A safe medical needle apparatus, including a needle duct having a needle head, a needle seat, in which the needle tail is installed; a safe protecting shell and a biasing part through which the needle duct can pass; A protuberant stop portion, which is provided on the outer surface of the needle duct near the needle head, and the maximum size of cross section thereof is larger than the outer diameter of the remainder of the needle duct; the safe protecting shell there inside includes sequentially a biasing part cavity near the outlet, a protecting cavity, the across section of which is smaller than the biasing part cavity, a stop portion of the protecting shell and a needle seat cavity near the inlet of the needle duct and matching the needle seat; the size of the stop portion of the protecting shell is smaller than the maximum size of the stop portion of the needle duct, making the needle duct be movable therein but the stop portion of the needle duct be locked thereby, wherein a side of the biasing part cavity having a releasing port. Said biasing part is elastic and includes a through hole, under action of a external force the biasing part is contained in the biasing part cavity and is so biased that the needle duct can pass the through hole, and if the external force is removed, the through hole displaces and staggers with the needle duct under the action of the elasticity.

Since adopting disposable medical instruments, a large number of waste instruments bring on the problem of environment pollution. Furthermore, the utilized instruments with needles frequently puncture-wound the medical workers, resulting in that the virus or bacteria carried by the bodies of the patients can infect the medical workers and causing the medical workers to be infected diseases even to be dead. These events are often heard in the worldwide. Currently, the problem of the unexpected puncture-wound is attended more and more due to the susceptibility of AIDS, hepatitides and other serious hematopathies.
Thus it can be seen that puncture-wounding the medical workers by the needle heads of the instruments with needles possesses huge danger. Accordingly, numerous apparatus have been provided for eliminating or decreasing this danger. At present, these apparatus can be produced in theory, but actually, many apparatus fail to adapt to be manufactured economically and reasonably in mass production and/or in low cost mainly because the adopted technologies and processes are too complex, for instance, existing the problem of molding tolerance.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,348,544 granted to Sweeney, et al., on Sep. 20, 1994 (simply referred to as "Sweeney's") has opened an injector apparatus involving a shield. The shield is slid by manual operation along the needle-head duct, from the position where it is near the operator to the far position where the needlepoint is covered. The apparatus includes an articulated arm, which protrudes from the needle-head duct and is movable away from the operator for self-folding, so that the shield protrudes and cover the needlepoint. A metal clip blocks the contact of the needlepoint. In addition, it further opened a substituting embodiment, wherein a spring assists the manual operation. The company Becton Dickinson located in Flankling Lake City of N.J. has sold an injector apparatus designed on the basis of the Sweeney's patent, which utilizes three separate parts (two molded parts and one metal clip) for moving the shield. Once the apparatus protrudes in order to cover the needlepoint, it is hard to be resetting. Therefore, the needle head is difficult to continue to be used. Furthermore, the articulated arm needs to be started at the area where the needle head is located and includes some parts. These parts will hinder the operator to watch the position where the needle shall penetrate.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,246,428 granted to Donaldw. Falknor (simply referred to as "Falknor's") on Sep. 21, 1993 has opened an injector apparatus involving a covering part, which can be released automatically to protrude in direction away from the operator, so as to cover the needle head. This apparatus includes a locking mechanism, which can be switched manually between the unlocking position and locking position, so as to expose the needle head for using and locking the covering part on the needle head. Of course, the positions of the locking mechanism provide the visual indication of the safety condition of the apparatus (whether the latch is fastened). However, this locking mechanism is a sole safety mechanism and the position indication thereof may be "lost" in the tensional circumstance. When the locking mechanism is at the unlocking position, if the front end impacts certain areas of the body, it will occur that the areas contact the needle head. In addition, the covering part can cover a portion of the connected injector body before the covering part wholly protrudes. Even if the covering part is made of transparent material, it is possible that the indicating mark of volume metering on the injector body is difficult to be red out accurately when the injector is used in the case of titration.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,256,153 granted to Lawrence W. Hake (simply referred to as "Hakes'") on Oct. 26, 1993 has opened an injector apparatus, which includes a shield slid by manual operation. The shield is located on the injector body in the process of medical treatment using the medical needle head of the injector and usually slides into the position where the needle head is protected in the direction away from the operator after finishing this course. The operators utilizing this apparatus usually complain that it is difficult to clearly view the metering indication mark when the shield is located on the injector body and there is a danger of unexpected puncture wound made by the needle head when the shield moves in direction away from the operator for covering the needle head. Furthermore, when the shield covers the needle head, it is hard to determine if the shield is in locking condition or unlocking condition, resulting to the possibility of unexpected puncture wound made by needle head.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,139,489 and 5,154,285 granted to William H. Hollister (simply referred to as "Hollister'") respectively on Aug. 18, 1992 and Oct. 13, 1992 have opened a needle head protecting apparatus, which can be applied in a assembly of cuspidal needle head having two ends or simpler single needle head system. This protecting apparatus includes a generally rigid shell, which flexibly join with a container used in a vacuum test tube sampling system or a needle head casing. When operating this protecting apparatus, the rigid shell pivots to the position where the exposed needle heads of the assembly of cuspidal needle head having two ends are joined and is reliably fixed on the exposed needle heads. One of the main defects existing in the Hollister's needle head protecting apparatus lies in the length size and position of the rigid shell. The length size and position of the rigid shell causes the inconvenience when some assemblies or systems are used in process of medical treatment, as considered by some peoples. The second defect is that it is need to either pivot the shell to join the needle head by two hands, or seek out and utilize a certain stably supporting surface to withstand the shell when the needle head pivots into the shell. In a structure of a currently sold product, a retainer of a certain integral container of the Hollister's apparatus includes two molded parts, which can make the shell pivot as far as possible to the position where the process of medical treatment is not hampered. This design needs five molded parts including a needle head assembly, which can be discarded.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,823,997 granted to David L. Thorne (simply referred to as "D L. Thorne'") on Oct. 20, 1998 has opened a collapsible scabbard for a needle head, in which the scabbard is folded around a medical needle head, allowing to operate the needle head in process of medical treatment. The scabbard in a point away from the sharp needle end is hinged on a structure, such as the needle head casing or bloodletting barrel. The needle end is enveloped last, so as to protect the operator. At the end of the process of medical treatment, the scabbard is unfolded and protrudes in the direction toward the needle end away from the structure, so as to envelop the needle head and the cuspidal needle end thereof, which the operator can not contact. According to the description made by D L. Thorne, an important object of the apparatus is to provide a scabbard, which is collapsible for use in the process of medical treatment adopting medical needle head and can be unfolded to join the needle head to form a structure of a generally rigid needle head casing, so as to prevent unexpected contacting the cuspidal needle end. But there are two defects existing in this apparatus. One defect lies in that its structure is more complex and machining mold and molding is too difficult when the bloodletting barrel or needle head casing is integrally mold-formed, the costs thereof is hard to be accepted. The second defect lies in that this apparatus fails to meet the requirement of detachability and interchangeability of the medical needle. As we usually known, the medical needles in a clinical use often need repeatedly detaching and installing. For example, the injector needs to change the needle head when dispensing and human injecting. This requires that the medical needle shall possess the detachability and interchangeability. The common medical needles possess this characteristic, but in the designs of safe medical needles or instruments, in order to meet the function for protecting the needle, the detachability and interchangeability of the medical needle is lost. This defect exists not only in the opened patents of Sweeney, Falknor, Hake, Hollister, and D L. Thorne, et al, but also in the most of the safe types patent designs. This is the one of the important reasons why such more patent designs are hard to be commercialized.
The U.S. Pat. No. 6,254,575 granted to Gale H. Torme (simply referred to as G H. Thorne's) on Jul. 3, 2001 has also opened an improved shield of a collapsible needle head, which is similar to the D L. Thorne's, but possesses the detachability and interchangeability in respect to the injecting needle. The defect thereof lies in that the structure is too complex, not only it is difficult to molding-process, but also the volume size thereof is too large due to having the requirement for the length after spreading the collapsible shield, being difficult to use in the hollow medical needle head apparatus of the transfusion device, the cannula indwelling needle.
Therefore, though the above apparatus in the prior art can prevent that the instruments with needles stab the operator after use, it is difficult to be widely used in the medical field due to the complex structure and the expensive cost of manufacture thereof. In addition, lacking function of the detachability and interchangeability between the apparatus and the common medical needles leads to high use cost and makes use of these apparatus be restricted.

Shanghai Kindly Enterprise Development Group Co. Ltd.


