A small object identifying device and its identifying method according to which a large number of small objects can be identified. In one embodiment, the device includes a dispersion region section which disperses a large quantity of several kinds of small objects which are labeled by a combination of the presence/absence or measure of label elements of several kinds. A measuring device distributes and associates kinds of said label elements to two or more measurement points and measures the presence/absence or the measure of said label elements of the kinds which have been associated with respective measurement points. An identifying section associates the measurement results measured at each measurement point to thereby identify said small objects.

Heretofore, in identifying target small objects which are labeled with a fluorescent substance or the like, this is performed using a flow cytometer 160 such as shown in FIG. 18. The flow cytometer 160 has a passage 151 whereby a fluid containing the target small object flows along the interior. The passage 151 fluidicly couples a water flow tank 157 to a transport pump 158, which, in turn, is fluidicly coupled to a measuring passage 152 formed from a material with transmittance.
At a measuring position on the outside of the measuring passage 152 there is provided a light source 154 which shines excitation light of one type over a wide region on this measuring passage 152, and a light receiving section 153 which receives the fluorescence generated from fluorescent material which is provided on target small objects existing in the illumination region. The strength of the received light is analyzed by an analyzing section 155, to thereby detect the presence or absence of the target small objects. In the passage 151 there is provided in addition, the transport pump 158, diverter valves 159 and 161, and a waste tank 163. Reference symbol 156 denotes a suction mechanism, which is for drawing up the liquid containing the small objects to inside the passage 151 from a container 21 provided on the outside, via a nozzle 162.
Incidentally, conventionally there is a device for detecting the presence/absence of the target small objects which are labeled by the one type of labeling substance, and by using the flow cytometer, it is possible to measure the presence/absence thereof. However, recently, for the determination or analysis of base sequences of DNA, there is a growing requirement to label target substances of a large number of kinds.
In order to label target substances of a large number of kinds in this manner, it is not sufficient to merely use labeling substances of a plurality of different kinds for the small objects, and it is necessary to also specify the quantity ratio (molar ratio) in labeling (International Patent Publication WO 00/5357, Masayuki Machida et. al.). At this time, in order to obtain information from the labeling substances for each of the small objects, it is necessary to be able to independently measure the many small objects one at a time, so that information from the many kinds of labeled small objects is not measured overlapped.
Furthermore, in the case where several kinds of labeling substances are used, it is necessary to measure all of the various pieces of information obtained from the same small object.
However, if for the same small object, several kinds of excitation light are shone simultaneously all together, and the several kinds of light are received simultaneously all together without exception, since the plurality of light source sections and the plurality of light receiving sections are provided centralized, then in the measuring position, the construction of the optical measuring unit is centralized and complicated. Moreover, due to the influence of light shining from the various light source sections, there is the possibility that reception of the necessary light may be obstructed. Therefore, there is the problem that the number of kinds of labeling substance which one small object can have is naturally limited.
Moreover, with a device for small objects labeled by fluorescent substances of several kinds, which shines excitation light of several kinds onto a comparatively wide region at one measurement position of the passage, and receives the light of several kinds from the small objects which are in the comparatively wide region, there is a problem in that it is not possible to individually identify the small objects of several kinds which are labeled by the several kinds of labeling substances.
Therefore, the present invention addresses the aforementioned problems with a first object of providing a small object identifying device and its identifying method in which, by paying attention to the label elements which the respective small objects have rather than paying attention to each small object and measuring at once all of the label elements on the small object for each small object, and resolving for each of the label elements of a small number of kinds compared to the kinds of small objects, and providing a time difference and measuring, then the structure for the respective measurement points can be simplified as much as possible. Furthermore the amount of light to be shone can be reduced and the adverse affect on the received light can be reduced as much as possible, and the small objects can be identified, surely and with high reliability.
A second object is to provide a highly accurate small object identifying device and its identifying method which, by providing a time difference at two or more measurement points for a single small object and measuring, can measure the various different attitudes and directions between the measurement points for a single small object, and which can measure the label information from the respective small objects without exception.
A third object is to provide a highly accurate small object identifying device and its identifying method which, by dispersing a large quantity of small objects and providing a relative temporal relationship at two or more measurement points and then measuring, the influence of overlapping of the small objects can be eliminated as much as possible.
A fourth object is to provide a small object identifying device and its identifying method which can identify easily, reliably and efficiently a large number of small objects from several tens, to several hundreds, to several thousands, to more than several tens of thousands, without stopping in the case of identifying several kinds of small objects.
A fifth object is to provide a small object identifying device and its identifying method which is applicable to analysis, diagnosis and inspection of DNA, immune systems, proteins, amino acids, and biopolymers such as sugars.
A sixth object is to provide a small object identifying device and its identifying method with flexibility and diversity which can flexibly correspond according to the processing purpose.

Small object identifying device and its identifying method

Furukawa Electric Advanced Engineering Co., Ltd.


An Almen type gage to measure the deflection of a test strip relative to a supporting surface to provide an indication of shot blasting intensity includes curved surfaces extending from the support surface for supporting the test strip. A holding block is also mounted on the support surface. Plungers carried by the holding block opposite the curved surface clamp the test strip between the spring loaded plungers and the curved surface. The holding block is undercut to accommodate the test strip so that the weight of the holding block is not borne by the test strip and the test strip is retained on the supporting surface by the force of the spring loaded plungers clamping the test strip against the curved surface. Since the weight of the holding block is not borne by the test strips, the holding force is constant and the weight of the holding block does not corrupt measurement of the deflection of the test strip.

U.S. Pat. No. 2,350,440 to John O. Almen discloses a device used for measuring the intensity of shot blast peening on metal parts, commonly known as an Almen gage. Almen gages measure the intensity of the peening process by measuring the curvature of thin metal test strips, after one side of the test strips has been peened. The unbalanced stress in the peened surface causes the test strips to bow. The Almen gage uses two spaced knife edged supports and a measurement indicator with an reciprocating feeler to measure the curvature of the test strip. The spaced knife edged supports hold the test strip as the feeler located between the knife edges engages the test strip. Gaging the height of the arc or bend of the test strip between the two predetermined contact points along the knife edged supports provides an indication of the intensity of the peening process.
Later refinements of the Almen gage have replaced the knife edged supports with four round contact balls with the operator manually holding the test strip in place for measurement. Another version of the Almen gage added a spring loaded finger to hold the test strip in place. The spring loaded finger was difficult to operate and subject to abuse and damage. Still another version of the Almen gage is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,297,418, in which magnets mounted in the base magnetize the contact balls, thereby holding test strips made of a magnetic material in place.
More recently, test strips have become available which are made out of a non-magnetic material, such as aluminum. Since these test strips cannot be held in place by magnets, the operator must either manually hold the test strip in place or a heavy block must be placed on top of the test strip to be measured. It is undesirable for the operator to hold the strip in place due to the variability of measurement results caused by variation in the holding force by the operator. It is also undesirable to use the heavy block, which normally has four balls or protrusions used to pinch or capture the strip measurements securely with the four balls provided on the gage. This method is adequate, but it is difficult to install the four balls in a flat plane needed to prevent strip deflection. Furthermore, even if the block has its four balls in an ideal flat condition, the balls on the gage may not be in a flat plane, and therefore unequal pinching force will result.

Gage for measuring the intensity of shot-blast peening using non-magnetic test strips held in place by spring-loaded plungers


The invention relates to the compounds of formula I or its pharmaceutical acceptable salts, as well as polymorphs, solvates, enantiomers, stereoisomers and hydrates thereof. The pharmaceutical compositions comprising an effective amount of compounds of formula I, and methods for the treatment of severe pain may be formulated for oral, buccal, rectal, topical, transdermal, transmucosal, intravenous, parenteral administration, syrup, or injection. Such compositions may be used to treatment of chronic pain, generalized pain disorders, leukemia, cancer, chronic pain, chemotherapy induced pain, epilepsy, migraine, neuropathic pain, post herpetic neuralgia, neuralgia, pain, drug addiction, detoxification of drugs, Alzheimer's disease, multiple sclerosis, multiple sclerosis, restless legs syndrome (RLS), cluster headache, depression, fibromyalgia, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), convulsions, partial seizures, mood-stabilizing agent and bipolar disorder.

