There is disclosed a silver halide color photographic light-sensitive material capable of providing a color image which does not discolor for a long period of time and having a high preservation property. The light-sensitive material contains a novel anti-fading agent represented by following Formula (I): ##STR1## wherein R.sub.1 represents a hydrogen atom, an aliphatic group, an aromatic group, a heterocyclic group, or an aliphatic oxy group; R.sub.2 and R.sub.3 may be the same or different and each represent an aliphatic group, an aromatic group, and a heterocyclic group; R.sub.4 represents a substituent; R.sub.5, R.sub.6, R.sub.7, R.sub.8 and R.sub.9 each represent a hydrogen atom and a substituent; R.sub.2 and R.sub.3, R.sub.3 and R.sub.4, and R.sub.4 and R.sub.2 may be combined with each other to form a 5- to 8-membered ring, and a dimer or other polymer may be formed with R.sub.1, R.sub.2, R.sub.3 and R.sub.4 ; R.sub.5 and R.sub.6, R.sub.6 and R.sub.7, R.sub.7 and R.sub.8, and R.sub.8 and R.sub.9 may be combined with each other to form a 5- to 8-membered ring; provided that R.sub.5, R.sub.6, R.sub.7, R.sub.8 and R.sub.9 each does not represent an unsubstituted amino group or an unsubstituted carbamoyl group, R.sub.5 and R.sub.9 each do not represent an aliphatic oxy group, and any one of R.sub.2, R.sub.3 and R.sub.4 does not form a ring with R.sub.5, R.sub.6, R.sub.7, R.sub.8 or R.sub.9.

In general, a silver halide color photographic light-sensitive material has a silver halide emulsion layer which is sensitive to the three primary colors red, green and blue. A color image is reproduced by a method in which the three color formers (couplers) contained in the respective emulsion layers are developed into the colors having complementary color relations with the colors sensitive to the respective light-sensitive layers, a so-called subtractive color process. A color image obtained by subjecting a silver halide color photographic light-sensitive material to photographic processing generally comprises an azomethine dye or an indoaniline dye which is formed by reacting an aromatic primary amine color developing agent with a coupler. The color photographic image thus obtained is not necessarily stable against light, humidity and heat, and storage under a high temperature and humidity conditions results in fading and discoloring of the color image and deteriorates image quality.
Such fading and discoloring of a color image is an almost fatal defect for a recording material. As the methods for removing these defects, the development of a coupler capable of providing a dye having a high fastness, the application of an anti-fading agent, and the application of a UV absorber for preventing the deterioration of an image by UV rays have been proposed.
Among the above measures, the prevention of the deterioration of an image by a UV absorber is very effective. It is known to add to the emulsion, for example, hydroquinones, hindered phenols, catechols, gallic acid esters, aminophenols, hindered amines, chromanols, indanes, ethers or esters obtained by silylating, acylating or alkylating a phenolic hydroxy group of the above compounds, and metal complex compounds.
These compounds are insufficient to meet the requirements of high quality images, though the effects thereof as an anti-fading and discoloring agents for a color image can be recognized. These compounds are unsatisfactory because they change hue, generate fog, cause inferior dispersion, or form fine crystals after the emulsion is coated.
Disclosed in JP-B-47-47245 (the term "JP-B" as used herewith means an examined Japanese patent publication), JP-A-52-150630 (the term "JP-A" as used herewith means an unexamined published Japanese patent application) and JP-A-55-6321, are the cases in which aniline compounds are used for preventing fading and discoloration of a color image. Further, the cases in which the aniline compounds are used for preventing fading and discoloration of a color image obtained from a magenta coupler are disclosed in JP-A-58-105147, JP-A-62-8148, JP-A-62-212652, JP-A-63-95448, JP-A-63-95450, and JP-A-2-34843.
However, the compounds described in the above publications do not sufficiently improve fastness of a color image since they do not adequately prevent fading but cause a high coloring of backgrounds. Further, some of them cause coloring (hereinafter referred to as fog) of an unexposed portion and prevent couplers from developing color, adversely affecting the so-called photographic properties.
Under such circumstances, a technique for controlling fading and discoloration of an image without badly affecting the photographic properties has been desired.

Silver halide color photographic material containing an anti-facing agent


A tamper resistant box for shielding from tampering a telephone system junction box installed upon a wall of a building, consisting of a pair of side walls; an upper or lower wall fixedly attached to or homogeneously fused with the upper or lower ends of the side walls, the upper or lower wall spanning between the side walls; wall attaching means fixedly attached to or homogeneously fused with the inward ends of the side walls; an access panel fitted so that it may span between the lower or upper ends of the side walls; access panel attaching means capable of removably attaching the access panel to the lower or upper ends of the side walls; a false access panel fitted so that it may span between the outer ends of the side walls and so that it may span between the outer ends of the upper or lower wall and the access panel; and false access panel attaching means capable of permanently attaching the false access panel to the outer ends of the side walls.

Telephone wire junction boxes which are installed upon exterior walls of residences or commercial buildings, and are uncovered, are easily tampered with by burglars or intruders. A burglar who gains access to a telephone wire junction box may easily disable the telephone system of the building, preventing "911" or emergency telephone calls from being made in response to an intrusion. Thus, it is desireable to shield such telephone wire junction boxes from such tampering by installing thereover of a protective tamper resistant metal box.
The interior of such protective metal boxes ordinarily must be freely accessible for purposes of telephone system repair, and be inaccessible to burglars or intruders. A known method of facilitating accessibility for purposes of repair and inaccessibility to burglars is to provide a box having a hinged panel locked by a hasp or bolt controlled by a key. Where such an access panel is openable and closeable by means of a key lock, access to the telephone wire junction box may be restricted to authorized persons. However, it is uneconomical to construct a telephone wire junction protecting box having access panel having a key lock.
Another known method of restricting unauthorized access to the interior of such tamper resistant boxes is to provide a hinged or removable panel which is locked in place by a common padlock. However, common padlocks may be easily cut by a bolt cutter which is a common burglary tool. The instant invention solves such problems by providing a tamper resistant telephone wire junction protecting box which restricts access by burglars or intruders, which allows free access for purposes of telephone system repair, and which does not require utilization of key locks or padlocks. Such objectives are accomplished through the utilization of an access panel and a false access panel attached by screws and adhesives adapted and positioned to cause a burglar or intruder to erroneously conclude that easy access into the box is not possible.


The present invention relates to a light controller for controlling a lightning system, where the lightning system comprises a number of light emitting devices such as controllable light fixtures, controllable light emitting visual devices and/or controllable display devices adapted to emit video content. The light controller comprises a first slide controller, a second slide controller, and a locking mechanism adapted to fix the first slide controller and the second slide controller in relation to each other, such that movement of at least one of the slide controllers forces the other slide controller to perform a corresponding movement.

Light controllers adapted to control a number of light emitting devices in a lighting system are widely known in the field of dynamic light controlling typically used in connection with entertainment lighting systems.
The light controller acts as the primary controller adapted to send control commands to the light emitting devices in the light systems and can, as a consequence, be used to create very complex light shows. The light commands can be sent automatically to the light emitting devices but can also be executed manually using user input interfaces such as bottoms, slide controllers, rotary buttons/encoders, touch screens or other input devices. The lighting designers and programmers use the light controller to program and reprogram sequences of light effects which are executed during the light show. Further the light operator uses the light controller when executing the light show.
Many lighting systems comprise a plurality of different light emitting devices of different types and manufactures. Typically, the different light emitting devices have different functionality and require specific control commands in order to work properly, and as a consequence, it is very time consuming for the lighting designers and programmers to program the light show.
One of the challenges when executing light shows is to provide manual fading of different light effects. Often the fade of light effects must be performed manually for instance in order to follow the artist and/or stage play and this is challenging when two light effects need to be faded simultaneously as this needs to be performed using two independent slide controllers and/or rotary encoders and it can be difficult to perform such fading in proper sync. Further, there is a great risk that things may go wrong if something/somebody disturbs the light operator during the cross fading.
Another issue is the fact that graphical content is getting more and more integrated into light shows, and in some situations, live images are also integrated in the light shows for instance shown on large display walls and/or by projectors. In some situations, the graphical content need to be synchronized with several lighting effects in a smooth and very precise way however existing light controllers do not provide sufficient means for such action especially when such synchronization needs to be performed manually.

Light controller with locked split handle


A method for operating an internal combustion engine having an exhaust gas purification system. Intake air throttling is carried out in order to raise an exhaust gas temperature in a low-load mode and in a traction mode. The amount of intake air throttling is determined as function of an expected load demand so that, with an expected unchanged or decreasing load demand, an increased or maximum possible intake air throttling is set. With an expected rising load demand, however, no or reduced intake air throttling is set, and the expected load demand is estimated based on operating and ambient parameters of the internal combustion engine.

