Method and apparatus for reducing address/function transfer pins in a system where cache memories in a system controller are accessed by a number of instruction processors. The reduction of pins is obtained by using two data transfers. The increase in data addressing time, which would otherwise occur using two data transfers, is reduced to nearly the time of the data transfers themselves by responding to the first data transfer while the second data transfer is taking place.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to general purpose digital data processing systems, and more particularly to such systems that employ second level caches accessed by a plurality of users over data lines.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In modern high performance data processing systems, significant performance enhancements can be achieved by using the concept of parallelism. Parallelism allows multiple things to occur simultaneously. This may reduce the effects of performance inhibitors such as queuing times that are typically associated with shared resources. Parallelism, however, often requires dedicated interfaces, and thus results in an increase in the number of I/O signals required within the system.
As integrated circuit technology advances, more and more logic can be housed within a single chip. Having more logic within a single chip can result in interface problems if the chip does not have enough I/O pins to provide for all of the input and output signals that are required. In a growing number of cases, there are too few pins to provide dedicated interfaces for all of the desired signals.
Multiprocessor systems that have an instruction processor and a storage controller typically have a function/address interface extending therebetween. In some industry standard systems, the instruction processor interfaces to the storage controller via a dedicated function/address bus, which is a highly parallel connection. In this configuration, the instruction processor may provide the entire address to the storage controller at the beginning of each memory access. This may allow the memory access to be completed in the minimum amount time, at least relative to the shared bus approach, but is typically a relatively expensive solution in terms of I/O pins and interconnect traces.
To overcome these limitations, some systems utilize a serial function/address bus, which is a highly serialized connection. Because the function/address bus is highly serialized, it provides a low cost interface, at least in terms of the number of I/O pins and interconnect, but typically does not provide high performance. Further, as more instruction processors are added to the multiprocessor system, there is typically more contention for the bus and the overall system performance may decrease.
It has been recognized that the optimum design goal may be to maximize the parallelism where it has the most effect on performance, and reduce the parallelism where it has the least affect performance. The result may reduce the number of I/O pins while still providing the desired performance. Thus, it would be desirable to achieve a function/address interface that has the same performance as the fully parallel designs, but with substantially less interconnect.

Reduced instruction processor/storage controller interface


A system for increasing the power delivered to a brushless dc or induction motor from a sinusoidal motor drive by maximizing the dynamic range available to the motor winding excitation signals. According to one embodiment of the invention, sinusoidal excitation currents are applied to all but one of the primary windings of a brushless dc or induction motor. A variable voltage drive is applied to the one remaining winding. The voltage drive maximizes the dynamic range available to the sinusoidal excitation currents by selecting the voltage applied to that one remaining winding to be the difference between one half the dc source voltage and the instantaneous average of the highest and lowest of the motor terminal voltages.

This invention relates to a control system for polyphase electrical motors. More particularly, it relates to an electronic system for providing sinusoidal excitation signals to ac and brushless dc motors.
Traditionally, dc electric motors utilized a brush and commutator design including a rotor located within a stator. In a dc motor, a rotating field-flux is established in the air gap between the rotor and stator by the stator, either through permanent magnets or by a field winding distributed about the stator. Generally, the rotor has a plurality of windings, distributed about its axis, which accomodate the current required to achieve the desired electrical power level. The rotor is in turn coupled to the motor shaft. The brush and commutator mechanism switches excitation currents from a dc power source to the rotor windings. The rotor revolves as a result of the interaction between the field-flux created in the air gap and the current flowing in the rotor windings.
It is well known in the art that the torque contribution by any one rotor winding varies sinusoidally with the rotor position. To establish continuous torque, the brush-type motors typically employ many separate rotor windings. As a result, by the time that the torque contribution due to one rotor winding is detectably waning due to a change in the rotor position, the brush and commutator mechanism is already switching the excitation current to the next rotor winding. Consequently, brush-type motors provide a relatively constant shaft torque.
Nevertheless, brush-type motors suffer from several reliability problems. One problem is that the brushes, typically made of carbon, wear away, creating a conductive carbon powder which must be cleaned out periodically. Another problem is that sparking, at the commutator, makes it difficult to use the motor in many environments. A third problem is that periodic replacement of the brushes and re-machining of the commutator segments is necessary.
An alternate to a dc motor is an induction motor. Such motors include power handling or primary windings on the stator, with secondary windings arranged in a shorted turn configuration about the rotor. Through the use of the shorted turn configuration, induction motors avoid the need for mechanical brushes and commutators. As a result, induction motors are generally considered more reliable and less expensive to maintain then their brushed predecessors. Consequently, they are popular as replacements for the older brush-type designs. However, induction motors are considered somewhat more difficult to control, particularly in variable speed applications and in servo systems which require many velocity changes and torque reversals. Such is a result of the nonlinear relationship between torque and applied current in an induction motor.
In the last ten or fifteen years, a new class of motor, the brushless dc or synchronous motor, has been developed. It combines the control ease of the brush-type motor with the reliability of the induction motor. Field flux is typically established by a permanent magnet assembly contained in the rotor. An excitation current is periodically switched between a plurality of phase windings distributed about the stator. Torque is generated, and the motor shaft rotates, as a result of the interaction between the field-flux in the air gap and the phase winding currents.
Instead of switching phase winding currents with a brush and commutator mechanism, synchronous motors generally utilize external electronic switches. A typical controller senses shaft position (e.g., using a resolver or magnetic reed switches), and then uses the position information to control switching (typically with transistors) of excitation currents to particular phase windings at the appropriate times.
Unlike the brush-type dc motors, the newer motors usually have only three phase windings, requiring six commutation changes per cycle. Early brushless motor controllers, called "six-step" controllers, utilized whatever drive voltage was available and abruptly switched it between the phase windings in a periodic six-step sequence. Such an approach tended to produce substantial torque ripple and mechanical noise.
One solution to the torque ripple problem has been to employ what are known as sinewave controllers. In a sinewave controller, the rotor windings are driven with a voltage (or current) excitation which smoothly transits from winding to winding instead of being abruptly switched. This is accomplished in some prior art three phase systems by using a plurality of high frequency, two-state modulators driving electronic switches to synthesize two drive current phases from a dc power source. One phase current is coupled into a first stator winding while the other is coupled into a second stator winding. The current in the third stator winding is necessarily set by Kirchoff's Current Law, as the negative of the sum of the currents in the first and second windings. Therefore, the third winding is typically driven with a voltage drive. One such system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,306,182 and 4,467,262. According to those patents, the voltage, coupled to the third winding is controlled as a function of the current error signals from the other two terminals.
While sinewave drive controllers such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,306,182 and 4,467,262, provide a quiet motor drive system with low torque ripple, they generate less power and must operate at lower speed than do their square wave counterparts. The reason is that a square wave of a particular frequency contains more energy than does a sinewave of the same peak amplitude and same fundamental frequency.
Accordingly, one object of the present invention is to provide a system which minimizes the effect of the power loss suffered as a result of utilizing a sinewave type motor controller.
A second object of the invention is to maximize the power transferred to a particular motor from a particular dc voltage source by enhancing the dynamic range available to the motor terminal voltages and thus, the excitation signals applied to the motor's primary windings.
Another object of the invention is to provide a system for modulating a voltage source to set the voltage at the wye-center node in a way which maximizes the dynamic range available to the motor terminal voltages.
Other general and specific objects of the invention will in part be obvious and will in part appear hereinafter.

Method and apparatus for dynamic range optimization in a PWM motor drive

The Charles StarkDraper Laboratory, Inc.


A recording and reproducing apparatus is disclosed. Each of main pixel blocks of (m pixels in a horizontal direction.times.m pixels in a vertical direction.times.n pixels in a time direction), m and n being an integer, included in a video signal is divided into a first and a second block. The horizontal pixel number of the first block is made half and the vertical pixel number of the second block is made half. Correlation between continuous two main pixel blocks is detected in the horizontal and vertical directions. Three-dimensional orthogonal transform is applied to either of the first or the second block according to the detected correlation. And, the video signal, the first or the second block thereof being applied with the three-dimensional orthogonal transform, is encoded to form a signal to be recorded. In reproduction, the formed signal is decoded. And, three-dimensional inverse-orthogonal transform which is inversion of the three-dimensional orthogonal transform is applied to the first or the second block to which the three-dimensional orthogonal transform is applied to compose the main blocks to reproduce the video signal.

