The systems and methods herein provide a user-friendly, automated and transparent, contract drafting and negotiation tool. Through the contract drafting and negotiation tool two parties can negotiate agreement using template agreements including one or more sections in which each user is able to select one of a plurality of input options that affect the terms of the contract. In each instance, each party can see the option selected by the other party, as well as the options not selected by the other party. The systems and methods facilitate efficient and transparent contract negotiation and drafting.

The present subject matter relates generally to systems and methods of contract negotiation and drafting. More specifically, the present subject matter provides a user-friendly, automated and transparent, contract drafting and negotiation tool.
Contracts are the backbone of business relationships. From simple real estate leases to complex service agreements, licenses, and asset purchase agreements, contracts govern nearly every business transaction. However, getting to an executed contract is rife with problems. The legal costs consume and sometimes eclipse the deal value. The time it takes to contract can bring deals to a halt. A lack of focus on the matter can lead to further delays and inefficiencies. Disparities between the talent and experience of the parties and their attorneys can lead to uneven playing fields and less than optimal agreements. There is a lack of standardization in the industry, which often makes each deal a custom one-off project, further increasing the costs and delays. In addition, because the parties themselves often need explanation of the terms that should be in the contract to meet their needs, there can be a loss of control as the business people are forced to rely on the attorneys to explain the terms and to complete the contract.
On top of all of these concerns, contracts are the written embodiments of a relationship between two parties and the best relationships require trust. Trust between each of the parties is often difficult to foster in the traditional contract negotiation process. Transparency in the process of negotiating and drafting the contact can help to improve the trust between the parties and improved trust leads to improved relationships. Accordingly, there is a need for a contract drafting and negotiation tool that improves the transparency of the contract negotiation and drafting process.
At the consumer level, contract law is typically considered one of the more accessible fields of law. Purposefully formulated with what most would consider common sense rules, the uniform commercial code (UCC) and state level contract laws codify the rules that surround contracting for almost everything in modern society. However, contract formation, even for the most basic of deals, is still more complicated than typical laymen can understand and results in a great number of flawed (sometimes fatally) business deals when legally unsophisticated individuals attempt to form a contract on their own. Accordingly, there is a need for systems and methods that enable consumers to more easily negotiate and draft quality contracts.
The inability for average individuals, small business, or even sophisticated companies to easily negotiate and draft a contract results in many issues, with the biggest issue often being the time and expense it takes to form a contract. Many unsophisticated parties are turned off by the time and expense of negotiating and drafting a contract, resulting in instances where people choose to just "risk it" instead of creating a formal contract. This is not an ideal result. The choice to, for example, rent an apartment without a formal contract can be ill-advised for many reasons. Instead of the "risk it" approach, some less sophisticated parties choose to use form contracts filled with generic boilerplate language. In these instances, it is uncommon for the form contract to truly reflect the agreement between the parties. These form contracts are typically not much more than a simple template with stock language and lack any significant customization. It is typically no more valuable that one would expect from a contract drafted by someone with no insight into the parties' present situation. Accordingly, there is a need for systems and methods that enable easy negotiation and drafting of contracts based on customizable forms that adapt to the parties' needs.
Contract negotiation and drafting can also be problematic for more sophisticated parties. Large organizations may enter in hundreds, or thousands, of similar contracts with third-parties. Inconsistency in these contracts can be problematic in that it can lead to varied obligations to each of the many third-parties. A given organization may have multiple attorneys negotiating and drafting these agreements, which, even given an organization wide playbook, may result in unintentional inconsistencies. It may also require individual approval of language in each contract, which requires the parties to prepare an initial draft of a contract, review and revise the contract while highlighting proposed edits (e.g., redlining, track changes, etc.), and exchanging the contract with the other party, often for several rounds of back and forth editing. This process consumes a great deal of resources and introduces a very high possibility of errors, miscommunications, and is even frustrating for attorneys (or legal support personnel) who are forced to meticulously review such documents. Accordingly, there is a need for contract negotiation and drafting systems and methods that improve consistency and reduce review and approval time and resources.
For the reasons provided above, and more, there is a need for systems and methods of agreement negotiation and drafting as provided herein.

Systems and methods for contract negotiation and drafting


A combination window shade and handle device includes a frame adapted to be secured above a window of a motor vehicle window; a handle centrally positioned on the frame; a winding core coupled to the frame; a shade wound onto the winding core, the shade having one free end and one fixed end adhered to the winding core, the shade having a surface area which can substantially cover a selected surface area of the window; and a tab positioned at the free end of the shade to allow a user to engage the shade.

The present invention relates to the field of vehicle window shades and cabin handles, and in particular to an improved automobile windshield shade arrangement.
Automobile sun shade arrangements are well known in the art. Such shades protect the interior of the automobile from damaging sun rays and block the view to the interior from the front of the automobile to discourage theft. A common, inexpensive, but unpopular shade comprises a portable foldable or collapsible cardboard or cloth device which must be manipulated, often with great difficulty, to a manageable size for storage. Even in the completely collapsed state, however, the size is generally too large to store in the glove compartment or other convenient and concealed location within the automobile.
Attempts to solve these problems have been offered but without success or acceptance by the purchasing public. Some examples of prior art efforts follow.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,575,524 to Cronk shows an arrangement in which a shade is wound onto a winding core, the wound shade being housed between a rigid window frame of the automobile and a cover. The cover has a slot in it through which the shade is manually pulled horizontally across the inside of the windshield and fastened at the opposite side of the windshield.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,560,668 to Li uses a vertically moveable shade, the roller for the shade being mounted horizontally along the top of the windshield on the inside of the automobile. A pair of gapped pipes disposed on left and right sides of the windshield receive sliders coupled to a horizontal moving rod to which the bottom of the shade is attached. Moving the movable rod up and down moves the sliders within the gapped pipes which serves to raise and lower the shade.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,443,923 to Laniado et al. is another sun shade adapted for attachment across a vehicle surface for protecting the interior of the vehicle against sun rays, the shade having a vertical roller. The shade is pulled off of the wound vertical roller to extend horizontally across the inside of the windshield and connect to the opposite side.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,404,926 to Ojima et al. teaches a roller shade having a spring-loaded retractor about which a sun shade is rolled. And a power drive unit is employed to raise and lower a horizontal rod to which the free end of the shade is attached, the power drive unit working against the spring force of the retractor. In one embodiment, the drive unit is placed below the center of the windshield, and a system of pulleys raises and lowers the shade, again from a shade retractor disposed along the lower edge of the windshield. In such a device, the stress on the shade increases as the shade is extended, leading to damage or unsightly wrinkling of the shade.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,979,775 to Klose discloses a window shade wrapped about a winding shaft at the top of the windshield. The free end of the shade is attached to an axially displaceable shaft, the shaft moving up and down to retract and extend the shade.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,932,711 to Goebel shows an automobile windshield shade having a tubular base attached to the dash of an automobile, and the bottom of an accordion pleated shade is attached to the base. A batten is used to hook the shade to the top of the windshield. Tension means at the base pulls the strings down to collapse the pleated fabric.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,869,542 to Lin is another example of a sun visor for an automobile in which a shade is rolled on a retractor at the base of the window, and the shade is manually pulled upwardly to hook at the top of the window in the extended position of the shade.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,762,358 teaches the use of a plurality of shade retractors mounted along the top of a windshield of an automobile and manually extendable to hook to a fastener on the bottom of the windshield.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,758,041 to Labeur shows a glare protection device for the rear window of a passenger car in which the shade is unrolled from a roll bar by means of a ball and screw arrangement. Rotating the screw in one direction raises the shade against the spring bias of the roll bar, and rotating the screw in the opposite direction lowers the ball and the shade coupled thereto.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,335,773 to Masi is another example of a sun curtain rolled on a retractor mounted at the bottom of a window and manually raised to hook on a fastener at the top of the window.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,261,411 to Dieterich is another example of a sun shade having a bottom roller or retractor about which a shade is rolled, the free end of the shade being manually connected to the top of the window. The sun shade of Dieterich is designed for the sloping rear windows of a hatchback car and has slots in it so that the person in the vehicle may have a degree of sun shade protection and yet have a view to the rear through the shade.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,183,033 to Stulbach shows yet another example of a shade retractor mounted at the bottom of a window of a vehicle and which is manually raised against the spring action of the retractor and hooked to the fasteners at the top of the window.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,156,294 to Miller et al. is directed to a spring-loaded hold-down device for keeping Venetian blinds from whipping around in the wind and banging against the window frame when the window is open.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,547,373 to Camp teaches a self-contained rising shade in which the rolled shade is disposed at the bottom of the automobile window, and the extended portion has a handle at its center which may be manually raised to be supported by a pair of resilient bands on each side of the shade member.
U.S. Pat. No. 928,864 to Hoyt discloses a spring-actuated shade having a weighted shade bar at the lower end adapted to frictionally engage the walls of guide ways, the shade bar being automatically returned to a horizontal position after being inadvertently tilted.
U.S. Pat. No. DES 339,098 to Cooper appears to be another version of an automobile sun shade which is wound on a roller at the bottom of the windshield and is manually extendible upwardly to be hooked to the top of the windshield.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,086,133 to discloses a vehicle window shade arrangement for at least partially shading the windshield of a vehicle, such as an automobile, having a dash with an upper surface and an elongated opening in the surface extending along the width of the windshield, the window shade arrangement comprising a shade rolled about a shade tube rotatably mounted below the upper surface of the dash; a shade extender-retractor for selectively unrolling the shade from the shade tube to an extended position at least partially shading the windshield, and rolling the shade about the shade tube to a retracted position not shading the windshield; and left and right elongated side supports disposed adjacent left and right sides, respectively, of the windshield. The shade is supported and concealed by the left and right side supports when not retracted. The shade extender-retractor may comprise a manual or powered drive arrangement for driving the shade to the extended and retracted positions. An automatic covering arrangement covers the elongated opening in the dash when the shade is retracted. The shade arrangement may be equally applied to vehicles other than automobiles and may be employed to shade end and/or side windows of such vehicles.


