An imaging system that provides a facility for converting highly functional complex graphical primitives that cannot be directly imaged by a less functional page description languages (PDL) such as PostScript or PCL into a plurality of less complex graphical primitives that can be directly imaged by a PDL. Some of these highly functional complex objects are three dimensional objects, high order curves, non regular areas, sampled three dimensional surfaces, off-centered pens, color blending and user programmable three dimensional shaders. These graphical objects are examined by a device handler, the characteristics of the object compared with the capabilities of the PDL of the device and if required the graphical object is transformed into a plurality of simpler objects that can be imaged by the PDL. Depending on the complexity of the graphical primitive, this transformation either creates a pixelmap of the image that is sent to the device at the device's resolution, or the transformation creates a plurality of graphic primitives supported by the device's PDL. Regardless, the desired complex image is printed, and the developer of an application program is able to utilize complex graphical primitives to develop an image that will be presented on a device irrespective of the limitations inherent in the device's actual PDL.

One of the most important aspects of a modem computer system is the ability to generate an image of textual or graphical information. This information can be manipulated by the computer, visually displayed and stored. This display is generally performed by a display monitor and by a "hard" printed copy. To create the hard copy of this information, a computer system generally includes a printing device which is electrically connected to the computer system and controlled by it in order to generate a permanent image on a selected medium. Examples of raster oriented printing devices in common use are dot matrix, ink jet and LASER printers that fix permanent images on paper under control of the computer. Although paper is the most common medium, other media are often used, such as photographic film and overhead transparencies.
FIG. 3a indicates the correspondence between a computer memory raster 3a01 contains an image 3a02 which can be displayed on a raster monitor 3a06 or a raster printer 3a08. The memory raster 3a01 is sent to the printer 3a08 as indicated by arrow 3a09. The printer 3a08 transfers the raster image 3a02 to a resulting image 3a04 on paper 3a03. Similarly, the memory raster 3a01 is sent to a monitor 3a06 as indicated by arrow 3a10. The display 3a06 transfers the raster image 3a02 to a resulting image 3a07 on the display 3a06. Images 3a07 and 3a04 are dependent on the resolution of each device. The same image 3a02 if sent to devices of differing resolution will be produced at different sizes.
In order to print a document that is displayed on the monitor or stored within the memory, several actions must take place. First, since the print medium generally has a fixed size, the printable information must be divided into pieces which are small enough to fit on the selected medium, a process which is called pagination. In addition, the information may need to be reformatted from the format in which it is either displayed or stored into a format which is suitable for controlling the printing device to actually perform the printing on the medium. The reformatting in this latter step may include the insertion of control commands into the printable information in order to control the printing device. These added commands may, for example, include such commands as carriage returns, line feeds, form feeds, spaces and font information, all of which format the printable information. The reformatting may also include a conversion step in which the information is converted into the form used by the printing device. For example, if the printer uses the PostScript page description language, this reformatting would include the creation of a PostScript program to generate the printed page. Similarly, if the printer uses the PCL page description language.
The pagination and reformatting necessary to convert the printable information into a form which can be printed on a given printing device is generally performed by software programs running within the computer system. Software programs operating on a computing system generally can be categorized into two broad classes: operating systems which are usually specific to a type of computer system and consist of a collection of utility programs that enable the computer system to perform basic operations, such as storing and retrieving information on a peripheral disk memory, displaying information on an associated video display, performing rudimentary file operations including the creation, naming and renaming of files and, in some cases, performing diagnostic operations in order to discover or recover from malfunctions.
By itself, the operating system generally provides only very basic functions and must be accompanied by an "application" program. The application program interacts with the operating system to provide much higher level functionality and a direct interface with the user. During the interaction between the application program and the operating system, the application program typically makes use of operating system functions by sending a series of task commands to the operating system which then performs the requested tasks. For example, the application program may request that the operating system store particular information on the computer disk memory or display information on the video display.
FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of a typical computer system utilizing both an application program and an operating system. The computer system is schematically represented by box 100, the application program is represented by box 102 and the operating system by box 106. The interaction between the application program 102 and the operating system 106 is illustrated schematically by arrow 104. This dual program system is used on many types of computers systems ranging from mainframes to personal computers.
The method for handling printing, however, varies from computer to computer, and, in this regard, FIG. 1 represents a prior art personal computer system. In order to provide printing functions, the application program 102 interacts (as shown schematically by arrow 108) with printer driver software 110. Printer driver software 110 is generally associated with an application program and reformats and converts the printable information as necessary. Since each printer has its own particular format and control command set, which must be embedded in the text properly to control the printer, the printer driver software 110 must be specifically designed to operate with one printer or one type of printer. Application support for differing types of printers generally requires support for a specialized printer driver for each type of printer supported. Often a multitude of printer drivers were provided with the application to support a wide range of printing devices.
The printer driver software 110 produces a reformatted information stream containing the embedded commands as shown schematically as arrow 114. The converted information stream is, in turn, applied to a printer port 112 which contains circuitry that converts the incoming information stream into electrical signals. The signals are, in turn, communicated to the printer 118 via some data pathway 116 such as a dedicated cable or a network. Printer 118 usually contains an "imaging engine" which is a hardware device or a ROM-programmed computer which takes the incoming information stream and converts it into the electrical signals necessary to drive the actual printing elements. The result is a "hard copy" output on the selected medium.
While the configuration shown in FIG. 1 generally works in a satisfactory manner, it has several drawbacks. Since the printer driver software 110 is specific to each type of printer, a separate driver had to be provided for each printer type with which the application program is to operate. In the personal computer market, there are a large number of different printer types that are compatible with each type of computer and, therefore, as the number of printer types proliferated, so did the number of printer drivers which were required for each application program so that the program was compatible with most available printers. Therefore, application program developers had to provide, test, and support larger and larger numbers of printer drivers with each application program, resulting in wasted time and effort and wasted disk space to hold the drivers, only one or two of which were of interest to any particular user. Unfortunately, if a user purchased an application program and it did not include a printer driver which could control the printer which the user owned, unpredictable operation occurred, resulting in program returns and user dissatisfaction.
In addition, it was also necessary for each application program to provide high level printing functions such as pagination and page composition (including addition of margins, footnotes, figure numbers, etc.) if such functions were desired. Consequently, each application program developer had to spend time developing programs to implement common printing functions which programs were specific to each application program, thereby resulting in duplicated effort and wasted time.
In order to overcome the aforementioned difficulties, the prior art arrangement was modified as shown in FIG. 2. In this new arrangement, computer system 200 is still controlled by application program 202 which cooperates, as shown schematically by arrow 204, with operating system 206. However, in the system shown in FIG. 2 operating system 206 includes printer drivers 214. A separate printer driver must still be provided for each different type of printer, but the printer drivers are sold with, and part of, the operating system. Consequently, it is not necessary for each application program to have its own set of printer drivers. An application program, such as application program 202, communicates with the printer driver 214 by means of a standardized interface 210. Two common interfaces are called "grafports" or "device contexts". Illustratively, application program 202 provides information (schematically shown by arrow 208) in a standardized form to the grafport 210. The grafport 210, in turn, forwards information, as shown by arrow 212, to printer driver 214 which reformats and converts the information as previously described into the format required by the printer. The output of printer driver 214 is provided (illustratively shown as arrow 216) to printer port 218 where it is converted to electrical signals that are transmitted, via a data pathway 220, to the printer 222.
The configuration shown in FIG. 2 has the advantage that the application program developer need not worry about the specific computer and printer combination on which the program will ultimately run in order to provide printing capabilities to the application program. However, it still suffers from the drawback that, if desired, high level printing capabilities such as pagination and page composition must still be designed into each application program, thereby duplicating program code and wasting programming resources.
These problems were addressed by providing an object-oriented printing interface that communicated with the remainder of the operating system through a standard interface such as a grafport and printer drivers provided for each printer type within the operating system. So that an application not only need not worry about the particular printer/computer combination with which it is to operate, but also need not have a built in document formatting capability. This printing interface included objects that provided queries for device identification, optimized imaging, and printer status. Other objects were also provided for data transfer to bracket connections prior to sending and receiving information. Still other objects were provided for canceling a print job, pausing a job, and clearing out a job. Finally, an object was also provided for supporting multiple streams of communication to an imaging task.
FIG. 4 shows a schematic overview of another prior art computer system utilizing an object-oriented printing interface. The computer system is shown generally as a box 400, and an application program 402 and an operating system 406 are provided to control and coordinate the operations of the computer. Application program 402 communicates with operating system 406 as indicated by arrow 404. However, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention, rather than communicating directly with a standard interface, such as grafport 410, application program 402 can now communicate with operating system 406 at a higher level when it wishes to print information. This latter interaction is accomplished by providing an object-oriented printing interface shown schematically as box 424. Printing interface 424 responds to a series of simple commands generated by application program 402 in order to perform various formatting and pagination functions. The formatted, printable information is then transmitted to a grafport 410 as indicated schematically by arrow 426. It is possible for application program 402 to communicate directly with grafport 410 as in the prior art arrangement shown in FIG. 2, however, it is not expected that this will be the normal mode of operation.
In any case, the information flows through grafport 410, and as indicated by arrow 412, is provided to a printer handler 414. Printer handler 414 is similar to printer drivers previously described. However, it is "intelligent" and offers some additional capabilities. Essentially, printer handler 414 processes the incoming data stream indicated by arrow 412 and adds the necessary printer commands to control the associated printer schematically illustrated as printer 422. The reformatted printer data stream is provided, as indicated by arrow 416, to a printer port 418 which converts the data into electrical signals that are sent over data pathway 420 to printer 422.
Although a significant improvement over the previously described art shown in FIG. 2, this approach still suffers from the drawback that once the Printing interface 424 provided support for highly functional graphic command objects--objects that could not be simply represented within the printer's PDL--the print driver would either simply not perform the command, or fall back to printing a low resolution pixelmap representative of the image associated with the object. This problem is demonstrated with graphic primitives such as high order curves, sampled 3D surfaces, non-centered pens, color masks and color blending transfer modes, and user programmable 3D shaders. These graphic commands are not supported in either PCL version 5 or PostScript.