An apparatus includes a printed circuit board including a connector footprint comprising a first footprint portion operative to receive a first connector portion and a second footprint portion operative to receive a second connector portion. The first footprint portion is compliant with a first communications link type and the first and second footprint portions are jointly compliant with a second communications link type. The printed circuit board includes first conductive traces coupled to the first footprint portion and a first device footprint. The first conductive traces are selectively configurable according to a selected one of the first and second communications link types. The printed circuit board includes a second conductive traces coupled to the second footprint portion and the first device footprint. in at least one embodiment of the apparatus, the first communications link type is AC-coupled and the second communications link type is DC-coupled.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention is related to computing systems and more particularly to connections in computing systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, devices in a computing system communicate via a logical connection called an interconnect or link. A typical link compliant with an exemplary link protocol is a point-to-point communication channel between two ports including one or more lanes. An individual lane is composed of a transmit and receive pair of lines. The lines may be single-ended lines or differential lines. In at least one embodiment of a link, each lane includes a transmit and receive pair of differential lines, i.e., each lane includes four signal paths between endpoints of the link, to support full duplex communications. An exemplary low-speed device uses a single-lane link, while an exemplary higher-speed device (e.g., graphics adapter) uses a much wider, multi-lane link.
In at least one embodiment, a link implements serial communications, which is less affected by timing skew as compared to parallel communications links since serial links do not require that the bits of a particular word of data arrive at their destination simultaneously, The technique of serial communications sends data one bit at a time, sequentially over the communication link. Exemplary serial communications links include Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIE), HyperTransport (formerly known as Lightning Data Transport), Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (Serial ATA), universal serial bus (USB), IEEE 1394 interface, Serial RapidIO, and Serial Attached Small Computer System Interface (SAS)). In at least one embodiment of a processing system, more than one type of serial communications link is used (e.g., PCIE and HyperTransport). HyperTransport is a protocol for interconnection of computer processors using a bidirectional, serial, high-bandwidth, low-latency, point-to-point link. A typical HyperTransport link supports bit widths that range from two to thirty-two bits. However, a HyperTransport link requires sideband control and command signals. In addition, HyperTransport is a DC-coupled link, Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIE) is a computer expansion card standard, typically used as aboard-level interconnect (e.g., to link to motherboard mounted peripherals) and used as an expansion card interface for add-in boards. Typical PCIE slots contain from one to sixteen lanes and are AC-coupled. Each lane typically includes one pair of transmit differential signals and one pair of receive differential signals. In general, HyperTransport and PCIE links support substantially the same data rates.
An exemplary processing system includes a printed circuit board assembly (e.g., motherboard, backplane, or other printed circuit board assembly) having an expansion slot (i.e., slot) for adding functionality to the processing system. An exemplary expansion board (i.e., expansion card, adapter card, or accessory card) includes a device (e.g., processor or peripheral device). In at least one embodiment, an expansion slot couples a component (e.g., a device or an expansion board) to the printed circuit board using a connector that is compliant with a communications link protocol used by a processor or device on the printed circuit board assembly and used by the component.
In at least one embodiment, the processing system and connector are included in a blade server. As referred to herein, a blade server (i.e., blade) is a printed circuit board assembly including a processor, memory, I/O, and non-volatile storage elements. A typical blade server has a modular design that reduces the use of physical space and energy as compared to other server systems. A typical blade enclosure includes multiple blades to form a blade system and provides one or more of power, cooling, networking, interconnects, and management for the system. A manufacturer packages a complete server with its operating system and applications on a single blade. The blade can operate independently within a chassis common to multiple blades.

Slot design for flexible and expandable system architecture


A technique is provided for automatically identifying regions of bone or other structural regions within a reconstructed CT volume data set. The technique identifies and labels regions within the data set and computes various statistics for the regions. A rule-based classifier processes the statistics to classify each region. Incidental connections between disparate regions are eliminated. A structure mask, such as a bone mask, is then constructed after exclusion of regions of interest, such as a vascular map. The structure mask may then be used to construct a volume rendering free of the structure, such as bone-free.

The present invention relates generally to the field of medical imaging and in particular to the field of Computed Tomography (CT). Specifically, the invention relates to a technique for segmenting an acquired image data set and for removing obstructing structures, such as bone, from the acquired image.
CT imaging systems measure the attenuation of X-ray beams passed through a patient from numerous angles. Based upon these measurements, a computer is able to reconstruct images of the portions of a patient's body responsible for the radiation attenuation. As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, these images are based upon separate examination of a series of angularly displaced cross sections. A CT system produces data that represent the distribution of linear attenuation coefficients of the scanned object. The data are then reconstructed to produce an image which is typically displayed on a computer workstation, and may be printed or reproduced on film. A virtual 3-D image may also be produced by a CT examination.
CT scanners operate by projecting fan-shaped or cone-shaped X-ray beams from an X-ray source. The beams are collimated and pass through the object, such as a patient, that is then detected by a set of detector elements. The detector element produces signals based on the attenuation of the X-ray beams, and the signals are processed to produce data that represent the line integrals of the attenuation coefficients of the object along the ray paths. These data or signals are typically called projections. By using reconstruction techniques, such as filtered backprojection, useful images are formulated from the projections. The locations of features of interest, such as pathologies, may then be located either automatically, such as by a computer assisted diagnosis algorithm or, more conventionally, by a trained radiologist.
The relative opacity of some structures, such as bone, to the X-rays employed in CT scanning may obstruct regions of interest from certain perspectives. For example, in CT angiography (CTA) the skeletal system may significantly hinder the visibility of critical vascular structures in the desired three-dimensional renderings. To address this problem, a structure or region mask, such as a bone mask, may be constructed. The mask may then be subtracted from the image, allowing the radiologist or technician to view the region of interest from the desired viewpoint without obstruction.
Construction of the structure mask, however, is not a trivial task and may require both complex algorithms as well as user intervention. This user intervention can lead to undesirable delays as well as to inter- and intra-user variability in the construction of the structure masks.
However various factors may complicate the fully automated construction of a structure mask by computer-implemented algorithm. For example, in the case of bone, overlapping image intensities, close proximity of imaged structures, and limited detector resolution may make the automated separation of structures difficult. In particular, the proximity of vascular structures and bone along the vertebra and near the pelvis make segmentation an exceedingly complex task for computer-based algorithms.
Other factors may also contribute to the problems associated with generating a mask by automated routine, such as the anatomic and pathological variability which exists in the patient population. Examples of such patient variability include the presence of vessels with calcified plaque deposits and the presence of interventional devices such as stents, both of which may confuse automated segmentation algorithms. These various factors contribute both to inadequacies in the structure masks which are derived and to a need for undesired and time-consuming human intervention in forming the masks. Among the benefits which may be realized by fully automating the formation of structure masks is the potential for real-time structure removal. Real-time structure removal may allow a technician to perform certain useful functions, such as to adjust the location or field of view of the scan, to optimize the bolus and timing of the introduction of the contrast agent, and to minimize the dose exposure to the patient.
There is a need therefore, for an improved technique for deriving a structure mask, such as a bone mask, preferably with little or no human intervention.

Method and apparatus for removing obstructing structures in CT imaging


The present invention is a steak weight having a single-piece triangular design comprising a rigid bottom plate portion having two opposite side portions disposed upwardly and inwardly joining above the central portion of said bottom plate portion to form a durable handle portion with each of said side portions having a slot for the user to insert his or her fingers to grip the steak weight, and a removable handle sheath covering the handle portion. Alternate embodiments include a handle configuration having one end disconnected from the side portions and an “L” shaped handle configuration.

1. Technical Field
The field of this invention is cooking utensils. More specifically, the present invention is a steak weight having a durable construction, improved weight distribution, handling and sanitary qualities.
2. Background
A steak weight is a device used in cooking of meat such as steak cuts, fillets, chops or burgers or patties to provide a downward force on the meat, pressing it against the cooking surface to accelerate cooking of the steak to the desired level, such as, for example "rare," "medium-rare," "medium," "medium-well" or "well done" and also to impart the pattern of the cooking surface onto the meat surface for improved aesthetics of the meat portion when served. For example, when the cooking surface is a grill, the steak weight helps to impart to the meat surface the lines of the grill surface, and cooks can create a cross hash pattern on the meat surface by reorienting the meat on the grill. Steak weights are also used when cooking bacon and other thin meat cuts to prevent the bacon or other thin meat cut from curling up when cooking. In restaurants, where food must be prepared quickly for good customer service, steak weights are very important to quicken the cooking of meat to the desired level and for aesthetic presentation of the meat. The steak weight surface itself can include a pattern or branding that can be imparted to the steak surface by pressing the steak weight down on top of the steak.
Steak weights are usually made of metal such as cast iron or aluminum and usually consist of a rectangular flat bottom plate portion with a couple of brackets protruding upwardly from the top surface of the plate. A wood handle is usually used, consisting of a tubular piece of wood that is disposed horizontally over the center portion of the bottom plate portion, parallel to the bottom plate, and is mounted on each end to the bottom plate's brackets using wood screws driven through the center portion of each end of the handle. The configuration resembles a rectangular trowel, except that steak weights are heavier so as to impart the desired downward force when placed on the top of a steak. As noted above, the bottom plate can have a smooth bottom surface or alternately can have a pattern, such as a waffle pattern or a restaurant logo or brand or other design so that the pattern or design is imparted to the surface of the steak. The sizes and weights of steak weights vary, with the bottom plate surface usually between four to six inches in width and seven to ten inches in length. The weights usually vary from one to five pounds. Usually aluminum is used for steak weights intended for "rare" or "medium" steak cooking and heavier cast iron is used for "medium-well" and "well done" steaks. The typical prior art steak weight is depicted in FIG. 1-A.
Wood is usually the material used for the handle of steak weights because of its ability to insulate and not transmit the heat absorbed by the metal bottom plate when the steak weight is in use over a cooking surface, enabling cooks to handle the steak weight without being burned. However, the use of wood has numerous drawbacks. The handle construction with wood screws driven through the center of the handle ends is not a durable construction, and inevitably the handle breaks off of its mounting after a relatively short period of time due to the exposure to high heat, repeated downward pressing by cooks when using the steak iron, and exposure to water when cleaning the steak weight. The placement of the handle and brackets over the center portion of the bottom plate also causes the weight to be imparted unevenly when cooks press down on the handle, adding to the stress and strain on the wood handle. Additionally, the use of wood handles is not sanitary, as the wood absorbs germs and bacteria over time. It is common to see multiple steak weights in restaurants kitchens missing their handles, making them difficult to use effectively and requiring repeated repair and replacement of the handle portion. Restaurants that serve steaks often have to purchase new steak weights or steak weight handle replacement kits every couple of months, making it a recurring expenditure.
While efforts have been made to improve steak weights by adding a temperature reading component, such as the steak weight described in U.S. Published Patent Application No. 2004/0074398, the above described deficiencies continue to exist. The present invention overcomes these deficiencies and provides a durable, sanitary and better quality utensil for cooking of steaks and other meat cuts mentioned above.


