A combination elevator and stairway may be installed beneath a set of stairs and includes a lift mechanism which raises and lowers a platform or enclosed car and a pivoting stairway. The lift may be hydraulically or electrically actuated and may include a telescoping lift mechanism or scissor mechanism.

The present invention generally relates to platform elevators and, in particular, to a combination platform elevator and stairway which is selectively operable as a conventional stairway, or as a platform elevator to transport wheelchairs, passengers or freight from one level to another.
Persons with limited mobility such as the elderly or those constrained to use wheelchairs find access to areas of a house reachable using stairs such as the second floor or basement, difficult if not virtually impossible to reach unassisted. Various lift mechanisms such as a chair lift along the side of the stairs, or mechanisms which reconfigure the stairs into a flat lift are known in the art. Space limitations often make these systems unsuitable for use in a house. Additionally, many of these systems are cost prohibitive for a home owner.


Wafer cleaning apparatus include a cleaning tub configured to receive a wafer to be cleaned. A wafer cleaning unit coupled to the cleaning tub is configured to provide wafer cleaning solution to the wafer. A probe is positioned in the cleaning tub proximate the wafer. The probe is configured to provide megasonic vibrational energy to a surface of the wafer and/or the wafer cleaning solution to separate contaminants from the surface of the wafer. A probe cleaning unit is configured to provide a probe cleaning solution to the probe to clean the probe. Methods of using the wafer cleaning apparatus are also provided.

The present invention relates to semiconductor wafer manufacturing and, more particularly, to cleaning of semiconductor wafers and the like.
A semiconductor wafer, such as those used to fabricate integrated circuit devices, is typically cleaned using a cleaning solution. High frequency, in particular, megasonic, energy may be applied to the cleaning solution. The megasonic energy may have a frequency about twenty (20) times higher than that of an ultrasonic wave that may be used to remove contaminants from the semiconductor wafer.
A megasonic energy cleaning apparatus typically includes a piezoelectric transducer connected to a transmitter. When the piezoelectric transducer is electrically excited and vibrated, the transmitter applies megasonic energy to the cleaning solution in a treating tank. The cleaning solution is agitated by the megasonic energy to cause contaminants to separate from a semiconductor wafer exposed to the cleaning solution. In other words, contaminants attached to a surface of the semiconductor wafer may be vibrated and separated from the surface of the semiconductor wafer by the megasonic energy.
A known type of "wafer cleaning system" using megasonic energy for cleaning is discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,039,059 ("the '059 patent"). Such a conventional wafer cleaning system is illustrated in FIGS. 1 to 3, which correspond to FIGS. 1-3 of the '059 patent. Accordingly, a detailed description of the conventional aspects of such a wafer cleaning system will not be presented herein and the '059 patent is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, including the description therein corresponding to FIGS. 1-3 of the present specification.
Research has been conducted to improve the conventional wafer cleaning system using a megasonic energy cleaning technique or a cavitation phenomenon. However, various limitations have been observed in such research. For example, in a wafer cleaning system having a probe for applying megasonic energy, the probe is generally not cleaned in use, as the probe is withdrawn from a cleaning tub after applying megasonic energy into a cleaning solution in the tub and is removed from the cleaning tub without being cleaned before a subsequent semiconductor wafer is cleaned. If the wafer cleaning system is operated for a long time, contaminants removed from the semiconductor wafer may gather in the probe and the contaminants collected in the probe may re-contaminate a surface of the subsequently cleaned semiconductor wafer during the cleaning operation.

Wafer cleaning apparatus with probe cleaning and methods of using the same


A process for forming a thin metal coating on a substrate wherein a gas stream heated by an electrical current impinges on a metallic target in a vacuum chamber to form a molten pool of the metal and then vaporize a portion of the pool, with the source of the heated gas stream being on one side of the target and the substrate being on the other side of the target such that most of the metallic vapor from the target is directed at the substrate.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the deposition of thin films of metal on substrates.
2. Prior Art
Vapor deposition of thin films of material on substrates is known. Generally, a welding torch of the type used in GTAW welding is used as the energy source for deposition of the metal film. An inert gas, such as argon, is passed through the torch with an electrical current sufficient to ionize the gas and form a plasma stream which is applied to a target made of a metal which is to be coated onto a substrate. The torch is mounted inside a vacuum chamber.
The plasma stream melts a pool of the target metal and then vaporizes a portion of the molten pool. Because of the vacuum applied to the chamber, the vapor from the target material flows outward from the target and forms a film on the substrate.
In a conventional vapor deposition process, the torch is placed directly over the target metal, as illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 5,380,415, and the plasma directed onto the target metal, with the substrate to be coated being positioned to one side of the target. The disadvantage of this process is that the vapor flows outwardly from the target in all directions. While this might be the best method for coating the inside of a ring or cylinder, it does not work so well for other substrates.

Enhanced vacuum arc vapor deposition electrode

The United States of America as represented by the Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration


Read-copy-update (RCU) is performed within real-time and other types of systems, such that memory barrier usage within RCU is reduced. A computerized system includes processors, memory, updaters, and readers. The updaters update contents of a section of the memory by using first and second sets of per-processor counters, first and second sets of per-processor need-memory-barrier bits, and a global flip-counter bit. The global flip-counter bit specifies which of the first or second set of the per-processor counters and the per-processor need-memory-barrier bits is a current set, and which is a last set. The readers read the contents of the section of the memory by using the first and second sets of per-processor counters, the first and second sets of per-processor need-memory-barrier bits, and the global flip-counter bit, in a way that significantly reduces the need for memory barriers during such read operations.

Computerized systems are most generally used to maintain data. Data is created, modified, deleted, and read. In some types of systems, the worst-case time it takes to perform such operations is not important. That is, delays can be introduced when creating, modifying, deleting, and reading data, without affecting the needed average performance of the computerized system as a whole.
However, other types of systems, known as real-time systems, require that such worst-case delays be kept to a minimum, so that such systems essentially perform data-related operations in real-time, or in near-real-time. A real-time system may thus be considered a computer system that responds to operations by immediately updating the appropriate data and/or generating responses quickly enough to ensure that the system meets its response-time criteria. Therefore, delays that are introduced when creating, modifying, deleting, and reading data can hamper a system's ability to operate in real-time.
Some types of computerized systems use multiple processors. Such multiple-processor systems have to ensure serialized execution of critical sections of computer code that manipulate shared data structures. For example, if the data of a shared data structure is updated by one processor before it is read by another processor, it is important to ensure the order of these operations. That is, it is important to ensure that the data read by the latter processor is the updated version of the data as updated by the former processor. To ensure such serialized execution, various mechanisms for mutual exclusion can be employed. Mutual exclusion mechanisms ensure, for instance, that the data of a data structure is not read by one processor while another processor is currently updating that data.
Mechanisms for mutual exclusion that have been traditionally been used include spin locks, semaphores, reader-writer spin locks, and non-blocking synchronization, among other types of conventional such mechanisms. Even single-processor systems may require controlled concurrency when critical section code can be executed from both a process context as well an interrupt context. That is, during the updating of the data of a data structure by a process being executed by a processor, the processor may receive an interrupt which causes it to read that data. Therefore, it is important for the processor to recognize that the interrupt should not result in reading of the data until the process has finished updating the data.
For instance, for a spin lock, a process cannot update, or possibly cannot even read, a section of data until it acquires a lock on that data, such that it waits or "spins" until the lock can be acquired. While short-term mutual exclusions like spin locks are simple to use, with the advent of faster processors and memory interconnect speeds not keeping up with the speed of such processors, the cost of acquiring spin locks increases with each generation of computer architecture. The wider this gap is, the more cycles a processor has to wait for a slow memory interconnect to respond. Therefore, it has become increasingly necessary to look for alternatives to conventional spin-waiting locking models. This is especially true in the case of real-time systems.
Read-copy-update (RCU) is one such alternative mutual exclusion approach. In RCU, readers, which are threads or processes trying to access, but not modify, data, can access shared data without having to acquire any conventional type of lock. However, writers, which are threads or processes trying to update such data, have to use a special callback scheme to update the data. They update all the global references to the updated data with a new copy and use the callback scheme to free the old copy after all the processors have lost or released all local references to the data.
Because the write side of RCU is significantly more expensive in terms of execution time as compared to the read side, RCU is best suited for scenarios in which the data to be protected is read more often than it is written. For single-processor systems, RCU eliminates the need to mask interrupts for mutual exclusion purposes. RCU is thus suitable for mutual exclusion in network routing tables, device state tables, deferred deletion of data structures, and multiple-path input/output (I/O) device maintenance, among other applications.
However, the read side of such so-called "classic" RCU, while having nearly zero if not zero overhead to perform such a critical read operation, is nevertheless not well suited for usage in real-time systems. This is because classic RCU disables preemption during RCU read-side critical operations. Preemption allows a high-priority realtime task to interrupt, or preempt, the execution of a lower-priority non-realtime task, thereby permitting the realtime task to attain its response-time goal. Therefore, disabling preemption can degrade realtime response time or latency. While some real-time applications can tolerate such degraded latency, many more absolutely cannot.
Other types of RCU are adapted for usage in real-time systems, but require significant overhead in performing a critical read operation. For instance, readers of a data structure commonly employ memory barriers so that they do not have to acquire any type of conventional lock on the data structure. A memory barrier is an explicit instruction to a processor that causes the processor to order read and writes to memory. That is, a memory barrier is more precisely a memory barrier instruction that places constraints on the order of execution of other instructions, such as read and write instructions. As such, the processor cannot reorder read or write accesses (i.e., memory loads and stores) across the memory barrier.
For example, a section of code may include three read or write instructions, followed by a memory barrier instruction, followed by another three read or write instructions. A processor executing this section of code may reorder the execution of the first three read or write instructions relative to one another, and may reorder the execution of the last three read or write instructions relative to one another. However, because of the memory barrier instruction, the processor is not allowed to reorder the first three read or write instructions relative to the last three read or write instructions, and vice-versa.
Utilizing memory barriers adds significant overhead to such real-time read-side RCU. Such instructions are expensive in terms of added overhead, because they may be performed thousands of times slower than other operations. Furthermore, existing real-time RCU approaches may also employ atomic instructions, where atomicity means that a number of instructions are all performed, or none of them are. Atomic instructions are also expensive in terms of added overhead, and also may be performed thousands of times more slowly than other operations.
There is thus a need within the prior art for improved RCU performance within real-time systems, as well as within other types of systems. More specifically, memory barriers and atomic instructions should be used within the read side of RCU as sparingly as possible. For these and other reasons, therefore, there is a need for the present invention.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Read-copy-update (RCU) operations with reduced memory barrier usage

