An orthodontic appliance includes a latch that comprises at least one clip with a region for receiving an archwire. The clip also includes a recess for receiving a post of the appliance, and the recess is not in communication with the archwire-receiving region. The post functions to secure the clip to remaining components of the appliance, such as a body or base of the appliance. Optionally, the clip may include a second recess for receiving a second post of the appliance.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention broadly relates to appliances that are used during the course of orthodontic treatment. More particularly, the present invention relates to an orthodontic appliance such as a bracket or molar appliance having a latch that releasably retains an archwire in an archwire slot.
2. Description of the Related Art
Orthodontic therapy is a specialized type of treatment within the field of dentistry, and involves movement of malpositioned teeth to orthodontically correct locations. Orthodontic treatment typically enhances the aesthetic appearance of the teeth, particularly in instances when the patient's front teeth are malpositioned or crooked. Orthodontic treatment can also improve the patient's occlusion so that the teeth interact better with each other during mastication.
Many type of orthodontic treatment programs involve the use of a set of tiny appliances and wires that are commonly known collectively as "braces". During such treatment programs, small slotted appliances known as brackets are fixed to the patient's anterior, cuspid and bicuspid teeth, and an archwire is inserted into the slot of each bracket. The archwire forms a track to guide movement of the teeth to orthodontically correct locations. End sections of the archwires are typically captured in tiny appliances known as buccal tubes that are fixed to the patient's molar teeth.
Orthodontic brackets often have archwire slots that are open on one side for insertion of the archwire and that are bounded on remaining sides by walls or other structure of the brackets. Brackets that are affixed to the patient's buccolabial tooth surfaces (i.e., the surfaces of the teeth facing the patient's cheeks or lips) often have archwire slots that are open on a buccolabial side of the archwire slot. Brackets that are fixed to the lingual surfaces of the patient's teeth (i.e., the surfaces of the teeth facing the patient's tongue) often have an archwire slot that is open either on a lingual side or on an occlusal side (i.e., a side of the slot facing the outer tips of the teeth).
In the past, orthodontic practitioners commonly used elastomeric ligatures or wire ligatures to connect the archwire to the brackets and to urge the archwire into an orientation of seated engagement with the bottom of the archwire slot. Ligatures are typically installed by extending the ligature about the archwire as well as behind tiny protruding hooks known as "tiewings" that extend outwardly from a body of the bracket.
Recently, there has been increased interest in orthodontic appliances that have a latch for coupling the archwire to the appliance. Appliances of this type are widely known as self-ligating appliances and often obviate the need to use ligatures. A number of different latches are known, including movable clips, spring members, covers, shutters, bales and other structure. The latches are connected to a body of the appliance for releasably retaining the archwire in the archwire slot.
Improved self-ligating orthodontic appliances are described in two U.S. patents entitled "ORTHODONTIC APPLIANCE WITH SELF-RELEASING LATCH", U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,302,688 and 6,582,226. The appliances described in those patents have a latch for retaining an archwire in the archwire slot, and the latch releases the archwire from the archwire slot whenever the archwire exerts a force on the appliance that exceeds a certain minimum value. The minimum value is significantly less than the force required in the same direction to debond the appliance from the tooth, and consequently helps to ensure that the appliance will not spontaneously debond from the tooth during the course of treatment.
In certain embodiments of the appliances described in the two U.S. patents mentioned above, the archwire may be inserted into the archwire slot by pressing the archwire against the latch. The latch is constructed to self-open without the need for hand instruments or other tools. Consequently, such appliances are a great advantage to the practitioner in that the time needed for connecting the archwire to the appliance can be significantly reduced.
In some of the appliances described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,302,688 and 6,582,226, the latch of the appliance comprises one or two resilient clips having a generally U-shaped configuration, and the clips spread open to admit an archwire into the archwire slot of the appliance. Preferably, the clips are made of a shape-memory alloy such as alloys of nitinol and beta-titanium in order to help assure that the clip reliably opens and closes as intended over extended periods of time. The use of shape-memory alloys also helps to ensure that the clip does not fracture during use so that the appliance need not be replaced once it is bonded to the patient's tooth.
However, clips that are made of nitinol and beta-titanium can present problems for the manufacturer during assembly of the appliance. For example, the resilient properties of such clips may be adversely affected if the clip is exposed to undue heat during assembly of the appliance, such as heat from a brazing or welding process. Brazing and welding processes are often used to join a base of the appliance, such as a mesh-type base, to a body of the appliance that has been separately manufactured.
Moreover, it is desirable to avoid increasing the overall size of the appliance when attempting to alter or improve the connection between the clip and remaining components of the appliance. An increase in the size of the appliance may increase the likelihood that the appliance will impinge on adjacent soft tissue in the oral cavity and cause discomfort to the patient. In addition, an increase in appliance size will often cause the appliance to be more visible to casual observers and adversely affect its aesthetic appearance.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to provide a new self-ligating orthodontic appliance having improved means for connecting a clip of the appliance to remaining components of the appliance.

Orthodontic appliance with latch for retaining an archwire


A tee portion and a height regulating portion cooperate to form a height adjustable golf tee where the user may readily and easily adjust placement of the height regulating portion relative to a placement zone along the tee portion and lock the height regulating portion at a desired location defined by the user. The height regulating portion is locked onto the tee portion during assembly where it may not inadvertently become separated during use, transport or storage. The height regulating portion is easily transferred between an adjustment position and a locking position utilizing a simple toggle like action. The height adjustable golf tee provides for a golf ball to be retained consistently at a user defined elevation above the ground during play of the game of golf.

1. Field of the Invention
Generally, the invention relates to golf tees to support a golf ball above the ground during lay of the game of golf. More specifically, the invention relates to height adjustable golf tees which have a portion which may be manipulated by the user to provide for a user selectable height of a golf ball positioned on the height adjustable golf tee relative to the ground.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The game of golf is enjoyed by many persons. Such players range from beginner players to occasional recreational players to serious recreational players to serious amateur players to professional players. Many regular non-professional players, including retired or semi-retired persons, routinely enjoy the game of golf on a very regular basis. It is common to have players of golf living in communities which have at least one golf course owned and operated by the community. Such players often enjoy a round of golf on a very regular schedule, including daily.
Tees are devices which typically penetrate the ground and have a golf ball contact structure positioned thereon where a golf ball is retained in an elevated position above the ground for ready striking by the player utilizing a golf club. Typically golf tees are utilized to elevate the golf ball above the ground during the initial stroke during each hole of play. Each player will have a personal preference for elevational height of the golf ball depending upon which club is utilized. Some players prefer the golf ball to be positioned fairly close to the ground. Some players prefer the golf ball to be retained at a higher elevation from the ground. Head size for a respective club will often influence the players desired placement of the golf ball relative to the ground. The condition of the grass may also factor into a specific players selection of elevation of their golf ball.
Each player may have their own unique method of placing their tee where their golf ball is retained at a desired elevation above the ground. This typically involves manually manipulating their tee during insertion in the ground, stepping back to observe the tee often with a golf ball resting thereon, then readjusting if judged to be too high or too low relative to the ground. This arrangement provides for a very imprecise placement which, due to the inconsistency of placement, tends to adversely effect overall performance of the player during play of the game of golf.
A wide variety of golf tees having insertion limits have been proposed including versions having user selectable adjustment of the insertion limiting structure along the tee portion where the user may select an elevational position of a golf ball positioned on the tee. Typically these adjustable structures are formed of two (2) parts which may easily be separated by the user. Additionally, these adjustable structures typically have a limited number of placement locations of the insertion limiting structure relative to the tee portion. Some elevational placement tees merely have a single insertion limiting structure fixedly positioned on the tee to prevent over insertion into the ground where the golf ball is retained at a predefined elevation when the tee is completely inserted to the insertion limiting structure.
Various deficiencies exist with each of the known methods of providing for placement of a golf ball at a desired elevation above the ground during play of the game of golf. As can be seen various attempts have been made to provide for a golf tee having structures to provide for the user to establish an elevational height relative to the ground. These attempts have been less efficient than desired. As such, it may be appreciated that there continues to be a need for a simple, sturdy, dependable, accurate, adjustable height golf tee where the user may quickly and easily establish a height setting on the golf tee and where that established height setting remains undisturbed during storage and transport of the adjustable height golf tee. The present invention substantially fulfills these needs.


A mirror attached to a child car safety seat. The mirror is attached to the car seat by means of a flexible stem connected to a base module attached to the car seat. The stem may be bent to any desired position. The base module may be manipulated to also alternate the position of the mirror. The mirror and stem may be removed from the base module. A fabric cover with elastic edging is positioned over the back of the mirror and flexible stem. The fabric cover may have a stuffed figure attached thereto.

