A drill bit drilling a borehole is used as a strong high frequency, subsurface seismic source in combination with at least one receiver in a preexisting borehole to determine the continuity of a subsurface formation layer extending between the borehole being drilled by the drill bit and the borehole in which the receiver is located. The receiver(s) in the preexisting borehole may be any conventional seismic receiver or receivers, such as hydrophones or geophones. The receiver or receivers are positioned in the preexisting borehole at a depth adjacent the formation layer whose continuity is to be determined. The depth (position), velocity and thickness of the layer is determined from a conventional well log of the preexisting borehole. A frequency power spectrum for a preselected frequency range (the range is selected based on the logging data) may be computed from the signals recorded by the receiver(s). Several such spectra may be computed from signals recorded for several different time intervals and then summed to increase the signal-to-noise ratio. A large amplitude in this power spectrum (or the detected signals) is indicative of a low velocity layer that is continuous between the drill bit source and the borehole containing the receivers.

This invention relates to determining formation continuity and, more particularly, relates to determining the continuity of a subsurface formation or layer penetrated by an existing borehole while drilling a second borehole adjacent the existing borehole, through that same subsurface formation.
Determining the continuity of a subsurface geologic layer penetrated by two adjacent boreholes is important to the oil and gas industry. In exploration, for example, such subsurface layer continuity information may be used to (1) construct a geologic model of the subsurface area containing the layer; (2) correlate observed formation properties between adjacent boreholes; and (3) determine if there are faults present in the layer. In production, for example, such continuity information may be used to (1) indicate the continuity of a reservoir layer between adjacent boreholes, and (2) indicate the presence of permeability barriers in such a reservoir layer.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,005,159 issued on Apr. 2, 1991 by Christine E. Krohn entitled "Continuity Logging Using Differenced Signal Detection" discloses a method for determining the continuity of a subsurface lithographic layer which is penetrated by two adjacent boreholes; this patent is incorporated herein by reference. This patent employs a seismic source lowered into a first borehole to a depth corresponding to the depth of the layer, or adjacent the layer, whose continuity is to be determined, while a receiver pair is simultaneously lowered into a second borehole to a depth corresponding to the depth of the layer, or adjacent that same layer. The recording of high amplitude signals at depths corresponding to the layer, i.e., within a layer, is an indication of a continuous low velocity layer extending through the subsurface between the two boreholes.
The problem with most downhole sources is that they are weak compared to surface sources. This is because the source must be relatively weak as compared to conventional surface seismic sources in order to avoid damage to the borehole wall. In addition, the operation of a downhole seismic source is expensive in a producing well (one producing hydrocarbon fluids) because the well must be shut in (cease producing fluids) during the use of the source.
A drill bit may be used as a downhole seismic source, as suggested in U.S. Pat. No. 4,718,048. The method described in this patent involves the convolution of signals recorded by conventional surface seismic detectors with a reference signal recorded on the drill string. The result is a seismogram as a function of time that is similar to that recorded by a conventional impulsive seismic source. This seismogram is similar to walk-away VSP and may be used to locate subsurface layers having appropriate reflection coefficients located adjacent the borehole. The seismogram is limited to frequencies of less than about 100 Hz because the reference signal does not include high frequency vibrations of the drill bit. Because of this frequency limitation this method is not capable of detecting thin (less than about 50 feet or so) reflective layers in the earth adjacent the borehole. Furthermore, this method cannot be used if there is excessive noise present in the frequency band of interest from the drilling rig.
These and other limitations and disadvantages of the prior art are overcome by the present invention, however, and an improved method is provided for determining the continuity of a subsurface geologic layer or formation that is penetrated by a preexisting borehole.


A versatile scarf includes an elongated rectangular neckband portion, a large half-fan shaped flap connected to one side of the neckband portion and a small half-fan shaped flap connected to another side of the neckband portion forming draping portions, and a loop coupled between the small flap and the neckband portion. Both sides of the scarf have the same configuration, therefore the scarf is completely reversible. The scarf can be securely tied by pulling the large flap through the loop between the neckband and the small flap, without using other fastening means. Depending on how far the large flap is pulled, through front or back loop, from top or bottom of the loop, re-looping or not, and depending on which side is showing and the position of the scarf, numerous stylish and distinctive appearances can be achieved. The dimensions of the scarf can be varied to suit different purposes.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates in general to fabric fashion accessories and, more particularly, to fabric scarves or body wraps that can be worn around the neck, shoulder, waist, hip or head of a user, and also used as fashion enhancers for decorating handbags or hats.
2. Description of the Prior Art
For many people, daily dressing is a routine. For others, it is an opportunity to express themselves, and their unique sense of style. A scarf is a great accessory for any occasion and can extend the versatility of a woman's wardrobe, and also has purposes beyond just keeping the body warm or hiding the signs of aging on the neck. A scarf conveys an individual's personality and interests as well. There have been scarves and scarf-related designs previously patented, and these conventional scarves are usually made from a single piece of material having a square, rectangular, or triangular configuration. The scarves disclosed by U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,867,835 and 6,145,131 are scarves comprising a continuous circle made of tubular fabric. Other configurations such as those in discussed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,385,791, 2,942,274, 3,080,566, 3,360,802, 3,605,121, 4,277,849, 4,321,709, 4,788,722, 4,870,707, and 4,942,627 show different ways to tie a scarf of a special shape around the neck, head or waist of the user.
Ross's "Scarf and Method for Forming the Same" (U.S. Pat. No. 2,942,274) discloses a scarf having two square display panes connected by a neck strip. Ross's scarf could be used as a neck accessory or a scarf. Spears's "Elongated Garment for Women and Girls" (U.S. Pat. No. 4,277,849) discloses a scarf having an intermediate section of constant width and two outer sections flaring out to present different shapes. Steinberg's "Decorative Scarf" (U.S. Pat. No. 4,321,709) discloses a scarf having an elongated neck portion with one end provided with a narrow tubular opening, and the other end provided with a wider rectangular section. Copprue's "Scarf" (U.S. Pat. No. 4,942,627) discloses a scarf having a square portion and a rectangular portion integrally connected to each other, and a loop is formed in a free end of the rectangular portion.
The present invention improves upon the design of existing scarves by providing a versatile garment of varied appearance.


A semiconductor device includes a first insulator film having a first opening, a first wiring layer extending from the first opening onto the first insulator film, a first semiconductor chip mounted on the first insulator film so as to be electrically coupled with the first wiring layer, and a resin portion applied on the first insulation film to cover the first semiconductor chip.

Recently the semiconductor device having the semiconductor chip mounted thereon has shown the tendency to have a thin structure. Patent documents such as Japanese Patent No. 3598060 and Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2005-101580 disclose a module with a built-in semiconductor device having a wiring on at least one surface of an insulator substrate as a related art example 1. Referring to FIG. 1 as a sectional view of the semiconductor device according to the related art example 1, a first semiconductor chip 16 is mounted onto a first wiring layer 14 using a die adhesive material 15. The first semiconductor chip 16 is electrically coupled with the first wiring layer 14 via a bonding wire 18. The first semiconductor chip 16 and the bonding wire 18 are sealed with a resin portion 35. The resin portion 35 is embedded in a resin portion 32 so as to be integrated therewith. The resin portion 32 is provided with the first wiring layer 14 and a second wiring layer 24 at opposite surfaces, respectively. A through electrode 34 pierces the resin portion 32 to connect the first and the second wiring layers 14 and 24.
In the related art example 1, as the resin portion 35 for sealing the first semiconductor chip 16 is embedded in the resin portion 32, it is difficult to reduce the thickness of the resin portion 32. As the first and the second wiring layers 14 and 24 are exposed, a short-circuit is likely to occur between those wiring layers. The insulator films may be applied to the surfaces of both the first and the second wiring layers 14 and 24 for suppressing the aforementioned short-circuit. However, this results in an increase in the thickness of the semiconductor device.

Semiconductor device having a semiconductor chip mounted on an insulator film and coupled with a wiring layer, and method for manufacturing the same


Described herein is an aqueous composition for treating a substrate including patterns having line-space dimensions of 50 nm or below to prevent collapse of the patters, the composition comprising: a solvent system comprising water and a water-miscible organic solvent; a surface modifier that is a reaction product between an alkylamine and an organic acid; and an optional pH adjusting agent.

