A configuration of an array of storage devices compliant with a fiber-channel arbitrated loop (FC-AL) specification includes first and second controllers having integrated first and second SCSI enclosure services (SES) processing devices acting as leader processors. Third and fourth controllers are coupled to the first and second controllers and act as subordinate processors. The third and fourth controllers have integrated third and fourth SCSI enclosure services (SES) processing devices. Each of the SES processing devices synchronizes and merges data to create a single control image for the entire configuration, presenting a single SES instance to a storage device interconnect network and to host controller software.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to computers, and, more particularly, to an apparatus and method of hierarchical enclosure management services.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Data storage systems are used to store information provided by one or more host computer systems. Such data storage systems receive requests to write information to a plurality of data storage devices and requests to retrieve information from that plurality of data storage devices. It is known in the art to configure the plurality of data storage devices into two or more storage arrays.
Storage Enclosures, e.g., disk enclosures in a "Just-A-Bunch-Of-Disks" topology (JBODs), "Switched-Bunch-Of-Disks" topology (SBODs), and the like have traditionally been implemented with a single set of physical resources. The devices are generally treated as a single instance of an enclosure with all shared resources controlled by a common single enclosure services process/instance. Most vendor components to manage storage enclosures have been developed with consideration to the number of hard disk drive (HDD) devices that will be within a single enclosure package and most original equipment manufacturer (OEM) storage enclosure implementations have a legacy of products that conform to this convention.
To improve the storage density [number of HDDs packaged per Electronics Industry Association (EIA)-sized unit in a single storage enclosure], high density packaging techniques can be used to increase the number of HDDs within a given volume of space. In addition, each individual instance of a storage enclosure is typically interconnected via a disk fabric interconnect technology [e.g., Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop (FC-AL), Serial Attached SCSI (SAS), SCSI, SATA, SSA] at some cost of interconnect componentry [cables, small form factor pluggable transceiver modules, gigabit interface controllers (GBICs)].
Additionally, many storage controller systems provide multiple disk controller instances to allow users to partition their storage devices into separate domains for reasons of reliability, availability, and serviceability. Once the number of HDDs moves beyond the number that traditional enclosures and enclosure management components are designed for, new components and new storage enclosure configurations must be designed to meet the demand for increased HDD density. As such, new development of enclosure management services software and HDD communication fabric management code is required to be developed at significant design, development, and verification expense.

Hierarchical enclosure management services

International Business Machines Corporation


The invention protects an application body as well as reducing a remaining amount of a liquid cosmetic. A bag-like container accommodates liquid cosmetic therein and provides an opening neck portion to communicate the inner side and the outer side thereof, a pipe portion in the opening neck portion extends to the bag portion bottom side. The pipe portion peripheral surface has an opening for the liquid cosmetic going into an internal portion. An application body in a lid portion goes into the pipe portion by installing the lid portion to the opening neck portion to reach the opening position. If a user pushes and squeezes the bag portion, the liquid cosmetic goes into the pipe portion through the opening, the application body dips into the liquid cosmetic to run short of the liquid cosmetic and to protect the application body by the pipe.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid cosmetic container for applying a liquid cosmetic.
2. Description of the Conventional Art
Conventionally, as a liquid cosmetic container with an application body which accommodates a liquid cosmetic such as a mascara, a lip gloss or the like and can apply the liquid cosmetic, a bottle type has been generally known. In the case of this bottle type liquid cosmetic container, there is a problem that a lot of liquid cosmetic which can not be used up by the attached application body is still left within the container.
Accordingly, the following Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2006-102478 and Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 9-103322 disclose a liquid cosmetic container with an application body of such a type that a liquid cosmetic is accommodated in an inner portion of a bag-like container, in order to overcome the problem of the bottle type mentioned above. The liquid cosmetic container is structured such as to have a bag-like container which has an opening neck portion communicating an inner side and an outer side of a bag portion as well as accommodating a liquid cosmetic within the bag portion, a lid portion which is detachably installed to the opening neck portion so as to form a lid of the opening neck portion, and an application body which is provided in the lid portion and goes into the bag portion through the opening neck portion at a time when the lid portion is installed to the opening neck portion so as to dip into the liquid cosmetic, and is structured such that a user detaches the lid portion from the opening neck portion and applies the liquid cosmetic attached to the application body to a portion to be applied, at a time of using. Further, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2006-102478, the bag-like container is made of a synthetic resin, for example, a polyethylene, a polypropylene or the like, and it is described as it is possible to run short of a good part of the liquid cosmetic by pushing and squeezing the bag-like container. Further, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 9-103322, a bag-like container constructed by a film having an elasticity and a flexibility is accommodated in a hard container main body, and it is described as it is possible to collect a liquid cosmetic in an application body going into a bag portion on the basis of a self restoring force of the bag-like container to an original sheet shape going with a use, and it is possible to run short of a good part of the liquid cosmetic.


A liquid crystal panel and the array substrate thereof are disclosed. Each pixel cells of the liquid crystal panel includes one pixel electrode having a plurality of strip-like gaps and a plurality of strip-like first electrode patterns interleaved with each other. For all of the pixel cells, a sum of the dimension of the first electrode patterns of the pixel cell is gradually decreased along a direction from a central area toward two lateral areas of the liquid crystal panel. In this way, the brightness of the liquid crystal panel is uniform and the “two pale lateral areas” issue may be eased or eliminated.

1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to liquid crystal display technology, and more particularly to a liquid crystal display (LCD) and an array substrate.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
It happens usually that brightness difference between two lateral areas and a central area of the TFT-LCD (Thin Film Transistor-Liquid Crystal Display) is huge, and which results in "two pale lateral areas" issue.
As shown in FIG. 1, the driving voltage for the scanning line (Gate) 11 is inputted from scanning Gate COFs 12 at two lateral sides of the liquid crystal panel 10. As the processor 11 has RC delay such that the scanning driving voltage inputted from two lateral areas may be distorted when being transferred to the central area (A). That is, the waveform of Gate is distorted. The distorted scanning driving voltage may reduce the charging rate of the central area (A) so as to decrease the display brightness thereof. Thus, the brightness of the two lateral areas (B1, B2) is lower than that of the central area. This is the so-called "two pale lateral areas" issue, especially when the liquid crystal panel is displayed at low grayscale value.

Liquid crystal displays and array substrates

Shenzhen China Star Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd


A low inclusion animal feed binder composed of ozonated lignosulfonate. The ozonated lignosulfonate is a reaction product of lignosulfonate and ozone prepared by treating lignosulfonate with 2-20% ozone by weight of lignosulfonate solids at an initial pH of 2 to 12 and at a temperature of 5.degree. to 100.degree. C. The binder is incorporated with the animal feed in an amount from 0.01 to 2% by weight of dry feed.

This invention concerns an animal feed binder. More particularly, it is related to an improved binder composed of ozonated lignosulfonate.
As used herein, the term "lignosulfonate" refers to the reaction product of lignin which is inherently obtained during the sulfite pulping of wood, straw, corn stalks, bagasse and the like, and is a principal constituent of spent sulfite liquor which is derived from that process. The term also encompasses sulfonated lignin that is obtained by sulfonating lignin from pulping liquors of the kraft, soda and other well-known alkali pulping operations.
Animal feeds are generally produced with low cost by-product ingredients. These ingredients are often dusty, unpalatable, of low density, and have inadequate nutrient profile. To correct these shortcomings, ingredients are combined into a mixture with the necessary vitamins, minerals, and amino acids to provide adequate energy and protein, and to meet the nutrient requirements of the animals. This is normally accomplished by extrusion and/or compaction techniques to form pellets, blocks or briquettes. Extrusion and compaction eliminate ingredient segregation, increase bulk density, reduce dust, mask unpalatable ingredients, and reduce wastage. All of these benefits are dependent on the pellet, block or briquette maintaining its physical integrity.
Since feed formulations are typically dictated by the cost and availability of by-product ingredients, it is not always possible to produce durable pellets. Some ingredients such as animal fat, meat meal, ground corn, and oat hulls, have poor binding qualities and may even be antagonistic to binding. When such ingredients are used a binder, such as lignosulfonate, is often included to insure that a durable pellet is produced. Typically, lignosulfonate, a naturally occurring polymer generated in sulfite pulping of wood, is applied to the feed at a dosage of 25 to 50 lbs. per ton (or 1.25-2.5%) of feed. This level of application reduces fines from 25 to 60% in comparison with pellets containing no binder.
Lignosulfonates contain no protein and little metabolizable energy and are therefore unpopular in nutritionally dense formulations, e.g., poultry feeds and pig starter feeds, due to the diluting effect they have on the feed. In addition, lignosulfonates are thought to be unpalatable to piglets and young pigs, limiting their use in pig starter feeds. Manufactures of poultry and pig starter feeds would therefore benefit from a binder which performs as well as a standard lignosulfonate but applied at a lower inclusion rate, namely, at 5-10 pounds per ton of feed. Such a binder would reduce the diluting effect of the binder, and correspondingly increase the available nutrition to be supplied to the animal.
Several "low inclusion" binders have been introduced to the feed industry. These include Nutraflex, a protein colloid manufactured by Swift Company, Hercule's Cellulose Gum, a carboxymethyl cellulose, Production Aid ES, a lignosulfonate-starch blend produced by Cravac Industries, and Basfin, a ureaformaldehyde resin marketed by BASF. Each of these products provides some improvement in pellet quality, but none can produce fines reduction equal to that which occurs when lignosulfonate binders are used at their recommended dosages.
In addition to the above noted "low inclusion" binders, there are attempts in the prior art to improve the binding property of lignosulfonate as an animal feed binder. Thus, Canadian Patent No. 1,203,414 (Apr. 23, 1986) reveals a feed composition comprising a feedstuff and a lignosulfonate-based pelleting aid, characterized in that the pelleting aid comprises a dried, substantially water soluble, sulfonated lignin containing material, which has been modified by crosslinking such as with formaldehyde to increase its molecular weight and thus its solution viscosity. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,871,825 (Oct. 3, 1989), there is disclosed a binder composed of a graft copolymer of high molecular weight sulfonated lignin material and an acrylic compound, said binder exhibiting at least twice as good binding power as a commercial "low inclusion" binder, Production Aid ES. Recently, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,952,415 (Aug. 28, 1990) there is revealed an animal feed composition and method of compounding animal feed utilizing as a binder a copolymer of a sulfonated lignin material and a monomer such as acrylic acid, maleic acid, and methacrylic acid. These and other prior art binders, although showing improved binding property, have not proven to have as great effectiveness as is desirable. The introduction of foreign matters to lignosulfonate in making the copolymer binder raises a concern about its suitability to be used in the animal feed. It thus becomes desirable to have a "low inclusion" binder that is totally based on lignosulfonate, and contains no added chemical entities. It is also beneficial to have an effective binder that can be produced by a simple and low cost method.
A major object of this invention is to provide an effective animal feed binder.
Another object of this invention is to provide a binder from lignosulfonate.
An additional object of this invention is to provide a simple process for the production of the animal feed binder.
A further object of this invention is to provide a feed binder that is produced without addition of foreign chemicals to lignosulfonate.
Other objectives, features and advantages of this invention will be evident from the following detailed description.

