A family of computers is disclosed and claimed that supports simultaneous processes from the single core up to multi-chip Program Execution Systems (PES). The instruction processing of the instructed resources is local, dispensing with the need for large VLIW memories. The cores through the PES have maximum performance for Amdahl-compliant algorithms like matrix inversion, because the multiplications do not stall and the other circuitry keeps up. Cores with log based multiplication generators improve this performance by a factor of two for sine and cosine calculations in single precision floating point and have even greater performance for loge and ex calculations. Apparatus specifying, simulating, and/or layouts of the computer (components) are disclosed. Apparatus the computer and/or its components are disclosed.

By the mid-1940's, computers stored programs in memories as instructions to fetch and execute. By the end of the 1950's the semiconductor revolution was well underway leading to the building blocks of computers becoming smaller, faster and more power efficient. These two fundamental innovations converged with the introduction of all-semiconductor computers by the early 1960's starting with Seymour Cray's CDC-1604, revolutionizing technology, commerce and culture.
The 1960's also saw the first multi-tasking operating systems as demonstrated by the Compatible Time-Sharing System at MIT, the first parallel processor, the Burroughs D825 in 1962, and the first supercomputer, the CDC 6600 introduced in 1964. But even then, Gene Amdahl predicted, in Amdahl's Law, a fundamental limitation to the performance of parallel processors.
Amdahl's Law states that if an algorithm can be decomposed into a parallelizable part that takes up a fraction P of the total time to execute the algorithm and a sequential part that takes up the remaining execution time, then the maximum performance improvement has an asymptotic limit of 1/(1−P) as the parallel part is driven to essentially 0. So if the algorithm is 90% parallelizable, then the maximum performance improvement is a factor of 10. Now, over forty years later, we see the limits he predicted every time we buy a quad core computer and do not get four times the performance of the replaced single core computer.
A somewhat lesser known conclusion is Pollack's Rule, which states that "microprocessor performance increase is roughly proportional to [the] square root of [the] increase in complexity, [which] contrasts with power consumption increase, which is roughly linearly proportional to the increase in complexity." Complexity in this context means processor logic, i.e its area. The rule, which is an industry term, is named for Fred Pollack, a lead engineer and fellow at Intel.
Seymour Cray knew that for a computer to run as fast as possible, the entire system had to be fast, not just the CPU. Many approaches have been tried to maximize system performance and throughput, always running into the problem of Amdahl's Law. Significant advances in future computing performance require a new, fundamental approach to computer design.

Computer for Amdahl-compliant algorithms like matrix inversion


A grinding pin (53) for grinding notches in the edges of disc workpieces, such as semi-conductor wafers, comprises a metal spindle (132) for mounting in a grinding machine, and an adjoining cylindrical region having axially spaced sections of fine grit (160) and rough grit (162), the latter being axially nearer the spindle (132). In use on a grinding machine having a rotatable forming wheel, similar profiled notch-grinding grooves (140) and (142) are formed by the wheel in the grinding sections (162) and (160) respectively.

This invention relates to grinding machines and to grinding wheels for use in such machines for grinding notches in the edges of discs such as wafers of silicon for use in the construction of semi-conductor devices, and to methods of grinding edge regions of such discs so as to form notches therein. Since the notches are of relatively small dimensions relative to the size of the wafers, grinding wheels used to form such notches are commonly referred to as grinding pins.
A grinding machine for grinding discs is disclosed in WO97/48522 and incorporated herein by reference. WO97/48522 discloses use of a metal-bonded CBN or diamond wheel on a grinding machine to rough grind the edge of a disc, such as a semiconductor wafer, before use of a softer resin-bonded CBN wheel for finish grinding the disc edge and further describes an in situ technique for forming and re-forming a groove in the resin bonded CBN grinding wheel to grind the correct shape around the disc edge.
The machine also includes a small diameter grinding pin for grinding a notch of predetermined proportions around the edge of the ground disc.
British Patent Specification No. 2335620 discloses a grinding pin for notch grinding, for example for use in the machine described in WO 97/48522, the pin having a cylindrical region sufficiently long that a succession of profiled grooves for producing the notch can be formed, whereby as one such groove becomes too worn for further use one or more further grooves can be formed in the pin. One embodiment of pin described in the Specification is a pin having a metal bonded diamond section axially nearer the pin spindle and a resin bonded formable section axially more remote from the spindle. In use, a groove in the metal bonded section is used for rough grinding the notch and a groove formed in the resin bonded formable section is used for finish grinding the notch.
A problem with the aforesaid arrangement of the grinding pin is that of aligning the metal bonded and the resin bonded sections.
According to one aspect of the present invention, a grinding pin for notch grinding comprises a cylindrical region long enough for at least two profiled grooves to be formed thereon respectively in axially spaced sections of the cylindrical region, the section axially more remote from the pin spindle being a resin-bonded section of rough grit for rough grinding the notch and the section axially nearer the pin spindle being a resin-bonded section of fine grit for finish grinding the notch.
The invention overcomes the problem of aligning the respective sections to be used for rough and finish grinding the notch, because it is possible to use the same groove dressing or forming wheel, mounted on the same machine, to form both or all the grooves.
Preferably, the size of the grit for rough grinding the notch is between two and three times the size of the grit for finish grinding the notch.
Either or both of the rough grinding and finish grinding sections of the cylindrical pin, but especially the latter, may be long enough for one or more further grooves to be successively formed when the first groove becomes too worn for further use.
The invention also relates to a grinding machine, preferably a CNC grinding machine, having a work spindle, a grinding spindle able to carry a blank for the aforesaid grinding pin, the blank having a section of rough grit and a section of fine grit, and a forming wheel rotatable to form a notch-grinding groove in the rough grit section and a notch-finishing groove in the fine grit section.
The invention therefore also relates to a method of forming notches of rough grinding and notch-finishing grooves on the aforesaid grinding machine.
The forming wheel may be mounted on the same spindle as the workpiece.
The grinding material may be rough grit resin-bonded CBN or diamond in the case of the rough grinding section and fine grit resin-bonded diamond in the case of the finish grinding section.
The term xe2x80x9cresin-bondedxe2x80x9d, as used herein, includes bonding with a vitreous material.
It is to be noted that, in contrast to the disclosure of FIG. 7 of British Patent Specification No. 2335620, wherein a resin-bonded section is used in place of a metal-bonded section, it is preferable for the section for finish grinding to be nearer the pin spindle, i.e. the stiffer section of the pin.

Grinding pin for grinding machines comprising resin bonded selections of rough grit and fine grit


In various embodiments, an attendee of a live online meeting selects screen data from an earlier point in time in the online meeting for playback while the meeting is still ongoing. Automatically generated image thumbnails of the screen data for the online meeting may be employed to navigate to the earlier point in time. Attendees may annotate screenshots associated with the thumbnails, and a summary document may be generated that includes the screenshots and the annotations.

As economies globalize and travel costs increase, meetings that may have once been held face-to-face are increasingly being held remotely. Often, a purely telephonic meeting inefficiently conveys the ideas presented. Accordingly, computer-based online meetings featuring graphical data have become more common. The graphical data may include presentation slides, video, and/or a computer application or desktop window, and may be sent from a presenter to one or more viewers. Each viewer receives some form of the graphical data along with, typically, a verbal commentary by the presenter synchronized to the graphical data. The voice-over data may be sent through a traditional telephone network, e.g., a public switched-telephone network ("PSTN"), or through a computer-network protocol, e.g., voice-over-internet protocol ("VoIP"). The online meeting is typically "live" in the sense that voice and graphical data generated by a presenter are conveyed to the viewer as they occur, i.e., in real time while the meeting is still ongoing, as opposed to a pre-recorded presentation viewed after the meeting has ended.
Typically, with today's technology, a viewer of a live online meeting must be present for the entirety of the meeting or risk missing some of its content. Disadvantageously, an outside event or computer malfunction may cause an interruption in the viewing of the meeting, and an affected viewer may be unable to view a key part of the meeting. Furthermore, a viewer may wish for more time to study graphical data presented on the viewer's screen before the meeting proceeds to the next topic or may wish to further review earlier-presented video or audio data. In addition, a viewer who joins a meeting after it has started may wish to view the material he or she has missed. Unfortunately, many of these features are not well supported by existing technology.
Accordingly, a need exists for improved systems and methods of presenting and viewing live online meetings.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Systems, methods, and devices for communicating during an ongoing online meeting


