The system, method, and program of this invention avoids potential write/write conflicts and read/write conflicts when a subcomponent of a composite object (e.g., an ADT) is mutated. The embodiments of this invention define a copy semantic for the mutation function. In one embodiment, a copy function is inserted prior to any mutation function. In a another embodiment, a global compile-time analysis is performed to determine if a write/write or read/write conflict exists; and to eliminate redundant copy constructors if a conflict does exist. In a preferred embodiment, only a local analysis is performed during the parsing phase, thereby avoiding a global compile-time analysis. A mutation safe flag is associated with each parse tree node. A read target leaf parse tree node is set to false while non-leaf parse tree nodes (functions) derive their value from an incoming node, except that constructors and copy constructor functions are always true. Whether or not a copy is made of the composite object (i.e., whether or not a copy constructor is inserted) prior to a mutation is determined according to the setting of the mutation safe flags and according to the following. If a mutation safe flag for a mutation function is false, a copy constructor is inserted for the mutated composite object and the mutation safe flag is set to true. In addition, for update and trigger statements, the mutation safe flag for a mutated target is defaulted to true. Furthermore, related update entries are grouped together and a copy is generated for the common target. The generated copy is used as the common target for all of the mutations caused by the update entries grouped together in order to accumulate all of the desired mutations in a same copy of the composite object.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to database management systems that can handle composite objects, e.g., Abstract Data Types (ADTs), for complex data objects, and more specifically where attributes of the composite objects can be changed in queries, trigger statements, insert statements, and update statements by a mutator function in a syntactical environment such as SQL3 where an order of processing can not create different results.
2. Description of the Related Art
Databases are computerized information storage and retrieval systems. A relational database management system (RDBMS) is a database management system (DBMS) which uses relational techniques for storing and retrieving data. Relational databases are organized into tables which consist of rows and columns of data. The rows are formally called tuples. A database will typically have many tables and each table will typically have multiple tuples and multiple columns. The tables are typically stored on random access storage devices (DASD) such as magnetic or optical disk drives for semi-permanent storage.
A DBMS is structured to accept commands to store, retrieve, update, and delete data. One widely used and well known set of commands is called the Structured Query Language (SQL). The current SQL standard is known informally as SQL/92. A new proposed standard is referred to as SQL3. Tables of a relational database management system are created by means of a Data Definition Language (DDL), and the tables are manipulated by means of a Data Manipulation Language (DML). Both of these languages are defined in the SQL standards. The definitions for SQL also provide that a DBMS should respond to a particular query with a particular set of data given a specified database content, but the method that the DBMS uses to actually find the required information in the tables on the disk drives is left up to the DBMS. Typically there will be more than one method that can be used by the DBMS to access the required data. The DBMS will optimize the method used to find the data requested in a query in order to minimize the computer time used and, therefore, the cost of doing the query.
In object-oriented databases (OODB), the database is organized into objects having members that can be pointers to other objects. An object can have parent-child hierarchical relationships. The objects contain references, and collections of references, to other objects in the database, thus leading to databases with complex nested structures.
The integration of object technology and database systems has been an active area of research for the past decade. One area of research has included extending relational database systems to handle data in an object-oriented fashion. It should be noted that SQL has object-relational queries; and IBM, Oracle, Informix and Illustra relational database systems have object oriented features in them.
Along this area of technology enhancements, SQL3 has proposed use of an abstract data type referred to as an ADT. The ADT is a feature of the next generation of object-relational databases. The purpose of introducing abstract data types is to deploy a structure type in order to model complex data easily.
An abstract data type (ADT) is a general mechanism supported by a database engine to model any kind of complex object in an object-relational DBMS. In more general terms an ADT is a type of "composite" object for handling complex data objects. The term "composite" object is used herein to mean an object having subcomponents wherein each subcomponent can be separately changed (i.e., mutated, etc.). Other kinds of SQL types of mechanisms that are also composite objects include arrays, lists, multi-sets, etc. A composite object can handle an infinite number of different kinds of complex objects including, but not limited to, multi-media objects, geographical data, time-series data, web data (e.g., URL documents), etc.
Many applications such as multimedia extenders, spatial extenders, and time-series extenders can be implemented using the ADT facility. An extender is an application that is built on top of a database server. An end-user or application developer does not have to worry about all of the details of the language features in a database supported by the database engine. The extender provides another interface outside of the database engine. An extender is also referred to as a data blade or cartridge.
For example, a multi-media extender can store images, audio, and video in a database. In addition to the object itself being stored, many other attributes associated with the object including format, title, caption, duration, color, actresses, actors, etc., can also be stored in the database. This type of object may be modeled by a time structured mechanism. Time may be important because different types of video formats will determine different ways to express the duration in time of a video. For example, the time interval of each sampling and the number of samples can determine the length of the video.
As other examples, a spatial extender is capable of storing geographical data or location data which could have mapped or coordinated data, including a reference system. A Time-series extender is capable of storing a series of data which is associated with time information. For example, this type of complex object can be used for financial applications such as for storing the value of stocks over a time interval showing a history of the stock.
It should be noted that although the problem that the invention herein overcomes is being explained in terms of an ADT, the problem is also associated with other types of SQL mechanisms including array type, list, multi-sets, etc. Again, all of these meet the definition herein of composite objects.
The usage of ADT is shown through the following example. A CREATE ADT statement in a data definition language (DDL) is shown to create an ADT type called "mediatype" that has seven attributes. For each attribute the first component is an attribute name and the second component is a type name.
______________________________________ CREATE ADT mediaType( title varchar(30), description varchar(256), rated char(4), type char(1), format char(4), duration float, content BLOB(1M)); ______________________________________
The first attribute has an attribute name of "title" and a type name of "varchar(30)". The "title" attribute is the actual title of the work; the "description" attribute is an abstract or summary which describes the contents of the object; the "rated" attribute is the rating of the work such as "C", "PG", "R", etc.; the "type" attribute indicates whether it is audio, video, or image; the "format" attribute indicates the type of format, e.g., if the type attribute is an image, the format attribute indicates whether it is "mpeg", "gif", or "postscript"; the "duration" attribute indicates the length of time of the work; and the "content" attribute contains the complete content of the work whether it be video, image, audio, etc. The type name for the "content" attribute is "BLOB", i.e., a binary large object type.
______________________________________ CREATE TABLE mediaTbl( name varchar(20), publisher varchar(40), unit.sub.-- price float, rental.sub.-- price float, media mediaType); ______________________________________
In the above CREATE table statement, the media table has 5 columns or attributes including name, publisher, unit price, rental price and media. The "media" attribute has a type name of "mediatype" which is the ADT created above. The "mediatype" column encapsulates all of the attributes of the ADT.
When the ADT is created or defined, the database engine not only creates a new type called mediatype, but it also creates a set of methods to manipulate the ADT object. These methods are compiler generated. The following is a minimal set of methods needed to manipulate a mediaType ADT. It should be noted that this minimal set is being used to describe the problem and to later describe the invention. It should be noted that the problem described herein, and the invention later described, are not limited to just these methods; especially since, over time, new methods may be introduced into the SQL standard which may be just as applicable. Basically, any method that acts upon a composite object is applicable.
Constructor: mediaType()->mediaType PA1 Copy constructor: copy(mediaType)->mediaType PA1 Observers: title(mediaType)->varchar(30), . . . PA1 Mutators: content(mediaType, blob(1M))->mediaType, PA1 Update tbl.T of SET media..rated=PG
The first category of methods is called "constructor". The name of the constructor is the name of the ADT. A constructor creates an ADT with attributes that are set to a default value, e.g., NULL. A second category of methods is called "copy constructor". The name is "copy" and it takes as input the ADT and returns another copy of the ADT object as output. There is one "constructor" and one "copy constructor" per ADT. A third category is called "observer". There is one observer method for each attribute. For example, for the title attribute, there is an observer method called title; and it takes the ADT as input and returns the attribute value as a result. In this example, it is of type varchar(30). Essentially, an observer is a partial read since it reads only a specific attribute of the ADT and not the whole ADT object. The mutator method updates the value of attributes. For example, for the attribute content, the ADT is taken as input and whatever new value for that attribute is the second argument. It mutates that attribute with the new value and returns the mutated object as the result. The mutator method is essentially a partial write since it only updates an attribute within the ADT. The above minimal set of methods are automatically generated by the compiler when the ADT is created. For the above example, the compiler would have generated one constructor, one copy constructor, seven observers, and seven mutators.
