The present invention relates to a method of treating lumens, cavities, and tissues of the body with a liquid delivered with the use of ultrasound. Delivering a liquid with the use of ultrasound may be accomplished by utilizing a device comprising an ultrasound transducer, an ultrasound horn, a channel running at least partially through said horn, and a dampening grommet at the distal end of the horn (hereafter called the “delivery device”). The delivery device may further comprise a liquid supply emptying into said channel. Subjecting liquids within the horn of the delivery device to ultrasonic energy accelerates the liquid, thereby creating a higher velocity, low pressure liquid stream. Consequently, the method of the present invention enables the treatment of maladies deep within lumens, cavities, and tissues of the body. The method of the present invention may also be used for douching and/or cleaning lumens, cavities, and tissues of the body.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of treating lumens, cavities, and tissues of the body with a liquid delivered with the use of ultrasound.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various infections, conditions, ailments, and diseases (hereafter collectively referred to as "maladies") of the body are difficult to treat pharmacologically due to inaccessibility of the site of the malady to pharmacologically active compounds (commonly referred to as "drugs") such as, but not limited to, chemical compounds, chemicals, small molecules, proteins, genes, and/or any combination thereof. Such sites include body lumens and body cavities such as, but not limited to, the urethra, sinuses, vagina, uterus, outer ear, lungs, thoracic cavity, and colon, and poorly vasculated tissue such as, but not limited, to bones. Though commonly considered otherwise by those outside of the biological arts, lumens and body cavities are outside of the body. This somewhat paradoxical statement can best be understood by considering the path an orally taken drug travels to reach the urethra, a component of the urinary tract.
A pill containing the drug is first dissolved in the stomach and/or small intestine after being swallowed, thereby liberating small drug molecules. The small drug molecules are then carried into the cells forming the walls of the small intestine by transport molecules on the cells' surfaces. Alternatively the drug molecules may pass directly into the cells of the small intestine on their own by either diffusing through cellular membranes or passing through pores located within the cellular membranes. Once within the cells forming the walls of the small intestine, the drug molecules are transported by similar mechanisms into the patient's blood stream. The drug molecules then spread throughout the patient's entire blood stream where they are subjected to degradation and/or inactivation by various elements within the blood. The blood stream also transports the drug molecules to potential sites of degradation, inactivation, and/or excretion such as, but not limited to, the kidneys and liver. Despite dilution by wide spread distribution, inactivation, degradation, and/or excretion, some of the drug molecules reach areas of the blood stream adjacent to the urethra. However, to effectively treat a malady within the urethra, the drug must be taken out of the bloodstream by the cells forming the urethra and then deposited into the open space of the urethra. Drug molecules may also reach the urethra by excretion into the urine, which flows through the open space of the urethra. Unfortunately, the urine is not kept at a constant pH, and may become sufficiently acidic or basic as to inactivate and/or degrade the drug molecules.
With respect to maladies within poorly vasculated and/or perfused tissue, pharmacological treatment is limited by a poor blood supply. Most methods of drug delivery into the body rely upon the blood stream to deliver the drug molecules to the site of the malady to be treated. Consequently the amount of drug delivered is positively related to the amount of blood delivered to the site of the malady. Therefore, a location or tissue of the body that receives a diminished, reduced, compromised, or small supply of blood is less accessible to pharmacological treatment. Various medical devices and procedures have been developed to supplement pharmacological treatment of maladies located within lumens, open body cavities, and/or poorly perfused tissues.
Catheter drug delivery methods and devices have been developed to overcome the limitations of pharmacological treatment. Inserting catheters into lumens or body cavities and injecting a drug through or from the catheters gives pharmacologically active compounds access to the site of a malady. Running a catheter through a small or narrow body lumen, such as the urethra, can be uncomfortable for the patient. Inflicting injury while inserting the catheter can create serious complications such as allowing an infection on the inner wall of the lumen or body cavity to enter the blood stream, thereby spreading the infection throughout the body. Furthermore, finding the site of the malady to be treated, while inserting the catheter, can be difficult.
To get past the delivery limitations of drugs for the treatment of maladies within shallow lumens or cavities of the body, creams and other medical ointments have been developed. The cream or ointment is spread on the walls of the cavity with a finger, swab, or similar device. Though these creams and ointments can be effective, their use is generally not preferred by the patient as they can be messy, leak out, and are often unpleasant to apply.
Delivering drugs to open body cavities and/or lumens not sufficiently accessible as to permit the application of creams, such as the sinuses, has been accomplished with various spray and/or misting devices. Exemplar devices well known in the art are nasal sprays and inhalers. Generating a spray or mist through the use of pumps or aerosols, it is difficult to utilize nasal sprays and inhalers to deliver drugs deep within an open cavity. The difficulty in achieving deep drug delivery is due to the low pressure, low velocity sprays generated by these devices. Generation of the spray or mist is generally accomplished by pressurizing the drug to be delivered and then forcing the drug through a small orifice. As to avoid damaging tissue within the cavity or lumen into which the drug is to be delivered, low pressure is used to drive drug delivery. Because pressure is the only force driving drug delivery, the use of low pressure creates a low velocity spray limiting the depth of drug penetration. Consequently, it is difficult to deliver drugs from such devices to sites of maladies deep within body cavities or lumens.
Preserving the integrity of bones, particularly bone marrow, is critically important for maintaining patient health, because bones are the site of red and white blood cell synthesis. Maladies within the bones, such as leukemia and/or osteomyelitis, can result in anemia and a compromised immune system. Treating such conditions often involves painful surgery due to the inability of drugs to adequately penetrate bone tissue. In the case of leukemia, the patient is often treated with painful bone marrow transplants during which unhealthy bone marrow is replaced with healthy bone marrow from a donor. With respect to the treatment of osteomyelitis, surgical debridement is the principal therapy. During the surgery, the bone is opened and the diseased tissue is scrapped away. The debridement procedure often leaves a large bony defect (dead space). Poorly vascularized, the presence of a dead space predisposes the patient to persistent infections. Consequently, dead bone tissue must be replaced with durable vascularized tissue. Debridement may need to be followed by stabilization such as external or internal fixation. Internal fixation devices often become infected resulting in painful complications to the patient. External fixation is labor intensive and requires an extended period of treatment averaging 8.5 months.
Ultrasound drug delivery devices have been developed in efforts to overcome some of the limitations of drug therapy. U.S. Pat. No. 5,405,614 to D'Angelo et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,415,629 to Henley, U.S. Pat. No. 5,421,816 to Lipkovker, U.S. Pat. No. 5,538,503 to Henley, U.S. Pat. No. 5,658,247 to Henley, U.S. Pat. No. 5,667,487, to Henley, U.S. Pat. No. 5,947,921 to Johnson et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,041,253 to Kost et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,190,315 to Kost et al, U.S. Pat. No. 6,234,990 to Roe et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,322,532 to D'Sa et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 6,491,657 to Rowe et al describe transdermal ultrasound drug delivery devices utilizing ultrasonic energy to drive a drug across the patient's skin. However, delivering drugs to deep tissue such as, but not limited to, bone marrow is difficult to accomplish with these devices. U.S. Pat. No. 6,601,581 to the present inventor describes an ultrasound inhaler utilizing ultrasonic energy to create a fine drug mist. Though effective at delivering drugs to the lungs and bronchia, this device is incapable of creating a spray of sufficient velocity to enable drug delivery deep within lumens and cavities of the body.
Though drugs are often effective in treating various maladies of the body, they are not always necessary. Many maladies of the body can be treated simply by washing and/or flushing the affected area. Washing and/or flushing with simple, drug free fluids such as, but not limited to, saline or water has the benefit of avoiding the various side effects and complications drugs may possess. Unfortunately, the practicality of washing and/or flushing body cavities, body lumens, and poorly perfused tissues is hindered, as is drug delivery, by the lack of devices capable of delivering a liquid deep into the affected lumens, cavities, and poorly perfused tissues.
The difficulty in achieving therapeutically effective drug concentrations or permit the washing and/or flushing of body lumens, body cavities, and poorly perfused tissues with present devices and traditional routes of administrations creates a need for a new method of treating body lumens, body cavities, and poorly perfused tissues.

Method of treating lumens, cavities, and tissues of the body with an ultrasound delivered liquid


A method of communicatively coupling network elements supporting multiple network protocol types comprises receiving input having multiple network protocol types from an upper-level of the protocol stack at an endpoint-flexible-interface layer in a network endpoint, mapping the input between the upper-level of a protocol stack and a common-lower-level in the protocol stack at the endpoint-flexible-interface layer, and implementing the common-lower-level protocol layer to interface the multiple network protocol types to the physical layer, so that at least two endpoints of a network are communicatively coupled.

