The invention relates to methods and related products for treatment and determining modes of treatment for cancer or prognosis of cancer. Preferably the methods are related to the induction of CD80 in p53 responsive cancer cells.

p53 is a tumor suppressor gene which plays a critical role in cell cycle regulation, and is involved in apoptosis, genomic stability, and inhibition of angiogenesis. For instance, p53 is known to be involved in DNA repair and maintaining growth arrest and ultimately inducing apoptosis if the cell is damaged. In humans, p53 is encoded by the TP53 gene. In some cases the TP53 gene becomes mutated upon exposure to chemicals, radiation, or viruses. These mutations are significant because over 50 percent of human tumors are associated with a mutation or deletion of the TP53 gene.
Lung cancer, in particular, is the leading cause of cancer death worldwide, non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) representing 85% of lung cancer cases. Lung adenocarcinoma, a histologic class of NSCLC, is associated with recurrent mutations in several well-defined oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes. For instance inactivating mutations in the tumor suppressor gene p53 are found in 50% of cases.

Methods and products related to targeted cancer therapy


A fully distributed, scalable infrastructure, communication system. The system comprises at least on Space, at least one double agent and at least one non-space specific double agent. Devices and applications that wish to communicate with other members of the Community or outside of the Community insert objects into the Space. The Space then publishes the presence of that object to subscribed members of the community. The double agents are capable of communicating with any desired protocols on one side and the Space protocol on the other. Non-space specific agents handle routing, administrative and other tasks, such as communication between Spaces and Communities.

1. Field
This disclosure relates to distributed communication systems, more particularly to a distributed application system using persistent stores and agents.
2. Background
Sun Corporation developed Java™, a three-part distributed means for computing. The three parts of Java™ are the Java™ programming language, the Java Virtual Machine™ (JVM) and the Java™ platform.
The Java™ programming language is just that, a programming language with its own syntax, structures and procedures similar to all other languages. It is the language in which Java™ applications such as applets, servlets, and JavaBeans™ components are written. A unique part of the Java™ language, however, is that it does not compile into machine-readable code, as most other languages do. It compiles into byte codes. These byte codes are interpretable by the JVM.
The JVM is the Java™ interpreter. Java™ programs are portable, being in byte code format, but they are only portable to platforms to which a Java™ interpreter has been ported. Fortunately, JVMs are freely available for virtually all types of systems, from desktop systems running Windows, Unix or Macintosh, to cell phones. All of these are capable of being a Java™ platform.
A platform typically identifies a set of application programming interfaces (APIs) typically defined by the operating system. A programmer writing a program to run on a specific operating system such as Windows would use a different set of APIs than a programmer writing a program for the Macintosh operating system. However, the Java™ platform provides APIs that run on any operating system running the Java™ platform. In some respects, the Java™ platform is an intermediate platform between the Java™ code and the operating system. It allows programmer to write a program once and run it anywhere.
Because Java™ code may run on several different operating systems and several different devices, it would seem a logical extension of this would be to connect these all together. Jini serves as the framework to make those connections. Jini is a set of specifications that allows different services to discover each other on a network. The specifications also allow these services to participate in operations on this network; the network is sometimes referred to as a community. However, to avoid confusion in further discussions the network will be referred to as a network or a Jini community.
Jini focuses on services. A service may also be thought of as a service interface. For example, a certain device such as a server may present an interface to the outside world that is the device API. This API interface is a service. Because Jini is a distributed framework, there will be clients and servers. However, these clients and servers only care about the interfaces that allow them access to the other clients and servers. The client or server will know about the particular service API, but does not care about the implementation. For example, there may be a printer on the network. Another member of the network will know that there is a printer API but does not care what kind of printer it is. The print service will allow the member to send a print job to the service and will handle the translation of the print job to the specific API for the printer.
One example of a Jini service is JavaSpaces™. Simply, JavaSpaces™ define a persistent store. In terms of the above discussion, a client that wants to use JavaSpaces™ only needs to know the JavaSpaces™ API. The client does not need to know the specifics on what type of server upon which the JavaSpaces™ is implemented.
From the above discussion, it would seem that the combination of Java™, Jini and JavaSpaces™ would provide an incredibly powerful, flexible means for establishing, running and reconfiguring networks. However, there are some limitations. For example, in order for Jini to function, as well as the JavaSpaces™, the Java™ language must exist in every device on the network whether client or server. Other minor weaknesses also exist, such as the required presence of a network, and the required presence of the devices that run JVM. Calls to a device that is temporarily unavailable are not allowed. Once a device goes off the network, anything addressed to it is removed as well.
The largest weakness in the current state of the art lies in the requirements of knowledge. Participants in a Jini community must know about each other's interfaces if they are to use each other. While the device sending the print job did not need to know the printer specifics in the above example, it did need to know the specifics of the print API. Service consumers and service providers must agree upon a common interface for the service to be used effectively. This restricts the application of these technologies to a fully distributed application system.

Fully distributed, scalable infrastructure, communication system


Disclosed is an aluminum nitride substrate for a circuit board, the substrate having aluminum nitride crystal grains with an average grain size of 2 to 5 μm and a thermal conductivity of at least 170 W/m·K. The aluminum nitride substrate does not include a dendritic grain boundary phase and has a breakdown voltage of at least 30 kV/mm at 400° C. Also provided is a method for producing the aluminum nitride substrate, including the steps of heating a raw material containing an aluminum nitride powder to 1500° C. at a pressure of at most 150 Pa, then increasing and holding the temperature at 1700 to 1900° C. in a pressurized atmosphere of at least 0.4 MPa using a non-oxidizing gas, then cooling to 1600° C. at a cooling rate of at most 10° C./min.

With the growth of electronics technologies, and amidst the progressively increasing power output of semiconductors, aluminum nitride substrates with excellent insulation properties used in circuit boards for semiconductor mounting are being used in various fields, e.g., as substrate materials used in the drive control of trains or electric automobiles or in the control of industrial robots. Among them, highly reliable SiC chips are promising materials for replacing current Si chips in order to develop the next generation of semiconductors with the characteristics of reduced switching loss or energy loss which greatly affects product reliability and expanded control operation temperature. The operable temperature of a SiC chip is around 400° C., which is higher than the conventional 150° C., so the aluminum nitride substrate used as an insulating material of a circuit board for semiconductor mounting also needs to exhibit excellent insulation properties at such high temperatures.
Conventionally, the aluminum nitride sintered bodies used as the above aluminum nitride substrates have generally been produced by the following method. Specifically, additives such as sintering aids, binders, plasticizers, dispersion media or mold release agents are mixed with an aluminum nitride powder. The mixture is formed into a sheet by extrusion molding etc., and processed (formed/pressed) into a desired shape and dimensions by a pressing machine. Next, the compact is heated to 350 to 700° C. in air or in a non-oxidizing atmosphere such as nitrogen to remove the binder (debindering), and then held for 0.5 to 10 hours at 1800 to 1900° C. in a non-oxidizing atmosphere such as nitrogen (sintering) to produce a sintered body.
However, while the breakdown voltage of an aluminum nitride substrate produced by this method is approximately 30 to 40 kV/mm at room temperature, thus exhibiting high insulation properties, there was the problem of it decreasing to approximately 10 kV/mm at high temperatures such as 400° C.
Various proposals have been heretofore made in order to increase the insulation properties of an aluminum nitride sintered body. For, example, a method for increasing unpaired electron concentration by forming a solid solution of titanium in aluminum nitride crystal grains (Patent Document 1) and a method for controlling the average diameter of aluminum nitride crystal grains or grain boundary pores and the ratio between grain boundary pores and intragranular pores (Patent Document 2) have been proposed. However, nothing until now has been able to ensure insulation properties at a high temperature.

Aluminum nitride substrate for circuit board and production method thereof


Embodiments of the present invention are broadly directed to novel systems and methods for providing reliable multicast of data in a multi-node graphics system. In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, a multi-node computer graphics system is provided comprising a master node capable of executing a graphics application and a plurality of render nodes configured to collectively render a graphic image, in response to graphics data communicated from the master node. The embodiment further comprises logic associated with the master node for communicating graphics data to the plurality of render nodes in a multicast packet. Additional logic, associated with the master node, is provided for determining whether a predetermined number of render nodes have acknowledged receipt of the multicast packet. The embodiment further comprises logic associated with the master node for re-transmitting the multicast packet to the plurality of render nodes, if the predetermined number of render nodes have not acknowledged receipt of the multicast packet within a given time.