The syntax of how these methods can be invoked is as follows. The methods are actually user-defined functions. The methods can be used in any kind of context that a user-defined function can be used. As shown below, the function notation is shown on the right hand side of the "=" sign. For example, "title(media)" means that one wants to get the title attribute value out of the corresponding media; "copy(media)" makes a copy of the input; and "rated(media, `PG13`)" is a mutator function which takes the media as input and mutates the rated attribute value with "PG13".
______________________________________ Double-Dot Notation Function Notation ______________________________________ media..title = title(media) media..copy = copy(media) media..rated(`PG13`) = rated(media, `PG13`) SET media..rated = PG = SET media = rated(media, `PG`) ______________________________________
As shown above, the ADT methods above can be invoked through function notation. Also shown above is an equivalent double-dot notation for each of the above methods. The double-dot notation reflects an object-oriented approach for implementing the methods. Nevertheless, the internal semantics are equivalent whether the function notation or the double-dot notation is used. The double-dot notation for the mutator function for the example "media..rated(`PG13`)" means that the object media is sent a rated message along with the argument `PG13`. The message will tell the object to mutate itself with the new value.
The SET clause is currently used in two different contexts. One is in an update statement as follows:
which means that the rated attribute of the media column of table T is to be updated with the value `PG`. The second context where the SET clause is used is in triggers to update transition variables and transition tables. Regardless of the context used, when the double-dot notation is used on the left hand side of the equality sign in a SET clause, it actually means a mutation function.
It should be noted that the above double-dot notation is not limited to ADTs. It is proposed in the SQL3 standard that the double dot notation can be used in a more general way for general function invocation. For example, 3..smallint is equivalent to smallint (3).
Since double-dot notation and function notation are equivalent, they can be used interchangeably as in the following examples:
______________________________________ UPDATE mediaT SET media..rated = `PG` media..title = `Snow White` media..description = media..title .vertline..vertline. media..description ______________________________________
is equivalent to
______________________________________ UPDATE mediaT SET media = description(title(rated(media, `PG`), `Snow White`, title(media) .vertline..vertline. description(media)); ______________________________________
The above two update statements are equivalent. The first uses double-dot notation which clearly states the purpose of the update statement. However, the second update statement uses function notation which may not be as clear as the previous double-dot notation because the second statement uses nested function invocation. The innermost nest is the mutation function for the rated attribute, rated(media, `PG`), which takes the media input and mutates the rated attribute with `PG`, and returns a mutated object as output. Based on that mutated output, the title attribute is mutated with `Snow White`. Then, the description attribute is mutated with the title attribute value and the description value attribute concatenated together as indicated by ".vertline..vertline.". Regardless of how the sequence of mutations are carried out, at the end of all of the mutations there should be a media object with the designated attributes mutated accordingly, i.e., the media object should reflect an accumulated effect.
As can be seen from the above example, if there were ten attributes in an ADT, there would be ten levels of nested function invocation. Essentially, using function notation to mutate an ADT requires mutating the ADT in a nested fashion.
The following examples show ways to use the methods described above using data manipulation language (DML).
______________________________________ INSERT INTO mediaTbl values (`Family film #1`, `Walt Disney, Inc.` 19.99, 2.5, mediaType( ) ); UPDATE mediaTbl SET media = title(rated(description(...content(media, :hv), ... `A story in Africa...`), `PG13`) `Lion King`); UPDATE mediaTbl SET media..title = `Lion King`, media..rated = `PG13`, media..description = `A story in Africa ...`, ... media..content = :hv; SELECT publisher, unit.sub.-- price, media..title, media..description FROM mediaTbl WHERE media..type = `VIDEO` AND media..rated =`PG13` AND media..duration < 100; ______________________________________
As shown above, an ADT value can be inserted into a table. In the above example, an "empty" object (with all its attributes set to default values) is inserted for the ADT. The UPDATE statement populates the ADT column using a nested function invocation. In the innermost label, . . . content(media, :hv), "media" is referenced which maintains the content of the media column with whatever is represented by the host variable. The result of the mutation is a mutated ADT. The other attributes are mutated through a nested function invocation: the description attribute is mutated with `A story in Africa . . . `; the rated attribute is mutated with `PG13`; and the title attribute is mutated with `Lion King`.
The third example above is an equivalent UPDATE statement using double-dot notation.
The last example above is a query. After a table is populated through the above UPDATE statement, one can use a SELECT statement as shown above to find attributes-e.g., publisher, unit.sub.-- price, title, description-from the media table that meet the criteria in the WHERE clause.
ADT mutators update attribute values in place. That is, the ADT compound structure object is only updated in parts, i.e., the whole object is not updated, only the applicable part of the object is modified, in effect performing piecemeal mutation. ADT mutators are needed to construct ADT values. This is done by using INSERT and UPDATE statements as shown above.
The SQL language is declarative. This means that the order of evaluation selected by the optimizer should not affect the result of the query. For example, if there are multiple items in a select list, for example, SELECT expression1, expression2 FROM table T, it should not matter whether expression1 or expression2 is evaluated first. Likewise, for conjuncts in a WHERE clause having predicate 1 AND predicate 2, it should not matter which predicate is evaluated first. The same should hold true for SET clauses in an UPDATE statement for SQL2 where there are no provisions for ADTs, and as provided otherwise herein for SQL3 which supports ADTs.
Before describing the problem which the invention herein addresses, it should be noted that it is believed that the problem itself has not been previously discerned.
The problem that is being identified and solved by this invention is as follows. Although a mutation is needed to construct an ADT, it will create a side effect that makes the order of evaluation significant. As such, the mutation of an ADT will cause an anomaly in the context of the declarative SQL language. The order of evaluation will indeed matter. This will create a Read/Write conflict and a Write/Write conflict.
An example of a Read/Write conflict is as follows:
______________________________________ SELECT for.sub.-- children(media..rated, media..duration), rated(media, :hv) FROM mediaTbl Where publisher = `Walt Disney, Inc.`; ______________________________________
In the select-list of the SELECT statement the rated attribute of the media column is referenced and a function, for.sub.-- children, is applied to it. In the second select-list item the rated attribute of the media column is mutated with a new value represented by a host variable. Depending on the order of evaluation, the value of the first rated attribute will be either the updated value (if the second select list item is evaluated first since it will reflect a mutated value), or it will be a previous value prior to being mutated (if the first select-item is evaluated first). Consequently, the function `rated` in the second select item has side affects because its purpose is to perform a mutation. This is contrary to SQL being a declarative language since there should be no effect on the order of evaluation. The SQL language does not even differentiate on the order that the SELECT statement is written. For example, writing the above statement as:
______________________________________ SELECT rated(media, :hv) for.sub.-- children (media..rated, media..duration) FROM mediaTbl Where publisher = `Walt Disney, Inc.`; ______________________________________
should have no effect on the values returned since the order of evaluation is not determinative on the order in which lists in statements are written. (It should be noted that the query compiler will give the answers in the order specified; so the values themselves will be the same although the order presented to the user will be different.) Internally, the query optimizer will determine the best access plan to evaluate the SELECT statement. The query optimizer should not be concerned with the order of evaluation.
The following UPDATE statement also illustrates a Read/Write conflict:
______________________________________ UPDATE mediaTbl SET media..title = :hv, media..description = media..title .vertline..vertline. media ______________________________________ description;
In the second line of the UPDATE statement, the title attribute of media is updated; and in the third line on the right hand side of the equality, the title attribute is read. Depending upon which item is evaluated first will determine the value that is read thereby creating different results.
An example of a Write/Write conflict is as follows:
______________________________________ SELECT rated(media, :hv1) FROM mediaTbl WHERE publisher = `Walt Disney, Inc.` AND for.sub.-- children(rated(media, :hv2)..rated, media..duration)=1; ______________________________________
In the SELECT list, the media column is mutated by host variable1, hv1. In the WHERE clause there is another mutation function to mutate the media column by host variable2, hv2. There are two mutations of the same rate attribute value of the media column in a single statement. However, according to the SQL language, it should not matter which function is evaluated first. The result should always be the same. The above illustrates that this is not the case, and thereby creates a problem because the principles of SQL language can not be adhered to. Since the mutation function "rated" has side affects, there is a conflict. Since both functions are writing, it is called a Write/Write conflict.
An example where there is no conflict is as follows:
______________________________________ UPDATE mediaTbl SET media..title = :hv, media..rated = `PG13`; ______________________________________
The media table is updated at two different attribute values. There is no write/write conflict or read/write conflict.

