A knitting head (11) for a circular knitting machine (1), with the knitting head comprising the complete main bearing (29) of the cylinder and being provided, on its lower end, with a standardized interface (34) for accommodation with a carrier ring (35) located on the side of the machine frame. The carrier ring (35) supports the head ring (30) along the entire circumference of said head ring, preferably by means of a continuous seating surface (36) extending around the entire circumference.

The invention relates to a knitting head for a circular knitting machine as well as to a circular knitting machine that is equipped with such a knitting head.
Circular knitting machines have basically been known from prior art as represented, for example, by publication AT 395867 B. Furthermore, publication CH 529867 A discloses the basic design of a circular knitting machine. In addition to auxiliary assemblies, knitting machines comprise machine controls and the like, basically a machine frame in which the knitting head is supported. The knitting head comprises a knitting cylinder, a knitting cam assembly and a carrier ring as well as, optionally, dials, a dial cam system and the like. The carrier ring is a large, relatively heavy and, at the same time, stiff machine component on which the knitting cylinder is rotatably supported and which carries the knitting cam assembly. In addition, the carrier ring has other functions. For example, it accommodates a driving pinion which is used to put the knitting cylinder into rotation. Furthermore, said carrier ring may comprise a manual drive for manually moving the knitting cylinder, cable guides, oil feed lines or oil passage openings, pressurized air supplies and holder elements for feeding the yarn.
Inasmuch as the knitting cylinder bearing is an integral part of the carrier ring, the knitting head must be set up and adjusted inside the knitting machine. To accomplish this, the work required for setting up the machine frame and the knitting head must be performed one after the other, thus leading to a relatively long total assembly time for the knitting machine. If the knitting head is to be replaced in a knitting mill, for example for trouble-shooting machine damage or for adjusting a knitting machine for another division or for another diameter, this is difficult in most cases, considering existing machine designs. If the knitting head is removed together with the carrier ring from the machine, a very large weight needs to be moved. Alternatively, the knitting head can be disassembled and its individual components removed from the machine. This is tedious, cumbersome and requires extraordinary professional knowledge.
Considering this, it is the object of the invention to provide an improved design that allows a reduction of the machine assembly times and a simplification of maintenance, in particular on-site maintenance.


A circuit may include an input node configured to receive a signal and an output node configured to be coupled to a load. The circuit may also include a first circuit coupled between the input node and the output node, the first circuit being configured to receive the signal and drive the signal on the output node at a first voltage. The circuit may also include a signal adjust circuit configured to adjust a current of the signal driven by the first circuit. The signal adjust circuit may be configured to apply a first current adjustment to adjust the current of the signal at one but not both of a falling edge of the signal or a rising edge of the signal.

Driver circuits may be implemented to drive electrical signals generated by one circuit to another circuit over a printed circuit board (PCB) trace, through an electrical connector, or over a transmission line of some other sort. For example, a driver circuit may drive electrical signals generated by a clock and data recovery circuit to a clocked data processing device.
In some circumstances, a driver circuit may be configured with pre-drivers that amplify an electrical signal before the electrical signal is driven by the driver circuit. Additionally, in some circumstances, a driver circuit may include additional circuitry at the output nodes for sending pre and/or post tap electrical signals on the output nodes along with a driven electrical signal. The pre and/or post tap electrical signals may compensate for signal loss of a driven electrical signal as the driven electrical signal is driven to another circuit.
The subject matter claimed herein is not limited to embodiments that solve any disadvantages or that operate only in environments such as those described above. Rather, this background is only provided to illustrate one exemplary technology area where some embodiments described herein may be practiced.


In a multi-sectional air enclosure, an air filling passageway is formed between two outer films folded together and in the meantime, a plurality of air cylinders are formed by adhering the two outer films to each other by means of hot sealing, each air cylinder is adhered to form into a plurality of air chambers in series by means of hot sealing. Furthermore, air inlets are formed between the inner film and the outer film to communicate the air filling passageway with the air cylinders, and a plurality of air passageways are formed to connect to the air inlets. Besides, each air passageway is connected to a plurality of branch air passageways, and an opening is disposed at the end of each branch air passageway.

A conventional cushioning manner used on a packed article always uses a plastic sheet with a plurality of small projecting air bag disposed thereon to cover the surroundings of the article to attain to the shock absorption and the cushioning functions. But, shock absorption ability of the small air bags is limited; they cannot absorb larger shock or impulse such that the shock absorption and the buffering effects cannot be reached. Therefore, an air packing bag manufactured from a resin film material is developed.
Please refer to FIGS. 1A to 1C. A plurality of air inlets A11 are disposed on an air packing bag A10, an air passageway A12 is connected to each air inlet A11 and a plurality of air chambers A13 are respectively connected to two sides of the air passageway A13. An air valve constituted by a upper air valve film A141 and a lower air valve film A142 is disposed on each air chamber A13. Whereby, the air packing bag A10 can be filled with air to bulge and taken as a cushioning material after outside air flows through the air inlet A11, the air passageway A12 and into the air chamber A1, for example, The U.S. Pat. No. 4,850,912 entitled as "Container for sealingly containing a fluid", The U.S. Pat. No. 5,261,466 entitled as "Process for continuously filling fluid into a plurality of closed bags", The U.S. Pat. No. 5,427,830 entitled as "Continuous, inflatable plastic wrapping material". However, not only the plurality of air passageway A12 are needed to dispose on such kind of air packing bag A10, and then the plurality of air chamber sets can be filled with air, but also the plurality of independent air chambers A13 cannot share the same air valve A14 to be filled with air.
Please refer to FIG. 1D. A plurality of nodes A15 are disposed on the air chamber A13 of the air packing bag A10, thereby the air chamber A 13 is bended to form a plurality of minor air chambers, thereby an article is packed and the cushioning protection is provided, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,629,777 entitled as "Buffer packing bag". However, if any minor air chamber of such kind of air packing bag A10 is broken, the air in the whole air chamber A13 is then leaked out such that sectional independent minor air chambers cannot be established in a single air chamber A13 after it is filled with air.
Please refer to FIGS. 2A to 2C. FIGS. 2A to 2C show a U.S. Pat. No. 5,427,830 entitle as "Continuous inflatable plastic wrapping material". The air passageway A12 of the air packing bag A10 is formed by an upper air valve film A141 and a lower air valve film A142 by means of hot sealing, and the air passageway A12 is attached closely on an outer film A161 and passed through the plurality of air chambers A13. However, the air chambers A13 can merely be disposed side by side levelly in such kind of air packing bag A10 and can then be filled with air through one air passageway A12; if the air chambers A13 are to be disposed in series vertically, they must be filled with air section by section. Moreover, the air chamber A13 is partitioned into a plurality of minor air chambers through hot sealing lines A17. But, if any minor air chamber is broken, the air in the whole air chamber A13 is then leaked out such that sectional independent minor air chambers cannot be established in a single air chamber A13 after it is filled with air.
Please refer to FIGS. 3A and 3B. The air packing bag is an air enclosure constituted by two soft resin made outer films A161 and A162 together with the inner portion thereof can be filled with air. Furthermore, an air valve A14 is assembled between the two outer films A161 and A162, and an air passageway is formed by partly adhering the upper air valve film A141 and the lower air valve film 142 to each other after the air valve A14 folds the upper air valve film A141 and the lower air valve film A142 opposite to each other together. However, the air valve 14 of such kind of air packing bag A10 cannot fill the plurality of air chambers A13 with air simultaneously, and the air chambers A13 can merely be disposed side by side levelly and can then be filled with air through one air passageway A12; if the air chambers A13 are to be disposed in series vertically, they must be filled with air section by section.
Therefore, for improving the structures of the air packing bag to allow a plurality of air chambers disposed in series vertically to be filled with air simultaneously and preventing the air in the whole air chamber from being leaked out once any minor air chamber is broken, the present invention is proposed.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Multi-sectional air enclosure and check valve apparatus


Implantable medical devices include headers having various features such as a modular design whereby the header is constructed from a series of stacked contact modules. Additional features include a feedthrough where pins exiting a housing of the implantable medical device extend into the header to make direct electrical connection to electrical contacts present within the header where those electrical contacts directly engage electrical connectors of leads inserted into the header. Other features include electrical contacts that are relatively thin conductors on the order of 0.040 inches or less and may include radial protrusions where the radial protrusions establish contact with the electrical connectors of the lead. Furthermore, electrical contacts may be mounted within the header in a floating manner so that radial movement of the electrical contact may occur during lead insertion.