The present invention relates to methods for cleaning/drying high aspect ratio structures, wherein the collapse of said structures during drying is substantially prevented.
Semiconductor device manufacturing generally includes various steps of device patterning process. With continuous scale-down and shrinkage of real estate available for a single semiconductor device, engineers are daily facing the challenge of how to meet the market demand for ever increasing device density. One technique was the creation of finFETs, which are formed through a technique called sidewall image transfer (SIT), also known as sidewall spacer image transfer. However, due to the scaling of these devices, there remains a risk of pattern collapse for tight pitch and high aspect ratio configurations, such as the fin or gate modules.
For example, pattern collapse can occur during the drying step following a wet etch process due to the high capillary forces experienced between the "fin" structures. Current attempts to mitigate this collapse include the use of organic molecules to chemically bond on surface to increase contact angle of the rinse solutions but such surface modifiers can bond to the substrate surface to leave a residue that, in turn, is difficult to remove. In this regard, an ashing step can be added to remove the surface modifier residue but the ashing conditions can also lead to fin damage. The stack of materials for semiconductor devices may comprise different materials such as silicon, silicon oxide, and silicon nitride. These materials maybe a single layer or multi layers in different orders. The stack may be formed by a number of methods, including physical vapor deposition, chemical vapor deposition, electrochemical deposition and molecular beam epitaxy. One stack order may be silicon oxide layer on the silicon substrates to form silicon oxide trench. With technical node shrink, more stack orders are used, for example, a stack order may include the middle silicon oxide layer on the bottom silicon layer and silicon nitride layer on the top. In order to prevent the pattern collapse of this new stack structures, the surface modification chemistry not only has to effect the silicon oxide surface, and the silicon nitride and silicon surfaces too.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a fin surface modification chemistry that does not suffer from the above drawbacks.

Compositions and methods for preventing collapse of high aspect ratio structures during drying


Exemplary embodiments relates to a demodulator for frequency-shift keyed signals by using the Goertzel algorithm according to the general recursive calculating rule, where

Frequency shift keying (FSK) is a modulation technique for transmitting digital signals. This technique is insensitive to interference. In frequency shift keying, the carrier frequency of a periodic sinusoidal oscillation is changed between a set of different frequencies which represent the individual transmitted symbols.
During the modulation, a transmitted symbol is assigned to a specified transmission frequency. On the other hand, during the demodulation, a specified frequency is detected and the corresponding symbol is output for further data processing. One exemplary parameter of frequency shift keying is an integral number of available transmission frequencies.
In its simplest form, only two different symbols are present, so-called binary FSK, which are transmitted via two different symbol frequencies f1 and f2. In this case, the bit rate is equal to the symbol rate. This form can be used for data transmission according to the HART protocol in measuring and control technology.
The Goertzel algorithm, as discussed at <<http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goertzel-Algorithmus>>, is a digital signal processing technique and represents a special form of discrete Fourier transformation (DFT). In contrast to the various fast calculation methods in discrete Fourier transformation (DFT) which can calculate all discrete spectral components in one block, it is possible with the Goertzel algorithm to calculate only individual discrete spectral components.
The algorithm is based on a structure consisting of a digital filter which is extended by a state control factor. The states subdivide the calculation into the return branch in which the input values sampled in the time domain are loaded, and into a forward branch which delivers the output signal. The return loop can be passed with each digital sample and be configured as a recursive digital filter having two state memories and one accumulator. The forward branch can be passed once only after N samples and delivers from the state memories the calculated complex output value, the spectral component in amount and phase. The number of samples N can assume any positive integral values.
It is known that the quality of detection of a discrete spectral component increases with an increasing number of samples N.
The Goertzel algorithm can specify 4N additions and 4N multiplications per calculation of one spectral component, the symbol frequencies f1 and f2 in FSK. In principle, using the Goertzel algorithm in FSK demodulation is known from U.S. Pat. No. 5,818,296 A. The implementation of the Goertzel algorithm is described in the document "The Goertzel Algorithm", <<http://eetimes.com/design/embedded/4024443/The-Goertzel-Algorithm>>.
In addition, a technical implementation is known from the Application Report by the company Texas Instruments "Modified Goertzel Algorithm in DTMF Detection Using the TMS320C80", 1996, Digital Signal Processing Solutions. This refers to the detection of dialing tones and their combinations of the multi-frequency tone dialing method in telephony. In this context, the variable tone dialing frequencies, which are between 697 Hz and 1477 Hz, can be sampled with a fixed sampling rate of 8 kHz.
In principle, the Goertzel algorithm can be suitable for the demodulation of FSK signals as used in automation technology for communication between central and peripheral devices. However, this is in conflict with the still fairly high computing complexity, the time and power specified by which is not available, especially in real-time-capable peripheral devices which are fed from a conductor loop with limited power for reasons of explosion protection. Such a device has available a maximum of 96 mW for its entire operation. But this includes at least not conclusively means for communication, for signal processing in accordance with the respective automation-related task, for signal conversion, for measurement value detection or setpoint output and diagnostic means.
A demodulator for frequency-shift keyed signals is disclosed, comprising: a processor configured to filter a line signal, sample the filtered signal and process samples output from the filter with a Goertzel algorithm, comparing a result of the algorithm to a threshold to determine whether the filter output is to be feedback for further processing with the Goertzel algorithm.

Demodulator for frequency-shift keyed signals by using the Goertzel algorithm

Abstract: c    re    =      2    *          cos                    (                  2          *          π          *                                    f              g                                      f              s                                      )            with the sampling frequency fs and the specified frequency fg. To reduce the mathematical complexity in feed-power-limited devices, it is proposed that the sampling frequency fs is an integral multiple of the frequency fg of a specified discrete spectral component.


A given software process is composed on one or more threads of execution. Each thread possesses its own stack, a region of memory set aside by the operating system for that thread to store data. Popular programming languages rely heavily on stack-based data (frequently referred to as “local” or “automatic” data). It is a characteristic of deterministic machines like computers that, given the same problem to process with the same data, the same results, both intermediate and final, will result. This even extends to the sequence the software running on the computer will take to process the problem or data. This in turn means that for each thread making up the program, the data layout in the thread's stack will be relatively consistent each time the program gets to a similar point in the processing of the problem and/or data. This represents a potential “point of repeatability” that a hacker can take advantage of. Embodiments of the current invention address this by introducing random amounts of “padding” into a thread's stack, such that all data objects that exist “below” that point in the stack are offset by the amount of this random padding. A thread could have several points in its stack where the padding is introduced, resulting in better (more difficult to hack) randomization.

1. Technical Field
The current invention is generally applicable to software designs of all types, but is especially useful in software to be run on general-purpose computers, such as Personal Computers (PCs). It is relevant to designs for which reverse-engineering of executing images of the software pose a risk, either of the software itself or the data being processed by the software.
The science of reverse-engineering to allow unauthorized knowledge or data access of a given software element or data being processed by the element is colloquially termed "hacking," those involved in the science are referred to has "hackers." Over the years, especially since the introduction of low-cost personal computers, both the sophistication of software and the value of the data being processed by that software have grown tremendously. Accordingly, the expended effort and sophistication of hackers has grown correspondingly. Modern day hackers have a vast arsenal of software tools and technical expertise to draw upon. The effort to protect both software itself and the data processed by that software has become increasingly more difficult and elaborate.
So advanced has the skill at protecting software from hacking become that "static" disassembly of disk files is often insufficient to the needs of hackers; distributing tasks among threads can impede such disassemblies often to the point of making them not worthwhile unless no other option exists. Thus, hackers have now turned to analyzing the executing image of software in an effort to understand how to gain access where the software's designer does not want uncontrolled access. In modern systems, a primary goal of the hacker is discovering the location of "interesting" data. Frequently, this data is considered "valuable" (in that it is copyrighted, contains sensitive information, etc.), and one real goal of a hacking effort is to gain access to this data, rather than put significant concern on how the software in question actually works.
To accomplish this, the hacker monitors various addresses in the computer's memory which are being accessed heavily. These "hot spots" could very likely be the location of the data the hacker wants to "pirate." Programs typically put data variables and buffers in the same addresses each time the program is run, so if a hacker discovers these addresses, he is a long way towards having a reliable vehicle for data piracy. Since the use of variables and buffers is unavoidable in practical software designs, the only viable way to block this form of hacking is to remove the consistency of their memory addresses, meaning that even if the hacker does determine the address of "interesting" data on one run of the software, those addresses won't be valid on subsequent runs. The hacker would be forced to determine the addresses of the "interesting" data each time the program is run, which is vastly more difficult. If combined with techniques to deter the program from being run under a debugger, a major weapon in the hacker's arsenal has been disabled.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Efforts to prevent hacking of both software and the data they are processing are probably as old as computers themselves. Each year the "ante gets upped", as both the designers of software and their competitors in the hacker communities become ever more sophisticated and knowledgeable. Every year sees the introduction of yet more powerful software tools that can be wielded with substantial effect by hackers.
The inventor of the current invention has been involved in the field nearly as long as the personal computer has been available, and is familiar with many of the "standard" techniques for deterring successful hacking. These include randomizing the size of allocated memory blocks, encrypting and incrementally decrypting components of a software entity, implementing a software component as an interpreter and making the mapping from the interpreted code to the actual implementation as disjoint as possible, use of "excessive multithreading" to divorce cause and effect, and so forth. The inventor has not, up until now, seen a technique or proposal to deter hacking by randomizing the siting of stack-based data in a given thread, which is the subject of embodiments of the current invention.