In one-to-many data communication, the same information is to be sent to many different data processing stations. This situation is commonly known as "broadcast" or "multicast". Broadcasted messages are typically directed to all network nodes, while multicasted messages are directed to a subset of nodes on the communications network the message is intended for. A number of networks (e.g., token ring, Ethernet, radio, microwave and satellite networks) possess broadcast or multicast capabilities. However, the multicasted or broadcasted message can still be missed or incorrectly received by one or more network nodes (e.g., the message may be distorted due to electrical interference, loose connections, faulty hardware, slow or busy receiving data processing stations, or other reasons).
Multicast transmissions are becoming increasingly common. In contrast to standard Internet Protocol (IP) point to point transmissions (unicast), IP multicast enables the simultaneous transmission of information to a group of recipients from a single source. In this approach, a multicast server transmits data over one or more multicast channels which one or more client receivers join or subscribe to. In this model, the server only sends out one copy of the data irrespective of the number of client recipients listening to the appropriate multicast channel or channels. In IP multicast, the server does not even need to know who the recipients are or the number of recipients in a particular multicast group.
IP multicast enables real-time communications over wide area IP networks and typical transmissions include video and audio conferencing, live multimedia training, university lectures, and transmission of live television and radio programmes, for example. IP multicast also enables more persistent data to be transmitted, including for instance, media session descriptions comprising session-oriented and user-oriented data.
A multicast media session usually consists of one or more individual media streams typically carrying video, audio, whiteboard or raw data. Some sessions are persistent, but the majority exist for a specific period of time, although need not be continuous. Multicast-based transmissions differ from unicast IP transmissions in that any user knowing about the transmission can join the session (unless the transmission is encrypted) and to receive a transmission, a user only needs to know the appropriate transmission group address and timing information for the session.
The Multicast messaging protocol is unreliable insofar as the unidirectional messaging protocol does not provide a mechanism for confirming or insuring delivery of the message packets. In this regard, the various individual data packets are communicated in the same fashion as a datagram over an IP network. For many applications, an occasional lost packet is acceptable, and a multicast messaging protocol is a viable mechanism for communicating data from a single source to a plurality of receiving nodes.
In some systems, however, reliable delivery of the data is important. Consider, for example, an audio or a video broadcast. Losing occasional packets of the data at various nodes, from time to time, results in content of the audio or video broadcast being missed. Such missed content is often undesirable. In some such systems, where reliable transmissions are desired, a layer is provided over the IP layer that ensures successful delivery and receipt of the various packets of data, by providing for acknowledgments from the receiving nodes. In such systems, a packet of data may be sent via multicast protocol to one hundred (for example) different nodes or machines. Each node may respond with an acknowledgement to the sending node to confirm receipt of the transmitted packet. If, for example, four of the one hundred nodes do not successfully acknowledge the packet, then the sending node may be configured to individually retransmit the packet to each of those four machines. Once receipt of the transmitted packet is confirmed by all machines that are a part of the session (or group of receiving nodes), the transmitting node may proceed to the transmission of the next packet of data.
Such an approach sacrifices throughput in favor of the integrity that all data transmitted is received at all nodes. Such a solution is acceptable in systems where real time participation is not required. For example, in an application in which users are viewing or listening to a video or audio broadcast, it is often irrelevant if the viewing takes place with a time lag (e.g., twenty seconds after the broadcast). In such systems, each of the receiving nodes may have an appropriate buffer for buffering the data received from the sending node, whereby enough data is buffered so that the replay of the audio or video broadcast appears continuous to the user, albeit in a relatively significant time delay from the time it was broadcast from the transmitting computer.
In other applications, such a solution is not acceptable. Consider, for example, high-end systems that are configured for rendering three-dimensional computer graphics. Such systems involve computationally-intensive processes, whereby three-dimensional computer graphics are rendered by using a pool or group of computers, which share the processing responsibilities. In such a system, one computer may be configured to execute at least one application program and communicate graphics data to other computers for processing and rendering. In this regard, a collection of computers may be configured to cooperatively render a graphics image and may receive the data to be rendered from the computer executing the application program. The rendered image, then, may be displayed on a single display for viewing by a user who is interacting with the application program. In such a system, it is important that: (1) all graphics data transmitted by the computer executing the application program be successfully received at each of the various render nodes; and (2) that the communication occur in substantially real-time, so that there is no appreciable delay between the interactions between the user and the application program as the resulting display is presented to the user. Clearly, such systems involve competing interests, in view of the forgoing discussion.
In this regard, if all data is not successfully received by the various render nodes, then portions of the graphics image may either be missing from the display, or the display of the graphics image may appear choppy, or the image may appear degraded. Likewise, if the visual display is displayed to a user with an appreciable time lag, then interaction between the user and the application is frustrated.

Systems and methods for providing reliable multicast messaging in a multi-node graphics system

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


A computer calculates a change amount of a total number of electrons from an observation start time in the ionosphere between an observation station and a satellite based on observation data of a signal received from the satellite by the observation station on the ground. The computer estimates the change amount of the total number of electrons to be calculated next based on the time change of the change amount of the total number of electrons from the observation start time in the ionosphere and calculates a difference (estimation error) between the estimated change amount of the total number of electrons and the actually calculated change amount of the total number of electrons. The computer calculates a correlation value between the estimation error calculated for each observation station and the estimation error calculated for a predetermined number of the observation stations in the vicinity of each observation station. In a case where the correlation value calculated for each observation station is a predetermined threshold value or more, when the correlation value is also the predetermined threshold value or more for the predetermined number of observation stations in the vicinity of the observation station, the computer determines that an abnormality has occurred in the ionosphere between the observation station and the satellite.

An earthquake alert has been made to early notify of the occurrence of an earthquake. When an earthquake occurs, seismic waves (vibrations) called primary wave (P waves) and secondary waves (S waves) are transmitted from the seismic center. Because the P wave (initial vibration) and the S wave (main vibration) are transmitted at different speeds, at the time point when the P wave transmitted earlier is detected, the occurrence of an earthquake can be notified with an earthquake alert before the S waves are transmitted. Specifically, at the time point when a P wave is sensed by a seismometer installed near the seismic center, the location and scale (magnitude) of the seismic center can be estimated from the observation data of the P wave, and the arrival time and seismic intensity of an S wave at each location are predicted and notified of on the basis of the estimated location and scale of the seismic center.
In addition, in recent years, research has been made on the relationship between the occurrence of an earthquake and a fluctuation in the number of electrons in the ionosphere called the upper atmosphere. For example, in Heki, K., "Ionospheric electron enhancement preceding the 2011 Tohoku-Oki earthquake", Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 38, L17312 (2011), it has been known that the number of electrons in the ionosphere above the seismic center in the time zone from about one hour before the occurrence of an earthquake to about 30 minutes after the occurrence of the earthquake is abnormally increased in comparison with the fluctuation in the number of electrons in the ionosphere in other time zones before and after the occurrence of the earthquake.

Abnormality detection apparatus, communication apparatus, abnormality detection method, and recording medium


Light transmission is maximized through the pass band of a photonic bandgap (PBG) crystal (having alternating high- and low-index material) while preserving high reflection for stop band. An anti-reflective coating (ARC) is used to coat the PBG crystal wherein the ARC material has a refractive index of n=(nair×nhigh index material)1/2 and thickness around λc/8 where λc is center wavelength.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention generally relates to photonic bandgap (PBG) crystals. More specifically, the present invention relates to an anti-reflective coating used in maximizing light transmission through the pass band of a PBG crystal.
2. Discussion of Prior Art
Prior art method stack high refractive index material and low index material alternatively whose thickness are λc/(4n) where n is refractive index of each material and λc is central wavelength at which wavelength light is reflected effectively. This periodic structure is called photonic bandgap crystal (PBG hereafter).
High reflectance can be achieved around central wavelength (stop-band). But at the same time, several photonic states are formed in the pass-band of the crystal depending on the number of layers. For some devices such as wavelength filter where some light should be effectively reflected and other light should be transmitted depending on wavelength, these photonic states are not desirable since, even for pass-band, some portion of light is reflected. For example, approximately 25% light is reflected for pass-band wavelength (0.78-1.5 μm in FIG. 1).
For simple mono-layer device, such as ordinary solar cell, reflection can be suppressed by putting λc/4 thick anti-reflection coating (ARC hereafter). But this simple concept is not applicable to PBG since PBG has 2 different kinds of bands (pass- and stop-bands) and is composed of stacked multi layers.
Whatever the precise merits, features, and advantages of the above mentioned prior art techniques, none of them achieves or fulfills the purposes of the present invention.

