All The Claims

We claim:

1. A friction vibration damper for damping the vibrations of a vibrating component comprising a body, a chamber and a plurality of elements, the body defines the chamber which is partially filled with the plurality of elements, the friction vibration damper, in use, disposed on or in the vibrating component characterised in that the friction vibration damper is configured to substantially prevent the elements operationally moving in a convection-like flow pattern.
2. A friction vibration damper for a vibrating component as claimed in claim 1 characterised in that the plurality of elements comprise substantially spherical elements.
3. A friction vibration damper for a vibrating component as claimed in claim 1 characterised in that the plurality of elements comprises substantially spherical elements of at least two discrete sizes.
4. A friction vibration damper for a vibrating component as claimed in claim 2 characterised in that the elements are substantially spherical each with a diameter in the range 0.1 to 5.0 millimeters.
5. A friction vibration damper for a vibrating component as claimed in claim 1 characterised in that the plurality of elements comprise elements having a high aspect ratio.
6. A friction vibration damper for a vibrating component as claimed in claim 1 characterised in that the plurality of elements comprise elongate elements.
7. A friction vibration damper for a vibrating component as claimed in claim 1 characterised in that the plurality of elements comprise elements having a low aspect ratio.
8. A friction vibration damper for a vibrating component as claimed in claim 1 characterised in that the plurality of elements comprise disc shaped elements.
9. A friction vibration damper for a vibrating component as claimed in claim 1 characterised in that the body comprises a baffle, the baffle is disposed within the chamber to substantially prevent the elements operationally moving in a convection-like flow pattern.
10. A friction vibration damper for a vibrating component as claimed in claim 9 characterised in that the baffle extends across the chamber.
11. A friction vibration damper for a vibrating component as claimed in claim 9 characterised in that the baffle comprises a mesh structure.
12. A friction vibration damper for a vibrating component as claimed in claim 9 characterised in that the baffle comprises a wire wool matrix.
13. A friction vibration damper for a vibrating component as claimed in claim 1 characterised in that the body comprises the chamber having a high aspect ratio.
14. A friction vibration damper for a vibrating component as claimed in claim 1 characterised in that the body comprises the chamber having a low aspect ratio.
15. A friction vibration damper for a vibrating component as claimed in claim 1 characterised in that the friction vibration damper comprises a pedestal, the damper is mounted on a pedestal, the pedestal attached to the vibrating component.
16. A friction vibration damper for a vibrating component as claimed in claim 1 characterised in that the body defines two or more chambers.
17. A friction vibration damper for a vibrating component as claimed in claim 16 characterised in that each of the chambers is partially filled with a plurality of elements of substantially the same size, each plurality of elements in each chamber being of a different discrete size.
18. A friction vibration damper for a vibrating component as claimed in claim 1 characterised in that the elements are metallic.
19. A friction vibration damper for a vibrating component as claimed in claim 1 characterised in that the elements are ceramic.
20. A friction vibration damper for a vibrating component as claimed in claim 1 characterised in that the chamber is filled with elements to between 90 and 100 percent by volume.
21. A friction vibration damper for a vibrating component as claimed in claim 1 characterised in that the chamber is filled with elements to 95 percent by volume.
22. A friction vibration damper for a vibrating component as claimed in claim 1 characterised in that each of the chambers is filled with elements to 95 percent by volume.
23. A friction vibration damper for a vibrating component as claimed in claim 1 characterised in that each of the chambers is filled with elements to a different percentage by volume of each chamber.
24. A friction vibration damper for a vibrating component as claimed in claim 1 characterised in that the body of the friction vibration damper is substantially cylindrical.
25. A friction vibration damper for a vibrating component as claimed in claim 1 characterised in that the body of the friction vibration damper is substantially parallelepiped.
26. A friction vibration damper for a vibrating component as claimed in claim 1 characterised in that the vibrating component is a workpiece.
27. A friction vibration damper for a vibrating component as claimed in claim 26 characterised in that the workpiece is subject to a machining operation.
28. A friction vibration damper for a vibrating component as claimed in claim 26 characterised in that the vibrating component is a machine tool.
29. A friction vibration damper for a vibrating component as claimed in claim 1 characterised in that the vibrating component is a machine.
