An ultrasound machine is disclosed that generates a color representation of moving structure, such as a cardiac wall tissue within a region of interest, and is displayed on a monitor. The color representation is generated by displaying at least one color characteristic related to a movement parameter of the structure, such as mean velocity or mean strain rate. The related feature of the movement parameter is mapped to the color characteristic by an apparatus comprising a front-end that generates received signals in response to backscattered ultrasound waves. A Doppler processor generates a set of parameter signals representing a spatial set of values of the movement parameter within the structure. A host processor embodies a tracking function and a peak-detection function to generate a set of tracked movement parameter profiles and a set of peak values of the movement parameter over a time period corresponding to anatomical locations within the region of interest. The set of peak values of the movement parameter are then mapped to a set of color characteristic signals. A display processor applies the mapped values of the color characteristic signals to the set of peak values of the movement parameter, representing the moving structure, to display a color representation, on a monitor.

Certain embodiments of the present invention relate to an ultrasound machine for displaying an image of moving structure. More particularly, certain embodiments relate to displaying a color characteristic representing the moving structure.
Echocardiography is a branch of the ultrasound field that is currently a mixture of subjective image assessment and extraction of key quantitative parameters, of cardiac wall function has been hampered by a lack of well-established parameters that may be used to increase the accuracy and objectivity in the assessment of, for example, coronary artery diseases. Stress echo is such an example. It has been shown that the subjective part of wall motion scoring in stress echo is highly dependent on operator training and experience. It has also been shown that inter-observer variability between echo-centers is unacceptably high due to the subjective nature of the wall motion assessment.
Much technical and clinical research has focused on the problem and has aimed at defining and validating quantitative parameters. Encouraging clinical validation studies have been reported, which indicate a set of new potential parameters that may be used to increase objectivity and accuracy in the diagnosis of, for instance, coronary artery diseases. Many of the new parameters have been difficult or impossible to assess directly by visual inspection of the ultrasound images generated in real-time. The quantification has typically required a post-processing step with tedious, manual analysis to extract the necessary parameters.
Much of the prior art describes techniques for color mapping of estimated imaging parameters such as tissue velocity and strain rate. A fixed mapping of a continuous range of color hues is typically used to indicate positive velocities or strain rates and a second fixed mapping of a continuous range of color hues is used to indicate negative velocities or strain rates. This type of color encoding makes it easy to identify reversals in velocities or strain rates. Timing information related to the velocity or strain rate reversals is also easy to extract from M-mode displays.
However, the tissue velocity imaging (TVI) and strain rate imaging (SRI) modes and associated color mapping schemes in the prior art are not, by themselves, well suited for visual determination of other parameters, such as xe2x80x9cpeakxe2x80x9d mean velocities or xe2x80x9cpeakxe2x80x9d mean strain rates over a portion of the cardiac cycle. Herein, xe2x80x9cpeakxe2x80x9d refers to the largest mean parameter value within a set of mean parameter values. Typically, a Nyquist velocity and associated pulse repetition frequency is set in order to avoid aliasing. Most of the actual mean velocities are only a small fraction of the peak mean velocity that, in cardiac imaging from apex, typically may be measured at the mitral ring during the E-wave in diastole. As a result, most regions in the image are colored with only small variations of the color hue selected for lower positive and/or lower negative mean velocities. Quantitative assessment of parameters such as peak mean velocities or peak mean strain rates from 2-D images has been difficult, even in lucky situations, with a good spread of measured imaging parameters. It has, therefore, been necessary to resort to post-processing techniques and manual extraction of the digital information for estimation of quantitative peak values.
Academic work has been done for validation of peak mean systolic velocities as an indicator of, for example, ischemia in stress echo. Clinical results indicate that a reduction in peak mean systolic velocities at peak exercise is a good predictor of coronary artery diseases. Therefore, it is useful to design a display mechanization that makes it easy to visually assess above average and/or peak mean systolic velocities in a quantitative manner.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,820,561 (Olstad, et al, issued Oct. 13, 1998) describes extracting timing information from estimated parameters (such as velocity of curved organs) during a cardiac cycle and color encoding the timing information for display.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,910,119 (Lin, issued Jun. 8, 1999) describes a technique for computing and displaying the absolute magnitude and direction of peak velocities for tissue using variance estimates.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,628,321 (Scheib, et al., issued May 13, 1997) describes a technique for computing many peak velocities over a cardiac cycle from the power spectrum of received pulses using a threshold to determine an optimum cardiac cycle.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,846,202 (Ramamurthy, et al, issued Dec. 8, 1998) describes color coding of blood flow velocities and using the highest mean velocity for display (Col 9, lines 7-14).
Techniques described in the foregoing patents fail to provide a color coded display of moving structure from which a user may readily observe peak structural movement parameter values.
A need exists for a robust approach to easily visualize a color-coded display of moving tissue structure such that a user may readily observe structural movement parameter values that are larger than mean values.
An embodiment of the present invention provides an ultrasound system for generating an image representative of moving cardiac structure by displaying color characteristics representative of peak values of mean parameter signals that are representative of the moving structure.
An apparatus is provided in an ultrasound machine for generating a display responsive to moving structure of a subject within a region of interest (ROI) by displaying at least one color characteristic related to a movement parameter of the structure. In such an environment the apparatus for displaying the color characteristic preferably comprises a front-end arranged to transmit ultrasound waves into the structure and then to generate received signals in response to ultrasound waves backscattered from the structure in the ROI over a time period. A processor is responsive to the received signals to generate a set of parameter signals representing values of the movement parameter within the structure during the time period and is responsive to the set of parameter signals to generate a color characteristic signal representative of a selected value larger than the mean value of the set of parameter signals. A display is arranged to display a color representation of the moving structure in response to the color characteristic signal.
A method is also provided in an ultrasound machine for generating a display responsive to moving structure within a region of interest (ROI) of a subject by displaying at least one color characteristic related to a movement parameter of the structure. In such an environment, the method preferably comprises transmitting ultrasound waves into the structure and receiving signals in response to ultrasound waves backscattered from the structure in the region of interest over a time period. A set of parameter signals representing values of the movement parameter within the structure during the time period is generated in response to the received signals. A color characteristic signal representative of a selected value larger than the mean value of the set of parameter signals is generated in response to the set of parameter signals. A color representation of the moving structure is displayed in response to the color characteristic signal.
Certain embodiments of the present invention afford an approach to visualize the color display of movement parameter values of moving structure greater than mean values in real-time with a degree of convenience and accuracy previously unattainable in the prior art.

Ultrasound display of selected movement parameter values

GE Medical Systems Global Technology Company, LLC


The present invention is an improved process for absorbing and decontaminating an organic chemical spill comprising the steps of: partially composting plant material; mixing approximately 80% of the partially composted plant material with approximately 20% of dry plant material; inoculating the mixture with about 50 to 100 parts per million by weight of an organic chemical to form an absorbent; mixing the absorbent with about 20% to 40% by volume of spilled organic chemical; adding water; and allowing the mixture to incubate for a suitable time at ambient temperature until the organic chemical spill is neutralized. The plant material may be cotton gin trash or alfalfa hay; or cotton, legumes, alfalfa, tomatoes or their mixtures. The mixture of absorbent and spilled organic chemical may allowed to incubate in a perforated drum with a lid.