International Business Machines Corporation


A forward seal assembly located in a turbine section of a turbine engine, the turbine section having a disk including a web, a bore, and a forward shaft integral with the web, wherein the forward seal assembly includes a face plate extending from the forward shaft to an outer periphery of the disk and includes orifices for conveying cooling air to the web. The face plate includes a plurality of radially inwardly-extending tabs shaped to engage radially outwardly-extending tabs located on the web to form a bayonet connection. The forward seal assembly further includes radially extending vanes to convey cooling air along the disk, and is secured by inward and outward bayonet connections, the inward connection including locking pins which are arranged to perform a balanced function.

The present invention relates to gas turbine engines and, more particularly, to aircraft-type high bypass ratio turbine engines having multi-stage compressor and turbine sections.
A typical modern gas turbine aircraft engine, particularly of the high bypass ratio type, includes multi-stage high pressure compressor and turbine sections interconnected by a central compressor shaft or, in some models, a forward shaft. In the latter instance, the forward shaft extends between the webs of the last stage high pressure compressor disk and the fist stage high pressure turbine disk webs. The high pressure turbine section typically includes first and second stage disks in which the second stage disk is attached to the first stage disk by a bolted connection. The interstage volume between the first and second stage disks is enclosed by a shield extending between the out peripheries of the turbine disks. The shield is generally cylindrical in shape and its wall defines an outwardly convex configuration.
The first and second stage disks are isolated by a forward faceplate, attached to the forward face of the first stage disk, and an aft seal attached to the rearward face of the second stage disk web. Typically, cooling air ducted externally from the compressor section is circulated within the volumes defined by the faceplate and aft seal, as well as the interstage volume, in order to cool the disks and the blades they support. The cooling air is conveyed radially outwardly from the turbine section through channels formed in the turbine blades.
In such engines, virtually all of the connections between components are effected through bolting. That is, the forward faceplate is connected to the stage one disk by a circular pattern of bolts extending about the faceplate and disk. The inner periphery of the faceplate is bolted to a disk positioned forwardly of the first stage disk. Similarly, the interstage thermal seal is connected to the turbine disks through bolts in a circular pattern, typically clamping angular blade retaining rims to the opposite faces of the turbine disks as well. In addition, the second stage disk includes a rearwardly-extending cone which is bolted to the aft seal.
A disadvantage with such bolted connections is that they require holes to be formed in the disks which cause stress concentrations and limit the useful lives of the seals and disks. Furthermore, additional disk weight is required to sustain the stresses imposed by the bolt and bolt hole engagement. Accordingly, there is a need for a turbine engine design which minimizes the use of bolted connections between components, yet provides a turbine engine which is relatively easy to assemble and disassemble.
Another disadvantage with such engines is that alignment of the first and second stage disks is difficult to maintain during assembly and operation, which may result in excessive vibrations during operation. Further, in order to convey cooling compressor air to the turbine section, it is necessary to duct the compressor air externally of the turbine and compressor sections. This ducting occupies space in the engine nacelle and adds weight to the engine. Accordingly, there is a need for mounting the first and second stage disks which minimizes alignment problems and further, there is a need for a design which eliminates the need for external ducting of cooling compressor air to the turbine section.


A paper feeding device for feeding a sheet of paper from a paper feed cassette removably mounted in a body of an equipment includes a paper feed roller, a roller moving member for moving the paper feed roller between a normal position and a specific position, a fixing member for fixing the roller moving member so as to hold the specific position of the paper feed roller upon unloading the paper feed cassette, and a canceling member for canceling the fixation of the roller moving member by the fixing member so as to yet hold the specific position of the paper feed roller upon loading the paper feed cassette again. Accordingly, in the case of continuing to use the paper of the same size, it is possible to eliminate undue reciprocation of the paper feed roller between the normal position and the specific position upon loading and unloading the paper feed cassette and therefore reduce wear.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a paper feeding device for feeding a sheet of paper from a paper feed cassette removably mounted in a body of equipment such as a copying machine or a printer.
2. Description of Related Art
In such a paper feeding device known in the prior art, a plurality of sheets of paper having different sizes, such as A4 size and B4 size, are stored in different paper feed cassettes corresponding to the different sizes, and the sheets of paper are fed one by one from a desired one of the paper feed cassettes into the body of the equipment. In the case where each paper feed cassette has a pair of sheet holding lugs located at the front corner portions of the cassette, it is common practice to locate a paper feed roller at a position where an outside end of the paper feed roller is spaced about 20 mm from a side edge of the sheets of paper. Accordingly, the position of the paper feed roller for feeding the paper having the A4 size is different from that for feeding the paper having the B4 size. In the case where the body of the equipment has a single cassette loading portion, i.e., a single paper feed opening, it is necessary to change the position of the paper feed roller according to the chosen paper size. There are various techniques in the prior art for changing the position of the paper feed roller according to a paper size.
For example, in a paper feeding device disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,106,072, which is a division of Ser. No. 07/404,904 filed on Sep. 8, 1989 corresponding to United Kingdom Unexamined Patent Publication No. GB 2,225,776 A, and Japanese Patent Publication No. 60-7788, the paper feed roller is automatically moved to a proper position corresponding to a paper size and simultaneously set in this proper position when a paper feed cassette corresponding to this paper size is loaded into the body of the equipment Further, when the paper feed cassette corresponding to a specific paper size is unloaded from the body of the equipment, the paper feed roller is returned to its normal position corresponding to another paper size.
Another example of a prior art paper feeding device will now be described with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5. FIG. 4 is a plan view of an essential part of a prior art paper feeding device 42, and FIG. 5 is a side view of FIG. 4. Referring to FIGS. 4 and 5, the paper feeding device 42 is of a type such that a plurality of sheets of paper 32 stored in a paper feed cassette 31 are offset to the left side (as viewed in FIG. 4) of the paper feed cassette 31. A driving shaft 33 is rotatably supported at its opposite ends from the body of a printer. The driving shaft 33 is adapted to be driven to rotate so as to feed the paper 32 in a direction of arrow 400 shown in FIG. 4. A left feed roller 34a is fixedly mounted on the driving shaft 33, and a right feed roller 34b is axially slidably mounted on the driving shaft 33. The right feed roller 34b is provided with a known one-way clutch 35 so that the rotation of the driving shaft 33 in the paper feeding direction is transmitted to the right feed roller 34b, thereby obtaining integral rotation of the driving shaft 33 and the right feed roller 34b, while the rotation of the driving shaft 33 in the reverse direction is not transmitted to the right feed roller 34b, thereby obtaining idling of the driving shaft 33. That is, the right feed roller 34b is rotatable together with the driving shaft 33 through the clutch 35 in the paper feeding direction, and is axially slidable on the driving shaft 33 in the opposite direction. A compression spring 36 is interposed between the left feed roller 34a and the right feed roller 34b , so that the right feed roller 34b is normally biased to the right (as viewed in FIG. 4) by the compression spring 36. In FIG. 4, the paper 32 of A4 size is denoted by a one-dot chain line, and a portion of the paper 32 of B4 size exceeding the A4 size paper 32 is denoted by a two-dot chain line.
A roller moving lever 37 is pivotally supported on a shaft 38 mounted on the body of the printer. A tension spring 39 is provided between the roller moving lever 37 and the body of the printer to normally bias the roller moving lever 37 to its normal position shown by a dashed line in FIG. 4. The right feed roller 34b is normally biased to its normal position shown by a dashed line in FIG. 4, by the compression spring 36 so as to deflect the roller moving lever 37. Thus, the roller moving lever 37 and the right feed roller 34b are normally held in the respective normal positions by the tension spring 39 and the compression spring 36, respectively.
Further, in the case where the paper feed cassette 31 is an A4 paper cassette for storing the sheets of paper 32 having the A4 size, the A4 paper cassette is provided with a roller moving chip 40 for moving the roller moving lever 37 from the normal position to a specific position shown by a solid line in FIG. 4. That is, when the A4 paper cassette is loaded into the body of the printer, the roller moving chip 40 is brought into engagement with a projection 41 of the roller moving lever 37 to urge the projection 41 to the specific position. In the case where the paper feed cassette 31 is a B4 paper cassette for storing the sheets of paper 32 having the B4 size, the B4 paper cassette is not provided with the roller moving chip 40.
The operation of the paper feeding device 42 mentioned above will now be described. When the B4 paper cassette is loaded into the body of the printer, the roller moving lever 37 is maintained in its normal position shown by the dashed line in FIG. 4 because the roller moving chip 40 is not included in the B-4 paper cassette. Accordingly, the right feed roller 34b is also held in its normal position shown by the dashed line in FIG. 4 by the roller moving lever 37.
In contrast, when the A4 paper cassette is loaded into the body of the printer, the roller moving lever 37 is urged by the roller moving chip 40 of the A4 paper cassette to move from the normal position shown by (he dashed line in FIG. 4 to the specific position shown by the solid line in FIG. 4. Accordingly, the right feed roller 34b is urged by the roller moving lever 37 to move from the normal position shown by the dashed line in FIG. 4 to the specific position shown by the solid line in FIG. 4.
When the A4 paper cassette is unloaded from the body of the printer, the roller moving lever 37 is returned to its normal position by the tension spring 39. Accordingly, the right feed roller 34b is also returned to its normal position by the compression spring 36.
However, in such a paper feeding device, paper having the specific size (e.g., A4 size in the above case) is mostly used, but the paper feed roller is reciprocated between the normal position and the specific position whenever the paper feed cassette corresponding to the specific size is loaded into and unloaded from the body of the equipment in supplying fresh sheets of paper into the paper feed cassette. Such undue reciprocation of the paper feed roller causes wearing at a sliding portion between the paper feed roller and the driving shaft or a pivotal portion between the roller moving lever and the shaft. Accordingly, there is the possibility of malfunction such that the paper feed roller cannot be returned to its normal position because of the worn sliding portion.

