41results about How to "Effectiveness and efficiency" patented technology

The present invention relates to methods and systems useful for screening and/or diagnosing genetic conditions in a fetus.

Described herein are an apparatus and methods for automating subtasks in surgery and interventional medical procedures. The apparatus consists of a robotic positioning platform, an operating system with automation programs, and end-effector tools to carry out a task under supervised autonomy. The operating system executes an automation program, based on one or a fusion of two or more imaging modalities, guides real-time tracking of mobile and deformable targets in unstructured environment while the end-effector tools execute surgical interventional subtasks that require precision, accuracy, maneuverability and repetition. The apparatus and methods make these medical procedures more efficient and effective allowing a wider access and more standardized outcomes and improved safety.

Catheters, systems, and related methods for optimized for mapping, minimizing, and treating cardiac fibrillation in a patient, including an array of at least one stacked electrode pair, each electrode pair including a first electrode and a second electrode, wherein each electrode pair is configured to be orthogonal to a surface of a cardiac tissue substrate, wherein each first electrode is in contact with the surface to record a first signal, and wherein each second electrode is separated from the first electrode by a distance which enables the second electrode to record a second signal, wherein the catheter is configured to obtain one or more measurements from at least a first signal and a second signal in response to electrical activity in the cardiac tissue substrate indicative of a number of electrical circuit cores and distribution of the electrical circuit cores for a duration across the cardiac tissue substrate.

Methods and systems for optimizing lesion placement to treat cardiac fibrillation in a patient include obtaining a map of one or more measurements indicative of a number and distribution of electrical circuit cores for a duration across a cardiac tissue substrate in response to electrical activity in the cardiac tissue substrate, identifying at least one region for the duration of the cardiac tissue substrate having a number of electrical circuit cores that is higher than a predetermined density threshold, generating a first sample set of lesions, the first sample set of lesions being registered onto the map, calculating and comparing a first total length of the first sample set of lesions to a predetermined length threshold, determining fitness of the first sample set of lesions, wherein fitness criteria is indicative of the level to which the sample set can terminate or at least minimize cardiac fibrillation.

A temporal sequence of images is acquired of a dynamic scene. Spatial gradients are determined using filters. By taking advantage of the sparseness of outputs of the filters, an intrinsic background image is generated as median filtered gradients. The intrinsic background image is then divided into the original sequence of images to yield intrinsic foreground images. The intrinsic foreground images can be thresholded to obtain a detection mask.

Some embodiments provide a method and system for identifying error markers for patterns within a design layout that do not meet the manufacturing constraints. Some embodiments extend a region from the error marked region to extract a pattern for decomposition analysis. Some embodiments compare the extracted pattern to known patterns stored in a library, which also stores at least one previously computed decomposition solution for each known pattern. For an extracted pattern existing within the library, some embodiments retrieve the previously computed decomposition solution from the library. For an extracted pattern that does not exist within the library, some embodiments use one or more simulations to determine a decomposition solution for the extracted pattern. The resulting decomposition solution replaces the extracted pattern within the design layout producing a variant of the original layout that contains the decomposed solution for the pattern.

The rotational gravity/buoyancy power generator relates to the generation of power by harnessing the gravitational and buoyant forces which act on an apparatus in a natural or man-made liquid medium and converting such forces into mechanical energy. More specifically, the rotational gravity/buoyancy power generator improves on operably different, fluid medium power generators by efficiently utilizing the gravitational force as efficiently as the buoyant force is harnessed. The rotational gravity/buoyancy power generator includes methods, systems and devices for a plurality of weighted containers with a movable closure means on one or both ends, attached to one or more chains, belts or conveyances with one or more rotating sprockets or pulleys on horizontally aligned shafts which form a continuous loop in primarily a vertical arrangement comprising ascending and descending phases upon such apparatus in a continuous and flowing movement (FIG. 1). In the descent phase the containers are open on both ends (FIG. 2) and have greater density than the volume of liquid they displace causing them to rapidly sink through the liquid medium due to the force of gravity. In the ascent phase the containers have either their upper ends sealed, both ends sealed or are filled by internal bladders when, in any embodiment, a volume of gas is introduced such that the overall volume of the containers have a lesser density than the liquid displaced causing the containers to rise through the liquid medium due to the buoyant force. The chains, belts or conveyances to which the containers are attached rotate the sprockets or pulleys and their associated shafts creating mechanical power. Such power can be used to turn electrical generators or other mechanical machines which necessitate such power input.

The present invention relates to microfluidic chips and their use in SELEX. The microfluidic chip preferably includes a reaction chamber that contains a high surface area material that contains target. One preferred high surface area material is a sol-gel derived material. Methods of making the microfluidic chips are described herein, as are uses of these devices to select aptamers against the target.

Catheters, systems, and related methods for optimized for mapping, minimizing, and treating cardiac fibrillation in a patient, including an array of at least one stacked electrode pair, each electrode pair including a first electrode and a second electrode, wherein each electrode pair is configured to be orthogonal to a surface of a cardiac tissue substrate, wherein each first electrode is in contact with the surface to record a first signal, and wherein each second electrode is separated from the first electrode by a distance which enables the second electrode to record a second signal, wherein the catheter is configured to obtain one or more measurements from at least a first signal and a second signal in response to electrical activity in the cardiac tissue substrate indicative of a number of electrical circuit cores and distribution of the electrical circuit cores for a duration across the cardiac tissue substrate.