30. A friction vibration damper for a vibrating component as claimed in claim 1 characterised in that the friction vibration damper is disposed to the vibrating component by temporary means.
31. A friction vibration damper for a vibrating component as claimed in claim 1 characterised in that the component vibrates in the frequency range up to 10 Hertz.
32. A method of damping the vibrations of a vibrating component comprising the steps of, locating the position of the greatest amplitude of vibration on an engine component and disposing a vibration damping device on the component at the position of the greatest amplitude of vibration.

The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.

1. A method for producing multiply charged ions, comprising the steps of;
i) providing a matrix composition comprising a matrix material and a non-volatile component,
ii) providing an analyte,
iii) depositing the matrix composition and the analyte on a surface such that they are in intimate contact,
iv) ablating the matrix composition and the analyte deposited on the surface with a laser to desorb multiply charged ions of analyte, and
v) passing the desorbed multiply charged ions through a heated conduit, wherein, in step iv), the matrix composition and analyte are ablated in the liquid phase.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein the heated conduit is maintained at a temperature of up to 400\xb0 C., and is preferably maintained at between 200\xb0 C. and 250\xb0 C.
3. The method of claim 1 wherein the heated conduit is a tube.
4. The method of claim 1 wherein the matrix material of the matrix composition of step i) is either DHB or CHCA or a different cinnamic acid derivative.
5. The method of claim 1 wherein the matrix composition further comprises a solvent.
6. The method of claim 5 wherein the solvent comprises a 1:1 mixture of 10-100 mM ammonium phosphate (in water) and methanol.
7. The method of claim 1 wherein the laser is a pulsed laser and has an energy of less than 10 \u03bcJ per pulse.
8. The method of claim 1 wherein the laser achieves a maximum fluence of less than 2000 Jm2.
9. The method of claim 1 wherein the laser is a pulsed laser, the energy per pulse is about 1-10 \u03bcJ and the fluence is between 200-2000 Jm2.
10. The method of claim 1 wherein the analyte is a peptide, protein or other biomolecule or organic compound.
11. The method of claim 1 wherein the non-volatile component is glycerol, triethylamine or an ionic liquid.
12. The method of claim 11 wherein the glycerol concentration in the matrix composition is between 15% and 85% by volume.
13. The method of claim 1 wherein multiply charged ions exiting the heated conduit are passed into a mass analyzer which preferably comprises an ion trap or quadrupole.
14. The method of claim 13 wherein the analyte concentration in the matrix composition and analyte deposited on the surface is greater than 10\u221212 M, the laser is a pulsed laser having a repetition rate of 10 Hz, and data is acquired in the mass analyzer for at least 10 minutes.
15. The method of claim 13 wherein the analyte amount in the matrix composition and analyte deposited on the surface is greater than 1 attomol, the laser is a pulsed laser having a repetition rate of 10 Hz, and data is acquired in the mass analyzer for at least 10 minutes.
16. A method according to claim 1 wherein the laser has a UV or IR wavelength.

1. An apparatus configured to code video information, the apparatus comprising:
a memory configured to store video block information associated with an enhancement layer; and
a processor operationally coupled to the memory and configured to retrieve the video block information from the memory and code the video information, the processor further configured to
determine a transform function based upon a parameter of the video block information; and
code the video block information using the determined transform function.
2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the parameter of the video block information comprises a coding mode.
3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the coding mode comprises an Intra base layer (Intra BL) mode or Generalized Residual Prediction (GRP).
4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein to determine the transform function the processor is configured to:
determine whether the parameter of the video block information is a predetermined value; and
in response to determining that the parameter of the video block information is not the predetermined value, determine that the transform function is a primary transform; or
in response to determining that the parameter of the video block information is the predetermined value, determine that the transform function is an alternative transform.
5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the alternative transform comprises one of: a discrete-sine-transform (DST), a Type-I DST, a Type-III DST, a Type-IV DST, a Type-VII DST, a discrete-cosine-transform (DCT), a DCT of different types, and a Karhunen-Loeve transform (KLT).
6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the parameter of the video information is signaled at one of: a frame level, a slice level, a coding unit level, and a transform block unit level.
7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the parameter of the video information comprises at least one of: side information, a coding unit size, a transform unit size, a frame type, a frame size, a quantization parameter (QP), temporal layer information, and parsed residue coefficients information.
