In one embodiment described in the specification, a surgically implantable reciprocating pump employs a check valve as the piston, which is driven by a permanent magnet linear electric motor to assist either side of the natural heart. The pump is implanted in the aorta or pulmonary artery using vascular attachment cuffs such as flexible cuffs for suturing at each end with the pump output directly in line with the artery. The pump is powered by surgically implanted rechargeable batteries. In another embodiment, pairs of pumps are provided to replace or assist the natural heart or to provide temporary blood flow throughout the body, for example, during operations to correct problems with the natural heart.

This invention relates to reciprocating pump arrangements for pumping fluids such as blood in a controlled manner. More specifically, this invention is directed to a reciprocating pump capable of providing optimal assistance for ventricular or cardiac support such as that for an ailing ventricle. It produces effective pumping action under minimum shear conditions.
Heretofore a number of pump designs have been proposed for pumping fluids such as blood. Such pumps must provide leak-free operation and must avoid contamination of the fluid by the pump components and the external environment. In addition, such pumps must effectively pump the fluid at a suitable rate without applying excessive Reynolds shear stress to the fluid. Damage due to excessive shear is particularly a problem when pumping fluids such as blood or blood products.
It is well known to those skilled in the art that lysis or cell destruction may result from application of shear stress to cell membranes. Red blood cells are particularly susceptible to shear stress damage as their cell membranes do not include a reinforcing cytoskeleton to maintain cell shape. Lysis of white blood cells and platelets also occurs upon application of high shear stress. Lysis of red blood cells can result in release of cell contents which trigger subsequent platelet aggregation. Sublytic shear stress leads to cellular alterations and direct activation and aggregation of platelets and white blood cells.
Several types of surgically implantable pumps have been developed in an effort to provide a mechanical device for augmenting or replacing the blood pumping action of damaged or diseased hearts. Some of these pumps are designed to support single ventricular function. Such pumps usually support the left ventricle, which pumps blood to the entire body except the lungs, since it becomes diseased far more commonly than the right ventricle, which pumps blood only to the lungs. Other devices have been tested and used for providing biventricular function.
Depending on the needs of a particular patient and the design of a pump, pumping units such as so-called "VADs" (ventricular assist devices) can be implanted to assist a functioning heart that does not have adequate: pumping capability. Other types of pumps, such as the so-called "Jarvik heart," can be used to completely replace a heart which has been surgically removed.
Temporary as well as permanent implantable pumps have been developed. "Permanent" in this sense refers to the remaining life of the patient; after a patient's death, any artificial pumping device is usually removed for analysis. "Temporary" implantation usually involves (1) an attempt to reduce the stress on a heart while it recovers from surgery or some other short-term problem, or (2) use of a pump as a "bridge" to forestall the death of a patient until a suitable donor heart can be found for cardiac transplantation.
The most widely tested and commonly used implantable blood pumps employ variable forms of flexible sacks (also spelled sacs) or diaphragms which are squeezed and released in a cyclical manner to cause pulsatile ejection of blood. Such pumps are discussed in books or articles such as Hogness and Antwerp 1991, DeVries et al 1984, and Farrar et al 1988, and in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,994,078 (Jarvik 1991), 4,704,120 (Slonina 1987), 4,936,758 (Coble 1990), and 4,969,864 (Schwarzmann et al 1990). Sack or diaphragm pumps are subject to fatigue failure of compliant elements and as such are mechanically and functionally quite different from the pump which is the subject of the present invention.
An entirely different class of implantable blood pumps uses rotary pumping mechanisms. Most rotary pumps can be classified into two categories: centrifugal pumps and axial pumps. Centrifugal pumps, which include pumps marketed by Sarns (a subsidiary of the 3M Company) and Biomedicus (a subsidiary of Medtronic, Eden Prairie, Minn.), direct blood into a chamber, against a spinning interior wall (which is a smooth disk in the Medtronic pump). A flow channel is provided so that the centrifugal force exerted on the blood generates flow.
By contrast, axial pumps provide blood flow along a cylindrical axis, which is in a straight (or nearly straight) line with the direction of the inflow and outflow. Depending on the pumping mechanism used inside an axial pump, this can in some cases reduce the shearing effects of the rapid acceleration and deceleration forces generated in centrifugal pumps. However, the mechanisms used by axial pumps can inflict other types of stress and damage on blood cells.
Some types of axial rotary pumps use impeller blades mounted on a center axle, which is mounted inside a tubular conduit. As the blade assembly spins, it functions like a fan, or an outboard motor propeller. As used herein, "impeller" refers to angled vanes (also called blades) which are constrained inside a flow conduit; an impeller imparts force to a fluid that flows through the conduit which encloses the impeller. By contrast, "propeller" usually refers to non-enclosed devices, which typically are used to propel vehicles such as boats or airplanes.
Another type of axial blood pump, called the "Haemopump" (sold by Nimbus) uses a screw-type impeller with a classic screw (also called an Archimedes screw; also called a helifoil, due to its helical shape and thin cross-section). Instead of using several relatively small vanes, the Haemopump screw-type impeller contains a single elongated helix, comparable to an auger used for drilling or digging holes. In screw-type axial pumps, the screw spins at very high speed (up to about 10,000 rpm). The entire Haemopump unit is usually less than a centimeter in diameter. The pump can be passed through a peripheral artery into the aorta, through the aortic valve, and into the left ventricle. It is powered by an external motor and drive unit.
Centrifugal or axial pumps are commonly used in three situations: (1) for brief support during cardio-pulmonary operations, (2) for short-term support while awaiting recovery of the heart from surgery, or (3) as a bridge to keep a patient alive while awaiting heart transplantation. However, rotary pumps generally are not well tolerated for any prolonged period. Patients who must rely on these units for a substantial length of time often suffer from strokes, renal (kidney) failure, and other organ dysfunction. This is due to the fact that rotary devices, which must operate at relatively high speeds, may impose unacceptably high levels of turbulent and laminar shear forces on blood cells. These forces can damage or lyse (break apart) red blood cells. A low blood count (anemia) may result, and the disgorged contents of lysed blood cells (which include large quantities of hemoglobin) can cause renal failure and lead to platelet activation that can cause embolisms and stroke.
One of the most important problems in axial rotary pumps in the prior art involves the gaps that exist between the outer edges of the blades, and the walls of the flow conduit. These gaps are the site of severe turbulence and shear stresses, due to two factors. Since implantable axial pumps operate at very high speed, the outer edges of the blades move extremely fast and generate high levels of shear and turbulence. In addition, the gap between the blades and the wall is usually kept as small as possible to increase pumping efficiency and to reduce the number of cells that become entrained in the gap area. This can lead to high-speed compression of blood cells as they are caught in a narrow gap between the stationary interior wall of the conduit and the rapidly moving tips or edges of the blades.
An important factor that needs to be considered in the design and use of implantable blood pumps is "residual cardiac function," which is present in the overwhelming majority of patients who would be candidates for mechanical circulatory assistance. The patient's heart is still present and still beating, even though, in patients who need mechanical pumping assistance, its output is not adequate for the patient's needs. In many patients, residual cardiac functioning often approaches the level of adequacy required to support the body, as evidenced by the fact that the patient is still alive when implantation of an artificial pump must be considered and decided. If cardiac function drops to a level of severe inadequacy, death quickly becomes imminent, and the need for immediate intervention to avert death becomes acute.
Most conventional ventricular assist devices are designed to assume complete circulatory responsibilities for the ventricle they are "assisting." As such, there is no need, nor presumably any advantage, for the device to interact in harmony with the assisted ventricle. Typically, these devices utilize a "fill-to-empty" mode that, for the most part, results in emptying of the device in random association with native heart contraction. This type of interaction between the device and assisted ventricle ignores the fact that the overwhelming majority of patients who would be candidates for mechanical assistance have at least some significant residual cardiac function.
It is preferable to allow the natural heart, no matter how badly damaged or diseased it may be, to continue contributing to the required cardiac output whenever possible so that ventricular hemodynamics are disturbed as little as possible. This points away from the use of total cardiac replacements and suggests the use of "assist" devices whenever possible. However, the use of assist devices also poses a very difficult problem: in patients suffering from severe heart disease, temporary or intermittent crises often require artificial pumps to provide "bridging" support which is sufficient to entirely replace ventricular pumping capacity for limited periods of time, such as in the hours or days following a heart attack or cardiac arrest, or during periods of severe tachycardia or fibrillation.
Accordingly, an important goal during development of the described method of pump implantation and use and of the surgically implantable reciprocating pump was to design a method and a device which could cover a wide spectrum of requirements by providing two different and distinct functions. First, an ideal cardiac pumping device should be able to provide "total" or "complete" pumping support which can keep the patient alive for brief or even prolonged periods, if the patient's heart suffers from a period of total failure or severe inadequacy. Second, in addition to being able to provide total pumping support for the body during brief periods, the pump should also be able to provide a limited "assist" function. It should be able to interact with a beating heart in a cooperative manner, with minimal disruption of the blood flow generated by the natural heartbeat. If a ventricle is still functional and able to contribute to cardiac output, as is the case in the overwhelming majority of clinical applications, then the pump will assist or augment the residual cardiac output. This allows it to take advantage of the natural, non-hemolytic pumping action of the heart to the fullest extent possible; it minimizes red blood cell lysis, it reduces mechanical stress on the pump, and it allows longer pump life and longer battery life.
Several types of surgically implantable blood pumps containing a piston-like member have been developed to provide a mechanical device for augmenting or even totally replacing the blood pumping action of a damaged or diseased mammalian heart.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,842,440 to Karlson discloses an implantable linear motor prosthetic heart and control system containing a pump having a piston-like member which is reciprocal within a magnetic field. The piston-like member includes a compressible chamber in the prosthetic heart which communicates with the vein or aorta.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,911,897 and 3,911,898 to Leachman, Jr. disclose heart assist devices controlled in the normal mode of operation to copulsate and counterpulsate with the heart, respectively, and produce a blood flow waveform corresponding to the blood flow waveform of the heart being assisted. The heart assist device is a pump connected serially between the discharge of a heart ventricle and the vascular system. The pump may be connected to the aorta between the left ventricle discharge immediately adjacent the aortic valve and a ligation in the aorta a short distance from the discharge. This pump has coaxially aligned cylindrical inlet and discharge pumping chambers of the same diameter and a reciprocating piston in one chamber fixedly connected with a reciprocating piston of the other chamber. The piston pump further includes a passageway leading between the inlet and discharge chambers and a check valve in the passageway preventing flow from the discharge chamber into the inlet chamber. There is no flow through the movable element of the piston.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,102,610 to Taboada et al. discloses a magnetically operated constant volume reciprocating pump which can be used as a surgically implantable heart pump or assist. The reciprocating member is a piston carrying a tilting-disk type check valve positioned in a cylinder. While a tilting disk valve results in less turbulence and applied shear to surrounding fluid than a squeezed flexible sack or rotating impeller, the shear applied may still be sufficiently excessive so as to cause damage to red blood cells.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,210,409 and 4,375,941 to Child disclose a pump used to assist pumping action of the heart having a piston movable in a cylindrical casing in response to magnetic forces. A tilting-disk type check valve carried by the piston provides for flow of fluid into the cylindrical casing and restricts reverse flow. A plurality of longitudinal vanes integral with the inner wall of the cylindrical casing allow for limited reverse movement of blood around the piston which may result in compression and additional shearing of red blood cells. A second fixed valve is present in the inlet of the valve to prevent reversal of flow during piston reversal.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,965,864 to Roth discloses a linear motor using multiple coils and a reciprocating element containing permanent magnets which is driven by microprocessor-controlled power semiconductors. A plurality of permanent magnets is mounted on the reciprocating member. This design does not provide for self-synchronization of the linear motor in the event the stroke of the linear motor is greater than twice the pole pitch on the reciprocating element. During start-up of the motor, or if magnetic coupling is lost, the reciprocating element may slip from its synchronous position by any multiple of two times the pole pitch. As a result, a sensing arrangement must be included in the design to detect the position of the piston so that the controller will not drive it into one end of the closed cylinder. In addition, this design having equal pole pitch and slot pitch results in a "jumpy" motion of the reciprocating element along its stroke.
In addition to the piston position sensing arrangement discussed above, the Roth design may also include a temperature sensor and a pressure sensor as well as control circuitry responsive to the sensors to produce the intended piston motion. For applications such as implantable blood pumps where replacement of failed or malfunctioning sensors requires open heart surgery, it is unacceptable to have a linear motor drive and controller that relies on any such sensors. In addition, the Roth controller circuit uses only NPN transistors thereby restricting current flow to the motor windings to one direction only.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,541,787 to Delong describes a pump configuration wherein a piston containing a permanent magnet is driven in a reciprocating fashion along the length of a cylinder by energizing a sequence of coils positioned around the outside of the cylinder. However, the coil and control system configurations disclosed only allow current to flow through one individual winding at a time. This does not make effective use of the magnetic flux produced by each pole of the magnet in the piston. To maximize force applied to the piston in a given direction, current must flow in one direction in the coils surrounding the vicinity of the north pole of the permanent magnet while current flows in the opposite direction in the coils surrounding the vicinity of the south pole of the permanent magnet. Further, during starting of the pump disclosed by Delong, if the magnetic piston is not in the vicinity of the first coil energized, the sequence of coils that are subsequently energized will ultimately approach and repel the magnetic piston toward one end of the closed cylinder. Consequently, the piston must be driven into the end of the closed cylinder before the magnetic poles created by the external coils can become coupled with the poles of the magnetic piston in attraction.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,610,658 to Buchwald et al. discloses an implantable fluid displacement peritoneovenous shunt system. The system comprises a magnetically driven pump having a spool piston fitted with a disc flap valve.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,089,017 to Young et al. discloses a drive system for artificial hearts and left ventricular assist devices comprising one or more implantable pumps driven by external electromagnets.