The present invention is to provide an anti-reflective substrate, and the manufacturing method of the substrate. The method comprises the steps of: (a) providing a substrate; (b) depositing an amorphous silicon layer on the substrate; and (c) etching the amorphous silicon layer and the substrate by chemical etching in solutions, and the amorphous silicon layer is removed by the solutions. The effective reflectance of the anti-reflective substrate produced from the method of the present invention can be lower than 1%, and the absorption rate of the anti-reflective substrate is preferably from 70% to 90% in a wavelength range of 300 nm-900 nm.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an anti-reflective substrate and, more particularly, to an anti-reflective substrate with highly rugged surface and the method of manufacturing the same.
2. Description of Related Art
Currently, the energy source of an optoelectronic device is from electrons transferred by photo-electric conversion. The less the light reflective ratio of the device is (more light is absorbed by the surface of the device), the higher the intensity can be obtained. Therefore, the investigation of methods for producing anti-reflective layers of optoelectronic devices with high anti-reflective efficiency is very important.
Among the conventional methods to receive more light, one is to enhance the transmittance of incidental light by forming an anti-reflective membrane on the surface of optoelectronic devices, and another one is to etch the substrate to increase the surface area by etched porous.
There are several methods for etching the surface of the substrate. "Poly silicon dry etching" is to form a poly silicon layer on the silicon wafer first, and etch by high density plasma etching system. However, the system is very rarely used because of high cost, and additional preparation steps of the poly silicon material are required. Therefore, the shortcomings of high cost and complex process limit the use of the method. "Poly silicon wet etching" has the same shortcomings as dry etching described above. Referring to FIG. 1, the results of the substrate surface treated with "poly silicon dry etching" and "poly silicon wet etching" separately are shown. FIG. 1A shows the absorption of the poly silicon substrate surface after dry etching, and FIG. 1B shows that from poly silicon substrate surface after wet etching. Both of the two results only show a better absorption at wavelength of 700 nm. This indicates that the two methods are not able to absorb the light within a broad wavelength range, and this might also be a shortcoming of these conventional methods.
Another method for treating the substrate is "wet etching" the surface of the silicon wafer directly. Nevertheless, the etched surface is not adequately smooth because the etching state is difficult to control.
An electrochemical method is also used to form anti-reflective layers directly on substrates. In the electrochemical method, a bias is applied under the wafer, and a direction is provided whereby the wafer is etched. However, the method incurs the same defects as the wet etching method does, i.e., it is very difficult to control the etching state, and only a nearly smooth surface is eventually obtained.
The conventional methods described above suffer from the difficulty to control the etching state, and thus increase the complexity of the process. Further, the devices produced from the conventional method above can be operated within a narrow range of wavelength, that means the reflective efficiency of the devices is high, and the energy transferring efficiency is low because most light is reflected from the device. Hence, a reflective layer having a high absorption within a broad range of wavelength is beneficial to keep light inside the device. Thus, there is an urgent need for a reflective layer with high absorption, and the method for making the reflective layer to be developed.

Anti-reflective substrate and the manufacturing method thereof


An apparatus and method for determining injury risk from plurality of exercises using a device with a heart rate sensor, a processor, memory including a resident memory, an output device and software. For example the method may: determine and store values of Training load of each exercise in the resident memory obtaining a register, perform a HRV-based Recovery Test and storing Recovery values in the register, calculate indices depicting Short Term Training Load, ratio of Short Term Training Load to Long Term Training Load, and Recovery, calculate weighting factors for each said index, correct each index with corresponding weighting factor to obtain weighted indices, calculate a value of the Injury Risk using the weighted indices, and display the value of Injury Risk.

Sporting activity, especially at professional level, always includes a risk for soft-tissue, overuse injuries due to load on the athlete's body caused by training and competing. The central aspect of improving performance capabilities is to challenge the body's physiological homeostasis and by this way elicit physiological adaptations. The "training load" may be a measure of how much physical work has been performed through activity with respect to the duration of exercise. In other words, the training load may be a measure of how much body's homeostasis has been disturbed by physical activity.
Different intensities and durations of exercise sessions creates a cumulative training load which can be viewed in short-term (acute) but also in longer-term (chronic), the latter expressing a load an athlete is typically accustomed to tolerate.
One of the most important aspects of effective training is to control the training load, i.e. how much homeostasis has been disturbed by training, and how this load on the body is changing over time. In addition to calculation of training load, the disturbance of the body's homeostasis can also be monitored through analysis of recovery from training, for example, through analysis of autonomic nervous system activity via heart rate variability (HRV). Poor recovery is associated with, for example, muscular strain and fatigue, decreased coordination skills, and worsened efficiency and economy of body movements, all increasing the overall risk for overuse injuries. Monitoring training load and recovery is vital to ensure that athletes train at an optimal level towards their goals and avoid overloading. Appropriate load and recovery monitoring aids in determining whether an athlete is adapting to a training program and is minimizing the risk of overtraining, developing illness, and/or injury.
To be able to make decisions on future training and competing a user needs to know how balanced their training has been and at what level their injury risk is. It is important also for coaches to know whether their athletes are able to tolerate the prescribed training and adjust the load if needed. For optimally balanced training, one should try to avoid very quick changes in training load relative to what an athlete has accustomed to. In addition, it is important to ensure the athlete is able to recover from the training load. This requires not only information on each individual exercise, but information on a plurality of exercises to determine the cumulative effect they have had on a user's injury risk.
Heart rate monitoring based injury risk assessment using physiological data from multiple exercises is not currently available. At first sight that kind of application seems to need a lot of resources. Another challenge requiring solving is how to evaluate injury risk from plurality of parameters taken at different time points which are many times changing, i.e. not all the parameters are available at each time point. Embedded systems, such as heart rate monitors, fitness devices, mobile phones, PDA devices, tablet computers, or wrist top computers have quite limited CPU and memory resources to be used by any utility application. Those resources are only a fraction of that of an ordinary PC. This is a challenge for an implementation of any physiological method.
The applicant's own prior patent application EP 3340248 A1 discloses a method for determining a training status for a user. The training status is a current trajectory of the user's training. In the method information is measured from each individual exercise as well as on a plurality of individual exercises to determine the cumulative effect they have had on a user's fitness. However, it is hard for the user to conclude the level of injury risk just based on the training status.
The purpose of the invention is to achieve an automated method and apparatus for assessment of risk of injury which requires very limited amount of hardware resources as well as resources of the user. By resources of the user it is meant that the method requires very little time from the user, just a couple of minutes per day in addition to those exercises that have been done.

Method and an apparatus for determining injury risk of a person based on physiological data


The invention describes the preparation of non-infectious control cells from normal, non-infectious, non-disease altered blood by depletion or augmentation of one or more cell types found in normal blood to reflect a specific disease state. The control cells so produced are preserved and thereafter reconstituted for use in immunological assays.

Control cells are essential for the accuracy and precision of clinical and immunological assays. They are needed to insure the reliability and accuracy of test equipment and methods and to insure reproducibility through time and from laboratory to laboratory. State and federal regulations which govern such assays often require the use of multi-level controls in order to demonstrate that equipment is performing properly over a range of values. In immunological assays, fresh normal cells have been the standard control cells for such equipment testing. In order to avoid the cost and expense of obtaining and maintaining fresh cells, various methods of preserving fresh cells have been evaluated. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,059,518 (the '518 patent) describes the use of lyophilized normal mammalian cells for use as control cells.
Abnormal blood cell samples have also been used as controls to confirm the presence of a disease or determine its stage, but their use has been restricted to fresh or fresh-frozen samples drawn from diseased patients. The supply of such samples is thus inherently restricted. Furthermore, since many of such blood samples are associated with infectious diseases, they are not amenable, for health and social as well as sometimes technical reasons, to large scale production and distribution, and they require special handling procedures. This invention describes an alternative to the use of such abnormal control cells through the use of normal control cell samples which have been modified to reflect the population or count of one or more specific cell types as present in the blood of a person evidencing a specific disease.

Preserved, non-infectious control cell for use in the identification of a disease through blood testing


A structure and method for producing color filters with a protective highly cross-linked and densified polymer layer is described. In one embodiment, each filter is coated with a highly cross-linked and densified polymer layer to prevent bleeding of material between closely spaced filters during the fabrication process. In a second embodiment, the highly cross-linked and densified polymer layer is used to protect an array of filters from physical damage during detaping operations. In a third embodiment, the highly cross-linked and densified polymer layer is used before fabrication later filters in a color filter array to prevent damage to previous filter layers.

