To provide a fluid control apparatus capable of reducing the space, while reducing the cost. A fluid control apparatus has a fluid controlling unit and a fluid introducing unit. The fluid introducing unit is divided into three parts: a first and a second inlet-side shutoff/open parts disposed on the inlet side, each made up of 2×N/2, disposed between the first and second inlet-side shutoff/open parts and the fluid controlling unit.

In a fluid control apparatus used in a semiconductor production apparatus, integration has been advanced in such a manner that a line is formed by arranging a plurality of fluid control devices in series and connecting them without using a pipe or a connector, and a plurality of such lines are installed in parallel on a base member (Patent document 1 and Patent document 2).
In a fluid control apparatus of Patent document 1, as shown in FIG. 7, one process gas control line (fluid control line) is formed of one flow rate controller (21) serving as a basic constituting element, and a plurality (the same number as that of flow rate controllers (21)) of process gas control lines L1 to L16 are arranged in parallel to form the fluid control apparatus. The line P further added to the fluid control lines L1 to L16 in parallel is a purge gas line.
In FIG. 7, each of the process gas control lines L1 to L16 has a filter (24), two inlet-side on-off valves (23) on the inlet side, a flow rate controller(mass flow controller) (21) and an outlet-side on-off valve (25) from the inlet side, and an outlet part that is common to the process gas control lines L1 to L16 is also provided with an on-off valve (26).
In such a fluid control apparatus, fluid (gas) does not constantly flow through all the process gas control lines L1 to L16, and gas is conveyed to a downstream chamber while gases of different kinds or different flow rates are sequentially varied using 2 to 3 lines, and the flow rate is adjusted by a flow rate controller (21). The mass flow controller used as the flow rate controller (21) incorporates a flow rate sensor, a control valve and the like, and requires expensive and frequent maintenance, leading increase in the overall cost. On the other hand, in a fluid control apparatus used in a semiconductor production apparatus, the trend of increase in number of kinds of fluids leads the problem of increase in space and cost.
A fluid control apparatus of Patent document 2 has a fluid controlling unit in which M fluid control lines each having a flow rate controller as a basic constituting element, one inlet, and one outlet are arranged, and a fluid introducing unit formed of a plurality of on-off valves so that the number of inlets is N (>M) and the number of outlets is M, wherein M outlets of the fluid introducing unit and M inlets of the fluid controlling unit are one-on-one connected.
Assigning the apparatus of Patent document 2 to the conventional fluid control apparatus shown in FIG. 7, it has a fluid controlling unit (2) in which M (8 in the drawing) fluid control lines L1 to L8 each having the flow rate controller (21) as a basic constituting element, and a fluid introducing unit (3) formed of a plurality of on-off valves (23) so that the number of inlets is N (16 in the drawing) and the number of outlets is M as shown in FIG. 6.
In the same drawing, each of the fluid control lines L1 to L8 is a line of controlling process gas, and one purge gas line P is provided in parallel with these.
As a flow rate controller (21), a mass flow controller is used. Since the mass flow controller (21) has relatively narrow flow rate adjustable range, even for the same kind of fluid, a separate mass flow controller (21) is used when the flow rate adjustment range differs, and flow rates of M kinds of process gases (including the same process gas with different flow rates) can be adjusted by means of the M fluid control lines L1 to L8.
The fluid introducing unit (3) includes N×M on-off valves (23), and the M outlets of the fluid introducing unit (3) and the M inlets of the fluid controlling unit (2) are connected one-on-one.
Each of the N inlets of the fluid introducing unit (3) is provided with the filter (24) and a manual valve (27). Each of the M fluid control lines L1 to L8 is provided with two outlet-side on-off valves (25). On the outlet side of the fluid controlling unit (2), a pressure switch (28), the filter (24), and the on-off valve (26) that are common to the fluid control lines L1 to L8 are provided.
As the flow rate controller, besides the mass flow controller, a pressure type is also known (see Patent document 3 for reference).    Patent document 1: Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2002-206700    Patent document 2: Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2000-323464    Patent document 3: Japanese Patent Publication No. 3387849


The management burden of a replication administrator is alleviated and the monitoring burden is reduced in a storage system. In a large-scale storage system configured across a plurality of sites, a management computer managing the storage system collects configuration information of a volume group such as the copy pair status information from a host computer of the respective sites including a primary site and a remote site, and analyzes the collected information. When a failure or a disaster occurs and the primary site and the remote site are switched and the management computer detects a change in the configuration of the volume group, and appropriate switches the monitoring configuration upon determining the configuration of the detected change.

The present invention generally relates to a storage system including a host computer, a storage apparatus and a management computer and to its monitoring condition setting method, and in particular can be suitably applied when changing the monitoring condition of a volume provided in the storage apparatus.
Pursuant to the advancement of information society, computer systems are being introduced throughout society, and the amount of data that is being processed is increasing explosively. Moreover, the importance of data that is handled in computer systems is increasing pursuant to the advancement of information society and, in addition to demands for higher reliability of the retained data, it is a social mission of information systems to prevent the loss of retained data from any and all disasters.
In this kind of system, volumes are multiplexed in order to guarantee the reliability of data. The data output from a host computer is copied to a volume in a directly-connected storage apparatus. Moreover the data is copied to another volume or a volume of another storage apparatus. Data is thereby duplicated to guarantee the reliability of data.
Generally speaking, a case where a volume for copying data is located in the same storage apparatus as the foregoing volume is referred to as a local copy, and a case where a volume for copying data is located in a storage apparatus separate from the foregoing volume is referred to as a remote copy, and these are applied to information systems demanded of high reliability. In addition, local copy and remote copy are sometimes collectively referred to as replication. According to this replication technology, even when a failure occurs in one volume and becomes inoperable, the system operation can be continued by using the data stored in the other volume. The two volumes of a copy source and a copy destination in a replication relationship are referred to as a copy pair.
Normally, copy pairs are grouped in host computer units or application units, and the control and monitoring of copy pairs are performed in such units. A plurality of copy pairs grouped in host computer units or application units are referred to as a copy group.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2007-249447 discloses technology for monitoring the replication of a copy group in a storage system including a plurality of host computers and a plurality of storage apparatuses.

Storage system and method of changing monitoring condition thereof


A system that captures both whiteboard content and audio signals of a meeting using a digital camera and a microphone. The system can be retrofit to any existing whiteboard. It computes the time stamps of pen strokes on the whiteboard by analyzing the sequence of captured snapshots. It also automatically produces a set of key frames representing all the written content on the whiteboard before each erasure. The whiteboard content serves as a visual index to efficiently browse the audio meeting. The system not only captures the whiteboard content, but also helps the users to view and manage the captured meeting content efficiently and securely.

