A flexible scheduling method with tunable throughput maximization and fairness guarantees in resource allocation is required and suitable for high-rate packet data and other services. Our inventive method, named Alpha-Rule, employs a control variable α, that permits dynamic and/or real-time adjustment/tradeoff between aggregate throughput, per-user throughput, and per-user resource allocation. Our method advantageously operates in conjunction with Multiple-Input Multiple-Output techniques such as Space-Time Block Coding (STBC), Bell Labs Layered Space-Time (BLAST) and others, while offering greater flexibility than existing scheduling techniques, e.g., max-C/I or Proportionally Fair (PF).

High-speed downlink packet data services are of importance to the success of third-generation (3G) and beyond, wireless systems. Examples of such systems include CDMA2000 (see, e.g., 3GPP2 C.S0024 Version 4.0, CDMA2000 High Rate Packet Data Air Interface Specification, December 2001); the High Data Rate (HDR) system which is described in an article entitled CDMA/HDR: a bandwidth-efficient high-speed wireless data service for nomadic users, that was authored by P. Bender et al., and appeared in IEEE Communications Magazine, pp. 70-77 in July 2000; High Speed Data Packet Access (HSDPA) as described in the 3GPP Technical Specification 25.308 version 5.2.0, entitled High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA): Overall Description, published in March 2002. As is generally known, each of the systems employs Time-Division Multiple Access (TDMA) techniques to provide sharing of a downlink data channel among multiple users.
To facilitate the deployment and effectiveness of such systems, supporting technologies, such as transmission techniques and scheduling methods are being explored and characterized. Specifically, at the physical layer, Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) antenna techniques are attractive because they can increase the channel capacity between a base station (BS) and an individual user due, in part, to the spatial (antenna) diversity. At the media access control (MAC) layer, a scheduler within the BS selects users for transmission according to their channel-state-information (CSI) feedback and their measured throughput performance, characterizing their multiuser diversity as was described by M. Grossglauser and D. Tse, in an article entitled "Mobility increases the capacity of ad hoc wireless networks", which appeared in IEEE/ACM Trans. Networking, Vol. 10, No. 4, pp 477-486 in August 2002.
As can be appreciated, both types of diversity identified above play a central role in systems that exhibit high throughput and fair resource allocation among users.
Multiple-Input Multiple Output (MIMO) antenna techniques, (see, e.g., S. M. Alamouti, "A Simple Transmit Diversity Technique for Wireless Communications", IEEE J. Select. Areas Commun., vol 16, No. 8, pp. 1451-1458, Oct. 1998; G. J. Foschini, "Layered Space-Time Architecture for Wireless Communication In a Fading Environment When Using Multi-Element Antennas", Bell Labs Technical Journal, vol. 1, No. 2, pp. 41-59, Autumn 1996; and I. E. Telatar, "Capacity Of Multi-Antenna Gaussian Channels", European Trans. On Telecommun., vol 10, pp. 585-595, November-December 1999). One of these techniques, Orthogonal Space-Time Block Coding (STBC) was recently adopted for implementation as one of the transmission diversity modes in 3G wireless networks (See, for example, V. Tarokh, H. Jafarkhani, and A. R. Calderbank, "Space-Time Block Codes From Orthogonal Designs", IEEE Trans. Inform. Theory, vol. 45, no 5, pp. 1456-1467, July 1999). The STBC technique advantageously achieves "full transmit diversity" and reliable channel(s), however it does not exhibit particular transmission efficiency.
Another technique, the Vertical Bell Labs Layered Space-Time (V-BLAST) technique, which was described in a paper authored by P. Wolniansky, G. J. Foschini, G. D. Golden, and R. A. Valenzuela entitled "V-BLAST: An Architecture For Realizing Very High Data Rates Over the Rich-Scattering Wireless Channel" which appeared in Proc. Int. Symp. Sig. Sys. Elect. (ISSSE), in Pisa, Italy in September 1998 and another paper authored by G. J. Foschini, G. D. Golden, R. A. Valenzuela and P. W. Wolniasky entitled "Simplified Processing For High Spectral Efficiency Wireless Communication Employing Multi-Element Arrays", that appeared in IEEE J. Select. Areas. Commun., vol 17, No 11, pp. 1841-1852 and published in November 1999, provides high-rate data transmission but is less reliable during instantaneous deep fades.
Scheduling methods, and in particular scheduling methods for selecting a particular user to whom access to a system should be granted have likewise been the subject of much investigation. More specifically, certain methods grant access to the user that can most efficiently use the system—the one with the best/strongest channel thereby having the highest data rate. In such systems, throughput is maximized at the expense of users using less desirable channels. One such system, was described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,449,491 for Transmitter Directed Code Division Multiple Access System Using Path Diversity To Equitably Maximize Throughput which issued to Chaponniere et al on Sep. 10, 2002, determined an access metric for each user and provided channel access to that user having the greatest access metric.
Alternative scheduling methods have been explored that provide channel access to all users equally—regardless of channel efficiency or throughput. With such systems, the equal access—which may be based on time/duration or volume of transmission—sacrifices overall system efficiency for equality of access.
In addition, methods such as the Maximum Carrier-to-Interference Ratio (max-C/I) scheduling which was described by R. Knopp and P. A. Humbler, in a paper entitled "Information Capacity and Power Control in Single Cell Multiuser Communications", which appeared Proc. IEEE Int. Conf. Commun. (ICC), at pp. 331-335, in June 1995; the Proportionally Fair (PF) scheduling method as described in a paper entitled "Data Throughput of CDMA-HDR A High Efficiency-High Data Rate Personal Communication Wireless System", authored by A. Jalali, R. Padovani, and R. Pankaj, that was published in Proc. IEEE Veh. Technol. (VTC), at pages 1854-1858 in May 2000; and a paper by P. Viswanath, D. N. C. Tse and R. Laroia, entitled "Opportunistic Beamforming Using Dumb Antennas" that appeared in IEEE Trans. On Inform. Theory, vol. 48, No. 6, pp. 1277-1294 in June 2002; and the wired, Max-Min Fair scheduling method as described by D. Bertsekas and R. Gallagar in Data Networks, Chapter 6, published by Prentice-Hall of Englewood Cliffs, N.J. in 1992 all offer particular advantages/disadvantages which characterize their method.
More specifically, each of the above methods differs in the performance of aggregate downlink throughput and the fairness as it relates to per-user time/throughput. Each (except Max-Min Fair) however, is channel-dependent in that they all rely on instantaneous CSI feedback as opposed to the simpler, Round-Robin (RR) scheduling where users are selected independently of channel status.
Accordingly, there exists a continuing need for methods that provide fair access to users of shared wireless systems, while maintaining overall system efficiency. Such method(s) is/are the subject of the present invention.

Scheduling method with tunable throughput maximization and fairness guarantees in resource allocation


A porous implant for repairing lost bone stock such as around a prosthetic joint is provided. The porous implant has a composite structure with a solid structure and a porous structure which may be formed monolithically by direct metal laser sintering. The solid structure includes a support structure which extends into the porous structure.

Numerous prosthetic joints have been developed to replace damaged joints. Replacement of knee and hip joints, for example, is common in elderly people and in people whose joints have become damaged through sports or trauma. Primary prosthetic joints can wear out or otherwise fail due to age or trauma and need to be replaced. Replacement of a primary prosthetic joint with a second prosthetic joint may occur during a revision surgery. In each of these instances, a surgeon may encounter damage to the bone surrounding the joint.
Corresponding reference characters indicate corresponding components throughout the several views of the drawings. Unless otherwise noted, the drawings have been drawn to scale. Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help improve understanding of various examples of the present invention. Also, common but well-understood elements that are useful or necessary in a commercially feasible embodiment are often not depicted in order to facilitate a less obstructed view of these various embodiments of the present invention.
It will be appreciated that the drawings are illustrative and not limiting of the scope of the invention which is defined by the appended claims. The examples shown each accomplish various different advantages. It is appreciated that it is not possible to clearly show each element or advantage in a single figure, and as such, multiple figures are presented to separately illustrate the various details of the examples in greater clarity. Similarly, not every example need accomplish all advantages of the present disclosure.

