vc+V2 and Vc-V2, respectively. As a result, the comparators 41 and 42 generate output voltages V(+) and V(-) as shown in FIGS. 3B and 3C, respectively.
As described above, the conventional information-discriminating circuit stepwise changes the threshold values according to the input level to increase the noise margin.
In the conventional information-discriminating circuit, the threshold values of the comparators 41 and 42 are set by the use of the resistances 11 to 16. Therefore, the threshold values can be only stepwise set even if the number of the resistances is increased. Thus, the conventional information-discriminating circuit has the disadvantage that the maximum noise margin cannot be always obtained.
To increase the noise margin, the number of threshold values needs to be increased. If the number of threshold values is increased, however, the process of generating the control signal by the input level-detecting circuit 30 becomes complicated, and further the number of input terminals of the selectors 21 and 22 must be increased, which unfavorably increases the number of component parts of the information-discriminating circuit.


The present invention pertains to RF (radio frequency) inductive coupling plasma (ICP) inductors having an actual primary winding (powered directly by an RF source) wound around a closed ferrite core, and a virtual closed secondary winding formed around this ferrite core in a plasma contained within a discharge chamber. The present invention enables one to maintain a uniform plasma with no limitation in process sizes and assumes a variety of embodiments. The simplest is merely an annular ferrite core having a primary winding (a few turns) which is placed into the discharge chamber filled with a necessary gas. The plasma sources based on the present invention can be applied in plasma processing technology: etching, deposition, ion implantation, abatement, etc. in plasma devices from ten Watts to a few kW, at an operating frequency from 100 kHz to a few MHZ, and at linear sizes from a few centimeters to a few meters.

RF plasma sources are widely used in plasma processing technology for large scale manufacturing of semiconductor chips (etching, deposition, ion implantation, sputtering), large panel displays, and ion sources. Inductively coupled plasma (ICP) sources as well as microwave plasma (MWP) sources have been more popular in a new generation of plasma reactors due to their ability to maintain high-density plasma at very low gas pressure, and due to their capability to separate a process of plasma generation from an ion acceleration.
One of the most advanced dense-plasma sources based on an inductive RF discharge (ICP) is shown in FIG. 2. This typical ICP source comprises a flat helix inductor coil 4 and a metallic discharge chamber 1 (filed with operating gas) having a quartz window 8 which separates a discharge volume of the chamber 1 from the inductor coil 4 thereby maintaining a plasma within the chamber. The direction of the electric field induced by the coil 4 is shown as a circular arrow in FIG. 2. The base 6 of the chamber contains either plasma processed substrate or an ion extracting arrangement for creating an ion beam. The external RF power source 5, connected to the inductor coil 4 via a matching device (matcher) 7, maintains the RF current in the inductor coil 4. This RF current induces an azimuthal RF electric field which maintains an azimuthal RF discharge current producing a plasma. The same configuration enables one to consider the ICP inductor as an electrical transformer where the inductor coil 4 is an actual primary winding and the plasma is a single closed turn of a virtual secondary winding. The matcher 7 is an essential part of the ICP inductor. It performs two important functions. First of them is to match the 50 Ohm conventional output resistance of the RF power source 5 with the inductor coil 4 impedance (depending on plasma parameters) for efficient power transfer to an ICP inductor. The second one is to tune the inductor coil 4 circuit to a resonance with an operating frequency, thereby, to enhance resonantly the RF current in the coil 4.
For a typical ICP inductor driven at a standard industrial application frequency of 13.56 MHZ, and with the RF power transferred into the plasma being around 1 kW, the inner volume of the discharge chamber 1 is a few liters, and the operating gas pressure is in the range 1-100 mTorr, the resonant RF current of the coil is a few tens of Amperes, and the RF voltage across the inductor coil 4 is a few kV. Under these conditions, the RF power loss in the matcher, connectors, and the inductor coil itself (due to its final resistance) is comparable to that transferred to the plasma. Moreover, due to the coil 4 and the metallic chamber 1 proximity, an essential RF current is induced along the chamber wall. This effect results in an additional power loss because of chamber heating. Therefore, a power transfer efficiency to the plasma is essentially less than 1, since a perceptible power has been dissipated in the ICP source hardware of the practically realized devices.
The large scale of RF voltage across the inductor coil 4 (a few kV) creates a considerable capacitive coupling between the coil and the plasma resulting in a capacitive current through the plasma to the chamber wall, and also in a high dc negative potential on the inner surface of the quartz window 8. The mentioned high dc potential accelerates the plasma ions toward the window causing window surface erosion and plasma contamination. Additionally, the capacitive RF current increases the plasma dc potential reference with respect to the chamber. This effect leads to a limitation (from the bottom) of minimum energy of the ions coming to a substrate 6 and is capable of damaging the substrate. Generally, the presence of high RF voltages on the coil 4 and the matching device 7 causes various serious problems (corona, sparking, breakdown) and costly efforts to prevent them.
The present invention enables one to overcome all the considered problems by insertion of a closed core with a high permeability (ferrite core) into an actual primary winding (inductor coil) and into a virtual secondary winding (induced plasma), instead of an air-core used for the conventional ICP inductor shown in FIG. 2.

