The present invention is directed to techniques for providing retail customers a seamless, individualized discovery and shopping experience. With an improved shopper/customer accounting system, along with other technologies such as intelligent fixtures, mobile devices, and product simulations, a shopper's product discovery, purchase, and post-sale experience can be highly integrated and personalized. For example, the shopper's out-of-store (online) and in-store product discovery sessions may be seamlessly linked and analyzed to provide the shopper with customized recommendations and assistance. Other variations and enhancements are disclosed.

Today, retailers with large inventories and limited resources find it difficult to provide customers with a customized sales experience. The physical constraints of the size of physical (e.g., "brick and mortar") stores typically limit the amount of products retailers can physically shelve and store on site. These physical constraints also typically impact the retailer's ability to effectively display and demonstrate their products to their customers. Other limitations, such as limitations on the number of customers sales representatives retailers can employ on site, typically impact a retailer's ability to answer customer questions, collect information about the customer, and make recommendations for products or services.
Retail stores with large inventories of products typically require a large amount of physical space to shelve, and store their goods. As a result, retail stores with limited amounts of physical space typically do not have the benefit of displaying most of their inventory. These retail stores may resort to shelving or displaying only a fraction of their entire line of goods, which may only appeal to a small subset of the vendor's customer base. This is problematic for vendors because it limits a vendor's ability to customize the sales process to the particular needs and traits of a customer. For example, after a vendor has determined that a particular good would be suited to a customer's needs or traits, the vendor could create a sales experience by displaying or demonstrating that particular product to the customer while in the retail store. However, this creates a problem for vendors who do not have enough physical space to keep that product stored or shelved in inventory; those vendors may not have the advantage of providing a truly customized sales experience to the customer. That is, retail stores with limited physical space may not have the capability of customizing the sales experience to every segment of their customer base. Accordingly, there is a need for retail stores to display and demonstrate the full range of their inventory of goods, thereby enabling retail stores to display and demonstrate particular products in their inventory and to target every customer segment.
Retail stores typically display their goods for customers to visually inspect for themselves. This allows customers to obtain a tangible familiarity with the product. For example, this allows customers to feel a product's texture, and see the product's dimensions, allowing the customer to visualize how the product may look in their home. However, retail stores with limited physical space find it difficult to provide a tangible, interactive experience for the full range of their products in terms of look-and-feel within the home. Although retail stores sometimes provide product catalogs that describe most of their goods, these catalogs do not provide the same tangible experience as being able to physically interact with a product; customers normally will not have the benefit of estimating how the product may look, feel, or integrate in their home. Accordingly, there is a need for retail stores to allow customers to visually inspect most of a vendor's line of goods in an interactive and instructive manner, using a limited amount of physical space.
Some retail stores display images or videos of products from their product catalogs on in-store displays, such as flat-screens or television monitors. Generally, retail stores do not typically provide an intuitive interface that allows customers to interact with in-store displays. Research has shown that customers respond to in-store shopping experiences that offer an intuitive shopping interface while simultaneously providing visually compelling images and videos, and similar content. For example, customers typically find touch or gesture interfaces commonly used for tablets, PCs, smartphones and other mobile devices offer an intuitive interface for browsing and shopping for products. However, touch screen interfaces for these mobile devices are not suitable for the in-store shopping experiences because of their smaller size and limited display capabilities. Thus, retailers find it difficult to adapt the intuitive touch or gesture interfaces used for mobile devices to large in-store displays.
Generally, retail stores that integrate sensors and other input devices into retail displays typically design and install retail fixtures that are unique to each retail layout space. For example, interactive retail fixtures built for fashion and department stores typically require designing a fixture and installing sensors that are unique to the physical layout of each store. Interactive retail fixtures may use projected light and motion sensors for user to interact with display products positioned on retail tabletop counters. While these displays can sense when and where a product is touched and examined, these sensors are usually installed based on the physical layout of the store, tabletop and products. Thus, retailers typically design an interactive fixture for every store, without reusing the designs for fixtures already created. Accordingly, retailers find it difficult to create retail fixtures that integrate sensors and retail devices in a reusable and modular manner.
Retail stores typically employ sales representatives to provide customers in-store sales assistance. These representatives engage the customer in the sales process, ask customers questions about their needs or preferences, and answer any questions the customer may have. This benefits the customer by providing individualized, targeted information, and also benefits the vendor by allowing the vendor to qualify the customer according to the customer's personal, demographic, or psychographic information. For example, by interacting with the customer, the store sales representative may determine the customer's age, marital status, personal preferences, and opinions on certain products. This information may allow the sales representative to make a recommendation for a particular product to the customer, based on these customer features. However, retail stores are typically limited in the number of skilled, career-oriented sales representatives they can employ to assist and engage with customers. Sometimes, high turnover or transient career opportunities at retail stores causes sales representatives to have little training and limited experience. Thus, retail stores usually only provide truly individualized assistance to a fraction of potential buyers who enter the store. Similarly, retail stores usually obtain specific information from and make customized recommendations to only a fraction of the vendor's customers. Accordingly, there is a need to provide individualized assistance and make customized recommendations for products to any number of customers that enter a store without relying entirely on the use of in-store sales representatives.
Retail stores that have enough physical space to demonstrate some of their inventory typically demonstrate their products in a generic way. That is, the retail stores typically demonstrate their products, such as televisions or speakers, in a standard showroom, playing non-specific music or video content. However, these demonstration spaces typically do not reflect the environment the customer intends on using the products accurately. For example, the dimensions or layout of the room where a customer actually intends on using a television or set of speakers may be drastically different from the retail store's showroom, significantly changing the way the television or speakers may look or sound. Thus, the customers do not typically appreciate how a particular product, such as a television or speaker, may look or feel in their particular intended environment while at the retail store. Accordingly, there is a need to provide customers with a way of accurately simulating how a vendor's products would perform and integrate into the customer's intended environment.
As noted above, in-stores sales representatives often perform the role of providing recommendations or suggestions to customers for products that are tailored to the customer's particular demographic or psychographic traits. That is, sales representatives typically base their recommendations and suggestions on information about the customer that the sales representative can directly observe. Normally, sales representatives do not have access to any other information about the customer other than what they can directly observe, limiting their ability to provide customized recommendations for products. For example, a vendor may have information about the make and model of a customer's automobile; with this information, a sales representative would be enabled to recommend audio equipment that is compatible with the customer's particular automobile. While this information would improve the sales process, vendors generally find it difficult to provide this non-observable, previously stored customer information to the sales representatives during the in-store sales process. Accordingly, there is a need to better integrate stored information about a customer into the in-store sales process in a manner that allows such targeted marketing in smaller stores with fewer in-store sales representatives.
Often, sales representatives detect physical and social cues from a customer's body language to make a recommendation for a product. Analogous information can be collected using optical or motion sensor technology. But as of yet, such customer information has not been truly integrated into the sales process so as to improve the relevance and appeal of the vendor's recommendations to its customers in a manner that accommodates reductions in floor space and the number of in-store representatives. Accordingly, there is a need to better integrate in-store monitored information about a customer into the sales process.
Moreover, to the extent retail stores use information about a customer, retail stores typically do not incorporate this information into the sales process in real-time. For example, while some retail stores may monitor foot traffic in a store, stores frequently only use this information in time-late off-line analysis to change the physical placement of products in a store. Retail stores typically do not use current or real-time foot traffic information to make recommendations for a particular product or solution while the customer is still shopping in the store. Accordingly, there is a need to better integrate monitored information about a customer into the sales process in real-time.
To mitigate the problems posed by the physical limitations of physical stores described above, retail stores often sell their inventory through an internet website. While online retail stores may avoid some of these problems, online retail stores typically do not allow vendors to monitor the customers or provide in-person assistance the same way they could as with a physical store. For example, the information presented to a customer on an online retail website may be overwhelming or difficult for the customer to digest without a personal sales representative. Moreover, vendors typically cannot monitor a customer's body language or social cues while the customer is shopping online, limiting the amount of information the vendor has to make a recommendation for a particular product to the customer. Accordingly, there is a need for a customized retail experience that bridges the gap between online retail stores and physical stores.
For example, if a customer likes a product they viewed in a store, retail stores typically do not provide a way to track this information so that the consumer can later decide to learn more about the product or purchase the product after leaving the store. Likewise, retail stores typically do not integrate customer information collected from their online website, such as the customer's online shopping history, into the in-store sales process. For example, retail stores do not typically access a customer's online shopping history to recommend a product when the customer makes a visit to the physical store. Accordingly, there is a deficiency in terms of the lack of integration or synthesis of information from online retail stores and physical stores to improve the sales process.
Typically, online retail websites require a customer to register an account with the vendor, or to allow the vendor to store information about the customer locally in the customer's browser cache. Because vendors usually require a customer to create an account, vendors typically cannot make recommendations to new customers visiting their online website for their first time, or who have not yet registered an account with the vendor. Similarly, because vendors usually require a customer to allow the website to store information locally to a browser's cache, vendors typically cannot make recommendations to new customers with strict privacy control settings that forbid websites to store information to their cache. Usually, online retail websites will gather information about new customers by directly prompting the customers on their website. However, online retail websites generally do not have a way to gather information that may be used for determining a customer's demographic or psychographic information without directly asking the customer for this information.
Similarly, vendors have difficulty in deriving helpful psychographic and demographic characteristics in other alternative channels of commerce. For example, vendors may allow customers to shop for their products via kiosks, telephone call centers, interactive television services, mobile software applications, social networks, and the like, in addition to their physical stores. However, vendors are typically limited in the manner they may determine a customer's psychographic or demographic characteristics shopping via these alternative channels of commerce. Unlike the physical store context, these channels of commerce typically do not allow vendors to visually determine these characteristics with sales representatives, or detect these characteristics through the use of sensors.
In physical retail stores, i.e., physical stores, vendors often do not guide customers through the sale process from a single location. For example, the location where a customer demonstrates a product is typically different from the location where a customer may ask questions to a store sales representative, which is also typically different from the location where a customer provides their payment information to finalize a sale, or request post-sale services such as product installation or delivery. Performing the different steps of the sales process at different locations and by different store personnel can create various costs and inefficiencies as the person of ordinary skill will readily appreciate. For the customer, it can provide a fragmented sales experience that undermines customer satisfaction and repeat sales.
The inability to guide a customer through the stages of the sales process from a single location is further problematic because it places a limit on the vendor's ability to operate in a confined space. That is, physical retail stores usually require at least enough space to allow vendors to engage a customer, store and demonstrate various inventory, consummate a sale, and setup installation and delivery. Thus, vendors often cannot provide this entire range of services in retail locations that require a small amount of space, such as an information kiosk at an air airport. This, in turn, typically limits the range of locations vendors can create a physical retail presence. Accordingly, there is a need for a system that would allow a retailer to perform a full range of services from a reduced amount of physical space and/or at various locations within the store.
Furthermore, the purchase of complex products involves much more intellectual interaction between shoppers and retailers than is commonly appreciated. This complex interaction has been greatly magnified by the Internet revolution. Today's shoppers often begin their discovery process by researching products on the Internet. They may continue this discovery process by visiting retail stores. And, they may conclude it with additional discovery over the Internet. This discovery may include researching the benefits of the type of products, learning about individual products, studying the reputation of individual manufacturers and retailers (e.g., Consumer Reports, Biz-Rate, etc.), reviewing shopper comments, making the technical and aesthetic judgments regarding their individual product application (e.g., installation, room décor issues, etc.), comparing prices, and so on.
As the discovery process becomes more refined, it leads to purchase decisions that are highly individualized. This is very different than when products were bought more on generic factors like price and availability. Instead of doing a simple Internet search for a product, today's sophisticated shoppers may conduct their initial discovery on the Internet, go to store for more discovery, return to the Internet for their final phase of discovery, and then make their actual purchase either online or in a store. Invariably, this complicated process will lead to purchases that are much better suited for their individual taste, application, and budget.
Unfortunately, despite the great advances in computing and Internet technologies, today's retail shopping process still resembles what it was like in the 20th century and does not provide for a seamless, individualized discovery and shopping experience.
For example, today's retail stores have a number of structural problems that frustrate shoppers. Such problems include but are not limited to: inability to seamlessly integrate discovery from home with additional in-store discovery and shopping; inability to seamlessly integrate in-store discovery with additional in-home discovery and shopping; poorly trained salespeople; a vast selection of merchandise spread over a large area; the need to travel to store to check-out and to determine the availability of post-sale services (in addition to the need to travel to store to shop); products grouped by type (e.g., TV receivers, men's sports coats, etc.) and not grouped by solution (e.g., home theaters, men's outfits, etc.); inability to perform cross-departmental product demonstrations (e.g., take a picture with a particular camera and display it on a particular TV in the store); merchandise being displayed for a generic shopper and not for the individual shopper; merchandise being displayed and demonstrated in the store environment as opposed to the users' actual environments; inability to see products in detail (e.g., rear panel of a TV set or AV receiver, cut-away of competitive oil filters, etc.); inability to obtain customized product content, including displayed comparisons of selected products; and inability to by-pass a sales advisor when greater technical expertise is immediately required (e.g., Apple Store's Genius Bar requires an appointment).
Today's retail stores also have several structural problems that are very problematic for the retailers themselves. Such problems include but are not limited to: difficulty retaining experienced and knowledgeable salespeople, resulting in a poorly trained sales force; the need to carry more merchandise as product manufacturers, categories and assortments grow; the need to reduce the size of stores; difficulty providing adequate store staffing during peak seasonal periods; inability to offer a customized sales experience that targets the shoppers' individual demographic and psychographic profile; inability to understand shoppers' in-home discovery, often with little to no knowledge of shoppers' past shopping and buying history; inability to provide shoppers with individualized information which they can reference in making additional in-home discovery and/or deferred shopping decisions, including detailed technical comparisons of products that are of particular interest to an individual shopper; difficulty of sales advisors to access a company's vast database of product and educational information without leaving the customer; inability to demonstrate products in the shoppers' exact user environment (e.g., how a particular speaker will sound in their living room or car); inability to offer shoppers with a virtual shopping cart that fully integrates their in-home and in-store discovery shopping processes; inability to schedule post-sales services at the point of sale; inability for sales advisors to control the discovery and shopping environments from their portable smart devices; inability to post real-time price changes and customer reviews; and inability to obtain real-time analytics regarding their shoppers' discovery and shopping behavior.
Other problems and drawbacks also exist.