A network of systems used for tracking of performance of resources and components thereof using resource information. The resource information may include resource performance information (e.g., operation of the resource or components thereof, or the like) that is stored within a distributed computing network. The resource performance information may be compared to resource thresholds and used to determine and distribute resource suggestions for the resource. The distributed computing network may comprise a plurality of nodes that host a distributed register for storing, updating, and allowing access to resources and resource performance information, resource thresholds, and resource suggestions.

Conventional systems are not able to accurately track resources, in particular vehicles, from the initiation of the resource through the life of the resource, including the components of the resource, transfer of the resource, maintenance of the resource, or the like. Without accurate tracking, the valuation of the resources and the tracking of the components used within the resources may not be accurate, and thus, decisions (e.g., maintenance, operation, capabilities, resource transfer, or the like) based on the valuation or the components, may not be made with the correct or most relevant information. Accordingly, there is a need to provide improved resource tracking for various purposes.

Tracking and managing resource performance and maintenance via distributed ledgers


A connector includes a male, key-like member that is operably received in a female connector body. The key-like member includes a stem for operative association with a cord or other body and a distal element. The female connector has a body defining a proximal portion for operative association with a cord or other body and a slot extending along a surface of the body to an aperture for receiving a distal element of a first connector element. A first inside channel extends from the slot at a distal end of the connector to a depth from the surface of the slot. A second inside channel extends from the aperture to the first channel. One of the first and second connectors is provided with a sensor. The sensor indicates that the first connector element is located at the distal portion of the inside channel.

Motor boat personnel have been known to fall overboard from a boat, from time to time. In the case of the pilot of a motor boat, especially a lone pilot, it has been known for the boat to continue its operation without an operator. Further, such runaway boats have been known to seriously injure the operator of the boat in the water since a runaway boat tends to circle back to the place where the operator has fallen overboard. Such injuries are normally caused by the propeller of the boat cutting the operator in the water or by the boat itself ramming the operator in the water.
Kill-switch systems have been developed so as to prevent movement of a vehicle once the kill-switch has been activated. A kill-switch is typically located on the control or instrument panel of a boat and comprises a movable spring-loaded part which must be held in a certain position for the boat to run. The kill-switch key must be distinguished from a key used to operate a boat—or other motorised personal vehicle generally, since the key is operable to enable the vehicle to move and so, in one sense, could disengage a drive shaft, for example, although typically disables the ignition such that the engine is killed. Should the operator fall overboard, the lanyard would become taut and would subsequently pull the latch-key from the switch, breaking the electric circuit of the engine ignition system, turning off or "killing" the engine.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,352,045 (Yamaha), a kill-switch and engine control system is shown for a jet-ski. Presently, there is no legal requirement for a kill-cord to be fitted to any kind of boat in the Recreational Craft Directive (RCD), which is the safety standard to which all boats in the EU have to conform. There is however a section in the Inland Waters Small Passenger Boat Code which states that, "All inflatable boats, those fitted with buoyant collar and open boats able to achieve planing speed, should, if they have remote throttle controls, be fitted with a kill-cord, which must be used at all times". Nonetheless, despite the lack of specific boatbuilding legislation, most outboard engine manufacturers do supply a kill-cord system with every engine sold and most manufacturers of sports boats and RIBs powered by inboard engines choose to fit them. Equally, whilst there is no legal obligation for leisure boat owners to wear a kill-cord, if it is fitted to a boat, there may be a clause in an insurance policy which mandates the correct use of a kill-cord. Furthermore, commercial operators are typically governed by a code of practice which requires the use of a kill-cord when fitted. Yet full compliance is rare, as witnessed by the numbers of accidents that, nonetheless still occur. United Kingdom Patent No. GB 2 530 121 B (Cordsafe) provides a tethered kill-switch arrangement for a motorised device, wherein operation of the motor wherein the arrangement further comprises an alarm element which alarm element operates in the event that the pilot clip has not been properly associated with the pilot.
Lanyard operated/corded control kill switch systems are known in other fields. It will be appreciated that maintenance personnel operating with scissor-lift, powerful machinery and the like need to be in control of their equipment when the equipment is functioning.
On the one hand a mechanical fastener is required to ensure correct association of two components, whereby an electric circuit (or optical or other type of circuit) is closed. On the other hand, the mechanical fastener is required to be rugged in potentially extreme outdoor environments, for example, being subject to wide variations in temperature, including freezing conditions—and will need to be resistant to mishandling and inevitable exposure to rain, salt-spray, oils, industrial fluids, cleaning fluids etc. such that the performance of the electrical circuitry and the performance of the fastener is not diminished. Similar systems can be utilised in a great number of areas, especially where matters of safety are involved, where a material conditional result is provided to ensure that not only is a safety item being provided but also that the safety item is being deployed correctly.


The invention provides an electrically movable vehicle drivable by a simplified mode of control and a control program for driving the vehicle. A normalized value Y′ representing translation motion and a normalized value X′ representing turning motion are fed from a command value input unit 110 to a velocity command value calculating unit 120. The calculating unit 120 determines a translation velocity command value Vg—trg based on the normalized value Y′. The calculating unit 120 determines a turn angular velocity command value ωf—trg that will always satisfy Expression (2–4) for preventing the vehicle from falling down. The translation velocity command value Vg—trg and the turn angular velocity command value ωf—trg determined by the unit 120 are fed to a control command value calculating unit 130, which calculates control command values for left and right drive wheels. The control command values are fed to a motor control unit 140 to control motors Mr, Ml and control the drive wheels.

Maneuverability is important with electrically movable vehicles such as wheelchairs. Accordingly, techniques are disclosed as to electrically movable vehicles which realize maneuverability approximate to turning as imaged by the user (see, for example, the publication of JP-A No. 2001-104396, page 1). The electrically movable vehicle disclosed in the patent literature is driven by controlling the operation of a first motor for driving the right wheel and a second motor for driving the left wheel by a controller according to the manipulation of a joystick lever. Stated more specifically, use is made of the angle of inclination of the joystick lever and the direction of inclination of the lever as input data as to the state of the lever as inclined by the manipulator toward the direction of turning. The controller calculates the distance from the current position to a forward target point to be moved past by turning. If the target point is far, the motors are so controlled as to turn the vehicle with a radius greater than when the target point is near. If the target point is near, the motors are so controlled as to move the vehicle to move pat the neighborhood of the current position and the target point.
As disclosed in the above patent literature, it is common practice to control the operation of the left and right wheels individually to turn the vehicle. With the vehicle disclosed in the patent literature, the target values for driving the left and right wheels are defined in terms of distances to be run to reach the target points of the respective wheels. For the vehicle to turn in this case, translating motion is required. In the mode of control disclosed in the patent literature, therefore, it is impossible to turn the vehicle in situ without involving translation.
In the above patent literature, the target value for the drive wheel is finally provided with consideration given to a force (so called lateral G) due to gravity eventually acting on the drive wheel horizontally of the vehicle, spin velocity and limit to the rotational speed of the wheel. In this case, a control value is determined by comparing a value calculated from conditions involving lateral G, spin velocity and limit to the rotational speed of the wheel so as not to exceed these conditions, with a value calculated from the input command value and judging the result of comparison. Accordingly, the control program becomes complex in structure due to increased number of condition judging steps and a specific processing procedure required for the value of the command input unit.
An object of the prevent invention, which has been accomplished in view of the above problem, is to provide an electrically movable vehicle which can be driven by a simplified mode of control and a control program for driving the vehicle.

Electrically movable vehicle and control program for driving electrically movable vehicle


Apparatus for heat-treating an elongate structural body part made from a blank compressed while being soft or from steel strip of hardenable 22 Mn B5 mod. steel sheet with a thickness of 1 mm to 3 mm, includes an apparatus for positioning the structural body part in substantially upright disposition. Placed in surrounding relationship to the structural body part is an induction element which can move from bottom to top, thereby being able to follow a contour of the structural body part and allowing to at least partially heat the structural body part to an austenitizing temperature suitable for hardening. Disposed adjacent to the induction element is a cooling unit which follows the induction element in movement direction. The induction element and the cooling unit are moveable relative to one another and connected to a tool carriage which is mounted to a column for movement in a vertical direction, in a transverse direction to the column and about a horizontal axis.