RF plasma inductor with closed ferrite core


A mine air crossing includes opposite side walls and a deck extending from side wall to side wall. Each side wall includes a plurality of sections assembled side-by-side and interconnected by quick-connections. Similarly, each deck may include deck sections assembled side-by-side and interconnected by quick-connections.

This invention relates generally to mine ventilation, more particularly to mine overcast and mine undercast structures (generally, mine air crossings), i.e., a structure for the intersection of two passageways or airways in a mine wherein air is flowing in each passageway or airway for ventilation, the installation thereof in the mine as completed functioning to by-pass air flowing in one airway over the other airway at the intersection to avoid interference of one flow with the other, and the method of installation.
Reference is made to the co-assigned U.S. Pat. No. 5,412,916 of William R. Kennedy and John M. Kennedy dated May 9, 1995 entitled "Structure Having Quick-Connect Components", U.S. Pat. No. 5,466,187 of John M. Kennedy and William R. Kennedy dated Nov. 14, 1995 entitled "Mine Ventilation Structure", U.S. Pat. No. 6,256,946 B1 of William R. Kennedy and John M. Kennedy dated Jul. 10, 2001 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,264,549 B1 of William R. Kennedy and John M. Kennedy dated Jul. 24, 2001 for background on mine overcasts and undercasts (including their function and prior overcast structure). Reference is also made to the co-assigned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/038,356 of William R. Kennedy and John M. Kennedy filed Jan. 4, 2002 entitled "Mine Ventilation Structure and Deck Panels Therefor". All these patents and applications are incorporated herein by reference. And reference is further made to the book titled "Practical Mine Ventilation" by William R. Kennedy, Second Edition published 1999 by Intertec Publishing Corporation of Chicago, Ill.

Jack Kennedy Metal Products & Buildings, Inc.


An Agrostis palustris (stolonifera) turfgrass variety is disclosed. The invention relates to the seeds, the plants, and to methods of producing an Agrostis plant having the characteristic of average leaf blade width of less than one mm wide.