Database management system, method and program for supporting the mutation of a composite object without read/write and write/write conflicts

International Business Machines Corporation


A system determines the relative amounts of phases in multiphase flow, typically the liquid (or gas) fraction of a stream in two-phase flow. More particularly, the system quickly and reliably determines the liquid (or gas) fraction of a flowing two-phase stream, such as a process stream commonly found in chemical processing or in petroleum production operations. The system yields accurate results regardless of the exact flow regime under which the two-phase stream is flowing.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to determining the relative amounts of phases in multiphase flow, typically the liquid (or gas) fraction of a stream in two-phase flow. More particularly, the present invention relates to quickly and reliably determining the liquid (or gas) fraction of a flowing two-phase stream, such as a process stream commonly found in chemical processing or in petroleum production operations. The present invention yields accurate results regardless of the exact flow regime under which the two-phase stream is flowing.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is often important to have a reliable on-line quantitative measurement of the relative amounts of the various phases present in a stream containing multiple phases. Such streams are often encountered in the context of a petroleum refinery, a chemical plant, or in the production of petroleum from underground reservoirs. Many such streams typically contain multiple phases. A measurement of the relative amounts of the various phases is not only important in determining the amounts of liquid and gas in a custody transfer context, but is also often crucial in the context of chemical process operations in allowing the operators and/or the automatic control equipment to adjust process parameters so as to optimize the operation and avoid unprofitable and/or dangerous operating conditions.
Various attempts have been made to determine the relative amounts of the various phases in multiphase flow. The best methods have been found to be those involving radiation attenuation techniques. For this purpose, gamma rays or x-rays have been often used.
Generally, radiation attenuation techniques involve the irradiation of a small section of the pipe through which the stream to be measured is flowing. The radiation enters the pipe by passing through the pipe wall on the side closer to the radiation source. The radiation then passes through the fluid in the pipe. Finally, the radiation exits the pipe by passing through the pipe wall on the side away from the radiation source.
As the radiation passes through the various materials, some of the radiation is absorbed and de-energized. Thus, as the stream of radiation passes through the various substances in its path, the amount of radiation continuing on a straight path from the source is decreased, or attenuated. The degree of attenuation depends on the properties of the materials through which the radiation passes and on the amounts of those materials present in the path of the radiation beam. The amount of radiation surviving its passage through the various materials in its path is then detected by appropriate radiation detectors.
An advantage of the radiation attenuation method is that the apparatus can be mounted completely outside the pipe and thus does not in any way interfere with the stream being analyzed.
Of great interest in the measurement of multiphase streams is the instantaneous liquid (or gas) fraction across the pipe. It is known to use an apparatus for determining the liquid (or gas) fraction which uses a radiation source to direct a single beam of radiation at a pipe, and to detect the attenuated radiation beam exiting the pipe. However, it is well known that the liquid (or gas) is not homogeneously distributed across the pipe cross-section. Thus, use of a single beam apparatus can lead to large errors in the determination of the overall liquid (or gas) fraction.
A number of solutions have been attempted in an effort to overcome this problem. One such solution is to cause the single radiation beam to traverse the entire pipe cross section and to take an appropriate weighted average of the attenuated beam in determining the average liquid (or gas) fraction. This technique suffers from at least two shortcomings. First, the method requires movement of the radiation beam which introduces considerable mechanical complexities to the system and reduces system reliability and ruggedness. Second, since a certain finite time is required for the radiation beam to traverse the entire pipe cross section, the average liquid (or gas) fraction calculated reflects the average fraction over a certain small but finite period of time, rather than an instantaneous real-time reading of the liquid (or gas) fraction.
To overcome the difficulties associated with single radiation beam techniques, work has been done to develop a one-shot-collimator measurement, also known as the wide beam measurement. The wide beam technique calls for the simultaneous bombardment of the entire cross section of the pipe with a beam of radiation emanating from a single source, and for the simultaneous detection of the attenuated radiation exiting the pipe. This arrangement provides an instantaneous response which is representative of the average liquid (or gas) fraction of the stream in the pipe. The average reading is obtained by summing the attenuations of the various portions of the radiation beam. Such a technique is described, for example, in "On the Gamma-Ray One-Shot-Collimator Measurement of Two-Phase-Flow Void Fractions", R. P. Gardner, R. H. Bean, and J. K. Ferrell, Nuclear Applications & Technology, Vol. 8, January 1970, pp. 88-94.
While the wide beam technique described above is capable of yielding accurate measurements for two-phase flows wherein the two phases are intimately mixed, large errors are obtained when the technique is used to determine liquid (or gas) fractions in two-phase systems wherein the two phases are relatively distinct and separate from one another, such as is the case where, for example, the phases are in annular flow with gas flowing through the central region of the pipe with the liquid flowing in an annular area near the pipe walls, or in stratified flow, where the liquid tends to concentrate near the bottom portion of the horizontal or inclined pipe while the gas tends to locate toward the upper portions of the pipe cross section.


An apparatus includes a memory and a processor. The memory stores a document that includes a sequence of parts. Each part includes one or more strings of text. The processor displays a sequence of elements and the sequence of parts on a GUI. Each element corresponds to a part and is located at a position within the sequence of elements matching a position of the corresponding part within the sequence of parts. The processor receives information associated with a repositioning of a first element, corresponding to a first part, from a first to a second position within the sequence of elements. In response, the processor updates the sequence of elements by moving the first element from the first position to the second position, and updates the sequence of parts by moving the first part from a matching first position to a matching second position within the sequence of parts.

The process of generating an electronic document typically involves preparing a first draft of the document followed by multiple iterations of editing to generate a final version. Such editing may include rewriting sentences, moving sections of text to new positions within the document, reordering paragraphs, adding new sections of text to the document, and/or deleting sections of text from the document, among other actions. During the editing process, a user may store multiple copies/versions of the document, to help ensure that content is not lost through unintentional changes and/or that edits the user later wishes to reverse may be undone. The document editing process may consume not only a significant amount of user time, but also significant computational resources. For example, significant processing resources may be expended in locating and repositioning sections of text within a many-page document, and significant storage resources may be expended by saving multiple copies/versions of the document.

Text editor and integrated outline tool linked through a shared document data structure

LUMINATE UNIVERSAL EDUCATION SYSTEMS, LTD


The present application provides a noise detection circuit, including: a mixing module, configured to perform a mixing operation based on a plurality of frequencies to an integrated signal, to generate a plurality of in-phase signals and a plurality of quadrature signals; a computing module, wherein when the touch control system uses the first frequency to perform the touch control, the computing module performs a signal cancellation operation to a first in-phase signal and a first quadrature signal to calculate and output a first output signal corresponding to the first frequency; and a determination module, configured to select a best output signal from the plurality of output signals and output a best frequency.

With the advancement of technology, the operation interfaces of various electronic products have become humanized in recent years. For example, by using the touch panel, the user can directly operate on the screen with fingers or a stylus to input messages/texts/patterns, thereby saving the trouble of using a keyboard or keypad or other input devices. As a matter of fact, a touchscreen often consists of a sensor panel and a display disposed behind the sensor panel. The electronic device determines the intention of the touching according to the location at which the user touch the sensor panel and the screen content presented at the time of the touching, and perform a corresponding operation result.
Specifically, the touchscreen is mainly affected by noise from, for example, a display or charger. Current technology has developed noise detection technology capable of detecting the noise spectrum; however, currently, one cannot perform touch detection and noise detection simultaneously, as a result, the touch control system has to spend extra times for performing noise detection in addition to the time for touch detection, thereby limiting the improvement to the report rate.
In view of the foregoing, there is a need to improve the state of art.

Noise detection circuit, noise detection method and detection circuit


In the field of biological technology, a stem cell culture method is provided. The method includes preparing an amniotic epithelial cell feeder layer that is not treated to lose the division ability; and seeding the stem cells onto the amniotic epithelial cell feeder layer, and culturing in a culture medium. The stem cell culture method according to the present invention does not require the treatment of the feeder layer cells to lose the division ability, and is thus simple and safe, thereby effectively solving the problem of contamination caused by animal-derived ingredients in culture of human stem cells at present, greatly reducing the culture cost of the stem cells, and providing a safe, effective, and inexpensive stem cell culture method for the industrialization of the stem cells in the future.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to the filed of biological technology, and more particularly to a stem cell culture method.
2. Related Art
Stem cells are a class of self-renewing pluripotent cells, which are able to be differentiated into many different functional cells under certain conditions. The stem cells may be classified by two methods. In a first method, the stem cells are classified into embryonic stem cells (ES cells) and somatic stem cells according to the development stage of the stem cells. In a second method, the stem cells are classified into totipotent stem cells (TSCs), pluripotent stem cells, and unipotent stem cells according to the development potential of the stem cells.
ES cells are mainly derived from inner cell mass (ICM) of a blastocyst and early embryonic cells before a fertilized ovum is developed into a morula. Human ES cells have 2 distinguished features, one is the high in-vitro self-renewing ability, and the second one is the ability to be differentiated into various types of cells in human body by directed induction.
Induced pluripotent stem cells (also referred to as iPSs) are ES cell-like pluripotent cells obtained by directly reprogramming animal or human somatic cells by introducing some factors into the somatic cells through gene transfection technology. This type of cells are very similar to the ES cells, as far as the cell morphology, growth characteristics, surface markers, and teratoma formation are concerned (Okita K, Ichisaka T, Yamanaka S. Nature 2007; 448: 313-317; Wernig M, Meissner A, et al. Nature 2007; 448: 318-324; Takahashi K, Tanabe K, Ohnuki M, et al. Cell 2007; 131: 861-872; and Yu J, Vodyanik M A, Smuga-Otto K, et al. Science 2007; 318: 1917-1920).
Somatic stem cells include stem cells found in adult tissues, such as bone marrow, umbilical cord or peripheral blood hematopoietic stem cells, bone marrow or umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells, epidermal stem cells, adipose-derived stem cells, pancreatic stem cells, and neural stem cells, and can be theoretically differentiated into specific tissues and organs under specific conditions, thus being a foundation for repair and regeneration.
The stem cells have a wide application prospect in medicine. However, if the stem cells are intended to be successfully used in clinical practice, how to maintain the stem cells in an undifferentiated state while the stem cells proliferate in vitro, i.e., self renewal, is a first subject needed to be solved. The in-vitro culture of the stem cells requires 2 basic conditions, that is, the differentiation of the cells is inhibited while the division and proliferation of the cells are facilitated. In an existing stem cell culture technology, feeder layer cells and/or cell factors are generally used to meet the above conditions. For the ES cells, the commonly used feeder layer cells include, for example, murine embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) and STO cells, which lose the division ability after, for example, irradiation with γ ray or treatment with mitomycin C. The cells can still survive and have the ability to assimilate the culture medium while losing the division ability. Use of the MEFs as the feeder layer to culture the ES cells is the earliest and most commonly used method [Takahama Y, Ochiya T, Sasaki H, et al. J. Oncogene, 1998, 16(24):3189-3196]; and the culture medium is also supplemented with cell differentiation inhibitors such as leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) [Horak V, Flechon J E. Reprod Nutr Dev, 1998, 38(6):683-695]. However, the disadvantages in use of the MEFs to culture the ES cells are that (1) in culturing and expanding the human ES cells, the MEFs may spread animal pathogens to the human ES cells through the culture medium; and (2) a large amount of MEFs need to be produced, since the MEFs have a limited life cycle, cannot be passaged in vitro for a long period of time, and have an ability of generating the proliferation factor and the differentiation inhibitor that is diminished or even lost with the extension of the passage time; (3) it is difficult to obtain pure ES cells for biochemical and molecular biological analysis; and (4) the release of the chromosome from dead MEFs may cause the mutation of the ES cells and affects the maintenance of normal karyotype. In view of the problems brought by use of the MEFs in clinical, some scholars establish a culture medium with human source embryonic or somatic cells as the feeder cell and without animal-derived ingredients. The long-term undifferentiated proliferation state of the human ES cells can be maintained by respectively using human embryonic fibroblasts (HEFs), adult oviductal epithelial cells, human bone marrow stromal cells, or human foreskin cells as the feeder layer in place of the MEFs [Richards M, Fong C Y, Chan W K, et al. Nat Biotechnol, 2002, 20 (9):933-936; Cheng L, Hammond H, Ye Z, et al. Stem Cells, 2003, 21(2):131-142; and Meng G, Liu S, Krawetz R, et al. Stem Cells Dev. 2008, 17(3):413-22]. However, the culture system based on human feeder layer still requires the feeder layer cells and the ES cells to grow at the same time, and the human tissues cannot meet the demand for in-vitro culture and expansion of the ES cells due to the difficulty exiting in obtaining of the human tissues. In order to solve the difficulty exiting in obtaining of the human tissues, human placenta tissue is used and cells are isolated therefrom to culture embryonic stem cells. Genbacev et al [Genbacev O., Krtolica A., Zdravkovic T., et al. Fertil Steril 2005, 83, 1517-1529.] isolate human placenta fibroblasts from aborted pregnancy tissue of 6-9 weeks, and find that the human placenta fibroblasts can support the growth of the human embryonic stem cells and keep them in the undifferentiated state. However, the treatment through which the feeder layer cells lose the division ability, for example, irradiation with γ ray or treatment with mitomycin C, increases not only the operation steps, but also potential risks, because mitomycin C is a DNA inhibitor, which may cause the chromosome deformity of the ES cells.
For this reason, in order to overcome the problem of contamination caused by animal-derived ingredients, attempts are made to use a serum-free and feeder layer-free system to culture the stem cells, in which various growth factors are supplemented to ensure that the stem cells are maintained in the undifferentiated sate while continuously proliferating in vitro. However, the growth factors and the culture medium containing the same are very expensive, thereby increase the research and application cost.

