A mobile tree stand that can be suspended in a desired position with a single rope, chain or the like, and thereafter safely, quietly and easily maneuvered into any position about the tree's circumference. Its user can shoot in any direction without standing and also use the tree as a gun rest for a shot in any direction. The mobile nature of the stand also provides a hunter with the option of using a gun support lanyard, which can be attached to the upper part of the stand or its supporting member. The stand can also be used for ground level hunting, as well as indoor and outdoor use by adults and children in recreational pursuits common to hanging chairs and swings. One embodiment includes a back support that reclines into various postures, including a completely supine position. In addition, it can be readily disassembled for easy transport and storage.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to tree stands and handing chairs, more specifically to tree stands which are suspended to the desired position with a single rope, chain or the like. The present invention presents a mobile stand which may be readily maneuvered about the entire circumference of the tree to which it is attached.
2. Description of Related Art
Tree stands typically used by hunters, photographers and others are rigidly attached to the tree, pole or the like. This rigid attachment precludes freedom of movement by the user. Examples of rigidly mounted stands are presented in U.S. Pat. No. 4,337,844 to Hice (1982), U.S. Pat. No. 4,969,538 to Amacker (1990), and U.S. Pat. No. 5,143,177 to Smith (1992). While each of these stands presents a different style, all are obviously intended to remain rigidly attached while in use. U.S. Pat. No. 3,568,797 to Hardy (1971) presents a suspended seat arrangement wherein up and down mobility is accomplished with a hand-cranked pulley, however, this invention provides no other means of controlled mobility.
There has long been a need for a stand which will move freely with the user. Users of rigidly mounted tree stands are usually seated such that their backs are toward the tree. While so seated the hunter would have the opportunity for a comfortable confident shot within an arc of approximately 220 degrees, perhaps less for an archer. My mobile stand provides the user with the ability to safely, quietly and easily maneuver into any position about the entire circumference of the tree in which it is placed. In the typical prior art tree stand, the user would be forced to stand to gain position to shoot in any direction denied him while sitting. Standing can have undesirable consequences such as noise. In such a situation the hunter would likely be using a safety harness secured to the tree. Harnesses typically used in rigidly mounted tree stands can easily become impediments to effective gun and bow alignment. A further undesirable consequence presented by standing to gain shooting position is that of increased anxiety that one's balance might be lost. Safety harnesses that attach to the tree provide some assurance against falling to the ground. Such devices provide far less assurance against falling out of the tree stand. My mobile stand, through its extensive mobility, allows the user to shoot in any direction without standing and further, allows him to use the tree as a gun rest while doing so. This gun rest advantage will improve the hunter's chances for an accurate shot. Four evenly spaced-apart foot rests, which are not a part of my tree stand invention, attached about the circumference of the tree, assist in a hunter's controlled and silent mobility during its use. The mobile nature of the present invention provides the hunter the option of using a gun support lanyard. Such a lanyard may be secured to the uppermost portion of the stand or to the stand support member. The hunter may grasp the lanyard with his gun support hand in such a way as to allow the lanyard to support the weight of his extended arm and the gun. Such a lanyard will provide sturdy support in situations wherein it is desirable to hold a gun pointed at game while awaiting an open shot. Hunting from a tree stand which can easily be maneuvered into the desired position without the need to stand up is highly desirable and is currently absent from tree stand technology. Due to its design and balance, the likelihood of falling out of the stand disclosed herein is extremely slight and even less likely by use of an ordinary lap belt.
An examination of the prior art in the field of hanging chairs teaches a variety of approaches. U.S. Pat. No. 3,528,657 to Krupsky (1970) exhibits a rigid frame without arm movement impediment, however, the seating arrangement anticipates the users will be children placed in the device by adults. Such seating arrangement is not suited to adult use. Generally, other prior art hanging chairs or swings present support or stabilizing ropes, cables or the like which preclude free and unimpeded arm movement so necessary to the sport of hunting.
It is apparent that patience is necessary to hunting success. The discomfort of buttock fatigue can test one's patience. Prior art tree stands typically provide the user an option of standing to relieve this condition. My mobile stand also allows standing, however one embodiment of the mobile stand disclosed herein provides an optional feature which allows the user to rearwardly recline and shift a portion of his body weight so that it is supported by his back instead of the buttock area. The prior art U.S. Pat. No. 5,316,104 to Amacker (1994) provides an adjustable seat however, positions available to the user are limited to reclining or lounging postures and do not provide the option to fully assume the supine position. Said optional feature of my mobile stand allows the user to sit in the fully upright position, or easily select any of numerous reclining positions between upright and the supine. Said feature further allows the user to return to the upright position without any adjustment of the stand in the event game is sighted. Returning the stand to the upright position is readily accomplished easily and silently.
Tree climbing stands comprise a significant percentage of portable tree stands currently in use. While these stands offer advantages, branches often must be removed in order for the user to reach the desired height in the tree. Users of my mobile stand will often find the presence of branches an asset. Branches may selectively be used as foot rests. It is often convenient to hang the stand itself from a branch. Climbing stands are made for use in trees which fall within a certain size range. Use of such stands upon trees outside that size range is impossible or unsafe. My mobile stand may be used in any tree large and strong enough to support the weight of its user.
Prior art tree stands generally meet one need; that of providing the user with a vantage point substantially above ground level. My mobile stand, within its various embodiments, is readily usable at ground level. Ground level hunting for game animals such as deer, elk and bear is pursued by many. Some remain on the ground by choice, while others do so because of physical or psychological limitations. Numerous patents have been issued for devices which attach to trees at or near ground level. Examples include U.S. Pat. No. 2,851,085 to Woodward (1958), U.S. Pat. No. 3,990,537 to Swenson (1976), and U.S. Pat. No. 5,269,395 to Lyzhoft (1993). These devices and others in the prior art do not provide mobility in that they are rigidly attached to the supporting structure. My mobile stand provides advantages over prior art devices when suspended from a tree at ground level. Major advantages are:                (a) The user may assume and maintain a position so that the tree is between the user and the game thereby enjoying a degree of insurance against detection.        (b) The tree may be used as a gun rest for a shot in any direction.        (c) A gun support lanyard may be used in a manner not available to users of rigidly mounted stands.
In addition to tree stand use, this invention is readily usable by adults and children both indoors and outdoors in recreational pursuits common to hanging chairs. There is no known invention that has all of the features and advantages of the invention disclosed herein.


The present invention relates to methods and systems for remediating one or more impurities (e.g., diacetyl) that are present in manufacturing an alcohol (e.g., ethanol) from cellulosic biomass. The methods and systems include reacting the one or more impurities with at least one treatment compound (e.g., an oxidizing agent, an alkali compound, or a mixture thereof) to form a reaction product that can be separated from the alcohol.

Alcohol (e.g., ethanol and/or butanol) and other fermentation products may be produced from grain-based feedstocks (e.g. corn, sorghum/milo, barley, wheat, soybeans, etc.), from sugar (e.g. from sugar cane, sugar beets, etc.), and from biomass (e.g. from cellulosic feedstocks such as switchgrass, corn cobs and stover, wood or other plant material).
In a biorefinery configured to produce ethanol from biomass such as cellulosic feedstocks as indicated above, ethanol can be produced from lignocellulosic material (e.g. cellulose and/or hemi-cellulose). The biomass is typically prepared so that sugars in the cellulosic material (such as glucose from the cellulose and xylose from the hemi-cellulose) can be accessed and fermented into a fermentation product that includes ethanol (among other things). The fermentation product can then be transferred to a distillation system, where the ethanol can be recovered by distillation and dehydration. Other bioproducts such as lignin and organic acids may also be recovered as co-products.
In addition to generating ethanol (or other desired fermentation product) a number of ancillary chemicals may also be produced during one or more of biomass pretreatment, saccharification, fermentation, or even distillation. Such chemicals include substances such as acetic acid, furfural (furan-2-carbaldehyde), and diacetyl (2,3-butanedione). Some of these compounds may be recovered or recycled, but other compounds require management or remediation in order for the cellulosic biorefinery to operate effectively. In particular, the presence of diacetyl may be particularly problematic as it concentrates along with ethanol during distillation and molecular sieving. Not only can diacetyl cause green coloring of the ethanol to an undue degree (thereby limiting the ethanol's downstream uses), diacetyl can also cause the ethanol to become more acidic over time. For fuel ethanol these are typically undesirable traits and can make remediation of the diacetyl desirable.
One common technique for managing undue amounts of diacetyl in cellulosic ethanol includes aging the ethanol so that the diacetyl breaks down naturally. Another common technique includes blending the ethanol/diacetyl mixture with a much larger volume of starch derived ethanol so as to dilute the diacetyl, thereby decreasing the concentration of diacetyl.
Unfortunately, as cellulosic ethanol becomes more prevalent, the volumes can reach levels such that storage for long periods to "age" the diacetyl can be uneconomical, and blending may become difficult due to the vast amounts of starch based ethanol required.
It would be advantageous to provide for systems and methods for cellulosic fermentation product treatment that can rapidly and economically remediate diacetyl. It would further be advantageous to provide for systems and methods for such treatment that integrates into the functionality of a commercial scale ethanol production facility.