Currently, as new data processing architectures are developed for space applications, each data processing architecture is highly specialized and often relies upon a separate system interconnect technology. Since each customer has different system-level performance requirements, each system interconnect design starts from scratch. There is high risk associated with adopting new technology for each and every mission, and network technology is vulnerable to obsolescence since support for a given protocol may die out, leaving no path to higher performance as technology scales. Furthermore, only one protocol type may run over each physical network fabric, implying that complex space systems often require separate physical networks for separate functions such as data traffic, control, and management. The requirement of separate physical networks for each function further increases system complexity, size, weight, and power.

Common protocol and routing scheme for space data processing networks


Electrostatic power generator cell architectures having high generator output and a method of manufacture. In one embodiment, parasitic capacitances are reduced by reducing overlap between walls of the chamber and electrodes of the generator cell. In another embodiment, generator component materials are selected to reduce triboelectric effects to improve the coupling of kinetic energy to electrical output, thereby increasing generator output. In a further embodiment, the high permittivity material is selected to increase the modulation of the variable capacitors in the power generator to increase generator output. In still another embodiment, the physical dimensions of the generator cell components are reduced to increase power density. In an additional embodiment, a physical dimension of the generator chamber is based on the dominant motion the generator will be exposed to in a particular application.

1. Field
The present invention relates to power generators. More particularly this invention relates to electrostatic power generators configured to convert kinetic energy into electrical energy.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Various power generators have been developed to convert kinetic energy into electrical energy. For example, there are electromagnetic generators, piezoelectric and cantilevered impulse power generators. Virtually all of these generators however utilize a resonant member. Resonant members only operate well over a narrow frequency range, while real world environments have a broad frequency range. Therefore, there remains a need for a power generator with greater robustness and flexibility than resonant generators provide.

Electrostatic power generator cell and method of manufacture


A pair of opposing drive heads are positioned in a storage media drive to read and/or write a storage media interposed therebetween. Each drive head has a sensor face that includes first and second parallel longitudinally extending air-bearing surfaces. Each air-bearing surface has generally longitudinally opposing leading and trailing terminations. The storage media travels adjacent the sensor face in a traveling direction extending along the air-bearing surfaces from the leading to the trailing terminations. A drive sensor is positioned on the first air-bearing surface a distance D1 from the trailing termination thereof. The trailing termination of the second air-bearing surface extends farther a distance D2 in the traveling direction than the trailing termination of the first air-bearing surface. The drive heads are opposingly positioned such that each first air-bearing surface is opposed by the second air-bearing surface of the opposite drive head, and such that the leading and trailing terminations of the drive heads oppose each other. Each drive sensor is overlaid by the second air-bearing surface of the opposite drive head when the drive heads are aligned with respect to the traveling direction. Each drive sensor remains overlaid by such second air-bearing surface when the drive heads are mis-aligned with respect to the traveling direction by as much as the sum of D1 and D2.

The present invention relates to a pair of drive heads for a storage media drive. More particularly, the present invention relates to a pair of opposing drive heads for being positioned in a storage media drive to read a flexible storage media positioned within such drive.
In a typical storage media drive, a storage media is passed by a drive head such that the drive head can read information from and/or write information to the storage media. Particularly where the storage media is a two-sided disk or other similar object, the information may be stored on both sides thereof. Accordingly, the typical drive includes a pair of opposing drive heads, and the storage media travels between such opposing drive heads. Of course, in the situation where a drive includes multiple media such as multiple disks (usually stacked on a single spindle), each disk travels between its own pair of drive heads.
When the storage media is a disk, to facilitate the reading and/or writing operations of the storage media drive, the storage media is rotated at an angular speed high enough to cause each drive head to xe2x80x98ride upxe2x80x99 onto an air bearing formed between the face of the drive head and the surface of the rotating storage media. As should be understood, the air bearing is a formed cushion of air that facilitates smoother operation of the storage media drive, and also prevents unnecessary wear on the storage media that would otherwise be caused by the contact of the drive heads on the rotating storage media. Of course, some contact is normal, especially in connection with a flexible storage media.
In one typical embodiment of the opposing drive heads, each drive head has a pair of longitudinally extending generally parallel raised rails, where the surface of each raised rail includes a longitudinally extending air bearing surface. As should be understood, the air bearing surface on each rail is the substantially flat portion thereof that directly faces the storage media, and that most contributes to the maintenance of the created air bearing. A drive sensor is positioned on a first one of the air bearing surfaces of each drive head, and the drive heads are positioned to oppose each other such that the drive sensor on each drive head is opposed by the second one of the air bearing surfaces of the other drive head (i.e., the air bearing surface that does not have the drive sensor). By being so opposed, the storage media will travel adjacent each drive sensor in close proximity to such drive sensors.
However, if the storage media is relatively flexible, as can be the case, and should the drive heads become mis-aligned such that one of the drive sensors becomes unopposed, the flexible storage media will not travel adjacent each drive sensor in close proximity to such drive sensors. In particular, and as should be understood, a rotating, generally flexible storage media rotating past an un-opposed air bearing surface tends to curve away therefrom. If such un-opposed air bearing surface should include a drive sensor, it is likely the case that the curved-away storage media is too far from such drive sensor to allow such drive sensor to read to or write from such drive media.
To complicate matters, in a typical drive head, the drive sensor is positioned toward the trailing termination of the air bearing surface on which it resides, and in some instances can even be positioned at such trailing termination. As may be understood, the amount of mis-alignment that can be tolerated decreases as the drive sensor gets closer to the trailing termination. At the trailing termination, then, practically any mis-alignment will result in one of the drive sensors being unopposed by an air bearing surface.
Accordingly, a need exists for a pair of opposing drive heads in a storage media drive wherein mis-alignment of the drive heads can be better tolerated, even if the drive sensors are positioned at the trailing terminations of respective air bearing surfaces.
The present invention satisfies the aforementioned needs by providing a pair of opposing drive heads for being positioned in a storage media drive to read and/or write a storage media that is interposed between the drive heads for travel therebetween. Each drive head has a sensor face that includes first and second generally parallel longitudinally extending air-bearing surfaces. Each air-bearing surface has a leading termination and a generally longitudinally opposing trailing termination. The storage media travels adjacent the sensor face of the drive head in a traveling direction extending generally along the air-bearing surfaces from the leading terminations to the trailing terminations.
A drive sensor is positioned on the first air-bearing surface of the sensor face a distance D1 from the trailing termination of such first air-bearing surface. The trailing termination of the second air-bearing surface of each drive head extends farther a distance D2 in the traveling direction than the trailing termination of the first air-bearing surface of each drive head. The drive heads are opposingly positioned with respect to each other such that the first air-bearing surface of each drive head is generally opposed by the second air-bearing surface of the opposite drive head, such that the leading terminations of the drive heads generally oppose each other, and such that the trailing terminations of the drive heads generally oppose each other.
The drive sensor of each drive head is overlaid by the second air-bearing surface of the opposite drive head when the drive heads are aligned with respect to the traveling direction. The drive sensor of each drive head remains overlaid by the second air-bearing surface of the opposite drive head when the drive heads are mis-aligned with respect to the traveling direction by as much as the sum of D1 and D2.

Drive heads for storage media drive with displaced pair of sensors


A firearm including a trigger-actuated firing mechanism, a safety device that selectively prevents and permits the firing mechanism to be actuated, and an authentication device that cooperates with the safety device and which recognizes a feature of an authorized shooter, wherein the safety device is nominally in a position that permits the firing mechanism to be actuated and is moved to a position that prevents the firing mechanism from being actuated only if the authentication device does not recognize a would-be shooter as an authorized shooter.

Many devices are known for preventing a firearm from being used by an unauthorized person, such as children or other non-owners. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,357,156 describes a system for use with an electronic firearm. The system has a fingerprint sensor used to compare the sensed fingerprint pattern of a would-be shooter with an authorized user's fingerprint pattern stored in an identification circuit. The identification circuit communicates with an electrical interface for transmitting an authorization signal to activate the firearm if the sensed fingerprint pattern substantially matches the authorized user's fingerprint pattern. The system is powered by DC batteries.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,711,843 describes an electronic firearm that includes a barrel assembly and a handle assembly coupled to the barrel assembly. The handle assembly includes a grip portion defining a cavity and one or more openings disposed generally at a rear side of the grip portion. A biometric sensing device is disposed within the cavity and aligned with the openings of the grip portion for scanning the skin of a portion of the user's hand to determine whether the user is authorized to discharge the electronic firearm.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,970,819 describes a system in which actuation of the firing mechanism of a firearm is prevented until grip pattern sensing means on the handgrip of the firearm supply to a microprocessor signals corresponding to a grip pattern stored in a programmed simulated neural network memory.
In all of the known systems of the prior art, the firearm is normally inoperable (that is, cannot be used to fire a projectile) unless the system recognizes the shooter as an authorized shooter. In other words, something blocks or interferes with the firing mechanism and that something moves away to allow the firing mechanism to work only upon recognition of the shooter as an authorized shooter.


