Methods and systems for creating and managing electronic communications are disclosed. Exemplary methods can compress and encrypt meeting information and encode the compressed and encrypted meeting information into a uniform resource locator (URL) for transmission between one or more devices and a conferencing server.

Network-based conference services often use participant credentials and other information to setup, initiate, and/or allow participants to organize, manage, and/or join an electronic communication, such as a (video and/or audio) conference call. Oftentimes, such information, e.g., user identification, credentials, meeting information, and the like, is stored on a communication server.
Meeting reservation information can be manually entered or can be created by an application, such as a calendar application, such as Outlook. The meeting reservation information can be copied to a database managed by a conferencing system when scheduled meetings (e.g., with special user permissions) are created or modified by users. A plugin application can be used to create a conference from the calendar application, copying the meeting information as part of the process of creating the meeting. The meeting information is then stored and managed on the communication server.
Meeting information that is stored on the communication server can be used to authenticate and for special permission enforcement for authenticated users. For example, organizers and presenters may have greater access and/or control of the conference. Meeting information can also include meeting times, participant names, participant titles, and the like. Managing this data in light of privacy laws, such as the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and other such laws and regulation, can be difficult. Further, data synchronization and garbage collection of meeting data may be of additional concern. Accordingly, improved methods and systems for organizing, initiating, and/or managing an electronic communication, such as a meeting, are desired.
Any discussion of problems provided in this section has been included in this disclosure solely for the purposes of providing a background for the present invention, and should not be taken as an admission that any or all of the discussion was known at the time the invention was made.
It will be appreciated that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of illustrated embodiments of the present disclosure.

System and method for electronic conference verification and management


A drilling and/or production riser includes on at least part of the length thereof, a stiffener suited to withstand strains induced by the stresses transmitted by the marine environment, those induced by said supporting and guide device, and the strains due to the weight of the loads supported by said stiffener. System intended for production of petroleum effluents from a production site, such as one or more production wells, to a floater having at least one assembly allowing transfer of the effluents from at least one of the production wells to the floater. The assembly includes a production riser equipped on at least part of the length thereof with a float and with at least one stiffener situated above the float and suited to withstand strains induced by the stresses transmitted by the marine environment, those induced by said supporting and guide device and the strains due to the weight of the loads supported by said stiffener.

Production systems are generally installed for relatively long periods, for example 20 years. Throughout the setting thereof and production operations, they undergo external strains and they are stressed by the wave motion, the current, the wind, etc.
The floater is usually anchored statically to the sea bottom by a set of chains or of vertical or oblique taut lines. In both cases, it retains a certain freedom of motion along various axes, that range between some centimeters and some meters for vertical displacements due to the wave motion, well-known as heave, and that can reach several ten meters in the horizontal plane. The amplitudes of the rotations about horizontal axes, known as roll and/or pitch, and about a vertical plane notably depend on the dimensions of the floater, on the anchor means thereof and on the wave motion conditions.
Conventionally, in such installations, riser pipes are on the one hand fastened to a subsea structure resting on the bottom and which generally includes several wellheads and, on the other hand, in direct or indirect connection with the floater. The connecting devices make the risers more or less dependent on the floater and therefore on the displacements thereof. In order that these displacements are bearable by the riser pipe, suspension systems or tensioning systems are generally used to maintain at the top of the riser pipe a relatively constant tension independent of the motions of the floater. Hydraulic tensioning systems can be used.
The prior art describes various layouts whose function is notably to take up the motions of the floaters and to disconnect them from the riser pipes.
For example, patent NO-171,958 describes a floating construction used for production of petroleum products including several riser pipes kept under tension from the wells on the sea bottom to a carrier deck that is mobile in relation to a floater. In this system, the carrier deck is connected to the floater by means of a hauling device for supporting both sways and vertical motions resulting from the motions of the floater. The riser pipes or production risers are connected to the carrier deck by means such as elastic elements for supporting vertical and lateral elastic motions. The use of both systems, the hauling system and the elastic elements, allows to prevent transmission of the motions of the floater to the production riser pipes. However, such an approach requires relatively complex mechanical devices, notably the hauling system, which increase the cost and the complexity of the entire production system.
The basic idea of U.S. Pat. No. 4,702,321 consists in using a caisson of sufficient size to contain the risers and their floats, and thus to shield them from the wave motion. Such a system can induce considerable stresses at the outlet of the guide system.

Production riser equipped with a suitable stiffener and with an individual float


A method for producing a turbulence conditioner for use with an ultrasonic flow meter in a pipe having the steps of identifying an effective diameter of an aperture of the flow meter to be disposed in an opening in the pipe through which the flow meter communicates pulses of ultrasonic energy with the interior of the pipe. There is the step of building a conditioner with a pitch between openings in the conditioner which is less than the effective diameter.