Methods and systems for reducing the level of one or more impurities that are present in a pretreated cellulosic material and/or distillate


A system and method for determining and displaying an overall efficiency value of a vehicle. The vehicle may include an engine and an electric machine that operates to provide torque to propel the vehicle. In addition, the vehicle may have an electric power source that provides electric power to the electric machine. A controller may determine and transmit the overall efficiency value so that the information display displays the number of efficiency indicators. Also, the number of efficiency indicators displayed may be based on the overall efficiency value.

1. Technical Field
One or more embodiments of the present application relate to a system and method for indicating to a driver the overall efficiency of a vehicle.
2. Background Art
Vehicles, whether passenger or commercial, include a number of gauges, indicators, and various other displays to provide the vehicle driver with information regarding the vehicle and its surroundings. With the advent of new technologies, such as hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), has come a variety of new gauges and information displays that help drivers to better learn the operation of these vehicles that utilize new technology. For example, many HEVs incorporate gauges that attempt to provide the driver with information on the various hybrid driving states. These gauges indicate to the driver when the vehicle is being propelled by the engine alone, the motor alone, or a combination of the two. Similarly, a display may indicate when the motor is operating as a generator, and is recharging an energy storage device, such as a battery.
With regard to HEVs, it is known that some drivers may not be able to achieve desired driving efficiency, in part because of driving habits. In many cases, drivers are willing to modify their behavior, but are unable to translate recommended techniques into real changes in their driving habits. Moreover, gauges or displays that fail to continually update the driver do not allow the driver to adapt their driving habits so as to achieve the most optimal overall efficiency.
Therefore, a need exists for an information display for a vehicle that facilitates efficient operation of the vehicle by indicating to a driver a direct correlation between vehicle operation and overall efficiency.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

System and method for displaying vehicle efficiency


A four stroke engine cylinder head (16) has two inlet pipes (19 and 22) which contain alternate acting inlet valves (14 and 15). Fuel/air induction strokes through valve (14) alternate with air only induction strokes through valve (15) giving an eight stroke cycle under half load. When gate valve (23) is moved by a control to the dotted position, this seals the air only inlet and opens port (25) to give fuel/air induction strokes over half load and a four stroke cycle. Air only induction strokes or eight stroke cycles under half load may also be achieved by cutting out some fuel injectors or injection strokes as the load permits.

In piston engines, particularly 4 stroke petrol engines, their efficiency is reduced when the engine load is reduced. At the end of the exhaust stroke a residue of exhaust gas is left in the cylinder. This exhaust residue is hot and causes the temperature of the incoming fuel/air mixture to be increased. A high temperature of the mixed gases at the start of the compression stroke reduces the fuel efficiency of the engine. Conversely, a reduction in the temperature of the gases at the start of compression would increase the efficiency.
The efficiency of a piston engine is also increased when the speed of combustion is increased.
Also the efficiency of a piston engine is increased when the temperature rise during combustion is increased.
Furthermore the efficiency of a piston engine is increased when the combustion pressure or the effective compression ratio is increased.
This invention aims to increase fuel efficiency in all the above respects which may lead to reduced exhaust emissions.


A low cost, factory fabricated, force distributing bridge truss assembly is disclosed which includes respective, interconnected, converging pairs of carrier truss structures designed to be composited to an overlying concrete bridge deck such that the latter serves as a top chord diaphragm for absorbing live load-induced compression and bending forces. The carrier truss structures are fabricated using only two standard shapes of plasma arc cut steel angles (normally 6".times.6" for truss webs and 8".times.8" for truss chords) welded directly together without the need for special order steel or supplemental gusset plates. The preferred deck for use with the truss assembly hereof is a concrete structure having a lowermost, spanning metallic plate substrate composited (by means of upstanding studs) to a concrete layer thereon. This assembly may be applied to the carrier truss structure in either precast, sectionalized form or field cast in place. The upper chord elements of the respective carrier trusses are simply welded to the planar underlying substrate at the panel points to develop the final mechanical composite. Completed bridges using the carrier truss assemblies of the invention are characterized by very low depth-to-span and dead load/live load ratios, minimal deflections, and high degrees of structural redundancy rendering the bridges extremely stable; moreover they are protected against critical collapse and are highly suited for performance in situations where long term fatigue causing stress reversals are a problem.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is concerned with low cost, structurally superior truss assemblies especially designed for use in constructing bridges of from 70 to 200 feet in length, although longer spans are also a possibility. More particularly, it is concerned with such improved truss assemblies wherein the concrete superstructure or deck of the bridge is mechanically composited to carrier truss frames of the overall assembly such that the deck serves as a top chord diaphragm for absorbing live load induced compression and bending forces for the truss framed structures; in this way maximum advantage is taken of the considerable compressive strength and inertial moment of concrete with the least possible dead load to the resultant structure. The assemblies hereof are particularly advantageous inasmuch as they can be factory produced using minimal quantities of structural steel, all of the steel being standard mill stock.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The construction of modern day bridges, such as highway and railroad bridges, is subject to a number of constraints, principally arising from the necessity of adequately distributing and safely absorbing concentrated moving loads imposed thereon without excessive deflection. In the case of highway bridges, the recognition of this problem has led to promulgation of a plethora of rather stringent regulations. For example, one commonly applied code specifies that the completed bridge must be able to sustain, over each possible ten foot travelway within its width, a uniform load of 640 lbs. per lineal foot, and 32,000 lbs. of moving and concentrated load. Additional provisions of the code deal with shear concentrations, and the effects of impact. The bridge must also exhibit sufficient stiffness to strictly limit deflections and oscillations, usually limited to a deflection-to-span ratio of 1 to 800 or less under full live loading with impact. A large number of other provisions also exist for ensuring structural stability due to wind, ice, braking impacts and centrifugal effects.
In addition to the foregoing, a bridge must have a relatively long useful life, require only a minimum of maintenance, and have the ability to withstand climatic freeze/thaw cycles and the effects of deicing compounds used for maintenance of the trafficway.
Thus, although it is entirely possible to demonstrate that a typical bar joist commonly used in building construction to support an office floor or roof can serve as a bridgeway for pedestrians or light vehicular traffic, such a construction is in no way related to the service loading or structural requirements of a modern-day highway bridge.
A number of bridge structures have been developed in the past in attempts to provide safe, stable, yet reasonably priced bridges. One such class of bridges heretofore known are so-called steel truss bridges. There are two basic types of steel truss bridges: (1) where the trussing is above the bridge deck, and the deck roughly conforms to the bottom chord plane of the truss structure; and (2) the underslung truss bridge where the bridge deck is supported by the top chords of the truss structure. Steel truss bridges are seldom used in current bridge construction except in the case of long river spans. This is because of the expense involved in the fabrication and erection of steel truss bridges, and a characteristic depth-to-span ratio of about 1:10 (in order to keep deflection within acceptable limits). Insofar as expense is concerned, for a span of 120-200 feet, the cost of a conventional steel truss bridge would probably be from 70 to 120 dollars per square foot, which is well above certain other types of bridge constructions. Further, the relatively deep trussing required in connection with underslung truss bridges creates problems when maximum clearance under the bridge is required for traffic or high water conditions.
One of the principal elements of cost in connection with known steel truss bridges stems from the fact that much of the truss assembly thereof must normally be constructed in the field using skilled on-site labor and expensive cranes and other equipment. Additionally, such trussing is normally specially designed, necessitates elaborate engineering, and requires large quantities of special order steel, all of which greatly add to the final cost. Finally, additional steel (and hence dead weight and fabrication costs) are normally required because of the need of expensive gusset plates and cross bracing between trusses at the panel points of the trusses.


In a machine tool having a base member, a moveable member and a drive screw assembly for displacing the moveable member relative to the base member, an anti-whip device for the drive screw assembly generally consisting of a support member mounted on the base member and displaceable between a first position supporting an elongated drive screw, and in a path of travel of the moveable member and a second position not supporting the drive screw and out of the path of travel of the moveable member, yieldable means for biasing the support member into the first position and means disposed on the moveable member and engageable with the support member for camming the support member from the first position to the second position against the biasing action of the biasing means when the drive screw is driven and the moveable means is caused to traverse past the support member.

