A shelf service apparatus is provided in the form of a crane for a store for rod-like material accomodated in self-supporting magazines or pallet boxes, where the store comprises shelving units arranged transversely of the storage space and aligned with one another in the direction of the storage space, which units comprise vertical shelf supports (2) with carrier arms (3) secured thereon one above another so as to extend in the direction of the storage space, for the magazines (4). The crane has load supporting forks (12) movable up and down by guide devices (16), with reception brackets (13) by which the magazines can be grasped and moved. To weigh the material in the pallet boxes, a receiver (18) is arranged, with spacing, on the forward portion of the reception brackets (13). The receiver is supported by transverse beams (20) in relation to the reception bracket 13. Weighing cells (20a) are coupled to the beams. The transverse beams extend horizontally and are secured with one end (23) to the receiver (18) and with the other end (21) on the reception bracket (13). (FIG. 3).

Material, particularly elongated material, storage systems are known which include shelving units having vertical shelf supports with carrier arms secured thereon, one above another, so as to extend in the longitudinal direction, for carrying the magazines or pallet boxes. A crane is movable in the longitudinal direction and has carriages movable up and down along vertical guide means. Each carriage comprises a load fork with a vertical wall and a support bracket extending, in use, horizontally into the region of the store for engaging under legs protruding horizontally outwards from the ends of the magazines, in order to move the magazines within and between lanes separating the units.
Such material handling apparatus are disclosed, for example, in the referenced U.S. Pat. No. 4,778,325, and have a conveyor, movable on rails above the shelving units, from which load beams are vertically movably supported on carriages on both sides of the shelving units, the load beams moving, with guide means therefore, within the outline of the outer shelving unit supports. Load forks are horizontally movable in the storage space direction on the load beams. In this way, the load forks are vertically and horizontally mobile.
There is a need to ascertain the weight of each magazine taken up, as exactly as possible, in order to obtain an indication as to the degree to which the magazine is still filled, or whether perhaps a replenishment is necessary.
For this purpose, in the known apparatus, the conveyor portion mobile above the shelving units is divided into frame portions which are vertically supported one against the other through pressure cells. This form of construction, however, necessitates a relatively voluminous and expensive configuration for the conveyor. Moreover, it has the disadvantage that besides the weight of the magazine, the weight of the upper frame portion, which is supported on the lower frame of the conveyor via the pressure cells, and the weight of the load beams, the load forks and of the lifting means for moving the load beams is also weighed at the same time, so that the accuracy and fine sensitivity of the weighing apparatus are undesirably influenced.
Material handling apparatus in the form of gantry cranes are also known, for example, from U.S. Pat. No. 3,810,404. In this form of construction, it is not possible to provide weighing apparatus at a reasonable expense and, if a weighing apparatus were provided at all, it would involve an extraordinarily great loss of space.
Finally, material handling apparatus are known, such as these shown for example in German Patent DE-PS 35 03 390 C3, Dornieden, in which a gantry-type traveling crane is divided into two individual conveyor devices in the form of the initially mentioned vertical guide means which are mutually independently mobile but can be controlled synchronously.

Combined material handling and weighing apparatus


All nodes within a communication system (100) will create an IP address based on a shared-secret key. The shared-secret key is unique for every node within the communication system and is known only to the node (102) and a server (103). The router (101) can validate that the node (102) owns the IP address.

The Internet Protocol (IP) developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force has become the primary underlying protocol for devices to communicate with each other. For devices to communicate with each other, a unique routing address, (e.g., an internet protocol (IP) address), is needed so that a device can be uniquely identified and packets destined to a particular device can be routed or forwarded correctly to it. The IP address of a device such as a mobile node can be configured manually in the node itself or a node can obtain the address from a server such as a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server or an Authentication, Authorization and Accounting (AAA) server. Once a node obtains an IP address it may need to send messages to manipulate the routing behavior corresponding to that address. Specifically a node may send an advertisement message that maps the IP address to its own MAC address or may send a binding update message to reroute packets destined to its IP address to a different acquired IP address in a different network.
A problem with current techniques for manually configuring an IP address is that unscrupulous users may claim an address that is currently being used by another node. Thus, a need exists for a method and apparatus for address creation and validation within a communication system that allows the verification that a node can indeed lay claim to a particular address.

Method and apparatus for address creation and validation


A LED lamp with 360-degree illumination includes a base, a first substrate, a stepped structure, a plurality of LEDs, and a cover. The first substrate is fixed on the base. The stepped structure is mounted on the first substrate. The stepped structure has a first annular frame connected to the first substrate, a second substrate connected to the first annular frame, and a second annular frame connected to the second substrate. The peripheral length of the second annular frame is smaller than that of the first annular frame. The plurality of LEDs is fixed to the first substrate and the second substrate and surrounds the first annular frame and the second annular frame respectively. With this arrangement, the LEDs can be arranged in a multi-storey stepped structure to generate an effect of 360-degree illumination. Also, the illumination range of the lamp can be increased.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a LED lamp, and in particular to a LED lamp with 360-degree illumination.
2. Description of Prior Art
Since light emitting diodes (LEDs) have advantages of low electricity consumption, environmental protection, long life, small volume and toughness, they have been widely used in various fields such as automobiles, communication industries or consumptive electronic appliances to replace traditional light sources. However, the lights emitted by the LEDs are concentrated in a certain range. Thus, manufacturers in this industry continue to develop a lamp with 360-degree illumination. For example, Taiwan Patent Publication No. M306299 discloses a lamp 100 with 360-degree illumination. As shown in FIG. 1, the center of a base 110 is provided with a post 120. The outer surface of the post 120 is provided with a plurality of LEDs 130 arranged in vertical lines, whereby the 360-degree illumination can be achieved.
However, in practice, such a structure still has some problems as follows. In order to achieve the required 360-degree illumination and brightness, it is necessary to increase the number of LEDs 130, which also increases the production cost and time for assembly. On the other hand, since there are a number of LEDs 130 that are arranged densely, the heat generated by the LEDs 130 cannot be dissipated sufficiently by the post 120. As a result, the working temperature of the LEDs 130 is so high that the life of the LEDs 130 will be deteriorated, which may increase the time and cost for maintenance.
Therefore, in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present Inventor proposes a reasonable and novel structure based on his deliberate research and expert experiences.


Information collecting system wherein at least an Application Service Provider (ASP) provides services to a user through an Internet network and wherein there are at least an access network to which is connected the user and an Internet Service Provider (ISP) network connected to each access network by a RADIUS client, the Internet network being connected to the ISP network by a proxy. This system comprises a RADIUS Client Agent (RCA) connected to the ISP network and adapted to collect information about parameters of the connection of the user to the system, and at least a Provisioning Proxy Agent (PPA) adapted to receive the information from the RCA and to add this information in the request sent by the user to the ASP.

The access of users to internet services through a private or public IP network, such as a Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), etc., must be controlled for reason of security and to avoid useless load of network lines. Companies providing remote access to their servers, such as web content servers, often share the services of authentication using a Remote Access dial-in User Services (RADIUS) server to control remote user connections. The protocol for authentication and authorization is defined in the Request For Comment (RFC) documents RFC 2865 and the RADIUS protocol for accounting is defined in the RFC 2866. The RADIUS server performs authentication of users and checks that the remote users are authorized to be connected to the network, in order to access the content servers through the IP network. The RADIUS server is also in charge of collecting accurate accounting of connection time so that the users may be billed correctly by the content servers.
Users can connect to an IP Network in numerous ways, including through a PSTN, GPRS, digital subscriber lines (xDSL), and wireless network WI-FI. Such a connection is made by means of access servers acting as gateways which are installed at the periphery of the IP network. The access server establishes a user session using the services of a RADIUS server. The RADIUS server performs the authentication, checking the password received from a user and provides an authorization to connect according to the network capacity. The access server sends an IP address to the user and acts as a router to the IP servers once a session is established. When a session is established, it asks the RADIUS server to start the accounting for this session. When the user is disconnected by the network, the access server asks the RADIUS server to stop the accounting for this session. One RADIUS server can collect accounting information for a set of access servers. Using the accounting information, a bill for the connection to IP content servers is created and sent to the user.
The application service providers (ASP) have to adapt their services according to the type of access network used by their customers. Thus, a customer can now have access to video services through GPRS, WI-FI, PSTN or a leased line and the connection parameters used by the ASP will be different according to the access network being used. However, these connection parameters, such as identification, speed or bandwidth are not provided today at the application level. This could be detrimental for some specific services such as media distribution. In some cases, this needed information can be retrieved by the web application from the RADIUS server session table using the client IP address. Unfortunately, these solutions do not work if there is a proxy or a firewall in mode proxy between the user and the web application.
Another solution consists in requesting some information from the user, such as the quality of the video being received according to the speed or bandwidth. But, in most cases, the user is not able to answer or is unable to determine the speed negotiated by the modem. Furthermore, the RADIUS server has no open interface to provide connection information in real time to third party application (proxy, application server . . . ).