(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the fabrication of color light detectors. More particularly, the present invention relates to the formation of protective coatings on filters used in color light detectors.
(2) Description of Related Art
Color light detectors are becoming increasingly important in digital imaging applications. Digital imaging systems often use arrays of photo-detectors to generate an image of a subject. In order to generate a color digital image, color filters are fabricated over light sensors such as photo-detectors. Each filter allows only a predetermined color of light (light in a particular frequency range) to reach a corresponding photo-detector thus determining what color light will be sensed by the photo-detector.
Each color pixel in a digital image is typically generated by combining the output of a set of photo-detectors. In one implementation, the output of three photo-detectors in a set are combined to generate one color pixel. Each photo-detector in a set is located in close proximity to the other two photo-detectors in the set. Each photo-detector of the set receives light filtered by a different colored color filter. In one example of a set, a blue color filter filters light reaching a first photo-detector, a red color filter filters light reaching a second photo-detector and a green color filter filters light reaching a third photo-detector. By determining the intensity of light passing through each color filter, the intensity of light of a particular color or wavelength can be determined. An electronic processor interpolates the data from the three photo-detectors and combines them to determine the color of light received by the photo-detectors in the general region of the pixel. This information is processed electronically and combined with other sets of photo-detectors to generate a digital color image.
Photo-detectors and color filters are typically formed in a complimentary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) fabrication process. A number of effects occur during the fabrication process that reduce the filtering capability or damage the color filters. In particular, three problems faced by the fabrication process are described in the following three paragraphs.
A first problem is color bleeding of compounds from adjacent color filters. Color filter arrays which are placed over the photo-detectors or imaging sensors are often generated by depositing pigment dispersed polymer films. The type of pigment determines the filtering capability of the filter. In a typical color detection system, adjacent filters have different pigments. The performance of the system is optimized when each photo sensor is covered with a single color filter, whether it be red, blue or green. The filter blocks other colors from passing through to the photo-sensor. Ideally, it is desirable to fabricate filters which transmit all of the light of a particular color and completely block other colors of light. Thus, for example, red pigments that determine the color of light that passes through a red filter are preferably completely confined to the red filter. In practice, the close contact between different color filters (red, blue, green) results in a slight intermixing of pigments ("bleed") during the fabrication process. The bleed results in a broadening of each individual filter response reducing the color delineation capabilities of each filter. This bleed degrades the overall performance of the system.
A second problem with current fabrication techniques is that during a grinding and gold deposition process (grind/gold process), color filters are often damaged. After the final deposition of CFA (color filter array) layer materials, wafers or substrates containing the color filters are transferred to a grind/gold process where a protective front side tape is applied to the wafer while the backside of the wafer is thinned and coated with gold. After completion of the grind/gold process, the tape is removed in a detaping operation. The filters are vulnerable to physical damage during the detaping operation. Damage to the color filters jeopardizes the functionality of the fabricated filter and photo-sensor combinations.
A third problem with current methods of fabricating filters results from repeating processing steps on the entire filter set each time a filter of a different color is added. After generation of a first color filter, each subsequent different color filter is produced by a subsequent deposition of a different pigmented polymer film in a subsequent layer. Thus a three color set (red, green and blue) of color filters involves three depositions of pigmented polymer films. Because each layer of pigmented polymer films is composed of similar materials, a misprocessing in the working or processing of a layer may damage previously created layers and require reworking of previously deposited layers.
Thus a method or apparatus of avoiding the above described problems is needed.

Using DUV curing to form a protective coating for color filters


A CT imaging system includes a multi-position x-ray filter having a filter element configured to spectrally filter a beam of x-rays and a magnet structure configured to selectively generate a magnetic field to cause the filter element to move between filter and non-filter positions. A CT imaging system computer causes an x-ray source to emit x-rays at each of a first kVp and a second kVp and control the multi-position x-ray filter to position the filter element in the non-filter position during emission of the x-rays at the first kVp and in the filter position during emission of the x-rays at the second kVp. The computer causes current to be provided to the magnet structure so as to generate a magnetic field configured to move the filter element to the filter and non-filter positions at high frequency, into and out of a path of the beam of x-rays.

The present invention relates generally to diagnostic imaging and, more particularly, to a system and method for dynamic spectral filtration for providing an increased separation of mean energies between low and high kVp image acquisitions.
Medical imaging devices comprise x-ray systems, magnetic resonance (MR) systems, ultrasound systems, computed tomography (CT) systems, positron emission tomography (PET) systems, ultrasound, nuclear medicine, and other types of imaging systems. Typically, in CT imaging systems, an x-ray source emits a fan-shaped beam toward a subject or object, such as a patient or a piece of luggage. Hereinafter, the terms "subject" and "object" shall include anything capable of being imaged. The beam, after being attenuated by the subject, impinges upon an array of radiation detectors. The intensity of the attenuated beam radiation received at the detector array is typically dependent upon the attenuation of the x-ray beam by the subject. Each detector element of the detector array produces a separate electrical signal indicative of the attenuated beam received by each detector element. The electrical signals are transmitted to a data processing system for analysis which ultimately produces an image.
Generally, the x-ray source and the detector array are rotated about the gantry opening within an imaging plane and around the subject. X-ray sources typically include x-ray tubes, which emit the x-ray beam at a focal point. X-ray detectors typically include a collimator for collimating x-ray beams received at the detector, a scintillator for converting x-rays to light energy adjacent the collimator, and photodiodes for receiving the light energy from the adjacent scintillator and producing electrical signals therefrom.
Typically, each scintillator of a scintillator array converts x-rays to light energy. Each scintillator discharges light energy to a photodiode adjacent thereto. Each photodiode detects the light energy and generates a corresponding electrical signal. The outputs of the photodiodes are then transmitted to the data processing system for image reconstruction. Such typical systems, however, do not include an ability to discriminate spectral energy content of x-rays as they pass through an object being imaged.
However, as known in the art, dual or multi-energy spectral CT systems have been developed that can reveal the densities of different materials in an object and generate images acquired at multiple monochromatic x-ray energy levels. In the absence of object scatter, a system derives the behavior at a different energy based on a signal from two regions of photon energy in the spectrum: the low-energy and the high-energy portions of the incident x-ray spectrum. In a given energy region of medical CT, two physical processes dominate the x-ray attenuation: (1) Compton scatter and the (2) photoelectric effect. The detected signals from two energy regions provide sufficient information to resolve the energy dependence of the material being imaged and the relative composition of an object composed of two hypothetical materials.
Different approaches have been developed to realize dual energy or spectral imaging. To name a few, dual x-ray source and detector, a single x-ray source with an energy discriminative detector, and a single x-ray source and detector with multiple acquisitions at different kVp or interleaved with fast kVp switching capability are examples of techniques.
In a dual x-ray source and detector system, typically two x-ray sources are provided, each having a respective detector positioned opposite thereto such that x-rays may be emitted from each source having a different spectral energy content. Thus, based on the known energy difference of the sources, a scintillating or energy integrating device may suffice to distinguish energy content and different materials within the object being imaged.
In a single x-ray source with an energy discriminative detector, energy sensitive detectors may be used such that each x-ray photon reaching the detector is recorded with its photon energy. Such systems may use a direct conversion detector material in lieu of a scintillator.
In a single x-ray source and detector arrangement, a conventional third generation CT system may acquire projections sequentially at different peak kilovoltage (kVp) levels, which changes the peak and spectrum of energy of the incident photons comprising the emitted x-ray beams. Two scans are acquired—either (1) back-to-back sequentially in time where the scans require two rotations around the subject (i.e., rotate-rotate), or (2) interleaved as a function of the rotation angle requiring one rotation around the subject, in which the tube operates at, for instance, 80 kVp and 140 kVp potentials.
When dual energy data is acquired in a rotate-rotate fashion, data is collected at a high kV setting over 180 degrees plus ½ the fan angle of the x-ray beam, so as to cover typically about 210 degrees. A short time is then taken to change the kV setting, with around 100 degrees of gantry rotation occurring during this changing (depending on the gantry rotation speed). The second kV dataset is then collected over 180 degrees plus ½ fan angle, so as to again cover typically about 210 degrees. Dual energy data is thus collected in rotate-rotate in less than two full rotations.
When dual energy data is acquired in an interleaved fashion, an input voltage to the x-ray source is switched quickly between the low and high kVp potentials so that a full dataset is collected in 1 rotation, which allows a close correlation between imaging data sets. The high and low kV datasets are thus being continuously collected in a rapid alternating fashion around the patient, with each rotation being divided into approximately 1000 views, so about 350 degrees/1000 views ˜0.35 deg/view for each energy level, for example. While acquisition in such an interleaved fashion advantageously provides close temporal registration between the 2 kV datasets so as to minimize artifacts due to patient motion, a drawback to the interleaved acquisition is that, because the switching occurs very rapidly on a single x-ray source, there is little opportunity to change the filtration between the two samples. As a result, there is a spectral (energy) overlap between the two samples that inherently limits the amount of energy separation between them. As known in the art, it is desirable to increase energy separation between low and high kVp operation in order to increase the energy separation of the high and low kV spectrums so as to yield higher dual energy contrast (i.e., increase the contrast between the two materials being evaluated—the "dual energy (DE) ratio"). However, it is not feasible to simply decrease the low kVp or increase the high kVp in order to increase energy separation therebetween. Lowering the low kVp may have limited signal-to-noise and cause other limitations in image reconstruction, with most x-rays get absorbed at lower kV settings (i.e., higher absorbed dose) so as to not make it to the detector. Increasing the high kVp may cause system instability and spit activity and may cause other limitations in system operation, with higher kV also yielding less contrast since fewer x-rays interact with object being imaged.
Therefore, it would be desirable to have a system and method of increasing energy separation in dual energy CT.

Apparatus and method for dynamic spectral filtration


There is disclosed a silver halide photographic material which can satisfy the specific properties required for dot to dot work photographic materials and can be handled under an environment of a bright room. The silver halide photographic material comprises a support, having provided thereon at least one light-sensitive silver halide emulsion layer and having provided farther from the support than the emulsion layer a light-insensitive hydrophilic colloid layer. The light-insensitive hydrophilic colloid layer contains at least a solid dye which is dispersed in the form of fine particles and further may contain a water soluble dye. The silver halide grains contained in the light-sensitive emulsion layer have an average grain size of 0.15 .mu.m or less and contain therein at least 1.times.10.sup.-7 mole per mole of a silver of transition metal selected from the elements of groups V to VIII of the Periodic Table.