System for imaging complex graphical images


In a video disk player for playing back a disk containing a plurality of music pieces, each recorded as a combination of video data and corresponding audio data, a picture-search process section for mainly searching the video data includes an audio-data buffer memory, and upon receipt of a picture search instruction, audio data of a music piece previously designated to be continuously played back is recorded. When the picture search is performed, the video data of the music pieces contained in the disk is sequentially played back for a predetermined time interval, for example, 30 seconds, on the basis of an instruction of a video-data playback control section for search. On that occasion, the video disk player continuously plays back the audio data of the specific music piece recorded in the buffer memory regardless of change-over of the video data.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a video disk player which provides an operator with a menu for selecting a desired music piece when the operator plays back a disk such as a digital versatile disk (DVD) containing a large number of music pieces, each recorded as a combination of video data and corresponding music data.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, CD-sized DVD-videos which can contain video data and sound of a long-running film or the like recorded therein have been widely available on the market, and DVD-video players for playing back the DVD-video have been widely used. Such DVD-videos played back by such a DVD-video player include those commercially available in a large quantity, which contain, other than the above film, for example, a large number of music pieces of a specific artist like a CD album and also contain image video linked to each music piece. Such DVD-videos include those commercially available on the market which contain popular music pieces and have especially attractive video data, such as dance video data, opera video data, and/or ballet video data which are suitable for the respective music pieces, recorded therein so as to be linked to music data of the respective music pieces.
Although a majority of such DVD-videos have moving pictures recorded therein, a part of them have a large number of still pictures recorded therein. Thus, hereinafter, "still pictures" and "moving pictures" are collectively called "video data" in the DVD-video.
Such DVD-videos include those commercially available on the market which contain, other than the above, video data of sightseeing spots and/or famous landscapes around the world, and have music data serving as background music recorded therein so as to correspond to the video data. Likewise, such DVD-videos include those commercially available on the market which contain a variety of video data such as outdoor sceneries, traveling sceneries of a locomotive, ocean sceneries, and/or video data of birds or flowers, and have music data serving as background music recorded therein so as to correspond to the video data. That is, such DVD-videos having music data recorded therein include those commercially available on the market in a large quantity which are increasingly used for mainly appreciating a variety of video data recorded therein. Hereinafter, a DVD containing music data and corresponding video data recorded in combination as mentioned above is called "a music DVD-video".
DVDs currently available on the market include DVD-audios having very high-quality audio data of music recorded in conformity with the DVD-audio standards, and the DVD-audios are played back by a DVD-audio player. Although the DVD-audio can contain an image recorded therein, only a still picture and text data can be included as image data in the audio data in conformity with the DVD-audio standards. In order to record moving pictures in such a DVD-audio, data of the moving picture in conformity with the standards of a normal DVD-video is independently recorded in a different part of the same DVD-audio where no DVD audio data is recorded.
In order to record music data and moving pictures in a DVD-audio so as to correspond to each other, the data is recorded in the same fashion as being recorded in the known DVD-video. Also, in order to play back the recorded data with a DVD-audio player, the data is played back with the same playback function of the DVD-audio player as that of the known DVD-video player. With this arrangement, on the occasion of playing back the DVD-audio, when the DVD audio data including the high-quality audio data is played back, still pictures serving as attractive video data recorded together with the audio data are sometimes sequentially displayed; for example, local pictures or paintings corresponding to the audio data are sometimes sequentially displayed every several seconds.
Accordingly, a DVD-audio having such still pictures recorded in conformity with the DVD-audio standards so as to correspond to the audio data recorded therein can be also called a disk containing a plurality of music pieces, each recorded as a combination of video data and corresponding audio data. Thus, this disk has substantially the same functions and features as those of the foregoing "music DVD-video".
Especially when moving pictures are recorded in the DVD-audio, similar data to that recorded in the known DVD-video is recorded in a different part of the DVD-audio where no DVD audio data is recorded. Thus, music data and corresponding video data are recorded in combination in the different part in the same fashion as recorded in the DVD-video, and the recorded music data and the corresponding video data are played back in the same fashion as played back from the DVD-video. Accordingly, a DVD-audio having such data recorded therein can be called "a music DVD-video".
As described above, the term "music DVD" defined in this specification means not only a DVD-video having music data and corresponding video data recorded in combination, but also a DVD-audio in which a data part having DVD audio data and still picture data recorded therein and another data part having music data and corresponding video data recorded in combination in substantially the same fashion as in the DVD-video are played back.
Meanwhile, when a disk to be played back contains a plurality of music pieces, each recorded as a combination of a large number of video data and corresponding music data, it is preferable that the DVD-video player display a menu screen ahead of a normal playback operation of the player so that an operator can select only a desired music piece from among the plurality of music pieces to be played back, or select a plurality of desired music pieces to be played back in a desired order. When the DVD-video player includes such a function, the operator selects a desired music piece by guessing the contents of video data or music pieces on the basis of the names of them displayed on a monitor screen, or by recalling his or her memory of having previously played the music pieces back.
However, the contents are often not clearly understandable with only such a menu screen on the monitor screen, whereby it is assumed that this often causes an operator to spend a long time selecting a desired one or to select a wrong video data or music piece which he or she did not originally desire. When the wrong music piece is selected and played back, the operator becomes frustrated with the unexpected music piece.
As countermeasures against the above problem, there has been proposed a function similar to a music search function, conventionally used in an audio CD player, which sequentially plays back the starting parts of music pieces contained in the foregoing music DVD-video, each for a predetermined time interval, so as to inform an operator of the contents of the recorded music pieces.
When such a search function is employed, the operator views and listens to the starting parts of video data and music pieces automatically and sequentially played back in every predetermined time interval; determines during playback whether the video data or music data is a desired one; and puts a mark or the like on the desired one if needed. Furthermore, in order to select a plurality of music pieces, by repeating the same selection operation while the following video data and music piece are played back, the operator selects only video data and music pieces the operator wants to play back, and enters an instruction for their playback order if needed.
As described above, when the DVD-video player includes the function of playing back only the starting parts of video data and music data contained in the disk, each for a predetermined time interval, and for allowing an operator to select a desired one upon viewing an image played back from the video data and listening to music data played back from the music piece, the video data and the music data to be played back are recorded in combination so as to correspond to each other and are then played back in conjunction with each other. Thus, when the operator wants to mainly view one or some video data from a music DVD video containing the video data and the corresponding music data which the operator will play back, music data provided together with the corresponding video data is changed over at the same time as when the video data which the operator is carefully reviewing is changed over.
With this arrangement, only the introductory parts serving as the starting parts of music pieces are usually sequentially played back, thereby often causing the operator to hear unwanted music parts of the music pieces one after another. Even when only part of an effective music part of each music piece is played back, following the corresponding introductory part, it is not desirable to the operator to sequentially play back such music parts which are of no interest as a whole when the operator is selecting a desired one while carefully reviewing video data, thereby often frustrating the operator.
That is, with an audio CD player having the music search function employed therein for playing back only the starting parts of the music pieces contained in a CD as mentioned above and for sequentially informing an operator of the contents of the recorded music, the change-over of the music pieces does not bother the operator since the operator concentrates on listening to the contents of the music data and thus expects the change-over of the music pieces. Also, with a DVD player for playing back a music DVD-video having music data and corresponding video data as mentioned above, when an operator plays back the music DVD-video, expecting to mainly listen to the music data, the change-over of the music data does not bother the operator since the operator concentrates on listening to the contents of the music data as is the case with the foregoing CD. Also, even when the corresponding video data which is being played back is changed in accordance with the change-over of the music data, the change-over of the video data rarely bothers the operator since he or she can easily cope with this situation, for example, by turning away his or her eyes from the screen.
Different from the foregoing music search of the audio CD player, on the occasion of performing a search similar to the music search for a music DVD-video containing music data and video data as mentioned above, when an operator plays back the music DVD-video expecting to mainly view the video data, it is predicted that the change-over of the music data occurring in accordance with that of the video data often bothers the operator since the operator carefully watches the video data while the forgoing search function is in operation. Since the output of music data is adjusted by a volume operation, when the music data is produced with a relatively large volume which is often offensive to an operator, the volume must be adjusted so as to be turned down. However, cutting off the output of the music means that a part of the function which is originally included in the player for playing back a music DVD-video and which provides video data and corresponding music data during the foregoing search is not used. Thus, the function is not effectively used and the operator feels that something is lacking during the search.
The above-mentioned disadvantage causes the same problem as mentioned above to occur not only when the foregoing DVD-video is played back but also when video data is mainly searched during playback of a part of the DVD-audio having DVD audio data and corresponding still pictures recorded therein or having moving pictures and audio data recorded therein. In addition to the foregoing DVD, it is expected that a disk containing a large number of music pieces, each having video data and corresponding music data recorded in combination according to a further sophisticated data compressing and recording method different from the above-mentioned DVD data recording method will be commercially available on the market, and hence it is easily predicted that such a disk will have the same problem as mentioned above.