Provided are a coating composition for forming a gas barrier layer as configured such that a specific compound having two or more 5-membered cyclic carbonate groups and a compound having two or more amino groups are reactable at an equivalent ratio of functional groups of 0.8 to 1.25 to form the gas barrier layer with a polyhydroxyurethane resin as a principal component; a gas barrier film formed of a single layer or multiple layers, at least one of the layer or layers that forms or form the film is a layer that exhibits gas barrier properties, and the layer is formed of a polyhydroxyurethane resin having a specific chemical structure; and a production method of a film having gas barrier properties. Owing to the use of the specific polyhydroxyurethane resin, the coating composition, gas barrier film and production method readily enable to reduce moisture-dependent variations in gas barrier properties, to avoid the production of noxious fumes upon incineration disposal, to provide excellent processability, and to lower the pollutant load on the environment.

Gas barrier materials and packaging materials making use of them are already well known. For example, gas barrier films are widely used primarily to protect contents as various packaging materials led by food packaging materials and including pharmaceutical packaging materials, and also in the field of industrial materials. As a material that exhibits the most excellent oxygen gas barrier property, an aluminized film can be mentioned. This film, however, involves inter alia a problem in that different from resin films, it is opaque and its content is not visible. Here, representative of resin materials that exhibit gas barrier properties are ethylene-vinyl alcohol copolymer resin (hereinafter abbreviated as "EVOH") and vinylidene chloride resin (hereinafter abbreviated as "PVDC").
The above-mentioned EVOH is excellent in hot melt formability, and is therefore used by processing it into single-layer films by melt extrusion or into double-layer films by co-extrusion with a resin such as polypropylene. EVOH is, however, accompanied by a drawback in that it is prone to moisture absorption and is lowered in gas barrier properties under high humidity. Moreover, limitations are imposed on the use of EVOH because it is hardly soluble in organic solvents and cannot be formed into films by a coating method.
On the other hand, PVDC is a resin, which is less temperature-dependent in gas barrier properties compared with EVOH and is formable by a coating method. The coating method has merits in that compared with a co-extrusion method, it requires simpler production equipment and can obtain films at relatively low cost. In addition, PVDC has substantially no hygroscopicity and exhibits good gas barrier properties even under high humidity, and is therefore applicable to various base materials for their coating irrespective of moisture permeability. Various PVDC-coated films produced by methods such as that described above are used as packaging materials for foods centering around those containing abundant water. Further, films with PVDC films laminated therein are used as gas barrier packaging materials for various foods no matter whether they are dry products or wet products.
Packaging materials formed with PVDC, however, involve issues to be described hereinafter. After use, these packaging materials are discarded as domestic waste from households. There is hence an indication that, as PVDC contains chlorine, chlorine gas which occurs upon incineration disposal causes acid rain. It is also indicated that PVDC produces noxious fumes upon burning and its incineration especially at low temperatures is a cause of the production of organic chlorine compounds considered to have strong carcinogenicity. For these issues, there is an outstanding strong desire for a switch to another material.
For these issues, polyvinyl alcohol (PVC)-based films are also well known as another gas barrier material that produces no organic chlorine compound, and films with a water-soluble PVA-based resin coated thereon are available on the market. As PVA is prone to moisture absorption like EVOH, films formed with PVA exhibit highly excellent oxygen gas barrier property under low humidity conditions, but at relative humidities higher than 60%, their oxygen barrier property is drastically deteriorated so that they are considered to have low practical utility under such an environment. The replacement has, therefore, moved ahead only in limited applications.
Concerning improvements in the moisture resistance of EVOH and PVA, numerous studies have been conducted as will be described hereinafter. Contrived include, for example, crosslinking with methacrylic acid (Patent Document 1), the introduction of a second component such as the addition of acrylic acid (Patent Document 2), and a method that provides EVOH or PVA with a crosslinked structure by heat treatment after formation of a film (Patent Document 3), and improvement effects have been obtained to some extent. Such modified EVOH and PVA have, however, not been widely used yet as replacements for PVDC because they require, for example, heat treatment for the production of films.
On the other hand, the developments of gas barrier materials with resins having chemical structures different from olefinic resins are under way. For example, a barrier material with a polyamide resin having amide bonds and a barrier material with a polyurethane resin having urethane bonds have been contrived (Patent Documents 4 and 5). However, these polyamide resin and polyurethane resin need to introduce rigid chemical structures such as meta-xylene skeletons as an essential component, and as a result, the resins have higher melting points. These contrivances are, therefore, accompanied by drawbacks in that they cannot be co-extruded with a general-purpose resin and they are insoluble in organic solvents as in the case of EVOH. It has also been contrived to use the above-mentioned polyurethane resin as an emulsion (Patent Document 6). As a water-based coating formulation, however, a solvent-based coating system cannot be applied as it is. Accordingly, such an emulsion has not substituted yet for a PVDC coating formulation. Gas barrier films also include aluminized films, which have found wide spread utility centrally for snacks. However, as mentioned before, the contents are not visible in this case. Depending on the application, transparent films may be preferred in many instances. The invisibility of the contents may, therefore, become a drawback.
Further, a variety of studies have also been conducted on coating compositions capable of imparting gas barrier properties to various base materials. Concerning, for example, coating compositions making use of an epoxy resin, methods have been proposed to improve the gas barrier properties to oxygen, carbon dioxide and the like by increasing the contents of amine nitrogen in the compositions (Patent Documents 7 and 8). However, further improvements are desired because these coating compositions are not very high in barrier properties and their barrier properties are not high under high humidity conditions. On the other hand, epoxy resin compositions exhibit good performance in gas barrier properties, adhesiveness and chemical resistance, but involve drawbacks that they are short in pot life and poor in workability due to the high reactivity between polyamines and epoxy resins.
Also proposed are a polyurethane resin having gas barrier properties as mentioned above and a gas barrier film containing it (Patent Document 5) and a stretched gas-barrier laminate film making use of a polyurethane-based thermoplastic elastomer (Patent Document 9). However, they are both thermoplastic resins, and are therefore not suited for coating compositions. In addition, these resins are not equipped with any sufficient adhesiveness to base materials. Upon using them as packaging materials for foods and pharmaceuticals, said packaging materials requiring gas barrier properties, it becomes necessary to laminate them as gas barrier layers on conventional general films with an adhesive being additionally applied to opposite sides of the gas barrier layers. Therefore, the above-described materials involve disadvantages in the manufacturing cost of laminated films and the process step of lamination, and moreover, there is a concern about effects on the environment by an increase in waste materials that is considered as a problem these days.
As has been described above, no resins or other materials have been developed yet to completely replace PVDC. It is, accordingly, a current situation that PVDC is still continuously used at present. It is thus practiced in some incineration plants to burn waste materials at temperatures higher than usual in order to decompose noxious fumes that occur upon incineration. However, high-temperature incinerators require more energy than general incineration, and cannot be considered to be preferable in that they increase carbon dioxide emissions which have become a problem in recent years. It is, therefore, required to develop a material that not only suppresses the occurrence of noxious fumes but also takes one step forward and leads to a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions. Under the above-described circumstances, the present inventors came to realize the importance of expanding the range of a study for the development of a new material that leads to a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions, and also of studying the applicability of materials which are new resins different in chemical structure from the conventional urethane resins, for example, like polyhydroxyurethane resins and moreover have not been used as forming materials for gas barrier films to date.

Coating composition for forming gas barrier layer, gas barrier film, and method for producing gas barrier film

DAINICHISEIKA COLOR & CHEMICALS MFG. CO., LTD.


A heel protector is disclosed. The heel protector includes a stem portion having a body and at least one retaining portion. A channel is formed between the body and the at least one retaining portion. A biasing portion extends from the stem portion. The biasing portion includes an opening therein. A leaf portion extends from the biasing portion. A shoe and heel protector assembly is also disclosed. A method of using the heel protector to protect the heel and waist of a shoe is also disclosed.