Paper feeding device having an adjustable paper feed roller for different sized sheets


Techniques and mechanisms for performing a Bayesian inference with a spiking neural network. In an embodiment, a parent node of the spiking neural network receives a first bias signal which is periodic. The parent node communicates a likelihood signal to a child node, wherein the parent node and the child node correspond to a first condition and a second condition, respectively. Based on a phase change which is applied to the first bias signal, the likelihood signal indicates a probability of the first condition. The child node also receives a signal which indicates an instance of the second condition. Based on the indication and a second bias signal, the child node signals to the first node that an adjustment is to be made to the phase change applied to the first bias signal. After the adjustment, the likelihood signal indicates an updated probability of the first condition.

Embodiments described herein generally relate to spiking neural networks, and more particularly, but not exclusively, relate to technologies for performing a Bayesian inference operation with a spiking neural network.
Spiking neural networks (or "SNNs") are increasingly being adapted to provide next-generation solutions for various applications. SNNs variously rely on signaling techniques wherein information is communicated using a time-based relationship between signal spikes. As compared to typical deep-learning architectures—such as those provided with a convolutional neural network (CNN) or a recurrent neural network (RNN)—a SNN provides an economy of communication which, in turn, allows for orders of magnitude improvement in power efficiency.
While neural networks are generally efficient for applications such as image recognition, problems have been faced in trying to adapt such neural networks for higher order analytical reasoning such as Bayesian inference processing. Bayesian networks are straightforward in principle, but are practically difficult to implement due to an exponential relationship between the number of terms in a given problem and the circuitry and/or computational workload needed to solve that problem. To address these difficulties, existing techniques variously require auxiliary nodes, non-local computation or additional purpose-designed support circuitry. As the size, variety and proliferation of artificial intelligence networks continue to grow, there is expected to be an increasing premium placed on incremental improvements to solutions for providing higher order analysis.

Method, device and system to generate a Bayesian inference with a spiking neural network


The subject invention provides a method of treating mania in bipolar disorder in a subject comprising administering to the subject a therapeutically effective amount of derivatives of 1-aminoindan or their racemic mixtures, enantiomers, or salts, of the general formula:

Throughout this application, various references are identified by authors and full citations. Disclosures of these publications in their entireties are hereby incorporated by reference into this application to more fully describe the state of the art to which this invention pertains.
Bipolar mood disorder commonly begins with depression and is characterized by at least one elated period sometime during the course of the illness. In bipolar I disorder, full blown manic and major depressive episodes alternate. In bipolar II disorder, depressive episodes alternate with hypomanias (i.e., mild, nonpsychotic periods of excitement) of relatively short duration. Although insomnia and poor appetite do occur during the depressive phase of bipolar illness, such atypical depressive signs as hypersomnia and overeating are more characteristic and may recur on a seasonal basis (e.g., in the autumn or winter).
In full blown manic psychosis, the mood typically is one of elation, but irritability and frank hostility are not uncommon. The patient""s lack of insight and inordinate capacity for activity lead to a dangerously explosive psychotic state, in which the individual is impatient, intrusive, and meddlesome and responds with aggressive irritability when crossed. Interpersonal friction results and may lead to secondary paranoid delusional interpretations of being persecuted. Audio and visual hallucinations are sometime present, occur at the high mania, and are usually understandably linked with the morbid mood. The need for sleep is decreased. Manic persons are inexhaustibly, excessively, and impulsively involved in various activities without recognizing the inherent social dangers.
Mixed states are labile mixtures between depressive and manic manifestations or rapid alternation from one state to the other and commonly occur in manic depressive at one time or another. (The Merck Manual 16th edition, 1992, p. 1592, 1593, 1599) Bipolar disorder (BP) affects 1-2% of the population.
The classical psychopharmaceuticals effective in the treatment of mood disorders can be grouped into three classes: the heterocyclic anti depressants (HCA), monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOI) and lithium salts. (Merck, p. 1603). While HCA and MAOI drugs are indicated for the depressive phase of the bipolar disorder, lithium is known to attenuate the bipolar mood swings.
Only around 70% of the patients are considered to respond to the treatment with HCA or lithium drugs (Merck, p. 1604, 1607). For the resistant and refractory disease, combinations of drugs are used, increasing even more the panel o f characteristic side effects.
In light of this situation, there is a continuous search for new drugs aimed to solve the problems of drug resistance and severe side effects. Lately, drugs like valproic acid, carbamazepin, verapamil, propanolol, clonidine and adenyl cyclase inhibitors have been found to be beneficial either alone or as adjunct therapy for manic patients. (O. Kaufman and R. H. Belmaker, P. Soubrie, ed.: Anxiety, Depression and Mania. Anim. Models Psychiatr. Disord., Basel, Karger, 1991, 3, pp. 103-121).
In order to discover new drugs, rodent models relevant to the manic phase, like amphetamine, amphetamine with chlordiazepoxide, morphine or desmethylimipramine induced hyperactivity or to the depression phase like immobilizations, are usually used (D. L. Murphy, Anim. Mod. Psych. Neur., 1977, pp. 211-225).
These mania models focus on an induced increase in the activity level of the animal (e.g., locomotor or/and vertical activity) as a parallel to the hyperactivity of the maniac patient. The reversal of the induced hyperactivity in rodents by their pretreatment with a drug of interest indicates the possible efficacy of this drug in the treatment of human mania.
A variety of substituted 1-aminoindans have been proposed to have some activity in the central nervous system (CNS). This group of compounds has a wide range of activities, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,096,173 discloses 1-aminoindans with ring chloro substituents as having anti-allergic, anti-spasmodic and local anesthetic activities, whereas U.S Pat. No. 3,886,168 discloses the anti-inflammatory and vasodilatory activity of certain 1-aminoindans.
It is hypothesized therein that the activity may be based in the CNS though no evidence is provided or suggested to support the hypothesis. British Patent No. 852,735 discloses 1-aminoindans with a lower alkoxy group in the five position as being active in dilating coronary blood vessels.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,637,740 discloses dl-1-N,N-dimethylamino-4-methoxy-7-chloroindane as an antidepressant and/or an antianxiety agent. However, no clear evidence is provided of either activity.
Horne et al. (J. Pharm. Exp. Ther. 1972, 180(3), p. 523) have shown that 2-aminoindan is a far superior inhibitor of catecholamine uptake than 1-aminoindan and therefore dismissed the latter as a candidate for use in the treatment of Parkinson""s Disease. Martin et al. (J. Med. Chem. 1973, 16(2), p. 147; J. Med. Chem. 1974, 17(4), p. 409) describe experiments wherein N-methyl-5-methoxy derivatives of 1-aminoindan are investigated as having monoamine oxidase (MAO) inhibitory activity.
Oshiro et al. (J. Med. Chem. 1991, 34, pp. 2004-2013) disclose a wide range of 7-hydroxy-1-aminoindan derivatives that they subjected to screening for use as cerebroprotective agents using an antihypoxic test and as CNS stimulatory agents using a cerebral trauma test. In the resultant structure-activity-analysis, it was found that replacement of the 7-hydroxy group by a methoxy group resulted in loss of activity in the antihypoxic test but not in the cerebral trauma test. Their conclusion was that the 7-hydroxy is essential to obtain the desired activity. This is evident from their subsequent paper wherein a broader range of 7-hydroxy derivatives are screened (J. Med. Chem. 1991, 34, 2014-2020). These 7-hydroxy-1-aminoindans are defined in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,788,130; 4,792,628; 4,895,847; 5,055,474; and 5,242,919, all assigned to Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Japan.
Cohen et al. describe the use of a series of aminoindans for the treatment of Parkinson""s disease, dementia, epilepsy, convulsions or seizures and neurotrauma and disclose the preparation of certain novel representatives of that class. (U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,877,221; 5,880,159; 5,877,218).
The subject invention describes a method of treating mania in the bipolar mood disorder in a subject comprising administering to the subject a therapeutically effective amount of derivatives of 1-aminoindan, their racemic mixtures, enantiomers, and salts thereof, of the general formula:
wherein n is 0 or 1;
each of R1 and R2 are hydrogen, C1-C4 alkyl, halogen;
R3 is hydrogen, C1-C4 alkyl, hydroxy, C1-C4 alkoxy;
R4 is hydrogen, C1-C4 alkyl;
R6 is hydrogen, substituted or unsubstituted C1-C12 alkyl, C6-C12 aryl, C7-C12 aralkyl or Axe2x80x94Nxe2x80x94R9R10, provided that R6 is not methyl when R1, R2, R3 and R4 are hydrogen atoms,
wherein A is substituted or unsubstituted C1-C12 alkyl, substituted or unsubstituted C6-C12 aryl, substituted or unsubstituted C7-C12 aralkyl, and each of R9 and R10 are independently hydrogen, C1-C12 alkyl, C6-C12 aryl, C7-C12 aralkyl, COOtBu, or indanyl;
and racemic mixtures, enantiomers, and salts thereof.