A method of effecting a matrix transpose operation in a computer is described. The method uses a computer instruction which restructures a data string by retaining first and last sub-strings of the data string in unchanged positions and interchanges the position of at least two intermediate sub-strings. The data string is formed from sub-strings each representing one or more data value in a matrix.. The computer instruction can be effected in a single register store having a predetermined bit capacity addressable by a single address, or in a pair of such register stores.. The data restructuring instructions include "flip", "zip" and "unzip" instructions.

It is known to store in memory a matrix in which a plurality of data values constituting each row of the matrix are located at adjacent memory locations in the memory. Each row of the matrix comprises a plurality of data values. The sequence of data values in the row is therefore predetermined by the order in which they are stored in memory. In a matrix transpose operation, it is required to interchange row and column values so that sequential data values in a row are located in the transposed matrix as sequential column values in a column. At present, such a matrix transpose operation can only be carried out by retrieving individual data values from memory, temporarily storing them in separate registers and writing them back to memory in a different location. Operations of this nature require repeated accesses to memory and a long sequence of instructions. The instruction sequence takes up space in memory. It is desirable to reduce where possible the length of instruction sequences. It is also desirable to minimise memory accesses, because these are slow operations.

Method for transposing multi-bit matrix wherein first and last sub-string remains unchanged while intermediate sub-strings are interchanged


Historically, graphics editors, text editors, presentation editors, and word processors provide a number of special processing functions that operate on a presented object as a whole. For word processors, these special functions might include: spelling checks, style (grammar) checks, hyphenation, and pagination. The present invention provides a transparent mechanism for making these special processing functions incremental, in the sense that the mechanisms re-process only those portions of presented objects that have changed since the last time the function was performed.

The EDVAC computer system of 1948 is cited by many as the dawn of the computer era. In the years since 1948, use of computers has proliferated to the extent that they have found their way into most every aspect of day to day life. The primary reason for this proliferation is the fact that computer systems are now used to perform many of the tasks that used to be performed by hand or with the aid of crude devices. Drawing pictures and composing letters and documents are two tasks which are now performed more efficiently with computer systems. In the past, drawing pictures and composing documents had been done through the use of paper and pencil, or possibly, through the use of a typewriter. Today, tools such as graphics editors and word processors allow computer system users to draw pictures, create presentations, and compose letters and documents much more quickly and efficiently.
Present day tools are able to perform these tasks much more speedily and efficiently because of two fundamental advancements. First, making changes to drawings and documents is much easier with tools such as graphics editors and word processors because drawings and documents are stored in electronic form inside the computer system's memory instead of on paper or some other limited media. Accordingly, the computer system user does not need to make messy erasures or redraw or retype entire portions of drawings and documents. Instead, the user need only retrieve the item from the computer system's memory, make the necessary change to the electronic representation of the item, and place the item back in memory.
The second fundamental advancement is the provision of special processing functions. Beyond providing basic editing capability (i.e., the ability to create, modify, store, and output drawings and documents), present day tools often provide special processing functions such as: automatic pagination, grammar checking, automatic hyphenation, and spell checking. These special processing functions further enhance efficiency by automating subtasks that would otherwise need to be performed manually. Spell checking, for example, is now done with the click of a button instead of by a manual, dictionary assisted, word by word review.
The problem with many of these special processing functions, though, is that they tend to be slow and unintelligent, particularly with drawings and documents that involve many pages. For example, spell checking features (called spell checkers) are often exceedingly slow because they operate by repeatedly rechecking the entire document for spelling mistakes. While this is typically not a problem for small documents that are a page or two in length, it can be an excruciating task for medium to large size documents. Some tools attempt to resolve this problem by providing the user with the ability to select a portion of the drawing or document upon which the special processing function will operate. This approach is helpful to the user because the user is not forced to go through the entire drawing or document each time one of these special processing functions is needed. However, the ability to select portions of drawings and documents can be considered only a partial solution at best. Even if the tool allows the user to select portions of drawings and documents at a very fine grain (e.g., on a word by word basis in the case of a word processor), the tool is still requiring the user to remember (or at least decide) what portion to select. Further, the user may want a special processing function to operate on several, non-adjacent portions of a drawing or document. If this is the case, the user must not only remember the relative location of all the portions to be selected, but the user must also select each portion one at a time. Naturally, this can be an extremely frustrating and time consuming experience.
Without an enhancement that adds intelligence and saves user time, these special processing functions will continue to limit the productivity gains that many computer based tools are designed to provide.

Incremental change processing apparatus for presented objects

International Business Machines Corporation


A process performed in a data processing system includes receiving an input selecting one of the plurality of multimedia presentations to be relocated from the first memory to the second memory, scanning the linked data structures of the selected multimedia presentation to recognize a plurality of resources corresponding to the selected multimedia presentation, and generating a list of names and locations within the selected multimedia presentation corresponding to the identified plurality of resources. The process also includes renaming the names on the generated list, changing the names of the identified plurality of resources in the selected multimedia presentation to the new names on the generated list, and moving the selected multimedia presentation and the resources identified on the generated list to the second memory.

Interactive multimedia presentations and coursework have become an important and effective method of presenting information and teaching. Additionally, the ability to program computers has also become an important skill which can take years to develop and master. Therefore, conventional computer systems have been developed which address each of these items. However, no known conventional computer system addresses both of these items.
A. Creation of Interactive Multimedia Presentations
When people communicate with each other, they use many different methods to creatively convey information. Among these methods of communication are: sound/music, pictures, words, numbers, animated sequences, and full motion video. The use of these methods in a presentation is typically referred to as the multimedia approach to communication.
Historically, multimedia presentations have been encumbered by the use of multiple technologies, such as slide projectors, videotapes, and computer graphics. But today, powerful computers offer a single delivery system or platform for integrated multimedia presentations. Thus, the speaker or teacher only needs to handle a single piece of equipment. The difficulty then remains in how the speaker or instructor is going to create and present multimedia presentations using these powerful computers.
In addition to creating an environment for multimedia presentations, the computer has also made it possible to create interactive presentations which means that the viewer can actually participate in a presentation by communicating with the computer. This has given rise to a class of computer software applications called courseware which is a powerful teaching and training tool. Again, the difficulty remains as to how the instructor is to create and present these interactive multimedia presentations.
One conventional computer system provides a method for specifying and executing independent, multimedia tasks along a synchronized time-line in the form of a matrix with the event elements making up the rows and the time periods making up the columns. Although this conventional system addresses the issue concerning the time consuming task of creating the presentation, this system fails to provide important interactive capabilities. Furthermore, this conventional system employs a time-line for the control of events in a presentation. Using a time-line requires the operator using such a conventional system to duplicate events so that the events can be executed in more than a single time period. This requires additional computer resources which is not desirable.
B. Visual Programming Systems and the Method of Visually Programming an Interactive Multimedia Presentation
In general, programming may be defined as specifying a method for doing something the computer can do in terms the computer can interpret or understand. There are many aspects of programming: the languages and environment used for the specifications; the specifications themselves; the determination of whether the computer has executed a specification as expected; the display of data involved in the execution of the specification; etc.
In the past, traditional programming systems in well-known or standard programming languages, e.g., FORTRAN or PL/1 have been used to program computers. However, the problem with traditional programming systems is that they require programmers to learn the cryptic statements and rigid structure or syntax used by standard programming languages. It is for this reason that icons have been used to replace the cryptic statements of standard programming languages with visual programming languages to develop visual programming systems.
Visual programming can be applied to all aspects of programming. The important issue is creating meaningful graphic objects involved in an aspect of programming. This is addressed in the creation of visual programming systems.
One example of a visual programming system is Pict which is designed to aid program implementation using computer graphics. With Pict, users sit in front of a color graphics display and communicate with the system throughout all phases of their work by pointing to icons in a menu tree. Pict permits the user to select images that visually represent the data structures and variables needed; to draw the desired algorithm as a logically structured, multi-dimensional picture; to watch the program run; to see the results being generated; and if the program isn't doing what is expected, to see where and when the error occurs. Although Pict is a visual programming system having control structures for writing computer applications, Pict requires arrows or series of arrows to show the flow of an application. Using arrows to show the flow of an application is somewhat archaic, requires additional computer resources, and is not necessary to depict a program flow.
Although visual programming systems have been developed, these systems fail to appreciate the need to create a visual flowchart that symbolizes the logical flow of the application (or presentation) being developed. These visual programming systems also fail to concentrate on the flowchart metaphor to remove the tedium from program creation. These conventional visual programming systems fail to permit the programmer to assemble pictures, brushes, sounds, speech, animations, music, video, text, and datafiles and control them interactively via a mouse, keyboard, touchscreen, or joystick. Therefore, a single visual programming system which addresses all of these shortcomings of conventional visual programming system is desirous.

