A system and method for providing secure and efficient configuration of port devices. The system identifies a user of the system and associates the identified user with a particular account group. Each account group is associated with one of a plurality of service templates maintained within each port device or group of port devices. Messages via a control or administration path are used to select the service template associated with the user. The selected service template is then used to configure the port device according the configuration parameters defined for the template according to the user""s account group. A separate data path is provided for communicating port data and providing port services once the port has been configured according to the service template. By separating the control path for administrative configuration from the data path for port services, the security of the configuration of the port devices is thereby significantly increased.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains generally to network access servers. More particularly, the invention is a system and method for providing secure and efficient configuration of port devices.
2. The Prior Art
Server modems for providing telecommunication services are known in the art. For example, systems having server modems connected to a network access server are used to provide customers with access to a particular network (or group of networks) connected to the network access server. A customer typically connects to the system via a conventional telephone connection. The server modems provide modem services allowing the user to communicate with the network access server via the telephone connection. The network access server provides services which allow the user to access the network via the modem services provided by the corresponding server modem.
Current methods for configuring server modems involve issuing xe2x80x9cATxe2x80x9d command strings (also known as the Hayes Standard AT Command Set) from the network access server to the corresponding server modem. AT modem command strings provide various instructions to the server modem including configuration commands such as the baud rate for communication and whether error-correction is enabled, for example. In operation, modem command strings are stored on the network access server and are completely sent to the modem at the beginning and/or the end of each customer session. The modem command strings are received and interpreted by the server modem which then configures modem services according to the configuration parameters defined in the AT modem command string.
According to the server modem configuration method described above, initialization delays result from the transmission and interpretation of the AT command strings. During these initialization delays while the server modem is configured, the modem is temporarily unavailable for the next call to provide the modem services for the customer.
To avoid these initialization delays, some administrators program or otherwise configure the network access servers to use a single modem configuration (i.e., a single AT command string) once during system initialization, rather than issuing a new modem configuration command for each customer session. Alternatively, some administrators do not issue modem configuration commands at all, but rather simply use the factory default settings of the modem. Under either arrangement, the initialization delays associated with an AT command string configuration for each customer session can be avoided.
However, there are several disadvantages associated with not providing a modem command string for each customer session. First, by providing a single configuration setting or by using the modem default configuration setting, the network access server is unable to provide specific settings associated with the particular customer accessing the system. Instead, a single or static configuration setting is used, and thus the session is not tailored to the customer""s specific capabilities or needs. Second, administrators that do not use modem configuration commands for each customer session are vulnerable to security attacks and/or are exposed to unintentional configuration corruption. This vulnerability arises because standard AT commands can be used to corrupt the server modem configuration by a user xe2x80x9creverse telnettingxe2x80x9d to a particular port on the network access server as is known in the art. In this way, all users dialing into or out of the xe2x80x9ccorruptedxe2x80x9d modem could then experience problems.
Network access server may also be coupled to universal port devices to provide additional port services to customers. As is known in the art, universal port devices may provide one or more port services including, for example, V.110, modem and FAX services, among others. Similar to traditional systems having a network access server connected to server modems as described above, the configuration settings for configuring universal port devices are stored in the network access server and are communicated to the universal port for configuration therein at the appropriate time, normally during the start and/or end of a customer session. Initialization delays associated with configuring universal ports result in the unavailability of the universal port for the next user as in the case of server modems described above. Additionally, the vulnerability to attack and/or unintentional configuration corruption also exists with universal ports where the configuration commands are stored and transmitted from the network access server as is known in the art. This vulnerability generally arises because the user is able to provide xe2x80x9cadministrationxe2x80x9d level configuration where configuration commands are issued from the network access server.
Accordingly, there is a need for a system and method which provides for secure and efficient modem and universal port configuration. The present invention satisfies these needs, as well as others, and generally overcomes the deficiencies found in the background art.
An object of the invention is to provide a system and method for configuring universal port devices which overcome the deficiencies of the prior art.
Another object of the invention is to provide a system and method for secure and efficient configuration of modems and universal port devices.
Further objects and advantages of the invention will be brought out in the following portions of the specification, wherein the detailed description is for the purpose of fully disclosing the preferred embodiment of the invention without placing limitations thereon.
The present invention is a system and method for providing secure and efficient configuration of port devices including server modems and universal port devices, for example. The invention further relates to machine readable media on which are stored embodiments of the present invention. It is contemplated that any media suitable for retrieving instructions is within the scope of the present invention. By way of example, such media may take the form of magnetic, optical, or semiconductor media. The invention also relates to data structures that contain embodiments of the present invention, and to the transmission of data structures containing embodiments of the present invention.
The system identifies a user of the system and associates the identified user with a particular account group. Each account group is associated with one of a plurality of service templates maintained within each port device or group of port devices. Messages via a control or administration path are used to select the service template associated with the user. The selected service template is then used to configure the port device according the configuration parameters defined for the template according to the user""s account group. A separate data path is provided for communicating port data and providing port services once the port has been configured according to the service template. By separating the control path for administrative configuration from the data path for port services, the security of the configuration of the port devices is thereby increased. Furthermore, since the configuration data for the port device is maintained locally within the service templates in the port devices, the normal initialization delays associated with port device configuration are thereby reduced. Certain xe2x80x9cnon-restrictedxe2x80x9d configuration commands such as xe2x80x9cATxe2x80x9d commands can be send via the data path. The control path can be used for all configuration commands, restricted or non-restricted. Restricted configuration commands, for example, may be limited to commands related to the service templates.
According to a first embodiment, the system of the present invention comprises a network access server (NAS) having an operating system executing therein; a universal port controller (UPC) operatively coupled to the NAS via a first data path carrying data information and a second control path carrying xe2x80x9crestrictedxe2x80x9d administrative control information; a service processing element (SPE) executing within the UPC to provide at least one port service via the data path; and a plurality of service templates, each having universal port configuration information. The service templates reside within said universal port controller and are selectable by the operating system via the control path.
According to another embodiment, the method of the present invention comprises providing a data path between a network access server and a universal port controller; providing a control path between the network access server and the universal port controller; communicating restricted configuration commands via the control path; and communicating user data via the data path.
According to yet another embodiment, the method of the present invention further comprises defining a plurality of service templates, each having port configuration parameters, said service templates residing within said universal port controller; identifying a user accessing said network access server; associating said user with one of said service templates; and configuring port services for said user in said universal port controller according to said service template associated with said user.

System and method for secure and efficient universal port configuration


An lens screening device for controlling diameters of lenses within a range from a lower threshold to a upper threshold. The lens screening device includes a number of connecting poles and two screening plates. Each of the screening plates includes a tray and a scraper slidably disposed on the tray and configure for scraping the tray. The tray defines a number of through holes of same diameter therein. The diameter of the through holes in an upper screening plate is larger than that of the through holes in a lower screening plate.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to lens screening devices, particularly, to a lens screening device for screening lenses with a diameter in a predetermined range.
2. Description of Related Art
For the purpose of quality control, after manufactured, lenses need to be visually inspected with assist of a vernier caliper to determine whether the lenses meet size requirements. Such an inspection may not be carried out according to consistent criteria, especially given the human element involved (e.g., variances in skill level of individual inspectors), and is an inefficient use of man-power and resources. In addition, the lenses may be stained during the inspection.
What is needed, therefore, is a lens screening device to overcome the above-mentioned problems.


The present disclosure concerns a method for preparing an extracorporeal blood circuit for its use in a blood treatment of a patient, which treatment is carried out using a blood treatment apparatus and using a blood treatment device, which comprises a blood chamber and a dialysate chamber partitioned off therefrom by a membrane, The method comprising: filling the extracorporeal blood circuit using a priming solution, wherein the priming solution comprises citrate, or filling of the extracorporeal blood circuit using a priming solution and using a citrate solution. The invention further comprises devices suitable for carrying out the method.

In practical extracorporeal blood treatment using an extracorporeal blood circuit, it is required and usual to prime the extracorporeal blood circuit before starting the blood treatment. This is understood to be a filling of the extracorporeal blood circuit, which after its establishment is filled with air, using a liquid fluid, which aims to prevent the introduction of air into the vascular system of the patient later on.

Method and apparatuses for preparing an extracorporeal blood circuit for the treatment of blood


The present invention comprises methods and compositions for reducing or eliminating multidrug resistance in cancers or certain infections by drug resistant microorganisms in patients. According to the method and composition of the present invention, a non-ionic amphipathic diester of fatty acids or a reverse poloxmer is administered to a patient in which a cancer or microorganism exhibits multidrug resistance to the chemotherapeutic agent. The method and composition of the present invention may be employed with particular efficacy where multidrug resistance to any chemotherapeutic agent has been conferred upon a cancer.