Anti-reflection coating for the pass-band of photonic bandgap crystal


The present invention relates to a peptide and its analogs that selectively inhibit the Nav1.7 sodium channel. The present invention also relates to pharmaceutical compositions useful for treating or preventing a disorder responsive to the blockade of sodium ion channels, especially Nav1.7 sodium ion channels. The present invention further provides methods of treating a disorder responsive to the blockade of sodium channels, and particularly Nav1.7 sodium channels, in a mammal suffering from excess activity of the channels, compositions and methods for providing analgesia by administering a peptide of the invention.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention is in the field of peptide chemistry. The invention relates to novel peptides and the use of these peptides as blockers of sodium (Na+) channels.
2. Background Art
Voltage-gated sodium channels (VGSCs) are found in all excitable cells. In neuronal cells of the central nervous system (CNS) and peripheral nervous system (PNS), sodium channels are primarily responsible for generating the rapid upstroke of the action potential. In this manner, sodium channels are essential to the initiation and propagation of electrical signals in the nervous system. Proper function of sodium channels is therefore necessary for normal function of the neuron. Consequently, aberrant sodium channel function is thought to underlie a variety of medical disorders (See Hubner et al., Hum. Mol. Genet. 11:2435-2445 (2002) for a general review of inherited ion channel disorders) including epilepsy (Yogeeswari et al, Curr. Drug Target 5:589-602 (2004)), arrhythmia (Noble, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 99:5755-5756 (2002)), myotonia (Cannon, Kidney Int. 57:772-779 (2000)), and pain (Wood et al., J. Neurobiol., 61:55-71 (2004)).
VGSCs are composed of one α-subunit, which forms the core of the channel and is responsible for voltage-dependent gating and ion permeation, and several auxiliary β-subunits (see, e.g., Chahine et al., CNS & Neurological Disorders-Drug Targets 7:144-158 (2008) and Kyle and Ilyin., J. Med. Chem. 50:2583-2588 (2007)). α-Subunits are large proteins composed of four homologous domains. Each domain contains six α-helical transmembrane spanning segments. There are currently 9 known members of the family of voltage-gated sodium channel α-subunits. Names for this family include SCNx, SCNAx, and Navx.x (see Table 1, below). The VGSC family has been phylogenetically divided into two subfamilies Nav1.x (all but SCN6A) and Nav2.x (SCN6A). The Nav1.x subfamily can be functionally subdivided into two groups, those which are sensitive to blocking by tetrodotoxin (TTX-sensitive or TTX-s) and those which are resistant to blocking by tetrodotoxin (TTX-resistant or TTX-r).
There are three members of the subgroup of TTX-resistant sodium channels. The SCN5A gene product (Nav1.5, H1) is almost exclusively expressed in cardiac tissue and has been shown to underlie a variety of cardiac arrhythmias and other conduction disorders (Liu et al., Am. J. Pharmacogenomics 3:173-179 (2003)). Consequently, blockers of Nav1.5 have found clinical utility in treatment of such disorders (Srivatsa et al., Curr. Cardiol. Rep. 4:401-410 (2002)). The remaining TTX-resistant sodium channels, Nav1.8 (SCN10A, PN3, SNS) and Nav1.9 (SCN11A, NaN, SNS2) are expressed in the peripheral nervous system and show preferential expression in primary nociceptive neurons. Human genetic variants of these channels have not been associated with any inherited clinical disorder. However, aberrant expression of Nav1.8 has been found in the CNS of human multiple sclerosis (MS) patients and also in a rodent model of MS (Black et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 97:11598-115602 (2000)). Evidence for involvement in nociception is both associative (preferential expression in nociceptive neurons) and direct (genetic knockout). Nav1.8-null mice exhibited typical nociceptive behavior in response to acute noxious stimulation but had significant deficits in referred pain and hyperalgesia (Laird et al., J. Neurosci. 22:8352-8356 (2002)).
TABLE 1Voltage-gated sodium channel gene familyTTXGeneTissueIC50DiseaseIndica-TypeSymbolDistribution(nM)AssociationtionsNav1.1SCN1ACNS/PNS10EpilepsyPain,seizures,neurode-generationNav1.2SCN2ACNS10EpilepsyEpilepsy,neurode-generationNav1.3SCN3ACNS15—PainNav1.4SCN4ASkeletal25MyotoniaMyotoniamuscleNav1.5SCN5AHeart2,000ArrhythmiaArrhyth-musclemiaNav1.6SCN8ACNS/PNS6—Pain,movementdisordersNav1.7SCN9APNS25ErythermalgiaPainNav1.8SCN10APNS50,000—PainNav1.9SCN11APNS1,000—Pain
The Nav1.7 (PN1, SCN9A) VGSC is sensitive to blocking by tetrodotoxin and is preferentially expressed in peripheral sympathetic and sensory neurons. The SCN9A gene has been cloned from a number of species, including human, rat, and rabbit and shows ˜90% amino acid identity between the human and rat genes (Toledo-Aral et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 94:1527-1532 (1997)).
An increasing body of evidence suggests that Nav1.7 may play a key role in various pain states, including acute, inflammatory and/or neuropathic pain. Deletion of the SCN9A gene in nociceptive neurons of mice led to an increase in mechanical and thermal pain thresholds and reduction or abolition of inflammatory pain responses (Nassar et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 101:12706-12711 (2004)).
Sodium channel-blocking agents have been reported to be effective in the treatment of various disease states, and have found particular use as local anesthetics, e.g., lidocaine and bupivacaine, and in the treatment of cardiac arrhythmias, e.g., propafenone and amiodarone, and epilepsy, e.g., lamotrigine, phenyloin and carbamazepine (see Clare et al., Drug Discovery Today 5:506-510 (2000); Lai et al., Annu. Rev. Pharmacol. Toxicol. 44:371-397 (2004); Anger et al., J. Med. Chem. 44:115-137 (2001), and Catterall, Trends Pharmacol. Sci. 8:57-65 (1987)). Each of these agents is believed to act by interfering with the rapid influx of sodium ions.
Other sodium channel blockers such as BW619C89 and lifarizine have been shown to be neuroprotective in animal models of global and focal ischemia (Graham et al., J. Pharmacol. Exp. Ther. 269:854-859 (1994); Brown et al., British J. Pharmacol. 115:1425-1432 (1995)).
It has also been reported that sodium channel-blocking agents may be useful in the treatment of pain, including acute, chronic, inflammatory, neuropathic, and other types of pain such as rectal, ocular, and submandibular pain typically associated with paroxysmal extreme pain disorder; see, for example, Kyle and Ilyin, J. Med. Chem. 50:2583-2588 (2007); Wood et al., J. Neurobiol. 61:55-71 (2004); Baker et al., TRENDS in Pharmacological Sciences 22:27-31 (2001); and Lai et al., Current Opinion in Neurobiology 13:291-297 (2003); the treatment of neurological disorders such as epilepsy, seizures, epilepsy with febrile seizures, epilepsy with benign familial neonatal infantile seizures, inherited pain disorders, e.g., primary erythermalgia and paroxysmal extreme pain disorder, familial hemiplegic migraine, and movement disorder; and the treatment of other psychiatric disorders such as autism, cerebeller atrophy, ataxia, and mental retardation; see, for example, Chahine et al., CNS & Neurological Disorders-Drug Targets 7:144-158 (2008) and Meisler and Kearney, J. Clin. Invest. 115:2010-2017 (2005). In addition to the above-mentioned clinical uses, carbamazepine, lidocaine and phenyloin are occasionally used to treat neuropathic pain, such as from trigeminal neuralgia, diabetic neuropathy and other forms of nerve damage (Taylor and Meldrum, Trends Pharmacol. Sci. 16:309-316 (1995)). Furthermore, based on a number of similarities between chronic pain and tinnitus (Moller, Am. J. Otol. 18:577-585 (1997); Tonndorf, Hear. Res. 28:271-275 (1987)), it has been proposed that tinnitus may be viewed as a form of chronic pain sensation (Simpson, et al., Tip. 20:12-18 (1999)). Indeed, lidocaine and carbamazepine have been shown to be efficacious in treating tinnitus (Majumdar, B. et al., Clin. Otolaryngol. 8:175-180 (1983); Donaldson, Laryngol. Otol. 95:947-951 (1981)).
The polypeptide toxins from the tarantula Thrixopelma pruriens (protoxins) are members of the inhibitory cysteine-knot family of protein toxins, which contain 30 to 35 amino acid residues and three disulfide bridges. Protoxin I (ProTx I) and Protoxin II (ProTx II) are T. pruriens peptide toxins that have three cystine bridges in the connectivity pattern C2 to C16, C9 to C21, and C15 to C25. For example, Protoxin II (SEQ ID NO: 16) has cystine bridges as follows:

ProTx I and ProTx II inhibit activation of sodium channels (Middleton, R. E. et al., Biochemistry 41: 14734-14747 (2002)). ProTx I and ProTx II act as gating modifiers that prevent channel activation via a voltage sensor-trapping mechanism (Edgerton, G. B. et al., Toxicon 52: 489-500 (2008); Priest, B. T. et al., Toxicon 49: 194-201 (2007)). ProTx II inhibits Nav1.7 sodium channels (Schmalhofer, W. A. et al., Molecular Pharm. 74: 1476-1481 (2008)).
Phrixotoxin I (PaTx I) is a Grammostola spatulata spider toxin that acts as a gating modifier of Kv4 potassium channels (Chagot, B. et al., Protein Science 13: 1197-1208 (2004)). GrTx1 is a toxin isolated from Grammostola spatulata that blocks sodium channels (Clement, H. et al., Toxicon 50: 65-74 (2007)).
Many patients with either acute or chronic pain disorders respond poorly to current pain therapies, and developing resistance or insensitivity to opiates is common. In addition, many of the currently available treatments have undesirable side effects. Thus, there remains a need for more effective and safer analgesics that work by blocking sodium channels.