System for relocating a multimedia presentation on a different platform by extracting a resource map in order to remap and relocate resources


A substrate for an information recording medium is prepared from a glass substance having a Young's modulus not smaller than 100 GPa and a liquidus temperature not higher than 1350.degree. C.

This invention relates to a disk substrate (may simply be referred to as a substrate hereinafter) for use in an information recording medium, such as a magnetic disk, an optical disk, and a magnetooptic disk and, in particular, to a glass substrate for an information recording medium as well as an information recording medium using the glass substrate.
As a substrate for an information recording medium, use is generally made of an aluminum substrate, an amorphous glass substrate (simply referred to as a glass substrate hereinafter), and a crystallized glass substrate. Among others, the glass substrate is gradually expanding its market share. This is because the glass substrate is easy to obtain desirable surface smoothness (i.e., a small surface roughness Rmax) and has strength sufficient to withstand a reduction in thickness and size, as compared with the other substrates.
Among various glass substrates, a chemically strengthened glass substrate with its surface chemically strengthened by ion exchange is widely known in the art. A typical chemically strengthened glass substrate is disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication (JP-B) No. 70262/92. The disclosed glass substrate comprises a glass substance including 60.0-70.0 wt % of SiO.sub.2, 0.5-14.0 wt % of Al.sub.2 O.sub.3, 10.0-32.0 wt % of alkali metal oxide, 1.0-15.0 wt % of ZnO, and 1.1-14.0 wt % of B.sub.2 O.sub.3 and having a value not smaller than a specific value for each of a linear expansion coefficient, pressure strength, and transverse rupture strength.
As a material for preparing the chemically strengthened glass substrate, two kinds of glass substances described in the following (a) and (b) are known.
(a) A glass substance including 55-62 wt % of SiO.sub.2, 10-18 wt % of Al.sub.2 O.sub.3, 2-10 wt % of ZrO.sub.2, 2-5 wt % of MgO, 0.1-3 wt % of BaO, 12-15 wt % of Na.sub.2 O, 2-5 wt % of K.sub.2 O, 0-7 wt % of P.sub.2 O.sub.3, and 0.5-5 wt % of TiO.sub.2, where the total amount of Al.sub.2 O.sub.3 and TiO.sub.2 is 13-20 wt % (see Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (JP-A) No. 167245/89). PA1 (b) A glass substance including 64-70 wt % of SiO.sub.2, 14-20 wt % of Al.sub.2 O.sub.3, 4-6 wt % of Li.sub.2 O, 7-10 wt % of Na.sub.2 O, 0-4 wt % of MgO, and 0-1.5 wt % of ZrO.sub.2 (see Japanese Patent Publication (JP-B) No. 76224/94). PA1 (1) A substrate (will be referred to as a glass substrate I hereinafter) for an information recording medium, comprising a glass substance having a Young's modulus not smaller than 100 GPa and a liquidus temperature not higher than 1350.degree. C. PA1 (2) A substrate (will be referred to as a glass substrate II hereinafter) for an information recording medium, comprising a glass substance at least including TiO2 and CaO as glass components, the contents of which are selected so that a Young's modulus is not smaller than 100 GPa and a liquidus temperature is not higher than 1350.degree. C. PA1 (3) A substrate (will be referred to as a glass substrate III hereinafter) for an information recording medium, comprising a glass substance at least including TiO.sub.2 and CaO as glass components, the contents of which are selected so that a Young's modulus is not smaller than 100 GPa, a liquidus temperature is not higher than 1350.degree. C., and a viscosity is not smaller than 10 poises in a formable temperature range. PA1 (4) A substrate (will be referred to as a glass substrate IV hereinafter) for an information recording medium, comprising a glass substance at least including, as glass components, TiO.sub.2, CaO, MgO, and Al.sub.2 O.sub.3 along with at least Li.sub.2 O selected from a group consisting of Na.sub.2 O and Li.sub.2 O. The contents of the glass components are selected so that a Young's modulus is not smaller than 100 GPa, a liquidus temperature is not higher than 1350.degree. C., a viscosity is not smaller than 10 poises in a formable temperature range, and specific gravity is not greater than 3.5 g/cm.sup.3, PA1 (5) A substrate (will be referred to as a glass substrate V hereinafter) for an information recording medium, comprising a glass substance including as glass components 5-30 mol % of TiO.sub.2, 10-45 mol % of (MgO+CaO), where CaO is 1-45 mol %, 3-30 mol % of (Na.sub.2 O+Li.sub.2 O), 0-15 mol % of Al.sub.2 O.sub.3, and 35-60 mol % of SiO.sub.2. PA1 (6) A substrate (will be referred to as a glass substrate VI hereinafter) for an information recording medium, which is obtained by chemically strengthening one of the above-mentioned glass substrates I through V or a glass substance therefor.
As regards a hard disk apparatus, technical innovations are being made from time to time in order to keep the superiority to other recording/reproducing apparatuses using various media, such as an optical recording medium and a magnetooptic recording medium. One of the technical innovations is to rotate the magnetic disk at a high speed Such high speed rotation deserves one attempt to increase an access speed of a recording/reproducing magnetic head. The rotation speed is expected to exceed 10000 rpm hereafter, although it has been restricted to 5000-7000 rpm in the prior art.
As described above, in the magnetic disk, high speed rotation is desired. If the high speed rotation is sought by the use of the conventional glass substrate for an information recording medium, it is difficult to keep a flying height constant, i.e., a distance between the magnetic head and the magnetic disk at the time of recording and reproducing.

Information recording substrate and information recording medium prepared from the substrate


A liquid crystal display includes a cover bottom and a cover shield. The liquid crystal display includes a nut coupled to a bracket through a fastening bolt. An upper portion and a lower portion of the nut have different diameters.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display, and more particularly to a liquid crystal display with a modified nut structure to be fastened to a main body of a system.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
A liquid crystal display is configured by coupling a liquid crystal panel and a back light unit. Since the liquid crystal display is not a self-emission display device, the liquid crystal display requires a back light unit including a light source.
The back light unit including a light source may be classified into a direct-type back light unit and an edge-type back light unit according to the position of the light source.
In the direct-type back light unit, a number of light sources are disposed directly below a liquid crystal panel to irradiate light projected from the light sources onto the liquid crystal panel through a diffusion plate and a number of optical sheets. A general liquid crystal display including the direct-type back light unit is configured such that the liquid crystal panel and the back light unit are fastened to each other by a support main, a top case, a bottom cover and the like.
In the edge-type back light unit, a light source is installed at one side edge of a liquid crystal panel to irradiate light projected from the light source onto the liquid crystal panel through a light guiding plate and a number of optical sheets.
FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary diagram showing a rear surface of a general liquid crystal display, which shows a connection state of the rear surface of the general liquid crystal display and a bracket.
The liquid crystal display is used as a component of a relatively large-scale system such as a monitor, a laptop computer or a TV, and also used as a component of a small-scale application (system) such as a navigation system, a PDP or a PMP. Generally, the liquid crystal display is manufactured through a separate process and is coupled to a main body of the system to be mounted in one case for sale.
As described above, generally, a bracket 20 shown in FIG. 1 is used to couple a liquid crystal display 10 to a main body of a system.
Three holes 21, 22, 23 are formed at each of an upper portion and a lower portion of the bracket 20. A guide pin 11 formed on a lower surface of the liquid crystal display 10 is inserted into the first hole 21 among the three holes 21, 22, 23. A first fastening bolt 30 is inserted into the second hole 22 to be fastened to a nut 14 formed on the lower surface of the liquid crystal display 10. A second fastening bolt (not shown) is inserted into the third hole 23 to be fastened to the main body.
FIG. 2 illustrates a cross-sectional view showing a state where the liquid crystal display and the bracket shown in FIG. 1 are fastened to each other by the fastening bolt.
In general, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the nut 14 is formed on a cover bottom 13 which supports a lower surface of the liquid crystal display 10. The first fastening bolt 30 inserted into the second hole 22 of the bracket 20 is fastened to the nut 14 through a cover shield hole 16 formed on a cover shield 15 surrounding the cover bottom 13. Further, the second fastening bolt 40 inserted into the third hole 23 of the bracket 20 is fastened to a nut formed on the main body (not shown) of the system.
Before the first fastening bolt 30 is coupled to the nut 14 as described above, the second hole 22 of the bracket 20 should correspond to a position of the nut 14 (the cover shield hole 16 and the nut 14 have been already aligned). In the related art, the guide pin 11 which is formed on the cover bottom 13 or the cover shield 15 is used to align the second hole 22 corresponding to the nut 14.
That is, the guide pins 11 are formed on an upper portion and a lower portion of the rear surface of the related art liquid crystal display, respectively. The guide pins 11 are inserted into the first holes 21 respectively formed on the upper portion and the lower portion of the bracket, thereby arranging the second holes 22 of the bracket and the nut 14.
However, in order to couple the bracket 20 to the related art liquid crystal display 10 as described above, first, a process for inserting the guide pin 11 formed on the rear surface of the liquid crystal display into the first hole 21 of the bracket 20 to align positions of the second hole 22 of the bracket and the nut 14 should be performed. Then, a process for coupling and fastening the first fastening bolt 30 inserted into the second hole 22 to the nut 14 should be performed.
Accordingly, a pair of the guide pin 11 and the cover shield hole 16 having a specified interval should be formed at each of an upper portion and a lower portion of the rear surface of the related art liquid crystal display. Thus, for formation of the guide pin 11 and the cover shield hole 16, an elaborate process is required. Also, there is a problem of increasing the manufacturing cost and the cost of parts due to a complicated structure.
Further, since the related art liquid crystal display requires a process for forming fine holes, although an alignment process using the guide pins 11 is performed, the first fastening bolt 30 may be inaccurately inserted into the second hole 22 and the nut 14 due to an error generated in the alignment of the second hole 22 of the bracket 20 and the nut 14.