Implantable device monitoring arrangement and method


Methods and apparatus to provide per die temperature programming for thermally efficient integrated circuit (IC) operation are described. In some embodiments, the junction temperature of an IC component is determined, e.g., to reduce power consumption and/or improve performance. Other embodiments are also described.

The present disclosure generally relates to the field of electronics. More particularly, some embodiments of the invention relate to per die temperature programming that may provide thermally efficient integrated circuit (IC) operation.
As integrated circuit fabrication technology improves, manufacturers are able to integrate additional functionality onto a single silicon substrate. As the number of these functionalities increases, however, so does the number of components on a single IC chip. Additional components add additional signal switching, in turn, generating more heat. The additional heat may damage an IC chip by, for example, thermal expansion. Also, the additional heat may limit usage locations and/or applications of a computing device that includes such chips. To limit damage resulting from higher temperatures, some implementations are designed for the worse case scenario. For example, clock frequency may be lowered to generate less heat. This approach, however, may result in lower performance.

Per die temperature programming for thermally efficient integrated circuit (IC) operation


The invention is to exactly select an enconding method with satisfactory encoding efficiency, by comparing the final predicted code lengths for plural encoding methods, prior to the actual encoding operation. This object can be attained by an encoding device comprising generation means for generating difference data between an encoding target pixel and another pixel in each of the predetermined plural difference encoding methods, first prediction means for predicting the code length in case the difference data generated by the generation means are encoded, second prediction means for predicting the data length of additional data, other than the difference data generated by the generation means, selection means for selecting one of the difference encoding methods based on the code length predicted by the first prediction means and the data length predicted by the second prediction means, and difference encoding means for effecting difference encoding according to the result of selection by the selection means.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an encoding device for encoding data, and a method therefor.
2. Related Background Art
As a reversible encoding method, there is conventionally known DPCM+entropy encoding which is the internationally standardized JPEG method.
This method consists of calculating a predicted value for an encoding target pixel, utilizing pixels therearound, then generating difference data between the predicted value and the actual pixel value of the encoding target pixel, and effecting variable-length encoding such as Huffman encoding on the difference data.
FIG. 3A shows an example of the predicting method for generating the above-mentioned predicted value.
There are illustrated a target pixel X, and surrounding pixels a, b, c used for prediction. There are provided 7 equations for generating the difference between the predicted value and the target pixel X, and one of the equations is suitably selected.
Also among the blockwise difference encoding methods, there is known a method for encoding the difference data between an encoding target block and a reference block obtained from the already encoded area.
In case of selecting an efficient encoding method from plural difference encoding methods by predicting the encoding efficiency, the efficiency has conventionally been compared by the code length of the difference data, but, in the blockwise difference encoding methods, the code length may eventually become longer since other data (such as vector information in the embodiments of the present invention) have to be added in a larger amount, in comparison with the encoding methods utilizing the correlation of nearby pixels.
Also in case of selecting an efficient encoding method from plural difference encoding methods by predicting the encoding efficiency in succession, there is required a long time for such prediction because other encoding methods have to still be evaluated even if an encoding method satisfying the required encoding efficiency is identified in the course of such prediction.
Also in the conventional DPCM encoding mentioned above, since only one prediction mode (method of difference generation utilizing the target pixel X and the nearby pixels a, b, c) can be selected for each image, the encoding efficiency cannot be improved if the character of the image varies locally within the image.
Also there is only utilized the correlation between the encoding target pixel and the nearby pixels, the correlation with other pixels cannot be utilized.
Also in the blockwise difference encoding methods, the reference block can only be selected from the already encoded area, and there cannot be utilized even the correlation with the nearby pixels.
Furthermore, in the blockwise difference encoding methods mentioned above, even if the reference block and the encoding target block are similar in the frequency characteristics, the encoding efficiency cannot be improved if these blocks are generally different in luminosity or in density.
Furthermore, the adaptive Huffman encoding or the dynamic arithmetic encoding is utilized for the conventional variable-length encoding mentioned above, but these encoding methods have been associated with the following drawbacks: (i) In Huffman encoding, in which a code is assigned to a difference data, the shortest code for a pixel cannot be less than 1 bit; (ii) Also in case the difference between the most frequently appearing difference data and the next most frequently appearing difference data is small, the code for a pixel becomes two bits or longer; (iii) On the other hand, the arithmetic encoding, being capable of encoding without partition in the difference data, can dispense with the above-mentioned fixed bit length for each difference data; (iv) However, in case of applying the arithmetic encoding to the encoding of multi-value data, the difference data are encoded bit by bit, and the statistical model of conditions for such bit encoding is difficult to prepare; and (v) Also the number of levels of such multi-value data is large, the encoding efficiency cannot be better in comparison with that of the Huffman encoding.
Also in case plural encoding methods are simultaneously employed within an image, there is required positional information indicating the image area in which each encoding method is used, but such information has to be prepared separately from the difference data encoded by such plural encoding methods, so that the entire data amount after encoding becomes inevitably large.

