A distance measurement system and method are provided. The distance measurement method first projects a light beam with a speckle pattern to reference planes and an object to allow the reference planes and a surface of the object each have an image of the speckle pattern, the speckle pattern having a plurality of speckles. Next, images of the speckle pattern reflected by the reference planes are captured to generate reference image information, and an image of the speckle pattern reflected by the surface of the object is captured to generate an object image information. A processing module which may be a processing software can compare the object image information with the reference image information to obtain several similarity scores. If the most the most similarity score is greater than a threshold value, the processing module identifies the corresponding reference plane, thereby computing the position of the object.

Currently, distance measurements include contact distance measurements and non-contact distance measurements. Wherein the contact distance measurements are conventional, and an example of which is called coordinate measuring machine (CMM). Although the contact distance measurements have been very precise, as the contact distance measurement should contact the object, probes of the contact distance measurement instruments may damage the object. Therefore, the contact distance measurement instruments are not suitable for expensive objects.
Relative to the conventional distance measurement instruments, the non-contact distance measurement instruments can have an operation frequency of several millions, therefore are widely used in a variety of fields. The non-contact distance measurement instruments include active non-contact distance measurement instruments and passive non-contact distance measurement instruments. A typical active non-contact distance measurement instrument usually projects an energy wave to an object and computes a distance between the object and a reference point through reflection of the energy wave. Common energy waves include visible light, high power light beam, ultrasonic wave and X-ray.

Method, system and processing software for distance measurement using speckle patterns


Non-human animal cells and non-human animals comprising CRISPR/Cas synergistic activation mediator system components and methods of making and using such non-human animal cells and non-human animals are provided. Methods are provided for using such non-human animals to increase expression of target genes in vivo and to assess CRISPR/Cas synergistic activation mediator systems for the ability to increase expression of target genes in vivo.

Gene expression in strictly controlled in many biological processes, such as development and diseases. Transcription factors regulate gene expression by binding to specific DNA sequences at the enhancer and promoter regions of target genes, and modulate transcription through their effector domains. Based on the same principle, artificial transcription factors (ATFs) have been generated by fusing various functional domains to a DNA binding domain engineered to bind to genes of interest, thereby modulating their expression. However, binding specificity of these ATFs is usually degenerate, can be difficult to predict, and the complex and time-consuming design and generation limits there applications.
CRISPR/Cas technology is a promising new therapeutic modality and can be used not only to make targeted genomic modifications but to regulate transcription of target genes. However, there is a need for better means of assessing the efficiency of introduced CRISPR/Cas agents in vivo. One limitation of testing the system in vivo is the need to simultaneously introduce all components into a living organism. The typical method of introducing these components is to transiently transfect DNA constructs into cells that will generate the appropriate RNAs and protein. Though effective, this approach has an inherent disadvantage as the cells must rely on the plasmid DNA constructs to first undergo transcription and then translation before the Cas protein is available to interact with the sgRNA component. Better methods and tools are needed to more effectively assess the activity of introduced CRISPR/Cas agents and to assess different delivery methods and parameters for targeting specific tissues or cell types in vivo.
In addition, the delivery of biologically active agents such as CRISPR/Cas agents to subjects is often hindered by difficulties in the components reaching the target cell or tissue. These restrictions can result, for example, in the need to use much higher concentrations of the agents than is desirable to achieve a result, which increases the risk of toxic effects and side effects. Improved delivery methods and methods of assessing such delivery methods in vivo are needed.

Transcription modulation in animals using CRISPR/Cas systems


A lift control apparatus includes a height sensor that outputs a height detection signal after a height of a ground work apparatus is detected. The ground work apparatus is coupled to a traveling work vehicle via a lift mechanism. An upper limit manager sets an upper limit position of the ground work apparatus based on an operation input signal from an input operation device for an upper limit setting USD. A setting prohibitor prohibits, when the upper limit position being set by the operation input signal is lower than the height of the ground work apparatus based on the height detection signal, the setting of the upper limit position from the operation input signal, and setting the upper limit position to the height of the ground work apparatus based on the height detection signal.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a lift control apparatus for a ground work apparatus which is coupled to a vehicle body of a traveling work vehicle via a lift mechanism.
2. Description of Related Art
An agricultural tractor, as one example of the traveling work vehicles mentioned above, is equipped with a lift operation lever to arbitrarily set a lift position of the ground work apparatus, and with a control apparatus to lift/lower the ground work apparatus via the lift mechanism to a lift position being set by the lift operation lever. In addition, an upper limit positioner is included to set an upper limit position of the ground work apparatus, and the control apparatus controls the lift mechanism so as not to exceed the upper limit position of the ground work apparatus regardless of the lift position being set by the lift operation lever.
In such a control apparatus mentioned above, when a worker inadvertently operates an upper limit setter after the engine is stopped, and the upper limit position becomes lower than the height of the ground work apparatus defined by the actual lift arm position, there is a possibility of the ground work apparatus being lowered to the upper limit position at a time the engine is started. Therefore, the lift control apparatus in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication H9-9716 includes a function preventing the ground work apparatus from being lowered to the upper limit position, when the position of the ground work apparatus, defined by the lift arm position of the lift mechanism, is higher than the upper limit position being set by the upper limit positioner at the time the engine is started. The function prevents the ground work apparatus from being lowered even though the position of the ground work apparatus is higher than the upper limit position at the time the engine is started.
It is uncommon for an operator to suddenly adjust a height of a ground work apparatus before the engine is started. However, a necessity of adjusting an upper limit of the ground work apparatus occurs frequently during working/traveling. There is a circumstance that control functions with respect to a lift mechanism stop during working/traveling, when the operator resets the upper limit (of the ground work apparatus) to a downward side and the upper limit being set is lower than the actual height of the ground work apparatus, according to a technology of Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication H9-9716.

Lift control apparatus for ground work apparatus


Techniques include analyzing risk data for a plurality of network-based identities and generating interactive graphical user interfaces to allow for visualization of the risk data. Operations may include identifying a plurality of network-based identities that have been deployed in a network environment; identifying a scope of permissions associated with the plurality of network-based identities; determining a scope of activity of at least one of: use of the permissions, non-use of the permissions, or activity associated with the permissions for the plurality of network-based identities; developing risk statuses for the plurality of network-based identities; and generating a graphical user interface representing the risk statuses, the graphical user interface comprising a first graphical element having a size and a color, the size and the color being determined based on the risk statuses associated with a first platform within the network environment.

Enterprises increasingly utilize virtualized, or cloud-based, computing resources in their daily operations. Through frameworks such as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (Paas), and others, businesses and other organizations rely on cloud computing platforms (e.g., Amazon's AWS™, Microsoft's Azure™, Google's Cloud Platform™, and others) to store data and applications, execute applications, perform computing functions, and interface with other network resources.
In many virtualized environments, particular tasks require privileged access rights. For example, access to a sensitive database may require an administrator's password or other credential. Further, specific actions (e.g., deleting a file, uploading software code, writing to sensitive memory, accessing sensitive applications, etc.) may require a password or other privileged access credential. Problems arise, however, when privileged access is granted at an unnecessarily high level to perform a particular task, is granted more broadly than needed, or is granted for an unnecessarily long time. For example, sometimes an application will need privileged access rights in order to read a particular file, but the actual privileged access that is granted may provide read, write, copy, and delete rights. In this situation, the write, copy, and delete rights may be unnecessary and consequently may increase the likelihood of the privileges being misused or improperly leveraged by an attacker. Similarly, if the application only needs read privileges for a particular task, in some situations the privileges are provided permanently, or until the credentials expire. This can also increase the likelihood of improper use of the credentials, since they may exist and form an attack surface for longer than needed.
These problems of overly-strong privileges and lingering privileges are especially acute in virtualized network environments. In these environments, virtual computing instances (e.g., virtual machines, container instances, serverless code instances, etc.) are often dynamically instantiated, modified, and deactivated. This makes it very difficult to monitor the level of privileged access rights that individual virtual resources have at any given moment. A further layer of difficulty is determining whether the privileged access rights that individual resources have are unnecessarily strong or long-lived. Indeed, in a machine-to-machine virtualized environment, where virtualized resources may be spun up or modified automatically, or through automated policies, the universe of virtualized resources and their privileged access rights may be constantly changing and not known.
In view of these technological problems associated with managing privileged access rights in virtualized network environments, technological solutions are needed to more efficiently, accurately, and dynamically detect the privileged access rights possessed by individual resources. Further, solutions should determine whether individual resources have a scope of privileged access rights that is unduly strong or long in duration. In addition, solutions should provide efficient techniques for responding to situations where resources have unnecessary privileges, including by suggesting particular actions and by automatically performing actions to implement least-privilege policies.

Monitoring and controlling risk compliance in network environments


An optical isolation element comprising, sequentially: a light control film; a first optical path changing element; and a second optical path changing element. The optical isolation element has an excellent optical isolation ratio, and can be manufactured simply and at low cost. Such an optical isolation element can be applied, for example, to the fields of optical communication or laser optics, security and privacy protection, and members for brightness enhancement in displays or military products requiring hiding and covering, and the like.

