Method for the automatic generation of malware signatures from computer files. A common function library (CFL) created, wherein the CFL contains any functions identified as a part of the standard computer language used to write computer files which are known as not containing malware. The functions of a computer file which does contain a malware are extracted and the CFL is updated with any new common functions if necessary, such that the remaining functions are all considered as candidates for generating the malware signature. The remaining functions are divided into clusters according to their location in the file and the optimal cluster for generating the malware signature is determined. One or more of the functions in the optimal cluster is selected randomly, as the malware signature.

During recent years, the number of malware attacks on computer networks has increased dramatically, as has the dependence of companies and government agencies on their computer networks. Consequently, many efforts are made in order to provide computer and data protection in multi-connectivity data networks.
A single malware (malicious software) in a computerized system, intruding the system from the computer network, can result in the loss and/or unauthorized utilization and/or modification of large amounts of data. As a case in point, the total cost of the Code Red worm epidemic, as measured in lost productivity owing to interruptions in computer and network services, is estimated at $2.6 billion (Lemos, R, Counting the Cost of Slammer, CNET news, January 2003).
Many malware protection methods rely on malware signatures generated from malware-containing files. Generally, such signatures are compared to the code of any file traveling on the internet, and if similar segments of code are found in any file, that file is forbidden continued progress across the internet.
Automated signature generation for new attacks of this type is extremely difficult due to several reasons (Yong Tang, Shigang Chen, Defending Against Internet Worms: A Signature-Based Approach, in Proc. of IEEE INFOCOM'05, Miami, Fla., USA, May 2005). First, in order to create an attack signature, the attack traffic must be isolated from the legitimate traffic, which is not an easy task in all situations. Second, the signature generation must be general enough to capture all attack traffic of certain type but still be specific enough to avoid overlapping with the contents of normal traffic. Nowadays, the above problems are handled in an ad-hoc manner, based on human judgment. As a case in point, current rule-based network Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) can do little to stop zero-day worms (Ke Wang and Salvatore J. Stolfo, "anomalous payload-based network intrusion detection", in Recent Advance in Intrusion Detection (RAID), September 2004). Such systems depend upon signatures only known after the worm has been launched successfully, essentially disclosing its contents and method of infection for later deployment.
Various techniques have been proposed to derive malware signatures automatically, including among others: Vulnerability-based Signatures (David Brumley, et al., "Towards Automatic Generation of Vulnerability-Based Signatures", in the Proceedings of the 2006 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy); Payload-based Signatures (Ke Wang and Salvatore J. Stolfo, "anomalous payload-based network intrusion detection", in Recent Advance in Intrusion Detection (RAID), September 2004; Kim, H.-A. and Karp, B., "Autograph: Toward Automated, Distributed Worm Signature Detection", in Proceedings of the 13th Usenix Security Symposium (Security 2004), San Diego, Calif., August, 2004); Semantic-Aware Signatures (Vinod Yegneswaran et al., "An architecture for generating semantics-aware signatures In 14th USENIX Security Symposium", Baltimore, Md., August 2005); The Amd Algorithm (Mihai Christodorescu, et al., "Semantics-aware malware detection" in IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, Oakland, Calif., May 2005) and Honeypot-based Signatures (Yong Tang, Shigang Chen, Defending Against Internet Worms: A Signature-Based Approach, in Proc. of IEEE INFOCOM'05, Miami, Fla., USA, May 2005).
One of the main drawbacks of the prior art techniques, including those listed above, is that they tend to overemphasize the protection against recent worm epidemics and do not provide a general-purpose technique which can handle other types of malware as well. Moreover, signatures generated by the prior art techniques examine suspicious code by modeling malicious patterns in communication packets, payloads, unsuccessful connections, sessions and code structure (templates). Such signatures were tested and reported to be effective for small-sized malware. Nevertheless, they ignore the fact that many types of malware appear as full-fledged executable and therefore contain a significant portion of common-code emanating from the development tools and software packages used by the malware authors. Such common code is fixed across malware instances due to the fact that hackers usually repeatedly exploit a "toolbox" including a set of functions which enable them to generate various malware instances. Since signature-based systems do not examine malware at the executable level and do not account for these common code segments, which can be quite large, the quality of the signature generation mechanisms is dubious. Such quality is measured using the following criteria: sensitivity (low false negative for malware) and specificity (low false positive for innocuous traffic).
In the art there have been developed several methods aiming at expediting the process of signature generation for the effective containment of worms. "Autograph" (Kim, H.-A. and Karp, B., "Autograph: Toward Automated, Distributed Worm Signature Detection", in Proceedings of the 13th Usenix Security Symposium (Security 2004), San Diego, Calif., August, 2004), for example, stores source and destination addresses of each inbound unsuccessful TCP connection it observes. Once an external host has made unsuccessful connection attempts to more than a predetermined number of internal IP addresses, the flow classifier considers it to be a scanner. All successful connections from an IP address flagged as scanners are classified as suspicious, and their inbound packets written to the suspicious flow pool. In the next stage "Autograph" selects the most frequently occurring byte sequences across the flows in the suspicious flow pool and stores them as signatures. At the beginning of a worm's propagation, the aggregate rate at which all infected hosts scan the IP address space is relatively low. However, since "Autograph" relies on "overhearing" unsuccessful scans to identify suspicious source IP addresses, early in an epidemic an "Autograph" monitor is slow to accumulate suspicious addresses, and in turn slow to accumulate worm payloads. To address this problem "Autograph" uses a tattler that, as its name suggests, shares suspicious source addresses among all monitors, toward the goal of accelerating the accumulation of worm payloads.
Tang and Chen (Yong Tang, Shigang Chen, Defending Against Internet Worms: A Signature-Based Approach, in Proc. of IEEE INFOCOM'05, Miami, Fla., USA, May 2005) addressed the above problems by designing a double-honeypot system (N. Provos, "A virtual Honeypot Framework," Center for Information Technology Integration, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich., USA, Tech. Rep. CITI Technical Report 03-1, October 2003). Their system is deployed in a local network for automatic detection of worm attacks from the Internet. It should be noted that this system is not suitable for a large ISP environment.
Two further algorithms, based on Expectation-Maximization (C. E. Lawrence and A. A. Reilly, "An Expectation Maximization (EM) Algorithm for the Identification and Characterization of Common Sites in Unaligned Biopolymer Sequences," PROTEINS:Structure, Function and Genetics, vol. 7, pp. 41-51, 1990) and Gibbs sampling (C. E. Lawrence, et al., "Detecting Subtle Sequence Signals: A Gibbs Sampling Strategy for Multiple Alignment," Science, vol. 262,pp. 208-214, October 1993), were proposed for efficient computation of Position Aware Distribution Signature (PADS). Experiments based on variants of the MS-Blaster worm were performed. The results showed that the signature-based defense system can accurately separate new variants of the worm from the normal background traffic by using the PADS signature derived from the past samples.
The main drawback common to all of the automatic signature generation techniques mentioned above is that they are appropriate for instances of short, stream-based, worms such as Nimda, Code Red/Code Red II, MS Blaster (1.8 KB long), Sober, Netsky and B[e]agle. Larger malware files carrying full-fledged applications usually contain many code segments used by the development platform which was implemented to generate the malware instance. Those segments are not unique to the malware. As a result, selecting a signature that will be both sensitive and specific is a very challenging task for the above-mentioned techniques, when the file comprising the malware is relatively large.
It would therefore be highly desirable to develop an automatic signature extraction method that would account for the common code segments. Such a method would be able to detect malware appearing in small, as well as large, files. The types of malware which could be detected by such a method include Trojan horses, spyware, adware, viruses, and worms operating in a Windows environment.
It is the object of the present invention to provide a method by which malware signatures are essentially automatically extracted.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method which is suitable to extract signatures from large files.
It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide a method with low false negative for malware, as well as low false positive for innocuous traffic.
Further purposes and advantages of this invention will become apparent as the description proceeds.

Automatic extraction of signatures for malware


A mechanism minimizes the management issues of the participant objects of the logical target set, such as an application set. The mechanism maps the current physical implementation. The mechanism then identifies the target and extraneous object set locations to facilitate isolation. Thereafter, the mechanism optimizes the logical target set placement for best manageability and performance. The mechanism minimizes the management issues by providing a small application footprint. This is accomplished by placing the object set on the fewest necessary volumes to facilitate both application performance and independence of administrative action.

