The present invention provides antibodies that specifically bind with a high degree of binding affinity to a native ungulate PrPC and/or a denatured ungulate PrPSc, but not to a native ungulate PrPSc. Preferred antibodies find native bovine PrPC and treated PrPSc but not native bovine PrPSc and can be used in an assay to determine if a sample is infected with infectious prions, i.e. PrPSc.

Prions are infectious pathogens that cause central nervous system spongiform encephalopathies in humans and animals. Prions are distinct from bacteria, viruses and viroids. The predominant hypothesis at present is that no nucleic acid component is necessary for infectivity of prion protein. Further, a prion which infects one species of animal (e.g., a human) will not readily infect another (e.g., a mouse).
A major step in the study of prions and the diseases that they cause was the discovery and purification of a protein designated prion protein ("PrP") (Bolton et al. (1982), Science 218:1309–11; Prusiner et al. (1982), Biochemistry 21:6942–50; McKinley et al.(1983), Cell 35:57–62). Complete prion protein-encoding genes have since been cloned, sequenced and expressed in transgenic animals. PrPC is encoded by a single-copy host gene (Basler et al.(1986), Cell 46:417–28) and is normally found at the outer surface of neurons. A leading hypothesis is that prion diseases result from conversion of PrPC into a modified form called PrPSc.
It appears that PrPSc is necessary for both the transmission and pathogenesis of the transmissible neurodegenerative diseases of animals and humans. See Prusiner, S. B.(1991), Science 252:1515–1522. The most common prion diseases of animals are scrapie of sheep and goats, and bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) of cattle (Wilesmith, J. and Wells (1991), Microbiol. Immunol. 172:21–38). Four prion diseases of humans have been identified: (1) kuru, (2) Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD), (3) Gerstmann-Strassler-Scheinker Disease (GSS), and (4) fatal familial insomnia (FFI) (Gajdusek, D. C., (1977) Science 197:943–960; Medori et al.(1992), N. Engl. J. Med. 326:444–449). The presentation of human prion diseases as sporadic, genetic and infectious illnesses initially posed a conundrum which has been explained by the cellular genetic origin of PrP.
BSE is also a major socioeconomic problem, particularly in Britain. More than 175,000 cattle, primarily dairy cows, have died of BSE during the past decades. Tests conducted by the British government on cattle killed over a 30 month period suggest that about 0.3% of the 749,631 tested, or 2249 cattle may have had BSE even though they did not display any outward symptoms. On Mar. 27, 1996, the European Union (EU) placed a ban on the export of British bovine products, including: live bovine animals, their semen and embryos; meat of bovine animals slaughtered in UK; products obtained from bovine animals slaughtered in UK which are liable to enter the animal feed or human food chain; materials destined for use in medicinal products, cosmetics or pharmaceutical products; and mammalian derived meat and bone-meal. This ban has cost the British farming industry more than 1.5 billion pounds since it was imposed, and left many farmers bankrupt. Although the ban was lifted Aug. 1, 1999, both France and Germany still ban the import of British bovine products, contrary to the EU ruling.
The importance of detecting BSE has been heightened by the possibility that bovine prions have been transmitted to humans who developed new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (nvCJD) (G. Chazot et al.(1996), Lancet 347:1181; R. G. Will et al. (1996), Lancet 347:921–925). Earlier studies had shown that the N-terminus of PrPSc could be truncated without loss of scrapie infectivity (S. B. Prusiner et al.(1982), Biochemistry 21:6942–6950; S. B. Prusiner et al. (1984), Cell 38:127–134) and correspondingly, the truncation of the N-terminus of PrPSc still allowed its conversion into PrPSc (M. Rogers et al.(1993), Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 90:3182–3186). The ability of transmission of nvCJD from cattle to humans has been confirmed through in vivo testing, suggesting that the December 20 issue of Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences undermining the comforting presumption that the documented "species barrier" is relevant to this new strain (M. R. Scott et al. (1999), Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 96:15137–15142).
The presence of PrPSc in tissues of humans or animals is indicative of prion infection. PrPSc is the invariant component of prion infection and is the only disease-specific diagnostic marker that can be readily detected by immunoassay in the brains of clinically ill animals and humans Meyer et al. (1986), Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 83:3693–7; Serban et al. (1990), Neurology, 40:110–117; Taraboulos et al. (1992), Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 89:7620–7624; Grathwohl, K. U. D., M. Horiuchi et al. (1997), Virol. Methods 64:205–216. Unfortunately, PrPSc assays are positive only when the prion titer is high, while detection of low levels of PrPSc has been problematic. It has also proven difficult to measure low levels of PrPSc in the presence of high levels of PrPC.
Given the enormity of the potential effect of BSE on the world wide cattle population and the affected cattle population in Great Britain, there is a great need for a method of assessing bovine infection with BSE to protect the cattle populations. Given the potential health risk to the human population, more sensitive methods for detection of bovine prions are urgently needed.

The Regents of the University of California


An image recording and reproducing apparatus for recording and reproducing a multiple picture signal obtained by multiplexing picture signals from a plurality of cameras via a frame switcher, the image recording and reproducing apparatus performing high-accuracy fast-forwarding of a prerecorded image from a specific camera and allowing easy retrieval of a target image. The image recording and reproducing apparatus has a skip reproduction feature for alternating skipping of n frames and continuous reproduction of m frames. m is set to a number related to the frame switching pattern. In case n=4 and m=3, four frames are skipped after reproduction of Frame A1. Then Frames C6, A7, B8 are continuously reproduced. Thus, the images displayed on the monitor are A1, A7, and A13.

The present invention relates to an image recording and reproducing apparatus for recording and reproducing a multiple picture signal obtained by multiplexing picture signals from a plurality of cameras via a frame switcher, and in particular to an image recording and reproducing apparatus that fast-forward reproduces a prerecorded image.
FIG. 6 shows a general configuration of an image recording and reproducing system for multiplexing shot images from a plurality of cameras A, B, C via a frame switcher 2 and recording and reproducing the multiple image. Picture signals 11, 12, 13 on Channel A, Channel B, and Channel C shot via a plurality of cameras A, B, C are switched on a time-division basis per frame by the frame switcher 2, and transmitted to an image recording and reproducing apparatus 1 as a multiplex signal 14, then recorded on a recording medium (not shown) such as a magnetic tape. A reproducing signal 15 of the image recorded on a recording medium is transmitted to the frame switcher 2. Frames on a channel selected by the frame switcher 2 are transmitted to a monitor 3 as a display signal 16, and displayed on the monitor 3.
FIGS. 7A to 7E shows an example of a picture signal at each section of the image recording and reproducing system in FIG. 6. FIG. 7A shows picture signals on Channel A, Channel B, and Channel C shot by Cameras A, B, and C. A new frame image is input to the frame switcher 2 every 1/60 second. FIG. 7B is the recording state of a recording medium in the real-time mode. Time-division switching is made by the frame switcher 2 and frames on Channel A, Channel B and Channel C are recorded every 1/60 second. While FIG. 7B shows switching in equal intervals, recording frequency maybe individually set per camera depending on the location of each camera. FIG. 7C is an example of a reconstructed image displayed on a monitor while the frame switcher 2 selects channel A. In reproducing, reconstructed images are input to the frame switcher in the order of A1, B2, C3, A4, B5, C6 and so on, as shown in FIG. 7B, only the image on Channel A is displayed since the frame switcher selects Channel A.
FIG. 7D is the recording state of a recording medium in the triple-speed recording mode. FIG. 7E is an example of a reconstructed image displayed on the monitor. In this case, each frame is recorded every 3/60 second so that recording is made on the recording medium in the order of A1, B4, C7, A1O, B13, C17 and so on. Images to be reconstructed and displayed are in the order of A1, A1O, A19 and so on in the case the frame switcher selects Channel A.
In such an image recording and reproducing system, number of frames to be skipped was set previously and frame images were read in a curtailed fashion and transmitted to the frame switcher in order to display images on a selected channel on the monitor. This sequence is shown in FIGS. 8A. Assuming that the number of frames to be skipped is 4, picture signals reconstructed in the order of A1, C6, B11 and so on are transmitted to the frame switcher 2, as shown in FIG. 8A. As in FIG. 7, assuming that the frame switcher selects Channel A, the monitor displays the image A1 continuously as shown in FIG. 8B. This renders the displayed image changeless, thus preventing recognition of a fast-forwarding.

Image recording and selective reproducing apparatus

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


The present disclosure describes methods, systems, and computer program products for providing an on-demand, cloud-based platform exposing a geolocation service. One computer-implemented method includes storing, in a persistence, customer master data received as part of a customer registration process, storing, in the persistence, customer preferences received in a customer-created product preferences list, receiving geolocation updates from a customer mobile device, determining if there is a match between a particular customer preference and a product in a product catalog based on received customer preferences and the customer location based on the received geolocation updates, transmitting generated determined matches to display on a map to the customer mobile device, and transmitting online navigation data to the customer mobile device.