This invention relates to mirrors and, in particular, to a mirror adapted to being attached to a child car safety seat.
The xe2x80x9cChild Passenger Protection Actxe2x80x9d which became law in 1983, required that an infant travelling in a vehicle be secured in a safety seat that is itself fastened to the center of the rear seat of the vehicle by means of seat belts. Updates to the law will shortly require these car seats to be anchored by a tether strap to the structure of the car itself. It has become common practice, as a result of the recommendations of child safety advocates, to position a child car safety seat such that an infant faces the rear of the vehicle. Positioning the infant facing the rear seat is intended to protect the infant in the event of an accident by insuring that the infant will be projected toward the soft car seat back. As the infant becomes an older and larger baby, the child car safety seat is positioned so that the baby and safety seat are facing forward.
Child car safety seats are often constructed with side panels that can obstruct any view of the infant when the infant is in the car seat. This, plus the rear-facing orientation of a safety seat, makes it very difficult for a driver to check on the condition of a rearwardly facing infant. If the infant is crying or otherwise giving indications of distress, the driver, if alone, is put in the position of having to stop the car in order to check on the infant. This can be inconvenient at best, and dangerous at worst if there is no safe roadside location to which the driver may safely drive the vehicle. If there is another passenger in the car, the passenger must turn her/his body and lean back over the front seat. In either case, the situation is dangerous or inconvenient. If the infant is quiet, it is important that the driver or passenger be able to monitor the infant to ensure that nothing untoward has happened to the infant. With front-facing safety seats, there is often a problem directly viewing the baby because of the configuration of the vehicle containing the safety seat.
The present invention provides a mirror which is primarily intended for direct attachment to a child car safety seat. The mirror of the present invention is adapted to being attached to the car seat itself, the car seat base, the car seat canopy, handle or any of the straps holding the car seat in place. The mirror is attached to the car seat by means of a flexible stem thereby permitting the user to easily bend and position the mirror in the most advantageous position. To soften and reduce the starkness of a mirror to a child, a fabric cover with elastic edging is positioned over the back of the mirror and flexible stem. The fabric cover may have a stuffed figure attached thereto.
It is, therefore, a primary purpose of the present invention, which will be described subsequently in greater detail, to provide a new, improved, inexpensive, easy-to-install device by which the driver of a vehicle, may easily observe a child in a child car safety seat placed in the rear seat of the vehicle.
This together with other objects of the invention, along with various features of novelty which characterize the invention, are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed hereto and forming a part of this disclosure. For a better understanding of the invention, its operating advantages and the specific objects attained by its uses, reference should be had to the accompanying drawings and descriptive matter in which there is illustrated a preferred embodiment of the invention.


An automotive text display arrangement is described which includes a driver text display positioned directly in front of an automobile driver and displaying a limited amount of text to the driver without impairing forward visual attention of the driver. The arrangement may include a boundary insertion mode wherein when the active text position is an active text boundary, new text is inserted between the text items separated by the active text boundary, and when the active text position is an active text item, new text replaces the active text item. In addition or alternatively, there may be a multifunctional text control knob offering multiple different user movements, each performing an associated text processing function.

There can be a lot happening in the passenger compartment of a modern automobile. Although the driver's full attention is needed for the task of driving safely, there can be many distractions in forms such as complex entertainment systems, electronic navigation systems and their colorful displays and text-to-speech (TTS) audio outputs, smart phones, email devices, all of which now can be controlled by automatic speech recognition (ASR). There is a need to minimize these distractions to preserve the driver's attention to the road ahead.
While operating such in-car devices, most distraction seems to be visual—caused by the driver looking at the operated device (its screen, buttons etc.). In the specific case of automotive ASR, some systems allow processing of the recognized text completely without a display, relying on audio output only, while other systems use a display showing the full edited text. Eyes-free text composition without a text display generally leads to lower distraction levels as compared to ASR systems that use a text display, but more errors may remain in the composed text that go unnoticed by the user. This can be due, for example, to different words sounding alike when spoken by a speech synthesizer. It may be possible to offset this problem, for example, by using an automatic audio output disambiguation method, but under some circumstances it may still be worthwhile to show to the driver a limited content text display.
When entering, navigating and editing text in text processing applications such as ASR systems, the most frequent user interface operations typically are mapped directly to physical controls such as dedicated buttons or rotary knobs. Other operating functions can be activated by traversing and selecting from menus, which substantially increases visual and cognitive load. Other user control mechanisms can include recognizing handwritten gestures (e.g., using a touchpad) or recognizing voice commands. One advantage of dedicated physical controls is their robustness to any kind of noise and their low visual and cognitive distraction potential. But there can only be so many physical controls in actual automotive setups before the dashboard becomes too complex.
One of the application control functions in a text processing application, such as processing ASR text, is control of the text insertion point—the cursor. There are two main cursor modes which can be thought of as "insert-after" and "replace."
The insert-after mode can be described in the context of an audio playback arrangement—typically produced by a text-to-speech (TTS) system—which always reads aloud the active text item when the active text item changes, e.g. during navigation among items or after entering new text. This way, the text last pronounced by the system, such as "please buy bananas," is naturally followed by the user's dictation, e.g., "and oranges." This holds as well for other input modalities such as handwriting recognition. Insert-after mode is a natural choice when operating an eyes-free text processing system without a text display, or with a system using a text display that shows the complete dictated text. In the former case, the user maintains a "mental cursor" at the point just after the text last dictated. In the latter case, the display and behavior resembles word processing and e-mail programs with which users are already familiar, and that by default implement an insert-mode cursor.
The replace mode insertion point cursor is an alternative to insert-after mode. New input text such as new dictation results replaces the active text item (except maybe at the beginning or end of the entire text where artificial beginning- and end-of-message markers may be placed). Under certain conditions, replace mode may be more natural than insert-after mode; for instance, when a display is used that only shows the active text item. Replace mode offers the benefit that replacing a whole active text item by re-dictating is quicker than in the insert-after mode where the user first needs to delete the old text. One drawback of replace mode is that the insertion of new text inside a block of existing text requires either a switch to insert mode or the use of a voice command such as "Insert<new text>".
Both cursor insertion modes require the user to understand which mode is being used. If user expectations do not match the editing mode, undesired pieces of text may accidentally remain part of the message in insert-after mode, and intended text may be accidentally deleted in replace mode. This can be offset by: (1) not switching these cursor modes dynamically, but rather deciding to use only one of the modes in a deployed system; (2) sufficient user feedback indicating what is happening when new text is inserted into existing text (e.g. TTS announcing that an original text item has been replaced under replace mode); or (3) getting the user accustomed to which mode is active at which time.

Text browsing, editing and correction methods for automotive applications


A non-volatile ferroelectric memory device senses a cell data at high speed. Preferably, the non-volatile ferroelectric memory device includes a plurality of cell array blocks, a plurality of sense amplifier units, a plurality of sense amplifier units, a plurality of local data buses, a global data bus, and a plurality of data bus switch arrays. Each of the plurality of cell array blocks has a hierarchical bit line architecture including sub bit lines and a main bit line group corresponding to a plurality of unit cells for storing differential data. The plurality of sense amplifier units, corresponding one-by-one to the cell array blocks, sense and amplify the differential data induced on the main bit line group during a sensing operation. The plurality of local data buses, corresponding one-by-one to the sense amplifier units, transfer the differential data outputted from the sense amplifier units and differential data to be transferred to the sense amplifier units. The global data bus, shared by a plurality of the local data buses, transfers the differential data. The plurality of data bus switch arrays selectively couple the local data buses to the global data bus.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a non-volatile ferroelectric memory device for driving a memory at high speed, and more specifically, to a non-volatile ferroelectric memory device, in which a 1T1C embedded memory cell is operated as a 2T2C embedded memory cell and a sensing voltage of a main bit line is directly applied to a sense amplifier, thereby performing a high-speed sensing operation and improving operating characteristics at a low voltage.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a ferroelectric random access memory (hereinafter, referred to as 'FeRAM') has a data processing speed as fast as a Dynamic Random Access Memory DRAM and conserves data even after the power is turned off.
The FeRAM having structures similar to the DRAM includes the capacitors made of a ferroelectric substance, so that it utilizes the characteristic of a high residual polarization of the ferroelectric substance in which data is not deleted even after an electric field is eliminated.
The technical contents of the above FeRAM are disclosed in the Korean Patent Application No. 1998-14400 applied for a patent by the same inventor of the present invention. Therefore, the basic structure and the operation of the FeRAM are not described herein.
As the chip operation voltage of the FeRAM becomes lower, the cell sensing voltage also decreases. As a result, it is difficult to embody the rapid operating operation speed in a FeRAM chip having a 1T1C (1-Transistor 1-Capacitor) structure.
Specifically, when the sensing voltage of cell data is small, it is difficult to sense cell data at high speed due to the reduced voltage margin.


Acrylic pressure-sensitive adhesive including an acrylic copolymer formed by copolymerizing: i) 81 to 96% by weight of an alkyl (meth) acrylic acid ester monomer having a carbon number of an alkyl group of 2 to 14; ii) 1 to 10% by weight of at least one monomer selected from the group consisting of an allyl ester, a vinyl ester and an unsaturated acetate; iii) 1 to 10% by weight of an acrylonitrile monomer; and iv) 0.1 to 2% by weight of a crosslinker including 5 to 15 of an alkylene oxide group, and having two or more groups of an acrylate group, a vinyl group or the combination thereof, and a surface finishing material comprising the same, which is environmentally friendly, has an excellent room temperature and an aging adhesive property, and has an excellent constructability.