Information collecting system for providing connection information to an application in an IP network

International Business Machines Corporation


The method includes storing a memory data state in the ferroelectric memory cell. An event will trigger the evaluation of signal margin on a memory cell. If the memory cell is identified to have a weak signal, the memory cell is exercised. Exercising includes either performing one or more data read/re-write events or performing one or more simulated data read and data write events of an alternating high data state and a low data state to the memory cell associated with the weak data bit. Both the lifetime retention testing and the memory data state exercising are performed in the background of normal memory operation.

In recent years the market of the semiconductor industry has grown considerably for supplying integrated chips to companies that manufacture portable electronic device. The integrated chips used to make these portable electronic device, such as cell phones, PDAs, laptop computers and the like, are mostly made in emerging technology nodes. This is because emerging technology nodes offer higher density chips with greater performance and lower power consumption. These qualities are important to portable electronic devices which are continually striving to offer greater functionality while relying on relatively small energy sources (e.g., batteries). The demand for these products has driven the industry to devote many resources to developing low power integrated chips, often resulting in specific integration processes.
One aspect of power consumption in integrated circuits is the power consumption of memory cells. Memory can be broadly grouped into two categories, volatile memory and non-volatile memory. Volatile memory (e.g., SRAM, DRAM) is memory which requires power to retain its information. Non-volatile memory (e.g., EEPROM, flash) is memory which does not require power to retain its information. In recent years, the use of non-volatile memory has become common place in portable electronics. Many portable electronic devices such as cell phones or digital cameras will rely upon a stick or card which uses flash memory as storage. Unfortunately, the performance and density of flash memory and other wide spread commercially available non-volatile memory sources lags behind that of volatile memory.
In recent years, semiconductor research has increased its emphasis on ferroelectric memory as an alternative to commercially available non-volatile memories. Ferroelectric random-access memory (FRAM) is a non-volatile random access memory that offers advantages in terms of power consumption and write speed over existing non-volatile memory sources such as flash or EEPROM. There are still obstacles standing in the way of FRAM becoming an important part of the memory market, but its potential advantages point towards it as a possible contender for the future of non-volatile memory.

Cycling to mitigate imprint in ferroelectric memories


A resilient microwavable container including a bowl and a selectively detachable snap on lid. The lid includes a sealing lip including an outwardly extending rigid tab member and a body including a substantially annular reinforcing bead which is interrupted adjacent to the tab member. The combination of the rigid tab member in association with the interrupted annular bead allows for readily removing the lid from the bowl when desired with a low separation force.

1. Technical Field
The present invention generally relates to a container useful for storing and transporting items such as food and, more particularly, to a container including a bowl and selectively detachable lid including an interrupted reinforcing bead to assist in selectively detaching the lid from the bowl.
2. Description of the State of the Art
Containers, particularly those used for heating foodstuffs in a microwave oven generally should be relatively low in cost and easy to utilize. Additionally, such containers should be versatile to use, that is, capable of withstanding drastically different environments such as occurs when transferring the container directly from the refrigerator or freezer to a microwave oven, for example.
With regard to these microwavable containers, a primary focus in the art has been on providing a good seal between the lid and the bowl. However, many of the known sealable microwave containers are unnecessarily complicated with regard to the sealing assembly. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,377,860 requires a specifically shaped double seal arrangement along the sealing rim. According to this patent, the base and the lid both require an inwardly disposed tapering frusto-conical seal area and a downwardly and outwardly extending brim with mating undercuts. While a high integrity seal may be accomplished, it is believed that unnecessarily high separation forces are required to detach the lid from the bowl. This, in turn, makes such containers more prone to spills which is highly undesirable.
Heretofore, resilient microwavable containers have generally included a relatively flimsy lid and tab construction (when a tab member is present) which requires higher than necessary separation forces to detach the lid from the bowl. The art has in large part failed to consider how the structure of the lid, taken in conjunction with the sealing assembly, affects the magnitude of the separation forces required to detach the lid from the bowl.

Container Having a selectively detachable lid including an interrupted reinforcing bead


A charging device, a charging method and a terminal, an output end of the main charging circuit and output ends of the at least two secondary charging circuits are connected to a battery of an electronic device, and the output end of the main charging circuit is used for supplying power for an internal chip of the electronic device, disconnecting a connection between the main charging circuit and the battery when a voltage of the output end of the main charging circuit reaches a voltage required by the internal chip, and supplying power for the battery through the output ends of the at least two secondary charging circuits, in this way, charging time is shortened and a purpose of fast charging a battery is achieved.

Number of cores of a central processing unit (CPU) in an electronic device is increasing and screens are becoming larger, thus a battery capacity of the electronic device may need to be improved for ensuring a certain performance of the electronic device, thus charging time of the battery is increased. In order to shorten the charging time as much as possible and reduce increased charging temperature, manufacturers of electronic devices have conducted research on fast charging of batteries.
Currently, a charging device includes a main charging circuit and a secondary charging circuit. A double-charging channel formed by the two charging circuits is used for charging the battery, charging phases of a current battery include trickle charging, pre-charging, constant current charging, and constant voltage charging. When a charging mode of the double-charging channel is adopted, the charging device switches on the main charging circuit and the secondary charging circuit at the same time in the constant current phase and the constant voltage phase to realize fast charging.
However, a power supply range allowed by a voltage output end in a current charging device is usually not allowed to exceed 4.5V, thus charging time of the charging device during the constant voltage phase may not be reduced.

Charging device, charging method, and terminal

YULONG COMPUTER TELECOMMUNICATION SCIENTIFIC (SHENZHEN) CO., LTD.


A clamp 100A for connecting formwork panels 50, 50 together at a right angle has a symmetrical shape and comprises a generally triangular central section 1, one intermediate lever 3 connected pivotally to each of opposed sides of the central section 1, and an L-shaped holding arm 2 connected to the intermediate lever 3 by means of a link 4 that is pivotally joined with both the intermediate lever 3 and the holding arm 2. The central section 1 has two equal sides a, a which extend perpendicular to each other and at which the central section 1 engages with joint members 52, 52 of formwork panels 50, 50. Notches 1c are formed on each side a, and are adapted to bite into one joint member 52. Each side a of the central section 1 is thus capable of engaging very closely with the joint member 52. The holding arm 2 is also provided with notches 2c, so that the holding arm 2 also can engage very closely with the joint member 52.

Mixed concrete must be placed in a form. A form also often is called a formwork or shuttering. FIG. 2 illustrates a portion of a formwork to produce a square portion of a desired concrete structure. Reference numeral 50 designates a formwork panel that comprises a wood board 51 and a pair of elongated joint members 52 of wood fixed to opposed sides of the board 51 by a suitable method such as nailing. The formwork's square portion of FIG. 2 thus comprises four panels 50. The four panels are also designated by reference numerals P1, P2, P3, and P4, respectively. A first panel P1 and a second panel P2 are connected together with two clamps 100A of this invention. The second panel P2 and a third panel P3 are also similarly connected together with two clamps 100A of this invention. The first panel P1 and a fourth panel P4, however, are connected not by use of clamps of the invention but by nailing a portion 51a of the wood board 51 of the first panel P1 that projects from the wood board 51 of the fourth panel P4, to one of the joint members 52 of the fourth panel P4. This method of connecting the first and fourth panels P1 and P4 is a conventional method employed widely in the prior art, and is much more clearly shown in FIG. 11. The third and fourth panels P3 and P4 are connected together by the same conventional method.
It will be appreciated, however, that all the panels P1 to P4 of FIG. 2 in fact can be connected together either solely by use of the clamps 100A of this invention or solely by the conventional method, although the two methods produce different volumes. As a matter of fact, the formwork's square portion of FIG. 2 is deliberately illustrated as being assembled partly (i.e., at too corners thereof) according to the invention and partly (i.e., at its other two corners) by the conventional method, for the sake of presenting very clearly a difference between the prior art and this invention.
In FIG. 11, reference numeral 60 designates mixed concrete and reference numeral 53 a piece of wood used to chamfer the concrete 60.
Another conventional method (not shown) for connecting formwork panels together at right angles is by nailing together adjacent joint members of adjacent panels.
The conventional technique of nailing formwork panels together to join them, however, has the following drawbacks:
(a) It takes much time and trouble to nail formwork panels together. PA1 (b) The nails can be removed to separate and reuse the panels, but removing the nails takes more time and trouble. PA1 (c) The more often formwork panels are nailed and separated, the sooner they are seriously damaged and, hence, the shorter period of time they only last. PA1 (d) The conventional technique of connecting formwork panels together at right angles, therefore, not only is uneconomical but also conflicts with the spirit of forest conservation. PA1 (e) Damaged formwork panels can be repaired, but to do so naturally involves costs. PA1 (f) Nailing formwork panels together firmly enough requires considerable skill. PA1 (g) Using nails involves a potential danger to the human body.