Use of 1-aminoindan derivatives for treatment of mania in bipolar mood disorder

Abstract: wherein n is 0 or 1;

Abstract: R4 is hydrogen, C1-C4 alkyl;


A process is set forth in which cancer of the colon is assessed in a patient. The probabilities of developing cancer involves the initial step of extracting a set of sample body fluids from the patient. Fluids can be evaluated to determine certain marker constituents in the body fluids. Fluids which are extracted have some relationship to me development of cancer, precancer or tendency toward cancerous conditions. The body fluid markers are measured and other quantified. The marker data then is evaluated using a nonlinear technique exemplified through the use of a multiple input and multiple output neural network having a variable learning rate and training rate. The neural network is provided with data from other patients for the same or similar markers. Data from other patients who did and did not have cancer is used in the learning of the neural network which thereby processes the data and provides a determination that the patient has a cancerous condition, precancer cells or a tendency towards cancer.

Computer aided differential diagnosis of diseases has become important to such fields as cardiology, radiology, and areas of medicine using ultrasonography. These have the benefit of images or time dependent signals. In these fields, differential diagnosis of disease permits the health care provider to more accurately distinguish between many diseases that can produce similar radiographs, electrocardiograms or sonographs (i.e., signals or images). Differential diagnosis, in one embodiment of this invention using neural networks, is applied in the detection ol colon cancer. The present invention pertains to diagnosis of colorectal cancer by analyzing a combination of biological indicators, markers, obtained from body tissues or fluids (including biological waste excretions). The set of markers used are chosen from cancer markers determined to be associated with colorectal cancer. The patient's biological samples are assayed across a set of markers. This analysis yields a set of input data which is processed using a non-linear logic analysis technique known as a neural network. This technique permits healthcare professionals to assess (1) whether the patient is at risk of developing colorectal cancer; (2) whether the patient has colorectal cancer; (3) the state of the patient's disease; (4) what medical treatment would be effective on that patient's disease; and/or (5) the efficacy of a particular treatment modality on the individual patient's disease (surgery, chemotherapy, radiation or a combination of modalities).
For most forms of cancer, if the site is not readily ascertainable to the physician, disease detection frequently occurs when the disease has progressed beyond a state where medical intervention is most beneficial to the patient. For colorectal cancer, currently available means of cancer detection are highly invasive and/or particularly expensive. These methods include exploratory surgery, sigmoidoscopy, colonoscopy, biopsy and internal imaging techniques such as CAT scans and MRI (magnetic resonance imaging).
The scientific discovery that cancer cells exhibit certain proteins, ribonucleic-(RNA) and deoxynucleic acids (DNA), commonly known as biological markers, led to a surge of hope in the biomedical community that a less non-invasive means of detecting cancer would soon be available. Unfortunately, the majority of cancer markers are shared among widely disparate forms of cancer. Furthermore, analysis of markers from biological fluids, for example urine and blood, have resulted in low accuracy with respect to cancer detection.
This invention is a method and apparatus for sensing and classifying a condition of interest in the presence of poor or unknown statistical relationships, in this instance, colorectal cancer. The parameter representative of the condition of interest, a biological marker found to be statistically associated with colorectal cancer, is sensed and an electrical signal or measure representative of the sense parameter is produced. The electrical signal is converted into a digital signal; this digital signal contains a measure representative of the condition of interest and having an unknown or fuzzy relationship. The digital signal is input to an artificial neural network which enhances the relationship to cancer occurrence. It is this unclear or ambiguous correlation that has prevented biological markers for purposes of cancer detection from being efficacious. The digital signals of selected markers are input to an artificial neural network which filters out the "background noise" to produce a filtered output signal from the digital signals, and classifies the output signal of interest from the filtered signal to produce an output representative of the determined signal. In the embodiment described herein, the differential diagnosis of cancer for purposes of diagnosis, prognosis and risk evaluation of developing cancer can all be derived through processing marker data in the neural network system.
An artificial neural network conceptually has several neuron elements (units) and connections between them. These units are categorized into three different layers or groups according to their functions. A first layer defined as an input layer receives the data entered into the system. A second layer defined as the output layer delivers the output data representing an output pattern. A third set of units comprises a number of intermediate layers, also known as hidden layers, that convert the input pattern into an output. This novel method of diagnosing colorectal cancer inputs clinical parameters (such as age, sex, weight, etc.) and marker data into the neural network.
Colon cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer death in the United States, with approximately 60,000 attributable deaths annually. Silverberg et al., 39 CANCER 3 (1989). Scientific evidence suggests that the majority of colon cancers arise from the evolution of normal muscosa progressing into adenomas and finally to adenocarcinomas. Morson, 5 Clin. GASTROENTEROLOGY 505 (1976). Adenoma removal correlates with a reduced risk of rectal carcinomas; analogously, the removal of adenomatous polyps, reduces the likelihood of colon cancer, see Winawer et al., 100 GASTROENTEROLOGY A410 (1991).
Disease diagnosis based on biochemical analysis of a patient's tissue and biological fluid samples is basic to modern medicine. Occasionally, the presence of a single biological substance or marker within a biological sample is sufficient for the determination of a particular disease. Unfortunately single marker cancer detection has proven unreliable, especially when attempting to detect cancer at is early stages. Oftentimes, when cancer detection is indicated by the presence of a single marker, the disease has reached an advanced state and the patient has a correspondingly poor prognosis. As a result, a test has long been sought that is both non-invasive as well as efficacious in the diagnosis of colon cancer.
Historically, colorectal cancer risk prediction has been hindered due to the cancer site and the difficulty in accurately assessing the surrounding tissue for cell abnormalities. Furthermore, cancer risk prediction requires correlating the relationship not only of biological factors such as markers, but also additional diverse clinical factors such as race, sex, family history, environmental actors, and prior colorectal polyp development (if any). The invention can correlate all this data and is beneficial in several ways. First, non-invasive procedures such as phlebotomy decrease the cost to the patient for testing and as a direct result becomes more widely accessible to the general population at a reduced cost. The invention herein also increases the accuracy and efficacy over existing testing procedures by assessing data with relationship to other factors.
Currently, most techniques for screening patients for developing or developed cancer are highly invasive and/or particularly expensive, for example exploratory surgery, biopsy, and internal imaging techniques such as CAT scan and NMR imaging. The present invention is less invasive than surgery or biopsy and relatively inexpensive by comparison, requiring only the taking of fluid samples such as a blood sample, analyzing that sample for particular markers using known techniques, and then processing the marker analysis data using the method of the present invention.
Many of the proteins and protein fragments (including their corresponding genes) present within the body have been shown to act as helpful indicating markers in the diagnosis of disease. A single protein marker does not represent a disease state precisely, however. Several proteins or their gene equivalents more accurately define the disease state, as cancer onset and progression occurs over multiple stages or steps. There will be some association to the individual proteins which act as good markers for a particular disease; there is no totally unique marker to a disease while several of the good markers (in combination) indicate the presence of the disease or a high risk that the disease will soon develop. Another problem with the use of a single marker to test the disease presence is that certain markers are common to more than one disease, introducing the probability of an incorrect diagnosis. Therefore, using a combination of markers increases the accuracy of disease diagnosis and reduces ambiguity.
Proteins and/or their corresponding genes are present in the body at all times. The concentration of gene products, such as proteins or ribonucleic acid (RNA) can determine whether a patient is healthy or diseased. Protein concentrations generally do not conform to a statistically normal distribution (or linear mathematical functions) between individuals. Since real world phenomena are often non-linear, the application of non-linear logic techniques to a predetermined combination of protein marker concentrations provides the best hope to determine the correlation between the various markers and marker combinations and the diagnosis of the disease in question.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,338,811 to Miyagi, et al., issued Jul. 13, 1982 describes a method and apparatus for diagnosis of disease. A two-dimensional pattern diagram representing the relation between integrated values of peaks and the retention times in a chromatogram of substances in a body fluid of a subject person is spatially compared with a two-dimensional pattern representing the same relationships for both normal and diseased persons. Siguel et al., in U.S. Pat. No. 5,075,101, issued Dec. 24, 1991, discloses a method for diagnosis of fatty acid or lipid abnormalities. It discloses a disease diagnostic method for lipid and fatty acid biochemical status; and analytically comparing patterns or domains obtained from indices of the subject with similar indices derived from tissues of subjects with normal and abnormal biochemistry.
Moses E. Cohen et al., in "Use of Pattern-Recognition Techniques to Analyze Chromatographic Data", Journal of Chromatography, Vol. 384, pp. 145-152 (1987) describes the use of decision making algorithms, often denoted expert systems, for the analysis of chromatographic data. In particular, a pattern recognition technique was established using a new class of orthogonal polynomials developed by Cohen. The technique is based on a supervised learning approach, and allows classification of data into two or more categories. In the paper, the usefulness of the technique in the analysis of chromatographic data is illustrated by its application to the diagnosis of bacterial infection of patients with liver disorders by the use of chromatograms obtained from ascetic fluid taken from the patients. Subsequently, in "Medical Diagnosis and Treatment Plans Derived from a Hybrid Expert System," Hybrid Architectures for Intelligent Systems, Abraham Kandel and Gideon Langholz, eds. CRC Press, Boca Raton, Fla., 1992, pp. 330-344, D. L. Hudson, et al. describe the use of neural network approaches in diagnosing metastatic melanoma from chromatographic analysis samples of urine.
Further work by Cohen et al. pertaining to use of Neural networks in the diagnosis of disease is described in "Neural Network Approach to Detection of Metastatic Melonoma from Chromatographic Analysis of Urine", from the Proceedings Annual Symp. Computer Appl. Med. Care, pp. 295-299 (1991). In these proceedings, Cohen et al. discuss in detail the melanogens present in the urine of patients with metastatic melanoma, the constituents of which were used to develop clinical correlations, and the neural networks model used to develop a prospective decision aid which can be used by the clinician as a good indicator of the current state of metastatic disease in each patient.
Dr. William G. Baxt describes the "Use of an Artificial Neural Network for the Diagnosis of Myocardial Infarction" in the Annals of Internal Medicine, Vol. 115, pp. 843-848 (1991). An artificial neural network was trained to diagnose, with a high degree of accuracy, acute myocardial infarction in patients presenting to an emergency department. The neural network structure included a "back propagation" algorithm of the kind commonly used in neural network software, to determine the "weights" applied to the input data types and hidden layer variables within the network. This algorithm is used to minimize error in network output, i.e., to minimize the difference between the network output for a specific training pattern and the expected output of that training pattern. The data input to the neural network were selected from the patient presenting symptoms, the past history findings, and the physical and laboratory findings of patients presented with anterior chest pain.
Peter M. Ravdin et al., in "A demonstration that breast cancer recurrence can be predicted by neural network analysis", Breast Cancer Research and Treatment, Vol. 21, pp. 47-53 (1992), describe the use of neural network analysis to successfully predict the clinical outcome of node-positive breast cancer patients. During training, the network received as input information tumor hormone receptor status, DNA index and S-phase determination by flow cytometry, tumor size, number of axillary lymph nodes involved with tumor, and age of the patient, as well as length of clinical followup, relapse status, and time of relapse.
John N. Weinstein et al. describe "Neural Computing in Cancer Drug Development: Predicting Mechanism of Action", in Science, Vol. 258, pp. 447-451 (Dec. 16, 1992). Neural networks are described as being capable of predicting a drug's mechanism of action from its pattern of activity against a panel of 60 malignant cell lines in the National Cancer Institute's drug screening program.
In accordance with the present invention, a connectionist, non-linear logic analytical technique has been used in combination with specific biological indicators (markers) obtained from body tissue or fluids to determine whether a patient has a colorectal cancer or is at risk sufficiently toward developing colorectal cancer that the probability of formation of a cancer is likely. A neural network diagnosing colorectal cancer using biological indicator input was developed, the network comprises:
a) an input layer having a set of marker inputs; PA1 b) at least one hidden layer, wherein each hidden layer has at least five processing elements; and PA1 c) an output layer having at least one output.
The preferred neural network comprises an input layer having about four to ten marker inputs; a number of hidden layers ranging from about 2 to about 15, wherein the total number of processing elements included in the hidden layers ranges from about 24 to about 100; and an output layer having at least 2 outputs.
A neural network of the kind described in combination with markers selected from biological indicators known to have a significantly better relationship with colorectal cancer to serve as a significant indicator of the development of or presence of such cancer. The biological indicators, referred to as markers, are in and selected from the group of markers and include: Carcinoembryonic Antigen (CEA); Alpha-Fetoprotein Modified or Increased Analytical Precision (AFP); Pancreatic Oncofetal Antigen (POA); Antigen Specific for #1116-N5'-19-9 Antibody; Lipid-Bound Sialic Acid (LSA); New oncogenes; Myc oncogenes; Ras oncogenes; Centocor CA 72/4 (a measurement of tumor-associated Glycoprotein 72 (TAG-72) using epitope-specific antibody # B72-3); Antibodies for the p53 gene; Antibodies to Laminin -P.sub.1 ; Yale Col. Sr. Factor; Harvard Uninary Gonadotropin Peptide (UGP); Tumor Suppressor Gene p53; and antibodies to the markers listed in cases where the marker is not an antibody. The DNA and DNA fragment precursors of a protein in addition to the protein can be used as markers. Glycoproteins, lipoproteins and flycolipids frequently are biological indicators of abnormal cell growth.

