Abstract:
A peri-arterial blood flow booster apparatus for improving blood pressure and flow, to be implanted around a blood vessel of a patient. The booster comprises a pressure applying device (56) comprising at least one balloon (44), placed alongside a portion of the blood vessel and a restrainer (54) for restraining the balloon and providing counter-forces. It further comprises a control console (60) comprising: an inflating unit (66) for rapidly inflating and deflating the balloon, the inflating unit connected to the balloon; sensing means (68) for sensing electrocardiograph signals of the patient; a control unit (72) for controlling the operation of the inflating unit correlating to the electrocardiograph signals detected by the sensing means. When the balloon is inflated the restrainer forces it to compress the portion of the blood vessel preventing backflow and exerting forces on the blood vessel forcing blood within the portion of the blood vessel to flow antegradely.
Abstract:
A method for multidimensional scaling (MDS) of a data set comprising a plurality of data elements is provided, wherein each data element is identified by its coordinates, the method comprising the steps of: (i) applying an iterative optimization technique, such as SMACOF, a predetermined amount of times on a coordinates vector, said coordinates vector representing the coordinates of a plurality of said data elements, and obtaining a modified coordinates vector; (ii) applying a vector extrapolation technique, such as Minimal Polynomial Extrapolation (MPE) or reduced Rank Extrapolation (RRE) on said modified coordinates vector obtaining a further modified coordinates vector; and (iii) repeating steps (i) and (ii) until one or more predefined conditions are met.
Abstract:
Systems and methods for integrating maps in which roads are represented as polylines. The main novelty of the invention is in using only the locations of the endpoints of the polylines rather than trying to match whole lines. Experiments on real-world data are given, showing that this approach of integration based on matching merely endpoints is efficient and accurate (that is, it provides high recall and precision).
Abstract:
The present invention relates to a method, and system for implementing the method, for performing incremental validation of an XML document with respect to XML Schema key and keyref constraints, and handling the semantics dictated by the XML Schema specification. Several operations are defined that change the content of a document, i.e., add or remove nodes, or change the value of existing nodes. The present invention verifies whether performing such an operation would violate key or keyref constraints, and allows changing the document only if the operation maintains the validity of the document with respect to the constraints. The verification traverses only the parts of the document that may be affected by the change operation, and not the whole document. The invention maintains, in an efficient manner, data structures that hold information relevant to the validation of key and keyref constraints.
Abstract:
An antimicrobial packaging material for food stuffs containing from 0.05% to 1.5% by weight of a natural essential oil. The oil can be selected from primarily linalool and/or methylchavicol, but also from one or more of citral, geraniol, methyl cinnamate, methyl eugenol, 1,8-cineole, trans-a-bergamotene, carvacrol and thymol blended with one or more polymers selected from ethylene vinyl alcohol copolymer, polyacrylates, including ethyl acrylate methyl methacrylate copolymers, lonomers, nylons and other hydrophilic polymers or polymers possessing functional groups capable of partially anchoring the additives and the blender mix is coated onto the food contact face of a food grade packaging film or incorporated into a food grade packaging film. A binding agent such as polyethylene glycol is added to the blend to improve the retention of the volatile oil in the polymer during processing. This material has no regulatory limitations and, at the referred concentrations, does not form detectable off-flavours.
Abstract:
A method of efficiently extracting the pull-in parameters of an electrostatically activated actuator. The actuator is modeled as an elastic element. For each of a plurality of deformations of the elastic element, a corresponding voltage is calculated. The highest such voltage is the pull-in voltage of the actuator. The corresponding deformation is the pull-in deformation of the actuator. Each deformation is defined by fixing a displacement of one degree of freedom of the elastic body and calculating corresponding equilibrium displacements of all the other degrees of freedom without the application of any external mechanical forces to ensure equilibrium. The actuator is altered to optimize whichever pull-in parameter is relevant to the desired application of the actuator.
Abstract:
A method and device for determining the topography of a thin film having a front surface and a back surface. The method comprises: irradiating the film with an incident coherent or partially coherent light beam so as to get two reflected beams, the first reflected beam being reflected from the front surface of the film, and the second beam being reflected from the back surface of the film; creating an interferometric image from a united beam comprising the two reflected beams and a reference beam, the reference beam originating from the incident beam, and made to be substantially parallel to the two reflected beams. The reference beam acquires a phase shift. The interferometric image is created the interference between a combined beam comprising the reference beam and the second reflected beam, and the first reflected beam, thus acquiring information on the topography of the film, that cannot be acquired using the two reflected beams alone.
Abstract:
The disclosed invention provides a variable lenslet array system that comprises an acousto-optic medium and at least one acoustic wave generator that is positioned adjacent to the acousto-optic medium. The acoustic wave generator is adapted to generate standing acoustic waves into the acousto-optic medium. The wavelength of the resonant acoustic waves is variable in respect to the medium dimensions or can be varied by changing the driving frequency of the wave generator. The standing acoustic waves within the acousto-optic medium change locally the index of refraction. A wave front of a light beam, which crosses these periodic changes of the index of refraction, becomes corrugated and effectively, an array of lenslets is formed.
Abstract:
Propargylamine and pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof are useful for treating a disease, disorder or condition selected from the group consisting of: (i) a neurodegenerative disease, (ii) a dementia; (iii) an affective or mood disorder; (iv) drug use and dependence; (v) a memory loss disorder; (vi) an acute neurological traumatic disorder or neurotrauma; (vii) a demyelinating disease; (viii) a seizure disorder; (ix) a cerebrovascular disorder; (x) a behavior disorder; and (xi) a neurotoxic injury.
Abstract:
Apparatus for obtaining 3-Dimensional data of a geometric body for matching, and particularly for use in facial matching, comprises a three dimensional scanner for obtaining three-dimensional topographical data of the body, a triangulator for receiving or forming said data into a triangulated manifold, a geodesic converter, for converting the triangulated manifold into a series of geodesic distances between pairs of points of the manifold, and a multi-dimensional scaler, for forming a low dimensional Euclidean representation of the series of geodesic distances, to give a bending invariant representation of the geometric body. In one variant, matching is carried out by taking the principle eigenvalues from the representation and plotting as co-ordinates in a feature space. Tilted or different expression versions of the same face tend to form clusters in the feature space allowing for matching. The apparatus preferably uses the fast marching method for the triangulated domain to obtain the geodesic distances.