Disclosed is an apparatus and method for aiding in compressing an extracranial blood vessel, the apparatus having a biasing member, or spring, for producing a constant force, and two elongated curved arms connected to the biasing member for transmitting the force. A first authentication request is received from the wireless device when the wireless device detects that the fixed station is in close proximity, and a second authentication request is received from the fixed station when the fixed station detects that the wireless device is in close proximity. The invention also relates to influenza virus transfectants that contain the modified NS gene and have an IFN inducing phenotype but which may or may not be sensitive towards IFN. In another aspect, the API sends calendar data provided by the application to a server program that manages a calendar store for storage and queries the server program to retrieve calendar data requested by the application from the calendar store.