The present invention relates to a method for operating an internal combustion engine having an exhaust gas purification system, with intake air throttling being carried out in order to raise an exhaust gas temperature in a low-load mode and in a traction mode.
DE 44 15 650 C2 discloses a method for operating an internal combustion engine, in which a mass intake airflow is reduced in order to raise an exhaust gas temperature level. The reduction is to take place such that, after a fuel injection, there is a virtually stoichiometric mixture at each operating point of the internal combustion engine. This ensures that the exhaust gas temperature level is always at a maximum value for the instantaneous operating point and a catalytic converter arranged in the exhaust train of the internal combustion engine reaches its activation temperature as quickly as possible. The amount of reduction in the mass intake airflow is to be determined from a characteristic map as a function, inter alia, of the residual oxygen content in the exhaust gas. This is intended to ensure that the mixture can never become too rich even during the nonstationary operation of the internal combustion engine. When the operating temperature of the catalytic converter is already reached, the mass intake airflow is no longer reduced to the same extent as when the internal combustion engine is cold, but, instead, only to an extent such that the catalytic converter is maintained at its optimum operating temperature.
DE 197 49 400 A1 discloses a method for reducing the NOx content in the exhaust gas of a diesel internal combustion engine. In order to avoid a cooling of the exhaust gas in the overrun mode, an efficiency of the diesel internal combustion engine is deliberately impaired. For this purpose, for example, an exhaust gas recirculation rate can be reduced at the expense of a minimization of consumption.
DE 197 31 623 A1 discloses a method for operating a direct-injection diesel engine, in which a rise in the exhaust gas temperature is to be achieved by means of mass intake air throttling.
DE 44 40 833 A1 also discloses a method for operating a diesel engine, in which the exhaust gas temperature can be increased by a reduction in the mass air throughput, for example by means of an exhaust gas turbocharger of variable geometry, intake air throttling, boost pressure cutback or intake air preheating.
Modern internal combustion engines are distinguished by ever increasing efficiency, above all in the part-load range, this applying particularly to direct-injection gasoline and diesel engines. Benefits of a higher efficiency are a lower consumption, lower untreated emissions and therefore increased environmental compatibility. The improved efficiency has an adverse effect on catalytic exhaust gas aftertreatment systems, however, because less exhaust gas energy and therefore a lower exhaust gas temperature are available for heating the exhaust gas aftertreatment systems. The result of this may be that these exhaust gas aftertreatment systems reach the temperature range necessary for optimum pollutant conversion later or even never. Under certain circumstances, because of the poorer convertibility of the exhaust gas aftertreatment systems, this leads to an overall poorer emission behavior in spite of reduced untreated emission values.
In addition, this problem becomes more serious when discontinuous exhaust gas aftertreatment systems, such as NOx storage catalytic converters and/or diesel particle filters, are used. These systems require, for the conversion or removal of the stored exhaust gas constituents, for example NOx, SOx, particles, regeneration phases which, if appropriate are generated actively at regular intervals and are associated, inter alia, with marked rises in exhaust gas temperatures. Among other things, the active introduction of an afterinjection following the actual main combustion may contribute to generating these required exhaust gas temperatures. This afterinjection is converted completely or partially in the combustion space of the engine, and possibly unburned fuel can additionally be burnt on an optionally preceding oxidizing catalytic converter and actively heat the systems to be regenerated. For this purpose, however, such an oxidizing catalytic converter must be kept in the temperature window necessary for converting the introduced fuel. Furthermore, for a reduction in energy and therefore in consumption, it is advantageous to have as high an initial temperature as possible at the commencement of the active heating operation.
In systems consisting of internal combustion engines and exhaust gas aftertreatment systems which generate the necessary regeneration temperature predominantly or even only partially within the engine, the problem arises that there are engine operating states which naturally do not allow any increase in the exhaust gas temperature. This applies particularly to the overrun mode, since this is characterized by a negative engine output torque and therefore, in the overrun mode, no load-generating and therefore also no temperature-generating injection of fuel is carried out.
Since the driving state overrun mode in the motor vehicle may have a substantial fraction of an overall driving profile, it is important to keep the exhaust gas temperatures already reached as high as possible at least as long as possible, and therefore to keep the unavoidable cooling of the exhaust gas in the overrun mode as low as possible. A highly effective possibility of markedly reducing the cooling of the exhaust gas in the overrun mode is a reduction in the fresh air mass passed through the engine. The reduction may be achieved by the activation of various throttle points which may be introduced between the intake tract and the exhaust tract. The opening of an existing exhaust gas recirculation device may also reduce the cooling air throughput through the engine. Such methods operating with intake air throttling are mentioned, for example, in the aforementioned documents.
The known measures for reducing the mass air throughput by throttling actions on the fresh air side not only cause a higher exhaust gas temperature level to be maintained, but also adversely result in a changed response behavior of the vehicle. In particular, when the driver requires load after a throttled overrun phase, the response behavior becomes noticeably poorer.
Alternatively, throttling devices mounted on the exhaust gas side may ensure a reduction in the mass air throughput, but such throttling devices on the exhaust gas side, due to the induced rise in counterpressure, ensure a clearly noticeable braking torque comparable to what is known as the engine brake in motor trucks.
A further alternative for reducing the mass air throughput is to employ a bypass valve system which is mounted on the exhaust gas side and, in overrun phases, diverts exhaust gas having a high fresh air fraction around the actual active exhaust gas aftertreatment systems. However, such systems are complicated in structural terms and are costly.
An object of the present invention is to provide a method for operating an internal combustion engine having an exhaust gas purification system in which a rise in the exhaust gas temperature in low-load and overrun phases is allowed, without the response behavior of the internal combustion engine being noticeably impaired.
For this purpose, according to the invention, a method for operating an internal combustion engine comprising an exhaust gas purification system is provided, intake air throttling being carried out in order to raise an exhaust gas temperature in a low-load mode and a traction mode. An amount of intake air throttling is determined as a function of an expected load demand so that, in the case of an expected unchanged or decreasing load demand, an increased or maximum possible intake air throttling is set, and, in the case of an expected rising load demand, no or reduced intake air throttling is set. The expected load demand is estimated on the basis of operating and ambient parameters of the internal combustion engine.
The invention thus provides a method, by way of which intake air throttling can be carried out a in foresighted way, since, by the use of suitable information systems which, if appropriate, are already installed in the vehicle, the throttling rates can be adapted dynamically to the expected estimated driving behavior. This makes it possible to have temporally markedly higher throttling rates and consequently a markedly reduced cooling of existing exhaust gas temperatures, without any adverse effects on the response or driving behavior.
In particular, by virtue of the invention, the response behavior of the internal combustion engine is markedly improved after an overrun phase with a lowered mass air throughput, corresponding to what is known as throttle operation. Thus, with the present invention, the throttling rates are raised dynamically in operating phases in which no load requirement by the driver is expected, whereas the throttling rates are kept as low as possible in operating phases with a potential load requirement. The estimation of the expected load demand, this corresponding in the vehicle to an estimation of the expected behavior of a driver, is in this case to take place on the basis of sensor information and further information which reproduces current conditions from which certain possible consequential actions can be inferred.
In a development of the invention, the internal combustion engine is provided for a motor vehicle and the expected load demand is estimated as a function of a brake pedal position, of a brake pressure, of a profile of the brake pedal position and/or of a brake pressure profile.
Thus, perfectly reliable evidence of the expected load demand can be obtained, since, in an overrun phase, with the brake pedal depressed, no load requirement by the driver is to be expected. Intake air throttling can thus be increased on the basis of the interlinking of the information "overrun mode" or "low-load mode" and "brake pedal depressed". For example, the intake air throttling rate may also be increased in proportion to the travel by which the brake pedal is depressed downward. Advantageously, the profile of the brake pedal travel or of the brake pressure is also detected and evaluated, so that, even in the case of the least possible indication of a reduction in braking action, the intake air throttling rate is cut back superproportionally in a speculative way, since, if there is a reduction in the braking action, the expectation that a driver then intends to step on the gas again is justified. In this way, even in the case of a rapid change from brake to accelerator pedal, the rise in the fresh air mass required for ensuring a good response behavior can be initiated in a foresighted way. In order to improve the response behavior further after a reinforced throttling action, a dynamic air mass rise can advantageously be implemented, which, when a potential termination of the braking action by the driver is detected, has already as far as possible reduced the intake air throttling rate.
In a further development of the invention, the internal combustion engine is provided for a motor vehicle and the expected load demand is estimated as a function of a transmission position, in particular linked to a current driving speed.
For example, with a transmission gear not selected, no load requirement of the driver is to be expected. This applies particularly when the vehicle is stationary. In such an idling or lowest-load mode in which only the traction torque of the engine has to be overcome, a maximum possible intake air throttling rate can thereby be set, in order, even in the idling mode, to keep the exhaust gas temperature as high as possible and to achieve a rapid heating of the exhaust gas aftertreatment systems or an only slight cooling of the latter.
In yet another development of the invention, the internal combustion engine is provided for a motor vehicle and the expected load demand is estimated as a function of a measurement of the distance from a vehicle traveling ahead.
For example, information from a radar-assisted distance measuring instrument, what is known as a Distronic, may be used. Thus, for example, the rapid approach to a vehicle traveling ahead causes a marked lowering in the probability of a load requirement by the driver.
In a still further development of the invention, the internal combustion engine is provided for a motor vehicle and the expected load demand is estimated as a function of information on the position and/or location of the vehicle.
For this purpose, for example, information from a navigation system, for example a satellite-assisted global positioning system, may be used. If, for example, the vehicle is just approaching an intersection with traffic lights, the probability of a load requirement of the driver falls, especially when the brake pedal is depressed at the same time. Furthermore, however, for example, information on the current inclination of the vehicle may also be used. Thus, as a rule, no or only a low load requirement is to be expected during downhill travel and in the overrun mode. In this case, terrain information may also be used in a foresighted way, such as, for example, whether the vehicle is just at the start of a downhill stretch.
In a development of the invention, the internal combustion engine is provided for a motor vehicle and the expected load demand is estimated as a function of acceleration spin information.
Information on the acceleration spin, for example on a slippery surface, likewise suggests the absence of a load requirement of the driver, especially when the acceleration spin information is seen in connection with further information from an outside temperature sensor and a rain sensor. In this case, for example, information provided by a driving dynamics control system may also be used. If, for example, the driving dynamics control system brings about a reduction in the drive torque, it may be assumed that there are no load demands on the internal combustion engine.
Suitable operating and ambient parameters for estimating the expected load demand can be delivered by all systems which are capable of being able to forecast a driver's requirement with some degree of certainty. These are, for example, driver assistance systems which can provide information on the nature of terrain, traffic density, driving destinations and the like.