Techniques for providing retail customers a seamless, individualized discovery and shopping experience between online and brick and mortar retail locations


A tire sidewall portion is provided with a circumferentially extending decorative zone which comprises a serrated region formed from ridges extending in a radial direction and arranged side by side in the tire circumferential direction. The ridges include continuous ridges and discontinuous ridges with a discontinuity part. A diagonal pattern is formed by discontinuity-pattern elements each formed from the discontinuity parts of the discontinuous ridges positioned adjacently in the tire circumferential direction. In the diagonal pattern, one of the continuous ridges is disposed between every two of the adjacent discontinuity-pattern elements.

It has been known that, when a pneumatic tire is vulcanization-molded, air is liable to be trapped between the vulcanization mold and the tire, and thereby bareness of rubber occurs on the surface of the tire, for example, on the surface of the tire sidewall portions.
Also it has been known that, on the surface of tire sidewall portions, radially extending bulge and dent occur due to lap splicing of the carcass ply and the like.
Therefore, a tire sidewall portion is usually provided with a decorative zone of a serration pattern which is formed by ridges extending in a radial direction and arranged side by side in the tire circumferential direction. Such ridges are molded by small grooves formed in the inner surface of the vulcanization mold, and the small grooves facilitate to remove the trapped air. As a result, the occurrence of bareness of rubber is suppressed. Also, the serration pattern can make the bulge and dent less noticeable.
On the other hand, in the marketplace, in recent years, there has been an increasing demand for tires having good-looking designs by giving more visible variations in the pattern to a decorative zone of the tire sidewall portion.
However, in the conventional serration pattern, the direction of the ridges is restricted in the tire radial direction or at small angles with respect to the tire radial direction in order to provide the air exhaust function, therefore, the change in the pattern is less, and it is difficult to satisfy the market demand.
The following Patent Document 1 discloses a tire provided with a decorative zone of a serration pattern, wherein the serration pattern is formed by a first ridge extending straight along its entire length, and a second ridge which is straight for the most part but bent in the middle thereof. In terms of improving the design by visually varying the pattern, there is still room for improvement.    Patent Document 1: Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2015-033983


A liquid crystal projector is obliquely disposed in a lower front portion of a cabinet. A first mirror for reflecting light beams of R, G and B coming from the liquid crystal projector is disposed obliquely with respect to the top-bottom, right-left and front-rear directions of the cabinet. A second mirror is disposed so as to be inclined toward a screen. With this configuration, the optical axis of the light beams that extends from the liquid crystal projector to the screen is folded back three-dimensionally. In the liquid crystal projector, the optical axis of a condensing reflector may be slightly inclined from the central axis of a projection lens.