1. Field of the Invention
The instant disclosure relates generally to stored information systems. More particularly, this disclosure relates to management of dependencies between physical and logical elements in an application set.
2. Description of the Related Art
A business application has many dependencies between its data elements. There are also dependencies imposed and implied by the physical location where the application components are stored. Being aware and factoring the impact of these dependencies is an administratively challenging task, one that is usually not managed with adequate precision required to maintain full data integrity.
Those involved with the administrative task of managing databases may not concern themselves with the relationships between the physical implementation of the stored data particularly with placement of databases on the storage units. Meanwhile, those involved with storage may not concern themselves with the logical groupings of objects being stored.
An application is comprised of a set of objects. An accurate inventory of these objects is necessary. These objects have both a logical role and a physical implementation. However, many administrative operations are only defined for specific types of objects, which might not map to the application set of objects with uniform coverage.
For example, in certain relational databases, data backups are available by tablespace or by database, but not by file container or table. A database is comprised of a number of tablespaces which store data. A tablespace may be thought of as a child of a parent database, where the child tablespace cannot have more than one parent database. A tablespace is related to the use of the data stored in the tablespace. Thus, tablespaces are classified according to their use and how they are managed. It may be useful to be able to recover a table, but in these systems, a tablespace is the minimum granularity of backup and restore supported. On many storage systems, hardware physical backups are commonly available only by file or by storage volume. A given application can span multiple instances of each of these constructs. This is a mismatch in granularity and the physical infrastructure support available.

Automatic management of dependencies between physical and logical elements in an application set

International Business Machines Corporation


A system includes acquisition of a first image of a first radiation field, at least a portion of the first radiation field comprising radiation attenuated by a device, and the first image including a representation of first scatter radiation generated during acquisition of the first image, acquisition of a second image of a second radiation field, at least a portion of the second radiation field comprising radiation attenuated by a volume corresponding to the device, and the second image including a representation of second scatter radiation generated during acquisition of the second image, and modification of the second image based on the first image to compensate for the second scatter radiation.

1. Field
The present invention relates generally to the effects of scatter radiation on radiation imaging devices, and may be applied, for example, to portal imaging in conjunction with radiation therapy.
2. Description
Some conventional imaging devices can acquire images that represent incident X-ray radiation. For example, amorphous selenium-based imaging devices convert received X-ray radiation to stored electrical charge that represents an intensity distribution of the X-ray radiation. Other imaging devices may include a scintillator layer that receives X-ray radiation and emits light in proportion to the intensity of the received radiation. An array of charge-coupled devices or photodiodes receives the light emitted by the scintillator layer and stores electrical charge in proportion to the intensity of the received light. In either case, the stored electrical charge may be used to generate an image that represents the received X-ray radiation.
Portions of the received radiation may be attenuated by objects disposed between the imaging device and a source of the radiation. Consequently, the received radiation and the acquired image will include areas of different intensities that reflect different compositions of the objects. For example, areas of low radiation intensity may represent bone and areas of high radiation intensity may represent tissue. Images acquired using X-ray radiation may be used to diagnose illness, to plan radiation therapy, to confirm patient positioning prior to therapy, and/or to confirm a shape and intensity distribution of a radiation field prior to therapy.
The foregoing imaging techniques may generate scatter radiation. Some of this scatter radiation may be represented in the images acquired thereby. The scatter radiation may reduce the intensity gradients (i.e. contrast) between image areas that represent different objects, and/or reduce the signal-to-noise ratio of the acquired images. Accordingly, it would be beneficial to provide improved image quality by addressing the issue of scatter radiation.

Imaging system to compensate for x-ray scatter


A device comprising:                a lithium sulfur redox flow battery comprising an electrolyte composition comprising:                    (i) a dissolved Li2Sx electroactive salt, wherein x≥4;            (ii) a solvent selected from dimethyl sulfoxide, tetrahydrofuran, or a mixture thereof; and            (iii) a supporting salt at a concentration of at least 2 M, as measured by moles of supporting salt divided by the volume of the solvent without considering the volume change of the electrolyte after dissolving the supporting salt.

High energy non-aqueous lithium sulfur (Li—S) redox flow batteries are of interest, particularly for stationary applications. However, the presence of insoluble short-chain polysulfides largely sacrifices the theoretically high energy opportunity due to deposition of Li2S2/Li2S onto the current collectors (for example, graphite felt). In addition, the unstable interface between the conventional electrolyte and the lithium metal anode surface also limits the long-term cycling performance of the redox flow batteries.

Electrolyte for stable cycling of high-energy lithium sulfur redox flow batteries


The instant invention provides a polyethylene blend-composition suitable for blown films, and films made therefrom. The polyethylene blend-composition suitable for blown films according to the present invention comprises the melt blending product of: (a) from 0.5 to 4 percent by weight of a low density polyethylene having a density in the range of from 0.915 to 0.935 g/cm3, and a melt index (I2) in the range of from greater than 0.8 to less than or equal to 5 g/10 minutes, and a molecular weight distribution (Mw/Mn) in the range of from 6 to 10; (b) 90 percent or greater by weight of a linear low density polyethylene composition has a density in the range of 0.900 to 0.935 g/cm3, a molecular weight distribution (Mw/Mn) in the range of 1.5 to 4.5, a melt index (I2) in the range of 0.1 to 5 g/10 minutes, a molecular weight distribution (Mz/Mw) in the range of less than 3, vinyl unsaturation of less than 0.1 vinyls per one thousand carbon atoms present in the backbone of said composition, and a zero shear viscosity ratio (ZSVR) in the range from 1 to less than 2; (c) optionally a hydrotalcite based neutralizing agent; (d) optionally one or more nucleating agents; (e) and optionally one or more antioxidants.

The use of polymeric materials such as ethylene-based compositions in an extrusion blown film process is well-known. The extrusion blown film process employs an extruder which heats, melts, and conveys the molten polymeric material and forces it through an annular die. The ethylene-based film is drawn from the die and formed into a tubular shape and eventually passed through a pair of draw or nip rollers. Internal compressed air is then introduced from the mandrel causing the tube to increase in diameter forming a bubble of the desired size. Thus, the blown film is stretched in two directions, namely in the axial direction, i.e. by the use of forced air which expands the diameter of the bubble, and in the lengthwise direction of the bubble, i.e. by the action of a winding element which pulls the bubble through the machinery. External air is also introduced around the bubble circumference to cool the melt as it exits the die. The film width is varied by introducing more or less internal air into the bubble thus increasing or decreasing the bubble size. The film thickness is controlled primarily by increasing or decreasing the speed of the draw roll or nip roll to control the draw-down rate.
The bubble is then collapsed into two doubled layers of film immediately after passing through the draw or nip roll. The cooled film can then be processed further by cutting or sealing to produce a variety of consumer products.
Despite the research efforts in producing the polymeric materials suitable for blown films, there is still a need for a polyethylene blend composition suitable for blown film, providing improved output rates. Furthermore, there is still a need for a method of producing a polyethylene blend composition suitable for blown film, providing improved output rates.

Polyethylene blend-composition suitable for blown films, and films made therefrom


An implantable cardiac device detects a progression or regression in heart disease such as congestive heart failure. An activity sensor and a respiration sensor generate raw signals indicative of the patient""s activity level and respiration level. Degradation or improvement of the patient""s activity and respiration over a predetermined time corresponds to an indication of the progression or regression of the heart disease. A processor coupled to the sensors is programmed to process the raw sensor signals over the predetermined time and stores the processed sensor signals in a memory having a data storage area. A telemetry circuit coupled to the memory is configured to transmit the stored sensor signals to an external monitor for subsequent display. The processor further controls pacing of the heart, adjusts pacing therapy responsive to the process signals, and process the raw respiration signals when the patient is in a number of different active states.