The present invention relates, in general, to body structures in the automobile industry, and more particularly to an open-profile, elongate structural body part as safety elements for automobile body construction.
Structural body parts in the form of thin-walled side impact supports, bumpers, cross members, longitudinal member, roof frames and column reinforcements are known. Because of more stringent requirements, the use of high strength and highest strength steels has increased. The structural body parts, in general, are manufactured as pressed parts from sheet steel. In addition to a very high strength, such structural body parts must have a minimum ductility of 5% to 10%.
The use of cold-formable, high strength steels has also been proposed. However, these steels are suitable only for structural body parts with a simple shaping because of their limited shaping and deforming properties. Another approach involves the use of hardenable steel sheets. These steel sheets in the form of blanks or coil material are shaped in pressing tools to structural body parts while still soft. The structural body parts are then provided with the required strength in a subsequent hardening process. These steel sheets in their soft state have sufficient shaping and deforming properties and thus can be used to produce structural body parts of complex shape. One example of a material with such properties includes 22 Mn B5 mod. This material has in its soft state a strength of approximately 600 N/mm2 and a ductility of greater than 30%. After hardening, strength values of up to 1600 N/mm2 with 10% ductility can be achieved.
Heating to the austenitizing temperature for the purpose of hardening is frequently performed heretofore by gas-heated or electrically heated continuous furnaces. In order to ensure a continuous production, such continuous furnaces are integrated into the manufacturing line for the structural body parts. However, a disadvantage is the great space requirement of such continuous furnaces. Furthermore, it should be noted that energy consumption is considerable and that heat losses cannot be avoided. Also, when using continuous furnaces, it is not possible to perform a partial or regional hardening of the structural body parts.
It is also known to shape hardenable steel sheets to the desired structural body parts with combination shaping and hardening tools. In this case, the blanks are heated before shaping to the austenitizing temperature and are then simultaneously shaped and hardened in a cooled shaping tool. This process also necessarily entails high tool and energy technological expenditures. Furthermore, this process increases considerably increases the cycle times during the shaping step.
It is also known to use inductive hardening for massive steel products, such as crankshafts, gears, bearing etc., as well as for closed elongate sections.
It would therefore be desirable and advantageous to provide an improved apparatus for heat treatment of open-profile elongate structural body parts in the automobile industry from ultrahigh-strength pressing parts so as to meet safety functions while requiring only minimal manufacturing and tool expenditure and ensuring a high efficiency with reduced energy consumption.

Apparatus for heat treatment of structural body parts in the automobile industry


A digital broadcast recorder and a recording method thereof are disclosed. The recording method of a digital broadcast recorder having a storage medium, includes analyzing transmitted channel data and program data, and editing a broadcast program for the unit of program referring to the analyzed channel data and program data during recording of the broadcast program to store and manage the edited broadcast program in the storage medium. Therefore, it is possible to enhance a user's convenience when searching for and reproducing a recorded program.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a digital broadcast recording, and more particularly, to a digital broadcast recorder and a recording method thereof, in which digital broadcasting is edited and recorded.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
A personal video recorder (PVR) is one of apparatuses for recording and reproducing digital broadcasting.
The PVR is to provide additional convenience functions to a viewer by adopting a digital storage medium, for example, a hard disk drive (HDD) in a digital broadcast receiver. The PVR provides more improved functions than those of a conventional video cassette recorder (VCR), such as a time-shift function, an instant replay function during viewing of live broadcasting, and other trick play functions, as well as a recording function of digital broadcasting in a recording medium. Moreover, the PVR can record digital broadcasting of high definition (HD) in a recording medium at any time, and has various additional service functions.
The PVR is provided with a central processing unit (CPU) of high performance, and records a digital broadcast program in a storage medium, such as a mass storage HDD, for the unit of file. Therefore, the PVR has advantages in that a viewer can readily search for the recorded program and view the searched program by repeatedly reproducing and simply editing it.
Examples of methods for recording a broadcast program using the PVR include "reserved recording," "instant recording during viewing of the program," and "time shift recording using a time shift function."
The time shift function allows a user to simultaneously store and reproduce a broadcast program currently in viewing. For example, if there is a phone call while the user views the current broadcast program, the user pushes a time shift button (for example, pause button) of a remote controller to store broadcast streams received later in an HDD. Then, the user can view the broadcasting streams, which are stored in the HDD, corresponding to the scene after the temporarily paused scene by pushing a play button after the phone call. In other words, recording and play are simultaneously carried out at a constant timing interval.
FIG. 1 is a flow chart illustrating a method for recording a broadcast program using a related art PVR.
As shown in FIG. 1, if video, audio and data streams are transmitted from a broadcasting station, electronic program guide (EPG) data are obtained from the data streams to view information of a broadcast program (S101).
At this time, the user can search for a desired broadcast program using either an input unit such as a remote controller or the EPG data to view it.
If the user selects a time shift function while viewing the program, viewing contents for a certain time period are temporarily stored in an HDD (S102).
Also, if the user selects instant recording by pushing a recording button of the remote controller or a main body while general viewing or time shift recording (S103), the broadcast program being currently displayed in the screen starts to be recorded in the HDD (S104).
Afterwards, if the user inputs a button for stopping instant recording, for example, a stop button of the remote controller or the main body, instant recording is stopped (S105). At this time, the PVR stops the broadcast program from being stored in the HDD and searches for the EPG data to add title, summary, and so on of a new recording program to a recording program list (S106 and S107). In this way, recording is completed.
The recording program generated as above may include various program time zones. Alternatively, the recording program may be generated in such a manner that the user changes a viewing channel in the middle of recording. Moreover, contents or program having no relation with the user's desired recording program may be recorded before or after the recorded program.
Therefore, checking and editing works for the recorded program are conventionally required (S108 and S109). In other words, since it is difficult for the user to identify its desired recording program through the recorded program, the user needs to re-view the recorded program to edit contents or program having no relation with the desired program.
To edit the recorded program, the user needs complicated manipulation of the remote controller. This could lead to great inconvenience to the user.

Digital broadcast recorder and recording method thereof


In an embodiment of a light fixture support assembly for securing a light fixture to a fixed surface, the assembly includes a fixture-support member and a surface-attachment member. The fixture-support member has proximal and distal ends and also includes walls defining a compartment and further defining a first opening at the proximal end of the fixture-support member for communication with the surface-attachment member. The walls further define a second opening for communication with the light fixture. The fixture-support assembly also has a neck portion extending from the proximal end and the neck portion has a flange portion extending from it. The surface-attachment member includes a proximal end attached to the fixed surface and a distal end configured to engage the neck portion, whereby the fixture-support member is supported by the surface-attachment member when the neck portion is inserted into the fixture-support member.

In the field of lighting, light fixtures are needed in many different settings and, for area lighting, a raised position usually best allows efficient use of light. In that view there are many known designs and methods for supporting a light fixture from a fixed surface, such as from a light pole or a wall. However, as larger lights are needed for larger areas, light fixtures increase in size and weight and are difficult to handle and install, especially at height.
Installation of a light fixture includes attaching wires from the wall or light pole to the fixtures. Therefore, a light fixture that includes a support structure that is already attached remains difficult to wire when the installer has to worry at the same time about attaching the entire light system to the wall. Furthermore, the supports are generally designed with each light fixture, so that a single manufacturer may have no general purpose mount that can be utilized with a variety of fixtures.
While a vast array of mounting and supporting structures have been developed, a need exists for an improved light fixture support system and allows for easy installation and compatibility with many different light fixture designs.


A liquid level sensing system includes a vessel and an electrode. The vessel includes a vessel wall separating a vessel interior from a vessel exterior. The electrode is mounted to an exterior side of the vessel wall spanning a distance corresponding to a desired-level-determining range. The vessel wall is a dielectric gap between the electrode and the vessel interior. The electrode is configured to collect a charge corresponding to a liquid level. A method for determining a liquid level in a vessel includes collecting a charge on an electrode, sensing the collected charge on the electrode with a capacitance sensor through an electrical line, and determining a liquid level in a vessel based on the collected charge sensed by the capacitance sensor.

1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to liquid level sensing systems, and more particularly to liquid level sensing systems for potable water tanks.
2. Description of Related Art
Traditional liquid level sensing technology involves point level sensors to determine the level of a liquid in a vessel. This tends to cause corrosion of the sensor due to direct contact with the liquid. Placing the sensor inside the vessel can also pose mechanical obstruction issues with internal baffling. Traditional point level sensors also include protrusions that present challenges to fitting the vessel into the limited space typically allotted for some installations, such as aircraft installations.
Such conventional methods and systems have generally been considered satisfactory for their intended purpose. However, there still remains a need in the art for liquid level sensing systems with increased reliability, durability and ease of installation. The present disclosure provides a solution for this need.


Whether or not a discoloring motion has been performed by a player character is determined, and a discoloration portion set for the determined discoloring motion is discolored. A discolored mark texture of which the discolored mark pattern is denser and of a thicker color is mapped as a current discoloration value set to the discoloration portion becomes larger. The current discoloration value is added and updated by a discoloration unit set based on the stadium in which the game is performed and the game day weather each time the discoloring motion is performed.

The present invention relates to a character coloring control method, a game device, and an information storage medium.
As technology for generating a realistic game image, JP-A-2001-167291 discloses technology in which an underlying texture mapping object OB1 and a discolored mark representation object OB2 on which a discolored mark texture is mapped are provided, and the objects are drawn to overlap while changing the transparency of the discolored mark representation object OB2.
According to the technology disclosed in JP-A-2001-167291, since the objects are drawn using the discolored mark representation object OB2 on which the discolored mark texture is mapped in advance, it is difficult to control discoloration for each portion of the object. Specifically, a portion to be discolored or the type of discolored mark cannot be changed according to the motion of the object.
Therefore, when applying the above technology to a sports game or the like, a problem occurs in which a character is uniformly and monotonously discolored, whereby the provided game image lacks reality to some extent.

