To provide a semiconductor device comprising a first layer that is provided on a semiconductor substrate and includes a first wiring pattern planarized by CMP and a plurality of first dummy patterns made of a same material as the first wiring pattern and a second layer that is provided above the semiconductor substrate and includes a second wiring pattern planarized by CMP and a plurality of second dummy patterns made of a same material as the second wiring pattern. A central axis of each of the second dummy patterns coincides with that of a corresponding one of the first dummy patterns in a direction perpendicular to the semiconductor substrate.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device and a manufacturing method thereof, and, more particularly relates to a semiconductor device utilizing a planarizing process by CMP (Chemical Mechanical Polishing) and a manufacturing method thereof.
2. Description of Related Art
CMP is often used for planarizing a surface of respective layers in manufacturing of semiconductor devices. In the planarizing process by CMP, dummy patterns for CMP (hereinafter called, "CMP dummy patterns" or merely "dummy pattern(s)") are arranged so as to avoid occurrence of dishing and erosion (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2006-39587). Generally, the size, number, and arrangement of the CMP dummy patterns are determined to be optimized in the respective layers subject to CMP.
Recently, however, as for more miniaturized semiconductor devices, the following problems have been found when optical inspections are performed to detect defects such as particles and short circuits of patterns.
That is, smaller defects and particles must be detected because of miniaturizing of devices and thus the detection sensitivity needs to be increased. When the detection sensitivity is increased, however, a difference between a dummy pattern in an upper layer and a dummy pattern in a lower layer may appear as moire (interference fringe), because the dummy patterns are arranged to be optimized in the respective layers as described above. Thus, in defect inspections, such moire may be detected as a defect and defects caused by moire may be mixed with particles and defects that should be detected originally, and all of them may be detected as defects, resulting in an increased number of defects. On the other hand, when the detection sensitivity is decreased to prevent generation of moire, minute particles and defects cannot be detected, causing a decrease in yield.

Semiconductor device and manufacturing method thereof


A process for forming an improved tensile strength deformed reinforcing bar splice for use in concrete construction by radially compressing or cold forming the bar end with dies literally to flatten any ribs or deformations on the bar end to cold work a section of the bar end which will extend beyond any threaded section and the mouth of a coupler thereon. The splice formed has superior tensile qualities. The process is inexpensive and may be accomplished at or near a construction site.

Conventional taper thread deformed reinforcing bar couplers have been sold for many years throughout the world under the trademark LENTON®. LENTON® is a registered trademark of ERICO INTERNATIONAL Corporation of Solon, Ohio, U.S.A. Taper threads are preferred because of the ease of assembly requiring only a few turns of the sleeve coupler or bar and the ability to avoid cross threading and subsequent damage to the threads.
The threading process cuts the taper threads in the deformed bar end including the nominal diameter and any projecting ribs or deformations. The process however notches the bar and such couplings will not normally achieve bar break tensile capability.
In order to achieve higher tensile strength bar splices it has been attempted literally to upset the bar end to obtain a larger diameter end section which then receives a tapered or straight thread which has a larger pitch diameter than the nominal diameter of the bar. In the case of tapered threads the average thread diameter is larger than the bar nominal diameter. Such bars can achieve bar break but at a considerable cost in energy and handling. To achieve such upset bar end, the bar end literally has to be forged with substantial axial force or forge hammering. This is complicated by the fact that reinforcing bar, when cut, generally has a bent end caused by shear equipment, and if the bars are of any length or size the handling and conveying problems result in very high cost bar splices to achieve the desired minimal increase in strength.
A published U.K. Patent Application No. 2 227 802A illustrates a tapered thread bar splice having an enlarged or upset tapered threaded end. More importantly this published patent illustrates the sizable machinery including a large ram and clamps required to upset the bar end all prior to threading. The operation is simply not something that can be done easily, locally, or at a construction or fabrication site. Also to be economical the operation requires large volumes of inventory and careful handling and transportation.
Another simplified example of the type of machinery required is seen in U.S. Pat. No. 5,660,594.
Examples of such prior devices involving high cost forging or upsetting are seen in LENTON® continuity sets sold by applicant. The splices involve tapered threads on forged or upset bar ends.
Straight thread couplers on forged or upset bar ends are seen in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,619,096, 5,158,527, and 5,152,118.
CCL Systems of Leeds, England also markets a BARTEC system where the bar ends have been enlarged and threaded to mate with parallel sleeve threads.
A coupling similar to that of the above U.K. published patent application is shown in Chinese published application 97107856.4.
It has however been discovered that similar tensile benefits can be achieved without the necessity of the costly upsetting or enlargement of the bar end.

Deformed reinforcing bar splice and method


A method and apparatus for estimating a depth of a crack from ultrasound scan data are provided. The method includes mapping multiple amplitude responses from the ultrasound scan data, each mapped amplitude response being representative of a signal from one of the sensors. The method further includes locating multiple linear responses among the mapped amplitude responses, each linear response being an indicator of a reflected signal from the crack. One or more sensor that corresponds to the linear responses from a given crack is identified. The depth of the crack is estimated using data from the identified sensors.

The invention relates generally to inspection systems and particularly to pipeline inspection systems that use ultrasound data for detecting and sizing cracks and notches in pipelines.
Pipelines that allow a large amount of material to be transported from one place to another are widely used in a variety of industries. A variety of fluids such as oil and/or gas are transported cheaply and efficiently using pipelines. Particulate matter, and other small solids suspended in fluids may also be transported through pipelines. Underground and underwater (deep sea) pipelines typically carry enormous quantities of oil and gas products that are important to energy-related industries, often under extreme conditions such as high pressure, high (or low) temperature and high flow rate.
Flaws in constituent pipes may cause pipeline integrity degradation as the pipeline infrastructure ages. Corrosion or other pipeline defects can be caused by small spots of weakness, subsidence of the soil, local construction projects, seismic activity, weather, wear and tear caused by normal use, and the like. Accordingly, potential defects and anomalies can appear on the surface of the pipeline in the form of corrosion, mechanical damage, fatigue cracks, stress corrosion cracks, hydrogen-induced cracks, or distortion because of dents or wrinkles.
Maintaining and protecting existing pipeline networks is proving to be a challenge. Current state-of-art inline inspection systems use Pipeline Inspection Gages (PIG). PIGs move through a section of pipeline to acquire data from multiple sensors. A typical single run for the PIG may be more than 100 km long. The process of analyzing data obtained from the PIG and making practical use of the analysis is often burdensome. There are a variety of PIGs, common ones are the magnetic flux leakage PIGs used for corrosion detection and ultrasound PIGs used for crack detection. Current data analysis methods require on an average, about 200 man-days using ultrasound crack detection techniques to analyze and evaluate data from a 100 km long pipeline section.
Accurate sizing of the flaws (for example, cracks and the like) plays an important role in assessing the impact and severity of pipeline defects. Without accurate information regarding flaw size, it may be difficult to rate the quality of the pipeline or perform any remaining life estimation studies for such objects. Manual crack sizing leads to subjectivity and operator dependence, which in turn, might lead to inconsistent sizing estimates.
Ultrasonic non-destructive evaluation (NDE) methods for estimation of crack sizes in PIG based pipeline inspection include echo amplitude drop, and use of a distance-amplitude-correction curve. Most of these techniques involve assessment of reflection amplitude and acoustic shadow information by manual means. The use of amplitude data alone may not be reliable when trying to identify cracks or crack-like flaws, since the amplitude of the reflected sound signal depends on shape, size, type, orientation and position of the crack or crack-like flaw.
Therefore, there is a need for an improved technique for accurately estimating depth of cracks in pipelines and similar objects to facilitate effective repair and maintenance follow-up action.

Method and system for inspecting objects using ultrasound scan data


A formation method of a coating that coats a coated body with the coating includes: generating cylindrical plasma in a vacuum deposition chamber as well as supplying material gas into the vacuum deposition chamber; applying pulse voltage to the coated body; and attaching a shield member that shields an uncoated member to an uncoated part where the coating of the coated body is not formed with separation spacing over a coated part where the coating is to be formed for preventing decrease of hardness of the coating in the coated part.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a formation method of coatings.
2. Description of Related Art
For purpose of improving wear resistance and lubricity of slide parts, Diamond Like Carbon (hereinafter, abbreviated as "DLC") films are formed on slide members that slide onto other members. If there is a part of the slide member on which the DLC film is not formed, the DLC film is formed on the entire slide member first, and the DLC film on the part is then removed (for example, see Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2006-9110 (JP-A-2006-9110)).
In a DLC coating removal method disclosed in JP-A-2006-9110, a workpiece is covered with a masking member such that an opening is positioned at the part where the DLC film is to be removed, and then etching gas is blown onto the opening at 26 MPa or higher to etch and remove the DLC film.
According to the DLC coating removal method disclosed in JP-A-2006-9110, although a member of which the DLC film is formed only on the desired parts can be obtained, the DLC film has to be temporarily formed and then removed. Thus, the number of processes increases, and it becomes a factor in increasing the cost of production.
Furthermore, it is determined that when the DLC film formation with the application of the masking member to the workpiece to shield a part of the workpiece is compared with the DLC film formation without the application of the masking member, the hardness of the DLC film decreases in the case of the DLC film formation with the application of the masking member to shield a part of the workpiece.