An optical isolation device is a device in which light transmittance in the forward direction is higher than light transmittance in the backward direction, which is also called an optical diode. The optical isolation device can be used to prevent unnecessary reflected light in the field of optical communication or laser optics, and can also be applied to a building or automobile glass to be used for security or privacy protection and the like. Furthermore, the optical isolation device can be applied for brightness enhancement in various displays, or military products requiring hiding and covering, and the like.


A method of continuous casting non-ferrous alloys which includes delivering molten non-ferrous alloy to a casting apparatus. The casting apparatus rapidly cools at least a portion of the non-ferrous alloy at a rate of at least about 100° C. thereby solidifying an outer layer of the non-ferrous alloy surrounding an inner layer of a molten component and a solid component of dendrites. The dendrites are altered to yield cast product exhibiting good resistance to cracking.

Continuous casting of metals such as aluminum alloys is conventionally performed in twin roll casters, block casters and belt casters. Twin roll casting of aluminum alloys has enjoyed good success and commercial application despite the relatively low production rates achievable to date. Twin roll casting traditionally is a combined solidification and deformation technique involving feeding molten metal into the bite between a pair of counter-rotating cooled rolls wherein solidification is initiated when the molten metal contacts the rolls. Solidified metal forms as a "freeze front" of the molten metal within the roll bite and solid metal advances towards the nip, the point of minimum clearance between the rolls. The solid metal passes through the nip as a solid sheet. The solid sheet is deformed by the rolls (hot rolled) and exits the rolls.
Aluminum alloys have successfully been roll cast into ¼ inch thick sheet at about 4-6 feet per minute or about 50-70 pounds per hour per inch of cast width (lbs/hr/in). Attempts to increase the speed of roll casting typically fail due to centerline segregation. Although it is generally accepted that reduced gauge sheet (e.g., less than about ¼ inch thick) potentially could be produced more quickly than higher gauge sheet in a roll caster, the ability to roll cast aluminum at rates significantly above about 70 lbs/hr/in has been elusive.
Typical operation of a twin roll caster at thin gauges is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,518,064 (incorporated herein by reference) and depicted in FIGS. 1 and 2. A molten metal holding chamber H is connected to a feed tip T which distributes molten metal M between water-cooled twin rolls R1 and R2 rotating in the direction of the arrows A1 and A2, respectively. The rolls R1 and R2 have respective smooth surfaces U1 and U2; any roughness thereon is an artifact of the roll grinding technique employed during their manufacture. The centerlines of the rolls R1 and R2 are in a vertical or generally vertical plane L (e.g., up to about 15° from vertical) such that the cast strip S forms in a generally horizontal path. Other versions of this method produce strip in a vertically upward direction. The width of the cast strip S is determined by the width of the tip T. The plane L passes through a region of minimum clearance between the rolls R1 and R2 referred to as the roll nip N. A solidification region exists between the solid cast strip S and the molten metal M and includes a mixed liquid-solid phase region X. A freeze front F is defined between the region X and the cast strip S as a line of complete solidification.
In conventional roll casting of aluminum alloys, the heat of the molten metal M is transferred to the rolls R1 and R2 such that the location of the freeze front F is maintained upstream of the nip N. In this manner, the molten metal M solidifies at a thickness greater than the dimension of the nip N. The solid cast strip S is deformed by the rolls R1 and R2 to achieve the final strip thickness. Hot rolling of the solidified strip between the rolls R1 and R2 according to conventional roll casting produces unique properties in the strip characteristic of roll cast aluminum alloy strip. In particular, a central zone through the thickness of the strip becomes enriched in eutectic forming elements (eutectic formers) in the alloy such as Fe, Si, Ni, Zn and the like and depleted in peritectic forming elements (Ti, Cr, V and Zr). This enrichment of eutectic formers (i.e., alloying elements other than Ti, Cr, V and Zr) in the central zone occurs because that portion of the strip S corresponds to a region of the freeze front F where solidification occurs last and is known as "centerline segregation". Extensive centerline segregation in the as-cast strip is a factor that restricts the speed of conventional roll casters. The as-cast strip also shows signs of working by the rolls. Grains which form during solidification of the metal upstream of the nip become flattened by the rolls. Therefore, roll cast aluminum includes grains elongated at an angle to the direction of rolling.
The roll gap at the nip N may be reduced in order to produce thinner gauge strip S. However, as the roll gap is reduced, the roll separating force generated by the solid metal between the rolls R1 and R2 increases. The amount of roll separating force is affected by the location of the freeze front F in relation to the roll nip N. As the roll gap is reduced, the percentage reduction of the metal sheet is increased, and the roll separating force increases. At some point, the relative positions of the rolls R1 and R2 to achieve the desired roll gap cannot overcome the roll separating force, and the minimum gauge thickness has been reached for that position of the freeze front F.
The roll separating force may be reduced by increasing the speed of the rolls in order to move the freeze front F downstream toward the nip N. When the freeze front is moved downstream (towards the nip N), the roll gap may be reduced. This movement of the freeze front F decreases the ratio between the thickness of the strip at the initial point of solidification and the roll gap at the nip N, thus decreasing the roll separating force as proportionally less solidified metal is being compressed and hot rolled. In this manner, as the position of the freeze front F moves toward the nip N, a proportionally greater amount of metal is solidified and then hot rolled at thinner gauges. According to conventional practice, roll casting of thin gauge strip is accomplished by first roll casting a relatively high gauge strip, decreasing the gauge until a maximum roll separating force is reached, advancing the freeze front to lower the roll separating force (by increasing the roll speed) and further decreasing the gauge until the maximum roll separating force is again reached, and repeating the process of advancing the freeze front and decreasing the gauge in an iterative manner until the desired thin gauge is achieved. For example, a 10 millimeter strip S may be rolled and the thickness may be reduced until the roll separating force becomes excessive (e.g., at 6 millimeters), necessitating a roll speed increase.
This process of increasing the roll speed can only be practiced until the freeze front F reaches a predetermined downstream position. Conventional practice dictates that the freeze front F not progress forward into the roll nip N to ensure that solid strip is rolled at the nip N. It has been generally accepted that rolling of a solid strip at the nip N is needed to prevent failure of the cast metal strip S being hot rolled and to provide sufficient tensile strength in the exiting strip S to withstand the pulling force of a downstream winder, pinch rolls or the like. Consequently, the roll separating force of a conventionally operated twin roll caster in which a solid strip of aluminum alloy is hot rolled at the nip N is on the order of several tons per inch of width. Although some reduction in gauge is possible, operation at such high roll separating forces to ensure deformation of the strip at the nip N makes further reduction of the strip gauge very difficult. The speed of a roll caster is restricted by the need to maintain the freeze front F upstream of the nip N and prevent centerline segregation. Hence, the roll casting speed for aluminum alloys has been relatively low.
Some reduction in roll separating force to obtain acceptable microstructure in aluminum alloys having high alloying element content is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,193,818, incorporated herein by reference. Alloys having 0.5 to 13 wt. % Si are roll cast into strip about 0.05 to 0.2 inch thick at roll separating forces of about 5,000 to 40,000 lbs/in at speeds of about 5 to 9 feet per minute. While this represents an advance in roll separating force reduction, these forces still pose significant process challenges. Moreover, the productivity remains compromised and strip produced according to the '818 patent apparently exhibits some centerline segregation and grain elongation as shown in FIG. 3 thereof.
A major impediment to high-speed roll casting is the difficulty in achieving uniform heat transfer from the molten metal to the smooth surfaces U1 and U2, i.e., cooling of the molten metal. In actuality, the surfaces U1 and U2 include various imperfections which alter the heat transfer properties of the rolls. At high rolling speeds, such non-uniformity in heat transfer becomes problematic. For example, areas of the surfaces U1 and U2 with proper heat transfer will cool the molten metal M at the desired location upstream of the nip N whereas areas with insufficient heat transfer properties will allow a portion of the molten metal to advance beyond the desired location and create non-uniformity in the cast strip.
Thin gauge steel strip has been successfully roll cast in vertical casters at high speeds (up to about 400 feet per minute) and low roll separating forces. The rolls of a vertical roll caster are positioned side by side so that the strip forms in a downward direction. In this vertical orientation, molten steel is delivered to the bite between the rolls to form a pool of molten steel. The upper surface of the pool of molten steel is often protected from the atmosphere by means of an inert gas.
While vertical twin roll casting from a pool of molten metal is successful for steel, vertical casting of alloys sensitive to oxidation (e.g., aluminum) requires additional control. One suggestion for overcoming this problem of oxidized aluminum in vertical roll casting on a laboratory scale is described in Haga et al., "High Speed Roll Caster for Aluminum Alloy Strip", Proceedings of ICAA-6, Aluminum Alloys, Vol. 1, pp. 327-332 (1998). According to that method, a stream of molten aluminum alloy is ejected from a gas-pressurized nozzle directly onto one or both of the twin rolls in a vertical roll caster. Although high speed casting of aluminum alloy strip is reported, a major drawback to this technique is that the delivery rate of the molten aluminum alloy must be carefully controlled to ensure uniformity in the cast strip. When a single stream is ejected onto a roll, that stream is solidified into the strip. If a stream is ejected onto each roll, each stream becomes one half of the thickness of the cast strip. In both cases, any variation in the gas pressure or delivery rate of the molten aluminum alloy results in non-uniformity in the cast strip. The control parameters for this type of aluminum alloy roll casting are not practical on a commercial scale.
Continuous casting of aluminum alloys has been achieved on belt casters at rates of about 20-25 feet per minute at about ¾ inch (19 mm) gauge reaching a productivity level of about 1400 pounds per hour per inch of width. In conventional belt casting as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,002,197, incorporated herein by reference, molten metal is fed into a casting region between opposed portions of a pair of revolving flexible metal belts. Each of the two flexible casting belts revolves in a path defined by upstream rollers located at one end of the casting region and downstream rollers located at the other end of the casting region. In this manner, the casting belts converge directly opposite each other around the upstream rollers to form an entrance to the casting region in the nip between the upstream rollers. The molten metal is fed directly into the nip. The molten metal is confined between the moving belts and is solidified as it is carried along. Heat liberated by the solidifying metal is withdrawn through the portions of the two belts which are adjacent to the metal being cast. This heat is withdrawn by cooling the reverse surfaces of the belts by means of rapidly moving substantially continuous films of water flowing against and communicating with these reverse surfaces.
The operating parameters for belt casting are significantly different from those for roll casting. In particular, there is no intentional hot rolling of the strip. Solidification of the metal is completed in a distance of about 12-15 inches (30-38 mm) downstream of the nip for a thickness of ¾ inch. The belts are exposed to high temperatures when contacted by molten metal on one surface and are cooled by water on the inner surface. This may lead to distortion of the belts. The tension in the belt must be adjusted to account for expansion or contraction of the belt due to temperature fluctuations in order to achieve consistent surface quality of the strip. Casting of aluminum alloys on a belt caster has been used to date mainly for products having minimal surface quality requirements or for products which are subsequently painted.