The present invention relates to a liquid crystal type rear-projection television which, in particular, has a thinner cabinet.
FIGS. 1 and 2 show a conventional CRT-built-in-type rear-projection television 1. CRTs 3-5 of red (R), green (G) and blue (B) are incorporated in a cabinet 2. Light beams of the respective colors emitted from the respective CRTs 3-5 and carrying respective images are reflected by a mirror 6 that is obliquely disposed in the cabinet 2, and then the respective images are projected onto the rear surface of a screen 8 that is disposed at a front portion 7 of the cabinet 2, to form a color image on the front surface of the screen 8.
The rear-projection television 1 is usually placed in a house room or an office, and the cabinet 2, which is usually large, occupies a wide space of the room. The above configuration including the inclined mirror 6 is employed to reduce the depth (thickness) of the cabinet 2, to thereby save the room space.
Since the CRTs 3-5 are also large, they occupy a large part of the whole rear projection television 1. If the rear-projection television 1 has a diagonal size of 40 inches (600 mm vertically and 800 mm horizontally), the axial length B of the respective CRTs 3-5 is about 450 mm. Due to limitations from the magnification and peripheral performance of projection lenses, an optical path length C+D from each of the CRTs 3-5 to the screen 8 should be at least about 800 mm. Since the television 1 is for home use, the height of the cabinet 2 is designed to be about 1,100 mm. Therefore, in order to obtain the above length C+D, the thickness E of the cabinet 2 should be at least about 470 mm.
As long as designed according to the above conventional design concept, the cabinet thickness of 40-inch CRT-type rear-projection televisions cannot be made smaller than about 450 mm.
On the other hand, liquid crystal type rear-projection televisions have been proposed recently which employ a liquid crystal projector instead of CRTs. The liquid crystal projector includes three liquid crystal panels of R, G and B, and light beams carrying respective three images are output from a single projection lens. However, even in such liquid crystal type rear-projection televisions, the liquid crystal panels and the projection lens are disposed at the position of the center CRT 4 of the CRT-type projection television 1, and the light beams emitted from the liquid crystal projector are reflected by a mirror and made incident on a screen.
In the liquid crystal type rear-projection televisions having the single projection lens, although the cabinet thickness can be made smaller than the CRT-type projection televisions, there still exists a certain limit of the cabinet thickness that originates, for instance, from an increased projection length of the liquid crystal projector. Further, some problems remain unsolved in the convergence adjustment.

Liquid crystal type rear-projection television with a reduced cabinet depth


A device for measuring a volume flow, especially a tidal volume flow sensor, with a flow channel (1) and with a sensor element (6) arranged within the flow channel (1), is shown and described. The task of providing such a device, in which the sensor signal, which is generated by sensor elements arranged in the flow channel, remains as free as possible from distortions during the transmission to an evaluating unit, is accomplished by providing an internal circuit (3), which is arranged within the flow channel (1) and includes the sensor element (6). An external circuit (7) is arranged outside the flow channel (1). The external circuit (7) is designed for contactless, inductive coupling with the internal circuit (3) for supplying same with energy and for reading.

A device for measuring a breathing gas volume flow is now present in practically all respirators (also known as ventilators). The so-called hot wire anemometry has proved to be an especially sensitive method for measuring the volume flow. A thin, so-called hot wire, whose resistance depends on the temperature, is arranged in the flow path of the gas of the hot wire anemometry measuring device. The hot wire is cooled by the flow depending on the intensity of the flow, so that the resistance of the wire at a defined current flowing through the wire is an indicator of the volume flow of the gas with which the gas is flowing past the wire. Hot wire anemometers are therefore preferably used because they themselves cause only a slight pressure loss within the flow channel. However, they have the drawback that the signal, which contains the information on the volume flow, is very weak.
A Wheatstone bridge circuit is frequently used for the analog evaluation of such a weak electric measured signal. The measuring element in the form of the hot wire is an element of the bridge circuit, but this measuring element is often not located in the immediate vicinity of the other elements of the bridge circuit. A cable connection is therefore necessary in these cases. The cable connection must, however, have a high-quality design in order to keep the resistance associated therewith as low as possible and as reproducible as possible.
Besides the problems concerning the cable connection, the coupling of the cables with the sensor (hot wire) itself is a source of additional possibilities of error, since the output signal may be directly affected by very low additional resistances, which may be caused, e.g., by welding and soldering resistances as well as cable and plug resistances. On the other hand, it is difficult to reach high reproducibility during welding or soldering operations. Thus, precisely these sources of additional resistance do represent a great problem when the change in the resistance of the hot wire is to be determined with precision.
In addition, the measured signal of a hot wire anemometer is affected not only by the volume flow but also by the absolute temperature of the gas flowing past and the composition of that gas.
It is known in this connection that the resistance of the hot wire and that of a temperature compensation wire are evaluated with a common bridge circuit during the measurement of the breathing gas volume flow. Both the hot wire and a second, unheated wire (temperature compensation wire), whose resistance is an indicator of the absolute temperature of the gas, are part of the bridge circuit in such a device.
If the direction of the gas flow is also to be determined besides the absolute value of the volume flow, it is necessary to also evaluate the signal of a second hot wire, in which case this second hot wire is arranged, unlike the first hot wire, in the shadow of a flow resistance such that a greatly reduced volume flow is admitted to the second hot wire when the flow takes place in a first direction, whereas this reduction does not take place in case of the opposite direction of flow. As a result, the direction of flow can be inferred from the measured cooling of the second hot wire compared to the first hot wire.
Thus, especially if the direction of flow of the gas is also to be measured, there will be a large number of connections between the measuring electronic unit, on the one hand, and sensors arranged in the flow channel, on the other hand, which are all subject to the above-mentioned problems of the undefined contact resistances, so that the entire measurement of the volume flow and of the direction of flow of the gas contains considerable sources of error. This problem is not limited to the use of hot wire anemometers, but it also occurs in the case of other electrically sensitive sensors for volume flow measurement in a flow channel.

Device for measuring a volume flow with inductive coupling


The present disclosure provides a communication method, apparatus, and system for a digital enhanced cordless telecommunications (DECT) base station. The method includes: determining, based on a communication connection request sent by a handset, whether a base station satisfies a wideband (WB) voice communication requirement of the handset, and returning communication acknowledgment information; and enabling the base station to perform WB voice communication with the handset if the communication acknowledgment information is a positive acknowledgment, or enabling the base station to perform narrowband (NB) voice communication with the handset if the communication acknowledgment information is a negative acknowledgment. The present disclosure can implement WB voice communication between a DECT base station and more than six handsets.

Currently, a bandwidth of 12*32 kbps or 6*64 kbps is usually used for DECT communication. A DECT wireless communication channel can be divided into 12 transmitting channels and 12 receiving channels based on a full-slot channel. The DECT wireless communication channel can be divided into six transmitting channels and six receiving channels based on a long-slot channel. In the prior art, when the long-slot channel is used for communication, limited by an operation capability of a central processing unit (CPU), an audio codec with a bit rate of 64 kbps, for example, G722, is usually selected to transmit a wideband (WB) voice with a voice sampling rate of 16 KHz if required. In this case, one base station can perform WB voice communication with at most six terminals at the same time. In other words, at most six channels of WB voice transmission are supported. To implement more than six channels of voice communication, when the full-slot channel is used for communication, only a narrowband (NB) voice with a sampling rate of 8 KHz can be transmitted. In this case, an audio codec with a bit rate of 32 kbps, for example, G726, is usually selected. Therefore, a single DECT base station can perform WB voice communication with at most six handsets only. It can be learned that the DECT base station cannot perform WB voice communication with more than six handsets in the prior art.

Communication method, apparatus, and system for digital enhanced cordless telecommunications (DECT) base station

YEALINK (XIAMEN) NETWORK TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.