This invention teaches further method improvements to forewarn of critical events via phase-space dissimilarity analysis of data from biomedical equipment, mechanical devices, and other physical processes. One improvement involves conversion of time-serial data into equiprobable symbols. A second improvement is a method to maximize the channel-consistent total-true rate of forewarning from a plurality of data channels over multiple data sets from the same patient or process. This total-true rate requires resolution of the forewarning indications into true positives, true negatives, false positives and false negatives. A third improvement is the use of various objective functions, as derived from the phase-space dissimilarity measures, to give the best forewarning indication. A fourth improvement uses various search strategies over the phase-space analysis parameters to maximize said objective functions. A fifth improvement shows the usefulness of the method for various biomedical and machine applications.

The field of the invention is methods of computer analysis for forewarning of critical events, such as epileptic seizures in human medical patients, and mechanical failures in machines and other physical processes.
Hively et al., U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,743,860 and 5,857,978 disclose methods for detecting and predicting epileptic seizures by acquiring brain wave data from a patient, and analyzing the data with traditional nonlinear methods.
Many of the prior art methods of epileptic forewarning were based on intercranial electroencephalogram (EEG) data. The present invention can be practiced with EEG data obtained from sensors applied to the scalp of the patient. Prior advances using scalp EEG data removed artifacts with a zero-phase quadratic filter to permit analysis of single-channel scalp EEG data. Hively et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,815,413, disclosed the use of phase space dissimilarity measures (PSDM) to forewarn of impending epileptic events from scalp EEG in ambulatory settings. Despite noise in scalp EEG data, PSDM has yielded superior performance over traditional nonlinear indicators, such as Kolmogorov entropy, Lyapunov exponents, and correlation dimension. However, a problem still exists in forewarning indicators, because false positives and false negatives may occur.
Hively et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,815,413, also discloses the applicability of nonlinear techniques to monitor machine conditions such as the condition of a drill bit or the performance of an electrical motor driving a pump.

Methods for consistent forewarning of critical events across multiple data channels


A bioprocess system and a method for incubating, growing and harvesting cell cultures is described. Also disclosed is a bioprocess container that can be used with the system. In one aspect of the present disclosure, the bioprocess system includes bioprocess tubes and cell culture tubes having particular dimensions and being made from specific materials that allow the tubes to be welded together while preventing open connections and/or ruptures. In this manner, bioprocess containers can be connected and disconnected from a cell culture apparatus without having to perform the manipulation within a closed environment and without associated monitoring.

New processes and procedures are developing in the rapidly changing field of biotechnology that require packaging of sterile liquid media and reagents in bulk, flexible, disposable container systems. Bioprocess containers are generally designed as single use containers for packaging of cell culture media including reagents and buffers, as well as containment and storage vessels for final products yielded from downstream manufacturing processes.
Closed system processes for inoculation of cell culture vessels generally involve transfer of a cell suspension into a bioprocess container having a larger media volume. The bioprocess container is then attached to a culture vessel and the diluted cell suspension contained in the bioprocess container is transferred into the culture vessel. Once inoculated into the culture vessel, the cell suspension is exposed to conditions that cause cell growth and reproduction to occur resulting in a growing cell culture. During growth of the cell culture, depending upon the type of cells being grown, the cell culture media surrounding the cells may need to be replaced or replenished. After the cell culture has grown to a desired extent, it is then necessary to harvest the cells from the cell culture apparatus. Each of these procedures requires connecting and disconnecting various different bioprocess containers from the cell culture apparatus.
Currently, the most common methodology to disconnect and connect bioprocess containers to cell culture apparatus during the growth of a cell culture is to use medical plastic circular connectors (MPC connectors). MPC connectors allow for easy attachment and detachment of bioprocess containers. MPC connectors, however, form an open connection during the attachment or detachment process. As used herein, an open connection refers to a tube that is open to the ambient environment even if for a short amount of time. Thus, the use of MPC connectors adds significant complexity to the process by which cell cultures are grown. For instance, because open connections occur with the use of MPC connectors, the connections must be made in a strictly controlled closed environment with highly filtered air and must also require extensive environmental monitoring. In addition, the use of MPC connectors requires manual manipulation within the highly controlled environment, making what should be a simple procedure for connecting or disconnecting a tube prone to operator variability and error. The use of MPC connectors creates a risk of contamination at every stage of the process, as well as requiring significant amounts of operator time and manipulating the vessels. Due to the necessity of the environmentally controlled area, the use of MPC connectors also requires lab engineering as well as significant laboratory space while also requiring additional time not only to move and manipulate the vessels within a controlled environment but also to analyze environmental data to ensure that no contamination has occurred.
In the past, those skilled in the art have suggested to weld tubes together instead of using MPC connectors. Unfortunately, welding has met with variability and inconsistent results. In particular, significant amounts of welding errors have been experienced. A welding error can lead to an open connection, which can compromise the entire cell culture being grown in addition to creating the risk of environmental contamination.
In view of the above, a need exists for a system and method for attaching and disconnecting bioprocess containers to a cell culture apparatus. For example, a need exists for a method and system for connecting and disconnecting bioprocess containers to and from a cell culture apparatus without creating an open connection and without having to operate the procedure within a controlled environment. A need also exists for an improved bioprocess container that can be easily connected and disconnected from a cell culture apparatus without experiencing any problems related to flow control.


Methods for access control of contract data in a distributed system are provided. The distributed system includes a contract generator, a validation server, a database and a distributed ledger which are in communication via a network, the method including the steps of: at the contract generator, receiving digital contract data from a first electronic device, determining a permission setting for accessing contract content associated with the digital contract data based on the digital contract data, and setting the permission setting to the validation server via the network, obtaining a validation link corresponding to the digital contract data from the validation server, generating contract information for digital contract data according to partial content of the digital contract data and the validation link, and storing the contract information in the distributed ledger.

A contract is a legal act established by parties on the basis of the meaning of the agreement. The most important thing is that rights of both parties can be guaranteed during the transaction. However, the contract is the last line of defense when problems or ambiguities arise, and there is a need for a fair third party other than the parties to verify the contract. For example, a party A may rent a car from a party B of the car rental company, and the insurance company (third party) wants to verify the contractual contents of party A and party B to charge the insurance fee. In other case, party A may purchase the airline ticket from party B of the tourism industry, and the government (the third party) may want to check the collection and payment receipt of the transaction between party A and party B. Contract validation and contract form are inseparable, the contract of the traditional written form has gradually been replaced by the electronic or digital contract, and the validation method has also been changed from manpower to systematization.
Due to the recent development of blockchain/distributed ledger technology, a non-tampered and distributed database is provided that allows many developers to combine their original applications with blockchain/distributed ledgers. After the contract is digitized, it can speed up transactions and promote business development. Blockchain technology takes transaction information, encapsulates it in a digital envelope or "block" and then the block is cryptographically added (using cipher chaining techniques) to the end of a chain of other transactions. This cryptographic addition incorporates information from prior blocks on the chain to calculate the digital chain or "hash" for this new block. The calculations for cryptographic addition can vary widely in complexity based on the rules of the blockchain. This complexity is purposeful though, in order to prevent modification of the existing blockchain to which is being added.
When it is necessary to provide a third-party validation beyond the parties, the validation will be much easier if there is a same basis of recognition. Based on the same basis of recognition, the differences identified by the contract itself (such as the authenticity of the contract) can be resolved. Distributed consensus architecture provided by the distributed ledger can ensure that information written is not tampered with and data seen by everyone is consistent, thus eliminating the possibility of contract data being tampered with.
The distributed ledger records all the transactions that take place on the network. In addition to being distributed and collaborative, the information recorded to a blockchain is append-only, using cryptographic techniques that guarantee that once a transaction has been added to the ledger it cannot be modified. This property of immutability makes it simple to determine the provenance of information because participants can be sure information has not been changed.
Moreover, information currently stored in the distributed consensus system (e.g., distributed ledger/blockchain) can only guarantee that the information that everyone sees is consistent; however, the validity of the data cannot be verified, that is, the data reality cannot be guaranteed. In addition, data in the distributed consensus system cannot express the complete content due to the limitation of the data size. When considering the privacy issue, it is not suitable to expose the data to the distributed consensus system.