Composite structure porous implant for replacing bone stock


In a method for forming a mask pattern which is exposed with light or electrons, a resist layer being exposed with light or electrons passed through said mask pattern to form a resist pattern, a light or electron beam intensity on the resist layer is calculated. Then, a deviation of a logarithmic value of the light intensity is calculated, and a ratio of a logarithmic value of a dissolving speed of the resist layer to a logarithmic value of the exposure is calculated. Then, a value is calculated by a.sup.1/b. I where a is the deviation, b is the ratio, I is the intensity. Then, a size of the resist pattern is calculated by setting a contour having a predetermined value in a distribution of the value, and a difference between the mask pattern and the size of the resist pattern is calculated. Finally, the mask pattern is corrected in accordance with the difference.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for forming a mask pattern in a semiconductor manufacturing process, and more particularly, to the improvement of a method for correcting the mask pattern.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, as semiconductor devices have been very fine-structure a, the errors of a photoresist pattern caused by the optical proximity effect of a light exposure system and the developing process cannot be ignored.
In a first prior art mask pattern forming method (see JP-A-4-179952), a light intensity on a photoresist layer with respect to a position is calculated. Then, a correction amount of the position is calculated by determining whether or not the light intensity reaches a definite value. Then, the dimension of the pattern of the pattern mask is corrected in accordance with the correction amount. This will be explained later in detail.
Thus, in the first prior art mask pattern forming method, an error of a photoresist pattern due to the optical proximity effect can be corrected. However, since no consideration is given to a developing process of the photoresist layer, a change of a photoresist pattern due to the change of a light intensity distribution by the developing process of the photoresist layer cannot be corrected.
In a second prior art mask pattern forming method (see JP-A-6-45424), a relationship between a dissolving speed and an exposure with respect to a depth position of a photoresist layer are experimentally obtained in advance. First, light intensity for points of the photoresist layer is calculated to obtain an exposure distribution. Then, a dissolving speed of each point within the photoresist layer is calculated by using this relationship, and thus, a dissolving speed distribution within the photoresist layer is obtained. Then, a developing time (dissolving time) of each point within the photoresist layer is calculated by using the dissolving speed distribution, and thus, a developing time distribution within the photoresist layer is obtained. Then, a photoresist pattern is calculated by setting a time contour having the same time as the developing time distribution. Then, the dimension of the pattern of the pattern mask is corrected in accordance with the calculated photoresist pattern. This will be explained later in detail.
Thus, in the second prior art mask pattern forming method, a change of a photoresist pattern due to the change of a light intensity distribution by the developing process of the photoresist layer can be corrected. However, since a dissolving speed and a developing time are calculated for each point of the photoresist layer, a large amount of calculating time is required.

Mask pattern forming method capable of correcting errors by proximity effect and developing process


A starting apparatus of a diaphragm-type carburetor, a starting pump disposed at a convenient and accessible location which is separate from a carburetor main body, and air is prevented from being mixed into fuel, in such a structure constructed as a suction-type starting pump. A suction passage extends from a fuel metering chamber and extends beyond an outer portion of the carburetor main body. A starting pump conveniently disposed is separate from the carburetor, and an inlet check valve of the starting pump is disposed in the carburetor main body so as to reduce a volumetric capacity of a section extending to the inlet check valve from the fuel metering chamber, thereby preventing the air from remaining within the suction passage.

This application claims the benefit of Japanese Patent Application No. 2003-393516, filed Nov. 25, 2003.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for supplying a starting fuel to a fuel metering chamber of a carburetor before starting an engine.
2. Description of Related Art
A diaphragm-type carburetor may be employed as a fuel supply means of a general-purpose, internal combustion engine used as a power source of a portable working machine, such as a machine for use in agriculture, forestry, or the like. The supplying of fuel to an operating engine may be carried out as follows. The fuel is drawn from a fuel tank to a fuel pump by a negative pressure of a pulse pressure generated in a crank case or the like and is supplied to a fuel metering chamber by a positive pressure. The fuel then may be delivered to an intake passage via an idle port, a slow port, and a main nozzle, and is mixed with air to be supplied to the engine.
However, when there is little or no fuel in the fuel metering chamber when the engine starts, it may be desirable to supply fuel to the fuel metering chamber, so that the chamber may be filled prior to engine start, and it also may be desirable to supply extra fuel in order to improve the engine's low temperature starting properties at a cold start time. A starting pump may be provided for this purpose, and the engine may be smoothly started by manually operating the starting pump so as to supply fuel into the fuel metering chamber.
Such starting pumps include at least two kinds: a pressure-type structure (e.g., Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Publication No. 47-38218 and Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 56-6049) and a suction-type structure (e.g., Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 55-69748, Japanese Patent Publication No. 57-59417 and Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 5-164001). The pressure-type structure may include a dome-shaped pump body portion generally formed from an elastic material, an inlet check valve placed in an inlet of a pump chamber in an inner portion of the pump body, and an outlet check valve placed in an outlet, and may have a fuel tank, a starting pump, a fuel pump, and a fuel metering chamber arranged in that order, for delivering fuel stored in the fuel pump to the fuel metering chamber via the starting pump. The suction-type structure may include a fuel tank, a fuel pump, a fuel metering chamber, and a starting pump arranged in that order for drawing air by the starting pump, for generating a negative pressure in the fuel metering chamber, and for feeding fuel from the fuel tank by the negative pressure. These structures may be properly selected depending upon the layout of the machine when the carburetor is mounted to the engine.
In the pressure-type starting pump described in the Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 56-6049, the starting pump is placed in the middle of the fuel pipe passage which passage extends from the fuel tank to the fuel pump and is separated from the carburetor. In the suction-type starting pump described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 55-69748, Japanese Patent Publication No. 57-59417 and Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 5-164001, the suction passage which extends from the fuel metering chamber to an exterior portion of the carburetor, may be extended to place the starting pump in the suction passage in a location separate from the carburetor. In accordance with this structure, several alternatives exist for placing the starting pump in a readily operable location.
Nevertheless, when the suction-type starting pump is placed apart from the carburetor so as to be readily operable, a large space for storing air is formed within the suction passage between the fuel metering chamber and the inlet check valve installed in the starting pump. The air remaining within the suction passage during the engine operation flows into the fuel metering chamber and then is delivered to the intake passage from the fuel metering chamber together with the fuel, whereby a diluted air-fuel mixture is produced. Alternatively, the fuel may be delivered in a large quantity by a pumping effect caused by the residual air and an excessively dense, air-fuel mixture is produced, so that there is a risk that a malfunction of the engine may occur and a deterioration of exhaust gas may occur.

Starting apparatus of diaphragm-type carburetor


On a principal surface of a glass disk substrate, a texture comprising a combination of an isotropic texture for stabilizing a flight of a magnetic head flying and traveling over a magnetic disk and an anisotropic texture for imparting a magnetic anisotropy to a magnetic layer of the magnetic disk is formed.

This invention relates to a magnetic disk to be loaded in a magnetic disk apparatus, such as a HDD (hard disk drive), a glass substrate for the magnetic disk, and methods of producing the magnetic disk and the glass substrate.
At present, following the rapid development of the IT industry, the information recording technology, in particular, the magnetic recording technology is requested to achieve dramatic technical innovation. For a magnetic disk to be loaded in a HDD (hard disk drive), it is required to develop a technology capable of achieving an information recording density of 40 Gbit/inch2 or more in response to a demand for a higher information capacity.
The magnetic disk is required to be excellent in magnetic characteristic in a flying/traveling direction of a magnetic head. To this end, there is known a technique of forming a concentric texture on a surface of a substrate for a magnetic disk to impart a circumferential magnetic anisotropy to the magnetic characteristic of the magnetic disk, thereby improving the magnetic characteristic as a magnetic recording medium to achieve a higher recording density as described in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Publication (JP-A) No. 2002-30275 (Hereinafter referred to as Reference 1).
Recently, attention is drawn to a glass substrate as a substrate for a magnetic disk, which is suitable for a higher recording density. The glass substrate is suitable for use with a magnetic head of a low flying height because a flat and smooth surface is obtained, and is advantageous in an improvement of a S/N ratio of a recording signal and an increase in recording density. Thus, the glass substrate is excellent in adaptability to a low flying height of the magnetic head.
As the glass substrate of the type, a glass substrate for a magnetic recording medium is described in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Publication (JP-A) No. 2002-32909 (hereinafter referred to as Reference 2) is known.
In the above-mentioned conventional techniques, the substrate for a magnetic disk is provided with the concentric texture so as to improve the magnetic characteristic and a read/write characteristic of the magnetic disk and to contribute to an increase in information capacity.
In a magnetic disk apparatus such as a hard disk drive (HDD), use has been made of a CSS (Contact Start and Stop) system in which a magnetic head is kept in contact with a contact sliding zone (CSS zone) formed on a surface of a magnetic disk in a stopped state while, in a starting operation, the magnetic head slides in the CSS zone in contact with the disk surface to be floated up and, thereafter, a write or a read operation is carried out in a read/write zone of the disk surface outside the CSS zone. In an ending operation, the magnetic head is retreated from the read/write zone to the CSS zone and, thereafter, the magnetic head slides in the CSS zone in contact with the disk surface to be landed and stopped. In the CSS system, the starting operation and the ending operation in which contact sliding movement occurs will be called a CSS operation.
In the magnetic disk of the CSS system, it is necessary to provide both the CSS zone and the read/write zone on the disk surface. In addition, in order to avoid the magnetic head and the magnetic disk from being attracted or stuck to each other when they are contacted, it is necessary to provide the surface of the magnetic disk with a convex/concave shape having a predetermined surface roughness.
As a recent magnetic disk apparatus, a magnetic disk apparatus of a LUL (Load Unload) system is introduced instead of the CSS system which has been used so far. In the LUL system, a magnetic head is retreated on an inclined support, called a ramp, located outside a magnetic disk in a stopped state. In a starting operation, the magnetic head slides from the ramp to the magnetic disk after the rotation of the magnetic disk is started, and flies and travels over the magnetic disk to carry out a write or a read operation. In a stopping operation, the magnetic head is retreated to the ramp outside the magnetic disk and, thereafter, the rotation of the magnetic disk is stopped. A series of the above-mentioned operations will be called a LUL operation.
The LUL system does not require the CSS zone (contact sliding zone for the magnetic head) to be formed on the magnetic disk so that a wide read/write zone is secured on the surface of the magnetic disk as compared with the magnetic disk of the CSS system. Therefore, this system contributes to a higher recording capacity.
In the LUL system, the magnetic head is not brought into contact with the surface of the magnetic disk, unlike the CSS system. Therefore, it is unnecessary to provide the surface of the magnetic disk with the convex/concave shape for preventing attraction so that the surface of the magnetic disk can be extremely flattened and smoothed. Accordingly, with the magnetic disk of the LUL system, the flying height of the magnetic head can be remarkably lowered as compared with the CSS system. This results in an advantage that a high S/N ratio of the recording signal is achieved to contribute to a higher recording capacity of the magnetic disk apparatus.
Following recent introduction of the LUL system, the flying height of the magnetic head is discontinuously remarkably lowered. Consequently, the magnetic disk is required to stably operate even at a very small flying height of 10 nm or less. However, if the magnetic head flies and travels over the surface of the magnetic disk at such a very small flying height, there arises a problem of frequent occurrence of a fly stiction defect or a head corrosion defect.
The fly stiction defect is a defect in which the flying position or the flying height fluctuates while the magnetic head is flying and traveling, often followed by irregular variation in read output. Sometimes, the magnetic head is contacted with the magnetic disk during flying and traveling to cause a head crash defect, resulting in breakage of the magnetic disk. The head corrosion defect is a defect in which an element portion of the magnetic head is corroded to cause a trouble in the write or the read operation. Sometimes, the write or the read operation is impossible or the corroded element is expanded to damage the surface of the magnetic disk during flying and traveling. Occurrence of those defects will significantly deteriorate a HDI (Head Disk Interface) reliability of the magnetic head during flying and traveling, for example, a LUL durability, a CFT durability (Constant Flight durability), and a glide characteristic. Further, during flying and traveling, the magnetic head may fall onto the surface of the magnetic disk to be attracted thereto.
The present inventor systematically studied about those defects. As a result, it has been found out that those defects tend to frequently occur if an anisotropic texture (for example, a circumferential texture) for imparting a magnetic anisotropy to a magnetic layer of the magnetic disk is formed on a glass substrate. It is supposed that the anisotropic texture induces the above-mentioned defects related to the HDI reliability while the magnetic head is flying and traveling. Further, it has been found out that these defects tend to frequently occur, in particular, in an inner region of the disk, for example, on a principal surface of the disk in a region within a disk radius of 13 mm, especially, in a region within a disk radius of 12 mm.