In the printing and copying fields, improvement in the working capacity of photographic plate making steps is required. Particularly in the page make-up and dot to dot work stages, an improvement in working capacity has been attempted by an operation under a brighter environment. For this purpose there have been promoted development of a silver halide photographic material for a plate making, which can be handled under an environment which could be called a bright room, and development of an exposure printer.
A silver halide photographic material for a bright room used in the present invention means a photographic material in which a light having a wavelength of 400 nm or more and containing no ultraviolet component can be used as a safelight.
For the purpose of increasing safety against the above safelight, dyes which are capable of absorbing a visible ray have been incorporated into a hydrophilic colloid layer existing farther from a support than the light-sensitive silver halide emulsion layer. When these dyes act as a filter layer, it is necessary that the layer in question is selectively colored and that the other layers are substantially not colored. If the emulsion layers are substantially colored as well, not only disadvantageous photographic effects are given to the emulsion layers but also the effect of the filter layer is reduced. In particular, there are problems such as deterioration of the spreading and chalking properties, which is specific to the dot to dot work field, reduction in tone versatility and reduction of an outline type property.
There has been hitherto known as a solution to these problems, a method of localizing a so-called acidic dye having a sulfo group and a carboxyl group in a specific layer with a mordant. Such mordants include the polymers of ethylenically unsaturated compounds having a dialkylaminoalkyl ester residue, described in British Patent 685,475; the reaction products of poly-vinylalkyl ketone and aminoguanidine described in British Patent 850,281; and vinylpyridine polymers and vinylpyridinium cationic polymers described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,548,564, 2,484,430, 3,148,061, and 3,756,814. In these patents, the cationic mordants having a secondary or tertiary amino group, a nitrogen-containing heterocyclic group and a quaternary cationic group thereof in the polymers are used so that the above acidic dyes can be efficiently mordanted.
In these mordands, it is often observed that the above acidic dyes diffuse to the other layers. In order to prevent the diffusion, one might consider using a lot of the mordants. However, not only can the diffusion not be completely prevented, but also the thickness of the layers into which the mordants are to be incorporated is increased, which in turn has resulted in generating new problems.
Further, in a light-sensitive material for printing plate-making, the procedure of cutting reduction, in which a reducer is used, is usually carried out. A water soluble iron complex is contained as a reduction cutting agent in the reducer, and the use of the above cationic mordants generates the disadvantage that they electrostatistically combine with this iron complex to yield yellow stain by the iron complex.
Further, the other known means for fixing the dyes in a specific layer of a photographic material is to add the dyes as a dispersed solid as disclosed in JP-A-56-12639 (the term "JP-A" as used herein means an unexamined published Japanese patent application), JP-A-55-155350, JP-A-55-155351, JP-A-52-92716, JP-A-59-193447, JP-A-61-198148, JP-A-63-197943, JP-A-63-27838, and JP-A-64-40827, European Patent 0015601B1 and European Patent 0276566A1, and International Patent WO 88/04794. However, it is not known how to combine silver halide ultra fine grain therewith to increase Dm and satisfy the properties which are specific to the dot to dot work field. Also, it has been impossible to completely attain the tone reproducibility required for a dot to dot work light-sensitive material.


A series of small molecule, radioprotective agents based on a compound of the general formula (I):

There are generally two types of total-body irradiation (TBI). One type of TBI is used in conjunction with bone marrow transplantation as a medical treatment for cancer patients. In such cases, TBI is often used together with high dose chemotherapy to kill leukemia, lymphoma, and/or myeloma cells in bone marrow. In this type of medical procedure, TBI treatment can involve 1 or 2 treatments per day for up to several days. In this case, TBI is done in a controlled manner for the benefit of cancer patients.
Another type of TBI occurs when people are exposed to radiation during a nuclear attack or when a dirty bomb is used by terrorists or accidental exposure. In such cases, people affected by the TBI are likely to suffer certain injuries and may die. Using physical barriers to block the radiation is one countermeasure. However, many times, it is not practical or possible to use a physical barrier. Therefore, it is very important to use chemical agents to reduce the negative effects that radiation has on normal tissues/organs and/or to increase the chance of survival.
In addition to TBI, localized radiation can be applied to living organisms.
Generally, localized radiation exposure is used for medical purposes. More specifically, when localized radiation is applied to certain parts of a patient's body, it is usually for cancer treatment. Nevertheless, in treating cancer patients, localized irradiation, may also induce adverse side effects to nearby or adjacent healthy living tissues/organs.
Currently, there are only a few pharmaceutical agents that have been approved to reduce radiation-induced side effects.
As of Mar. 29, 2018, there were three medical countermeasure (MCM) products that were FDA-approved to increase survival in patients exposed to myelosuppressive doses of radiation. These three products, that may be used to treat adult and pediatric patients acutely exposed to myelosuppressive doses of radiation, a condition known as hematopoietic symptoms of acute radiation syndrome (H-ARS), are listed below:                Neupogen (filgrastim)—approved March 2015        Neulasta (pegfilgrastim)—approved November 2015        Leukine (sargramostim)—approved Mar. 29, 2018
All three of these approved products are biologics (i.e., large-molecule protein drugs). Biologics have advantages but also disadvantages as compared to small-molecule drugs. In general, some of the advantages of small molecules as compared to biologics, include their stability, easy to synthesize, cost to produce, ease to administer, etc. As discussed below, the present invention is directed to small-molecule radioprotectors.
In the field of small molecules, radioprotective agents can be categorized into two main classes that are briefly described below:
A. Thio Compounds
Amifostine
Amifostine is a well-known broad-spectrum radioprotector that has been used to reduce the adverse side effects induced by DNA-damaging radiotherapy and DNA-binding chemotherapeutic agents including platinum drugs (e.g. cisplatin) for a number of years. Unfortunately, amifostine has several shortcomings. Treatment with amifostine can result in nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and transit hypotension (Mabro et al., A Risk-Benefit Assessment of Amifostine in Cytoprotection, Drug Saf., 21, (5), 367-87 (1999)). While the use of amifostine is becoming more widespread, an increased number of cutaneous reactions have also been reported (Demiral et al., Amifostine-Induced Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis During Radiotherapy: A Case Report., Jpn. J. Clin. Oncol., 32, (11), 477-9 (2002)).

Based upon these studies, amifostine does not appear to be an ideal radioprotector.
WR-3689
WR-3689 or S-2-(3-methylaminopropylamino)ethylphosphorothioic acid (FIG. 1), was reported to be effective in radioprotection. WR-3689 showed protection against gamma-ray-induced intestinal damage (Murray, D., et al., Protection by WR-3689 against Gamma-Ray-Induced Intestinal Damage: Comparative Effect on Clonogenic Cell Survival, Mouse Survival, and DNA Damage. Radiat Res, 1989. 120(2): p. 339-51).
Cystamine
Cystaminum (cystamine) was approved in Russia as a radioprotector. Cystaminum is injected 10-30 min before radiotherapy and the protective effect lasts about 5 hours.
Other Thio Compounds
In addition, a number of pyridine and pyrimidine compounds containing sulfur side-groups have been investigated as potential radioprotectors. For example, 2-pyridinemethanethiol has been studied as a potential radioprotector, but needs further study (Barnes et al., N-Heterocyclic Compounds as Radioprotectors 1,2-Pyridinemethanethiol, 2-Pyrazinemethanethiol and Related Compounds, European Journal of Medicinal Chemistry—Chimica Therapeutica, 18(6), 515-519, 1983).

Recilisib is a newer thiol compound (marketed as Ex-Rads by Onconova Therapeutics). In cell and animal models, Ex-RAD has been shown to protect hematopoietic and gastrointestinal tissues from radiation injury when given either before or after exposure (Ann M Thayer, The Drug that may Never be Used, C&EN, 90, 26, 23-26.
https://cen.acs.org/articles/90/i26/Drugs-Never-Used.html (Jun. 25, 2012)).
B. Nitroxides
Nitroxides may be the second most promising group of compounds for use as potential small-molecule radioprotectors, some of which are in clinical development. Currently, the most advanced nitroxide radioprotector under development is tempol (4-hydroxy-2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine-1-oxyl) (Hahn et al., Tempol, a Stable Free Radical, is a Novel Murine Radiation Protector, Cancer Res. 1; 52(7):1750-30 Apr. 1992).