The present invention is generally directed to an implantable stimulation device for monitoring the progression or regression of heart disease and modifying stimulation in response thereof. The present invention is more particularly directed to such a device which monitors one or more physiological parameters of a patient, over an extended time period, indicative of the progression or regression of congestive heart failure.
Congestive heart failure (CHF) is a debilitating, end-stage disease in which abnormal function of the heart leads to inadequate blood flow to fulfill the needs of the body""s tissues. Typically, the heart loses propulsive power because the cardiac muscle loses capacity to stretch and contract.
Often, the ventricles do not adequately fill with blood between heartbeats and the valves regulating blood flow may become leaky, allowing regurgitation or back flow of blood. The impairment of arterial circulation deprives vital organs of oxygen and nutrients. Fatigue, weakness, and inability to carry out daily tasks may result.
Not all CHF patients suffer debilitating symptoms immediately.
Some may live actively for years. Yet, with few exceptions, the disease is relentlessly progressive.
As CHF progresses, it tends to become increasingly difficult to manage. Even the compensatory responses it triggers in the body may themselves eventually complicate the clinical prognosis. For example, when the heart attempts to compensate for reduced cardiac output, it adds muscle causing the ventricles to grow in volume in an attempt to pump more blood with each heartbeat. This places a still higher demand on the heart""s oxygen supply. If the oxygen supply falls short of the growing demand, as it often does, further injury to the heart may result. The additional muscle mass may also stiffen the heart walls to hamper rather than assist in providing cardiac output.
CHF has been classified by the New York Heart Association (NYHA). Their classification of CHF corresponds to four stages of progressively worsening symptoms and exercise capacity from Class I to Class IV. Class I corresponds to no limitation wherein ordinary physical activity does not cause undue fatigue, shortness of breath, or palpitation. Class II corresponds to slight limitation of physical activity wherein such patients are comfortable at rest, but where ordinary physical activity results in fatigue, shortness of breath, palpitations, or angina. Class III corresponds to a marked limitation of physical activity wherein, although patients are comfortable at rest, less than ordinary activity will lead to symptoms. Lastly, Class IV corresponds to inability to carry on any physical activity without discomfort, wherein symptoms of CHF are present even at rest and where with any physical activity, increased discomfort is experienced.
Current standard treatment for heart failure is typically centered around medical treatment using ACE inhibitors, diuretics, and digitalis. It has also been demonstrated that aerobic exercise may improve exercise tolerance, improve quality of life, and decrease symptoms. Only an option in 1 out of 200 cases, heart transplantation is also available. Other cardiac surgery is also indicated for only a small percentage of patients with particular etiologies. Although advances in pharmacological therapy have significantly improved the survival rate and quality of life of patients, patients in NYHA Classes III or IV, who are still refractory to drug therapy, have a poor prognosis and limited exercise tolerance. Cardiac pacing has been proposed as a new primary treatment for patients with drug-refractory CHF.
By tracking the progression or regression of CHF more closely, treatments could be administered more effectively. Commonly, patients adapt their lifestyle and activities to their physical condition. The activity level of the patients with NYHA Class III or IV would be much lower than that of the patients with NYHA Class I or II. The change in lifestyle or activity level, due to the patient""s heart condition, will be reflected by activity and respiration physiological parameters.
The present invention addresses the issues of tracking CHF progression or regression to enhance the administration of therapies and to enable the monitoring of the effectiveness of such therapies.
The present invention provides an implantable cardiac device for detecting a progression or regression in heart disease such as congestive heart failure. An activity sensor generates raw sensor signals indicative of the patient""s activity level. Degradation or improvement of the patient""s activity level over a predetermined extended time corresponds to an indication of the progression or regression of the heart disease. A processor processes the raw sensor signals over the predetermined extended time and determines relative changes in activity levels. A memory having a data storage area stores the activity levels during the predetermined extended time and a telemetry circuit transmits the activity levels to an external monitor for display.
The activity measurements are taken at frequent intervals. The processor at time intervals such as once per day stores selected activity levels in the memory. The selected activity levels stored may, for example, represent a maximum change in activity level recorded during the last 24 hours.
Similarly, a respiration sensor generates raw sensor signals indicative of the patient""s respiration. Degradation or improvement of the patient""s respiration levels over the predetermined extended time further corresponds to an indication of progression or regression of the heart disease. The processor processes the raw respiration sensor signals to determine respiration levels. The respiration levels are preferably frequently determined for updating previously stored respiration levels in the memory. At the end of the time interval, for example every 24 hours, the processor samples selected respiration levels and stores the selected respiration levels in the memory. The selected respiration levels may represent maximum and minimum values corresponding to selected respiration parameters.
At the end of the predetermined extended time which may be, for example, 24 weeks, the activity and respiration parameters for each day of the last 24 weeks are available in the memory to be transmitted to the external monitor for display. The memory is preferably configured to be a circulating memory so that at any time the selected daily stored activity and respiration levels over the last 24 weeks are available for transmission to the external monitor for display.
In accordance with further aspects of the present invention, the processor maintains a histogram of activity and respiration levels. This histogram is updated at frequent intervals such as every 30 seconds. At the end of a time period as, for example, at the end of each week, the processor derives from the histogram a set of histogram values which are then stored in the memory. The histogram values stored each week may be maintained by the memory over the predetermined extended time of, for example, 24 weeks.
The activity parameters stored in the memory at the end of the time intervals as, for example, each day, in accordance with the present invention, include active time count which represents the longest duration of the activity being larger than the long-term activity average level, maximum activity variance level representing the maximum activity variance recorded during the last 24 hours, maximum activity taken from the activity histogram, and median and mode activity variance taken from an activity variance histogram. The respiration levels which are stored in the memory after each 24-hour period, in accordance with further aspects of the present invention, may be the maximum values for respiration rate, tidal volume and minute ventilation during sustained exercise episodes, base-line respiration rate, tidal volume and minute ventilation during normal respiration in resting condition, respiration rate, tidal volume and minute ventilation during abnormal respiration such as cyclic breathing, hyper and hypo ventilation periods, a single cyclic breathing period, total duration, total number of cyclic breathing, total time in cyclic breathing, and total time in normal sleep. The respiration levels, in accordance with the present invention, are derived from impedance levels made by the respiration sensor.
The histograms maintained in the memory by the processor preferably comprise three histograms. One histogram provides an historical record of recent activity levels of the patient. Another histogram provides an historical record of the activity variance of the patient and a third histogram provides an historical record of the difference between short-term respiration levels and long-term respiration levels of the patient. After the histogram values are determined by the processor, the histograms are cleared. As a result, at any time, the memory will contain histogram values taken each week over a 24-week period.
The foregoing provides a comprehensive history of the patient""s activity and respiration levels over an extended period of time. While the recorded levels made available for display are comprehensive in nature, only limited memory space is required for holding the most recent parameters for an extended period of 24 weeks. Upon display of the recorded levels, the progression or regression of the heart disease may be readily determined.
In accordance with a further aspect of the present invention, when the device is a cardiac rhythm management device for delivering therapy, such as pacing therapy to the patient""s heart, the device itself may adjust therapy responsive to the determined physiological parameter levels. The therapy adjustment may take the form, for example, of pacing rate adjustments to assist the patient in breathing or in the removal of fluid from the lungs.
In accordance with a further aspect of the present invention, the respiration measurements are taken during different patient activity conditions. To that end, when it is time to take and update respiration levels, the respiration and activity measurements stored are determined by the patient activity condition.

Implantable cardiac device for managing the progression of heart disease and method


The present invention relates to a hybrid power supply for converting an alternating input signal fed to its input into a direct output signal produced at its output. The hybrid power supply comprises a rectifier for converting the alternating input signal into a mono-alternation signal; a capacitor for smoothing the mono-alternation signal into a direct signal; a switching regulator stage coupled to the capacitor for generating a pre-regulated direct signal having a constant amplitude; a 1/X frequency modulating circuit for generating two switching pulsed signals of constant pulse width at a variable frequency according to a 1/X function in relation to the direct signal originating from the capacitor; and a linear regulator stage coupled to the switching regulator stage for regulating the pre-regulated direct signal, and for generating the direct output signal. A 1/X pulse with modulating circuit can also be provided for generating two variable pulse width signals synchronized with the switching pulsed signals for allowing adjustment of the output. Low power dissipation of the power supply elements allow to use an airtight shielding to eliminates interferences.

Almost all the power supplies on the market are either of a linear type or a switcher type. Linear power supplies have good regulation characteristics but a very low efficiency, large weight, large size, bad isolation from noisy lines and large temperature rises. Switching power supplies, on the other hand, have a good efficiency, low weight, small size, good isolation from line transients, low temperature rises but have usually poor regulation (especially load regulation), large ripple and noise, and large emitted interferences. In addition, the latters are usually more complex and difficult to repair. In order to have the switcher type efficiency and linear type regulation, a natural idea is to combine the two techniques to obtain a hybrid power supply.
However, simply cascading an unregulated switcher with a linear regulator would probably decrease the size and the weight of the supply by eliminating a 60 Hz transformer, but would not increase the efficiency. It could even decrease it as the efficiency of saturating core inverter is usually lower than the 60 Hz transformer efficiency.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,679,130 and 4,893,228 show the uses of cascading configuration of a conventional pulse width modulated switching supply with a linear regulator. However, these types of supplies should have some drawbacks as: parasitic oscillations on certain conditions induced in a feedback loop followed by another feedback loop; susceptibility to load transient even if these load variations are somewhat dampened by the linear regulator; high RF noise; and spike content easily transmitted across the linear which has usually poor rejection at high frequency.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,730,244 is an over current protection scheme implemented in the primary circuit of a conventional half bridge pulse width modulated unit. The present supply which will be described, is not a half bridge PWM unit.
Also known in the art there is the U.S. Pat. No. 4,712,169 of Manfred Albach, granted on Dec. 8, 1987, describing a circuit arrangement for forming a direct voltage from a sinusoidal input voltage. This circuit comprises among other elements, a pulse generator responsive to the input voltage to derive switching pulses for a transistor whose frequency is varied uniformly in time between a minimum frequency at the maximum value of a rectified input voltage and a maximum frequency at the minimum value. One drawback with this circuit is that the rectified input voltage must not be regulated even roughly because in that case the voltage to frequency provided in this circuit cannot detect small variations of the input voltage such as ripple signal. However, the main drawback is that it can work only with constant frequency and constant amplitude of the line, which means that no real regulation can be obtained with that circuit. Its purpose, as the inventer state it, is purely to reduce the size of the filtering choke.
An objective of the invention is to provide a power supply with better regulation than the ones known in the art, very reduced ripple and noise voltage, high efficiency, small weight, small size, easy maintenance and low cost.
Another objective of the invention is to provide a current source with better regulation than the ones known in the art, preferentially in view of realizing low weight and volume Ni-Cad battery charger.