This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of the art that may be related to various aspects of the present invention. The following discussion is intended to provide information to facilitate a better understanding of the present invention. Accordingly, it should be understood that statements in the following discussion are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.
Transit time ultrasonic flowmeters have exhibited excellent repeatability and absolute accuracy in many flow measurement applications. However, characteristics inherent in the nature of their measurements present difficulties when these meters are applied to custody transfer measurements of petroleum products. A custody transfer takes place when ownership of a batch of a particular product changes. On a small scale, such a transfer takes place at the pump in a gas station, between the owner of the gas station and his customer.
It is industry practice in custody transfer measurements to "prove" the meter; that is, to establish its calibration accurately, by independent means. Provers are usually devices of fixed and precisely established volume. The time required to deliver the volume of product defined by the prover is accurately defined by the transit of a ball or piston, pushed by the product, from one end of the prover to the other. High speed diverter valves initiate the prover run and bypass the prover when the ball reaches the end of its travel. Position switches at the beginning and end of the prover synchronize the proving operation with the operation of the custody transfer meter—the meter to be used to measure the amount of product delivered to a specific customer. The volumetric output measured by the custody transfer meter (in traditional practice, a turbine or positive displacement meter) during the proving run is compared to the volume of the prover and a meter factor (i.e., a calibration correction) is established.
It is also industry practice to perform a set of several prover runs—five is typical—to establish the "repeatability" of the meter factor of the custody transfer meter. Repeatability in the petroleum industry is usually defined as follows: the difference between the high and low meter factors from a set of prover runs, divided by the low meter factor from that set. The repeatability (or in statistical terminology, "range") of a set of proving runs is a measure of the uncertainty of the meter factor as determined by the average of the results of that set of runs. For example, a repeatability of 0.05% in 5 runs of the prover indicates that the true meter factor for the custody transfer meter lies within a ±0.027% band of the mean meter factor from that run set, with 95% confidence. A meter factor of this accuracy is the accepted standard for custody transfer measurement.
Unlike turbine and positive displacement flow meters, a transit time ultrasonic flow meter does not measure volumetric flow rate continuously, but instead infers it from multiple samples of fluid velocity. Specifically, the volumetric flow rate is determined from periodic measurements of the axial fluid velocity as projected onto one or more acoustic paths—paths along which the transit times of pulses of ultrasound are measured. The path velocity measurements are combined according to rules appropriate to their number and location in the pipe. Many meters employ parallel chordal paths arranged in accordance with a specific method of numerical integration.
The period over which an ultrasonic transit time meter collects a single set of velocity measurements (one velocity measurement or more, depending on the number of paths) is determined by the path transit times, the number of paths, and the data processing capabilities of the meter itself. For liquid meters, the flow samples will typically be collected over periods ranging from 5 to 100 milliseconds, resulting in sample frequencies between 10 Hz and 200 Hz. These figures may differ from one ultrasonic meter design to another.
An ultrasonic flow measurement is thus a sample data system on two counts:                (1) It does not measure the velocity everywhere across the pipe cross section but only along the acoustic paths, and        (2) It does not measure velocity continuously, but instead takes a series of "snapshots" of the velocity from which it determines an average.
Because of these properties, a transit time ultrasonic meter responds to flow phenomena like turbulence differently than other meters commonly used for custody transfer in the petroleum industry. More specifically, the individual flow measurements of transit time ultrasonic meters will be affected by the small scale random (i.e., turbulent) variations in local fluid velocity. These variations are both temporal and spatial, and an ultrasonic instrument must make multiple measurements to determine the true average flow rate—to reduce the random error contributions due to turbulence to acceptable levels. Turbine meters and positive displacement meters, on the other hand, respond to the flow field in the pipe as a whole; integration of the fluid velocity in space and time is inherent in the nature of their responses. On the other side of the ledger, transit time ultrasonic meters are not encumbered by physical limitations like bypass leakage and friction, and may therefore provide measurement capability over a wider range of velocity and viscosity conditions.
For custody transfer, flow meters are designed to produce pulses per unit volume of fluid that passes through them (for example, 1000 pulses/barrel). The meter factor MF is given by:MF=V/NP
Here                V is the volume of the standard—the prover—between the two position switches embedded in its walls. When a proving run is initiated the flowing fluid is diverted through the prover and pushes a ball or piston past the upstream switch, initiating the run, which is terminated when the ball or piston reaches the downstream switch        NP is the number of pulses produced by the meter during the period which begins when the upstream switch is actuated (time T1) and ends when the downstream switch is actuated (time T2).
Ultrasonic meters determine a flow rate Q in volume units per second from individual measurements of fluid velocity along one or more acoustic paths. They therefore must generate pulses by means of a frequency converter that produces pulses at a rate k exactly proportional to the volumetric flow rate. Thus the number of pulses NP is given by:NP=kQ(T2−T1)
If the uncertainties in the volume of the standard, the frequency converter k, and the actuations of the upstream and downstream switches are ignored (these terms are generally smaller by an order of magnitude than the uncertainties associated with the flow instrument calibration. In more detailed analyses they are not ignored), the per unit uncertainty in meter factor for a 95% confidence level is given by:dMF/MF=2dQ(N)/Q=2σmean(N)                Where dQ(N) is one standard deviation of the mean of the N flow samples collected during the prove, or σmean(N).
One standard deviation of the mean, σmean(N), of N representative flow samples taken during a proving run is given by:σmean(N)=S/(N)1/2
Here, S is the standard deviation of the population of flow samples—the quantitative characterization of the random variability, produced by the turbulence, in the individual flow measurements of the ultrasonic meter, from one flow sample to the next.
An examination of the above equation reveals the variables that must be controlled to achieve satisfactory proving performance in ultrasonic meters: the turbulence intensity as it affects the standard deviation of the flow samples, S, in combination with the number of samples, N, accumulated during each proving run. These parameters must be such that σmean(N) is small enough to ensure that the range of measured meter factors does not exceed the requirement. Calculations indicate that, if σmean(N) can be made small, meters will prove successfully more than 99% of the time.
Meeting these requirements is not straightforward. With a typical line prover operating at nominal flow rate, the duration of a single proving run is about 20 seconds, more or less. If a sample frequency of 50 Hz is assumed, the number of samples that will be collected during a proving run is 20×50=1000. As noted in the previously referenced patent, the random variations due to turbulence in the flow measurements of a four path chordal ultrasonic can be in the 1.75% range (one standard deviation or S) though upstream piping can lead to variations as low as 1.2% or as high as 3%. Substituting the 1.2% figure, 20 second proving runs will produce a σmean(N) of about 0.04%. With the this value of σmean(N), the probability of obtaining a set of 5 proving runs within a 0.05% range is less than 40%, a figure essentially consistent with actual proving experience. Experience also confirms what calculations show: Higher turbulence will produce still smaller probabilities of success.
This, then, is the problem. Turbulence, such as normally encountered in petroleum product pipelines, adversely affects the repeatability of the meter factors for transit time ultrasonic flowmeters, as measured in short duration prover runs. Unless something is done to alter the character of the turbulence, it appears that ultrasonic flowmeter meter factors measured with conventional provers will not achieve repeatability figures meeting petroleum industry expectations.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,647,806 is based on the hypothesis put forward by Dryden. (Hugh L. Dryden and G. B. Schubauer, The Use of Damping Screens for the Reduction of Wind Tunnel Turbulence, Journal of Aeronautical Science, April 1947.) He tied the reduction in turbulence produced by a series of one or more fine mesh screens in cascade to the production of eddies of very small diameters whose energy was dissipated as heat in a settling chamber downstream of the screen(s). Because screens are structurally impractical for resisting the hydraulic forces produced by liquid flow, the means proposed by the patent endeavored to produce the same effect with relatively small holes in plates. It will be seen in the data of Table 1 of that patent, reproduced below, that the improvements achieved were small. The largest reductions in turbulent variations cited in the prior patent were produced by reducers, either alone, or in combination with plates having small holes.
TABLE 1Reproduced from U.S. Pat. No. 6,647,806 B1Standard Deviationof One FlowTurbulence conditioner ConfigurationSampleStraight pipe with no diffuser mechanism1.2% to 1.75%*Large hole perforated plate1.61%Small hole perforated plate0.93%Reducer immediately upstream0.63%Reducer/large hole perforated plate0.64%Reducer/small hole perforated plate0.59%*The lower figure was not included in the referenced patent, but reflects multiple measurements made subsequent to the filing of that patent. Standard deviations higher than 1.75% can be found 5 to 10 diameters downstream of hydraulic disturbances such as bends, compound bends, and header exits.
The method for reducing the effects of turbulence employed by the turbulence conditioners of this invention does not rely on the elimination of turbulence through the dissipation of very small eddies. Rather, the reduction in the random deviations of flow samples is brought about reducing the eddy sizes such that they are effectively averaged within the acoustic beams of the ultrasonic meter.
The reduction in eddy sizes produced by the turbulence conditioners of this invention also leads to an increase in the frequencies of the random variations in fluid velocity produced by the turbulence. The frequency increases also lead to improved proving performance, by making a limited sample of N velocity measurements collected during a proving run more representative of the entire population of velocity variations.

Method for producing a turbulence conditioner for use with an ultrasonic flow meter in a pipe


Implementations are presented herein that relate to a memory cell, a memory device, a device and a method of accessing a memory cell.

Trends in the development of semiconductor chips show that the area occupied by memory is increasing. If these trends continue, a large part of a System on Chip's overall area will be occupied by memory. Semiconductor technology is scaled down to achieve higher densities of memories. Variations in manufacturing parameters, e.g. variations in number and location of dopant atoms in a channel region of a transistor, increase in accordance with scaling down technology. Correspondingly, threshold voltages of transistors forming memory cells vary increasingly, which makes it difficult to perform stable write and stable read operations.
Besides achieving higher densities of memories, it is generally desirable to save power in applications that use memory that occupies a large amount of chip-area. Scaling the supply voltage is one approach used to save power. A low supply voltage together with variations in manufacturing parameters may lead to memory cell access errors, especially during write operations.

Memory cell, memory device, device and method of accessing a memory cell


A scraper for refurbishing windscreen wiper blades has a frame with an outer periphery, at least one trimming groove defined in the outer periphery of the frame, and at least one scrubbing material respectively received inside the at least one trimming groove. The trimming groove receives a deteriorated rubber blade inside and slides to scrape surfaces of the rubber blade until the rubber blade becomes refurbished. Thereby, the rubber blade is trimmed conveniently and easily without excessive material loss.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a scraper, and more particularly to a scraper for refurbishing windscreen wiper blades, which efficiently and conveniently trims the windscreen wiper blades by scrubbing.
2. Description of Related Art
A windscreen wiper has at least one blade made of rubber or the like to attach to a screen to remove water, grime or water stain to keep the screen clean. However, because the rubber blade easily deteriorates under sunshine or is stained with stubborn dirt after a period of time, the rubber blade has to be replaced with a new one frequently. This replacement involves finding a store that stocks the particular model of wiper blade, paying for it, and removing the old blade to replace it with the new one. Furthermore, the purchaser may have to incur further expense in paying for fitting the blade as some people are not practical enough to do it themselves. Such a seemingly simple task may in fact become a burden for a busy person, thus leading to a delay in doing it whereby the improperly cleaned windscreen becomes a safety hazard. Therefore, if the rubber blade can be refurbished, the vehicle owner can save time, effort and money in by not buying new rubber blades.
A conventional repairing machine for the rubber blade has sharp knives to shave off aged surfaces or stained surfaces of the rubber blades. However, too much of the rubber blade is removed in each shaving so that the rubber blade is consumed quickly and has a short life-span when the rubber is refurbished with the conventional repairing machine.
The present invention has arisen to mitigate or obviate the disadvantage of the conventional refurbishing machine for the rubber blades on the windscreen wipers.

Scraper for refurbishing windscreen wiper blades


A high density frame relay circuit within a digital cross-connect matrix converts TDM based DCS matrix data containing frame relay data to/from a DS3 ATM physical interface and provides adaption processing between the frame relay and ATM domains. The circuit is controlled by a DCS administrative subsystem and a simple network management protocol based network element manager.