The present invention relates to a recording and reproducing apparatus for digital image information.
Digital image information has a huge amount of information. On the other hand, since communication capacity (memory capacity of a recording medium) of a transmission line used to transmit (record and reproduce) digital image information has a limitation, image information is compressed in the case where digital image information is transmitted (recorded and reproduced).
Representative examples of standards of the compression of image information include, for example, standards known as JPEG, MPEG 1, 2, and DVC standards known as standards of the compression of image information in digital VTR in which an interlaced scanning television signal is compressed, after which it is recorded.
Incidentally, the DVC standards are standards established as a result of discussion made in a "Discussion Meeting of HD Digital VCR" in which a number of VTR makers, research institutes and the like in many countries in the world are participated. In detail, the DVC standards are established with respect to the home digital VTR (VCR) in which a running magnetic tape is helically scanned by a rotary magnetic head, and digital data can be azimuth-recorded and reproduced on and from the magnetic tape.
In the DVC standards, the highly efficient image compression are carried out by various techniques such as discrete cosine transform (DCT), adaptive quantization, variable length coding and the like.
For example, with respect to the video signal of a so-called 525/60 system, suppose that the ratio of sampling frequency between a luminance signal Y, and chrominance signals Cb and Cr is 4:1:1. In this case, the number of effective pixels of the luminance signal in a horizontal direction is 720 and the number of effective lines in a vertical direction per frame is 480. Further, the number of effective pixels of the chrominance signals Cb and Cr in the horizontal direction is 180 and the number of effective lines in the vertical direction per frame is 480.
Further, with respect to the video signal of a so-called 625/50 system, suppose that the ratio of sampling frequency between a luminance signal Y, and chrominance signals Cb and Cr is 4:2:0. In this case, the number of effective pixels of the luminance signal in a horizontal direction is 720 and the number of effective lines in a vertical direction per frame is 576 and the number of effective pixels of the chrominance signals Cb and Cr is 360 and the number of effective lines in a vertical direction per frame is 288.
The effective pixel data in a moving picture signal to be recorded is divided per pixel block of a unit having a predetermined block size subjected to the orthogonal transform (the unit pixel block is a DCT block when the orthogonal transform is the discrete cosine transform). Each DCT block is subjected to the discrete cosine transform (DCT). The DCT block is constituted to have a block size of horizontal 8 pixels.times.vertical 8 pixels with respect to pixels within one frame for the luminance signal Y, and the chrominance signals Cb and Cr.
One frame for the moving picture signals to be recorded is divided per region (macro block) of a predetermined size in which one or more pixel blocks of the aforementioned unit are included.
The macro block is constituted as shown in FIG. 1A in the case where, with respect to the video signal of the so-called 525/60 system, the ratio of sampling frequency between a luminance signal Y, and chrominance signals Cb and Cr is 4:1:1. In detail, the macro block is composed of four DCT blocks DC0 to DC3 of the luminance signal, one DCT block DC4 of the chrominance signal Cb, and one DCT block DC5 of the chrominance signal Cr. These DCT blocks are obtained in the image region where one DCT block is obtained for the chrominance signal having a block size of horizontal 8 pixels.times.vertical 8 pixels.
Further, the macro block is composed as shown in FIG. 1B in the case where with respect to the video signal of the so-called 625/50 system, the ratio of sampling frequency between a luminance signal Y, and chrominance signals Cb and Cr is 4:2:0. In detail, the macro block is composed of four DCT blocks DC0 to DC3 by the luminance signal, one DCT block DC4 of the chrominance signal Cb and one DCT block DC5 of the chrominance signal Cr. These DCT blocks are also obtained in the image region where one DCT block of the chrominance signal having a block size of horizontal 8 pixels.times.vertical 8 pixels.
One image plane is divided by a super block composed of 27 macro blocks as a unit. In FIG. 2A, 50 divisions shown at (SO, 0), (SO, 1), (SO, 2) . . . , (S9, 2), (S9, 3), (S9, 4) are 50 super blocks composed in one frame. In FIGS. 2A and 2B, "i" designates the number of row and "j" designates the number of column. FIG. 2B shows the constitution of 5 super blocks (Si, j) set in one row per 27 macro blocks by taking any suitable one row in FIG. 2A.
FIGS. 3A and 3B show the super block for the 625/50 system. In FIG. 3A, 60 divisions shown at (SO, 0), (SO, 1), (SO, 2) . . . , (S11, 2), (S11, 3), (S11, 4) are 60 super blocks that constitute in one image plane. FIG. 3B shows a super block composed of 27 macro blocks.
In the DVC standards, one video segment is composed of 5 macro blocks which are obtained by, first, selecting one super block per column out of 10 super blocks belonging to each row in 50 super blocks (SO, 0), (30, 1), (S0, 2), . . . , (S9, 2), (S9, 3), (S9, 4) which constitute one image plane shown in FIG. 2A, and then taking out one macro block per super block selected as described above.
The control of data amount during the compression is carried out so that the data amount is within a predetermined amount in unit of one video segment.
Modes of DCT operation in the DVC standards include, with respect to the DCT block of horizontal 8 pixels.times.vertical 8 pixels, a mode for carrying out 8.times.8 DCT operation and another mode in which the 8.times.4 DCT operation is carried out with horizontal 8 pixels.times.vertical 4 pixels field by field, and the sum of and difference between the DCT coefficients are taken. The modes can be switched adaptively when coding.
The DCT coefficients obtained by the DCT operation are quantized with a quantization table that is selected so that the data amount after being applied with quantization and variable length coding is less than a predetermined value and closest to the predetermined value. In the quantization, the DCT blocks are divided into classes according to circumstances of the DCT blocks (such as a dispersion value of a pixel value in the DCT block), the quantization step is varied according to the classes to select one quantization table in macro block unit.
The data after variable length coding is subjected to formatting as shown in FIG. 4 when recorded on the magnetic tape. In FIG. 4, "QNO" indicates a quantization table number selected when compressed used as one of various parameters which is necessary when decoding together with data after variable length coding, "STA" information of error and concealment, "C" class information per DCT block and "M" mode information of the DCT operation.
All the information of one video segment are stored in 5 sync blocks. DC coefficients (DC components) of DCT coefficients in each of the DCT blocks DC0 to DC5 in the macro blocks shown in FIG. 1A are stored in a DC storage region in FIG. 4. Further, AC components of the DC coefficients are basically stored in an AC region in the same sync block as where the DC components are stored. However, in the case where the data amount is larger than the memory capacity of the storage region, they are stored in a vacant AC storage region in the sync block or another vacant AC storage region in the same video segment.
The formatted data are recorded in the magnetic tape in the form of a sync block constituted by adding parity words (inner parity) for SYNC word, ID code and error correction coding thereto, as shown in FIG. 5. Image data per frame is recorded by dividing it into 10 recording tracks. Image data per row shown in FIG. 2B is recorded in one recording track.
A track pair number indicating the sync block of which one of 10 recording tracks constituting image data per frame and a sync block number indicating which sync block in one recording track are recorded in the storage region of ID code in FIG. 5. Further, a sequence number (SEQ. No) in addition to these data is also stored in the ID code of the sync block in which image data is stored.
In the DVC standards, for the image signal according to the scanning standard of (2:1) interlaced scanning, highly-efficient coding is carried out only by intraframe coding. Further, since a motion vector is not used for highly-efficient compression, simple configurations can be achieved on a coding and a decoding apparatus, and editing operation can be easily carried out. Recently, there are manufactured VTRs for public use in which image data subjected to image information compression according to the DVC standards can be recorded and reproduced.
However, if there can be provided a recording and reproducing (transmission) apparatus capable of carrying out highly-efficient compression of image signal according to the scanning standard of sequential scanning of higher quality as compared with the image signal according to the scanning standard of (1:2) interlaced scanning as described above without addition of a considerable change in the constitution of apparatuses prepared in accordance with the DVC standards, such an apparatus can be effectively used for many applications and uses. Therefore, such an apparatus has been demanded.

Recording and reproducing apparatus for digital image information


A stepping motor driving apparatus comprising: a stepping motor; a pointer which is operatively associated with rotation of the stepping motor; a sensor for detecting a stop position of the stepping motor; an updown counter for outputting a count corresponding to a position of a rotor of the stepping motor; a ROM for storing data on an excitation signal corresponding to the count of the updown counter; a digital-to-analog converter for converting the data of the ROM into a voltage signal; a drive amplifier for amplifying the voltage signal of the digital-to-analog converter so as to drive the stepping motor; a NAND circuit which seeks a non-conjunction of a sensor signal from the sensor and a signal outputted, when the count of the updown counter is "0", by the updown counter so as to output a mask signal; and an AND circuit which seeks a logical product of the mask signal of the NAND circuit and a clock signal inputted from outside so as to output a drive clock signal to the updown counter.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a stepping motor driving apparatus used in an office automation appliance, a communication equipment, an audio appliance, a measuring instrument, etc.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A stepping motor driving apparatus is known from, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 6-38593 (1994). FIG. 3 shows an arrangement of this known stepping motor driving apparatus. The known stepping motor driving apparatus includes a stepping motor 1, a pointer 2 associated operatively with rotation of the stepping motor 1, a stopper 3 for stopping the stepping motor 1, an updown counter 4 for counting up or down step signals in accordance with rotational direction of the stepping motor 1, a ROM 5 for storing data on an excitation signal corresponding to a count of the updown counter 4, a digital-to-analog converter 6 for converting the data of the ROM 5 into a voltage signal and a drive amplifier 7 for driving the stepping motor 1 by amplifying the voltage of the digital-to-analog converter 6.
In FIG. 4 illustrating a speedometer of the known stepping motor driving apparatus by way of example, the pointer 2 of the stepping motor 1 is displaceable through a stroke angle S between an initial position A of an angular scale "0" and a final position B of a maximum angular scale "200" and the stopper 3 is disposed at the initial position A. When the stepping motor 1 is, for example, reset after power failure, the pointer 2 is returned to the initial position A. If a rotational position C of the stepping motor 1 is not known at this time, the stepping motor 1 is rotated counterclockwise towards the stopper 3 through a predetermined angle not less than the stroke angle S and thus, the stepping motor 1 can be stopped at the initial position A by the stopper 3. However, at this time, such a problem arises that since the predetermined angle not less than the stroke angle S is larger than an angle required actually for stopping the stepping motor 1 at the initial position A, i.e., an angle from the rotational position C to the initial position A, the pointer 2 is vibrated at the stopper 3.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


A chewing-based oral self-cleaning device includes a pair of tubes (2, 3) placed back to back either directly or separated by a base plate (13), optionally provided with an external handle (1) and a positioning flange (15). Each of the tubes includes a channel (14) into which the teeth are inserted and each channel is provided with side drag elements and descaling elements on the base thereof.

