An information processing apparatus includes a BIOS storage unit that stores at least a Basic Input Output System (BIOS) program, a main controller that starts up an operating system by executing the BIOS program, and a sub-controller that manages peripheral apparatuses and accesses the BIOS storage unit, in which the sub-controller includes a digest computation unit that computes a digest value on the basis of BIOS program data stored in the BIOS storage unit in parallel to execution of a process in the main controller, and in which the main controller determines validity of the BIOS program on the basis of the digest value.

In an information processing apparatus such as a personal computer, when an operating system (hereinafter, referred to as an OS) is started up, a power on self test (POST) process is executed (for example, refer to Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2017-76285). The POST process includes integrity checking for a program such as Basic Input Output System (BIOS).


A method and apparatus of priority-based MVP (motion vector predictor) derivation for motion compensation in a video encoder or decoder are disclosed. According to this method, one or more final motion vector predictors (MVPs) are derived using priority-based MVP derivation process. The one or more final MVPs are derived by selecting one or more firstly available MVs from a priority-based MVP list for Inter prediction mode, Skip mode or Merge mode based on reference data of one or two target reference pictures that are reconstructed prior to the current block according to a priority order. Therefore, there is no need for transmitting information at the encoder side nor deriving information at the decoder side that is related to one or more MVP indices to identify the one or more final MVPs in the video bitstream.