Method and apparatus for the diagnosis of colorectal cancer


Tire changer apparatus having                a horizontally extended frame; a wheel holder device provided on said frame and designed to support a tired wheel (14) with horizontally positioned wheel axis; a carriage supported movably along the frame; a tool holder provided on the carriage; at least one tire changing tool for mounting the tire onto the wheel and/or for demounting the tire from the wheel; and actuator means to move the tool holder on the carriage to operating positions in which the tire changing tool is able to act on the tire for mounting or demounting on both sides of the tire, wherein during the mounting operation or demounting operation the carriage is driven by an actuator device along the frame; the tool holder is movably supported on a tool holder carriage which is movably supported on said carriage and driven by an additional actuator device provided on said carriage, and said additional actuator device is in drive connection with the tool holder carriage via a mechanical speed-increasing transmission.

An apparatus of that kind is known from EP 1 334 846 B1. The known apparatus has a wheel holder device provided on a frame. The wheel holder device supports the tyred wheel with horizontally positioned wheel axis. A carriage provided with tyre changing tool is movably supported on the frame along guides. The tyre changing tool is supported on the carriage by means of a tool holder which can be rotated about its longitudinal axis. To move the tyre changing tool to operation positions in which the tool is able to act on the tyre for mounting or demounting on one of the both sides of the tyre, the carriage is moved along the guides of the frame and the tool holder is rotated synchronously with the movement of the carriage. To create the forces which are needed for the mounting or demounting actions of the tool, the carriage is driven by an actuator. Thus, the carriage of the known apparatus is used for the movement of the tool between its two operation positions and for the transmission of the forces which are needed for the mounting and demounting actions.
The object of the invention is to provide a tyre changer apparatus with which the time for the movement of the tyre changing tool between its two operation positions and the tool stroke adjusted can be shortened.
That object is solved by features in accordance with the invention. Advantageous modifications of the invention are characterized in an embodiment.


Energy recovery apparatus for recovering and using thermal energy comprises multiple series of shape memory elements having decreasing transformation temperatures from one element to the next in the direction of a heating fluid to extract heat over a range of fluid temperatures to effect a shape change of each element. Cooling fluid is flowed alternately through each series of elements to cool the elements and effect another shape change. The cooling fluid exiting a preceding series of elements is used as the heating fluid of the next series of elements to extract further heat indirectly from the original heating fluid. The shape changes of the elements are converted to mechanical work.

Today, there is widespread interest in conserving non-renewable natural resources and, in particular, in improving the fuel efficiency of vehicles powered by internal combustion engines. Since approximately two-thirds of the fuel energy in internal combustion engines is dissipated as heat to the exhaust and coolant systems, there is interest in recovering at least a fraction of this wasted thermal energy to do useful work and improve vehicle fuel economy. The relatively low temperature of this dissipated heat has been a deterrent to its exploitation since standard energy recovery techniques have not been sufficiently efficient in this regard.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an energy recovery apparatus and method including multiple series of shape memory elements having different transformation temperatures for use in a manner to directly and indirectly recover thermal energy from a relatively low temperature fluid flow, such as, for example, waste exhaust gases of an internal combustion engine.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an energy recovery apparatus and method including multiple series of shape memory elements having different transformation temperatures for use in a manner to directly and indirectly recover thermal energy from a relatively low temperature fluid flow over a substantial range of fluid temperatures down to a near-ambient temperature level where the fluid is exhausted to ambient, thereby improving the efficiency of energy recovery from the fluid flow.

Apparatus for recovery and use of waste thermal energy

Iowa State University Research Foundation, Inc.


An amplifying device including: a first amplifier configured to generate a first output signal by amplifying an input signal, a second amplifier configured to generate a second output signal by amplifying the first output signal, and a processor configured to perform a first compensation by compensating a distortion for the second amplifier in accordance with the first output signal and the second output signal.