Clamp for connecting formwork panels together


A method and arrangement are described for handover warning in a vehicle having autonomous driving capabilities and a vehicle controller configured to control unmanned autonomous travel. A processor may be configured to monitor if there is a need to transition from unmanned autonomous travel to manual control of the vehicle. A detecting arrangement may be configured to monitor a vehicle driver and evaluate the vehicle driver's readiness to assume the act of driving the vehicle. A warning arrangement may be configured to provide warning information when driver-handover is requested by the processor, which warning arrangement may be further configured to adapt warning information timing in respect to the evaluated vehicle driver's readiness to assume the act of driving the vehicle. A warning output system may be configured to output the time adapted warning information to a vehicle passenger compartment.

One area of automotive vehicle technology that is evolving rapidly is the area of autonomous or semi-autonomous drive capabilities. This is enabled through the introduction of sensors, for sensing vehicle parameters and surroundings, and actuators, for controlling different vehicle functionalities, such as steering, throttling and braking. Increased on-board data processing capabilities ties together these sensors and actuators such that the autonomous or semi-autonomous drive capabilities are enabled.
When the vehicle runs in autonomous mode, which means the driver does not perform maneuvers, it usually requires multiple data sources as inputs to perform the autonomous driving, such as detection of surrounding vehicles, traffic lanes, obstacles, data from navigation systems and so on. However, should one or more of these inputs not be available, there might not be sufficient information to perform autonomous driving. In such cases a driver-handover may be requested in order to ensure road safety.
A previous document, U.S. Pat. No. 8,433,470, relates to a user interface for displaying an internal state of an autonomous driving system. In the event of an emergency situation identified by a control computer of the automated vehicle, it may immediately convey this information to a passenger in a variety of ways. For example, if the control computer is no longer able to control the vehicle safely, illuminated indicators may change color, to inform the user of the immediate need to take control of the steering wheel. The control computer may also send audio alerts to the passenger stating that there is an emergency and the passenger is required to take control of the steering wheel. The control computer may further use cameras to scan the passenger's eyes and/or other features. If the control computer determines that the eyes are closed or the body is slumped over (e.g. the passenger is sleeping or under the influence of drugs or alcohol), the control computer may take emergency control of the vehicle and use audible alerts to wake or otherwise get the attention of the driver.
However, during autonomous driving a vehicle driver may be otherwise occupied e.g. resting, reading, watching a movie or similar, which depending on the circumstances will affect the vehicle driver's readiness to respond to a request to assume manual control of the vehicle.

Method and arrangement for handover warning in a vehicle having autonomous driving capabilities


A computer implemented method for procedure tray management, comprising storing in a database a set of procedure tray types, displaying, on a user interface, a list of procedure tray types, and displaying, in response to a user input, a list of items included in a selected procedure tray type. The method further includes automatically determining a recommended modification to the selected procedure tray type by identifying recommended item additions as items which are included in a template associated with the selected procedure tray type and not included in the selected procedure tray and electronically communicating the proposed modified procedure tray type to at least some users associated with the selected procedure tray. In response to a confirmation from at least one user the selected procedure tray type is updated in the database.

Various items (e.g. tools and other equipment) used in a surgical procedure are typically individually packed in a sterile package. However, in an effort to use less package material, and thereby reduce cost and environmental impact, and also save time during the procedure, composite packages including a plurality of different items have been introduced on the market. Such composite packages, sometimes referred to as "procedure trays" or "surgical trays", are typically designed for a specific surgical procedure, and ideally include all single use items required for that procedure.
Each procedure tray may include a large number of single use items, e.g. in the order of tens of items up to a hundred items or more, ranging from protective gowns, drapes and sutures to laparoscopic and orthopedic instruments. The procedure trays not only provide an efficient packaging of the items expected to be required during the procedure, but may also serve to arrange those items in a manner appropriate for the procedure, e.g. based on the order in which the items are expected to be used. The packs may also be packed in a manner providing a well balanced pack, and also a space efficient storage of the packs.
Each hospital (or group of hospitals) will typically have their "own" set of procedure trays, including the items used when performing the procedure at that specific hospital. This creates a large number of different packs, which all need to be separately handled in the purchasing process. This places a significant logistic burden on the suppliers of such trays, in terms of assembly, storage and distribution of the trays.
Despite the fact that the procedure tray is intended to include all single use items required for a procedure, additional items which are individually packaged, may still be used during the procedure. There may be various reasons for this, including different preferences of individual surgeons or nurses, minor deviations from the planned surgical procedure, etc. As each use of an individually packed item increases cost and amount of waste, there is a desire to minimize such use, and as far as possible optimize the procedure trays.
However, the large number of different trays makes it extremely difficult to implement and oversee such optimization. Optimization is further complicated by the fact that actual users of the tray (surgeons and operating room nurses) typically do not have authority to directly order new trays, but this is typically handled by designated procurement officers, at the hospital or group of hospitals. The acts of identifying suitable modifications of various packs, verifying compatibility with existing procurement arrangements and eventually ordering and supplying a modified tray, therefore becomes a very complex largely manual process, involving several people at different organizational levels and physical locations. Also, hospital efficiency and especially efficiency in the operating theater is a driver for optimizing surgical tray offers and there is a need to provide a wide variety of components are ideally possible to add to the surgical tray.
One example of customer management of procedure trays is provided by document US2013/0110667.
However, in order to achieve more optimized procedure tray, matching the needs of the surgical teams in different hospitals, and to thereby even further reduce the cost and environmental impact of excess packaging, a more efficient and automated management of procedure trays is desired.
General Disclosure of the Invention
It is an object of the present invention to provide a more efficient and automated management of procedure trays solving or at least alleviating the problems discussed above.
According to a first aspect, this and other objects are achieved by a computer implemented method for procedure tray management, comprising storing, in a database on a network attached server, a set of procedure tray types, each including a list of items to be included in a procedure tray intended to be used in a specific surgical procedure, each procedure tray type being associated with a set of users, storing, in the database, a template, including a list of items required to perform the surgical procedure associated with a particular procedure tray type, providing a database application software configured to communicate with the database, the database application software including a user interface, displaying, on the user interface, a list of procedure tray types associated with a current user of the user interface, receiving a user input indicating a selected one of the procedure tray types in the list, in response to the user input, displaying, on the user interface, the list of items included in the selected procedure tray type, allowing the current user to use the interface to indicate modifications of the list of items, automatically determining a recommended modification to the selected procedure tray type by identifying recommended item additions as items which are included in the template associated with the selected procedure tray type and not included in the selected procedure tray type, presenting the recommended modification to the current user as a proposed modified procedure tray type including a modified list of items, electronically communicating the proposed modified procedure tray type to at least some users in the set of users associated with the selected procedure tray, receiving a confirmation from at least one user in the set, and in response to the confirmation, updating the selected procedure tray type in the database.
According to a second aspect, this and other objects are achieved by a computer implemented procedure tray management system, comprising a database on a network attached server storing a set of procedure tray types, each including a list of items to be included in a procedure tray intended to be used in a specific surgical procedure, each procedure tray type being associated with a set of users, and a template, including a list of items required to perform the surgical procedure associated with a particular procedure tray type, at least one network attached workstation, a database application software including a server module installed on the network attached server and a client module installed on the network attached workstation, the server module configured to communicate with the database and with the client module, a user interface provided by the client module of the database application software, the user interface being configured to display a list of procedure tray types associated with a current user of the user interface, receive a user input indicating a selected one of the procedure tray types in the list, in response to the user input, display the list of items included in the selected procedure tray type, allow the current user to indicate modifications of the list of items, presenting a recommended modification of the selected procedure tray type to the current user as a proposed modified procedure tray type including a modified list of items resulting from the modifications.
The server module is further configured to automatically determine the recommended modification by identifying recommended item additions as items which are included in the template associated with the selected procedure tray type and not included in the selected procedure tray type.
The client module is further configured to electronically communicate the proposed modified procedure tray type to at least some users in the set of users associated with the selected procedure tray, and receive a confirmation from at least one user in the set.
The server module is further configured to update, in response to the confirmation, the selected procedure tray type in the database.
According to the invention, definitions of different procedure trays are stored in a database, making it possible to provide a user with an automated interface to all procedure trays which the user is associated with. The interface allows the user to make proposed changes to a specific tray, and then electronically communicates with other users associated with the specific tray in order to confirm the proposed change.
The invention is based on the realization that the functionality of an interface can be made more effective by storing information related to the procedure trays in a specific format in a network accessible database. The invention is further based on a unique functionality of the interface, enabling a more efficient tray modification process.
According to the invention, a proposed modification to a particular procedure tray type is automatically proposed and presented to the current user. This even further improves the efficiency of the procedure tray management. Again, it is the novel storage of procedure tray information, and the user interface allowing all associated users of a procedure tray type to access this procedure tray type, that enables an automated process for making and confirming proposed modifications.
With a method and system according to the present invention, an improved overview is provided also of a very large number of unique procedure tray types, down to individual components. Traditionally, it has been increasingly difficult to keep track of all varieties of procedure trays, leading to a situation where some trays are "black holes".
Another advantage is increased traceability, as the present invention makes it possible to immediately determine who suggested and/or approved a particular modification of a procedure tray type.
The proposed modification may relate to the currently selected procedure tray, and may then be displayed on the user interface to the current user in response to indication of the selected user tray. In other words, the user will determine which procedure tray he/she wishes to work with, and only then are proposals presented by the system.
Alternatively, or in combination, the proposed modification may be communicated to all users associated with the particular procedure tray type, independently on any indication of this particular procedure tray. The process of proposing modification can in this case be considered as a parallel background process, operating independently of the current user indication. In fact, in this case, the user indication of a specific procedure tray may be prompted by a proposed modification made by the system.
Further, prices and aggregated purchasing volumes of individual items for a specific purchasing entity (e.g. a hospital or group of hospitals) to which the current user belongs may be stored in the database. Then at least one replaceable item, which has an available substitute item having technical properties equivalent to the replaceable item, may be identified in the particular procedure tray, and prices and purchase volumes of all such identified items and their respective substitute items may be compared, and item substitutions which are beneficial to the purchasing entity may be proposed. Although this particular embodiment has an underlying business purpose, its implementation is still clearly technical. In particular, the expression "replaceable item" relates to a technically equivalent item, indicating that the selection of item substitutions is based on technical factors.
For a proposed modification, an estimated set-up time saving may be determined and presented to the current user. Also, estimated waste and/or cost reductions may be determined and presented to the current user. The determination and presentation of set-up time, cost and waste consequences of a proposed modification may serve to promote procedure tray modifications that lead to faster set-up time for procedures and less waste.
According to one embodiment, the method may include defining a set of different user roles, including at least purchaser and clinical practitioner. The functionality of the user interface and the choice of information presented to the user may then be adapted based on the role of the current user. For example, estimated set-up time savings or cost savings may be presented only to users for whom it is beneficial.
According to a further embodiment, the database stores aggregated purchasing volumes of individual items for a specific business unit to which the current user belongs. The database may then be queried to find aggregated purchasing volumes of all items in the procedure tray types associated with the current user, and the resulting purchasing volumes may be presented on the user interface.
Such a process provides an efficient way to collect and present continuously updated information about purchasing volumes, which may be highly relevant for some users.
A procedure tray managed by a method of the present invention may typically include at least protective gowns, drapes, and gloves. Such items can be expected to be needed at any surgical procedure, and therefore form the basis of most surgical trays.