Various geolocation technologies are used to locate a user at a geographical position and are no longer used exclusively with special/dedicated devices (e.g., global positioning system (GPS) navigation systems). Integration of geolocation technology within mobile devices (e.g., smartphones and tablet computers) has greatly increased the popularity of the technologies and allowed geolocation applications and functions to be developed and used by a mobile device user. For example, mobile devices have incorporated GPS receivers that permit determination and management of global positioning using GPS satellites and allow the current position of a mobile device owner to be identified online with high-precision. However, current location-based services are focused on a mobile device owner's current location as opposed to where the mobile device owner plans/is projected to be. The lack of ability to determine the mobile device owner's future position results in, among other things, a loss of marketing/business opportunities, a loss of sales, and/or a failure to develop enhanced, cloud-based, mobile device applications.

Framework for geolocation-based customer-to-product matching hosted in a cloud-computing environment


Methods, apparatuses, and computer program products for responding to a timeout of a message in a parallel computer are provided. The parallel computer includes a plurality of compute nodes operatively coupled for data communications over one or more data communications networks. Each compute node includes one or more tasks. Embodiments include a first task of a first node sending a message to a second task on a second node. Embodiments also include the first task sending to the second node a command via a parallel operating environment (POE) in response to a timeout of the message. The command instructs the second node to perform a timeout motivated operation.

1. Field of the Invention
The field of the invention is data processing, or, more specifically, methods, apparatuses, and computer program products for responding to a timeout of a message in a parallel computer.
2. Description of Related Art
The development of the EDVAC computer system of 1948 is often cited as the beginning of the computer era. Since that time, computer systems have evolved into extremely complicated devices. Today's computers are much more sophisticated than early systems such as the EDVAC. Computer systems typically include a combination of hardware and software components, application programs, operating systems, processors, buses, memory, input/output devices, and so on. As advances in semiconductor processing and computer architecture push the performance of the computer higher and higher, more sophisticated computer software has evolved to take advantage of the higher performance of the hardware, resulting in computer systems today that are much more powerful than just a few years ago.
Current parallel computers are capable of processing in parallel a number of tasks of a job that just a few years ago would have seemed unimaginable. For example, current parallel computers may execute in parallel thousands of tasks as part of a job. Tasks executing on compute nodes in the parallel computer often send each other data, in the form of messages. When one tasks notices a message did not receive an acknowledgement from a remote task within a specified period of time, execution of the job may be terminated. With so many tasks of the job executing on different compute nodes, it may be difficult to respond to a timeout failure of one task.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Responding to a timeout of a message in a parallel computer

International Business Machines Corporation


A storage control device that controls a solid state drive group including two or more solid state drives sharing data storage includes a detector that detects a wear state of each of the solid state drives, a separation controller that separates a solid state drive having a wear value, which represents a wear state, exceeding a first threshold among the solid state drives, and an enlargement controller that, when detecting a solid state drive having a wear value, which represents a wear state, exceeding a second threshold less than the first threshold among the solid state drives in the solid state drive group, enlarges a difference in a wear value, which represents a wear state, between the solid state drive having the wear value exceeding the second threshold and a remainder of the solid state drives.

Data centers have to deal with large amounts of data while ensuring reliability, and typically employ redundant arrays of inexpensive disks (RAID) technology using multiple hard disk drives (HDDs) as storage devices (RAID devices). Some storage devices use solid state drives (SSDs), which are faster than HDDs. In SSDs, storage elements deteriorate because of writing and erasing of data. From the viewpoint of ensuring reliability, lifetime management such as load leveling is employed.
Examples of the related art are disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2007-265265 and Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2011-150590.
However, RAID (a solid state drive group) including two or more SSDs has a possibility that multiple dead will occur. The multiple dead represents a state in which a plurality of SSDs reach their end of life at that same time. In particular, when leveling of the load on SSDs is performed, the risk of multiple dead occurring is higher in the solid state drive group.

Storage control device and storage control method


A holding device for inflatable balloons or the like which have a balloon envelope and a filling connection has a holding part which has clamping means for the airtight clamping off of the filling connection of the balloon after its inflation. The holding part has the shape of a bowl (2; 2') which is open towards the balloon (1), and the clamping means comprise a groove (6, 7; 6', 7') which is formed in the circumferential wall of the bowl (2; 2') and passes through said circumferential wall, the groove extending from the edge (2a) of the bowl (2; 2') that rests against the balloon envelope upon use and being intended to receive the filling connection (3) of the balloon 1), and a clamping device (4) for the end of the filling connection (3) of the balloon (1) arranged on the outside of the circumferential wall of the bowl (2; 2').

A large number of holding devices or holding measures for inflatable balloons are known. In the simplest form, the filling connection of the balloon is tied off by a rope or the like after inflation, the rope at the same time forming a holding device for the balloon. This tying must be effected with great care if assurance is to be had that an airtight closure of the balloon is retained for a long time. It is also known to knot the filling connection of a balloon itself in order to produce the airtight closure. All of these measures are time-consuming and they are not entirely satisfactory from the standpoint of aesthetic appearance.
A holding device is also known which consists of a bar having an end that faces the balloon, and to this end there is fastened a wire helix which widens in funnel shape towards the balloon or a spring on which the filling connection of the balloon is fastened. In this case also, separate clamping measures are generally required for the airtight closure of the balloon.
From Federal Republic of Germany De-U1 87 11380, an illuminating device for inflatable balloons is known in which the illuminating device can either be pushed into the filling connection of an inflatable balloon or inserted in sealed manner in a recess within the balloon. In both cases the illuminating devices must in their turn be provided with filling connections in order to permit the filling of the balloon. For this it is necessary that these illuminating devices, as such, form an airtight unit, which results in a complicated construction and comparatively high weight. Furthermore, the handling of these illuminating devices and particularly their attachment to the balloon is difficult.
From Federal Republic of Germany U1 89 05 690, there is known another illuminating device for inflatable balloons which has the shape of a bowl the open edge of which can be attached by adhesives, fastening extensions or a circumferential flange to the balloon envelope outside the region of the filling connection. In this case, however, a separate closing of the filling connection is necessary.
From U.S. Pat. No. 3,411,778, finally, a holding device of the aforementioned type for balloons on a target is known, the holding device having the shape of an outwardly widening cylindrical stabilizer the front end of which is fastened to the actual target and which has a slot extending forward from the rear edge of the holding device for pulling the filling connection of the balloon through it, the connection being wound around the front end of said stabilizer and held fast. A dependable sealing of the filling connection by the wrapping of the filling connection around the front end of the holding device cannot be obtained here, and the aesthetic appearance is not satisfactory. Furthermore, it cannot be seen how an illuminating device could be provided here.


Network circuitry authorizes User Equipment (UEs) for wireless services from wireless networks. The network circuitry stores lists of network identifiers that are associated with UE types. The network circuitry receives an authorization request that indicates a network identifier and a UE type. The UE type comprises model, operating system, user application, and/or radio frequency. The network circuitry retrieves a networks list for the UE type and compares the network identifier from the authorization request to the network identifiers on the network list. The authorization circuitry authorizes the UE responsive to a match between the network identifier from the authorization request and a network identifier on the network list.

Wireless communication networks provide wireless data services to wireless user devices. Exemplary wireless data services include machine-control, internet-access, media-streaming, and social-networking. Exemplary wireless user devices comprise phones, computers, vehicles, robots, and sensors. For example, a human may operate a phone to participate in a mobile video-conference. In another example, an unmanned aerial vehicle may wirelessly receive navigation instructions while in-flight. The wireless communication networks have wireless access nodes that exchange wireless signals with the wireless user devices using wireless network protocols. Exemplary wireless network protocols include Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 (WIFI), Long Term Evolution (LTE), Fifth Generation New Radio (5GNR), Low-Power Wide Area Network (LP-WAN), and Millimeter Wave (MMW).
The typical wireless communication network reserves its network resources for its own customers by restricting the wireless data services that are provided to non-customers. In emergency situations, the wireless communication network serves non-customers with emergency services. In roaming situations, the wireless communication network serves non-customers with wireless data services that are authorized by another wireless communication network. This other wireless communication network is sometimes called a "partner" network.
To authorize a wireless user device, the wireless communication network checks a device identifier that was received from the wireless user device against a list of authorized device identifiers. In the roaming situations, the visited network requests authorization from the home network, and the home network authorizes their own wireless user devices based on the visited network ID and possibly the device ID.
The present use of the network identifiers and device identifiers for authentication limits user access to the wireless communication networks. The list of network identifiers is often small and omits some networks. The list of device identifiers is often large and requires cumbersome editing on a per-device basis. Unfortunately, the authentication of the wireless user devices remains monolithic and complicated.