SHANGHAI UNITED STEM CELL BIOTECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.


A heat dissipation device (100) includes a base plate (10), a fin assembly (30), at least one heat pipe (40), and a pair of foot members (20) attached to the base plate. The base plate defines a top surface (12). At least one first channel (18) is defined in the top surface. The fin assembly has a first bottom surface (32). At least one second channel (38) is defined in the first bottom surface corresponding to the at least one first channel. At least one indented portion (324) is defined in the first bottom surface. The at least one heat pipe is received in the first channel and the second channel, and attached through the fin assembly. At least one foot member is attached to the at least one indented portion of the fin assembly.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to heat dissipation devices for removing heat from electronic devices, and more particularly to a heat dissipation device incorporating heat pipes for improving heat dissipation efficiency thereof.
2. Description of Related Art
As technology has advanced, the amount of heat to be dissipated from electronic components of computers has risen dramatically, while the acceptable cost of heat dissipation devices has remained constant or, in many cases, has dropped.
Conventionally, a typical heat sink conducts and dissipates heat by metal thermal conduction, and generally comprises a heat spreader for contacting a heat source, a plurality of parallel fins on the heat spreader, and two U-shaped heat pipes attached to the heat spreader and extending through the fins to transfer heat from the heat spreader to the fins. The heat sink draws heat from the heat source via the heat spreader, some of the heat is directly conducted up to the fins. The remainder is transferred to the fins via the heat pipes. Limited by inherent characteristics of metal and cost considerations, heat conduction is not sufficiently fast. Further, spreaders are large, heavy and costly.
What is needed, therefore, is a heat dissipation device which not only has simple structure but also has greater heat dissipation capability.

Hong Fu Jin Precision Industry (ShenZhen) Co., Ltd.


A marking and identification system and method includes a dispersing device configured to disperse marker therefrom when in an activated mode. An activating device is configured to arm the dispersing device from an inactivated mode wherein the dispensing device does not disperse marker to the activated mode. A triggering device is configured to operate the dispersing device and disperse marker when in the activated mode. The marker can be identified at a later time to positively identify a person that triggered the marking and identification system.

All across the country each year, numerous innocent people and businesses fall victim to robberies and burglaries. According to the Federal Bureaus of Investigation Uniform Crime Reports (2010 nationally collected data), a robbery occurs every 1.4 minutes and a burglary occurs every 14.6 seconds. Ironically, a two-year study comparing 2009 and 2010 arrests for violent (includes robbery) and property crimes (includes burglary) showed a decrease. This means criminals are getting smarter and better at what they do, thus making the job for law enforcement more difficult and solvability rates lower.
There are two crimes in particular that store owners, gas station attendants and store clerks alike nationwide fear the most. The first is the armed robbery. Robberies typically involve some type of weapon carried by the suspect, used to instill fear into the store clerk in order to gain their compliance as the suspect robs the store of money and other items. The second crime is burglary and what police commonly call a "smash and grab." This crime mostly affects those who have a vested interest or ownership of the items inside. Smash and grabs may occur when businesses are closed and the suspect(s) break through a glass door or window to gain entry and steal items inside prior to police arrival.
An example of a smash and grab involves a closed convenience store. Often, limited information of a suspect's description is provided by a store's security camera(s) and/or personnel. Surveillance footage from a camera may show, for example, only a limited description, for example, only that the suspect appears to be a male suspect wearing blue jeans and a white t-shirt. There may be no witnesses to the crime. Police may have nothing more than 20 seconds of video surveillance and possibly a K9 track, if there is a dog available.
At a smash-and-grab type of crime, physical damage may be done to windows or doors for the suspects to gain entry to the location. At the crime scene, a standard alarm system may have notified the police of a break-in or other triggering of the alarm. However, by the time the police arrive, the suspects may have fled, making identification or arrest difficult. Alternatively, the police may arrive prior to or without any alarm notification and may inform the alarm company that there was a break-in. The alarm company then may place a call back to the convenience store's key holder to confirm "the break." When the key holder arrives to the scene, the crime may be determined, such as, by way of example only, 30 cartons of cigarettes missing, which could have a value of approximately $2,100.00. Such is not an atypical type of crime. Although a camera system of the alarm system may be in place to provide images and/or video of the crime, the images and/or video may only offer limited descriptors of the suspect(s), especially if the camera system uses lower resolution or quality cameras, thereby making identification difficult. As described above, the footage may only show, for example, a white male wearing blue jeans and a white shirt that arrived in a small four door red vehicle. The footage may not capture the face of the suspect or any other identifying information, such as a license plate number. Further, fingerprints may not be obtainable because the suspect only touched what was stolen, or wore gloves. Moreover, there may be a significant time delay between when the police arrive at a scene and when the suspect left the scene, thereby making capture less likely.
Police may even later find a red vehicle fitting the description from the footage, seemingly "casing" another closed convenience store in a neighboring town. Police can then initiate a motor vehicle stop. The driver may fit the description from the footage, for example, the driver is a white male wearing blue jeans, white shirt and baseball cap. The driver may even give consent for police to search his vehicle. Due to the lapse of time, though, the police may not discover any further evidence linking the driver to the smash-and-grab from the other jurisdiction. The police may take down the driver's information, but because the police have a lack of probable cause to detain the suspect, i.e., there is no positive identification to link the driver/suspect to the scene of the crime, the driver/suspect must be released.
In the event that the alarm company is notified of a break-in before the police, the alarm company may receive the alarm alert and then proceed to call both the key holder and store to notify of the alarm activation. The alarm company may then follow up with a call to police. Police may then dispatch the notification to officers to be sent to the scene of the alarm. This process adds time between when a crime occurs and when law enforcement responds to the crime. Because of this delay, identification and capture of suspects may be more difficult.
In a second example, such as a robbery of a gas station, in which the robber is wearing all black, police may conduct a K9 track. However, even if the police locate a potential suspect fitting the description provided by a gas station attendant, the located suspect may not be wearing all of the clothing that was observed during the crime, such as gloves, a mask, or may not even be carrying the stolen property. The stolen property may have been stashed away, given to an accomplice, or already pawned, sold, and/or used. Further, although the attendant may have seen the suspect when committing the crime, the victim/attendant may not be able to positively identify the suspect because the suspect may have been wearing a mask. When no positive identification is made, the police may only take the suspect's information and release the suspect because there is no probable cause to make an arrest. Accordingly, lack of a positive identification may prevent arrest of a criminal.
In addition, police must follow various rules and laws when conducting their investigations. If not followed, evidence may be suppressed and a case may be thrown out of court, allowing suspects to walk free and be repeat offenders.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


The present invention is directed to the synthesis of novel stable open metal clusters by selective oxidation of bound ligands. The synthesis comprises, for example, using an amine based oxidant for decarbonylation of specific carbonyl ligands. The synthesis can also comprise further removal of a bound amine group by an acid. The resulting metal cluster contains a coordinatively unsaturated site comprising a carbonyl vacancy. The resulting metal cluster can be used as a catalyst in a variety of chemical transformations.