Glass substrate for a magnetic disk, magnetic disk, and methods of producing the glass substrate and the magnetic disk


A lens includes a light incident surface and a light output surface. In a coordinate system, the light incident surface satisfies a formula (1):

With ongoing developments in display technology, a backlight module using a number of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) as light emitting devices for irradiating a liquid crystal display (LCD) has become widely used in a variety of consumer electronic devices, such as cellular telephones, computers, digital cameras, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and the like. The LEDs in the backlight module are arranged in a matrix manner in a tabular region having substantially the same shape as a panel of the LCD. The backlight module, on a back side of the LCD, irradiates, with light from the LEDs, in a planar orientation to the LCD. In the backlight module, a brightness distribution of light has been made substantially uniform by a lens.

Lens, light emitting device and backlight module

Abstract: Z          r      1        =                              c          1                                  r          1          2                            1        +                              1            -                                          r                1                2                                                          c                1                2                                                          +                                        u            1            2                                          (                          1              -                              u                1                2                                      )                                                1            -                                          r                1                2                                                          c                1                2                                                                                ∑                      m            =            0                    M                                              a            m                                                                        Q                m                                                          (                                  u                  1                  2                                )                                      .                              c1 is a curvature of the light incident surface. r1 is a distance from the center of the lens to a joint point between the light input surface and a radius which is substantially perpendicular to the central axis of the lens. u1 is a normalized radius of the light incident surface. am represents the aspheric coefficient. Qm is a polynomial of order m and represents that the sum of am is equal to the sum of the root mean square of the slope of the light incident surface. The light output surface satisfies a formula (2):

Abstract: Z          r                                      2        =                              c          2                                  r          2          2                            1        +                              1            -                                          r                2                2                                                          c                2                2                                                          +                                        u            2            2                                          (                          1              -                              u                2                2                                      )                                                1            -                                          r                2                2                                                          c                2                2                                                                                ∑                      m            =            0                    M                                              a            m                                                                        Q                m                                                          (                                  u                  2                  2                                )                                      .


A position sensing system uses a resonant transmission line having a moveable dielectric as a position sensor. The system includes circuitry that supplies a drive signal to the resonant transmission line, which reflects the drive signal. Based on a standing wave signal, which is generated from the drive signal and the reflected drive signal, the circuitry determines the frequency of the sensor drive signal relative to a resonant frequency of the resonant transmission line, and adjusts the sensor drive signal frequency to match a resonant frequency of the transmission line. The circuitry determines the relative position of the moveable dielectric based on the adjusted sensor drive signal frequency.

Various systems include components, such as valves, that may be automatically moved to one or more positions, under the control of one or more other system components, during system operation. These components may be moved periodically or in response to certain conditions that may occur within the system. In either case, it is preferable to know that the component being moved has actually been, or is being, moved from its initial position to its desired position. It is also preferable to know that the component remains in the desired position once it has been moved. Thus, numerous systems and methods have been developed to sense, and supply signals representative of, the position of various moveable components.
Some examples of position sensors that have been developed include potentiometers, rotary variable differential transformers (RVDTs), linear variable differential transformers (LVDTs), capacitance position sensors, and Hall effect sensors, just to name a few. Although these, and other, known types of position sensors are generally reliable, each suffers certain drawbacks. Most notably, when many of the known position sensors are used in a relatively high temperature environment (e.g., 950° F. or more), the accuracy of the position sensor may deteriorate.
One example of a system in which a position sensor may be exposed to relatively high temperatures is an aircraft gas turbine engine. Gas turbine engines include various components, such as valves, that may be exposed to such high temperatures. Proper engine operation may, in many instances, rely on knowing the position of these components. However, if the accuracy of the position sensor suffers at high temperatures, the engine may not operate properly and/or most efficiently. Various systems and methods have been developed to compensate sensor inaccuracies for temperature. However, these systems and methods can be complex and relatively costly to implement.
Hence, there is a need for a position sensing system that can accurately determine, and provide a signal representative of, the position of one or more components in a relatively high temperature environment, that is relatively easy and less costly to implement. The present invention addresses one or more of these needs.

High temperature resonant transmission line sensor and methods


An upper coupler for a semi-trailer has a generally planar bottom plate. A kingpin attaches thereto to couple with a fifth wheel of a tractor. A reinforcement member extends across a width of the bottom plate to reduce bending of the bottom plate as it rests on the fifth wheel of the tractor. Along the reinforcement member's length, the reinforcement member has varying second moments of area taken in cross sections perpendicular to the reinforcement member's length.

A wide variety of trailers are known for carrying cargo. Van type trailers, for example, typically include a deck assembly supported by a side wall structure, wheels, and retractable front legs. The deck assembly may include longitudinal floor boards and transverse cross-members, such as I-beams, extending between opposing bottom rails. The deck transfers its load to the bottom rails, wheels, and, depending upon whether or not the trailer is coupled to a tractor or is free-standing, to a tractor fifth wheel or to the retractable front legs on the trailer. Platform trailers, which have no box structure above the floor deck to support the load, often comprise a floor supported underneath by a pair of transversely spaced-apart, parallel, upwardly bowed I-beams extending longitudinally beneath the floor. Two or more wheeled rear axles transfer load from the beam to the wheels via a suspension between the axles and the floor and beams. The deck and beams transfer their load to a tractor fifth wheel via an upper coupler or to retractable front legs on the trailer, again depending upon whether the trailer is attached to a tractor or is free-standing.
A trailer typically couples with a tractor via a fifth wheel coupling that enables the trailer to pivot with respect to the tractor about a vertical axis. The fifth wheel coupling includes a horseshoe-shaped "fifth wheel" on the tractor that is typically greased so that a lower surface of the trailer's upper coupler slides against an upper surface of the fifth wheel. Referring to FIGS. 1-3, a conventional upper coupler assembly 1 for a van type trailer includes a rectangular bottom plate 2 that provides the lower surface against which the fifth wheel (not shown) of the tractor (not shown) slides. Rectangular bottom plate 2 extends in a dimension transverse to the trailer's longitudinal dimension between longitudinal members of a C-shaped attachment frame 3 that provides a structure for mounting upper coupler 1 to the trailer's frame structure. A kingpin 4 extends downward from bottom plate 2 and engages the tractor fifth wheel. A trapezoidal approach plate 5 attaches at a wide end to a transverse portion of C-shaped attachment frame 3 and at a narrow end to bottom plate 2. Both bottom plate 2 and approach plate 5 have a plurality of holes near C-shaped attachment frame 3 that provide, when the upper coupler is attached to the trailer, access to mounting hardware that attaches upper coupler 1 to the trailer. A pair of cross members 6, having consistent U-channel cross sections taken in planes perpendicular to their dimension of elongation, extend in the trailer's transverse dimension above bottom plate 2 with their respective channel openings facing downwards. Cross members 6 provide rigidity to resist bending of bottom plate 2 about an axis that extends through a center of bottom plate 2 in the trailer's longitudinal dimension as the fifth wheel applies an upward load to the bottom plate. Longitudinally-extending U-shaped channels 7 provide rigidity to approach plate 5 and have holes therethrough for allowing pneumatic tubing and electrical wires to pass therethrough.