Wireless user equipment (UE) authorization based on UE type and network identifier


Methods, system and apparatus for the augmentation of an integrated development environment (IDE). The system and methods provide for the integration of all aspects of a development workflow to be initiated and completed from within the IDE. Every phase of development, including, grabbing a ticket, working on the ticket, asking teammates questions, requesting feedback, initiating code reviews, performing code reviews, creating feature branches, creating pull requests, creating merge requests and generating audit trails of all interactions users have with the IDE are managed and performed from within the IDE, eliminating the need to context switch or open additional application or websites.

Conventional systems for software development incorporate many enhancements to facilitate the development of code, updates, and code modifications. A variety of integrated development environments ("IDE") exist to provide the necessary architecture to organize code development tasks, such as compiling, debugging, and code formatting tools. Unfortunately, coordination of work remains a significant challenge. The need for merging and reconciliation of code changes between the individual developers on a software development team remains a significant stumbling block, causing inconsistencies and internal conflict within developed code.
Documentation of code has been a source of frustration and conflict in software development for many years. The problem is, fundamentally, that many developers do not document their code, or do so poorly. As a result, other developers who need to understand the code they are utilizing or changing spend many frustrating hours addressing this shortcoming. Understanding code can take as much as 10× the amount of time as writing new code.
Code does not get documented mainly because of the amount of time documentation requires. During a push to release a new feature, time constraints make it even more difficult and costly to document new and updated code. When code does get documented, the documentation often falls out of date as the software is updated over time.

System and method for in-ide code review


A measurement transducer includes a transducer housing, which exhibits a multiplicity of natural oscillation modes and at least a first measuring tube for conveying at least a volume fraction of the medium to be measured. The measuring tube is held to oscillation in the transducer housing and vibrator, at least at times. Also included is an electromechanical, exciter mechanism acting on the at least one measuring tube and a sensor arrangement reacting to movements, i.e. bending oscillations, of the measuring tube. Also included is a first support element fixed, i.e. directly, to the transducer housing and serving for the formation of essentially locationally fixed oscillation nodes in the transducer housing for suppressing or erasing at least one natural oscillation mode of the transducer housing. An outer oscillation system is formed by the transducer housing and at least the at least one support element and an inner oscillation system is formed by the at least one measuring tube, the medium at least instantaneously conveyed therein, and, at least in part, by the exciter mechanism and the sensor arrangement. The inner oscillation system, executes, at least at times during operation of the measurement transducer, mechanical oscillations, especially in the form of lateral oscillations.

In the technology of process measurements and automation, physical parameters, such as e.g. mass flow rate, density and/or viscosity, of a medium flowing in a pipeline are often measured using inline measuring devices, which include a vibratory measurement transducer, through which the medium flows, and a measurement and operating circuit connected thereto, for effecting reaction forces in the medium, such as e.g. Coriolis forces corresponding to the mass flow rate, inertial forces corresponding to the density of the medium and/or frictional forces corresponding to the viscosity of the medium, etc., and for producing, derived from these forces, measurement signals respectively representing mass flow rate, density and viscosity.
Such measurement transducers, especially those in the form of Coriolis mass flow meters or Coriolis mass flow/density meters, are described in detail e.g. in WO-A 04/038341, WO-A 03/076879, WO-A 03/027616, WO-A 03/021202, WO-A 01/33174, WO-A 00/57141, WO-A 98/07009, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,711,958, 6,666,098, 6,308,580, 6,092,429, 5,796,011, 5,301,557, 4,876,898, EP-A 553 939, EP-A 1 001 254, EP-A 1 448 956, or EP-A 1 421 349. For conveying the medium, flowing at least at times, the measurement transducers include at least one measuring tube, which is secured appropriately oscillatably to a usually thicker-walled, especially tubular and/or beam-like, carrier cylinder or in a carrier frame. For producing the above-mentioned reaction forces, the measuring tube is caused to vibrate during operation, driven by a, usually, electrodynamic exciter mechanism. For detecting vibrations of the measuring tube, especially inlet, and outlet, end vibrations, and for producing at least one oscillation measurement signal representing such, these measurement transducers additionally include a sensor arrangement reacting to movements, and thus also to mechanical oscillations, of the measuring tube.
During operation, the above-described, inner oscillation system of the measurement transducer, formed by the at least one measuring tube, by the medium conveyed at least instantaneously therein, and, at least in part, by the exciter mechanism and sensor arrangement, is excited by means of the electromechanical exciter mechanism, at least at times, to execute mechanical oscillations in a wanted oscillation mode at at least one, dominating, wanted oscillation frequency. These oscillations in the so-called wanted oscillation mode are, mostly, especially in the case of application of the measurement transducer as a Coriolis mass flow and/or density meter, at least partially developed as lateral oscillations. In such case, the wanted oscillation frequency is selected to be a natural, instantaneous resonance frequency of the internal oscillation system, which, in turn, depends on size, form and material of the measuring tube, as well as also on the instantaneous density of the medium; where appropriate, the wanted oscillation frequency can also be significantly influenced by an instantaneous viscosity of the medium. Due to fluctuating density of the medium to be measured and/or due to medium changes effected during operation, the wanted oscillation frequency is naturally changeable during operation of the measurement transducer, at least within a calibrated, and, to that extent, predetermined, wanted frequency band, which has, correspondingly, predetermined lower and upper frequency limits.
The inner oscillation system of the measurement transducer formed together by the at least one measuring tube, the exciter mechanism and the sensor arrangement is, furthermore, usually accommodated in a transducer housing having, as an integral component, a carrier frame, or carrier cylinder, as the case may be. This housing can likewise have a large number of natural oscillation modes. Suitable transducer housings for vibration-type measurement transducers are described, for example, in WO-A 03/076879, WO-A 03/021202, WO-A 01/65213, WO-A 00/57141, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,776,052, 6,711,958, 6,044,715, 5,301,557 or EP-A 1 001 254. The housing caps of such transducer housings are usually manufactured in one piece by means of deep-drawn intermediates. Additionally, however, these housing caps can, especially in the case of larger dimensions, be composed of separate, shell-shaped, intermediate pieces, as is proposed e.g. also in WO-A 03/021202. The transducer housing described in WO-A 03/021202 is formed by means of a support tube and a housing cap welded therewith, with the housing cap itself including, due to the special manufacturing, an upper, essentially trough-shaped, first housing segment with a first segment edge and a second segment edge formed essentially identically to the first segment edge, an essentially planar, second housing segment, which is connected via its first segment edge with the first segment edge of the first housing segment, and a third housing segment essentially mirror-symmetric to the second housing segment and connected via its first segment edge with the second segment edge of the first housing segment.
Transducer housings of the described kind serve, besides for holding the at least one measuring tube, additionally also for protecting the measuring tube, the exciter mechanism and the sensor arrangement, as well as other internally situated components, from external, environmental influences, such as e.g. dust or water spray. The user also frequently requires that such transducer housings, and especially their housing cap, be able to withstand, leak-free, at least for a predetermined time, the internal pressure, mostly lying markedly above the external pressure, arising in the case of a bursting of the tube segment of the measuring tube. At least for applications involving toxic or easily ignitable media, the transducer housing must, in cases, also be able to fulfill the requirements applicable for a safety container. Additionally, also a sufficient damping of sound emissions possibly produced by the measurement transducer is required.
Development in the field of vibration-type measurement transducers has, in the meantime, reached such a level, that modern measurement transducers of the described kind can be used practically for almost all applications of flow measurement technology and can satisfy the highest requirements of this field. Thus, such measurement transducers are used in practice for mass flow rates of only a few g/h (grams per hour) up to several t/h (tonnes per hour), at pressures of up to 100 bar for liquids or even over 300 bar for gases. The achieved accuracy of measurement in such cases lies usually at about 99.9% of the actual value, or higher, or a measurement error of about 0.1%, with a lower limit of the guaranteed measurement range lying quite easily at about 1% of the measurement range end value. Due to the high bandwidth of their possibilities for use, measurement transducers of the described kind are offered, depending on application, additionally with nominal diameters lying, measured at the flange, between 1 mm and 250 mm or even above.
As the nominal diameters of vibration-type transducers become always larger, their installed mass practically inherently also becomes larger. Such measurement transducers, including flanges possibly attached thereto, have, in the meantime, grown, at least in individual cases or small-series production, to installed masses of far above 500 kg. However, it must be appreciated that, alone in consideration of the structural situations in the plants, it is necessary that there be limitations to further marked increases in the installed mass of such measurement transducers. Considering also that the installed mass increases more than proportionally to the nominal diameter of the measurement transducer, in order to achieve the high mechanical stability likewise required for measurement transducers of the described kind, it seems that the above-mentioned sizes already represent an upper limit for what is currently economically realizable for vibration-type measurement transducers. In the case of the above-described, conventional forms of construction, a corresponding installed mass to nominal diameter ratio of the total installed mass of the measurement transducer to its nominal diameter, for nominal diameters of less than 150 mm, is usually smaller than 1 kg/mm, while, for nominal diameters of over 150 mm, especially greater than 200 mm, the ratio would lie noticeably above 1.5 kg/mm. Considering that, in the case of measurement transducers of the described form of construction with nominal diameters of greater than 150 mm and with use of the currently usual materials, very high installed mass to nominal diameter ratios are to be expected, it appears that, for vibration-type measurement transducers, an increase of their nominal diameters is scarcely possible any more, without accompanying significant increase of the installed masses.
As a result of the specified limitations respecting maximum installed masses, a special problem exists for the design of measurement transducers of large nominal diameter, that, due to the then compelled very high total mass of the above-mentioned inner oscillation system (mass of the measuring tube itself, mass of the volume fraction of the medium to be measured instantaneously conveyed in the measuring tube, total mass of the exciter mechanism and sensor arrangement, etc.), an outer oscillation system of the measurement transducer, formed at least by the transducer housing, including carrier cylinder, or carrier frame, as the case may be, and possibly provided distributer pieces and/or flanges, must, in comparison to the inner oscillation system, become ever lighter. In other words, such measurement transducers with large nominal diameters must, because of their most often large installed mass, be so designed, that, in comparison with conventional measurement transducers with smaller nominal diameters, a mass ratio of a total mass of the outer oscillation system to a total mass of the inner oscillation system is small.
Investigations have now, however, shown, that, in the case of comparatively small mass ratios (total mass of the outer oscillation system:total mass of the inner oscillation system) of smaller than 4:1, such as can arise due to the above-mentioned limiting to a still-manageable installed mass of the measurement transducer, especially in the case of measurement transducers of large nominal diameter, especially in the case conventionally constructed measurement transducers of a nominal diameter of greater than 200 mm, eigenfrequencies of the outer oscillation system unluckily become shifted quite near to the wanted oscillation frequency or even into the wanted frequency band. As a result of this, the undesired situation can, for example, arise, that the inner oscillation, operating, as it should, at the wanted oscillation frequency, excites the outer oscillation system to resonance oscillations, which then get superimposed on the oscillations of the inner oscillation system and, thus, can significantly influence, or even render completely useless, the oscillation measurement signal delivered by the sensor arrangement. The interfering vibrations are, in such case, caused to a considerable degree by the components of the outer oscillation system, especially the mentioned housing segments, which are made with a wall thickness mostly smaller than 5 mm, thus almost thin-walled, yet being at the same time quite large as regards surface area. For example, the frequency spectrum shown by way of example in FIG. 2 was experimentally determined for an outer oscillation system of form of construction described in WO-A 03/021202 and schematically illustrated in FIGS. 1a, b, including a support tube and a housing cap affixed thereto. Clearly recognizable is that the outer oscillation system exhibits pronounced oscillation modes at about 255 Hz and about 259 Hz, with the above-mentioned, wanted frequency band for the inner oscillation system of the same measurement transducer having been determined to lie in the range of about 210 Hz to 270 Hz. According to this, in the case of the described measurement transducer configuration, the outer oscillation system would resonate over practically the entire wanted frequency band that should actually be kept free of disturbances. Consequently, the oscillation measurement signals determined in such case, especially signals for a mass flow rate measurement or for a density measurement, would be essentially completely unusable.
A possibility for reducing such disturbance oscillations coming from the outer oscillation system is, for instance, as proposed e.g. in WO-A 01/33174, to affix extra masses to the transducer housing, such as resonate essentially with the transducer housing and, therefore, bring about a studied detuning of the outer oscillation system relative to the inner oscillation system. A disadvantage of such a solution is, with reference to the use on measurement transducers of large nominal diameter, that this, in turn, results in a further increasing of the already very large installed mass of the measurement transducer.


