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<SOH> SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION <EOH>According to a first embodiment of the present invention as claimed in claim 1 , this is achieved by providing an improved method of transmitting data over a communication network to which at least three computer systems are connected, wherein said method comprises sending a first message from a first one of said at least three computer systems to a second one of said at least three computer systems, with said first message containing at least a first code and data. Additionally, the inventive method comprises sending a second message from the second computer system to at least one of the at least three computer systems, with said second message containing a second code as well as the first code and the data. Furthermore, the method comprises sending a third message from the first computer system to the third computer system, with said third message containing a third code as well as encoded data containing the second code and the data. Moreover, according to the method of the present invention, the third computer system performs the steps of: decoding the encoded data to extract the second code and the data from the encoded data; generating a fourth code on the basis of the third code; comparing the extracted data with the data contained in the second message; comparing the extracted code with the second code contained in the second message; comparing the fourth code with the first code contained in the second message. According to another aspect of the present invention as claimed in claim 14 there is further provided a system for transmitting data over a computer network, wherein said system comprises at least a first computer system, a second computer system and a third computer system adapted to be connected to the communication network, with said at least first computer system being adapted to send at least a first message to at least the second computer system, with said first message containing at least a first code and additional data. Moreover, according to the inventive system, said at least second computer system is adapted to send at least a second message to the third computer system, with said second message containing a second code as well as the first code and the additional data. Furthermore, according to the system of the present invention, said at least first computer system is adapted to send at least a third message to the at least third computer system, with said third message containing a third code as well as encoded data containing the second code and the additional data. Additionally, said at least third computer system comprises means for performing the following steps: decoding the encoded data to extract the second code and the additional data; generating a fourth code on the basis of the third code; comparing the extracted data with the additional data contained in the second message; comparing the extracted code with the second code contained in the second message; comparing the fourth code with the first code contained in the second message. According to a still preferred embodiment of the present invention as claimed in claim 25 there is provided a system for transmitting data over a computer network, with said system comprising at least a first computer system and a second computer system both adapted to be connected to the communication network, wherein said at least first computer system is adapted to send at least a first message to the at least second computer system, with said first message containing a first code as well as encoded data containing a second code and additional data. Moreover, according to the system of the this preferred embodiment of the present invention, said at least second computer system comprising means for performing the following steps: decoding the encoded data to extract the second code and the additional data from the encoded data; generating a third code on the basis of the first code; comparing the extracted additional data with corresponding data contained in a second message; comparing the extracted code with a corresponding code contained in the second message; comparing the third code with a corresponding code contained in the second message. Further preferred embodiments of the present invention are defined in the appended dependent claims. The method according to the present invention is based on the following concepts. The user and the merchant communicate on a specific channel by using predefined codes (a first code identifying the user and, optionally, a second code identifying the merchant). The user and the account manager communicate on another specific channel and the user transmits to the account manager a third code identifying the user as well as encoded data containing the second code identifying the merchant and data relating to the order. The encoded data are encoded by the user according to a predefined encoding key. Correspondingly, the encoded data are decode by the account manager according to a predefined decoding key assigned to the encoding key used by the user. The merchant and the account manager communicate on still another specific channel and the merchant transmits to the account manager the first code identifying the user, the second code identifying the merchant and the data relating to the order. The account manager decodes the encoded data received by the user and generates a fourth code identifying the user on the basis of the third code identifying the user. By decoding the encoded data, comparing the fourth generated code identifying the user with the code identifying the user as submitted by the merchant and comparing the data contained in the messages received by the user and the merchant, the account manager verifies the identity of both the user and the merchant as well as the data relating to the order. Only once the identity of the subjects of the transactions has been verified, the order is executed and the transfer of the corresponding amount from the account of the user to the account of the merchant is disposed. By preventing unauthorized subjects from gaining access to the confidential data of the user and by avoiding manipulation of the data relating to the order specified in the transaction, the method and the system according to the present invention allow the avoidance of any interference by unauthorized subjects as well as any other manipulation. In case of manipulation and/or unauthorized interference, the transaction is stopped. The messages sent during a transaction executed according to the method of the present invention are at least partially encoded and none of said messages contain the entire data relating to the order and the identity of the subjects involved in the transaction. Accordingly, in order to be able to execute an unauthorized transaction, a fraudulent person would first have to execute the following operations: steal the user's credit card or intercept the number of the credit card over the internet; (when another card is used, for instance a card specially delivered to users who intend to use the present method, said special card or even another similar document should be stolen) steal the list of the encoding keys used for encoding the data contained in the message sent from the user to the account manager as well as the code identifying said list; violate, via the communication network, the server of the account manager so as to obtain the copies of the encoding and decoding keys assigned to the user; steal the code identifying the user; send to the account manager over the communication network the data relating to the fictional transaction and firstly assume the identity of the user and then that of the merchant. to be a real merchant; in fact, if the identifying code transmitted to the account manager does not correspond to that of an authorized merchant the account manager prevents any transfer of money. As a result, it is highly unlikely that all of these operations could be carried out. Furthermore, according to a preferred embodiment of the method of the present invention, once the transaction has been executed, the encoding keys used by the user are deactivated and can no longer be used. Fraud on the part of the merchant is also avoided since the account manager does not confirm transfers of amounts other than those indicated by the user. Moreover, by means of the code identifying the merchant, the user could recognize the identity of a merchant who manipulates the data of the order. The method according to the present invention is of great advantage to the account manager as well; in fact, the account manager acts as an arbitrator of the transactions, since he is able to identify the identity of the participants in the transaction as well as the information transmitted by the same before the authorization is given to transfer any amount, thereby reducing the probability that fraud will be committed. The codes used for at least partially encoding the data contained in the messages, together with the way said codes are communicated to the user as well as the double control of the data of the transaction, render the method according to the present invention suitable for execution commercial transactions with minimum risk yet with very high ease. |
Method, network device, and terminal device for controlling context activation |
The present invention relates to a method, a network device (2), and a terminal device (1) for controlling the activation of packet data protocol context in a network supporting packet switched transmission of data units. A push information element HSS Push IE is added to a data base (4′) containing information to control push services. This push information element Push IE is sent to a network device (2) with a support node functionality. This push information element is evaluated. Thus, network requested context activation procedures is controlled to thereby reduce the number of unnecessary context activations. |
1-16. (canceled). 17. A method for controlling the activation of a packet data protocol context in a network supporting packet switched transmission of data units, comprising the steps of: a) storing a data base push information element in a data base, b) sending a routing information request from a network device to said data base, said routing information being destined for routing a data unit received by said network device from the network to a terminal device, c) receiving said network device a routing information response from said data base, and d) evaluating said routing information response with regard to said data base push information element, said data base push information element containing information for controlling push services, e) wherein said network device decides based on said evaluation of said routing information response whether or not to send a data unit notification request from said network device to said terminal device or to a serving support node serving the terminal device. 18. A method according to claim 17, wherein said network device acts like if said terminal device would have had refused the packet data protocol context activation in case of the network device having decided not to send said data unit notification request to said terminal device. 19. A method according to claim 17, wherein said network device sends a data unit notification request containing a network device push information element to said terminal device or said serving support note in case of said network device having decided that said data base push information element allows push services to the terminal device. 20. A method according to claim 19, wherein said terminal device uses said network device push information element contained in said data unit notification request or in a packet data protocol context activation request sent from said serving support node to said terminal device to decide whether or not to activate a PDP context on the basis of said information element. 21. A method according to claim 19, wherein said data base push information element contains information a) whether or not push services are allowed, and/or b) what type of quality of service connection is allowed. 22. A method according to claim 19, wherein said network device push information element contains information derived from the data unit, in particular a) an internet protocol address of the data unit source; and/or b) an application and/or port number of the data unit source. 23. A method according to claim 17, wherein said data base responds to said network device with said data base push information element contained in said routing information response only if said terminal device is reachable. 24. A method according to claim 17, wherein said network device is a general packet radio services support node, in particular a gateway general packet radio services support node. 25. A method according to claim 17, wherein said network is a general packet radio services network. 26. A method according to claim 17, wherein said data unit is an internet protocol packet. 27. A network device for controlling the activation of a packet data protocol context in a network supporting packet switched transmission of data units comprising: a) generation means for generating a routing information request, the routing information being destined for routing a data unit received by said network device from the network to a terminal device; b) transceiver means for sending said routing information request to a data base storing said routing information and for receiving a routing information response from said data base; c) evaluation means for evaluating said routing information response with regard to a data base push information element being stored in said data base, said data base push information element containing information for controlling push services; and d) decision means for deciding based on said evaluation of said routing information response whether or not to send a data unit notification request to said terminal device or to a serving support node serving said terminal device. 28. A network device according to claim 27, further comprising means for performing a method according to claim 17. 29. A terminal device for controlling the activation of a packet data protocol context in a network supporting packet switched transmission of data units comprising: a) transceiver means for receiving a request for activating said packet data protocol context by sending a corresponding message, and b) decision means for deciding whether or not to activate a packet data protocol context, and c) evaluation means for evaluating said request with regard to push information element for controlling push services, said element being contained in said request; d) said decision means being designed to decide whether or not to activate a packet data protocol context on the basis of said push information element. 30. A terminal device according to claim 29, characterized by means for performing a method according to claim 17. |
<SOH> BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION <EOH>In common mobile communication networks two main techniques for a data transmission are used: circuit switched data transmission and packet switched data transmission. In the circuit switched domain a network establishes an interconnection for data transmission by allocating a radio channel to a mobile station, when a network host or service provider intends to transmit data via the network. Then data is transmitted via the network after the interconnection has been established. The radio channel is occupied by the mobile station during the entire duration of the interconnection, even though in many cases only a small amount of data has to be transmitted. However, regularly a subscriber is charged for the entire duration of the interconnection. This type of circuit switched data transmission is used in GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) networks. In the packet switched domain the network transmits a data packet only when required, i.e. when data transmission has to be carried out. Thus, several mobile stations can use the same radio channel at a time. If a mobile station generates a data packet, the network routes that packet via a first unattached radio channel to a recipient. Thus, as data transmission frequently consists of data bursts, the radio channels can be used in an efficient manner. This type of packet switched data transmission is used in GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) systems. However, the GPRS system may be provided as an additional service in existing GSM systems. Thus, a network develops that supports circuit switched as well as packet switched data transmission. Recent packet data mobile stations enable access to the internet and to intranets. Therefore, the GPRS data transmission uses particularly the internet protocol (IP). If a mobile station is attached to a GPRS system and a PDP (Packet Data Protocol) context is activated, a terminal equipment is able to send data packets via the mobile station to the uplink. Vice versa, a host can use the downlink to send data packets to the terminal equipment. These data packets are routed by a gateway GPRS support node (GGSN) and a serving GPRS support node (SGSN) to the correct addresses. However, before sending data packets the mobile station has to carry out a GPRS attach and a PDP context activation. The GPRS attach informs the network that the mobile station is available. The attach is established by the mobile station and the SGSN. Furthermore, after the GPRS attach is established, the mobile station carries out a PDP context activation. The PDP context activation makes the mobile station known to the corresponding GGSN. Thereupon, data transmission via the GGSN to external networks is enabled. Such PDP context activation may be requested by either the network or the mobile station. In GPRS systems and UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System), as described in technical specification “ETSI TS 123 060, V3.2.1 (2000-01)” published by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute, a network requested PDP context activation is used, when a GGSN receives a data packet to an address the corresponding mobile station has no PDP context active for. The GGSN sends a PDU (Protocol Data Unit) notification request to the mobile station, which decides based on the information contained in that request whether it wants to activate the PDP context in question or not. However, in numerous cases a context activation is not desired from the mobile station point-of-view. In these cases the PDP context activation is refused or deactivated immediately by the mobile station. However, this is disadvantageously since a large amount of unnecessary PDP context activations is generated. |
<SOH> SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION <EOH>It is therefore an object of the present invention to reduce the amount of context activations. This object is achieved by a method for controlling the activation of a packet data protocol context in a network supporting packet switched transmission of data units, comprising the steps of: storing a data base push information element in a data base, sending a routing information request from a network device to said data base, said routing information being destined for routing a data unit received by said network device from the network to a terminal device, receiving by said network device a routing information response from said data base, and evaluating said routing information response with regard to said data base push information element, said data base push information element containing information for controlling push services. Furthermore, the above object is achieved by a network device for controlling the activation of a packet data protocol context in a network supporting packet switched transmission of data units comprising generation means for generating a routing information request, the routing information being destined for routing a data unit received by said network device from the network to a terminal device, transceiver means for sending said routing information request to a data base storing said routing information and for receiving a routing information response from said data base, and evaluation means for evaluating said routing information response with regard to a data base push information element being stored in said data base, said data base push information element containing information for controlling push services. Furthermore, the above object is achieved by a terminal device for controlling the activation of a packet data protocol context in a network supporting packet switched transmission of data units comprising transceiver means for receiving a request for activating said packet data protocol context by sending a corresponding message, and decision means for deciding whether or not to activate a packet data protocol context, and evaluation means for evaluating said request with regard to a push information element for controlling push services, said element being contained in said request, said decision means being designed to decide whether or not to activate a packet data protocol context on the basis of said push information element. The main idea of the present invention is to provide an extra information regarding so-called push services, namely said push information element. A push service is defined as a service which is initiated from the network side and not by the user of the terminal device, e.g. a proactive delivery of information from a GPRS support node (GSN) such as a GGSN or any other gateway, such as a WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) gateway, to a terminal device or a mobile terminal, such as a WAP terminal. This extra information allows a screening process with regard to the establishing of context activation. Thus, unnecessary PDP context activation can be reduced. Such a reduction saves network resources and thus saves costs. Preferably, the network device decides in a first phase of the screening process based on the evaluation of the routing information response whether or not to send a data unit notification request from the network device to the terminal device or to a serving support node serving the terminal device. In this phase the number of PDP context activations is reduced by a first amount. Preferably, the terminal device uses in a second phase of the screening process a network device push information element contained in a data unit notification request or a packet data control context activation request sent from a serving support node to the terminal device to decide whether or not to activate a PDP context. Thus, the number of PDP context activations is reduced by a second amount. Advantageous developments are defined in the dependent claims. |
Retaining element for a portable computer device |
A mounting support for a portable computing device is described, the mounting support being at least part of a drawer. The mounting support is mounted in a drawer that may be inserted an instrument panel of a motor vehicle. The mounting support is used for the secure accommodation and the simple operation of the computing device, particularly in a motor vehicle. |
1-10. (Canceled) 11. A mounting support, in a vehicle, for a portable computing device having at least one of a keyboard and a video screen, the mounting support comprising: a drawer slidably movable relative to a housing such that the drawer is substantially enclosed within the housing in a closed position, the drawer having an upper surface including a depression; wherein the computing device is adapted to be situated within the depression and covered when the drawer is in the closed position relative to the housing, and wherein the drawer houses a driver information device. 12. The mounting support of claim 11, wherein the housing includes an installation compartment configured to receive and support the drawer and the computing device. 13. The mounting support of claim 11, further comprising: electrical contacts coupled to the shelf for electrically coupling the computing device. 14. The mounting support of claim 13, wherein the electrical contacts enable data transmission. 15. The mounting support of claim 11, wherein the drawer has a front panel that includes an operating element for enabling a motor-actuated opening of the drawer. 16. The mounting support of claim 11, wherein the drawer includes operating elements via which the computing device can be controlled. 17. The mounting support of claim 11, wherein the computing device includes flaps and is configured in the drawer such that at least one of the the video screen and the flaps of the computing device open automatically when the drawer is opened. 18. The mounting support of claim 11, further comprising: a positioning means for positioning the computing device, the positioning means being rotatable such that when the drawer is opened, the computing device rotates out of a position of rest in the drawer. 19. A computing device for insertion into a mounting support, the mounting support including a slidably movable drawer having an upper surface including a depression, the computing device comprising: electrical contact elements electrically coupled to operating elements situated on the drawer; wherein, when the computing device is inserted into the drawer and the drawer is pushed in, the computing device is operable via the operating elements situated on the drawer. |
<SOH> BACKGROUND INFORMATION <EOH>An operating element for an automobile radio device is described in German Published Patent Application No. 198 03 178, and is designed as a portable, so-called personal digital assistant (PDA). The PDA is used as a portable computer that allows data to be transmitted to the radio device, and which can be used for the storage of addresses and telephone numbers. Its operation is performed via a touch screen monitor, which is situated on the operating element. For the operation of the car radio, it is necessary to mount the operating element in a mounting support. |
<SOH> SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION <EOH>A mounting support according to the present invention for a portable computing device has the advantage that the mounting support is at least a part of a drawer, and the computing device is able to be covered up by pushing the drawer in. This ensures a secure mounting of a portable computer device in a motor vehicle, particularly during travel. As opposed to simply sticking a portable computing device onto a mounting support, the portable computing unit is safeguarded better against release out of the mounting support during a powerful acceleration or braking, such as in an accident. Furthermore, when the driver leaves the vehicle, and does not wish to take the computing device with him, the computing device is covered up by mounting it in the mounting support and the drawer is pushed in, which prevents temptation of theft. In addition, by mounting the device in a mounting support according to the present invention, a video screen and/or a keyboard of the computing device can be positioned in a more user-friendly manner, in comparison to an operating element that is attached from the front. According to an embodiment of the present invention, the mounting support may be situated in a driver information device, such as a car radio. This makes it possible to input special functions of the driver information device via the computing device. In addition to the computing device, additional operating elements may be situated on the radio which also make possible operation without requiring the computing device to be mounted on the mounting support. This makes it possible to offer the computing device as an optional extra to the radio device, while operating just the radio functions or the driver information functions by further operating and display elements that are to be mounted on the driver information device. It is of particular advantage that the video screen and/or the keyboard of the computing device are situated on flaps which automatically open when the drawer is opened, and lock in a position that is convenient for the user. Even when the drawer is open, the computing device is well secured by being embedded in the supporting device. The computing device may be controlled via operating elements positioned on the mounting support, for example, via operating elements of the car radio. This makes it possible for the functions of the portable computing device, which, for example, is implemented using PDA having a touch screen, to use the operating elements present on the car radio which makes for convenient operation during travel. Whereas, during normal use of the PDA, it is held in one hand and operated by the other hand, for instance, using an operating stylus. During driving, such positioning hand-held use is not possible, so that the operating knobs of the car radio simplify operation. It is further advantageous to bring the computing device into a reading position convenient to the viewer when the drawer is opened, by suitable positioning means. This is particularly the case for a computing device which has no cover plate for a keyboard and has a display on its front side. Furthermore, it is of advantage if the mounting support, fashioned as a drawer, is opened in a motor-actuated manner, so that the computing device may be conveniently removed. |
Process for evaluating phagocytotic function and use thereof |
A digested phagocyte prepared by contacting in vitro a phagocyte with a foreign microorganism and isolating the phagocyte so contacted; a process for producing the same; and a process and a kit in which these are utilized are disclosed. An experimental model, which enables in vitro evaluation of a phagocytotic function of phagocytes, is provided. |
