In an analysis using a mass spectrometer having a loop orbit along which ions are made to fly a plurality of times, the present invention provides a method of determining the mass-to-charge ratio of an ion without limiting the range of the mass-to-charge ratio of the ions to be brought into the loop orbit while allowing the lapping of the orbiting ions. The measurement is carried out two or more times under different conditions (Tg=500[μs], 400[μs]) under which the number of turns of the ion concerned is different. Flight times are determined from the flight time spectrums obtained by at least two measurements. Though the numbers of turns themselves are unknown, it is possible to calculate possible mass-to-charge ratios for each flight time by incrementally setting the number of turns at plural values. The two sets of possible mass-to-charge ratios derived from the two flight time values (525[μs], 441[μs]) determined by the two measurements are compared with each other, and a value that is found in both measurement results is selected as the mass-to-charge ratio of the ion concerned. Thus, it is possible to determine the mass-to-charge ratio without limiting the range of the mass-to-charge ratio before the ions are brought into the loop orbit.

In a time of flight mass spectrometer (TOF-MS), ions accelerated by an electric field are injected into a flight space where no electric field or magnetic field is present. The ions are separated by their mass-to-charge ratios according to the flight time until they reach and are detected by a detector. Since the difference of the lengths of flight time of two ions having different mass-to-charge ratios is larger as the flight path is longer, it is preferable to design the flight path as long as possible in order to enhance the resolution of the mass-to-charge ratio of a TOF-MS. In many cases, however, it is difficult to incorporate a long straight path in a TOF-MS due to the limited overall size, so that various measures have been taken to effectively lengthen the flight length.
In the Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. H11-297267, an elliptical orbit is formed using plural toroidal type sector-formed electric fields, and the ions are guided to fly repeatedly in the elliptical orbit many times, whereby the effective flight length is elongated. In the Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. H11-135061, ions fly in an approximately "8" shaped orbit repeatedly. In these TOF-MSs, as the number of turns the ions fly in the orbit increases, the flight distance is larger and the length of flight time is accordingly longer, so that the resolution of the mass-to-charge ratio becomes better by increasing the number of turns.
When, as described above, ions repeatedly fly in a loop orbit, ions having smaller mass-to-charge ratios will gain higher speeds. Therefore, ions having a smaller mass-to-charge ratio may lap other ions having larger mass-to-charge ratios while they are orbiting. If the detector simultaneously detects a group of ions mixed with different number of turns, it is impossible to determine the mass-to-charge ratios of the ions without knowing the number of turns of each ion. One conventional solution to such a problem is to limit the range of the mass-to-charge ratio of the ions brought into the loop orbit in order to avoid ions having such a diversity of mass-to-charge ratios that causes the lapping problem. In this method, if the analysis should cover a broad range of mass-to-charge ratios, it is necessary to divide the range of the mass-to-charge ratio into smaller segments and carry out the analysis many times. If there is only a limited amount of sample available for the analysis, it is difficult to carry out the analysis many times, meaning that the analysis cannot be carried out over the broad range of the mass-to-charge ratio.
To limit the mass-to-charge ratio of the ions before they are brought into the loop orbit, it is necessary to roughly separate the ions by their mass-to-charge ratios before they enter the loop orbit. One possible method is to use an ion trap or other device capable of separating the ions. However, mass spectrometers are not always constructed to allow the use of an ion trap or other ion separator. Another possible method is to make the distance between the ion source and the loop orbit large enough to allow the limitation of the range of mass-to-charge ratios before the ions enter the loop orbit. However, it is not always allowable to keep a large distance between the ion source and the loop orbit because the overall size of the mass spectrometer is limited.

Method of determining mass-to-charge ratio of ions and mass spectrometer using the method


The invention relates to a hand machine-tool, especially electrical shears, comprising a housing (13) provided with a tool head (14) and a grip part (15), an electric motor (18) arranged in the housing (13), a switch (22) for the electric motor (18), and a drive shaft (16) mounted in the tool head (14), transversally to the housing axis. The drive shaft can be driven by the electric motor (18) by means of a transmission (19). The hand machine-tool also comprises a rotary tool (11) that can be fixed to the drive shaft (16). The aim of the invention is to create a compact, structurally small and lightweight hand machine-tool for work without generating fatigue. To this end, a small-volume, rechargeable energy accumulator, preferably a lithium ion accumulator (20), which feeds the electric motor (18) and has a high charging capacity, is arranged in the grip part, together with an electronic plate (21) and the switch. The transmission (19) and at least part of the electric motor (18) are arranged in the tool head (14).

The present invention is directed to a hand-held power tool, in particular electrical shears.
Known electrical shears for cutting sheet material, such as cloth, paper and cardboard webs and the like (SU 1 768 384 A1), include a longitudinal housing with a tool head and a grip part. A drive shaft, which is oriented transversely to the housing longitudinal axis and extends laterally out of the tool head, is supported in the tool head. A disk-shaped polygonal cutting disk is non-rotatably accommodated on the drive shaft. The upper—as viewed in the working position—edge of the polygonal cutting disk is covered by a protective collar—which is formed on the housing—around a circumferential angle that is greater than 180°. A downwardly extending, angular blade holder is attached to the tool head, which carries a counter-blade that interacts with the cutting disk, and on which a supporting base is formed that is located opposite to the lower edge region of the cutting disk. The blade holder is located on the housing such that the supporting surface of the supporting base and the longitudinal axis of the housing form an acute angle. An electric motor and a transmission for driving the drive shaft on which the cutting disk is mounted are located in the grip part. Power is supplied to the electric motor via an electrical device cable.


Introduced here are diabetes management platforms able to guide people with diabetes toward a glycemic target. Rather than state the absolute amount of glucose within the blood, the diabetes management platform can instead produce personalized glycemic goals based on the physiological data associated with an individual. For example, if the diabetes management platform determines that the time spent within a first glycemic range exceeds a specified threshold, then the diabetes management platform may recommend that the individual attempt to keep their blood glucose level within a second glycemic range. Generally, the second glycemic range is closer than the first glycemic range to a target glycemic range corresponding to a healthy glycemic state.

After ingestion of a foodstuff that contains carbohydrates, the human body breaks down the carbohydrates into glucose, which serves as a source of energy for the cells of the human body. Glucose is transported via circulation within the blood stream. Therefore, ingestion of foodstuffs will influence the concentration of glucose within the blood stream (also referred to as the "blood glucose level" or "glucose level").
According to the American Diabetes Association (ADA), a normal blood glucose level for people without diabetes is below 6.9 mmol/L (125 mg/dL). Meanwhile, the target blood glucose range for people with diabetes is 5.0-7.2 mmol/L (90-130 mg/dL) before meals and less than 10 mmol/L (180 mg/dL) after meals. However, some people with diabetes struggle to consistently stay within the recommended range.
The drawings depict various embodiments for the purpose of illustration only. Those skilled in the art will recognize that alternative embodiments may be employed without departing from the principles of the technology. Accordingly, while specific embodiments are shown in the drawings, the technology is amenable to various modifications.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Tiered time-in-range guiding interfaces for diabetes management


Absorbable, segmented copolymers of aliphatic polyesters based on lactone monomers lactide, and p-dioxanone are described. The segmented copolymers exhibit a broad range of properties, especially high strength and long elongations. This unique elastomeric behavior makes the copolymers of the present invention useful in a varity of medical device applications, especially adhesion prevention barriers and hemostatic devices.

Polymers, including homopolymers and copolymers, which are both biocompatible and absorbable in vivo are well known in the art. Such polymers are typically used to manufacture medical devices which are implanted in body tissue and absorb over time. Examples of such medical devices manufactured from these absorbable biocompatible polymers include suture anchor devices, sutures, staples, surgical tacks, clips, plates and screws, etc.
Absorbable, biocompatible polymers useful for manufacturing medical devices include both natural and synthetic polymers. Natural polymers include cat gut, cellulose derivatives, collagen, etc. Synthetic polymers may consist of various aliphatic polyesters, polyanhydrides, poly(orthoester)s, and the like. Natural polymers typically absorb by an enzymatic degradation process in the body, while synthetic absorbable polymers generally degrade primarily by a hydrolytic mechanism.
Synthetic absorbable polymers which are typically used to manufacture medical devices include homopolymers such as poly(glycolide), poly(lactide), poly(.epsilon.-caprolactone), poly(trimethylene carbonate) and poly(p-dioxanone) and copolymers such as poly(lactide-co-glycolide), poly(.epsilon.-caprolactone-co-glycolide), and poly(glycolide-co-trimethylene carbonate). The polymers may be statistically random copolymers, segmented copolymers, block copolymers, or graft copolymers. It is also known that both homopolymers and copolymers can be used to prepare blends.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,643,191, 5,080,665 describe several biocompatible, absorbable, poly(p-dioxanone-co-lactide) copolymers useful as biomedical devices.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,080,665 describes block or graft copolymers of poly(p-dioxanone-co-lactide) prepared by a process in which the p-dioxanone monomer is reacted initially for a certain period of time, typically one hour at about 180.degree. C., followed by reaction with lactide at about 200.degree. C. This process leads to block or graft copolymers which are useful due to their formation of a "hard" phase formed from the lactide repeating unit blocks, and a "soft" phase formed from the p-dioxanone repeating unit blocks (FIGS. 1, 2, 3 and 4).
Furthermore, U.S. Pat. No. 4,643,191 describes p-dioxanone-rich, poly(p-dioxanone-co-lactide) segmented copolymers comprising about 70 weight percent to about 98 weight percent polymerized p-dioxanone with the remaining small portion of the copolymer polymerized with lactide.
Although the above described copolymers yield materials with excellent properties such as high strength and stiffness and long BSR (Breaking Strenght Retention) profiles as found with the block copolymers, or good strength and shorter BSR (Breaking Strenght Retention) profiles as found for the p-dioxanone-rich segmented copolymers, there is a need in this art for new copolymer compositions having characteristics not found for the block copolymers of U.S. Pat. No. 5,080,665 and the segmented copolymers of U.S. Pat. No. 4,643,191.
Accordingly, what is needed in this art are novel copolymer compositions which are elastomeric, useful as, for example, adhesion prevention film barriers and other rubber toughened, absorbable medical devices such as foams for tissue scaffolds and hemostatic barriers.

