The present invention relates to a biodegradable hydrogel comprising bonds which are hydrolysable under physiological conditions. More particularly, the hydrogel consists of two interpenetrating polymer networks interconnected to one another through hydrolysable spacers. In addition, the invention relates to a method for the preparation of a hydrogel, wherein macromolecules, e.g., polymers which contain bonds which are hydrolysable under physiological conditions, are cross-linked in an aqueous solution.

The present invention relates to hydrogels which have a good controlled release behaviour, and to processes to prepare such hydrogels.
The fast developments in the field of molecular biology and biotechnology have made it possible to produce a large number of pharmaceutically interesting products in large quantities. For instance, pharmaceutically active peptides and proteins can suitably be used as drugs in the treatment of life-threatening diseases, e.g. cancer, and of several types of viral, bacterial and parasital diseases; in the treatment of e.g. diabetes; in vaccines, e.g. for prophylactic aims, and for anticonception purposes. Especially the specialized biological activities of these types of drugs provide tremendous advantages over other types of pharmaceutics.
To illustrate the fast developments, it has been reported (see e.g. Soeterboek and Verheggen, Pharm. Weekblad 130 (1995) 670-675) that in the United States of America, about 275 biotechnological products are in phase IV studies, while more than 500 products are under investigation.
Examples of (recombinant) proteins, which are considered very interesting from a pharmacological point of view, are cytokines, such as interleukines, interferons, tumor necrosis factor (TNF), insulin, proteins for use in vaccines, and growth hormones.
Due to their nature, proteins and proteinaceous products, including peptides, which group of products will be referred to as protein drugs herein-below, cannot be administered orally. These products tend to degrade rapidly in the gastrointestinal tract, in particular because of the acidic environment and the presence of proteolytic enzymes therein.
Moreover, to a high extent protein drugs are not able to pass endothelial and epithelial barriers, due to their size and, generally, polar character.
For these reasons, protein drugs have to be brought in the system parenterally, i.e. by injection. The pharmacokinetical profile of these products is, however, such that injection of the product per se requires a frequent administration. For, it is a known fact that proteinaceous material is eliminated from the blood circulation within minutes.
In other words, since protein drugs are chemically and/or physically unstable and generally have a short half-time in the human or animal body, multiple daily injections or continuous infusions are required for the protein drug to have a desired therapeutic effect. It will be evident that this is inconvenient for patients requiring these protein drugs. Furthermore, this type of application often requires hospitabilization and has logistic drawbacks.
In addition, it appears that at least for certain classes of pharmaceutical proteins, such as cytokines which are presently used in e.g. cancer treatments, the therapeutic efficacy is strongly dependent on effective delivery, e.g. intra- or peritumoral. In such cases, the protein drugs should be directed to the sites where their activity is needed during a prolonged period of time.
Hence, there is a need for delivery systems which have the capacity for controlled release. In the art, delivery systems consisting of polymeric networks in which the proteins are loaded and from which they are gradually released have been proposed.
More in detail, at present, two major types of polymeric delivery systems can be distinguished: biodegradable polymers and non-biodegradable hydrogels.
Biodegradable polymers, e.g. polylactic acid (PLA) and copolymers of PLA with glycolic acid (PLGA), are frequently used as delivery systems for proteins.
Proteins can be incorporated in pharmaceutical delivery systems, e.g. microspheres, by a variety of processes. In vitro and in vivo, usually a biphasic release profile is observed: an initial burst followed by a more gradual release. The burst is caused by proteinaceous material present at or near the surface of the microspheres and by proteinaceous material present in pores. The gradual release is ascribed to a combination of diffusion of the proteinaceous material through the matrix and degradation of the matrix. Especially for larger proteins diffusion in these matrices is negligible, so that the release depends on the degradation of the polymer. The degradation can be influenced by the (co)polymer composition. A well-known strategy to increase the degradation rate of PLA is co-polymerization with glycolic acid.
Although delivery systems based on biodegradable polymers are interesting, it is very difficult to control the release of the incorporated protein. This hampers the applicability of these systems, especially for proteins with a narrow therapeutic window, such as cytokines and hormones. Furthermore, organic solvents have to be used for the encapsulation of the protein in these polymeric systems. Exposure of proteins to organic solvents generally leads to denaturation, which will affect the biological activity of the protein. Furthermore, the very stringent requirements of registration authorities with respect to possible traces of harmful substances may prohibit the use of such formulations of therapeutic drugs in human patients.
Also hydrogels are frequently used as delivery systems for proteins and peptides. Hydrogels can be obtained by crosslinking a water-soluble polymer yielding a three-dimensional network which can contain large amounts of water. Proteins can be loaded into the gel by adding the protein to the polymer before the crosslinking reaction is carried out or by soaking a preformed hydrogel in a protein solution. So, no (aggressive) organic solvents have to be used to load the hydrogels with protein molecules.
In contrast with the biodegradable polymers, the release of proteins from hydrogels can be easily controlled and manipulated by varying the hydrogel characteristics, such as the water content and the crosslink density of the gel. However, a major disadvantage of the currently used hydrogel delivery systems is that they are not biodegradable. This necessitates surgical removal of the gel from the patient after the release of the protein in order to prevent complications of inclusion of the empty hydrogel material (wound tissue is frequently formed).
Biodegradable hydrogels have been used in the preparation of delivery systems for protein drugs. One of these systems comprises crosslinked dextrans obtained by coupling glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) to dextran, followed by radical polymerization of an aqueous solution of GMA-derivatized dextran (dex-GMA). In this respect, reference is made to Van Dijk-Wolthuis et al. in Macromolecules 28, (1995), 6317-6322 and to De Smedt et al. in Macromolecules 28, (1995) 5082-5088.
Proteins can be encapsulated in the hydrogels by adding proteins to a solution of GMA-derivatized dextran prior to the crosslinking reaction. It appeared that the release of the proteins out of these hydrogels depends on and can be controlled by the degree of crosslinking and the water content of the gel (Hennink et al., J. Contr. Rel. 39, (1996), 47-57).
Although the described crosslinked dextran hydrogels were expected to be biodegradable, these hydrogels are rather stable under physiological conditions. This can is further elaborated in Example 5. It is shown among other that the dissolution time of dextran hydrogels obtained by polymerization of dextran derivatized with glycidyl methacrylate (DS=4) had a dissolution time of about 100 days. Dextran hydrogels, wherein the dextrans have a higher degree of substitution, did not show any signs of degradation during 70 days, even at extreme conditions.
The object of the present invention is to provide a slow or controlled release delivery system which does not possess the above-mentioned disadvantages, and especially does not require the use of organic solvents, does not show the undesired and uncontrollable burst effects, and do not possess a poorly controllable release behaviour. The present invention aims to combine the advantages of both types of known delivery systems, viz. a system, (bio)degradable under physiological conditionsxe2x80x94either chemically and/or enzymaticallyxe2x80x94, with controlled protein drug release.
The present invention provides safe and easily controllable delivery systems, based on particular biodegradable hydrogels, which increase the applicability of protein drugs for the treatment of various diseases. The risks associated with these drugs, such as bursts in the release profile, and the inconvenience for the patient are reduced, while the therapeutic efficacy of drug treatments using the hydrogels of the present invention is increased.
More in detail, the present invention relates to a biodegradable hydrogel comprising bonds which are hydrolysable under physiological conditions. The hydrogels of the present invention contain hydrolytically labile spacers, which spacers are broken in human or animal bodies. As roughly indicated herein-above, a hydrogel is defined as a water-swollen, three-dimensional network of crosslinked hydrophilic macromolecules. More in detail, the hydrogels of the invention consist of two interpenetrating networks interconnected to one another through hydrolysable spacers. Hydrogels generally contain from 20 to more than 99 wt. % water.
Further, the invention relates to a method for the preparation of a hydrogen, wherein macromolecules, e.g. polymers, which contain bonds which are hydrolysable under physiological conditions, are crosslinked in an aqueous solution.

Hydrolysable hydrogels for controlled release


Provided is a twisted wire including a plurality of covered wires twisted together, each covered wire including a conductor and an insulator covering the periphery of the conductor, wherein the twisted wire satisfies Inequality (1): y<A×x/(z/500)+B (wherein x: a pitch length (mm) of the twisted wire, y: a collapsing rate (%) of the insulator, z: an elastic modulus (MPa) of the insulator, A: Constant A=−1, and B: Constant B=11.5).

Twisted wires which are less affected by noises have been conventionally used as communication cables.
For example, National Publication of International Patent Application No. 2011-514649 proposes a pair of conductors each having polymer insulation thereon, the polymer insulation on each of said conductors having an exterior surface comprising: peaks and valleys alternating longitudinally along said exterior surface, said pair of conductors each having said polymer insulation thereon being twisted together to form a twisted pair wherein at least one of said peaks in the exterior surface of said polymer insulation on one of said conductors is nested in one of said valleys in the exterior surface of said polymer insulation on the other of said conductors to provide an improved impedance efficiency as compared to polymer insulation of the same weight but of uniform thickness.