8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the parameter comprises information from a base layer.
9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the parameter of the video block information comprises a threshold value related to a difference between the video block information and neighboring video block information.
10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the transform function comprises a non-cosine based transform when the difference between the video block information and the neighboring block information falls below the threshold value.
11. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the transform function comprises a cosine transform when the difference between the video block information and the neighboring block information falls above the threshold value.
12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the processor is configured to receive the threshold value using a high level syntax or encoded as a flag.
13. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the determined transform is signaled using binarization.
14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the binarization comprises at least one of: a truncated unary code and a fixed length code.
15. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the apparatus comprises an encoder.
16. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the apparatus comprises a decoder.
17. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the apparatus is selected from a group consisting of one or more of: a desktop computer, a notebook computer, a laptop computer, a tablet computer, a set-top box, a telephone handset, a smart phone, a smart pad, a television, a camera, a display device, a digital media player, a video gaming console, and a video streaming device.
18. A method of encoding video information, the method comprising:
receiving video block information associated with a reference layer;
determining a transform function based upon a parameter of the video block information; and
encoding the video block information using the determined transform function.
19. The method of claim 18, wherein the parameter of the video block information comprises a coding mode.
20. The method of claim 19, wherein the coding mode comprises an Intra base layer (Intra BL) mode or Generalized Residual Prediction.
21. The method of claim 18, wherein the transform function is determined to be an alternative transform when the parameter is a predetermined value and a primary transform when the parameter is not the predetermined value.
22. The method of claim 19, wherein the alternative transform comprises one of: a discrete-sine-transform (DST), a Type-I DST, a Type-III DST, a Type-IV DST, a Type-VII DST, a discrete-cosine-transform DCT, a DCT of different types, and a Karhunen-Loeve transform (KLT).
23. The method of claim 18, further comprising signaling the parameter of the video information at one of: a frame level, a slice level, a coding unit level, and a transform block unit level.
24. The method of claim 18, wherein the parameter of the video information comprises at least one of: side information, a coding unit size, a transform unit size, a frame type, a frame size, a quantization parameter (QP), temporal layer information, and parsed residue coefficients information.
25. The method of claim 18, wherein the parameter comprises information from a base layer.
26. The method of claim 18, wherein the parameter of the video block information comprises a threshold value related to a difference between the video block information and neighboring video block information.
27. The method of claim 18, wherein the transform function comprises a non-cosine based transform when the difference between the video block information and the neighboring block information falls below the threshold value.
28. The method of claim 18, wherein the transform function comprises a cosine transform when the difference between the video block information and the neighboring block information falls above the threshold value.
29. The method of claim 28, further comprising communicating the threshold value using a high level syntax or as an encoded flag.
30. The method of claim 18, wherein the determined transform is signaled using binarization.
31. The method of claim 30, wherein the binarization comprises at least one of:
a truncated unary code and a fixed length code.
32. A method of decoding video information, the method comprising:
receiving video block information associated with a reference layer;
determining a transform function based upon a parameter of the video block information; and
decoding the video block information using the determined transform function.
33. The method of claim 32, wherein the parameter of the video block information comprises a coding mode.
34. The method of claim 33, wherein the coding mode comprises an Intra base layer (Intra BL) mode or Generalized Residual Prediction.
35. The method of claim 32, wherein the transform function is determined to be an alternative transform when the parameter is a predetermined value and a primary transform when the parameter is not the predetermined value.
36. The method of claim 35, wherein the alternative transform comprises one of: a discrete-sine-transform (DST), a Type-I DST, a Type-III DST, a Type-IV DST, a Type-VII DST, a discrete-cosine-transform DCT, a DCT of different types, and a Karhunen-Loeve transform (KLT).
37. The method of claim 32, further comprising signaling the parameter of the video information at one of: a frame level, a slice level, a coding unit level, and a transform block unit level.
38. The method of claim 32, wherein the parameter of the video information comprises at least one of: side information, a coding unit size, a transform unit size, a frame type, a frame size, a quantization parameter (QP), temporal layer information, and parsed residue coefficients information.
39. The method of claim 32, wherein the parameter comprises information from a base layer.
40. The method of claim 32, wherein the parameter of the video block information comprises a threshold value related to a difference between the video block information and neighboring video block information.
41. The method of claim 32, wherein the transform function comprises a non-cosine based transform when the difference between the video block information and the neighboring block information falls below the threshold value.
42. The method of claim 32, wherein the transform function comprises a cosine transform when the difference between the video block information and the neighboring block information falls above the threshold value.
43. The method of claim 42, further comprising communicating the threshold value using a high level syntax or as an encoded flag.
44. The method of claim 32, wherein the determined transform is signaled using binarization.
45. The method of claim 44, wherein the binarization comprises at least one of:
a truncated unary code and a fixed length code.
46. A video coding device configured to code video data, the video coding device comprising:
means for determining a transform function based upon a parameter of video block information associated with a reference layer; and
means for coding the video block information using the determined transform function.
47. The video coding device of claim 46, wherein the parameter of the video block information comprises an Intra BL mode or Generalized Residual Prediction coding mode.
48. The video coding device of claim 46, wherein the transform function is determined to be an alternative transform when the parameter is a predetermined value and the transform function is determined to be a primary transform when the parameter is not the predetermined value.
49. The video coding device of claim 48, wherein the alternative transform comprises one of: a discrete-sine-transform (DST), a Type-I DST, a Type-III DST, a Type-IV DST, a Type-VII DST, a discrete-cosine-transform DCT, a DCT of different types, and a Karhunen-Loeve transform (KLT).
50. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising code that, when executed, causes an apparatus to:
determine a transform function based upon a parameter of video block information associated with a reference layer; and
code the video block information using the transform.
51. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 50, wherein the transform function is determined to be an alternative transform when the parameter is a predetermined value and a primary transform when the parameter is not the predetermined value.
52. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 51, wherein the alternative transform comprises one of: a discrete-sine-transform (DST), a Type-I DST, a Type-III DST, a Type-IV DST, a Type-VII DST, a discrete-cosine-transform (DCT), a DCT of different types, and a Karhunen-Loeve transform (KLT).
53. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 50, wherein the determined transform is signaled using binarization.

The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.

What is claimed is:

1. A method including:
detecting, over a time period, intrinsic atrial heart contractions;
measuring P-P intervals between the intrinsic atrial heart contractions;
calculating beat-to-beat P-P time differences between a pair of successive PP intervals;
categorizing the P-P time differences based on at least one of: (1) a magnitude of at least one P-P interval in the pair of successive P-P intervals; and (2) an amount of the P-P time difference;
storing, over the time period, a categorized count of the P-P time differences; and
providing a diagnostic based on the stored categorized count of the P-P time differences.
2. The method of claim 1, in which providing the diagnostic includes displaying the P-P time differences as a function of at least one of: (1) the magnitude of at least one P-P interval in the pair of successive P-P intervals; and (2) the amount of the P-P time difference.
3. The method of claim 1, in which categorizing the P-P time differences includes categorizing the P-P time differences as a function of both of: (1) the magnitude of at least one P-P interval in the pair of successive P-P intervals; and (2) the amount of the P-P time difference.
4. The method of claim 1, further including adjusting a cardiac rhythm management therapy based on at least one P-P time difference.
5. The method of claim 1, further including disposing an atrial electrode in an atrium of a heart.
6. A method including:
detecting, over a time period, intrinsic atrial heart contractions;
measuring P-P intervals between the intrinsic atrial heart contractions to obtain a time-domain P-P interval signal; and
providing an indication associated with a balance between sympathetic and parasympathetic components of an autonomic nervous system based on the time-domain P-P interval signal.
7. The method of claim 6, in which providing the indication is based on a frequency content of the P-P interval signal.
8. The method of claim 7, in which providing the indication is based on a ratio of a low frequency component of the P-P interval signal to a high frequency component of the P-P interval signal.
9. The method of claim 7, further including:
filtering the P-P interval signal to obtain a time-domain second signal including frequency components substantially in a first frequency band, wherein the second signal is influenced by both sympathetic and parasympathetic components of the autonomic nervous system;
filtering the P-P interval signal to obtain a time-domain third signal including frequency components substantially in a second frequency band, wherein the third signal is influenced by the parasympathetic component of the autonomic nervous system and not substantially influenced by the sympathetic component of the autonomic nervous system; and
providing the indication associated with a balance between sympathetic and parasympathetic components of the autonomic nervous system based on the time-domain second and third signals.
10. The method of claim 6, further including disposing an atrial electrode in an atrium of a heart.
11. The method of claim 6, further including adjusting a cardiac rhythm management therapy based on at least one P-P time difference.
12. A system including:
an atrial electrode configured for being associated with an atrium of a heart;
an atrial sense amplifier, including an atrial sense amplifier input coupled to the atrial electrode for receiving, over a time period, intrinsic atrial electrical depolarizations therefrom, and including an atrial sense amplifier output;
a P-P interval timer, including a P-P timer input coupled to the atrial sense amplifier output for receiving intrinsic atrial electrical depolarizations, and including a P-P timer output providing a P-P interval between successive atrial heart contractions;
a difference circuit, including a difference circuit input coupled to the P-P interval timer, and a difference circuit output providing a P-P time difference between a successive pair of P-P intervals; and
a controller, coupled to the P-P timer output for receiving the P-P intervals and also coupled to the difference circuit output for receiving the P-P time differences, the controller categorizing the P-P time differences based on at least one of: (1) a magnitude of at least one P-P interval in the pair of successive P-P intervals; and (2) an amount of the P-P time difference.
13. The system of claim 12, further including a memory device, coupled to the controller, the memory device storing, over the time period, a categorized count of the P-P time differences.
14. The system of claim 13, further including a display, communicatively coupled to the memory device, the display providing information associated with the P-P time differences.
15. The system of claim 14, in which the display provides information associated with the categorized count of the P-P time differences displayed as a function of at least one of: (1) the magnitude of at least one P-P interval in the pair of successive P-P intervals; and (2) the amount of the P-P time difference.
16. The system of claim 15, in which the display provides information associated with the categorized count of the P-P time differences displayed as a function of both of: (1) the magnitude of at least one P-P interval in the pair of successive P-P intervals; and (2) the amount of the P-P time difference.
17. The system of claim 13, in which the controller categorizes the P-P time differences based on both of: (1) the magnitude of at least one P-P interval in the pair of successive P-P intervals; and (2) the amount of the P-P time difference.
18. The system of claim 13, further including a therapy module providing therapy to the heart based on a comparison of an attribute of at least one P-P time difference to a predetermined criterion.
19. A system including:
an atrial electrode configured for being associated with an atrium;
an atrial sense amplifier, including an atrial sense amplifier input coupled to the atrial electrode for receiving, over a time period, intrinsic atrial electrical depolarizations therefrom, and including an atrial sense amplifier output;
a P-P interval timer, including a P-P timer input coupled to the atrial sense amplifier output for receiving intrinsic atrial electrical depolarizations, and including an P-P timer output providing a P-P interval signal based on a P-P interval between successive atrial heart contractions; and
an autonomic balance indicator module, coupled to the P-P interval timer and providing an indication of a balance between sympathetic and parasympathetic components of an autonomic nervous system based on a frequency component of the P-P interval signal.
20. The system of claim 19, further including:
a low frequency (LF) bandpass filter, coupled to the P-P timer output for receiving the P-P interval signal, the LF bandpass filter providing a time-domain LF signal output that is influenced by both the sympathetic and parasympathetic components of the autonomic nervous system;
a high frequency (HF) bandpass filter, coupled to the P-P timer output for receiving the P-P interval signal, the HF bandpass filter providing a time-domain HF signal output having higher frequency components than the LF signal output, the HF signal output being influenced by the parasympathetic component of the autonomic nervous system and not substantially influenced by the sympathetic component of the autonomic nervous system;
an LF variance module coupled to the LF bandpass filter for receiving the LF signal, the LF variance module providing a resulting LF variance signal;
a HF variance module, coupled to the HF bandpass filter for receiving the HF signal, the HF variance module providing a resulting HF variance signal; and
wherein the autonomic balance indicator module is coupled to the LF and HF variance modules, and provides an indication of a balance between sympathetic and parasympathetic components of the autonomic nervous system based on the LF and HF variance signals.
21. The system of claim 19, in which the autonomic balance indicator module provides the indication of the balance between sympathetic and parasympathetic components of the autonomic nervous system based on a ratio of a low frequency component of the P-P interval signal to a high frequency component of the P-P interval signal.
22. The system of claim 19, further including a therapy module to a cardiac rhythm management therapy based on at least one P-P time difference.