An embodiment of a method for generating a binary file includes receiving information defining an entity that forms a portion of loadable diagnostics information, generating metadata defining a location within a binary file where the entity is to be located, and generating the binary file to include the metadata and the entity stored at the location. Additional embodiments include an aircraft diagnostic system and a method for the diagnostics system to access information within a binary file. The diagnostics system includes data storage and an accessor module. The data storage is configured to store the binary file, which includes metadata and an entity stored at a location within the binary file, where the metadata defines the location of the entity. The accessor module is configured to evaluate the metadata to make a determination of the location, and to access the entity within the binary file based on the determination.

During operations of an aircraft, an onboard diagnostics system collects diagnostics data reflecting the aircraft's performance, operational variables, and operational incidents. The collected diagnostics data may be evaluated by the diagnostics system in order to detect potential faults with the aircraft's systems and components, for example. In some cases, the diagnostics system accesses loadable diagnostics information ("LDI") in conjunction with evaluating the collected diagnostics data. The LDI may be represented in a binary file, for example, which includes an entity-relationship model relating to various system components. For example, the entity-relationship model may include entities associated with various aircraft components, information defining the relationships between the entities, and attributes of the entities and relationships. To evaluate the aircraft's operation, the diagnostics system applies the collected diagnostics data to the entity-relationship model defined in the LDI.
Typically, a ground-based binary converter tool generates the LDI file, and the LDI file is thereafter loaded into diagnostics system accessible memory prior to aircraft operations. The binary converter tool is constrained to arrange the various entities within the LDI file according to a predetermined binary file structure, and the onboard diagnostics system has a priori knowledge of the predetermined structure. More particularly, the onboard diagnostics system may include an LDI accessor module, and the structure of the LDI file is embedded (e.g., hardcoded) in the LDI accessor module code. This enables the LDI accessor module to calculate the position of each entity within the LDI file, in order to facilitate access by the LDI accessor module to each entity during aircraft operations.
Using traditional techniques, whenever a change is implemented in the structure of an entity-relationship model defined in an LDI file, the embedded LDI file structure information in the LDI accessor module also must be updated. An LDI accessor module typically is a qualified tool in an aircraft, however. Accordingly, updates to the LDI accessor module's embedded software requires a requalification process to be performed. Requalification of aircraft components and systems are time consuming and expensive processes. Accordingly, relatively long delays are inherent in implementing LDI file structure changes (e.g., entity-relationship model changes) using traditional techniques. In addition, even after requalification is completed, the embedded software must be updated in the LDI accessor module of each aircraft in which the newly structured LDI files are to be used. Accordingly, significant time and expense is associated with implementing LDI file structure changes, particularly when extensive aircraft fleets are to be updated. Because LDI file structure changes may be implemented at least several times during the operational life of an aircraft, what are needed are more efficient methods and apparatus to enable LDI file structure changes to be rapidly and inexpensively implemented in conjunction with aircraft diagnostics systems.

Methods and apparatus for generating and accessing information in binary files


There is provided an underlayer coating that causes no intermixing with photoresist layer, can be formed by a spin-coating method, and can be used as a hard mask in lithography process of manufacture of semiconductor device. Concretely, it is an underlayer coating forming composition used in manufacture of semiconductor device including metal nitride particles having an average particle diameter of 1 to 1000 nm, and an organic solvent. The metal nitride particles contain at least one element selected from the group consisting of titanium, silicon, tantalum, tungsten, cerium, germanium, hafnium, and gallium.

Conventionally, in the manufacture of semiconductor devices, micro-processing by lithography using a photoresist has been carried out. The micro processing is a processing method comprising forming a photoresist coating on a semiconductor substrate such as a silicon wafer or the like, irradiating actinic rays such as ultraviolet rays through a mask pattern on which a pattern for a semiconductor device is depicted, developing it to obtain a photoresist pattern, and etching the substrate using the photoresist pattern as a protective film, thereby forming fine unevenness corresponding to the pattern on the surface of the substrate.
In the processing method, an organic underlayer coating being an underlayer coating comprising an organic material, such as an anti-reflective coating or a flattening costing is often formed. In this case, firstly the organic underlayer coating is removed by etching by using a photoresist pattern as a protective coating. The etching of the organic underlayer coating is generally carried out by dry etching. However, in this process not only the organic underlayer coating but also the photoresist are etched to cause a problem that the film thickness of the photoresist is reduced. Therefore, there is a tendency that organic underlayer coatings with a high removal rate by dry etching are used. However, as photoresists are composed of organic materials similarly to the organic underlayer coatings, it is difficult to suppress a decrease in film thickness of photoresists.
In recent years, the use of photoresists in a form of thin film has been considered with the progress of miniaturization in size to be processed. This is because it is supposed to occur fall of photoresist pattern or the like as aspect ratio (height/width) of photoresist pattern becomes large in case where the size of photoresist pattern is reduced without change of film thickness. In addition, photoresists are improved in resolution as the film thickness thereof becomes smaller. Consequently, it is required to use photoresists in a form of thin film. However, in case where a photoresist and an organic underlayer coating are used, there is problem that the film thickness of photoresist is reduced on removal of the organic underlayer coating as mentioned above. Thus, when photoresists in a form of thin film are used, there occurs a problem that it is not able to secure a film thickness sufficient as a protective coating (composed of a photoresist and an organic underlayer coating) for the processing of semiconductor substrate.
On the other hand, a coating composed of inorganic materials that is known as a hard mask has been used as an underlayer coating between a semiconductor substrate and a photoresist in this case, as the photoresist (organic material) is greatly different from the hard mask (inorganic material) in their constitutional components, the removal rate thereof drastically depends on the kind of gas used for dry etching. The suitable selection of the kind of the gas makes possible to remove the hard mask (underlayer coating) by dry etching without a large decrease of film thickness of the photoresist Therefore, in case where a photoresist and a hard mask are used, it is expected that it is able to secure a film thickness sufficient as a protective coating (composed of a photoresist and a hard mask) for the processing of semiconductor substrate even the photoresist is in a form of thin film.
Conventionally, hard masks are formed by a vapor deposition method by use of a CVD apparatus, a vacuum vapor deposition apparatus, and a sputtering apparatus, etc. On the contrary, photoresists and organic underlayer coatings are formed by application with a spin-coating apparatus or the like on a semiconductor substrate and then baking (hereinafter, referred to as "spin-coating method"). The spin-coating method is simple from viewpoint of apparatus used or the like compared with the vapor deposition method. Therefore, there are demands for hard masks that can be formed by a spin-coating method not a vapor deposition method. In the meantime, some underlayer coatings containing Inorganic materials are known (see, for example Patent Documents 1, 2 and 3).    Patent Document 1: JP-A-2001-3068 (2001)    Patent Document 2: JP-A-2001-242630 (2001)    Patent Document 3: JP-A-2003-177206 (2003)

Composition for forming nitride coating film for hard mask


Apparatuses, systems, and methods for centralizing rebar in a shaft are provided. The systems include a rebar centralizer system comprising a first ring and a second ring configured to be positioned in an angular relationship with each other. The first and second rings are configured to at least partially intersect so as to present at least one interior corner in which a section of rebar can be secured.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a rebar centralizer. More particularly, this invention relates to apparatuses, systems, and methods for securing a section of rebar to a centralizer so as to centrally positioning the section of rebar in a shaft.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various construction applications require the use of reinforcement bars (i.e., rebar) for increasing the strength and stability of foundations and structures. For instance, in the case of micro piles, auger cast piles, drilled shafts, caissons, and anchors, it is sometimes necessary to position sections of rebar centrally within a vertically extending shaft. However, because the diameter of the rebar is generally much smaller than the diameter of the shaft, it is difficult to keep the rebar centrally-positioned within the shaft. Several conventional centralizers (sometimes called "footballs") have been designed and manufactured for this purpose. Such conventional centralizers, however, are generally expensive to produce, costly to ship in bulk, complicated to assemble in the field, and complicated to attach to the rebar. Furthermore, conventional centralizers are often only made to fit specific sizes of shafts and specific sizes of rebar. As such, conventional centralizers may not be configured for use in many custom construction applications.
As such, there is a need for a rebar centralizer that is inexpensive to manufacture and ship and simple to assemble in the field. Furthermore, there is a need for a rebar centralizer than can be used with rebar of various types and of various sizes.