Deterring reverse-engineering of software systems by randomizing the siting of stack-based data


A centralized energy module for a vehicle includes a base plate, a compressor mounted on the base plate, a first condenser mounted on the base plate at a location spaced part from the compressor and configured for condensing the refrigerant through heat-exchange with a first coolant supplied from a high temperature radiator while firstly passing the refrigerant supplied from the compressor, a second condenser connected with the first condenser and configured for condensing the refrigerant through heat-exchange with a second coolant supplied from a low temperature radiator while secondly passing the refrigerant supplied from the compressor, an expansion valve connected with the second condenser, and an evaporator mounted on the base plate, evaporating the refrigerant supplied from the expansion valve through heat-exchange with a third coolant which flows into the evaporator and supplying the evaporated refrigerant to the compressor.

The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
In general, a motor vehicle includes an air conditioning system configured for circulating a refrigerant to heat or cool an interior of the motor vehicle. The air conditioning system which maintains a comfortable interior environment by keeping a temperature of the interior of the vehicle at an appropriate range, regardless of an external temperature change, is configured to heat or cool the interior of the motor vehicle by thermal energy-exchange while the refrigerant discharged by a compressor passes through a condenser, a receiver drier, an expansion valve and an evaporator, and then circulates to the compressor again.
In the air conditioning system, high-temperature and high-pressure vapor refrigerant compressed by the compressor is condensed through the condenser and thereafter, evaporated in the evaporator through the receiver drier and the expansion valve to lower a temperature and humidity of the interior of the vehicle in a summer cooling mode.
In recent years, we have discovered that as interest in energy efficiency and environmental pollution has been increasing, there has been a demand for the development of environmentally friendly vehicles instead of internal combustion engine vehicles. The environmentally friendly vehicles, for examples, are usually electric vehicles driven by fuel cells or hybrid vehicles driven by an engine and a battery.
Among the environmentally friendly vehicles, the electric vehicle and the hybrid vehicle do not use a separate heater used generally in an air conditioning system of the internal combustion vehicle. Instead, the air conditioning system used in the environmentally friendly vehicle is generally referred as a heat pump system.
In the case of the electric vehicle, chemical reaction energy of oxygen and hydrogen is converted into electrical energy to generate a driving force. In the current process in the electric vehicle, since thermal energy is generated by the chemical reaction in the fuel cell, it is desired to remove effectively the generated heat by the fuel cell for securing better performance of the fuel cell.
In addition, even in the hybrid vehicle, a motor is driven by using electricity supplied from the fuel cell, or an electric battery as one of its driving forces with the internal combustion engine. Accordingly, the performance of the motor can be secured only by effectively removing the heat generated from the fuel cell or the battery including the motor.
As a result, in the hybrid vehicle or the electric vehicle, a battery cooling system needs to be separately formed with a separate sealing circuit together with a cooler device and the heat pump system to inhibit excessive heat generated by the motor, electric components, and the battery including the fuel cell. Accordingly, we have discovered that a size and a weight of a cooling module disposed in a front portion of the vehicle increase, and a layout of connection pipes that supply the refrigerant and the coolant to the heat pump system, the cooler, and the battery cooling system is complicated and placed in the limited space in an engine compartment. Furthermore, due to multiple valves for connection with the respective connection pipes and their operations, we have discovered that noise and vibration are transferred to the interior of the vehicle, and it results in degrading a ride comfort.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the present disclosure, and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known to a person of ordinary skill in the art.


To actualize a reduction in the on-resistance of a small surface mounted package having a power MOSFET sealed therein. A silicon chip is mounted on a die pad portion integrated with leads configuring a drain lead. The silicon chip has, on the main surface thereof, a source pad and a gate pad. The backside of the silicon chip configures a drain of a power MOSFET and bonded to the upper surface of a die pad portion via an Ag paste. A lead configuring a source lead is electrically coupled to the source pad via an Al ribbon, while a lead configuring a gate lead is electrically coupled to the gate pad via an Au wire.

The present invention relates to a semiconductor device, in particular, to a semiconductor device having a small surface mounted package.
A power MOSFET (Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor) used for power control switch or charge/discharge protection circuit of portable information devices is sealed in a small surface mounted package such as SOP8. Such a kind of a power MOSFET is described, for example, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-164869 or Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-299464.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-164869 discloses a technology for reducing the risk of punch-through breakdown, in a trench gate power MOSFET (Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor) formed in a structure including a p type epitaxial layer configuring the upper layer of an n+ type silicon substrate, by forming an n type drain region so that it extends between an n+ type silicon substrate and the bottom of a trench and forming a junction between the n type drain region and the p type epitaxial layer so that it extends between the n+ type silicon substrate and the partition of the trench.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-299464 discloses a technology for reducing the on-resistance of a drain region by laying an epitaxial layer of a first conductivity type and a well layer of a second conductivity type over a semiconductor substrate of the first conductivity type, forming a deep trench gate, isolated by an insulating layer, in an upper side layer comprised of these epitaxial layer and well layer, forming a drain region below the trench gate, forming a source region adjacent to the trench gate and forming, over the well layer, a body region more heavily doped with an impurity than the well layer.


A heavy duty clamp for cables or wires, and the like, said clamp having increased strength and resistance to distortion or breakage. Two overlying clamp plates, or segments, are held against relative movement by one of the plates having a shoulder member that engages with a portion of the other plate. The plates contain a split, tubular gripping member and the plates have increased longitudinal strength by having extended ends of the plates to provide protection against shearing forces created by the split tubular gripping member against the adjacent ends of the clamp plates.

This invention relates to a clamping tool and more particularly to an improved T-bar wire line clamping tool especially usable in the well drilling industry.
In the business of drilling wells for the recovery of oil, natural gas, water and the like, specialty tools and accessories are used whenever necessary to recover subsurface tools that, at times, become stuck in the well bore. Recovery of these quite valuable tools, as well as rescue of the well itself, is performed by following a series of steps generally referred to as "a fishing operation". A number of individual tools are used to comprise a fishing assembly, some of these tools being a cable hanger, a rope socket, a sinker bar, a spear head overshot, and others.
In a conventional fishing operation, it is known to provide a cable hanger for holding a cable during the cutting and application of rope sockets. The cable hanger is also used at the conclusion of the operation to pull the cable. Free from the cable head in the stuck tool.
A known type of cable hanger includes a clamp comprised of a hinged member including a pair of clamp segment members, one being a hinged member, each of which carry one-half of a longitudinally split, tubular liner that is dimensioned to fit the size of cable being used at the time. The clamp segments and liner are tightened upon a cable with a series of clamping bolts and the clamp is carried on a cable hanger shaped in the form of a "T" which provides a sturdy support for the assembly during holding and/or pulling operations.


There is provided with an antenna device including: a first wire antenna element having a length about half a wavelength of a radio wave in use; a second wire antenna element which is in a same plane as the first wire antenna element and substantially perpendicular to the first wire antenna element, and which is connected to the first wire antenna element at one end; a third wire antenna element which is in the same plane as the first wire antenna element and substantially in parallel with the first wire antenna element, and which is connected to the second wire antenna element; and a feed point provided on the second wire antenna element.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an antenna device available for small communication devices, such as for example a wearable apparatus, a mobile telephone and PHS, which are used in the vicinity of a human body, to a mobile terminal equipped with the antenna device, and to an RFID tag.
2. Related Art
Conventionally, there is a problem that radiation characteristics of an antenna are degraded in the case where a lossy dielectric such as a human body is present in the vicinity of the antenna. In order to solve this problem, it is considered to reduce absorption of a radio wave by the human body using an antenna having unidirectional directivity in the direction opposite to the human body. As means effective to provide an antenna with the unidirectional directivity, there is a method of attaching a ground plane to the antenna. A dipole antenna fitted with the ground plane is a typical example of the method. However, in this constitution, the antenna itself becomes comparatively large, resulting in a problem that it is difficult to mount the antenna to a small terminal apparatus and the like.
Further, power is generally fed to a radio apparatus in an unbalanced state (for example by a coaxial feeder, a microstrip line and the like), but the dipole antenna is a balanced type element, and hence, a balance-unbalance converter (balun) is needed at a feed point. This causes the radio apparatus to be complicated and makes the miniaturization of the apparatus difficult.

Antenna device, mobile terminal and RFID tag


This invention disclosed a speed limit device for door, which comprises: an input shaft with one end driven by a door motor, and having the first gear and the second gear configured at the other end simultaneously driving a hollow shaft and a third shaft, and the center of the hollow shaft accommodates and fixes one end of a reel, and the third shaft is connected with an extension shaft; a brake device, which includes an active gear fixed with the extension shaft; a passive gear is pivoted on a hub, and the hub is fixed with the reel and rotating with the hollow shaft; an inert wheel located between the active gear and the passive gear to adjust the passive gear to have the same rotation speed with the hollow shaft; a clutch mechanism, which could restrain the synchronous operation between the passive gear and the hub without any positional difference, and when the rotation speed of the reel has the abnormal change, the clutch mechanism generates the positional difference condition necessary to lock the hub to a fixed object to prevent the rolling door from falling.