Method for operating an internal combustion engine comprising an exhaust gas purification system


The present invention relates generally to the production of recombinant human uteroglobin (rhUG) for use as a therapeutic in the treatment of inflammation and fibrotic diseases. More particularly, the invention provides processes, including broadly the steps of bacterial expression and protein purification, for the scaled-up production of rhUG according to current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP). The invention further provides analytical assays for evaluating the relative strength of in vivo biological activity of rhUG produced via the scaled-up cGMP processes.

Therapeutic Uses of Recombinant Uteroglobin
The search for improved therapeutic agents for the treatment of inflammatory, as well as fibrotic diseases, has received much attention in recent years. Neonatal Respiratory Distress Syndrome (RDS), a lung surfactant deficiency disease, is a condition of particular interest in that it is one of the major causes of mortality in premature neonates. While introduction of surfactant therapy dramatically improves survival of RDS patients, the development of chronic inflammatory and fibrotic disease in a significant percentage of this patient population is a major problem. Likewise, glomerular nephropathy and renal fibrosis leads to end stage renal failure when patients' kidneys become blocked and no longer filter the blood. Many forms of glomerular nephropathy and renal fibrosis is characterized by fibronectin deposits. In both diseases, fibronectin and collagen deposition and fibrosis render the organ nonfunctional, and eventually, unable to support life. Thus, these patients require chronic hemodialysis or kidney transplantation.
Recombinant human UG is a protein with beneficial anti-inflammatory, anti-fibrotic, anti-tumor, respiratory and immunomodulatory properties that is under development as a therapeutic agent in several clinical indications. Recombinant human UG is useful for the treatment of conditions characterized by a deficiency of UG. It is especially adapted for the treatment of pulmonary inflammatory conditions, for example neonatal respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) and bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD); for the treatment of conditions characterized by an elevation in local serum PLA2 activity, such as adult RDS (ARDS), septic shock, pancreatitis, collagen vascular diseases, rheumatoid arthritis, acute renal failure, and autoimmune uveitis; for the treatment of conditions characterized by local elevations in PLA2 activity, such as neonatal RDS/BPD, ARDS, rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, peritonitis, glomerulopathies, including hereditary Fn-deposit glomerulonephritis, and autoimmune uveitis; for the treatment of fibrotic conditions where deposition of fibronectin is a causative factor e.g., idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, bleomycin lung, and cystic fibrosis and glomerular nephropathy, particularly familial glomeruleropathy, characterized by Fn deposits in the kidneys, which ultimately lead to renal failure, can also be treated with exogenous UG; and to methods for treating or preventing an inflammatory or fibrotic condition characterized by a deficiency of endogenous functional UG, by administering a compensating amount of rhUG.
RhUG is useful for inhibiting cellular adhesion to fibronectin, inhibits inflammatory cell and fibroblast migration on already deposited fibronectin, and inhibits the interaction between a cell and an extracellular matrix protein and/or membrane bound protein. RhUG is also especially useful for improving and/or normalizing lung function, pulmonary compliance, blood oxygenation, and/or blood pH. RhUG is particularly useful in the regulation of smooth muscle concentration in various organ systems including the respiratory system, the digestive system, the circulatory system, the reproductive system, and the urinary system. RhUG may also be used as well to regulate or reduce vascular permeability, to inhibit the migration of vascular endothelial cells and angiogenesis, and to prevent angiogenesis. Intratracheal rhUG may be used as a stem cell factor to increase lymphocyte production and/or decrease polymorphonuclear leukocyte proliferation in the long term. RhUG increases the concentration of circulating lymphocytes and/or cytotoxic T cells while decreasing the concentration of circulating polymorphonuclear leukocyte proliferation, which is especially useful for patients suffering from an autoimmune disease or allergy. Intravenous rhUG may be used as well to suppress ATP metabolism in circulating lymphocytes and to increase ATP metabolism in activated neutrophil, monocytes, macrophages, and NK cells in the short term.
Prior Art Methods for the Production of Recombinant Human Uteroglobin
There are several published methods for expressing rhUG and for purifying either native or recombinant uteroglobin, or urine protein-1, in microgram to milligram quantities for research purposes (Mantile, 1993; Miele, 1992; Singh, 1987; Jackson, 1989; Anderson, 1994; Umland, 1994; Aoki, 1996). These methods are quite varied but none are well suited to large-scale production of a protein and none address the regulatory issues required of a process for production of a pharmaceutical. Furthermore, the biological activities of these various preparations are not necessarily equivalent. For example, Nieto (1997) reported that native rabbit uteroglobin loses some of its progesterone activity upon lyophilization, while Miele and Mantile use repeated size exclusion chromatography steps and multiple lyophilizations as concentration steps during their purification process. However, end users would greatly prefer a ready-to-use product over a lyophilized product since the percentage of aggregates of rhUG increases with both lyophilization and repeated freeze thaw cycles. High levels of aggregation can adversely affect the biological activity, change the immunogenicity, or alter the potency of the final drug product. Under FDA guidelines undesirable aggregates constitute an impurity, entire lots of drug product may be rejected on the basis of high levels of aggregate within the drug product.
Problems in Development of Recombinant Therapeutics
The production of the recombinant protein-based drug substances involves the development of several processes that adhere to the guidelines set forth by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) referred to as current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP). A process that adheres to the FDA's cGMP guidelines is compliant with cGMP. In order to sell a pharmaceutical composition or drug product in the U.S. and elsewhere, it is necessary to produce the drug product using a cGMP process.
The clinical development of a recombinant protein as a drug substance, as well as the sales and use of protein drugs, require a well-characterized and reproducible production process for the drug substance as well as a detailed characterization of that drug substance.
Recombinant proteins represent a particular challenge since their activity is dependent not only upon amino acid composition but also upon the conformation of the protein. The conformation of a protein is the overall three-dimensional structure of the protein which may be characterized on four levels. The first level is its primary structure or amino acid sequence. The second level is the protein's secondary structure and is the pattern of organization associated with short stretches of about 6–30 amino acids in the protein which form local stable structural regions such as alpha helices, beta sheets, and omega loops. The third level, tertiary structure consists of the groupings of secondary structures into units or domains within a single contiguous stretch of amino acids, representing a protein or peptide monomer. The four helical bundle or fibronectin Type III repeat are examples of tertiary structures. The fourth level, quaternary structure is present when two or more individual peptide or protein monomers combine, either covalently or non-covalently, to form a single functional unit.
Recombinant proteins present a further challenge since activity is also dependent upon surface characteristics in which charge and hydrophobic character, in addition to shape, contribute significantly to the ability of a recombinant protein to interact specifically with other biological and chemical substances in a physiological environment. Isoforms of a protein consist of small variations in conformation, surface charge and/or hydrophobic character. These variations may result from changes in temperature, or from interactions with chemicals, salts, or other biological molecules (e.g., proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, nucleic acids, etc.) in the surrounding environment, or from actual chemical modifications to individual amino acids in the protein. Different isoforms of a protein can be detected by high-resolution analytical methods such as hydrophobic interaction HPLC, mass spectrometry, capillary electrophoresis, peptide mapping, isoelectric focusing, and two-dimensional electrophoresis.
The physical form and conformation of a recombinant protein drug can be strongly influenced by the expression system in which it is produced, as well as by the process through which it is purified for use as a drug substance, for example. Likewise, the resulting isoform or isoforms of the recombinant protein product can also be strongly influenced by the expression system and process through which it is produced. The biological activity of a protein is highly dependent upon its conformation and isoform(s), not just its chemical composition. For example, a protein may be partially or completely denatured by exposure to high or low temperatures and rendered biologically inactive, yet it still retains the same sequence of amino acids. Therefore, the biological activity of a recombinant protein is dependent not only on its chemical composition, but also upon the process through which it is expressed, purified, formulated and even packaged.
Drug substances or products often have extra components in addition to the biologically active compound and its vehicle or carrier. These components are derived from the raw materials from which the drug was produced or from materials introduced as part of the purification, formulation, or final packaging processes. The drug substance is defined as the final form of purified bulk drug while the drug product is the final packaged formulation of the drug substance (e.g., the product used in the patient.) These extra components of the drug substance or product are considered impurities or contaminants and may have unintended or undesirable biological activities of their own, either alone or in combination with the drug itself. Contaminants may be defined as components that are not derived from the drug itself while impurities may be defined as components that contain some element of the drug itself (e.g., fragments, variations, isoforms, enantiomers, aggregates, etc.). Thus, the drug production process is important not only because it determines the characteristics of the drug itself, but also because it determines the level and nature of contaminants and impurities in the drug substance and drug product. It is essential, therefore, to carefully define the process in order to maintain consistent and reproducible biological activity, in vivo, of a drug substance, drug product, or pharmaceutical composition. Thus, the process through which a recombinant protein drug is produced should be sufficiently well-characterized so that it is capable of complying with pharmaceutical production regulatory guidelines in order to be commercially viable, since non-compliance results in a product that cannot be sold or used in the U.S and elsewhere.
Moreover, the biopharmaceutical production process must be sufficiently efficient and economical to be commercially viable. Purification methods that are used in the laboratory to produce small amounts of a protein for research purposes are not typically suitable for biopharmaceutical production. For example, a small scale method such as size exclusion chromatography often is not practical for larger scale production because the chromatography matrix would be crushed under its own weight in the size of column required for purification of even a few grams of protein. Furthermore, size exclusion chromatography always increases the volume of the sample, resulting in less manageable high volume purification intermediates that must be concentrated prior to the next step in the process. Therefore, it is highly desirable to avoid the use of size exclusion chromatography in a biopharmaceutical production process. Another technique frequently employed to preserve a protein pharmaceutical agent in a stable form is lyophilization. This process involves the simultaneous freeze-drying of a protein, converting it from a liquid form in which it is typically susceptible to degradation, to a dry powder form in which it can typically be stored for many months without losing biological activity. However, repeated freeze/thaw cycles increase the percentage of aggregates of rhUG, which may result in a significant change in biological activity.