This invention relates to machine tools and more particularly to an anti-whip device for an elongated drive screw of a machine tool used to displace one component relative to another component of the machine.
In one type of conventional machine tool, there is provided a base member having a table portion on which a workpiece may be supported, a bridge or gantry member supported on the base member and adapted to be displaced relative to the base member along a longitudinal line of travel or what is commonly referred to as the x-axis, a tool head support assembly supported on the bridge member and adapted to be displaced relative to the bridge member along a transverse line of travel or what is commonly referred to as the y-axis, and a tool head assembly having one or more tools mounted thereon and engageable with a workpiece positioned on the table, supported on the tool head support assembly and adapted to be displaced along a vertical line of travel or what is commonly referred to as the z-axis.
Typically, the bridge members of such machines are displaced along the x-axis by a pair of elongated drive screws mounted on the sides of the base member which are operatively connected to the bridge member. Each of such drive screws is supported at its ends on bearings mounted in brackets secured to the base member, is driven by a motor mounted on the base member and operatively connected to an end portion of the drive screw and further is provided with a follower secured to the bridge member and operatively connected to the drive screw so that upon operation of the drive motor to rotate the drive screw, the interaction between the drive screw and the follower will cause the bridge member to be displaced along the x-axis.
Because such elongated drive screws are supported only at their end portions, the middle portions thereof tend to sag slightly, creating an out of balance condition when the drive screws is rotated, particularly at high speeds. As the drive screw is driven at higher speeds, the center thereof characteristically begins to swing in larger and larger circles until it reaches a critical speed at which point the drive screw vibrates violently, a condition which adversely affects the operation and longevity of the machine and which is sought to be avoided.
In the prior art, the most common solution for the problem of violent drive screw whipping has been to use larger diameter screws as the required lengths of the screws increase. With larger diameters, the screws sag less in the middle and can rotate faster without whip. The problem with the use of larger diameter screws, however, is that the cost of the screw and cooperating follower increases dramatically, and the mass and inertia of the screw increases requiring the use of larger and more expensive drive motors to maintain the performance of the system.
Accordingly, it is the principal object of the present invention to provide a novel means for preventing the whipping action of an elongated drive screw.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a novel means for preventing the violent whipping action of an elongated drive screw driven at high speeds.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a novel means for preventing the whipping action of an elongated drive screw without increasing the diameter of the screw.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide a novel means for preventing the whipping action of an elongated drive screw in a machine tool utilized to displace one component thereof relative to another.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a novel device for preventing the whipping action of an elongated drive screw in a machine tool utilized to displace one component thereof relative to another without increasing the mass and inertia of the crew requiring the use of larger drive motors in order to maintain the performance of the machine system.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a novel device for preventing the whipping action of an elongated drive screw in a machine tool utilized to displace one component thereof relative to another which is comparatively simple in design, relatively easy and inexpensive to manufacture and install and effective in performance.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent to those persons having ordinary skill in the art to which the present invention pertains from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein:

Anti-whip device for machine drive screws


A clamping device for gripping a tool in a carrier. The clamping device has a hollow centering extension or spigot and an abutment surface surrounding it are provided on the tool. A tool receptacle provided in the carrier has a receiving bore matched to the centering extension and an end face surrounding the bore and against which the abutment surface can be pressed by a clamping arrangement. The clamping arrangement comprises a clamping sleeve movable coaxially with respect to the central axis and a clamping ring or collet movable in the opposite direction to the clamping sleeve, both of which are provided with clamping cones facing towards one another. The collet is movable axially on the clamping sleeve by means of a clamping nut screwable on the sleeve. A plurality of clamping jaws surround the clamping sleeve and the collet concentrically and are supported in each case by one end against their clamping cones. The clamping jaws have at their two ends clamping surfaces which cooperate with a conical surface of the tool receptacle and with a conical surface oppositely directed with respect to that conical surface in the centering extension.

In a known clamping device of this kind for axially clamping two machine parts disengageable from one another (German Patent Specification 38 14 550 C1), an axially movable actuating rod is provided for operating the clamping sleeve. As a rule, this actuating rod is a draw rod arranged in a machine tool spindle and which can be pushed away from the tool by a set of cup springs and be moved by means of a piston and cylinder unit in opposition to the force of the spring arrangement for releasing the clamping device. By shifting the clamping sleeve under the action of the set of cup springs, the clamping jaws are moved radially outwards and apply themselves, on the one hand, against the inclined side of a groove in the interior of the hollow centring extension or spigot and, on the other hand, against a conical surface of the tool receptacle. In this way, an axial gripping force is likewise produced. In consequence of the axially movable actuating rod and the set of cup springs acting on it, as well as of the piston and cylinder unit, this known clamping device has a rather great over-all length, however, and for this reason cannot be used in particular in turrets. In fact, a plurality of tool receptacles and tools is arranged on such turrets, so that very confined space conditions exist therein. Moreover, it is endeavoured to design turrets as short as possible in the axial direction.
In another known clamping device (German Patent Specification 27 36 412 C2), three locking balls which are radially movable in corresponding transverse bores in the centring extension are provided as clamping elements. A central pressure ball arranged in a central bore in the centring extension and supported against the locking balls serves as a clamping arrangement and can be pushed towards the tool by means of differently designed clamping facilities. In this way, the locking balls are thrust radially outwards and in the process press on the conical surface of the tool receptacle. This produces a pressing of the abutment surface of the tool into contact against the end face. Owing to the centrally arranged pressure ball and the actuating arrangement acting on it likewise in the region of the central axis, it is not possible to employ this clamping device for so-called driven tools. In fact, such driven tools require, both in the centring extension and in the tool receptacle, a central free space for passing through a driving shaft or driving rod with which the tool can be driven rotationally and also adjusted. The locking balls and the pressure ball have the disadvantage that clamping forces are transmitted in point form only in three places. This results in a high specific surface pressure and, consequently, also relatively great wear not only at the balls themselves, but also at the conical surface cooperating with the locking balls on the tool receptacle. Also, on account of the high specific surface pressure, the maximum clamping force and, consequently, the force with which abutment surface and end surface are pressed against one another is small. Furthermore, the known clamping device also has the disadvantage that an important part of the device, namely the balls, is arranged in the tool itself. Each individual tool must therefore be equipped with such balls and corresponding bores and holding arrangements for the balls, which increases the cost of manufacturing the tools.

Clamping device for gripping a tool in a tool carrier


An electrocardiography patch is provided. A flexible backing is formed of an elongated strip of stretchable material and a pair of electrodes is respectively affixed on a contact surface of each end of the elongated strip. A flexible circuit is affixed on each end of the elongated strip and includes a pair of circuit traces electrically coupled to each electrode. A non-conductive receptacle is securely adhered on the one end of the elongated strip opposite the contact surface and formed to removably receive an electrocardiography monitor and house a battery. Electrical pads are provided on a bottom surface of the non-conductive receptacle to interface with electrical contacts protruding from the electrocardiography monitor. A pair of the electrical pads is formed to electrically couple with the electrodes. A pair of battery leads is formed on the non-conductive receptacle to electrically interface the battery to another pair of the electrical pads.