Pain is a subjective experience, influenced by physical, psychological, social, and spiritual factors. The concept of total pain acknowledges the importance of all these dimensions and that good pain relief is unlikely without attention to each aspect. Pain and diseases such as cancer are not synonymous: at least two thirds of patients experience pain at some time during the course of their illness, and most will need potent analgesics.
Synthetic opioids are a cornerstone of the management of cancer pain and postoperative pain and are used increasingly for the management of severe non-cancer pain. Understanding the metabolism of synthetic opioids is of great practical importance to primary care clinicians. Synthetic opioids metabolism is a vital safety consideration in older and medically complicated patients, who may be taking multiple medications and may have inflammation, impaired renal and hepatic function, and impaired immunity. Severe pain, such as lower back pain, also occurs in younger persons and is the leading cause of disability in younger than 45 years. In younger patients, physicians may be more concerned with synthetic opioids metabolism in reference to development of tolerance, impairment of skills and mental function, adverse events during pregnancy and lactation, and prevention of abuse by monitoring drug and metabolite levels.
Experienced clinicians are aware that the efficacy and tolerability of specific synthetic opioids may vary dramatically among patients and that trials of several synthetic opioids may be needed before finding one that provides an acceptable balance of analgesia and tolerability for an individual patient. Pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic differences underlie this variability of response. Pharmacodynamics refers to how a drug affects the body, whereas pharmacokinetics describes how the body alters the drug.
Pharmacokinetics contributes to the variability in response to synthetic opioids by affecting the bioavailability of a drug, the production of active or inactive metabolites, and their elimination from the body. Pharmacodynamic factors contributing to variability of response to synthetic opioids include between-patient differences in specific synthetic opioids receptors and between-synthetic opioids differences in binding to receptor subtypes. The receptor binding of synthetic opioids is imperfectly understood; hence, matching individual patients with specific synthetic opioids to optimize efficacy and tolerability remains a trial-and-error procedure.
Neurological disorders such as pain are a heterogeneous group of diseases of the nervous system, including the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nerves that have much different aetiology. Many are hereditary; some are secondary to toxic or metabolic processes. Free radicals are highly reactive molecules or chemical species capable of independent existence. Generation of highly Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) is an integral feature of normal cellular function like mitochondrial respiratory chain, phagocytosis and arachidonic acid metabolism. The release of oxygen free radicals has also been reported during the recovery phases from many pathological noxious stimuli to the cerebral tissues. Some of the pain associated neurological disorders include injury, post-operative pain, osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury, migraine, HIV related neuropathic pain, post herpetic neuralgia, diabetic neuropathy, cancer pain, fibromyalgia and lower back pain.
Managing acute pathology of often relies on the addressing underlying pathology and symptoms of the disease. There is currently a need in the art for new compositions to treatment of severe pain.

Compositions and methods for the treatment of severe pain


Disclosed is a method for delivering decision-supported patient data to a clinician to aid the clinician with the diagnosis and treatment of a medical condition. The method including presenting a patient with questions generated by a decision-support module and gathering patient data indicative of the responses to the questions. Each question presented to the patient is based upon the prior questions presented to and the patient data gathered from the patient. Upon receiving the patient data from the client module, evaluating the patient data at the module to generate decision-supported patient data, this supported patient data includes medical condition diagnoses, pertinent medical parameters for the medical condition, and medical care recommendations for the medical condition. At the client module or a clinician's client module, presenting the clinician with this patient data in either a standardized format associated with a progress note or a format selected by the clinician.

1. The Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a decision-support system where information is analyzed to provide an individual with one or more suggested recommendations. More specifically, the present invention relates to a decision-supporting system that provides recommendations to a clinician in a standardized and reproducible form.
2. The Relevant Technology
The U.S. health care delivery system has undergone breathtaking changes since the late 1980's. Today's medical marketplace is characterized by escalating costs, diminishing resources, demands for accountability, inescapable conflicts regarding meaningful outcomes measures, and an expanding medical knowledge base. Health care, in general, is an information intensive industry where clinicians and health care providers analyze and digest an ever-increasing knowledge base of health care practices and procedures. Clinicians and health care providers use these practices and procedures to give appropriate medical care for each patient that seeks medical care.
Increasingly clinicians and health care researchers experience demands for more accurate and accessible information. The complexity of health care, its burgeoning information base, and the turbulence of the medical marketplace contribute to a medical system that grapples to efficiently synthesize and disseminate information, standardize care, and to continue to create and innovate. The obstacles to these goals are the same regardless of whether the health care delivery provider is a small hospital, long-term/skilled nursing facility, medical clinic, home health agency, hospice, emergent care unit, or large institution. All providers are faced with the need to identify solutions to manage information and make better decisions, whether those decisions are medical or business-related in nature.
Clinical decisions are of particular interest since they often influence the balance of human suffering and well-being. Clinical decisions are typically based upon the evidence-base of medicine, patient-physician factors and interactions, and external and internal constraints. Whether clinicians are serving individual patients or populations, they have always sought to base their decisions on the best available evidence or knowledge. The rapid expansion of the scientific and clinical evidence has changed the health care landscape so that no longer is the question how much of medical practice is based in evidence, but rather how much of the available evidence is applied at the front lines of patient care.
Clinicians and health care providers are acutely aware of the issues associated with practicing the available evidence at the front lines. Many attempts have been made to provide information to a clinician in a meaningful manner that supports the clinician's decision-making process. One current trend is to utilize artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to meet information management and decision-supporting needs. AI technologies or expert systems attempt to simulate the decision-support process that is easily accomplished by the human brain. The expert system typically includes a knowledge base that stores data representative of the currently available knowledge within a particular field of endeavor. An inference engine and associated "rules" or statements that control how the expert system reacts to a particular situations work with the knowledge base to generate solutions to problems posed to the expert system, such as the dose of a drug that a patient is to receive.
Various types of expert system have been developed in the medical field. For example, one type of expert system aids a physician with treating physical trauma. The expert system gathers patient data, such as the patient's height, weight, age, and sex, while collecting information related to the physical trauma. As the data is collected, the expert system generates a working file that is specific to the patient and the particular injury. This working file with a knowledge base of physical trauma and orthopedic fractures is used by the expert system to assist the clinician in treating the patient's physical trauma. Unfortunately, each working file is specific to the particular patient and the specific injury. Hence, each time the expert system is used, a new working file is generated, including the need to ask for patient data, patient history, and the like.
Another type of expert system guides a clinician with the administration and selection of therapeutic drugs and associated treatment regimens for a known disease. The expert system utilizes information gathered from a patient physical examination with a knowledge base to generate suggested treatment regimens for a known disease or medical condition. Although this type of expert system allows a clinician and a patient to generate treatment regimens together for a known disease, the expert system is limited to only those known diseases identified by the clinician. Additionally, initial generation of patient data is time consuming and cumbersome.
Therefore, there is a need for an expert system that allows for an evaluation of a patient over an extended period without the need to re-input patient data each time a clinician examines the same patient. Additionally, there is a need for a system that effectively gathers patient data without the clinician spending a long period examining the patient and evaluates the data to identify known or unknown medical conditions.

Systems and methods for manipulating medical data via a decision support system


An oblique angle defining the slot face opposing a coupler in a slotted coaxial antenna increases the apparent slot length and therewith the capacitance of the driven element. The altered slot angle, in concert with a flattened facing surface on the associated coupler, increases the radiating efficiency of the antenna.

Coaxial transmission lines carrying radio frequency (RF) energy can be used as antennas provided the center conductor of the coaxial line couples RF energy to an aperture in the outer conductor, termed a slot, with sufficient efficiency to cause emission of a significant proportion of the energy applied to the slotted coax/antenna. A typical slotted coaxial line antenna designed for ultra-high frequency (UHF) broadcast, for example, may have from about four to several dozen slots in line, typically occurring at one-wavelength intervals. Such an antenna may also have more than one radially-disposed set of slots.
In order for the slotted coax to radiate efficiently, the two sides of the slot should have a differential distance to the center conductor. This is commonly realized by affixing a conductive rod parallel to the center conductor near or adjacent to one edge of the slot. The impedance mismatch induced by the rod tends to promote radiation out the slot.
Various modifications of the basic concept of the slotted coax antenna and the tradeoffs associated therewith have been attempted by many practitioners of slotted coax design. For instance, it is known that increasing the length of each slot to a full wavelength can be electrically beneficial—but produces a structure with one or more continuous slots, which compromises the mechanical integrity of the antenna. Enlarging the size of each slot near the ends to form a shape known in the art as a "dog bone" can increase the perimeter length while preserving the capacitance at the center of the slot, improving radiation performance but incurring other drawbacks. Inserting a block of higher-dielectric-constant material, such as polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE, sold for example under the trade name Teflon®) in the slot can reduce the slot's electrical width, but can promote contamination and arcing during extended use. Increasing antenna outer conductor diameter allows the slots to be shorter, but may increase weight and wind drag.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide an apparatus and method for a slotted coax antenna that increases overall performance with minimal deleterious effects.

Apparatus and method to increase apparent resonant slot length in a slotted coaxial antenna


An airbag of the knee-protecting airbag device according to the present invention includes a cover area which covers the lower side or the back side of key accessories and is contactable with the accessories. The airbag includes a bag-shaped airbag body with a driver's side wall and a column side wall, a protecting cloth, and a retainer cloth. The protecting cloth is joined at its lower end to an area in the column side wall below the cover area, while leaving its upper end as free end. The retainer cloth is so joined at its lower end to the driver's side wall as to be capable of covering the upper end part of the protecting cloth as extended to the driver's side wall. The airbag is transversely folded and housed in the housing in a condition that the upper end part of the protecting cloth is extended to the driver's side wall and then the retainer cloth is superposed thereon.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a knee-protecting airbag device which protects knees of a driver by an airbag expanding and inflating with inflation gas.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a conventional knee-protecting airbag device for protecting knees of a driver disclosed in WO 02/04261 A1, for example, a folded airbag is housed in and held by a housing located in front of the driver. Upon inflow of inflation gas, the airbag rises along the lower surface of a steering column, and deploys for protecting driver's knees. The airbag as completely deployed is provided, in the vicinity of left or right corner in its upper edge, with a cover area for covering the lower side or back side of key accessories of a key inserted in the key cylinder and touching the accessories.
However, since there are various kinds of key accessories such as a spare key, the lower ends of the accessories may contact an inflated part of the airbag and damage the airbag, when the airbag deploys.