A technique for determining of a load of an application in a cloud computing environment is disclosed. The application is executed with one or more application instances in the cloud computing environment, wherein each of the one or more application instances obtains input data from a respective input queue. A method implementation for supporting the technique comprises determining a wait indicator for at least one of the one or more application instances, the wait indicator for an application instance indicating a relation between empty states of the input queue of the application instance and non-empty states of the input queue of the application instance, and triggering forwarding of the wait indicator determined for the at least one of the one or more application instances to a load determination component.

In recent years, cloud computing systems have become increasingly widespread. In such systems, the processing components may form part of a processing chain, wherein a respective component processes an input and forwards the processed input to the next component in the chain. In case of service chaining of virtualized network functions, for example, every component in the chain may perform some processing on incoming data packets and forward the data packets to the next component in the chain. The situation is similar in big data systems working on stream processing or in systems comprising multiple applications connected via message queues where streams are processed in multiple steps.
In order to deal with fluctuations of incoming data, the processing components typically maintain input queues. These queues can be found at various levels of the systems and may include, for example, packet buffers of network interfaces, Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) buffers, message queues, application level queues, or the like.
The actual processing of the incoming data may be performed by multiple parallel instances of an application. Each application instance may have its associated input queue, and a load balancer may be used to distribute incoming data to the respective input queues. The number of application instances required for processing generally depends on the actual input rate of the incoming data and, since this rate may change over time, the application may be scaled out or scaled in according to the changing requirements, i.e., the number of application instances performing input processing may be increased (so-called "scale out") or the number of application instances may be decreased (so-called "scale in"). In case of an online store, for example, the number of web server instances may be increased in peak selling times to be able to handle the increased number of requests and may be decreased again when the request rate drops back to a normal level.
In today's cloud computing systems, several types of basic metrics have been proposed for determining the load of an application and scaling the number of running application instances accordingly. In practice, the Control Processing Unit (CPU) utilization of virtual machines executed in such a system is most widely used as a metric that generally works well for simple web applications. This metric cannot be adopted for more advanced cases, however. For example, packet processing applications working with fast packet processing frameworks typically use polling techniques to achieve highest possible data rates but, since such polling of input queues results in a constant 100% CPU load even when there is nothing to process, a CPU utilization based metric is not suitable for these types of applications. As another example, telecom applications that perform stream enrichment, i.e., read data from an input stream and look up corresponding states from in-memory databases, are rather network I/O bound while constantly leaving CPU utilization at lower levels. These applications are difficult to scale using CPU utilization thresholds as well.
Another commonly used approach for scaling the number of running application instances is based on the capacity that one instance can handle. Since this value is defined by the application developer, however, this approach is only suitable for simple applications, such as typical web services, where each input results in an approximately similar resource load.
In another scaling approach, it is known to take into consideration the actual length of the input queues of the application instances as an indication of the load of the application. However, since a system typically comprises different types of queues with different abstractions, Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), sizes, granularities and other special characteristics, it is difficult to create a generally applicable metric, like the CPU utilization mentioned above. Further, not all buffer and queue implementations provide APIs for querying the actual lengths of the buffers and queues, which particularly applies to hardware level queues. Also, even if it is possible to query the length of the queue, it may be resource intensive and it may require multiple system calls.

Technique for determining a load of an application


According to one aspect, methods and systems for determining the position of a recording head using existing data structures on magnetic storage media are provided. In one example, a recording head writes data to an active track on a magnetic storage tape, the recording head including a write element and a read element in a known spatial relationship, wherein the read element is configured to access at least a portion of a reference track when the write element is accessing the active track. A controller determines a relative position of the transducer element to the reference track and repositions the recording head to write data to the active track. The read element may be a backward channel reader or dedicated read element of the recording head for reading reference tracks during read and/or write operations.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention and its various aspects relate generally to magnetic tape storage devices and systems, and more particularly to methods and systems for head positioning servo systems for detecting misalignment between a read and/or write head and one or more data tracks.
2. Description of the Related Art
Digital tape-recording remains a viable solution for storage of large amounts of data. Conventionally, at least two approaches are employed for recording digital information onto magnetic recording tape. One approach calls for moving a magnetic tape past a rotating head structure that reads and writes user information from discontinuous transverse tracks. Interactive servo systems are typically employed to synchronize rotation of the head structure with travel of the tape. Another approach is to draw the tape across a non-rotating head at a considerable linear velocity. This approach is sometimes referred to as linear "streaming" tape recording and playback.
Increased data storage capacity, and retrieval performance, is desired of all commercially viable mass storage devices and media. In the case of linear tape recording a popular trend is toward multi-head, multi-channel fixed head structures with narrowed recording gaps and data track widths so that many linear data tracks may be achieved on a tape medium of a predetermined width, such as one-half inch width tape. To increase the storage density for a given cartridge size the bits on the tape may be written to smaller areas and on a plurality of parallel longitudinal tracks. As more data tracks are recorded on a tape, each track becomes increasingly narrow. The tape therefore becomes more susceptible to errors caused from the tape shifting up or down (called lateral tape motion or "LTM") in a direction perpendicular to the tape travel path as the tape passes by the magnetic head. LTM may be caused by many factors including, tape slitting variations, tension variations, imperfections in the guiding mechanism, friction variations mainly at the head, and environmental factors such as heat and humidity. These factors affect LTM in various ways. Some may cause abrupt momentary jumps while others may cause a static shift. Generally, LTM is unpredictable and unrepeatable.
In multi-head, multi-channel magnetic tape storage systems, random lateral tape motion is generally a limiting factor in achieving higher track densities and thus higher user data capacity per tape. In order to maintain proper alignment of the head with the storage tape and data tracks on the tape, the tape is generally mechanically constrained to minimize LTM and data retrieval errors. Miss-registration between the head and data tracks can cause data errors during read back and data loss on adjacent tracks during writing.
What is desired are methods and systems for more accurately recording data tracks on a storage medium with increased density and read back accuracy. Additionally, positioning read and/or write heads with respect to data tracks of a magnetic storage tape in a tape drive, and doing so with increased accuracy and reduced cost and complexity is desired.

Methods and systems for magnetic recording


A device for maintaining sterility during which device includes an L-shaped member having a base panel for fitting beneath the patient, an upward-standing side or end panel and a horizontally oriented instrument platform extending from the side or end panel above the patient's head, neck and shoulders for receiving instruments during surgery. The device facilitates draping of the patient's head to insure a sterile operating field which is maintained throughout the surgical procedure. In a preferred embodiment, the instrument panel and the end or side panels may be removed from the base panel.

1. Field of the Invention
During surgical procedures such as pacemaker implants and similar procedures, it is imperative that the patient's head be draped in a sterile manner to insure that a sterile field is maintained throughout the operation. Various methods have been employed to achieve this result, including various types of draping techniques, supports and devices. The sterility maintenance cover of this invention is designed for optimum effective results in achieving sterility during certain types of operating procedures. The apparatus includes an L-shaped transparent support having a base panel for fitting under the head, neck and shoulders of a patient, an upward-standing end or side panel or panels and an instrument panel projecting from the end or side panel horizontally, substantially parallel to the base panel over the patient's head and neck. The instrument panel is designed to receive and retain various instruments used in the surgical procedure and may be fitted with curved cutaways or scallops, to provide easy access to the patient and an upward-standing lip to maintain the instruments in position on the instrument platform. Various types of built-in or removable supports may also be utilized to maintain the instrument platform in substantially horizontal position, parallel to the base panel.
It is an object of this invention to provide a new and improved device for maintaining surgical sterility during surgical procedures in the head, shoulder and upper torso area.
Another object of the invention is to provide a new and improved sterility maintenance cover which is constructed of clear material and includes a base panel for fitting under the head, neck and shoulders of a patient, an upward-standing end or side panel and an instrument platform extending from the end or side panel substantially parallel to the base panel over the head and neck of the patient for receiving and containing instruments during the surgical procedure.
Yet another object of this invention is to provide a new and improved sterility maintenance cover for effecting surgical sterility in draping of a patient during certain surgical operations, which cover is characterized by an L-shaped, transparent, radioluscent device, the base panel of which fits under the head, neck and upper back of the patient and an end or side panel projecting fixedly or removably upwardly from the base panel, with an instrument platform extending from the end or side panel over the patient's head and neck to support surgical instruments and apparatus during the operation.

Sterility maintenance cover, surgical instrument tray, and drape support

128
FSC 602
FSC D 6
FSC 108
FSC 297
FSC 248
FSC D15
FSC D29


A number of approaches for transcoding media is described, which allow various users to control one or more aspects of transcoding (e.g. bit rate, resolution) when delivering media content to a client device from a network edge server or other location. The client device is provided with an interface that allows the user to increase or decrease the resolution, bit rate or other settings of the media content. Upon receiving a request from the user, the system transcodes the media content in accordance with the request and dynamically delivers the transcoded media content to the user's device. The system also enables content publishers and network operators to impose restrictions (e.g. minimum and maximum values for various settings) on user control.

