Techniques are provided for detecting and evaluating ventricular dyssynchrony based on morphological features of the T-wave and for controlling therapy in response thereto. For example, the number of peaks in the T-wave, the area under the peaks, the number of points of inflection, and the slope of the T-wave can be used to detect ventricular dyssynchrony and evaluate its severity. As ventricular dyssynchrony often arises due to heart failure, the degree of dyssynchrony may also be used as a proxy for tracking the progression of heart failure. Pacing therapy is automatically and adaptively adjusted based on the degree of ventricular dyssynchrony so as to reduce the dyssynchrony and thereby improve cardiac function.

Heart failure is a debilitating disease in which abnormal function of the heart leads in the direction of inadequate blood flow to fulfill the needs of the tissues and organs of the body. Typically, the heart loses propulsive power because the cardiac muscle loses capacity to stretch and contract. Often, the ventricles do not adequately eject or fill with blood between heartbeats and the valves regulating blood flow become leaky, allowing regurgitation or back-flow of blood. The impairment of arterial circulation deprives vital organs of oxygen and nutrients. Fatigue, weakness and the inability to carry out daily tasks may result. Not all heart failure patients suffer debilitating symptoms immediately. Some may live actively for years. Yet, with few exceptions, the disease is relentlessly progressive. As heart failure progresses, it tends to become increasingly difficult to manage. Even the compensatory responses it triggers in the body may themselves eventually complicate the clinical prognosis. For example, when the heart attempts to compensate for reduced cardiac output, it adds muscle causing the ventricles (particularly the left ventricle) to grow in thickness in an attempt to pump more blood with each heartbeat. This places a still higher demand on the heart's oxygen supply. If the oxygen supply falls short of the growing demand, as it often does, further injury to the heart may result. The additional muscle mass may also stiffen the heart walls to hamper rather than assist in providing cardiac output. A particularly severe form of heart failure is congestive heart failure (CHF) wherein the weak pumping of the heart leads to build-up of fluids in the lungs and other organs and tissues.
Heart failure is often associated with electrical signal conduction defects within the heart. The natural electrical activation system through the heart involves sequential events starting with the sino-atrial (SA) node, and continuing through the atrial conduction pathways of Bachmann's bundle and internodal tracts at the atrial level, followed by the atrio-ventricular (AV) node, the Bundle of His, the right and left bundle branches, with final distribution to the distal myocardial terminals via the Purkinje fiber network. Any of these conduction pathways may potentially be degraded. A common conduction defect arising in connection with CHF is left bundle branch block (LBBB). The left bundle branch forms a broad sheet of conduction fibers along the septal endocardium of the left ventricle and separates into two or three indistinct fascicles. These extend toward the left ventricular apex and innervate both papillary muscle groups. The main bundle branches are nourished by septal perforating arteries. In a healthy heart, electrical signals are conducted more or less simultaneously through the left and right bundles to trigger synchronous contraction of both the septal and postero-lateral walls of the left ventricle. LBBB occurs when conduction of electrical signals through the left bundle branch is delayed or totally blocked, thereby delaying delivery of the electrical signal to the left ventricle and altering the sequence of activation of that ventricle. The impulse starts in the right ventricle (RV) and crosses the septum causing the interventricular septum to depolarize and hence, contract, first. The electrical impulse continues to be conducted to the postero-lateral wall of the left ventricle causing its activation and depolarization but, due to an inability to use the native conduction system, this activation and contraction is delayed. As such, the posterolateral wall of the left ventricle (LV) only starts to contract after the interventricular septum has completed its contraction and is starting to relax. LBBB thus results in an abnormal activation of the left ventricle inducing desynchronized ventricular contraction (i.e. ventricular dyssynchrony) and impairment in cardiac performance.
Degeneration of the electrical conduction system as manifested by LBBB or other conduction defects may come from an acute myocardial infarction but is usually associated with the degeneration as a result of chronic ischemia, left ventricular hypertension, general aging and calcification changes and stretch, especially any form of cardiac myopathy that results in overt CHF. Present treatments are directed towards correcting this electrical correlate by pacing on the left side of the heart and/or pacing on both sides of the left ventricle (lateral-posterior wall and septum) to improve contractile coordination. One particular technique for addressing LBBB is cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT), which seeks to normalize asynchronous cardiac electrical activation and the resultant asynchronous contractions by delivering synchronized pacing stimulus to both sides of the ventricles using pacemakers or ICDs equipped with biventricular pacing capability, i.e. CRT seeks to reduce or eliminate ventricular dyssynchrony. Ventricular stimulus is synchronized so as to help to improve overall cardiac function. This may have the additional beneficial effect of reducing the susceptibility to life-threatening tachyarrhythmias. With CRT, pacing pulses are delivered directly to the left ventricle in an attempt to ensure that the left ventricular myocardium will contract more uniformly. CRT may also be employed for patients whose nerve conduction pathways are corrupted due to right bundle branch block (RBBB) or due to other problems such as the development of scar tissue within the myocardium following a myocardial infarction. CRT and related therapies are discussed in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,643,546 to Mathis, et al., entitled "Multi-Electrode Apparatus And Method For Treatment Of Congestive Heart Failure"; U.S. Pat. No. 6,628,988 to Kramer, et al., entitled "Apparatus And Method For Reversal Of Myocardial Remodeling With Electrical Stimulation"; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,512,952 to Stahmann, et al., entitled "Method And Apparatus For Maintaining Synchronized Pacing".
With conventional CRT, an external Doppler-echocardiography system may be used to noninvasively assess cardiac function. It can also be used to assess the effectiveness of any programming changes on overall cardiac function. Then, biventricular pacing control parameters of the pacemaker or ICD are adjusted by a physician using an external programmer in an attempt to synchronize the ventricles and to optimize patient cardiac function. For example, the physician may adjust the interventricular pacing delay, which specifies the time delay between pacing pulses delivered to the right and left ventricles, in an attempt to maximize cardiac output. To assess the effectiveness of any programming change, Doppler-echocardiography, impedance cardiography or some other independent measure of cardiac function is utilized. However, this evaluation and programming requires an office visit and is therefore a timely and expensive process. It also restricts the evaluation to a resting state, commonly with the patient in a supine position. As such, the system is not necessarily optimized for activity, for the upright position, for other times of day since there may also be a circadian rhythm to cardiac function. Also, heart rate and blood pressure have diurnal or circadian variations. Moreover, when relying on any external hemodynamic monitoring system, the control parameters of the pacemaker or ICD cannot be automatically adjusted to respond to on-going changes in patient cardiac function.
Accordingly, it is desirable to configure an implanted device to automatically and frequently evaluate the degree of ventricular dyssynchrony within a patient, particularly within those suffering from heart failure, and to automatically adjust the CRT pacing parameters to reduce the degree of dyssynchrony and improve cardiac output. Heretofore, various techniques for use by implantable devices for evaluating ventricular dyssynchrony have exploited the relative timing of left and right ventricular depolarization events within an intracardiac electrogram (IEGM) signal sensed by the device. In this regard, mechanical contraction of the ventricles is manifest within the IEGM as an electrical depolarization event referred to as the QRS-complex. The QRS-complex is usually preceded by a P-wave, which corresponds to the electrical depolarization of the atria. The QRS-complex is usually followed by a T-wave, which corresponds to the electrical repolarization of the ventricles. (The repolarization of the atria typically generates an electrical signal too weak to be reliably detected.) As already explained, ventricular dyssynchrony results from asynchronous mechanical contractions of the ventricles, i.e. the left and right ventricles do not contract at precisely the same time. As such, the electrical depolarization signals generated within the left and right ventricles are likewise asynchronous. That is, the QRS-complex of the left ventricle is no longer synchronized with that of the right ventricle. Accordingly, ventricular dyssynchrony can be detected by separately detecting the depolarization of the LV and the depolarization of the RV, i.e. by separately detect both an LV QRS-complex and an RV QRS-complex. Any significant time delay therebetween is indicative of ventricular dyssynchrony. CRT is then performed in an effort to reduce that dyssynchrony, i.e. pacing pulses are separately applied to the left and right ventricles subject to an interventricular pacing delay set by the device in an attempt to re-synchronize the ventricles.
Techniques for detecting ventricular dyssynchrony based on QRS-complexes and for delivering CRT in response thereto are set forth in some of the above-cited patents. However, problems remain. One particular problem with QRS-complex-based techniques is that they are optimal only if the ventricles contract due to intrinsic electrical stimulation (i.e. the stimulation reaches the ventricles along the aforementioned natural AV conduction pathways.) If the ventricles are being paced by the implanted device, then the QRS-complex morphology within the IEGM can change greatly affecting the performance of the QRS-complex-based technique. Rather, an evoked response (ER) appears within the IEGM, which is representative of the depolarization of the ventricular myocardium due to the application of an artificial pacing pulse. The shape of the ER typically differs from that of the QRS-complex. Moreover, time delays between ERs cannot typically be used to detect ventricular dyssynchrony since the ERs are themselves synchronized with the pacing pulses, which are artificially applied. This presents a significant problem during CRT, since ventricular pacing pulses are preferably delivered for each heartbeat. Hence, during CRT, it would not be optimal to use QRS-complex-based dyssynchrony detection techniques to evaluate the degree of ventricular dyssynchrony to, e.g., verify that CRT is effective or to adjust the interventricular pacing delay. It is possible to temporarily suspend CRT in order to allow the ventricles to beat naturally so that the degree of dyssynchrony can again be evaluated via an analysis of the QRS-complexes. However, this technique, in addition to being undesired clinically, does not necessarily provide an indication of the amount of dyssynchrony, if any, occurring during actual delivery of CRT pacing.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide techniques for detecting ventricular dyssynchrony that do not necessarily require detection of QRS-complexes and it is to this end that the invention is generally directed.
Heretofore, at least some techniques have been developed for controlling CRT or for evaluating ventricular dyssynchrony that do not rely on interventricular delays measured from QRS-complexes. See, for example, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/558,194, of Panescu et al., filed Nov. 9, 2006, entitled "Closed-Loop Adaptive Adjustment of Pacing Therapy based on Cardiogenic Impedance Signals Detected by an Implantable Medical Device," which sets forth techniques wherein mechanical interventricular conduction delays are elevated based on a cardiogenic impedance signal. See also, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/557,887, of Shelchuk, filed Nov. 8, 2006, entitled "Systems and Methods for Evaluating Ventricular Dyssynchrony Using Atrial and Ventricular Pressure Measurements Obtained by an Implantable Medical Device," which sets forth techniques wherein mechanical interventricular conduction delays are elevated based on atrial and ventricular pressure measurements. See, also, U.S. Pat. No. 7,072,715 to Bradley, entitled "Implantable Cardiac Stimulation Device for and Method of Monitoring Progression or Regression of Heart Disease by Monitoring Evoked Response Features," which exploits certain features of the ER to detect progression or regression of heart disease, though it does not specifically evaluate the degree of ventricular dyssynchrony.
Herein, additional and alternative techniques are provided for evaluating ventricular dyssynchrony and for controlling CRT or other forms of stimulation therapy that do not rely on QRS-complexes.