The heels on most women's footwear are generally made of hard plastic or wooden blocks called "heel blocks," that can be covered with various materials called "heel covers." Heel covers may include materials such as leather, suede, stacked leather, and fabric. These thin soft heel covers are often merely glued to heel blocks, are very fragile, and tend to damage easily. There are a variety of causes of damage to heel covers including, but not limited to, catching the back of the heel on a curb, escalator, or leg of a chair; getting into and out of a car; driving a car; walking down stairs; etc. The most destructive form of damage often occurs when the heel slips into the crack or grate of a sidewalk.
Some heel blocks are constructed of solid wood, which is then polished. Damaging these types of heels is akin to damaging a fine piece of furniture, where only refinishing can restore the original luster of the design. Other heel blocks may be finished with a metallic or painted type covering. These finishes are extremely fragile during wear and any damage to the finishes would be difficult to repair at a shoe repair shop.
When shoes are worn outside, especially on city sidewalks, the top lifts (plastic or rubber bottom pieces of the heel) wear down extremely quickly. If these are not replaced in time, the heel cover, along with the heel block, can be damaged.
Further, when sitting on a stool or a raised chair with a foot bar, women tend to hook the heel over the bar, such that the waist of the shoe rests on the bar. On lighter colored soles, the bar can leave dirt and marks. This causes more of a problem with many of today's high end shoes which have signature sole colors that extend all the way to the waist and even the heel breast. This problem may also occur, albeit at a lower occurrence, simply by walking up stairs.
Also, heel covers, especially those made of fabric, can sustain substantial damage in the form of discoloration when exposed to various elements such as water, snow, rain or puddles. Additionally, women may tip-toe around, or even limit where they walk, when attending a garden party, for example, for fear of their heels being ruined by slipping into the lawn.


A drilling tool comprising at least one machined groove and at least one web which extend from a tip of the tool to the shank of the tool. A main cutting edge and an inner cooling channel are formed on each web. Said cooling channel extends from the tip to an opposite drill end and has a continuously extending cross-sectional contour enclosing an imaginary circle with a center point. The cross-sectional contour preferably comprises two maximum curvature values whose distance to the drill axis is greater in the direction of a line between the center point and the drill axis or equal to the distance of the center point to the drill axis. Preferably, minimum wall thicknesses exist between the inner cooling channel and (1) the outer periphery of the drill, (2) the machined surface and (3) the non-machined surface, between a minimum and a maximum.

For the purpose of supplying coolant or lubricant, cutting tools comprise internal cooling channels through which the coolant is channelled to the drill tip. Apart from the function of cooling and lubricating the drill tip, the coolant also has the function of improving chip removal.
In order to remove the chips from the cutting groove, the coolant has to be fed in at times at high pressure, especially in the case of deep-hole drilling, wherein the internal cooling channel i.e. the drill has to be able to withstand corresponding pressures without being destroyed. In particular as part of minimum quantity lubrication, a process which is becoming widespread, there is a desire to design the cooling channels so as to provide the largest volume possible. In addition, there is a need to be able to make ever smaller and longer drill holes. However, with increased lengths and reduced diameters of a drilling tool, it becomes increasingly difficult to dimension the internal cooling channels in such a way that corresponding coolant throughput or coolant pressure is provided, without the sturdiness of the drill being negatively affected. For, the size of the cooling channels is limited by the distance to the drill back or the cutting space. If the lands are too thin, cracks and tool breakages occur. In the case of multiple-cutting tools, the cooling channels must also be spaced apart from each other by a certain minimum distance, otherwise impediments result in the face geometry of the drill, i.e., for example in the transverse cutter or in a point shape.
Known drills usually have internal cooling channels with circular sections. Apart from this, in principle, methods are already known with which sintered blanks with elliptical cooling channel cross sections can be produced, for example from DE 42 42 336 A1. U.S. patent specification U.S. Pat. No. 2,422,994 already mentions a cooling channel profile design other than a circular design. Furthermore, cooling channels with a trigon profile in the form of a isosceles triangle with rounded corners have been proposed, for example in patent specification DE 199 42 966 A1.
Apart from this, in DE 3629035 A1, a double cutting drill with a cooling channel profile in the form of an isosceles triangle with rounded corners has been proposed, with which a position of the internal cooling channels close to the center is to be possible, which position makes it possible to provide central delivery from the cooling channel at the conical end of the drill.


A system and method for defending a mobile network from a fraud committed via GTP is disclosed. According to one embodiment, a computer-implemented method includes receiving receives information associated with a GTP request from a serving node to a gateway node in a mobile network. The information associated with the GTP request is a GTP control plane request or a CDR associated with the GTP request. The information associated with a GTP request is examined, and parameters contained in the information associated with the GTP request are analyzed. It is determined that the GTP request is a fraudulent GTP request if the parameters do not belong to an authorized subscriber of the mobile network. A GTP tunnel associated with the fraudulent GTP request is denied, an established fraudulent GTP tunnel is deleted, or network traffic established by a fraudulent GTP tunnel is redirected to a monitoring node.

A modern mobile cellular telephony/data network includes several cooperating nodes and/or gateways to authenticate a user device's attachment to the network, authorize services, and establish data and voice paths for the user device through the network to other mobile users, other mobile networks, and the Internet. In a third-generation (3G) network, a data path for a user device is provided by specialized routers, such as serving GPRS support nodes (SGSNs) for the radio edge and gateway GPRS support nodes (GGSNs) for the Internet edge. In a fourth-generation (4G) network (e.g., evolved packet system (EPS), long-term evolution (LTE)), serving gateways (SGWs) (for radio edge) and packet data network gateways (PGWs) (for Internet and international mobile subscriber (IMS) voice core edge) provide a similar voice and data path through a visited (roaming) network and a home network for a user device.
The authentication and subscription information of a subscriber is maintained by a home location register (HLR) for a 3G network or a home subscriber server (HSS) for a 4G network. Alternate network paths (e.g., signaling system no. 7 (SS7) for 3G, diameter signaling for 4G) may be provided to the user device using the authentication and subscription information of the subscriber obtained from the HLR or the HSS.
A GTP tunnel is established between a serving node (e.g., SGSN, SGW) and a gateway node (e.g., GGSN, PGW) to allow a user device to move from one location to another location within a home network while continuing to connect to an external packet switched network such as the Internet. The GTP is divided into two separate planes, GTP-U and GTP-C. GTP-U is used to carry user-data traffic, i.e., the network traffic generated from a user device when accessing the Internet (e.g., email, web surfing, gaming). GTP-C is used to carry signals within a GPRS-based core network for signaling between GGSN and SGSN. When a user device is connected or disconnected to a mobile network, or hops inside the mobile network, the SGSN or SGW detects the move of the user device and sends appropriate connect/disconnect signals to the GGSN or PGW that serves the user device. The GGSN or PGW provides a public IP address for the user device in response to requests from the user device through various SGSN or SGWs that connect the user device. GTP-C messages may further include a phone number, a cell that the user device is connected to (or the user device's physical location), the access point name (APNs), and the manufacture and model of the user device. GTP-C messages are used to negotiate the IDs of the GTP tunnel that carries the user traffic.
Security holes exist in a GTP because the GTP tunnel established between the serving node and the gateway node has no authentication or authorization facilities. In a 3G network, a GGSN receives connection requests from a user device and accepts all Create Session Request messages regardless of international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI) of the user device. A GTP tunnel is established to a requesting subscriber based on the Create Session Request messages. Attackers may exploit these GTP security holes.

Method and system for defending a mobile network from a fraud


A system for retrieving, modifying, and collecting data records having a plurality of formats and distributed on a plurality of databases on a computer network. The system includes means for detecting various types, relationships, and classifications of data records and modifying them accordingly to support interactive, hypertext-linked display of, and organized access to, the data records. The system further includes means to store a related set of data records on a mass storage device such as a CD-ROM to provide non-network access to the data records. Adapted for use in a hospital environment, the invention facilitates access by care providers, administrators, and insurance company agents to a patient's cumulative, and possibly extensive, record.