1. A digested phagocyte prepared by contacting in vitro a phagocyte with a foreign microorganism and isolating the phagocyte so contacted. 2. The digested phagocyte according to claim 1 wherein a turbidity of bacterial liquid (O.D.=600 nm) of the foreign microorganism used for in vitro contact between the phagocyte and the foreign microorganism is 0.01 to 0.03. 3. The digested phagocyte according to claim 1 or 2 wherein a density of the phagocyte digested with the foreign microorganism is 1×104 cells/μl to 5×104 cells/μl. 4. The digested phagocyte according to any one of claims 1-3 wherein said foreign microorganism is a gram negative bacterium. 5. The digested phagocyte according to any one of claims 1-3 wherein said foreign microorganism is one or more microorganism selected from the group consisting of Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Enterococcus faecalis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli and Candida albicans, and a mixture thereof. 6. A process for producing a phagocyte digested with a foreign microorganism comprising the steps of: contacting in vitro a phagocyte with a foreign microorganism; and isolating the phagocyte. 7. The process according to claim 6 wherein a turbidity of bacterial liquid (O.D.=600 nm) of the foreign microorganism used for in vitro contact between the phagocyte and the foreign microorganism is 0.01 to 0.03. 8. The process according to claim 6 or 7 wherein a density of the phagocyte digested with the foreign microorganism is 1×104 cells/μl to 5×104 cells/μl. 9. The process according to any one of claims 6-8 wherein said foreign microorganism is a gram negative bacterium. 10. The process according to any one of claims 6-8 wherein said foreign microorganism is one or more microorganism selected from the group consisting of Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Enterococcus faecalis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli and Candida albicans, and a mixture thereof. 11. A process for detecting and/or identifying a digested foreign microorganism comprising the steps of: fixing the phagocyte digested with a foreign microorganism according to any one of claims 1-5; treating to promote permeability of the cell membrane of the phagocyte; treating to expose DNA of the foreign microorganism existing in the phagocyte; in situ hybridizing under a stringent condition between a DNA probe which can detect hybridization and the DNA; and detecting and/or identifying the digested foreign microorganism by the resulting signal. 12. A process for evaluating a phagocytotic function against a foreign microorganism comprising the steps of: fixing the phagocyte digested with a foreign microorganism according to any one of claims 1 to 5; treating to promote permeability of the cell membrane of the phagocyte; treating to expose DNA of the foreign microorganism existing in the phagocyte; in situ hybridizing under a stringent condition between a DNA probe which can detect hybridization and the DNA; and identifying by the resulting signal the phagocytosis and/or killing ability of the phagocyte against the foreign microorganism. 13. The process according to claim 11 or 12 wherein said process includes at least one aspect of: (1) the density (X cells/ml) of the phagocytes to be fixed is 5×106 cells/ml<X cells/ml<1×108 cells/ml; (2) in said exposing step of the DNA, lysostafin having the titer of 1 unit/ml to 1,000 unit/ml is used; (3) in said exposing step of the DNA, lysozyme having the titer of 1,000 unit/ml to 1,000,000 unit/ml is used; (4) in said exposing step of the DNA, N-acetylmuramidase having the titer of 10 unit/ml to 10,000 unit/ml is used; (5) in said exposing step of the DNA, zymolase having the titer of 50 unit/ml to 500 unit/ml is used; (6) in said in situ hybridization step, a surfactant is used; (7) said DNA probe for detection is one or more DNA probe having the chain length of 350 to 600 base length; and (8) the concentration of said DNA probe for detection is 0.1 ng/μl to 2.2 ng/μl. 14. The process according to claim 13 wherein one or more enzyme selected from lysostafin, lysozyme, N-acetylmuramidase and zymolase is used in said exposing step of the DNA, with the titer of lysostafin being 10 unit/ml to 100 unit/ml; the titer of lysozyme being 10,000 unit/ml to 100,000 unit/ml; the titer of N-acetylmuramidase being 100 unit/ml to 1,000 unit/ml; and the titer of zymolase being 100 unit/ml to 500 unit/ml. 15. The process according to any one of claims 11 to 14 wherein an enzyme is used in said exposing step of the DNA, and wherein the temperature to allow the reaction of the enzyme is 26° C. to 59° C., with the time period of the reaction of the enzyme being 15 minutes to 120 minutes. 16. The process according to any one of claims 11 to 15 wherein a substance for retaining the morphology of the phagocyte is additionally used in said exposing step of the DNA. 17. The process according to claim 16 wherein said substance is phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride. 18. The process according to claim 17 wherein the concentration of said phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride is 10 μmol/l to 10 mmol/l. 19. The process according to any one of claims 16 to 18 wherein said substance is a substance dissolved in dimethylsulfoxide. 20. The process according to claim 19 wherein the concentration of said dimethylsulfoxide is less than 5%. 21. The process according to any one of claims 11 to 20 wherein the DNA and the DNA probe is hybridized in the presence of a surfactant in said in situ hybridization step. 22. The process according to claim 21 wherein said surfactant is an anion surfactant. 23. The process according to claim 22 wherein said anion surfactant is sodium dodecylsulfate. 24. The process according to any one of claims 11 to 23 wherein the temperature to allow the hybridization reaction is 25° C. to 50° C., with the time period of the hybridization reaction being 30 minutes to 900 minutes in said in situ hybridization step. 25. A process for evaluating a phagocytotic function against a foreign microorganism comprising the steps of: fixing the digested phagocyte according to any one of claims 1 to 5; staining the phagocyte with a dye; and identifying the phagocytosis and/or killing ability of the phagocyte against the foreign microorganism by the detection through observation by microscopic examination on cell morphology which is characteristic in cells during or after phagocytosis. 26. A process for evaluating an immune function comprising the steps of: isolating phagocytes from a subject; evaluating a function of the phagocytes using the process for evaluating a phagocytotic function according to any one of claims 12 to 25; and evaluating the immune function of the subject by comparing the evaluation result to that of the function of normal phagocytes. 27. The process according to claim 26 wherein said immune function is a phagocytotic ability of a microorganism by a leukocyte. 28. The process according to claim 27 wherein said immune function is a phagocytotic ability against a microorganism by a leukocyte of a patient who received the radiation exposure or the administration of an anticancer agent. 29. A process for evaluating differentiation efficiency into a phagocyte comprising the steps of: evaluating a phagocytotic function against a foreign microorganism according to any one of claims 12 to 25; and evaluating the phagocytotic function in a time dependent manner to identify the alteration. 30. A process of the evaluation for determining an effect of a modulator of phagocytotic function comprising the steps of: allowing phagocytosis by incubating a suspension of a foreign microorganism and phagocytes in the presence and absence of a phagocytotic function modulator; and comparing the phagocytotic function in the presence and absence of said phagocytotic function modulator using the process for evaluating a phagocytotic function against a foreign microorganism according to any one of claims 12 to 25. 31. A process for screening a modulator of phagocytotic function comprising the steps of: allowing phagocytosis by incubating a suspension of a foreign microorganism and phagocytes in the presence and absence of a candidate agent supposed to have a modulatory action toward the phagocytotic function; and comparing the phagocytotic function in the presence and absence of said agent using the process for evaluating a phagocytotic function against a foreign microorganism according to any one of claims 12 to 25. 32. A clinical testing process comprising the steps of: obtaining phagocytes from a subject prior to and following the administration of an agent to the subject; evaluating a function of the phagocyte using the process for evaluating a phagocytotic function according to any one of claims 12 to 25; and examining a dosage regimen of the agent judging from the effect of the agent determined on the basis of the evaluation result. 33. A performance testing process of a kit for evaluating a phagocytotic function which comprises fixing phagocytes, treating to promote permeability of the cell membranes of the phagocytes, treating to expose the DNA of a foreign microorganism in the phagocytes, in situ hybridize under a stringent condition between the DNA and a DNA probe which can detect hybridization; and evaluating the phagocytotic function by the resulting signal, said kit has; (1) the foreign microorganism, (2) at least one or more enzyme(s) selected from the group consisting of lysostafin, lysozyme, N-acetylmuramidase and zymolase used in said exposing step of the DNA, and (3) one or more DNA probe(s) for detection, said process is characterized in that the digested phagocyte according to any one of claims 1 to 5 is used. 34. A performance testing process of a kit for detecting and/or identifying a foreing microorganism which comprises obtaining phagocytes from a clinical specimen containing phagocytes derived from a living body, fixing the phagocytes so obtained, treating to promote permeability of the cell membranes of the phagocytes, treating to expose the DNA of the foreign microorganism predicted as existing in the phagocytes, in situ hybridizing under a stringent condition between the DNA and a DNA probe which can detect hybridization, and detecting and/or identifying the foreign microorganism by the resulting signal, the process is characterized in that the digested phagocyte according to any one of claims 1 to 5 is used. 35. The performance testing process according to claim 33 or 34 wherein said performance test is a sensitivity test, a specificity test or a reproducibility test. 36. The performance testing process according to claim 33 or 34 wherein the digested phagocyte according to any one of claims 1 to 5 is used as a positive control. 37. The process according to any one of claims 11 to 36 wherein the process further comprises a step prior to said fixing step to put the digested phagocyte onto a solid support which is a slide glass coated with 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane. 38. The process according to any one of claims 11 to 37 wherein a dye for clarifying the contrast between the signal and the cell is used upon the detection of said signal. 39. The process according to any one of claims 11 to 38 wherein said phagocyte is from blood. 40. A kit for evaluating a phagocytotic function by fixing the digested phagocytes according to any one of claims 1 to 5, treating to promote permeability of the cell membranes of the phagocytes, treating to expose DNA of the foreign microorganism in the phagocytes, in situ hybridizing under a stringent condition between the DNA and a DNA probe which can detect hybridization; and evaluating the phagocytotic function by the resulting signal, wherein said kit has; (1) the foreign microorganism, (2) at least one or more enzyme(s) selected from the group consisting of lysostafin, lysozyme, N-acetylmuramidase and zymolase used in said exposing step of the DNA, and (3) one or more DNA probe(s) for detection. |
<SOH> Background Art <EOH>Infectious diseases and sepsis are often caused due to the underlying disease which had been presented previously, through infection by an attenuated microorganism. Although such a state may frequently occur in a clinical scene, ideal animal models which cover all of the clinical symptoms have not yet established. Factors for such a current state involve complicated infectious conditions exhibited by a bacterial infection owing to the difference in the underlying disease, large gaps of sensitivity and the like of the animal spices toward the bacterial strain, and thus, systems of the infection model have been individually established depending on the purpose of the research. Examples of the system of the infection model which are well known at present include: (i) a process in which formation of intraabdominal abscess is allowed through the infection of any of various microorganisms into a peritoneal cavity of a mouse or a rat to chase the pathological state of sepsis (biphasic infection theory), (ii) particularly, in instances to study dynamics of the infection under a lowered immune state, a process in which infection of an attenuated microorganism such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa or the like is rendered through decreasing leukocytes by previously administering cyclophosphamide, and a process in which adhesion of Pseudomonas aeruginosa is allowed through making burn injury in a wide area of the skin with an electric trowel in order to facilitate the infection, (iii) in instances to examine dynamics of a living humoral factor such as cytokine released by a macrophage, neutrophil and the like, a process in which a pathological state of sepsis caused by the administration of an Escherichia coli related bacterium such as Escherichia coli and LPS of the same is observed, (vi) to determine the dynamics of tissue images of MOF caused by peritonitis observed in ICU and digestive surgery through allowing invasion of an enteric bacterium by cecal ligation and puncture (CLP) of a cecum of a rat (subacute superinfectious peritonitis model); and the like. Requirements for preferred animal model include: (I) possible migration of bacteria from a primary focus of the infection into blood (direct administration of bacteria within blood causes bacterial shock in many cases, which can not be controlled as a pathological state), (II) capability of securing sufficient amount of the blood when comparison and examination is executed with time by both test processes, and of performing collection of blood without causing contamination and secondary infection at the site of blood collection, (III) capability of securing phagocytes in an identical amount to that in human because less phagocytes such as neutrophils may be present depending on the animal spices and age of weeks, (IV) no great influence on each individual and detection sensitivity by alteration of an immune system by the stress and shock upon blood drawing through frequent collection of blood, (v) possible securement of number of experiments to some extent such that individual difference is avoided, and the like. Biphasic infection theory that is the most general process as a system to produce an animal model is a historically conventional system, which starts in 1931 by Meleney et al, and investigated and established by Hite (1949), Mergehagen (1958) and McDonald (1963) et al. This model has been established on the basis of a theoretical ground of an infection route in which a secondary infection focus is formed from the bacterium of a primary focus via blood irrespective of whether the bacterium is an anaerobe or aerobe. Thus, this model has been generally used as an infection model of sepsis. However, because this system was established as a system for use in analysis of pathologic states of bacterial infectious disease, no importance is attached to the amount of bacteria which migrate from the abdominal cavity into the blood. Therefore, because the amount of bacteria which was intraperitoneally administered is not reflected to the amount of bacteria in the blood due to the influence of the individual difference of each rat, it is difficult to consider the difference resulting from the administered amount of bacteria in an in vivo test. In addition, Bacterial Translocation methods also involve problems. A factor for impossibility of easy comparison of the detection sensitivity of attenuated infectious bacteria such as Escherichia coli, Enterobactor cloacae, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Enteroccocus faecalis, Staphylococcus epidermidis and the like may involve that these bacterial strains are indigenous bacteria which are enteric and mucosal. In this in vivo test system, analysis of a pathogenic state of sepsis is intended rather than the dynamics of the administered bacteria, therefore, invasion of a bacterial strain other than the administered bacteria is not considered. Recently, also in clinical scene and animal experiments, it has been argued that enteric canal permeability is promoted by peritonitis, and that sepsis is caused through migration of enteric bacteria into the blood. Further, in clinical scene, there exist cases in which the primary focus can not be specified in MOF resulting from peritonitis, and thus attention has been drawn of the relationship with bacterial translocation. Moreover, in an animal experiment, it was reported that in cases of intraperitoneal administration of Enterococcus faecalis in this in vivo test model, bacterial translocation from the enteric canal was caused due to the inflammation stress by peritonitis as an attraction, and thus, Enterococcus faecalis in the enteric canal was separated at the ratio of 33% (9/27). In addition, Steffen et al. also acknowledged that many enteric bacteria migrate into blood in this in vivo test model. Further, although not by the bacterial translocation, in peritonitis caused by a cecum ligature puncturing method for use in rat sepsis models, it is also reported that Escherichia coli, Enterobactor cloacae, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Enteroccocus faecalis and Staphylococcus epidermidis were reparated at 12 hours later from the blood. Because relationships between the causative microorganism of an infectious disease and the host is extremely complicated, it is further difficult to establish an ideal animal model which mimics various human infectious diseases, e.g., sepsis and bacteremia. Thus, experimental models of infectious diseases have been desired which enable the in vitro evaluation of phagocytotic ability and/or germicidal capacity of phagocytes, and which are stable and can be widely applied irrespective of species of the foreign microorganism, while retaining the morphology of the phagocyte, as an aid in diagnoses of infectious diseases including bacteremia and sepsis, and in determination of drug efficacy for developing therapeutic drugs for an infectious disease, however, current status is that those which satisfactorily meet the demand have not been provided. |
<SOH> BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS <EOH>FIG. 1 is a view illustrating results of in situ hybridization carried out (a) without the surfactant (SDS) and (b) with the surfactant (SDS). FIG. 2 is a view illustrating the states obtained upon fixing with various leukocyte cell densities. FIG. 3 is a view illustrating the activity of lytic enzyme on (a) Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus epidermidis , (b) Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Escherichia coli, and (c) Enterococcus faecalis in a time dependent manner. FIG. 4 is a view illustrating concentration dependent effects by the addition of DMSO on a lytic activity of (a) 300 unit/ml N-acetylmuramidase, (b) 10,000 unit/ml lysozyme, and (c) 50 unit/ml lysostafin. FIG. 5 is a drawing illustrating effects of the addition of PMSF used for suppressing the action of protease which effects deterioration of morphology of leukocytes in respect of (a) 0.2 unit/ml protease alone, (b) addition of 1 μmol/ml PMSF, (c) addition of 10 μmol/ml PMSF, (d) addition of 0.1 mmol/ml PMSF, and (e) addition of 1 mmol/ml PMSF. FIG. 6 is a view illustrating the occurrence of the alteration of morphology of phagocyte upon phagocytosis of bacteria, in the digested sample prepared according to the present invention. FIG. 7 is a view illustrating the effects of the enzymatic treatment on digested samples, showing states of: (a) digested sample of S. aureus prior to the enzymatic treatment, (b) digested sample of E. faecalis prior to the enzymatic treatment, (c) sample (a) following the enzymatic treatment, and (d) sample (b) following the enzymatic treatment. FIG. 8 is a diagrammatic view illustrating the slide glass for smear of digested samples used in the study of the optimal concentration of the probe upon in situ hybridization. FIG. 9 is a diagrammatic view illustrating the slide glass for smear of digested samples used in the study of the optimal temperature upon in situ hybridization. FIG. 10 is a view of Southern blotting (upper panel) and electrophoresis (lower panel) illustrating the chain length of the probe for detection obtained by digoxigenin labelling of (a) SA probe and (b) PA probe, and signal intensities by labelling. FIG. 11 is a view illustrating results of signal detection observed when (a) EC-24, (b) EC-34, (c) EC-39, and (d) mixed probe of probes (a) to (c) as the probe for detection upon in situ hybridization for E. coli digested sample. FIG. 12 is a diagrammatic view illustrating a slide glass for smear of digested samples. FIG. 13 is a view illustrating results of signal detection observed when in situ hybridization was carried out using corresponding probe for the detection to each of digested samples of (a) SA, (b) SE, (c) PA, (d) EF and (e) EK. FIG. 14 is a view illustrating states in which the probe for detecting SA specifically presents signals for the SA digested sample. detailed-description description="Detailed Description" end="lead"? |
Secure on-line payment system |
The present invention relates to the field of e-commerce and in particular to making purchases on-line using payment card, for example debit, charge or credit cards. The concept of the present invention adopts an alternative approach to security methods presently employed to protect cardholders. The concept obviates the need for a cardholder to transmit Card Numbers along with other purchasing details at the time of purchase and couples this with the use of a password feature. This renders the transaction akin to a Bank Cash withdrawal that Bank/card Schemes are totally happy with from a security point of view but are reluctant to allow e-commerce and/or any others access to their “network” to ensure Security. |
1-25. (Cancelled). 26. a computer data processing method for processing an on-line payment transaction, comprising the steps of: receiving a request from a payment card cardholder to connect to a network, said request including a cardholder password, authenticating said cardholder request and providing access by said cardholder to the network, receiving a payment request associated with the cardholder, said payment request identifying merchant information including a merchant code identifier and a transaction value, retrieving payment card details for the cardholder from a cardholder details database, submitting a payment authorisation request for the payment card details, the authorisation request including the merchant code and transaction value, to an authorisation host for authorising the transaction, and upon receipt of an authorisation, forwarding confirmation of the authorisation to the merchant. 27. The computer data processing method according to claim 26, further comprising the step of requesting a merchant code identifier from the merchant. 28. The computer data processing method for processing an on-line payment transaction of claim 26, further comprising the step of posting the payment request to a payment host for processing of the payment transaction. 29. The computer data processing method for processing an on-line payment transaction according to claim 28, further comprising the step of delaying posting the payment request until a confirmation of delivery has been received. 30. The computer data processing method of claim 26, further comprising the step of verifying to ensure that the cardholder information provided to a merchant matches cardholder information stored in the cardholder's details database. 31. A computer data processing method for processing an on-line payment transaction, comprising the steps of: receiving a request from a cardholder to connect to a network, said request including a cardholder password, authenticating said cardholder request and providing access by said cardholder to the network, receiving a first transaction request associated with a transaction between a merchant and the cardholder, retrieving payment card details for the cardholder from a database, submitting a payment authorisation request for the payment card details, the authorisation request including a system merchant code and transaction value, to an authorisation host for authorising the transaction, and on receipt of an authorisation, forwarding a transaction request to the merchant, the request including a cardholder payment card code. 32. The computer data processing method according to claim 31, further comprising the step of requesting a merchant code identifier from the merchant. 33. The computer data processing method for processing an on-line payment transaction according to claim 31, further comprising the step of posting the payment request to a payment host for processing of the payment transaction. 34. The computer data processing method for processing an on-line payment transaction according to claim 33, further comprising the step of delaying posting the payment request until a confirmation of delivery has been received. 35. The computer data processing method for processing an on-line payment transaction according to claim 31, wherein a further verification is performed to ensure that the cardholder information provided to a merchant matches cardholder information stored in the database. 36. A system for processing an on-line payment transaction, the system having a connection to the Internet and a further connection via a local network to the terminal of a cardholder comprising: receiving means for receiving a request from a cardholder to connect to a network, said request including a cardholder password, authentication means for authenticating said cardholder request and providing access by said cardholder to the network, receiving means for retrieving payment card details for the cardholder from a database, authorising means for submitting a payment authorisation request for the payment card details, the authorisation request including a system merchant code and transaction value to an authorisation host for authorising the transaction, and transaction means responsive to receipt of an authorisation from the authorisation host and adapted to forward a transaction request to the merchant, the request including a master cardholder account code. 37. The system of claim 36, further comprising merchant request means for requesting a merchant code identifier from the merchant. 38. The system of claim 36, further comprising a payment posting means for posting the payment request to a payment host for processing the payment transaction. 39. The system of claim 38, wherein the payment posting means delays posting the payment request until a confirmation of delivery has been received. 40. The system according to claim 36, wherein the verification means is adapted to perform a second verification to ensure that the cardholder information provided to a merchant matches cardholder information stored in the database. 41. A payment processing system for processing an on-line payment transaction between a merchant and a cardholder comprising: means for receiving a payment transaction request, said payment request identifying merchant information including a merchant code identifier and a transaction value, association means for associating a cardholder with the received payment request, means for retrieving payment card details for the cardholder from a datastore of cardholder card details, authorisation means for submitting a payment authorisation request for the retrieved payment card details, the payment authorisation request including the retrieved payment card details, the merchant code of the payment request and the transaction value of the payment request to an authorisation host for authorising the transaction, and confirmation means which is adapted to forward confirmation of an authorisation received in response to a submitted authorisation request. 42. The system of claim 41, further comprising merchant request means for requesting a merchant code identifier from the merchant. 43. The system of claim 41, further comprising a payment posting means for posting the payment request to a payment host for processing of the payment transaction. 44. The system of claim 43, wherein the payment posting means delays posting the payment request until a confirmation of delivery has been received. 45. The system according to claim 41, wherein the verification means is adapted to perform a second verification to ensure that the cardholder information provided to a merchant matches cardholder information stored in the database. 46. A payment processing system for processing an on-line payment transaction between a merchant and a cardholder, comprising: means for receiving a payment transaction request, said payment request identifying merchant information including a merchant code identifier and a transaction value, association means for associating a cardholder with the received payment request, means for retrieving payment card details for the cardholder from a datastore of cardholder details, authorisation means for submitting a payment authorisation request for the retrieved payment card details, the payment authorisation request including the retrieved payment card details, a system merchant code and the transaction value of the payment request to an authorisation host for authorising the transaction, and response means responsive to receipt of an authorisation and adapted to forward a transaction request to the merchant, the request including a system cardholder account code. 47. The system of claim 46, further comprising merchant request means for requesting a merchant code identifier from the merchant. 48. The system of claim 46, further comprising a payment posting means for posting the payment request to a payment host for processing of the payment transaction. 49. The system of claim 48, wherein the payment posting means delays posting the payment request until a confirmation of delivery has been received. 50. The system according to claim 46, wherein the verification means is adapted to perform a second verification to ensure that the cardholder information provided to a merchant matches cardholder information stored in the database. |
<SOH> Background to the Invention <EOH>Significant research and resources have been applied in developing, implementing and maintaining secure payment systems which facilitate the use of credit/charge cards by cardholders in commercial transactions conducted over the Internet. All of these secure systems are based on cardholders having to “process” their card number each time, which leaves the “capturing” of card numbers and related information transmitted at time of purchase, open to hackers and/or other fraudsters who can gain access to card numbers and expiry dates. One solution is to use secure (encrypted) methods of communication in sending credit card details over the Internet to a merchant when making a purchase. Examples of such secure methods include Secure Socket Layer (SSL) and the Secure Electronic (SET) protocol. These methods have been developed by leading computer companies and businesses in the credit card industry specifically for the purposes of performing electronic transmission of credit card details on the Internet. However, there is no guarantee that the credit/charge card details whilst transmitted somewhat securely are not vulnerable to attack when stored on the merchant's system. It is a strong possibility that the card details could be hacked or used by a merchant or an employee of the merchant for fraudulent purposes. A further concern mitigating against on-line commerce, as perceived by cardholders, is the reliability of the e-commerce merchants and the lack of recourse available to card holders having made a purchase. The cardholder has no guarantee that items ordered will be delivered in a timely manner and be of an appropriate quality and/or quantity etc. It may be difficult, once card details have been supplied and appropriate funds debited to the cardholder's account, for a cardholder to obtain proper satisfaction from the merchant. A further concern is that there is no guarantee that a merchant, or associated personnel who may have access to the cardholders details, will not use the cardholders card details in subsequent unauthorised transactions, or pass the information onto third parties for criminal purposes. On the other hand, a significant concern for merchants is that items are definitely settled for before dispatch, i.e. that the card details and amount has been “approved” for settlement by the card scheme acquirer and that the card details and cardholder information is genuine. EP 0801479 discloses a secure communication mechanism for communicating credit card or other sensitive information between a cardholder terminal and a server which communicate over a data network (e.g. Internet). For secure or private communication of sensitive information over a data network, a telephone connection is established between the originating Internet Service Provider (ISP) server to which the cardholder is connected for access to the data network and the server provider to which the sensitive information is directed. Any communications or transactions to a terminating ISP server involving credit card or other sensitive information are effected, however, on a second connection through a telephone call placed to a telephone number of the terminating ISP server. After receiving a call, and by associating such call with the cardholder's request over the Internet for information and/or interactive services, and/or non-electronically deliverable goods or services, the ISP provides the cardholder with the requested information and/or service, or approves delivery of the non-electronically deliverable goods or services. With this arrangement, payment is effected without providing credit card information via the Internet routing servers and without establishing a financial relationship with the ISP. Preferably, the communication of information over the telephone line between the originating server and the terminating ISP server is also subject to encryption. The problem with this approach is that is essential for ISPs and merchants to sign up to the idea and to the installation of additional communications equipment to facilitate the secure communication on the secondary channel. Furthermore, the requirement for a separate telephone call adds additional cost to the process and there is still no guarantee from the cardholder's perspective. WO97/03410 discloses an Internet billing method comprising establishing an agreement between an Internet access provider and a customer, and an agreement between the Internet access provider and a vendor, wherein the Internet access provider agrees with the customer and the vendor to bill the customer and remit to the vendor for products and services purchased over the Internet by the customer from the vendor. The provider creates access to the Internet for the customer. When the customer orders a product or service over the Internet from a vendor, transactional information transmitted between the customer and the vendor is also transmitted to the provider. The provider then bills the transaction amount to the customer and remits a portion of the transaction amount to the vendor, keeping the differential as a fee for providing the service. As a result of this method, there is no need for any customer account numbers or vendor account numbers to be transmitted over the Internet, thereby maintaining the security of that information. An immense difficulty with this approach is that agreements are required between the ISP's and merchants before any transactions can take place. U.S. Pat. No. 5,905,736 discloses a method for performing centralised billing for transactions conducted over the Internet between a cardholder and an Internet Service Provider through an Internet Access Provider (IAP). Upon connection of the cardholder's terminal to the LAP, the IAP transmits to a billing platform a message that associates the cardholder's identity and the temporary Internet Protocol (EP) address -that is assigned by the IAP to the cardholder's session for use by to that cardholder's terminal. In response to a chargeable transaction with an ISP, the ISP transmits to the billing platform the IP address of the cardholder making the transaction and the charge for the transaction. The charges for all such transactions are accumulated by a transaction server and stored in an account on an associated database identified with the IP address of the requesting terminal. At the end of the cardholder's session, the charges for all the transactions during the session that are stored on the transaction server database in the account identified with the IP address, are charged to an account associated with the cardholder's identity that is stored on a database of a billing server by cross-referencing the IP address to the cardholder's identity from the previously received and stored message. In consideration of the prior art, it would be advantageous if a method of purchasing goods on-line could be provided which would permit a cardholder to have a simple and efficient recourse to the e-commerce merchant in the event of a complaint. It would further be desirable, if a method could be provided, which would allow a consumer to make a purchase on-line without disclosing their card details to third parties. |