1. Field of the Invention
Provided are open metal carbonyl clusters and a method for synthesizing the open metal carbonyl clusters. More specifically, provided is the synthesis of open Ir4 carbonyl clusters carrying phosphine ligands by selective oxidation using an oxidant. The open metal clusters are useful as reagents in a variety of chemical transformations.
2. Description of the Related Art
Increasing catalytic activity, particularly for hydrogenation catalysts, is always a valued goal. There are reports of oxidative activation of catalyst sites for homogeneous cationic complexes used in hydrosilylation. See, Organosilicon Chemistry. Part 24. Homogeneous Rhodium-catalysed Hydrosilation of Alkenes and Alkynes: The Role of Oxygen or Hydroperoxides by Parish et al. in J C S Dalton 1980, 308-313) and hydrogenation reactions (Pentamethylcylcopentadienyl-Rhodium and-Iridium Complexes Part 35—Hydrogenation Catalysts Based on [(RhC5Me5)2(OH)3) And The Border Between Homogeneous and Heterogeneous Systems by Maitlis et al. in J Mol. Cat. 1982, 15, 337-347. These studies are preceded by reports of increased hydrogenation activity after oxygen treatment; for instance, a 100-fold increase in hydrogenation activity of maleic acid is observed upon treating the homogeneous trans-IrX(CO)(PPh3)2, where X=C1, Br complex with small amounts of oxygen (Kinetic study of iridium (I) complexes as homogeneous hydrogenation catalysts by James and Memon in Can J. Chem. 1968, 46:217-223). Both the Parish et al. and Maitlis et al. manuscript attribute the role of oxygen treatment as one that removes ligands (e.g., oxidizes triphenylphosphine to triphenylphosphine oxide), thereby creating a coordinatively unsaturated center that is catalytically active. The Maitlis et al. article articulates how such species are unstable and readily aggregate into larger particles in general.
Open metal carbonyl clusters are known, as are various syntheses therefore. For example, "Stabilization of coordinatively unsaturated Ir4 clusters with bulky ligands: a comparative study of chemical and mechanical effects", by Alexander Okrut et al., Dalton Trans., (2012) 41:2019, describes the synthesis of a metal carbonyl cluster that has open sites. The cluster is synthesized thermally and stabilized with calixarenes.
Trimethylamine oxide is used in the synthesis of ligand-substituted clusters, as shown in "Synthesis and structural characterization of the isomers of Rh6 (CO)14L2 clusters (L=NCMe, P4, P(OPh)3), X-ray crystal structure of trans-Rh6(CO)14 {P(OPh3)}2", by Tunik et al. Journal of Organometallic Chemistry, (1994) 479:59-72.
The use of a brominating agent in the synthesis of ligand-substituted clusters is described in "New Tetrahedral Cluster Compounds of Iridium. Synthesis of the Anions [IR4(CO)11X]− (X═Cl, Br, I, Cn, SCN) and X-ray structure of [PPh4][Ir4(CO)11Br]", Chini et al., Journal of Organometallic Chemistry, (1978) 152:C35-C38. See also "Chemistry of Tetrairidium Carbonyl Clusters. Part 1. Synthesis, Chemical Characterization, and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Study of Mono- and Di-substituted Phosphine Derivatives. X-Ray Crystal Structure Determination of the Diaxial Isomer of [Ir4(CO)7(μ-CO)3(Me2PCH2CH2PMe2)]", Ros et al., J. Chem. Soc., Dalton Trans. (1986); and "Patterned metal polyhedra using calixarenes as organizational scaffolds: Ir4-based cluster assemblies", de Silva et al., Dalton Trans., (2010) 39:2194-2197.
The synthesis of an open gold cluster has open sites and is stabilized with calixarene ligands is described in "A bioinspired approach for controlling accessibility in calyx [4]arene-bound metal cluster catalysts", by de Silva et al., Nature Chemistry, (2010) 2:1062-1068.
The synthesis of an open gold nanoparticles that has open sites and is stabilized with calixarene ligands is described in "Synthesis and Characterization of Accessible Metal Surfaces in Calixarene-Bound Gold Nanoparticles", by Jeong-Myeong Ita et al., Langmuir, (2009) 25(18):10548-10553.
An objective of the present invention is to provide a simple and efficient synthesis for an open metal carbonyl cluster, which open cluster is useful as a catalyst, is stable, and demonstrates improved catalytic activity.

Synthesis of open metal carbonyl clusters

The Regents of the University of California


A new cultivar of Chamelaucium, ‘Sarah's Delight’ that is characterized by its early blooming, its large vibrant pink flowers with crimson centers, and its red flower buds.

The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Chamelaucium, botanically of hybrid origin. The new cultivar will be referred to hereafter by its cultivar name, 'Sarah's Delight'. 'Sarah's Delight' is a new cultivar of waxflower, an evergreen shrub grown for use as a landscape plant and is particularly suited for cut flower use.
The Inventor discovered the new cultivar of Chamelaucium in July of 2004 as a naturally occurring branch mutation of Chamelaucium 'Teina's Delight' (not patented) in a field row at a nursery in Coorow, Australia.
Asexual propagation of the new cultivar was first accomplished by the Inventor by stem cuttings in Coorow, Australia in July of 2004. Asexual propagation by stem cuttings has determined that the characteristics of this cultivar are stable and are reproduced true to type in successive generations.


According to one configuration, a wireless network includes first wireless stations and second wireless stations. The first wireless stations and second wireless stations support different wireless communication protocols and compete to use a wireless channel. Via monitoring of a control channel generated by a management resource associated with at least the first wireless stations, a given wireless station of the second wireless stations determines availability (unused time slots, frames, etc.) of the wireless channel via monitoring of the wireless channel itself and/or a control channel. In the latter instance, the control channel indicates scheduled usage of the shared wireless channel by at least the first wireless stations. In accordance with the scheduled usage as indicated by the control channel, the given wireless station transmits over the wireless channel during free slots, times, gaps, etc., to communicate with a remote wireless station of the second wireless stations.

Conventional wireless networks include any of different types of communication devices supporting different wireless protocols. For example, one type of wireless network supports LTE (Long Term Evolution) communications in which user equipment is able to communicate with a base station (such an eNodeB) based on use of the LTE protocol to access a respective network. In certain instances, LTE networks and corresponding communication devices rely on use of a channel manager (a.k.a., LAA or Licensed Assistant Access) and its enhancements to indicate scheduling of future downlink and uplink operations so that the users of the unlicensed spectrum know when it is scheduled for use.
Use of the unlicensed spectrum has expanded to include so-called New Radio technology in which respective wireless stations communicate with each other in accordance with the New Radio 5G protocol. Conventional communication devices implementing the 5G protocol do not support LTE communications. Therefore, wireless stations supporting the 5G protocol cannot use schedule information broadcasted by a LAA channel manager.
As an alternative to using the LAA channel information, one way to avoid collisions in the shared unlicensed spectrum between wireless stations supporting the 5G protocol and wireless stations supporting the LTE protocol is to employ a so-called listen before talk (LBT) technology, which in theory, reduces or eliminates wireless interference because devices constantly listen to the channel for nonuse prior to transmitting.

Channel monitoring and shared use of a wireless channel


In a method of displaying at least one operating menu of a cooking appliance on a touchscreen and of controlling the cooking appliance, provision is made that in the first menu level, a first overview field of at least one cooking chamber defined by a flat heating surface, on which food to be cooked can be placed or poured, and having directly selectable areas of the cooking chamber in the first menu level for separate activation, and, additionally, a second overview field having different predefined cooking chamber subdivisions and/or a third overview field having a plurality of different cooking applications and/or a fourth overview field having different, predefined cooking chamber subdivisions with already allocated cooking applications are displayed at the same time.

In canteen kitchens, cooking appliances are employed which, in a cooking chamber, have a large number of areas in which foods to be cooked that vary from area to area can be cooked. The applicant sells a cooking appliance under the trade name of Variocooking Center® in the form of a tilting pan which has a large number of cooking zones for heating in a pan using contact heat.
The current cooking appliances are highly flexible as regards their application, in particular by virtue of the subdivision of the cooking chambers into individual areas. To exploit the options, an operator should indeed have a certain affinity for electronic operating concepts.
It is the object of the invention to make the operation of a cooking appliance having one or more cooking chambers formed by one or more flat heating surfaces, on which food to be cooked is placed or poured, even more intuitive and, above all, even faster, so that the teach-in phases for the operator can also be significantly shortened.

Method for displaying an operating menu and activating a cooking appliance


A distributed engine control system is provided. The engine control system includes first and second engine data concentrators. Each of the first and second engine data concentrators include a processor module, a signal conditioning module coupled to the processor module, a data transfer module coupled to the processor module, and a data bus coupled between the first and second engine data concentrators and a hydro-mechanical unit (HMU).

