Exemplary embodiments include methods and/or procedures for handling messages from one or more data-plane nodes (DPNs) to a plurality of controller nodes configured in a cluster, comprising: receiving a message from a DPN; tagging the message with an incarnation identifier (IID) associated with the DPN; and performing HD handling of the tagged message, which includes comparing a value of the IID of the tagged message with a value of a global IID associated with the DPN, discarding the tagged message if the value of the IID of the tagged message is less than the value of the global IID, and processing the tagged message if the value of the IID of the tagged message is not less than the value of the global IID. Exemplary embodiments also include controller nodes, controller clusters, and computer-readable media embodying operations of the exemplary methods and/or procedures.

Software-defined networking (SDN) is an architecture addressing the goals and requirements of various modern high-bandwidth applications by providing dynamic, manageable, cost-effective, and adaptable networking configurations. In general, SDN architectures decouple network control functions—also referred to as "control plane" and packet switching and/or forwarding functions, also referred to as "data plane." This separation enables network control to be directly programmable and the underlying infrastructure to be abstracted from applications and network services.
The primary components of an SDN network are controller nodes (also referred to as "SDN controllers") and data-plane nodes (DPNs, also referred to as "switches" or, collectively, a "datapath") that handle the switching and forwarding of the data traffic under direction of the SDN controllers. Furthermore, SDN controllers are often logically-centralized entities that translate requirements of higher-layer applications into configuration of the DPNs that they control, while providing a simpler, more abstract view of the datapath to these applications. The interface to the SDN applications is often referred to as the SDN controller's "northbound interface." An exemplary northbound controller interface is OpenStack.
Similarly, the logical interface between an SDN controller and the controlled DPNs or switches is often referred to as the "southbound interface," Various standardized southbound interfaces are available, including the OpenFlo), (OF) protocol standardized and published by the Open Networking Foundation (ONF). Within the OF protocol, a Logical Switch comprises one or more flow tables and a group table, which collectively perform packet lookups and forwarding from input ports to output ports; and one or more OF channels to a controller. Via these channels, the controller can configure and/or manage the switch, such as by adding, updating, and deleting flow entries in flow tables, both reactively (e.g., responsive to packets) and proactively. A controller can also receive messages indicating or associated with events from the switch and send packets out to the switch via OF channels. A switch's control channel may support a single OF channel with a single controller or, in some implementations, multiple OF channels enabling multiple controllers to share management of a single switch.
For example, multiple controllers can be configured in a "high-availability" (HA) cluster, whereby one controller serves as a "master" of the connection from a switch to the cluster, and one or more other controllers are connection "slaves." In such a configuration, SDN controller nodes in the cluster can be front-ended by a load balancer proxy, which exposes a single virtual Internet Protocol (VIP) address used by the switches or DPNs to connect to the controller cluster. The proxy also can distribute incoming switch connections to controller nodes of the cluster based on some predetermined policy, such as round-robin.
One available (open-source) implementation of an SDN controller is the Open Daylight (ODL) controller, which can be configured as a three-node HA cluster. The three controller nodes can be configured in active-active redundancy model, in which switches can connect to any of the three controller nodes. FIG. 1 shows an exemplary arrangement of a ODL controller cluster 130 comprising a plurality of SDN controllers (SDNCs 140a-c) that are in communication with a plurality of switches (DPNs 110a-e) via a load balancer 135. The DPNs 110a-e include respective OF modules 120a-e, and the SDNCs 140a-c include respective OF modules 150a-c that can communicate with OF modules 120a-e according to the OF protocol, as briefly described above. In some embodiments, SDNCs 140a-c can include respective local data stores 155a-c that can be utilized for storage and retrieval of information that is specific (e.g., local and/or corresponding) to the respective SDNCs 140a-c.
As shown in FIG. 1, each OF module 120a-e is connected to one of OF modules 150a-c during normal operation, but each OF module 150a-c can communicate with multiple ones of OF modules 120a-e. For example, as shown in FIG. 1, OF modules 120a-b can be connected to OF module 150a in SDNC 140a, OF modules 120c-d can be connected to OF module 150b in SDNC 140b, and OF module 120e can be connected to OF module 150c in SDNC 140c. Due to various events indicated through messages, explained further below, the respective DPNs 110a-e can switch connections to different SDNCs 140a-c of the cluster. For example, FIG. 1 illustrates that OF module 120b can switch connections from OF module 150a (solid line) to OF module 150b (dashed line) Likewise, FIG. 1 illustrates that OF module 120d can switch connections from OF module 150b (solid line) to OF module 150c (dashed line). Nevertheless, due to the presence of load balancer 135, the respective DPNs are only aware of connecting to cluster 130 rather than individual SDNCs 140a-c.
The OF protocol supports three message types, each with multiple sub-types. Controller-to-switch messages are initiated by the controller and used to directly manage or inspect the state of the switch. These include messages such as modify-flow entry, modify-group-entry, etc. Symmetric messages are initiated either by the switch or the controller and sent without solicitation. These include messages such as Hello (exchanged between the switch and controller upon connection startup) and Echo request, which can be initiated by the switch or the controller and requests a reply from the other entity. Echo request/reply are mainly used to verify the liveness of a controller-switch connection, and/or to measure the connection's latency or bandwidth.
The third type, asynchronous messages, are initiated by the switch (e.g., unsolicited by the controller) and update the controller about network events and changes to the switch state. For example, switches send asynchronous messages to controllers to denote a packet arrival or switch state change. Some particular asynchronous message types include:                Packet-in: Transfers the control of a packet to the controller. For all packets forwarded to the CONTROLLER reserved port using a flow entry or the table-miss flow entry, a packet-in message indicating or associated with an event is always sent to the controller.        Flow-Removed: Informs the controller about the removal of a flow entry from a flow table. They are generated as the result of: 1) controller flow delete request; or 2) the switch flow expiry process when one of the flow timeouts is exceeded, or other reasons.        Port-status: Informs the controller of a change on a port. The switch is expected to send port-status messages to controllers as port configuration or port state changes. These events include change in port configuration events, for example if it was brought down directly by a user, and port state change events, for example if the link went down.
Another feature of the ODL controller cluster is a distributed data store, shown as global data store (GDS) 170 in FIG. 1. All provisioning messages (coming from northbound interface such as OpenStack) and network events messages (coming from southbound interface such as OF) are stored in this data store. Although transactions to this data store can be initiated on any controller cluster node, the transaction request is send to a leader of the data store shard/partition. This leader commits the transaction to the data store. Once a transaction is committed to the data store, the data store change-notification is distributed to other components (that had registered a listener) in ODL cluster. These change notifications in turn trigger further processing in the cluster, e.g., the modifications to the data store drive the event message processing/handling in the controller. In order to facilitate this processing/handling, the SDNCs 140a-c can have respective message queues 160a-c, in which event messages needed to be processed by a particular SDNC 140a-c are queued while awaiting processing. When a particular message reaches the head of the queue, it is dequeued for processing by the corresponding SDNC. As shown in FIG. 1, message queues 160a-c can be associated with GDS 170 (e.g., portions of GDS 170 can be allocated for the respective queues). In other embodiments, message queues 160a-c can be physically separated from GDS 170 (e.g., each queue can be part of its respective SDNC).
In case of fault scenarios such as when a switch restarts and connects to a different SDNC instance, the processing order of event messages by ODL controller cluster may be different from the actual (e.g., temporal) order of the events. As an example, consider the arrangement shown in FIG. 1. DPN 110b is initially connected to SDNC 140a (e.g., via OF modules 120b and 150a) but after DPN 110b restarts, it can be connected to SDNC 140b (e.g., via OF module 150b) due to a policy of load balancer 135, for example. DPN 110b can affect this change by sending a DPN-DISCONNECT message, which is temporarily stored in queue 160a, followed by a DPN-CONNECT message that is temporarily stored in queue 160b. If the two messages spend approximately the same amount of time in queues 160a-b, the DPN-DISCONNECT message is very likely to be processed before the DPN-CONNECT message, as expected.
In some situations, however, the amount of time in the respective queues can differ significantly due to, e.g., the number of preceding messages in the respective queue and/or the complexity in processing those preceding messages. As an example, consider the case where a relatively large number of messages from DPN 110a are preceding the DPN-DISCONNECT message from DPN 110b in queue 160a, while a much smaller number of messages from DPN 110c (e.g., zero messages) are preceding the DPN-CONNECT message from DPN 110b in queue 160b. As such, SDNC 140a will process the DPN-DISCONNECT message after SDNC 140b processes the DPN-CONNECT message, causing the controller cluster to erroneously determine that DPN 110b is disconnected rather than connected.
Accordingly, it can be beneficial to address these problems to provide error-free operation of SDN controller clusters configured in this manner.