The problem of thermal instability of the belts is avoided in block casters. Block casters include a plurality of chilling blocks mounted adjacent to each other on a pair of opposing tracks. Each set of chilling blocks rotates in the opposite direction to form a casting region therebetween into which molten metal is delivered. The chilling blocks act as heat sinks as the heat of the molten metal transfers thereto. Solidification of the metal is complete about 12-15 inches downstream of the entrance to the casting region at a thickness of ¾ inch. The heat transferred to the chilling blocks is removed during the return loop. Unlike belts, the chilling blocks are not functionally distorted by the heat transfer. However, block casters require precise dimensional control to prevent gaps between the blocks which cause non-uniformity and defects in the cast strip.
This concept of transferring the heat of the molten metal to a casting surface has been employed in certain modified belt casters as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,515,908 and 5,564,491, both incorporated herein by reference. In a heat sink belt caster, molten metal is delivered to the belts (the casting surface) upstream of the nip with solidification initiating prior to the nip and continued heat transfer from the metal to the belts downstream of the nip. In this system, molten metal is supplied to the belts along the curve of the upstream rollers so that the metal is substantially solidified by the time it reaches the nip between the upstream rollers. The heat of the molten metal and the cast strip is transferred to the belts within the casting region (including downstream of the nip). The heat is then removed from the belts while the belts are out of contact with either of the molten metal or the cast strip. In this manner, the portions of the belts within the casting region (in contact with the molten metal and cast strip) are not subjected to large variations in temperature as occurs in conventional belt casters. The thickness of the strip can be limited by the heat capacity of the belts between which casting takes place. Production rates of 2400 lbs/hr/in for 0.08-0.1 inch (2-2.5 mm) strip have been achieved.
However, problems associated with the belts used in conventional belt casting remain. In particular, uniformity of the cast strip depends on the stability of (i.e., tension in) the belts. For any belt caster, conventional or heat sink type, contact of hot molten metal with the belts and the heat transfer from the solidifying metal to the belts creates instability in the belts. Further, belts need to be changed at regular intervals which disrupts production.
Strip material of non-ferrous alloys are desirable for use as sheet product in the automotive and aerospace industries and in the production of can bodies and can end and tab stock. Conventional manufacturing of can body stock employs batch processes which include an extensive sequence of separate steps. When an ingot is needed for further processing, it is first scalped, heat treated to homogenize the alloy, cooled and rolled while still hot in a number of passes, hot finish rolled, and finally coiled, air cooled and stored. The coil may be annealed in a batch step. The coiled sheet stock is then further reduced to final gauge by cold rolling using unwinders, rewinders and single and/or tandem rolling mills. These batch processes typically used in the aluminum industry require many different material handling operations to move ingots and coils between what are typically separate processing steps.
Efforts to streamline production of can body stock are described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,260,419 via direct chill casting and U.S. Pat. No. 4,282,044 via minimill continuous strip casting. Both processes require many material handling operations to move ingots and coils. Such operations are labor intensive, consume energy and frequently result in product damage.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,772,802 and 5,772,799, incorporated herein by reference, disclose belt casting methods in which can or lid stock and a method for its manufacture in which a low alloy content aluminum alloy is strip cast to form a hot strip cast feedstock, the hot feedstock is rapidly quenched to prevent substantial precipitation, annealed and quenched rapidly to prevent substantial precipitation of alloying elements and then cold rolled. This process has been successful despite the relatively low production rates achievable to date.
In addition, alloys other than aluminum such as magnesium alloys have not been continuously cast on a commercial scale. Magnesium metal has a hexagonal crystal structure that severely restricts the amount of deformation that can be applied, particularly at low temperatures. Production of wrought magnesium alloy products is therefore normally carried out by hot working in the range of 300°-500° C. Even tinder those conditions, a multitude of rolling passes and intermediate anneals are needed. In the conventional ingot method, a total of up to 25 rolling passes with intermediate anneals are used to make a finished product of 0.5 mm gauge. As a result, magnesium wrought products tend to be expensive.
Accordingly, a need remains for a cost-effective method of casting of non-ferrous alloys that achieves uniformity in the cast surface.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A subtraction image is generated by performing subtraction between a mask image serving as a radiation image obtained by capturing an object, at least of a specific region of which does not include contrast medium, and a live image serving as a radiation image obtained by capturing the object which includes the contrast medium. The emphasis degree serving as the degree of emphasis processing for the subtraction image is determined based on at least either the mask image or live image. The emphasis processing is performed for the subtraction image based on the emphasis degree.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to emphasis processing for an image obtained by digital subtraction angiography.
Description of the Related Art
With recent advances in the digital technology, it has become popular to perform digital processing for images even in the medical field. Instead of conventional X-ray imaging using an X-ray diagnosis film, two-dimensional X-ray sensors configured to output an X-ray image as a digital image have also prevailed. Digital image processing such as edge emphasis processing for a digital image output from the two-dimensional X-ray sensor is important.
An application example of the digital image processing is DSA processing of acquiring a digital subtraction angiogram (to be referred to as a DSA image hereinafter). The DSA image is an image obtained by acquiring images before and after the inflow of a contrast medium into an object, and subtracting an image (to be referred to as a mask image hereinafter) before the inflow of the contrast medium from an image (to be referred to as a live image hereinafter) after the inflow of the contrast medium. In subtraction processing of the mask image from the live image, a blood vessel region serving as a region of interest in diagnosis is held as a change region between images that is generated by the inflow of the contrast medium. The remaining unnecessary region is removed as a background region, and the change region is expressed as a homogeneous region. The generated DSA image is an image helpful for diagnosis because the blood vessel region can be observed without influencing the remaining object structure.
The purpose of using a DSA image for diagnosis is clear visualization of a contrasted blood vessel image. This purpose is considered to have already been achieved in a subtraction image obtained by subtracting a mask image from a live image. However, an image more suitable for diagnosis is obtained by applying emphasis processing generally used as X-ray image processing to a subtraction image and further emphasizing the edge of a contrasted blood vessel region.
As an example of the emphasis processing, frequency emphasis processing will be explained. More specifically, an image is decomposed into a plurality of band-limited images representing different frequencies. The respective band-limited images undergo different adjustments and then are merged, generating one emphasized image.
As a method of decomposing an image into a plurality of band-limited images, there are various methods such as Laplacian pyramid decomposition, wavelet transform, and unsharp masking. For example, when unsharp masking is adopted, letting Sorg be an original image and Sus be a blurred image, a band-limited image H is given by:H(x,y)=Sorg(x,y)−Sus(x,y)  (1)where (x, y) is the pixel of an image, and H(x, y), Sorg(x, y), and Sus(x, y) are pixel values.
The above equation is used to generate one band-limited image from an original image. A method of generating a plurality of band-limited images representing different frequencies is as follows. A different frequency is represented by a level lv, and a plurality of band-limited images having different frequencies from a high frequency (lv=1) to a low frequency (lv=lvMax) are represented by {Hlv|lv=1, 2, . . . , lvMax}. At this time, the band-limited image Hlv at an arbitrary level lv is given by:Hlv(x,y)=(x,y)−Suslv(x,y)  (2)where {Suslv|lv=0, 1, 2, . . . , lvMax} are a plurality of blurred images having different frequencies. A blurred image Sus0 having lv=0 is the original image Sorg.
From equation (2), the relationship between the original image Sorg and the band-limited image Hlv is given by:Sorg(x,y)=ΣlvlvMaxHlv(x,y)+SuslvMax(x,y)  (3)
This means that the original image Sorg can be reconstructed by adding all the decomposed band-limited images Hlv (to be referred to as high-frequency images hereinafter) and a blurred image SuslvMax having a lowest frequency (to be referred to as a low-frequency image hereinafter).
Based on this relationship, frequency emphasis processing is given by equation (4) below using a coefficient {αlv|lv=1, 2, . . . , lvMax} which gives an emphasis degree on a high-frequency image:Senh(x,y)=Σlv=1lvMaxαlvHlv(x,y)+Sus(x,y)  (4)where Senh is an image having undergone frequency emphasis processing. When the emphasis coefficient αlv is set to be 1 at all levels, Senh becomes equal to the original image Sorg in accordance with equation (3). A high-frequency image is emphasized by setting the emphasis coefficient αlv to be larger than 1, and suppressed by setting it to be smaller than 1. That is, by setting a different value of the emphasis coefficient αlv for each frequency level lv, the user can create images of his preferences having undergone various frequency emphasis or suppression processes.
However, the emphasis coefficient αlv allows adjustment at each level, but emphasis or suppression is uniformly performed at the same frequency component. That is, this method has a problem that an edge component to be emphasized and a noise component to be suppressed cannot be separated.
To solve this problem, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 09-248291 discloses a method of detecting only an edge component from a high-frequency image and emphasizing it, thereby obtaining the emphasis effect of only the edge. Japanese Patent Publication No. 04-030786 discloses a method of performing threshold processing using a predetermined value for each portion of a subtraction image in order to clearly discriminate a blood vessel region in a DSA image from the remaining region, separating only the blood vessel region serving as a region of interest based on the result, and highlighting it.
The following problem arises when the above-described emphasis processing is applied to a DSA image.
The DSA image is a subtraction image obtained by subtracting a mask image from a live image and removing an object structure in order to enhance the contrast of a contrasted region.
In general, a small-pixel-value region in an X-ray image corresponds to a region having a thick object structure. Since the amount of X-rays reaching the sensor is small in the region having the thick object structure, the small-pixel-value region is a region where noise components with a low S/N ratio are dominant Inter-image subtraction removes a clinically unnecessary object structure, but a noise component in such a small-pixel-value region remains on the subtraction image.
For this reason, if emphasis processing is applied to a DSA image, noise in a subtraction image corresponding to the small-pixel-value region before inter-image subtraction is further emphasized by emphasis processing, greatly impairing visibility.
The method disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 09-248291 in which only an edge component is detected and undergoes emphasis processing does not especially target a DSA image, and cannot perform emphasis processing considering noise in a subtraction image. The method disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 04-030786 targets a DSA image, separates only a blood vessel region serving as a region of interest, and highlights it. However, this method does not consider noise dependent on a pixel value before the above-mentioned inter-image subtraction.