Character coloring control method, game device, and information storage medium


Apparatus for illuminating medical diagnostic imaging film comprises a light source for projecting light toward the imaging film, and a plurality of light diffusion film layers positioned in close adjacent relationship with one another, between the imaging film and the light source. Each of the diffusion film layers has a specified index of refraction, and the diffusion layers collectively act to scatter the projected light. An optical adhesive having an index of refraction which is substantially equal to the diffusion film index of refraction is positioned between respective adjacent surfaces thereof to substantially eliminate air-filled spaces therebetween, and to bond the film diffusion layers together into a unitary light diffusion structure. A plurality of layers of microprism film are positioned between the light diffusion film and the imaging film for redirecting at least a portion of the scattered light into a beam of collimated light directed to illuminate the imaging film.

The invention disclosed and claimed herein generally pertains to improved apparatus for illuminating film, containing a radiographic or other medical diagnostic image, for viewing and study. More particularly, the invention pertains to apparatus of such type which includes an improved light diffuser comprising layers or laminations of film material for increasing the amount of light transmitted therethrough.
View boxes are well-known types of devices used by radiologists to view and study radiographic images and other medical diagnostic images which are on film. Such images, showing selected views of body tissue, can be obtained by means of conventional X-ray, computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and other techniques known to those of skill in the medical diagnostic imaging arts. By carefully studying such images, a radiologist can detect the presence of significant medical conditions in a patient or other subject, without the need for invasive surgery. Some important examples of such conditions include breast cancer, lung cancer, pneumonia, fracture, and arthritis.
A conventional view box generally is used to view medical diagnostic film which typically is on the order of 14 inches by 17 inches. Such a device contains one or more fluorescent tubes or other sources of light, and has a front panel typically comprising a translucent light diffuser, such as a sheet of milky white Plexiglas. Also, the dimensions of the front panel may be large enough to accommodate four films, placed side by side, at the same time. Each radiographic imaging film is placed on the light diffuser and transilluminated, for viewing and study, by light from the light source. The light passes through the diffuser and is diffused or scattered thereby. Thus, the light transmitted to the imaging film is of uniform brightness or intensity, so that the imaging film is uniformly illuminated. If a view box was not provided with a diffuser or other means for scattering light from the fluorescent tube light source, the fluorescent tubes would tend to be seen through the imaging film, interfering with the study thereof.
Radiographic films record an image as a pattern of silver crystals. Light from the view box can be either blocked or scattered by these crystals. This process produces a complimentary pattern in the light leaving the observer's side of the film. Some of this light travels to the observer's eye, and the pattern of light is focused onto his or her retina. In an ideal view box, the observed pattern of light would precisely correspond to the pattern of silver crystals in the film, accurately transmitting the film image to the observer.
The view box currently used in practice is not an ideal view box because it produces diffuse or scattered light, as stated above. Scattered light can randomly travel from one part of the film to another. More specifically, a scattered light ray may travel obliquely from a bright part of the imaging film into an adjacent dark part of the film, and then be scattered in the dark part of the film to the observer's eye. If this occurs, then the observer will perceive the scattered light ray as having come from the dark part of the film. The observer will then perceive the dark part of the film as being brighter than it actually is, which will decrease contrast between the bright and dark areas of the film. Most of this scatter occurs close to the border between the bright and dark areas of the film, thereby blurring the border and causing decreased resolution of the observed image. This can be thought of as a sort of leakage of light from the bright part of the film into the dark part of the film. Thus, the radiologist's task of correctly interpreting a film image is made more difficult. Certain conditions, such as breast cancer, lung nodules, and small pneumothorax (collapsed lung) are especially hard to detect in any event. If there is too much blurring of edges, or insufficient contrast between brighter and darker areas of a film image, a correct diagnosis of such conditions may not even be possible. The term "resolution," as used herein, means the level of sharpness which characterizes the boundary, or edge, between adjacent lighter and darker regions of an image.
In the past, it has been suggested that contrast of a medical diagnostic imaging film, illuminated by means of a view box, could be improved by substantially increasing the spatial separation between the light source and the imaging film. Thus, the light illuminating the film would become less diffuse. However, the proposed spatial separation was on the order of six to twelve feet, whereas the depth of a conventional view box is generally less than one foot. It would be highly impractical for a number of reasons, including cost and spatial constraints, to construct a view box having the proposed expanded dimensions.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/610,218, filed Mar. 4, 1996 by William R. Brauer, the inventor herein, teaches the use of light directing film to collimate the scattered light projected toward radiographic imaging film, i.e., to substantially reduce the solid angle thereof. By illuminating the imaging film with collimated light rather than diffuse light, it has been found that contrast and resolution have been very significantly improved, when viewing the film. It was also found that collimation of scattered or diffuse light was particularly effective if multiple layers of the light directing film were employed. However, use of multiple light directing film layers tended to reduce the total amount of light passing therethrough to illuminate the imaging film. In order to ensure that sufficient light reached the imaging film, it was found necessary to increase the amount of light initially provided by the light source.
Moreover, as stated above, the flat front panel of a conventional view box may be made large enough to simultaneously accommodate four 14 inch by 17 inch diagnostic films placed in side-by-side relationship. This arrangement allows the radiologist to readily compare information provided by different films, such as films showing the same view of a patient at different times. Because of light diffusion in a conventional view box, the radiologist's field of view extends to the entire panel. Thus, he can view all four films at the same time, with comparatively little head or body movement. However, if collimated light is employed to illuminate imaging film on a view box panel, only light transmitted through a comparatively small region of the panel, and the film thereon, will be received by the radiologist's eye, while his eye is fixed at a specified position. Thus, use of collimated light can substantially diminish field of view. In a conventional view box, and particularly a view box for displaying multiple films, significant reduction in field of view could force a viewer to continually move his upper body, in order to view all the films on the front panel in their entirety. This, in turn, may cause fatigue and muscle stiffness, particularly if viewing of diagnostic film continues over a prolonged period of time.

Apparatus with laminated diffuser for illuminating medical diagnostic imaging film


A stencil mask includes a membrane forming thin layer having membrane areas and a border area that limits the membrane areas. The membrane areas have a plurality of pattern areas which include an aperture through which particle beams can permeate and non-pattern areas interposed between the pattern areas. A main strut supports the membrane areas and is formed on the border area of the membrane forming thin layer. An auxiliary strut is formed in the non-pattern areas inside the membrane pattern area such that the auxiliary strut divides the membrane areas into plural divided membrane areas. The auxiliary strut supports the divided membrane areas.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a stencil mask and a manufacturing method thereof, which is utilized for forming a pattern according to lithography technology using a charged particle beam such as an electron beam, and more particularly, to a stencil mask and a manufacturing method thereof using a thin film membrane supported by a strut.
2. Discussion of Related Art
As the design rule of semiconductor integrated circuit devices has decreased, lithography technologies utilizing a particle beam such as an X ray, an electron beam, and an ion beam have been developed to enhance resolution of optical instruments. Among the various types of lithography, electron beam projection lithography has an advantage of forming a fine pattern at a scale of 1 μm or less. Thus, various systems and pattern forming methods using this lithography technology have been proposed. One example is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,831,272.
Electron beam proximity projection lithography (EEL) and low energy electron beam proximity projection lithography (LEVEL) project a pattern onto a resist by permeation of the electron beam through a fine aperture formed on a stencil mask.
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a partial composition of a conventional stencil mask 10 used in EEL or LEVEL. Referring to FIG. 1, the conventional stencil mask has a plurality of membrane areas 12 respectively patterned by a fine aperture (not shown) and divided by border areas, which are not patterned. The border areas include support struts 14 which are formed of rows and columns, which intersect perpendicularly and reinforce mechanical durability of the stencil mask 10.
FIG. 2 is a cross-section illustrating a portion of the stencil mask 10 of FIG. 1. Referring to FIG. 2, apertures 12a corresponding to fine patterns are formed in the membrane areas 12. If electron beams 20 are projected onto the stencil mask 10, the fine pattern is projected onto a resist layer (not shown) coated on a wafer after the electron beams permeate the apertures 12a.
The apertures 12a are formed by etching the membrane areas 12. In a case where the fine pattern is used for manufacturing a next generation highly integrated device, for example, when the fine pattern at a scale of 0.1 μm or less is required, the apertures 12a must be formed to have a line width on a scale of 10's of NM. In this case, the ratio of the thickness of the membrane areas 12 to the diameter of the apertures 12a, i.e. The aspect ratio of the apertures 12a, should be small enough to accurately form a desired profile of the apertures 12a during etching of the membrane areas 12. Specifically, the aspect ratio of the apertures 12a must be reasonably maintained and the thickness of the membrane areas 12 should be as thin as possible, for instance, at about 1 μm or less and preferably 500 nm or less.
However, thin membrane areas 12 bend easily, resulting in a tensile stress inside the membrane areas 12. The tensile stress causes the membrane areas 12 to transform or distort, and thus image placement error occurs since the pattern projected through the membrane areas 12 becomes displaced.
Various mask structures have been suggested to solve the above problems, such as U.S. Pat. No. 6,261,726 B1 and Japanese Patent Publication No. hei 15(2003)-59819. However, these masks, which include a structure to support the membrane, mostly use the conventional strut structure described above and thus have limitations in preventing image placement error due to the transformation or distortion of the membrane. Accordingly, there is a need for a stencil mask in which occurrence of image placement error due to transformation or distortion induced by internal stress inside membrane areas is substantially diminished without limiting size or aspect ratio of the membrane areas.