Overall, the most notable broad-spectrum radioprotector is amifostine. Amifostine can be used as a radioprotector, which is administered before radiation exposure. As mentioned above, treatment with amifostine can result in nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and transit hypotension. In addition, amifostine needs to be administered by infusion, which can be inconvenient for many patients.
Other than the broad-spectrum radioprotectors, there are several small-molecule radioprotectors that provide protection against specific side effects induced by radiation or radiotherapy. One such example is potassium iodide, KI. KI can provide important protection for the thyroid gland from radiation. However, KI doesn't have any effect in protecting other organs from radiation. In addition, KI can cause several adverse effects, including skin rashes, swelling of the salivary glands, and allergic reactions.
In general, broad-spectrum radioprotectors are more useful than narrow-spectrum radioprotectors because they protect more organs/tissues and increase survival rates for those being treated. However, broad-spectrum radioprotectors that are effective against radiation or radiotherapy are scarce. Therefore, there is an imminent need to discover and/or develop such radioprotectors.
UTL-5g described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,727,272, has been shown to protect liver, kidney, platelets, and/or lung from localized radiation and chemotherapeutic agents (Shaw et al, The Small-Molecule TNF-α Modulator, UTL-5g, Reduces Side Effects Induced by Cisplatin and Enhances the Therapeutic Effect of Cisplatin In Vivo, Journal of Experimental Therapeutics and Oncology, Vol. 9, pp. 129-137; Shaw et al., Pretreatment with A Small-Molecule Tumor Necrosis Factor-Alpha (TNF-α) Inhibitor, UTL-5g, Reduced Radiation-Induced Acute Liver Toxicity in Mice, Am. J. Biomed. Sci. 4(2), 123-131 (2012); and Brown et al., UTL-5g Lowers Levels of TGF-β and TNF-α Elevated by Lung Irradiation and Does Not Affect Tumor-response to Irradiation, Am. J. Biomed. Sci., 6(3), 157-165 (2014)).
UTL-5g was also found to increase the survival rates of mice treated with chemotherapeutic agents or lipopolysaccharide (LPS) (Shaw et al., The Small-Molecule TNF-α Inhibitor, UTL-5g, Delays Deaths and Increases Survival Rates for Mice Treated with High Doses of Cisplatin, Cancer Chemother Pharmacol, 72:703-707 (2013); and Zhang et al., UTL-5g Lowers Elevated Blood Levels of TNF-α and TGF-β and Increases Survival Rates in Animals Treated with LPS/D-(+)-Galactosamine, Am. J. Biomed. Sci. 6(2), 128-138 (2014)).
Further, the active metabolite of UTL-5g was identified and has been shown to be anti-inflammatory and anti-arthritic (Zhang et al., UTL-5g Lowers Elevated Blood Levels of TNF-α and TGF-β and Increases Survival Rates in Animals Treated with LPS/D-(+)-Galactosamine, Am. J. Biomed. Sci. 6(2), 128-138 (2014); Song et al., Comparison of Two Molecular Scaffolds, 5-Methylisoxazole-3-Carboxamide and 5-Methylisoxazole-4-Carboxamide, Current Pharmaceutical Design, 2014, 20, 146-152; and Shaw et al., A Liquid Chromatography with Tandem Mass Spectrometry Method for Simultaneous Determination of UTL-5g and its Metabolites in Human Plasma, Journal of Chromatography B, 991 (2015) 92-98).
Recently, the present inventor has conducted further research in the area of radioprotection and have more discoveries, including the series of new chemical entities and methods of reducing adverse effects induced by radiation or chemicals which are the subject matter of the present invention.
Compared with all known small-molecule medical countermeasures, the series of small-molecule radioprotectors disclosed in the present invention have molecular structures significantly different from all presently known radioprotectors. Thus, the new compounds disclosed herein by the inventor and the use of these compounds as medical countermeasures provide a significant advance in the field of radioprotectors.

Small molecules and methods of reducing injuries caused by radiation or chemicals

Abstract: or pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof, wherein n is 1 or 2, and, independently, R is Br, Cl, H—O, H3C—S,

Abstract: and use of the compounds to protect healthy tissue/organs of subjects to reduce the injuries caused by radiation or chemicals.


A sheet metal drill bit for drilling burrless round holes in thin products. The drill bit is formed by a solid drill body having a drill head and a connecting shaft. The drill head has two diagonally opposed outer cutting edges in a front face thereof each defining a flute geometry. A stabilizing central drill bit extends from the front face and beyond the outer cutting edge. The cutting edge has an elevated leading edge portion and a downward sloping trailing portion. A concave well is defined between the outer cutting edge and the central drill bit. The trailing portion tapers to at least the front face from which the central drill bit extends and to an angulated web portion. The concave well retains undrilled product pieces about the central drill bit whereas the web portion permits evacuation of loose drilled material.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a sheet metal drill bit for drilling burrless round holes in thin products, such as metal sheets, plastics, etc., and wherein the drill bit has a drill head comprised of an outer cutting edge and a stabilizing central drill bit extending centrally from the front face of the head, and wherein a concave well is defined between the outer cutting edge and the central drill bit.
2. Description of Prior Art
When drilling round holes through a thin layer of material, such as sheet metal or other type sheet material, it is common practice today to utilize hole saws. The drawback of such saws is that they can only drill holes to a minimum of about 3/4 inch diameter. When it is necessary to drill smaller holes this may be achieved by specially designed hole saws which are both expensive and unserviceable. An alternative method is to use a conventional fluted drill bit, but these bits wabble and make holes that are distorted and often with very sharp burrs on the side edge of the wall and on both sides of the sheet. It is also known to provide hole cutting saws with a centrally mounted drill with its cutting end extending beyond the plane of the circular series of cutting teeth of an annular tool to guide the annual tool in a more precise manner. Such a cutting saw is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,926,555.


A device comprising a tower covered by a shell, the tower having a base with a first axis of movement around a first joint, a first arm connected to the tower via a second joint along a second axis of movement, a second arm connected to the first arm at a proximal end of the second arm via a third joint defining a third axis of movement, the second arm having an end effector interface configured to hold a variety of end effectors usable for different applications, the end effectors being exchangeable allowing the device to perform digital fabrication and desktop manufacturing, an autolevelling function configured to sense a height of a work surface, and a training function allowing a user to teach either arm to perform or repeat specific actions and/or collaborate with the other arm to achieve a common assembly or fabrication task.

Digital fabrication is a broad term encompassing many technologies that are used to fabricate physical objects from data, which is usually in the form of computer aided design (CAD) models. This may include traditional rapid prototyping methods such as subtractive manufacturing, of which computer numerical control (CNC) milling is most common and additive methods whereby an object is produced by slicing it into layers and building up each layer at a time. Fused deposition modeling (FDM), Stereolithography Apparatus (SLA) and Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) 3D printing are some examples of additive techniques. Industrial robotic arms have been used for rapid prototyping and sculptured surface cutting, and subtractive manufacturing has been done by 5 axis robotic arms for shaping 3D foam objects with a hot tip. Additive manufacturing techniques have also been successfully implemented with robotic arms, where, for example, a multiple degrees of freedom (DOF) robotic arm has been used for multi-material and multi-functional fabrication processes including 3D printing and CNC milling. This is achieved by using different specialized end effectors for each process. Additive techniques such as direct metal deposition as well as traditional FDM based 3D printing have also been done. There is still a need for devices for digital fabrication that are easy to operate and move to various work surfaces.

Desktop robotic arm with interchangeable end effectors


A degenerate four-wave mixing arrangement employs a photorefractive crystal as a real time holographic recording medium to record a hologram of the noisy optical signal. The signal passes through the crystal and is phase conjugated by a self pumped barium titanate phase conjugator, and the resulting phase conjugate beam reads out the hologram and multiplicative noise is substantially reduced in the optical output signal.

The present invention relates to the field of optical signal processing.
A number of techniques have been described in the literature that compensate for the effect of multiplicative noise in images. A majority of these techniques are based on reducing temporal coherence or on signal averaging (for example, using moving apertures or rotating diffusers). The drawbacks of these techniques are that reduction of temporal coherence restricts the applicability of coherent optical processors, and that averaging methods are not typically real-time. In addition, digital processing of speckle images may be achieved after electronic detection by averaging, or by applying homomorphic filtering. In this latter technique, the scalar-multiplicative noise (occurring on electronic detection) is logarithmically transformed into an additive noise which can then be reduced by Wiener filtering. One technique for converting multiplicative speckle noise to additive noise entails recording the speckled image in an logarithmic intensity detector, which automatically removes the phase information and provides a logarithmic transform. The fundamental step in all of these image processing techniques is some form of nonlinear intensity conversion at the image plane.
A technique utilized in the present invention is based on optical quadratic processing of the input signal, which immediately results in the output of the square of the magnitude of a complex amplitude input. In the degenerate four wave mixing implementation, this output appears as a scalar amplitude modulation of the phase conjugate of the reference wavefront.

Quadratic optical processor for reducing multiplicative noise and other uses

The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Air Force


The present invention relates to a system and method for automated performance testing in a dynamic production environment. More particularly the present invention relates to an automated system that enables the determination of whether a software application can meet the scalability and performance requirements in a real time use environment, wherein the performance requirement test comprises test for workload, reliability and resource usage. The system of the present invention provides an automated system for performing testing method that can convert a static environment i.e. fixed workload, one application state and one hardware representation into a dynamic one and predict accurate performance results for said constantly changing application. The system enables less effort, time and consequently money, and meets the performance scalability and requirements in real-time.