Edge emphasis in processing images based on radiation images


A method, computer system, and a computer program product for assessing anonymity of a dataset is provided. The present invention may include receiving an original dataset and an anonymized dataset. The present invention may also include preparing a testing dataset and a training dataset for a machine learning algorithm based on the received original dataset and anonymized dataset. The present invention may then include training a machine learning model based on the prepared training dataset. The present invention may further include generating an evaluation score based on the trained machine learning model and the prepared testing dataset. The present invention may also include presenting the generated evaluation score to a user.

The present invention relates generally to the field of computing, and more particularly to assessment of anonymization.
Anonymization is a process of removing personally identifiable information from a dataset in order to maintain the privacy of the individuals to whom the data refers. Removing the personal identification fields, such as name, email, address and social security number may not be sufficient to maintain an acceptable level of privacy, since some individuals may still be identified by cross correlation between different fields, discovered by statistical analysis.

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION


The present disclosure provides isolated preproinsulin-derived peptides of 8 or 9 amino acids, comprising the amino acid sequence WGPDPAA (SEQ ID NO: 1), isolated Class I peptide-HLA complexes presenting said peptides and isolated molecules having binding affinity for said peptides and/or said peptide-HLA complexes. Such compositions are useful in the treatment of type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM). Such isolated molecules can include a T cell receptor (TCR) having specific binding affinity for a peptide-MHC complex wherein the MHC is an HLA Class I molecule and the peptide is a preproinsulin-derived peptide of 8 to 10 amino acids, comprising the amino acid sequence WGPDPAA (SEQ ID NO: 1).

Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) is an auto immune disease characterised by metabolic dysfunction, most notably dysregulation of glucose metabolism, accompanied by characteristic long-term vascular and neurological complications. T1DM is one of the commonest autoimmune diseases, affecting one in 250 individuals in the US where there are approximately 10,000 to 15,000 new cases reported each year, and the incidence is rising. The highest prevalence of T1DM is found in northern Europe, where more than 1 in every 150 Finns develops T1DM by the age of 15. In contrast, T1DM is less common in black and Asian populations where the frequency is less than half that among the white population.
T1DM is characterised by absolute insulin deficiency, making patients dependent on exogenous insulin for survival. Prior to the acute clinical onset of T1DM with symptoms of hyperglycaemia there is a long asymptomatic preclinical period, during which insulin-producing beta cells are progressively destroyed. The autoimmune destruction of beta cells (β cells) is associated with lymphocytic infiltration. In addition, abnormalities in the presentation of MHC Class I antigens on the cell surface have been identified in both animal models and in human T1DM. This immune abnormality may explain why humans become intolerant of self-antigens although it is not clear why only beta cells are preferentially destroyed.
There is a need for new means of treating T1DM, which the substances and methods described herein will address.
There is ample evidence that CD8 cells are involved in the disease process that leads to T1DM. Histological analysis of the islets in an affected individual shows infiltration by CD8 T cells. In animal models of T1DM, the disease process may be transferred from a diseased animal to a healthy animal using CD8 T cells. There is a genetic association between the development of T1DM and certain HLA class I molecules that are critical for CD8 target recognition. Finally, activated CD8 T cells are present in the circulation of high-risk subjects who develop T1DM.
There is an emerging interest in defining the peptide epitopes recognised by CD8 T cells involved in anti-islet autoimmune responses. Identification of epitopes is important for understanding mechanisms of disease development, developing laboratory assays to monitor islet damage and designing therapeutic interventions to halt disease.
The peptide epitopes that form complexes with HLA class I molecules are derived from proteins in the cell cytosol. In the case of an autoimmune disease like T1DM, it can be assumed that the proteins are specific to the cell targeted in the disease. In addition, the epitopes are likely to be from a protein known, from other evidence, to be involved in the autoimmune process as a target (termed an autoantigen). A protein called preproinsulin fits these criteria. It is specific to the β cells destroyed in T1DM. Preproinsulin (PPI) is a precursor protein that gives rise to insulin. Insulin is present in storage granules that occupy most of the β cell cytosol. Insulin is known to be the target of the autoimmune process in T1DM from studies showing the presence of insulin-specific autoantibodies and autoreactive CD4 T cells in most patients who develop the disease. As yet, there are no data on the epitopes of PPI that may be used as targets by CD8 T cells in T1DM.
Previously, methods have been used to try to identify epitopes. At least three approaches have been used previously:
1. Epitope prediction. Most HLA class I molecules have a "preferred" configuration of peptides to which they can bind, termed a "motif". There are publicly available applications that enable one to search a protein for stretches of sequence that carry the required motif. However, this approach provides no information about whether the epitopes identified are actually generated in vivo. Many peptides have the capability to bind to a class I HLA molecule, so this approach generates many false positives.
2. Generating CD8 T cells. This approach involves cloning CD8 cells that react with a particular protein or peptide. The approach is successful in patients with acute virus infections, where the number of CD8 T cells is high, but is technically much more difficult and demanding in chronic viral infection, autoimmune disease and tumours.
3. Process the protein in vitro. Some of the cellular machinery that packages proteins for HLA display can be manipulated in a cell free environment. It may be possible to incubate PPI with this machinery and then examine the derived peptides for their ability to bind to HLA. This approach has not yet been tested convincingly and requires the additional step of testing the peptides for binding to the HLA.
Chang et al., (2003) Tissue Antigens 62: 408-417 discloses the ALWGPDPAAA peptide as one of 35 synthetic analogues of preproinsulin-derived peptides that are capable of being loaded in-vitro by soluble HLA-A2 molecules. This study also discloses 17 synthetic analogues of preproinsulin-derived peptides that are capable of being loaded in-vitro by soluble HLA-B8 and 17 synthetic analogues of preproinsulin-derived peptides that are capable of being loaded in-vitro by soluble HLA-B15 molecules. This study therefore identifies a large number of candidate peptides, some or all of which might conceivably be loaded by Class I HLAs in vivo. However, it is not possible to identify from this study which, if any, of the disclosed peptides are present in the peptide-MHC complexes used as targets by CD8 T cells in T1DM.
Rathmann et al., (2004) Ann N.Y. Acad Sci 1037: 22-25 discloses that a number of unspecified synthetic preproinsulin-derived peptides, including several peptides from within the signal sequence of preproinsulin are capable of eliciting a T cell response when pulsed on to the surface of PMBCs and CD8+ T cells from two diabetic subjects. However, it is not possible to identify from this publication the identity of the individual peptides to which a T cell response was noted, or to identify the HLA molecule loading these pulsed peptides of the surface of the cells.
To summarise, neither of the above studies either individually or in combination, identify which preproinsulin-derived peptides a native preproinsulin containing cell presents in the context of a given MHC molecule such as HLA-A2. Without such information none of the preproinsulin peptide-HLA complexes disclosed in Chang et al., (2003) Tissue Antigens 62: 408-417 is identifiable as appropriate therapeutic targets.

