Methods for preparing a polymer-based stent assembly comprising an inflatable balloon catheter and a polymer-based stent resistant to relaxation-related negative recoil are provided. The methods comprise heating a polymeric cylindrical device which is at a final predetermined shape and diameter to a temperature sufficiently above the glass transition temperature (Tg) of the polymer and for a time sufficient to erase any memory of previous processing of the polymeric cylindrical device and then quenching the polymeric cylindrical device to provide an educated polymeric cylindrical device having a memory of the final predetermined diameter and shape, mounting the educated cylindrical device on an inflatable balloon catheter, reducing the diameter of the educated cylindrical device by heating to a temperature at or slightly above the Tg of the polymer while evenly applying pressure on the exterior surface of the wall of the cylindrical device, and then cooling the cylindrical device below the Tg of the polymer to provide a stent assembly comprising an inflatable balloon catheter and an expandable, educated, polymeric stent snugly and stably disposed thereon. Assemblies comprising an inflatable balloon and a polymer based stent that is substantially resistant to relaxation related recoil mounted snugly on the balloon are also provided.

Atherosclerosis is a disease in which vascular lesions or plaques consisting of cholesterol crystals, necrotic cells, lipid pools, excess fiber elements and calcium deposits accumulate on the interior walls of an individual's arteries. The presence of such plaques in the artery leads to thickening of the arterial wall and narrowing of the lumen. Eventually the enlargement of such plaques can lead to an occlusion of the lumen of the artery at the site of the lesion. One of the most successful procedures for treating atherosclerosis of the coronary arteries is percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty, hereinafter referred to as "PTC angioplasty". PTC angioplasty consists of introducing a deflated balloon into the lumen of the atherosclerotic artery, placing the balloon adjacent the site of the plaque or atherosclerotic lesion, inflating the balloon to a pressure of approximately 6 to 20 atmospheres thereby "cracking" the plaque and increasing the cross-sectional area of the lumen of the artery.
Unfortunately, the pressure that is exerted on the plaque during PTC angioplasty also traumatizes the artery. Accordingly, in 30-40% of the cases the vessel either gradually renarrows or recloses at the locus of the original stenotic lesion. This gradual renarrowing or reclosure, which is hereinafter referred to as "chronic restenosis," is a phenomenon that occurs almost exclusively during the first three to six months following angioplasty. Studies of the mechanism of chronic restenosis have shown that it is due in large part to a chronic constriction of the artery at the site of the barotraumatization, hereinafter referred to as the "retractile form of restenosis", and to a lesser extent to a proliferation of smooth muscle cells, hereinafter referred to as the "proliferative form of restenosis". Lafont et al. (1995) Restenosis After Experimental Angioplasty, Circulation Res. 76:996-1002.
A number of approaches for preventing restenosis are currently being used or tested. One approach involves the use of bioactive agents to prevent proliferation of the smooth muscle cells. To date, the use of bioactive agents alone has proven to be unsuccessful. Another approach employs a metallic stent which is deployed at the site of the stenotic lesion following PTC angioplasty. Although metallic stents have the mechanical strength necessary to prevent the retractile form of restenosis, their presence in the artery can lead to biological problems including vasospasm, compliance mismatch, and even occlusion. Occasionally, technical difficulties, including distal migration and incomplete expansion, have also been observed with metallic stents. Moreover, there are inherent, significant risks from having a metal stent permanently implanted in the artery, including erosion of the vessel wall. In addition, the constant exposure of the stent to the blood can lead to thrombus formation within the blood vessel.
Stents made from degradable polymers have also been suggested for preventing restenosis. Although, generally an attractive alternative to metallic stents, testing in animals has shown that degradable stents still suffer from multiple complications, including relaxation-related negative recoil and distal migration of the entire stent or portions thereof and formation of an occlusive thrombus within the lumen of the stent.
Accordingly, it is desirable to have a new stent that overcomes the disadvantages of the current stent designs. A polymer-based stent that exhibits little to no relaxation-related negative recoil when implanted in the blood vessel or duct of a mammalian subject is desirable. It is also desirable to have a stent assembly comprising an inflatable balloon catheter and a degradable polymeric stent that is stably and snugly disposed thereon. A polymer-based stent assembly that does not require a mechanical restraint to prevent the stent from expanding when stored at room temperature or when exposed to the physiological conditions found in the bloodstream of a human patient are especially desirable. Methods of preparing such stents and stent assemblies are also desirable.


Methods are disclosed for producing chemically-strengthened, borosilicate, glass articles. The articles are produced from batch components which are selected, at least in part, based on measured and/or estimated values for the coordination state of B2O3 in the glass. In this way, such chemical-strengthening properties as mutual diffusivity, maximum surface compressive stress, and/or indentation threshold can be improved.

Chemically-strengthened glass articles, also known as ion-strengthened glass articles, are used in a variety of applications. Perhaps the best-known example of a chemically-strengthened glass article is the scratch-resistant faceplates used in portable electronic devices, e.g., the faceplates made from Corning Incorporated's Gorilla® Glass. In broad overview, such articles are made by forming a glass having a composition suitable for chemical strengthening into a desired configuration, e.g., into a glass sheet in the case of faceplates, and then subjecting the formed glass to chemical strengthening through an ion exchange process, e.g., a treatment in which the formed glass is submersed in a salt bath at an elevated temperature for a predetermined period of time.
The ion-exchange process causes ions from the salt bath, e.g., potassium ions, to diffuse into the glass while ions from the glass, e.g., sodium ions, diffuse out of the glass. Because of their different ionic radii, this exchange of ions between the glass and the salt bath results in the formation of a compressive layer at the surface of the glass which enhances the glass's mechanical properties, e.g., its surface hardness. The effects of the ion exchange process are typically characterized in terms of two parameters: (1) the depth of layer (DOL) produced by the process and (2) the final maximum surface compressive stress (CS). Values for these parameters are most conveniently determined using optical measurements, and commercial equipment is available for this purpose, e.g., instruments sold by Frontier Semiconductor and Orihara Industrial Company, Ltd. As used herein, DOL and CS values are values determined using such equipment.
The selection of batch components for producing glasses suitable for chemical strengthening has been a challenging process involving producing numerous glass samples having different compositions, subjecting those samples to an ion-exchange process, and then testing the resulting ion-exchanged glasses for their DOL and CS values. As a result of this complexity, there exists a need for a systematic approach for selecting components and/or component concentrations of glasses that are going to under go chemical strengthening.
The present disclosure addresses this need for the specific case of glasses that contain SiO2 and B2O3 as network formers (referred to herein as borosilicate glasses). As discussed below, in accordance with the disclosure, measured and/or estimated values for the coordination state of B2O3 have been found predictive of the chemical-strengthening properties of borosilicate glasses and thus useful in selecting components of such glasses and/or component concentrations. In particular, measured and/or estimated values for the coordination state of B2O3 can be used to improve such chemical-strengthening properties as mutual diffusivity, maximum surface compressive stress, and/or indentation threshold.

Chemically-strengthened borosilicate glass articles


A needle assembly for medical or surgical use is disclosed, such as for hemodialysis. A representative needle assembly comprises an outer needle assembly and an integral needle tip protector. A representative outer needle assembly comprises: an outer needle comprising: a first lumen; a first aperture with a sharp needle tip at a first distal end of the outer needle; and a second aperture arranged opposite the first aperture. In another embodiment, the outer needle has a longitudinal slot and the integral needle tip protector includes a sliding connector which is slidable in the longitudinal slot. The integral needle tip protector is arranged within the first lumen and moveable between a retracted configuration and an extended configuration, and comprises: a needle tip cover arranged to shield the sharp needle tip in the extended configuration, the needle tip cover having a smooth or beveled distal surface forming a blunt tip.

Many hemodialysis patients have a surgically constructed fistula or graft connecting an artery and a vein, typically in one of the patient's arms, as a radiocephalic arteriovenous fistula. Generally, two hemodialysis needles are inserted into this fistula or graft for a hemodialysis session, one hemodialysis needle to remove blood from the patient for hemodialysis, and the other hemodialysis needle to return the blood to the patient from the hemodialysis machine.
Hemodialysis sessions may last for an extended period of time, generally several hours per session. In addition, hemodialysis needles are generally comparatively large, on the order of 15, 16 or 17 gauge, and are comparatively structurally stiff and inflexible to allow for higher flow rates (compared to more typical intravenous (IV) flow rates), typically on the order of 400-500 ml per minute.
During these extended hemodialysis sessions, the sharp needle point of these comparatively large and structurally inflexible hemodialysis needles is maintained within the lumen of the fistula or graft. As the patient moves, or as the hemodialysis needle may be perturbed, the sharp needle point may puncture the fistula or graft, create a hemorrhage and possibly also cause fistula thrombosis. This occurs in approximately 26% of hemodialysis patients, at an annual rate of over 5%. When this happens, a central dialysis catheter must be utilized for dialysis, which requires surgical placement of the central catheter and increases other risks to the patient, including infections. Additional surgical procedures may also be required, to repair or replace the injured fistula or graft.
A need remains, therefore, for a hemodialysis needle which reduces the likelihood of puncturing the fistula or graft, causing a hemorrhage and possibly also causing a fistula thrombosis. Such a hemodialysis needle should be comparatively easy for medical personnel to insert into the lumen of the fistula or graft, and should also protect the medical personnel from exposure to the sharp needle when the hemodialysis needle is removed from the patient.