Selectively utilizing multiple encoding methods


Data searching over a network is facilitated. A search request is received from a user device via the network. The search request includes information related to the user device. The search request is processed by identifying a context chain related to the user device based on information passed with the search request. The context chain is an array of contexts. Contexts are added to and subtracted from the context chain dependent upon communications received from the user device. The search request is responded to by providing at least one search result to the user device. The search result is obtained from at least one context in the plurality of contexts.

In the modern era, information and knowledge have been digitally aggregated on a large scale in electronic based repositories, such as computer databases, and globally made available to the human populous via communication networks, such as the Internet. Such networks may include collections of electronic documents (e.g., web pages) organized by keywords, subjects, and other relationships. Conventional search engines typically search and categorize web pages by these relationships.
However, this conventional searching process can be tedious and inconvenient. In particular, conventional search engines often fail to properly interpret or understand the particular information desired by users. Thus, there currently exists a need to improve the information search techniques used in network environments.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A transportation vehicle measures its own absolute position, and transmits the measured absolute position to a ground controller. The ground controller keeps track of positions of a plurality of transportation vehicles in real time, and sends running instructions to travel, while avoiding interference between the transportation vehicles. As a result, the ground controller can control travel of the transportation vehicles in real time.

In automated warehouses, stacker cranes are used as transportation vehicles. The stacker cranes travel back and forth along a route. If the stacker cranes travel along the same route, though transportation capability is enhanced, interference between the stacker cranes may occur undesirably. Patent Publication 1 (Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2005-306570) discloses a technique of autonomously avoiding interference between the stacker cranes. In this regard, the inventor of the present application studied a system in which a ground controller manages positions of a plurality of stacker cranes in real time, and sends running instructions to the stacker cranes, based on the positions the stacker cranes, and achieved the present invention.

Transportation vehicle system and method of controlling transportation vehicle


The new and distinct cultivar of ornamental, hardy, Russian Sage, Perovskia ‘Rocketman’ with short compact habit of strong erect stems, extended flowering season of large, densely-arranged, lavender-blue flowers and silvery green serrate foliage.

The present invention relates to a new and distinct plant of Russian sage, botanically known as Perovskia atriplicifolia 'Rocketman' and will be referred to hereinafter also by its cultivar name 'Rocketman' and the new plant. The new plant cultivar of Perovskia is a hardy herbaceous perennial grown for landscape use.
Perovskia 'Rocketman' is from the selection of seed from Perovskia atriplicifolia 'Little Spire' collected by the inventor Kevin A. Hurd in the summer of 2008 at a nursery in Zeeland, Mich. All subsequent evaluations were performed in a full-sun trial garden at the same nursery with loamy sand soil and irrigation and fertilizer as required. The plant was of a single seedling initially selected for further evaluation during the summer of 2008 and given the breeder designation "08-01-02." The plant was propagated by stem cuttings at the same nursery in Zeeland, Mich. and the original plant and the cuttings evaluated over the next four years until final approval for introduction in the summer of 2013. The resultant asexually propagated cuttings have been stable and identical to the original plant in successive asexual propagations.
Perovskia atriplicifolia 'Rocketman' has not been advertised or sold more than one year prior to filing this application, and all disclosures have come either directly or indirectly from the inventor.


A virtual item set representing a subset of items stored within an original data structure. The system includes a virtual item set processor configured to generate a plurality of virtual items that are a subset of items in the original data structure, and a virtual item set including the plurality of virtual items. Each virtual item includes a data field containing a data item from the original data structure and a metadata field, the meta field data including position information representing the position of the data field within an original data structure.

The present invention relates generally to the field of database management and data manipulation for large quantities of data elements. More specifically, the present invention relates to a system and method for providing a virtual item context for data elements in a deep data structure.
Large numbers of data elements may be created where each data element represents a discrete item, concept, class of items, etc. The data elements may be associated with a plurality of data element fields. The data elements and data element fields may have been created over time, by a different set of users, represent a wide variety of objects, etc. such that a variety of structures may be associated with the data element and/or the data element fields.
The large number of data items may be organized within a deep item structure. The data elements may be stored in structures that are organized hierarchically, according to relationships, etc. In a data structure of significant size, actual data may be found several layers deep within the structure. The structure may include fields that are simple values, simple or deep structures, and/or tables of simple or deep structures.
Performance is always an issue when working with mass data. More specifically, updating fields of items, each represented by a deep structure, requires a relatively large amount of processing time. The large amount of processing time can negatively affect mass data processing.
Several issues arise when working on mass data organized into a deep item structure. Navigating and accessing structure fields is particularly processor intensive when the items are house within these structures. The intensive processing is required even though only a subset of the fields may actually required for processing.
Further, when working with deep structures in mass data processing, an XPath of a field cannot always be used in order to identify a field because the length of such a path is potentially infinite. An XPath is a concatenation of the field name and any parent field names starting at a root field continuing to the field identified by the XPath.
What is needed is a system and method for providing working access to item field subsets within a deep mass data structure. What is further needed is such a system and method configured to configured to allow entry of new values into the item field subsets and yet avoid utilization of a write-back operation to reduce processing overhead associated with the data element mass processing.

System and method for providing a virtual item context


A passive element chip permits a reduced size and a higher packaging density to be achieved. The passive element chip has a substrate, a plurality of passive elements formed by metal wires on the substrate, and electrodes for electrically connecting the plurality of passive elements to an external source. The passive elements are isolated from each other.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a passive element chip and a manufacturing method thereof, and a highly integrated module and a manufacturing method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
To achieve a higher packaging density for electric equipment, there has been proposed a method for incorporating active elements, such as semiconductor chips, and passive elements, such as inductors, capacitors and resistors, in a substrate (self-contained substrate). The applications for such a self-contained substrate has been limited because it is difficult to guarantee that active elements or passive elements are nondefective once they are incorporated into a chip.
Patent Document 1, namely, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2002-261449 (page 9, FIG. 1) has disclosed a self-contained module, which is fabricated by embedding a bare chip semiconductor device, inductors, capacitors and other passive elements in sheets made of a thermosetting resin and these sheets are bonded to form multi-layer laminate, and wiring patterns of the layers are electrically connected through inner via holes passing through the layers.
Patent Document 2, namely, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-158214 (pages 3 to 6, FIGS. 1 and 2) has disclosed a wiring assembly (self-contained module) that has substantially the same shape as that of one surface of a semiconductor device. The wiring assembly includes a semiconductor element interface circuit. Inductors, capacitors, resistors and other passive elements required for the interface circuit are embedded in the wiring assembly. More specifically, a groove is formed in a surface of the semiconductor device, which is adjacent to a terminal, and a wiring pattern and passive elements, such as inductors, capacitors, and resistors, are placed in the groove.
In the self-contained modules disclosed in Patent Documents 1 and 2, the passive elements are included in a thermosetting resin or the like in the form of individual chip components. However, including individual chip components requires a large area for the chip components themselves and the wires extended among the chip components. As the number of passive elements increases, the completed module incorporating them will be undesirably large.
It could be possible to reduce the number of passive elements by building passive elements into a semiconductor chip in a semiconductor process. However, forming passive elements originally mounted in discrete form into a semiconductor chip would interfere with active elements, such as transistors and may adversely affect the characteristics of the active elements.