In order to aspire to higher sensitivity in an automatic analysis device, it is important to prevent the mixing of dust and the like in a reaction part in which a sample and a reagent react. The present invention presents an automatic analysis device that is provided with a configuration for making the pressure inside a specific block in the device such as a reaction part, or inside the device become positive. By making the pressure become positive and forming an air flow that flows out from the inside of the reaction part or the device, it is possible to limit, to a certain amount or less, the amount of dust penetrating into the reaction part.

An automatic analysis device contributes to quick, efficient clinical test tasks by automating part of the specimen test procedure.
As a method which measures a trace component in a biological sample by an automatic analysis device, for example, the PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) method which uses genetic amplification reaction is known.
For example, in the PCR method, a purified sample containing a target nucleic acid, and a reagent containing a primer nucleic acid complementary to a nucleic acid amplification area, nucleic acid extension enzyme required for nucleic acid amplification, and substrate are dispensed into a reaction container and the target nucleic acid is amplified by repeating the temperature conditions for heat denaturation of the target nucleic acid, annealing of the primer nucleic acid to the target nucleic acid and elongation reaction of the primer nucleic acid, and then a fluorescence which depends on the amount of amplified nucleic acid is detected. In this PCR method, detection can be made on the order of fmol/L or less.
In order to achieve higher sensitivity in detection using this kind of automatic analysis device, it is important to prevent the mixing of dust and the like in a reaction part in which the sample and the reagent react. The reason is that dust may contain traces of nucleic acid and nucleolytic enzyme, metal powder, metal ions and the like and there have been cases that such traces of nucleic acid are involved in reaction. Therefore, by reducing penetration of dust included in the air into the reaction part, mixing of nucleic acids other than the target nucleic acid and the influence on the sample and the enzyme can be reduced so that detection sensitivity can be improved.
As a device with a mechanism for preventing the dust from penetrating into the device, Patent Literature 1 discloses a device "with an airflow layer forming part which forms an airflow layer for preventing penetration of dust". Furthermore, as a device with a mechanism for preventing the adhesion of the dust to the pipette tip used in dispensing a sample, Patent Literature 2 discloses a device "provided with an electrostatic eliminator for removing the static electricity charged on the pipette tip".


A method and an apparatus for projecting an end of service (EOS) and/or an elective replacement indication (ERI) of a component in an implantable device is provided. The method comprises measuring the measured voltage of the energy storage device, and determining whether the measured voltage is less than a transition voltage. When the measured voltage is less than the transition voltage, determining a time period remaining until an end of service of the energy storage device is based upon a function of the measured voltage. When the measured voltage is greater than or equal to the transition voltage, determining a time period remaining until an end of service of the energy storage device is based upon a function of the total charge depleted. The transition voltage is a voltage associated with the transition point of non-linearity in the battery voltage depletion curve.

1. Technical Field
This disclosure relates generally to implantable medical devices, and more particularly to methods, apparatus, and systems for monitoring power consumption relating to implantable medical devices.
2. Background Information
There have been many improvements over the last several decades in medical treatments for disorders of the nervous system, such as epilepsy and other motor disorders, and abnormal neural discharge disorders. One of the more recently available treatments involves the application of an electrical signal to reduce various symptoms or effects caused by such neural disorders. For example, electrical signals have been successfully applied at strategic locations in the human body to provide various benefits, including reducing occurrences of seizures and/or improving or ameliorating other conditions. A particular example of such a treatment regimen involves applying an electrical signal to the vagus nerve of the human body to reduce or eliminate epileptic seizures, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,702,254 to Dr. Jacob Zabara, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety in this specification. Electrical stimulation of the vagus nerve may be provided by implanting an electrical device underneath the skin of a patient and electrically stimulating tissue, organ(s) or nerves of the patient. The system may operate without a detection system if the patient has been diagnosed with epilepsy, and may periodically apply a prophylactic series of electrical pulses to the vagus (or other cranial) nerve intermittently throughout the day, or over another predetermined time interval.
Typically, implantable medical devices (IMDs) involving the delivery of electrical pulses to, or sensing electrical activity of, body tissues, such as pacemakers (heart tissue) and vagus nerve stimulators (nerve tissue), comprise a pulse generator for generating the electrical pulses and a lead assembly coupled at its proximal end to the pulse generator terminals and at its distal end to one or more electrodes in contact with the body tissue to be stimulated. One of the key components of such IMDs is the power supply (e.g., a battery), which may or may not be rechargeable. In many cases surgery is required to replace an exhausted battery. Even rechargeable batteries eventually may need replacement. To provide adequate warning of impending depletion of the battery and subsequent degradation of the operation of the IMD, various warning signals or indicators may be established and monitored.
Generally, battery-powered IMDs base warning signals or indicators on battery voltage and/or battery impedance measurements. One problem associated with these methodologies is that, for many battery chemistries, these measured battery characteristics do not have monotonically-changing values with respect to remaining charge. For example, lithium/carbon monofluoride (Li/CFx) cells commonly used in neurostimulators and other IMDs have a relatively flat voltage discharge curve for the majority of their charge life, and present status of the battery cannot be accurately and unambiguously determined from a measured battery characteristic.
More specifically, in LiCFx batteries, the battery voltage remains relatively constant for approximately 90% of its useful life and then reaches a point where the battery changes from a linear region of approximately zero slope to an approximately linear or downwardly curving region of negative slope. Thus, during the last 10% of battery life (when battery voltage versus battery depletion enters the second range), an added term in the projection equation that incorporates battery voltage may improve the accuracy of the projection to the battery's depletion.
Another problem associated with this methodology is the variability of current consumption for a specific device's programmed therapy or circuitry. This variability, combined with the uncertainty of the battery's present status prior to depletion, hinders reliable estimation of the anticipated time until reaching the end of the battery's useful life. For scheduling purposes, it is desirable to have a constantly available and reliable estimate over all therapeutic parameter ranges and operation settings of the time until the device will reach the end of its useful life, and provide an indication when that time reaches a specific value or range.
The present disclosure is directed to overcoming, or at least reducing, the effects of, one or more of the problems set forth above.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Power supply monitoring for an implantable device


Disclosed herein are compositions and methods comprising extracellular vesicles comprising nucleic acid that target genes, leading to macrophage polarization of tumor associated macrophages. In certain embodiments, disclosed herein are methods and compositions for increasing macrophage polarization for the treatment of cancer.

Immunotherapy is the treatment of disease by inducing, enhancing, or suppressing the immune response. Cancer immunotherapy usually has fewer side effects than traditional cancer therapies, such as chemotherapy and radiation therapy. In one approach, cancer immunotherapy has been used to stimulate the patient's own macrophages to attack cancer cells. Macrophages display different phenotypes, e.g., they can be cancer-promoting or they can possess anti-cancer activity. The M2 phenotype, or "alternatively activated macrophages," typically exhibit cancer-promoting activities, such as the suppression of the immune system and the production of extracellular matrix- and tissue-remodeling activities. The M1 phenotype, or "classically activated macrophages," typically exhibit anti-cancer activities such as the phagocytosis of tumor cells and the stimulation of adaptive immunity so that tumor cells can be recognized and attacked. Improvements in immunomodulatory methods and compositions that promote macrophage polarization (i.e., conversion to the M1 phenotype) are needed.

Methods and compositions for macrophage polarization


An improved frame construction for a microwave oven and the like, which is so arranged that, a front panel portion, a bottom plate portion and a rear plate portion are integrally formed into one unit as an open chassis, while an inserting opening is formed in the bottom plate portion of the open chassis in a position under an oven structure of the frame construction for inserting welding jigs or the like through the inserting opening.