Stencil mask having main and auxiliary strut and method of forming the same


The present invention relates to visualizing information of an object. In order to provide spatial information and in addition situation specific data to the user while ensuring an effective perceptibility, a method (110) is provided comprising the steps of: a) providing (112) pre-navigation data (114) of a region of interest of an object (22); wherein the pre-navigation data comprises spatial geometrical data (116) and a functional parameter surface (118) in correspondence to the spatial geometrical data; b) acquiring (120) live image data (122) of the region of interest; c) detecting (124) an element (126) in the live image data; d) determining (128) spatial relation (130) of the pre-navigation data and the live image data; e) determining (132) the position (134) of the detected element in the spatial geometrical data, which determining is based on the spatial relation, and computing (136) a predetermined related point of location (138) on the functional parameter surface; f) generating (140) a combination (142) of a simplified surface representation (144) of the region of interest, which simplified surface representation is based on a visualization of the functional parameter surface, and a marker (146) indicating the computed predetermined related point of location; and g) displaying (148) the combination as navigation guidance (150).

Electrophysiology is a specific domain of interventional cardiology where physicians use intra-cardiac catheters to locate and cure electrical dysfunctions of the heart rhythm, under X-Ray fluoroscopy guidance. A challenging electrophysiology procedure is radio-frequency ablation for the treatment of atrial fibrillation. Electrophysiologists need a special training to perfectly know the anatomy and the access pathways to all the sites of interest and some practice to select the correct devices and manipulate them to the desired target. The patient's anatomy can be recorded with 3D imaging devices, e.g. through CT or MRI, or by injecting contrast agent locally just at the beginning of the intervention, e.g. into the left atrium and ostium of the pulmonary veins for atrial fibrillation or into coronary veins and sinus for a cardiac resynchronization therapy. The physician basically has to perform a mental registration to navigate in the live fluoro images where the structural information is not visible anymore. For atrial fibrillation procedures, knowing the exact positions of the catheters when measuring electrical potentials is the key to find the sources that cause fibrillation, e.g. the ectopic foci or the reentry loop. Even more important is an anatomical mapping of the ablation sites in order to perform the desired ablation patterns, such as pulmonary vein isolation or roof line ablation in the left atrium.
Tracking a third-party object like an interventional tool or a visible anatomical landmark is mandatory in interventional X-ray if one wants to compensate the motion of an anatomy of interest, e.g. a heart chamber or the coronary sinus, if said organ is mostly invisible.
However, the relationship between the motion of a tracked intervention device and the part of the anatomy that is interesting for electrophysilogic intervention may be complex. In the chest area, for example, the motion of an intervention device is mostly induced by two factors, the heart beat and the breathing motion.
Since in the chest area these two distinct motion sources effect their surrounding differently, it may be considered necessary to separate these motion sources
Known measures for the separation of different motion sources, which motion sources produce motions with distinct frequency bands, are based on filtering the overall motion of the tracked objects to recover the motion originating from either one of the source. However, filtering may result in lags that alter the quality of the motion compensation. Furthermore, the outcome of filtering may degrade quickly when the image rate of the fluoroscopy drops down.
Another known measure consists of using a temporal model of one (or several) of the motion sources. The temporal model(s) is (are) then fitted to the recorded motion. This may not be very flexible for coping with a huge motion variability, e.g. arrythmia of the cardiac or breathing motion.

Medical imaging system and method for providing an image representation supporting accurate guidance of an intervention device in a vessel intervention procedure


A valve module for fluidic connector strips is furnished in each case with a base plate (1). Parallel disposed, fluidic connector channels (2) are placed in the base plate (1). The base plate (1) is furthermore immediately connectable with a main valve (3), communicating with the connector channels (2). The valve module further exhibits a precontrol pilot valve (4) disposed on the main valve (3). The motion of the valve member of the main valve (3) is controllable by the precontrol pilot valve (4) based on a passage flow through a control channel (5) of the main valve (3). The precontrol pilot valve (4) includes an electromagnetic valve with electrical plug contacts (6). The electric plug contacts (6) are protected against humidity and moisture. In order to furnish a quick, safe and adaptable, as well as an easily assembled electrical connection of the electrical connector lines to the electromagnet valves and from one valve module to the next valve module and in order to provide additional electric connections for such valve modules, a hollow cable casing (8) is disposed at a narrow side front face (7) of the base is guided telescopically plate (1). A plug-in casing (9) is guided telescopically adjustable in the cable casing (8). The plug-in casing (9) is attached to an angle cover structure (10). The angle cover structure (10) includes an electrical connector socket (11) for the plug contacts (6) of the electromagnet (12) in the precontrol pilot valve (4) as well as an electrical contact transition structure (49) to the plug-in casing (9).

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a valve module for fluidic connector strips with in each case a base plate, wherein parallel fluidic connector channels are running in the base plate, and wherein the base plate is furthermore immediately connectable to a main valve communicating with the connector channels, and with at least a precontrol pilot valve disposed on the main valve, and wherein the precontrol pilot valve controls the movement of the valve member of the main valve based on a passage flow through a control channel of the main valve.
2. Brief Description of the Background of the Invention Including Prior Art
It is known to provide a valve module for fluidic, i.e. hydraulic or pneumatic, connector strips, including a base plate. Parallel disposed, fluidic connector channels are positioned in the base plate. A fluidic connector strip is a section providing a sequence of connection ports connected to or connectable to fluid connector channels. The base plate can in addition be directly connected to a main valve communicating with the connector channels. At least one precontrol pilot valve is disposed on the main valve. The precontrol pilot valve allows to control the motion of the valve member of the main valve based on a passage flow through a control channel of the main valve. The precontrol pilot valve is formed of an electromagnet valve with electric plug contacts, as described in the German Printed Patent Document DE-Al-4,004,834.
Such directional control valves with a connection layout according to the German Industrial Standard DIN ISO 5599 are furnished with base plates with a field of joining connector channels for pressure lines and for operating lines, for ventilation lines and control lines. The connector channels have to be sealed amongst each other and toward the outside relative to the main valve by a correctly disposed sealing plate. The above mentioned, conventional ISO base plate exhibits a passage of the electrical connector lines through an incorporated cable channel and exhibits a plug contact in the plane of the sealing plate, for a connector socket in a valve or in an intermediate plate. The precontrol pilot valves are screwed onto the narrow side front faces. This construction arrangement is not only sensitive to humidity such that the danger of short circuit arises, but in addition is very expensive and difficult to assemble. The complete valve module has to be demounted and disassembled in case of a short circuit in the intermediate plate in order to reach the connector socket in the intermediate plate and the plug contacts in the base plate. A disadvantageously large assembly and mounting time is required, which can result in a loss of production time and/or a production stoppage in associated production lines, and wherein the kind of the cable feed increases further the risk of a short circuit.

Valve module for fluidic connector strip


Compositions and methods for inhibiting, treating, and/or preventing a B-cell neoplasm are provided.

Several publications and patent documents are cited throughout the specification in order to describe the state of the art to which this invention pertains. Each of these citations is incorporated herein by reference as though set forth in full.
The concept of oncogene addiction is particularly well-validated in hematological malignancies (Felsher, D. W. (2003) Nat. Rev. Cancer 3:375-380). "Liquid" tumors are thought to depend on fewer genetic alterations and thus be more sensitive to drugs targeting abnormally expressed oncoproteins, Gleevec vs. Bcr-Abl being the prime example (Rowley, J. D. (2001) Nat. Rev. Cancer 1:245-250; Druker, B. J. (2002) Cancer Cell 1:31-36). Additionally, initiating oncogenes in many lymphomas and leukemias are easily identified as products of recurrent chromosomal translocations. For example, in human Burkitt's (BL) and some diffuse large B-cell (DLBLC) lymphomas, the t(8;14) translocation places c-Myc under the control of the immunoglobulin heavy chain (IgH) gene enhancer (Taub et al. (1982) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., 79:7837-7841; Dalla-Favera et al. (1982) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., 79:7824-7827). A similar translocation has been identified in murine plasmacytomas (Shen-Ong et al. (1982) Cell 31:443-452).
Another protein implicated in B-cell neoplasms is paired box transcription factor 5, or Pax5. Pax5 controls B-cell differentiation from the pro-B to the mature B cell stage and is chiefly responsible for expression of the B-cell receptor (BCR) complex (Busslinger, M. (2004) Annu. Rev. Immunol., 22:55-79; Monroe, J. G. (2006) Nat. Rev. Immunol., 6:283-294). This is achieved via direct transcriptional activation of genes encoding CD79a (a.k.a. Ig-α; Maier et al. (2003) Nucleic Acids Res., 31:5483-5489), which heterodimerizes on the cell surface with Ig-13 (Schamel et al. (2000) Immunity 13:5-14), and the CD19 co-receptor (Nutt et al. (1998) EMBO J., 17:2319-2333; Kozmik et al. (1992) Mol. Cell Biol., 12:2662-2672). PAX5 is also overexpressed through chromosomal translocations in a subset of B cell lymphomas. The Pax5 gene is affected by a relatively rare but persistent t(9; 14)(p13; q32) translocation associated with aggressive B cell non-Hodgkin lymphomas (NHL) (Offit et al. (1992) Blood 80:2594-2599; Cook et al. (2004) Hum. Pathol., 35:447-454; Busslinger et al. (1996) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., 93:6129-6134; Iida et al. (1996) Blood 88:4110-4117; Morrison et al. (1998) Blood 92:3865-3878; Poppe et al. (2005) Genes Chromosomes Cancer 44:218-223). In addition to genomic rearrangements, the Pax5 gene is also affected by somatic hypermutations, in particular in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) patients (Pasqualucci et al. (2001) Nature 412:341-346). There are several other recurrent translocations [e.g., t(7;9)(q11;p13) and t(9;12)(q11;p13)] involving Pax5, which were found in B-cell acute lymphocytic leukemia (B-ALL). These translocations result in the fusion of the Pax5 and ELN and ETV6/TEL genes and are regarded as dominant-negative inhibitors of Pax5 transcriptional activity (Bousquet et al. (2007) Blood 109:3417-3423; Cazzaniga et al. (2001) Cancer Res., 61:4666-4670). Furthermore, the genome-wide analysis of B-ALL using high-resolution SNP arrays and direct genome sequencing yielded several loss of function mutations in Pax5 (Mullighan et al. (2007) Nature 446:758-764). However, the effect of PAX5 on other oncogenic transcription factor-controlled pathways is unknown.