The present invention relates to telecommunications systems, and more particularly to a system for converting TDM-based digital cross-connect system matrix data containing frame relay data to and from ATM data.
Digital cross-connect systems (DCS) constitute switching/multiplex equipment that permit per-channel DS0 electronic cross-connection from one T1 transmission facilities to another, directly from the constituent DS1 signals. A basic multiplexing method used in telecommunications digital cross-connect systems is time division multiplexing (TDM). In TDM, a transmission facility is shared in time rather than frequency. In a TDM system, a frame is a sequence of time slots, each containing a sample from one of the channels served by the multiplex system. The frame is repeated at the sampling rate, and each channel occupies the same sequence position in successive frames. To permit higher levels of multiplexing concentration, a multi-level TDM digital signal hierarchy has been developed.
The DS1 level in the hierarchy corresponds to the 1.544 Mbps TDM signal. The DS0 level refers to the individual time slot digital signals at channel rates of 64 kbps. Four DS1 signals comprise a DS2 level signal containing 96 DS0 channels. A DS3 level signal results from the digital multiplexing of seven DS2 signals. The DS designation refers to the signal level hierarchy and is independent of the type of carrier facility.
Frame relay is a high-speed switching technology utilized in a form of packet switching. The packets are in the form of xe2x80x9cframesxe2x80x9d which are variable in length. A frame relay network can accommodate data packets of various sizes associated with virtually any native data protocol.
Asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) is a high speed transmission technology utilizing a high bandwidth, low-delay, connection-oriented, packet-like switching and multiplexing technique. ATM allocates bandwidth on demand, making it suitable for high speed connection of voice, data, and video services.
In telecommunications systems, digital cross-connect systems are required to convert TDM based matrix data containing frame relay data to and from DS3 ATM data. Typically, equipment is separate from the cross-connect system that performs TDM-frame relay and frame-relay ATM conversion. Such equipment requires additional rack and bay locations from the digital cross-connect system as well as additional interfaces.
To improve the efficiency in telecommunications systems as well as to provide economical systems it is desirable to include additional functions within a digital cross-connect system. A need has thus arisen for a system to extract frame relay data from TDM data at a narrow band cross-connect switching matrix to perform conversion of the frame relay data to/from a DS3 ATM interface and perform adaption processing between the frame relay and ATM domains in a narrow band cross-connect system.
The present invention provides for a high density frame relay circuit pack to be installed in a subsystem of a digital cross-connect system. The frame relay circuit pack converts TDM based data containing frame relay data to/from a DS3 ATM physical interface and performs adaption processing between the frame relay and ATM domains. The frame relay circuit pack converts DS0 channelized and DS1 unchannelized frame relay traffic to DS3 ATM data in the outbound direction and converts DS3 ATM traffic to DS0 channelized or DS1 unchannelized frame relay data in the inbound direction.

System for providing conversion of TDM-based frame relay data in a cross-connect matrix to and from ATM data


A rechargeable battery including an electrode assembly, the electrode assembly including an anode, a cathode, and a separator therebetween; a case accommodating the electrode assembly, the case having an opening; a cap plate coupled to the opening of the case, the cap plate having a discharge hole; and a vent plate coupled to the discharge hole, wherein the vent plate includes a main notch part corresponding to the discharge hole, and a sub-notch part separated from the main notch part.

1. Field
Embodiments relate to a rechargeable battery.
2. Description of the Related Art
Rechargeable batteries may be repeatedly charged and discharged, unlike primary batteries that cannot be recharged. Low-capacity rechargeable batteries may be used for portable compact electronic apparatuses, e.g., mobile phones, notebook computers, and camcorders, and high-capacity rechargeable batteries may be widely used as, e.g., a power source for driving a motor of a hybrid vehicle, etc.
Recently, a high-output rechargeable battery using a non-aqueous electrolyte having high energy density has been developed. The high-output rechargeable battery may include a plurality of rechargeable batteries connected in series so as to be used for driving a motor for an apparatus requiring a large amount of power, e.g., an electrical vehicle. The rechargeable battery may have, e.g., a cylindrical shape or a rectangular shape.
When the rechargeable battery is repeatedly charged and discharged, gas may be generated inside the rechargeable battery and an internal pressure thereof may increase. If the internal pressure inside the rechargeable battery continues to increase, the rechargeable battery may explode.
To prevent explosion of the rechargeable battery, a gas discharge hole may be included in a cap plate of the rechargeable battery. The discharge hole may be closed and sealed by a vent plate that may open if the internal pressure of the rechargeable battery exceeds a predetermined value.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the described technology and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.


A process includes forming a protective layer in a region of a substrate including a PAD electrode; forming a soluble resin layer in a region including a region on the substrate where an energy generating element has been formed, for forming a liquid chamber; forming a coating resin layer in a region covering the soluble resin layer and a region where an opening is formed above the electrode; forming an opening in the coating resin layer above the energy generating element to form a nozzle; dipping the substrate in an dissolving liquid to dissolve the soluble resin layer; and removing the protective layer after dissolution of the soluble resin layer.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a process for manufacturing a liquid ejection head including nozzles formed for ejecting a liquid from a liquid chamber. Specifically, the invention relates to a technique for permitting secured dissolution of a soluble resin layer and preventing corrosion of an electrode on a substrate.
2. Description of the Related Art
A usual technique known as a technique for ink jet heads (a type of liquid ejection head) of ink jet printers includes ejecting as ink droplets an ink contained in an ink chamber through nozzles using an energy generating element, and landing the droplets on a recording medium such as printing paper or the like which is disposed opposite to an ink ejection surface to arrange substantially circular dots in a lattice form, thereby expressing a character, a picture, or the like as a dot image.
Examples of a known ink ejection system include a thermal system in which ink is ejected by thermal energy using a heating element (heating resistor) as an energy generating element, a piezo system in which ink is ejected by deformation of a vibrating plate using a piezo element as an energy generating element, and the like. In any one of the systems, the ink contained in an ink chamber is ejected through nozzles.
The structure of this type of liquid ejection head includes liquid chambers, an energy generating element provided in each liquid chamber, nozzles disposed on the energy generating elements, individual flow paths communicating to the respective liquid chambers, a common flow path communicating to the individual flow paths to supply a liquid thereto, etc.
A known method for manufacturing such an ink jet heat includes, for example, forming a soluble resin layer, which may be subsequently dissolved, into an ink chamber pattern on a substrate on which energy generating elements have been disposed, applying a resin solution on the soluble resin layer formed in the ink chamber pattern to form a coating resin layer, and forming nozzles in the coating resin layer and dissolving the soluble resin layer below the coating resin layer to form ink chambers (refer to, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 59-274689).

Process for manufacturing liquid ejection head


A golf bag includes a container and a stand. The container has an elongated body which defines an interior space for receiving golf clubs, and a partition member disposed inside the body divides the interior space into a plurality of individual compartments. A throat member is attached to an upper end of the body, and a hinge connects a base member to a lower end of the body. The hinge permits pivoting movement of the body relative to the base member from an upright position to an inclined position. During this pivoting movement of the body, a lower edge on the body lower end moves toward an upper edge on the base member. When the body is in its upright position, a wedge-shaped gap is formed between the lower edge on the body lower end and the upper edge on the base member. The wedge-shaped gap is closed as the body moves from its upright position to its inclined position. A stand, which includes a pair of legs pivotally connected to the throat member, supports the body in its inclined position.

The present invention relates generally to golf equipment and, more particularly, to a golf bag for carrying golf clubs.
For many years, golf clubs have been carried in specially designed golf bags. Most golf bags consist of a tubular container approximately three feet in length and of generally cylindrical configuration with a closed bottom and an open top through which golf clubs are inserted into and removed from the container. The top usually includes a throat member that is divided into a plurality of sections in order to segregate golf clubs into selected groups. Additionally, golf bags usually include pockets for carrying golf balls, tees and the like. A handle and a shoulder strap are also provided to facilitate carrying a golf bag.
Although some golfers carry their golf bags while playing, many of them dislike repeatedly bending over whenever the golf bag they are carrying must be laid down or picked up from the ground during the course of play. Further, most golfers dislike laying their golf bags down in wet grass or dirt. For these reasons, various stands have been devised for supporting golf bags in an inclined position whenever a golfer desires. One such stand is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,834,235 to John A. Solheim et al and includes legs that are automatically extensible by utilizing a golf bag with a collapsible side.
Recently, golfers have desired golf bags with dividers that extend substantially the full length between the top and bottom of the bag. These full length dividers provide improved segregation of golf clubs into selected groups but it has become difficult to incorporate them into a golf bag that utilizes the stand disclosed in the above-mentioned Solheim et al patent.
Therefore, a need exists for an improved golf bag with an automatic stand and full length dividers.

Golf bag with automatic stand and full length dividers


A disposable diaper includes a disposal aid coupled with an exterior surface of a waistband region of the diaper. The disposal aid includes a base, a first removable cover and a second removable cover. A disposal bag is placed on the base and covered by the first removable cover. A cleaning wipe is place on the first removable cover and covered by the second removable cover. The base may include a cavity to receive the disposal bag so as to reduce the overall height of the disposal aid. The disposal aid may alternatively be configured to include a disposal bag encased in a casing and a cleaning wipe, both of which are placed on the base of the disposal aid and covered by a single removable cover.

The use of disposable diapers is widespread in the U.S. as well as many other countries. The typical baby goes through 5000 to 8000 diapers before the completion of potty training, and Americans use millions of diapers each year. Obviously, the mess and odor associated with diapers is undesirable and a source of discomfort in the household. Disposable diapers are often thrown directly into the trash, resulting, in an emanating odor in the trash bin. Alternatively, to avoid this, the user must place the dirty diaper in some type of bag prior to placing it in the trash. This however, is inconvenient in that it requires the user to have a supply of such bags and retrieve the bag when needed. Similarly, cleaning wipes are a common tool in cleaning the baby upon unfastening or removal of the diaper, and the user must have a supply of such wipes nearby when needed. There is a need in the art for a disposable diaper that is more amenable to convenient cleanup and disposal.