The present invention discloses an apparatus for supercooling and a method of operating the same which can solve supercooling release of a supercooled space and prevent external exposure of energy such as an electric field. The apparatus for supercooling includes a space cooled by cool air, for maintaining an inside object in a supercooled state by supply of energy preventing the object from being converted into a solid phase, a sensing unit for sensing supercooling release of the space or the object, and a heater engaged with the sensing unit, for applying heat to the space or the object.

Supercooling means that a liquid such as water is not transited to a solid but maintained in a high temperature phase, namely, a liquid phase even below a phase transition temperature to the solid. Water drops can be supercooled in the natural state. In addition, water or beverages may be incidentally supercooled in a general refrigerator. A freezing method disclosed under Japan Laid-Open Patent Official Gazette S59-151834 and a freezing method and a refrigerator disclosed under Japan Laid-Open Patent Official Gazette 2001-086967 apply the supercooling principle to the refrigerator. An electric field or a magnetic field is applied to foods of the refrigerator, so that the foods can be maintained in a supercooled state below a phase transition temperature. An electrostatic field processing method disclosed under International Publication Official Gazette WO/98/41115 suggests various types of electrode structures that can be used to supercool and thaw foods.
FIG. 1 is a structure view illustrating a conventional refrigerator including a dispenser. The refrigerator 300 includes a freezing chamber 310 and a refrigerating chamber 320. An ice maker 330 is installed in the freezing chamber 310, and the dispenser 350 is installed on the freezing chamber door 340. A passage 360 is formed to supply water to the ice maker 330 and the dispenser 350, and connected to an external water supply source (not shown). A first valve 370, a filter 380 and a second valve 390 are disposed on the passage 360. The first valve 370 controls water supply from the external water supply source to the refrigerator 300, the filter 380 filters water, and the second valve 390 controls water supply to the ice maker 330 and the dispenser 350.
On the other hand, the first valve 370 and the second vale 390 are controlled by a control unit (not shown) of the refrigerator 300. The passage 360 includes a passage 361 for supplying water to the dispenser 350. Water flowing through the passage 361 is cooled by heat exchange with the freezing chamber 310, and discharged through an outlet 362 of the passage 361 or an outlet 351 of the dispenser 350.
FIG. 2 is a structure view illustrating a transparent ice maker disclosed under Korea Laid-Open Patent Official Gazette 2006-0013721. The transparent ice maker 100 includes a supercooling means 120 using blades 122. Thin plate ice is laminated by supplying supercooled water made by the supercooling means 120 to an ice making means 110 including an ice tray 111, an ice making chamber 112 and ejectors 113 at very small quantities, thereby malting transparent ice.
FIGS. 3 and 4 are structure views illustrating a microwave oven for generating microwaves disclosed under Korea Laid-Open Patent Official Gazette 2005-0002271. The microwave oven includes a door 400 and a main body 120. The door 400 has latches 510 and 520. The main body 120 has switches 710, 720 and 730. By this configuration, when the door 400 is opened, generation of microwaves is intercepted by a mechanical method without the help of a control unit.
The conventional refrigerator of FIG. 1 does not provide a supercooled liquid. The conventional transparent ice maker of FIG. 2 supercools water by the mechanical method using the blades, and makes the thin plate ice by supplying the supercooled water at very small quantities. Therefore, the conventional transparent ice maker cannot rapidly make slush or ice. In the case that the supercooled water is transited to a solid phase and frozen, the conventional art cannot solve the problem.
In the general refrigerator, when foods are kept in the storing chamber in the supercooled state, they are often frozen.

Apparatus for supercooling, and method of operating the same


A method for determining component patterns of a raw substrate map. A subset of substrate patterns is selected from a set of substrate patterns, and combined into a composite substrate map. The substrate patterns are weighted. The composite substrate map is compared to the raw substrate map, and a degree of correlation between the composite substrate map and the raw substrate map is determined. The steps are iteratively repeated until the degree of correlation is at least a desired degree, and the weighted subset of substrate patterns is output as the component patterns of the raw substrate map.

Modern integrated circuits are extremely complex devices that are fabricated using equally complex processes. As the term is used herein, "integrated circuit" includes devices such as those formed on monolithic semiconducting substrates, such as those formed of group IV materials like silicon or germanium, or group III–V compounds like gallium arsenide, or mixtures of such materials. The term includes all types of devices formed, such as memory and logic, and all designs of such devices, such as MOS and bipolar. The term also comprehends applications such as flat panel displays, solar cells, and charge coupled devices. Because of the complexity of integrated circuits and the processes by which they are formed, it can be extremely difficult to determine the reasons why some devices function properly and other devices function improperly, or fail altogether.
Integrated circuits are typically manufactured on thin silicon substrates, commonly referred to as wafers. The wafer is divided up onto smaller rectangular sections for each device, typically known as the die or device. The methods and other embodiments according to the present invention can be applied to processes that are performed on other substrates to make other devices or components, such as flat panel display manufacturing, which is performed on rectangular glass substrates. Thus, this disclosure generally refers to substrates, substrate profiles, and substrate contact points, even though silicon wafer processing may be the most common application for the embodiments of the invention. It is appreciated that the same or similar methods are just as applicable to the analysis of a wide variety of substrates. Wafer test yield of die, or simply yield, is predominantly used as an example herein of an important dependent variable of interest. However, it is appreciated that any other dependent variable that is spatially associated with the substrate can also be used.
One method to assist in failure analysis is mapping important variables, such as yield, according to the position at which the variable is read on the substrate. Wafer mapping, for example, has traditionally been done by plotting the pass/fail data (i.e. yield) or other variable of interest versus the die position on the wafer. These wafer maps can be enhanced by combining values from many wafers in what is known as a stacked map. Recently there have been improvements in substrate mapping that can combine data from many wafers and many devices into what is known as a high-resolution wafer profile. Such substrate profiles are created from databases of information that is associated with substrates.
A graphical representation is developed from the information, which representation depicts the yield or other variable read from the devices on the substrate, according to their position on the substrate. Substrate profiles such as these look somewhat like a topographical map, where the various contours of the profile delineate areas of different average (or otherwise computed) yield or other measured variable of interest for the devices bounded by those contours on the substrates. Another common data display approach is to use a different color to represent die or contours of the wafer having similar values. The methods described herein can be used with standard wafer maps, stacked wafer maps, or substrate profiles.
Yields on substrates, such as for integrated circuits on wafers, frequently follow patterns across the substrate. Analysis of the pattern of yield or other measured parameters on the substrates is useful in determining the source of process variations or yield loss. An observed pattern can sometimes be matched against the physical characteristics of a process in the integrated circuit fabrication process, or against previously known patterns that the processes can produce. It is appreciated that in many instances herein, the term "map" includes both maps and profiles as described above. It is also appreciated that the term "yield" as used herein generally includes a variety of concepts in addition to pass/fail yield, such as reliability data, measured electrical properties, customer return data, and final test data, to name a few.
One problem that often limits the usefulness of substrate pattern analysis is that the actual pattern being observed is in reality a combination of the patterns created by many processes during the processing of the substrates. A clear pattern is usually only observed if one pattern source has a much stronger effect than any of the other pattern sources that exist in the data sample set. Otherwise, clear patterns tend to cancel each other out. For example, the pattern of yield loss towards the edges of the substrate caused by one operation may be hidden by a pattern for yield loss towards the center of the substrate that is caused by another operation, making the final pattern appear to be uniformly low, rather than the combination of two separate problems.
One method that is typically used to attempt to improve the identification of substrate patterns is to use the data from only selected substrates, in an effort to eliminate multiple or conflicting patterns, and to then hope that any patterns that do exist will thereby stand out. Another method is to display a substrate map for different measurements, such as leakage values or driver currents instead of yield averages, in order to improve the definition of the yield patterns for specific problems.
However, the problems with the typical approaches given above are that none of them addresses the fundamental issue that there are typically multiple and conflicting patterns existing within the data that is gathered from any significant number of substrates. This situation arises, for example, from the more than three hundred process steps that are performed on a semiconductor wafer during the typical fabrication cycle of an integrated circuit. Further, a measurable parameter that provides a better pattern signal than average yield may not be available, or may not be tested on all devices.
What is needed, therefore, is a system for constructing, using, or interpreting substrate maps that reduces some of the problems mentioned above.