1. Technical Field
This invention is directed toward a system and method for recording meetings. More particularly, this invention is directed towards a system and method for capturing both the whiteboard content and audio of a meeting.
2. Background Art
Meetings constitute a large part of many workers' working time. Making more efficient use of this time spent in meetings translates into a big increase in productivity.
Many meeting scenarios use a whiteboard extensively for brainstorming sessions, lectures, project planning meetings, patent disclosures, and so on. Note-taking and copying what is written on the board often interferes with many participants' active contribution and involvement during these meetings. As a result, some efforts have been undertaken to capture whiteboard content in some automated fashion.
Several technologies have been developed to capture the whiteboard content automatically. One of the earliest, the whiteboard copier, is a special whiteboard with a built-in copier. With a click of a button, the whiteboard content is scanned and printed. Once the whiteboard content is on paper, it can be photocopied, faxed, put away in the file cabinet, or scanned into digital form.
More recent technologies attempt to capture the whiteboard content in digital form from the start. They generally fall into two categories—those that capture images of the whiteboard and those that track pen location and infer whiteboard content therefrom.
The devices in the first category capture images of the whiteboard directly. National Television System Committee (NTSC)-resolution video cameras are often used because of their low cost. Since these cameras usually do not have enough resolution to clearly capture what is written on a typical conference room size whiteboard, several video frames must be stitched together to create a single whiteboard image. Another device in this first category is the digital still camera. As high resolution digital cameras get cheaper, taking snapshots of the board with a digital camera becomes a popular choice.
Devices in the second category track the location of the pen used to write on the whiteboard at high frequency and infer the content of the whiteboard from the history of the pen coordinates. Sometimes they include an add-on device attached to the side of a conventional whiteboard and use special cases for the dry-ink pens and eraser. Each pen emits ultrasonic pulses when pressed against the board. Two receivers at the add-on device use the difference in time-of-arrival of the audio pulses to triangulate the pen coordinates. Since the history of the pen coordinates is captured, the content on the whiteboard at any given moment can be reconstructed later. The user of this type of whiteboard recording can play back the whiteboard content like a movie. Because the content is captured in vector form, it can be transmitted and archived with low bandwidth and small storage requirements.
Electronic whiteboards also use pen tracking technology. They go one step further than the systems using the previously discussed add-on devices by making the whiteboard an interactive device. The user writes on a monitor with a special stylus that is tracked by the computer. The computer renders the strokes on the screen wherever the stylus touches the screen—as if the ink is deposited by the stylus. Because the strokes are computer generated, they can be edited, reflowed, and animated. The user can also issue gesture commands to the computer and show other computer applications on the same screen.
Electronic whiteboards, however, currently still have limited installation base due to their high cost and small sizes (the size of an electronic whiteboard rarely exceeds 6 feet in diagonal). Furthermore, systems with pen-tracking devices have the following disadvantages: 1) If the system is not on or the user writes without using the special pens, the content cannot be recovered by the device; 2) Many people like to use their fingers to correct small mistakes on the whiteboard instead of the special eraser. This common behavior causes extra strokes to appear on the captured content; 3) People have to use special dry-ink pen adapters, which make them much thicker and harder to press, for some of the devices; and 4) Imprecision of pen tracking sometimes causes mis-registration of adjacent pen strokes.
Besides the work discussed above with respect to whiteboard capture methods, a great amount of research has been done on the capture, integration, and access of the multimedia experience, especially with respect to lectures and meetings. People have developed techniques and systems that use handwritten notes, whiteboard content, slides, or manual annotations to index the recorded video and audio for easy access.
For example, in a project called the Classroom2000 project, Abowd et al. used an electronic whiteboard to time-stamp the ink strokes so that the viewers (students) could use the ink strokes as the indexes to the recorded video and audio. Key frames (called pages) were computed based on the erasure events provided by the electronic whiteboard. The Classroom2000 project, however, required an electronic whiteboard. With an electronic whiteboard, there are many disadvantages from the end user's point of view. First of all, most offices and meeting rooms do not have electronic whiteboards installed. Secondly, it has been shown that people find it is much more natural to use a regular whiteboard than an electronic whiteboard. Thirdly, images captured with a camera provide much more contextual information such as who was writing and which topic was discussing (usually by hand pointing). In addition to these disadvantages, electronic whiteboards can be costly and are thus not readily available.

System and method for whiteboard and audio capture


A method for depositing a silicon oxide layer by ozone-activated gas phase deposition, uses tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS). An initially high gas flow ratio of TEOS to ozone is increasingly varied to a low steady-state ratio.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method for depositing a silicon oxide layer.
Silicon oxide layers can be made by the so-called TEOS (tetraethyl orthosilicate) process, through the use of gas phase deposition (CVD--Chemical Vapor deposition). It is known that gas phase deposition is activated by the addition of ozone in a gas flow. A disadvantage of the ozone-activated TEOS process is different deposition characteristics which occur, depending on the base material. The deposition rate is thus lower on a thermal oxide than on silicon.
The publication by K. Fujino, Y. Nishimoto, N. Tokumasu and K. Maeda, entitled: Dependence of Deposition Characteristics on Base Materials in TEOS and Ozone CVD at Atmospheric Pressure, in J. Electrochem. Soc. Vol. 138, No. 2, February 1991, p. 550, proposes an improvement by initially depositing a first layer at a low ozone concentration and subsequently depositing a second layer to the desired layer thickness at a high ozone concentration. That process has the disadvantage of producing two separate layers, so that it is not possible to reliably prevent uneven deposition with the development of bubbles and/or fluctuations in stoichiometry. Moreover, the manipulation involved in the process is inconvenient since the deposition conditions must be setup anew for each of the two layers.
It is known from a publication by the same authors, that was published after the above-mentioned publication, and which is entitled: Surface Modification of Base Materials for TEOS/O.sub.3 Atmospheric Pressure Chemical Vapor Deposition, in J. Electrochem. Soc. Vol. 139, No. 6, June 1992, p. 1690, to use a nitrogen or argon plasma in an ozone-activated silicon oxide gas phase deposition through the use of TEOS. Exposing surfaces to the nitrogen plasma levels off surface energies, so that uniform nucleation of the layer to be deposited can be attained for the ensuing actual TEOS process. When argon plasma is employed, the surface energies are achieved by eliminating the different surface constitution by sputtering off the nonhomogeneous layer. Those processes again produce defective layer quality and inadequate replicability, so that they cannot even be considered for use in production.

Method for depositing a silicon oxide layer


The embodiment of the application provides an apparatus and a method for dynamically adjusting a frequency of central processing unit CPU. The apparatus is used for a computer system which executes a CPU bound application and a memory bound application, and comprises: a ratio acquiring unit for acquiring the ratio of memory access instruction as executing an application task set; a frequency calculating unit connected with the ratio acquiring unit for calculating an adjusted new frequency of CPU in inverse proportional to the ratio of memory access instruction acquired by the ratio acquiring unit; and a frequency adjusting unit connected with the frequency calculating unit for adjusting the frequency of CPU to the new frequency of CPU. With the apparatus and method for adjusting the frequency of CPU according to the embodiment of the invention, the frequency of CPU can be decreased in consideration of the ratio of memory access instruction so as to reduce the power consumption of the computer system.

The present invention relates to the field of computer system, and specially, relates to an apparatus and method and computer system for dynamically adjusting frequency of a central processing unit.
In the current computer system, a target value of a ratio of usage of CPU (Central Processing Unit) is generally set so that the CPU remains at a higher ratio of usage. Generally speaking, there are two choices in completing a same task in the computer system: one is running at a higher ratio of load (ratio of usage) of CPU with a lower frequency of CPU, the other is running at a lower ratio of load (ratio of usage) of CPU with a higher frequency of CPU. Since in the current computer system, the power consumption of the CPU is mainly related to the frequency thereof, i.e., is proportional to the square of the frequency thereof, that is, the lower the frequency of CPU is, the lower the power consumption is.
In recent years, the mainstream processors, for example, X86, ARM, etc. all support DVFS (Dynamic Voltage Frequency Scaling) technology. For example, in Linux system, there proposes a CPU control algorithm which is a dynamic scaling framework of the frequency of CPU based on the dynamic frequency scaling. In the method, there sets two thresholds of the frequency of CPU, and if the current ratio of usage of CPU is higher than the "high threshold", the frequency of CPU is increased; if the current ratio of usage of CPU is lower than the "low threshold", the frequency of CPU is decreased, so as to achieve the purpose of dynamically adjusting the frequency of CPU to reduce the power consumption.
However, with the complication of the computer system, there is a trend of further increase of the power consumption, thus, there still needs to research an apparatus and method for dynamically adjusting the frequency of CPU so that the power consumption is reduced.

Apparatus and method for dynamically adjusting frequency of central processing unit


A resin molded product includes: a laminated body including a transparent resin layer that constitutes a transparent resin substrate molded in a predetermined shape, and a metal evaporation film formed on a surface of the transparent resin layer; and a colored layer formed on one surface of the laminated body and configured to transmit infrared rays. The laminated body includes a region where the metal evaporation film is removed by an irradiation with an infrared laser beam.

In the related art, a vehicle part having a pattern formed by laser decoration is known (Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2015-103292), in which a metal evaporation film is formed on one surface of a resin molded product made of a plate-like transparent resin substrate, and then, a part of the evaporation film is cut away by irradiating the metal evaporation film with a laser beam.
In the vehicle part disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2015-103292, a portion where the metal evaporation film is formed is observed as a metal-tone evaporation surface, and a portion where the metal evaporation film is not formed is observed as colorless and transparent.