Locking hemodialysis needle assembly with integral needle tip protector


The present invention provides a method of treating a disease associated with elevated KRAS activity or expression in a subject, comprising suppressing KRAS expression in the subject by targeting an expression regulatory region of KRAS gene using a CRISPR-Guide Nucleotide Directed Modulation (GNDM). Also, provided is a CRISPR-GNDM system for suppressing KRAS expression comprising (a) a protein selected from the group consisting of dCas9 or dCpf1, a fusion protein of dCas9 or dCpf1 and Kruppel associated box (KRAB), and (b) a guide nucleotide targeting an expression regulatory region of KRAS gene.

KRAS belongs to the RAS family of proteins with a molecular weight of about 21 kDa and GTP hydrolytic activity. KRAS is found inside the cell membrane, and has a role to transmit signals into cells in response to the binding of extracellular growth factors such as Epidermal Growth Factor (EGF) with the receptors. Activating mutations can be found in KRAS, and they are found in about 20% of human cancer. The frequency of the occurrence of KRAS activating mutations is high particularly in pancreatic cancer, colon cancer, and lung cancer (see "Cancer Res", Vol. 72, p. 2457, 2012). There is a report that anti-epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) antibody drugs: cetuximab and panitumumab are ineffective in colon cancer patients with KRAS activating mutations (see "N Engl J Med", Vol. 360, p. 1408, 2009; "J Clin Oncol", Vol. 26, p. 374, 2008; "J Clin Oncol", Vol. 26, p. 1626, 2008). KRAS has been regarded as a desirable target of anticancer drugs, and there have been long-standing attempts to discover KRAS inhibitors by a low-molecular drug discovery approach (see "Cancer Biology & Therapy", Vol. 1, p. 599, 2002). However, there is no effective therapeutic agent for treating a cancer etc. that targets the KRAS.

Method of treating diseases associated with elevated KRAS expression using CRISPR-GNDM system


A butter maker having a housing for mounting on a countertop in a kitchen or the like. The butter maker includes a cream holding container in which cream is placed and also includes drive assembly having a shaft both rotatable along its vertical axis and reciprocal therealong. The shaft includes a dasher having a pair of spaced paddles with a plurality of spaced throughholes extending into the container conforming generally to the inner configuration of the interior of the container but spaced from the inner wall thereof.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to butter makers; and, more particularly, a butter maker adapted to be set on top of a counter and activated to make butter and buttermilk.
2. Related Art
In my U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,511,219 and 6,257,755, I disclose a compact butter maker that can be used in a kitchen or the like. Butter is a common food fat product that has been used throughout the world for centuries as an ingredient of other foods or as a condiment. Today, butter is commonly made on an industrial scale with apparatus suitable for handling tens, hundreds, or more gallons of cream or milk. In a day before commercial creameries, butter was commonly made in the home using mechanical churns that, typically, were manually operated. As commercial creameries became prevalent, home butter making became less popular and advances in equipment for home butter making slowed. As a result, modem improvements in kitchen appliances have not been incorporated into home butter makers. Therefore, my patents fill a need for a butter maker that can be conveniently used in a contemporary home kitchen.
Thus, my butter maker in my patents used in the contemporary home kitchen. The butter maker therein is compact and fits on a counter or other surface in a home kitchen. The butter maker includes a cream container, a drive housing, a drive, and a dasher. The drive housing houses a drive, which is coupled to the dasher and adapted and configured to drive the dasher in reciprocal motion. The drive housing and the cream container are adapted and configured to reversibly mate and to position the dasher in the cream container for reciprocal motion within the container. The dasher and the container have complementary shapes with the dasher dimension to fit within the container and to define a space that can be occupied by cream within the container and around the dasher. Reciprocal motion of the dasher within the container converts the cream to butter.
I have determined that there is a need for a more substantial butter maker which is the type of appliance suitable for use in a kitchen.


Signal-integrity measurement systems and methods utilizing unique time-base generation techniques for controlling the sampling of one or more signals under test. A time-base generator made in accordance with the present disclosure includes a phase filter and modulation circuitry that generates a rapidly varying phase signal as a function of the output of a sigma-delta modulator. The phase filter filters unwanted high-frequency phase components from the rapidly varying phase signal. The filtered signal is used to clock one or more samplers so as to create sampling instances of the signal(s) under test. The sampling instances are then analyze using any one or more of a variety of techniques suited to the type of signal(s) under test.