There are a lot of motor shaft adaptation system techniques being disclosed, such as U.S. Pat. No. 6,328,655 B1 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,501,117. The motor shaft adaptation system technique has been widely applied in the door machine mechanism for driving the door, but the safety was easily ignored.
The conventional door, such as the rolling door with vertical lifting and descending, all have very serious design criteria based on the safety consideration. In ideal case, the door should not have any possibility of danger caused by factitious or non-factitious factors under any operational conditions. The industry has the common goal to improve the product toward this target, so as to reduce the danger for door to the minimum.
In the door system, the reel mechanism, having the lowest failure probability compared to other mechanisms, belongs to the mechanism having better safety. Thus, the person skilled in the art usually pays attention to the improvement on the mechanism with higher failure probability, such as control mechanism, and often ignores the potential danger of the reel mechanism. However, it is appreciated by the person skilled in the art that, although the reel mechanism has better safety, it still could not prevent the abrasion problem between gear sets after long-term usage. Once the gears of the reel mechanism have been worn to a certain critical level, in the case which is not detected by an effective detection mechanism, there will be a great danger of the rolling door to stall and fall down.


A low-flexure molten metal distribution launder comprises an elongated structural beam which extends over a plurality of casting stations. A plurality of metal level sensors extend downward from the elongated structural beam to measure molten metal levels in underlying metal casting stations. A plurality of spaced U-shaped refractory hangers are supported within the structural beam to form a refractory channel. Refractory liners are received within the refractory hangers to form a molten metal trough within the structural beam. The hangers are spaced from each other and supported from the structural beam in such a way as to allow them to expand and contract relative to the structural beam without subjecting the structural beam to expansion and contraction. The walls of the refractory hangers are air-cooled to reduce heat transfer from the refractory hangers to the structural beam.

Conventional EM (electromagnetic) or DC (direct chill) aluminum casting typically involves controllably discharging molten aluminum to one or more continuous casting stations. Each casting station includes a concave bottom block and a surrounding mold. The mold can be either a DC mold or an EM mold. In either case, casting is performed by discharging aluminum onto the bottom block and by gradually lowering the bottom block while cooling the mold and the lower portions of aluminum.
Various factors are responsible for the quality of the resulting ingot. Casting procedures have become quite complex in order to ensure consistent quality from one casting to another. Generally, three variables must be closely monitored and controlled to achieve optimum results: molten metal level, drop rate, and cooling rate.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,498,521, to Takeda et al., describes a system for maintaining a constant level of molten metal in a plurality of vertically-oriented continuous or semicontinuous casting units. The Takeda system includes a float level sensor for precisely measuring the level or elevation of molten metal in a casting station during all portions of the casting process. The float level sensor is suspended from a molten metal launder over a casting station.
In conventional casting systems, a metal launder typically has a plurality of metal discharge spouts, and spans a like number of casting stations. It is generally impractical to provide external vertical support for the launder at any intermediate positions along its length. Rather, the launder is supported at both of its ends, and is designed with sufficient structural strength to support its own weight and the weight of any molten aluminum contained therein.
However, a metal level sensing system such as described by Takeda et al. requires not only that a launder be strong enough to support itself, but that it be strong enough to establish and maintain a stable measurement platform from which molten metal level measurements can be made. This is because all vertical measurements in the Takeda system are referenced from the launder beam, along its unsupported length over casting stations. Molten metal level is thus controlled and maintained relative to the elevation of the metal distribution launder. Any change in the elevation of the launder will cause a corresponding change in the level of molten aluminum within an underlying casting station. It is, therefore, extremely desirable to provide a metal distribution launder which resists movement or flexure in the vertical direction.
Vertical launder flexure results from two causes: variability in the amount and corresponding weight of contained molten aluminum, and vertical temperature gradients produced in structural parts of the metal distribution launder. Flexure from the first cause can be reduced by providing structural reinforcement along the length of the metal distribution launder. However, structural reinforcement is not effective against heat-induced launder flexure.
One cause of temperature gradients within a launder is radiant heat from underlying molten metal in casting stations. A more significant cause is heat transferred or conducted from molten metal contained within the launder itself. Since molten metal flows along the bottom of a distribution launder, resulting heat buildup in the structural members of the launder tends to be greater toward the bottom of the launder than toward the top of the launder. This causes the launder to bow. In some cases such bowing can be quite extreme, virtually eliminating any chance of accurately measuring the elevation of molten metal within underlying casting stations.
Previous attempts to eliminate launder bowing and flexing have involved structural reinforcements and launder cooling. However, these attempts have not yielded acceptable results. Structural reinforcement is generally ineffective against heat-induced flexure. Cooling has also been unsuccessful. Water cooling is especially undesirable because of the undesirable reactions which can occur between water and molten aluminum.
The invention described below greatly reduces or eliminates flexure in a metal distribution launder, so that accurate and repeatable measurements can be made from the launder of molten metal levels within an underlying casting station. This result is achieved without adding significantly to the cost or complexity of the launder.


The present invention relates to imaging and characterizing atherosclerotic lesions. The invention utilizes a low-flip-angle gradient echo-based MRI acquisition technique combined with specialized magnetization preparative schemes (i.e. non-selective inversion and FSD), and multiple co-registered 3D image sets with different contrast weightings are collected in an interleaved fashion. Using the inventive method, a single scan allows for comprehensive assessment of atherosclerotic plaque within just a few minutes.

The following description includes information that may be useful in understanding the present invention. It is not an admission that any of the information provided herein is prior art or relevant to the presently claimed invention.
The conventional MRI protocol for investigating atherosclerotic plaques involves a series of scans that provide multiple contrast weightings (e.g. T1-weighted, T2-weighted, and bright-blood, etc.) for resolving high-risk plaque characteristics. Unfortunately, misregistration between image sets due to inter-scan motion often compromises evaluation accuracy.
Considering the state of the art, there is clearly a need for improved MRI methods that allow for more efficient and accurate assessment of atherosclerotic plaque.