Pattern component analysis and manipulation


Disclosed is a substrate processing method that dissolves and deforms a photoresist film having a first pattern formed on a substrate to reshape the resist film into a second pattern During the reflow process, an atmosphere of a thinner vapor-containing gas is established in a processing chamber. A substrate is placed on a temperature adjusting plate. The target temperature of the temperature adjusting plate is set and controlled by a control unit, and the temperature of the temperature adjusting plate is controlled by a temperature regulator based on the target temperature set by the control unit The control unit set and controls the target temperature so that it meets the following requirement: the atmospheric temperature≦the target temperature≦(the atmospheric temperature+2° C.). Due to the above, the reflowing of the resist can be performed stably, while achieving a satisfactory reflow rate although it is somewhat low.

In amorphous silicon TFT (thin film transistor) forming processes included in an LCD (liquid crystal display) fabrication, an etching process must be carried out for plural times. Thus, with the conventional art, a photolithography process including an exposing process and a developing process is carried out for plural times corresponding to the number of the etching processes. Different coating-and-developing apparatuses and exposure apparatuses are required for forming different patterns for respective etching processes in a TFT forming process, and the total system cost is thus expensive.
As one solution of the above problem, a reflow process, which dissolves and deforms a resist film of a first pattern once used as an etch mask to reshape the same into a new, second pattern, attracts attention in these days. With the use of the reflow process, it is not necessary for forming the second resist pattern to perform processes employing a coating-and-developing apparatus and an exposure apparatus. The reflow process not only reduces the total system cost but also improves the production efficiency.
A series of processes for formation of an amorphous silicon TFT including a reflow process will be described with reference to FIG. 10. As shown in FIG. 6(a), on a gate electrode 201 formed on a glass substrate 200, an insulating layer 202, an Si-layer 203 composed of an a-Si layer (i.e., non-doped amorphous Si layer) 203a and an n+a-Si layer (i.e., phosphor-doped amorphous Si layer) 203b, and a metal layer 205 for forming drain and source electrodes are stacked in that order.
Then, in order to etch the metal layer 205, by a photolithography process, a resist film 206 is formed on the metal layer 205 and a first pattern is formed in the resist film 206 through an exposing step and a developing step. A half exposing technique is used in the exposing step so as to obtain the resist film 206 having thickness distribution (i.e., the resist film 206 has thick portions and thin portions.). The half exposing technique employs a half-tone mask having light-transmittance distribution. The half exposing technique is described in U.S.2004126713A1 (JP2005-108904A), for example. The resist film 206 having the first pattern is used as an etch mask for etching the metal layer 205, and portions of the metal layer 205 which are not covered with the mask are etched and removed, as shown in FIG. 6(b).
Altered layer 207 is formed in the surface region the resist film 206 due to application of a wet etching liquid used for etching the metal layer 205. As a pre-treatment of a reflow process, the altered layer 207 is removed by supplying thereto an alkaline solution, as shown in FIG. 6(c).
Then, as shown in FIG. 6(d), portions of the resist film 206 which are not necessary for a second etching process (i.e., the thin portions of the resist film 206) are removed by re-developing process, while portions of the resist film 206 near targets Tg (i.e., the thick portions of the resist film 206) remain.
Then, the remaining resist film 206 as shown in FIG. 6(d) is exposed to a solvent vapor-containing atmosphere. Thereby, the resist film 206 dissolves and diffuses (i.e., reflow) to move onto the targets Tg to cover the same. Thus, the resist film 206 is reshaped into a second pattern, in other words, a second resist pattern is formed. Then, the Si layer 203 is etched by using the metal layer 205 and the resist film 206 as masks, as shown in FIG. 7(a); and the resist film 206 is removed, as shown in FIG. 7(b). Thereafter, the n+a-Si layer 203 in channel regions is etched so that a TFT structure is formed, as shown in FIG. 7(c).
In the foregoing reflow process, the substrate is placed on the temperature adjusting plate whose temperature is set to a predetermined constant value, and the substrate whose temperature is adjusted by the temperature adjusting plate is exposed to a solvent atmosphere such as a thinner gas atmosphere that dissolves the photoresist and reshapes it into a new pattern.
The foregoing reflow process, however, has a problem that it is difficult to appropriately reflow the resist film. That is, depending on the process conditions of the reflow process, the resist film, in some cases, reflows excessively to spread wider than desired so that the targets to be masked are not sufficiently covered by the resist film, or the resist film, in some cases, reflows slowly so that sufficient process efficiency can not be achieved.

Substrate processing system and substrate processing method


An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for generating a name for a system of devices. An identifier identifies each component in the system. Once each component is identified, information such as the World Wide Name (WWN) of each component is stored in a database. Additional information such as the IP address of each component may also be stored within the database. A comparator then compares a name such as the WWN of each component and selects the name of a selected component based on specified parameters provided by a user. The selected name is modified and then assigned as an identifier of the entire system of devices. The system of devices is thus assigned a unique identifier that remains the same each time those components form a system of devices.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to generating unique identifiers and more particularly relates to generating unique names for systems of devices, such as storage area networks, that do not automatically generate a name for the system of devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
Modern computer systems have driven a demand for enormous amounts of data storage. Data traditionally has been stored in one or more mass data storage devices, such as rotating magnetic disk drives or tape drives, attached to a single computer system. As computer systems have become larger, faster, and more reliable, there has been a corresponding increase in the need for storage capacity, speed, and reliability of the storage devices. Increases in the data storage capacity and reliability of storage devices have been dramatic in recent years. But despite the improvements to the devices themselves, there are certain limitations to what can be accomplished. Additional configurations of storage devices have increasingly been offered in recent years to meet demand for larger capacity, faster, more reliable, and more accessible data storage.
One example of alternative configurations is the rapidly increasing popularity of "RAID" systems, i.e., redundant arrays of independent disks. A RAID system stores data on multiple storage devices in a redundant fashion, such that the data can be recovered in the event of failure of any one of the storage devices in the redundant array. RAID systems are usually constructed with rotating magnetic hard disk drive storage devices, but may be constructed with other types of storage devices, such as optical disk drives, magnetic tape drives, floppy disk drives, etc.
Another example of a storage alternative is the concept of a storage subsystem. A storage subsystem implies a greater degree of independence from a host computer system than is typically found in an isolated storage device. For example, the subsystem may be packaged in a separate cabinet, with its own power supply, control software, diagnostics, etc. The subsystem may have a single storage device, but more typically contains multiple storage devices. The notion of a storage subsystem and a RAID system are not necessarily mutually exclusive; in fact, many RAID systems are constructed as semi-independent storage subsystems, which communicate with a host through a communication link having a defined protocol. It is possible in such subsystems that the host is not even aware of the existence of multiple data storage units or data redundancy in the storage subsystem. To the host, the subsystem may appear to be a single very large storage device.
Another example of a storage alternative is a Storage Area Network (SAN). SANs involve moving network storage from its traditional location—inside, or directly connected to, file servers—to a separate network of its own. Disk, tape, and optical storage can then be attached directly to this network, which is based on a fabric of fibre, switches and hubs that connects storage devices to a heterogeneous set of servers on a many-to-many basis.
A SAN is a dedicated storage network that carries I/O traffic only between servers and storage devices. A SAN can also enable direct storage-to-storage interconnectivity, and lends itself to the exploitation of new breeds of clustering technology and to getting the best out of network attached storage devices that can intelligently provide disk and tape capabilities to one or more servers. SANs provide continuous client availability to storage devices if a server in the loop fails, and some backup solutions are capable of replicating data and application files in real time to secondary servers on the SAN.
In order to manage SANs, each SAN must be associated with a unique identifier. This unique identifier allows a user to identify particular SANs within a local area network. Typically, the fabric of switches that comprise the SAN calculates the unique identifier internally. However, a problem arises when a fabric comprises switches that do not internally calculate a unique identifier. Without a unique identifier, a user is unable to properly identify and manage a particular SAN. Other systems of communication devices may experience similar difficulties.
From the foregoing discussion, it should be apparent that a need exists for an apparatus, system, and method that generate a unique name for SANs and other systems of communicating devices that do not automatically generate it. Beneficially, such an apparatus, system, and method would provide a unique identifier for a system based on the fabric of switches that comprise the system.