The present invention relates generally to novel protein molecules and to derivatives, analogues, chemical equivalents and mimetics thereof capable of modulating cellular activity and, in particular, modulating cellular activity via the modulation of signal transduction. More particularly, the present invention relates to human sphingosine kinase and to derivatives, analogues, chemical equivalents and mimetics thereof. The present invention also contemplates genetic sequences encoding said protein molecules and derivatives, analogues, chemical equivalents and mimetics thereof. The molecules of the present invention are useful in a range of therapeutic, prophylactic and diagnostic applications.

Bibliographic details of the publications referred to by author in this specification are collected alphabetically at the end of the description.
Sphingosine kinase is a key regulatory enzyme in a variety of cellular responses. Its activity can affect inflammation, apoptosis and cell proliferation, and thus it is an important target for therapeutic intervention.
Sphingosine-1-phosphate is known to be an important second messenger in signal transduction (Meyer et al., 1997). It is mitogenic in various cell types (Alessenko, 1998; Spiegel et al., 1998) and appears to trigger a diverse range of important regulatory pathways including; prevention of ceramide-induced apoptosis (Culliver et al., 1996), mobilisation of intracellular calcium by an IP3-independant pathway, stimulation of DNA synthesis, activation of mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase pathway, activation of phospholipase D, and regulation of cell motility (for reviews see Meyer et al., 1997; Spiegel et al., 1998; Igarashi., 1997).
Recent studies (Xia et al., 1998) have shown that sphingosine-1-phosphate is an obligatory signalling intermediate in the inflammatory response of vascular endothelial cells to tumour necrosis factor-α (TNFα). In spite of its obvious importance, very little is known of the mechanisms that control cellular sphingosine-1-phosphate levels. It is known that sphingosine-1-phosphate levels in the cell are mediated largely by its formation from sphingosine by sphingosine kinase, and to a lesser extent by its degradation by endoplasmic reticulum-associated sphingosine-1-phosphate lyase and sphingosine-1-phosphate phosphatase (Spiegel et al., 1998). Basal levels of sphingosine-1-phosphate in the cell are generally low, but can increase rapidly and transiently when cells are exposed to mitogenic agents. This response appears correlated with an increase in sphingosine kinase activity in the cytosol and can be prevented by addition of the sphingosine kinase inhibitory molecules N,N-dimethylsphingosine and DL-threo-dihydrosphingosine. This indicates that sphingosine kinase is an important molecule responsible for regulating cellular sphingosine-1-phosphate levels. This places sphingosine kinase in a central and obligatory role in mediating the effects attributed to sphingosine-1-phosphate in the cell.
Accordingly, there is a need to identify and clone novel sphingosine kinase molecules to facilitate the progression towards the more sensitive control of intracellular signal transduction via, for example, the elucidation of the mechanism controlling the expression and enzymatic activity of sphingosine kinase thereby providing a platform for the development of interventional therapies to regulate the expression or activity of sphingosine kinase. In work leading up to the present invention the inventors have purified and cloned a novel sphingosine kinase molecule.

Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research and Development LLC


Disclosed herein, among other things, are systems and methods for controlling operation of a hearing assistance device. One aspect of the present subject matter includes a method of operating a hearing assistance device worn by a wearer. The method includes tracking eye movements of the wearer using a sensor on or in the hearing assistance device to obtain an electrooculogram (EOG). At least one parameter of the hearing assistance device is adjusted using the EOG, according to various embodiments.

Modern hearing assistance devices, such as hearing aids, typically include digital electronics to enhance the wearer's listening experience. Hearing aids are electronic instruments worn in or around the ear that compensate for hearing losses by specially amplifying sound. Hearing aids use transducer and electro-mechanical components which are connected via wires to the hearing aid circuitry.
Hearing aids typically require conspicuous movement or interaction on the user's part to input commands into the hearing aid in order to influence an outcome or performance. This input is typically done by using a pushbutton located on the device or in more sophisticated units, the pressing of a button on a wireless remote. Cycling thru memory presets, adjusting directional control, or simply adjusting the volume draws attention to the fact that the user is wearing a hearing device.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for improved systems and methods for controlling operation of a hearing assistance device.

Electrooculogram as a control in a hearing assistance device


A method of judging lack-of-freon in an air conditioner and an air conditioner control method. The control method includes: acquiring outflow air temperatures at the first air outlet and the second air outlet, and calculating a temperature difference; comparing the temperature difference with a preset temperature difference threshold; and adjusting an opening degree of the expansion valve accordingly. In the method, the opening degree of the expansion valve can be automatically adjusted according to a result of temperature comparison to compensate for the flow rate of freon, so as to improve the cooling or heating efficiency of the air conditioning system and realize the adaptive adjustment of the air conditioner, thereby ensuring the cooling or heating efficiency of the system even if the system lacks freon to a slight extent and effectively reducing energy consumption. The judging method has a higher accuracy of judging result, and is easier to implement.