One of the major problems of cancer chemotherapy is the existence of drug resistance in tumors resulting in reduced responsiveness to chemotherapy. Some human cancers, e.g. kidney and colon carcinoma, are drug resistant before treatment begins, while in others drug resistance develops over successive rounds of chemotherapy. One type of drug resistance, called multidrug resistance, is characterized by cross resistance to functionally and structurally unrelated drugs. Typical drugs that are affected by the multidrug resistance are doxorubicin, vincristine, vinblastine, colchicine and actinomycin D, and others. At least some multidrug resistance is a complex phenotype which has been linked to a high expression of a cell membrane drug efflux transporter called Mdr1 protein, also known as P-glycoprotein. This membrane "pump" has broad specificity and acts to remove from the cell a wide variety of chemically unrelated toxins. (See Endicott, J. A., et al. "The Biochemistry of P-Glycoprotein-Mediated Multidrug Resistance", Ann. Rev. Biochem. Vol. 58, pgs. 127-71, 1989.)
Recently, a similar mechanism of a broad spectrum drug resistance has been reported for certain microorganisms. These results indicate the existence of bacterial efflux systems of extremely broad substrate specificity that is similar to the multidrug resistance pump of mammalian cells. (See Nikaido, N., "Prevention of Drug Access to Bacterial Targets: Permeability Barriers and Active Efflux", Science, Vol. 264, pgs. 382-388, 1994; and Gottesman, M. M., et al. Annual Rev. Biochem., Vol 62, 385 1993)
Substances which reverse multidrug resistance are known as resistance modification agents (RMAs), and are of importance in potentiating the cytotoxicity of chemotherapeutic agents to which a human cancer has become resistant. Although many agents have been identified as RMAs in vitro, a large proportion have little or no therapeutic potential because of high toxicity in vivo at the doses required to reverse multidrug resistance. For example, metabolic poisons, such as azide, reverse multidrug resistance in vitro but have no usefulness in vivo. Most other highly effective RMAs, such as PSC833, appear to work as competitive antagonists of a drug binding site on the Mdr1 protein. Many of these agents also have toxicity which limits their usefulness in vivo. Consequently, there is a need to develop alternate pharmacological strategies for reversing multidrug resistance to provide RMAs with improved activity and lower overall toxicity.
Decreased intracellular drug accumulation through overexpression of the drug efflux Mdr1 protein is important to, but apparently not the only factor, in the multidrug resistance phenotype. Altered intracellular drug distribution and binding, among other possibilities, also seem to play a role. For example, the mechanism of reversing doxorubicin resistance using verapamil appears to be more related to altered intracellular distribution of doxorubicin than increased accumulation in the cell, as detailed in Schuurhmuis, G. J., et al., "Quantitative determination of factors contributing to doxorubicin resistance in multidrug resistant cells," J. Natl. Cancer Inst., 81:1887-1892, 1989. In that report, it is shown that doxorubicin is concentrated almost exclusively in the nucleus in drug sensitive cells, and mainly in the cytoplasm in drug resistant cells. With the addition of verapamil, doxorubicin is localized mainly in the nucleus in drug resistant cells. Thus, high affinity binding of drugs to Mdr1 does not appear to be sufficient for optimal efflux, suggesting the existence of additional, rate limiting steps which may be susceptible to pharmacological intervention.
Certain non-ionic amphipathic surfactants, such as Tween 80 and CREMOPHOR.RTM. EL, have evidenced RMA activity. (See Riehm H., et al. "Potentiation of drug effect by Tween 80 in Chinese hamster cells resistant to actinomycin D and Danomycin" Cancer Res. Vol. 32, pgs. 1195-1200, 1972 and Woodcock, D. B., et al., "Reversal of the multidrug resistance phenotype with CREMOPHOR.RTM. EL, a common vehicle for water-insoluble vitamins and drugs" Cancer Res. Vol. 50, pgs. 4199-4203, 1990.) However, Tween 80 potentiates drug toxicity in both parental and multidrug resistant cells, calling into question the specificity of the Tween 80 effect on multidrug resistance. An effect on drug efflux has not been demonstrated. CREMOPHOR.RTM. EL is a complicated mixture of polyoxyethylated esters of triglycerides of mainly ricinoleic acid (castor oil), the composition and RMA active component of which have not been identified. Use of CREMOPHOR.RTM. EL in vivo is complicated by adverse histamine release in some patients. There have also been reports of neurotoxicity associated with the administration of CREMOPHOR.RTM. EL.
Cancer chemotherapy with cytotoxic agents can be successful only if the tumor cells are more sensitive than normal cells whose destruction is incompatible with survival of the host. Success, defined either as cure or clinically significant remission, is not readily explained by the still popular idea that tumor cells are more susceptible to cytotoxic agents because they are dividing more rapidly than vital normal cells, e.g. hematopoietic precursor cells. That rapid proliferation does not wholly account for the selective drug sensitivity of tumors is demonstrated by the common observations that some drug-sensitive cancers are not rapidly dividing, and that many rapidly proliferating tumors exhibit resistance. To say that the mechanisms accounting for the success or failure of chemotherapy for most human tumors is incompletely understood today is undoubtedly an understatement.
However, recent evidence suggests that the selectivity of chemotherapy for the relatively few tumors ever cured by drugs depends, to a large extent, upon their easy susceptibility to undergo apoptosis, i.e. to kill themselves. Many cytotoxic drugs that kill cells by crippling cellular metabolism at high concentration can trigger apoptosis in susceptible cells at much lower concentration. This appears to account for the unusual chemosensitivity of many lymphoid tumors, since many normal lymphocytes are "primed" to undergo self destruction as an essential part of the mechanism for generating and controlling diversity of the immune response. Increased susceptibility to apoptosis may also be acquired by tumor cells as a byproduct of the genetic changes responsible for malignant transformation. For example, tumor cells with constitutive c-myc expression may undergo apoptosis in response to DNA damage by anticancer agents, whereas normal cells are able to pause at checkpoints in the cell cycle to repair the damage, or may not be cycling at all, rendering them highly resistant to apoptosis in this setting.
Although some tumors are composed of cells which are highly sensitive to apoptotic stimuli, and others have a genetic changes which, in isolation, predispose to apoptosis, most tumors tend to acquire other genetic lesions which abrogate this increased sensitivity. Either at presentation or after therapeutic attempts, the tumor cells actually become less sensitive to apoptosis than vital normal dividing cells. Such tumors are generally not curable by available chemotherapeutic approaches. Decreased apoptotic response has been associated with increased malignant potential and has been shown to confer pleiotropic drug resistance by oncogene transfer techniques. Therefore, although previously recognized mechanisms of drug resistance, such as decreased drug uptake, altered intracellular drug localization, accelerated detoxification and alteration of drug target continue to be regarded as important factors, pleiotropic resistance due to defective apoptotic response has recently emerged as a distinct and significant category of drug resistance in cancer. Resistance due to failure to trigger apoptosis is sometimes called "downstream" drug resistance to distinguish it from the "classical" mechanisms mentioned above.
Thus, what is needed is a clearly identified class of compositions that reverse multidrug resistance in vivo. The composition should have a low occurrence of adverse side-effects. In addition, what is further needed is a composition and method for stimulating apoptosis in cancer cells.

Methods and compositions for reducing multidrug resistance

Rush Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center


A folding anchor, having a shank formed in two pieces and pivotally joined together with a spring biased locking device. The fluke assemblies are pivotally connected via a coupling assembly at the lower end of the shank, the coupling assembly including first and second generally C-shaped retaining members for pivotal attachment of one fluke assembly to each, the first retaining member being secured to the lower shank, with the second retaining member pivotally connected to the first for pivoting about an axis generally perpendicular to the axis of pivoting of the flukes. the two retaining members are so formed, and joined, to permit pivoting of the fluke assemblies between folded and unfolded positions, whereby the two flukes may be rotated toward each other into proximate facing relation, or away from each other into alignment. Each fluke is generally triangular and pivotally attached to one of the retaining members to enable a limited amount of angular movement on a second axis orthogonal to the longitudinal axis of the shank relative to the flukes to facilitate engagement and disengagement relative to the sea bed. A trip member on the lower end of each fluke below the pivot axis thereof enables the tip of the fluke to more easily penetrate the sea bottom.