A method for performing out-focus of camera having a first lens and a second lens, comprising: photographing a first image with the first lens and photographing a second image with the second lens; extracting depth information of the photographed first image and second image; and performing out-focus on the first image or the second image using the extracted depth information.

"Out-focus" is a photographing technique which highlights a main object concerned by positioning the main object within the depth of field and positioning the background out of the depth of filed to make the background blurred. This can be explained by a geometric optical method using a circle of confusion (COC).
The size k of the circle of confusion can be expressed by Equation (1) below, where N denotes an f-number, f denotes a focal length, u denotes a distance from a camera to a focus surface, and ud denotes a background distance.
                    k        =                              1            N                                                        f              2                                      u              -              f                                                                                                                    u                  d                                -                u                                                                  u              d                                                          (        1        )
In Equation (1), the size k of the circle of confusion differs in accordance with f number and the focal length of a camera even with respect to the same values of u and ud. Also, as can be understood from Equation (1), the size k of the circle of confusion is inversely proportional to the f-number, and in proportion to a square of f.
In general, as the ratio of the circle of confusion to the background increases, the out focus effect becomes more pronounced, whereas as the ratio of the circle of confusion to the background decreases, the out-focus effect becomes less pronounced.
A method of implementing the out-focus effect in the related art is performed mainly using a DSLR (Digital Single-Lens Reflex) camera. The DSLR camera is a lens exchange type camera. Since the DSLR camera can make the f-number small and make the focal length long, the size of the circle of confusion and the ratio of the circle of confusion to the background can be increased, and thus the out-focus effect can be well presented.
However, in a DSC (Digital Still Camera) or a phone camera, the focal length is generally short and the f-number is generally large, and it may not be possible to properly present the out-focus effect. In comparison to the DSLR camera, the out-focus effect of a DSC or phone camera may be tens to several hundreds of times lower than that of the DSLR camera.

Method for performing out-focus using depth information and camera using the same


A support rod (3) vertically movably inserted into a housing (2) is urged upward by an advancing spring (4). An annular piston (6) is inserted between a barrel portion (2c) of the housing (2) and an outer peripheral surface of the support rod (3). A collet (10) externally fitted onto a holding and fixing portion (C) of the support rod (3) is received by a lower end wall (2b) of the housing (2). A tapered transmission member (17) externally fitted onto the collet (10) is urged downward by a holding spring (22). The urging force clamps the support rod (3) at a predetermined height through the collet (10).

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an apparatus for supporting a work when machining the work by a milling machine, a grinder or the like machine tools.
2. Explanation of Prior Art
Generally, a work support of this type is adapted to hold a support rod at a predetermined height through a collet with a pressurized fluid supplied to a clamping actuation chamber (for example, see Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 6-7868 proposed previously by an Assignee of the present Applicant).
Though the above-mentioned conventional technique is excellent in that it can strongly hold the support rod with fluid pressure, it has a problem that the foregoing holding force disappears when the actuation chamber loses its pressure due to the leakage of the pressurized fluid or the like.


Substituted isocoumarins, their use in inhibiting serine proteases with trypsin-like, chymotrypsin-like and elastase-like specificity and their roles as anti-inflammatory agents.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a novel class of heterocyclic compounds useful for selectively inhibiting trypsin-like enzymes, selectively inhibiting chymotrypsin-like enzymes, selectively inhibiting elastase or for generally inhibiting serine proteases of all classes. This invention also relates to a method of controlling blood coagulation, complement activation, fibrinolysis, tumor invasiveness and treating inflammation, blistering, viral infection in patients using the novel compounds of the present invention. We have found that isocoumarins substituted with basic groups are potent inhibitors of blood coagulation enzymes, tryptases, plasmin, complement proteins, and cytotoxic lymphocyte granzymes and isocoumarins substituted with hydrophobic groups are potent inhibitors of chymases and elastases, therefore they are useful as anticoagulants, anti-inflammatory and anti-tumor agents.
2. Description of the Related Art
Serine proteases play critical roles in several physiological processes such as digestion, blood coagulation, complement activation, fibrinolysis, viral infection, fertilization, and reproduction. Serine proteases are not only a physiological necessity, but also a potential hazard if they are not controlled. Blood coagulation serine proteases are responsible for vascular clotting, cerebral infarction, and coronary infarction. Plasmin and plasminogen activator are involved in tumor invasiveness, tissue remodeling, blistering, and clot dissociation. Uncontrolled proteolysis by elastases may cause pancreatitis, emphysema, rheumatoid arthritis, bronchial inflammation and adult respiratory distress syndrome. It has been suggested that a new trypsin-like cellular enzyme is involved in the infection of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1; Hattori et al., FEBS Letters 248, pp 48-52 (1989)), which is a causative agent of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Accordingly, specific and selective inhibitors of these proteases should be potent anticoagulants, anti-inflammatory agents, anti-tumor agents and anti-viral agents useful in the treatment of protease-related diseases (Powers and Harper, in Proteinase Inhibitors, Barrett and Salvesen, eds., Elsevier, 1986, pp 55-152, incorporated herein by reference). In vitro proteolysis by trypsin, chymotrypsin or the elastase family is a serious problem in the production, purification, isolation, transport or storage of peptides and proteins.
Anticoagulants and antithrombotic drugs are used in a variety of thrombotic disorders. The 1986 Physician's Desk Reference lists three anticoagulant drugs (heparin, protamine sulfate and warfarin), one antiplatelet drug (aspirin) and several thrombolytic agents. Heparin and warfarin are commonly used clinically for prevention and treatment of venous thrombosis and pulmonary embolism. Heparin inhibits the blood coagulation activity by accelerating the binding of natural plasma protease inhibitor antithrombin III with coagulation factors, and warfarin acts as a vitamin K antagonist and inhibits the synthesis of coagulation factors. None of the anticoagulant drugs, antithrombotic drugs, fibrinolytic agents and antiplatelet drugs are highly effective in all clinical situations and many induce side reactions (Von Kaulla in Burger's Medicinal Chemistry, Part II, Wolff ed, 1979, pp 1081-1132, incorporated herein by reference). Coagulation disorders such as disseminated intravascular coagulation, bleeding complications of medical and surgical procedures and bleeding complications of systemic illness are still difficult to manage (Ingram, Brozovic and Slater in Bleeding Disorders, Blackwell Scientific Publications, 1982, pp 1-413). In the treatment of patients with coagulation problems, anticoagulant or antithrombotic agents of diverse mechanisms are urgently sought in order to provide better medical care.
Anti-inflammatory agents are used to treat elastase-associated inflammation including rheumatoid arthritis and emphysema. Although the naturally occurring protease inhibitor, .alpha.1-protease inhibitor (.alpha.1-PI) has been used to treat patients with emphysema, this inhibitor is not widely used clinically due to the high dosage needed for the treatment and difficulty of producing large quantities. Therefore small molecular weight elastase inhibitors are needed for therapy.

Substituted isocoumarins as serine protease inhibitors and anti-inflammatory agents


Disclosed is an improved apparatus and method of manufacturing wood trusses which utilizes an apparatus and method incorporating the use of a vibrator and the application of vibration forces during the process of seating connector plates in the wood cord members of the truss.

Prefabricated truss rafters and floor supports are in wide use. Such trusses are typically assembled from wooden members positioned in an abutting relationship and joined together by connector plates. For example, the 1965 U.S. Patent to Sanford, U.S. Pat. No. 3,212,694 describes and illustrates triangular roof-type trusses being formed in this manner. The 1974 U.S. Patent to Schmitt, U.S. Pat. No. 3,785,277 shows flat, floor-type trusses formed in this manner. A typical connector plate for use in forming trusses is shown in the 1971 U.S. Patent to Wood, U.S. Pat. No. 3,603,197. As used herein, the term "connector plate" is used in a broad generic sense and is intended to mean a plate with protrusions which can be imbedded in the wood. The term is intended to include both unitary and non-unitary plates. It is only important that the plate have a sufficient dimension to span the distance between the two joined sections of wood and be used with protrusions embedded in the wood to form the connection. Connector plates include, for example, gang-nail plates and truss plates. In some connector plates a plurality of flat pointed protrusions are integrally joined with the plate. In the Wood patent the protrusions that are struck from the surface have slight curve to add rigidity to the protrusions.
Wooden cord members are properly positioned and connector plates are pressed or forced into the wood to join the cord members together to form a truss. Impact or hammer forces have not been used because these forces tended to cause the protrusions to fail in bending during assembly. In the past the proper seating of connector plates by pressing has encountered difficulty because of the massive forces required to embed or seat the protrusions in the wood. The problem is increased as truss and connector plate size and capacity are increased.