Implantable medical devices (IMD) such as cardiac and neural stimulators utilize circuitry within an enclosure to generate electrical stimulation pulses. The circuitry is electrically linked to contacts within a header that is attached to the enclosure by a set of conductive pins known as a feedthrough. The implantable medical leads are physically connected to the header and include connectors on a proximal end that engage the electrical connectors within the header. The implantable medical leads also include electrodes near a distal end with the conductors carrying the stimulation pulses from the connectors to the electrodes.
The number of leads needed for a particular therapy and corresponding IMD may vary as may the number of electrical connections per lead. Hence the design of the header must also vary to accommodate the feedthrough of a given device and the number of leads and lead connectors that are necessary. For example, 24 electrodes may be configured in numerous ways for a device and therapy. One neurostimulator may drive eight electrodes per lead for three leads. Another neurostimulator may drive eight electrodes per lead for two leads and four electrodes per lead for two additional leads. Yet another neurostimulator may drive twelve electrodes per lead for two leads.
In these variations, entirely different header designs are used. Such header designs conventionally use ribbon bonds and lead frames as the interconnection between the feedthrough and the pressure contact, often a canted-coil spring, in the header. The development and resulting design for the ribbon bonds, lead frames, and related feedthrough become very specific for each IMD model and related leads and does not directly transfer to other IMD models and leads. Furthermore, the manufacturing processes to construct the headers having distinct designs for the different IMD models can be challenging. Thus, the development and manufacturing processes for headers being designed for each of the IMD models is burdensome.
In addition to the burdens of development and manufacturing, the designs that involve a relatively large number of pressure contacts in the header per lead can be troublesome. Typically, the pressure contacts such as the canted-coil springs can necessitate a large insertion force when numerous pressure contacts are needed for a particular lead. The insertion force may exceed the capabilities of the lead to maintain physical integrity. Lead insertion may be difficult and lead damage may also occur during insertion.
Furthermore, the size of the header is directly related to the connector spacing on the lead, or lead pitch. As the number of electrodes per lead increases the header size increases, and the increase may be significant due to the relatively large size of conventional electrical contacts such as the canted-coil springs. This relationship contradicts the efforts to develop smaller IMDs which are often more desirable for implantation.

Implantable medical device headers that facilitate device and lead configuration variants


A combined sample dispenser and merchandising unit product display and related method is provided herein. Included is an elongate tray having a first end and a second end, an upper compartment with open roof for standing a plurality of merchandising unit products each containing a flowable substance, and a lower compartment arranged directly below the upper compartment. A sample dispenser is provided which includes a dispensing unit arranged against the first end of the tray and a reservoir holding sampling amounts of the flowable substance, communicating with the dispensing unit and arranged within the lower compartment.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention concerns a device and method which allows a consumer to test products, especially personal care liquid products prior to purchase in a retail establishment.
2. The Related Art
Retail stores and especially the department and specialty cosmetic stores have counters displaying open packages for allowing consumers to test products. Some of these products are open jars containing creams. More frequently test samples are in pump dispenser bottles. Usually there is very little supervision in the sampling. Chances are high for microbial contamination. Although apparently secure, even pump bottles are sometimes unscrewed so a consumer can more accurately smell the fragrance component of a lotion/cream on display.
In instances where a consumer is favorably inclined after sampling to purchase, the product may be difficult to locate. This results from the sample dispenser not being located closely adjacent to a purchasable unit of product.
Still another issue is the scarcity of shelf space. Retailers prefer to use shelf space for purchasable product rather than for bulky non-revenue generating sample dispensers.
Accordingly, it is a prime object of the present invention to co-locate units of merchandisable product with a sample dispenser allowing consumers to evaluate product prior to purchase. Moreover, the present invention seeks to minimize the footprint on-shelf of a sample dispenser.

In-store combined sample dispenser and merchandising product display


A liquid crystal display includes a first substrate and a second substrate facing the first substrate, a gate line and a data line disposed on the first substrate, and a pixel electrode disposed on the first substrate. The pixel electrode is connected to the gate line and the data line, and includes subregions. The liquid crystal display further includes a storage electrode disposed on the first substrate overlapping the pixel electrode to form a storage capacitor, a common electrode disposed on the second substrate, and a liquid crystal layer interposed between the pixel electrode and the common electrode and including liquid crystal molecules disposed therein. The pixel electrode includes a stem defining boundaries between the subregions, and a width of the stem changes from a center portion of the pixel electrode to a peripheral portion of the pixel electrode.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display and, more particularly, the present invention relates to a liquid crystal display having a substantially improved response speed and viewing angle.
2. Description of the Related Art
Liquid crystal displays ("LCDs") are widely used as flat panel displays. An LCD typically includes two display panels on which field generating electrodes, such as pixel electrodes and a common electrode, are disposed, and a liquid crystal layer interposed between the two display panels. In the LCD, voltages are applied to the field generating electrodes to generate an electric field in the liquid crystal layer, and an alignment of liquid crystal molecules in liquid crystal layer is thereby controlled. Accordingly, a polarization of incident light is controlled to display an image on the LCD.
An LCD which utilizes a vertical alignment ("VA") mode has been developed. In the VA mode LCD, major axes of the liquid crystal molecules are arranged to be substantially perpendicular to the display panel when an electric field is not applied to the liquid crystal layer.
In the VA mode LCD, a viewing angle is increased by forming cutouts, such as slits and/or protrusions, for example, in the field-generating electrodes. Since the cutouts and/or protrusions determine tilt directions of the liquid crystal molecules, the tilt directions can be distributed in various different directions such that a reference viewing angle is widened.
However, when forming the cutouts, irregular textures are generated in regions where an influence of the inclination direction determination member, e.g., the cutouts, is decreased, such as near edges of a pixel area, or in region where mutual influences of the inclination direction determination members are applied, such as near a central portion of the pixel area. As a result, a display quality of the LCD occurs due to the irregular textures.
The LCD generally includes a storage capacitor to maintain a pixel voltage of the pixel electrode. When a gate-on voltage is applied to a thin film transistor of the LCD, charges are charged into the liquid crystal layer, which is typically an optical-electric active layer, and the charges are maintained until another gate-on voltage is applied to the thin film transistor. When changing from the gate-on voltage to a gate-off voltage, however, the pixel voltage drops. Thus, the storage capacitor reduces the pixel voltage drop to reduce a range of fluctuation thereof to maintain a substantially constant pixel voltage. Therefore, a capacitance of the storage capacitor in the LCD should be as large as possible.
However, when a size of a storage electrode is increased, to increase the capacitance of the storage capacitor, an aperture ratio of the LCD, e.g., a ratio of an area of one pixel through which light is transmitted to a total area of the one pixel is decreased.

Liquid crystal display and method of manufacturing the same


A composition for film formation which comprises:                (A) a product of hydrolysis and condensation obtained by hydrolyzing and condensing at least one silane compound selected from the group consisting of compounds represented by the formula (1), compounds represented by the formula (2), and compounds represented by the formula (3) in the presence of water and an ammonium compound, and        (B) an organic solvent.

Silica (SiO2) films formed by vacuum processes such as the CVD method have hitherto been used frequently as interlayer insulating films in semiconductor devices and other devices. In recent years, an insulating coating film which comprises a tetraalkoxysilane hydrolyzate as the main component and is called an SOG (spin on glass) film has come to be used for the purpose of forming a more even interlayer insulating film. Furthermore, as a result of the trend toward higher degree of integration in semiconductor devices and the like, an interlayer insulating film called an organic SOG film has been developed which comprises a polyorganosiloxane as the main component and has a low dielectric constant.
With further progress in the degree of integration or multilayer constitution especially in semiconductor devices and the like, better electrical insulation between conductors has come to be required and, hence, an interlayer insulating film material having a lower dielectric constant and excellent cracking resistance has come to be desired.
Proposed as materials having a low dielectric constant are a composition comprising a mixture of fine particles obtained by condensing an alkoxysilane in the presence of ammonia and a basic product of partial hydrolysis of an alkoxysilane (see JP-A-5-263045 (the term "JP-A" as used herein means an "unexamined published Japanese patent application") and JP-A-5-315319) and a coating fluid obtained by condensing a basic hydrolyzate of a polyalkoxysilane in the presence of ammonia (see JP-A-11-340219 and JP-A-11-340220). However, the materials obtained by these methods are unsuitable for industrial production because the reaction products have unstable properties and the films obtained therefrom have considerable unevenness of properties such as dielectric constant characteristics after a PCT, resistance to CMP after a PCT, and adhesion to substrates after a PCT.

Composition for film formation, method of film formation, and silica-based film


The present invention relates to a block assembly including plane blocks and joint blocks made from a specified synthetic resin which is readily assembled into any shape such as a plane body or a solid body with a close resemblance to a model body and also readily decomposed, and a decoration prepared by impregnation of the block assembly with a specified solvent for the necessary time for solidification.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a block assembly and devices made from the block assembly, and more particularly to a block assembly providing plane blocks with coupling concave (recessed) portions and joint blocks with coupling convex (protruding) portions which are successively coupled to each other to assemble not only a planar body but also a three-dimensional solid body, and devices such as a chandelier or an ornament prepared from the block assembly.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There are many toys that include building blocks for making an unlimited number of items. Some of the toys merely provide toy bricks that are secured together to form various objects. Toys of the brick type cannot provide numerous shapes and devices, however, due to the limitations imposed by the building blocks and the fact that such building blocks can only be connected to one another in limited ways.
Erector sets offer more flexibility then do brick-based toys, but they are also subject to limitations because screws and nuts are required to join together the toy beams and girders that serve as the building blocks. Moreover, such toys have connections limited to only a few degrees of freedom; this restricts the variety of objects that can be made therefrom.
Still other toys, such as the well-known "LEGGO" (trademark) toy, are free of screws and nuts but offer limited degrees of freedom in constructing various articles or devices. Moreover, the "snap"-type connectors provided therewith provide a relatively weak interconnection.
Another common shortcoming of the known devices is that any article or device made therefrom is forever an assembled device, i.e., there are no suitable means for converting such article into a permanent device or work of art.
What is needed, then, is a construction toy having building blocks with unique coupling means to increase the number of degrees of freedom available to the user thereof. A need also exists for a means whereby completed articles made of up individual building blocks could be converted into a permanent one piece device.
However, in view of the prior art at the time the present invention was made, it was not obvious to those of ordinary skill in this art how such a device could be provided.