Performance testing is a process used to ascertain if the software application can meet performance criteria namely, work-load, reliability, resource-usage, scalability and other requirements in a dynamic or real time use environment. Performance testing is a very important phase in software application development lifecycle, it can determine whether the software application qualifies the performance criteria and it can also determine the better application amongst two or more software applications available for a given purpose on the basis of the above mentioned performance criteria.
For many years, the conventional performance testing tools or system are comprised of load injectors, a system resource utilization measurement system and application monitoring tools or utilities.
Over the years, with the progress in technology, more advanced ways of performance testing techniques are developed that involve the distribution of user load across multiple systems, use of network bandwidth simulators supported by the load injection tool and does statistical profiling of application tier wherein, the resultant performance test result of such methods primarily consists of a function of: (1) Workload—{Arrival, Activity and Departure Rates}; (2) Application State—{Data volumes, Impact of one component on another}; and (3) Resource Utilization—{Capacity of the underlying hardware}.
Such typical or advanced performance testing methodology is at best a bottleneck detection exercise, and a due diligence activity to anticipate which tiers needed more attention when launched into dynamic production environment.
It is further observed that in a performance test environment most of the performing test exercises are statically represented (Fixed workload, one application state and one hardware environment), whereas in real-life (after launch of the software and into Production) all of the above functions are in constant state of flux.
In Production stage, it is observed that due to factors like shared hosting, unanticipated application access patterns, growth in data volumes and integration with other applications have impact on performance.
Hence there is an urgent need for a solution that overcomes some of the existing lacunae in performance testing domain that are accounting, distinguishing and addressing the differences in static test environment and dynamic production environment; ensuring productivity while working from different locations; increased size of database in production environment as compared to test environment; scalability testing challenges with increased hardware and software costs; on time correct documentation of test results and predict the accurate results over a constantly changing application; integrating the performance testing system with the software development life cycle of legacy systems to leverage previous investments in terms of software and knowledge assets; performing extrapolation and validating results and the distribution of think times of load testing or enterprise performance testing challenges; and executing the right scripts with pre-determined think times, scientifically computing run duration and validating the data provided by the load generators.
Some of the inventions which deal with providing a solution to performance testing are listed below. None of them address the lacunae stated above.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,577,875 discloses a system and method that generates a list of parts of a tested software program that are responsible for significant performance regressions in the tested software that may be ranked by significance. Further the system analyzes sampled profile data, which provides information about processor activity during a test. An amount of processor resources used to execute the various functions, modules, and processes of tested software can be determined.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,493,272 discloses a method of performance testing for software applications, wherein the electronic document is a web-page presented as part of a web-based shopping system.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,457,723 discloses a method for providing performance testing, the method comprising: performing N number of iterations of a test; determining that results of the test are valid if the test reached a defined test criteria after performing the N number of iterations; deeming the test as passing if the test results compare favorably to a goal value; and deeming the test as failing if the test results compare unfavorably to the goal value.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,415,635 discloses a method of testing a software application comprising: executing a test script that identifies the software application to be tested and a plurality of measurements.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,799,147 discloses a method for testing and monitoring applications, by providing at least one integrated interface capable of controlling at least two monitoring programs which each send functional test signals to respective applications and receive results functionally responsive to the test signals; wherein at least one of the monitoring programs sends test signals using HTTP-compliant communications; and wherein a second or the monitoring programs sends test signals using TCP/IP-compliant communications.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,735,719 discloses a method for performing a load test on a application software in which dynamic data are required to be correlated, said method comprising: recording a test script; identifying a location at which dynamic data are first generated within said recorded test script from a recording log; inserting proper data correlation statements into said recorded test script; substituting inserted data parameters throughout said recorded test scripts; verifying that all of said dynamic data have been captured and replaced; and performing a load test on a software application utilizing said recorded test script.
In order to address the need of such a solution, the present invention provides a resource efficient system having a scalable and pluggable framework and method for automated, cost effective performance testing in order to meet the performance and scalability requirements, bridge gap between dynamic production environment and static test environment, maximize coverage of performance testing engagement, provide insight on not just current but also latent performance defects which manifests as the system evolves and provides end-to-end visibility of performance metrics to help improve productivity by compressing test-tune iterations.

System and method for automated performance testing in a dynamic production environment


An inker mechanism has an inking roller rotatably mounted on a frame. The inking roller has a degree of freedom allowing the roller to shift axially. A bearing assembly is coaxially connected to the roller for axially shifting the roller. This bearing assembly has an outer shell with a universal joint. The inker mechanism also has a cam and a pivotally mounted lever connected between this cam and the universal joint. This cam can articulate the lever to oscillate the roller axially.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to inker mechanisms having inking rollers for delivering ink to a printing process, and in particular, to rollers that are axially oscillated to evenly distribute ink.
2. Description of Related Art
In a known press, such as a dry offset press, a plate wrapped around a plate cylinder is embossed with the image of a color separation. The plate can deposit an ink pattern on the surface of a blanket cylinder. The blanket cylinder can imprint the ink on paper, a beverage can, or other articles. Several such plate cylinders may be arranged around the circumference of the blanket cylinder to achieve multiple color printing.
Known mechanisms for delivering ink to the blanket cylinder have employed a series of steel inking rollers. Ink is passed between these rollers by intervening, resilient, transfer rollers. The first steel roller is a fountain roller that is partially immersed in an ink reservoir. Downstream from the last steel roller, transfer rollers can convey ink directly to the plate cylinder that inks the blanket cylinder.
An important consideration in ink delivery is keeping the ink evenly distributed. Even if the mechanism for delivering ink is highly precise, uneven distribution occurs whereby relatively dry regions propagate upstream due to the depletion of ink from the downstream inking rollers in accordance with the image being printed. Without taking further steps, the repetitive removal of ink at the same angular position will tend to keep the inking rollers dry precisely at the positions where ink is needed.
To deal with this problem, known inking rollers have been mounted in frames to allow them to shift axially. This shifting prevents the ink depletion from occurring at the same position on each revolution of the inking rollers, thereby enhancing even ink distribution.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,060,568, one end of a lever follows a track formed in a rotary cam. The other end of the lever has a wheel that rides between a pair of discs mounted on the shaft of an axially shiftable inking roller. This wheel however, tends to spin at about the same rate as the inking roller, typically one to two thousand RPM. Wear is a problem and the bearing for the wheel that shifts the inking roller needs frequent replacement.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,103,726 shows another inking roller that is axially oscillated by a lever. The lever acts through a pivoting bearing to axially oscillate a gear driven bushing. The bushing connects through a universal joint to the shaft of an inking roller. This universal allows for lifting of the inking roller off the plate cylinder. This structure however, does not avoid wear at the connection between the lever and the inking roller. The universal joint and the pivoting bearing spin at the same speed as the inking roller. See also U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,040,347; 4,513,663; 4,658,724; and 4,838,163.
Accordingly, there is a need for an inker mechanism that has an improved link to the oscillating inking roller.


A method and an apparatus for multiplexing an antenna element, and an antenna component can reduce power loss caused by multiplexing of the antenna element. The apparatus includes an antenna element, a filter, and a DUP. The antenna element is connected to the filter and the DUP separately, and a suppression band of the filter includes a bandpass band of the DUP. The filter is configured to filter the signals sent by the antenna element and the DUP and/or the signals to be sent to the antenna element and the DUP to make signals of a first band pass through. The DUP is configured to filter the signals sent by the antenna element and the filter and/or the signals to be sent to the antenna element and the filter to make signals of a second band pass through.

With the development of wireless communications, an Active Antenna System (AAS, Active Antenna System) is applied to communication systems increasingly. The AAS is mainly characterized in that an antenna element is directly connected to a transceiver so that each element is used by only one transceiver. A Radio Frequency (RF) front end of n paths of AASs includes Ant element (an antenna element, also called an antenna oscillator) which is connected to a duplexer (DUP, DUPlexer). The DUP is connected to a receiving channel and a power amplifier separately. Generally, an antenna includes multiple paths of antenna elements so as to achieve a transmitting or receiving gain of a signal.
In the process of researching the present invention, the inventors find that great power loss is caused when an AAS and a passive antenna multiplex an antenna element by adopting a conventional combining technology (namely, in a direct combining manner).

Method and apparatus for multiplexing an antenna element, and antenna component


A system and method for secure input using tokens is provided. A computer-implemented method conducted at a server computer includes receiving a transaction confirmation request associated with a transaction. The method includes providing, to an end-user via an online platform, a plurality of user input options associated with the transaction. The method includes receiving, from the end-user via the online platform, a unique token associated with a selected user input option, the unique token having been obtained by the end-user inputting a selection of a user input option into an end-user token generator which is configured to generate the unique token uniquely specifying the selected user input option. The method includes validating the unique token and identifying the selected user input option with which the unique token is associated.

Banking transactions such as making a payment in favour of a beneficiary, creating a beneficiary profile, configuring daily payment limits and the like are increasingly being conducted online. Due to the sensitive nature of these transactions, financial institutions providing online platforms enabling such functionality need to implement sophisticated security systems to protect themselves and their clients ("end-user") from the nefarious activity of cyber-criminals. There have been numerous efforts to improve the security of these transactions. One example is the provision of offline token generating devices for generating one-time PINs (OTPs) to implement so-called multi-factor authentication, where the token generating device represents something the end-user has and a username-password combination represents something the end-user knows. These multiple factors typically make it more difficult for an attacker to gain all the information required to breach the security system.
Yet despite continued efforts such as these to improve the security of such transactions, vulnerabilities and shortcomings remain. Accordingly, there is scope for improvement.
The preceding discussion of the background to the invention is intended only to facilitate an understanding of the present invention. It should be appreciated that the discussion is not an acknowledgment or admission that any of the material referred to was part of the common general knowledge in the art as at the priority date of the application.


A three-dimensional (3D) animation apparatus and method for roll rotation determination for rigged 3D model animation, includes display of a 3D model on a display device, which allows for selection of a first set of three feature points. The selection is executed on a first surface representation of a first facial portion of the displayed 3D model. A second surface representation of a second facial portion of an object is received from a motion-sensing device. A second set of three feature points is identified on the received second surface representation. A roll rotation of a head portion of the 3D model is determined based on the first set of three feature points and the second set of three feature points. The movement of the head portion of the 3D model rendered on the display device is controlled in accordance with the determined roll rotation.