Apparatus and method of manufacturing wood trusses


A camera or other optical system is focused by generating a plurality of digital images each obtained with a different focus setting of the optical system. These images are analysed to generate for each image a score (S) by comparing first groups of pixels chosen from the image with second groups chosen from the image such that the pixels of each second group have same respective positional relationships with respect to one another as the pixels of the first group with which it is compared have to one another, the score (S) being a function of the number of matches obtained with said comparisons. The focus setting that gives the score corresponding to the largest number of matches is chosen.

This invention is concerned with focus control and finds application in cameras, or indeed any optical device where the focus of an image needs to be adjusted.
Traditionally there are two approaches to auto-focus: Active (bouncing infra-red from the scene to calculate a distance) and passive (which maximises the intensity difference between adjacent pixels). One example of the second category is described by Geusebrock et al. "Robust autofocusing in microscopy", Cytometry, vol 39, No. 1 (1 Feb. 2000), pp. 1-9. Here, a 'focus score' is obtained for images taken at different focus settings, and best focus is found by searching for the optimum in the focus curve. Both of these approaches have problems, including when the active beam is obscured by fog or mist, where cameras only focus at the centre of the frame, when there's low contrast across the image, or when the subject matter is horizontally oriented.
In application EP1286539A it was described a method of focusing in which a decision as to which part of an image to focus upon (i.e. the subject) is taken by analysing the image to obtain for each picture element a score indicating the degree of dissimilarity of the element and its environment from the remainder of the image: the subject is that part of the image having a high score (i.e. high degree of dissimilarity). The method of generating the score is discussed in greater detail in U.S. Pat. No. 6,934,415.

British Telecommunications public limited company


In vivo methods for non-invasively imaging (or measuring without spatial localization) of neuro-electro-magnetic oscillations are achieved by a pulse sequence of radio frequency (RF) irradiation and magnetic field gradients. These RF and gradient pulses create an intermolecular zero-quantum coherence (iZQC), the frequency of which is: 1) controlled by one or more magnetic field gradients; and 2) made to match the frequency of the targeted neuro-electro-magnetic oscillation.

Embodiments of the present disclosure employ an magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) pulse sequence that allows direct imaging of neuronal currents, i.e., neuro-electro-magnetic oscillations (NEMOs). The conventional MRI method for imaging neuronal activity is called "functional imaging" which is based on imaging increased blood flows to areas of the brain responsible for a particular neurological task. This hemodynamic response is indirect and coarse, both spatially and temporally. Functional imaging gives a general idea, but direct measurement would be much better. U.S. Pat. No. 10,175,319 issued to Truong et al. employs a pulse sequence aiming to achieve a similar goal of imaging neuronal currents. However, there are key differences between the present disclosure and the system/method described in the '319 patent.
The disclosure of the '319 patent describes a small variation/improvement in pulse sequences published previously by other entities developing neuronal current imaging techniques based on a spin-lock approach. The present disclosure employs a different implementation with a different physical basis, having nothing to do with the spin-lock phenomenon. Instead, it includes a distinct implementation (i.e., with different/additional acquisition parameter choices) of a pulse sequence to generate multiquantum coherences, which is also the goal of a different pulse sequence described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,528,997 issued to Zhong. However, it is noted that the pulse sequence in the '997 patent is not used for neuronal current imaging. The inventor recognizes that, when using the particular different/additional acquisition parameters, the pulse sequence described hereinbelow will be sensitive to the small NEMOs produced by neuronal currents. The system/method of the present disclosure creates intermolecular multiple quantum coherences (iMQC) that are specifically sensitive to neuronal currents. Specifically, the zero quantum coherence (iZQC) creates the neuronal current sensitivity. This approach to neuronal current imaging is completely novel as compared to the techniques described in the above-mentioned patents.
Thus, it is desirable to provide a system and method for non-invasively imaging (or measuring without spatial localization) of neuro-electro-magnetic oscillations that is able to overcome the above disadvantages.
Advantages of the present invention will become more fully apparent from the detailed description of the invention hereinbelow.

Magnetic resonance imaging of neuro-electro-magnetic oscillations


On-demand memory synchronization is provided for peripheral subsystems, including graphics systems, that include multiple co-processors operating in parallel. A region of master memory (memory associated with one of the peripheral co-processors) is copied, on demand, to a corresponding region of a different memory associated with another of the peripheral co-processors using a direct memory access operation that does not involve a CPU.

The present invention relates in general to memory management, and in particular to on-demand memory synchronization for a peripheral system with multiple parallel processors.
Graphics processing subsystems are designed to render realistic animated images in real time, e.g., at 30 or more frames per second. These subsystems are most often implemented on expansion cards that can be inserted into appropriately configured slots on a motherboard of a computer system and generally include one or more dedicated graphics processing units (GPUs) and dedicated graphics memory. The typical GPU is a highly complex integrated circuit device optimized to perform graphics computations (e.g., matrix transformations, scan-conversion and/or other rasterization techniques, texture blending, etc.), write the resulting pixels to the graphics memory, and deliver the pixels in real time to a display device. The GPU is a "slave" processor that operates in response to commands received from a driver program executing on a "master" processor, generally the central processing unit (CPU) of the system.
To meet the demands for realism and speed, some GPUs include more transistors than typical CPUs. In addition, graphics memories have become quite large in order to improve speed by reducing traffic on the system bus; some graphics cards now include as much as 256 MB of memory. But despite these advances, a demand for even greater realism and faster rendering persists.
As one approach to meeting this demand, some manufacturers have begun to develop "multi-chip" (or multi-processor) graphics processing subsystems in which two or more GPUs, usually on the same card, operate in parallel. Parallel operation substantially increases the number of rendering operations that can be carried out per second without requiring significant advances in GPU design. To minimize resource conflicts between the GPUs, each GPU is generally provided with its own dedicated memory area, including a display buffer to which the GPU writes pixel data it renders.
In a multi-chip system, two or more GPUs can be operated to render images cooperatively for the same display device; in this "distributed" rendering mode, rendering tasks are distributed among the GPUs. Tasks may be distributed in various ways. For example, in a "split frame rendering" (SFR) mode, each GPU is instructed to render pixel data for a different portion of the displayable image, such as a number of lines of a raster-based display. The image is displayed by scanning out the pixel data from each GPU's display buffer in an appropriate sequence. As another example, in an "alternate frame rendering" (AFR) mode, each GPU is instructed to render pixel data for a different image in a temporal sequence (e.g., different frames of an animated image such as a 3D video game). In this mode, a smooth animation speed of about 30 frames per second can be provided by two GPUs that each render images at 15 Hz.
Multi-chip graphics systems present a variety of problems, among which is high demand for memory bandwidth. In a multiprocessor system, each GPU is usually provided with a separate memory in order to avoid memory access conflicts between the GPUs. Each memory must be loaded with the scene data (geometry, lighting, textures, etc.) and rendering commands for the image. In conventional systems, the CPU communicates rendering commands and data to each GPU (or its memory) separately over a CPU bus. Thus, the bandwidth required to operate multiple GPUs scales linearly with the number of GPUs. For complex scenes requiring extensive vertex data, operating even two GPUs in parallel would saturate the CPU bus, and no performance advantage would be obtained from having multiple GPUs. In addition, requiring the CPU to communicate the same rendering commands and data multiple times wastes CPU cycles.
One solution, described in above-referenced application Ser. No. 10/789,248, is to provide a "broadcast bridge" and memory-mapped I/O (input/output) operations. As is known in the art, in memory mapped I/O, commands and data written by the CPU to a predetermined range of memory addresses are communicated to a peripheral device (e.g., the graphics subsystem), and read operations by the CPU that access the predetermined range of memory addresses result in reading data from the peripheral device. The broadcast bridge is configured to recognize a certain range of memory addresses as a "broadcast aperture" and to distribute to all of the GPUs any commands and data written by the CPU to an address in the broadcast aperture.
The broadcast bridge solves the problem of duplicative CPU communications, provided that suitable supporting hardware is available, e.g., in one or more of the GPUs, in the system chipset, or elsewhere in a communication path between the CPU and the GPUs. In some systems, however, suitable supporting hardware is not present, and an efficient technique for distributing data and commands to multiple GPUs in the absence of a broadcast bridge is therefore desirable.

On-demand memory synchronization for peripheral systems with multiple parallel processors


Membrane switches have at least one trace with two leads, such that its integrity can be tested during deployment of the switch.