An automatic vehicle wiper system including a wiper, a speed sensor which measures vehicle speed, a rainfall measuring device which measures amount of rainfall during predetermined intervals, a calculating device which calculates a wiping action frequency of the wiper as first data, depending on the amount of rainfall measured by the rainfall measuring device, a memory device which stores the first data calculated by the calculating device as second data when the vehicle speed measured by the speed sensor decreases to equal to or less than a predetermined value, and a wiping action frequency determining device which determines the wiping action frequency of the wiper by comparing the first data and the second data when the vehicle speed measured by the speed sensor becomes equal to or greater than a predetermined value after it has been confirmed that the vehicle has stopped.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automatic vehicle wiper system.
Priority is claimed on Japanese Patent Application No. 2004-266643, filed Sep. 14, 2004, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, in a vehicle such as an automobile, automatic wiper systems are known that automatically carry out the wiping action of a wiper by using a rain sensor in order to reduce the burden of the vehicle operation on the driver while driving in rain. Rain sensors are known that estimate the amount of rainfall based on the amount of light received when light emitted from a light emitting portion is reflected by the front windshield and made incident on a light receiving portion. The rain sensors are placed in a small field of locations on the front windshield that do not obscure the field of view of the driver (refer to Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, Application No. 2003-109184).
However, the number of raindrops striking the rain sensors is small when the vehicle has stopped in comparison to when the vehicle is traveling. Thus, for example, the rain sensors may determine that the condition is a light rainfall even when the condition is a moderate rainfall, and thereby the wiping action of the wipers is inhibited. When the vehicle starts to move again (accelerate) after having stopped, a predetermined amount of time is necessary in order to estimate an amount of rainfall that corresponds to the actual rainfall conditions. This predetermined amount of time is because of the variance in frequency with which raindrops will strike the rain sensor and the like.
In contrast, a rain sensor may determine that rainfall is heavy even during light rainfall conditions in the case that, for example, the raindrops are concentrated by chance at a location at which rain sensors are provided (even if the rainfall conditions are identical, the variance of frequency of raindrops striking the rain sensor while traveling and while stopped are different). In this case as well, in order to estimate the actual amount of rainfall accurately, a filter may be applied to the sensitivity of the rain sensor.
However, in the structure described above, when the vehicle starts to move again after having stopped, even when the rainfall condition is moderate or greater, the wiping action of the wiper may not be appropriate for the rainfall conditions(for example, the wiper may not carry out the wiping action even though rain is falling), because of the variance in frequency with which the raindrops will strike the rain sensor or because the rain sensor estimates the amount of rainfall through a filter, and thus the driver may experience distress.
Thus, the present invention provides an automatic vehicle wiper system that can carry out a wiping action of the wiper that corresponds to the rainfall conditions even when the vehicle starts to move again after having stopped.


A drift canceling method and apparatus is used in conjunction with an analog to digital converter. The drift canceling method and apparatus analyzes the duty cycle of the target analog to digital converter's most significant output data bit to determine if the average numeric value of the analog to digital converter's output data stream is data centered upon the analog to digital converter's numeric data range or if it is ranging above or below the data range center. If the average data value is above or below center, a servo error signal is generated which is added to the analog to digital converter's input signal to cause the analog to digital converter's average output data magnitude to slew towards the data range center. In this way, the average analog to digital converter output data offset is continuously canceled without interfering with the normal and continuous operation of the target analog to digital converter.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to the field of digital signal processing. More particularly, the present invention relates to the field of analog to digital converters. In particular, the present invention relates to the field of analog to digital converters used mainly in a.c. signal conversion applications.
2. Description of the Prior Art
An analog-to-digital converter (hereafter referred as "ADC") is used in both a.c. and d.c. conversion applications. The ADCs are used to convert a.c. analog signals into digital output data, whereby a stable zero signal reference is desired to be maintained in the numeric output data over time and across temperature variations. Such applications include but are certainly not limited to digital audio.
Offset of the data stream (or digitized signal) produced by an ADC is the quantized numerical equivalent of an analog signal offset, and is an undesirable factor of error, especially if it drifts over time or temperature. Unavoidable data offset drift of an ADC results from the converter's intrinsic analog temperature coefficients which produce the net effect of a drifting conversion reference. It has been observed that even high grade ADC devices can produce a "center of data" drift equaling the magnitude of the third significant bit or greater over a reasonable operating temperature range. That is a relatively large amount of drift which must be eliminated for many applications.
Two prior art methods which have been widely used to cancel the output data offset of ADCs are digital highpass post-filtering and "auto zero" data offset compensation. Both methods have severe disadvantages in many potential applications for an ADC.
Digital highpass post-filtering requires a relatively complex digital signal processing (hereafter referred as "DSP") circuit added to the ADC, either internally as part of the integrated circuit or as an external support function. The cost of the additional post-filtering DSP may be prohibitive or there may occur other data errors due to DSP distortion. Additionally, the added conversion time introduced by the DSP post-filtering may limit the usefulness of this method.
Instead of DSP post-filtering, some presently available ADCs provide an internally programmed "auto zero" process to numerically subtract out the data offset. The disadvantage of this method is that it requires issuing a device instruction to the ADC which stops the converter flow for a period of time and puts the ADC through an offset cancellation procedure. Once the immediate data offset has been numerically subtracted from the data reference and the ADC is back into the operating mode, the data offset is subject to further drift. Frequent and timely operation of the auto zero function is therefore necessary to cancel the ADCs drifting output data offset. This option is simply not usable when continuous ADC operation is essential as for audio applications.
It is highly desirable to have a very efficient and also very effective design and construction of a novel offset canceling means to continuously cancel the output data offset of an ADC without interrupting the conversion flow. It is desirable to provide a novel offset canceling means which is relatively easy to design into new ADC devices, or easily applied as an external circuit to support existing ADCs. It is also desirable to provide a novel canceling means which is low in cost.

Drift canceling method and apparatus for analog to digital converters


A bonding apparatus including a pair of guide rails, a main heating block and a pair of pre-stage and after-stage heating blocks so as to heat a lead frame conveyed on the pair of guide rails, and the pre-stage and after-stage heating blocks can be moved in the direction of width of the lead frame together with one of the pair of guide rails and are installed so that they are positioned beneath the other frame guide rail.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a bonding apparatus such as a die bonding apparatus, wire bonding apparatus, etc.
2. Prior Art
A bonding apparatus is equipped with a pair of frame guide rails which are installed so as to face each other and guide lead frames, a heating block which is for a bonding stage and is installed between the frame guide rails so as to heat the lead frames, and feeding claws which intermittently feed the lead frames.
In such a bonding apparatus, the heating block must be able to heat the lead frames to a prescribed temperature in a short time, while at the same time it must be able to prevent abrupt temperature changes of the lead frames. So as to satisfy these requirements, a pre-stage heating block and an after-stage heating block are generally installed before and after the bonding stage heating block or a main heating block.
A conventional example of a bonding apparatus of this type which includes three heating blocks is described in Japanese Pre-Examined Patent Application Publication (Kokai) No. H1-124224.
In this prior art (Japanese H1-124224), the three heating blocks are in fact combined into a single unit. However, in the bonding apparatus with a single unit heating block, the size of the heating block tends to be large, and temperature control is generally difficult. Accordingly, currently, three heating blocks are more often used separately.
In cases where the width of the lead frames changes due to a change in the type of product (lead frames) to be processed, it is necessary to change the width or distance between the pair of frame guide rails so as to meet the width of the new product to be processed. Furthermore, it is also necessary to replace the pre-stage heating block and after-stage heating block and adjust the positions of the feeding claws.
Adjustment of the width or distance between the guide rails is currently accomplished automatically as described in, for example, Japanese Examined Patent Application Publication (Kokoku) No. H4-39227. However, as to the pre-stage heating block and after-stage heating block, it is necessary to loosen the bolts and nuts fastening the heating blocks and then to replace the heating blocks with heating blocks that are suited to the new product to be processed. However, these operations are complex and require a considerable amount of time. Furthermore, it is also necessary to keep pre-stage heating blocks and after-stage heating blocks ready for each type of product to be processed, causing problems in terms of storing and equipment costs.

Bonding apparatus with adjustable heating blocks, clamps, and rails


The present invention realizes a reliable heat pump apparatus and heat pump apparatus having high recovering efficiency. The heat pump apparatus includes an expander 711 for expanding working fluid, a permanent magnet type synchronization power generator 710 which is disposed for recovering power by the expander 711 and which generates three phase AC power, and a first converter 708 which converts the AC power to DC power, and which rotates the power generator 710 at a predetermined target number of revolutions by switching of a switching element group 709. The generated electricity is consumed by connection of an AC power supply 701 to a DC power line which is rectified and smoothened by a rectifier circuit 702 and a smoothing capacitor 703, and by driving of an electric motor 706 which rotates a compressor 707 through a motor drive apparatus 704, and the power is efficiently recovered.