The advances of digital video coding standards have resulted in successes of multimedia systems such as smartphones, digital TVs, and digital cameras for the past decade. After standardization activities of H.261, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, H.263, MPEG-4, and H.264/AVC, the demand for improving video compression performance has been still strong due to requirements of larger picture resolutions, higher frame rates, and better video qualities. Therefore, the efforts to develop for new video coding techniques to further improve coding efficiency beyond H.264/AVC are never ending. A new international video coding standard, named High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) has been deloped based on a hybrid block-based motion-compensated transform coding architecture. The basic unit for compression is termed coding tree unit (CTU). Each CTU may contain one coding unit (CU) or recursively split into four smaller CUs until the predefined minimum CU size is reached. Each CU (also named leaf CU) contains one or multiple prediction units (PUs) and a tree of transform units (TUs).
In general, a CTU consists of one luma coding tree block (CTB) and two corresponding chroma CTBs. A CU consists of one luma coding block (CB) and two corresponding chroma CBs. A PU consists of one luma prediction block (PB) and two corresponding chroma PBs. A TU consists of one luma transform block (TB) and two corresponding chroma TBs. However, exceptions may occur because the minimum TB size is 4×4 for both luma and chroma (i.e., no 2×2 chroma TB supported for 4:2:0 color format) and each Intra chroma CB always has only one Intra chroma PB regardless of the number of Intra luma PBs in the corresponding Intra luma CB.
For an Intra CU, the luma CB can be predicted by one or four luma PBs, and each of the two chroma CBs is always predicted by one chroma PB. In other words, each luma PB has one Intra luma prediction mode and the two chroma PBs share one Intra chroma prediction mode. Moreover, for the Intra CU, the TB size cannot be larger than the PB size. In each PB, the Intra prediction is applied to predict samples of each TB inside the PB from neighboring reconstructed samples of the TB. For each PB, in addition to 33 directional Intra prediction modes, DC and planar modes are also supported to predict flat regions and gradually varying regions, respectively.
For each Inter PU, one of three prediction modes including Inter, Skip and Merge modes, can be selected. Generally speaking, a motion vector competition (MVC) scheme is used to select a motion candidate from a given candidate set that includes spatial and temporal motion candidates. Multiple references to the motion estimation allow for finding the best reference in two possible reconstructed reference picture list (namely List 0 and List 1). For the Inter mode (unofficially termed AMVP mode, where AMVP stands for advanced motion vector prediction), Inter prediction indicators (List 0, List 1, or bi-directional prediction), or two reference indices for indicating one or two target reference pictures, one or two motion candidate indices for indicating one or two selected candidates in the list, motion vector differences (MVDs) and prediction residual are transmitted. As for the Skip mode and the Merge mode, only Merge indices are transmitted for indicating one or two selected MVPs (motion vector predictors) in the candidate list, and the current PU inherits the Inter prediction indicator, reference indices, and motion vectors from a neighboring PU referred by the coded Merge index. In the case of a Skip coded CU, the residual signal is also omitted. Quantization, entropy coding, and deblocking filter (DF) are also in the coding loop of HEVC. The basic operations of these three modules are conceptually similar to those used in H.264/AVC, but differ in details.
Sample adaptive offset (SAO) is a new in-loop filtering technique applied after deblocking filter (DF). SAO aims to reduce sample distortion by classifying deblocked samples into different categories and then adding an offset to deblocked samples of each category.
FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary adaptive Inter/Intra video coding system incorporating loop processing. For Inter-prediction, Motion Estimation (ME)/Motion Compensation (MC) 112 is used to provide prediction data based on video data from other picture or pictures. Switch 114 selects Intra Prediction 110 or Inter-prediction data and the selected prediction data is supplied to Adder 116 to form prediction errors, also called residues. The prediction error is then processed by Transform (T) 118 followed by Quantization (Q) 120. The transformed and quantized residues are then coded by Entropy Encoder 122 to be included in a video bitstream corresponding to the compressed video data. The bitstream associated with the transform coefficients is then packed with side information such as motion, coding modes, and other information associated with the image area. The side information may also be compressed by entropy coding to reduce required bandwidth. Accordingly, the data associated with the side information are provided to Entropy Encoder 122 as shown in FIG. 1. When an Inter-prediction mode is used, a reference picture or pictures have to be reconstructed at the encoder end as well. Consequently, the transformed and quantized residues are processed by Inverse Quantization (IQ) 124 and Inverse Transformation (IT) 126 to recover the residues. The residues are then added back to prediction data 136 at Reconstruction (REC) 128 to reconstruct video data. The reconstructed video data may be stored in Reference Picture Buffer 134 and used for prediction of other frames.
As shown in FIG. 1, incoming video data undergoes a series of processing in the encoding system. The reconstructed video data from REC 128 may be subject to various impairments due to a series of processing. Therefore, In-loop filter 130 is often applied to the reconstructed video data before the reconstructed video data are stored in the Reference Picture Buffer 134 in order to improve video quality. For example, deblocking filter (DF) and Sample Adaptive Offset (SAO) have been used in the High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) standard. The in-loop filter information may have to be incorporated in the bitstream so that a decoder can properly recover the required information. Therefore, in-loop filter information is provided to Entropy Encoder 122 for incorporation into the bitstream. In FIG. 1, in-loop filter 130 is applied to the reconstructed video before the reconstructed samples are stored in the reference picture buffer 134. The system in FIG. 1 is intended to illustrate an exemplary structure of a typical video encoder.
FIG. 2 illustrates a system block diagram of a corresponding video decoder for the encoder system in FIG. 1. Since the encoder also contains a local decoder for reconstructing the video data, some decoder components are already used in the encoder except for the entropy decoder 210. Furthermore, only motion compensation 220 is required for the decoder side. The switch 146 selects Intra-prediction or Inter-prediction and the selected prediction data are supplied to reconstruction (REC) 128 to be combined with recovered residues. Besides performing entropy decoding on compressed residues, entropy decoding 210 is also responsible for entropy decoding of side information and provides the side information to respective blocks. For example, Intra mode information is provided to Intra-prediction 110, Inter mode information is provided to motion compensation 220, loop filter information is provided to loop filter 130 and residues are provided to inverse quantization 124. The residues are processed by IQ 124, IT 126 and subsequent reconstruction process to reconstruct the video data. Again, reconstructed video data from REC 128 undergo a series of processing including IQ 124 and IT 126 as shown in FIG. 2 and are subject to coding artefacts. The reconstructed video data are further processed by In-loop filter 130 before the reconstructed pictures are stored in the reference picture buffer 134.
As mentioned earlier, motion vector prediction is widely used in recent advanced video coding as coding tool to reduce bits required for motion information coding. The motion vector prediction process includes generating a motion vector candidate list and pruning the candidate list to remove redundancy. A brief description of the generation process and pruning process are reviewed as follows.
Competitive Spatial-Temporal Motion Candidate in Inter Prediction
There are three prediction modes for the Inter prediction in HEVC, including the Inter mode, Skip mode and Merge mode. For all these three modes, a motion vector competition (MVC) scheme is applied to select one motion candidate among a given candidate list containing spatial and temporal motion candidates. The MVC scheme may increase the coding efficiency of the MV prediction and MV coding.
For the Inter mode, an Inter prediction indicator is transmitted to denote list-0 prediction, list-1 prediction, or bi-prediction. Next, one or two reference indices are transmitted when there are multiple reference pictures. An index is transmitted for each prediction direction to select one motion candidate from the candidate list. As shown in FIG. 3, the candidate list for the Inter mode includes two spatial motion candidates and one temporal motion candidate:
1. Left candidate (the first available from A0, A1);
2. Top candidate (the first available from B0, B1, B2);
3. Temporal candidate (the first available from TBR and TCT).
The left spatial motion candidate is searched from the below left to the left (i.e., A0 and A1 located in the current picture) and the first available one is selected as the left candidate, while the top spatial motion candidate is searched from the above right to the above left (i.e., B0, B1, and B2 located in the current picture) and the first available one is selected as the top candidate. A temporal motion candidate is derived from a block (TBR or TCT) located in a reference picture, which is termed temporal collocated picture. The temporal collocated picture is indicated by transmitting a flag in the slice header to specify which reference picture list. Also one reference index in slice header is transmitted to indicate which reference picture in the reference list is used as the collocated reference picture. After the index is transmitted, one or two corresponding motion vector differences (MVDs) are transmitted.
For the Skip mode and Merge mode, a Merge index is signalled to indicate which candidate in the merging candidate list is used. No Inter prediction indicator, reference index, or MVD is transmitted. Each PU of the Skip or Merge mode reuses the Inter prediction indicator, reference index (or indices), and motion vector(s) of the selected candidate. It is noted that if the selected candidate is a temporal motion candidate, the reference index is always set to 0. As shown in FIG. 3, the merging candidate list for the Skip mode and the Merge mode includes four spatial motion candidates and one temporal motion candidate:                1. Left candidate (A1);        2. Top candidate (B1);        3. Above right candidate (B0);        4. Below left candidate (A0);        5. Above left candidate (B2), used only when any of the above spatial candidates is unavailable;        6. Temporal candidate (the first available from TBR and TCT).
Redundancy Removal and Additional Motion Candidates
For the Inter mode, Skip mode, and Merge mode, after deriving the spatial motion candidates, a pruning process is performed to check the redundancy among the spatial candidates.
After removing redundant or unavailable candidates, the size of the candidate list can be adjusted dynamically at both the encoder and decoder sides so that the truncated unary binarization can be beneficial for entropy coding of the index. Although the dynamic size of candidate list could bring coding gains, it also introduces a parsing problem. Because the temporal motion candidate is included in the candidate list, when a MV of a previous picture cannot be decoded correctly, a mismatch between the candidate list on the encoder side and the decoder side may occur, which results in a parsing error of the candidate index. This parsing error can propagate from frame to frame, and may even cause the rest of the current picture unable to be parsed or decoded properly. What is even worse, this parsing error can affect subsequent Inter pictures that also allow temporal motion candidates. Therefore, one small decoding error of a MV may cause failures of parsing many subsequent pictures.
In HEVC, in order to solve the mentioned parsing problem, a fixed candidate list size is used to decouple the candidate list construction and the parsing of the index. Moreover, in order to compensate the coding performance loss caused by the fixed list size, additional candidates are assigned to the empty positions in the candidate list. In this process, the index is coded in truncated unary codes of a maximum length, where the maximum length is transmitted in the slice header for the Skip mode and Merge mode and fixed to two for the Inter mode.
For the Inter mode, a zero vector motion candidate is added to fill the empty positions in the AMVP candidate list after the derivation and pruning of the two spatial motion candidates and the one temporal motion candidate. As for the Skip mode and Merge mode, after the derivation and pruning of the four spatial motion candidates and the one temporal motion candidate, if the number of available candidates is smaller than the fixed candidate list size, additional candidates are derived and added to fill the empty positions in the merging candidate list.
Two types of additional candidates are used to fill the merging candidate list: the combined bi-predictive motion candidate and the zero vector motion candidate. The combined bi-predictive motion candidates are created by combining two original motion candidates according to a predefined order. FIG. 4 illustrates an example of generating a bi-predictive motion candidate 444 by combining two original motion candidates 440 and 442. Candidate list 410 corresponds to an original list containing two candidates: mvL0_A with ref0 and mvL1_B with ref0. Motion vector mvL0_A points from the current block in the current picture 430 to a reference block in a reference picture L0R0 432 in list 0. Motion vector mvL1_B points from the current block in the current picture 430 to a reference block in a reference picture L1R0 434 in list 1. The update candidate list 420 includes this combined bi-predictive motion candidate 444. After adding the combined bi-predictive motion candidates, if the merging candidate list still has empty position(s), zero vector motion candidates are added to the remaining positions.
In VCEG-AZ07 AZ07 (Jianle Chen, et al., Further improvements to HMKTA-1.0, ITU—Telecommunications Standardization Sector, Study Group 16 Question 6, Video Coding Experts Group (VCEG), 52nd Meeting: 19-26 Jun. 2015, Warsaw, Poland), a decoder side MV derivation method is proposed. In this method, a FRUC_mrg_flag is signaled when the merge_flag or skip_flag is true. If the FRUC_mrg_flag is 1, then a FRUC_merge_mode is signalled to indicate whether the bilateral matching Merge mode (as shown in FIG. 5) or template matching Merge mode (as shown in FIG. 6) is selected. FIG. 5 illustrates an example of FRUC (Frame-Rate Up-Conversion) bilateral matching mode, where the motion information for a current block 510 is derived based on two reference pictures. The motion information of the current block 510 is derived by finding the best match between two blocks (520 and 530) along the motion trajectory 540 of the current block 510 in two different reference pictures (i.e., Ref0 and Ref1). Under the assumption of continuous motion trajectory, the motion vectors MV0 associated with Ref0 and MV1 associated with Ref1 pointing to the two reference blocks 520 and 530 shall be proportional to the temporal distances, i.e., TD0 and TD1, between the current picture (i.e., Cur pic) and the two reference pictures (i.e., Ref0 and Ref1).
FIG. 6 illustrates an example of template matching FRUC mode. The neighbouring areas (620a and 620b) of the current block 610 in a current picture (i.e., Cur pic) are used as a template to match with a corresponding template (630a and 630b) in a reference picture (i.e., Ref0). The best match between template 620a/620b and template 630a/630b will determine a decoder derived motion vector 640. While Ref0 is shown in FIG. 6, Ref1 can also be used as a reference picture.
In the decoder side MV derivation method, a new temporal MVP called temporal derived MVP is also used, where the MVP is derived by scanning all MVs in all reference frames. To derive the LIST_0 temporal derived MVP, for each LIST_0 MV in the LIST_0 reference frames, the MV is scaled to point to the current frame. The 4×4 block that pointed by this scaled MV in current frame is the target current block. The MV is further scaled to point to the reference picture that refIdx is equal 0 in LIST_0 for the target current block. The further scaled MV is stored in the LIST_0 MV field for the target current block. FIG. 7 illustrates examples for deriving the temporal derived MVPs for List 0 and List 1 respectively. In FIG. 7, each small square block corresponds to a 4×4 block. The temporal derived MVPs process scans all the MVs in all 4×4 blocks in all reference pictures to generate the temporal derived LIST_0 and LIST_1 MVPs of current frame. For example, in FIG. 7, blocks 710, blocks 712 and blocks 714 correspond to 4×4 blocks of the current picture, List 0 reference picture with index equal to 0 (i.e., refidx=0) and List 0 reference picture with index equal to 1 (i.e., refidx=1) respectively. Motion vectors 720 and 730 for two blocks in List 0 reference picture with index equal to 1 are known. Then, temporal derived MVP 722 and 732 can be derived by scaling motion vectors 720 and 730 respectively. The scaled MVP is then assigned it to a corresponding block.
For bilateral matching Merge mode and template matching Merge mode, the two-stage matching is applied. The first stage is PU-level matching, and the second stage is the sub-PU-level matching. In the PU-level matching, several starting MVs in LIST_0 and LIST_1 are selected respectively. These MVs include the MVs from Merge candidates and MVs from temporal derived MVPs. Two different staring MV sets are generated for two lists. For each MV in one list, a MV pair is generated by composing of this MV and the mirrored MV that is derived by scaling the MV to the other list. For each MV pair, two reference blocks are compensated by using this MV pair. The sum of absolutely differences (SAD) of these two blocks is calculated. The MV pair with the smallest SAD is the best MV pair. Then, the diamond search is performed to refine the MV pair. The refinement precision is ⅛-pel. The refinement search range is restricted within ±1 pixel. The final MV pair is the PU-level derived MV pair.
For the second stage sub-PU-level searching, the current PU is divided into sub-PUs. The depth of sub-PU is signalled in Sequence Parameter Set (SPS) (e.g. 3). Minimum sub-PU size is 4×4 block. For each sub-PU, several starting MVs in LIST_0 and LIST_1 are selected, which includes MV of PU-level derived MV, zero MV, HEVC collocated TMVP of current sub-PU and bottom-right block, temporal derived MVP of current sub-PU, and MVs of left and above PU/sub-PU. By using the similar mechanism in PU-level searching, the best MV pair for the sub-PU is selected. The diamond search is performed to refine the MV pair. The motion compensation for this sub-PU is performed to generate the predictor for this sub-PU.
For template matching Merge mode, the reconstructed pixels of above 4 rows and left 4 columns are used to form a template. The template matching is performed to find the best matched template with its corresponding MV. Two stage matching is also applied for template matching. In the PU-level matching, several starting MVs in LIST_0 and LIST_1 are selected respectively. These MVs includes the MVs from Merge candidates and MVs from temporal derived MVPs. Two different staring MV sets are generated for two lists. For each MV in one list, the SAD cost of the template with the MV is calculated. The MV with the smallest cost is the best MV. Then, the diamond search is performed to refine the MV. The refinement precision is ⅛-pel. The refinement search range is restricted within ±1 pixel. The final MV is the PU-level derived MV. The MVs in LIST_0 and LIST_1 are generated independently.
For the second stage sub-PU-level searching, the current PU is divided into sub-PUs. The depth of sub-PU is signalled in SPS (e.g. 3). Minimum sub-PU size is 4×4 block. For each sub-PU at left or top PU boundaries, several starting MVs in LIST_0 and LIST_1 are selected, which includes MV of PU-level derived MV, zero MV, HEVC collocated TMVP of current sub-PU and bottom-right block, temporal derived MVP of current sub-PU, and MVs of left and above PU/sub-PU. By using the similar mechanism in PU-level searching, the best MV pair for the sub-PU is selected. The diamond search is performed to refine the MV pair. The motion compensation for this sub-PU is performed to generate the predictor for this sub-PU. For those PUs which are not at left or top PU boundaries, the second stage sub-PU-level searching is not applied, and the corresponding MVs are set equal to the MVs in the first stage.
In this decoder side MV derivation method, the template matching is also used to generate a MVP for Inter mode coding. When a reference picture is selected, the template matching is performed to find a best template on the selected reference picture. Its corresponding MV is the derived MVP. This MVP is inserted into the first position in AMVP.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method and apparatus of motion vector prediction or merge candidate derivation for video coding


An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus for transmitting ultrasonic signals toward a subject, receiving signals reflected from the subject in response to the transmitted ultrasonic signals, and producing a tomographic image of the subject based on the received signals, includes: transmitting/receiving device having a plurality of channels for transmitting/receiving ultrasonic signals via the channels; and a linear or convex probe in which transducers in a number larger than the number of channels are arranged in one direction, in which probe, the transducers are connected to the channels inconsecutively in the arrangement direction, and the number of transducers in an aperture area from one end to the other of transducers that are connected to the channels is set to be larger than the number of channels.