<SOH> SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION <EOH>The concept of the present invention adopts an alternative approach to security methods presently employed to protect cardholders. The concept obviates the need for a cardholder to transmit card numbers along with other purchasing details at the time of purchase and couples this with the use of a password feature. This renders the transaction akin to a bank cash withdrawal that banks/card schemes are totally happy with from a security point of view but are reluctant to allow e-commerce and/or any others access to their “network” to ensure Security. In a first embodiment, a computer data processing method is provided for processing an on-line payment transaction, comprising the steps of: receiving a request from a cardholder to connect to a network, said request including a cardholder password, authenticating said cardholder request and providing access by said cardholder to the network, receiving a payment request associated with the cardholder, said payment request identifying merchant information including a merchant code identifier and a transaction value, retrieving payment card details for the cardholder from a cardholder details database, submitting a payment authorisation request for the payment card details, the authorisation request including the merchant code and transaction value to an authorisation host for authorising the transaction, and whereupon receipt of an authorisation forwarding confirmation of the authorisation to the merchant. The computer data processing method may further comprise the step of requesting a merchant code identifier from the merchant. The computer data processing method may include the step of posting the payment request to a payment host for processing of the payment transaction. Where posting is performed, the computer data processing method may further comprise the step of delaying posting the payment request until a confirmation of delivery has been received. Optionally, the computer data processing method may further comprise the step of verifying to ensure that the cardholder information provided to a merchant matches cardholder information stored in the cardholder's details database. In a second embodiment, a computer data processing method is provided for processing an on-line payment transaction, comprising the steps of: receiving a request from a cardholder to connect a network, said request including a cardholder password, authenticating said cardholder request and providing access by said cardholder to the network, receiving a first transaction request associated with a transaction between a merchant and the cardholder, retrieving payment card details for the cardholder from a database, submitting a payment authorisation request for the payment card details, the authorisation request including a system merchant code and transaction value to an authorisation host for authorising the transaction, and on receipt of an authorisation forwarding a transation request to the merchant, the request including a cardholder payment card code. The computer data processing method may further comprise the step of requesting a merchant code identifier from the merchant. The computer data processing method may include the step of posting the payment request to a payment host for processing of the payment transaction. Where posting is performed, the computer data processing method may further comprise the step of delaying posting the payment request until a confirmation of delivery has been received. Optionally, the computer data processing method may further comprise the step of verifying to ensure that the cardholder information provided to a merchant matches cardholder information stored in the cardholder's details database. In a third embodiment, a system is provided for processing an on-line payment transaction, the system having a connection to the Internet and a further connection via a local network to the terminal of a cardholder comprising: receiving means for receiving a request from a cardholder to connect a network, said request including a cardholder password, authentication means for authenticating said cardholder request and providing access by said cardholder to the network, receiving means for receiving a first transaction request associated with a transaction between a merchant and the cardholder, retrieval means for retrieving payment card details for the cardholder from a database, authorising means for submitting a payment authorisation request for the payment card details, the authorisation request including a system merchant code and transaction value to an authorisation host for authorising the transaction, and transaction means responsive to receipt of an authorisation from the authorisation host and adapted to forward a transaction request to the merchant, the request including a system cardholder account code. In this embodiment, the system may further comprise a merchant request means for requesting a merchant code identifier from the merchant. The system may include a payment posting means for posting the payment request to a payment host for processing of the payment transaction. In this option, the payment posting means delays posting the payment request until a confirmation of delivery has been received. Optionally, the system may include a verification means which is adapted to perform a second verification to ensure that the cardholder information provided to a merchant matches cardholder information stored in the database. In a fourth embodiment a payment processing system is provided for processing an on-line payment transaction between a merchant and a cardholder, comprising: means for receiving a payment transaction request, said payment request identifying merchant information including a merchant code identifier and a transaction value, association means for associating a cardholder with the received payment request, means for retrieving payment card details for the cardholder from a datastore of cardholder card details, authorisation means for submitting a payment authorisation request for the retrieved payment card details, the payment authorisation request including the retrieved payment card details, the merchant code of the payment request and the transaction value of the payment request to an authorisation host for authorising the transaction, confirmation means which is adapted to forward confirmation of an authorisation received in response to a submitted payment authorisation request. In this embodiment, the system may further comprise a merchant request means for requesting a merchant code identifier from the merchant. The system may include a payment posting means for posting the payment request to a payment host for processing of the payment transaction. In this option, the payment posting means delays posting the payment request until a confirmation of delivery has been received. Optionally, the system may include a verification means which is adapted to perform a second verification to ensure that the cardholder information provided to a merchant matches cardholder information stored in the database. In a fifth embodiment a payment processing system is provided for processing an on-line payment transaction between a merchant and a cardholder, comprising: means for receiving a payment transaction request, said payment request identifying merchant information including a merchant code identifier and a transaction value, association means for associating a cardholder with the received payment request, means for retrieving payment card details for the cardholder from a datastore of cardholder card details, authorisation means for submitting a payment authorisation request for the retrieved payment card details, the payment authorisation request including the retrieved payment card details, a system merchant code and the transaction value of the payment request to an authorisation host for authorising the transaction, response means responsive to receipt of an authorisation and adapted to forward a transaction request to the merchant, the request including a system cardholder account code. In this embodiment, the system may further comprise a merchant request means for requesting a merchant code identifier from the merchant The system may include a payment posting means for posting the payment request to a payment host for processing of the payment transaction. In this option, the payment posting means delays posting the payment request until a confirmation of delivery has been received. Optionally, the system may include a verification means which is adapted to perform a second verification to ensure that the cardholder information provided to a merchant matches cardholder information stored in the database. In one embodiment, the first set of information identifying a cardholder and the second set of information identifying the merchant are received using an Internet submission protocol, for example the POST action associated with HTNL forms. These and other aspects of the invention will be apparent from, and elucidated with, reference to the embodiment(s) described hereinafter. |
Visual and interactive wrapper generation, automated information extraction from web pages, and translation into xml |
A method and a system for information extraction from Web pages formatted with markup languages such as HTML [8]. A method and system for interactively and visually describing information patterns of interest based on visualized sample Web pages [5,6,16-29]. A method and data structure for representing and storing these patterns [1]. A method and system for extracting information corresponding to a set of previously defined patterns from Web pages [2], and a method for transforming the extracted data into XML is described. Each pattern is defined via the (interactive) specification of one or more filters. Two or more filters for the same pattern contribute disjunctively to the pattern definition [3], that is, an actual pattern describes the set of all targets specified by any of its filters. A method and for extracting relevant elements from Web pages by interpreting and executing a previously defined wrapper program of the above form on an input Web page [9-14] and producing as output the extracted elements represented in a suitable data structure. A method and system for automatically translating said output into XML format by exploiting the hierarchical structure of the patterns and by using pattern names as XML tags is described. |
1. A wrapper generation system comprising: a network including at least one example document and at least one production document; and a visual builder that is adapted to interactively generate a wrapper program by letting a user visually and interactively declare at least one desired property of example-elements to be extracted from the example document thereby creating user declarations; a program evaluator adapted to execute a wrapper program over the production document and to extract desired production elements from the production document and to translate the production elements into XML yielding an XML companion of the production document. 2. The wrapper generation system of claim 1, wherein the visual builder further includes: an extraction pattern builder adapted to provide a visual interface for a user to specify at least one desired pattern whose instances are to be extracted from the document. 3. The wrapper generation system of claim 2, wherein the visual builder further includes: an XML translation builder adapted to interactively generate an XML translation scheme based on user specifications that specifies how to translate at least one pattern into XML using XML translation rules. 4. The wrapper generation system of claim 1, wherein the program evaluator further includes: an extractor that extracts data from the production document and provides an XML document. 5. The wrapper generation system of claim 2, further including: an XML translator that performs actual mapping from a set of pattern instances to an XML document. 6. The wrapper generation system of claim 1, wherein the example document is received in a browser window. 7. The wrapper generation system of claim 1, wherein a user controls wrapper generation, selects examples from the example document and adds further user specifications. 8. The wrapper generation system of claim 7, wherein the pattern is generated from conditions that are obtained from the examples and the user specification. 9. The wrapper generation system of claim 2 wherein the specification of a pattern is organized according to a logical combination of conditions. 10. The wrapper generation system of claim 9, wherein on applying the wrapper to the production document a data structure representing all elements that match the pattern is produced. 11. The wrapper generation system of claim 10 wherein the wrapper is applied to a plurality of production documents. 12. The wrapper generation system of claim 10, wherein the data structure is further translated to at least one output data structure. 13. The wrapper generation system of claim 9 wherein at least one of said conditions is a location condition that is obtained by generalizing a location descriptor of a selected example-element. 14. The wrapper generation system of claim 9 wherein at least one of said conditions is a refinement condition that refines a set of instances of the pattern based on explicit user commands. 15. The wrapper generation system of claim 14 wherein the refinement condition is an internal condition expressing properties which the instances of the pattern must fulfill regardless of their context. 16. The wrapper generation system of claim 14 wherein the refinement condition is a contextual condition that expresses restrictions on the context in which instances of the pattern are allowed to appear. 17. The wrapper generation system of claim 14 wherein the refinement conditions is a range condition that expresses that among the pattern instances which satisfy all other imposed conditions of a given filter, only those of each context are to be considered valid, which occur in that context within specified position ranges with respect to document order, and 18. The wrapper generation system of claim 14 wherein the refinement condition is an auxiliary condition which further refines the set of instances. 19. The wrapper generation system of claim 1 wherein the example document is a Web page. 20. The wrapper generation system of claim 1 wherein at least one production document is a Web page. 21. The wrapper generation system of claim 1 wherein the example document is formatted in HTML and where at least one of said example-elements corresponds to a node or to a sequence of nodes of an HTML parsing-tree of the example-document in which said example-element occurs. 22. The wrapper generation system of claim 1 wherein the production documents are formatted in HTML and where at least one of said production-elements corresponds to a node or to a sequence of nodes of an HTML parsing-tree of the production document in which said example-element occurs. 23. The wrapper generation system of claim 1 wherein the example-documents is formatted in HTML and where at least one of said example-elements corresponds to an HTML element whose type is selected from a group consisting of: html, table, tr, th, tfoot, thead, col, colgroup, caption, td, p, br, div, blockquote, body, head, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, dl, dd, dt, ol, ul, li, dir, menu, form, input, select, option, address, center, pre, xmp, nobr, wbr, hr, img, b, i, font-size, font-color, underline, blink, a (anchors), href, tt, big, sup, sub, cite, code, strong, em, samp, area, map, script, and CSS styles applied to the content and structure. 24. The wrapper generation system of claim 1 wherein the production document is formatted in HTML and where at least one of said production-elements corresponds to an HTML element whose type is selected from a group consisting of: html, table, tr, th, tfoot, thead, col, colgroup, caption, td, p, br, div, blockquote, body, head, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, dl, dd, dt, ol, ul, li, dir, menu, form, input, select, option, address, center, pre, xmp, nobr, wbr, hr, img, b, i, font-size, font-color, underline, blink, a (anchors), href, tt, big, sup, sub, cite, code, strong, em, samp, area, map, script, and CSS styles applied to the content and structure. 25. The wrapper generation system of claim 13, wherein said generalized location descriptor is obtained from a corresponding location descriptor by syntactic generalization operations. 26. The wrapper generation system of claim 25, wherein said generalized location descriptor is obtained by inserting zero or more wildcards, by substituting wildcards for zero or more elements and by eliminating zero or more elements from said location descriptor. 27. The wrapper generation system of claim 13, wherein the example-document is tree-structured and wherein each location descriptor, called plain tree path, created for an example-element occurring in an example-document corresponds to the sequence of element-types on the path in the parsing tree of said example-document from the root to said example-element, and where the corresponding generalized location descriptor, called incompletely specified tree path, is obtained from said location descriptor by inserting zero or more wildcards, by substituting wildcards for zero or more elements and by eliminating zero or more elements from said location descriptor. 28. The wrapper generation system of claim 13, wherein at least one production-document is tree-structured and wherein each location descriptor, called plain tree path, created for an example-element occurring in an example-document corresponds to the sequence of element-types on the path in the parsing tree of said example-document from the root to said example-element, and where the corresponding generalized location descriptor, called incompletely specified tree path, is obtained from said location descriptor by inserting zero or more wildcards, by substituting wildcards for zero or more elements and by eliminating zero or more elements from said location descriptor. 29. The wrapper generation system of claim 13, wherein at least one production-document is in HTML format and wherein each location descriptor, called plain tree path, created for an example-element occurring in an example-document corresponds to the sequence of HTML tags on the path in the parsing tree of said example-document from the root to said example-element, and where the corresponding generalized location descriptor, called incompletely specified tree path, is obtained from said location descriptor by inserting zero or more wildcards, by substituting wildcards for zero or more HTML tags and by eliminating zero or more elements from said location descriptor. 30. The wrapper generation system of claim 13, wherein said generalized location descriptor is set to a default value that is obtained from said location descriptor by prefixing each element in the location descriptor with a wildcard. 31. The wrapper generation system of claim 29 wherein a wildcard prefixing an element occurring within the generalized location descriptor is interpreted as an arbitrary chain of elements whose type differs from a type corresponding to said element. 32. The wrapper generation system of claim 29 wherein a user is given a possibility to change and overwrite said default value. 33. The wrapper generation system of claim 2, wherein each of the pattern is selected from a set consisting of tree patterns, string patterns and document patterns, wherein instances of said tree patterns are subtrees of document parse-trees, instances of said string patterns are substrings of text strings occurring on some documents and instances of said document patterns are documents. 34. The wrapper generation system of claim 2, wherein the pattern description generated for the pattern contains a Boolean combination of all conditions that contribute to the definition of said pattern. 35. The wrapper generation system of claim 2, wherein the pattern description generated for the pattern consists of a set of rules formulated in a logic programming language. 36. The wrapper generation system of claim 2, wherein the pattern description generated for the pattern consists of a set of rules formulated in a logic programming language and where said wrapper consists of a logic program containing said rules. 37. The wrapper generation system of claim 36 wherein the variables and terms of said logic program range over elements occurring in the documents to which said wrapper is applied. 38. The wrapper generation system of claim 36 wherein the variables and terms of said logic program range over elements and strings occurring in the documents to which said wrapper is applied. 39. The wrapper generation system of claim 36 wherein the variables and terms of said logic program range over elements, element-lists, and strings occurring in the documents to which said wrapper is applied. 40. The wrapper generation system of claim 36 wherein said example document and production document are tree-structured and where the variables of said logic program range over nodes of the parsing trees of documents to which said wrapper is applied. 41. The wrapper generation system of claim 36 wherein said example document and production document are tree-structured and where the variables of said logic program range over nodes of the parsing trees and over strings occurring in the documents to which said wrapper is applied. 42. The wrapper generation system of claim 36 wherein said production document and example document are tree-structured and where the variables of said logic program range over nodes and sequences of nodes of the parsing trees of documents to which said wrapper is applied. 43. The wrapper generation system of claim 36 wherein said production document and example document are tree-structured and where the variables of said logic program range over nodes of the parsing tree of documents to which said wrapper is applied, over sequences of such nodes, and over strings occurring in documents to which said wrapper is applied. 44. The wrapper generation system of claim 36 wherein each condition that contributes to the definition of a pattern is represented by at least one atom in the body of a rule of said logic program which contributes to the definition of said pattern. 45. The wrapper generation system of claim 36 wherein each of said logic programming rules represents a filter consisting of a rule body that represents all conditions contributing to said filter in form of a conjunction of atoms and of a rule head whose predicate corresponds to the pattern said filter is associated with. 46. The wrapper generation system of claim 36 wherein said logic program is a datalog program making use of special predefined predicates for expressing conditions. 47. The wrapper generation system of claim 15 wherein the internal condition belongs to a set consisting of contains conditions and noncontains conditions wherein the contains conditions impose one or more restrictions on some subelement of the pattern to be defined and the notcontains conditions require that instances of the pattern to be defined do not contain any subelement that satisfies specified restrictions. 48. The wrapper generation system of claim 15 wherein an element of a production document or example document is either an ordinary element or a sequence of contiguous elements, and wherein each of said internal conditions belongs to a set consisting contains conditions, notcontains conditions, firstsubtree conditions and lastsubtree conditions; wherein contains conditions impose one or more restrictions on some subelement of the pattern to be defined, notcontains conditions require that instances of the pattern to be defined do not contain subelements satisfying specified restrictions, firstsubtree conditions require that some element with specified properties be the first element of a sequence of elements to be defined; and lastsubtree conditions requires that some element with specified properties be the last element of a sequence of elements to be defined. 49. The wrapper generation system of claim 48 where said restrictions are selected from a set consisting of restrictions on font type, restrictions on font size, restrictions on font color, restrictions on the text contained in said subelement, restrictions on hyperlinks and other anchors, restrictions on explicit positional parameters, restrictions on element types, and restrictions on the value of a hidden attribute. 50. The wrapper generation system of claim 16 where said contextual conditions are selected from a group consisting of before conditions, after conditions, notbefore conditions, notafter conditions and vertical positional conditions, wherein before conditions require that some element with specified properties must occur before a pattern instance, after conditions require that some element with specified properties must occur after a pattern instance, notbefore conditions require that some element with specified properties must not occur before a pattern instance, notafter conditions require that some element with specified properties must not occur after a pattern instance; and vertical positional conditions require that a pattern instance must occur in some vertical position relative to a specified element, where said vertical position is in a set comprising: below, above, not below, and not above. 51. The wrapper generation system of claim 1 wherein said example documents and said production documents are XML documents. 52. The wrapper generation system of claim 1 wherein said example documents and said production documents consist of unformatted text. 53. The wrapper generation system of claim 1 wherein said example documents and said production documents consist of text structured by structuring features from a set containing headlines, and titles, and spaces, and paragraphs, and indentations, and lists. 54. The wrapper generation system of claim 1 wherein said example documents and said production documents are formatted according to some document processing standard. 55. The wrapper generation system of claim 18 wherein said auxiliary conditions are selected from a group consisting of concept conditions, comparison conditions, pattern reference conditions, and conditions on documents, where concept conditions require that some part of a pattern to be defined matches an ontological concept definition, comparison conditions impose restrictions on the values of concept items, pattern reference conditions require that a pattern to be defined, or some element used within a pattern definition, be an instance of a pattern defined within the same wrapper; and conditions on document filters express restrictions on further documents to be loaded. 56. A method for visual and interactive generation of a wrapper for documents and for automated information extraction comprising: letting a user visually and interactively declare at least one desired property of elements to be extracted from the document thereby creating user declarations; translating the user declarations into a wrapper; executing a wrapper over the document; and extracting elements from said documents that match said user declarations. 57. A method for visual and interactive generation of wrappers for documents, and for automated information extraction comprising: defining extraction patterns on at least one example page, by visually and interactively selecting example-elements occurring on the example-page; visually and interactively declaring properties of the extraction patterns; generating a wrapper; applying the wrapper to at least one production document; and automatically extracting matching instances of the extraction patterns from the production documents. 58. The method of claim 57, wherein the example document is received in a browser window. 59. The method of claim 57, wherein a user controls wrapper generation, selects examples from the example document and adds further user specification. 60. The method of claim 59, wherein at least one pattern is generated from conditions that are obtained from the examples and the user specification. 61. The method of claim 57 wherein at least one extraction pattern is organized according to a logical combination of conditions. 62. The method of claim 57, wherein on applying to the document the wrapper produces a data structure representing all elements that match said pattern descriptions. 63. The method of claim 62 wherein the wrapper is applied to a plurality of production documents. 64. The method of claim 62, wherein the data structure produced by the application of the wrapper to the document is further translated to at least one output data structure. 65. The method of claim 61 wherein at least one of said conditions is a location condition that is obtained by generalizing a location descriptor of a selected example-element, and 66. The method of claim 61 wherein at least one of said conditions is a refinement condition that refines the set of instances of a pattern based on explicit user commands. 67. The method of claim 57 in wherein the processes of generation of a pattern further comprises: a) receiving from a user a pattern name and storing said name; b) creating and storing a filter for the pattern; c) visualizing the set of instances of the filter on at least one example document by evaluating the filter over the document and visualizing all data elements of the document that are matching instances, whereby a user can test the filter; d) modifying a previously created filter by adding to it refinement conditions that the instances of the filter must fulfill, where the refinement conditions are obtained from a user by receiving interactive commands from the user and where the refinement conditions are combined with those conditions for the filter that were added earlier; e) visualizing simultaneously all instances of all filters of the given pattern on at least one document by evaluating its corresponding pattern description against the document, whereby a user can test the pattern description constructed so far. 68. The method of claim 67, wherein the creation and storing of a filter comprises: b.1: selecting an example-element occurring in at least one example document by receiving selection commands from a user acting on the example document while the example document is displayed in a browser, and creating a location descriptor for said example-element with respect to said example-document; b.2: generalizing said location descriptor by replacing it with a generalized location descriptor that matches at least said example-element, and storing said generalized location descriptor in form of a location condition that can be evaluated over data elements; b.3: representing and storing the association between said pattern name and said generalized location descriptor, which together constitute a filter for said pattern and where data elements matching said generalized location descriptor are called instances of said filter; 69. The method of claim 67, wherein the steps are executed one or more times and the order of execution and number of repetitions is determined by interactive user actions. 70. The method of claim 67 wherein one of said refinement conditions is an internal condition expressing properties which the instances of a pattern must fulfill regardless of their context. 71. The method of claim 67 wherein one of said refinement conditions is a contextual condition that expresses restrictions on the context in which instances of a pattern are allowed to appear, and 72. The method of claim 67 wherein one of said refinement conditions is a range condition that expresses that among the pattern instances which satisfy all other imposed conditions of a given filter, only those of each context are to be considered valid, which occur in that context within specified position ranges with respect to document order, and 73. The method of claim 67 wherein one of said refinement conditions is an auxiliary condition which further refine the set of instances. 74. The method of claim 57 wherein at least one of said example-documents is a Web page. 75. The method of claim 57 wherein at least one of said production documents is a Web page. 76. The method of claim 57 wherein at least on of said example documents is formatted in HTML and where each of said example-elements corresponds to a node or to a sequence of nodes of an HTML parsing-tree of the example-document in which said example-element occurs. 77. The method of claim 57 wherein at least on of said production documents is formatted in HTML and where at least one of said example-elements corresponds to a node or to a sequence of nodes of an HTML parsing-tree of the production document in which said example-element occurs. 78. The method of claim 57 wherein at least one of said example-documents is formatted in HTML and where at least one of said example-elements corresponds to an HTML element whose type is selected from a group consisting of: html, table, tr, th, tfoot, thead, col, colgroup, caption, td, p, br, div, blockquote, body, head, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, dl, dd, dt, ol, ul, li, dir, menu, form, input, select, option, address, center, pre, xmp, nobr, wbr, hr, img, b, i, font-size, font-color, underline, blink, a (anchors), href, tt, big, sup, sub, cite, code, strong, em, samp, area, map, script, and CSS styles applied to the content and structure. 