Freon is usually used as a heat exchange medium in air conditioning systems. During the flow of freon in air-conditioning pipelines, indoor heat may be transferred to the outside, or outdoor heat may be transferred into the room, thus creating a comfortable living environment for the user. Affected by many factors, after long-term use of the air conditioner, freon in the pipelines may leak to different extents, resulting in a decrease in the cooling or heating effect of the air conditioner, or even shutdown of the air conditioner. Therefore, it is very important for the user of the air conditioner to know about the amount of the remaining freon in the air-conditioning system in time.
In the related art, there are various methods of judging whether the air conditioner lacks freon. For example, after a certain period of running of the air conditioner, whether the indoor temperature has reached a target temperature set by the user can be observed through somatosensing or through a thermometer. If the indoor temperature still does not reach the target temperature after a long enough time of running, it indicates that the air conditioner has a poor cooling effect and the air conditioner may lack freon; or after the air conditioner has been running for a period of time, a housing of an indoor unit is detached and it is observed whether thin tubes of an evaporator are evenly covered with condensed water, wherein if there is no condensed water adhered to either some or all sections of the tubes, it indicates that the air conditioner may lack freon; or whether the air conditioning system lacks freon is judged by detecting an air temperature difference between an air inlet and an air outlet of the indoor unit, wherein if the air temperature difference between the air inlet and the air outlet is less than a minimum temperature difference in a normal running state, it indicates that the air conditioner may lack freon; or a pressure switch may be configured to monitor whether the air conditioning system lacks freon, etc.
Existing methods of judging lack-of-freon in air conditioners each have some problems. For example, the method of measuring the indoor temperature through somatosensing or through a thermometer requires that the air conditioner be running for a long time before judging the lack-of-freon state. At this point, the air conditioner has been running for a certain period of time. If the air conditioner has been running in the lack-of-freon state from the very beginning and the user fails to find this in time, it will cause damage to the air conditioning system and increase the power consumption of the air conditioner; the method of judging whether the freon is lacking by observing the condensed water also requires that the air conditioner be running for a long time before judging, and requires that the indoor unit of the air conditioner be detached and assembled, which is inconvenient to operate; in the method of judging whether the air conditioning system lacks freon by detecting the air temperature difference between the air inlet and the air outlet, the detection result is greatly affected by the indoor temperature, and the judging result is prone to deviation; when monitoring the lack-of-freon condition in the air conditioner by the pressure switch, only after the pressure switch is turned off can the user know that the system lacks freon, that is, before the pressure switch is turned off, the air conditioner has been running in the lack-of-freon state for a very long time, which will shorten the service life of the air conditioner, increase energy consumption, and cause damage to the property of user.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a new method of judging lack-of-freon in an air conditioner and a new air conditioner control method to solve the above problems.

Method of judging lack-of-freon in air conditioner, and air conditioner control method

Qingdao Haier Air-conditioning Electronic Co., Ltd


A memory interface device for interfacing between the local bus and a memory bus. The memory bus is coupled to a static memory and a dynamic memory. The interface device includes first and second internal buses coupled to a selecting device. The selecting device selectively couples one of the first and second internal buses to the memory bus. The memory interface device further includes an interface control unit having an input coupled to the local bus for receiving address and control signals. The interface control unit further has an output, coupled to the first internal bus for generating gating each data transfer in the burst in response to the address and control signals.

(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of computer systems. More specifically, the present invention relates to a memory interface for interfacing between a local bus and a memory bus.
(2) Description of Related Art
Typically, computer systems utilize two address buses between a processor and a memory subsystem. One address bus is coupled to a static memory subsystem such as SRAM and ROM and the other address bus is coupled to a dynamic memory subsystem such as DRAM. Part of the reason for this implementation is that SRAM access requires only one address phase whereas DRAM access requires two address phases i.e., a phase in which the row address is asserted, and a second phase in which the column address is asserted. In other words, DRAM memories require a multiplexed address bus for rows and columns. Moreover, dynamic memory systems can be endowed with an interleaved memory scheme which provides even and odd memory banks. An interleaved bank is defined as a contiguous block of memory having independent odd and even leaves. Interleaving the odd and even leaves allows for higher system performance by overlapping CAS# (column address strobe) access times between leaves. Current memory controllers rely on separate even and odd address buses to support the dual leaves of an interleaved dynamic memory system. However, this addressing scheme that utilizes two address busses negatively impacts on the size of the chip and also requires a higher number of pins.
Furthermore, prior art systems are limited in their ability to implement long burst transactions as they provide at most the capability of transferring four words (1 quad word) during a burst transaction. These systems require thus for each quad word, an additional address phase, let alone additional recovery cycles and additional wait states between each shorter burst transaction. For computer systems using a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus, which supports burst transactions of an extended length, it is desirable to provide an interface, between the PCI bus and the memory subsystem, which is capable of supporting long burst transactions without the overhead of asserting additional address phases and recovery cycles. The PCI bus is a high-speed I/O bus designed to define the interconnecting bus transfer protocol between highly-integrated peripheral adapters that are coupled to this bus. For more details regarding PCI system architecture, see PCI Local Bus Specification, Revision 2.1, of the PCI Special Interest Group of Portland, Oregon.
It is thus desirable to provide a computer system with a single address bus supporting both a static and a dynamic memory subsystem. Moreover, it is desirable to provide a single address bus which supports an interleaved dynamic memory system. It is also desirable to provide a memory interface supporting extended length burst transactions.

Method for utilizing a single multiplex address bus between DRAM, SRAM and ROM


Communication of location specific content to client devices including identifying a client device at a location of a location specific device, wherein the client device comprises client device attributes, the client device attributes comprising a client device identification code, and wherein the location specific device comprises a location identification code; recording user preferences for the client device; selecting, in dependence upon the user preferences for the client device and upon the location identification code, content for transmission to the client device; transmitting the selected content through the location specific device to the client device for presentation; and enabling retention of the content within the client device for a period of time.

1. Field of the Invention
The field of the invention is communications systems, or, more specifically, methods, systems, and products for communication of location specific content to client devices in dependence upon user preferences, the client devices enabled to retain the content for a specified period of time.
2. Description of Related Art
When visiting museums, historic buildings, historic locations, or art galleries, audio tours are often made available via portable cassette players. While these devices provide useful information, there are some problems with the current technology. Since audio cassette tape is a linear delivery mechanism, it forces users to adhere to the order and pacing of the tour designer, requiring that users view the exhibits in a fixed order, not allowing users to re-arrange the order of the tour or skip items they may not be interested in. While some measure of tour customization can be accomplished by using the fast forward and rewind functions of the audio tape player, this can be a cumbersome and frustrating experience. Prior art provides little or no user options regarding preferences, levels of details, changes in program subject, and so on. There is little or no opportunity prior art for users to retain possession of program materials. In addition, the exhibit information is limited to audio only, and does not allow for delivery of more media-rich information about the exhibits such as text, photographs and video. For all these reasons, there is an ongoing need in the art for improved ways of presenting exhibit-related or location specific program content.


A method of making golf club grip includes the steps of overlapping a textile fabric on a first raw rubber layer and painting a rubber latex on the textile fabric to attach the textile fabric on the first raw rubber layer to form a thin reinforced rubber layer laminated with the textile fabric; preparing a second raw rubber layer which is shaped and sized to form two control members; shaping the first raw rubber layer to form two anti-slip members; aligning the anti-slip members with the control members in an end to end manner in two halves of heat mold respectively; and vulcanizing the anti-slip members and the control members in a heat mold to form the golf club grip including a tubular anti-slip arrangement and a tubular control arrangement coaxially extended from a lower end of the anti-slip arrangement.