Robust message processing for a software-defined networking (SDN) controller cluster


The present invention provides methods and compositions for treating immune complex associated diseases (ICAD), such as SLE, rheumatoid arthritis, and hepatitis-C related immune complex disease (e.g., cryoglobulinemia) in a subject having an ICAD or at risk for developing ICAD. The invention is based upon the surprising finding that chromatin-containing immune complexes activate autoreactive B cells and dendritic cells by a dual receptor engagement process which, in both cell types, involves a Toll-like receptor (TLR). The methods of treating ICAD comprise administering a compound to an individual in need thereof that either 1) inhibits formation of the immune complex either by preventing formation and/or binding to the TLR, or 2) interferes with binding of an autoantigen-containing immune complex (or the antigenic component thereof) to the TLR, or 3) inhibits signaling pathways initiated by dual engagement of BCR and TLR (in B cells) or FcR and TLR (in dendritic cells) via immune complexed or uncomplexed autoantigens.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to methods and compositions for treating immune complex associated diseases, preferably systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), and other systemic autoimmune diseases associated with the subject having aberrant Toll-like receptor (TLR)/B cell receptor (BCR) dual engagement (in B cells) or TLR/Fc gamma receptor dual engagement (in dendritic cells and/or macrophages).
2. Background
Autoimmune diseases are a fairly common but poorly understood group of diseases in which an individual's immune system either 1) begins recognizing self antigens as foreign and starts destroying tissues expressing such antigens thereby causing a disease, or 2) forms immune complexes with these antigens which then deposit in tissues and cause inflammatory pathology. Such autoimmune diseases include, for example, diabetes wherein the immune system turns against and destroys insulin producing pancreatic islet cells; multiple sclerosis, wherein the target antigen is the myelin sheath protecting neurons leading to destruction of function of motorneurons; psoriasis, where the target of the immune system is skin; rheumatoid arthritis, where the target organ is cartilage; and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), which presents itself as targeting a variety of tissues with no apparent specificity or selectivity although the target antigens themselves are extremely consistent and characteristic. Because the mechanisms leading to the development of autoimmune diseases in general are mostly unknown, their treatment is often directed to generally suppressing the immune system. Such general immunosuppressive therapies often cause a variety of undesirable side effects including cancer, infertility, and increased susceptibility to infections by viruses, fungi, yeast, and bacteria Therefore, it would be desirable to understand the mechanisms that cause the immune system to turn against self antigens to enable development of more specific therapies for the treatment of the autoimmune diseases.
An example of a poorly understood autoimmune disease is systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), commonly known as Lupus. SLE is characterized by dysregulation of the immune system resulting in the production of antinuclear antibodies, the generation of circulating immune complexes, and the activation of the complement system. The immune complexes build up in the tissues and joints causing inflammation, and degradation to both joints and tissues. While the word "systemic" correctly suggests that the disease affects the entire body and most organ systems, the disease most often involves inflammation and consequent injury to the joints, skin, kidney, brain, the membranes in body cavities, lung, heart, and gastrointestinal tract. An individual with SLE often experiences unpredictable acute episodes or "outbreaks" and equally unexpected remissions. The pathologic hallmark of the disease is recurrent, widespread, and diverse vascular lesions resembling a rash or changes on the surface of the skin.
The prevalence of SLE in the United States is an issue of some debate. Estimates of prevalence range from 250,000 to 2,000,000 persons. Although reported in both the extremely old and the extremely young, the disease mainly affects women of childbearing age. Among children SLE is three times more common in females than in males. In the 60% of SLE patients who experience the onset of this disease between puberty and the fourth decade of life, the female to male ratio is 9:1. Thereafter, the female preponderance again falls to that observed in prepubescent children (i.e. 3:1). In addition, the disorder appears to be three times more common in persons of African and Asian descent than in persons of Caucasian descent.
The etiology of SLE remains unknown. A genetic predisposition, the systemic proliferation of sex hormones, and various environmental triggers, such as viral infections have been suggested to play a role in triggering the aberrant immune responses that typify the disease. A role for genetics is suggested by the increased percentage of two histocompatibility antigens, HLA-DR2 and HLA-DR3, in patients with SLE. In addition, there is an increased frequency of the extended haplotypes HLA-A1, B8, and DR3 in affected individuals. The role of heredity is further supported by the concordance for this illness among monozygotic twins. The polygenic nature, however, of this genetic predisposition as well as the contribution of environmental factors is suggested by the concordance rate, which is only moderate and reported to be between 25% and 60%.
The precise initiating etiology of SLE is unknown. However, it is generally accepted that most of the clinical manifestations of the disease are caused either directly or indirectly by autoantibody production and the subsequent formation of pathogenic immune complexes. These autoantibodies, which are produced by dysregulated B lymphocytes, have distinct specificities recognizing discrete nuclear autoantigens including, among others, DNA, nucleosomes and subnucleosomes. Certain RNA/protein complexes including the Sm antigen and small nuclear ribonucleoproteins (snRNP) are additional characteristic autoantigenic specificities. The pathogenic immune complexes are formed by binding of the autoantibodies to their respective nuclear autoantigens.
Autoantibodies in SLE often circulate as immune complexes (IC) bound with their respective autoantigens. Chromatin or chromatin fragments such as DNA, nucleosomes or subnucleosome particles are especially common autoantigenic specificities in both mice and humans (Tan, E. Adv. Immunol. 44, 93-151 (1989); Monestier and Novick, Mol. Immunol. 33: 89-99., 1996)
The central goals in the treatment of SLE, therefore, are either to attempt to suppress the dysfunctional B lymphocytes thereby decreasing the production of autoantibody or, to attempt to diminish the pathogenicity of the immune complexes once they have formed. At present these goals can only be achieved, and often incompletely so, by the use of intensive systemic immunosuppressive drug therapy using drugs such as cortisone, azathioprine, hydroxychloroquine and cyclophosphamide. These therapies are associated with many serious and undesirable side-effects including infections, infertility, retinopathy and cancer. Therefore, new treatments for SLE, and other autoimmune diseases, would be desirable.

Method and composition for treating immune complex associated disorders


A container system for containing and preserving gas generating solutions such as bicarbonate-containing solutions is provided. The system includes an outer container or barrier that is gas impermeable. The system also includes an indicator for visually indicating when gas has been permitted to leak or escape from the outer container thereby changing the physical characteristics of the gas generating solution.

The present invention relates generally to a system and a method for containing and preserving gas containing solutions, such as bicarbonate containing solutions, for future delivery or use. More specifically, the present invention relates to a system for containing a gas containing solution that provides a visual indication in the event gas leaks from the container system.
Gas containing solutions, such as bicarbonate-containing solutions, are often used in medical procedures. Specifically, bicarbonate-containing solutions are often used for hemodialysis or peritoneal dialysis solutions. In a bicarbonate-containing solution, bicarbonate is in equilibrium with carbon dioxide. Because carbon dioxide is a gas at room temperature and atmospheric pressure, the carbon dioxide easily escapes from the solution. The escape of carbon dioxide from the solution needs to be avoided because it changes the physical and chemical characteristics of the solution. For example, the release of carbon dioxide from a bicarbonate-containing solution will increase the pH of the solution. Of course, any change in the characteristics of the bicarbonate-containing solution is undesirable when the solution is being used for medical purposes.
Therefore, the release of carbon dioxide from a bicarbonate-containing solution that is to be used for medical purposes, such as a dialysis solution, needs to be avoided. Further, for other gas-containing solutions in which a gas is in equilibrium with a solute, the release of the gas from the container, vessel or package containing the solution needs to be avoided because, as discussed above, the release of the gas will change the characteristics of the solution.
Until now, attempts at preventing the release of gas from a solution container have been directed toward obtaining fail-proof container designs. For example, gas impermeable materials have been used which prevent carbon dioxide or other gases from escaping the container to ensure the stability of the solution. However, the accidental damage of the gas impermeable material always remains a possibility. Further, in the case of bicarbonate-containing solutions, carbon dioxide is a colorless and odorless gas. Therefore, any leakage of carbon dioxide from the container will go undetected by the user.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved container system for containing and preserving gas containing solutions such as bicarbonate-containing solutions which will provide a visual indication to the user in the event the gas barrier capabilities of the container system have been impaired or compromised. With such an improved container system, medical personnel or patients utilizing bicarbonate-containing dialysis solutions will be provided with a visual indicator in the event carbon dioxide has been permitted to leak or escape from the container system resulting in a change to the characteristics of the dialysis solution. Further, users of other gas containing solutions will be provided with a visual indicator in the event gas has been permitted to leak from the containment system thereby altering the physical and/or chemical characteristics of the solution.

System for preserving and delivering gas-containing solutions


The present application includes a search route processor that calculates a plurality of search routes between locations of a plurality of searchers belonging to a predetermined area and a search target based on position information of the search target acquired from a position information terminal held by the search target, and a plurality of portable terminals that is held by the plurality of searchers and displays the plurality of search routes calculated by the search route processor and personal information that identifies the search target.