The heart emits electrical signals as a by-product of the propagation of the action potentials that trigger depolarization of heart fibers. An electrocardiogram (ECG) measures and records such electrical potentials to visually depict the electrical activity of the heart over time. Conventionally, a standardized set format 12-lead configuration is used by an ECG machine to record cardiac electrical signals from well-established traditional chest locations. Electrodes at the end of each lead are placed on the skin over the anterior thoracic region of the patient's body to the lower right and to the lower left of the sternum, on the left anterior chest, and on the limbs. Sensed cardiac electrical activity is represented by PQRSTU waveforms that can be interpreted post-ECG recordation to derive heart rate and physiology. The P-wave represents atrial electrical activity. The QRSTU components represent ventricular electrical activity.
An ECG is a tool used by physicians to diagnose heart problems and other potential health concerns. An ECG is a snapshot of heart function, typically recorded over 12 seconds, that can help diagnose rate and regularity of heartbeats, effect of drugs or cardiac devices, including pacemakers and implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs), and whether a patient has heart disease. ECGs are used in-clinic during appointments, and, as a result, are limited to recording only those heart-related aspects present at the time of recording. Sporadic conditions that may not show up during a spot ECG recording require other means to diagnose them. These disorders include fainting or syncope; rhythm disorders, such as tachyarrhythmias and bradyarrhythmias; apneic episodes; and other cardiac and related disorders. Thus, an ECG only provides a partial picture and can be insufficient for complete patient diagnosis of many cardiac disorders.
Diagnostic efficacy can be improved, when appropriate, through the use of long-term extended ECG monitoring. Recording sufficient ECG and related physiology over an extended period is challenging, and often essential to enabling a physician to identify events of potential concern. A 30-day observation day period is considered the "gold standard" of ECG monitoring, yet achieving a 30-day observation day period has proven unworkable because such ECG monitoring systems are arduous to employ, cumbersome to the patient, and excessively costly. Ambulatory monitoring in-clinic is implausible and impracticable. Nevertheless, if a patient's ECG could be recorded in an ambulatory setting, thereby allowing the patient to engage in activities of daily living, the chances of acquiring meaningful information and capturing an abnormal event while the patient is engaged in normal activities becomes more likely to be achieved.
For instance, the long-term wear of ECG electrodes is complicated by skin irritation and the inability ECG electrodes to maintain continual skin contact after a day or two. Moreover, time, dirt, moisture, and other environmental contaminants, as well as perspiration, skin oil, and dead skin cells from the patient's body, can get between an ECG electrode, the non-conductive adhesive used to adhere the ECG electrode, and the skin's surface. All of these factors adversely affect electrode adhesion and the quality of cardiac signal recordings. Furthermore, the physical movements of the patient and their clothing impart various compressional, tensile, and torsional forces on the contact point of an ECG electrode, especially over long recording times, and an inflexibly fastened ECG electrode will be prone to becoming dislodged. Moreover, dislodgment may occur unbeknownst to the patient, making the ECG recordings worthless. Further, some patients may have skin that is susceptible to itching or irritation, and the wearing of ECG electrodes can aggravate such skin conditions. Thus, a patient may want or need to periodically remove or replace ECG electrodes during a long-term ECG monitoring period, whether to replace a dislodged electrode, reestablish better adhesion, alleviate itching or irritation, allow for cleansing of the skin, allow for showering and exercise, or for other purpose. Such replacement or slight alteration in electrode location actually facilitates the goal of recording the ECG signal for long periods of time.
Conventionally, Holter monitors are widely used for long-term extended ECG monitoring. Typically, they are often used for only 24-48 hours. A typical Holter monitor is a wearable and portable version of an ECG that include cables for each electrode placed on the skin and a separate battery-powered ECG recorder. The cable and electrode combination (or leads) are placed in the anterior thoracic region in a manner similar to what is done with an in-clinic standard ECG machine. The duration of a Holter monitoring recording depends on the sensing and storage capabilities of the monitor, as well as battery life. A "looping" Holter (or event) monitor can operate for a longer period of time by overwriting older ECG tracings, thence "recycling" storage in favor of extended operation, yet at the risk of losing event data. Although capable of extended ECG monitoring, Holter monitors are cumbersome, expensive and typically only available by medical prescription, which limits their usability. Further, the skill required to properly place the electrodes on the patient's chest hinders or precludes a patient from replacing or removing the precordial leads and usually involves moving the patient from the physician office to a specialized center within the hospital or clinic.
The ZIO XT Patch and ZIO Event Card devices, manufactured by iRhythm Tech., Inc., San Francisco, Calif., are wearable stick-on monitoring devices that are typically worn on the upper left pectoral region to respectively provide continuous and looping ECG recording. The location is used to simulate surgically implanted monitors. Both of these devices are prescription-only and for single patient use. The ZIO XT Patch device is limited to a 14-day monitoring period, while the electrodes only of the ZIO Event Card device can be worn for up to 30 days. The ZIO XT Patch device combines both electronic recordation components and physical electrodes into a unitary assembly that adheres to the patient's skin. The ZIO XT Patch device uses adhesive sufficiently strong to support the weight of both the monitor and the electrodes over an extended period of time and to resist disadherance from the patient's body, albeit at the cost of disallowing removal or relocation during the monitoring period. The ZIO Event Card device is a form of downsized Holter monitor with a recorder component that must be removed temporarily during baths or other activities that could damage the non-waterproof electronics. Both devices represent compromises between length of wear and quality of ECG monitoring, especially with respect to ease of long term use, female-friendly fit, and quality of atrial (P-wave) signals.
Therefore, a need remains for an extended wear continuously recording ECG monitor practicably capable of being worn for a long period of time, especially in women where breast anatomy can interfere with signal quality in both men and women and capable of recording atrial signals reliably.
A further need remains for a device capable of recording signals ideal for arrhythmia discrimination, especially a device designed for atrial activity recording.


An electrochemical device including a solid electrolyte and solid electrode composed of materials having different chemical compositions and characterized by different electrical properties but having the same crystalline phase is provided. A method for fabricating an electrochemical device having a solid electrode and solid electrolyte characterized by the same crystalline phase is also provided.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a solid electrolyte-electrode system for use in an electrochemical cell. More particularly, the invention relates to a solid oxide electrolyte-electrode system for use in a solid state electrochemical cell.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Electrochemical devices, particularly solid state electrochemical devices such as those used for energy conversion and storage, gas sensing, and gas separation and purification require optimized and compatible solid electrolyte and electrode materials. Different, specific demands are placed on the electrical conductivity properties of electrolyte and electrode materials making up those devices.
The total conductivity of a material, due to both ionic and electronic charge carriers, is equal to the sum of its ionic and electronic conductivity. The fraction of the total conductivity carried by ions is referred to as the ionic transference number and the fraction of the total conductivity carried by electrons is referred to as the electronic transference number.
Solid electrolyte materials should be primarily ionically conductive and have ionic transference numbers close to unity and have electronic transference numbers close to zero to avoid cell discharge under open circuit conditions due to gas permeation. Ionic conductivity should be high to maximize cell voltage and minimize resistive losses. Typically, electrolytes meeting the above criteria and having sufficiently high conductivities to be useful in practical electrochemical devices have oxygen ions or hydrogen ions, protons, as the ionically conductive species. For oxygen ion conductor solid electrolyte materials, the ionic transference number must remain near unity over a wide range of oxygen concentrations as measured usually in terms of oxygen partial pressure. Furthermore, the electrolyte must be chemically and mechanically stable over the service temperatures at which the electrochemical device is to operate.
Solid electrodes, like solid electrolytes, must be chemically and mechanically stable at electrochemical device service temperatures and device environments. Additionally, solid electrodes must be chemically compatible with the solid electrolytes with which they are used to avoid formation of chemical reaction products which can compromise electrochemical device operation.
Special requirements are placed on solid electrodes used in fuel cells where oxidation and reduction reactions occur respectively at the anode and cathode electrodes. In order to achieve rapid reaction kinetics and avoid losses caused by overpotentials at the electrodes, ionic and electronic carrier species and gas phase species must be rapidly supplied to or removed from the electrode/electrolyte interface. Rapid kinetics and loss prevention is accomplished either by using electronically conductive electrodes with sufficient porosity to allow gas molecules to reach the three phase (electrolyte-reactant-electrode) interface or preferably by using an electrode characterized by mixed ionic-electronic conduction (MIEC) whose surface is everywhere catalytically active.
Conventional electrochemical cells typically use stabilized zirconia (e.g. ZrO.sub.2 stabilized with 9 mol % Y.sub.2 O.sub.3) as the solid electrolyte because of its excellent stability with respect to oxidation and reduction and high oxygen ion conductivity (.sigma.=10.sup.-1 S/cm at 1000.degree. C.) along with doped LaMnO.sub.3, doped LaCrO.sub.3 and Ni--ZrO.sub.2 cermet solid electrode materials. When the electrochemical device is a fuel cell, perovskite crystal structured LaMnO.sub.3 and LaCrO.sub.3 oxides serve as the air electrode and interconnect and a Ni--ZrO.sub.2 cermet is the fuel electrode. Such conventional zirconia based electrolyte and electrode systems are described in Japanese Patent No. JP 1288759 dated Nov. 21, 1989; U.S. Pat. No. 4,233,142 to Rohr et al., issued Nov. 11, 1980; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,412,904 to Rohr et al., issued Nov. 1, 1983.
Conventional zirconia electrolyte based electrochemical cells have several limitations among which are the following. Efficient cell operation is limited to approximately 900.degree.-1000.degree. C. resulting from the high oxygen ion conductivity activation energy of 0.9-1.0 ev characteristic of zirconia based materials which results in sharply decreasing electrolyte ionic conductivity with temperature and interfacial electrode resistance which rapidly increases at low temperature. Furthermore, the cell lifetime of a zirconia electrolyte based cell is limited as a result of chemical reactions between the zirconia electrolyte and the LaMnO.sub.3 and LaCrO.sub.3 electrodes to form resistive intermediate phases; cracking due to thermal-mechanical stresses that arise between the different materials in contact at the electrolyte-electrode interface; densification of porous electrodes thus limiting gas access to and removal from the electrolyte-electrode interface; and aging of the non-equilibrium cubic fluorite phase of stabilized zirconia resulting in ordering and trapping of the oxygen charge carriers thereby resulting in reduced electrolyte conductivity.
Thus, there exists a need for a stable electrolyte-electrode system capable of operating at temperatures in the range of from about 900.degree.-1000.degree. C. or preferably lower than the operating range of conventional zirconia electrolyte-based technology; minimizing stability difficulties resulting from chemical reactions and thermal mechanical stresses between the different compounds and aging of the electrolyte; and exhibiting enhanced electrode kinetics.