Recently, the using of a surface finishing material in the form of sticker, such as an interior/exterior material, an interior design material, an advertisement material, and the like that are applied with an adhesive, is being largely increased.
As the adhesive, an oil adhesive has superior adhesive strength, but has the problem that a large quantity of a harmful materials for the environment and human are emitted by including an organic solvent, and an aqueous adhesive (or aqueous emulsion adhesive) has an advantage that is environmentally friendly and doesn't emit the harmful material because it doesn't include the organic solvent and uses the water as a dispersion medium, and doesn't have a transcription of the adhesive when removing it after use, however has a disadvantage that the adhesion is a little bit decreased compared to the oil adhesive, particularly the adhesive property is largely deteriorated by aging.
Accordingly, a development of the aqueous adhesive, in which there is no deterioration of the adhesion, in particular adhesive property due to the aging, so that it is environmentally friendly and harmless to human, and the surface finishing material including the same are urgent.

Acrylic pressure sensitive adhesive and surface finishing material comprising the same


A semiconductor device comprising a signal line and ground line is disclosed. The signal line comprises an opening and at least a portion of the ground line is in the opening in the signal line.

FIG. 1 illustrates a conventional cable 10 capable of carrying an electronic signal. The cable 10 comprises a core 12 which may be a solid metal such as copper. A concentric insulator layer 14, typically comprising a non-electrically conductive material such as a plastic, overlies the core 12. A concentric ground layer 16 over the insulator 14 serves as a ground path and an electromagnetic interference shield.
FIG. 2 illustrates a portion of a conventional semiconductor device comprising a first flat signal line 18, a second flat signal line 20 and a first flat ground line 22 positioned between the first signal line 18 and the second signal line 20. A second flat ground line 24 is provided on the outside edge of the first flat signal line 18. A third flat ground line 26 is provided on the outside edge of the second flat signal line 20. An insulator (not shown) may be positioned between the signal lines 18 and 20, and the ground lines 22, 24, 26.
FIG. 3 illustrates a portion of a conventional semiconductor device comprising a flat signal line 28 and an underlying flat ground layer 30. An insulator (not shown) may be interposed between the flat signal line 28 and the flat ground layer 30.
FIG. 4 illustrates a portion of a conventional semiconductor device comprising a flat signal line 32 and a first flat ground line 34 on one side of the flat signal line 32 and a second flat ground line 36 on the other side. A first flat ground layer 38 underlies the flat signal line 32, first flat ground line 34 and second flat ground line 36. An insulator (not shown) may be positioned between the signal line 32, the ground lines 34, and 36 and flat ground layer 38.
FIG. 5 illustrates a portion of a conventional semiconductor device comprising a first flat ground layer 38 underlying a first flat signal line 32, a first flat ground line 34 adjacent one side of the flat signal line 32 and a second flat ground line 36 adjacent the opposite side of the flat signal line 32. A second flat ground layer 40 overlies the flat signal line 32, first flat ground line 34 and second flat ground line 36.

Structure design for minimizing on-chip interconnect inductance

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd.


Method for identifying compounds that inhibit cytokinesis, wherein the compounds are tested for their ability to modulate the formation and/or the stability of septin filaments. The compounds are useful in tumor therapy.