Hybrid power supply for converting an alternating input signal into a direct output signal


A non-powered passive optomechanical position switch and an operational control system for controlling an apparatus using an optical fiber waveguide, the switch including an orientable structure supporting a plurality of reflective surfaces at the terminus of the optical fiber waveguide, wherein at least some of the reflective surfaces each uniquely manipulates one or more properties of light received from the optical fiber waveguide in reflecting light back through the optical fiber waveguide to an optocontrolling transceiver. Orienting the orientable structure relative to the terminus of the optical fiber determines which of the plurality of reflective surfaces is positioned at the terminus of the optical fiber waveguide, and thereby determines what properties of light are manipulated and reflected back to the optocontrolling transceiver, through the optical fiber waveguide thereby controlling an apparatus.

Current technology, such as described in U.S. patent Ser. No. 10/001,367, include communications technology between a non-powered remote switch and an apparatus, using optical fiber, whereby only the absence through absorption or presence through reflection of any wavelength of light communicates a switch position to the apparatus. This communication method is limited to two switch positions, and is capable of misinterpreting a switch position when other conditions interfere with the signal (e.g., when the optical fiber is cut, damaged or disconnected, or when foreign contaminants or moisture obscure the reflected light from the reflective surface of the internal switch components).
The herein presented non-powered optomechanical switch and supporting system is able to use multiple, individually distinguishable wavelengths or polarity of light, or both, to communicate two or more positions of the switch to an apparatus. Because multiple light wavelengths can be transmitted to the optomechanical switch, when in one position the switch of the disclosed technology can manipulate the properties of the light so received and reflect one or more wavelengths or polarities, or both, back to the apparatus; when the switch assumes another position, it can reflect different wavelength(s) or polarities, or both, back to the apparatus. By this configuration, a continuous signal is present in all switch positions and received by the optocontrolling transceiver to detect the wavelengths or polarities of the light so received, and direct the apparatus to operate accordingly. Thereby, the presence of a wavelength signal is detectable in all switch positions, with the reflected signal varying among switch positions; no signal evidences disruption of the waveguide or the malfunction of the switch.
By this design, the disclosed technology is able to communicate three or more switch positions through a single optical fiber waveguide. Specifically, because the disclosed technology provides multi-wavelength transmission and optomechanical switch manipulation of these wavelengths selectively reflected back to the optocontrolling transceiver, a third or more switch positions are possible allowing, in some embodiments, a closed-open-closed switch configuration, such as with a three position rocker switch, wherein closed in one direction operates an apparatus in a certain manner; closed in the opposing direction operates an apparatus in another manner; and open causes the apparatus to cease operation while maintaining a bidirectional light signal in all switch positions.
Additionally, the disclosed technology provides a means for more than one optomechanical switch communicating with an optocontrolling transceiver, which switches may be placed remote from one-another. Traditionally, a specific optomechanical switch has been used in a single location and only provided two positions (e.g. closed-open). Through the inclusion of an embodiment of the disclosed technology, two or more switches at different locations in a communications system is possible, providing additional uses of two and three-position optomechanical switches into everyday applications. In the instance of an automobile electrical system, for example, a passenger side power window or door lock can be controlled by a three-position switch located in the driver's door and also by a three-position switch located in the passenger's door. Using the disclosed technology, these two remote location switches may now be linked through the application of an optocontrolling transceiver that processes the change in position of each of the individual switches to control the motors and actuators from two different remote locations. Industry nomenclature refers to a system utilizing two individual switches in different locations controlling a single device as a three-way switch configuration and three switches controlling a device as four-way switch configuration, and so on. An optocontrolling transceiver may be adapted for detecting the switch positions of all switches in a fiber optic circuit of the disclosed technology and control a device accordingly.
Further, because multiple wavelengths may be transmitted by the optocontrolling transceiver, a graduated wavelength reflective scale provided in some embodiments of the disclosed technology reflecting an incremental change between two fixed wavelengths can be utilized for exacting positional detection across the scale of the reflective surface within the switch by the optocontrolling transceiver, thereby providing a precise optical potentiometer. In these and other embodiments, optical detectors and processors can be configured to detect designed allowable thresholds for determining a differentiation between wavelengths of the received signal, and therefore different positions of a multi-position switch or potentiometer.
The disclosed technology further facilitates the use of a second opposable waveguide which passively transmits to an external visual indicator on the switch housing or other structure other visible wavelengths filtered by a reflective surface, varying in wavelength based upon the reflective surface positioned at the distal end of the wave guide determined by the position of the switch, thereby visually conveying the switch position at the switch (or other location) through a change in a displayed color via an indicator.
By the novel concepts presented herein, a system incorporating the disclosed technology has a broad range of applications, including operational control of electrical lighting and appliance hardware, directional and positional awareness for autonomous systems and fail-safe industrial interlocking functions for safety and security applications as well as new mission critical passive optomechanical position switch systems. Additional benefits will be explained further in and become apparent through the following description and drawings.

Sustained continuity non-powered optomechanical position switch utilizing self-testing multiplexed optocontrolling transceiver in a fiber-optic circuit


A method and apparatus for routing communications using end-to-end QoS reservations based on node mobility profiles is disclosed. The method may include setting up active quality of service reservations along a first path to a destination edge node, receiving a mobility profile from the destination edge node, setting up passive quality of service reservations based on the received mobility profile, switching communications from active quality of service reservations to passive quality of service reservations, and tearing down the active quality of service reservations based on the received mobility profile.

1. Field of the Disclosure
The disclosure relates to packet based communication networks.
2. Introduction
In fixed Internet Protocol (IP) based networks, end-to-end guaranteed quality of service (QoS) may successfully be provided using a protocol such as the Resource Reservation Protocol (RSVP). RSVP sets up a path of soft reservations from the source to destination based on the desired QoS (i.e., bandwidth requirement). Although RSVP works well with fixed networks, it may not perform well in networks with some mobility primarily due to the difficulty in maintaining the path of soft-reservations when nodes are mobile.
When the routing path from source to destination changes due to network dynamics, including node mobility, there is an interval of substantial duration in which no QoS reservation exists between the source and the destination. This issue leads to a loss of service, sometimes the extent of which may be greater than in a network without any QoS framework.

Method and apparatus for routing communications using active and passive end-to-end quality-of-service reservations based on node mobility profiles


In a hydraulically blockable gas spring a hydraulic chamber and a gas chamber are provided one behind the other within a cylinder. The chambers are separated from each other by a separating wall. A first section of a piston rod is sealingly guided through one end of the hydraulic fluid chamber and is connected with a separating piston within the hydraulic fluid chamber. The separating piston divides the hydraulic fluid chambers into two hydraulic fluid compartments. The fluid compartments are interconnected by a hydraulic flow path. The hydraulic flow path can be selectively opened and closed by a valve. A second piston rod section extends from the separating piston through the separating wall and sealingly enters into the gas chamber. The pressurized gas within the gas chamber provides a biasing action onto the second piston rod section. The hydraulic chamber is completely filled with a hydraulic fluid. When the valve is closed, the separating piston and the piston rod sections are positively blocked in both axial directions. When the valve is open, the separating piston and the piston rod sections can be moved as a unit and are subject to the biasing action of the pressurized gas.

This invention relates to the field of blockable gas springs which may be used as positioning devices, e.g. for the head adjustment of a steering column in a motor vehicle. If a gas spring is used as a positioning element, it is desirable on the one hand that the adjusting movement in one direction occurs automatically as a result of the biasing action of a pressurized gas. On the other hand, it is also desirable that in an adjusted condition, the length of the gas spring is unvariable against axial forces in both axial directions.


According to one embodiment, an image forming apparatus includes a mode setting section configured to set an operation mode in a manner that the image forming apparatus is operated in an erasing mode if an erasing operation is instructed, a supplying section configured to supply a medium on which the image formation is completed, and which is set in an designated or specified receiving section, a decoloring section configured to decolor the color of the formed image by carrying the medium to a heating section that includes at least heating and decoloring function, and a return section configured to return the operation mode to a predetermined mode except for the erasing mode from the erasing mode, when the last medium on which the image formation is completed and which is set in the receiving section is decolored.