The present invention generally relates to a heating apparatus and more particularly, to a frame or cabinet construction for a microwave oven having a heating chamber, or for a so-called oven toaster or the like.
FIG. 5 shows a conventional frame construction 1 for a microwave oven, which mainly includes a front panel 2 having a generally rectangular shape, a rear plate 3 disposed at the back thereof, a bottom plate 4 fixed to lower edges of the front panel 2 and of the rear plate 3, a top plate 5 secured to upper portions of the front panel 2 and the rear plate 3 in a parallel relation with the bottom plate 4, and an oven structure 6 having a generally U-shaped cross section and fixed at its front and rear edges to the front panel 2 and to the rear plate 3, respectively, and at its upper edges to the top plate 5. Each of the plate members referred to above has folded portions as welding margins, at respective edge portions thereof to be connected with each other.
For assembling the conventional frame construction 1 in FIG. 5 as described above, the plate members 2,3,5 and 6 other than the above bottom plate 4 are preliminarily combined to each other through fixing by welding or the like, thereby forming an oven (i.e. a heating chamber) surrounded by the respective members. Thereafter, the plate members thus combined are subjected to a painting finish for subsequent drying. Then, the bottom plate 4 is fixed to the lower edges of the front panel 2 and the rear plate 3 by set screws 7, whereby the frame construction 1 for the microwave oven is completed.
However, since the known frame construction 1 is mainly constituted by the five plate members 2,3,4,5, and 6 as described above, press work, for example, in twenty-seven steps has been required for the manufacture of the plate members, and moreover, further processings have also been involved for welding such plate members to each other, and also for fixing the bottom plate 4 by the set screws 7 which must be supplied as separate parts.
Therefore, from the viewpoints of rationalization in processing steps, reduction in the number of required parts, improvement in the physical distribution, etc., it has been required to promote production efficiency.

Frame construction for microwave oven having an integrally formed open chassis and an inserting opening


An apparatus includes a plurality of memory die and a controller coupled to the plurality of memory die. The controller is configured to selectively process a plurality of random read commands in such a way to reduce a total time required to execute the random read commands.

The present application relates to semiconductor memory and, more particularly, to non-volatile memory.
Semiconductor memory is widely used in various electronic devices such as cellular telephones, digital cameras, personal digital assistants, medical electronics, mobile computing devices, laptop computers, desktop computers, servers, solid state drives, non-mobile computing devices and other devices. Semiconductor memory may include non-volatile memory or volatile memory. A non-volatile memory allows information to be stored and retained even when the non-volatile memory is not connected to a source of power (e.g., a battery). Examples of non-volatile memory include flash memory (e.g., NAND-type and NOR-type flash memory), Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (EEPROM), and others.
Input/output operations per second (IOPS) is a performance measurement used to characterize memory systems. Random IOPS (accessing locations on a storage device in a non-contiguous manner) is one benchmark commonly used to categorize removable memory devices. It is desirable for memory systems to have high random IOPS. For low cost non-volatile memory systems, however, achieving high random IOPS is difficult.

Non-volatile storage system with adaptive command processing


A bag (200) includes an elongated bag body (201). The elongated bag body can define two opposing ends, namely an openable end (202) and a closed end (203). An adhesive strip (308) can be disposed upon an exterior of the elongated bag body. The adhesive strip can be disposed in a horizontal orientation parallel to the openable end. A flexible strip (208) can be disposed upon the exterior of the elongated bag body. The flexible strip can be bendable to retain the openable end in an open position (601). The bag is suitable for use as a suture collection bag.

1. Technical Field
This disclosure relates generally to bags, and more particularly to bags for disposal of medical waste.
2. Background Art
Medical procedures produce waste. Waste products can include soft materials, such as gauze, bandages, or towels. Waste products can also include items with sharp points or edges, including scissors, needles, scalpels, blades, shavers, catheter needles, trocars, and other puncturing or cutting items, which are referred to as "sharps" due to their cutting or puncturing components. Sharps are generally disposed of in a rigid container known as a "sharps container." Soft waste products can be collected in non-rigid containers. One or the more popular containers for collecting soft waste is a simple paper bag, which can leak and tear. It would be advantageous to have an improved container for disposing soft waste generated during medical procedures.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of embodiments of the present disclosure.

Hangable disposable bag for sutures and other medical waste


A plurality of object names and a query string are defined. A first set that includes a plurality of first query string-object name pairs is generated based on the plurality of object names and the query string. A closeness score is determined for each first query string-object name pair in the first set. A second set that includes a plurality of second query string-object name pairs is generated, wherein the second query string-object name pairs are selected from the first set based on the closeness scores. A measure of semantic similarity is determined for each second query string-object name pair in the second set. A third set of third query string-object name pairs is defined, wherein the third query string-object name pairs are selected from the second set based on the measures of semantic similarity.

Companies and organizations that own or manage large numbers of mechanical assets spend a great deal of time and expense monitoring and maintaining the assets. These organizations include those which own or manage fleets of vehicles and organizations with large numbers of mechanical devices located in factories and plants. Maintaining large numbers of mechanical assets requires regularly monitoring the condition of the assets. For example, a large organization with a fleet of vehicles must assign one or more employees to periodically examine the vehicles for mechanical problems.
Typically, the persons responsible for monitoring mechanical assets generate reports (sometimes known as maintenance reports or fault reports) identifying a component of an asset and an observed problem. Fault reports are received from multiple operators and aggregated together, and are subsequently reviewed, prioritized and acted upon. A person responsible for handling the fault reports reviews each fault report received and matches the fault report to a corresponding component of a corresponding asset. However, in many cases, in order to identify the component that matches the information in the report, the person must manually find the component on a component list. Many organizations maintain component lists in the form of asset trees that have thousands of nodes, and the responsible person must manually select the component path on the asset tree that corresponds to the reported issue. Consequently, the process of manually sorting large numbers of fault reports can be very time consuming (and costly).

Systems and methods for automatically classifying a fault report related to a mechanical asset


A zoom lens includes: a first lens group having a negative power; and a second lens group having a positive power, in this order from an object side. The first lens group includes a first lens having a negative power and a second lens having a positive power. The zoom lens satisfies conditional formulae 1.6<|f1|/fw<2.5 (1); 1.6<f2/fw<2.4 (2); 0.32<d2/fw<0.60 (3); 2.5<ft/fw<4.5 (4); 1.56<nd2<1.66 (5); and νd2<33 (6), when f1: the focal length of the first lens group, f2: the focal length of the second lens group, fw: the focal length of the entire system at the wide angle end, d2: the distance between the first and second lenses along an optical axis, ft: the focal length of the entire system at the telephoto end, nd2: the refractive index of the second lens at the d line, and νd2: the Abbe's number of the second lens at the d line.

Conventionally, zoom lenses of the two group or the three group type having leading negative lens groups (a configuration in which negative lens groups are provided toward the object side) are well known as zoom lenses to be provided in compact digital cameras, compact video cameras, and portable terminal devices. For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2007-293368 and Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2007-108399 disclose examples of simpler low cost two group type zoom lenses having variable magnification ratios of approximately 3×, in which a first lens group is constituted by two lenses, and a second lens group is constituted by three lenses, for a total of five lenses. Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2007-078801 discloses a zoom lens in which a first lens group is constituted by 2 lenses and a second lens group is constituted by two lenses, for a total of 4 lenses.
Meanwhile, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2008-112000 and Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2007-187740 disclose a zoom lens in which plastic lenses are employed and a zoom lens which is designed presuming that plastic lenses may be employed. Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2008-112000 discloses an example in which one of three lenses that constitute a first lens group is a plastic lens. In addition, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2007-187740 discloses an example in which all lenses are plastic lenses.


A photo-curing device includes a light source for initiating the curing of a photo-curable material. The light source has light-emitting diodes, each emitting light in a determined wavelength range, the wavelength ranges of the LEDs overlapping partially so as to cover a continuous wavelength range that is broader than the wavelength range of each LED. An activation device is provided for selectively activating each LED.