For example, from the viewpoint of power conversion efficiency, a transmission unit such as a base station in a mobile communication system may be designed to operate in a nonlinear region where back-off from saturation power is small. Thus, when a modulating signal for high-speed wireless communication is inputted, out-of-band radiation due to nonlinear distortion occurs, thereby affecting adjacent transmission channels.
Distortion compensation technology for reducing such out-of-band radiation caused by a transmission amplifier includes predistortion (PD) compensation in which the reverse characteristic of the transmission amplifier is added in advance to transmission signals. In the predistortion compensation, a distortion compensation coefficient is adaptively updated so as to reduce the difference between a transmission signal and a signal obtained by feeding back part the output signal of the transmission amplifier. In addition, digital predistortion is known in which predistortion is performed in a digital region.
A transmission amplifier such as a base station may be implemented by multi-stage connection of a plurality of amplifiers. When the transmission amplifier having such a multi-stage structure is operated with high power conversion efficiency, nonlinear distortion occurs also in an amplifier other than the final stage amplifier, and thus a signal distorted in a former stage amplifier (for example, a driver stage amplifier) is inputted to the final stage amplifier, thereby causing complicated nonlinear distortion in the final stage amplifier. For this problem, a distortion compensation circuit is known in which a predistortion compensation unit for compensating the former stage amplifier, and a predistortion compensation unit for compensating the final stage amplifier are connected in cascade (for example, see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2006-279633).

Amplifying device, distortion compensating device, and amplifying method


Compositions and methods for modulating transcription by RNA polymerases are described.

RNA polymerases are nucleotidyl transferase enzymes that produce RNA by polymerizing ribonucleotides at the 3′ end of an RNA transcript. In cells, RNA polymerases are needed for constructing RNA chains from DNA or RNA templates, a process called transcription. Control of the process of transcription affects patterns of gene expression and thereby allows a cell to adapt to a changing environment, perform specialized roles within an organism, and maintain basic metabolic processes necessary for survival. Therefore, it is hardly surprising that the activity of RNA polymerases is both complex and highly regulated. Examples of products of RNA polymerases include messenger RNA (mRNA), non-coding RNAs such as transfer RNA (tRNA) and ribosomal RNA (rRNA), microRNA (miRNA), and catalytic RNAs such as ribozymes.
RNA polymerases are essential to life and are found in all organisms and many viruses. Of the RNA polymerases in eukaryotes, RNA Polymerase I (also called Pol I) is the enzyme that transcribes ribosomal RNA (excluding 5S rRNA, which is synthesized by RNA Polymerase III), which accounts for over 50% of the total RNA synthesized in a cell. RNA polymerase II (also called RNAP II and Pol II) catalyzes the transcription of DNA to synthesize precursors of mRNA and most snRNA and microRNA. A 550 kDa complex of 12 subunits, RNAP II is the most-studied type of RNA polymerase. A wide range of transcription factors are required for RNAP II to bind to its promoters and begin transcription. RNA polymerase II (also called Pol III) transcribes DNA to synthesize ribosomal 5S rRNA, tRNA and other small RNAs. The genes transcribed by RNA Pol III fall in the category of "housekeeping" genes whose expression is required in all cell types and most environmental conditions. Thus, the regulation of Pol III transcription is primarily tied to the regulation of cell growth and the cell cycle, requiring fewer regulatory proteins than RNA polymerase II.
RNA polymerases can initiate transcription at specific DNA sequences known as promoters, producing an RNA chain complementary to the template DNA strand. The process of adding nucleotides to the RNA strand is known as elongation. In eukaryotes, RNA polymerases can build chains millions of nucleotides in length. RNA polymerases will preferentially release the RNA transcript at specific DNA sequences encoded at the end of genes known as terminators.
Many viruses also encode RNA polymerases. Perhaps the most widely studied viral RNA polymerase is found in bacteriophage T7. The single-subunit T7 RNA polymerase is related to that found in mitochondria and chloroplasts, and shares considerable homology to DNA polymerase. It is believed that most viral polymerases therefore evolved from DNA polymerase and are not directly related to the multi-subunit polymerases described above.
Viral polymerases are diverse, and include some forms which can use RNA as a template instead of DNA. This occurs in negative strand RNA viruses and dsRNA viruses, both of which exist for a portion of their life cycle as double-stranded RNA. However, some positive strand RNA viruses, such as polio, also contain these RNA-dependent RNA polymerases.
RNA-directed transcription refers to transcription from an RNA template and is carried out by an RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRP). RNA-directed transcription occurs in RNAi-mediated gene silencing in non-vertebrate organisms such as C. elegans, fungi, and plants (Wassenegger, M. and Krczal, G. Trends Plant Sci. 11:142-51 (2006)). RNA-directed transcription is also part of the normal replication cycle of a number of vertebrate RNA viruses. All these examples of RNA-directed transcription involve a dedicated RdRP. In the case of virus replication, the RdRP is virally encoded.
Hepatitis Delta Virus (HDV) is the smallest known animal virus and encodes only one protein, the Hepatitis Delta Antigen (HDAg). HDAg is required for viral replication, but does not have polymerase activity. HDV is naturally acquired either by co-infection with Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) or by super-infection of a host with an existing HBV infection. The role of HBV in the natural HDV life-cycle relates to the Hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) which forms part of the HDV envelope and is responsible for hepatocyte-specific infection. However, once inside essentially any mammalian cell, HDV replication is independent of HBV, so long as HDV RNA and a source of HDAg are provided.
Following infection, the HDV RNA-HDAg ribonucleoprotein particle (RNP) is recruited to the nucleus where the circular genomic HDV RNA serves as a template for rolling-circle replication, thereby generating multimers of antigenomic HDV RNAs. As HDV does not encode a protein with polymerase activity, virus genome replication relies on host RNA polymerases (Taylor, J. M. Curr. Top. Microbiol, Immunol. 307:1-23 (2006)). The multimers of antigenomic HDV RNAs are cleaved into monomers by a ribozyme activity in the antigenomic RNA, which then circularises by end-ligation. The resulting antigenomic monomers then become templates for analogous rolling-circle transcription, thereby yielding more circular genomic HDV RNAs. Due to the presence of >70% intramolecular Watson-Crick base-pair complementarity, both genomic and antigenomic HDV RNA assume a compact, unbranched rod-like structure.
In addition to being the template for antigenomic RNA synthesis, genomic HDV RNA also serves as the template for transcription of HDAg mRNA. This mRNA is capped and polyadenylated as is typical for RNA Polymerase II (Pol II) transcripts (Hsieh, S. Y. et al. J. Virol. 64:3192-8 (1990): Gudima, S. et al. J. Virol. 74:7204-10 (2000). For this reason, and the additional observation that both genomic and antigenomic HDV RNA can be immunoprecipitated with Pol II antibodies (Greco-Stewart, V. S. et al. Virology 357:68-78 (2007)), it appears that the Pol II core enzyme mediates HDV RNA-directed transcription. However, the mechanism behind HDV replication and transcription remains poorly understood.

Compositions and methods for modulating activity of capped small RNAS

THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY


Disclosed are an organic electroluminescent device and a preparation method thereof. The organic electroluminescent device is a top-emitting organic electroluminescent device having a reversed structure, and the preparation method is: dissolving zinc oxide with acetic acid to obtain a zinc oxide solution with a concentration of 0.3 g/ml-0.6 g/ml, adding a phthalocyanine substance in a mass of 1%-10% of the mass of the zinc oxide to obtain a mixture, spin-coating the mixture on a glass substrate (1) and then drying to obtain a cathode (2), and then preparing by vapor deposition, an electron injection layer (3), an electron transport layer (4), a luminescent layer (5), a hole transport layer (6), a hole injection layer (7) and an anode (8), successively, so as to obtain the organic electroluminescent device.

In 1987, C. W. Tang and VanSlyke in Eastman Kodak, an American company, reported a breakthrough in the search for organic electroluminescence. A double layer OLED having high brightness and high efficiency was successfully prepared by using ultrathin film technique. In such double layer device, the brightness can reach 1000 cd/m2 at 10V, and its luminous efficiency was 1.51 lm/W. The device lifetime was more than 100 hours.
OLED works on the principle that: in the case of applied external field, electrons are injected from cathode into the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) of organic matters, while holes are injected from anode into highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) of organic matters. The electrons and the holes move towards each other and they recombine, forming excitons in luminescent layer. Such excitons migrate in the electric field, and energy transfer to luminescent material. Electrons are excited and jump from the ground state to an excited state. The decay of this excited state results in a radiative relaxation of the energy levels of the electron, accompanied by release of the energy as photon.
In some traditional OLEDs, luminous efficiency is only about 18%. Most of the light is lost due to the factors like absorption and total reflection. Bottom emitting structure is commonly used. Glass has a refractive index of 1.5, whereas ITO has a refractive index of 1.8. When the light emitted from the organic layer reaches the glass through ITO, total reflection occurs due to the difference in refractive index. In the same way, total reflection occurs whenever light is emitted from the glass to the air, resulting in reduction of luminous efficiency.

Organic electroluminescent device and preparation method thereof including forming a cathode by combining zinc oxide, acetic acid and a phthalocyanine substance

OCEAN'S KING LIGHTING SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.

SHENZHEN OCEAN'S KING LIGHTING ENGINEERING CO., LTD.


An image conversion system for altering an image to adjust the overall brightness of the image when displayed is provided. The image conversion system includes a luminance transformer and a color adjuster. To adjust the overall brightness of the image, the luminance transformer reverses the luminance of each original color in the image. The new luminance of each transformed color is then compared to the desired luminance for that color. When the transformed colors do not have the desired luminance, the color adjuster modifies the hues of transformed color to achieve the desired luminance. Specifically, the color adjuster modifies the transformed color using a weighted average to achieve the desired luminance while maintaining the hues of the original color to the extent possible. By substituting each original color with a transformed color that is adjusted as needed to reach the desired luminance, the overall brightness of the image is adjusted.