There are over 100 species of Bentgrass (Agrostis) but only two are used to any great extent as golf course turf. Bentgrass is well adapted to close mowing due to its prostrate growth habit. They grow best in moist uncompacted soils and have broad temperature hardiness.
Creeping bentgrass (Agrostis palustris) is so named due to its ability to creep laterally by stolons. The stolons are able to root at the nodes producing a new plant. Creeping bentgrass is the plant of choice for fairways, tees and greens where the height of cut is below one-half inch.
Creeping bentgrass (Agrostis palustris) is a perennial cool season grass that forms a dense mat. The grass spreads by profuse creeping stolons and basal tillers and possesses rather vigorous, shallow roots. Stems, or stolons, are decumbent (creeping) and slender and produce long narrow leaves. Leaf blades are smooth on the upper surface and ridged on the underside, are approximately 1 to 3 mm wide and bluish green in appearance. The ligule is long, membranous, finely toothed or entire and rounded, auricles are absent.
Developing new grass species is difficult, time consuming, and expensive. The developer must sift through thousands of prospective grasses listed in botanical literature, identify promising grasses, and often travel thousands of miles to locate, isolate, identify, transport, quarantine, grow, test, and breed these grasses. This process can take more than 10 years to develop acceptable cultivars. Furthermore, as it turns out, most prospective grasses in nature have no commercial turf value, due to their inability to generate an acceptable ground cover when mowed. The vast majority of natural grasses cannot produce a plush lawn under continuing defoliation.
Yet another complexity facing the plant developer is the unresponsiveness of many wild grasses to plant breeding. The vast majority of wildland grasses lack genetic potential for refinement into desirable turfgrass cultivars. Only after considerable investment in collection and breeding does the developer discover which grass species can be successful bred and which cannot.
The Agrostis genus--better known as the bentgrasses--is comprised of over 100 species, several of which have been developed into successful turfgrasses. One Agrostis in particular, A. stolonifera or creeping bentgrass, has become the preeminent grass for golf course putting greens the world over. Another Agrostis species, colonial bentgrass (A. tenuis Sibth.), has been bred into a golf course grass useful on tees and fairways in cooler regions. Two or three other Agrostis species find minor turf application, mostly for golf, tennis courts, bowling greens, or an occasional home lawn.
The Agrostis genus is widely distributed throughout the world with representative species found on all of the northern continents. However, of the present-day bentgrass species in use as turfgrasses, all originated from Europe. The original seed of these plants was brought to the US during colonial times.
America has an abundance of native bentgrass species (A. S. Hitchcock, 1951, Manual of the grasses of the United States. USDA Misc. Publ. 200) but none are commercially useable as turf grass.
Agrostis palustris (stolonifera) is found in nature throughout the mountains of New Mexico, Arizona, and California, along the Rockies, and north to Fairbanks, Ak. Commercial bentgrass species (creeping bentgrass, colonial bentgrass, etc.) all possess stolons (above-ground running stems) and/or rhizomes (below ground running stems). Hitchcock describes Agrostis palustris (stolonifera) as follows:
Culms slender, tufted, 10 to 30 cm tall, leaves mostly basal, the blades narrow; panicle loosely spreading, 5 to 10 cm long, the branches capillary, flexuous, minutely scabrous; spikelets 1.5 to 2.5 mm long; lemma about 1.3 mm long, awnless; palea minute. Differs from A. scabra in the smaller spikelets and in the narrower panicle with shorter flexuous branches. PA1 Delicate, loosely-tufted, glabrous, perennial, 10-30 cm high; blades flat, narrow, 1-6 cm long; panicle loose, green or purple, 5-10 cm long; rays capillary; spikelets about 1.5 mm long; lower glume scabrous on the keel, slightly larger than the upper; lemma truncate, awnless, 1 mm long; palea minute.
Piper and Beattie (Charles V. Piper and R. Kent Beattie, 1914, Flora of Southeastern Washington and adjacent Idaho, New Era Printing Co., Lancaster, Pa.) studied the natural occurrence of Agrostis palustris (stolonifera). They found it common to the alpine woods of the Craig Mountains. Their botanical description is as follows:
Correll and Correll (D. S. Correll and H. B. Correll, 1972, Aquatic and wetland plants of the Southwestern United States, Stanford Univ. Press, Stanford, Calif.) reported that Agrostis palustris (stolonifera) is an important native wetland species in moist mountain meadows, swamps, shallow water of ponds, lakes, along streams, and on sand-gravel bars in river beds throughout the West. DeBenedetti and Parsons (S. H. DeBenedetti and D. J. Parsons, 1984, Postfire succession in a Sierran subalpine meadow, Amer. Midland Naturalist 111:118-125) concluded that Agrostis palustris (stolonifera) was the most important native grass species present in post-fire succession of subalpine grasslands in California. Its tenacious growth under adverse conditions makes it a valuable forage for wildlife.

Creeping bentgrass Agrostis palustris (stolonifera) variety named `PENN G-1`