Composition and process of making an animal feed binder composed of ozonated lignosulfonate


A method and apparatus are provided for playing music for long time by a mobile communication terminal. The mobile communication terminal includes an MP3 chip for decoding and playing music data transferred from a music data memory by a baseband chip.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of mobile communications, and more particularly to a method and apparatus for long-time music play on a mobile communications terminal.
2. Description of the Related Art
Mobile phones conventionally have the capability to play music for entertainment. Users of mobile phones desire ever greater storage capacity for music and advancements in the storage capacity of memory devices and in processing speed have been used to meet that desire.
As shown in FIG. 1, conventional music-playing mobile phones encode/decode music data using the conventional components of the mobile phone which are also used for other functions. As shown in FIG. 1, the central cell phone chip 11 (also known as the baseband chip) receives music data from music memory 17, decodes the data and provides it to the loudspeaker or earpiece of the mobile phone. The selection and operation of music play is initiated by a user through the keyboard 13. However, if the audio data is encoded/decoded by the conventional mobile phone components to play music, the result will be increased energy consumption, shorter battery life, and shortened battery standby time. Moreover, the quality of the music play is degraded when the audio data is encoded/decoded by the conventional mobile phone components, so that users cannot enjoy high-quality music.
Therefore, a method and apparatus to play music on a mobile phone with better sound quality and longer battery life is required to meet the demands of users.

Method and apparatus for long-time music play on a mobile communication terminal


Disclosed herein are various robotic surgical devices and systems that include first and second elongate bodies, first and second driveshafts disposed through the second elongate body, and an in-line shoulder joint with a robotic arm coupled thereto. In certain implementations, the in-line shoulder joint has a differential yoke and a dual shaft disposed within the yoke lumen.

Advancements in minimally-invasive surgical (M.I.S.) techniques continue to combat the major drawbacks of open surgery, which include lengthy recovery times, increased chance of postoperative infection, distinct cosmetic remnants, and other such disadvantages. Minimally invasive laparoscopic surgery is one type of M.I.S. technique and consists of the insertion of thin profiled tools and accessories into a gas-inflated abdominal region, eliminating the need for a large incision. However, these procedures also have limitations, including increased duration of surgery, reduction in visibility of the surgical site, and greater dexterity requirements of the surgeon. Accordingly, robotic platform integration has been introduced to the surgical field of medicine and looks to challenge these limitations.
A more recent minimally-invasive laparoscopic surgical technique is Laparo-Endoscopic Single-Site Surgery (LESS) (also commonly referred to as Single-Incision Laparoscopic Surgery (SILS)), which allows for access through a single incision into the abdomen. In order to operate, the surgeon must cross the tools through the port, causing a loss of triangulation, referred to as the "chopsticks effect." This process has also included, in some instances, a shift in the type of passageway or access point into the peritoneal cavity from the traditional trocar to a single-port entry device.
While single-port entry systems for use in LESS/SILS procedures are currently insubstantial, one device that has gained popularity is the GelPort® (hereafter referred to as "GelPort") system, which has been adapted to work as a passageway for trocars and robotic platforms.
By comparison, a traditional trocar is a relatively simple device that includes two known components: an outer sleeve (or "cannula") and an obturator. The tube-like cannula acts as the actual passageway into the abdomen, while the obturator is the component with the generally sharp distal end that is positioned through the cannula and creates the passageway into the peritoneal cavity via the skin of the patient.
The industry standard in externally-actuated surgical robotic platforms is the Da Vinci® Surgical System (hereafter referred to as "Da Vinci"), which consists of a master-slave configuration in which the surgeon(s) operates from a remote console. Da Vinci is also capable of performing single-site surgery. Disadvantages of Da Vinci include cost (the system costs millions of dollars, making it unaffordable for smaller less funded hospitals), having a large base that takes up a good portion of the area surrounding the operating bed (as well as various additional consoles scattered throughout the operating room), and being a highly complex system that requires extensive training and experience before a surgeon can operate on a human.
There is a need in the art for an improved robotic surgical system.

Single-arm robotic device with compact joint design and related systems and methods

Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska


The present invention provides a conveyor belt rip detection system with belts having rip detection inserts that can be more easily integrated into conveyor belts at low cost. These rip detection inserts do not adversely affect the durability of the conveyor belt and can be easily replaced in the event of belt damage. This rip detection system also provides a highly reliable early image of belt damage that can facilitate quick repair before extensive belt damage occurs. The present invention more specifically discloses a conveyor belt comprising (1) an elastomeric body having a load carrying surface and a parallel pulley engaging surface; (2) a reinforcement ply disposed within the elastomeric body; and (3) a multitude of rip detection inserts, wherein the rip detection inserts are spaced along the longitudinal length of the conveyor belt, wherein the rip detection inserts contain a multitude of rip detection wires that are comprised of a magnetically permeable material, wherein the rip detection wires are aligned in the rip detection inserts at a bias angle of 15° to 75° from being perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the belt, and wherein the rip detection wires are spaced incrementally across the width of the belt.