Block assembly and devices formed thereby


A method for Monte Carlo volume rendering in accordance with the present teachings includes: (a) tracing a plurality of light rays into a scene containing volumetric data, the light rays configured for simulating global illumination; (b) randomizing the scattering location and direction of the plurality of light rays through the volume, wherein a common sequence of random numbers is used in order for the scattering direction of each of the plurality of randomized scattered light rays to be substantially parallel; (c) computing at least one trilinearly interpolated and shaded sample along each of the plurality of randomized scattered light rays based on stored volumetric data, wherein at least a portion of the stored volumetric data used in at least a portion of the computing is configured for coherent access; and (d) rendering the volume with global illumination based on a plurality of iterations of the tracing, the randomizing, and the computing. Systems for Monte Carlo volume rendering are described.

Monte Carlo path tracing is an iterative technique for rendering images of three-dimensional scenes using physical models of global illumination (e.g., to simulate light transport as it occurs in real life). The technique may be used to provide computer-generated photorealistic renderings of three-dimensional objects.
Monte Carlo path tracing may be used to render polygonal mesh models. Since no participating medium is traversed when rays are cast among polygons, volumetric data (e.g., three-dimensional arrays of voxels) may not be sampled in renderings of polygonal mesh models.
However, Monte Carlo path tracing methods may also be used to render volumetric data, a technique commonly known as Monte Carlo volume rendering. The volumetric data may be used, for example, to generate realistic cinematic special effects (e.g., heterogeneous participating media, such as fog, smoke, fire, and clouds; atmospheric effects, such as light beams passing through fog; etc.). Using Monte Carlo path tracing to render volumetric data is extremely computationally intensive because ray directions are randomized and samples are interpolated along each of the rays. The random access of voxel data from all of the randomly generated rays and all of the interpolations may be inefficient. Thus, since Monte Carlo path tracing methods are iterative and very time consuming, approximations may be made that provide comparable rendering results without requiring accurate computation of global illumination.
In some cases, volumetric data to be rendered may include three-dimensional volumes of medical data sets. If the volume to be rendered includes such medical data, gross approximations of global illumination to speed up rendering may be inadvisable since the rendered images of the medical data may be used for diagnostic purposes.
Despite the use of graphics processing units (GPUs) with thousands of processor cores to speed up computations, rendering volumetric data with Monte Carlo path tracing is still time consuming since thousands of samples are trilinearly interpolated along the paths of millions of scattered rays throughout the volume. Within each iteration, scattered rays may diverge significantly from one another. As a result, the interpolated volume samples along the rays may be far apart in the memory that stores the volumetric data. This in turn leads to poor performance since it causes non-optimal memory access patterns that do not preserve cache coherency while voxel samples are being interpolated along multiple rays being computed in parallel by multiple processor cores.

Coherent memory access in Monte Carlo volume rendering


An information retrieval system and method are provided in which an operator inputs one or more query words which are used to determine a search key for searching through a corpus of documents, and which returns any matches between the search key and the corpus of documents as a phrase containing the word data matching the query word(s), a non-stop (content) word next adjacent to the matching word data, and all intervening stop-words between the matching word data and the next adjacent non-stop word. The operator, after reviewing one or more of the returned phrases can then use one or more of the next adjacent non-stop-words as new query words to reformulate the search key and perform a subsequent search through the document corpus. This process can be conducted iteratively, until the appropriate documents of interest are located. The additional non-stop-words from each phrase are preferably aligned with each other (e.g., by columnation) to ease viewing of the "new" content words.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to information retrieval systems. More particularly, this invention relates to method and apparatus for assisting an operator in forming a phrase query for searching through a library of documents.
2. Description of Related Art
Due to the ever increasing affordability and accessibility of very large, online, text collections, Information Access, the science of processing natural language texts for the purposes of search and retrieval, has been the focus of heightened attention in the last few years, although researchers have been active in the field since the early sixties. Numerous approaches have been attempted, but they all suffer from the obvious difficulty that information access is quintessentially a cognitive task. The degree of automatic language understanding required for a complete solution is clearly outside the bounds of current technology. Instead, heuristic search techniques attempt to match an admittedly incomplete query description with an admittedly incomplete set of features extracted from the texts of interest. The interest therefore lies in the development of procedures that more effectively bridge the gap between an individual's partially stated desires and a universe of text, which appears, computationally, as a sequence of uninterpreted words.
Many of these procedures are statistical in nature. They take advantage of repeated occurrences of the same word to infer relations between documents, and between queries and documents. (A "document" need not correspond to any particular organization. It might be a chapter in a book, a section within a chapter, or an individual paragraph. However, as defined herein, a set of documents forming a corpus is an exhaustive and disjoint partition of that corpus. For example, similarity search induces a "relevance" ordering on the text collection by scoring each document with a normalized sum of importance weights assigned to each word in common between it and the query, where the importance weights depend upon document and collection, or corpus, frequencies. A more formal approach scores documents with their estimated probability of relevance to the query by adopting a text model which assumes word occurrences are sequentially uncorrelated and training on a set of known relevant documents. In contrast, polysemy (one word having multiple senses) and word correlation is directly addressed by Latent Semantic Indexing, which attempts to exact characteristic linear combinations through a singular value decomposition of a word co-occurrence matrix. The availability of interdocument similarity measures suggests clustering, which has been pursued both as an accelerator for conventional search and as a query broadening tool. Finally, linear discriminant analysis has been deployed to classify documents based on a training set which matches features, including word overlap and word positioning, with relevance to previous queries.
Another suite of techniques attempt to enrich the basic feature set by annotating words with their lexical and syntactic functions. For example, fast lookup algorithms from computational linguistics reduce words to their stems. See L. Karttunen et al, "A compiler for two-level phonological rules", Report CSLI-87-108, Center for the Study of Language and Information, 1987. Hidden Markov Modeling has been successfully employed to reintroduce part-of-speech tags given a lexicon with greater than 95% accuracy. See J. Kupiec, "Augmenting a hidden markov model for phrase-dependent word tagging", Proceedings of the 1989 DARPA Speech and Natural Language Workshop, Cape Cod, MA, October 1989. An extension of this technique, known as the inside-outside algorithm, promises a method for inducing a stochastic grammar given sufficient training text. See J. K. Baker, "Trainable grammars for speech recognition", Speech Communication Papers for the 97th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, pages 547-550, 1979; and T. Fujisaki et al, "A probabilistic method for sentence disambiguation", Proceedings of the International Workshop on Parsing Technologies, August 1989. Less ambitious procedures aim at robustly extracting noun phrases given a sequence of part-of-speech tags. Word co-occurrence relations have been exploited to order alternatives in cases of lexical ambiguity. Non-parametric classification procedures have been used to detect sentence boundaries in the face of typographic ambiguity. See M. Riley, "Some applications of tree-based modeling to speech and language", Proceedings of the DARPA Speech and Natural Language Workshop, Cape Cod, Mass., pages 339-352, Oct. 1989.
A typical information access scenario involves a corpus of natural language text documents, and a user with an information need (or interest). The task is to satisfy that need (or interest), usually by delivering one of more relevant documents from the corpus of interest. This is accomplished by extracting from each document a feature set, and providing the user with a tool which allows search over these features in some prescribed fashion. For example, a standard boolean search technique assumes the feature set is one or more words extracted from the text of the document, and the query language is boolean expressions involving those words. See IBM Germany, Stuttgart, "Storage and Information Retrieval Systems (STAIRS)", April 1972. Since it is anticipated that the corpus may be very large, construction of a feature index by preprocessing each document is a standard search accelerator. See G. Salton, "Automatic Text Processing", Addison-Wesley, 1989.
Conventional search techniques are cast within a framework that might be referred to as the library automation paradigm. It is presumed that the cost for evaluating a query is sufficiently high that a single iteration must return as high quality, and as complete, a response as possible. This is in keeping with online systems that charge for connect time, and is reflected in evaluation criteria that discount the cost of query formulation and measure the precision and recall levels for the ranked set of documents which is implicitly presumed to be the result. Ironically, the best improvements to date, with respect to these criteria, come from an incremental query reformulation technique, known as relevance feedback. See G. Salton et al, "Improving Retrieval Performance by Relevance Feedback", Journal of American Society for Information Science, 41(4): 288-297, June 1990.
Boolean keyword search is a well-known search technique in information retrieval. Essentially, a set of terms, typically individual words, or word stems, is extracted from the unrestricted text of each document in a larger corpus. Search then proceeds by forming a boolean expression in terms of these keywords which is resolved by finding the set of documents that satisfy that expression. For example, a typical query might consist of the conjunction of two search terms. Documents that contain both terms in any order and any position would then be returned. Disjunction and, less frequently, negation are also likely to be supported.
Unconstrained boolean search represents a document as a set of keywords; sequence information is ignored. Proximity search paradigms modify this representation by placing non-boolean nearness constraints on otherwise standard boolean queries. A proximity operator is introduced that demands that two given search terms occur within some given distance (expressed as a number of characters or a number of words) in order for the basic conjunction to satisfied. For example, the sample query above may be narrowed by requesting that the two search terms appear within one word of each other, in any order or, alternatively, in the given order.
Proximity search enables the user to form phrase-like queries; that is a combination of terms is treated as a search unit. This assumes considerable importance when one recalls that a query is a representation of an "information need". Often the concepts inherent in this information need are not expressible as single words. Instead, phrases and even complete sentences must be employed to fully disambiguate the thought. Conjunctive boolean queries allow for the expression of these sorts of combination, but they also clearly over-generate. Higher precision is achievable by making use of nearness constraints. At the other extreme, complete specification of term order may also be detrimental since it is a property of most natural languages (including English), that phrasal units may be rewritten in multiple ways without a change in meaning. For example "dog's ankle" and "ankle of a dog" express the same concept. Hence, the application of proximity constraints must be strong enough to filter out disconnected occurrences, yet flexible enough to account for trivial language variations.
Text retrieval may be thought of as iterative query refinement. Each stage involves a query specification followed by a resolution. If the results of the query satisfy the information need of the user, the process ends. Otherwise, a new, modified, and presumably more appropriate query must be formulated, and the process iterated. The results of the previous steps inform the query reformulation at each stage.
Traditional applications of boolean or proximity search provide little support for this reformulation process. These traditional applications usually only generate a candidate set of documents which satisfy the search criterion. The user must then judge the effectiveness of the query by perusing these documents, a potentially time consuming operation, especially if document titles are insufficient to disambiguate relevant from non-relevant hits. In fact, there is empirical evidence that boolean searches resolve into two classes, those whose result sets contain only a very few hits (narrow query), and those that result in a great many hits (broad query). In the case of only a few hits, the user is left with the uncomfortable feeling that something may have been missed, which leads to a desire to broaden the existing query. Arriving at an appropriate broadening can be elusive since no particular alternative is suggested by the search results themselves. If the query is over broadened, the user is presented with far too many hits, and the task of separating out the relevant documents from the mass becomes daunting.
The problem here is that the user is provided with little or no assistance in query reformulation. H. P. Frei et al, in "Caliban: Its user-interface and retrieval algorithm", Technical Report 62, Institut fur Informatik, ETH, Zurich, April 1985, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference, discloses a dictionary of available search terms which can aid the search for alternative terminology, as well as an online domain-specific thesaurus. However, often, the help of a highly trained intermediary, such as a research librarian, is required to derive a desirable reformulation.
One solution is to provide enough information about each hit that the user can rapidly determine the contextual usage, and hence arrive at a relevance judgment and, possibly, a reformulation, without necessarily scanning the entire text. Paper-based keyword-in-context indices (sometimes known as permuted indices) offer a solution for the case of single term queries. The user enters the index with a single term, the word of interest, and finds, arranged alphabetically, single lines of context for each instance of that term, with the search term columnated at the center of each line. See H. P. Luhn, "Keyword-in-Context for Technical Literature", ASDD Report RC-127, IBM Corporation, Yorktown Heights, N.Y., August, 1959. The choice of an alphabetic sort key for the lines of context can be less than optimal if one is searching for related phrases containing the search key, since the words determining the phrase will typically be placed around the key, rather than heading the line. An alternative sort key that captures this intuition, has been employed successfully in the generation of an index to titles in Statistics and Probability. See I. C. Ross and J. W. Tukey, "Index to Statistics and Probability Permuted Titles", Volumes 3 and 4 of the Information Access Series, R & D Press, Los Altos, Calif., 1975; also available from the American Mathematical Society, Providence, R.I. Computerized versions of these sorts of indices exist in a variety of different forms, yet few, if any, elaborate on the basic query and display strategy.
Accordingly, a need exists for a search tool which will assist an operator in formulating a search query, particularly when the operator has little information about the corpus of documents which the operator is searching.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,823,306 to Barbic et al discloses a method for retrieving, from a library of documents, documents that match the content of a sequence of query words, and for assigning a relevance factor to each retrieved document. The method comprises the steps of: defining a set of equivalent words for each query word and assigning to each equivalent word a corresponding word equivalence value; locating target sequences of words in a library document that match the sequence of query words in accordance with a set of matching criteria evaluating a similarity value for each of the target sequences of words as a function of the corresponding equivalence values of words included therein; and obtaining a relevance factor for the library document based upon the similarity values of its target sequences.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,972,349 to Kleinberger discloses an interactive, iterative information retrieval and analysis system wherein a "table of contents" organized as a standard outline in some similarly graphic format, is dynamically generated in response to specific search requests. Documents satisfying the search request are categorized based upon the existence of predefined key words therein. The table of contents is organized into key word categories, sub-categories, sub-sub-categories, etc. The analysis process can be repeated for a specific category or sub-category of the table of contents to derive a new table of contents which is more focused and limited.