The present invention relates the field of spill clean-up and more specifically to the bioremediation of unwanted chemical substances, such as petroleum hydrocarbons, which have been spilled onto the ground.
Certain agricultural soils, especially in the south, have grown crops almost continuously for more than 100 years. Such soils are now very low in organic matter content and are therefore generally infested with soil borne plant pathogenic fungi represented by the fungal species Rhizoctonia, Pythium and Fusarium among others (Crawford, J. L. 1975. Plant Disease Reporter, 56:373). Such soils are said to be "conducive" to plant disease causing agents. Experience teaches that such soils low in organic matter remain conducive to plant disease causing agents unless they are amended with a high nitrogen to carbon ratio plant compost material as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,164,405 and 4,229,442, issued to Pinckard, Aug. 14, 1979 and Oct. 21, 1980, respectively. Soils that have been cleansed of plant disease causing agents are said to be made "suppressive". More specifically such soils are also said to be "remediated" although the term currently refers to soils cleansed of unwanted chemical substances.
The Pinckard patent, U.S. Pat. No. 4,164,405, p.5, lines 13-15, states, "Organic type insecticidal poisons such as toxaphene, DDT, dieldrin or aldrin originally applied to the growing crop are removed". In that statement Pinckard was referring to the insecticidal residues remaining on the cotton crop waste after it had been separated from the seed and lint by the gin and before the plant material had been composted or otherwise disposed of.
While using multi-ton quantities of the above described compost for cleansing field crop soils that contained, in addition to plant disease causing agents, 200 ppm of DDT and its isomers, a large pile was left on a garden soil for several weeks before being scattered on the garden. While digging into the soil-compost mix Pinckard observed the mix was inhabited by earthworms which are known to be sensitive to the chlorinated aromatic hydrocarbon pesticides. Later tests demonstrated that soils contaminated with several unwanted chemical substances, including soil borne plant pathogens, could be cleansed, or remediated, by mixing with composted (treated) cotton gin waste (or trash) and that the same result could be obtained with composted alfalfa hay but not with cereal straw or common suburban leaf litter. The difference between the raw materials for composting appeared to be their carbon:nitrogen ratios. Those organic raw materials having C:N ratios of approximately 10:1 to 30:1 produced a compost suppressive of soil borne plant pathogens and at the same time, in due course, cleansed the soils of certain unwanted chemical entities. Further research led Pinckard to investigate the several well known details of the art of composting in relation to cleansing soils of unwanted entities. These improvements are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,100,455, which teaches how contaminated soils may be cleansed with composted high nitrogen to carbon ratio plant materials but not with ordinary plant materials or leaf litter such as cereal straw which have C:N ratios approaching 100:1 or more.
Leaking oil and chemical storage tanks and supply lines contaminate surrounding soils with petroleum hydrocarbons, industrial solvents and chemicals frequently harmful to man, animals and plants. Current environmental regulations demand such contaminated soils either be replaced with clean uncontaminated soil or cleansed of the contaminating entities. Several methods have been developed for the above purpose some of which have been described in U.S. patent documents and elsewhere.
Among the first U.S. patent documents reviewed was the Gorby patent, U.S. Pat. No. 2,947,619 issued Aug. 2, 1960 disclosing a process for composting wastes of several kinds by repeated aeration at temperatures of 50.degree. to 70.degree. C. and moisture contents of 40-60%. The Gorby patent while being a disclosure of the prior art bears no relation to the current invention for soil remediation.
The Varro, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,233,976, issued Feb. 8, 1966, discloses apparatus in which organic wastes are converted to fertilizer by aerobic fermentation. It is unrelated to this invention for soil remediation.
The Linn patent, U.S. Pat. No. 3,616,204, issued Oct. 26, 1971, discloses a method for soil restoration (bioremediation) after contamination with a petroleum hydrocarbon. The Linn patent discloses, as do several others, inoculating the contaminated soil with cultures of identified microorganisms known to degrade the unwanted contaminants while feeding such organisms appropriate nutrients under controlled laboratory conditions or in the field. The above described approach to soil remediation is likely to be impractical because of soil microbial competition as discussed by Alexander (Alexander, M. 1977. Soil Microbiology, P. 410, "microbial competition", John Wiley & Sons, New York). Many microorganisms compete with each other for nutrients, some protecting themselves by generating antibiotics and while the above hypothesis of soil remediation as delineated by Linn and others may be effective in a sterile substrate it has failed in numerous non sterile substrates as Alexander implies and as Pinckard's experience has confirmed.
The Durrell U.S. Pat. No. 3,762,910, issued Oct. 2, 1973, converts plant nutrients from the passive state to an active state by composting plant material in a trench. It bears no relation to soil remediation as disclosed in the current invention.
The Varro patent, U.S. Pat. No. 4,050,917, issued Sept. 27, 1977, discloses a process for composting waste in a heated environment on a series of moving belts and bears no relation to soil remediation.
The Pinckard patents, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,164,405, issued Aug. 14, 1979, and 4,229,442, issued Oct. 21, 1980, disclosed how cotton crop waste may be cleansed of unwanted identified plant pathogens and chlorinated hydrocarbon insecticides by modified composting.
The Khoroshavin, et al., patent, U.S. Pat. No. 4,317,670, issued Mar. 2, 1982, teaches remediating industrial waste heaps by leveling, fertilizing, plowing, planting, watering and inoculating with common soil inhabiting fungi; nothing in this patent relates to the claims in this invention excepting well known methods of the art.
The Norris et al., patent, U.S. Pat. No. 4,849,360, issued Jul. 18, 1989, is one of the most recent patents issued for soil remediation. It discloses use of a container for soils contaminated with petroleum hydrocarbons through which air is forced wherein soil remediation depends upon the indigenous microflora after enrichment with phosphorus and nitrogen nutrients. A preferred embodiment comprises an open-topped pit with an impermeable liner and gas distributing means. Contaminated soil is introduced into the pit and air is introduced into the gas distributing means. Norris et al. teach sampling of the contaminated soil but only to determine moisture content and microbial counts before and after treatment.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,288,556 was issued Sep. 8, 1981 to Belloc et al. This patent describes a new microorganism which is capable of producing a new proteolytic enzyme. The enzyme has utility in the depilation of animal skins. In the patent, Belloc et al. describe testing the growth of the microorganism in different culture media. All the media are different types of agar (nutrient agar) and broths. Included, for example, are agar with yeast extract, oatmeal/tomato extract, and peptone/glucose. This patent describes a wholly new species. The growth media were only used for purposes of characterizing the new microorganism. To extrapolate the testing results of one organism to the entire field of composting is impossible.
International Patent Application No: WO 92/03393 was published Mar. 5, 1992. This Application reveals compositions for and methods of degrading organic chemicals in soil. The composition is a nutrient medium serving as a substrate for microorganisms in the soil. The nutrient medium is added to the soil to cause proliferation of microorganisms which are effective or which may become effective in degrading the organic chemical. Preferably the microorganisms are present in the soil, but useful microorganisms may also be added with the nutrient medium. This Application has nothing to do with composting and does not cover spill clean up using composts and perforated drums.
The Pinckard, et al., patent, U.S. Pat. No. 5,100,455 issued Mar. 31, 1992 is also a recent patent covering bioremediation. It discloses removal of unwanted chemicals and biological entities from soils. This is achieved by composting specifically selected plant groups and then mixing this compost with the contaminated soil. Although not specified, the compost is usually made at a site remote from the contaminated site.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,100,455, Pinckard also details a process for absorbing and decontaminating a hydrocarbon or chlorinated hydrocarbon spill. The present invention is an improvement on U.S. Pat. No. 5,100,455.
After reviewing the U.S. patent documents mentioned above and some of the current literature on bioremediation of contaminated soils it is obvious that spill clean-up as taught by U.S. Pat. No. 5,100,455 suffers from serious deficiencies. The microorganisms that are grown in the special compost are specific to the site where the compost is made. These microorganisms are different from and may indeed be antagonistic to the microorganisms found at the spill site. This leads to inefficiency in decontamination and longer decontamination times.
Pinckard et al. claim a process for absorbing and decontaminating a hydrocarbon or chlorinated hydrocarbon spill comprising the steps of: composting plant material having a carbon:nitrogen ratio of 10:1 to 30:1; mixing the compost with about an equal volume of sawdust to form an absorbent; mixing the absorbent with up to 20% by volume of spilled hydrocarbon or chlorinated hydrocarbon; and allowing the mixture to stand for a suitable time at ambient temperature until the hydrocarbon or chlorinated hydrocarbon is decontaminated. The hydrocarbon or chlorinated hydrocarbon may be diesel fuel, oil, gasoline, aviation fuel, paint solvent, or trichloroethylene. The preferred addition ratio is about 50 ppm based on dry weight of the plant material.
Their invention takes advantage of the fact that certain microorganisms can digest toxicants and that the growth of such microorganisms can be encouraged by addition to the growth medium of small amounts of toxicants.
When compost, manufactured following the teachings of Pinckard et al., is used for spill clean-up, the growth of microorganisms that can digest the contaminants is encouraged. These microorganisms then digest the contaminants until the soil is cleansed of the contaminants. Pinckard et al. state: "Well known to microbiologists is the principle that some microorganisms will adapt to increasing concentrations of a specific toxicant if introduced to low dosages." This means that microorganisms will adapt to digest large quantities of specific chemicals if there is a low concentration of these chemicals in the growth medium to start with. It implies that to acclimatize microorganisms to a specific chemical one should treat the growth medium with a specific chemical. In fact that is just what Pinckard et al. teach.
What Pinckard et al. failed to recognize was that fully composted plant material contains organisms adapted to digest only certain chemicals. It will take time for the compost to encourage growth of a colony of specific contaminant digesting microorganisms sufficient to completely clean up a spill. Therefore, spill clean-up will proceed quite slowly. If, in addition, the compost contains microorganisms antagonistic to the microorganisms that can digest the contaminants at the spill site, soil cleansing may be further slowed.
Development of a method of spill clean-up which could overcome the inefficiencies of the method taught in U.S. Pat. No. 5,100,455 represents a great improvement in the field of bioremediation and would satisfy a long felt need of the environmnental engineer.


