Calls are routed in a distributed mobile switching center environment in response to receiving a call to be routed from a first switching mode (310(1) to a second switching node (310(2)). An inter-switch mute for the call from the first switching node to the second switching node is identified. The inter-switch route includes an intermediate switching node (305) having multiple media gateway (320). An intra-switch route within the intermediate switching node is selected from multiple possible intra-switch routes for use in establishing the inter-switch route. Each of the intra-switch routes includes one or more interconnections (330) between media gateways. The call is connected using the identified inter-switch route and the selected intra-switch route.

Conventional cellular telecommunications networks include mobile switching centers (MSCs) each operating to route calls between base stations that include radio equipment for serving one or more cells in the cellular network and other MSCs or public switched telephone networks (PSTNs). Conventional MSCs handle both bearer traffic for transporting user information (e.g., voice or other data in an integrated services digital network (ISDN)) and signaling traffic for establishing and controlling call connections and managing the cellular network.

Media gateway interconnect routing in a softswitch environment


In a semiconductor integrated circuit 11, there is constructed a test expected value programming circuit 100 having an input/input-output pad 103 for retrieving a ground/power-source signal 104 from a ground terminal 30 or a power source terminal 31 connected to the semiconductor integrated circuit 11, a switch 105 for selectively switching the outputting of the ground/power-source signal 104 inputted via the input/input-output pad 103, and an expected value generation circuit 13 for generating a test expected value signal 21 based on a switch output signal 122 outputted from the switch 105.

A functional test in a semiconductor integrated circuit is typically performed by the following procedure. First, a test input signal is inputted to a semiconductor integrated circuit to be tested and a test output signal outputted in response to the input is received by an LSI testing apparatus. The LSI testing apparatus compares the test output signal outputted from the semiconductor integrated circuit with a test expected value signal indicating an output state during a normal operation and judges the result of the comparison, thereby testing whether or not the semiconductor integrated circuit is normally operating.
To perform a functional test as described above, it is necessary to provide dedicated test terminals capable of directly inputting the test input signal to a circuit under test and directly outputting the test output signal or shared test terminals used also as the external terminals of an LSI (hereinafter referred to as the dedicated/shared test terminals).
However, as semiconductor integrated circuits become larger in scale and more complicated, the number of the dedicated/shared test terminals required to input and output test signals tends to increase. As a conventional method for suppressing such an increase in the number of test terminals, a test method termed BIST (Built in Self Test) has been known (see Patent Document 1). The BIST is a test method which causes the test input signal and the test expected value signal each required to perform the functional test in the LSI testing apparatus to be generated within the circuit under test, causes expected value judging means provided within the circuit to make a comparison and judge the result of the comparison, and causes only the result of the judgment to be outputted from the semiconductor integrated circuit.
This eliminates the need to directly input the test signal to the circuit under test from outside the LSI and directly output the test signal from the circuit under test. As a result, it is possible to suppress the increase in the number of the test terminals by providing only a minimum number of terminals required to implement the BIST as the test terminals.
Patent Document: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2004-93421

Semiconductor integrated circuit and system LSI having a test expected value programming circuit


A storage device includes a data division unit that divides data into data blocks, a duplicate storage determining unit that determines whether the same data block as that to be stored has been stored in a storage unit for discharge in an export process, and a data storage processing unit that stores the data block to be stored in the storage unit for discharge when the same data block has not been stored in the storage unit for discharge and prevents the data block to be stored from being stored in the storage unit for discharge when the same data block has been stored in the storage unit for discharge. According to the storage device, it is possible to reduce the amount of data stored in the storage unit for discharge.

A virtual tape library (VTL) virtually executes a tape drive on a disk device and makes the tape drive seem to be connected to a host device, such as a host computer (for example, see the following Patent LITERATURE 1). In the virtual tape library technique, data is written in a block unit to the disk device.
The virtual tape library can be easily introduced, without a great change in the operation of the physical tape library according to the related art, and can increase, for example, the speed of a backup process.
In addition, a system (virtual tape library system) provided with the virtual tape library includes, for example, a disk array device and uses the disk array device as a cache disk. The system has a structure which virtualizes a tape volume and emulates the tape volume on the cache disk. In general, in the virtual library system, a logical volume is stored in a high-capacity physical medium (virtual library medium), such as a tape, and is operated.
In the virtual tape library system, an export function and an import function have been known as a structure which discharges a stored logical volume and stores the logical volume in an external storage device (for example, see the following Patent LITERATURE 2).
The export function copies a plurality of logical volumes stored in the virtual library system to a physical medium (external storage medium) for external storage. The copied physical medium can be removed to the outside and then used. The import function restores the logical volume from the external storage medium removed to the outside of the virtual library system by the export function to another virtual library system.
In the export function, when the logical volume is copied to the external storage medium, a designated logical volume is copied (recalled) from the virtual library medium to the cache disk. Then, a target logical volume is stored (exported) from the cache disk to the external storage medium.
On the other hand, in the import function, when the logical volume is restored from the external storage medium, a designated logical volume is stored from the external storage medium to the cache disk. Then, the logical volume on the cache disk is stored (migrated to) in the virtual library medium.    [Patent LITERATURE 1] Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2005-122433    [Patent LITERATURE 2] Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2009-043162
However, in the virtual tape library system according to the related art, when a large number of logical volume groups need to be exported and imported by data migration at a time, it takes a lot of time to copy and restore data.

Storage device, control device, and control method


A water-treating agent comprising a ternary copolymer of conjugated dienesulfonic acid/(meth)acrylic acid/2-hydroxyethyl (meth)acrylate, or a ternary copolymer of conjugated dienesulfonic acid/(meth)acrylic acid/(meth)acrylamido-2-methylalkanesulfonic acid ternary copolymer, is effective against scaling and fouling in water systems and a method for treating water with the water-treating agent. When combined with a corrosion inhibitor, the water-treating agent exhibits an excellent anti corrosion effect.

The present invention relates to a novel water-treating agent and a method for treating water with the novel water-treating agent. More precisely, the present invention relates to a novel water-treating agent which prevents scale, sludge, and slime deposition.
The novel water-treating agent of the present invention can be used in, for example, heating pipes, heat exchangers, condensers, reaction vessels, chemical reactors, and various pipe runs found in, for example, boilers, cooling water systems, hot water systems, chemical plants, and dust collecting water plants.
The novel water-treating agent of the present invention prevents such problems as heat transfer failure, flow rate reduction, and corrosion that are caused by the adhesion or deposition of scale, sludge, and slime onto heating pipes, heat exchangers, condensers, reactors for polymerization, and various other pipe lines.
The present invention also relates to a method of using the water-treating agent for treating water in, for example, heating pipes, heat exchangers, condensers, reaction vessels, chemical reactors, and various pipe runs found in, for example, boilers, cooling water systems, hot water systems, chemical plants, and dust collecting water plants.
Heretofore, polyphosphates and carboxylic acid polymers have been used as scale inhibiting and fouling prevention agents in boilers, cooling water systems, dust collecting water plants and water supply piping systems to prevent the adhesion of scale onto the surfaces of the metal parts kept in contact with water, to prevent the deposition of sludge onto such metal parts, and to prevent the local corrosion in the area under the fouled parts covered with scale and slime.
However, polyphosphates are inadequate in that they are easily hydrolyzed to give orthophosphates, which in turn precipitate as calcium phosphate in water systems having high pH and high calcium hardness at high temperatures. Hence, polyphosphates too often accelerate scale troubles instead of alleviating them.
In addition, waste waters containing phosphorus are problematic because the phosphorus laden waters cause eutrophication in closed water areas such as lakes, marshes and island seas. Hence, the use of phosphorus containing chemicals must be limited and are often regulated by law.
On the other hand, carboxylic acid polymers have their own problems. They form insoluble salts in water containing high concentrations of polyvalent metal ions, with the result that the polymers are not effective in such water. In particular, where the polymers are applied to water with a high calcium ion concentration, the water becomes cloudy due to the calcium salts forming and precipitating.
In Japanese Laid Open Patent Application No. 2-9496, a phosphorus free water-treating agent for scale inhibition is proposed which comprises a copolymer of a conjugated diene-sulfonic acid and (meth)acrylic acid which is said to be effective, even in systems having high metal ion concentrations, without being precipitated therein.
However, when compared with sodium polyacrylate, which has heretofore been used in conventional water-treating agents, the copolymer of 2-9496 is superior to sodium polyacrylate but is still not completely satisfactory. Therefore, a water-treating agent having much improved effectiveness against scale retarding and fouling is still needed.

Water-treating agent and method for treating water


In order to enhance the rigidity of a magnetic head slider 2 in the seeking direction without increasing its rigidity in the tracking direction, convex parts 4 parallel to the seeking direction are provided on the surface of a supporting spring 3.