In recent years, there has been a surge of development and releases of new types of mobile devices made available to the public. Today's consumer is often equipped with a smart phone, tablet, MP3 player or other device that can be used to access the internet, download and view digital media (e.g. video and audio files), and perform a wide variety of other functions. Given such large numbers of devices and device types, it is quickly becoming a non-trivial task to make media content available to all of the consumers across their various devices. In fact, many companies are spending large fractions of their time and resources managing, scaling and maintaining media processing systems that may have nothing to do with their core business. These companies are looking for encoding systems and services that can provide the best video/audio quality to consumers at a low cost. Because digital video (and audio) content is often delivered to multiple device types over unmanaged networks with fluctuating bandwidth, it is desirable to utilize transcoding to produce a version of each asset to accommodate these variants.
Transcoding is the decoding and recoding of digital content from one format to another. Transcoding is often necessary to enable playback of media on different devices. It can be used to convert a digital audio, video file, and video streams from one digital form or codec to another (e.g. MPEG2 to h.264 transcoding). Transcoding can also be used to adjust the bit rate of a video file and resize video resolution. Transcoding takes place in order for content to reach multi-screen end-user destinations. The complexity of transcoding comes from the vast range of devices, networks, and channels that may need to be supported.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


This invention relates to a method of reducing cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in a prediabetic or Type 2 Diabetes patient population. The method comprises administering an effective dosage of a long acting insulin, preferably insulin glargine, to a prediabetic or Type 2 Diabetes patient.