Iterative technique for phrase query formation and an information retrieval system employing same


The invention is a fishing cooler that has wheels and a handle. The fishing cooler also features a plurality of cup holders, an externally removable and attachable rod holder, and a tackle box that can be attached either internally or externally. The fishing cooler has two internal compartments. The first compartment is for storing bait, and is smaller than the second compartment, which is for storing caught fish. Water can pass between each compartment, and a drain plug enables evacuation of all water inside of the cooler. Integrated on top of the cooler is a measuring line for such uses as measuring caught fish. The handle is hingedly connected at one side of the cooler, and extends when in use to enable the end user to pull the cooler behind he or she. The cooler may also include a drain cup and aerator that can be attached to either of the two drain plug holes. A portable light may be attached to the cooler.

A. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of fishing coolers.
B. Prior Art
The Hagen et al. patent (U.S. Pat. No. 6,237,765) discloses a fishing bait bucket which has an outer shell, an inner bait receiving chamber, and a cooling chamber for receiving ice or the like. However, the cooler disclosed under the Hagen does not include an aerator that attaches to the drain plug for aerating water container therein.
The Thibodeaux patent (U.S. Pat. No. 6,185,860) discloses a fishing cooler that includes a lid having measuring indicia therein for measuring fish. The top of the cooler has some bore holes and grooves to accommodate cups, which hold the fishing rods. However, the cooler disclosed under the Thibodeaux patent does not include an attachable aerator for aerating water contained therein for the purpose of keeping living bait and caught fish alive for a prolonged period of time. Nor does the cooler disclosed under the Thibodeaux patent include an attachable light.
The Cloutier et al. patent (U.S. Pat. No. 6,446,382) discloses a combined fishing tackle holder and food cooler. The cooler has a pair of retractable rod holders, a fishing rod storing means, a plurality of pull-out drawers, and a lid folds up to reveal a seat. However, the tackle holder and food cooler disclosed under the Cloutier patent does not include an attachable aerator for aerating water contained therein and prolonging the period of time that caught fish and live bait may be kept alive.
The Pizzolo et al. patent (U.S. Pat. No. 5,636,469) discloses a fishing tackle box with a cutting board top portion. As previously discussed, the fishing tackle box disclosed under the Pizzolo patent does not include an attachable aerator for aerating water contained therein and prolonging the period of time that caught fish and live bait may be kept alive.
The Downey patent (U.S. Pat. No. 5,471,779) discloses a fishing implement storage apparatus which includes an ice chest and a rod holder. As mentioned in the preceding two patents, the storage apparatus disclosed under the Downey patent does not include an attachable aerator for aerating water contained therein and prolonging the period of time that caught fish and live bait may be kept alive.
The Zeman patent (U.S. Pat. No. 5,864,981) discloses a combination tackle box, bait well, and cooler. However, the device disclosed under the Zeman patent does not include an aerator for prolonging the amount of time that caught fish and live bait may be kept alive.
The Testa, Jr. patent (U.S. Pat. No. 5,305,544) discloses a bait storage, cooler, and tackle holder arrangement which includes a drainage means. However, the device disclosed under the Testa patent does not include an aerator for prolonging the amount of time that caught fish and live bait may be kept alive.
The Power patent (U.S. Pat. No. 5,822,916) discloses a battery operated storage container which is divided into two compartments, one for bait and a second for caught fish. The container has a pump for controlling the filling, emptying, and aerating functions. However, the storage container disclosed under the Power patent does not include an attachable and detachable aerator, drain cup, light, tackle box, rod holder; nor does it include two drain plugs.
The Blanchard, Sr. et al. patent (U.S. Pat. No. 6,519,965) discloses a portable cooler having external lighting. However, the portable cooler disclosed under the Blanchord patent does not include an attachable or detachable aerator, drain cup, fishing rod holder, light, or tackle box.
The Blalock patent (U.S. Pat. No. Des. 467,770) illustrates an ornamental design for a portable cooler.


An object of the present invention is to provide a chattering preventing circuit, a waveform shaping circuit, and a motor drive control circuit including the chattering preventing circuit or the waveform shaping circuit, to provide an FG signal free from noise caused by chattering, without using a hysteresis comparator.