A transducer is described especially designed for use in providing acoustic transmission in a borehole. The transducer includes a multiple number of magnetic circuit gaps and electrical windings that have been found to provide the power necessary for acoustic operation in a borehole while still meeting the stringent dimensional criteria necessitated by boreholes. Various embodiments conforming to the design are described. Moreover, the invention includes transition and reflector sections, as well as a directional coupler and resonator arrangement particularly adapted for borehole acoustic communication.

The present invention relates to communication through a borehole, such as between a surface and a downhole location in such a borehole, by transmitting acoustic waves lengthwise in such a borehole with liquid therein being the transmission medium. It more specifically relates to a transducer for converting between electrical power and acoustical power in such a borehole liquid, which transducer is not dependent upon movement of the liquid in order to provide communication.
One of the more difficult problems associated with any borehole is to communicate intelligence between one or more locations down a borehole and the surface, or 18 between downhole locations themselves. For example, communication is desired by the oil industry to retrieve, at the surface, data generated downhole during drilling operations, including during quiescent periods interspersing actual drilling procedures or while tripping; during completion operations such as perforating, fracturing, and drill stem or well testing; and during production operations such as reservoir evaluation testing, pressure and temperature monitoring. Communication is also desired in such industry to transmit intelligence from a surface to downhole tools or instruments to effect, control or modify operations or parameters.
Accurate and reliable downhole communication is particularly important when data (intelligence) is to be communicated, i.e., when more than a simple trigger signal or the like has to be communicated. This intelligence often is in the form of an encoded digital signal.
One approach which has been widely considered for borehole communication is to use a direct wire connection between the surface and the downhole location(s). Communication then can be via electrical signal through the wire. While much effort has been expended toward "wireline" communication, this approach has not been adopted commercially because it has been found to be quite costly and unreliable. For example, one difficulty with this approach is that since the wire is often laid via numerous lengths of a drill stem or production tubing, it is not unusual for there to be a break or poor wire connection formed at the time the wire assembly is first installed. While it has been proposed (see U.S. Pat. No. 4,215,426) to avoid the problems associated with direct electrical coupling of drill stems by providing inductive coupling for the communication link at such location, inductive coupling has as a problem, among others, major signal loss at every coupling. It also relies on installation of special and complex drill string arrangements.
Another borehole communication technique that has been explored is the transmission of acoustic waves. Such physical waves need a transmission medium that will propagate the same. It will be recognized that matters such as variations in earth strata, density make-up, etc., render the earth completely inappropriate for an acoustic communication transmission medium. Because of these known problems, those in the art generally have confined themselves to exploring acoustic communication through borehole related media.
Much effort has been expended toward developing an appropriate acoustic communication system in which the borehole drill stem or production tubing itself, acts as the transmission medium. A major problem associated with such arrangements is caused by the fact that the configurations of drill stems or production tubing generally vary significantly lengthwise. These variations typically are different in each hole. Moreover, a configuration in a particular hole may vary over time because, for example, of the addition of tubing, etc. The result is that there is no general usage system relying on drill stem or production tubing transmission that has gained meaningful market acceptance.
Efforts have also been made to utilize liquid within a borehole as the acoustic transmission medium. At first blush, one would think that use of a liquid as the transmission medium in a borehole would be a relatively simple approach, in view of the wide usage and significant developments that have been made for communication and sonar systems relying on acoustic transmission within the ocean. In fact, U.S. Pat. No. 3,233,674 is an example of a patent which simply mentions such communication without taking into consideration the fact that those skilled in the art may not be able to implement the same.
Acoustic transmission of a liquid within a borehole is considerably different than acoustic transmission within an open ocean because of the problems associated with the boundaries between the liquid and its confining structures in a borehole. Criteria relating to these problems are of paramount importance. However, because of the attractiveness of the concept of acoustic transmission in a liquid independent of movement thereof, a system was proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,964,556 utilizing pressure changes in a non-moving liquid to communicate. Such system has not been found practical, however, since it is not a self-contained system and some movement of the liquid has been found necessary to transmit pressure changes.
In light of the above, meaningful communication of intelligence via borehole liquids has been limited to systems which rely flow of the liquid to carry on acoustic modulation from a transmission point to a receiver. This approach is generally referred to in the art as MWD (measure while drilling). Developments relating to it have been limited to communication during the drilling phase in the life of a borehole, principally since it is only during drilling that one can be assured of fluid which can be modulated flowing between the drilling location and the surface. Most MWD systems are also constrained because of the drilling operation itself. For example, it is not unusual that the drilling operation must be stopped during communication to avoid the noise associated with such drilling. Moreover, communication during tripping is impossible.
In spite of the problems with MWD communication, much research has been done on the same in view of the desirability of good borehole communication. The result has been an extensive number of patents relating to MWD, many of which are directed to proposed solutions to the various problems that have been encountered. U.S. Pat. No. 4,215,426 describes an arrangement in which power (rather than communication) is transmitted downhole through fluid modulation akin to MWD communication, a portion of which power is drained off at various locations downhole to power repeaters in a wireline communication transmission system.
The development of communication using acoustic waves propagating through non-flowing fluids in a borehole has been impeded by lack of a suitable transducer. To be practical for a borehole application, such a transducer has to fit in a pressure barrel with an outer diameter of no more than 1.25 inches, operate at temperatures up to 150.degree. C. and pressures up to 1000 bar, and survive the working environment of handling and running in a well. Such a transducer would also have to take into consideration the significant differences between communication in a non-constrained fluid environment, such as in the ocean, and a confined fluid arrangement, such as in a borehole.

Borehole liquid acoustic wave transducer


Methods are disclosed for the collection and processing of amniotic material in animals. These methods involve collection of amniotic material directly during parturition or cesariean section in animals for the processing of regenerative wound treatments and tissue repairs without culturing or utilization of any excess manipulation of tissue. These materials are used to effect a cosmetic result.

The effects of aging on the human skin produce cosmetically undesirable appearance. These effects include wrinkles, creases, sags, hair loss, spots, loss of flexibility, thinning, loss of color and others. These effects are often addressed with surgical intervention such as face lifts, dermal fillers, onabutulinumtoxinA (sold under the tradename BOTOX®, Allergan, Inc., Irvine, Calif.). However, these interventions subject the subject receiving the intervention with risks and the effects may be of short duration, incomplete or produce unsatisfactory results.
It would be useful to have methods and articles of manufacture that reduce the undesirable effects of aging on skin. As used herein, unless the context requires otherwise, the term "subject" encompasses and includes humans and animals receiving intervention for the effects of aging on skin.

Methods and articles of manufacture for cosmetic results


A method, computer program product, and computer system for executing an automatic recovery of log metadata. A secondary storage processor may request one or more log metadata buffer values from a first buffer used by a primary storage processor. The secondary storage processor may update one or more log metadata buffer values from a second buffer used by the secondary storage processor.

Generally, during concurrent writing (for example), storage systems may use a transaction log to guarantee data Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation and Durability (ACID). Typically, a transaction log may include metadata and data. Data may represent operations and metadata may represent the description of data. Both may be flushed to disk later in the background.

System and method for log metadata automatic recovery on dual controller storage system