High-strength, melt-processable, lactade-rich, poly(lactade-co-p-dioxanone) copolymers


A method for cutting an ingot with a wire. The method includes the steps of moving a wire in a lengthwise direction and contacting an ingot with the moving wire. The method also includes the step of supplying an abrasive slurry containing cutting oil and abrasive particles having an average diameter of about 13 .mu.m to about 15 .mu.m to the ingot when the ingot and the wire are contacting. This results in the ingot being cut with the wire and abrasive particles.

This invention relates generally to a method and apparatus for cutting a single crystal ingot into a plurality of wafers using a wire.
As illustrated in FIG. 5, a conventional apparatus for cutting an ingot I made of ceramics, glass, silicon, or the like into a plurality of wafers is indicated in its entirety by the reference numeral 10. The apparatus 10 includes three grooved 12a-12c, each of which has a plurality of circumferential guide grooves (not shown). The 12a-12c are mounted on an adjustable frame (not shown) at predetermined intervals so they are parallel to one another. A wire 14 is wrapped around the group of 12a-12c a plurality of times as shown in FIG. 5. The wire 14 is arranged in the guide grooves of the rollers so each length of the wire extending between the 12a-12c is parallel to the adjacent length of wire and so the lengths are uniformly spaced along the rollers. The frame is adjustable to change the spacing between the 12a-12c thereby changing the tension in the wire 14. The apparatus 10 also includes spools 16a, 16b for supplying and taking up wire 14 as it travels back and forth around the 12a-12c. Thus, the spools 16a, 16b form part of a drive mechanism, generally designated 18, which moves the wire 14 back and forth in a lengthwise direction.
The apparatus 10 also includes a fixture, generally designated by 20, for holding an ingot I and advancing it toward the wire 14. The fixture 20 includes a mount 22 to which the ingot I is bonded for supporting the ingot as it is sliced. The mount 22 is made of a relatively soft material such as carbon so it does not interfere with the wire 14 as it slices through the ingot I. The mount 22 is attached to a support head 24 for supporting the mount and ingot I as they are cut. The support head 24 may be made of any high strength material such as steel. A rack 26 extends upward from the support head 24, and a pinion 28 driven by a motor 30 engages the rack for advancing and retracting the ingot I toward and away from the wire 14. The fixture 20 also includes a linear guide 32 for guiding the fixture and ingot I so they remain perpendicular to the wire 14 as they are advanced and retracted.
As illustrated in FIG. 4, the conventional cutting apparatus 10 includes a fluid dispensing system, generally designated 40, for supplying an abrasive slurry containing abrasive particles and oil to the ingot I as it is cut. Spray nozzles 42a and 42b positioned over the wire 14 supply the slurry to the ingot I and wire. The slurry adheres to the wire 14 so it is drawn over the ingot I to enhance the cutting of the ingot.
The abrasive particles used in the slurry must have excellent cutting ability and be highly dispersible in oil. Conventional abrasive particles satisfy the aforementioned conditions, but they cause large kerf loss and deep wire marks on the cut surfaces of the wafers. Further, conventional abrasives damage the surface of the ingot I. These problems reduce the precision of the wafer cutting process thereby causing decreased wafer quality and yield.

Method and apparatus for cutting an ingot


An antenna (10) having outer and inner sections (12, 14) of electrically conductive material and coaxial with a longitudinal axis (19). The outer section includes an outer side wall (22) extending from the bottom to join an outer top wall at the top of the antenna. The inner section includes an inner side wall extending upward from the bottom to join an inner top wall. The outer and inner sections define an interior region (32) filled with dielectric material. The outer section has at least one slotted opening (34) with opposed ends, wherein each such slotted opening extends from one end in the outer side wall, across the outer top wall, and to the opposed end in the outer side wall. The inner section including at least one feed (36) to convey electromagnetic energy into or out of said interior region of the antenna.

In numerous communication networks today it is required to establish communications between stations where at least one is mobile. Important requirements for antennas in such applications typically include having very wide beam coverage (ideally an omnidirectional pattern), compact structure, specific polarization type, and enough efficiency over a specific bandwidth. Cellular telephone handsets and global positional system (GPS) equipment are two common examples of devices which impose such requirements. In fact, the latter usually needs an antenna with relatively more strict conditions, i.e., right-hand circular polarization and a very wide beam coverage pattern encompassing nearly the entire upper hemisphere. This is needed to allow a GPS receiver to maintain signal lock with and to track as many visible satellites as possible while also providing useful signal-to-noise and front-to-back ratios (that is, the radiation pattern has a substantially lower gain in the direction opposite to the direction of maximum gain).
One widely used option today for such applications is the patch antenna. However, these can require tradeoffs that are undesirable or unacceptable, especially in small or mobile applications. Generally, a patch antenna has a usefully low profile but this may be offset by the need for a large ground plane. A patch antenna therefore often cannot provide satisfactory performance where space is very limited. Patch antennas also do not provide good circular polarization over a very wide angular region and they tend to have poor gain at low angles of elevation, thus making them a poor choice for GPS applications. And patch antennas also do not provide a good front-to-back ratio.
Another candidate is the quadrifilar helical antenna (QFH), particularly in printed forms. Some of the advantages of the QFH antenna are its relatively compact size (compared to other known useable antennas such as crossed dipoles), its relatively small diameter, good quality of circular polarization (suitable for satellite communication), and its having a cardioid pattern, i.e., a main forward lobe which extends over a generally hemispherical region together with a good front-to-back ratio. The size of QFH antennas can also be reduced by dielectric loading or by shaping the printed linear elements. Unfortunately, QFH antennas require radiator lengths that are an integer multiple of one-quarter wavelength of the desired resonant frequency. Particularly for portable or mobile applications, this may require substantial miniaturization efforts to avoid having an overall antenna length that is longer than desired. The complexity of the feed system to obtain desired performance is often also an issue with QFH antennas.
Another prior art antenna is the slot type antenna. Slot antennas typically have a planar structure (sometimes somewhat curved) that includes at least one slot, and they are usually fed with microstrip lines or a coaxial feeder in the antenna cavity resonator. Although the performance of slot antennas is less dependent on the presence of a ground plane, the available slot antennas today have nearly all of the other shortcomings of patch antennas noted above. For example, the relatively large size required of the usual crossed slot antenna structure needed to create circular polarization is usually undesirable. Cylindrical slot antennas have been designed to address some of these issues, but these have not been able to provide very wide beam coverage and tend to be relatively long. No simple feed system for these has been reported either.


This disclosure relates to shape memory alloys which have been subjected to a thermal and mechanical treatment to increase the austenite start temperature As→As′ such that the shape memory alloy is martensitic at body temperature and when subsequently subjected to a controlled deformation, the shape memory alloy preferentially reverts to the parent phase. One application for this disclosure is a stent for use in a lumen in a human or animal body having a generally tubular body formed from a shape memory alloy which has been subjected to a thermal and mechanical treatment so it deforms as martensite until a critical expansion diameter is reached at which point the tubular body rapidly reverts to the parent phase with much higher mechanical properties. The shape memory alloy comprises Ni—Ti and a ternary element ranging from about 3 at. % to about 20 at. %. The ternary element is effectively insoluble in a Ni—Ti matrix. In a preferred embodiment, the element is selected from the group consisting of niobium, tantalum and zirconium.