Many modern gas turbine engines are controlled by a highly integrated dual channel engine-mounted engine controller, such as a Full Authority Digital Electronic Controls (FADEC). The FADEC implements a highly centralized and specialized design. The FADEC generally hosts all the needed interfaces with the aircraft and nacelle systems, and is configured to perform virtually all the engine control functions.
In contrast to the centralized approach of the FADEC, engine control architectures have been designed in which the functionality is more distributed around the engine to smart sensors and smart actuators. The intent of these alternative architectures is to reduce overall system weight by, for example, using fewer cables, to reduce the functionality within the FADEC for reduced weight and increased reliability, and to improve life cycle costs due to improved fault diagnostics.
Although safe, reliable, and robust, these alternative architectures do exhibit certain drawbacks. For example, these approaches can be limited in practicality because of the higher procurement costs of potentially specialized electronics or packaging that may be needed to survive the high temperature environments associated with an engine, and/or because of the overall increase in functional overhead to support a distributed controls network due, for example, to the use of many distributed smart nodes.
Hence, there is a need for a distributed engine control architecture that does not suffer the drawbacks of current FADECs and presently known alternative architectures.


A contact arrangement is provided, e.g. of the type that functions as a wiping contact for a moving contact such as a pivotally mounted switch blade in an electrical power distribution switch. The contact arrangement in an illustrative embodiment includes spaced apart contact members that are biased toward each other to define predetermined contact pressure/force characteristics with respect to the interposed moving contact. The contact members in a preferred embodiment include predetermined contact areas and predetermined structural features to minimize deformation due to magnetic forces experienced in the presence of high currents. The structural features are also arranged to define current paths that increase the contact pressure. In a particular embodiment the contact areas are formed on the contact members so as to minimize the size of the moving contact.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to electrical switch contact arrangements and power distribution switches and more particularly to an improved wiping contact arrangement for use with a pivotally mounted switch blade.
2. Description of Related Art
Various switches and operating mechanisms are shown in the following U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,918,556, 3,563,102; 3,676,629; 3,845,433; 4,169,973; 4,293,834; 4,398,072, 4,484,046; 5,140,117; 5,224,590; 5,504,293 and 5,772,009. For example, these patents disclose various stationary and wiping contact arrangements. While these contact arrangements may be generally suitable for their intended use, it is always desirable to provide simplified structures with improved operating characteristics.
Accordingly, it is a principal object of the present invention to provide an improved contact arrangement for electrical switches having improved operating characteristics.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a wiping contact arrangement for a moving contact with improved contact pressure during high currents.
These and other objects of the present invention are achieved by a contact arrangement, e.g. of the type that functions as a wiping contact for a moving contact such as a pivotally mounted switch blade in an electrical power distribution switch. The contact arrangement in an illustrative embodiment includes spaced apart contact members that are biased toward each other to define predetermined contact pressure/force characteristics with respect to the interposed moving contact. The contact members in a preferred embodiment include predetermined contact areas and predetermined structural features to minimize deformation due to magnetic forces experienced in the presence of high currents. The structural features are also arranged to define current paths that increase the contact pressure. In a particular embodiment the contact areas are formed on the contact members so as to minimize the size of the moving contact.

Contact arrangement for electrical power distribution switch or the like


The techniques introduced here provide a single, passive radio link control entity with a unified interface. The unified interface is configured to receive a request for a RLC service of a plurality of RLC services from upper and lower protocol layers. The unified interface is coupled with a processing module to process the request. The radio link control entity further includes a plurality of data transfer modules configured to provide data transfer between upper and lower protocol layers, the interface modules are coupled with the processing module and the unified interface. The single, passive radio link control entity provides bi-directional data transfer services for TM, UM, and AM data transmissions.

In the past few decades, telephone systems have evolved continuously at an accelerated rate. Networks operating under the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard, initiated by the third-generation partnership project (3GPP), include new radio access technology and core radio network architecture that provide high data rate, low latency, packet optimization, and improved system capacity and coverage. In LTE networks, an evolved universal terrestrial radio access network (EUTRAN) includes a plurality of evolved Node-Bs (eNodeBs) and communicates with a plurality of mobile terminals, also referred to as user equipments (UEs).

Passive radio link control entity with unified interface


A method and apparatus for centrifuging fibers from molten material comprises a spinner having a peripheral wall comprised of an inner layer and an outer layer, a plurality of orifices extending through the inner layer for the passage of molten material therethrough, and a plurality of cavities extending through the outer layer, the cavities generally corresponding to the orifices, the cavities having being sufficiently large so that a) fiber forming cones form where the orifices join the cavities and b) the fibers formed from the cones can exit the cavities without contacting the sides of the cavities.

A common prior art method of forming glass fibers for use in insulation products, is the use of a rotary process. Molten material, such as molten glass, is forced through the orifices in the peripheral wall of a centrifuge, or spinner, to create streams of molten glass. As the molten glass is discharged from the orifices, the molten glass forms a tiny fiberforming cone in which the molten glass stream narrows from the width of the orifice down to a much narrower width of a primary fiber.
In a typical mineral fiber centrifuging process the orifices of the spinner pass completely through the spinner peripheral wall, and this positions the fiberforming cones on the exterior of the spinner peripheral wall. Usually, these processes require a flow of hot gases along the spinner peripheral wall in order to maintain the primary mineral fiber in a plastic, attenuable condition for the final drawing out or attenuation into the fiber product. Typically, there is a flow of hot gases provided by an exterior heat source, such as a gas burner, although, an burner or a combination of an internal burner and an external burner are also commonly used. This requirement for a hot environment potentially creates detrimental environmental effects and potentially degrades the mineral fiber product. It would be advantageous to be able to eliminate the requirement for an external heat source in a centrifuging process.
The problem with eliminating the external heating means is that the windage or relative air flow created by the rotation of the spinner peripheral wall tends to cool the fiberforming cone and primary fiber so rapidly that the fiber hardens or becomes too viscous prior to complete attenuation into the desired fiber diameter. A typical desirable fiber diameter for glass fibers, for example, is approximately 5 microns. It has been the experience of past attempts at removing the external heating sources that the cooling occurs so rapidly that only unacceptably large fibers can be created.
In a typical glass fiber forming process the spinner must be maintained at a specific, high temperature to keep the molten glass at a low enough viscosity to ensure that the emitted glass stream can be attenuated into a finer fiber. At these temperatures the molten glass is highly corrosive to most metals. Metallurgy used for these spinners suitable for withstanding contact with the molten glass lacks the tensile strength one would prefer to have for spinner construction. Therefore, it would be desirable to be able to eliminate the need to keep the spinner so hot. Also, it would be desirable to eliminate contact between the molten glass or other material and the spinner. This would enable the use of stronger metals for the spinner.

Centrifuging with protected fiberforming cones


An arrangement for treating room air has a first air quality sensor in an external air conduit of an air conditioning device. An ionization apparatus, an ozone sensor, an air humidity sensor, an airflow sensor, and at least one air temperature adjusting device are arranged in the supply conduit between air conditioning device and room. Chamber or hood devices forming a component of the room are coupled to the supply conduit. A side of the chamber or hood devices has openings ensuring convection of the supply air into the room. A recirculating air conduit branches off an exhaust conduit to the air-conditioning device. A second air quality sensor is arranged in the recirculating air conduit. A control device is connected to first air quality sensor, ozone sensor, air humidity sensor, airflow sensor, second air quality sensor, and the air temperature adjusting device.

The invention concerns arrangements for influencing and treating the air of at least one room by adjusting the temperature as well as by ionization of the supply air.
It is known that the air in a room and thus the breathing air can be treated by ionization apparatus. In this connection, bacteria and other germs are killed and large molecules are split into small molecule fragments. Complex and large molecules, inter alia, are smell-causing substances so that by air ionization it is also possible to suppress smells. Moreover, even health-hazardous load situations of the room air can be eliminated and microorganisms in the air can be effectively reduced.
In ionization apparatus electrical fields between two electrodes at voltage potentials are utilized in order to generate ions by gas discharge by collision ionization. As it is known in the art, for this purpose ionization tubes in the form of glass tubes are used; the inner side of the tubes is coated and the outer side is electrically conducting. For this purpose, is it is known in the art to arrange preferably tubular metal grid structures on the outer side of the glass tubes so that a coaxial configuration is provided. When an electrical voltage is applied that is sufficient for gas discharge, the glass of the wall becomes a dielectric in which a large electrical field is present. The flowing air is enriched with ions. In DE 196 51 402 A1 (Apparatus for Physical Treatment of Air, in particular, Breathing Air) air ionization devices of a flat configuration are used as electrodes that are spaced apart from one another.
A significant disadvantage of such an arrangement resides in that, starting at a certain voltage, ozone is formed and ozone formation is increased with increasing voltage.
DE 43 34 956.0 C2 (Method for Treatment of Air with Ions as well as Device for Performing the Method) discloses a method for air treatment with ions and a device for performing the method wherein the long-term stability of the ionization apparatus is increased. In this connection, the discharge voltage is controlled such that an increased ozone generation does not take place. As in the case of unloaded natural air, it is ensured technically by means of the described method and the described device that oxygen ions are present at all times. By means of the employed sensors, in the form of an air quality sensor, an air flow sensor, and an air humidity sensor, this minimum intensity can be maintained substantially within a load range.
In the presence of outer disruption sources, such as smog, an inversion weather condition, thunderstorms, outer energy fields, or inner disruption sources as a result of operating electrical devices, the ozone load in the supply air can be increased by an undesirable amount and can lead to a limit value being surpassed. In DE 100 07 523 C2 (Method for Air Treatment with Ions as well as Device for Performing the Method) an additional ozone sensor for determining the ozone contents is therefore provided as a component of this device. By means of a control device, the ionization power is controlled with regard to the ozone contents also in such a way that even ozone decomposition occurs.
EP 1 078 205 B1 (Air Cooling Element, Method for its Operation as well as Air Cooling Arrangement) discloses an air cooling element having a chamber that has at least one air inlet and is delimited at one side by a cooling wall and otherwise is essentially closed to be air tight. The cooling wall has micro holes distributed across its surface area. This solution is only provided for temperature control of a room. Moreover, several such chambers are required for a room so that gaps are visible between neighboring chambers. Accordingly, ceilings that are configured in this way are particularly not suitable for living spaces. The micro holes represent a further disadvantage because these holes must not become plugged when applying a coating to the cooling wall. In order to ensure this, complex technologies are required so that such chambers cannot be produced easily in an economic fashion.