A data communication apparatus applicable to an automotive vehicle is disclosed in which a transmission data having a combination of bit data of "1" and/or "0" is coded into a communication signal based on an interval of time on a rising edge and/or a falling edge and the communication signal is transmitted via at least one signal transmission line. At least one of the intervals of times at a beginning of which a predetermined rising or falling edge occurs and at an end of which the subsequent rising or falling edge occurs is measured at a signal reception side and the communication signal is then decoded into the bit data of either "1" or "0" according to the result of the measured interval of time.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a communication apparatus which communicates data in a multiplex transmission mode between transmission and reception units having a feature in coded communication data.
2. Description of the Background Art
A previously proposed multiplex data communication apparatus includes a capacitor coupling by means of which two communication signal lines are connected with a receiving comparator to provide a plurality of differential receptions of a transmission signal to form a digital reception signal. A wired OR output from the reception comparator provides a digital transmission signal. In this case, as a noise trouble measure of the communication lines, each of comparators receiving the communication signals is coupled to the communication signal lines by means of an AC coupling.
In addition, use has been made of a PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) coding method for the communication data.
SOM (Start Of Message) which is a signal segment of the communication signals representing a start of a communication signal is expressed by a combination of "H", "H", "H", "H", "L" and "L" levels for 6 T time period, a bit "1" of the communication data is expressed by a combination of "H", "H", and "L" levels for 3 T time period, and a bit "0" of the communication data is expressed by a combination of "H", "L" and "L" for 3 T time period.
A reception technique is such that a change in a rising edge from "L" to "H" levels is detected for each pulse of the communication signals, a reception synchronization is achieved from the detected rising edge, when the detected rising edge occurs after 4 T time period of the communication signals, the signal segment represents the SOM, when the falling edge occurs after 1 T time period of the communication signals, the bit "0" is determined after 1 T time of the communication signals, when the falling edge occurs after 2 T time period, "1" is determined.
However, as a practical matter, an interline capacitance between the two communication signal lines and stray capacitance such as a unit capacitance cause waveform distortions in the pulses of the communication signals.
Furthermore, if the AC coupling is made for each reception comparator connected to the signal lines, a resistor voltage divided ratio of resistors connected between input ends of the reception comparator and coupling capacitors and a DC component of the communication signals cause a differential offset of the reception comparator to be determined. Such signal distortions and differential offset quantity as described above cause deviation in the waveforms between the transmission signal on the communication signal lines and reception signal on the reception comparator.
From a viewpoint of an electromagnetic wave interference measure, it is more effective to distort the communication signal to a larger degree. However, as the distortion of the waveform of the communication signals becomes larger, a variation in the pulsewidth become larger due to a deviation of the differential offset in the reception comparator. Since the DC component is different between the waveform indicating "0" of the communication signal and that indicating "1" of the communication signal, the DC component being an average of each waveform, the whole DC component of the communication signals is varied according to values of the communication data so that an increase and/or decrease in the pulsewidth become significant.
In addition, when either a single communication signal line is used or the reception comparator is connected in a DC coupling form to the signal communication lines, an environment around the signal communication line(s) such as GND offset between the units and a magnitude in a signal amplitude provides direct causes of deviation of the differential offset. Therefore, it is more difficult to maintain the differential offset constant.
Furthermore, a cross-talk influences pulsewidth. If a shielded wire or twisted pair is used for the communication signal line(s), an inter-line capacitance between the communication signal lines becomes larger than general AV (audio/video) lines. The stray capacitance between lines provides the AC coupling for the communication signal lines.
If one of the communication lines is broken or the one communication line is disconnected at a connector which connects the communication lines and the communication unit, the communication signal on the connected communication line is coupled into the broken communication line via the stray capacitance, thereby influencing the pulsewidth.
With the increase or decrease in the pulsewidth taken into consideration, the decoding of the PWM code is unavoidably required to provide some margin on the pulsewidth. In this case, even if the bit "1" is output to the transmission signal and the pulsewidth of the received signal becomes as short as 1/2 T time period or less, it may erroneously be determined as the signal of bit "0".
Therefore, an allowance value of an increase or decrease of pulsewidth needs to be below approximately 1/2 T (1/6 bit) time period.
In the way described below, in the previously proposed communication apparatus, since the change in the pulsewidth in the received communication signal occurs due to the distortion in the signals input to the comparator, the variation in the DC component of the communication signals, or breakage in the one communication signal line, the reception circuit or physical layer needs to be limitedly set so that the pulsewidths of the communication signals do not exceed a predetermined allowable range.

Multiplex data communicating apparatus applicable to automotive vehicle


A nanotube assembly including a nanotube layer, a first layer and a second layer. The nanotube layer comprises a vertically aligned nanotube array. The nanotube array includes a plurality of nanotubes. The first layer of a first conductive material is disposed on one surface of the nanotube layer. The second layer of a second conductive material is disposed on an opposite surface of the nanotube layer. The nanotube of the nanotube layer includes a first end against the first layer and a second end against the second layer. The resistance from the first end to the first layer is lower than a resistance from the second end to the second layer. One or more nano-particles are placed within the nanotube. At least one of the nano-particles is electrically charged, and can move along the nanotube under influence of an electric field.

Although the benefits of nanotube material-based devices are well known, currently it is still difficult to manufacture reliable and practical devices with nanotube arrays for information storage. Moreover, even though it is well known that different states, such as those representing a "bit 0" and a "bit 1", can be associated with different positions of charged nano-particles within a nanotube, it is difficult to detect the positions of the nano-particles inside the nanotube without disturbing the positions. In other words, it is technically difficult, if not impossible, to read binary data consisting of "bit 0" or "bit 1" stored in a nanotube array by detecting the positions of the nano-particles within the nanotube array without changing the positions of the nano-particles.

Assembly of vertically aligned nanotube arrays containing particles and application thereof


Compounds of the following formula:

Enteroviruses, members of the Picornaviridae family, are a group of single-stranded RNA viruses. They reproduce initially in the gastrointestinal tract, which usually does not result in intestinal symptoms. Rather, they cause diseases only after migrating to other organs, such as the nervous system, heart, and lung.
Examples of enteroviruses include coxsackievirus, echovirus, and poliovirus. Clinical manifestations of enteroviral infection include summer grippe (i.e., nonspecific febrile illness), generalized disease of newborns (including myocarditis, low blood pressure, hepatitis, and meningitis), aseptic meningitis encephalitis, pleurodynia (i.e., Bornholm's disease), myocarditis, pericarditis, exanthems, hand-foot-and-mouth disease, herpangina, acute hemorrhagic conjunctivitis, pneumonia and other respiratory diseases, myositis or muscle inflammation, arthritis, and acute kidney inflammation.

Abstract: Compounds of the following formula:

Abstract: in which R1, R2, A1, A2, X, Y, m, n, p, x and y are as defined herein. Also disclosed are pharmaceutical compositions each containing one or more of these compounds, and use thereof in treating enteroviral infection.


The deadfold reclosure sticker for hand pressure application to a bag has a flexible backing liner with a low adhesion surface. On the liner is a flexible deadfold reclosure sticker having a pressure-sensitive adhesive layer forming a base surface releasably adhered to the low adhesion surface of the liner. The sticker comprises a laminate of pliable layers and at least two deadfold wires having a thickness at least twice as great as the laminate. The wires are in spaced parallel alignment and are embedded along their length in the laminate with the ends of said wires exposed to view. The flexible backing liner has a structural feature for easy removal of it for hand application of it onto a flexible bag to form a deadfold reclosable bag easily reclosed by simple folding steps.

This invention relates to a new article of commerce in the form of a deadfold reclosure sticker releasably adhered to a protective liner which is readily removable to permit a discrete sticker to be pressure-affixed by an individual consumer onto the surface of a foldable bag. The invention is also directed to a new reclosure folding technique for improving the mouth-foldable deadfold reclosure of opened flexible bags.
Mouth-foldable deadfold reclosures to protect residual or unused bag contents can be formed by making a simple roll or fold of a flattened bag mouth over itself. The deadfold feature is part of the bag wall.
The desirability of incorporating mouth-foldable deadfold reclosure features into the structure of a flexible bag has been recognized for ages, even for over a century as, for example, illustrated by U.S. Pat. No. 331,357 of Dec. 1, 1885.
Insofar as is known, however, no one has heretofore provided the art with a deadfold sticker useful by individual consumers to convert selected bags of goods into bags that are easily reclosed by mouth deadfolding after being opened.


Rotary nozzles and deflectors for use with rotary nozzles are provided. The deflector includes a number of flutes that deliver fluid streams radially outwardly from the deflector. Fluid striking the flutes of the deflector cause the deflector to rotate, and the flutes subdivide fluid impacting deflector into multiple fluid streams that are distributed radially outwardly to surrounding terrain as the deflector rotates. Each of the flutes have the same curvature, although they may have different inclinations to distribute fluid streams at different trajectories. The flutes may also include blocking and downward-facing features at the ends of the flutes to improve the evenness of the fluid distribution in the irrigation coverage area.