The background of the invention will be discussed in two parts.
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to anchors, and more particularly to a folding anchor for small watercraft.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Anchors generally include a shank with a fluke arrangement at one end of the shank, the other end of the shank being connected to an anchor chain. Generally, the flukes are attached to the shank to permit a limited amount of angular movement. When the anchor is lowered into the sea, the flukes engage the sea bottom, with the shank extending at an angle to the sea bottom in a forward direction, that is, in the direction of the boat. For release of the anchor from engagement with the sea bottom, the boat direction is reversed to provide a direction of force thereon opposite to the direction of engagement of the flukes. To facilitate release, some anchors have been formed with two-piece shanks coupled for limited pivotal movement at a point intermediate the ends of the overall shank.
One such anchor is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 103,205, entitled "Anchor", such patent issuing on May 17, 1870 to Law. The anchor of this patent includes a two piece shank, with the upper shank piece being pivotable through a limited angle relative to the lower shank, to which is attached a fluke assembly, which is likewise pivotable through a limited angle.
Another anchor construction is shown and described in U.S Pat. No. 2,720,184, entitled "Articulated and Self-Locking Shank for Anchor", issued to Polenz on Oct. 11, 1955, such patent disclosing an anchor with a two-piece shank, the interconnection of the two pieces being by means of a keyhole slot engaged by a block member. In one position, the block is locked within the narrow neck of the slot with the two shank pieces in axial alignment. When force is exerted by the anchor chain in an opposite direction, the upper shank moves rearwardly relative to the lower shank until the block is in the enlarged portion of the keyhole, thereby permitting pivoting to facilitate release of the anchor from the sea bottom.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,905,128, entitled "Anchor", issued Sept. 22, 1959 to Northrop, and discloses an anchor having a removable guide, or stock member, which may be secured to the shank for storage or attached in perpendicular relation to a fluke retaining cross member.
Another example of an articulated anchor structure is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,263,642, entitled "Boat Anchor", which issued to Wilson on Aug. 2, 1966, the anchor including a unitary fluke formed of plate metal with first and second symmetrically arranged slots with a common origin. The shank is formed as a yoke with a bar engaging the slot at the origin, with the bolt able to traverse either slot to facilitate removal of the flukes from engagement with the sea bed.
Some anchors have been constructed to permit folding of the flutes and stock arms against the shank, such as shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,215,111 and 3,807,340, the former being issued to McDaniel on Nov. 2, 1965, and the latter being issued to Diorio et al on Apr. 30, 1974. In both patents, the anchors are of the conventional Navy type and have the stock arms pivotally attached to the shank adjacent a first end thereof, with the flukes pivotally attached to the shank adjacent the other end thereof, with the plane of pivoting of the stock arms perpendicular to the plane of pivoting of the flukes. The Diorio anchor includes a spring member encircling the rod-shaped shank to spring load the stock arms to the open position.
An anchor including flukes which may be physically detached from the shank for storage is shown and described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,822,666, entitled "Anchor", which issued to Blomberg on July 9, 1974.
The last three patents enumerated above concern themselves with anchors of the folding type, with the Blomberg and McDaniel anchors being more suited for small pleasure craft usage. The flukes formed of plate metal, as shown in Blomberg, are of widespread use in small craft anchors of recent vintage. Although the Blomberg anchor permits detachment of the flukes for storage and transportation by removal and reattachment of bolts, the anchor should be reassembled prior to casting off, thereby eliminating any storage space advantage while at sea. On the other hand, while the McDaniel anchor permits folding to a relatively small overall configuration, the length of the folded anchor is the same as the length of the shank. Furthermore, such Navy anchors do not have widespread acceptance among small pleasure craft users.
Another anchor is shown and described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,716,012, entitled "Anchors for Marine Use", issued to Wright on Feb. 13, 1973, which discloses an anchor having a plowshaped head pivoted to the shank.
An anchor which includes spring loaded flukes is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,793,977, entitled "Vessel Anchor", which issued Ziegler on Feb. 26, 1974. The flukes are maintained against the shank against force of the spring bias by a ring member which is released on dropping the anchor by a telescoping tubular shank arrangement, expansion of which withdraws the ring member out of engagement with the flukes to permit pivoting under force of the springs.
An "Adjustable Anchor" shown and described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,964,420, issued to Stelling on June 22, 1976, the anchor including means for exchanging parts to form anchors of different configurations.
Another "Anchor" is shown and described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,369,727, issued to Fasco on Jan. 25, 1983, the anchor includes a fluke release mechanism actuated by an articulated shank mechanism which releases the fluke assembly to permit pivoting when the angle of the anchor chain is above a critical angle.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,385,584, entitled "Boat Anchor", issued to Simpson, III, on May 31, 1983, and discloses an anchor having removable fluke assemblies which enable compact storage of the anchor.
Another "Collapsible Boat Anchor" is shown and described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,596,202, which issued to Brewster on June 24, 1986, the anchor including a fixed grapple and a movable grapple.
In accordance with an aspect of the invention, it is accordingly an object of the invention to provide a new and improved foldable small craft anchor.


Batch injection analysis comprises apparatus and method for injecting and transporting analytes toward a detector immersed in a confined, inert electrolyte. Passage of the analyte over the detector surface provides measurement of sample concentrations. Detectors normally comprise selective electrodes, such as biologically or chemically modified surfaces, ion-selective probes, optical or thermal devices, thus eliminating conduits, valves, and pumps.

1. Field of the Invention (Technical Field)
This invention relates to apparatuses for measurement of analytes injected into a static electrochemical cell and a method for its use.
2. Background Art
Several different techniques for measurement of analyte concentration have evolved in the prior art. Notable among these techniques is flow injection analysis (FIA). In this measurement process, a sample to be analyzed is injected into a laminarly flowing carrier stream of solvent and reagents. Reproducible sample volumes are injected, so the reaction need not proceed to the steady state. The reaction is developed only to the point which permits recordation as the sample passes an appropriate detector. The output transient signals thus produced reflect the concentration of the injected analyte. Flow injection analysis is described in articles entitled "Flow Injection Analysis: New Tool for Old Assays--New Approach to Analytical Measurements," by Kent K. Stewart (Analytical Chemistry, Vol. 55, No. 9, Aug. 1983) and "Flow Injection Analysis: From Test Tube to Integrated Microconduits," (Analytical Chemistry, Vol. 55, No. 11, Sep. 1983); and in the Lachat brochure entitled "The FIA Concept.," the Tecator brochure on the FIAstar Flow Injection Analysis Bibliography., and the Control Equipment Corporation brochures entitled "The Applications: What it Does."
Obvious disadvantages are present with flow injection analysis. Pumps, valves, and tubing are required. Further, chemical reaction is often required to convert the analyte to a detectable species.
Other quantitative analysis apparatuses are taught by the prior art. U.S. Pat. No. 4,865,992, entitled System and Method for Quantitative Analysis of a Solution, to Hach, et al., teaches such apparatus comprising continuous addition of reagent to a beaker containing a chemical species to be measured until an endpoint is reached. This procedure requires a chemical reaction, large samples, and involves a slow measurement of reaction product.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,695,555, entitled Liquid Chromatographic Detector and Method, to O'Keeffe, involves "spray electrification" wherein droplets of an analyte acquire electric charges dependent upon the concentration of solute carried by the droplet. Measurement of concentration of solute is enabled by measurement of the amount of deviation of the droplets from a neutral path. U.S. Pat. No. 4,003,705, entitled Analysis Apparatus and Method of Measuring Rate of Change of Electrolyte pH, to Buzza. et al., teaches specific measurements of CO.sub.2 and chloride in blood, based on reaction with an electrolyte and subsequent pH measurement.
International Application No. PCT/DK89/00070. entitled A Method of Effecting NIR-Analyses of Successive Material Samples, and a System for Carrying Out the Method, to Johnsen, discloses a near-infrared reflection spectroscopy apparatus wherein the effect of remnant deposits is avoided by an advancing film between test chamber and optical unit.
Thus, it is seen that the prior art lacks a fast, repetitive, highly reproducible, versatile, and reliable analytical measurement system devoid of conduits, valves, and pumps.

Method and apparatus for batch injection analysis

New Mexico State University Technology Transfer Corporation


An indicator light (10) is provided. The indicator light (10) includes a body section (11), a cover section (12) detachably mounted on the body section (11), a printed circuit board (14) received in the body section (11) and a lamp (13) electrically connected to the printed circuit board (14). The lamp (13) faces the cover section (12) guiding lights from the lamp (13) to the body section (11).

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to indicator lights and, particularly, to indicator lights powered by light emitting diodes (LEDS).
2. Description of Related Art
Electronic devices are often equipped with indicator lights for conveying different information to the user.
The indicator lights are usually powered by light emitting diodes. The indicator lights are electrically connected to the printed circuit body portions, and are exposed to user view through a hole defined in a cover of the electronic devices.
However, indicator lights may easily be damaged by this exposure from the electronic devices. Further, indicator lights often cannot change their colors according to need.
Therefore, there is room for improvement within the art.

Shenzhen Futaihong Precision Industry Co., Ltd.


An improved air drier adapted for drying humid air is equipped with a cylinder shaped shell having a conical water collecting bottom and a duct disposed therein which is provided with an air outlet tube through the center thereof; and the outer wall of the duct helically wound with the elongated condensing tube in which the coolant of a condenser circulates is helically disposed a continuous partition board in correspondence to the wound condensing tube; the periphery of the continuous partition board is not in contact with the inner wall of the cylinder shaped shell with a drain space defined therebetween so as to permit the water condensed from the moisture in the humid air can drip down therefrom to the water collection bottom. The dried air is then led through the outlet tube to the outside. The present air drier is characterized in that humid air is pumped into the cylinder shaped shell by a pump and further led through the helically wound partition baord at such a speed whereby moisture particles and other dirt particles can whirl therethrough and collide against the inner wall of the shell and the outer wall of the duct so that air can be better filtered and condensed.

The present invention relates to an improved air drier which is used to make humid and filthy air dried and cleaned by way of an air condenser and a cylinder shaped shell having a duct disposed therein which is provided with an air outlet tube for the cleaned and dried air to be discharged therefrom. The outer wall of the duct is provided with a continuous partition board attached thereto in a helix manner with the elongated condensing tube of a condenser disposed helically along the outer wall and in conformance to the helical partition board so that humid and dirty air pumped into the cylinder shaped shell and whirlingly led through the space defined by the helically wound partition board at a fast speed are in collision against the walls of the duct and the shell, resulting in the moisture particles and the dirt particles of the air filtered out and the condensed water dripping down along the walls thereof and collected at the conical bottom of the shell.
As shown in FIG. 1, a conventional air drier is used to make humid air dried by condensing the moisture particles therein by way of a coolant 11 which circulates in a looped tube 12. The coolant 11 is compressed by a compressor 13 and is led through a condenser 14 and to a coolant drying unit 15 and further to a thermal exchanger 18 and finally returns to the compressor 13. A fan 17 is used to cool off the coolant 11 and the pressure of the coolant is controlled by a pressure control valve 16. As humid air enters the thermal exchanger 18 by way of an air inlet port 181, the moisture particles contained therein are condensed into water via the coolant 11. The water and the air with some dirt particles are discharged via an outlet port 182 disposed at the top of the thermal exchanger 18 with water discharged via a water discharging unit 19. The problem is that the dust or dirt particles are easily mixed with the dried air and discharged into the surroundings.

5th Floor, No. 7, Lane 402, Chung Kang Rd.


A sifting screen having a rigid frame, a first woven cloth of hard wearing metal wire, stretched thereacross and secured thereto, and a second woven cloth having a coarser mesh than the first cloth and being woven from an elongate material of greater cross-section than the first, also stretched across the frame, and secured thereto, below the first cloth, to support the latter against sagging. In accordance with the invention, at least the wearing surface of the material from which the lower cloth is woven is selected to be significantly less hard wearing than that from which the upper cloth is woven, so that wear due to rubbing and vibration during use, occurs to a greater extent in the lower cloth than in the upper cloth. In one example the upper cloth is woven from stainless steel wire and the lower from phosphor bronze wire. In another example the lower cloth is of wire having a coating of an epoxy based material, or TEFLON.TM., or Molybdenum Disulphide. In another example the lower cloth is formed from a plastics material or KEVLAR.TM. or carbon fiber. The frame may be formed from glass reinforced gas blown polypropylene reinforced by elongate metal reinforcing elements or rods.

Typically a sifting screen is composed of a first woven cloth of stainless steel wires stretched within or across a frame and supported by a second woven cloth of stainless steel wires also stretched within or across the frame, the mesh pitch of the second woven cloth being much coarser than that of the first woven cloth.
Since the second woven cloth is intended to prevent the first one from sagging and to assist in de-binding of the top cloth, particularly when loaded with material to be sifted, wire of considerably greater cross-section is normally employed for the second cloth.
The failure of the wires of woven wire sifting screens can be attributed to two factors. The first type of wire failure is commonly referred to as fatigue and appears as breaks in the wires in high flexure regions of the woven cloth. Continued use of a screen after such breaks have occurred rapidly results in adjoining wires breaking at similar points along their length causing cracks in the cloth which widen and elongate until they appear as relatively large elongate openings or slits. These render the screen useless for continued filtration of particulate material since the latter can readily pass through these openings instead of remaining on the upper surface of the fine mesh screen.
The second type of wire failure only appears in screens which are constructed from two or more woven wire cloths stretched one over the other and in which one of the cloths is constructed from fine guage wire with a close weave spacing and the other (usually the lower one as described) is constructed from a heavier guage wire having a relatively coarse weave spacing. In such an arrangement, the knuckles at the interstices of the warp and weft of the heavier guage cloth constitute high points on which the closely woven wire mesh of the upper cloth are repetitively impaled as one mesh vibrates against the other in use. The finer guage wire tends to wear away and fracture in the region of these interstices causing so-called "pin-holing" of the closely woven cloth.
Although techniques have been proposed to deal with the problem, the solutions which have been put forward so far have been to do with the repair of damaged screens rather than prevention of the problem in the first place. Thus it has been proposed to construct a screen from separate sub-frames to which the various cloths are attached and which are removable to allow damaged regions to be replaced with fresh cloth, to effect "a running repair", thereby obviating the need to replace the whole of the screen assembly merely because a pin-hole has appeared in one localised region of the screen.
Whilst techniques which speed up and facilitate the repair of in-situ screens have their place, the condition of a screen after use typically when filtering water or oil based muds from drilling rigs, is such that a considerable amount of time has to be spent cleaning the screen to allow it to be inspected and damaged regions found and replaced by new inserts. Any downtime of a machine such as this when associated with a process such as sea bed drilling for oil and gas, is not only costly but because sometimes weather conditions and other factors limit the time available for drilling etc, such a failure at a crucial point in time can be critical to the success of the overall operation.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an alternative form of sifting screen construction which will have a longer operational life than that of types hitherto and which under ordinary operating conditions should have a predictable ordinary life span allowing replacement to be performed at set periods of time much in the same way as other components are replaced at regular servicing intervals.
References herein to "wire" are not intended to mean exclusively metal wire but also wire of non metallic materials including plastics, carbon fibre and KEVLAR.TM..


A method of cruciate ligament replacement using a graft having a section of patellar tendon and sections of its boney attachment at either end harvested with an apparatus having a dowel cutter and a mounting device for the dowel cutter, the mounting device having an arm rigidly interconnected with means for rotatably mounting the dowel cutter, the arm extending to a remote location at which it is adapted to be secured, e.g. by pins, to boney structure located beneath the arm. A second apparatus is used to permit accurate guiding of fixing pins through a tibia or femur and comprises a rigid track and a cylindrical stem at right angles to the track and adapted to be inserted in a drilled canal in the bone. A sliding block on the track has bores at right angles to the stem to accommodate the fixing pin which, in a first step of the operation, can be inserted through the bone to abut the stem before the apparatus is withdrawn so that the boney plug of the graft can be inserted in the canal and then the pin can be driven home to secure the boney plug in position.

The present invention will be defined by reference to the Clancy method of knee surgery but it is to be understood that the operation or an analagous operation may be performed on similar joints on humans and on other animals.
The cruciate ligaments form the intra-articular ligaments that stretch between the tibia and femur. The cruciate ligaments are strong, rounded bands which cross each other between their attachments, and are distinguished as the anterior and posterior cruciate ligaments. The anterior cruciate ligament extends obliquely upwards and backwards from the non-articular area in front of the intercondylar notch of the tibia to the back part of the medial side of the lateral femoral condyle.
The cruciate ligaments are vulnerable to extensive damage. The ligaments are prone to "tearing" rendering them incapable of performing their normal function, and this frequently occurs as a result of a sporting injury. Consequently, the ligaments need to be surgically replaced so as to prevent antero-posterior displacement of the tibia and to limit medial rotation of the tibia and lateral rotation of the femur.
It has been found that a suitable replacement for the cruciate ligament is the patellar tendon. The patellar tendon has the following characteristics and properties which enable it to best perform the role of the cruciate ligament: the patellar tendon
has excellent tensile strength;
is easily accessible;
is the proper length;
remains viable since it can carry its own blood supply from the infrapatellar fat pad;
both ends have a boney attachment to secure the graft.
Clancy and Associates have described a method of replacing a torn or damaged cruciate ligament with a patellar tendon. This method involves using a central strip of the patellar tendon based on a vascular pedicle from the infrapatellar fat pad. The success of the Clancy method depends on careful technical execution and precise placement of drill holes and a sound fixation of the contiguous bone blocks at each end of the graft. Previously, harvesting of the contiguous bone block was performed with power tools such as air driven saws and osteotomes to produce a strip of bone approximately 3 cm long 10 mm wide with a depth of 5 mm. The bone has on its flat surface the superficial fibers of the patellar tendon. This approximately triangular piece of bone is placed into a drilled tunnel in the femur and tibia respectively and fixed with sutures tied over a button placed at the mouth of the exiting tunnel.
There are disadvantages associated with the Clancy's procedure:
1. A triangular bone block fits poorly in the tunnel.
2. The fixation threads or button may break.
3. The bone block may break or patella may be fractured during havesting of the bone block leading to inferior fixation.
4. Incongruous fit of bone graft means there is a lesser chance of a good boney union in the tunnel graft interface.
The present invention is directed towards obviating some of the aforementioned problems associated with the Clancy procedure.


A hydrogen storage system for storing hydrogen gas at elevated pressures and cryogenic temperatures is disclosed. The hydrogen gas is fed to a storage container which contains a physisorption type material and a volatile liquid container for liquid nitrogen. Cryogenic conditions are maintained within the storage container during the periods of storage and the periods where the hydrogen gas is removed from the storage system.

The expansion of the use of hydrogen in industrial and commercial areas has caused a greater need to store hydrogen effectively. This is particularly true as hydrogen becomes a fuel of choice for fleet and automotive applications where hydrogen must be stored on-board the vehicle itself and be readily available from a fuelling station.
Currently the most prevalent methods of storage and transportation consist of liquid hydrogen or compressed hydrogen gas at 200 to 800 bar pressure. While liquid hydrogen provides the highest possible density, it is expensive to produce as this requires temperatures as low as 20 K, which uses about 47 MJ/kg H2. Conventional 200 bar pressure compressed gas has a relatively low density. A pressure of about 800 bar at 300 K is required to obtain a storage capacity 70% of that of liquid H2. As a compromise, hydrogen can be stored at a moderate pressure of 80 to 100 bar at a cryogenic temperature, such as at 77 K, using liquid nitrogen as the coolant. However, this generally would require continuous refrigeration, and would likely consume significant quantities of liquid nitrogen.
It is also known to use a physisorption type adsorbent at a cryogenic temperature, such as 77 K, to provide higher storage capacity at moderate pressures. The inventive method further uses the refrigeration provided by hydrogen desorption due to its withdrawal and usage to maintain the cryogenic temperature. As a result only a small amount of liquid nitrogen is necessary. The overall energy of refrigeration and compression required to produce the storage conditions according to the invention is about 17 MJ/kg of hydrogen at 80 to 100 bar. This is significantly lower than the energy required to produce liquid hydrogen which is about 47 MJ/kg and is somewhat less than the energy required to store hydrogen at comparable densities without adsorbent material at 200 bar and 77 K.
The present invention provides for means to store hydrogen at useful densities of about 30 to 50 kg/m3 in a cost effective manner. The method of storage of the present invention will passively provide refrigeration and increase storage times compared to comparable cryogenic storage options.

Methods for hydrogen storage and refrigeration


This optical recording card includes optical recording medium which is formed with optical information patterns each of which has an optical reflective layer and information stored in the optical recording card can be read out in dependency on the difference in optical reflectivity of the optical information pattern. It is not economical that the optical reflective layer of the optical recording card is formed on a base sheet by etching or the like, wherein the base sheet is prepared in the form of a sheet. The optical recording card is produced by way of the steps of forming an optical reflective layer on a continuous base film having large area and then die cutting the assembly of optical reflective layer and base film into a large number of optical recording cards having required dimensions in such a state that the optical recording medium is held between a card base and a protective sheet.

1. FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an optical recording card and a method of producing the same.
In the recent years a number of cards in which various kinds of information are recorded are increasingly put in practical use as ID card, cash card or bank card.
2. DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART
This kind of card is required to record various kinds of informations such as data concerning individual person, data concerning a company from which the card is issued or the like data. In the earlier age such information was recorded using visual characters and symbols and in the later age they were recorded in response to electrical signals which were generated magnetically. However, due to rapid increase in number of cards the conventional card is not now in position to take adequate measures for preventing data from being falsified and moreover for the current tendency of increased volume of information.
In view of the current situation as mentioned above a card including an optical recording layer to which the latest optical technology is applied to record information has been developed in the recent years. This kind of card is called optical recording card.
To facilitate understanding of the present invention a conventional optical recording card which has been hitherto proposed will be described below as its basic structure with reference to FIG. 2. As is apparent from the drawing, the optical recording card 1 includes a card base 2, a protective layer 3 made of transparent plastic material and an optical recording layer 4 which is interposed between the card base 2 and the protective layer 3. Reading-out of information stored in the optical recording layer 4 is effected from the side of the protective layer 3. The optical recording layer 4 is provided with a light reflective layer which has an optical reflective surface. The optical reflective surface is formed with a number of data pits and reading-out of data is achieved by detecting presence and absence in dependency on the difference in optical reflectivity of each of the data pits while laser beaming is emitted toward the optical recording layer 4.
A conventional method which is hitherto employed for producing the optical recording mediums or optical recording cards including the same is typically practiced by way of the steps of forming a metallic reflective film over the whole surface of the base sheet in the form of a sheet having the same size as the card base by using a vacuum depositing process, placing optical information patterns on a part of the metallic reflective film serving as recording medium, removing the residual part of the same which is not used as recording medium and then adhesively securing to the card base the base sheet which includes the thus prepared optical recording medium.
In spite of the fact that the optical recording medium is usually provided on a part of the optical recording card, the method of producing the latter is practiced by way of the steps of preparing a base sheet in the form of a sheet having the same size as the card base, forming a metallic reflective film over the whole surface of the base sheet and removing an unnecessary part of the metallic reflective film which does not form optical information patterns, as mentioned above. This leads to a result of not only increased number of productions steps and elongated time required for production but also increased loss in material whereby the optical recording cards are produced at an expensive cost. Further since the optical recording medium is handled in the form of a sheet having the same size of the card base, it is difficult to improve productive efficiency.

Optical recording card and method of producing the same


A method of detecting tumor cells in a sample containing cells. In the method, a sample is encapsulated to produce a capsule with the sample encapsulated therein. The capsule containing the sample encapsulated therein is incubated under cell culture conditions suitable for supporting cell activity and growth of tumor cells and the encapsulated sample from the incubated capsule is contacted with a conditionally active antibody that has a higher binding affinity to a cell surface protein of a tumor cell under a first value of a condition of a tumor microenvironment, in comparison with the binding affinity of the conditionally active antibody to the same cell surface protein under a second value of the condition.

Tumors begin shedding tumor cells into the circulation at an early stage of cancer, typically prior to the appearance of clinical symptoms. In general, tumors with a diameter of about 1 mm are vascularized, which leads to as much as 4% of the tumor cells being shed into the circulation in a 24 hour period (Butler & Gullino, Cancer Res., vol. 35, pp. 512-516, 1975). These tumor cells are called circulating tumor cells (CTCs), and are generally, although not exclusively, epithelial cells shed from a solid tumor into the blood stream. CTCs are good indicators of the tumor from which they originated, which may be especially important for diagnosing early stage solid tumors which are usually too small to be detected by conventional methods such as mammography for breast cancer patients, or X-rays for lung cancer patients. Accordingly, detection of CTCs may, in some cases, be used as an early diagnostic tool for cancers, especially early stage cancers before the appearance of clinical symptoms.
However, the CTCs are only a very small fraction of the total cells in circulation. For example, for patients with carcinomas, it is estimated that about only one in ten million cells in the blood is a CTC. In addition, various types of CTCs differ significantly from each other depending on their origins, both in terms of morphology and their inclusion of cancer specific markers. For example, fibroblast-based tumor cells have a different morphology than breast cancer cells which arise from epithelial cells. Also, CTCs originating from breast cancer typically have markers such as CK+/DAPI+/CD45, while CTCs originating from pancreatic cancer typically have markers that include CK8+/CK19+. Therefore, differentiating CTCs originating from different cancers would require using different antibodies to target different markers that are specific for different cancers, optionally in combination with gathering information about cell morphology. These technical complexities make cancer diagnosis by detection of CTCs in a clinical setting very challenging.
An automated system for detecting, enumerating and/or characterizing CTCs in a blood sample employs immunomagnetic enrichment technology to target cancer specific cell surface markers. Another commercial technology for enumerating and/or characterizing CTCs is Fiber-optic Array Scanning Technology (FAST), which investigates nucleated cells from a blood sample as a monolayer of cells on a slide using a fluorescence-labelled antibody against a cancer specific cell surface marker to identify the CTCs on the slide. A third commercial technology is based on the microfluidic or "CTC-Chip" technique. Using breast cancer as an example, 1-3 mL of whole blood is directed to flow past 78,000 EpCam-coated microposts. EpCam+ cells will bind to the microposts and are subsequently stained with antibodies against CK, CD45, and DAPI, which are breast cancer specific cell surface markers.
Besides these commercial methods, other CTC detection methods have been proposed. U.S. Pat. No. 8,445,225 discloses a method for revealing, detecting, and characterizing CTCs in the blood of a patient. The method includes the steps of: a) obtaining a blood sample from a patient; b) removing or degrading a protein, carbohydrate, cell, or a combination thereof, in physical association with the surface of the CTCs present in the sample; and c) analyzing the CTCs revealed in step (b). Step (b) is used for exposing the cell surface of CTCs without causing damage to the CTCs themselves, thereby revealing the CTCs in the sample. The analysis of CTCs in step (c) involves characterizing the morphology of the CTCs via image analysis. The analysis may also include detecting cancer specific cell surface markers on the CTCs, which include EGFR, HER2, ERCC1, CXCR4, EpCAM, E-Cadherin, Mucin-1, Cytokeratin, PSA, PSMA, RRM1, Androgen Receptor, Estrogen Receptor, Progesterone Receptor, IGF1, cMET, EML4, and Leukocyte Associated Receptor (LAR).
U.S. Pat. No. 8,039,218 discloses a method of detecting CTCs in a body fluid from a patient. The method comprises obtaining the body fluid from the patient and detecting the expression of a panel of genes in the body fluid, where the expression of the panel of genes indicates the presence of CTCs in the body fluid. Genes useful for detecting melanoma cells includes GalNAc-T, MAGE-A3, MART-1, PAX-3, and TRP-2. Genes useful for detecting carcinoma cells include C-Met, MAGE-A3, Stanniocalcin-1, Stanniocalcin-2, mammaglobin, HSP27, GalNAc-T, CK20, and β-HCG.
WO 2014/126904 discloses a method for detecting CTCs using a labeled pituitary adenylate cyclase activating peptide (PACAP) or vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP). The PACAP and VIP can both bind to the VPAC1 receptor and detect CTCs present in blood or urine, since the VPAC1 receptor is present on surface of CTCs from many different cancer types. The PACAP has the sequence: His-Ser-Asp-Gly-Ile-Phe-Thr-Asp-Ser-Tyr-Ser-Arg-Tyr-Arg-Lys-Gin-Met-Ala-Val-Lys-Lys-Tyr-Leu-Ala-Ala-Val-Leu-Gly-Lys-Arg-Tyr-Lys-Gln-Arg-Val-Lys-Asn-Lys. The labeled peptide is said to be able to detect CTCs at a concentration of 5 cells/ml sample and correctly identify and distinguish CTCs from epithelial cells and white blood cells contained in the sample.
US 2012/0094275 discloses a highly sensitive assay which combines immunomagnetic enrichment with multiparameter flow cytometry or image cytometry to detect, enumerate and characterize CTCs in a blood sample. The assay uses ferrofluid with different antibodies incorporated therein for detecting CTCs originating from different types of cancer. The multiple antibodies present in the same ferrofluid do not appear to block or otherwise interfere with each other. Such ferrofluids are capable of binding specifically to CTCs of more than one type of cancer. The assay is especially useful to enable the capture of CTCs that have low EpCAM expression, but high expression of other cancer specific markers.
These known methods of detecting CTCs often require use of multiple antibodies to diagnose different types of cancers, without knowing beforehand the cancer type a subject may have. For example, in order to be able to detect a wide range of common cancers, the antibodies will have to include one or more that bind specifically to breast cancer markers consisting of MUC-1, estrogen, progesterone receptor, cathepsin D, p53, urokinase type plasminogen activator, epidermal growth factor, epidermal growth factor receptor, BRCA1, BRCA2, CA27.29, CA15.5, prostate specific antigen, plasminogen activator inhibitor and Her2-neu; one or more that bind specifically to prostate cancer markers consisting of prostate specific antigen, prostatic acid phosphatase, thymosin b-15, p53, HPC1 basic prostate gene, creatine kinase and prostate specific membrane antigen; one or more that bind specifically to colon cancer markers consisting of carcinoembryonic antigen, C protein, APC gene, p53 and matrix metalloproteinase (MMP-9); and one or more that bind specifically to bladder cancer markers consisting of nuclear matrix protein (NMP22), Bard Bladder tumor antigen (BTA), and fibrin degradation product (FDP). Use of such a large number of antibodies significantly increases the cost and rate of false diagnoses when these methods are used in a clinical setting.
The present invention provides a diagnostic method that encapsulates one or more CTCs before detection thereof. Cell encapsulation has been described in, for example, US 2014/0127290 which discloses a method of encapsulating living cells in microcapsules. In the method, the cells are suspended in a matrix within the microcapsules. The microcapsules include a core having living cells or cell aggregates suspended or encapsulated therein and a shell surrounding the core comprising a biocompatible hydrogel. US 2012/0231443 also discloses a method for encapsulating cells in a microcapsule, which has a diameter of less than about 100 μm. The microcapsule may be further coated with chitosan and alginate.
Encapsulation of cells is generally viewed as hindering the detection of the encapsulated cells, since encapsulation introduces an outer layer to the encapsulated cells which may make detection of the cells more difficult. The present invention provides a diagnostic method that involves detection of encapsulated CTCs. The CTCs are encapsulated in manner which renders them more suitable for binding to conditionally active antibodies (CABs).
This technique enables detection of CTCs originating from many different cancer types using a single antibody in a simple procedure. This diagnostic technique is applicable to many different types of cancers and can therefore significantly reduce the cost of screening and diagnosis of early stage cancers while at the same time reducing the number of false positives that result from the use of prior art methods.

Diagnostics using conditionally active antibodies


A device for comminuting waste material, such as turnings or the like, is provided with two shafts, which are driven in opposite senses of rotation and are parallel to each other and comprise disc-shaped knives, of which the knives of one shaft engage respectively between the knives of the other shaft. The shafts are arranged in a knife box which has an upper inlet opening and a lower outlet opening and which has two external walls extending substantially parallel to the shafts. Between the knives of both shafts, stripping fingers are arranged, in the circumferential areas directed towards the external walls. The stripping fingers have a stripping end which is arranged at a short distance from the shaft and a top that is directed towards the inlet opening which is designed as a sliding surface inclined in the direction of the respective external wall of the knife box. The knife box also has by-pass openings on both sides in the sliding surface end areas.

When stock-removal waste, such as turnings or the like, is comminuted, the possibility of large-sized parts, such as end pieces for example, also passing into the comminuting device cannot be ruled out in practice. These parts are in many cases so hard or solid that they cannot be comminuted by the knives, so that the comminuting device is overloaded. In this event, the overload protection responds and the machine stops. The switching-on of a reversing mechanism then causes the shafts, including the knives, to be rotated in the opposite direction so that the part is moved from the working gap of the knives to the top and to the side. When the machine is switched on again, the part now passes again into the knife working gap and, if it is of sufficient strength, once more causes a machine stoppage involving an overload switch-off. This process is repeated until the part has been removed from the comminuting device, so that considerable impairments of the waste comminution are caused. Another disadvantage consists in the fact that a repeated machine blockage by the same part increases the wear of the knives.


A method and equipment for secondary sewage treatment by anaerobic treatment of sewage after the sewage has passed from a septic tank or other primary treatment device. The effluent from the primary treatment device is directed to the lower annular volume of the wrap-around anaerobic filter. The outer side wall boundaries of the wrap-around filter are defined by a permeable or impermeable earth retention cloth while the inner boundary is defined by the primary treatment device. The anaerobic filter is composed of gravel or other surface contact media. After the effluent reaches the lower annular volume, the effluent is directed through the void spaces of the anaerobic wrap-around upflow filter. Having passed through the filter the effluent is delivered to the drain field or other final treatment facility.

Standards for the disposal of sewage have continually risen. Conversely, population pressure has continually called for the increased use of land. Thus, land which is marginal in regard to the treatment of sewage is receiving increased pressure for the ability to be put to its best use.
Septic tanks in various embodiments have been used for some 130 years to treat sewage when sewer systems are not available. This anaerobic process decomposes organic material utilizing enzymes and microbes which thrive in an environment devoid of oxygen. Untreated human waste and/or sewage from a building comprising both liquids and water carried solids, are discharged into septic tanks for partially effective decomposition and clarification by biological, physical and other natural processes. After the partial decomposition, the effluent is often discharged directed to the entry of a subsurface drain field for percolation into the subsoil under aerobic conditions. The discharge of effluent to a subsurface drain field at this point brings into focus the ability of the land to handle the burden.
To lessen the burden on the land and thereby increase the likelihood of approval for the use of the land, septic tank effluent has been treated secondarily before the discharge of the effluent to the subsoil.
In 1962, Lloyd Davis, in his U.S. Pat. No. 3,057,796 set forth a septic tank with a surrounding gravel bed. From the gravel bed, however, the effluent passes directly to the surrounding subsoil. In the present invention, an upflow filter is used which effectively collects the effluent so that the effluent can be passed to the final treatment phase.
In 1965, Frederick P. Willians in his U.S. Pat. No. 3,202,285 illustrated and described the further treatment of septic tank effluent in an adjacent aerobic tank. In 1974, Henry B. Carlson, in his U.S. Pat. No. 3,784,012, disclosed the construction of a septic tank positioned within the top of a structure forming a leaching pool wherein the septic tank effluent was further treated before reaching the surrounding subsoil.
In 1975 or earlier, John Hamilton of Seattle, Wash., first treated wastes discharged from an institution or family dwelling in a two compartment concrete septic tank. After passing through the two compartments the effluent is treated downstream in two concrete anaerobic upflow filters.
In 1976, Edward J. Jordan and John R. Snyder, in their U.S. Pat. No. 3,950,252, illustrated and described their overall upflow filter to be used with a home sewage treatment plant. They provided a concrete container having first and second upflow filtering chambers inclusive of gratings having filtering media.
In all of the above patents a separate system is necessarily constructed. This naturally expands the expense of the system, and subjects the system to added potential for breakdown.
It is believed that a continuing review of patents and literature will not reveal a method, configuration or equipment for the treatment of sewage whereby anaerobic digestion and filtering processes are undertaken as disclosed in the present invention. The advantages of the present invention are discussed in the Summary of the Invention.

Method and equipment for a wrap-around upflow submerged anaerobic filter for sewage


A plastic container for storing articles such as surgical pads, gauze pads or bandages comprising a generally rectangular, upstanding hollow main body and a hinged closure. The main body includes at least one slotted portion along the rear wall with an irregularly shaped crossbar extending there across. A plastic, generally rectangular, hollow closure is attached to the main body by a hinge of complementary geometry to the crossbar. The hinge includes at least one straight rigid downwardly depending leg spaced apart from a hinge back. The hinge back includes a downwardly depending flexible web portion terminating in a jaw-like inwardly curving crossbar engaging portion.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a storage container for medical supplies, for example, surgical bandages, adhesive strips, gauze pads and the like. More particularly, the invention relates to a new hinge mechanism with a spring-like action to lock the closure in the open or closed position.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The prior art is replete with examples of hinged container configurations. Typically, prior art container structures have included a generally rectangular, hollow main body portion and a closure wherein the closure is secured to the main body portion by a hinge mechanism.
One style of hinge mechanism is exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 2,492,864 which discloses a bead on the closure engaging a hollowed out complementarily shaped spaced in the main body to allow a pivot action.
Another style of closure is exemplified by U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,966,083 and 3,451,580. These patents disclose hinge mechanisms wherein hollow sleeves are disposed about the upper margin of one member of the container while hinge pins are disposed about the upper margin of the second member of the container. The pins are journaled into the sleeves to allow fastening of the closure to the main body and pivoting of one part relative to the other.
Another style of hinge is exemplified by U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,637,460, 2,605,926 and 2,642,987. These patents exemplify a style of hinge wherein hinge pins are snapped into jaw-like arms on a closure. The jaw-like arms pivot about the hinge pins to allow movement of the closure relative to the main body.
Yet another style of hinge mechanism is exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 2,733,830 which discloses a main body having a plurality of regularly shaped holes along its upper margin which accept legs attached to the rear closure wall, thereby allowing the closure to pivot about the upper portion of the main body.
The above-described structures typically must be associated with a special and discrete structure on the container which locks the closure in the open or closed position relative to the main body. The design and molding of such special locking means is expensive and adds to the cost of the container in an industry where slight advantages in price contributes substantially to the commercial success of the container.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a hinged closure wherein the hinge mechanism includes a locking feature.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a hinge and crossbar assembly having sufficient structural rigidity to lock the closure in the open or closed position and still have sufficient flexibility to allow the spring-like movement of the hinge from the locked-open to the locked-closed position.
It is another object of the invention to provide an improved storage container which includes a spring-like, flexible portion of a hinge mechanism which cooperates with and complements a rigid position holding hinge portion.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a storage container which is simply fabricated from a single material and comprises only two parts.
Accordingly, the present invention comprises a bipartite container including a main body and a hinged closure. The main body is generally rectangular in shape and hollow. Spaced along the upper margin of the rear wall of the main body is at least one slot which extends into the rear wall of the main body. An irregularly shaped crossbar bridges the slot and provides a mounting for the hinge portion which is attached to the closure. The hinge is attached to the rear wall of the closure and includes a tripartite structure. Located at the top of the closure is a hinge back which includes a downwardly depending flexible web terminating in an inwardly curving jaw section. Spaced apart from and aligned with the hinge back is at least one downwardly depending flat surfaced leg.

Container with improved spring-like hinge


An information terminal includes a first housing and a second housing interconnected for opening/ closure, a first display unit and a first touch panel stacked one upon the other on the first housing, and a second display unit and a second touch panel stacked one upon the other on the second housing. The information terminal also includes a detection unit which, in a closed state with the first and second display units superposed one upon the other and facing outwards, detects actuations on one of the first touch panel and the second touch panel that happens to be back-facing as seen from a user. The information terminal further includes a controller that controls an onscreen display on the first display unit or the second display unit that happens to be front-facing as seen from the user, based on information regarding the actuations detected by the detection unit.

In information terminals that recently have become widespread, including smartphones, such actuation functions as scrolling on a screen surface as well as pinch out/pinch in (enlarging/shrinkage) by a touch panel, are offered to a user.
In Patent Literature 1, there is disclosed an information terminal provided not only with a touch panel on a display screen but also with a touch panel on a back surface. In the information terminal, it is possible to actuate the touch panel on the back side with a finger(s) other than a thumb finger to carry out processing commands correlated with the user's fingers except the thumb finger (see FIG. 10 and FIG. 11 of Patent Literature 1).
Patent Literature 1: W02011/142151A

Information terminal, display controlling method and program


This invention embodies a Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser with a top mirror comprising at least one pair of quarterwave layers, each pair consisting of a low index of refraction layer and a high index of refraction layer, the high index of refraction layer being a semiconductor chosen from GaP and ZnS and the low index of refraction layer being chosen from borosilicate glass (BSG) CaF.sub.2,MgF.sub.2 and NaF. Especially useful in vertical cavity surface emitting lasers are mirrors formed by a stack of a plurality of pairs of GaP/BSG or ZnS/CdF.sub.2. Such mirrors have a high reflectivity characteristics required for an efficient operation of the laser. The GaP/BSG or ZnS/CaF.sub.2 mirror structure represents a considerable improvement over previous designs for VCSELs in terms of ultimate reflectivity, low loss, and post growth processing compatibility.

Stacks of alternating high and low refractive index layers serve as mirrors in Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Lasers, hereinafter referred to as VCSELs. The task is to find suitable materials for the high and low index layers which maximize a ratio of the high index refractive order to the low index refractive order, and which could be deposited in a manner compatible with the semiconductor device processing.
A VCSEL is attractive as a device in which the lasing cavity is perpendicular to the top surface of a laser chip, which is small and which may be produced by planar technology. This can lead to a promising future in high density laser arrays, high data transmission in optical communication systems, ultra high parallel processing in optical communication systems, as well as supplying a route for data transmission between electronic chips. Furthermore, the circular-like nature of their beams allows one to efficiently couple the laser light into circular optical fibers.
In the VCSEL the light output is in the film growth direction which is usually parallel to the direction of the injection current. Due to this feature, the mirror through which the emission takes place and the electrical contact physically occupy the same side of the laser structure, i.e. either the top or the bottom of the device. The mirror is located approximately in the center of the surface while the electrode is located peripherally of the mirror. An example of a surface emitting laser with a coplanar mirror/electrode arrangement in which a gold layer with a thickness of a few tenths of a micrometer acts as the mirror through which laser-emission takes place, may be found in articles by H. Soda et al., entitled "GaInAsP/InP Surface Emitting Injection Lasers," Japanese Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 18, No. 12, 1979, pp. 2329-2230; and by H. Soda et al. entitled "GaInAsP/InP Surface Emitting Injection Lasers with Short Cavity Length," IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics, Vol. QE-16, No. 6, Jun. 1983, pp. 1035.1041. However, S. Kinoshita pointed out that such mirrors lead to low quantum efficiency primarily due to absorption of lasing emission by the gold mirror and suggested the use of a stack of pairs of dielectric layers as the top mirror, one layer of each pair having a higher index of refraction than the other layer of the pair. See an article by Susumu Kinoshita et al. entitled "GaAlAs/GaAs Surface Emitting Laser with High Reflective TiO.sub.2 /SiO.sub.2 Multilayer Bragg Reflector," Japanese Journal of Applied Physics, vol. 26, No. 3, March 1987, pp. 410-415; L. M. Zinkiewicz et al., "High Power Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting AlGaAs/GaAs Diode Lasers," Appl. Phys. Letters, Vol. 54, No. 20, 15 May 1989, pp. 1959-1961; and Kenichi Iga, "Recent Advances of Surface Emitting Semiconductor Lasers," Optoelectronics-Devices and Technologies, Vol. 3, No. 2, December 1988, pp. 131-142.
TiO.sub.2 and ZrO.sub.2 quarter-wave ##EQU1## dielectric layers have been typically paired with SiO.sub.2 quarter-wave layers. The number of pairs is selected to obtain a maximum performance reflectivity. However, the mirror structure of alternating TiO.sub.2 (or ZrO.sub.2) and SiO.sub.2 quarter-wave layers have not yielded expected performance, in terms of reflectivity. Theoretically, the optical performance of a stacked mirror structure should approach 100 percent. Unfortunately, presently obtainable performance falls within a broad range of from 90 to 99 percent. The problem resides, primarily, with the high index layer materials. This shortfall is, most likely, due to the difficulty in obtaining sufficiently high quality TiO.sub.2 (or ZrO.sub.2) layers on a reproducible basis. Electron-beam deposition of coatings, such as TiO.sub.2 (or ZrO.sub.2), requires addition of oxygen in the deposition process to get the proper stoiciometry for a desired refractive index. Addition of oxygen is needed to avoid formation of unwanted, oxygen-deficient phases, such as Ti, TiO, Ti.sub.2 O.sub.3, Ti.sub.3 O.sub.5, which occur due to an oxygen shortage. This requirement makes it difficult to reproducibly form the TiO.sub.2 layer.
Several single crystal semiconductors with high index of refraction, such as Al.sub.x Ga.sub.1-x As or GaInP, which possess the desired properties when epitaxially deposited may be used in place of TiO.sub.2 or ZrO.sub.2 layers; however, the epitaxial growth of these materials requires temperatures of .about.600.degree.-800.degree. C. along with sophisticated, expensive growth apparatus. These materials are poorly suited for deposition in a device post-processing wherein temperatures above 300.degree.-350.degree. C. are to be avoided. Therefore, there is still a need for high stability, high performance mirrors for use in VCSELs with high quality coatings which are easily reproducible at conditions compatible with the device processing and which could be also produced in a simplified manner utilizing planar technology.

Optical devices with electron-beam evaporated multilayer mirror


A communication system, a communication apparatus, a communication method, and a program for acquiring the advantage of a plurality of communication protocols is provided. A random number and a first communication information including first identification information of a communication apparatus is sent to another communication apparatus by using near field communication. Second communication information is received by the communication apparatus from the other communication apparatus by using near field communication. The second communication information includes second identification information of the other communication apparatus necessary to a second communication. The second communication is performed between the communication apparatus and the other communication apparatus by using the second communication information received by using the near field communication.