Methods contract generator and validation server for access control of contract data in a distributed system with distributed consensus

INDUSTRIAL TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH INSTITUTE


A game-hosting service of a service provider network is configured to place game sessions on fleets of virtual machine (VM) instances using a value-based approach. In order to place a game session on a fleet, the game-hosting service may determine one or more attributes of the game session request, such as player attributes and/or game attributes. The game-hosting service may also determine available fleets of VM instances allocated to a subscriber associated with the game session request, which may be located across disparate geographical regions. A value(s) may be determined based on the attributes of the game session request, and the value(s) may be used to select a fleet of the available fleets for hosting the game session.

Service providers offer cloud-based services to fulfill users' computing-service needs without the users having to invest in and maintain computing infrastructure required to implement the services. These service providers may maintain networks of managed computing resources and functionality to implement various types of on-demand services, such as storage services, compute-power services, database-management services, networking services, and so forth. In this way, service providers maintain service provider networks that provide users with on-demand delivery of compute power, database storage, applications, and other resources, rather than the users having to make upfront investments in hardware and spend time and resources managing the hardware.
Often, users that subscribe to the service provider for use of computing resources in the service provider network also provide products or services to their own clients. For example, the service provider network may provide a game-hosting service to game developers that deploys, operates, and scales session-based game servers in the service provider network for clients of the game developers. In this way, a game developer that has developed an online game may host their session-based, online game using virtual machine (VM) instances running on servers of the service provider network that are accessible by clients of the game developer who may be playing a game.
When the game-hosting service receives a new game session request, the service is tasked with placing a corresponding game session on a fleet of VM instances allocated to a subscriber. Oftentimes the game-hosting service chooses one of the subscriber's fleets that provides the lowest average latency to the players of the game session, and then places the game session on a lowest-cost VM instance within that fleet.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


Transfer apparatus designed as a mobile, generally C-shaped frame assembly including top and bottom portions removably connected by at least one spacer and a seat adapted to support a patient in a sitting or suspended sitting position at multiple levels. A horizontal part of the top portion is a seat support, the bottom portion is a wheeled base, and spacers fix a selected height of the seat support. The apparatus operates on patient support surfaces with and without vertical movement capability, enables use of a commode over and away from the bed by the patient in a seating position, and enables changing of a seat under the sitting patient. The transfer apparatus provides a cost effective, lightweight, rigid, without moving parts mobile seat support assembly as a commode/wheelchair (C/W) capable of performing multifunctional safe patient transfer to and from patient support surfaces with and without vertical movement.

In the prior art, there are transfer apparatus for people that are used to transfer a disabled person to or from a wheelchair.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,547,265 describes a transfer wheelchair including a base frame with integral toileting platform, a seating platform for receiving a human user thereon, and removably attachable structure for supporting a user's torso and arms. The frame has two C-shaped legs, wheels that allow frame to roll along the ground, and supports a toileting platform. The wheelchair apparatus has a seating platform for removably receiving a user on top of the toileting platform.
The invention described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,547,265 is an important development in transferring bedridden patients to the commode-wheelchair that does not require a caregiver to lift the user's entire body during transfer on to or off the chair. At the same time, the patented design of the chair apparatus limits its operational capacity and can be used only on beds with vertical movements at specified mattress height for transfer. Changing seats requires lifting the patient about the existing seat, and the storage and packaging of the chair apparatus are limited by the size of the assembly.
U.S. Pat. Appln. Publ. No. US20170056267A1 describes a transport apparatus for moving a person from one location to another location or transporting a person from one support to another support. The transport apparatus includes a base, a sling, and a support frame mounted to the base and movable between different positions relative to the base.
This apparatus is similar to many existing devices and has common operational procedures: the sling is the seat supporting patient in a suspended sitting position, changing the sling can be done only by removing a first sling and repeating the operation of placing the first seat. The apparatus requires a powered drive, and is expensive with limited operational capacity.
These prior art transfer apparatuses design for limited selective transfer operations, are bulky, do not provide simple transfer patient, seat replacement and also do not enable patient transfer for both support surfaces that are vertically movable as well as support surfaces that are not vertically movable.

Mobile seat supporting transfer apparatus


A package for power converters in which a multilayers circuits board holds the components. The winding of the magnetic elements are incorporated in the multilayers circuit board. The top and some portion of the bottom layer are also support for electronic components. Some of the components are placed on the top layer, which may not be utilized for magnetic winding, reducing the footprint of the magnetic elements to the footprint of the magnetic core. The power dissipating devices placed on pads which have a multitude of copper coated via connecting the top to bottom layers. Through these via the heat is transferred from the power devices to the other side of the PCB. In some of the embodiment of this invention the heat can be further transferred to a metal plate connected to the multilayers circuit board via a thermally conductive insulator. The baseplate has cutouts or cavities to accommodate the magnetic cores. A thermally conductive is placed between the magnetic core and the metal plate on the bottom of the cavity.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to packaging electrical components for power converters and power magnetics.
2. Description of the Prior Art
One approach to packaging electric components in power converters (FIG. 1) includes a housing which both encloses the components and means of heat extraction from the components. The house includes a non-conductive casing 5 and an aluminum heat-sinking base 6. A printed circuit board (PCB) 3 is mounted next to the upper wall 5a of the casing. Conductive pins 7 are attached directly to the PCB 3 and extend up through the wall 5a. Electronic components 9a, 9c are mounted to one or both sides of the PCB3. Larger side components such as the transformer 9c are mounted to the lower side for space reason. Power dissipating devices such as 9b are mounted directly on the base-plate 6 for better heat transfer. The power components 9b are electrically connected to the PCB by leads 12. Some of the power dissipating devices, 9d, are attached to the base plate via a thermally conductive insulator material 8. Structure 1 may be filled with an encapsulant, which acts as a heat spreader and provides mechanical support. In the case when a hard epoxy encapsullant is used a "buffer coating" material is used to protect some of the components.


An aqueous system for the production of metal chalcogenide nanocrystalline salts such as zinc selenide, from a hydrolyzable chalcogen carbonyl compound, such as selenourea, by simple hydrolysis thereof under alkaline conditions in the presence of water soluble metal hydroxide, such as zinc hydroxide in the form of the zincate ion, i.e., Zn(OH).sub.4.sup.-2. Selenourea contains selenium in the correct oxidation state, is inexpensive, commercially-available and readily hydrolyzable under aqueous basic conditions in the presence of the zincate ion to form zinc selenide. The zinc selenide is insoluble in the alkaline aqueous vehicle and precipitates over time in the form of nanocrystallites or quantum dots of the zinc selenide.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to nanometer-sized crystallites or quantum dots having semiconductor properties, and more particularly to an improved process for synthesizing such crystallites from readily available, inexpensive starting materials and under mild reaction conditions.
2. State of the Art
The synthesis of metal chalcogenide quantum dots, such as of zinc selenide, is known but the existing methods are unsatisfactory and not amenable to scale-up. For example, Murray et al disclose a method for the synthesis of cadmium selenide quantum dots in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol. 115, pages 8706-8715 (1993). This method makes use of tri-n-octylphosphine as a coordinating solvent, either elemental selenium or bis(trimethylsilyl)selenium as the chalcogenide donor, and dimethylcadmium as the metal donor. The disadvantage to this method is the nature of the reactants, most of which need to be synthesized, and the use of an expensive, air sensitive, unstable, solvent as well as the need for high reaction temperatures. This method is considered to be unsatisfactory for the production zinc selenide.
There exists a need for a process for producing metal chalcogenide nanocrystals or quantum dots from readily available, stable reactants and mild reaction conditions which process can be carried out on a relatively large scale economically and efficiently.


A method for cooling a mixed beverage formed with one or more beverage components includes circulating a refrigerant through a heat exchanger having a phase change material to cool a beverage component and sensing a temperature of the refrigerant. The method further includes detecting a first instance when the sensed temperature of the refrigerant equals a threshold refrigerant temperature, detecting a second instance when the sensed temperature of the refrigerant equals the threshold refrigerant temperature, and stopping circulation of the refrigerant when the second instance is detected.