Atherosclerosis characterization using a multi-contrast MRI sequence


The present disclosure relates to Moraxella catarrhalis outer membrane vesicle (OMV) compositions, to selected antigenic proteins from the outer membranes of M. catarrhalis which have a variety of useful properties, and to monoclonal antibodies against these proteins. Particular "Outer Membrane Proteins" (OMPs) of the invention are characterized as having molecular weights of about 30 kD, 80 kD (also termed CopB protein) and between about 200 and 700 kD (HMWP antigen). Passive immunization with monoclonal antibodies directed against these proteins confers protection against homologous and heterologous Moraxella catarrhalis strains in animal models, and active immunization with outer membrane vesicles also enhances pulmonary clearance of distinct M. catarrhalis strains. This demonstrates both the utility of antibodies in conferring passive immunity and the usefulness of OMPs, or variants thereof, in the preparation of vaccines. Also disclosed are DNA segments encoding these OMPs, methods for preparing the antigens, or variants, through the application of recombinant DNA techniques, as well as diagnostic methods and related embodiments.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to various outer membrane proteins (OMPs) of Moraxella catarrhalis for use as targets in immunotherapy, such as in the preparation of vaccines or protective antibodies for use in treatment of Moraxella catarrhalis-related diseases. In particular aspects, the present invention concerns antigens identified by molecular weights of about 30 kD, 80 Kd (CopB) and a third antigen, termed "high molecular weight protein" or "HMWP" antigen having a molecular weight of between about 200 and 700 kD, as measured by SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. In other aspects, the invention concerns recombinant clones and DNA segments encoding M. catarrhalis antigens and fragments and equivalents thereof, as well as to antibodies reactive with these species. Further, the invention concerns methods for the detection of M. catarrhalis antigens and antibodies, as well as the use of specific antigens and antibodies both in passive and active immunity against M. catarrhalis infections.
2. Description of the Related Art
It was previously thought that Moraxella catarrhalis (previously known as Branhamella catarrhalis or Neisseria catarrhalis) was a harmless saprophyte of the upper respiratory tract (Catlin, 1990; Berk, 1990). However, during the previous decade, it has been determined that this organism is an important human pathogen. Indeed, it has been established that this Gram-negative diplococcus is the cause of a number of human infections (Murphy, 1989). M. catarrhalis is now known to be the third most common cause of both acute and chronic otitis media (Catlin, 1990; Faden et al., 1993;1991; Marchant, 1990), the most common disease for which infants and children receive health care (Consensus, 1989). This organism also causes acute maxillary sinusitis, generalized infections of the lower respiratory tract (Murphy & Loeb, 1989), and is an important cause of bronchopulmonary infections in patients with underlying chronic lung disease and, less frequently, of systemic infections in immunocompromised patients (Melendez & Johnson, 1990; Sarubbi et al., 1990; Schonheyder & Ejlertsen, 1989; Wright & Wallace, 1989).
The "Consensus" report referred to above concluded that prevention of otitis media is an important health care goal due to both its occurrence in infants and children, as well as certain populations of all age groups. In fact, the total financial burden of otitis media has been estimated to be at least 2.5 billion annually, or approximately 3% of the health care budget. Vaccines were identified as the most desired approach to the prevention of this disease for a number of reasons. For example, it was estimated that if vaccines could reduce the incidence of otitis media by 30%, this outcome could bring about an annual health care savings of at least $400 million. However, while some progress has been made in the development of vaccines for 2 of the 3 common otitis media pathogens, Streptococcus pneumoniae and Haemophilus influenzae, there is no indication that similar progress has been made with respect to M. catarrhalis. This is particularly troublesome in that M. catarrhalis now accounts for approximately 17-20% of all otitis media infection (Murphy, 1989).
Previous attempts have been made to identify and characterize M. catarrhalis antigens that would serve as potentially important targets of the human immune response to infection (Murphy, 1989; Goldblatt et al., 1990; Murphy et al., 1990). Generally speaking, the surface of M. catarrhalis is composed of outer membrane proteins (OMPs), lipooligosaccharide (LOS) and fimbriae. As Murphy points out, M. catarrhalis appears to be somewhat distinct from other gram-negative bacteria in that attempts to isolate the outer membrane of this organism using detergent fractionation of cell envelopes has generally proven to be unsuccessful in that the procedures did not yield consistent results (Murphy, 1989; Murphy & Loeb, 1989). Moreover, preparations were found to be contaminated with cytoplasmic membranes, suggesting an unusual characteristic of the M. catarrhalis cell envelope.
More recently, isolation procedures have been reported for obtaining M. catarrhalis outer membrane components which result in what are said to be less-contaminated membrane preparations (Murphy & Loeb, 1989). Although this has allowed M. catarrhalis outer membrane protein profiles to be assessed by sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS/PAGE), these techniques did not lead to the isolation or characterization of OMPs (Murphy & Loeb, 1989). Indeed, information regarding individual OMPs is still limited to their apparent molecular weight on SDS/PAGE, with protein bands on SDS gels being grouped into general classes (Murphy & Loeb, 1989; Murphy, 1989). Seven or eight major OMP groups have been identified in this manner and appear to be fairly consistent between diverse M. catarrhalis strains. For example, OMPs have been grouped into classes A-H, beginning with bands of molecular weight around 98 kD (OMP-A) and proceeding to bands with molecular weights of about 21 kD (OMP-H) (Murphy & Loeb, 1989; Murphy, 1989).
The LOS of M. catarrhalis has also been suggested as a possible target for vaccine development. LOS has been isolated from M. catarrhalis strains and subjected to SDS-PAGE and silver staining (Murphy, 1989). In common with the OMPs, the LOS of M. catarrhalis appears to be fairly well conserved at the antigenic level (Vaneechoutte et al., 1990), thus raising the feasibility of using a portion of the LOS molecule as a vaccine component.
Lastly, the Fimbriae have been suggested as a possible vaccine candidate. Fimbriae apparently play a role in adherence and colonization of mucosal services in some bacteria. Workers in the field have postulated that if antigenically conserved epitopes are expressed on fimbriae and can be identified, then it is possible that antibodies to such epitopes might be useful therapeutically, or that such epitopes can serve as vaccine components.
Despite its recognized virulence potential, little is known about the mechanisms employed by M. catarrhalis in the production of disease or about host. factors governing immunity to this pathogen. An antibody response to M. catarrhalis otitis media has been documented by means of an ELISA system using whole M. catarrhalis cells as antigen and acute and convalescent sera or middle ear fluid as the source of antibody (Leinonen et al., 1981). The development of serum bactericidal antibody during M. catarrhalis infection in adults was first reported nearly a decade ago and this bactericidal activity was shown to be dependent on the classical complement pathway (Chapman et al., 1985). Most recently, it was reported that young children with M. catarrhalis otitis media develop an antibody response in the middle ear but fail to develop systemic antibody in a uniform manner (Faden et al., 1992).
With the rising importance of this pathogen in respiratory tract infections, identification of the surface components of this bacterium involved in virulence expression and immunity is becoming more important. Unfortunately, the lack of a suitable animal model with which to study M. catarrhalis middle ear infections has further hampered such investigations. The relative lack of virulence of this organism for animals has rendered identification of an appropriate model system difficult (Doern, 1986). Attempts to use rodents, including chinchillas, to study middle ear infections caused by M. catarrhalis were unsuccessful, likely because this organism cannot grow or survive in the middle ear of these hosts (Doyle, 1989).
Although various subcomponents of the M. catarrhalis cell have been suggested as places to begin a search for vaccine candidates, there has still been no such candidate identified. No antigenic epitope or epitopes have been shown to induce protective antibodies. Thus, it is clear that there is currently a need to identify M. catarrhalis component(s) which may serve as useful antigens and which can, for example, be employed in the preparation of both passive and active immunotherapeutic reagents such as vaccines. Additionally, once such an antigen or antigens is identified, there is a need for providing methods and compositions which will allow the preparation of these vaccines and quantities that will allow their use on a wide scale basis in therapeutic protocols.

Methods and compositions relating to useful antigens of moraxella catarrhalis

Board of Regents, The University of Texas


A composite hockey stick shaft adapted for receiving a replacement blade. The composite shaft includes a shaft body formed of a resin material and embodying a spirally wound plurality of filaments embedded in the resin material. The present invention also relates to a process for making such a composite hockey stick shaft.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of hockey sticks and like, and more particularly, to a composite ice hockey stick shaft adapted for receiving a replacement blade at one end and a process for making such a shaft.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Hockey sticks in general, and particularly ice hockey sticks, have experienced dramatic changes throughout the years. As a result, ice hockey sticks have changed from a plain wooden stick having a straight blade and handle to a significantly improved stick having a curved blade and being reinforced with fiberglass or the like.
Significant evolution has also occurred in construction of the stick itself. Initially, the handle and blade portions were both constructed of wood and were joined with one another through various processes to form a single, integral unit. As technology developed, metal handles, particularly aluminum handles or shafts, were introduced. Such handles or shafts include an elongated handle portion constructed of a tubular section of aluminum or other light weight metal with an end for connection with a replaceable blade. The replaceable blades are usually purchased separately from the handle and include a blade portion and a shaft connecting end designed for connection through various adhesive means or the like to the aluminum handle. When a blade breaks or wears out, such blade is replaced with a new one.
A more recent development of ice hockey sticks has included the introduction of plastic or composite shafts which, like aluminum shafts are elongated and generally hollow and are secured to a replaceable blade portion in a similar manner. A variety of methods have been utilized in the construction of such shafts including, among others, pultrusion processes as exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 4,086,115 issued to Sweet et al. and wrapping processes involving both hoop-laid strands and length-laid strands as exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 4,591,155 issued to Adachi. Although a limited number of plastic or composite shafts are currently available, they have not been widely accepted as a replacement for aluminum shafts or for the traditional wooden stick. The reasons are believed to be related to the relatively strict functional requirements of such a shaft as well as the cost.
First, the shaft must be relatively light weight to simulate a traditional wooden stick, yet exhibit sufficient strength to withstand the stresses placed on the shaft by the hockey player. Such stresses occur throughout the entire length of the shaft, but particularly at or near the point at which the blade is secured to the lower end of the shaft. Such stresses are increased and the problem compounded as a result of the continuing popularity of the slap shot and the presence of bigger and stronger players.
Second, the shaft must reasonably simulate the flexural, strength and weight characteristics of a wooden stick or be capable of exhibiting the flexural, strength and weight characteristics desired by particular players.
Third, the shaft must meet established safety standards. This generally means that they must be capable of breaking under certain loads and must break in a manner which is no more dangerous to the user or other players than the traditional wooden stick.
Fourth, the shaft must be cost effective so that it can compete favorably with the traditional wooden sticks and with aluminum shafts and replacement blades.
Although various efforts have been made, and efforts are continuing to be made, to design a composite hockey stick shaft to meet the above objectives, none has been totally successful. Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a composite hockey stick shaft which is light weight, or whose weight can be selectively controlled while still providing acceptable strength, which provides the desired flexural characteristics for stick performance, which meets acceptable safety standards and which is also cost effective.

Composite hockey stick shaft and process for making same


The invention relates to an electrical driving unit for a rolling motor vehicle of the kind comprising an electrically motorized subassembly which is fed by a direct current supply subassembly and controlled by an electrically regulated control subassembly and is connected to the running carriage of the vehicle via a gear box, clutch and secondary transmission. This driving unit is remarkable in that the abovementioned electrically motorized subassembly is a motor called "compound" with a series excitation winding and a parallel excitation winding; both connected between said electrically motorized control subassembly and the direct current supply subassembly, which is comprised of a series of accumulator batteries. Applications of the invention include electrical propulsion of land motor vehicles.