Solid electrolyte-electrode system for an electrochemical cell


The present invention is directed to novel multivalent DNA vaccine compositions for inhibiting/blocking one or more virulence antigenic factors of Yersinia pestis in an individual via compositions containing fusion proteins derived from Yersinia pestis fused to the CD40 ligand. Specifically, it involves the administering of expression vectors carrying transcription units that encode fusion proteins comprising a Yersinia pestis antigenic factor fused to the aminoterminal end of the extracellular domain (ecd) of the CD40 ligand (CD40L). The first antigenic factor is a 30 amino acid region (amino acids 196-226) of LcrV outer protein and the second antigenic factor is a 127 amino acid region (amino acids 22-149) of F1 outer protein. The composition may additionally incorporate two secretable fusion proteins (amino acids 196-226 of LcrV and amino acids 22-149 of F1) or multiple antigenic factors (YpkA, YopD, YscF, YadC, OppA) in an effort to reduce the probability of immunological escape.

The following discussion of the background of the invention is merely provided to aid the reader in understanding the invention and is not admitted to describe or constitute prior art to the present invention.
Yersinia pestis (YP), a facultative anaerobe, is a Gram-negative bacillus. It is the etiological agent of plague, a zoonotic disease usually transmitted to humans from infected rodents via the bite of an infected flea. YP infection can result in three forms of the disease: (i) bubonic, (ii) septicemic and/or (iii) pneumonic plague. Pneumonic plague is highly contagious and easily transmitted among humans via airborne droplets, resulting in a rapid onset of disease and a mortality rate approaching 100% if treatment is delayed more than 24-hour postexposure.
Recently, plague has attracted a considerable attention because of its potential misuse as a biological warfare agent. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention regards Yersinia pestis as a type A bioterrorism threat. Most experts agree that a large plague outbreak would put health-care resources under severe pressure given the disease's inherent communicability, rapid clinical course, and high mortality if left untreated. Thus, it is imperative to develop an ideal plague vaccine for human use.
Historically, plague was a fatal infectious disease afflicting human populations, leading to millions of deaths. Yersinia pestis infections have led to three great pandemics that have caused the deaths of millions of individuals throughout history. The first was in the Mediterranean area in the 5th to 6th centuries AD, and the second was in Europe between the 8th and 14 centuries AD, both killing about one-half of the existing population. The third started in China in the 19th century and is still ongoing. The disease is transmitted to human beings from animals (cats and rats) by the infected fleas that they carry. Human to human transmission can occur through contact with the bodily fluids or aerosols produced by late stage infected individuals (1). Because millions of animals are infected worldwide in deserts, the steppes, mountains and forest (2), this disease will probably never be eradicated. Although there are antibiotics for treatment of these infections, the mortality is still high due to the rapid rate of the spread of the infection, once it is established in a human subject. There continue to be isolated, sporadic outbreaks of infections within the United States and around the world: (a) the 1994 plague outbreak from India; (b) the death of a woman in 1984 in the Lake Tahoe area who contracted the disease from her cat (3); (c) A case of bubonic plague in a 58 year old man was reported in 2011 in New Mexico; and (d) ground squirrels infected with the plague were recently reported in the San Diego area.
To date, there are no approved vaccines for Yersinia pestis. It is still very difficult to protect against pneumonic plague induced by inhalation of contaminated aerosols using vaccination. Accordingly, YP remains a bioterrorist threat for which there is no satisfactory countermeasure. YP is capable of spreading very rapidly in a human subject because of the Yersinia Outer Proteins (Yops) which block the immune response against YP, and kill the cells into which YP is taken up (4-5). One of these Yops is LcrV, a 41-kDa protein that is at the tip of the type III needle translocation complexes, and is required for the secretion of two other Yops: YopB and YopD (6-7). Another of these Yops is F1, the capsular pilus antigen that covers the outer wall of YP (8-9), and thereby prevents the uptake and killing of YP by macrophages (8). LcrV is involved in translocation of toxins from the YP bacterial cell to the cytoplasm of the YP infected host cell and F1 is a protein on the outer surface of YP that prevents phagocytosis of YP by macrophages (5). These two proteins are important to the virulence of YP since the administration of antibodies to these two proteins (singly or in combination) can protect mice from the effects of lethal doses of YP (10). Antibodies to these two proteins interact synergistically in protecting mice from YP challenge (10-11). While LcrV is required for virulence, F1 is dispensable (11-12).


A system and method that allows a mobile device to register for IMS services while the mobile device is roaming in a visited telecommunications network is disclosed. The system receives a request for multiple IMS services from a mobile device while the mobile device is roaming in a foreign network. The system uses an identifier of the foreign network and an associated RAT type to query a policy table containing a list of whitelisted IMS services for the foreign network and associated RAT type. The system processes the requested IMS registrations for services that are whitelisted and does not process requested IMS registrations for services that are not on the whitelist.

The Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem ("IMS") is an architectural framework for delivering Internet Protocol ("IP") multimedia to mobile users, such as users of smart phones or tablet computers. An IMS core network ("IMS core") permits wireless and wireline devices to access multimedia, messaging, and voice applications and services. IMS standards and specifications have been promulgated by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project ("3GPP" ™). To allow the IMS core to be integrated with Internet resources, the 3GPP specifications use Internet Engineering Task Force protocols within the IMS core, such as Session Initiation Protocol ("SIP") and Diameter. SIP is a signaling protocol used for creating, modifying and terminating two-party or multiparty sessions consisting of one or several media streams. A mobile device registers its IP address with a SIP registrar server within an IMS core by generating and sending a SIP request message with a "REGISTER" method token. Once registered, a mobile device may subsequently establish multimedia sessions via the IMS core.
An IMS client (or IMS stack) software component on a mobile device allows one or more applications on the mobile device to register for various application services that are available on the IMS network, such as Voice over LTE (VoLTE), Rich Communication Services (RCS), Short Message Service over Internet Protocol (SMS over IP), and Presence. If the registration is successful, the mobile device application may then take advantage of the functionality offered by the application service to which it is registered. If the registration is unsuccessful, however, then the application will be unable to take advantage of the offered functionality.
In cases where a mobile device requests multiple IMS services while roaming in a foreign network (i.e., a visited Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN)), the operator of a home network that is associated with the mobile device (i.e., a Home PLMN) may find it desirable to allow the mobile device to register for certain IMS services while restricting the mobile device from registering for certain for other IMS services. A mobile network operator may desire such functionality for a variety of reasons. For example, an operator may restrict certain IMS services in order to avoid technical conflicts, optimize network traffic, or offer premium services to certain subscribers. In the case of technical conflicts, the operator may desire to avoid an incompatibility between two or more IMS services. For example, the operator may determine that enabling both LTE roaming and Voice over LTE (VoLTE) on the same mobile device may cause problems in the telecommunications network or at the mobile device. As a result, the operator may wish to establish a service policy that allows a mobile device to register for LTE roaming or VoLTE, but not both. The operator may wish to establish this policy and other policies that would restrict access to one or more whitelisted IMS services based on criteria including the visited network from which the mobile device is roaming and the Radio Access Technology (RAT) type associated with the home network. Moreover, the operator may wish to administer the service policy within the IMS network to avoid the need to maintain a copy of the service policy in multiple application servers and to reduce the amount of signaling that must occur in the network to accomplish registration of the whitelisted services.

Enhanced IMS services restriction and selection control for mobile devices roaming in foreign networks


Presented herein is a sub-miniature radio telephone decoder which through a unique arrangement of integrated circuits adapted to create frequency detectors and counters provide the means whereby a radio telephone receiver is held in a muted state until a predetermined 600/1500 MTS code representing a phone number is decoded. When the predetermined code has been detected, the decoder unmutes the receiver and activates an audio signal. The functions are accomplished by first and second frequency detectors responsive to 600 Hz and 1500 Hz tones in combination with means to count frequency shifts between the two tones and interpret sets of shifts as digits of a predetermined telephone code.

The use of radio telephones in mobile applications as a convenience or business tool is becoming increasingly popular and has created a demand for reliable instruments compatible with conventional land line telephone systems and the dialing codes used therein. This demand has been met by numerous systems adapted to decode dial codes. However, these systems become increasingly complex as the number of digits in the codes increases to meet the increased user demand. This has resulted in the development of radio telephone decoders which are complex, costly, difficult to maintain, difficult to install and tailor to a specific application and require special mounting and installation considerations.
For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 3,859,475 on "Decoder Channel Selector And Enunciator System In An Airborne Radio Telephone System" issued to P. Wulfsberg et al on Jan. 3,1975 teaches the concept of a radio telephone decoder of the type which determines a series code based upon the transition of a tone signal between 600 and 1500 Hz but it is limited in its ability to cope with the ever increasing number of radio telephones and is not compatible with a standard seven digit dial code due to the five digit selector limitation in the circuitry. This system, while an improvement over the bulky relay decoders used in prior art does not appear to provide an adaptable, field strapable decoding system or sub-miniature structure which would simplify installation and maintenance.


