Phosphorothioate oligodeoxyribonucleotide analogs can be used to prevent replication of foreign nucleic acids in the presence of normal living cells, as well as to inhibit the proliferation of neoplastic cells.

Oligodeoxynucleotides, which are complementary to certain gene messages or viral sequences, are referred to as "anti-sense" compounds. These compounds have also been reported to have inhibitory effects against Rous sarcoma virus and human T-cell lymphotropic virus type III (HTLV-III), now called Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). However, the susceptibility of the phosphodiester linkage in normal oligodeoxynucleotides to degradation by nucleases would be expected to reduce their potency and in vivo persistence as anti-viral agents.
Methylphosphonate-oligodeoxynucleotide analogs are resistant to nucleases, and because they are uncharged have increased hydrophobicity, which reportedly confers increased cell membrane permeability upon these compounds. The methylphosphonate-oligodeoxynucleotides have been found to exhibit antiviral activity, but these compounds may require high concentrations, typically 100-300 micromoles, in order to elicit strong antiviral effects.
A number of investigators have studied the inhibitory properties of both normal oligodeoxynucleotides and analogs of oligodeoxynucleotides. T'so and coworkers evaluated ethyl phosphotriester and methylphosphonate analogs of oligodeoxynucleotides as nonionic compounds that penetrate cells, and are relatively resistant to degradation by nucleases (cf. U.S. Pat. No. 4,469,863). The ethyl compounds were found, however, to have the disadvantage of undergoing degradative de-ethylation in cells. The methylphosphonates were found to be more stable and to have antiviral activity.
The methylphosphonate analogs as described above have been said to inhibit expression of some genes. However, these compounds have a number of serious disadvantages:
(1) Such compounds are very sensitive to base-catalyzed hydrolysis, making them relatively difficult to synthesize on a routine basis, as compared to poly-anionic oligodeoxynucleotides; PA1 (2) The compounds have relatively low solubility in aqueous media, thus restricting their potential biological/chemotherapeutical usage, as compared to poly-anionic oligodeoxynucleotides; PA1 (3) Relatively high concentrations of these compounds appear to be required to elicit antiviral activity; and PA1 (4) There is poor hybridization because of the steric effect of the methyl group.
These factors taken together make chemotherapy impractical in humans with these compounds.
Early work by Zamecnik and co-workers used normal unmodified oligodeoxynucleotides, as well as 3'-end-blocked (2',3'-dideoxyribosyl) analogs of oligodeoxynucleotides, to inhibit the transforming ability, replication and translation of Rous sarcoma virus in vitro. This approach has been extended by both Zamecnik et al. in PNAS, U.S.A., 83:4143-4146 (1986), who studied the inhibition of HIV virus in cultured human cells, and Wickstrom et al., in J. Biochem, Biophys. Methods, 13:97-102 (1986), who investigated the inhibition of the translation of mRNA from vesicular stomatitus virus.
Compared to the aforementioned methylphosphonate analogs, the unmodified, or "O", oligodeoxynucleotides offer the advantages of cost-effectiveness and synthetic accessibility, and moreover appear to have the added advantage of lower effective dosages. However, these unmodified oligodeoxynucleotides are susceptible to degradation by nucleases, even with the inclusion of a 3'-end-blocking residue. Consequently, the use of these compounds in vitro is significantly restricted, and it is highly unlikely that they can be successful in vivo.
The finding that human T-cell lymphotropic virus type III (HTLV-III), hereinafter referred to as Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), is the causative agent of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), prompted considerable interest in the development of chemotherapeutic approaches to the treatment of AIDS. A variety of compounds have been reported to have in vitro activity against HIV, although none of these compounds is known to inhibit the expression of the integrated viral genome.
The phosphorothioate oligodeoxynucleotides of several sequences, including sense, anti-sense, nonsense, and homo-oligomers, have been found to inhibit HIV, so that the mechanism of inhibition was unclear. Subsequent work has indicated that the inhibition by homo-oligomers, not complementary to any known sequence in the HIV genome, results from interaction and interference with the function of reverse transcriptase of HIV at low concentrations, i.e. less than 10 micromoles. The mechanism initially expected for complementary base sequence inhibition, known as "translation arrest" of the corresponding mRNA, is apparently not operative in the retrovirus until much higher concentrations of the phosphorothioate compounds are reached, i.e., greater than 25 micromoles. This explains the lack of sequence specificity observed for this inhibitory process.
Attempts have previously been made to inhibit proliferation of normal lymphocytes and HL60 cells using a normal oligodeoxynucleotide (ODN) sequence complementary to a region near the initiation codon of the c-myc gene. Although these results were encouraging, they demonstrated that normal anti-sense c-myc ODNs, even at concentrations as high as 100 micromoles, are not suitable for prolonged inhibition of c-myc protein expression in HL60 cells, even though these normal oligodeoxynucleotides were capable of preventing normal lymphocyte proliferation and c-myc protein expression. It would appear that these insufficiencies of the normal oligodeoxynucleotides, lack of prolonged inhibitory effect and high concentrations required even for short-term effectiveness, were due to enzymatic hydrolysis during the course of the experiment.
Heikkila et al., in Nature, 328, Jul. 30 1987, pp. 445-449, disclose that a c-myc oligodexoynucleotide inhibits entry into the S phase in lymphocyte mitogenesis. Small antisense oligomers were added to bulk cell cultures. A pentadecadeoxyribonucleotide complementary to the initiation codon and four downstream codons of human c-myc RNA inhibits mitogen-induced c-myc protein expression in human T-lymphocytes and prevents S phase entry.

Inhibitors for replication of retroviruses and for the expression of oncogene products

The United States of America as represented by the Department of Health and Human Services


A milling jar has a jar body and a jar neck. The jar body has an internal surface and an external surface. Ridges with gently sloping slides, called “lifters,” are formed by indenting the surface of the jar wall so that the internal surface projects toward the center of the jar. Because the depressions (on the external surface) and the lifters (on the internal surface) are segmented, portions of the circumference of the jar remain cylindrical. The jar neck has a lid that secures the materials inside the jar when the lid is fastened.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to milling jars. More specifically, the present invention relates to a milling jar with integrated lifters.
2. Description of the Related Art
Jar mills are commonly employed for mixing, sifting, grinding, and/or polishing raw materials. A mechanical jar mill consists of at least one pair of parallel rollers horizontally mounted to a frame. The rollers are operated by motors, which cause the rollers to rotate in the same direction at variable speeds. A milling jar is placed on top of the rotating rollers, which rotate the milling jar. Generally, a suspension consisting of particulate materials in a liquid is placed inside the milling jar.
When the milling jar is rotated at the correct speed, the force inside the milling jar keeps the particulate materials against the jar wall as it rotates, and gravity will pull the particulate materials from the wall and cause the particulate materials to fall before the jar has spun an entire rotation. Abrasion or friction between the particulate materials causes the desired mixing, sifting, grinding, and/or polishing.
If the milling jar is rotated too quickly, the force keeping the particulate materials against the jar wall will be stronger than gravity, thereby causing the particulate materials to remain against the jar wall for an entire rotation. As a result, there will be no friction between the particulate materials. This is known in the art as "centrifuging." If the jar is rotated too slowly, the force will not be strong enough to keep the particulate materials against the jar wall, and gravity will cause them to remain at the bottom of the jar. Again, the absence of friction will prevent the particulate materials from being mixed, sifted, polished, and/or ground.
To prevent problems associated with rotation speed, lifter bars are often placed inside the milling jars at 90 degree angles to the jar walls. Some of the particulate materials collect on the bars and are lifted upwards as the milling jar rotates between 0 and 180 degrees, and then fall from the bars due to gravity when the milling jar rotates between 180 and 360 degrees. Additionally, baffles are sometimes placed inside milling jars to help direct the flow of the materials. However, the placement of lifter bars and baffles on the interior of the milling jars is cumbersome. Removing particulate materials from the jar after the milling process is complete is also difficult. Moreover, use of these devices does not promote constant movement of the particulate materials inside the milling jars because some of the particulate materials get caught on the sharp edges of the lifting bars or baffles.
Therefore, there is a need for a milling jar having axial lifters with smooth surfaces that are integrated into the jar walls during the casting process.