Conveyor belts are widely used for moving minerals, coal, and a wide variety of manufactured products from one point to another. Heavy duty conveyor belts used in mining operations can extend over distances of several miles and represent a high cost component of an industrial material handling operation. Unfortunately, such conveyor belts are susceptible to damage from the material transported thereon and a rip, slit, cut or tear may develop within the belt. For instance, sharp edges of the material being transported can gouge the surface of the belt and that can result in a rip developing.
After being detected a torn or ripped belt can be repaired. However, the cost of repairing a heavy duty conveyor belt and cleaning up material spilled as a result of the damage can be substantial. In cases where such damage is not detected and repaired promptly, the rip typically propagates along the length of the belt with continued use of the conveyor system which makes the repair even more difficult and costly. It is accordingly desirable to detect damage to the belt as soon as possible after it occurs and to quickly repair the damaged area of the belt. By doing so the extent of the damage to the belt can be minimized and the spillage of material being conveyed can be reduced.
Over the years, a number of systems have been developed for detecting belt damage and for automatically stopping further movement of the belt after the damage occurs. It is well known to employ sensors within conveyor belts as part of a rip detection system. In a typical system, sensors in the form of loops of conductive wire are affixed or embedded in the belt and provide a rip detection utility as part of an overall rip detection system. Rip detection is achieved through the inferential detection of an "open circuit" condition in one or more of the sensor loops in the belt. Typically, an electrical energy source external to the belt is inductively or capacitively coupled to a sensor loop in the belt. A break in the conductive wire loop of the sensor may be detected by a remote transmitter/receiver (exciter/detector). Disposition of a plurality of such sensors at intervals along the conveyor may be effected with each sensor passing within read range of one or more exciter/detectors at various locations. A rip or tear will encounter and damage a proximal sensor loop and the existence of the tear will be detected when the proximal sensor loop damage is detected as an open circuit by the reader at its next pass. In this manner, the existence of a tear will be promptly detected and repaired with further damage to the belt being minimized.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,742,477 discloses a "figure eight" sensor loop useful within a belt sensor system. U.S. Pat. No. 3,922,661 discloses an electronic control system for conveyor belts which monitors the condition of embedded sensor conductors in the belt and provides a warning indication and/or shutdown of the conveyor when damage occurs to the belt or control circuitry.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,621,727 discloses a reinforced conveyor belt having included therein a conductor for use in a rip monitoring system, said belt comprising: (a) an elastomeric body having an upper carrying surface and a parallel lower pulley engaging surface, each surface extending indefinitely in a direction of travel of the belt; (b) a plurality of reinforcement layers positioned within said elastomeric body; (c) a plurality of envelopes of low coefficient of friction material positioned within said elastomeric body and spaced apart in the direction of travel of the belt, wherein each envelope establishes a void area in said elastomeric body within said envelope; and (d) a shaped conductor positioned within said envelope such that said conductor is free to move within said void area during operation of said reinforced conveyor belt.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,854,446 discloses "figure eight" sensor loops disposed at intervals along a conveyor belt. This reference more specifically reveals an endless conveyor belt having a direction of travel comprising: (a) an elastomeric body having a load carrying surface and a parallel pulley engaging surface; (b) a reinforcement ply disposed within said elastomer body; and (c) a conductor, disposed within said belt in a predetermined pattern forming a closed current path; and wherein said conductor comprises a plurality of strength filaments or strands of a first metal wrapped about a conductive core of a second metal, said strength filaments or strands having a higher fatigue resistance than the conductive core, for increasing the fatigue resistance of the conductive core.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,352,149 provides a system in which antennae are embedded in a conveyor belt to couple with an electromagnetic circuit consisting of two detector heads and an electronic package. Coupling occurs only when an antenna passes across the detector heads and can only occur when the loop integrity has not been compromised. U.S. Pat. No. 6,352,149 more specifically reveals a conveyor belt incorporating within it a rip detection sensor comprising a conductor formed in an endless loop arranged in a signal inverting configuration wherein the conductor crosses itself in at least one crossing place, characterized in that: the conductor is formed as microcoil springwire; the conductor crosses itself by crossing through itself such that the microcoil springwire resides substantially in a single plane throughout the sensor including the crossing places; and means for preventing short-circuiting of the conductor at the crossing places.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,715,602 discloses a conveyor belt incorporating within it a rip detection sensor comprising a conductor formed in an endless loop, characterized in that: the belt includes at least one transponder secured to the belt in coupled relationship with the conductor; and the transponder transmits information identifying the location of the conductor along the belt.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,988,610 discloses an inspection system for detecting and reporting conditions of a conveyor belt, the system comprising: a controller comprising a splice detection program for receiving image data from at least one camera structured and arranged to capture an image of a portion of a conveyor belt, for detecting a splice in the image of the portion of the conveyor belt by processing the received image data, and for generating status information associated with the portion of the conveyor belt based on a detected splice.
International Patent Publication No. WO 2007/026135 A1 reveals a system for monitoring operation of a conveyor belt installation which comprises a conveyor belt having steel or other relatively magnetically permeable reinforcing material, said system comprising a field generator arranged in proximity to the conveyor belt to generate a magnetic field, a sensor unit arranged in proximity to the conveyor belt at a position downstream from the field generator as considered in a normal direction of belt movement, said sensor unit sensing the magnetic field emanating from the passing conveyor belt, and monitoring means to receive data related to the magnetic field properties sensed by the sensor unit during a plurality of passages of each of the length of the conveyor belt past the sensor unit, said monitoring means incorporating comparison means to compare a subsequently received set of data with an earlier received set of data, and output means to provide an output signal representative of reinforcement damage or deterioration when subsequently received data has departed from earlier received data by more than a prescribed extent.
Prior art rip detection panels generate issues that can either affect the integrity of the belt or the ability to replace damaged loops. Rip detection panels with wires running transversely to the conveyor belt are desirable from a manufacturing standpoint. However, such rip detection panels generate undesirable flexural properties that can result in premature failure of the conveyor belt. There is accordingly a need for a reliable rip detection system that can be inexpensively build into conveyor belts and easily replaced in the case of damage. It is also important for such a conveyor belts to be highly durable.


A device, system, and method may variously include a network interface device communicatively coupled to a user interface and a processor, coupled to the network interface device, configured to cause the user interface to display a newsfeed including social network content items, the newsfeed being configured to scroll to display ones of the social network content items on the user interface. At least one of the content items includes a title and content. The content item is configurable in an expanded state corresponding to displaying all of the content of the content item upon a user selection and a contracted state corresponding to displaying a sub-portion of the content. The newsfeed is configured to display the content items in the contracted state upon the social network content item scrolling onto the user interface without respect to the content item being in an expanded state when previously displayed.

Contemporary social networks display content relating to a variety of content categories. Member profiles, user messages and comments, information from groups and companies, advertisements, and the like can combine to create the overall content that constitutes at least some of the content that can be displayed on a web page or application ("app") to users of the social network. Such information has been organized in a generally linear scrolling display conventionally known as a "newsfeed," "feed," or "stream." Newsfeeds have been organized according to the order in which information is received, relevance, and other criteria.

System for inline expansion of social network content and method therefor


Disclosed are methods and circuits for impedance-controlled write drivers using matched impedance control circuits coupled in parallel with a magnetic write head.

For high performance hard disk drive assemblies, very fast rising and falling times and precise impedance control are required in order to maximize the performance of write drivers. Low power supply voltage is generally preferred to avoid potential problems with excessive power consumption and heat dissipation. Conventional series-type impedance control circuits have problems including, but not limited to, power supply voltage, or "headroom" degradation due to a voltage drop over matching resistors placed in series. In addition, write current tolerance is limited by the inevitable variation in the impedance of internal series resistors.
Another challenge faced by series-connected impedance control circuits known in the arts is their response to changes in the write current. The write current naturally tends to be dependent upon the write head impedance. Referring to the representative prior art circuit shown in FIG. 1, write current IW that flows into the write head is determined by the ratio of the internal reference resistance Ro and the external write-head-impedance (Rh+Rfpc). Because of this, write-current is dependent on not only the inherent variations present in the internal resistance, but also on the write-head-impedance. Increasing the internal reference resistor Ro decreases the write current's dependency on the write-head-impedance, but detrimentally increases the voltage Vh drop across the write head.
Swing voltage asymmetry is another problem faced by write driver circuits known in the arts. Asymmetric swings in head voltage can result in loss of stored data and damage to the heads. Typically between a preamp and a recording head (i.e. write head), and a reading head (not shown) there are wires or lines for both writing and reading. Due to area constraints, the lines are typically closely spaced, e.g. on the order of about 50–100 um, making them susceptible to "write-to-read coupling" or "crosstalk" resulting from mutual interference. The swing voltage of the write lines can be very fast and large in magnitude, sometimes causing damage to the heads through capacitive and/or inductive coupling between the write lines and read lines.
These and other problems encountered by prior art conventional write driver circuitry, such as that represented by the example shown in FIG. 1, make it difficult to provide both current-accuracy and high-performance while also using a low voltage power supply. It would be useful and desirable in the arts to provide improved impedance-controlled write driver apparatus and methods. It would be advantageous to provide a reliable and accurate impedance-controlled write driver circuit for use with a low voltage power supply. Advantages would also be obtained by avoiding the reduction of headroom and making head voltage swings symmetrical.

Impedance-controlled write driver for low power preamp


First content containing a plurality of list items in one or more lists can be parsed for conjunctions and implied list indicators. One or more modifications can occur at one or more conjunctions or implied list indicators. The one or more modifications can comprise one or more of expanding text, contracting text, and replacing text. The one or more modifications can generate second content conducive to natural language processing operations.

The present disclosure relates to natural language processing (NLP), and more specifically, to expanding and/or contracting text associated with lists.
Lists can provide a simplified textual representation of a plurality of related items. In some cases, a list can use implied text rather than explicit text to simplify the list. Implied text can be imprecisely ingested during NLP operations. Imprecise NLP ingestion can result in imprecise output during question and answer (Q&A) processing.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

List manipulation in natural language processing


Transcutaneous electrical and magnetic nerve stimulation devices and methods generate energy that is delivered noninvasively to selected nerve fibers within the patient to treat lower urinary tract disorders. The disorders comprise overactive bladder, urge incontinence, stress, incontinence, urge frequency, non-obstructive urinary retention and interstitial cystitis/painful bladder syndrome. In preferred embodiments, a posterior tibial nerve of a patient is stimulated non-invasively to treat bladder disorders.