Diabetes Mellitus and Cardiovascular Disease
Patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) have an increased risk of atherosclerotic disease, including coronary heart disease, cardiovascular disease, and peripheral vascular disease. Diabetes itself1 and not just the associated risk factors of dyslipidemia, hypertension, and obesity contributes a major portion of this risk. In particular, the level of hyperglycemia may play a key role. While the relationship of increased blood glucose to microvascular complications is well-recognized7-9, its relation to atherogenesis was, until recently, less well documented. A prospective, population-based study in middle-aged and elderly patients in Finland with type 2 DM has shown a linear correlation between baseline fasting blood glucose (FBG), or HbA1c, and coronary heart disease mortality10. In the WESDR database, subjects diagnosed with diabetes at age 30 years or older had a statistically significant increase in mortality from vascular causes for every 1% increase in glycosylated hemoglobin, with a hazard ratio of 1.10 to 1.28 for various types of events11. The Islington Diabetes Survey found a linear association between 2-hour postprandial glucose or HbA1c and coronary heart disease, with the stronger association with the 2-hour glucose test12. In the San Antonio Heart Study, the level of hyperglycemia was a strong, independent predictor of all-cause and cardiovascular mortality13.
A growing body of evidence indicates that the increased risk for macrovascular complications associated with type 2 DM extends to patients with glucose abnormalities that do not meet the criteria for frank diabetes. The Hoorn study found an increased risk of all-cause and cardiovascular mortality with higher 2-hour post-load glucose values and increasing HbA1c in a non-diabetic general population of men and women15. In the EPIC study, an increase of 1% in HbA1c was associated with a 28% increase in risk of death and an increase of approximately 40% in cardiovascular or coronary heart disease mortality in a cohort of 4,662 men4. Although diabetic subjects were included in this trial, and diabetes was found to be an independent predictor of cardiovascular risk when evaluated separately from HbA1c (another independent predictor), only HbA1c and not diabetes predicted CV death when both were included in the same analysis, further strengthening the link between glucose elevations and CV risk, versus the presence or absence of diabetes. Similarly, a study in non-diabetic elderly women found that all-cause mortality and coronary heart disease were significantly related to fasting plasma glucose16.
In a study from Oslo17, non-diabetic men aged 40-59 years had a significantly higher cardiovascular mortality rate if their FPG was >85 mg/dL. Long-term follow-up of several prospective European cohort studies has confirmed a higher risk of cardiovascular-related mortality in non-diabetic men with the highest 2.5% of values of FPG and 2-hour postprandial glucose18. A meta-regression analysis of data from 20 cohort studies found a progressive relationship between glucose levels and cardiovascular risk even below the cutoff points for diagnosis of DM3. Likewise, in the 23-year Paris Prospective Study19 of 7,018 middle-aged nondiabetic men, increased fasting or 2-hour postprandial blood glucose was associated with increased total and coronary mortality in a graded, non-threshold relationship.
The American Diabetes Association (ADA) has recognized an intermediate category of IFG, defined as a fasting plasma glucose of 6.1-6.9 mmol/L (110-125 mg/dL)6, as well as the older category of IGT, defined as a 2-hour glucose level of 7.8-11.1 mmol/L (140-199 mg/dL) after a 75 gram oral glucose load, with FPG levels below 7.0 mmol/L. The European Diabetes Epidemiology Group, based on a meta-analysis of 10 prospective European cohort studies, found that IGT was associated with survival curves intermediate between those of non-diabetic and diabetic subjects, while IFG curves were similar to those of normoglycemic subjects. A direct comparison revealed that IFG had a higher specificity (79%) for predicting cardiovascular disease than IGT (57%), but IGT was a more sensitive (54%) predictor than IFG (28%) in predicting incident cardiovascular disease20.
In summary, the data cited above demonstrate that people with IFG and IGT (collectively referred to as "prediabetes") have an excess risk of development of overt type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, and peripheral vascular disease compared to a population with normal fasting and 2-hour postprandial glucose levels. Further, a continuum of increasing risk appears to exist, as opposed to a threshold level of hyperglycemia below which no increased risk prevails2-4. IGT and IFG subjects are currently unlikely to receive glucose-lowering treatment with existing pharmacotherapies. Their under-treated dysglycemia represents a large unmet medical need, and a large public health issue.
A number of large intervention studies have been conducted over the last two decades in both type 1 and type 2 diabetic patients. The primary aim of these trials was to evaluate the impact of improved metabolic control on microvascular endpoints and the studies were designed and sized accordingly.
Macrovascular outcomes were included in these trials as secondary endpoints and although the treatment differences seen were not statistically significant, trends were evident in each trial of an association between intensified glycemic control and reduced cardiovascular mortality and morbidity.
The two principal intervention trials in recent years were the Diabetes Control and Complications Trial (DCCT) in type 1 diabetic patients7 and the United Kingdom Prospective Diabetes Study (UKPDS) in type 2 DM14. In the DCCT, cardiovascular events decreased by 41% in the intensively-treated group, but this difference was not statistically significant. In the UKPDS, which compared the effects of intensive management to the effects of standard care on micro- and macrovascular complications in 3,642 type 2 diabetic subjects followed for a median of 10.4 years, a significant decrease in microvascular complications was observed in the intensive treatment group, which achieved a significantly lower median HbA1c of 7.0% compared to the standard group (median HbA1c 7.9%). Although strongly suggestive, the intervention data from this study failed to show a statistically significant decrease in the endpoint of myocardial infarction, which decreased by 16% with the 0.9% decrease in HbA1c (p=0.052). However, epidemiologic analysis of the UKPDS database2 revealed that a single percent point decrease in HbA1c was associated with a 25% reduction in diabetes-related death, a 7% reduction in all-cause mortality, and an 18% reduction in fatal and nonfatal MI. Similar reductions in the risk for stroke, amputation and congestive heart failure were seen with decreasing HbA1c. These associations of HbA1c with cardiovascular risk were without threshold, i.e. they occurred across the entire study population.
In the 8-year Kumamoto study3 of intensive multiple-dose insulin treatment of type 2 diabetic patients, half as many serious macrovascular events (MI, angina, stroke, claudication, gangrene, or amputation) occurred in the intensive treatment arm as in the conventional treatment arm. This reduction was not statistically significant, in all likelihood because of the small size of the trial (n=110). Several large prospective trials, including the ACCORD trial (NHLBI) and the VA diabetes trial, are now ongoing or planned to specifically and primarily evaluate the hypothesis that treatment of diabetes in patients with cardiovascular risk factors will reduce cardiovascular morbidity and mortality.
Recent intervention studies in IGT have focused on the reduction of rates of progression to type 2 diabetes. Lifestyle interventions (primarily institution of diet and exercise plans) have led to striking reductions in progression from IGT to diabetes in both the recently-completed NIH-sponsored DPP in North America and the Finnish DPS lifestyle study. Each trial was terminated early after independently demonstrating a 58% reduction versus controls in development of new cases of type 2 DM from IGT in the lifestyle intervention arm21,33. Lifestyle changes were pursued aggressively in both studies, and whether such interventions can be maintained indefinitely is an open question.
Pharmacotherapies have also been tested in delaying the development of type 2 DM:                Metformin treatment of IGT in the DPP study was associated with a statistically significant 31% reduction in the rate of progression to type 2 DM.21         Acarbose in the STOP-NIDDM trial reduced the progression from IGT to type 2 DM from 41.8% in the placebo arm to 32.8% over 3.6 years' median duration of treatment (p<0.05) as well as reducing the risk of CV events by 49%.40         Troglitazone in the halted TRIPOD study; 12.3% of placebo-treated subjects versus 5.4% of troglitazone-treated subjects with prior gestational diabetes developed type 2 DM over a mean of 30 months of treatment (p<0.05).45
With the exception of the STOP-NIDDM study, cardiovascular risk reduction data from these recent diabetes prevention studies are all pending publication. At present the only other data available on CV risk reduction in the IGT/IFG population from treatment with pharmacologic antihyperglycemic agents come from a small Swedish study conducted in the 1960s which demonstrated a reduction in CV events in IGT subjects with the use of tolbutamide22,23. Clearly new therapies for glucose lowering must be tested for their effects on serious cardiovascular outcomes in this population.
Recent evidence has provided support for a beneficial effect of insulin treatment in improving cardiovascular outcomes in patients with diabetes. The DIGAMI study24, in which diabetic patients hospitalized with acute MI were allocated to receive an IV insulin-glucose infusion in-hospital followed by intensive chronic outpatient treatment with insulin, versus standard treatment, showed a significant 28% reduction of all-cause mortality in the patients who received intensive insulin treatment. Most of these deaths were cardiovascular in etiology. The most striking reductions in mortality were seen in the subset of patients without prior insulin treatment, with low cardiovascular risk pre-MI. In those subjects significant survival differences were even seen pre-discharge, while still in hospital post-MI, and enhanced survival in the same cohort was also seen in long-term followup.
Part of the benefits of insulin treatment was likely due to improved long-term glycemia post-MI, but the in-hospital results suggest that other, more acute, effects of insulin besides long-term glycemic control may have played a role, such as improved platelet function, decreased PAI-I levels, and insulin-mediated reductions in circulating free fatty acid levels with consequent improved dyslipidemia and decreased myocardial oxygen requirement. Chronic insulin therapy may thus provide a level of protection against the cumulative deleterious effect of even subacute episodes of ischemia, and on the progression of atherosclerosis.
A recent study from Belgium25 reinforces the beneficial role of insulin treatment of critically-ill subjects. In this trial, critical-care post-surgical patients with random blood glucose values greater than 110 mg/dL were treated while in ICU either with an insulin infusion to lower blood glucose to the 80-110 mg/dL range (intervention); or to receive insulin infusions only if blood glucose exceeded 215 mg/dL, with the aim of infusion to reduce blood glucose to between 180 and 200 mg/dL (control). Twelve-month follow-up showed significantly different reductions of 8.0% and 4.6% in overall mortality in the intervention and control groups respectively, and most of the benefit was attributable to the cohort of subjects who were in ICU for 5 days or more. In-hospital mortality, septicemia, acute renal failure and hemodialysis incidence, and transfusion requirements were also significantly reduced in the intervention group versus the control group.
The use of exogenous insulin in a IGT, IFG, or diabetic population should confer several potential metabolic and cardiovascular benefits associated with insulin treatment:    1. A powerful effect to delay the exposure of target tissues to toxic levels of glycemia that is finely titratable and durable, compared to oral antidiabetic agents.    2. Suppression of circulating free fatty acids (FFA) with:            Reduced VLDL synthesis and improved lipoprotein patterns (lower triglycerides, increased HDL-C)        Reduced lipotoxicity at the level of the beta cell and on insulin's target tissues        Reduced obligatory oxidative metabolism in ischemic myocardium            3. Prevention of metabolic decompensation (including both glucose and FFA) due to stress, both mild and frequent (daily stresses and minor illness or injury) and severe and less common (major injury, illness, surgery, vascular events). These stress events will suppress endogenous insulin responses even when a pharmacologic secretagogue or sensitizer is present, but exogenous, injected insulin cannot be so suppressed.    4. In addition, recent work has demonstrated direct associations between insulin treatment and enhanced nitric oxide-mediated vasodilatation, which is impaired in insulin-resistant states such as IGT, IFG and diabetes26,27. Moreover, reductions in the endothelial dysfunction28 and inflammation29 that are characteristic of both diabetes and atherosclerosis have been demonstrated following insulin treatment.
Whereas insulin therapy is undoubtedly efficacious in reducing blood glucose concentrations and, as noted above, may hypothetically improve survival in individuals with dysglycemia, outcome studies using insulin in this population have not been done to date. Several reasons may account for this including a) the need for insulin to be injected as opposed to be taken orally; b) concerns regarding the side effect of hypoglycemia; (low blood glucose) c) epidemiologic evidence linking high serum insulin levels to macrovascular disease; d) the very recent recognition that glucose is a risk factor for cardiovascular outcomes across the range from normal through all stages of diabetes; e) lack of predictability in the action of long-acting insulins; and f) lack of experience in achieving near-normal glucose levels with insulin preparations available to date.