The present invention relates to an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus and a driving method therefor, and particularly to an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus comprising a probe having a larger number of transducers than the number of channels in transmitting/receiving means, and a driving method for such an apparatus.
Apparatuses for scanning a predefined region in a subject to be imaged by ultrasound to produce an image of the subject include the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus is attracting attention because it can conduct a scan and produce an image without distressing the subject to be imaged.
The image produced by the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus depends considerably upon the number of transmitting/receiving channels in the main body of the apparatus and the number of transducers in the probe. That is, the number of transmitting/receiving channels and the number of transducers are set to correspond to each other, and as the width of transducers becomes smaller and the number of transducers becomes larger, the density of scan lines increases, thus improving accuracy of the produced image. The transducers will be sometimes referred to as elements hereinbelow.
There have been developed probes of a linear or convex type that have elements arranged in a one-dimensional manner and have a large number of elements. On the contrary, in a transmitting/receiving circuit having channels for transmitting/receiving ultrasonic signals to/from the elements, the number of channels cannot easily be increased owing to limitation on the size etc. of the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus. Therefore, a probe with 128–192 elements has been developed for a transmitting/receiving circuit with 32 or 48 channels, for example. In the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus having such a probe, adjoining elements are connected to respective transmitting/receiving channels, and a linear or convex scan is achieved by sequentially moving the elements driven by the transmitting/receiving channels (see Non-Patent Document 1, for example).
In B-mode compounding in the linear or convex scan, however, driving consecutive elements as described above, hence narrowing an opening, may result in a broader main beam. Alternatively, driving with elements at certain spacings connected to transmitting/receiving channels to widen the area of the transmitting/receiving elements may result in grating lobes.
On the other hand, an active matrix array (sometimes referred to as AMA hereinbelow) probe in which elements are two-dimensionally arranged has been developed for an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus having a transmitting/receiving circuit with 128 channels or more, although machines in widespread use generally employ a transmitting/receiving circuit with about 64 channels.
Furthermore, in a portable ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, there is also a problem that the number of transmitting/receiving channels cannot easily be increased owing to size and/or weight considerations.
[non-Patent Document 1]"Handbook for Medical Ultrasonic Instruments," edited by The Electronic Industries Association of Japan, published by Corona Publishing Co., Ltd., Revised Edition 1 (Jan. 20, 1997), page 94, FIG. 3.59; page 97, FIG. 3.64; and page 102, FIG. 3.76.

Ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus and driving method therefor

GE Medical Systems Global Technology Company, LLC


An injection-moulding machine, having a first platen, which is designed for carrying a first mould half of an injection mould, a second platen, which is designed for carrying a second mould half of the injection mould in such a way that in a closed state of the injection mould the first mould half and the second mould half delimit at least one cavity of the injection mould, and having an index shaft, which is mounted rotatably and axially adjustably on the injection-moulding machine outside the injection mould, is rotationally driven by of a motor of the injection-moulding machine arranged outside the injection mould and has an end portion which protrudes into the injection mould in the installed position of the injection mould in the injection-moulding machine, is designed for fastening on the index shaft an index plate to be arranged within the injection mould and has at least one channel which is designed to feed a fluid to the index plate or to remove a fluid from the index plate, wherein by means of the index shaft, driven by the motor, the index plate is automatically adjustable between a first plate position of the index plate and at least one second plate position of the index plate, and wherein the motor has a hollow motor shaft, through which the fluid is passed.

From DE 20 2015 101 432 U1 for example an injection-moulding machine is known with a fixed platen for receiving a first part of an injection mould, with a movable platen for receiving a second part of an injection mould, and with two further plates which are arranged outside the installation space of the injection mould behind one of the platens, in particular behind the movable platen, wherein the first further plate is an ejector plate, which is provided for ejecting moulded parts out of the injection mould and which is designed for receiving ejector rods or is provided with ejector rods, wherein the second further plate is an additional plate on which a rotary drive is provided, wherein the rotary drive is in operative connection with a rotary shaft, which is connectable or connected with a rotatable part of the injection mould, in particular with an index plate, and wherein the ejector plate and the additional plate are able to be moved independently of each other in the longitudinal direction of the machine. In order to be able to feed media, in particular fluid media, to the rotatable part of the injection mould, in particular the index plate, optionally there a rotary feed-through or a hose feed-through can be provided. In the case of such a hose feed-through, the hoses for the media supply are connected directly to the rotary shaft, more precisely to the channels, running in the rotary shaft, for the media supply. The rotary shaft can therefore only be rotated forward and back to a limited extent. A spinning or cycling through of the rotary shaft is not possible with such a hose feed-through.
The object of the invention is to create an injection-moulding machine in which fluids can be directed over an index shaft in a simple and reliable manner to an index plate which is able to be repositioned by the index shaft.

Injection-moulding machine with an index shaft having a channel for a fluid


This invention discloses an electronic musical instrument, which shifts the tone pitches of a series of externally input voice signals in real time, and outputs the shifted voice signals from a loudspeaker. Data for shifting the tone pitches of voice signals is pre-programmed in a memory circuit as music piece data. Every time a user operates an operation switch, the music piece data is sequentially read out, and the tone pitches of voice signals input from a microphone are shifted by a tone pitch converter. The shifted voice signals are output from a loudspeaker in real time. The input voice signals can be shifted to a melody corresponding to the music piece data.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic musical instrument and, more particularly, to an electronic musical instrument, which shifts and outputs the tone pitches of externally input voice signals in real time.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Electronic toys, which shift and output the tone pitches of voice signals externally input through a microphone, are known.
FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a general arrangement of an electric musical instrument having a conventional tone pitch conversion function. As can be seen from the block diagram of FIG. 5, the electronic musical instrument converts an externally input voice into a voice signal S.sub.20 through a microphone 20, and supplies the converted signal to a pitch converter 21.
The pitch converter 21 receives a signal S.sub.21 for controlling the tone pitch of the voice signal S.sub.20 from a pitch shift control circuit 22. The pitch shift control circuit 22 is provided with an operation switch, which can be operated by a user to control the tone pitch of the input voice. The operation switch comprises, e.g., a push-button switch. Every time the user operates the operation switch, the content of the pitch control signal S.sub.21 to be supplied to the pitch converter 21 is shifted by one step. For example, every time the operation switch is operated, the shift width of the tone pitch of the voice signal S.sub.20 is increased or decreased by a semitone interval.
The pitch converter 21 shifts the tone pitch of the voice signal S.sub.20 according to the content of the input pitch control signal S.sub.21 to generate a pitch-converted voice signal S.sub.22, and supplies the signal S.sub.22 to an amplifier 23. The pitch-converted voice signal S.sub.22 supplied to the amplifier 23 is amplified to a predetermined level, and the amplified signal is externally produced as a tone through a loudspeaker 24.
The conventional electronic musical instrument shifts the tone pitch of the voice signal S.sub.20 every time the user operates the switch of the pitch shift control circuit 22. For this reason, the shift width of the tone pitch, which can be shifted by a single operation, is limited.
More specifically, as described above, the tone pitch of the voice signal S.sub.20 is shifted by a semitone interval every time the operation switch is depressed once. Thus, a pitch shift operation for instantaneously shifting the tone pitch by, e.g., three tone intervals cannot be performed. For this reason, the conventional function is used for simply shifting the tone pitch, and it is difficult to use this function together with several other of musical factors.

Electronic music instrument for shifting tone pitches of input voice according to programmed melody note data


A sash lock for use with door and window is provided. The lock has a base housing shaped into a laterally extending crib to contain a partially protruding plunger sliding under a forward bias, a large button block that occupies a substantial area at the top of the lock to allow for a unique squeeze release of the plunger and translates in a perpendicular plane with respect to the plunger movement under an expansive bias for normally pushing the button block away from the base housing in cooperation with the biased counteraction of the cam surfaces of the plunger but yielding to a manual depression to activate the plunger through a cam engagement, and a top housing fastened to the base housing to enclose the plunger and button block. The plunger has cam surfaces at a rear end facing forwardly and a beveled lip portion at a front end while the button block has a beveled surface facing the cam surfaces of the plunger. The sash lock further comprises two identical holes formed in the bottom of base housing and a separate keeper for interlocking with the base housing.

A. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to door and window hardware. More particularly, the present invention relates to a mechanically stable and ergonomically improved door and window sash lock.
B. Description of the Prior Art
Sliding windows or patio doors in a building are made for letting in necessary light and air into the room while allowing occupants to have a comfortable viewing of the surrounding nature. At the same time, such doors or windows should be able to lock out harmful elements and potential intruders.
Window latches and locks that are also applied to doors have been developed as the windows in the modernized buildings have long been evolved all together. Of different types of slider window, a single-hung type window is structured to have an upper outside pane in a stationary sash and an inside pane in a sliding sash guided in a window frame along its vertical path between a raised level positioned over the upper sash to half open the window and a lowered position to close the window opening in cooperation with the upper sash. A double-hung type window has two vertically sliding sashes movable in parallel planar paths in a single frame. There are also horizontal sliders. A gliding window has two sashes with at least one sliding horizontally past the other. The respective sashes of the double-hung windows may be made to swing inwardly for the purpose of a safe cleaning but they must be returned to their vertical abutting positions when the window is to be locked. Normally, in the closed position, the mating sashes have the respective proximal sides overlapped to offer the necessary sealing. Therefore, most latches are conveniently positioned near the meeting areas of the two sashes at the exposed surface of the inner sash while the mating keeper or strike is fixed to the accompanying outer sash.
Known latches for windows have their inherent drawbacks. Automatic window sash locks as depicted in U.S. design Pat. No. 395,222 to Fountaine comprise a main latch body attached to a slide-open sash for automatically engaging a fixed keeper on the companion sash or the sash itself that incorporates in its profile a notch so that the sashes are immobilized in the frame when the window is closed. Such sash locks generally include a user-operated component handle to release the automatic locking mechanism, which only needed the sliding closure of the sash to push in a bolt of the sash lock before it protrudes back into engagement with the keeper or notch. To streamline the one-handed user operation in lift or sideway slide opening of the window, the release handle or lever of the sash locks is adapted to be depressed by index to little fingers while the thumb presses on the underside of the proximal sash part to release the lock and slide the sash in one action.
However, the lever needs a substantial projection from the main latch body taking up space upward as well as toward the user for the bolt to create a proper lever or bolt action inside the latch device. This makes a bulky and unappealing lock structure that sticks into the viewing area of glass panes. Under the superficial problem lies a mechanical disadvantage to have to apply a large circular force to retract a locking bolt out of engagement with the counterpart of the other sash. For the internal actuator to move the bolt easily, the lever must extend above and beyond the latch device itself as long as possible. However, such deflecting lever movements produce a long-term adverse force against the secure joint between the latch device and sash during their combined lifetime because normally there is only a couple of fasteners to endure the releasing depressions at repeated window openings.
Hence, there is need for a small form factor sash lock that is not only visually unobtrusive but also mechanically stable and ergonomically fit.


The invention provides a process for producing 2-methylnaphthalene by isomerization of 1-methylnaphthalene in which a Y zeolite having a unit cell constant of less than or equal to 24.37 .ANG. (10.sup.-10 m) is used as an isomerization catalyst.. Since the isomerization is effected by the use of the inventive heterogeneous solid catalyst which has a long catalyst life, 2-methylnaphthalene is produced from 1-methylnaphthalene efficiently with less cost and handling steps for regeneration or exchange of the catalyst.

2-Methylnaphthalene is a useful compound as an intermediate material for the synthesis of dyes, medicines and the like. Also, this compound has recently been drawing attention as an intermediate material for the synthesis of 2,6-naphthalenedicarboxylic acid which is a monomer of highly functional resins.
Since 2-methylnaphthalene is contained in a methylnaphthalene cut or fraction which is obtained by distillation of tar resulting from carbonization of coal, this compound has been produced in the prior art processes by recovering it from such a methylnaphthalene fraction by means of crystallization or distillation after extracting and removing basic materials. The methylnaphthalene fraction freed from basic materials for use in the crystallization or distillation contains not only 2-methylnaphthalene but also a large quantity of 1-methylnaphthalene which, as a matter of course, remains in a large amount in a recovery solution after crystallization or distillation of 2-methylnaphthalene. Though 1-methylnaphthalene finds some use in such applications as dyes and the like, its demands for industrial use are not high in comparison with the case of 2-methylnaphthalene. In consequence, several processes for the efficient production of 2-methylnaphthalene have been proposed in which 1-methylnaphthalene remained in a recovery solution after crystallization or distillation of 2-methylnaphthalene, or contained in a starting material before the recovery process, is isomerized into 2-methylnaphthalene.
It is known that isomerization of alkylaromatics is promoted by acid catalysts including homogeneous acid catalysts such as AlCl.sub.3, HF--BF.sub.3 and the like and heterogeneous counterparts such as silica alumina, zeolites, modified zeolites and the like. As an example of the application of a homogeneous acid catalyst, Japanese Patent Publication No. Hei 01-13454 discloses a process in which selectivity of 2-methylnaphthalene is improved by using BF.sub.3 --H.sub.3 PO.sub.4. As to the application of heterogeneous acid catalysts, improvement of 2-methylnaphthalene selectivity by the use of partially ion-exchanged Y zeolites has been reported by V. Solinas et al. (Applied Catalysis, vol. 9, pp. 109-117, 1984).
In the prior art processes, isomerization of 1-methylnaphthalene has been carried out making use of these acid catalysts, but with some disadvantages.
For instance, when the aforementioned BF.sub.3 --H.sub.3 PO.sub.4 is used as a homogeneous acid catalyst, its handling is attended with possible danger of inflicting drug injury or toxication. In addition, though H.sub.3 PO.sub.4 in this catalyst can be used again, the expensive BF.sub.3 portion is dissolved in the product and decomposed by water. In consequence, utilization of such a homogeneous acid catalyst has disadvantages in that not only the catalyst itself is dangerous to handle but also its recovery is not easy.
On the other hand, as described in the foregoing, isomerization of 1-methylnaphthalene into 2-methylnaphthalene can be effected making use of heterogeneous acid catalysts such as silica alumina, zeolites, modified zeolites and the like. For example, deterioration with age in the activity of partially ion-exchanged Y zeolites are described in the aforementioned reference by Solinas et al. According to the results of their experiments, however, the isomerization process could not be applied to industrial production of 2-methylnaphthalene because of too quick deterioration of the catalyst. As can be understood from the just described example, isomerization of 1-methylnaphthalene making use of a solid and acidic heterogeneous catalyst has a problem of quick decrease in the catalytic activity because of markedly rapid deterioration of the catalyst due to the deposition of carbonaceous materials.
Because of these problems involved in the prior art processes for the production of 2-methylnaphthalene by isomerization of 1-methylnaphthalene, development of a process in which a heterogeneous catalyst that can be handled and recovered easily and has a long catalyst life is used has been called for in the related industrial field.

Process for producing 2-methylnaphthalene


A one-way rotational transfer mechanism includes a rotary input shaft, a rotary output shaft, a clutch member, a differential rotating member, a circumferentially-uneven-width-space forming portion formed on the rotary input shaft, a torque transfer member, and an associating device. The torque transfer member wedges between the circumferentially-uneven-width-space forming portion and the clutch member while making the torque transfer member contact the clutch so that the rotary input shaft and the clutch member become integral upon rotation of the rotary input shaft. The associating device causes the clutch member to transfer torque thereof to the rotary output shaft, and the clutch member to release engagement of the rotary input shaft with the clutch member when the rotary output shaft is rotated so that a relative rotational torque greater than a predetermined torque determined by a shape of the associating device.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a one-way rotational transfer mechanism having a rotary input shaft and a rotary output shaft which are concentrically arranged, wherein rotation of the rotary input shaft is transferred to the rotary output shaft when the rotary input shaft is rotated, but rotation of the rotary output shaft is not transferred to the rotary input shaft when the rotary output shaft is rotated. The present invention further relates to a lens barrel which incorporates such an one-way rotational transfer.
2. Description of the Related Art
Among conventional one-way rotational transfer mechanisms having a rotary input shaft and a hollow-cylindrical rotary output shaft positioned radially outside the rotary input shaft, wherein the rotary input shaft is driven by motor to transfer rotation of the rotary input shaft to the hollow-cylindrical rotary output shaft, a one-way rotational transfer mechanism which prevents the motor from being rotated by rotation of the rotary output shaft (i.e., prevents the rotary input shaft from being rotated by rotation of the rotary output shaft) when the rotary output shaft is rotated has been proposed in, e.g., Japanese laid-open patent publication H08-177878 and Japanese laid-open patent publication H11-202181.
Among conventional lens barrels available for both autofocus (AF) and manual focus (MF), a lens barrel including a stationary ring, a movable ring, a distance adjustment ring, and an AF motor and a manual focus ring is known in the art, wherein the movable ring is concentrically arranged with the stationary ring, supports a focusing lens group and is movable forward and rearward along an optical axis, the distance adjustment ring is concentrically arranged with the stationary ring and rotates on an axis of the distance adjustment ring to move the movable ring forward and rearward along the optical axis, the AF motor drives the distance adjustment ring, and the manual focus ring is manually rotated about its axis to rotate the distance adjustment ring.
Furthermore, among the aforementioned conventional lens barrels usable for both autofocus (AF) and manual focus (MF), a lens barrel which incorporates a one-way rotational transfer mechanism between the distance adjustment ring and an AF motor, wherein a torque of the distance adjustment ring rotated by a rotation of the manual focus ring is not transferred to the AF motor when the manual focus ring is manually rotated even though a driving force of the AF motor is transferred to the distance adjustment ring when the AF motor is driven, is known in the art.
This type of lens barrel is disclosed in e.g., the aforementioned Japanese laid-open patent publication H08-177878. In this type of lens barrel, a manual focusing operation can be carried out even in AF mode with an AF switch remained ON.
However, in the lens barrel disclosed in Japanese laid-open patent publication H8-177878, a driving force of the AF motor is not smoothly transferred to the distance adjustment ring when the AF motor is driven because of heavy backlash which occurs upon rotation of the rotary input shaft (upon startup of the motor). Moreover, the torque transferred to the distance adjustment ring becomes small when driven at a slow rotational speed because the torque transferred to the distance adjustment ring is proportional to the rotational speed of the rotary input shaft.
In the one-way rotational transfer mechanism disclosed in the aforementioned Japanese patent publication H11-202181, the structure thereof is complicated. Moreover, it is difficult to increase the number of rollers serving as torque transfer members due to the complicated structure of the one-way rotational transfer mechanism, and accordingly, the torque which is transferred from the rotary input shaft to the hollow-cylindrical rotary output shaft when the rotary input shaft is driven to rotate cannot be increased very much.
Furthermore, in the lens barrel disclosed aforementioned Japanese laid-open patent publication H08-177878, there is a possibility of the one-way rotational transfer mechanism becoming incapable of securely transferring torque from the AF motor to the distance adjustment ring to thereby make it impossible to perform an autofocusing operation when the AF motor is driven.