Methods for the production of purified recombinant human uteroglobin for the treatment of inflammatory and fibrotic conditions


A crystallizable low melting glass consisting essentially of PbO, ZnO, B.sub.2 O.sub.3, GeO.sub.2 and optionally SiO.sub.2, SnO.sub.2 and a metal oxide colorant.

It is widely practiced in the electronics industry to form electronic circuits by printing and firing thick film pastes. Such pastes are usually dispersions of finely divided particles of conductive metals and inorganic binder (glass frit) in an organic medium comprising a solid organic polymer dissolved in a volatilizable solvent. When circuits prepared in this manner are located on the outside of the electronic device, it is desirable to protect them from abrasion during handling and from environmental hazards by covering them with a coating of low melting glass. Such circuits may be either conductive or resistive in electrical functionality. Conventionally, the glass used for such applications has been an amorphous lead borate-type glass.
However, a recent trend toward the use of higher density circuitry has resulted in a demand for finer lines and spaces between the conductor lines. This, in turn, has exacerbated the problem of the generation of mechanical stresses in such structures because of the differences in the coefficients of thermal expansion (TCE) between the substrate and the printed and fired resistor or conductor. These higher stresses are exhibited by the appearance of microcracks which change the electrical properties of the functional layer. Thus, the resistance of a fired thick film resistor would be changed substantially by the presence of very small cracks in the printer and fired resistor layer. For this reason, there has been a substantial need for a way to suppress the formation of these mechanical stresses and thus to avoid unwanted changes in the resistance values of printed electronic circuits.

Partially crystallizable low melting glass


Wafer cushions for use in wafer carriers include spring beams that include a first arm extending from the frame of the wafer cushion in a first direction and a second arm extending from the first arm in a second direction, and a wafer contact at the end of the second arm opposite where the second arm is joined to the first arm. The wafer cushion may contact a substrate within the wafer carrier only at the wafer contacts during normal conditions. The substrate may also contact secondary contact points on the second arm when a shock event occurs. The wafer contact can be v-groove style wafer contact. The wafer contact may include a contact surface having a convex surface where it is configured to contact the wafer.

Wafer carriers can be manually or automatically handled or transported. Such transport and handling may result in physical shocks to the carrier. Such shock events include, for example, sudden acceleration or deceleration of the carrier, for example due to dropping, mishandling, braking of a transport vehicle, and other such movement of the wafer carrier or another acceleration or deceleration of greater than approximately 2 m/s2. Wafer cushions are used in wafer carriers to restrict movement of wafers such as semiconductor substrates within the carrier, for example to prevent wafers from impacting a side of the carrier when a physical shock occurs.
Wafer cushions typically include arms that extend from the frame to the centerline of the door and ending at a contact point where the wafer contacts the wafer cushion. Contact at these contact points prevents the wafer from hitting other wafers or parts of the inside of the wafer carrier, reducing the chance of damage when the wafer carrier experiences a shock event.
The wafer cushions must provide consistent force to the wafers contained within the wafer carrier to provide retention and maintain retention forces within predetermined ranges to prevent damage to the wafer or generation of particles which can adversely impact semiconductor processing and manufacture.


This disclosure provides a method, performed in a wireless device 60, for enabling a secure provisioning of a credential from a server 70. The wireless device 60 stores a device public key and a device private key. The server 70 stores the device public key. The method comprises receiving S1 an authentication request from the server 70; generating S2 a device authentication and integrity, DAI, indicator; and transmitting S3 an authentication response to the server 70. The authentication response comprises the DAI indicator. The method comprises receiving S4 a credential message from the server 70, the credential message comprising a server authentication and integrity, SAI, indicator. The SAI indicator provides a proof of the server's possession of the device public key. The method comprises verifying S5 the received credential message using the device public key.

It is envisioned that 50 billion devices will be connected to the Internet in 2020 and that the Internet Of Things, IoT, where wireless devices such as sensors, light bulbs, etc. are connected, will be a major part of the connected devices. Security is very important for these wireless devices. For example, it is important to make sure that data delivered from sensors ends up in the right hands and that it has not been tampered with, and that sensitive data from these sensors is not exposed.
Another example is the need to prevent tampering of data sent to and from control devices such as door locks or pacemakers, for which tampering could have serious consequences on people's properties or health. Not only should the wireless device itself and the service provided by the wireless device be protected (e.g. secure communication between the wireless device and server to which the wireless device delivers sensitive sensor data), but also device management (such as SW update and configuration of the device) and service registration and enablement needs to be handled in a secure manner. Hence, it is important to prevent that a man-in-the-middle manipulates the SW, puts the wireless device into a faulty/unsecure configuration, or makes the wireless device register to a rogue server.
Wireless devices are typically constrained devices with limited computing and communication power and memory. For such wireless devices, several standards have been proposed in various standardization forums. One of these standards is the lightweight machine to machine, LwM2M, protocol that provides means for bootstrapping, registration, management, service enablement, and information reporting of constrained wireless devices. The LwM2M protocol runs on top of constrained application protocol, CoAP, which is a representation state transfer, REST-ful application protocol for constrained devices recently standardized by IETF. Both LwM2M and CoAP mandate the use of datagram transport layer security, DTLS for secure communication including mutual authentication between a wireless device and a server (bootstrapping server, device management server, or data reporting server).
CoAP and LwM2M specifications describe three modes in which DTLS is to be used and specify mandatory DTLS cipher suites to be used:                DTLS with pre-shared key: a pre-shared key between the wireless device and the server is used.        DTLS with public-private key pairs in raw-public-key, RPK, mode: both wireless device and server has an individual public-private elliptic curve cryptographic key pair used for mutual authentication and the RPK format is used to transfer keys between the IoT device and the server in order to avoid certificates and save memory and processing power in the wireless devices.        DTLS with certificates: both wireless device and server has individual public-private elliptic curve cryptographic key pairs and corresponding certificates certifying their public keys. Private keys and certificates are used for mutual authentication.
To allow the constrained wireless device to establish DTLS session with different servers in any of these modes, it is necessary to provide credentials to the constrained wireless device such as a pre-shared key, a public-private key pair, and certificates. However, the constrained wireless device very often lacks interface and display for the user/enterprise that owns the device to be able to manually configure the wireless devices with credentials. Often, the only interface of a wireless device of machine type is the network interface. In many cases, the user/enterprise buys hundreds or thousands of wireless devices and then manual configuration of each device is too time consuming. Often, the wireless device may have been pre-configured with some credentials at the manufacturer of the wireless device but still need to be provided with device credentials that support the wireless device in securely operating in the user/enterprise network.
The phase in which the wireless device is initially provisioned with credentials is called the bootstrapping phase. In this phase, a bootstrapping server, BS, is involved in the provisioning of credentials to the wireless device. We consider the case where the wireless device is provisioned with an individual public-private key pair at manufacturing. For a secure bootstrapping, the manufacturer needs to provide the wireless device at manufacturing with a manufacturer public key/certificate such that mutual authentication is possible between the wireless device and the manufacturer BS (e.g. using DTLS) ensuring the device that it is communicating with a legitimate manufacturer BS server, and such that secure communication is established for delivering the user/enterprise BS URL and possibly credentials that are needed for the wireless device to securely connect to the user/enterprise BS. The wireless device may then proceed to the bootstrapping phase with the enterprise BS where provisioning of device credentials needed to securely connect to enterprise servers is done. To achieve a secure and successful bootstrapping with the enterprise BS, the wireless device and the enterprise BS are to mutually authenticate, and establish a secure connection for provision of the device credentials so that the wireless device can securely operate within the enterprise network. However, a protocol achieving a secure connection for credential provisioning needs to be as lightweight as possible to be supported by the wireless IoT devices.
US20150095648 shows a secure communication for "Machine-to-Machine", M2M, between modules and servers. The module and server can utilize public key infrastructure (PKI) such as public keys to encrypt messages. The module and server can use private keys to generate digital signatures for datagrams sent and decrypt messages received. The module can internally derive pairs of private/public keys using cryptographic algorithms and a set of parameters. A server can use a shared secret key to authenticate the submission of derived public keys with an associated module identity. For the very first submission of a public key derived by the module, the shared secret key can comprise a pre-shared secret key which can be loaded into the module using a pre-shared secret key code. This document makes use of an additional pre-shared secret to transfer a public key generated at the module to the server, which is an additional cryptographic material. Having an additional cryptographic material is a sub-optimal solution for wireless IoT devices where resources are constrained and the amount or number of cryptographic material is to be kept to a minimum.
Hence, there is a need for a lightweight security protocol to enable secure provisioning of device credentials to a wireless device from a server.