An apparatus and method for adjusting video characteristics of a CRT screen having a plurality of adjustment mechanisms for adjusting visual characteristics of the CRT screen. Further included is a video playback mechanism adapted to display a screen format on the CRT video screen upon the actuation thereof. The screen format comprises a plurality of areas of various colors. A viewing mechanism is included to allow viewing of the screen format of the CRT screen therethrough. Upon viewing the screen format of the CRT screen through the viewing mechanism, a user may manipulate the adjustment mechanisms for properly adjusting the visual characteristics of the CRT screen.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for adjusting video characteristics of a CRT screen and more particularly pertains to properly adjusting the tint, color, and brightness of a CRT screen.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of video adjustment mechanisms is known in the prior art. More specifically, video adjustment mechanisms heretofore devised and utilized for the purpose of adjusting the visual characteristics of a CRT screen are known to consist basically of familiar, expected and obvious structural configurations, notwithstanding the myriad of designs encompassed by the crowded prior art which have been developed for the fulfillment of countless objectives and requirements.
By way of example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,962,722 to Ciciora; U.S. Pat. No. 4,123,775 to Bugni; U.S. Pat. No. 5,363,152 to Reed, III; U.S. Pat. No. 4,297,142 to Ritze; U.S. Pat. No. 5,218,386 to Levien; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,145,376 to Krass are provided as being of general interest.
In this respect, the apparatus and method for adjusting video characteristics of a CRT screen according to the present invention substantially departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art, and in so doing provides an apparatus primarily developed for the purpose of properly adjusting the tint, color, and brightness of a CRT screen.
Therefore, it can be appreciated that there exists a continuing need for a new and improved apparatus and method for adjusting video characteristics of a CRT screen which can be used for properly adjusting the tint, color, and brightness of a CRT screen. In this regard, the present invention substantially fulfills this need.

Apparatus and method for adjusting video characteristics of a CRT screen


A signal relationship is defined between a granular data value and a target data value. At least a portion of the granular data value corresponds to a granular latency value that is smaller than a target data latency value corresponding to the target data value. Granular data corresponding to the granular data value is interpreted. The granular data is aggregated in response to the signal relationship. A value of the target data value for a selected time reference is estimated, and the estimated value of the target data value is provided as a nowcasting prediction of the target data value.

Predictive analytics is used prevalently in several fields of commerce to make predictions about future behavior patterns or events based on historical data. For example, predictive analytics can be used to analyze and predict import and export activity based on shipping records and census data. However, determining import-related data into a specific country presents a number of challenges. Data reporting from agencies have built in time delays, which vary with the type of data being reported. Additionally, reported data may be incomplete, redacted, and/or have errors. For example, shipping weight data is often reported at a lower value than the actual shipping weight. Further, one or more data elements on the shipping records are often redacted or missing. In yet another example, shipping data may be delayed several days or weeks, and the delay of certain types of data (e.g., individual shipping records) may have a different delay period than other types of data (e.g., census statistics).
Accordingly, challenges are presented in understanding the actual imports into a country, the import categories and amounts, and the overall imports coming from countries of interest.

Nowcasting abstracted census from individual customs transaction records


The disclosed is an exhaust gas treatment catalyst and method therefor, which catalyst comprises a support material selected from the group consisting of elements of Group IIa, Group IIIa, Group IIIb, transition elements and rare earth elements and phosphorus, and an active metal supported on the surface of the support material, improved in high activity and high durability.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to exhaust gas treatment catalysts improved in heat resistance and performance at low temperatures, and also having excellent conversion activity for nitrogen oxides, hydrocarbons, and carbon monoxide.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
The conventional exhaust gas treatment catalyst was normally comprising a gamma-alumina support and an active metal supported thereon.
In the case of the conventionally used gamma-alumina support, a high temperature and/or the presence of water vapor will cause sintering of the compound, reduction of the surface area, and lowered activity. Further, the gamma-alumina support suffers from toxicity of sulfur or phosphorus, the pores are clogged, the surface area is reduced, activity is lowered.
In the case of a conventional catalyst synthesized by a gamma-alumina support and an active metal supported thereon, since the activity is extremely reduced at temperatures lower than 300.degree. C., the catalyst merely operates at the condition in which the exhaust gas is sufficiently warmed.

Catalyst for exhaust gas treatment and method of preparing the same

Next Generation Catalyst Research Institute, Co. Ltd.