One-way rotational transfer mechanism, and a lens barrel incorporating the same


An intraluminal device may be used at a bifurcation to anchor in an afferent vessel, allow perfusion to efferent vessels, and act as scaffolding to inhibit herniation of objects out of a neck of a bifurcation aneurysm. An intraluminal device may include a first side; a second side opposite the first side across a longitudinal axis of the intraluminal device; a proximal section configured to anchor in an afferent vessel; a distal section comprising a first wing and a second wing wherein, in an expanded state, the first wing extends from the first side to the second side and the second wing extends from the second side, through an opening of the first wing, and to the first side.

Walls of the vasculature, particularly arterial walls, may develop areas of pathological dilatation called aneurysms. As is well known, aneurysms have thin, weak walls that are prone to rupturing. Aneurysms can be the result of the vessel wall being weakened by disease, injury, or a congenital abnormality. Aneurysms could be found in different parts of the body, and the most common are abdominal aortic aneurysms and brain or cerebral aneurysms in the neurovasculature. When the weakened wall of an aneurysm ruptures, it can result in death, especially if it is a cerebral aneurysm that ruptures.
Neurovascular or cerebral aneurysms affect about 5% of the population. Aneurysms may be located, for example, along arterial side walls (e.g., the aneurysm 10 illustrated in FIG. 1) and at arterial bifurcations (e.g., the aneurysm 20 illustrated in FIG. 2). The direction of fluid flow is generally indicated by the arrows 16, 26. The aneurysms 10, 20 each have a fundus 12, 22, a neck 14, 24, and a fundus-to-neck ratio or "neck ratio." If the neck ratio is greater than 2 to 1 or if the neck 14, 24 is less than 4 mm, the aneurysm 10, 20 may be treated with embolization coils alone because the coils will generally constrain themselves within the aneurysm 10, 20 without herniating, or being dislodged from the aneurysm, into parent vessels. If the neck ratio is less than 2 to 1 or if the neck 14, 24 is greater than 4 mm, the aneurysms 10, 20 may be difficult to treat with embolization coils alone because the coils may be prone to herniating into parent vessels, as illustrated in FIG. 3A and FIG. 3B. Herniation of coils may cause arterial occlusion, stroke, and/or death. Compared to the bifurcation illustrated in FIG. 2, the efferent vessels of the bifurcation may be at substantially different angles, have substantially different sizes, and/or be a different quantity (e.g., three or more). Compared to the bifurcation illustrated in FIG. 2, the aneurysm 20 of the bifurcation may be offset with respect to the junction (e.g., having a neck substantially open to one efferent vessel), tilted with respect to a plane created by the vessels (e.g., into or out of the page), etc. Moreover, vasculature may include more than two efferent vessels (e.g., three efferent vessels in a trifurcation). Each of these would still be accurately characterized as a "bifurcation" herein.
In order to inhibit such herniation, tubular neck remodeling devices, for example Neuroform®, available from Boston Scientific, and Enterprise™, available from Cordis Neurovascular, may be used to keep coils or other materials within the fundus of the aneurysm and out of the vessels. Tubular remodeling devices generally consist of a braided wire or cut metallic stent or stents covering the neck of the aneurysm so that materials introduced into the fundus of the aneurysm do not herniate out of the aneurysm. As illustrated in FIG. 4A, tubular remodeling devices 40 are generally useful for side wall aneurysms 10. As illustrated in FIG. 4B and FIG. 4C, tubular remodeling devices 42, 44 are generally less useful for aneurysms 20 at bifurcations (e.g., the basilar tip area), for example because positioning/shaping the remodeling devices to preserve blood flow through the afferent and efferent vessels while also inhibiting herniation of coils 28 out of the aneurysm 20 can be difficult.


Reaction at the interface of an organic solution containing an acidic reactant and an aqueous alkaline solution containing nonreducing carbohydrates such as sucrose, sugar alcohols, cyclodextrins, and polysaccharides imparts a specificity to the reaction for one or more of the primary alcohol groups of the carbohydrate reactant. The resulting activated, nonreducing carbohydrate intermediate can then be converted to a series of substantially pure, low molecular weight reaction products, including a sucrose trimer and dianhydrosucrose, and to a series of substantially pure, higher molecular weight reaction products, including 6-O-sucro cyclodextrins and poly-6-O-sucro amylose.

The most abundant pure organic compound in the world is sucrose. See Kirk-Othmer, Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology, 3rd Edition, Volume 21, John Wiley & Sons, New York, pages 921-948 (1983). However, although sucrose produced from sugar cane and sugar beets is ubiquitous in its availability and is of relatively low cost, only a fraction of a percent by weight is consumed as a chemical feedstock. The potential value of sucrose as a raw material has been recognized for many years and has been the subject of considerable research.
Sucrose and assorted polyols, including polysaccharides, are particularly appropriate materials for use in the formation of esterified and etherified products produced currently from petroleum-based materials because they (a) are naturally occurring, relatively abundant renewable materials; (b) are polyfunctional with multiple reactive primary alcohols that can readily be derivatized; (c) are nonreducing carbohydrates and thus do not have the potential for the wide variety of side-reactions characteristic of reducing carbohydrates; (d) have relatively easily hydrolyzed glycosidic linkages that allow polymers made from such materials to be potentially more biodegradable than similar polymers made with hydrogenated carbohydrates, such as sugar alcohols; and (e) are naturally occurring products in common use and therefore potentially useful in the formation of novel ingredients for the food, beverage, pharmaceutical, and chemical industries.

Activated mono-, di-, and polysaccharides reaction products thereof, their preparation and uses

Iowa State University Research Foundation, Inc.


A hardware request of an application is detected. The Application executes on a virtualized computer system. It is determined that the hardware request includes a counter. The counter is to be performed by the virtualized computer system. The counter includes a counter value. The hardware request is intercepted before the it is processed by a hypervisor that hosts the virtualized computer system. The interception is based on the determining the hardware request includes the counter. The counter value is saved in a secure memory. The secure memory is obscured from the hypervisor. A scrambled counter value is generated. The hardware request is updated with the scrambled counter value. After the hardware request is updated it is provided to the hypervisor.

The present disclosure relates to hypervisor operation, and more specifically, to obscuring time-base information from a hypervisor in a multi-tenant server.
Applications and operating systems may operate on a computer system. The computer system may be a memory, processor, and input output interface (I/O). The computer system may be a virtual computer system operated by a hypervisor. Some clients may prefer the flexibility of a virtual computer system. These clients may also prefer more security over information while operating on a virtual computer system.