This invention refers to an oral self-cleaning device which works only through maxillary movement, similar to the action performed when chewing gum, which comprises interior cleaning ailerons provided with drag and raking items made up of a set of bristles, protrusions and scraping rasps or "radulas".
1. Technical Sector
The technical sector involved in this invention is that of dental cleaning and oral hygiene devices.
2. State of the Art
Everyday oral hygiene is currently performed with toothbrushes comprising a handle, with more or less sophisticated shapes and bristle design, with or without devices for dispensing products for washing. These can be electrical, working by means of rotation, vibration, ultrasounds, amongst others. Also used for cleaning the interproximal spaces of teeth is dental floss, which can be set on a frame, or withdrawn from a continuous dental floss dispenser.
All these utensils must be used with one or both hands. Although they are handled from outside, the action performed by them takes place inside the mouth. The effectiveness of the cleaning will depend on the user's skill and the characteristics of the utensil.
There are numerous inventions connected with devices for dental hygiene.
Different applications refer to electric or manual brushes either provided with toothpaste or not, with a fixed or removable head. One example of this is given in ES2035121T3 or MX2009011596. One can also find different inventions involving a support for dental floss, such as EP0449152, CO5750038A1, MXPA05010179 or CL26712003, amongst others, for example.
There are also inventions as regards the material of which the cleaning bristles are made, such as for example EP0951225.
Disposable dental cleaning devices have also been described. One example that can be found is EPO419587.
We now detail the technical limitations of oral hygiene according to the state of the art.                1. Unavoidable use of the hands during the cleaning operation;        2. Difficulty entailed by reaching certain zones that are hard to access or concealed, as occurs with the lingual side of the teeth, the inter-proximal spaces between the teeth, or at the bottom of the cheeks near the mandibular articulation.        3. An added limitation is involved for the disabled, the sick and bedridden and other cases who, for some cause involving the psychomotor faculties, cannot use their hands or find it very difficult to use them to carry out their own oral hygiene, or in the case of children.        4. Size and weight of some cleaning devices. One example of these are the electrically operating ones which entail some difficulty for transporting or even for travelling with them, along with their charger.        5. The order and methodical discipline which have to be imposed to carry out good oral cleaning, as one has to successively treat the different facets of the dental crown. One after another, the teeth have to be cleaned in five phases: for example, first on their vestibular side (exterior), secondly on the lingual side (interior), thirdly on the occlusal side (the side facing the antagonistic teeth) and fourthly in the inter-proximal spaces between the teeth. This has to be done for the upper teeth arch and afterwards for the lower ones. Lastly the oral mucosa has to be dealt with, especially the gums.        6. Time needed for brushing teeth and use of dental floss. Of course all the time required has to be devoted to this if one wishes to comply with what is stated in the previous paragraph.        7. The muscular effort and lack of comfort involved in keeping the hands and mouth in strained positions. In the execution of manual brushing or even electric brushing and the use of dental floss, the mouth has to be kept open, with the disadvantage for the weak or very tired, placing of the brush in order to reach difficult places, apart from the discomfort that all of this may involve.        8. Energy use in modern electrical models. A power source is needed, either through the consumption of batteries or supplying these from the electrical mains.        9. There is a need to handle massage of soft zones, such as the periodontal areas close to the teeth, such as gums, lips, cheeks and tongue, where one has to expressly use the special rough surfaces designed for this purpose, generally on the back of the conventional type brush, for example;        10. The noise made in brushing the teeth, above all with electrical type devices.        11. The consequences of excessive force and/or repetition on applying the manual brush for example, in oral hygiene. This can in fact go as far as to cause acute and chronic traumatisms, such as acute lesions and cracks in the gums (Stillman cracks), the withdrawal of the gums, generating open dental necks, loss of wedge substance at the root zone close to the dental crown, amongst other disorders. There are often doubts about how hard and the number of times one has to brush in order to ensure dental hygiene.        12. The need to use a cleaning agent such as a toothpaste;        13. The need to buy several items and apparatus (normal brush, inter-proximal brushes, dental floss etc.) to ensure proper oral hygiene, at the economic and ecological cost that this involves.        14. The artificial, strained and uncomfortable nature of conventional or current oral hygiene, by inserting all the items mentioned in the mouth, one after another.        15. Cleaning with plenty of water to remove the toothpaste, and even so fibres of meat or vegetables are left between the bristles of a conventional brush.        16. The handling problem represented by cleaning the teeth of an animal by professionals involved in animal handling such as vets, stockbreeders, carers, breakers/tamers, trainers, owners etc., when they wish to carry out hygienic brushing of the teeth with some regularity on pets such as dogs and cats, domestic animals, zoo or wild animals, with any degree of safety.
This party has not found any antecedent with the characteristics of the invention proposed. The advantages will be put forward below.


An independent distributed metadata system and method are provided. With the system and method, metadata, which is associated with data at one or more data source locations, may be distributed independently of the data and manipulated independently to generate various computing environments. For example, a user may obtain a copy of metadata and use this metadata, at a remote location from the data source location, to create a computing environment, such as a virtual server, web page or the like. The computing environment created by the user consists entirely of metadata and does not include the actual data to which the metadata is associated. In this way, different users may have independent copies of the metadata and use it to generate their own computing environments without having to have access to the actual data. When the computing environment is to be implemented in a computing device, such as a server or servers on a network, the metadata defining the computing environment may be uploaded to the computing device. The computing device may then perform a verification of the metadata with the original metadata source location and download the corresponding data from the data source location. Thereafter, the computing environment may be made available for use via the server, the metadata and the data associated with the metadata.

1. Technical Field
The present invention is directed to an independent distributed metadata system and method. More specifically, the present invention is directed to a system and method of metadata in which metadata may be distributed independently of the data to which it is associated and computing environments, data structures, and the like, may be created from this metadata.
2. Description of Related Art
In distributed data processing systems, multiple local copies of the same data element are often stored in different physical locations. For example, if a first computing device located in Chicago, Ill. has a particular set of data and a second computing device in Los Angeles, Calif. wishes to make use of this set of data, the second computing device must have its own local copy of the data which it can then operate on.
There are several drawbacks to keeping multiple copies of data. One drawback is increased resource consumption. These resources include transmission bandwidth, physical memory, and the like. That is, data must be transferred from the original location, thus incurring transmission expense. Once the data arrives at the new location, memory must be allocated for it.
Another problem with the current system of maintaining multiple local copies of data is that it becomes difficult to manage the multiple existing copies. For example, the various copies of the data must be maintained such that they are consistent with one another. As a result, whenever any data in any of the copies of the data is changed, the changes must be reported to every other computing device having a copy of that data. This leads to a variety of technical difficulties that must be handled. Furthermore, it creates a large amount of processing overhead to simply manage the various copies of the data.
As a result, it would be beneficial to have a system and method for allowing distributed access to data without requiring multiple copies of the data. Furthermore, it would be beneficial to have a system and method in which management of changes to data is simplified.

Independent distributed metadata system and method


The present invention discloses an object-based image search system and method, whereby a user may visually specify query objects for retrieving relevant images without using any image-segmenting software tool. The method of the present invention comprises: specifying target feature points from sample images which are displayed in an image query interface and determining logic relationships of the target feature points; utilizing a feature-point checking program to correlate the target feature points with target objects; utilizing a feature-similarity calculating program to find out the images relevant to the target objects via the image feature parameters stored in a feature database; arranging and presenting the relevant images in sequence.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to image search, particularly to an object-based image search.
2. Description of the Related Art
Due to the fast advance of computer science, digital contents, particularly digital image data, expand explosively. Thus, how to obtain desired images from massive image data becomes an important topic.
One of the existing search methods is using contents-description words to search for desired images. However, annotating a massive image data is a laborious work. Further, the semantic gap between the annotator and the searcher often influences the search results.
A U.S. Pat. No. 6,859,802 B1 disclosed a method using "user's relevance feedback" to search for desired images. However, the "user's relevant feedback" usually cannot indeed express the target images. For example, when a user intends to search for images having a beach, he selects several pictures containing a beach and feedbacks them to a search system. The system analyzes the components of those pictures, such as colors, textures, edges, etc., and finally recognizes that all those pictures contain a beach. The common feature is then used as the key feature to find out beach-containing pictures from the database. However, a picture containing a beach usually also contains a scene of sea. Thus, the search system is likely to regard "sea" as the common feature and thus retrieves incorrect pictures containing only "sea" but without a beach. To overcome such a problem, the user has to provide the system sample pictures containing "beach" but without "sea". However, it is a laborious and troublesome task. Therefore, complicated algorithms were proposed to improve the abovementioned drawback. Nevertheless, target objects are still hard to directly and correctly define. For the details, refer to Xiang Sean Zhou and T. S. Huang, "Relevance Feedback for Image Retrieval: a Comprehensive Review", ACM Multimedia Systems, 8(6): 536-544, 2003.
Recently, some researchers have proposed object-based image search system, wherein a user defines key objects in sample images, and the system performs searches according the key objects (Refer to M. S. Drew, Z. N. Li, and Z. Tauber, "Illumination Color Covariant Locale-Based Visual Object Retrieval", Pattern Recognition, 35(8): 87-1704, 2002). Such a method enables users to directly define target objects and thus has much better search results than previous methods. However, defining target objects in sample images usually needs an image-segmenting software tool, such as a "Magic Wand" or a "Snake" (Refer to Ze-Nian Li and Mark S. Drew, "Fundamentals of Multimedia-Chapter 18", Pearson Prentice Hall PTR, Upper Saddle River, N.J., 2004). Thus, users have to install and learn these tools. It is indeed a trouble for those who just intend to search for desired pictures but do not want to learn any image-segmenting software tool. The biggest drawback of this method is that the image-segmenting tool cannot precisely segment an object from the image, which has been a stickler in the field for many years. When searches are based on the features extracted from the inaccurate objects segmented by the abovementioned tool, the search results are unlikely to be satisfactory naturally.
Accordingly, the present invention proposes an object-based image search system and a method thereof to overcome the abovementioned problems.