Detecting a wanderer accompanying with dementia, a lost child, and a kidnapped child is difficult unless such a wanderer or child is found as soon as possible after an event such as wandering is detected, and his or her life may be threatened. For this reason, many related parties such as the police, local groups, and guardians spend a lot of time for searching. As the population ages, the number of wanderers may increase, and there is a need for technology that can efficiently search for the wanderers and reliably protect them.
Conventionally, various methods have been proposed for efficiently searching for a person to be searched such as a wanderer and a lost child, and an animal to be searched such as a lost dog (hereinafter referred to as a search target). For example, there is a method of attaching a sensor or an oscillator to a search target to detect his or her behavior. In this method, a warning signal is generated when the search target leaves his or her home or location or when he or she moves beyond a certain distance, and his or her leaving or moving can be detected and searching can be performed.
In addition, JP H6-188819 A discloses a method of having a target possess a global positioning system (GPS) and activating the GPS from a public line when the target is missing so as to grasp the position of the target. However, in this method, since both the search target and the searcher are moving, it takes time to protect the search target, and the search target may not be protected.
For this reason, JP 1997-243727 A discloses a method in which both of the search target and the searcher possess GPSs and the positional relationship between them is always corrected so as to improve the search accuracy.
Further, in JP 2000-304564 A, provided is a wanderer search system including a search command engine that accepts a search request from a search requester and issues a search command based on contents of the received search request, a position search engine that searches for a position of a wanderer that is a search target based on the search command issued from the search command engine and acquires target position information indicating an area where the wanderer exists, a search execution engine that searches for the wanderer based on information indicating a relative positional relationship between a target position based on the target position information indicating the area where the wanderer exists acquired by the position search engine and a searcher's own tracking position based on position information of the searcher measured by a GPS.

Portable terminal device, and search system


A tubing includes an inner liner composed of one or more fluoropolymers, the inner liner being corrugated to define a trough, and having a wire disposed in said trough. The tubing further includes an outer layer, permanently secured to an exterior of the inner liner and covering said wire.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of tubing, and more specifically to the field of tubing of types that are highly resistant to kinking.
2. Related Art
Conventional tubing typically has an inner liner in corrugated or convoluted form, with an outer layer of rubber on the exterior of the convolutions. Such structures are good for their intended purposes, but it would be desirable to have such a tubing with improved kink resistance, and that would have improved ability to retain its shape (i.e., not flatten) when subjected to a vacuum.
Structures are known in which a corrugated or convoluted polymer tubing is provided on its outside with a wire wrapped into the troughs of the convolutions. This has typically been done, however, with no outer layer covering the wire.


A portable cutting table including a free-standing frame capable of being transported between remote locations wherein the frame is biased between folded and unfolded positions, respectively. A cutting surface support platform is attached to a top of the frame and a cutting surface connected to the cutting surface support platform. The portable cutting table further includes a mechanism for selectively biasing the frame between the folded and unfolded positions while the cutting surface remains statically engaged with the cutting surface support platform. A plurality of knife-holding implements directly and fixedly mated to the frame in such a manner that the knife-holding implements are simultaneously articulated about a fulcrum axis and thereby automatically displaced between stored and exposed positions as the frame is biased between the folded and unfolded positions, respectively.

1. Technical Field
This disclosure relates to cutting tables and, more particularly, to a portable cutting table including a support frame for holding a plurality of knife hooks and pivotal leg members for assisting in food preparation in a variety of locations.
2. Prior Art
Cutting tables have been in use for nearly as long as man has been civilized. The utility of a cutting table is derived from a need to cut various objects while simultaneously preserving the cutting edge of knives or blades. In the specific case of the culinary arts, the chef will also aspire to prepare foods in a clean and sanitary way. Directly cutting objects upon a hard support which resists damage from a knife is known to unduly dull the knife when the object is severed. Dulled cutlery requires additional force when severing work, and may lead to dangerous slipping and injury. Yet maintaining the cutlery in a sharp state requires substantial sharpening time, and, when the cutlery is repeatedly dulled by the work support, the repeated sharpening also leads to undesired wear of the cutlery.
However, cutting without suitable work surfaces will likely result in unrestrained movement of the cutting blade. This practice may lead to injury. Furthermore, without a suitable support, foods may be contaminated by unsterile surfaces. A similar issue arises with the use of a porous work support surface. The porous surface will trap food juices therein, potentially contaminating the work surface and harboring dangerous pathogens.
In a modern household, the cutting table will allow a person to prepare food quickly by slicing a diverse variety of foods, spices and other food ingredients without fear of permanently damaging either the work areas, typically counters and the like, or damaging the cutlery. With an appropriate cutting table, the cook may simply press hard enough to ensure that the food is completely sliced, without regard for what might occur with the knife after the food has been severed.
Outside of the kitchen, but still within a dwelling, there are many times when a person requires the use of a sharp blade such as a razor blade, Exacto-Knife or other tool for cutting various substrates. In these instances, the same concerns regarding the cutlery and work surfaces exist, where the working knife must, to perform the intended function, pierce through the material being cut. As a consequence, it is impossible for a person to stop short of cutting all the way through the substrate and still obtain the desired result. Consequently, there must be contact between the knife and the underlying work support. Where this work support is furniture or the like, the knife will cause harm and damage that may be irreparable.
In the outdoors or in areas less furnished, there may not be a ready work surface. In such instances, it is highly desired to provide a way to prepare food without risking contamination of the food with dirt, earth or the like. Similarly, the knife will also most desirably be protected from damage.
In the prior art, in order to achieve the important goals of protecting the knife while providing a severing surface, and to simultaneously avoid harboring dangerous pathogens, many cutting tables have been fabricated from wood. In particular, closed grain or minimally-grained woods tend to be preferred, such as maple, in the fabrication of cutting tables. This is because most wood species have very little damaging effect on the sharpness of a knife edge during engagement therewith, and closed-grain species provide a relatively non-porous and safe surface for working upon.
To prevent liquids from penetrating the wood and forming a hazardous surface, a food oil such as vegetable oil is commonly applied to the wood and permitted to soak into the pores or openings therein. As is known, the oil prevents water-based liquids from penetrating therein, while simultaneously providing a relatively mild, oiled surface against which the knife blade will be pressed. This oiled wood surface provides very minimal wearing of the knife blade or wooden surface, and yet may be readily cleaned or washed after use.
These traditional wooden cutting surfaces have been the standard used in kitchens for many years. However, the wooden surface requires proper cleaning and oiling to ensure safe usage over time. To have utility with different projects and types of work, the cutting table must be reasonably large to adequately support the various work. In a large kitchen area, this normally does not present a problem, since there is usually a space where the cutting table may either be supported on edge or otherwise stored. In fact, many modern kitchens include a pull-out cutting table immediately below the counter-top.
However, it will be apparent that the surface area of the cutting table and, relative to surface area, thinness of the table, does not lend the table to be readily transported, nor for storage in smaller spaces or places. Not only does the traditional thin and flat cutting table suffer from an inconvenient size, the table must either be manufactured excessively thick to have adequate strength to avoid breakage, or may instead be excessively heavy. Yet, there are many times where a person would benefit from the availability of the cutting table, for outdoor hunting activities or other activities outside of the user home.
Accordingly, the present disclosure is disclosed in order to overcome the above noted shortcomings. The portable cutting table is convenient and easy to use, portable yet durable in design, and designed for assisting in food preparation in a variety of locations. The apparatus is simple to use, inexpensive, and designed for many years of repeated use.