FIG. 10 shows a general conventional vapor-compression type refrigerator. The vapor-compression type refrigerator shown in FIG. 10 comprises a compressor 101, a radiator 102, an expansion valve 103 and an evaporator 104. These members are connected to one another through pipes, and refrigerant is circulated as shown with hollow arrows in the drawing.
The operation principle of the vapor-compression type refrigerator is as follows. The pressure and temperature of the refrigerant are increased by the compressor 101, the refrigerant enters radiator 102 and is cooled. Then, the high pressure refrigerant is compressed under the vapor pressure by the expansion valve 103, heat of the refrigerant is absorbed by the evaporator 104 and the refrigerant is vaporized. The refrigerant coming out from the evaporator 104 returns to the compressor 101. In this apparatus, carbon dioxide which does not destroy the ozone layer and has extremely small global warming coefficient is used as the refrigerant.
However, as compared with a refrigerator using commonly used flon as the refrigerant, the vapor-compression type refrigerator using carbon dioxide as the refrigerant has lower coefficient of performance (COP) which is energy efficiency. When both the refrigerators have the same refrigeration abilities, the vapor-compression type refrigerator needs more electricity than the refrigerator using flon as the refrigerant. Thus, more fossil fuel is required as energy, and even if the global warming coefficient of the refrigerant itself is small, more carbon dioxide is discharged as a result. Therefore, it is necessary to enhance the COP of the vapor-compression type refrigerator using carbon dioxide as the refrigerant, and various configurations and methods have been proposed.
The following apparatus for enhancing the COP have been proposed (patent documents 1 to 3). In a refrigerator shown in FIG. 11, a compressor 201 is driven by a prime mover 205, a refrigerant compressed by the compressor 201 is cooled by a radiator 202 and then, the refrigerant passes through an expander 204 on which an expansion ratio controller 203 is mounted. The expander 204 assists the compressor 201 in driving through a main shaft 213. The refrigerant expands in the expander 204, heat of the refrigerant is absorbed from outside in the evaporator and vaporized and then, the refrigerant returns to the compressor 201. The compressor 201, the radiator 202, the expander 204 and the evaporator 206 are connected to each other through a pipe 207 and constitute a circuit. To enhance the performance and reliability, an oil separator 208 and an accumulator 209 are provided in some cases.
The expansion ratio controller 203 is controlled by calculation means 210. A temperature sensor 211 and a pressure sensor 212 are mounted for detecting a state of a refrigerant on the side of an outlet as input to the calculation means 210.
In the refrigerator having such a configuration, since the driving operation of the compressor 201 is assisted by an expanding force of the refrigerant by using the expander 204, the total amount of energy to be used is reduced, and the COP can be enhanced.
That is, when the conventional expansion valve is used as the expanding means like a pressure—enthalpy state diagram, i.e., a so-called Mollier diagram which shows a state of a refrigerant in a refrigeration cycle using carbon dioxide as the refrigerant, the refrigerant is equally enthalpy expanded, but it is equally entropy expanded (shown with dotted lines) by the expander, and power recovered by the expander is utilized, thus, the total efficiency can be enhanced.
In a refrigerator shown in FIG. 13, a compressor 401 is driven by a prime mover 405, a refrigerant compressed by the compressor 401 is cooled by a radiator 402 and then, when the refrigerant passes through an expander 403, a power generator 404 connected to the expander 403 generates electricity (patent documents 1 and 2). Then, the refrigerant expands in the expander 403, heat of the refrigerant is absorbed from outside in an evaporator 406 and the refrigerant is vaporized and then, the refrigerant again returns to the compressor 401.
According to this apparatus, the expansion force of the refrigerant rotates the power generator 404 to generate electricity. Since this electricity is utilized, the total energy to be used can be reduced, thereby enhancing the COP.
As such a power generator 404, an exciting apparatus is used (patent document 4). FIGS. 14 and 15 show a refrigerator disclosed in patent document 4. As shown in FIG. 14, according to this refrigerator, refrigerant is circulated through a compressor 501, a condenser 502, a liquid receiver 503, an expander 504, and an evaporator 505 in this order. The expander 504 is provided with a power generator 506 coaxially connected to its drive shaft. The refrigerator comprises a superheat detector 512 provided in an outlet of the evaporator 505 for detecting a superheat of the refrigerant, a controller 511 for controlling exciting current of the power generator 506 based on a signal of the superheat detector 512, a rectifier 508 for converting AC generated by the power generator 506 into DC, and a capacitor 510 for recovering DC electricity.
In the case of this refrigerator, the exciting current (i.e., current amount flowing through an exciting coil) of the power generator 506 is adjusted to control the power generator 506, a torque of a load of the power generator 506 is increased or reduced to control the rotation of the expander 504, thereby adjusting the flow rate of the refrigerant, and recovering the electricity generated by the power generator 506 efficiently into a capacitor 510.
The power generator 506 inputs a driving force by a drive shaft foxed to the other end of a rotor to generate electricity. The power generator 506 is provided with a brush. The brush slides on a slip ring and supplies exciting current to a rotor coil. If the expansion rotation of the refrigerant rotates the drive shaft, a magnetic field is produced by exciting current supplied to a rotor coil, an electromotive force is generated in a stator coil, and the electromotive force is output by the stator coil as AC power.
An exciting unit 507 for producing the exciting current of the power generator 506 has a circuit configuration shown in FIG. 15. The exciting unit 507 supplies, to the power generator 506, an exciting current control signal which is output from a controller 511 as an input signal, and exciting current from the exciting unit 507 as an output signal.
That is, an exciting current control signal which is output from a controller 511 is applied to a base of a npn-type transistor Tr604 (Tr604, hereinafter). An emitter of the Tr604 is connected to a minus terminal of the power generator 506, and a collector of the Tr604 is connected to a rotor coil 602 of the power generator 506 through a resistor 605. A base of a transistor Tr603 (Tr603, hereinafter) is connected to a collector of the Tr604, an emitter of the Tr603 is connected to a minus terminal of the power generator 506, and a collector of the Tr603 is connected to a plus terminal of the power generator 506. With this, if the exciting current control signal applied to the base of the Tr604 from the controller 511 is increased, the Tr604 is brought into conduction and the exciting current flowing through the rotor coil 602 is increased, and if the exciting current control signal applied to the base of the Tr604 is reduced, the exciting current is reduced.
The controller 511 which outputs the exciting current control signal controls the exciting current control signal which is output to the exciting unit 507 such that the flow rate of the refrigerant becomes the appropriate value based on temperature information of the refrigeration cycle. For example, when a circulation amount of refrigerant is small, the exciting current of the power generator 506 is reduced, the load torque is reduced, and the number of revolutions of the expander 504 is increased. When the circulation amount is large on the other hand, the exciting current of the power generator 506 is increased, the load torque is increased, and the number of revolutions of the power generator 506 is reduced. Further, AC generated by the power generator 506 is converted into DC through the rectifier 508, a charging voltage is controlled substantially constant through a variable load resistor 509, and charges the capacitor 510 is charged with electricity.
The exciting current is controlled by the power generator 506 having the rotor coil 602 and the exciting unit 507 which supplies the exciting current to the rotor coil 602, thereby controlling the number of revolutions of the expander 504.
A patent document 5 describes a wind power generator in which an output of a permanent magnet type synchronization power generator connected to a windmill through a shaft is converted by using an AC-DC converter (variable-speed inverter), and a variable-speed inverter is controlled, thereby controlling the output voltage of the power generator and variable-speed of the number of revolutions of the power generator.
Further, a patent document 6 describes a magnetic pole position is estimated by a position estimating device from output current and terminal voltage of a permanent magnet type synchronization power generator, and then, a torque of the power generator is controlled.
[Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2000-241033
[Patent Document 2] Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2000-249411
[Patent Document 3] Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2001-165513
[Patent Document 4] Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. H1-168518
[Patent Document 5] Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2000-345952
[Patent Document 6] Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2002-354896
However, in the case of the configuration described in the patent document 4, since a rotor of the power generator includes an exciting unit and a coil, its weight is increased, and its configuration is complicated. Further, since current flows through the exciting unit, there is electricity loss in the rotor, and the power generation efficiency is low.
Further, since the number of revolutions of the power generator is controlled by adjusting the exciting current, in the case which the number of revolutions exceeds the adjusting range of a narrow exciting current, the expander can not be controlled. Thus, it is difficult to optimize the refrigeration cycle, and the efficiency of the refrigeration cycle can not be optimized.
In the case of the control of the power generator described in a cited document 5, since the rotor does not have an exciting element and a coil, the weight on the side of the rotor is reduced, current loss in the rotor is reduced and thus, the power generating efficiency is enhanced, but there is no description concerning a method for detecting a position of the magnetic pole of the power generator. When a permanent magnet type synchronization power generator having no exciting unit is used, in order to control the power generator, it is necessary to detect the position of the magnetic pole of the power generator. To detect the magnetic pole position of the power generator, it is conventionally necessary to use a rotation position sensor such as an encoder. Thus, when the encoder and the power generator are integrally formed, it is necessary to bring a rotation shaft out from a shell for the encoder. To this end, a countermeasure such as a shaft seal against the pressure is required, and the reliability is deteriorated.
In a wind power generator and the like, in order to constantly maintain DC irrespective of the rotation speed of the permanent magnet type synchronization power generator, patent document 6 discloses a technique in which a magnetic pole position is estimated using current without using an encoder, thereby controlling the power generator. In a heat pump apparatus, however, in addition to merely maximize the output of the power generator, it is required to control to optimize the efficiency of the refrigeration cycle while efficiently utilizing the output of the power generator.
Further, at the time of actuation, the expander can not forcibly be rotated, and the reliability of the refrigeration cycle is deteriorated.
Therefore, the present invention has been accomplished to solve these problems, and it is an object of the invention to provide a heat pump apparatus in which the weight on the side of a rotor is reduced, the rotor does not have an exciting unit and a coil and thus, since electricity does not flow through the exciting unit and coil, there is no electricity loss in the rotor, the power generating efficiency is enhanced, the configuration on the side of the rotor is simple, the cost thereof is reduced, and the usefulness of the power generator can be utilized.
It is another object to provide an efficient and reliable heat pump apparatus. That is, an expander can be controlled with a wide number of revolutions, the efficiency is optimized, a permanent magnet type synchronization power generator can be controlled without the rotation position sensor, the reliability is enhanced in terms of sealing ability, the expander can be rotated forcibly at the time of actuation thereof, the actuation performance is enhanced, and the reliability of the refrigeration cycle is enhanced.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