Object-based image search system and method


A power control device includes a power control circuit connected to a power supply and a supervisory power monitor unit for outputting a control pulse to the power control circuit for approximately one second. The power control circuit switches the power supplied at the power control circuit input to an output of the power control circuit when the control pulse is deasserted. A reset output logic device receives the power supplied from the output of the power control circuit when the control pulse is deasserted and outputs the power to reset outputs in a distributed power system.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a power control system for an Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) system, and more particularly, to a time delayed control circuit with a power monitor to allow for hot insertion/hot swapping of a power module in an ATM system.
2. Description of the Related Art
In communication systems having distributed power architectures, such as, for example, Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) systems, hot insertion/hot swapping of the power module is a requirement. That is, to perform maintenance, diagnostics, or testing, operators and technicians must be able to insert or remove the power module while the system is operating.
This hot insertion/hot swapping requirement, however, presents a problem for the RESET lines in an ATM system. The RESET lines connect redundancy masters (e.g., a power unit such as a System Power Unit (SPU)) with slave modules (e.g., System Interface Units (SIU)). Generally, either a specialized power supply design or the addition of special power isolation switches have been used in order to satisfy the hot insertion/hot swapping requirement.
Such methods have certain drawbacks. One is that a specialized power supply sequence requires additional relays, which increases the manufacturing and testing costs, complicates the design, and reduces product reliability. Moreover, additional switching controls are needed if special power isolation devices are used.
In light of the foregoing, there exists a need for a power control circuit that satisfies the hot insertion/hot swapping requirement of a distributed power system, and that is simpler, more reliable, and cost effective.

Power control device for redundant reset outputs in an ATM system and method of power control thereof


The present invention relates to a novel use of xanthophylls, particularly astaxanthin and/or an ester thereof, for inhibiting tumor cell growth. Therefore, the present invention provides a method for preventing or treating cancers, comprising administering to a subject in need thereof a composition comprising a therapeutically effective amount of at least one type of xanthophyll.

Xanthophylls are a large group of carotenoids containing oxygen in molecules in addition to carbon and hydrogen. Astaxanthin, a xanthophyll carotenoid, is a natural antioxidant that is produced in many biological organisms (Hussein et al., 2006). It occurs naturally in certain algae and causes the pink or red color in salmon, trout, lobster, shrimp, and other seafood. While astaxanthin is a natural dietary component, it can also be used as a food supplement. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved astaxanthin as a food coloring (or color additive) for specific uses in animal and fish foods. The European Commission considers it a food dye and it is given the E number E161j. Natural astaxanthin is generally recognized as safe (GRAS) by the FDA, but as a food coloring in the United States it is restricted to use in animal food only.
The biological activities of astaxanthin have been tested in many animal models and clinical tests. Astaxanthin blocks the aerobic metabolism-generated free radicals, such as hydroxyls, peroxides and reactive oxygen species, thus preventing abnormal DNA damage (Higuera-Ciapara et al., 2006). Further studies have also demonstrated that astaxanthin contributes to immune response (Kim et al., 2009; Park et al., 2010). Participants who received astaxanthin daily for 8 weeks showed upregulating mitogen-induced lymphoproliferation, increased natural killer cell cytotoxic activity, and increased total T and B leukocytes. U.S. Pat. No. 6,773,708 B1 discloses the use of xanthophylls such as astaxanthin for the treatment of autoimmune diseases, chronic viral and intracellular bacterial infections by suppressing excessive Th1 cell mediated immune responses, and stimulating Th2 cell mediated immune responses in a patient during ongoing infection and/or inflammation in said patient.
Oral administration of astaxanthin inhibits thrombosis in vascular endothelial injury mouse models and in stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive rats (Khan et al., 2010; Sasaki et al., 2011). CN 101361726 A discloses that astaxanthin can improve behavioral symptoms caused by cerebral ischemia reperfusion injury of rats, decrease the volume of cerebral infarction and lower the cerebral edema of cerebral ischemic rats, and thus can be used for preparing drugs for preventing and curing brain stroke.
In addition, astaxanthin also protects neuronal cells. Treatment with astaxanthin ameliorates neuroinflammation and early brain injury by activating nuclear factor erythroid-related factor 2 and the antioxidant responsive element (Nrf2-ARE) pathway after subarachnoid hemorrhage (Wu et al., 2014; Zhang et al., 2014a; Zhang et al., 2014b). More importantly, astaxanthin penetrates the natural blood-brain barrier (BBB) and thus can be used in treating brain neuronal diseases (Wu et al., 2014). EP1 867 327 A1 discloses a neurocyte protective agent comprising astaxanthin and/or an ester thereof capable of alleviating mitochondrial dysfunction and oxidative stress in neurocytes. The neurocyte protective agent is effective in protecting against the degeneration of dopaminergic neurons of the substantia nigra and noradrenergic neurons of the locus ceruleus, and it is suggested that the neurocyte protective agent can be used for Parkinson's disease.
Astaxanthin is also suggested as a potential anti-tumor compound. It inhibits hamster oral cancer cell growth by blocking STAT, ERK or PI3K/Akt signaling (Kavitha et al., 2013; Kowshik et al., 2014). It was also reported that the treatment of astaxanthin induces mitochondria-depended apoptosis in hepatocellular carcinoma cells (Song et al., 2011). U.S. Pat. No. 6,277,417 B1 discloses that astaxanthin can inhibit the activity of the enzyme 5α-reductase and thus suggests that it can be used for treating or preventing disorders resulting from the activity of the enzyme, in particular benign prostate hyperplasia and prostate cancer.
The adrenal gland, located superiorly to the kidney, consists of the outer adrenal cortex and the inner medulla parts (Else et al., 2014). The adrenal cortex secretes several steroids such as glucocorticoid and mineralocorticoid to regulate the metabolic homeostasis in the body. Adrenocortical carcinoma is a rare disease, with incidence of 1 to 2 per million people every year. It is an aggressive tumor and is often metastasized to other organs, and the overall survival rate is only 20-35% within 5 years. Tumors occurring in the adrenal cortex may induce aberrant secretion of steroids and show symptoms similar to Cushing's syndrome and virilization (Erickson et al., 2014). Several methods are used in the treatment of adrenocortical carcinoma, e.g., complete surgical excision, radiation therapy and combined chemotherapy (the combination of anti-tumor drugs: cisplatin, doxorubicin and etoposide). To date, there is no single method that can effectively block adrenocortical tumor cell growth. It is desirable to develop a therapeutic agent that can safely and effectively treat adrenocortical carcinoma.
Osteosarcoma is the most common histological form of primary bone cancer. It is most prevalent in children and young adults. Mifamurtide (MEPACT®) is currently approved in Europe for the treatment of osteosarcoma. A combination of high-dose methotrexate with leucovorin rescue, intra-arterial cisplatin, adriamycin, ifosfamide with mesna, BCD (bleomycin, cyclophosphamide, dactinomycin), etoposide, and muramyl tripeptide may also be used for the treatment of osteosarcoma.
Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is one of the most severe malignant gliomas. GBM is considered incurable, and is associated with high morbidity and mortality, with a median survival of 15 months following several treatments (Aldape et al., 2015; Alifieris and Trafalis, 2015). Temozolomide (TEMODAR®) is currently approved in Europe and the United States for the treatment of GBM. Temozolomide is an alkylating drug indicated for the treatment of adult patients with newly diagnosed GBM concomitantly with radiation therapy and then as maintenance treatment. Several aggressive combination therapies are currently used in treating GBM, such as maximal-safe surgical resection, radiation therapy and temozolomide treatment (Stupp et al., 2009). Many GBM patients respond poorly to the conventional chemotherapy and radiation therapy. The prognosis falls in a poor survival range of 12-15 months (median 14.6 months).
U.S. Pat. No. 8,632,825 B2 discloses the use of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD) in the manufacture of a medicament for use in the treatment of GBM. U.S. Pat. No. 8,058,243 B2 discloses a method for treating a glioblastoma cancer involving neural precursor cells, early neural progenitor cells, neural stem cells (NSCs) or a combination thereof, the method comprising administering to a subject in need thereof a therapeutically effective amount of a composition comprising ifenprodil. Up to now, there is no single compound that can efficiently inhibit GBM tumor growth without other anti-tumor drugs.