While digital circuits are ultimately intended to process discrete values—such as "0" and "1," at the semiconductor device level, such circuits invariably encode discrete signals using physical quantities such as voltage and current. Consequently, when digital signals transition inside or outside a semiconductor device, they cause analog transients in voltage level, current level, or both. As technology advances, this "analog" behavior of digital circuits becomes increasingly relevant to the correct operation of a semiconductor device. For example, if the time it takes for a voltage to transition from a "0"-level to a "1"-level is excessively long, the semiconductor device may cease to operate altogether. Similarly, if a logical "1" ("0") is encoded using too low (high) a voltage or current, the resulting circuit could fail to operate correctly. Other examples of analog phenomena include timing uncertainty or tolerance to timing uncertainty. As a specific example, consider two semiconductor devices that are expected to communicate with each other over a copper wire. If the timing of the digital signals from the source to the destination is excessively perturbed, the resulting communication link could be corrupted. Apart from the above "behind-the-scenes" analog behavior of digital circuits, it is often necessary to momentarily and deliberately convert digital signals into analog signals for ease of processing and implementation, as would be the case in a wireless communications system.
The evaluation of the analog behavior of circuits is a very important step in the semiconductor industry. Circuits and systems designers always need test and measurement tools to debug, characterize, and production-test their designs. These test and measurement tools can take on several forms. In general, various bench tools are available for signal integrity measurements, such as oscilloscopes (to measure voltage or current or electromagnetic waves in general), jitter analyzers (to measure timing uncertainty), and spectrum analyzers (to measure frequency). Such instruments have historically been well suited to measure the interface portion of a semiconductor device, e.g., the input and output ports. However, entire systems are currently being constructed onto a very small form factor. The current-generation test and measurement technology is not capable of analyzing internal circuitry because of access difficulties. To test is to disturb, so transferring a very low level signal from the micro-scale of a modern device to the macro scale of the test instrument is too disruptive to the signal being measured.
Modern measurement instruments almost invariably rely on powerful digital signal processing (DSP) techniques to facilitate automation and to enhance measurement accuracy and repeatability. Using DSP techniques, a device-under-test (DUT) response signal is measured by first digitizing it using an accurate analog-to-digital (A/D) converter. Subsequently, microprocessor-based computations are performed in order to analyze the digitized signals. For example, hardware or software implementations of a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) are utilized before displaying the results to a user monitor.
The digitization step involves a clocking circuit, often called a "time-base generator" in oscilloscope terminology, in addition to the A/D converter. In general, the clocking circuit is the most important and most challenging component in an instrument such as an oscilloscope or a jitter analyzer in terms of design and implementation. Referring to FIGS. 1A and 1B, which illustrate the digitization of an analog waveform 10, the clocking circuit defines a horizontal (time) axis 12 against which signal parameters of the waveform are traced and measured. The more accurate the signal parameters can be traced along horizontal axis 12, the more accurate the overall measurement. Accuracy is increased by increasing the frequency of the sampling clock signal 14 output by the clocking circuit to a conventional A/D converter 16. Much of the clocking challenges occur when the signal frequency is faster than half of the clocking circuit frequency. Under this condition, conventional A/D converter 16 output exhibits aliasing and measurements become erroneous. Unfortunately, most measurement applications fall into this category. A lot of advancement has to be made in the area of clocking and digitization for digitizing high-frequency signals.
Still referring to FIGS. 1A and 1B, all modern digitization techniques generally revolve around placing the sampling instants of A/D converter 16 as close to each other as possible. Real-time oscilloscopes literally create multiple delayed replicas of a single "slow" clock signal and use each of the replicas to clock a separate A/D converter. This is illustrated in the time-interleaved A/D converter architecture 20 of FIG. 2. If 16 copies of a clock signal 22 are created and each is delayed by 1/16th of the period with respect to the other, then an effective digitization frequency that is 16 times faster than the slow clock can be achieved. All that needs to be done is to combine the outputs of all 16 A/D converters 24 to create an aggregate digitized waveform. An example of such implementation is the Agilent 54855A digital sampling oscilloscope, available from Agilent Technologies, Santa Clara, Calif. Such implementation is extremely costly, requires rather large implementation area, and involves significant calibration procedures. These limitations make this technology generally suitable only for single-channel high-end equipment such as wide-bandwidth oscilloscopes. For obvious reasons it is not suited for integration as a signal-integrity measurement macro within a semiconductor device.
Alternatively, equivalent-time or sub-sampling instruments are constructed that relax the clock circuit frequency requirements significantly. In such instruments, the requirement to digitize signals in real-time is relaxed. Instead of creating multiple delayed copies of a clock, one sub-sampling approach takes multiple conversion passes to digitize a repetitive signal using a single clock signal. The repetitive signal can have a bandwidth that is much higher than the single clock signal used for digitization. First, the "slow" clock is used with a zero phase delay to sample the first input test period. The clock is then incremented by Δts seconds on each subsequent run of the repetitive signal under test until the sampling clock has been delayed by the equivalent of one period. A total phase shift of approximately one period ensures that complete coverage of the input waveform is obtained with a timing resolution of Δts seconds, although such complete coverage is not always necessary in many applications. FIG. 3 provides a graphical representation 30 of this sub-sampling algorithm (UTP in FIG. 3 means "unit test period"). A possible hardware implementation 40 is illustrated simplistically in FIG. 4, and it involves a delay chain 42 that can generate accurate phase delays and a multiplexer 44 for selecting the appropriate phase-delayed clocks (not shown).
Both methods described above have serious limitations associated with the reliable generation of small delay increments and with accumulated jitter in any circuitry that generates such delay increments. The impact of unwanted jitter on A/D-converter performance can be severe, and in the case of test and measurement applications, jitter is often the very phenomenon being measured. More importantly, delay-line resolution in most available semiconductor technologies is often 10 to 100 times more than what is required from a measurement instrument. In jitter measurement for example, one often needs delay increments of 1 psec or even 100 fsec, whereas delay line resolution in the best of cases is limited to about 50 psec. To combat this limitation, some sub-sampling architectures employ even more hardware to enhance the delay line resolution. Consider, for example, the vernier delay line circuitry 50 of FIG. 5. Instead of delaying just the sampling clock signal 52 of the A/D converter 54, the input signal 56 being measured is itself delayed, albeit by a slightly different amount. By controlling the delay of input signal 56 with respect to the delay of clock signal 52, effective resolution that is less than the absolute minimum delay of each of the individual delay lines can be achieved. This concept is referred to as a "vernier delay line." Apart from the obvious increase in implementation area, it is extremely difficult to match the delay values of both vernier delay lines. No published results have demonstrated less than about 20 psec delay resolution.
As an alternative to vernier delay lines, offset frequency sampling can be employed. A fractional frequency divider is used to clock the A/D converter at a rate 1/(T+ΔT) that is slightly offset from the repetition rate, 1/T, of the signal being measured. Sampling the input signal with such a clock ensures that one point per input signal period is sampled and that the sample point moves Δt seconds relative to the previous sampling instant on the next run of the input signal. A high sampling resolution, 1/Δt, can be achieved using this method, but this requires a high accuracy frequency synthesizer. Indeed commercial implementations of this technique involve a significantly more elaborate scheme than what has just been described. For some applications such as built-in test, such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,158,899, these elaborate schemes cannot be employed, thus rendering the performance of the resulting solution very questionable. Effectively, the scheme of the '899 patent relies on two free-running oscillators that will undoubtedly wander significantly with respect to each other. Controlling the wander or filtering it out in a post-processing step is extremely challenging.
Other innovative equivalent-time technologies are similarly employed in high-performance oscilloscopes, such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,650,101, and they all attempt to achieve the same goal of creating the perfect time-base. Similarly, in the context of jitter measurement applications, other measurement techniques exist, such as the techniques disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,449,570, but they again all revolve around translating very small time increments into more manageable time delays.

Signal integrity measurement systems and methods using a predominantly digital time-base generator


A method of forming a panel is disclosed. The method comprises forming a flexible skin; coupling a compressible material to the skin; providing a stitching to the skin and compressible material combination; then positioning the skin and compressible material in a mold; and forming a rigid substrate around the skin and compressible material and a portion of the stitching for providing a first soft region wherein the compressible material is disposed between the skin and the substrate so that a first soft region is defined by the compressible material.

The present application relates to the field of molded articles having soft portions with stitching, embroidery and/or other sewn portions (which will collectively be referred to as "stitching"). More specifically, the present application further relates to interior trim panels or structures for vehicles (e.g., automobiles such as cars, trucks, and the like; airplanes; boats; etc.) or other applications that include at least one relatively soft (e.g., padded or cushioned) portion formed by a partial-mold-behind (PMB) process that also has stitching (decorative or functional).
It is generally known to provide padded or cushioned vehicle interior components with stitching. Such stitching may be decorative/ornamental and/or functional. The padded or cushioned vehicle interior components may take the form of a trim panel (e.g., instrument panel, door panel, etc.). Such panels typically include a substrate made of a relatively rigid material, a relatively soft core (e.g., a foam layer), and an outer surface or skin. Various methods of providing such cushioning and stitching are known in the art, although such known methods do not provide certain advantageous features and/or combination of features. For example, it is known to add stitching to interior components to the skin (or skin and foam laminate) and then attach the skin to the substrate by a hand or manually wrapping technique. It is also known to apply the stitching after the interior component has been formed (e.g., after the skin, foam, and substrate have been joined). However, such known methods of applying decorative stitching are labor-intensive or do not provide the desired visual effect of depth that would be provided by a recessed stitch (e.g., "quilting" or cushioning effect that provides contour change in the soft surface). Therefore, such recessed stitching provided by known costly manufacturing processes are typically only available on premium or luxury class vehicles.
Accordingly, there is a need to provide a method for producing components such as panels or other structures for use in vehicles that includes a relatively soft portion or section with decorative stitching. There is also a need to provide a component that has regions of localized cushioning with decorative stitching that has a recessed stitch. There is also a need to provide an economical process of manufacturing trim panels with recessed stitching for less expensive vehicles. There is also a need to provide components and a method for making components that may be manufactured in a relatively simple and efficient manner with reduced manufacturing and material costs.
The present invention further relates to various features and combinations of features shown and described in the disclosed embodiments.

Vertical trim panel with integrated stitching


A portable computer comprises a machine body approximately rectangular in shape comprising a front end, a rear end, a top face and a bottom face; a liquid crystal display approximately rectangular in shape comprising an upper end and a lower end; and a connecting device comprising a front end and a rear end. The front end of the connecting device is fixed to the rear end of the machine body in a rotatable manner, and the rear end of the connecting device is fixed to the lower end of the liquid crystal display. The connecting device enables the liquid crystal display to be folded upon the top face of the machine body by a forward rotation or upon the bottom face of the machine body by a backward rotation.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a portable computer, and more particularly, to a portable computer with an LCD that can be rotated within 360 degrees.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A general portable computer comprises a machine body and an LCD connected to one end of the machine body in a rotatable manner. A keyboard is installed on the machine body as an input device and the LCD displays the images generated as a result of the various input signals.
Please refer to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2. FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 are diagrams of a portable computer 10 according to the prior art. The portable computer 10 comprises a machine body 12 that is approximately rectangular in shape, and an LCD 14 that is also approximately rectangular in shape connected to an end 16 of the machine body 12. The LCD 14 can be folded onto the top face of the machine body 12 by a forward rotation (FIG. 1), or it can be folded backwards 180 degrees to form a flat surface that is parallel to the machine body 12 (FIG. 2).
Please refer to FIG. 3 to FIG. 5. FIG. 3 to FIG. 5 are diagrams of an alternative portable computer 20 according to the prior art. The portable computer 20 comprises an approximately rectangular machine body 22, an LCD 24 that is also approximately rectangular in shape, and a connecting device 26 to connect together the machine body 22 and the LCD 24. The connecting device 26 will permit the LCD 24 to be folded upon the top face of the machine body 22 by a forward rotation (FIG. 3). The LCD 24 can also form a flat surface parallel to the machine body 22 by a 180 degree backward rotation (FIG. 4). In addition, the connecting device 26 permits the LCD 24 to make an acute angle xcex8 with the bottom face 28 of the machine body 22 by a further backward rotation. However, neither of the prior art portable computers permits the LCD to be folded upon the bottom face of the machine body.
It is therefore a primary objective of the present invention to provide a portable computer with an LCD which can be rotated within 360 degrees to solve the above mentioned problem.
In a preferred embodiment, the present invention provides a portable computer comprising:
a machine body approximately rectangular in shape comprising a front end, a rear end, a top face and a bottom face;
a liquid crystal display approximately rectangular in shape comprising an upper end and a lower end; and
a connecting device comprising a front end and a rear end, the front end of the connecting device fixed to the rear end of the machine body in a rotatable manner, the rear end of the connecting device fixed to the lower end of the liquid crystal display;
wherein the connecting device enables the liquid crystal display to be folded upon the top face of the machine body by a forward rotation or upon the bottom face of the machine body by a backward rotation.
It is an advantage of the present invention that, with the connecting device, the liquid crystal display can not only be folded upon the top face of the machine body, but can also be folded upon the bottom face of the machine body.
This and other objectives of the present invention will no doubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after having read the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment which is illustrated in the various figures and drawings.