Advancements in the field of 3D computer graphics, modeling, and animation have provided the ability to animate 3D models and visualize real objects in a 3D computer graphics environment. 3D content, such as 3D character models, are increasingly used in animated movies, games, and virtual-reality systems to enhance user experience. A 3D model is a static 3D mesh that resembles the shape of an object. Typically, such a 3D model is manually designed by computer graphics artists, commonly known as modelers, by use of a modeling software application. Such 3D models may not be used in the same way in animation. Other 3D computer graphics specialists, commonly known as riggers, manually introduce a support structure, such as a digital rig, to the static 3D mesh, to produce a rigged 3D model. A digital rig in a rigged 3D model acts as a skeleton and includes a hierarchical set of interconnected "bones", which may include a system of joints and bones. This allows for definition of the motions for animation in the rigged 3D model. There are several complexities involved in the introduction of different motions for different portions of the support structure of the rigged 3D model. For instance, the motion of arms in terms of degree of freedom may be more restricted as compared to terminal portions of a rigged 3D model, such as hands, feet, or a head portion. Unrealistic motion of the terminal portions of 3D model may lead to various kinds of noticeable artifacts during animation, which may not be desirable.
Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditional approaches will become apparent to one of skill in the art, through comparison of described systems with some aspects of the present disclosure, as set forth in the remainder of the present application and with reference to the drawings.

Apparatus and method to generate realistic three-dimensional (3D) model animation


A galvanically isolated signal conditioning system includes a signal conditioning circuit on an integrated circuit chip; a flying capacitor; and a galvanically isolating MEMS switching device on an integrated circuit chip for selectively switching the flying capacitor from across a pair of input terminals in one state to across the input terminals of the signal conditioning circuit in another state.

Signal conditioning circuits such as difference amplifiers are often employed in data acquisition applications where isolation is desirable between the potentially much higher voltage of the monitored equipment and the lower voltage of the signal conditioning circuit, for example.
A difference amplifier amplifies the potential difference between its two inputs. Differential signals can be found in many applications, from simple ohmic drops across a sense resistor in a current sensing application to the output of a standard resistive bridge or load cell. Normally the sensed differential voltage is fairly small; usually of the order of microvolts to perhaps hundreds of millivolts.
Usually associated with every differential voltage is a common mode voltage. This common mode voltage can be of an order much, much higher than the differential signal. Each side of the sensed differential signal, when referred to some common potential like zero volts or ground, can be at a voltage potential far above or below the common zero volts or ground. This voltage, which is common to both sides of the sensed differential signal, is called the common mode voltage. This common mode voltage generally contains no useful information about the measurement signal so, ideally, the difference amplifier should amplify only the difference between the signals at its two inputs and ignore or reject the common mode voltage. Depending upon the application, this common mode voltage could be up to several hundreds volts or even higher. It could also be positive or negative with respect to a common point like ground or zero volts.
Additionally in some industries like process control, it is necessary to provide galvanic isolation between the sensed signal and the measuring circuitry. In other words there can be no ac or dc path between the sensed signal which has an associated common mode voltage and the subsequent signal conditioning circuitry which can have a different common mode voltage that is usually zero volts.
To implement an input signal conditioning system capable of meeting all such requirements in the past, a common approach has been to employ a technique called a flying capacitor technique. In this approach a capacitor is switched, either by optically controlled switches, or relays, from across the signal source to across the difference amplifier inputs. By such means the input common mode voltage is removed completely and only the differential input signal is presented to the difference amplifier. This approach can result in a solution which consumes a relatively large area of printed circuit board or printed wire board due to the mechanical relays. Other techniques which have been successful are those that use current transformers and those that are based upon Hall effect current transformers. The disadvantages of the current transformer approach include large physical size and weight, especially as measured current increases, high cost, inability to measure dc currents and voltages and limited accuracy. Disadvantages of the Hall effect approach include low accuracy with an open loop sensor, the need for an isolated power supply to power the isolated side, offsets due to the Hall effect elements and high cost and large physical size for closed loop sensors.
Other approaches that are not based upon a flying capacitor technique are generally based upon a difference amplifier driving an analog-in, analog-out, isolation amplifier. The isolation amplifier is generally transformer-based, employing magnetic coupling to achieve both common mode voltage isolation and signal transmission. Both the difference amplifier and the isolated side of the isolation amplifier are powered from an isolated power supply with a sufficient continuous isolation-voltage rating. Disadvantages of this approach include large physical size, high cost, the need for an isolated power supply to power the isolated side and poor accuracy.
Another approach is to employ an analog to digital converter such as a delta-sigma modulator to digitize an analog input voltage. The digital bit stream from the delta-sigma modulator is then transmitted across an isolation barrier, either an optical barrier—more usual—or a magnetic barrier, and decoded on the far side of the barrier to produce a serial output data stream representing the analog input or, more usually, the transmitted data stream is decoded and converted from the digital domain into the analog domain to produce an analog voltage on the output side of the barrier. Disadvantages of this approach include the need for an isolated power supply to power the isolated side, the need to filter the data stream to extract the sensed signal, high frequency clock and data signals that potentially are a cause of radio frequency interference (RFI), front-end offset drift and gain drift issues over time and temperature, and a relatively expensive low-drift sense resistor.

Galvanically isolated signal conditioning system


A calibration system of a robot includes a data storage unit that stores a number of pieces of data in which actual measured position information obtained by actually measuring a tip position of the robot and information indicating a state of the robot upon actual measurement are combined, a parameter selecting unit that selects mechanical error parameters to be identified from parameters indicating mechanical errors of the robot, a parameter identifying unit that identifies each of the mechanical error parameters using the stored data and information of the selected mechanical error parameters, and an identification result evaluating unit that evaluates an identification result, and, in the case where evaluation does not satisfy a predetermined criterion, selection of different mechanical error parameters by the parameter selecting unit, identification and evaluation are repeated.

Conventionally, a technique is known which improves absolute accuracy of a tip of a robot by identifying a plurality of mechanical error parameters so that a difference between actual measured position information obtained by measuring tip position information in a plurality of attitudes of an articulated type robot by utilizing three-dimensional position measuring equipment and a theoretical position of the tip calculated by kinematically forward converting angle data of each rotary joint and a length of a link becomes a minimum (see, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, Publication No. H07-28514).
In the technique disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, Publication No. H07-28514, the mechanical error parameters to be identified are grouped into three groups of attitude parameters, linear motion direction parameters and translational parameters, and all the mechanical error parameters within the groups are sequentially identified in this order.

Calibration system and calibration method of robot


An optical device is described that may be used as a microscope system for real-time, three-dimensional optical imaging. The device includes a miniature, fiber optic, intra-vital probe microscope that uses a dual-axes confocal architecture to allow for vertical scanning perpendicular to a surface of the sample (e.g., a tissue surface). The optical device can use off-axis illumination and collection of light to achieve sub-cellular resolution with deep tissue penetration. The optical device may be used as part of an integrated molecular imaging strategy using fluorescence-labeled peptides to detect cell surface targets that are up-regulated by the epithelium and/or endothelium of colon and breast tumors in small animal models of cancer.