Passive element chip and manufacturing method thereof, and highly integrated module and manufacturing method thereof


A parallel distributed processing system includes multiple parallel distributed processing execution servers which stores data blocks pre-divided in a storage device and executes tasks processing the data blocks in parallel, and a management computer controlling the multiple parallel distributed processing execution servers. The management computer collects resource use amounts of the multiple parallel distributed processing execution servers, acquires states of data blocks and tasks held by the multiple parallel distributed processing execution servers, selects a second parallel distributed processing execution server transferring a data block to the first parallel distributed processing execution server, based on processing progress situations of the data blocks held by the multiple parallel distributed processing execution servers and the resource use amounts of the multiple parallel distributed processing execution servers, and transmits a command to transfer the data block to the first parallel distributed processing execution server, to the selected second parallel distributed processing execution server.

The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for controlling data using data processing history information or server operating history information.
In recent years, big data such as data acquired from a sensor device such as radio frequency identification (RFID) or an access log to a website can be accumulated by greater capacity and less cost of a recording medium. Therefore, companies and organizations attempt to analyze the big data which has been accumulated up to now, but not utilized and utilize the analysis result in a business. As a technology that analyzes the big data for a short time, a parallel distributed processing technology attracts attention. However, a utilization method or an analysis method of data is not clearly determined for log data, and the like which have not been utilized up to now, and trial and error are required. In the parallel distributed processing, since the processing is divided and the divided processing is allocated to multiple servers to be distributively executed in parallel, the multiple servers need to be prepared. As a result, since an effect to investment by introduction of a parallel distributed processing system in an initial stage is obscure, it is difficult to introduce the parallel distributed processing system to customers.
Therefore, by introducing the parallel distributed processing system, it is considered that a new server is not prepared, but an empty resource of a server used by an existing system is effectively utilized, and the existing system and the parallel distributed processing system coexist.
In the parallel distributed processing, since processing target data is divided into blocks having defined sizes and the respective blocks are independently processed in parallel simultaneously in multiple servers, the big data can be processed for a short time. Under a situation in which the processing target data is distributed and stored in each server that executes the parallel distributed processing, when processing of data which is stored in another server is allocated to a task on any server, data is transferred between servers, thereby causing processing delay. Therefore, it is disclosed a scheduling method of allocating processing to a task of the networkedly closest server in the servers storing the processing target data at the time of allocating the processing by considering processing efficiency of the parallel distributed processing {see "Hadoop: The Definitive Guide First Edition" written by Tom White, published in Oreilly Media which was issued on January 2010, p. 155 (Non-patent Document 1)}.
Further, a scheduling method is disclosed, which calculates a rate of processing allocation completed data for the stored data and allocates processing of data stored in a server having the smallest rate when processing of the data stored in another server is allocated, in order to reduce the number of transmission times of data between the servers {see Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2010-231502 (Patent Document 1)}.
It is assumed that a priority of the existing system is higher than that of the parallel distributed processing system when the existing system and the parallel distributed processing system operate together. Therefore, the parallel distributed processing system needs to execute processing by using an empty resource of the server so as to prevent the operation of the existing system from being interrupted. As a result, execution multiplicity needs to be dynamically changed to respond to a variation in the load of the existing system for each server, and a difference in a processable data amount of each server per unit time easily occurs. Further, since the execution multiplicity is dynamically changed, it is difficult to arrange data in each server so as to reduce data transfer according to processing performance of each server before executing the parallel distributed processing and there is a possibility that transmission processing of big data will be performed. Under an environment in which the execution multiplicity is dynamically changed, a method of allocating processing of data to each server so as to reduce a data transfer cost while executing the parallel distributed processing is important in terms of efficiency of the parallel distributed processing.

Data transfer control method of parallel distributed processing system, parallel distributed processing system, and recording medium


A liquid crystal display device includes an upper substrate, a lower substrate, a liquid crystal layer between the upper and lower substrates, a transparent electrode consisting of at least two layers of transparent material provided on at least one of the upper and lower substrates and a spacer material jetted onto the transparent electrode by an ink-jet system, wherein the spacer material has a hydrostatic property different from one of the at least two layers of the transparent electrode.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a liquid crystal display, and more particularly to a liquid crystal display and a fabricating method thereof wherein a spacer is positioned for keeping a cell gap.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a liquid crystal display (LCD) controls the light transmittance of each liquid crystal cell in response to a video signal. Accordingly, a picture is displayed corresponding to the video signals on an LCD panel having liquid crystal cells arranged in a matrix. To this end, the LCD panel includes an active area having liquid crystal cells arranged in a matrix and driving circuits for driving the liquid crystal cells in the active area.
Referring to FIG. 1, a conventional LCD includes an upper plate consisting of a black matrix 20, a color filter 16, a common electrode 14 and an upper alignment film 12 that are sequentially provided on the upper substrate 11. The conventional LCD also includes a lower plate consisting of a lower substrate 1 on which a thin film transistor (TFT) 25/6/26/27/28/30, a pixel electrode 22 and a lower alignment film 10 are sequentially provided. In addition, the conventional LCD includes a spacer 24 and a liquid crystal (not shown) provided between the upper plate and the lower plate.
In the lower plate, the TFT includes a gate electrode 25 connected to a gate line (not shown), a source electrode 28 connected to a data line (not shown), and a drain electrode 30 connected, via a contact hole 23, to the pixel electrode 22. Further, the TFT includes a gate insulating film 6 for insulating the gate electrode 25, and an active semiconductor layer 26 on the gate insulating film 6 for creating a conductive channel between the source electrode 28 and the drain electrode 30 when a gate voltage is applied to the gate electrode 25. As shown in FIG. 1, ohmic semiconductor layers 27 are provided between the active layer 26 and the source/drain electrodes 28 and 30 and doped with an impurity for ohmic contacts between the active semiconductor layer 26 and the source electrode 28, and between the active semiconductor layer 26 and the drain electrode 30.
When a gate signal is applied to the gate line of the TFT, a data signal from a data line can be switched through the TFT to the pixel electrode 22. As a result, the liquid crystal is rotated by means of a voltage difference between a data signal applied to the pixel electrode 22 via the TFT and a common voltage Vcom applied to a common electrode 14. Accordingly, light transmission quantity through the liquid crystal is determined by the arrangement of the liquid crystal.
The pixel electrode 22 is positioned at an area adjacent to the intersection of a data line and a gate line, and is made from a transparent conductive material having a high light transmittance. The pixel electrode 22 is provided on a protective film 8 that is on the surface of the lower substrate 1, and is electrically connected, via a contact hole 23 in the protective film 8, to the drain electrode 30. An upper portion of the lower substrate 1, provided with the pixel electrode 22, is coated with an alignment film 10 that is subjected to a rubbing process, which completes the assembly of the lower plate.
The black matrix 20 of the upper plate is formed on the upper substrate 11 in correspondence with the TFT area of the lower plate and an area adjacent to the intersection of a gate line and a data line. The black matrix 20 also defines a liquid crystal cell area in which a color filter 16 will be formed. Further, the black matrix 20 plays a role in preventing light leakage and absorbing an external light such that contrast can be enhanced. The color filter 16 is formed in the cell area as defined by the black matrix 20. The color filter 16 specifically transmits a wavelength of light for a certain color, such as red, green or blue. The common electrode 14 is formed on the color filter 16. An indium-tin-oxide (ITO) with good light transmittance is used as the common electrode 14. Typically, indium-tin-oxide has a hydrostatic property of being hydrophobic. The alignment film 12 is formed by coating an alignment material, such as polyimide, on the common electrode 14 and by performing a rubbing process thereon.
Ball spacers, like ball spacer 24, are sprinkled onto either one of the upper plate or the lower plate of the LCD panel by means of a jet nozzle to keep a gap between the upper plate and the lower plate. The ball spacers should be uniformly distributed for the purpose of keeping a uniform cell gap of the LCD panel. However, it is difficult to uniformly distribute ball spacers due to the randomness in any sprinkling system. If the ball spacers are not uniformly distributed in the LCD panel, the cell gap in individual liquid crystal cells may not be uniform such that a stain-like appearance phenomenon is created in one or more areas on the LCD panel. In addition, if a user applies a pressure to the screen at the exterior of the LCD panel when ball spacers are used, a ripple phenomenon can occur in which the picture on the LCD panel has darkened areas shaped like waves. The darkened wave-shaped areas occur because the ball spacers have been shifted around between the upper plate and the lower plate.
Recently, there has been a study to provide a spacer that is fixed and patterned at a specific location to overcome the disadvantages of the ball spacer 24 and its sprinkling system. Hereinafter, a manufacturing method of the pattern spacer will be described with reference to FIGS. 2A to 2C and FIG. 3. More particularly, FIGS. 2A to 2C are cross-sectional views showing a process of manufacturing a conventional pattern spacer, which will be described in conjunction with FIG. 3, which is a flow chart.
A spacer material 42a, as shown in FIG. 2A is coated onto a substrate 40, as referred to in step S31 of FIG. 3. The substrate 40 can be either one of the upper plate or the lower plate provided with the TFT. The spacer material 42a is a material that is mixed with a solvent, a binder, a monomer and a photo-initiator. As referred to in step S32 of FIG. 3, the spacer material 42a is subject to a pre-curing to eliminate a solvent within the spacer material 42a, thereby making the spacer material 42a into a paste-like state.
Subsequently, as shown in FIG. 2B, a photo mask 44 having a transmission part 44a and a shielding part 44b is aligned on the spacer material 42a. As referred to in step S33 of FIG. 3, when an ultraviolet (UV) ray is radiated onto the spacer material 42a through the photo mask 44, the spacer material corresponding to the transmission part 44a is exposed to the ultraviolet ray.
As shown in FIG. 2C and referred to in step S34 of FIG. 3, the spacer material 42a is patterned. When the spacer material 42a is developed using a negative process, the spacer material 42a that is not exposed to the ultraviolet ray is removed while the spacer material that is exposed to the ultraviolet ray is left. When the spacer material 42a is developed using a positive process, the spacer material 42a that is exposed to the ultraviolet ray is removed while the spacer material that is not exposed to the ultraviolet ray is left. As referred to in step S35 of FIG. 3, the spacer material 42a patterned in this manner is cured to form spacers 42 having a desired height.
The spacers 42 for keeping a cell gap in the LCD can occupy about 20% of the entire area in a liquid crystal cell. If the spacer 42 is formed by the above-mentioned photolithography technique, then more than 95% of the coated spacer material 42a is wasted as a result of a spin-coating process of the photolithographic spacer material. Thus, the conventional photolithography wastes a lot of material in forming the spacer 42 and is inconvenient in that it requires a complex five-step process.
To reduce the waste of material and the number of process step, there has been a spacer formation method suggested using an ink-jet device as shown in FIGS. 4A to 4C. As shown in FIG. 4A, an ink-jet device 50 is aligned to correspond to a formation position of the spacer 58. In this alignment state, ink from the ink-jet device 50 is jetted to the substrate 40. The substrate 40 corresponds to at least one of the upper and lower plates of a LCD panel. The ink-jet device 50 jets ink using a thermal system or a piezoelectric system. Typically, the latter system is used. The ink-jet device 50 using the piezoelectric system consists of a vessel 52 for containing a material to be jetted, and an inkjet head 54 for jetting a material from the vessel 52.
The vessel 52 is filled with the spacer material 58, and the ink-jet head 54 is provided with a piezoelectric device and a nozzle 56 for jetting the spacer material 58 from the vessel 52. When a voltage is applied to the piezoelectric device, then a physical pressure is generated to cause a capillary phenomenon in which a flow path between the vessel 52 and the nozzle 56 repeatedly contracts and relaxes. Due to this capillary phenomenon, the spacer material 58 jets out of the nozzle 56 onto the substrate 40, as shown in FIG. 4A. Then, a curing process is used that exposes the spacer material 58 on the substrate 40 to an ultraviolet ray from a light source (not shown). Thus, the spacer material 58 can be hardened into a spacer 59, as shown in FIG. 4B.
Since the spacer material 58 has a hydrostatic property of being hydrophilic, the spacer 49 does not have good adhesion with the common electrode 14 that is also hydrophobic. Although the spacer may have a minimum height for keeping the cell gaps between the upper plate and the lower plate of the LCD panel, the lack of adhesion between the spacer and a plate of the LCD panel enables the spacers to move around.