Membrane switches have at least one contact that is on, or made of, a flexible substrate, i.e. a membrane layer. There is always a second layer against which the membrane layer is pressed, and that second layer can be either static or flexible.
Although it is possible to produce membrane switches that rely upon capacitive, ferrite core, or hall effect, membrane switches typically utilize a direct (Ohmic) contact in which the poles of the switch make transient physical contact. Thus, pressure on the membrane layer physically closes a circuit by contacting one electrical trace to another, and upon release these "poles" separate as the flexing membrane returns to its original position.
The momentary type of action, ready accommodation to visual design feature, low cost, and relatively high reliability, all cooperate to provide applicability in innumerable applications. Among other things, membrane switches are very commonly used in DC logic-level circuits such as those used in computer keyboards, on medical equipment, and in television and other hand-held controllers.
Although membrane switches are fairly reliable, they are known to fail. Failures can occur for any number of reasons, including operator error, moisture, excessive use, manufacturing defects, and so forth. In some applications failure carries an extremely high cost, and it is therefore necessary to utilize some sort of self check that identifies a switch as being defective, or at least allows the switch to continue functioning with a defect. Exemplary applications requiring failsafe operation include pressure sensing floor mats used for security purposes, and operational controls on life support equipment.
As used herein the term failsafe device means that the device can be interrogated at all times to detect a failure. Failsafe capabilities appear to be unknown in membrane switches. Existing membrane technology generally relies upon orthogonally parallel traces upon opposing surfaces. In normal operation the traces do not touch each other, and there is only a single lead from each trace. Such designs are not conducive to failsafe operation because there is no way to test the integrity of the traces. Indeed, Touch-Sensor™ advertises their TouchCell™ switches (which are not membrane switches) as the only "touch technology" switches that are recognized by UL as failsafe switches. (http://www.touch sensor.com/faq.html). The Touch Sensor™ web page, as well as all other patents, applications, web sites, articles and the like referenced herein are incorporated by reference in their entirety. Where a definition or use of a term in a reference, which is incorporated by reference herein, is inconsistent or contrary to the definition of that term provided herein, the definition of that term provided herein applies and the definition of that term in the reference does not apply.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,175,443 to Tabuchi (December 1992) does teach a membrane switch that can detect a false positive (always on) condition. There, a membrane switch has closely disposed duplicate traces. When the switch is operating normally, pressure sufficient to establish a circuit in one of the duplication traces is assumed to concurrently establish a circuit in the close duplicate. If one of the switches becomes defective because one of the traces has peeled away from its base, a logic circuit can detect the failure by comparing the current in the duplicate traces. Unfortunately, devices using to the '443 technology are only able to detect false positive situations—they are unable to detect false negative situations, in which the switch fails to record a proper "on" situation. Such switches are not considered failsafe as the term is used herein because the integrity of apparently viable traces cannot be tested.
Existing membrane circuits are also designed to detect pressure at a given point, on the membrane, or pressure on the membrane at any point. And such circuits merely detect on-off. Membrane circuits are apparently unknown that detect sizes and shapes (i.e., footprints) or weights. Significantly, it is exactly in detection of sizes, shapes and weights that failsafe operation is so critical.
Thus, there is still a need for additional development of failsafe membrane switches, especially for membrane switches that detect sizes, shapes and/or weights


The present invention provides a method for treating wounds by applying cells as described in this application. In one aspect the method provides treatment for cutaneous wounds. In general embodiments the cells are delivered to the wound without being attached to a functionalized substrate in the delivery vehicle.

The skin is the body's first line of defense from injury and microorganisms and plays an important role in the physical function. Traumatic injuries, burns and chronic ulcers may cause severe damage of the skin, which affects the primary immune function of the skin barrier and then may be accompanied with systemic risk.
Optimum healing of a cutaneous wound requires the processes of inflammation, re-epithelialization, granulation tissue formation, angiogenesis, wound contraction and extracellular matrix (ECM) reconstruction, which contribute to skin tissue regeneration after traumatic injury.
Wound healing is an intricate process in which the skin tissue repairs itself after injury. In normal skin, the epidermis (surface layer) and dermis (deeper layer) form a protective barrier against the external environment. When the barrier is broken, an orchestrated cascade of biochemical events is quickly set into motion to repair the damage. This process is divided into predictable phases: blood clotting (hemostasis), inflammation, the growth of new tissue (proliferation), and the remodeling of tissue (maturation). Sometimes blood clotting is considered to be part of the inflammation stage instead of its own stage.                Hemostasis (blood clotting): Within the first few minutes of injury, platelets in the blood begin to stick to the injured site. This activates the platelets, causing a few things to happen. They change into an amorphous shape, more suitable for clotting, and they release chemical signals to promote clotting. This results in the activation of fibrin, which forms a mesh and acts as "glue" to bind platelets to each other. This makes a clot that serves to plug the break in the blood vessel, slowing/preventing further bleeding.        Inflammation: During this phase, damaged and dead cells are cleared out, along with bacteria and other pathogens or debris. This happens through the process of phagocytosis, where white blood cells "eat" debris by engulfing it. Platelet-derived growth factors are released into the wound that cause the migration and division of cells during the proliferative phase.        Proliferation (growth of new tissue): In this phase, (lymph)angiogenesis, collagen deposition, granulation tissue formation, epithelialization, and wound contraction occur. In angiogenesis, vascular endothelial cells form new blood vessels, while lymphatic endothelial cells contribute to the formation of new lymphatic vessels. In fibroplasias and granulation tissue formation, fibroblasts grow and form a new, provisional extracellular matrix (ECM) by excreting collagen and fibronectin. Concurrently, restoration of the epidermis occurs, in which epithelial cells proliferate and "crawl" atop the wound bed, providing cover for the new tissue. In wound contraction, myofibroblasts decrease the size of the wound by gripping the wound edges and contracting using a mechanism that resembles that in smooth muscle cells. When the cells' roles are close to complete, unneeded cells undergo apoptosis.        Maturation (remodeling): During maturation and remodeling, collagen is realigned along tension lines, and cells that are no longer needed are removed by programmed cell death, or apoptosis.
The wound healing process is not only complex but also fragile, and it is susceptible to interruption or failure leading to the formation of non-healing chronic wounds. Factors that contribute to non-healing chronic wounds are diabetes, venous or arterial disease, infection, and metabolic deficiencies of old age.
Wounds can result from a variety of causes, including for example trauma, disease, action of micro-organisms and exposure to foreign materials. Wound healing it not only important to achieve wound closure, but is also important to restore tissue functionality and to provide a barrier function against infection. Delayed wound healing is a significant contributor to morbidity in subjects. In some situations, the wound healing process is dysfunctional, leading to the development of chronic wounds. Chronic wounds have major impacts on the physical and mental health, productivity, morbidity, mortality and cost of care for affected individuals.
Chronic wounds are defined as wounds that fail to heal after 3 months. Venous stasis ulcers, diabetic ulcers, pressure ulcers, and ischemic ulcers are the most common chronic wounds. Many of the dressing options that attempt to heal venous stasis ulcers are a variation on the classic paste compression bandage, Unna's boot. These wounds can sometimes have large amounts of exudates that require frequent debridement. Alginates, foams and other absorptive can be used in this situation. Because chronic wounds heal by slightly different mechanisms than those of acute wounds, experimentation with growth factors is being investigated. Regranex® and Procuren® (Curative Health Services, Inc., Hauppauge, N.Y.) are the only medications approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Wound care encourages and speeds wound healing via cleaning and protection from reinjury or infection. Depending on each patient's needs, it can range from the simplest first aid to entire nursing specialties such as wound, ostomy, and continence nursing and burn center care.
Each year, over 1.5 million skin wounds are due to burns and over 1 million skin wounds are due to skin cancer. Each year, skin wounds result in about 75,000 inpatient cases and 12,000 deaths, and in 2005, about $3.3 billion dollars were spent on wound care.
In the body, skin wound healing involves fibroblast secretion of a provisional matrix, a process that usually begins 7 days post-injury. However, the currently available tissue engineered skin substitutes are decellularized human skin, such as Alloderm®, which are used for humans in cases of chronic skin wounds (e.g., due to diabetes, vasculitis, malnutrition, infection), acute skin wounds (e.g., burns, skin cancer), skin malformation, etc. Such decellularized skin substitutes lack adnexal structures (e.g., sebaceous glands, hair follicles, melanocytes), a rete ridge pattern at the epidermal-dermal junction, and other vital living components that promote wound healing. Furthermore, high risk of infection remains in heterologous transplantation of the currently available skin substitutes.
Since the regeneration of both dermal and epidermal skin layers are critical for successful wound healing with limited scar formation and infection, new models are needed that are "true" skin substitutes.
The most commonly used conventional modality to assist in wound healing involves the use of wound dressings. A variety of different types of dressings are used to assist with wound healing. Some treatments have also utilized the provision of minerals and vitamins to assist with wound healing. However, these types of treatment modalities have met with little success. As such, current clinical approached used to promote wound healing include protection of the wound bed from mechanical trauma, control of surface microbial burden through antibiotics, antiseptics and other antimicrobial compounds, and the use of some types of growth factors. However, these approaches all have a variety of disadvantages.
The healing of wounds is an example where the delivery of cells has therapeutic potential. Despite advances in the understanding of the principles underlying the wound healing process, the therapeutic options for wound treatment still remain limited. Cell delivery strategies provide a potential therapeutic avenue.
While the delivery of cells has therapeutic potential, the use of cell delivery still remains limited for a number of reasons. For example, considerations such as how cells should be delivered, substrate selection, attachment of cells, efficiency of cell transfer and/or the ability of cells to retain their therapeutic properties are important to therapeutic outcome.
Researchers have used stem cells from different sources to treat traumatic skin injury, to accelerate the regeneration and reconstruction of the skin defects (Yaojiong et al., Stem Cells, 25(10): 2648-59, 2007). However, there are still problems with stem cell therapies, such as limited sources of stem cells. Accordingly, there is a continuing need to identify new cells and/or means for delivery of cells, for therapeutic purposes.
Despite these advances in the art, a need exists in the art for new and better methods and devices for restoring the natural process of wound healing at a lesion, the repair of which requires tissue remodeling and restoration.