An inventive method in an integrated circuit (IC) manufacturing process for using data regarding repair procedures conducted on IC's at probe to determine whether any further repairs will be conducted later in the manufacturing process includes storing the data in association with a fuse ID of each of the IC's. The ID codes of the IC's are automatically read, for example, at an opens/shorts test during the manufacturing process. The data stored in association with the ID codes of the IC's is then accessed, and additional repair procedures the IC's may undergo are selected in accordance with the accessed data. Thus, for example, the accessed data may indicate that an IC is unrepairable, so the IC can proceed directly to a scrap bin without having to be queried to determine whether it is repairable, as is necessary in traditional IC manufacturing processes.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to integrated circuit semiconductor device (IC) manufacturing. More specifically, it relates to methods in IC manufacturing processes for using data regarding manufacturing procedures IC's have undergone, such as repair procedures, to select procedures the IC's will undergo, such as additional repair procedures.
2. State of the Art
As shown in FIG. 1, a typical process 10 for manufacturing very small electronic semiconductor device circuits referred to as "Integrated Circuits" (IC's) begins with the IC's being formed or "fabricated" on the surface of a wafer 12 of semiconductor material, such as silicon. Once fabricated, IC's are electronically probed to determine whether they are functional (i.e., "good") or nonfunctional (i.e., "bad"). If any IC's are found to be bad, an attempt is made to repair those IC's by replacing nonfunctional circuit elements in the IC's with spare circuit elements. For example, Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) IC's are typically repaired by replacing nonfunctional rows or columns of memory cells in the IC's with spare rows or columns.
These repairs are not always successful, because the number of spare circuit elements on an IC may be exhausted before all nonfunctional circuit elements on the IC are replaced, and because some circuit elements on IC's have no spares to replace them. As a result, a number of bad IC's typically remain on a wafer 12 even after attempts are made to repair the IC's. The location of bad IC's on a wafer 12, along with the location of any good IC's on the wafer 12, is typically stored in a computer database commonly referred to as a "wafer map."
After being probed and, if necessary, repaired, IC's begin an assembly process with their wafer 12 being mounted on an adhesive film. In some instances, the film is a special high-adhesion Ultraviolet (U.V.) film. Without cutting the adhesive film, IC's are sawed from their wafer 12 into discrete IC dice or "chips" using high-speed precision dicing equipment. IC dice mounted on U.V. film are then exposed to U.V. light to loosen the grip of the film on the dice. IC dice identified as good by their wafer map are then each "picked" by automated equipment from their sawed wafer 12 and its associated film and "placed" on an epoxy-coated bonding site of one lead frame in a strip of interconnected lead frames, while IC dice identified as bad are discarded into a scrap bin 14. The epoxy attaching the good IC dice to their lead frames is then cured, and the attached dice are wire bonded to their lead frames using high-speed bonding equipment.
Once wire bonded, IC dice and their associated lead frames are formed into IC packages using a hot thermosetting plastic encapsulant injected into a mold. IC packages are then cured to set their plastic encapsulant. After encapsulation and curing, leads of the lead frames projecting from the packages are dipped in a cleansing chemical bath in a process referred to as "de-flash" and then electroplated with a lead/tin finish. Connections between lead frames in lead frame strips are then cut to "singulate" IC packages into discrete IC devices.
After assembly, discrete IC devices are tested in a simple electronic test referred to as an "opens/shorts" test, which checks for "opens" (i.e., no connection) within the devices where connections should exist and "shorts" (i.e., a connection) where connections should not exist. Devices that pass the opens/shorts test proceed on through the process 10 to various burn-in and test procedures where they are tested for functionality, operability, and reliability, and devices that pass these burn-in and test procedures are then typically shipped to customers.
IC devices that fail any of the opens/shorts, burn-in, and test procedures are checked to determine whether they are repairable. This "check" typically includes an electronic "querying" of a device to determine whether enough spare circuit elements remain in the device to effect necessary repairs. Devices determined to be unrepairable are scrapped in a scrap bin 16, while devices that are repairable are repaired, typically by replacing nonfunctional circuit elements in the devices with spare circuit elements in the same manner as described above. After being repaired, these devices then reenter the manufacturing process 10 just prior to the opens/shorts, burn-in, or test procedures they failed.
Electronic querying of IC devices to determine whether spare circuit elements are available to effect repairs increases the time required to move the devices through the manufacturing process 10 and places an additional burden on expensive testing resources. While the extra time added by querying one IC device may be insignificant, the time required to query thousands and thousands of IC devices adds up and can result in a significant reduction in the number of IC devices completing the manufacturing process 10 in a given amount of time. Therefore, there is a need in the art for a method of determining whether enough spare circuit elements are available in an IC device to effect repairs without having to query the device.
Similarly, as shown in FIG. 2, a typical process 20 for manufacturing so-called "flip-chip" and "Chip-On-Board" (COB) Multi-Chip Modules (MCM's), in which multiple IC dice are typically attached directly to a substrate, such as a printed circuit board (PCB), begins with IC's being fabricated on the surface of a semiconductor wafer 22 in the same manner as described above. Once fabricated, IC's are electronically probed to determine whether they are good or bad, and if any IC's are found to be bad, an attempt is made to repair those IC's (i.e., make them good IC's) by replacing nonfunctional circuit elements in the IC's with spare circuit elements. The locations of good and bad IC's on a wafer 22 are then typically stored in an electronic wafer map.
After being probed and, if necessary, repaired, IC's begin an assembly process with their wafer 22 being mounted on an adhesive film. Without cutting this film, IC's are then sawed from their wafer 22 into discrete IC dice using high-speed precision dicing equipment. IC dice that are mounted on the special high-adhesion U.V. film described above are then exposed to U.V. light to loosen the grip of the film on the dice.
IC dice identified as good by their electronic wafer map are then each picked by automated equipment from their sawed wafer 22 and its associated film, typically for attachment to a substrate in a panel of multiple substrates, such as a panel of interconnected PCB's. If the assembly process is a flip-chip process, picked dice are then flipped and directly attached at their active, frontside surfaces to substrates to form MCM's. If the assembly process is a COB process, picked dice are directly attached at their inactive, backside surfaces to adhesive-coated bonding sites of substrates to form MCM's. IC dice identified as bad are discarded into a scrap bin 24.
Panels of MCM's are then cured. If the assembly process is a COB process, the MCM's may be plasma cleaned, if necessary, and the COB IC dice are then wire bonded to their substrates using high-speed bonding equipment.
After assembly, panels of MCM's are tested in an opens/shorts test. Panels having COB IC dice that pass the opens/shorts test proceed on through the manufacturing process 20 so the dice can be encapsulated using an overmold, hard cover, or so-called "glob" top, while panels having flip-chip IC dice that pass the opens/shorts test may have their dice encapsulated using an underfill followed by an overmold, hard cover, or glob top. As will be described in more detail below, alternatively, flip-chip IC dice may be encapsulated after burn-in and test procedures. The disposition of panels of MCM's having COB and flip-chip attached IC dice that fail the opens/shorts test will be described in more detail below.
Panels of MCM's having both COB and flip-chip IC dice, including those panels having flip-chip IC dice that were not encapsulated, are then singulated into discrete MCM's, typically by a shear press or router. After singulation, those MCM's having encapsulated IC dice have their dice tested again in an additional opens/shorts test to check for problems caused by the encapsulation. MCM's having encapsulated dice that pass this additional opens/shorts test, as well as MCM's having dice that were not encapsulated, then proceed on in the manufacturing process 20 to various burn-in and test procedures. The disposition of any MCM's having encapsulated dice that fail the additional opens/shorts test will be described in more detail below.
After the burn-in and test procedures, MCM's having unencapsulated flip-chip IC dice that pass the procedures proceed on in the process 20 so their dice may be covered with an overmold, hardcover, or glob top. Dice covered in this manner are then checked in a further opens/shorts test for problems caused by their being covered, and MCM's having dice that pass this further test are then typically shipped to customers. MCM's having encapsulated IC dice that pass the burn-in and test procedures skip this final opens/shorts test and typically proceed to shipping.
MCM's having attached IC dice that fail any of the opens/shorts, burn-in, and test procedures are checked to determine whether their associated IC dice are repairable. This "check" typically includes an electronic querying of the IC dice to determine whether enough spare circuit elements remain in the dice for effecting repairs. MCM's determined to have unrepairable IC dice are then either reworked using replacement IC dice in an expensive and time-consuming procedure or scrapped in a scrap bin 26, while MCM's having IC dice that are repairable are repaired, typically by replacing nonfunctional circuit elements in the IC dice with spare circuit elements. After being repaired, these MCM's then reenter the manufacturing process 20 just prior to the opens/shorts, burn-in, or test procedures they failed.
As discussed above, electronic querying of IC dice to determine whether spare circuit elements are available to effect repairs increases the time required to move MCM's through the manufacturing process 20 and places an additional burden on expensive testing resources. Also, IC dice that require repair, and are found to be unrepairable only after the assembly process, waste assembly time, materials, and resources and necessitate the scrapping or reworking of MCM's that may contain many functional dice. It is desirable, then, to have an IC manufacturing method for identifying unrepairable IC dice so they may be kept out of COB, flip-chip, and other MCM assembly processes.
As described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,301,143, 5,294,812, and 5,103,166, some methods have been devised to electronically identify IC dice. Such methods take place "off" the manufacturing line, and involve the use of electrically retrievable identification (ID) codes, such as so-called "fuse ID's," programmed into individual IC dice to identify the dice. The programming of a fuse ID typically involves selectively blowing an arrangement of fuses or anti-fuses in an IC die using electric current or a laser so that when the fuses or anti-fuses are accessed, they output a preprogrammed ID code. Unfortunately, none of these methods addresses the problem of identifying unrepairable IC dice "on" a manufacturing line.

Method for using data regarding manufacturing procedures integrated circuits (ICS) have undergone, such as repairs, to select procedures the ICS will undergo, such as additional repairs


A sequence of medical images is filtered. The filtering adapts as a function of spatial closeness, similarity of display values, and temporal vicinity. The kernel weights are based on combined spatial and temporal considerations as well as similarity for trilateral filtering. The similarity is a function of time. The similarity may be between display values separated by time or space and time.

The present embodiments relate to filtering medical diagnostic images. Filtering reduces noise in medical diagnostic images by smoothing the image.
Medical images may be subject to various types of noise. For example, ultrasound images contain speckle due to the phased array imaging technique. As another example, X-ray fluoroscopy images may show quantal noise and intrinsic electronic semiconductor noise from the X-ray detector.
Filtering in the spatial or temporal domain may reduce noise. A kernel with fixed weights is applied to each pixel value of a medical image. The relative contribution of spatially or temporally adjacent pixel values is based on the fixed weights. Various kernels have been used. For a spatial example, a Gaussian kernel more heavily weights pixel values adjacent a selected location than spaced from the location. For a temporal example, infinite impulse response filtering using a fractional weight and the inverse of the weight combines image data from different times.
Adaptive filtering smoothes a medical image as a function of the data representing the image. Edges or structures may be better maintained with adaptive filtering. The weights of the kernel adapt as a function of the image data. For spatial filtering, the kernel adapts based on the distribution of the pixel or voxel values in the proximity of the pixel or voxel being processed. Examples include bilateral filtering using geometric closeness and similarity in pixel or voxel values. Each weight is a function of how close the kernel location is to the location being filtered and how close the display value of the kernel location is to the display value being filtered. However, noise at different times is not considered.
For temporal filtering, the fractional weight and the corresponding inverse adapt as a function of difference in display values at different times. For example, sliding weighted temporal averaging (e.g., GCM) responds to movement between images. If a given pixel or voxel value is sufficiently different from a pixel or voxel value in the same location at a different time, movement has occurred. The fractional weight or the inverse applied to the older or earlier in time image data is reduced, emphasizing the current image data. Blurring due to movement may be avoided. However, a constant geometry is assumed.

Trilateral filter for medical diagnostic imaging


A method and a kit for adjusting a machine for wrapping or packing articles, including a conveyor associated with an electric motor where, in an operating condition, the motor drives the conveyor in rotation about its axis of rotation. The method includes associating the conveyor with a reference integral with the conveyor and disposed at an angular position about its axis of rotation; detecting the angular position of the conveyor relative to the force of gravity by measuring the angle between a radial line passing through the reference and the force of gravity; detecting the angular position of the axis of the motor relative to a zero reference associated with an angular position transducer of the motor; calculating and storing the angular displacement between the angular positions of the motor and the conveyor corresponding to the angular displacement between the zero reference and the force of gravity.