Method for enabling a secure provisioning of a credential, and related wireless devices and servers


Systems and methods for X-ray imaging are provided. The X-ray imaging system includes an X-ray source for generating X-rays. The X-ray imaging system further includes an X-ray detector configured to provide X-ray intensity variation information relating to the X-rays and corresponding to each of a plurality of detector cells of the X-ray detector.

This invention relates generally to X-ray imaging systems, and more particularly, to X-ray detectors.
X-ray imaging systems use X-ray detectors to form an image of an object that is being scanned. X-ray detectors typically use a single sensing layer composed of a scintillator layer and a photodiode layer to form an image of the object. Both the layers are divided into a number of cells. The combination of a scintillator cell and a photodiode cell forms an X-ray detector cell. A number of such X-ray detector cells are combined to form the X-ray detector. When an X-ray falls on a scintillator cell, the scintillator cell emits visible light. The intensity of the emitted light is proportional to the intensity of the X-ray. The emitted light is directed towards a photodiode cell. The photodiode cell converts the light into an electrical signal. The amplitude of the electrical signal is proportional to the intensity of the light incident on the photodiode cell.
The resolution of an image obtained after scanning an object depends on the size of the X-ray detector cell, the complexity of the interconnect for these cells and the associated electronics. One technique to increase the resolution of scanned images is to reduce the size of the X-ray detector cells. However, the reduction in the size of the X-ray detector cells increases the cost and complexity of the X-ray imaging system.

System and method for X-ray imaging using X-ray intensity information


A front under-run protection assembly for a medium duty truck. The front under-run protection assembly includes a front bar assembly and a support assembly. The support assembly includes a beam and attachment plates. The front bar assembly has a bar positioned under the bumper of the truck and shaped to match the bumper shape. The front bar assembly includes a plurality of strengthening gussets attached to a back side of the bar. The bar assembly is attached to the support assembly which is in turn attached to the frame of the truck.

Many truck accidents take place every year all over the world, resulting in injury to thousands of people, in addition to causing many deaths. Cars remain at a decided disadvantage in accidents with medium and heavy duty trucks. The injury risk in accidents involving medium and heavy duty trucks appears to be far greater for occupants of opponent vehicles, especially for cars. This risk increases in the case of car to truck frontal collisions, particularly where the lighter car is likely to travel under the front of the much heavier truck. As a preventative measure, front under-run protection devices (FUPD) are required in many jurisdictions. A FUPD serves to prevent a car involved in a frontal collision with a truck from running under the front of the truck.

Front under-run protection device for medium duty truck


An automatic apparatus for drilling dowel holes in a workpiece and then inserting dowels in the dowel holes is disclosed. The apparatus has a moveable carriage that moves along the side edge of the workpiece. A drilling tool and a dowel inserting tool are attached to the moveable carriage. A programable controller controls the movement of the carriage and the operation of the drilling tool and the dowel injecting tool. The controller is programmed to move the carriage to a plurality of positions for drilling dowel holes in the workpiece. The number of dowel holes, the spacing of the dowel holes and the depth of the dowel holes are entered into a control panel to program the controller. The controller is then activated to move the carriage and operate the dowel drilling tool and dowel inserting tool. As the carriage moves in sequential steps along the workpiece, the dowel drilling tool drills a dowel hole at each of the steps in the movement of the carriage, and the dowel inserting tool inserts dowels in the drilled dowel holes.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to apparatus for drilling dowel holes or bores in a workpiece, injecting glue into the drilled dowel bores and then setting dowels into the bores. In particular, the present invention relates to improvements in such apparatus wherein a programable controller is provided for automatically controlling the movement of a combination drill head and dowel setting head along the length of the side edge of the workpiece. The programable controller is programmed to control operation of the combination drill head and dowel setting head, as the same is being moved along the length of the side edge of the workpiece, to (a) drill dowel bores at selected, spaced positions along the length of the side edge of the workpiece, (b) inject glue into the bores, and (c) set dowels in the glued bores.
2. State of the Art
Various types of apparatus have been proposed and used in the prior art for drilling bores or holes in a workpiece, injecting glue into the bores and then inserting or setting dowels into the glued bores. In the more simple apparatus as exemplified in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,738,766 and 4,235,565, jigs are used for holding a power tool such as a portable drill. The workpiece is moved into position relative to the jig, and the portable drill is used to drill a bore into the workpiece. Additional bores can be formed by manually moving the workpiece to a new position. Once all the desired bores are formed, the workpiece is removed from the jig. Glue is then manually injected into the bores, and dowels are manually inserted into the glued bores.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,693,647 a dowel hole drilling machine is disclosed having a work table and a jig containing a tool that drives a rotating drilling element. The workpiece is carried by the worktable, and the worktable moves toward the rotating drilling element when the workpiece has been located in proper position on the worktable. As the workpiece engages the rotating drilling element, a bore is drilled in the workpiece. After the workpiece has been removed from the table, glue can be injected into the bore and a dowel then set in the glued bore.
In U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,601,301 and 4,834,153 apparatus is disclosed in which the workpiece is held in place and multiple bores are formed in the workpiece simultaneously by multiple drilling elements which are moved as a unit towards the workpiece such that the drilling elements simultaneously engage the workpiece and drill bores therein. The drilling elements are then withdrawn and without moving the workpiece, multiple heads for injecting glue and inserting dowels are moved into alignment with the bores that were previously formed in the workpiece. These heads simultaneously inject glue into the respective bores and immediately thereafter insert dowels into the glued bores.
Apparatus for simultaneously forming a plurality of dowel bores in the side edge of a workpiece is known in the art. Such apparatus as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,639,171 comprises a work support upon which a workpiece can be securely held in proper position. A bank of drill chucks is provided, with the drill chucks being aligned and equally spaced relative to each other. The drill chucks are further driven by a common motor or drive unit. Drills are releasably attached to desired drill chucks to correspond with the number of bores that are to be formed in the side edge of the workpiece. The drills are attached to appropriate drill chucks so that proper spacing of the drills is achieved. The bank of drill chucks containing the selected drills moves as a unit toward the workpiece such that the drills simultaneously engage the edge of the workpiece and simultaneously drill bores in the edge of the workpiece. To vary the number of bores being formed in subsequent workpieces or the spacing of the bores, the drills must be removed and relocated to the appropriate drill chucks.
Although not shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,639,171, apparatus in accordance with the previous paragraph is known in the art wherein a separate bank of dowel inserting devices are provided in addition to the bank of drill chucks. When the bank of drill chucks is withdrawn from the side edge of the workpiece in which the dowel holes have been formed, the bank of dowel inserting devices having individual dowel inserting members spaced at the same spacing as the dowel bores is brought into close proximity to the side edge of the workpiece, with the individual dowel inserting members being in alignment with the respective dowel bores in the side edge of the workpiece. The dowel inserting members have means for first injecting glue simultaneously into the dowel bores and then dowels are simultaneously inserted or set in the glued bores.
3. Objective
A principal objective of the invention is to provide a novel improvement in the dowel drilling and setting apparatus of the type used in forming a plurality of dowel bores in the side edge of a workpiece and which were referred to in the two immediately preceding paragraphs.