79. The method of claim 57 wherein at least one of said production documents are formatted in HTML and where at least one of said example-elements corresponds to an HTML element whose type is selected from a group consisting of: html, table, tr, th, tfoot, thead, col, colgroup, caption, td, p, br, div, blockquote, body, head, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, dl, dd, dt, ol, ul, li, dir, menu, form, input, select, option, address, center, pre, xmp, nobr, wbr, hr, img b, i, font-size, font-color, underline, blink, a (anchors), href, tt, big, sup, sub, cite, code, strong, em, samp, area, map, script, and CSS styles applied to the content and structure. 80. The method of claim 69, wherein said generalized location descriptor is obtained from a corresponding location descriptor by syntactic generalization operations. 81. The method of claim 80, wherein said generalized location descriptor is obtained by inserting zero or more wildcards, by substituting wildcards for zero or more elements and by eliminating zero or more elements from said location descriptor. 82. The method of claim 69, wherein at least one example-document is tree-structured and wherein each location descriptor, called plain tree path, created for an example-element occurring in an example-document corresponds to the sequence of element-types on the path in the parsing tree of said example-document from the root to said example-element, and where the corresponding generalized location descriptor, called incompletely specified tree path, is obtained from said location descriptor by inserting zero or more wildcards, by substituting wildcards for zero or more elements and by eliminating zero or more elements from said location descriptor. 83. The method of claim 69, wherein at least one production-document is tree-structured and wherein each location descriptor, called plain tree path, created for an example-element occurring in an example-document corresponds to the sequence of element-types on the path in the parsing tree of said example-document from the root to said example-element, and where the corresponding generalized location descriptor, called incompletely specified tree path, is obtained from said location descriptor by inserting zero or more wildcards, by substituting wildcards for zero or more elements and by eliminating zero or more elements from said location descriptor. 84. The method of claim 69, wherein at least one production-document is in HTML format and wherein each location descriptor, called plain tree path, created for an example-element occurring in an example-document corresponds to the sequence of HTML tags on the path in the parsing tree of said example-document from the root to said example-element, and where the corresponding generalized location descriptor, called incompletely specified tree path, is obtained from said location descriptor by inserting zero or more wildcards, by substituting wildcards for zero or more HTML tags and by eliminating zero or more elements from said location descriptor. 85. The method of claim 82, wherein said generalized location descriptor is set to a default value that is obtained from said location descriptor by prefixing each element in the location descriptor with a wildcard. 86. The method of claim 82 wherein a wildcard prefixing an element occurring within a generalized location descriptor is interpreted as an arbitrary chain of elements whose type differs from a type corresponding to said element. 87. The method of claim 85 wherein a user is given a possibility to change and overwrite said default value. 88. The method of claim 57, wherein commands related to said visual and interactively selecting said example-elements are given by a user acting directly on said example-documents, said acting is performed by means of one or more of a set of graphical user interface actions, said set including mouse-clicking and region marking. 89. The method of claim 57, wherein commands related to said visual and interactive declarations are given by a user acting by means of one or more of a set of user interface actions, said set including mouse-clicking, region marking on said example-documents, button selection, and insertion of data into dialog boxes. 90. The method of claim 57, wherein each of said patterns is selected from a set consisting of tree patterns, string patterns and document patterns, wherein instances of said tree patterns are subtrees of document parse-trees, instances of said string patterns are substrings of text strings occurring on some documents and instances of said document patterns are documents. 91. The method of claim 67, wherein said visualization of said instances of a filter and said simultaneous visualization of all instances of a pattern on selected documents is done by means at least one visual highlighting method, said visualizing method selected from a group consisting font color change, background color change, font type change, font size change, blinking, and underlining. 92. The method of claim 57, wherein the pattern description generated for each of said patterns contains a Boolean combination of all conditions that contribute to the definition of said pattern. 93. The method of claim 57, wherein the pattern description generated for each of said patterns consists of a set of rules formulated in a logic programming language. 94. The method of claim 57, wherein the pattern description generated for each of said patterns consists of a set of rules formulated in a logic programming language and where said wrapper consists of a logic program containing said rules. 95. The method of claim 94 wherein the variables and terms of said logic program range over elements occurring in the documents to which said wrapper is applied. 96. The method of claim 94 wherein the variables and terms of said logic program range over elements and strings occurring in the documents to which said wrapper is applied. 97. The method of claim 94 wherein the variables and terms of said logic program range over elements, element-lists, and strings occurring in the documents to which said wrapper is applied. 98. The method of claim 94 wherein the variables and terms of said logic program range over elements, element-lists, strings and attribute values occurring in the documents to which said wrapper is applied. 99. The method of claim 94 wherein said documents are tree-structured and where the variables of said logic program range over nodes of the parsing trees of documents to which said wrapper is applied. 100. The method of claim 94 wherein said documents are tree-structured and where the variables of said logic program range over nodes of the parsing trees and over strings occurring in the documents to which said wrapper is applied. 101. The method of claim 94 wherein said documents are tree-structured and where the variables of said logic program range over nodes and sequences of nodes of the parsing trees of documents to which said wrapper is applied. 102. The method of claim 94 wherein said documents are tree-structured and where the variables of said logic program range over nodes of the parsing tree of documents to which said wrapper is applied, over sequences of such nodes, and over strings occurring in documents to which said wrapper is applied. 103. The method of claim 94 wherein each condition that contributes to the definition of a pattern is represented by at least one atom in the body of a rule of said logic program which contributes to the definition of said pattern. 104. The method of claim 67 wherein the representation of each of said filters is organized according to a logical conjunction of all conditions contributing to said filter, and where the representation of each of said patterns is organized according to the logical disjunction of all filters contributing to said pattern, whereby a pattern can be defined via successive narrowing and broadening steps corresponding to the addition of a new condition to a filter of said pattern, and to the addition of a new filter for said pattern, respectively. 105. The method of claim 104 wherein the representation of each of said filters is organized as an explicit Boolean conjunction of all conditions contributing to said filter, and where the representation of each of said patterns is organized as an explicit logical disjunction of all filters contributing to said pattern, whereby a pattern can be defined via successive narrowing and broadening steps corresponding to the addition of a new condition to a filter of said pattern, and to the addition of a new filter for said pattern, respectively. 106. The method of claim 67 wherein each of said filters is represented as a logic programming rule and wherein each pattern is represented by a set of rules representing filters defining said pattern, and wherein said wrapper is a logic program consisting of all rules representing said filters. 107. The method of claim 104 wherein each of said logic programming rules representing a filter consists of a rule body that represents all conditions contributing to said filter in form of a conjunction of atoms and of a rule head whose predicate corresponds to the pattern said filter is associated with. 108. The method of claim 107 wherein said logic program is a datalog program making use of special predefined predicates for expressing conditions. 109. The method of claim 70 wherein each of said internal conditions belongs to a set consisting of contains conditions and noncontains conditions wherein the contains conditions impose one or more restrictions on some subelement of the pattern to be defined and the notcontains conditions require that instances of the pattern to be defined do not contain any subelement that satisfies specified restrictions. 110. The method of claim 70 wherein an element of a document is either an ordinary element or a sequence of contiguous elements, and wherein each of said internal conditions belongs to a set consisting contains conditions, notcontains conditions, firstsubtree conditions and lastsubtree conditions; wherein contains conditions impose one or more restrictions on some subelement of the pattern to be defined, notcontains conditions require that instances of the pattern to be defined do not contain subelements satisfying specified restrictions, firstsubtree conditions require that some element with specified properties be the first element of a sequence of elements to be defined; and lastsubtree conditions requires that some element with specified properties be the last element of a sequence of elements to be defined. 111. The method of claim 110 where said restrictions are selected from a set consisting of restrictions on font type, restrictions on font size, restrictions on font color, restrictions on the text contained in said subelement, restrictions on hyperlinks and other anchors, restriction on explicit positional parameters, restriction on element types, and restrictions on the value of a hidden attribute. 112. The method of claim 111 where at least one of said restrictions specifies that the target object must contain some given substring. 113. The method of claim 111 where at least one of said restrictions specifies that the target object must coincide with some given value. 114. The method of claim 111 where at least one of said restrictions is specified in form of a regular expression. 115. The method of claim 111 where at least one of said restrictions is expressed in terms of a predefined ontological concept. 116. The method of claim 70 where said contextual conditions are selected from a group consisting of before conditions, after conditions, notbefore conditions, notafter conditions and vertical positional conditions, wherein before conditions require that some element with specified properties must occur before a pattern instance, after conditions require that some element with specified properties must occur after a pattern instance, notbefore conditions require that some element with specified properties should not occur before a pattern instance, notafter conditions require that some element with specified properties should not occur after a pattern instance; and vertical positional conditions require that a pattern instance must occur in some vertical position relative to a specified element, where said vertical position is in a set comprising: below, above, not below, and not above. 117. The method of claim 57 wherein said example documents and said production documents are XML documents. 118. The method of claim 57 wherein said example documents and said production documents consist of unformatted text. 119. The method of claim 57 wherein said example documents and said production documents consist of text structured by structuring features from a set containing headlines, and titles, and spaces, and paragraphs, and indentations, and lists. 120. The method of claim 57 wherein said example documents and said production documents are formatted according to some document processing standard. 121. The method of claim 70 wherein said auxiliary conditions are selected from a group consisting of concept conditions, comparison conditions, pattern reference conditions, and conditions on documents, where concept conditions require that some part of a pattern to be defined matches an ontological concept definition, comparison conditions impose restrictions on the values of concept items, pattern reference conditions require that a pattern to be defined, or some element used within a pattern definition, be an instance of a pattern defined within the same wrapper; and conditions on document filters express restrictions on further documents to be loaded. 122. A method for interpreting an extended logic program over Web pages, comprising: setting variables and terms of said logic program so that they form a range over nodes parsing trees of said Web pages, setting an identification of each Web page to an extensional database whose data elements are nodes of the parsing tree of said Web page; and establishing parent-child relationship between the nodes of said parsing tree to be a binary relation, and whose data elements are ordered according to document order. 123. The method of claim 122, wherein said extended logic program contains special atoms corresponding to conditions from a plurality of conditions selected from a group consisting location conditions, internal conditions and contextual conditions, wherein location conditions impose restrictions on the location of nodes of said parsing-tree internal conditions impose restrictions on nodes of said parsing trees, relying on properties of the subtrees rooted in said nodes, and contextual conditions, imposing restrictions on the context in which nodes may appear within said parsing tree; wherein, in addition to classical inference procedures of logic programming, specific procedures are provided for evaluating said special atoms. 124. The method of claim 123, wherein, said extended logic program consists of a datalog program in which by said special atoms are treated as atoms of built-in predicates. 125. The method of claim 123, wherein range intervals can be specified with each rule of said extended logic program, and wherein only those facts are computed by a rule that match the ranges of said intervals in the ordering induced by document order. |
<SOH> B. BACKGROUND <EOH>1. Field of Invention This disclosure teaches techniques related in general to the field of information processing. More particularly, the teachings relate to methods, systems and computer-program products for information extraction from Web pages, to the construction of wrappers (i.e. extraction programs), based on example Web pages, and to the transformation of “relevant” parts of HTML documents into XML. 2. Basic Concepts, Terminology, and Introduction The World Wide Web (abbreviated as Web) is the world's largest data repository and information retrieval system. In this environment, client machines effect transactions to Web servers using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), which is an application protocol usually providing user access to files formatted in a standard page description language known as Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). HTML provides basic document formatting (and some logical markup) and allows the developer to specify “links” to other servers and documents. In the Internet paradigm, a network location reference to a server or to a specific Web resource at a server (for example a Web page) is identified by a so-called Uniform Resource Locator (URL) having a well-defined syntax for describing such a network location. The use of an (HTML-compatible) browser (e.g. Netscape Navigator, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Amaya or Opera) at a client machine involves the specification of a link by the means of an URL. The client then makes a request to the server (also referred to as “Web site”) identified by the link and receives in return an HTML document or some other object of a known file type. Simple and less sophisticated browsers can easily be written in a short time and with little effort in (object-oriented) programming languages such as Java, where powerful program libraries are available that already contain modules or classes providing the main functionalities of browsers (for example, the JEditorPane class of the javax.swing package). Browsers or other applications working with HTML documents internally represent an HTML document in the form of a tree data structure that basically corresponds to a parse tree of the document. A model for representing and manipulating documents in form of trees is referred to as Document Object Model (DOM). Several DOMs for HTML documents have been defined and are used by different programming environments and applications, but the differences among these DOMs are rather inessential. An example for such a DOM is the so called “Swing DOM”, which is part of the Javax Swing Package, a programming package containing useful libraries of Java classes for manipulating HTML documents. A DOM tree of an HTML document represents its hierarchical structure. In particular, the root of a DOM tree of an HTML document represents the entire document, while intermediate nodes of the tree represent intermediate elements such as tables, table rows, and so on. The leaves usually represent terminal (i.e., structurally indecomposable) data such as atomic text items or images. Each node of an HTML DOM tree can be associated with certain attributes that describe further features of the represented element (such as style, font size, color, indentation, and so on). One important disadvantage of HTML is its main orientation as formatting and layout language, but not as data description language. In fact, the nodes of an HTML DOM tree are predefined elements that basically correspond to HTML formatting tags. Therefore it is difficult and very cumbersome (if at all possible) to query an HTML document using query languages in order to automatically extract useful and hierarchically structured information. Given that HTML provides no data description nor any tagging or labeling of data except for formatting purposes, it is often difficult and sometimes impossible to formulate a query that allows a system to distinguish, say, a first name from a family name or from an address appearing in the same HTML document. For this reason, web documents which are intended to be queried or processed by software applications are hierarchically organized using display-independent markup. Such, so-called semistructured, documents are often more suitably formatted in markup languages such as XML (eXtensible Markup Language). XML is a standard for data exchange adopted by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) in 1999. The main advantage of XML is that it allows a designer of a document to label data elements using freely definable tags. The data elements can be organized in a hierarchy with arbitrarily deep nesting. Optionally, an XML document can contain a description of its grammar, the so-called Document Type Definition (DTD). An XML document or a set of such documents can be regarded as a database and can be directly processed by a database application or queried via one of the new XML query languages such as XSL, XSLT, XPath, XPointer, XQL, XML-QL, XML-GL, and XQuery. Moreover, powerful languages such as XSLT do not just serve for defining queries but can transform their output into an appropriate format suitable for further processing, e.g. into an email message or a piece of plain text to be sent to a cellular phone. Note that most Web pages are still formatted in HTML. This is not expected to change soon, even though XML has been attracting a lot of attention. One reason for this may be that, due to the limited syntax of HTML, this language is somewhat easier to learn and to use than XML. Moreover, HTML documents are very often designed by laypersons, i.e., non-programmers, who are not suitably trained in the logical skills to systematically define data structures as required by XML and who therefore feel more comfortable using widely available editors and tools such as Dreamweaver, Frontpage or HotMetal in order to create HTML Web pages in a “what you see is what you get” manner. Furthermore, document designers often do not anticipate the need of others to process their documents automatically but mainly have a human beholder of their Web pages in mind. Finally, many companies deliberately refrain from offering data in XML format in order to obstruct automated processing of the published data by others. On the other hand, there is a tremendous need for automating Web data processing and monitoring tasks. In the Business to Business (B2B) context it is often of crucial importance to a company to be immediately informed about price changes on the Web site of a competitor, about new public offerings or tenders popping up on a Web site of some corporate or government institution, or about changes in exchange rates, share quotas, and so on. Similarly, individuals can heavily profit from automated web monitoring. For example, imagine one would like to monitor interesting notebook offers at electronic auctions such as eBay (http://www.ebay.com). A notebook offer is considered interesting if, say, its price is below GBP 3000 (Great Britain Pounds), and if it has already received at least two offers by others. The eBay site allows one to make a keyword search for “notebook” and to specify a price range in USD (US Dollars) only. More complex queries such as the desired one cannot be formulated. Similar sites do not even give restricted query possibilities and leave you with a large number of result records organized in a huge table split over dozens of Web pages. One has to wade through all these records manually, because of no possibility to further restrict the result. All these problems could be solved efficiently if the relevant parts of the respective source data were made available in XML format. Thus, there is a significant need for methods and systems that are able to perform some or all of the following four tasks: 1. Identify and isolate relevant parts or elements of (possibly remote) Web pages. 2. Automatically extract the relevant parts of Web documents even though the respective documents may continually change contents and even (to a certain extent) structure. 3. Suitably transform the extracted parts into XML to make them available for querying and further processing. 4. Assist a developer or application programmer in creating and using programs or systems able to perform tasks (1), (2), and (3). A subtask of central importance is supporting the developer in the definition of relevant extraction patterns. Extraction patterns serve to identify information of one particular kind. Tasks (1) and (2) together are often referred to as “Web information extraction” or also as “data extraction from the Web”. Task (3) is referred to as “translation into XML”. Note that a useful and meaningful translation into XML does not merely consist of reformatting an HTML document, according to the XML standard, but also in enriching the document with structural information and data description tags. The translated document will thus contain some structural and descriptive information that is not present in the original document. A program specifying how the above tasks (1), (2), and (3) are to be performed is referred to as “wrapper” or “wrapper program”. Wrappers may be written in a publicly available multi-purpose (procedural) programming language with primitives able to manipulate web resources (such as Java, C++, or Perl) in which case they can be compiled (or interpreted) and executed in a regular fashion using standard software resources (just as other programs in that language). Alternatively, wrappers can be formulated in some dedicated or proprietary high-level declarative language that needs a specially constructed interpreter or compiler. A program or system that automatically or semi-automatically generates wrappers is referred to as “wrapper generator”. A software tool that merely assists a human in manually programming and testing a wrapper, is referred to as “wrapper programming assistant”. Task (4) can be solved by means of a wrapper generator, by means of a wrapper programming assistant, or by some hybrid tool. 3. Desirable Properties of Methods and Systems for Wrapper Generation and Web Information Extraction It is desirable to enable a very large number of computer users, including laypersons having no programming skills or expertise on HTML or similar formats, to create robust wrappers using a small number of sample pages, such that these wrappers are then able to automatically extract relevant and complex parts of Web pages and to translate the extracted information automatically into XML. With respect to this goal, a method or system for wrapper generation, Web data extraction, and translation into XML should fulfill at least some of the following properties: High expressive power. The system should enable the definition of complex, structurally organized patterns from Web pages and translate the corresponding data (the so-called pattern instances) into a corresponding hierarchically structured XML document. User friendliness. It should allow a human wrapper designer to design, program, or specify wrappers in a very short time. The user interaction should be efficient and suitable for constructing wrappers and specifying the XML translation. Good learnability. The learning effort for being able to understand the method or use the system should be as small as possible. The method or system should be accessible to, and usable by, a layperson who is not a programmer or a computer scientist and has no programming experience. In the best case, it should not even require knowledge of HTML or XML, which means that a designer is never directly confronted with HTML or XML code (even the XML output can be displayed using nested tables). Good visual support. It should offer the wrapper designer a GUI (graphical user interface) for specifying wrappers or XML translations. Ideally, the visual user interface allows a wrapper designer to work directly on displayed sample source documents (e.g. on HTML Web pages) and supports a purely visual way of defining extraction patterns. Ease of accessibility and installation. The system should be widely accessible and should not require particular installation efforts. Ideally, the system provides an interface so that it can be used through a standard Web browser such as Netscape or Internet Explorer. Parsimony of samples. In case the method or system uses sample pages as a basis for constructing wrappers, it should require only very few of these (a single one at best) for most applications. The reason is that, in many cases, a wrapper designer has only one or very few sample pages at hand. For example, if we decide to construct a wrapper to translate the homepage of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) available at http://patents.uspto.gov/ into XML (e.g. in order to monitor upcoming new information and press releases and new federal register notes), then, at the time of wrapper construction, one instance of this page will be available at hand, namely, the current page. It should be possible to construct a wrapper based on this single instance which works well for future versions of this page. Robustness. Wrappers are generally aimed at extracting information from similarly structured Web pages of changing content. It is obvious that wrappers risk failing to deliver a correct result if the structure of the source documents changes. However, a good wrapper is expected to have a certain degree of robustness, i.e., insensibility to minor structural changes. The method or system should allow the generation of fairly robust wrappers. Runtime Efficiency. The method should provide efficient algorithms and the system should implement these algorithms efficiently such that the system becomes usable in practice and is highly scalable. (This is, of course, a general requirement to be fulfilled by almost all software methods and systems). Smooth XML Interface. The method or system should provide a smooth and user-friendly way of translating the extracted data into XML in order to make it accessible to further processing, e.g. via XML query engines or well-known transformation languages such as XSLT. Ideally, the translation to XML is done automatically on the basis of the information gathered from the designer during the process of defining extraction patterns. Clearly, a method and system fulfilling all these requirements is highly desirable and useful. In the paper “Content Integration for E-Business” (M. Stonebraker and J. M. Hellerstein “Content Integration for E-Business”, Proceedings of SIGMOD 2001) some of the challenges needed for content integration are presented:”. In short, a powerful, easy-to-use tools, is needed to address the broad challenges of cleaning, transforming, combining and editing content. These tools must be targeted at typical, non-technical content managers. In order to be useable the tools must be graphical and interactive, so that content managers can see the data as it is mapped. Any automated techniques must be made clearly visible, so that domain experts can edit and adjust the results. The development of semi-automatic content mapping and integration tools represents a new class of systems challenges, at the nexus of query processing, statistical and logical mapping techniques, and data visualization”. The disclosed teachings are aimed at realizing some of the advantages and overcoming some of the disadvantages noted herein. 4. References The following documents provide background information helpful in understanding this disclosure, and to that extent, they are incorporated herein by reference. They are referred to, using the abbreviated notations shown below, in subsequent discussions to indicate specific relevance wherever necessary. (1) U.S. Patent Documents [U1] U.S. Pat. No. 5,826,258 Gupta et al. 1998 [U2] U.S. Pat. No. 5,841,895 Huffmann 1998 [U3] U.S. Pat. No. 5,860,071 Ball et al. 1999 [U4] U.S. Pat. No. 5,898,836 Freivald et al. 1999 [U5] U.S. Pat. No. 5,913,214 Madnick et al. 1999 [U6] U.S. Pat. No. 5,983,268 Freivald et al. 1999 [U7] U.S. Pat. No. 6,102,969 Christianson et al. 2000 [U8] U.S. Pat. No. 6,128,655 Fields et al. 2000 |
<SOH> II. SUMMARY <EOH>The disclosed teachings provide methods, systems and computer-program products for the visual and interactive generation of wrappers for Web pages under the supervision of a human developer, for automatically extracting information from Web pages using such wrappers, and for translating the extracted content into XML. The features included are: a method and system for interactively and visually defining information extraction patterns under the supervision of a human developer on the base of visualized sample Web pages; a method and system for successively and hierarchically collecting information extraction patterns in order to generate a wrapper; a method for logically representing the knowledge about sets of desired extraction patterns which jointly constitute a wrapper specification, as well as an abstract data structure that refines the logical definition and renders it more precise; a declarative logic programming language, called Elog, for effectively encoding pattern descriptions (and thus wrappers) in a format that meets said data structure; a method and system for executing wrappers (corresponding to a set of previously defined extraction patterns) on local or remote Web pages and thus for automatically extracting relevant information from said Web pages; a data representation method for data extracted from Web pages, i.e., for pattern instances; a method for defining XML translation rules that specify how extracted content should be translated into XML and for constructing an XML Document Type Definition (DTD) for that output; a method and system for effectively translating extracted data into XML format. The totality of the disclosed teachings constitutes an integrated and compound technique for specifying extraction patterns, for extracting information corresponding to such patterns, specifying XML translation rules, and translating extracted information into XML, as well as for organizing the overall process. As part of this integrated technique is a corresponding system. The global method and the global system are both referred to as “Lixto” (more specifically, as the Lixto method and the Lixto System). Note that Lixto is not confined to a single embodiment but can be embodied in various ways. It should be clear that while Lixto is discussed in detail, it is only an example implementation and should not be construed to restrict the scope of the claims in any way. Further, computer-program products including computer-readable media with instructions that implement the systems and methods disclosed, completely or partially, are also contemplated as being within the overall scope of the disclosed teachings. It should be noted that the media could be anything including but not limited to RAMs, ROMs, hard disks, CDs, tapes, floppy disks, Internet downloads, etc. In short, any medium that can fix all or a subset of the instructions, even for a transient period of time, is considered as a computer-readable media for the purposes of this disclosed teaching. Further the type of computer that can implement is also not restricted to any particular type, but includes personal computers, workstations, mainframes and the like. Also, it can be implemented on a stand-alone computer or in a distributed fashion across a network, including but not limited to, the Internet. |