A power metal oxide semiconductor transistor layout is disclosed. The power metal oxide semiconductor transistor layout uses network of conductive lead line as a connection or a network connection to connect source and drain regions thereby achieves advantages of a high uniformity of current, low Rds_on, much less power loss, an actual line density two times larger than that of conventional layouts and a strengthened resistance to electron migration.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a power metal oxide semiconductor transistor layout, and more particularly to a power metal oxide semiconductor transistor layout with a lower output resistance and a high current limit.
2. Description of the Related Art
Metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) transistors with very large line width are widely used as power switch of power management application. However, the long source and drain connection results in some drawbacks such as a severe voltage drop at metal connection. Moreover, the cell pitch of power device must be as small as possible so as to increase packing density. Thus, the line width of source and drain metal connection is limited. The length of line of source and drain connection is also limited by electron migration especially for limited line width. So, it is a dilemma to achieve a power MOS transistor with high current and high packing density layout.
Referring to FIG. 1, a conventional MOSFET current driver 14 is laid out to have a gate with a vertical serpentine pattern. The serpentine pattern is laid out to have a plurality of long strips 21 parallel to each other along the length of the layout of the current driver. Also, the serpentine pattern has a plurality of short strips 15 which connect the long strips to each other in such a manner to generate a long continuous gate. The serpentine pattern of the conventional layout is called vertical since the long strips 21 are laid out along the length of the layout of the current driver. The drain area 16 and source area 18 are located between the long strips 21 of the gate 20 in an interlace form. The drain metal 17 has a plurality of fingers 22 and the source metal 19 has a plurality of fingers 24. The drain fingers 22 and the source fingers 24 are laid out in such a manner that they are in an interlace relationship with each other and each drain finger 22 is located above a drain area 16 and each source finger 24 is located above a source area 18. Each drain finger 22 has plurality of contacts 26 with the drain area 16 underneath the drain finger 22. Each source finger 24 has plurality of contacts 28 with the source area 18 underneath the source finger 24. The conventional MOSFET current driver layout is prone to have shorts or defects. First of all, the long source and drain connection would result in severe voltage drop at metal connection. Moreover, the line width of source and drain metal connection is also limited by electron migration.
Referring to FIG. 2, another conventional layout of a MOSFET current driver 34 is shown. In the design of this conventional layout, the gate 40 is laid out to have a lateral serpentine pattern. The serpentine pattern is laid out to have a plurality of long strips 41 and a plurality of short strips 43. The long strips 41 are laid out parallel to each other along the width of the current driver 34. The short strips 43 are laid out to connect the long strips to each other in such a manner to generate a long continuous gate. The serpentine pattern of this design is called lateral since the long strips 41 are laid out along the width of the current driver 34. The drain areas 36 and source areas 38 are located between the long strips 41 of the gate 40 in an interlace form. Also, in the layout there are only two metal strips which substantially overlap the serpentine patterned gate; one serves as the drain metal 37 and the second serves as the source metal 39. The drain metal 37 has a plurality of drain contacts 42a, 42b, 42c, 42d, 42e, 42f and 42g and the source metal 39 has a plurality of source contacts 44a, 44b, 44c, 44d, 44e, 44f and 44g. Each drain contact is placed on a drain area 36 to connect the drain metal 37 to the drain area 36 and each source contact is placed on a source area 38 to connect the source metal 39 to the source area 38. This conventional MOSFET current driver layout also has several drawbacks. First of all, the line width of source and drain metal connection line is limited due to the source and drain connected by high resistance diffusion layer. Moreover, the line length of source and drain connection is also limited by electron migration.
In view of the drawbacks mentioned with the prior art, there is a continued need to develop new and improved power MOS transistor layout that overcome the disadvantages associated with prior art. The requirements of this invention are that it solves the problems mentioned above.

Power metal oxide semiconductor transistor layout with lower output resistance and high current limit


A first vehicle body speed is calculated based on a wheel rotational speed detected in a speed sensor for an object wheel. The largest value of speeds based on the wheel rotational speeds detected in speed sensors for four wheels is corrected by a correction value based on an inner and outer wheel speed difference during the turning of a vehicle so as to calculate a second vehicle body speed for every object wheel. A higher one of the first and second vehicle body speeds is selected as an estimated vehicle body speed for use in the anti-lock control for the object wheel. This enables a substantially accurate estimation of an estimated vehicle body speed during the turning of the vehicle.

1. FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 648,330, filed Jan. 30, 1991, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,109,694, in turn, a continuation of application Ser. No. 381,422, filed Jul. 18, 1989, now abandoned, and is directed to methods for estimating the vehicle body speed, on which a slip rate is based, for an anti-lock control system for a vehicle. The anti-lock control system operates by controlling the braking pressure for the wheels by estimating a vehicle body speed based on a wheel rotational speed detected in a speed sensor and by determining the slip rate of the wheels based on the estimated vehicle body speed.
2. DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART
Conventionally, anti-lock control of an object wheel is effected by estimating a vehicle body speed from a rotational speed of the object wheel and by determining a slip rate from a comparison of the rotational speed of the object wheel with a reference wheel rotational speed determined by the estimated vehicle body speed. Such a conventional system has been disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Patent Application Nos. 41237/82 and 60984/82.
During braking in a vehicle provided with an anti-lock control system that is travelling on a straight road, a wheel rotational speed which is the highest speed of the four front and rear wheels is a value closest to a vehicle body speed, during both anti-lock control and non-antilock control. During braking when the vehicle is turning, however, a large speed difference is produced between the highest one of the four-wheel rotational speeds and the other wheel rotational speeds due to a difference in speed between inner and outer wheels or between left and right wheels. Hence, if the vehicle body speed is estimated on the basis of the highest speed, without taking into account the turning action of the vehicle the reference wheel rotational speed determined from the estimated vehicle body speed to set the slip rate is higher than necessary. As a result, anti-lock control is carried out even though such control is not required.

Vehicle body speed estimating method in anti-lock control system for vehicle


The invention relates to a perimeter and a method for operating a perimeter during a field of vision examination, whereby light stimuli in the field of vision of the person to be tested are presented on an observational surface during the examination process. At least one moving light stimulus is presented to the eye during an examination process with a time offset and then at least one non-moving light stimulus or conversely is presented on the observational surface.

The science of perimetry relates to testing the field of vision of the eye. When such tests are performed regularly, certain diseases and/or disease courses can be detected and/or observed.
Known perimeters have an observational surface, which is designed in the manner of a hemispherical shell, for example, and forms a concave projection surface in the interior. The patient to be examined looks into the concave hemisphere, with the eye that is to be tested being situated at the center of the hemisphere. As soon as the eye to be tested is positioned at the center of the hemisphere, the patient is instructed to keep his eyes on a fixation mark at the center of the projection area of the hemisphere. Once this has been done properly, the sensitivity of the eye to stimuli in the field of vision is tested and recorded. This is done by presenting light stimuli at various locations on the observational surface, while the patient reports in each case, e.g., by depressing a switch, whether or not the corresponding light stimulus has been observed. As a result, the sensitivity of the eye to light stimuli at various locations in the field of vision can be determined and mapped.
Two fundamentally different perimetric test methods are known from the state of the art. In the first variant, so-called static perimetry, non-moving light stimuli are presented to the patient. By varying the luminous density of these light stimuli, the stimulus threshold at a certain location in the field of vision can be ascertained, for example. In addition to static perimetry, there is also the known kinetic perimetry, in which the patient is presented with moving light stimuli, with a point of light being guided along a predetermined line of movement over the observational surface, for example. The limits of peripheral vision can be determined by kinetic perimetry in particular.
Both static and kinetic field of vision examinations can be performed using known perimeters because the moving and/or non-moving presentation of light stimuli requires completely different perimeter designs. However, recent studies have shown that describing a patient's field of vision by static perimetry on the one hand and/or by kinetic perimetry on the other hand remains incomplete in either case. Both examination methods have advantages and disadvantages and neither, when taken alone, can completely describe the condition of the field of vision.

Perimeter and a method for operating a perimeter


In a tool-changing apparatus for a machine tool, a tool-locking pin and an arm-locking pin are provided in a tool-changing arm and urged upward. When the arm is moved downward by a swinging shaft, the tool-locking pin and the arm-locking pin are moved upward by the urging force of respective springs, and a tapered surface of the tool-locking pin presses an end of a roller shaft projecting from a through-hole of the tool-changing arm, thus preventing a sliding movement of the roller shaft toward the through-hole, and a tapered surface of the arm-locking pin fits in a circular groove formed on the peripheral surface of an arm central shaft coupled with the swinging shaft, thus preventing the rotation of the arm relative to an arm-supporting member. When a tool is mounted into a tool-mounting portion, arm locking is released to enable the arm to move independently of the swinging shaft.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a tool-changing apparatus and method for exchanging a tool set on a main spindle of a machine tool and a tool set on a tool magazine of the same with each other.
2. Description of Related Art
A machine tool that exchanges a tool set on its main spindle and a tool set on its tool magazine has a tool-changing apparatus. In this machine tool, a gripping portion formed at an end of a tool-changing arm constituting a tool-gripping mechanism grips a tool set on the main spindle and a tool set on the tool magazine, and then the tool-changing arm swings or turns to exchange the two tools with each other by changing the positions of the two tools.
The tool-gripping mechanism is divided into two types depending on the manner of gripping tools. In one type of tool-gripping mechanism, the tool is sandwiched by the tool-gripping portion thereof. In the other type of tool-gripping mechanism, one side of the tool is caught by the tool-gripping portion and then pressingly locked to a tool-mounting portion.
The tool-gripping mechanism of the latter type is disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 5-13469. The process of moving the tool-changing arm of the tool-gripping mechanism disclosed in this Japanese publication first swings the tool-changing arm by a predetermined angle from the arm-waiting position to the tool-changing position so that the tool-gripping portion formed at ends of the tool-changing arm grips a tool used and set on the main spindle and a new tool set on the tool magazine. The process then moves the tool-changing arm axially and swings it by 180.degree. at a predetermined position spaced from the tool-changing position to change the positions of the two tools each other. The process moves the tool-changing arm axially to move the tool-changing arm to the tool-changing position so that the tool-changing arm installs the new tool on the main spindle and then releases the tool used from the tool-gripping portion to accommodate it in the tool magazine. The process finally swings the tool-changing arm reversely to return it to the arm-waiting position again.
In this process, the tool-changing arm must be driven reversely in the space between the arm-waiting position and the tool-changing position and the tool-changing arm must be positioned accurately to inset a tool into the main spindle accurately. It is therefore necessary to use a complicated mechanism, namely, to use an expensive roller gear cam having a cam groove formed thereon, or to switch the swinging direction of the tool-changing arm by driving a plurality of gears.