Automatic, programable drilling, gluing and doweling apparatus


A photocurable composition for manufacturing a dental prosthesis by stereolithography, including: a photopolymerization initiator; and a (meth)acrylic monomer component including an acrylic monomer (X) having no aromatic rings and having a ring structure other than an aromatic ring and two or more acryloyloxy groups in one molecule and having an Mw of from 200 to 800, and at least one of a (meth)acrylic monomer (A) having one or more ether bonds and two (meth)acryloyloxy groups in one molecule and having a defined Mw, a (meth)acrylic monomer (B) having a ring structure other than an aromatic ring and one (meth)acryloyloxy group in one molecule and having a defined Mw, a (meth)acrylic monomer (C) having a hydrocarbon skeleton and two (meth)acryloyloxy groups in one molecule and having a defined Mw, and a (meth)acrylic monomer (D) having one or more aromatic rings and one (meth)acryloyloxy group in one molecule and having a Mw.

Conventionally, plastic denture bases (called "resin bases") have been made by a method in which, first, a plaster mold adapted to the intraoral shape of a patient is prepared by a dental technique, then a curable resin is poured into the plaster mold, and then the curable resin is cured.
In recent years, as a method of reducing the number of times a patient comes to dentistry and efficiently manufacturing a denture base, in addition to the above-mentioned method using a plaster mold, a method of measuring the intraoral shape of a patient by three-dimensional measurement and manufacturing a denture base based on the measurement result has also been proposed (for example, see the following Patent Document 1). A method of manufacturing a dental prosthesis using a 3D printer has also been disclosed (for example, see the following Patent Document 2).
Patent Document 1 Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 06-78937
Patent Document 2 Japanese Patent No. 4160311

Photocurable composition, denture base, and plate denture


A method for performing light-based calibration of optics with caustic surfaces. The method includes mapping a light detecting device to a programmable light source. Then, the method includes operating a calibration light source to direct light onto one or more caustic surfaces of an optical assembly, e.g., an assembly of one or more lenses, facets, lenticules, and lenslets. The method may then involve, with the light detecting device, capturing an image of a projection surface of the optical assembly, which is opposite the one or more caustic surfaces in the optical assembly, as the projection surface is illuminated by the light from the light source. Further, the method includes processing the captured image, along with the mapping of the light detecting device to the programmable light source, to generate a calibration map of the optical assembly including the caustic surfaces.

1. Field of the Description
The present invention relates, in general, to optical devices used in three dimensional (3D) displays, and, more particularly, to methods and systems for calibrating optical devices or assemblies that have one or more caustic surfaces.
2. Relevant Background
Optical devices with caustic surfaces are used in a wide range of applications such as in glasses-free 3D displays, in directional lighting assemblies, to provide unique toys, and for art installations. In optics, a caustic surface is a surface to which all light rays emanating from a single point and reflected by a curved surface (such as a concave mirror) are tangent, and a caustic may refer to an envelope of light rays reflected or refracted by a curved surface or object or the projection of that envelop of light rays onto another surface. In other words, caustic surfaces may display light from a light source (e.g., a projector) as concentrated patches of light or bright edges.
The most well-known caustic surface is a lens or lens array that may be used in a 3D display. For example, a fly's eye display lenslet may be used in many glasses-free 3D display technologies. In another example, a lenticular array may be used to display a flip image with one or more flipping regions where differing images are displayed to an observer. Glasses-free 3D display technologies may achieve a 3D effect by spatially multiplexing different images corresponding to different viewpoints into different directions by putting a lenslet array on top of an image surface. When the image surface is at the focal plane of the lenslet array, each of the display pixels below one lens is exposed to a different viewing angle, and this effect can be used to show different images to different viewers (e.g., flip images) or even different views of the same scene to achieve a 3D effect. Similarly, interestingly shaped caustic surfaces can be found in many toys, figurines, and gadgets/products, and, in their operation to provide displays or light effects, these may rely on the same principles of sending different image positions in different directions.
The quality of the imagery provided by many of these optical assemblies or devices may be unacceptable or at least diminished because most of these devices are not calibrated at all. The caustic surface (or optical assembly with one or more caustic surfaces) is designed and manufactured, but the alignment of the caustic surface facing toward the display surface(s) can only be done with machine precision. However, imperfections and flaws in the caustic surface due to the manufacturing process as well as slight misalignments, such as due to temperature changes, can lead to distracting or even unacceptable visual artifacts in the displayed images on the display surface(s).
When calibration is performed, it often still does not address issues involved with use of caustic surfaces in display systems. For example, in the case of lenslet arrays (which provide the caustic surface (or the reflective/refractive surface) of the optical assembly or optics), the current state-of-the-art calibration technique relies on special frequency patterns that are used to estimate the lens pitch, which in turn is then used to compute the pattern to display. However, this calibration method fails when lens pitch varies over the lens array and also does not consider other lens parameters including imperfect or changing focal length.
For some 3D display systems, some calibration approaches have been investigated that use a closed feedback loop to expose different images to different viewers. In one exemplary calibration attempt, left and right halves of viewer faces were illuminated with light of different wavelengths and captured by a camera focusing on this audience. The captured information was then adjusted and deformed to illuminate a display surface through an optical system such as by making some content visible only to the illuminated left eyes and some only visible to the right eyes. While being useful for some applications, such systems still require careful alignment and additional calibration of different components, which may be difficult. Further, these systems are often relatively complex to assemble and operate, are expensive to fabricate or assembly, and are typically very bulky.
Hence, there remains a need for improved methods of calibrating optics or optical assemblies that include one or more caustic surface. Preferably, such methods may be implemented with a calibration system that is inexpensive and not overly complex to implement and use. In some cases, it may be preferable for the optical calibration method to output a mapping or calibration map that can be readily used to project light or display images through the caustic surface(s) of the optical assembly onto a display surface(s), e.g., provide a mapping from image pixels to viewing positions.


A method is provided for determining aneuploidy of selected chromosomes. An important feature of the invention is the quantitative amplification of STR markers with repeat units of at least 3 nucleotides. The amplified STR DNA is separated by size and the respective quantities of the amplified components are determined and related to chromosome copy number. The highly polymorphic nature of the STR markers permits a more sensitive and reliable quantitative analysis of the amplified DNA.

Chromosomal aneuploidy is associated with a large number of genetic disorders that could be prevented or prepared for by appropriate diagnosis, e.g. Verp et al, chapter 7, in Filkins and Russo, Eds., Human Prenatal Diagnosis (1990). Such disorders include Down's syndrome associated with chromosome 21 trisomy, Edward's syndrome associated with chromosome 18 trisomy, Plateau's syndrome associated with chromosome 13 trisomy, Turner's syndrome associated with an absence of an X chromosome (XO), Kleinfelter's syndrome associated with an extra X chromosome (XXY), XYY syndrome, triple X syndrome, and the like. Presently, of the 15,600 annual births in the United States with chromosomal abnormalities (and 643,000 worldwide), 53% have sex chromosome aneuploidies, 26% have autosomal trisomies, and the remaining have autosomal rearrangements. There is a clear need for accurate, inexpensive, and convenient aneuploidy diagnostics.
A variety of diagnostic approaches have been taken or have been proposed to detect the presence of aneuploidy, e.g. construction and microscopic examination of karyotypes, flow cytometric examination of chromosomes, assay for enzymatic markers, in situ hybridization, quantitative amplification of selected chromosome-specific markers, and the like, e.g. Khan et al, European patent application No. 89300963.9. Unfortunately, most of these approaches are either technically difficult to perform, expensive, or rely on the subjective evaluation of a clinician which leads to unacceptable rates of misdiagnosis.
Recently many diagnostic and forensic assays have been proposed which are based on the amplification and detection of highly polymorphic classes of repetitive DNA that are present in the human genome, e.g. Craig et al, J. Forensic Sci., Vol. 33, pgs. 1111-1126 (1988); Edwards et al, Genomics, Vol. 12, pgs. 241-253 (1992); Boerwinkle et al, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., Vol. 86, pgs. 212-216 (1989); Tautz, Nucleic Acids Research, Vol. 17, pgs. 6463-6471 (1989); and the like. Typically, a segment of DNA that contains the repeated sequence is amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and then sized by denaturing polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. In regard to this approach, the so-called "short tandem repeat" or "STR" repetitive DNA has been of particular interest for diagnostic and mapping applications because of its size and genomic distribution. The length of the repeated unit in this class of DNA is typically from 2 to 6 nucleotides, and the overall length of the tandem repeat ranges from several tens to several hundreds of nucleotides making them convenient targets for PCR amplification and electrophoretic separation.
Unfortunately, the implementation of many of these detection schemes has been complicated because of imperfections in the amplification technology. For example, where amplification products must be electrophoretically separated for an assay readout, frequently secondary bands appear adjacent to a primary band, particularly when 2-nucleotide repeat sequences are amplified. This greatly complicates the quantitative analysis of the amplified product as the secondary bands of one allele may overlap the primary band(s) of other alleles.
It would be desirable to be able to detect aneuploidy using the DNA amplification approaches without the problems caused by spurious bands appearing in the electrophoretically separated amplification products.