A three-phase motor drive control circuit with a Hall element controls the timing of motor driving based on a motor rotational position signal produced in the Hall element. In addition, some three-phase motor drive control circuits generate a rotation number pulse signal, so-called FG signal, indicating the number of rotations from the rotational position signal and adjust the timing of motor driving using the number of rotations information obtained from the FG signal (see, for example, Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 6-169586 (Patent Document 1)). FIG. 6 is a circuit diagram of a motor device including a conventional motor drive control circuit. FIG. 6 shows a motor device 101 including such a motor drive control circuit 102.
This motor device 101 includes Hall elements HU, HV, HW detecting a position of a rotor of a motor to output rotational position signals, motor drive control circuit 102 outputting a control signal based on these rotational position signals and a command from a motor control command portion (not shown), and a power driver 103 supplying driving current to coils LU, LV, LW of the motor in response to the control signal from motor drive control circuit 102. It is noted that the rotational position signal is a three-phase sinusoidal signal formed of differential U-phase rotational position signals HU+ and HU− output by Hall element HU, differential V-phase rotational position signals HV+ and HV− output by Hall element HV, and differential W-phase rotational position signals HW+ and HW− output by Hall element W. The phase difference between phases is 120°.
Motor drive control circuit 102 has a power driver control circuit 109, a rotation number pulse signal generation circuit 117, and a waveform shaping circuit 110 formed of U-phase, V-phase, W-phase comparators 111, 112, 113 provided at a stage prior to rotation number pulse signal generation circuit 117. Power driver control circuit 109 receives rotational position signals HU+, HU−, HV+, HV−, HW+, HW−, a command signal from the motor control command portion (not shown) and a rotation number pulse signal FG of rotation number pulse signal generation circuit 117 as described later to output a control signal to power driver 103. The command signal from the motor control command portion is input to power driver control circuit 109 through an input terminal TO. U-phase comparator 111 compares differential U-phase rotational position signals HU+ and HU− to output a pulse signal HU2 as the comparison result. V-phase comparator 112 compares differential V-phase rotational position signals HV+ and HV− to output a pulse signal HV2 as the comparison result. W-phase comparator 113 compares differential W-phase rotational position signals HW+ and HW− to output a pulse signal HW2 as the comparison result. The foregoing rotation number pulse signal generation circuit 117 combines pulse signals HU2, HV2, HW2 to generate rotation number pulse signal FG and output the rotation number pulse signal FG to power driver control circuit 109.
Here, U-phase, V-phase, W-phase comparators 111, 112, 113 have hysteresis, and the noise superimposed on rotational position signals HU+, HU−, HV+, HV−, HW+, HW− is removed if its magnitude is within a prescribed voltage width, that is, a hysteresis width. Thus, such a phenomenon, that is, chattering is prevented to some extent in that the outputs of comparators 111, 112, 113 become unstable to produce minute pulses when they are switched from a high level to a lower level or from a low level to a high level, and therefore, in rotation number pulse signal generation circuit 117 receiving them, generation of erroneous rotation number pulse signal FG can be suppressed.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 6-169586

Chattering preventing circuit, waveform shaping circuit including chattering preventing circuit, and three-phase motor drive control circuit including waveform shaping circuit


The invention provides a human lysophosphatidic acid acyltranferase (HLPAAT) and polynucleotides which identify and encode HLPAAT. The invention also provides expression vectors, host cells, antibodies, agonists, and antagonists. The invention also provides methods for treating or preventing disorders associated with expression of HLPAAT.

Lysophosphatidic acid acyltransferase (LPAAT) catalyzes the acylation of lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) to phosphatidic acid. LPA is the simplest glycerophospholipid, consisting of a glycerol molecule, a phosphate group, and a mono-saturated fatty acyl chain. LPAAT adds a second fatty acyl chain to LPA, producing phosphatidic acid (PA). PA is the precursor molecule for diacylglycerols, which are necessary for the production of phospholipids, and for triacylglycerols, which are essential biological fuel molecules.
In addition to being a crucial precursor molecule in biosynthetic reactions, LPA has recently been added to the list of intercellular lipid messenger molecules. LPA interacts with G protein-coupled receptors, coupling to various independent effector pathways including inhibition of adenylate cyclase, stimulation of phospholipase C, activation of MAP kinases, and activation of the small GTP-binding proteins Ras and Rho. (Moolenaar, W. H. (1995) J. Biol. Chem 28-:12949-12952.) The physiological effects of LPA have not been fully characterized yet, but they include promoting growth and invasion of tumor cells. Addition of LPA to ovarian or breast cancer cell lines induced cell proliferation, increased intracellular calcium levels, and activated MAP kinase. (Xu, Y et al. (1995) Biochem. J. 309:933-940.) In addition, LPA induced MM1 tumor cells to invade cultured mesothelial cell monolayers. (Imamura, F. et al. (1993) Biochem. Biophys. Res. Comm. 193:497-503.)
Phosphatidic acid (PA), the product of LPAAT, is also a messenger molecule.
is a key messenger in a common signaling pathway activated by proinflammatory mediators such as interleukin-1.beta., tumor necrosis factor .alpha., platelet activating factor, and lipid A. (Bursten, S. L. et al. (1992) Am. J. Physiol. 262:C328-C338; Bursten S. L. et al. (1991) J. Biol. Chem. 255:20732-20743; Kester, M. (1993) J. Cell Physiol. 156:317-325.) For example, in a mouse model of inflammatory response, inhibition of LPAAT reduced lipopolysaccharide-mediated endotoxic shock. (Abraham, E. et al. (1995) J. Exp. Med. 181:569-575; Rice, G. C. et al. (1994) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 91:3857-3861.) Thus, LPAAT activity may mediate inflammatory responses to various proinflammatory agents.
The discovery of a new human lysophosphatidic acid acyltranferase and the polynucleotides encoding it satisfies a need in the art by providing new compositions which are useful in the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of cancer and autoimnmune disorders.

Human lysophosphatidic acid acyltransferase


A process for treating acid gas comprising hydrogen sulfide comprises introducing a first acid gas into a reducing furnace to produce a first oxidized gas stream, cooling the first oxidized gas stream in a first heat recovery system, introducing the cooled gas stream into an oxidizing furnace to produce a second oxidized gas stream and cooling the second oxidized gas stream in a second heat recovery system. The acid gas is preferably produced in a refinery after treatment of sour gas or sour water. Spent acid may be fed into oxidizing furnace as part of a sulfuric acid recovery process. The spent acid can be spent sulfuric acid from a sulfuric acid alkylation process.

Petroleum refineries employ many different processes which convert crude oil into hundreds of products. A number of these processes produce sulfur-containing process streams which can be treated to regenerate active ingredients or to recover sulfur values from such streams. Sulfur-containing process streams are generated in hydrotreating processes and sulfuric acid-catalyzed alkylation. Hydrotreating includes hydrocracking and removal of undesirable components, such as sulfur and nitrogen, by distillation and/or hydrodesulfurization or hydrodenitrogenation.
Hydrotreating may generate sour gas streams, which contain valuable hydrocarbons and are rich in acid gas components (e.g., H2S and CO2). By "sour" gas streams it is meant herein to describe a stream which comprises an acid gas, typically H2S. The acid gas components must be removed to "sweeten" the sour gas stream so that the sweetened stream can be sold or used as fuel gas for the refinery's energy needs. The acid gas components must be further treated to comply with environmental regulations.
It is recognized that sour gas streams are not only generated in petroleum refining, but are also generated in natural gas processing and gasification of coal or petroleum coke.
Acid gas generated from refinery and other processes may be treated in either a sulfur recovery unit (SRU), which produces elemental sulfur, or spent acid recovery (SAR) plant, which produces purified sulfuric acid.
In SAR plants with conventional furnaces, acid gases may be directly fed to a spent acid decomposition furnace to serve as fuel source. If the acid gas provides insufficient energy for the amount of spent sulfuric acid to be decomposed, additional fuel, such as natural gas, refinery fuel gas, or other energy source is required. Added fuel is a cost to the plant. If there is excess acid gas relative to the amount of spent acid to be decomposed, too much heat is generated and quench water is added for temperature control. Most of this heat is not recoverable. Added quench water also increases the volume of gas treated downstream, and hence increases equipment size and cost.
Under oxidizing conditions (high temperature and excess oxygen), ammonia-containing acid gases contribute to fuel NOx formation. Thus, a conventional furnace has deficiencies that include adding quench water, wasted heat and higher NOx formation.
It is desirable to improve conventional processes for treating acid gases to improve heat recovery, minimize capital investment, minimize need for added fuel, and reduce NOx formation. The present invention meets these objectives.

Process for treating acid gas in staged furnaces with inter-stage heat recovery


An aqueous pest control composition is provided consisting of: a) 0.01 to 2% by weight of a pyrethroid compound; b) 1 to 40% by weight of polypropylene glycol monopropyl ether which is at least one selected from the group consisting of dipropylene glycol monopropyl ether and tripropylene glycol monopropyl ether; c) 5 to 40% by weight of a water-soluble organic solvent which is at least one selected from the group consisting of glycol monoalkyl ether having 7 or less carbon atoms and glycol having 9 or less carbon atoms; d) 20 to 80% by weight of water; and e) 5% by weight or less of a formulation additive.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an aqueous pest control composition containing a pyrethroid compound.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are conventionally known liquid pest control compositions containing a pyrethroid compound. Moreover, aqueous pest control compositions are known which do not substantially contain a saturated hydrocarbon organic solvent, aromatic hydrocarbon organic solvent, or the like as a solvent (see JP-A-2010-6773 and JP-A-2010-77074).


A method and apparatus for correcting the phase and gain of data associated with a constellation pattern of a plurality of received individual symbols. Each symbol is divided into real and imaginary symbol components. The signs of the real and imaginary symbol components of each symbol are determined and used as a basis for determining whether the symbol is associated with a first or third quadrant of the constellation pattern or a second or fourth quadrant of the constellation pattern. The absolute values of the real and imaginary symbol components are determined and used to create a first sum and a second sum. A phase adjustment value θ and a gain adjustment value G are derived from the first and second sums, and are used to create a complex number. Each of the received individual symbols is multiplied by the created complex number to provide corrected constellation pattern data.