The following U.S. Patents are incorporated herein by reference in entirety.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,487,492 discloses a dispenser with a cold plate forming a bottom of an ice retaining bin. A bin liner is formed of two parts, a flat carbonator and a remaining U-shaped sheet metal wall structure. The carbonator and sheet metal structure when secured together form the bin liner, which, in turn, is secured to and around a perimeter edge of the cold plate and extends upward therefrom. In particular, the carbonator includes a flange integral therewith and extending from a portion of a perimeter edge thereof.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,220,047 discloses a dual-purpose carbonator/blending bottle connected to a source of beverage syrup, a source of potable water and to a source of pressurized carbon dioxide gas. The dual-purpose bottle is retained within an ice bank water bath tank.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,374,622 discloses an apparatus and method that regulates the size of an ice bank and prevents short cycling of the compressor.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,408,017 discloses a refrigeration system for a frozen product dispenser that is controlled to have a variable cooling capacity determined by variable cooling load demands of the dispenser.

Beverage dispensers with heat exchangers


In a bottle 1 having a waist groove 61 and a grasping recess 63 nearly in the center of the height direction of a body portion 4 for imparting the sloped surface of a waist portion with necessary strength and restoring capability so that the denting and deformation of the sloped surface of the waist portion are prevented and for forming an easily graspable container even if it is a thin-wall container of which the weight has been decreased, a finger receiving recess 62 having the form of a convex curved surface toward an inside of the container is formed in a region including a container bottom portion side connecting face 61c of the waist groove 61.

Bottles made of plastic such as PET bottles are easily produced by molding and suitable for mass production, and they have excellent properties such as high mechanical strength and a light weight, so that they are used as containers for filling various liquids therein in wide fields.
In particular, large quantities of them are used as beverage containers for various beverages, mineral water, and the like, in recent years.
With regard to the volume of the bottle, many kinds of bottles are available as will suit market demands. For example, containers having a volume of about 2,000 ml are used as large-volume containers. Concerning the form of the containers, there are conventionally employed containers having a transverse-sectional form of a circle or containers having a transverse-sectional form of a rectangle or square formed by taking account of storability thereof in a refrigerator.
In a large-volume bottle, a waist portion having a form constricted mainly along the circumferential direction is formed nearly in the center in the height direction of the body portion for imparting the body portion with necessary strength. The waist portion not only works as a reinforcing portion but also works as a grasping portion which is caught with fingers when the bottle is held with one hand, so that it improves the bottle in easiness of handling.
Meanwhile, in recent years, the wall thickness of bottles is decreasing with the tendency to decrease the weight of bottles together with natural resources saving, so that the strength of bottles is declining as a whole. In thin-wall bottles of which the weight is decreased, it is required to form side beads, etc., on the body portion to impart the bottle with necessary strength and restoring strength so that the denting and distortion of the bottle are prevented (for example, see Patent Document 1).
Patent Document 1 JP-A-2004-250063

Packaging container with finger receiving portion


There is provided an information processing apparatus including a distribution information acquisition section which acquires distribution information indicating that content-related data is distributed from a first user to a second user through a social network to which the first user and the second user belong, and a route information generation section which generates route information based on the distribution information, the route information indicating a route through which the content-related data is distributed among users belonging to the social network.

The present disclosure relates to an information processing apparatus, an information processing system, and a program.
Pieces of content used by a computer are extremely easily distributed through a communication network, a removable recording medium, or the like because data which are entities of the content can easily be copied. Such high distributability of the content draws attention as so-called "superdistribution" or the like from an early stage in the history of the content. Various techniques have been proposed for how rights of works distributed particularly as content are protected, as described in JP H6-95302B, for example.
Meanwhile, techniques for providing network services have significantly advanced in recent years, and various pieces of information are distributed through networks. For example, JP 4085284B describes a technique by which a play list for playing back content such as musical compositions is shared by users and content in the shared play list is acquired through a network for playing back the content. As described above, it is currently general that not only data which is a content entity but also various pieces of data related to the content are distributed through a network.

Information processing apparatus, information processing system, and program


A multiple server module includes a server chassis having a bottom, and a plurality of independently-operating, single-board computer servers arranged across the bottom of the server chassis. Each server has a compact footprint on the bottom which is defined by a motherboard alone, and each server includes a solid-state storage device, a processor, a networking port, and a power port carried on the motherboard within the footprint.

For over 50 years, computers have been stored in 19-inch racks in data centers and server rooms to move their bulk out of the home and office. 19-inch racks, or more simply, "racks," are frames or enclosures that house and support multiple computers. Most frequently, these computers are servers, providing remote hosting and processing of data for a client that is not local. The servers are frequently dedicated to performing a single or very few operations, and because of this specificity of operation, often have the capability to work at a faster or more efficient pace than a general-purpose computer would be able.
Arranging servers in racks saves space and can help organize equipment, peripherals, and accessories within dedicated data centers. A rack is several feet tall and 19 inches wide. It generally has four upright support members standing vertically at corners of the rack and has an open front and open back. Individual servers are secured within the rack horizontally, such as by coupling ears at the front of the server to the front two support members, or by sliding the servers on rails extending horizontally along the sides of the rack. The open front and back allow air to move through the rack, and also allow technicians to monitor and repair the servers. Servers will frequently have a front display providing status signals or other information which can be seen at the open front, and will generally route power and networking cables out the back through the open back of the rack.
Data centers and server rooms are refrigerated and kept very cool. The hard disk drives in the servers produce heat, and the motherboards and the processors also do to a limited extent. The servers have fans inside the server cases to expel heat from the case as fast as possible. The heat generated is significant, and when hundreds or thousands of servers are kept in a single room, the heat generated is tremendous. Unfortunately, servers operate poorly at heat and can fail much faster and more frequently than when they are kept cool. For this reason, data centers will refrigerate their rooms centrally, providing cooling to all of the servers in all of the racks. The cost of cooling rooms is not insignificant and contributes to the overhead of maintaining a data center. This cost is passed along to the client.
Stacking computer servers vertically also allows data centers to consolidate equipment into a small space, thus saving on land costs. To save more space, some people have developed stackable servers that can fit closely together, almost in interlocking arrangement. Others have developed servers that are positioned vertically, so that many thin servers can be placed alongside each other in a rack. This leads to a dense configuration of computers, however, and with it, difficult cooling problems. When servers are tightly packed, it can become challenging to dissipate heat quickly when there is little room for airflow among the servers. An improved rack server is needed.


A level conversion circuit includes an ECL logic circuit including a current switch circuit having first and second transistors, each of the transistors having an emitter coupled to each other and at least one thereof receiving an input signal of ECL logic level, and an output transistor coupled to a collector of at least one of the first and second transistors; a current control circuit including a current mirror circuit having third and fourth transistors, at least one of the transistors being coupled to an output end of the output transistor, and controlling a current flowing through the output to thereby carry out a level conversion of a signal at the output end; and a switch circuit operative coupled to the current control circuit. The switch circuit responds to a control signal and thus controls a supply of a current or a break thereof from the output transistor to the current control circuit. As a result, it is possible to decrease power dissipation in the present level conversion circuit without spoiling high speed operation thereof in a stand-by state of an apparatus or system to which it is applied.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a level conversion circuit, more particularly, to a circuit for converting an emitter-coupled logic (ECL) logic level into a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) logic level.
Bipolar CMOS (Bi-CMOS) semiconductor integrated circuit devices are excellent in high speed operation and low power dissipation applications. Nevertheless, a further decrease in power dissipation has been recently demanded in Bi-CMOS. Accordingly, a further decrease in power dissipation of a level conversion circuit, which is employed in a Bi-CMOS semiconductor integrated circuit device to convert an ECL logic level into a CMOS logic level, has also been demanded.
2. Description of the Related Art
A known level conversion circuit of the above type generally comprises an ECL logic circuit having a pair of emitter-coupled transistors (current switch circuit) responsive to an input signal of ECL logic level, an output transistor coupled to a collector of at least one of the emitter-coupled transistors, and a current control circuit comprising a current mirror circuit for controlling a current flowing through the output of the output transistor, the circuit carrying out a level conversion of the input signal to a CMOS level control signal.
Since the level conversion circuit of this type employs a current mode logic in both the ECL logic circuit and the current control circuit, it can achieve high speed operation. However, some current always flows in both of the circuits and thus the power dissipation is relatively high.
Especially, when the level conversion circuit is used in an apparatus or system having a relatively long stand-by time during which it resides in an inoperative state, the power dissipation thereof is even greater. Accordingly, there is an even greater need to decrease the power dissipation of the entire circuit.
To this end, an idea that power supply voltages fed to the apparatus or system are cut off in the stand-by state has been conceived. However, when the apparatus or system is brought to its working state from its stand-by state and thus powered ON, a problem occurs in that the operations of each circuit supplied with the power supply voltages are delayed. This is an obstacle to high speed operation and thus is not desired.
The problems in the prior art will be explained in detail later in contrast with the preferred embodiments of the present invention.


A connector for a battery powered electric apparatus comprising a housing including a base and side walls. A first contact is disposed on the housing base. A printed circuit board opposes the base and sandwiches a button battery therebetween. The first contact is in electrical communication with the printed circuit board. A second contact is between the button battery and the printed circuit board and is in electrical communication with each. The second contact is configured such that depression of a switch associated with the printed circuit board translates a rotational force on the button battery communicated through the second contact.