Technology to generation of linear feedback shift register based PRN spreading code sequence using a processor device in a computing system is disclosed. A system is provided for generating a GNSS code sequence in a computer system, the system comprising one or more logic circuits configured to at least: receive a plurality of waveform generation parameters; select between a short pseudo-random noise (PRN) cycle and a long PRN cycle according to at least one of the plurality of waveform generation parameters; and emulate a plurality of linear feedback shift registers (LFSR) for generating a block of PRN code chips.

Satellite-based navigation systems are becoming increasingly important in a wide range of applications, including handheld devices for position determination, in-car navigation support, and so on. The main Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) in service at present is the global positioning system (GPS) operated by the United States Department of Defense. Numerous other satellite navigation systems like European counterpart satellite navigation system, named Galileo, GLONASS (Russia), Compass (China), IRNSS (India) and QZSS (Japan) are currently under modernization or under deployment.
The basic components of a navigation signal as emitted by a satellite or a pseudolite are a spreading code (also referred to as a positioning, synchronization or ranging code), which is combined with the spreading symbol setting the modulation waveform and the navigation data. The resulting combination is then modulated onto a carrier at a set frequency for transmission to earth. Each emitter generally transmits at multiple frequencies, which can help to compensate for ionospheric effects, to improve accuracy and to broadcast more data. In some cases, multiple signal channels may be modulated onto a single carrier via some appropriate multiplexing scheme.
For example, GPS satellites transmit data along an L1 frequency and an L2 frequency. The L1 frequency is known as the course acquisition (C/A) code. The C/A code is available for civilian use and is a 1.023 MHz PRN code, which repeats its 1023 bits each millisecond. Each satellite transmits a unique PRN code so that GPS receivers can identify each satellite based on the PRN code received from a given satellite.
The spreading sequences used as the C/A codes in GPS belong to a unique family of sequences, referred to as Gold codes that are the sum of two maximum-length sequences. In other words, the C/A code, which are unique for each GPS satellite, are pseudo-random Gold codes comprising a repetition of a 1023 bits, or "chips," with a transition rate of 1.023 MHz, and are often indicated in short as PRN. Moreover, the PRN codes transmitted by the GPS satellites are deterministic sequences with noise like properties. Each C/A code is generated using different initial tapped linear feedback shift register (LFSR) setting. It may therefore be desirable to have a system and method that optimizes signal functions and PRN code generations by reducing hardware components and the processing time, while increasing the speed, flexibility and efficiency of a GNSS system.

Generation of linear feedback shift register based pseudo random noise (PRN) spreading code sequence for global navigation satellite system


An apparatus and method for dynamically changing an uplink and downlink ratio configuration is disclosed herein. An evolved Node B (eNodeB) operating in a wireless communications network transmits a System Information Block Type 1 (SIB1) including first uplink and downlink ratio configuration information. The eNodeB also transmits in at least one downlink subframe of a radio frame configured in the first uplink and downlink ratio configuration second uplink and downlink ratio configuration information. The second uplink and downlink ratio configuration information is included in a downlink control information (DCI) message. The DCI message is included in the at least one downlink subframe of the radio frame.

In the current 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) long term evolution (LTE) time division duplex (TDD)-Advanced systems, the same frequency bands are used for the uplink and downlink transmissions between evolved-universal terrestrial radio access network (E-UTRAN) node Bs (eNodeBs) and user equipment (UE). Uplink and downlink transmissions are separated by transmitting either uplink data or downlink data at each pre-determined block of time, known as subframes, on the same frequency bands. In TDD deployment, the uplink and downlink transmissions are structured into radio frames, each 10 ms in time length. Each radio frame may comprise a single frame or two half-frames of each 5 ms in time length. Each half-frame, in turn, may comprise five subframes of 1 ms time length each. Particular designations of subframes within a radio frame for uplink or downlink transmission—referred to as uplink and downlink configurations—can be defined. The seven supported uplink and downlink configurations (also referred to UL/DL configurations, uplink-downlink configurations, or uplink-downlink ratio configurations) are shown in a table 100 of FIG. 1, in which "D" denotes a subframe reserved for downlink transmission, "U" denotes a subframe reserved for uplink transmission, and "S" denotes a special subframe which includes the downlink pilot time slot (DwPTS), guard period (GP) and uplink pilot time slot (UpPTS) fields. (See 3GPP TS 36.211 Version 10.5.0, E-UTRA Physical Channels and Modulation (Release 10), June 2012.) In the currently supported uplink-downlink configurations, between 40 to 90% of the subframes within a given radio frame are downlink subframes.
The EUTRAN decides which one of the supported uplink-downlink configurations applies for a given eNodeB. Once the uplink-downlink configuration has been allocated, this configuration is typically not changed during normal operation of the cell or cells served by the eNodeB. This is the case even when uplink or downlink transmission loads are mismatched to the current uplink-downlink configuration. Even if the uplink-downlink configuration for a given eNodeB is desirous of being changed, there is a minimum latency of 640 ms under the current standard to effect modification of the System Information Block Type 1 (SIB1) information—the mechanism by which the uplink-downlink configuration is allocated and re-allocated. Current 3GPP LTE-Advanced systems do not support dynamic adjustment of the uplink and downlink ratio configurations.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Dynamic uplink and downlink configuration using flexible subframes


A system for handling semiconductor workpieces, by aligning a movable pick and place device and a movable optical control device, is disclosed. The system and method provide for the formation of an imprint by the pick and place device. The optical control device can then be aligned to that imprint, creating alignment between the pick and place device and the optical control device. Once alignment is complete the imprinted material may be replaced with one or more semiconductor workpieces. The system provides precise, repeatable alignment between the pickup point for the pick and place device and the optical control device.

I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to manufacturing systems that use pick and place equipment to handle small components. More specifically, the invention relates to an apparatus and method for aligning a camera to an imprint in a film layer which represents an attach position on a semiconductor workpiece, where a pick and place device picks up the semiconductor workpiece.
II. Description of the Related Art
In the assembly of semiconductor products, relatively small parts or components are picked up and accurately placed in another location. For example, in the assembly of optoelectronic systems, it may be necessary to accurately orient and align optical components, such as semiconductor lasers. In a known pick and place system, an operator manually aligns a vacuum collet with respect to an optical camera. These two devices working together are used to move a workpiece in the manufacturing process. The workpiece may be a chip, a bar, a wafer, etc.
In the known system, a test piece is located below the downward looking camera. Crosshairs, viewed on a monitor, are used to align the camera with an attach position on the test piece, which will be the actual attach position on a semiconductor workpiece in the manufacturing process. The attach position may be near the center of the test piece, which in turn would represent the center of a workpiece, for example. The vacuum collet is then moved over the test piece and lowered until it is slightly above the test piece, near the attach position. The operator then adjusts the position of the collet using x and y coordinates until it appears that it is aligned to what the camera perceives as the attach position. Lastly, the test piece is replaced with an actual semiconductor workpiece.
This manual alignment is performed at an angle and by human eye, thus making the process cumbersome, potentially inaccurate and unrepeatable. Inaccuracy in the procedure will result in the collet being placed some distance from where it was intended to be placed. The margin of error may be defined as the difference between the actual attach position, where the vacuum collet picks up a workpiece, and where the optical collection device perceives the attach position to be.
There exists a need for a pick and place system that provides precise, repeatable and efficient alignment between the pick and place equipment and the camera, such that what is seen by the camera as the attach position is aligned to the actual attach position, where the vacuum collet picks up the workpiece. Such precision will help ensure that the workpiece is ultimately placed in the correct location.


An infant development toy comprising a plurality of rings of varying diameter connected to each other and to a central object by a flexible connecting means. Optionally, the connecting means may be extended outside the rings to form a primary handle, and a bell may be contained within the central object or the primary handle. The rings and central object are of a size, and are spaced along the connecting means in such a manner that, when the toy is held aloft by and suspended from the point of connection of the largest ring and the connecting means, the rings are concentric and surround the central object.