The invention relates to a photo-curing device or appliance suitable for activating photo-curable matrices contained in materials for filling, reconstitution, impression-taking, adhesive bonding, or whitening, in particular for application in the field of dentistry, the device or appliance having a light source and optical and electronic means for controlling, modulating, aiming, selecting, and conveying light energy to a zone that is to be illuminated.
The photo-curing of a material consists in a chemical reaction, e.g. taking place during polymerization, that serves to bond together permanently the macromolecules that make up the material. It is induced by delivering light radiation that enables photo-initiators contained in the material to produce covalent bonds that modify the structure of the material, thus making it possible to obtain the looked-for physical properties, such as hardening of the material or adhesive bonding of the material on a support.
The effectiveness of photo-curing depends firstly on the photo-initiator and on its suitability for creating macroradicals, e.g. on polymer chains, so it must be possible to irradiate the material with wavelengths lying in the photosensitivity spectrum of the photo-initiator present in the material. However, the photo-curable materials that are used for example in the field of dentistry are progressing continuously, as are the photo-initiators included in their compositions, thereby leading to a greater diversity of sensitivity spectra that need to be taken into consideration.
In order to satisfy the needs of practitioners, photo-curing devices therefore need to generate a broad light spectrum suitable for photo-curing materials containing a variety of photo-initiators, such as camphoroquinone (CQ), phenylpropanedione (PPD), and lucirin, for which the target wavelength ranges corresponding to the sensitivity spectra are as shown in FIG. 1.
Furthermore, in most of the materials used, this chemical reaction is an exothermic reaction that causes a rise in temperature of the exposed zones, which temperature rise is made even greater since it is in addition to the temperature rise caused by light energy being absorbed by the tissues themselves.
Present devices, such as those available for dentistry, make use of two types of light source, namely:                either a light source that emits light radiation spread over a broad spectrum, thereby satisfying the broad spectrum problem;        or else a light source that produces radiation over a spectrum that is very narrow, or indeed monochromatic, thus limiting the amount of energy that is delivered, and thereby keeping the heating of the exposed tissues under control.
For the first category light source, the source used mainly involves halogen bulbs, arc lamps (e.g. xenon lamps), or discharge lamps.
That type of light source produces light radiation over a very broad spectrum. Nevertheless, in terms of the radiation that is useful for interacting with the photo-curable materials used, the efficiency of such sources is quite low even though their purchase price and maintenance remain expensive. Furthermore, that type of light source requires a large amount of energy for its operation associated with an active cooling device (forced convection) for dissipating the heat given off. Consequently, it is difficult to make portable devices that are powered by optionally rechargeable batteries and that use light sources of those types.
Furthermore, a non-negligible fraction of the radiation emitted by those broad spectrum sources lies in the infrared range and that can give rise to unwanted thermal effects on the tissue being treated (e.g. necroses), which effects are in addition to those of the exothermic reaction induced by the photo-curing.
Finally, a complex optical filter system needs to be implemented in order to limit the radiometric power emitted so as to avoid burning the tissue being treated by exposure to infrared radiation.
The second category includes devices making use of light-emitting diodes (LEDs). This type of light source presents the advantage of delivering a spectrum of high efficiency (providing it corresponds to the photo-curable material for treatment), since all of the energy produced is useful for the chemical reaction that is to be initiated. Devices using such sources also present low energy consumption and are consequently suitable for being powered by a self-contained power supply constituted by optionally rechargeable batteries. Their small volume enables a compact ergonomic device to be obtained. Finally, the optical devices used with this type of light source may be considerably simplified since LEDs are generally encapsulated in transparent materials presenting optimum transmission. Such materials are also molded to have a shape that enables integrated optical devices to be made that are suitable for collecting and directing the light energy produced.
Because of the narrow wavelength range covered by the emission spectrum of an LED (of the order of 20 nanometers (nm) for radiation power ≧50%), appliances fitted with only one diode cannot deliver an emission spectrum that is broad enough to initiate photo-curing of a variety of different materials.
In an attempt to remedy that drawback, an existing solution consists in increasing the energy power delivered to the LED beyond a conventional nominal value. That increases the intensity of the radiation emitted by the diode at the margins of its emission spectrum, thereby broadening its working emission spectrum. Nevertheless, under such circumstances, the overall intensity of the radiation is increased, thereby giving rise to temperature rise phenomena in tissues that patients find difficult to accept.
Furthermore, the practitioner does not always know which photo-initiators are contained in the materials being used. Thus even if a practitioner were to have a multiplicity of appliances fitted with LEDs having different emission spectra, the practitioner would still not know which one to use.

Spectral scanning photocrosslinking device

SOCIETE POUR LA CONCEPTION DES APPLICATIONS DES TECHNIQUES ELECTRONIQUES


An electrical switch is provided having at least one contact system having a switching contact movable between two switch positions, an operating member that acts on the switching contact, a slide hinged on the operating member, and delay means operatively connected to the switching contact in at least one of the two switch positions. The delay means delaying movement of the switching contact, and being arranged in an extension of the slide. The delay means, the operating member and the slide are arranged on a same side of the contact system.

The invention relates to an electrical.
Electrical switches such as these are used in electrical handheld tools, such as drills, angle grinders, circular saws, routers, hedge trimmers or the like. In particular, these may be electrical tools which are operated using direct current. Furthermore, switches such as these can switch with a delay, for example for soft starting on switching on and/or for short-circuit braking of the electrical tool.
An electrical switch which is suitable for short-circuit braking of the electrical tool is known from German patent document DE 42 32 402 A1. This switch has at least one contact system, which has a switching contact which can move between a switched-off position and a switched-on position for switching, and a stationary contact which interacts with the switching contact in the switched-on position. An operating member which can be moved manually acts on the switching contact, for switching. Furthermore, the switch has a delay means, which is operatively connected to the switching contact in one switch position in order to delay the switching movement.
The delay means, which is designed in the form of a delay drum, is arranged in the immediate vicinity, underneath the contact system, in the housing of the switch. The operating member is located above the contact system, on the opposite side of the housing. The switch thus has a considerable size, which may be an impediment in view of the fact that the spatial conditions in electrical tools are often confined. Furthermore, the means for the operative connection between the delay drum and the switching contact has a complex design. The means is expensive to manufacture, and its assembly is complex. The influences of faults during operation of the switch cannot in all cases be precluded and, in particular, an undesirable delay can occur in the switching movement of the switching contact when switching to the other switch position, as well.
An object of the invention is to provide a switch which has a delay means which interacts with the switching contact, has a physically small size, and/or has a switching delay to the one switch position that is not susceptible to defects.
A particularly compact switch is created in that the delay means and the operating member are arranged on the same side of the contact system. A switch which operates particularly reliably is, alternatively or additionally, created such that the operative connection between the delay means and the switching contact is reduced during the switching movement of the switching contact to the other switch position, in particular to the switched-off position, such that the switching contact moves to the other switching position essentially without any delay.
In general, the contact system is arranged in a housing. Up to four contact systems, which are located one behind the other, are preferably located in the housing. By way of example, two of these contact systems are used for the voltage supply with soft starting when the electric motor of the electrical tool is switched on, the third contact system is used for short-circuiting the electric motor for braking of the electrical tool when the voltage supply is switched off, and the fourth contact system is used as a bridge for the full voltage supply for the electric motor in the electrical tool after completion of the soft starting.
The operating member can be mounted on the upper face of the housing such that it can move. In one embodiment, a slide, which is guided into the housing and acts on a carriage, is articulated on the operating member. The switching contact is mounted elastically on the carriage with the aid of an elastic means, for example by means of a compression spring. Furthermore, a first spring, which is used to produce a pressure point or pressure points for the switching movement and interacts with the housing, can be arranged on the carriage. In addition, a second spring, which interacts with the slide and assists a snap-action switching movement, can also be arranged. Furthermore, a third spring, which is used for resetting, may also be located on the slide.
In one development, a guide channel for the slide is located on the upper face of the housing. The delay means can then be arranged on the upper face in the housing, and in an extension of the guide channel. The delay means may be in the form of a delay drum. A housing attachment which, in particular has an approximately half-cylindrical shape, is preferably arranged on the upper face of the housing, for holding and providing a bearing for the delay drum.
In one refinement, the delay means has a cylindrical drum, which is filled with a viscous liquid, and a shaft, which is arranged in the cylindrical drum, so that the cylindrical drum can move in a damped manner relative to the shaft. One shaft end may project on one side out of the cylindrical drum. Furthermore, a tooth system can be fitted on the cylindrical drum, in particular in the form of a pinion on that side of the cylindrical drum which is opposite the shaft end. A transmission element can then be moved in a damped manner by the cylindrical drum in order to act on the switching contact by means of a mating tooth system.
In a further refinement, a sliding element, which acts against the elastic means for the bearing of the switching contact, is mounted in the carriage such that it can move. The transmission element can then be coupled to the sliding element such that the restraining force which is exerted by the delay means acts against the force which is exerted by the elastic means during the switching movement of the switching contact, in order to delay the switching movement.
In one development, the transmission element is in the form of an approximately circular annular element. A shaft stub can be arranged on the periphery of the annular element facing away from the sliding element and engages in a bearing point in the housing attachment in order to allow the annular element to rotate through an angle which is defined in particular by stops in the housing attachment. An attachment for coupling to the sliding element can be fitted, approximately opposite the shaft stub, on the periphery of the annular element.
As a further embodiment, it is possible to fit the mating tooth system in the manner of an internal tooth system on the annular element. By way of example, the internal tooth system may be approximately in the form of a circular section. The sliding element may have an approximately U-shaped holder, in which the attachment on the annular element engages. Furthermore, the switching contact and the sliding element may be arranged on that side of the carriage which faces away from the delay means. The U-shaped holder may project through an aperture in the carriage, on that side of the carriage which faces the delay means.
In a further refinement, the transmission element has two annular elements, which are separated from one another by approximately the height of the cylindrical drum for the delay means. A shaft stub is preferably in each case located on each annular element, in order to mount the transmission element in a respective associated bearing point in the housing attachment. However, an internal tooth system may be fitted only on that annular element which faces away from the shaft end of the delay means. The attachments may be in the form of a rod element which connects the two annular elements to one another. Finally, the rod element may have a reduction in its cross section approximately in the center, by means of which the rod element engages in the U-shaped holder on the sliding element.
Advantages which are achieved by the invention are, in particular, that, despite having a high performance, the electrical switch occupies only a small installation area in the electrical tool. The switch is thus particularly suitable for installation in slimline, ergonomically shaped, handles of electrical tools. Since the effectiveness of the delay means can be restricted to one switching direction, any arc which may occur when switching off the electrical tool is extinguished immediately, thus effectively preventing destruction of the contact system, and lengthening the life of the switch. The switch is thus suitable for high currents, in particular for direct-current applications as well. It is likewise possible to use the switch as a braking switch. The configuration of the transmission element, which provides the coupling between the delay means and the switching contact, means that, despite its compactness, the transmission element can travel through large angular intervals with little space being required. This once again advantageously ensures that even lengthy delay times can be set, as required. Finally, the switch also has a comparatively small number of individual parts, so that it can be produced at very low cost.