The field of the present invention relates to the delivery of energy impulses (and/or fields) to bodily tissues for therapeutic purposes. It relates more specifically to the use of non-invasive devices and methods for transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation and magnetic nerve stimulation, along with methods of treating medical disorders using energy that is delivered by such devices. The disorders comprise the following urological problems: overactive bladder, urge incontinence, stress incontinence, urge frequency, non-obstructive urinary retention and interstitial cystitis/painful bladder syndrome. In preferred embodiments of the disclosed treatment methods, one or both of the patient's posterior tibial nerves are stimulated transcutaneously near the ankle. An embodiment of the methods selects parameters of the stimulation protocol for each patient, using a model of lower urinary tract function involving coupled nonlinear oscillators.
Treatments for various infirmities sometime require the destruction of otherwise healthy tissue in order to produce a beneficial effect. Malfunctioning tissue is identified and then lesioned or otherwise compromised in order to produce a beneficial outcome, rather than attempting to repair the tissue to its normal functionality. A variety of techniques and mechanisms have been designed to produce focused lesions directly in target nerve tissue, but collateral damage is inevitable.
Other treatments for malfunctioning tissue can be medicinal in nature, but in many cases the patients become dependent upon artificially synthesized chemicals. In many cases, these medicinal approaches have side effects that are either unknown or quite significant. Unfortunately, the beneficial outcomes of surgery and medicines are often realized at the cost of function of other tissues, or risks of side effects.
The use of electrical stimulation for treatment of medical conditions has been well known in the art for nearly two thousand years. It has been recognized that electrical stimulation of the brain and/or the peripheral nervous system and/or direct stimulation of the malfunctioning tissue holds significant promise for the treatment of many ailments, because such stimulation is generally a wholly reversible and non-destructive treatment.
Nerve stimulation is thought to be accomplished directly or indirectly by depolarizing a nerve membrane, causing the discharge of an action potential; or by hyperpolarization of a nerve membrane, preventing the discharge of an action potential. Such stimulation may occur after electrical energy, or also other forms of energy, are transmitted to the vicinity of a nerve [F. RATTAY. The basic mechanism for the electrical stimulation of the nervous system. Neuroscience 89 (2, 1999):335-346; Thomas HEIMBURG and Andrew D. Jackson. On soliton propagation in biomembranes and nerves. PNAS 102 (28, 2005): 9790-9795]. Nerve stimulation may be measured directly as an increase, decrease, or modulation of the activity of nerve fibers, or it may be inferred from the physiological effects that follow the transmission of energy to the nerve fibers.
One of the most successful applications of modern understanding of the electrophysiological relationship between muscle and nerves is the cardiac pacemaker. Although origins of the cardiac pacemaker extend back into the 1800's, it was not until 1950 that the first practical, albeit external and bulky, pacemaker was developed. The first truly functional, wearable pacemaker appeared in 1957, and in 1960, the first fully implantable pacemaker was developed.
Around this time, it was also found that electrical leads could be connected to the heart through veins, which eliminated the need to open the chest cavity and attach the lead to the heart wall. In 1975 the introduction of the lithium-iodide battery prolonged the battery life of a pacemaker from a few months to more than a decade. The modern pacemaker can treat a variety of different signaling pathologies in the cardiac muscle, and can serve as a defibrillator as well (see U.S. Pat. No. 6,738,667 to DENO, et al., the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference).
Another application of electrical stimulation of nerves has been the treatment of radiating pain in the lower extremities by stimulating the sacral nerve roots at the bottom of the spinal cord (see U.S. Pat. No. 6,871,099 to WHITEHURST, et al., the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference).
Many such therapeutic applications of electrical stimulation involve the surgical implantation of electrodes within a patient. In contrast, for embodiments of the present invention, the disclosed devices and medical procedures stimulate nerves by transmitting energy to nerves and tissue non-invasively. They may offer the patient an alternative that does not involve surgery. A medical procedure is defined as being non-invasive when no break in the skin (or other surface of the body, such as a wound bed) is created through use of the method, and when there is no contact with an internal body cavity beyond a body orifice (e.g., beyond the mouth or beyond the external auditory meatus of the ear). Such non-invasive procedures are distinguished from invasive procedures (including minimally invasive procedures) in that invasive procedures do involve inserting a substance or device into or through the skin or into an internal body cavity beyond a body orifice. For example, transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) is non-invasive because it involves attaching electrodes to the surface of the skin (or using a form-fitting conductive garment) without breaking the skin. In contrast, percutaneous electrical stimulation of a nerve is minimally invasive because it involves the introduction of an electrode under the skin, via needle-puncture of the skin (see commonly assigned co-pending US Patent Application 2010/0241188, entitled Percutaneous Electrical Treatment of Tissue to ERRICO et al, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety).
Potential advantages of non-invasive medical methods and devices relative to comparable invasive procedures are as follows. The patient may be more psychologically prepared to experience a procedure that is non-invasive and may therefore be more cooperative, resulting in a better outcome. Non-invasive procedures may avoid damage of biological tissues, such as that due to bleeding, infection, skin or internal organ injury, blood vessel injury, and vein or lung blood clotting. Non-invasive procedures generally present fewer problems with biocompatibility. In cases involving the attachment of electrodes, non-invasive methods have less of a tendency for breakage of leads, and the electrodes can be easily repositioned if necessary. Non-invasive methods are sometimes painless or only minimally painful and may be performed without the need for even local anesthesia. Less training may be required for use of non-invasive procedures by medical professionals. In view of the reduced risk ordinarily associated with non-invasive procedures, some such procedures may be suitable for use by the patient or family members at home or by first-responders at home or at a workplace, and the cost of non-invasive procedures may be reduced relative to comparable invasive procedures.
Electrodes that are applied non-invasively to the surface of the body have a long history, including electrodes that were used to stimulate underlying nerves [L. A. GEDDES. Historical Evolution of Circuit Models for the Electrode-Electrolyte Interface. Annals of Biomedical Engineering 25 (1997):1-14]. However, electrical stimulation of nerves in general fell into disfavor in middle of the twentieth century, until the "gate theory of pain" was introduced by Melzack and Wall in 1965. This theory, along with advances in electronics, reawakened interest in the use of implanted electrodes to stimulate nerves, initially to control pain. Screening procedures were then developed to determine suitable candidates for electrode implantation, which involved first determining whether the patient responded when stimulated with electrodes applied to the surface of the body in the vicinity of the possible implant. It was subsequently found that the surface stimulation often controlled pain so well that there was no need to implant a stimulating electrode [Charles BURTON and Donald D. Maurer. Pain Suppression by Transcutaneous Electronic Stimulation. IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering BME-21(2, 1974): 81-88].
Non-invasive transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) was then developed for treating different types of pain, including pain in a joint or lower back, cancer pain, post-operative pain, post-traumatic pain, and pain associated with labor and delivery [Steven E. ABRAM. Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation. pp 1-10 in: Joel B. Myklebust, ed. Neural stimulation (Volume 2). Boca Raton, Fla. CRC Press 1985; WALSH D M, Lowe A S, McCormack K. Willer J-C, Baxter G D, Allen J M. Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation: effect on peripheral nerve conduction, mechanical pain threshold, and tactile threshold in humans. Arch Phys Med Rehabil 79 (1998):1051-1058; J A CAMPBELL. A critical appraisal of the electrical output characteristics of ten transcutaneous nerve stimulators. Clin. phys. Physiol. Meas. 3(2, 1982): 141-150; U.S. Pat. No. 3,817,254, entitled Transcutaneous stimulator and stimulation method, to Maurer; U.S. Pat. No. 4,324,253, entitled Transcutaneous pain control and/or muscle stimulating apparatus, to Greene et al; U.S. Pat. No. 4,503,863, entitled Method and apparatus for transcutaneous electrical stimulation, to Katims; U.S. Pat. No. 5,052,391, entitled High frequency high intensity transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulator and method of treatment, to Silberstone et al; U.S. Pat. No. 6,351,674, entitled Method for inducing electroanesthesia using high frequency, high intensity transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation, to Silverstone].
As TENS was being developed to treat pain, non-invasive electrical stimulation using surface electrodes was simultaneously developed for additional therapeutic or diagnostic purposes, which are known collectively as electrotherapy. Neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) stimulates normally innervated muscle in an effort to augment strength and endurance of normal (e.g., athletic) or damaged (e.g., spastic) muscle. Functional electrical stimulation (FES) is used to activate nerves innervating muscle affected by paralysis resulting from spinal cord injury, head injury, stroke and other neurological disorders, or muscle affected by foot drop and gait disorders. FES is also used to stimulate muscle as an orthotic substitute, e.g., replace a brace or support in scoliosis management. Another application of surface electrical stimulation is chest-to-back stimulation of tissue, such as emergency defibrillation and cardiac pacing. Surface electrical stimulation has also been used to repair tissue, by increasing circulation through vasodilation, by controlling edema, by healing wounds, and by inducing bone growth. Surface electrical stimulation is also used for iontophoresis, in which electrical currents drive electrically charged drugs or other ions into the skin, usually to treat inflammation and pain, arthritis, wounds or scars.
Stimulation with surface electrodes is also used to evoke a response for diagnostic purposes, for example in peripheral nerve stimulation (PNS) that evaluates the ability of motor and sensory nerves to conduct and produce reflexes. Surface electrical stimulation is also used in electroconvulsive therapy to treat psychiatric disorders; electroanesthesia, for example, to prevent pain from dental procedures; and electrotactile speech processing to convert sound into tactile sensation for the hearing impaired. All of the above-mentioned applications of surface electrode stimulation are intended not to damage the patient, but if higher currents are used with special electrodes, electrosurgery may be performed as a means to cut, coagulate, desiccate, or fulgurate tissue [Mark R. PRAUSNITZ. The effects of electric current applied to skin: A review for transdermal drug delivery. Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews 18 (1996) 395-425].