The present invention relates to infant playthings, and more specifically to playthings co-ordinated with the stages of learning and development in the first years of life. The toy of the present invention is designed to invite interaction and provide a stimulating response to such interaction. The toy invites and responds to the predictable patterns of hand movement and manipulative activities learned and practised in the first year and a half of life.
Within about the first week of life, a child exhibits a reflex grasping action with which he will attempt to wrap his fingers around and grasp anything placed in contact with his palm. As this grasping technique is developed it becomes accompanied by arm movements, the first of which take the form of random movements in a predictable arc over the body while the child is laying on his back. At a very early age, the child will attempt to grasp objects encountered in this random arm movement.
For many years, infant developmental testing kits and specifically the Gesell Kit have included a wooden ring approximately six inches in diameter that was painted or stained red. The ring was used to test eye tracking and reflex arm movement and grasping. This testing was accomplished by suspending the ring on a string, and moving it slowly back and forth above the face of a reclining child. The ring was developed from an embroidery hoop which had proven a successful grasping object for young babies. The ring, however, is of limited use in that it offers little response to manipulation, and does not encourage later developing patterns of voluntary reaching and grasping, hand passing, and letting go, as will be explained below.
Other manipulative toys which incorporate a number of rings are the "Space Rings".TM. marketed by Creative Playthings and the "Gyro" marketed by Agate Plastics Corporation. The "Gyro" has three rigid concentric rings with a single rigid axis that extends therethrough. The "Space Rings".TM. has three rigid concentric rings. The largest ring has two opposed knobs on its inside surface which snap into openings in the outer surface of the middle ring, providing an axis of rotation of the largest ring with respect to the middle ring. The middle ring, in turn, has two opposed knobs on its inside surface which are located along a line which is perpendicular to the line described by the knobs of the outer ring. The knobs in the middle ring snap into openings provided on the outer surface of the smallest ring, providing an axis of rotation of the middle ring (and largest ring) with respect to the smallest ring. Thus, while the toy has an altering, rather than a rigid, axis, the axis of each ring is normal to the axis of its next innermost ring, and all movement is rotational about a common center. Both toys are limited in their movement, providing a limited response during play, and offer a limited number ofgrasping sites for continued interaction.
Another prior art toy consisting of a number of rings is disclosed in U.S. Design Pat. No. 140,681 to Stuart. The toy comprising three discontinuous or open concentric rings attached together with a string or cord. The openings in the rings are aligned, the string passes through the rings, along one side of the openings, toward their center; and back out again along the other side of the openings. This structure does not have the limiting axes of rotation seen in the "Space Rings" or "Gyro", but exhibits such an independence of movement of the rings to severely limit the toy's ability to provide an interesting and enticing response to manipulation.
During the earliest stages of a child's development, the toy of the present invention may be used in a manner similar to the Gesell ring to practice and develop reflex grasping as well as eye tracking. The toy may also be held by the primary handle or end object and twirled to present a moving, 3-dimensional viewing object. The ring structure offers a grasping object with no top or bottom or ends that the child's hand could easily slip off of without accomplishing a grasp of the object.
At some time between six weeks and three months a child's replex grasp gives way to a voluntary grasp, and between three to six months of age a child learns to bring to its mouth the objects it has grasped. This results in a predictable pattern wherein the child grasps an object with one hand, grasps it again with the other hand, and, if then in control of the object, brings it to his mouth. The toy of the present invention is designed to accommodate and encourage these early stages and patterns of grasping by providing numerous possible grasping sites.
Between six and nine months, the child learns to transfer objects from one hand to the other. The toy of the present invention encourages the child to begin and to practice this sequence of actions. Once initially grasped, the toy responds by moving to create different configurations and opportunities for grasping with the other hand. This movement is accompanied by a quivering, shaking action of the rings and central object which attracts the child's attention and may also cause a bell located in the central object or end object to ring. One of the objectives of the design of this toy was that it be most responsive to random movement and offer a seemly endly variety of shapes and potential grasping sites for this hand-to-hand practising. Coordination is developed by this practice and repetition, and the movement and variety of configurations assumed by the Red Rings provide many different practice sequences for the development of co-ordination.
A little later on in the child's development, between nine and twelve months, he learns gradually to let go of an object. The child first releases his grip unconsciously and slowly, often causing the toy to drop on himself, or possibly, in the case of a large ring, causing the ring to slide down his arm. At this stage in his development, the child would encounter difficulty disengaging his arm from the ring. The smallest ring and central object of the preferred embodiment prevent the ring from travelling down the child's arm, and also provide many opportunities for finger grasping and entanglement which discourage the unintentional releasing of the toy, thereby aiding in this stage of development.
Throughout the life of the toy, play opportunities can be expanded by the involvement of an adult. These expanded opportunities include a gentle "tug of war" (particularly desired by children from six to nine months) and a whole variety of imitative games, usually begun at about nine months, wherein a child will attempt to mimic various manipulative steps and sequences performed by an adult and will later, during independent play, attempt to recreate these movements with the toy.


Provided are door lock control apparatus and method having enhanced security and being capable of providing improved convenience to a user, the door lock control method including: requesting a server for security information set in a door lock; receiving first security information from the server; unlocking the door lock by using the first security information; and setting second security information different from the first security information, in the door lock.

Conventional door locks operate according to mechanical locking mechanisms using keys and locks. Recently supplied digital door locks are electronically controlled via an electronic circuit included in door locks. In particular, the digital door locks are mostly used for doors of hotel rooms.
Door locks used in hotels may be released by using magnetic cards. Hotel managers may record information on the magnetic cards to be provided to customers, by using magnetic card writers. The information recorded on the magnetic cards may include room numbers and lengths of stay of the customers in the rooms.
The customers may insert the magnetic cards into the door locks of the rooms. The door locks may read the recorded information from the magnetic cards. The door locks may compare the read information with information set in the door locks. The information set in the door locks may include the room numbers corresponding to the door locks and a current time.
The door locks may determine whether the room numbers included in the read information and the room numbers included in the information set in the door locks match each other. The door locks may determine whether the current time is within the lengths of stay included in the read information. The door locks may be unlocked based on results of the determination.
However, since the magnetic cards are easily duplicated, such door locks may have weak security. Also, such door locks generally do not have remote communication functions. Accordingly, it may be difficult for servers to separately manage histories of locking/unlocking the door locks.
Recently, door locks having remote communication functions have been introduced, but are not widely used due to problems of cost. Accordingly, the door locks that are unlocked by using the magnetic cards are still widely used.
Also, with the development of communication technology and miniaturization of electronic devices, personal terminals are widely used by general consumers. In particular, recently, personal portable terminals, such as smart phones or smart tablet personal computers (PCs), have become widespread. The smart phones include communication modules, and applications using the communication modules are being developed.