A vehicle includes an engine including a crank shaft; a battery; a belt-integrated starter generator (BISG) mechanically coupled to the crank shaft and configured to generate electric power from motion of the engine to charge the battery; and a controller configured to operate the BISG to apply a load to the crank shaft to slow the engine and capture electric power for storage in the battery, wherein an initial magnitude of the load is proportional to a temperature of the engine, responsive to a speed of the BISG or engine achieving a predetermined non-zero threshold, remove the load from the crank shaft, and bring the engine to a stop.

Modern internal combustion engines have low internal friction to provide improved fuel economy and reduced component wear. Additionally, many engines are fitted with a fly wheel such as a dual mass flywheel, which is used for idle speed stability and vehicle launch robustness. The low internal friction and flywheel may reduce the engine shutdown speed. Some vehicles are provided with an engine stop/start feature which is configured to frequently shutdown the engine. During the shutdown process, the engine speed reduces from idle speed or higher to zero revolutions per minute (RPM), passing an engine mechanical resonance (usually a low frequency).


Method and apparatus for scanning a region of interest (ROI) by a gamma detector. An exemplary method includes determining, for each of multiple detector configurations, a respective weight based on an absorption profile, associating each of a plurality of portions of the ROI with a respective gamma attenuation value; and detecting gamma radiation from multiple detector configurations for time periods allocated among the detector configurations based on the weights determined.

In traditional SPECT imaging, a large gamma detector, weighing typically about 500 kg, and having about half a meter in diameter or diagonal, is brought near a patient for detecting gamma photons emitted from the patient (who before was injected with a gamma emitting material, also known as radiopharmaceutical). This large and heavy gamma detector collects gamma photons for some time, and then moves to another position, for detecting gamma photons from a different side of the patient's body.
Recently, smaller and lighter gamma detectors have become commercially available, usually based on Cadmium Zinc Telluride (CZT) crystals.

Weighting detector configurations in SPECT imaging


A device in a wireless network may negotiate security parameters with an access point for the wireless network. The device and the access point may negotiate the security parameters using low power signals. The device and the access point may subsequently use the security parameters to implement security features, and they may communicate using normal power signals.

As is increasingly common, one or more devices may wirelessly connect to a wireless local area network ("WLAN"). For example, a device may communicate over an air interface with an access point. The access point may in turn provide connectivity to one or more other networks, such as an intranet or the Internet. Using the connectivity provided by the access point, the device on the WLAN may communicate with a device on another network or with another device on the WLAN.
WLANs may be used in a variety of different environments, such as a home, office or other types of settings. By configuring a WLAN with one or more access points, devices may wirelessly connect to the WLAN from a variety of different physical locations. Thus, any device in range of one of the access points may potentially join the WLAN. While this may allow authorized users of the WLAN to conveniently connect to the WLAN, it may also allow unauthorized users to connect to the WLAN.
In order to limit access to a WLAN, the WLAN may use a unique identifier. Access points and devices that have the unique identifier can join the WLAN, while device and access point that don't have the unique identifier are not allowed access to the WLAN. By using a different identifier for each WLAN, a device would not be able to join a WLAN simply by being in range of an access point. The device would need to know the WLAN's particular identifier.
A device that does not currently know a WLAN's identifier, however, may still gain access to the WLAN by obtaining the identifier. This may be done, for example, by intercepting packets from one or more other devices communicating with an access point on the WLAN and extracting the identifier from those packets. Sometimes called sniffing, this process may allow a device to maliciously gain access to the WLAN. In order to minimize this type of unauthorized access, as well as other types of unauthorized access, the WLAN may employ various different security features.
One method of providing additional security is through using encryption. WLANs may use a variety of different encryption standards, such as Wired Equivalent Privacy ("WEP") encryption. By using a key to encrypt packets traveling between the access points and devices, a malicious device would first need to obtain the key before decrypting packets, for example, to obtain the underlying data in the packet. Additionally, even if the malicious device obtained the identifier, it may still need to know the encryption key in order to communicate with the access point and connect to the WLAN.
In order to implement encryption, both the access points and the wireless devices must be configured for the particular type of encryption and the keys. Configuring these features may be a difficult process, requiring both access to the access points and the devices, and also requiring a working knowledge of how to reconfigure the access points and devices. Using encryption additionally restricts the movement of a device between WLANs, as the device must be reconfigured for the security features of each different WLAN. These problems, however, are not limited to encryption, but are common to the various different security features employed by WLANs.
Therefore, there exists a need to provide an improved method for implementing security features in a wireless network.

Method for automated security configuration in a wireless network


A new cultivar of Catharanthus named ‘SAKURAI 01’ that is characterized by sterility, upright habit, dark-green foliage, pale green stems, and profuse red-purple flowers. In combination these traits set ‘SAKURAI 01’ apart from all other existing varieties of Catharanthus known to the inventor.

The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Madagascar periwinkle that is grown for use as a patio plant, container plant, or bedding plant for the landscape. The new cultivar is known botanically as Catharanthus pacifica×roseus, and will be referred to hereinafter by the cultivar name 'SAKURAI 01'.
'SAKURAI 01' is characterized, by sterility, upright habit, dark-green foliage, pale green stems, and profuse mid pink flowers. The cultural requirements are well-drained soil, shade, and full sun in cooler climates, as well as little to moderate water. 'SAKURAI 01' exhibits no pest or disease problems known to the inventor and is tender to cold temperatures but will tolerate heat.
The new Catharanthus cultivar 'SAKURAI 01' is a hybrid that resulted from the inter-specific cross-pollination of an unnamed and unreleased plant of the species Catharanthus pacifica and an individual unnamed and unreleased plant of the species Catharanthus roseus. The seeds that resulted from the cross-pollination were sown, producing a crop of seedlings. In 2000 the inventor selected from the seedlings, the single hybrid 'SAKURAI 01' described herein. The selection took place in a cultivated area of Sakurai, Nara, Japan. Selection was based on the distinguishing characteristics of flower color and sterility and tepal margin.
The female parent is a single unnamed plant of the species Catharanthus pacifica (unpatented) and the male parent plant is a single unnamed plant of the species Catharanthus roseus (unpatented). The closest comparison plant is the female parent Catharanthus pacifica. Whereas Catharanthus pacificia is fertile and has flat or planar flowers, 'SAKURAI 01' is sterile and bears wavy flowers whose petals appear creased and have sinuate tepal margins. This latter characteristic also distinguishes 'SAKURAI 01' from the male parent Catharanthus roseus.
The first asexual propagation of 'SAKURAI 01' was conducted by the inventor in 2000 in a cultivated area of Sakurai, Nara, Japan. The method of propagation used was vegetative cuttings. Since that time, under careful observation, the distinguishing characteristics have been determined stable, uniform and true to type in successive generations.


An encoder for encoding a video stream or an image is described herein. The encoder receives an input video stream and outputs an encoded video stream that can be decoded at a decoder to recover, at least approximately, an instance of the input video stream. The encoder includes an encoding logic reducing a color spectral resolution of the input video stream to a range of colors or color differentials similar to that recognizable by a human eye, whereby an encoding efficiency is increased by the color spectral resolution reducing.