Systems and methods for use by an implantable medical device for evaluating ventricular dyssynchrony based on T-wave morphology


A vehicular pedal device includes a stroke characteristic control unit that controls a stroke characteristic of the vehicular pedal with respect to a pedaling force of a driver. the stroke characteristic control unit changes the stroke characteristic of the vehicular pedal to a stepped stroke characteristic when the vehicle is under automatic speed control, and the stepped stroke characteristic has a stepping force step corresponding to an override stroke position at which override of automatic speed control is started by operation of the vehicular pedal by the driver.

Conventionally, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2018-69939 is known as a technical document related to a vehicular pedal device. This publication discloses a vehicular accelerator pedal device that moves an accelerator pedal to a position beyond an initial position (reference position) in a direction opposite to a stepping direction by applying an additional reaction to the accelerator pedal during autonomous driving of a car. In this vehicular accelerator pedal device, the driver depresses the accelerator pedal to a predetermined position exceeding the reference position at the time of autonomous driving to release the autonomous driving.


Dispensers for liquids are provided having structure for containing a pool of liquid in the dispenser, to a predetermined level. A discharge chamber contains air above the level of liquid and a discharge device extends upwardly at least partly through the discharge chamber from below the level of the pool and has an external outlet. The discharge device includes a foamer chamber having a wall defining very small holes located above the pool level, and pressure means is coupled to the discharge chamber and operable to increase the pressure in the discharge chamber so that a pressure applied on the pool level drives liquid into the discharge device. Simultaneously air is forced through the small holes in the foamer chamber to meet the liquid passing through the foamer chamber where progressive foaming takes place before the resulting foam is forced through a discharge outlet.

Products in liquid form have for many years been packaged in a variety of containers suitable for shipping, displaying. handling and eventual sale. These containers have been made in a great variety of shapes and sizes with different types of closures. They include glass containers, and containers of synthetic materials which have been moulded, blow-moulded and generally formed into shape. Also, because of the nature of these plastics materials, the closures can be of many various types including screw caps, flip tops, and simple bonded seals. In general, containers of these types have been made to enhance the appearance and visual affect of the product.
Some liquids packaged in such containers are used in small quantities and is convenient to dispense such liquids in the form of a foam provided of course that the liquid is suitably formulated.
The limitations to dispensing foam are found in the complex structures previously used to create foam. These structures are desirable in order to minimize the use of aerosol containers designed to create foam but the cost of the structures and the difficulties of recycling structures having many different materials have severely limited the use of dispensing structures for foam.
Some very simple dispensers are taught by the present applicant in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,324,349; 4,635,828; 4,645,097 and 5,033,653. Such dispensers have become known as Kaufman dispensers (after the inventor). The dispensers have no moving parts and yet satisfy the requirements of clean dispensing with temperature compensation to permit the dispenser to be subjected to a designed range of temperature fluctuation without inadvertent dripping or dispensing.
The structures shown in the applicant's earlier patents have a self-contained reservoir containing some of the liquid to be dispensed and in communication with the main part of the dispenser which is in the form of a container where the major volume of the liquid is stored. Air is trapped above the liquid in the container under a negative pressure to establish equilibrium and thereby prevent liquid flowing through the reservoir and out through a discharge passageway. When the negative pressure is disturbed, liquid will tend to flow out of the container and into the reservoir, then out via the passageway. As soon as the negative pressure is restored by sucking air back through the passageway, a condition of equilibrium is again achieved. As the air is sucked back, liquid is cleaned out from the passageway and some of the air finds its way through the liquid to finish above the liquid in the container while some remains in the reservoir.
The embodiments of the present invention include dispensers based on the Kaufman technology as well as others which use simple squeeze-bottles as a basis.


A two wheeled human powered vehicle, having a frame with seating arrangement resembling a long wheelbase recumbent bicycle. The drive mechanism includes two parallel operating lever arms supporting a steering assembly on their upper end, fulcramed in the middle, and operably connected at their lower end to a linearly reciprocable footrest assembly. The operator forces the footrests forward directly with the legs while assisting with the arms by drawing the handlebar, thereby providing a rowing motion that utilizes arm and leg power independently. Linear motion is converted to rotational motion and power is transferred to the drive wheel via a jackshaft, including an overrunning clutch, along with a sprocket and an endless chain, operably connected to the drive wheel. Steering is accomplished through flexible sleeved cables, controllably connecting the handlebar to the front steering fork.

Many variations of human powered vehicles attempt to independently combine arm and leg power. This is an advantage for transportation purposes and also produces better overall exercise than is possible with pedal-crank bicycles. The rowing motion is the most natural form for coordinating arm and leg power, but has never been successfuly incorporated into a genuinely practical land vehicle.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,632,414 discloses a three-wheeled land vehicle that does a good job of simulating rowing. The same may be said for the vehicles disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,700,962 and 4,796,907. The vehicle of U.S. Pat. No. 4,305,600 uses rowing motion on a simpler two-wheeled vehicle. Unfortunately, for all of these vehicles, the arm and leg forces are not truly additive. All of the power delivered to the drive wheel must be transferred through the arms, which fatigue quickly.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,928,986 and 4,508,358 disclose vehicles that are two wheelers in at least one embodiment and use arm and leg power independently. Unfortunately, they are encumbered by heavy, inefficient mechanisms resulting from essentially separate drive systems for the arms and legs.
All vehicles that have attempted to combine arm and leg power have proved too awkward in handling, and too inefficient due to weight and complexity or poor conservation of kinetic energy. Most are also hindered by poor impedance matching between the operator and machine through less than optimum leverage, stroke amplitude, or gearing.
It is well known that rowing is one of the best motions for exercising all the major muscle groups. It is less well known that this motion can produce more horsepower than that of turning a pedal crank; thereby, making the human body a more powerful engine for driving a vehicle. What has never before been created is a vehicle that can utilize this motion in a light weight, energy efficient system, while at the same time providing a comfortable body position and easy handling for an overall superior Human Powered Vehicle.


A multiported LAN switch comprised of legacy local area network ports and ATM ports. Each ATM port comprising a hardware forwarding engine for bridging LAN frames from the LAN ports to the ATM port. The hardware forwarding engine converts layer 2 protocols between the dissimilar ports expediently, without requiring intervention by a microprocessor. A substantial performance gain is attained compared to microprocessor controlled format converters. Both LAN emulation and virtual LANs are supported.