Use of xanthophylls for the treatment of cancers


An apparatus for automated replacement of ring travelers on spinning or twisting rings is disclosed comprising generally a housing having two planar support members, parallel to each other. A lift-out device is pivotably supported in a first of the two planar members and a device for the attachment of a new ring traveler is supported in the second plane, parallel to the first plane. The devices function by guide systems, pivotable by eccentric cams, located on a common drive shaft to be able to move the two devices between an operational and an off position. A housing, containing the two devices, is mobile along a ring rail of a spinning machine. The lift-out device lifts out a ring traveler which is to be replaced from the spinning ring on the ring rail. The attachment device subsequently attaches a new ring traveler from a magazine rod onto the spinning ring. Because of the small distance in longitudinal direction between the unlatching and latching position of the ring rail, replacement of the ring traveler at the spinning ring can be accomplished in the same position of the apparatus. The magazine rod is continuously fed a new ring traveler from a coil upon which a string containing ring travelers is coiled.

Ring travelers in spinning machines are subject to wear, such as thread rupture. They must therefore be regularly replaced. In addition to the regular replacement, individual ring travelers must be replaced upon the occurrence of any defects.
Ring traveler replacement involves several steps, including stopping the spinning machine, locating the ring traveler at any random point of a spinning ring and bringing it forward and unlatching it, wherein the thread is released and assumes an indefinite position. A new ring traveler must then be latched onto the spinning ring, whereupon the thread must be hung or slung into the new ring traveler. Ring traveler replacement operations had previously been performed either manually, using, for example, simple tools such as a hook, for unlatching and latching of the ring traveler or a tongue-shaped tool for the latching of a new ring traveler from a storage magazine. These tools require manual dexterity, which can be achieved only by practice or experience.
To overcome these and other disadvantages of previous ring traveler replacement operations, it is an object of the present invention to automate the replacement of ring travelers on spinning or twisting rings.
A further object of the invention is to provide an apparatus which may be coupled with a doffing or threading trolley arranged to be displaceable along a spinning machine, wherein the apparatus may sling the new thread into the new ring traveler when replacing the ring traveler or to reconnect a severed thread.
Another object of the invention is to obviate dependence upon operating personnel (who may have more or less manual dexterity) and also to employ the apparatus throughout a twenty-four hour day.
An additional object of the invention is to perform replacement of ring travelers in a uniform, dependable and rapid sequence of operations.

Apparatus for replacement of ring travelers on spinning or twisting rings


A plurality of semiconductor nanoparticles having an elementally passivated surface are provided. These nanoparticles are capable of being suspended in water without substantial agglomeration and substantial precipitation on container surfaces for at least 30 days. The method of making the semiconductor nanoparticles includes reacting at least a first reactant and a second reactant in a solution to form the semiconductor nanoparticles in the solution. A first reactant provides a passivating element which binds to dangling bonds on a surface of the nanoparticles to passivate the surface of the nanoparticles. The nanoparticle size can be tuned by etching the nanoparticles located in the solution to a desired size.

Numerous patents and publication have been issued on the fabrication of semiconductor nanoparticles (also called "quantum dots" or "nanocrystals") and their applications in the last few years. These semiconductor nanoparticles are used as a lasing medium in a laser, as fluorescent tags in biological testing methods and as electronic devices.
A relatively new correlative method for easier manipulation and spatial organization of the nanoparticles has been proposed in which the nanoparticles are encapsulated in a shell. The shells which encapsulate the nanoparticles are composed of various organic materials such as Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA), PMMA, and PPV. Furthermore, semiconductor shells have also been suggested.
For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,225,198 and 5,505,928, incorporated herein by reference, disclose a method of forming nanoparticles using an organic surfactant. The process described in the U.S. Pat. No. 6,225,198 patent includes providing organic compounds, which are precursors of Group II and Group VI elements, in an organic solvent. A hot organic surfactant mixture is added to the precursor solution. The addition of the hot organic surfactant mixture causes precipitation of the II-VI semiconductor nanoparticles. The surfactants coat the nanoparticles to control the size of the nanoparticles. However, this method is disadvantageous because it involves the use of a high temperature (above 200° C.) process and toxic reactants and surfactants. The resulting nanoparticles are coated with a layer of an organic surfactant and some surfactant is incorporated into the semiconductor nanoparticles. The organic surfactant negatively affects the optical and electrical properties of the nanoparticles.
In another prior art method, II-VI semiconductor nanoparticles were encapsulated in a shell comprising a different II-VI semiconductor material, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,207,229, incorporated herein by reference. However, the shell also interferes with the optical and electrical properties of the nanoparticles, decreasing quantum efficiency of the radiation and the production yield of the nanoparticles.
The commercialization of the nanoparticles has also been hampered due to the high cost of production of the nanoparticles. The methods used for synthesis are extremely toxic at high temperatures and hence pose significant safety problems during mass production.
Furthermore, it has been difficult to form nanoparticles of a uniform size. Some researchers claimed to have formed nanoparticles in a solution having a uniform size based on transmission electron microscopy (TEM) measurements and based on approximating nanoparticle size from the position of the exciton peak in the absorption spectra of the nanoparticles. However, the present inventor has determined that both of these methods do not lead to an accurate determination of nanoparticle size in the solution.
TEM allows actual observation of a few nanoparticles precipitated on a substrate from a solution. However, since very few nanoparticles are observed during each test, the nanoparticle size varies greatly between observations of different nanoparticles from the same solution. Therefore, even if a single TEM measurement shows a few nanoparticles of a uniform size, this does not correlate to an entire solution of nanoparticles of a uniform size.
Using the absorption spectra exciton peak position to approximate nanoparticle size is problematic for a different reason. The exciton peak position does not show whether the individual nanoparticles in a solution are agglomerated into a large cluster. Thus, the size of the individual nanoparticles that is estimated from the location of the exciton peak in the absorption spectra does not take into account that the individual nanoparticles have agglomerated into clusters.
For example, Evident Technologies (www.evidenttech.com) markets EviDots® CdSe nanocrystal test kits. The Evident Technologies website indicates that the nanocrystals in these kits are coated with a surfactant and can be stored unopened in toluene solvent for up to two months. This website also implies that the nanoparticles in the test kit solution have a uniform size. It appears that the nanoparticle size was approximated from the exciton peak position of the absorption spectra of these nanoparticles. However, when the present inventor arranged for the size of these EviDots® nanoparticles to be measured by a photon correlated spectroscopy (PCS) method, the results indicated that the nanoparticles in the solution have agglomerated into large clusters and have a non-uniform size distribution. Thus, while the agglomerated nanoparticles have acceptable optical properties, they have unacceptable mechanical properties due to the agglomeration for uses which require a precise size distribution, such as for biological marker use. Furthermore, the EviDots® nanoparticles agglomerate into large, visible clumps and precipitate out of the solution onto the bottom of the vial in less than an hour after the toluene containing vial is unsealed.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Passivated nanoparticles, method of fabrication thereof, and devices incorporating nanoparticles


In a seesaw balance type microminiature electoromagnetic relay including an armature unit composed of two movable contact springs having a pivot arm formed at the center thereof and contacts formed at every end thereof, an armature having a protrusion on the back side for a pivotal movement, and an insert-molded insulator, a substrate unit composed of a common terminal for mounting the pivot arm electrically connected to a common terminal pin, a pair of switching terminals having fixed contacts for connecting the contacts of the springs electrically connected to terminal pins, and an electromagnet unit composed of a yoke, an exciter coil wound thereon, a flat shape permanent magnet provided between both ends of the yoke and two terminal pins electrically connected to the start and the end of the exciter coil, respectively; a hoop member is formed in an integrated configuration of a plurality of groups by a press blanking procedure, each group including a pair of movable contact springs, two non-magnetizing plates and two connecting bars connecting both ends of the springs and one end of the non-magnetizing plate; the armature is piled on the free edge of the non-magnetizing plate and at least one end thereof is welded; an insulator is formed by an insert-mold procedure to cover the movable contact springs and the armature, and the armature unit is formed by cutting boundary portions between the connecting bars and the movable contact springs and non-magnetizing plate. The pivot arm extended from the center part of the movable contact spring is U-shaped and a positioning member is provided at the free edge thereof or at the common terminal for mounting the pivot arm.