Method of detecting aneuploidy by amplified short-tandem repeats


A package for an electronic component includes a synthetic package compound. This synthetic package compound includes an upper outer contact on its upper side and a lower outer contact on its lower side, where the upper outer contact is electrically connected to the lower outer contact via a conduction path. The synthetic package compound includes a mixture of a plastic with filler particles. The conduction path is formed from free conducting metallic inclusions. The filler particles are provided with metallorganic compounds or inorganic complex compounds. The inclusions are formed by photolytic decomposition of the metallorganic compounds or inorganic complex compounds.

German Patent Application DE 10 2004 049 663.3 discloses a package of a semiconductor component, in which lower outer contacts arranged on the lower side and upper outer contacts arranged on the upper side are connected together via conduction paths extending perpendicularly through the package. The conduction paths include free conducting inclusions of the synthetic material of the package.
The conduction paths are produced by first releasing the inclusions through input of energy; the conducting materials are subsequently amplified with a lower metal layer and a continuous metal layer is finally deposited on the inclusions by electrolytic coating. However, this process is elaborate and requires the additional process step for electrolytic deposition. Furthermore, the metallization often adheres deficiently on the plastic so that the conduction path does not conduct or has a very high impedance.

Package for an electronic component and method for its production


A painting system comprises a pressurized paint canister and a pressure fed paint brush or powered paint roller connectable to the pressurized paint canister. The canister includes a paint reservoir, a self-sealing gas pressure fitting in fluid communication with the paint reservoir and configured to be connected to a gas pressure source, a paint outlet in fluid communication with the paint reservoir, and a removable cap for filling the paint reservoir with paint. The brush assembly includes a main body having a handle and a brush stock and a bristle bundle secured in the brush stock. A plurality of fluid distribution members extend into the bristle assembly and are multidirectionally flexible such that the distribution members flex substantially freely with the flex of the bristles in any direction. The fluid distribution members prevent paint flow when in an unflexed state and allow flow onto the bristles only when flexed.

Paint brushes and paint rollers have been around for a very long time and are known to be relatively effective devices for applying a paint, varnish or other coating to a surface being coated. Throughout this specification, the term paint shall refer to any coating which may be applied to a surface with a paint brush, including without limitation, paint, varnish, stain, lacquer, polish, glaze, finish or other coating which can be applied with a paint brush.
Generally, a paint brush has a bundle of bristles having one end secured in a stock or head which has a handle. With a conventional paint brush, the bristles are dipped in a container of paint, such as a bucket, tray of cup. It order to most effectively apply the paint with the paint brush, it is important to get the right amount of paint on the brush, too much and the paint will drip off the brush; too little and the paint does not spread very far and may spread out too thin for providing proper coverage. Accordingly, after the brush is dipped, it is often necessary to swipe the brush over the edge of the container or on the surface of the container. The brush must be dipped in the paint numerous times to paint a large surface. The shortcomings of this very labor-intensive, time consuming process of painting with a conventional paint brush has led to the development of many alternative devices and methods for applying paint to a surface to be coated. For example, paint sprayers, paint rollers, and various types of painting pads have been developed. However, these alternative painting devices still do not have the control of a paint brush, nor do they provide the distinct and often desirable finish of paint brush.
Thus, in an attempt to alleviate the tiring, inefficient and labor intensive process of using a paint brush, several mechanisms for connecting a paint brush with a source of paint under pressure have been previously described. For example, such power-fed paint brushes, as they may be called, are typified by those shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,829,850; 4,790,679; 4,676,685; 5,904,434; 5,071,278; and 5,139,357. These power-fed paint brushes all comprise a paint reservoir remote from the paint brush and a flexible tube connecting the reservoir to the paint brush. The paint reservoir has a pump for pumping paint contained in the reservoir through the tube to the paint brush. The tube is typically connected to the end of the handle of the paint brush and a lumen or tube within the handle conveys the paint to a paint distribution device which delivers the paint to the bristles of the paint brush.
However, these previously known power-fed paint brushes have a number of drawbacks. For one, the tube connecting the paint brush to the paint reservoir can be a nuisance because it gets in the way of the painting motion and makes it harder to perform the typical back and forth painting strokes. In addition, the paint distribution devices are ineffective for various reasons. For example, the paint spouts disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 1,829,850, extend only to the upper end of the bristles. This creates problems with dripping and the flow of the paint to the lower end of the bristles and application to a surface being coated. And for those distribution devices which do extend to near the lower end of the bristles, the devices tend to inhibit the proper flexure of the bristles during painting. For instance, the distribution devices disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,676,685 and 4,790,679 are wide, flat inserts with a plurality of opening near the lower (or distal) end. Although the inserts are disclosed as being flexible, it can be seen that such a device is very stiff in the transverse direction (i.e. the insets flex along with the bristles when bent by using the wide plane of the brush, but is very stiff when bent by using the narrow edge of the brush). It is common to use the edge of a paint brush to paint smaller and narrower surface areas.
Accordingly, there is need for powered painting systems having powered paint brushes and/or powered paint rollers which overcome the shortcomings and disadvantages of previous devices.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


The present invention relates to the identification of the active domain of Herpoxin, a DNA virus-inhibiting-protein which was isolated from cobra venom in U.S. Pat. No. 5,648,339 and has a molecular weight of 13.5 kDa We have isolated a fragment of Herpoxin which contains the active domain and which we have named Herp. Herp mimics the activity of Herpoxin in inhibiting the replication of DNA viruses. A synthetic version of the active fragment was produced having the amino acid sequence Asn-Leu-Tyr-Gln-Phe-Lys-Asn-Met-Ile-Gln. The synthetic version of Herp consisting of ten amino acids inhibits the replication of DNA viruses such as herpes viruses types 1 and 2, cytomegalovirus and varicella zoster virus as well as Tubercle bacilli.

In one aspect, this invention relates to the peptides which inhibit infectivity of DNA viruses and T. bacillus. In another aspect, this invention relates to the use of such peptides to treat infections caused by DNA viruses or T. bacillus in humans.
The earliest study on the interaction of snake venom toxins and viruses was reported by Sanders et al. In 1958 the same authors demonstrated the inhibition of Semiliki forest virus. Later in 1977 these investigators observed that the venom neurotoxin interfered with human strain of Poliomyelitis virus in Rhesus monkeys. Several investigators studied the inhibitory effects of venom toxins on various RNA viruses, to name a few; Murray encephalitis virus, Rous sarcoma and MH2 tumor viruses, Newcastle disease virus and influenza virus. However, no studies are reported on DNA viruses.
Herpes simplex viruses (HSV) type 1 and type 2 are double stranded DNA viruses. The clinical entities attributable to HSV-1 include the following: (1) Acute herpetic gingivostomatitis mostly in small children, (2) Eczema herpeticum-Kaposi's varicelliform eruption. Some times it can be fatal. (3) Keratoconjunctivitis infection of the eye, with recurrent infection, can lead to permanent opacification and blindness (4) Herpes encephalitis—carries a high mortality rate and the survivors often have residual neurological defects. (5) Herpes labilis—cold sores are most common recurrent disease in the form of oral lesions.
HSV-2 is implicated in the following: (1) Genital herpes, progenitalis, is characterized by vesiculoulcerative lesions of the penis or the cervix, vulva and vagina. (2) Neonatal herpes can be transmitted to the newborn during the birth by contact with herpetic lesions in the birth canal if the mother infected with the virus. Such transmission can produce permanent brain damage. Varicella zoster virus is a double-stranded DNA virus and it is morphologically identical with herpes simplex viruses. It is a causative agent for shingles in adults which is characterized by an inflammatory reaction of the posterior nerve roots and ganglia, accompanied by the affected sensory nerves.
Currently, there is no effective treatment against the infections caused by HSV viruses. Therefore, the synthetic active Herp has great potential as a therapeutic to treat infections caused by DNA viruses.
Currently, tuberculosis (TB) is a major global health problem and Herp is inhibitory to acid fast Tubercle bacilli. Effective treatments for TB are much sought after.
In our U.S. Pat. No. 5,648,339 we derived a DNA virus-inhibiting protein from snake venom which meets many of the above needs. We named this protein Herpoxin. However, because Herpoxin is derived from snake venom, it may not gain widespread acceptance and use. Also, because Herpoxin has a molecular weight of 13.5 kDa it cannot be easily synthesized and is somewhat limited in the ways it can be effectively administered. A synthetic peptide which mimics the properties of Herpoxin would be very desirable, and would have better capabilities for crossing the blood-brain barrier and coming into contact with pathogens in the central nervous system.