Disposable diaper with integrated disposal aid


An agent for treatment of metabolic bone disease, which contains EPO as an active ingredient, or a method for treating a patient with metabolic bone disease, which comprises EPO, is provided. Pharmaceutical products containing EPO as the active ingredient are novel prophylactic and therapeutic agents which show an ameliorative action by healing bone and bone marrow lesions in bone disease, especially bone disease based on impaired bone metabolism, aside from the previously reported erythrocyte increasing action of EPO. Pathological states, targeted by these pharmaceutical products, are bone diseases showing metabolic bone disorders, including renal failure-associated osteodystrophy, marble bone disease, diabetic nephropathy, and osteoporosis.

With the aging of population and the prolongation of life in recent years, medical care concerned with metabolic bone disease has attracted great attention from the aspects of QOL and increasing medical costs. The metabolic bone disease, referred to herein, includes not only so-called regressive bone diseases, but also bone disease due to aging, and metabolic bone diseases which are complications of renal failure and diabetes closely related to lifestyle in modern times. Since metabolic bone diseases range widely, how to proceed with handling the diseases poses a major social challenge. With this social background, scientific findings about metabolic bone diseases have been rapidly accumulated since the latter half of the 1980s.
Therapies of metabolic bone diseases are intensively implemented in combination with therapeutic techniques and development of drugs. As a result, the multiphasic properties (redundancies) of different drugs have been found. For example, hematopoietic factors and bone metabolism-related drugs have correlate mechanisms of action, or show similar actions, thus suggesting that they are closely correlated. Investigation and establishment of methods for treatment of metabolic bone diseases, using model animals suffering from metabolic bone diseases, make it possible to provide useful information leading to improvement of QOL in patients with metabolic bone diseases.
Bone diseases include those which involve a high risk for bone fracture, such as osteoporosis indicated by a decrease in bone mineral content. For such bone diseases, diagnostic instruments using the bone mineral content as a parameter (bone mineral analyzers), intended for the prevention and diagnosis of these diseases, have been markedly developed and technologically improved, because of their noninvasiveness and convenience.
In regard to diagnosis of metabolic bone disease, bone morphometric diagnosis based on morphological observation using bone labeling was developed in the 1970s. However, this diagnostic technique has difficulty in convenience, and is not so widely used as the bone mineral analyzer in the clinical setting.
An adenine-induced nephropathy model rat (adenine model) is a model animal with chronic renal failure 1), 2), 3). According to a report4), the bone density (bone mineral content) of the femur of the model was measured by a bone mineral analyzer, with attention being focused on the relationship between the renal failure in this model and a decrease in bone mineral content. A tendency toward decrease was observed in the bone mineral content, and the administration of EPO in this pathological state was found to produce a tendency toward recovery in the bone mineral content.
We, the inventors of the present invention, had closely investigated the adenine model from the aspects of renal failure and its complications. Based on the results of the investigation, we reported that the adenine model, in which renal failure developed, was a pathological model animal showing a complication, such as secondary hyperparathyroidism, ectopic calcification, or renal osteodystrophy which is a metabolic bone disease, the complication similar to a complication of renal failure in humans 5, 6).
To look into the essence of metabolic bone disease, such as renal osteodystrophy, it is an absolute necessity to make a final analysis by a histopathological method based on a quantitative balance between osteoblasts and osteoclasts in bone tissue, which are cells relevant to bone metabolism, and functional changes and changes with time in these cells, with the conception of time being taken into consideration. The noninvasive diagnostic method based on measurement of the bone mineral content, when used singly, was merely enough to indicate a suspicion of osteoporosis, etc. which are some of metabolic bone diseases. This diagnostic method did not enable analysis of the exact nature of the relevant metabolic bone disease and estimate its essence.

Agent for treatment of metabolic bone disease


An object of the present invention is to provide a microorganism which has a high ability of producing docosahexaenoic acid. The present invention provides a Thraustochytrium strain which has an ability of producing docosahexaenoic acid, and use thereof.

Docosahexaenoic acid is a polyunsaturated fatty acid which is present specifically in the brain or retina of an animal. It plays a major physiological role in those organs, and also has physiological activities such as an anti-inflammatory effect or an effect of lowering blood cholesterol level. Accordingly, docosahexaenoic acid is a useful substance, the use of which has drawn attention in the fields of medicines and food products. Recently, use of docosahexaenoic acid has also been expanded in the field of functional foods such as health foods and formulas.
Docosahexaenoic acid is contained in fish oil of bluefish. More particularly, about 20% of sardine- or tuna-derived oil is made up of docosahexaenoic acid. A major problem in terms of the use of fish-derived docosahexaenoic acid-containing fat and oil in the field of food products is necessity of considerable operations for removing the smell of fish. Furthermore, since fish-derived docosahexaenoic acid-containing fat and oil contains a variety of polyunsaturated fatty acids such as arachidonic acid or icosapentaenoic acid (EPA), it is likely to be oxidized. Thus, it is difficult to obtain fat and oil having stable quality. Further, when docosahexaenoic acid is used in the field of medicines or the like, it is necessary that docosahexaenoic acid is separated and purified from docosahexaenoic acid-containing fat and oil. However, a variety of polyunsaturated fatty acids having structures similar to that of docosahexaenoic acid are contained, and thus, separation and purification are difficult. In the preparation of formulas, docosahexaenoic acid-containing fat and oil having a low content of icosapentaenoic acid is particularly preferable. However, when the source is fish oil, it is very difficult to efficiently remove icosapentaenoic acid only.
As a source of docosahexaenoic acid other than fish oil, a method for producing docosahexaenoic acid using microorganisms have been attempted. Examples of known microorganisms which produce docosahexaenoic acid-containing fat and oil include Vibrio marinus (bacteria extracted from the deep sea); Vibrio (bacteria separated from the intestine of deep sea fish); Thraustochytrium aureum which is Mastigomycotina; Japonochytrium sp.; and Cyclotella cryptica, which is a type of microalgae. Production of docosahexaenoic acid-containing fat and oil by culture techniques utilizing these microorganisms have also been studied (JP Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 1-199588 A (1989)). However, according to the conventionally known methods utilizing microorganisms, the production amount of docosahexaenoic acid-containing fat and oil per liter of medium was as small as approximately 100 mg to 700 mg, and the production amount of docosahexaenoic acid was also very small.
JP Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 10-72590 A (1998) and JP Patent No. 2764572 disclose the production of docosahexaenoic acid using the Schizochytrium sp. strain (SR21). In these documents, drawbacks such as small production amounts, necessity of a special medium for culturing, and necessity of new capital investment for equipment for production are also pointed out.
JP Patent Publication (Kohyo) No. 2000-513575 discloses that fat and oil can be collected from cultured microorganisms of the genus Ulkenia that has an ability of producing docosahexaenoic acid- and docosapentaenoic acid-containing fats and oils, but there are same drawbacks as mentioned above.
Rapeseed oil is often used as a starting material for long-chain saturated fatty acid (C22:0 behenic acid) which is necessary for photographic photosensitive materials. A rapeseed breed containing no C22 component has become preferred, and the breed improvement thereof has been in progress. Thus, the supply of a rapeseed breed containing C22 component tends to decrease. In addition, hydrogenated rapeseed oils contain fatty acid having similar numbers of carbon atoms, and thus, laborious purification and cost are of serious problem for the production of highly purified behenic acid. Therefore, it is desired to develop a technique for producing useful lipids, which can stably provide highly purified DHA and behenic acid at a low cost.

Microorganism having an ability of producing docosahexaenoic acid and use thereof


So that a surgical instrument for inserting an intervertebral implant into an intervertebral space between two adjacent vertebral bodies of two vertebrae of a human or animal spinal column, wherein the intervertebral implant comprises a first abutment element for abutment against one of the two adjacent vertebral bodies as well as a second abutment element directly or indirectly supported in an articulated manner on the first abutment element for abutment against the other of the two adjacent vertebral bodies, wherein the instrument comprises an elongate shank, which defines a longitudinal direction and on the distal end of which at least two abutment-element holding elements are provided for detachable connection to the first and the second abutment element, and a spacer element, which projects from the distal end of the shank in extension thereof and which, when the abutment elements are connected to the instrument, engages between the abutment elements and holds them a defined spacing apart from one another, may be improved in such a way that with it a plurality of different implants, in particular of differing sizes, is insertable through different approaches into the intervertebral space, it is proposed that the spacer element is supported movably relative to at least one of the two abutment-element holding elements.

The invention relates to a surgical instrument for inserting an intervertebral implant into an intervertebral space between two adjacent vertebral bodies of two vertebrae of a human or animal spinal column, wherein the intervertebral implant comprises a first abutment element for abutment against one of the two adjacent vertebral bodies as well as a second abutment element directly or indirectly supported in an articulated manner on the first abutment element for abutment against the other of the two adjacent vertebral bodies, wherein the instrument comprises an elongate shank, which defines a longitudinal direction and on the distal end of which at least two abutment-element holding elements are provided for detachable connection to the first and the second abutment element, and a spacer element, which projects from the distal end of the shank in extension thereof and which, when the abutment elements are connected to the instrument, engages between the abutment elements and holds them a defined spacing apart from one another.
Instruments of the initially described type are used to insert intervertebral implants with movable implant components, in particular to insert replacement intervertebral disks. In this case, a basic distinction is made between two types of instrument. On the one hand, there are instruments, with which first the abutment elements are disposed against the adjacent vertebral bodies and only in a next step is an articulated element inserted between the two abutment elements. With this procedure, spreading of the adjacent vertebral bodies is an absolute requirement. Known insertion instruments accordingly also have a spreading function. On the other hand, insertion instruments are known, with which an intervertebral implant may be inserted as a unit between adjacent vertebral bodies. Known insertion instruments are each individually adapted to the replacement intervertebral disk that is to be inserted.