When a transmission is made in a multipath environment, the propagating channel introduces distortions in the transmitted signal which degrade the signal quality at the receiver. In many wireless communications systems, knowledge of the channel state is required to properly demodulate the transmission. Thus, a channel estimate is performed at the receiver and is subsequently used to demodulate data.
Quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) is a method of combining two amplitude-modulated (AM) signals into a single channel, thereby doubling the effective bandwidth. QAM is used with pulse amplitude modulation (PAM) in digital systems, especially in wireless applications. In a QAM signal, there are two carriers, each having the same frequency but differing in phase by ninety degrees, (i.e., one quarter of a cycle, from which the term quadrature arises). One signal is called the real or in-phase (I) signal and the other is called the imaginary or quadrature (Q) signal. Mathematically, one of the signals can be represented by a sine wave, and the other by a cosine wave. The two modulated carriers are combined at the source for transmission. At the destination, the carriers are separated, the data is extracted from each, and then the data is combined into the original modulating information.
In digital applications, the modulating signal is generally quantized in both its in-phase and ninety degree components. The set of possible combinations of amplitudes, as shown on an x-y plot, is a pattern of dots known as a QAM constellation. This constellation, and therefore the number of bits which can be transmitted at once, can be increased for higher bit rates and faster throughput, or decreased for more reliable transmission with fewer bit errors. The number of "dots" in the constellation is given as a number before the QAM, and is often an integer power of two, i.e., from 21 (2QAM) to 212 (4096QAM).
In many wireless systems, such as frequency division duplex (FDD), time division duplex (TDD), and IEEE 802.11 systems, the channel estimate is performed based on a known transmission, i.e., a pilot signal. However, the channel state changes over a period of time and therefore the channel estimate may no longer be an accurate estimate of the channel during much of the transmission. The effect of the channel drift, in part, can be seen in the constellation diagram of a packet of received symbols as distinctly non-Gaussian noise or distortion about the constellation points.
One method to compensate for channel drift is to perform channel estimates at a higher rate. When the pilot signal is time multiplexed with the data, this may be difficult. When the pilot signal is continuously transmitted, channel estimates can be performed at an arbitrary rate, but may pose an unacceptable computational burden or processing delay.
Adaptive receivers, such as normalized least mean squared (NLMS) equalizers, also suffer degradation that can be seen in the constellation diagram even when a continuous pilot signal is present. In this case, it is not the lack of current channel estimation that causes the distortion, but rather it is due to the receiver remaining in a tracking state and thus never converges. The effect is equivalent to the above description of receivers that have channel estimates that become increasingly unreliable after they are created, i.e., the adaptive receiver has an implied channel estimate that is always delayed and therefore is not completely reflective of the current channel conditions.

Wireless communication method and apparatus for performing post-detection constellation correction


Oral pharmaceutical compositions containing rifamycin SV, or a pharmaceutically salt thereof, characterized in that they are formulated in a higher strength (about 600 mg/tablet) and in such a manner to obtain a modified profile of the rifamycin SV, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, in the proximal portion of the intestine, i.e. in the small intestine (duodenum, jejunum and ileum). In one embodiment, the disclosed oral pharmaceutical compositions are used in the prevention and/or treatment in a subject of small intestine bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) and/or irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and/or in the treatment of cholera. In one embodiment, the disclosed oral pharmaceutical compositions are used in the prevention and/or treatment in a subject of hepatic encephalopathy, hepatic cirrhosis, pouchitis and/or spontaneous bacterial perotinitis. In one embodiment, the disclosed oral pharmaceutical compositions are used in the prevention and/or treatment in a subject of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, non-alcoholic fatty liver or non-alcoholic steatohepatitis.