1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a seesaw balance type microminiature electromagnetic relay to be mounted on an exchanger or the like in a high density assembly and a method of producing the same. More specifically, it relates to a process of forming an armature unit in an integral form of movable contact springs having contact points and an armature operated by the attraction force of a magnet, and the structure of the armature unit.
2) Description of the Related Art
The seesaw balance type electromagnetic relay requires reduced installation and floor space thereby providing an advantage in that the available increase in the amount of circuits per printed circuit plate can facilitate an increase in the number of subscribers.
In such a microminiature type of electromagnetic relay, because very fine-structure parts must be assembled during the production process, a simplification of said structures is now in demand, thereby preventing complex production processes.
FIG. 1 shows an enlarged perspective view of a conventional monostable seesaw balance type microminiature electromagnetic relay. In FIG. 1, the electromagnetic relay 1 is comprised of, in broad classification, a casing 5, an armature unit 8, a substrate unit 9, and an electromagnet unit 10. The armature unit 8 is mounted onto common terminal pins 12 provided on the substrate unit 9, and the electromagnet unit 10 is provided between the armature unit 8 and the substrate unit 9.
The armature unit 8 is comprised of two movable contact springs 2 having protrusions 2a formed at the center thereof and contacts 2b formed at both respective ends thereof, an armature 6 having a non-magnetizing plate 3 on one end of the bottom face thereof, and a insert-molded insulator 7 having notches 7b for exposing the protrusions 2a of the movable contact springs 2. Since it is not shown in FIG. 1, the insulator 7 has a recess on a bottom face for exposing the protrusions (not shown) of the armature 6.
The substrate unit 9 is provided therein with a plurality of terminal pins 11 to 13 for connecting the unit externally. Terminal pins 11 and 13 each have a fixed contact 11a and 13a, and common terminal pins 12 have arc-shape grooves 12a and protrusions 12b formed at respective both sides of the arc-shape grooves 12a.
The electromagnet unit 10 is comprised of a U-shape yoke 14, an exciter coil 15 wound on the yoke 14, and a flat shape permanent magnet 16 that is fixed to join both ends of the yoke 14.
Because the protrusions 2a of the movable contact springs 2 engage with the arc-shape grooves 12a, the armature unit 8 can be pivotally disposed to the substrate unit 9. The protrusion of the armature 6 contacts a surface of the permanent magnet 16 set so that the non-magnetizing plate 3 confronts one-side end of the yoke 14.
The protrusions 12b are formed at both respective sides of the arc-shape grooves 12a of the terminal pins 12 to coincide with both respective side walls of the trapezoidal notches of the insulator 7; each pair of protrusions 12b being formed as a guide for assembly and settlement of the armature unit 8.
In such an electromagnetic relay 1, switching of the contact points is executed by a pivotal movement in a seesaw manner by varying the magnetic flux by energizing the exciter coil 15.
The operation of the non-magnetizing plate 3 will now be described with reference to FIGS. 2A to 2C.
As described above, the electromagnetic relay 1 is switched by energizing the exciter coil 15, and the presence of a non-excited state and an excited state are illustrated schematically in FIGS. 2B and 2C. FIG. 2B designates a non-excited state or ordinary state and FIG. 2C designates an excited state. The movable contact springs 2 are omitted in FIGS. 2B and 2C.
The seesaw balance type electromagnetic relay 1 has terminal pins on both sides, and the relay in FIG. 2B is open and in FIG. 2C is working.
FIG. 2A is an operational characteristic of the relay where a vertical coordinate represents a force and a horizontal coordinate represents a stroke. Numeral 17 denotes a loaded force characteristic of the armature unit 8; 18 is an attractive force characteristic of the electromagnet for the armature unit 8; the upper portion thereof represents the opening side characteristic, and the lower portion represents the working side characteristic. Here, no problem arises when the exciter coil 15 is excited and switched positively from the state of FIG. 2B. However, the attractive force characteristic 18 provides a disadvantage when switching and releasing the excitation of the exciter coil 15 from a working state shown in FIG. 2C to an opening state by the loaded force of the armature unit.
Assuming that the armature 6 is formed entirely of ordinary metal, the armature 6 is magnetized at the time of working to exhibit the characteristic as shown by dotted line 18a and has an attractive force larger than the loaded force, and it becomes impossible to return to the opening state even when the excitation of the exciter coil 15 is released. On the other hand, if a non-magnetizing plate formed of material that cannot be magnetized by the armature 6 is provided, its attractive force exhibits the characteristic as shown by solid line 18b, which is shifted by as much as the thickness of the non-magnetizing plate 3, i.e., by stroke A, to thereby be smaller than that of the loaded force 17, and on releasing the excitation of the exciter coil 15 the armature 6 can be returned to the opening state.
For this reason, the non-magnetizing plate 3 is indispensable for the monostable electromagnetic relay, although the non-magnetizing plate 3 is not necessary for the bistable electromagnetic relay.
FIGS. 3A to 3D illustrate the operation of the bistable electromagnetic relay. In the case of the bistable electromagnetic relay, the armature 6 is only switched by energizing the exciter coil 15, and the armature 6 is not returned to the original state before energizing the exciter coil 15 as shown in FIGS. 3A to 3C. FIG. 3A designates a non-excited state and FIG. 3B designates an excited state in which the armature 6 is switched. FIG. 3C designates a non-excited state in which the armature 6 remains in the same position as in FIG. 3B. FIG. 3D designates an excited state in which the armature 6 is switched. The movable contact springs 2 are also omitted in FIGS. 3A to 3D.
A conventional method of producing an electromagnetic relay 1 will be described with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5 as follows.
In FIG. 4, a plurality of movable contact springs 2 are formed by press-blanking a hoop member 21 formed by connecting bars 25. In the hoop member 21, a pair of reinforcement pieces 24 are formed at the outside of a pair of movable contact springs 2 for stiffening the hoop member 21. Further, positioning holes 23 are provided with the same interval on the connecting bars 25.
An armature 6 having a center protrusion 6a is formed independently of the hoop member 21 also by the press blanking procedure. The center protrusion 6a can be formed at the time of the press blanking.
The hoop member 21 of the movable contact springs 2 and armature 6, respectively, separately prepared-are covered with an insulator 27 by an insert mold technique to thereby form a unitary shape. More specifically, the hoop member 21 is set in a recess 26 of a die 20 and the position of the hoop member 21 in the recess 26 is defined by holes 23 on the connecting bar 25 and pins provided on the bottom of the recess 26. Usually, the die 20 has several pairs of positioning pins. Then the corresponding number of armatures 6 is set in each of the deep recesses 27. Setting of the hoop member 21 and the armature 6 in the die is executed by an industrial robot.
In this way, the hoop member 21 and the armature 6 are supported in the die 20, and then a melted insulator is allowed to flow into the die 20 to coo and solidify the insulator, thus the hoop member 21 and the armature 6 are formed in an integrated shape as shown in FIG. 5.
Thereafter, a non-magnetizing plate 3 for upgrading an opening characteristic is fixed on one-side end of the armature 6 by welding or the like, and finally the connecting bars 25 of the hoop member 21 are cut off as shown by dotted lines by dicing or the like to complete the armature unit.
In the above-described conventional method of producing the seesaw balance type microminiature electromagnetic relay, on the insert mold operation, the movable contact springs 2 and the armature 6 must be separately supplied to the die 20 by the industrial robot and supported therein, almost at the same time. Accordingly, the structure of the industrial robot becomes complex when simultaneously required to supply movable contact springs 2 and the armature 6. After the movable contact springs 2 and the armature 6 are integrated together by the insert mold procedure, the non-magnetizing plate previously prepared is welded on the one-side end of the armature 6, accordingly, a troublesome processing for mounting such a small non-magnetic plate is required, and automatic operation also requires a complex and expensive industrial robot.

Method of making a seesaw balance type microminiature electromagnetic relay


A ramp stored under the deck of a rail car may be extended using a load-bearing drive system for the loading of freight or equipment onto the rail car. The surface of the ramp may comprise a rail portion or similar structure to allow the loading of rail bound equipment, such as rail maintenance equipment, onto the deck of the rail car.

The present invention is a rail car adapted for ease of loading and unloading cargo, typically equipment used to maintain railroad track. The maintenance of railroad track requires a lot of effort and equipment, which is usually rather heavy. Some of the equipment has rubber tires, such as backhoes, but most of the equipment has steel rails wheels, thus being rail bound. Additionally, rail maintenance equipment typically does not have couplers, preventing movement as part of a train. The use of rail cars is one way to transport the maintenance equipment. However, the loading and unloading of the equipment onto and off the rail car is difficult and can be problematic. Generally, the loading and unloading of rail cars is done by various methods each of which has certain disadvantages.
One such method is to use a crane to load and unload the rail car. However, the use of a crane to load and unload rail cars is expensive. Further, this method can be rather time consuming and presents a certain amount of danger if the crane equipment were to fail.
Another method is positioning rail cars next to a stationary or permanent ramp or platform. The use of a ramp is fast and relatively safe. However, because such ramps and platforms are stationary, loading and unloading of rail cars is limited to the locations of such ramps or platforms. Additionally, the permanent ramp needs to comprise a rail like structure and also be connected or aligned to the rails for the loading and unloading of rail bound equipment. This would require a substantial length of track to move equipment from the rail to the ramp.
Another method is the use of a mobile ramp. This method requires placement of the ramp prior to loading or unloading of the equipment. Additionally, such a mobile ramp must still be present at the desired location. Due to the height of the rail car decks and heavy weight of the equipment being transported, such portable ramps must be a considerable length, thus requiring significant effort to transport the ramp. The length of portable ramps also requires considerable storage space to keep the ramp when not in use. As with the permanent ramp, the mobile ramp needs to comprise rail structures and be connected to or aligned with the rails for the loading and unloading of rail bound equipment.
Yet another method used to load cargo onto rail cars is the use of a ramp car such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,718,886. The disclosed rail car has a ramp hingedly connected to the rail car and when not in use the ramp is rotated to a vertical position. However, in an effort to reduce the size of the ramp, the deck of the rail cars are often lowered causing clearance and coupling problems. Further, the ramp disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,718,886 does not allow for the loading of rail bound equipment.