A lid device driving an opening operation of a lid body by an urging member such as a coil spring and capable of opening the lid body securely. Of a guide portion for guiding an engaging end of the urging member of the lid device, a first guide portion for guiding the engaging end in moving the lid body from a closed position to an open position is provided with an initial guide portion and a later guide portion so that the urging member releases a large urging force when the engaging end is guided by the initial guide portion.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a lid device for opening and closing an opening of a storage structure.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are a variety of known lid devices for opening and closing openings of storage structures, but opening and closing operations of the lid devices sometimes impose, on a user, a burden which depends on the kind of storage structures. For example, a glove box for a vehicle is a kind of storage structure and mounted in a small-spaced passenger room. Therefore, a user needs to perform opening and closing operations of a lid body in a small space and sometimes finds it difficult. Under these circumstances, a lid device has been developed which is capable of opening and closing a lid body easily by driving automatically (For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. H02-267038). In the lid device disclosed in this Japanese patent document, a motor starts upon a user manually applying a force to start an opening or closing operation of the lid body, and then the motor drives the lid body to be opened or closed. In such a lid device, an opening or closing operation of the lid body can be carried out by a simple operation of the user, without imposing a burden on a user. On the other hand, since the motor is expensive, there is a problem that production cost of the lid device increases.
It is assumed that production cost of the lid device can be reduced if the opening or closing operation of the lid body is driven by an urging member such as a spring instead of the motor. In this case, for example, if an urging force is accumulated by stretching or compressing the urging member in association with opening or closing the lid body, the accumulated urging force can drive at least part of the opening or closing operation of the lid body.
In general, a lid device is provided with a lock means and a lid body is locked in a closed position by the lock means. In opening the lid body, the lock means is operated so as to release the locked state of the lid body. In order to simplify the opening operation of the lid body, the lid body needs to be opened by a single operation of the lock means. Therefore, it is demanded that the lid device has a function of driving the opening operation of the lid body by an urging member at the same time as releasing the locked state of the lid body. By the way, the center of gravity of the lid body sometimes lies on the closing side of the lid body in a manner that depends on the shape or location of a storage structure. For example, when the storage structure is a glove box mounted on a vehicle and the vehicle is parked on a slope, the center of gravity of the lid body may lie on the closing side of the lid body. When the center of gravity of the lid body lies on the closing side of the lid body, a force to move to a closed position under its own weight is applied on the lid body and a large urging force is required to drive the opening operation of the lid body. Therefore, in this case, sometimes the lid body is not opened by a single operation of the lock means. When the lock means has a certain mechanism, sometimes the lid body is not only unopened but also locked again in a closed position.


A test pack for evaluating an ethylene oxide sterilization process, comprising an open ended fiber board tubular member, an end cap enclosing each end of said tubular member, said end caps defining a test chamber within the tubular member, one of said end caps having an opening to permit the egress of ethylene oxide into the test chamber. A fiber ball is inserted into the test chamber at a location remote from the end cap having the opening therein, and a chemical type sterilization indicator is placed within the test chamber.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,304,869, discloses an apparatus for rupturing a sealed frangible container. The frangible container is enclosed in an elongated tubular member having an annular space of decreasing dimension. The frangible container, e.g. a vial, contains a biological indicator for the sterilization process. The device is utilized to measure the effectiveness of steam or gas sterilization process. The tubular member is enclosed at each end. The device is fitted together by insertion of an end cap which can support the frangible container into a flanged section. Sterilant passes into the tubular member between the flanged portion and the cap which presents a tortuous path for the sterilant which may be steam or a gas.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,461,837, discloses a biological system for use in sterilization processes. A container is provided to enclose a frangible vial containing a biological indicator. The sterilant gas gains access to the indicator comprising spore strips by passing through the annulus formed by the outer dimension of the tubular container and a cap fitted at one end. The sterilant fluid communication between the exterior and interior of the container is described as taking place along a tortuous path because fluid traversing the path must negotiate at least two 90.degree. turns in order to gain access to the interior of the container.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,914,034, discloses a disposable biological test pack for monitoring steam and ethylene oxide sterilization processes. The test pack comprises a fiberboard housing which includes two end sections and a midsection. Each end section includes an outer tube and a longer inner tube. The open end of the outer tubes abut the opposing ends of the midsection to define a seam or gap. The inner tube extends past the seam and telescopes into the midsection. The seam and the close tolerance between the inner tube and midsection provide a tortuous path for entry of the sterilant into the interior of the housing. The tortuous path has a moisture absorbent surfaced and is dimensioned to promote intimate contact between the sterilant and absorbent surface. A second path of entry is provided for ethylene oxide sterilization processes only. In the ethylene oxide process the ETO reaches the biological indicator via a second tortuous path, and to a lesser extent through the first tortuous path.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,591,566, discloses a biological indicator probe for steam sterilization systems. The probe comprises a rod of heat resistant material, i.e., polysulphone resin, having an end chamber (test probe element) closable by a rotatable sleeve. The test probe element is made of the same material as the rod. The test probe element is adapted to accept a test vial containing the biological indicator through closable windows. The test vial is exposed to the steam and high temperature of the autoclave through the windows.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,839,291, discloses a disposable biological indicator test pack for monitoring steam and ethylene oxide sterilization processes. The test pack includes a fiber board housing for a biological indicator comprising an outer tube and a shorter inner tube. The outer tube has upper and lower portions which define a seam or gap at their adjoining ends. The inner tube extends past the seam and telescopes into the upper and lower portions of the outer tube. The seam and the close tolerance between the inner tube and the outer tube prove a tortuous path for entry of sterilant into the interior of the housing. The tortuous path has a moisture absorbing surface and is dimensioned to promote intimate contact between the sterilant and the absorbent surface. A hole covered by an optionally removable tab is provided at the end of the upper portion of the outer tube for use in monitoring ethylene oxide sterilization processes. The vial containing the biological indicator is enclosed in ampule having a cap. The space between the cap and the outer ampule wall provides an additional tortuous path for entry of sterilant into the biological indicator.
European Patent Application No. 0 255 229 A2 discloses a steam sterilization test pack comprising a plastic tube having a steam sensitive sterilization card and a biological indicator therein. The tube has end caps both of which have centrally located apertures. The caps have an inside diameter slightly larger than the outside diameter of the tube. The spacing between the cap and tube provide a circuitous path for the entry of steam.
European Patent Application No. 0 419 282 A1 discloses a disposable test pack for steam or gas sterilization. The test pack comprises a container filled with porous packing material. The packing material challenges the penetration of the sterilant by providing a restricted pathway which acts to impede the flow of sterilant through the test pack. The test pack can contain either a biological or chemical indicator or both to detect the efficacy of the sterilization process.
Whether used for steam or ethylene oxide process monitoring, the devices of the prior art require a tortuous path, provided either by geometric design of the device or by packing, for the entry of sterilant into the test chamber. Generally the indicator is a biological indicator, though chemical indicators are disclosed.
The Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI) has developed a protocol for testing the ETO sterilization process which comprises the utilization of a large plastic syringe into which a biological indicator can be placed. The syringe has an elongated constricted element, integral with the syringe at one end in place of a needle, and a plunger at the end remote to the constricted element. After the indicator is placed into the syringe the plunger is put into place, thereby leaving only the elongated element as an entry way for the ETO. The device is wrapped in a large towel and placed into the sterilizer for the purpose of monitoring the sterilization process.
This procedure has been modified by replacing the towel by a fiber board cylinder which is dimensioned to fit snugly over the syringe body. The cylinder serves as a heat sink as well as absorbing ETO and moisture to delay the kill rate of the spores within the biological monitor, usually spore strips having specific resistant strains of microbes deposited thereon.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,138,216, discloses a chemical type ethylene oxide indicator. The device comprises a wick enclosed in an ethylene oxide (ETO) impervious envelope having the wick exposed at one end. The wick is impregnated with a magnesium halide which is reactive with ETO to form a base, the presence of which is detected by a pH sensitive dye incorporated into the wick.
In use the chemical indicator is enclosed in a pack of material which requires sterilization. The pack offers resistance to the entry of ethylene oxide. Hence the indicator will indicate the quality of the process to which the material to be sterilized is exposed. Examination of the chemical indicator requires opening the pack to view it, thereby exposing the sterilized contents to potentially septic conditions. It is of value to be able to monitor the effectiveness of the sterilization process without the need to open a sterilized package. Use of the chemical process monitor of the '216 patent without a pack results in erroneous results in that the device is designed to be utilized in a pack, and indicate sterilization after adequate exposure to ETO for the proper time under appropriate humidity conditions. What is needed is a method for utilizing the chemical process monitor without enclosing it in a pack of material requiring sterilization, thereby permitting ready access to the monitor in order to evaluate the efficacy of the sterilization process.

Simplified ethylene oxide sterilization test pack

Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company


LED arrays where a plurality of LEDs are vertically arranged are lit up in luminance corresponding to tone values on digital image data. Light beams in line emitted from the LED arrays are scanned in a horizontal direction to display a two-dimensional image. Clocks A, B, C are selectively gated according to the tone values D0, D1 on the digital image data to generate a drive pulse for driving each of the LEDs on the LED arrays. Each LED thus emits light in luminance corresponding to the tone value on the digital image data. Pulse widths of the clocks A, B, C are changed by one screen. Luminance of each light emitting element corresponding to the tone data on the digital image data is thus changed to increase the substantially representable number of tones.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image display device, and more particularly to an image display device for displaying a two-dimensional image on the basis of digital image data.
2. Description of the Background Art
In a conventional information processing device generating a picture signal by digital control such as a personal computer or an electronic game device, the number of tones that may be represented in one screen is determined by the number of bits (N) of luminance data included with the image data. Specifically, since the number of tones the conventional information processing device can represent is 2.sup.N, more tones cannot be displayed in one screen.
In the above conventional information processing device, the number of bits of the luminance data for each pixel (or dot) has to be increased in order to increase the representable number of tones, resulting in massive amounts of data as a whole. Furthermore, a bus line and a circuit block in the device must be changed to accomodate the data with additional numbers of bits in the image data.