Optimal routing when two or more network elements are integrated in one element |
A call is routed between at least two logical network elements each performing a logical functionality on the call, the logical functionalities of the at least two logical network elements being accommodated in one physical control entity in an IP communication network system. When a call is received at the physical control entity as a first logical functionality, call-related processing is performed in the physical control entity as the first logical functionality, thereby obtaining a content of a first data structure. Then, a second logical functionality is invoked in the physical control entity, wherein the content of the first data structure is supplied inside the physical control entity to a second data structure of the second logical functionality so that the content of the second data structure is substantially similar too a content obtained at the same stage in said second logical functionality by external routing between logical network elements. |
1. A method of routing a call between at least two logical network elements each performing a logical functionality on said call, said logical functionalities of said at least two logical network elements being accommodated in one physical control entity in an IP communication network system, said method comprising the steps of: receiving a call at said physical control entity as a first logical functionality; performing call-related processing in said physical control entity as said first logical functionality, thereby obtaining a content of a first data structure; and invoking a second logical functionality in said physical control entity, wherein said content of said first data structure is supplied inside said physical control entity to a second data structure of said second logical functionality so that the content of said second data structure is substantially similar to a content obtained at the same stage in said second logical functionality by external routing between logical network elements. 2. A method according to claim 1, wherein said content of said first data structure is supplied within one call state model for a beginning of a functionality and an ending of a functionality. 3. A method according to claim 1, wherein said content of said first data structure is supplied by sending a message inside said physical control entity from a call state model for an ending of a functionality to a call state model for a beginning of a functionality. 4. A method according to claim 1, wherein said content of said first data structure is supplied by sending a first message from a call state model for an ending of a functionality to a first adapter process for translating said content of said first data structure to a data structure of an inter network element sending signaling, sending a second message from said first adapter process to a second adapter process for supplying said content of said inter network element sending signaling data structure to a data structure of an inter network element receiving signaling, so that the content of said inter network element receiving signaling data structure is substantially similar to a content obtained at the same stage in said second adapter process by external routing between logical network elements, and sending a third message from said second adapter process to a call state model for a beginning of a functionality, for translating said content of said inter network element receiving signaling data structure to said second data structure. 5. A method according to claim 1, wherein said content of said first data structure is supplied by sending a first message from a call state model for an ending of a functionality to a first adapter process for translating said content of said first data structure to a data structure of an inter network element sending signaling, performing processing on the content of said inter network element sending signaling data structure, thereby obtaining a content of a processed inter network element sending signaling data structure, sending a second message from said first adapter process to a second adapter process for supplying said content of said processed inter network element sending signaling data structure to a data structure of a processed inter network element receiving signaling, so that the content of said processed inter network element receiving signaling data structure is substantially similar to a content obtained at the same stage in said second adapter process by external routing between logical network elements, performing processing on said content of said processed inter network element receiving signaling data structure, thereby obtaining a content of an inter network element receiving signaling data structure and sending a third message from said second adapter process to a call state model for a beginning of a functionality, for translating said content of said inter network element receiving signaling data structure to said second data structure. 6. A method according to claim 1, wherein said content of said first data structure is supplied by sending a first message from a call state model for an ending of a functionality to a first adapter process for translating said content of said first data structure to a data structure of an inter network element sending signaling, performing processing on the content of said inter network element sending signaling data structure, thereby obtaining a content of a processed inter network element sending signaling data structure, performing looping from said first adapter process to a second adapter process via a protocol level below the used signaling protocol between network elements for supplying said content of said processed inter network element sending signaling data structure to a data structure of a processed inter network element receiving signaling, so that the content of said processed inter network element receiving signaling data structure is substantially similar to a content obtained at the same stage in said second adapter process by external routing between logical network elements, performing processing on said content of said processed inter network element receiving signaling data structure, thereby obtaining a content of an inter network element receiving signaling data structure and sending a third message from said second adapter process to a call state model for a beginning of a functionality, for translating said content of said inter network element receiving signaling data structure to said second data structure. 7. A method according to claim 3, wherein, when said message is received at said call state model for a beginning of a functionality, an identification of the logical network element performing said second logical functionality is added to a record-route field in said message. 8. A method according to claim 3, wherein, when said message is received at said call state model for a beginning of a functionality, no identification of the logical network element performing said second logical functionality is added to a field of said message, which indicates a path taken by a request so far. 9. A method according to claim 4, wherein, when said second message is received, an identification of the logical network element performing said second logical functionality is added to a record-route field in said second message. 10. A method according to claim 4, wherein, when said second message is received, no identification of the logical network element performing said second logical functionality is added to a field of said second message, which indicates a path taken by a request so far. 11. A method according to claim 6, wherein, when performing looping from said first adapter process to said second adapter process, an identity of a local host and/or a loopback address are used. 12. A method according to claim 6, wherein, when the looped content is received at said second adapter process, an identification of the logical network element performing said second logical functionality is added to a record-route field in said looped content. 13. A method according to claim 6, wherein, when the looped content is received at said second adapter process, no identification of the logical network element performing said second logical functionality is added to a field of said looped content, which indicates a path taken by a request so far. 14. A method according to claim 6, wherein, when the looped content is received at said second adapter process, a previous entry of a record-route field in said looped content is used as identification of the logical network element performing said second logical functionality in said record-route field. 15. A method according to claim 3, wherein in the message supplied to said call state model for a beginning of a functionality a service required in the next network element is indicated. 16. A method according to claim 3, wherein the internal messages are call control protocol messages. 17. A method according to claim 1, wherein it is determined by said first logical functionality whether the second logical functionality can be invoked at the same physical control entity by analyzing destination information for the call. 18. A method according to claim 17, wherein said first logical functionality is a serving call state control function of an IP multimedia system. 19. A method according to claim 17, wherein said second logical functionality is an interrogating call state control function of an IP multimedia system. 20. A method according to claim 17, wherein said first logical functionality is a proxy call state control function of an IP multimedia system. 21. A method according to claim 17, wherein said second logical functionality is a serving call state control function of an IP multimedia system. 22. A method according to claim 17, wherein the destination information for the call comprises an FQDN. 23. A method according to claim 17, wherein the destination information for the call comprises the IP-address obtained by performing a DNS resolution procedure for at least part of a target identification. 24. A method according to claim 23, wherein the identification comprises an FQDN. 25. A control entity for routing a call between at least two logical network elements each performing a logical functionality on said call, said logical functionalities of said at least two logical network elements being accommodated in said control entity in an IP communication network system, said control entity being arranged to: receiving a call as a first logical functionality; performing call-related processing as said first logical functionality, thereby obtaining a content of a first data structure; and invoking a second logical functionality, wherein said content of said first data structure is supplied inside said control entity to a second data structure of said second logical functionality so that the content of said second data structure is substantially similar to a content obtained at the same stage in said second logical functionality by external routing between logical network elements. 26. A control entity according to claim 25, comprising one call state model for a beginning of a functionality and an ending of a functionality, wherein said content of said first data structure is supplied within said one call state model. 27. A control entity according to claim 25, comprising; a call state model for an ending of a functionality; and a call state model for a beginning of a functionality, wherein said content of said first data structure is supplied by sending a message from said call state model for an ending of a functionality to said call state model for a beginning of a functionality. 28. A control entity according to claim 25, comprising: a call state model for an ending of a functionality; a call state model for a beginning of a functionality; a first adapter process communicating with said call state model for an ending of a functionality; and a second adapter process communicating with said call state model for a beginning of a functionality, wherein, for supplying said content of said first data structure, said call state model for an ending of a functionality sends a first message to said first adapter process for translating said content of said first data structure to a data structure of an inter network element sending signaling, said first adapter process sends a second message to said second adapter process for supplying said content of said inter network element sending signaling data structure to a data structure of an inter network element receiving signaling, so that the content of said inter network element receiving signaling data structure is substantially similar to a content obtained at the same stage in said second adapter process by external routing between logical network elements, and said second adapter process sends a third message to said call state model for a beginning of a functionality, for translating said content of said inter network element receiving signaling data structure to said second data structure. 29. A control entity according to claim 25, comprising: a call state model for an ending of a functionality; a call state model for a beginning of a functionality; a first adapter process communicating with said call state model for an ending of a functionality; and a second adapter process communicating with said call state model for a beginning of a functionality, wherein, for supplying said content of said first data structure, said call state model for an ending of a functionality sends a first message to said first adapter process for translating said content of said first data structure to a data structure of an inter network element sending signaling, said first adapter process performs processing on the content of said inter network element sending signaling data structure, thereby obtaining a content of a processed inter network element sending signaling data structure, and sends a second message to said second adapter process for supplying said content of said processed inter network element sending signaling data structure to a data structure of a processed inter network element receiving signaling, so that the content of said processed inter network element receiving signaling data structure is substantially similar to a content obtained at the same stage in said second adapter process by external routing between logical network elements, said second adapter process performs processing on said content of said processed inter network element receiving signaling data structure, thereby obtaining a content of an inter network element receiving signaling data structure, and sends a third message to said call state model for a beginning of a functionality, for translating said content of said inter network element receiving signaling data structure to said second data structure. 30. A control entity according to claim 25, comprising: a call state model for an ending of a functionality; a call state model for a beginning of a functionality; a first adapter process communicating with said call state model for an ending of a functionality; and a second adapter process communicating with said call state model for a beginning of a functionality, wherein, for supplying said content of said first data structure, said call state model for an ending of a functionality sends a first message to said first adapter process for translating said content of said first data structure to a data structure of an inter network element sending signaling, said first adapter process performs processing on the content of said inter network element sending signaling data structure, thereby obtaining a content of a processed inter network element sending signaling data structure, and performs looping to said second adapter process via a protocol level below the used signaling protocol between network elements for supplying said content of said processed inter network element sending signaling data structure to a data structure of a processed inter network element receiving signaling, so that the content of said processed inter network element receiving signaling data structure is substantially similar to a content obtained at the same stage in said second adapter process by external routing between logical network elements, said second adapter process performs processing on said content of said processed inter network element receiving signaling data structure, thereby obtaining a content of an inter network element receiving signaling data structure, and sends a third message to said call state model for a beginning of a functionality, for translating said content of said inter network element receiving signaling data structure to said second data structure. 31. A control entity according to claim 27, wherein, when said call state model for a beginning of a functionality receives said message, said control entity adds an identification of the logical network element performing said second logical functionality to a record-route field in said message. 32. A control entity according to claim 27, wherein, when said call state model for a beginning of a functionality receives said message, said control entity adds no identification of the logical network element performing said second logical functionality to a field of said message, which indicates a path taken by a request so far. 33. A control entity according to claim 28, wherein, when said second message is received, said control entity adds an identification of the logical network element performing said second logical functionality to a record-route field in said second message. 34. A control entity according to claim 28, wherein, when said second message is received, said control entity adds no identification of the logical network element performing said second logical functionality to a field of said second message, which indicates a path taken by a request so far. 35. A control entity according to claim 30, wherein, when said first adapter process performs looping to said second adapter process, said control entity uses an identity of a local host and/or a loopback address. 36. A control entity according to claim 30, wherein, when said second adapter process receives the looped content, said control entity adds an identification of the logical network element performing said second logical functionality to a record-route field in said looped content. 37. A control entity according to claim 30, wherein, when said second adapter process receives the looped content, said control entity adds no identification of the logical network element performing said second logical functionality to a field of said looped content, which indicates a path taken by a request so far. 38. A control entity according to claim 30, wherein, when said second adapter process receives the looped content, said control entity uses a previous entry of a record-route field in said looped content as identification of the logical network element performing said second logical functionality in said record-route field. 39. A control entity according to claim 27, wherein said control entity indicates, in the message supplied to said call state model for a beginning of a functionality, a service required in the next network element. 40. A control entity according to claim 27, wherein the internal messages are call control protocol messages. 41. A control entity according to claim 25, wherein said first logical functionality determines whether the second logical functionality can be invoked at the same physical control entity by analyzing destination information for the call. 42. A control entity according to claim 41, wherein said first logical functionality is a serving call state control function of an IP multimedia system. 43. A control entity according to claim 41, wherein said second logical functionality is an interrogating call state control function of an IP multimedia system. 44. A control entity according to claim 41, wherein said first logical functionality is a proxy call state control function of an IP multimedia system. 45. A control entity according to claim 41, wherein said second logical functionality is a serving call state control function of an IP multimedia system. 46. A control entity according to claim 41, wherein the destination information for the call comprises an FQDN. 47. A control entity according to claim 41, wherein the destination information for the call comprises the IP-address obtained by performing a DNS resolution procedure for at least part of a target identification. 48. A control entity according to claim 47, wherein the identification comprises an FQDN. |
<SOH> BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION <EOH>There are different kinds of network elements participating in a call setup. For example, FIG. 1 shows a call-setup between subscriber A and B via an originating P-CSCF (Proxy Call State Control Function), originating S-CSCF (Serving Call State Control Function), I-CSCF (Interrogating Call State Control Function), terminating S-CSCF and terminating P-CSCF. These network elements can be seen as logical functionalities instead of actual physical CSCFs. One physical CSCF may accommodate two or more of these functionalities in the set-up of one call. Normally, two CSMs (Call State Models), an O-CSM (Originating CSM) and a T-CSM (Terminating CSM), are needed in every CSCF, BGCF (Breakout Gateway Control Function) or MGCF network element to handle a single call from subscriber A to subscriber B where the logical functionalities of the originating operator could be e.g. P-CSCF, S-CSCF, I-CSCF, S-CSCF and P-CSCF; or P-CSCF, S-CSCF, BGCF and MGCF, and the logical functionalities of the terminating operator could be e.g. MGCF, I-CSCF, S-CSCF and P-CSCF; or BGCF and MGCF. CSM has one or more states. In case at least two of the network elements in question are the same element, i.e. one physical network element accommodates two or more logical functionalities in the set-up of one call, the set-up is done via an external loopback ME 1 from a T-CSM to an O-CSM as shown in FIG. 7 . No care is taken as to whether the network elements are the same element, and the signaling is conducted always through an interface between two network elements. An example for this prior art solution is given in FIG. 8 . According to FIG. 8 , logical functionalities P-CSCF and S-CSCF are used as example of the two logical functionalities that are located in the same network element called here P-CSCF/S-CSCF. Originated and terminated call state models (i.e. O-CSM and T-CSM) of a logical functionality are separated. SIP is used as NNI (Network to Network Interface) protocol i.e. as protocol that is used between network elements. An originating call case where P-CSCF and S-CSCF are located in the same network is used as an example. As it is shown in FIG. 8 , when a terminal A wants to invite another party to a session, in a step 801 , it sends an INVITE message to the P-CSCF/S-CSCF network element. Then, in a step 802 , Call control signaling adaptation transforms the INVITE message to the internal format of the call control and stores it to an internal data structure. In a step 803 , the content of the internal data structure is passed as data to an O-CSM of the P-CSCF. The O-CSM stores the data to an internal data structure in a step 804 , and handles its content. In a step 805 , the O-CSM passes the control and the handled data in the internal data structure to a T-CSM of the P-CSCF. The T-CSM stores the data to an internal data structure in a step 806 , and handles its content. In a step 807 , the content of the internal data structure is passed to Call control signaling adaptation. Call control signaling adaptation stores the data to an internal data structure and transforms its content to an INVITE message in a step 808 . DNS (Domain Name Server) resolving is used to find out the IP address of the next network element. In a step 809 , an INVITE message is sent from the-P-CSCF to an S-CSCF via external routing. This INVITE message is received by an S-CSCF the functionality of which is located in the same network element P-CSCF/S-CSCF. In a step 810 , Call control signaling adaptation transforms the INVITE message to the internal format of the call control and stores it to an internal data structure. In a step 811 , the content of the internal data structure is passed as data to an O-CSM of the S-CSCF. The O-CSM stores the data to an internal data structure in a step 812 , and handles its content. In a step 813 , the O-CSM passes the control and the handled data in the internal data structure to a T-CSM of the S-CSCF. The T-CSM stores the data to an internal data structure in a step 814 , and handles its content. In a step 815 , the content of the internal data structure is passed to Call control signaling adaptation. Call control signaling adaptation stores the data to an internal data structure and transforms its content to an INVITE message in a step 816 . DNS resolving is used to find out the IP address of the next network element. In a step 817 , an INVITE message is sent from the S-CSCF to an I-CSCF via external routing. |
<SOH> SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION <EOH>It is an object of the present invention to optimize routing when two or more network elements are the same element on a signaling path. According to the present invention, this object is achieved by routing a call between at least two logical network elements each performing a logical functionality on the call, the logical functionalities of the at least two logical network elements being accommodated in one physical control entity in an IP communication network system. When a call is received at the physical control entity as a first logical functionality, call-related processing is performed in the physical control entity as the first logical functionality, thereby obtaining a content of a first data structure. Then, a second logical functionality is invoked in the physical control entity, wherein the content of the first data structure is supplied inside the physical control entity to a second data structure of the second logical functionality so that the content of the second data structure is substantially similar to a content obtained at the same stage in said second logical functionality by external routing between logical network elements. “Substantial similarity” between two contents of data structures means, for example, that the data structures are similar enough to avoid the introduction of significantly different program codes for the processing of the contents. According to a first embodiment of the present invention, the content of the first data structure is supplied within one call state model for a beginning of a functionality and an ending of a functionality. According to a second embodiment of the present invention, the content of the first data structure is supplied by sending a message inside the physical control entity from a call state model for an ending of a functionality to a call state model for a beginning of a functionality. According to a third embodiment of the present invention, the content of the first data structure is supplied by sending a first message from a call state model for an ending of a functionality to a first adapter process for translating the content of the first data structure to a data structure of an inter network element sending signaling, sending a second message from the first adapter process to a second adapter process for supplying the content of the inter network element sending signaling data structure to a data structure of an inter network element receiving signaling, so that the content of the inter network element receiving signaling data structure is substantially similar to a content obtained at the same stage in said second adapter process by external routing between logical network elements, and sending a third message from the second adapter process to a call state model for a beginning of a functionality, for translating the content of the inter network element receiving signaling data structure to the second data structure. According to a fourth embodiment of the present invention, the content of the first data structure is supplied by sending a first message from a call state model for an ending of a functionality to a first adapter process for translating the content of the first data structure to a data structure of an inter network element sending signaling, performing processing on the content of the inter network element sending signaling data structure, thereby obtaining a content of a processed inter network element sending signaling data structure, sending a second message from the first adapter process to a second adapter process for supplying the content of the processed inter network element sending signaling data structure to a data structure of a processed inter network element receiving signaling, so that the content of the processed inter network element receiving signaling data structure is substantially similar to a content obtained at the same stage in said second adapter process by external routing between logical network elements, performing processing on the content of the processed inter network element receiving signaling data structure, thereby obtaining a content of an inter network element receiving signaling data structure and sending a third message from the second adapter process to a call state model for a beginning of a functionality, for translating the content of the inter network element receiving signaling data structure to the second data structure. According to a fifth embodiment of the present invention, the content of the first data structure is supplied by sending a first message from a call state model for an ending of a functionality to a first adapter process for translating the content of the first data structure to a data structure of an inter network element sending signaling, performing processing on the content of the inter network element sending signaling data structure, thereby obtaining a content of a processed inter network element sending signaling data structure, performing looping from the first adapter process to a second adapter process via a protocol level below the used signaling protocol between network elements for supplying the content of the processed inter network element sending signaling data structure to a data structure of a processed inter network element receiving signaling, so that the content of the processed inter network element receiving signaling data structure is substantially similar to a content obtained at the same stage in said second adapter process by external routing between logical network elements, performing processing on the content of the processed inter network element receiving signaling data structure, thereby obtaining a content of an inter network element receiving signaling data structure and sending a third message from the second adapter process to a call state model for a beginning of a functionality, for translating the content of the inter network element receiving signaling data structure to the second data structure. According to the first embodiment, an extremely efficient use of messages and processes is achieved, i.e. the number of messages and processes can be reduced significantly compared with an external loopback. Moreover, an efficient use of bandwidth can be obtained. According to the second embodiment, messages and processes can be used very efficiently. Further, an efficient use of bandwidth is achieved. According to the third embodiment, messages, processes and bandwidth can be used efficiently. Moreover, a clean CSM is provided. According to the fourth embodiment, an efficient use of bandwidth is achieved and CSM is kept clean. According to the fifth embodiment, bandwidth is used efficiently. In the following the present invention will be described by way of preferred embodiments thereof with reference to the accompanying drawings. |
Bone implant |
A bone implant made form a spongiform and/or cortical bone material of human or animal origin, comprises at least one surface region with several longitudinal adjacent drillings which do not extend through the bone implant. |