T cell receptor having binding affinity for a peptide-MHC complex and uses thereof


A system and method for adjusting the depth or view of three dimensional (3D) images in streaming video is provided. The invention enables the 3D streaming video client to change among different 3D disparities without any knowledge of the disparity maps or requiring any image processing at the client. Multiple versions of the video sequence are pre-encoded with each version representing a different disparity. The disparity of the 3D image may be changed on-the-fly to a selected rendering of a particular disparity. The 3D video player may switch among disparities seamlessly during playback.

In one three-dimensional (3D) solution for adjusting disparity in an image, a slider on a handheld game device is used to directly change the 3D disparity of the images on the liquid crystal display (LCD). This solution does not require glasses as the device may use parallax barrier technology. While this technology may work well in a small form factor with close viewing distances, it does not scale well to larger screen like televisions with longer viewing distances.
Another solution, usable on a game platform, allows the user to change the 3D disparity to best fit the user's preference. Since the game graphics are generated on the platform as game play occurs, it is possible to change the 3D disparities without transmitting any metadata from an external source. This is an advantage that 3D generated content has when it is rendered directly by the game platform. However, this is not the case with movies and television content as that content is rendered and encoded before it reaches its intended viewing platform.

Method for adjusting depth or view of three-dimensional streaming video


An engine has a continuously variable transmission in which a drive pulley is attached to an end of a crankshaft. The drive pulley is coupled by a flexible transmitter to a driven pulley. The driven pulley is attached to an end of a transmission shaft. A centrifugal clutch mechanism is axially aligned with the transmission shaft. The centrifugal clutch is positioned inboard of the driven pulley. A case supports the crankshaft and the transmission shaft. The case comprises a first case portion and a second case portion that are joined along a plane that is positioned between the driven pulley and a longitudinal plane that intersects an axis of a cylinder of the engine.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an engine with a V-belt type continuously variable transmission.
2. Description of the Related Art
Vehicles have used engines coupled to continuously variable transmissions for years. Over the years, there have been various constructions that address different perceived problems with the prior constructions. Most of the constructions feature a drive pulley attached to the crankshaft and a driven pulley attached to a transmission shaft. The two pulleys are connected by a V-belt or the like.
Often, the crankcase of the associated engine is split into a left portion and a right portion. The two portions are joined at a surface that extends generally perpendicular to the crankshaft. The location at which the two portions are joined typically is offset to one side of the cylinder axis or the other such that an intake port associated with the cylinder is formed in only one of the two portions. Such a construction is easier to manufacture because the intake port portion would have to be carefully aligned if the two portions each contained a part of the intake port. Such an engine is shown in, for example, JP-A-8-151927. In this arrangement, however, the clutch mechanism is positioned such that it is difficult, if not impossible to employ a wet-type of clutch. Thus, the benefits of the wet-type clutch are denied.
Engines also have been coupled with continuously variable transmissions that are integrally designed with the engine. In such combinations, a right portion and a left portion of the casing can be joined together using bolts. The combination casing contains a crankshaft, a drive pulley shaft, a transmission pulley shaft of the V-belt type continuously variable transmission, and an output shaft for outputting the power to the rear wheel, which can be arranged in parallel with one another. The engine incorporating this type of V-belt continuously variable transmission realizes a narrow configuration even though the engine features a V-belt type continuously variable transmission. Such a construction can be found, for example, in JP-A-2001-65650. In such a configuration, however, the driven pulley and the clutch both have relatively large diameters and are provided on separate axes. Therefore, the engine case must be enlarged to accommodate both, making it difficult to reduce the size of the engine case.
In one other configuration, a centrifugal clutch mechanism is positioned between an engine and a drive shaft of a continuously variable transmission. The power transmitted into the continuously variable transmission through the clutch is then transmitted to a sub-gear transmission. In this engine, a driven gear is press-fit to the drive shaft of the sub-gear transmission and the driven gear meshes with the drive gear of the counter-shaft of the sub-gear transmission. The tolerance between the driven gear and the drive shaft preferably is set so that slipping can occur between the driven gear and the drive shaft when a predetermined torque is exceeded. Such a configuration is devised to reduce the likelihood of drive train failure while featuring a fairly simple structure using fewer parts, having a lower cost and having a lower weight. This configuration is shown, for example, in JP-A-2002-68070. The arrangement illustrated therein, however features a clutch that is positioned between the crankshaft and the drive pulley, which expands the transmission chamber laterally outward. The expansion makes a compact configuration difficult.

Engine incorporating a V-belt type continuously variable transmission


An electronic array probe for ultrasonic imaging includes an array of transmitting and/or receiving electroacoustic transducers arranged in concentric bands in which the transducers are tangent to one other in both radial and circumferential directions. In order to minimize the number of transducers required without compromising dynamic range, a transducer arrangement geometry is provided so that the number of transducers having the same focusing delay is minimal or null.

This invention relates to electronic array probes for ultrasonic imaging, and in particular, to electronic array probes that comprise an array of transmitting and/or receiving electroacoustic transducers.
In the operation of electronic array probes, an ultrasonic beam is swept over a region of interest by electronic means which electronically generates time delays for acoustic radiation from each transducer. Thanks to this technique, the ultrasonic beam, which is generated by the acoustic contributions from all transducers, may be focused on one point, line or area of the region of interest, or the beam may be steered.
However, conventional two-dimensional array probes have the drawback of requiring a relatively large number of transducers in order to obtain sufficient resolution, resulting in the cable that connects the transducers to the controller having a large number of conductors, i.e., at least one conductor per transducer. This is a serious limitation, particularly for endocavitary or intraluminal probes, which are designed to be introduced in orifices or canals of the human or animal body, and are subjected to well-defined strict size restrictions. Therefore, both cable selection and probe installation are problematic and expensive, and also cause the probe to be more delicate to meet size restrictions that are barely compatible with the ideal size for endocavitary or intraluminal examinations.
Two different arrangements are known in the art to obviate this drawback. A first known arrangement provides for the use of a multiplexer and a cable having as many conductors as are needed for a subset of the total number of transducers, such that conductors are alternately switched to different subsets of transducers by the multiplexer. In addition to cost problems, the multiplexer is still a space-requiring electronic device, so therefore the problem is only partly solved. Also, while the multiplexing process allows the use of cables having a reduced number of conductors, i.e. smaller cables, it requires longer scanning times, as the whole transducer array is excited by way of a transducer subset exciting sequence, causing a longer beam forming time in addition to focusing or steering delays.
An alternative arrangement is known as a sparse array probe. Sparse arrays are two-dimensional arrays in which not all transducers are connected to the controller or not all the transducers are present. Hence, the number of conductors in the cable for connecting the probe to the control apparatus is actually reduced, but the acoustic signal dynamic range, i.e. the major to minor lobe ratio, is also reduced. Secondary or minor lobes are related to the number of transducers in the array. Therefore, sparse array probes typically have a large number of transducers, making them unsuitable for use in endocavitary probes.
A few examples of the foregoing arrangements are further detailed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,537,367 and 6,419,633.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,797,682 describes an endocavitary probe in which transducers are arranged in annular concentric bands and are adjacent and tangent to one another both within their respective annular bands and between annular bands, and in which transducers have identical extensions or active radiating areas in any one of the annular bands, and different extensions of active radiating areas from one band to the other. Transducers are described to have such sizes that the spacing between transducers, i.e. between the centers of the radiating surfaces of transducers, is irregular and does not account for the current restriction that requires spacing not to exceed half the wavelength of the acoustic pulse. While transducer arrays according to U.S. Pat. No. 4,797,682 provide encouraging results, they still have the drawback of requiring a large number of transducers having different sizes, whereby attention has to be paid during design to ensure that size differences actually work to minimize the number of transducers that, in the worst-case scan plane condition, have identical focusing delays on that plane. Therefore, the design of these types of probes is difficult and their construction requires a considerable number of transducer types having different radiating areas. More generally, there is no rule that allows for a reduction in the number of different transducers by providing a way to determine the number, pattern and type of the transducers required to form a predetermined array while obtaining the desired results.
Also, in the arrangement according to the above mentioned patent, transducer sizes vary from one annular band to the other; hence, the overall power delivered by each transducer varies according to its radiating area.
In the prior art, there are no phased array endocavitary probes that provide good dynamic range, i.e. sufficient major to minor lobe ratio, good resolution, and relatively low cost that allow them to be used with low-priced ultrasonic imaging apparatus.
From the technical point of view, the solution to this problem requires two contrasting requirements to be fulfilled. In fact, the attainment of high resolution and dynamic range, i.e. an optimized major to minor or side lobe ratio, requires the provision of a large number of transducers, and high dynamic range further requires spacing between transducer centers to be as small as possible, whereas probe size and cost reduction requires a reduction of the number of transducers, which affects resolution and dynamic range.
Therefore, the need arises for phased array ultrasonic probes which have a small size and a sufficient number of transducers such as to provide an optimized resolution and an optimized dynamic range, and which can be fabricated at such cost as to be able to be used with low-priced ultrasonic imaging apparatus, i.e., at very low costs.