A method and apparatus for verifying the position of a lesion in a patient's body compares the location of the lesion in CT slices with the position of the lesion in ultrasound images taken while the patient lays on the treatment table of a linear accelerator.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method and apparatus for verifying the position of a lesion to be treated by a radiation therapy device operating in accordance with a radiation therapy plan.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Modern day radiation therapy of cancerous tumors, or lesions, has two goals: eradication of the tumor and avoidance of damage to healthy tissue and organs present near the tumor. It is believed that a vast majority of tumors can be eradicated completely if a sufficient radiation dose is delivered to the tumor volume; however, complications may result from use of the necessary effective radiation dose, due to damage to healthy tissue which surrounds the tumor, or to other healthy body organs located close to the tumor. The goal of conformal radiation therapy is to confine the delivered radiation dose to only the tumor volume defined by the outer surface of the tumor, while minimizing the dose of radiation to surrounding healthy tissue or adjacent healthy organs.
Conformal radiation therapy treatment typically uses a linear accelerator as a source of the radiation being used to treat the tumor. The linear accelerator typically has a radiation beam source which is rotated about the patient and directs the radiation beam toward the tumor, or lesion, to be treated. Various types of devices have been proposed to conform the shape of the radiation treatment beam to follow the spatial contour of the tumor as seen by the radiation treatment beam as it passes through the patient's body into the tumor, during rotation of the radiation beam source, which is mounted on a rotatable gantry of the linear accelerator. Multileaf collimators, which have multiple leaf, or finger, projections which can be moved individually into and out of the path of the radiation beam, can be so programmed, and are examples of such devices. Various types of radiation treatment planning systems can create a radiation treatment plan, which when implemented will deliver a specified dose of radiation shaped to conform to the lesion, or tumor, volume, while limiting the radiation dose delivered to sensitive surrounding healthy tissue or adjacent healthy organs.
A basic problem in radiation therapy is knowing where the target, or lesion or tumor, is located at the time the radiation therapy treatment is occurring. It is assumed that the patient's position and the target organ's position within the patient will be grossly the same at the time of radiation treatment, as it was at the time the radiation treatment plan was created. If the position of the target organ, or lesion or tumor, is not the same as it was at the time the treatment plan was determined, the conformal dose of radiation may not be delivered to the correct location within the patient's body. Since patients are not always positioned properly on the treatment table of the radiation therapy device, which is typically a linear accelerator, and since organs of a patient may move within the patient from day to day, the target organ, or lesion or tumor, may not be positioned at the exact location where the radiation therapy plan has assumed it would be located. Thus, present day radiation therapy plans typically regard the target organ to occupy a space in the patient's body which is larger than it really occupies, in order to insure that the target organ, or tumor or lesion, regardless of its location within the patient's body, falls within the volume of tissue which receives the desired radiation treatment dose. A disadvantage of such conventional radiation therapy plans is that there is a major concern associated with increasing the volume of tissue which is treated, to insure that the actual target organ receives the desired dose of radiation. Because some healthy tissue surrounds the target organ, or healthy organs lie adjacent to the target organ, delivering the maximum desired radiation dose to this larger volume of tissue may occur and increase risk of damaging such non-target tissue, or surrounding healthy tissue or adjacent healthy organs. This increased risk may cause oncologists to deliver a radiation dose to the larger treatment volume, which is safer for the non-target tissue, with the potential disadvantage of underdosing some portion of the target organ.
Accordingly, prior to the development of the present invention, there has been no lesion position verification system or method for verifying the position of a lesion within a body of a patient for use in a radiation treatment plan, which: regardless of the position of the patient on the treatment table, can verify that the position of the lesion to be treated conforms to the position of the lesion utilized in the radiation treatment plan; and prevents treating healthy tissue surrounding the lesion, or healthy organs located adjacent the lesion, from being exposed to an undesired level of radiation.
Therefore, the art has sought a method and apparatus for verifying the position of a lesion, within a body of a patient for use in a radiation treatment plan, which: verifies that the position of the lesion to be treated by the radiation therapy device is positioned to conform to the position of the lesion used in the radiation treatment plan; and prevents healthy tissue surrounding the lesion, or healthy organs located adjacent the lesion, from being exposed to an undesired amount of radiation.

Method and apparatus for lesion position verification


A packaging container which is deep drawn from a thermoformable material includes a first part and a second part. The first part is provided with a front plane, a top plane, a bottom plane and two side planes. The second part is mountable on the first part to define a rear plane of the container. The front plane of the container forms an angle of less than 90.degree. with the bottom plane and an angle of greater than 90.degree. with the top plane.

In the packaging industry which produces single-use disposable packages for foods such as milk or juice, the aim is to produce a package which is simple to manufacture and which is made from economical material. The package should, for the most part, also be recyclable.
Thermoformed liquid packages which are known in the art are formed by making a deep drawn hollow body which is often conical. These conical hollow bodies are mostly prefabricated and thereafter stacked within one another prior to being filled.
The thermoformed packages may be manufactured from different thermoformable plastics such as polypropylene. Polypropylene with a filler is an excellent material since it imparts greater rigidity to the package. The filler may consist of, for instance, lime, mica, kaolin or chalk.


A navigation system for a vehicle is provided with a route determination process by which a road is selected and determined as a route according to a designated starting point and a driving direction. The route is indicated on a road map displayed on a screen, and stored. Further routes are automatically determined, intersection by intersection, according to the category of the road determined earlier as a route. Cancellation of the route thus determined is performed intersection by intersection and reported to a user by erasion of the route indication. The road map displayed on the screen always places the last intersection on the determined and uncanceled route at its center, thereby allowing the user to confirm the proceeding of the route determination and the route cancellation process.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a navigation system for a vehicle by which a route to be taken is displayed on a CRT screen, liquid crystal display, or other display means to navigate the vehicle. More particularly, this invention relates to such a navigation system provided with a route determination process by which a desired route can be determined readily and quickly.
2. Prior Art
Known navigation systems are provided with a screen on which a road map is displayed. In one type of system, a route is determined by pinpointing and thereby inputting intersections consecutively from a starting point to a destination by a cursor on the screen or by means of a light pen. In another type of system, once a starting point and destination are input, the shortest route from the starting point to the destination is automatically determined according to map data previously stored, and indicated on the map displayed on the screen.
These types of navigation systems, however, have the following shortcomings. While affording selection of a desired route, the former type of system requires meticulous manual labor of designating each intersection. On the other hand, the latter type of system also falls short, in spite of its operation facility, because it uses previously stored and not up-dated program data in determining a route. When unexpected repair work is undergoing at an automatically selected route, or when the route the user preferred is not selected, the user has to correct the route, after completion of the automatic route determination, in the same laborious manner as in the former type of system.

Navigation system with route determination process capable of determining a desired route readily and quickly


A capacitance touch switch includes a touch electrode being flat and having a length longer in a first direction than a length in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction, a touch detection circuit which determines whether a touch operation is performed to the touch electrode based on a change in capacitance of the touch electrode, and a guard electrode insulated from the touch electrode. The touch electrode includes at least one slit extending in a direction which is angled at a larger angle with respect to the first direction than an angle from the second direction. The touch electrode is partially separated by the at least one slit into a plurality of touch regions while the plurality of touch regions being connected to each other. The guard electrode is disposed within the slit.

Patent Document 1 (JP 2012-079661 A) discloses a capacitance touch switch. The touch switch includes a touch detection electrode (touch electrode) having a capacitance which varies due to a touch operation by an operator, and a detector which applies an alternating-current voltage to the touch detection electrode and detects the variation of the capacitance caused by the touch operation. The touch detection electrode is made from a copper foil and has a circular shape on a circuit board. The detector detects the touch operation by detecting the variation of the capacitance.


A grab for a sugar can loader suspended from the boom of a tractor having an improved fastening system formed of two mechanical arms that automatically elevate the grab during its closing movement, so that the tips of the grab's tines trace a path parallel to and along the surface of the ground. This avoids ground penetration by the grab's tips, decreasing the pick up of soil and other undersirable materials with the can during its loading.

The present invention relates to an attachment for a sugar cane grab loader formed of two mechanical arms that move the tips of the grab's tines parallel to surface of the ground during closing of the grab, avoiding introduction of soil and other extraneous materials during cane loading.
A known type of mechanical sugar cane loader uses a pushpiler for bundling the cane over the soil and a mechanical grab suspended from a boom of the pushpiler for raising the cane and loading it on trucks. A major problem in the operation of such mechanical sugar cane loaders, is that a significant amount of soil and other extraneous materials is collected with the sugar cane, as well as the destruction of stubs, by the action of the grab and the pushpiler penetrating the ground.
A conventional grab is generally formed of two curved elements articulated at the point of their suspension from the boom. During the closing movement, the grab's tips trace a circular path around the point of their suspension at the boom and they tend to penetrate the soil if the position of elevation of the boom remains constant. To avoid penetration into the ground of the tips of a conventional grab, an operator has to lift the boom simultaneously with closing of the grab. This is very difficult and not very exact. In reality, it is not possible for the operator to avoid at least a partial ground penetration during the alternative action of two hydraulic cylinders, and neither can he avoid leaving some amount of cane on the ground, if the boom rises too quickly. In the case of any cane left on the field, the operator must bundle it again with a pushpiler, spending additional time, and incorporating more undesirable soil with the cane.
Many efforts have been made to avoid soil penetration by the tips of a conventional grab during its closing movement. Some of them consist of a modification to the shape of the grab (South African Patent RSA-807616) or the separation of the articulation points of each grab's elements, but it was still impossible to avoid ground penetration.
The most interesting attempt to solve this problem is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,614,476 wherein an auxiliary hydraulic cylinder is connected with the grab and the boom actuating cylinders in such a manner that the actuating pressure of the grab cylinder or the hydraulic fluid expelled during the closing movement of the grab, actuates the auxiliary hydraulic cylinder which at the same time activates the boom cylinders to automatically raise the grab to the desired elevation. Another alternative of the same patentee consists of the use of a servovalve at the boom or at the boom support. When the valve is actuated at the lowest position of the boom, the closing movement of the grab is accompanied by a rising of the boom due to the servohydraulic action between the grab's hydraulic cylinders and the boom. However, the hydraulic interaction between the grab's cylinders and the boom does not guarantee a path of the grab's tips along the surface. Besides, it necessitates an important additional cost to the machine. Considering also a change of the volumetric efficiency of the elements of the hydraulic system used in the machine, the hydraulic interaction between the grab's cylinders and the boom's can vary, thus changing the path of the grab's tips. Accordingly, this alternative does not provide good results when a grab with two hydraulic cylinders is used, such is the situation with many sugar cane loaders.
The present invention has overcome the inconveniences mentioned above with a new and improved mechanical system for fastening a sugar cane grab loader to the boom of a pushpiler.