1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to local area network switching apparatuses for routing and bridging data transfers to other networks of a different type. The invention further relates to transferring messages between networks having non-compatible network interfaces and different data link protocols. The disclosed system relates to bridging between networks using special-purpose hardware.
2. Background Art
Presently, numerous types of networks coexist in the telecommunication industry, such as Local Area Networks (LANs), Wide Area Networks (WANs), X.25 Networks, Integrated Services Digital Networks (ISDNs), and Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) Networks. Because of the existence of different networks and standards, there is a need in the telecommunications industry for communication between data processing devices connected to heterogeneous networks. As an example, owners of previously installed LANs frequently want to connect to the emerging broad band Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) or ATM Networks.
In a worldwide effort to harmonize the development of networks and the data processing devices associated with them, international organizations like the Comite Consultatif International de Telegraphe et Telephone (CCITT), the European Computer Manufacturers' Association (ECMA), and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) have established standards for each type of network. ISO has developed a general framework to serve as a reference for all existing and future standards, called the reference model of Open Systems Interconnection (OSI). Most existing and newly developed-standards claim to be OSI compatible. This model is a universally applicable logic structure or layered architecture, containing seven layers as shown in FIG. 1. Each layer has a set-of defined functions and provides a set of services to and from the adjacent two layers.
LAN switches are widely used by industry to interconnect multiple Ethernet or Token Ring LANs through a switch so that devices on one LAN can communicate with devices on other LANs. New LAN switches are being developed to interconnect networks having various data link (layer 2) protocols to enable various LAN segments to connect to ISDN or ATM networks. This merging technology requires a format conversion between the different protocols used on the networks.
Much prior art has dealt with the format conversion of one network protocol to another. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,341,376, "An ATM Cell Format Conversion System," Yamashita teaches an ATM cell format conversion system. ATM means Asynchronous Transfer Mode, which is the current popular method for transmitting speech, data, and pictures over the Internet. An ATM cell is the basic unit in which data is transmitted. An ATM cell is comprised of 53 octets of data, where an octet is another term for byte or eight bits of data. The 53 octets are subdivided into five octets for carrying header information for the message being transmitted including the message destination and 48 octets for carrying message data. A message is segmented into ATM cells as it is sent to the Internet and then reassembled from ATM cells at the destination.
Yamashita has found that when transmitting messages formatted into 53 ATM octets over telephone lines using older techniques, such as Synchronous Transfer Mode (STM), the standard ATM format is not totally compatible. For STM, Yamashita found that better efficiency can be attained for transmitting ATM cells over STM media by adding an idle (dummy) octet to each ATM cell and thus comprising an ATM cell of 54 octets rather than 53. Yamashita teaches an ATM cell format conversion system to generate 54 octet cells from 53 octets cells. Like Yamashita, the present invention uses ATM transmissions, but Yamashita does not use the standard ATM format. Yamashita converts the basic ATM format of transmission from 53 to 54 octets. This makes Yamashita's ATM non-standard and not used by the rest of the industry. The present invention uses the standard ATM solution having 53 octets, never attempts to modify the standard approach, and does not use Yamashita's invention.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,323,392, "Adaption Device and Method for Efficient Interconnection of Data Processing Devices and Networks" by Ishii et al., Ishii teaches an adaption device for connecting processing devices and networks which have different protocols. Ishii's adaption device for connecting processing devices and networks which have various layer 2 (link layer) protocols of the HDLC (High Level Data Link Control) type. HDLC is the standard used most commonly for layer 2.
Ishii's adaption device interconnects two different protocols of the HDLC generic type: 1) Link Access Procedure on the D Channel (LAPD), which is Link Access Procedure Balanced (LAPB), which is specific to LANs. An HDLC frame, incoming from a first data processing device complying to the first layer 2 protocol of the LAPB type, is stored within the adaption device. The frame is then mapped to a second layer 2 protocol of the LAPD type and forwarded to a network interface. The layer 2 mapping function resides in a Programmable Read-Only Memory (PROM), a receive frame is stored in adapter memory, and the mapping function between layer 2 protocols is done by a microprocessor.
The present invention, like Ishii, features methods for adapting different layer 2 protocols. The present invention maps switch header to ATM control header but uses hardware rather than a processor to do the mapping function. Ishii's solution is related to slower network transfer rates where slower microprocessor controlled mapping is permissible. The present invention is for higher speed networks where Ischii's processing mapping speeds are not acceptable.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,581,558, "Apparatus for Bridging Non-Compatible Network Architectures" by Horney et al, Horney teaches a bridging apparatus for sending data to and from a local area network (LAN) from and to a wide area network (WAN). Horney's invention also deals with the OSI model of layered protocols of FIG. 1 and with various layer 2 protocols. Horney chooses a popular wide area network standard called X.25, which is based on the Comite Consultatif International de Telegraphe et Telephone (CCITT) definition of the lower three layers of the OSI model. Horney converts the X.25 protocol to a 1 Mb (StarLAN) local area network, which is an IEEE 802.3 Carrier Sense multiple Access with Collision Detection ((CSMA/CD) LAN protocol. The layer 2 mapping function resides in a Read-Only Memory (ROM), a receive frame is stored in adapter memory, and the mapping function between layer 2 protocols is done by a microprocessor.
Both Horney and the present invention feature methods for bridging data between different layer 2 protocols. However, the present invention maps switch header to ATM control header but uses hardware rather than a processor to do the mapping function. Horney's solution is related to slower network transfer rates (56 Kbits/sec) where slower microprocessor mapping is permissible. The present invention is for higher speed (155 Mbits/sec) networks where processing mapping speeds are not acceptable.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,577,039, "System and Method of Signal Transmission within a Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy Unit Using ATM Adaption Layers" by Won et al., Won teaches a format conversion system for converting the plesiochronous digital hierarchy (PDH) data transmission format to the ATM data transmission format and for converting ATM to PHD. PHD is a scheme for multiplexing several 64 Kbit/sec ISDN channels together to produce a higher bit rate signal. Like the other prior art solutions, Won uses memory and a microprocessor in the conversion system to perform the mapping functions between the two protocols being converted. The present invention neither maps PDH to ISDN nor uses microprocessor control in bridging between networks.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,619,650, "Network Processor for Transforming a Message Transported from an I/O Channel to a Network by Adding a Message Identifier and then Converting the Message" by Bach et al, Bach teaches converting an I/O Channel format to a LAN format. Bach's invention for the most part is not related to the present invention. Both Bach and the present invention feature methods for adapting two dissimilar interfaces; however, the present invention maps switch header to ATM control header but uses hardware rather than a processor to do the mapping function. Bach maps a standard I/O Channel to a LAN using a processor.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,568,477, "Multipurpose Packet Switching Node for a Data Communication Network" by Galand et al., Galand teaches a multi-purpose packet switching network node capable of switching packets received on any number of node input ports to any number of output ports. The node can receive either ATM cells or variable length messages on any input and switch that input to any switch output of the node. Reformatting is involved of both ATM or variable length (VL) messages to a packet format, which is basically comprised of pseudo ATM packets that carry segmented VL data.
Both Galand and the present invention feature methods for adapting a protocol to the ATM cell format and both apply to switches. However, Galand's solution adapts a variable length message, like that used for a circuit switch, to the ATM cell format using a microprocessor and defines a switch that switches ATM cells. The present invention uses a switch that switches LAN frames and not ATM cells.
The present invention also teaches an increased throughput capability between networks. Prior art includes U.S. Pat. No. 5,457,681, "ATM-Ethernet Portal/Concentrator" by Gaddis et al. Gaddis teaches an Ethernet to ATM converter. Gaddis expands the distance an Ethernet segment (which is a LAN) can transmit a message by connecting the Ethernet segment to an ATM Network. In fact, Gaddis connects multiple Ethernet segments to a multi-ported ATM Network, whereby he enables a first Ethernet segment to send messages to a second Ethernet segment through the ATM Network. Gaddis features a dual-ported memory with the ATM input and output controlled by a DMA controller and the Ethernet input and output controller by an Ethernet controller. A processor is required to control and program both the DMA and Ethernet controllers. Messages from either source are stored in the dual-ported memory depending on which direction the message is traveling. Both Ethernet and ATM headers are generated directly from the memory with the help of the controllers. This method also enables message broadcast to occur from the dual-ported memory, thus eliminating a need to copy the data from an external memory if the message is broadcast.
Gaddis claims the invention to be used as either a portal or a concentrator, where a portal connects one Ethernet segment to one port of an ATM network and a concentrator connects multiple Ethernet segments to one ATM network. For the concentrator, a bus is used to interconnect the multiple Ethernet segments, and the bus goes to one port of the dual-ported memory. The bus becomes a bottleneck for the concentrator, and the performance is questionable and depends upon improving the performance of the bus.
Both Gaddis and the present invention feature methods for connecting LANs to ATM networks and for converting messages in LAN formats to messages in ATM format. The present invention only deals with a switching approach for interconnecting multiple LANs to multiple ATM ports. Multiple connections are supported simultaneously through the LAN port switch. The present invention is neither a single portal approach nor a concentrator. Gaddis's invention functions as a portal or a concentrator and does two basic operations: 1) converts Ethernet messages to ATM messages and 2) converts ATM messages to Ethernet messages. In contrast, the present invention is for a LAN switch or hub which either bridges or routes LAN messages or ATM messages. The present invention also performs LAN emulation and supports virtual LANs. Gaddis uses software control by a processor, and the present invention is more efficient using an all hardware solution.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,303,344, "Protocol Processing Apparatus for use in Interfacing Network Connected Computer Systems Utilizing Separate Paths for Control Information and Data Transfer" by Yokoyama et al., Yokoyama teaches a communication control equipment connected between a computer and a network to expedite the sending and receiving of messages. The control of the complete message prior to Yokoyama's invention was accomplished by the software of the computer only. A communication control equipment is introduced as new hardware to take the some of the processing burden off of the computer. The computer still does some of the message control, and some is off-loaded to the new hardware. The invention takes mainly a parallel processing approach in that the communication control equipment is comprised of multiple processors, each of which relieve the computer of one of the message control tasks.
There is a similarity between Yokoyama and the present invention in that both use additional hardware to improve the speed of processing messages. Another slight similarity is that Yokoyama splits a single message into two different processing paths internal to his additional hardware. Likewise, the present invention uses two different processing paths. However, Yokoyama uses multiprocessors in his new hardware to improve the performance of messages, where the present invention uses special-purpose hardware to further improve performance. The present invention is better, because general purpose processors cannot handle a specific task as quickly as special hardware can.
Yokoyama splits a single message into two paths sending control information down one path and data down the other. The present invention segregates different types of messages by path, sending bridged messages requiring layer 2 conversions down one path in their entirety and routed messages requiring layer 3 conversions down a second path in their entirety. In addition, Yokoyama deals with the scenario of a plurality of computers connected to a network. Communication between computers uses a single homogeneous message protocol, where all messages are comprised of the exact same protocol and format. The protocol includes a complex control structure, wherein first a sequence of messages is used to establish a connection through the network by the computer requesting a specific connection, the network establishing the connection path and sending an acknowledge message back to the computer. Next, the computer sends data over the established connection, wherein a single or multiple messages can be transferred. When the computer is finished using the connection, it then sends a message to break the connection. In contrast, the present invention deals with a switch hub scenario which receives heterogeneous messages of various protocols from local area networks (LANs) and Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) messages. The heterogeneous messages are either routed by the switch hub or bridged from one hub input port to another hub output port. The present invention therefore deals with multiple different message protocols and converts a first message protocol to a second message protocol using special purpose hardware (no processor) to expedite the conversion.
Other prior art which is not as closely related is disclosed in the article, "High-Speed Serial Interface MicroChannel Adapter", in the IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin, Vol. 34, No. 7A, December 1991. The article discloses a High-Speed Serial Interface (HSSI) for transferring data at 52 Mbit/sec using a pseudo standard which was jointly developed by T3plus Networking and Cisco Systems. The disclosure is of an apparatus for connecting the MicroChannel bus to the HSSI interface. Both the IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin (TDB) and the present invention feature methods for adapting two dissimilar interfaces. However, the IBM TDB deals with connecting a computer bus to a serial interface, not with interconnecting multiple networks through a switch.
It is the object of this invention to sort incoming LAN messages at each ATM port of the switch into two different paths for efficient routing or bridging between dissimilar networks.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a high performance bridging path between dissimilar networks by implementing the bridging path as a hardware forwarding engine for transmitting LAN frames between LAN ports and ATM ports of the LAN switch.
It is a further object of this invention to provide LAN emulation over ATM networks which permits LAN frames to be transmitted between two different LAN segments interconnected by an ATM network.
It is a further object of this invention to convert formats between different layer 2 protocols using special purpose hardware without the aid of a microprocessor.
It is a further object of this invention to provide two different types of memory queues, one being a software queue of frames to be processed by a microprocessor and the other being a hardware queue of frames to be processed by a hardware forwarding engine.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method and apparatus for hardware forwarding of LAN frames over ATM networks