Liquid crystal display and a fabricating method thereof


Two signals at different frequencies are optionally amplified or attenuated in an automatic gain control amplifier (1) after their reception, then separated from each other by means of band pass filters (2, 5) and amplitude-modulated by means of envelope curve detectors (3, 6), whereupon the envelope curve signals (z.sub.0 [t], z.sub.1 [t]) are sampled by means of sampling switches (4, 7) once per bit to produce sample values (z.sub.0 [kT.sub.b ], z.sub.1 [kT.sub.b ]) which are passed to a calculator unit (8) whose memory stores values of a decision table which are derived from a probability table. Each table area of the latter contains two probability values of which a first is the probability that the sample values (z.sub.0 [kT.sub.b ], z.sub.1 [kT.sub.b ]) lie in the respective table area if the first signal were sent and a second is the probability that the sample values (z.sub.0 [kT.sub.b ], z.sub.1 [kT.sub.b ]) lie in the respective table area if the second signal were sent. Set down in a table area of the decision table is a respective first logic value if the first probability value is greater than the second probability value and a respective second logic value if the first probability value is less than or equal to the second probability value. The process combines the advantages of the noncoherent demodulation process and the spread spectrum process.

The demodulation process according to the invention may be used in receivers, preferably in relation to transmissions in which the noise power density spectrum of a transmission channel used, as a function of the frequency f, is not constant, and its characteristic is also not known to the receivers. Under those circumstances it is not possible to select two frequencies of a frequency shift keying process, so that the noise power density spectra of the transmission channel are as small as possible at the two frequencies, that is to say, two shifted signals of the frequency shift keying process, which belong to the two frequencies and which are both a respective function of the time are disturbed as little as possible. On the contrary it is to be expected that--if the two frequencies are close together, as is usual in a conventional frequency shift keying process--both shifted signals occur in a severely disturbed frequency range. For such situations, the use if possible of a spread band process (or "spread spectrum" process) is recommended in the literature, for example in the book "Digital Communications and Spread Spectrum Systems", R. E. Ziemer and R. L. Peterson, Macmillan Publishing Company, New York, 1985, pages 327 to 328. However such processes suffer from the disadvantage that they are expensive to carry into effect.
A process of the kind to which this invention relates is known from the publication IEEE Trans. on Communications, Sept. 86, Vol. COM-34, No. 9 "Minimax Noncoherent Detection of BFSK Signals in Nonwhite Gaussian Noise", T. Schaub and B. Steinle, pages 955 to 958, in which it is shown that if the ratio of the noise power densities at the two frequencies is not unity (see FIG. 1), a conventional noncoherent frequency shift keying receiver supplies the same reception results as if the two shifted signals were disturbed, with the same mean noise power density. Also shown therein is a possible solution as to the way in which, for the case of non unity noise power density ratio, the bit error probability of the transmitted binary data can be reduced, in comparison with the case where the ratio is unity. For that purpose, two weighting factors, with which the two shifted signals are multiplied, after they have first been previously separated from each other in the receiver and amplitude-modulated, are optimised.
The invention is based on the problem of improving the known demodulation process and realising a demodulation process which combines the simplicity of the noncoherent demodulation process with the advantages of the spread spectrum process.


A composition, process of preparation, and utility of salts of fatty acid esters of amino-alcohols such as dimethylaminoethanol (DMAE) as emulsifiers useful for formulating with lipids and waxes is described. DMAE fatty acid esters were prepared enzymatically in the absence of added solvent, and then salified directly with carboxylic acids to form the salts. The compounds were used to make stable emulsions with a variety of cosmetically acceptable lipids.

Within the field of cosmetic formulations, there is an increasing need for preparation of ingredients that avoid or at least reduce organic solvent and toxic reagent use, employ reagents that are themselves biocompatible and that optimally use starting materials derived from a natural source or are "nature-equivalent." In particular, there is a need for new emulsifier systems that fulfill these needs, and also allow the formation of stable emulsions with a variety of cosmetic lipids. Additional performance benefits that are needed from such a cosmetic emulsifier are good dispersibility in the water phase of an emulsion and compatibility with a low pH formulation. Further features that are desirable are (liquid) pourability at room temperature for ease of processing, no objectionable odor, and the contribution to desirable visual effects such as a pearlescent appearance.


Methods for detecting the presence or absence of an analyte in a sample are disclosed. Kits for performing the analysis methods of the invention are also disclosed.