The instant invention is directed to aminomethyl cyclododecanes selected from the group consisting of aminomethyl cyclododecanes, bis-(aminomethyl)-cyclododecanes, tris-(aminomethyl)-cyclododecanes and mixtures thereof. The invention is also directed to a process for producing aminomethyl cyclododecanes, bis-(aminomethyl)-cyclododecanes, tris-(aminomethyl)-cyclododecanes, and mixtures thereof comprising reacting cyclododeca-1,5,9-triene with carbon monoxide and hydrogen in the presence of a rhodium-containing catalyst at temperatures of from 80.degree. to 180.degree. C. and under pressures of from 30 to 900 bars, separating the catalyst off from the hydroformylation product and treating the hydroformylation products with hydrogen at from 50.degree. to 150.degree. C. in the presence of ammonia and a hydrogenation catalyst, optionally after separating by distillation into the individual components.

This invention relates to aminomethyl cyclododecanes selected from the group consisting of aminomethyl cyclododecane, bis-(aminomethyl)-cyclododecanes, tris-(aminomethyl)-cyclododecanes and mixtures thereof.
The present invention also relates to a process for producing these new compounds which is characterized in that cyclododeca-1,5,9-triene is reacted with carbon monoxide and hydrogen in the presence of a rhodium-containing catalyst at temperatures of from 80.degree. to 180.degree. C. and under pressures of from 30 to 900 bars. The catalyst is separated from the hydroformylation product and the hydroformylation products are treated with hydrogen in the presence of ammonia and a hydrogenation catalyst at from 50.degree. to 150.degree. C., optionally after separation by distillation into the individual components.
The present invention also relates to the use of the new compounds as corrosion inhibitors in heating oils, lubricants or motor fuels based on hydrocarbons.
The hydroformylation of cyclododeca-1,5,9-triene is known (U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,312,742 and 3,354,229; French Pat. No. 1,411,448 or British Pat. No. 1,161,147). According to these patents, corresponding C.sub.13 -alcohols and mixtures containing formyl cyclodocane in addition to formyl cyclodecene, formyl cyclodocadiene and the C.sub.13 -alcohol can be produced from cyclododecatriene using cobalt catalysts. Even under controlled conditions, the yield of formyl cyclododecane does not exceed 40% of the theoretical. Hydroxymethyl cyclododecanes are always obtained as the main product. Even under conditions under which formyl cyclooctane is obtained in a 56.7% yield from cycloocta-1,5-diene, hydroxymethyl cyclododecane is almost exclusively formed from cyclododeca-1,5,9-triene.
The production of di- and tri-formyl cyclododecanes would appear to involve even greater difficulties.
The use of cobalt complexes with trialkyl phosphite ligands in the hydroformylation of cyclododecatriene also results primarily in the formation of hydroxymethyl cyclododecane.

Aminomethyl cyclododecanes, a process for their production and their use as corrosion inhibitors


A waste water-treating method, which comprises the steps of: adjusting the pH value of an aqueous solution containing a nitrous acid radical within a range of 2 to 5; treating said aqueous solution with hydrogen peroxide to oxidize the nitrous acid radical into a nitric acid radical; and throwing away the waste water in the neutralized form.

This invention relates to a method of oxidizing a nitrous acid radical (NO.sub.2.sup.-) contained in an aqueous solution, particularly plant waste water with hydrogen peroxide to convert said nitrous acid radical into a nitric acid radical (NO.sub.3.sup.-).
The method of this invention can be effectively applied in treating plant waste water chiefly containing a nitrous acid radical. The reason for this is that a nitrous acid radical contained in a plant waste water acts to increase the value of chemical oxygen demand (hereinafter referred to as "COD") of said waste water, and the nitrous acid has to be properly treated. As used herein, the term "COD value" is defined to mean an amount of oxygen (expressed in ppm) equivalent to that of potassium permangate required to oxidize plant waste water.
The nitrous acid radical is contained in waste water discharged from the plants of organic nitration and nitric acid oxidation and nitrogen oxide-absorbing plants. A high temperature heating medium composed of a molten salt mixture of nitrate and nitrite is widely applied in the fields of, for example, the heat treatment of metals, the processing of soft polyvinyl chloride and the vulcanization of rubber products. Where, for example, a metal material is treated in direct contact with the molten salt mixture, then it is necessary to wash the treated material with clear water. In this case, however, a small amount of nitrite is unavoidably carried into the waste water, after washing.
The various methods available to treat a nitrous acid radical contained in the waste water discharged from the above-mentioned plants are essentially based on the oxidization of said nitrous acid radical into a nitric acid radical which does not increase the COD value of the waste water. One of the proposed methods is to carry out said oxidation by oxides of heavy metals. However, this method is liable to give rise to another environmental pollution. Another proposed method is based on photo-oxidation. However, this method has too low an efficiency to be put to practical application. The present inventors have made studies over a broad range to develop a clean method of oxidizing the nitrous acid radical which can be effectively applied on an industrial basis and is not accompanied with any environmental pollution problem after said oxidation. As a result, the inventors have found that where the nitrous acid radical is oxidized by hydrogen peroxide under a certain specified condition, the reaction of said oxidation is fully completed. For application of this finding to the waste water treatment, the inventors has developed an industrial method of automatically oxidizing the nitrous acid radical contained in said waste water into the nitric acid radical which does not increase the COD value thereof.


A combination golf ball lift and ball mark repair apparatus is disclosed and mounted to a handgrip end of a golf club. Ball mark repair means extends from the handgrip for lifting and turning dirt and turf to repair a ball mark with the gofer holding the golf club substantially at the clubhead end of the golf club. Ball lift means, releasably mountable upon said ball mark repair means, is provided for lifting a golf ball from a surface upon which the golf ball rests when a with the golfer holding the golf club substantially at its clubhead end. The ball lift means also acts as a protective cover for the ball mark repair means when mounted thereon. Internal mounting means is provided to rigidly mount the ball mark repair means within the hollow shaft to the handgrip end of the golf club. The ball mark repair means and ball lift means are entirely contained within an imaginary cylindrical boundary extending from the outer surface of the handgrip at parallel to a longitudinal axis of the golf club.

The prior art is replete with golf club mounted apparatus. Examples of such apparatus in a search of prior art for such apparatus are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,239,264; 3,273,927; 3,562, 184; 3,698,720; 4,925,190; 4,787,632; 4,892,314; 4,799,684; 4,955,609 and 5,116,046.
A review of the above patents reveals that none of the apparatus disclosed therein is capable of providing for golfer a safe, durable and convenient golf club mounted device which allows the golfer to lift golf balls and to repair ball marks on a putting surface without needing to bend over. More particularly, no apparatus is disclosed in which a safely shaped ball lifting means is mounted over a ball mark repair means to allow a golfer to lift a ball without bending over and which also acts as a cover to the ball mark repair means. All of the devices disclosed, while suitable for their intended purpose, fall short of the above-stated goal. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,293,351 to Dupont discloses a golf club end mounted ball scoop which allows the golfer to pick up a golf ball from a ball cup without bending over. However, this device provides no means for repairing ball marks on the putting green.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,892,314 to Rango discloses a means for repairing divots, or ball marks, which is positioned within a hollow end of a golf shaft. However, the divot repair means is only kept in the shaft for storage and so the device does not alleviate the need for the golfer to bend over to repair a divot. U.S. Pat. No. 4,925,190 Learned overcomes the limitation of Rango by disclosing a combination golf club and turf repair tool in which the turf repair means is mounted on the end of a golf club such that the golf club acts as a handle extension and the golfer can repair the divot without bending over. The turf repair tool further uses a portion of the handgrip as a cover for the repair tool. The tool, however, provides no means to lift a ball from the cup. Furthermore, the mounting configuration for mounting the repair tool to the golf club is subject to failure from repeated use. Specifically, the base is subject to be pushed into the shaft from translational forces produced while repairing a ball mark (e.g., when digging into the turf). Furthermore, the base is subject to rotating or tilting in the shaft from torque forces produced while repairing a ball mark (e.g. while turning the turf), necessitating tool repair costs.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,787,632 to Nigrelli discloses a device which allows the golfer to both lift the ball from the ball cup and to repair ball marks. However, as is easily apparent, the device is cumbersome on the golf club and exposes many dangerous and potentially damaging surfaces. Furthermore, the golf club cannot be readily put into or taken from a golf bag, because of the bulkiness of the device. Finally, the device's mounting is not torque or translation force resistant.
It would be desirable if the device provided the golfer the ability, without having to bend over, to repair a ball mark and to lift a ball out of a ball cup with little or no damage to the cup. It would further be desirable if the ball lifting means could also act as a removable cover for the ball mark repair means to protect against harm and damage from the repair means. It would be a significant advantage if such a device could provide a configuration which took up no more lateral room than the golf club itself, so that a golf club outfitted with the device structure could conveniently fit in the golf bag or in any other place which the unmodified golf club could fit into. It would also be beneficial if the ball mark repair means could be mounted to the golf club with significant resistance to the torsional and translational forces generated by repairing ball marks.
Additional objects, advantages and novel features of the invention shall be set forth in part in the description that follows, and in part will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon examination of the following or may be learned by the practice of the invention. The object and the advantages of the invention may be realized and attained by means of the instrumentalities and in combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.
To achieve the foregoing and other objects and in accordance with the purpose of the present invention, as embodied and broadly described herein, the combination ball lift and ball mark repair device of this invention may comprise the following.