An aircraft detection system identifies aircraft based on identifying information obtained from two or more different detection channels using a distributed set of user equipment, network equipment, broadcast receivers, aircraft control cloud system, and/or flight tracking equipment with different sensors. The different sensors may detect aircraft that communicate via different wireless networks, network connectivity, message broadcasts, visual features, and sound in addition to or instead traditional radar and satellite detection. Accordingly, the aircraft detection system may perform multi-channel remote identification to accelerate the identification of aircraft and may use the two or more detection channels as alternate means with which to identify aircraft that may go undetected with one or more of the detection channels.

Airspace is becoming more populated with the proliferation of drones and other aircraft, and with expanded uses of these aircraft for recreational, delivery, personal transportation, and/or other services. Some of these flights may not be monitored or tracked by local municipalities, air control towers, regulatory agencies (e.g., the Federal Aviation Administration), or others because existing radar technology cannot detect the aircraft or because the aircraft are currently not subject to tracking or regulation.
As such, there is the potential for conflicted airspace. Different operators may fly aircraft in the same region of airspace without knowledge of the other flights that could disrupt the operations or flight plan of one or more operators, result in damage to the aircraft or injury to property or people, or create other situations that could have been avoided had the aircraft been identified and tracked during flight.

Systems and methods for multi-channel remote identification of aircraft


A wrist pad is provided including a flexible removable wrap with a top extent and a bottom extent. At least one sleeve is mounted on the bottom extent of the wrap. A rigid element includes at least one portion defining a periphery of a cylinder and a sphere. Such rigid element is removably situated within the sleeve during use.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to wrist pads and more particularly pertains to a new wrist guards for providing superior protection to a wrist of a user during activities such as skating and skateboarding.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of wrist pads is known in the prior art. More specifically, wrist pads heretofore devised and utilized are known to consist basically of familiar, expected and obvious structural configurations, notwithstanding the myriad of designs encompassed by the crowded prior art which have been developed for the fulfillment of countless objectives and requirements.
Known prior art wrist pads include U.S. Pat. No. 5,329,638; U.S. Pat. No. 5,267,943; U.S. Pat. No. Des. 270,556; U.S. Pat. No. 5,313,667; U.S. Pat. No. 3,945,045; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,896,378.
In these respects, the wrist guards according to the present invention substantially departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art, and in so doing provides an apparatus primarily developed for the purpose of providing superior protection to a wrist of a user during activities such as skating and skateboarding.


A drive device which repeats charging and discharging at different velocities by applying drive pulses to a piezoelectric transducer, causes vibrations with different velocities in the piezoelectric transducer to cause contraction and expansion displacements in a driving member fixedly coupled with the piezoelectric transducer for moving a member frictionally coupled to the driving member. In order to provide stable driving force, stable driving velocity and precise movement, a piezoelectric transducer constituted by stacking a plurality of unit elements is divided into a plurality of blocks having different numbers of lamination layers for driving. A change in impedance by the division is compensated by a compensation circuit, or a plurality of driving circuits corresponding to the impedance are provided and a block and a driving circuit of the piezoelectric transducer are selected in accordance with the driving velocity and moving distance for driving.

The present invention relates to a drive device using an electromechanical transducer, and to an apparatus employing a drive device using the electromechanical transducer such as a XY moving stage for precision measurement, a photo-taking lens for cameras, a projection lens for overhead projectors and a binoculars lens and the like.
When drive pulses each consisting of a gradual rising portion and a steep falling portion following it are applied on a piezoelectric transducer, the piezoelectric transducer is displaced to gradually expand in the thickness direction at the gradual rising portion of each of the drive pulses, and is displaced to rapidly contract at the steep falling portion. Thus, there has been known a drive device (as an example, refer to Japanese Patent Laid-Open Application No. 6-123830) which taking advantage of this characteristic property, applies such wavy drive pulses as described above on the piezoelectric transducer to repeat charging and discharging at different velocities, causes in the piezoelectric transducer vibrations having different velocities in the thickness direction to reciprocate a driving member fixed to the piezoelectric transducer at different velocities, and moves a moving member frictionally coupled with the driving member in a predetermined direction.
FIG. 18 is a sectional view showing an example of the constitution of a photo-taking lens driving device for cameras using the above-described drive device. In the figure, numeral 101 designates a lens barrel, to the left end of which a holding frame 102 of a first lens L1 is fixedly mounted, and the right end 101a of which forms a holding frame of a third lens L3. Inside the lens barrel 101, a holding frame 103 of a second lens L2 is movably disposed in a direction of the optical axis. Numeral 104 designates a drive shaft for driving the lens holding frame 103 in the direction of the optical axis, and the drive shaft 104 is movably supported by a first flange portion 101b of the lens barrel 101 and a flange portion 102b of the lens holding frame 102 in the direction of the optical axis, and one end thereof is fixedly adhered to one of surfaces of the piezoelectric transducer 105.
The piezoelectric transducer 105 is disposed in the thickness direction to dispose the drive shaft 104 in the axial direction, and one end surface of the piezoelectric transducer is fixedly adhered to the drive shaft 104, and the other end surface thereof is fixedly adhered to the second flange portion 101c of the lens barrel 101.
The lens holding frame 103 for holding the second lens L2 has a slider block 103b which is a moving member extending upwardly. The drive shaft 104 penetrates the slider block 103b in the horizontal direction. An opening portion 103c is formed above a portion of the slider block 103b where the drive shaft 104 penetrates whereby an upper half portion of the drive shaft 104 is exposed. A pad 106 which is brought into contact with an upper half portion of the drive shaft 104 is inserted into this opening portion 103c, a projection 106a is provided on the upper portion of the pad 106, the projection 106a of the pad 106 is pressed down by a flat spring 107, and a downward urging force F is applied on the pad 106 at a portion thereof that is brought into contact with the drive shaft 104. FIG. 19 is a sectional view showing a constitution of a frictionally-coupled portion between the drive shaft 104, and the slider block 103b and the pad 106.
Next, the description will be made of the control operation. When it is necessary to move the lens L2 in a direction indicated by an arrow a, such drive pulses each consisting of a gradual rising portion and a steep falling portion following it as shown in FIG. 20 are supplied to the piezoelectric transducer 105.
At the gradual rising portion of each of the drive pulses, the piezoelectric transducer 105 is disposed to gradually expand in the thickness direction, and the drive shaft 104 is displaced in a direction indicated by the arrow a in the axial direction. This causes the drive shaft 104 to be brought into press contact by a flat spring 107 to move the slider block 103b and the pad 106 which have been frictionally coupled in the direction indicated by an arrow a, and therefore, the lens holding frame 103 can be moved in the direction indicated by the arrow a.
At the steep falling portion of each of the drive pulses, the piezoelectric transducer 105 is rapidly disposed to contract in the thickness direction, and the drive shaft 104 is also displaced in a direction opposed to the direction indicated by the arrow a in the axial direction. At this time, the slider block 103b, the pad 106 and the lens holding frame 103 which have been brought into press contact with the drive shaft 104 by the flat spring 107 substantially stay at their positions by surpassing the frictional force between the slider block 103b, the pad 106 and the lens holding frame 103, and the drive shaft 104 by the inertia thereof, and the lens holding frame 103 is not moved.
Incidentally, according to the expression "substantially" mentioned here, there is included a movement of the slider block 103b where the slider block 103b follows the drive shaft 104 while slipping at frictionally coupled faces between the slider block 103b, the pad 106 and the drive shaft 104 in any of a direction indicated by an arrow a and the direction opposed thereto and the slider block 103b is moved in the direction indicated by an arrow a as a whole by a difference in drive time periods.
By continuously applying the above-described drive pulses on the piezoelectric transducer 105, it is possible to continuously move the lens holding frame 103 in a direction indicated by the arrow a.
A movement of the lens holding frame 103 in a direction opposed to the direction indicated by the arrow a can be achieved by applying wavy drive pulses each consisting of a steep rising portion and a gradual falling portion following it on the piezoelectric transducer 105.
In the above-described drive device using the piezoelectric transducer, there has been adopted a method of driving by applying saw tooth wave pulses generated by a drive pulse generating circuit on the piezoelectric transducer, or combining a constant-current charging circuit with a short-circuit discharging circuit to apply drive pulses each consisting of constant-current charging and rapid discharging, or applying drive pulses each consisting of rapid charging and constant-current discharging on the piezoelectric transducer.
On the other hand, in the drive device of this sort, precise positioning is generally achieved by making the driving velocity slow. In the drive device using the piezoelectric transducer, the driving velocity can be made slower by lowering the voltage of the drive pulses to reduce the expansion and contraction displacements thereof, but there is a drawback where the thrust force (driving force) also becomes smaller at the same time, and the driving velocity and the thrust force become unstable.
Particularly in the case of a fine moving distance, a voltage to be applied also becomes very low, the thrust force (driving force) also become small, and the moving distance and thrust force become unstable, resulting in a drawback where it becomes difficult to position precisely.
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing relationship between voltage of drive pulses to be applied on the piezoelectric transducer and driving velocity, showing that as the voltage of drive pulses increases, the driving velocity also becomes faster, and that as the voltage of the drive pulses lowers, the driving velocity also lowers, but that when the voltage of drive pulses lowers below a predetermined critical value p, the driving velocity becomes unstable.
FIG. 2 is a diagram showing relationship between voltage of drive pulses to be applied on the piezoelectric transducer and thrust force, showing that as the voltage of drive pulses increases, the thrust force also increases, and that as the voltage of the drive pulses lowers, the thrust force also decreases, but that when the voltage of drive pulses lowers below a predetermined critical value q, the thrust force becomes unstable.
Further, FIG. 3 is a diagram showing relationship between a frequency of drive pulses to be applied on the piezoelectric transducer and the driving velocity, showing that as the frequency of drive pulses increases, the driving velocity also becomes faster, and that as the frequency of the drive pulses lowers, the driving velocity also decreases.
In this case, the driving velocity does not become unstable at low frequencies, but there is a drawback where vibration sound generated is heard as noises to the human ear at an audio frequency or less (about 20 kHz or less).
FIG. 4 is a view showing a waveform of drive pulses when the drive pulses are thinned out every a specified period of time without changing the voltage and frequency of drive pulses to be applied on the piezoelectric transducer, and is advantageous in that the voltage and frequency are maintained, but the driving becomes intermittent because the drive pulses are thinned out. For this reason, there is a drawback where vibration sound corresponding to a period of the intermittent driving is generated and is heard as noises to the human ear.
As a countermeasure against this, it is considered to reduce a number of lamination layers of an unit element constituting the piezoelectric transducer without changing the voltage and frequency of drive pulses applied on the piezoelectric transducer in order to make the driving velocity slower. That is, if the unit element constituting the piezoelectric transducer is divided into a plurality of blocks and drive pulses of a sufficient amplitude are applied to only some of those blocks, the thrust force (driving force) remains unchanged and the driving velocity does not become unstable because the expansion and contraction displacements of the unit element do not change.
In order to conduct precise positioning in a drive device of this sort, there is a method for moving to a target position by switching to low-velocity driving which causes desired expansion displacement by applying DC voltage on the piezoelectric transducer after high-velocity driving which applies drive pulses on the piezoelectric transducer to cause reciprocal displacements and moves a driven member to near a desired position.
In such low-velocity driving, since a movable distance is in proportion to a number of lamination layers of an unit element constituting the piezoelectric transducer, it will suffice if the number of lamination layers of the unit element is increased to increase the moving distance by low-velocity driving. When, however, the number of lamination layers of the unit element is increased, the resonance frequency of a driving system including the piezoelectric transducer lowers. For this reason, when low-velocity driving is conducted using the piezoelectric transducer having a large number of lamination layers of the unit element, there are no particular problems, but when this piezoelectric transducer (piezoelectric transducer having a large number of lamination layers of the unit element) is commonly used also for high-velocity driving, there is a drawback where vibrations of audio frequency or less (20 kHz or less) are generated and the vibration sound is heard as noises to the human ear.
In case where the piezoelectric transducer is divided into a plurality of blocks, when design is made such that numbers of unit elements of piezoelectric transducers constituting the respective blocks are different in order to obtain a desired driving velocity, the impedance differs with the block. In other words, since the impedance of the piezoelectric transducer, which is a load as viewed from the drive pulse circuit side, changes in accordance with a block selected to obtain a desired driving velocity, there arises a case where drive pulses each having the desired waveform cannot be applied on the piezoelectric transducer. Namely, there arises a drawback where the desired driving velocity cannot be obtained simply depending upon a change in the number of lamination layers of the piezoelectric transducer.
Further, in a drive device of this sort, as described above, the driving velocity is generally made slower by lowering the voltage of drive pulses for precision positioning, but when the voltage of drive pulses lowers below the critical value, no displacement is caused.
More specifically, FIG. 5 is a view showing relationship between drive pulse voltage applied on the piezoelectric transducer and displacement; FIG. 5(a) shows a pulse voltage applied in a predetermined time, and FIG. 5(b) shows displacement generated in a predetermined time. As shown in FIGS. 5(a) and (b), when the drive pulse voltage exceeds the critical value as shown by a line Va, such displacement as indicated by a line Da adapted to the drive pulse voltage is caused, but when the drive pulse voltage is the critical value or less as shown by a line Vb, no displacement adapted to the drive pulse voltage is caused as shown by a line Db.