Conventionally, an image forming apparatus that performs image formation using a color erasable toner and an image erasing apparatus that can change the image to a decoloring state from a color forming state are known. In the color erasable toner, a binding of a color pigment and a color former is cut by heating, and the decoloring is performed. In the conventional image erasing apparatus, for example, the paper is required to be heated at 120 to 150° C. over about two hours so as to erase the color of the toner image.
As described above, since it requires about two hours for heating and about one hour for cooling, the image forming apparatus and the image erasing apparatus have each been separately provided until now.

Image forming apparatus and image forming method


In one implementation, a method includes transmitting, to a server, a first interest message. The first interest message includes a request for a representational state transfer (REST) operation and a name of a first state for the REST operation. The method also includes receiving, from the server, a second interest message. The second interest message includes the name of the first state for the REST operation. The method further includes transmitting, to the server, the first state based on the second interest message and receiving, from the server, a response to the REST operation.

Many websites, network services (e.g., web services), network applications (e.g., web applications) use a transactional paradigm known as representational state transfer (REST). A network or system architecture that uses the REST paradigm may be referred to as a REST architecture. Operations and/or transactions that use the REST paradigm may be referred to as REST operations and/or REST transactions.
The REST paradigm may include conditions that computing devices, such as servers and clients, follow when performing operations and/or transactions. One condition may be that the client state may not be stored on the server in between operations. For example, if the server uses the client state to perform a REST operation, the server may delete the client state and/or may transmit the client state back to the client device as part of returning the result of the REST operation. Another condition may be that the client initiates the REST operations. For example, a server may not perform a REST operation unless a request to perform the REST operation is received from a client device. A further condition may be that the request from the client device (to perform the REST operation) includes the information that may be used to perform the REST operation. For example, the request may identify the REST operation and may also indicate how the result of the REST operation should be represented.

Representational state transfer operations using information centric networking


This invention is a manufacturing device for a permanent magnet disposed in a rotating electrical machine, in which a plurality of magnet pieces, each formed by being fractured and split along a notch groove, are aligned and joined to each other with an adhesive interposed between fractured surfaces. First pressing means for aligning the plurality of fractured and split magnet pieces with the fractured surfaces opposed to each other in a width direction by pressing from the width direction of the permanent magnet and second pressing means for aligning the plurality of magnet pieces in a thickness direction by pressing from a thickness direction of the permanent magnet are provided. Moreover, third pressing means for joining the opposing fractured surfaces of the magnet piece with the interposed adhesive by pressing the plurality of magnet pieces from a longitudinal direction of the permanent magnet is provided.

A technology for using a permanent magnet formed by cleaving and splitting so as to reduce a surface area in a rotor core of a rotating electrical machine is known. By forming the permanent magnet as above, an eddy current generated by fluctuation in a magnetic field is reduced. Then, heat generation of the permanent magnet caused by the eddy current is suppressed. As a result, irreversible thermal demagnetization can be prevented.
A method of cleaving a permanent magnet is described in JP2009-142081A. In this JP2009-142081A, the inside of a container having an inside hollow dimension and an inside hollow shape equal to a dimension and a shape of a rotor slot is used. First, a resin is filled in this container. Subsequently, a permanent magnet provided in advance with a notch which becomes a target of cleaving is inserted. Then, the permanent magnet is cleft in the container into magnet pieces. By cleaving the permanent magnet as above, the resin is infiltrated between the magnet pieces.

Manufacturing device for permanent magnet disposed in rotating electrical machine and manufacturing method of the same


A pipe shield device includes an elongated main body having a top surface, a bottom surface, a first end, a second end and a pair of side edges. The main body is constructed from stainless steel spring metal having high impact resistance and cut resistance properties. The main body includes a resilient memory and transitions between a rolled position in a resting state and an unrolled position in a non-resting state. The main body includes a spring tension for self-securement onto a pipe via the rolled memory tension.

The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
Modern residences and commercial buildings have no shortage of water and irrigation lines. In most instances, these lines are constructed from PVC pipes or other plastic compounds that range in diameter depending on the volume and pressure of the fluids they are carrying. PVC is the preferred material due to its low manufacturing costs and corrosion resistance qualities.
Due to the delicate nature of these pipes, they are typically installed underground and within the building walls; however, it is not uncommon for a portion of a pipe to remain exposed. The exposed portion is typically located close to a building in order to provide access to a shut off valve, backflow device, water meter or other such item, which may be required by a respective state or local utility.
Unfortunately, the exposed portions of these pipes are often accidentally cut by lawn maintenance personnel in the operation of their duties. When damage to the pipe occurs, the supply of water through the pipe must be stopped until a repair person can cut and replace the damaged pipe. This process can be expensive and is a source of irritation to building occupants who may be without service for some time.
Accordingly, it would be beneficial to provide a pipe shield device that can function to prevent or reduce damage to pipes. It would also be beneficial if the shield device could be easily and quickly installed onto a pipe without requiring specialized knowledge or tools, so as to be useful in both commercial and residential environments.


The invention relates to a taste masked pharmaceutical composition comprising duloxetine or pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof. The invention also relates to processes for the preparation of such compositions. The invention further discloses an inclusion complex comprising duloxetine or pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof with one or more cyclodextrin or derivatives thereof.

Duloxetine is marketed as duloxetine Hydrochloride under the trade name Cymbalta® by Eli Lilly. Chemically Duloxetine hydrochloride is (+)-(S)—N-methyl-γ-(1-naphthyloxy)2-thiophenepropylamine hydrochloride having structure of formula I. Cymbalta® is indicated for the acute and maintenance treatment of major depressive disorder, acute treatment of generalized anxiety disorder and for the management of neuropathic pain associated with diabetic peripheral neuropathy. It is also indicated for the management of fibromyalgia.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,023,269 discloses duloxetine and the pharmaceutically acceptable acid addition salts thereof.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,508,276 discloses formulation of duloxetine in the form of enteric pellets comprising hydroxypropylmethylcellulose acetate succinate.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,596,756 discloses a method of treating fibromyalgia by administering an effective amount of Duloxetine.
U.S. Patent Application No. 20060079569 discloses oral liquid composition consisting duloxetine or pharmaceutically acceptable derivatives thereof.
U.S. Patent Application No. 20070004795 discloses pharmaceutical composition comprising duloxetine or its pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof and stabilizing amount of at least one buffering agent.
US Application No. 20060182796 discloses taste masked oral pharmaceutical composition containing a pharmaceutically active ingredient coated with a combination an enteric polymer and an ammonio methacrylate copolymer.
U.S. Application No. 20070149479 discloses nanoparticulate inclusion and charge complex, that comprises at least two complex partners, whereby a complex partner is an anionic inclusion-forming agent and another complex partner is a cationic active ingredient.
International (PCT) Application Publication No. WO2007034503A2 discloses controlled release dosage form of duloxetine comprising duloxetine or its pharmaceutically acceptable salts, pharmaceutically acceptable polymeric carrier and solubility enhancer.
International (PCT) Application Publication No. WO2009084017A2 discloses taste masked orally disintegrating tablet composition of memantine in combination with other active agents.
Duloxetine or pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof are acid labile and degrade in acidic environment of gastrointestinal tract (GIT). Acid hydrolysis of its ether linkage results in 1-naphthol, which is known to be toxic and cause several side effects. Therefore, duloxetine or pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof need protection from degradation in acidic environment of GIT. Such acid sensitive compounds have been formulated with enteric-coatings to protect them from degradation in stomach. The enteric-coated compositions of duloxetine or pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof release the drug in lower part of GIT where pH is towards alkaline side. But such compositions result in a lag period from the time of administration of composition to the onset of therapeutic action.
Duloxetine or pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof have low aqueous solubility and are slightly soluble in water. The low solubility results in practical difficulties in formulating such drugs for oral administration, particularly where early onset of therapeutic effect is desired or required.
Further, duloxetine or pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof have pungent and bitter taste. In order to improve the acceptability and patient compliance it becomes necessary to mask the taste of such compounds. Thus, there is need to develop a taste masked pharmaceutical composition comprising duloxetine or pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof having early onset of action with improved solubility.

