Abstract: A method for calculating glomerular filtration rate (GFR) is revealed. A circumference of a patent's neck is measured and then is substituted into an exponential formula together with clinical factors and patient's age for estimating GFR. The present method has a better performance compared with methods for evaluating renal function by GFR available now. The methods available now have poor performance in prediction of loss of renal function at early stage. Some patients are diagnosed at an advanced stage so that they miss the opportunity of early treatment.

Abstract: A multi-function ruler is provided with a rectangular, transparent body; at least one opening through a top and an underside of the body; and at least one row of a plurality of equally spaced markings printed along one side of the body. The at least one opening includes at least one directional sign, at least one curve, and at least one figure.

Abstract: A closed circuit video communication device includes an input/output configured to receive a streaming video signal on a first dedicated physical communication channel and to send upstream communication on the first dedicated physical communication channel; a video output configured to send the streaming video signal on a second dedicated physical communication channel; and a command input configured to receive commands on a third dedicated physical communication channel and to provide the commands to the input/output for sending as upstream communication on the first dedicated physical communication channel.

Abstract: A closed circuit video communication device includes an input/output configured to receive a streaming video signal on a first dedicated physical communication channel and to send upstream communication on the first dedicated physical communication channel; a video output configured to send the streaming video signal on a second dedicated physical communication channel; and a command input configured to receive commands on a third dedicated physical communication channel and to provide the commands to the input/output for sending as upstream communication on the first dedicated physical communication channel

Abstract: A descrambler for a Digital Versatile Disk (DVD) is provided within a DVD controller to allow for real-time descrambling of DVD data from the DVD buffer. The built-in descrambler also allows the controller to interface with a Host Adapter (e.g., ATAPI Host) or MPEG II decoder. The descrambling circuit reads four bits of an identifier portion of each sector. These four bits are used to access a look up table LUT in the descrambler for retrieving a 15 bit seed. The fifteen bit seed is used to generate a descrambling patter, which, when XORed with scrambled data, will descramble data on a byte-by-byte basis. The descrambling pattern is generated on a flash basis, by performing eight shift operations and XOR operations simultaneously, allowing for descrambling one byte per clock cycle.