A cover assembly for a play area, such as a sandbox, comprises a frame disposed over the play area and a covering material attached to the frame. The frame is constructed so as to be convertible between a first configuration in which children can enter and play in a fully enclosed play area and a second configuration in which the play area is shaded, but open to the outside.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to the field of children's play apparatus and, more particularly, to a combination cover and enclosure for a sandbox or other play area.
2. Background
Sandboxes are widely popular as a category of children's play apparatus. When not in use, it is desirable to protect the sand in a sandbox from the elements. This helps maintain the sand in good condition for play and helps prevent the sand from being contaminated with foreign objects or substances. Therefore, many sandboxes are provided with removable covers. Many of the prior art sandbox covers are cumbersome to handle and store. Moreover, the prior art sandbox covers are not useful for providing an enclosed play environment.


A short circuit protection circuit for a pulse width modulation (PWM) unit which includes a PWM logic control circuit, an under voltage lookout (UVLO) circuit and an internal clock circuit; wherein the UVLO circuit detecting a bias power (Vcc) and delivering an UVLO signal when the bias power is judged excessively low, the PWM unit further comprising: a short circuit detector, a short circuit recovery circuit and a frequency multiplexer. The short circuit detector is to detect the UVLO signal and generate a short signal. The short circuit recovery circuit to set a pre-determined recovery time and generate a recovery signal when the pre-determined recovery time ends. The frequency multiplexer which is triggered by the short signal when the short circuit event occurs to change a switching frequency to a short PWM frequency, and triggered by the recovery signal to restore the switching frequency.

Compared with linear regulators, switching mode power supplies have the advantages of smaller size higher efficiency and larger output power capability.
Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) is one of major control architectures applied in switching mode power supplies. Emitter drive PWM control has the advantage of fewer pin counts compared with base drive PWM control.
FIG. 1 is an emitter drive switching mode power supply system which includes an emitter drive PWM controller coupled with a primary winding of the transformer through a high voltage NPN power transistor. Energy is transferred to secondary winding from the primary winding in a manner controlled by the PWM controller to provide a constant DC output voltage. The auxiliary winding is coupled with an opto-coupler which provides a bias signal and feedback signal to the PWM controller.
In FIG. 1, the system comprises a PWM controller 100, transformer 102, power transistor 124, shunt voltage regulator 121, opto-coupler 101 and feedback loop composed of 108, 109, 117, 121, 110, 112 and 113.
The PWM controller 100 drives power transistor 124. When Vout rises, the opto-coupler 101 will deliver more current to the capacitors associated with the VCC/FB pin of the PWM controller 100, so as to reduce the duty cycle and the energy transferring to the secondary side to stabilize the Vout.
FIG. 2 is the block diagram of the PWM controller of the prior art. The PWM controller 200 comprises a start-up circuit 201 which is connected between the supply/feedback pin VCC and emitter drive pin OUT. The PWM controller 200 also comprises a hysteresis UVLO comparator 203. During startup phase, capacitors connected to VCC pin are charged by the startup current from OUT pin through start-up circuit 201. The UVLO comparator 203 ends the startup phase by disconnecting the charging path between OUT and VCC and enable the HICCUP comparator 213 when VCC voltage exceeds the upper triggering voltage of the UVLO comparator.
After the start-up phase, the PWM controller 200 starts to operate and VCC pin also receives voltage feedback signal. When Vout falls due to output load current increase, opto-current decreases, VCC/FB voltage will decrease, the duty cycle will increase. When Vcc falls below the lower triggering voltage of the UVLO comparator 203, PWM controller 200 will disable the switching of the power transistor 124 and enable the startup circuit 201. The system reenters the startup phase.
The PWM controller 200 also comprises a peak current comparator 210 which will compare internal current in each switch cycle.
The PWM comparator 205 will adjust the duty cycle according to the feedback voltage and emitter current signals.
The OUT pin will drive the power transistor 124 with varied duty cycle according to the output of PWM comparator 205.
In switching mode power supplies, the function of limiting both instantaneous and average input power is essential during short circuit operation for system reliability. In the prior art of FIG. 1, input power limiting during short circuit operation is implemented by monitoring the voltage at OUT pin when power transistor 124 is off. The resistor divider 212 and HICCUP comparator 213 will detect the OUT voltage during power transistor 124 off time. In the case that the OUT voltage drops below a pre-defined low value (HICCUP voltage) before Vcc drops below to its minimum operating voltage (lower UVLO voltage), the HICCUP comparator 213 will output a low voltage level to disable the PWM comparator 205, thus disables the drive circuit and the whole PWM controller 200. The system will then enter into repeated startup phase. This is called a hiccup mode of the system and the pre-defined voltage of OUT pin is called the HICCUP voltage of the system. The VCC/FB and OUT waveforms in HICCUP mode are illustrated in FIG. 3.
The VCC and OUT waveforms without HICCUP mode are illustrated in FIG. 4.
In either case of FIG. 3 and FIG. 4, the instantaneous system input power is determined by the maximum turn-on time of the PWM pulses. The average system input power is determined by the total turn-on pulses and the charging time of the VCC cap 113 and 112 to the upper UVLO triggering voltage level.
The charging time of the VCC capacitor 113 and 112 to the upper UVLO voltage level is a function of the initial voltage of capacitor 111 when the VCC drops below the lower UVLO voltage level or the OUT pin drops below the HICCUP voltage. In application systems, the coupling among the primary, secondary and auxiliary windings will determine the initial voltage of capacitor 111 when the VCC drops below UVLO voltage or the OUT pin drops below the HICCUP voltage. The VCC restart-up frequency will speed-up for some kind of transformers with higher voltage of capacitor 111. The average short circuit input power will then increase. Especially, when the input line voltage is high, the short circuit power will be larger in the prior art for some kind of transformer design. It may cause PWM controller 200 or power transistor 124 or other device failure and degrade system reliability.
Accordingly, what is needed in the present invention is a PWM controller 200 with both instantaneous and average short circuit input power limiting functions which are transformer insensitive so as to improve system reliability.
This short circuit protection mechanism of the prior art is based upon the hypothesis that the auxiliary winding has good coupling with the secondary winding of transformer. If the coupling between auxiliary winding and secondary winding is not very well, the OUT pin may not drop below the HICCUP voltage during short circuit operation. In this case, VCC voltage will continue to drop until it reaches the lower voltage level of UVLO comparator. The instantaneous system input power will be significantly larger than the case in normal operations because the lower voltage level of the UVLO voltage may be significantly lower than the mean VCC voltage under the condition of maximum output current and normal output voltage. The average system input power will be determined by the mean input power in startup phase multiplied by Ton/(Ton+Toff), where Ton is the time when UVLO comparator outputs high voltage level, and Toff is the time the UVLO comparator outputs low voltage level.