Portable computer with an LCD which can be rotated within 360 degrees


A motor includes a stator including a stator core and teeth respectively protruding from the stator core, and coils respectively wound onto the teeth n (n is an integer of 3 or greater) turns. In a cross section in a first direction representing each of directions of protrusion of the teeth from the stator core, a k-th (k is an integer, 1<k<n) turn of each of the coils lies at a center of a range wound with each of the coils onto the teeth in the first direction. The k-th turn of each of the coils is greater in cross-sectional area than each of a first turn and an n-th turn.

Industry motors and on-vehicle motors have been highly demanded in recent years. In particular, a low cost but highly efficient motor has been demanded.
As a method for improving efficiency of a motor, increasing a space factor of coils respectively disposed within slots of a stator has been known. Increasing a space factor of coils can suppress a loss due to a current flowing into the coils when a motor is driven.
As a method for increasing a space factor of coils, such a configuration has been proposed that molded coils made of a copper material are respectively disposed within slots (e.g., see PTL 1).
When coils are produced through molding or forming, for example, the coils have been each made uniform in cross-sectional area to achieve uniform resistance. Meanwhile, heat is a factor of lowering efficiency of a motor. On teeth respectively wound with coils, heat easily accumulates at a center of each of the teeth. However, in coils each having a cross-sectional area made uniform, heat radiation effects due to the coils are concentrated within the cross-sectional areas.

PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD


A Miller cycle combustion engine capable of operating on multiple fuel types, and a method of operating the engine, is provided. The engine includes a fuel type determiner to determine the fuel type, and a compression adjustor to adjust the compression of a first cylinder of the engine to match the requirement of the determined fuel type. The compression adjustor is a variable valve timing system that provides a maximum compression when a fuel type requiring maximum compression is determined, and that advances or retards the opening of the intake valve to provide lower compression when a fuel type requiring lower compression is determined.

1. Field of the Invention
Devices, systems, and methods consistent with the invention relate to an internal combustion engine capable of running on multiple types of fuel.
2. Description of the Related Art
Over the last century, the use of internal combustion engines for power and propulsion has become almost universal. The vast majority of today's internal combustion engines are designed to burn gasoline using a four-stroke Otto cycle. As shown in FIGS. 1A-1D, the four steps (or strokes) of this cycle are the: (1) intake stroke (FIG. 1A), where an air/fuel mixture 10 is drawn into the cylinder 20 through an intake valve 30 by the downward movement of piston 40; (2) compression stroke (FIG. 1B), where the air/fuel mixture 10 is compressed by the upward movement of piston 40; (3) power stroke (FIG. 1C), where the air/fuel mixture 10 is ignited by a spark plug 50, and the resulting combustion of the air/fuel mixture 10 (combustion products 12) pushes the piston 40 downward; and (4) exhaust stroke (FIG. 1D), where the upward movement of piston 40 expels the combustion products 12 through an exhaust valve 60.
Today, however, there is increasing pressure to move away from gasoline as a fuel, due to such factors as its relatively high refining cost and deleterious combustion byproducts. Many other types of fuels are therefore competing for supremacy in the marketplace, such as conventional Diesel, Bio-Diesel, Hydrogen, Methane, Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), ethanol, and methanol. Each can be burned in reciprocating engines with various degrees of efficiency, emissions and source reliability. However, each fuel varies widely in its combustion properties—therefore requiring that an engine utilizing each particular fuel have particular compression, fuel introduction, and ignition parameters. In view of these differences, current technology dictates that different engine designs be optimized and used for each fuel type.
Such narrow operability is inconvenient and inefficient, as end users might desire to utilize whatever fuel is available, or whatever fuel is cheapest. Further, it is highly likely that there will be fragmentation of fuel use across national boundaries, as some countries adopt different strategies for their future fuel needs. Accordingly, there exists a need to provide engines for power and propulsion that can run on a multitude of fuel types, and traverse a wide variety of infrastructures seamlessly.


A closure device that is useful as a safety valve within a tubular member, such as production tubing and pipelines. The closure device includes an inflatable bladder that is disposed within a cavity in the wall of the tubular member. A fluid conduit interconnects a fluid source with the inflatable bladder, and a pump is associated with the fluid conduit to flow fluid between the fluid source and the bladder.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to the design of safety valves for use in closing off portions of a well during an emergency.
2. Description of the Related Art
Safety valves are used to close off portions of a live well in the event of an emergency, such as a blow out. Well-based safety valves are typically of two conventional styles: flapper valve and ball-style valve. Flapper valves have a substantially-disc-shaped flapper member that is pivotably secured to the surrounding string of tubing. The flapper valve is spring-biased toward a closed position, but during normal operation, is held in an open position by an axially moveable flow tube. When it is desired to close the flapper valve, the flow tube is moved axially within the tubing string so that it no longer holds the flapper valve in an open position. The spring then urges the flapper member to the closed position wherein it blocks fluid flow through the flowbore. The flapper valve can be reopened by axially moving the flow tube to urge the flapper member back into the open position. The ability to rapidly close a flapper valve has made it a popular choice as a safety valve in production string arrangements.
Ball valves have a generally spherical closure member that can be rotated within a housing to permit or completely block fluid flow across the housing. The ability to completely close off flow through a flowbore has made ball valves popular as a safety valve in pipelines, and to some extent in production tubing strings.
Unfortunately flapper and ball-type valve assemblies are substantially formed of mechanical, largely metallic, components that are inherently prone to risk of failure over time due to corrosion or mechanical breakdown. The environs of a wellbore or pipeline are extremely hostile to such devices due to the presence of extreme temperatures and pressures and corrosive and caustic chemicals.
The present invention addresses the problems of the prior art.


Heat transfer surfaces in condensing heat exchangers are often coated with a hydrophilic coating to provide wetting and wicking. This coating is typically porous and continuously moist during operation and, therefore, a potential breeding ground for microbes. The inclusion of an antimicrobial agent, such as silver oxide, in the coating inhibits microbial growth and improves adhesion to the heat transfer surfaces.