Obscuring information in virtualization environment

International Business Machines Corporation


An apparatus for mounting an integrated circuit chip to a main printed circuit board is disclosed. The mounting apparatus is particularly suitable for situations in which a cooling device of significant mass is used to cool the integrated circuit chip. In one embodiment, the mounting apparatus mounts the integrated circuit chip onto a daughter or sub-printed circuit (PC) board, attaches the cooling device to the integrated circuit chip, supports the cooling device (as well as the integrated circuit chip and the daughter or sub-PC board) with support members, and uses flexible conductors to electrically connect the daughter or sub-PC board to the main printed circuit board. In another embodiment, the mounting apparatus attaches the cooling device to the integrated circuit chip, supports the cooling device (as well as the integrated circuit chip) with support members, and uses a flexible connection means to electrically connect the integrated circuit chip to the printed circuit board. In either case, inertial loads, particularly those associated with the mass of the cooling device, induced by impulse forces or vibrations are shielded from damaging the connections between the integrated circuit chip and the associated printed circuit board. A method for mounting an integrated circuit is also disclosed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to integrated circuits and, more particularly, to techniques for mounting integrated circuits onto printed circuit boards.
2. Description of the Related Art
As integrated circuits become more complex, gate density, number of gates and fabrication complexity of integrated circuit chips all tend to increase. The power consumed by these integrated circuit chips has similarly increased as the number of gates has increased. Due to the increases in gate densities, number of gates and power consumption within many integrated circuits chips, it becomes important to manage the heat generated by these integrated circuit chips to prevent overheating. Specifically, it becomes necessary to provide a cooling device (e.g., a heat sink) to cool many integrated circuit chips. For example, high performance integrated circuit chips such as high performance microprocessors typically must be cooled. Typically, the cooling device is a heat sink which is placed on the integrated circuit chip to be cooled. The heat sink has high thermal conductivity so that heat is dissipated along its surface area which is substantially larger than the surface area of the integrated circuit chip to be cooled. The heat which is transferred to the heat sink from the integrated circuit chip is then dispersed into air which surrounds or flows over the heat sink. The air flow is typically provided by a fan. Complicated liquid cooled heat sinks have also been used for more demanding cooling tasks.
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of a mounting 100 of an integrated circuit chip to a printed circuit board using conventional techniques. Specifically, FIG. 1 illustrates a printed circuit board 102 having integrated circuit chips 104 and 106 mounted thereon. The integrated circuit chips 104 and 106 in this illustrated embodiment are mounted directly to the printed circuit board 102 using pins 108. The pins 108 could, for example, be pins of a Pin Grid Array (PGA). Alternatively, a Ball Grid Array (BGA) mounting technique could use solder balls instead of the pins 108. Also, assuming that the integrated circuit chip 104 is a high performance device which requires a heat sink, a heat sink 110 is placed on the top of the integrated circuit chip 104. The heat sink 108 is typically held in place using an adhesive 112. The adhesive 112 preferably has a high thermal conductivity. The heat sink 110 could also be held in place with screws, bolts or clips.
A problem with the mounting 100 approach as illustrated in FIG. 1 is that when the printed circuit board 102 or the system (e.g., cabinet, box, machine, etc.) in which the printed circuit board 102 resides is subjected to impulse forces or vibrations, the mass of the heat sink 110 together with the mass of the integrated circuit chip 104 induce an inertial load on the pins 108. An impulse force could arise from a number of situations any of which tend to accelerate the printed circuit board 102 or the system in which the main printed circuit board resides. For example, the printed circuit board 102 or the system may be accidentally dropped onto the floor, a shipper may throw or jar a box containing the printed circuit board 102 or the system a substantial distance, and the like. The resulting inertial load on the pins 108 can be substantial, particularly when the mass of the heat sink 108 is substantial. As a result, the pins 108 of the integrated circuit chip 104 are subjected to loads (inertial loads) which are substantially larger than they are design to withstand. Consequently, impulse forces or vibrations can cause the pins 108 (or other mounting technique) to break or otherwise become damaged such that the integrated circuit chip 104 is no longer reliably electrically connected to the printed circuit board 102.
Thus, there is a need for an improved technique for mounting an integrated circuit chip to a printed circuit board such that inertial loads, particularly those associated with the mass of the heat sink, are shielded from damaging the connections between the integrated circuit chip and the associated printed circuit board.

Method and apparatus for mounting an integrated circuit to a printed circuit board


An invert arm assembly for a glass container forming machine of the I.S. type, the invert arm assembly having an opposed pair of invert arm segments that are movable toward and away from one another and define one or more neck ring assembly receiving apertures when the invert arm segments are disposed adjacent to one another. A neck ring assembly is placed in each aperture and is locked in place with respect to the invert arm segments. Each neck ring assembly can be removed from the aperture in which it is located by inserting a portion of a hand tool in a portion of the invert arm segments to unlock the neck ring assembly from the aperture without moving the invert arm segments with respect to one another.

Many, if not most, glass containers, including a wide variety of bottles and jars, are, and for many years have been, manufactured by machines of the I.S. type, a type that uses a multiplicity of side-by-side sections each of which forms containers in a two-step molding operation. In a glass container forming operation of this type, a preform of the container, often called a parison or a blank, is formed in a first mold at a blank molding station of the I.S. machine section, either by pressing or blowing, and the blank is then transferred by a 180.degree. inverting operation in a vertical plane to a second mold of the I.S. machine section, often called a blow mold, for forming into the finished container by blowing. Typically, each container is provided with a threaded or otherwise contoured closure-receiving portion at its open end, which is usually referred to as a "finish," and the finish is formed by an assembly of separable segments that are joined end to end in an annular pattern during the formation of the finish, an assembly that is usually referred to as a "neck ring assembly" or a "neck mold assembly."
Each neck ring assembly is carried by an assembly that is used to transfer the parison from the parison mold to the blow mold, and the parison is carried by the neck ring assembly during the transfer to the blow mold. The assembly used to transfer the parison from the blank mold to the blow mold is usually referred to as an "invert arm assembly." Typically, each invert arm assembly carries two, three or four neck ring assemblies, each with a parison, depending on whether the associated I.S. machine is designed for double gob, triple gob or quadruple gob operation, and each invert arm assembly is made up of an opposed pair of arm segments that separate from one another when it is desired to remove the blown containers from their neck ring assemblies for further processing. After removal of the blown containers from the neck ring assemblies carried by the invert arm assembly, the invert arm assembly, with its neck ring assemblies, is then transferred back to the blank mold side, by another 180.degree. turning operation, for a repeat of the process.
From time to time in the operation of an I.S. machine it is necessary to replace the neck ring assemblies carried by an invert arm assembly, for example, as part of a job change to a container with a different size or type of finish or because of normal wear. Heretofore such neck ring assembly changes would be time consuming, requiring separation of the invert arm assembly segments, and followed by removal and replacement of neck ring assemblies, which were usually individually latched to opposed invert arm segments, an operation performed in a location not readily accessible and involving the prolonged usage of hand tools with an attendant risk that such tools could be dropped into the forming machine.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,233,999 (Mumford) and 3,617,233 (Mumford), the disclosure of each which is incorporated by reference herein, disclose prior art versions of invert arm assemblies for I.S. machines.


A system for generating electric power using undersea waves against a bag structure, mounted movably on a tower. The bag structure is made of large nylon bag, filled with compressed sea water and extending for 50 meters or more down, surrounding the support tower. Arranged around a central hole in the bag structure are located numerous generator pods which contain generator/rectifier/chopper sets. These generator pods have gears which mesh with racks mounted vertically around the tower periphery, and also with racks mounted horizontally around the bag structure central hole circumference. Movement of the undersea waves causes the bag to rotate and move vertically up and down the tower, turning the generator pod gears which turn AC alternators, producing electric power. A system as described in the invention, standing in 300 meters depth or more could produce over 50 megawatts electric power, cleanly and at an economic cost per kilowatt-hour.

This invention relates to a system for generating electrical power from the motion of the sea, particularly utilizing undersea waves.
There have been published many articles and patents on methods and system for producing electrical power from the ocean waves. However, these have been concerned with using ocean surface waves. The equipment or floats for the equipment ride on the surface. Typical of these approaches are the systems described by Arlyn H. Jackson in U.S. Pat. No. 4,091,618 and Lawrence C. Burton in U.S. Pat. No. 4,931,662. Jackson's system utilizes a floating buoy attached to a pump which pumps water from a submerged tank below the float. The motion of the surface waves moves the buoy up and down, operating the pump to create a void in the submerged tank, thus creating a hydrostatic head. This hydrostatic head is used to drive a turbine and generate electric power.
The Burton patent describes a large circular float on the water surface which is attached to one end of a long, rigid beam. The Burton patent describes a large circular float on the water surface which is attached to one end of a long, rigid beam. The other end of the beam is supported and pivoted on a platform. The motion of the float, up and down, is transmitted to the platform where it can be used to pump hydraulic fluids and drive an electric generator.
Some of the more recent schemes have been described in the Los Angeles Times on Jun. 28, 1991. One is a system by Robert A. Bueker, who calls his system a Seamill. This is a device consisting of three 33 foot long pipes, one inside the other, that hold a small turbine driven by the ocean swells.
Another system by Stuart Pringle, illustrates a pier run out into the ocean. Suspended beneath the pier are vertical pistons which are connected to floats riding on the water surface. The pistons are moved up and down by the wave swells and compress air other fluid to drive turbine generators.
The incentive to produce the systems such as described above depends on the increasing public demand to use `clean` non-polluting power generation, as well as a projected lower cost per kilowatt-hour. For example, according to Bueker, his Seamill can generate electricity at 1.5 to 3 cents a kilowatt-hour if sufficient surface wave energy is present. This compares with a Southern California Edison Co. cost averaging 3.6 cents a kilowatt-hour in 1990. There are, however, considerable political obstacles in the way of citing any significant shore-based system, such as described above, along the highly regulated shorelines of states, such as California. An off-shore system, using wave power, would reduce the political objections considerably.
Studies published in the Journal of Geophysical Research and other journals on oceanography, have revealed the existence of undersea internal waves occurring at various depths off the California coats. These waves have considerable and far more constant energy that surface waves, and could be harnessed to generate electrical power. It therefore would be new and useful to provide an off-shore system for generating electric power from undersea waves.

System for undersea wave generation of electric power


A light-emitting diode (LED) light module is provided, comprising: a single-piece printed circuit board (PCB) comprising the following integrated on the PCB: a plurality of LEDs in each of a plurality of LED groups; a power supply converter; a controller module comprising a processor, memory, operational program stored in the memory and executable by the processor; input/output (I/O) circuitry, and an LED driver that drives the LEDs; the module further comprising: a single metallic housing that contains the PCB; a heat sink that conducts heat from components on the PCB to the housing; and a lens for diffusing or directing lights from the LEDs.