Nozzles are commonly used for the irrigation of landscape and vegetation. In a typical irrigation system, various types of nozzles are used to distribute water over a desired area. One type of irrigation nozzle is the rotary nozzle (or rotating stream type) having a rotatable deflector with flutes for producing a plurality of relatively small water streams swept over a surrounding terrain area to irrigate adjacent vegetation.
Rotary nozzles of the type having a rotatable deflector with flutes for producing a plurality of relatively small outwardly projected water streams are known in the art. In such nozzles, water is directed upwardly against a rotatable deflector having a lower surface with curved flutes defining an array of relatively small flow channels extending upwardly and turning radially outwardly with a spiral component of direction. The water impinges upon this underside surface of the deflector to fill these curved channels and to rotatably drive the deflector. At the same time, the water is guided by the curved channels for projection outwardly from the nozzle in the form of a plurality of relatively small water streams to irrigate a surrounding area. As the deflector is rotatably driven by the impinging water, the water streams are swept over the surrounding terrain area, with the range and trajectory of throw depending, in part, on the inclination and other geometry of the individual flutes.
In rotary nozzles, it is generally desirable to use nozzles with deflectors that provide relatively uniform water distribution to various areas of the irrigation coverage area. In some instances, it has been found that certain parts of the irrigation coverage area may not receive a sufficient amount of irrigation, such as areas close to the nozzle resulting in a doughnut-shaped (or annular) pattern. Further, for rotary nozzles that are intended to irrigate less than 360 degrees of coverage about the nozzle, it is also generally desirable to use nozzles with deflectors that provide a distinct and well-defined edge to the arcuate coverage area.
Accordingly, a need exists for a nozzle with a deflector that can provide relatively uniform water distribution about the nozzle. In addition, a need exists to increase the definition of the edges of an arcuate irrigation pattern. The nozzles and deflectors disclosed herein help address these needs.


A delivery system. The delivery system includes a carrier having a surface, an active compound comprising small molecule compounds or peptides for use as an analgesic encapsulated into the carrier, and a glutathione or a glutathione derivative grafted on the surface of the carrier. The invention also provides a method of analgesia including conducting the active compound to a subject.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a biological delivery system, and more specifically to a glutathione-based delivery system.
2. Description of the Related Art
The blood brain barrier (BBB) is composed of brain endothelial cells capable of blocking foreign substances, such as toxins, due to the tight junctions therebetween. Hydrophobic or low-molecular-weight molecules, however, can pass through the BBB via passive diffusion.
Nevertheless, active compounds, such as hydrophilic protein drugs for treating cerebral or nervous diseases and analgesic peptide drugs acting on the central nervous system, cannot enter brain tissue thereby due to large molecular weight or hydrophilicity, resulting in decomposition thereof by enzymes.
Current research has developed various methods of allowing active compounds to pass through the BBB, including structural modification to increase hydrophobicity of drugs, absorption-mediated transport (AMT) allowing positive-charged carriers to pass via charge absorption, carrier-mediated transcytosis (CMT) allowing hydrophilic metal ions such as Na+ and K+, di-peptides, tri-peptides or glucose to pass via transporters, and receptor-mediated transcytosis (RMT) allowing macro molecules such as insulin, transferrin, or low-density lipoprotein (LDL) to pass via transcytosis.
Glutathione (GSH) is an endogenous antioxidant. If concentration thereof in serum is insufficient, some nervous diseases, such as chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), may occur.
In 1988, Kiwada Hiroshi provided a liposome capable of accumulation in liver comprising a N-acylglutathione such as N-palmitoylglutathione and a phospholipid such as phosphotidylcholine to target and treat liver diseases recited in JP63002922.
In 1994, Berislav V. Zlokovic asserted that glutathione (GSH) reaches and passes through the BBB of a guinea pig via a special route, such as GSH-transporter, without decomposition.
In 1995, Berislav V. Zlokovic asserted that glutathione (GSH) exists in brain, astrocyte and endothelial cells in millimolar concentration.
In 1995, Ram Kannan asserted that GSH uptake depends on Na+ concentration. If Na+ concentration is low, GSH uptake from brain endothelial cells may be inhibited. Hie also pointed Na-dependent GSH transporter located on the luminal side of the BBB manages GSH uptake and Na-independent GSH transporter located on the luminal side of the BBB manages efflux of GSH. Additionally, Kannan constructed a rat hepatic canalicular GSH transporter (RcGSHT) system using the brains of mice and guinea pigs to analyze cDNA fragments 5, 7, and 11. The results indicate that fragment 7 represents Na-dependent GSH transporter and fragments 5 and 11 represent Na-dependent GSH transporter.
In 1999, Ram Kannan built a mouse brain endothelial cell line (MBEC-4) model simulating BBB situation. The model proved that Na-dependent GSH transporter is located on the luminal side of the MBEC-4 cell.
In 2000, Ram Kannan asserted that GSH passes through the BBB via Na-dependent GSH transporter in human cerebrovascular endothelial cells (HCBC) and Na-dependent GSH transporter exists in the luminal plasma membrane of HCEC.
In 2003, Zhao Zhiyang provided an anti-cancer pro-drug bonded with glutathione s-transferase (GST)/glutathione (GSH) by sulfonamide covalent bonds to target and treat specific cancer cells after break of the sulfonamide bonds recited in US2003109555. This modification can protect amino groups of drugs, increase solubility thereof, and alter absorption and distribution thereof in body.
Additionally, various opioid-peptide secreted by cerebrum have been separated such as enkephalin, endomorphin-1, and endomorphin-2. These natural analgesics, acting on opioid receptors, have lower habituation and respiratory depression than morphine. However, such drugs cannot pass through the BBB due to low-stability in plasma. Delivery to the cerebrum can only be accomplished by intracerebroventricular injection or intrathecal injection.
Thus, administration of analgesic peptide drugs is desired preventing decomposition by enzymes and prolonging the analgesic effect thereof.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Industrial Technology Research Institute


A defrost indicator is configured such that the process of freezing and defrosting the defrost indicator places the defrost indicator into a state that is not completely reversed by refreezing, so that one can detect whether the defrost indicator defrosted and refroze or never defrosted by observing its current state. In an embodiment, the defrost indicator is initially placed in a first state before being frozen (e.g., upside down with fluid in an upper chamber). Freezing the defrost indicator places it in a second state (e.g., with the fluid frozen in the upper chamber). Then when the defrost indicator is defrosted, the defrost indicator is placed into a third state that is different than the first state (e.g., right-side-up with liquid fluid in the lower chamber). If the defrost indicator is again frozen, the defrost indicator is placed into a fourth state (e.g., the fluid frozen in the lower chamber).

The subject matter discussed in the background section should not be assumed to be prior art merely as a result of its mention in the background section. Similarly, a problem mentioned in the background section or associated with the subject matter of the background section should not be assumed to have been previously recognized in the prior art. The subject matter in the background section merely represents different approaches, which in and of themselves may also be inventions.
When transporting goods over distances, it may be desirable to keep some of those items below a certain temperature. For example, some food items it is desirable to keep frozen while in transport. It may occur that the item being transported defrosts during transport and refreezes. Although the defrosting and refreezing may damage the good being transported, it may not be readily apparent that the goods have been damaged or that the goods defrosted at some point.


A motor-incorporated hypocycloid-type speed reducer includes: an eccentric portion configured to rotate in response to rotation of a rotor secured to a casing; an internal ring gear fixed to the casing and including a first internal gear coaxial with the rotor; an output shaft including a second internal gear coaxial with the rotor; an external gear including a first external gear and a second external gear and rotatably supported by the eccentric portion so as to rotate in an eccentric manner; a first sliding member held tight in the axial direction between one end surface of the output shaft and the end plate; and a second sliding member held tight in the axial direction between an other end surface of the output shaft and the supporting member.

JP2000-120810 (See FIGS. 1 and 2) discloses a conventional motor-incorporated hypocycloid-type speed reducer, in which an eccentric portion (carrier), which rotates an external gear (a planetary gear) in an eccentric manner, is connected to a rotor, which is electrically rotated, in such a manner that a rotational force of the rotor can be transmitted. The rotor is fitted with, and is supported by, a bearing rod so as to freely rotate.
In the above-described motor-incorporated hypocycloid-type speed reducer, the external gear is supportedly mounted on a ball bearing, and an output shaft fixed with an internal gear is rotatably supported by a plain bearing formed at a central portion of a case. According to this type of structure, when the output shaft is subjected with a load applied in a radial direction, the external gear or the internal gear (the output shaft) may on occasions tilt or lean due to the ball bearing or a clearance between the plain bearing and the output shaft, which may lead to an occurrence of a noise. Such tilting or lean of the external gear, or, of the internal gear (the output shaft) can be prevented by increasing an axial length of the plain bearing axially supporting the output shaft. This, however, may result in an increase in an axial length of the hypocycloid-type speed reducer.
A need thus exists to provide to a motor-incorporated hypocycloid-type speed reducer, which can restrain an angle amount of tiling or lean of an output shaft.