System for influencing and treating the air of at least one room


A nail protector and method includes a cover portion dimensioned to fit over a nail of a digit to form a gap with the nail, and a bump formed on an underside of the cover portion and configured to contact skin adjacent to the nail without contact with the nail. A lateral portion is hingedly connected to the cover portion to create at least a partial enclosure for receiving the digit without passing over the nail. A biasing device is configured to secure and bias the at least one lateral portion against the digit. The biasing device extends in an opposite longitudinal direction from a distal end of the cover portion to support the cover portion and maintain the gap.

1. Technical Field
This disclosure relates to an apparatus for protecting finger nails and toe nails and more particularly to an apparatus configured to protect nails from contact after a manicure/pedicure or for medical purposes.
2. Description of the Related Art
After a manicure or pedicure, it is often necessary to wait for a period of time to permit nails to dry. During this time, an individual is virtually incapacitated and unable to perform any manual tasks until their nails have dried. This is extremely inconvenient. In addition, attempting to perform any manual tasks can damage or ruin the nail's finish or polish, which jeopardizes the appearance and/or work that was needed to obtain the desired polished state of the nails. This could be costly given the expense and time needed for manicures/pedicures.
To alleviate such problems, nail protectors have been used. These are typically rings that have to be slid over the nail and the finger. While such devices, if properly applied, can protect the nail, such devices jeopardize the nail's finish, since these devices must be applied over the nail itself. Any contact with the nail will ruin the finish.


Apparatus for detecting the breaking of a contact-sensitive surface includes an acoustic, shock, and vibration transducer, a detector circuit responsive to the transducer for detecting an acoustic wave resulting from a contact force applied to the surface and generating a signal, a support for the transducer, and the means for disqualifying a contact force to the support as a breakage event that relies on differentiation of the speed with which a shock wave travels through a solid material versus the speed with which an acoustic wave travels through air. The transducer may include a front electret condenser microphone and in some preferred embodiments the microphone does not have a preamplifier associated therewith. The invention also includes the method for detecting the breaking of a contact-sensitive surface that includes providing an acoustic, shock, and vibration transducer, providing a support for the transducer, providing a detector circuit responsive to the transducer for detecting an acoustic wave resulting from a contact force applied to the surface and generating a signal; and providing means for disqualifying a contact force to the support as a breakage event that relies on differentiation of the speed with which a shock wave travels through a solid material versus the speed with which an acoustic wave travels through air.

The invention relates to alarm systems and particularly to acoustical glassbreak detectors. Acoustical glassbreak detectors typically include an omnidirectional microphone. For the purposes of this application the side of such microphones on which the microphone is most sensitive is referred to herein as the front and the opposite side of such microphones is referred to herein as the back. Known acoustic glassbreak detectors have experienced problems with false alarming in response to strong impacts to the surface on which the detector is mounted when the impact is at the back or behind the microphone element. This occurs in the CE Oak Beam Impact Test.
The prior art includes U.S. Pat. No. 5,192,931 issued on Mar. 9, 1993 to Richard A. Smith, the applicant herein, and Christopher A. Bernhardt. The disclosure of this patent is incorporated by reference herein.
The applicant herein was also issued U.S. Pat. No. 6,538,570 on Mar. 25, 2003. The present invention provides an improvement over the apparatus described therein. The apparatus in method described therein is highly effective. However, in some cases false alarms may occur as the result of an impact to the surface on which the microphone sensor on a part of that surface which is behind or opposite to the direction in which the microphone sensor is most sensitive.

Method of eliminating impact/shock related false alarms in an acoustical glassbreak detector


A method for noninvasively measuring analyte levels includes using a non-imaging OCT-based system to scan a two-dimensional area of biological tissue and gather data continuously during the scanning. Structures within the tissue where measured-analyte-induced changes to the OCT data dominate over changes induced by other analytes are identified by focusing on highly localized regions of the data curve produced from the OCT scan which correspond to discontinuities in the OCT data curve. The data from these localized regions then can be related to measured analyte levels.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to methods for noninvasively measuring blood glucose or other analyte levels in a subject by measuring localized changes in light scattering from skin or other biological tissue. For example, such a method can include identifying tissue structures where the effect of blood glucose concentrations or levels are high, and targeting localized regions within the identified structures to measure blood glucose concentrations.
2. Description of the Related Art
Monitoring of blood glucose (blood sugar) levels has long been critical to the treatment of diabetes in humans. Current blood glucose monitors employ a chemical reaction between blood serum and a test strip, requiring an invasive extraction of blood via a lancet or pinprick to the finger. Although small handheld monitors have been developed to enable a patient to perform this procedure anywhere, at any time, the inconvenience associated with this procedure—specifically the blood extraction and the need for test strips—has led to a low level of compliance by diabetic patients. Such low compliance can lead to diabetic complications. Thus, a non-invasive method for monitoring blood glucose is needed.
Studies have shown that optical methods can be used to detect small changes in light scattering from biological tissue related to changes in levels of blood sugar. Although highly complex, a first order approximation of transmitting monochromatic light through biological tissue can be described by the following simplified equation:IR=I0exp[−(μa+μs)L], where IR is the intensity of light reflected from the skin, I0 is the intensity of the light illuminating the skin, μa is the absorption coefficient of the skin at the specific wavelength of the light, μs is the scattering coefficient of the skin at the specific wavelength of the light, and L is the total path traversed by the light. From this relationship, it can be seen that the intensity of the reflected light decays exponentially as either the absorption or the scattering by the tissue increases. The attenuation of light can be characterized by an attenuation coefficient, which is the sum of μs and μa.
It is well established that there is a difference in the index of refraction between blood serum/interstitial fluid (IF) and cell membranes (such as membranes of blood cells and skin cells). (See, R. C. Weast, ed., CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, 70th ed., (CRC Cleveland, Ohio 1989).) This difference can produce characteristic scattering of transmitted light. Glucose, in its varying forms, is a major constituent of blood and IF. The variation in glucose levels in either blood or IF changes the refractive index of blood-perfused tissue, and thus the characteristic of scattering from such tissue. Further, glucose-induced changes to the refractive index are substantially greater than changes induced by variation of concentrations of other osmolytes in physiologically relevant ranges. In the near-infrared (NIR) wavelength range, blood glucose changes the scattering coefficient, μs, more than it changes the absorption coefficient, μa. Thus, optical scattering of the blood/IF and cell combination varies as the blood glucose level changes. Accordingly, there is the potential for non-invasive measurement of blood glucose levels.
Current non-invasive optical techniques being explored for blood glucose applications include polarimetry, Raman spectroscopy, near-infrared absorption, scattering spectroscopy, photoacoustics, and optoacoustics. Despite significant efforts, these techniques have shortcomings, such as low sensitivity (signal-to-noise ratio) for the glucose concentrations at clinically-relevant levels, low accuracy (less than that of current invasive home monitors), and insufficient specificity of glucose level measurement within a relevant physiological range of 1.7-27.8 mM/L or 30-500 (mg/dL). For example, diffuse reflectance, or diffuse scattering, has been explored as a technique for noninvasively measuring levels of blood glucose. M. Kohl, Optics Letters, 19(24) 2170-72 (1994); J. S. Maier, et al., Optics Letters, 19(24) 2062-64 (1994). Using diffuse reflectance, a glucose-induced change of around 0.2%-0.3% in the scattering coefficient per 18 mg/dL (or 1 mM/L) has been measured. This measured change is too small to be utilized efficiently for a blood-glucose monitor for home use. Additionally, glucose-induced changes to the scattering coefficient can be masked by changes induced by temperature, hydration, and/or other osmolytes. Accordingly, there is a need for a method to conveniently, accurately, and non-invasively monitor glucose levels in blood.
Optical coherence tomography, or OCT, is an optical imaging technique that uses light waves to produce high-resolution imagery of biological tissue. OCT produces images by interferometrically scanning, in depth, a linear succession of spots and measuring absorption and/or scattering at different depths at each successive spot. The data then is processed to present an image of the linear cross section. The key benefits of such a system in imaging applications include the ability to achieve a high resolution, e.g., better than 10 micrometers, and the ability to select the depth at which a sample can be imaged. For example, blood vessels beneath the surface of the skin can be imaged using such a system.
As discussed in U.S. application Ser. No. 10/916,236, and in R. O. Esenaliev, et al., Optics Letters, 26(13) 992-94 (2001), the entire disclosure of which is incorporated by reference, it has been proposed that OCT might be useful in measuring blood glucose. However, difficulties associated with this technique include the large number of scans required to reduce optical noise, or speckle, which arises from wavefront distortion when coherent light scatters from tissue. While an OCT imaging system can reduce speckle by averaging it out over many scans or measurements, this approach is time-consuming, which makes the use of a conventional OCT imaging system impractical for in-home monitoring of blood glucose levels. Additionally, an OCT imaging system requires complex processing to form a workable image and to analyze the image data sufficiently in order to determine glucose levels.
Accordingly, there is a need for enhanced OCT systems for measuring analytes such as blood glucose levels.