Zero gravity operation of various equipment requires modifications of its conventional counterparts. For example, in a gravity environment, heat can be removed from a gaseous stream with a conventional condensing heat exchanger (hereinafter referred to as condenser). Upon the removal of the heat, a condensate forms and drains to the bottom of the condenser. However, in zero gravity, this condensate will not automatically drain from the condenser since there are no gravitational forces drawing the condensate to the bottom. Instead, the condensate will form droplets which will block the gaseous flow through portions of the condenser. As a result, the condensate droplets can be forced out of the condenser by the gaseous flow in what is referred to as condensate "carry over". Therefore, additional equipment is required to remove the condensate from the condenser.
In order to minimize this "carry over" in zero gravity, many condenser heat transfer surfaces are coated with a hydrophilic coating. This hydrophilic coating causes wetting and wicking, thereby inducing condensate in the condenser to form a thin spreading film in the coating which can readily be collected. This thin film is collected through "slurper" holes into a gas-liquid phase separator which keeps water droplets from being entrapped in the gaseous stream from which it was removed. (see U.S. Pat. No. 3,868,830.)
U.S. Patent No. 3,658,581 (incorporated by reference) to Paul et al. discloses a hydrophilic passive coating which facilitates wetting and wicking on heat transfer surfaces. The hydrophilic qualities of this passive coating result from the chemical polarity of uncoated silica or calcium silicate dispersed in a non-crystalline binder and from the capillary attraction of the water molecules for one another. The silica and calcium silicate particles have a polar attraction to hydroxyl ions in the condensate water and thereby pull the water to the coating, known as wetting. Wicking or capillary attraction then comes into play as the water being drawn into the coating pulls additional water along with it.
Due to the porous characteristic of this hydrophilic coating, however, it can potentially entrap organic, inorganic and microbial contaminants. As a result, the coated heat transfer surfaces constitute ideal locations for microbial proliferation which can reduce the hydrophilic properties of the coating, plug slurper holes, and corrode the heat transfer surfaces, thereby decreasing the heat transfer efficiency of the condenser. Additionally, if these microbes become air borne, they can be inhaled and cause adverse health effects and they can result in odor generation in the gaseous stream exiting the condenser. As a result, microbial proliferation constitutes heat transfer efficiency, health, and comfort concerns in relation to condensers, especially condensers which operate within a closed environment.
Since the coating disclosed in Paul et al. has generally only been utilized for about 7 to 10 consecutive days, microbial proliferation has not been a great concern. After use, these condensers and the heat transfer surfaces would dry, thereby inhibiting microbial proliferation. However, in applications where the condenser will be utilized for extended periods of time, such as on a space station for 10 years or more, microbial proliferation becomes a major concern. Consequently, what is needed in the art is an antimicrobial additive for the hydrophilic coating used on heat transfer surfaces which does not adversely affect wetting and wicking characteristics.


A network setup method used in a ring network including a plurality of transmission equipments. The method includes: transmitting a frame in the ring network; causing each of the transmission equipments to write an identifier to the frame according to a specified rule; determining whether or not a plurality of identifiers written to the frame by the plurality of transmission equipments satisfy a specified condition; and causing each of the transmission equipments to obtain a corresponding identifier according to the specified rule from among the plurality of identifiers, when the plurality of identifiers satisfy the specified condition.

As one of techniques for implementing ring protection of an optical transmission system, BLSR (Bi-directional Line Switched Ring) has been put into practical use. Ina transmission system employing the BLSR, a plurality of nodes are connected by a pair of transmission lines in the form of a ring. The pair of transmission lines is configured to transmit a signal respectively in reverse directions. At normal operations, however, a data signal is transmitted via either of the pair of transmission lines. Namely, one of the pair of transmission lines is used as an active system, whereas the other is used as a standby system.
When a fault occurs in a transmission system employing the BLSR, node equipment autonomously switches a transmission route of a data signal so that a path for bypassing the fault is formed. As a result, the transmission system transmits the data signal by using not only a transmission line of an active system but that of a standby system.
In the BLSR, each of node equipments recognizes a network topology, which is connection information of the node equipments, in order to autonomously switch a transmission route when a fault occurs. The topology information that represents a network topology is generated, for example, by using node IDs uniquely assigned to node equipments. In the BLSR, a function of detecting a fault and automatically recovering a path is sometimes referred to as APS (Automatic Protection Switching).
As a related technique, a ring network setup method for automatically setting up a topology in a ring network where a plurality of transmission equipments are connected by transmission lines in the form of a ring is proposed. This method includes a procedure of setting, in all transmission equipments, one or a plurality of bytes for transferring topology information within an overhead of a transmission frame, a direction where the topology information is transferred by the bytes, and a topology setup completion decision condition, and a procedure of sequentially transmitting the topology information by the set bytes in the set transfer direction from designated transmission equipment, and of determining whether or not a topology setup has been complete according to the topology setup completion decision condition (for example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2004-214826).
As another related technique, optical transmission equipment used in a ring transmission system where a time-division multiplexed optical signal can be bidirectionally transmitted is proposed. This optical transmission equipment includes connection form recognition means, connected to a bidirectional ring transmission line, for recognizing a connection form between a transmission ring and another transmission ring connected to the transmission ring, fault section detection means, connected to the connection form recognition means, for detecting a section where a fault has occurred, and loop-back switching control means, connected to the connection form recognition means and the fault section detection means, for switching a transmission route based on the connection form and the section (for example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2006-129530).
In BLSR used in SONET/SDH (Synchronous Optical NETwork/Synchronous Digital Hierarchy), a maximum of 16 nodes can be arranged in one ring network. In recent years, however, the demand for arranging a lot more nodes in one ring network has been increasing. Accordingly, for example, recent OTN (Optical Transport Network) architectures recommend that a maximum of 128 or 256 nodes can be arranged in one ring network.
Incidentally, different node IDs are assigned to nodes in order to implement BLSR. However, when the number of nodes arranged in one ring network increases, it becomes difficult to assign different node IDs to the nodes, and to manage the node IDs.
For example, when node equipment is newly added to a ring network, an operator who sets up or manages the network initially verifies node IDs of node equipments on the ring network. The operator searches for and obtains an unused node ID. Then, the operator assigns the obtained node ID to the new node equipment. Accordingly, if the number of nodes arranged in one ring network grows, the length of time needed to assign and manage node IDs increases. Additionally, setting mistakes such as a mistake of redundantly assigning the same node ID to a plurality of node equipments are more prone to occur.
This problem occurs not only in a transmission system employing BLSR. Namely, the above described problem may occur in a ring network where a plurality of transmission equipments are connected by transmission lines in the form of a ring.


An easily constructed, highly secure, walk-in vault uses pre-cast panels. A door frame is molded into one of the panels. The panels have interlocking joints with adjacent panels. The interlocking joints are protected with continuous, double burglary-proof seams situated in the interior of the vault. Abutting panels are securely held together by metal rods that penetrate the interlocking joints.

It is sometimes desirable to provide a walk-in, highly secured, lockable vault inside a building or habitat to protect property from damage or theft or to serve as a shelter from natural disaster or intruders.
These walk-in vaults are often required to comply with various building codes and satisfy requirements set by regulatory bodies for security vaults. This has led to the walk-in vault being built in-place in a building by forming walls of substantial building material such as concrete, steel, or brick to form an enclosure which is fire-resistant and burglary-proof for a rated time.
The fact that these walk-in vaults have to be built in-place makes them very expensive for the average person and prolongs construction time of the building. It also makes the addition of a vault to a building that is already constructed difficult. Thus it is desirable to have a fire-resistant, burglary-proof, walk-in security vault that can be built inexpensively and incorporated into a building quickly.


A nesting planter arrangement having a plurality of open planting units each of a successive smaller size from the bottom planter unit to the top planter unit and in which each planter unit other than the base planter unit rests on a portion of the planter unit below it so that it projects above the planter unit upon which it rests in the planting position and the arrangement may be inverted to be in the storage position so that the plurality of planting units are nested together in a smaller height than in the planting position.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the planter art useful for planting and growing any desired type of plant and more particularly to a planter arrangement in which a plurality of individual planting units have an extended planting position and a compressed storage position.
2. Description of the Prior Art
With the increase in population, particularly in urban areas, there has been an attendant decrease in ground space available to each person. This effect has been very pronounced with the increase of the number of persons living in apartments or condominiums. However, many people, home owners and apartment/condominium dwellers desire to grow plants for both useful products such as herbs to decorative products such as flowers. The decreased ground space available for the growing of plants has often resulted in the lack of outdoor space for such planting.
To overcome the lack of basically outdoor horizontal space for growing plants, various arrangements of vertically aligned, multiple planter arrangements have heretofore been designed for use. In many of these arrangements, each of the planters is complete with sides and bottoms to define a planting volume therein. Such arrangements have not proven to be satisfactory since the volume occupied by the multiple planters differed little from the volume occupied when the arrangements were shipped from the manufacturer to the seller and then stored for inventory and display by the seller. Similarly, even for the ultimate user of the arrangement the large volume occupied by the arrangement when not in use by the user made such multiple planting arrangements unsatisfactory. Further, the amount of planting material such as soil was generally limited to the size of the individual planters.
Thus, there has long been a need for a compact, multiple level planting arrangement in which the volume occupied by the arrangement when in a storage condition is small in comparison to the volume occupied when in the planting position.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved multiple level planting arrangement.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an improved multiple level planting arrangement that has a comparatively large volume of planting material to support a large volume of plants.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a multiple level planting arrangement which has a large, extended planting position and may be inverted to provide a comparatively small compact position for storage and shipping.