1. A bone implant of spongious and/or cortical bone material of human or animal origin, in which at least one surface region (12: 26. 30) of the bone implant (10) has a plurality of elongate bores (14; 28, 32) arranged adjacently and not passing through the bone implant characterized in that the surface region (12; 26) with bores (14; 28) extends up to a edge of the bone implant, with the bores (20) in the edge region being outwardly open and thereby forming a ribbed section (22, 24). 2. A bone implant in accordance with claim 1, characterized in that the bores (14; 28, 34) are arranged in a matrix shape. 3. A bone implant in accordance with claim 1, characterized in that the surface region with the bores (12; 26) forms a membrane section (14; 28). 4. A bone implant in accordance with claim 1, characterized in that the maximum width of the bores (14; 28) lies between approximately 0.05 mm and approximately 2 mm. 5. A bone implant in accordance with claim 1, characterized in that the depth of the bores (14; 28) lies between approximately 0.1 mm and approximately 10 mm. 6. A bone implant in accordance with claim 1, characterized in that the spacing of adjacent bores (14; 28) is not larger than twice their maximum width. 7. A bone implant in accordance with claim 1, characterized in that the surface region (12; 26) has between approximately 20 and 200 bores (14; 28) per cm2. 8. A bone implant in accordance with claim 4, characterized in that the spacing of the bores (14; 28) lies between 0.01 mm and the maximum width of the bores. 9. A bone implant in accordance with claim 5, characterized in that the axes of the bores (14; 28) are aligned substantially parallel. 10. A bone implant in accordance with claim 1, characterized in that the bone material between the bores (14) is compact. 11. A bone implant in accordance with claim 1, characterized in that the bone implant has a further surface region (30) into which further bores (32) have been introduced which each at least partly intersect at least one of the bores (28) in the surface region (26). 12. A bone implant in accordance with claim 11, characterized in that at least one of the further bores (32) in the further surface region (30) at least partly intersects at least one of the bores (28) in the surface region (26) at an angle of approximately 90°. 13. A bone implant in accordance with claim 11, characterized in that at least some of the further bores (32) and some of the bores (28) intersecting them in the surface region (26) are formed such that they form a grid of mutually connected bore passages (34, 36). 14. A bone implant in accordance with claim 1, characterized in that the material of the bone implant consists of preserved and sterile bone material. |
Surfacing structure for traffic areas and for surfaces of structures |
Consequently, the object of the invention is development of a surfacing structure which, while retaining the advantages of high-strength fiber structures in the surfacing substructure, makes it possible to overcome the disadvantages indicated in the foregoing associated with adhesion and lifting or tearing out or displacement of matted fiber material covering the surface. The object claimed for the invention is attained, in conjunction with the generic characteristics indicated in the foregoing, in that the fiber skeins themselves of the latticework are saturated with a viscoplastic bonding compound and/or are enclosed in it and, as a result of this enclosing or saturation, are materially retained directly by each other in the area of their points of intersection and by the base and by the superstructure, and in that the superstructure is retained by material retention or positive locking by the base of the surfacing at least is some sections in the area of the open mesh interiors of the latticework. |
1-20. (Cancelled) 21. A surfacing structure for traffic areas and surfaces of structures comprising a substructure mounted on a base of a surfacing and a superstructure covering the substructure and comprising an asphalt concrete, the substructure comprising at least one latticework with a plurality of intersecting sheaves of high-strength fiber skeins bonded to each other by one of material retention and force locking to form meshes having interiors and intersections, characterized in that the fiber skeins are saturated with and/or enclosed in a viscoelastic compound and are joined directly at the intersections to each other and to the base and to the superstructure by such saturation or enclosure, and in that the superstructure is bonded at least in individual sections in the mesh interiors of the latticework to the base of the surfacing by material retention and/or positive locking. 22. The surfacing structure as claimed in claim 21, wherein a bonding compound fills the spaces between fibers inside the fiber skeins, said bonding compound being a bituminous compound and is thermoplastic to the point of forming a melting liquid. 23. The surfacing structure as claimed in claim 21, wherein the intersecting sheaves are comprised of high-strength fiber skeins and have a generally flat rectangular cross-section, and wherein a flat side of the skeins is mounted at least in approximation parallel to the base. 24. The surfacing structure as claimed in claim 21, wherein the latticework has a fabric structure. 25. The surfacing structure as claimed in claim 21, wherein the latticework comprises at least two intersecting sheaves of high-strength fiber skeins having different tensile moduli of elasticity. 26. The surfacing structure as claimed in claim 25, wherein at least one sheaf of fiber skeins having a relatively high tensile modulus of elasticity is mounted at an acute angle to a primary direction of a load movement on the surfacing. 27. The surfacing structure as claimed in claim 25, wherein the tensile modulus of elasticity of the fiber skeins with the higher tensile modulus of elasticity lies within the range of 180 kNmm2 to 260 kNmm2. 28. The surfacing structure as claimed in one of claims 25, wherein the tensile modulus of elasticity of the fiber skeins with the lower tensile modulus of elasticity lies within the range of 60 kNmm2 and 80 kNmm2. 29. The surfacing structure as claimed in one of claims 25, wherein the latticework comprises at least two intersecting sheaves of high-strength fiber skeins, one intersecting sheave comprising glass fibers and the other intersecting sheave comprising carbon fibers. 30. The surfacing structure as claimed in claim 21, wherein the minimum diameters of the mesh interiors of the latticework are approximately 10 mm. 31. The surfacing structure as claimed in claim 21, wherein the maximum diameters of the mesh interiors of the latticework are approximately 80 mm. 32. The surfacing structure as claimed in claim 31, wherein the maximum diameters of the mesh interiors of the latticework are approximately 50 mm. 33. The surfacing structure as claimed in claim 21, wherein the maximum diameters of the fiber skeins are from to 3 to 10 mm. 34. The surfacing structure as claimed in claim 33, wherein the maximum diameters of the fiber skeins are approximately 5 mm. 35. A fiber skein latticework for a surface structure as described in claim 21 and for fiber laminates having an artificial resin matrix to be produced in situ and prefabricated fiber laminates, wherein the latticework comprises at least two sheaves of high-strength fiber skeins having differing tensile moduli of elasticity. 36. The latticework as claimed in claim 35, wherein the fiber skeins in at least one first sheave comprise glass fibers and the fiber skeins in at least one second sheave intersecting the at least one first sheave comprise carbon fibers. 37. The surfacing structure as claimed in claim 35, wherein the latticework comprises at least two intersecting sheaves of high-strength fiber skeins having a generally flat rectangular cross-section, a flat side of which is mounted generally parallel to the base. 38. The surfacing structure as claimed in claim 37, wherein the latticework has a fabric structure. 39. A prefabricated structural member for a surfacing structure as claimed in claim 21, wherein a removable covering compound not adhering to or repelling the viscoelastic compound is provided on at least one surface of the latticework or of the fiber skeins. 40. The structural member as claimed in claim 39, wherein the covering is a thermally removable sheet. 41. The structural member as claimed in claim 40, wherein the covering is a burn-off sheet. 42. The structural member as claimed in claim 39, wherein the removable covering is provided on one surface of the latticework and a granulate coating is provided on the another surface of the latticework, said granulate coating not adhering to or repelling the viscoelastic compound. 43. The structural member as claimed in one of claims 39, wherein the latticework has a configuration of a rolling or coiled element with layers of a flat material not adhering to each other before the latticework is incorporated into the surfacing structure. |
Nucleic acids isolated in neuroblastoma |
There are disclosed a nucleic acid whose expression is enhanced in human neuroblastoma with favorable prognosis based on comparison between human neuroblastoma with favorable prognosis and human neuroblastoma with unfavorable prognosis, the nucleic acid comprising any one of base sequences set forth in SEQ ID NO:1 to NO:366 in the Sequence Listing, a nucleic acid comprising a portion of any of those base sequences, and an isolated nucleic acid capable of hybridizing to a complementary base sequence of the foregoing under stringent conditions. It discloses gene sequences relating to favorable or unfavorable prognosis of neuroblastoma and will enable the provision of their genetic information and the diagnosis of favorable or unfavorable prognosis. |
1. A nucleic acid whose expression is enhanced in human neuroblastoma with favorable prognosis based on comparison between human neuroblastoma with favorable prognosis and human neuroblastoma with unfavorable prognosis, the nucleic acid comprising any one of base sequences set forth in SEQ ID NO:1 to NO:366 in the Sequence Listing. 2. The nucleic acid according to claim 1, wherein the base sequence is any one of base sequences set forth in SEQ ID NO:121, SEQ ID NO:125, SEQ ID NO:132, SEQ ID NO:133, SEQ ID NO:165, SEQ ID NO:171, SEQ ID NO:187, SEQ ID NO:188, SEQ ID NO:210, SEQ ID 229, SEQ ID NO:232, SEQ ID NO:273 and SEQ ID NO:281 in the sequence listing. 3. The nucleic acid according to claim 1, wherein the base sequence is any one of base sequences set forth in SEQ ID NO:121, SEQ ID NO:125, SEQ ID NO:132, ID NO:165, SEQ ID NO:171, SEQ ID NO:187, SEQ ID NO:188, SEQ ID 229, SEQ ID NO:232, SEQ ID NO:273 and SEQ ID NO:281 in the Sequence Listing. 4. A nucleic acid comprising a portion of any one of base sequences set forth in SEQ ID NO:1 to NO:366 in the Sequence Listing. 5. The nucleic acid according to claim 4, wherein the portion of the base sequence is derivable from any one of the base sequences set forth in SEQ ID NO:121, SEQ ID NO:125, SEQ ID NO:132, SEQ ID NO:133, SEQ ID NO:165, SEQ ID NO:171, SEQ ID NO:187, SEQ ID NO:188, SEQ ID NO:210, SEQ ID 229, SEQ ID NO:232, SEQ ID NO:273 and SEQ ID NO:281 in the Sequence Listing. 6. The nucleic acid according to claim 4, wherein the portion of the base sequence is derivable from any one of the base sequences set forth in SEQ ID NO:121, SEQ ID NO:125, SEQ ID NO:132, ID NO:165, SEQ ID NO:171, SEQ ID NO:187, SEQ ID NO:188, SEQ ID 229, SEQ ID NO:232, SEQ ID NO:273 and SEQ ID NO:281 in the Sequence Listing. 7. An isolated nucleic acid capable of hybridizing to the nucleic acid according to any of claims 1 to 4 or a complementary nucleic acid thereof. 8. A diagnostic agent for the detection of a neurological disease containing at least one nucleic acid comprising a portion or the whole of a base sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO:1 to SEQ ID NO:366 in the Sequence Listing. 9. The diagnostic agent for the detection of a neurological disease according to claim 8, wherein the base sequence is any one of the base sequences set forth in SEQ ID NO:121, SEQ ID NO:125, SEQ ID NO:132, SEQ ID NO:133, SEQ ID NO:165, SEQ ID NO:171, SEQ ID NO:187, SEQ ID NO:188, SEQ ID NO:210, SEQ ID 229, SEQ ID NO:232, SEQ ID NO:273 and SEQ ID NO:281 in the Sequence Listing. 10. The diagnostic agent for the detection of a neurological disease according to claim 8, wherein the base sequence is any one of the base sequences set forth in SEQ ID NO:121, SEQ ID NO:125, SEQ ID NO:132, ID NO:165, SEQ ID NO:171, SEQ ID NO:187, SEQ ID NO:188, SEQ ID 229, SEQ ID NO:232, SEQ ID NO:273 and SEQ ID NO:281 in the Sequence Listing. 11. The isolated nucleic acid according to claim 7, wherein the nucleic acid is DNA. 12. A diagnostic kit for the prognosis of human neuroblastoma containing as the effective ingredient, a primer set comprising a pair of the isolated nucleic acids according to claim 11. 13. A method of diagnosing the prognosis of human neuroblastoma, the method comprising detecting the presence or absence of a nucleic acid comprising any one of base sequences set forth in SEQ ID NO:1 to NO:366 in the Sequence Listing from a clinical tissue sample of the neuroblastoma. |
<SOH> BACKGROUND ART <EOH>(Tumorgenesis and Genes) Individual tumors exhibit distinct characteristic natures, and their biological properties are not necessarily identical even though the basic principle of oncogenesis is the same. Rapid advances in the understanding of cancer from a molecular biological and molecular genetic perspective in recent years have opened the way to an explanation of oncogenesis and tumor cell biology on the genetic level. (Neuroblastomas) Neuroblastoma is a pediatric cancer occurring in sympathetic gangliocytes and adrenal medullary cells which originate from cells of the peripheral sympathetic nervous system. Of these sympathetic nervous system cells, neural crest cells in the initial stage of development migrate to the abdomen, differentiating and maturing at sites where sympathetic ganglia are formed. Some of these cells migrate further to the adrenal bodies, penetrating through the adrenal cortex which is already in the process of formation, and reaching the medulla and forming medullary substance there. The neural crest cells also serve as a source of other peripheral nerve cells, differentiating into dorsal root ganglia (sensory nerves), skin pigment cells, thyroid C cells, some pulmonary cells, intestinal gangliocytes, and the like. (Prognosis for Neuroblastoma) Neuroblastoma is characterized by a varied clinical profile (Nakagawara, Shinkeigashu no Hassei to Sono Bunshi Kiko [Neuroblastoma Development and Molecular Mechanism], Shoni Naika 30, 143, 1998). For example, neuroblastomas occurring at less than one year of age have very favorable prognosis, with the majority undergoing differentiation and cell death, and spontaneous regression. Currently, most neuroblastomas discovered by a positive result in the commonly performed mass screening of 6-month-old infant urine are of the type which tend to undergo this spontaneous regression. On the other hand, neuroblastomas occurring at age 1 or higher are highly malignant and lead to death of the infant in the majority of cases. It is also hypothesized that a somatic mutation occurs in highly malignant neuroblastomas in infants older than one year of age, which are of monoclonal nature, whereas in naturally regressing neuroblastomas, the genetic mutation remains at only a germline mutation. See Knudson A G, et al.: Regression of neuroblastoma IV-S: A genetic hypothesis, N. Engl. J. Med. 302, 1254 (1980)). (Genes which allow the diagnosis of prognosis for neuroblastoma) With recent advances in molecular biology research, it has become clear that expression of the high affinity nerve growth factor (NGF) receptor TrkA is closely connected with control of differentiation and cell death. See Nakagawara A., The NGF story and neuroblastoma, Med. Pediatr. Oncol., 31, 113 (1998). Trk is a membrane-spanning receptor, existing as the three main types, Trk-A, -B and -C. These Trk family receptors play an important role in specific nerve cell differentiation and survival in the central nervous and peripheral nervous systems. See Nakagawara, et al., Shinkeigasaiboushu ni Okeru Neurotrophin Juyoutai no Hatsugen to Yogo [Expression of Neurotrophin Receptors and Prognosis in Neuroblastoma], Shoni Geka (Pediatric Surgery), 29:425-432, 1997. The survival and differentiation of tumor cells is controlled by signals from Trk tyrosine kinase and Ret tyrosine kinase. In particular, the role of TrkA receptor is most significant, with TrkA expression being notably high in neuroblastomas with favorable prognosis, and its signals exerting a powerful control over survival and differentiation of tumor cells, and cell death (apoptosis). In neuroblastomas with unfavorable prognosis, on the other hand, TrkA expression is significantly suppressed, while tumor development is aided by a mechanism in which survival is promoted by signals from TrkB and Ret. It has become clear that amplification of the neural oncogene N-myc has become clearly associated with the prognosis of neuroblastoma. See Nakagawara, Nou-shinkeishuyo no Tadankai Hatsugan [Multistage Oncogenesis of Cerebral and Neural Tumors], Molecular Medicine, 364, 366(1999). This gene, first cloned in neuroblastoma, is ordinarily only present in a single copy per haploid set in normal cells and neuroblastomas with favorable prognosis, whereas it has been found to be amplified several dozen times in neuroblastomas with unfavorable prognosis. Up till the present time, however, no oncogene other than N-myc is known to be expressed in neuroblastomas, and absolutely no genetic information other than that of N-myc has been known in relation to favorable or unfavorable prognosis. |
<SOH> BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS <EOH>FIG. 1 is a figure corresponding to an electrophoregram showing an example of the results of determination of the gene expression levels in human neuroblastomas with favorable prognosis and with unfavorable prognosis by semi-quantitative PCR. FIG. 2 is a figure corresponding to electron micrographs showing a primary culture containing SCG neurons of a new born mouse. detailed-description description="Detailed Description" end="lead"? |
Process control |
In a control system for controlling a plant system or process (22), a model based problem is formulated and an explicit control solution is constructed off-line such that a parametric profile (24) techniques (26). As a result the system can operate in real-time with significantly reduced computational burden. |
1. A method of deriving an explicit control solution for operation of a system, the system having a control variable and a parameter that can be measured or estimated, comprising the steps of constructing, off-line, a system operation model based on said control variable and measurable parameter, and constructing, off-line, an optimised explicit control solution for said control variable and parameter using parametric optimisation. 2. A method as claimed in claim 1 further comprising the step of storing the explicit control solution on a data storage device. 3. A method as claimed in claim 1 in which the system operation model is a model predictive control (MPC) model. 4. A method as claimed in claim 3 in which the explicit control solution is constructed in the continuous time domain. 5. A method as claimed in claims 3 in which the MPC is formulated as a Quadratic Program. 6. A method as claimed in claim 1 in which the control solution comprises a co-ordinate space of at least one control various value region comprising a control variable substitution value or a control variable value as a function of a parameter value, the co-ordinate being the parameter. 7. A method as claimed in claim 1 in which the parameter comprises a measurable state. 8. A method as claimed in claim 1 in which the parameter comprises a system disturbance. 9. A method as claimed in claim 1 further comprising the step of analysing the control solution and constructing a revised system model based on said analysis. 10. A method as claimed in claim 1 in which the system operation model and/or the control solution includes a disturbance compensation term. 11. A system as claimed in claim 10 in which the system operation model includes an integral disturbance compensation term. 12. A method as claimed in claim 10 in which the system operation model includes a derivative disturbance compensation term. 13. A method as claimed in claim 10 when dependent on claim 6 in which the control solution co-ordinate space further includes a disturbance as a co-ordinate. 14. A method as claimed in claim 10 in which the control solution includes a disturbance estimate. 15. A method as claimed in claim 14 which the control solution is adjusted in on-line control operation to correct the disturbance estimate. 16. A method of controlling operation of a system comprising the steps of measuring or estimating, on-line, at a first time interval a parameter of the system, obtaining a control variable based on the parameter from a pre-defined parametric optimised explicit control solution and inputting the control variable to the system. 17. A method as claimed in claims 16 in which the steps of measuring or estimating the on-line parameter and deriving the control variable are repeated at subsequent time intervals. 18. A method as claimed in claim 16 in which the control solution comprises a co-ordinate space of at least one control variable value region comprising a control variable substitution value or a control variable as a function of a parameter value, the co-ordinate being the parameter value. 19. A method as claimed in claim 16 in which the control variable is further obtained based on a disturbance compensation term. 20. A method as claimed in claim 19 in which the control solution co-ordinate space further includes a disturbance as a co-ordinate. 21. A method as claimed in claim 19 in which the control solution includes a disturbance estimate. 22. A method as claimed in claim 1 in which the control solution is adjusted in on-line control operation to correct the disturbance estimate. 23. A method for controlling operation of a system according to an explicit control solution having a disturbance estimate comprising the steps of adjusting the control solution in on-line control operation to correct the disturbance estimate. 24. A control system for controlling operation of a system having a control variable and a state that can be measured or estimated, the control system including a system state measurement or estimation element, a data storage element storing a predetermined parametric optimised explicit control solution, a processor arranged to obtain a control variable from said data storage element control solution based on a system state value and a controller arranged to input the obtained control variable to the system. 25. A computer program for implementing a method as claimed in claim 1. 26. A computer readable medium storing a computer program as claimed in claims 25. 27. A data storage device storing a control solution derived by a method as claimed in claim 1. 28. A method or system or medium or device substantially as herein described and as illustrated with reference to the figures. 29. A method as claimed in claim 4 in which the explicit control solution is derived in the continuous time domain. 30. A method as claimed in claim 29 in which the explicit control system comprises the solution of a multiparametric dynamic optimisation problem. 31. A method as claimed in claim 29 in which the control variable is obtained as a function of said parameter and time. 32. A method as claimed in claim 10 in which they system operation model includes a worst-case disturbance compensation term. 33. A method as claimed in claim 32 in which the control solution co-ordinate space excludes a disturbance as a co-ordinate. |
Apparatus and method of re-adjusting convergence of a projection tv |
A method and an apparatus of re-adjusting convergence of a projection TV are disclosed. The apparatus includes a display device on which an image is projected and at least one light-sensing element (101) being provided around the display device. The light-sensing element (101) is composed of first and second sub-sensors (101a, 101b) that generate separate output signals as a projected alignment pattern moves over the sub-sensors (101a, 101b). The apparatus further includes a microprocessor calculating a convergence re-adjustment vector by obtaining a location of the light-sensing element (101), from which a previous convergence correction was made. The location of the light-sensing element (101) is obtained by analyzing the output signals. By using the apparatus and method of present invention, the misconvergence of the projection TV can be corrected very quickly and precisely. |
1. An apparatus of automatically re-adjusting convergence of a projection TV, the apparatus comprising: a display device, on which an image is projected; at least one light-sensing element being provided around said display device said light-sensing element being composed of first and second sub-sensors that generate separate output signals as a projected alignment pattern moves over said sub-sensors; and a microprocessor calculating a convergence re-adjustment vector by obtaining a location of said light-sensing element, from which a previous convergence correction was made, said location of light-sensing element being obtained by analyzing said output signals. 2. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising: a convergence controller generating a convergence yoke current in accordance with said re-adjustment vector; and a projection part converging said projected made in accordance with said yoke current. 3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein said convergence controller provides a control signal to said projection pattern for moving said projected pattern over said sub-sensors. 4. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising: a comparative part providing an informative signal to said microprocessor, said informative signal indicating Thorizontal and Tvertical which represent each time at which said output signals cross each other as said projected alignment moves over said sub-sensors in a horizontal direction and a vertical direction, respectively; and a memory storing said obtained location of said light-sensing element. 5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein said comparative part includes a comparator receiving said output signals generated from said sub-sensors and generating said informative signal, an inverter inverting said information signal, and a latch circuit latching said inverted signal. 6. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein said microprocessor obtains said location of light-sensing element by taking horizontal and vertical positions of said alignment pattern at time=Thorizontal and Tvertical, respectively. 7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein said re-adjustment vector starts from a present convergence location and ends at a previous convergence location, at which a previous convergence vector starting from said location of said light-sensing element also ends. 8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein said previous convergence vector is stored in said memory when said previous convergence correction based on said previous convergence vector is previously performed. 9. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein said first and second sub-sensors are diagonally arranged within said light-sensing element or are arranged side by side within said light-sensing element. 10. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein a light-receiving area of said first sub-sensor is about 50% of a light-receiving area of said second sub-sensor. 11. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein a gain of said first sub-sensor is about 50% of a gain of said second sub-sensor. 12. An apparatus for automatically re-adjusting convergence of a projection TV, the apparatus comprising: a display device, on which an image is projected; at least one light sensor being provided around said display device, said light sensor being composed of first and second sub-sensors generating separate output signals as a projected alignment pattern moves over said sub-sensors; a comparative part generating an informative signal that indicates Thorizontal and Tvertical, where Thorizontal and Tvertical represent each time at which said separate output signals cross each other as a said alignment pattern moves over said sub-sensors in a horizontal direction and a vertical direction, respectively; a system controller calculating a convergence re-adjustment vector by obtaining a location of said light sensor from which a previous convergence correction was made, said location of light senor being obtained by taking horizontal and vertical positions of said alignment pattern at time=Thorizontal and Tvertical, respectively; a convergence controller generating a control signal for moving said alignment pattern and generating a convergence yoke current in accordance with said re-adjustment vector; a projection part converging said projected image in accordance with said current; and a memory storing said obtained location of said light sensor. 13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein said light sensor is provided on a backside of said display device or at a predetermined distance behind said backside. 14. The apparatus of claim 12 wherein said light sensor is provided at each corner of said display device and an each of top, bottom, left, and right sides of said display device. 15. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein said light sensor is provided on each of top, bottom, left, and right sides of said display device. 16. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein said first and second sub-sensors are diagonally arranged within said light sensor or are arranged side by side within said light sensor. 17. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein a light-receiving area of said first sub-sensor is about 50% of a light-receiving area of said second sub-sensor. 18. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein a gain of said first sub-sensor is about 50% of a gain of said second sub-sensor. 19. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein said comparative part includes a comparator receiving said output signals generated from said sub-sensors and generating said information signal, an inverter inverting said information signal, and a latch circuit latching said inverted signal. 20. A method of automatically correcting misconvergence of a projection TV, the method comprising the steps of: projecting an alignment pattern and moving said projected pattern over at least one light-sensing element provided around a display device, said light sensor including first and second sub-sensors; obtaining a location of said light-sensing element by taking horizontal and vertical positions of said alignment pattern at time=Thorizontal and Tvertical, where =Thorizontal and Tvertical represent each time at which separate output signals generated from said sub-sensors cross each other as said projected pattern moves over said sub-sensors in a horizontal direction and a vertical direction, respectively; calculating a previously corrected convergence location from said obtained location of said light-sensing element, from which a previous convergence correction was made; obtaining a convergence re-adjustment vector that begins from a present convergence location and ends at said previously corrected convergence location; and performing a convergence re-adjustment on an image projected on said display device in accordance with said re-adjustment vector. 21. The method of claim 20, further comprising the step of storing said obtained location of said light-sensing element in a memory. 22. The method of claim 20, wherein said first and second sub-sensor are diagonally arranged within said light-sensing element. 23. The method of claim 20, wherein said first and second sub-sensors are arranged side-by-side within said light-sensing element. 24. The method of claim 20, wherein direction and distance associated with said previous convergence correction are previously stored in a memory. 25. The method of claim 20, wherein a light-receiving are of said first sub-sensor is about 50% of a light-receiving area of said second sub-sensor. 26. The method of claim 20, wherein a gain of said first sub-sensor is about 50% of a gain of said second-sensor. |
<SOH> BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION <EOH>1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a projection TV, and more particularly, to an apparatus and a method of re-adjusting convergence of a projection TV. 2. Discussion of the Related Art In general, there are many ways to correct the convergence of a projection TV having red/green/blue (R/G/B) projection tubes. FIG. 1 illustrates an example of typical convergence correction devices for a projection TV. The device shown in FIG. 1 includes R/G/B projection tubes 18 r, 18 g, and 18 b; a screen 11 ; location detectors 12 placed on each side of the screen 11 ; a pattern generator 15 generating an alignment pattern; a signal switch/amplifier 16 ; and a convergence compensator 14 controlling convergence yokes 17 r, 17 g, and 17 g in accordance with signals outputted from the location detectors 12 . Each location detector 12 may include a phototransistor or a charged couple device (CCD) linear sensor for location detection. A method of adjusting the convergence of a projection TV using the device shown in FIG. 1 will now be described in detail. First, the locations of the location detectors 12 placed on each side of the screen 11 are obtained using the signals outputted from the detectors 12 . Next, a convergence error is calculated using the locations of the location detectors 12 . Then the convergence is corrected based on the calculated convergence error value. However, the measured locations of the location detectors 12 are not precise enough due to many problems. For that reason, the convergence correction performance based on the above method is often unsatisfactory. In order to solve at least the problems set above, a greater number of photo transistors or very expensive CCD linear sensors have been used, however, these create further problems of adding complexity to the system and increasing the production cost. Alternatively, amorphous solar cells are often used for precisely measuring the locations of the detectors, but they require supplemental devices such as an A/D converter and involve a complex algorithm for calculating the convergence error value. |