Electronic array probe for ultrasonic imaging


A wheel chair with commode for a patient that coverts in to a bed is disclosed. The wheel chair includes an outer rectangular main frame standing on at least four wheeled legs, first, second, third, and four outer frame being connected to each other by pivots or hinges, a pair of additional wheels being connected to the third frame by means of links that prevent the chair or bed from tilting backward due to weight of first and second frames and the patient, a means for making movements of the first, second, third and fourth frames to convert chair into bed or vice-versa, inner frames being slidably fitted inside the outer frames, and a commode pan or pot being fitted under the main frame, wherein a cushion is provided between said main frame and commode pan or pot.

Lifting and shifting of a disabled/bedridden person has always been difficult, risky and problematic. This lifting and shifting is dangerous and painful for the disabled person if done by the untrained person. The patients are scared of this procedure, as there is a danger of slipping and falling and getting injured.
This lifting and shifting is strenuous for the nurse. When he/she is trying to lift the patient, he/she has to bend over the patient to lift him. This posture in the long run gives the nurses a back pain and can turn into permanent back problems. A lot of medical literature is available on back problems of nurses as it is very common in nurses.
A disabled person mainly needs to be shifted from a bed to change the bed or bed sheet. The person also needs to be lifted when putting a bed pan under him. This lifting and shifting is painful and dangerous for the disabled/bedridden person.
Many lifting and shifting apparatuses are available in the market. All these apparatus are expensive and unpractical at home as it takes a lot of space and a lot of training for the user. In hospitals some help is available but at home one is helpless and finds lifting and shifting very difficult.
It has been observed that it is very difficult to nurse bedridden persons, the main difficulties are:    i. shifting of patient from bed to wheel chair for transport;    ii. shifting of patient from wheel chair to bed for sleeping or rest; and    iii. sifting the person for putting bed pan under him.
JP10179645 provides wheel chair for nursing care. This wheel chair for nursing care consists of an L-shape supporting frame equipped with a holding frame and a pedestal and a truck on which the frame is installed. The truck has casters which can freely move around in all directions, and is of such a height as to allow itself to be introduced into a space below a bed for nursing care. In addition, the truck has a lift drive device mounted on the lateral part and also is of such a U-shape that one of the sides is open. Therefore, a patient can be positioned right above a stool in such a way that the truck 4 holds the stool. Besides, an ordinary-type flat truck can be used and also a motor-driven truck can be applied to this wheel chair. The lift drive device is constructed of a cylinder or a rack/pinion mechanism, or chain or motor-driven.
DE10241008 provides a wheel chair has a telescopic frame to provide continuously adjustable wheelbase, setting holes to give adjustable distance between pivoted wheel axis and frame and an adjustable seat position in the frame fork.
Also the wheel chair available in the market is used only for shifting purpose. It is not provided with bed facility. Also it does not have commode facility.
Hence there is a need of an improved wheel chair cum bed where lifting & shifting is eliminated. As this apparatus itself converts from bed to chair and vice-versa, the patient does not need to be shifted from bed to chair or vice-versa. This improved apparatus for a patient which will address and overcome all the problems of the wheel chair or bed or lifting & shifting apparatus of the prior art.
It is a common fact that all the patients on fouler (back straitening) bed slide down with the operation of the backrest. They have to be pulled up every day and that is strenuous for nurse or family members and painful for the patient.
This sliding forward of patient happens because as the back is strained the patient is pushed forward as there is no sliding movement between the patient and the back frame.
In the available equipment there is no arrangement to stop this pushing. The patient is pushed forward and so slides towards his feet. As a result he has to be pulled up when the back of the bed goes into bed position as it does not pull the patient up but goes does down to bed position so the patient remains in the pushed forward position. In the available equipment nothing is available to solve this problem.
The primary object of the present invention is to provide a wheel chair and bed where lifting & shifting is eliminated. Such apparatus for a patient which will address and overcome all the problems of the chair or bed or lifting & shifting apparatus of the prior art.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a wheel chair and bed where lifting & shifting is eliminated and such apparatus for a patient which will be used as a chair as well as bed also.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a wheel chair and bed where lifting and shifting of patient is eliminated.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a wheel chair and bed where lifting & shifting is eliminated and this apparatus for a patient which has the built in commode.
To overcome this problem a need was felt to invent some mechanism, which will:    1. Stop pushing the patient forward (towards legs);    2. Will save the energy of nurse and make their life easy; and    3. The patient will not have to go through the painful procedure.

Wheelchair with a commode that converts into a bed


Mud pulse telemetry systems and methods that employ some combination of modulated pulse positions, modulated pulse widths, and modulated pulse amplitudes to increase telemetry data rates. In at least some of the employed coding techniques, information is conveyed by the positions of both the upward and downward transitions. In some embodiments, fixed symbol intervals are used to convey combinatorial coded waveforms. In other embodiments, variable length symbol intervals include both a pulse position interval and a pulse width interval. The two intervals can be independently varied to convey telemetry data. Subject to specific system constraints, optimal coding efficiencies may be expected at data rates of between four and seven bits per symbol interval.

Modern petroleum drilling and production operations demand a great quantity of information relating to parameters and conditions downhole. Such information typically includes characteristics of the earth formations traversed by the borehole, along with data relating to the size and configuration of the borehole itself. The collection of information relating to conditions downhole is termed "logging."
Drillers often log the borehole during the drilling process, thereby eliminating the necessity of removing or "tripping" the drilling assembly to insert a wireline logging tool to collect the data. Data collection during drilling also enables the driller to make accurate modifications or corrections as needed to steer the well or optimize drilling performance while minimizing down time. Designs for measuring conditions downhole including the movement and location of the drilling assembly contemporaneously with the drilling of the well have come to be known as "measurement-while-drilling" techniques, or "MWD". Similar techniques, concentrating more on the measurement of formation parameters, commonly have been referred to as "logging while drilling" techniques, or "LWD". While distinctions between MWD and LWD may exist, the terms MWD and LWD often are used interchangeably. For the purposes of this disclosure, the term LWD will be used with the understanding that this term encompasses both the collection of formation parameters and the collection of information relating to the movement and position of the drilling assembly.
In LWD systems, sensors in the drill string measure the desired drilling parameters and formation characteristics. While drilling is in progress these sensors continuously or intermittently transmit the information to a surface detector by some form of telemetry. Most LWD systems employ mud pulse telemetry, a system in which the drilling fluid transported by the drill string serves as the communications medium. In positive-pulse systems, a valve or other form of flow restrictor creates pressure pulses in the fluid flow by adjusting the size of a constriction in the drill string. In negative-pulse systems, a valve creates pressure pulses by releasing fluid from the interior of the drill string to the annulus. In both system types, the pressure pulses propagate at the speed of sound through the drilling fluid to the surface, where they are detected with acoustic or pressure sensors.
Systems employing mud pulse telemetry face various sources of degradation, including drilling noise, noise from motion of the drilling string within the borehole, attenuation, and noise from the circulation pumps. To combat these issues, mud pulse telemetry systems in the past have relied on fixed width pulses chosen to be long enough to support long integration times (relative to the time characteristics of the interfering noise sources), yet short enough to minimize the effect of baseline pressure drift. Indeed, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,067,114, Rorden states that the baseline drift characteristics of these systems "necessitat[e] a return-to-zero (hereafter 'RZ') format for reliable pulse detection". To honor the RZ format requirement, Rorden employs various arrangements of fixed-width pulses within a fixed symbol interval to achieve combinatorial coding. However, the coding techniques put forth by Rorden may be unduly limiting.
While the invention is susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof are shown by way of example in the drawings and will herein be described in detail. It should be understood, however, that the drawings and detailed description thereto are not intended to limit the invention to the particular form disclosed, but on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claims.


A method of treating dichloromethane laden streams to prevent discharge into the environment by contacting the laden stream with an aqueous solution of an alkali metal hydroxide and an alkylene ether glycol.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method of effectively removing dichloromethane from effluent streams of a chemical process and thus to prevent the dichloromethane from entering the environment and more particularly to a method of converting the dichloromethane into a material that is more readily handled by disposal technique.
Dichloromethane is one of the more common laboratory and industrial solvents particularly useful because of its cost, non-flammability and low boiling point. Major users of dichloromethane recycle it, however, inevitably, some of it is lost to the environment.
2. Description of Related Art
The Williamson ether synthesis involves a reaction between a halide and an alkoxide, generally generated from the alcohol with sodium, potassium or other reactive metal. Sodium and potassium hydroxide are generally too weak to significantly deprotonate the alcohol.


A method of an aspect includes receiving an instruction indicating a first source having at least one set of four state matrix data elements, which represent a complete set of four inputs to a G function of a cryptographic hashing algorithm. The algorithm uses a sixteen data element state matrix, and alternates between updating data elements in columns and diagonals. The instruction also indicates a second source having data elements that represent message and constant data. In response to the instruction, a result is stored in a destination indicated by the instruction. The result includes updated state matrix data elements including at least one set of four updated state matrix data elements. Each of the four updated state matrix data elements represents a corresponding one of the four state matrix data elements of the first source, which has been updated by the G function.