Short circuit protection circuit for a pulse width modulation (PWM) unit


A sleep control system and method are provided that permit a reference clock and the direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) modem in a mobile station receiver to be turned off and turned back on at arbitrary points in time while still maintaining accurate base station system time. Accurate timing is made possible through a number of techniques including precise initial calibration using a rising edge/falling edge averaging system, determining the sleep clock and reference clock frequencies, and the determination of the frequency drift of the sleep clock that occurred during the previous sleep interval.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to spread spectrum communications and, more particularly, to a system and method for a mobile station receiver to efficiently recover system time after its reference clock has been disabled during a sleep interval.
2. Description of the Related Art
During the idle state, a direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) base station operates in slotted mode to reduce mobile station standby power consumption. The base station instructs receivers to be turned off for most of the time, and to wake up only periodically to monitor the paging channel for pages and network overhead messages. During the time the receiver is turned off, the mobile station receiver sleep control system can further reduce power consumption by operating with a low frequency sleep clock instead of the high frequency reference clock.
In a DSSS mobile station receiver, code sequences, such as pseudorandom noise (PN) or Gold code sequences, are used in order to maintain time synchronization with the base station. For example, the system compliant with the IS-2000 standard uses a short PN sequence of length 215 and a long PN sequence of length 242−1. After the mobile station receiver initially acquires the synchronization from the base station, the short and long PN sequences advance periodically based on the mobile station receiver reference clock. An automatic frequency control algorithm and voltage controlled local oscillator are used by the mobile station receiver to maintain a high degree of reference clock accuracy relative to the received (transmitted by the network) signal.
When the mobile station receiver operates in slotted mode and is not monitoring the paging channel, the mobile station receiver is turned off, along with its reference clock that is replaced by a low frequency sleep clock. During this inter-slot period with the reference clock turned off and only the sleep clock running, the short and long PN sequences stop advancing and their states are no longer synchronized to the short and long PN sequences of the base station. After the mobile station receiver wakes up, the states of the short and long PN sequences need to be adjusted to compensate for the loss of system timing during the inter-slot period. The mobile station receiver needs to correctly perform the adjustments before the arrival of its assigned time slot in order to resume receiving the paging channel messages.
Conventionally, the short and long PN sequence adjustments are made by permitting the reference clock to be turned on and off only at certain convenient points. The problem with this method is that the sleep interval becomes fixed to one, or just a few values, and the reference clock must be turned on well before the sleep interval ends to insure sufficient time for synchronization. Thus, the mobile station receiver power conservation is not maximized. The power conservation problem is worsened if the reference clock must be turned on even earlier to compensate for possible errors in the mechanism used to time the sleep interval. The sleep clock drift problem is discussed in greater detail below.
Typically, in a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) system, the mobile station receiver must periodically receive paging slots, as determined by a SLOT_CYCLE_INDEX value. The index is selected by the mobile station receiver, except that the network can set the maximum index.
In addition, there exists a certain amount of overhead to receive a slotted page message. Because of continuous convolutional coding on the CDMA paging channel, the mobile station receiver conventionally has to receive at least a frame before the slot, depending on the paging channel data rate. This time, in conjunction with various turn-on times in the mobile station receiver, results in additional overhead. The total duty cycle can be as much as approximately 15.6%, depending on the slot cycle length.
Furthermore, it is possible that the mobile station would be required to receive two paging channel slots. This can occur if the base station uses the MORE_PAGES bit in the SLOTTED PAGE MESSAGE, thereby requiring the mobile station to receive up to one additional slot. Also, the CDMA specification states that the mobile station may stop listening to the paging channel after reading the SLOTTED PAGE MESSAGE. There is no guarantee that this message is located at the beginning of the slot. As a result, it may happen that the mobile station must always listen to the entire slot.
One conventional power-up method reads the state of the long code generator just prior to powering down the mobile station receiver. A complex matrix multiply operation is then applied to the long code to determine the correct state of the long code generator at a time in the future when the long code generator is to be reinitialized.
However, this approach is computationally expensive. As a result, it may be necessary to "WAKE UP" the mobile station receiver earlier than would be necessary if the complex matrix multiply operation is performed after the power down period. If the matrix multiplication is performed before powering down, then the mobile station receiver must remain in a powered up state for a period of time sufficient to accomplish the matrix multiply. In either case, the mobile station receiver is powered on for a longer time. This causes the overall duty cycle and power consumption to increase, thus decreasing battery life.
Regardless of overhead time that must be used in synchronization, additional overhead is required due to calibration errors. The amount of adjustment applied to the short and long PN sequences is in theory a function of the number of reference clocks absent during the inter-slot period. However, this number is not known to the mobile station receiver and has to be estimated based on the relationship between the reference clock and the sleep clock. This relationship can be observed by the mobile station receiver while both clocks are running simultaneously. This relationship, however, varies in time due to external factors such as temperature. A poor estimate results in longer time for the mobile station receiver to perform timing re-acquisition after waking up. An incorrect estimate results in total loss of timing synchronization and the mobile station receiver will not be able to receive valid messages from the paging channel. When this happens, the mobile station receiver has to re-initialize by performing the initial timing acquisition. Both consequences have negative impacts on the mobile station receiver power consumption.
In order to derive an accurate estimate of the missing reference clocks during the inter-slot period, the mobile station receiver has to regularly calibrate the sleep clock frequency based on the reference clock. This sleep clock calibration method requires longer calibration periods and is inherently limited in the accuracy that can be obtained.
Another solution to the problem of sleep clock drift is to use a larger search window when attempting to reacquire the state of the PN code received from the base station. However, the use of a larger search window typically requires a correspondingly longer search time, and results in poorer power conservation results.
It would be advantageous if additional power savings could be realized by a mobile station system during slotted sleep mode.
It would be advantageous if the frequency of the sleep clock could be accurately measured using the reference clock to reduce the resynchronization time.
It would be advantageous if actual frequencies of the reference and sleep clocks, as well as the frequency drift of the sleep clock, could be used as data to reduce the resynchrornzation time.

System and method for recovering system time in direct sequence spread spectrum communications


The present disclosure pertains to pharmaceutically acceptable salts of fospropofol and their use to treat migraine.

Propofol (2,6-diisopropylphenol) is an intravenous short-acting anesthetic agent that has gained acceptance for inducing and maintaining anesthesia and for procedural sedation. Propofol is a highly lipophilic drug which must be formulated as a suspension with a lipid carrier in aqueous medium. Consequently, propofol derivatives were developed which possessed increased water solubility to simplify formulation. One of these was Fospropofol ((2,6-diisopropylphenoxy)methyl dihydrogen phosphate). Fospropofol is a water-soluble, phosphono-O-methyl prodrug of propofol that was approved in the United States as an alternative to propofol for monitored anesthesia care during procedures.
Fospropofol is rapidly metabolized by endothelial alkaline phosphatases to release propofol, phosphate, and formaldehyde. The small amounts of formaldehyde is rapidly converted to formate and safely eliminated, similar to the other available phosphate methyl prodrugs such as fosphenytoin.
Migraine is a primary headache disorder characterized by recurrent headaches that may be moderate or severe. Typically, the headaches affect one half of the head, are pulsating in nature, and last from two to 72 hours. Many people experience migraines lasting for at least four hours or even lasting for days.
Migraines are called primary headaches because the pain is not caused by another disorder or disease such as a brain tumor or head injury. Symptoms of migraines may include nausea, vomiting, and sensitivity to light, sound, or smell. The pain is generally made worse by physical activity. Some cause pain on just the right side or left side of the head, others result in pain all over. Migraine sufferers may have moderate or severe pain and usually can't participate in normal activities because of the pain. Often when a migraine strikes, people try to find a quiet, dark room.
Many people have an aura with a migraine, typically a short period of visual disturbance that signals that the headache will soon occur. Sufferers have reported seeing flashes or bright spots. Occasionally, an aura can occur with little or no headache following it.
The range of time someone is affected by an attack is often longer than the migraine itself, as there is a pre-monitory, or build-up phase, and a post-drome phase that can last one to two days. Different people have different triggers and different symptoms.
Migraines are believed to be due to a mixture of environmental and genetic factors. Genomics of mirgaines have been examined and certain gene mutations have been associated with severe migraines, but the etiology is presumably polygenic. Changing hormone levels may also play a role, as migraines affect slightly more boys than girls before puberty and two to three times more women than men after puberty. Catemanial migraine is not uncommon in women associated with the menses.
Migraines are believed to involve the nerves and blood vessels of the brain. However, older ideas that migraines were principally vascualar in nature are now considered to be incorrect. Although an exact cause is unknown, brain scans show that migraines may be due to "hyperactivity" in parts of the brain. This activity can spread across the cortex during the course of the migraine, which is known as spreading cortical depression.
Migraines are one of the most common causes of disability. There are about 100 million people with recurrent headaches in the U.S. and about 37 million of these people have migraines. The World Health Organization suggests that 18 percent of women and 7 percent of men in the U.S. suffer from migraines. Globally, approximately 15% of people are affected by migraines. Migraines most often start at puberty and get worse during middle age. In some women, migraines become less common following menopause. Migraine headaches are a common cause of disability in the United States, affecting approximately 27 million American adults, or 17.1% of women and 5.6% of men.
There is often a distinction between a migraine with an aura and a migraine without an aura. The most current terminology defines a classic migraine as a migraine with an aura and non-classic or common migraine as a migraine without aura. Also, there is often a distinction between chronic migraine and episodic migraine. Chronic migraine, which affects 3.2 million Americans (2%), is characterized by the presence of migraine symptoms for at least 15 days per month, lasting at least 4 hours, and for longer than 3 months in duration. Episodic migraine, in contrast, causes symptoms for fewer than 15 days per month.
Current treatments for migraine are divided into acute, abortive agents (analgesics, triptans, ergots, etc.), and medications that will prevent migraine onset. Initial recommended treatment is with simple pain medication such as ibuprofen and paracetamol (acetaminophen) for the headache, medication for the nausea, and the avoidance of triggers. Specific medications such as triptans or ergotamines may be used in those for whom simple pain medications are not effective. Caffeine may also be used for treatment.
The oral triptan preparations (Imitrex, Maxalt, Zomig, Axert, Relpax) are thought to be generally effective in only 60 to 70% of patients. Indeed, a large percentage of migraine sufferers become resistant or refractory to current migraine treatments. Also, in a significant number of patients (perhaps 30%) in which they are effective, they produce cardiological side effects which are unpleasant, lead to poor compliance, and which can be quite problematic.
Various preparations of NSAIDS such as diclofenac and ketorolac are used to treat the symptomatology of migraines, but their effect is limited and they do not abrogate the onset of the migraine as do the Triptans and the CGRP agents (see below). Opiates are generally ineffective and are contraindicated. The antidepressant and mood stabilizer Amitriptyline is quite effective in low dose in a small subset of patients, as are anticonvulsants and mood stabilizers such as Topirimate, Valproate, and Gabapentin.
The recent approval (2018) of agents which act on the calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) has been beneficial in migraine. These are all antibodies with high affinity binding to the CGRP receptor. They include Aimovig® (erenumab), a IgG2 humanized monoclonal antibody; Emgaliyt® Galcanezumab, an IgG4 Kappa-chain dimer monoclonal antibody; and Ajovy® (fremanezumab), an IgG2 Aa/kappa humanized monoclonal antibody. However, although these agents work in many patients in which the triptans are ineffective or not tolerated, there are still a significant subset of patients in which they are ineffective. Furthermore, being recombinant biologicals, they are rather expensive, and need to be administered monthly by injection in order to continue to prevent migraines in those patients in which they do work.
CGRP targeted small molecules such as Ubrogepant (MK-1602) and Rimegepant (BMS-927711) remain in late-phase clinical trials. However, they will presumably target the same subset of patients who will respond the the CGRP antibodies described supra.
Thus, there is a need for additional methods of treating migraine, particularly refractory migraine.