1. Field of Invention
The preset invention relates to a golf club grip, and more particularly to an anti-slip and control arrangement that includes an upper anti-slip arrangement connected coaxially with a lower control arrangement to form a tapered tubular body for attaching to a holding end portion of a shaft of a golf club.
2. Description of Related Arts
Golf is one of the most popular sports in the world. All lower handicapped golfers recognize that the main key of having a good golf swing mostly depends on whether the golfer correctly grips the golf club.
No matter whether a golfer uses an interlocking grip, a natural grip or an overlapping grip, a proper grip is one of the most important fundamental. If the golfer grips his or her golf club too tight, his or her arms will be too tense to release the body twisting power to maximize the club head speed at impact of the golf ball through a golf swing. On the other hand, if the golfer grips his or her golf club too loose, the golf club may slip out of his or her hands through the golf swing. Also, the power from the uncoiling body will fail to transmit to the golf club through the golfer's hands. The flying trajectory, such as straight, draw or fade, of the golf ball can also be controlled by the gripping hands of the golfer.
The term "grip" is misleading since it implies a forceful pressure. In fact, a more proper way is to "mold" the golfer's hands into the proper position, and then to hold the golf club with the proper amount of pressure that allows the hands to work together to control the club head. For a right-hand golfer, his or her left hand will be the upper holding hand and his or her right hand will be the lower controlling hand. For a left-hand golfer, the right hand will be the upper holding hand and the left hand will be the lower controlling hand.
The middle finger H1, ring finger H2 and little finger H3 of the upper holding hand H, i.e. the left hand of a right-hand golfer, are used to hold on the upper end portion of the grip G of a golf club, as shown in FIG. 5. The three holding fingers H1, H2 and H3 should apply an appropriate pressure to the grip G that is enough to support and hold the golf club through the grip G. In other words, the golfer should be capable of holding the golf club at the upper end portion of the grip G without the other hand and the thumb and index finger contacting the grip G. By means of the three holding fingers H1, H2 and H3 with appropriate pressure applied to the grip, the arm of the golfer should become an extension of the golf club hinged to the golfer's body with his or her shoulder. The appropriate holding pressure of the three holding fingers H1, H2, H3 applied to the grip G varies with the weight and length of the golf club as well as the nature of the grip G. The minimum holding pressure should be just enough to hold the golf club to prevent slipping off the hand through the golf swing. Then, the index finger and the thumb of the upper holding hand H should be simply placed on the grip G in position as shown in FIG. 5.
Then, simply place the lower controlling hand H′ on a middle portion of the grip G in such a manner that the ring finger H2′, the middle finger H3′ and the index finger H4′ are placed on the grip G and aligned with the middle finger H3 of the upper holding hand H while the little finger H1′ of the controlling hand H′ is overlapped on top of the middle finger H3 of the holding hand H for an overlapping grip, or the little finger H1′ of the controlling hand H′ is interlocked with the middle finger H3 of the holding hand H for an interlocking grip. Also, the index finger and the thumb of the upper holding hand H should be simply placed on the grip in position as shown in FIG. 5 while the center of the palm of the controlling hand H′ is facing the target. The grip pressure of the controlling hand H′ is applied at the contacts of the middle phalanges H21′, H31′ of the ring finger H2′ and the middle finger H3′ of the controlling hand H′ with the grip G.
In fact, by varying a few pressure points, you can better shape your shots. For example, in order to hit a fade, the golfer can grip the golf club a little bit tighter with the litter finger H1, the ring finger H2 and the middle finger H3 of the holding hand H. Also, when more pressure is exerted by the thumb and index finger of the controlling hand H′ of the golfer, a right-to-left trajectory will be resulted.
In addition, the golfer can control the ball flying trajectory between a hook to a slice simply by adjusting the gripping position of the controlling hand H′ with respect to the gripping position of the holding hand H, such as a strong grip or a weak grip. The grip pressure of the controlling hand H′ is for feeling and controlling but not for supporting and holding the golf club. Therefore, the grip pressure of the controlling hand H′ should be merely tight enough to control the club but still light enough to allow you to feel the weight of the golf club throughout the swing.
It is why most of the golfers wear gloves with their holding hands to enhance frictional contact with the grip but keeping their controlling hands bare to ensure feeling for swing control.
No matter whether the golfer grips the golf club somewhat firmly or softly, what is really important is keeping your level of grip pressure constant throughout the swing. Therefore, the nature and surface condition of the grip can substantially affect the golfer to apply the appropriate grip pressure. Some golf club grips provide anti-slip design on the grip surface for better frictional contact with the golfer's hands, it can substantially help to prevent slipping and provide constant grip pressure throughout the swing for the holding hand but may adversely affect the control and feeling of the controlling hand. Some golf club grips provide smooth and soft grip surface for better controlling but it also invites the holding hand to grip tighter to prevent slipping off. However, any excess grip pressure through the hand may also tense the arm and shoulder muscles and unexpectedly affect the golf swing. How to produce a grip that fits to the different needs of the holding hand and controlling hand of a golfer becomes a challenge for the development of a better club.

Method of making golf club grip with anti-slip and control arrangement


A hatch device comprised by a main support body, a flow guide piece and an optional plug, which allows for minimum modifications in the service hatch cover's structure during installation.

Fresh food keeps breathing after harvesting. This means that it consumes oxygen, generates phytohormones such as ethylene and produces carbon dioxide; this causes a certain degree of spoilage during transport if the conditions of the environment in which the food is transported are not properly controlled.
The transport of fresh fruit involves a long period of time between its harvest and delivery to the final customer. During this period of transport, adequate means are involved to transport these fruits, which, unless they are in proper operating conditions, will result in early ripening and faster spoilage of the fruit.
Loading containers with refrigeration systems are mainly used for transporting fresh fruit from its production source to its point of sale. These containers are equipped with the necessary elements to reduce respiration, prevent spoilage and ripening of the fruit, keeping it in good condition. This transport condition is achieved by maintaining low temperatures, decreasing or increasing the amount of oxygen or carbon dioxide in the environment, and absorbing ethylene.
Two main approaches are used to keep the fruit in good condition. The first focuses on being able to maintain the low temperatures where the fruit is stored, to slow down its cellular metabolism, which ultimately reduces the gas exchange rate. The second approach, which complements low temperature control, is the external control and/or reduction of oxygen (replacing it with nitrogen, carbon dioxide or other inert gases), which also results in less cellular respiration. This increases the levels of carbon dioxide generated from the fruit or introduced externally to achieve three objectives simultaneously: a) biological control, restricting the growth of aerobic bacteria, preventing fruit spoilage, b) decreasing the respiratory rate when removing oxygen, decreasing the process of fruit spoilage and c) controlling the release of ethylene, to prevent early fruit ripening.
The types of containers normally used for the transport of fresh products are refrigerated containers with complete refrigeration systems, such as and/or refrigerated containers with adapted integral refrigeration systems. In general, this type of container is basically comprised by an area to place the cargo and a refrigeration system. The refrigeration system includes the refrigeration module(s), service hatches, ventilation hatches, evaporators, fans placed inside the chamber where the refrigeration module is installed (with the purpose of circulating the air inside the container, where the cargo is located), and an air inlet and outlet, such as those described in patents ES 2143858, ES 2036180 and/or WO2015178537, among others.
In order to be able to control all the parameters related to the deterioration and advanced ripening of the fruit that is transported in these refrigerated containers, a series of elements are also incorporated to maintain a controlled atmosphere in the cargo transport area inside the refrigerated container. This requires providing the refrigerated container with a device or valve that allows the atmosphere of the cargo area inside the container to be controlled during the transport period, as described in patent application CL 0948-2016, whose contents describe part of the present invention, where the various devices used to modify the atmosphere in a refrigerated container usually entail permanently modifying the container by drilling holes in its walls, in order to be able to set out the different elements and devices that comprise the atmosphere control system.
The controlled atmosphere systems placed in a refrigerated container and used in the art, consist of incorporating an atmosphere controlling device into the refrigeration area, where the service hatches are normally replaced or modified to incorporate a valve or device that controls all the parameters within the cargo area and that keeps the atmosphere controlled.
Modifying the service hatches of refrigerated containers to include an atmosphere control valve device involves drilling a hole in said hatch to secure the valve in it. The fact of having to drill a hole into one of the container's components implies that the means used to attach and hold the valve in place must be sufficiently airtight to maintain the controlled atmosphere and temperature inside the container. The need to remove the valve devices from their place of operation may also require an element to keep the container airtight.
It would therefore be desirable to have a device that provides optimum operational mechanical support for an atmosphere control valve device in a refrigerated cargo container, whose setup keeps the container airtight and ensures proper operation of the valve device, whether it is operational or not.
Maersk Container's document U.S. Pat. No. 8,562,399, published on Oct. 22, 2013, describes a vent valve with two valve openings in one valve plate, whose opening level is controlled with a valve element that rotates around the valve plate. It is provided in parallel with at least one valve opening in an air duct; however the disclosure of this document neither describes nor observes a supporting removable valve element or device to control the atmosphere in a refrigerated container with atmosphere control.
A device to regulate the atmosphere inside a chamber is disclosed in Mitsubishi Australia's document ES 2.279.648, published on Jan. 30, 2002, which includes means of airtight sealing to close the chamber, means of entry to allow the ambient atmosphere to enter the chamber, means of delivery to allow the chamber atmosphere to escape from the chamber, a controller to control the opening of the inlet media and means of reducing the concentration of carbon dioxide in the chamber, where the setup and form of retention of the controller and the air inlet valve to the chamber is neither described nor disclosed.
Atmosphere regulating controllers and valves are normally integrated into the service hatches of refrigerated containers. However, the shape and means through which they are placed and arranged in the container are not described in the prior art, where in general, the controllers and valves cover the same shape and surface as a service hatch cover. In addition, the prior art has not disclosed any means to attach and hold in place such air intake controllers and/or valves in an airtight manner, ensuring a minimal intervention in the container and that it can be easily transformed from a normal refrigerated container into a refrigerated container with a controlled atmosphere, by simply adding a removable atmosphere control valve device into a supporting device for it.
Therefore, there is also a need to provide a support device for an atmosphere controller and/or valve for a refrigerated container, whose setup allows for a minimum intervention of the container's service hatches, keeping the container airtight and at a stable temperature, while also providing an effective and airtight sealing of the space used to attach and support the atmosphere control device and/or valve when it has been removed.
On the other hand, this hatch device supporting the valve device must be able to channel air from different parts of the container to use the energy captured by convection and to channel it into the valve device for mechanical support, thus saving energy in the valve device.
One of the technical problems of the aforementioned inventions is that, although it is true that controlled atmosphere systems in a refrigerated container allow the transported fruit to be kept in good condition, they also require a series of major modifications that must be made to the container, as well as a large number of parts to achieve its proper operation, which translates into a system that is difficult to implement and maintain, and is also expensive.
A second technical problem associated with the aforementioned developments lies in the fact that for the atmosphere control valve device to operate properly, it must be placed in a specific manner within the space and not simply just "placed".
A third technical problem related to the aforementioned developments lies in the fact that in order to save energy, the atmosphere control valve device must be able to receive the air currents generated by convection in different parts of the container. This technical problem has never been mentioned in any of the documents of the prior art.
A fourth technical problem associated with the aforementioned developments is the need to protect a valve device that moves continuously (in and out of the hatch device), between the container's loading and unloading points.
A fifth technical problem associated with the aforementioned developments lies in the fact that since the valve device can be removed from its operating position, the container must be resealed to avoid thermal loss, loss of sanitary insulation and loss of atmospheric control.