Tool-changing apparatus and method for a machine tool


The echo time in an MR pulse sequence is optimized in accordance with the application desired. Advantageously, the echo time is selected to cause a partial volume signal cancellation from veins as compared with background tissue, and the MR pulse sequence is of a velocity-compensated type. MR data are acquired from gradient echoes. Multiple echoes may be used to extract information (such as volume content and susceptibility) about the material under investigation.

The invention relates to magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, and more particularly relates to MR imaging of structures having varying magnetic susceptabilities. In its most immediate sense, the invention relates to MR imaging of veins in a living subject such as a human patient.
It has long been known that the magnetic susceptibility of blood varies with the state of oxygenation of the blood, and that de-oxygenated venous blood has a different magnetic susceptibility than oxygenated arterial blood. It has accordingly long been known that venous blood produces a smaller MR signal than arterial blood, and that this difference can be decreased by using an MR pulse sequence having a longer echo time. However, this phenomenon has not been utilized in MR imaging.
Furthermore, even though this relationship between magnetic susceptibility and blood oxygenation has long been known, it has not been used to evaluate the oxygenation of blood, nor to evaluate the total blood volume in a particular region of the body.
One aspect of the invention proceeds from a realization that by optimizing the echo time in an MR pulse sequence, it is possible to distinguish structures having different magnetic susceptabilities, which structures would otherwise look the same (or similar) in an MR image. More specifically, by using an echo time that is sufficiently long to cause different partial volume signal cancellations from the structures as compared with the background material in which they are embedded, it is possible to distinguish between them.
Another aspect of the invention proceeds from a realization that such optimization, when used in an MR pulse sequence of a velocity-compensated type, makes it possible for an MR study to distinguish veins from arteries and from surrounding tissue, and to quantify the oxygenation and volume of blood in the region of interest.
Hence, in accordance with one aspect of the invention, there is disclosed a method of MR imaging a region of interest containing at least two structures having different magnetic susceptibilities and a background material in which said structures are embedded. In accordance with the invention, an MR study of the region of interest is conducted using a MR pulse sequence in which the echo time is selected to cause different partial volume signal cancellations from the structures as compared with the background material, and MR data are acquired from gradient echoes produced by the MR study. From these data, each of the structures can be distinguished from the other, and from the background material.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, which is specifically directed to an application in which veins are to be distinguished from tissue in which they are embedded, an MR study is conducted using a velocity-compensated MR pulse sequence. The echo time of the MR pulse sequence is selected to cause a partial volume signal cancellation from veins in the region of interest as compared with the background tissue in the region of interest. Then, MR data are acquired from gradient echoes produced by the MR study. From these data, the veins can be visualized.
In accordance with still another aspect of the invention, which is specifically directed to an application in which tissue-embedded veins and arteries are to be distinguished from each other and from the tissue in which they are embedded, an MR study is conducted using a velocity-compensated MR pulse sequence. The echo time of the MR pulse sequence is selected to cause a partial volume signal cancellation from veins in the region of interest as compared with arteries and background tissue in the region of interest. Then, MR data are acquired from gradient echoes produced by the MR study. From these MR data, an amplitude image and a phase image of the region of interest are formed, and the amplitude image is filtered by operating upon it with the phase image, thereby producing a filtered image.
The phase image is so constructed that it operates differently upon amplitude image data relating to veins and amplitude image data relating to arteries and background tissue. In this manner, veins and arteries are made more visually distinguishable.
In one advantageous embodiment, a minimum intensity projection or a maximum intensity projection or both are formed from the filtered image. The minimum intensity projection highlights veins; the maximum intensity projection highlights arteries.
In accordance with yet another aspect of the invention, oxygen saturation of blood and venous blood volume in a region of interest can be measured by conducting an MR study of the region of interest using a velocity-compensated multi-echo MR pulse sequence, acquiring MR data from gradient echoes produced by the MR study, and determining the oxygen saturation or venous blood volume from such data.

Application-specific optimization of echo time in MR pulse sequences for investigating materials with susceptibilities different from that of the background in which they are embedded


An adjustable balloon catheter for extravasated drug delivery is disclosed generally including an outer catheter with a first balloon and an inner catheter with a second balloon. The inner catheter is moveably disposed in a lumen of the outer catheter such that the inner catheter moves relative to the outer catheter, changing the distance between the balloons. A fluid source supplies air to the catheters via lumens therein to inflate the balloons to create a chamber between them, and at least one of the catheters has a lumen for delivering a therapeutic and/or diagnostic agent to the chamber. The inner catheter is then moved relative to the outer catheter to decrease the size of the chamber between the balloons and decrease the fluid pressure therein such that the therapeutic and/or diagnostic agent is extravasated into the surrounding tissue.

In diagnosing and treating diseases of various body cavities and organs, it is necessary to deliver diagnostic and/or therapeutic agents to the organs at specified locations. Most common routes of drug delivery include a non-invasive peroral (through the mouth), topical (skin), transmucosal (nasal, buccal/sublingual, vaginal, ocular and rectal) and inhalation routes. However, many therapeutic and diagnostic agents in general may not be delivered using these routes because they might be susceptible to enzymatic degradation or cannot be absorbed into the systemic circulation efficiently due to molecular size and charge issues, and thus, will not be therapeutically effective. For this reason, many such drugs have to be delivered by injection.
There are several known problems associated with the injection process. One of such problems is undesirable extravasation of the diagnostic or therapeutic agents into tissue, which is particularly prevalent with intravenously injected agents. Extravasation generally refers to leakage of fluids out of a container, and more specifically refers to leakage of intravenous drugs from a vein into surrounding tissues, resulting in an injury to the tissues. Once the intravenous extravasation has occurred, damage can continue for months and involve nerves, tendons and joints. If treatment is delayed, surgical debridement, skin grafting, and even amputation have been known to be the unfortunate consequences.
Occurrence of extravasation is possible with all intravenuous drugs, but it is a particularly significant problem with cytoxic drugs used for treatment of cancer (i.e. during chemotherapy).
Chemotherapy is the general term for any treatment involving the use of chemical agents to stop cancer cells from growing. Chemotherapy can eliminate cancer cells at sites great distances from the original cancer. As a result, chemotherapy is considered a systemic treatment. More than half of all people diagnosed with cancer receive chemotherapy. A chemotherapy regimen (a treatment plan and schedule) usually includes drugs to fight cancer plus drugs to help support completion of the cancer treatment.
Chemotherapy can be administered through a vein, injected into a body cavity, or delivered orally in the form of a pill, depending on which drug is used. Chemotherapy works by destroying cancer cells. Unfortunately, it cannot tell the difference between a cancer cell and some healthy cells. Thus, chemotherapy often eliminates not only the fast-growing cancer cells, but also other fast-growing cells in the body, including hair and blood cells. Some cancer cells grow slowly while others grow rapidly. As a result, different types of chemotherapy drugs target the growth patterns of specific types of cancer cells.
Each chemotherapy drug works differently and is effective at a specific time in a life cycle of the cell it targets. Brachytherapy, sometimes called seed implantation, is an outpatient procedure used in the treatment of different kinds of cancer. The radioactive "seeds" are carefully placed inside of the cancerous tissue and positioned in a manner that will attack the cancer most efficiently. The radioactive seeds are about the size of a grain of rice, and give off radiation that travels only a few millimeters to kill nearby cancer cells. There are two different kinds of brachytherapy: permanent, when the seeds remain inside the body, and temporary, when the seeds are inside of the body and are then removed. With permanent implants (e.g. prostate), the radioactivity of the seeds typically decays with time.
The other type of chemotherapy is when cytotoxic agents are delivered intravenously. Veins of people receiving chemotherapy are often fragile, mobile, and difficult to cannulate. Patients who receive chemotherapy at the same site as radiotherapy may experience a reactivation of skin toxicity known as a "recall" phenomenon. Patients who have had previous radiation therapy at the site of injection may develop severe local reactions from extravasated cytotoxic drugs. Cytotoxic drugs also have the potential to cause cutaneous abnormalities in areas that have been damaged previously by radiation, even in areas that are distant from the injection site. Patients who have had an extravasation and receive further chemotherapy in a different site may experience an exacerbation of tissue damage in the original site.
Furthermore, areas of previous surgery where the underlying tissue is likely to be fibrosed and toughened dramatically present an increased risk of extravasation. Radical mastectomy, axillary surgery or lymph node dissection may impair circulation in a particular limb. This reduces venous flow and may allow intravenous solutions to pool and leak around the site of cannulation.
Some chemotherapy drugs often never reach the tumors they are intended to treat because the blood vessels feeding the tumors are abnormal. A tumor's capillaries (small blood vessels that directly deliver oxygen and nutrients to cancer cells) can be irregularly shaped, being excessively thin in some areas and forming thick, snarly clumps in others. These malformations create a turbulent, uneven blood flow, so that too much blood goes to one region of the tumor, and too little to another. In addition, the capillary endothelial cells lining the inner surface of tumor capillaries, normally a smooth, tightly-packed sheet, have gaps between them, causing vessel leakiness.
The systemic and intravenous side effects of chemotherapy coupled with the limited effect of systemic administration due to abnormal characteristics of tumor blood vessels have given the scientific community pause, in searching for more direct, localized and biologic solutions. Accordingly, the oncology literature has become increasingly populated with articles espousing prospective benefits and positive outcomes of intra-tumoral chemotherapy. A direct administration of cytotoxic drugs such as Mytomycin, Mytomycin-C, Bleomycin, Fluorouracil, Mitoxantrone, Cisplatin, and Avastin in endobronchial intra-tumoral chemotherapy has been done experimentally via direct injection of the agent into the endobronchial tumor. In these cases, the tumor was reported to have died and been subsequently removed.
However, while some experimental uses of the localized delivery of cytotoxic drugs have been attempted, there has been little implementation of such drug delivery in practice, possibly due to numerous problems associated with such delivery. First, it is often necessary to deliver cytotoxic drugs to remote and not easily accessible blood vessels and other lumens within body organs, such as lungs. It is also important to be able to deliver defined doses of the cytotoxic substances because such substances are often very expensive or are capable of causing serious harm if delivered in excess. Moreover, the existing methods lack the ability to contain the cytotoxic agent and/or radiation therapy and mitigate collateral damage to non-affected anatomy and structures.
Several devices have been proposed for a targeted delivery of drugs to internal bodily cavities. A solution that has been proposed using a catheter with two balloons to deliver the therapeutic agent, such as those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,397,307 to Goodwin and U.S. Patent Application No. 2008/0208118 by Goldman. In these systems, first and second balloons are inflated to create a chamber between them, and a therapeutic agent is then introduced into this chamber. While useful for confining the delivery of the agent to a specific target site, these systems are not particularly efficient at infusing the relevant biological material with the drug. Instead, the catheter may need to remain in place for an unnecessarily long period of time while the infusion of the drug into the biological material is allowed to take place. This is undesirable, especially in applications such as pulmonology, where the patient's respiratory passage has been somewhat restricted by the device. Further, this can result in some of the agent never being infused into the targeted material and instead remaining in the cavity and, after the balloon catheter is removed, subsequently migrating to other undesired portions of the body.
What is desired, therefore, is a balloon catheter system for delivering therapeutic and/or diagnostic agents to bodily tissues, tumors, and other biological materials that can locally deliver the agent to a specific target site. What is further desired is a balloon catheter system for delivering therapeutic and/or diagnostic agents that facilitates the extravastion of the drug into surrounding bodily tissues, tumors, and other biological materials. What is also desired is a balloon catheter system for delivering therapeutic and/or diagnostic agents that can adjust for changing conditions during the process of delivering the drug.