Twisted wire and manufacturing method thereof


A method for real-time firmware configuration and a debugging apparatus are provided. When a demand for updating or debugging a target processor raises, in the method, a computer system generates a firmware debugging request that is attached with a firmware data with a specific debugging function. The computer system then loads the firmware data to a programmable logic unit of the debugging apparatus. After the real-time firmware configuration is completed, the computer system issues a debugging command to the programmable logic unit. The programmable logic unit obtains at least one debugging action after resolving the debugging command. The at least one debugging action is performed in the target processor when the target processor receives the at least one debugging action. A debugging result is returned after the at least one debugging action is completed.

In an electronic device, when a processor therein has a need to be updated and debugged, a debugger with a specific debugging function can be used to debug the firmware of the processor. One way can be conducted by firstly having the electronic device connected to a computer device, and then having the debugger executed in the computer device perform debugging and reveal the specific position where the error codes occur, thus allowing the error codes to be corrected.
Under some circumstances, for obtaining more updated functions, firmware data of the debugger should also be upgraded according to instructions provided by the manufacturer of the device. Whether or not the firmware can be upgraded successfully is affected by many factors, such as network environment or an operator's proficiency. Functions implanted into a traditional debugging program generally remain unchanged for long periods of time since a frequency for upgrading the firmware is low. Therefore, a conventional debugging program is difficult to be applied to a new electronic device.
In view of the above-mentioned conventional technologies, debuggers with a tracing function have been developed. However, the debuggers with the tracing function may not be applicable to that many devices since the debuggers are expensive and are only applicable to certain specific processor architectures.

Method for real-time firmware configuration and debugging apparatus


A system of thermally activated feedback control valves and thermally activated sensors to provide heated fluid within a desired temperature range which operates consistently at high and low flow rates, suitable for control of combination safety shower and eyewash stations.

1. Field of the Invention
The present general inventive concept is directed to an apparatus and method for controlling steam flow to heat supply water to provide tepid water at varying flow rates and to automatically and dynamically regulate the flow rates of steam and water to produce desired flow rates of tepid water within desired temperature limits. The inventive concept is useful in combination safety shower systems and other applications where rapid feedback control of fluid temperature is utilized.
2. Description of the Related Art
Numerous solutions have been devised and patented for the tepid water safety shower. Many improvements have also been directed to the purging of water from such systems to avoid bacteria and other concerns. Some inventions have used natural gas burners to create heat within the system. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 8,209,796 discloses a safety shower that prevents stagnant water from causing a thermostat valve to open. This apparatus utilizes a gas burner to heat water in a hot water tank. U.S. Pat. No. 4,909,435 discloses a temperature controlled hot water delivery system that is controlled by valves and circuits. Other systems such as U.S. Pat. No. 6,270,014 also rely on microprocessors and electricity to control fluid systems. What is needed is a system that does not require an external power source, such as electricity, and can generate fluid at the desired temperature from a steam supply. U.S. Pat. No. 6,623,990 to Pirkle discloses a system that produces temperature-controlled water, however, the temperature control limits and response time of that system are not sufficient to achieve compliance with new industry standards. ANSI/ISEA standard Z358.1 was revised in 2009. This standard, entitled American National Standard for Emergency Eyewash and Shower Equipment includes many requirements including that the output water be between sixty degrees and one hundred degrees Fahrenheit and that the flow rate for a safety shower must be at least twenty gallons per minute. Additionally, the American Society of Sanitary Engineering Standard Number 1071 is entitled "Performance Requirements for Temperature Actuated Mixing Valves for Plumbed Emergency Equipment." This standard requires that outlet water temperature should be between 65 and 95 degrees F. and shall not exceed 100 degrees F. under normal operation; that upon failure of the hot water supply, the cold water shall continue to flow; and cross flow or leakage shall not exceed 50 cc per minute.
The '990 patent disclosed a system whereby a downstream temperature sensor would activate at an overtemperature condition to send cold water back to the steam line to prevent the overtemperature condition. However, this operation requires time to operate and results in unsteady output temperatures. Once water fouls the operation of the heat controller, it again takes time to achieve desired temperature outputs. This and other temperature control systems provide temperature feedback that is too late to prevent overtemperature conditions, but instead reacts to overtemperature conditions.
What is needed is an automated water temperature control system that can generate desired temperature fluid with rapid response time, narrow temperature control, and safety features to ensure that over-temperature fluid is not delivered to a user. Further, what is needed is a system that does not require electricity, is self regulating, and requires only water and steam to operate.

Automated water temperature control system


A method and a system for evaluating the class of a test datum in a data space of dimension D where D≧3, each datum belonging to at least one class grouping together several data, comprising: projecting a suite of reference data of the data space into a space of dimension Q where Q<D, the class of each reference datum being known, calculating a measurement of similarity of the test datum to each of the reference data, partitioning the projection space into a plurality of disjoint regions each containing the projection of one and only one reference datum, and finally evaluating the class of the test datum, this class being evaluated as being the same class as one of the reference data contained in one of the regions containing the reference data closest to the test datum in the sense of the similarity measurement.

Discriminators make it possible to classify objects, that is to say to take a decision on the an object's membership in a class or in several predefined classes of objects. For example, the physical characteristics of the state of a patient are measured, such as his size, his weight, his age, his pulse and his body temperature. This patient is the query object or query patient. The measured values are thereafter provided to a discriminator, which compares these characteristics with those of other patients identified as suffering from such and such an illness. These other patients are the reference objects or reference patients. The illnesses are the classes. The discriminator assigns to the query patient the same illness as that of the closest reference patients in the sense of a proximity measurement based on the measured characteristics. Such applications are used as a decision aid, they can even make it possible to dispense with the opinion of an expert. But they can also provide the expert with a membership class which reinforces or otherwise his diagnosis of the patient and which may prompt him to a finer analysis in the case of disagreement. However, the intelligibility of the result of the discriminator is crucial in order that the expert can have confidence in the latter and that the aid is useful and effective.
In order to obtain the user's confidence, decision aid systems propose to associate a confidence indicator with the decision taken by the discriminator. The proposed decision is not explained, the system behaving as a black box, but it provides the user with an indicator presumed to reassure him regarding the quality of this decision. This indicator may be of probabilistic nature, or else obtained by relative comparison of the decisions of several different discriminators. In all cases, this indicator is obtained by a process that is relatively complex from the point of view of the non-specialist user of discrimination methods. In a certain manner, the discrimination system in the broad sense which provides both a decision and a confidence indicator for this decision is judge and jury, this not being apt to inspire the confidence of the user.
Other decision aid systems are based on explaining the decision taken by the discriminator in terms that are intelligible to the user. For example, fuzzy inference systems explain their decision as the result of a weighted sum of logical rules directly involving the original characteristics of the objects, these quantities and their combination being assumed to be easy for the user to interpret. However, to obtain a discrimination of good quality, the number of rules and parameters is often considerable, thereby greatly decreasing the intelligibility of the system.
Finally, other decision aid systems provide a probability of membership in various classes. In this case, the decision taken by the discriminator is not unique and the system does not decide on the assigning of a class in particular. The choice of a class for the query object is left to the astuteness of the user, who may be aided by these probabilities. However, the probabilities are assigned to the classes as a whole set, without explaining the process which makes it possible to pass from the reference objects to their membership classes. Thus, although the number of probabilities to be assessed is reduced, since it is equal to the number of classes, the process for calculating these probabilities remains unknown to the user. Therefore the information is overall very unintelligible to him.
In these three cases of discriminator according to the prior art, although the initial aim is to assist the work of the user, he is in reality asked to acquire an additional skill in the field of automatic discrimination. Indeed, the intelligibility of the system to the user depends on his understanding of the often sophisticated methods employed to generate the decision.
In addition to the use of discriminators to solve object classification problems, methods also exist for visualizing objects and classes so as to analyze the structure of classes or else to grade projections. These visualization methods may for example rely on methods for projecting the objects making it possible notably to represent the objects and the classes on a plane map. The position of the objects on this map is such that the objects which resemble one another according to a similarity measurement are rather close on the map. Reciprocally, objects that are not very similar are rather far apart on the map. A query object can then be positioned on this map via the same principle by taking account of its similarity to the already positioned reference objects. In addition to the technical problem of the positioning of this query object with respect to the others there arises the problem of interpreting this position in terms of membership class. Indeed, whether or not they take account of classes, projection methods induce a loss of information called false neighborhood or stitching, which artificially clusters objects which are in fact far apart according to the measurement of their similarity. These false neighborhoods exist either because it is technically impossible to adhere to the whole set of similarities during projection, or because although it is technically possible, the projection method did not know how to find this solution. Thus, the user may assign to a query object the majority class of the surrounding objects on the map, even if these objects are falsely close to the query object.
To attempt to surmount the problems related to false-neighborhoods, diagnostic methods making it possible to visualize these false-neighborhoods have been proposed, such as for example in the article "Visualizing distortions and recovering topology in continuous projection techniques" (Aupetit M., Neurocomputing, vol. 10, no. 7-9 pp. 1304-1330, 2007). Unfortunately, this method does not make it possible to evaluate the class of a query object with the help of reference objects belonging to known classes. Thus, when it is implemented to grade a projection, the method simply manipulates objects which are all "unlabeled", whereas when it is implemented to analyze the structure of classes, the method simply manipulates objects which are all "labeled".
Finally, it is also possible to visualize the reference objects close to the query object in the form of a list of reference objects ordered according to their decreasing proximities to the query object. Such is typically the case in search engines on the Internet network, where a query gives rise to the displaying of a list of reference Internet pages, ordered by proximity to the query. In this case, the list of reference objects that is presented to the user is dependent on the query used on the one hand, and exhibits a linear order on the other hand. In certain search engines on the Internet network, the query gives rise to the displaying of a set of ordered reference Internet pages in the forms of groups on a plane map which are emphasized graphically (color, size, etc.) so as to signify their proximity to the query. In this case again, the map presented to the user depends on the query. In all these cases, the list of reference objects presented, as well as their positions in the spatial (map) or linear (ordered list) representation, depend on the query. The user therefore cannot construct a stable mental representation of the universe of the reference objects, this universe never being presented to him in a manner which is complete or independent of the query. He cannot then by himself judge the quality of the information regarding proximity to the query, which is presented to him. Neither can he easily assess the resemblances or the differences between the query objects conveyed through their representation in terms of reference objects, since he has no fixed basis of comparison.