Biochemical assays such as immunoassays (e.g., enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)) and methods for detecting nucleic acid sequences in a test sample are well known. In such assays, high sensitivity is important to ensuring the ability of the assay to detect low levels of the analyte of interest. Radioactive and colorimetric methods have often been employed in such assays. However, achieving high levels of sensitivity has not always been possible, and methods of increasing the sensitivity of such tests are desirable.
One reported method (European Patent Publication EP 128 332) for detecting analytes, including nucleic acid sequences and antigens (or antibodies), is the use of a "bridging moiety," which provides a bridge between an analyte and a "signalling moiety" which provides a detectable signal. The bridging moiety includes an analyte-specific region and a signalling moiety-specific region. This method has the advantage that, by varying the bridging moiety according to the target analyte, the same signalling moiety can be employed to detect a variety of analytes. However, the preparation of the bridging moieties can be rather lengthy and inefficient. Also, large bridging moieties (such a long polynucleotide sequences) may be less sensitive at detecting target analyte due to the presence of large segments which do not bind to the target. Moreover, this method requires that the analyte-specific region and a signalling moiety-specific region of the bridging moiety be different.
Another publication (U.S. Pat. No. 5,627,030 to Pandian et al.) describes the use of a primary probe for detecting a target nucleic acid sequence, and an "amplification probe", which is a nucleic acid sequence which includes two regions: a first region complementary to the primary probe, and a second region which contains repeated sequences for binding to a plurality of labeled probes. The amplification probe permits several labeled probes to bind to each primary probe, amplifying the signal from the binding of the primary probe to the target molecule in the sample. However, construction of the amplification probe can be cumbersome.


A method, system and graphical user interface for generating, deploying and/or executing one or more workflows are provided. The method includes obtaining, via a graphical-user interface, information for executing a plurality of tasks of a workflow, wherein the information defines an abstraction of at least one function of the plurality of tasks, and forming, from the information, a record for executing a workflow, wherein the record is operable to be dispatched to facilitate execution of the workflow.

Field
The following relates to graphical-user interfaces. More particularly, the following relates to a graphical-user interface and associated system for generating, deploying and/or executing one or more workflows.
Related Art
A company can employ one or more business processes and other workflows to carry out their core and ancillary businesses. These workflows may include, for example, a workflow to facilitate processing of information as it moves among or within any business disciplines, including purchasing, manufacturing, marketing, sales, accounting, recruitment, information-technology support and the like, of the company and/or its clients, vendors, supplier, etc.
To facilitate the processing of the information, this workflow defines two or more tasks, which are organized and connected in a particular, and hopefully, an efficient fashion. Each of the tasks for may be any automatable activity of the business disciplines in which information input to such task ("input information") may be operated on and/or output. Examples of the tasks include downloading information from remote servers, converting files between formats, processing updates, communicating with customer or order-management systems, sending email messages, automatically backing up changes, etc.
Often, the input information for each of the tasks resides in or has to be entered (e.g., from physical files) into one or more data files of a plurality of computer systems of the company and/or its clients, vendors, supplier, etc. While some of these computer systems employ compatible platforms and protocols ("compatible systems"), some of the computer systems invariably employ disparate platforms and/or protocols ("incompatible systems"). Unfortunately, the incompatible systems make accessing and communicating the input information among the computer systems difficult, at best.
Conventional solutions for automating access to and/or communicating the input information between the compatible and incompatible systems include (i) manual solutions, and (ii) automatic solutions. The manual solutions utilize people to interface with the incompatible systems, whereby such people manually transfer the input information to and from the incompatible computers. The automatic solutions, on the other hand, employ customized software and/or hardware that are specifically adapted to interface with the incompatible systems ("customized interface").
While the conventional solutions may fit a particular need given a certain set of circumstances, such conventional solutions can be costly to the company in terms of time, money, and resources. For example, the company has an initial expense of time, money and resources to create, test, implement and provide support for an initial version of the customized interface. When, however, the input information resides on incompatible systems not considered or overlooked when creating the initial version of the customized interface, the company has an additional expense of time, money and resources to create, test, implement and provide support for an additional version of the customized interface. Moreover, the company may incur other additional expenses of time, money and resources to form new or reworked implementations when the customized interface no longer properly functions, if at all, due to updates, upgrades or other modifications to the computer systems.
Therefore, what is needed is a system and method for facilitating a generation, deployment and/or execution of a workflow in which access to and communication of input information among the computer systems having both compatible and disparate platforms and/or protocols does not require customized interfaces. That is, a system and method for facilitating a generation, deployment and/or execution of a workflow that facilitates interoperability between the computer systems both compatible and disparate platforms and/or protocols. What is further needed is a system and method for facilitating a generation, deployment and/or execution of a workflow in which access to and communication of input information may be provided despite updates, upgrades or other changes to the computer systems having and/or addition of computer systems.

System, method and graphical user interface for workflow generation, deployment and/or execution


A design for a bridge plug wherein the slip elements include an outer contact portion to engage a surrounding tubular member and an inner body portion designed to easily disintegrate during removal of the bridge plug by subsequent milling. The inner body portion is formed of a softer material than the outer contact portion. Also, the inner body portion is made up of a plurality of segments that are readily separated and dispsersed during milling out.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to the design of bridge plug slips.
2. Description of the Related Art
Bridge plugs are used to form closures in a flowbore. Often, a bridge plug will need to be removed, and this is done by milling through the plug. Unfortunately, milling through most conventional bridge plug designs leaves large pieces which may be difficult to circulate out of the flowbore.


An electrical power distribution system includes a circuit splitting mechanism configured to receive electrical power and to output a plurality of separate electrical circuits. A connector has a plurality of contacts, each contact connected to one circuit of the plurality of separate electrical circuits and each contact is selected to conduct at least one of an elevated current and an elevated voltage. A plurality of wires in a tubular housing is provided to carry the power over the plurality of separate electrical circuits in parallel and includes a connector with contacts. The wire and the contacts are each selected to conduct at least one of an elevated current and an elevated voltage. The system includes connectors and contacts that are arranged and adapted to enable a contact to be readily manually engaged with, and disengaged from, a corresponding contact.

Installing electrical power lines and wiring within buildings, particularly within large buildings, normally requires a custom/different configuration in the field for each locale and installation of a multitude of custom made conduits, railings, overhead struts, wiring and cabling, assemblies for supporting electrical components, tubing, circuit splitting and electrically powered device interconnections. Pre-existing electrical power distribution components have been devised for expediting the installation of electrical power throughout buildings. Devices such as switch assemblies, power panels, circuit breaker boxes, multi-circuit cabling and the like have been employed in the past in the set-up of large scale power distribution systems. The task of connecting a master or original source of power to the multitude of individual devices that are typically used within a building that require electrical power remains a labor intensive task of routing and connecting individual wires or collections of wires along extensive distances that are disposed along overhead, underground or floor level locations.

System and method for distribution of electrical power


Systems and methods for evaluating insulin medicament dosage regimen adherence by a subject are provided. A description of metabolic events the subject engaged in is obtained. Each event comprises a timestamp and a classification that is one of insulin regimen adherent and insulin regimen nonadherent. Events are binned into consecutive time windows on the basis of time to obtain a plurality of subsets. Adherence values are computed. Each adherence value is for a subset and is computed by dividing the insulin regimen adherent events by the total number of events in the subset. Adherence values are combined into a composite value by a process that comprises downweighting a first adherence value, representing a first time window, with respect to a second adherence value, representing a second time window, when the first time window occurs in time before the second time window. The composite value is communicated as a single representation.