Intestinal infections are common diseases caused by the colonization of the intestine by foreign pathogenic agents of various origins, or caused by intestinal microorganisms that are normally present becoming virulent.
It is known that the human intestine is divided into two distinct portions:                the proximal portion, called the "small intestine" or "small bowel," which is formed by three districts known under the name of, in the craniocaudally direction, duodenum, jejunum and ileum, and included between two biologic valves, namely the pylorus and the ileo-caecal valve;        the distal portion, called the "large intestine" or "large bowel," which is formed by the colon and the rectum-anus (Faller A, Scevola G. Anatomia e Fisiologia del Corpo Umano (Anatomy and Physiology of the Human Body). Vol I. Edizioni Minerva Medica, Turin, 1973, pp. 235-254). This portion of the intestine, in turn, includes several districts known as ascending colon, transverse colon, descending colon, sigmoid colon and rectum.
The two portions, the small intestine and the large intestine, are functionally separated anatomically by the ileocecal valve, which permits the passage of the intestinal contents from the small intestine to the large intestine but, in normal conditions, not vice versa. Besides, from the anatomical-structural point of view, the small intestine is quite different from the large intestine also, and above all, from the functional point of view (Braga P C. Enteric microflora and its regulation. In Drugs in Gastroenterology. Raven Press, New York, 1991, pp. 501-508), with the presence of a large absorption surface and a strong peristalsis supported by specific muscular rings in the small bowel and the presence of fenestratum epithelium and evident and regular crypts in the large bowel.
Local environmental factors, such as pH conditions, nutrients and enzyme presence and differentiated transit time for each anatomical region determine which microbial species predominate, as well as determine the bacterial concentration in a particular region. The concentration of bacteria in the small bowel is generally many magnitudes lower than that in the large bowel, due to the microenvironment and anatomical differences between the regions.
These many differences between the small intestine and the large intestine physio-anatomic characteristics explain the distinctive nature of some pathologies which occur at the expense of the small intestine.
It should be noted that diseases of the digestive system have different etiological-pathologies and present various symptoms that allow their diagnosis. The expression "inflammatory bowel disease" or IBD indicates a series of chronic inflammatory intestinal pathologies, including principally ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease, which should not be confused with "irritable bowel syndrome" or IBS. IBS may be categorized into presenting as IBS-C (constipation predominant) or IBS-D (diarrhea predominant), although mixed symptoms or alternating periods with both symptoms may be present in the same individual in IBS-M (mixed type) presentation, and a fourth category IBS-U (uncategorized) has also been proposed, however the sub-category can vary for an individual over time.
Unlike IBD, IBS does not exhibit obvious anatomical impairment of the mucosa, so that it is considered a predominantly functional disease. From a purely clinical point of view, IBS is characterized by impairment of the intestinal function with abdominal pain, bloating and altered bowel function (diarrhea, constipation, or both). The etiology and the pathogenesis of IBS are not known, but various factors may contribute to causing its onset. Those factors often include anomalies in the regulation of the tone and activity of the smooth musculature of the intestinal wall, the effects of irritant substances of a bacterial nature and psychological and emotional influences. Because the pathophysiology and causes of IBS are poorly understood, treatment approaches to date have mainly focused on symptom management to maintain everyday functioning and improve quality of life of the patient. The mainstay of intervention to date has been pharmacological treatment with antispasmodics and anti-diarrheals for diarrhea, prokinetics and high-fiber diets for constipation, and supportive therapy with low-dose antidepressants to normalize gastrointestinal motility-treatments aimed at alleviating the functional symptoms of the illness. Other interventions including advice on lifestyle and dietary changes and psychological counseling are also used. However, IBS is frequently unresponsive to the current treatment options, including dietary and lifestyle advice, counseling, fiber supplementation, psychological therapy and/or pharmacotherapy.
Recently, it has been reported that the pregnane X receptor (PXR), a ligand-activated nuclear receptor that senses and responds to a variety of chemical stimuli, including intestinal microbial metabolites plays a key role in the intestinal epithelium, regulating inflammatory responses enhancing wound healing and maintaining barrier function under inflammatory conditions (Garg A et al in The Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, 359:91-101, October 2016). In humans, PXR is most abundantly expressed in the small intestine, colon, liver and gall-bladder and to a lesser extent in the stomach. Activation of PXR induces metabolic enzymes (e.g. CYP3A4), which can impact the pharmacokinetic of xenobiotics and endobiotics. In addition, activating PXR has been shown to attenuate the signaling of nuclear factor-kB (NF-kB), a key transcription factor that regulates gene expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines. The distribution and functions of PXR in the GI tract suggest that PXR function may play a role in maintaining mucosal homoeostasis. Thus, activating PXR may potentially contribute to the therapeutic effects in patients with IBS.
Inflammation and immune dysregulation contribute to the pathophysiology of several gastrointestinal (GI) diseases, such as inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), and diverticular disease. Alterations in the reciprocal crosstalk between two major regulators of inflammation, PXR and NFκB, may play a role in the dysregulation of the inflammatory mechanisms in IBD and IBS.
Constant exposure to xenobiotics is not only capable of producing intestinal inflammation and injury but can also impair immune function. In addition to its role in detoxification mechanisms, PXR has been shown to indirectly inhibit inflammation through repression of NFκB activity. NFκB is the primary transcription factor that regulates gene expression of proinflammatory cytokines and chemokines. Patients with IBD have significantly higher expression of NFκB compared to non-IBD patients. Abnormal activation of NFκB leads to excessive production of pro-inflammatory cytokines that cause chronic inflammation in the bowel, a leading mechanism of IBS.
Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) is a disturbance of the normal GI flora. In SIBO the concentration of bacterial organisms in the terminal jejunum and ileum is increased, and the normal distribution of bacteria is perturbed. In SIBO there is an increased number and/or type of bacteria in the small bowel. A finding of ≤105 CFU of bacteria per ml of proximal jejunal aspirate is typical wherein, under normal conditions, the bacterial concentration in the small intestine is not higher than 102 CFU.
According to the current opinion by a person skilled in the art, SIBO can arise as a result of an underlying condition such as pancreatic insufficiency, immunodeficiency syndromes, diverticula, previous surgery, scleroderma, autonomic neuropathy in diabetes, post-radiation enteropathy, or a combination of these factors. Prognosis for patients with SIBO is usually serious and related to the underlying condition. Resulting nutrient malabsorption can result in a variety of symptoms. For example, this change in the distribution and concentration of the normal GI flora in SIBO changes the metabolism of sugar molecules which, as part of a fermentation reaction, are initially broken down into short-chain fatty acids (SCFA), carbon dioxide (CO2) and hydrogen (H2). A large part of the CO2 remains in the intestines and leads to the symptom of bloating. SCFA generate an osmotic gradient and, by doing so, absorb water into the intestinal lumen, which leads to the symptom of diarrhea in IBS.
As a result, there is a significant unmet medical need for more effective treatments for IBS Direct jejunal aspirate measurement and diagnosis of SIBO can lead to false negative results, as it does not include assessment of bacterial overgrowth in other less accessible parts of the distal small intestine. The less invasive hydrogen breath test can provide additional information on the extent of SIBO. Even though prebiotic and probiotic therapies aimed at restoring the natural GI flora have been used empirically for many years by IBS patients, eradication of bacterial overgrowth with antibiotics has been shown to reduce the symptoms of IBS. A range of broad spectrum antibiotics including tetracycline, amoxicillin/clavulanate, metronidazole, and various fluoroquinolones have been used to reduce bacterial overgrowth and treat IBS. However, these compounds frequently have systemic side effects. Moreover, particularly if frequently used, they also could contribute to general resistance to the antibiotics in the bacterial species/strains.
Consequently, there is a significant unmet medical need for more effective and locally limited treatments for SIBO and/or IBS.
Cholera is an acute diarrheal infection caused by ingestion of food or water contaminated with the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. Cholera remains a global threat to public health, especially in countries of the Third World or in countries under development: researchers have estimated that every year, there are roughly 1.3 to 4.0 million cases, and 21 000 to 143 000 deaths worldwide (M. Ali et al. Updated Burden of Cholera in Endemic Countries. Negl. Trop. Dis 2015, 9(6)). Cholera can be endemic or epidemic.
Cholera is transmitted by the fecal-oral route. The pathogenic microorganisms are sensitive to acid, and most die in the stomach; those surviving may adhere to and colonize the small bowel, where they secrete the potent cholera enterotoxin (CT, also called "choleragen"). Cholera is an extremely virulent disease that can cause severe acute watery diarrhea that affects both children and adults and can kill within hours if untreated.
Although there are vaccines against cholera, their protection against V. cholerae is limited to a few months: (Cholera vaccines: WHO position paper-August 2017. Weekly epidemiological record. 92: 477-500. 25 Aug. 2017). Therefore, vaccine cannot entirely protect against cholera outbreaks in endemic areas. The current treatment of cholera includes a rapid rehydration (either by oral or by intravenous administration) to replace the fluids and electrolytes lost due to the watery diarrhea. In addition, treatment with antibiotics is recommended, in particular for patients who are severely or moderately dehydrated and continue to pass a large volume of stool during rehydration treatment. Antibiotic choices should be informed by local antibiotic susceptibility patterns. In most countries, doxycycline is recommended as first-line treatment for adults, while azithromycin is recommended as first-line treatment for children and pregnant women. Also ampicillin, erythromycin, and fluoroquinolones have been reported as efficacious antibiotics for treatment of cholera. In the last years, however, several reports on multi-drug resistant strains of V. cholerae have been published in specialized scientific literature (T. Shrestha et al. BMC Infectious Diseases (2015) 15:104; J Health Popul. Nutr. (2007), 25(2):241-243; M. Kitaoka et al. Journal of Medical Microbiology (2011), 60, 397-407).
Therefore, there is the need for a new antibiotic therapy for cholera, possibly targeted to the GI tract where the Vibrio cholerae colonizes the host: this would allow for a local maximum concentration of the antibiotic where it has to act, with a consequent faster eradication of the pathogenic bacteria and a faster resolution of the symptoms.
Currently, the oral therapy of intestinal infections uses substances having antibacterial activity which must have specific characteristics such as: broad spectrum activity on Gram+ and Gram− bacteria, resistance to strongly acidic environments, such as the gastric environment, anti-infectious activity independent of the presence of the intestinal biomass, residence inside the intestine for an appropriate period of time, good penetrability into the infecting host cell and good tolerability (Braga P C. Interaction of antibiotics on enteric microflora. In: Drugs in Gastroenterology. Raven Press, New York, 1991, pp. 509-517).
Therapy with antibacterial agents administered in the oral preparations employed today has at least two limitations. In the first place, the antibacterial agents, if not suitably protected, may lose their efficacy owing to the enzymatic or degradative inactivation which occurs during their passage through the stomach.
In addition, the pharmaceutical forms nowadays used, although they permit the administration of the active ingredient in discrete doses, release it too rapidly in relation to the time taken to pass through the digestive tract, so that the active ingredient performs its anti-infectious activity in an indiscriminate manner along the entire gastro-intestinal tract.
In addition, although the antimicrobial agents used for the disinfection of the digestive tract do not often have a high rate of metabolism, in order to maintain unaltered the therapeutic possibility connected with the administration of a traditional form containing antimicrobial agents, no phenomenon of metabolic degradation should occur, in order to avoid any weakening of the therapeutic efficacy associated with the presence of the antimicrobial agent.
Therefore, in such cases, in order to ensure the real efficacy of the anti-infectious therapy in SIBO, IBS or cholera, there is a need for an extended and site-specific form of administration to the small intestine with possible carry over in the large intestine, in adherence to the transit of the bolus inside the digestive tract.
Hepatic Encephalopathy (HE) is a brain disorder that develops in some individuals with liver disease. HE is a complex disorder that encompasses a spectrum or continuum of disease that ranges from a subtle condition with no outward signs or symptoms to a severe form that can cause serious, life-threatening complications. Symptoms are related to progressive dysfunction of the brain and may include personality changes, intellectual impairment, impaired memory and loss of consciousness (coma). HE can occur in individuals with acute or chronic liver (hepatic) disease or in individuals whose liver is bypassed by a portosystemic shunt (with no liver disease present). A portosystemic shunt is an abnormal passageway that allows blood from the gastrointestinal tract to bypass the liver. They can be present at birth (congenital) or acquired during life. HE is caused when toxins that are normally cleared from the body by the liver accumulate in the blood, eventually traveling to the brain. Many of the symptoms of hepatic encephalopathy are reversible when promptly detected and treated. The exact pathogenesis of HE is not completely understood. It is theorized that neurotoxic substances, including ammonia and manganese, may gain entry into the brain in the setting of liver failure. In particular, ammonia is produced in the gastrointestinal tract by degradation of amines, amino acids, purines, and urea by bacterial microflora. Normally, the produced ammonia is detoxified in the liver by conversion to urea by the Krebs-Henseleit cycle. Ammonia is also consumed in the conversion of glutamate to glutamine, a reaction that depends upon the activity of glutamine synthetase. Two factors contribute to the hyperammonemia that is seen in HE in cirrhotic patients. First, there is a decrease in the mass of functioning hepatocytes, resulting in fewer opportunities for ammonia to be detoxified by the above processes. Secondly, portosystemic shunting may divert ammonia-containing blood away from the liver to the systemic circulation.
Initial therapies may be aimed at identifying and removing a triggering event such as infection, gastrointestinal bleeding, certain drugs or kidney dysfunction. Such therapies may include medications to treat infections, medications or procedures to alleviate or control bleeding, stopping the use of medications that can trigger an episode and any appropriate therapy for kidney issues.
Hepatic encephalopathy is a chronically debilitating complication of hepatic cirrhosis. Another complication of hepatic cirrhosis are bacterial infections which are more common in patients with cirrhosis than in the general population, and those with decompensated cirrhosis are more susceptible to infection than those with a compensated lesion. Antibiotics are one course of treatment for such infections. Furthermore, antibiotic prophylaxis is necessary in patients with cirrhosis who have gastrointestinal bleeding.
Patients with IBD, especially Ulcerative Colitis (UC), in whom available medical therapy has failed or serious life-threatening complications have ensued, have to undergo a surgery to remove the colon and rectum (proctocolectomy) to resolve their diseases. After a patient has undergone a total proctocolectomy, a procedure called ileal pouch-anal anastomosis (IPAA) is performed. In an IPAA, the ileum, or lowest part of the small intestine, is connected to the anus to create a structure (pouch) that can store and eliminate stools. IPAA creates a reservoir for the stools into the perineum where the rectum was, and restores functionality of the anus with stools passed under voluntary control of the patient. Pouchitis is an inflammation (swelling) of the pouch that occurs when the pouch becomes irritated and inflamed. The inflammation can cause increased bowel frequency, abdominal cramping or bloating, lower abdominal pain, or sometimes blood in the stool. The cause of pouchitis is not entirely clear, but it almost always occurs in patients with ulcerative colitis or another form of colitis, and sometimes in those with familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP), a genetic (inherited) condition in which many polyps form in the colon. Pouchitis is usually treated with a 14-day course of antibiotics. Acute pouchitis (an isolated episode of pouchitis) is generally treated with antibiotics, such as metronidazole, rifaximin or ciprofloxacin, often associated to anti-inflammatory drugs.
Spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP) is defined as an ascitic fluid infection without an evident intra-abdominal surgically treatable source. The presence of SBP, which almost always occurs in patients with cirrhosis and ascites, is suspected because of suggestive signs and symptoms, such as fever, abdominal pain, or altered mental status, though some patients are asymptomatic and are detected when they undergo paracentesis after being admitted to the hospital for another reason. Patients who suffer from SBP display terrible prognosis and have one year mortality rate ranging from 50% to 90%. SBP is treated, and may be prevented, with antibiotics, such as betalactamic antibiotics or chinolones.
It is now well established that gut flora and chronic liver diseases are closely interrelated. This association is most evident at late stages of the disease: cirrhosis and impaired liver function are associated with intestinal bacterial overgrowth, small bowel dysmotility, increased gut permeability, and decreased immunological defenses, all of which promote bacterial translocation from the gut to the systemic circulation, leading to infections that in turn aggravate liver dysfunction in a vicious circle. Gut dysbiosis (i.e. alterations of the normal saprophytic gut microflora) has been implicated in chronic metabolic disorders such as obesity, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases. Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the liver manifestation of the metabolic syndrome and thus evolves in the same context as these metabolic diseases. It is therefore not surprising that recent literature emphasizes a potential role for gut dysbiosis in the pathophysiology of NAFLD. Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a common cause of chronic liver disease that is representative of the increasing prevalence of metabolic syndrome. Most patients with NAFLD exhibit non-progressive simple fatty liver, namely non-alcoholic fatty liver (NAFL). Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is a more severe form of NAFLD that is broadly defined by the presence of steatosis with inflammation and progressive fibrosis that ultimately leads to cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). A subset of patients with NAFLD develops NASH through poorly understood mechanisms. Increasing evidence has suggested the presence of correlations between intestinal microbiota, bacterial translocation and NAFLD incidence. Alterations in intestinal microbiota resulting from a high-fat diet can induce NASH and exacerbation of related HCC. Because current therapies for, hepatic encephalopathy, hepatic cirrhosis, pouchitis, spontaneous bacteriral peritonitis, NAFLD, NAFL and NASH have several drawbacks (low or limited effectiveness, insurgence of complications or adverse reactions, recurrence), there is a need for new treatments to be developed. In particular, because bacterial infections play a important role in the pathogenesis of these diseases, there is a significant needs for new antibiotic treatments effective in eradicating the infections and limiting the systemic exposure to the antibiotic drug.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,263,120B2 describes oral pharmaceutical compositions with controlled and/or programmed release containing at least one rifamycin SV, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, having antimicrobial and/or anti-infectious activity such as rifamycin SV and/or metronidazole for the treatment of infections of the large intestine, in particular the colon, wherein their specific sterilizing action is required. In particular, the oral pharmaceutical compositions of U.S. Pat. No. 8,263,120B2 leave the bacterial flora present in the portions of small intestine unaltered, releasing the rifamycin SV, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, solely in the colon, thus giving localized and restricted anti-infectious efficacy.
Rifamycin SV is currently under development for the treatment of the traveler's diarrhea (TD) and infectious colitis: it has been formulated in a gastro-protected tablet to avoid the exposure of the rifamycin SV, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, to the gastric environment, where the acid pH could damage the integrity of the medicament thus decreasing the antibiotic effect of the administered dosage. Considering that the TD and the infectious colitis is mainly localized in the last part of the gastrointestinal tract, specifically in the colon, an early release of the rifamycin SV, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, is not desired to avoid any possible exposition to the metabolic action of the enzymes present in the small intestine or in the stomach, and also the dilution of the drug in the aqueous fluids of the small intestine should be possibly avoided.