The present disclosure relates to a communication system, a communication apparatus, and a communication method as well as to a program, and in particular, to a communication system, a communication apparatus, and a communication method as well as to a program capable of acquiring the advantages of a plurality of communication protocols.
Recently, wireless communications, for example, Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), Bluetooth (registered trademark) (hereinafter, appropriately abbreviated as BT communication), an integrated circuit (IC) card system, and the like have become a focus of attention.
In, for example, the IC card system among these wireless communications, a reader/writer generates an electromagnetic wave to thereby form a so-called radio frequency (RF) field (magnetic field). Then, when an IC card is brought into vicinity of the reader/writer, the IC card is supplied with power by electromagnetic induction as well as data is transmitted between the IC card and the reader/writer.
There are specifications called a type A and a type B as the specification of the IC card embodied at present.
The type A is employed as MIFARE system of Philips, and data is transmitted from a reader/writer to an IC card by encoding data by Miller, and data is transmitted from the IC card to the reader/writer by encoding data by Manchester. Further, the type A employs 106 kilobyte per second (kbps) as a data transmission rate.
In the type B, data is transmitted from a reader/writer to an IC card by encoding data by NRZ, and data is transmitted from the IC card to the reader/writer by encoding data by NRZ-L. Further, the type B employs 106 kbps as a data transmission rate.
Further, as the IC card, there is proposed a system for selecting a communication protocol to be used from a plurality of communication protocols and executing a communication by the selected communication protocol (refer to, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 06-276249).
Incidentally, in the IC card system disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 06-276249, although a communication can be executed by a plurality of communication protocols, after a communication protocol to be used is selected, the communication is executed by the selected communication protocol. Accordingly, after the communication protocol is selected, the communication cannot be executed by the other communication protocols.
In contrast, a communication protocol, which executes a communication by specifying, for example, an IC card as a communication opponent, is employed in, for example, the IC card system. Further, a communication protocol, which can transmit data at a speed higher than that of the current IC card system, is employed in, for example, BT communication. Accordingly, if a communication protocol can be switched to a communication protocol for executing BT communication in, for example, the IC card system after an IC card as a communication opponent is specified, data can be transmitted at high speed. More specifically, in this case, the advantages of a plurality of communication protocols can be obtained in that a communication opponent can be specified by the communication protocol employed in the IC card system, and further data can be transmitted at high speed by the communication protocol for executing BT communication.

Near field communication using available protocol information


An optical bar code scanner and method which achieves an extended depth of focus by employing a multifocal length collection optical system. A radiation beam is generated for illuminating a field of view, either by a laser or nonlaser source. The embodiments specifically disclosed herein employ nonlaser sources such as LEDs. The multifocal length collection optical system consisting of a plurality of lenses or mirrors having at least a near range focal length and a long range focal length, simultaneously collects radiation reflected from objects in the field of view, and directs it to an optical detector for detection and generation of an electrical output signal indicative thereof. The electrical output signal of the detector is then passed through a high pass filter which filters out a DC background electrical signal, thereby improving the depth of modulation of the signal.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an optical scanner and method of scanning with an extended depth of focus, and more particularly pertains to an optical scanner and method of scanning bar codes which achieves an extended depth of focus by employing a multifocal length optical system. The subject invention is particularly useful in an optical scanner employing a nonlaser radiation source such as a light emitting diode (LED) or a linear array of LEDs, but is also applicable to optical scanners employing a laser source such as a laser diode. The subject invention is very useful in CCD based bar code readers.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various optical readers and optical scanning systems have been developed heretofore for reading bar code symbols appearing on a label or on the surface of an article. The bar code symbol itself is a coded pattern of indicia comprised of a series of bars of various widths spaced apart from one another to bound spaces of various widths, the bars and spaces having different light-reflecting characteristics. The readers and scanning systems electro-optically transform the graphic indicia into electrical signals, which are decoded into alphanumerical characters that are intended to be descriptive of the article or some characteristic thereof. Such characters are typically represented in digital form and utilized as an input to a data processing system for applications in point-of-sale processing, inventory control, and the like Scanning systems of this general type have been disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,251,798; 4,369,361; 4,387,297; 4,409,470; 4,760,248; and 4,896,026, all of which have been assigned to the same assignee as the instant application.
As disclosed in some of the above patents, one embodiment of such a scanning system resides, inter alia, in a hand-held, portable laser scanning head supported by a user, which is configured to allow the user to aim the head, and more particularly, light beam, at a target and a symbol to be read.
The light source in a laser scanner is typically a gas laser or semiconductor laser The use of a semiconductor devices such as a laser diode as the light source in scanning systems is especially desirable because of their small size, low cost and low power requirements. The laser beam is optically modified, typically by a lens, to form a beam spot of a certain size at the target distance. It is preferred that the beam spot size at the target distance be approximately the same as the minimum width between regions of different light reflectivity, i.e., the bars and spaces of the symbol.
Bar code symbols are formed from bars or elements that are typically rectangular in shape with a variety of possible widths. The specific arrangement of elements defines the character represented according to a set of rules and definitions specified by the code or "symbology" used. The relative size of the bars and spaces is determined by the type of coding used, as is the actual size of the bars and spaces. The number of characters per inch represented by the bar code symbol is referred to as the density of the symbol. To encode a desired sequence of characters, a collection of element arrangements are concatenated together to form the complete bar code symbol, with each character of the message being represented by its own corresponding group of elements. In some symbologies a unique "start" and "stop" character is used to indicate where the bar code begins and ends. A number of different bar code symbologies exist. These symbologies include UPC/EAN, Code 39, Code 128, Codabar, and Interleaved 2 of 5.
In the scanning systems known in the art, the light beam is directed by a lens or similar optical components along a light path toward a target that includes a bar code symbol on the surface. The scanning functions by repetitively scanning the light beam in a line or series of lines across the symbol. The scanning component may either sweep the beam spot across the symbol and trace a scan line across and past the symbol, or scan the field of view of the scanner, or do both.
Scanning systems also include a sensor or photodetector which functions to detect light reflected from the symbol. The photodetector is therefore positioned in the scanner or in an optical path in which it has a field of view which extends across and slightly past the symbol. A portion of the reflected light which is reflected off the symbol is detected and converted into an electrical signal, and electronic circuitry or software decodes the electrical signal into a digital representation of the data represented by the symbol that has been scanned. For example, the analog electrical signal from the photodetector may typically be converted into a pulse width modulated digital signal, with the widths corresponding to the physical widths of the bars and spaces. Such a signal is then decoded according to the specific symbology into a binary representation of the data encoded in the symbol, and to the alphanumeric characters so represented.
The decoding process in known scanning systems usually work in the following way. The decoder receives the pulse width modulated digital signal from the scanner, and an algorithm implemented in software attempts to decode the scan. If the start and stop characters and the characters between them in the scan were decoded successfully and completely, the decoding process terminates and an indicator of a successful read (such as a green light and/or an audible beep) is provided to the user. Otherwise, the decoder receives the next scan, performs another decode attempt on that scan, and so on, until a completely decoded scan is achieved or no more scans are available.
Such a signal is then decoded according to the specific symbology into a binary representation of the data encoded in the symbol, and to the alphanumeric characters so represented.
Laser scanners are not the only type of optical instrument capable of reading bar code symbols. Another type of bar code reader is one which incorporate detectors based upon charge coupled device (CCD) technology. In such readers size of the detector is larger than or substantially the same as the symbol to be read. The entire symbol is flooded with light from the reader, and each CCD cell is sequentially read out to determine the presence of a bar or a space. Such readers are lightweight and easy to use, but require substantially direct contact or placement of the reader on the symbol to enable the symbol to be properly read. Such physical contact of the reader with the symbol is a preferred mode of operation for me applications, or as a matter of personal preference by the user.
The depth of focus of bar code scanners using Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) is very limited as compared to laser based scanners. The reason is that the f# of, for example, a CCD based scanner with an LED source of illumination is much lower than the f# of a laser scanner. As a consequence thereof, the depth of focus, which is proportional to f#.sup.2, is very low for such CCD/LED based scanners.

Optical scanner with extended depth of focus


A thermoplastic resin having such a sufficient heat shock resistance that it is unbroken by common temperature changes and also exhibiting an excellent flame resistance when applied to an insert molded article, which is obtained by blending a thermoplastic polyester resin (A) with 1-25% by weight to the total amount of the composition of an impact resistance giving agent (B), 1-50% by weight to the total amount of the composition of an inorganic filler (C), 1-25% by weight to the total amount of the composition of a flame retardant (D) and 0.1-10% by weight to the total amount of the composition of an aromatic polyvalent carboxylate (E).

The insert molding method is a molding method in which a metal or inorganic solid (hereinafter, abbreviated as metals) is embedded in a resin for utilizing the property of the resin and the material property of the metals. It is applied in wide fields such as automobile parts and electric and electronic parts, and presently one of general molding methods. However, since expansion and shrinkage coefficient (so-called liner expansion coefficient) are extremely different between a resin and metals, molded articles having thin resin portions, portions with large variation in thickness or sharp corners composed of metals, suffer from a lot of troubles such as cracking just after molding and cracking by temperature change in use. Particularly in the case of electric and electronic parts, since high flame-retardance is also required, thermosetting resins such as phenol resins and epoxy resins are widely used for an insert molding.
However, thermosetting resins have disadvantages such as lower productivity due to a long molding cycle and low recycling property, so that substitution with thermoplastic resins is required eagerly.

Flame-retardant polyester resin composition