Method and system for evaluating the resemblance of a query object to reference objects

COMMISSARIAT A L'ENERGIE ATOMIQUE ET AUX ENERGIES ALTERNATIVES


In preparing to send a write command to store data in at least one Data Storage Device (DSD), a request is sent to the at least one DSD to request environmental information indicating an environmental condition of the at least one DSD. The environmental information is received from the at least one DSD and it is determined whether the environmental information is within a threshold. The write command is sent to the at least one DSD if the environmental information is within the threshold and a precautionary measure is performed if the environmental information is not within the threshold.

Data Storage Devices (DSDs) are often used to record data onto or to reproduce data from a storage media. One type of storage media includes a rotating magnetic disk where a magnetic head of the DSD can read and write data in tracks on a surface of the disk, such as in a Hard Disk Drive (HDD). Another type of storage media can include a solid-state memory where cells are charged to store data.
Oftentimes an environmental condition of a DSD, such as vibration, mechanical shock, temperature, humidity, or air pressure, can cause problems when writing data to or reading data from a storage medium of a DSD. Such errors caused by environmental conditions can reduce the reliability and performance of the DSD. With respect to performance, a DSD may repeatedly attempt to perform a failed write command before aborting the write command. This type of error recovery may waste resources if an environmental condition causing the write error persists.
In addition, certain storage media may be particularly susceptible to errors caused by environmental conditions. For example, a disk using Shingled Magnetic Recording (SMR) may be more susceptible to errors caused by vibration, mechanical shock, or changes in temperature, humidity, or air pressure. SMR has been introduced as a way of increasing the amount of data that can be stored in a given area on a disk by overlapping tracks to increase the number of Tracks Per Inch (TPI). Although a higher number of TPI is ordinarily possible with SMR, the higher track density can lead to a greater vulnerability to errors caused by environmental conditions.
In addition, the number of write retries allowed in one location is often limited in SMR DSDs due to the greater effect of Adjacent Track Interference (ATI) and Wide Area Track Erasure (WATER) on SMR media. Write retries are therefore often made in different locations on an SMR media, which can be costly in terms of space on the media. Multiple write retries spread across the media can also increase the need for maintenance operations such as garbage collection to reclaim the portions of the media used for the failed write retries.

Precautionary measures for data storage device environmental conditions


A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) apparatus and control method for comparing a sound generated from the bore of the MRI apparatus to a pulse sequence sound to adjust the output level of a sound output unit located in an operating room and thus permit a patient to be heard by an operator when an emergency situation or other information is expressed by the patient. The magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) apparatus includes: a sound input unit; a sound output unit configured to output a sound acquired by the sound input unit; and a controller configured to compare the acquired sound to a sound of a pulse sequence stored in advance, and to increase the output level of the sound output unit if the acquired sound is not identical to the sound of the pulse sequence.

1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) apparatus for diagnosing various diseases using MRI, and a control method thereof. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to sounds emitted by the MRI during operation.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a medical imaging system is an apparatus for providing information about an internal area of a patient as an image. In general, medical imaging systems include, for example, an X-ray machine, an ultrasonic diagnostic instrument, a computer tomography (CT) scanner, a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) apparatus, etc.
The MRI apparatus holds an important position in the field of medical imaging diagnosis because image-taking conditions are relatively free and can provide excellent detectability and various diagnosis information images with respect to soft tissue.
The MRI causes nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) in the hydrogen atomic nuclei of the human body using a magnetic field harmless to humans and RF which is non-ionizing radiation, to thus image the densities and physical or chemical characteristics of the atomic nuclei.
In more detail, the MRI apparatus supplies a specific frequency and energy to atomic nuclei in the state in which a constant magnetic field has been applied to the atomic nuclei, to cause the atomic nuclei to release energy, and converts the energy released from the atomic nuclei to signals, thereby diagnosing the inside human body.
When a magnetic field is applied, protons configuring atomic nuclei are arranged in the direction of the magnetic field since they have spin angular momentum and magnetic dipole moment, and the atomic nuclei perform precession with respect to the direction of the magnetic field. The precession causes nuclear magnetic resonance so that an image of the inside human body can be acquired through the nuclear magnetic resonance.
Meanwhile, scanning using a MRI apparatus generally generates a loud noise of about 100 dB. The loud noise that is generated upon scanning using the MRI apparatus is mainly due to the vibration of coils by the Lorentz force that is generated when current is applied to gradient coils in order to form gradient magnetic fields suitable for a specific scanning protocol.
Due to the noise generated by the MRI apparatus, during the scanning period from about 30 minutes to about 1 hour, an operator in an operating room turns down the volume of a speaker connected to a microphone located in a scan room to zero when he or she determines that conversation with a patient is unnecessary so as not to listen to noise captured by the microphone.
However, in the case where the operator turns the speak volume to zero, a problem arises when the patient wants to communicate with the operator because he or she feels discomfort or an emergency situation has occurred, the patient cannot communicate with the operator.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) apparatus and control method thereof


A programmable logic controller (PLC) system, and more particularly, a data processing apparatus and method in the PLC system are provided. In the data processing method in a programmable logic controller (PLC) system, first dummy code data is output to an area having a chip selection signal for valid data output. The valid data is output after the first dummy code data is output. And second dummy code data is output when the valid data output is completed.

The present disclosure relates to a programmable logic controller (PLC) system, and more particularly, to data processing apparatus and method in the PLC system.
In a PLC system using a micro processing unit (MPU) with limited input and output (I/O) ports, when I/O points get increased, the I/O ports may be expanded by using flip-flops and buffers having an information storing function. At this time, data and clock signals or enable signals are applied to the flip-flops and the buffers. In case of expanding the output ports, data and clock signals are applied to the flip-flops. The clock signals may be generated by combining a write (WR) signal and a chip select (CS) signal by using a logic circuit. In order to increase ability of the logic circuit to withstand a noise, bypass capacitors may be added for bypassing the noise.
This circuit design type may cause a signal delay due to the capacitors and the logic circuit. In addition, not data desired to be output to a data bus, but next data or data in a transition process may be output.
FIG. 1 is an operation flowchart of a related art PLC program, and FIG. 2 is a timing diagram according to a related art clock signal.
Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, an MPU first performs an initial operation in an operation mode of a PLC system (operation S10).
The MPU collects input data to be used in performing the operation mode using the PLC program and performs an input image area refresh operation that the collected data is stored in the input image area (operation S20).
The MPU may perform the operation mode on the basis of a preset program, and store data input according to the performance of the program in the input image area. Here, an operation result may be updated in the input image area in real time (operation s30).
The MPU may perform an output image area refresh operation that data stored in an output image area according to performance of the program are sent to an output port or an output buffer (operation s40).
As described above, when data stored in the output image area is sent to the output port or the output buffer, a chip select 1 (CS1) signal, which is an address specifying signal corresponding to a buffer as shown in FIG. 2, and a WR signal transit to a low level and a clock signal output from an OR gate also transits to a low level. Due to an effect by the added capacitors to the logic circuit, like a reference numeral 210, delays 210a and 210b may occur between falling and rising times of the clock signal and falling and rising times of the WR signal. Accordingly, data 220 updated to an output Q may not be valid according to the occurrence of the delays.
That is, although a clock speed of the MPU increases, capacitors used to increase ability to withstand a noise and logic gates for clock signal generation cause signal delays. Thus, errors may occur between valid data desired to be output and actually output data.

Data processing apparatus and method in PLC system


A hemodialysis catheter, including an elongate body with an outer wall enclosing an arterial lumen and a venous lumen, and a method of making same. A loop extends from a distal end of the body and defines an enclosed opening. An arterial inlet in fluid communication with the arterial lumen, and a venous outlet in fluid communication with the venous lumen, are positioned on the loop.