A wireless bicycle communication apparatus comprises an information receiver and a wireless transmitter. The information receiver is configured to receive first information and second information from a first bicycle component and a second bicycle component. The first information relates to the first bicycle component. The second information relates to the second bicycle component. The information receiver is configured to receive at least one of the first information and the second information via an electrical communication wiring. The wireless transmitter is configured to periodically transmit wireless signals based on the first information and the second information.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wireless bicycle communication apparatus and a wireless bicycle communication system.
2. Discussion of the Background
Bicycling is becoming an increasingly more popular form of recreation as well as a means of transportation. Moreover, bicycling has become a very popular competitive sport for both amateurs and professionals. Whether the bicycle is used for recreation, transportation or competition, the bicycle industry is constantly improving the various components of the bicycle. In recent years, some bicycles are provided with electric bicycle components.

Wireless bicycle communication apparatus and wireless bicycle communication system


The invention includes semiconductor structures having buried silicide-containing bitlines. Vertical surround gate transistor structures can be formed over the bitlines. The surround gate transistor structures can be incorporated into memory devices, such as, for example, DRAM devices. The invention can be utilized for forming 4F2 DRAM devices.

A continuing goal of semiconductor device application is to increase the level of device integration, or in other words to increase the density of devices across a supporting substrate. Methods for increasing the density can include decreasing the size of individual devices, and/or increasing the packing density of the devices (i.e., reducing the amount of space between adjacent devices). In order to develop higher levels of integration, it is desired to develop new device constructions which can be utilized in semiconductor applications, and to develop new methods for fabricating semiconductor device constructions.
A relatively common semiconductor device is a memory device, with a dynamic random access memory (DRAM) cell being an exemplary memory device. A DRAM cell comprises a transistor and a memory storage device, with a typical memory storage device being a capacitor. Modern applications for semiconductor devices can utilize vast numbers of DRAM unit cells. It would therefore be desirable to develop new semiconductor device constructions applicable for utilization in DRAM structures, and it would also be desirable to develop new methods for fabricating DRAM structures.

Methods of forming semiconductor structures


A method and apparatus for fabricating x-ray optics of the type having a doubly curved crystal lamella attached to a backing plate that is positioned and aligned for use in a spectrometer, monochromator or point-focusing instrument. This method utilizes an apparatus with a removable top and a removable liner; the top containing one or more micrometer screws, and the liner being made of a material to which the bonding agent does not adhere. During fabrication of the optic by pressing the crystal against a doubly curved mold via the viscous bonding agent, excess bonding agent escapes through channels in the liner. The liner is suitably configured so that the completed optic can be easily removed and the mold and fabrication apparatus can be reused many times.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to devices having a doubly curved crystal for the diffraction of x-rays in spectrometers or instruments for microanalysis and also relates to a method of fabricating such crystal devices with high quality.
2. Prior Art
Doubly curved crystals are known to be useful as a means of focusing monochromatic x-rays or as a wavelength dispersive device in x-ray spectrometers. For example: (1) a toroidally curved crystal can provide point-to-point focusing of monochromatic x-rays, (2) crystals curved to spherical or ellipsoidal shape can be used as dispersive devices for parallel detection of x-rays, and (3) crystals with atomic planes spherically curved and the surface toroidally curved can provide high collection efficiency when used in scanning x-ray monochromators as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,882,780.
Some of the prior art for doubly curved crystals and their mounting are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,807,268, 4,780,899 and 4,949,367. U.S. Pat. No. 4,807,268 describes a curved crystal for scanning monochromators formed by plastic deformation at elevated temperature and having unique spherically curved planes and toroidally curved surface (this is sometimes called the xe2x80x9cWittry geometryxe2x80x9d after its inventor). The crystals so made have low reflection efficiency and cannot focus to a high degree of accuracy because of the increase of the crystal""s rocking curve width due to the plastic deformation. Subsequent work has shown that in order to preserve a crystal narrow rocking curve width, elastic, not plastic deformation must be used.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,780,899 and 4,949,367 describe devices which have crystals elastically bent and bonded to a smooth concave substrate by a thin layer of adhesive. These devices have a serious drawback, namely the smoothness of the crystal surface and crystal planes is strongly affected by irregularities in the bonding layer. The irregularities can result from the lack of uniform initial thickness of the adhesive layer on the substrate or it can occur during mounting of the crystal even if the initial adhesive layer is highly uniform. In addition, the use of a precision concave substrate is disadvantageous because a new substrate which must be made with great precision and expense is required for each new crystal device.
The objectives of the present invention are partly as stated in the previous application, namely: (1) to provide an x-ray crystal device which can be fabricated so that the crystal is doubly curved with a smoother surface and smoother crystal planes than is obtained by other methods of fabrication, (2) to provide an x-ray crystal device whose planes are more accurately curved to a predetermined theoretically-optimum shape, (3) to obtain smaller focal spot sizes when the crystal device is used for focusing x-rays than the spot sizes previously obtained, (4) to provide a method of fabrication that will allow the fabrication of many identical crystal diffracting devices by use of only one mold, and (5) to provide a crystal device that can be aligned for use with a minimum of adjustments, and (6) to provide a crystal device which, when used in x-ray instruments, can be readily removed and replaced with minimal requirement for realignment.
Additional objectives of the present invention are as follows: (7) to provide a simpler means for obtaining the correct orientation of the crystal lamella during fabrication of the x-ray optic, (8) to provide better control of the position of the crystal lamella relative to its mounting plate during fabrication, (9) to provide for an assembly as compact as possible, and (10) to minimize the number of steps required in manufacture.
This invention achieves some of the desired objectives by bonding the crystal to its substrate by a thick bonding agent that has high viscosity in it""s initial state and hardens to a solid in its final state. The crystal is bent to its final state by bending it to conform to a convex mold that has the desired shape of the surface of the crystal using pressure that is applied to the crystal by the viscous bonding agent which receives pressure from a force applied to the backing plate during fabrication. Additional features of the invention include special configurations of the mold containing the surface used for bending, and special characteristics of the crystal and backing plate that make the crystal device more convenient to use and easier to align.

Method and apparatus for fabricating curved crystal x-ray optics


A dedicated heat recovery chiller/heater having a two step heat transfer arrangement is set out. A refrigerant to refrigerant heat transfer steep allows for higher temperature lift as compared to prior dedicated heat recovery systems.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to improvements in heating and cooling systems and relates particularly to improvements in air conditioning and chilling systems. Particularly, the invention relates to a dedicated heat recovery chiller and control systems for such a chiller.
The dedicated heat recovery chiller and control system of the present invention utilizes heat otherwise rejected and wasted from a condenser circuit of a refrigeration system to offset heating load which would otherwise need to be provided from a heating source. This system raises the overall thermal efficiency of a building system, reduces energy consumption overall, and saves energy costs.
Recent developments in air conditioning systems involve the utilization of modular refrigeration units each having an evaporator and condenser in heat exchange relation with the fluid to be cooled and/or heated. With the modular system, each refrigeration unit is provided with headers for supply and return of the heat exchange fluid. A plurality of refrigeration units is connected in parallel, and the heat exchange fluid circulates through each evaporator and condenser heat exchanger.
The control of such a modular system enables individual refrigeration units to be operated in accordance with the load on the system. Thus, in times of high load, all refrigeration units will be operating to provide a specific heating and/or cooling capacity. When the load is reduced, refrigeration units may be down loaded, or made inoperative, thus reducing the operating costs of the system and resting units which are not required.
These units are interconnected and coordinated in the present invention to create a dedicated heat recovery chiller system. In this system, heat normally rejected to atmosphere from the condenser circuit of the refrigeration cycle is instead captured, controlled, and utilized to displace heat load otherwise provided by a conventional heating circuit.
The present invention in particular pertains to improvements in dedicated heat recovery chiller-heaters having multiple stages of heat transfer.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the past, heat from the condenser circuit of an air conditioning system would be rejected to atmosphere, and thereby wasted.
The modular refrigeration system overcomes a number of disadvantages of previous systems, particularly with regard to system breakdowns and system expansion. The modular system also provides substantial economies in being able to operate only those refrigeration units necessary for the load at any particular time. Power is therefore saved in not having to run refrigeration units which are unnecessary, or in running units at lower than optimum peak operating efficiency.
It is desirable to provide a dedicated heat recovery chiller system to improve the overall thermal efficiency of a building system.
It is also desirable to provide an improved heating and/or cooling system for a modular refrigeration system having a multiplicity of refrigeration units in which the flow of heat exchange fluid through the condenser and/or chiller of each unit is dependent on the operating state of that unit.
It is also desirable to optimize the power consumed by a modular refrigeration system when operated at less than maximum capacity by reducing the flow of heat exchange fluid through the system.
It is further desirable to reduce the flow of heat exchange fluid through heat exchangers of modular units which are not operating and, at the same time, maintain substantially constant pressure differentials throughout the heating and/or cooling system.
Finally, it has been desired to arrange for elevated temperatures produced by the system to displace more of the conventional heat load requirements as compared to the temperatures available from conventional prior art systems.
These and other prior art deficiencies are addressed and solved by the present invention.