When a patient is in a hospital, either as an inpatient or an outpatient, a variety of information concerning the patient may be collected and recorded. This may be in the form of observations, measurements, Dab results, vital sign indicators, procedure reports and associated graphics. Over a long period of treatment, hundreds of pages of information may accumulate in the patient's record.
While the patient is in the hospital, it is typical that many different care givers, administrators, or insurance company employees will desire to view a part of the patient's cumulative record. The conventional paper chart is not always useful, as there is only one copy of it, and some laboratory tests may not be entered into the chart on a timely basis. To solve this problem, hospitals have used a variety of database systems such as hospital information systems (HIS) and clinical information systems (CIS) to store and present patient information on computer displays. However, there is still a substantial amount of data that does not get placed into these systems. A variety of factors may inhibit an automated process of comprehensive retrieval of a patient's data, such as incompatible communication protocols and formatting schemes between computer systems, non-digitized data records including pictures and standardized forms, and the lack of adequate computer interfacing support for low-cost medical instruments or devices. It is also typical that word processing documents, rather than being automatically collected by a database system, are simply printed in the form of a paper copy to be inserted into the conventional chart.
While various standardization committees have been established, e.g., HL-7, DOCOM, and IEEE, to develop common addressing schemes for hospital data, to date none have defined a consistent format to use for storing and retrieving data. For the sake of simplicity or due to limited resources, many manufacturers that use one or more of these standards choose to use only a portion of them; consequently their systems remain only partially compatible.
Furthermore, even many hospitals with database systems lack a centralized retrieval system because related hospital reports are often stored on separate databases. For example, a patient's radiology catheterization report and hemodynamic catheterization reports may be created and stored in separate databases, though as far as the physician who performed the catheterization procedure is concerned, these two reports are really just one procedure and should be associated with each other. For further example, a physician reviewing an admission report may find that it references laboratory tests or observations made contemporaneous with or previous to the patient arriving at the hospital. Should the physician decide to review these other records, she will have to perform additional searches to locate them. In some cases, this often cumbersome and time-consuming process results in care givers refraining from making complete use of the available patient information.
In many hospitals when a patient is discharged, a paper copy of these records is made and sent to the admitting physician for his own record keeping purposes. The collection, copying, and storage of all of these records is a very time-consuming and labor-intensive activity. Further, the generally high risk of human error may manifest itself in the failure to return records to the correct patient's file or incorrect storage of a patient's entire file, effectively forfeiting the misplaced information. The physician is simultaneously confronted with the responsibility of filing and storing the paper copy in his own office.
Some hospitals have purchased laboratory or information systems capable of long term storage of various records. While this may assist the hospital in retrieving past records, it may not help the admitting physician in referring to them, for he may not have access to the data directly or may not have the specific software required to retrieve the data. So with such advanced systems the physician is still provided with a paper copy for his records.
Furthermore, many existing laboratory and information systems record information in a variety of inconsistent formats. Some of these formats are proprietary to the manufacturer of the specific system. Each system may use a separate database scheme to gain access to the data. Substantial efforts to get these systems to communicate with each other have not yielded satisfactory results. For example, many large medical information systems use complicated data exchange protocols; but these protocols are unwieldy for simple, often portable instruments which lack the hardware and software capacity to conform to such protocols.
Some reports may be created using a word processor. These may originate in a department of the hospital or in a physician's office. These reports, which may be kept in a conventional file cabinet, are not always included with the rest of the patient's reports.
What is needed is an effective alternative to creating paper records that must be copied and meticulously tracked, an alternative that would permit physicians to access the data economically and easily in their own offices. Such a system would permit a system user to enter a keyword to retrieve a specific data record of a patient, retrieve the requested record from whichever database it is stored to, reformat the data record with hypertext links to related patient records, and return the requested record to the system user for display on a browser. The system would preferably use the well-known Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) so that it could utilize inexpensive, standard software packages. The system would also be operable to format data records stored on the various databases of the computer network systematically, periodically, or automatically upon the creation of new, or the modification of existing, data records. The system would be operable to collect all data records pertaining to a specific patient, doctor, or other subject, modify them to support display through a Java applet, internet browser, or other universal display standard, generate additional patient files to organize the data records in a hypertext directory structure, and store the data records and files on a mass-media storage device such as a CD-ROM.

System and method for translating, collecting and archiving patient records


A gas driven fermentation system wherein a gas such as air is passed heterogeneously upwardly through the fermentation broth to agitate and recirculate the broth, provide oxygen for fermentation and strip off carbon dioxide, and a second gas such as oxygen is passed homogeneously upwardly through the broth proximate the heterogeneous air flow to provide supplemental oxygen for fermentation.

Fermentation is a chemical change induced by a living organism or enzyme, such as bacteria or the microorganisms occurring in unicellular plants, which involves the aerobic decomposition of hydrocarbons to produce a desired product along with carbon dioxide. Oxygen for the fermentation is generally supplied by the provision of air to the fermentation broth which is contained within a fermentation vessel. Fermentation systems are used for the production of a large number of products such as antibiotics, vaccines, synthetic biopolymers, synthetic amino acids, and edible proteins.
It is important that the contents within the fermentation vessel be in motion to ensure the efficient uptake of oxygen, proper distribution of nutrients and the continuous progression of the fermentation reaction to attain a good product yield. Generally such motion or stirring is provided by a mechanical agitation system. Mechanical agitation systems are complicated, costly, and prone to breakdown especially because, as the fermentation process proceeds, product builds up within the fermentation vessel and the thickness or viscosity of the fermentation broth increases.
In response to such problems with mechanically agitated fermenters, there has been developed gas driven fermenters wherein the requisite broth motion is provided by rising bubbles of gas introduced into the fermenter vessel to provide oxygen for the fermentation. Because this gas is usually air, such gas driven fermenters are generally termed air-lifted fermenters or air-lifted bioreactors. Such devices are also termed bubbling columns. The air causes the broth to rise in one region of the vessel and flow downward in another region of the vessel to form a recirculating flow of broth within the fermentation vessel.
Large volumes of air are needed to effectively agitate a commercial size air-lifted fermenter or bubbling column which can have a height of from 50 to 100 feet or more. As the air bubbles rise within the bubbling column they coalesce to form larger bubbles. The coalescence is rapid due to the large volume of air injected into the bubbling column. The gas rise velocity increases with bubble size as well as with height within the column. This increases the lifting action and the turbulence within the vessel. The violent agitation caused by rapidly rising large volume air bubbles is termed heterogeneous flow. This heterogeneous flow not only enhances the lifting action within the vessel but also serves to improve stripping of the carbon dioxide, which is generated by the fermentation, out of the broth, which improves the fermentation rate.
While air-lifted fermenters have been very advantageous for use such as in the pharmaceutical and fine chemical industries, there can arise production problems caused by oxygen starvation of the fermentation reaction, especially with the use of more active biological agents that demand a lot of oxygen. There are practical limitations to how much more air one can add into an air-lifted bioreactor without blowing the contents entirely out of the reactor.
In order to address this production problem, the industry has employed the injection of an additional or supplemental oxygen-containing gas into the air-lifted fermenter to supply additional oxygen to the fermentation broth. In order to avoid having the supplemental gas bubbles coalesce with the air bubbles and thus negate the effect of the supplemental injection, the supplemental gas is provided into the air-lifted fermenter at a distance from the point where the air is provided. Often this supplemental gas is provided into the fermentation broth in the downflowing region of the vessel to assure that it is provided far from the rising air bubbles. However such a procedure reduces the circulation effect within the vessel because of the braking action of the supplemental gas bubbles which try to rise within the downflowing broth. While providing additional oxygen for the fermentation, this procedure reduces the lifting action and the carbon dioxide stripping action which are also needed to achieve high production.
Accordingly it is an object of this invention to provide an improved gas driven fermentation or bubbling column system wherein a supplemental gas may be used to provide additional oxygen for the fermentation while avoiding the detrimental effects experienced with conventional supplemental gas provision systems.


A sensor component used to measure a magnetic field strength is disclosed. In one embodiment, the sensor component contains a plurality of leads and a sensor semiconductor chip, which measures the magnetic field strength. The sensor semiconductor chip has pads on its active upper side. These pads are connected electrically to the leads. The sensor component also contains a magnet, which is attached to the leads. The sensor semiconductor chip is arranged on an upper side of the magnet. The sensor component also has a first mold compound which shares a common boundary with the sensor semiconductor chip and surrounds the sensor semiconductor chip, the magnet and parts of the lead.

Magnetic sensors measure magnetic field strengths and the variation in magnetic field strengths. Typical magnetic sensors use sensor chips with Hall or GMR (Giant Magnetic Resistance) elements. A sensor component with Hall elements is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,366,194. A sensor chip, which contains Hall elements, is accommodated in a housing and is connected to electrically conducting connection pins projecting from the housing. The sensor component is used for determining a rotor position fitting it on a rotor which guides magnets past the sensor component.
A method is also known for inserting a sensor component described above, with a permanent magnet, in a correspondingly shaped plastic part. A cable is fitted to the connection pins and subsequently the assembly, consisting of sensor, magnet and connection pins, is cast. The rate of rotation is determined when a rotor alters the magnetic field in the vicinity of the sensor through its rotation, for example when the rotor guides an electrical conductor, a so-called sensor wheel, past the sensor.
A feature of sensors for measuring magnetic field strength is their sensitivity. Sensitivity describes the deviations of the magnetic field that must be reliably measured. In conventional sensor components, low sensitivity results in inaccurate measuring results or reduced yields in the manufacture of sensor components.
For these and other reasons, there is an need for the present invention.


A multiple-processor system and boot procedure are provided. The system includes an integrated circuit having first and second embedded processors. A volatile memory and a non-volatile memory are shared by the first and second processors. The non-volatile memory includes a set of boot load instructions executable by the first and second processors.

With the advent of multi-processing core integrated circuit chips, multiple processing cores are implemented on the same integrated circuit. With these types of integrated circuits, the inventors of the present application desired to develop an integrated circuit in which each processing core is able to execute an independent operating system. A boot structure is therefore desired to get each processor core executing its respective operating system upon reset.
The present disclosure provides such a boot structure.