Noninvasively measuring analyte levels in a subject


Provided are a boring apparatus of a specials tube and a boring method using the same. The specials tube for connecting a primary pipe and another pipe includes a main pipe having one end coupled to an outer surface of the primary pipe and having a length formed outside of the primary pipe in a diameter direction, a branch pipe branched from the main pipe, and a boring tap disposed at the other end of the main pipe, wherein a boring hole is formed on an outer surface of the main pipe by adjusting the boring tap in a state where the main pipe is sealed, whereby leakage of a fluid flowing in the primary pipe to the outside may be prevented during a branching operation of a pipe.

In general, when constructing gas pipes, a joint pipe is connected between the gas pipes in order to connect a plurality of gas pipes. At this time, the joint pipe may include specials tubes such as a straight-shaped pipe, a non-linear curved pipe, a T-shaped pipe, and a Y-shaped pipe that connect constant-length pipes so as to extend, which are disclosed Korean Patent Publication No. KR 10-0688997 B1 ("FITTING FOR ELECTRIC FUSION WITH PRESSING DEVICE USINGSCREW" published on Mar. 8, 2007). At this time, the specials tube may be used for various purposes, such as branching of a pipe line or changing of a direction when a gas pipe is initially installed.
Here, in the related art, for additional branching working of a gas pipe that is already installed and has fluid flowing therein, a specials tube is provided to be installed on a side surface of a main pipe as disclosed in Korean Patent Publication No. KR 10-0947104 B1 ("PUNCHING DEVICE" published on Mar. 10, 2010). As the specials tube used at this time, a T-shaped pipe called a service tee is often used.
A branching process of a conventional active pipe will be described as follows with reference to FIG. 1. In the branching working for the conventional active pipe, a branch tee 2 is first fusion-connected onto a main pipe 1. Thereafter, a branch pipe 3 and a gate valve 4 are coupled onto two different openings of the branch tee 2. When the corresponding working is completed, a boring machine 6 is mounted at a point where the gate valve 4 is coupled, and the opening of the gate valve 4 and a boring working using a cutter of the boring machine 6 are then performed. When the boring working is completed, the opening on which the boring machine 6 is mounted is sealed by removing the cutter on the boring machine 6 and mounting a plug adapter 7 instead, and the gate valve 4 and the boring machine 6 are separated from each other, thereby making it possible to provide the fluid of the main pipe 1 to be supplied to the branch pipe 3 through the branch tee 2.
However, since the boring working for the conventional active pipe is accompanied by a process of sealing the opening in the state of being bored on the main pipe, there is a disadvantage that the risk of gas leakage in the corresponding process is high. In particular, in the case of the gas pipe, since high-pressure gas flows therein, there is a problem that the safety of workers on the site may be greatly threatened even if only a part of gas of an ignitable material is leaked.

Boring system having boring tap embedded therein and boring method using the same


A system includes one or more processors, and data storage configured to store instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the system to perform functions. In this example, the functions include receiving sensor data that is collected by one or more sensors of a device over one or more locations and over a time period. Further, in the present example, the functions also include determining location estimates of the device by performing filtering of the sensor data to determine offsets for a least one sensor providing sensor data. The filtering is an iterative process of filtering control input data to determine the sensor bias based on data from a second sensor of the at least two sensors and adjusting the set of sensor data based on the determined bias.

A location of a computing device can be estimated based on Global Positioning System (GPS) signals. For example, a mobile computing device may receive GPS signals and responsively estimate the device location on the face of the Earth (e.g. an absolute location expressed by latitude and longitude values). Generally, there are various factors that influence the accuracy of estimated locations based on GPS signals. These factors may include the number of usable GPS signals from different GPS satellites or sources, the positions of GPS satellites or sources, atmospheric conditions that affect GPS signals, physical barriers (such as mountains, manmade structures, trees, and the like) that may interfere with GPS signals, movement of the computing device while GPS signals are being received and/or while the device is estimating the location, among other factors.
However, in many instances, a GPS signal may be unavailable. In addition to using GPS signals to estimate a location of a device, other sensors may be used to estimate the location and/or movement of the device. For example, a gyroscope, a magnetometer, and an accelerometer may be used to provide location data. However, a gyroscope, a magnetometer, and an accelerometer may not necessarily provide absolute global location information. Thus, these sensors may be used to estimate movement, rather than absolute position. For instance, sensors may be able to determine the movement of a respective device having the sensors.
Generally, it is desirable to improve on the arrangements of conventional methods and systems or at least to provide one or more useful alternatives to help to make localization of a computing device more efficient, reliable, and/or accurate.

Orientation estimation based on backward-forward bayesian filtering


A process for producing an activated carbon for an electrode of an electric double-layer capacitor, includes a step of subjecting a carbonized material to an alkali activating treatment, wherein the carbonized material has an average true specific gravity of 1.450 to 1.650 and a variation of the true specific gravities of 0.025 or less.

The present applicants filed an application for a patent relating to activated carbon of this kind whose BET specific surface area and pore volume were specified, respectively, (JP Application No. 2003-150869) prior to the present application.
However, the present inventors further studied intensively the above-described related techniques and found that the techniques had no problem in capacitance, but required further improvement in durability.

Process of producing activated carbon for electrode of electric double layer capacitor


The invention features a strain relief device for mounting wires and cable into a panel. The body of the device carrying the cable is flexible and attached to the panel by a rotational motion. The panel is locked between two flange sections of the body by a number of locking ramps that bias one of the flanges into locking engagement with the panel.

In mounting power supply cords and other electrical wires or cables in a panel, it is necessary to install them such that strain is not imposed upon the copper conductors and the surrounding insulation. The stressing of wires or cables at their points of contact with panelling can lead to serious shorting or disruption of the electrical current.
In the past, a strain relief device was utilized to alleviate cable stresses, wherein the device housing was the cable threaded into the panelling. While the threaded strain relief device protected the wires, it was too cumbersome and costly to install.
The present invention features a new strain relief design that quickly and easily mounts to a panel, and which has the further advantage of accommodating wires, cords and cables of varying types, materials, and construction. The strain relief device of this invention will provide good retention of the wires subject to both normal and torsional forces applied at the entry point in the panel.


Methods and systems for disabling barcode reader illumination and aiming operation based on barcode reader position are disclosed herein. An example method includes a barcode reader determining its angular position, for example, from an accelerometer mounted in the barcode reader. That angular position is compared against a reference angular position and a determination is made whether barcode reader is in a disable angular region. When in the disable angular region, the barcode reader automatically disables illumination and/or aiming operation until the angular position enters an enable angular region. That enable angular region may be different than the disable angular region, and both may be adjustable.

Barcodes are commonly used to encode data associated with a variety of items that the barcodes are often printed on or attached thereto. Historically, laser-based barcode readers were employed to read barcode data and thereafter decode the payload. With the proliferation of imaging sensors, imager-based barcode readers have become mainstream. These barcode readers typically capture image data associated with the imager's field of view (FOV) and identify and decode barcodes found within the image data. Regardless of barcode type, many barcode readers emit light. Some emit an aiming pattern that gives a visual indication to a user where the barcode scanning is to take place. Some emit an actual illumination, for example, to illuminate an area of a FOV to be capture by an imager.
Operators of barcode scanners, whether consumers or personnel, occasionally question the safety of having their eyes exposed to the aiming patterns and illumination beams generated by these barcode readers. To reduce the chances that a user's eyes are exposed to either aiming patterns or illumination light, there is a desire to safely disable operation of either when a barcode reader is in an orientation at which a user's eyes may be exposed.

Disable scanner illumination and aimer based on pre-defined scanner position


A visor includes an integral, focussed and recessed lamp assembly positioned at a corner of the visor and inclined and directed away from the driver's eyes to provide courtesy and map illumination with a minimal of distraction to the driver. The visor provides directable illumination for use as a maplamp or floorlamp by movement of the visor position.

The present invention pertains to automotive visors and particularly to a visor with an integrated light.
There exists a wide variety of vehicle illumination systems for providing map reading and courtesy illumination of the interior of a vehicle. An early visor design which includes a center mount which is somewhat large and bulky light and a separate switch such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,641,684 issued Jun. 9, 1953, to V. J. Dillon.
Frequently, visors include map reading lamps which perform the dual function of providing illumination for a vanity mirror and that of a map reading lamp. U.S. Pat. No. 4,227,241 issued Oct. 7, 1980, to Marous, discloses such a visor.
Although such visors provide adequate illumination for use as maplamps, they tend to provide either too much illumination, as is the case of the Dillon patent, which can be distracting to the driver of the vehicle or the illumination is somewhat compromised between providing facial illumination for use of a vanity mirror and lap illumination for reading items such as a map. Accordingly, there remains a need for directable illumination which can be achieved by providing illumination on a visor and one which provides an optimal positioning and intensity of illumination for use as a courtesy light or directable for use as a maplamp or other directable illumination as desired without interfering with the vision of the driver.