<SOH> SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION <EOH>Accordingly, the present invention is directed to an apparatus and a method for re-adjusting convergence of a projection TV that substantially obviates one or more problems due to limitations and disadvantages of the related art. An object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus and a method of re-adjusting convergence of a projection TV using a convergence re-adjusting system having a simple circuit structure, reducing the production cost. Another object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus and a method of re-adjusting convergence of a projection TV that is able to provide an improved convergence correction performance. Additional advantages, objects, and features of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and in part will become apparent to those having ordinary skill in the art upon examination of the following or may be learned from practice of the invention. The objectives and other advantages of the invention may be realized and attained by the structure particularly pointed out in the written description and claims hereof as well as the appended drawings. To achieve these objects and other advantages and in accordance with the purpose of the invention, as embodied and broadly described herein, an apparatus of automatically re-adjusting convergence of a projection TV according to the present invention includes a display device, on which an image is projected; at least one light-sensing element being provided around the display device, the light-sensing element being composed of fist and second sub-sensors that generate separate output signals as a projected alignment pattern moves over the sub-sensors; and a microprocessor calculating a convergence re-adjustment vector by obtaining location of the light-sensing element, from which a previous convergence correction was made, the location of light-sensing element being obtained by analyzing the output signals. Preferably, the apparatus further includes a convergence controller generating a convergence yoke current in accordance with the re-adjustment vector; and a projection part converging the projected image in accordance with the yoke current. Preferably, the apparatus further includes a comparative part providing an informative signal to the microprocessor, the informative signal indicating T horizontal and T vertical which represent each time at which the output signals cross each other as the projected alignment moves over the sub-sensors in a horizontal direction and a vertical direction, respectively; and a memory storing the obtained location of the light-sensing element. The microprocessor obtains the location of light-sensing element by taking horizontal and vertical positions of the alignment pattern at time=T horizontal and T vertical , respectively. The re-adjustment vector starts from a present convergence location and ends at a previous convergence location, at which a previous convergence vector starting from the location of the light-sensing element also ends. The previous convergence vector is stored in the memory when the previous convergence correction based on the previous convergence vector is previously performed. In another aspect of the present invention, a method of automatically re-adjusting convergence of a projection TV according to the present invention includes the steps of (a) projecting an alignment pattern and moving the projected pattern over at least one light-sensing element provided around a display device, the light sensor including first and second sub-sensors; and (b) obtaining a location of the light-sensing element by taking horizontal and vertical positions of the alignment pattern at time=T horizontal and T vertical , where =T horizontal and T vertical represent each time at which separate output signals generated from the sub-sensors cross each other as the projected pattern moves over the sub-sensors in a horizontal direction and a vertical direction, respectively. The method further includes the steps of (c) calculating a previously corrected convergence location from the obtained location of the light-sensing element, from which a previous convergence correction was made; (d) obtaining a convergence re-adjustment vector that begins from a present convergence location and ends at the previously corrected convergence location; and (e) performing a convergence re-adjustment on an image projected on the display device in accordance with there-adjustment vector. It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description of the present invention are exemplary and explanatory and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed. |
Bolt with a handle |
The description relates to a rod closure for locking sheet-metal cabinet doors or the like doors or flaps, comprising a rod, such as a flat strip rod, which is profiled in an elongated manner, extends substantially edgewise parallel to the door edge and is preferably arranged in the bevel space, and at least one holding element which is arranged at the door frame for holding the rod so as to lock the door in the closed position, and an actuating device for the rod, which actuating device is connected to the door leaf. According to the invention, the rod or a complicated profiled rod is mounted so as to be swivelable between a locked position and an unlocked position around a longitudinal axis arranged close to the side directed away from the door leaf plane, and the holding element forms a contact surface for the other side of the rod facing the door leaf plane, and the actuation device engages the rod close to this side. |
1-21. (cancelled). 22. A rod closure for locking sheet-metal cabinet doors or the like doors or flaps in sheet-metal cabinet frames or the like door frames or housing frames, comprising: a rod, such as a flat strip rod, which is profiled in an elongated manner, extends substantially edgewise parallel to the door edge at the door or at the frame and is arranged in a bevel space; at least one holding element which is arranged at the door frame or at the door for holding the rod so as to lock the door in the closed position; an actuating device for the rod, which actuating device is connected to the door leaf; said rod being mounted so as to be swivelable between a locked position and an unlocked position in a rod guide element around a longitudinal axis arranged close to the side of the elongated profile directed away from the door leaf plane; said holding element forming a contact surface for the other side of the rod facing the door leaf plane; and said actuation device engages the rod close to this side. 23. The rod closure according to claim 22, wherein the profile of the rod is rectangular and forms a flat strip rod which is received in a partially circular or triangular receiving space of the rod guide element. 24. The rod closure according to claim 22, wherein the profile of the rod is U-shaped, wherein one leg forms or carries a hook or terminates in a hook and this leg or the other leg terminates in a circular or teardrop shape which is received in a square or partially circular receiving space of the rod guide element formed by a beveled bearing plate and is held therein by means of spring force. 25. The rod closure according to claim 24, wherein the profile of the rod has an actuating projection which is arranged at the outer side of the U or is formed by one leg thereof. 26. The rod closure according to claim 22, wherein the profile of the rod S-shaped and forms a hook at one end and a circle or enlargement at the other end. 27. The rod closure according to claim 24, wherein the rod is held by leaf springs which also push the rod profile or its actuating projection in the closing direction. 28. The rod closure according to claim 22, wherein the leaf spring has a catch projection for preassembly. 29. The rod closure according to claim 22, wherein the rod is injection molded from metal and/or plastic. 30. The rod closure according to claim 22, wherein the rod guide element comprises, or is, a structural component part which can be clipped onto a welded stud or the like. 31. The rod closure according to claim 22, wherein the rod guide element comprises a spring device, optionally with adjustable spring force, which pushes the rod into the locked position. 32. The rod closure according to claim 23, wherein the spring elements have claws in the form of turned out edges for bearing fixation. 33. The rod closure according to claim 23, wherein the actuating device comprises an actuating lever which is supported around an axis parallel to the door leaf plane and which swivels into the open position against the force of the spring when the rod is actuated. 34. The rod closure according to claim 33, wherein the actuating lever is lockable. 35. The rod closure according to claim 22, wherein the actuating device comprises a lever which reaches through an opening in the door leaf and which is rigidly connected, e.g., clamped, to the profiled rod. 36. The rod closure according to claim 22, wherein an additional handle for actuating the door is provided in addition to the actuating device with a lever which reaches through an opening in the door leaf. 37. The rod closure according to claim 22, wherein the actuating device is the tongue of a sash closure. 38. The rod closure according to claim 22, wherein the holding element arranged at the door frame or at the door is a steel angle. 39. The rod closure according to claim 22, wherein the holding element arranged at the door frame or at the door is a closing pin i.e. a pivoting part. 40. The rod closure according to claim 22, wherein the profiled rod is unfinished. 41. The rod closure according to claim 22, wherein the rod guide element is injection-molded plastic. 42. The rod closure according to claim 22, wherein the profiled rod has a plastic sleeve in the area of the rod bearing. |
<SOH> BACKGROUND OF THE INVENION <EOH>a) Field of the Invention The invention is directed to a rod closure for locking sheet-metal cabinet doors or the like doors or flaps in sheet-metal cabinet frames or the like door frames or housing frames, comprising a rod, such as a flat strip rod, which is profiled in an elongated manner, extends substantially edgewise parallel to the door edge at the door or at the frame and is preferably arranged in the bevel space, and at least one holding element which is arranged at the door frame or at the door for holding the profiled rod so as to lock the door in the closed position, and an actuating device for the profiled rod, which actuating device is connected to the door or to the frame. b) Description of the Related Art A rod closure of this kind is substantially already known, e.g., from EP 0 261 268 A1. Further, reference is had to DE 42 10 586 A1. In the known rod closures, the actuation of the locking rod is carried out by axial displacement of this locking rod. The disadvantage in this kind of locking by means of axial displacement of a locking rod consists on one hand in that the drive mechanism of the rod is complicated and on the other hand in that the rod must support or form special locking elements. In DE 42 10 586 A1, these special locking elements are rotating portions on the locking rod; in EP 0 261 268 A1 they are running rollers which are arranged on the rod. |
<SOH> OBJECT AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION <EOH>It is the primary object of the invention to provide a rod closure of the type mentioned in the beginning in which the locking rod need not form or carry any special locking elements. Further, the locking function of the locking rod should not require axial displacement of this rod. This object is met in accordance with the invention in that the profiled rod, such as a flat strip rod, is mounted so as to be swivelable between a locked position and an unlocked position around a longitudinal axis arranged close to the side of the elongated profile directed away from the door leaf plane, in that the holding element forms a contact surface for the other side of the elongated profile of the rod facing the door leaf plane, and in that the actuation device engages the profiled rod close to this side. This step does away with axial displacement of the locking rod, so that complicated transmission devices for transforming the movement of a hand lever, either a rotational movement or swiveling movement or some other movement, into an axial displacement of the locking rod can be eliminated. Further, locking elements need no longer be arranged or formed on the rod, so that manufacture of the locking rod is limited to sawing off a piece of the profile rod to an appropriate length corresponding to the cabinet height. In some cases, the ends of the rod are to be rounded off so as to improve pivoting bearing support. However, a bearing support of the locking rod, particularly when it is a flat strip rod, can also be carried out in a very simple manner in that the profiled rod is received in a partially circular or triangular receiving space of a rod guide element. In order for the rod, such as a flat strip rod which need only comprise a severed piece of flat strip material, to be held in the rod guide element, e.g., inside the door leaf bevel area, either the profiled rod can be slid through axially or, if this is to be avoided, the rod guide element can be constructed, for example, as a structural component part which can be clipped onto a welded stud or the like according to a further embodiment form of the invention. Since an axial displacement within guide elements need no longer take place after the rod is mounted, a profiled rod which has not been finished or deburred is sufficient, although this could normally not be used due to the high axial sliding friction and would have to be deburred and finished. The rod guide element can comprise a spring device which pushes the rod into the locked position. The closure rod accordingly forms a kind of latch which makes it possible to push the door leaf against the door frame and accordingly lock the closure without actuating the closure. The actuating arrangement can comprise an actuating device, e.g., a lever, which is supported around an axis parallel to the door leaf plane and which swivels into the open position against the force of the spring, or a spring, when the profiled rod is actuated. An actuating lever of this kind can be lockable, e.g., outfitted or not outfitted with a lock. A particularly simple design results when the actuating arrangement comprises a lever which reaches through an opening in the door leaf and which is rigidly connected, e.g., clamped, to the profiled rod. This eliminates the need for a special bearing support of the hand lever on the door leaf because this bearing support is taken over by the profiled locking rod. An additional handle for actuating the door may be provided in addition to this actuating lever. The actuating device can be the tongue of a sash lock. Also, for a simple construction the holding element arranged at the door frame is constructed as a steel angle. In particular, it is possible in this way to combine a rod closure of the type according to the invention with hinge devices requiring bore holes, openings or threaded bore holes in the frame which are also available in an analogous manner for fastening the steel angle. This has the advantage that the door leaf can be turned around without changing the hole configuration in the frame, so that a door hung on the left-hand side can be converted to a right-handed door. Alternatively, the holding element can also be a locking pin (pivoting part). Further, in order to reduce noise and lessen the leverage required for the process of swiveling the door, the rod guide element is advantageously made of plastic. The same goals are achieved when the profiled rod, such as a flat strip rod, is provided with a clip enclosure of plastic material in the area of the swivel bearing. According to another embodiment form, the profile of the rod can be U-shaped, wherein one leg forms or carries a hook or terminates in a hook and this leg or the other leg terminates in a circular or teardrop shape which is received in a square or partially circular receiving space of a rod guide element formed by a beveled bearing plate and is held therein by means of spring force. In particular, the profile of the rod can have an actuating projection which is arranged at the outer side of the U or is formed by one leg thereof. It is advantageous when the profile of the rod in this embodiment form is held by leaf springs which also push the rod profile or its actuating projection in the closing direction. To facilitate mounting, the leaf spring can have a catch projection for preassembly. This rod can be injection molded from metal or plastic. |
Compact illumination system and display device |
A compact backlighting system for illuminating a display device (12) comprises a light-emitting panel (1) having a front wall (2), an opposing rear wall (3) and edge areas (4). At least one of the edge areas (4) is capable of transmitting light. The backlighting system includes a light source (6) comprising at least one LED, and a light-mixing panel 5 for mixing the light originating from the light source (6). Light originating from the light source (6) is coupled into the light-mixing panel (5) via a light input surface (7), which light is mixed in the light-mixing panel (5) and coupled out via a light output surface (8). The light-mixing panel (5) and the light-emitting panel (1) are arranged so as to extend substantially parallel to each other. Between the light-mixing panel 5 and the light-emitting panel 1, the backlighting system comprises a light transport chamber (9) for transporting the light from the light-mixing panel (5) to the light-emitting panel (1). Preferably, the light transport chamber (9) has elliptical, reflective inner wall (10). |
1. An illumination system for illuminating a display device, which illumination system is provided with a light source (6) and a light-emitting panel (1), wherein the light source (6) comprises at least one light-emitting diode, the light-emitting panel (1) comprises a front wall (2), a rear wall (3) situated opposite said front wall, and at least one light-transmitting edge area (4), and the light-transmitting edge area (4) is situated between the front wall (2) and the rear wall (3) of the light-emitting panel (1), characterized in that the illumination system comprises a light-mixing panel (5) for mixing light originating from the light source (6), the light-mixing panel (5) being provided with a light input edge area (7) for coupling light originating from the light source (6) into the light-mixing panel (5), and with a light output edge area (8) for coupling light out of the light-mixing panel (5), in operation, light originating from the light source (6) being incident on the light input edge area (7) of the light-mixing panel (5) and spreading in the light-mixing panel (5), a light-transport chamber (9) for transporting light from the light-mixing panel (5) to the light-emitting panel (1) being situated between the light-mixing panel (5) and the light-emitting panel (1), and the light-mixing panel (5) and the light-emitting panel (1) being arranged so as to extend substantially parallel to each other. 2. An illumination system as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the light transport chamber (9) comprises an elliptically shaped, reflective inner wall (10). 3. An illumination system as claimed in claim 2, characterized in that the first focus (fl) of the ellipse is situated in or at least near the light output edge area (8) of the light-mixing panel (5), and the second focus (f2) of the ellipse is situated in or at least near the light-transmitting edge area (4) of the light-emitting panel (1). 4. An illumination system as claimed in claim 2, characterized in that the ratio of half the length (a) of the short axis of the ellipse to half the length (b) of the long axis of the ellipse lies in the range from 0.4 ≤ a b ≤ 1 , 5. An illumination system as claimed in claim 4, characterized in that the ratio of half the length (a) of the short axis of the ellipse to half the length (b) of the long axis of the ellipse lies in the range from 0.8 ≤ a b ≤ 1. 6. An illumination system as claimed in claim 3, characterized in that the inner wall (10) of the light transport chamber (9) is at least substantially circular in shape, the center of the circle being situated between the light output edge area (8) of the light-mixing panel (5) and the light transmitting edge area (4) of the light-emitting panel (1). 7. An illumination system as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the light transport chamber (19) comprises two light-transmitting prisms (20, 20′). 8. An illumination system as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the light-transport chamber (29) comprises a faceted, reflective inner wall (30). 9. An illumination system as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that a light-collimating element for coupling light originating from the light source into the light-mixing panel (5) is situated between the light source (6) and the light-mixing panel (5). 10. An illumination system as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the light-mixing panel (5) narrows in a direction facing away from the light output edge area (8). 11. An illumination system as claimed in claim 1, 2, 7 or 8, characterized in that the light source (6) comprises at least three light-emitting diodes (6B, 6G, 6R) with a first, a second and a third light emission wavelength, which light emission wavelengths are different. 12. An illumination system as claimed in claim 11, characterized in that the light source (6) associated with the light input edge area (7) of the light-mixing panel (5) comprises clusters of blue, green and red light-emitting diodes (6B, 6G, 6R). 13. An illumination system as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the light-mixing panel (5) comprises a first and a second part (51, 52), having a respective first and second light input edge area (71, 72) and a first and second light output edge area (81, 82) and in that a first and second light-transport chamber (91, 92) for transporting light from the respective first and second light-mixing panel part (51, 52) to the light-emitting panel (1) being situated between the respective first and second light-mixing panel part (51,_52) and the light-emitting panel (1). 14. An illumination system as claimed in claim 13, characterized in that the light source (6) is common to the first and second light-mixing panel part. 15. An illumination system as claimed in claim 13, characterized in that the light source (6) comprises a first and a second section (61, 62) coupled to the respective first and second light input edge area (71, 72). 16. A display device comprising an illumination system as claimed in claim 1. 17. A display device as claimed in claim 16, wherein the display device comprises a liquid crystal display (12). |
Attachment device for the sun visor of a motor vehicle |
The present invention relates to an attachment device (100) for the sun visor of a motor vehicle having a receiving housing (106) mounted on the motor vehicle and a sun visor foot (108) connectable with the sun visor, wherein the receiving housing (106) and the sun visor foot (108) each comprise contacts for producing an electrical connection. The electrical contact of the receiving housing (106) has a first contact point (158) and the electrical contact of the sun visor foot (108) has a second contact point (144) whereby the first contact point (158) and the second contact point (144) are in electrical contact with when the sun visor foot (108) is mounted in the receiving housing (106). |
1. (canceled) 2. (canceled) 3. (canceled) 4. (canceled) 5. (canceled) 6. (canceled) 7. (canceled) 8. (canceled) 9. (canceled) 10. (canceled) 11. (canceled) 12. (canceled) 13. An attachment device for a sun visor of a motor vehicle, comprising a receiving housing mounted on the motor vehicle, a sun visor foot connectable with the sun visor; an attachment means for producing a releasable mechanical coupling between the receiving housing and the sun visor foot; an electrical contact disposed on the receiving housing and comprising a planar conductive track exposed at a contact zone having a first contact point thereon; and an electrical contact disposed on the sun visor foot and having a second contact point formed by a protrusion configured to be brought into electrical contact with the conductive track by butt contact; wherein the first and second contact points are in electrical contact with one another when the sun visor foot is in a mounted state in the receiving housing. 14. The attachment device according to claim 13, wherein the protrusion is adapted to be pressed against the conductive track in a direction essentially perpendicular to the conductive track in the mounted state. 15. The attachment device according to claim 13, wherein the conductive track comprises a stamping embedded in the receiving housing. 16. The attachment device according to claim 15, wherein the conductive track is embedded in the receiving housing by injection moulding. 17. The attachment device according to claim 13, wherein the conductive track comprises a connection zone extending out of the receiving housing to make contact with an electrical connection of the motor vehicle. 18. The attachment device according to claim 13, wherein the electrical contact disposed on the sun visor foot is biased by a compression spring. 19. The attachment device according to claim 18, wherein the compression spring and the electrical contact disposed on the sun visor foot are an integrally formed stamping cut into a zigzag and resiliently deformable by axial pressure on an end face thereof. 20. The attachment device according to claim 18, wherein the electrical contact disposed on the sun visor foot comprises a contact zone and a connection zone, and the connection zone is configured for connecting a cable therewith. 21. The attachment device according to claim 18, wherein the sun visor foot comprises a receptacle, configured to at least partially receive a contact housing adapted to hold the contact biased by the compression spring. 22. The attachment device according to claim 21, wherein the contact housing comprises snap-in members and the sun visor foot comprises snap-in openings, whereby the contact housing is fixed to the receptacle of the sun visor foot by snapping the snap-in members into the snap-in openings. 23. The attachment device according to claims 13, wherein the sun visor foot is substantially surrounded by the receiving housing. 24. The attachment device according to claim 13, wherein the attachment means comprises a bearing surface disposed on the receiving housing, and at least one hook on the sun visor foot engaging the bearing surface. 25. The attachment device according to claim 13, wherein the attachment means comprises at least one screw connection between the receiving housing and the sun visor foot. |
Health care management system and method |
An electronic health care management system is provided which collects both subjective and objective information regarding a patient into a clinical patient record, and uses the record to determine evidence-based recommendations. A healthcare provider may decide to implement certain recommendations, and/or provide additional interventions which are collectively implemented using automated support tools. Often, a plan can include follow-up activities which may be automatically scheduled by the electronic health care management system, and may include external scheduling programs and corresponding application-programming interfaces (APIs). |
1. A method for managing an electronic based healthcare facility, comprising: finding a clinic patient record for an established patient, or creating a new clinic patient record for a new patient; recording patient information into the patient's clinic patient record; submitting the patient's clinic patient record to a rules engine wherein the patient's clinic patient record is run according to a rules engine protocol; verifying that the recorded patient's information is correct and correcting the recorded patient's information if it is not correct; prescribing a course of treatment based on the rules engine recommendations; and fulfilling the prescribed course of treatment. 2. The method for managing an electronic based healthcare facility according to claim 1, wherein the step of finding a clinic patient record for an established patients comprises: determining whether an existing patient is on a patient record navigation bar; searching for the patient if the patient is not on the patient record navigation bar; entering the patient's name into a patient search field; selecting a search operation; and reading the patient's patient management page. 3. The method for managing an electronic based healthcare facility according to claim 1, wherein the step of finding a clinic patient record for an established patients comprises: determining whether an existing patient is on a patient record navigation bar; selecting the patient if the patient is on the patient record navigation bar; and reading the patient's patient management page. 4. The method for managing an electronic based healthcare facility according to claim 1, wherein the step of recording patient information into the patient's clinic patient record comprises: obtaining updated information from the patient; entering the updated information in to the appropriate location in a patient's patient management page; and saving the patient's patient management page with the updated information into a clinical patient record. 5. The method for managing an electronic based healthcare facility according to claim 1, wherein the step of creating a new clinic patient record comprises: obtaining external referral information about a patient; obtaining general information about the patient; obtaining first visit patient enrollment information; and recording the external referral information, general information, and first visit patient enrollment information into the clinical patient record. 6. The method for managing an electronic based healthcare facility according to claim 4, wherein the step of obtaining external referral information about a patient comprises: adding a patient to a clinical patient record; and entering the patient's referral information to the clinical patient record. 7. The method for managing an electronic based healthcare facility according to claim 4, wherein the step of obtaining general information about the patient comprises: entering general information about the patient to the clinical patient record; and scheduling an appointment for the patient at a healthcare facility. 8. The method for managing an electronic based healthcare facility according to claim 4, wherein the step of obtaining first visit patient enrollment information comprises: obtaining enrollment information from the patient; obtaining insurance and/or billing information from the patient; obtaining patient goals from the patient; obtaining patient data from the patient; providing initial education to the patient; reviewing the patient goals with the patient; and recording the enrollment information, patient goals and patient date into the clinical patient record. 9. The method for managing an electronic based healthcare facility according to claim 4, wherein the step of obtaining enrollment information from the patient comprises: obtaining patient demographic information from the patient. 10. The method for managing an electronic based healthcare facility according to claim 1, wherein the step of submitting the patient's clinic patient record to a rules engine wherein the patient's clinic patient record is run according to a rules engine protocol comprises: evaluating the information contained in a patient's clinical patient record against a set of medical protocols; generating one or more diagnoses based on the patient's record in the clinical patient record; generating one or more recommendations based on the one or more patient's diagnoses, one or more insurance company's formularys and the patient's clinical patient record; and issuing the one or more recommendations. 11. The method for managing an electronic based healthcare facility according to claim 10, wherein the step of generating one or more recommendations based on the one or more patient's diagnoses, one or more insurance company's formularys and the patient's clinical patient record comprises: comparing an insurance company's prescription formulary against a prescription recommendation generated by the rules engine protocol; comparing an insurance company's lab and test formulary against a lab and test recommendation generated by the rules engine protocol; and comparing an insurance company's calendar formulary against a calendar recommendation generated by the rules engine protocol. 12. The method for managing an electronic based healthcare facility according to claim 10, wherein the recommendation is selected from the group consisting of prescription recommendations, lab and test recommendations, calendar recommendations and lifestyle/diet issues recommendations. 13. The method for managing an electronic based healthcare facility according to claim 1, wherein the step of proscribing a course of treatment based on the rules engine recommendations comprises: reviewing the recommendations returned by the rules engine protocols; selecting recommendations for further review; entering text for any recommendations that were not selected for further review; and verifying the selected recommendations for correctness. 