Two stage dedicated heat recovery chiller


The present invention protects a human operator listening to electronically-generated audible signals from potentially adverse effects of periodic interference contained in the audible signals. The periodic interference is modeled and subtracted from the received audio signal. As a result, the actual periodic interference, being reduced or removed, does not adversely affect the hearing of the operator listening to the received audible signals. Moreover, the human operator still readily discerns the voice received along with the periodic interference despite the fact that the interference has been removed. Thus, while the voice suffers little or no attenuation, the periodic interference is selectively and substantially attenuated.

As telecommunication networks have evolved, different types of signals are now communicated over telephone lines in addition to voice signals such as DTMF tones, facsimile signals, etc. Although DTMF tones are traditionally generated to initiate a call, they may also be generated during a call, e.g., when a telephone subscriber is entering a bank account number, credit card number, etc. One problem resulting from these different types of machine-generated signals communicated over the telephone network is the difficulty in setting an amplitude/volume level in a telephone receiver that is appropriate for all types of signals. In particular, a signal level optimal for hearing incoming voice signals is typically too high of a signal level for machine-generated tones and other non-voice signals. This particular problem is especially troublesome for telephone operators who employ a headset rather than a handset to place and receive telephone calls. If such an operator receives a DTMF tone or other machine-generated tone at the volume level set for listening to voice, it is often not possible for the operator to remove the headset in time to avoid "shocking,", or even worse, damaging the operator's ears.
Machine-generated noise like DTMF and fax tones occur unexpectedly and for short time durations making them difficult to anticipate and ameliorate. Because such tones can be generated over a relatively wide frequency band that overlaps the voice bandwidth, it is expensive and therefore not practical to employ fixed filters at particular frequencies to attenuate them. Signal "jamming" of voice communications using periodic interference also presents a problem of changing frequencies. Because such changing periodic interference may be used to "sweep" the voice spectrum, even well-designed filters tailored for a particular and narrow frequency band would be completely ineffective.
Simply lowering the volume level output to a headset is not a particularly good option because the signal level of received speech would likely be too low for a listener to easily discern voice information communicated over the telephone line. Although it might be possible to implement a squelch or noise blanking circuit to squelch/blank all received signals when a tone is detected, such an approach has a major disadvantage. Namely, voice signals or other desired information received at the same time as the tone or other interference would be squelched or blanked out as well.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an audio signal processing method and apparatus that solves these problems by reducing periodic interference in received voice signals so the periodic interference does not (1) surprise the human operator listening to the audio signal using a communications device like a telephone headset or handset or (2) adversely affect the hearing of the human operator.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide such a method and apparatus that specifically reduces periodic interference like facsimile tones, DTMF tones, and other oscillatory signals that may be received during a telephone call being listened to by a human operator.
It is a further object of the present invention to adaptively track and reduce periodic interference that changes in frequency.
It is another object of the present invention to preserve the voice received along with the periodic interference after that periodic interference is reduced or otherwise eliminated.
These and many other objects are achieved by the inventive method which protects an operator listening to electronically-generated audible signals. Received audio signals including both voice signals and interfering signals in the same frequency band are processed before being sent to a speaker. Periodic interference is modeled, and based on that modeled periodic interference, the actual periodic interference in the received audio signals is reduced or removed. As a result, the periodic interference does not adversely affect the hearing of the operator listening to the received audible signals. Moreover, the operator still readily discerns the voice received along with the periodic interference despite the fact that the interference has been reduced or removed. Thus while the voice suffers little or no attenuation, the periodic interference is selectively and substantially attenuated.
The present invention has particularly advantageous application in a call handling system such as a centralized call handling center where plural telephone operators are connected to a telecommunications switch via a network or other routing mechanism. Each operator is provided with a computer station, such as a personal computer, along with a communications device having a microphone and a speaker. Audio signals are received from the telecommunications switch for delivery to the communications device including both voice and is periodic interference. The volume or decibel level of the periodic interference may exceed a threshold that is uncomfortable or otherwise dangerous to the operator listening to the received signal.
The received signals are processed to make sure that this periodic interference does not exceed that threshold. The audio signal is sampled at a predetermined sampling rate to generate a signal sequence. Based on a previous sequence of samples, a contribution of a current signal sample corresponding to the periodic interference is predicted. That predicted contribution is removed from the current sample to ensure that the decibel level of the periodic interference present in the current signal sample ultimately used in reconstructing the analog signal delivered to the speaker of the communications device is less than the threshold.
Periodic interference is predicted by taking advantage of its periodicity. The interference is predicted directly from the audio signal without the need for an external reference signal (corresponding to the interference) generated from a source other than the audio signal itself. More specifically, the signal sequence is processed by delaying the signal sequence for a predetermined delay. The delayed signal sequence is filtered, and the filter output consisting of an estimated current value of the periodic interference sequence is subtracted from an undelayed current value of the signal sequence to generate a difference signal. The periodic interference has therefore been substantially attenuated or effectively removed or cancelled. In this way, the current value of the periodic interference sequence is predicted using previous values of the received signal sequence. The predicted signal is removed from the actual audio signal to generate an audio signal that for the most part is includes only the desired voice signal.
In such a call handling system, each telephone operator's work station (or communication device) contains an audio processor. The audio processor includes an analog-to-digital converter for converting received audio signals into digitized audio samples. An adaptive filter receives the digitized audio samples and substantially reduces the amplitude of tones or other periodic interference in a current audio sample while at the same time substantially preserving both the content and the signal level of the voice information in the current audio sample. Thereafter, a digital-to-analog convertor converts the signal output from the adaptive filter into an analog audio signal. An amplifier may be provided to amplify the audio signal and then forward the amplified signal to drive the speaker in the operator's communication device.
The audio processor implements a signal processing procedure that predicts the tones or other periodic interference occurring in the current audio sample based on previously processed audio samples and subtracts the predicted tones or other periodic interference from the current sample. The predictor is adaptive and therefore tracks changes in frequency in the tones or other interference.
The present invention further provides a digital filter which provides particularly advantageous application in a call handling system such as that described above but also has wide signal processing application. The digital filter includes a delay stage that receives a digitized sequence of samples corresponding to an audio signal that includes both voice and interference. Series-connected filter taps are connected to the delayed signal sequence. Parallel multipliers each multiply a signal from a corresponding one of the filter taps and a corresponding adaptive filter coefficient. A summer sums outputs from the multipliers to generate a signal that predicts the periodic interference in the current signal sample. The predicted periodic interference is then subtracted from the current sample to obtain a difference signal corresponding substantially or entirely to just the voice content of the input audio signal. That difference signal is also employed by an adaptive controller that recursively modifies the filter coefficients in order to minimize the error between the predicted periodic interference and the actual periodic interference. The optimal parameters of the digital filter for application in a call handling system such as that described above are disclosed.

Method and apparatus for reducing periodic interference in audio signals


A closing device for book-like containers, with each container formed by a base and a cover of complementary shape hinged to the base along an edge, includes a first unit in which a grip is operated along a circular path coaxial with the hinge edge of a container situated below, while activation means and deactivation means open and close the grip. A second unit, situated downstream of the first unit is provided for snap-closing the covers of the containers.