Drive device using electromechanical transducer and an apparatus employing the drive device


In a multimedia contents converting apparatus configured to convert input multimedia contents to be displayed with a predetermined size, including text media and the other media, into output multimedia contents to be displayed with a size smaller than the predetermined size, a spatiotemporal layout information setting processing unit sets a display time of the text media included in layout information on the basis of a display time of the text media calculated in a text display time calculation processing unit, and sets a playing time of the other media included in the layout information on the basis of the display time of the text media set as the layout information.

(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multimedia contents converting apparatus and method suitable, for example, for use in the conversion of multimedia contents (or content) available in a terminal such as a personal computer (PC) using a broadband line so that the multimedia contents are audible and visible in a portable terminal using a portable terminal communication line, and further to a multimedia contents conversion program and a computer-readable storage medium storing a multimedia contents conversion program.
(2) Description of the Related Art
So far, as a means of editing multimedia contents, for example, there has been known a technique in which, for the purpose of editing in units of segments in which text media and motion picture media (video media) are associated with each other, in a state where the association between the text media and the motion picture (moving picture) media is placed under control, the descriptions (descriptive text) about image scenes constituting a digest picture are connected through the use of appropriate connection representations according to the contexts of the image scenes to automatically produce the descriptions about the picture contents (for example, see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-275058).
In addition, as the means of associating a plurality of media with each other, for example, there are the techniques disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. HEI 5-233719 and HEI 11-175092.
Meanwhile, in the recent years, for constructing a presentation through the use of the spatiotemporal (space-time) combinations of one or more media, there has been given multimedia contents produced with a language such as SMIL (Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language) which enables the description of the information on media playing sequence control or media playing synchronization control.
The multimedia contents produced with such a language has principally been provided as PC-oriented contents capable of using a broadband line which enables the transmission/reception of a large-capacity (wide band) data at a high communication speed of approximately several Mbps.
On the other hand, presently, the communication line for portable terminals such as portable telephones can provide the transmission/reception of only the small-capacity (narrow band) data at a low communication speed of approximately several-hundreds Kbps and, hence, for viewing the PC-oriented multimedia contents through a portable terminal, there is a need to convert them into multimedia contents with a format or data capacity according to the communication band and capability of a portable terminal.
For example, as a format of the portable-telephone-oriented multimedia contents, there has been known a file format (3GPP MP4) according to the 3GPP TS26.234 V.5.1.0 standard made by carrying out the restraint and expansion on the MPEG-4 File Format (MP4) according to the ISO/IEC14496-1 standard. This file format is made to display/play video (motion picture) media, audio media and text media in one rendering region (display region).
On the other hand, in most cases, the PC-oriented multimedia contents are made through the use of a file format of displaying/playing the motion picture media, audio media and text media in a plurality of rendering regions.
For this reason, there is a need to convert the PC-oriented multimedia contents, file-formatted to display/play the motion picture media, audio media and text media in a plurality of rendering regions, into the portable-terminal-oriented multimedia contents formatted to display/play motion picture media, audio media and text media in one rending area.
Moreover, for the conversion of the PC-oriented multimedia contents into the portable-terminal-oriented multimedia contents, there is a need to carrying out the conversion below a predetermined data capacity for reducing the data capacity as much as possible in order to avoid an increase in communication time or in communication rate.
For example, a possible conversion of the PC-oriented multimedia contents into the portable-terminal-oriented multimedia contents is as follows.
First, of the media constituting the multimedia contents, on the motion picture media occupying a large portion of the capacity, in addition to a reduced conversion of frame rate, bit rate, resolution and others, a content-summarized conversion is made, such as intensively editing only the images of high-light scenes.
Then, in a state where the association between the text media and the motion picture media is placed under control, the editing is made such that the text media and other media are associated with the edited motion picture media in units of segments in which the text media and the motion picture media are associated with each other.
However, in order to reduce the data capacity as much as possible, there is a case in which, as shown in FIG. 15, a portion of the motion picture media is cut in unit smaller than the segment in which the text media and the motion picture media are associated with each other.
In this case, since the association between the text media and the motion picture media to be cut in the unit smaller than the segment is not placed under control, the corresponding text media cannot be automatically associated with the cutting site of the motion picture media.
In addition, since the PC and the portable terminal differ in screen size from each other, for example, the PC-oriented multimedia contents are produced to the size of the PC screen to appear on a screen with a predetermined size, and the portable-terminal-oriented multimedia contents are produced to the size of a screen of the portable terminal to appear on a screen with a size smaller than the predetermined size.
For this reason, in the case of the conversion of the PC-oriented multimedia contents into the portable-terminal-oriented multimedia contents, a particularly important point is that the text media is surely displayed to be readable without impairing the contents of the text media including the semantic contents.