Compositions and methods for treating B-lymphoid malignancies


Data identifying server storage devices and logical storage entities is received. A storage object model based on the received data is generated. A first user type is associated with the server storage devices and logical storage entities. A second user type is associated with the logical storage entities. A first user is allowed to access data associated with the sever storage devices and the logical storage entities in response to determining that the first user is identified as the first user type. A second user is allowed to access data associated with the logical storage entities and not allowed to access data associated with the server storage devices in response to determining that the second user is identified as the second user type.

The creation and storage of digitized data has proliferated in recent years. Accordingly, techniques and mechanisms that facilitate efficient and cost effective storage of large amounts of digital data are common today. For example, a network environment of nodes may be implemented by an enterprise as a data storage system to facilitate the creation, storage, retrieval, and/or processing of their digital data. Such a data storage system may be implemented using a variety of storage architectures, such as a network-attached storage (NAS) environment, a storage area network (SAN), a direct-attached storage environment, and combinations thereof.
The foregoing data storage systems may comprise one or more data storage devices configured to store digital data within data volumes. A storage device may, for example, be a disk drive (e.g., hard disk drive (HDD)) organized as part of a disk array. Such data storage devices are not limited to disks or even magnetic storage devices and thus may, for example, comprise a solid state drive (SSD) or combinations of the foregoing. Individual storage devices of a data storage system may be identified by a logical unit number (LUN) or other identification scheme.
In a data storage system, information is stored on physical data storage devices as volumes that define a logical arrangement of storage space of the data storage devices. Information in the volumes is typically organized in a file system, which is a hierarchical structure of directories, files and data blocks. An example of a file system is a write-anywhere file layout (WAFL). A file may be implemented by the file system as a set of data blocks configured to store the actual data on one or more storage device of the data storage device.
A trend has developed in recent years to move many computing services, include data storage services, to multiple client (e.g., multiple different, unrelated client entities, such as may comprise independent and unassociated individuals, business entities, etc.) environments, such as cloud computing environments (i.e., computation, software, data access, and storage services system configuration in which the end-user, client, client system, etc. is agnostic and/or ignorant with respect to the physical location and configuration of the various system resources by virtue of shared underlying system resources) as may be hosted via the Internet. Such multiple client environments offer advantages in economies of scale, outsourcing of computing services, use of thin clients and less capable terminals (e.g., smart phones and tablet personal digital assistants) by users, and improved scaling.
There is an increasing demand for secure, multiple-client storage networks where client devices share the same physical storage infrastructure but having separate logical storage resources. Further, client devices require the ability to independently monitor/control such logical storage. Meanwhile, storage network administrators may be required to monitor/control both physical and logical storage entities in the overall storage network.
As the storage network administrators and client devices monitor distinct groups of storage entities within a storage network, and because they have different practical requirements for administering based on their particular usage, previous monitoring and control tools utilize separate management software to allow for independent management and monitoring of resources by an administrator and a client device. For example, object models corresponding to an overall network within management software configured for a network administrator are generally not usable by a user of the client device because the information used by the network administrator may not provide for adequate logical separation of storage entities (e.g. due to intermingling of information regarding physical and logical resources), and therefore, client devices would not be given access to such resources. Likewise, tools provided for client device do not organize and model the storage system in a manner that is useful for network administrators which require a more global control platform than is contemplated by object modeling in such tools.

Monitoring and controlling a storage environment and devices thereof


A system capable of detecting and/or sterilizing surface(s) of an object using ultraviolet radiation is provided. The system can include a disinfection chamber and/or handheld ultraviolet unit, which includes ultraviolet sources for inducing fluorescence in a contaminant and/or sterilizing a surface of an object. The object can comprise a protective suit, which is worn by a user and also can include ultraviolet sources for disinfecting air prior to the air entering the protective suit. The system can be implemented as a multi-tiered system for protecting the user and others from exposure to the contaminant and sterilizing the protective suit after exposure to an environment including the contaminant.

Chemical-biological protective suits are worn when the surrounding environment may present a potential hazard of exposing an individual to potentially harmful or fatal chemical or biological agents. Exposure to such agents may be the result of accidental release in a scientific or medical laboratory, or in a hospital; intentional release by a government to attack the military forces of the opposition; and/or release during peacetime by criminal or terrorist organizations with the purpose of creating mayhem, fear and widespread destruction. The protective suits further can be useful for protecting personnel treating others during a viral or biological epidemic. For these reasons, the development of reliable, adequate protection against biological and chemical agents is desirable.
Historically, the materials used for chemical-biological protective suits are unbreathable. As a result, the use of these materials retards the ability of the human body to dissipate heat through perspiration, resulting in the development of heat stress burden on the wearer. For example, currently commercially available materials generally produce a heat stress burden on the person wearing the suit.
Furthermore, current commercially available chemical and biological protective suits also lack a mechanism to detoxify chemical and biological agents. These types of suits possess adsorptive chemical protective systems that act by adsorbing hazardous liquids and vapors into adsorbents thus passively inhibiting the hazardous materials from reaching the individual wearing the suit. However, these adsorbents are limited by a finite ability to adsorb chemicals. Furthermore, adsorbents indiscriminately adsorb chemical species for which protection is unnecessary, thereby reducing the available capacity for adsorption of the chemicals to which they were intended to provide protection.
The anti-microbial properties of UV-C light (Ultraviolet light-C band) are well-known to scientists and have been used since the 1930's to kill germs containing DNA and RNA (including bacteria, viruses, fungi and mold). UV-C light is invisible to the human eye. While UV-C light is invisible, given sufficient intensity and exposure, UV-C light can kill most of the germs responsible for causing disease in humans and animals. UV-C light can destroy the DNA and/or RNA (genetic material) of pathogens (disease-causing bacteria, viruses, mold, etc.). Once the DNA in a pathogen has been destroyed, the pathogen is either killed or deactivated; the pathogen can no longer function properly; and the pathogen can no longer reproduce.
In general, ultraviolet (UV) light is classified into three wavelength ranges: UV-C, from about 200 nanometers (nm) to about 280 nm; UV-B, from about 280 nm to about 315 nm; and UV-A, from about 315 nm to about 400 nm. Generally, ultraviolet light, and in particular, UV-C light is "germicidal," i.e., it deactivates the DNA of bacteria, viruses and other pathogens and thus destroys their ability to multiply and cause disease. This effectively results in sterilization of the microorganisms. Specifically, UV-C light causes damage to the nucleic acid of microorganisms by forming covalent bonds between certain adjacent bases in the DNA. The formation of these bonds prevents the DNA from being "unzipped" for replication, and the organism is neither able to produce molecules essential for life process, nor is it able to reproduce. In fact, when an organism is unable to produce these essential molecules or is unable to replicate, it dies. UV light with a wavelength of approximately between about 250 to about 280 nm provides the highest germicidal effectiveness. While susceptibility to UV light varies, exposure to UV energy for about 20 to about 34 milliwatt-seconds/cm2 is adequate to deactivate approximately 99 percent of the pathogens.
Various approaches have sought to use ultraviolet light to disinfect a compartment, such as compartments found in refrigerators. For example, one approach proposes a plurality of small, low current UV lights which utilize the standard circuitry of the refrigerator to power the UV light source. Another approach uses a UV lamp installed in a top portion of the refrigerator and reflective lining throughout the interior to reflect the UV radiation throughout the compartment. Another approach provides a UV system with a single UV source attached to an internal sidewall of a refrigerator to radiate light to the entire compartment, or in the alternative, provide UV exposure to a limited compartment. Still another approach proposes an air cleaner for an internal compartment of a refrigerator, which utilizes a UV filter to reduce pathogens in the re-circulated air. Still another approach provides a refrigerator with UV light irradiation components to eradicate low-level light from the storage containers contained therein to promote freshness of foodstuffs.
Box-type UV sterilizers are well known for use in sterilizing all manner of objects, including contact lenses, combs and safety goggles. Often only a single source of radiation is employed in these sterilizers and, as such, there are often areas on an object to be sterilized that are shadowed from the UV radiation produced from the single source. Furthermore, the object to be sterilized is often required to rest on a support during the sterilization process. When the support is not transparent to the UV radiation, the support also contributes to shadowing the object to be sterilized from the UV radiation.
Various approaches have been used in decontaminating surfaces through the use of ultraviolet light. One approach includes a mobile germicidal system for decontaminating walls and a ceiling of a room, in which germicidal lamps are positioned adjacent the wall and/or ceiling to thereby sterilize the surface. Another approach proposes an ultraviolet air sterilization device for connection to an air handling duct for the purpose of sterilizing the air as it flows through the duct. Still another approach describes a wheeled carriage with a handle to allow the operator to move the sterilization device over a floor. Other approaches seek to provide a handheld device for moving across a surface to eradicate undesirable elements thereon, a mobile disinfectant device and method using ultraviolet light to sterilize a surface; and a UV spot curing system for hardening epoxy material using a wand emitting ultraviolet light.