Apparatus, system, and method for generating a name for a system of devices


A vibratory gyro which is provided with a ring-shaped vibrating body, leg portions flexibly supporting the ring-shaped vibrating body, a plurality of electrodes formed by having a piezoelectric film sandwiched between an upper-layer metallic film and a lower-layer metallic film in the thickness direction, and a fixed potential electrode. The plurality of electrodes include a bank of driving electrodes for exciting primary vibration, detection electrodes for detecting secondary vibration, and suppression electrodes for suppressing the secondary vibration on the basis of a voltage signal from the detection electrodes. The driving electrodes, the detection electrodes and the suppression electrodes are disposed in the region from an outer peripheral edge of the ring-shaped vibrating body to a vicinity of the outer peripheral edge and/or a region from an inner peripheral edge thereof to a vicinity of the inner peripheral edge.

In recent years, there have been intensely developed vibrating gyroscopes including a piezoelectric material, in other words, gyroscopes utilizing vibrations, or angular velocity sensors. Conventionally developed is a gyroscope that includes a vibrating body itself made of a piezoelectric material, as disclosed in Patent Document 1. There is also a gyroscope that includes a piezoelectric film formed on a vibrating body. For example, Patent Document 2 discloses a technique for, by using a PZT film as a piezoelectric material, exciting a primary vibration of a vibrating body as well as for detecting partial distortion of a gyroscope, which is caused by a coriolis force generated to the vibrating body when an angular velocity is applied to the vibrating body.
Reduction in size of a gyroscope itself is also an important issue because a wide variety of devices including gyroscopes have been quickly reduced in size. In order to realize reduction in size of a gyroscope, significant improvement is required to accuracy in processing each member of the gyroscope. Strongly desired in the industry should be not only simple reduction in size but also further improvement in performance of a gyroscope, namely, in accuracy of detecting an angular velocity. However, the configuration of the gyroscope disclosed in Patent Document 2 fails to satisfy the demands over the last few years for reduction in size and improvement in performance.

Vibrating gyroscope including piezoelectric film sandwiched between metallic film layers


Provided herein are modified NK-92® cells comprising one or more nucleic acids encoding i) a homing receptor, ii) Antigen Binding Protein (ABP) or Chimeric Antigen Recpetor (CAR) that specifically binds to a target antigen, iii) an Fc Receptor such as CD16 or CD16-158V, and/or iv) a cytokine, wherein the nucleic acid sequence is operably linked to a promoter. Further provided herein are modified NK-92® cells comprising one or more nucleic acids encoding i) IL-12 and/or TGF-beta trap, ii) an Antigen Binding Protein (ABP) or Chimeric Antigen Recpetor (CAR) that specifically binds to a target antigen, iii) an Fc Receptor such as CD16 or CD16-158V, and/or iv) a cytokine, wherein the nucleic acid sequence is operably linked to a promoter. Also provided are compositions and kits comprising the modified NK-92® cells, as well as methods of treating cancer using the modified cells.

The background description includes information that may be useful in understanding the present invention. It is not an admission that any of the information provided herein is prior art or relevant to the presently claimed invention, or that any publication specifically or implicitly referenced is prior art.
All publications and patent applications herein are incorporated by reference to the same extent as if each individual publication or patent application were specifically and individually indicated to be incorporated by reference. Where a definition or use of a term in an incorporated reference is inconsistent or contrary to the definition of that term provided herein, the definition of that term provided herein applies and the definition of that term in the reference does not apply.
Cancer immunotherapies based on adoptively transferred tumor-specific cytotoxic lymphocytes hold promise for the treatment of patients with tumor malignancies. Despite this early success in certain cancers, the treatment of tumors remains a challenge, mostly due to the immunosuppressive nature of the tumor microenvironment. See Swarts et al. "Tumor Microenvironment Complexity: Emerging Roles in Cancer Therapy," Cancer Res, vol., 72, pages 2473-2480, 2012. In addition to modified T-cells, immunotherapies based on NK cells are being explored. Natural killer (NK) cells are cytotoxic lymphocytes that constitute a major component of the innate immune system. Natural killer (NK) cells, generally representing about 10-15% of circulating lymphocytes, bind and kill targeted cells, including virus-infected cells and many malignant cells, non-specifically with regard to antigen and without prior immune sensitization. Herberman et al., Science 214:24 (1981). NK-92® is a cytolytic cancer cell line which was discovered in the blood of a subject suffering from a non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and then immortalized ex vivo. NK-92® cells are derived from NK cells, but lack the major inhibitory receptors that are displayed by normal NK cells, while retaining the majority of the activating receptors. NK-92® cells do not, however, attack normal cells nor do they elicit an unacceptable immune rejection response in humans.
A common driver of lymph node metastasis is the hypoxia-driven upregulation of CCR7, a chemokine receptor primarily found in naïve T-cells and dendritic cells. Upregulation of the CCR7 receptor on blood NK cells has previously been demonstrated to improve the homing of NK cells to lymph nodes, allowing them to follow the same path to the lymph node compartments that are common pathways of metastatic spread, but has not yet been demonstrated in a clinically relevant cell line.
Therefore, there is still a need to imprive NK cells and NK cell based therapies, especially in the context of NK cell homing to and modulation of a tumor microenvironment.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Quadricistronic system comprising a homing receptor and chimeric antigen receptor for stable genetic modification of cellular immunotherapies


A technique is disclosed that enables latency-tolerant and latency-intolerant applications to intelligently share a shared-communications channel in a manner that seeks to satisfy the needs of all of the applications. In particular, the illustrative embodiment enables each application to be associated with a different class of service, wherein each class of service is associated with one or more quality-of-service parameters (e.g., minimum throughput, maximum latency, etc.). The illustrative embodiment then effectively apportions access to the shared-communications channel by regulating different degrees of bursting (i.e., the transmission of multiple frames at a single transmission opportunity) based on the class of service associated with the application.

FIG. 1 depicts a schematic diagram of telecommunications system 100 in the prior art. Telecommunications system 100 transmits signals between communication stations 101-1 through 101-P, wherein P is a positive integer, over shared-communications channel 102. Because stations 101-1 through 101-P share shared-communications channel 102, they have to follow rules (or "protocols") that govern, among other things, when and for how long they can each use the channel.
Many types of applications (e.g., e-mail, ftp, http, voice, video, etc.) send data across a local area network. The data for some of these applications—e-mail and web browsing for example—can be send with a lesser degree of urgency and, therefore, are called "latency-tolerant." In contrast, the data for some other applications—particularly those that comprise a real-time component like video and audio—must traverse the network with a greater degree of urgency. These applications are called "latency-intolerant."
IEEE 802.11 local area networks were initially designed for latency-tolerant applications and typically each of those applications share access to the shared-communications channel on an equal basis. This is usually acceptable for latency-tolerant applications. In contrast, this is often unacceptable for latency-intolerant applications because giving equal access to latency-tolerant and latency-intolerant applications might prevent the latency-intolerant application from getting its data in a timely manner.
If the latency-intolerant applications is deemed to be important, then a mechanism must be introduced into the network so that the latency-intolerant applications are given the amount of resources they need in a timely manner. Therefore, the need exists for a technique for enabling latency-tolerant and latency-intolerant applications to intelligently share access to the shared-communication channel.