Hatch device which allows for a minimal modification in the service hatch cover's structure during installation


A method for re-orientating digital images in an image-editing environment where images are loaded in landscape mode by default, with the aim of unburdening users from the inconvenience of manual correction of image orientation. Intelligent re-orientation of digital images is realized by analyzing an image in order to determine if re-orientation is required, using image zone analysis processes and facial feature analysis and, by the information provided by the same processes, also determining the direction and scale of correction need to render an image correctly orientated with respect to a user.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for the automatic orientation of digital images in an editing environment.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the field of photography, it is becoming increasingly common for both professional and amateur photographers to choose a digital means of image capture and storage over more conventional means. One of the advantages of digital image storage is the ease with which users can edit images, and furthermore, while professional image editing software may have higher system requirements, most home computers manufactured in recent years are capable of hosting adequate image editing packages. This has meant that new levels of simplicity and flexibility have been introduced to users spanning the range from amateur home user to studio based professional, and accordingly, software designers continue to add value and improvements in functionality.
In prior art image-editing environments, images are generally loaded into memory in landscape mode (i.e. long axis in the horizontal plane) by default, hence, one editing procedure that must be carried out by users is the re-orientation of images; that is, arranging images shot in portrait mode (i.e. images that should have their long axis in the vertical plane but are effectively viewed on their sides due to the standard landscape mode default), so that they are, put simply, the correct way up.
For the amateur with a limited number of images to process, the need to carry out the above mentioned procedure might be merely inconvenient, however, for the professional the task of correcting a large number of images becomes an onerous prospect, and in both cases is a task of which users may reasonably expect could be carried out by automatic processing of the image.
There is reasonable need then, by way of a refinement to an image-editing environment, for a facility by which the orientation of images is automatically corrected if required.

Method for intelligent auto-orientation of digital images


Embodiments of the disclosure provide a method for configuring indication devices in transportation services. The method includes receiving a first transportation request which includes a first passenger pick-up point located in a preset geographical area, and the first transportation request matches a first vehicle associated with a first indication device. The method also includes receiving a second transportation request which includes a second passenger pick-up point located in the preset geographical area, and the second transportation request matches a second vehicle associated with a second indication device. The method further includes determining a time difference between a first estimated time for the first vehicle to arrive in the preset geographical area and a second estimated time for the second vehicle to arrive in the preset geographical area, and sending first indication information to the first indication device and second indication information to the second indication device according to the time difference.

Taxi passengers identify the vehicles matched to their requests through the indication information provided by the vehicle indication devices, such as light, pattern, color, etc. With the increase of users, a server needs to store a large number of different kinds of identification information, which will waste the server and communication resources. For example, if there are hundreds of thousands of users who need to use taxis in a city, then hundreds of thousands of different kinds of identification information will need to be assigned. However, it will reduce the recognition degree. For example, when a pattern is used as identification information, the more complex the pattern is, the lower the recognition degree is on the premise that the size of the indication device is limited. Hundreds of thousands of pieces of recognition information mean that hundreds of thousands of pictures must be displayed on the indication device, which certainly requires complex content of the pattern. In fact, since these hundreds of thousands of users can't possibly request vehicles at the same place at the same time, such kind of complex storage and assignment of identification information is unnecessary. Therefore, an improved system and method are needed to configure the indication device to provide transportation service.
Embodiments of the disclosure provides a method for configuring indication devices to match passengers and drivers in transportation services.

Configuration method and system of indication device for driver-passenger matching

BEIJING DIDI INFINITY TECHNOLOGY AND DEVELOPMENT CO., LTD.


From detecting a marker detected in an image, a physical object on which the marker is provided can be identified. Based on a determining a location of the marker in the physical world, a location and an orientation of the physical object can be determined.

Various sensors can provide data to detect and/or locate objects in a physical, i.e. real-world, environment. For example, sensors such as video cameras, lidar, radar, ultrasonic sensors, etc. can provide data to detect an object and predict a real-world location of the object. However, processing data from such sensors can be computationally expensive, i.e., can consume relatively large amounts of valuable processor cycles and/or memory in a computer that analyzes the data. Further, such sensor data may not describe an object and/or its location with a desired precision, e.g., dimensions (length, width, height, etc.) of an object may be provided with an unreasonable margin of error or certainty.


Provided herein is a tissue stretching device including a tissue clamping member defining an area in a Z plane, wherein the tissue clamping member is configured to hold tissue parallel to the Z plane. Methods of use of the tissue stretching device to stretch a tissue as well as for culturing organized tissues are also provided. Stretched and/or cultured tissues produced by these processes are also provided, as well as methods of treatment making use of the same.

Skin grafting is an essential component of reconstructive surgery after burns, trauma, tumor excision, and correction of congenital anomalies. There are approximately 1 million burns per year in the U.S. alone, which result in about 100,000 admissions to burn units, about ⅓ of which require skin grafting. Skin grafting in reconstructive surgery is often required to alleviate deformity. The best possible skin available for grafting would be skin from the same patient taken from a donor site elsewhere on the body (referred to as an autograft). Suitable skin graft donor sites, however, are limited not only by body surface area, but can also be affected by previous graft harvest or trauma. Because of the importance of the skin in preventing infection, either the donor skin must be used to cover a larger area than it originally covered or some suitable replacement material must be used.
Devices useful for stretching tissue such as skin are therefore needed to increase the area available for grafting.


A waveform energy generation system, the system including at least one joint of production casing, and one or more energy generators residing along the joint of production casing. The energy generators are configured to be in substantial mechanical contact with a subsurface formation within a wellbore. The energy generators may include either explosive devices or a piezo-electric material. The system also includes a signal transmission system. The signal transmission system is used to send control signals from the surface down to the energy generators for activation at the formation's resonant frequency. Methods of enhancing the permeability of a rock matrix within a subsurface formation using the wellbore as an energy generator are also provided.

In the completing of oil and gas wells, a wellbore is formed using a drill bit that is urged downwardly at a lower end of a drill string. The drill bit is rotated while force is applied through the drill string and against the rock face of the formation being drilled. After drilling to a predetermined depth, the drill string and bit are removed and the wellbore is lined with a string of casing. The process of drilling and then installing casing is repeated until the wellbore has reached "total depth."
Advances in drilling technology have enabled oil and gas operators to "kick-off" and steer wellbore trajectories from a generally vertical orientation to a generally horizontal orientation. The horizontal "leg" of each of these wellbores now often exceeds a length of one mile, and sometimes two or even three miles. This significantly multiplies the wellbore exposure to a target hydrocarbon-bearing formation (or "pay zone"). As an example, consider a target pay zone having a (vertical) thickness of 100 feet. A one-mile horizontal leg exposes over 50 times as much pay zone to a horizontal wellbore as compared to the 100-foot exposure of a conventional vertical wellbore.
Within the United States, many wells are now drilled to recover oil and/or natural gas, and potentially natural gas liquids, from pay zones previously thought to be too impermeable to produce hydrocarbons in economically viable quantities. Such "tight" or "unconventional" formations may be sandstone, siltstone, or even shale formations. Alternatively, such unconventional formations may include coalbed methane. In any instance, such formations have "low permeability," such as less than 0.1 millidarcies.
In order to enhance the recovery of hydrocarbons, particularly in low-permeability formations, stimulation techniques may be employed in the pay zone. Such techniques include hydraulic fracturing. Hydraulic fracturing causes multiple fractures to be formed along the length of a horizontal wellbore, forming so-called frac-wings. The frac-wings typically form vertically at the wellbore and then propagate both horizontally away from the wellbore and vertically above and below the wellbore, creating in essence multiple vertical completions.
The ability to replicate multiple vertical completions along a single horizontal wellbore is what has made the pursuit of hydrocarbon reserves from unconventional reservoirs, and particularly shales, economically viable within relatively recent times. In the United States, total frac stages have been increasing by over 10% per year. In addition, well over two-thirds of all wells now drilled in the United States are completed horizontally, and fractured.
While formation fracturing technology has been highly successful in exposing the wellbore to a greater percentage of the rock formation, allowing the industry to substantially increase the production of hydrocarbon fluids in recent years, it is also known that wells completed in many unconventional reservoirs have a high terminal decline rate. For example, horizontally completed wells in the Permian Basin frequently produce 40% of the oil and gas they are expected to produce over their lifetime in the first 36 months.
The approach used by the industry to offset the negative economic impact of the high decline rate has been to increase the production from each well by increasing the contact/production area within the formation through longer horizontal wells with more frac stages are being completed. At the same time, higher volumes of sand are being mixed with the fracturing fluid to prop the fractures open after the injection pressure is released. In some cases, wells may be re-fractured after a period of production.
The hydraulic fracturing (and sometimes re-fracturing) of the formation requires large volumes of water along with large volumes of sand. The process of fracturing necessarily leaves virgin rock between the fracture planes. Therefore, a need exists for an improved well completion that provides for a wave energy source that is in direct contact with the rock matrix, wherein the wave energy breaks apart pre-existing or naturally occurring weaknesses in the matrix, fault lines, and/or fissures. Further, a need exists for a method of increasing formation fracture complexity, during or after well completion, by applying wave energy directly to the surrounding rock matrix in order to break down the rock matrix and enhance formation permeability. A need additionally exists for such a method that supplements hydraulic fracturing as a means of increasing matrix permeability.