Pharmaceutical composition of duloxetine

Bandra-Kurla Complex, Bandra East, Mumbai


A disc transportation mechanism for a disc processing device holds and transports discs by gripping the center hole of the disc. The disc transportation mechanism has a hole position detector and a position adjustment mechanism. The hole position detector detects the position of the center hole in a disc discharged to a disc transfer position from a label printer. The position adjustment mechanism can change the position of the gripping mechanism on the arm. After moving the arm to the disc transfer position, the transportation mechanism control unit controls the arm moving mechanism and/or position adjustment mechanism based on the detected position of the center hole to move the gripping mechanism to a picking position where it can grip the disc. The gripping mechanism can therefore correctly grip the disc even when the disc is not correctly discharged to the disc transfer position, and label damage can therefore be prevented.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention generally relates to a disc transportation mechanism, and more particularly to a disc processing device that holds and conveys discs using the center hole of a disc.
2. Description of Related Art
Disc processing systems such as CD/DVD publishers commonly have an inkjet printer for printing labels, and a disc transportation mechanism for conveying the discs. The inkjet printer typically has a printer tray for conveying the discs. When a disc is supplied to the inkjet printer, the printer tray is moved so that the label side of the disc passes the printing position of the inkjet head to print a label. When printing is completed, the printer tray is moved again and the disc is discharged to a disc transfer position.
The disc transportation mechanism has a gripping mechanism that grips the center part of the disc, an arm that on which the gripping mechanism is disposed, and an arm moving mechanism that moves the arm. When a disc is discharged from the inkjet printer to the disc transfer position, the disc transportation mechanism moves the arm to the disc transfer position. When at the disc transfer position, the gripping mechanism is set to the gripping position where it can grip the center part of the disc. When the gripping mechanism has gripped the disc, the disc transportation mechanism causes the arm to move and conveys the processed disc to the disc discharge stacker.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Appl. Pub. JP-A-2000-260172 teaches a disc processing device that has such an inkjet printer and disc transportation mechanism. The gripping mechanism described in JP-A-2000-260172 inserts three fingers into the center hole that is formed in the center of each disc and drives one of the fingers radially out to push against the inside circumference edge of the center hole and grip the disc.
When the printer tray, and the mechanism that moves the printer tray, wear and age, it may not be possible to correctly discharge the disc to the disc transfer position. When this happens it may not be possible to accurately align the position of the gripping mechanism to the center of the disc even if the disc transportation mechanism positions the gripping mechanism to the gripping position after moving the arm to the disc transfer position. As a result, the gripping mechanism may contact the label surface and the label surface may be marred or otherwise damaged. Another problem is that the gripping mechanism may not be able to properly grip the center of the disc and the disc may be dropped.
Because the disc is discharged from the inkjet printer immediately after being printed, the ink on the label side of the disc discharged to the media transfer position is not dry. As a result, the printed label may be damaged if the gripping mechanism touches the label surface, and the disc may therefore be wasted. The label side may also be damaged or dust or other foreign matter may adhere if the disc is dropped, and the disc may thus be wasted.

Disc transportation mechanism and disk processing device


A method of securing access to a near-field communication module (30) included in a terminal (10) comprising a security device (20) adapted to be blocked remotely and including a security component (32) connected to wireless communication means (33, 34). The method includes a step of storing security data in the security device (20) and a step of authentication of the security device (20) by the security component (32) of the near-field communication module (30) as a function of the security data stored in the security device (20).

A mobile telephone comprises a number of elements dedicated to various functions offered to users. The main elements at present are:                a keypad enabling users to communicate data to their telephones;        a screen enabling telephones to communicate with their users;        a microphone and a loudspeaker providing voice communication;        a radio communication element (for example of the GSM type) providing long-distance communication over the network of the telecommunications carrier;        a memory for storing data specific to the operation of the telephone or personal to the user;        a subscriber smart card (for example a SIM or USIM card), which remains the property of the telecommunications carrier with whom the user has a contract and provides cryptography functions enabling in particular mutual authentication with the network;        various "camera" type peripherals or Bluetooth™ Irda™, Wifi™, etc. communication ports;        an operating system (for example Windows Mobile™) and associated electronics (processor means) for managing all elements of the mobile device and providing communication between them;        possibly a removable memory card or MMC (multimedia memory card) with a format that varies as a function of the terminal (SD, miniSD, etc.).
Some mobile telephones have recently been provided with an ISO 14443 family contactless smart card type near-field communication module. This module is a contactless microchip comprising a set of components that is integrated into the mobile telephone, one of which components provides security component functions (secret data necessary for a contactless transaction, authentication, encryption, signature, etc.), for example the Philips™ Smart MX circuit. Note that some or all of this microchip (in particular the NFC security component) can equally be integrated into a removable memory card if the telephone incorporates one. The contactless microchip uses the NFC or ISO 14443 technology.
NFC microchips include an antenna and an electronic circuit and the most sophisticated examples can transmit, receive and process information via the antenna, which is also used to transmit the power needed by the microchip. NFC microchips include a security component able to store data, to control access thereto and broadcasting thereof, and to perform algorithm-based functions (encryption, identification/authentication, signature). To enable a very short response time (less than 300 milliseconds (ms) or even 140 ms), it is necessary for the NFC microchip, which processes the data exchanged on the near-field radio-frequency channel, to be connected directly to the antenna.
A mobile telephone with an NFC microchip can perform a number of operations such as secure electronic payment, opening doors or barriers, facilitating downloading of multimedia contents (tunes, videos, etc.). To perform these operations, the user places a mobile telephone including an NFC microchip near an NFC microchip reader associated with the corresponding device (payment terminal, access point, etc.).
To enable the user to consult/manage some of the data stored in the NFC microchip (for example to display on the screen of the telephone information contained in the NFC microchip such as the number of payment tickets remaining or to activate/deactivate a particular function), applications in the mobile telephone must be able to recover information stored in the security component of the NFC microchip.
As for any security element, some information stored in the NFC microchip is protected and can be read or modified only after authentication (for example by means of a "triple DES" encryption algorithm). Secret data (for example encryption/decryption keys) and calculation means capable of performing rapidly a cryptographic calculation that can be complex are necessary for effecting such authentication.
The secret data necessary for authentication by the security component of the NFC microchip is stored in the memory of the mobile telephone. Storing this secret data in the mobile telephone and effecting calculations in the mobile telephone (for example by means of a Java® Midlet application using RMS (rights management system) keys), offers the benefit of enhanced security through authentication of the user.
The subscriber smart card of a mobile telephone that has been declared stolen can be disabled, i.e. blocked, by the carrier. However, the mobile telephone could nevertheless be used for near-field ("contactless") communication with the NFC microchip simply by inserting into the telephone another subscriber smart card that is not blocked.
Consequently, the security and control of the NFC microchip must be improved to guarantee users improved protection in the event of theft or loss of their mobile telephone.

Method of securing access to a proximity communication module in a mobile terminal


There is provided an abnormality detection device includes a detector configured to detect a shake of a vehicle, a threshold setting unit configured to set at least one threshold for determining whether the detected shake of the vehicle is abnormal, a vehicle peripheral information acquisition unit configured to acquire at least one of a video around the vehicle, illuminance information around the vehicle, and sound information around the vehicle, and a vehicle information acquisition unit configured to acquire information about a driving state of the vehicle, wherein the threshold setting unit is further configured to control the at least one threshold based on the information acquired by the vehicle peripheral information acquisition unit, when the vehicle is determined to be being parked based on the information acquired by the vehicle information acquisition unit.

In recent years, drive recorders have been known that can detect and record an event/incident, such as some kind of impact to a vehicle during driving or parking.
For example, in a technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2010-128610, a determination threshold of an acceleration sensor is changed based on a change in a signal for detecting a parking state of a vehicle, and some kind of event is determined to have occurred when an output signal of the acceleration sensor has exceeded the determination threshold.
In a technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2005-161996, radio waves are emitted around a vehicle, and an abnormality is detected when a low frequency component of a reflected wave from a moving object has exceeded a predetermined level.
In a technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2007-161226, using an angular velocity sensor hardly susceptible to a shake of a vehicle caused by, for example, wind, an angular velocity of the vehicle in a direction orthogonal to a floor direction thereof is detected, and, based on the detected angular velocity signal, a determination is made as to whether the vehicle is being stolen.

Abnormality detection device, method for abnormality detection, non-transitory storage medium for abnormality detection, and vehicle recording device


The invention concerns an apparatus (10) comprising essentially a support (11) wherein is placed a measuring card (12), a perfusion device (13), a thermostat (14), a measuring box (15) and a measurement management system (16). The measuring card (12) comprises an electrode array whereof one end emerges into the chamber and the other end is placed outside said chamber. The group of cells is placed in the chamber which is connected to the perfusion device (13). The support (11) comprises a connector (25) connecting the card (12) electrodes to the measurement management system (16) via the measuring box (15).