An electronic still camera includes a position calculating unit. A storage unit stores the self-position data calculated by the position calculating unit, as photography-site data, in association with the image data acquired by photographing an object. If the self-position data cannot be acquired at the time of photographing the object, a control unit sets the self-position data acquired by the position calculating unit at a time different from the time of photographing the object, in the storage unit as the photography-site data.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic still camera and an image processing apparatus for processing image data representing the images photographed with the electronic still camera. More particularly, the invention relates to an electronic still camera and an image processing apparatus, each having unit for detecting its own position, such as a GPS, and configured to store, display and print the photography-site data or photography-site environment data in association with image data.
2. Description of the Related Art
Hitherto, various electronic still cameras have been proposed, each able to store data items representing images photographed, in association with the data items representing the sites where the images have been photographed. For example, Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2001-36842 proposes a camera that has a global positioning system (GPS) used as unit for detecting its own position and unit for selecting data corresponding to the position data representing the position detected at the time of photography.
FIG. 11 is a block diagram illustrating the configuration of a conventional electronic still camera 1. The control unit 11 is a control unit that controls the sequence of the electronic still camera of FIG. 11. To the control unit 11, an operation unit 12 is connected. The operation unit 12 is composed of a display unit 121 and a switch unit 122. The display unit 121 is constituted by a display device such as LCD. The switch unit 122 is constituted by a plurality of switches including a power switch. The control unit 11 starts operating upon detecting that the power switch of the switch unit 122 has been turned on.
The imaging unit 13 has an imaging element such as a CCD. The imaging element receives the light coming from an object (not shown) and generates image data from the light. The image data is supplied via the control unit 11 to the storage unit 14. The storage unit 14 stores the image data acquired by the imaging unit 13, in association with the position data that represents the site where the image data has been acquired. The storage unit 14 has a nonvolatile memory such as flash ROM, or a disk drive such as hard disk drive.
The GPS receiving unit 15 has an antenna 151. The antenna 151 receives the positioning electromagnetic waves from GPS satellites, acquiring positioning data. The positioning data is output to the position calculating unit 16. The position calculating unit 16 calculates the position of the electronic still camera 1 from the positioning data output from the GPS receiving unit 15 and the provisional receiving position data stored in the storage unit 14. The position calculating unit 16 stores the position into the storage unit 14, as photography-site data. Further, the position calculating unit 16 updates the provisional receiving position data.

Electronic still camera which acquires photography-site data and image processing apparatus which processes image data photographed by electronic still camera


A method of detecting real events by obtaining a set of recent signal results, calculating measures of the noise or variation based on the set of recent signal results, calculating an expected baseline value based on the set of recent signal results, determining sample deviation, calculating an allowable deviation by multiplying the sample deviation by a threshold factor, setting an alarm threshold from the baseline value plus or minus the allowable deviation, and determining whether the signal results exceed the alarm threshold.

1. Field of Endeavor
The present invention relates to detection and quantification and more particularly to a detection and quantification system for monitoring instruments.
2. State of Technology
International Patent Application No. WO 2005/001435 by The Regents of the University of California for an autonomous monitoring system for monitoring for bioagents published Jan. 6, 2005 provides the following state of technology information: "Long before the anthrax letter attacks, scientists at two of the U.S. Department of Energy's national laboratories, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), were busy pioneering a 'biodetector' akin to a smoke detector to rapidly detect the criminal use of biological agents . . . . The Autonomous Pathogen Detection System (APDS) is a file-cabinet-sized machine that sucks in air, runs tests, and reports the results itself. APDS integrates a flow cytometer and real-time PCR detector with sample collection, sample preparation, and fluidics to provide a compact, autonomously operating instrument capable of simultaneously detecting multiple pathogens and/or toxins. The system is designed for fixed locations, says Langlois, where it continuously monitors air samples and automatically reports the presence of specific biological agents. APDS is targeted for domestic applications in which the public is at high risk of exposure to covert releases of bioagents—subway systems, transportation terminals, large of flee complexes, and convention centers APDS provides the ability to measure up to 100 different agents and controls in a single sample," Langlois says.
United States Published Patent Application No. 2006/0057599 by John M. Dzenitis et al for a system for autonomous monitoring of bioagents published Mar. 16, 2006 provides the following state of technology information: "At present there are more than 30 pathogens and toxins on various agency threat lists. Public health personnel rarely see most, of the pathogens so they have difficulty identifying them quickly. In addition, many pathogenic infections aren't immediately symptomatic, with delays as long as several days, limiting options to control the disease and treat the patients. The lack of a practical monitoring network capable of rapidly detecting and identifying multiple pathogens or toxins on current threat lists translates into a major deficiency in the United States ability to counter biological terrorism . . . . The (2006/0057599) invention provides an autonomous monitoring apparatus for monitoring air, water, soil, or other substance for bioagents. A collector gathers a quantity of the air, water, soil, or other substance being monitored. The collector separates selected potential bioagent particles from the air, water, soil, or other substance that is being collected. A sample preparation system prepares a sample of the selected potential bioagent particles. The sample is analyzed by a system for detecting said bioagents."
United States Published Patent Application No. 2003/0148332 by Roger Taylor et al for adaptive baseline algorithm for quantitative PCR published Aug. 7, 2003 provides the following state of technology information: "The (Patent Application No. 2003/0148332) invention relates to algorithms for calculating an adaptive baseline of a PCR reaction, computer program products comprising the same, systems implementing the algorithms and methods for using the same. The algorithm calculates an adaptive baseline for data obtained from one or more labels evaluated in an amplification reaction. In one aspect, the method measures an actual signal obtained during a PCR cycle and generates a first plot for each one or more labels, determines a starting cycle and an ending cycle for one or more labels and calculates an adaptive baseline for each sample or label. The adaptive baseline can be subtracted from the actual signal observed during a PCR amplification cycle and used to calculate the amount of a nucleic acid template in a PCR reaction."
European Patent Application No. EP1576353 by The Regents of the University of California for an autonomous monitoring system for monitoring for bioagents published Aug. 11, 2005 provides the following state of technology information: "There exists a critical need to develop distributed biothreat agent sensor networks that can operate in civilian applications. To operate in 'Detect to Protect/Warn' type detection architectures, these platforms need to have several key properties. They need to be capable of detecting pathogens within a 1-2 hour time window, allowing for enough time to respond to an event. They need to be extremely low cost to maintain, since continuous monitoring is essential for many applications. These platforms need to have sufficient sensitivity to cover a broad geographical area (limiting the necessary number of sensors) and have sufficient selectivity to virtually eliminate false positives."

Detection and quantification system for monitoring instruments

Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC