Abstract: A method for routing conductors in an integrated circuit design is disclosed, including the steps of determining the number of sensitive conductors requiring placement into quiet track locations, wherein a quiet track location is defined as any track location immediately adjacent to a stable conductor, determining the number of quiet track locations available in said integrated circuit design, and routing one or more sensitive conductors into one or more quiet track locations.

Abstract: A diversion device capable of generating a disorientating flash and a disorientating sound without an explosion has a housing with a cavity containing an inert gas, a piston and a powder. The powder creates the flash via ignition after exiting the device. The device also includes a mechanism configured to ensure the powder encompasses the device upon exit and does is not dispersed in a substantially horizontal plane. In addition, the device may include devices capable of creating a disorientating sound as the inert gas escapes the device.

Abstract: Method and apparatus are disclosed for treating congestive heart failure by administering a fibrosis-inducing agent to an epicardial surface of the heart in an amount selected to induce the formation of fibrosis on the epicardial surface. The fibrosis-inducing agent may be a drug, metal, abrasive or an electrical stimulation on the epicardial surface.

Abstract: Disclosed is an optical inspection system for inspecting the surface of a substrate. The optical inspection system includes a light source for emitting an incident light beam along an optical axis and a first set of optical elements arranged for separating the incident light beam into a plurality of light beams, directing the plurality of light beams to intersect with the surface of the substrate, and focusing the plurality of light beams to a plurality of scanning spots on the surface of the substrate. The inspection system further includes a light detector arrangement including individual light detectors that correspond to individual ones of a plurality of reflected or transmitted light beams caused by the intersection of the plurality of light beams with the surface of the substrate. The light detectors are arranged for sensing the light intensity of either the reflected or transmitted light.

Abstract: Method and apparatus are disclosed for treating congestive heart failure. The method includes relieving wall stress on a diseased heart by an amount to decrease a rate of myocardial cell loss. Further, the method includes pharmacologically encouraging a myocardial cell gain. Cell gain may be encouraged by cell replication, cell recruitment or inhibition of cell death. Further embodiments of the method include a passive cardiac constraint selected to reduce wall stress on the heart. An apparatus of the present invention includes a passive cardiac constraint and a pharmacological agent to encourage cell gain.

Abstract: An airbag having an array of slits formed therein between its two attachment points, each slit seamed to be impermeable to the inflation medium. The slits are oriented to be perpendicular to a line defined by these two attachment points. The slits may be in offset rows and are each longer than the distance between the rows to allow the airbag to be significantly expanded by pulling in opposite directions on its attachment points. The airbag thus made can, when expanded, be folded to fit into a housing running along the roofline of a vehicle. Upon inflation and forcing itself from the housing, it will contract sharply, increasing its tension between attachment points and serving to both cushion and restrain passengers against lateral impact.

Abstract: A method for making a side curtain airbag by weaving the airbag in a bias direction ranging from 20° to 70° with respect to the warp of the fabric of which the side curtain airbag is made in order to increase contraction of the bag upon inflation and to increase productivity of airbag manufacture. By orienting the airbag pattern on a bias, airbags can be better “nested” in the output of the loom, less material is wasted and high loom utilization achieved. The airbag is preferably made with a low-permeability weave to reduce leakage of inflation medium upon inflation of the airbag. In some applications, the major axis of the airbag is perpendicular to the warp.

Abstract: A device for treating cardiac disease of a heart having an upper portion and a lower portion divided by an A-V groove, the device including a jacket adapted to be secured to the heart, and a non-adherent material in association with the jacket. The jacket is fabricated from a flexible material defining a volume between an upper and a lower end, the jacket being adapted to be adjusted on the heart to snugly conform to an external geometry of the heart and assume a maximum adjusted volume for the jacket to constrain expansion of the heart beyond the maximum adjusted volume during diastole and permit substantially unimpeded contraction of the heart during systole. As a result of the flexible material, the jacket allows unimpeded diastolic filling of the heart.

Abstract: A firearm identification kit is provided including a data storage media bearing ballistics information and other indicia that may be useful in matching a fired spent cartridge case or bullet to the firearm that fired it.

Abstract: A sports apparatus provides a variable resistance to a user. A resilient panel can be adjusted for custom resistance. The resilient panel is provided with pulleys and cables arranged to deflect the panel when a user provides a force on the cable. The user can transmit force to the resilient panel by attaching a suitable exercise implement to the cable. The resilient can also be arranged as required by the type of exercise and for convenience.