The present invention relates to a therapy interfering with cell division, in particular tumor therapy.
The septins are an evolutionary conserved family of proteins required for cytokinesis (reviewed in Cooper and Kiehart, 1996); Longtine et al., 1996; Field and Kellogg 1999). The septins were first described in S. cerevisiae, where mutants in any of the genes CDC3, 10, 11 and 12 are unable to complete cytokinesis, giving rise to multinucleate cells (Hartwell, 1971). Sequence analysis of these four genes by Pringle and co-workers (GenBank accession numbers L16548-L16551) revealed that they encode proteins with similar primary structure, defining the septin family. The known septins range in size from 30 to 60 kDa and contain sequences characteristic of the GTPase superfamily of proteins. In yeast, the septins localize at the site of bud emergence, and indirect but compelling evidence indicates that the septins are components of the neck filaments, a structure previously described by electron microscopy as an ordered array of filaments in close association with the membrane of the bud (Byers and Goetsch, 1976). Neck filaments have only been observed in yeast cells so far. However, and in spite of the differences in the mechanism of cytokinesis between yeast and animal cells, septins were later found to be widespread in higher eukaryotes. A Drosophila septin mutant, pnut, is defective in cytokinesis, and the Peanut protein localizes to the cleavage furrow of dividing cells (Neufeld and Rubin, 1994). Septins with similar localization patterns have also been described in amphibia and mammals (Kinoshita et al., 1997; Xie et al., 1999), and inactivation of septin function by antibody microinjection in cultured mammalian cells and in Xenopus embryos results in cytokinesis defects (Kinoshita et al., 1997; Xie et al., 1999)). Thus, it appears that the septins are involved in an aspect of cell division that has been conserved from yeast to animal cells. Several yeast proteins required for cytokinesis and bud site selection are recruited to the cell division site in a septin-dependent manner (Chant, et al., 1995; Sanders and Herskowitz 1996; DeMarini et al., 1997; Bi et al., 1998), suggesting that the septins can work as a scaffold that directs the correct localization of other proteins. However, the molecular mechanism of septin function in animal cells is still unclear.
Biochemical experiments have revealed that the septins exist as an heteromultimeric complex containing three (in Drosophila), four (in yeast) or more (in mammals) different septin polypeptides (Field et al., 1996; Frazier et al., 1998; Hsu et al., 1998). Moreover, septin complexes can be purified in a filamentous state (Field et al., 1996; Frazier et al., 1998; Hsu et al., 1998). Thus, it is likely that the septins can form filaments in vivo, even if septin-containing filamentous structures (like the neck filaments in yeast) have not yet been described in animal cells. The mechanism and regulation of septin filament assembly remain nevertheless mysterious, as well as many of the physico-chemical properties of the filaments. For instance, it is not known whether the coiled coil domain is involved in polymerization, or whether septin filaments are polar structures. Several septin proteins have been shown to bind, or bind and hydrolyse, guanine nucleotide (Kinoshita et al., 1997; Field et al., 1996; Beites et al., 1999), and mutations that inhibit nucleotide binding also affect septin localization in mammalian cells (Kinoshita et al., 1997; Field et al., 1996). Inter alia, it was shown that the GTP-binding activity of the mammalian septin Nedd5 is necessary for its normal localization (Kinoshita et al., 1997).
However, the precise role of GTP (guanosine triphosphate) binding and hydrolysis in filament formation has not been elucidated.
It was an object of the invention to elucidate the mechanisms involved in septin filament formation in order to provide a novel approach for therapy, in particular cancer therapy, that is based on modulating septin filament formation and thus interfering with cytokines is.
To solve the problem underlying the present invention, septin filament assembly was reconstituted in vitro using a recombinant septin. It was shown that a septin protein can assemble into filaments in a nucleotide-dependent fashion, and that these polymers, like actin filaments and microtubules, are polar structures that assemble with a nucleation mechanism.
The results obtained in the experiments of the present invention show that GTP binding and hydrolysis regulate the filament assembly of a septin protein, in addition, they present a kinetic analysis of septin polymerization.
Thus, the present invention provides the first direct evidence of nucleotide-dependent filament assembly of a septin protein. Based on these observations, it may also be assumed that XSepA filaments assemble with a nucleation mechanism, and that filament growth and stability is regulated by the state of bound guanine nucleotide. In addition, due to the similarity of the septin, both on the sequence level and in terms of their function, it may be assumed that an essentially identical mechanism operates at the level of heteromultimeric septin filaments.
Kinetic analysis of the polymerization reaction has revealed the existence of a lag phase in septin filament assembly FIG. 4A. This feature is indicative of nucleated polymerization, whereby initiation of filaments is energetically unfavored, but under sufficiently high monomer concentrations, nuclei can form. Addition of monomers to these nuclei to yield long filaments subsequently takes place with a higher association constant than the one required for filament initiation (Cantor and Schimmel; 1980)). Actin and tubulin follow such a polymerization mechanism. The existence of a critical concentration (the concentration below which polymerization cannot occur) is a consequence of the kinetic barrier to nucleation. As shown in FIG. 4B, a critical concentration of approximately 0.5 mg/ml, or xcx9c12 xcexcM (in comparison with xcx9c0.2 xcexcM for actin (Mitchison, 1992), or 14 xcexcM for pure tubulin in glycerol buffer (Mitchison and Kirschner, 1984) for XSepA polymerization exists. These data indicate that XSepA filaments are nucleated polymers. On the other hand, a mechanism of linear polymerization (where monomers associate end-to-end with an affinity constant independent of polymer length) has been proposed for septin filaments, based on the length distribution of immunopurified septin complexes (Field et al., 1996); Frazier et al., 1998). It is very likely, however, that in the absence of polymer-stabilising conditions long filaments would not have survived the purification procedure. This could be due to simple mechanical breakage and/or to depolymerization caused by either depletion of nucleotide, or to effects of dilution of the septin complex below the putative critical concentration. In fact, only short filaments (up to 350 nm) were observed in these cases (Field et al., 1996; Frazier et al. 1998) rendering ambiguous a kinetic interpretation of length distribution data.
Two additional properties of actin filaments and microtubules seem to be shared by XSepA filaments. The polymerization dynamics of XSepA in the presence of the slowly hydrolysable GTP analogue, GTP-xcex3-S suggest a role of nucleotide hydrolysis in the destabilisation of the filament structure (FIGS. 4A-4C). Likewise, a number of experimental approaches has established that NTP hydrolysis is linked to destabilisation of the microtubule and actin filament lattices (Mitchison, 1992). Another important feature of these cytoskeletal elements is filament polarity, since it plays a key role in the organization of higher order structures and in the directional transport of molecules along filamentous tracks (Mitchison, 1992); Kirschner and Mitchison, 1986). Using fluorescence microscopy to visualise elongation of pre-assembled septin filaments, it could be observed that the two ends grow with different kinetics (FIGS. 5A and 5B). Although these data provide a strong indication of polarity in septin filaments, proper determination of the growth rates at the different ends could not be achieved. Further analysis of the elongation process is still needed, together with high-resolution structural studies of the septin filaments.
It is interesting to compare the structural features of in vitro-assembled XSepA filaments with those of septin filaments purified from yeast or animal cells. The diameter of septin filaments in these latter cases has been estimated in 7-9 nm (Field et al., 1996; Frazier, et al., 1998; Hsu et al., 1998). Filaments assembled from recombinant XSepA appeared as paired structures formed by what can be interpreted as two filaments of 8-9 nm in width each FIGS. 2A and 2B. If this interpretation is confirmed, the diameter of individual XSepA filaments would be consistent with that of septin filaments purified from cells. Interestingly, paired filaments of length xe2x89xa71500 nm are obtained when the purified yeast septin complex is briefly dialysed from 1M KC1 into a buffer of lower ionic strength. In this latter case, filaments within a doublet were spaced by a gap of 2-20 nm without sign of a bridging structure (Frazier et al. 1998). It is therefore possible that pairing is a conserved feature of septin filaments under conditions that favour elongation. Lateral association, or bundling of septin filaments has also been described in the yeast and Drosophila complexes (Field et al., 1996; Frazier et al., 1998). Similar structures in XSepA filaments FIGS. 2A and 2B have been observed. A higher degree of bundling was evident in filaments assembled from a modified version of XSepA lacking the coiled-coil domain FIGS. 2A and 2B. Thus, it is possible that although not essential for filament formation, the coiled coil domain plays a role in side-to-side filament association.
In Xenopus cell extracts, XSepA is tightly associated with other septins. In this respect, the Xenopus septin complex is similar to septin complexes already described in yeast, insects and mammals (Field et al., 1996; Frazier, et al., 1998; Hsu et al., 1998). On the other hand, since a single septin can efficiently polymerize in vitro a certain degree of redundancy between septin proteins may be expected. It is very likely, particularly in view of the high sequence homology between septins that some, if not all, of the properties described here for XSepA filaments (nucleotide-dependent assembly and disassembly, nucleation mechanism, and polarity) may be shared by the endogenous, heteromultimeric filaments. It is not known whether overexpression of a particular septin could replace for the lack of another septin polypeptide. In yeast, conditional mutations in any of the four septin genes (CDC3, 10, 11 and 12) lead to defects in cytokinesis and to loss of the remaining septins from the division site (Haarer and Pringle, (1987); Kim, Haarer and Pringle, (1991); Ford and Pringle, (1991)). However, analysis of deletion mutants has revealed that CDC10 and CDC11 are each dispensable for viability, and cells lacking CDC10 properly localize Cdc3p and Bud4p and perform cytokinesis (Frazier et al., 1998). Thus, not all the subunits in the yeast septin complex are required for septin function.
Several recent observations have called into question whether ordered filament arrays are required for septin function in budding yeast. Ultrastructural analysis of xcex94cdc10 and xcex94cdc11 cells failed to detect the presence of neck filaments, although as mentioned above, septin-dependent functions are largely maintained in xcex94cdc10 mutants (Frazier et al., 1998). Moreover, septin complexes purified from these mutant strains are biochemically distinct from the wild-type complex. Whereas the wild-type complex seems to assemble into filamentous structures upon dialysis from 1M KC1, mutant complexes fail to do so. Likewise, the non-essential Gin4p kinase is required for certain aspects of septin organization (Longtine et al., (1998)). In xcex94gin4 cells, although cytokinesis occurs normally, the organization of septins at the bud neck appears severely altered and, must likely, incompatible with the normal arrangement of the neck filaments. These data have led to the proposal that assembly of septins into ordered filament arrays is not required for septin function. It has also been suggested, based solely on the inability of xcex94cdc10 complexes to associate into filaments in vitro, that septin filament assembly may be dispensable for function (Field and Kellogg, 1999; Frazier et al., 1998). The evolutionary conservation of the motifs required for GTPase activity strongly suggests that this activity is required for septin function. As it has been shown, GTP binding and hydrolysis are intimately involved in filament formation. A parsimonious resolution to this paradox is that whereas the neck filament arrays are dispensable, filament assembly is nevertheless still required for septin function.
Since septins are clearly implicated in cytokinesis Hartwell et al., 1971; Neufeld et al., 1994), the results of the present invention, which establish a mechanism for septin filament assembly, provide a basis for identifying compounds that interfere with cytokinesis.
The present invention relates, in a first aspect, to a method for identifying a compound that inhibits cytokinesis, characterized in that the compound""s ability to modulate the formation and/or the stability of septins filaments is determined.
The term xe2x80x9cmodulatingxe2x80x9d denotes either xe2x80x9cpartially or completely inhibiting or decreasingxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cenhancingxe2x80x9d.
Based on the finding of the invention that septin filament assembly occurs in a GTP dependent fashion, in a preferred embodiment, the compound is tested for its ability to modulate the binding of GTP to septin monomers.
In principle, any septin that has the ability to form filaments in a GTP-dependent manner, either with identical or different septin molecules, may be used, either by itself or in combination with said other septin molecules.
Such a GTP binding assay is a biochemical assay, which may be carried out according to standard protocols, as described, inter alia, by Self et al., 1995. By way of example, this assay may be carried out as follows: In a first step, the septin monomer is incubated, in the presence or absence of the test compound, with GTP that carries a radioactive label (e.g. the commercially available xcex1-32P-GTP or 3H-GTP) or an otherwise measurable, e.g. a fluorescent label, as described, inter alia, by Hazlett et al., 1993, under conditions and for a period of time sufficient to allow saturation of GTP binding sites. The optimal assay conditions may be determined as follows: In a first step, the septin is selected, e.g. recombinant septin A, and the desired protein concentration is established by a standard assay (e.g. the commercially available BioRad assay). In addition, a suitable buffer is selected, e.g. S-buffer, as described in the Examples. Next, time courses of GTP binding are performed using different GTP concentrations to determine the optimal conditions, i.e. nucleotide concentration and incubation time, to reach saturation. Examples for suitable assay conditions are 5 min at a septinA concentration of 1 xcexcM, or 30 min at a septinA concentration of 20 xcexcM at room temperature in S-buffer.
Once the assay has been established, the test compound""s ability to modulate the GTP binding reaction is determined by measuring the amount of bound GTP and comparing the obtained result with that of the control reaction carried out in the absence of the test compound.
The principle of this type of assay is described in the Examples.
The assay may be performed in the high throughput format by automation of the reaction steps, including, in the case of using a radioactive assay, the separation of septin-bound and unbound GTP. In this case, a great number of compounds, e.g. from compound or natural product libraries, are applied to microtiter plates containing the reagents for the binding reaction. After the time required for GTP saturation in the control reaction (absence of test compound), the reaction solution may be filtered through a protein binding matrix, e.g. nitrocellulose, that is arranged in the same geometrical pattern as the original microtiter plate where the reaction took place, and the radioactivity retained in the filters is quantified.
To simplify the assay, the septin(s) may be immobilized on a solid matrix, either via a tag that allows for binding to a suitably modified solid support, e.g. by using a biotinylated septin and a streptavidin-coated microtiter plate. Alternatively, the unmodified septin(s) may be bound to a specially treated plastic or glass surface that allows for unspecific protein binding, e.g. a glass surface treated with 3-aminopropyltriethoxy-silane (Sigma). In this case, the separation of bound versus unbound GTP is achieved by simply washing away the unbound nucleotide and measuring the amount of label remaining on the plate.
Alternatively to GTP binding, the assay may be based on determining the compound""s ability to modulate GTP hydrolysis. In principle, such an assay is carried out in a similar manner as described above for the GTP binding assay, with the difference that the test compound is added to the reaction after GTP saturation is complete (since GTP binding to septins has to occur prior to GTP hydrolysis, the assay design has to ensure that GTP binding occurs). The GTP molecule must be labeled in the gamma-phosphate group (e.g. gamma-32P-GTP) in order to specifically detect hydrolysis. The readout, which may be done in the same way as described above for the GTP binding assay, may be, preferably, the amount of non-hydrolized GTP, or alternatively, the amount of released orthophosphate. The upscale of the assay to the high throughput format can be done according to the same principles as described above.
In the above-described assays that measure GTP binding to septins or GTP hydrolysis upon binding, the septin molecules employed may be identical or different. Preferably, the assay is carried out by using human septins, using as many different septins (some of them to be identified yet, e.g. by the Human Genome Project) as possible, either alone or in combination, in order to mimic the physiological situation as closely as possible. However, as long as not all human septins are available, the assay may conducted with septins from other organisms, preferably from vertebrates, e.g. Xenopus laevis.
Alternatively to using the full-length protein, a truncated version may be used, as long the GTPase activity is maintained, e.g. a fragment lacking the C-terminal sequence which, in the case of XseptinA has been shown to be dispensible for filament formation.
A number septins that are suitable for use in a GTP binding or hydrolysis assay are available, they have been cloned from various species. Preferably, the septins are employed as recombinant proteins obtained by expression in suitable hosts, e.g. in E. coli or in insect cells, according to conventional methods.
Examples for septins that may be employed are hNEDD5 (GenBank accession number D63878), PNUTL2 (GenBank accession number NMxe2x80x94004574) and CDCREL-1 (GenBank accession number AF006998 U07983).
Alternatively to determining a compound""s effect on GTP binding or GTP hydrolysis, it may be determined whether the compound promotes or inhibits septin filament formation, or enhances or reduces the stability of septin filament.
A suitable assay comprises incubating septin molecules, which may be identical or different, and monitoring the formation of filaments, e.g. by fluorescence measurement. In such an assay, the septin monomers carry a fluorescent label whose fluorescence increases when the agent is arranged in a precise order, as it occurs e.g. upon filament assembly. An example for such a fluorescent label is a pyrene, e.g. N-(1-pyrenyl)iodoacetamide, which was described by Kouyama et al., 1981, for conjugating actin to follow polymerization. This method can be applied in the present invention to monitor septin filament formation.
A compound""s modulating effect on polymerization is determined by measuring its effect on the increase of the fluorescence that is observed in a control experiment carried out in the absence of the compound.
An assay of this type can be established as follows:
The fluorescence-labeled septin molecules, either identical or different, are incubated, in the presence or absence (control sample) of the test compound, with GTP under conditions that allow polymerization in the control sample (in the case of septinA, the minimal conditions are 0.6 mg/ml septin and 0.1 mM GTP in S-buffer for 5 min) and are sufficient for a measurable increase in the fluorescent signal. The readout of the assay; which shows a test compound""s effect on filament formation, is the difference in fluorescence between the test sample and the control sample.
In an alternative assay, the test compound""s effect on septin filament stability can be determined by a similar method, with the difference that the test compound is added to reaction mixture after filament formation has been completed. Upon further incubation with the test compound the fluorescence will either decrease (in the case of the compound""s filament destabilizing effect) or increase (in the case of the compound""s filament stabilizing effect).
The above-described assays, which determine whether the compound promotes or inhibits septin filament formation, or whether it enhances or reduces the stability of septin filament, can be employed as a primary screen or, alternatively, as a secondary screen following a primary screen based on GTP binding and/or GTP hydrolysis. Such a secondary screen may be followed by a detailed characterization of the compound""s effect on filament formation/stability, as assayed by standard sedimentation, fluorescence or electron microscopy procedures. The secondary assay and the subsequent filament characterization will confirm that a test compound does not only effect GTP binding/hydrolysis, but also filament formation/stability, which appears to be the septins"" fundamental biological role in cytokinesis and is therefore the mechanism relevant for therapeutical intervention.
Compounds that have been identified in the above-defined screens due to their ability to modulate the nucleotide binding or hydrolysis and/or polymerization of septin monomers in vitro are candidates for drugs that affect the function of septins in vivo.
Since septins have an essential role in cell division, modulators of septin filament assembly/stability have the potential to perturb cytokinesis. In tumor cells, this effect may result in a decrease or a stop of tumor growth. In addition, inhibition of cytokinesis may cause the activation of a cell cycle arrest check point that will trigger apoptosis of the tumor cells.
By way of example, the candidate compounds can be assayed for their effect on cytokinesis and other cellular processes in tissue culture of normal or transformed cells. To test the inhibition of tumor cell proliferation, primary human tumor cells are incubated with the compound identified in the screen and the inhibition of tumor cell proliferation is tested by conventional methods, e.g. bromo-desoxy-uridine or 3H incorporation.
Compounds that exhibit an anti-proliferative effect in these assays may be further tested in tumor animal models and used for the therapy of tumors.
Thus, in a further aspect, the invention relates to compounds identified in the above screens for the therapy of tumors.
In addition to their role in cytokinesis, septins have been shown to be highly expressed in brain, where they are associated with molecules of the secretory pathway. Thus, the septins appear to be involved in neurosecretion events (Hsu et al., 1998; Beites et al., 1999). Modulators of septin filament assembly/stability may therefore be useful for the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders, e.g. Alzheimer""s disease or Huntington disease, and stroke.
Thus, in a further aspect, the invention relates to compounds identified in the above screens for the therapy of neurodegenerative diseases.
Toxicity and therapeutic efficacy of the compounds identified as drug candidates by the method of the invention can be determined by standard pharmaceutical procedures, which include conducting cell culture and animal experiments to determine the IC50, LD50, the ED50. The data obtained are used for determining the human dose range, which will also depend on the dosage form (tablets, capsules, aerosol sprays, ampules, etc.) and the administration route (oral, buccal, nasal, paterental or rectal). A pharmaceutical composition containing the compound as the active ingredient can be formulated in conventional manner using or more physiologically active carriers and excipients. Methods for making such formulations can be found in manuals, e.g. xe2x80x9cRemington Pharmaceutical Sciencesxe2x80x9d.