Ultraviolet-based detection and sterilization


A portable apparatus for storing and warming a plurality of stacked flexible wipes includes a heater coil, electrical circuitry controlling operation of the heater coil and a cover closing the housing interior and having a cover opening selectively opened or closed by a closure to allow access to wipes even when the cover is in closed position. Projections in the housing interior support the wipes in elevated condition to promote even heat distribution.

Moistened wipes or towelettes are well known, as are arrangements for heating such articles. The devices disclosed in the following U.S. patents and patent publications are believed to be representative of the current state of the art in this field: U.S. Pat. No. 4,857,708, issued Aug. 15, 1989, U.S. Pat. No. 5,036,178, issued Jul. 30, 1991, U.S. Pat. No. 5,004,894, issued Apr. 2, 1991, U.S. Pat. No. 6,526,873, issued Mar. 4, 2003, U.S. Pat. No. 6,170,389, issued Jan. 9, 2001, U.S. Pat. No. 4,943,705, issued Jul. 24, 1990, U.S. Pat. No. 5,210,396, issued May 11, 1993, U.S. Pat. No. 5,736,714, issued Apr. 7, 1998, U.S. Pat. No. 5,842,287, issued Dec. 1, 1998, U.S. Design Pat. No. D390,645, issued Feb. 10, 1998, U.S. Patent Publication No. US 2003/0155343, published Aug. 21, 2003, and U.S. Patent Publication US 2002/0030045, published Mar. 14, 2002.
As will be seen below, the apparatus of the present invention incorporates structural features and cooperative relationships which are not taught or suggested by the known prior art, whether taken alone or in combination. Such features and their cooperative relationships contribute to the efficient operation of the subject apparatus.

Apparatus for storing and warming a plurality of wipes


A method of sterilizing and drying a dialyzer or other device, wherein a vacuum drying phase is interrupted by interspersed pulses of air or other gas. The pulses lessen the evaporative cooling effect, to thereby reduce differential shrinkage that can structurally damage the dialyzer.

Patients with kidney disease suffer from the adverse effects of toxin build-up in their blood. Dialysis is a process which employs an artificial kidney to remove those toxins. In hemodialysis a dialyzer is used which contains a semi-permeable membrane dividing the dialyzer into two chambers. Blood is pumped through one chamber and a dialysis solution through the second. As the blood flows by the dialysis fluid, separated by the semipermeable membrane, blood impurities such as urea and creatinine diffuse through the semi-permeable membrane into the dialysis solution by the diffusion, convection and absorption. The electrolyte concentration of the dialysis fluid is set so as to maintain electrolytic balance within the patient.
The semi-permeable membrane is often a large number of microfibers encased in a chamber. The chamber is often a hollow cylinder open at both ends. Thousands of hollow semipermeable microfibers carry blood from one end to the opposite end so that blood flows through the microfibers in a first direction. Dialysate ports are also present on opposite ends of the chamber. One port carries dialysate into the chamber, the dialysate flows through the chamber in a countercurrent direction to the blood flow, and the other port carries the dialysate out of the chamber. The solute removal thus takes place across the semipermeable membrane that is the microfiber wall. This design produces a high surface area for solute removal in a relatively low volume device.
One significant challenge is to connect the microfiber interior channels to the blood lines, so that blood flows smoothly from the arterial blood line, into the microfiber interior channels where it can pass into and through the dialyzer chamber, and out the other end of the microfiber interior channels to the venous blood line.
This is done by potting the microfiber ends with a potting material. The potting material encases the microfiber ends to seal them from the chamber interior and to hold them in position within the chamber. The end result is a dialyzer in a generally cylindrical shape with a hollow interior chamber. Ports at each end of the chamber allow passage of dialysate therethrough. Within the chamber are the microfibers, positioned longitudinally so that their ends extend to the respective chamber ends. The blood passes through the lumens of the microfibers in the opposite direction from the direction of dialysate movement through the dialyzer chamber. The blood is thus separated from the dialyzer by the microfiber walls. At each end of the chamber, the microfiber lumens are open to the exterior of the dialyzer, which is fitted with the blood lines to carry blood between the dialyzer and the patient. The microfibers are held in place, and the dialyzer chamber is sealed from its ends, by the potting material.
This potting material is typically epoxy or urethane. It is injected into the dialysate ports on each end of the chamber, and the dialyzer is spun in a centrifuge. The centripetal force produced by the rotation in the centrifuge forces the potting material to each end, where it sets and hardens.
One of the manufacturing steps for a dialyzer, like many other medical devices that come into contact with body fluid, is sterilization. It is important that the dialyzer be free of pathogens that could migrate into the blood flowing through the microfiber lumens and thereby enter the patient's bloodstream.
A common method of sterilizing medical devices is by heated steam in an autoclave. Hot steam is introduced to kill pathogens to an acceptable level, and then the steam is removed and the device is allowed to cool. The removal of the steam is facilitated by a vacuum drying cycle; a vacuum is applied which draws off the remaining steam and any condensate.
It has been discovered that steam autoclaving as a method for sterilizing a dialyzer can affect the structural integrity of the dialyzer. Specifically, dialyzers subjected to steam autoclaving often show delamination between the potting material used to pot the microfibers in place and the dialyzer housing. The result may be a gap between the potting material or at least a structural discontinuity.
Investigation reveals that the reason for this delamination effect upon steam autoclaving may be two-fold. First, the potting material and the dialyzer housing typically have different coefficients of thermal expansion because they are made of different types of materials. The potting material is commonly a polyurethane, while the dialyzer housing is commonly a polycarbonate. The decrease in temperature at the end of autoclaving produces differential shrinkage between the two materials. This differential shrinkage produces strain at the interface between the materials which, at least in some cases, causes delamination or structural discontinuities.
Second, investigation suggests that the rate of cooling is different in the potting as compared to the dialyzer housing. This appears to be a result of evaporative cooling in the potting material. Autoclave steam condenses or collects to some extent on the surfaces of the dialyzer. Condensate not only collects but also is absorbed into the absorptive microfibers. Upon application of the drying vacuum, the condensate evaporates at different rates from the absorptive material of the microfibers compared to the nonabsorptive materials. The condensate evaporates fastest from the nonabsorptive material, since all the condensate is at the surface and can freely vaporize into the partial vacuum. In comparison, the condensate evaporates into the partial vacuum slower from the absorptive material of the microfibers, because some of the condensate must migrate from the interior of the material to the exterior surface where the molecules can evaporate.
Because the condensate evaporates slowest from the absorptive microfibers, and perhaps because the absorptive microfibers hold a relatively large amount of condensate, they stay moist the longest. At a point in the vacuum drying process, the nonabsorptive surfaces will be essentially dry while the absorptive microfibers are still moist. Continued application of the vacuum drying process beyond this point is necessary to dry the microfibers. At this stage, there is little or no evaporative cooling effect on the dry nonabsorptive surfaces, but there continues to be an evaporative cooling effect on the absorptive microfibers.
This differential evaporation produces differential cooling between the absorptive microfibers and the nonabsorptive materials. Early in the vacuum drying, when there is still condensate on the nonabsorptive materials, they experience relatively large rates of evaporation and consequently relatively rapid cooling. However, this cooling, while rapid, is very short-lived because the nonabsorptive materials have very little condensate on them to begin with. Later in the vacuum drying process, after the nonabsorptive material is essentially dry, the nonabsorptive material experiences relatively no evaporation and consequently relatively slow cooling.
In a typical scenario, the temperature gradients are as follows. The temperature of the entire dialyzer is high and uniform at the conclusion of the steam autoclaving. Upon application of the vacuum dryer process, the temperature of the nonabsorptive materials initially falls quickly to a temperature less than that of the absorptive microfiber due to rapid evaporation from those materials. Once the condensate is fully evaporated from the nonabsorptive materials, however, the temperature of the nonabsorptive materials stabilizes. Continued evaporation from the absorptive materials continues to cool them, so that their temperature becomes as low as the temperature of the nonabsorptive materials, and then even lower.
These temperature gradients due to differential evaporative cooling are mitigated slightly but not fully by other cooling mechanisms. For example, both the nonabsorptive materials and the absorptive materials cool by radiation. They also cool by conduction; that is, the surfaces lose heat to colliding molecules that pass by. This conductive cooling is of little effect, however, since it operates in a high vacuum; there simply are too few passing molecules.
The temperature difference in the absorptive microfibers, as described above, is reflected as well in the potting material into which they are potted. In other words, due to heat conduction through the potting material and the microfibers, the potting material tends to be warmer than the other nonabsorptive materials early in the vacuum drying. Later in the vacuum drying, the potting material tends to be cooler than the other nonabsorptive materials. This appears to be a significant reason for the differential cooling—and resulting differential shrinkage—between the dialyzer housing and the potting material during vacuum drying.