Centro de Investigacion y. Asistencia Tecnica del Estado de Queretaro, A.C.


This invention relates to personal computers used as network servers, and more particularly to unattended activation and operation of such personal computers through cooperation of power supplies for supplying electrical power to electrically operated components which manipulate or store digital data with a controlling network option card added to the personal computer in adapting it to the network environment. In accordance with this invention, a system administrator is relieved of any necessity of leaving equipment in the power-on active state in order to have network resources available to client users.

This invention relates to personal computers used as local area network (LAN) servers, and more particularly to unattended activation and operation of such personal computers through cooperation of power supplies for supplying electrical power to electrically operated components which manipulate or store digital data with options added to the personal computer in adapting the personal computer to the LAN server function.
Personal computer systems in general and IBM personal computers in particular have attained widespread use for providing computing capability to many segments of today's modern society. Personal computer systems can usually be defined as a desk top, floor standing, or portable microcomputer that consists of a system unit having a single system processor and associated volatile and non-volatile memory, a display monitor, a keyboard, one or more diskette drives, a fixed disk storage, and an optional printer. One of the distinguishing characteristics of these systems is the use of a motherboard or system planar to electrically connect these components together. These systems are designed primarily to give independent computing capability to a single user and are inexpensively priced for purchase by individuals or small businesses. Examples of such personal computer systems are IBM's PERSONAL COMPUTER AT and IBM's PERSONAL SYSTEM/2 Models 25, 30, L40SX, 50, 55, 60, 65, 70, 80, 90 and 95.
Persons familiar with the operation and use of these systems will also be familiar with their use in what are known as local area networks, in which a number of personal computers are connected together for sharing of files and other resources. Certain forms of such networks are known as "client-server" computing environments, in that one or more particularly powerful systems ("servers"), potentially having greatly enlarged file storage capability, are connected with less powerful systems ("clients", sometimes known as LAN stations).
These systems can be classified into two general families. The first family, usually referred to as Family I Models, use a bus architecture exemplified by the IBM PERSONAL COMPUTER AT and other "IBM compatible" machines. The second family, referred to as Family II Models, use IBM's MICRO CHANNEL bus architecture exemplified by IBM's PERSONAL SYSTEM/2 Models 50 through 95. The Family I models typically have used the popular INTEL 8088 or 8086 microprocessor as the system processor. These processors have the ability to address one megabyte of memory. The Family II models typically use the high speed INTEL 80286, 80386, and 80486 microprocessors which can operate in a real mode to emulate the slower speed INTEL 8086 microprocessor or a protected mode which extends the addressing range from 1 megabyte to 4 Gigabytes for some models. In essence, the real mode feature of the 80286, 80386, and 80486 processors provide hardware compatibility with software written for the 8086 and 8088 microprocessors.
Electrical power for energizing the components of such personal computers is conventionally supplied by power supplies which use control logic, switching transistors, power transformers, rectifiers and filters to convert electrical power from an available line voltage and current, such as the 110 volt 60 hertz current supplied in the United States, to the direct voltages and currents required for operation of the personal computer. It has been conventional to control operation of such power supplies by switching the supply voltage to the power supply. In the example given, such switching is accomplished by turning on and off the 110 volt 60 hertz mains supply current.
It has been proposed heretofore, as in Summerlin U.S. Pat. No. 4,723,269, to use a lower level voltage to control the operation of a personal computer power supply. In the Summerlin disclosure, to which the interested reader is referred, a telephone ring detector acts through optically coupled semiconductor devices to control passage of the relatively high voltage supply current. However, such circuitry continues to require manual control over computer power to be exercised by manipulation of a relatively high voltage switch.
A co-pending application owned in common with the present subject invention (Ser. No. 536,751 filed 14 Jun. 1990 and now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 5,008,829) discloses and protects an arrangement in which a user of a personal computer is protected against unnecessary exposure to the relatively high voltage of sources of supply to the personal computer by using logic level voltage, low current electrical signals to enable control over the operation of a personal computer. As recognized there, such use of logic level signals opens the possibility of establishing control over the supply of electrical power to the operating components of a computer in a manner consistent with the manual control used by an operator.
This latter possibility becomes of importance in a client-server computing environment in that resources available only from or through the server will become unavailable to a client when the server is dormant, deactivated or powered-down. As one particular example, an operator seeking to use a particular network outside normal network availability hours would be restricted to resources (programs, files, printers/plotters, etc.) available solely at the individual workstation or client were the network server turned off as is often done for security reasons or to reduce running time and consequent need for service. While a server could conceivably be located and turned on, such systems are often located in places which are either inaccessible or unknown to an individual operator.

LAN server personal computer with unattended activation capability


A standardized platform, implemented in a secure web-based environment, enables the sharing of data between different individuals, institutions and even industries. Data is shared between members of the platform in accordance with defined data objects with specified relationships and permissions which are managed, accessed and modified by members using the platform. Such data objects have defined relationships to entities and other data objects, and are controlled by designated preferred owners, which can vary over time.

With the increasing complexity of the financial markets and associated regulations, there is an ever increasing need for efficient management and sharing of information. As there is an increased ability to more efficiently manage and share information, there is likely to be a corresponding increase in the ability for a company/industry to operate in a more value maximizing manner. For example, efficient management and seamless sharing of information can increase operational capacity, reduce costs, increase organizational velocities, provide added transparency when needed or desired, and facilitate the regulatory compliance process.
However, there is currently a lack of a platform which is capable of addressing such information sharing and access needs in a cross-company and even cross-industry standardized manner. Currently, individuals, companies and industries that communicate and transact together are essentially all working on independent platforms, thereby impeding the efficiency and transparency of their respective interactions. Electronic systems and tools are designed to work within an organization (or even portion of an organization), and do not allow for the seamless sharing of information outside of the organization or industry in a secure and efficient manner.
Another issue facing industries, such as the real estate, insurance, finance, etc., is an inability to assess one's risk due to imperfect information. This is mostly due to the fact that different companies within the same industry often employ silo technologies which are incapable of providing a means to securely and seamlessly share information with other companies having a need or desire for the information. Since the risk associated with an asset can span literally dozens, hundreds or thousands of organizations all interlinked by their risk exposure to the particular asset, there is a pronounced unsatisfied need in the art for a standardized data sharing platform through which entities may transact with one another and directly share the data and documents associated with such transactions.

System and method for providing a standardized data sharing platform


A driver briefly places his hand upon a biometric hand reader once during each successive four minute recurrent time interval established by a microprocessor that continuous to produce a maintain-truck-operative signal to prevent truck disablement that would otherwise occur while driving. Should a hijacker drive the truck away and use the hand reader, the reader senses a mismatch, will cease to produce the maintain-truck-operative signal, and the truck will stop. The hijacker is prevented from occupying the cab and forcing the driver to drive and use the sensor by a switch-mat within the passenger area that senses the hijacker""s presence and disables the truck. A facial recognition reader will stop the truck if the driver is absent in an even faster manner, which is very important when a gasoline truck that is a bomb-on-wheels is stolen. More affordable data input sensors comprising a steering wheel pushbutton encoder are also disclosed.