Portable cutting table and associated method


A vehicle cargo loading and unloading system for rotating a vehicle in an area where there is a limited amount of space in which to maneuver. The vehicle cargo loading and unloading system includes a vehicle support platform for supporting the vehicle to be turned. The vehicle support platform includes an upper surface, a lower surface and a peripheral edge extending between the upper and lower surfaces. A plurality of rolling assemblies is provided for rotatably turning the vehicle supporting platform. Each of the rolling assemblies is movably mounted to the lower surface of the vehicle supporting platform. A supporting shaft is provided for supporting the vehicle supporting platform. The supporting shaft includes a first end and a second end, wherein the first end is mounted to a central point of the vehicle supporting platform. A gear is mounted to a portion of the supporting shaft and is operationally coupled to a motor used for turning the shaft.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to cargo loading and unloading systems and more particularly pertains to a new vehicle cargo loading and unloading system for rotating a vehicle in an area where there is a limited amount of space in which to maneuver.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of cargo loading and unloading systems is known in the prior art. More specifically, cargo loading and unloading systems heretofore devised and utilized are known to consist basically of familiar, expected and obvious structural configurations, notwithstanding the myriad of designs encompassed by the crowded prior art which have been developed for the fulfillment of countless objectives and requirements.
Known prior art includes U.S. Pat. No. 5,086,704; U.S. Pat. No. 3,566,798; U.S. Pat. No. 1,881,033; U.S. Pat. No. 4,016,990; U.S. Pat. No. 4,716,837; and U.S. Pat. No. Des. 313,324.
While these devices fulfill their respective, particular objectives and requirements, the aforementioned patents do not disclose a new vehicle cargo loading and unloading system. The inventive device includes a vehicle support platform for supporting the vehicle to be turned. The vehicle support platform includes an upper surface, a lower surface and a peripheral edge extending between the upper and lower surfaces. A plurality of rolling assemblies is provided for rotatably turning the vehicle supporting platform. Each of the rolling assemblies is movably mounted to the lower surface of the vehicle supporting platform. A supporting shaft is provided for supporting the vehicle supporting platform. The supporting shaft includes a first end and a second end, wherein the first end is mounted to a central point of the vehicle supporting platform. A gear is mounted to a portion of the supporting shaft and is operationally coupled to a motor used for turning the shaft.
In these respects, the vehicle cargo loading and unloading system according to the present invention substantially departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art, and in so doing provides an apparatus primarily developed for the purpose of rotating a vehicle in an area where there is a limited amount of space in which to maneuver.
In view of the foregoing disadvantages inherent in the known types of cargo loading and unloading systems now present in the prior art, the present invention provides a new vehicle cargo loading and unloading system construction wherein the same can be utilized for rotating a vehicle in an area where there is a limited amount of space in which to maneuver.
The general purpose of the present invention, which will be described subsequently in greater detail, is to provide a new vehicle cargo loading and unloading system apparatus and method which has many of the advantages of the cargo loading and unloading systems mentioned heretofore and many novel features that result in a new vehicle cargo loading and unloading system which is not anticipated, rendered obvious, suggested, or even implied by any of the prior art cargo loading and unloading systems, either alone or in any combination thereof.
To attain this, the present invention generally comprises a vehicle support platform for supporting the vehicle to be turned. The vehicle support platform includes an upper surface, a lower surface and a peripheral edge extending between the upper and lower surfaces. A plurality of rolling assemblies is provided for rotatably turning the vehicle supporting platform. Each of the rolling assemblies is movably mounted to the lower surface of the vehicle supporting platform. A supporting shaft is provided for supporting the vehicle supporting platform. The supporting shaft includes a first end and a second end, wherein the first end is mounted to a central point of the vehicle supporting platform. A gear is mounted to a portion of the supporting shaft and is operationally coupled to a motor used for turning the shaft.
There has thus been outlined, rather broadly, the more important features of the invention in order that the detailed description thereof that follows may be better understood, and in order that the present contribution to the art may be better appreciated. There are additional features of the invention that will be described hereinafter and which will form the subject matter of the claims appended hereto.
In this respect, before explaining at least One embodiment of the invention in detail it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and to the arrangements of the arrangement of the components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings The invention is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced and carried out in various ways. Also, it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology employed herein are for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting.
As such, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the conception, upon which this disclosure is based, may readily be utilized as a basis for the designing of other structures, methods and systems for carrying out the several purposes of the present invention. It is important, therefore, that the claims be regarded as including such equivalent constructions insofar as they do not depart form the spirit and scope of the present invention.
Further, the purpose of the foregoing abstract is to enable the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the public generally, and especially the scientists, engineers and practitioners in the art who are not familiar with patent or legal terms or phraseology, to determine quickly from a cursory inspection the nature and essence of the technical disclosure of the application. The abstract is measured by the claims, nor is it intended to be limiting as to the scope of the invention in any way.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a new vehicle cargo loading and unloading system apparatus and method which has many of the advantages of the cargo loading and unloading systems mentioned heretofore and many novel features that result in a new vehicle cargo loading and unloading system which is not anticipated, rendered obvious, suggested, or even implied by any of the prior art cargo loading and unloading systems, either alone or in any combination thereof.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a new vehicle cargo loading and unloading system which may be easily and efficiently manufactured and marketed.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a new vehicle cargo loading and unloading system which is of a durable and reliable construction.
An even further object of the present invention is to provide a new vehicle cargo loading and unloading system which is susceptible of a low cost of manufacture with regard to both materials and labor, and which accordingly is then susceptible of low prices of sale to the consuming public, thereby making such vehicle cargo loading and unloading system economically available to the buying public.
Still yet another object of the present invention is to provide a new vehicle cargo loading and unloading system which provides in the apparatuses and methods of the prior art some of the advantages thereof, while simultaneously overcoming some of the disadvantages normally associated therewith.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a new vehicle cargo loading and unloading system for rotating a vehicle in an area where there is a limited amount of space in which to maneuver.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a new vehicle cargo loading and unloading system which includes a vehicle support platform for supporting the vehicle to be turned. The vehicle support platform includes an upper surface, a lower surface and a peripheral edge extending between the upper and lower surfaces. A plurality of rolling assemblies is provided for rotatably turning the vehicle supporting platform. Each of the rolling assemblies is movably mounted to the lower surface of the vehicle supporting platform. A supporting shaft is provided for supporting the vehicle supporting platform. The supporting shaft includes a first end and a second end, wherein the first end is mounted to a central point of the vehicle supporting platform. A gear is mounted to a portion of the supporting shaft and is operationally coupled to a motor used for turning the shaft.
Still yet another object of the present invention is to provide a new vehicle cargo loading and unloading system that reduces the amount of time wasted in maneuvering a vehicle such as a semi-truck to align the rear of the truck with a loading dock door. The present invention allows semi-trucks, to pull into a loading dock head first and then rotate the truck aligning the rear of the truck with the loading dock door.
Even still another object of the present invention is to provide a new vehicle cargo loading and unloading system that provides homeowners with a means of turning their vehicle around in their driveway or in their garage. The present invention also reduces the potential for a vehicle accident resulting from backing a vehicle into a roadway. The present invention allows homeowners to turn their vehicles around in order to enter the roadway head-on.
These together with other objects of the invention, along with the various features of novelty which characterize the invention, are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this disclosure. For a better understanding of the invention, its operating advantages and the specific objects attained by its uses, reference should be made to the accompanying drawings and descriptive matter in which there are illustrated preferred embodiments of the invention.

Vehicle cargo loading and unloading system


An image processing device includes a decompression unit configured to decompress a compressed image signal, a gradation-dependent correction unit configured to perform gradation-dependent correction on the decompressed image signal, the gradation-dependent correction being a correction process in which the amount of correction varies among luminance gradations, and a compression error correction unit configured to perform compression error correction in which input luminance values are selectively offset, on the decompressed image signal which has yet to be subjected to the gradation-dependent correction.

The present technology relates to an image processing device and method for processing an image signal and in particular to a technology field for reducing image quality degradation which may occur when a compressed image signal is decompressed and/or when gradation-dependent correction (a correction process in which the amount of correction varies among luminance gradations), such as gamma correction, is performed on the decompressed image signal.
In the field of image processing, an image is compressed to reduce the amount of image data. Examples of typical image compression methods include differential pulse-code modulation (PCM). With respect to differential PCM, it is known that when there is a large difference in luminance between adjacent pixels, the luminance errors are increased. As seen above, a luminance error typically occurs when an image is compressed.
Hereafter, a luminance error which occurs when an image is compressed (a luminance error caused by compression or decompression) will be referred to as a "compression error".
Image display devices include ones which perform gradation-dependent correction on the basis of characteristics of the display panel, or the like. The gradation-dependent correction refers to a correction process in which the amount of correction varies among luminance gradations and is, for example, a gamma correction process.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication (Translation of PCT Application) No. 2008-503185 discloses a display system which performs gamma correction.