Adjustable balloon catheter for extravasated drug delivery


A noise suppression apparatus using spectral subtraction is provided. A noise estimation unit estimates noise components included in a mixed signal. A fundamental frequency of the mixed signal is detected. A subtraction factor in the spectral subtraction is set based on the detected fundamental frequency. The spectral subtraction for the mixed signal is executed using the set subtraction factor and the estimated noise components. A boundary frequency at the fundamental frequency or a frequency lower than the fundamental frequency is set, and a subtraction factor for a frequency lower than the boundary frequency is set to assume a value larger than a subtraction factor for a frequency not less than the boundary frequency.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a noise suppression apparatus, which suppresses noise mixed in an audio signal, and a control method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
Video cameras and recent digital cameras can capture moving images, and chances of simultaneous recording of audios are increasing. In a moving image capturing operation, wind noise mixed upon audio recording poses a serious problem, and many video cameras include a function of suppressing wind noise.
Wind noise is generated when wind strikes a microphone, and has strong components over a broad low-frequency range. On the other hand, an audio signal such as a human voice has a harmonic structure including a fundamental tone and harmonic components (components having frequencies as integer multiples of the fundamental tone).
As a conventional wind noise suppression method, high-pass filtering, spectral subtraction, comb filtering, and the like are known.
The high-pass filtering is a method of cutting strong low-frequency components of wind noise by band limitations. As a cutoff frequency determination method, a method of switching cutoff frequencies by estimating an amount of wind noise has been proposed (for example, see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 06-269084).
The spectral subtraction is a method of suppressing noise components by estimating wind noise included in an audio, and subtracting a spectrum of estimated noise components from that of a microphone signal (for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-47639).
The comb filtering is a method which focuses attention on a harmonic structure of an audio, that is, a method of executing fundamental tone detection, and passing or cutting off a fundamental frequency and harmonic components. This method is also called a comb filter since sharp peaks or dips appear at given intervals in frequency characteristics. Noise suppression based on the comb filtering includes a method of suppressing a noise frequency band by passing a fundamental tone and harmonic components, and a method of subtracting a signal, which is obtained by cutting off a fundamental tone and harmonic components, from an original signal.
However, the conventional wind noise suppression method using the high-pass filtering, when wind noise is to be sufficiently suppressed, low-frequency components such as a fundamental tone and low-order harmonic components of an audio signal are also suppressed, and the tone color of an audio is unwantedly changed.
The method using the spectral subtraction requires noise estimation, and noise estimation accuracy has to be enhanced to obtain a satisfactory spectral subtraction result. However, since wind noise is non-stationary noise, it is difficult to attain accurate noise estimation, and noise components are unwantedly left unsuppressed due to poor noise estimation accuracy. Since wind noise includes especially strong low-frequency components, it cannot be sufficiently suppressed.
Furthermore, the method using the comb filter requires fundamental tone detection (pitch detection). Comb frequencies of the comb filter have an integer multiple relationship with respect to the fundamental frequency. For this reason, when a detected fundamental tone includes an error, an error is enlarged in a high-frequency range. The relationship between the fundamental frequency and comb frequencies is given by:fn=(f0+δ)*n where fn is an n-th comb frequency, f0 is a fundamental frequency, and δ is an error.
A fundamental tone error does not pose any problem when n is small. However, in harmonic components in a high-frequency range in which n is large, that error is enlarged in proportion to n. For this reason, an original harmonic structure may be suppressed. Since the fundamental tone detection accuracy lowers as noise is larger, accurate comb filter design suffers a problem in its feasibility.

Noise suppression apparatus and control method thereof


A sensor signal is received, and is indicative of a sensed parameter. A metric is generated that indicates a likelihood of a tailings elevator plug, based upon the sensed parameter. A controller determines whether adjustments to controllable mechanisms are to be made, based upon the metric, in order to avoid a tailings elevator plug and, if so, automatically makes the adjustments.

There is a wide variety of different types of agricultural equipment. Some such equipment, for instance, includes a mobile machine that harvests crops. An example of such a mobile machine is a combine. Many combines have a tailings elevator mechanism (or tailings return elevator) that returns material being processed by the combine for additional processing (e.g., for additional threshing). During operation of the combine there is a risk that the tailings elevator will become plugged. When that happens, the operator often needs to stop the machine in order to manually unplug the elevator. This increases machine downtime, and thus reduces harvesting efficiency. It can also reduce the life of machine components, such as the tailings elevator slip clutch, or other components.
It can also be difficult for an operator to anticipate when the tailings elevator will become plugged. It often becomes plugged when the volume of tailings being moved through the elevator meets or exceeds the capacity of the elevator. The increase in tailings volume can be caused by changes in various settings on the machine, by operating the machine so that the feed rate is increased, or by a variety of changes in field conditions. For instance, if the machine encounters an area of heavy or dense weeds in the field, this can cause the tailings volume to increase at a rapid rate. An operator may be unable to react quickly enough to prevent the tailings elevator from plugging.
The discussion above is merely provided for general background information and is not intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.


A tent frame binding device permitting speedy assembling and disassembling is disclosed. A binding body is provided with a plurality of slots angularly separated around it, and a pair of fastening recesses are formed at the side walls of each of the slots, the recesses being open upwardly. At the rear portion of each of the slots, there is formed an engaging step, and a frame member fastening part which is coupled with each of the slots is provided with a supporting shaft, the supporting shaft being coupled with the recesses of the slot. At the rear of the supporting shaft, there is formed an inclined portion which is to be coupled with the inclined engaging step of the slot. Tent frame members are inserted respectively into the holes of the frame member fastening parts, and the frame member fastening parts are assembled into the slots of the binding body. After assembling the frame member fastening parts into the slots of the binding body, a securing plate is fastened to the top of the binding body by driving a bolt through the securing plate into the binding body, thereby preventing the departure of the frame member fastening parts from the slots.