With the widespread demand of video streaming, some of the limitations have to be overcome. For example, users often want to watch a video over the Internet having only a limited bandwidth for obtaining that video stream. For example, users night want to obtain the video stream over a mobile telephone connection or a home wireless connection. The lack of bandwidth can be compensated for by spending time downloading content to local storage so that, even with a very slow link, a large video stream can be obtained and stored locally for eventual play-out, if enough time is provided for the downloading. This is fine if the server or other provider of the video stream is provided advance notice of a request for the stream and can get enough of it to the local storage before the user starts to watch the video stream. Unfortunately, this is not an acceptable solution in many cases, because users often expect to start watching a video stream shortly after having decided what to watch.
A video stream (typically containing an image portion and an audio portion) can require considerable bandwidth, especially at high resolution, such as HD videos. Audio typically requires much less bandwidth, but still sometimes needs to be taken into account. One approach for streaming video (i.e., provide it to a local content consumer, such as a display device used by a user, in sufficient time to allow the consumption to start shortly after starting a session wherein a particular stream is requested) is to heavily compress the video stream. Typically, lossy compression compression that is not entirely reversible) provides more compression than lossless compression, but heavy lossy compression provides an undesirable user experience.
What is needed for video compression is to be able to reduce the number of bits required to represent a sequence of images without creating too many undesirable artifacts and to keep the perceived video quality as constant is possible. One simple approach of compression is to compress one frame and represent each subsequent frame by a difference frame representing the pixel-by-pixel difference between the frame being encoded and its prior frame, and compress the difference. An improvement over this is to identify scene changes in the video stream (e.g., where the camera suddenly changes from one view to another such that the difference between two frames on each side of a scene change is not as compressible as other difference frames) and encode each "group of pictures" separately.
There are various techniques to automatically identify scene changes, but often that is not enough to maximize and provide the compression needed to provide desirable user experiences given bandwidth constraints.
Human vision system ("HVS") model has been utilized to deal with biological and psychological processes in imaging processing, video processing and computer vision. The model is used to simplify the behaviors of the complex visual system of a human. The HVS model is updated as the knowledge of the true visual system improves. Some assumption about the HVS model includes visual acuity based on color and motion, resolution resolving based on motion factors, and attention modeling using face recognition.
The foregoing examples of the related art and limitations related therewith are intended to be illustrative and not exclusive. Other limitations of the related art will become apparent upon a reading of the specification and a study of the drawings.


A vehicle lamp cleaning apparatus includes a nozzle having a cleaning fluid injection port at one end and an opened end at the other end thereof, a nozzle holder having a flow path which communicates with the cleaning fluid injection port and a first joint portion which fits on the other end portion of the nozzle, and a cleaning fluid supply portion, wherein a first and second annular portions are formed on circumferential surface of the nozzle and the first joint portion, respectively, when the other end portion of the nozzle fits on the first joint portion of the nozzle holder, the first and second annular portions fit each other in concavo-convex fitting manner to thereby form a first fit portion, and the nozzle is held by the first fit portion rotatably relative to the nozzle holder around a fitting direction.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a novel vehicle lamp cleaning apparatus and more particularly to a technique for enabling the reduction in size of the apparatus, in particular, the size in a height direction thereof and the adjustment of cleaning fluid injecting direction.
2. Description of the Background Art
As a cleaning apparatus for cleaning a cover lens of an automotive headlamp, there exists one described in Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication JP-A-63-65966.
With the cleaning apparatus described in the above document, the miniaturization of the apparatus is difficult.
Namely, since a nozzle holder, which holds a nozzle, has only a function to hold a nozzle. A construction is of a seal between a cleaning fluid supply portion for supplying cleaning fluid to the nozzle and a nozzle is such that a tube for supplying cleaning fluid is fitted on a distal end of an extended portion (cleaning fluid flowing path) in which a part of the nozzle is extended, so that a seal is effected at a connecting portion between the tube and the extended portion of the nozzle. Accordingly, it is difficult to make the apparatus smaller in size in a height direction of the nozzle.
In addition, since the nozzle holder is formed to hold the nozzle in such a manner as to enclose from an outside thereof, the outside diameter of the nozzle holder has to be increased.
Then, a problem that is to be solved by the invention is how to enable the reduction in size of a vehicle lamp cleaning apparatus, in particular, the size in a height direction thereof and the adjustment of cleaning fluid injecting direction.


The present disclosure relates to a system for authenticating a computerized sub-system of a vehicle, comprising: (A) at the vehicle: (a) a tele-processor configured to periodically record during a period T1 a flow of messages over a bus of the vehicle's sub-system, and to transmit periodically every period T2 the recorded flow of messages to a remote server via a transceiver; (B) at a remote authentication server: (b) a transceiver configured to receive each of said recorded flow of messages; (c) a profile generator configured to generate from each of said flow of messages a temporary profile; and (d) a comparator configured to compare each of said temporary profiles with a final profile which was previously created based on one or more of flows of messages within the vehicle's bus.

With $1.5 Trillion USD of annual turnover, the automotive industry is one of the most significant verticals. These days it witnesses a storm of change through a set of disruptive technologies driving the concept of connected and autonomous vehicles. This process requires a robust, fool-proof and affordable cyber security solution, to allow adoption by the mass market. Moreover, many of today's 1.2 billion of cars on the roads already have connected components and are susceptible to cyber hacking. The vehicle is a complex network of computers on the move—today's vehicles have dozens (in many cases more than 50) of Electronic Control Units (ECU's) and more than 100M code lines. The connectivity between the car and external entities adds multiple attack surfaces, leaving the car and its passengers vulnerable. For example, today's cars are already designed to communicate with one another, with road signs, with traffic lights, with the manufacturer's server, and more. To allow all these communications, the necessity for a reliable vehicle authentication becomes extremely important. In addition, there are various cases where the vehicle has to be authenticated in order to allow access to sensitive services or assets within the car, for example, during diagnostic a maintenance. For example, when a vehicle connects to an OEM diagnostic device, the vehicle must be authenticated to allow access of the vehicle to trusted maintenance assets of the OEM (e.g., for software and firmware updates).
With the introduction of the Connected-Cars based services, the vehicle authentication becomes even more important. A need for a protected authentication raises, challenging existing and potential solutions. One of the main challenges of the vehicle authentication is the fact that the vehicle is a complex network of dozens of vehicle Electronic Computing Units (ECUs) connected between them on in-vehicle networks. From this perspective, the vehicle can be seen as an enterprise network that has diverse networks based on various communication protocols, mainly on CAN-bus which is the most accepted protocol. The terms "bus", "buses", and "network" are used herein interchangeably. Furthermore, enterprise networks cyber defense level is much higher due to the following reasons:                The enterprise network physical perimeter is protected.        The enterprise network communication contains a variety of cyber security defence technologies, e.g., firewalls, IDPSs, encrypted communication, etc.        Professional IT teams have permanent access to the enterprise networks, thus allowing their continuous maintenance procedures, including handling of certificates and key management procedures, while they are also capable of performing malicious actions within the vehicle.
There are several approaches to the above complications that are currently in use, as follows:
No authentication at all—Cars are not connected, vehicle control functions are local and implemented on a single, dedicated ECU. According to this scheme, most of the existing vehicles do not have any authentication mechanism. OEMs hide proprietary technical information, like communication protocols and in-vehicle networks topology. The lack of information requires significant efforts and use of reverse engineering techniques. These techniques are successfully used by after-market vehicles improvement workshops and various generic manufacturers producing fake vehicles parts, including ECUs.
Physical fingerprint of a gateway (GW), representing the vehicle—With the massive introduction of generic diagnostic devices, some OEMs began to 'lock' advanced maintenance ECU functions, such as FW updates. The original diagnostic device (VCI—vehicle communication interface) provides a 'secret' handshake with the vehicle's gateway that unlocks the for these advanced functions. An example of such mechanism is the K-line pin of OBD-II port that is used in addition to the traditional CAN-H and CAN-L wires. This technique is widely used by some truck OEMs. It is clear that this mechanism provides a limited VCI authentication and, once reverse engineered, it can be easily bypassed by third parties.
Use of vehicle identification number—In addition to the above physical fingerprint mechanism, a local handshake between a VCI and a vehicle gateway can be used, utilizing Vehicle Identification Number (VIN). A VIN based handshake does not provide sufficient level of authenticity since it can be exposed by other sources—(sometimes just written on a publicly visible plate behind the vehicle front window) thus can be easily faked.
VCI and target ECU handshake—Some advanced OEMs began to introduce ECU secure mode that requires a quite complex authentication handshake with VCI. Very advanced OEMs connected their VCI to OEM cloud for cloud-based authentication handshake, hiding cryptographic keys both at an ECU within the vehicle and on the OEM cloud. This technique provides authentication solution for an ECU, but is limited for the vehicle authentication and can be hardly used for emerging V2X (Vehicle to another entity) use cases.
Use of a cryptographic certificate stored on one of the vehicle's ECUs—This emerging solution is based on the traditional PKI (Private Key Infrastructure) certificate infrastructure widely used in various IT fields, e.g., WEB sites authentication. There are some drawbacks in this solution:                Private driver information leakage: Use of a static certificate allows malicious actors with a man on the side or a man on the middle capabilities on the communication channel, vehicles location identification and tracking.        Certificate management procedure: The management of this procedure is relatively complicated, since the vehicle might have limited car connectivity, and is generally in possession of a private customer.        The vehicle physical access is not protected: Thus a malicious person can obtain a full access to the HW\ECU that stores the sensitive authentication data. This access gives a significant advantage to an attacker who may perform reverse engineering and vulnerability research. In a worst case, the attacker may even be capable to plug off the vehicle ECU and replace it by a system of his choice, pretending the original vehicle identity. It should be noted that a change of a vehicle identity does not necessarily requires a replacement of hardware, and therefore may be made without a physical access to the vehicle.        The diversity of proprietary solutions and the lack of standardization create severe challenges for international and national law enforcement agencies.
The above issues create a severe security problem for any connected car service, challenging vehicles authentication and trust relations, and vehicle cyber state.
It is still another object of the present disclosure to detect an unauthorized change of the vehicle's identity or to allow identification of a vehicle, based on its computerized sub-system.
It is therefore an object of the present disclosure to provide a system and method for continuously protecting a vehicle computerized sub-system from malicious actions, while also providing trusted authentication mechanism for connected car services.
It is still another object of the present disclosure to determine unauthorized manipulations and irregularities within the vehicle's computerized sub-system.
Other objects and advantages of the present disclosure will become apparent as the description proceeds.