Many of these issues are, however, not relevant today. First, it is now widely recognized that the epidemiologic relationship between hyperinsulinemia and macrovascular disease is extremely unlikely to imply a cause-effect relationship. This is based on randomized controlled trial evidence from both the DCCT and the UKPDS trials that individuals who were given exogenous insulin in an effort to reduce the risk of microvascular disease had a trend towards fewer, not more, adverse cardiovascular outcomes. This conclusion is supported by other studies discussed above, including the DIGAMI study, the Kumamoto study, a meta-analysis of studies of intensified insulin therapy in type 1 diabetes, and several other analyses. It therefore appears that hyperinsulinemia as a result of exogenous administration of insulin is not a cardiovascular risk factor. Second, the potential of intensified insulin therapy has achieved new attention in light of the UKPDS and the potential benefits of tight glycemic control in people with type 2 diabetes. Third, the simplicity of glucose monitoring devices and the decreasing costs of home glucose monitoring, as well as the negligible discomfort associated with today's injection devices available today, have made injections and blood glucose monitoring more accessible and easier for patients to accomplish. Fourth, there is growing recognition of the importance of metabolic abnormalities as a cause of cardiovascular disease. Finally, there are new long acting analog insulins having properties such as a longer duration of action (up to 24 hours) and a smoother profile, with a less defined peak of action which make them viable treatment agents in the IGT, IFG early Type 2 diabetes populations.
Lantus® LANTUS (insulin glargine) is a recombinant human insulin analog that is a long-acting (up to 24-hour duration of action), parenteral blood-glucose lowering agent.39 The post-marketing surveillance safety database experience reveals no increased incidence of hypoglycemia or unexpected adverse reactions compared to other marketed insulin preparations. In a multiple-dose pharmacokinetic study, Lantus® LANTUS (insulin glargine) levels were shown to reach steady-state after 2 doses (2 days) of treatment (Study 1020). Treatment with Lantus® insulin LANTUS (insulin glargine) offers the possibility of a smooth, daylong, blood insulin profile without a definite peak that can be finely titrated to lower subjects' FPG in a durable manner, while minimizing the risk of hypoglycemia at other times of day.
However, a central question concerns the administration of insulin to nondiabetic or early diabetic subjects and the propensity for hypoglycemia this may confer. Insulin has traditionally been reserved for treatment of more severe hyperglycemia, in established type 1, or advanced type 2, diabetes. In these patients the risk of hypoglycemia is greater the closer the achieved blood glucose is to normal.42
For type 2 diabetic patients, as well as individuals with prediabetes, medical management begins with diet restriction and exercise as tolerated30,31. Even if pharmacotherapy in the form of oral antidiabetic drugs or insulin is needed later, diet and exercise are always the cornerstone of disease management. No drugs are currently approved for the treatment of prediabetes, but most of these individuals are overweight or obese, and successful lifestyle intervention has been shown to improve blood glucose levels and even delay progression to diabetes32,33. Exercise increases blood glucose uptake in muscle, and leads to a reduction in endogenous insulin output, as little insulin is needed to provide fuel to these tissues during exercise.34 Exogenous, pharmacologically-provided insulin present in the circulation cannot be so modulated, and its presence can predispose to hypoglycemia.
Exercise-induced hypoglycemia in insulin-treated diabetes patients is well-described35,41, and is often dealt with in practice by reducing the mealtime insulin dose, or giving oral calories, prior to an exercise session.36,37 These methods are cumbersome, and hypoglycemia is still a risk following exercise. The insulin dose that is most frequently modulated in response to upcoming exercise is the short-acting insulin given before the preceding meal, because these insulins have prominent peaks in their actions, used to target the blood glucose rise that occurs following a meal, but they place patients at increased risk for hypoglycemia if there is a mismatch between insulin availability and calories absorbed. Thus hypoglycemia is a risk e for all insulin-treated individuals, and this risk is enhanced when these individuals exercise, and the closer to normoglycemia they are treated.
The ideal basal insulin might be expected to be less worrisome from this standpoint because the circulating insulin produced would target blood glucose elevations throughout the day rather than mealtime fluctuations. It would not demonstrate notable peaks in plasma level, and in consequence the tendency to produce hypoglycemia would be less than with peaked insulins. The "Treat-to-Target" study38 in US/Canada type 2 diabetic patients investigated whether a single bedtime dose of Lantus® LANTUS (insulin glargine) vs NPH insulin (a moderate- to long-acting insulin with a pronounced peak in plasma activity for 4 to 8 hours after injection)39 would achieve target metabolic control without increasing nocturnal hypoglycemia. The trial was successful in demonstrating both its primary objective (more Lantus® LANTUS (insulin glargine)-treated patients than NPH-treated patients reaching target HbAlc [<=7%] without nocturnal hypoglycemia), but also showed significant reductions in nocturnal hypoglycemia vs NPH in all patients.
If peaked insulins pose a danger for hypoglycemia in advanced type 2 diabetes, they certainly do in milder forms of diabetes, and in prediabetes, where the blood glucose concentrations are only modestly elevated, especially in relation to exercise. Treatment with an insulin with notable peak effects runs a great risk of producing low blood glucose levels that will be bothersome and dangerous to people with these conditions. There exists an unmet medical need to provide insulin treatment to to individuals with milder glucose intolerance who are at high risk for CV disease. Cardiovascular disease in subjects with IGT, IFG, and early diabetes is prevalent and life-threatening. Advances have been made in recent years in treating the associated cardiovascular risk factors of hypertension and hyperlipidemia. Depended upon the results of the morbidity/mortality study association between blood glucose elevations and cardiovascular risk in these subjects is likewise continuous and progressive, treatment of this dysglycemia becomes urgent.
Insulin treatment has been demonstrated to reduce CV morbidity and mortality in a population with more advanced diabetes, and offers this prediabetic population the possibility of reducing cardiovascular risk through effective reductions in blood glucose and free fatty acid levels, and in the associated tissue damage resulting from their chronic elevations. The availability of Lantus® insulin LANTUS (insulin glargine) creates the possibility of treating subjects with widely-varying degrees of dysglycemia with the effectiveness of insulin over a 24 hour period while minimizing the risk of hypoglycemia (especially hypoglycemia seen in association with exercise) inherent in earlier insulin preparations with more distinct peak effects.
Diabetic dyslipidemia (DDL) in type 2 diabetes is another condition where there exists an unmet medical need. DDL is characterized by fasting hypertriglyceridemia, low HDL cholesterol (HDL-C), small dense (atherogenic) LDL particles, and elevated free fatty acid (FFA) concentrations. Whereas lipid disorders associated with type 1 diabetes (hypertriglyceridemia with low LDL) are simpler in etiology, and relate to insulin deficiency which, when replaced, normalizes the plasma lipid profile, the pathophysiology of lipid disturbances in type 2 diabetes is more complex, being partly related to concomitant obesity and insulin resistance. Key factors in the development of lipid abnormalities in type 2 diabetes include:                Failure of suppression of hormone-sensitive lipase in adipose tissue, which leads to increased lipolysis and increased supply of FFA from the adipocyte for, among other things, VLDL-triglyceride (TG) synthesis by the liver        Reduced catabolism of TG-rich particles (such as VLDL), and reduced transfer of surface components of those particles to HDL, partly accounting for the low HDL-C levels seen in DDL.        Accelerated transfer of cholesterol from HDL to other lipoproteins, also contributing to low HDL-C        Reduced clearance of chylomicrons and more atherogenic chylomicron remnants, as well as reduced clearance of other remnant particles (intermediate-density lipoproteins or IDL)        Decreased activity of lipoprotein lipase (LPL) and hepatic TG lipase (HTGL) which break TG down into FFA for fuel in muscle and fat cells.        Overproduction of VLDL by the liver, exacerbated by elevations in glucose and FFA
Although the lipid abnormalities of type 2 diabetes are more resistant to normalization with antidiabetic treatment, even when that treatment is successful, increased insulinization has been shown to improve most of the defects above, namely, improved lipase activity with reduced lipolysis; increased clearance of chylomicrons; reduced production of VLDL from the liver, both through reduction of FFA substrate and by independent mechanisms; and increases in HDL, generally seen in association with increased LPL activity.
The treatment initially recommended for type 2 diabetes, and reinforced as the cornerstone of management even after pharmacologic treatment is initiated, is diet control and regular exercise. When these lifestyle measures are no longer successful alone in controlling blood glucose levels, pharmacologic treatment is begun, traditionally using oral antidiabetic drugs alone and in combination. Whereas there is no a priori reason why insulin cannot be used to manage mildly diabetic patients, it is usually reserved for late-stage diabetes management because:                Insulin must be given by injection and many patients find injections objectionable        Insulin and injections have acquired the stigma of late-stage management—"if I'm taking insulin my diabetes must be very severe"—and to forestall insulin is a way of saying "my diabetes isn't so bad yet"
In fact insulin injections have become almost painless in recent years due to improved delivery systems. The "late-stage" stigma is based on tradition and former practice more than any real reason why insulin should be reserved for the end game of diabetes.
The one valid reason for not using insulin in patients as first pharmacotherapy is a concern over the one principal side effect of insulin—low blood glucose, or hypoglycemia. This is an important concern in using insulin to treat early type 2 diabetes primarily because most available insulins have a peak in their plasma activity at a certain time following injection. It is at these times of peak activity that the insulin-treated patient with diabetes is most vulnerable to hypoglycemia, and diets and exercise patterns must often be tailored around the prescribed insulin regimen to avoid hypoglycemia. This risk is greater the closer patients' blood glucose levels come to normal—and yet normoglycemia is the goal of diabetes management.
There is evidence that the scientific community is taking the abnormalities of DDL more seriously than it has in the past in terms of the risk they pose for atherogenesis. The Adult Treatment Panel of the NCEP on the "detection, evaluation, and treatment of cholesterol disorders in adults" authored an update of the ATP II summary in the Fall of 2002. The ATP III took hypertriglyceridemia more seriously than the predecessor ATP II Committee had as a marker for increased CV risk. The ATP III acknowledged that more recent studies, and additional analyses of older studies, have shown elevated TGs to be an independent risk factor for CHD, whereas in the past the association between TG and CHD was not independent from other confounding risk factors such as LDL and HDL abnormalities. ATP III reduced the TG concentration threshold for each degree of abnormality (normal, borderline, high, and very high) from their ATP-II levels, and offered VLDL cholesterol, and serum TG, as markers for atherogenic remnant lipoproteins, which the committee identified as a target for intervention as well as LDL-C. The committee formalized the concept of "non-HDL cholesterol" (non-HDL-C) as a target for therapy in persons with hypertriglyceridemia, perhaps more relevant than LDL-C alone in these individuals. Non-HDL-C was seen as an acceptable surrogate for apo-B in routine clinical practice.
ATP III pointed out that when fasting TG are less than 200 mg/dL, VLDL-C is not markedly elevated, and non-HDL-C correlates very well with LDL-C. As TG rises above 200 mg/dL, the relation between LDL-C and non-HDL-C is looser, and LDL-C alone "inadequately describes the CV risk associated with atherogenic lipoproteins." When fasting TG exceed 500 m/dL, much of the cholesterol resides in nonatherogenic forms of TG-rich lipoproteins, and non-HDL-C becomes "less reliable as a predictor of CHD risk." On the other hand, the risk of markedly elevated TG (>500 mg/dL) for pancreatitis has long been recognized, even by FDA, and here too the ability of insulin to reduce these elevations may exceed what other OADs can deliver. Thus there are two categories of elevations in fasting TG that may be amenable to insulin treatment, and for which insulin may be superior to OADs. One is elevations in the 500-1000 mg/dL range, for which hypertriglyceridemia alone is the target, being a surrogate for reduction in risk for pancreatitis. The other is elevations in the 200-500 mg/dL range, for which hypertriglyceridemia is one of a host of biomarkers associated with CHD risk; non-HDL-C, HDL-C, and remnant lipoproteins being other, perhaps more important endpoints in this regard.