Type 2 diabetes mellitus is characterized by progressive disruption of normal physiologic insulin secretion. In healthy individuals, basal insulin secretion by pancreatic β cells occurs continuously to maintain steady glucose levels for extended periods between meals. Also in healthy individuals, there is prandial secretion in which insulin is rapidly released in an initial first-phase spike in response to a meal, followed by prolonged insulin secretion that returns to basal levels after 2-3 hours.
Insulin is a hormone that binds to insulin receptors to lower blood glucose by facilitating cellular uptake of glucose, amino acids, and fatty acids into skeletal muscle and fat and by inhibiting the output of glucose from the liver. In normal healthy individuals, physiologic basal and prandial insulin secretions maintain euglycemia, which affects fasting plasma glucose and postprandial plasma glucose concentrations. Basal and prandial insulin secretion is impaired in Type 2 diabetes and early post-meal response is absent. To address these adverse events, patients with Type 2 diabetes are provided with insulin treatment regimens. Patients with Type 1 diabetes are also provided with insulin treatment regimens.
Some diabetic patients only need a basal insulin treatment regimen to make up for deficiencies in pancreatic β cells insulin secretion. Other diabetic patients need both basal and bolus insulin treatment. Patients that require both basal and bolus insulin treatment take a periodic basal insulin medicament treatment, for instance once or twice a day, as well as one or more bolus insulin medicament treatments with meals.
The goal of insulin treatment regimens is to achieve steady glucose levels. One way to measure their success is to take continuous glucose level measurements or to measure HbA1c levels. The term "HbA1c" refers to glycated haemoglobin. It develops when haemoglobin, a protein within red blood cells that carries oxygen throughout the body, joins with glucose in the blood, thus becoming "glycated." By measuring glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c), health care practitioners are able to get an overall picture of average glucose levels over a period of weeks/months. For people with diabetes, the higher the HbA1c, the greater the risk of developing diabetes-related complications
Insulin treatment regimen nonadherence is a barrier that prevents diabetic patients from reaching suitable HbA1c goals. Insulin treatment regimen adherence is typically defined as the degree to which a patient correctly follows medical advice (e.g., a standing insulin treatment regimen for a subject comprising at least a basal insulin medicament dosage regimen), but can also be, for example, consistency in diet and exercise. The reasons for nonadherence are many and different. One reason for nonadherence is poor health literacy and comprehension of treatment. Patients fail to understand glucose measurement results, lack positive feedback when adherent, or feel a lack of urgency. Another reason for nonadherence is the fear of side effects. For instance, the fear of hypoglycaemia if the patient strictly adheres to the standing insulin regimen. Yet another reason for nonadherence is the hassle and time-consuming aspect of conventional standing insulin regimens, which often entail home-logging data and frequent injections and glucose measurements. Still another reason for nonadherence is an inability to pinpoint the source of nonadherence that is the actual source of the adverse effect on stable glucose levels.
International Publication Number WO 2012/152295 A2 to Insulin Medical Ltd. optimizes insulin absorption by using one or more sensors and actuators configured to provide data relating to a user's meal status, meal timing, the timing of administered drug, drug dose, drug type, the logging of user activity, and the analysis thereof. For instance, WO 2012/152295 A2 discloses a device that may be placed over an injection site or an injection port to treat the tissue at the injection site, while collecting information on the injected drug at the time of injections with an option to provide feedback to the user, such as alerts on missed injections. WO 2012/152295 A2 further discloses using meal data and other subject data, such as the activity of the subject, to facilitate mapping the subject activity relative to injection events and optionally meal events to provide for fine control of the systemic metabolic process of glucose and insulin and therefore minimize occurrence of post prandial hyperglycemic and hypoglycemic events. However, WO 2012/152295 A2 fails to provide satisfactory ways to determine and quantify the effects of insulin regimen adherence, or lack thereof, on the health of a subject (e.g., glucose levels of the subject). Moreover, generally, WO 2012/152295 A2 fails to provide overall feedback on the subject's adherence to an insulin medicament regimen.
International Publication Number WO 2014/037365 A1 to Roche Diagnostics GMBH describes methods and apparatuses for analyzing blood glucose data and events and, in particular, to computer implemented methods for visualizing correlations between blood glucose data and events associated with the blood glucose data such as meals. However, WO 2014/037365 A1 fails to disclose any categorization of meals in terms of insulin regimen adherence. Further, WO 2014/037365 A1 fails to provide satisfactory ways in which to determine and quantify the effects of insulin regimen adherence, or lack thereof, on the health of a subject.
US Publication Number US 2015/0006462 A1 describes a system for managing a patient's medical adherence, wherein the system is adapted for performing a method comprising receiving data related to a patient, the data including information related to a prescribed medication regimen having one or more medications, patient behavior data, a respective literacy level associated with each of the one or more medications. The method further comprises calculating a compliance to dosage and a compliance to time for each of the one or more medications based on the received data. Compliance to dosage, can for example be calculated as if a patient was prescribed 10 units of a medication in a day and took only 8 units, the respective compliance to disease is obtained by dividing the amount of units actually consumed by the prescribed units. In this instance it would be 0.8. Compliance to time, can for example be calculated as follows. For ten dosages prescribed throughout the day, the Boolean values may be utilized to calculate an overall value for the day. For example, if 8 out of 10 actual consumption times for a particular medication complied with the prescribed dosage times, then the actual consumption time would be assigned a "1" for those 8 instances and a "0" would be assigned for the other two instances. Accordingly a compliance value of 0.8 may be calculated for the compliance to time for that particular medicine by dividing the overall Boolean value with the total instances. The method further comprises calculating a drug adherence count associated with each of the one or more medications by summing at least two of the compliance to dosage, compliance to time and the respective literacy level associated with each of the one or more medications. The literacy level is a metric to assess the familiarity of a patient with a prescribed regimen and its medications, and it may be impacted based on the occurrence of a condition based on lack of medical adherence by a patient, e.g., effects based on user behaviour, such as lowering of blood sugar level due to missing medication. The method further comprises determining a daily medication adherence value and a daily medication adherence baseline value, and a threshold based on the ratio between the two values. The threshold can be used to determine whether an intervention is required. However, US 2015/006462 A1 fails to disclose how to automatically obtain metabolic events that are related to the prescribed insulin medicament dosage regimen, and thereby fails to systematically monitor adherence for a subject engaged in such metabolic events as a part of the daily routines. In fact US 2015/0006462 A1 suggests a generic method for any medicament, where it is assumed that the prescribed dose events are independent of the users behavior, e.g., 10 units or 10 doses are taken during a day or at prescribed times. Such a method would fail to track adherence, where the number of bolus injection events may vary due to user behavior, e.g., the user have more meals than expected. In general, US 2015/006462 A1 does not solve the problem of how to systematically allow tracking of adherence based on well defined reference points in time, and is limited to track adherence within the boundaries specified by periods, where the beginning of the period and the end of the period is pre-defined in relation to the structure of a calendar, e.g., 10 units during a day.
A drawback of adherence algorithms based on calendar periods can be explained by considering an example for a basal insulin dosage regimen specifying 1 bolus injection per day, in combination with an adherence tracking algorithm based on a calendar day of 24 hours. The calendar day starts at midnight. On the first day of the example basal insulin is injected at 23:00 PM, on the second day basal insulin is omitted, but on the third day basal insulin is injected at 00:30 AM, and 23:00 PM. In that case an adherence algorithm based on a 24 hours calendar day would characterize day 1 as in-adherence but day 2 and 3 as nonadherent. Three injections were applied with some degree of regularity, but only 1 out of three days were categorized in adherence. Although US 2015/006462 suggests that adherence can be a function of a time delay, this functional relation is only possible, if at well defined reference time is established, as is the case in the described example where insulin is to be injected a 2 PM with an expectation of a meal to be consumed at 2:30. However, as mentioned previously user behaviour does not always follow expectations and there can be drawbacks associated with the use of expectations for reference times, and as also mentioned there can be drawbacks associated with only using calendar days to establish a measure of basal adherence.
The described method of US 2015/0006462 comprises, calculating a drug adherence count serving as a metric that accounts for a consumed medication and may be calculated as the sum of at least two of the compliance with respective prescribed time of the day when it is supposed to be taken, compliance with respective prescribed dosage of the medication, and a patent literacy about the medications in the regimen. The described method further comprises determining a daily medication adherence, based on the drug adherence count and a drug importance factor, and a daily regimen adherence value can be calculated as a sum of the daily medication adherence for each individual medication.
However, for some purposes it is desired to have a single value being a metric of compliance over a larger time range, instead of detailed information of compliance on the individual days of the treatment. US 2015/0006462 fails to show a solution for this purpose, as it is not an object of the described method.
Given the above background, what is needed in the art are systems and methods that provide satisfactory ways to provide insulin regimen adherence feedback to diabetic patients or health care practitioners.
The object of the present disclosure is to provide systems and methods that provide satisfactory ways to provide insulin regimen adherence feedback to diabetic patients or health care practitioners.

Systems and methods for analysis of insulin regimen adherence data


The present invention relates to a patch and method for providing therapy to an individual. The patch and method provide a user or therapist with the flexibility to apply a patch to highly contoured areas on the individual's body. In some embodiments, the patch includes a body that applies therapy to the individual when the patch is placed on the individual. The patch further includes at least one cut in the body of the patch. In other example embodiments, the present invention relates to a method of providing therapy to an individual. The method includes selecting a patch that provides therapy to an individual. The patch includes a body and at least one cut in the body. The method further includes applying the patch to the individual where the cut in the body allows the patch to conform to the individual as the patch is applied to the individual.