Metallic engineering materials such as stainless steels, cobalt chromium alloys (Co—Cr alloys) and nickel-titanium alloys (Ni—Ti alloys) are used in variety of medical device applications. One example of a Ni—Ti alloy is NITINOL. The use of these alloys combine mechanical, fatigue, corrosion resistance and biocompatibility properties to create devices useful in a number of medical procedures.
Since the advent of minimally invasive procedures, engineering designers have been trying to work with specific geometries whereby metallic components can be inserted through very small openings in the human body, routed to the desired location and then deployed to a useful size to fulfill the needs of the end application. One such well-known device is a coronary stent, a tubular structure used to hold open blocked or collapsed arteries. The usual method of getting stents into the space is to collapse the metal structure onto a delivery catheter having a sufficiently small overall diameter so it can be routed percutaneously to the coronary artery and expanded to a much larger diameter than the original insertion diameter.
Conventional alloys used in various medical instruments have relied on stainless steel, complex cobalt chrome alloys (such as Elgiloy™ or L605) all of which can have their mechanical properties (i.e. yield strength, ultimate tensile strength break strength, etc) modified through work hardening and annealing. These metals, even with very high yield strength, cannot sustain strains much greater than 0.2 percent (%) without suffering a permanent set. Once a bend or kink has been sustained in a medical instrument or device fabricated from one of the above alloys it is virtually impossible to straighten and remove from the body. For many permanent implants (such as stents), the device may not need to be removed and the permanent deformation may actually be useful to keep the structure in place. However, in the foregoing alloys, Hook's taw dictates that the force to deploy the implant will increase at a linear rate until the material yield point is reached and then the force will continue to increase until the material break point is reached. Additionally, these materials have significant spring back after receiving a significant deformation.
Recently medical device engineers have begun designing metallic components with shape memory alloys. In general, shape memory alloys such as NITINOL having the proper transformation temperature and processing could potentially offer two modes of shape recovery for metallic components inserted into the human body: (1) superelasticity and (2) shape memory recovery.
In the case of superelastic NITINOL the complete "elastic" recovery of strains up to 10% due to stress induced martensite (SIM) can be achieved. When superelastic NITINOL components are subjected to a stress, the strain is accommodated by austenite to martensite crystalline transformation, rather than by the mechanisms that prevail in other alloys such as slip, grain boundary sliding and dislocation motion.
Under typical process condition the stress required to form martensite will be >60,000 pounds per square inch (psi) (414 mega pascals (MPa) and the reverse transformation stress will be >30,000 psi (207 MPa). It can be observed that the reversion stress is lower than the stress at which martensite forms. These stresses are referred to as the upper and lower plateau stresses and their magnitude is dependent on the alloy composition, cold working and thermal treatment that the NITINOL, has received. As the temperature of the specimen is raised, the stress magnitude required to produce SIM is increased; however when the specimen reaches a critical temperature above (the Austenite finish temperature) Af, designated as Md, stress induced martensite cannot be formed, no matter how high the stress. In practical applications, this behavior gives rise to a limitation on using the super-elastic property since it limits the temperature range over which super-elasticity is observed; typically in the binary Ni—Ti alloys, this is a temperature range of about 60° Celsius (C) (108° Fahrenheit) (F), although a 40° C. (72° F.) range is more typical. The desirable temperature range for medical and orthodontic applications is in the region of body temperature, +10° C. to +40″C, can be achieved in these alloys.
Others have applied superelastic NITINOL to medical devices using a 50.8 atomic percent (at. %) nickel/balance titanium formulation which has been cold worked followed by a low temperature anneal to give a combination of shape memory and/or superelastic characteristics. For starting materials having an ingot Af of 0° C., this processing gives a component with an elastic range of approximately 2% to 8% over a temperature range of +15° C. to +40° C. However, the shortcomings for deployment of a stent application include: (a) the unnecessary bulk of the stent delivery system (since the delivery system must resist the high outward radial force of the compressed stent during shipping, storage and deployment); (b) the high outward radial force of the compressed stent pressing on the inside surface of the delivery sheath can add unwanted friction during deployment of the stent from the sheath; (c) at deployment the rapid stent expansion to its memorized shape can traumatize the vessel wall; and (c) the stent can cause a chronic outward force once deployed that can cause further trauma.
Jervis, U.S. Pat. No. 5,067,957, discloses that a medical device component made from superelastic NITINOL can be externally constrained outside the body via the stress induced martensite mechanism, then placed in the body and de-constrained for deployment.
Duerig, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,312,455, discloses a superelastic NITINOL stent for use in a lumen in a human or animal body, having a generally tubular body formed from a shape memory alloy which has been treated so that it exhibits enhanced elastic properties with a point of inflection in the stress-strain curve on loading. This enables the body to be deformed inwardly to a transversely compressed configuration for insertion into the lumen and then revert towards its initial configuration, into contact with and to support the lumen. The shape memory alloy comprises nickel, titanium and from about 3 at. % to about 20 at. %, of the alloy composition, of a ternary element selected from the group consisting of niobium, hafnium, tantalum, tungsten and gold. The ratio of the stress on loading to the stress on unloading at the respective inflection points on the loading and unloading curves is at least about 2.5:1, and the difference between the stresses on loading and unloading at the inflection points is at least about 250 MPa.
Besselink, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,428,634, discloses a method of processing a highly elastic stent made from a Ni—Ti—Nb based alloy which contains from about 4 to about 14 at. % Nb and in which the atomic percent ratio Ni to Ti is from about 3.8 to 1.2, comprising working the alloy sufficiently to impart a textured structure to the alloy, at a temperature below the recrystallization temperature of the alloy. Preferably, the alloy is worked at least 10%, by a technique such as rolling or drawing, or another technique which produces a similar crystal structure. The alloy has increased stiffness compared with Ni—Ti binary alloys with superelastic properties.
For the case of shape memory recovery mentioned earlier, the thermoelastic shape memory alloys can change from martensite to austenite and back again on heating and cooling over a very small temperature range, typically from 18° C. to 55° C. On cooling from the austenitic phase, often called the parent phase, martensite starts to form at a temperature designated as Ms (martensite start) and upon reaching the tower temperature, Mf (martensite finish), the alloy is completely martensitic. Upon heating from below the Mf temperature the martensite starts to revert to the austenitic structure at As, and when the temperature designated as Af is reached, the alloy is completely austenitic. These two crystalline phases have very different mechanical properties: the Young's Modulus of austenite is 12×106 psi (82,728 MPa), while that for martensite is about 4×106 psi (27576 MPa); and the yield strength, which depends on the amount of cold work the alloy is given, ranges from 28 to 100 thousand pound per square inch (ksi) (193 to 689 MPa) for austenite and from 10 to 20 ksi (68 to 138 MPa) for martensite.
Additionally, a NITINOL structure processed to exhibit shape memory and deformed in the martensitic state can recover up to 8% strain on heating to austenite. This would be an extremely handy way to deploy devices or recover accidental bending and kinking of devices in the human body if it were not for the heating and cooling extremes that must be achieved.
Simpson, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,770,725, discloses a Ni—Ti—Nb shape memory alloy and article, wherein niobium varies from about 2.5 to 30 at. %. Also disclosed is an article made from these nickel/titanium/niobium alloys.
Simpson, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,631,094, discloses a method of processing a nickel/titanium-based shape memory alloy. The method comprises over deforming the alloy so as to cause at least some amount of non-recoverable strain, temporarily expanding the transformation hysteresis by raising the austenite transformation temperature, removing the applied stress and then storing the alloy at a temperature less than the new austenite transition temperature. Simpson also discloses an article produced from this method.
Wu, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,053,992, discloses a mechanism that uses the shape recovery of a shape memory alloy for sealing openings or high-pressure passages. A component made of a shape memory alloy can be processed in its martensitic state to have a reduced dimension smaller than that of the opening or the passage to be sealed. Upon heating, shape recovery takes place that is associated with the reverse crystalline phase transformation of martensite. The shape recovery of the previously processed shape memory alloy component yields a diameter greater than that of the opening or passage to be sealed. The shape recovery provides the dimensional interference and force required for sealing.
Wu, et al., builds on the work of Simpson, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,770,725, to use both the defined chemistry and the specified process method to effect a specific heat sealing application which employs a heat activated recovery transformation.
The wide thermal hysteresis available from thermal and mechanical treatment of alloys disclosed in the literature is attractive for articles which make use of a thermally induced configuration change, since it enables an article to be stored in the deformed configuration in the martensite phase, at the same temperature at which it will then be in use, in the austenite phase. This thermal and mechanical treatment is used in a variety of industrial heat—to recover couplings and connectors (L. Mcd. Schetky, The Applications of Constrained Recovery Shape Memory Devices for Connectors, Sealing and Clamping, Proceedings Super-elastic Technologies, Pacific Grove, Calif. (1994)).
It has been reported that a reverse transformation start temperature As′ has been raised to +70° C. after specimens were deformed to 16% strain at different temperatures, where the initial states of the specimens were pure austenite phase and/or martensite phase depending upon the pre-straining temperature regime. It was found that a transformation hysteresis width of 200° C. could be attained and the reverse transformation temperatures were measured by forcing a shape-memory recovery via heating, and that up to 50% of the pre-strain could be recovered. The work was done by Xiang-Ming He, et, al, Study of the Ni41.3Ti38.7Nb20 Wide Transformation Hysteresis Shape Memory Alloy, Metallurgical and Materials Transactions, Vol. 35A, September 2004. The work cited is an optimization of various pre-straining conditions to maximize the strain recovery possible for heat recovery application.
While the wide hysteresis confers certain advantages when the thermally induced changes in configuration are to be exploited, a wide hysteresis in stress-strain behavior is generally inconsistent with the properties of an alloy that are desirable in stent or medical device applications.
Various methods have been described to deliver and implant stents. One method frequently described for delivering a stent to a desired intraluminal location includes mounting the expandable stent on an expandable member, such as a balloon, provided on the distal end of an intravascular catheter, advancing the catheter to the desired location within the patient's body lumen, inflating the balloon on the catheter to expand the stent into a permanent expanded condition and then deflating the balloon and removing the catheter. One of the difficulties encountered using other stents involved maintaining the radial rigidity needed to hold open a body lumen while at the same time maintaining the longitudinal flexibility of the stent to facilitate its delivery.
What has been needed and heretofore unavailable is a stent which has a high degree of flexibility so that it can be advanced through tortuous passageways, can be readily expanded, and yet have the mechanical strength to hold open the body lumen into which it expanded.
Thus, it is desirable to develop an alloy that is very ductile and uniquely suited for deployment of medical devices, such as stents, into the human body. In particular, for stents, it is desirable that the compressed stent maintain its shape until expanded.