The present invention concerns an apparatus for measuring the electrophysiological activity of a mass of cells.
In order to measure the electrophysiological activity of a mass of cells, the cells are placed in a measurement device consisting of an electrode network. Each electrode in the network comprises a bare zone contacting the cell mass, a bare zone accessible from the outside of a container holding the cells, and an insulated zone separating the two bare zones.
Various devices have been developed, generally in the form of laboratory devices, to perform measurements of said electrophysiological activity.
These devices have several disadvantages. In particular, the structure of the container does not allow long term cells survival. Additionally, when a user wishes to measure electrophysiological cell activity, he places electrical supply points in contact with the involved electrodes in the electrode network. This contact is established manually. That means it is particularly difficult to take measurements over a specific time period or simultaneously on several electrodes.
When one area on the group of cells must be stimulated, the stimulation is performed manually using a stimulation electrode. This complicates the measurement and precludes taking remote measurements. Finally, this device does not provide an on line analysis of the measurement results.
The present invention proposes eliminating these disadvantages with an apparatus that is simple to manipulate, versatile, and completely capable of remote control. This apparatus also allows long term cell survival so that measurements can be taken over a long time period.
This goal is achieved with an apparatus such as the one described in the preamble, characterized in that it comprises a measurement card with a chamber which receives the cells for analysis and contains a network of electrodes, at least some of which contact said cell mass, comprising a connector formed of conductive tracks, with each electrode in the electrode network being connected to a conductive track on the connector and said connector being coupled with a measurement circuit which transmits electrical signals to at least one electrode on said electrode network and receives electrical signals from at least one of the electrodes.
According to a preferred embodiment, the electronic measurement circuit is connected to a measurement management system which controls measurement parameters and analyzes measurement signals.
The apparatus advantageously comprises a means for assigning at least one electrode in the electrode network an electrode measurement function, and a means for assigning at least one electrode in the electrode network an electrode stimulation function.
The card is preferably placed in a support and the connector is integral with said support. The support is advantageously made of metal.
According to an advantageous embodiment, the support cooperates with a heating means which heats the measurement card.
The measurement card advantageously cooperates with a perfusion device which perfuses said cell mass.
According to a preferred embodiment, the management system comprises a means for controlling the perfusion device and a heating means. It also comprises a remote control.
The apparatus advantageously comprises a viewing means which preferably consists of a camera.

Apparatus for measuring the electrophysiological activity of a group of cells


Systems and methods for parallel autonomy of a vehicle are disclosed herein. One embodiment receives input data, the input data including at least one of sensor data and structured input data; encodes the input data into an intermediate embedding space using a first neural network; inputs the intermediate embedding space to a first behavior model and a second behavior model, the first behavior model producing a first behavior output, the second behavior model producing a second behavior output; combines the first behavior output and the second behavior output using an ideal-behavior model to produce an ideal behavior for the vehicle; and controls one or more aspects of operation of the vehicle based, at least in part, on the ideal behavior.

Some vehicles are designed to be driven manually but are equipped with an advanced driver-assistance system (ADAS) or other incident-avoidance system. Such a system can intervene by temporarily taking control of the steering system, the accelerator, and/or the braking system of the vehicle to prevent a potentially hazardous outcome (e.g., a collision). Unfortunately, the intervention can sometimes cause the driver to experience discomfort because the driver does not feel that he or she is in control of the vehicle.


A footplate for use in a treadmill is disclosed having a plurality of mounting holes in a longitudinal top channel thereof for the mounting of fastening elements to fixedly secure the footplate to one longitudinal side rail of the treadmill, keeping the planar bottom wall of the footplate closely supported on the flat top surface of the longitudinal side rail of the treadmill.

The present invention relates generally to a treadmill and, more specifically, to a footplate for use in a treadmill, which is stable when installed and, has a lip that keeps the gap between the footplate and the continuous belt of the treadmill from sight.
FIG. 1 shows a footplate for use in a treadmill according to the prior art. According to this design, the footplate 5 has parallel grooves 511 in the top wall 51. This design of footplate 5 may be installed in a treadmill 7 (see FIG. 2) in either of the two ways shown in FIGS. 3 and 4. According to the mounting arrangement shown in FIG. 3, double-sided adhesive tapes 6 are fastened to the top walls 711 of transverse bars 71 of the treadmill 7 and the bottom wall 5110 of the footplate 5 corresponding to the grooves 511. This footplate mounting arrangement is not satisfactory in function because the double-sided adhesive tapes 6 become aged quickly with use. When the double-sided adhesive tapes 6 become aged, the footplate 5 may be forced out of plate by the user""s legs. According to the mounting arrangement shown in FIG. 4, double-sided adhesive tapes 8 are fastened to inner surface portions 501 and 502 of the footplate 5 and the outer surface portions 710 of transverse frame bars 71 and outer surface portions 740 longitudinal side rail 74 of the treadmill 7. This footplate mounting arrangement has the similar drawback.
The present invention has been accomplished to provide a footplate for treadmill, which eliminates the aforesaid problem.
According to one aspect of the present invention, the footplate has a top channel longitudinally disposed at one lateral side, a plurality of mounting holes disposed in the top channel, and a plurality of fastening elements respectively mounted in the mounting holes and threaded into one longitudinal side rail of the treadmill to fixedly secure the footplate to the treadmill. According to another aspect of the present invention, an ornamental packing strip is covered on the top channel of the footplate to keep the fastening elements from sight. According to still another aspect of the present invention, the footplate further has a lip longitudinally disposed at one lateral side remote from the top channel. When installed in the treadmill, the lip keeps the gap between the continuous belt of the treadmill and the footplate from sight.


The invention provides a faucet-mounted water filter comprising an upright tubular diverter body that is adapted to be secured to the open end of the water faucet. At the bottom of the diverter body is a water outlet through which unfiltered water can be dispensed. In the diverter body is a valve with a valve outlet duct projecting from one side of the diverter body. A manually movable valve handle projects from the diverter body and is connected to the valve for directing the flow of water either through the water outlet (when unfiltered water is required) or for diverting water through the outlet duct. A filter housing is mounted upon the duct and is preferably connected to the diverter by means of the duct. A carbon block filter element is provided in the filter housing which includes a vertical water inlet surface on an outside wall and a water outlet at the bottom. The filter housing includes an annular water distribution chamber for unfiltered water which surrounds the filter element. The outlet duct of the valve is connected through the side of the filter housing at an elevation which communicates through the annular water distribution chamber with the water inlet surface of the filter element. The water outlet at the bottom of the filter element communicates with a dispensing opening for filtered water at the bottom of the filter housing. If desired, a paper prefilter is provided for filtering the water before it enters the carbon block filter.

A variety of faucet-mounted water filters such as those described in patents U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,172,796; 4,680,116; 4,686,037 and 4,770,768 have been previously described. Filters of this type have a number of shortcomings. They are complicated in construction, require numerous parts, and are consequently expensive to produce. The unfiltered water is forced to make a circuitous route through the filter housing which requires internal ductwork, usually to direct the water to the top or bottom of the filter. This complicates the construction and requires intricate molds. For example, patents U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,686,037 and 4,770,768 both require 27 separate parts. Moreover, in these patents, the filter is spaced a substantial distance to one side of the faucet by means of a horizontally disposed base portion which is enclosed within an upper and lower cover primarily for aesthetic purposes. As a result, the device is not only complicated but, because the filter is mounted a substantial distance to one side of the faucet, it occupies more space around the end of the faucet and tends to be in the way of the user. Moreover, the filter cartridges contain a granular filter material through which channels can form so that a substantial fraction of the water passes through unfiltered. Complicated ductwork is also required to direct water through an inlet surface at the bottom of the cartridge and to collect it from an outlet surface at the top of the cartridge. Another problem results from the use of a rotary diverter valve which stays in the "on" or "filter" position once set there. The valve body also extends horizontally at right angles to the downward direction of the water flowing out of the faucet. This tends to displace the filter housing further from the center axis of the water faucet. Another shortcoming is the inability to remove heavy metals and the lack of a way to pass water first through a carbon filter and then through a second filter medium.
In view of these and other deficiencies of the prior art, it is a general objective to provide an improved faucet-mounted water filter which is highly efficient in its water filtration capabilities, is compact and rugged in construction and has been reduced in cost through the elimination of a number of parts previously employed. It is a further object to reduce the amount of space occupied around the end of the faucet by having the filter and associated structure positioned close to the end of the water faucet. A further object is to both filter the water and remove chemical impurities through absorption, to lessen the possibility of channeling within the filter so that the filter lasts longer before requiring replacement. It is also an object to provide a faucet-mounted water filter that is easy to install and maintain. It is another object to provide a filter having an upright tubular water diverter with a filter housing connected to the diverter by means of a duct which projects from the wall of the diverter to the filter housing. A further object is to provide a way of having the diverter valve indicate its setting, "filter" or "nonfilter", and to return automatically to the nonfilter position when the water is turned off. Yet another object is to provide a prefilter formed from paper or the like and a carbon block filter to receive water that has passed through the prefilter.
These and other more detailed and specific objects of the invention will be better understood by reference to the following detailed description and figures which illustrate by way of example but a few of the various forms of the invention within the scope of the appended claims.

Faucet-mounted water filter with wall inlet and annular chamber


Dental implant that in the event of external pressure is able to absorb a multidirectional pressure, being provided for this purpose with a main body that includes a hollow screw inside which there is a lower end joint, a lower elastic joint, an intermediate nut with internal threading and a hexagonal exterior, an internal movement-limiting screw, an upper elastic joint, a “T”-shaped upper closing part, with a hexagonal head and a threaded interior, where the arrangement and nature of the parts enables not only the dismantling of all of the parts for revision, but also an increase in its strength in response to external forces through its capacity for axial and/or coronal movement, which helps to increase the lifespan of the implant.