An imaging system for imaging an off-axis object field arranged in an object surface of the imaging system onto an off-axis image field arranged in an image surface of the imaging system while creating at least one intermediate image has: an optical axis; an in-line mirror group having an object side mirror group entry, an image side mirror group exit and a mirror group plane aligned transversely to the optical axis and arranged geometrically between the mirror group entry and the mirror group exit, the mirror group including: a first mirror having a first mirror surface for receiving radiation coming from the object surface in a first reflecting area asymmetric to the optical axis; at least one second mirror having a second mirror surface facing the first mirror surface for receiving radiation coming from the first mirror in a second reflecting area asymmetric to the optical axis; at least one of the first and second mirrors being a concave mirror having a concave mirror surface defining a mirror axis on the optical axis; wherein the mirrors of the mirror group are arranged such that radiation coming from the mirror group entry passes at least four times through the mirror group plane and is reflected at least twice on a concave mirror surface of the mirror group prior to exiting the mirror group at the mirror group exit. A strong overcorrection of image field curvature can be effected in an axially compact design.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an imaging system for imaging an object field arranged in an object surface of the imaging system onto an image field arranged in an imaging surface of the imaging system while creating at least one intermediate image. In a preferred field of application the imaging system is designed as a catadioptric projection objective for a microlithographic projection exposure system designed for projection using radiation in the ultraviolet spectrum or as an integral part thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
Catadioptric projection objectives are, for example, employed in projection exposure systems, in particular wafer scanners or wafer steppers, used for fabricating semiconductor devices and other types of microdevices and serve to project patterns on photomasks or reticles, hereinafter referred to generically as "masks" or "reticles," onto an object having a photosensitive coating with ultrahigh resolution on a reduced scale.
In order create even finer structures, it is sought to both increase the image-end numerical aperture (NA) of the projection objective to be involved and employ shorter wavelengths, preferably ultraviolet light with wavelengths less than about 260 nm. However, there are very few materials, in particular, synthetic quartz glass and crystalline fluorides, that are sufficiently transparent in that wavelength region available for fabricating the optical elements required. Since the Abbe numbers of those materials that are available lie rather close to one another, it is difficult to provide purely refractive systems that are sufficiently well color-corrected (corrected for chromatic aberrations).
The high prices of the materials involved and limited availability of crystalline calcium fluoride in sizes large enough for fabricating large lenses represent problems, particularly in the field of microlithography at 157 nm for very large numerical apertures, NA, of, for example, NA=0.80 and larger. Measures that will allow reducing the number and sizes of lenses employed and simultaneously contribute to maintaining, or even improving, imaging fidelity are thus desired.
In optical lithography, high resolution and good correction status have to be obtained for a relatively large, virtually planar image field. It has been pointed out that the most difficult requirement that one can ask of any optical design is that it have a flat image, especially if it is an all-refractive design. Providing a flat image requires opposing lens powers and that leads to stronger lenses, more system length, larger system glass mass, and larger higher-order image aberrations that result from the stronger lens curvatures. Conventional means for flattening the image field, i.e. for correctings the Petzval sum in projection objectives for microlithography are discussed in the article "New lenses for microlithography" by E. Glatzel, SPIE Vol. 237 (1980), pp. 310-320.
Concave mirrors in optical imaging systems have been used for some time to help solve problems of color correction and image flattening. A concave mirror has positive power, like a positive lens, but the opposite sign of Petzval curvature. Also, concave mirrors do not introduce color problems.
In view of the aforementioned problems, catadioptric systems that combine refracting and reflecting elements, i.e., in particular, lenses and concave mirrors, are primarily employed for configuring high-resolution projection objectives of the aforementioned type.
Unfortunately, a concave mirror is difficult to integrate into an optical design, since it sends the radiation right back in the direction it came from. Intelligent designs integrating concave mirrors without causing mechanical problems or problems due to beam vignetting or obscuration are desirable.
Catadioptric projection objectives having one common straight optical axis and at least two concave mirrors have been proposed to provide systems with good color correction and moderate lens mass requirements. The U.S. Pat. No. 6,600,608 B1 discloses a catadioptric projection objective having a first, purely refractive objective part for imaging a pattern arranged in the object plane of the projection objective into a first intermediate image, a second objective part for imaging the first intermediate image into a second intermediate image and a third objective part for imaging the second intermediate image directly, that is without a further intermediate image, onto the image plane. The second objective part is a catadioptric objective part having a first concave mirror with a central bore and a second concave mirror with a central bore, the concave mirrors having the mirror faces facing each other and defining an intermirror space or catadioptric cavity in between. The first intermediate image is formed within the central bore of the concave mirror next to the object plane, whereas the second intermediate image is formed within the central bore of the concave mirror next to the object plane. The objective has axial symmetry and a field centered around the optical axis and provides good color correction axially and laterally. However, since the reflecting areas of the concave mirrors exposed to the radiation are interrupted at the bores, the pupil of the system is obscured.
The Patent EP 1 069 448 B1 discloses catadioptric projection objectives having two concave mirrors facing each other and an off-axis object and image field. The concave mirrors are part of a first catadioptric objective part imaging the object onto an intermediate image positioned adjacent to a concave mirror. This is the only intermediate image, which is imaged to the image plane by a second, purely refractive objective part. The object as well as the image of the catadioptric imaging system are positioned outside the intermirror space defined by the mirrors facing each other. Similar systems having two concave mirrors, a common straight optical axis and one intermediate image formed by a catadioptric imaging system and positioned besides one of the concave mirrors are disclosed in Japanese patent application JP 2002208551 A and US patent application US 2002/0024741.
US patent application US 2004/0130806 (corresponding to European patent application EP 1 336 887) discloses catadioptric projection objectives having off-axis object and image field, one common straight optical axis and, in that sequence, a first catadioptric objective part for creating a first intermediate image, a second catadioptric objective part for creating a second intermediate image from the first intermediate image, and a refractive third catadioptric objective part forming the image from the second intermediate image. Each catadioptric system has two concave mirrors facing each other. The intermediate images lie outside the intermirror spaces defined by the concave mirrors.
Japanese patent application JP 2003114387 A and international patent application WO 01/55767 A disclose catadioptric projection objectives with off-axis object and image field having one common straight optical axis, a first catadioptric objective part for forming an intermediate image and a second catadioptric objective part for imaging the intermediate image onto the image plane of this system. Concave and convex mirrors are used in combination.
US patent application US 2003/0234992 A1 discloses catadioptric projection objectives with off-axis object and image field having one common straight optical axis, a first catadioptric objective part for forming an intermediate image, and a second catadioptric objective part for imaging the intermediate image onto the image plane. In each catadioptric objective part concave and convex mirrors are used in combination with one single lens.
U.S. provisional application with Ser. No. 60/536,248 filed on Jan. 14, 2004 by the applicant and published from non-provisional application Ser. No. 11/035,103 on Sep. 1, 2005 as US 2005/0190435A1 discloses a catadioptric projection objective having very high NA and suitable for immersion lithography at NA>1. The projection objective comprises: a first objective part for imaging the pattern provided in the object plane into a first intermediate image, a second objective part for imaging the first intermediate imaging into a second intermediate image, and a third objective part for imaging the second intermediate imaging directly onto the image plane. The second objective part includes a first concave mirror having a first continuous mirror surface and a second concave mirror having a second continuous mirror surface, the concave mirror faces facing each other and defining an intermirror space. At least the first intermediate image, preferably both intermediate images, are located geometrically within the intermirror space. The system has potential for very high numerical apertures at moderate lens mass consumption. The full disclosure of this document is incorporated into this application by reference.


A method for the automatic detection of fields or frames in film or video content having similar or substantially the same luminance or color component values, for example to detect black frames. Image sample values are assigned to a sample value range having a signed weight associated therewith, and a contribution to a discriminator function is determined for each sample range depending on the signed weight and the number of input samples in the sample value range. The discriminator function output is then compared with a threshold.

The monitoring or evaluation of film or video content is an area of growing interest, both for broadcasters and content owner or content management organizations.
In particular, it is desirable for broadcast organizations to be able to monitor the audio-visual content being broadcast to identify, and therefore quickly respond to, problems or errors in the broadcast chain, for example the picture becoming all-black. Typically, previously this has been achieved by a person visually monitoring the program output, or more generally monitoring a number of program outputs, and visually identifying errors in the program output. Clearly this is personnel-intensive and it is desirable to provide automated or semi-automated monitoring and error detection.
In addition, it is increasingly desirable for content owner/management organizations to be able to analyse content and to generate metadata that describes aspects of the content. One example of this technique might be to analyse content to determine the presence of all-black frames and create associated metadata.
One application in which this might be useful is the automated or semi-automated monitoring and error detection as outlined above. Thus, black frames identified in the accompanying metadata are not considered as "errors" on playout of a program content, and only black frames arising from genuine errors, instead of from the program material, give rise to an alarm. This enhances the reliability of the monitoring and error detection.

Method and apparatus for analyzing image data


A battery pack includes a casing having an opening, an engaging member having a stopper, and a regulating member configured to regulate a movement of the engaging member. The engaging member is supported in a slidable and rotatable manner relative to the casing, and is applied with a biasing force such that the stopper projects from the opening. The regulating member includes a contact portion configured to block a rotation of the engaging member and an operating portion configured to displace the contact portion to release a blocking of the rotation of the engaging member. When the operating portion is a non-operated state, the engaging member is slidable against the biasing force to retract the stopper. When the operating portion is in an operated state, the engaging member is rotatable against the biasing force to retract the stopper.

A related art battery pack is configured such that it is detachably attached to a grip portion of an electric tool or to a battery charger, and when the battery pack is attached to the equipment, positive and negative terminals of the battery pack are contact the terminals of the equipment.
JP 2008-103144 A discloses a structure for sliding and a battery pack relative to a mounting portion of an electric tool to attached the battery pack to the electric tool. The battery pack includes an engaging hook configured to engage with the mounting portion of the electric tool to attach the battery pack to the mounting portion.
The battery pack includes engagement releasing buttons on respective sides thereof. To detach the battery pack, the engagement releasing buttons are pushed into the battery pack to move the engagement hook in an engagement releasing direction. Each of the engagement releasing buttons has an inclined inner face contacting a receiving portion of the engaging hook. When the engagement releasing buttons are pushed in, the receiving portion of the engaging hook slides on the inner faces of the engagement releasing buttons so that the engaging hook is moved in the engagement releasing direction.
However, in a work site, dust enters the inside of the battery pack, and the dust may adhere to the sliding faces of the engagement releasing buttons and the engaging hook. When the engagement releasing operations are carried out with the dust adhered to the sliding faces, the sliding faces are roughened due to the interposed dust, resulting in an increase in frictional resistance and deterioration of operability. In the worst case, the engagement releasing operation cannot be carried out.