These machines generally comprise a plurality of conveyors or rollers configured to rotate about a respective axis of rotation to perform one or more operations on the smoking articles.
Some of the rollers of wrapping or packing machines are transfer rollers configured in such a way as to transfer the smoking articles along the machine itself from one wrapping or packing station to another. Besides transferring, the transfer rollers may also be configured to perform one or more wrapping or packing operations on the smoking articles. For example, each transfer roller is provided, on the radially external surface of it, with a plurality of flutes configured to receive the rod-shaped smoking articles. Preferably, the flutes are elongate in the axial direction of the transfer roller so as to receive the smoking articles disposed parallel to the axis of rotation of the roller. Also, the flutes are distributed circumferentially and usually equispaced along the radially external surface of the transfer roller. Still more preferably, the flutes are of the suction type, that is to say, they are in communication with a suction system adapted to hold the smoking articles in place.
Some of the rollers of the wrapping or packing machines are working rollers configured to perform one or more wrapping or packing operations on the smoking articles and/or on the components of the smoking articles. For example, in the sector of smoking articles, there may be rollers for cutting, rollers for applying plug wraps or the like.
In current machines for wrapping or packing smoking articles, an electric motor is associated with each roller or with a plurality of rollers mechanically linked to each other to drive them in rotation about their axes of rotation. The motors associated with the rollers are driven by electrical coupling according to a succession of angular positions linked to each other.
This type of drive has created the need to adjust the relative angular positions of the rollers before starting the machine in order to obtain an initial configuration where all the rollers are in phase, thus ensuring that the smoking articles are handled and/or transferred in a steady and reliable manner.
Up to now, this need has been met using templates or frames. Each template has a profile which is shaped in such a way as to receive two or more machine rollers and to set the rollers at a mutual angular position corresponding to the initial (or zero) angular position. For this purpose, each roller has a reference element—for example, a reference pin—which must be correctly positioned in the template profile to determine the mutual angular position of the two or more rollers. The machine rollers are adjusted manually group by group, using a plurality of templates until the mutual angular position of all the rollers has been adjusted.
Each machine therefore requires a plurality of templates. These templates must be suitably stored and then placed on the rollers before the machine is started. The templates therefore require storage space and skilled labour when used. This drawback is further worsened by the fact that each machine generally has its own specific set of templates which differs from that of other machines, however similar.
Moreover, with reference in general to any type of wrapping or packing machine where one electric motor is associated with one load, the Applicant has observed that the need to easily and reliably correlate the angular position of the motor (as indicated by the respective encoder) with the angular position of the load (substantially represented by the roller in the case of machines for the tobacco industry) remains an open problem. Indeed, such a correlation may need to be carried out at different times in the life of the machine: during initial setup, when the motors are physically connected to the respective loads; after any change made during operation; or when a motor is replaced.

Method and kit for adjusting a machine for wrapping or packing articles


An automated method for dispensing pharmaceuticals, particularly tablets and capsules, and other small discrete objects, includes: receiving prescription information, selecting a container, labeling the container, dispensing the tablets or capsules into the labeled container, applying a closure to the filled, labeled container, and offloading the container to a designated location. Preferably, the tablets are dispensed with high speed dispensing bins that employ forced air to agitate and singulate the tablets. The other functions within the system are typically carried out at stations designed to offer speed, flexibility and precision to the dispensing operation.

Pharmacy generally began with the compounding of medicines which entailed the actual mixing and preparing of medications. Heretofore, pharmacy has been, to a great extent, a profession of dispensing, that is, the pouring, counting, and labeling of a prescription, and subsequently transferring the dispensed medication to the patient. Because of the repetitiveness of many of the pharmacists tasks, automation of these tasks has been desirable.
Some attempts have been made to automate the pharmacy environment. Different exemplary approaches are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,337,919 to Spaulding et al. and U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,006,946; 6,036,812 and 6,176,392 to Williams et al. These systems utilize robotic arms to grasp a container, carry it to one of a number of bins containing tablets (from which a designated number of tablets are dispensed), carry it to a printer, where a prescription label is applied, and release the filled container in a desired location. Tablets are counted and dispensed with any number of counting devices. Drawbacks to these systems typically include the relatively low speed at which prescriptions are filled and the absence in these systems of securing a closure (i.e., a lid) on the container after it is filled.
One automated system for dispensing pharmaceuticals is described in some detail in U.S. Patent Publication No. US-2004-0004085-A1. This system has the capacity to select an appropriate vial, label the vial, fill the vial with a desired quantity of a selected pharmaceutical tablet, apply a cap to the filled vial, and convey the labeled, filled, capped vial to an offloading station for retrieval. Although this particular system can provide automated pharmaceutical dispensing, it may be desirable to modify certain aspects of the system to address particular needs.

Devices useful in system and method for dispensing prescriptions


A system and method is disclosed for detecting whether a photograph is of a flat surface, e.g. a “photograph of a photograph”, or of a real three dimensional scene. The method includes using a digital camera to take a photograph, and within a predetermined time period either before or after taking the photograph, recording focal length information from a plurality of focus areas using the autofocus routine of the digital camera. The recorded focal length information forms the input to a machine learning classifier which has been trained to classify scenes as “flat” or “3D”.

In various situations it is important to verify the authenticity of a photograph—in other words, to verify that a photograph is of a genuine scene which was in front of the lens of a camera at the time the photograph was taken. Examples of these situations include photographs submitted to support insurance claims, and photographs submitted by members of the public to news organisations. Photo editing and re-touching software is now readily available and even cheap consumer-grade editing software can produce edited photographs where the changes are difficult to detect visually.
The applicant's co-pending application no. PCT/IB2018/050036, which is incorporated herein by reference, describes a system whereby, by providing trusted software at the point of capture and using cryptographic transformations, the authenticity of a photograph can be to some extent guaranteed, in that with a high level of confidence the system can say that a particular photograph is of the unaltered scene which was in front of a camera at a particular place at a particular time.
However, one way of attempting to circumvent such a system would be to retouch or edit a photograph, to create an artificial or false scene, then to print out the altered photograph, and then to use the "trusted" system of PCT/IB2018/050036 to take a photograph of the printed photograph at any particular time and place. Alternatively the altered photograph could be displayed on a screen and the screen could be photographed. In the right lighting conditions and with a suitable quality of print or display screen, the result may look visually very real. The assurances given by the trusted system would however not be valid, since the photograph may have been altered, staged in a different location at a different time, or completely falsified.
The applicant's co-pending application Ser. No. 16/134,952 verifies photographs to detect whether they are photographs of a real three-dimensional scene or whether they are "photographs of photographs". It does this by taking two photographs of the same scene at different exposures. In one embodiment, one photograph is taken with the flash turned on and one photograph is taken with the flash turned off. This approach somewhat affects the user experience, requiring two photographs to be taken instead of one, and activating the flash. Furthermore, in most practical embodiments, both photographs need to be sent away to a server for processing and verification. This may be a problem in areas where data connectivity is expensive, slow, or unreliable.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved method of capturing a photograph of a scene and verifying the photograph, which solves these problems.


The device of the current invention produces volumes of compressed air by utilizing a turbocharger, a compact combustion assembly, and a hydraulic power pack. The turbocharger includes a turbine and centrifugal compressor, each being interconnected using a pressure-lubricated bearing such that the turbine drives the compressor. Compressed air leaving the compressor is passed through a junction box containing a plurality of air distribution nozzles. The nozzles direct the compressed air either to a pressurized receptacle or back to the combustion assembly in order to provide a source of air for a combustion chamber. This device will economically obtain significant volumes of compressed air more efficiently than other known methods.

The object of the invention relates to the technical field of means of compressing air for mobile or fixed plant.
The equipment currently used to supply compressed air to assemblies intended to convey products in powder form is of the screw or vane type. This equipment is heavy, bulky, requires relatively complex installation and is affected by significant constraints in terms of friction and mechanical wear.
It was to overcome these drawbacks and improve the performance of this type of equipment to a notable extent that the device according to the invention was designed.

Device for producing compressed air for various uses


A very thin portable computer includes a computer housing for holding electronic components and a battery housing movably mounted external to the computer housing, the battery housing adapted for holding batteries for supplying power to the electronic components. The battery housing is rotatably mounted on the computer housing such that the battery housing rotates between a closed position wherein the battery housing covers the rear side of the computer and an open position wherein the battery housing exposes connectors on the computer housing and elevates the rear side of the computer housing to an angle convenient for typing.

The invention relates to electronic device enclosures and particularly to computer systems.
Users of personal computers have been liberated from the restrictions of desktop-only use with the introduction of portable "notebook" computers. The convenience and transportability of the notebook computer has produced a large and lucrative market for manufacturers of such machines. Portability is the key to the successful transport and use of a notebook computer in many different environments; therefore, notebook computer form factors are an exceedingly important consideration for the computer manufacturer seeking market share in this arena. The goal is to provide as thin and light-weight a machine as possible, while maintaining ease of usability of the machine.
In the past, notebook computer form factors have been limited by the sizes and placement of the necessary components within the computer. The computer designer must judiciously arrange the CPU motherboard, keyboard and keyboard baseplate, hard disk drive, options such as PERSONAL COMPUTER MEMORY CARD INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION (PCMCIA) slots, and the battery to provide the most compact form factor possible. To date, at least some of these components are placed beneath the keyboard baseplate, thereby sacrificing thinness in order to provide a convenient notebook computer length and width. To date, the thinnest notebook computer available is about one and one-half inches thick. It is desirable to provide an even thinner notebook computer form factor for the consumer market.