Various types of optical displays are commonly used in a wide variety of applications. For example, computing devices such as personal computers, workstations, and personal digital assistants (PDA) and communication devices such as mobile phones and radios all use various types of displays. Displays are also commonly used for a variety of purposes on vehicles such as automobiles and aircraft. Optical displays can use a variety of different display mechanisms, such as LCD, CRT, projection and other devices.
One new application in which optical displays are being applied is in aircraft avionics systems. For example, in an aircraft avionics application, a multi-function display can be used to provide a variety of different types of information to the pilot by dividing the display into a plurality of windows, and assigning each window a display task. For example, in a multi-function display one window can be assigned to display primary flight control information such as airspeed, attitude, altitude and horizontal situation. Another window can be used to provide navigation information such as heading and location. Another window can be used to provide information such as electrical, hydraulic, or cabin pressure values or status.
One important performance parameter in certain displays is the range of luminance that can be provided by a projection display, commonly referred to as the dimming range. In many applications it is critical that a display make information clearly visible in a wide variety of ambient light conditions. For example, a display used in an aircraft avionics system will need to display information to the pilot under lighting conditions that can range from near total blackness to the extreme glare created by facing directly into daytime sunlight. Such a display must be able to display images at a wide range of intensities. Without a sufficiently large range of intensities a viewer of the display may be unable to easily read information from the display in high ambient light conditions, low ambient light conditions, or both.
One important characteristic of certain images is the selection of colors to convey specific meaning, such as blue indicating water. For such images, it is desirable to leave the hue unchanged when adjusting displayed image brightness.
The content of the images displayed can have negative impacts on the ability to adjust the intensity of the displayed image without adversely affecting image quality. For example, when attempting to display an image that includes a large percentage of white or other light colors, the resulting bright light can degrade the pilot's night vision adaptation. Attempts to reduce the intensity by dimming the image can cause a significant loss of image quality. Specifically, uniformly dimming an image can cause a significant loss of contrast in the displayed image, causing elements of similar color and contrast to lose significantly readability. Furthermore, attempts to limit brightness of one window by dimming the entire display can negatively impact the view ability of other windows on the display.
Thus, what is needed is a system and method for altering a displayed image to reduce the overall intensity while maintaining good contrast and preserving the hues of the original image to the extent possible.

System and method for image luminance transformation


Embodiments of the present invention are a system, a computer program product, and a method for implementing an integrated circuit design. The method for implementing an integrated circuit design includes accessing an original electronic representation of an integrated circuit layout from a first user file, and accessing a defined sensitivity index that characterizes an impact of the dummy pattern on the functional component. The impact of the dummy pattern on the functional component is analyzed and it is determined whether the impact is within a limit of the sensitivity index. One of a plurality of features of the dummy pattern is adjusted if the impact is not within the limit to form a generated electronic representation of a modified integrated circuit layout, and the generated electronic representation is output to a second user file. The integrated circuit layout includes a dummy pattern and a functional component.

Generally, dummy patterns are inserted into integrated circuit designs to fulfill some design rules. One possible design rule may be to have each layer within the semiconductor device be as uniform as possible to reduce process variations, such as from lithography, etching, chemical mechanical polishing (CMP), or others. For example, dummy active areas may be inserted into a semiconductor material to create more uniform density of active areas in the semiconductor material. Likewise, dummy metal may be inserted into metal layers to cause the metal layers to have a more uniform density. Other dummy patterns may also include cell patterns, polysilicon patterns, or via patterns. Another possible design rule could link the integrated circuit design with a process model for better physical accuracy of the finished device. For example, the rule could require CMP-aware dummy metal insertion for a better physical thickness of the layer.
Designs are typically analyzed for electrical performance of the functional aspects of the integrated circuit using different electronic design automation (EDA) tools. Generally, a rule-based or physical-based dummy insertion is performed by an implementation tool; however, the electrical impact of the dummy pattern on functional components is not considered during this process. Accordingly, generally after the dummy pattern insertion, the performance of functional components are analyzed. Then, interactions of revisions of dummy patterns and re-analysis is generally necessary during the design implementation for optimal device functionality, which can lengthen the design process. Therefore, there is a need in the art to have performance-aware dummy pattern insertion in an integrated circuit.

Dummy pattern performance aware analysis and implementation

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.


A changeover arrangement for the clock signals of parallel transmission connections of an assured data transmission link, wherein a clock signal is sent for the transmission paths by parallel outdoor units (OU) located in succession to a common indoor unit (IU), the clock signal is received by a corresponding set of second outdoor units, where phase locked loop signals are used to achieve the lock to the signal, and subsequent to which a second IU receives information of the mode of the phase lock. In addition, when errors are caused in the employed connection, the receiving unit selects a transmission path that has fewer errors based on mode information obtained from the outdoor unit.

The invention relates to a method and arrangement for changing parallel clock signals in the propagation assurance of digital data transmission, particularly for realising the propagation assurance of radio links. The invention is suited to other data transmission connections as well, for instance to connections using optical transmission paths.
The quality requirements for a digital radio link are generally known; said requirements are set for example by the ITU, International Telecommunication Union. The quality requirements refer to the reliability and interference-free quality of the transmission. The most important features are usability, error ratio and phase noise. Among the factors that affect the fulfilment of said criteria are hardware malfunctions, weather and changes in the signal path. In order to fulfil the requirements, it is necessary to provide an equipment and propagation assurance for the radio link, which means the use of alternative equipment and transmission paths. By means of equipment assurance, there is obtained a more reliable usability, and by propagation assurance, there is obtained both a lower error ratio and a lower phase noise.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating one target of propagation assurance. A public switched telephone network (PSTN) 11 is connected by wires to a mobile switching centre (MSC) 12. The security of the radio link between the switching centre 12 and the base station controller (BSC) 13 is extremely important, wherefore it is generally assured. The controller 13 is further connected, by radio connections which can also be backed up, to base telecommunication stations (BTS) 14, 16, 18 and to their antennas 15, 17, 19.
The propagation assurance of radio links is realised by means of one or several parallel radio connections. Now in parallel with the major radio connection, there is constructed one or several other backup transmission paths that carry the same information. The transmission paths are preferably different in order to prevent possible interference caused by the terrain and/or weather changes from affecting both paths at the same time. Among the transmission paths, there is selected the one that has, in the prevailing conditions, a better signal at the station receiving the radio link. The applied criterion for the selection is generally the signal strength, but also the correctness of the parity of the received information. The changing of the transmission path is carried out by means of a specific changeover device, in a way that is as error-free as possible, by compensating both the dynamic and static phase differences caused by the propagation of the signals in different transmission paths. The block dealing with the clock signal is the most critical part in the changeover device.
Among the drawbacks with known analog arrangements for changing the clock signal are the required separate components; in order to be able to use them, there is needed space on the circuit board and they consume a remarkable amount of power.
Another drawback with known analog arrangements is their cumbersome tuning as a final step in the production.

Method and arrangement for changing parallel clock signals in a digital data transmission


Systems and methods are provided for resource adaptive workload management. In a method thereof, at least one execution objective is received for at least one of a plurality of queries under execution. A progress status of, and an amount of resource consumed by, each of the plurality of queries are monitored. A remaining resource requirement for each of the plurality of queries is estimated, based on the progress status of, and the amount of resource consumed by, each of the plurality of queries. Resource allocation is adjusted based on the at least one execution objective and the estimates of the remaining resource requirements.