Method for reducing cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in prediabetic patients and patients with type 2 diabetes


A leveling fastener for connecting and aligning boards includes an elongated support member having first and second support portions with first and second coplanar upper surfaces, a connecting portion that extends upward from the support member, and an elongated fastening component that extends from the connecting portion and that has a pointed end that can be driven into a board, thereby securing the leveling fastener to the board. In use, the first coplanar upper surface of the leveling fastener is positioned flush against a first bottom surface of a board, the fastening component is driven into a first side surface of the board, and a second bottom surface of a second board is positioned flush against the second coplanar upper surface of the fastener. Another aspect of the invention relates to the leveling fastener in combination with a device for driving the leveling fastener into a board. The driving device has an alignment structure having an abutment surface on its exterior and a driver slidably connected to a fastener delivery channel defined by the alignment structure.

This invention relates to carpentry, building, and construction, and more particularly to an apparatus and method making a level connection between two or more boards.
In various situations in carpentry, building, and construction work, it is necessary to connect boards, so that the respective upper and lower surfaces of adjacent boards are aligned and level. This need arises, for example, in the construction of decks, particularly when joists are spaced 16 inches apart. This operation has been performed with deck clips described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,027,573. However, the clips described therein require additional fasteners, such as nails, for affixation to boards, because the clips themselves only have short xe2x80x9clocator prongs.xe2x80x9d Additional fasteners require additional materials and additional procedures, which make construction work slower and more complicated.
The invention, in one aspect, relates to a leveling fastener for connecting and aligning boards. The leveling fastener includes an elongated support member, having first and second support portions with first and second coplanar upper surfaces, a connecting portion that extends upward from the support member, and an elongated fastening component that extends from the connecting portion and that has a pointed end that can be driven into a board, thereby securing the leveling fastener to the board.
When connecting boards, the first coplanar upper surface of the leveling fastener is positioned flush against a first bottom surface of a first board, the fastening component is driven into a first side surface of the board, and a second bottom surface of a second board is positioned flush against the second coplanar upper surface of the fastener.
In another aspect, the invention relates to a combination of a leveling fastener and a device for driving the leveling fastener into a board. The driving device has an alignment structure having an abutment surface on its exterior and a driver slidably connected to a fastener delivery channel defined by the alignment structure. A leveling fastener is disposed within the fastener delivery channel so that movement of the driver down the fastener delivery channel can move the fastener from a first position to a second position.
Preferably, the leveling fastener is constructed as a unitary device. It may be constructed of a single piece of material or multiple pieces that are connected together. The leveling fastener can have more than one connecting portion, each of which may have more than one pointed end. The pointed ends may be directed in the same direction, in opposing directions, or in any desired orientation. The connecting portion may have any suitable shape or configuration, for example a pointed prong or a thin plate. Any part of the leveling fastener may have a rough surface (for example, a surface that is jagged, grooved, or barbed), which permits the fasteners to have a more secure connection to boards.
The driving device may also include an alignment plate connected to the alignment structure. The alignment plate may include a cutout portion, thereby permitting any part of the support members that protrude outside the alignment structure to remain in flush contact with a board, throughout the driving operation. Alternately, the alignment plate may be positioned so that it abuts a side of a board opposite the side that is in contact with a support surface of the leveling fastener. The driving device may also include a magazine for retaining a plurality of leveling fasteners, springs for returning the driver to a position for driving subsequent fasteners, after a fastener has been driven.
The force required to activate the driver may be supplied manually, or by a pneumatic, hydraulic, elastic, electrical, electromagnetic, electrostatic, magnetic, combustion, or explosive device. For example, the force may be provided by a hammer blow, gunpowder, a spring, an electric motor, an internal combustion engine, or a compressed air device. The force required to activate the driver may be supplied from an offset orientation, for example, with cams, rollers, or linkages.
Embodiments of the invention may include one or more of the following advantages. Leveling fasteners may be constructed as a single, unitary piece and may be connected to boards without the need for additional devices to hold the fastener in place (for example, nails, screws, adhesives). Unitary leveling fasteners are easy to use. The invention may reduce workers"" time and labor in building, construction, and carpentry work. Leveling fasteners according to the invention can be securely attached to boards. Leveling fasteners may employ rough surfaces to make connections to boards more secure. Leveling fasteners may employ multiple connecting portions or multiple pointed members for making secure attachments to boards. The invention can be used to align, stiffen, and/or level boards that are connected together. Leveling fasteners can be installed easily with a driving device or gun. Leveling fasteners may be made from materials that have any cross-sectional shape, including round or rectangular cross-sections. Leveling fasteners may be made from any suitable material, including metal, plastic, fiberglass, and carbon fiber. Leveling fasteners may be made, for example, from wire or stamping metal. Leveling fasteners may be manufactured in any suitable manner, for example they may be molded, cast, cut, machined, and/or bent. Leveling fasteners may have any suitable overall size. The invention may be used to connect boards without nails or other fasteners that protrude through the exposed upper surfaces of the boards, as in a deck. The invention may be used with boards of wood, foam, plastic, fiberglass, or any suitable material.
The details of one or more embodiments of the invention are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below. Other features, objects, and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the description and drawings, and from the claims.


An automotive vehicle can be built to include a one piece plastic outer body and a metal support frame underlying the outer body. The outer body is preferably formed by a blow molding process or rotational casting process, so that the body has integral hollow double wall sections that are relatively strong and resistant to bending or twisting forces. The plastic body can include various built-in features, e.g. an integral self-contained fuel tank formed by the molding process. The metal support frame is preferably made up of longitudinal and transverse tubular frame elements. Support pads are provided at selected points on the frame for connecting the plastic body to the frame.

This invention relates to an automotive vehicle, and especially to a vehicle that includes a plastic outer body and an interior metal support frame for the plastic outer body. In preferred practice of the invention the plastic outer body is a one-piece plastic molding formed in a one-step operation by a blow-molding process or a centrifugal casting process.
Such molding processes advantageously enable the plastic outer body to have hollow wall areas at selected points, whereby the body is reinforced against bending, twisting or deformation. The blow-molding process is advantageous in that it has a relatively fast cycle time. The centrifugal casting process is advantageous in that it produces smooth surfaces free of mold marks; also the centrifugal casting process enables the color of the plastic body to be changed after each mold cycle, which is advantageous in short production runs.
A general advantage of a plastic outer body is that it is resistant to attack by gasoline, oil, grease and other chemicals. Plastic is easy to clean, and is resistant to corrosion and ultra violet rays. The plastic material herein envisioned will not crack, chip or break at elevated temperatures normally encountered in normal vehicle use.
The invention contemplates a modified monocoque vehicle design, wherein major loads are transferred between a plastic body and a metal support frame (or chassis). In this regard, the term "monocoque" refers to a vehicle body that relies on a light weight shell to bear the principal stresses. In the present invention a strong hollow-walled plastic shell is combined with a rigid metal frame so that the shell and frame share the major stresses.
The composite vehicle body structure of the present invention is designed so that the frame component can be used as a cooling fixture for supporting the plastic outerbody while the plastic component is cooling (i.e. immediately after the plastic outerbody has been formed). This feature greatly simplifies the material handling process in the manufacturing facility.
In preferred practice of the invention the plastic body component is a single plastic member formed by a blow molding operation or a rotational casting process. However, the plastic body component can alternately formed by two or three interchangeable body sections securable together by mechanical or adhesive connections in "leggo" fashion. By employing plural interchangeable body sections it is possible to change the manufacturing from four seat to a five seat vehicle very quickly (e.g. in hours). This feature provides great marketing flexibility.
The metal frame component of the composite vehicle is preferably located entirely within the plastic outerbody. However, in extended practice of the invention the metal frame component could be at least partially outside the plastic component. For example, portions of the metal at the front and rear ends of the vehicle could be located outside the plastic shell to form front and rear bumpers.
Important advantages achieved by the invention are cost reduction and weight reduction. Hollow-wall sections resulting from the molding process greatly stiffen and rigidify the plastic outerbody so as to greatly reduce the need for extraneous reinforcement mechanisms that add to overall vehicle weight.
Preferably the vehicle body is designed so that the plastic body component has no metal inserts permanently attached to the plastic material. Should it be necessary to convert the vehicle to scrap (after it's useful life) the metal frame can be separated from the plastic outerbody; the lack of metal inserts in the plastic body enables the plastic material to be readily recycled without excessive labor costs.
In preferred practice of the invention the plastic body component is formed out of a thermoplastic material (rather than a thermoset plastic). The molded plastic is a pure homogenous material that can be repaired, if necessary, by the use of fusion equipment. In this sense, the plastic body material differs from reinforced fiber-plastic composites heretofore used in some plastic vehicle structures and plastic boat structures.
The plastic outer body is preferably formed by a blow-molding operation, using a thermoplastic polyolefin material in an extruded parison form. However, the plastic outer body can also be formed by a rotational casting process. Further features of the invention will be apparent from the attached drawing and description of an illustrative embodiment of the invention.

Automotive vehicle body having a plastic outer body and an inner metal frame


Direct pixel-by-pixel phase engineering in a SLM is an effective method for the holographic fabrication of graded photonic super-quasi-crystals with desired disorder and graded photonic super-crystals with rectangular unit-cells. Multiple levels of filling fractions of dielectric in the crystal have been created in the graded regions. Fabrication of these graded photonic super-crystals and super-quasi-crystals with small feature size is possible, using a laser projection system consisting of integrated spatial light modulator and reflective optical element.

This disclosure pertains to fabrication of multi-level graded photonic super-crystals and applications in organic light emitting diodes.
Traditional periodic photonic crystals (PhCs) with a single basis have been intensively studied during the last decades in fundamental (such as photonic band gap) and applied research with applications in photonic crystal lasers. Second generation periodic PhCs have superlattices (dual basis) and have greatly enhanced broadband light absorption when the second generation PhCs were integrated with light absorptive or plasmonic materials. Future-generation PhCs, (here called graded photonic super-crystals (GPSCs) have superlattices and a graded filling fraction of dielectric material. It is called GPSC due to a large unit super-cell in the PhC and gradient basis in the unit super-cell. The graded filling fraction in GPSCs results in a wide distribution of refractive indices to meet the momentum conservation condition for light-coupling in a wide light wavelength range. Very recently, a group has fabricated GPSCs with dual symmetry, dual period, and dual basis. Due to the superlattice and graded refractive index in GPSCs, the light extraction efficiency in organic light emitting diodes (OLED) has reached 70% and light absorption has been enhanced in broad wavelengths in solar cells patterned with GPSCs. In general, combined changes in photonic crystal unit cell orientation, spacing and filling fraction lead toward desired optical functions.
On the other hand, photonic quasi-crystals are an attractive alternative to periodic PhCs. They do not have translational symmetry, but rotational symmetry, resulting in a rich Fourier spectrum for light confinement and manipulation. Broadband light control has been achieved when optical or plasmonic devices are patterned with photonic quasi-crystals. Photonic quasi-crystals offer intrinsically localized optical modes for laser applications. The introduction of disorder into periodic PhCs and photonic quasi-crystals has resulted in favorable broadband photon control.
Laser interference lithography has been used for the holographic fabrication of periodic PhCs and photonic quasi-crystals. Liquid crystal-based spatial light modulators (SLMs) have been used to encode the phase of the incident laser beam for use in laser interference lithography. Graded periodic PhCs have been fabricated using SLMs. When using an SLM for interference lithography, methods are based on computer generated holograms and pixel-by-pixel phase engineering. One advantage of using pixel-by-pixel phase engineering is that the same laser projection system can be used.

Fabrication of multi-level graded photonic super-crystals