Battery pack, electric tool and battery charger


A chisel with a removably mountable blade is provided which consists of a handle for the chisel having a head region formed with a detent to provide a space for receiving a first cutting edge of the blade, while the other opposed cutting edge of the blade is arranged for a cutting operation. The space provided by the detent in the head region is constructed and arranged to prevent the cutting edge in the detent from contacting the handle portion during a chiseling operation, thereby preventing dulling of the edge prior to it being pivoted into position for a subsequent cutting operation. The blade is provided with a transverse axis at opposed sides of which are arranged a cutting portion and a rake, which cutting portion and rake are asymmetrical to the cutting portion and rake at the opposite side of the transverse axis of the blade.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to chisels and in particular, chisels which have a reversible, interchangeable blade and a rake extending along a side of the blade to facilitate movement of the blade through a work piece material.
2. Related Art
Hand operated tools are known to chip, chisel, scrape, etc. various types of work piece materials. The blades of such tools have a sharp edge to work the material. Known devices are described in:
______________________________________ U.S. Pat. No. Inventor(s) ______________________________________ 393,880 Binkerd 740,937 Smith 855,834 Bubb 1,076,900 Mc Neil 1,082,802 Full 1,945,810 Holts 2,364,481 Seiler 5,054,201 Andrews ______________________________________
U.S. Pat. No. 5,393,880 to Binkerd discloses a gage chisel for cutting hinge recesses.
U.S. Pat. No. 740,937 to Smith discloses a chisel having a bayonet type clamp to mount the cutting bit. Guides protect an end to the chisel which is a single, replaceable blade.
U.S. Pat. No. 855,834 to Bubb discloses a carpenter's tool with an irreversible blade.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,076,900 to McNeil discloses a chisel gage having a replaceable, non reversible, blade.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,082,802 to Full, discloses a scraping tool. The blade disclosed in Full is held by the pressure of a thumb screw against retaining dogs.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,945,810 to Holtz discloses a pavement crack clearing device.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,364,481 to Seiler discloses a shear developer.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,054,201 to Andrews discloses a deburring tool, not a chisel, with cutting edges of the blades disposed at the intersection of a top and sides of the blades.
Among the devices disclosed in the foregoing patents, none disclose a chisel having a blade which is removably mountable thereto and constructed in asymmetrical form about a transverse axis to conform to the chisel handle which is adapted to receive and retain the blade during operation.


An environment manager in a computer executes multiple environments concurrently. A user management framework (UMF) virtual machine an the computer runs an authentication domain that supports user profile management of the multiple environments.

Hypervisors provide a software virtualization environment in which other software, including operating systems, can run with the appearance of full access to the underlying system hardware even though such access is actually under the control of the hypervisor. Embedded bare-metal hypervisors are hypervisors that support the requirements of embedded systems development.

Proactive distribution of virtual environment user credentials in a single sign-on system

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


Techniques are disclosed for hermetically sealing one or more devices within a package. According to one aspect, a lid is attached to a substrate on which one or more devices are provided such that the devices are encapsulated within an area defined by the substrate and the lid. A substance, such as a lubricant or gas, is introduced via one or more through-holes in the lid to a region that is separated from the devices by a wall having at least one opening through which the substance can pass to the devices. The through-hole then may be hermetically sealed, for example, using a local heating process that does not degrade the lubricant or other substance.

The present disclosure relates to the hermetically sealed packaging of optical, electronic, opto-electronic and other devices.
The packaging of integrated circuit chips, which may include, for example, one or more optical, electronic or opto-electronic components, typically requires that the package be hermetically sealed to prevent contaminants such as moisture from interfering with proper operation of the components. High quality, hermetically sealed packages may be filled, for example, with a passivating, inert gas such as nitrogen. Other ambients, including substances such as lubricants and buffer gases, may be introduced into the package to reduce degradation of the components encapsulated within the package.
Many hermetic packaging technologies, such as reflow soldering, glass soldering, anodic bonding and welding, use temperatures above 300° C. Unfortunately, certain substances that may be useful for reducing wear of the components in the package degrade when exposed to such high temperatures.
Nevertheless, it would be helpful to provide a technique to facilitate the introduction of wear-reducing or other substances that may be incompatible with the high temperatures often used to fabricate hermetically sealed packages.

Hermetically sealed package for optical, electronic, opto-electronic and other devices


The present invention discloses a speaker/bracket assembly. The speaker/bracket assembly comprises a speaker and a bracket for supporting the speaker thereon. The speaker defines a slide groove at a back face thereof. The bracket comprises a latching mechanism configured to be loosened to adjust and tightened to set the speaker position. The latching mechanism comprises a brake, a pair of latch hooks disposed on the brake, and a drive mechanism interposed between the pair of latch hooks. A spring is secured on the drive mechanism. The pair of latch hooks is loosened to set the speaker position and snaps into the slide groove to lock the speaker into the set position when the spring is pushed in and drawn back out the brake by the drive mechanism.

The demand for high-quality speakers has increased dramatically over the last twenty years. As a consequence, there is a large selection of high-quality speakers available on the market. To meet with popularity of various kinds of speakers, a variety of speaker fixing systems for fixing and supporting the speakers are developed.
It is known that the positioning, arrangement and orientation of speakers in commercial and residential settings can affect the quality of sound from a sound system. Currently, many approaches have been taken to the positioning of speakers in a room, cinema, theaters, or vehicle, in order to optimize the quality of sound from a system. In general, there are three types of speakers fixing systems.
One typical speaker fixing system is a speaker stand which supports a speaker above a horizontal surface such as a floor. The speaker stand does provide vertical adjustment and provides limited options to locate a speaker. Further, the speaker stand occupies a partial area of the floor, accordingly decreasing effective area available for arranging other furnishings.
The second type of speaker fixing system is a hanging mounting system which suspends a speaker from the ceiling by toggle bolts. However, in order to use toggle bolts, it is necessary to make additional holes in the ceiling panel to receive the toggle bolts. Such an arrangement is unsuitable for a speaker and its associated bracket having large weight. Further, due to the height of the ceiling, it is inconvenient to install the speaker and the fixing system by toggle bolts in the ceiling.
The third type of speaker fixing system is a fixed mounting bracket that will rigidly attach a speaker to a wall by toggle bolts. Some fixed mounting brackets are problematic, because they do not provide a fixed speaker angle adjustment. Other mounting brackets may include a base and an adjustment arm and may optionally include a pivoting point. The pivoting point may be physically attached between the base and the adjustment arm, for adjusting the orientation angle of the speaker. However, this pivoting mounting bracket is problematic, because the pivot point together with the adjustment arm may not provide an accurate user defined adjustment angle for the speaker orientation or a secure mount. Further, the pivoting point will wear over time and with use, thereby causing the speaker to fall from adjustment and even producing injury to person under the speaker.
Moreover, there is a spherically adjustable mounting bracket, which allows for adjustment along multiple planes by means of a ball and socket joint. In the typical design, a ball is mounted within a stationary socket. The socket is required to envelope a majority of the ball so that the speaker may be mounted securely by a pressure force locking mechanism, such that the speaker does not easily come loose from its fixed position. Although this configuration allows a speaker to be mounted along multiple plans, the range of adjustment afforded by this design is substantially restricted by the fact that the socket is required to envelope a significant portion of the stationary ball.
There is, therefore, a need for a speaker/bracket assembly which may accurately and swiftly achieve a repeatable orientation adjustment of the speaker, and have an enlarged range of adjustment.

Sanecor Musical Instrument (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd.


A method for providing a multipath scheduler may include causing generation of a lookup table of action rules defining actions corresponding to respective different states in which each of the states is a weighted description of performance measures associated with a data interface, and enabling utilization of the lookup table at a predefined periodicity during communication in a multipath communication environment to identify a selected data interface among a plurality of available data interfaces based on current performance measures associated with the plurality of available data interfaces. A corresponding apparatus and computer program product are also provided.

The modern communications era has brought about a tremendous expansion of wireline and wireless networks. Computer networks, television networks, and telephony networks are experiencing an unprecedented technological expansion, fueled by consumer demand. Wireless and mobile networking technologies have addressed related consumer demands, while providing more flexibility and immediacy of information transfer.
Current and future networking technologies continue to facilitate ease of information transfer and convenience to users. One area in which there is a demand to increase ease of information transfer relates to the delivery of services to a user of a mobile terminal. The services may be in the form of a particular media or communication application desired by the user, such as a music player, a game player, an electronic book, short messages, email, content sharing, web browsing, etc. The services may also be in the form of interactive applications in which the user may respond to a network device in order to perform a task or achieve a goal. The services may be provided from a network server or other network device, or even from the mobile terminal such as, for example, a mobile telephone, a mobile television, a mobile gaming system, electronic book or reading device, etc.
In many situations, it may be desirable for the user to interface with a device such as a mobile terminal for the provision of an application or service. A user's experience during certain applications such as, for example, web browsing or navigating through content may be enhanced by the provision of a responsive communication channel that has low latency and is efficient. Thus, it may be desirable to develop mechanisms by which to provide for the selection and management of efficient and well performing network paths through available data interfaces when multiple options are available.

Method for multipath scheduling based on a lookup table


A saddle-ride type vehicle eliminates the input of disturbances to a throttle body upon opening/closing of a vehicle seat, and is capable of reliably protecting an injector. An air cleaner 18 is disposed on the rear side of an engine 5, a fuel tank 22 is disposed above the engine 5, and a seat 23 is disposed on the rear side of the fuel tank 22 such that the seat 23 can be opened or closed. A throttle body 17 having an injector 17a is disposed in a space below the seat 23 and between the engine 5 and the air cleaner 18. A protector cover 80 covers the throttle body 17 from the upper side.

A typical structure of a saddle-ride type vehicle such as an ATV is such that an engine is mounted at a substantially central portion of a body frame, a fuel tank is disposed above the engine, and a seat on which a rider is seated is disposed on the rear side of the fuel tank such that the seat is openable/closable. In most vehicles of this type, an air cleaner of an air inlet circuit of the engine is disposed below the seat, so that the outside air that has passed through the air cleaner is taken into the engine through a throttle body. A carburetor as a fuel introducing portion is disposed in the throttle body, so that a fuel supplied from a fuel pump is atomized and introduced into the engine along with the air taken in from the exterior, such as disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent No. JP-A No. 183574/2004.
In the conventional saddle-ride type vehicle, the throttle body having the fuel introducing portion and the air cleaner are disposed below the seat; and thus the throttle body is directly exposed to the outside when the seat is lifted or removed. However, the fuel introducing portion in the throttle body is delicate with respect to a disturbance such as impact caused by opening/closing of the seat, and contamination. Use of an electronically controlled injector in the fuel introducing portion is particularly a matter of concern. Hence, in a saddle-ride type Vehicle, it is desirable to provide some arrangement to prevent the input of disturbances to the throttle body upon closing/opening of the seat.


The present invention generally relates to large capacity (e.g., greater than 350 tons/day O2) vacuum pressure adsorption (VPSA) systems and processes that employ a single train including four beds, at least one feed compressor feeding two beds simultaneously at any given instant in time, and a single vacuum pump. The compressor(s) and the vacuum pump can be utilized 100% of the time. Use of product quality gas for purging is avoided, with about 10-20% improvement in O2 productivity and 5-10% reduction in capital cost expected.

The production of oxygen from air currently uses vacuum pressure swing adsorption (VPSA) or pressure swing adsorption (PSA) systems technology. These systems often have a capacity of <200 tons per day O2. Presently, there is renewed interest in extending the capacity of VPSA or PSA systems from such small scale (<200 tons per day O2) to large scale (about 350 tons per day O2 or higher) oxygen production from air.
In the application of VPSA or PSA processes, the energy input required to achieve the separation of O2 from the feed mixture (e.g., air) is provided as mechanical work through feed compressor(s) and vacuum pump(s). The cost of this work is a significant component of the total operating cost of the VPSA or PSA process. In addition, VPSA or PSA technology is currently economically competitive with cryogenic distillation only for small scale applications. In order for PSA or VPSA processes to become cost competitive with cryogenic distillation for large scale applications, improved cycles are required to operate the PSA or VPSA processes.
Two bed vacuum pressure swing adsorption (VPSA) processes for the production of oxygen from air are disclosed U.S. Pat. No. 5,518,526 to Baksh et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 6,010,555 to Smolarek et al. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,518,526 and 6,010,555 employ VPSA processes with simultaneous equalization and evacuation steps followed by simultaneous feed and product pressurization steps. FIG. 1 shows the VPSA cycle for the production of oxygen from air disclosed in Smolarek et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,010,555. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,518,526 and 6,010,555 are both for small scale (<200 tons per day, (TPD)) oxygen production. Adsorption and desorption pressures in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,518,526 and 6,010,555 are characterized by a low pressure ratio and relatively high desorption pressure values. Significant reduction in equipment and operating costs can be realized using the small scale (<200 TPD O2) VPSA processes of U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,518,526 and 6,010,555.
In applications where large scale oxygen production (e.g., 350 tons per day O2) is desirable, four bed VPSA processes are used. One such VPSA process is disclosed by Smolarek et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,656,068. The four bed VPSA process disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,656,068 is operated as two pairs of 2-bed systems, referred to as a 2×2 cycle/system. Each pair of beds is operated 180° out of phase and the two pairs of beds are operated out of phase by one-half of a half-cycle. Two compressors (one Roots or positive displacement and one Centrifugal) and two vacuum pumps (one Roots or positive displacement and one Centrifugal) are disclosed in the VPSA process of U.S. Pat. No. 5,656,068. One of the two compressors is periodically in the idle or vent mode. A four bed VPSA system operating as two pairs of adsorption beds to produce about 100 tons per day (TPD) oxygen is disclosed in Doong, U.S. Pat. No. 5,997,612 to Doong. The VPSA process includes two pairs of beds, an intermediate storage tank (to collect co-current depressurization gas), one gas blower and a pair of vacuum pumps. The system disclosed in Doong (U.S. Pat. No. 5,997,612) includes three pumps as compared to the four pumps disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,656,068. In addition, the system shown in Doong (U.S. Pat. No. 5,997,612) is for small scale oxygen production (<200 tons per day) rather than large scale O2 production using the dual feed VPSA process of Smolarek et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 5,656,068).
It would thus be desirable to provide cost efficient, highly productive four bed VPSA processes and systems with the capacity for large scale oxygen production (e.g., >350 tons/day O2).

Pressure swing adsorption process for large capacity oxygen production


A gun sight system for accurately directing a bullet of a firearm towards a target, comprising a front sight and a rear sight each having a transparent medium with a geometric shape inscribed upon the transparent medium. By looking through the rear sight towards the front sight and aligning the geometric shapes in a pre-determined manner with the target seen in the background through the transparent mediums, an accurate contact of the bullet with the target is guaranteed upon firing the firearm.

The invention relates to a gun sight system. More particularly, the invention relates to a gun sight employing a front and rear sight, each having a transparent carrier, indicia located therein allowing alignment of the front and rear sight to accurately aim the gun prior to firing.
A firearm only properly accomplishes its purpose when the bullet reaches it's intended target. Getting the bullet in the right place, at the right time is a combination of firearm design, skill of the operator, and superiority of the sighting system. A stray bullet is a wasted bullet, as well as a potentially dangerous bullet. In law enforcement situations, firearms must be fired in uncontrolled circumstances, where an inaccurate bullet can cause damage and injury.
Handguns in particular leave much to be desired in terms of accuracy. They are notorious for missing their targets, especially when improperly used. Their inherent problems lay not only in the size of the barrel, but also in the lack of assistance that conventional sighting systems provide to a user attempting to accurately aim the gun under varying circumstances.
Conventional sighting systems fail to recognize that different circumstances dictate a vastly different sighting system. Shooting a moving target dictates a vastly different sighting task and equipment than required for taking a careful, deliberate shot at a fixed target. A moving target requires a sighting system that allows the shooter to quickly assess and fire upon the target. The fixed target requires a sighting system which may requires more time to align, but which has greater inherent accuracy.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,102,053 to Colwell discloses a removable rifle sight. Colwell is designed to be exchanged with a conventional rifle sight, when fast sighting is desired. However, Colwell requires a complicated, magnetic mechanism to allow the sight to be attached and detached.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,790,075 to Howard, Sr., discloses a portable removable gun sight which is attached onto a rifle when needed. Being a single piece construction, this gun sight does not provide any remote complementary structure with which to align the sight. Thus, the device of Howard, Sr. has considerable built-in inaccuracy.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,327,654 to Parker discloses a gun sight which employs a rear sight having a rectangular channel, and a front sight having a barrel shape. The sight is used by aligning the barrel with the channel. Parker provides no provisions for adapting to varying sighting purposes.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,606,131 to Domian discloses an interchangeable gun sight, which allows the sight blade to be interchanged for one having a different width slit for differing sighting purposes.
While these units may be suitable for the particular purpose employed, or for general use, they would not be as suitable for the purposes of the present invention as disclosed hereafter.


A striker assembly includes a plate configured for attachment to a vehicle and a striker attached to the plate. The striker is configured for securing a latch assembly of the vehicle in a first position. The striker assembly also includes a first resilient member configured for contacting the latch assembly in the first position and a second resilient member configured for cooperating with the first resilient member to move the latch assembly to a second position.

Vehicle components that are pivotably coupled to other components, such as decklids and vehicle bodies, may be latched via interaction between a latch assembly and a striker assembly. In particular, when a decklid is in a closed position, a hook of the latch assembly may engage with a striker of the striker assembly to latch the decklid to the vehicle body.
Ideally, when a user releases the hook of the latch assembly, the decklid should separate from the vehicle body by a predetermined gap, i.e., the decklid should "pop-up" from the vehicle body. This predetermined gap allows the user to grasp an edge of the decklid and access a storage compartment of the vehicle. Such separation is especially important for vehicles exposed to snow and ice buildup, since such buildup may increase the weight of the decklid and/or freeze vehicle seals between the decklid and the vehicle body. Such separation is also important for vehicles having flush exterior styling, since such styling may not include a grasping point, e.g. an indentation, to allow the user to raise the decklid.


Sterile bone fixation devices, such as bone screws, pins, anchors and plates, fabricated from bone tissue and the method of making such devices.

1. Field of the Invention
This application relates to fixation devices. More particularly, it relates to bone fixation devices made from bone tissue, bone powder, and related natural material.
2. The Prior Art
In repairing bone fractures or breaks and in other bone repair, it is customary to use pins, nails or screws to hold the bone together to allow regrowth and healing. Such screws, pins and other fixation devices are customarily constructed of metal, e.g. surgical stainless steel, or polymeric materials. Resorbable polymers have found wide use in recent years. Polyglycolide, polydioxanone and polylactide polymers, polymers that are also used in absorbable suture materials, have been successfully used. Such fixation devices come in various shapes and sizes, each designed to provide some special benefit. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,417,533 provides a bone screw having a helical thread that gradually increases in thickness from the tip to the head of the screw. This screw design is said to increase the screw's resistance to tearing out of the bone and have the further advantage of being inserted with minimum tearing or cracking of the bone.
AO/ASIF or Arbeitgemeinschaft fur Osteosynthesisfragen (English translation, Association for the study of Internal Fixation[ASIF]) screw designs are commonly and widely used. Screw fixation devices are generally inserted into pre-drilled and tapped holes in the bone or cartilage to be repaired. Pins are used where appropriate. Pins are, of course, distinguished from screws by the lack of threads and leads and are more commonly used to provide rigidity to bone rather than compression. Fixation plates are used to hold bone or other skeletal parts into place. The plates are usually held in place by screws. Anchors are also used which provide an attachment for sutures in the body.
Metal fixation devices and absorbable polymer devices are not without problems. Metal pins and screws often need to be removed, causing additional trauma to the patient and causing weakening of the repaired bone. One advantage of the polymer devices is elimination of the need to remove the device when the bone has healed. However, the long-term consequences of polymer absorption are not known. Moreover, absorbable polymers can cause irritation and sterile abscess from the decomposition products of the polymer.
Bone grafting is also well known. Grafting is the process in which live or nonliving bone is placed between or into living bone in the body. The graft becomes incorporated into the renewed bone structure of the living bone as it replaces itself and regrows. New bone growth replaces the graft and eliminates the graft material over time whether the graft is of nonliving or live bone tissue. Freeze dried sterile bone is most often used. When cortical bone is used in grafts the absorption of the graft material takes a long time, usually months. For cancellous bone grafts the absorption is often effected in days or weeks. Heretofore, bone fixation and bone grafting have been separate operation. Fixation is the holding of bone in place for healing and grafting is the provision of a bone structure for regrowth of new bone.
I have now discovered that the disadvantages of the present steel and/or polymer fixation devices can be obviated by use of fixation devices made from bone tissue. Moreover, the fixation device is, in effect, grafted into the bone in which it is used and does not require subsequent removal. For human use, human bone tissue is used. For veterinary use, appropriate animal bone or human bone tissue is used. Human bone tissue is readily available from a number of "Bone Banks". These bone banks provide suitable bone tissue that has been cleaned and sterilized for human therapeutic use, such as in bone grafts and the like.


A method and apparatus for traversing a queue of commands containing a mixture of read and write commands places a Next Valid Write Address pointer in each queue entry. In this manner, time savings are achieved by allowing preprocessing of the next write command to be executed. The method may be practiced by setting a next valid address pointer in all queue entries. Queue traversal may be forward, backward, or bi-directional.

A host interface that connects to a bus, such as a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus, may include a core. The core manages control circuitry responsible for data transfer to and from a device, such as a storage device, coupled to the bus. Data transfer and other commands may be placed in a queue managed by the core. The core advances from each queue entry to the next, checking a validity flag to determine if the command needs to be issued and a direction flag to determine if the command is a bus read or a bus write instruction. The core does not begin filling an outbound pipeline until actually reaching the command. Higher speed host interfaces such as PCI-X 533 and PCI Express require deep queues. These deep queues add latency to the interface, thereby degrading performance. Deep queues in the bus interface controller add substantial startup latency to outbound (i.e., bus write) commands to fill the pipeline. For example, if the seventh command queue entry were the first write command, then the core would advance through the first six entries by completing READ commands before beginning to fetch the data needed to complete the first WRITE command. Thus, there may be substantial delay between the completion of the sixth READ command and the core beginning the first WRITE command on that bus because the bus would go idle while the core collected the data it needed.
Two approaches have attempted to solve the problem of extended queue latencies. The first solution, shallower pipelines and/or tighter tie-in between core logic and bus interface, is impractical for high speed interfaces which do not allow the interface to be throttled (such as PCI-X and PCI Express). Tying core logic more tightly to the host interface can reduce latency but at the expense of reusability on future interfaces and at the expense of distributing complexity across multiple agents versus a single interface core. The second solution, next command lookahead, only checks the queue entry immediately following the current one and thus may not fully mask pipe fill latency if the current command is small.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a more efficient queue management method to reduce overall queue processing time.

System for improving PCI write performance


Disclosed herein is a new method for the solid phase peptide synthesis (SPPS) of C-terminal peptide α thioesters using Fmoc/t-Bu chemistry. This method is based on the use of an aryl hydrazine linker, which is totally stable to conditions required for Fmoc-SPPS. When the peptide synthesis has been completed, activation of the linker is achieved by mild oxidation. The oxidation step converts the acyl-hydrazine group into a highly reactive acyl-diazene intermediate which reacts with an α-amino acid alkylthioester (H-AA-SR) to yield the corresponding peptide α-thioester in good yield. A variety of peptide thioesters, cyclic peptides and a fully functional Src homology 3 (SH3) protein domain have been successfully prepared.

C-terminal peptide α-thioesters are key intermediates in the synthesis of small and medium-sized proteins and cyclic peptides by native chemical ligation. These mildly activated species are also required for the construction of topologically and backbone engineered proteins.
C-terminal peptide α-thioesters can be prepared by standard solid-phase peptide synthesis (SPPS) using Boc/benzyl chemistry, or for larger polypeptide domains and protein domains, using intein-based bacterial expression systems. The Boc/benzyl approach requires the use of anhydrous HF which is not well suited for synthesis of phospho- and glyco-peptides. In addition, anhydrous HF is very toxic and requires special equipment for handling.
The Fmoc-based methodology is attractive as it does not employ HF and hence provides the synthesis of phospho- and glyco-peptides in good yields. However, the poor stability of the thioester functionality to strong nucleophiles such as piperidine, which is used for the deprotection of the Nα-Fmoc group, seriously limits the use of this methodology for the preparation of peptide α-thioesters. So far, several approaches have been used to overcome this limitation. Futaki et al. used an approach where peptide α-thioesters were prepared in solution using a partially protected precursor. (See Futaki, S.; Sogawa, K.; Maruyama, J.; Asahara, T.; Niwa, M. Tetrahedron Lett. 1997, 38, 6237.) Li et al. used a Fmoc-deprotection cocktail compatible with α-thioesters to synthesize an unprotected 25-residue peptide α-thioester in moderate yield. (See Li, X. Q.; Kawakmi, T.; Aimoto, S. Tetrahedron Lett. 1998, 39, 8669.) A similar approach was also used by Clippingdale et al. using in this case a non-nucleophilic base in combination with 1-hydroxybenzotriazole (HOBt). (See Clippingdale, A. B.; Barrow, C. J.; Wade, J. D. J. Pept. Sci. 2000, 6, 225.)
Alternatively, the introduction of the α-thioester function at the end of a synthesis has been used by Alsina et al. where the backbone amide linker (BAL) was employed for the synthesis of peptide thioesters using an Fmoc-based strategy. This approach was used for the synthesis of small peptide thioesters in good yields. However, some racemization was observed during the thiolysis step. Swinnen et al used the phenylacetamidomethyl (PAM) and Wang resins to synthesize peptide α-thioesters by employing EtSH in the presence of Me2AlCl to effect thiolysis of the resin-bound peptide. This approach was used for the synthesis of a 22-residue peptide α-thioester in moderate yield. Another approach developed by Ingenito et al. and Shin et al. involved the use of Kenner's sulfonamide safety-catch linker. This linker is fully stable to repetitive exposure to the basic conditions needed for Fmoc deprotection. When the sulfonamide is alkylated, the peptide resin is activated and easily cleaved with thiols to yield the corresponding peptide α-thioester. However, the use of akylating agents (such as CH2N2 or ICH2CN) has been shown to alkylate unprotected methionine residues. More recently, Brask et al. have introduced a new method for the generation of peptide thioesters using a trithioortho ester linker. (See Brask, J.; Albericio, F.; Jensen, K. J. Org. Lett. 2003, 5, 2951.)

Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC


A system for identifying at least one species, strain or type of bacteria in a sample including at least one a labeled bacteriophage which binds selectively to the species, strain or type of bacteria, the at least one labeled bacteriophage comprising a label attached thereto, the system further comprising a detection system adapted to detect the labeled bacteriophage bound to the species of bacteria.

The following information is provided to assist the reader in understanding technologies disclosed below and the environment in which such technologies may typically be used. The terms used herein are not intended to be limited to any particular narrow interpretation unless clearly stated otherwise in this document. References set forth herein may facilitate understanding of the technologies or the background thereof. The disclosure of all references cited herein are incorporated by reference.
Current methods for isolating bacteria from, for example, body fluids (such as blood) require 48 hours or longer in a hospital, laboratory or other setting to determine the exact species, strain or type of bacteria present. Moreover, those methods are unable to quantify accurately any detected bacteria and are limited to those that readily grow on an agar plate. A quicker, quantitative assay or test would be highly beneficial.

Detection of bacteria using bacteriophage

University of Pittsburgh Of the Commonwealth System of Higher Education