Motor-incorporated hypocycloid-type speed reducer


An apparatus includes a drive and a blade. The drive is configured to be operatively coupled to a tubular member. The drive is configured to move the tubular member from a first location with respect to the blade to a second location with respect to the blade. The blade is configured to rotate about an outer surface of the tubular member and to cut the tubular member as the drive moves the tubular member from the first location to the second location.

Medical devices are often used to drain fluids within a patient's body. For example, ureteral stents can be used to assist the drainage of fluids through the urinary system of a patient. Some known ureteral stents include a tubular member and are configured to assist the drainage of fluid from one part of the urinary system to another part of the urinary system. Some known ureteral stents are configured to extend from a patient's kidney to a patient's bladder. Such known ureteral stents assist to drain fluid from the patient's kidney to the patient's bladder.
Regions of the urinary system are particularly sensitive and are prone to irritation by foreign objects. Thus, to avoid patient irritation and pain, it may be advantageous to provide urinary stents that is either configured to conform to the contours and/or movements of a patient's body or is configured to flex while disposed within the body of the patient. Thus, it may be advantageous to provide a urinary stent that is configured to conform to the contours of a patient's body. Additionally, it may be advantageous to provide a urinary stent that is flexible.
Some known urinary stents includes openings in the sidewalls of the stents to provide flexibility to the stent. Some known methods for forming the openings in the stents include disposing a mandrel within the lumen defined by the stent and cutting the sidewall of the stent with a cutting device, such as a blade. These methods, however, can lead to the dulling of the blade as it contacts and potentially cuts the mandrel that is disposed within the lumen of the stent. These methods also can lead to contamination of the stent.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a device and method for forming an opening in a stent that avoids the use of a mandrel and the potential contamination of the stent.

Device and method for forming a spiral shaped opening in a stent


An improved movable trench shoring device having a trench box depending from a frame, the frame including a pair of end frame members, a pair of side frame members and a pair of cross frame members. A pair of wheel assemblies are mounted along either of the two sides of the device allowing the device to be rolled along the ground. Each end frame members are configured to accommodate a removable frame member extension which allows the width of the trench shoring device's wheel base to be widened. A trench box depends below the frame from a pair of vertical support members. A pair of offset spreader couplings attached to the trench box spreaders accommodate attachment of the trench box to the vertical support members in a manner which allows the trench box to be raised substantially above the elevation of the frame.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to devices for trench shoring and, more specifically, to a device that may be readily positioned and moved along a length of trench, for shoring the trench.
2. Background
Trench shoring is used to secure the sides of ditches and trenches which may be occupied by laborers during operations which may occur at the bottom of the trench, oftentimes in utility construction and maintenance. Trench shoring typically consists of two opposing panels which are held in spaced apart relationship by a plurality of struts or spreaders which may be of a fixed and interchangeable length or in the alternative adjustable in length, thereby adjusting the distance between the spaced apart panels for any given width of ditch.
Once the trench is opened by excavation, the shoring or trench box is set into the trench. Laborers may then enter the trench and work at the bottom in a far safer environment than that which would exist in an open trench. As the trenching advances, additional trench boxes may be placed along the trench or, alternatively, a trench box may be advanced along the length of the trench as it advances with the work. In this case, the box is typically lifted by the hoe or shovel which is performing the excavation and advanced along the length of the trench and then dropped or placed into the trench.
A number of disadvantages are present with this arrangement, including the fact that the trench boxes typically set at the bottom of the ditch which reduces the clearance between the lower spreaders and the work which is being performed at the bottom of the trench. Additionally, moving the trench box or advancing the box along the trench is a cumbersome and time consuming operation.
A number of solutions have been suggested to address these and other disadvantages. West Jr., U.S. Pat. No. 3,788,086, discloses a trench barrier having a horizontal frame carriage with wheels mounted on the ends of the frame carriage. The West carriage has suspended from it a pair of spaced apart shield members which may be held in spaced apart relation by jacks extending between the shield members. West also discloses vertically disclosed cooperating telescoping struts which are carried by the carriage for adjusting the relative vertical position of the shield members, and allows for varying the height at which the shield members are suspended in the trench. However, as shown in the West disclosure, the wall members extend well past the ends of the frame carriage and the axles, thereby restricting vertical movement of the wall members to a height determined by the elevation of the frame carriage and the axles.
Arnold, U.S. Pat. No. 4,874,271, discloses a trench shoring machine having a main frame having a pair of substantially vertical guide members carried by the main frame, a pair of transversely extending carrier bars engage the pair of vertical guide members, and opposed shoring plates supported from the carrier bars which are moveable along the length of the carrier bars. Arnold further discloses a pair of shoring plates, including a top plate and a lower plate, which are movable between relatively upper and lower positions with respect to the main frame, together with means for moving the lower plate between an upper and lower position.
The Arnold device allows the shoring plates to be raised above the elevation of the axles, but accomplishes this through a configuration wherein the main frame is suspended substantially above the axles through the use of a triangular carrier frame located at each wheel. This configuration results in placement of the substantial weight of the main frame well above the axles. This configuration results in a raised center of gravity for the apparatus. During operations, which typically occur along an open trench having excavation tailings piled along either side of the trench, the heightened center of gravity may cause a propensity in the apparatus to overturn.
In Spencer, U.S. Pat. No. 5,306,103, a carriage assembly is disclosed which supports a trench box in a suspended relationship having a pair of axles, a pair of spaced apart bracket elements disposed on each axle, a pair of wheel assemblies disposed at opposite ends of each axle and a support member attached to each of the bracket elements in a downwardly depending relation thereto, the support member being connected to the trench box.
In Spencer, a support member extends for a portion of its length through a rigidifying member located near the outer edges of each of the two trench shields. The overall configuration of the Spencer apparatus results in a fairly rigid structure which may be suitable for lightweight panels, fabricated of aluminum for instance, and panels of a limited height and depth. However such a rigid configuration is unsuitable for use with large steel panels used in many applications. Once again, vertical travel of the trench box is limited by the elevation of the frame and axles.
What is needed is an improved movable trench shoring device, for use with large steel trench shoring boxes, which is capable of supporting boxes which may reinforce and support trench banks as deep as 25-30 feet with shoring panels as wide as 36 feet. What is also needed is a portable or moveable trench shoring device which also provides a support means for the shoring box which allows for adjustment of the height of the shoring box or panels relative to the frame so that the top edge of the panel shoring box or panels may be adjusted above the elevation of the frame, thereby providing increased flexibility in the working dimensions of the device so that it may accommodate a variety of ditch depths without having to interchange larger panels for shorter panels. Additionally, it would be advantageous to have a device for shoring trenches which is moveable or portable and which allows for variation of the wheel base width. Additional objects, advantages and novel features of the invention will be set forth as part of the description that follows and, in part, will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon examination of the following or may be learned by practice of the invention.


The present invention relates to a method for workforce scheduling in which workload and workload types vary during scheduling period. The method acquires agent and skill requirements for all periods and contact types; acquires the contact center information including agent skill groups, agent work groups, tour and shift scheduling rules, agent availability, objective criterion to be optimized and its parameters; develops a Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) model for the scheduling environment; applied an optimization algorithm that uses the Branch and Bound algorithm with a Rounding Algorithm to improve performance; and locates a globally optimal or near optimal workforce schedule in total cost or paid time or agent satisfaction. Detailed schedules may be developed by assigning daily shifts to work patterns, and breaks scheduled to daily shifts.