Method and apparatus for booting independent operating systems in a multi-processor core integrated circuit


The knowledge that “the color of a vehicle body or guard rail is uniform” applies to the detection of a human, improving the detection performance of the human of which a part of the body is hidden. That is, it is determined whether or not a human candidate area specified based on the ordinary human recognition model has a specific part, e.g., an area corresponding to a lower body, exhibiting the high degree of color uniformity. When affirmed, the human candidate area is understood to be “a human of which a part of the body is hidden by a hood or a trunk” and recognized as a human, same as in the case where the body is not hidden.

The technology of detecting a human existing in front of or behind a vehicle employs a conventionally known technology of detecting a human in an input image by performing pattern recognition, for example. The pattern recognition uses a recognition model to recognize a human in an image (input image) picked up with a camera, etc.
For example, Patent Literature 1 discloses a technology to detect a pedestrian by verifying an image picked up by an image pickup unit against template data (a recognition model) for pedestrian detection, and to determine a shielding object existing between the detected pedestrian and the host vehicle.


The invention provides peptide compositions and mixtures useful for the detection of antibodies that bind to Ehrlichia antigens. The peptide compositions and mixtures comprise polypeptide sequences based on an immunogenic fragment of the Ehrlichia Outer Membrane Protein 1 (OMP-1) protein. The invention also provides devices, methods, and kits comprising such peptide compositions and mixtures useful for the detection of antibodies that bind to Ehrlichia antigens and the diagnosis of monocytic and/or granulocytic ehrlichiosis.

Ehrlichia bacteria are obligate intracellular pathogens that infect circulating lymphocytes in mammalian hosts. Ehrlichia canis and Ehrlichia chaffeensis are members of the same sub-genus group that infect canines and humans and cause canine monocytic ehrlichiosis (CME) and human monocytic ehrlichiosis (HME), respectively. Another species of Ehrlichia known as Ehrlichia ewingii has tropism for granulocytes and causes granulocytic ehrlichiosis. The canine disease is characterized by fever, epilepsy, incoordination, lethargy, bleeding episodes, lymphadenopathy, weight loss, and pancytopenia. In humans the disease is characterized by fever, headache, myalgia, and leukopenia. Early detection and treatment are important for treating both canine and human ehrlichiosis.
Indirect immunofluorescence assays (IFA) and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) have typically been used in the diagnosis of these diseases. These assays measure or otherwise detect the binding of anti-Ehrlichia antibodies from a subject's blood, plasma, or serum to infected cells, cell lysates, or partially purified whole Ehrlichia proteins. However, currently known assays for detecting anti-Ehrlichia antibodies or fragments thereof are severely limited in usefulness because of sensitivity and specificity issues directly related to the impure nature of the Ehrlichia antigen(s) used in these tests. That is, the currently known assays use mixtures of many whole Ehrlichia antigens or antigens that are not species specific.
Accordingly, there remains a need in the art for additional assays for detecting Ehrlichia antigens and serodiagnosis of monocytic ehrlichiosis and granulocytic ehrlichiosis.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Peptides, devices, and methods for the detection of Ehrlichia antibodies


An imaging apparatus and method for singulating individual film units from a self-developing integral film which units are carried serially in spaced apart relationship to each other are provided. The imaging portion of each unit is stiffer than associated leading and trailing portions whereby the leading portion beyond the pressure applying assembly is severed, while the severed flexible portion is diverted toward a receiving area therefor as the film unit advances along a path. Thereafter, provision is made for severing the strip along a trailing edge adjacent the imaging portion as the imaging portion advances along the path towards the exit; and, diverting the relatively flexible trailing portion from the path to a receiving area therefor as the film unit.

The present invention relates generally to photographic apparatus and, more particularly, film feeding mechanisms to be used in conjunction with photographic apparatus of the self-developing type and methods of operation thereof.
Heretofore, a wide variety of photographic apparatus of the self-developing type for exposing and processing film units have been proposed. Exemplary photographic apparatus of this type are described and illustrated in the following U.S. Pat. Nos.: 2,930,301; 3,405,619; 3,852,781; 4,114,166; 4,132,471; 4,172,647; 4,855,769; 5,103,249; and, 5,453,804. Typically, such cameras use self-developing film assemblages of either the peel-apart or integral kind. Cameras of the above type are cooperable with film systems, whereby the film frames are driven from the camera by some internal mechanism or are manually withdrawn by an operator exerting a pulling force on a film strip. During film advance, the film frames engage pressure applying mechanisms which act to rupture pods containing processing fluid and then spreading the latter over the film unit in order to initiate processing of the latent image.
While such apparatus are commercially successful and operate in a reliable manner, nevertheless there is a continuing desire for providing improved apparatus of the above type, especially from the standpoint of transferring and singulating individual film units.

Imaging apparatus and method of handling film


Techniques are described herein for hybrid parallelization of in-memory table scans. Work for an in-memory scan is divided into granules based on a degree of parallelism. The granules are assigned to one or more processes. The work for each granule is further parallelized by dividing the work granule into one or more tasks. The tasks are assigned to one or more threads, the number of which can be dynamically adjusted.

Database systems typically store database objects (e.g., tables, indexes, etc.) on disk, and load data items from those database objects into volatile memory on an as-needed basis. Once loaded into volatile memory, the data items may remain cached in volatile memory so that subsequent accesses to the same data items will not incur the overhead of accessing a disk. Those data items may be replaced in cache, for example, to make room in volatile memory to store other data items that have been requested.
Rather than load individual data items on a per-item basis, entire database objects, or portions thereof, may be loaded into volatile memory. Various approaches for loading entire database objects, or selected portions thereof, into volatile memory to speed up query processing are described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/377,179, entitled "Mirroring, In Memory, Data From Disk To Improve Query Performance," filed Jul. 21, 2014, referred to herein as the "Mirroring" application, the contents of which are incorporated herein in its entirety.
According to the approaches described in the Mirroring application, data objects, or portions thereof, are stored in volatile memory in a different format than the format that those same objects have on disk. For example, the in-memory version of an object may be in a column-major format, while the on-disk version may be stored in a row-major format.
Storing objects in volatile memory reduces the overhead of accessing data from a disk. However, operations such as a table scan still require a high processing cost. In-memory table scan performance may be improved by improving processing performance and CPU utilization.
Processing performance may be improved by parallelizing the work for an operation. Processing work may be parallelized by dividing the work into work granules and processing the work granules in parallel. Typically, work is divided and assigned to a number of processes during query initialization. Various approaches for dividing work into work granules and generating an execution plan are described in U.S. application Ser. No. 10/824,887, entitled "Compilation and Processing a Parallel Single Cursor Model," filed by Bhasker Ghosh, et al. on Apr. 13th, 2004, and issued as U.S. Pat. No. 8,086,645 on Dec. 27th, 2011.
However, the number of processes assigned to the query does not change during query processing. The system cannot adjust the resources being utilized in order to react to changing workloads. If the system workload becomes higher while the query is processing, the system cannot reduce the number of processes to allow other queries to run faster. Similarly, if another query finishes while the query is processing, the system cannot increase the number of processes to process the work faster.
Additionally, work within a work granule may be further parallelized based on the data required for each work granule. For example, a portion of a table may be stored in volatile memory. Each column of the table may be processed individually. However, when generating an execution plan for processing work in parallel, the system does not know what the structure of data stored in memory is like, in order to determine whether the work may be parallelized and how to divide the work granules.
The approaches described in this section are approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section.

Efficient hybrid parallelization for in-memory scans


A paint sprayer gun includes a gun body set, an air-floating member set, which includes a tubular shaft suspending inside the gun body set, a sleeve fixedly mounted inside the gun body set around the tubular shaft and having through holes for guiding in compressed air to float the tubular shaft, and a driving wheel connected to the tubular shaft and rotatable with the tubular shaft upon compressed air, and a feeder, which is inserted through the tubular shaft for guiding paint fluid to a nozzle head at the front side of the gun body set for spraying over the workpiece and has a stop ring with an through hole fixedly fastened to the periphery thereof and stopped outside the gun body set for guiding in compressed air to the space within the tubular shaft outside the feeder to accelerate spraying of paint fluid.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a paint-coating apparatus and more particularly, to a paint sprayer gun.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional paint sprayer gun uses a ball bearing to move a diffuser plate, causing the diffuser plate to diffuse paint fluid into fine drops. During operation of this design of paint sprayer gun, the inner race and outer race of the ball bearing rub against each other to produce heat, thereby causing the surface of supplied paint fluid to become sticky. When sprayed paint fluid over the surface of the workpiece, small lumps may be formed on the coating, resulting in an uneven surface of the workpiece. Further, due to friction loss between the inner race and outer race of the ball bearing, the speed of rotation of the inner race will be reduced after a long use of the paint sprayer gun, affecting the formation of fine drops of paint fluid, i.e., this conventional design of paint sprayer gun wears quickly with use, resulting in a high maintenance cost.