Shared-communications channel utilization for applications having different class of service requirements


Systems and methods for loss protection of audio streams that may obtain an audio source such as from a microphone device, determine a sampling rate for encoding the audio source, and sampling the audio source to identify a plurality of samples (e.g., according to the sampling rate). A first audio output stream may be generated by encoding the plurality of samples. A second audio output stream may be generated by compressing each sample of the plurality of samples to collectively generate a second audio output stream. The first and second audio output streams may be transmitted (e.g., over a network subject to loss) to a recipient computer system that is able to utilize portions of the second audio output stream in place of lost portions first audio output stream.

In various contexts, managing the integrity of transmitted audio streams is important. Organizations, for example, often comprise networks of computing devices that must communicate to other devices and clients. Organizations may communicate through voice, video, or both. The communications often use networks that connect with other networks, and often span multiple geographic regions. As the size and complexities of such networks grow, managing the integrity of transmitted audio between devices can be increasingly difficult.
Poorly managed audio streams can result in accidental understandings, miscommunication, and misperceptions of the intended purpose of the audio. This may result in significant delays and unnecessary costs that can significantly hinder the operations of an organization. Managing the integrity of audio streams and communications along various networks and entities is generally complicated, complex, and requires significant amounts of resources to ensure proper transmission.

Techniques for loss mitigation of audio streams


A cam bolt assembly for using in a vehicle's suspension system to adjust the vehicle's wheel alignment having a threaded fastener defining a pair of longitudinal channels, a first cam plate is coupled to the threaded bolt, a second cam plate defining an aperture is mated to the pair of longitudinal channels. At least one of the cam plates has an arcuate slot configured to mate with a component of the suspension system.

It has been known that plates can be coupled to shafts utilizing a single notch cut into the bolt surface. Traditionally, the plate has a D-shaped hole with a cross-section which corresponds to the cross-section of the notch disposed in the bolt is placed over the bolt and held using a threaded fastener.
Often, the plates are subject to torsional loading, which imparts torsional loading to the bolt. Often, designs require that these bolts have a particular torsional strength to ensure that the flange does not become dislodged from the bolt when loaded. In order to maintain the relative position of the plate with respect to the bolt during the torsional loading, the interaction of the plate with the bolt must be such that plastic deformation of the interface does not occur. For this condition to occur, large portions of the bolt surface have been removed to allow for proper interlocking of the members.
The notched bolt, because of its reduced cross-sectional area, has significantly reduced strength. As such, to maintain load requirements, the diameter of the bolt is typically significantly increased to compensate for the weakness in the threaded portion of the fastener. This increases cost and weight of the assembly.


A system and method for signal transmission and reception by narrow band chaotic bi-phase shift keying includes a forward error correction encoder for receiving input data, a data packetizer in signal communication with the forward error correction encoder, a compression encoder in signal communication with the data packetizer, a radio frequency link in signal communication with the compression encoder, a compression decoder in signal communication with the radio frequency link, a data depacketizer in signal communication with the compression decoder, and a forward error correction decoder in signal communication with the data depacketizer for recovering the input data by controlling the orbits of chaos; where the method includes the steps of transmitting a signal indicative of chaotic bi-phase shift keyed data, propagating the transmitted signal within a narrow frequency band, and receiving the propagated signal substantially without degradation of the indicated data by controlling the orbits of chaos.

The present disclosure relates to signal transmission and reception, and more particularly relates to signal transmission and reception using a composite information and chaos signal that is modulated onto a carrier by bi-phase shift keying.
There have been a number of approaches to the design of communication systems based on chaos, such as those suggested by Kocarev (1992), Belsky and Dmitriev (1993), Cuomo (1993), Pecora and Carrol (1993), and Dmitriev and Starkov (1997). These prior approaches have been focused on analog spread-spectrum types of systems and, hence, were inherently broadband. Moreover, the prior approaches made no attempt to restrict the state-space orbits of chaotic systems through symbolic constraints. Such systems have lacked symbolic dynamic controls or channel bandwidth controls.
The following are some definitions provided to enhance understanding of the descriptions that follow:
In geometry, linearity refers to Euclidean objects such as lines, planes, (flat) three-dimensional space, and the like. These objects appear the same no matter how they are examined. A nonlinear object, such as a sphere, for example, looks different for different scales. When viewed closely, it looks like a plane; and from afar, it looks like a point. In algebra, linearity is defined in terms of functions that have the properties f(x+y)=f(x)+f(y) and f(ax)=a f(x). Nonlinearity is defined as the negation of linearity. This means that the result f(x+y) may be out of proportion to the inputs x and/or y. Thus, nonlinear systems do not follow superposition themes.
A dynamical system has an associated abstract phase space or state space with coordinates that describe the dynamical state at any instant; and a dynamical rule that specifies the immediate future trend of all state variables, given the present values of those state variables. Dynamical systems are "deterministic" if there is a unique consequent to every state; and "stochastic" or "random" if there is more than one consequent, typically chosen from some probability distribution. A dynamical system can be defined with respect to discrete or continuous time. The discrete case is defined by a map, z1=f(z0), which gives the state z1 resulting from the initial state z0 at the next discrete time value. The continuous case is defined by a "flow", z(t)=φ(t)(z0)k, which gives the state at time t given that the state was z0 at time 0. A smooth flow can be differentiated with respect to ("w.r.t.") time to give a differential equation, dz/dt=F(z). In this case, F(z) is called a vector field, which gives a vector pointing in the direction of the velocity at every point in a phase space.
A phase space or state space is the collection of possible states of a dynamical system. A state space can be finite (e.g., for the ideal coin toss, there are two states, heads and tails), countably infinite (e.g., where the state variables are integers), or uncountably infinite (e.g., where the state variables are real numbers). Implicit in the notion of state or phase space is that a particular state in phase space specifies the system completely. It is all one needs to know about the system to have complete knowledge of the immediate future.
Thus, the phase space of the planar pendulum is two-dimensional, consisting of the position or angle and velocity. Note that in a non-autonomous system where the map of the vector field depends explicitly on time (e.g., a model for plant growth that depends on solar flux), then, according to the definition of phase space, time must be included as a phase space coordinate since one must specify a specific time (e.g., 3 pm on Tuesday) to know the subsequent motion. Thus dz/dt=F (z,t) is a dynamical system on the phase space consisting of (z,t), with the addition of the new dynamic dt/dt=1. The path in phase space traced out by a solution of an initial value problem is called an orbit or trajectory of the dynamical system. If the state variables take real values in a continuum, the orbit of a continuous-time system is a curve; while the orbit of a discrete-time system is a sequence of points.
The notion of degrees of freedom as is used for Hamiltonian systems means one canonical conjugate pair: a configuration, q, and its conjugate momentum, p. Hamiltonian systems always have such pairs of variables and so the phase space is even-dimensional. In dissipative systems, the term phase space is often used differently to designate a single coordinate dimension of phase space.
A map is a function f on the phase space that gives the next state f(z) (i.e., the "image") of the system given its current state z. A function must have a single value for each state, but there may be several different states that give rise to the same image. Maps that allow every state of the phase space to be accessed onto and which have precisely one pre-image for each state (i.e., a one-to-one correspondence) are invertible. If, in addition, the map and its inverse are continuous with respect to the phase space coordinate z, then it is called a homeomorphism. Iteration of a map means repeatedly applying the consequents of the previous application. Thus producing the sequence:Zn=f(zn−1)=f(f(zn−2))= . . . =f(f( . . . f(f(zo)) . . . ))  (1)where this sequence is the orbit or trajectory of the dynamical system with initial condition zo.
Every differential equation gives rise to a map. The time 1 map advances the flow one unit of time. If the differential equation contains a term or terms periodic with time T, then the time T map in a system represents a Poincare section. This map is also called a stroboscopic map as it is effectively looking at the location in phase space with a stroboscope tuned to the period T. This is useful as it permits one to dispense with time as a phase space coordinate.
In autonomous systems (i.e., no time dependent terms in the equations), it may also be possible to define a Poincare section to reduce the phase space coordinates by one. Here, the Poincare section is defined not by a fixed time interval, but by successive times when an orbit crosses a fixed surface in the phase space. Maps arising out of stroboscopic sampling or Poincare sections of a flow are necessarily invertible because the flow has a unique solution through any point in phase space. Thus, the solution is unique both forward and backward in time.
An attractor is simply a state into which a system settles, which implies that dissipation is needed. Thus, in the long term, a dissipative dynamical system may settle into an attractor. An attractor can also be defined as the phase space that has a neighborhood in which every point stays nearby and approaches the attractor as time goes to infinity. The neighborhood of points that eventually approach the attractor is the "basin of attraction".
Chaos is defined as the effective unpredictable long term behavior arising in a deterministic dynamic system due to its sensitivity to initial conditions. It must be emphasized that a deterministic dynamical system is perfectly predictable given knowledge of its initial conditions, and is in practice always predictable in the short term. The key to long-term unpredictability is a property known as sensitivity to initial conditions. For a dynamical system to be chaotic, it must generally have a large set of initial conditions that are highly unstable. No matter how precisely one measures the initial conditions, a prediction of its subsequent motion eventually goes radically wrong.
Lyapunov exponents measure the rate at which nearby orbits converge or diverge. There are as many Lyapunov exponents as there are dimensions in the state space of the system, but the largest is usually the most important. Roughly speaking, the maximal Lyapunov exponent is the time constant λ in the expression for the distance between two nearby orbits. If λ is negative, the orbits converge in time and the dynamical system is insensitive to initial conditions. If λ is positive, then the distance between nearby orbits grows exponentially in time and the system becomes sensitive to initial conditions.
Lyapunov exponents can be computed in two ways. In one method, one chooses two nearby points and evolves them in time measuring growth rates of the distance between them. This method has the disadvantage that growth rate is not really a local effect as points separate. A better way to measure growth is to measure the growth rate of the tangent vectors to a given orbit. One defines
  λ  =            1      k            Σ                          ln                                      f          ′                                  (                      x                                      (              j              )                                )                          for j=0 to k−1. If λ is >0, it gives the average rate of divergence, or, if λ<0, it shows convergence.
The Minimum Phase Space dimension for Chaos depends on the type of system considered. A flow or a system of differential equations is considered first. In this case, the Poincare-Bendixson theorem indicates that there is no chaos in one or two-dimensional phase space. Chaos is possible only in three-dimensional flows. If the flow is non-autonomous (i.e., dependent on time), then time becomes a phase space co-ordinate. Therefore, a system with two physical variables plus a time variable becomes three-dimensional and chaos is possible.
For maps, it is possible to have chaos in one dimension only if the map is not invertible. A prominent example would be a logistic map:x′=f(x)=rx(1−x)  (2)This equation is provably chaotic for r=4 and many other values. Note that for every point f(x)<½, the function has two pre-images and hence is not invertible. This concept is important as this method may be used to characterize various topologies of circuits used in realizing a system.
Higher order modulation systems such as M-ary phase shift keying ("PSK") and M-ary quadrature amplitude modulation ("QAM") require high levels of channel linearity in order to be successfully deployed. M-ary PSK and QAM systems are expensive to deploy due to the complexity of the system needed to make the architecture compliant with Federal Communications Commission ("FCC") spectral templates. Systems with M-ary QAM or PSK architectures have a "set-top" box to decode the high-speed sub-carrier signals because normal receivers use FM demodulators for recovering the baseband information. In addition, M-ary systems suffer from power loss associated with higher levels of bandwidth compression brought about by the modulation scheme that employ multiple bits per symbol. The M-ary systems become too lossy for practical implementation beyond an upper limit.