14. The method for managing an electronic based healthcare facility according to claim 13, wherein the step of submitting the verified, selected recommendations to the rules engine protocol to fulfill the recommendations comprises: receiving a detailed set of recommendations; reviewing the detailed set of recommendations returned by the rules engine protocol; modifying the one or more of the detailed set of recommendations returned by the rules engine protocol if necessary until correct; verifying that all recommendations have been reviewed for correctness; causing the recommendations to be accomplished; updating the patient's clinical patient record to reflect the recommendations and the accomplishing of the recommendations; and issuing a billing and/or claim report form. 15. The method for managing an electronic based healthcare facility according to claim 14 wherein the recommendations is selected from a group consisting of a prescription recommendation, lab and test recommendation, calendar recommendation and a lifestyle/diet issues recommendation. 16. A method for calendar and event scheduling for use in an electronic care health management system comprising selecting a calendar and a calendar view; reviewing calendar view data; updating the calendar with new calendar information. 17. The method for calendar and event scheduling for use in an electronic care health management system according to claim 16, wherein the step of updating the calendar with new calendar information comprises: deciding whether or not to create a new event; entering new event details if a new event is to be created; editing an existing calendar event with existing calendar event new details if a new event is not to be created; and posting either the existing calendar event with existing calendar event new details or the new event details. 18. A method for entering patient encounter data into a clinical patient record for use in an electronic care health management system, comprising: opening a patient record from a clinical patient record; selecting a patient history tab on the patient record for a patient, thereby opening a patient encounter form; and entering new information for the patient in the patient's patient encounter form, or, editing an existing patient encounter form for the patient. 19. The method for entering patient encounter data into a clinical patient record for use in an electronic care health management system according to claim 18, wherein the step of entering new information for the patient in the patient's patient encounter form comprises: entering the new information for the patient manually through use of a telephone encounter form; saving the new information contained in the telephone encounter form into the clinical patient record for the patient; and optionally printing the telephone encounter form. 20. The method for entering patient encounter data into a clinical patient record for use in an electronic care health management system according to claim 18, wherein the step of entering new information for the patient in the patient's patient encounter form comprises entering the new information for the patient automatically through use of a voice annotation apparatus; dictating the new information for the patient into a temporary voice annotation file; saving the new information contained in the voice annotation file into the clinical patient record for the patient; and optionally editing and printing the voice annotation file. 21. The method for entering patient encounter data into a clinical patient record for use in an electronic care health management system according to claim 18, wherein the step of editing an existing patient encounter form for the patient comprises: scrolling or searching to find a previously created patient encounter form for the patient; selecting the patient encounter form; editing the patient encounter form with new information; and saving the edited patient encounter form to the clinical patient record for the patient, and optionally printing the edited patient encounter form. 22. A method for utilizing a doctor/physician extender bulletin board in an electronic care health management system comprising: opening a patient's patient record from a clinical patient record; reviewing the patient's patient record selecting a bulletin tab on the patient record for a patient, thereby opening a bulletin form; entering text regarding the patient in the patient's patient bulletin form; selecting one or more doctors/physician extenders to receive the patient's patient bulletin form; and forwarding the patient's patient bulletin form to the one or more doctors/physician extenders. 23. The method for utilizing a doctor/physician extender bulletin board in an electronic care health management system according to claim 22 further comprising: selecting a paging option, to optionally page the one or more doctors/physician extenders that a patient's patient bulletin form is being sent to the to the one or more doctors/physician extenders. 24. The method for utilizing a doctor/physician extender bulletin board in an electronic care health management system according to claim 22 further comprising: receiving a pager regarding a forwarded patient's patient bulletin form or electronic notification that a forwarded patient's patient bulletin form has been received for the one or more doctors/physician extenders; selecting a bulletin tab on the recipient's calendar page, thereby opening a line item list of all received bulletin forms; selecting a line item corresponding to a particular patient's patient bulletin form; reviewing the received patient's patient bulletin form, and optionally responding if desired; and saving the received patient's patient bulletin form and any replies sent by the receiving one or more doctors/physician extenders. 25. An electronic healthcare management system, comprising: a data center, adapted to comprise a first network server and data storage, the network server hosting a rules engine, and providing for the operation of various web-based interfaces to the electronic healthcare management system including a system administration interface; a healthcare facility, adapted to comprise a second network server and providing for the operation of various web-based interfaces and functions to the electronic healthcare management system; a patient, adapted to comprise an intelligent device which provides for remote monitoring and an education and support function; other information systems; and a network providing for communications between the data center, healthcare facility, patient, and other information systems. 26. The electronic healthcare management system according to claim 25, wherein the healthcare facility further comprises: a manual data entry function, a clinical patient record function, a voice annotation function, an outcomes function, a local clinic administration function, a routine office tools function, an alerts function, a report support function; medications, recommendations function and a billing function. 27. The electronic healthcare management system according to claim 25, wherein the other information systems includes at least the following: one or more pharmacies; one or more hospitals; one or more laboratories/diagnostic services; one or more federal agencies/departments; and one or more state and local agencies/departments. 28. The electronic healthcare management system according to claim 25, wherein the rules engine and business logic comprises: a set of decision making instruction code adapted to review a patient's clinical patient record, current suggestions by an attending physician, established insurance company formularys with an adaptable base of medical knowledge to create treatment recommendations for the patient. 29. The electronic healthcare management system according to claim 25, wherein the rules engine and business logic further comprises: an adaptation to learn from the healthcare facility doctors/physician extenders to adapt the base of medical knowledge to incorporate local knowledge. 30. The electronic healthcare management system according to claim 25, wherein the rules engine and business logic further comprises: an adaptation to incorporate shared information between billing, insurance formulary compliance, scheduling of lab/diagnostic recommendations, prescription recommendations, calendar recommendations and lifestyle/diet issues recommendations to provide an enhanced complete healthcare system sharing information seamlessly. 31. The method for managing an electronic based healthcare facility according to claim 1, wherein the step of fulfilling the proscribed course of treatment comprises: submitting the verified, selected recommendations to the rules engine protocol. |
<SOH> BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION <EOH>Over 90 million Americans suffer from at least one chronic disease. The annual direct costs of diabetes, respiratory diseases, congestive heart failure, hypertension, and cancer come to over $148 billion. These conditions are responsible for significant morbidities including amputation, blindness, and lost productivity in addition to associated increases in mortality. Healthcare providers have targeted diabetes and asthma, among others, as disease groups that would benefit from a new approach to patient care. The solution that most healthcare providers have identified is disease management. Already, 77 percent of Health Systems and Managed Care Organizations have programs in place, and 15 percent have programs in development. Most of the existing programs are for diabetes (74%), and the vast majority of disease management programs are less than two years old. While these institutions believe that improving the quality of care will drive down costs, they typically differ on how to measure the quality of their care. However, nearly all agree that they must be able to show short-term cost savings to justify the initial investment of money and hospital resources. The following are goals commonly cited by institutions when creating disease management programs: Improve Outcomes—Improving the outcome of a disease means improving quality of life, reducing mortality, and improving clinical measures (for example, collecting information about disease progress and reaction to medication). Improve Quality of Care—By improving physician adherence to best practices, and improving patient education and involvement in disease treatment, patients will receive better care. Reduce Costs—Disease groups generate costs differently, but in all cases, hospital admissions and emergency room visits are significant and often preventable factors. By reducing unnecessary hospitalizations and emergency room visits, and by more effectively administering medications, organizations can immediately drive down costs associated with the disease. Achieving these goals is in large part dependent on having a proven and repeatable set of protocols for diagnosing and treating the disease in question. These protocols must provide detailed, accurate guidance for treatment grounded in clinical evidence-based medicine. This allows physicians to stay up to date with the latest clinical research and more accurately prescribe and modify medication dosages. However, these protocols must also be flexible enough to allow for physicians or organizations to modify them based on their experience. Another important success factor is patient monitoring and assessment, and education. Disease management relies on accurate patient information to alert doctors or medical staff to the beginning of a potentially serious condition (before that condition requires that the patient be hospitalized), to monitor drug effectiveness, and to produce clinical data Education allows patients to become part of the treatment process, and allows them to more properly channel their concerns about their health toward modifying their life-style and following their medication regimen. The upper levels of hospital administration typically develop disease management programs. They usually face opposition both from finance departments that are concerned with up-front costs, and primary care physicians and specialists who are concerned about loss of control and “cookbook” medicine involving inflexible protocols that prevent them from using their own judgment when treating patients. Any successful disease management program must address these concerns or risk failure. In fact, in most organizations where disease management systems are in place, both physicians and administrators feel that their program could be vastly improved. However, because measures of success vary, there is often no consensus on how to improve them. A significant part of the problem with many disease management programs lies in the basic way they are implemented. Approaches to disease management have typically centered on removing the patient monitoring and assessment workload from the congestive heart failure (CHF) treatment provider in one of the following ways: 1. Carve-out—Carve-out solutions usually involve farming out patient monitoring and assessment to a call center of trained nurses. These nurses then handle basic monitoring and assessment tasks, answer questions about medications and diet, and generally filter out calls that don't require the physician to treat the patient. Benefits—This solution can reduce workload at the hospital, and doesn't require equipment or training investments by the provider. Drawbacks—Obviously, this can be a source of frustration for the doctor, as the nurses at the call center are the ones that decide what information the doctor does, and does not, need to know. Physicians are reluctant to relinquish so much of their control. 2. Carve-In—Carve-in solutions are aimed at providing the same sort of information filtering as the carve-out solutions, but from within the hospital's existing support framework. Benefits—This solution reduces the workload faced by nurses and doctors, and also provides more local control. Drawbacks—Again, the intent of these programs is to put a layer of management between the doctor and patient. Because third party vendors staff these solutions, the doctors have once again put their patients in the hands of medical personnel with whom they are not used to working. Both of these approaches create substantial problems. They interrupt and frequently supersede the traditional doctor-patient relationship, and are consequently resisted by the physician community. Furthermore, these solutions, involving third parties, often have financial incentive to keep patient calls and doctor referrals to a minimum, which patients find frustrating. The less likely patients are to use the system, the less good it does in terms of providing them a service, and in keeping unnecessary hospital visits down. Just as importantly, neither of these solutions helps the physicians by providing evidence-based rules for diagnosis and treatment. These solutions are incomplete in that they focus primarily on guidelines, and fail to provide detailed tools to help the physicians improve patient care. The central tenet of the system is that the physician must be in control. Physicians must not only buy into the idea of disease management for it to be effective; they must buy into the way it's being run. They are the ones ultimately responsible for their patient's care, so they must be given the tools to control that care. Previous studies have identified benefits to management of chronic diseases such as CHF. For example, Rich in “Heart Failure Disease Management: A Critical Review” Journal of Cardiac Failure 1999, documents the value of a number of programs. Shulman and Bernard have obtained significant reductions in emergency room visits by asthma patients using disease management protocols at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center. However, successes in disease management have been isolated and unconvincing. Few studies relate the high cost of delivering disease management solutions. Many disease management solutions are difficult to implement without significant disruption of normal clinic work practices. Finally, when a disease management program succeeds it is rarely exported to other healthcare systems. All these factors have limited the impact of disease management on healthcare practices. Existing health-related software tools fall into several categories: (1) Electronic Medical Records (EMR), (2) Monitoring and surveillance software (3) electronic prescription software, (4) Routine “office” software, (5) Dedicated information systems (for example Laboratory Information Systems (LIS)). At best, each of these offers marginal benefits to healthcare providers. More commonly, these often create fragmentation and introduce additional complexities in clinical practice. Known systems and methods thus have significant shortcomings in providing an integrated healthcare management system that addresses the needs of all the participants. These shortcomings can be summarized as follows: (1) Managing Clinic Workflow. Presently, the majority of healthcare is provided through paper records. Complex care pathways are difficult to implement using paper records. (2) Ineffective Electronic Data Gathering. Even when prior art healthcare management systems utilize electronic record keeping, their efforts are disjointed and ineffective. A typical clinic or home visit involves subjective and objective evaluations, assessment and plan of treatment. The subjective evaluation may be entered through automated web tools or voice annotation. Healthcare providers may obtain objective evaluations through automated devices at remote sites, or by manual entry of information, or through communication with an existing information system. (3) Failure of Electronic Medical Records. Conceptually, an electronic mechanical archival (EMA) system archives every clinical observation or fact about a patient in an electronic format. Consequently, EMRs should improve access to medical information and enhance the quality of care. However, utilization of EMRs by healthcare providers has been very limited since (1) the large amount of data entry required created more work than the benefits warranted, and (2) data entry interferes with nominal clinic workflow. (4) Liability of Unprocessed Information. Healthcare providers have legal liability for review of any patient information received, and for the actions they take or overlook. The potential data-flow may be large if a patient population is large, or engages in a large amount of monitoring. At some point, the data-flow may exceed the providers' capacity to review it. Providers will not accept data under these circumstances. (5) Limited Utility of Monitoring Services. Monitoring services attempt to improve access to subjective and objective information though automation and transmission of information from remote sites to healthcare providers. Subjective information includes but is not limited to qualitative patient information about symptoms medications, diet, exercise, and quality of life. Objective information might include, but is not limited to, quantitative information about weight, blood pressure, pulse rate, blood glucose, and medications. These services offer value in the timeliness and quality of information critical to patient management. Typically, a surveillance function is offered to alert providers to patients that need attention. Monitoring services are valuable when used by trained healthcare providers that can evaluate patient data and determine appropriate interventions that both improve the patients' status and reduce costs. Many healthcare enterprises lack this expertise. (6) Managing Complexity. Medicine is a complex undertaking, and medical research continues to add to this complexity at an accelerating pace. The number of pharmaceutical therapies is expected to rapidly increase due to the large number of therapeutic targets identified by genomics. In addition, genomics research will allow medications to be prescribed based on individual pharmacogenetic profiles. New tests, procedures and devices (including real time MRI Brain Natriuretic Peptide monitoring, continuous glucose monitoring/insulin delivery) will constitute important new diagnostic and therapy options. Layered on top of these issues is the complexity of managing comorbidities, all with similar increased complexities as described above. Maintaining awareness of new medical practice and customizing this knowledge to individual patients is difficult for healthcare providers. Optimal outcomes for patients and healthcare systems will be significantly improved by utilizing software to assist providers making complex clinical decisions. (7) Customization to Local Practice Standards. Present software solutions do not attempt to incorporate new information. They utilize accepted guidelines at the time of their release. In addition, they do not attempt to individualize treatment plans or identify appropriate therapies based on clinical information. Patients and providers have unique and valuable perspectives on what constitutes good care within their communities. Although medical leaders and/or clinical trials may show a therapy to be effective, its adoption within a provider community may be slow. Potential reasons for slow adoption include difficulties disseminating trial results and/or the dissimilarity between trial patients and the provider's patients. (8) Medical Errors. Present disease management solutions use simple guidelines to modify physician behavior without taking into consideration local practice standards or local patient characteristics. Patients become confused by the conflicting messages they are receiving from disease management companies and their physicians. Physicians become frustrated with inappropriate recommendations from the disease management companies and with angry patients who inappropriately blame their local providers for mismanagement. Over 44 thousand Americans die each year as a result of medical errors during hospitalization (To Err is Human, Institute of Medicine, National Academy Press, Washington, D.C. 1999). Certainly, the issues of sub-optimal medical care become even more significant as healthcare moves away from traditional diagnosis and treatment of acute conditions. Many of these errors could be prevented using relatively simple interventions. In reality, few mechanisms exist for ongoing support of the chronically ill between acute episodes, or at remote sites. (9) Economic Costs. U.S. healthcare costs totaled $1.2 trillion in 1999 (see, generally, data presented at “www.hcfa.gov”). Often, health systems provide care at low or negative margin. Preventive monitoring, patient support, and optimization of care can reduce total costs and provide significant economic benefits to payers and health delivery systems. (10) Need for Quality Improvement. Healthcare systems are under constant pressure to improve clinical and economic outcomes. Although they are accountable by accreditation organizations to achieve process outcomes (an example of a process outcome would be the percentage of patients for which a glycated hemoglobin measurement was recorded in the previous year), these outcomes are limited in their impact. Known methods have failed to resolve, either separately or wholly, the aforementioned problems in “integrated” healthcare management systems. Significant literature exits which describes there shortcomings, including two reports released by the Institute of Medicine titled “To Err is Human” (1999) and “Crossing the Quality Chasm” (2001) both published by National Academy Press (Washington D.C.). Benefits of intensive management of congestive heart failure have been summarized by Whellan et al. In “Disease Management of Congestive Heart Failure” American Journal of Managed Care 1999, 5(4), 499 and Rich in “Heart Failure Disease Management: A Critical Review” Journal of Cardiac Failure 1999, (5)1 64. |
<SOH> SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION <EOH>The above described disadvantages are overcome and a number of advantages are realized by the present invention which relates to an enhanced fully integrated electronic healthcare management system. It is therefore an object of the invention to collect both subjective and objective information regarding a patient into a clinical patient record (CPR) and use it to determine evidence-based recommendations. A healthcare provider may decide to implement certain recommendations, and/or provide additional interventions deemed necessary for the patient. These actions are collectively implemented using the automated support tools. Often, a plan will include future events such as a laboratory and clinic follow-up. An embodiment of the present invention is capable of automatically scheduling follow-up events when the healthcare provider decides to implement a particular plan. Where external scheduling programs and corresponding application-programming interfaces (APIs) are available, an embodiment of the present invention can schedule follow-up activities in the external systems. Examples of external scheduling systems include, but are not limited to laboratory services, consulting personnel, procedure teams and resources, referrals, billing and educational services. Providers may also experience enhanced personal satisfaction if the frequency of tedious and routine tasks is diminished. Thus, the present invention provides both clinical and economic efficiencies difficult to duplicate with manual systems. It is an additional object of the invention to include only the minimum data required to address a majority of the conditions encountered for a particular patient. For example, a healthcare provider managing a patient with congestive heart failure (CHF) does not need tools to manage diabetes unless the patient has diabetes. If a patient has diabetes or is diagnosed with diabetes, the CPR of the present invention may optionally expand to address diabetes in addition to congestive heart failure. The CPR concept therefore scales with the complexity of the patient and imposes minimal complexity upon healthcare providers. Unlike EMRs, the CPR returns significant value for the time spent entering patient information. It is a further object of the invention to address the issue of liability. First, the present invention provides a suite of productivity tools needed to manage this information using evidence-based practices. This includes identification of abnormal results. Second, the present invention supplies audit trails for all clinical decisions. These features address physician, healthcare system, and payer concerns regarding liability. It is still further an object of the invention to incorporate many of the alerting and surveillance functions available in existing monitoring services. It allows healthcare providers to set alerts at levels appropriate to individual patients. It also provides modifiable protocols that produce a set of recommendations based on data from the monitors and the CPR. This assists providers with identification of well-defined interventions and reduces dependence on experts for relatively routine care scenarios. In particular, these features maximize the abilities of physician extenders to use monitoring information to advantage while working in cooperation with medical doctors. It is yet an additional object of the invention to incorporate therapeutic protocols based on the most up-to-date clinical information. A patient's clinical data will be applied to these protocols and recommendations for that specific patient will be provided. An embodiment of the present invention will allow new protocols to be implemented. The present invention will test any new protocol for appropriate integration with pre-existing protocols prior to implementation. Because the system is provided in an application service provider model, updates will be offered to providers as information becomes available. It is another object of the invention to enhance the doctor-patient relationship. In every case, medical doctors will determine the best treatment for their patients. An embodiment of the present invention enhances doctor-patient relationships by enabling physicians to bring best practices to their patients in a timely and cost effective venue. It is yet a further object of the invention to allow the local providers to modify protocols to reflect their local practice standards. Once protocols are modified, the title invention will test all protocols within the system for appropriate integration prior to release. They will be allowed to turn off protocols that are not accepted within their community. It is yet another object of the invention to address the problem of medical errors during hospitalization by offering decision support within the normal providers' workflow. The support is streamlined and offers considerable value for both preventing errors and optimizing care at remote sites. In addition, an embodiment of the present invention provides mechanisms for patient education and self-discovery. It is a still further object of the invention to provide for incorporation of productivity tools to improve workflow that will shift resources away from low value interactions (which may not be reimbursed) and towards higher value interventions. Providers will be able to care for more patients and optimize clinic visits to achieve superior results. It is yet another object of the present invention to include tools for monitoring clinical and economic outcomes. The evaluation tools address not only process outcomes, but also clinical outcomes (for example, % glycated hemoglobin at or below 7.0). This feedback enables health systems to make adjustments necessary to maintain superior clinical and economic performance in addition to accreditation requirements. It is still another object of the invention to implement an integrated enhanced electronic healthcare management system which is comprised of a TCP/IP (Internet) telecommunications using an application service provider (ASP) model. The ASP model has several advantages over other models. First, the software is hosted and maintained at one or a few centralized locations. This reduces the complexity of maintenance. Also, centralization improves security, monitoring, and auditing of the software product's performance. Certain features available at the enterprise level (centralized) require technical administration or may not be possible at remote sites. At scale, hardware costs are also reduced. It is therefore an object of the invent to integrate various features present in separate healthcare management systems into an integrated and enhanced environment which is optimized by a new feature, the care recommendation rules engine, which assists healthcare providers with multiple and complex functions. A system and method according to an embodiment of the present invention automates clinical practice and brings significant new efficiencies to healthcare enterprises. The aforementioned objects of the invention, and others, are met by an embodiment of the present invention, which describes an automated disease management system for chronic diseases. The system builds on the success of existing programs by adding both a computer based system for providers to aid with patient monitoring and assessment, treatment implementation and scheduling, as well as electronic monitoring devices that can be used by patients in their homes. |
Method for producing shaped parts with a small flash |
The present invention relates to a process for producing moldings from polyarylene sulfides, in particular polyphenylene sulfide, the result of which can be a particularly low level of flash formation. |
1-6. (canceled) 7. A process for producing moldings which comprises injection molding polyarylene sulfides with reduced formation of flash, which comprises producing a homogeneous melt from polyarylene sulfides, dissolving in the polyarylene sulfide melt up to 30% by weight of a fluid which is above its critical point under the plastifying conditions for polyarylene sulfide, and charging the mixture to an injection mold. 8. The process as claimed in claim 7, wherein the selection of the amount of the fluid is such that the viscosity of the polyarylene sulfide melt with dissolved fluid is up to 60% below the viscosity of the pure polyarylene sulfide melt at the same temperature and shear rate. 9. The process as claimed in claim 7, wherein said polyarylene sulphide is polyphenylene sulfide. 10. The process as claimed in claim 8, wherein said polyarylene sulphide is polyphenylene sulfide. 11. The process as claimed in claim 7, wherein the locking force for the injection mold is in the range from 0.05 to 1 t/cm2, and/or not more than 30% of the locking force used when using a pure polyarylene sulfide melt. 12. The process as claimed in claim 10, wherein the locking force for the injection mold is in the range from 0.05 to 1 t/cm2, and/or not more than 30% of the locking force used when using a pure polyarylene sulfide melt. 13. The process as claimed in claim 7, wherein said fluid is nitrogen or carbon dioxide. 14. The process as claimed in claim 12, wherein said fluid is nitrogen or carbon dioxide. 15. A molding obtained by a process as claimed in claim 7. 16. A molding obtained by a process as claimed in claim 14. |
Apparatus and method for determining organ perfusion |
An apparatus for monitoring an analyte comprises a urethral catheter (1), which has positioning means (13) for positioning the catheter within the urethra, and a sensor (19). In use the sensor (19) is held in close proximity to a urethral wall U, permitting monitoring of the analyte level in the urethral wall thereby providing information which may be useful in evaluation of the vita conditions of a patient. |
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