Field of the Disclosure
The disclosure relates generally to microscope imaging of tissue and, more particularly, to devices for dual-axes confocal microscopy.
Brief Description of Related Technology
While tremendous advances have been made in technologies for whole body molecular imaging, including PET, SPECT, MRI, and ultrasound, techniques for visualizing biological phenomenon with sub-cellular resolution in optically thick tissue are lacking. In addition, these conventional techniques lack the ability to obtain vertical cross-sectional views of tissue. Take two common forms of cancer, for example, colorectal cancer and breast cancer. Researchers are unable to properly image cancer tissue with vertical cross-sectional views at the sub-cellular level for either of these types of cancer.
Colorectal cancer claims approximately 149,000 new cases annually in the United States, where the rate of incidence is among the highest in the world (48.2 cases/100,000 population in 1998-2004). The average lifetime risk for developing the disease is 1 in 20 in the industrialized world. Yet, despite the widespread availability of colonoscopy, colorectal carcinoma remains the second most common cause of cancer; and the mortality and morbidity associated with this disease is far more common than expected. The miss rate for colonic adenomas, as determined by tandem colonoscopy, has been found to be as high as 22%; and a significant number of cases of colorectal cancers (2.4 cancer/1000 person-years) have been diagnosed within a year following screening colonoscopy. Moreover, there is evidence that up to 25% of spontaneously occurring adenomas arise from sporadically occurring flat or depressed lesions that may be difficult to visualize by conventional white light endoscopy. These lesions frequently contain high grade dysplasia and progress more rapidly through the adenoma-carcinoma sequence than polypoid adenomas. To develop better strategies for risk stratification and early detection, a greater understanding of molecular target expression patterns within the colon tissue over time is needed.
Breast cancer in women is the most common cancer in the U.S. and the second-most common cause of death by cancer. There are approximately 182,000 new cases of invasive breast cancer and about 68,000 new cases of in situ breast cancer each year. Current methods for breast cancer screening include self breast exams, mammography, ultrasound, and MRI. All of these techniques are based on the presence of gross morphological changes in either size or density of malignant lesions for detection. This disease results from multiple genetic and environmental factors, including defects in DNA repair genes, abnormal growth factor synthesis, dysregulated cell signaling, elevated estrogen exposure, and failure of immune surveillance. The presence of molecular changes occur well in advance of structural abnormalities, and more sophisticated imaging methods are needed to improve our understanding of disease mechanisms and to develop more effective screening methods to improve monitoring of treatment efficacy.
One imaging technique for early stage diagnosis is intra-vital imaging of tissue epithelium. Transformed cells that develop into cancer in the colon and breast originate within the epithelium of the mucosa and ducts, respectively, as shown below in FIG. 1. Infra-vital microscopy is a useful tool for studying the molecular mechanisms of epithelial cancer biology in vivo because this technique can be used to directly access this thin, superficial layer of tissue to provide the highest resolution possible with imaging in live animals. A miniature fiber optic instrument can be placed in contact with the tissue surface and collect real time images with sub-cellular resolution. These instruments, for example, can be inserted into the colon and or held by hand onto the breast to perform longitudinal studies in small animal models of cancer. With intra-vital imaging, non-terminal studies can be performed using each animal as its own control. This approach can significantly reduce the number of testing specimens needed and can provide a more robust study design. In addition, this technique can be used to study ligand-receptor interactions and cell tracking behavior in vivo, processes that are difficult to observe with any other imaging modality.
As shown in FIG. 1, normal colonic epithelium transforms to a pre-malignant condition (dysplasia) prior to evolving into carcinoma, viewing the illustration from left to right. Subtle molecular changes develop first in the crypts prior to morphological changes in the tissue. Imaging in the vertical cross-section (plane perpendicular to tissue surface) is the desired orientation for detecting disease because the epithelium differentiates in the vertical direction (basilar to luminal direction). The vertical cross-section provides a global view of the normal and abnormal micro-architectural changes, including the vascular endothelium, in the epithelium with a consistent orientation. This view allows the observer to detect subtle differences associated with the early presence of disease in comparison to that of the horizontal cross-section (parallel to tissue surface).
While useful, intra-vital microscope techniques are limited. One of the challenges in performing high resolution (sub-cellular) imaging in live specimens (e.g., animal models) is the ability to overcome motion artifact, including respiratory displacement, heart beating, and organ peristalsis. Conventional intra-vital microscopes use bulk optic objectives that are fixed to large, stationary platforms. As a result, motion will occur in live animals relative to the objective that appear exaggerated in the relatively small fields-of-view of intra-vital microscopes, typically on the order of several hundred microns. On the other hand, a miniature intra-vital microscope has the size and weight to move relative to the bodily motion of the animal during the imaging session, thus substantially reduce the motion artifact in the images. Fiber coupling allows for the image to be transmitted to the detector. Furthermore, the small size of these instruments provides much greater positioning accuracy of the objective lens onto target organs in the animal.
Recent advances in the development of micro-lenses and scanners have resulted in the development of a number of miniature intra-vital microscopes for high resolution imaging in small animals. These instruments are designed for a size that can be inserted in the colon to evaluate the epithelium of the distal mucosa or hand held against the body wall to image the epithelium of breast ducts. However, these microscopes all use the single axis configuration where the pinhole (fiber) and objective are located along one main optical axis. A high numerical (NA) objective is needed to achieve sub-cellular resolution and maximum light collection, and the same objective is used for both the illumination and collection of light. In order to scale down the dimension of these instruments for small animal imaging, the diameter of the objective must be reduced to ˜5 mm or less. As a consequence, the working distance, imaging depth, and field-of-view are also decreased, as shown by the progression of the 3 different objective diameters (A→B→C) in FIG. 2, with corresponding illustrations of example working distances WDA, WDB, and WDC. The range of sizes is illustrated in the right panel by an objective from the Olympus IV100 where upper element (A) represents the diameter of a conventional objective and the lower reflects that of a miniature objective (C), scale bar 5 mm.
Generally, imaging tissue through the use of light is a very powerful tool, because this modality can achieve sub-cellular resolution in real time, a level of performance that cannot be matched by any other imaging modalities (such as PET scanner, CT scans, MRI, etc.). However, light is highly scattered by tissue, and sophisticated methods are needed to produce clear images. Confocal microscopy is one form of intra-vital microscope that uses a pinhole placed in between the objective lens and the detector to allow only the light that originates from within a tiny volume below the tissue surface to be collected. All other sources of scattered light do not have the correct path to be detected, and thus become "spatially filtered." This process is known as optical sectioning and can produce a high resolution image from a thin slice of tissue below the surface. These images can be collected at sufficiently fast frame rates to observe biological behavior in small animal models of disease with minimal disturbance from motion artifacts caused by breathing displacements and heart beating. Recent advancements in miniaturization of optics, availability of fiber-optics, and emergence of micro-scanners have allowed for the technique of confocal microscopy to be performed in vivo through medical endoscopes to perform rapid, real-time optical assessment of tissue pathology.
Traditional confocal intra-vital microscopes used a single-axis optical design, while recently some have proposed a dual-axes confocal architecture. For a single-axis design, the pinhole (i.e., the single mode optical fiber) and objective are located along the same optical axis. As a result, a high numerical aperture (NA) objective is needed to achieve sub-cellular resolution, limiting the working distance as discussed above in reference to FIG. 2. As a consequence, the single-axis configuration uses a scanning mechanism (mirror) that is placed on the pinhole side of the objective, or in the pre-objective position, and this design cannot be scaled down in dimension without loss of working distance or field-of-view. Furthermore, much of the light that is scattered by the tissue present between the objective and focal volume (dashed lines) is collected with the high NA objective, reducing the dynamic range of detection. See, e.g., FIG. 3A.
The more recent dual-axes architecture, shown in FIG. 3B, uses two fibers and low NA objectives for separate illumination and collection of light, using the region of overlap between the two beams (focal volume) to achieve sub-cellular resolution. The low NA objectives create a long working distance so that the scan mirror can be placed on the tissue side of the lens, or in the post-objective position. Very little of the light that is scattered by tissue along the illumination path (dashed lines) is collected by the low NA objective collection objective, thus the dynamic range is significantly improved. Consequently, theoretically optical sections can be collected in both vertical (V) and horizontal (H) planes with dual axes, as compared to horizontal only for single axis. Vertical cross-sections show the relationship among tissue microstructures as they vary with depth, and are the preferred view of pathologists. The single-axis configuration does not have sufficient dynamic range to provide this view.
In intra-vital microscopy, scanning of the focal volume is performed to create an image. In the single-axis architecture, the limited working distance requires that the scan mirror be placed in the pre-objective position, as shown in FIG. 4A, i.e., before the incident light from the fiber/pinhole hits the objective. The mirror is used for scanning which steers the beam at various angles to the optical axis (dashed line) and introduces off-axis aberrations that distort the focal volume. In addition, because the FOV is proportional to the scan angle and the focal length, the diameter of the objective limits the maximum scan angle. As this dimension is reduced, the focal length and FOV are also diminished (arc-line). In the dual-axes configuration, the low NA objectives create a long working distance that allows for the scanner to be placed in the post-objective position. This design feature is useful for scaling the size of the instrument down to millimeter dimensions for in vivo imaging in small animal models without losing performance. As shown in FIG. 4B, the illumination light is always incident on-axis to the objective. In this scanning geometry, the scan mirror can sweep a diffraction-limited focal volume over an arbitrarily large FOV (arc-line), limited only by the maximum deflection angle of the mirror.
Recently, a dual-axes confocal architecture was implemented in a 5 mm diameter instrument package, as shown in FIG. 5A. The scanhead uses a replicated parabolic mirror as the low NA focusing objective, and a MEMS (micro-electro-mechanical-systems) mirror to perform scanning in the horizontal (XY) plane. Axial (Z-axis) translation is performed with a stepper (micro-) motor. Illumination and collection of light is delivered separately by two single mode optical fibers, and control wires contained within an umbilical provide power and scanning signals to the MEMS mirror and micro-motor. This instrument can be either inserted into the colon or held by hand against the breast of genetically engineered mice, as shown by FIG. 5B. The instrument can collect fluorescence images in horizontal cross-sections from a depth of z=0 to 500 μm in 3 μm intervals. The simple Z-axis scanner used in this design is limited and requires large amounts of time (on the order of 50 seconds) to perform a full Z-axis scan. Such limited scannability in the Z-axis means that the conventional dual-axes configuration is not sufficiently fast to collect vertical cross-sectional images.
Thus, there is a need for a dual-axes scanning assembly that offers sufficient Z-axis and XY-plane scanning, in a configuration that can achieve high scan rates (such as real time scan rates) over a volume of tissue. Furthermore, it is desirable to use such a device for more accurate pathology recognition and earlier detection.

Targeted dual-axes confocal imaging apparatus with vertical scanning capabilities

THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN


A nail gun includes a power coil for moving a plunger in two opposed directions. The plunger is first moved away from a nail, and force from this movement is stored in a force storage mechanism. The plunger is then driven by the coil in an opposed direction, and the force stored within the forced storage mechanism is released, such that the released force and the power force from the coil are combined to drive a nail into a work piece.

This invention relates to a power nailer, wherein a drive motor force is combined with a prestored mechanical force at the time of drive actuation.
Power nailers are utilized to drive a nail into a work piece. As known, a motor drives a plunger, and the plunger carries a blade that drives the nail into the work piece. It is desirable to provide a significant amount of drive force to drive the nail. However, there are also size, weight and cost limitations that prevent simply providing a very powerful motor.
As such, it would be desirable to provide greater force in a smaller package for a power nailer.