This invention relates to the field of automobiles, especially terrestrial, rolling vehicles driven by electricity. This invention pertains more specifically to the electrical driving unit required for the propulsion of a vehicle, of the kind that comprises an electrically motorized subassembly which, fed by a direct current supply subassembly, is connected to the running carriage via a gear box, a clutch and a secondary transmission.
Indeed, while developing the electrical driving unit for motor vehicles, the applicant has tried, above all, to maintain the flexability of steering in vehicles formerly equipped with a thermal motor especially to maintain the gear box, clutch and secondary transmission in place. Thus for obvious reasons of profitability, it is easy to integrate the electrical driving unit the invention, into a manufacturing line for conventional models of vehicles equipped with a thermal motor, since the advantages of this invention (silent operation, low energy consumption, easy maintenance, absence of pollution, etc.) have not been listed in these specifications because of their evident utility to the applicant. Problems with the thermal motor have already been raised by users and public authorities, over several decades now.
The electrical method for an independent drive in a motor vehicle suffers from many problems like:
relatively limited speed and propulsion power, PA0 insufficient mass energy in batteries, PA0 etc.

Electrical driving unit for rolling vehicles and motor vehicles provided with such a unit


A discharge vacuum relief valve kit to provide vacuum relief for a SVRS pump in a hydraulic system is provided. The discharge vacuum relief valve kit includes a vacuum vent tube including a first end and a second end, a discharge vacuum relief valve coupled to the first end of the vacuum vent tube, and a vacuum vent screen coupled to the second end of the vacuum vent tube. The discharge vacuum relief valve is coupled to a drain plug opening of the SVRS pump.

In swimming pools and spas, safety vacuum release systems (SVRS) have been developed for the removal of suction in a line of the circulation system between the pump and a blocked outlet. SVRS devices can shut down the pump when a blockage is detected at a pool drain and the suction side of the pump in order to relieve suction and prevent body entrapment. If a check valve is installed on a discharge side of the circulation system, for example to prevent the backflow of water, it can also prevent or slow the relief of the suction. As a result, vacuum forces, such as those entrapping a swimmer against a drain of the swimming pool, may remain in place longer than current standards allow. In some swimming pools, the presence of a check valve can render an SVRS device ineffective.

Discharge vacuum relief valve for safety vacuum release system


There is provided a pacemaker system with an SRD detection and intervention feature, which enables a simple way of initiating confirmation of SRD, i.e., looking for an AS/AP transition in a DDD or DDI pacemaker, or a transition from a VS to a VP in a DDI pacemaker. This simple initiation of SRD confirmation is made possible by use of a relatively wide hysteresis band which is normally operative when a spontaneous rate is present, and which tracks physiological changes in the patient's natural rate, across the pacemaker rate range. Transitions which result from a gradual decrease in natural rate and thus represent physiological bradycardia are not interpreted as suggesting SRD. The detection is confirmed only after a predetermined number of pace pulses are delivered at the hysteresis rate, i.e., 1-5 pulses. In a preferred embodiment, after confirmation of SRD, pacing starts at a programmable intervention rate, and rate flywheels downward toward a lower rate limit, with intermittent hysteresis scans at a lower rate to enable recovery of an underlying natural rate. The SRD mode is left whenever recovery of a natural rate is confirmed, as by sensing a predetermined number of consecutive natural atrial beats in DDD mode or atrial and/or ventricular beats in DDI mode.

It is well known that certain patients experience loss of consciousness due to a sudden drop in blood pressure and/or heart rate. In many patients with such a cardioinhibitory component, intervention by pacing may help delay or reduce symptoms. The indicated forms of pacing to provide such help are DDD and DDD(R) pacing (hereinafter both referred to as DDD), where AV synchrony is maintained as such as possible; or DDI or DDI(R), or AV sequential pacing (hereinafter both referred to as DDI). In today's programmable pacemakers, there are provided algorithms for detecting sudden rate drop, but they generally are of limited use, and do not reliably detect sudden rate drop over the full range of physiological rates that a patient may experience. Such prior art solutions have generally been based on obtaining a sample of the patient's ongoing intrinsic rate history, and may incorporate some form of rate hysteresis to minimize the occasions when the pacemaker needs to override the intrinsic rate with delivered pace pulses.
The feature of rate hysteresis is well known in cardiac pacemakers. For example, many single chamber VVI pacemakers provide a form of rate hysteresis which is designed to prolong the next pacing escape interval which is set after a spontaneous, or natural ventricular beat. For example, the pacemaker may be programmed to pace at 70 beats per minute (bpm), but as long as natural beats are being sensed at rates above 70 bpm, the escape interval may be set to correspond to a somewhat lower rate, e.g., 60-65 bpm. The advantage of such hysteresis is that it enables the pacemaker to follow a mildly lower natural rhythm, i.e., one which might be just slightly below the lower rate limit (LRL) which has been programmed for pacing but still at a high enough rate that it is not necessary to override these natural beats with pacing. This achieves the advantages of maintaining the heart's AV synchrony as much as possible, and extending pacemaker longevity due to not delivering as many pace pulses. In dual chamber pacemakers, e.g. a DDD pacemaker where maximizing AV synchrony is an aim, providing hysteresis with respect to the atrial sensing enables increased tracking of natural atrial beats. Even in a DDI pacemaker, which does not track natural atrial beats as such, it remains desirable to maximize the number of atrial sense-ventricular sense (AS-VS) cycles, so as to maximize cardiac cycles where the heart is permitted to beat with its natural AV synchrony.
A known problem with hysteresis in cardiac pacing systems is that it can lead to excessive changes in rate. Usually a hysteresis rate is set which does not take into account the rate of the natural beats just prior to a sudden rate drop. With conventional hysteresis, whether the prior natural rate is close to the lower rate limit or far exceeds it, whenever the natural rate drops below the hysteresis rate, the pacemaker delivers a pace pulse at a rate corresponding to the hysteresis rate. Thus, a normal rate of 80-85 bpm could be followed by a pace pulse coming at an interval corresponding to a rate of only 60. Such a large drop in heart rate can have possible hemodynamic consequences, and the patient may experience a palpitation because of the sudden change. Further, in most hysteresis schemes, the pacing rate then goes to the pacing limit that had been set prior to losing the natural rate, and is maintained at such rate limit until a natural rate above this limit spontaneously reappears. This can mask the existence of an underlying natural rate just below the pacing limit, and aggravate the overall effect of loss of AV synchrony. It is thus seen that pacemaker performance would be improved by correlating the hysteresis function to the prior natural rate, and by improving the opportunity to recapture any underlying natural rate after pacing has taken over. There have been a number of different arrangements designed to enhance the hysteresis feature in cardiac pacemakers. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,016,630, which discloses a rate responsive pacemaker that varies the pacing rate, and provides a hysteresis interval which varies as a function of the escape interval corresponding to the dynamic pacing rate. It is also known to use the rate of change in the spontaneous intervals before hysteresis pacing to vary the escape interval after loss of the natural rate and takeover of hysteresis pacing. See U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,284,491 and 5,782,886. See also U.S. Pat. No. 3,921,642, which describes hysteresis "searching" for an underlying natural beat.
However, what remains needed in the art is a pacing system which optimizes hysteresis so as to detect a sudden rate drop anywhere across the rate spectrum, i.e., from the upper pacing limit to the lower pacing limit; and to respond to a detected sudden rate drop (SRD) with a pacing modality that gradually takes pacing rate to a safe rate while optimizing the opportunity to find an underlying natural rate and restore AV synchrony as quickly as possible. It is important to provide both reliable detection of SRD, and an optimized response to restore intrinsic physiological heart beats.

Pacing system with full range sudden rate drop detection and responsive pacing intervention


The present invention provides a device for clipping nails and retaining the clippings. The nail clipper includes a lower arm member defining an opening and a cutting edge at an end thereof. The nail clipper further has an upper arm member springingly attached to the lower arm member, the upper arm member further defining a cutting edge in corresponding placement to the cutting edge of the lower arm member. The nail clipper further includes a receptacle for retaining nail clippings, an actuating handle, and, a retaining pin connecting the lower arm member, the upper arm member, the receptacle, and the actuating handle.