Apparatus and method for converting multimedia contents


This is a bloodflow-directable infusion catheter which may be used in cardiovascular and endovascular procedures to deliver diagnostic, therapeutic, or vaso-occlusive agents to a target site accessible through the vasculature. The device is a flow-directed infusion catheter having a variety of sections of different flexibilities with tapered junctions between those sections. Additionally, at least some of the inventive catheter's sections have radio-opaque markers at or near the distal end of the individual sections. The more distal section or sections of the inventive catheter may be severed from the catheter body by the physician user so that the remaining catheter has a suitable diameter for the chosen task and the resulting severed end has a radio-opaque marker showing the catheter's distalmost end.

As the cost of classical surgery increases and the sophistication of minimally invasive surgical technology improves, the use of catheters as vehicles for delivering diagnostic and therapeutic agents to internal target sites has similarly increased. Of particular interest herein are catheters which may be used to access target sites through the circulatory system.
There are a number of generalized procedures for placing catheters within vessels in the body for accessing sites that are difficult to approach. Specifically, one such technique involves the use of a torqueable guidewire which, after insertion into the vasculature, is alternately rotated and advanced to the target site. As the guidewire is advanced, the catheter is then tracked along the wire until the distal end of the catheter is also positioned at the desired target site. An early example of this technique is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,884,579, to Engelson. Although the technology involved in such a catheter is quite sophisticated, many consider an over-the-wire catheter to be a second choice when a highly time-sensitive situation is to be treated and when the vascular site to be accessed is in a path of high blood flow. This is due to the comparatively time-consuming nature of rotating and advancing the guidewire and then advancing the catheter over the guidewire through the vasculature.
An alternative is the use of a flow-directed catheter. One such flow-directed catheter technique includes employing a highly flexible catheter having an inflatable, but pre-punctured, balloon at its distal end. In use, the balloon is partially inflated, and carried by blood flow to the target site. During such a placement procedure, the balloon is continually inflated to replenish fluid leaking from the balloon. This technique, too, has major drawbacks, including the fact that the catheter material is so flexible that the catheter cannot be pushed from the proximal end without buckling some portion of the catheter. Instead, the catheter must be advanced using injected fluid to inflate the balloon in order to propel the catheter to the target site. There is always the risk of rupture of a vessel by a balloon that has been too highly inflated.
Other flow-directed catheters have also been proposed which do not use such leaking balloon technology. Specifically, the catheters are so flexible at their distal and mid regions that they are able to be carried by blood flowing to a target site. Examples of such products are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,336,205 (to Zenzen et al.) and U.S. Pat. No. 5,538,512 (to Zenzen et al.). These catheters have in common the presence of a relatively stiff tapered proximal segment, a relatively flexible and strong distal segment, and a transition section between those proximal and distal segments which is intermediate in flexibility. The distal segment has a burst pressure release of 195 psi and is made of a material that shows exceptional deflection when a minor force is placed upon such distal portion.
Neither of these patented devices have the structure of the device described below.

Flow-directed catheter having multiple tapers and radio-opaque markers


In a multiprocessor data processing unit, a data element in the main memory unit, that has system wide significance, can have a requirement that this data element be altered in a controlled manner. Because other data processing units can have access to this data element, the alteration of the data element must be synchronized so the other data processing units are not in the process of altering the same data element simultaneously. The present invention includes an instruction that acquires access to an interlock signal in the main memory unit and initiates an interlock in the main memory unit, thereby excluding other data processing units from gaining access to the interlock signal simultaneously. The instruction causes the data element related to the interlock signal to be transferred to the data processing unit where the data element is saved, can be entered in mask apparatus and then have a quantity added thereto. The altered data element is returned to the main memory unit location and the main memory interlock signal is released, thereby completing the instruction.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to data processing systems and, more particularly, to data processing systems in which a plurality of processing units store data elements in a common main memory unit.
2. Description of the Related Art
In data processing systems in which a plurality of data processing units share a main memory unit for storing data required by the processing unit, a control program is implemented to share equitably the resources including the main memory among a multiplicity of users while simultaneously maintaining the integrity of data elements from inadvertent or malicious compromise. The control program can be in simultaneous execution in a plurality of data processing units. Therefore, the control program must synchronize the access to the data elements that are used to control the allocation and protection of resources. A similar problem can be present for users of the data processing system if their programs are executed on several data processing units simultaneously, referred to as parallel processing or multithreading.
A need has therefore been felt for a flexible and efficient technique whereby changes in the data elements stored in main memory can be synchronized, thereby maintaining data integrity.

Apparatus and method for synchronization of access to main memory signal groups in a multiprocessor data processing system


An example method includes determining, based on a static scan, that a software container image or an intended execution environment of the software container image meets one or more first criteria required to exploit a software vulnerability. Based on the determining, runtime behavior of a software container instantiated from the software container image is monitored. The monitoring including determining whether the software container meets one or more second criteria required to exploit the software vulnerability, wherein the one or more first second criteria differs from the one or more second criteria. Based on the runtime monitoring, a risk score that indicates a magnitude of a risk the software vulnerability poses for the software container is determined, and a notification of the risk score is provided. A system for assessing software containers for vulnerabilities is also disclosed.

This application relates to software containers, and more particularly a system and method for assessing software containers for vulnerabilities.
Virtual machines (VMs) have gained popularity for a variety of computing needs. A virtual machine is a software implementation of a machine that executes programs like a physical machine. A typical virtual machine includes an entire operating system that runs on top of a host operating system, and one or more applications that run within that operating system. Use of VMs enables an administrator to run several operating system instances at the same time on a single server. A specialized application called a hypervisor manages the virtual machines that run on a given server. Running multiple operating system instances on a single machine, however, is resource-intensive.
More recently, software containers are being used as an alternative to running multiple virtual machines. A software container is a self-contained software unit that includes one or more software applications plus all of the dependencies required to run the application(s) bundled into one package. The dependencies may include libraries, binaries, and/or configuration files, for example. A container engine (e.g., Docker® or Kubernetes®) is configured to instantiate a software container image into a running software container. By containerizing the application and its dependencies, differences in operating system distributions and underlying infrastructure are abstracted away, making it easy to migrate an application between various environments (e.g., development, testing, and production). A container engine can run multiple containers in isolation from each other on a single host operating system, which provides an alternative to running multiple virtual machines and their accompanying operating systems on a single server. Because containers allow an administrator to virtualize one or more individual applications rather than an entire operating system, running a given quantity of containers is less resource intensive than running the same quantity of VMs.
In computer security, a vulnerability is a weakness which can be exploited by a threat actor, such as an attacker, to cross privilege boundaries to perform unauthorized actions within a computer system. In the context of software containers, vulnerabilities often relate to the use of a particular container engine, a particular underlying host operating system, or a particular software package within the software container.

System and method for assessing software containers for vulnerabilities


A method, apparatus and computer product for processing of substrates in at least a part of a substrate processing system is provided. In an embodiment, the method includes obtaining, using a processing unit, at least one of a rate of processing and a time of processing of a plurality of substrate lots to be introduced into a part of the substrate processing system and determining, using the processing unit, an order of introduction of the plurality of substrate lots into the part of the substrate processing system to at least one of increase the rate of processing and decrease the time of processing of the plurality of substrate lots.