Fospropofol salts, methods and compositions


An apparatus for providing a connection to a conduit may include a first part configured to be threadably attached to a second part. The first part can include a male threaded section spaced axially apart from a ratchet section having radially protruding teeth. The second part can be at least partly formed by an elastically deformable material and includes a female threaded section spaced axially apart from at least one pawl that is configured to engage the radially protruding teeth. When the at least one pawl is engaged with the teeth, relative rotation between the first part and the second part may be allowed in a tightening direction and prevented in a loosening direction or may be allowed in the tightening and loosening directions. When the second part is deformed by at least one radially inward force, the at least one pawl disengages the teeth of the ratchet section.

Fittings are frequently used to connect two objects, such as, two or more tubes or a tube and a device that facilitates fluid communication with a tube. For example, a fitting can connect a valve to a tube such that the valve can regulate the flow of fluid through the tube. Fittings may also be utilized to cap or plug an end of a tube. To prevent a fluid from leaking, however, a fitting must maintain a seal with the tube while withstanding various environmental factors, including, for example, pressure, temperature, vibration, etc.
It may be advantageous in various applications to provide a connection between two tubes, such as a fitting, that can be a hand or a finger-tight connection. A finger-tight connection is so called because a user can tighten and loosen the connection without the use of separate tools. For example, a finger-tight connection fitting may be desirable for connecting tubes in hard to reach places that cannot be readily accessed by a wrench or other tightening tools. In another example, a finger-tight connection may provide a speedy connection when time is a concern, such as in healthcare, emergency services, and automotive applications. A finger-tight connection is so called because it may be manually tightened and loosened with relative ease.
One problem associated with conventional finger-tight connection fittings, however, is that they may be susceptible to leakage. For example, leakage may occur as a result of degradation of a gasket or an o-ring forming a seal in the fitting. Leakage may also result from mechanical loosening of the fitting caused by thermal cycling, vibration, or other environmental factors. Leakage in a fluid conveying system is undesirable for many reasons.

Apparatuses and methods for providing finger-tightened and ratchet-secured connections between conduits


A prepaid transaction instrument, such as a prepaid telephone card, comprises an identification code for use by a consumer in gaining access to a prepaid telephone account associated with the identification code and a replacement code related to the identification code according to a secret relationship maintained by the issuer of the card. The replacement code may be printed on a separate and distinct document from the identification code or may be printed on the same document as the identification code, but on a separable portion of the document. If the consumer loses the prepaid card, the issuer of the prepaid card issues a replacement card to the consumer when provided with the replacement code by the consumer.

Prepaid credit instruments are generally well known. Prepaid, remote memory telephone cards are particularly prevalent in a variety of forms, including promotional brochures, wallet-sized cardboard and plastic cards, and the like.
A prepaid telephone card typically has printed thereon the information necessary to effect long distance telephone calls. In particular, a typical prepaid telephone card includes an access telephone number, for example an 800 number, used to access the prepaid calling system. The card also includes a unique authentication code or ID code which is used to access a particular account, which account is usually stored in a remote database resident at the prepaid calling card service provider. Finally, the card includes instructions for placing long distance calls, whether domestic or international.
Such prepaid cards are typically sold in predetermined denominations, for example $5, $10, $20, $50, and the like. Moreover, such cards are often sold at convenience stores and other retail outlets, much like lottery tickets are sold. That being the case, it would be prohibitively expensive for many retail shops, particularly low dollar volume merchants, to purchase a large number of cards from an issuer and maintain them in inventory until the cards are purchased at retail by consumers. To accommodate these merchants, issuers routinely provide merchants with batches of cards, but do not activate a particular card until the card is actually sold, at which time the merchant incurs a payment obligation to the issuer. This protects the merchant from having to pay in advance for a large number of cards which may not be sold for quite some time, or even not at all.
By placing these cards in the possession of the merchant prior to receipt of payment from the merchant, however, the issuer runs the risk of merchant fraud. For example, if a merchant is in possession of prepaid cards which the merchant has not paid for, it would be theoretically possible for the merchant to use the ID numbers on the cards or divulge these ID numbers to third parties and thereby defraud the issuer.
To protect the issuer from fraudulent activity by merchants or other persons in the distribution chain, many prepaid cards are packaged in an envelope which masks the ID code, or in a manner which otherwise obscures the ID code until such time as the card is purchased by a consumer; at the time of purchase, the card is "activated", for example by having the merchant dial up the issuer's host computer, indicating that the card has been purchased by a consumer and effecting activation of the card at the host computer.
For example, a popular method of distributing prepaid cards involves printing, among other things, a unique ID code on the face of a card, and placing the card in a sealed envelope at the issuer or manufacturer. A tracking number is printed on the outside of the sealed envelope. In some distribution schemes, the tracking number is cryptographically related to the ID code, with the issuer holding the cryptographic key. In this way, when the issuer is informed of the tracking number by the merchant at the time of sale of a card to a consumer, the issuer may derive the ID code corresponding to that card and activate the corresponding account. Alternatively, the tracking number and ID code may be related through a look up table or relational database maintained by the issuer's host computer.
Once a consumer has purchased a card from a merchant and the merchant facilitates activation of the card through communication with the card issuer, responsibility for theft or loss of the card typically is shifted to the consumer. For example, if the consumer loses his card or it is stolen, one might argue that the consumer could call the issuer and report the card as having been lost or stolen, and request the issuer to deactivate the account, thereby preventing fraud. While this is certainly true, the issuer would not be in a position to reissue a new number to the consumer or to otherwise provide credit to the consumer for the lost card. This is because the thief or finder of the lost card would also have access to the ID code, since the ID code is printed on the face of the card. Consequently, the thief or finder of the lost card could simply call the issuer and report the card as lost or stolen, relate the ID code to the issuer, and request a refund or a new ID code. Thus, replacement or reimbursement schemes predicated on the knowledge of the ID code printed on the face of the card are impractical.
It has also been suggested that the consumer could maintain a record of the tracking number associated with the card, inasmuch as the thief or finder of a card will have access to the ID code, but not to the tracking number. Thus, it might be argued, the consumer should be able to contact the issuer and report a card as lost or stolen, requesting credit or reimbursement based on the tracking number from which the issuer can derive or otherwise determine the ID code and/or account number. This approach, however, is also flawed inasmuch as it subjects the issuer to merchant fraud.
More particularly, the tracking number, being printed on the outside of the envelope within which the calling card is sealed prior to sale, is readily available to the merchant; indeed, the merchant must typically use the tracking number in order to activate the account for a particular card at the time the card is sold. Hence, reimbursement, credit, or replacement schemes predicated on knowledge of the tracking number are also impracticable.
A secure system for issuing prepaid telephone and other type instruments is thus needed which overcomes the limitations of the prior art, particularly as regards the issuer's ability to securely provide replacement, credit, or reimbursement in respect of lost or stolen cards.