Multi-lumen catheters are used for the purpose of creating two or more separate fluid pathways, such as in hemodialysis applications. A primary goal of hemodialysis access is to provide a reliable and effective means of dialysis, which means that a sufficient volume of blood over a period of time must be removed from and returned to the patient. Because the contaminated and cleansed blood must be kept separate for an effective dialysis procedure, a dual lumen catheter is generally used. These dual lumen catheters are usually configured so that there is a shorter lumen that aspirates blood from a blood vessel of a patient to a dialysis machine where it is processed for the removal of toxins, and a longer lumen that infuses the purified blood to the patient. The shorter lumen utilized for aspiration is generally referred to as the "arterial lumen," while the longer lumen utilized for infusion is generally referred to as the "venous lumen." The reason for the different lengths is to minimize co-mingling of aspirated and infused blood.
The primary problems occurring in dual lumen dialysis catheters are blood clotting (thrombosis) and fibrin (the protein formed during normal blood clotting that is the essence of the clot) sheath formation. Thrombus and fibrin sheath formation can occlude distal tips of the dialysis catheter lumens, resulting in loss of catheter function when such an occlusion prevents blood flow. This typically occurs initially in the arterial lumen used for aspiration of blood from a patient. Other common problems related to dual lumen dialysis catheters include, (1) the arterial lumen "sucking" against the vessel wall, in which the arterial lumen openings become fully occluded by the patient's vasculature, and (2) recirculation of cleansed blood, which necessarily lowers the efficiency of a dialysis procedure.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide an improved multi-lumen catheter that would overcome performance and manufacturability concerns present in currently offered products. It would also be desirable to provide designs and methods for making a multi-lumen catheter for enhanced overall functionability thereof.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


The present invention is directed towards an apparatus and method for disinfecting biological samples, including semen and the like, and for removing a biological sample pellet from surrounding media while reducing the risk of recontamination of the pellet with said media. An insert receptacle includes a receiving cylinder having a drain in a floor which allows the fluids to decant slowly down the side of a tube. The insert receptacle further includes an aspiration channel which allows an aspiration device, such as a modified micro-pipette, to be utilized for extracting a sample pellet from the bottom of the tube. Utilizing the novel apparatus, a method for reducing pathogens in a biological sample includes decanting the biological sample through the receiving cylinder and into a tube where it passes through a multi-layer gradient including an enzyme suitable for removal of at least one pathogen from the biological sample. Centrifuging of the insert receptacle, tube, and sample, isolates a sample pellet of the biological sample from the surrounding at least one pathogen. After the sample pellet is isolated it is aspirated via the aspiration device without re-contaminating the sample pellet through contact with the surrounding at least one pathogen.

Effective processes to remove surrounding media from sample pellets (i.e., biological and non-biological) generally involve aspiration of the surrounding media and then, resuspension of the sample pellet while in the same tube with desired solution. Although such processes are effective at removing the majority of surrounding media, residual media remains on the sides of the tube and directly above the pellet surface resulting in the risk of contamination of the pellet with surrounding media upon pellet removal or pellet resuspension.
In addition, direct sample pellet extraction in the presence of the surrounding media requires the pellet to pass through the surrounding media, again, increasing the risk of pellet contamination. For example, a great risk exists concerning transmission of pathogenic agents in biological samples, such as seminal fluid. Semen samples obtained from men infected with pathogens such as HIV and Hepatitis B and C if not decontaminated prior to being used in artificial insemination, in vitro fertilization, or other assisted reproductive technology, may result in the infectious agents being transmitted to the mother, unborn child or health care workers handling the contaminated semen samples. Further, similar risks exist in animal or livestock industries which are utilizing assisted reproductive technology. In livestock, for example, the foot-and-mouth disease virus and porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) virus have been shown to have devastating consequences to the national and international agricultural economies. As a result of such disease outbreaks, stricter regulations and sometimes bans on importation of animals or semen have been enacted which, in turn, affect animal and livestock industries by cutting off supplies and sources of new genetic materials.
There are currently no methods or apparatus for performance of these methods available that allow direct removal of a biological or non-biological sample pellet without first removing the surrounding media by aspiration or re-exposing the sample pellet to said media. As stated previously, such techniques are inherently flawed because of the likelihood of transferring contaminating agents in the surrounding media back to the sample pellets (e.g., directly from the pipette or indirectly from contaminated materials running down the side of the tube during aspiration).
It became known that such a process and apparatus would be desirable on September 24, 1999 at the Wild Cattle and Buffalo Taxon Advisory Group (TAG) meeting that was held at the annual conference of the American Zoo and Aquarium Association (AZA) in Minneapolis, Minn. At that meeting, a call was made for the formation of a task force by reproductive biologists collaborating or working directly with zoos to increase the research and development of assisted reproductive techniques (e.g., artificial insemination and embryo transfer) for non-domestic animals.
The reason for the alarm was due to the news of the possible closure of the last quarantine station available to animals which are to be exported from Africa and Asia after serving the USDA-mandated quarantine period (60 days outside the United States followed by 30 days within the United States). The station is in Poland and news that this country was going to join the European Union meant that they would be required to follow German guidelines which, consequently, would prohibit the entry of these animals to the quarantine station. Thus, it was hypothesized that assisted reproductive technology would become the only method by which the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) would allow importation of new genetic lines for captive ungulates (hoofed species such as antelope, deer, buffalo, and the like) and suids (exotic pig species) into American zoos.
At the meeting it was recognized that effective processes and apparatus to perform such processes to reduce or eliminate contamination in sperm samples which do not result in damage to the sperm are not currently available. As a result, the decision was made to focus more research on pathogen (e.g., microorganisms and viruses that create disease) interactions with the spermatozoa and embryos of wildlife species.
It was realized that there had been significant progress on developing methods for "disinfecting" embryos of specific pathogens. Such studies had a direct effect on the OIE and, as a consequence, the USDA APHIS, in lowering restrictions for the international movement of embryos, so long as the IETS HASAC guidelines were followed for proper embryo handling and treatment. See Manual of the International Embryo Transfer Society: A Procedural Guide and General Information for the Use of Embryo Transfer Technology Emphasizing Sanitary Procedures (3rd Edition), D. A. Stringfellow and S. M. Seidel, Editors, IETS, Savoy, Ill., USA, which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety. Although these procedures exist to reduce or eliminate contamination in oocytes and embryos, which are beneficial to preventing the spread of pathogenic agents, these procedures are not appropriate for use with various other media, such as seminal fluid. First, oocytes have a protective coating, the zona pellucida, which protects the oocytes from the damaging effects of the pathogen reducing or eliminating procedures. Sperm do not have a similar protective coating and thus, may be damaged by the current procedures. Second, oocytes and embryos are relatively large in size (typically on the order of 100 micrometers in diameter) which allows such entities to be handled individually and treated (or "dipped") in a decontamination solution. In contrast, sperm cannot be handled individually because of size limitations (the diameter of sperm heads are typically less than 5 micrometers).
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a process and an apparatus which would enable one to remove a biological or non-biological sample pellet directly from a tube containing a sample including the pellet and additional media, without disturbing the surrounding media. More specifically, it would be desirable to provide a process and apparatus to allow pathogenic agents such as viruses, bacteria, and other microorganisms to be removed from seminal fluid samples which did not result in damage to the sperm and allowed the sperm to be extracted with a reduced or eliminated risk of re-contamination by contact between the sperm and the pathogenic agents.

Process for reducing pathogens in a biological sample and removing a sample pellet from a sample tube


A bridge structure includes a light-weight, corrosion-resistant, readily installed bridge deck formed of modular deck panels spliced to each other on site. The deck panels are preferably shop-fabricated by longitudinal welding of adjacently placed multi-void elongate structural elements. Longitudinally adjacent elongate elements are spliced by providing internally disposed shear elements prior to longitudinal welding of adjacent spliced elongate elements, with the end joints between spliced elongate elements being arrayed in a staggered manner. A safety rail system is mounted to run alongside and above outer edges of the finished bridge deck mounted to a system of support girders. In one aspect of the invention, the bridge deck is very securely mounted to a support girder by flowing an initially fluid uncured medium into the voids of a structural element and, via holes formed into a bottom of that structural element, contiguously into a space defined by a bottom surface of the deck and a top surface of the girder. In this aspect, studs are welded to the top surface of the girder and extend through the holes into the voids, so that when the medium is cured-in-place it serves to bond the structural element to the girder. The cured medium inside the void facilitates transfer of shear and bending-related forces to the girder.