International Business Machines Corporation


A turbomachine comprising at least a first rotary assembly with a first shaft, a stator, and bearings secured to the stator and suitable for supporting the shaft, one of the bearings being capable of giving way when an unbalance occurs in the rotary assembly, at least one segment of the shaft being covered in a covering which comprises at least one piece of fabric impregnated with resin and which is for coming into contact with a surrounding portion of the turbomachine when the unbalance occurs in order to protect the first shaft and ensure that there is no risk of the first shaft rupturing. The turbomachine is intended to be used mainly in the field of aviation, and more particularly as an airplane turbojet.

An example of this type of turbomachine is shown in FIG. 1 which shows an airplane turbojet 1 of well known type. The turbojet 1 comprises first and second rotary assemblies 10, 9 surrounded by a stator 2, and separated from said stator by a main flow path 3 of annular section. The main flow path 3 is occupied by stages of blades secured alternately to said rotary assemblies 9 and 10 and to the stator 2 so as to accelerate and compress the gas in order to benefit from the energy that it releases while expanding, after combustion of the fuel. Going from the front to the rear, there are to be found: the blades of a low-pressure compressor 4, the blades of a high-pressure compressor 5, a combustion chamber 6, the blades of a high-pressure turbine 7, and the blades of a low-pressure turbine 8. The first rotary assembly 10 comprises the rotor of the low-pressure compressor 4, the rotor of the low-pressure turbine 8, and a first shaft 12 providing the connection between the two above-mentioned rotors, and also referred to as a "low-pressure" shaft or a main shaft. The second rotary assembly 9 comprises the rotor of the high-pressure compressor 5, the rotor of the high-pressure turbine 7, and a second shaft 11 providing the connection between the two above-mentioned rotors 5 and 7, and also referred to as a "high-pressure" shaft. Since the turbojet 1 comprises two rotary assemblies or spools 9 and 10, it is generally referred to as a twin-spool turbojet.
The first and second shafts 12 and 11 are coaxial and rotate at different speeds, the speed of rotation of the first shaft 12 being less than the speed of rotation of the second shaft 11. Both shafts are supported by means of bearings connected to the stator 2. Going from the front to the rear, there are to be found: a front bearing 13 for the first shaft 12, a front bearing 14 for the second shaft 11, a rear bearing 15 for the second shaft 11, and a rear bearing 16 for the first shaft 12. As their active elements, the bearings comprise one or two ball- or roller-bearings that enable the shafts 11 and 12 to rotate at high speed, independently from each other; the shafts 11 and 12 are thus completely separate from each other and mechanically independent. However it should be observed that they are separated by only a small amount of clearance over a rather long proximity zone 17 situated substantially in the vicinity of the front bearing 14 of the second shaft 11.
Modern airplane turbojets have a high compression ratio and a high by-pass ratio. They are thus provided with an auxiliary flow path 18 surrounding the main flow path 3, with air traveling along said auxiliary flow path and being mixed with the combustion gas at the rear of the low-pressure turbine 8 (such turbojets are called turbofans). The air traveling along the auxiliary flow path 18 is accelerated by the blades of a fan 19 that is secured to the first rotary assembly 10 and that extends in front of the low-pressure compressor 4. The blades of the fan 19 have a very large diameter and considerable inertia. They are also subject to rupture when the airplane is in flight and when a foreign body, such as a bird, accidentally comes into contact with said blades.
As soon as a fan blade is ruptured, a significant unbalance occurs in the first rotary assembly 10, thereby producing significant vibration forces thereon, which forces are transmitted to the second rotary assembly 9 and to the stator 2 via the front bearing 13. The damage resulting from such excessive forces is capable of propagating throughout the turbojet 1. For this reason, it is known to use a "fusible" front bearing 13, i.e. a bearing that is capable of being broken or of giving way in some other way when an unbalance occurs in the first rotary assembly 10. That type of bearing 13 generally includes a break starter in the vicinity of the first shaft 12, which starter is generally a thin portion connecting it to the stator 2, or small-diameter connection bolts having threaded shanks that may be notched; an example of that type of bearing is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,417,501. The break starter is designed so as to tear or to rupture when the unbalance occurs, so that the front bearing 13 becomes detached from the stator 2 and ceases to support the first shaft 12, which then becomes free to oscillate by tilting about the rear bearing 16, thereby no longer imparting excessive force on the stator 2. Faced with such a problem, the pilot generally shuts down the corresponding turbojet (i.e. stops fuel combustion), thereby no longer driving the shafts 11 and 12 in rotation. The speed of rotation of the shafts 11 and 12 thus decreases and the second shaft 11 progressively stops turning. As the airplane continues its flight, the fan 19 driven by the air which passes therethrough continues to turn slowly (relative to its normal speed) and drives the first shaft 12 in rotation; the first rotary assembly 10 and the shaft 12 are said to be windmilling.
Considerable damage may occur from the moment when the front bearing 13 gives way to the moment when the first shaft 12 windmills slowly, i.e. while the shafts 11 and 12 are still turning at high speed and touching each other in the proximity zone 17, as shown in FIG. 2, due to the fact that the first shaft 12 is rocking around the rear bearing 16. When the shafts come into contact with each other, considerable heating is caused by the friction resulting from the speeds of rotation of said two shafts 11 and 12 that are very different and very high (e.g. 4,500 revolutions per minute (rpm) and 17,000 rpm. Heat dissipation is concentrated in a limited contact zone 20 around the circumference of the first shaft 12, and is such that the shaft 12 is damaged at that location and passes to a metallurgical state where it is weaker, and even likely to rupture. There is then a risk of losing the fan 19 when the first shaft 12 ruptures. Moreover, since contact between the shafts also damages the second shaft, both shafts 11 and 12 need to be replaced during repair work.
To avoid such drawbacks, a known solution, described in French patent No. 2 773 586 attempts to ensure that the two shafts 11 and 12 quickly start functioning at the same speed so that friction, and hence heating, is limited. That solution consists in covering the proximity zone 17 of the first shaft 12, i.e. the shaft rotating more slowly than the second shaft 11, in a covering having low thermal conductivity and capable of being machined by milling or the equivalent. Such a covering consists of a layer of zirconia, yttrium-containing zirconia, alumina, boride, or carbide.
Nevertheless, despite the low thermal conductivity of the covering, it is observed that the capacity of said covering for machining by milling leads to a considerable rise in temperature (often in excess of 1000° C.) which has a negative effect on the properties of the two shafts 11 and 12, thereby not sufficiently removing the risk of the first shaft 12 rupturing, and the dramatic consequences that such a rupture would incur.