Another form of non-invasive electrical stimulation is magnetic stimulation. It involves the induction, by a time-varying magnetic field, of electrical fields and current within tissue, in accordance with Faraday's law of induction. Magnetic stimulation is non-invasive because the magnetic field is produced by passing a time-varying current through a coil positioned outside the body, inducing at a distance an electric field and electric current within electrically-conducting bodily tissue. The electrical circuits for magnetic stimulators are generally complex and expensive and use a high current impulse generator that may produce discharge currents of 5,000 amps or more, which is passed through the stimulator coil to produce a magnetic pulse. The principles of electrical nerve stimulation using a magnetic stimulator, along with descriptions of medical applications of magnetic stimulation, are reviewed in: Chris HOVEY and Reza Jalinous, The Guide to Magnetic Stimulation, The Magstim Company Ltd, Spring Gardens, Whitland, Carmarthenshire, SA34 0HR, United Kingdom, 2006.
Despite its attractiveness, non-invasive electrical stimulation of a nerve is not always possible or practical. This is primarily because the current state of the art may not be able to stimulate a deep nerve selectively or without producing excessive pain, because the stimulation may unintentionally stimulate nerves other than the nerve of interest, including nerves that cause pain. For this reason, forms of electrical stimulation other than TENS may be best suited for the treatment of particular types of pain [Paul F. WHITE, Shitong Li and Jen W. Chiu. Electroanalgesia: Its Role in Acute and Chronic Pain Management. Anesth Analg 92 (2001):505-13]. Accordingly, there remains a long-felt but unsolved need to stimulate nerves totally non-invasively, selectively, and essentially without producing pain.
As compared with what would be experienced by a patient undergoing non-invasive stimulation with conventional TENS or magnetic stimulation methods, an objective of the stimulators disclosed here is to produce relatively little pain for a given depth of stimulus penetration, but nevertheless to stimulate the target nerve to achieve therapeutic results. Or conversely, for a given amount of pain or discomfort on the part of the patient (e.g., the threshold at which such discomfort or pain begins), an objective of the present invention is to achieve a greater depth of penetration or power of the stimulus under the skin. When some nerves are stimulated electrically, they may produce undesirable responses in addition to the therapeutic effect that is intended. For example, the stimulated nerves may produce unwanted muscle twitches. It is therefore another objective of the present invention to selectively produce only the intended therapeutic effect when the target nerve is stimulated by the disclosed devices.
Non-invasive capacitive stimulating electrodes, which contact the patient's skin with a dielectric material, may produce more uniform current densities than electrodes made of electrically conducting material. Their use may therefore be advantageous as a method to avoid potential pain when a patient is electrically stimulated. However, previous capacitive stimulating electrodes have required the use of a high voltage power supply, which is accompanied by the inherent danger of high voltage breakdowns of the electrode's dielectric material [L. A. GEDDES, M. Hinds, and K. S. Foster. Stimulation with capacitor electrodes. Medical and Biological Engineering and Computing 25 (1987): 359-360; Thierry KELLER and Andreas Kuhn. Electrodes for transcutaneous (surface) electrical stimulation. Journal of Automatic Control, University of Belgrade 18(2, 2008):35-45; U.S. Pat. No. 3,077,884, entitled Electro-physiotherapy apparatus, to BARTROW et al, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,144,893, entitled Neuromuscular therapy device, to HICKEY]. Therefore, another objective of one embodiment of the present invention to devise a capacitive stimulating device that does not require the use of a high voltage power supply.
The present invention uses electrical nerve stimulation to treat overactive bladder and urinary incontinence, particularly non-invasive, transcutaneous electrical stimulation of the posterior tibial nerve at a location near the patient's ankle. The storage and voiding of urine are performed by the urinary bladder and urethra, which are muscular structures controlled by the nervous system. Individuals with an overactive bladder exhibit a sudden urge to urinate and a high frequency of urination. They often, but not always, also exhibit urge incontinence that is associated with the leakage of urine due to bladder muscles that contract or spasm inappropriately and/or with dysfunction of urethral sphincters that would normally prevent the passage of urine.
The prevalence of overactive bladder is approximately 11-19% in men and 13-17% in women, which increases with age. In the year 2000, the costs in the United States of urinary incontinence and overactive bladder were estimated to be 19.5 and 12.6 billion dollars, respectively, taking into account costs associated with diagnosis and treatment, as well as consequent costs such as predisposition to urinary tract infections, ulcers, perineal rashes and other skin conditions, infections, falls and broken bones, and premature nursing home admissions. Psychologically, overactive bladder and incontinence are associated with embarrassment, isolation, stigmatization, depression, and the fear of institutionalization [TYAGI 5, Thomas C A, Hayashi Y, Chancellor M B. The overactive bladder: Epidemiology and morbidity. Urol Clin North Am. 33(4, 2006): 433-8; HU T W, Wagner T H, Bentkover J D, Leblanc K, Zhou S Z, Hunt T. Costs of urinary incontinence and overactive bladder in the United States: a comparative study. Urology. 63(3, 2004): 461-465].
Management options for overactive bladder include lifestyle adjustments, bladder retraining, pelvic floor exercises, biofeedback, and pharmacotherapy. Anticholinergic medications are the mainstay of treatment. However, side effects and urinary retention occur in approximately 20% of those who use these medications. In other patients, the medications are ineffective, such that 75% of patients discontinue the use of anticholinergic medications within one year. Major surgical procedures for overactive bladder are considered last resorts, as they potentially lead to serious side effects. Having failed conservative and drug-based therapies for incontinence, some patients resign themselves to a lifetime of containment devices and pads, rather than resort to surgery [Victor W. NITTI and Jerry G. Blaivas. Urinary Incontinence: Epidemiology, Pathophysiology, Evaluation, and Management Overview. Chapter 60 In: Campbell-Walsh Urology, 9th ed., A J Wein, L R Kavoussi, A C Novick, A W Partin and C A Peters, eds. Philadelphia, Pa.: Saunders Elsevier; 2007. pp 2046-2078; LENTZ G M. Urogynecology: physiology of micturition, diagnosis of voiding dysfunction, and incontinence: surgical and nonsurgical treatment. In: Katz V L, Lentz G M, Lobo R A, Gershenson D M, eds. Comprehensive Gynecology. 5th ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Mosby Elsevier; 2007: chap 21, pp. 537-568].
If pharmacotherapy is unsuccessful and surgery is not being considered, patients with an overactive bladder or incontinence are increasingly treated by neuromodulation [VAN BALKEN M R, Vergunst H, Bemelmans B L. The use of electrical devices for the treatment of bladder dysfunction: a review of methods. J. Urol. 172(3, 2004):846-51; Sandip P. VASAVADA and Raymond R. Rackley. Electrical stimulation for storage and emptying disorders. Chapter 64 in Campbell-Walsh Urology, 9th ed., A J Wein, L R Kavoussi, A C Novick, A W Partin and C A Peters, eds. Philadelphia, Pa.: Saunders Elsevier; 2007. pp 2147-2167; YAMANISHI T, Kama T, Yoshida K I. Neuromodulation for the treatment of urinary incontinence. Int J Urol 15 (2008):665-672]. Sacral nerve electrical stimulation is currently the most common form of neuromodulation that is used to treat overactive bladder and incontinence, which requires an incision and placement of electrodes in the sacrum, in the lower portion of the patient's spine. The procedure is expensive, and problems arise in up to a third of the patients, including change in bowel function, infection, lead movement, pain at implant sites, and/or unpleasant stimulation or sensation.
Percutaneous tibial nerve stimulation (PTNS, also known as posterior tibial nerve stimulation) offers a safer, less invasive treatment alternative for overactive bladder than sacral nerve neuromodulation. Rather than requiring an incision and placement of electrodes in the sacrum, PTNS stimulates sacral nerve roots a location much closer to the surface of the skin, by stimulating the posterior tibial nerve slightly above the ankle. To perform PTNS, a needle is inserted temporarily through the skin to allow introduction of an electrode that will stimulate tibial nerve at that location. However, this procedure may cause problems associated with needle insertion, and because significant training is required in order to perform PTNS, it must ordinarily be performed by professionals in an office setting.
Noninvasive PTNS can also be performed with surface electrodes, wherein the posterior tibial nerve is stimulated transcutaneously. This eliminates potential problems associated with needle insertion and reduces training requirements, such that the patient can sometimes perform the stimulation at home. However, the use of surface electrodes exacerbates the potential for pain from the electrical stimulation itself. This is because transcutaneous PTNS as it is currently performed is unable to stimulate the tibial nerve selectively, potentially causing pain through the stimulation of nearby tissue and other nerves, and because the tibial nerve itself can sense pain if the stimulation waveform is not properly designed. Accordingly, the electrical stimulus power must be limited to what is less than the threshold of pain from surrounding tissue and the tibial nerve itself, which in turn limits the ability of transcutaneous tibial nerve stimulation as it is currently performed to excite portions of the nervous system that may prevent or delay episodes of overactive bladder and urge incontinence. A related selectivity problem is that tibial nerve stimulation will induce movements and contractions of muscle in the toes and foot, such that the electrical stimulus power must also be limited to what is less than the threshold for such movement, thereby limiting the stimulus power that could otherwise be used to treat overactive bladder and urge incontinence.
An objective of the present invention is therefore to devise stimulation devices that are able to deliver higher electrical currents to nerves such as the posterior tibial nerve, selectively and noninvasively, without causing pain, and without inducing muscle movement, through a novel architecture and arrangement of electrodes within the devices, as well as through novel stimulation waveforms. The present invention also discloses a novel magnetic stimulator that may be applied to nerves such as the posterior tibial nerve. The magnetic stimulator has an architecture and stimulation waveforms that share features with the disclosed electrode-based stimulation devices.
Another aspect of the present invention is that it treats overactive bladder, incontinence, and/or related urological disorders through a novel method and mechanism that is based in part upon a particular theory for the origin of overactive bladder and urge incontinence. Currently, the best-known theories are the following four: myogenic, neurogenic, afferent, and integrative or autonomous [Henderson E, Drake M. Overactive bladder. Maturitas. 2010 66(3, 2010):257-62; En MENG. Recent research advances in the pathophysiology of overactive bladder. Incont Pelvic Floor Dysfunct 3(Suppl 1, 2009): 5-7]. Unlike previous methods of neuromodulation for treating overactive bladder, the presently disclosed methods are based in part upon the integrative or autonomous theory, which attributes bladder muscle instability to abnormal synchronization and imbalanced excitation/inhibition of contractile modules within the bladder, each module of which may contain intramural ganglia and interstitial cells. According to the disclosed methods, the bladder modules may be represented as coupled nonlinear oscillators, leading to a characterization of the dynamics and treatment of the bladder in terms of predictable thresholds that separate different qualitatively different types of bladder dynamics. Implementation of the disclosed methods is intended to aid in evaluating whether an individual is a suitable candidate for the tibial nerve stimulation, in the selection of parameters for the electrical stimulation protocol, and in evaluating the extent to which the stimulation has had an effect.