Rotating battery hinge for a notebook computer


Present disclosure provides a semiconductor structure, including a substrate, a pad on the substrate, a conductive layer electrically coupled to the pad at one end, a metal bump including a top surface and a sidewall, a solder bump on the top surface of the metal bump, a dielectric layer surrounding the sidewall of the metal bump and having a top surface, and the top surface of the metal bump entirely protruding the top surface of the dielectric layer, and a polymer layer on the top surface of the dielectric layer, the polymer layer being spaced from both the sidewall of the metal bump and a nearest outer edge of the solder bump with a gap. A method for fabricating a semiconductor device is also provided.

Chip scale packages (CSP) are widely adopted for semiconductor chip assemblies in the industry since the component has a smaller size. Wafer-level chip-scale packages (WLCSP) are considered a popular type of CSP. The use of wafer-level chip-scale packages employs a method in which the pads may be etched or printed directly onto the silicon wafer, resulting in the package being very close to the size of the silicon dies. A semiconductor device made with a WLCSP usually has a smaller size and no bonding wires at all.
When using wafer-level chip-scale packages, a common issue involves a mismatch in the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) between multi-layers, dissimilar materials (e.g., between redistribution layer (RDL), solder ball, printed circuit board (PCB)), and associated insulating layers. The CTE mismatch creates high stress during a reliability test, which leads to premature fatigue or cracking in the solder ball. Thus, a package structure or a method for reducing the mismatch in the CTE is still in great demand.

Bump structure and fabricating method thereof

TAIWAN SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING COMPANY LTD.


A synthesizer system includes a CPU and host memory operating a software routine. The software routine stores a first part of each waveform signal in a sample pool of host memory and provides remaining portions of selected musical sounds from the hard drive to a stream cell array without an audio perceivable delay. The synthesizer system utilizes a caching system which allows low cost, high storage devices to be utilized in an audio synthesizer system. MIDI control signals are provided to an audio processor for selecting appropriate digital waveform signals.

Digital synthesizers or other electronic systems generally create sound or music and can be utilized as an electronic musical instrument or electronic sound machine. Digital synthesizers are ordinarily arranged to accept input signals from a musician or operator interface and produce digital output signals representing analog signals in the audio frequency range. The interface can provide keystroke signals, mouse signals, touch pad signals, or keyboard signals representing the musician's action.
The digital output signals from the digital synthesizer can be converted to analog signals and directed to equipment such as a loudspeaker, tape recorder, mixer, or other device and reproduced in the form of sound. The digital synthesizer can be arranged to provide output signals simulating the sounds of conventional, known musical instruments. Alternatively, the synthesizer may be arranged to simulate sounds which would be emitted by a theoretical instrument having predetermined characteristics different from those of any conventional, known musical instruments.
Music and sound synthesis is a formidable technical task. Real musical instruments produce complex blends of many different frequencies imparting what is commonly referred to as "tone color" to the sound. For example, percussion sounds such as those made by a drum, cymbal or the like are an aperiodic function which cannot fully be described by any simple mathematical expression. Accordingly, the production or synthesis of digital signals representing sounds as rich and complex as those of a real instrument is a formidable digital signal, processing and sampling task. Moreover, the synthesizer must respond to the nuances of the musician's manipulation of the interface. For example, a snare drum has many different audio characteristics when played in various locations such as toward the center of the drum, toward the rim or on the rim. Additionally, the audio characteristics of the snare drum also vary with the striking force, playing technique and stylistic inflection of the musician.
A large enough sample database for each of these characteristics and combinations thereof (facilitated by huge sampling capability) is needed to adequately capture the behavior of the instrument. By having a large enough waveform database, more realistic and expressive synthesis can be achieved. Many synthesizers using waveform sampling technology are used extensively in the music and multimedia fields for their ability to create musical sounds that closely emulate the sound of a musical instrument.
Prior synthesizer systems often utilize a Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) to control digital synthesizers. The MIDI interface creates control signals or MIDI control data. The MIDI control data represents music events such as the occurrence of specific notes (e.g., Middle C, to be realized by a specific musical sound, e.g., piano, horn or drum).
Conventional synthesizer systems utilize a large solid state memory which stores the digital waveform signals representing the real sound of each note played on a particular instrument. The memory can be a static random access memory (SRAM), a dynamic Ram (DRAM) or a read only memory (ROM). When the musician actuates a key or other interface, the appropriate waveform signal is selected depending on the key activated and the intensity of the strike. The waveform signal is converted into an analog output signal. The digital waveform signal can be combined with other notes which are simultaneously being played before being converted to the analog output signal.
In this arrangement, the synthesizer in effect merely plays back digital recordings of individual sounds or notes. Each waveform signal is stored as a series of individual data words, each representing a single sample of the waveform at a particular time. To achieve acceptable fidelity, any such stored waveform signal must include thousands of samples per second in stored sound. The memory required to store each waveform signal is substantial, and the solid state memory required to store all the required waveform signals is accordingly extremely large. The solid state memory is required because its speed allows an essentially real time playback (e.g., no audio perceivable delay). The high cost per unit of sound samples storage of any type of solid state memory has somewhat prohibited the use of large amounts of digital waveform signals for accurate representation of musical instruments and all their nuances. A major limitation of current synthesizers is the lack of sufficient memory to store the entire sample of a wide range of sounds associated with musical instruments (e.g., due to cost).
To reduce the memory requirements, synthesizer systems have used techniques to more efficiently store instrument samples. These techniques generally result in lower quality sound generation. The technique of "looping" reuses samples of the sound. By replicating and reusing groups of samples, the overall memory requirement is reduced. Other techniques store samples in a compressed state in solid state memory. However, these systems require significant CPU power to implement the decompression algorithm, Also, the decompression algorithm can be lossy and suffer audio quality degradation.
Other prior art synthesizer systems have utilized hard disks or other mass storage devices from which the instrument samples are loaded into a solid state memory prior to musical tone generation or playing the instrument. However, these systems still require large amounts of solid state memory because all of the digital waveform signals for the instrument must be loaded into the solid state memory before playing.
Some synthesizer systems have utilized ROM or other types of less expensive, slower solid state memory to store the digital waveform signals. These synthesizers employ a data caching technique to move the waveform signals from the slower ROM to a high speed RAM such as a SRAM for tone generation. Nonetheless, the slower ROM and high speed RAM add significant cost to the synthesizer.
Other prior art systems store only one or several waveforms representing each musical instrument. These waveforms are then adjusted by digital signal processing techniques or other electronic techniques (e.g., non-linear distortion) to reflect frequency and amplitude changes associated with different musical characteristics as indicated by the MIDI control data. For example, the frequency and amplitude of a sample waveform representing middle C of a piano can be adjusted to synthesize a different piano note and volume. However, these types of synthesizers are unable to produce the complex blends or tone color to a high enough fidelity for the musically trained ear. In another example, some systems utilize digital filters to adjust the harmonic content of a particular note. However, these systems require significant CPU power and can suffer audio quality degradation.
Thus, there is a need for a music synthesizer which can store large amounts of musical samples without utilizing substantial amounts of expensive solid state memory. Further still, there is a need for a music synthesizer which can utilize a mass storage device and yet provide a real time production of musical tones.

Synthesizer system utilizing mass storage devices for real time, low latency access of musical instrument digital samples


A novelty door knocker having an electronic sound effect or effects, the door knocker with mechanical arm, plate, switch or proximity sensor enabled to trigger a sound effect, and a battery-powered circuit for controlling and coordinating the acoustics with the trigger. The door knocker may be decorated with or shaped as a cartoon figure for use on a child's bedroom door, for example.

Announcing yourself by knocking on a door can be a dull and uncomfortable experience. There is a need for novelty door knockers that translate this routine action into a surprising and entertaining experience for the visitor and the resident, particularly within a household, family, or group, where the door knocker is mounted on an internal door such a bathroom, bedroom, dorm room, home office, man cave, closet, and so forth.


An electronic apparatus and a method of controlling a plurality of devices by the electronic apparatus are provided. The method includes receiving data from a plurality of devices, determining a correlation between at least two devices among the plurality of devices on the basis of the received data, determining a position of a first device on the basis of the correlation, grouping the first device and another device positioned in the vicinity of the first device into one group, and automatically creating group information, and controlling the devices included in the group. The name of the first device may be automatically set using the group information.