System for protecting a main shaft of an engine having a fusible bearing


Provided are a method and an apparatus for transmitting acknowledgement/not-acknowledgement (ACK/NACK) in a wireless communication system. The method comprises: receiving at least two downlink subframes among a plurality of downlink subframes; and transmitting, from an uplink subframe, the ACK/NACKs of the at least two downlink subframes, wherein at least two semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) data channels can be assigned to the plurality of the downlink subframes.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to wireless communication, and more particularly, to a method for transmitting reception confirmation in a wireless communication system and an apparatus using the method.
Related Art
A wireless communication system may use a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ). The HARQ is a scheme where a transmitter transmits data and then receivers ACK/NACK (acknowledgement/not-acknowledgement) being reception confirmation information with respect to the data, transmits new data or retransmits the transmitted data according to the ACK/NACK.
3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) LTE (long term evolution)/LTE-A (long term evolution-advanced) may transmit the ACK/NACK through a PUCCH (physical uplink control channel) being an uplink control channel. When the ACK/NACK is transmitted through the PUCCH, a resource (PUCCH resource) configuring the PUCCH may be implicitly or explicitly determined. For example, the PUCCH resource may be determined based on a resource occupied by a PDSCH (physical downlink shared channel) being a target of the ACK/NACK response or a control channel scheduling data (transmission block or code-word). Such a PUCCH resource refers to an implicit PUCCH resource. Meanwhile, a case of explicitly indicating and using one or a plurality of resource according to a higher-layer signal refers to an explicit PUCCH resource.
Meanwhile, the wireless communication system may transmit data by using semi-persistent scheduling (SPS). The semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) is a scheduling method that transmits, when indicating activation/re-activation of the SPS once through a control channel after predesignating subframes that can data through the higher-layer signal, data by a modulation and coding scheme (MCS), a resource, and the like indicated by the control channel by using the predesignated subframes. Therefore, a control channel exists, which corresponds to a data channel in the same subframe as the control channel that indicates the SPS activation/re-activation among data channels transmitted by the SPS, but no control channel corresponding to the data channels by the SPS exists in the corresponding subframe.
In the related art, transmission data by the SPS was used under a predetermined limit. For example, there was a limit that only one SPS is set in downlink subframes which are targets of the ACK/NACK, which are transmitted in one uplink subframe. As a result, only one data channel (SPS data channel) by the SPS is transmitted in the downlink subframes and when the ACK/NACK is transmitted in the uplink subframe, only one SPS data channel is just considered.
However, in a future wireless communication system, the SPS can be used without the limit. Accordingly, an ACK/NACK transmission method premising the limit is modified or a new ACK/NACK transmission is required.

Method and apparatus for transmitting reception confirmation in wireless communication system


The present invention provides dry powder formulations comprising nicotine, methods of using the same, and methods for making the same. The dry powder formulations may further comprise excipients, therapeutic agents, and flavor components. The dry powder formulations may be manufactured by dry processes and wet processes.

Smoking is an addictive habit which has been determined to be a contributory or causative factor in a number of diseases including respiratory diseases such as emphysema, chronic bronchitis, lung infections and lung cancer, but also in various cardiac pathologies. With an increased public awareness of the deleterious effects of smoking on human health, came an increase in the numbers of smokers trying to quit the habit. It is now largely accepted in the scientific and medical community that the nicotine in cigarette smoke creates addiction through the effects it has on brain nicotine receptors. Most regular smokers become addicted to, or dependent upon, the pharmacological effects of nicotine in tobacco smoke. A common strategy in overcoming nicotine addiction in general, and nicotine cravings in particular, is the mimicking of cigarette smoking's effects, followed by gradual reduction and, eventually, by complete elimination.
There are several effects of smoking which a potential therapeutic formulation or method would seek to mimic. Among the most important effects of smoking are the chemical and mechanical impact of cigarette smoke on the airways of the smoker, and the absorption of nicotine into the smoker's blood. The chemical and mechanical impact of cigarette smoke on the airways of the smoker results in a certain level of satisfaction experienced by the smoker. The absorption of nicotine into the smoker's blood results in nicotine reaching various receptors in the nervous system of the smoker, which in turn affects the perceived nicotine cravings experienced by the smoker. Both effects can potentially be mimicked by the administration of nicotine formulations doses to a subject seeking smoking cessation therapy. By gradually reducing the doses, until complete elimination, nicotine addiction can be treated.
Leucine is an amino acid having an aliphatic isobutyl side chain. As a result, leucine is typically classified as a hydrophobic amino acid. Leucine is an essential amino acid because the human body cannot synthesize it and it must be provided from extraneous sources. Leucine has various metabolic roles, and participates, inter alia, to the formation of sterols and to the stimulation of muscle protein synthesis. Lactose is a disaccharide found in milk, having two residues: a galactose and a glucose. Lactose is used in pharmaceutical applications, for example as a filler, due to its physical properties (e.g., compressibility). Tartaric acid is a diprotic acid, occurring naturally in many plants, for example grapes and bananas. Tartrates are salts of tartaric acid with basic compounds, such as nicotine.
Menthol is a known and widely used topical analgesic, decongestant, and cough suppressant. Almost all cigarettes contain menthol in order to adjust flavoring and reduce coughing. When the menthol concentration in cigarettes exceeds 3%, then it is labeled as a menthol cigarette. Methods of using menthol in cigarettes include addition to the tobacco leaf. A plastic ball filled with menthol can be stored in the filter of a cigarette, and then crushed prior to smoking the cigarette. Upon lighting up the cigarette, the heated smoke acts to volatilize and carry the menthol into the airways of the smoker.
There is a need in the art for improved formulations of nicotine, especially dry powder formulations suitable for inhalation. The present invention meets this need.

Inhalable nicotine formulations and methods of making and using the same


A radar system is provided that uses configurable radar control software. The radar system may continually adapt over time to perform different types of radar mission by re-configuring the radar control software with mission specific configuration data. A configuration database may be provided to store the configuration data for retrieval during mission transition operations.

As is well known, a radar system is a system that derives information about a remote target by directing radio frequency (RF) signals (e.g., RF pulses, etc.) toward the target and analyzing the return energy that results from reflection of the transmitted signals from the target. Radar systems may have different missions or roles that may each involve different types of targets or threats. Radar missions may include, for example, air surveillance or defense missions; weapon locating or counterfire missions; fire control missions; space surveillance missions; surface surveillance missions; weather determination missions, and others. Targets or threats associated with different radar missions may include, for example, aircraft threats, weapon or ballistic threats, aircraft or ballistic targets; spacecraft targets; ship targets; ground vehicle targets, and others. Each of these threats or targets can have many variations and may be associated with corresponding optimizations or tailoring for different radar missions. For example, aircraft threats may involve fixed wing aircraft, rotary wing aircraft, large or small aircraft, fast or slow aircraft, bombers, fighters, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and others. Ballistic targets may include, for example, rockets, mortar shells, and/or various sized artillery each having different speeds and sizes.
Different threat properties may pose different challenges to a radar that can best be met by employing different radar configurations. Different radar configurations may include, for example, fixed (stationary) versus rotating antennas; fast, medium, or slow update rates (target revisit rates); gapped, tight, or overlapping beam coverage; small versus large acquisition search areas; different radar "modes" designed to best detect specific types of targets; different digital data links between radar and command/control systems depending upon mission; and/or others.
Techniques are needed that are capable of supporting a variety of different radar mission types and/or modes in a radar in an efficient manner.

Method, system, and software for supporting multiple radar mission types

Raytheon Command and Control Solutions LLC


An inductive pinched-gap thin film head (TFH) device having pole-tips which are in substantial contact along their side-edges, thereby precisely defining a pinched-gap segment. The substantial contact between the pole-tips' side-edges effectively eliminates all flux lines emanating from the edges and corners during the write operation. The write magnetic field is thus precisely confined to across the pinched-gap segment. As a result, the written medium track width is accurately defined by the width of the pinched-gap segment with high degree of magnetization coherency and virtual elimination of the track-edge noise. The improved (medium) signal-to-noise ratio facilitates substantial increase of the track density. Photolithographic definition and etching of the gap-vias to the bottom pole-tip, followed by deposition of the top pole-tip, facilitates precise and consistent control of the width of the pinched-gap segment (and the written track) drawn to .ltoreq.1 .mu.m.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to magnetic thin film heads (TFH) for recording and reading magnetic transitions on a moving magnetic medium.
2. Background of the Invention
Magnetic TFH transducers are known in the prior-art. See, e.g. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,016,601; 4,190,872; 4,652,954; 4,791,719 for inductive devices and U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,190,871 and 4,315,291 for magnetoresistive (MR) devices.
In the operation of a typical inductive TFH device, a moving magnetic storage medium is placed near the exposed pole-tips of the TFH transducer. During the read operation, the changing magnetic flux of the moving storage medium induces changing magnetic flux upon the pole-tips and gap between them. The magnetic flux is carried through the pole-tips and back-portion core around spiralling conductor coil winding turns located between the core arms. The changing magnetic flux induces an electrical voltage across the conductor coil. The electrical voltage is representative of the magnetic pattern stored on the moving magnetic storage medium. During the write operation, an electrical current is caused to flow through the conductor coil. The current in the coil induces a magnetic field across the gap between the pole-tips. A fringe field extends into the nearby moving magnetic storage medium, inducing (or writing) a magnetic domain (in the medium) in the same direction. Impressing current pulses of alternating polarity across the coil causes the writing of magnetic domains of alternating polarity in the storage medium. Magneto-resistive (MR) TFH devices can only operate in the read mode. The electrical resistance of an MR element varies with its magnetization orientation. Magnetic flux from the moving magnetic storage medium induces changes in this orientation. As a result, the resistance of the MR element to a sensing electric current changes accordingly. The varying voltage signal is representative of the magnetic pattern stored on the magnetic medium.
Prior-art magnetic recording inductive thin film heads include top and bottom magnetic core pole layers, usually of the alloy Ni--Fe (permalloy), connected through a via in the back-portion area, and separated by a thin gap layer between the pole-tips in the front of the device. The bottom pole-tip is usually designed to be wider than the top pole-tip in order to prevent "wraparound" due to misregistration or misalignment, as taught by R. E. Jones in U.S. Pat. No. 4,219,855. Alternatively, one or both pole-tips are trimmed by ion-milling or by reactive ion etching (RIE) to ensure similar width and proper alignment. Such a technique is disclosed, for example, by U. Cohen et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 5,141,623. As the track width decreases in order to increase the recording density, the write head pole-tips must be very narrow. P. K. Wang et al. describe elaborate schemes to obtain pole-tips for writing very narrow track width, in IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, Vol. 27, No. 6, pp. 4710-4712, November 1991.
One of the problems associated with the prior-art pole-tip designs is that during write operations, substantial noise is introduced along the track-edges (on the magnetic storage medium), which adds to the noise generated by the medium during read operations. During the write operations, significant portions of the intense magnetic flux lines, emanating from the corners and side-edges of the pole-tips, deviate from a direction parallel to the track's length. The non-parallel magnetic field magnetizes the medium in the wrong directions, giving rise to noise along the track-edges. This noise is usually characterized as "track-edge fringing noise" and is a major obstacle to increasing the track density. According to a paper by J. L. Su and K. Ju in IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, Vol. 25, No. 5, pp 3384-3386, September 1989, the track-edge noise extends about 2.5 .mu.m on each side of the written track. As track density increases, the track width decreases along with the strength of the read-back signal. If the track-edge fringing noise remains the same, then the signal to noise ratio (SNR) is directly proportional to the track width, and deteriorates rapidly as the latter decreases. The current state-of-the-art magnetic thin film media can support lineal density of about 40,000-60,000 flux changes per inch (FCI), corresponding to domain length of about 0.4-0.7 .mu.m. Yet, the track width is at least an order of magnitude larger, about 8-12 .mu.m. There is no apparent reason why the media could not support much narrower tracks, if not for the rapid deterioration of the SNR. By eliminating most of the track-edge fringing noise, the useful track width could be decreased to about 1.0 .mu.m, or less. This represents an increase of recording density by about an order of magnitude.
In addition to the medium's noise, there is also the head's noise. A significant portion of the head's noise is due to edge-closure domains in the pole-tips. This noise contribution becomes more dominant as the width of the pole-tips decreases. This problem was described, for example, by D. A. Herman in Paper No. 299, "Laminated Soft Magnetic Materials", The Electrochemical Society Conference, Hollywood, Fla., October 1989.