Synthetic peptide, inhibitor to DNA viruses


A vehicle arm rest comprising a frame portion having a vertical panel, with a cushion pad support extending outwardly therefrom and a horizontal slot adjacent the upper end, and a flexible strap having interlocking fabric sections adjacent an intermediate portion and a lower end portion and a friction projection adjacent the strap upper end. The arm rest is mounted on a vehicle door by slipping the upper end of the flexible strap between the vehicle window glass and the adjacent molding that extends along the window gap of the window ledge of the door inner panel. The friction projection on the strap upper end wedges against the underside of the molding to fix the upper end of the strap in place. The bottom end portion of the strap is passed through the slot of the flange of the vertical panel and folded backwardly and upwardly to place the interlocking fabric sections in a desired position to secure them and set the height of the cushioned pad support at a location most comfortable for a vehicle occupant using the arm rest.

Arm rests for vehicles and particularly ones that may be conveniently mounted within the window recess opening of a vehicle door frame and then removed have been known and generally available for more than sixty years. A number of such arm rests have been patented and generally such patents are directed to inventions which may be divided into two categories. A first category of arm rests are described in U.S. Pat. No. 1,650,385 to H. Payton; U.S. Pat. No. 2,670,235 to A. J. Susil; U.S. Pat. No. 2,709,620 to E. O. Tinsley et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 2,987,343 to W. P. Stern and U.S. Pat. No. 3,326,600 to P. R. Mathews. Each is directed to a vehicle arm rest designed and constructed to be positioned over the bottom portion of the window frame of a vehicle door when the window glass is in a lowered condition. Disadvantages of this type of arm rest are that it may only be used when the window glass is lowered, and the elevation of the arm rest cannot be adjusted for the comfort of a vehicle occupant. A more adaptable type of arm rest is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 1,984,855 to O. Zwierzina; U.S. Pat. No. 3,603,637 to J. A. DePinto; U.S. Pat. No. 4,890,878 to E. D. Horary et al.; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,592,584 to P. H. White, Jr. The arm rest of each of the latter group of patents is supported only by the inner portion of a vehicle door frame and may be used with the window glass in a raised or lowered condition. In addition, the patents to Zwierzina, DePinto and Horary disclose arm rests having means for vertical adjustment.
While each of the inventions described in the above mentioned patents may be used as an arm rest for a vehicle, some under somewhat restricted conditions, with several having provisions for adjusting the height of the arm rest, each lacks the simplicity of adjustment and construction which would make them readily acceptable to a large segment of vehicle owners and operators.
In addition to the above described prior art, many, if not most, of vehicles offered for sale in the United States during the past five to ten years include arm rests on at least the front doors of the vehicles. However, these arm rests are in an arbitrarily fixed position which is many times not at the most suitable height for many vehicle occupants.


When receiving an order of processing data received through a network and held, an operation of inputting an order information by a third party other than an owner is simple by reusing the order information by the owner of the data. Since the owner can set whether or not to allow the third party reusing the order information or whether or not to allow the third party editing the order information, it is possible to reflect requests from the owner.

Recent preparation of communication infrastructures and development of information communication technology make it possible to provide information providing services using the Internet.
A kind of information providing service is created, which is a network service that keeps digital image data obtained by a user using an image input device on the storage area of a server on a network and allow the user to browse the digital image data as needed. There is also a network service which makes user's digital image data open to a third party desired by the user. Providers that provide such network services will be referred to as photo sites hereinafter.
When a user is to print digital image data in such a photo site, it may be possible to set print information such as the layout and order of image data and comments for them.
However, a third party who is to print the digital image data made open by the user cannot use the print information set by the user. That is, in the photo site, the user cannot allow the third party to print his/her image data in accordance with a desired comment or layout.
The problem of a print service on a network has been described above. However, this problem is common to all network services because a third party cannot use various settings, information, and added attributes that are made by a user for a service.

Information processing system, information processing apparatus, order information file use method, storage medium which stores information processing apparatus readable program that implements the method, and the program


The present invention relates to a method for correction of images recorded by a computer tomograph in which, from projection data of the computer tomograph a 2D or 3D image is reconstructed and the image is corrected by adding it to a correction image. The outstanding feature of the method is that the correction image is computed from image data of the image reduced in its resolution and number and/or from projection data reduced in its resolution and number. The present method allows the computation of the correction image to be reduced to a fraction of the computation requirements for the standard reconstruction of the 2D or 3D images.

x-ray computer tomography is a specific layer recording method in which transversal cross-sectional images or a 3D volume image of the object area under examination are obtained. In this method the images represent the distribution of the linear attenuation coefficient for x-rays within an object area under examination and thereby a tissue density distribution within this area. The 2D or 3D images must be reconstructed in computer tomography from a large number of different projections. For this there are different reconstruction algorithms known for different beam geometries of the x-rays, for example the filtered back projection with 2D-parallel or fan beam geometry, specific algorithms for spiral computer tomography, approximative Feldkamp algorithm and generalizations thereof as well as exact reconstruction algorithms for 3D cone beam CT. With computer tomography 2D and 3D images from inside the body can be created with high spatial resolution of ≦1 mm and greater quantitative accuracy of the density resolution, typically in the range of a few Hounsfield Units (HU). The reconstruction algorithms used are all based however on idealized physical requirements in respect of the raw data or projection data recorded by the CT measurement system. In practice however, as a result of x-ray scattering and the effect of beam hardening, deviations from this ideal behavior occur which give rise to image artifacts in the reconstructed images. Examples of this are bar artifacts or shadow artifacts in the soft tissue between heavily-absorbent structures such as bones or metal implants. These artifacts in some circumstances adversely effect the quantitative accuracy and can thus lead to incorrect diagnoses.
To reduce or avoid these artifacts the application of post-reconstructive correction methods to the reconstructed image data is known. These correction methods only begin after image data has been reconstructed from the project data under idealized conditions. A significant procedural step with this correction method is the physical reprojection, also known as forward projection. With this reprojection the physical measurement method for obtaining radiographic projections is computationally remodeled in that each measurement beam, starting from the x-ray source, is followed through the object which has been approximated and discretized, i.e. broken down into pixels or voxels, through to the image detector and the contributions in the pixels or voxels lying along the way are summed to form the CT projection measured value. The reprojection differs here depending on the desired correction. Thus the reprojection to correct the beam hardening is performed with a different reprojection method based on another theoretical model for the underlying physical effect than the method for correcting x-ray scattering. Reprojection is thus the algorithmic implementation of a mathematical model for a physical effect. Physical reprojection allows the difference between idealized projection data without the physical disturbance effect, and real projection data to be computed. A correction image is then reconstructed from this difference data, through which, with an addition to the 2D or 3D image reconstructed under idealized conditions, a corrected image without the disturbing image artifacts is obtained. The correction cycle consisting of reprojection, difference formation and reconstruction to obtain a correction image can if necessary be repeated iteratively.

Method for post- reconstructive correction of images of a computer tomograph


An exemplary slide rail assembly includes a first rail with a protrusion, a second rail, a releasing member, a pair of push buttons, a first latch member, and a second latch member. The releasing member is slidably attached to the second rail and includes a pair of openings for receiving the buttons, and two angular driving edges. The second rail includes a pair of resilient tabs detachably and respectively engaging with the buttons and the releasing member. The first and second latch members are pivotably attached to the second rail. The first latch member includes a post extending therefrom to be selectively driven by the driving edges of the releasing member. The buttons are actuated to release the releasing member from the resilient tabs and move the releasing member to drive the first latch member and the second latch member to disengage the protrusion of the first rail.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a slide rail assembly.
2. Description of related art
Slide rails are used in a variety of applications, including business furniture, kitchen drawers, electronic racks, and copiers. One type of slide rail is a telescopic slide rail. Telescopic slide rails often include two, three, four or more telescoping members. The shape of a slide rail, and the individual members, are determined by design needs. The slides can be frictional, with lubricated members rubbing against each other, or a slide assembly may include roller or ball bearings for easier movement. The members in such assemblies tend to be C-shaped in cross-section.
A conventional three-section slide rail assembly for a drawer includes a first rail (e.g. outer slide rail), a second rail (e.g. middle slide rail), and a third rail (e.g. inner slide rail). A ball rail is sandwiched between any two of the first rail, the second rail, and the third rail to provide a smooth sliding movement. Moreover, the third rail and the second rail mount a retaining member and a stop member respectively to prevent the slide rails extending too far. The retaining member is attached to an inner surface of the third rail, and provided with an inclined wall. The stop member is mounted to a front end of the second rail, and provided with a protrusion. To prevent users from drawing the third rail out too far from the second rail, the protrusion of the stop member engages with the inclined wall of the retaining member.
Accordingly, a releasing member is often configured to the rail assembly. The releasing member is moved to drive the retaining member to release the protrusion of the stop member. However, the releasing member may be moved by accident, leading to an unwanted release of the rail assembly. Therefore, the releasing member is unreliable.
Consequently, what is required is a slide rail assembly which can reliably release the rail assembly.

Hong Fu Jin Precision Industry (ShenZhen) Co., Ltd.