Known are nail clipping devices useful for manicuring or pedicuring purposes. Such devices typically comprise a pair of resilient metal arm members secured together in overlapping engagement at respective first ends of the members and having at second ends thereof blades or shearing elements movable upon actuation of a handle to a position where the blades are set in nail shearing engagement. A fingernail or toenail positioned between the blades can be severed upon actuation of the handle.
A disadvantage of conventional nail clipping devices is that they permit the scattering of nail clippings, such scattering caused by the manner in which the blades or shearing elements operate. Specifically, the blades, when moved to a clamping position, compress the nail, thus flattening its natural curvature. When the nail is clipped, it snaps back to its natural shape and is ejected from the clipper in an unpredictable trajectory.
In order to solve the foregoing disadvantage associated with conventional nail clipping devices, there has been provided receptacles and the like associated with the clippers in which the clippings are prevented from scattering by collecting them for disposal. Such improved nail clipping devices are most often typified in one of two forms.
In the first form, the clipper is encased by a sleeve, that together with the upper and lower arm members, form a compartment to catch nail clippings. U.S. Pat. No. 4,776,090, to Grassi issued Oct. 11, 1988 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,150,521, issued Sep. 29, 1992 to Soo Han are both examples of this type. While both of these inventions prevent the scattering of clippings, they both rely on a removable sleeve as a central part of their design. It is this removable sleeve that is objectionable in that it can be lost or damaged while attempting to empty the receptacle of clippings. The sleeve could also inadvertently become removed from the nail clipper causing the clippings to scatter and obviating the purpose of the invention.
In the second form, the clipper utilizes integral side walls, instead of a removable sleeve, to catch and retain clippings. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,614,031 to Chen issued Sep. 30, 1986, for example, a receptacle is formed by upper and lower arm members. The lower arm member having integral side walls extending vertically towards the upper arm member, and a depression in its midsection where clippings can collect. The principal drawback with this invention is that clippings must be emptied through the front of the device between the cutting blades. Clippings can easily become wedged between the upper and lower arm members or behind the shearing surface, requiring the user to shake the device in order to remove the clippings. This is undesirable because some clippings will be permanently retained in the device and others will discharge in unpredictable trajectories from the device while being shaken, scattering the nail clippings.


A process for doping polyaniline powder includes: mixing a drying agent with a dopant selected from the group consisting of alkyl sulfuric acid, alkyl sulfonic acid and alkyl benzene sulfonic acid so as to remove water contained in the dopant; and blending the dried dopant and the polyaniline powder in the presence of an additive which is selected from the group consisting of phosphoric acid, hydrochloric acid, nitric acid and acetic acid in order to form a doped product.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a process for doping polyaniline powder, more particularly to a process for doping polyaniline powder using a low water content dopant.
2. Description of the Related Art
Electrically conductive materials made of polyaniline powder (also known as emeraldine salt) are widely used to produce organic lighting devices, secondary batteries, anti-electrostatic coatings, conductive adhesives and coatings, electron beam photoresistive agents, sensors, electromagnetic wave shields, etc. A conventional process for producing such an electrically conductive material comprises the steps of mixing or doping undoped polyaniline with a dopant, i.e., a protonic acid selected from the group consisting of alkyl sulfuric acid, alkyl sulfonic acid and alkyl benzene sulfonic acid. A doping reaction takes place as follows: ##STR1##
However, the conventional process suffers from the following disadvantages:
(1) Since the above-described dopants are apt to absorbing water and are both oily, the dopants cannot undergo a complete doping reaction with the polyaniline powder, thereby resulting in an oily doped product. When the doped product thus obtained is employed to produce anti-electrostatic conductive coatings or is used as a photoelectric material, the oily characteristics of the doped product affect adversely the adhesion or the processing of the doped product. PA1 (2) Since the dopants cannot react completely with the polyaniline powder, the solubility of the doped product decreases, thereby resulting in difficulty to achieve a preferred situation in applying the doped product to an anti-electrostatic conductive material or a photoelectric material. PA1 (a) mixing a drying agent with a dopant selected from the group consisting of alkyl sulfuric acid, alkyl sulfonic acid, alkyl benzene sulfonic acid and dialkyl benzene sulfonic acid so as to remove water contained in the dopant; and PA1 (b) blending the dopant dried in step (a) and the polyaniline powder in the presence of an additive which is selected from the group consisting of phosphoric acid, hydrochloric acid, nitric acid and acetic acid in order to form a doped product.


Methods are provided for clustering events. Data is received at an extraction engine from managed infrastructure. Events are converted into alerts and the alerts mapped to a matrix M. One or more common steps are determined from the events and clusters of events are produced relating to the alerts and or events.

Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to event/message processing, and more particularly to methods for clustering messages/events received from infrastructure.
Description of the Related Art
The World Wide Web is increasingly becoming a more important and more frequently used form of communication between people. The primary form of web-based communication is electronic mail. Other forms of communication are also used, however, such as news groups, discussion groups, bulletin boards, voice-over IP, and so on. Because of the vast amount of information that is available on the web, it can be difficult for a person to locate information that may be of interest. For example, a person who receives hundreds of electronic mail messages/events from infrastructure a day may find it impractical to take the time to store the messages/events from infrastructure in folders of the appropriate topic. As a result, it may be difficult for the person to later find and retrieve all messages/events from infrastructure related to the same topic. A similar situation arises when a person tries to locate news groups or discussion groups of interest. Because there may be no effective indexing of these groups, it can be difficult for the person to find groups related to the topic of interest.
Some attempts have been made to help the retrieval of information of interest by creating web directories that provide a hierarchical organization of web-based information. The process of creating the directories and deciding into which directory a particular piece of information (e.g., a news group) should go is typically not automated. Without an automated approach it is impractical to handle the massive amounts of web-based information that are being generated on a daily basis. Moreover, because a person may not be fully aware of the entire web directory hierarchy or may not fully understand the semantics of information, the person may place the information in a directory that is not the most appropriate, making later retrieval difficult. It would be desirable to have an automated technique that would help organize such information.
The advent of global communications networks such as the Internet has provided alternative forms of communicating worldwide. Additionally, it has increased the speed at which communications can be sent and received. Not only can written or verbal messages/events from infrastructure be passed through the Internet, but documents, sound recordings, movies, and pictures can be transmitted by way of the Internet as well. As can be imagined, inboxes are being inundated with countless items. The large volume can more than difficult to manage and/or organize for most users.
In particular, a few of the more common activities that a user performs with respect to email, for example, are: sorting of new messages/events from infrastructure, task management of using messages/events from infrastructure that can serve as reminders, and retrieval of past messages/events from infrastructure. Retrieval of recent messages/events from infrastructure can be more common than older messages/events from infrastructure. Traditional systems employed today support at least some aspect of these three activities using folders such as an inbox, task-oriented folders, and user-created folders, respectively. However, this as well as other existing approaches present several problems. The folders make stark divisions between the three activities which are not conducive or coincident with user behavior, in general. For example, tasks are not visible to the user, or rather are "out of sight, out of mind", and thus can be easily, if not frequently, neglected, overlooked, or forgotten. In addition, in many current systems any given message can only be in one folder at a time. Hence, the particular message cannot serve multiple activities at once. Other current systems have attempted to ease these problems; however, they fall short as well for similar reasons.
A user can communicate using one or more different messaging techniques known in the art: email, instant messaging, social network messaging, cellular phone messages/events from infrastructure, etc. Typically, the user can accumulate a large collection of messages/events from infrastructure using one or more of these different messaging techniques. This user collection of messages/events from infrastructure can be presented as a large collection of messages/events from infrastructure with limited options of grouping or clustering the messages/events from infrastructure.
One way of grouping messages/events from infrastructure is to group multiple emails into an email thread. An email thread is a collection of emails that are related based on the subjects of the emails. For example, one user sends an email to one or more users based on a given subject. Another user replies to that email and a computer would mark those two emails as belonging to a thread. Another way for grouping messages/events from infrastructure is put the messages/events from infrastructure into folders. This can be done manually by the user or can be done automatically by the user setting up rules for message processing.
Document clustering and classification techniques can provide an overview or identify a set of documents based upon certain criteria, which amplifies or detects certain patterns within its content. In some applications these techniques lead to filtering unwanted email and in other applications they lead to effective search and storage strategies. An identification strategy may for example divide documents into clusters so that the documents in a cluster are similar to one another and are less similar to documents in other clusters, based on a similarity measurement. One refers to the process of clustering and classification as labeling. In demanding applications labeling can greatly improve the efficiency of an enterprise, especially for storage and retrieval applications, provided that it is stable, fast, efficient, and accurate.
Users of information technology must effectively deal with countless unwanted emails, unwanted text messages/events from infrastructure and crippling new viruses and worms every day. This largely unnecessarily high volume of network traffic decreases worker productivity and slows down important network applications. One of the most serious problems in today's digital economy has to do with the increasing volume of spam. As such, recipients of email as well as the service providers need effective solutions to reduce its proliferation on the World Wide Web. However, as spam detection becomes more sophisticated, spammers invent new methods to circumvent detection. For example, one prior art methodology provides a centralized database for maintaining signatures of documents having identified attributes against which emails are compared, however, spammers now modify the content of their email either slightly or randomly such that the message itself may be intelligible, but it evades detection under various anti-spam filtering techniques currently employed.
At one time, at least 30 open relays dominated the world, bursting messages/events from infrastructure at different rates and different levels of structural variation. Because certain types of email mutate or evolve, as exemplified by spam, spam-filtering detection algorithms must constantly adjust to be effective. In the case of spam email, for example, the very nature of the spam corpus undergoes regime changes. Therefore, clustering optimality depends heavily on the nature of the data corpus and the changes it undergoes.
Decomposing a traffic matrix has proven to be challenging. In one method, a matrix factorization system is used to extract application dependencies in an enterprise network, a cloud-based data center, and other like data centers, using a temporal global application traffic graph dynamically constructed over time and spatial local traffic observed at each server of the data center. The data center includes a plurality of servers running a plurality of different applications, such as e-commerce and content delivery. Each of the applications has a number of components such as a, web server, application server and database server, in the application's dependency path, where one or more of the components are shared with one or more of the other applications.
Because such data centers typically host a large number of multi-tier applications, the applications requests are overlapped, both in the spatial and temporal domains, making it very difficult for conventional pairwise statistical correlation techniques to correctly extract these interleaved but independent applications. A matrix-based representation of application traffic is used which captures both system snapshots and their historical evolution. The system and method decomposes a matrix representation of application graphs into small sub-graphs, each representing a single application.
The number of applications is usually unknown a priori due to interleaving and overlapping application requests, which further imposes a challenge to discovery of the individual application sub-graphs. In one prior method and system, the number of applications is determined using low rank matrix estimation either with singular value decomposition or power factorization based solvers, under complete and incomplete traffic data scenarios, with theoretical bound guarantee.
Traffic tapping from switches is limited by the capability of switches as well as the monitoring hosts. A switch typically can mirror only a few ports at the same time. In addition, monitoring data collected over multiple switches, each with multiple ports may result in high-volume aggregate network traffic and potentially packet loss. Both cases lead to significant loss in the monitoring data.
One system and method to overcome this problem utilizes historical data to provide redundancy and employs power factorization based techniques to provide resilience to data loss and estimation errors. In one system and method, a distributed network monitors and centralizes data processing to determine application dependency paths in a data center.
The majority of current service management solutions are rule based. The concept behind rule-based systems is that you start with the system you are monitoring, analyze and model it, turning it into a series of business logic rules that respond to events as they occur. For example, in response to some logged text, you apply logic that turns the text into a database record to which you apply more logic that turns it into an alert, before applying again more logic to connect the alert to a trouble ticket.
The fundamental problem with this approach is that the rules are dependent on a point in time snapshot of what is out there that you are managing, which is subject to continual change. So, every time the infrastructure alters the business logic must be modified. Clearly the rule-based approach is not a scalable way of running a business.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Methods for decomposing events from managed infrastructures