Method for identifying inhibitors of cytokinesis


An integrated rack for distributed signal and distributed energy components attachable to a facility includes a first end plate with a first front and first back side, a second end plate with a second front and second back side, a back wall for engaging the back sides of the end plates. The top of the back wall engages a facility ceiling and the bottom of the back wall engages a facility floor. At least one wireway can be disposed in the back wall. A opening can be formed between a first mounting angle connected to the first front side and a second mounting angle connected to the second front side and wherein the mounting angles comprises at least one perforation per inch. At least one distributed signal or distributed energy equipment can be removably mounted to the perforations on the mounting angles.

The invention relates to integrated racks for supporting a number of transmission units and signal units on one or more racks each having a number of compartments. The signal units have a control circuit and a transmitting or receiving circuit connected to the control circuit for the wireless transmission or reception, respectively, of a signal containing an identification number assigned to the unit and each unit having a register for storing the assigned number, a reception means for receiving a scanning signal from outside the unit and a transmission means for transmitting a response signal in response to a received scanning signal. The unit may, for example, be a paging unit of a transponder, an alarm transmitter, an electronic key, or similar devices.
A need exists for an integrated rack for which the assembly, installation, and use reduces overall energy consumption to a facility.
A need also exists for an integrated rack that improves overall safety by removing a need for use of modular flooring.
A further need exists for an integrated rack that does not require on-site welding and provides enhanced fire safety over existing racks and enclosures, eliminating a need for fire suppression equipment.
A need exists for an integrated rack having sufficient openings for accessing equipment and running wiring, thereby eliminating any trapped areas to monitor.
A need exists for an integrated rack that provides additional maintenance access over existing racks and enclosures for allowing efficient and safe removal of equipment.
The present embodiments meet these needs.
The present embodiments are detailed below with reference to the listed Figures.

Integrated rack for distributed signal and distributed energy components attachable to a facility


A method and apparatus is described for producing a large number of identical parts from a bar of material by electrochemical machining without the intervention of an operator. The apparatus comprises a spindle for supporting the bar and periodically feeding it in the direction of its axis, and an electrochemical machining assembly comprising cathodes for shaping the leading end portion of the bar to form the part. After the part has been shaped, it is electrochemically cut from the bar, and the bar is advanced longitudinally by the spindle in order to proceed with the machining of the next part.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the mass-production of metallic parts of relatively small volume by electrochemical machining. In particular, it relates to the manufacture of parts of complex shape, such as turbine blades, supports or levers.
2. Summary of the Prior Art
It is known to manufacture metal parts of complex shape by electrochemical machining. The various electrodes employed have machining surfaces which correspond to the shapes to be formed on the part. However, in order to machine a part, it is necessary to position it and fix it in this position on the machining apparatus, and after completion of the machining it is necessary to release the part from its fixed mounting. Furthermore, in order to achieve precise positioning of the part it is necessary to provide the part with at least one reference surface.
These operations are relatively troublesome since they require the intervention of an operator to fix the part and also the machining of the reference surface.