Hijacking of large tractor-trailer trucks and tanker trucks by terrorists can have devastating consequences. Trucks carrying valuable commercial cargo or even hazardous material are increasingly vulnerable to hijacking. Over twenty-thousand truck hijackings in 2001 worldwide have been reported and billions of dollars of cargo have been lost, in addition to the loss of human life caused by terrorists and the resulting disruptive fear and economic loss. Also, large trucks themselves can cost up to $150,000.
In a recent speech, California Gov. Gray Davis has been concerned that a hijacker can turn a big rig into a motorized missile. Attorney General Ashcroft warned Congress of potential terrorist attacks using trucks laden with hazardous materials or explosives. Large cities are particularly vulnerable to trucks used as motorized missiles. Numerous gasoline tanker trucks supplying gas stations, can be stolen at gunpoint, driven into cities, and exploded within tunnels, upon bridges or at the foot of tall buildings or shopping malls occupied by many persons. Substantial portions of cities could be shut down as a result of even one such theft and truck misuse. Trucks abroad carrying propane have recently pulled up in front of houses of worship killing many people. Also, inspections of tanker trucks at key locations, transporting gasoline, can reveal little because the gasoline itself constitutes the bomb itself. Recently, interstate highways have been shut down for substantial time periods due to tanker trucks accidentally crashing into bridges, even in the absence of a terrorist attack on them; the impact of the crash itself produces the bomb.
Various approaches have been proposed to meet these threats. One approach is to have the driver send a radio signal to the police or central trucking dispatcher in order to summon law enforcement personnel if the driver is in trouble. Using another approach, a driver can cause lights and sirens on the roofs of tractor-trailer trucks to summon law enforcement and yet another approach employs the Global Positioning System (GPS) to alert a central dispatcher by radio that the truck has improperly deviated from its intended trip itinerary. However, the use of radio links to alert truck dispatchers at remote stations that alert other persons like the police at other stations, wastes valuable time. Dispatchers being so notified by radio may have briefly left their stations when the emergency call arrives. Also, such radio links can be unreliable at times which is particularly detrimental during crises. Radio transmissions can be interfered with by RF generating sources and large obstacles such as tall buildings, creating canyons in cities. Another problem with these approaches is that the resulting use of law enforcement to counter the terrorist or cargo thief, can involve car chases and gun battles that can result in loss of the lives of law enforcement officers, the truck driver, or drivers of passenger cars in the vicinity of a truck being recaptured. If the truck is disabled and parked by the side of the road in response to a hijacking, the intruder is likely to flee the scene rather than stand and fight. Less importantly, traffic flow will not be stopped for extended periods.
Accordingly, it is submitted that large truck security is better served by avoiding such highly destructive confrontations between law enforcement and hijackers by discouraging hijacking attempts in the first place. One such approach is to disable the truck by for example, grounding the ignition if a proper all-is-well code is not inserted into a truck disablement apparatus by the driver; see U.S. Pat. No. 3,790,933 to Cort, that involves having a central dispatcher send a secret digital code to the driver in response to a request sent by the driver to the dispatcher, and upon receipt of the digital code from the dispatcher, the driver inserts the code into the device to prevent the ignition from being disabled. At a later time this process is repeated when the driver again contacts the central dispatcher. This process relies on the aforesaid somewhat unreliable radio link approach. Another problem with this approach is that it is cumbersome and too slow to obtain prompt truck stoppage, and having the driver input the code as described distracts the driver from keeping his eyes on the road in the interest of safe driving. This is particularly important for a gasoline truck that often explodes in crashes on impact, and thus can be used to bomb a nearby target, as mentioned above. Likewise with respect to a tanker truck that can spread poisonous gas e.g. chlorine gas over a wide area upon impact. U.S. Pat. No. 5,686,765 to Washington discloses the use of a physiological device that can disable an ignition system of a passenger car upon operation by an improper driver, but the patent does not suggest its use in connection with hijacking or apparatus to provide the desired rapid action to rapidly stop a truck in the process of being hijacked.
The present invention is believed to provide apparatus for overcoming the above stated disadvantages of prior anti-hijacking proposals in a safe, reliable and fast acting manner.
In order to prevent a hijacker from stealing a large tanker truck or tractor-trailer from a driver while it is idling just before leaving a truck stop, or while waiting for a green light, and driving it away, a truck disabling device such as an ignition interrupt circuit is made to disable the truck, while being driven, in the absence of an xe2x80x9cmaintain-truck-operativexe2x80x9d OK input code, that is periodically fed into a microprocessor by an authorized driver during each time interval of a succession of intervals lasting about four minutes, to keep the truck going without being disabled. The OK input code is preferably produced by the authorized driver inserting his hand once during each successive interval into the commercially available hand shape reader, provided that the driver""s hand profile matches a stored hand data template of one or more authorized drivers in the hand reader. If a hijacker drives the truck away, his hand will not produce the OK signal required after several minutes and the truck will become later disabled.
If the biometric recognition device is a preferred facial feature reader, the truck can be much more rapidly disabled upon being driven by a hijacker, since the facial feature reader would almost immediately stop producing OK data input signals upon the authorized driver""s absence, to enable stoppage of the truck.
However, the hijacker could defeat these systems by occupying the second passenger side area, while forcing the driver to proceed, by threatening the driver with a weapon. The driver would be told to do whatever it takes to proceed, and the driver would normally keep inputting the OK input code to keep the truck going.
This action by the hijacker is thwarted by quickly disabling the truck in response to an attempt by the hijacker to sit on the passenger seat, or stand or crouch on the floor in the neighborhood normally occupied by the second passenger side seat. Mats containing pressure actuated switches are affixed to the passenger side seat, if present, and over floor areas or article storage bins in the neighborhood of the seat. Such switch mats are commercially available and some are called xe2x80x9cPress-At-Any-Pointxe2x80x9d sensing switches and are electrically coupled to the aforesaid control micro-processor that disables the truck when the weight of a hijacker, upon occupying the truck cab, actuates the pressure sensitive mat by closing switches embedded in the mat. Other unauthorized persons such as hitch-hikers would also disable the truck. Should the driver accidentally step on the mat, he merely resets the system by restarting the ignition. A sign could be posted near the truck doors: xe2x80x9cTRUCK WILL NOT OPERATE IF A SECOND PERSON OCCUPIES THE CAB.xe2x80x9d This helps stopping a hijacker from an attempt to hijack in the first place, which normally provides the best security. Another approach is to block an intruder from entering the passenger side area altogether by means of physical barriers such as removable fences having thin steel barrier elements, or transparent partitioning, that could be locked to the truck floor with a key or bolted down. Time locks could also be used for this purpose.
Apparatus is also provided for even more rapidly thwarting theft of a tanker truck carrying explosive, flammable or dangerous cargoes thus turning the truck into a weapon by a terrorist in a very short time period. In contrast with the hand biometric sensing device, with its delays due to its xe2x80x9cevery four minutexe2x80x9d periodic driver hand authenticity test, facial feature sensor means are provided that require no action by a truck driver, and which produce an almost immediate OK input signal in response to continuous, rather than intermittent, scanning examination by the facial feature reader of the face of an authorized truck driver. Should a hijacker replace the driver in an attempt to drive the truck, the truck disabling device can stop the truck in a very short time because use of the facial feature sensor does not employ the aforesaid successive test intervals calling for driver hand insertions every four minutes or so. This is of extreme importance in connection with a tanker truck carrying an explosive cargo that can be used as a bomb on wheels in a few minutes. The body sensor in this embodiment of the invention, requiring no driver action, is preferably a facial feature sensor, although a sophisticated biometric eyeball reading device using a dual image field beam splitter, that does not interfere with the driver""s vision of the road could be used. Also, the absence of manual hand insertion into the reader to periodically input the OK signal, enhances safe driving even more, which is even more important in connection with the transportation of explosive cargoes.
Regarding other features, a code known only to the dispatcher, could be employed with a conventional electronic lock to disable the entire system for a period where it is desired to permit a second person to occupy the passenger seat area in the usual way. Also, should a person tamper with the intruder sensing switch mat, by cutting the electrical coupling between the mat and the data processor, the resulting interruption of current flow through the cable can be sensed to actuate the truck disable device. A more affordable maintain-truck-operative input sensor includes a slender push button keyboard remote sensor having four-in-line pushbuttons to be contacted by four fingers of the driver, and clamped upon and under the steering wheel for hand wrap-around actuation. A TV type infra-red link could link the keyboard remote sensor to the data processor.

Radio-less self contained apparatus for rapidly thwarting theft of large trucks by terrorists or hijackers


A component in a graph-based computation having data processing components connected by linking elements representing data flows is updated by receiving a rule specification, generating a transform for transforming data based on the rule specification, associating the transform with a component in the graph-based computation, and in response to determining that a new rule specification has been received or an existing rule specification has been edited, updating the transform associated with the component in the graph-based computation according to the new or edited rule specification. A computation is tested by receiving a rule specification including a set of rule cases, receiving a set of test cases, each test case containing a value for one or more of the potential inputs, and for each test case, identifying one of the rule cases that will generate an output given the input values of the test case.

Complex computations can often be expressed as a data flow through a directed graph, with components of the computation being associated with the vertices of the graph and data flows between the components corresponding to links (arcs, edges) of the graph. A system that implements such graph-based computations is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,966,072, EXECUTING COMPUTATIONS EXPRESSED AS GRAPHS. In some cases, the computations associated with a vertex is described in human-readable form referred to as "business rules."