Compact discs, widely known as CDs, are usually packed into containers formed by two shells of plastic material, usually transparent. The shells are hinged together along a common edge.
While a first shell forms a bottom of the container and is shaped substantially like a box, a second shell has a shape complementary to the shape of the first shell, and forms a cover for the container.
Usually, closing devices for the (D containers are situated on a conveying line along which the containers are supplied with necessary contents e.g.: graphic leaflets, informative leaflets, sound medium, gadgets, etc.
Conventional devices for closing these shells are currently made of movable plates, which are suitably pivoted to a support structure so as to strike the cover shell thus making it close the related book-like container.
The most important disadvantages of these known devices derive from mechanical resistance required for the initial and final impacts imparted to the cover shell and the hinge around which the cover is rotated and overturned. Moreover, free rotation brings about possible unstability conditions.
The cover shell is moved in uncontrolled, random way, what provokes considerable mechanical stresses and "bounce effect" on the cover when it is struck by the movable plate as well as when it gets completely closed.
Moreover, closing steps, including a partial closing step and snap locking closing step, require considerably long time.


A cooperating rotor device having a first rotor supported for rotation about a first rotation axis (R1) and a second rotor supported for rotation about a second rotation axis (R2). A cylinder rotor (32), supporting a plurality of radially aligned cylinders (33) spaced apart and supported for collective rotation about one rotation axis (R1). Each cylinder (33) having a piston (39) slidable within. A piston rotor (61) has a number of piston rollers (64) corresponding to the number of cylinders (33), each radially supporting a piston (39), with each piston roller (64) independently rotatably supported and all piston rollers (64) collectively rotatable about the other rotation axis (R2). Members including the piston rollers (64), pistons (39), cylinders (33), and cylinder ports (34), all sharing a common plane of rotation about diametrically opposed non-rotating valve ports (74a) and (74b). In embodiments providing controlled variable displacement, a arm (20) or paired housing covers (53), independently and rotatably support one of the rotors (61) or (32) and is rotatably attached to and supported by a linear actuator (90) by a linkage pin (92) pivotably supporting arm (20) or housing covers (53). Cooperative rotor coupling is primarily accomplished by contact between coupling guides (35) furnished by the cylinder rotor (32) and the piston rollers (64) radially supporting each piston (39) furnished by the piston rotor (61). A share of the cooperative rotor coupling function can be, and normally is, also performed by rolling contact between each piston roller (64) and each piston (39).

1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to fluid power devices commonly known as pumps, compressors, and fluid motors.
2. General Description of Prior Art
Persons involved in the design and production of many types of powered equipment, both portable and stationary, are becoming increasingly aware of the advantages of variable displacement in regard to control of fluid power systems. Various combinations of fluid power devices generally involving some combination of pump and fluid motor devices where one or more such devices is capable of varible displacement can provide a exceptionally versatile means of rotary power transmission popularly known as hydrostatic transmissions. The relatively high initial cost, the reliance on oil as a working fluid, and some doubts in regard to the reliability and maintenance of such transmissions has precluded their more widespread use however.
Variable displacement pumps and fluid motor devices produced to date tend to be highly dependent on lubrication. In as much as it is difficult or impossible in most prior art to segregate a suitable lubricant from the working fluid, it is not surprising that the working fluid itself is commonly relied upon to provide the necessary lubrication. The use of a petroleum based oil, often of a very specific type and weight, is therefore mandatory in most variable displacement fluid power devices commonly available.
While oils have other properties making them an excellent choice as a working fluid, oils also have disadvantages. Oils tend to be messy and can pose a risk of contamination, pollution, or pose a unacceptable safety hazard. Fluids of other types, such as water, slurries, fluid mixtures, or gases such as ambient air; fluids which may be readily available or required by a particular application cannot be used. Therefore some inherent advantages of variable displacement, such as volumetric flow control of liquids, process liquids for example, cannot be properly realized or exploited.
It is also likely that new applications not presently contemplated or seriously explored for lack of a suitable mechanism will be found for variable displacement devices capable of efficiently using fluids other than oil as working fluids. Compressors for example, can be made more efficient if capable of variable displacement as less adiabatic heat tends to be generated and more of the adiabatic heat which is produced can be usefully recovered when compressed air is provided as used rather than provided and stored. (Most compressors pump to pressures at least twenty-five percent higher than the working pressure of the compressed air system they serve and adiabatic heat generated by compression is lost or intentionally discarded for storage purposes).
Few prior art devices capable of variable displacement can be operated for more than a few minutes if a suitable working fluid is not continuously flowing through the device. In some devices, the working fluid must not only be immediately available on start up to a pump or motor device of this type whether simply rotating or working, but must also be pressurized by a external charging pump. Failure of the charging pump or charging system can result in immediate and catastophic failure and the additional pump and fluid system adds significantly to the cost and complication of the system overall.
Other disadvantages of prior art devices capable of variable displacement generally, and regardless of type, include a high cost to produce and maintain and a dependence on very clean, continuously filtered working fluids, regardless of the fluid used.
It is common in prior art devices generally regarded as rotary devices to provide a piston surface area considerably larger than the maximum piston stroke. In a fluid power device where volumetric displacement is regulated by changing the effective length of the piston stroke, (or stroke equivalent), a device having a short maximum stroke is at a considerable disadvantage. Even relatively minor internal fluid leakage or slip can significantly affect or even nullify performance at low displacement settings, particularly as fluid system pressure is increased. Accurate control of the displaced fluid flow volume in such devices can therefore be difficult to achieve and maintain.
Description of Prior Art
Heretofore several prior art devices have been proposed wherein both members of a plurality of mating piston and cylinder sets are cooperatively rotated. Most such devices rely on some type of forceful rubbing or sliding contact between members to maintain radial alignment between the members of each piston and cylinder set as cooperative rotation occurs. Forceful sliding contact between a member providing radial support for one or the other member of each piston and cylinder set is also commonly relied upon as a mechanism for ensuring cooperative rotation of the piston and cylinders members and thereby ensuring constant radial alignment of the piston and cylinder members as the members are cooperative rotated.
Irrespective of whether the piston or cylinder members of each piston and cylinder set of a given prior art device are individually and slidingly relocated as cooperative rotation occurs during operation, the members being transversely displaced by sliding tend to be relatively massive and the sliding transverse relocation must reverse direction twice each revolution of the piston and cylinder members.
There would seem to be few if any advantages gained by substitution of a lateral or transverse reciprocating inertia for reciprocating inertia along the line of piston displacement, particularly when an additional friction load as a result of forceful rubbing contact with the member radially supporting the transversely reciprocating member is considered.
In addition, and depending on the relative location of the sliding contact surfaces supporting the transversely reciprocating members, centrifugal forces as well as the reactive forces resulting from the fluid pressures developed by the device can add significantly in regard to the reciprocating sliding friction load as operating speeds are increased.
If the transversely reciprocating members are supported in a manner which takes advantage of the centrifugal forces generated to ease the sliding friction load, the effectiveness of the coupling mechanism relied on to ensure cooperative rotation of the pistons and cylinders as required to maintain radial alignment between mating pistons and cylinders during operation is proportionally diminished as operating speeds increase.
Another common disadvantage of prior art using radially aligned pistons is lack of dynamic balance. The angular spacing between members required to reciprocate transversely must change constantly during operation thereby imposing the combined radial load of the transversely displaced members asymmetrically upon a supporting rotating member, a medial member or cooperatively rotated housing, for example. The imbalance is readily apparent using a suitable end view of a prior art device of the general type noted and comparing the angular spacing between various piston and cylinder members in regard to the rotation axis of the member radially supporting each during operation.
Objects and Advantages of the Present Invention
Accordingly it is an object and advantage of the present invention to provide a fluid power device suitable for use as a pump, compressor, fluid motor, or fluid metering device capable of accurate variable displacement control while readily adaptable to the use of working fluids of disparate properties, such as oil, water, and air.
It is a further object and advantage of the present invention that most common fluids to include gaseous fluids can be accomodated over a wide range of operating speeds without vibration or pulsing, with minimal risk of cavitation and minimal headspace at maximum displacement. Friction loads are significantly reduced by replacing sliding friction with rolling friction and the rolling friction load tends to be less affected by operating speeds and fluid system pressures while significantly less dependent on lubrication.
It is a further object and advantage of the present invention that reciprocating inertia is essentially eliminated and dynamic balance can be provided at all operating speeds.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention include: In a variable displacement device according to the present invention the working fluid flow direction, rate, and pressure can be continuously adjusted whether operating or stopped from maximum to zero to maximum as desired by the device operator. When operated at constant speed, the rate and direction of working fluid flow can be rapidly changed or consistently maintained at selected rates indefinitely, to include zero displacement or null mode. Operation in null mode essentially involves only rotation without load and is virtually frictionless, and because the angular inertia of a device operating in null mode is identical to one operating in working mode, the change from null mode to working mode in either direction of working fluid flow, or vice versa, can be made very rapidly.
It is a further object and advantage of the present invention that a device according to the present invention can comprise only a few simple shapes, each easily produced with common machine tools. The simplicity of member shapes permitting fabrication of the relatively few members required from a wide range of materials to include plastics, cast metals or metal shapes, high alloy steels, ceramics, and others. Devices according to the present invention therefore tend to be reliable and are easily maintained and repaired. Few precise fabrication or repair procedures are required even in special application devices and these procedures generally involve piston and bearing fits and the like; procedures well defined and understood by most mechanics even if relatively unskilled in the production or maintenance of fluid devices generally.