Abstract: The instrument to manipulate the tissue of a body of a patient has jaws (15a, 15b) that move away from each other in a parallel motion. The artiuclating means for the jaws comprises a scissor type linkage (24a, 24b, 25a, 25b) constrained within a support (11). Movement of the jaws (15a, 15b) is enacted through the reciprocating rod (14) acting upon one end of said scissors linkage.

Abstract: This invention is an electrical stimulation apparatus for delivering an electrical field over a predetermined period of time to a targeted body tissue in order to stimulate a cell initiated angiogenic response in living cells within the targeted body tissue. The electrical stimulation apparatus includes an electrical field generating unit including a power support, a control mechanism interconnected with the power supply, and a plurality of electrodes designed to generate an electrical field proximate to the targeted body tissue. The amplitude of the electrical field delivered to or generated proximate to the targeted body tissue, and the duration of the period of delivery is sufficient to stimulate angiogenesis in the targeted body tissue.

Abstract: A method for routing conductors in an integrated circuit design is disclosed, including the steps of determining the number of sensitive conductors requiring placement into quiet track locations, wherein a quiet track location is defined as any track location immediately adjacent to a stable conductor, determining the number of quiet track locations available in said integrated circuit design, and routing one or more sensitive conductors into one or more quiet track locations.

Abstract: A sports apparatus with variable directions of stiffness and flexibility, including sports equipment having a body; and a flexure resistance spine that is elongated and is stiffer and less flexible in one direction than in a different direction. The spine is fixed against rotation at two spaced apart locations along the body.

Abstract: A sports apparatus with variable directions of stiffness and flexibility, including sports equipment having a body with an elongated cavity; and a stiffening rod that is elongated and has a longitudinal axis in a direction of elongation of the stiffening rod, the stiffening rod being inserted within the cavity and stiffer in one direction than in a different direction and being more flexible in the different direction than in the one direction, both the one direction and the different direction being directed transverse to the longitudinal axis.

Abstract: The present invention integrates an inverse modeling technique and a field measurement system. The system uses inexpensive and non-hazardous gaseous tracers injected inside the contained volume of a barrier to quantify the location and size of any leaks in the barrier. The vapor sampling point installation, which allows the collection of soil gas samples from multiple points around the barrier installation, can be accomplished with conventional drilling or direct push techniques. The system uses a field-proven soil gas analyzer, incorporated in a sampling system capable of monitoring many sample points with relatively high time resolution. A rigorous inverse modeling technology is integrated with the data system for real time analysis.

Abstract: A footstand for stabilizing a body of a medical device against being overturned. The body may especially be a chest drainage unit (CDU) designed and configured to receive and collect fluids from a medical patient. The invention comprises at least one stand coupled to the body and adapted for deployment to a position for stabilizing the body against upset. The CDU body is a generally upstanding rectangular box having a pair of depending feet, one foot on each side of the body.

Abstract: The data storage subsystem is implemented using an array of data storage elements which vary in data storage characteristics and/or data storage capacity. Control apparatus automatically compensates for any nonuniformity among the data storage elements by selecting a set of physical characteristics that define a common data storage element format. The selected set of physical characteristics may not match any of the disk drives but each disk drive can emulate these selected characteristics. This capability enables the disk drives in the data storage subsystem to be replaced by nonidentical disk drives in a nondisruptive manner to provide continuous data availability.

Abstract: A high strength low alloy steel having a yield strength of at least 100 ksi and a Charpy V-notch impact strength of at least 35 ft-lbs. at minus 84.degree. C. (minus 120.degree. F.) at thickness of up to 6 inches is provided wherein the steel consists essentially of an effective amount up to 0.036% carbon, for low temperature toughness up to 5% manganese, up to 1% silicon, up to 0.015% sulfur, 2 to 4% nickel, up to 2% copper, up to 0.1% niobium, and up to 0.1% aluminum, up to 4.% molybdenum, up to 4% chromium and the balance iron and incidental impurities and is characterized by low carbon bainite microstructure in the as-quenched condition.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for mounting mated floating, electrical connectors is disclosed. Floating connectors are used to isolate the component parts of the connectors from the vibrations of devices which are semi-rigidly mounted with respect to one another and to which the connectors are movably mounted. The floating connector of the present invention provides a high degree of freedom to float both side to side and up and down. The connector has flanges extending over the walls of an opening into which the connector is movably mounted. This allows the connector a wide range of freedom to float. Both a snap-in and a twist-in connector design are shown. A flexible wiring circuit attached to the floating connector provides both electrical connections to an associated device as well as a spring bias tension to further retain the connector within the receptacle.