A signal acquisition probing system uses an optical cavity to acquire a signal under test. The probing system has an optical transmitter and receiver that are coupled to the optical cavity via an optical transmission system. The optical cavity has an electrode structure having apertures formed in the optical cavity that are parallel to propagation path of the optical signal within the cavity. A modulated optical signal is generated by the optical cavity in response to the signal under test creating an electro-magnetic field distribution in electro-optic material in the optical cavity that overlaps the optical path of the optical signal propagating in the optical cavity which varies the index of refraction of electro-optic material in the optical path. The signal acquisition probing system is connected to a measurement instrument to form a voltage measurement system.

The present invention relates generally to signal acquisition probes and more particularly to signal acquisition probing systems using electro-optical cavities that are incorporated into voltage measurement systems.
Electro-optic material is a class of inorganic and organic crystals where the index of refraction of the material changes in response to electromagnetic energy applied to the material. Such material may be used in the production of optical devices, such as optical switches, optical limiters, optical modulators and the like. In it simplest form, an optical signal, such as the output of a laser or the like, is launched into the electro-optic material having length and widths in the millimeter range and thicknesses in the tenths of millimeter range. The diameter of the optical path of the optical signal within the electro-optic material generally ranges from ten to a few hundreds microns across. Electrodes are formed on opposing surfaces of the electro-optic material that are parallel to the optical path of the signal passing through the electro-optic material. An electrical signal is applied to the electrodes which varies the index of refraction of the electro-optic material as a function of the variations of the electrical signal. The variations of the index of refraction of the electro-optic material alters the optical signal propagating through the electro-optic material.
Optically reflective material may be disposed on opposing sides of the electro-optic material to form an optical cavity. A Fabry-Perot etalon is an example of such an optical cavity. The reflectivity of the optically reflective material on the opposing sides of the electro-optic material is defined by the particular application of the optical cavity. The optical signal passes through at least one of the optically reflective materials and into the electro-optic material. Electrodes are formed on opposing surfaces of the electro-optic material that are parallel to the optical path of the optical signal. An electrical signal applied to the electrodes varies the index of refraction of the electro-optic material as a function of the variations in the electrical signal.
The strength of the electric field distribution within the electro-optic material is a function of the distance between the opposing electrodes and the amplitude of the applied electrical signal. The strength of the electric field is the inverse of the distance separation of the electrodes. As the distance between the electrodes decreases, the strength of the electric field between them increases. As the distance decreases, the magnitude of the electrical signal can decrease to generate the same amount of change in the index of refraction.
Currently, the minimum overall dimensions of the electro-optic material used in optical devices and cavities is limited by the practical size at which the material can be handled resulting in electrodes that are positioned at a substantial distance from the optical path of the optical signal. This results in optical devices having low sensitivity to the applied electrical signal.
There is an increasing need in the electronics industry for measurement test equipment, such as oscilloscopes, logic analyzers and the like, to measure electrical signals in the gigahertz range. Correspondingly, there is a need for measurement instrument signal acquisition probes that have the signal bandwidth to acquire such high frequency signals. Generally gigahertz bandwidth signal acquisition probes have active circuitry in the probing head of the probe that receives the electrical signal via a metal probing tip extending from the end of the probing head. Extensive design work is required to minimize probe tip inductance and capacitance that affect the overall bandwidth of the probe. In addition, the dielectric constant of the probe head material also needs to be minimized for gigahertz differential signal acquisition probes. A further complication for gigahertz signal acquisition probe designs is the signal loss through the coaxial cable that couples the probing head to the measurement instrument.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,808,473, titled "Electric Signal Measurement Apparatus Using Electro-Optic Sampling by One Point Contact" describes an electro-optic sampling high-impedance probe exploiting the Pockels effect to rotate the polarization state of a light beam. The Pockels effect changes the birefringence of an electro-optic crystal by an amount that is proportional to an electric field inside the crystal. With the proper application of electrodes to the crystal surface, and their connection to conductive probing tips, the polarization rotation can be made to respond to a voltage on a device under test (DUT). The electro-optic sampling high-impedance probe receives polarization maintained laser pulses via a single mode polarization maintaining fiber. The laser pulses are coupled through bulk optic devices onto an electro-optic element having a reflective film on one end. A metal pin in the end of the signal probe head abuts the reflective film on the electro-optic element. The metal pin couples an electrical signal from a device under test to the electro-optic element which alters the birefringence of the electro-optic element in response to the electrical field of the signal causing the polarization state of the laser beam to change. The laser beam having the changed polarization state is reflected by the reflecting film and coupled through polarization beam splitters which convert the S and P polarized beams into an intensity change. The S and P polarized beams are coupled through respective condensing lenses onto respective slow germanium photodetectors that convert the optical beams into electrical signals. The electrical signals are coupled to a measurement instrument and detected by a differential amplifier.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,166,845 describes a modification to the above described electro-optic sampling high-impedance probe. Instead of coupling laser pulses via a single mode polarization maintaining fiber to the probe, a laser diode is incorporated into the probe itself. The laser diode generates a pulsed laser output in response to an input pulse chain from the measurement instrument. The probe contains the bulk optic devices, electro-optic element and photodetectors as previously described. The metal pin couples the electrical signal from a device under test to the electro-optic element which alters the birefringence of the electro-optic element in response to the electrical field of the signal causing the polarization state of the laser beam to change. The S and P polarized beams are coupled through the beam splitters and the condensing lenses onto the photodetectors. The photodetectors convert the intensity beams into electrical signals and couple the electrical signals to the measurement instrument.
A drawback to this type of probe is the size of the probing head due to the number of optical elements contained therein. Further, voltage and signal lines are required to couple the voltage power to the laser diode and photodetectors, couple the drive signal to the laser diode and to couple the outputs of the photodetectors to the measurement instrument.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,353,262 describes an ultrasound optical transducer that generates an optical signal the frequency of which varies in correspondence with acoustic energy incident on the transducer. The transducer includes a housing in which is disposed a signal laser. The signal laser is preferably a microchip laser, microcavity laser or the like. The signal laser has an optical cavity disposed between first and second reflectors and in which a lazing medium (also known as a gain crystal) is disposed. The reflectors are disposed on opposing plane-parallel surfaces of the lasing medium. An optical source injects an optical signal at a first frequency into the signal laser, which generates a second output signal at a second frequency. Acoustic energy impinging on the transducer causes the index of refraction of the optical cavity to change which in turn, causes the frequency of the signal laser to change. The frequency modulated optical signal from the signal laser is coupled to signal processing assembly that generates an output signal corresponding to the amplitude of the incident acoustic energy for use in imaging and analysis. An alternative embodiment is described where a piezoelectric device is positioned on the transducer for converting the acoustic energy into an electrical signal. The electrical signal is applied to electrodes on the signal laser. The electrical signal causes a change in the index of refraction of the optical cavity as a function of the acoustic energy applied to the piezoelectric device.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,196,396 describes the use of a Fabry-Perot enhanced electro-optic modulator to produce a bistable resonator that could be used as an optical switch, optical limiter, or optical memory device. A further embodiment taught by the '396 patent is an optical amplifier. The reference teaches the use of high voltage signals in the thousand voltage range to change the index of refraction of the electro-optic material in the Fabry-Perot cavity. Such a system does not lend itself for small signal probing applications.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,394,098 describes the use of longitudinal Pockels effect in an electro-optic sensor for in-circuit testing of hybrids and circuits assembled on circuit boards. In one embodiment, a layer of electro-optic material is disposed between opposing layers of optically reflective materials that include electrically conductive layers. The optically reflective layer having highest reflectivity to an applied optical signal is placed in contact with a conductor on the circuit board. The other optically reflective layer is coupled to electrical ground. An optical signal from a laser is applied orthogonal to the optically reflective layers on the electro-optic material. An electrical signal on the conductor of the circuit board produces a voltage potential difference across the optically reflective layers which varies the refractive index of the electro-optic material. A drawback to this design is that the orientation of the polarized optical signal is orthogonal to the orientation of the electromagnetic field producing the Pockels effect in the electro-optic material. This reduces the sensitivity of the measured electrical signal. Further, forming electrically conductive layers on the opposing sides of the electro-optic material produces capacitive and inductive effects in the electro-optic sensor that limits the useful bandwidth of the system.
What is needed is a signal acquisition probing system using an electro-optical cavity that improves the sensitivity of the electro-optical cavity to applied electrical signals. Further, there is needed a voltage measurement system using a signal acquisition probing system with an electro-optical cavity with improved sensitivity.