1. Field
Embodiments relate to processors. In particular, embodiments relate to processors to execute instructions to process the BLAKE secure hashing algorithm.
2. Background Information
Cryptographic hash functions are widely used in electronic devices. A message or input data may be input to the cryptographic hash function, the message or input data may be processed, and a cryptographic hash may be output. The cryptographic hash is sometimes referred to as a message digest, a digest, or a hash. The cryptographic hash functions generally are such that a change to the input data will also change the output hash. Cryptographic hash functions are commonly used for security, authentication, verification, or identification. Examples of particular applications of cryptographic hash functions include, but are not limited to, use in generating digital signatures, message authentication codes, verifying the integrity of files or messages, identifying files or data, and pseudorandom generation and key derivation.
BLAKE is a family of hash functions or algorithms that are among five finalists to be selected for SHA-3 by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). BLAKE is described in SHA-3 proposal BLAKE, by Jean-Jean-Philippe Aumasson et al., version 1.3, Dec. 16, 2010. BLAKE includes four hash functions known as BLAKE-224, BLAKE-256, BLAKE-384, and BLAKE-512. BLAKE-256 is a 32-bit version of the algorithm. BLAKE-224 is derived from BLAKE-256 using different initial values, different padding, and truncating the output or digest from 256-bits to 224-bits. BLAKE-512 is a 64-bit version of the algorithm. BLAKE-384 is derived from BLAKE-512 using different initial values, different padding, and truncating the digest from 512-bits to 384-bits. Table 1 lists properties of the four BLAKE hash functions.
TABLE 1HashWord Salt Message FunctionSizeSizeSizeBlockDigestBLAKE-22432128512<264224BLAKE-25632128512<264256BLAKE-384642561024 <2128384BLAKE-512642561024 <2128512
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating the construction of the BLAKE secure hashing algorithm 100. The construction is that of a local wide-pipe and includes an initialization stage 101, followed by a number of rounds 102, followed by a finalization stage 103. The iteration mode of BLAKE is HAIFA. Its compression function depends on an optional salt and a counter representing the number of bits hashed so far. In the initialization stage, an inner state is initialized from an initial chain value, an optional salt, a counter, and constants. Following the initialization stage, a number of message-dependent rounds are employed and a different message representing the data to be hashed is introduced into each of the rounds. In the illustration, a first round 102-1 receives a first message, a second round 10202 receives a second message, and an Nth round 102-N receives an Nth message. BLAKE permits a variable number of rounds. Often, at least ten or more rounds are recommended, although this is an implementation choice. In the finalization stage 103, the intermediate hash is finally compressed to return the next chain value. The last chain value representing the final hash.
FIG. 2 illustrates a BLAKE hashing algorithm state matrix 104. The state matrix is used during the rounds of the BLAKE hashing algorithm. The state matrix includes a four row-by-four column (4×4) matrix of state words. These state words are labeled from left-to-right and top-to-bottom as v0-v15. In BLAKE-224 and BLAKE-256 each of these words is 32-bits. In BLAKE-384 and BLAKE-512 each of these words is 64-bits.
FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating that a round 302 of the BLAKE secure hashing algorithm includes a column step 305 followed by a diagonal step 306. The term "step" is used in the BLAKE SHA-3 proposal, and is used herein for consistency, rather than to imply a "step for performing" interpretation. In the column step, all four columns are updated by application of a BLAKE compression G function. The BLAKE compression G function will be referred to herein simply as the G function. The G function takes four input state words (i.e., a, b, c, d), as in the expression G(a, b, c, d), and produces four corresponding output updated state words (i.e., a′, b′, c′, d′).
In a given round of BLAKE, the column step involves four instances of the G function (G0-G3), each evaluated with state words from a different one of the four columns of the state matrix. G0 is evaluated with v0, v4, v8, and v12. G1 is evaluated with v1, v5, v9, and v13. G2 is evaluated with v2, v6, v10, and v14. G3 is evaluated with v3, v7, v11, and v15. The subsequent diagonal step of the same round involves an additional four instances of the G function (G4-G7) each evaluated with state words from a different one of four (in some cases disjoint) "diagonals" of the state matrix. The state matrix used by the diagonal step is the updated state matrix resulting from the column step. G4 is evaluated with v0, v5, v10, and v15. G5 is evaluated with v1, v6, v11, and v12. G6 is evaluated with v2, v7, v8, and v13. G7 is evaluated with v3, v4, v9, and v14. The algorithm iterates between column steps and diagonal steps for as many rounds as are used in the particular implementation. Each of these G functions involves a number of instructions.

Instructions processors, methods, and systems to process BLAKE secure hashing algorithm


A muffler for an exhaust system of a gas combustion engine, which comprises a muffler body (14) connected to an exhaust pipe inlet (10a), an exhaust pipe outlet (11a) to the tailpipe connected to the muffler body (14), and adjacent baffles (23, 24) within the muffler body (14), characterized in that the exhaust pipe inlet (10a), the exhaust pipe outlet (11 a) and the adjacent baffles (23, 24) are in line without significant restriction to gas exhaust flow and having baffle openings (21, 22) and baffle louver openings (18b, 19b) to the central muffler chamber (17), whereby the central muffler chamber route (17) is generally a straight line from the exhaust inlet pipe (10a) to the exhaust pipe outlet (11a).

The present application relates to the field of exhaust mufflers and, more particularly, to automotive mufflers. Automotive mufflers are created using different methods to channel gas exhaust through exhaust pipes in order to displace and muffle engine sound. Because of their complexity, many of these methods are over-thought and over-designed resulting in restricted performance and efficiency to the engine. Most engines perform at maximum capacity when exhaust airflow is not restricted. Mufflers that contain multiple and complex baffles to channel exhaust airflow create backflow pressure to the engine causing loss of performance and efficiency. Complex baffle designs can be expensive and complicated to manufacture. Other designs use packing, which typically consists of a fiberglass material placed within the muffler to displace sound. Due to extreme temperatures produced from the engine to the muffler, packing eventually hardens and breaks down, thus creating undesirable sound and ultimately the need for replacement.


The present invention is generally directed to substantially pure cannabidiol, stable cannabinoid pharmaceutical formulations, and methods of their use.

Cannabinoids are chemicals that are produced by cannabis flowers. Cannabinoids imitate endogenous compounds in humans.
Cannabinoids include cannabinol, cannabidiol, dronabinol (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol), delta-8-tetrahydrocannabinol, 11-hydroxy-tetrahydrocannabinol, 11-hydroxy-delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol, levonantradol, delta-11-tetrahydrocannabinol, tetrahydrocannabivarin, amandamide, nabilone, and acids and analogs thereof. It is now possible to synthesize many cannabinoids in a laboratory thereby eliminating the need to grow cannabis for extraction of the compounds.
One cannabinoid, cannabidiol, (−)-trans-2-p-mentha-1,8-dien-3-yl-5-pentylresorcinol, is non-psychoactive and has shown promise in treating numerous diseases and disorders. Synthetic cannabidiol has the same structure as naturally occurring cannabidiol.

Commercially available cannabidiol is usually contaminated with delta 9-tetrahydrocannabinol. The presence of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol can be a concern because delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol is regulated by the United States Drug Enforcement Administration as a Schedule I Drug. Having a higher Schedule number could result in easier access for patients to cannabidiol treatments. Further, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol is a hallucinogen and patients receiving cannabidiol wish to avoid this undesirable side effect of the delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol contaminant. Therefore, there is a need for a substantially pure synthetically synthesized cannabidiol that does not contain delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol.
Cannnabinoids, including cannabidiol, may be suitable for the treatment of diseases or disorders, or symptoms of diseases or disorders, such as Dravet Syndrome, Lennox Gastaut Syndrome, mycolonic seizures, juvenile mycolonic epilepsy, refractory epilepsy, schizophrenia, juvenile spasms, West syndrome, refractory infantile spasms, infantile spasms, tubular sclerosis complex, brain tumors, neuropathic pain, cannabis use disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, early psychosis, Alzheimer's Disease autism, and withdrawal from opioids, cocaine, heroin, amphetamines, and nicotine.
Accordingly, there is a need for new stable cannabinoid formulations. There is also a need for substantially pure cannabidiol.