An instrument for surgical suturing includes a shaft, and a needle disposed slidably for longitudinal travel with respect to the shaft. A prong formed on one end of the shaft projects across a longitudinal axis of the needle and has an opening formed through the prong that provides a clearance through which a tip portion of the needle passes when it is advanced. Slots formed on a surface of the prong facing the shaft releasably hold suture across the opening. Advancing the needle through the clearance allows a hook formed on the tip of the needle to capture the suture. Once withdrawn, the needle draws the suture back through tissue pierced during advancement. The suture is released from the slots and drawn back through the tissue for further knot tying and suturing to effect the tissue repairs.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to endoscopic suturing, and more particularly to instruments for endoscopic treatment of meniscal tears.
2. Description of the Related Art
The menisci are crescent-shaped structures of fibrocartilaginous tissue located in the knee between the condyles of the tibia and the femur. The menisci, which are actually extensions of the tibia, serve to deepen the tibial plateau to better accommodate the opposing curvature of the articulating surface of the femoral condyle.
A typical injury to the knee is a meniscal tear, which can occur, for example, when the meniscus is displaced and caught between the femoral and tibial condyles during a sudden change of movement of the knee involving a combined flexion-rotation or extension-rotation motion. Meniscal tears were originally treated by removing the meniscus in an operation called a meniscectomy. However, results showed that removing the meniscus, either entirely or even partially, resulted in degenerative arthritis and instability in the knee.
As a result of the above-described complications, surgeons began treating meniscus tears with suturing techniques to retain as much of the meniscus as possible. However, suturing of a meniscal tear, like a meniscectomy, was originally an open technique, requiring a large incision and consequently longer periods of rehabilitation and recovery. Advances in instrumentation ultimately led to arthroscopic meniscal repair using long needles for passing suture through the tear.
More recently, various tacks, screws and implants have been developed for meniscal repair, which can be used arthroscopically and simplify the surgery by eliminating the need for suturing altogether. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,056,778, assigned to the assignee of the present application, discloses a meniscal repair device provided with a plurality of opposed crescent-shaped grooves which can be used to mend meniscal tears.
Some surgeons, however, prefer to repair meniscal tears arthroscopically using suture, but seek to avoid the difficulties associated with using long needles. Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide an instrument and method for repairing torn meniscal tissue which facilitate the passing of suture through a torn meniscus arthroscopically.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


This invention provides composite gels to, e.g., efficiently deliver unmodified amino acids, lipids, and/or feed supplements through the rumen of a ruminant animal. The invention also provides methods to make and use composite gels.

A large part of the saturated fats consumed by humankind are in the form of meat and dairy products from ruminant animals. These saturated fats are known to be associated with an increased risk of diseases, such as cancer and heart disease. Lowering the percentage of saturated fats in ruminant food products could provide a substantial benefit to human health.
Ruminants, such as cattle, sheep, and goats, have a stomach consisting of four compartments which allows them to digest forage high in fiber (e.g., cellulose). Cattle, for example, have a stomach with four compartments, the rumen, reticulum, omasum, and abomasum, through which feed passes before entering the small intestine. Microorganisms in the rumen have cellulase enzymes that convert cellulose into volatile fatty acids, which are used as an energy source for the ruminant animal. This energy source is not available to the same extent in many other herbivores, such as horses and pigs.
Scientists have had some success in reducing the percentage of saturated fats in non-ruminant animals, such as pigs and chickens, by including large amounts of polyunsaturated fats in their feed (diet). This strategy does not work well in ruminants, however, because large amounts of fat, especially polyunsaturated fats, have a toxic effect on the rumen microorganisms, such as the microbes that produce cellulase. As a result, the animal obtains less energy from the diet as fiber digestion in the rumen is reduced. The reduction in energy obtained from the diet results in a decrease in productivity of the animal. There also can be a reduction in feed intake by the animal as a result of the negative effect of unsaturated fats on the rumen microorganisms (e.g., the animal loses its appetite). These events can contribute to reduced animal performance, for example decreased milk meat and/or dairy production.
When polyunsaturated fats are added to cattle feed below the levels toxic to rumen microbes, the saturation of fats in their meat and milk and resulting dairy products is generally not reduced. This is because microbes of the rumen modify the fats provided in the diet in a process called biohydrogenation. When fats (lipids) enter the rumen, free fatty acids are released by hydrolysis. In biohydrogenation, the majority of the unsaturated fatty acids (e.g. fatty acids containing double bonds between some carbons) are hydrogenated to saturated fatty acids (e.g. fatty acids containing no double bonds between some carbons). Ultimately, the diet fat composition is not reflected in the fat composition of the meat and milk produced by ruminants. Biohydrogenation of polyunsaturated fats in the rumen reduces the polyunsaturated fatty acids available for fat synthesis in muscle/adipose tissue and in the mammary gland, so ruminant tend to have fats higher in saturated fatty acids and lower in unsaturated fatty acids. These more saturated fats ultimately appear in the meat and dairy products.
Strategies have been developed to feed cattle diets high in oils with fewer toxic effects and reduced biohydrogenation. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,229,031, "Method for Manufacturing Rumen Bypass Feed Supplements" to Strohmaier, fats are saponified in the presence of calcium salts to prepare a less toxic high fatty acid feed composition that minimizes biohydrogenation in the rumen. The fatty acid calcium salts, however, are unappetizing to the animals, which may eat less, thus reducing their milk or meat production. Furthermore, the calcium salts of fatty acids are known to undergo dissociation in the rumen, significantly compromising the desired protection against modification or biohydrogenation. The functionality of calcium salts of fatty acids in the protecting the fatty acids in the rumen is limited.
Another way to introduce more unsaturated oils into ruminants with reduced toxic effects is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,073,960, "Meat and milk Products from Ruminants", to Scott. Here, lipids are microencapsulated in a protein aldehyde reaction product. A formaldehyde or gluteraldehyde cross-linked protein coat on the lipid filled capsule is insoluble in rumen conditions of pH 5, or more. The capsules retain and protect the lipids until they are passed to the abomasum where the capsule is dissolved at a pH of 4 or less. The capsules do not appear to be toxic to rumen microbes or to adversely affect appetite when fed to cattle. This system of encapsulation allows polyunsaturated fats to pass through the rumen without biohydrogenation. The polyunsaturated fats are absorbed in the lower digestive tract for incorporation into the meat and dairy products of the animal. However, regulations in the United States, and many other countries, prohibit formaldehyde or gluteraldehyde treatment of feed for animals meant for human consumption. In addition, preparation of these microcapsules can be prohibitively expensive for this application.
Another way to rumen protect unsaturated oils in protein capsules is by cross-linking the proteins with reducing sugars in the Maillard reaction, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,143,737, "Method to Produce Unsaturated Milk Fat and Meat From Ruminant Animals", to Richardson. In Richardson, an aqueous emulsion of vegetable oil in a solution of protein and reducing sugar is freeze dried to yield a dry powder. The dry powder is then browned in an oven to produce dry rumen protective granules. The process can fail to promote other useful cross linking chemistries, such as disulfide bonding. The process can be expensive due to the requirement of the reducing sugars, and extensive drying steps at high temperatures for a long period of time. The process involves freeze drying which is an expensive batch-type operation. In addition, dry baking at temperatures required for effective Maillard cross-linking rates can oxidize the unsaturated constituents of the oils, and significantly damage other supplements and nutrients in the composition. The products of such oxidation are also known to be toxic and pose risks to animal tissue and physiological activities.
Rumen microbes are also known to modify or remove many other feed supplements added by farmers, such as proteins, antibiotics, and vitamins. Feed supplements can be protected to some extent by using the fatty acid calcium salts or the formaldehyde cross-linked capsules described above, but the problems associated with administration of these strategies remain. In addition, the fatty acid or lipid carriers inherent in these technologies are not suitable carriers for certain desirable water soluble supplements.
In view of the above, a need exists for non-toxic and efficient ways to protect polyunsaturated lipids and feed supplements from degradation, modification, or removal while passing through the rumen. The present invention provides these and other features that will be apparent upon review of the following.

Method and compositions for preparing and delivering rumen protected lipids, other nutrients and medicaments

The Regents of the University of California


A plastic container having a first portion, a second portion, and a waist between the first portion and the second portion. The waist includes a first angled portion coupled to the first portion, a second angled portion coupled to the second portion, and a curved portion connecting the first angled portion to the second angled portion for forming a deformable region for preventing a catastrophic failure of the waist when the plastic container is filled and capped and subjected to an external force.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a plastic container, and more particularly to a plastic container having controlled top load characteristics.
2. Related Art
Container waists are known to provide the necessary rigidity to prevent ovalization of the container sidewalls and/or dome. U.S. Pat. No. 5,303,834 discloses a recessed circumferential ring, known as a "waist," in the side wall of the container to minimize shape distortion caused by filling with a hot product. This ring prevents a cylindrical container from ovalizing, especially in the tapered shoulder section of the container. However, such conventional container waists may not provide the requisite structure to prevent catastrophic failures of the dome caused by toploading.

Container having controlled top load characteristics