Rotary variable displacement fluid power device


A thread holder comprises two holding members which form a gap that has a round cross-sectional shape and increasing width. Each of the thread holders is journalled on the other holding member at at least one bearing location which is executed as a bearing surface. With this arrangement the journalled holding member can easily assume a holding position that is ideal for a thread being used. The thread holder is suitable in particular for a bringer rapier of a rapier weaving machine.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a thread holder and to a rapier weaving machine with a thread holder.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Thread holders, so-called bolt clamps, are known. In one kind, one holding member is firmly connected to the other holding member. In a different kind, one holding member is arranged movably on the other holding member, with the one holding member being prestressed against the other holding member by means of a spring and the holding force being determined by the spring; or the holding members are movable relative to one another in the longitudinal extension. These thread holders have the disadvantages that a change in the cross-section and in the width of the clamping gap either takes place against the force of the spring, whereby, for example, a thread is relatively strongly stressed, or is not possible and is not provided, as a result of the arrangement of the holding members, since the thread is damaged when being introduced.


A spinning shoe having an upper and sole member in which the sole member has a spinning assembly in the forefoot. The spinning assembly is placed within a recess in the forefoot region of the sole member. Thus, the user may walk about in the spinning shoe in a normal mode or spin about a vertical axis by placing the user's weight on the forefoot region and then spin about on the vertical axis.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to footwear and, in particular, a shoe that allows a user to spin about a vertical axis. The appearance is that of normal footwear because the spinning assembly is integrated in the sole member. The spinning assembly allows a user to spin or twist about in tight areas where one could only walk. The benefits are imparted from a new activity that employs a unique method of spinning.
2. Description of Related Art
Prior art shoes and equipment have attempted to provide means of rolling on surfaces in order to travel forward and backward. There have been no prior art shoes meant to spin about a vertical axis in order to allow the user to twirl or twist while wearing such shoes. Furthermore, prior art shoes have been quite large and unwieldy and their mechanisms were easily seen and not very discrete.
The present invention aims to provide a shoe that allows the user to spin about a vertical axis yet appear to still maintain the look of a conventional shoe.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


The invention provides monospecific antibodies that are specifically reactive with fibrinopeptide B (FPB) and with fibrinogen and fragments thereof containing the amino acid sequence defined by SEQ ID NO:1. The invention also provides anti-FPB probes, including monospecific anti-FPB antibodies that have been detectably labeled. In addition, the invention provides methods of using the monospecific antibodies for detection of fibrinopeptide B, as well as reagents and kits for performing the methods. For example, the invention provides a method for detecting fibrinopeptide B with specificity in biological samples such as blood samples, by using the antibody to immunometrically bind to the fibrinopeptide B. Diagnostic methods for determining information associated with atherogenesis and/or thrombogenesis. The invention further provides continuous cell lines (hybridomas) that produce monospecific anti-FPB antibodies.

This invention relates to probes for, and methods of, detecting and measuring enzyme-mediated digestion of fibrinogen. More particularly, the invention relates to an antibody specifically reactive with a domain of fibrinogen and with a metabolic product of fibrinogen degradation, and a method of use of the antibody.
The clotting of blood is part of the body's natural response to injury or trauma, and is crucial to stopping loss of blood in such situations. Blood clot formation derives from a series of events called the coagulation cascade, the final steps of which involve the formation of the enzyme thrombin. Thrombin converts circulating fibrinogen into fibrin, a mesh-like structure that forms the insoluble framework of the blood clot. The hemostasis enabled by clot formation is often a life-saving process in response to trauma, serving to arrest the flow of blood from severed vasculature.
The life-saving process of clot generation in response to an injury can, however, become life-threatening when it occurs at inappropriate places in the body or at inopportune moments. For example, a clot can obstruct a blood vessel and thereby reduce or stop the supply of blood to an organ or other body part. In addition, the deposition of fibrin contributes to partial or complete stenosis of blood vessels, resulting in chronic diminution of blood flow. Equally life-threatening are clots that become detached from their original sites and flow through the circulatory system causing blockages at remote sites. Such clots are known as embolisms. Indeed, pathologies of blood coagulation, such as heart attacks, strokes, and the like, have been estimated to account for approximately fifty percent of all hospital deaths.
Fibrinogen is one of the more well-studied and abundant proteins in the human circulatory system. By the late 1960s, the general subunit structure of fibrinogen was firmly established (Blomback 1968) and, a decade later, the complete amino acid sequence was reported (Lottspeich et al. 1977; Henschen et al. 1977; Henschen et al. 1979; Doolittle et al. 1979). Over the next 10 years, the cluster of three separate genes encoding the .alpha. (alpha), .beta. (beta), and .gamma. (gamma) subunits was identified on chromosome 4q23-q32 (Kant et al. 1985), and the apparently complete genetic sequences of all three fibrinogen subunits were published (Chung et al. 1991).
Fibrinogen (also abbreviated herein as "Fg") is a heavily disulfide-bonded homodimeric protein, composed of two symmetrical units (monomers), each including single copies each or three polypeptide chains: the A.alpha. (alpha), B.beta. (beta), and .gamma. (gamma) chains. Thus, fibrinogen has the generic structure (A.alpha.B.beta..gamma.).sub.2. For a review see Doolittle (1987). All three of the fibrinogen subunits have coiled domains, which permit the subunits to engage one another to form a "coiled coil" region in the fibrinogen monomer. In addition, the B.beta. and .gamma. chains each have a globular domain, while the A.alpha. chain is present in two forms; a predominant form having no corresponding globular domain (A.alpha.), and a less prevalent form in which a globular domain is present (A.alpha..sub.E) (Fu et al. 1992; 1994). Accordingly, because fibrinogen is homodimeric and because two forms of the A.alpha. subunit have been identified, two principal forms of fibrinogen are recognized: (A.alpha.B.beta..gamma.).sub.2 and (A.alpha..sub.E B.beta..gamma.).sub.2.
Fibrinogen's complex structure, and its central role in blood clot formation and wound healing account for the high profile it has enjoyed as a subject of both biochemical and medical research. Recently, new attention has been given to structure/function relationships in the fibrinogen molecule. This new interest has in part been prompted by growth in the understanding of this protein's range of activity in normal and pathological states (Blomback 1991; Bini et al. 1992; Dvorak 1992). Moreover, antibodies have been developed that are specifically reactive with or specifically bind to only some of the fragments, thereby permitting molecular identification of certain fragments with great accuracy and precision (Kudryk et al. 1989a). While a monoclonal antibody with specificity for human fibrinopeptide A has been identified (Kudryk et al. 1989b; see also European Patent Specification EP 0 345 811 B1), no comparable probe specific for fibrinopeptide B has yet been reported. However, despite these advances, the complexity of fibrinogen and its metabolic system have to date eluded complete elucidation.
Fibrinogen is synthesized and secreted into the circulation by the liver. Circulating fibrinogen is polymerized under attack by thrombin to form fibrin, which is the major component of blood clots or thrombi. Subsequently, fibrin is depolymerized under attack by plasmin to restore the fluidity of the plasma. Many of the steps in the polymerization and depolymerization processes have been well established (Doolittle 1984). The elevated levels of fibrinogen that are part of the acute phase response occurring in the wake of infections and trauma are now known to come from increased hepatic production, primarily in response to interleukin-6 (IL-6) (Sehgal et al. 1989).
The degradation of fibrinogen through hydrolytic cleavage by thrombin yields two forms of fibrin. The first form, "fibrin I," is defined by thrombin-mediated cleavage of the .alpha. chain (or the "A.alpha." chain) at A.alpha.16-17. This cleavage releases two short N-terminal peptides designated "fibrinopeptide A" or "FPA" (A.alpha.1-16). Subsequently, thrombin cleaves the .beta. chain (or the "B.beta." chain) at B.beta.14-15 to create "fibrin II." The cleavage of the B.beta. chain at B.beta.14-15 releases a peptide known as "fibrinopeptide B" or "FPB" consisting of the first 14 amino acid residues of the B.beta. chain (B.beta.1-14). See Blomback (1991). It is only after the thrombin cleavage of fibrinogen that the polymerization of fibrin occurs. Fibrinopeptide B, especially, is closely related to onset of fibrin polymerization.
In wound repair, fibrinogen serves as a key protein, achieving rapid arrest of bleeding following vessel injury. It promotes both the aggregation of activated platelets with one another to form a hemostatic plug, as well as endothelial cell binding at the site of injury to seal the margins of the wound. As the most abundant adhesive protein in the blood, fibrinogen attaches specifically to platelets, endothelial cells and neutrophils via different integrins (Hynes 1992). Five putative receptor recognition domains on human fibrinogen, distributed over its three subunits, have been identified by in vitro and in vivo analyses (Kloczewiak et al. 1984; Cheresh et al. 1989; Loike et al. 1991; Farrell et al. 1992; Gonda et al. 1982; Ribes et al. 1989).
Elevated levels of fibrinogen have been found in patients suffering from clinically overt coronary heart disease, stroke and peripheral vascular disease. Although the underlying mechanisms remain speculative, recent epidemiological studies leave little doubt that plasma fibrinogen levels are an independent cardiovascular risk factor possessing predictive power that is at least as high as that of other accepted risk factors such as smoking, hypertension, hyperlipoproteinemia or diabetes (Ernst 1990; Ernst et al. 1993). The structure of fibrin has been analyzed extensively in vitro (Doolittle 1984). Only recently, however, has attention been paid to the molecular structure of human thrombi and atherosclerotic plaques with respect to fibrinogen and fibrin products (Bini et al. 1987). Whereas thrombi formed in vivo consist primarily of fibrin II cross-linked by factor XIIIa, fibrinogen itself is a major component of uncomplicated atherosclerotic lesions, particularly fibrous and fatty plaques. Immunohistochemical as well as immunoelectrophoretic analyses indicate that fibrinogen in the aortic intima is comparatively well protected from thrombin and plasmin, and that much of it is deposited through direct cross-linking by tissue transglutaminase without becoming converted to fibrin (Valenzuela et al. 1992). Further understanding of these issues awaits the development of methods for the differential determination of fibrinogen subtypes in medical samples.
Fibrinogen-derived protein is also a major component of the stroma in which tumor cells are embedded, but little is known about its molecular structure. Tumor cells promote the secretion of potent permeability factors that cause leakage of fibrinogen from blood vessels (Dvorak et al. 1992). Extravascular clotting occurs due to procoagulants associated with tumor cells. The resulting fibrinogen/fibrin matrix is constantly remodeled during tumor growth as a consequence of fibrinolysis induced by tumor cell-derived plasminogen activators. It is assumed that fibrin/fibrinogen degradation products play a role during escape of metastatic tumor cells from the primary tumor. There are indications that integrin .alpha..sub.v .beta..sub.3, which is known to interact with the RGDS site in the C-terminal region of the .alpha. chain, may be an important tumor cell surface receptor since it is preferentially expressed on invasive melanoma (Felding-Habermann et al. 1992).
From the foregoing discussion, it becomes clear that significant gaps exist in the understanding of the thrombotic process. Intelligent management of patients depends upon accurate and precise understanding of their thrombotic states. The present state of the art lacks the probes and methods necessary to enable such determinations.
As a result, there exists a need for highly specific, sensitive and reproducible probes for enhancing the understanding of the structure and function of fibrinogen, especially in relation to the generation and function of fibrinopeptides A and B by thrombin cleavage. Accordingly, there exists a need for probes suitable for the specific detection and purification of fibrinopeptide B and fibrinogen incorporating the peptide. In addition, means for diagnostic testing of subjects with respect to the amount and distribution of fibrinogen in the body, as well as monitoring of the generation of fibrinopeptide B as an index of in vivo thrombin activity (i.e., thrombotic state), are needed. The present invention effectively addresses these and other needs for the first time.