Non-invasive electrical and magnetic nerve stimulators used to treat overactive bladder and urinary incontinence


An object of the present invention is to provide a method for industrially producing a branched glucan having a cyclic structure. The method for producing a branched glucan having a cyclic structure comprises the steps of: (1) preparing a mixed liquid which contains a branching enzyme in which starch granules are suspended at a concentration of 5% by weight or more and 50% by weight or less, and allowing the branching enzyme to act on starch in the starch granules, wherein a temperature of the mixed liquid at the time of preparation is 0° C. or higher and not higher than the gelatinization starting temperature of the starch granule; and (2) elevating the temperature of the mixed liquid to 85° C. or higher and 129° C. or lower, wherein in the method, none of α-amylase, β-amylase, amyloglucosidase and αtransglucosidase is added to the mixed liquid.

A cyclic-structure-containing branched glucan produced by allowing a branching enzyme to act on a starch has following excellent properties: it has no reducing end; their solubility in water is higher as compared with those of natural unmodified starch; viscosity of its solution is low; and retrogradation which is observed for natural unmodified starch is difficult to occur. The cyclic-structure-containing branched glucan has been developed and utilized as a useful substitute substance for starch.
The cyclic-structure-containing branched glucan can be produced by heating starch such as waxy corn starch to a temperature that is the gelatinization starting temperature or higher of the starch to dissolve the starch, then, cooling the starch solution to a temperature at which a branching enzyme can react therewith and, thereafter, adding a branching enzyme to this starch solution to allow to act thereon (Patent Document 1). However, in this method, the starch solution becomes a rice cake state during cooling, and flowability cannot be ensured. For example, Example 1 in paragraph 0119 of Patent Document 1 describes an experiment in a small scale at a laboratory level, in which a small amount of waxy corn starch (5 g) is suspended in 40 ml of a buffer solution to gelatinize the starch at 100° C. and, after allowing it to cool to 50° C., a branching enzyme is allowed to act thereon. Although the description of a detailed procedure is not given in paragraph 0119 of Patent Document 1, a working step which is not industrially practical, such as inserting a spoon into a reaction tube to forcibly stir a starch solution having no flowability (i.e., gel), is necessary for mixing an enzyme and a substrate in such an experiment at a laboratory level, and actually, the inventors of the subject matters described in Patent Document 1 have performed the work of forcible stirring when they performed the experiment in paragraph 0119 thereof. It is also clear from FIG. 2 of TAKATA et al., Journal of fermentation and bioengineering Vol. 84, No. 2, 119-123, 1997 that such a high concentration starch solution has no flowability. For this reason, if it is attempting to industrially produce a cyclic-structure-containing branched glucan by this method, since a starch solution has no flowability, clogging of a pipe for transporting the starch solution to a reaction vessel is caused so that the starch solution for performing an enzymatic reaction cannot be transported to the reaction vessel.
For this reason, when a cyclic-structure-containing branched glucan is industrially produced, the following method is adopted (Patent Document 2): feeble α-amylase is added to a suspension of starch, the suspension is heated to a temperature that is the gelatinization starting temperature of the starch or higher, to proceed dissolution of the starch and low molecularization of the starch due to partial hydrolysis of the starch simultaneously, and thus, a starch-gelatinized liquid having ensured flowability is prepared and, thereafter, a branching enzyme (also described as BE in the present specification) is added to this starch-gelatinized liquid to allow to act thereon. However, in such a method of using both of thermal gelatinization and hydrolysis, hydrolysis of the starch occurs and, as a result, a non-cyclic glucan having a reducing end is generated. For this reason, in this method, only a mixture of a cyclic-structure-containing branched glucan having no reducing end and a non-cyclic glucan having a reducing end could be obtained. The cyclic-structure-containing branched glucan having no reducing end will not be colored even when heated with an amino acid or a protein, but the non-cyclic glucan having a reducing end has a defect that it will be colored when heated with an amino acid or a protein. Furthermore, it is extremely difficult to industrially isolate the cyclic-structure-containing branched glucan having no reducing end, from this mixture.
A method for producing a cyclic-structure-containing branched glucan having no defect as described above and no reducing end, at an industrial scale, with high purity has not been known so far. That is, a method for producing a cyclic-structure-containing branched glucan, wherein a glucan having a reducing end is not generated as a byproduct, that is, a method for industrially producing a cyclic-structure-containing branched glucan without using α-amylase, has not been known.
In addition, Patent Document 3 describes a method for producing a highly branched glucan using raw starch. However, the purpose of Patent Document 3 is producing a highly branched glucan, and the highly branched glucan has a reducing end, and the purpose of Patent Document 3 is not producing a glucan having no reducing end. Further, a reducing sugar is included in the product described in Patent Document 3.

Method for industrially producing cyclic-structure-containing branched glucan


The present invention discloses an intelligent security apparatus for container, a mechatronic customs seal and a bracket, a bracket, internally installed with an antenna, a processing circuit and power with electrical connection thereamong and mounted on a door of a container; a hole for fitting a customs seal, opened on the bracket; and a mechatronic customs seal, internally provided with a detecting wire and a chip written with ID code and inserted through the hole in the bracket and lock rod handle; wherein the mechatronic customs seal is inserted in the hole of the bracket, the detecting wire and the chip written with ID code in the mechatronic customs seal is electrically connected to the processing circuit in the bracket. The intelligent security apparatus provided by the present invention has physical seal structure and electrical real-time monitoring function at the same time. While checking the integrality of the physical structure via visual observation, the apparatus can also perform electrical real-time monitoring and recording for the seal status. By adopting the principle of integrating mechanism and electronics, the mechatronic customs seal enables electrical detection and one-off physical structure, which ensures high security; the data storing and transmitting section of the bracket are reusable, and hence solve the problem of costly traditional one-off electrical seal.

As a means of freight, the container has been developing into a universal standard multimodal transportation tool since 1960s.
However in recent years, as the safety consciousness of preventing risks and terrorist activities is raising generally in the world, the security requirement of containers during transportations becomes more and more highlighted, one item of which is that the importing containers possess explicit safeguard measures to ensure the safety since its departure. In other words, the importing container is not allowed to be illegally unlocked.
Traditional door sealing apparatus of containers is custom seal. While a container is closed, the custom seal gets through seal fitting holes of lock rod handle, handle bracket and hasp cover.
At present, in the field of containers, some intelligent security apparatuses, e.g. the China patent application CN200420002682.1 and CN200410056197.7 filed by the applicant of the present invention, are designed for detecting unlocking container door in real-time. However, all these intelligent security apparatuses perform detection independently and without any relations to the traditional custom seal.
In conclusion, there are many disadvantages in current security measures of containers, which need to be improved.

Intelligent security apparatus for container and mechatronic customs seal, bracket

China International Marine Containers (Group) Ltd.