A prior art of the tent frame binding device is disclosed in Korean Utility Model Publication No. 90-2935 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,750,509, both of which were granted to the present applicant, and the structure of which is illustrated in FIGS. 5 and 6. As shown in these drawings, a plurality of slots 70 are formed angularly separated on a securing disc 100, and a pair of fastening recesses 90 having a engaging step 80 therein are formed in each of the slots 70. The end portion of each of frame members 30 is T-shaped, because it has a pair of fastening pins 40. First, each of the frame members 30 is inserted into each of the slots 70 of the securing disc 100, and then, the frame member 30 is pivoted one half rounds so that the fastening pins 40 of the frame member 30 should be disposed within the two fastening recesses 90. Then the frame member 30 is pulled up, so that the fastening pins 40 should be engaged with the engaging step 80. Then if the frame members 30 are laid horizontally and are pushed down, the frame members 30 are lifted up, with each of the end portions of the frame members 30 being settled on a settling bottom 60, resulting in that the fastening pins 40 are assembled into the fastening recess 90. On the other hand, if the frame members 30 are to be disengaged from the securing disc 100, the frame members 30 are made to stand upright, and a slight force is applied, so that the fastening pins 40 which have been supported on the engaging step 80 of the fastening recess 90 should depart therefrom.
In the tent frame binding device of the prior art which is constituted as described above, the process of forming the fastening recess and the engaging steps within the securing disc is very difficult and complicated. Therefore, many steps of manufacturing process is required, and much time is consumed, with the result that the manufacturing cost is increased. Further, when assembling the tent frames, each of the frame members has to be sufficiently inserted into each of the slots, the frame members have to be pulled up, and have to be turned by 180.degree. so as for the fastening pins to be aligned with the fastening recess. Then the frame members have to be laid down, and have to be pushed down, thereby making the fastening pins engaged with the engaging step. Thus the frame members cannot be bound by a single manipulation, and much inconvenience is accompanied. Particularly, when assembling the frame members, each of the frame members has to be made to stand upright, and therefore, the space of the assembling place has to be large, and non-skilled persons are forced to experience much difficulty in performing the assembling work, thereby aggravating the productivity.
Another problem is seen in the fastening portions of the frame members.
That is, when the tent is unfolded into a dome shaped tent, with the frame members being deflected, the supporting force is focused on the fastening pins. Consequently, much stress is accumulated on the fastening pins, and therefore, the frame members become weak after some use, with the possible result that the fastening pins may be broken or damaged.


A recording apparatus controlling amount of ink discharge due to variations of a recording head. The recording head is provided with a reference voltage source for setting an output voltage of a head drive power source so as to provide a characteristic of voltage from the reference voltage source. A head drive power source circuit provided on the recording apparatus changes voltage of a head drive by comparing the reference voltage and output voltage from the power source circuit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recording apparatus for making a record by the use of a recording head.
2. Description of the Related Art
Hitherto, a thermal-type inkjet recording apparatus makes a record by applying pulse voltage to a heat-generating resistor (heater resistance), and discharging ink from an ink discharging port by boiling ink in an ink chamber located adjacent to the heater resistance instantaneously and causing babble expansion to be generated. Therefore, drive energy required for discharging a fixed amount of ink varies with the temperature of the ink or the temperature of the recording head. In contrast, when a fixed amount of drive energy is always supplied to the heater resistance, the temperature of the recording head increases due to variations in environmental temperature or continuous usage, which causes variations in the amount of ink discharge and hence density or color tone of the image to be recorded varies, thereby deteriorating the quality of the image.
In order to avoid such deterioration of image quality, a method of providing a temperature detecting element in a semiconductor device 52 (hereinafter referred to as a "heater board") of a recording head 50 as shown in FIG. 9, detecting the temperature of the recording head, and adjusting the pulse width of the drive pulse according to the detected temperature. The adjusting unit has substantially a structure as described below. The temperature detecting element provided on the recording head is, for example, a diode 57, and the amount of variation of forward voltage VF in association with the temperature is detected by entering the forward voltage VF generated when constant current is flowing through the diode into an A/C converter 13, and converting the entered value to the digital amount. The detected temperature is divided into about four stages by every 10 to 15° C. within the allowable temperature range of the recording head. Variations in the amount of ink discharge with the temperature are restrained by switching the pulse width table of drive pulse signals for driving the heater resistance within this temperature range.
When the temperature of the recording head is low (0° C. to 15° C.), since the viscosity of ink is high, there may be the case in which double pulse drive combined with pre-pulse for preparatory heating is performed in order to secure a predetermined amount of ink discharge. In this manner, recording action is performed by controlling the pulse width by the temperature of the recording head. For example, control to differentiate the pulse width of the drive pulse in accordance with the temperature as shown in Table 1 provided below.
However, in the recording apparatus described above and control thereof, there are problems as listed below:    (1) An AD converter for converting the temperature data of the recording head to the digital amount is necessary, and complex control including the steps of detecting variations in temperature at certain intervals by a controller provided on the main body of the recording apparatus and switching the drive pulse table is necessary. Resolution of the detected temperature is, for example, about four stages in order to curb product costs. Therefore, at the moment when the drive pulse is switched in the course of changing the temperature of the recording head, drive energy applied to a heater resistance 54 varies discontinuously, thereby causing fluctuation in the amount of ink discharge.    (2) In association with advances in velocity and fineness of the recording apparatus, an increase in the number of recording head nozzles and in discharging frequency is required. Therefore, in order to compensate variations in manufacture of heater boards or in order to compensate drive energy in association with the above described variations in temperature, constraints in the pulse width which is changeable in one drive pulse is resulted. In particular, since the necessary length of the pulse width for discharging ink gets longer with lower temperature, change in the pulse width of the double pulse used as the drive pulse is more difficult at low temperature.


In a power control device for a vehicle, a monitoring control device 2 disposed separately from a power converter 1 judges normality/abnormality of the power converter 1, and sets an abnormality-occurrence electric generation switching signal 4 to ON/OFF, whereby a first electric generation control function corresponding to an output of power element driving signal generating means is forcedly stopped, and also a second electric generation control function based on a diode rectifying mode of a power element is started.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle power control device mounted in an electrical vehicle or the like, particularly to a vehicle power control device in which the ordinary electric generation function can be switched to the auxiliary electric generation function when abnormality occurs.
2. Description of the Related Art
In an electric powered vehicle such as an electric car or a hybrid car, a motor generator (hereinafter referred to as "M/G") is equipped in place of a conventional diode rectification type electric generator for the high value-added purpose such as driving/braking of a vehicle, starting of a motor and an internal combustion engine mounted on the vehicle, or electric generation for charging a battery, and a power converter (popularly named as inverter) for M/G driving control. A microcomputer, a dedicated LSI or the like is used as means for generating a power element driving signal of the power converter, and many control signal patterns have been proposed in order to simplify the system construction and enhance the energy efficiency.
For example, Patent Document 1 (JP-A-2001-271729 (paragraph 0030 and FIG. 1)) has proposed the following technique. That is, in a case where the shaft of a brushless motor (permanent magnet motor) is linked to the output shaft of an engine and the brushless motor is operated as a starter for the engine, a chopper circuit is set to a non-operation state or operated as a voltage increasing chopper to thereby drive the brushless motor through an inverter circuit. In addition, in a case where the brushless motor is operated as an electric generator, when an electric generation voltage of the brushless motor is higher the voltage of a battery, the inverter circuit is set to a non-operation state and the chopper circuit is made to operate as a high-voltage chopper, thereby charging the battery, and when the electric generation voltage of the brushless motor is lower than the voltage of the battery, the transistor of the chopper circuit is set to an ON-state, and the transistor at the negative side of the inverter circuit is turned on and off, thereby making the inverter circuit operate as a voltage increasing chopper, thereby charging the battery.
Furthermore, Patent Document 2 (JP-A-6-178441 (paragraph 0008 and FIG. 1)) has proposed the following technique. That is, initial excitation at the start time of the internal combustion engine is carried out by an electronic device as a charging control device containing a microcomputer, and the output voltage of an alternating electric generator is controlled to a preset charging voltage of a battery. When the terminal voltage detecting terminal of the battery is slipped, the normal charging voltage control can be performed by using the voltage value of an operating power source of the electronic device, and thus neither a second rectifier nor a dedicated electric circuit is needed. Furthermore, when the charging voltage exhibits an abnormal value with respect to a target charging voltage, a field coil current supplying circuit is enforcedly interrupted to prevent overcharge, and also a charge lamp is turned on and off to warn the driver.
According to these techniques, the voltage of the battery and the charging/discharging amount are controlled on the basis of the signal pattern of the driving signal generating means of the power element such as the inverter circuit or the like which constitutes the power converter. Accordingly, when the power element driving signal generating means of the power converter does not normally function due to breakdown or the like, it is difficult to perform regeneration or electrical generation. Furthermore, even when only the gate signal of the power element is stopped to set the power element to a diode rectifying mode so that the field coil current can be continued to be controllable, the whole electric generation is stopped when the function of the microcomputer is stopped. Furthermore, when the charging to the battery is suddenly stopped, the time which is needed for the driver to move his/her vehicle to a safe place is restricted to a very short time. Conversely, when the current supply of the field coil cannot be stopped, over-excitation occurs, so that a critical defect such as overcharge of the battery or the like as a power source system for a vehicle may be caused.