Method and apparatus for the serial production of parts by electrochemical machining

Societe Nationale d'Etude et de Construction de Monteurs d'Aviation "SNECMA"


A razor handle includes an at least partially hollow elongated structure and an at least partially hollow sleeve. The elongated structure has an interior surface and an exterior surface, a first opening at a proximate end, and a second opening along a length of the elongated structure. The sleeve has an interior surface and an exterior surface with a protrusion. The protrusion is adapted to extend through the second opening to the exterior surface of the elongated structure forming a gripping member.

The invention relates to shaving systems having a handle and a replaceable cartridge.
Shaving systems often consist of a handle and a replaceable cartridge in which one or more blades are mounted in a plastic housing. After the blades in a cartridge have become dull from use, the cartridge is discarded, and replaced on the handle with a new cartridge. In some shaving systems, the blades are resiliently mounted with respect to the cartridge housing and deflect under the force of skin contact during shaving. In some shaving systems, the connection of the cartridge to the handle provides a pivotal mounting of the cartridge with respect to the handle so that the cartridge angle adjusts to follow the contours of the surface being shaved. In such systems, the cartridge can be biased toward an at rest position by the action of a spring-biased plunger (a cam follower) carried on the handle against a cam surface on the cartridge housing.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,367,126 to Freund et al. and assigned to The Gillette Company discloses a powered wet-shaving razor having a grip and which is sold under the trade name Gillette® Fusion Power™. The grip tube is modular between the grip tube and base such that, when joined to one another a water-tight unit is formed prior to mounting of the razor head on the grip portion.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,514,904 to Michael Bond and assigned to The Gillette Company describes a razor, sold under the trade name Gillette® Atra® or Atra Plus®, that is attached by press fitting the housing member with the handle. However, the press fitting does not provide for a water-tight seal.
A need therefore exists to provide a low-cost razor, particularly a razor handle, with improved assemblies and that is generally impervious to liquids.


An (aqua)terrarium, in particular for ectothermic animals, has a container serving as living space. The (aqua)terrarium is provided with a climate control device that comprises a flow machine, in particular a fan, and an electrothermal converter, in particular a Peltier element. It is provided that the climate control device sucks in air from the container, conditions the sucked-in air by guiding it along a first side of the electrothermal converter, and conveys the conditioned air back into the container.

The invention concerns a terrarium or aquaterrarium, in particular for ectothermic animals, with a container serving as living space.
Terrariums as well as aquaterrariums are vivariums for keeping various, in particular exotic, animals and/or plants. In this context, an at least partially transparent container is provided as living space in which a piece of land, i.e., a piece of ground that can be walked on or planted, can be established. When in the fully established state of the vivarium, the proportion of land and/or of air space is predominant, one speaks of terrariums. On the other hand, one speaks of aquaterrariums when the water proportion dominates.
In the design of an (aqua)terrarium, it is generally attempted to simulate the natural habitat of the species to be kept as well as possible, wherein the focus is on providing suitable climatic conditions—such as temperature, air humidity and/or light conditions. In particular in case of keeping ectothermic animals, for example, reptiles which in contrast to mammals do not produce their own body heat and require external sources of heat or cold for regulating their body heat, an adequate temperature management is essential. If not provided, undercooling or overheating can lead to the animals becoming ill.
It is known in the prior art to regulate the temperature in (aqua)terrariums, for example, by heat lamps or heating wires which are focused on one point within the container. For warming up, ectothermic animals can move into the heat radiation zone of the respective heating medium. In general, heat lamps and heating wires are arranged inside of the container so that the animals are at risk of injury by direct contact. In addition, temperatures or temperature distributions within the (aqua)terrarium can only be adjusted with difficulty by heat lamps or heating wires. Also, heat lamps and heating wires are not compatible with misting systems for regulating the air humidity because the risk of electric shock cannot be excluded.
Object of the present invention is therefore to provide an improved possibility for regulating the climatic conditions of an (aqua)terrarium that comprises at least a temperature regulation.


An apparatus including a chamber that defines an internal cavity therein, adapted to enclose the device under test, and including walls of an inwardly reflective material, rendering the walls reflective to electromagnetic waves, thereby simulating a multi-path environment. Thus, the chamber is a reverberation chamber. At least one moveable object and chamber antenna are arranged in the cavity. A measuring instrument is connected to the device under test and the chamber antenna, for measuring the transmission between them. Further, an improved antenna holder is disclosed, comprising three surfaces of a reflective material, said surfaces extending in planes which are orthogonal in relation to each other and each surface facing away from the other surfaces, and wherein a chamber antenna is arranged on each of said at least three surfaces. Other improvements relate to video surveillance, channel emulation and shielding.