A rotary ultrasonic piezoelectric motor is provided and a method of exciting a flexure traveling wave to drive the motor. The motor includes a stator having a piezoelectric ceramic disc polarized in the radial direction and bounded by a top electrode and a segmented bottom electrode. The motor also includes a power source for applying two pairs of alternating voltages to the bottom electrode segments to excite a shear-shear mode vibration in the stator, resulting in a shear-shear mode flexure traveling wave in the stator. The motor further includes a rotor operatively connected to the stator, and the stator is driven to rotate through a frictional force between the rotor and the stator due to the traveling wave deformation of the stator. A linear ultrasonic piezoelectric motor and method of exciting a flexure traveling wave to linearly drive the motor is provided. The motor includes a stator having a rectangular piezoelectric ceramic plate that is polarized in the longitudinal direction. The motor also includes a power source for applying two pairs of alternating voltages to the bottom electrode segments to excite a shear-shear mode vibration in the stator, resulting in a shear-shear mode flexure traveling wave in the stator. The motor further includes a slider operatively connected to the stator, and the stator is driven to move linearly through a frictional force between the slider and the stator due to the traveling wave deformation of the stator.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a miniature piezoelectric motor, and in particular to a rotary piezoelectric motor and a linear piezoelectric motor and method of exciting an ultrasonic traveling wave for driving the motor.
2. Description of the Related Art
Piezoelectric ultrasonic motors with their exceptional properties, such as high resolution of displacement control, absence of parasitic magnetic fields, frictional locking at the power-off stage, and high thrust to weight ratio, make them good candidates for use in precision micromechanical systems.
Piezoelectric motors have several advantages over a conventional electromagnetic motor. These include a faster response time, a high power-to-weight ratio, and smaller packaging capability. They also have several disadvantages, including the need for high voltage, high frequency power sources, and potential wear at the rotor/stator interface. These motors operate using a ferroelectric ceramic element to excite ultrasonic vibrations in a stator structure. The elliptical movement of the stator is converted into the motion of a sliding plate in frictional contact with the stator. The resulting movement is either rotational or linear, depending on the design of the structure.
Conventional piezoelectric ultrasonic motors can be mainly classified into two classes: 1) traveling wave ultrasonic motors, and 2) standing wave ultrasonic motors. A conventional disc-type or ring-type traveling wave motor (rotary motor) is made from a piezoelectric disc (or ring) and a metal disc. With a piezoelectric d31 effect, the piezoelectric disc (or ring) and metal disc composite stator produces a flexure-flexure mode traveling wave that drives a contact rotor through a frictional force. The most frequently researched operating principle for a linear piezoelectric motor is based on the excitation of a longitudinal and a superimposed bending mode of a rectangular piezoelectric plate, to achieve the elliptic motion of the driving tip.
A disc-type traveling wave rotary motor, such as that developed by Matsushita Electric Company Ltd., is representative of a traveling wave type of motor. The piezoelectric stator for this type of motor includes a composite disc comprised of a metal elastic disc and two piezoelectric ceramic discs with thickness polarization. A traveling flexure vibration mode is excited by each section of the piezoelectric discs, and produces a transverse width extension mode with d31 effect under two ac voltages.
Another typical configuration for the conventional traveling wave ultrasonic rotary piezoelectric motor is a ring-type ultrasonic motor, such as that developed by Sashida. This motor utilizes the axial bending-vibration mode of a circular ring with d31 effect of the piezoelectric ceramic ring. The piezoelectric ring-type element is polarized in the thickness direction and produces a transverse length extension mode with d31 effect under ac voltages.
A typical configuration of the conventional linear ultrasonic motor, such as that developed by Yoshiro Tomikawa, is driven by the elliptic motion of the combination displacement of longitudinal (d31) and secondary bending modes. The motor operates according to the principle that at a certain distance to length ratio of a rectangular-shaped piezoelectric ceramic plate, the resonant frequencies of first longitudinal and second bending modes coincide with each other. The elliptic motion is obtained by the combination of the two vibrations.
While all the above described rotary and linear motors offer satisfactory performance, they primarily utilize a transverse length extension mode for exciting a traveling flexure wave with a low d31 piezoelectric effect and low k31 electromechanical coupling effect. In the operational mode, the relatively low d31 and k31 effects of the piezoelectric ceramic material hinders additional development of these types of motors.
Thus, there is a need in the art for a system and method of providing a rotary motor which utilizes a rotary shear vibration mode and a linear ultrasonic motor which uses the linear shear vibration mode, respectively, of piezoelectric ceramics.

Piezoelectric motor and method of exciting an ultrasonic traveling wave to drive the motor


A multi-level cache structure in accordance with one embodiment includes a first cache structure and a second cache structure. The second cache structure is hierarchically above the first cache. The second cache includes a tag array comprising a plurality of tag entries corresponding to respective addresses of data within a system memory; a selector array associated with the tag array; and a data array configured to store a subset of the data. The selector array is configured to specify, for each corresponding tag entry, whether the data array includes the data corresponding to that tag entry.

Modern microprocessors often employ a multi-level cache structure to expedite the reading and writing of data associated with the main system memory. Such multi-level cache structures are typically characterized by a hierarchy that includes a level-1 cache (L1), a level-2 cache (L2), and sometimes a level-3 cache (L3). In multi-core devices, the various cores may share one or more of these caches. For example, two cores may each have a single L1 cache, but might share a common L2 cache.
Many cache structures are inclusive—i.e., they are configured such that each higher-level cache (e.g., L2) also includes the data stored in the corresponding lower cache (e.g., L1). In such a case, the only scenario where the duplicated data in the higher-level cache does not cost significant overhead and improves performance is when the data in the lower-level cache is not valid and another processor that shares the same higher-level cache requests that data. However, it is known that this scenario rarely occurs in multi-core systems. As a result, inclusive multi-level cache structures typically require more chip space and consume more power than is necessary.

Methods and apparatus for multi-level cache hierarchies


A finger-mounted toothbrush, including a fingerstall-type elastic cap part with a slanted insertion opening that is mountable on a finger and has an inner side and a finger tip region with an action surface with substantially bristle-type cleaning elements. The cap part has an outer side with a length of approximately 0.5-2.5 cm. An at least partially resiliently elastic bar-shaped holding handle has a first end attached to the cap part so as to extend substantially along an inner side of the finger, and a second end. A single holding element is provided at the second end of the resiliently elastic holding handle so that when mounted on the finger, the holding handle with the holding element reaches substantially into a center of a user's palm.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a finger-mounted toothbrush, as is used for tooth and gum care.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Careful teeth-cleaning technique and gum massage are known to be of special importance, particularly for persons with bleeding from the gums or tooth socket diseases (periodontal disease). Common injuries to the teeth and gums can be avoided by the use of a finger-mounted toothbrush. The sensitive touch of such a toothbrush promotes and simplifies a systematic tooth-cleaning technique. The feeling of a foreign body in the molar region that toothbrushes cause in some sensitive persons can be avoided. The finger-mounted toothbrush is especially suitable for gentle tooth cleaning and gum massage, especially after periodontal treatments.
A finger-mounted toothbrush of this type is known from German reference DE 32 32 313 A1, for example. The dental fingerstall described therein consists essentially of a rubber-type finger cover with an action surface of a certain shape and size, which is equipped with bristles or rounded rubber protuberances, as desired, and can be provided with medication. The action field, beginning at the finger pad, extends across the ungual phalanx and middle phalanx on the inner side of the finger, covering the entire width of the inner side of the finger in this region and running approximately another 5 mm along the lateral surfaces. The action field can be equipped with bristles 7 to 9 mm long or with rounded rubber protuberances 1 to 2 mm high or with rubber cups 4 to 5 mm high. It is true that the teeth and gums can be carefully treated with this thick dental fingerstall. In practice, however, handling the fingerstall is much too awkward or even impossible, since it is scarcely possible to simply slip the fingerstall over the index finger and then remove it again, especially when it is wet. Furthermore, if not placed securely enough on the index fingers for example, the fingerstall will slip in a twisting manner, so that the action field does not come to rest at the optimum location on the finger. For the same reason, the fingerstall can come off by itself in an uncontrolled manner, which can lead, especially in children, to unintentional swallowing of the dental fingerstall.
From German reference DE 34 29 655 A1, a fingerstall-type mouth cleaning device is known that also comprises a fingerstall made, for example, of rubber or ductile plastic. On its entire outer surface area, this device is equipped with bristles, which consist substantially of the same material as the fingerstall itself. The bristles are distributed in a varied manner around the circumference of the basic fingerstall. Short, softer bristles are arranged on the back of the fingerstall over a circumferential section of approximately 120.degree., being distributed in the manner of a dense pile. These short, softer bristles are intended to avoid irritating or even broaching the soft skin inside the mouth cavity while the teeth are actually being brushed. Harder bristles, directed toward the teeth, are arranged over the remaining 240.degree.of the cross-sectional circumference and serve to clean the teeth. This known finger-mounted toothbrush does permit thorough and gentle teeth cleaning, but has the same disadvantages as the dental fingerstall described above, especially with respect to the awkward handling and inadequate safety.
From German reference DE 90 16 366 U1, a finger-mounted toothbrush is known that consists essentially of a cap, which can be placed upon a finger and to which teeth-cleaning bristles are attached. The cap can be a full cap or a half cap, the latter being held in place on the finger by holding means such as full rings or open rings. Furthermore, a cord can be attached to the cap to serve as a safety device. The cord is long enough to be wrapped around the hand in order to prevent the finger-mounted toothbrush from inadvertently sliding off and being swallowed. The interesting point is that this known cap does not extend past the first digital flexor and is equipped with natural or artificial bristles. This known toothbrush also has the disadvantages discussed above, and the cord provides safety only in a highly inadequate way. The cord provides no security against twisting.
German reference DE 32 28 679 A1 also describes a finger-mounted toothbrush, which has a cap part with stiff bristles on the inner side. A tongue-shaped inner carrier section, which is at least partially resistant to bending and is also equipped with bristles, is arranged on this cap part in a relatively flexible fashion. It is extended by a longer and narrower bar-like section, at the outer end of which there is a ring or ring section that encircles the finger. This known toothbrush also has the disadvantage of awkward handling. In addition, it must be matched relatively exactly in size to the finger of the user, especially in thickness and length, because optimal use is impossible if the fit is not secure enough.
In addition British reference GB 2 136 681A, U.S. Pat. No. 3,018,498 and U.S. Pat. No. 2,686,325, disclose finger-mounted toothbrushes are known that consist of fingerstalls with bristle-type or rounded-protuberance-type elements arranged on them, particularly on the inside. On the fingerstall side facing the hand, these finger-mounted toothbrushes also have a somewhat elongated region, which allows the fingerstall to be held in place with the thumb. When these known finger-mounted toothbrushes are used while being held by the thumb, i.e., to prevent slippage, difficulties arise in cleaning the back teeth, in particular, because the thumb creates space problems when inserted into the open mouth. Furthermore, the thumb becomes wet with saliva, toothpaste, etc. in an unpleasant and unhygienic manner.
It should also be noted that none of these known finger-mounted toothbrushes have draining measures. As a result , it is possible for saliva, water, toothpaste, etc. to run without obstruction along the finger and over the hand and from there onto the lower arm and clothing.


Holes are drilled in the flexure regions of a parallel beam load cell (14), the flexure regions defined by two cut-out portions (26 and 28) which extend between the longitudinal side surfaces (36 and 38) of the load cell (14). The holes extend inwardly of the load cell in the longitudinal side surfaces thereof. The location and depth of the holes are dependent upon the moment balance correction necessary.