So far osseointegrated dental implants in bone structure are a series of pieces fixed in a solid screw that is screwed into the maxilla.
One of the difficulties with this type of implant is the pressure they are under, which could lead to deterioration of the tooth and the very structure of the implant.
The pressures to which implants are subjected are derived from the pressure of work, such as chewing. Normal chewing exerts a pressure of 100 kg/mm2 and can reach 160 kg/mm2 in patients suffering from bruxism.
These situations cause the reduction of life of the implant. Therefore, it is an objective of this invention to develop a dental implant which, although it may be subjected to such pressures, may have elements capable of absorbing the pressure on the implants, which necessarily have an impact on the life of the implant.
On the other hand, it is intended that the implant can be removed, a fact which is very useful when you make changes to the prosthesis or when making a new prosthesis.

Dental implant with axial and/or coronal movement and method for affixing it


To provide an image display system, a terminal device, an image display method and a program in which an image displayed on the screen of the other terminal during telephone conversation is controlled with a simple circuit configuration, and a line transmission capacity is reduced. A self terminal device 100 sends data for switching images displayed on a terminal device 200 at the other end via a network 500 by using an electronic mail, a multi-call function or a discriminating tone. The terminal device 200 controls and switches the images concerning the terminal device 100 within the terminal device 200 based on such various kinds of received information.

In recent years, the number of portable telephone terminals which allow the user to transmit not only sounds but also images to another terminal during a telephone conversation on the portable telephone set and make the telephone conversation while the user sees the image transmitted from another terminal has increased.
Firstly, with the conventional portable telephone terminal having a function of sending not only sounds but also images to another terminal to allow a telephone conversation while the user sees images intended by another party during the telephone conversation on the portable telephone set, a function of sending a fictitious character image stored in the self portable telephone terminal to another terminal is also equipped.
The image transmitted to another terminal is the "image being taken by a camera outfitted with the portable telephone" or "fictitious character image stored in the self portable telephone terminal".
This function includes transmission of different kinds of expressions or motion to the party at the other end where an image's expressions or motion is controlled by a key operation at the image sending side.
In this manner, the conventional portable telephone terminal has a function of switching the image data stored in the self portable telephone to be sent to the party at the other end in accordance with topics or feelings during telephone conversation, and a function of displaying the image data sent from the party at the other end.
Herein, a technique for confirming the feeling, convenience and intent of a caller at the time of call incoming has been proposed in which when a call originating operation of the portable telephone set is performed, an image selected by an image selection part is read from an image storage part, and sent to the destination by an image sending/receiving part, and when the image is received via the image sending/receiving part at the time of call incoming, the received image is displayed on an image display part before an off-hook operation of the portable telephone set is performed (e.g., refer to Patent Document 1).
Also, a technique for displaying character animation according to voices on the display screen of the portable telephone terminal in a relatively simple way has been proposed in which character data representing a character is stored beforehand in a storage part of the portable telephone terminal, a level of a received voice signal is detected, and animation of the character is displayed on an image display part in response to the voice level, whereby the character data is composed of sub-parts that are variation form of main parts of the character, the sub-parts are exchanged according to the voice signal level, and the character is activated by receiving a control signal of the character from the other terminal during telephone conversation (e.g., refer to Patent Document 2).
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-015158
Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-064939
However, there are following problems with the conventional examples as described above.
To send the image to another terminal during telephone conversation, it is required to have an image sending/receiving part, which makes the configuration of the portable telephone complex, leading to increased current consumption. Also, it is required to have a transmission band at the time of transmitting the image, increasing a line transmission capacity.
Further, the operation for the user to send a control signal is troublesome, whereby it is required to display an operation screen to transmit an electronic mail even temporarily, and interrupt a part of the image enjoyed between the communication parties.

Image display system, terminal device, image display method and program


The process for desulfurizing a gas oil fraction according to the invention comprises a low-boiling gas oil fraction hydrodesulfurization step (I) wherein a low-boiling gas oil fraction is desulsurized under the condition of a H2/Oil ratio of 70 to 200 Nm3/kl to obtain a treated oil, a high-boiling gas oil fraction hydrodesulfurization step (II) wherein a high-boiling gas oil fraction is desulsurized under the condition of a H2Oil ratio of 200 to 800 Nm3/kl to obtain a treated oil, and a step (III) wherein the treated oil obtained in the step (I) is mixed with the treated oil obtained in the step (II), and in this process, at least a part of a gas containing unreacted hydrogen in the step (II) is used for the hydrodesulfurization of the step (I).

In recent years, influences on environment (environmental pollution) by nitrogen oxide (NOx), sulfur oxide (SOx) and particulate substances in exhaust, gas from diesel powered automobiles have become problems. In order to reduce nitrogen oxide and sulfur oxide in the exhaust gas, quality standard to lower the sulfur content in diesel gas oil to not more than 0.05% by weight (500 ppm) is laid down. Under such circumstances, production of very highly desulfurized gas oil having further decreased sulfur content is desired.
As shown in FIG. 3, a gas oil used for diesel oil or the like is usually produced by a process comprising preheating a gas oil fraction together with hydrogen in a furnace before desulfurization, then introducing the gas oil fraction into a hydrodesulfurization unit containing a catalyst and hydrodesulfurizing the gas oil fraction. In order to further reduce the sulfur concentration in this process, it is necessary to make the reaction conditions severe, for example, the reaction temperature of the desulfurization reaction is raised or the reaction time is prolonged. However, if high-degree desulfurization is carried out under such severe reaction conditions, there are problems that coloring of the resulting product gas oil takes place, the catalyst life is shortened, and the catalyst volume is increased.
As a means to solve the problems, the present applicant has found that a low-sulfur content desulfurized gas oil having a sulfur content of about 0.05% by weight can be efficiently produced by a process comprising fractionating a starting gas oil into plural fractions, subjecting each fraction to desulfurization and then mixing the fractions, and the process has already been proposed (see Japanese Patent Publication No. 49873/1994).
Under such circumstances, the present applicant has earnestly studied a process for economically producing a gas oil having a further decreased sulfur content, and as a result, he has found that a highly desulfurized gas oil can be produced economically and efficiently by fractionating a starting gas oil into a low-boiling fraction and a high-boiling fraction, then treating each of the fractions in a specific H2/Oil ratio and using an unreacted portion of hydrogen, which has been used in the hydrodesulfurization of the high-boiling fraction, for the hydrodesulfurization of the low-boiling fraction. Thus, the present invention has been accomplished.
It is an object of the invention to provide a process for desulfurizing a gas oil fraction, by which the amount of the catalyst used can be decreased to thereby produce a desulfurized gas oil economically and efficiently, a desulfurized gas oil and an apparatus for desulfurizing a gas oil fraction.

Method of desulfurizing gas oil fraction, desulfurized gas oil, and desulfurizer for gas oil fraction


A sheet storing apparatus which is attachable to a copying machine and a method of controlling it, wherein sheets ejected from the copying machine one after another are stacked in order. A detector for detecting the condition of the sheet transportation is installed in a sheet transporting section thereof, and a control section controls the timing of driving a sheet storing section, a sheet transporting section and a sheet aligning section, based on an output of the detector and data on the speed of the sheet transportation in the copying machine. The control section has a timer for determining the timing of driving each section, and the value of the timer is adjusted in accordance with the data on the speed of the sheet transportation.

1. Field of the lnvention
The present invention relates to a sheet storing apparatus and a method of controlling it, and more specifically, a sheet storing apparatus attachable to an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, a laser printer etc., wherein sheets ejected from the image forming apparatus are stacked in order so that a duplex/composite copying operation or a stapling operation will be available.
2. Description of Related Art
Recently, by increasing request for an automatic copying operation, various types of refeeding apparatuses for a duplex/composite copying operation and various types of sheet storing apparatus such as a finisher having a function of stapling sheets with a stapler or a clip, etc. have been proposed and developed. lmage forming apparatuses such as copying machines, laser printers, etc. vary in the system speed, that is, the speed of the sheet transportation. Accordingly, such sheet storing apparatuses are requested to comply with various system speeds of image forming apparatuses.
Generally, this type of sheet storing apparatus is controlled by a microcomputer, and the speed of the sheet transportation and the timing of driving each actuating member in the apparatus are changed with a switch or the like so that they are corresponding to the system speed of the image forming apparatus. However, as types of image forming apparatuses are increasing in number, the number of switches for changing the speed and the timing is increasing, and inside the microcomputer, many programs corresponding to respective changes of the speed and the timing need to be prepared, resulting in the necessity of a microcomputer with a large capacity.

Sheet storing apparatus for sheets ejected from a copying machine and a method of controlling it