Method for producing strain induced austenite


An inflator (12) includes structure (40, 50, 82) defining a chamber (130). First and second passages (92 and 116) extend through the structure (40, 50, 82). A burst disk (120) closes the first passage (116). A valve housing (142) is received in the second passage (92) and defines a fill passage (154). A fluid (186) is stored under pressure in the chamber (130). An igniter (70) is actuatable for opening the burst disk (120) for enabling the fluid (186) to flow out of the chamber (130) through the first passage (116). A valve member (144) enables flow of the fluid (186) through the fill passage (154) of the valve housing (142) into the chamber (130) and prevents flow out of the chamber (130) through the fill passage (154).

A conventional inflator for inflating an inflatable vehicle occupant protection device includes a container having a storage chamber. Inflation fluid under pressure is stored in the storage chamber. An igniter assembly is associated with the container and is actuatable for heating the inflation fluid in the storage chamber to increase the fluid pressure in the storage chamber. The increased fluid pressure ruptures a burst disk. The ruptured burst disk defines an outlet opening through which the inflation fluid flows.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,529,333 describes an inflator for inflating an air bag that includes a container that defines a storage chamber. The container has an opening that leads to the storage chamber. A plug member is received in the opening of the container and closes the opening of the container. Two passages extend through the plug member. A first passage through the plug member enables inflation fluid to flow from the storage chamber toward an air bag. A wall portion of the plug member closes the first passage. The wall portion of the plug member includes a break away center. An actuator is actuatable for opening the break away center of the wall portion of the plug member to form an outlet opening through which inflation fluid flows. A second passage through the plug member is provided for filling the storage chamber with inflation fluid. A ball is located in the second passage for preventing inflation fluid from flowing out of the storage chamber of the container through the second passage of the plug member.

Stored gas inflator with fill valve assembly


A semiconductor device includes at least one semiconductor constructing body provided on one side of a base member, and having a semiconductor substrate and a plurality of external connecting electrodes provided on the semiconductor substrate. An insulating layer is provided on the one side of the base member around the semiconductor constructing body. An adhesion increasing film is formed between the insulating layer, and at least one of the semiconductor constructing body and the base member around the semiconductor constructing body, for preventing peeling between the insulating layer and the at least one of the semiconductor constructing body and base member.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device having an adhesion increasing film and a method of fabricating the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional semiconductor device disclosed in Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2003-298005 includes solder balls as connecting terminals disposed outside a plane size of a silicon substrate. Therefore, this semiconductor device has a structure in which a silicon substrate having a plurality of connecting pads on its upper surface is adhered to the upper surface of a base plate via an adhesive layer, an insulating layer is formed on the upper surface of the base plate around the silicon substrate, an upper insulating film is formed on the upper surfaces of the silicon substrate and insulating layer, upper interconnections are formed on the upper surface of the upper insulating film and respectively connected to the connecting pads of the silicon substrate, portions except for connecting pad portions of the upper interconnections are covered with an uppermost insulating film, and solder balls are formed on the connecting pad portions of the upper interconnections.
In the above conventional semiconductor device, the side surfaces of the silicon substrate and the upper surface of the base plate are covered with an insulating layer made of, e.g., polyimide or epoxy resin. This decreases the adhesion between the side surfaces of the silicon substrate and the insulating layer or between the upper surface of the base plate and the insulating layer. As a consequence, thermal stress or mechanical stress causes peeling between the silicon substrate and insulating layer or between the base plate and insulating layer.

Semiconductor device having adhesion increasing film to prevent peeling


An absorbent article has an absorbent material and an outer surface including an inhibitor which is partially bound to the absorbent material and substantially inhibits the colonization of bacteria within the absorbent article.

Disposable absorbent devices for the absorption of human exudates are widely used. These disposable devices typically have a compressed mass of absorbent formed in the desired shape, which is typically dictated by the intended consumer use. For example, in the case of menstrual tampons, the device is intended to be inserted at least partially into a body cavity for absorption of the body fluids generally discharged during a woman's menstrual period.
There exists in the human female body a complex process which maintains the vagina and physiologically related areas in a healthy state. In females between the age of menarche and menopause, the normal vagina provides an ecosystem for a variety of microorganisms, which must be maintained in a relatively delicate balance. Bacteria are the predominate type of microorganisms present in the vagina, and most women harbor about 109 bacteria per gram of vaginal secretions. The bacterial flora of the vagina is comprised of both aerobic and anaerobic bacteria. The more commonly isolated bacteria include Lactobacillus species, Corynebacteria species, Gardnerella vaginalis, Staphylococcus species, Peptococcus species, aerobic and anaerobic Streptococcal species, and Bacteroides/Preuotella species. Other microorganisms that have been isolated from the vagina on occasion include yeast (Candida albicans), protozoa (Trichomonas vaginalis), mycoplasma (Mycoplasma hominis), chlamydia (Chlamydia trachomatis), and viruses (Herpes simplex). These latter organisms are generally associated with vaginitis or sexually transmitted diseases, although they may be present in low numbers without causing symptoms.
Physiological, social and idiosyncratic factors affect the quantity and species of bacteria present in the vagina. Physiological factors include age, days of the menstrual cycle, and pregnancy. For example, vaginal flora present in the vagina throughout the menstrual cycle can include Lactobacilli, corynebacterium, ureaplasma, and mycoplasma. Social and idiosyncratic factors include presence and method of birth control, sexual practices, systemic disease (e.g., diabetes), and medication.
Bacterial proteins and metabolic products produced in the vagina can affect other microorganisms and the human host. For example, generally the pH of the vagina between menstrual periods is mildly acidic, having a pH ranging from about 3.8 to about 4.5. This pH range is generally considered the most favorable condition for the maintenance of normal flora. At that pH, the vagina normally harbors the numerous species of microorganisms in a balanced ecology, playing a beneficial role in providing protection and resistance to infection and making the vagina inhospitable to some species of bacteria such as S. aureus. The low pH is a consequence of the growth of Lactobacilli and their production of acidic products. Microorganisms in the vagina can also produce antimicrobial compounds such as hydrogen peroxide and bacteriocins which attack and eliminate other bacterial species. One example is the lactocins, bacteriocin-like products of Lactobacilli directed against other species of Lactobacilli. Some microbial products may affect the human host. For example, S. aureus can produce and excrete into its environment a variety of exoproteins including enterotoxins, toxic shock syndrome toxin-1 ("TSST-1"), and enzymes such as protease and lipase.
Vaginal menstrual toxic shock syndrome is a rare syndrome characterized by rapid onset of high fever, vomiting, diarrhea, and rash followed by a rapid drop in blood pressure and vital organ failure. TSS is associated with the presence of S. aureus bacteria and one or more exotoxins which are produced by the bacteria. The exotoxins associated with TSS include but may not be limited to Streptococcus: Exotoxin A, Exotoxin B, Exotoxin C and Staphylococca: Pyrogenic Exotoxin C, Enterotoxin A, Enterotoxin B, Enterotoxin C, Enterotoxin F, and TSST-1. Using traditional culture based techniques, S. aureus has been identified in the vagina of approximately 16% of healthy women of menstrual age (Recent clinical studies using DNA based techniques have shown this number to be much higher). It has been found that approximately 10% of the S. aureus isolated from the vagina are capable of producing TSST-1. TSS is not caused by the bacteria per se but rather by the toxic effects of the associated exotoxin which can pass from the vagina and other internal body cavities into the blood stream.
TSS has been associated with the use of absorbent pads within the vagina which may promote the growth of bacteria and the production of exotoxin in their vicinity. The syndrome has been observed with surgical dressings, and is also associated with the use of catamenial tampons. The syndrome appears to occur with elevated frequency in association with those absorbent pads which are characterized by high levels of absorbency and which accordingly are left inside the body for extended periods.
While a preferred approach for reducing the risk of TSS when using absorbent pads is proper use and frequent changes of new pads for used ones, various other approaches have been proposed by the art for reducing the risk of TSS associated with an internal absorbent pad. One approach is the incorporation of antimicrobial or bacteriocidal agents into the absorbent pad such as the use of iodine bactericides in tampons and catamenial sponges. Such an approach is not always suitable for use in the catamenial product, however, because a bactericide which is active against S. aureus can adversely affect other beneficial bacteria which make up the vaginal flora, thereby upsetting the healthy balance discussed above. Another related method describes the use of catamenial tampons comprising substances such as organic acids which will maintain a pH of about 4.5 to about 2.5 in the fluids absorbed during the use of the tampon such that the growth of pathogenic bacteria is inhibited.
Other approaches are directed to inactivation of the TSS toxin such as the administration of L-ascorbic acid for the detoxification of the S. aureus toxins, Pyrogenic, Exotoxin C (Schlievert) and Staphylococcal Enterotoxin F (Bergdoll) TSS-1. While this method does not ascribe a mechanism for the effectiveness of ascorbic acid at neutralizing TSS-1, it observes that L-ascorbic acid is known to be a reducing agent and strong antioxidant and that it may operate to inactivate bacterial toxins by reducing disulfide bonds within the toxins.
Another approach is directed to the incorporation of substances within an absorbent pad which inhibit the production of TSS exotoxins by S. aureus. This method describes the incorporation of non-toxic divalent magnesium cations in absorbent pads to reduce the concentrations of available magnesium binding ions below those critical for optimal production of TSST-1 and other staphylococcus products.
Despite these developments, there remains a desire in the art for absorbent pads suitable for internal use, including catamenial tampons, which are characterized by improved immobilization of TSST-1 toxin generated within the absorbent product without adversely affecting the normal vaginal flora.