Combination ball lift and ball mark repair apparatus and manufacturing method


Apparatus and Method for Handling Fluids at Nano-Scale Rates. A linear displacement pump produces non-pulsatile liquid flow rates as low as the nl/mm range. The pump includes a servo motor, a gear reduction, a lead screw, a linear stage, a barrel, and a plunger extending into the barrel and coupled to the stage. A microfluidic interconnect device can be coupled to the barrel. One or more of these pumps can be disposed in a thermally controlled pump assembly that includes a pump housing, a thermally conductive body disposed in the housing and including first and second opposing sides, and a temperature regulating element such as a thermoelectric device disposed in thermal contact with the thermally conductive body on a side thereof opposite to the barrel or barrels of the pumps.

Biochemical and biological assays are a primary tool utilized in many aspects of drug discovery, including fundamental research in biochemistry and biology to describe novel phenomena, analysis of large numbers of compounds, screening of compounds, clinical tests applied during clinical trials, and ultimately diagnostic tests during administration of drugs. Many biological and biochemical assays require measurement of the response of a biological or biochemical system to different concentrations of one reagent, such as an inhibitor, a substrate, or an enzyme. Typically, discrete steps of biochemical concentration are mixed within a proscribed range. The number of concentrations measured is limited by the number of dilution steps, which are limited in practice by the time and effort required to make the discrete dilutions, by the time and effort to process the resulting individual reactions, by reagent consumption as the number of reactions increases, and more strictly by pipetting errors that limit the resolution of discrete steps.
As technology advances in drug development, miniaturization and automation are active areas of innovation, with primary drivers being decreased cost (through decreased reagent use and decreased manpower) and improved data quality (through finer process control and increased process reliability). Improvements in data quality and automation frequently convey additional advantages that permit new scientific approaches to questions. Automation, if sufficiently extensive, can include software that permits automatic work scheduling to improve efficiency or statistical process control for process improvement. Again, these improvements achieve greater reliability, use less manpower, and improve throughput.
Microfluidic systems, including labs-on-a-chip (LoCs) and micro-total analysis systems (μ-TAS), are currently being explored as an alternative to conventional approaches that use microtiter plates. The miniaturization afforded by microfluidic systems has the potential to greatly reduce the amount of reagent needed to conduct high-throughput screening. Thus far, commercial microfluidic systems have shown some promise in performing point measurements, but have not been employed to mix concentration gradients and particularly continuous gradients due to technologic limitations. In particular, several challenges remain in the design of industry-acceptable microfluidic systems. Apart from cost and manufacture related issues, many sources of such challenges relate to the fact that, in a micro-scale or sub-micro-scale environment, certain fluid characteristics such as viscosity, surface tension, shear resistance, thermal conductivity, electrical conductivity, molecular diffusivity, and the like, take on a much more dominant role than other, more easily manageable factors such as weight and gravity. In addition, controlling the signal-to-noise ratio becomes much more challenging when working with nano-scale volumes and flow rates, as certain sources of noise that typically are inconsequential in macroscopic applications now become more noticeable and thus deleterious to the accuracy of data acquisition instruments.
One important consideration in the design of a microfluidic system is the means utilized for driving liquid flows. Pressure-based, electrokinetics-based, and displacement-based pumping techniques have been explored. As a general matter, pressure pumping generates a proscribed pressure difference at the two ends of a pipe. Examples of the use of pressure-driven flow in a microfluidic format, in which step-wise concentration gradients were generated in the course of enzymology-related experiments, are disclosed in Chien et al., "Multiport flow-control system for lab-on-a-chip microfluidic devices", Fresenius J Anal Chem 371, 106-11 (2001) and Kerby et al., "A fluorogenic assay using pressure-driven flow on a microchip", Electrophoresis 22, 3916-23 (2001).
Electrokinetic pumping techniques generally include electro-osmotic, electrophoretic, electro-wetting, and electrohydrodynamic (EHD) pumping, each of which operates on different principles than pressure and displacement pumping. For a general treatment of some types of electrokinetic pumping, see Bousse, et al., "Electrokinetically controlled microfluidic analysis systems", Annu Rev Biophys Biomol Struct 29, 155-81 (2000).
Displacement pumping generates a proscribed flow rate directly, typically by pushing a piston or other boundary against a volume of liquid. The change in volume generated by motion of the solid boundary, therefore, is the flow rate generated by the pump. A typical example of a displacement pump is a syringe pump.
The term "displacement micropumps" has been used to describe two categories of pumps. The first category includes pumps that are themselves microscopic, and are basically miniaturized versions of macroscopic centrifugal pumps, gear pumps, peristaltic pumps, rotary pumps, and the like. Some of these pumps can be fabricated on-chip using MEMS or other microfabrication techniques, and are capable of low flow rates. However, such pumps suffer from a number of limitations: they generate pulsatile flows, and the flow rates from these pumps depend in a non-linear way upon a number of factors, including the age of the pumps, the frequency with which the pumps are "pulsed", and their precise location on a chip. These factors make it difficult to use such pumps to achieve reliable and reproducible flow rates of the sort necessary to achieve controlled gradients. Additionally, these pumps are fabricated with semiconductor and MEMS manufacturing techniques. This fabrication can be extremely costly and time-consuming, and results in a specific pump-architecture that is not flexible or reconfigurable and, frequently, is not manufacturable according to industry-acceptable considerations.
The second category of displacement micropumps includes macroscopic pumps that are capable of delivering microscopic flow rates. Again, there are a wide variety of such pumps available. Some micropumps have minimum flow rates of tens of microliters per minute. Unfortunately, a μl/min-scale flow rate is three orders of magnitude larger than the nl/min-scale flow rates often desired by researchers interested in microfluidics-based assays and experiments, and nl/min flow rates have heretofore been unattainable with these pumps. The pumps that are of primary interest in this category are so-called syringe pumps. A syringe pump typically consists of a motor connected to, for example, a worm gear that pushes the plunger of a syringe, causing liquid to flow out of the syringe tip. The syringe is often coupled to whatever device or instrument requires the flow. Syringe pumps designed for low flow rates are commercially available. Some of these pumps are capable of delivering μl/min-scale flow rates. Most of these pumps, however, use stepper motors, which become unacceptably pulsatile as the step rate is decreased to drive very slow flows. While some syringe pumps use servomotors, they are not capable of practicing stable, precise, controllable flow rates below the μl/min scale. For many applications, such as dispensing predefined aliquots of liquid, pulsatile flows are acceptable. However, when a linear, or smoothly varying, continuous gradient is desired, the quality of flow from pumps utilizing stepper motors decreases as the flow rate drops, adding noise to the gradient at the extremes of the gradient. In contrast, a servomotor is capable of moving at any speed (in non-discrete steps), because the rotation rate is directly controlled (not the frequency of steps).
Another factor in the design of microfluidic systems is the microfluidic interconnect, which generally provides a fluidic interface between a microfluidic component and either another microfluidic component or a macrofluidic component. As with all fluidic connections, a microfluidic interconnect should create a mechanically stable, fluid-tight connection between the components that can contain the pressures of the fluids. Additionally, a microfluidic interconnect should have a small dead volume so as not to approach or exceed the volume of the microfluidic device associated therewith. Moreover, dead volumes should be kept small for the sake of efficiency because, by nature, a sample is neither prepared nor analyzed in a dead volume. In addition, a microfluidic interconnect should not have outpockets, create rapid expansions of channel volumes, or introduce sharp turns, so that the interconnect does not generate excessive dispersion of chemical concentration gradients. The interconnect should not trap bubbles because this affects the accuracy of displacement flow rates, and, as a result, affects time of flight and concentration. Finally, the interconnect should be manufacturable in a precise, reliable, and repeatable manner.
One consideration when employing a microfluidic system to acquire data is thermal noise. For example, room temperature fluctuations can influence flow rates and measurements of the flows and of chemical reactions. There are several reasons that temperature fluctuations cause noise. Among other things, the fluorescent dyes often utilized to monitor reaction rates are pH dependent, and many pH buffers are temperature dependent. The rates of reaction of enzymes are strongly temperature dependent. Also, physical changes to components in the system due to thermal expansion can affect flows and measurements. Thermal changes in the fluid paths can change flow characteristics, flow rates and fluid velocities. For example, a change of only 0.01% volume over 1 minute for a volume of 10 microliters equals a volume change of 1 nl, which is problematic if flows of 1 nl/min are being studied. When trying to control flow rates of nl/min, very small changes in volume can produce significant changes in the observed flows. Thermal changes in the alignment of components, similarly, can have undesired effects owing to the small sizes of microfluidic components. For example, consider a photodetector that has been positioned to perform optical measurements in the center of a microfluidic channel that is 10 μm wide. Thermal expansion of only a few micrometers can move the photodetector off-center or even entirely away from the channel. Similarly, many microfluidic chips are made of bonded or laminated materials. These laminated structures are highly prone to flexing due to thermal expansion of the laminates, especially if one laminate expands more than another. This flexing of the chip can change the position of a microchannel that has been, for example, positioned into the beam of a laser for photo-measurement of a chemical reaction in the channel.
The embodiments described herein are provided to address these and other problems attending current microfluidic systems.