The use of LEDs in the production of wash lighting units provide the capabilities to create a wide range of colors that can be controlled by a centralized control system. However, if a wide range of colors are not needed, cost can be reduced based on providing modules that have a more limited range of colors.
A small and efficient modular light-emitting diode (LED) washlight component that is usable in, e.g., a vehicle, such as an aircraft is provided comprising a direct DC power input. This design relates to designs disclosed in the following U.S. patent applications, all of which are incorporated herein by reference:
Applica-Filingtion SNDateTitle61/099,71324 SEP.AN AIRCRAFT LED WASHLIGHT SYSTEM2008AND METHOD FOR CONTROLLING SAME61/105,50615 OCT.AN AIRCRAFT LED WASHLIGHT SYSTEM2008AND METHOD FOR CONTROLLING SAME12/566,14624 SEP.AN AIRCRAFT LED WASHLIGHT SYSTEM2009AND METHOD FOR CONTROLLING SAME61/308,17125 FEB.LIGHTING SYSTEM FOR VEHICLE CABIN201061/320,54525 FEB.LIGHTING SYSTEM FOR VEHICLE CABIN201061/345,37817 MAYLIGHTING SYSTEM FOR VEHICLE CABIN201013/034,98325 FEB.AN AIRCRAFT LED WASHLIGHT SYSTEM2011AND METHOD FOR CONTROLLING SAME13/035,62625 FEB.LED LIGHTING ELEMENT201113/035,32925 FEB.CALIBRATION METHOD FOR LED2011LIGHTING SYSTEMS

Reduced-size modular LED washlight component


A plug for a buckle includes an attachment portion configured to be attached to the predetermined members; a pair of leg portions protruding in the same direction away from the attachment portion; extending portions extending in a direction from tip end portions of the pair of leg portions toward base end portions of the leg portions; a coupling piece coupling the base end portions of the pair of leg portions; a first restricting portion that is located at an intermediate portion of the coupling piece and faces extending ends of the extending portions; and second restricting portions that protrude from two sides in a longitudinal direction of the coupling piece in a manner of sandwiching the first restricting portion, extend in a protruding direction of the leg portions, and face inner side surfaces of the leg portions.

In the related art, for example, a buckle disclosed in Patent Literatures 1 to 4 is a buckle that detachably couples two objects to be coupled. The buckle includes a plug and a socket. The plug includes an attachment portion provided with an insertion hole through which a belt, a tape, or the like is inserted and coupled, and a pair of leg portions that are substantially parallel to each other from two end portions in a longitudinal direction of the attachment portion and protrude in a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the attachment portion. The leg portions are elastically swingable, and are provided with a pair of engagement protrusions that protrude in a front-back direction at tip end portions of the leg portions. The socket into which the plug is fitted also includes an attachment portion formed with an insertion hole for a belt, a tape, or the like, and a hollow plug fitting portion is integrally provided at one edge side of the attachment portion. The plug fitting portion includes a plug insertion port that is opened to a tip end side opposite to the attachment portion, and the plug fitting portion is formed into a flat housing including a front surface plate and a back surface plate. Operation ports for operating the leg portions of the plug are formed on two side surfaces of the front and back surface plates orthogonal to the plug insertion port. Counterpart engagement portions are formed in the vicinity of an attachment portion side of the operation ports, and the counterpart engagement portions respectively engage with the pair of engagement protrusions of the pair of leg portions of the plug that is inserted into the plug fitting portion on an inner surface of the plug fitting portion.
In particular, a plug for a buckle disclosed in Patent Literature 1 includes a movement restricting portion provided at each leg portion of the plug in a manner of protruding in a direction of facing each leg portion, and a deformation restricting portion that is separated from the movement restricting portion and restricts deformation of the leg portion due to contact with the movement restricting portion when the leg portion is deformed to a side opposite to the direction of facing the leg portion.
A buckle disclosed in Patent Literature 2 includes a coupling portion that couples a pair of leg portions and has a curved portion formed into a convex shape at a base portion side, serving as a structure for preventing damage to the leg portions. A pair of protruding portions are provided between the pair of leg portions, the protruding portions protrude from a base portion in a coupling direction with a socket that is a female member, and face each other across at least a part of the curved portion. The pair of leg portions can be elastically deformed so that tip end sides of the leg portions are expanded, and the coupling portion can be extended due to elastic deformation of the curved portion when the leg portions are expanded. Each of the pair of protruding portions engages with the curved portion when the coupling portion is extended, restricts the extension of the coupling portion, and prevents the leg portions from being damaged.
In buckles disclosed in Patent Literatures 3 and 4, leg portions are formed in a manner of linearly protruding from two sides in a width direction of a base portion toward a length direction (an insertion direction of a plug into a socket), and the leg portions include elastic piece portions that are elastically deformable in the width direction in which the elastic piece portions come close to each other or are separated from each other, and operation portions that extend from tip end portions of the elastic piece portions toward the insertion direction of the plug. Each of the operating portions has a through hole passing through the plug in a thickness direction, and towards a tip end of the operation portion, an outer side surface (a surface opposite to a surface facing the leg portions) of the operation portion is formed to be inclined to an inner side (a side facing the leg portions), that is, in a direction in which the leg portions come close to each other. In structures for preventing damage to the leg portions of the buckle disclosed in Patent Literatures 3 and 4, tip end portions of the leg portions are coupled by a coupling portion, the coupling portion is elastically deformable, and a pair of leg portions are prevented from being deformed outward beyond a predetermined extent. Accordingly, when an excessive force (force in an outward direction) is applied to the leg portions, breakage of the leg portions is prevented.


A system includes a contents management server that manages the locations of contents, a contents server that manages contents, a client terminal that receives or stores contents, and a network. The client terminal sends a contents sending request message to the contents management server. The contents management server, which has received the request from the client terminal, detects the network to which the client terminal belongs, instructs the contents server, which manages the network, to stream the contents. After that, the contents management server checks if there is a client terminal related to the client terminal that has sent the contents sending request. If there is a related client terminal, the contents management server instructs the contents server, which manages a network to which the related terminal belongs, to store the contents.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improvement in a broadcast service system that manages the contents in multiple networks.
2. Description of Related Art
An advance in the access network technology, such as a fiber optic network connection running to a node located inside an individual home (FTTH), makes a broader frequency band available for use by a user. A broader frequency band allows the broadband contents transmission service to be made available on a network and gradually expands the market of the video-oriented services such as the Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) service and the Video on Demand (VoD) service. The requirements for the contents transmission service include not only broadband capability and high-quality contents but also the contents sending function and the contents storing function in the distributed network environment. For example, US 2005/0235047 A1 (Li et. al.), one of prior art technologies, proposes the following function. In a multimedia streaming service where multiple streaming servers are provided, each streaming server manages information on the related streaming server group. When a streaming acquisition request is received from a user, this multimedia streaming service searches for a streaming server that will perform the most appropriate processing for the request and provides the user with data from that streaming server. Alternatively, a streaming server that receives the request from the user downloads data from the streaming server that will perform the most appropriate processing for the request while performing high-speed buffering as required. The prior art technology described above, which allows multiple streaming servers to work together, reduces the system load and optimizes the frequency band utilization.
The problem with the prior art described above is that all streaming servers must be connected to the common network. Because no consideration is made for the relation between streaming servers connected to different networks such as a fixed access network and a mobile communication network, the proposed function is not applicable to a contents transmission service between networks where there is a significant difference in the frequency band.

Contents management system and contents management method


A medical diagnostic device is characterized in that an image processing unit (22) includes an image noise removal part (211, 211′) which removes the noise in the generated image of a person to be examined, a signal component enhancement processing part (212, 212′) which generates an enhanced-signal component image by performing signal component enhancement processing of the image from which the noise is removed by the image noise removal part, and an image combining part (213, 213′) which generates a combined image by combining the image of the person to be examined, the image from which the noise is removed by the image noise removal part, and an enhanced-signal component image subjected to signal component enhancement processing by the signal component enhancement processing part.

In recent years, with significant advancement of computer technology and electronics technology, the technology of medical imaging diagnostic device is rapidly improved. Various medical imaging diagnostic devices with different physical photographic principles (e.g., an ultrasonic diagnostic device, an X-ray device, a CT device and an MRI diagnostic device) have been developed and used in disease diagnosis in the respective purposes. In images photographed with these medical diagnostic devices, speckle noise due to dispersion and interference of signal in an heterogeneous medium in a living body, shot noise due to graininess of a transmission signal, electrical noise caused inside the device and the like are superposed. Further, in some cases, a high frequency component supposed to be originally obtained on the border of a tissue cannot be sufficiently obtained since the frequency band of a transmission/reception signal is narrow or for some other reasons. This may blur edges included in the image.
The noise superposition and edge blurring degrade image quality and have an adverse effect upon diagnosis. To suppress the noise and edge blurring and accurately read a significant structure of a morbid portion or the like, application of noise removal processing and signal component enhancement processing by image processing, in addition to improvement in hardware performance and signal transmission/reception system, are desired.
As noise removal by image processing applied to medical imaging, processing using a liner filter, a median filter and wavelet transformation are well known (Patent Documents 1 and 2).
On the other hand, as widely used signal component enhancement processing, generally, processing using an edge enhancing space filter such as a Laplacian filter, procesing of extracting a high frequency component and amplifying the extracted high frequency component thereby performing signal enhancement, and the like, can be given (Patent Documents 3 to 6).
In the image quality improvement methods described in the Patent Documents 1 to 6, only one of the noise removal processing and the signal component enhancement processing is performed. However, in the image quality improvement methods disclosed in the Patent Documents 7 and 8, the both noise removal processing and the signal component enhancement processing are performed.
In the conventional signal component enhancement processing using a Laplacian filter and the method of amplifying a high frequency component, generally, ringing occurs around an edge, which often degrades the image quality. On the other hand, in recent years, edge enhancement processing using a morphological filter attracts attention as processing capable of enhancing a signal component in addition to suppression of ringing around an edge. The method disclosed in the Patent Document 1 is one of such methods.    Patent Document 1: Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. Hei 3-100773    Patent Document 2: Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 2002-133399    Patent Document 3: Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. Hei 9-62836    Patent Document 4: Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. Hei 9-50522    Patent Document 5: Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. Hei 9-248291    Patent Document 6: Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. Hei 10-63836    Patent Document 7: Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 2005-296331    Patent Document 8: Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 2001-283215    Patent Document 9: Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 2002-253546    Non-Patent Document 1: J. G. M. Schavemaker et al.: Image Sharpening by Morphological Filtering, Pattern Recognition, Vol. 33, pp. 997-1012 (2000)    Non-Patent Document 2: Daniel J. Jobson et al.: The Statistics of Visual Representation, Visual Information Processing XI, Proc. SPIE 4736, (2002)