Abstract: An absorbent article has an absorbent material. The absorbent material has an outer surface. The absorbent article includes a pre-toxin limiting agent which is partially bound to the absorbent material and substantially retards the production of bacteria-produced toxins by the bacteria residing within the absorbent article.

Abstract: An absorbent article has an absorbent material. The absorbent material has an outer surface. The absorbent article includes a toxin enclosing agent. The toxin enclosing agent substantially inhibits the migration of toxin outwardly from within the absorbent article towards the outer surface of the absorbent article.


A gate turn-off thyristor (GTO) device has a lower portion, an upper portion and a lid. The lower portion has a lower base region of a first conductivity type, and a lower emitter region of a second conductivity type disposed at or from a lower surface of the lower base region. A lower junction is formed between the lower base region and the lower emitter region. The upper portion has an upper base region of the second conductivity type, and upper emitter regions of the first conductivity type disposed at or from an upper surface of the upper base region. An upper-lower junction is formed between the lower base region and the upper base region, and upper junctions are formed between the upper base region and the upper emitter regions. The upper base region and upper emitter regions form an upper base surface with first conductive contacts to the upper base region alternating with second conductive contacts to the upper emitter regions. The lid has a layer of insulator with upper and lower surfaces. Upper metal stripes extend along the upper surface of the insulator, and lower metal stripes extend along the lower surface of the insulator. The upper and lower metal stripes are connected together by vias that extend through the insulator. One set of the lower metal stripes contacts the first conductive contacts, but not the second conductive contacts. Another set of the lower metal stripes contacts the second conductive contacts, but not the first conductive contacts.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a gate turn-off thyristor having uniform current, low impedance and ultra-low gate impedance differential to all parts of the device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional Gate Turn-off thyristors (GTO) are made with large feature sizes and emitters that are defined by deep silicon etches. Those GTOs are designed to accommodate large gate currents that flow in the gate metalization in turn-off and so that the gates are not shorted to the cathode when packaged in the standard hockey puck (or PressPak) package. Advanced GTOs having fine linewidths can be made in modern wafer fabrication facilities. However, providing low inductance and resistance gate contacts to all parts of the devices has not been previously shown as is done in the present invention.
High voltage GTO or SCR based systems are expensive due to package and assembly costs and the cost of gate drives. In addition, those high voltage GTO or SCR based systems have only marginal device performance. The packages are large, must be clamped at thousands of pounds of pressure, and have large inductances. Even though the devices can be cooled on two sides, that cooling is greatly degraded because the heat conducts across several dry interfaces. Due to the cost and yield of silicon, high voltage thyristor structures are used for the largest current and highest voltage applications.
PressPak packaging is difficult and expensive to effectively combine MOS-type devices with GTOs, especially where parasitic gate inductance and resistance are key to performance. One packaging alternative is to modify the power module in their high power IGBT modules. One technique presently used to build high-current and high-voltage IGBTs (Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors) is to attach the bottom surfaces of many discrete IGBT chips in parallel on a common collector electrode on a heat sink, and to attach parallel gate and emitter electrodes to their top surfaces, using wire bonding or soldered electrodes, and to assemble these into a larger module package.
Another technique is to begin with many small devices, each already assembled in its own small package, and to connect these in parallel in a larger module package. In those packages, thermal resistance is approximately the same as for the PressPak package. Dry interfaces are eliminated, a thinner path is provided to the heat sink, and the heat source is distributed, i.e., there are several parallel die. However, one-sided cooling is provided, which is not as effective as two-sided cooling. Nonetheless, an overall lower thermal impedance is achieved over the PressPak packaging.
An example of the PressPak packaging is shown, for instance, in FIG. 1. The device is a monolithic full silicon wafer, rather than a number of discrete individual chips in parallel. The silicon wafer may be in the range of 25 to 40 mils thick and 2-6 inches in diameter. This wafer is hard-soldered or brazed to a refractory metal such as tungsten or molybdenum which has a coefficient of thermal expansion close to that of silicon, with a thickness of around 100 mils and a diameter just slightly larger than that of the silicon wafer. The silicon-plus-metal disc is then placed between two copper pole-pieces that provide electrical and thermal contact to both sides of the disc. The pole pieces that press against the disc are flat and polished, and are firmly held together by an electrically insulating structure, so they press toward each other, against opposite sides of the disc with high pressure to assure good thermal contact.
ThinPak technology is a power semiconductor packaging technique developed by Silicon Power Corporation. The ThinPak packaging technique eliminates wire bonds, results in near 100% power module yields, reduces parasitics by an order of magnitude, and simplifies module manufacturing so that it can be automated as a simple pick and place operation.
Present GTO devices have large feature size, primarily due to the need for a high current gate that is formed by etching into silicon about 10-15 microns. When the pole piece is clamped to the top surface, the emitter fingers are contacted while the recessed gate is brought out to an external gate contact. GTO finger width is typically 25 mils (or about 600 microns), and finger length is about 200 mils.
GTOs have been made having a turn-off effected by discrete FET chips packaged inside a PressPak packaged GTO which are gated to effectively short the GTO gate and cathode. Both 53 and 77 mm devices have been produced with voltages as high as 9000 volts. This greatly reduces the cost and size of the turn-off gate drive. Compared to an MCT, in which the FET is built into every cell, a larger area die than a MOS gated device is achieved. A high voltage MOS gated device is obtained without taking all of the silicon through both the FET and the HV GTO processes.
In principle, a sufficient number of FETs can be paralleled to turn off any current. In practice, however, the amount of current that can be turned off is governed by the worst GTO finger-to-gate FET circuit inductance, which, for a high performance device, must be in the nano-henry gate inductance range and the sub-nanohenry gate differential inductance region. If the inductance can be made to approach zero, then the turn-off is dominated by 1) GTO finger current uniformity, and 2) the finger width and upper base sheet resistance under the GTO fingers. Finger sizes of the order of those found in planar transistors, (i.e., instead of 20 to 30 mil finger repeat distances 2 to 3 mils) have been used to increase the theoretical maximum current that can be turned off. The difficulty here is that this small geometry is not compatible with the traditional close tube approach in which the fingers are defined by a deep etch and the cathode pressure contacted.
Another shortcoming of the conventional devices is that they do not interdigitate high current gate and cathode contacts with very small (microns) separation. Yet another problem is that they cannot achieve a stable, high voltage breakdown voltage without the normal deep, closed tube diffusion. A GTO and bipolar transistor is needed that can be made with planar geometries and MOSFET-like cell sizes that are packaged to allow high current contacts to die areas as small as several mils on a side equally well to both gate and cathode in a GTO or emitter in a transistor.


A transaction terminal provides processing for payment using a cryptocurrency during a transaction being conducted at the transaction terminal. The transaction terminal further provides processing for a refund transaction utilizing cryptocurrency.

Cryptocurrencies are growing in popularity with consumers and even within the investment community. In fact, Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) are available for investing in Bitcoin. Some retirements plans also support investing in cryptocurrencies. Yet, retailers have been reluctant to move towards acceptance of cryptocurrencies because their existing payment processing, interfaces, and terminals do not support such forms of payment.
There are also risks associated with accepting cryptocurrencies as a form of tender for a transaction. The exchange value of cryptocurrency can fluctuate substantially day over day and even intraday. Furthermore, some cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin can take a substantial amount of time until confirmation is provided to the seller (e.g., retailer). Bitcoin can take 15 minutes or more to fully confirm a bitcoin transfer from a buyer's wallet to a seller's wallet.
Still further and even for retailers that have considered or are considering offering cryptocurrencies as a form of tender, there is nothing in the industry whatsoever that is able to provide a refund process to the consumers when the consumers used cryptocurrency as payment for a product and the consumers return a product back to a retailer for a refund. Presumably, such refunds would just be in-store credits to the consumer and not a refund of actual government-backed currency or a refund of the original cryptocurrency used by the consumer for the original product purchase with the retailer.