Signal acquisition probing and voltage measurement systems using an electro-optical cavity


The present disclosure relates to a first Web server (102, 204, 60, 70) and a second Web server (108, 214, 80, 90), and methods therein for controlling of a robot device over a cloud interface. A hyper-text transfer protocol, HTTP, request for a trajectory between a start position and a goal position is sent (S120, S230, 302, 402) towards the second Web server. One or more calculated trajectories are obtained (S122, 304) based on information as received encoded in the request. A HTTP response is sent (306) towards the first WEB server, comprising one or more calculated trajectories. Executing (S126, S266; 308, 406) of a trajectory at least based said one or more of the received trajectories is performed by the first Web server (102, 204, 60, 70). A scalable robot device control method is thus proposed, which is advantageously uses stored calculated trajectories between start and goal positions, for the robot device.

Moving robotics and automation algorithms into the cloud requires frameworks that facilitate this transition. The cloud provides three possible levels at which a framework could be implemented. The lowest level is Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), where bare operating systems are provided on machines, which can be virtualized, in the cloud. The second level, Platform as a Service (PaaS), provides more structure, including application frameworks and database access, while restricting the choice of programming languages, system architectures, and database models, which can be used. Software as a Service (SaaS), the third level is the highest level of structure of which there is a demand these days.
The current focus of cloud based robotics is to either speed up the processing of input data collected from many sensors with big data computation, or to collect various knowledge bases in centralized locations e.g., possible grasping poses of various three-dimensional (3D) objects.
There are commercially available cloud-based software platforms that leverage leading cloud, Web, and mobile technologies. Such platforms can allow customers to access and analyse their robots' data on without restriction to location and/or time.
Another aspect of cloud robotics relates to the way how a robot related functionality is moved into cloud. One way is to run an original robot specific task in the cloud without any significant change. Examples of such alternatives are to run an original robot specific task in a virtual machine (VM), in a container or in a virtualized programmable logic controller (PLC).
Another way is to update/modify/rewrite the code of robot related tasks to utilize existing services or application programming interfaces (APIs) of the cloud.
A third way is to extend the cloud platform itself with new features that make robot control more efficient. Such new robot-aware cloud features can be explicitly used by robot related tasks, i.e. new robot-aware services/APIs offered by the cloud, or can be transparent solutions, for example improving the service provided by the cloud to meet requirements of the robot control.
Today cloud robotics exists mostly following the PaaS approach. However, with the help of 5th generation wireless systems (5G), the PaaS approach may be extended to use the SaaS paradigm offering many potential advantages for robots and automation systems.
From U.S. Pat. No. 9,031,692 B2 it is known a cloud robot system and a method for integrating the same. In this document the cloud can be used to scale up complex calculation tasks, of which one refers to a robot relates task.
Patent document U.S. Pat. No. 8,798,791 B2 teaches a robot control system and a robot control method. This document relates to moving a robot control in the cloud to a point that is closest to the robot that the user wishes to control.
With SaaS, an interface allows data to be sent to a server that processes the data as input and returns output, which relieves users of the burden of maintaining data, software and hardware, and also allows companies to control proprietary software. This approach is called this Robotics and Automation as a Service (RAaaS).
There is however a demand for a more versatile robot service and control.

Methods and arrangements for robot device control in a cloud


A column of a static random access memory (SRAM) array includes a first subarray including a first plurality of SRAM cells and a second subarray including a second plurality of SRAM cells. Each of the first and second plurality of SRAM cells includes first through fourth source active regions by which source regions of transistors thereof are formed. The column of the SRAM array includes a first bitline formed by the third source active regions of the first plurality of SRAM cells, a second bitline formed by the third source active regions of the second plurality of SRAM cells and spaced apart from the first bitline, and a third bitline formed by a metal layer extending over the third source active regions of the first and second plurality of SRAM cells and electrically connected to the second bitline but not to the first bitline.

As the semiconductor industry has progressed into nanometer technology process nodes in pursuit of higher device density, higher performance, lower power consumption and lower costs, challenges from both fabrication and design issues have resulted in the development of three-dimensional designs, such as a fin field effect transistor (Fin FET). In a Fin FET device, it is possible to utilize additional sidewalls and to suppress a short channel effect.
Another candidate is a gate-all-around (GAA) device. While a Fin FET device has a fin bottom portion which is not controlled by a gate, in a GAA device, all of the surfaces of the channel layer can be subject to gate control. A GAA device, such as a GAA MOSFET (or MISFET) device, includes a very narrow cylindrical channel body. In particular, a vertical GAA device (VGAA) having a channel extending in a vertical direction (i.e., perpendicular to the substrate) is a promising device as a candidate for low power SRAM applications. In the present disclosure, new layout structures and configurations of an SRAM using a VGAA device with a small unit cell area are provided.

Layout of static random access memory array

TAIWAN SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING CO., LTD.


Mechanisms are provided for performing tabular data correction in a document. Tabular data is received and analyzed to identify at least one portion of the tabular data having an erroneous/missing data value. A functional dependency of the at least one portion of the tabular data on one or more other portions of the tabular data is determined. A correct data value for the erroneous or missing data value of the at least one portion of the tabular data is determined based on the functional dependency of the at least one portion. In addition, the tabular data is modified to replace the erroneous or missing data value with the correct data value and thereby generate a modified table data. A processing operation is then performed on the modified table data to generate a resulting output.

The present application relates generally to an improved data processing apparatus and method and more specifically to mechanisms for performing error correction in tables using discovered functional dependencies.
Documents include information in many forms. For example, textual information arranged as sentences and paragraphs convey information in a narrative form. However, some types of information are presented in a tabular organization. For example, a document can include tables for presenting financial information, organizational information, and more generally, any data items that are related to one another through some relationship.
Natural language processing (NLP) is a technique that facilitates exchange of information between humans and data processing systems. For example, one branch of NLP pertains to transforming a given content into a human-usable language or form. For example, NLP can accept a document whose content is in a computer-specific language or form, and produce a document whose corresponding content is in a human-readable form.

Error correction in tables using discovered functional dependencies

International Business Machines Corporation


A wall assembly includes a wall frame, a trough, a moisture transport spacer coupled to the wall frame and providing a substantial barrier to the passage of air and moisture vapor through the wall assembly, a moisture wicking sheet disposed at a bottom of the wall frame and extending from the moisture transport spacer to the trough, and an air seal disposed between the moisture wicking sheet and the bottom of the wall frame. The trough communicates with a dynamic ventilation system configured to remove moisture collected in the trough.

Improvements in construction materials, construction methods, and more stringent local and state building codes have contributed to improved energy efficiency of new and remodeled insulated wall structures for homes and buildings.
The conventional approach to fabricating a highly energy-efficient wall is to erect a wall frame supporting multiple layers of insulation placed between interior and exterior layers of the wall. One or more breathable "house-wrap" styled layers is secured (e.g., stapled) to an exterior sheathing surface to prevent bulk water from wetting the insulation and thus reducing its insulative value (R-value), as well as wetting the sheathing and framing causing mold and rot. Typically, a low permeance (<0.1 perm polyethylene membrane) is attached to the warm-in-winter side of the framing members. Continuing experience shows that the combined effect of dry sheathing and a warm-side vapor retarder results in walls that have a tendency to retain moisture, which can undesirably lead to mold growth within the wall, degradation of the wall, insects, and/or other moisture-related problems. These conventional insulated wall structures also reduce heat loss through the wall by reducing drafts (infiltration) that remove heat from the home/building. However, since these conventional insulated wall structures are so tightly constructed/sealed, any water that is trapped in the wall (e.g., due to a breach or damage to the structure or to condensation build-up) tends to remain inside the wall. Moisture that is trapped inside a wall reduces the performance of the insulation and has the potential to feed the growth of mold and/or bacteria.
Moisture trapped inside of the walls includes moisture vapor and bulk water, such as condensation. Condensation can form inside a wall due to temperature differences across the insulated walls. For example, during typical northern cold winter months, the air outside of an insulated wall is cold and dry, and the air inside of the wall is relatively warm and humid. Thus, a natural humidity gradient is formed that drives moisture vapor in the air inside the wall toward the exterior of the wall. Large gradients between outside and inside air temperature and humidity can lead to a significant accumulation of moisture condensation within the insulated wall.
The opposite conditions occur during the summer months, when the air outside the structure is warm and humid, and the air inside the structure is conditioned to be cooler and dryer. Thus, during summer months a natural humidity gradient exists to drive warm humid air toward an interior of the insulated wall, which can analogously lead to a significant accumulation of moisture condensation within the insulated wall.
In some cases moisture accumulation in the insulated wall arises from wind driven water that enters the wall along a window or door seam. This form of moisture ingress can, for example, be the result of poor workmanship or from a deterioration of flashing or sealants around the window/door. In any regard, once the wall accumulates moisture it is difficult to dry the wall to a level that will not support the growth of mold and/or bacteria.
Owners, manufacturers, and remodelers of wall structures desire walls that are energy efficient, durable, and compatible with accepted construction practices.

Exterior wall assembly including moisture removal feature