A medical claims analysis system and method categorizes medical claims into episodes of care having predetermined diagnostic cluster types. The system analyzes medical claim items, some of which have principal diagnosis codes, and some of which have non-principal, missing, or incorrect diagnosis codes. Patient treatment episodes (PTEs) are formed from the principal diagnosis codes, each PTE being of a particular diagnostic cluster type. The system categorizes non-principal-diagnosis claim items into the PTEs on the basis of temporal, physiological or clinical relationships between the claim items and the PTEs. A drug lookup table enables drug claims to be properly categorized in the PTEs. A diagnostic cluster lookup table enables claim items to be categorized into PTEs with ongoing treatment windows for which the diagnosis code of the claim item is in the diagnostic cluster lookup table. The system merges PTEs of the same diagnostic cluster type when the treatment windows of the PTEs overlap. The system attempts to recategorize medical claims into merged PTEs. The system analyzes each PTE to determine the presence of required diagnoses and eliminates any PTE without a required diagnosis. The system also identifies and merges PTEs that are clinically related or clinically similar. In a system for integrating medical claims data, medical claim items that are in different data formats and/or use different coding systems are analyzed, and related claim items are categorized in a common coding system.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a method of and apparatus for analyzing medical claims data, and more particularly to a method of and apparatus for integrating medical claims data, including, inpatient, outpatient, ambulatory, clinical laboratory, and prescription drug claim data, from one or more sources for comparative analysis at the network level, provider level, or patient level. The invention organizes the claims into clinically related diagnostic clusters, and enables claims with missing or incorrect diagnostic codes to be categorized into such diagnostic clusters in order to better estimate the overall cost of patient treatment and to measure the efficiency of treatment at various levels.
2. Description of the Related Art
The costs of health care today are rapidly increasing as the health care industry becomes more complex, specialized and sophisticated. Over the years, the delivery of health care services has shifted from local physicians to large managed health care organizations. This shift reflects the growing number of medical specialties, and the complexity and variety of health care options and programs. This complexity and specialization has created large administrative systems that coordinate the delivery of health care between health care providers, administrators, patients, payers and insurers. The cost of supporting these administrative systems has been steadily rising, contributing to today's rising costs of health care.
Beginning in the late 1970's, the precipitous increase in medical care costs prompted health insurance companies to evaluate insurance claims data to determine the reasons behind this increase. The first-generation claims data evaluation systems that were developed generally concentrated on analyzing medical charges and utilization in the hospital inpatient setting. As a result of these evaluations, health insurers implemented pre-certification utilization review programs to control unnecessary inpatient admissions and days, and employers turned to preferred provider organizations to manage per-day charge increases.
First-generation data claims analysis, however, was short lived. After Medicare implemented the Prospective Payment System (PPS) in 1983, the number of hospital in-patient days significantly decreased for both the Medicare and non-Medicare populations. The PPS provided physicians with financial incentive to treat certain patients in an ambulatory setting. As more health care dollars were spent on ambulatory services, employers and health insurers realized that both hospital and ambulatory treatment had to be evaluated to determine the principal reasons for health care cost increases. Thus, insurance carriers and consultants developed second-generation data analysis systems focusing on ambulatory utilization and charges.
Most second-generation data claims analysis systems currently evaluate utilization experience on a basis of per-1,000-covered-individuals (i.e., employees and their dependents) and charges on a per-service basis. For example, common utilization rates include the number of hospital admissions, physician office visits, and prescription drug fills per 1,000 individuals. Charge rates consist of charges per hospital day, per X-ray/diagnostic testing service, and per physician office visit.
Using second-generation systems, gross overutilization and significant excess charge patterns can be identified in both hospital and ambulatory care settings. For instance, if the number of prescription drugs prescribed per 1,000 covered individuals is 50 percent greater than an expected value, the health network can be reasonably sure that it has a problem with prescription drug utilization. For various reasons, however, these second-generation systems are not very accurate at assessing a health plan's overall cost efficiency. By cost efficiency is meant that a plan's overall providers treat medical conditions with the least expensive level of medical care possible and still achieve the desired health outcome for the patient.
Second-generation systems generally do not combine and evaluate all hospital and ambulatory services incurred for treating an individual's medical condition. Instead, these systems divide individual's claims into 20 to 25 different utilization and charge categories. Each category is then analyzed separately to determine whether there is a problem with utilization per 1,000 individuals, charges per service, or both. If problem areas are identified, health care networks develop specific cost-control strategies to contain future benefit increases.
This process, however, is a piecemeal approach for evaluating the cost efficiency of a health plan, and health care networks may draw wrong conclusions from such an analysis. For example, assume that a network determines that the number of physician office visits per 1,000 individuals is 30 percent higher than an expected value. A logical conclusion is that the health plan's physicians are not practicing cost-efficient medicine. Yet if the health plan observes that the number of hospital admissions is 20 percent lower than expected, a different conclusion may be reached: perhaps, for example, physicians are practicing cost-efficient medicine by treating patients in the ambulatory setting whenever possible. The health plan must then make a subjective assessment as to whether a 30 percent higher-than-expected physician office visit rate is acceptable or too high given the low hospital admission rate.
Consequently, a need exists for a system to enable health care networks to analyze their medical claims/encounter data and to more accurately evaluate the overall cost efficiency of the health plan at the network level, at the provider level, and at the patient level.
The American Medical Association in conjunction with the Health Care Financing Administration developed a system of codes for the purpose of describing physician work for medical and surgical procedures, diagnostic tests, laboratory studies, and other physician medical services rendered to clients. This system of codes is generally referred to as Current Procedural Terminology, or CPT, codes. They provide a uniform language that details medical, surgical, and diagnostic services utilized by physicians to communicate to third-party payers the services that are rendered.
The World Health Organization developed a similar method to identify diseases, injuries, impairments, symptoms, medical procedures and causes of death. These codes are International Classification of Diseases 9th edition Clinical Modification (ICD.9) codes. The ICD coding system was designed for the classification of morbidity and mortality information for statistical purposes and for the indexing of hospital records by disease and operations for data storage and retrieval. The ICD codes are initially divided into Disease and Procedure sections. These sections are further divided into subsections which encompass anywhere from 1-999 three digit disease or 1-99 two digit procedure code categories. Within the three digit code categories there can be an additional 1 or 2 decimal digits to divide the codes into subcategories which further define the disease manifestations and/or diagnostic procedures. There are approximately 15,000 ICD.9 codes. It will be appreciated that while the present invention will be described specifically with respect to ICD.9 coding, the invention is applicable to future versions of the ICD classification system, and may be modified to operate with other types of classification systems as well.
Billing for a physician's services has become increasingly more complex in recent years. Medicare requires that a code be assigned to each patient encounter, the interaction between a patient and the physician, assistant, nurse or other health care provider to evaluate the patient's medical problem. One problem that has arisen is that physician's may submit medical claims with improper or missing diagnosis codes. This makes it difficult in assessing overall treatment charges to include the charge data for those claims that are improperly coded. Accordingly, it would be desirable to have a system that organizes medical claims data into clusters in which all claims related to a medical condition, including those claims that are improperly coded and drug claims, are grouped so that it is possible to ascertain the overall costs of treating the medical condition.
Another problem that has arisen due to changes in the medical field is that of assessing the overall charges attributable to general physician's, who serve as gatekeepers to specialist services in HMO's. For example, assuming that a general practitioner treating a diabetic too often refers to patient to specialized care. Without attributing the charges of the specialist to the general physician, the overall costs for treating the patient that are attributable directly to the general physician will actually be lower than average, whereas if the charges of the specialist are included, the overall cost of treating the patient will be higher than average. Accordingly, it would be desirable to have a system that organizes medical claims data into clusters based upon the medical condition, and that enables all claims related to a medical condition to be attributable to a gatekeeper physician.
A further problem in assessing the overall costs of medical treatment is that certain claims, e.g., prescription drug claims, do not include ICD.9 codes. In some cases claims use alternative codings systems, such as GPI (Generic Product Identifier) codes, which are used to code prescription drug claims, and CPT codes. Accordingly, it would be desirable to have a medical claims analysis system that is capable of categorizing uncoded claims, or claims in alternative coding systems, with the ICD.9 coded claims related to treatment of the underlying medical conditions that necessitated the uncoded or alternatively coded claims.
Various systems have been patented in the medical billing field. Such systems are shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,018,067; 5,359,509; 4,667,292; 5,483,443; 5,307,262; and 5,253,164. None of these systems, however, overcomes the aforementioned problems with respect to assessing a health plan's true cost efficiency, assessing the overall costs of treatment of medical conditions, and allocation of medical costs to physicians to assess the efficiency of treatment by the physicians.