The present invention relates to a magnetic head supporting mechanism for keeping a magnetic head stably afloat over a recording medium.
In recent years, recording density is steadily increasing in the field of information memory files. For magnetic disk apparatuses, narrowing the gap (hereinafter called spacing) between the magnetic head for reading and writing information and the magnetic recording medium for holding information is an essential element of increasing the recording density. Along with the narrowing of the spacing, the frequency of contacts between the magnetic head and the magnetic recording medium increases, giving rise to a problem of faster wear. Especially, any vibration of the magnetic head would bring the head into contact with the magnetic recording medium more frequently.
The vibration of the magnetic head mainly occurs in either or both of two modes: pitching in the running direction of the magnetic recording medium or the magnetic head, and rolling in the seeking direction (the radial direction of the recording medium). Wear due to the latter poses a particularly serious problem.
As a prior art to reduce this rolling, what is illustrated in FIG. 1 is known to persons skilled in the art. In a magnetic head supporting mechanism 51 shown in FIG. 1, a magnetic head slider 2 is fastened to one end of a supporting spring 3. Each side end of this supporting spring 3 in the seeking direction is bent in an L shape. This magnetic head supporting mechanism increases the rigidity of the magnetic head in the seeking direction and reduces rolling by forming these L-shaped edges. This prior art is described, for example, "Tribology and Mechanics of Magnetic Storage Devices" written by Bharat Bhusan and published by Springer Verlag in 1990.
However, if the spacing is reduced to less than 0.5 micrometer, a supporting spring with L-shaped side edges will prove insufficient in rigidity in the seeking direction and difficult to prevent wear due to rolling. On the other hand, along with the reductions of the magnetic head in size and load, it becomes necessary to extremely reduce the thickness of the supporting spring to minimize the pressing load of the supporting spring. Yet, a thin supporting spring with L-shaped edges would be unable to keep a sufficient degree of rigidity in the seeking direction. Furthermore, L-shaped edges increase rigidity also in the direction 8 vertical to the magnetic recording medium, resulting in an increased pressing load on the recording medium.


The present invention may be used for framing a fluid flow filter pack. A first frame member may have a first border element with an open portion. The first border element may have four first side walls bendable along a line parallel to a peripheral edge of each of the first side walls. A second frame member may have a second border element with an open portion. The second border element may have four side walls bendable along a bend line parallel to an outer edge of each side wall. Each side wall of the second frame member may have a sealing flap bendable along the outer edge. The second frame member may be positioned on the first frame member with each side wall overlapping and attached to one of the first frame member side walls. The sealing flap may be bent to be adjacent to the second frame member side walls.

This invention relates to fluid filter devices, systems and methods for framing a filter element, for example, a pleated filter pack, for airflow filtering applications. The new fluid filter frame system and method may allow ease of assembly, may include filter pack structural strength and may have a sealing flap.
Various fluid filter devices and methods of assembly may currently be used. The filters may have a filter media or filter pack that may be framed in a strip frame that may be attached by an adhesive-potting compound. Other framing structures may include corrugated box halves that may be attached to a filter pack. Sheet elements may be used to frame a filter pack wherein the sheet elements may have complicated structure elements that may have a snap fit or attachment.


An enhanced mattress for enabling passive involuntary digestive tract movement, shoulder opening and pelvis bones movement. The apparatus is configured solely for prone lying of a human body thereupon and includes a head support section which comprises an open face section, an upper main section connected to the head support section, the upper main section comprises a plurality of dedicated supporting members. A lower support section connected to the upper main section.

The subject matter of the current application relates to mattresses. Embodiments of the current invention are related to digestion and to improved performance of back and chest tissue and skeleton, spine vertebra and disks flexible movement and functioning. This is further enhanced by offloading nerves system for better control and functioning, allowing deep breathing and as resulted of the abovementioned better rest and relaxation and avoiding mental stress. More specifically, embodiments of the present invention relate to apparatuses and methods of body relaxation and enabling involuntary digestive tract movement.
Pelvis Bones motion, stability and flexibility. Pelvis is constructed of 3 main bones, 2 Ilium bones, and 1 sacrum bone constructed of 5 bones. All together enable harmonious motion and stability and flexibility while walking. Due to long stress usually due to sitting and other activities there is a need for stress release of the pelvic system that will enable to regenerate the stability and better support of the spine and the hip joints. The new apparatus member 16 material strength allows the pelvis floating and release.
In the specification and claims which follow hereinbelow, the term "mattress" is intended to mean a device used for lying face down, (i.e. "prone") especially to support and relax the back, shoulders, neck, and abdomen. As such, the terms "cushion", and "pillow" may be used interchangeably and/or as components of "mattress" hereinbelow. Additionally, the term "digestive tract", as used hereinbelow in the specification and claims, is intended to mean one or all of the bodily organs and their functionality, beginning with the stomach and to the small and large intestines, and rectum—as well as other organs and tissues associated with these bodily organs.
The terms "gut" and "abdomen", and other related terms are included in the definition of "digestive tract". The word "movement", when used in the expression "digestive tract movement" is intended to mean a sensation of being massaged in the abdomen and/or a physiological increase in functionality of the digestive tract.
The expression "shoulder opening" is intended to mean in the specification and claims hereinbelow the act of gently supporting both shoulders when lying in a prone position so that both shoulders are biased backwards (i.e. towards the back), as further described hereinbelow.
The term "poor breathing", as used in the specification and claims herein below is intended to mean reduced utilization of lung capacity/breathing capacity, typically expressed in shallow breathing, as further described hereinbelow.
The majority of the population nowadays starting at a relatively young age suffers from pressure on the spinal system due to modern lifestyles and/or from stress due to over and under activity. Lower back pain, inflammation, disc anomalies in example change in size and structure, vertebrae subluxation, pressure on nerves, vertebrae pressure on discs, ruptured disc, and wear and tear on vertebrae and disc may appear as a result of stress on the spinal system. This stress comes about by a number of root causes such as, but not limited to: over weightiness, prolonged sitting; pregnancy; obesity; lack of physical activity; atrophy of ligaments and muscles; professional sports activity; driving; and even sleeping on a non-suitable surface.
In many cases—although not necessarily from the same sources—poor spinal health may be accompanied with poor digestive tract health and poor breathing, as described hereinbelow.
There are a number of characteristics of modern life that contribute to poor digestive tract health (also referred to as poor "abdominal health" hereinbelow) and poor breathing, due mostly to our daily, prolonged sitting at a desk and while sitting while driving and commuting, for example. In such sitting positions, the rib cage is additionally affected by slouching of the shoulders towards the chest, creating stress, and pressure on the rib cage, on the back of the neck, and upon the upper back. Additionally, prolonged sitting contributes to poor breathing.
There are disadvantages in currently-available methods to address slouching and back relief/release including: substantial expense of certain treatments; and various devices that place force on the back and/or necessitate judgment on the part of the therapist or the patient regarding operation of the device intended to alleviate or reduce pressure on the spinal system.
Another source of poor abdominal health is of poor nutrition. Poor nutrition can be the result of consuming an unbalanced diet characterized by: processed food; fast food, gluten-rich food; and processed meat and milk products. Prolonged sitting and/or insufficient movement and/or poor breathing as described hereinabove can additionally create irregularity of intestinal functioning and constipation. There are disadvantages in currently-available methods used to address intestinal under-activity or over-activity by chemical or invasive treatments such as enema and/or medications.
Additionally, insufficient sleep contributes to poor abdominal health. Insufficient and interrupted sleeping/resting/relaxation characterizes another aspect of our modern life—however this is not a normal situation for the human body. The importance of a sufficient number of hours' sleep each night is well-documented; however most people today simply are not able to or do not sleep enough. With insufficient sleep, the mind cannot completely perform the control function necessary to relax the body. Sleep and rest have a strong influence on our quality of life and life expectancy, as well as our productivity, in general. Any apparatus and/or method to encourage relaxation and a resultant deeper and longer sleep are desirable.
There is therefore a need to address the characteristic problems associated with modern work and lifestyles that involve, inter alia, prolonged sitting, as noted hereinabove. Additionally, subluxation can be in the body for long periods of time before creating any signs and or symptoms of disease, malfunction, disability and/or pain.
In addition to the problems of poor abdominal health, nutrition, lack of sleep and prolonged sitting noted above, many people generally disregard and don't take care of the mobility and alignment of the spine vertebrae. Loss of mobility of the spinal vertebrae may cause limited range of motion, limited flexibility, upper back pain, lower back pain, neck pain, and poor breathing, intestinal tract malfunction, stomach pain, intestinal inflammation, constipation, and other digestive problems.
Prior art addressing the problems listed hereinabove includes: pharmaceutical remedies; dietary programs; electromechanical contraptions; and passive apparatuses. Each proposed solution respectively claims some success—be it therapeutic or preventative. Regarding a passive apparatus, there are those having patient-specific conformal shapes and those available to the public. Among apparatuses applicable to public are included, but not limited to: pillows; neck supports; cushions; mattresses; back braces; girdles; and combinations thereof.
There are a range of prior art solutions such as shaped mattresses and supports for the spine, which have been developed to ease spinal stress by supporting certain tissues or other parts of the back. Mechanical and electromechanical solutions involve implementation of force and rapid movements, causing traction and mobility of the back in whole or part. These solutions have typically focused on areas of the lower back and lower vertebrae of the lumbar spinal column.
Typically, most of these devices work while the person lies on his back (i.e. a supine position) which constrains movement and relaxation of the back as well as the other skeleton parts, such as the pelvis and shoulder girdle—while a force is applied, locally blocking global system improvement.
Additionally, when a person lies on his back, the weight of the digestive tract falls on the spinal column. Lying in a supine position can serve to impede any possible correction to subluxation and or other spinal system problems, if present.
In the field of mattresses, there are a limited set of combinations; derived by respectively relating to the head, neck, torso, abdomen, and pelvis. Nevertheless, since mattresses are certainly not a new art, there are many specialized variations that appear in the patent literature. Examples (in approximate order of relevance) include US 2005/0283104; U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,154,903; 6,691,354; 7,020,918; 6,324,710; 5,086,529; 4,665,573; 4,473,913; 5,509,153; 4,989,591; 5,070,559; 5,426,798; 5,774,916; 5,025,519; US 2004/007008; U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,982,466 and 5,129,115; U.S. Pat. No. 5,604,021; RU 2240765; U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,885,258; 4,972,535; 6,585,328; and in the sub-category related to adaptations for pregnant women U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,819,348; 7,065,817; 7,065,816; WO 03105634; and JP 2004089697—all incorporated by reference.
Additionally, in U.S. Pat. No. 8,011,047 by Mendelzis et al.—the inventors of the current patent application—disclose a spinal-length mattress including a means for providing buoyancy to a human torso and abdomen thereon; attached to the mattress at one end, a pelvic support portion; and attached to the mattress at an opposite end, a head rotation stabilization portion having an air passage opening allowing a person to breathe freely when resting in a face down position thereon. By supporting the pelvis and stabilizing the head to substantially limit motions of the neck, a central cushion (preferably dominated by a "shape memory foam" filling) allows the spinal column to passively distribute all directional stresses-including those deriving from body mass and from muscle tension. Thus relieved of stress, disks between spinal bones begin to return to their respective naturally compliant symmetrical shapes; thereby generally providing a long term benefit for 15-30 minutes of regular use of the mattress.
In the '047 patent, Mandelzis et al. disclose a general mattress structure and mention the advantages of a so-called DBU Method defined as lying on the mattress structure for 15-20 minutes a day 1 or 2 times a day. No detailed specification nor description of DBU is given in the '047 patent. Furthermore, the mattress structure is directed primarily to spinal relaxation (i.e. patent title "Spinal Relaxation Apparatus") and the mattress structure is not directed to any other part of the body.
There is therefore a need for an apparatus that can passively address problems related to loss of mobility of the spinal vertebrae, which can additionally address upper back pain, lower back pain, neck pain, and poor breathing, in addition to intestinal tract malfunction, stomach pain, intestinal inflammation, constipation, and other digestive tract problems.