Applying therapy to various parts of a body is a recognized practice for curing or alleviating multiple kinds of physical problems. One example therapy involves cooling an area of a body by applying ice packs near the area of the body in an effort to reduce swelling, inflammation and/or muscle pain. Another example therapy applies heat to an area of a body using a heating pad to treat symptoms such as stiffness, muscle pain, cold hands and feet, lumbago, rheumatism and neuralgia (among others). Other therapies include applying an analgesic (for pain) or an antibiotic (for infection) to the area of the body.
One concern with using heating pads and ice bags to apply therapy is that they are difficult to attach to an area of a body because they need to be held in place by the injured person or someone assisting the injured person. Holding a heating pad or ice bag against an injured area of a body can cause patient discomfort because a relatively large force is typically required in order to keep the ice bag or heating pad in place.
Another method of cooling or heating an area of a body includes applying hot or cold patches against the area of the body. A patch is typically attached directly, or indirectly, to the area of the body using an adhesive. An analgesic and/or antibiotic may also be incorporated into such a patch in order to treat the area for pain and/or infection.
A typical cold patch generates cooling via an endothermic reaction that takes place within the cold patch. The cold patch usually includes a solute and a liquid that are both stored within a common enclosure. The liquid and solute are initially segregated from another within the enclosure and then mixed within the enclosure to form an endothermic solution that reduces the temperature of the cold patch.
A typical heat patch generates heat via an exothermic reaction that takes place within the heat patch. Heat patches that generate heat using an exothermic reaction usually include an enclosure and a heating composition which is stored within the enclosure. At least one section of the enclosure is air-permeable such that exposing the heating composition to air generates an exothermic reaction that increases the temperature of the heat patch.
One drawback with using patches to apply therapy is that they are typically made in certain sizes and shapes. Therefore, a particular patch may be suitable for applying therapy to some areas on an individual's body but not other areas. In addition, many conventional patches are unable to conform to highly contoured areas of an individual's body when the patches are applied to the individual.
There is a need for a patch and method that allow a user or therapist to conveniently provide therapy to an individual. The patch and method should allow a user or therapist to provide therapy to highly contoured areas of an individual's body.

System and method for providing therapy to an individual


The described exhaust gas purifier arrangement for an internal combustion engine provides gas purification efficiency while maintaining high output levels by providing an annular thin-walled catalyst element surrounding gas discharge openings in an expansion pipe having a closed downstream end whereby gas flowing in the expansion pipe is caused to flow radially through the thin-walled catalyst element into a chamber from whence it is conducted to a silencer element for further processing prior to discharge from a tail pipe.

An exhaust gas purifier, shown in FIG. 11, has been disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 3-22913, wherein a perforated pipe 02 having a plurality of ventilation holes 03 spaced apart from each other at intervals is disposed along the inner peripheral surface of an expansion chamber 01 connected to an exhaust port of an internal combustion engine.
In the purifier shown in FIG. 11, a tail pipe 04 directed toward the upstream side is disposed in the expansion chamber 01 at the downstream end thereof in such a manner as to be coaxial therewith. An exhaust gas passable catalyst 05 is mounted at the upstream end of the tail pipe 04. Part of the exhaust gas flowing from the exhaust port of the internal combustion engine into the expansion chamber 01 is brought into contact with a catalyst supported on the surface of the perforated pipe 03 positioned on the upstream side, to be thus purified; while the exhaust gas in the expansion chamber 01 is brought in contact with the exhaust gas passable catalyst 05 on the downstream side, to be thus purified.
The purifier shown in FIG. 11, however, has the following disadvantage. In such a purifier, the gas flowing nearer the inner peripheral surface of the expansion chamber 01, is significantly reduced in flow rate because presented by a resistance of the inner peripheral surface of the expansion chamber 01. As a result, most of the exhaust gas passing through the center of the expansion chamber 01 at a high flow rate tends not to be brought in contact with the catalyst supported on the perforated pipe 03 adjacent to the inner peripheral surface of the expansion chamber 01, and to be discharged from the tail pipe 04 to the exterior, thus failing to obtain a sufficient purifying effect by the catalyst supported on the pipe 03.
In this purifier, the exhaust gas passable catalyst 05 is disposed at the center of the downstream side of the expansion chamber 01 in such a manner as to project from the downstream side to the upstream side. Consequently, even if the size and shape of the expansion chamber 01 is set to enhance the scavenging efficiency by the inertia effect of an exhaust gas in a normal operational range of the internal combustion engine, as well as the blow-off preventive effect using a reflection wave of the exhaust gas, these effects cannot be achieved by the presence of the above exhaust gas passable catalyst 05, thus failing to enhancing the scavenging efficiency.
An exhaust gas purifier shown in FIG. 12 has been disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 3-127017. This is modified from the purifier shown in FIG. 11. In this purifier, an upstream end 011 of an expansion pipe 010 formed in a shape similar to that of a prior art expansion chamber is connected to an exhaust port of a two-cycle internal combustion engine mounted on a motor-bicycle (not shown). The downstream end 012 (on the right side in the figure) of the expansion pipe 010 is closed. An exhaust pipe 013 is branched from the expansion pipe 010 at a position near the upstream end 011, and a thin-wall catalyst element 014 is disposed on the inner peripheral surface of the exhaust pipe 013 at a position near the upstream end. In the catalyst element 014, catalyst is supported on the surface just as in the perforated pipe 03 of the purifier shown in FIG. 11. The downstream end of the exhaust pipe 013 is connected to a silencer 015.
In the purifier shown in FIG. 12, the scavenging efficiency is improved because any component disturbing the reflection of a pressure wave is not present on the inner surface of the expansion pipe 010. However, like the catalyst supported on the pipe 03 shown in FIG. 11, exhaust gas cannot be sufficiently brought in contact with the catalyst element 014, thus failing to obtain a high scavenging efficiency.


A projectile for being launched from a hand-operable air gun includes a housing having a conductive sleeve and a rubber seal disposed at an end portion thereof. The device includes a strike plate including a conductive contact ring having apertures randomly spaced therethrough and spike members electrically coupled thereto. A conductive tip is attachable to the housing and includes flange portions extending therefrom. The device further includes a mechanism for oscillating the strike plate and a power supply source electrically coupled to the tip and the strike members respectively. The tip distributes a positive charge to the target and the strike members distribute a negative charge to the target, inducing a short circuit and thereby disabling an electronic control module of the target upon impact.

1. Technical Field
This invention relates to a vehicle disabling device and, more particularly, to a mobile electrical device for disabling a moving vehicle.
2. Prior Art
To this date, the known non-lethal and sub-lethal electrical weapons that have been designed to render a target subject less than completely functional have relied on low-frequency, high-voltage currents to shock, stun, or disorient the target subject.
One device is a handheld weapon from which two small projectiles are fired at the target subject. Each projectile is attached to a fine conductive wire so as to deliver an electrical current to stun the target subject. The principal drawback of this type of device is that it cannot be used against a suspect that is fleeing in a car. The weapon is thus of little value if it must be used against a moving vehicle. Further, the weapon is classified as a firearm because the projectiles are propelled by nitrocellulose powder charges, and it is therefore subject to all the legal restrictions applied to firearms.
In volatile situations, it is desirable to effectively calm the individual without risking injury to others, especially those proximate to the situation, while using reasonable force against the individual. There are many prior art devices available which can be implemented by law enforcement personnel, each appropriate for a given situation. Tear gas is one such example.
In the case of a police chase, however, the officer(s) are usually forced to use drastic measures such forcing the car off the road with their own vehicle, laying down spike strips to disable the fleeing vehicle, or shoot out the fleeing vehicle's tires, thus disabling it. These measures all present a threat to the police officer(s), the fleeing criminal, and most importantly, to the public.
Accordingly, a need remains for a mobile electrical device for disabling a moving vehicle. The present invention satisfies such a need by providing a device that is easy and safe to use prior to and during a high-speed chase. The device disables a criminal's car, eliminating the dangerous high-speed chase that might have ensued otherwise.

Mobile electrical device for disabling a moving vehicle


Various techniques manage a storage system. Such techniques involve: in response to detecting that a first request of a plurality of requests initiated for a bulk request is completed, determining a response time length for the first request, the bulk request being used to migrate data from a first storage device to a second storage device, each request of the plurality of requests being used to read data from the first storage device and write data to the second storage device; determining an average response time length of the completed requests of the plurality of requests based at least in part on the response time length for the first request; and updating the number of the plurality of requests initiated for the bulk request based on the average response time length.

At present, there is a need in many cases to non-destructively migrate a logic unit (LU) within a storage array, for example, transfer a LU from a storage pool to another storage pool, and change the type of the UL, and so on. During LUs migration, the storage array needs to transfer data from a source to a destination and serve IOs non-destructively from a host at the same time.
However, in the current storage system, when a bulk request for a segment of the LU is initiated, as many as possible free requests will be obtained from free request pools to process the bulk request. This may affect the performance of the host IO, and may cause backend overload. In addition, this may cause a less efficient use of requests, for example, more requests handle the bulk request with a very slow response time, or more requests handle the bulk request with a very quick response time.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide an improved solution for managing a storage system.

Method and device of managing storage system