Recently, in accordance with the development of semiconductor technologies and wireless communication technologies, a communication function has been included in various things to form a network, such that the things may be conveniently controlled. A technology of allowing the communication function to be included in the things to connect the things to the network is called an Internet of things (IoT), and has been widely used in actual life.
Meanwhile, in order to connect various things (hereinafter, 'things' may be referred to as 'devices') to the network in the IoT environment described above, the respective devices should be able to be identified on the network. To this end, a pairing process of registering the respective devices in a gateway is required. Since the respective devices should be connected to the gateway in the pairing process, a great number of procedures are required in order to pair a plurality of devices with the gateway.
The above information is presented as background information only to assist with an understanding of the present disclosure. No determination has been made, and no assertion is made, as to whether any of the above might be applicable as prior art with regard to the present disclosure.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Electronic apparatus and IoT device controlling method thereof


A method for manufacturing electrodes using an electrostatic deposition unit. In the first step of the process a mixture of magnetic carrier beads and a conductive powder is prepared in the sump of the deposition unit; the mixture forms a magnetic brush on the sleeve of the deposition unit. In the second step of the process, the substrate is positioned away from the magnetic brush to form an air gap. In the third step of the process, a voltage is applied between the substrate and the sleeve of the deposition unit in order to produce a large asymmetry between the magnetic brush and said substrate such that the electric field at the magnetic brush is at least 3.0 times as great as the electric field at the substrate. In the fourth step of the process, conductive powder is deposited onto the substrate.

Electrostatic powder spraying is widely used to coat (paint) many consumer products such as appliances, tools, automobiles, etc. Much of the electrophotographic industry for producing high-quality copies and prints is based on the electrostatic deposition of charged powder. Electrostatic powder deposition is also used in a number of manufacturing processes such as abrasive coatings. Most of the applications use a non-magnetic insulative powder that is charged by either triboelectricity or gaseous ions. There are many methods and apparatus for electrostatic charging and depositing non-magnetic insulative powder on either insulative or conductive substrates. The present methods and apparatus for electrostatic powder deposition of conductive powders onto either insulative or conductive substrates have limitations. For insulative substrates, magnetic or non-magnetic conductive powder is induction charged for electrostatic deposition. Magnetic powder enables transport of the powder by permanent magnets. However, the typical processes limit the deposition to about a monolayer of powder coverage, which is less than the desired coverage for many industrial applications. For the electrostatic deposition of non-magnetic conductive powder/blend onto a conductive substrate, the inventors are not aware of literature or disclosures that describe such depositions. Thus, to date there has been no method and apparatus described in the literature that enables electrostatic multi-layer deposition of non-magnetic conductive powder onto either an insulative or conductive substrate.
It is the object of this invention to provide a method and apparatus that enables electrostatic multi-layer deposition of non-magnetic conductive powder/blend onto either insulative or conductive substrates.

Non-interactive electrostatic deposition of induction charged conductive powder


A power supply current monitoring device is used for a load drive apparatus with two systems to drive a load. Each system includes a drive circuit connected in parallel with a battery, a capacitor connected between the battery and the drive circuit, and a relay connected between the drive circuit and a point at which power of the battery is divided between the systems. When overcurrent is detected once in one system, a repetitive monitoring process is performed. The monitoring process finally determines that the overcurrent actually occurs when a predetermined condition is satisfied after repeating a monitoring cycle in which an overcurrent time during which the overcurrent continues after the relay is turned ON is accumulated. The condition is satisfied when the monitoring cycle in which the overcurrent time reaches a predetermined threshold is repeated a predetermined consecutive number of times.

In a technique disclosed in JP-A-2003-219675, a power supply current sensor is provided in a power supply path from a battery (i.e., a power supply) to a drive circuit which drives an electric load such as a motor. When a short-circuit failure occurs in the drive circuit, the power supply current sensor detects an overcurrent condition, and a power supply relay is turned OFF so that the power supply path can be interrupted.
When a power supply current sensor is used to detect an overcurrent condition, a detection error may be caused, for example, by noise or a short circuit due to a momentary circuit contact. To eliminate such a detection error, a repetitive monitoring process may be performed. In the repetitive monitoring process, a power supply relay is repeatedly turned ON and OFF after an overcurrent condition is detected once, and then when the overcurrent condition is detected a predetermined consecutive number of times, it is finally determined that a short-circuit failure occurs. For a drive circuit with one system having an inverter, this repetitive monitoring process is effective at eliminating the detection error, thereby preventing an unnecessary fail-safe operation from stopping functions.
For example, in an electric power steering system for a vehicle, multiple systems, each of which has a motor drive circuit, are configured in a redundant manner to increase reliability. In general, an input stage of a drive circuit such as an inverter is provided with a capacitor to smooth an input voltage. In an apparatus where a drive circuit of each of multiple systems is connected in parallel to a power supply, a capacitor of an input stage of each drive circuit remains charged during normal operation.
Here it is assumed that a power supply relay is turned OFF when an overcurrent condition in a drive circuit of one of two systems is detected once. The system where the overcurrent condition is detected once is sometimes hereinafter referred to as the "temporary abnormal system", while the other system is sometimes hereinafter referred to as the "normal system". If the drive circuit of the temporary abnormal system is actually short-circuited, the capacitor of the input stage of the temporary abnormal system is discharged. For this reason, when the power supply relay is turned ON again in the repetitive monitoring process, charges stored in the capacitor of the input stage of the normal system flows as an inrush current into the temporary abnormal system. Therefore, even when the short-circuit failure is cured so that the temporary abnormal system returns to normal, the repetitive monitoring process incorrectly determines that the temporary abnormal system remains in an overcurrent condition due to the inrush current. That is, the inrush current is incorrectly detected as an excessive power supply current.
Further, in the normal system, when the power supply relay is turned OFF upon the incorrect determination that the temporary abnormal system remains in an overcurrent condition, a secondary inrush current flows from the power supply to the capacitor of the input stage. Due to this secondary inrush current, it may be incorrectly determined that the normal system is in an overcurrent condition. Therefore, in an apparatus with multiple systems, each of which has a drive circuit, it is difficult to finally determine that the temporary abnormal system is in an overcurrent condition by the repetitive monitoring process.


The invention relates to a cooking oven for bread, patisserie and pastry products or similar, including at least one cooking chamber with a fixed or moving floor, on which products are supported during cooking, whether directly or on a suitable cooking support, such as a plate a mesh or a cooking mold. There is also a radiant heating device for the floor arranged under the floor, called a floor hotplate. The floor and the floor hotplate have a space therebetween, the space being provided for closed-circuit convective circulation of a heating fluid, the floor having a permeable embodiment for a complementary heating of the products through the same by convection. The oven permits a combination at the floor of heating by conduction and radiation with heating by convection.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a baking oven for bread, patisserie, pastries or the like, including at least one baking chamber, with a movable or fixed floor, on which products rests during baking, either directly or through an adapted baking support, such as a plate, a net or a baking mold, under the floor being provided radiant heating means for the floor, called floor hotplate.
The present invention is related to the field of the baking ovens for bread, patisserie, pastries or the like.
2. Description of Related Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37 CFR 1.97 and 37 CFR 1.98.
There are already known baking ovens meeting the above description, the operation of which is discontinuous or continuous. In the first case, the oven is capable of containing a certain quantity of products, called load. It is extracted therefrom at the end of baking, leaving room for baking a new load. In the case of a continuous baking oven, the products are conveyed through the baking chamber by suitable conveying means between an inlet and an outlet, the time of transit corresponding to the baking time.
For the charging and the evacuation of a load of products in discontinuously operating ovens or also for the transit of these products through continuously operating ovens, the floor of the baking chamber, on which said products rest, either directly or through an adapted baking support, such as a plate, a net or a baking mold, can be designed movable, for example in the form of a sliding tray, in particular in the case of a floor called outgoing floor, or a suitable baking carpet. This carpet can be of a metallic type or made out of synthetic material or also with articulated stone or metal blades.
The ovens more particularly involved by the present invention are those in which the products to be baked are in direct contact or through their baking support with the floor of the baking chamber, which floor is subjected to adapted heating means.
In particular, under this plate can be implanted heating resistors, heating-fluid conduits or any other heat-producing means.
In the following description, these heating means extending at least partially under the floor will be called floor hotplate.
Thus, the products are baked partly by conduction through this floor, knowing that they are in addition submitted to baking by radiant heating and/or by convection.
The radiation results from the dispersion of heat from the floor and the vault of the baking chamber loaded with heat. In this respect, the vault is it also provided with heating means.
These products can also be baked by convection by a heating fluid moving in the baking chamber. Some ovens simultaneously implement these three heating modes: conduction, radiation, convection, in order to ensure the baking of the products. In particular, this consists in an oven as described above, comprising a heated floor and vault, in subjecting the air of the baking chamber to adapted stirring means.
When the products are placed on the floor, directly or through a baking support, the calories are directly absorbed by the products in the area of contact, so that the floor must locally be reloaded with heat-energy through the floor hotplate, so that the baking operation continues. A heating of the floor by mere radiation through said floor hotplate has some inertia, which results into decelerating the baking operation by conduction and radiation through the floor. The phenomenon is enhanced when the products rest on this floor through baking supports that, although they are generally open worked, provide a barrier for the heating by radiation and increase the inertia of the transfer of calories by conduction from the floor to the products.
The result is a baking which does not take place under identical conditions on the top and the sides of the products with respect to the lower side of the latter directly or indirectly into contact with the floor.

Cooking oven for bread, patisserie and pastries or similar