Disclosed are compositions and methods useful for delivering targeted therapies for pulmonary diseases, fibrotic disorders and cancer. The compositions and methods are based on peptide sequences that selectively bind to and home to diseased tissue and enable targeted therapies to effect a beneficial therapeutic result. The disclosed targeting is useful for delivering therapeutic and detectable agents to diseased tissue in an animal.

Tissue regeneration, inflammation and tumors induce the growth of new blood vessels from pre-existing ones. This process, angiogenesis, is a vital requirement for wound healing as the formation of new blood vessels allows a variety of mediators, nutrients, and oxygen to reach the healing tissue (Martin 1997, Singer & Clark 1999, Falanga 2006, Folkman 2006). Newly formed blood vessels differ in structure from pre-existing vasculature. Such differences have been extensively characterized by comparing tumor vasculature to normal vessels (Ruoslahti, 2002). Angiogenic vessels in non-malignant tissues and in pre-malignant lesions share markers with tumor vessels (Gerlag et al, 2001), but distinct markers also exist (Hoffman et al., 2003; Joyce et al., 2003).
Regarding tissue injuries, substantive basic science and clinical research have been conducted to evaluate the mechanisms of wound healing, the efficacy of various modalities for treatment of wounds, and the best methods for diagnosing wound infection. Tissue injuries caused by trauma, medical procedures, and inflammation are a major medical problem. Systemic medication is available for most major medical conditions, but therapeutic options in promoting tissue regeneration are largely limited to local intervention. As deep injuries and multiple sites of injury often limit the usefulness of local treatment, systemic approaches to tissue regeneration are valuable.
A major problem limiting tissue regeneration is scar formation. The response to tissue injury in adult mammals seems to be mainly focused on quick sealing on the injury. Fibroblast (astrocyte, smooth muscle cell) proliferation and enhanced extracellular matrix production are the main element of the sear formation, and the sear prevents tissue regeneration. In contrast, fetal tissues heal by a process that restores the original tissue architecture with no scarring. Transforming growth factor.beta. (TGF-.beta.) is a major factor responsible for impaired tissue regeneration, scar formation and fibrosis (Werner and Grose 2002; Brunner and Blakytny 2004; Leask and Abraham 2004).
A major hurdle to advances in treating cancer is the relative lack of agents that can selectively target the cancer while sparing normal tissue. For example, radiation therapy and surgery, which generally are localized treatments, can cause substantial damage to normal tissue in the treatment field, resulting in scarring and loss of normal tissue. Chemotherapy, in comparison, which generally is administered systemically, can cause substantial damage to organs such as the bone marrow, mucosae, skin and small intestine, which undergo rapid cell turnover and continuous cell division. As a result, undesirable side effects such as nausea, loss of hair and drop in blood cell count often occur when a cancer patient is treated intravenously with a chemotherapeutic drug. Such undesirable side effects can limit the amount of a drug that can be safely administered, thereby hampering survival rate and impacting the quality of patient life. For decades, researchers have examined avenues to increase targeted specificity of therapeutics against only the disease, thereby preserving normal cellular integrity.
One manner by which therapeutic specificity may be increased is by targeting diseases at the cellular level. More specifically, therapeutics may be enhanced by interacting directly with those components at the level of the cell surface or membrane. These components include, among others, laminin, collagen, fibronectin and other proteoglycans. Proteoglycans are proteins classified by a posttranslational attachment of polysaccharide glycosaminoglycan (GAG) moieties each comprised of repeating disaccharide units. One monosaccharide of the disaccharide repeat is an amino sugar with D-glucosamine or galactosamine, and the other unit is typically, but not always, a uronic acid residue of either D-glucuronic acid or iduronic acid. Both units are variably N- and O-sulfated, which adds to the heterogeneity of these complex macromolecules. They can be found associated with both the extracellular matrix and plasma membranes. The most common GAG structures are dermatan sulfate (DS), chondroitin sulfate (CS), heparan sulfate (HS), keratan sulfate (KS), hyaluronic acid (HA), and heparin; representative structures for each disaccharide are shown below.

These unbranched sulfated GAGs are defined by the repeating disaccharide units that comprise their chains, by their specific sites of sulfation, and by their susceptibility to bacterial enzymes known to cleave distinct GAG linkages. All have various degrees of sulfation which result in a high density of negative charge. Proteoglycans can be modified by more than one type of GAG and have a diversity of functions, including roles in cellular adhesion, differentiation, and growth. In addition, cell surface proteoglycans are known to act as cellular receptors for some bacteria and several animal viruses, including; foot-and-mouth disease type O virus, HSV types 1 and 2 and dengue virus. Accordingly, it would be advantageous from a therapeutic perspective to design agents which may be used at the cell surface level.
A major function of cell surface proteoglycans is in cell adhesion and migration, dynamic processes that are mediated through interactions between the proteoglycan GAG chains and extracellular matrix (ECM) components, such as laminin, collagen, and fibronectin. Proteoglycans also occur as integral components of basement membranes in most mammalian tissues. Interactions of these macromolecules with other ECM constituents contribute to the general architecture and permeability properties of the basement membrane, and thus these GAGs play a structural role. Proteoglycans and GAGs play a critical role in the pathophysiology of basement membrane-related diseases, including diabetes, atherosclerosis, and metastasis. In addition, cell-specific growth factors and enzymes are immobilized in the ECM and at the cell surface are bound to GAGs. As such, GAGs localize proteins and enzymes at their site of action to facilitate their physiological functions and in some cases prevent their proteolytic degradation. Proteoglycans and GAGs have been shown to regulate protein secretion and gene expression in certain tissues by mechanisms involving both membrane and nuclear events, including the binding of GAGs to transcription factors (Jackson, R. L. 1991). Limited information is available on the factors that regulate the expression of proteoglycans and their associated GAGs. There is a need in the art to develop cell-penetrating agents which bind to cell surface proteoglycans in order to have disease-specific efficacy.
US Patent Application Publication No. 20090036349 discloses a novel composition that selectively binds to regenerating tissue, wound sites and tumors in animals. In vivo screening of phage-displayed peptide libraries was used to probe vascular specialization. This screening method resulted in the identification of several peptides that selectively target phage to skin and tendon wounds. One peptide in particular was identified and contains the following sequence: CARSKNKDC (CAR) (SEQ ID NO:1). CAR displays homology to heparin-binding sites in various proteins, and binds to cell surface heparan sulfate and heparin. More specifically, CAR binds to glycosaminoglycan moieties in cell surface heparan sulfate proteoglycans (HSPGs) (Jarvinen and Ruoslahti 2007), and other cell-penetrating peptides have also mediated their entry into cells through binding to HSPGs (Poon and Gariépy 2007). HSPGs fine-tune mammalian physiology and orchestrate metabolism, transport, information transfer, support and regulation at the systemic level, as well as the cellular level (Bishop, Schuksz and Esko 2007). Overexpression of HSPG biosynthetic enzymes result in distinct heparan sulfate sulfation patterns (Pikas, Erikson and Kjellen 2000). The overexpression of HSPG biosynthetic enzymes have not been previously detected in a disease in which the co-administration of a cell penetrating peptide along with a bioactive agent which results in the disease-selective action of the co-administration of the peptide/agent combination.
There is a need for selectively targeting specific sites of action through co-administration of a targeting peptide with a bioactive agent in order to increase the efficacy of the combination therapy.