As existing bridges and their roadway decks age they deteriorate due to the effects of repeated traffic loads, environment, loss of paint, and use of deicing chemicals and therefore need to be maintained with ever-increasing care, and in many cases must be replaced to ensure safety. Some older bridges were never designed to handle modern heavy truck traffic and are therefore structurally deficient. As populations grow, so does the volume of traffic. The consequence is that there is increasing pressure in the United States, and abroad, to modify and strengthen existing bridge structures and to develop more durable, less expensive, lower maintenance, lighter weight, and more easily assembled bridge structures for the future. There are also environmental concerns associated with application and removal of protective paint systems on steel structures which must be taken into consideration.
The typical bridge has a superstructure and foundation system by which a bridge roadway is mounted on a system of girders supported at a desired elevation relative to adjacent terrain. As the moving loads of traffic traverse the bridge, the deck and the superstructure, eventually deteriorate. In some cases, the superstructure and foundations were never designed to support today's heavy trucks. A key factor in obtaining improved bridge structures therefore is to reduce the weight of the bridge deck without sacrificing strength, rigidity, durability, and the ability to cope with unusually heavy loads, accidents and severe weather conditions. Traditional steel and concrete bridge decks are heavy and are subject to deterioration. Steel superstructures and reinforcing steel in concrete tend to rust and therefore require expensive anti-corrosion measures, inspection and/or painting. Steel orthotropic decks, while considered to be light in weight, are usually heavier than aluminum decks, require extensive welding and are fatigue sensitive. They are also quite flexible in the transverse direction, i.e., across the principal direction of traffic flow, which leads to wearing surface failures, and may be more expensive than aluminum.
Bridges typically consist of a superstructure and a substructure. The superstructure includes the deck and any members which support the deck that are oriented in a generally horizontal configuration. Bridge superstructures often include steel beams. When these beams run parallel to the length of the bridge (called the longitudinal direction of the bridge) they are referred to as girders or sometimes as stringers. Steel beams running transversely to the direction of traffic sometimes are also provided as part of the bridge superstructure.
Bridge decks are typically made of concrete with steel reinforcing bars, although some decks are made of steel plate with ribs on the underside running in the longitudinal direction. These steel decks are referred to as steel orthotropic decks because they have significantly different structural properties in the longitudinal and transverse directions. They are more costly than concrete decks but typically weigh less. One problem associated with steel decks is that the wearing layer typically applied on top of the upper steel, to provide a skid-resistant surface for traffic, often fails prematurely.
Concrete decks are typically cast in place at the bridge site. This requires a significant expenditure of time and labor to prepare the formwork and falsework needed to cast the concrete and to allow the concrete to cure. Steel and aluminum decks are fabricated off-site under controlled conditions and with more efficient labor in shops. Metal deck fabrication typically includes longitudinal and transverse splices between smaller parts that make up the deck. However, there are practical limits to the size of fabricated pieces that can be shipped. Therefore, steel and aluminum decks may also require longitudinal and transverse splices at the bridge site.
Serious consideration is therefore being given to the use of light-weight, corrosion resistant, easily-handled, aluminum deck structures. To reduce costs while ensuring high quality, attention has focused lately on forming the bridge deck in modular fashion, i.e., with initial construction being carried out in a shop or factory with the resulting modular elements being quickly and relatively inexpensively assembled in the field. Prefabricating "deck panels" or "deck slabs" from selected numbers of constituent elements also gives the bridge designer additional freedom in selecting the dimensions and form of the resulting bridge deck.
Examples of known bridge deck structures which variously address such needs include U.S. Pat. No. 4,709,435 to Stemler et al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,912,795 to Johnson, U.S. Pat. No. 5,033,147 to Svensson, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,414,885 to Berlin et al. These and other comparable prior art references teach different ways of forming bridge deck structures from component elements including extruded aluminum elements having hollow cross-sections, and the use of a wearing surface on an upper surface of the bridge deck.
The joints between adjacent elongate elements in the prior art, e.g., Svensson, are subject to flexing open and closed under loading, which can result in potential cracking of the wearing layer. The joints between adjacent elongate elements in the present invention are welded, and so will not tend to produce cracks in the wearing layer when the deck is loaded. The Svensson elongate elements are clamped to the bridge girders. This method of attachment cannot be relied upon to transmit shear between the girder and the deck, since only an unquantified friction is available to transmit this shear. Thus, the benefits of composite action of the girders and deck cannot be realized. Also, since it is the practice of bridge engineers to assume that clamped joints will likely freeze up due to the accumulation of dirt or oxides, the deck and girder must also be designed as if shear were transmitted between them. This means that the bridge must be investigated for two conditions and the worst effects of the two used for the design. The Svensson type of structure also requires that holes be drilled in the bridge girders and that shims be driven between the deck and girders to anchor the deck at every joint between the elongate elements. This may be time-consuming and expensive.
There is, however, a continuing need for improvements which would increase the capacity of the bridge, reduce the cost (including the cost of assembling the structure from prefabricated modular elements), tolerate occasional overloads by overweight vehicles or caused by accidents or the like, and meet all applicable governmental standards and professional codes. A strong connection between the bridge deck and an all-new or pre-existing support girder system is extremely important to ensure that the bridge deck and the girders act as a composite system that safely handles all anticipated shear and compression loads. The present invention is intended to meet such demands.
The present invention comprises, inter alia, a system for securely connecting an aluminum bridge deck to one or more cooperating girders. While somewhat similar to steel orthotropic decks in that they weigh less than concrete or filled grating, aluminum decks weigh even less than steel decks. Also, as will be explained further below, this invention teaches how aluminum decks can be made with essentially isotropic, rather than orthotropic, properties. With a continuous bottom flange and a continuous top flange, as in the preferred embodiment per FIGS. 10 and 12, for example, loads can be effectively resisted by two paths, i.e., in bending longitudinally and transversely to the length of the elongate elements. This is more structurally efficient than providing only one load path to resist loads. It is also redundant, and offers greater structural reliability. The net result is an essentially isotropic deck. Structural strength in this deck structure, in both shear and bending, is thus provided both longitudinally and transversely to the direction of traffic.
Other cross-sectional forms of the basic element from which such aluminum decks are formed provide varying combinations of advantages.
In all cases, the selected deck is very strongly mounted either to a newly installed system of supporting girders or to an existing set of girders from which an old bridge deck has been removed, with little field work, to create a strong composite bridge. An example of such known teaching is to be found in "Design of Welded Structures", Section 4.9, published by The James F. Lincoln Arc Welding Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio (1966).

Modular bridge deck system including hollow extruded aluminum elements securely mounted to support girders


An ejectable floatation device includes a foldable inflatable cell coupled to a compressed gas cartridge. The inflatable cell includes a tether with one end attached to the inflatable cell and the opposite end attached to the user. The inflatable cell fits within a pocket encapsulating the ejectable floatation device, and is made buoyant upon actuation by the user of compressed gas. The inflated cell exits the pocket floating to the waters surface while still being attached to the user to identify his/her position in the water. The pocket encapsulating the ejectable floatation device may be formed on a waistband or armband or the like.

It is well known that many persons drown every year, especially children who are subject to accidentally falling into relatively deep water where they cannot be located quickly enough to be rescued and revived. Accidental drownings often occur during family picnics or similar outings near a body of water such as a lake, pond or river, where young children who are poor or inexperienced swimmers fall into the water and suddenly disappear without any visible trace. Even experienced swimmers who are fishermen, boating enthusiasts or scuba divers may fall overboard and be subjected to the sudden shock of cold water which could cause unconsciousness so that they cannot swim but instead sink down into the water. Workers on bridges or waterfront structures may be injured or knocked unconscious just before falling into the water so as to be unable to save themselves.
These unfortunate circumstances arise all to frequently, and although the best safety precaution is to wear a buoyant safety vest or the like, such garments are relatively expensive and interfere with normal activities so that many persons will not wear them. A few safety devices have been proposed for use by swimmers or bathers where a buoy is releasably attached to a holder worn on the body of the person in the water, the buoy preferably being released by the victim when in fear of drowning. Two such devices were disclosed almost 50 years ago by Neal, U.S. Pat. No. 1,935,229 (1933) and Carlbeck, U.S. Pat. No. 1,955,053 (1934), but require relatively complex and expensive structures making it difficult to encourage their purchase and use.
It is a principal object of the present invention to provide a simple, inexpensive and unobtrusive safety device which can be readily attached to a potential drowning victim, including small children, through an armband or waist belt. The device may be worn in the water and includes an actuator allowing for the wearer to manually activate the device when required. The device is to be made from readily available parts to be affordable, readily useable and even reusable. Due to its small size and lightness in weight, the device can be affixed within an armband, or waist band or the like where it will not interfere with a person's normal activities while submerged in the water.

Safety device to quickly locate a drowning victim


The present invention relates to a new type of floating carpet for covering any size surface, including entire rooms, by interlocking carpet covered bases on which resides a layer of carpet where each portion of the multiple tiles forming the carpet is a flat plastic base with side interlocking mechanisms made of male and mating female connectors to allow for the rapid design and installation of a modular layer of carpeting over existing surfaces, and more specifically multiple rectangular tiles each with a polymeric base on which is attached a piece of carpet for quick interlocking of side locking mechanisms on the polymeric base to secure adjacent carpet tiles into a carpet over a surface.