The term "patterning device" as here employed should be broadly interpreted as referring to means that can be used to endow an incoming radiation beam with a patterned cross-section, corresponding to a pattern that is to be created in a target portion of the substrate; the term "light valve" can also be used in this context. Generally, the said pattern will correspond to a particular functional layer in a device being created in the target portion, such as an integrated circuit or other device (see below). Examples of such patterning devices include:                A mask. The concept of a mask is well known in lithography, and it includes mask types such as binary, alternating phase-shift, and attenuated phase-shift, as well as various hybrid mask types. Placement of such a mask in the radiation beam causes selective transmission (in the case of a transmissive mask) or reflection (in the case of a reflective mask) of the radiation impinging on the mask, according to the pattern on the mask. In the case of a mask, the support structure will generally be a mask table, which ensures that the mask can be held at a desired position in the incoming radiation beam, and that it can be moved relative to the beam if so desired;        A programmable mirror array. One example of such a device is a matrix-addressable surface having a viscoelastic control layer and a reflective surface. The basic principle behind such an apparatus is that (for example) addressed areas of the reflective surface reflect incident light as diffracted light, whereas unaddressed areas reflect incident light as undiffracted light. Using an appropriate filter, the said undiffracted light can be filtered out of the reflected beam, leaving only the diffracted light behind; in this manner, the beam becomes patterned according to the addressing pattern of the matrix-addressable surface. An alternative embodiment of a programmable mirror array employs a matrix arrangement of tiny mirrors, each of which can be individually tilted about an axis by applying a suitable localized electric field, or by employing piezoelectric actuation means. Once again, the mirrors are matrix-addressable, such that addressed mirrors will reflect an incoming radiation beam in a different direction to unaddressed mirrors; in this manner, the reflected beam is patterned according to the addressing pattern of the matrix-addressable mirrors. The required matrix addressing can be performed using suitable electronic means. In both of the situations described hereabove, the patterning device can comprise one or more programmable mirror arrays. More information on mirror arrays as here referred to can be gleaned, for example, from U.S. Pat. No. 5,296,891 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,523,193, and PCT patent applications WO 98/38597 and WO 98/33096, which are incorporated herein by reference. In the case of a programmable mirror array, the said support structure may be embodied as a frame or table, for example, which may be fixed or movable as required; and        A programmable LCD array. An example of such a construction is given in U.S. Pat. No. 5,229,872, which is incorporated herein by reference. As above, the support structure in this case may be embodied as a frame or table, for example, which may be fixed or movable as required.
For purposes of simplicity, the rest of this text may, at certain locations, specifically direct itself to examples involving a mask and mask table; however, the general principles discussed in such instances should be seen in the broader context of the patterning device as hereabove set forth.
Lithographic apparatus can be used, for example, in the manufacture of integrated circuits (ICs). In such a case, the patterning device may generate a circuit pattern corresponding to an individual layer of the IC, and this pattern can be imaged onto a target portion (e.g. comprising one or more dies) on a substrate (silicon wafer) that has been coated with a layer of radiation-sensitive material (resist). In general, a single wafer will contain a whole network of adjacent target portions that are successively irradiated via the projection system, one at a time. In current apparatus, employing patterning by a mask on a mask table, a distinction can be made between two different types of machine. In one type of lithographic apparatus, each target portion is irradiated by exposing the entire mask pattern onto the target portion at one time; such an apparatus is commonly referred to as a wafer stepper or step-and-repeat apparatus. In an alternative apparatus—commonly referred to as a step-and-scan apparatus—each target portion is irradiated by progressively scanning the mask pattern under the projection beam in a given reference direction (the "scanning" direction) while synchronously scanning the substrate table parallel or anti-parallel to this direction; since, in general, the projection system will have a magnification factor M (generally<1), the speed V at which the substrate table is scanned will be a factor M times that at which the mask table is scanned. More information with regard to lithographic devices as here described can be gleaned, for example, from U.S. Pat. No. 6,046,792, incorporated herein by reference.
In a manufacturing process using a lithographic apparatus, a pattern (e.g. in a mask) is imaged onto a substrate that is at least partially covered by a layer of radiation-sensitive material (resist). Prior to this imaging step, the substrate may undergo various procedures, such as priming, resist coating and a soft bake. After exposure, the substrate may be subjected to other procedures, such as a post-exposure bake (PEB), development, a hard bake and measurement/inspection of the imaged features. This array of procedures is used as a basis to pattern an individual layer of a device, e.g. an IC. Such a patterned layer may then undergo various processes such as etching, ion-implantation (doping), metallization, oxidation, chemo-mechanical polishing, etc., all intended to finish off an individual layer. If several layers are required, then the whole procedure, or a variant thereof, will have to be repeated for each new layer. Eventually, an array of devices will be present on the substrate (wafer). These devices are then separated from one another by a technique such as dicing or sawing, whence the individual devices can be mounted on a carrier, connected to pins, etc. Further information regarding such processes can be obtained, for example, from the book "Microchip Fabrication: A Practical Guide to Semiconductor Processing", Third Edition, by Peter van Zant, McGraw Hill Publishing Co., 1997, ISBN 0-07-067250-4, incorporated herein by reference.
For the sake of simplicity, the projection system may hereinafter be referred to as the "lens"; however, this term should be broadly interpreted as encompassing various types of projection system, including refractive optics, reflective optics, and catadioptric systems, for example. The radiation system may also include components operating according to any of these design types for directing, shaping or controlling the projection beam of radiation, and such components may also be referred to below, collectively or singularly, as a "lens". Further, the lithographic apparatus may be of a type having two or more substrate tables (and/or two or more mask tables). In such "multiple stage" devices the additional tables may be used in parallel, or preparatory steps may be carried out on one or more tables while one or more other tables are being used for exposures. Dual stage lithographic apparatus are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,969,441 and PCT patent application WO 98/40791, both incorporated herein by reference.
In a substrate processing system (an embodiment of which is sometimes known as a lithography cell), typically comprising a lithographic apparatus and a track, multiple substrates (wafers) are processed. Such substrates are processed in lots, each lot usually having up to 50 substrates. At any one point in time, there may be a plurality of lots in the substrate processing system. Furthermore, a recipe is associated with each lot, the recipe defining, among other things, the process steps, equipment, material and timing applicable to the substrate(s) of the lot, such as the mask to be used, the resist type to be applied, the exposure dose, etc. So, with multiple lots in the substrate processing system, there may also be multiple recipes to be used in the substrate processing system. For example, at any one point in time, a substrate processing system can have between 30 and 50 substrates being processed in the system, which typically includes 4–6 lots. Continuing with this example, while several lots of the 4–6 lots may have the same recipe, a number may have different recipes. In current substrate processing systems, lots are processed in a first-come first-served manner, meaning that each lot is processed in turn as it is provided to the substrate processing system, including changing any settings and/or configurations (hereinafter setup) of a part of the substrate processing system as needed for the recipe of the first-come first-served lot.
A problem that has been identified is that when multiple lots are processed in a substrate processing system, a number of those lots may be of a recipe type A and a number of those lots may be of recipe type B, each recipe type requiring a specific substrate processing system setup. To change the setup from type A to type B often requires time in which the substrate processing system is typically not productive. Further, some substrate processing equipment, such as tracks, typically run at the slowest rate of processing of the different types of lots present in the substrate processing system. In each circumstance, bottlenecks may develop which can slow down and even stop substrate processing. The result is that the rate and/or time of processing of a number of substrate lots in the substrate processing system can be negatively impacted, which can lead to lower productivity of the substrate processing system. Thus, it would be advantageous to improve the performance of processing of substrates in a substrate processing system.

Method, apparatus and computer product for substrate processing


A shut-off seal for a rotatable shaft penetrating a fluid-holding tank through an opening below the fluid surface. The shut-off seal has a collar secured to the shaft inside the tank and a positionable annular shut-off ring which may be moved into engagement with the collar. The invention enables leakage-free shutdown for servicing an associated rotary seal without moving the rotary seal axially along the shaft.

This invention relates to a shut-off seal for a rotatable shaft which enters a fluid holding tank through an opening below the fluid surface. The invention has particular application to large mixing tanks and the like equipped with an agitator driven by a rotatable shaft. The drive means for the shaft ordinarily is located outside the tank at a relatively low level, so that arrangements must be made for sealing the tank at the point of shaft entry. Rotary seals for such purposes are well-known, but they are subject to wear and must be replaced from time-to-time. In order to service the seal it is necessary either to empty the tank or to provide a shut-off seal for preventing fluid leakage during the servicing operation.
Larkins et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,878,677, discloses a shut-off seal comprising a moveable housing which receives a stuffing box. The stuffing box seals the shaft against liquid leakage during normal operational use. When the stuffing box seals become warn, the housing is moved into engagement with a collar which is secured to the shaft adjacent the inside surface of the tank. A shut-off seal is created between the surface of the collar and a surface of the housing. This necessarily requires transverse movement of the stuffing box along the axial direction of the shaft. Once a shut-off seal has been achieved, then the stuffing box may be serviced as required.
In many applications it is desirable to employ a mechanical seal for sealing of the shaft during normal operation. Such seals are well-known and are able to seal a rotating shaft quite effectively. Unfortunately, conventional mechanical seals cannot be moved transversely along the shaft to accommodate shut-off sealing as taught by U.S. Patent 4,878,677. A need therefore exists for a shut-off seal which may be operated from a point outside a fluid holding tank without moving the working rotary seal.


Access to information instances is administered using selectively activatable rules. A computer program product includes rules establishing authorizations to information instances in a computer system, each of the rules authorizing a predefined subject to perform a predefined action on a predefined object. The computer program product includes an activation function for an administrator to selectively activate at least one of the rules, the activated rule to be applied upon a user seeking to perform an action on any of the information instances.

The working environment of e-business is characterized by open networks and cross-company business transactions, replacing closed and monolithic systems. In this environment, secure data access is a central aspect of doing business. As a result, access to digital information is typically managed using one or more authorizations. Also, in the world of Web services, access will depend more and more on authorization. In this environment, ways of rationalizing the authorization process and authorization status will be key.
Some existing systems manage authorizations by assigning information instances (such as a document) to an actor in the system (such as a user). This approach is used in role-based access management systems. As another example, some existing systems assign particular actors to individual instances. This approach is implemented in the "access control lists" used in products from Microsoft Corp.

Access administration using activatable rules