The invention includes an emergency services network comprising a plurality of resources, a plurality of emergency services, and a Service/Name Resolution (SNR) system connected to a transport network. In operation, one of the resources receives a retrieval key for an emergency event from a conforming emergency system. The resource transmits the retrieval key to the transport network. The SNR system receives the retrieval key over the transport network and identifies at least one of the emergency services corresponding with the retrieval key. The SNR system initiates the transfer of the retrieval key to the identified emergency services. The identified emergency services then perform services corresponding with the retrieval key.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to emergency services, and in particular to an enhanced emergency services network that reduces the time required to obtain the data necessary to handle an emergency event. This invention further relates to an enhanced emergency services network which reduces the time required to determine the physical location of a calling station. The invention still further relates to an enhanced emergency services network having facilities of increased flexibility for obtaining the information required to handle an emergency event. The invention still further relates to an emergency services network which enables the introduction of new emergency services and which associates such new emergency services with emergency events served by the emergency services network.
2. Statement of the Problem
In the United States, basic 9-1-1 service is an emergency reporting service where a calling party can dial 9-1-1 in emergency situations. The call is answered at a Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP, also known as a "Public Safety Access Point"). An operator at the PSAP converses with the calling party to determine information on the emergency situation. For instance, the operator may ask the calling party for his/her name, the nature of the emergency, and the location of the emergency, etc. Based on the information gathered by the operator, the operator then contacts emergency personnel to respond to the emergency.
Enhanced 9-1-1 service (E9-1-1) has the added feature of automatically providing the operator with some information on the calling party. For instance, E9-1-1 service includes the added features of Automatic Number Identification (ANI) and Automatic Location Identification (ALI). With Automatic Number Identification (ANI), the operator is automatically provided with telephone number of the phone placing the call for emergency services (e.g., a 9-1-1 call). With Automatic Location Identification (ALI), the PSAP, or another device, queries an ALI database for information on the physical location of the calling party's phone. An ALI database stores records of telephone numbers. A record in the ALI database contains information (such as a street address) on a physical location that corresponds with a telephone number. Responsive to a query from the PSAP, the ALI database returns the location information for the calling party. With the telephone number and the location information, the operator can more effectively handle the emergency call. Other countries have emergency services similar to this.
Traditional communication networks have a rigid architecture for providing emergency services. In a traditional communication network, a PSAP connects to a pair of ALI databases in the emergency services network. The PSAP connects to each ALI database over a dedicated point-to-point connection. The ALI databases are the only resources in the emergency services network that connect with the PSAP and that can serve a request from the PSAP. The PSAP is dependant on the pair of ALI databases as the interface to the emergency services network.
Traditional emergency services networks are vulnerable to undesirable delay in providing the PSAP with the information for handling emergency calls. For example, if the PSAP receives an emergency call, the PSAP queries the ALI database (using the ANI for the emergency call) for location information on the calling party. If the ALI database contains information for the ANI, then the ALI database may promptly return location information to the PSAP. However, if the ALI database does not contain information for the ANI (such as for a wireless call), then the ALI database needs to access other databases or systems to retrieve information for the ANI. The ALI database may not know which other databases or systems contain information for the ANI. Based on the ANI, the ALI database can transmit a query to a database or system that is more likely to contain information for the ANI. For instance, if the ANI indicates a wireless number for a particular wireless carrier, then the ALI database may transmit a query to a Mobile Positioning Center (MPC) or a Gateway Mobile Location Center (GMLC) for that wireless carrier. An MPC receiving the query may have to forward the query to another database, and so on until a database or system is reached that includes information for the ANI. The ALI database may spend precious time querying multiple databases or systems trying to locate information for an ANI.
Also, the ALI database may not know of new databases or systems that have been added to the emergency services network that can provide valuable information or services. The network structure is very tightly connected (via dedicated connections), and the addition of new emergency services requires an extensive re-work of network components.
Unfortunately, the ALI database takes time in finding what databases or systems contain information for the ANI. Also, the interchange of information between the ALI database and other databases consumes a finite amount of time during which the information required by the PSAP is not immediately available. Such delays are undesirable in emergency services networks, as the PSAPs need information as soon as possible to best handle emergency calls.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method and apparatus for increasing the reliability of an emergency call communication network


Embodiments of the present invention provide a cargo guard that is readily coupled to and/or removed from a binding strap, and further readily adapted to be repositioned with respect to the strap. The cargo guard may include one or more segments and/or one or more retainers.

It is common to haul (transport) items of all types, kinds and shapes (cargo) in cargo hauling vehicles such as trucks and railroad cars, as well as containers and other transport devices. Often, such items must be secured against shifting while being transported. A common securement system includes binding straps that are tightly wrapped around or over the items to be hauled. The straps are held by any of various clamp and/or tightening mechanisms that secures the straps to e.g. the wall or floor of the hauling vehicle.
Whereas undesired movement of the cargo is substantially prevented by such binding straps, the straps themselves can rub against the cargo items and cause undesired marking, scarring, cutting, or other damage. Whereas such marking will most commonly occur at the protruding item edges or corners, there are devices e.g. rubber pads having strap receiving slots that must be threaded onto the binding straps and located at the affected corners of the items. Alternatively there are rigid right angle or corner guards that are placed under the straps. Such prior protecting devices are problematic and there is a need for a more versatile and user-friendly protective guard.


There are provided compositions which include a retinoid and preferably retinal; a dermatologically active acid; and a volatile base, such as ammonium hydroxide. Another embodiment of the invention includes compositions comprising a retinoid and preferably retinal; a dermatologically active acid; a volatile base; and a second neutralizing agent. There are also provided compositions which include a retinoid, a neutralized ammonium salt of a dermatologically active acid, and optionally a neutralized salt, other than ammonium salt, of an acid. Further provided are methods for reducing fine lines, wrinkles, skin roughness, and pore size and for increasing the clarity of a skin surface, cellular turnover, skin radiance, skin smoothness, skin permeation or collagen synthesis in a mammal in need thereof. Compositions as described above are administered topically to the skin of the animal.

Retinol or vitamin A alcohol is useful in the reduction of fine lines, wrinkles, and mottled hyperpigmentation in skin. Hydroxy acids, and particularly alpha-hydroxy acids, are useful in increasing the clarity of the skin surface, increasing cellular turnover, and increasing skin radiance and smoothness. Ascorbic acid has skin permeation and collagen synthesis activity.
Retinol is physically unstable and rapidly degrades when stored at a pH below about 5. Acids such as hydroxy acids, and particularly alpha-hydroxy acids and ascorbic acid, on the other hand, are not active in increasing skin cell turnover, exfoliation, skin permeation, and/or collagen synthesis at pHs above about 5.
Consequently, retinol and hydroxy acids and/or ascorbic acid have generally been packaged separately. Retinol typically is packaged in a vehicle at a pH above about 5, while alpha-hydroxy acids and ascorbic acid are packaged at a pH of about 4 or below. Therefore, one must apply two separate products in order to achieve the benefit of both of these ingredients.
The present inventors have discovered a single composition which include both of these ingredients, in which both of these ingredients are stable, and in which both of these ingredients are active upon application to the skin.

Johnson & Johnson Consumer Companies, Inc.


A method is proposed for actuating an electromagnetic load (3) which can be switched between at least two switching states, particularly a magnetic valve, wherein switching between a first and a second of the switching states takes place as a result of a current flowing through the load (3) by means of applying an electrical voltage to said load (3). Provision is thereby made for the voltage to be clocked upon application thereof to said load (3) if due to the applied voltage the switching process would occur without clocking outside of a current ramp-up. The invention furthermore relates to an electrical circuit for actuating an electromagnetic load (3).