Medical diagnostic device and method of improving image quality of medical diagnostic device


A movable fuel valve lies within a housing at an end of a housing fuel passage. A fuel tube has a nozzle end inserted within a first end of the housing fuel passage while the movable valve element is situated at a second end of the housing fuel passage and controls fuel flow from the second end of the housing fuel passage. The nozzle end remains surrounded in fuel when the valve element is closed and sealed against the second end of the housing fuel passage. When the fuel pressure within the housing fuel passage is greater than a fuel pressure on the other side of the valve, the fuel flows from the housing fuel passage, through the part of the housing surrounding the valve, and into the reservoir. The movable valve element prevents fuel from flowing from the main-side of a fuel tank to the sub side of the tank.

Devices for transferring fuel within an automobile fuel tank are known in the art. In one instance, in a saddle-type fuel tank, fuel may be siphoned between a fuel tank main side, which contains the fuel pump module that pumps liquid fuel to the engine, and a fuel tank sub side. To maintain an uninterrupted supply of fuel to the engine, the jet pump of the fuel pump module must be submerged in fuel at all times to maintain its primed state in order to transfer fuel from the sub-side to the main side via siphoning. If the jet pump of the fuel pump module is not maintained in a primed condition, siphoning may not be maintained, and thus, the uninterrupted supply of fuel to the engine may not be maintained.
During instances of quick maneuvering, sloshing of fuel from the fuel tank main side to the fuel tank sub side may occur. When this occurs, an instant imbalance of fuel levels between the saddles of the fuel tank occurs. While current transfer lines between the saddles of the tank are designed to deliver fuel to the main side, this process may be slow depending upon the size of the transfer line. Additionally, if the main side has sloshed enough fuel to the sub side, then the prime state may be lost. Ultimately, this may result in losing the uninterrupted supply of fuel to the engine, even when the fuel tank sub side has fuel to be siphoned to the main side.
Furthermore, if fuel sloshing occurs from the sub side to the main side, thereby creating unequal fuel levels between the saddle tanks, current fuel tank transfer lines will transfer fuel from the main side to the sub side, which is an unnecessary event since fuel on the main side will eventually be pumped to the engine to be used in combustion.
Therefore, a need remains in the art for a saddle tank fuel siphon transfer line that maintains its fuel prime condition on the main side of the tank in preparedness for transferring fuel from the sub side to the main side to maintain fuel on the main side of the fuel tank when the fuel level on the sub side is higher than on the main side, such as immediately after a fuel sloshing event from the tank main side to the tank sub side.

Transfer jet pump prime reservoir with integrated anti-siphon valve feature


An adapting apparatus used in a computer ISA extension slot allows add-on-cards to be inserted into or pulled off without the need of turning off the power. The adapting apparatus includes an ISA terminal for connection to the ISA slot, an extension ISA slot for receiving an add-on-card, a signal-line switch for controlling connection/disconnection of a plurality of signal lines between the computer ISA extension slot and the add-on-card, a power-line switch for controlling connection/disconnection of a plurality of power lines between the ISA extension slot and the add-on-card, an overload protection device, and a control circuit for controlling the signal-line switch and the power-line switch.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an adapting apparatus used in a computer ISA extension slot, particularly one which allows add-on-cards to be inserted into or pulled off without the need of turning off power.
2. Description of the Prior Art
ISA extension slots are formed in a computer main board for receiving cards such as a VGA card, network card, I/O interface card, or other add-on-cards. Normally, the power source has to be turned off before changing (pulling out/inserting in) the add-on-card preventing from damage to the add-on-card. However, this causes inconvenience and takes time if there are a plurality of add-on-cards to be tested by the same computer main board. Moreover, too frequent turning on/off a computer will potentially shorten the available life of the computer.
It is requisite to provide a new device which can eliminate the requirement of the turning on/off of a computer when an add-on-card is pulled off or inserted in the computer main board.

Adapting apparatus used in a computer ISA extension slot


The present disclosure concerns a pharmaceutical composition comprising a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier and a compound selected in the group comprising (i) a polypeptide comprising an amino acid sequence selected in the group comprising the amino acid sequence of the long isoform in Homo sapiens of the RdCVF2 gene (SEQ ID NO:10), orthologs, derivatives and fragments thereof, (ii) a polynucleotide coding for said polypeptide, (iii) a vector comprising said polynucleotide, and (iv) a host cell genetically engineered expressing said polypeptide; the use of such a composition for the manufacture of a medicament for treating and/or preventing a neurodegenerative disorder in a subject; and a method of testing a subject thought to have or be predisposed to having a neurodegenerative disorder.

Neurodegenerative disorders have provided a challenge for many years, in both basic research and clinical contexts. As an example of such a neurodegenerative disorder, retinitis pigmentosa (RP) is a genetically heterogeneous retinal degeneration characterized by the sequential degeneration of a population of neurons corresponding to rod and cone photoreceptors. The RP first clinical signs are night blindness and narrowing of the peripheral field of vision which progressively worsens to become "tunnel-like". Eventually, the central vision is reduced to complete blindness in most cases. At a cellular level, the retinal rod photoreceptors involved in night and side visions slowly degenerate. Subsequently, the cone photoreceptors responsible for both color and high-contrast vision, visual acuity, detail perception and normal light vision are similarly affected. The retinal degeneration 1 (rd1) mouse is the most studied animal model for retinitis pigmentosa. It carries a recessive mutation in the rod-specific cGMP phosphodiesterase beta subunit gene leading to rod photoreceptor death through apoptosis (CARTER-DAWSON et al., Invest. Opthalmol. Vis. Sci., vol. 17(6), p: 489-498, 1978; PORTERA-CAILLIAU et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A, vol. 91(3), p: 974-978, 1994) followed by cone death presumably through lack of trophic support (MOHAND-SAID et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A, vol. 95(14), p: 8357-8362, 1998). Accordingly, the technical problem underlying the present invention is to provide novel compounds having neurotrophic activities, which compounds are suitable for the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders such as retinitis pigmentosa for which no treatment is actually available.
The RdCVF gene, also called thioredoxin-like 6 (Txn16) or Nucleoredoxin-like 1 (Nxnl1), encodes the Q8VC33 UniProt [6] protein, which has limited similarity to the thioredoxin superfamily and which exerts trophic activity on cone photoreceptors (LEVEILLARD et al., Nat. Genet. vol. 36(7), p: 755-759, 2004). Thioredoxins (TXN) are usually small proteins which can be involved with pleiotropic activities such as redox control, regulation of apoptosis and cytokine activity (HOLMGREN, Annu. Rev. Biochem., vol. 54, p: 237-271, 1985; HOLMGREN, J. Biol. Chem., vol. 264(24), p: 13963-13966, 1989; ARNER and HOLMGREN, Eur. J. Biochem., vol. 267(20), p: 6102-6109, 2000). The TXN conserved active site contains two distinct cysteines (CXXC) that contribute to a thiol-oxydoreductase activity (ARNER and HOLMGREN, 2000, above-mentioned; POWIS and MONTFORT, Annu. Rev. Pharmacol. Toxicol., vol. 41, p: 261-295, 2001) catalyzes the reduction of disulfide bonds in multiple substrate proteins (HOLMGREN, J. Biol. Chem., vol. 254(18), p: 9113-9119, 1979; HOLMGREN, J. Biol. Chem., vol. 254(19), p: 9627-9632, 1979). The RdCVF gene encodes two products via alternative splicing: a full length protein and a C-terminal post-transcriptionally truncated protein sharing similarities with TRX80. This latter form of human thioredoxin-1 (Txn) (PEKKARI et al., J. Biol. Chem., vol. 275(48), p: 37474-37480, 2000; PEKKARI et al., Blood, vol. 105(4), p: 1598-1605, 2005; LIU et al., Blood, vol. 105(4), p: 1606-1613, 2005) has no thiol-reductase activity but is involved in controlling growth of peripheral mononuclear blood cells (PEKKARI et al., 2000, abovementioned; PEKKARI et al., FEBS Lett., vol. 539(1-3), p: 143-148, 2003). Similar to Txn, RdCVF looks like a bifunctional gene because it encodes both a long form (RdCVF-L, 217 aa, Q8VC33) having a putative thiol-oxydoreductase activity (JEFFERY, Trends Biochem. Sci., vol. 24(1), p: 8-11, 1999; JEFFERY, Trends Genet., vol. 19(8), p: 415-417, 2003) and a short form (RdCVF-S, 109 aa, Q91 W38) with trophic activity for cones but no redox activity.

Methods for treating cone dystrophy with neuronal viability factor, RDCVF2

INSERM (Institut National de la Sante et Recherche Medicale)

Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)