1. Technical Field
The description generally relates to workload management and, more particularly, to systems and methods for resource-adaptive workload management.
2. Description of the Related Art
Workload management for Relational Database Management Systems (RDBMS) has been extensively studied in the database literature. Every major commercial RDBMS comes with workload management tools. However, due to a lack of information about the progress of queries running in the RDBMS, the existing tools cannot always make intelligent decisions.
For example, consider the following scheduled maintenance problem. At time 0, planning begins for the scheduled maintenance (e.g., deciding the maintenance start time t, which queries should have their execution blocked, and so forth). The maintenance may involve installing some new software on the computer, or adding several new data server nodes to the parallel RDBMS. The maintenance is scheduled to begin at time t. A common practice is to perform the following two operations (designated O1 and O2):
O1: Starting from time 0, new queries are no longer allowed to enter into the RDBMS for execution.
O2: The existing queries in the RDBMS are kept running until time t. At time t, we abort those queries that have not finished execution. This is lost work, since those queries need to be rerun after the RDBMS is restarted.
One issue to be addressed in the preceding scenario is how can the maintenance time t be chosen to minimize the amount of lost work without over-delaying the maintenance. In general, the state-of-the-art RDBM workload management tools do not know which queries can finish by time t. As a result, they cannot provide much aid in suggesting a "good" maintenance time. Rather, the database administrator (DBA) needs to guess an arbitrary maintenance time that he or she thinks is appropriate. However, if it can be estimated which queries can finish by time t, then more intelligent decisions can be made to prepare for the scheduled maintenance. For example, in this case, the operation O2 can be replaced with the following two operations (designated O2′ and O3):
O2′: The queries that cannot finish by time t are estimated. These queries are aborted at time 0. Note that aborting the queries will reduce the load on the RDBMS and, thus, change the estimate about which queries cannot finish by time t.
O3: Other queries in the RDBMS are kept running. Suppose at time t, some of these queries have not finished execution. Such a scenario is possible if our estimation has errors. Then, at time t, the queries that have not yet finished are either aborted or allowed to run to completion. The appropriate action depends on both the application requirement and the estimate of how soon those queries are going to finish subsequent to time t.
Compared to operation O2, operations O2′ and O3 have the following advantages: (1) even for the same maintenance time t, by aborting some "hopeless" queries at time 0, more queries can be allowed to finish by time t; (2) the amount of lost work can be controlled by adjusting the maintenance time t.
As a second example, suppose that for some reason, the DBA needs to speed up the execution of a target query Q. The DBA decides to do this by choosing one running query (the victim query) and blocking its execution. In this case, a common approach is to choose the victim query to be the heaviest resource consumer. However, if it happens that this victim query will finish quickly, then blocking the execution of this query will not speed up the execution of the target query Q as much as blocking some other query that has a longer remaining execution time. In this example, if the remaining execution times of the running queries are estimated, the choosing of a victim query that is about to finish can be avoided.
From the above discussion, it can be seen that it is desirable to achieve the following two goals: (1) give the workload management tool more information about the remaining execution time of the running queries; and (2) let the workload management tool use this information to make more intelligent decisions.
Regarding the first goal, recently progress indicators for SQL queries in RDBMSs have been proposed in the following, all of which are incorporated by reference herein in their entireties: Chaudhuri et al., "Estimating Progress of Execution for SQL Queries", Special Interest Group on Management Of Data (SIGMOD) Conf., June 2004, pp. 803-814; Luo et al., "Toward a Progress Indicator for Database Queries", SIGMOD Conf., June 2004, pp. 791-802; and Luo et al., "Increasing the Accuracy and Coverage of SQL Progress Indicators", Proc. 2005 Int. Conf. on Data Engineering (ICDE′05), Tokyo, Japan, April 2005, pp. 853-864. In each of the preceding references, for an SQL query, a progress indicator keeps track of the work completed and continuously estimates the remaining query execution time. Suppose progress indicators are integrated into the workload management tool. Then at any time, for each query running in the RDBMS, the workload management tool can estimate the amount of remaining work and the remaining query execution time this is the extra information about the state of the query (relating to the first goal above).
It is to be noted that the progress indicator described in the above-referenced article entitled "Estimating Progress of Execution for SQL Queries" does not try to predict the remaining query execution time.
The progress indicators in the above-referenced articles entitled "Toward a Progress Indicator for Database Queries" and "Increasing the Accuracy and Coverage of SQL Progress Indicators" estimate the remaining query execution time in the following way. For a query Q, at any time, the progress indicator uses a query execution plan and an intermediate result generated thus far to estimate the remaining cost c that is measured in U's. Each U represents one unit of work that is equal to that required to process one page of bytes. The progress indicator also monitors the current query execution speed s. The remaining query execution time t is estimated as t=c/s.
From the above description, it can be seen that in estimating the remaining execution time of a query Q, the above-referenced articles entitled "Toward a Progress Indicator for Database Queries" and "Improving the Accuracy and Coverage of SQL Progress Indicators" do not consider the predicted remaining execution time for concurrently running queries.
Accordingly, with respect to the first goal, it would be desirable and highly advantageous to have an apparatus and method for estimating remaining query execution time by at least considering the predicted remaining execution time for concurrently running queries.
Moreover, with respect to the second goal, it would be desirable and highly advantageous to have a system and method for enabling a workload management tool to use additional information about the remaining execution time of running queries to render more intelligent decisions regarding managing the workload.
It is to be noted that transaction scheduling has been studied in a real-time database system. See, for example, Abbott et al., "Scheduling Real-time Transactions: a Performance Evaluation", Very Large Databases (VLDB) Conf., pp. 1-12, 1988; and Abbott et al., "Scheduling Real-Time Transactions with Disk Resident Data", VLDB Conf., pp. 385-396, 1989. Regarding the preceding transaction scheduling articles, the main concern is to meet deadlines rather than to maximize resource utilization. Moreover, most real-time systems are memory resident and the jobs there can be finished in a short amount of time (say, less than a few seconds). Hence, they need special time-cognizant protocols (e.g., to handle critical sections). Further, many real-time systems use hard deadlines. As a result, the jobs there are usually pre-defined (i.e., "canned" jobs). Also, almost all jobs there have deadlines.
Accordingly, it would be desirable and highly advantageous to have an apparatus and method that maximizes resource utilization, does not require special time-cognizant protocols, and is capable of handling non-fixed deadlines.

Systems and methods for resource-adaptive workload management


One or more femto cell access points (FAPs) are employed to facilitate provisioning of security. A signal indicative of an intrusion in an area associated with an FAP can be received, and, based on receiving the signal, an identifier associated with a device in a range of the FAP can be determined. One or more frequencies in the range of the femto cell access point can be jammed, an attachment attempt emitted from the device in response to jamming the frequencies can be detected, and a telephone number of the device can be identified based, at least, on detecting the attachment attempt from the device. Warnings can also be sent to the device and/or tracking of the device can be performed.

One purpose of home security systems is to try to determine that an intrusion into a secure area has occurred. However, information regarding the intruder is often limited and, at times, non-existent. In some instances of intrusion, an image of the intruder may be captured via video camera filming the secure area. However, an image of the intruder is of limited utility. Additionally, because there is a inherent delay between the time that intrusion is detected and the arrival of law enforcement, intruders often escape, and thereby stolen property may be permanently lost.

Facilitation of security employing a femto cell access point


A new personal defense spray delivery system for delivering a spray of a defensive chemical to an area. The inventive device includes a reservoir of a personal defense chemical. At least one nozzle is in fluid communication with the reservoir. The nozzle is designed for delivering a spray of the personal defense chemical to an area. A delivery device is provided for delivering the personal defense chemical from the reservoir to the nozzle. A first actuator is operatively connected to the delivery device. The first actuator is designed for activating the delivery device.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to delivery systems for defensive chemical sprays and more particularly pertains to a new personal defense spray delivery system for delivering a spray of a defensive chemical to an area.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of delivery systems for defensive chemical sprays is known in the prior art. More specifically, delivery systems for defensive chemical sprays heretofore devised and utilized are known to consist basically of familiar, expected and obvious structural configurations, notwithstanding the myriad of designs encompassed by the crowded prior art which have been developed for the fulfillment of countless objectives and requirements.
Known prior art delivery systems for defensive chemical sprays include U.S. Pat. No. 4,118,691; U.S. Pat. No. 5,280,268; U.S. Pat. No. 5,182,541; U.S. Pat. No. 4,301,947; U.S. Pat. No. 5,298,878; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,903,863.
While these devices fulfill their respective, particular objectives and requirements, the aforementioned patents do not disclose a new personal defense spray delivery system. The inventive device includes a reservoir of a personal defense chemical. At least one nozzle is in fluid communication with the reservoir. The nozzle is designed for delivering a spray of the personal defense chemical to an area. A delivery device is provided for delivering the personal defense chemical from the reservoir to the nozzle. A first actuator is operatively connected to the delivery device. The first actuator is designed for activating the delivery device.
In these respects, the personal defense spray delivery system according to the present invention substantially departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art, and in so doing provides an apparatus primarily developed for the purpose of delivering a spray of a defensive chemical to an area.


Embodiments of the invention provide a method, system and computer program product for selectable data on file viewing in a debugger. A method includes specifying a file in a user interface of a debugger executing in memory of a computer and debugging a target application and determining whether to view data in the file from a perspective of the computer or the target application. The method additionally includes loading the data in the file directly from the computer externally to the target application in response to determining to view the data in the file from the perspective of the computer, but otherwise loading the data through operations performed by the debugger on behalf of the target application in response to determining to view the data in the file from the perspective of the target application. Finally, the method includes displaying the loaded data in a file viewer of the user interface of the debugger.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to software debugging and more particularly to data viewing during software debugging.
Description of the Related Art
In computer software development, the process of debugging is the process of locating and fixing or bypassing errors in computer program code. Debugging techniques range from the manual observation of the performance of a computer program, to the embedding within the computer program debugging statements, to the more sophisticated automated management of a debugging session utilizing an separate, debugging tool. Traditional debugging tools are either standalone tools, or tools included as part of an integrated development environment ("IDE"). Debugging tools incorporated within an IDE have been part and parcel of software development for over a quarter century.
Debugging a traditional stand alone application involves loading the target application into memory and executing selected instructions of the target application through the debugger. Ascertaining the state of any data processed within the target application can be achieved through a debugger view of the data elements of the target application. Ascertaining the state of persisted data processed by a target application can be nearly as simple to the extent that the persisted data becomes persisted by the target application in real time. So much, however, is not the case with a transaction based target application, for instance a multi-user database driven application. In the latter instance, while data elements may have changed within the target application processing space, the changed data elements may not commit to fixed storage until some time later—even if for a brief period of time.
When debugging a transaction based target application, it may be necessary to see the data on file. As would be understood by one of skill in the art, a file is an aggregation of data on a storage medium such as the content of a database, content referenced by direct addressing on a direct access storage device ("DASD"), the content of a traditional hierarchical file system ("HFS") and the like. Outside of the execution of the target application, one can view the content of the data on file by externally loading the content of the file in memory and inspecting the content. So much is referred to as the "system view" of the file. However, the state of the file as viewed from the perspective of the system may not be synchronized with that of the file as viewed from the perspective of the target application due to the commit scope of the target application.
The disparity of views of the same file from the system perspective and the application perspective can be problematic for several reasons. First, when the end user works with a commit scope, the user may need to know what the data looks like on the system, i.e. to all users, not just to the end user. Otherwise, the end user may make incorrect decisions while debugging the target application if the end user does not understand the data present on the system. Also, the target application may have updated a file in a commit scope, and closed that file. The end user may need to know what the data is on the file before the commit scope is closed.

Selectable data on file viewing in a debugger