CAR peptide for homing, diagnosis and targeted therapy for pulmonary and fibrotic disorders

Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute


In one embodiment, a coated article comprises a substrate with a coating comprising diamond like carbon layer, wherein the diamond like carbon layer comprising carbon and sulfur as terminal sulfur functional groups, wherein greater than or equal to about 70 wt % of the carbon present in the diamond like carbon layer comprises a sp3 carbon-to-carbon bond. The diamond like carbon layer has a concentration gradient such that the diamond like carbon layer on a side toward the substrate comprises a lower concentration of sulfur than a surface of the diamond like carbon layer disposed on a side of the layer opposite the substrate. The surface comprises about 0.1 at % to about 15 at % sulfur.

The present disclosure relates to carbon compositions suitable for coatings, particularly coatings for moving parts exposed to harsh environments.
Fuel delivery systems include various moving components that operate at relatively high temperatures and at relatively high pressures. Fuel delivery systems may include rollers, shoes, tappets and the like, which are exposed to vibratory and oscillatory motions. Sliding tappets may be prone to scuffing between the tappet and a corresponding shaft as the tappet alternates direction. Direct metal-to-metal contact of rolling or sliding elements within a diesel or other fuel delivery system may cause false-brinelling, wear, fretting, microploughing, microcutting, scuffing, galling, and eventually failure of the component itself.
Materials comprising sulfur, nitrogen, and phosphorous naturally found in, and/or added to fuels, for example diesel fuel, provide lubricity. However, sulfur, nitrogen, and phosphorous are being removed from fuels to address various environmental and other issues. As such, the lubricity of fuels, in particular the lubricity of diesel fuel, is decreasing. As the lubricity decreases, the scuffing and galling of fuel delivery components increases.
Coating various components of fuel delivery systems with wear resistant coatings is one approach directed to reducing wear. However, coatings such as silicon carbide (SiC), titanium nitride (TiN), titanium carbide (TiC), chromium nitride (CrN), and the like, may not provide for components that meet modern day durability requirements. The hardness and relatively high friction coefficients of carbides and nitrides may cause abrasive wear to occur. Also, the relatively high temperatures needed for carbiding and nitriding can reduce the hardness and fatigue properties of the various components coated therewith.
Tungsten carbide and carbon coatings (WC/C) may be adequate for some surfaces within a fuel delivery system, especially those surfaces having relatively low contact stress including sliding surfaces. However, such coatings may not provide long durability for rolling and scuffing applications where the components are subjected to strong rolling and/or oscillatory sliding motions.
Accordingly, a coating that may be employed to protect various high wear components such as those operational within a fuel delivery system would be beneficial.


A chair includes, a seat, a backrest separated from the seat, and an upper support frame to which the backrest is attached at a position higher than the seat. In the chair, the upper support frame includes a left side portin and a right side portions both extending forward at left and right sides of the seated person and a rear portion that continuously and integrally connects the left side portion and the right side portion. The left side portion and the right side portion are connected to side support bodies arranged on left and right sides of the seat to be tiltable, and the backrest is connected to the upper support frame to be tiltable rearward.

In the configuration in which the seat independently slides back and forth, the seat is biased in the retracting direction by the spring, and when the seated person raises the upper body, the seat is retracted by the spring. However, since the weight of the seated person acts on the seat, when the rail portion is in the horizontal posture as in JP-UM-A-1986-123756 and JP-UM-A-1987-85239, there is a problem that the seat, which does not use a spring having a large elastic restoring force, is difficult to retract. When a spring having a large elastic restoring force is used, a new problem arises in that it is difficult for a person with a light weight to move the seat forward.
In JP-UM-B-1986-2364, since the tubular support body for supporting the seat is inclined obliquely upward. Therefore, since the weight of the seated person acts to retract the seat, it can be said that the seat can be retracted without increasing the elastic restoring force of the spring. However, in JP-UM-B-1986-2364, a back strut is erected from the rear ends of the left and right tubular support bodies and a backrest is connected to the back strut so that the backrest can be tilted backward. As a result, there is a problem that design freedom is low. In the embodiment, solving such a problem is also one of the problems (Problem).
As a unit for solving the above-described problem, in the embodiment, as clearly illustrated in FIG. 22, the guide hole 126 and the reinforcing plate 132 are inclined to become higher toward the front. That is, in the embodiment, the guide portion which supports the seat receiving member 7 to be movable back and forth is inclined so that the seat receiving member 7 moves forward while moving upward. When the seat 2 moves back and forth with respect to the seat receiving member 7, the seat 2 is configured to move forward and rise (Means for Solving the Problem).
With such configuration, a part of the downward load due to seating acts as a component force for retracting the seat 2, so that the seat 2 can be retracted without increasing the size of the spring 133. Therefore, the seat 2 can be smoothly slid back and forth even when used by a person with a light weight. (Effect). It does not have to be a tubular support body as in JP-UM-B-1986-2364 and various slide structures can be adopted, so that it is excellent in versatility.
When the front portion of the seat receiving member 7 is supported by the rollers 131 as in the embodiment, the sliding resistance of the seat receiving member 7 can be further reduced, which is preferable. As described above, the flat surface 127a and the groove 127b of the guide shaft 127 can promote the resistance reducing effect.
(19) Another Example of Leg Device
In the above-described embodiment, the pedestal 5 formed of the gas cylinder is used as the leg device 1, but in the second embodiment illustrated in FIG. 23, the leg device 140 has four rod legs 141. Therefore, the chair of the second embodiment is non-rotating.
A horizontal portion 141a is formed by bending at the upper end of each rod leg 141 and the horizontal portion 141a is fixed to a bowl-shaped base 142 by welding. A tapered boss protrusion 143 fitted to the boss hole 94 of the seat receiving member 7 from below is fixed to the central portion of the base 142. Therefore, a chair equipped with a gas-cylinder-type leg device 1 and a chair equipped with a rod-leg-type leg device 140 share the same seat receiving member 7.
As a result, when preparing a plurality of types of chairs having different structures of the leg devices 1 and 140, it is possible to reduce the cost of members and assembly as a whole. When the leg device 140 is a rod-leg type, the knob 19 for adjusting the height of the seat 2 is not required. Therefore, both left and right side support bodies 13 do not have the long groove 69 or the groove cap 68 (The knob 19 may be left attached or the knob 19 may be attached and held non-rotatably.).
As illustrated in the section (C) of FIG. 23, the horizontal portion 141a of the rod leg 141 penetrates the lower part of the outer periphery of the base 142 and enters the inside of the base 142. Therefore, the base 142 is firmly fixed. The seat receiving member 7 is supported by a flange 142a provided on the base 142. Therefore, the seat receiving member 7 can be stably supported. The rod leg 141 is fitted with a decorative cylinder 144 made of wood or the like, but the rod leg 141 may be exposed.
It is also possible to attach a caster to the lower end of each rod leg 141. As the non-rotating type leg device, various forms other than the four rod-leg type can be adopted. For example, a U-shape in side view or a trapezoidal shape in side view can be adopted.
When the wooden decorative cylinder 144 is provided on the rod leg 141, the protective cover 16 provided on the upper horizontal portion 15 can be formed of wood. Here, since the wooden protective cover 16 cannot be deformed, the protective cover 16 is manufactured to have a downward opening as illustrated in the section (D) of FIG. 23, and thus is attached to the upper horizontal portion 15 from above.
As a fixing unit of the wooden protective cover 16, while a resin top member 16g is fixed to the upper inner surface by an adhesive, a lower cap 16h made of resin can be attached to the upper horizontal portion 15 from below and a screw 16i inserted in the lower cap 16h can be screwed into the top member 16d.
(20) Another Example of Rocking Mechanism
FIG. 24 illustrate other embodiments which are other examples of the rocking mechanism. Among them, in a third embodiment illustrated in the sections (A) and (B) of FIG. 24, the boss body 146 oriented in the left-right direction is provided in a corner portion 11 of the upper support frame 8 and the backrest 3 is rotatably connected to the boss body 146 by a bracket device 147 simply illustrated in the section (A) of FIG. 24. The other structure is the same as that of the first embodiment.
In the third embodiment illustrated in the section (C) of FIG. 24, the rear portion 10 of the upper support frame 8 is arranged below the backrest 3 and the same boss body 26 as in the first embodiment is attached to the rear portion 10 in an upward posture. In the embodiment, as the member for rotating the backrest 3, the same member as in the first embodiment is used with the posture changed by 90°. In the embodiment, since the rotation fulcrum of the backrest 3 is located in the lower part, the backrest 3 is more easily tilted backward than in the first embodiment.
In a fourth embodiment illustrated in the section (D) of FIG. 24, the upper-lower longitudinal strut portions 14 of the side support body 13 are vertically separated and an upper portion 14a is connected to a lower portion 14b in a state in which it can be tilted. An elastic body which provides resistance to tilting is built in. As the elastic body, it is also possible to use a spring in which both ends of a wire material wound in a loop shape are projected tangentially. The upper support frame 8 is fixed to not move relative to the upper horizontal portion 15 of the side support body 13.
In a fifth embodiment illustrated in the section (E) of FIG. 24 and a sixth embodiment illustrated in the section (F) of FIG. 24, the lower end of the side support body 13 is connected to the base 6 to be tiltable rearward. The backrest 3 tilts backward with respect to the upper support frame 8 as in the first embodiment.
In the fifth embodiment illustrated in the section (E) of FIG. 24, the side support body 13 has a side view T-shape as in the first embodiment. In the sixth embodiment of the section (F) of FIG. 24, the side support body 13 is composed of only the strut portion 14 extending in the up-down direction and the upper support frame 8 is integrally connected to the upper end. In FIG. 24E, the upper support frame 8 is fixed to the seat receiving member 7 of the side support body 13. In the examples of the sections (E) and (F) of FIG. 24, the backrest 3 retreats in the rocking state, so it does not necessarily have to move the seat 2 forward.
Although the embodiments of the present invention are described above, the present invention can be embodied in various other ways. For example, the present invention can be applied not only to a portable chair but also to a fixed chair such as a theater chair.
The present invention can be embodied in a chair. Therefore, it can be used industrially.