Platform scales are used for high accuracy (legal for trade) measurement of loads. Such scales typically require an accuracy within 0.05 percent. Parallel beam load cells are frequently used in platform scales as the load sensing element. A typical parallel beam load cell will include two or three beams, with strain-sensitive portions. Strain-responsive elements, such as conventional strain gauges, are mounted on the strain-sensitive portions of the beams to provide, by means of an electrical bridge circuit and follow-on processing circuitry, a readout of the weight of the load on the platform.
One important criteria for such scales is that the indicated weight must be the same, within the required tolerance, regardless of the position of the load on the platform. This is often difficult to achieve.
Various techniques have been used to reduce the sensitivity of the load cell to the position of the load on the platform, otherwise known as moment balancing. The compensating techniques can take the form of electrical compensation and/or structural compensation. U.S. Pat. No. 4,128,001 to Marks is one example cf structural compensation. This compensation technique or some variation thereof, is widely used in the art. Marks teaches the removal, typically by filing, of material from the load cell beam, thereby changing the cross-sectional configuration of the beam, to accomplish moment balancing.
The Marks, technique, however, does have disadvantages. A primary disadvantage is that changing the cross-sectional configuration of the beam requires a new zero setting. Thus, the load must be removed, re-zeroing accomplished, and the load then returned after each attempt to moment balance the load cell. In addition, the moment balancing operation must be accomplished prior to the actual completion of the load cell, i.e., before sealing of the load cell is accomplished. Sealing of the load cell, however, can alter the response characteristics of the load cell, thus adding an immediate error to the just-balanced cell. Moment balancing of a parallel beam load cell is thus a time-consuming, and hence expensive, operation.
It is desirable that moment balancing be accomplished following the completion of manufacture of the load cell and in such a manner that the zero position is not significantly affected.

Method for moment balancing a parallel beam load cell and the article produced thereby


A process includes forming, by emulsion polymerization, polymer resin particles in a latex, the polymer resin particles being formed from a mixture including one or more monomer emulsions and a non-surfactant-based charge control agent, the emulsion polymerization is carried out with a solids content in a range from about 10 to about 30 percent by weight of the mixture, and forming toner particles from the polymer resin particles, the toner particles support a sufficient triboelectric charge for use under A-zone environmental conditions in a single-component development system.

Toner systems employed in connection with an imaging apparatus typically fall into two classes: (1) two-component development (TCD) systems, in which the developer materials include magnetic carrier granules and toner particles designed to triboelectrically adhere to the carrier; and (2) single-component development (SCD) systems, which rely on toner particles without the presence of a carrier which are charged relative to a charging blade.
The charging requirements for toners in SCD systems are very different from those employed in TCD systems. A particular challenge in SCD systems is achieving adequate charging under high temperature and high humidity environments, such as those designated as "A-zone," about 28° C./85% relative humidity. In order to achieve sufficient triboelectric charge, a charge control agent (CCA) is typically associated with the toner particle.
One means to add a CCA to toner particles is by dry blending the CCA as a surface additive. By way of example, a CCA may be dry blended onto styrene/acrylate emulsion aggregation (EA) toner particles. In use, it has been observed that such surface-modified EA toner particles suffer from drop-off in density after about 10,000 prints.
A second option to associate a CCA with toner particles is to add the CCA at the polymer synthesis stage. For example, in an EA system such as that described above, the CCA may be added to an emulsion of monomers and an emulsion polymerization carried out. The resultant product comprises EA toner particles with CCA incorporated into the polymer matrix. In general, such CCA-doped EA toner particles may perform better than their dry-blended surface-modified counterparts. However, the process for performing the emulsion polymerization in the presence of a CCA is not always reproducible and/or scale up is not always readily achieved. In numerous instances, problems may arise with reactor fouling.

Process for preparing latex comprising charge control agent


Improved methods for recombinant production of human reproductive hormones are disclosed. These methods involve the use of animal-derived cells that contain regulated secretory granules as host cells for expression systems capable of expressing DNA encoding human reproductive hormones or their .beta. subunits.

Human reproductive function is controlled in part by a family of heterodimeric human glycoprotein hormones which have a common .alpha. subunit, but differ in their hormone-specific .beta. subunits. The family includes follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), luteinizing hormone (LH), thyrotropin or thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), and human chorionic gonadotropin (CG). In all cases, the .alpha. subunit is a 92 amino acid glycoprotein with two canonical glycosylation sites at the asparagines located at positions 52 and 78. The .beta. subunits are also glycoproteins; in addition to the N-linked glycosylation exhibited by the .beta. chains of all four hormones, human CG contains four mucin-like O-linked oligosaccharides attached to a carboxy-terminal extension unique to this hormone. The relevance of the O-linked glycosylation is not, apparently, related to the secretion and assembly of the hormone (Matzuk, M. M. et al. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA (1987) 84:6354-6358).
Genomic and cDNA clones have been prepared corresponding to the human .alpha. chain (Boothby, M. et al. J Biol Chem (1981) 256:5121-5127; Fiddes, J. C. et al. J Mol App Genet (1981) 1:3-18). The cDNA and/or genomic sequences of the .beta. subunits have also been prepared. For CG, the .beta.-encoding DNA is described by Fiddes, J. C. et al. Nature (1980) 286:684-687 and by Policastro, P. et al. J Biol Chem (1983) 258:11492-11499. For luteinizing hormone, such description is by Boorstein, W. R. et al. Nature (1982) 300:419-422; and for TSH by Hayashizaki, Y. et al. FEBS Lett (1985) 188:394-400 and by Whitfield, G. K. et al. in "Frontiers in Thyroidology", (1986) Medeiros-Nato, G. et al. (eds) pages 173-176, Plenum Press, N.Y. These DNA segments have been expressed recombinantly, and biologically active material has been produced.
The genomic sequence encoding FSH-.beta. chain was used to construct a recombinant expression vector containing the complete .beta. chain coding sequence as described in PCT application WO 86/04589, published Aug. 14, 1986. In addition genomic clones for human FSH-.beta. have been prepared by others (Watkins, P. C. et al. DNA (1987) 6:205-212; Jameson, J. L. et al., Mol Endocrinol (1988) 2:806-815; Jameson, J. L. et al. J Clin Endocrinol Metab (1986) 64:319-327; Glaser, T. et al. Nature (1986) 321:882-887). PCT application WO 90/09800 describes the expression of human FSH in Chinese hamster ovary cells. The bovine .beta.-FSH gene has also been obtained as disclosed in Maurer, R. A. et al. DNA (1986) 5:363-369; Kim, K. E. et al. DNA (1988) 7:227-333.
The above-referenced PCT application WO 90/09800 discloses a number of expression systems for human reproductive hormones including their .alpha. subunits and .beta. subunits. In addition, this application describes certain muteins of the .alpha. and .beta. subunit that are useful by virtue of their alteration of secretion characteristics or glycosylation patterns. However, the expression systems described specifically in the above-referenced PCT application are limited to murine cells and Chinese hamster ovary cells. The present application describes the use of expression systems of the type disclosed in the above-referenced application in cells containing secretory granules, especially pituitary-derived cells, thus resulting in mature forms of the .beta. subunits or hormone dimers and an enhanced capability of the cells to secrete the hormone.

Recombinant production of gonadotropins in secretory cells


A cooled turbine shroud includes an arcuate flow path surface adapted to surround a row of rotating turbine blades, and an opposed interior surface; a forward overhang defining an axially-facing leading edge, an outwardly-extending forward wall and an outwardly-extending aft wall; opposed first and second sidewalls, wherein the forward and aft walls and the sidewalls define an open shroud plenum; at least one leading edge cooling hole extending from the shroud plenum to the leading edge; and at least one sidewall cooling hole extending from the plenum to one of the sidewalls. The flow path surface is free of cooling holes and may include a protective coating applied thereto.

This invention relates generally to gas turbine engines and more particularly to shroud assemblies utilized in the high pressure turbine section of such engines.
It is desirable to operate a gas turbine engine at high temperatures most efficient for generating and extracting energy from these gases. Certain components of a gas turbine engine, for example stationary shroud segments which closely surround the turbine rotor and define the outer boundary for the hot combustion gases flowing through the turbine, are exposed to the heated stream of combustion gases. The base materials of the shroud segment can not withstand primary gas flow temperatures and must be protected therefrom
Impingement cooling on the back side and film cooling on the hot flow path surface are the typical prior art practices for protecting high pressure turbine shrouds. The film cooling effectiveness on the shroud gas path surface is typically not high because the film is easily destroyed by the passing turbine blade tip. Another method to keep the shroud temperature low is to apply a layer of thermal barrier coating ("TBC") on the hot flow path surface to form a thermal insulation layer. One particular effective kind of TBC is dense vertically microcracked TBC or "DVM-TBC". To prevent spalling of the TBC, the temperature of the underlying bond coat must be kept below about 950° C. (1750° F.). Furthermore, drilling cooling holes through a TBC can damage the structure of the TBC and result in spallation. Certain prior art shrouds with a DVM-TBC have a sufficient operational life without film cooling. However, engines are now being designed to be operated at high temperatures for extended periods of time, requiring both a TBC coating and effective cooling.
Accordingly, there is a need for a turbine shroud which can provide film cooling coverage over the flow path surface without causing spallation of a coating applied thereto.