Pinched-gap magnetic recording thin film head


To distinguish between gestures and handwriting, the pen subsystem examines the size of the user's writing. The user may set the gesture versus text size according to his/her handwriting style. In this manner, the user knows exactly how large to make the gestures. If the user declines to customize the setting, the pen subsystem can query other user settings that indicate approximate size of the user's handwriting. A third choice available the system dynamically determine and track the size of handwriting. This would allow multiple users to serially use the computer without having to change settings.

The invention broadly relates to data processing systems. The invention has particular application in a multitasking pen computer system in which a user enters hand printed characters and symbols using a stylus to be interpreted as text and gesture commands.
Pen computers are a class of computers that employ a stylus and sensor as an input device. A pen software subsystem, which may be integrated into or an adjunct to the operating system, processes pen input for the purposes of recognizing stylus input as mouse input commands, hand printed characters (text) or hand printed symbols known as gestures. Gestures are typically used to invoke a function such as opening or closing a window.
For example, the pen subsystem of the OS/2 operating system, Pen for OS/2, permits users to write characters directly into a graphical user interface (GUI) window which are subsequently sent to gesture and/or handwriting recognition engines for recognition. One default method of distinguishing between gestures and handwriting is used by the system by treating the hand printed shapes as gestures unless the window is one that accepts text, such as an edit field or a text entry window.
Preferably, the pen operating subsystem will facilitate pen input into all applications that are executed by the computer system, most of which are "unaware" of the stylus input. The typical application program today is written only to accept mouse and keyboard input and is unaware of the function rich programming interface allowed by pen input. To improve ease of use and provide good human factors, it is greatly preferred that the pen subsystem make these pen-unaware applications look and feel, from a user interface point of view, like the applications which are pen-aware and take advantage of the pen functionality.
Pen for OS/2 provides for the recognition of hand drawn shapes as either gesture symbols or as characters (text). Since the advent of pen-computing, designers have struggled to develop recognition engines that accurately recognize both gestures and text. Though tremendous improvements have been realized, even state of the art recognition engines still have problems distinguishing between gestures and text. This is due to the similar shapes of some gestures and some letters. Indeed, unless the system uses highly complex and user unfriendly gestures, because of the range of strokes and shapes in the alphabet and numerals, many of the useful gestures will have some similarity to existing letters.
As an example, any pen operating systems support the circle gesture because of its usefulness. However, if a circle is drawn on top of a word processor window, the system must decide if the user is: 1) drawing a circle gesture, 2) writing a zero, 3) writing an uppercase O, or 4) writing a lower case o? The same ambiguity applies to a single down stroke known as a `flick down` gesture. Is it a flick down gesture, the letter l, the letter I, or a 1 (one)? There are other examples, but these two suffice to demonstrate the difficulty of distinguishing gestures from text.
The ambiguity of the two examples above can be resolved in many cases by examining the context in which the character was written. In fact, a well written pen application will often resolve it by limiting the input of certain windows to numerals, alpha characters, alpha-numeric characters, or gestures only. Known as recognition constraining, limiting the possible results of the recognition engine significantly increases recognition accuracy. Another common technique of pen designers is to build a library of gesture shapes that are unlike any letter of the alphabet or digit. Unfortunately, this eliminates important gestures like circle, down flick, caret, down-left, X and question mark. Each of these gestures are intuitive, memorable and easily drawn and eliminating them would hurt usability. Pen For OS/2 users can write a question mark gesture on any window to bring up a help window. A problem exists when editing a memo; how could the user change a period to a question mark without having help pop up? In Pen for OS/2, any window that accepts keyboard input is enabled for both gesture and text recognition. Because the pen subsystem is largely unaware of the application environment, it is very difficult to distinguish gestures and text by context. Windows that do not accept text in pen aware applications do not have this problem because they are constrained to gesture only recognition.
Also worth noting is that Pen For OS/2 supports 26 letter gestures where the letter gesture is drawn by writing the upper case letter followed by a period or `tap`. The tap is the distinguishing feature between letter gestures and normal letters. However, in some cases, the tap introduces ambiguity: i.e. is it an upper/lower case letter and period?
One serious useability problem that persists is that users sometimes get different results after writing what seems to be the exact same character. This inability of the user to predict or control the recognition results leads to high levels of frustration and reduced productivity. Unfortunately, the prior art techniques that heavily constrain recognition and constrain recognition to a smaller subset of characters and symbols only are effective in certain situations, i.e. when properly designed into a pen aware application. For general, commonly used applications which are not pen aware, the user is hindered by the inability of the prior art to predictably distinguish between gestures and handwriting.
The present invention is an improvement over the prior art for distinguishing gesture input from handwriting input.

Distinguishing gestures from handwriting in a pen based computer by size discrimination

International Business Machines Corporation


The present invention provides compositions and methods of using the EPHB2 gene or its related signaling pathways to detect, prognosticate, assess the risk of, prevent, or treat cancers. Cancers amenable to the present invention include, but are not limited to, prostate cancer, breast cancer, and neuroblastoma. In one aspect, the present invention provides compositions which comprise an agent capable of eradicating or alleviating an abnormality in the EPHB2 gene or its related signaling pathways. This abnormality may cause or contribute to the development or progression of cancers. In another aspect, the present invention provides methods comprising detecting an abnormality in the EPHB2 gene or its related signaling pathways. The presence or absence of such an abnormality is indicative of the risk or disease status of cancer in a person of interest.

Inactivation of tumor-suppression genes (TSGs) in cancer is often a two-step process, involving a mutation of the target gene and additional loss of the wild-type allele. Mapping of chromosomal deletions and losses of heterozygosity in cancer cells has been widely applied to guide the identification of TSGs. However, this approach alone is slow, labor-intensive and complicated by genomic instability, often leading to numerous candidate regions to study. In an alternative approach, the nonsense-mediated RNA decay (NMD) mechanism, which normally targets transcripts with nonsense mutations for rapid degradation, can be blocked to cause differential stabilization of genes that harbor truncating mutations. By using microarrays to measure transcript levels following NMD inhibition, this approach has recently been proposed for genome-wide identification of mutated genes in cell lines.

Compositions and methods for prognosis of cancers

The Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen)


The driving unit includes an attaching portion, a first contact surface, and a second contact surface. The frame includes a receiving portion to which the attaching portion is attached, a first contact receiving surface with which the first contact surface is in contact, and a second contact receiving surface with which the second contact surface is in contact.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle headlight, particularly a project type headlight for a vehicle, which includes a plurality of light distribution patterns such as a low-beam light pattern and a high-beam light pattern.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a conventional vehicle headlight such as one disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2005-93182 consists of a light source that emits light, a reflector that reflects the light emitted by the light source, a projection lens that projects the reflection light from the reflector forward of a vehicle, a shade for changing the reflection light toward the projection lens from the reflector into a plurality of light beams capable of making a plurality of light distribution patterns, a spring and a driving unit configured to move the shade to a plurality of positions corresponding to the light beams, and a frame.
When the light source of the conventional vehicle headlight is turned on, the light emitted by the light source is reflected toward the shade and the projection lens on the reflection surface of the reflector, and the reflected light is projected forward of the vehicle from the projection lens. With a spring action and a driving action by the spring and the driving unit, the position of the shade is changed to a plurality of positions, so that the reflected light toward the projection lens from the reflector is changed into a plurality of light beams, enabling to make a plurality of light distribution patterns. Therefore, in such vehicle headlight, the driving unit needs to be fixed with high positional accuracy to the frame to change the position of the shade smoothly.


The method of selecting one of the resources for servicing a call includes determining a load level and a relative load capacity for each of candidate resources. The relative load capacity is based on a ratio of each candidate resource load capacity and total load capacity of all candidate resources. The candidate resource is selected by a relative ranking based on multiplication of each resource with each respective load level and each relative load capacity determination.