An information processing apparatus for causing a printing apparatus to output content data included in a received print job as an output product according to information carried in a job ticket included in the print job includes an acquisition unit configured to acquire, out of a plurality of processing orders executable by the printing apparatus, information relating to a processing order that is executable by the printing apparatus when the print job is output as the output product, based on the information carried in the job ticket, a determination unit configured to determine the processing order to be executed by the printing apparatus when the print job is output, based on the information acquired by the acquisition unit, and a generation unit configured to generate a job ticket for the printing apparatus to execute the processing order determined by the determination unit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus for performing processing order determination control when a job ticket is converted among a plurality of printing systems, a control method, and a computer-readable storage medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the commercial printing industry, a commercial printing company receives an order for a request to produce printed products (magazine, newspaper, catalogue, advertisement, gravure, etc.) from a third party (customer, client), produces the printed product desired by the client, delivers the produced printed product to the client, and receives a fee from the client.
The use of a large-scale printing apparatus such as an offset type printing machine has dominated and still dominates this type of commercial printing industry. Work has been performed via various types of processes, described below. The processes include job entry, design, layout, comprehensive layout (presentation by printer output), proof reading (layout correction and color correction), proof print, block copy preparation, printing, post-processing, and shipping.
On the other hand, a market called print on demand (POD) has recently appeared against the above-mentioned commercial printing industry as electrophotographic printing apparatuses and ink-jet printing apparatuses have increased in speed and image quality. The POD aims at handling jobs in relatively small lots in a short delivery time without using a large-scale apparatus or a system. The POD has made the most of a digital image forming apparatus such as a digital copying machine or a digital multifunction peripheral (MFP) in place of the above-mentioned large-scale printing machine or printing method, to realize digital printing using electronic data.
In the POD market, digitization has been mixed better than in the conventional printing industry, so that management and control using a computer have infiltrated. In the POD market, a workflow including a plurality of processing processes (e.g., pre-print processing process, print processing process, and post-print processing process) is generated to obtain an output result. The printing system obtains an output result desired by a client efficiently by performing processing according to the processing processes in the workflow. There are few cases where one printing system includes all the processing processes in the workflow. A plurality of printing systems having different functions executes the processing processes in the workflow by performing communication on a network.
When the printing system receives a job ticket from a different printing system, as described above, the job ticket includes specific processing for only information required in another system area in many cases. The job ticket describes only abstract information based on a user's instruction for the processes executed in the printing system in many cases. In such cases, the printing system requires processing for converting the job ticket into a job ticket including specific information to be controlled within the system area. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-156671 discusses a technique relating to print job conversion control in an information processing apparatus for converting a print job among a plurality of printing systems having different functions.
In the technique discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-156671, functional information of a printing apparatus in the printing system is acquired, and the print job is converted based on work instruction data and content data. However, the technique discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-156671 does not consider a processing order to be executed in the printing apparatus because the functional information is acquired for each processing performed in the printing apparatus to convert the print job. Therefore, the print job may be executed in an erroneous order.
When a plurality of options having the same function exists in one printing apparatus, for example, it may not be found which of the options may be used to execute the print job. The print job is executed in a processing order different from a processing order desired by a client so that the obtained output product may differ from that desired by the client. Alternatively, the job ticket may be converted in a processing order that is nonexecutable by the printing apparatus, so that the print job may be canceled.

Information processing apparatus, control method, and computer-readable storage medium


In accordance with an example embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a method including: detecting a malware in a computer system and in response to the detection of the malware in the computer system initiating a deactivation of malware; detecting a file altered by the malware in response to a successful deactivation of the malware; and initiating a restoration of the altered file in response to the detection of the file altered by the malware.

Malicious software, also known as malware, refers to any software designed to infiltrate or damage a computer system without the owner's informed consent. Malware may include multiple types of software, such as computer viruses, worms, trojan horses, rootkits, adware, spyware, ransomware and any other malicious and unwanted software.
Once malicious software gains access to a computer system, it takes various actions resulting in a variety of undesirable results depending on the type of malware. For example, malicious software code corrupts application software code, resulting in abnormal termination of the application, and/or may cause degradation of system performance. The user of an infected device may incorrectly assume that poor performance is a result of software flaws or hardware problems, taking inappropriate remedial action, when the actual cause is a malware infection of which the user is unaware. Thus, it is desirable that malicious software can be removed from the computer system.
In order to remove malware from the computer system, the malware needs to be detected. Depending on the type of malware the detection of malware may be challenging as the malware authors design their software to be difficult to detect, often employing technology that deliberately hides the presence of malware on a system, i.e. the malware application may not appear on the operating system tables that list currently running processes.
Further, a complete and permanent removal of malicious code may turn out to be difficult. For example, malicious code may store a copy of itself in the memory of a computer. Upon termination or removal of malicious code components, the stored copy of the malicious code restores and/or recreates the removed malicious code components. Alternatively or in addition, malicious code may have been associated with a valid process executing on a computer system. Attempts to eliminate the malicious code may result in an abnormal termination of the valid process and thus failure in an operation of a software program or a system.
Whilst malware has long been a problem in personal computers (PCs) it is now becoming an issue in mobile telecommunications technology. As the use of mobile telecommunications technology spreads and its applications become more diverse, security threats to mobile devices and the data they hold are becoming more common.
One type of malware is so called ransomware. Ransomware is malware that takes a computer as hostage in order to force the user to give money to the author of the malware. If the ransom is paid, the operation of the computer is restored. Ransomware typically accesses the system as a conventional virus or worm i.e. through an application coupled to a network or through an email attachment, for example. The operation of ransomware can be described in the following way: a) the ransomware accesses a computer device and is executed therein, b) the computer device is taken as hostage, which shows as untypical behaviour of the computer and/or data in the computer, c) the user gets a prompt that in order to restore the operation of the computer and/or data back to normal, the user shall pay ransoms in some way, d) if the user carries out the required actions e.g. pays the ransoms, the user gets instructions for restoring the computer (e.g. a code to be inputted to the ransomware program for restoration).
The ransomware can take the computer or files as hostage in multiple ways. The operation may start when booting the system. The result can be that the user cannot execute programs other than the ones required to pay the ransom or to give instructions with respect to the payment of the ransom. Alternatively, the ransomware can terminate non-essential programs that may be running or make them operate in an incorrect way. In addition to system and application related files the ransomware may take so called user files as hostage. With the term user file shall be understood any file, which has some relationship with the user(s) of a computer device. Such files are e.g. documents, pictures and movies, which have importance to the user, but not directly to the operating system or the computer applications.
The ransomware may alter the files in many ways, e.g. by hiding the files (non-visible), modifying the access rights of the files, locking the files, encrypting the files, moving the files to another (hidden) location in the file system, mixing up the names or any possible combination of these. Moreover, the ransomware may focus its operation to certain types of files only, such as pdf files.
All in all, from a user's perspective it is essential to deactivate the malware from the computer system as soon as possible. Luckily, anti-virus software are developed to detect and deactivate malware. In order to detect a malware program the anti-virus software must have some way of identifying it amongst all the other files present on a computer device. Some known methods are signature-based detection, detection based on heuristic methods and rootkit detection. When the malware is detected, the detected piece of software is deactivated by e.g. removing it from the computer system in order to restore the operation of the computer. This applies also to malware of ransomware type. Typically, ransomware is quite easy to detect with the methods mentioned above and easy to deactivate as such.
However, the drawback of the current situation is that even if the ransomware is detected and deactivated it does not solve all the problems faced by a user. Namely, there is no mechanism to restore the files, which are infected i.e. altered by the ransomware.

Restoration of file damage caused by malware


A method for making a hydroisomerization catalyst having improved thermal stability and metal dispersion characteristics, the catalyst prepared therefrom, and a process for making a base oil product using the catalyst are disclosed. The catalyst is prepared from a composition comprising an SSZ-91 molecular sieve and a rare earth modified alumina, with the composition being modified to contain a Group 8-10 metal, typically through impregnation of a Group 8-10 metal composition. The catalyst may be used to produce dewaxed base oil products by contacting the catalyst under hydroisomerization conditions with a hydrocarbon feedstock.

A hydroisomerization catalytic dewaxing process for the production of base oils from a hydrocarbon feedstock involves introducing the feed into a reactor containing a dewaxing catalyst system in the presence of hydrogen. Within the reactor, the feed contacts the hydroisomerization catalyst under hydroisomerization dewaxing conditions to provide an isomerized stream. Hydroisomerization removes aromatics and residual nitrogen and sulfur and isomerize the normal paraffins to improve the base oil cold properties. The isomerized stream may be further contacted in a second reactor with a hydrofinishing catalyst to remove traces of any aromatics, olefins, improve color, and the like from the base oil product. The hydrofinishing unit may include a hydrofinishing catalyst comprising an alumina support and a noble metal, typically palladium, or platinum in combination with palladium.
The challenges generally faced in typical hydroisomerization catalytic dewaxing processes include, among others, providing product(s) that meet pertinent product specifications, such as cloud point, pour point, viscosity and/or viscosity index limits for one or more products, while also maintaining good product yield. In addition, further upgrading, e.g., during hydrofinishing, to further improve product quality may be used, e.g., for color and oxidation stability by saturating aromatics to reduce the aromatics content. The presence of residual organic sulfur and nitrogen from upstream hydrotreatment and hydrocracking processes, however, may have a significant impact on downstream processes and final base oil product quality.
Hydrodewaxing of straight chain paraffins involves a number of hydroconversion reactions, including hydroisomerization, redistribution of branches, and secondary hydroisomerization. Consecutive hydroisomerization reactions lead to an increased degree of branching accompanied by a redistribution of branches. Increased branching generally increases the probability of chain cracking, leading to greater fuels yield and a loss of base oil/lube yield. Minimizing such reactions, including the formation of hydroisomerization transition species, can therefore lead to increased base oil/lube yield.
It is further believed that excessive chain cracking may be reduced, and isomerization activity increased, through improved noble metal dispersion and catalyst thermal stability. Catalyst aging performance (durability) may thereby be improved as well, so that such catalysts may demonstrate increased lifecycle time, leading to extended lifecycle product yield improvements.
A more robust catalyst for base oil/lube production is therefore needed to isomerize wax molecules using catalysts that reduce undesired cracking and hydroisomerization reactions and to provide improved metal dispersion and thermal stability of the catalyst. Accordingly, a continuing need exists for catalysts, catalyst systems, methods and processes to produce such catalysts, as well as base oil/lube products produced through the use of such catalysts.

Hydroisomerization catalyst with improved thermal stability