Historically, carpets are used mostly to help with multiple improvements in living and working areas. Carpets can be used indoors, outdoors, or even in vehicles. Red carpets are laid down at movie premieres to help an event cloak itself with a touch of luxury; sidewalks can be covered by carpets to protect the feet of transition athletes in a triathlon running barefoot from a swim area to a bicycle area. But the large majority of carpet is used for covering floors of different living and working quarters of individuals. While generally what is described herein is the use of carpet in the context of a house, a room, or an office, what is contemplated is the use of the new concepts broadly to any known situation where carpets are currently used.
Houses and workplaces greatly benefit from carpeting. Adding a carpet allows for a very drastic change and refreshment of the overall look and feel of any room. A good example of this dramatic shift is how the area where management works in manufacturing plants will be covered in carpeting.
There are multiple sizes and types of carpets in existence. Carpeting applies equally to larger and smaller areas alike. In the case of smaller areas, the term rug is often used. Rugs have historically been used to cover only a small portion or a strip of an area with carpet. One advantage of having small surface rugs is the capacity to design elaborate pieces of art made of silk or other noble materials, or to cut the carpets in shapes and designs desirable in a room.
Removable carpets are generally rolled into a tube for storage, removal, and cleaning. These removable rugs and carpets can slip as individuals move upon them unless they are secured down with some type of clips or nails. Even smaller carpets are often extremely difficult to clean and wash. Over time, odors collect in rugs until they must be retired. Large carpets to cover a long distance, like red carpets at a movie premiere, must be thin or they may be too heavy to lift by individuals. One other problem of rugs and carpet strips is creation of hazards and interface problems between two adjacent rugs or carpets. For example, someone wearing a high heel shoe may trip if the heel strikes the ground between two adjacent carpets at a joint interface. What is needed is a new method and system of carpeting that is modular, can be easily applied and removed at any situation, that does not create any tripping hazard.
One solution to limit the tripping hazards between rugs or patches of carpet is to cover an entire room by a single large carpet. In this case, there is also no completely finished surface below a room-size carpet. Large room-size carpets are installed by specialists, using long rolls cut to size. Disadvantages of using room-size carpets include the inability to remove them for cleaning and the need to manage odors and humidity. For example, if a dog has an accident, the urine will be drawn into the carpet and will have to be dealt with.
Vacuum cleaners, while capable to collecting dust and some debris accumulating in the upper portion of a carpet, may not be able to dislodge particles trapped below the surface. With time, these permanent carpets will also be damaged in a single area where an accident occurred or where excessive wear is anticipated.
What is needed is a new type of carpeting solution that is easy to clean and easy to install, and offers the advantages of both of these carpeting solutions while having none of the drawbacks.

Carpet tiling system and method of installation


A method for gathering, creating and utilizing signal-processed ECG and acoustic signals for assessing, via presenting a highly intuitive, multi-component, common-time-base, real-time output display of selected (1) timing, (2) relative timing, and (3) other significant heart-behavioral elements relevant to such an assessment, a pacemaker patient's hemodynamic condition. The method offers an important option and capability for automatic, and/or manual, medical-treatment and/or pacemaker-control feedback, in real time, to improve a pacemaker patient's hemodynamic status, with such a patient's resulting hemodynamic-behavioral/status changes caused by such feedback being viewable immediately in the invention's produced output display.

This invention pertains to a certain aspect of cardiology, and in particular, to methodology and associated system apparatus that are employable with respect to pacemaker patients to obtain useful heart-sound and ECG-electrical information which enables a very accurate, and graphically intuitive, assessment of a patient's hemodynamic status. The invention also provides an important feedback opportunity for adjusting such a patient's current medical treatment, including the making of a pacemaker operational adjustment, in a manner aimed at improving that patient's hemodynamic condition. With the system and methodology of the invention in operation, the results of such feedback can be viewed immediately in real time.
The invention thus addresses an important area of cardiology wherein it is considered to be very useful and important to be able, under real-time, result-observation conditions, to fine-tune a pacemaker-patient's hemodynamic behavior and condition. The terms "pacemaker" and "pacemaker patient" are employed herein in relation to patients and implant equipment involving cardiac resynchronization therapy.
In this context, it is now very well recognized that, in addition to the heart-condition-assessment value of possessing accurately gathered and clearly readable ECG electrical information, is also extremely valuable to obtain, for accurate viewing, simultaneously occurring heart-sound information relating especially to the heart sounds known as the S1, S2, S3 and S4 heart sounds. As those skilled in the art recognize, there are various kinds of conditions which can make difficult the accurate acquisition and identification of clearly confirmable heart sounds, often because of various "other conditions" which tend to obscure accurate heart-sound information. One of these troublesome, "obscuring" conditions exhibits itself sometimes in the presence of pacemaker operation in the form of phrenic nerve stimulation. More specifically, too vigorous a pacemaker ventricular pacing pulse, an issue in and of itself, can produce such stimulation which, in turn generates an acoustic artifact that can "confuse" a heart-sound diagnostic algorithm in a way which mars accurate heart-sound investigation.
The present invention, in the context of improving heart-sound collection and display for hemodynamic status assessment and adjustment in the realm of pacemaker operation, takes particular aim at this circumstance and these issues—namely, at the above-mentioned, unwanted events involving a subject whose heart has been equipped with a pacemaker. It does so, as will be seen, with unique methodology which leads to very accurate and reliable gathering and intuitive presentation of both ECG-electrical and heart-sound acoustic information, with appropriate processing being applied to the gathered information to assure a high level of certainty regarding acquired audio data containing heart-sound information in categories that are important to the assessment and management of a subject's hemodynamic condition. This presentation capability of the invention is, as will be seen, extremely useful in the world of pacemaker patients.
Describing features of the invention in the subject "pacemaker" setting, the present invention operates to recognize potential "phrenic nerve stimulation" problems, and as such, provides signal-collection and signal-processing circuitry operation and methodology which responds to real time pacemaker operation in a manner that effectively (a) prevents the mentioned heart-sound confusion issue from surfacing, (b) informs a physician, clinician, etc. that a pacemaker's ventricular pacing pulse may need to be adjusted, and (c) opens a significant door for the improved gathering and processing accuracy, and the presentation, of heart-sound information leading to accurate assessment (indeed "picturing") of a subject's hemodynamic condition.
Additionally, the invention addresses the utility of employing such carefully gathered and processed information in a manner enabling feedback control to be applied to an operating pacemaker so as to enable the physician, or other party, (working with a particular pacemaker subject) to fine-tune the interrelated operations of the subject's heart and the associated pacemaker so as to improve that subject's hemodynamic condition.
As an important aside feature, medical treatment feedback, other than that relating to pacemaker operation, is also encouraged, promoted, and made available, based on operation of the invention, for improving, and for observing feedback results in real time regarding, a patient's hemodynamic condition.
The invention further features the creation of a unique, visual, graphical presentation (with geometric elements) of gathered ECG-electrical and heart-sound acoustic information, in a real time manner, and in such as fashion that the employment of feedback to control various medical treatment and/or pacemaker operations so as to improve hemodynamic behavior can be seen immediately on a very intuitive visual representation of the associated subject's actual, then-existent, hemodynamic condition and behavior.
These and various other features and advantages which are offered by the present invention will become more fully apparent as the description which now follows is read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Pacemaker-patient hemodynamic assessment/adjustment methodology


Provided are methods of making dehydrogenation catalyst supports containing bayerite and silica. Silica-stabilized alumina powder, prepared by spray drying of bayerite powder, precipitating silica in a bayerite slurry with an acid, or impregnation or co-extrusion of bayerite with sodium silicate solution was found to be a superior catalyst support precursor. Catalysts prepared with these silica containing support materials have higher hydrothermal stability than current CATOFIN® catalysts. Also provided is a dehydrogenation catalyst comprising Cr2O3, an alkali metal oxide, SiO2 and Al2O3, and methods of using said catalyst to make an olefin and/or dehydrogenate a dehydrogenatable hydrocarbon.

The CATOFIN® process converts aliphatic hydrocarbons to their corresponding olefins over a fixed-bed chromia alumina catalyst. For example, it can be used to produce isobutylene, propylene or amylenes from isobutane, propane or isopentanes, respectively. The process is an adiabatic, cyclic process. Each cycle comprises several steps, including catalyst reduction, dehydrogenation, purging of the remaining hydrocarbon from the reactor, and finally a regeneration step with air. The cycle then starts again with the reduction step.
The dehydrogenation reaction is highly endothermic. Therefore, the temperature of the catalyst bed decreases during the dehydrogenation step. This decrease in temperature causes a decrease in paraffin conversion. In order to reheat the catalyst bed and remove coke that has deposited on the catalyst during the dehydrogenation step, the reactor is purged of hydrocarbon and then undergoes a regeneration step with air. Heat is provided to the bed by the hot air that passes through the bed and also by the combustion of the coke deposits on the catalyst. Reduction of the catalyst, with a reducing gas such as hydrogen, prior to dehydrogenation step also provides some additional heat. As flow in the reactor is usually from top to bottom and coke deposits to a larger amount at the reactor inlet, there is a tendency for the top of the bed to be hotter than the bottom of the bed. Also, the coke distribution in the catalyst bed, which is not easily controlled, affects the amount of heat added at each location and the resulting catalyst bed temperature profile. These factors make control of the temperature profile in the bed difficult. Hydrothermal stability of catalysts used in the CATOFIN® process is usually the limiting factor for their lifetime use, and thermal stability as well as high selectivity to the olefin are desired qualities.
Aluminum oxide, or alumina, is a commonly used catalyst carrier. The properties it displays vary, depending on its preparation, purity and thermal history. There is a variety of types of alumina, with varying surface areas, pore size distributions, surface acidic properties and crystal structures. Examples include gibbsite (along with its three structural polymorphs bayerite, doyleite and nordstrandite), boehmite and diaspore. Boehmite alumina crystals dehydrate and form a variety of polymorphs depending on the temperature of heating. Alumina produced by dehydration of boehmite exists as γ-alumina between approximately 500 and 850° C., δ-alumina between 850 and 1050° C., θ-alumina between 1050 and 1150° C. and α-alumina above 1150° C. Bayerite is a trihydrate form of alumina with dehydrates to η-alumina between approximately 300 and 500° C., θ-alumina between 850 and 1150° C. and α-alumina above 1150° C.
There are also various stabilizers that can be used with alumina. This includes alkaline earth metals and rare earth metals, as well as other elements such as zirconium. For example, the use of alkaline earth metal oxides is discussed in US Patent Publication No. US 2010/0312035.