Vacuum drying process used for manufacturing dialyzer


The invention is a method of leveling the power output of an electromechanical battery during its discharge, while at the same time maximizing its power output into a given load. The method employs the concept of series resonance, employing a capacitor the parameters of which are chosen optimally to achieve the desired near-flatness of power output over any chosen charged-discharged speed ratio. Capacitors are inserted in series with each phase of the windings to introduce capacitative reactances that act to compensate the inductive reactance of these windings. This compensating effect both increases the power that can be drawn from the generator before inductive voltage drops in the windings become dominant and acts to flatten the power output over a chosen speed range. The values of the capacitors are chosen so as to optimally flatten the output of the generator over the chosen speed range.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to improvements in the electromechanical battery, and more specifically, it relates to a method for leveling the power output of an electromechanical battery during its discharge.
2. Description of Related Art
Efficient and cost-effective means for storing electrical energy is becoming an increasing need in our electricity-oriented society. For electric utilities an emerging need is for distributed storage systems, that is, energy storage at substations, at solar or wind-power sites, or for load-leveling at the site of major consumers of their electricity. One of the important consequences of distributed storage for the utilities would be the reduction in transmission losses that would result from having a local source of load-leveling power. For the transportation sector the need for energy storage, now acute, is for better batteries to power electric vehicles. These diverse uses are becoming increasingly important as we move toward the use of alternate energy sources.
One answer to the entire spectrum of energy storage needs just outlined is the "electromechanical battery". The E-M battery has the potential to solve both of the above energy storage problems in a manner superior to the electrochemical battery in all important attributes: energy storage density (kWh/kg), power density (kW/kg), energy recovery efficiency, cycle lifetime, and amortized capital cost.
An electromechanical battery is an energy storage module consisting of a high-speed rotor, fabricated from fiber composite, and having an integrally mounted generator/motor. The rotor operates at high speed, in vacuum, inside of a hermetically sealed enclosure, supported by a "magnetic bearing", that is, a bearing that uses magnetic forces to support the rotor against gravity. Magnetic bearings are a virtual necessity for the E-M battery in order to achieve long service life, and to minimize frictional losses so that the battery does not lose its charge (run down) too rapidly. These considerations mitigate against the use of conventional mechanical bearings in the E-M battery for most applications.
The E-M battery has much to contribute in the area of improving the efficiency of both stationary and vehicular systems. For example, many electrical utilities utilize "pumped hydro" energy storage systems as a means of improving the utilization of their "base-load" power plants. That is, electrical energy is stored during off-peak hours for delivery at times of peak usage. These pumped hydro systems employ upper and lower reservoirs, between which water is shuttled to store and recover the energy. Of necessity, pumped hydro storage facilities are located in mountainous areas, usually far, both from the urban centers where power uses are concentrated, and from the sites of the power plants themselves, increasing the transmission line losses that subtract from the useful energy. More importantly, pumped hydro systems themselves only return from 65 to 70 percent of the electrical energy input required to pump the water from the lower reservoir to the upper one. Thus, including the extra transmission losses, of order 40 percent of the input electrical energy is wasted in every cycle of use of the facility. For a (typical) pumped hydro system capable of accepting 5000 Megawatt-hours of input energy, this would represent a direct loss of 2000 Megawatt-hours of electrical energy per diurnal cycle of use.
Contrast the above situation with that offered by the E-M battery. First, banks of such batteries could be used at locations throughout the electrical grid, thereby reducing transmission losses. Second, instead of a 65 to 70 percent "turnaround efficiency", E-M batteries can demonstrate efficiencies in excess of 90 percent. The long-term payback of such an increase of efficiency is obvious: Over a 20-year period (the expected life of a well-designed E-M battery), the energy cost savings from replacing an overall 60 percent efficient 5000 Megawatt-hour storage system with a distributed energy storage system with 90 percent turnaround efficiency is substantial: For a system cycled 300 times in a year, with electrical energy costing, say, $0.05/kwh, the 20-year savings would amount to $450 million. This amount of money is comparable to the original cost of the storage system itself.
The efficiency gains of using the E-M battery instead of conventional electrochemical batteries in an all-electric vehicle are equally dramatic: Ordinary batteries return only 60 to 70 percent of their charging energy input as electrical output. Despite this, by employing so-called "regenerative braking" (putting the kinetic energy recovered from braking back into the batteries), in urban driving cycles, owing to the higher efficiency of its drive train, an electric auto using conventional batteries should require only about 40 percent as much primary energy input as an equivalent-sized gasoline-powered automobile. That is to say, it can be calculated that it would require the energy equivalent of 2.5 barrels of oil delivered to the refinery to equal the urban driving range that one barrel of oil (or its energy equivalent) would give if delivered to the electrical utility to generate the electrical energy to charge up the electric vehicle.
If the same calculation is made, using the E-M battery and its higher turnaround efficiency in the evaluation, a factor of 4.5 to 5.0 is realized, instead of 2.5, that is, a further improvement of nearly a factor of two is predicted. This result would not only mean a near doubling of the urban driving range of the electric auto for the same battery storage capacity, but, more importantly for the nation, it would mean a major reduction in the need for energy for automobile transportation, and with it, a major reduction in the air pollution caused by that sector.
From these examples, it seems clear to that the successful development of the E-M battery could have a major impact on diverse energy-intensive activities of our modern civilization.

Method for leveling the power output of an electromechanical battery as a function of speed

The Regents of the University of California


The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for receiving available channel information in a wireless LAN system. According to one aspect of the present invention, in a method in which a first station (STA) receives available channel information in a wireless LAN system, wherein the first station operates as an unlicensed device that is allowed to operate in an available channel not used by a licensed device in a white space band, the first station receives, from a second station, a frame including an operating class field, a channel number field and a maximum transmission power field, and operates in the channel indicated by the operating class field and the channel number field, wherein said operating class field and said channel number field indicate the available channel which can be used by the unlicensed device, and said maximum transmission power field indicates the maximum transmission power permitted in the available channel.

A standard of a wireless local area network (WLAN) technology is being developed as a standard of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11. IEEE 802.11a and IEEE 802.11b use an unlicensed band at 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz and IEEE 802.11b provides a transfer rate of 11 Mbps and IEEE 802.11a provides a transfer rate of 54 Mbps. IEEE 802.11g applies Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) at 2.4 GHz to provide a transfer rate of 54 Mbps. IEEE 802.11n applies multiple input multiple output-OFDM (MIMO-OFDM) to provide a transfer rate of 300 Mbps for 4 spatial streams. IEEE 802.11n supports a channel bandwidth of up to 40 MHz. In this case, IEEE 802.11n provides a transfer rate of 600 Mbps.
An IEEE 802.11af standard for defining operation of an unlicensed device in a TV whitespace (TVWS) band is currently being developed.
The TVWS band, which is a frequency band allocated to a broadcast TV, includes an Ultra High Frequency (UHF) band and a Very High Frequency (VHF) band. Specifically, the TVWS band is a frequency band which is allowed to be used by an unlicensed device under a condition that this does not hinder communication of a licensed device that operates in the frequency band. The licensed device may include a TV or a wireless microphone. The licensed device may be referred to as an incumbent user or a primary user. To overcome the problem of coexistence of unlicensed devices, a signaling protocol such as a common beacon frame, a frequency mechanism, or the like may be required for the unlicensed devices.
Operations of all unlicensed devices are permitted in a band of 512-608 MHz and a band of 614-698 MHz. However, only communication between fixed devices is permitted in bands of 54-60 MHz, 76-88 MHz, 174-216 MHz, and 470-512 MHz. The term "fixed device" refers to a device that performs signal transmission only at a fixed location. An IEEE 802.11 TVWS terminal is an unlicensed device that operates, in the TVWS spectrum, using an IEEE 802.11 media access control (MAC) layer and a physical (PHY) layer.
An unlicensed device that desires to use the TVWS band should provide a function to protect licensed devices. Accordingly, the unlicensed device should check whether or not a licensed device occupies the band before the unlicensed device starts signal transmission.
To accomplish this, the unlicensed device may check whether or not the band is being used by a licensed device by performing spectrum sensing. Examples of the spectrum sensing mechanism include an energy detection scheme and a feature detection scheme. The unlicensed device may determine that a licensed device is using a specific band when the intensity of a received signal is greater than a specific level or when a DTV preamble is detected. Upon determining that a licensed device is operating in a channel that is immediately adjacent to a channel currently used by the unlicensed device, the unlicensed device should reduce transmission power.
In the spectrum sensing mechanism, power consumption of a station (STA) is relatively high since the sensing duration is a relatively long period greater than 10 ms. Particularly, the sensing duration is proportional to the possibility of detection of a licensed device signal and therefore the possibility of detection of a licensed device signal increases as the sensing duration increases. Accordingly, there is a need to provide an efficient scanning mechanism that can reduce power consumption of the STA.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method and apparatus for receiving available channel information in a wireless LAN system