The reverberation chamber, or mode-stirred chamber, was before year 2000 only known as an instrument to measure radiated emissions and susceptibility to radiation, i.e. for electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) testing. The required measurement uncertainty was then not so strict.
The U.S. Pat. No. 7,444,264 describes how the reverberation chamber could be used to measure e.g. the radiation efficiency of antennas and the total radiated power (TRP) of mobile and wireless terminals such as cellular phones. Several chamber improvements were introduced to get the desired uncertainty, which is much stricter than the EMC case.
The same measurement setups that are described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,444,264 were also used to determine the performance of antenna diversity, i.e. when the outputs of two antennas are combined in such a way that the deepest fading dips are reduced, see e.g. P.-S. Kildal and K. Rosengren, "Correlation and capacity of MIMO systems and mutual coupling, radiation efficiency and diversity gain of their antennas: Simulations and measurements in reverberation chamber", in IEEE Communications Magazine, Vol. 42, No. 12, December 2004.
The above-mentioned first works describe how antennas and transmitting mobile and wireless terminals, intended for use in fading multipath environment, can be characterized by measurements in a reverberation chamber. However, there was also a need for characterizing mobile and wireless terminals when they are receiving.
The receive performance is either characterized by a Bit-Error-Rate (BER) or a Frame-Error-Rate (FER), depending on which system the terminals are designed for, where the latter frame consist of several bits that are coded in a special way to reduce errors. The BER or FER will depend on the signal level present at the receiver. Therefore, the receiver sensitivity is defined as the level which provides a certain BER or FER, often chosen to be 0.5%. It is known how to measure the receiver sensitivity when a signal is connected directly to the port of the receiver of the terminal. This is often referred to as conductive measurements because the transmit signal is connected directly to the receiver without including any antenna or environment. Then, however, the performance of the antenna is not included in the measurements. Therefore, it has previously been described how to measure the receiver sensitivity in an anechoic chamber. This is done by using a base station emulator connected to the transmit antenna in the chamber, and locating the terminal on a turntable. The receiver sensitivity for a certain BER or FER is then determined by analyzing the received signal at the phone, at each of all the directions of incidence on the terminal. The latter directions are obtained by moving the turntable in the anechoic chamber. These receiver sensitivities will vary much with direction, because the received radiation pattern of the terminal is different for the different directions. Therefore, these values are averaged over all directions (which should be uniformly distributed over the complete unit sphere around the terminal). The averaged results are called Total Isotropic Sensitivity (TIS), and correspond to the conductive-measured receiver sensitivity minus the total radiation efficiency of the antenna. This TIS can also be measured in a reverberation chamber, by averaging over mode stirred positions and polarizations, thereby corresponding to the measurements of radiation efficiency when the terminal is receiving.
The above-mentioned procedure for measuring TIS is very time-consuming, both when it is performed in an anechoic chamber and in a reverberation chamber, because the sensitivity must be determined many times and averaged. Also, it does not test how the terminal works when it is exposed to a continuous fading of the input signal, which is representative of an actual environment.
Therefore, it was the purpose of U.S. Pat. No. 7,286,961 to describe how the reverberation chamber can be used to determine the receive performance of a mobile or wireless terminal when it is continuously exposed to a fading input signal, such as in a real environment. The continuous fading is obtained by moving the stirrers of the chamber continuously rather than in steps, and by measuring the receiver sensitivity for which the BER or FER has the desired value during this continuous movement of the stirrers. The latter method is called Average Fading Sensitivity (AFS) and is much faster than measuring TIS, because the sensitivity level only needs to be determined once.
The reverberation chamber can by making use of the above previous inventions be used for characterizing the complete performance of mobile and wireless terminals, both on transmit and receive, including transmit and receive performance of antennas, amplifiers, signal processing algorithms, and coding. This has opened up a large potential for RF testing in connection with terminals for more advanced future mobile communication systems referred to as 3G and 4G (third and fourth generation of mobile communication systems, also called LTE). Such systems make use of more than one antenna for both transmission and reception and will use these to adapt to the fading multipath environment, in order to improve battery life time and data rate. Such systems are known under terms as diversity antenna systems and MIMO (multiple Input Multiple Output) antenna systems. In order to develop optimum diversity and MIMO systems it will be more important than ever to quantify the performance of the terminals and base station simulators in multipath environments. The reverberation chamber can provide this testing opportunity.
The ultimate testing opportunity of the reverberation chamber is to measure data throughput of the whole communication system with diversity and MIMO capability, from the data input at the base station to the data output at the terminal, or vice versa. This contains the effects of radiated power, the wireless channel and receiver sensitivity in one performance value, referred to as the throughput, being the most important for the user. This throughput is a resulting data transfer rate, and the measurement setup in reverberation chamber is already described in scientific paper (J. Åsberg, A. Skårbratt, and C. Orlenius, "Over-the-air performance testing of wire-less terminals by data throughput measurements in reverberation chamber", European Conference on Antennas and Propagation ICAP 2011, 11-15 Apr. 2011, Rome).
The reverberation chamber can be loaded by using lossy objects inside the chamber or lossy material on the reflecting walls, in order to control the coherence bandwidth and time delay spread so that it resembles values in real-life environments. This loading affects the average mode bandwidth of the chamber, i.e. the Q of the chamber divided by the frequency of operation, and thereby also the coherence (or correlation) bandwidth. Preferably, the loading is not too strong, because then the resonances of the cavity modes disappear, and the chamber will no more have the desired function.
The reverberation chamber can always be improved with respect to both measurement accuracy and resemblance to practical environments. The uncertainty is at present good enough compared to alternative measurement techniques, but a more accurate chamber will allow measurements at a lower frequency or in a smaller chamber and at shorter time, which is attractive. The reverberation chamber represents an isotropic multipath environment with a uniform distribution of angles of arrival of the incoming waves over the complete surrounding space. This is a good reference environment for antennas and wireless terminals in multipath with fading (P.-S. Kildal and K. Rosengren, "Correlation and capacity of MIMO systems and mutual coupling, radiation efficiency and diversity gain of their antennas: Simulations and measurements in reverberation chamber", IEEE Communications Magazine, vol. 42, no. 12, pp. 102-112, December 2004). Still, the time delay spread and coherence bandwidth need to be controlled in order to resemble different environments (X. Chen, P.-S. Kildal, C. Orlenius, J. Carlsson, "Channel sounding of loaded reverberation chamber for Over-the-Air testing of wireless devices—coherence bandwidth versus average mode bandwidth and delay spread", IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters, vol. 8, pp. 678-681, 2009). Unfortunately, such control by loading the chamber also affects the measurement uncertainty in a bad way.
The measurement uncertainty is generally described in terms of a standard deviation (STD) around the average, where the average is an estimate of the true value. Estimation of efficiency and related quantities like radiated power and receiver sensitivity is based on averaging over many samples (one for each different stirrer position). The STD is in such case inversely proportional to the square root of the number of independent samples, according to statistical theory. The number of independent samples is generally taken to be proportional to the number of excited modes in the reverberation chamber ([1] J. G. Kostas and B. Boverie, "Statistical model for a mode-stirred chamber," IEEE trans. Electromagn. Compat., vol. 33, no. 4, pp. 366-370, November 1991), but by moving the antenna around in the chamber this value can be increased to the total number of waves, that is approximately eight times the number of excited modes (K. Rosengren, P.-S. Kildal, "Study of distributions of modes and plane waves in re-verberation chamber for the characterization of antennas in a multipath environment", Microwave and Optical Technology Letters, Vol. 30, No 6, pp 386-391, September 2001). However, this is only true at low frequencies. When frequency increases the uncertainty does not improve accordingly, and is instead limited by a residual error that can be interpreted as direct coupling between the transmitting and receiving antennas or similar (P.-S. Kildal, S. Lai, and X. Chen, "Direct Coupling as a Residual Error Contribution During OTA Measurements of Wireless Devices in Reverberation Chamber", IEEE AP-S International Symposium, Charleston, Jun. 1-5, 2009).
Similar measurement chambers are also disclosed in DE 198 12 923, WO 2010/026274 and WO 2005/003795. However, the therein-disclosed solutions are all subject to similar problems in respect of measurement accuracy and the like.
Thus, despite the improvements in measurement accuracy obtained by means of the reverberation chamber in recent years, there is still a need for improvements to enhance the measurement accuracy even further.

Method and apparatus for measuring the performance of antennas, mobile phones and other wireless terminals


Clients are permitted to directly attach to a client server system. An oplog management system tracks changes as clients make the changes to control structures of the direct connection client server system. The Oplogging system stores changes in oplogs. Then, if a client fails, the Oplogging system can repair the control structures, either by undoing the changes made by the client, or else completing the changes in place of the client; depending upon principles defined.