Medical claims integration and data analysis system


The present invention relates to a method for burying a conductive mesh in a transparent electrode, and more particularly, to a method which prevents a conductive mesh from protruding from a transparent electrode by burying the conductive mesh in the transparent electrode.

(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for burying a conductive mesh in a transparent electrode, and more particularly, to a method which prevents a conductive mesh from protruding from a transparent electrode by burying the conductive mesh in the transparent electrode.
(b) Description of the Related Art
Generally, a transparent conductive film is used for plasma display panels (PDPs), liquid crystal displays (LCDs), light emitting diodes (LEDs), organic electroluminescent devices (OLEDs), touch panels, solar cells, etc.
Because the transparent electrode has high conductivity and high transmittance in the visible light range, it may be used as the electrode of not only solar cells, LCDs and PDPs but also of various light-receiving devices and light-emitting devices, and as well, as a transparent electromagnetic wave shield, including an antistatic film or an electromagnetic wave shielding film, for use in automobile window glass or building window glass, and a transparent heat generator for a heat reflection film or a freezing showcase.
As the above-described transparent electrode, ITO is widely used.
Although ITO, having superior general properties, is mainly applied to the process to date, indium oxide (In2O3) is produced as a by-product in a zinc (Zn) mine, and problems of instable supply and unmet demand arise.
Further, the ITO film is not flexible and thus cannot be used as a flexible material for a polymer substrate, and furthermore, because it is manufactured under conditions of high temperature and high pressure, the production cost thereof is undesirably high.
To solve this problem, as shown in FIG. 1, techniques for forming a conductive material in a mesh form (hereinafter, referred to as a conductive mesh) M on an organic polymer electrode (hereinafter, referred to as a transparent electrode) 10 by printing or coating are proposed.
However, the above-described conductive mesh M according to a conventional method is formed to protrude on the upper surface of the transparent electrode 10, and its protruding height is not uniform.
Due to this, the contact performance of the transparent electrode 10 is deteriorated, and the conductive mesh M is separated from the transparent electrode 10.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.

Method for burying conductive mesh in transparent electrode

KOREA INSTITUTE OF MACHINERY & MATERIALS


A procedure and a device for terminating the immersion at a microscope having one or more immersion lenses, or both immersion lenses and dry lenses, comprising a protective sheath around the immersion film area for preventing the escape of immersion media and an immersion media supply unit and an immersion media discharge unit connected with the protective sheath. The immersion media is removed in a controlled manner in particular in an automated microscope. Subsequently, the microscopic testing can be continued without the user having to intervene in the device or the process.

In microscopes, lenses form a central component. They are available with the most varied magnifications and resolutions. Typically, lenses with a greater magnification also have a higher resolution than lenses with a low magnification. For lenses with a particularly high resolution, the space between the lens and the sample is filled with a liquid. This may for example be water or oil. Such lenses are correspondingly also referred to as immersion lenses. By contrast, lenses without immersion are referred to as dry lenses.
In a manual inverted microscope, the user will, prior to using an immersion lens, apply a drop of the immersion liquid onto the lens and/or the sample carrier, subsequently insert the sample carrier into the table and carry out the desired examinations. Upon completion, the sample carrier is removed again and the remaining liquid is removed both from the front of the lens and from the bottom side of the sample carrier. The term sample carrier is here understood to mean both a classical object carrier and any other sample vessels such as microtiter plates, petri dishes and so on. During material examinations, the sample can, under certain circumstances, also be placed directly on the table without a special sample carrier being required.
However, in automated microscopes, a process of this type, where the user has to intervene, is neither desired nor possible. On the one hand it may be that the experiment is not yet finished with the end of the immersion examination, in which case a manual removal of the sample carrier including the subsequent cleaning process would interrupt the automated process. Also, if a plurality of like sample carriers is to be examined one after the other, it is of great disadvantage if a user has to intervene in the device after the examination of each sample carrier. Moreover, automated microscopes frequently include a housing, so that access to the individual components is not always easy.
If this cleaning process is dispensed with, the immersion media would run into the device when the lens is replaced, which can lead to functional incapacity of the entire microscope. In order to passively remove overflowing immersion media, Aquastop solutions exist. Their main purpose, however, is to protect the lens, which is provided with a sheath, on the outside of which the liquid can run off. Subsequently, it is discharged via a hose. However, this device is not suitable for terminating the immersion at the end of the use of the immersion lens.
Various devices have already been described which allow the automatic supply and discharge of immersion media. All of them are based on a cap-like arrangement that is placed on top or on the side of the immersion lens (DE 102005040828, US 2005/0179997, WO 2008028475, DE 10123027). However, these devices can only ever be used for one immersion lens at a time.
DE 102005040828 describes a device wherein the front of the lens is placed on a cylindrical vessel having a supply line and a discharge line, in order to pass immersion liquid into this vessel and subsequently discharge it therefrom. The control takes place either via pumps or via valves. After the use of the lens, the liquid can either run off or is sucked off. The solution is in each case tied to one lens at a time.
US 2005/0179997 describes a system in which it is possible to change from a dry lens to an immersion lens. The immersion liquid is supplied and discharged by means of pumps. Both lenses are arranged next to each other, so that the table has to be moved from one to the other. This solution, too, is tied to one lens.
In known Aquastop solutions, the lens is provided with a protective sheath, so that any overflowing immersion medium can flow off on the outside along the protective sheath and is discharged via a hose system, so that no damage to the lens or to the inside of the microscope is caused. These solutions are directed to the protection of the optical system from escaping immersion media.
The disadvantage all the known solutions have in common is that they are always tied to just one lens. Further, they need a lot of space around the lens. In microscopes, the lenses are as a rule mounted on a revolver, in order to provide the user with as many different lens options as possible. There is then usually only little installation space between the individual lenses. The use of the solutions described in the prior art can then lead to a situation in which the revolver positions next to the immersion lens have to remain free because the immersion caps occupy too much space. If a plurality of immersion lenses is to be used, each of them would then also have to be provided with such a cap, which would restrict the available space even further. Moreover, such a solution would be very expensive.

Procedure and device for terminating the immersion at a microscope


An image pickup device includes a decision circuit for comparing a signal amount stored in each pixel of a solid-state image pickup element with a predetermined signal amount which is set in advance, thereby deciding which of the two signal amounts is larger, a time measuring circuit for measuring a time required for the signal amount stored in each pixel to reach the predetermined signal amount, and an operating circuit for operating the stored signal of the pixel whose stored signal amount is found to be larger than the predetermined signal amount by the decision circuit, on the basis of the time information obtained from the time measuring circuit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image pickup device and, more particularly, to an image pickup device which uses a solid-state image pickup element and has a wide dynamic range.
2. Related Background Art
Conventionally, there have been proposed a large number of inventions related to widening of the dynamic ranges of image pickup devices using solid-state image pickup elements. As an example of these conventional techniques, there is a method of dividing one field period of a television signal mode into a plurality of periods and adding signals stored in the individual divided periods. This prevents saturation of the stored electric charge, thereby widening the dynamic range.
As another example, there is a method in which long and short different charge storage times are set, and, if overflow occurs in the long storage time, the corresponding signal is removed, and the signal stored in the short storage time is output, thereby preventing overflow and blooming.
In the former example, however, noise components are mixed because signals are read out a plurality of number of times, and this degrades the S/N ratio, leading to a decrease in the dynamic range. The latter example has a problem of complexity in the stored gate signal. In addition, the storage time is shortened in an overflowed pixel unlike in other pixels, and the charge amount of this pixel becomes smaller than those of other pixels which have not overflown.

Device for widening the dynamic range of solid-state image pickup elements


A microlamp including a polysilicon filament coated with a protective layer and enclosed by a window in a vacuum-sealed cavity.