A curved liquid, crystal panel 10 having a display surface 10DS that is curved around a curvature axis CAX includes: a pair of substrates 10a and 10b disposed such that plate surfaces thereof are opposed to each other with a space therebetween; a first TFT 10fA provided on the array substrate 10b; a second TFT 10fB that is provided on the array substrate 10b and is disposed adjacent to the first TFT 10fA in a curvature direction orthogonal to the one curvature axis CAX and along the display surface 10DS; and a spacer 11 that is provided on the CF substrate 10a and are in contact with the array substrate 10b to keep the space between the pair of substrates 10a and 10b and is disposed to overlap at least one of the first TFT 10fA and the second TFT 10fB that adjacent to each other.

There has been conventionally known an example of a liquid crystal display device with a curved display surface that is described in Patent Document 1 below. In the liquid crystal display device described in Patent Document 1, the long side of a pixel structure is arranged along the curvature direction of a display surface, and a black matrix is provided on an opposed substrate with a black matrix opening of which the length along the curvature direction is E−L{(T1/2)+(T2/2)+d}/R or less where the length of the display surface along the curvature direction is L, the thickness of a array substrate is T1, the thickness of the opposed substrate is T2, the dimension of a gap between the array substrate and the opposed substrate is d, the radius of curvature of the curved display surface is R, and the length of the long side of a pixel electrode provided in the pixel structure is E.


A method for weighing and portioning items utilizing a robot device. The robot device includes a grip, e.g., a suction cup, to remove an item from a delivery station to a receiving area for placement into a particular batch. The method involves placing the items at delivery station according their weight and the weight of items already moved to a receiving area, selecting the items for a batch from the combination of items available for movement to the batch, and selective batching of the items in weight-determined and, optionally, type-determined groups.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns a weighing and portioning technique based on the so-called grader technique, where a number of items which are to be portioned out, namely natural foodstuff items with varying weight, are subjected to a weighing-in and are thereafter selectively fed together in a computer-controlled manner to receiving stations for the building-up of weight-determined portions in these stations. In accordance with the known practice, this is effected by a weighing-in on dynamic scales and a subsequent transport along a sorting-out track with control means which can be activated in a selective manner for the delivery of the items to the respective receiver stations along this track.
With the invention it has been realised that use can be made, with very attractive consequences, of a radically changed technique for carrying out both the relevant task and various related operations, namely by not only effecting the delivery, but preferably also the weighing-in while making use of the gradually highly- and commercially-developed robot technique.
2. Description of Related Art
Especially with the use of vision equipment, it is an easy task for a robot arm to grip a conveyed item in a delivery area, e.g. with a suction cup, and feed the item to any receiving station within the operational range of the robot arm. This can be effected immediately if the item has already been weighed and its position determined with regard to the receiving station, and thus these stations do not have to be physically disposed in any certain pattern such as along a conveyor belt, regardless of whether a certain row disposition can be practical out of regard for the guiding-out and feeding away of the formed portions.
However, it is an important aspect of the invention that the robot arm in itself can be arranged not only to grip the items, but also to determine the weight of a supplied item already during an initial lifting of the item from its under layer. This can be effected in a direct manner by mounting the gripping tool on the robot arm in connection with a weighing cell and preferably also an accelerometer, so that a weighing can be effected during an uneven movement, preferably by an initial vertical lifting, so that the weight determination and allocation of the item can be carried out when the item is lifted to a height from which there is initiated a bringing-out of the item in a direction towards the selected receiving station, including a swinging.-out for the execution of a movement along one or more e.g. circular rows of receiving stations. The weight determination can also be effected in a less direct manner, e.g. by use of a vision system which, in connection with the lifting of the item, is now also given access for a detection of the underside of the item, whereby the weight can be determined with an accuracy which can be sufficient in many connections. An indirect weight determination can also be effected by the robot arm being influenced with a carefully controlled lifting moment, which will be opposed by the inertia of the item, whereby with a moment analysis of the lifting sequence an expression for the item weight can be calculated.
With the use of vision equipment for place determination of arriving items in connection with the robot-based weight determination of the gripped items, there arises a distinct changing of the conditions which have hitherto been valid for the function of the grading machines. This function has hitherto been conditional on the arriving items being fed individually to the dynamic weighing station, and thereafter conveyed individually, i.e. with suitable distance between them, along the sorting-out track, which hereafter will not apply. The vision equipment can monitor a relatively long and broad supply area at which the items can arrive both at the side of each other and without any critical separation, neither in breadth nor lengthways direction, in that the robot arm can nevertheless drop down with great precision on any selected item. It will be a further possibility that the vision equipment can monitor up to several candidate items in seeking for an item of a certain precise weight, e.g. for the conclusion of a building-up of a portion to a fixed weight. If the vision equipment in itself is not able to effect a weight determination with the necessary accuracy, it will still, however, be able to weigh the items in a "weight-class-determined" manner, and thus hereby disclose e.g. 2-4 items which, with good probability, can be so close to the sought-after weight that one of the items will in any case be able to be used for the purpose. There can thus be effected a more accurate weight determination by the operative robot carrying out a control-weighing of these selected items, and hereby either select the best candidate or omit to use any of them.
To this can be added that by use of the vision equipment, there can also be effected a type determination of items which are supplied in mixed type formation, e.g. in the form of different pieces of parted chickens. In certain productions this will be a quite important criterion for the allocation of the items.
It must be emphasised, however, that it will not be any precondition that use be made of vision equipment, in that it has been found possible to let a robot gripping element fetch items from an area with closely-grouped items. The gripping element can possibly be arranged with a sensor for registration of a failure to grip any item, after which it can be immediately moved slightly for a new attempt.
In the handling of items such as whole fish or chicken legs ("drumsticks"), which are desired to be received at each of the receiving stations in oppositely-directed orientations so that they can be placed together in close formation, or that they can be built up in a receiving box in portions in several layers for achieving a more-or-less horizontal upper layer in the box filling, the control unit will easily be able to be instructed whether the robot arm's gripping tool is to be influenced, if necessary, to turn the gripped item through such an angle that will be suitable for ensuring that the item, upon delivery to the receiving station, will have an orientation which accommodates the relevant requirement on the basis of the information which already exists in the control computer.
Furthermore, with the invention it will be a possibility that "the system", i.e. the controlling of the robot arm, is programmed so that from time to time, and e.g. especially after each working day, the robot arm's gripping tool is controlled for gripping a cleaning nozzle or hose, by means of which the apparatus can thereafter clean itself and all the receiving stations. Finally, the gripping tool itself can be cleaned by co-operation with a stationary cleaning nozzle.
There is hitherto considered a weight-determined portioning-out, but the technique will have further possibilities such as a pure sorting-out of items in accordance with more or less any criterion, which shall not necessarily involve a weight criterion, e.g. in accordance with type, colour, shape, degree of possible deformation etc.
The technique can also be used for the distribution of items out to a group of receiving stations, in which the received items are weighed separately with the view to feeding them together in weight-determined portions on the basis of the so-called combination-weight principle.
In the laying-out of items on a packing element, such as slices of salmon on a cardboard plate, or the laying-out of items in assortment boxes, it will be a possibility that there has been laid an item which proves to be able to be replaced by a more suitable item, and here there will be the special possibility both that the items can be placed in special patterns, e.g. by scale layout or at the side of one another, and that the robot can be directed by the control unit to remove the "wrong" item from the under layer in favour of the laying-out of an even better item.
It is mentioned that in the supply area to the robot there can appear a relatively large number of items which can be gripped selectively, possibly even by more than a single robot. It can hereby arise that a deficit of items of one or more different qualities can be registered, e.g. in type or size, which are awaited for the furthering of a quick portioning-out. In this connection, it is a possibility that work can be effected with a supply area coupled up front, possibly even of increased size, where one or more robots work in a corresponding manner for the selective transfer of relevant items to the operative supply area.
If the operative robot arm grips an item which after weight determination is not suitable for placing in any of the receiving stations, it can deliver the item either to a re-circulation station or merely back to the supply area, or to a special parking area for items already weight determined, which are thus ready for selective collection at the first given opportunity during the further sequence.
Such a "parking area" can also be used operatively by one or more of the robots being used to receive and to carry out the weight determination of the supplied items, and thereafter deliver the items in a parking area during registration of the respective positions and weights. Hereafter, the only task to be carried out by the operation robot will to distribute the items out to the receiving stations, i.e. it can be without weighing means and without vision equipment, and it can work at increased speed in that the weighing function is omitted. In the parking area, the items can be placed closely at the sides of one another, i.e. operations can be effected with a quite large number of candidates for portioning-out.
When work is to be carried out with the desirable, relatively fast operation frequencies, it can be quite difficult to arrange weighing equipment in connection with a robot arm. It has already been mentioned that the weighing can well be effected by an intermediate delivery of the items to a static weighing device, but this will inevitably result in an increase in the cycle time, since at each weighing there will arise both an in-swinging period and a weighing period, and since none of these can be integrated with an operative movement of items, both of these periods, regardless of whether they can be of short duration, will have a delaying effect on a quick handling of the items. In light of this, it is a special feature of the invention that it can work with "negative weighing", namely in that newly arrived items can be fed successively to a static weighing device or buffer scales which register the weight of that or those items which are placed on the scales, in that the weight determination of an item, which is then gripped and removed by the robot arm can hereby be registered by the associated reduction in the weight on the scales. The said swinging-in and weighing sequences can hereby be concluded already before the relevant item is gripped and removed, and even though a renewed swinging-in and weighing period must subsequently be accepted for determination of the weight of the removed item, this can thus be effected during the actual initial movement of the gripped item, and consequently integrated anyway with this movement without delaying the movement.
In the foregoing it is intimated that the "robot arm" moves in a pivoting movement, regardless of whether the robot otherwise or also moves in diverse horizontal directions, and here it must merely be emphasised that the invention will not be limited in a corresponding manner, the reason being that the robot arm, with its related gripping element, can be displaced just as well as a fixed arm on a robot structure, which as an integrated whole moves in a controlled, co-ordinate-related manner in a length/breadth-controlled operating system.
In the following, the invention will be described in more detail precisely on the basis of such a co-ordinate-related system, without this excluding a pivoting system, and moreover with reference to the drawing, in which