Chromia alumina catalysts for alkane dehydrogenation


A high-speed serial link receiver includes variable offset comparators with centrally controlled offset cancellation. The receiver includes a comparator stage to receive a high-speed differential input signal. Comparator elements of the comparator stage have first and second current sources to provide current to corresponding differential amplifier half-circuits. An offset cancellation controller provides an offset cancellation signal for setting current provided by one of the current sources to at least partially offset an output offset between the differential amplifier half-circuits. A receiver system may be comprised of a plurality of receiver units for receiving a corresponding plurality of channels over high-speed serial links. A state machine may sequentially determine an offset cancellation code for the comparator elements of the receiver units.

Differential signals are often used for communications between chips and other semiconductor devices on a circuit board because of their reduced susceptibility to noise as well as other factors. As semiconductor devices become more powerful, communications between such devices demand higher data rates. Furthermore, in efforts to reduce power consumption of these ever increasingly powerful devices, it may be desirable to use differential signals with lower peak-to-peak differences (e.g., smaller differential signals). One problem with receiving higher data rate, smaller differential signals is that even slight voltage offsets within comparators become more significant, thus adversely affecting a receiver's ability to accurately receive such signals.
Thus there is a general need for an improved receiver and method of communicating differential signals. There is also a need for a receiver and method for receiving high-speed, low-voltage differential signals over high-speed serial communication links between semiconductor devices. There is also a need for an improved receiver and method for offset cancellation allowing for receipt of smaller differential signals.

High-speed serial link receiver with centrally controlled offset cancellation and method


A battery pack includes battery modules each having a battery cell and a battery case housing the battery cell therein. The battery modules are stacked in a stacking direction so that a cooling passage for allowing a cooling medium to flow is defined between opposed surfaces of adjacent battery cases. One of the opposed surfaces has first ribs projecting toward the other of the opposed surfaces and extending parallel to each other along the one. The other of the opposed surfaces has second ribs projecting toward the one of the opposed surfaces and extending parallel to each other along the other. In the cooling passage, the first ribs and the second ribs intersect each other and end portions of the first ribs and end portions of the second ribs are in contact with each other in the stacking direction.

An example of a battery pack is described in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2009-277471. In the battery pack, multiple battery cells are stacked and electrically connected in series. A battery holder is disposed between the stacked battery cells. End plates are arranged at ends of the stack of battery cells with respect to a stacking direction. The end plates are connected by a binding band. The binding band exerts a binding force to the battery holder in a direction along the stacking direction to fix the stacked battery cells.
Further, an air passage is formed between a surface of the battery cell that is perpendicular to the stacking direction and a surface of the battery holder that is opposed to the surface of the battery cell with respect to the stacking direction. Specifically, the surface of the battery holder has multiple ribs projecting toward the surface of the battery cell. Each of the ribs extends in a horizontal direction, and the ribs are arranged in a vertical direction. Further, an end surface of each rib is in contact with the surface of the battery cell. Thus, multiple air spaces each extending in the horizontal direction are formed in the vertical direction. The air passage is provided by the multiple air spaces. The battery cells are cooled by air flowing in the air passage during its operation.
In such an air passage, since the multiple horizontal air spaces, which are narrow, are arranged in the vertical direction, if the air is unevenly supplied into the air spaces, it is difficult to evenly cool the surface of the battery cell. Further, a boundary layer will be formed in a flow of air between the surface of the battery cell and the surface of the battery holder due to the air spaces being narrow and long. As a result, a heat transfer coefficient between the air and the battery cell will be reduced, degrading cooling performance.


An electrically conductive rod-shaped single crystal product, which is a rod-shaped single crystal having an aspect ratio of from 1 to 500, formed by a vapor-liquid-solid method or such a rod-shaped single crystal having its forward end alloy portion removed, wherein at least side surface of said rod-shaped single crystal is coated by an electrically conductive film having a thickness of from 0.1 to 10 .mu.m.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrically conductive rod-shaped single crystal product which is useful for e.g. a probe pin for measuring electrical properties of a semiconductor integrated circuit, a fine vacuum device or an electron gun, or a probe for a scanning type probe microscope such as a scanning tunnel microscope or an inter-atomic force microscope, and an assembly for measuring electrical properties employing such a single crystal product.
2. Discussion of Background
Heretofore, various materials having electrical conductivity or electron radiation have been used for a probe pin for measuring electrical properties of a semiconductor integrated circuit, a fine vacuum device or a electron gun, or a probe for a scanning type probe microscope such as a scanning tunnel microscope or an inter-atomic force microscope. For example, the probe pin for measuring electrical properties of a semiconductor integrated circuit, is used for a probe card for measuring electrical properties to remove defective products in the process for producing a semiconductor integrated circuit. Hereinafter, a specific description will be made with respect to the probe pin for measuring electrical properties of a semiconductor integrated circuit. In the production of LSI, measurement is carried out to test the operation of a circuit element constituting each chip, at a stage when a circuit element is produced in a wafer. Thereafter, when a chip cut off from the wafer, has been packaged or mounted on a TAB tape, measurement is carried out again for testing the operation. For the former test, it is common to employ a probe card having a probe pin made of a metal such as tungsten. The latter test is carried out by using a socket, to which an outer lead is inserted, in many cases. However, in the case of TAB, a probe card may sometimes be used. In such a probe card, a probe pin made of tungsten is used in most cases, and its forward end is bent so that it will be resiliently in contact with an electrode of a semiconductor to be evaluated. In a probe card, it is common that a plurality of probe pins will be brought into contact with electrodes of a semiconductor to be evaluated. Accordingly, it is necessary to absorb errors in e.g. the flatness of the forward ends of the probe pins, the flatness of the electrodes of the semiconductor to be evaluated and their parallelism when they are set in an evaluation apparatus. For this purposes in the case of tungsten wires, probe pins are designed to bend. The degree of bending of the probe pins is referred to as overdrive. A probe card using a tungsten wire is designed so that this overdrive can be exerted up to 100 .mu.m. Current probe cards are prepared so that such probe pins are positioned and fixed individually so that they agree to the positions of the electrodes of a semiconductor to be evaluated. However, with a rapid progress in refinement of semiconductors, it has become difficult to fix probe pins accurately and highly densely, and preparation of probe cards has reached the limit.
Under the circumstances, a probe card has been devised wherein fine probe pins are planted on a substrate vertically or with a proper angle of inclination. For example, methods have been proposed in which single crystals are formed on a silicon substrate with their positions controlled by a vapor-liquid-solid methods and they are used as probe pins for a probe card (Japanese Unexamined Patent Publications No. 198636/1993, No. 215774/1993 and No. 218156/1993). In these methods, single crystal pins are grown on a silicon substrate with their positions controlled, and they are further processed e.g. by plating to have electrical conductivity, and such a substrate using the electrically conductive rod-shaped single crystal products as probe pins, has been used for a probe card (hereinafter the electrically conductive rod-shaped single crystal product of the present invention includes a probe pin for a probe card, and an assembly for measuring electrical properties using such a probe pin includes a probe card, but they may be called a probe pin and a probe card, respectively).
However, conventional probe pins prepared by a vapor-liquid-solid method had the following problems.
1 The ratio of the forward end diameter of a probe pin to the length of the pin is called an aspect ratio. If this aspect ratio is small, overdrive can not be applied to probe pins, and in measurement by means of a plurality of probe pins, it is difficult to let all of the probe pins contact the electrodes of a semiconductor for evaluation. Further, flexible deformation within a resilient range of probe pins by overdrive can not be expected, and probe pins are likely to break. When the aspect ratio is too large, operation efficiency tends to be poor in the preparation and use, and probe pins tend to break. Further, probe pins tend to buckle and contact each other, and the load when contacted tends to be so small that a constant electrical conductivity can not be obtained.
2 If the diameter of probe pins is too small, the probe pins are likely to break. On the other hand, if it is too large, they can not meet the requirement for high density of semiconductor terminals.
3 If the material of the conductive film is not proper, the conductive films at the forward ends of probe pins tend to peel off by repeated contact of some ten thousand times, and the life of the probe pins tends to be short.
4 If the film thickness of the conductive plating is too thin, the electrical resistance of the probe pins tends to be high. On the other hand, if it is too thick, the resiliency of the probe pins tends to be impaired, whereby the probe pins are likely to deform
5 Further, the single crystal grown on a substrate by a vapor-liquid-solid method is made to be electrically conductive and can be used by itself as a probe pin for a probe card. However, when larger overdrive is required, the probe pin is likely to break at its base portion, and it will be necessary to reinforce the base portion.
6 When probe pins are to be bonded on a circuit board, such bonding is difficult, and an easier simpler method is desired.
7 If the inclination of a probe pin to a semiconductor terminal is not proper, when contacted, the probe pin slips on the terminal and may be dislocated.
8 When many probe pins are formed with a narrow pitch from one another, it is difficult to lead-out wires from the probe pins, because with a currently available technique of photolithography employing an insulating substrate using glass, epoxy or the like, it is very difficult to conduct processing including wiring of an insulating substrate with such a fine pitch as is equivalent to LSI produced by a semiconductor technique, and even if such a processing is possible it will be highly costly.