Cryptocurrency payment and refund processing on a transaction terminal


Period-one nonlinear dynamics of semiconductor lasers are utilized to provide an apparatus for photonic microwave power amplification in radio-over-fiber links through optical modulation depth improvement. The microwave power amplification apparatus includes a microwave-modulated optical signal generation module and a microwave power amplification module. The amplification capability of the present microwave power amplification apparatus covers a broad microwave range, from less than 25 GHz to more than 60 GHz, and a wide gain range, from less than 10 dB to more than 30 dB. The microwave phase quality is mainly preserved while the microwave power is largely amplified, improving the signal-to-noise ratio up to at least 25 dB. The bit-error ratio at 1.25 Gb/s is better than 10−9 and a sensitivity improvement of up to at least 15 dB is feasible.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a microwave power amplification apparatus and method thereof by using, particularly, period-one nonlinear dynamics of semiconductor lasers.
2. Description of the Related Art
Communication networks are generally classified into wireless networks and wireline networks. In the wireless networks, microwaves are used as carriers to deliver data through air to provide communication between mobile electronic devices. In the wireline networks based on optical technologies, optical waves function as carriers to deliver data through optical fibers to provide communication between immobilized electronic devices. These two networks depend on completely different communication approaches and cover completely different communication scopes. Due to the rapid advances of broadband wireless technologies and also due to the various developments of online applications, the capacity demand for data transmission in the wireless networks increases considerably. If the wireless networks are required to manage both the front-end data transmission between users and wireless base stations and the back-end data transmission between the wireless base stations and central offices, currently developed broadband wireless technologies are not capable of meeting the vast capacity demand for data transmission when the wireless networks are simultaneously accessed by a variety of different users or devices.
Since each channel of the wireline networks based on optical technologies provides data transmission capacity of the order of a few Gbits/s to tens of Gbits/s, the optical communication networks are highly suitable to work as backbones for huge back-end data transmission for various network applications. Therefore, radio-over-fiber (RoF) networks which integrate the wireless networks (responsible for the front-end data transmission) and the optical wireline networks (responsible for the back-end data transmission) have become very attractive for the next generation of communication technology and system.
To ensure the communication quality in the RoF networks, the power of the microwaves needs to be high enough. Three approaches are commonly adopted to increase the microwave power. In the first approach, electronic microwave amplifiers are used after photo-detection at base stations. However, to fulfill the demand of considerably increasing data transmission in the future, significantly more data bandwidth is necessary. This therefore requires continuous upgrade or replacement of the electronic microwave amplifiers with higher bandwidth capability, suggesting an enhancement of operation cost. In the second approach, optical power amplifiers are used before photo-detection to increase the power of the input optical signals upon photodetectors. However, too much of the input optical power would damage the photodetectors. In the third approach, the optical modulation depth of the input optical signals is increased, which in turn increases the microwave power after photo-detection under the same received optical power. This can be achieved by increasing the microwave power when directly or externally modulating semiconductor lasers. However, nonlinear effects, such as harmonic or intermodulation distortion, are generally induced, which affect the quality of the received signals. In addition, under the same received optical power at the photodetectors, the optical modulation depth can be increased by reducing the power difference between the optical modulation sidebands and the optical carrier, which is commonly quantified by the sideband-to-carrier ratio (SCR). Currently, the optical filtering scheme is applied to achieve a better SCR value by suppressing the power of the optical carrier while maintaining that of the optical modulation sidebands. This, however, considerably reduces the overall power of the optical signal and therefore requires extra optical power amplifiers to compensate for the power loss.

Microwave power amplification apparatus and method thereof


There is provided an optical reading/writing apparatus. The optical reading/writing apparatus includes an object lens barrel for mounting an object lens, an SIL (solid immersion lens) barrel for mounting an SIL, the SIL barrel being separated from the object lens barrel, and a movement control unit for selectively aligning the SIL with the object lens according to a type of an optical storage medium.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical reading/writing apparatus and method.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, a high-density optical storage medium such as a Blue-Ray disk (BD) that can store a large capacity of high definition video data and high quality audio data has been developed.
As standardization of the BD is quickly progressed, it is expected that related products will be developed and commercialized.
As a next generation of the optical reading/writing driver, a variety of drives relating to the BD have been introduced. The BD can store 25 GB data on its single surface. When the BD is a dual layer disk, it can store about 50 GB video/audio data.
In order to increase the storage capacity of the optical storage medium, a wavelength of laser beams is shortened or a numerical aperture of an object lens is enlarged.
FIG. 1 is a schematic view of an optical reading/writing apparatus according to the related art.
Referring to FIG. 1, beams emitted from a laser diode 10 are converted into parallel beams by a collimator lens 11. Then, the parallel beams are converged on a disk by an optical lens 13 after they pass through a beam splitter 12.
The beam reflected from the disk 14 is transmitted to the beam splitter 12 via the object lens 13 and is then reflected to an optical detector 16 via a sensor lens 15.
However, in an optical system depicted in FIG. 1, the reduction of the wavelength to increase a storage capacity is at the end of its limitation. In addition, the enlargement of the numerical aperture in a conventional far-field optical reading/writing method cannot sufficiently increase the storage capacity.
Therefore, in order to increase the storage capacity, a near-field optical reading/writing method using a solid immersion lens (SIL) has been used. This is illustrated in FIG. 2.
As shown in FIG. 2, in the near-field method, an SIL 22 is disposed below an object lens 21. The SIL 22 is semi-spherical and formed of a medium having a refractive index greater than 1. By the SIL lens 22, the numerical aperture of the object lens 21 becomes n*NA to be above 1, thereby dramatically increasing the storage capacity.
Meanwhile, as shown in FIG. 3, since the SIL 22 is fixedly mounted on a barrel 30 together with the object lens 21, it is impossible to use other types of disks. That is, a variety of disks such as the BD, the digital versatile disk (DVD), a compact disk (CD) and the like cannot be compatibly used. Therefore, users have to use both existing optical drives and new optical drives to use both new and existing optical disks.

Optical reading/writing apparatus and method


A hand held, one touch jar opener can be placed on a jar and activated with a momentary touch of a button. An epicyclic gear train is set to sequentially provide a grip on a jar, and on a lid, followed by development of torque needed to move the lid in a counterclockwise direction with respect to the jar. The principles embodied in the opener shown can be realized in an opener which can be manually powered, or preferably motorized and possibly highly automated. A differential geartrain provides reduction of speed and increase in torque and then provides two balanced and opposing forces through the epicyclic gear assembly having sun and planet gears. This configuration enables a wide variety of screw-on lids and jars to be automatically closed to match the correct diameters, apply a gripping force and then apply torque in an opposing direction.

Screw on Lids have been used on food and drink containers for over 100 years, with screw threads being an effective way of giving a high sealing force between lid and container, usually sealed by an elastomer seal. However, a combination of factors cause contemporary containers to be more difficult to first open than ever. Sometimes the contents are sealed with an internal vacuum for more security, which increases the force necessary to unseal the container. Other containers have a security mechanism or other additional structure. To overcome these sealing, friction and vacuum forces, Jar and bottle lids often require users with significant strength and manual dexterity to break the grip of the seal and loosen the lid. Once the lid is initially loosened, the loose lid can easily be removed by hand. Jar and bottle openers which aid unscrewing tight lids by giving user extra grip and mechanical leverage on the lid date back to 1900 and prior. Of the various methods of gripping jars and Lids, an "Edlund" has been utilized in which one structure which is turned in one direction can be used to grip and rotate simultaneously. A central turning handle includes a pinion which operates a rack to compress around a lid. The same direction of turning of the handle which causes the members to compress around the lid also enable turning of the lid once the maximum compression for a non turning lid is achieved.
The use of this mechanism has also been accomplished using a force gradient across the height of a container in a device which holds the bottom of the container and the top of the container, possibly using two separate "Edlund" devices, or one "Edlund" device and a static holder. One of the problems with this arrangement is that such a device is significantly large and occupies significant shelf space, and it takes time to load and secure the container to be opened, and compressive forces at the bottom of the container can cause container damage and breakage in the case of a glass container. Containers are not necessarily weakest adjacent their bottom support surface. Further, the device has to be unloaded after the opening process has completed. The lack of ease of use from loading and unloading, as well as counter space occupation makes these devices ineffective.
What is needed is a product which will not occupy significant shelf space, which is small, portable and will not subject containers to opening forces across the height of the container and which are simple to use. The needed device should not be wed to one size or configuration of container to be opened. The needed device should be cyclical and provide an automatic reset action after opening.

Daka Research Inc. (Br. Virg. Isl Corp.) OffshoreIncorporations


A device monitors angular position. The device includes a media platter and a magneto-resistance sensor. The media platter includes a track of data encoded on a surface of the media platter. The magneto-resistance sensor is located adjacent to the media platter and situated so that resistance of a magneto-resistant device within the magneto-resistance sensor is affected by rotation of the media platter.

The present invention relates to sensing rotary and angular position.
Giant magneto-resistance (GMR) sensors have been used with north-south pole magnets for rotary position sensing. For example, a GMR sensor is placed directly above magnet poles or at the circumference of a magnetic disk composed of multiple magnets having north-south magnet poles. In order to increase resolution of position detection, the number of north-south pole pairs can be increased or more than one GMR sensor can be used for interpolation. The achievable resolution is limited by the number of north-south pole magnet sections that can be created on a magnetic disk and/or the density that GMR sensors can be fabricated to detect the north-south pole pairs created on the magnetic disk.