Methods of detecting TCP SYN flooding attacks at a router located between a LAN and a network such as the Internet are described. The methods rely on a counting arrangement in which SYN and Fin packets are counted on both the LAN side and the network or Internet side of the router during a time interval. Weighting factors are applied to each count, the factor for the LAN side count having the opposite polarity to the factor for the network side count. The absolute values of the sums of the weighting factors of like polarity are equal. An abnormal number of unsuccessful connection attempts are determined based on a parameter calculated using the weighting factors in conjunction with the respective counts.

Attacks on web sites in recent years has resulted in severe disruption in network services. These attacks can take any one of a number of forms including, but not limited to, SYN flooding.
In a SYN flooding attack an attacker overloads a victim's site to the point where it cannot cope with incoming traffic. Such an attack, typically, focuses on an inherent characteristic of TCP based services.
Essentially, TCP services rely on a three-way hand shaking protocol on connection set up. A client wishing to make connection with a host sends a synchronization signal (SYN) to the host and the host responds to the client with a SYN acknowledgement (ACK) reply. The client then returns an acknowledgement and the connection is established. The handshaking protocol is illustrated in FIG. 1.
Upon completion of a connection the client forwards a finish (FIN) packet to the host indicating that there will be no further data or packets directed to the host and the connection is thereafter closed.
In a SYN flooding attack the attacker will typically use a false or invalid source address such that when the host returns the SYN/ACK message it does not reach a valid client. Under the TCP protocol the host stores half opened connections i.e. connections for which the third leg of the three way protocol has not been completed for a set period of time or until a system time out occurs. If, during this time interval multiple new half opened connections are established at the host site the memory allocated to retaining such connections becomes swamped and eventually is unable to receive any more SYN packets. At this stage the server or host will crash or will not respond to any new connections and the site goes out of service. Because the host is unable to receive further data the attacker has been successful in generating what is known as a denial of service attack. Denial of service attacks have become an increasingly prevalent form of a security threat and the problem, so far, has been quite difficult to solve. Several countermeasures have been proposed and can be characterized as firewall and router filtering, operating system improvements, protocol improvements and intrusion detection.
Considerable prior art exists in the area of security attacks and the problem is well described in a publication by C. Schuba, I. Krsul, M. Kuhn, E. Spafford, A. Sundaram and D. Zamboni entitled "Analsyis of a denial of service attack on TCP", published in the Proc., 1997 IEEE Symp. Security and Privacy. The Schuba et al. paper describes the problem and the classical solutions for a proxy service: the TCP relay and the semitransparent TCP gateway. In those two solutions, a fire wall intercepts the TCP connections, maintains the states of the TCP state machine and introduces new packets to avoid the attacks.
The proxy solutions according to this publication have to maintain, for each connection, the states of the corresponding TCP state machine. This mechanism needs a lot of resources and can be itself the target of a new denial of service attack. Thus, the high cost of the computation overhead makes this solution inappropriate for network routers or switches.
A second prior art solution which is closer to the present invention is described by H. Wang, D. Zhang and K. G. Shin, "Detecting SYN flooding attacks", Proc. Infocom 2002. The method according to Wang et al. relies on a counting argument on the SYN and FIN packets on the TCP connections. Those packets should go in pairs in any well behaved connection. Thus, the number of SYN packets should match roughly the number of FIN packets. The simplicity of this method lies in the stateless and low computation overhead which makes the detection mechanism itself immune to flooding attacks. This simplicity allows the detection to be performed in the leaf routers that connect end hosts to the Internet.
The counter mechanism according to Wang et al. has a major drawback. If attackers know exactly the detection protocol described by this method they may thwart this approach simply by overflooding the routers with synchronized SYN and unrelated, over even invalid FIN packets. Hence the SYN counter and the FIN counter would be roughly the same. However, the victim's TCP/IP stack would be open to many half-opened connections that would not be closed by the invalid FIN packets. This corresponds to the original denial of service attack.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,321,338 which issued Nov. 20, 2001 to Porras et al. and entitled "Network Surveillance", also provides prior art for this technology. According to the Porras et al. patent there is provided a method of network surveillance including receiving network packets handled by a network entity and building at least one long term and at least one short term statistical profile from a measure of the network packets that monitors data transfers, errors or network connections. A comparison of the statistical profiles is used to determine whether the difference between the statistical profiles indicates suspicious network activity.
This patent further discloses, in addition to the details mentioned above, that intensity measures of event streams e.g. ICMP packets, are particularly suited for detecting flooding attacks. Furthermore, the patent discloses that intensity measures that correlate SYN to SYN _ACK messages, volume analysis of SYN/RST messages or TCP/FIN messages are useful to detect port availability or scanning attacks.

Statistical methods for detecting TCP SYN flood attacks


A splitboard fastening system is disclosed herein. The splitboard fastening system comprises a crossbar comprising a shear bushing interface and a hook, an eccentric post coupled to a lever and configured to engage an inside edge of the hook in response to rotation of the lever, and a shear bushing configured to engage the shear bushing interface, wherein the crossbar is configured to be coupled to a first splitboard ski, and wherein the eccentric post and the shear bushing are configured to be independently coupled to a second splitboard ski.

A splitboard is a type of snow sport equipment that combines the features of a snowboard and snow skis. Splitboards can be optionally separated into two splitboard skis, or coupled to create a unitary snowboard. Typically, users operate the splitboard as separate splitboard skis, known as touring mode, when climbing uphill or cross-country skiing; users operate the splitboard as a joined snowboard, known as riding mode, when negotiating downhill slopes.
Riding mode requires a sturdy union at the seam between the two splitboard skis. Looseness or play along the center seam between the two splitboard skis alters the torsional and bending stiffness of the snowboard, causing it to behave unpredictably. Shear forces between the seam and the board face can cause up and down motion of one splitboard ski relative to the other. Unpredictable board movement and shear may cause a rider to lose control of the board or catch an edge in the snow, causing the rider to fall.
Latching devices can be placed at the center seam of the two splitboard skis to increase torsional stiffness. However, conventional latching devices are not easily adjustable to tolerances required by different splitboard manufacturers and do not allow for fast, in situ latching and unlatching, as may be desired by splitboard riders.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Systems and methods of fastening splitboard skis


A promotional gaming device for beverage cans which includes ink jet printed indicia of winning status on an exterior surface of the can and an opaque removable material covering the printing. The opaque material may be scratched off or peeled off the reveal the prize indicia.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to cans for beer and beverages which include promotional games and in particular to cans having promotional prize games or instant winner games on them.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Marketing of consumer products such as foods, beverages, household products and the like is highly competitive, and many millions of dollars are spent annually in advertising and promoting the sale of such products. Most such products are sold in cans, boxes and bottles which are decorated to promote the sale of the products.
Beverages such as beer and soft drinks are sold in cans and bottles, and competition between manufacturers of aluminum, steel, glass and plastic for use in beverage containers is intense due to the many billions of beverage containers that are sold annually. The aluminum beverage can industry would benefit from an increased share of the beverage market by making aluminum cans more interesting and appealing to consumers.
Due to the competitive pressures, games for promoting the sale of products are commonly used. The games induce customers to purchase a particular product because the product includes an opportunity to win a prize or money. One popular retail game device is the "Instant Winner" type in which the customer immediately knows whether he or she is a winner. Such winners can be rewarded at the point of sale or can receive their prize or money by returning the winning gamepieces to a redemption center.
The term "scratch-off games" commonly refers to a promotion, game, lottery, discount coupon, or the like that relies on hidden preprinted data that is revealed by "scratching off" a removable opaque layer. The appeal of such applications is evidenced by the popularity of state lotteries, which have become a major fund raising source in recent years. The "game" can be as simple as revealing a statement of winning or losing status.
The major attribute of existing scratch-off technology is its potential for providing secure preprinted data that is difficult or impossible to reveal prematurely. This technology is most often seen in contexts such as lotteries, product promotions, and discount coupons, as well as financial security instruments or food stamp certificates.
Security of the hidden data has been a primary consideration for the development of the technology behind scratch-off games. The following are nondestructive methods for prematurely reading hidden data which are protected against by current technology:
Candling: this method uses a strong light shown through the front of the ticket. PA1 Delaminating and relaminating. PA1 X-ray technologies. PA1 "Wet pad" techniques: these endeavor to accelerate ink migration by application of a pad wetted with water or another solvent to the rear side of the ticket. When successful, a readable image of the game play data can be transferred to the pad without residual evidence of tampering.
When scratch-off games are printed on paper or cardboard substrates, several security measures are usually combined, such as printing a Benday pattern (usually curved lines that discourage pasting a portion of one ticket into another), printing an optical confusion pattern, and printing thematic graphics over the scratch-off area.
It is desirable for the scratch-off games to be integral with the package for the products in order to avoid handling problems or abuses as can occur if the promotional game is separate from the package. Thus many promotional marketing games involve coupons or tickets which are attached to or contained in packages for the goods being sold.
Soft drink bottlers have used promotional games extensively and have experienced considerable marketing success through the use of the games. Several of the promotional game packages for beverages have been patented. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,911,320; 5,056,659; 5,056,681; and 5,524,788.
Despite the success of existing promotional games for a variety of products including beverage containers, improved systems are desired which are less expensive to manufacture and administer, offer improved security against tampering, and offer greater attractiveness to consumers. It is also desirable to provide a promotional game which increases the interaction between the consumer and the beverage can in order to increase the attractiveness of metal cans and encourage bottlers to package their beverages in cans, and in particular in aluminum cans.