A communication system employing site diversity combing to increase link availability includes at least two receivers at receive sites within a single downlink beam separated by enough distance to provide decorrelation of weather phenomena—such as rain fade outages. A signal transmits digital symbols to all the receivers and may use bandwidth efficient modulation with forward error correction coding. Sampled symbol values for each codeword are produced at each receiver, which are connected by one or more ground links so that all data can be collected at one site. At least two different soft-decision computation modules translate the sampled symbol values from the different receivers into different sets of soft-decision values—which may be log-likelihood-ratio (LLR) values reflecting the probability value for each bit of the codeword—that are digitally synchronized and combined for use by a decoder. The technique thus avoids disadvantages of either coherent waveform combining or BER-based digital switching.

The present invention generally relates to radio frequency communication systems and, more particularly, to a site diversity technique for providing high link availability on a satellite or other radio frequency (RF) link that is challenged by thin power margins and high probability of deep rain fade.
Site diversity refers generally to a set of techniques used to provide high link availability on a satellite or other RF link that is challenged by thin power margins and high probability of deep rain fades, such as a wideband bandwidth efficient modulation (BEM) link. It is not always possible to locate a BEM receive station in a low precipitation area of the world. In some cases, it may not be possible to build a link with ample power margin to overcome all high or moderate probability rain fades. Rather than over-sizing the link to carry large rain-fade power margins, which could be cost-prohibitive, site diversity may be desirable to lower the required power margin and increase link availability. Using site diversity, the communication system receives the transmitted signal into two or more geographically separated receive locations, generally within the same downlink beam. These receive locations are separated far enough in distance to provide decorrelation of atmospheric phenomena so that; for example, if it is raining hard on one receiver (producing a deep rain fade), it is probably not raining as hard (thus lower rain fade) over another receiver. Thus, by suitably combining information from both or all received signals it is generally possible to reconstruct the original information from the transmitted signal with a greater degree of accuracy than would be possible using only one signal. Thus, link availability, e.g., the percentage of time that a link can provide a signal of acceptable quality for accurate reconstruction of the original information, can be increased in comparison to a link that uses only one receiver. But previous methods of combining multiple received signals are usually impractical or very costly for a very high data rate BEM link.
For example, prior art techniques for site diversity include one that involves coherently combining the received RF or intermediate frequency (IF) waveforms (referred to as "coherent waveform combining") and another that involves demodulating the received data streams and making "either-or" decisions down stream about which packets to accept from which stream (referred to as "digital switching").
To perform the first technique, coherent waveform combining—assuming for the sake of example, two receive stations—some component of the communication system must perfectly align and then combine both RF signals at one common location with negligible distortion. Such perfect alignment is not feasible for ultra-wideband communications, especially with BEM formats that are highly distortion-sensitive.
The other technique, digital "either-or" switching, requires very fast decision-making capabilities, which can be either not feasible or cost prohibitive for the high frequencies and data rates involved. Moreover, the process of decoding the signals involves at one stage making a "soft decision" about the data symbol received and then refining the soft decision into a "hard decision" at a later stage of the decoding process. Digital "either-or" switching requires very fast decision-making capabilities, and does not provide optimal performance, since decoding must be performed on the individual data streams, leaving only the information from the "best" stream to be kept, and any additional possible performance benefit of the other stream is wasted.
As can be seen, there is a need for optimally combining two or more received signals to obtain a single received data stream without the difficulties of RF coherent combining and without the performance loss of digital switching methods. There is also a need for an efficient, low cost, low complexity, and high performance method of combining two BEM downlinks separated by significant distance that achieves optimal rain-fade resistance. Moreover, there is a need for BEM signal combining in which not only is the unit cost low, but the total system requirements, and therefore the total system cost, is also very low.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Efficient diversity combining for wideband downlink


The objective of the present invention is to provide an electrolyte solution of which electrolyte salt concentration is high and by which cycle characteristics hardly deteriorate and battery lifetime can be extended, and a lithium ion secondary battery which contains the above electrolyte solution. The electrolyte solution of the present invention comprises an electrolyte salt and a solvent, wherein a concentration of the electrolyte salt is more than 1.1 mol/L, the electrolyte salt contains a compound represented by the following formula (1): (XSO2) (FSO2)NLi (1) (wherein X is a fluorine atom, a C1-6 alkyl group or a C1-6 fluoroalkyl group), and the solvent contains a cyclic carbonate.

A battery such as a lithium ion secondary battery is used as an electrical power source for a mobile phone, a personal computer, an automobile and the like. With respect to such a battery used for the above application, various studies have been done in order to improve the properties of the battery. Such properties are exemplified by safety and cycle characteristics.
For example, Patent Document 1 discloses an electrolyte solution obtained by dissolving bis(fluorosulfonyl)imide lithium, i.e. LiFSI, and hexafluorolithium as electrolyte salts in a total concentration of 1.1 mole/L and a halogenated carbonate ester such as 4-fluoro-1,3-dioxolan-2-one, i.e. FEC, in a mixed solvent consisting of ethylene carbonate and dimethyl carbonate. It is described in Patent Document 1 that cycle characteristics under low temperature and high temperature can be improved by using LiFSI and a halogenated carbonate ester in combination and adjusting a concentration of LiFSI to 0.001 mol/L-0.5 mol/L.

Electrolyte solution and lithium ion secondary battery provided with same


A multipurpose anchor assembly includes a block assembly for mounting to the upper sidewall of a cargo carrying vehicle to accommodate tie down of handled cargo. A pin is received through an aperture in the block and engages a spring mounted plate assembly which allows for engagement of the pin for locking in selective positions. The pin includes an eye formation at a top thereof to facilitate attachment of a tie down lashing member.

For at least half of a century, inventors have recognized the need for a device to releasably attach a load to the bed of a truck or the like, and have responded with a variety of devices for this purpose. Examples of such devices are as follows.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,102,708 to Lee J. Crain entitled Retractable Rope hook granted in 1963 discloses a pop-up spring-loaded hook mounted in the top rail of a pickup truck.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,178,790 to Anthony F. Cech entitled Load Fastener granted in 1965 discloses a releasable strap anchor with two slidable spring-loaded hook plates for insertion into one of a plurality of slots in a channel member to secure the strap to the channel member.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,259,353 to Ivan F. Webb entitled Rope hook granted in 1966 discloses a device for insertion into a stake-opening or pocket in the top of the walls of a pickup truck, the device providing a removable hook for engaging a rope.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,595,125 to Charles H. Jacobs entitled Pickup Stake-Pocket Tie Ring granted in 1971 describes another device which utilizes the stake-opening of a pickup truck for mounting a hook or ring, this device having a screw positionable wedge for securing the device in the stake-pocket.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,607,991 to David R. Porter entitled Tie-Down Anchor for Truck Bed granted in 1986 describes yet another device which utilizes the stake-pocket of a pickup truck for mounting a ring or bolt, this device using spring loaded arms to retain bolt heads in openings in the walls of the stake-pocket.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,945,849 to John L. Morris and Robert L. Martin entitled Retractable Cleat granted in 1990 describes a spring loaded pop-up hook or cleat adapted to be mounted on a flat surface, such as the deck of a boat, with a manually actuatable mechanism for retaining the cleat in depressed position.
The devices of the prior art are generally designed to function in a particular environment, such as the stake-pocket of a pickup truck or a boat deck, as in the foregoing examples. Further, most prior art devices are designed for use with particular loads, such as a rope, belt, or the like. Also many of the prior art devices are limited by their design to light load service,