A common architecture for computer applications is the client-server architecture. Client-server applications are computer systems where functionality of the application is divided across the server and the clients. For example, the client may provide a user interface and the server may provide access to shared resources. Typically the clients and the server execute as separate process. The clients request the server process to perform actions on their behalf i.e. the clients access shared resources via the server. The server manages the shared resources, and these resources may be termed managed data. To facilitate the execution of actions (on behalf of clients) the server needs to maintain control data to manage the execution of those actions. Example of control data is information to control concurrency, permissions, and access to the managed data etc. Typically, control data is transient and is reinitialized at system start; however parts of control data can be persistent. In summary, the data manipulated by a server in a client-server system may be divided into two parts: managed data, and control data.
A common example of a server used in client-server architectures is a database management system (DBMS). A database is a collection of data items stored in a computer—these data items constitute the managed data in a database management system (DBMS) setting. Multiple users may concurrently access these (managed) data items via clients. The actions that are run on behalf of the clients are called transactions. Transactions may read from the database, write (insert, delete, or update) to the database or both, thus transactions may be made up of many read and write operations. Transactions can not only cause the modification of data items, but also the modification of control data that the DBMS maintains internally to control execution and provide access to the underlying data items. We will frequently provide examples from DBMS. However, it should be noted that the invention presented here has wide applicability and DBMS is only one example application.
Those skilled in the art will recognize that atomicity is a desired behavior of any mission critical client-server system. Atomicity refers to the property that any client request is either fully executed or not executed at all, in other words, either all effects of an action that the client requested are visible to other clients or none of the effects is visible. One example of a client-server system where atomicity is highly desired is a DBMS. Either all effects of a transaction should be visible to other transactions or none of the effects should be visible (this is part of ACID (Atomicity, Concurrency, Isolation, and Durability) properties of transactions). Client requests have intentional direct effect on managed data. However, control data is changed indirectly. It is changed by the server process running on behalf of the client. Typically the property of atomicity is associated with managed data, and not control data.
In the art, the techniques to implement atomicity for managed data via logging and recovery are well understood. Write Ahead Logging (WAL) is a well-known example of logging. In this scheme, log records are created to track the changes made to the managed data. The log records include the old copy of managed data as well as the new copy. They also record the beginning and end of client actions. WAL guarantees that log records are persisted to a non-volatile storage medium, such as a disk, prior to persisting the actual managed data. Thus, in case of any failure, the server uses the log records that have been persisted to determine whether a given client action was partially completed or fully completed. The effect of partially completed client action is undone by using the old copy of managed data saved in log records to roll back the state of the managed data to the state it had prior to starting the client action. Similarly, the new copy of managed data saved in log records is used to roll forward the state of the managed data to reflect the changes made by fully completed client actions. In this manner, the server guarantees atomicity of client actions on managed data even in the presence of failures. Rollback and roll-forward together help achieve atomicity in a system.
Just as atomicity is a correctness condition for managed data, consistency is a correctness condition for control data. We define a consistent state for the control data as any state in which the control data is not being modified by a client action. Note that at the end of rollback, the control data is, by definition, in a consistent state. When a client action is performed, it may lead to changes in control data, including, but not limited to, access control information, managed data metadata, concurrency control information, etc. In the presence of client failures, the control data needs to be in a consistent state before the server can successfully rollback the effects of the client actions that were being performed on the managed data.
We define recovery as the process of bringing both the control and managed data to a correct state. That is, recovery involves bringing the control data to a consistent state and maintaining atomicity for the managed data.
Traditionally, in client-server systems such as a DBMS, client requests are executed in a server process separate from the client process itself, and client processes connect to the server via inter-process communication mechanisms such as messages. These configurations are called indirect connections. Such configurations are highly resilient to errors in the clients. Specifically, if a client process dies or exits, the server detects the failure through the lack of communication with the client, cleans up any control data that may have been modified on behalf of the failed client process to reach a consistent state for the control data, and rolls back all incomplete actions being executed on behalf of the failed client process. The crucial benefit of traditional indirect connections is that the failure of a client process cannot interrupt changes that the server makes to its control data. Thus the failure of a client process cannot result in partially modified control data. For example, a typical change in control data can be an insertion into a linked list. With indirect connections, the act of modifying the linked list will not halt in the middle of the change; rather, it will halt before or after insertion, when the control data is in a consistent state. That the act of modifying the linked list will not halt midstream is because the server will check if the client is dead only at these discrete points; if the client is dead, the server can take further action. In essence, the server process is free to act upon the client failure when it is convenient for it, i.e., when the control data is in a consistent state.
While inter-process communication between client processes and a server process insulates the server process from client failures, it does add a significant performance overhead to each client request. This overhead is undesirable in high performance environments, and is particularly unacceptable for an in-memory DBMS. An in-memory DBMS is a state-of-the-art DBMS that has been designed to fully exploit 64-bit processors, and inexpensive and plentiful main memory to deliver very high performance. In such a system, all data items of a database are in main memory at run time, instead of being on non-volatile memory such as disk.
A common solution for overcoming the overhead of inter-process communication is for some server functionality to be packaged as an executable library that can be linked with the client application, and for the client application and for that part of the server to execute in a single process. We call this configuration a direct connection, and we call the combined client application and server library a direct connection client server system. Since there is typically a multitude of clients in a client-server application, it is typical to maintain control data and some or all of managed data in a shared memory segment.
In such an environment, the failure of a client process can interrupt the execution of a client action. The consequences of such a client failure include both the managed data and control data potentially in inconsistent states. For example, consider again a client modifying a linked list in the control data. In the direct connection model, the client may die or exit in the middle of making the change to the linked list. Thus, the linked list may be left in a circular state, may be truncated, or may be left in some other inconsistent state. If the server tries to rollback from an inconsistent state it may get stuck in an infinite loop, may leak memory, or may crash. Thus, the fact that the control data might be in a consistent state creates a problem for the server attempting to roll back changes made to the managed data by the failed client.
The problem of dealing with changes to control data by directly connected clients is well recognized in the literature. One solution to this problem is to declare all client connections to the server invalid whenever an unexpected failure occurs in a directly connected client process while it is in the middle of modifying control data. Sometimes critical sections are used to declare such regions that modify control data. These regions may vary in granularity; a simple application of this technique is to declare the whole server executable library a critical section. The server is not capable of bringing partially modified control data to a consistent state, and this scheme forces all clients to reconnect when any client fails when inside the server library. This also makes the system go through its recovery process (which is used to guarantee atomicity in managed data, as explained earlier) and reinitialize the control data. This solution, though effective, is not practical. Consider a large SMP machine with 64 processors, and perhaps 50 client connections to the database. Any single unexpected exit will cause all client connections to be severed. This is a heavy hammer, especially in mission critical applications, which require the same stability guarantees that indirect connections provide, but desire the speed advantages of direct connection client-server systems like in-memory DBMSs.
There have been other proposals to address these issues, which have proven to be partial solutions. Molesky and Ramamritham have proposed hardware-based cache coherency models that can ensure control-structure coherency even in the presence of node failures. They define a node as a process/memory pair executing a given transaction. But to implement their scheme, special hardware instructions are required to lock cache lines, and a special cache line structure is needed to tag it with the correct identifier. These hardware properties are then used to implement a recovery scheme that does not involve shutting down all connections to the database. Even with advances in process architecture, the proposed requirements have not been generally met in modem processors. Thus, this scheme is not practical to implement today. Other schemes have been proposed that rely on message passing between different processes. However, they have the same performance shortcomings of indirect connections.
Another scheme that can be modified to handle the issue of invalidation is the checkpoint protocol proposed by Neves et al. The chief shortcoming of this protocol is the assumption of entry consistent shared memory system. In such a model, all accesses of shared memory are assumed to be protected and there are no dependencies between the various accesses. This model is impractical for a complex system such as a DBMS. In a DBMS, multiple segments of the shared memory may be accessed and updated in a dependent fashion as a single unit. Yet another set of schemes have been proposed by Ganesh et al. to reduce the time taken to recover from a failed client. But these schemes fail to achieve consistency in control data.
Thus, there is a need to improve techniques to achieve control data consistency in directly connected client models. An example of such a system is where directly connected client processes execute in the same process as a DBMS and in particular when the DBMS is an in-memory DBMS. These techniques should be widely portable to all hardware platforms—i.e., the techniques should be hardware-neutral—and practical, should achieve control data consistency without sacrificing performance or concurrency, and without large storage requirements.
We have seen earlier that logging techniques are used to track changes to managed data to guarantee the atomicity of client actions. Typically, these techniques are not used to track changes to control data. Control data is mostly transient and exists to assist the server in managing execution of actions performed on behalf of the clients. Additionally, traditional indirect connections insulate the system from having to deal with partially modified control data; and therefore achieving consistency in control data is not an issue for these traditional systems. However, for the directly connected clients, it is paramount to reach a consistent state for the managed data otherwise all execution has to end.
One could propose to log all changes to the control data to persistent storage, similar to the scheme that was described earlier for managed data. This will require considerably more non-volatile storage given the volume of log that would be generated. More importantly, such a system will be much slower because of frequent access to slow non-volatile storage, and the system will be disk-bound. Thus this scheme is not practical.

Operating logging for online recovery in shared memory information systems


Optimal baud rate and carrier frequency for data transmission using a modem on a communication channel (100) are determined by utilizing an on-line line probing technique. The technique utilizing the information from a decoder noise power spectrum estimated from the equalized received modulated signals and decoder output symbols to determine the decoder signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) and supported bit rates for the available baud rates and carrier frequencies. These SNRs and bit rates together with a band edge SNR difference at each frequency band are utilized to select (110) the optimal baud rate and carrier frequency.

A data transmission system typically utilizes modems, a first modem typically implementing a modulation process to convert a digital bit stream into an analog signal and transmitting the modulated signal over a communication channel, and a second modem receiving and demodulating that signal to retrieve the communicated digital bit stream. The modulation process typically implements a carrier system having at least a first carrier signal and a first baud rate. Data transmission, particularly over long distance circuits, generally experiences different channel variations and impairments. To achieve optimum performance over a wide variety of channels, the modem has to be able to adapt its baud rate and carrier frequency to best suit a particular channel connection condition.
The baud rate and carrier frequency adaptation can be achieved using off-line probing. In a typical off-line line probing, data transmission is stopped, and a remote modem transmits a predetermined signal. Both channel frequency response and noise power spectrum are measured to form a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) spectrum. This SNR spectrum is used to determine an equalizer noise power spectrum and a corresponding decoder SNR at each baud rate and carrier frequency combination. The decoder SNR and other receiver parameters such as signal level, etc., are then used to determine a maximum bit rate each baud rate and carrier frequency combination can support. The baud rate and carrier frequency combination that can support the maximum bit rate is an optimum baud rate and carrier frequency. Generally, if precoding or trellis precoding is used in the data transmission, a corresponding precoding gain may also be determined from the equalizer noise power spectrum, and is reflected in the decoder SNR. Remaining operations in baud rate and carrier frequency selection are the same with or without precoding.
However, off-line line probing has certain drawbacks. Off-line line probing is intrusive, needing dedicated line-probing time and a line probing signal. Off-line line probing sometimes may not predict a modem performance accurately due to the fact that line probing and data transmission use different signals and different compensation algorithms for phase and magnitude jitter compensation, non-linear distortion adjustment, echo cancellations, and so forth. There is a need for a modem having an on-line device and method that alleviates at least some of the problems cited.

Device and method for on-line adaptive selection of baud rate and carrier frequency


A seat cover for an outdoor chair. The seat cover includes a seat panel, back panel, and right and left side panels hingedly attached to each other. Each of the panels includes an outer washable fabric cover and an inner flexible foam core. The back panel has a strap that fits over the back of a chair. The side panels have straps with releasable fastener elements, the straps being adapted to be pulled around an adjacent structural member of the chair to the backside of the chair and releasably attach to a mating releasable fastener element located on the back side of the back panel. Each of the side panels have straps with releasable fastener elements adapted to stretch around the adjacent arm of the chair and releasably attach to a mating releasable fastener element located on the side panel.

The present invention relates to an outdoor chair cover.
One of the most enjoyable parts of camping in cool weather is sitting around a campfire. Outdoor chairs of many types are used, but a common problem with all of them is that while the front of a person seated in the chair is warm, the back of the person facing away from the fire can be very cold.
Although a variety of cushion structures have been suggested for use with outdoor chairs, such cushion structures are primarily intended to provide pressure comfort padding between the chair and the posterior and back of a person sitting in the chair.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a thermally insulated chair cover that substantially envelopes the trunk of a person sitting in the chair.
The seat cover of the present invention includes a seat panel, back panel, and right and left side panels hingedly attached to each other. Each of the panels includes an outer washable fabric cover and an inner flexible foam core. The back panel has a strap that fits over the back of a chair. The side panels have straps with releasable fastener elements, the straps being adapted to be pulled around an adjacent structural member of the chair to the backside of the back panel and releasably attach to a mating releasable fastener element located on the back side of the back panel. Each of the side panels have straps with releasable fastener elements adapted to stretch around the adjacent arm of the chair and releasably attach to a mating releasable fastener element located on the side panel.