Beverage can having instant winner type game thereon


A load leveler for different widths of open semi-trailers preferably includes a load support member, a plurality of vertical support members and two adjustable stakes. Each vertical support member is attached under the load support member. A stake receiver is preferably secured to each end of the load leveler with welding. The stake receiver is sized to receive an outer perimeter of the adjustable stake. The adjustable stake includes a receiver portion and a stake portion. The stake portion is sized to be received by a stake pocket in an open semi-trailer. The receiver portion is sized to be received by the stake receiver. At least one of the adjustable stake is fractionally rotated to accommodate different distances between stake pockets. A chain tie is preferably attached to a top of the stake receiver to retain a tie down chain.

1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates generally to load levelers and more specifically to a load leveler for different widths of open semi-trailers, which allows a single length of a load leveler to be used on open semi-trailers having different widths.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
A load leveler is used to support loads on an open semi-trailer. Open semi-trailer types include flat-bed, low-boy, single-drop and double-drop. The load leveler includes two stakes that fit into two stake pockets formed in a bed of the semi-trailer. However, most open semi-trailers have different widths. The different widths of open semi-trailers result in varying distances between opposing stake pockets. A load leveler with a set distance between the stake pockets for one manufacturer of semi-trailers may not work for another manufacturer of open semi-trailers. Typically, the distance between stake pockets on the open semi-trailers has a range of between 97-98 includes.
Accordingly, there is a clearly felt need in the art for a load leveler for different widths of semi-trailers, which allows a single length of load leveler to be used on semi-trailers having different distances between stake pockets.

Load leveler for different width open semi-trailers


A nozzle resistance controlled by a piezoelectric element comprises a housing having a longitudinal bore, a piezoelectric element located in the longitudinal bore, a baffle plate supported by the piezoelectric element, a nozzle body located in the longitudinal bore such, that the bore extending through the nozzle body ends with one end adjacent to the baffle plate, and a chamber defined by the longitudinal bore and connected to the other end of the bore. The chamber is connected to a fluid supply device.

German patent 17 76 142 discloses an apparatus for adjusting the position of a mechanical member by means of an electroexpansive module. As an example of an electroexpansive material a piezoelectric material is mentioned. Said module comprises a surface bordering a chamber filled with liquid. Said chamber is connected to a first chamber of a spool valve. In said chamber a first spool is movably mounted. Said first spool can be moved from its centered position into one or the opposite direction by applying different electrical voltages to the electroexpansive module. For the adjustment of the position of said mechanical element a second spool is provided in a second spool valve chamber which is connected with said first spool valve chamber. The first mentioned chamber which is filled with liquid is of a fluid tight design and said first spool is maintained in its center position by a spring against the pressure in said chamber. Depending on the position of the spool the desired movement of the mechanical element is obtained.
British patent GB 1 217 225 relates to a fluid flow directing device, comprising a chamber into which fluid enters via an inlet and exits via an outlet. Adjacent to the inlet and/or outlet a baffle element is provided which forms a gap so as to influence the flow of fluid. This baffle element is arranged on a piezoelectric unit which in turn can be controlled by means of electrical signals.
DE-OS 24 17 450 relates to an electro hydraulic signal transducer which transforms the differences in the flow of an electrical control current into differences of viscosity in an operating liquid. This electrohydraulic signal transducer can be used as the pilot control stage of a proportional and/or a servo valve. When used as the pilot stage of a servo valve it is desirable to form a complete bridge and to use the peltier element with two constant hydraulic resistances for the feed back of the electrical signals. DE-OS 3527069 and 25 11 752 relate to additional prior art.

Piezoelectric controllable nozzle resistance for hydraulic apparatus


A tissue desiccating electrode has first and second longitudinal members each with proximal and distal ends. A tip member couples the longitudinal members proximate the distal ends thereof and has a centrally-positioned, transversely-extending, fixed protuberance. The protuberance has an outer perimeter with an overall smoothly curved base and a plurality of cooling grooves. The grooves penetrate inwardly from the outer perimeter.

1. Technical Field
This invention relates to surgery, and more particularly to electrodes for surgical resectoscopes.
2. Background Information
A variety of resectoscopes have been developed and are known for purposes of tissue resection. Common applications are in cystoscopy and, more recently, in hysteroscopy. The use of resectoscopes in a variety of other applications is an evolving area.
A main component of a resectoscope is commonly referred to as "the working element". The working element comprises an electrode mounted into a reciprocating mechanism that can be moved forward and backward between retracted and extended positions. The electrode includes a distal tip and one or more conductors extending longitudinally back through the sheath. In the retracted position the electrode tip resides within an outer sleeve or tube which protects the tip from interaction with the patient's body and vice versa. In the extended position, the electrode tip extends forward of the end of the protective sleeve for engaging the patient's tissue. The mechanism may either be passive or spring loaded. In the latter case, a typical configuration involves the spring biasing the electrode into the retracted position.
For visualization of the interaction of the electrode with the patient's tissue, an optical element is typically inserted within the sheath. The optical element, often referred to as the "telescope" has a typical diameter of approximately 4 mm. Depending on the application and the preferences of the surgeon, the telescope may be provided with a variety of depths and angles of view. For prostate resection and other urologic applications, angles of up to 120.degree. are often preferred. In uterine applications, preferred angles of view may vary between 0.degree. and 30.degree.. A depth of field is typically infinite, with a focal length of approximately 2 cm. Such a focal length may cause size distortions but provides the skilled surgeon with necessary information to guide the electrode.
The resectoscope electrode tip is an "active" electrode. In a typical system, a complete circuit is formed with a plate-like "dispersive" or grounding electrode often placed in contact with a relatively wide area of the patient's back. The grounding electrode is coupled to the active electrode via a voltage generator for creating a potential between these two electrodes. A wide variety of voltages, frequencies, patterns, etc. may be involved depending upon the application and the choices of the equipment designer and surgeon. Tissue cutting or removal may then be accomplished by arcing between the active electrode and the patient's tissue or by resistive heating of the patient's tissue in contact with the active electrode.
Broadly defined, two major classes of electrodes are cutting electrodes and desiccation electrodes. In the latter, the electrode tip interacts with a tissue surface within the patient. In the former, the electrode is typically formed as a wire loop which is typically used to make a penetrating cut. The loop may be plunged beneath the tissue surface and then moved parallel to the surface to remove a layer of tissue.
Desiccation electrodes (typically including electrodes designated as "coagulation" electrodes) are drawn over the surface of the tissue in order to desiccate the tissue by resistive heating of the tissue in contact with the electrode tip. Such electrodes generally involve creating a large contact area with the tissue. Many such electrodes feature a spherical electrode surface in contact with the tissue surface. A common configuration of this type of electrode involves a hemispherical shell with its convex surface facing down (toward and in contact with the tissue surface). Another common type is the "roller" electrode which is frequently formed as a right circular cylinder extending transverse to the resectoscope axis and free to pivot about its own central axis. Such an electrode is rolled over the tissue surface by the reciprocation of the working element. The rolling action of the roller-type electrode helps to maintain consistent temperature. However, rolling electrodes often suffer from inadequate electrical contact between the conductor(s) and the rolling element as the contact areas between the two may become corroded or contaminated. Additionally, cylindrical electrodes often suffer from an "edge effect" wherein the current density between the patient and the electrode is concentrated toward the ends of the roller rather than having a more even distribution.
Use of a resectoscope creates a variety of byproducts, including cut and coagulated tissue which must be removed in order to maintain the ease and effectiveness of the procedure. It is also desired to distend the patient's tissues to facilitate the tissue removal procedure. These goals may be accomplished via the introduction of a fluid into the patient. Early use of the resectoscope involved cystoscopy of the bladder. In such a case, the bladder could be filled with a fluid and the procedure performed. At various intervals, the bladder could be drained and refilled. In other applications such as hysteroscopy, there are not the same fluid retention capabilities as exist with the bladder. Accordingly, the continuous flow resectoscope was introduced. A typical continuous flow resectoscope includes an outer tubular sheath and an inner tube concentric therewith. An annular space between the sheath and tube provides an outflow conduit, and an annular space between the tube and telescope provides an inflow conduit for introducing clean fluid to the patient. Such devices are generally described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,835,842 and 4,134,406 of Jose J. Iglesias, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference.