The present invention is directed to nucleic acid molecules encoding a truncated human cyclin E protein, the truncated human cyclin E protein being a constitutively active form of human cyclin E protein. These truncated forms can be encoded by the nucleotide sequence of wild-type cyclin E, with a deletion therein to result in the truncated protein. Vectors and host cells containing the nucleic acid molecules are also provided. The invention further provides isolated fragments of the truncated cyclin E proteins, which fragments consist essentially of the deletion flanking regions of the wild-type cyclin E nucleotide sequence. Antisense nucleic acid molecules, and fragments thereof, to the truncated cyclin E protein and to the fragments thereof are also provided. Methods using the nucleic acid molecules, fragments thereof, antisense nucleic acid molecules, and fragments thereof, are provided. The antisense can be used therapeutically for inhibition of cyclin E activity. An isolated truncated human cyclin E protein is also provided which is a constitutively active form of human cyclin E protein, as well as fragments of the isolated truncated protein. Antibodies to the protein and fragment of the protein are provided, as are compositions comprising the protein and fragment of the protein. Methods using the proteins and fragments of the protein are provided.

Throughout this application various publications are referenced, many in parenthesis. Full citations for these publications are provided at the end of the Detailed Description. The disclosures of these publications in their entireties are hereby incorporated by reference in this application.
Cyclins are prime cell cycle regulators and central to the control of cell proliferation in eukaryotic cells via their association with and activation of cyclin-dependent protein kinases 1-7 (cdks) (reviewed in, Elledge et al., 1991; Heichman et al., 1994; Hunter et al., 1994; King et al., 1994; Morgan, 1995; Nurse, 1994; Sherr, 1994). Cyclins were first identified in marine invertebrates as a result of their dramatic cell cycle expression patterns during meiotic and early mitotic divisions (Evans et al., 1983; Sherr, 1993; Standart et al., 1987; Swenson et al., 1986). Several classes of cyclins have been described and are currently designated as cyclins A-H, some with multiple members (reviewed in Draetta, 1994). Cyclins can be distinguished on the basis of conserved sequence motifs, patterns of appearance and apparent functional roles during specific phases and regulatory points of the cell cycle in a variety of species.
The connection between cyclins and cancer has been substantiated with the D type cyclins (Draetta, 1994; Hunter et al., 1991; Hunter & Pines, 1994; Sherr, 1993). Cyclin D1 was identified simultaneously by several laboratories using independent systems: It was identified in mouse macrophages due to its induction by colony stimulating factor 1 during G1 (Matsushime et al., 1991); in complementation studies using yeast strains deficient in G1 cyclins (Lew et al., 1991; Xiong et al., 1991); as the product of the bcl-1 oncogene (Withers et al., 1991), and as the PRAD1 proto-oncogene in some parathyroid tumors where its locus is overexpressed as a result of a chromosomal rearrangement that translocates it to the enhancer of the parathyroid hormone gene (Matsushime, et al., 1991; Motokura et al., 1993; Motokura et al., 1991; Quelle et al., 1993). In centrocytic B cell lymphomas cyclin D1 (PRAD1)/BCL1 is targeted by chromosomal translocations at the BCL1 breakpoint, t(11;14)(q13;q32) (Rosenberg et al., 1991a; Rosenberg et al., 1991b). Furthermore, the cyclin D1 locus undergoes gene amplification in mouse skin carcinogenesis, as well as in breast, esophageal, colorectal and squamous cell carcinomas (Bianchi et al., 1993; Buckley et al., 1993; Jiang et al., 1992; Jiang et al., 1993b; Lammie et al., 1991; Leach et al., 1993). Several groups have examined the ability of cyclin D1 to transform cells directly in culture with mixed results (Hinds et al., 1994; Hinds et al., 1992; Jiang et al., 1993a; Lovec et al., 1994; Musgrove et al., 1994; Quelle, et al., 1993; Resnitzky et al., 1994; Rosenwald et al., 1993; Sherr, 1993). However, the overexpression of cyclin D1 was recently observed in mammary cells of transgenic mice and results in abnormal proliferation of these cells and the development of mammary adenocarcinomas (Wang et al., 1994). This observation strengthens the hypothesis that the inappropriate expression of a G1 type cyclin may lead to loss of growth control.
Recently, the linkage between oncogenesis and the cell cycle has been reinforced by correlating the deranged expression of cyclins to the loss of growth control in breast cancer (Buckley, et al., 1993; Keyomarsi et al., 1993). Using proliferating normal versus human tumor breast cell lines in culture as a model system, several changes that are seen in all or most of these lines have been described. These include increased cyclin mRNA stability, resulting in overexpression of mitotic cyclins and cdk2 RNAs and proteins in 9/10 tumor lines, leading to the deranged order of appearance of mitotic cyclins prior to Gi cyclins in synchronized tumor cells.
The most striking abnormality in cyclin expression found was that of cyclin E. Cyclin E protein not only was overexpressed in 10/10 breast tumor cell lines but it was also present in lower molecular weight isoforms than that found in normal cells (Keyomarsi & Pardee, 1993). One possibility for the presence of multiple transcripts of cyclin E is due to alternative splicing. Precedent for alternative splicing of cyclin E has recently been reported by Ohtsubo et. al. where they identified a longer form of cyclin E (cyclin E-L) which contains 15 amino acids at the amino terminus which through alternative splicing, is absent in the original form of cyclin E (cyclin E wt) (Ohtsubo et al., 1995). In addition Sewing et al. also identified another splice variant of cyclin E, termed cyclin Es (Sewing et al., 1994). Cyclin Es lacks 49 amino acids within the cyclin box, and is 90% less abundant than the wild-type cyclin E sequence. This form is unable to associate with cdk2, is inactive in histone Hl kinase assays, and is unable to rescue a triple CLN mutation of S. cerevisiae (Sewing, et al., 1994). The cyclin box is a consensus region which confers activity by its association to a cdk (Lees et al., 1992). The relevance of cyclin derangement to in vivo conditions was directly examined, by measuring the expression of cyclin E protein in tumor samples versus normal adjacent tissue obtained from patients with various malignancies (Keyomarsi et al., 1994). These analyses revealed that breast cancers and other solid tumors, as well as malignant lymphocytes from patients with lymphatic leukemia, show severe quantitative and qualitative alteration in cyclin E protein expression independent of the S-phase fraction of the samples. In addition, the alteration of cyclin E becomes more severe with breast tumor stage and grade and is more consistent than cell proliferation or other tumor markers such as PCNA or c-erb B2. These observations strongly suggested the use of cyclin E as a new prognostic marker.
Therefore, a need exists to further characterize the alterations of cyclin E in breast cancer.


An image capturing device includes: a first substrate; a second substrate arranged so that the second substrate overlaps the first substrate; a pixel unit having a plurality of pixels arranged in a matrix shape on the first substrate; a first vertical scanning circuit arranged on one of the first substrate and the second substrate and configured to output a control signal supplied to every row or every two or more rows of the plurality of pixels; and a plurality of first buffers arranged on the second substrate so that the plurality of first buffers overlap the pixel unit, provided in correspondence with one row or a plurality of rows of the plurality of pixels, and connected to respective signal lines through which the control signal output from the first vertical scanning circuit is transmitted.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image capturing device.
Description of Related Art
In recent years, video cameras, digital still cameras, etc. have been generally widespread. A solid-state image capturing device is used for such cameras. In the solid-state image capturing device, an image capturing area in which a plurality of pixels are arranged in a matrix shape is provided on a semiconductor substrate having an image capturing element. The solid-state image capturing device is of a charge coupled device (CCD) type, a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) type, or the like.
In a general CMOS type solid-state image capturing device, a photoelectric conversion element is provided in each of a plurality of pixels. The CMOS type solid-state image capturing device converts exposure light to signal charge through a photoelectric conversion element in a pixel and reads the generated signal charge from the photoelectric conversion element in every row.
In the conventional CMOS type solid-state image capturing device, a control signal is supplied from a vertical scanning circuit, for example, arranged on the left side of an image capturing area, to the pixel of every row (for example, see Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. 2009-38781). When the number of pixels is small, the control signal is substantially simultaneously supplied from the vertical scanning circuit to a plurality of pixels of the same row, and signal charge generated by photoelectric conversion elements of the plurality of pixels of the same row can be simultaneously read from the photoelectric conversion elements.