A method and apparatus for transmitting data packets between a client and a server comprising, a network node receiving a data packet from a client; determining whether an identity (hereafter session id) exists for a communication session with the client. The network node transmits the data packet to a server if no session id exists. The server generates the session id, and transmits the session id to the network node. The network node transmits subsequent data packets received from the client to the server along with the session id. The server transmits subsequent data packets to the network node along with the session id. The network node removes at least the session id prior to transmitting the data packets to the client.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to the field of networking. In particular, the present invention is related to a method and apparatus for communicating using labeled data packets in a network.
2. Description of the Related Art
Due to the growth of networks, scalable and reliable network services that use low latency high bandwidth system area networks (SANs) are being deployed in data centers. FIG. 1 illustrates a network architecture 100 wherein a network 150 such as a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN) or the Internet is connected to a SAN 160 that includes one or more network nodes 140a–140n connected to one or more application servers 120a–120n. Typically, application servers host network services, and communicate with network clients, e.g., client 152, through network nodes using Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP). Please see Request For Comment (RFC) 793 titled "Transmission Control Protocol DARPA Internet Program Protocol Specification" for details on TCP. Also, please see RFC 791 titled "Internet Protocol DARPA Internet Program Protocol Specification" for details on IP. For each communication session, when a packet, for example, a TCP/IP packet such as a request for information from client 152 on the Internet arrives at a network node, e.g., 140a, address information such as the source IP address, the source TCP port number, the destination IP address and the destination TCP port number is obtained from the packet, and either entered (in the case of a new communication), or searched (in the case of an existing communication) in a forwarding table 250 as illustrated in FIG. 2. The packet may be transmitted to its destination, for example, an application server 120a using the physical address of the destination port.
When the packet arrives at application server 120a, for a particular communication session, address information such as the source IP address, the source TCP port number, the destination IP address and the destination port number is obtained from the packet and either entered or searched in a table similar to the one indicated in FIG. 2. The application server 120a may retrieve the requested information for client 152, and transmit the packet containing the requested information back to network node 140a.
When the packet with the requested information arrives at the network node 140a, the network node obtains address information from the packet and searches the forwarding table on the network node for the physical port through which the packet is to be forwarded to client 152. Thus, for each packet received from a client for a particular communication session, a search for address information is performed at the network node, at the application server, and again at the network node prior to transmitting the packet back to the client requesting the information. This redundant searching for session information for each packet is inefficient and time consuming.

Method and apparatus for communicating using labeled data packets in a network


The invention relates to compounds of formula I

The invention relates generally to compounds comprising bis-carbazole units that are difunctional. The invention also relates to monomers comprising bis-carbazole units and polymers, dendrimers and hyper-branched materials derived therefrom.
Organic light emitting devices (OLEDs), which make use of thin film materials that emit light when subjected to a voltage bias, are expected to become an increasingly popular form of flat panel display technology. This is because OLEDs have a wide variety of potential applications, including cellphones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), computer displays, informational displays in vehicles, television monitors, as well as light sources for general illumination. Due to their bright colors, wide viewing angle, compatibility with full motion video, broad temperature ranges, thin and conformable form factor, low power requirements and the potential for low cost manufacturing processes, OLEDs are seen as a future replacement technology for cathode ray tubes (CRTs) and liquid crystal displays (LCDs). Due to their high luminous efficiencies, OLEDs are seen as having the potential to replace incandescent, and perhaps even fluorescent, lamps for certain types of applications.
One approach to achieve full-color OLEDs includes energy transfer from host to emissive guest molecules. For this to be realized, the triplet energy state of the host has to be higher than the guest molecule. Carbazole derivatives have shown promise to perform well as host molecule in the presence of metal containing emissive guest molecules. Often used in this respect is poly(N-vinyl carbazole). However, quantum efficiencies of devices that use poly(N-vinyl carbazole) is still at the range of about 60 to 80%. Thus, there is a need in the art to develop OLEDs having device quantum efficiencies, while still maintaining the potential for the molecules to host red, green, and blue emissive complexes.

Abstract: wherein    R1, R2, and R4 are independently at each occurrence a C1-C20 aliphatic radical, a C3-C20 aromatic radical, or a C3-C20 cycloaliphatic radical; R3 and R5 are independently at each occurrence hydrogen, a C1-C20 aliphatic radical, a C3-C20 aromatic radical, or a C3-C20 cycloaliphatic radical; and    a, b and d are independently 0 or an integer ranging from 1 to 3.

Abstract: The invention further relates to polymers derived from compounds of formula I. The polymers may be polyesters, polyethers, polycarbonates, polyestercarbonates, polyetherketones, or polyethersulfones. Compounds and polymers of the invention find use in light emitting devices.


A lens cover includes a cap adapted to be pivotably supported on an optical device. A stop may be positioned to interfere with spring-driven movement of the cap and to brake the cap at an intermediate position between closed and open positions thereof, and to allow the cap to be manually moved to the fully open position. An optional detent structure is disclosed for releasably retaining the cap in its open position. A mounting ring assembly of the lens cover may include a first threaded ring member for attachment to the optical device and a second ring member rotatably coupled to the first ring member for positioning a hinge that pivotably attaches the cap to the second ring member. Magnets may be included to retain the cap in the closed position. The mounting ring assembly, the cap, or both may be formed of a metal such as aluminum.

U.S. Pat. No. 2,488,188 of Halvorson, U.S. Pat. No. 2,534,061 of Rogers, U.S. Pat. No. 2,738,585 of Vissing, U.S. Pat. No. 2,849,795 of Vissing, U.S. Pat. No. 3,831,285 of Vissing, U.S. Pat. No. 5,495,676 of Chestnut et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,416,189 of Watson, U.S. Pat. No. 6,799,854 of Steiner, U.S. Pat. No. 6,811,268 of Watson and D445,475 of Spear describe various pivoting lens caps for riflescopes and telescopic sights. The present inventor has recognized disadvantages of these designs and has identified a need for an improved pivoting lens cap having a durable weather-tight construction.

Pivoting lens covers for riflescopes and the like


The toothbrush includes a sensor system for determining pressure on the teeth by a direct force measurement such as displacement, and a system for determining pressure on the teeth by a dynamic load measurement system, such as phase shift. These different pressure results are combined with peak-to-peak bristle motion values of Hall effect output values and compared to a table to obtain a more accurate value of bristle pressure against the teeth and to raise, lower or maintain the trigger threshold of excessive pressure accordingly.

The use of a pressure sensor is well known in power toothbrushes. Such sensors, also referred to as load sensors, actually measure force, in grams, which the bristle field applies to the teeth. However, the results of such sensors typically include other types of loads, such as loads produced by the cheek, tongue and lips, in addition to direct bristle force against the teeth produced by user action. An accurate indication of bristle pressure against the teeth, apart from the other loads, would provide better information for the user as well as adapt the appliance for better effectiveness.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a pressure/force sensing system which provides more accurate information to the user concerning the application of excessive force.


With the use of a smaller tube which fits inside the nock end of a arrow shaft and the smaller tube having molded in it spiraled grooves which acts upon dimples that are molded in the arrow shaft body and when the bowstring drives the smaller tube into the arrow shaft causeing the whole arrow shaft to spinn, the results of which allows the arrow shaft to oscillate less, fly stright without vanes, and faster with more peneration and will enter a close range target stright.

This invention relates to archery components, particularly a method of spinning the arrow shaft immediately upon being released from a bow.
Presently, most arrow shafts have various sizes and numbers of fletches or vanes of different designs. These vanes are for the purpose of better stablization to start the arrow shaft spinning as early as possiable. Spinning the arrow shaft is a must for stablization, for the following reasons;
First, when a standard arrow shaft is released from a bow, the arrow shaft bends around the bow staff. This is due to the arrow being forced to go from a dead standstill to full speed instantly. This bending back and forth, and the fact that the standard arrow shaft has vanes, account for great wind resistance and decreases arrow shaft speed.
Second; as the standard arrow shaft leaves the bow, it bends back and fourth until the wind hitting the fletches or vanes starts the arrow shaft to spinning. This spinning action is what causes the arrow shaft to stop bending back and forth, and strighten out, and travel more directly to the target.
Third; the more distance the arrow shaft has to travel, the more time it has to straighten out. Accuracy in archery depends greatly on in flight arrow shaft stablization, and stablization depends on spinning.
This invention is designed to start the arrow shaft spinning the moment the arrow nock leaves the bow string. This early spinning gyro action is the absolute basis of accuracy. When an arrow enters a target as if it were shot from some angle other than straight on the target, its due to being shot from very close range, and the arrow shaft has not stopped oscillating. The vaneless arrow shaft assists in solving the above problems.


The present invention relates to methods for evaluating and predicting clinical outcomes in patients by measuring levels of sIP-10 protein expression as well as therapies using sIP-10 and its fragments.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to methods for evaluating and predicting clinical outcomes in patients by measuring levels of protein expression as well as therapies using sIP-10 and its fragments.
2. Description of the Background
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a significant health problem in that chronic hepatitis occurs in about many HCV infected patients and may lead to the development of hepatic cancer. Chronic hepatitis is often treated with interferon α and/or β with varying levels of success.
Even with interferon therapies, there are substantial side effects, and the costs of therapy are very high. Accordingly, there is a need to develop a way to assess when successful results can be expected in an individual patient with a particular IFN therapy.
Thus, an object of the invention is to provide a way in which to predict whether such therapies would be useful for treating certain patients.