Apparatus and method for handling fluids at nano-scale rates


A high efficiency grate and stove heating unit for extracting useful heat from a fire, comprising in combination a low metal enclosure having an expansive top wall constituting a grate proper for supporting fireplace logs and the coals resulting therefrom, together with multiple heat exchangers in the form of plates or corrugation ribs on the top wall and means to cradle the logs thereof. Other plates or corrugation ribs extend downward from the top wall, and the plates can abut the bottom enclosure wall to constitute a reinforcement means. In one embodiment of the invention the enclosure includes an air inlet port connected with an electric blower for forcing air into the enclosure, together with multiple outlet ports from which the air, now heated, flows. A series of forward protruding nozzles is carried by the enclosure and communicates with the outlet ports to channel the heated air in directions away from the enclosure and its inlet port. Disposed between the blower and the fire area is a heat shield that intercepts radiant heat from the fire, which would otherwise impinge on the blower and cause over-heating of the same. The ribs or plates extending downward from the top wall of the grate form of enclosure constitute a series of internal compartments, and force the circulating air to follow tortuous or circuitous paths. In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the blower simultaneously pressurizes all the compartments, with each of the latter in turn communicating with one of the enclosure's outlet ports.

This invention relates generally to domestic wood or coal heaters such as fireplace grates, stove grates, stoves and the like, and more particularly to grates and stoves wherein a forced convection of the exchanger fluid is employed to increase the heating efficiency.
Typically, the heating efficiency of a conventional fireplace or stove is extremely low for two reasons. First, the heat represented by the smoke and vapors is largely lost up the chimney. Second, the updraft in the chimney draws cold air from outside the house to filter into the room through the cracks in the doors and window casings, the cold air partially replacing the relatively warmer air occupying the room. In the past, many attempts have been made to increase the efficiency of fireplaces and stoves by extracting more of the waste heat and circulating it into the room. In some systems, this has taken the form of multiple convection channels in the brick surrounding the fireplace itself, both with and without auxiliary forced air equipment. Several manufactures have developed gratings constituted of multiple U-shaped lengths of tubing disposed side by side, such that air could circulate through the tubes by natural convection. Many of these had complicated or difficult shapes and were costly to manufacture, being thus only moderately successful. Still other devices employed hollow tubing with forced convection, but these latter suffered from the drawback that only a limited area of the convectors was actually in contact with the glowing coals, which actually represent a large portion of the heat available from the fire. Accordingly, the efficiency of such systems, while better than that of an ordinary fireplace, still tended to be rather low.
Conventional open-fire stoves depended on natural convection to distribute their heat, and in consequence the area surrounding the stoves was overly hot whereas areas remote from the stove were too cold. Also, there was lacking the capability of circulating heated fluid from upper, lower and wall portions of the stove fire box, which portions received considerable heat by convection and radiation.


A wall, for example the wall of a vascular graft, has multiple channels within it. The channels may be used to hold drugs or reinforcing fibers. The channels may have a predetermined roughness. The channels may be formed by coextrusion using a soluble material, for example, to define the channels and then dissolving them to open the channels in the extrudate.

Implantable prostheses, such as vascular grafts, are commonly used in medical procedures. Tubular grafts may be used to replace or repair damaged or diseased blood vessels. The effectiveness of such devices depends on a number of factors. Important among these are the factors that allow prostheses to match the characteristics of the natural body tissue that is being repaired or replaced, or to adequately compensate for any the prosthesis's shortcomings. In addition, prostheses may exceed the performance of the body part being replaced or repaired, in some respects, or provide some auxiliary function not normally associated with the replaced body part to be replaced or repaired but which may be useful in treating disease or injury.
It is well known to use extruded tubes of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) to make vascular grafts. PTFE is suitable as an implantable prosthesis because of its biocompatibility. PTFE tubes, used as vascular grafts, generally exhibit low thrombogenicity. In vascular applications, the grafts are manufactured from expanded polytetrafluoroethylene (ePTFE) tubes. The microporous structure of these tubes permits natural tissue ingrowth once implanted in a living host. This contributes to healing and long-term patency.
Grafts of ePTFE have a fibrous structure with interspaced nodes connected by fibrils. Where the spaces between the node surfaces are large, tissue ingrowth and cell endothelization may be enhanced. But this characteristic also tends to make the graft delicate. So a number of prior art techniques to reinforce such grafts have been proposed.
One approach has been to modify the structure of the extruded PTFE tubing, during formation, to align fibrils, thereby increasing both radial tensile strength as well as axial tear strength. Forming tubular grafts of multiple layers using different material structures where one tubular structure is formed about another can provide the strength of one material with the porosity and endothelization effectiveness of the other material. Combinations of PTFE and textiles or metal mesh, as used in stents, are known.
With regard to ePTFE grafts, it is known to incorporate antimicrobial agents to form a coating composition which may include a biodegradable polymer and anti-microbial agents, for example, chlorhexidine acetate and pipracil. Known stents or vascular prostheses include those with an overlying biodegradable coating layers that contain drugs, such as anti-coagulants or antibiotic substances. Also known are medical implants where an antimicrobial agent is impregnated throughout the material of the implant or in a region near the surface. Silver may be deposited onto the surface of a porous polymeric substrate via beam deposition and then the pores may be filled with a polymeric material that is biodegradable.
Also known is an implantable graft, with inner and outer coaxial tubes with a space between them separated by ribs. The primary and secondary tubular bodies are joined by the ribs and may be bonded or extruded. The spaces between the tubes can be filled with a leak sealing agent or drug.
There is a need in the art for improved methods of manufacturing multi-channel grafts and also for providing such grafts with certain surface characteristics in the wall-channels.
In the prior art, ePTFE based grafts are typically subjected to a sintering process which is generally done at high temperatures (>100°). Such high temperature exposure can reduce or destroy the bioactivity of many bioactive substances. In addition, there is a need to develop graft-based drug delivery technologies that can provide for drug delivery without altering the surface characteristics of ePTFE grafts.

Vascular grafts with multiple channels and methods for making


Methods and systems are provided for graphics processing unit distributed work-item queuing. One or more work-items of a wavefront are queued into a first level queue of a compute unit. When one or more additional work-items exist, a queuing of the additional work-items into a second level queue of the compute unit is performed. The queuing of the work-items into the first and second level queue is performed based on an assignment technique.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to processing data using single instruction multiple data (SIMD) cores.
2. Background Art
In many applications, such as graphics processing in a Graphics Processing Unit ("GPU"), a sequence of work-items, which can also be referred to as threads, are processed in order to output a final result. In many modern parallel processors, for example, processors within a SIMD core synchronously execute a set of working items. Typically, the synchronous executing of work-items are identical (i.e., have the identical code base). A plurality of identical synchronous work-items that are processed by separate processors are known as, or called, a wavefront or warp.
During processing, one or more SIMD cores concurrently execute multiple wavefronts. Execution of the wavefront terminates when all work-items within the wavefront complete processing. Each wavefront includes multiple work-items that are processed in parallel, using the same set of instructions. Generally, the time required for each work-item to complete processing depends on a criterion determined by data within the work-item. As such, the work-items with the wavefront can complete processing at different times. When the processing of all work-items has been completed, the SIMD core finishes processing the wavefront.
However, since different work-items require different amounts of processing to complete a required task, a parallel processing compute unit can start processing a particular task effectively utilizing all of the processors, but after a certain number of cycles processor efficiency decreases as some of the work-items are completed. This decrease in efficiency is due to the fact that each block of data is an individual work-item, but all of the individual work-items are scheduled and processed as a single workgroup.
The severity of the decrease in efficiency is dependent upon the type of application being processed by the parallel processors. For example, a facial recognition algorithm may attempt to determine if an area in an image is a face by processing different spatial areas of an image in parallel. Once the algorithm determines that the analyzed area is not a face, the work-item for that spatial area terminates and has no additional work to perform on any subsequent processing cycles. Such facial recognition algorithms may consist of dozens of analysis passes on an identified area to determine if that area of the image includes a face. After as few as four or five passes there may only be a small portion of work-items that remain as possible candidate faces as the remaining images have been determined to either be a face or not a face. However, as there are still some remaining portions of the image that have not been determined whether or not they contain a facial image, the process continues, even though only a small portion of the processors are actually performing any valid processing.