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An orthodontic bracket or convertible buccal tube for use with arch wires has the usual mesial distal extending slot having one side open to receive the wire. The open side is closed by a shutter pivoting on a pivot pin, or coaxial pins, about a mesial distal axis, the shutter being latched in slot closed position to retain the arch wire by a latch having one latch member on the pivot pin / s and a cooperating member on an annular part of the shutter surrounding the pin / s. Preferably the latch members are a mesial distal extending cam shaped recess in the pivot pin / s and a projection protruding from the annular shutter part, or vice versa. The part of the annular shutter part carrying the latch member is made flexible by a mesial distal extending through slot dividing it to form a movable segment of about 200° to 270° of the total circumference; a tool can be inserted into the slot to assist in disengaging the latch. The shutter member can have parts thereof that with the shutter in slot closed position are an interference fit against the device body providing an additional retaining force against opening movement. Preferably the device includes an attitude controlling spring member consisting of a thin sheet metal spring within the body having a free end extending into the arch wire slot to engage an arch wire therein, or alternatively consisting of a flexible extension of the part of the shutter member that closes the slot.

Methods for enhancing ultrasonic reflection imaging are taught utilizing a split-step Fourier propagator in which the reconstruction is based on recursive inward continuation of ultrasonic wavefields in the frequency-space and frequency-wave number domains. The inward continuation within each extrapolation interval consists of two steps. In the first step, a phase-shift term is applied to the data in the frequency-wave number domain for propagation in a reference medium. The second step consists of applying another phase-shift term to data in the frequency-space domain to approximately compensate for ultrasonic scattering effects of heterogeneities within the tissue being imaged (e.g., breast tissue). Results from various data input to the method indicate significant improvements are provided in both image quality and resolution.

An orthodontic bracket or convertible buccal tube for use with arch wires has the usual mesial distal extending slot having one side open to receive the wire. The open side is closed by a shutter pivoting on a pivot pin, or coaxial pins, about a mesial distal axis, the shutter being latched in slot closed position to retain the arch wire in the slot. The device includes an attitude controlling spring member consisting of an integral extension of the part of the shutter member that closes the slot, the extension being thinner and therefore of greater flexibility than the relatively rigid shutter member. The extension can be progressively thinner that the shutter member from its junction therewith to a free end that engages the arch wire in the slot. In slot closed position a portion of the integral extension is positively engaged with a surface of the device body so as to preload the spring. Also in slot closed position the integral extension is engaged by lateral walls of the device body parallel to an occlusal, gingival, labial, lingual plane to protect it against mesial or distal directed stresses applied thereto.

The present invention provides a method for diagnosing cancer, predicting a disease outcome or response to therapy in a patient sample. The method involves isolating a circulating tumor cell (CTC), for example, a viable CTC, from a sample using a parylene microfilter device comprising a membrane filter having or consisting of a parylene substrate, which has an array of holes with a predetermined shape and size; and detecting and quantifying telomerase activity in blood circulating tumor cells. The invention further provides methods of using cells live-captured in various applications.

A package for a semiconductor chip or other heat producing device has a supporting substrate to which the devices mount and electrically connect. An enclosure is formed over the heat producing devices and filled with a supercritical fluid that transports heat from the devices to a heat sink in thermal contact with the enclosure.

Forecasting frequencies associated with future loss and loss distributions for individual risks associated with operating units, each which have a measurable liability exposure, is accomplished via independently operated liability risk drivers. The frequencies associated with future loss and loss distributions are also forecasted for an automated operation of a loss resolving unit via a control unit controller. When a loss occurs at a loss unit, measure parameters are measured and transmitted to the control unit controller. The control unit controller dynamically assigns the measure parameters to the liability risk drivers and tunes the operation of the loss resolving unit by resolving the loss via the loss resolving unit.

A method for segmenting a digitized medical image including providing a digitized image comprising a plurality of intensities corresponding to a domain of points on a n-dimensional grid, modeling the segmentation phases of said image with 2k weighting functions defined as a product of k unknown auxiliary functions, minimizing an energy functional of said weighting functions and said auxiliary functions to derive k gradient flow equations for said auxiliary functions, numerically integrating said gradient flow equations wherein solutions for the k unknown auxiliary functions are obtained, and partitioning said image into segments based on a membership of each image point in each of said weighting functions.