The present invention relates generally to miniaturized incandescent lamps, and more particularly to a silicon-filament, vacuum-sealed incandescent light source.
Miniaturized incandescent lamps were reported for use in displays in the 1970's. See P.M. Alt, "Performance and design considerations of the thin-film tungsten matrix display," IEEE Trans. Electron Devices, vol ED-20, pp 1006-1015, Nov. 1973; and F. Hochberg, H.K. Seitz, and A.V. Brown, "A thin-film integrated incandescent display" , IEEE Trans. Electron Devices, vol ED-20, pp. 1002-1005, Nov. 1973. These devices, which consisted of thin-film tungsten filaments suspended from a glass substrate, were fabricated using hybrid circuit technology. More recently, miniature incandescent light sources have been fabricated utilizing silicon integrated circuit (IC) technology. See H. Guckel and D.W. Burns,"Integrated transducers based on blackbody radiation from heated polysilicon films", Transducers' 85, pp. 364-366, Jun. 11-14, 1985; and G. Lamb, M. Jhabvala, and A. Burgess, "Integrated-circuit broadband infrared source", NASA Tech. Briefs, p. 32, Mar. 1989. In this later work, the incandescent element was an electrically-heated polycrystalline-silicon microbridge resistor elevated a few micrometers above a silicon substrate and exposed to air. Guckel et al. demonstrated the use of this device to make an all-silicon optical coupler.
Even though the polysilicon filaments described in Guckel et al. and Lamb et al are capable of high temperature operation, they are not isolated from the environment, and therefore are susceptible to particle contamination or possibly to damage caused by physical contact. In addition, the useful device life-time is limited by oxidation of the exposed silicon filament when operated in free air. Guckel et al. suggested that the lifetime could be increased if the filaments were coated with silicon nitride to reduce their rate of oxidation.
In view of the foregoing, an object of the present invention is to provide a microlamp in which oxidation and contamination problems are substantially eliminated.
More specifically, an object of the present invention is to provide a vacuum-sealed microlamp.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be apparent from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out in the claims.

Vacuum-sealed silicon incandescent light


A method and apparatus for compensating for age related degradation in the performance of integrated circuits. In one embodiment, the phase-locked loop (PLL) charge pump is provided with multiple legs that can be selectively enabled or disabled to compensate for the effects of aging. In an alternate embodiment, the power supply voltage control codes can be increased or decreased to compensate for aging effects. In another embodiment, a ring oscillator is used to approximate the effects of NBTI. In this embodiment, the frequency domain is converted to time domain using digital counters and programmable power supply control words are used to change the operating parameters of the power supply to compensate for aging effects.

The features sizes of transistors used in integrated circuits have become significantly smaller as fabrication technology has advanced. For example, transistor feature sizes have scaled downward to the point that the oxide layer in a metal-on-oxide transistor is less than 10 angstroms thick. "Aging" effects that can result in instability of circuit components such as transistors have become more pronounced as the feature sizes have scaled downward. For example, in transistors fabricated with this thin oxide, phenomena have been observed whereby the threshold voltage (the voltage it takes to turn the transistor "on") varies over time.
Many integrated circuits, such as microprocessors, employ thermal sensors which rely on precise calibration to provide temperature-related compensation in the performance of various circuit elements. A shift in the threshold voltage can alter the speed of an on-die thermal oscillator by 10 to15%. This will result in a skew of the calibration curve over the lifetime of the part, which is undesirable given the projected lifetime of 5 to 10 years for many circuit components.
One of the circuit elements that is particularly susceptible to aging effects is the phase-locked loop. Components used in the phase-locked loop can be affected by negative bias threshold instability (NBTI) that can alter the frequency range of a voltage controlled oscillator by 10% or more over a 10 year lifetime. This degradation is related to the drive current caused by increased PMOS strength. As a result, there is a need to alter other factors affecting drive current over time to compensate for the effects of NBTI and to ensure that the oscillator in the phase-locked loop achieves the same frequency range over its lifetime.
Another problem related to the aging effects of circuit components relates to operation of the delay-locked loop in a microprocessor. Similar to the effects on a phase-locked loop, NBTI effects can alter the lowest delay achieved by the delay-locked loop by 10% or more over the lifetime of the components. As a result, it is necessary to alter the factors affecting drive current such as the delay line in the delay-locked loop so that the delay-locked loop achieves the same frequency range over its entire lifetime.
In view of the foregoing, there is a need for a technique to compensate for aging effects in circuit components, such as transistors, in integrated circuits. Such a technique is provided in the various embodiments of the present invention, as discussed below.

Compensation technique to mitigate aging effects in integrated circuit components


Picture data is compressed and encoded in consideration of visual characteristics of human beings against colors. A color of pixels is detected corresponding to color difference components Cb and Cr for each sub block into which a macro block is divided. Each sub block is composed of four pixels×four lines. The number of pixels from which a predetermined color is detected is counted for each sub block. When the count value is ⅔ or greater of the total number of pixels of each sub block, it is determined that the macro block which contains the sub block contains the predetermined color. An activity is obtained using a luminance component Y for the macro block. The activity is multiplied by a quantizer priority value corresponding to the predetermined color. As a result, the activity is corrected. Corresponding to the corrected activity, the quantizer scale value is changed to a smaller value. With the changed quantizer scale value, the macro block is quantized with a smaller quantizer step value. As a result, the picture quality of a macro block from which a predetermined color has been detected is suppressed from being deteriorated.

In a known picture data compressing and encoding system, picture data is quantized in the unit of a block composed of a predetermined number of pixels. Such a compressing and encoding system has been used in for example MPEG2 (Moving Pictures Experts Group 2). In the MPEG2, picture data is processed corresponding to DCT (Discrete Cosine Transform) in the unit of a block composed of a predetermined number of pixels. Obtained DCT coefficients are quantized. In such a manner, the picture data is compressed and encoded. In the MPE2, a quantizer scale value which represents a quantizer step is designated. With the designated quantizer scale value, DCT coefficients are compressed and encoded.
In the compressing and encoding process corresponding to the MPEG2, an index number referred to as an activity which represents the complexity and smoothness of a picture to be compressed is calculated and the picture quality is optimized corresponding to an adaptive quantizing process based on the activity.
In this method, when a picture is simple and smooth, if it is compressed, the deterioration of the picture quality is visually prominent. In this region (hereinafter referred to as a flat region), the picture is finely quantized with a quantizer scale value which is a fine quantizer step. In contrast, when a picture is complicated, the deterioration of the picture quality is not visually prominent. In this region, the picture is coarsely quantized with a quantizer scale value which is a coarse quantizer step. In this method, with a limited code amount, the picture quality is effectively optimized.
As was described above, when picture data is compressed, each picture region is divided into pixel blocks each of which has a predetermined size. Each block is quantized and processed corresponding to the DCT method. The MPEG2 standard prescribes a block of eight pixels×eight lines as the minimum process unit. Each block of eight pixels×eight lines is processed corresponding to the DCT method. DCT coefficients obtained corresponding to the DCT method are quantized in the unit of a macro block of 16 pixels×16 lines.
On the other hand, the MPEG2 standard does not clearly prescribe a unit in which an activity is calculated. However, in TM5 (Test Model 5) of the MPEG2, it has been proposed that an activity should be processed in the unit of a sub block of eight pixels and eight lines which is similar to a DCT block.
Next, an activity calculating method used in "Adaptive quantization considering visual characteristics" adopted in the MPEG2 TM5 will be described.
In the adaptive quantization, a quantizer scale value Qj is varied corresponding to an activity of each macro block so that a code amount generated in one frame is controlled corresponding to the state of the picture. As a result, the high picture quality is accomplished. For example, in a flat region of which the deterioration of the picture quality is visually prominent, each macro block is quantized with a quantizer scale value Qj which is a fine quantizing step. In a complicated picture region of which the deterioration of the picture quality is relatively non-prominent, each macro block is quantized with a quantizer scale value Qj which is a coarse quantizer step. To do that, a quantizer scale value Qj is varied corresponding to an activity.
An activity is obtained by successively calculating the following formulas (3), (2), and (1) for a j-th macro block using pixel values of a luminance signal of an original picture for a total of eight blocks of four blocks of a frame DCT encoding mode and four blocks of a field DCT encoding mode rather than a prediction error.actj=1+min[sblk=1, 8](var—sblk)  (1)var—sblk= 1/64Σ[k=1, 64](Pk−Pavg)2  (2)Pavg= 1/64Σ[k=1, 64]Pk  (3)
where Pk represents a pixel value in a luminance signal block of the original picture. In the formula (3), pixel values of 64 pixels of a block composed of eight pixels×eight lines are summed and divided by 6. As a result, an average value Pavg of the pixel values is obtained. Next, in the formula (2), the difference between the average value Pavg and Pk is obtained. As a result, average difference values of the block composed of eight pixels×eight lines are calculated. In the formula (1), with the minimum value of the average difference values var_sblk, an activity actj of the macro block is obtained. This is because even if a part of the macro block contains a flat portion, it is necessary to finely quantize the macro block.
As visual characteristics of human beings against colors, the sensitivity of red is the highest. Thus, the deterioration of red can be easily detected. Moreover, in a studio photography or the like, blue used in a blue back of a chroma-key is a color whose deterioration should be suppressed from a view point of a picture process.
Thus, it has been desired to suppress a compression ratio for a picture region containing a color component whose deterioration should be suppressed in color components which compose a color picture to be compressed and encoded so that colors can be represented more precisely than before.

Image processing apparatus and method, and image processing program