An optical information recording medium includes a recording layer for recording optical information, a plurality of laminated layers, and a substrate for supporting those layers, while a beam of a specific wavelength is being radiated, a light absorption peak is shifted to a longer or a shorter wavelength side than the peak located before said beam radiation, realizing a high S/N ratio and a high recording density of the medium.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical information recording apparatus and an optical information recording medium which includes a light-condensing layer.
2. Description of the Related Art
The recent development of an information-oriented society through the optical communication has required a new communication system that provides a capability of rapidly communicating a large volume of information. As an optical device indispensable to developing such a high-volume and fast optical communication, there may be referred an optical information recording medium that condenses a high volume of optical information. Moreover, with digitization of an image such as a TV image or enhancement of an image quality such as the high-definition of a TV image, it is quite pressing to develop a high-volume optical information recording medium that may keep the quality of an image high and record the high-quality image for a long time.
Today, as the optical information recording medium, the DVD (Digital Versatile Disk) having a capacity of 4.7 GB on one side comes into practical use. It is widely utilized for a computer medium or a medium for recording a high-volume moving picture such as a video application. Practically, this kind of DVD may be used as a ROM (DVD-ROM) on which optical information is directly written as well as a rewritable recording and reproducing optical medium. The optical information recording medium has been developed for enhancing the recording density. In order to make the density of the information recording higher, a laser beam of a short wavelength is used. The laser beam has a wavelength of 650 nm that is shorter than the wavelength (780 nm) of the laser beam used for a CD or the like. However, in order to treat a high volume of information such as a computer graphics picture or a digital Hi-vision image, it is necessary to make the recording density four to five times as high as that for the foregoing laser beam of a short wavelength. To achieve it, a new optical disk is now being developed. The new optical disk is fitted into a blue semiconductor laser of a quite short wavelength (405 nm) and may have a volume of 27 GB on one side.
As another technology of enhancing the recording density, formation of a light-condensing layer may be referred. The light-condensing layer is a coating film to be formed on the top or the bottom of an optical recording layer formed on the optical recording medium. This coating film serves to reduce a beam spot of an incident ray passing through or reflected on the film itself, for making the recording density higher. The combination of this technology with the foregoing technology of shortening a laser wavelength makes it possible to increase the volume of the optical disk.
One of the mechanisms for bringing about the light-condensing effect is an absorption-saturation phenomenon. The phenomenon utilizes such a nonlinear optical characteristic that the light-condensing layer serves to pass a ray having a higher intensity than the absorption-saturation amount therethrough and absorb the ray having a lower intensity. The spatial intensity of a laser beam used for reading or writing information is distributed in the Gaussian manner. Hence, when the beam is passed through the light-condensing layer, the base portion of the beam of a lower intensity is absorbed by the light-condensing layer, while the central portion of the beam of a higher intensity is passed through the layer. This makes it possible to reduce the beam in diameter after passed through the layer.
Today, as a component material of this kind of layer, a phthalocyanine system organic film or a chalcogenide system compound may be referred as described in JP-A-8-96412. Also, it is known that the organic material such as a thermochromic material as described in JP-A-6-162564 or a photochromic material as described in JP-A-6-267078 may be used for composing the light-condensing layer.
However, the light-condensing material such as the thermochromic material or the photochromic material raises its extinction coefficient by the heat or the excitation caused by beam radiation, so that the layer composed of such a material may lower its transmittance or reflectance. The resulting laser beam may not reach the required power for reading information from the medium. In order to overcome this shortcoming, in JP-A-2001-273679, an interference layer is laminated on the beam-incident side of a super resolution reproducing film (composed of a light-condensing material) whose extinction coefficient is selectively made higher by the greater beam radiation than the predetermined threshold volume. The interference layer is composed of a layer of a low refractive index and a layer of a high refractive layer. The interference layer serves to increase the reflectance of the beam radiated onto the optical information medium.
The JP-A-2000-34381 describes the optical recording medium having a mask layer whose light transmittance characteristic is varied by the beam radiation. This mask layer is a light-condensing function layer. The JP-A-10-340482 describes a recording medium having a glass layer in which the intensity distributions of the radiated beam and the transmitted beam are varied nonlinearly, for the purpose of improving endurance of an organic film considered as a super resolution film. The super resolution film used herein is a light-condensing function layer.

Optical information recording apparatus and optical information recording medium


A borate-based crystal excellent in uniformity and reliability, which is useful as an optical wavelength conversion device, etc., and can be easily produced at low cost in a short period of time, by the steps of dissolving water-soluble starting materials in water to prepare an aqueous solution, evaporating water in the aqueous solution followed by sintering or evaporating the water and not sintering, thereby forming a crystal growth material, and melting the resultant material to grow a crystal. Further, a highly reliable laser oscillation apparatus can be achieved by using this crystal as an optical wavelength conversion device.

Recently applications of lasers have been expanding to ultraviolet ray lithography, laser micromachining, laser fusion, etc., and laser oscillation apparatuses for use therein need to efficiently produce stable ultraviolet light. All-solid-state laser oscillation apparatuses using nonlinear optical crystals for converting the wavelength of light sources to obtain ultraviolet light have attracted much attention as one way of meeting this need. The nonlinear optical crystals need to have higher output and improved laser damage resistance in order to more efficiently obtaining ultraviolet light.
As nonlinear optical crystals for wavelength conversion to ultraviolet light, for example, lithium-borate-based crystals (LBO crystals: LiB3O5) have been adapted for practical use in converting Nd:YAG laser or Nd:YVO4 laser, wavelength 1064 nm, light to the third harmonic, wavelength 355 nm. However, the LBO crystals have poor surface deterioration and poor wavelength conversion efficiency, so that there has been strong demand for a novel alternative nonlinear optical crystal that does not easily deteriorate and has a high wavelength conversion efficiency. The inventors and other researchers have made extensive studies, and as a result, we have come to see hope in cesium-borate-based crystals (CBO crystals: CsB3O5 as a nonlinear optical crystal alternative to the LBO crystals. The CBO crystals have 2 or more times as large nonlinear optical constant as the LBO crystals and can efficiently generate the third harmonic of the Nd:YAG laser or the Nd:YVO4 laser, whereby they can be put into practical use as high-performance wavelength conversion nonlinear optical crystals. Further, cesium-lithium-borate-based crystals (CLBO crystals: CsLiB8O10) proposed by the inventors can produce a shorter wavelength light such as fourth harmonic, wavelength 266 nm, of Nd:YAG laser light, converting this light with a high conversion efficiency and wide temperature and angle tolerance ranges, and we have great expectations for these novel high-performance wavelength conversion nonlinear optical crystals (Reference 1).
Conventionally, borate-based crystals such as CBO crystals and the CLBO crystals are obtained as single crystals by heating and melting carbonate powder, the raw material, and by growing crystals from the obtained crystal growth material using various crystal growth methods. For example, in the case of the CBO crystals, the inventors have directly mixed and heat-melted 26.6 mol % of Cs2CO3 and 73.3 mol % of B2O3, and then grown the CsB3O5 crystal using a Kyropoulos technique. However, this method is disadvantageous in that it is not easy to homogenize the composition of the melt, added inclusions are incorporated throughout the crystal volume during the crystal growth to cause strong light scattering and poor laser-induced damage tolerance (Reference 2).
Thus, the inventors then mixed 30 mol % of Cs2CO3 and 70 mol % of B2O3, heat-melted the mixture, and grew CsB3O5 using the combination of a TSSG technique and a solution stirring technique comprising putting a propeller into a solution and rotating the crucible. Though the method can remarkably reduce the light scattering in the grown crystal, the liquid is significantly evaporated near the liquid surface, so that it is difficult to achieve the crystal growth itself, and the crystal cannot be grown over a long period (Reference 3).
In any of the above methods, the starting material powders are directly mixed and used as the growth material for crystal growth, so that the powders generate bubbles due to decarboxylation in the heat melting and swell in the reaction. To prevent this, the powders are mixed and melted gradually in several separate operations. Thus, in the production of the CBO crystals and the CLBO crystals, the starting material powders are beat-melted over several days in a melting furnace and then cooled to ordinary temperature, the resultant crystal growth material is transferred to a growing furnace and melted, and single crystals are grown from the melt. The conventional production of the CBO crystals and the CLBO crystals is thus disadvantageously time-consuming and costly.
The present invention was designed after considering the above, and an object of the invention is to overcome these conventional problems, thereby providing a novel method of easily producing a high-quality borate-based crystal excellent in uniformity, which is useful for optical wavelength conversion device, etc, at low cost in a short period of time, and a laser oscillation apparatus using the crystal as an optical wavelength conversion device    Reference 1: Y. Mori, et al., "New nonlinear optical crystal: Cesium lithium borate", Appl. Phys. Lett, 67, 13 (1995) 1818,    Reference 2: Y. Kagebeyashi, Y. Mori and T. Sasaki, "Crystal growth of cesium triborate, CsB3O5 by Kyropulos technique", Bulletin of Materials Science, Vol. 22 (6) pp. 971-973, 1999    Reference 3: R. Kitano "Efficient 355-nm generation in CsB3O5 crystal", Optics Letters, Vol. 28, No. 4, pp. 263-265, 2003.