Vehicle authentication and protection system


The present invention provides an electrode for electrochemical measurement including: a carbon nanotube and an insulator that encloses carbon nanotube, wherein: the carbon nanotube is enclosed by being chemically bonded with the insulator; and part of the carbon nanotube forms an electrical conduction part exposed at a surface of the insulator. The carbon nanotube can include plural carbon nanotubes electrically connected with each other. The electrical conduction part can be part of the plural carbon nanotubes exposed in plural spots at a surface of the insulator through the insulator. The plural carbon nanotubes can form a network structure by being electrically connected with each other by chemical bonding. The present invention also provides a method for manufacturing the electrode for electrochemical measurement.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrode for electrochemical measurement used in sensors for detecting specific substances, and a method for manufacturing the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, attempts have been made to use carbon nanotubes in electronic devices because of their semiconductive characteristics.
The advantage of using carbon nanotubes as electronic devices is their extremely high conductivity. Their small diameters of 1 to 20 nm or so make them suitable for use as devices and electrodes in micro circuits.
On the other hand, from the viewpoint of application to the medical field, biosensors for detecting trace amounts of biological substances are being heavily studied and developed. Detecting methods in actual use can be classified into three methods: (1) an electrochemical method, (2) an enzymatic method, and (3) an staining method.
Of these, the electrochemical method is the most general detecting method. Substances have oxidation-reduction potentials unique thereto, and by applying a specific potential, electrons can be pulled out of (oxidation) or injected into (reduction) a substance. Therefore, the electron exchanges involved in the oxidation-reduction reactions can be measured by cyclic voltammetry or the like so as to find the amount of the target substance from the current value at a certain potential.
In the electrochemical method, micro electrodes are used to improve detecting sensitivity. The micro electrodes refer to electrodes having sizes of a micrometer level or smaller, while the electrodes generally used for electrochemical measurement have sizes of several millimeters to several centimeters (see, for example, S. Pons and M. Fleishmann, Analytical Chemistry, 1987, volume 59, page 1391A). The use of such micro electrodes has the following features (1) to (4).    (1) The provision of charging current which is noise can be reduced.    (2) Potential can be scanned at a high speed.    (3) The effects of substance dispersion can be reduced.    (4) High sensitivity measurement can be accomplished.
Due to these features, the use of micro electrodes is becoming the mainstream in detecting trace amounts of samples by the electrochemical method.
However, metal electrodes such as platinum and gold and carbon electrodes which are generally used in the electrochemical method have a narrow potential window, which causes a problem in that applying a potential higher than a certain level electrolyzes not only the target substance but also the solvent itself, hindering detection of the target substance. This requires using different electrodes depending on the potential to be used, making it impossible to measure cyclic voltammetries at the same time with a wide potential. In recent years, as an electrode with a wide potential window capable of solving this problem, an electrode containing boron-doped diamond has been developed. However, it has not been put into practical use as a general-purpose product because of its high cost.
On the other hand, the enzymatic method is a method for detecting a target substance electrochemically by using an electrode having an enzyme fixed on its surface. Enzymes have the feature of being capable of selectively detecting a target substance at comparatively high sensitivity from a mixture because they react uniquely with the target substance. So far, glucose sensors (diabetes testing), uric acid sensors (gout testing), and urea sensors (kidney function testing) are already in actual use in the medical field. However, there is a problem in that enzymes are difficult to handle because they are unstable and must be stored under special conditions to maintain their activity.
The staining method is a method for detecting a biological substance by measuring the ultraviolet-visible absorption spectrum using a reagent which is colored in a reaction with the target substance, and by finding its absorbance. However, the detecting sensitivity in the absorbance measurement is proportional to the light path length, so that to improve the sensitivity requires a large amount of sample solution. Thus, there is a problem in that the method cannot be applied for the detection of trace amounts of samples.
Specific examples of sensors utilizing the electrochemical detecting method include: sensors for detecting a specific substance by using ion sensitive field-effect transistors (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open (JP-A) No. 03-272449); sensors for detecting hydrogen peroxides by using an electrode with ferrocene fixed on its surface (see, for example, C. Padeste et. al, "Ferrocene-avidin conjugates for bioelelectrochemical applications," Biosensors & Bioelectronics, 2000, volume 15, pp. 431-8); and sensors for detecting a specific substance by using a carbon nanotube as an electrode and making use of changes in electrical properties of the carbon nanotube due to external stimulation (See, for example, JP-A No. 2003-227808). However, these sensors are unsatisfactory in terms of the aforementioned viewpoint, and improvements are still expected.

Electrode for electrochemical measurement and method for manufacturing the same


Charging connector and charging apparatus are provided. The charging connector includes a partition plate including at least one charging interface provided on each side surface of two opposite side surfaces of the partition plate. The at least one charging interface is electrically coupled to a charging interface of a battery to charge the battery. Two lateral plates are respectively pivotally connected to the two opposite side surfaces of the partition plate and respectively rotatable with respect to the partition plate. Outer edges of the two lateral plates, which are away from a pivot joint portion, are configured to move away from or close to the partition plate to expose or cover the two opposite side surfaces of the partition plate to enable the charging connector to be in an open state or a folded state correspondingly.

Batteries are indispensable components for various types of portable terminals and tools, including unmanned aerial vehicles. With the rapid development and high popularity of unmanned aerial vehicles, battery life is becoming more and more important. Battery capacity, however, is still in the bottleneck and difficult to break through. Therefore, much efforts have been focused on the charging techniques, such as, the charging speed and the charging apparatus, to provide convenience for charging the batteries. Generally, in order to ensure the endurance of an unmanned aerial vehicle, a charging apparatus needs to be carried around.
When multiple batteries need to be charged at the same time, a charger with multiple charging interfaces is required. Chargers currently available on the market for charging multiple batteries of the unmanned aerial vehicles often take a form of flat panel with multiple charging interfaces arranged side by side. Such chargers not only take up a large space and are hard to carry, but also are unaesthetic and have a low utilization rate.


The present invention encompasses filamin A (FLNA) binding proteins. Specifically, the invention relates to antibodies to FLNA. An antibody of the invention can be a full-length antibody or an antigen-binding portion thereof. Methods of making and methods of using the antibodies of the invention in methods of diagnosis, monitoring and prognosis of prostate cancer are also provided.

Prostate cancer is a form of cancer that develops in the prostate, a gland in the male reproductive system. Most prostate cancers are slow growing. However, there are cases of aggressive prostate cancers. The cancer cells may metastasize from the prostate to other parts of the body, particularly to the bones and lymph nodes. Prostate cancer may cause pain, difficulty in urinating, problems during sexual intercourse, or erectile dysfunction. Other symptoms can potentially develop during later stages of the disease.
Rates of detection of prostate cancers vary widely across the world, with detection rates in south and east Asia being lower than those in Europe, and especially in the United States. Prostate cancer tends to develop in men over the age of fifty and, although it is one of the most prevalent types of cancer in men, many never have symptoms or undergo therapy for prostate cancer, and eventually die of other causes. Further, treatment of prostate cancer may do more harm to the subject than the prostate cancer itself. Prostate specific antigen (PSA) screening has led to a significant rise in the number of men diagnosed with prostate cancer with an associated increase in potentially unnecessary biopsies preformed. Despite its limitations, including a positive predictive value of only 25-40%, PSA remains the only generally accepted biomarker for prostate cancer.
Prostate cancer is, in most cases, slow-growing and symptom-free. Moreover, since men with the condition are typically older, they often die of causes unrelated to the prostate cancer, such as heart/circulatory disease, pneumonia, other unrelated cancers, or old age. On the other hand, the more aggressive prostate cancers account for more cancer-related deaths among men in the United States than any other cancer except lung cancer.
About two-thirds of prostate cancer cases are slow growing, whereas the other third are more aggressive and fast developing. It is important to be able to distinguish between aggressive and non-aggressive forms of the disease, and further, to distinguish prostate cancer from benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH). Commonly used screening tests, e.g., for prostate specific antigen (PSA) cannot distinguish between prostate cancer and BPH.
Filamin A (FLNA) (also known as FLN-A, FLN1, ABP-280, OPD1, OPD2, Endothelial Actin-Binding Protein, CVD1, FMD, MNS, NHBP, XLVD, XMVD, Actin Binding Protein 280, Alpha-Filamin, Filamin-1, Filamin-A—each of which may appear herein and are considered equivalent terms as used herein) is a 280-kD protein that is thought to crosslink actin filaments into orthogonal networks in cortical cytoplasm. The large molecular-weight protein also participates in the anchoring of membrane proteins to the actin cytoskeleton. FLNA has previously been associated with various cancers.
There remains a need for markers and methods that can be used for the diagnosis, monitoring or prognosis of prostate cancer.