Rail car having extendable ramp being movable by a load bearing drive system


A method for tracking medical supply usage on a procedure level in a clinical setting. The method includes the steps of creating at least one procedural template comprising a list of anticipated supplies to be used during a given medical procedure, creating a recordation form from a given procedure based upon the procedural template, the form including at least a partial listing of the anticipated supplies to be used during the procedure based upon the procedural template, recording on the form actual usage of supplies during the procedure, and storing the procedural template and actual usage information in a retrievable manner for the purposes of analysis.

In the provision of medical services, one way of describing the process by which medical services are provided is through the concept of a clinical pathway. Any given treatment regime or clinical procedure, may be easily described as a related series of care events. Each care event has a some relation to the preceding and/or following care events that is logical and reasonable. For example, suppose that a patient was going to the hospital to have knee surgery. The process, from start to finish could be described as a series of care events: 1) admission, 2) initial bloodwork, 3) preoperative prep, 4) anesthesia, 5) surgery, 6) postoperative recovery, 7) discharge. In fact, the previous example could continue outside the hospital with additional steps: 8) follow-up doctor's office visits, 9) rehabilitation/physical therapy, etc. To a person familiar with the medical environment, it will be apparent that each of the care events could be broken down into a more detailed series of sub-care events, thus, the concept of the clinical pathway is scaleable; that is, any given care event may be made of a series of activities and can therefore be described as a clinical pathway.
The concept of the clinical pathway may also be expanded to more involved procedures. For example, a patient might go to her doctor complaining of particular symptoms. The doctor might then make and examination, or order tests. Based upon the result of the examination and/or tests, the doctor would make a diagnosis and prescribe a treatment regime. Assume that the treatment regime included a surgical procedure to be performed in a hospital, as well as follow-up care. In this case, the clinical pathway might look like: 1) patient induction (basic administration getting the patient into the doctor's system); 2) examination; 3) testing; 4) diagnosis; 5) prescription of treatment; 6) admission to the hospital; 7) pre-surgical testing; 8) pre-operative preparation; 9) anesthesia; 10) surgery; 11) post-operative recovery; 12) discharge from hospital; 13) follow-up treatment; 14) final discharge. Once again, it is obvious that each care event in the given example might be further broken down into smaller incremental care events and, thus, represent a clinical pathway of its own. For example, the surgery could be broken down into each step associated with the surgery from the initial incision until the incision is closed.
In addition to the fact that each care event represents the provision of some type of medical (or administrative) service, each care event will also require the allocation of some type of resources in order to be performed. These resources may be in the form of labor (doctor, nurse, technician, data clerk, etc.), equipment (x-ray machine, respirator, vital signs monitors, etc.), or supplies (sponges, surgical instruments, drapes, x-ray film, sutures, medications, etc.). Thus, for each care event it is possible to identify the allocation of resources necessary for completion of the care event. For example, for the examination step described in the second example, the allocation of resources could be: 15 minutes of doctor's time, use of a specimen collector, use of a specimen container, and the use of a blood collection kit. Likewise, the testing step might include the use of an imaging device (such as an x-ray or MRI machine), 30 minutes of technicians time, use of x-ray film, use of an x-ray developer and associated chemical supplies, and 15 minutes of a radiologist's time to interpret the images.
By describing events in the context of a procedural pathway, a framework is provided which allows for the systematic classification of the steps necessary to treat a particular patient as well as identifying the resource allocation necessary to properly complete the clinical pathway. In the current healthcare environment of cost control and containment, the use of the clinical pathway framework provides an effective and efficient method for characterizing and analyzing the provision of health-care services in the clinical environment.
The provision of medical supplies for use in the clinical environment, most particularly in the hospital environment, has evolved through over time as the nature of health care provision and, importantly, cost reimbursement, has changed. For example, in the past, the most common way for supplies to be obtained by hospitals was for a central supply service to order the individual supplies anticipated to be needed for a given time period. These supplies would be maintained in a supply room until needed for a given procedure. Once a procedure had been scheduled, a pick list (a list of supplies) would be generated based on the procedure and the doctor performing the procedure. A hospital employee would then use the pick list to withdraw the desired items from inventory and place them in the operating room where the procedure would take place. After the procedure was completed, unused supplies would be returned to inventory, a list of used supplies provided to the billing department, and the used supplies disposed of or re-sterilized. However, this system was costly and inefficient.
For example, a relatively large inventory of supplies had to be maintained, particularly for standard items such as drapes, sponges, sutures, clamps, etc., which could be used in a large variety of procedures. The inventory of such items had to be large in order to insure that sufficient quantities were on hand for every procedure. Furthermore, the act of picking items for surgery and, later, restocking unused items, was onerous and expensive since relatively highly skilled labor was utilized to insure that the proper items were collected and that the restocked items were placed in the proper location. In particular, the restocking of unused items was a substantial burden on the hospital. Due to the then current mode of reimbursement for supply costs. Each item pulled from inventory had to be either used (and billed for) or restocked (and not billed for). If an item was not used during the procedure and was billed for anyway, the billing for that product could be considered fraud on the reimburser. Since items were often individually wrapped, the restocking procedure could be very time consuming, particularly where sufficient quantities of items were picked from inventory to cover any situation during surgery (i.e., it would not be uncommon to withdraw 10 clamps from inventory and use only 3 or 4, except in situations where heavy bleeding is encountered, which might necessitate the use of all 10).
This situation led to the development of the procedural pack or procedural pack. Initially, suppliers started noting that certain combinations of supplies were used in almost all surgeries. For example, a series of drapes would almost always be used. Thus, a procedural drape pack was developed which included a collection of the most commonly used drapes in numbers commonly used. These drapes were packaged and sterilized as a unit, so that the use of any portion of the unit constituted use of the entire unit. For example, the pack might contain 5 drapes, but only four might be used during surgery. However, since the package was opened, and sterility was thereby compromised, the entire unit could legitimately be considered used. Although some waste occurred, this system cut out the required re-stocking cost was eliminated.
Initially, small procedural packs and trays were developed for common events. Incision trays, anesthesia trays, suture kits and a variety of other procedural packs, or supply bundles, were developed. As hospitals grew more used to the concept of procedural packs and packs, the demand for more comprehensive supply bundles increased. The procedural pack or pack ultimately evolved into a large bundle, differentiated by surgical procedure, that included all disposable components for that procedure.
In the era of cost-plus reimbursement, the hospitals had an incentive to use ever growing, comprehensive procedural packs. Use of a large pack, with all possible components present, served to minimize the amount of labor required to pick items from inventory and restock unused item. Additionally, it allowed hospitals to greatly reduce their inventory since such packs could be ordered on an as-needed basis, instead of maintaining a large inventory of supplies. However, in order to increase these efficiencies, the packs had to be able to cover any possibility that might reasonably be encountered during the procedure, and often included a large amount of supplies which were not often used in most procedures.
With the advent of cost-containment in the health-care environment, the care providers are required by the reimbursers, to minimize expense and cost wherever possible. Under the tenets of managed care, if a supply is not used during a procedure, then the reimburser is not willing to pay for that supply. This environment leads back toward the concept of having an inventory of supplies which are pulled and then restocked when unused. However, reimbursers do realize that some waste in the use of supplies is justified in order to minimize labor expenses concerned with the pulling and restocking of supplies. Thus, the pressure on suppliers led to the development of "custom procedural packs." These custom trays attempt to be comprehensive, but are tailored to the circumstances to attempt to minimize waste. For example, there is a "parts list" or supply list generated by each doctor for each procedure performed by that doctor in a given hospital. Thus, doctors are able to specify the supplies desired, the quantities desired and, if a preference is felt, the brand and type of the desired supply. Thus, if Doctor A uses more lap sponges than Doctor B, their preference cards will differ. Under the cost-plus reimbursement scenario, a procedural pack would have been developed which just had the maximum number of lap sponges used by any doctor. The extra lap sponges in a tray provided to Doctor B would just be wasted. However, under managed care, a custom procedural pack could be developed for Doctor A and Doctor B which allowed for the differing preferences. Once again, however, the more specialized the custom procedural pack, the more inventory will have to be maintained. Since there is the potential for each doctor to have a different custom procedural pack for each different procedure performed by the doctor, there would be no standardization of trays in inventory and, therefore, a number of each custom procedural packs would be required for each doctor.
In the final analysis, a balance must be met between standardization of procedural packs, which will allow for the greatest savings in inventory, because more standardized trays can be used for more different doctors and procedures, and customization which minimizes the waste developed due to usage differences from doctor to doctor and procedure to procedure. It will be apparent to one skilled in the art that the proper balance of standardization and customization will result in the minimum of cost, by minimizing both waste and inventory. Thus, with proper balancing, both the reimburser will save money, due to decreased waste and/or decreased labor costs due to less time spent picking items of supply for surgery, and the care provider will save money, due to inventory control.
Custom procedural packs have been present in the medical supply industry almost since the inception of the procedural pack. As a marketing technique, the tray manufacturers were willing to customize trays to gain a competitive advantage over other manufacturers and gain an entree to new accounts. However, recently, the industry has become more sophisticated in developing custom packs and trays with the cooperation of the customers. Initially, custom procedural packs were slight variations of standard trays or packs already offered by the manufacturer. However, with increasing customization demands and ever changing product offerings, a more sophisticated method of developing custom procedural packs was required.
One approach to the problem is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,682,728 to DeBusk et al., entitled Method For The Supply Of Medical Supplies To A Health-Care Institution Based On A Nested Bill Of Materials On A Procedure Level, the entire specification of which is hereby incorporated by reference as if set forth herein. As may be seen in this application, using the clinical pathway approach described above, each medical procedure may be described as a series of procedures to be performed in a specified order. Thus, at each step in the clinical pathway, the supplies needed to complete that step can be expressed as a supply bundle (or bundles) which will be utilized during that step. Thus, using the clinical pathway model, a nested bill of materials for a given clinical pathway, at the procedural level, may be generated to develop a supply list for the contents of a custom procedural pack. The clinical pathway model allows for an easier approach to analyzing the supplies which will be needed at each step, since it provides a break-down of each phase of a medical procedure.
The procedure for developing the types of custom procedural packs described herein will include some starting point based upon historical usage. For example, say that the hospital already has a standard procedural pack for a laproscopic gall bladder surgery. The supply list for this standard procedural pack could provide the template for developing the custom procedural packs for that hospital. After first organizing the template supply list into a nested bill of materials (as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,682,728), the template would be modified by each doctor's preference card to develop a custom nested bill of materials for each doctor who performs that procedure in the hospital. The step of organizing this initial bill of materials for each doctor will require some judgment in order that minor differences in supply usage are minimized (i.e., if one doctor uses 2 units of a low cost item, and another doctor uses 3 units of the same item, it is probably cheaper to standardized both bills of materials to 3 units; conversely, if the item is a high cost item, it is best to differentiate the bills of materials). The result is that a bill of materials for a procedural pack is developed for each doctor for each procedure.
With a bill of materials developed for each procedural pack for each procedure, the various suppliers of the products can then develop supply bundles for each step set out in the clinical pathway. Typically, not all of the supplies will be provided by a single supplier or manufacturer, so that, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,682,728, multiple supply sources will develop supply bundles for inclusion into the procedural pack for a given customer. As described in that application, a container may be shipped to each source of supplies and the supplies provided by that source can be added to the container, thus reducing the time and shipping costs associated with collecting an shipping various components to a single assembly location. In operation, the initial source of the container would develop a work order based on the nested bill of materials which each supplier would use to add the appropriate supply bundles to the container. Alternatively, each supplier could ship its supply bundle to a centralized assembly location for assembly of the container and shipment to the ultimate customer. This supply paradigm provides the customer and the suppliers with a framework within which the suppliers can respond very rapidly to an order by the hospital for a custom procedural pack. Thus, even though there exists the possibility that a large number of different trays may be developed for each hospital, the hospital need not maintain a large inventory of such custom procedural packs since the supply process has been streamlined. With proper implementation of the system, a very small number of custom procedural packs may be kept in inventory by the hospital (maybe one week's worth) which will obviously reduce the inventory costs of the hospital. Similarly, since the parts list, or nested bill of materials for each tray has been analyzed, waste is minimized and efficiency is enhanced.
In this supply paradigm, which has been implemented by the assignee hereof, DeRoyal Industries, Inc., under the trademark and service mark TRACEPAK.TM., an attempt is made at the time of the development of the nested bill of materials for each custom procedural pack to minimize waste while maximizing standardization to ultimately reduce the overall cost to the care provider. However, this initial analysis is not sufficient to insure that the bill of materials remains optimized. For example, doctors are constantly revising their supply usage based upon new surgical techniques. Similarly, manufacturers are constantly updating their products to incorporate new products and developments. Also, prices are constantly changing in the marketplace.
Typically, the use of a custom procedural pack will result in a variety of benefits to the hospital such as ease of ordering, ease of cost accounting, ease of use for doctors and other care providers, etc. However, it was often difficult to track the efficiency of usage of the supplies provided in such trays to determine if all of the necessary products were present in the tray, were there supplies in the tray that were not routinely used, were there sources of supplies for the tray which could get a better cost than the manufacturer of the tray.
Furthermore, hospitals typically had a multitude of information systems relating to the usage and ordering of supplies for procedures. For example, the hospital billing system would often be one system which was used to track costs to be billed to patients for the purposes of generating billing statements. Another system might be used to submit information to insurers and other payment providers to submit claims for payment for particular services and costs. A further system might be used to control the hospital supply inventory. Finally, an additional system might be used to keep track of doctors procedural supply preferences and the contents of custom procedural packs.
With the plurality of information systems, often, a hospital or clinic has trouble tracking exactly what supplies are being provided for a given procedure, what supplies are actually used in a given procedure and trending historical usage for the purposes of projecting future usage as well as fine tuning the contents of custom procedural packs.
One system which has been used in the past, either as a computer maintained list, or on paper, has been a resource consumption log. This system basically provides a list of supplies provided during a given procedure and, either as they are used, or after the procedure, a simple tally is made to determine if the quantity of usage of the listed supplies. These types of supply usage counts would typically be nothing more than lists generated from the packing list of the custom procedural pack and the supply preference list provided by the doctors and care givers associated with each procedure. Typically, this type of tally was used primarily for the purposes of cost recovery and inventory replenishment. However, the lists associated with such previous logs were sometime unwieldy and difficult to use. Furthermore, these prior art systems required entry of the data into multiple systems and, typically, the data was not used for analysis or trending.
In the current health care environment, there is increased pressure to track and minimize costs associated with the delivery of health care. One of the major areas of cost in any healthcare facility is the supplies used during medical procedures. Often, hospitals and clinics utilized procedural packs which are designed to have all of the supplies that a surgeon or other caregiver might need to use during the procedure. However, when these procedural packs are designed to be comprehensive, there can be considerable waste of supplies simply because they are not used during a particular procedure. Conversely, sometimes a supply is used frequently is not included in a procedural pack, thus requiring that hospital or clinic supplied labor be used to keep an inventory of such supplies and make sure that such supplies are delivered to the care site for the procedure. However, prior art supply tracking methods and systems do not provide an integrated package for the tracking of anticipated usage and actual usage.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a method and system for the tracking of medical supply usage on a procedural level in the context of a hospital or other care site.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method for the tracking of medical supply usage which provides integrated historical record keeping.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a method and system for the tracking of medical supply usage which provides the capability of comparing actual supply usage on the procedural level to anticipated supply usage on the procedural level.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method and system for refining a bill of materials representing supplies provided in a procedural pack based upon a historical comparison of anticipated usage and actual usage.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method and system for tracking the usage of medical resources, such as supplies, equipment and personnel at the procedural level for the purposes of analysis and cost recovery.