Methods of using sIP-10 to assess HCV clearance and/or response to interferon therapy


An apparatus and method for storing moving picture signals in the apparatus equipped with a camera. The method includes the steps of entering a preview mode for enabling the moving picture signals photographed by the camera to be displayed when the camera is powered; coding the photographed moving picture signals and storing the coded moving picture signals in an image memory when a storage key is input in the preview mode; shifting to the preview mode when a temporary pause key is input in a first moving picture storage mode in which the moving picture signals are stored and entering a second moving picture storage mode in which the moving picture signals stored in the image memory are converted to moving picture files and stored; returning to the first moving picture storage mode when the storage key is input in the preview mode; and linking the stored moving picture files to generate one moving picture file and storing the moving picture file, when a record end key is input in the preview mode or the first moving picture storage mode.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for recording moving picture signals. More particularly, the present invention relates to an apparatus and method for synthesizing and recording moving picture signals.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, an image processing apparatus includes a camera for photographing an image and a display module for displaying an image signal photographed by the camera. Herein, the camera may use a charge coupled device (CCD) or a complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) sensor and the display module may use a liquid crystal display ('LCD'). With the miniaturization of the camera device, a device for photographing the image is also miniaturized. Further, many miniaturized digital cameras have become popular. Additionally, the aforementioned camera device has been mounted on a portable terminal. The portable terminal can photograph an image, convert the photographed image to a moving picture or a still picture, and display the moving picture or the still picture. Further, the portable terminal can transmit the photographed image to a base station.
An apparatus equipped with a camera as described above must include a large memory capacity for storing the photographed image data. In particular, in order to photograph moving picture signals, digital camera devices and portable terminals using external expanded memories have come into the market. Further, the aforementioned camera devices and portable terminals have required a large memory capacity for storing moving picture data photographed by cameras. However, when the memory is completely filled with the moving picture data, a photographing function is disabled.
Usually, when moving picture signals are recorded, photographing is performed while a recording operation and a stop operation are repeated. This is because the capacity of a memory (storage device) is limited. That is, when moving picture signals are recorded, a large memory capacity is required. Accordingly, in order to efficiently use the memory in a recording mode, the moving picture signals are recorded while a recording operation and a stop operation are repeated. When the moving picture signals are recorded as described above, a plurality of moving picture files are generated. Accordingly, the moving picture files are stored in memory. Herein, the user of a camera device must reproduce the recorded moving picture signals one by one. Accordingly, it is preferred that the separately recorded moving picture files as described above are synthesized into one moving picture file. Further, it is necessary to provide a method for erasing an undesired portion while reproducing the recorded moving picture signals and generating desired moving picture signals.
Further, if a portable terminal is equipped with the camera device, an incoming call may occur while the moving picture signals are being photographed. Herein, when the incoming call occurs while the photographed moving picture signals are being recorded, a termination alert may be stored in the recorded moving picture signals. Accordingly, when the incoming call occurs while the moving picture signals are being photographed, it is preferable to indicate the occurrence of the incoming call so that the user can selectively process the incoming call.

Apparatus and method for photographing a moving picture


An apparatus for sensing the position of a switched reluctance motor (SRM) is provided, which detects a relative position of a rotor through concentric slit groups formed along different concentric circumferences of a sensor plate and compensates the position of the rotor through a compensating slit which is formed on the sensor plate, thereby effectively preventing the distortion of the position detection pulse from being accumulated and spread by restricting bad influences caused by the distortion of the position detection pulse generated by partial reasons to a relevant position. As a result, since it is possible to prevent the distortion of the position detection pulse from being accumulated and spread by restricting bad influences caused by the distortion of the position detection pulse generated by partial reasons to the relevant position, the rotating torque ripple and noise can be reduced, thereby maximizing the efficiency of the SRM.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for sensing the position of a switched reluctance motor (SRM), and more particularly to an apparatus for sensing the position of a switched reluctance motor (SRM) which detects a relative position of a rotor through concentric slit groups formed along different concentric circumferences of a sensor plate and compensates the position of the rotor through a compensating slit which is formed on the sensor plate.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a switched reluctance motor (SRM) is a kind of a reluctance motor which mainly includes: a polyphase stator which generates a magnetic force by binding an armature coil; a rotor which is rotated by a magnetic attractive force generated according to relative positions of a tooth and the magnetic force generated by the stator; and a position detecting unit which has a position detection sensing unit and a sensor plate and detects the position of the rotor by sensing a position detection pulse by a predetermined angle resolution as the position of the rotor varies. Here, a plurality of teeth are symmetrically formed at the rotor, and the armature coil symmetrically binds each of the polyphase stator. The position detection sensing unit outputs the position detection pulse by detecting the position of the rotor and synchronizes with the position detection pulse, thereby successively driving the polyphase armature coils.
The power supplied to the armature coil which is bound to the polyphase stator is controlled by a switching element. At this time, by successively varying the excitation state between the rotor and the stator as the input pulse signal is applied to a control terminal of the switching element by synchronizing with the position detection pulse of the position detecting unit, a forward rotating torque corresponding to the input pulse signal can be generated at the rotor by the magnetic attractive force. Moreover, in the case that a specific excitation state is not varied, it is possible to stop the rotor at a predetermined position. In addition, by controlling the phase of the inputted pulse signal which is applied to the switching element based on the position where the inductance reaches at its maximum, an inverse rotating force can be generated. As described above, it is possible to widely apply the control operation in the various directions to the washing machine, etc.
At this time, to successively vary the excitation state of each phase, it is essential to sense the position of the rotor.
There are many prior arts which have been disclosed relating to the SRM, such as U.S. Pat. No. 4,748,387, "DC brushless motor driving method and apparatus for accurately controlling starting position of rotor" patented on May 1988; U.S. Pat. No. 4,990,843, "Reluctance motor" patented on February 1991; U.S. Pat. No. 5,111,095,"Polyphase switched reluctance motor" patented on May 1992; U.S. Pat. No. 5,461, 295,"Noise reduction in a switched reluctance motor by current profile manipulation" patented on October 1995; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,539,293, "Rotor position encoder having features in decodable angular position" patented on July 1996.
FIG. 1 is a view illustrating the structure of the sensor plate for sensing the position of the rotor in the conventional SRM. As shown in the drawing, at the sensor plate 10, there are a first concentric slit group 12 having a plurality of slits which are perforated to have a predetermined angle resolution along the concentric circumference having a first radius, centering around the rotary shaft 11 of the rotor; and a second concentric slit group 13 having a plurality of slits which are perforated to have a predetermined angle resolution along the concentric circumference having a second radius smaller than the first radius, centering around the rotary shaft 11 of the rotor. Generally, slits forming the first concentric slit group 12 and the second concentric slit group 13 are misaligned each other. As the sensor plate 10 is located at the upper end of the rotary shaft 11 of the rotor, it is rotated together with the rotor when the rotor of the motor is rotated. Here, the reason the slit groups each having a plurality of slits are used is to enhance the angle resolution for sensing the position of the rotor.
The apparatus for sensing the position of the conventional SRM includes the sensor plate 10 and the position detection sensing unit which senses the position of the rotor through the position detection pulse which is discretely generated by the light which optically penetrates the slits formed through the sensor plate 10.
To detect the position detection pulse, the SRM includes the position detection sensing unit which is an optical sensor having a light emitting element (not illustrated) and a light receiving element (not illustrated) therein. The light emitted from the light emitting element is discretely incident upon the light receiving element by penetrating the slits of the sensor plate 10 as the sensor plate 10 rotates along with the rotor. At this time, the light receiving element generates and outputs a predetermined position detection pulse.
A microcomputer (not illustrated) presumes the position of the rotor by receiving the position detection pulse which is outputted from the position detection sensing unit. After that, by controlling the phase of the inputted pulse signal which is applied to a control terminal of a switching unit of a motor driving unit, the microcomputer can rotate the rotor forward and inversely or stops the rotor at a specific position.
In the case that the position detection sensing unit of the conventional SRM includes a single position sensor, as it is difficult to fully obtain the information on the position of the rotor which is necessary for multiphase control, the SRM generally uses a plurality of position detection sensing units.
As described above, when the position detection sensing unit for detecting the position of the rotor outputs the position detection pulse by a predetermined angle resolution as the position of the rotor varies, the position where the armature coil is turned on is synchronized with the position detection pulse. At this time, the time when each armature coil is turned on influences decisively on the function of the SRM.
However, in the case of the apparatus for sensing the position of the conventional SRM, when the position detection pulse detected from the first concentric slit group 12 and the second concentric slit group 13 is distorted or becomes irregular or this distortion is accumulated, it causes bad influences on the operation of the SRM.
In other words, the distortion of the position detection pulse causes large rotating torque ripple relatively. In addition, it declines the rotating torque and causes noise. As a result, it declines the efficiency of the SRM.

Apparatus for sensing position of a switched reluctance motor having position compensation function for a rotor