The method relates to a method for actuating an electromagnetic load which can be switched between at least two switching states, in particular a magnetic valve, wherein switching between a first and a second of the switching states takes place as a result of a current flowing through the load by means of applying an electrical voltage to said load.
Methods and devices for actuating an electromagnetic load which can be switched between at least two switching states, in particular a magnetic valve, are known from the German patent publication DE 4 341 797 A1 as well as from the European patent publication EP 0 764 238 B1. A voltage is applied to an electromagnetic load in the methods and devices described there. The current flowing through the load increases on account of the applied voltage. This first increase in current, referred to below as current ramp-up, continues up until the current flowing through the electrical load achieves a predetermined threshold value. The current ramp-up ends upon achieving the threshold value, and the current flowing through said load is controlled to a nominal value via an open-loop or closed-loop control device, preferably by clocking the voltage—ie. by periodically applying and not applying said voltage. A switching of the electromagnetic load from a first to a second of the switching states always takes place after said current ramp-up. When switching between states, magnetic parts or parts connected to them, as, for example, an armature or a valve needle, move on account of the current flowing through said load from on position to another. The positions correspond, for example, to end positions, particularly to a rest or operating position. The movement of the magnetic parts causes a characteristic change in the profile of the current, provided a magnetic circuit of the electromagnetic load interacting with said parts has not gone to saturation. The current profile during the current control is evaluated to determine the point in time of the switching process, and the switching point in time of the electromagnetic load is determined with the help of the temporal profile of the current. The electromagnetic load actuated in this manner can, for example, be a magnetic valve, which is primarily used to control the injection of fuel, for example, into an internal combustion engine. The point in time of the switching process, whereat the moving, magnetic parts of the electromagnetic load achieve in each case one of their two end positions, is particularly of interest for the exact metering of the smallest injected quantities.
The known systems take the approach—as previously described—that the current is clocked after the current ramp-up and is thus controlled to a nominal value. The switching process of the electromagnetic load always occurs during this nominal value control after the current ramp-up. For this reason, a change in the current profile, which is not based on the control but on the switching of the electromagnetic load is always evaluated in this phase as the point in time of the switching process. Following said switching process, the voltage applied to the electromagnetic load continues to be clocked so long as the switching state of the electromagnetic load is to be maintained. In this method, it is always necessary to ensure that the switching of the electromagnetic load does not already occur during the current ramp-up but particularly in the phase of the current control. A circuit for implementing the method must therefore likewise be laid out accordingly. Method and circuit must consequently be adapted to the prevailing conditions, as, for example, applied voltage and parameters of the electromagnetic load, which is why they are not universally applicable.

Method for actuating an electromagnetic load and a corresponding circuit


A method for obtaining seismic data is disclosed. A constellation of seismic energy sources is translated along a survey path. The seismic energy sources include a reference energy source and a satellite energy source. The reference energy source is activated and the satellite energy source is activated at a time delay relative to the activation of the reference energy source. This is repeated at each of the spaced apart activation locations along the survey path to generate a series of superposed wavefields. The time delay is varied between each of the spaced apart activation locations. Seismic data processing comprises sorting the traces into a common geometry domain and replicating the traces into multiple datasets associated with each particular energy source. Each trace is time adjusted in each replicated dataset in the common-geometry domain using the time delays associated with each particular source. This result in signals generated from that particular energy source being generally coherent while rendering signals from the other energy source is generally incoherent. The coherent and incoherent signals are then filtered to attenuate incoherent signals.

In the hydrocarbon exploration industry, remote sensing of underground geological formations using seismic waves provides information on the location, shape, and rock and fluid properties of potential hydrocarbon reservoirs. The standard technique comprises the activation of a source of acoustic energy which radiates seismic waves into the earth. These seismic waves reflect from and refract through subsurface geologic layers (acoustic illumination or insonification). The recording of these seismic waves by many different receivers (pressure or motion sensors) are ideally situated so as to optimize the ratio of information obtained to cost. This basic sourcing/insonification/recording procedure is repeated many times at slightly different locations over a subsurface region of interest.
However, the resolution required of the seismic data for a detailed interpretation and adequate risk reduction can be suboptimal given the cost constraints inherent in seismic acquisition. Methods have been taught using generally simultaneously fired energy sources in an effort to obtain more information for a given cost.
Edington, U.S. Pat. No. 4,953,657 teaches a method of time delay source coding. In this method "a series of shots is made at each shotpoint with a determinable time delay between the activation of each source for each shot".
The "series of shots" refers to occupying each shotpoint location for several consecutive shots. This methodology may be acceptable for seismic acquisition on land where seismic sources can easily remain fixed at one shot location for an indefinite time. However, the method is not well suited for marine recording in which a seismic receiver cable is being towed behind a boat. A certain minimum velocity is necessary to preserve the approximately linear trajectory of the cable.
De Kok et. al, U.S. Pat. No. 6,545,944, teaches a method for acquiring and processing seismic data from several simultaneously activated sources. In particular, the method requires that several independently controllable "source elements" be activated in a fixed sequence, at successive neighboring locations. This activation sequence unavoidably smears the energy from a single effective source across several neighboring shot locations, necessitating an interpolation step and the introduction of unwanted interpolation noise. Further, the success of building an effective source by spatial sequencing of source sub-elements appears to depend sensitively on source timing precision and sea-state.
Beasley et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,924,049 also teaches a method of acquiring and processing seismic data using several separate sources. In the preferred embodiment, it teaches that the sources can be activated sequentially with a constant inter-source time delay (up to 15 and 20 seconds). During the processing stage, the method requires anywhere from 2% to 33% of data overlap between panels of data from different sources. Further, it relies on conflicting dips to discriminate energy coming from different source directions, which requires a specific spatial relationship among the sources and the recording cable, and thus is not well suited to simultaneous signals arriving from approximately the same quadrant. In a subsidiary embodiment, the several sources can be activated exactly concurrently, in which case the sources are then arranged to emit signature-encoded wavefields. The decoding and signal separation associated with this type of concurrent signature encoding is usually unsatisfactory. Furthermore, the sources need to be activated at both the leading and trailing ends of the spaced-apart receivers, which is inflexible.
The present invention contrasts with the aforementioned inventions and addresses their shortcomings by teaching a novel way of acquiring and processing seismic data obtained from two or more quasi-simultaneously activated sources.

Methods for acquiring and processing seismic data from quasi-simultaneously activated translating energy sources


A transmitting apparatus for generating a phase-modulated carrier signal with on-off keying (OOK) includes a coding circuitry for receiving binary digital data and generating an on-off keying (OOK) signal representing the binary digital data. The coding circuitry generates a phase modulation control signal for controlling a phase modulation of a millimeter wave carrier signal based on the on and off pattern of the OOK signal. The apparatus also includes a phase modulation circuitry for applying the phase modulation to the millimeter wave carrier signal based on the phase modulation control signal to generate a phase-modulated carrier signal, and a power amplifier for generating, based on the OOK signal and the phase-modulated carrier signal, an amplified phase-modulated carrier signal with OOK. The apparatus includes an interface to transmit the amplified phase-modulated carrier signal with OOK to a receiving apparatus via a millimeter wave communication link.

1. Field of the Disclosure
Embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to the field of electronic devices and, more particularly, to applying phase modulation onto millimeter waves with on-off keying (OOK) for spectrum control.
2. Description of the Related Art
Extremely high frequency (EHF) is part of the radio frequency in the electromagnetic spectrum. For example, EHF runs the range of frequencies from 30-300 gigahertz (GHz). Radio waves in this band have wavelengths from one to ten millimeter, giving it the name of millimeter band or millimeter wave. Because of the shorter wavelengths, this band permits the use of smaller antennas than would be required for similar circumstances in the lower frequency bands, to achieve the same high directivity and high gain. High directivity enables a more efficient use of the spectrum for point-to-point communications, interstatellite links, point-to-multipoint communications, etc.
In particular, signals in the 57-64 GHz region are subject to a resonance of the oxygen molecule and are severely attenuated in atmosphere. Therefore, these millimeter bands have an even larger frequency reuse potential and can be widely used in many applications. For example, the 60 GHz band can be used for unlicensed short range (1.7 kilometer) data links. The 60 GHz band can also be used for Wi-Fi standard IEEE 802.11 ad data links with data transfer rates of up to 7 gigabit (Gbit) per second. WirelessHD is another technology that operates near the 60 GHz range. Specifically, the WirelessHD specification is based on a 7 GHz channel in the 60 GHz radio band. Highly directional signal characteristics permit systems in these bands to be engineered in close proximity to one another without causing interference.
However, the regulated bandwidth is limited for this millimeter band in the U.S. and other jurisdictions. For example, the 60 GHz band has an only 7 GHz bandwidth regulated by U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC). In addition, the current data transfer rate for the 60 GHz band is less than 4 Gbit per second, which is not high enough for many applications. With a flat frequency spectrum, the bandwidth is not used efficiently. Therefore, there is a need for reducing the effective bandwidth of the frequency spectrum or concentrating the frequency spectrum to the center of the band, and thus increasing the efficiency of the band usage and achieving higher data transfer rates. Although the data rate may be increased by advanced modulation method that increases signal processing complexity to recover the signal, low-complexity transmitter and receiver are always desirable for a product to lower cost, power consumption, maintenance expense, management complexity, integration difficulty, and physical size.

Phase-modulated on-off keying for millimeter wave spectrum control