Method and system for the tracking and profiling of supply usage in a health care environment


The apparatus includes a hollow chamber, preferably made from a synthetic material, such as PVC or other plastic, with an insertable reinforcement piece suitable for connecting to window, door or other configurations, such as abutment and frame profiles. The reinforcement piece comprises a unitary rolled sheet metal with one or more screw channels within the reinforcement profile for a front face abutment screw connection. The reinforcement piece further includes at least one shank inwardly extending from the screw channel toward the opposite chamber wall. The reinforcement piece further includes a shank extending around the inner walls of the hollow chamber.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to a reinforced chamber with a hollow cross section for windows, doors and similar structures.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In German Patent No. 87 14 076 (European Patent PS 0 312 646), a center support for synthetic window frames is disclosed, wherein the cross section of the insert includes two portions which are mirror images of each other and facing each other, each of which has the basic shape of a "U". The two portions are arranged with the base shanks abutting one another. Each base shank is provided with reinforcing fins extending in the longitudinal direction, spaced from each other and parallel to each other thereby forming two screw channels. The dimensions of the shank are chosen so that each portion of the insert can be inserted into the chamber with some "play". Screws are inserted into the screw channels to secure the portions tightly and eliminate the "play". Such an insert with two halves and with such a cross section which can be loosely inserted into the hollow chamber has a number of disadvantages. For example, the screw channels for the abutment screws are formed only after the two halves abut each other, that is, the reinforcing fins in the halves must form one upper and one lower screw channel, into which the screws can be inserted. However, if the height of the cross section of the hollow chamber has even minor dimensional variations, the reinforcing fins do not align exactly opposite each other and a screw channel is not formed. This requires additional installation effort to resolve this problem. Similarly, if the width of the cross section of the hollow chamber has even minor dimensional variations, the sections tilt and insertion of the screws is difficult. An additional disadvantage is that the sections with their head and foot groove, in order to be functional, must be supported on the inner wall of the cross section of the hollow chamber. After insertion of the screws, these grooves press into the plastic material which results in an inelastic deformation of the synthetic material and, eventually, in a loosening of the screws. Additionally, the assembly of the sections is cumbersome and time consuming. Moreover, in longer configurations, such an apparatus can tend to be noisy.
The chamber with a hollow cross section disclosed in German Patent No. PS 40 20 559 is equipped with a single reinforcement piece having a one-sided open screw channel and thereby eliminates many of the disadvantages of German Patent No. 87 14 076 discussed above, but is still disadvantageous in that external elements like metal fittings and the like cannot be connected to the reinforcement piece, which extends to about the center of the hollow chamber, but rather are connected to the wall (which is typically made of plastic or other synthetic material) of the hollow chamber. This causes a weak connection and stress on the wall.

Reinforced chamber with a hollow cross section