A code division multiple access (CDMA) cellular communication system normally has several radio frequency (RF) carriers. Each RF carrier is considered a resource for serving incoming calls. The incoming calls or the calls in progress served by a system resource is the load of that resource. Each resource has a load capacity.
The communication system may have a total loading capacity far more than what is required to maintain an optimum Frame Error Rate (FER) on all channels. Because the total load capacity may not be distributed evenly among all the RF carriers, or the RF carriers may be loaded unevenly, the FER is degraded for at least a period of time every time a new call is established on a carrier having a load level that is marginal for maintaining an optimum Frame Error Rate (FER). Other carriers may be available, however, which have an acceptable margin between the load level and the load capacity. As a result, an imbalance in loading capacity between RF carriers creates an environment for inefficient utilization of the total system loading capacity.
One suggestion to control loading of a system has been to load the carriers based on a ranking. The ranking of the carriers is based on the availability of resources and the load level of each carrier. For example, the best candidate is selected according to a minimum amount of load and the maximum amount of resources available for processing an incoming call. However, the initial control of a call setup on a carrier does not just effect that particular carrier per se; its effect uncontrollably propagates to carriers on the adjacent cells and sectors of the communication system.
For example, Interim Standard (IS)-95 CDMA communication standard, published by the Telecommunications Industry Association in Washington, DC, along with subsequent revisions thereof, requires the communication system to establish links on some of the adjacent cells or sectors for soft hand-offs. If the RF carrier load level in the adjacent cells or sectors is marginal with respect to its load capacity, these uncontrollable RF carrier assignments on adjacent cells or sectors may cause severe FER degradation. Thus, although a controlled method of initial call set up is devised, its effect on the RF carriers in the adjacent cells and sectors of the communication systems could be uncontrollable.
Therefore, there is a need to efficiently utilize the total loading capacity of a system when an imbalance of loading capacity exists among RF carriers, sectors or cells of the communication system.

Method and apparatus for selecting a resource in a communication system with resources having unbalanced load capacity


The subject matter of this specification can be implemented in, among other things, a method for refining search results. The method includes a step for receiving a request to refine search results, wherein the request identifies a first social circle to apply for refining the search results, wherein the first social circle comprises a preset group of contacts of a user within a social network service. The method also includes a step for retrieving search results based on the received request and a step for refining the retrieved search results based on the identified first social circle. The method also includes a step for providing at least a portion of the refined search results to an electronic device for display.

This instant specification relates to web searches, and in particular, to refining search results for web searches.
Web search results may be homogenous across large groups of people (e.g., in the same geography and language). In other words, the results for a particular search may be independent of the user for whom the search is being performed.


An electrical connector comprises a dielectric housing having a pair of accessory mounting stations integrally formed with the housing on respective opposite sides of the housing, and a pair of resilient latch arms extending forwardly from respective ones of the accessory mounting stations. In a preferred embodiment, each of the accessory mounting stations includes a lug extending laterally from the housing and a beam extending forwardly from the lug. The lugs are configured to be gripped by an accessory to the connector. The beams flank the housing and are spaced from the housing, thereby defining pockets which are configured to receive portions of the accessory.

An electrical connector which is terminated to ends of wires often has a strain relief which prevents any stresses that are applied to the wires from being transferred to wire joints in the connector, thereby preventing damage to the wire joints or pullout of the wires from the connector. Typical strain reliefs are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,108,527; 4,575,174; and 4,606,596. Each of these strain reliefs includes mating upper and lower cover members which are configured to substantially surround a connector housing. The cover members clamp onto wires at a rear of the connector housing and engage a flange or forward face of the connector housing. When the wires are subjected to a force tending to pull the wires out of the housing, the force is transferred by the cover members to the flange or forward face of the housing, thereby bypassing the wire joints and protecting the joints from damage.
The above-described strain reliefs are not well-suited for a panel mount electrical connector which resides in a cutout of a mounting panel because a cutout which is sized to accommodate a connector without a strain relief cannot accommodate a connector with a strain relief, and vice versa. Further, the typical strain relief cover requires a relatively large cutout. There is a need for an electrical connector which improves the mounting of a strain relief or other accessory on the connector.

Electrical connector having accessory mounting provision


The present invention relates to at least one improved human GLP-1 mimetibody or specified portion or variant, including isolated nucleic acids that encode at least one GLP-1 mimetibody or specified portion or variant, GLP-1 mimetibody or specified portion or variants, vectors, host cells, transgenic animals or plants, and methods of making and using thereof, including therapeutic compositions, methods and devices.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to improved mammalian GLP-1 mimetibodies, specified portions and variants specific for biologically active proteins, fragment or ligands, GLP-1 mimetibody encoding and complementary nucleic acids, host cells, and methods of making and using thereof, including therapeutic formulations, administration and devices.
2. Related Art
Recombinant proteins are an emerging class of therapeutic agents. Such recombinant therapeutics have engendered advances in protein formulation and chemical modification. Such modifications can potentially enhance the therapeutic utility of therapeutic proteins, such as by increasing half lives (e.g., by blocking their exposure to proteolytic enzymes), enhancing biological activity, or reducing unwanted side effects. One such modification is the use of immunoglobulin fragments fused to receptor proteins, such as enteracept. Therapeutic proteins have also been constructed using the Fc domain to attempt to provide a longer half-life or to incorporate functions such as Fc receptor binding, protein A binding, and complement fixation.
Diabetes is a growing epidemic that is estimated to affect over 300 million people by the year 2025 pending an effective pharmaceutical cure. Type 2 diabetes accounts for 90-95% of all cases. Complications resulting from sustained elevated plasma glucose levels include cardiovascular disease, nephropathy, neuropathy, and retinopathy. In addition, the β-cells of the pancreas die and therefore cease to secrete insulin during the later stages of type 2 diabetes. Current treatments for diabetes are associated with a variety of deleterious side effects including hypoglycemia and weight gain. In addition, current treatments for type 2 diabetes do not cure the disease but simply prolong the time until patients require insulin therapy.
Glucagon like peptide-1 (GLP-1) is a 37-amino acid peptide secreted from the L-cells of the intestine following an oral glucose challenge. A subsequent endogenous cleavage between the 6th and 7th position produces the biologically active GLP-1 (7-37) peptide. The GLP-1 (7-37) peptide sequence can be divided into 2 structural domains. The amino terminal domain of the peptide is involved in signaling while the remainder of the peptide appears to bind to the extracellular loops of the GLP-1 receptor in a helical conformation. In response to glucose, the active GLP-1 binds to the GLP-1 receptor on the pancreas and causes an increase in insulin secretion (insulinotropic action). In addition, it has been shown that GLP-1 reduces gastric emptying which decreases the bolus of glucose that is released into the circulation and may reduce food intake. These actions in combination lower blood glucose levels. GLP-1 has also been shown to inhibit apoptosis and increase proliferation of the β-cells in the pancreas. Thus, GLP-1 is an attractive therapeutic to lower blood glucose and preserve the β-cells of the pancreas of diabetic patients. In addition, GLP-1 activity is controlled by blood glucose levels. When blood glucose levels drop to a certain threshold level, GLP-1 is not active. Therefore, there is no risk of hypoglycemia associated with treatment involving GLP-1.
The viability of GLP-1 therapy has been demonstrated in the clinic. A six-week GLP-1 infusion lowered fasting and 8-hour mean plasma glucose levels effectively in type 2 diabetic patients. GLP-1 therapy also resulted in an improvement in β-cell function. Exenatide is a GLP-1 analogue currently in clinical trials. Exenatide was first identified in the saliva of the gila monster lizard, and is 53% identical to GLP-1. Exenatide can bind the GLP-1 receptor and initiate the signal transduction cascade responsible for the numerous activities that have been attributed to GLP-1 (7-37). To date, it has been shown to reduce HbA1c levels and serum fructosamine levels in patients with type 2 diabetes. In addition, it delayed gastric emptying and inhibited food intake in healthy volunteers.
However, GLP-1 is rapidly inactivated in vivo by the protease dipeptidyl-peptidase IV (DPP-IV). Therefore, the usefulness of therapy involving GLP-1 peptides has been limited by their fast clearance and short half-lives. For example, GLP-1 (7-37) has a serum half-life of only 3 to 5 minutes. GLP-1 (7-36) amide has a time action of about 50 minutes when administered subcutaneously. Even analogs and derivatives that are resistant to endogenous protease cleavage, do not have half-lives long enough to avoid repeated administrations over a 24 hour period. For example, exenatide is resistant to DPP-IV, yet it still requires twice daily preprandial dosing because of the short half-life and significant variability in in vivo pharmacokinetics. NN2211, another compound currently in clinical trials, is a lipidated GLP-1 analogue. It is expected to be dosed once daily.
Fast clearance of a therapeutic agent is inconvenient in cases where it is desired to maintain a high blood level of the agent over a prolonged period of time since repeated administrations will then be necessary. Furthermore, a long-acting compound is particularly important for diabetic patients whose past treatment regimen has involved taking only oral medication. These patients often have an extremely difficult time transitioning to a regimen that involves multiple injections of medication. A GLP-1 therapy that has an increased half-life would have a significant advantage over other GLP-1 peptides and compounds in development.
Accordingly, there is a need to provide improved and/or modified versions of GLP-1 therapeutic proteins, which overcome one more of these and other problems known in the art. The mimetibody technology provides a novel delivery platform for peptide therapeutics. A GLP-1 mimetibody may provide a means of delivering the GLP-1 peptide in a sustained manner, providing an improvement over GLP-1 peptides currently in development. Furthermore, based upon its dimeric structure and its tissue distribution characteristics, a GLP-1 mimetibody could have differentiable features with regard to insulin secretion, β-cell preservation, and food intake.