Narrow band chaotic bi-phase shift keying


Systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable media can identify a set of media content items associated with a first user of a social networking system. It can be determined that a second user of the social networking system is attempting to access at least a portion of the set of media content items associated with the first user. A first subset of media content items can be dynamically selected out of the set of media content items. In some cases, each media content item in the first subset can satisfy specified selection criteria. The second user can be provided with access to a representation of the first subset of media content items. In some instances, the representation of the first subset can be provided in a media access interface associated with the first user.

Today, people often utilize computing devices (or systems) for a wide variety of purposes. Users can use their computing devices to, for example, interact with one another, access content, share content, and create content. In some cases, a user of a social networking system (or service) can utilize his or her computing device to create and post media content items, such as images, videos, audio, and text. Under conventional approaches, access to the media content items can be provided via a profile page of the user. For example, image content items can be presented in a particular section of the profile page of the user. The user's connections or friends within the social networking system can access, view, or interact with the user's posted image content items or other media content items, as long as the user's privacy settings allow so.
Under conventional approaches, media content items associated with the user are generally provided in an uninteresting or inefficient manner. For example, conventional approaches generally present and organize image content items posted by or tagged with the user in a predictable or static manner. As such, conventional approaches can create challenges for or reduce the overall user experience associated with using the social networking system.

Systems and methods for providing dynamically selected media content items


A climate control device (1) with a heater (5), a ventilation device (7), and with an operating device (3). The operating device includes an operating element (9) that can be switched to at least three different operating states. The operating element (9) has a first and a second electrical resistance device (11, 11″, 13, 13″), the first of which is associated with the heater (5) and the second of which is associated with the ventilation device. The electrical resistance of the two resistance devices (11, 11′, 13, 13′) can be changed simultaneously by actuating the operating element (9).

Motor vehicle seats in which ha seat heater can be adjusted to different temperature levels using a potentiometer are known. However, a heater of this nature does not provide optimum comfort.
In addition, ventilated and heated vehicle seats are known that are fully computer controlled. Such systems are expensive.
An operating device for a climate-controlled seat is described in DE 199 53 385. This device provides for an adjusting wheel with various detent positions and associated operating states. However, there is no technical description of how this association is achieved.

Air-conditioner comprising an operating device


An aircraft propulsion system has a propulsive rotor assembly rotatable about an axis of rotation and comprising a plurality of blades and a rotationally fixed vane assembly located adjacent to the propulsive rotor assembly and arranged circumferentially around the axis of rotation. As airflow enters the propulsive rotor assembly, a portion of the airflow passes over the vane assembly which is configured to direct the airflow away from the rotor blades so as to reduce the relative velocity of the redirected airflow over the rotor blades. This results in a reduced tendency of the airflow through the propulsive rotor assembly to become choked.

It is known that increasing the bypass ratio of a conventional turbofan engine can reduce its fuel consumption and consequent level of CO2 emissions. This characteristic has been exploited by engine manufacturers by progressively increasing the bypass ratios of modern turbofan engines.
However, there is a limit to how much the bypass ratio can be increased as eventually the weight and drag penalties associated with the size of the required engine nacelle outweigh the reduction in fuel consumption.
An alternative to the high bypass turbofan engine is the open rotor or unducted fan engine where the rotor or fan is not contained within the nacelle. This enables the fan or propeller to be larger in diameter which increases the bypass ratio while at the same time removing the need for a heavy drag-inducing nacelle.
This in turn allows the open rotor engine to burn significantly less fuel (up to 30% in some instances) and offer associated reductions in emissions when compared to a conventional turbofan engine.
An open rotor engine, although similar to a turboprop engine, is designed to operate efficiently at higher cruise velocities than turboprop engines. The primary difference between turboprop and open rotor engines is that the propeller blades on an open rotor engine have a higher solidity (generally by virtue of the greater number of propeller blades) than those of a turboprop engine. In addition, in contrast to a turboprop engine, an open rotor engine generates a portion of its total thrust from the engine's core exhaust.
A problem with open rotor engines is that they generate higher noise levels than conventional turbofan engines, in which noise from the fan is muffled by the nacelle.
Noise is of particular concern in a preferred open rotor arrangement which comprises two contra-rotating rotor assemblies. The wakes produced by the first (upstream) rotor are 'chopped' through by the rear (downstream) rotor. The intensity of the noise emitted by the wake interaction between the front rotor and the rear rotor is proportional to the strength of the wakes produced by the front rotor blades. The strength of the wakes produced by the blades of the front rotor can be reduced by decreasing the loading, or lift, generated by each individual blade. This can be accomplished without compromising the thrust produced by the engine by increasing the number of front rotor blades, i.e. each rotor blade is required to produce less lift in order to produce the same total engine thrust.
In an open rotor engine arrangement the front rotor is subjected to axial Mach numbers equivalent to the forward flight speed of the aircraft. The high inlet velocity combined with the rotational speed of the rotor can result in the air entering the passage between two adjacent rotor blades having an even higher relative Mach number (approximately Mach 0.8). This may result in the flow regime through the open rotor suffering from choking.
In a conventional turbo-fan engine the nacelle and intake to the fan diffuses the flow such that the inlet flow Mach number is lower than the flight speed of the aircraft when in a cruise condition but is higher than the flight speed of the aircraft at take-off or landing. Consequently the problem of choking of fan blades generally does not occur in such engines.
The term choke margin is often used to describe the range of flow conditions relative to the choke point of the rotor. This can be defined as follows:
                              Choke                                                              Margin                =                  (                                                    Choke                                                                                Flow                            -                              Operating                                                                                Point                                                                                Flow                                                    Choke                                                                                Flow                                )                                    Eqn                                                            (          1          )
An additional constraint on the rotor blades is that they must have a minimum thickness in order to provide the required structural strength to satisfy the bird strike requirement. This required minimum thickness puts an upper limit on the size of the area (throat area) between two adjacent blades.
The high relative inlet Mach numbers and the limitation in throat area driven by the required minimum blade thickness can result in the airflow through the rotor becoming choked. Choking is particularly prevalent over the inboard portion of the blade since in this region the throat area is smallest and the blade is the thickest. Consequently, in order to avoid the flow becoming choked, it is often necessary to limit the number of blades on the rotor. However, in order to reduce the rotor noise it is desirable to increase the number of blades on the rotor.

Aircraft propulsion system and a method of controlling the same