The need for scheduling agents optimally in contact centers arises in a broad range of industry areas. Examples include call centers providing inbound or outbound services, telephone operator centers, catalog sales centers, hospitals, police stations, airports, maintenance and installation operations, manufacturing, etc. Agents may be call center operators, technicians, workers, servers, nurses, etc. Contact centers may include any service center providing services to its customers through their agents. Many manufacturing operations may also fit into a contact center paradigm with similar needs and challenges in terms of worker or crew scheduling. Scheduling agents may be done a day at a time by specifying daily shift start time, shift length, time for the relief and lunch breaks, or to cover an entire week specifying, in addition to specifying daily shift schedules, work and non-work days. Contact centers use one or more interaction media to provide the desired services to their customers. Interaction media (also referred to as "contact types") may include telephone calls, web chat, email, fax, etc. It may also include contacts using different languages such as English, Spanish, etc., and/or different services such as sales, technical help, etc. Customers choose their time and media of contact to interact with the contact center agents. The contact type used by a customer may require an agent with a special skill (e.g. language skills, writing proficiency). Moreover, agents may possess only some of the skills needed to serve customers using different contact types. Agents with the same skill set form a skill group (also referred to as "agent skill group").
One of the critical tasks in contact center management is workforce scheduling. In such systems, workload changes during the course of an operating day, and from one day to another during a week. While understaffing will lower labor costs, it will result in poor service levels and longer waiting times for customers. Overstaffing, on the other hand, will improve service levels and lower waiting times, but will result in underutilized agents and higher labor costs. Hence, it is important for contact center managers to schedule their workforce in an optimal manner to minimize labor costs while meeting the projected agent and skills requirements. The present invention provides a method for formulating the workforce scheduling environment and requirements at a plurality of contact centers as a Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) model, and a solution algorithm for developing optimal schedules for agents.
Traditionally, the task of developing work schedules to meet the forecasted agent and skill requirements is carried out manually. Manual scheduling when there is time varying workload and agent requirements, various daily shift and weekly tour scheduling rules, and multiple agent groups with different sets of skills and full-time/part-time work requirements is laborious and inefficient. Manpower scheduling in a typical contact center environment may involve an astronomical number of potential schedules, making manual evaluation of even a very small fraction of them to find an efficient schedule impractical.
In the past, a number attempts were made to develop more effective methods for workforce scheduling. Even though terms such as "optimal schedule", "optimized schedule" or "local optimal" were used in their descriptions, none of the prior art agent scheduling methods states or verifies the necessary and sufficient conditions for optimality in scheduling agent. Like the manual scheduling method, the prior art agent scheduling methods use a set of rules of thumb to develop agent schedules. None of them presents any evidence of, or guarantee the optimality of the schedules that may be obtained using the rules of their methods.
In the field of mathematical optimization, there are proven necessary and sufficient conditions for a solution to an optimization problem to satisfy in order to be the optimal (absolutely the best) solution (Taha, 1987, pages 743-779). The method of the present invention first develops an MILP model for which these necessary and sufficient conditions are well stated, and then uses an algorithm that would generate an optimal solution satisfying these conditions.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,911,134 issued on Jun. 8, 1999 to Castonguay et al. describes a method for developing weekly tour schedules in call centers for agents with a single skill type. This method describes tour and shift construction rules to select tour and daily shift templates from the available ones, one day at a time, using measures such as "coverage", and break scheduling rules to schedule daily breaks (U.S. Pat. No. 5,911,134, col. 18, lines 26-46, and FIG. 11). The method also includes post-processing steps to eliminate the redundant tours, level break times, and take employee preferences into consideration. No evidence to suggest that the schedules obtained using these rules will satisfy the necessary and sufficient conditions for optimality in a workforce scheduling problem is provided or known. As in the case of manual scheduling, the existence of an astronomical number of potential schedules, even in small call center scheduling environments, makes it very unlikely to locate the optimal schedule with the tour and shift construction rules used by this method.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,044,355 issued on Mar. 28, 2000 to Crockett et al. describes a simulation method for developing weekly tour schedules in a contact center environment involving multiple agent groups with a plurality of skill sets, and a plurality of contact types requiring different agent skills. The method uses a scheduler and an Automatic Call Distributor (ACD) simulator. However, no working details or description of the scheduler, and how it develops a schedule is included in the patent document. It was disclosed that the method uses a "scheduler program" (U.S. Pat. No. 6,044,355, col. 6, lines 18-36). No evidence to suggest that the schedules obtained using the scheduler program considered will satisfy the necessary and sufficient conditions for optimality in a workforce scheduling problem is provided or known.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,278,978 issued on Aug. 21, 2001 to Andre et al. describes a method that may be used to post-process an initial schedule available from another source outside of the method by applying a rule-based interchange procedure. The method is provided for scheduling agents with a single skill type. The method begins by acquiring an agent schedule developed by another method. The method then unschedules an agent from a shift in the schedule, evaluates the value of a "score" function for all other schedules that may assign this agent to a different shift, and selects a shift using the score function to improve the schedule. The method also considers rescheduling of breaks, again using the score function. Interchanging two or more activities to improve the quality of an initial solution to a problem is a well-known strategy in the field of Optimization and the related research literature. It is also well known in the field of Optimization that interchanging (rescheduling) one or more agents and shifts simultaneously doesn't guarantee the optimality of the solution developed and the satisfaction of the optimality conditions.
A primary object of the present invention is to overcome these limitations of the prior art agent scheduling methods. The present invention uses Mixed Integer Linear Programming approach (MILP) (Wolsey, 1998) to develop a mathematical model of a workforce scheduling environment. A number of researchers including Danzig (1954) proposed MILP models for workforce scheduling. Difficulties with the use of the prior art MILP models for workforce scheduling are well documented (Nanda and Browne, 1992, page 206, Holloran and Byrn, 1986, page 13). The MILP model proposed by Dantzig (1954), for example, enumerates all possible combinations of shift and tour parameters resulting in tens of trillions of decision variables, making it very inefficient and impossible to solve even in small contact center environments. To overcome these limitations of the prior art MILP agent scheduling models, the present invention formulates daily break, and days-off scheduling implicitly (i.e. not explicitly enumerating all possible combinations). Thus, the method of the present invention formulates a significantly smaller but equally powerful MILP model, and uses various extensions of it.
A further limitation of the prior art MILP models is that they only consider agent scheduling environments involving a single agent skill group. Recent technological developments in ACD's used in call centers to queue and assign calls to agents, and incorporation of other types of contact media such as email and fax, made contact center managers to realize that agents with different types of skills are needed to be scheduled to handle these contact types (e.g. a Spanish speaking agent to answer a caller speaking in Spanish, or agents with good writing skills to respond to emails). Thus, the agent scheduling task became more complex since the agent scheduling method used should take the time-varying demand for different agent skill types, and available agent groups with different skill sets (e.g. Spanish & English speaking sales, Chinese & English writing for technical help emails, and English only agent groups) into consideration in scheduling agents. It is another object of the present invention to disclose a method for formulating MILP models for scheduling environments involving a plurality of agent skill groups, and a plurality of contact types with time-varying workload for specific agent skills.
The present invention also discloses a solution algorithm that solves a number of sub-problems (or nodes) with the use of the standard Branch and Cut (B&C) algorithm for MILP problems. The solution method supplements the B&C algorithm by a Rounding Algorithm (RA algorithm) to locate the optimal solution of the MILP model of the invention. The optimality condition (both necessary and sufficient) for an MILP model is well documented in the field of Optimization; An all-integer solution that satisfies all of the constraints of an MILP with a minimization (maximization) type objective function, and has an objective value that is better than the best lower bound (upper bound) for any of the sub-problems in the B&C algorithm is a global (i.e. absolute) optimal solution to that MILP model (Wolsey, 1998). Once the optimality condition is satisfied by an all-integer solution found during the execution of this solution algorithm (either in the B&C algorithm or in the RA algorithm), an optimal agent schedule is reported using the information in the optimal solution of the MILP model found.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a computer implemented optimal workforce scheduling method for contact centers that schedule their workforce to meet varying workload during the course of a day, and from one day to another during a week.

Contact center scheduling using integer programming


A tire comprises a tread portion provided with a tread profile. The axial distance L3 from the tire equator to a contact point P3 between the tread profile and a tangential line thereto at which the angle θ of the tangential line becomes 3 degrees with respect to the tire-axial-direction line, is smaller than 65% of a half tread width Tw. The difference (θ90−θ60) of an angle θ90 of the tangential line at an axial position P90 apart from the tire equator by 90% of the half tread width Tw, from an angle θ60 of the tangential line at an axial position P60 apart from the tire equator by 60% of the half tread width Tw, is in a range from 7 to 12 degrees.

Vehicle tires are required to exhibit high steering stability (including grip) and high wear resistance.
In order to improve various tire performances including steering stability and wear resistance, approaches have been made from a tread profile, namely, a profile of the tread surface of the tread portion of a tire in the tire meridian cross section.
For example, Japanese patent application publication No. 2017-159810 (Patent Document 1) discloses that the tire has a CTT profile which is a tread profile based on an involute curve.
Japanese patent application publication No. 2016-041563 (Patent Document 2) discloses that the tire has a MRT profile, namely, multi-radius tread profile.