Filamin A binding proteins and uses thereof


A system and method for reconstructing single photon emission computed tomography data acquired with a pinhole collimator includes sub-dividing each voxel in the imaging target object space into sub-voxels and sub-dividing each of the detector bins in the gamma camera detector into sub-bins, connecting the centers of each of the sub-voxels to each of the detector sub-bins through a pinhole provided in the pinhole collimator by ray tracing and for each ray connecting the centers of each of the sub-voxels to each of the detector sub-bins, the transmission probability is calculated by analytically solving the intersections between the ray and the pinhole surfaces. Then, a geometric-response-function of the pinhole collimator is computed which is then convolved with the intrinsic-response-function of the detector to obtain the PSF.

Single-pinhole and multi-pinhole SPECT imaging are used increasingly in clinical organ specific studies and preclinical studies using small animals. One advantage of pinhole collimation with magnification is sub-millimeter resolution which is not achievable for parallel-beam SPECT. Multi-pinhole SPECT with overlapping counts is also used to improve sensitivity over single-pinhole SPECT.
In the conventional reconstruction of SPECT data acquired with pinhole systems, the point-spread-function (PSF) is either approximated by analytic equations or a simple volumetric intersection model, or substituted by a sensitivity function which is the integral of the PSF. This results in an inaccurate system matrix and loss of resolution for reconstruction. Efforts have been made to directly measure the system matrix using a point source and to model the PSF using Monte Carlo simulations, but those are very tedious, time consuming approaches and thus somewhat impractical, especially for a system with removable pinhole plates which may need to be calibrated frequently.
Desirable in the art is an improved method of calculating the PSF for a pinhole system in order to improve image resolution.

Modeling of the point-spread-function in single-pinhole and multi-pinhole spect reconstruction


Systems and methods for rewinding a video to a point before the video was first viewed. Video transmitted by a media source is cached by a remote server. Upon a trick-play request for the video, the server generates a rewind stream that includes the video that was transmitted by the media source before the user started to view the video. Upon receiving the rewind stream, the user's equipment may cache the rewind stream in a rewind buffer and rewind or play from the rewind buffer. The server may also generate and transmit a forward stream of the video that the media source has not yet transmitted. The user's equipment may cache the forward stream in a forward buffer. To perform trick-play operations with the video, the user's equipment may migrate the playback of the video to the rewind and forward buffers and rewind or fast-forward the video from the buffers.

This invention is directed to systems and methods for trick-play functions in video or audio entertainment systems.
Interactive media guidance applications, such as interactive television program guides, are well known in the art. Some interactive media guidance applications provide video entertainment device users with the ability to perform "trick-play" functions upon video. Such trick-play functions include pause, rewind, and fast-forward. The interactive media guidance applications cache video programs that are transmitted over a network or transmission system (e.g., satellite, cable, or off-the-air) to allow users to trick-play through the video programs. To provide trick-play functions, these systems may begin caching video when the user tunes to the program, which may be in progress. As a result, users of such systems can rewind to the point in time when they first tuned to the program, but not to any prior point in time.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide systems and methods for trick-play functions by which the user may rewind a video to a time prior to when the user first started viewing the video and fast-forward to a point beyond where the real-time transmission is presently streaming.

Systems and methods for enhanced trick-play functions


A protective device for maintaining body temperature in a living being is provided. The inventive protective device comprises a first sheet member having a left portion and a right portion. The first sheet member has a left edge and a right edge. A first channel member defines structure defining a first channel. The first channel member defines structure which is secured to and overlies a first portion of the left portion of the first sheet member and overlies a first portion of the right portion of the first sheet member. A second channel defining structure defines a second channel, the second channel defining structure secured to and overlying a second portion of the left portion of the first sheet member and overlying a second portion of the right portion of the first sheet member. Each of the channels have a first side and an opposite side opposite the first side. A variable length member is disposed on and extends along the length of each of the channels. There is a connection structure positioned proximate the left edge; and a mating connection structure positioned proximate the right edge.

Although some companies sell warm weather wraps for withstanding cold and windy weather while in an outdoor stadium, these can be ineffective in relatively cold weather and cumbersome during transport. Wraps also often only offer partial coverage and fall off when the wearer is standing up or moving, unless the wearer takes steps to hold them in place, for example by tightening an edge around the body and holding it against itself. Also, blankets generally do not offer protection from any of the elements, such as rain or snow.
While protective devices such as ponchos, do stay in place, they offer limited protection and, except in the head area, provided that a hood with a tightening mechanism is included, are relatively ineffective.


In a die board for cutting and/or creasing sheet-type work material, a base is provided that includes a first upper surface and a second lower surface. At least one slot extends along the first upper surface and includes a first slot section extending from said first upper surface at least part-way through the die board base. The at least one slot also includes a second slot section extending from said second lower surface at least part-way through the die board base. The first and second slot sections each have a width with at least one of the slot section widths being adapted to grip and retain at least one die-board rule.

Die boards are generally used to cut and/or crease one or more layers of sheet-type work material, such as cardboard, for use in the manufacture of various different articles. One such use, given here by way of example and not to be construed as limiting the present invention, is the fabrication of box and package blanks which after having been cut and creased by the die board, can be folded into finished boxes or product packages.
Usually, the die board consists of a base made from a thick piece of material such as plywood, that has a series of slots cut into it. These slots are arranged in a pattern corresponding, for example, to the outer periphery of a box or package blank, and the lines along which the blank must be folded to create the finished box or package. Rules, which generally consist of pieces of steel cut to lengths and/or bent to correspond to the slot length and configurations in the base, are then inserted into and protrude from the slots. The amount by which a particular rule extends from the slot depends on whether the rule will be employed to cut or crease the sheet material. Generally, during a cutting and creasing operation, the sheet material is positioned under the die board and pressure is applied to the board via a press, causing the rules to engage the sheet material, thereby cutting and creasing the sheet material.
In known methods of fabricating die boards, difficulties are often associated with the formation of the slots that must be cut into the die board base to accommodate the rules. Typically these slots are cut into the base in one of two ways; (1) using lasers, or (2) using a jig or band saw. The capital cost of a laser is generally very high, in addition, the use of lasers tends to be expensive and complex. Large amounts of power is required to operate the laser, and the beam must typically be shielded using an inert gas. Another difficulty associated with using lasers is that the slots produced tend to have scalloped edges. When the rules are inserted into these slots, rather than having line contact between the slot edges and the rules; the rules engage the slot edges at discreet points corresponding to the "peaks" of the scalloped edge. This reduces the stability of the rule in the die-board, increasing the potential for inaccurate cutting and creasing when the die board is used. This problem is further exacerbated due to the fact that the heat associated with the laser tends to dry out the board resulting in dimensional distortion of the slots being cut and warping of the board. A further problem also attributable to the heat of the laser is that smoke is generated from the material being cut. The smoke causes environmental problems which must be addressed, resulting in further increases in operating expense.
When a jig or band saw is employed, a starting hole must be drilled at one end of the slot to facilitate insertion of the blade associated with the saw. This requires an additional operation, thereby adding to the cost associated with fabricating the die board. Furthermore, these slots are often cut by hand with the inaccuracies resulting from human error making it difficult to insert the die board rules into the slots. The potential human error can also result in inaccurate die cutting. In addition, when using a manual process, the cut lines must be transferred by hand onto the die board.
Based on the foregoing, it is the general object of the present invention to provide a die board and a method for manufacturing the die board that overcomes the difficulties and drawbacks associated with prior art die boards and their manufacture.
It is a more specific object of the present invention to provide a die board fabricated using rotary cutting tools that is not subject to the above-described inaccuracies.

Method for making die boards, and materials and apparatus for practicing the method