Pharmaceutical composition comprising a human GLP-1 mimetibody


Grating configurations are described for creating time sequenced field of view (FOV) tiles for a waveguide display. Pairings of non-output diffraction gratings and output diffraction gratings are activated to create a number of FOV tiles in a time sequence, for example in a frame update period for the image. Examples of a non-output grating are an input grating and a fold grating. For a set of at least three gratings used to make the pairings, each non-output grating is paired with each output grating. The number of pairings, and so the number of FOV tiles, is equal to a product of the total number of non-output gratings and the total number of output gratings. At least one diffraction grating in the pairing is an active pairing. Also described is a multiplexed diffraction grating including multiplexed K-vectors which increases the overall angular bandwidth for both incidence and diffraction.

Waveguides can be used in displays, in a variety of sizes, for example for televisions to near-eye displays (NED)s. A typical example of a near-eye display is a head mounted display (HMD).
In an exemplary waveguide display, for example one as exemplified by Upatnieks U.S. Pat. No. 4,711,512, light is coupled into a waveguide mode by an input diffractive element and coupled out to the eye by a second diffractive element. The practical field of view in which data can be displayed by a waveguide display is around thirty (30) degrees due to the range of angles that can be supported by the waveguide. For example, crown glass such as N-BK7 has a refractive index of approximately 1.52 which makes the critical angle for supporting total internal reflection approximately 42.2° in glass. At the other end of the range, light could go parallel to the waveguide surface but this would not be practical since the light would not intercept the second output diffractive element to enable out-coupling of the light. Furthermore, the period between reflections has to be managed such that no gaps can appear in the exit pupil (a balance between parameters such as entrance pupil size, angle of reflection and thickness of the waveguide. There is therefore a practical limit for the angle range beyond a critical angle.
One way of increasing the field of view (FOV) is to have multiple waveguide layers, each covering a different angular portion. If Bragg Gratings are used to couple light into and out of the waveguide, they typically have angular bandwidth limitations lower than what can be supported in the waveguide. For example, this could be limited to 10 degrees angular bandwidth In this spatial approach, the number of layers can start making the waveguide too thick for a consumer product. Another approach for expanding the field of view has been to use multiple switchable gratings for time sequentially generating the field of view fast enough so a user does not notice flicker. In a typical HMD geometry, whether using fixed or switchable gratings in either a spatial or time layering of the FOV, the angular bandwidth provided by each can go down to less than 10 degrees in the tangential direction.

Grating configurations for a tiled waveguide display


A reader for reading radio frequency identification (RFID) tags of a fiber router. The reader includes a main body and a scanner portion. The main body includes a circuit board and at least one indicating lamp electrically connected to the circuit board. The scanner portion is coupled to the main body and includes at least one scanning protrusion. Each scanning protrusion corresponds to one of the at least one indicating lamps, each scanning protrusion includes an antenna electrically connected to the circuit board, and each antenna corresponds to the indicating lamp. Each antenna receives information from a RFID tag and transmits the information to the circuit board, and the circuit board controls the corresponding indicating lamp to emit indicating colors according to the information received by each of the antennas.

Optical Distribution Network (ODN) is used in Fiber to the x (FTTx) technic of telecommunication. Due to the ODN is a one-to-many standard, in one optical network connection spot can be coupled by multiple branch circuitries for transceiving network signals. There is a paper tag pasted on one branch circuitry for being identified. However, it's difficult for staff to manage multiple branch circuitries, especially when searching, inventorying, and maintaining are needed. Therefore staff may spend a great time may on daily management and has a low working efficiency.

Fu Tai Hua Industry (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd.


A method for preparing a beverage or liquid from a food substance contained in a filtering receptacle by passing water through the substance using brewing centrifugal forces. The method includes feeding water into the receptacle, and driving the receptacle in centrifugal rotation to force water to flow through the substance in a centrifugal flow path to the outlet of the receptacle. The receptacle is a sealed capsule which is opened for water to be introduced into the capsule, contains a predetermined dose of food substance and is discarded after use.

The present invention relates to a method for preparing a beverage or liquid food from a food substance which is brewed or extracted by using centrifuge forces exerted on a receptacle which contains the substance. The invention also relates to a system for carrying out the method.
It is known to prepare beverages wherein a mixture consisting of brewed coffee and coffee powder is separated with centrifugal forces. Such a mixture is obtained by bringing hot water and coffee powder together for a defined time. The water is then forced through a screen, on which screen powder material is present.
Existing systems consist of placing the coffee powder in a receptacle which is usually a non-removable part of a machine such as in EP 0367 600B1. Such devices have many disadvantages. Firstly, the coffee powder must be properly dosed manually in the receptacle. Secondly, the spinned coffee waste becomes dry and it must be removed by scraping the surface of the receptacle. As a result, the coffee preparation requires a lot of manual handling and is so very time consuming. Usually coffee freshness can also vary a lot and this can impact on the cup quality because coffee comes generally from bulk package or coffee is ground from beans in the receptacle itself.
Also, depending on the manual dosage of coffee and the brewing conditions (e.g., centrifugal speed, receptacle size) the cup quality can vary a lot.
Therefore, these systems have never reached an important commercial success.
In DE 102005007852, the machine comprises a removable holder into which an open cup-shaped part of the receptacle is placed; the other part or lid being attached to a driving axis of the machine. The advantage is to be able to conveniently remove and clean the receptacle. However, a disadvantage is the intensive manual handling. Another disadvantage is the difficulty to control quality of the coffee due to a lack of control for the dosing of the powder and a lack of control of the freshness of the coffee powder.
Other devices for brewing coffee by centrifuge forces are described in WO 2006/112691; FR2624364; EP0367600; GB225336; FR2686007; EP0749713; DE4240429; EP0651963; FR2726988; DE4439252; EP0367600; FR2132310; FR2513106; FR2487661; DE3529053.
The effect of centrifugal forces to brew coffee or other food substances presents many advantages compared to normal "espresso" type brewing methods using high pressure pumps. In "espresso" types brewing methods, it is very difficult to master all the parameters which influence the quality of extraction of coffee. These parameters are typically the pressure, the flow rate which decreases with the pressure, the compaction of the coffee powder which also influences the flow characteristics and which depends on the coffee ground particle size, the temperature, the water flow distribution and so on.
Therefore, there is a need for proposing a new extraction process and a capsule adapted therefore for which the extraction parameters can be better and more independently controlled and therefore can be better mastered for controlling quality of the final brewed liquid.
There is also a need for providing a system capable of brewing different kinds of beverages, in particular, coffee beverages, for example, espresso, filter coffee or café latte, while adjusting the brewing characteristics of each beverage so that the optimum beverage can be obtained. In particular, there is a need for a versatile system which provides an easy, simple way of controlling the brewing parameters, in particular, the brewing pressure range on the bed of substance.
At the same time, there is a need for a method which is more convenient compared to the prior art centrifugal devices and which provides a better in-cup quality with a higher control of important quality parameters such as freshness and dosage in the receptacle.

Method for preparing a beverage or liquid food and system using brewing centrifugal force


According to one embodiment, a magnetic resonance imaging apparatus includes processing circuitry. The processing circuitry sets an excitation pulse sequence that applies an excitation pulse including an inversion pulse between at least one set of sub pulses of a local excitation radio frequency pulse formed of a plurality of sub pulses, and applies a spoiler gradient magnetic field that disperses transverse magnetization while applying the inversion pulse. The processing circuitry controls execution of the excitation pulse sequence by applying the excitation pulse and the spoiler gradient magnetic field according to the excitation pulse sequence, and collects a magnetic resonance signal based on a data collecting sequence after execution of the excitation pulse sequence.

There is a two-dimensional local excitation method that selects and excites not only a slice surface but also one direction within the surface in an imaging area. In the two-dimensional local excitation method, an excitation pulse for slice selection is divided into a plurality of sub pulses and applied, a phase change is generated on an imaging surface in an excitation period of the sub pulses, and a space selective excitation characteristic is obtained also in a direction where the phase change is generated.
However, in the two-dimensional local excitation method, when inhomogeneity of a static magnetic field is present, there is a problem that an excitation position is shifted in a gradient direction of a gradient magnetic field by the phase change among the sub pulses. In particular, when excitation time becomes long in a case where the number of the sub pulses is large or the like, the phase change will adversely effect.

Magnetic resonance imaging apparatus and magnetic resonance imaging method


A weapon (104) including a stock, a barrel assembly (105) slidably mounted on said stock whereby, on discharging said weapon, the barrel assembly (105) slidably recoils relative to said stock, and a damper (107) for decelerating the recoiling barrel assembly, wherein said barrel assembly (105) includes a plurality of projectiles axially disposed within a barrel (108) wherein each of said projectiles is associated with a discrete propellant charge for propelling said projectile from the barrel. Suitably the weapon further includes a breech block (109) which slidably recoils relative to said stock and a further damper (106) for decelerating the recoiling breech block.

International Patent Application No. PCT/AU94/00124 relates to firearms of the type described. Field tests of prototype versions of firearms utilizing barrels of the type described have shown that such barrel assemblies perform to expectations. However the inventor has proposed useful variations, including munitions, as well as improvements which may assist in either the efficient production of such firearms or facilitate their performance or usability. Furthermore the inventor envisages that single barrel rates of fire in excess of 40,000 rounds/minute may be achievable in practice and this possibility creates further scope for munitions of conventional style and firearms utilizing barrels of the type described.

Projectile and method for sealing a projectile in a barrel