The present disclosure relates generally to a battery connector assembly. More particularly, it relates to a connector assembly for a button type battery for use, for example, in combination with a keyless remote. However, it should be appreciated that the present battery connector assembly is suitable for any battery powered device including an activation switch.
Batteries are used for a variety of purposes. For example, battery units are often used in portable electronic devices such as remote control keys for automobiles, allowing a user to lock or unlock car doors and perform a variety of other functions without using a key. Such devices have become increasingly popular in recent years.
Many automotive manufacturers provide remote keyless entry systems with the vehicles they sell. These keyless entry systems contain a keyless transmitter that allows a user to activate door locks, trunk or other functions of the vehicle by pressing buttons on the keyless transmitter. Keyless entry transmitters typically use a button cell batter as the power source. The battery is often connected to a printed circuit board by means of metal springs that are soldered directly to the printed circuit board or attached to the transmitter housing.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,175,677 describes an exemplary battery connector assembly for a keyless remote device. As shown in FIG. 1, a battery unit 10 includes an upper housing 12 and a lower housing (not shown). A printed circuit board 18 includes a positive battery contact 20 and a negative battery contact 22 which, along with the other circuit board components (not shown), form a printed circuit board assembly 19. The positive battery contact 20 and the negative battery contact 22 both contact battery 24, with the positive battery contact 20 contacting a positive end 40 of the battery 24 and the negative battery contact 22 contacting a negative end 42 of the battery, supplying power to the battery unit 10.
When a button cell battery is mounted in the manner described above, a condition that is commonly called fretting corrosion can occur. Particularly, small scratches that are caused by vibration of the battery against the contacts can develop on the battery surface. Corrosion can develop in the scratched area that can lead to poor electrical contact between the battery and the printed circuit board. This poor connection can cause intermittent or faulty operation of the keyless entry system.

Connector with a battery sandwiched between a housing and a printed circuit board


A dental implant having a hollow ceramic cylinder compressed between two metal components of the implant. A principal embodiment comprises a hollow ceramic cylinder, a hollow abutment with an anti-rotational feature, a metallic tip with a hollow metal core, and a screw. The metal core is press-fit into the ceramic cylinder providing a metallic tip at the apical or bottom end of the ceramic cylinder. The screw is inserted into the hollow abutment and extends into and screws into the metal core. By tightening the screw, the ceramic cylinder can be compressed to improve its strength, and the abutment is thereby reversibly attached to the hollow ceramic cylinder. The hollow ceramic cylinder is implantable in both bone and soft tissue, extends through the interface between the bone and soft tissue, maintains the normal appearance of gum tissue after implantation, and has a maximum diameter between 1.8 to 6 mm.

Dental implants generally consist of an implant which is anchored within bone, and an abutment that is connected to the implant to support a prosthesis, such as a prosthetic tooth or denture. The abutment partially extends into the oral cavity in the position of the tooth it is to replace. The majority of dental implants are made of metal, usually titanium. Metal implants are easily threaded internally for attachment of prosthetic abutments. A problem with metal implants is that the coronal region of a metal implant shows through gum tissue as a dark shadow, thus making the prosthetic tooth look unnatural and unhealthy.
Ceramic implants are light in color, translucent, and appear more like natural tooth roots, thus avoiding the dark shadow found with metal implants. Gingival tissues typically attach quicker and more securely to ceramic than to titanium, thus providing a better seal around the neck of the implant. This improves the overall health of the implant site, for example, by avoiding infection and thus reducing the likelihood of implant rejection. However, there are a number of problems associated with ceramic implants. For example, dental implants are subjected to very high forces from mastication of food and, as a result, ceramic implants have a history of breakage due to their lack of tensile strength. Further, ceramic implants are typically manufactured as one-piece constructs of the implant and the abutment and, as a result, these implants are difficult to restore if the angulations or location of the surgical placement deviate from ideal.
Titanium dental implants with a ceramic sleeve cemented in the coronal region are known. There are several disadvantages to this design. If the ceramic sleeve is thin, it is fragile and the dark opaque metal of the implant shows through the gum making it appear less natural. If the ceramic sleeve is made thicker to overcome the problems with the thin ceramic sleeve, the implant diameter becomes too large for the implant site.
What is needed, and is not found in the prior art, is a dental implant that comprises both metal and ceramic to maximize the benefits of these two materials while avoiding the inherent weaknesses of the ceramic material.

Ceramic and metal composite dental implant


A torque-limiting screwdriver includes a shank disposed within a handgrip. A rear end of the shank engages the handgrip to enable an axial force to be transmitted from the handgrip to the shank. A release mechanism is provided to transmit rotation from the handgrip to the shank. The release mechanism is axially movable relative to both the handgrip and the shank and is spring biased into rotation transmitting relationship with the shank, whereby the rotation transmitting force applied to the shank is substantially independent of the axial force applied from the handgrip to the shank.

The invention relates to torque-limiting screwdrivers which cease imparting a rotary force when a predetermined torque is reached.
In many mechanical operations it is desirable to tighten a screw with a well defined torque, such as when fastening brittle or otherwise easily damaged items, and it is desired to have as high a fastening force without exceeding a predetermined limit. One example of such brittle items is a carbide insert in a turning or milling tool which is secured by a fastening screw. Another example is when a screw is to be threaded into a material having limited strength such as aluminum castings.
For such operations it has long been known to use screwdrivers or other tools which let the handle rotate freely without rotating the screw-engaging tool shank when a preset torque is reached. Examples of hand-held tools of such types are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,396,040, 2,797,564, 3,890,859, 4,063,474, 4,517,865; British Patent 900,035 and German Patent 40 22 763.
Some of the requirements in connection with torque-limiting screwdrivers are that (a) the torque limit in the tightening direction should be adjustable and defined with high precision, i.e., better than 10% error independent of moisture, wear and lubrication, (b) the torque in the loosening direction should be unlimited, and (c) the act of reaching the limit torque should not cause axial impacts in the tool shank. All known prior art designs fail in one or more of those requirements.
Precision in determination of the torque limit is difficult to achieve with metal release mechanisms, since the friction in such mechanisms is strongly dependent on wear and lubrication. This is true for the following clutch type arrangements: (a) two multi-toothed washers in mutual contact (U.S. Pat. No. 4,517,865), (b) a toothed washer in contact with a single tooth (U.S. Pat. No. 2,797,564), and (c) a toothed washer in contact with a cylinder (British Patent 900,035).
To lessen the dependence upon friction, it has been suggested to provide a clutch in the form of a toothed washer in contact with rollers or balls (see U.S. Pat. No. 3,890,859), but that is difficult to combine with unlimited torque in the loosening direction unless there is added a separate ratchet mechanism such as the type disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,396,040. Tools employing leaf springs acting against profiled shafts or tubes as shown in German Document 40 22 763 or U.S. Pat. No. 5,746,298 are very dependent on friction, and have low precision, e.g., around 20%.
All of the above-mentioned designs will also cause harmful axial impacts and vibrations in the screwdriver shank when the limit torque is reached, except those employing profiled shafts or tubes.
The present invention concerns a screwdriver where the mechanism and special choice of materials permit definition of a torque limit with high precision, and which is made from considerably fewer components than prior art designs, and which avoids essentially all axial impacts or vibrations in the screwdriver shank.
The invention pertains to a torque-limiting screwdriver which includes a screw-engaging shank disposed in a handgrip, and a torque-limiting element for transmitting a screw-tightening torque between the handgrip and the shank preventing the torque from exceeding a predetermined value. The shank includes a rear end engaging the handgrip for transmitting axial force from the handgrip to the shank. The shank includes teeth spaced from the rear end. A spring is arranged to yieldably urge the torque-limiting element into rotation-transmitting relationship with the teeth.


A universal lead frame for semiconductor packages includes a solid lead frame sheet comprising an electrically conductive material and a plurality of columns etched into the lead frame sheet and distributed with a predetermined lead pitch so that the universal lead frame has a solid first main side opposite the columns and a patterned second main side opposite the first main side. A method of manufacturing the universal lead frame includes providing a solid lead frame sheet of an electrically conductive material and etching a plurality of columns into the lead frame sheet so that the columns are distributed with a predetermined lead pitch and the universal lead frame has a solid first main side opposite the columns and a patterned second main side opposite the first main side. A method of manufacturing molded semiconductor packages using the universal lead frame is also provided.

Flat no-leads packages such as QFN (quad-flat no-leads) and DFN (dual-flat no-leads) physically and electrically connect integrated circuits to boars such as printed circuit boards (PCBs). Flat no-leads, also known as micro leadframe (MLP) and SON (small-outline no leads), is a surface-mount technology for connecting ICs (integrated circuits) to the surfaces of PCBs without through-holes. Flat no-leads is a near-chip scale package technology that provides a plastic encapsulated package made with a planar copper lead frame substrate. Perimeter lands on the package bottom provide electrical connections to the PCB.
Lead frames for flat no-leads packages are conventionally customized based on specific lead count, exposed pad size and body size. For example, a first lead frame design is used for a 32 pin count QFN package having a 5×5 mm body size and exposed pad size of 3×3 mm and a different lead frame design is used for a 48 pint count QFN package having a 7×7 mm body size and exposed pad size of 5×5 mm. Having too many lead frame designs increases the package design and inventory costs in production, and increases part number management complexity.

Universal lead frame for flat no-leads packages