An application for a method for measuring educational efficiency and effectiveness of a teacher and a group of students includes measuring amounts of effort expended and expense incurred during teaching activities and accumulating the amounts of effort and/or expense into an accumulated effort and/or accumulated expense. The knowledge level is measured before and after the educational activities. The educational efficiency is calculated as the product of the difference in examination scores and the educational goal as given either by the credit-hours ascribed to the course or the course hours in the learning environment divided by the accumulated effort. The educational effectiveness is calculated as a product of the difference in examination scores and the educational goal divided by the accumulated cost.

The present invention provides an improved method of identifying which electrical conductor is supplying a signaling-point that is located on that conductor, in the electrical grid. The present invention makes the identification by measuring currents flowing into and out of a common connection-point, such as a power bus, and analyzing concurrent portions of these currents to determine whether they are ingress-current or egress-current over the analysis-intervals, and by a subsequent intra-bus and inter-bus analysis of the ingress/egress patterns. This is in contrast to prior art systems that rely on the measurement of signal strength, an approach that does not take best advantage of information in the signal because it fails to consider polarity of instantaneous voltages, reflective of the direction of current flow, or the intra-bus and inter-bus ingress/egress current-relationships.

A device to measure the amount of light able to transmit through a test liquid sample. A single lamp is used to illuminate a liquid sample cell containing the test water. A light detector is fixed relative to the lamp and is used to detect the amount of light from the lamp able to transmit through the liquid sample cell. The liquid sample cell is shaped in such a way as to provide at least two sets of opposed side walls that are able to transmit the light emitted from the lamp, where each set of opposed side walls defines a different path length through the liquid sample in the liquid sample cell. A rotation mechanism is used to provide relative rotation between the liquid sample cell and the lamp/light detector assembly. A microprocessor connected to the light detector calculates the light transmitted through at least two different path lengths through the liquid sample. Using these calculated transmittances the microprocessor then calculates the overall transmittance of the test water.

An X-ray-tomographic imaging apparatus for obtaining image data on a predetermined tomographic section of a subject with efficiency and effectiveness by using a plurality of X-ray projection images achieved by a plurality of X-rays that is made incident on the tomographic section from different directions is provided. The X-ray-tomographic imaging apparatus comprises a solid-image pickup unit that can convert each of the X-ray projection images to a signal and read the signal by a non-destructive reading method and a control unit making the solid-image pickup unit accumulate the signals of the X-ray projection images and read the signals by the non-destructive reading method during the signal accumulation.

The invention provides a method of efficiently determining the effectiveness of managing a chemical or industrial facility. The method involves identifying various industrial site assets and recording various specs of those assets over time. The various assets are grouped according to some hierarchy such as location, problem to be solved, or just asset type. The specs are compared to acceptable ranges and are scored positively or negatively. The system allows a user to determine trends by asset type, spec type, or by position within the hierarchy. This system allows both small scale and large-scale perspective, and can be used for both reactive and preemptive decision making.

A method for treatment of HIV infection includes administering at least one anti-HIV drug, such as a reverse transcriptase inhibitor, to a patient in need of such treatment and administering an extract from inflammatory tissue inoculated with vaccinia virus to the patient following the administration of the at least one anti-HIV drug. The extract maintains suppressive action on HIV replication, even if the administration of the anti-HIV drug is terminated.

A device to measure the amount of ultraviolet (UV) light that can transmit through a water sample, relative to the amount of UV light that can transmit through a sample of known UV transmittance. The measurement is known in the industry as UV percent transmittance (UVT). UVT can also be represented as UV absorbance (UVA) with the use of a simple mathematical calculation. UVT and UVA are essentially just different expressions of the same measurement. Preferably the sample of known UV transmittance (blank sample) has a UVT of 100%. A single UV sensor is used to measure the amount of UV light that transmits through the blank sample and through the water sample under test. In order to maintain accuracy, compensation must be made for fluctuations or drift in the UV lamp output. Such fluctuation and drift is very common in UV lamps and is due primarily to changes in temperature and imperfections in the ballast and lamp. Therefore the UV sensor measures the amount of light being emitted by the lamp at the times before and/or after the UV sensor measures the amount of UV light that transmits through the blank sample and the water sample. A microprocessor is used to compute the UVT which is calculated as the UVT of the water sample under test divided by the UVT of the blank sample while using the detector readings to compensate the calculated UVT for any drift and fluctuations in the UV lamp output.

A medical device incorporating magnetic material is introduced into the body of a patient. A time varying magnetic field is generated externally of the patient's body and which is of sufficient strength to magnetically induce motion in the device, thereby causing the medical device to vibrate within the patient's body. The frequency and the amplitude of the magnetic field oscillations can be continuously varied to control the vibrations induced in the medical device.

The present invention relates to a fire extinguishing composition which generate fire extinguishing substance by high temperature sublimation; the fire extinguishing composition comprising a fire extinguishing material which, in a heating process, can sublimate and release a fire extinguishing substance with fire extinguishing properties; the content of the fire extinguishing material is at least 80 wt %. When the fire extinguishing composition is in use, a pyrotechnic agent as a heat source and a power source; and the purpose of fire extinguishing is achieved by: igniting the pyrotechnic agent, generating a large quantity of fire substance from the fire extinguishing composition in the use of high temperature produced by burning pyrotechnic agent, and the fire substance sprays out together with the pyrotechnic agent. When compared with traditional aerosol fire extinguishing systems, gas fire extinguishing systems and water type extinguishing systems, the present invention can provide a more efficient and safer fire extinguishing composition.