According to one or more embodiments, a truck cover system includes a panel cover including first and second panels connected via a first hinge, a track unit detachably receiving the first hinge, and a latch including first and second latch members detachably connected to each other, wherein a detachment between the first and second latch members causes detachment of the first hinge from the track unit.

For trucks with rear cargo beds, various designs of cargo bed covers have been provided in attempts to protect the cargo content. Certain of these existing designs are directed to a single panel that gets lifted up and opens in its entirety, which makes it difficult and if not all impossible to loading large objects like a refrigerator or a tall plant without the complete removal of the bed cover. For such a removal, the removed bed cover may need to be at least temporally stored inside the vehicle, taking up valuable space.
Other of some of the existing designs use soft covers; however these design based on soft covers may require manual roll-up and manual operation may not be user friendly as often being labor intensive.
Some of the existing designs involve motorized cover systems. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,983,072 B1 discloses similar systems.

Truck cover system and method of using the same


Provided is an apparatus and a method for heating fluid in a proximity head. A fluid source supplies fluid to a channel within the proximity head. The fluid flows in the channel, through the proximity head, to an outlet port located on a bottom surface of the proximity head. Further, within the proximity head is a heating portion that heats the fluid. Various methods can heat the fluid in the heating portion. For example, the fluid can be heated via resistive heating and heat exchange. However, any mechanism for heating fluid in the proximity head is possible. After heating the fluid, the proximity head delivers the heated fluid through the outlet port to a surface of a semiconductor wafer. An inlet port proximately disposed near the outlet port vacuums the heated fluid to remove the heated fluid from the surface of the semiconductor wafer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to semiconductor wafer processing systems, and more specifically, to heating fluids in a proximity head.
2. Description of the Related Art
Semiconductor wafer fabrication typically involves multiple repeated fabrication steps, such as implantation, material deposition, planarization, and etching. After each fabrication step, residue can remain on a surface of a semiconductor wafer. Thus, between the fabrication steps, a cleaning step is typically used to remove particulates and other undesirable material that remain on the surface of the semiconductor wafer. Exemplary particulates can include silicon dust, silica, slurry residue, metal flakes, and silicate particles.
The cleaning step can include a rinse step, a spin step, and a dry step. During the rinse step, a fluid delivery device, such as a spray device or an immersion device, can apply a cleaning fluid to wet the surface of the semiconductor wafer. For example, the cleaning fluid can be sprayed onto the surface of the semiconductor wafer with the spray device. Alternatively, the semiconductor wafer can be immersed in the cleaning fluid within the immersion device. After the rinse step, the semiconductor wafer can be rotated to spin off the particulates along with the cleaning fluid. Subsequently, a drying step can dry remaining droplets on the surface of the semiconductor wafer. During the cleaning step or other semiconductor wafer fabrication steps, it may be desirable to heat the fluid applied to the surface of the semiconductor wafer.
Typical heating mechanisms for semiconductor wafer processing systems have included a heater connected to a fluid source. The fluid source delivers fluid, such as the cleaning fluid, to the heater, which heats the cleaning fluid to some desired temperature. Subsequently, the heated cleaning fluid propagates to the spray device or the immersion device.
However, using the steps previously described in current semiconductor wafer processing systems may be inefficient. For example, the heated cleaning fluid may experience heat loss while traveling from the heater to the fluid delivery device. Thus, when the heated cleaning fluid touches the surface of the semiconductor wafer, the temperature of the heated cleaning fluid may be lower than the desired temperature.
In view of the foregoing, what is needed is an apparatus and a method for heating fluid in a semiconductor wafer processing system that enables heated fluid to be delivered to a semiconductor wafer at a desired temperature.

Proximity head heating method and apparatus


Provided herein are techniques related to an industrial system that may have a plurality of industrial automation devices, a database that has a plurality of location datasets that correspond to the plurality of industrial automation devices, and a monitoring system that may communicate with the industrial automation devices via a network and the database. The monitoring system may send a first request to the industrial automation devices in the industrial system to identify an industrial automation device having an active maintenance status. The active maintenance status may be indicative of a maintenance request for the industrial automation device. The monitoring system may send a second request to the database for a location dataset associated with the industrial automation device, generate a visualization that includes the active maintenance status and the location dataset associated with the industrial automation device, and display the visualization via an electronic display.

The present disclosure relates generally to monitoring industrial automation device information. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to determining location information for various industrial automation devices in a system and presenting a visualization that provides an indication of the location information.
Industrial systems may be designed with a number of devices stored in various locations throughout the industrial systems. For example, a device may be located within some compartment of some section of a building within an industrial system. Industrial systems can be very large and complex, which may make it difficult for users to locate certain devices in the industrial systems. As such, it may be useful to provide systems and methods for identifying the locations of various devices in a particular system and providing a visualization to help users navigate to the devices in the system.
This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of art that may be related to various aspects of the present techniques, which are described and/or claimed below. This discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present disclosure. Accordingly, it should be understood that these statements are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.

Systems and methods for monitoring device information


A medical apparatus and system for determining contact assessment includes a catheter having an elongate body having a proximal end, a distal end opposite the proximal end, and defining an injection lumen and an exhaust lumen, an expandable membrane defining a cooling chamber disposed at a point along the elongate body, the cooling chamber in fluid communication with the injection lumen and the exhaust lumen, and a contact assessment element which may be a temperature sensor located proximate the coolant return lumen for measuring an internal temperature of the chamber. The system may include the catheter, a console having a fluid supply, an exhaust path and at least one control mechanism operationally coupled to the temperature sensor for processing a temperature signal received from the temperature sensor. The apparatus and system can also have multiple electrodes to measure and process various impedances to determine contact assessment.

The experimental use of fluids with low operating temperatures, or cryogens, continues in the medical and surgical field. Of particular interest are the potential use of catheter based devices, which employ the flow of cryogenic working fluids therein, to selectively freeze, or "cold-treat", targeted tissues within the body. Catheter based devices are desirable for various medical and surgical applications in that they are relatively non-invasive and allow for precise treatment of localized discrete tissues that are otherwise inaccessible. Catheters may be easily inserted and navigated through the blood vessels and arteries, allowing non-invasive access to areas of the body with relatively little trauma.
Catheter-based ablation systems are known in the art. A cryogenic device uses the energy transfer derived from thermodynamic changes occurring in the flow of a cryogen therethrough to create a net transfer of heat flow from the target tissue to the device, typically achieved by cooling a portion of the device to very low temperature through conductive and convective heat transfer between the cryogen and target tissue. The quality and magnitude of heat transfer is regulated by the device configuration and control of the cryogen flow regime within the device.
A cryogenic device uses the energy transfer derived from thermodynamic changes occurring in the flow of a refrigerant through the device. This energy transfer is then utilized to create a net transfer of heat flow from the target tissue to the device, typically achieved by cooling a portion of the device to very low temperature through conductive and convective heat transfer between the refrigerant and target tissue. The quality and magnitude of heat transfer is regulated by device configuration and control of the refrigerant flow regime within the device.
Structurally, cooling can be achieved through injection of high-pressure refrigerant through an orifice. Upon injection from the orifice, the refrigerant undergoes two primary thermodynamic changes: (i) expanding to low pressure and temperature through positive Joule-Thomson throttling, and (ii) undergoing a phase change from liquid to vapor, thereby absorbing heat of vaporization. The resultant flow of low temperature refrigerant through the device acts to absorb heat from the target tissue and thereby cool the tissue to the desired temperature.
Once refrigerant is injected through an orifice, it may be expanded inside of a closed expansion chamber, which is positioned proximal to the target tissue. Devices with an expandable membrane, such as a balloon, are employed as expansion chambers. In such a device, refrigerant is supplied through a catheter tube into an expandable balloon coupled to such catheter, wherein the refrigerant acts to both: (i) expand the balloon near the target tissue for the purpose of positioning the balloon, and (ii) cool the target tissue proximal to the balloon's thermally-transmissive region to cold-treat adjacent tissue.
During the operation of a medical device in a therapeutic procedure, such as in a blood vessel, the heart or other body organ, the medical user desires to establish a stable and uniform contact between the thermally-transmissive region of the cryogenic device and the tissue to be treated (e.g., ablated). In those instances where the contact between the thermally-transmissive region of the cryogenic device and the tissue to be treated is non-uniform or instable, the resulting ablation or lesion may be less than optimal. It is desirable for the medical professional to assess the state of the contact between the thermally-transmissive region of the cryogenic device and the tissue to be treated, so that appropriate adjustments can be made to re-position the cryogenic device to obtain a more optimal contact and thus a more effective treatment.
It would be desirable to provide an apparatus and method of assessing the quality of the contact between the thermally-transmissive region of the cryogenic device and the tissue to be treated, as well as monitoring and detecting any occurrences of fluid egress.