Electrically conductive rod-shaped single crystal product and assembly for measuring electrical properties employing such product, as well as processes for their production


A mobile phone-based dark field microscope (MDFM) apparatus suitable for quantifying nanoparticle signals is provided. The MDFM apparatus includes an electrically operated light source, a dark-field condenser, a slide housing configured to receive an analytical slide, and an adapter housing configured to receive an objective lens and receive a portable electronic communication device. The slide housing positions the analytical slide between the objective lens and the dark-field condenser. The adapter housing registers the objective lens with a camera lens of the portable electronic communication device. A method for performing a biological quantitative study using the dark-field microscope apparatus is further provided.

Gold nanoparticles have become prevalent labeling agents for detection and quantification of different targets, cellular imaging, biomolecular quantification, and performance of interaction studies. Conventional studies utilizing gold nanoparticles rely on complex equipment that limits their applicability to field settings. Portable spectrometry has been nominated as a potential solution for nanoparticle quantification; however, it suffers from complex setup requirements as well as either low throughput or low sensitivity. Nanoparticle-based lateral-flow chromatographic immunoassays are point-of-care devices, but usually are not quantitative, and require extensive development and validation.
Nanoparticle-based variants of standard immunoassays have potential as quantitative point-of-care immunoassays, since antibody-linked nanoparticle probes can be stored dry at ambient temperature (unlike enzyme-linked antibodies used in conventional immunoassays, which require low temperature storage).
Dark-field microscopy (also known as "dark-ground microscopy") describes microscopy methods that exclude the unscattered beam from the image. As a result, the field around the specimen (i.e., where there is no specimen to scatter the beam) is generally dark. Dark-field microscope (DFM) image analysis is commonly used to sensitively detect and precisely quantify nanoparticle-based immunoassay variants. The pairing of DFM image analysis and nanoparticles has resolved many critical quantification problems in bioresearch and clinical practice. DFM image analysis requires a high-magnification microscope, since low-magnification (far-field) DFM images are highly sensitive to surface artifacts and debris that can easily mask nanoparticle signals. The size, cost, and delicate character of conventional DFM systems limit their utility in non-laboratory settings—such as field hospitals and other settings, in which these factors represent barriers to their use. In addition to their lack of portability, conventional DFM systems may also be limited in terms of their ease of use.
Attempts to develop more portable DFM approaches date back to 1958, when dermatologists utilized DFM image analysis to diagnose agents responsible for multiple diseases (including syphilis) that produced skin lesions, but these devices fell out of use upon the development of other technologies, and few advances in DFM image analysis have been made since that time.
Recent technology advances driven largely by mobile phone camera development have spurred the use of mobile phone cameras in medical applications, including portable microscopy for numerous point-of-care diagnostics. As of the effective date of this application, however, Applicant is unaware of any far-field DFM system incorporating a mobile phone camera.

Dark-field microscope apparatus utilizing portable electronic communication device

Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of Arizona State University


An embodiment of the invention discloses new methods for designing labeled nucleic acid probes and primers by labeling oligonucleotides with a plurality of spectrally identical or similar dyes and optionally with one or more quencher dyes. Oligonucleotides labeled in accordance with some embodiments of the invention exhibit a detectable increase in signal, for example, fluorescent signal when the labeling dyes are separated from one another. Methods for separating the dye include cleaving the labeled oligonucleotides include using enzymes that have 5′-exonuclease activity. In one embodiment nucleic acid primers of the present invention may fluoresce upon hybridization to a target sequence and incorporation into the amplification product. Nucleic acid probes and primers of the present invention have wide applications ranging from general detection of a target nucleic acid sequence to clinical diagnostics. Major advantages of the oligonucleotides including nucleic acid probes and primers of many embodiments of the present invention are their synthetic simplicity, spectral versatility and superior fluorescent signal.

The present invention relates in general to oligonucleotides labeled with a plurality of spectrally identical or similar dyes and optionally one or more quencher dyes, as well as methods of creating labeled oligonucleotides and various uses of the labeled oligonucleotides as primers or probes for highly sensitive nucleic acid detection, including real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR).
Nucleic acid polymers such as DNA and RNA are essential to the transmission of genetic information from one generation to the next and in the routine functioning of all living organisms. Accordingly these molecules are the object of intense study and a number of techniques have been developed to study of these molecules. These methods include but are not limited to methods for identifying the presence of a specific polynucleotide sequences in a given sample and methods designed to measure the number of specific nucleic acid molecules originally present in a given sample.
Practical uses for these techniques include identifying specific species and relationships between various species based upon similarities in oligonucleotide sequences. Other uses include diagnosing disease by identifying specific sequences in a given sample as indicative of a given pathology. Still other uses, too numerous to mention, include identifying individuals with a predisposition for developing a specific pathology as well as assessing the efficacy of proposed treatment regimes based on the presence of specific polynucleotides in a given patient's genome.
One of the most widely used and powerful techniques for the study and manipulation of oligonucleotides is the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). PCR is a primer extension reaction that provides a method for amplifying specific nucleic acids in vitro. This technique was first described in 1987. PCR can produce million fold copies of a DNA template in a single enzymatic reaction mixture within a matter of hours, enabling researchers to determine the size and sequence of target DNA. This DNA amplification technique has been widely used for cloning and other molecular biological manipulations. Further discussion of PCR is provided in Mullis et al., Methods Enzymol. (1987); and Saiki et al., Science (1985).
In PCR the particular stretch of DNA to be amplified is referred to as the 'target sequence'. The target sequence is replicated by first binding a complimentary 'primer' to a single stranded portion of the target polynucleotide. One PCR based technique that is particularly useful is Quantitative PCR (qPCR). Briefly, the mechanism of qPCR is based on the fact that PCR amplifies a target DNA in an exponential manner. By running a PCR reaction and measuring the total number of DNA copies at given points during the course of the amplification reaction, one can retroactively calculate the amount of starting DNA material.
Various methods have been developed for determining the amount of PCR product made without having to stop the PCR run or even to sample the reaction during a given PCR run. One such method follows the course of the PCR run in real time by measuring the amount of product at each cycle of DNA synthesis. This process is referred to as real time PCR (RT-PCR). Because of its great sensitivity and because measurements can be made with the sample still in the PCR thermocylcer, various fluorescence-based assays that monitor the formation of PCR products have been developed. A number of instruments and methods have been developed for real-time PCR (RT-PCR). A real-time PCR instrument is typically a fluorometer built upon a thermocycler. Commercially available real-time PCR instruments include Prism7700 by ABI, LightCycler by Roche, Opticon by MJ Research, iCycler IQ by BioRad, and MX4000 by Stratagene.
An oligonucleotide used to identify a given sequence of nucleic acid by hybridizing to it, but that does not serve to amplify the sequence may be referred to as a 'probe'. Probes also find utility in PCR reactions where they are used to signal polynucleotide amplification.
Given the importance of oligonucleotide and the myriad of ways in which these molecules can impact human, animal and plant life there is a need for ever more efficient methods for the study and manipulation of oligonucleotide. Including new techniques for efficiently producing labeled oligonucleotide. One object of the present invention is to provide labeled oligonucleotide and efficient methods for making and using the same.

Oligonucleotides labeled with a plurality of fluorophores


A vehicle-washing apparatus which has a brush support mechanism which uses fixed support shafts and linear bearings, and a brush stabilization device using secondary fixed shafts. The entire weight of the brushes is supported by the fixed support shafts and the brushes are permitted to slide and pivot about the fixed support shafts via a primary bearing assembly having linear bearings which are sealed against air-borne contamination and which are provided with a self-contained lubrication system. A retraction/retention mechanism for the brushes uses a single continuous cable and a single air cylinder.

The prior art vehicle-washing device with rolling gravity pressure controlled wrap brushes is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,769,868 to Pagnanelli et al, incorporated herein by reference. The Pagnanelli et al device has a brush support mechanism which uses track members which are rotatably attached at each end to a frame. The brushes of Pagnanelli et al are slidably supported on the track members by guide members, each guide member having eight rollers mounted on bearings supported by the guide member.
The Pagnanelli et al device suffers from several disadvantages. First, the track members, guide members, rollers and bearings are exposed to air-borne dirt particles, the presence of which tend to reduce the useful life of the device. Second, the Pagnanelli et al device requires sixteen bearings, eight for each of the two guide members, and two additional bearings for each of the two track members. Third, the rollers of Pagnanelli et al are subjected to uneven loading as the brushes pivot back and forth and slide in and out. The result of this uneven loading is uneven wear on the rollers leading to shortened useful life thereof.

Vehicle-washing apparatus with brush support having fixed shafts and linear bearings