Waveform energy generation systems and methods of enhancing matrix permeability in a subsurface formation


The parcel distributor is a modular set with additional storage module in the form of a ceiling box set on a corner box to which it is rigidly connected and coupled by a cantilever lift mounted in a vertical shaft formed in the support rack frames in both boxes. In each module, between their cantilever racks, there is an electrically driven Cartesian manipulator. On the Cartesian manipulator trolley, there is a grabbing mechanism for taking trays from the front or rear cantilever rack. The window for sending and collecting parcels in the distributor is a locker, preferably in the operating panel, which has an electrically lifted lock cooperating with a ratchet lock and limit switches blocking its lower position when the locker door is open.

The subject of the invention is a parcel distributor of standardised dimensions and low weight up to max. 7 kg, especially for stores with small exhibition space, known worldwide as convenience stores, in Poland, e.g. stores being part of networks such as Żabka, ABC, Spar. The distributor is an equipment and a piece of furniture in the store, allowing for smart storage of parcels in the corner area and under the ceiling in the store, and is designed for the customer's self-service during sending and collecting parcels through an operating panel visible only from the front of the distributor, having a control panel and a locker door located under, which opens automatically after logging in by the customer on the control panel.
More and more companies in the world offer automatic storage solutions for packaged products with small dimensions and moderate weight, which is extremely important in retail. Stocking automation in trade allows for the optimisation of processes related to the storage and release of goods, as well as improved management of store operation.
A distributor with an access control system for goods placed on automatic shelves of vertical storage elevator racks ensuring complete control of the goods released, is known from the Polish patent description PL221377.
A small element stacking structure with a lifting platform that moves vertically on a guide device and a load carrying device that moves horizontally on a guide device is known form the German solution revealed in the European patent description EP2883831. The stacker crane has a travel mechanism located in the upper and lower end zones of the guide device to move the small element stacker horizontally, with the guide device having two guiding masts separated from each other by a separating partition and the lifting platform placed in the separating partition.
A lever mechanism for opening the locker door is known from the Polish patent description PL221479, which is activated electronically by an alphanumeric code signal or biometric code.
The object of the present invention is to develop a modular construction of a small robotic vertical storage facility, enabling better use of free space in closed rooms, especially in stores.

Parcel distributor, especially for stores

Retail Robotics Manufacturing & Services Sp. z o.o.


Methods and apparatus for implementing a multi-carrier communications system are described. Various approaches to a phased system deployment and system configurations resulting from different levels of deployment are described. In addition mobile node and methods of operating mobile nodes in communications systems that may have different levels of deployment in different cells are described.

Deployment of communications systems can be a very costly process. Wireless bandwidth has become a very expensive commodity. In addition, system hardware is relatively expensive. One approach to deploying a communications system is to deploy cells utilizing the same number of carrier frequency's and bandwidth in each cell from the start of the system. Thus, individual cells may be deployed from the start of the system in a configuration which is intended to fully utilize the bandwidth intended to ultimately be used by the system.
For example, suppose an operator has a wideband spectrum. Traditionally, the operator has two options to deploy the communications systems. In the first option, the operator uses the entire wideband spectrum, e.g., in every sector of every cell, from the very beginning. The cost is that all the terminals have to be able to process the signals in the entire wideband channel, thereby increasing the terminal costs and battery power consumption. In the second option, the wideband spectrum is divided into multiple carriers. At the beginning, since the number of service subscribers tend to be relatively low, the operator deploys the communications system only in the first carrier, e.g., in every sector of every cell, from the very beginning, and leaves the other carriers unused. Later as the number of service subscribers increases and the first carrier becomes crowded, the operator then expands the system by deploying services in the second carrier. The procedure may repeat until all the carriers are utilized eventually. The problem of this approach is that when the first carrier is the only carrier used, there could be a significant amount of interference in the first carrier (thus limiting sector throughput), while the other carriers are completely idle. In addition, changes in the number of carriers and/or carrier frequencies in a cell over time can create problems for older WTs which were not intended to operate on the newly deployed carrier frequencies or do not know the availability of newly deployed carrier frequencies. This has, in many cases, made the initial deployment of wireless communications systems relatively expensive and/or often inefficient in terms of initial bandwidth utilization.
Various types of wireless communications systems are possible. Deployment and bandwidth under utilization problems tend to be associated with wireless communications systems regards of the particular communications method employed in the system.
Some communications systems use spread spectrum signals while other systems, e.g., narrow band systems, do not. In "Digital Communications" (3rd edition, page 695), J. Proakis provides the following definition of spread spectrum signals: "Spread spectrum signals used for the transmission of digital information are distinguished by the characteristic that their bandwidth W is much greater than the information rate R in bits/s. That is, the bandwidth expansion factor Be=W/R for a spread spectrum signal is much greater than unity."
In a communication system, the information bits are generally transmitted as blocks of coded bits to combat errors in the communication channel, where each block is the minimum unit of channel coding. In the case where no channel coding is performed, each information bit can be considered a block.
Direct sequence code division multiple access (DS-CDMA) signal and hopped orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) are two typical spread spectrum signals. In the DS-CDMA signal, a coded bit of any coded block is transmitted as a sequence of chips, where the time duration of a chip is much shorter than that of a bit. Suppose a bit is N times longer than a chip, then the bandwidth expansion factor, or spreading factor, is N.
Consider two methods of transmitting a block of coded bits in an OFDM system, as shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2. FIG. 1 is a drawing 100 plotting tone on vertical axis 102 vs time on horizontal axis 104. Each tone represents a segment of bandwidth in the frequency domain. The air link resource is represented by a grid 106 including 120 squares, each square representing one tone over one time interval. Grid 106 shows 10 distinct tones over 12 time intervals. In the first method illustrated by FIG. 1, the coded bits of a block are transmitted using the minimum number of tones. In FIG. 1, the same two tones 108, 110 are used all the time. A first block of coded bits 112 represented by 12 squares with diagonal line shading uses tones 108, 110 during a first time segment 116. A second block of coded bits 114 represented by 12 squares with dotted shading uses tones 108, 110 during a second time interval 118. In this case, the OFDM signal is not spread spectrum signal.
FIG. 2 is a drawing 200 plotting tone on vertical axis 202 vs time on horizontal axis 204. Each tone represents a segment of bandwidth in the frequency domain. The air link resource is represented by a grid 206 including 120 squares, each square representing one tone over one time interval. Grid 206 shows 10 distinct tones 208, 210, 212, 214, 216, 218, 220, 222, 224, 226 over 12 time intervals 228, 230, 232, 234, 236, 238, 240, 242, 244, 246, 248, 250. In the second method illustrated in FIG. 2, the coded bits are transmitted using hopped tones. A first block of coded bits 252 represented by 12 squares with diagonal line shading uses: tones (208, 216) during a first time interval 228, tones (212, 220) during a second time interval 230, tones (216, 224) during a third time interval 232, tones (212, 220) during a fourth time interval 234, tones (210, 218) during a fifth time interval 236, and tones (222, 226) during a sixth time interval 238. A second block of coded bits 254 represented by 12 squares with dotted shading uses: tones (214, 220) during a seventh time interval 240, tones (208, 224) during an eighth time interval 242, tones (216, 222) during a ninth time interval 244, tones (212, 218) during a tenth time interval 246, tones (210, 226) during an eleventh time interval 248, and tones (214, 222) during a twelfth time interval 250. In FIG. 2, at any given time instant, only two tones are used. However, for the entire coded block 252, 254, twelve tones are used. In this case, the OFDM signal is spread spectrum signal.
In view of the above discussion, it should be apparent that method and apparatus for implementing a phased deployment of a communication system would be beneficial. In addition, a system configuration that can achieve a high level of bandwidth utilization, even if constructed in phases which use different amounts of bandwidth and/or different numbers of carries before arriving at the final system configuration, would be both desirable and beneficial.

Multi-carrier communications methods and apparatus