Monospecific antibody reactive with Fibrinogen and fibrinopeptide B


A perforating device for dermal administration of medicine is disclosed. The device includes skin perforating members provided with a plurality of needles and received in a casing. The skin perforating members have alternately arranged needle discs and spacer discs which easily and evenly perforates the skin to a depth, suitable for dermal administration of medicine, by simply rolling the assembly on the skin. The device also includes a biasing mechanism for elastically vertically moving the assembly during skin perforating and thereby preventing the skin perforating members from excessively perforating the skin. The device informs the user of the excessive pressure of the assembly and thereby preventing possible skin damage.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to a device for forming thousands of incisions on the skin for dermal administration of a pharmaceutically acceptable composition liquid or gel medicine, and more particularly, to a device for perforating the skin by rolling a needle assembly, having a plurality of needles, and thereby letting the liquid or gel medicine deeply infiltrate into the skin through the incisions when applying the medicine to the perforated skin.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Insulin is noted to be an efficacious medicine for, in particular, diabetics. However, insulin is a macro molecule having a molecular weight not less than 6000 so that the insulin scarcely infiltrates through the epidermis even when changing the skin characteristics using a chemical solvent. In addition, since insulin, a peptide, is a hydrophilic molecule, it does not have good affinity for the hydrophobic epidermis. In this regard, it has been noted that the insulin by itself cannot penetrate the epidermis and that the skin should be additionally treated when administering the insulin through the skin.
Human skin comprises an outer layer or the epidermis and an inner layer or the endodermis. The epidermis, comprises 20% fat and 40% protein and has a thickness not less than 0.1 mm. Thus, the epidermis barely allows the medicine to infiltrate.
The epidermis comprises protein segments surrounded by fat so that the epidermis has a hydrophobic property. In comparison with the epidermis and the endodermis, both having a water content of at least 70%, the epidermis has a relatively lower water content of about 40%. With the lower water content, the epidermis has a high electric resistance and functions as a protector for protecting the endodermis from outside stimulation such as thermal stimulation.
In the prior art, dermal administration of insulin is generally classified into three types, that is, an ointment type administration, a patch type administration and a spray type administration. Of the above three types, the patch type dermal administration of insulin has been recently studied with much interest.
Korean Patent Publication No. 92-2264 discloses an example of a patch type instrument for dermal administration of insulin. As shown in FIG. 1, the patch type instrument has an insulin solvent reservoir 1 and a high molecular carrier 2. The carrier 2 is evenly applied with insulin powder and has a water-swelling property. The above instrument also has a skin needle carrier 3 which will be swollen by the insulin solvent discharged from the reservoir 1 after attaching the instrument to the skin. A plurality of needles 4 are in a fixed, vertical arrangement in the carrier 3 and will come into contact with the skin when attaching the instrument to the skin. The instrument further includes an electrode 5 for sending current to the reservoir 1 and to the skin, the electrode 5 being arranged in the top section of the reservoir 1.
When using the above patch type instrument for dermal administration, the instrument is attached to the skin such that the needles 4 of the needle carrier 3 come into contact with the skin and form incisions in the epidermis. In this case, the perforations, or the insulin passages which are formed in the epidermis by the needles 4, are temporarily closed due to swelling of the skin. When the electrode 5 is applied with current, DC or ripple current, the ionized insulin and the solvent move to the opposed electrode. At this time, the hydrophilic protein and the polypeptides of the skin are arranged in parallel toward the anode and shrink so that the incisions in the epidermis open. Therefore, the insulin passes the epidermis through the incisions and, thereafter, infiltrates through the endodermis to be transferred to the capillary vessels.
In the above instrument, use of the needles 4 is for perforating only the epidermis having a thickness not less than 0.1 mm and letting the insulin be easily transferred to the capillary vessels through the epidermis, the epidermis and the endodermis and thereby increasing the medicating amount of the delivered insulin.
The above instrument has tens or hundreds of needles fixedly held by the water swelling carrier, the carrier being swollen by the insulin solvent discharged from the reservoir. However, it is very difficult to produce 50-400 .mu.m diameter needles. In addition, as the carrier should be swollen by the insulin solvent discharged from the reservoir, the carrier made of water-swelling material increases the cost.
As the needle carrier and the insulin solvent reservoir are assembled into a set, the instrument should be discarded after one use. The instrument is thus wasteful of material and expensive.
Another problem of the above instrument resides in that the instrument merely has tons or hundreds of needles even though the instrument needs to be provided with thousands of needles for more rapid administration of insulin. Due to the shortage of needles, the amount of insulin solvent transferred to the capillary vessels through the skin for a unit time is insufficient so that diabetics must attache the instrument to the skin for a long time, enduring pain caused by needle perforation and discomfort from the uncomfortable motion caused by the instrument attached to the skin.

Perforating device for dermal administration