Method for preparing borate-based crystal and laser oscillation apparatus


In one embodiment a system and method pertain to generating a pump from a received optical signal, inputting the generated pump into a phase-sensitive oscillator, and amplifying a carrier component of the pump to generate an optical carrier having the same phase and polarity of an optical carrier of the received optical signal.

Coherent optical communication has attracted renewed interest in recent years. In coherent optical communication, an incoming optical signal is combined with a local oscillator signal to generate an interference signal that can be used to detect the data contained in the incoming data signal.
In order for the two signals to properly interfere or "beat," the two signals must be coherent, i.e., have the same frequency, phase, and polarization. In order to produce a coherent local oscillator signal, the phase and polarization of the optical carrier of the incoming optical signal must be recovered. Unfortunately, carrier phase and polarization recovery remains a significant challenge of coherent optical communication. As a result, coherent optical communication is not frequently used.
Although various methods have been proposed for determining the phase and polarization of the optical carrier of incoming signals, such methods have proven to be complex and/or unreliable. Moreover, known methods are incapable of simultaneous recovery of both phase and polarization, further increasing complexity. Therefore, it can be appreciated that it would be desirable to have less complex and/or more reliable systems and methods for optical carrier phase and polarization recovery.

Systems and methods for optical carrier recovery

University of Central Florida Research Foundation, Inc.


A fishing pole holding device for holding fishing poles adjacent a seat of a boat while the fishing poles are being used to fish includes a box being positionable on a deck of a boat. The box has an aperture extending through a top wall and a bottom wall of the box. The aperture receives a pedestal of a seat wherein the box is positioned between the seat and the deck. The box includes a peripheral wall extending between the top wall and the bottom wall. A plurality of pole sleeves is coupled to the box. Each of the pole sleeves receives a handle of one of the fishing poles to permit the fishing poles to extend from the associated one of the pole sleeves when the fishing poles are is used.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to fishing rod holders and more particularly pertains to a new fishing rod holder for holding fishing poles adjacent a seat of a boat while the fishing poles are being used to fish.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of fishing rod holders is known in the prior art. While these devices fulfill their respective, particular objectives and requirements, the need remains for a device that certain improved features that allow the device to be positioned between a seat and a deck of a boat as well as around a pedestal of the seat to minimize interference of the device with a person sitting on the seat. Additionally, the device should also include tie downs to allow the device to be anchored to the boat and inhibit rotation of the device around the pedestal.


The invention relates to method for checking a personal identification number (PIN) of a subscriber in a mobile equipment (500) employed in a mobile communications system (600), the mobile equipment containing a protected subscriber identity (IMSI, ITSI). The method comprises the steps of requesting (203) the user of the mobile equipment the personal identification number (PIN) of the subscriber, checking (103) the validity of the personal identification number entered by the user, repeating (109) these steps provided that the user does not enter the valid personal identification number, and, when the number of requests (203) and checks (103) of the identification number exceeds a predetermined threshold value, blocking (111) the mobile equipment. According to the invention, protection of a protected subscriber identity is released (112), thus finding out the identity of the subscriber; the subscriber identity as well as and an indication that the mobile equipment has been blocked are transmitted the mobile communications system.

The subscriber identity module, such as a SIM card, is subscriber-specific, which means that subscriber equipments are not confined to a specific subscriber. The subscriber identity module, such as a SIM card or a GSM card, is a smart card or a smart card which is placed in the mobile equipment and contains information required for identifying a subscriber and for encrypting radio traffic. A subscriber identity module, such as a SIM card, refers herein to a smart card that can be removed from a mobile equipment and that allows a subscriber to use the card controlled mobile equipment.
If a subscriber identity module is employed, the user need not have a mobile equipment of his own, but a subscriber identity module is all he needs. Such a subscriber identity module can be, for example, a SIM card (Subscriber Identity Module) which is, in a way, a phone card that allows the subscriber to make (and receive) calls from any mobile equipment of the system. The purpose of a SIM card, on the one hand, is to provide the mobile equipment with data identifying the user safely in a protected form, and, on the other hand, to provide services to the mobile equipment. The services include maintenance of the identification number (input, alteration, etc.), calculating an encryption key by means of user identity algorithms, and unblocking a SIM card blocked after an excessive number of entered false personal identification numbers (PIN) for example by means of a PUK code (PUK-code=Personal Unblocking Key).
As an alternative way of implementing a SIM card in hand-held phones, a so-called plug-in-SIM has been introduced. A plug-in-SIM is a coin-sized part containing the electronics of a credit card sized SIM card. It is so placed in a phone that the user is not able to replace it with ease. The phone may also have an incorporated plug-in-SIM and, in addition, a card reader. If the card reader contains a card, the phone is identified on the basis of the external card, otherwise on the basis of the incorporated plug-in-SIM. The term subscriber identity module, such as a SIM card, herein generally refers to both the plug-in-SIM and the smart card SIM unless advised to the contrary.
The general function of a SIM card is specified in the GSM recommendation 02.17, Subscriber Identity Modules, ETSI, of the GSM mobile communication system. It defines the terms associated with a SIM card and sets the requirements for the security of a SIM card, functions of the highest level, defines the tasks for the network operator and the information to be stored in a SIM card. It also specifies the minimum requirements for a SIM card of a user interface of a phone, such as a mobile equipment, concerning for example the input and change of a user's Personal Identification Number (PIN).
In addition, the GSM recommendation 11.11, SIM Application Protocol, ETSI, defines more closely the issues specified by the aforementioned GSM recommendation 02.17 by defining the protocols between a SIM card and a mobile equipment (ME=Mobile Equipment), the exact contents and lengths of the data fields of the SIM card, as well as the matters related to mechanical and electrical connections. The GSM recommendation 11.11 is a documentation on the basis of which engineers are expected to be able to provide the software and hardware implementation of a SIM interface.
A problematic situation arises in the use of mobile communications systems when a mobile equipment and/or a SIM card is lost and comes into the wrong hands. Thus, since losing the phone is not necessarily noticed immediately, the person who has stolen the mobile equipment may try breaking the PIN code of the SIM card by trying different codes. When an unauthorized user has made a sufficient number of attempts to break the PIN code, the SIM card may block itself in such a way that it cannot be activated any more by means of the PIN code only, but a PUK code for cancelling the blocking must be entered. This function alone prevents unauthorized use of the SIM card, but it does not assist in identifying or neutralizing the unauthorized user in any way.
When a mobile equipment is taken into use, identifying the mobile user is usually started by requesting the user an identification number, such as a PIN (Personal Identification Number) associated with the mobile equipment or the SIM card. The personal identification number PIN related to the user of the SIM card and the mobile equipment must thus be entered into the mobile equipment and further into the SIM card if data fields determined on a PIN encryption level are wished to be read or altered. In practice, this is done every time in connection with activating the telephone or inserting the SIM card into a card reader.
Once the valid identification number has been entered, the card will also allow reading information located within a confidential area of the card memory.
If the user enters an invalid personal identification number (PIN), the SIM returns the invalid code, and the identification number is requested again. The SIM also increments its internal error counter, which cannot be adjusted by the user in any circumstances. If the user enters three invalid identification numbers in a row, the SIM shifts into a blocked state.
A blocked card may be re-activated, depending on the implementation, with a specific PUK identification number or possibly only by means of the service measures carried out by the manufacturer. A SIM that is in the blocked state only receives an unblocking command (UNBLOCK) for a blocked SIM card. In such a case, the user enters the SIM card an unblock PUK code which is 8 digits in length. Provided that the user enters an invalid unblock PUK identification number e.g. for ten times, the SIM shifts into a permanently blocked state, from which it can be returned only by the network operator that has provided the SIM card.
A mobile equipment that operates according to the prior art--in the first embodiment of the invention--and, on the other hand, a subscriber identity module i.e. a SIM card--in the second embodiment of the invention--may prevent the use of mobile equipment or correspondingly of the subscriber identity module, that is, the SIM card in such a manner that when an unauthorized user makes a sufficient number of attempts to break the PIN code, that is, when the unauthorized user enters an invalid PIN code for a sufficient number of times, the mobile equipment or the card blocks itself so that it can no longer be reactivated only by means of the PIN code, but some other unblocking code, such as a PUK code must be entered. The mobile equipment or the subscriber identity module is thus deactivated provided that the unauthorized user knows neither the PIN code nor the PUK code (PUK=Personal Unblocking Key).
Another aspect of the matter disclosed above is the fact that the memory of the smart cards employed as subscriber identity modules, or SIM cards, is usually divided into parts according to the fact who has an access right to the data located in the memory: the memory is usually divided into three zones on the basis of the encryption class: an open, a confidential and a secret zone. On the confidential zone, such data is stored that, in order to be read and altered, requires a PIN identification number to be entered to the card. The memory of such a mobile equipment that is not connected to a subscriber identity module may also be divided into open, secret/confidential zones in the manner described above. In the confidential area of both the mobile equipment and of the SIM card, all user-specific data is stored, including protected subscriber identities, such as an IMSI=International Mobile Subscriber Identity in the GSM system and an ITSI=Individual Tetra Subscriber Identity in the TETRA system.

Checking the identification number of a mobile subscriber