A sealing device and method are described herein that can be used to manufacture a hermetically sealed glass package. In one embodiment, the hermetically sealed glass package is suitable to protect thin film devices which are sensitive to the ambient environment (e.g., oxygen, moisture). Some examples of such glass packages are organic emitting light diode (OLED) displays, sensors, and other optical devices. The present invention is demonstrated using an OLED display as an example.

OLEDs have been the subject of a considerable amount of research in recent years because of their use and potential use in a wide variety of electroluminescent devices. For instance, a single OLED can be used in a discrete light emitting device or an array of OLEDs can be used in lighting applications or flat-panel display applications (e.g., OLED displays). OLED displays are known to be very bright and to have a good color contrast and wide viewing angle. However, OLED displays and in particular the electrodes and organic layers located therein are susceptible to degradation resulting from interaction with oxygen and moisture which leak into the OLED display from the ambient environment. It is well known that the life of the OLED display can be significantly increased if the electrodes and organic layers located therein are hermetically sealed from the ambient environment. Unfortunately, it has been difficult to develop a sealing process to hermetically seal the OLED display. Some of the factors that can make it difficult for one to properly seal the OLED display are briefly mentioned below:                The hermetic seal should provide a barrier for oxygen (10−3 cc/m2/day) and water (10−6 g/m2/day).        The size of the hermetic seal should be minimal (e.g., <2 mm) so it does not have an adverse effect on size of the OLED display.        The temperature generated during the sealing process should not damage the materials (e.g., electrodes and organic layers) within the OLED display. For instance, the first pixels of OLEDs which are located about 1-2 mm from the seal in the OLED display should not be heated to more than 100° C. during the sealing process.        The gases released during sealing process should not contaminate the materials within the OLED display.        The hermetic seal should enable electrical connections (e.g., thin-film chromium electrodes) to enter the OLED display.
Today one way to seal the OLED display is to form a hermetic seal by heating and softening a frit that is doped with a material which is highly absorbent at a specific wavelength of light. In particular, a high power laser is used to heat-up and soften the frit to form a hermetic seal between a first substrate plate (cover glass) which has the frit located thereon and a second substrate plate (substrate glass) which has the OLEDs located thereon. The frit is typically ˜1 mm wide and ˜6-100 um thick. If the absorption and thickness of the frit is uniform, then the sealing can be done at a constant laser energy and a constant speed which causes a uniform temperature rise within the frit. However, when the frit is relatively thin, then 100% of the laser energy is not absorbed by the frit and instead some of the laser energy is absorbed or reflected by metal electrodes which cross the frit at certain points and are attached to the OLEDs. Since, it is often desirable to use thin frits and the metal electrodes often have different reflectivity and absorption properties as well as different thermal conductivities than the bare substrate glass, this can create an uneven temperature distribution within the frit during the sealing process. The uneven temperature distribution within the frit can lead to problematical cracks, residual stress and/or delamination which prevents/degrades a hermetic connection between the cover glass and the substrate glass.
To address this sealing problem, the assignee of the present invention has developed several different sealing techniques which have been disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/095,144 filed on Mar. 30, 2005 and entitled "Method for Backside Sealing Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) Displays" (the contents of this document are incorporated herein by reference). Although these sealing techniques work well there is still a desire to develop new and improved sealing techniques which can be used to hermetically seal an OLED display (or glass package). This particular need and other needs have been satisfied by the sealing device and the sealing method of the present invention.

System and method for frit sealing glass packages


The monoclonal antibody generated by immunizing a mammal with human MAP kinase ERK1 and the polyclonal antibody generated by immunizing an animal with the phosphorylation region of the sequence of MAP kinase or a fragment of human MAP kinase are used either alone or in combination to detect and assay various MAP kinase species including ERK2.

Mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAP kinase) was first identified as a protein phosphorylase which is activated when a growth factor is added to cultured cells (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 84, 1502-1506, 1987). However, subsequent research revealed that this enzyme is involved in various vital phenomena such as neuronal differentiation (J. Biol. Chem., 265, 4730-4735, 1990), activation of immune cells (J. Immunol., 144, 2683-2689, 1990) and secretions (J. Cell Biol., 110, 731-742, 1990). As regards human MAP kinase, cloning of its gene showed the existence of several molecular species of high homology but the main species are two, namely ERK1 and ERK2. These two proteins are highly homologous (84.7%) (FEBS LETT., 304, 170-178, 1992). Though their functional dissimilarity had been presumed for some time, no difference in vitro, whether in function or in activity, has been discovered to this day.
Several kinds of antibodies against this MAP kinase have been obtained but the majority of them are polyclonal antibodies. In this connection, several monoclonal antibodies are known. Among them are Clone MK12 [Julian Gomez-Cambronero et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 89, 7551-7555, 1992] or [Seikagaku Kogyo Catalog (1993/94), p.184] and Clone B9 [UBI Catalog (1993), p.33]. However, there is no report on monoclonal antibodies that would ever distinguish between ERK1 and ERK2. There is not a case, either, in which a monoclonal antibody was ever obtained by immunizing an animal other than man (e.g. mice) with human MAP kinase.
So far, as antibodies capable of distinguishing between ERK1 and ERK2, Simon J. Cook and coworkers have reported polyclonal antibodies specifically binding to these proteins, respectively [EMBO Journal, 12, 3475-3485, 1993] but these antibodies were invariably used in Western blotting and immunoprecipitation only and quantitation of MAP kinase protein has not been done with them.
MAP kinase is a serine-threonine kinase which is activated when both the Thr and Tyr residues in the Thr-Glu-Tyr sequence are phosphorylated and phosphorylation of these two residues are considered to be necessary and sufficient conditions for activation [Neil G. Anderson et al., Nature, 343, 651-653, 1990]. The antibody reported by Ito et al. [Proceedings of 1994 Congress of Japanese Biochemical Society, Lecture No. 4887] and the New England Biolabs antibody are known as antibodies that specifically bind to phosphorylated MAP kinase. However, these are used only in the Western blotting and immunoprecipitation of active-form MAP kinase and immune staining of cells.
No quantitative determination of active-form MAP kinase has been attempted.
So far, as methods for assay of MAP kinase activity, the technique comprising phosphorylating myelin basic protein (MBP) with .gamma.-.sup.32 P-ATP and measuring the radioactivity taken up in the MBP [Ahn, N. et al., J. Biol. Chem., 266, 4220-4227, 1991] and the technique comprising subjecting a cell extract to SDS-PAGE and phosphorylating MBP within the gel [Leevers, S. J. et al., EMBO Journal, 11, 569-574, 1992] are mainly used in practice but these techniques have the drawback that a radioisotope must be employed. As a comparatively expedient method, a technique utilizing the difference in electrophoretic mobility between the active-form and the inactive-form is known [e.g. Johan Van Lint et al., Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry, 127/128, 171-178, 1993] but assays can hardly be done by this technique.