An online transaction system configured to implement authentication methods that allow for strong multi-factor authentication in online environments. The authentication methods can be combined with strong security methods to further ensure that the authentication process is secure. Further, the strong multi-factor authentication can be implemented with zero adoption dependencies through the implementation of automated enrollment methods.

1. Field of the Inventions
The field of the invention relates generally to electronic transactions and more particularly to the authentication of such transactions.
2. Background Information
Electronic transactions, including electronic commerce, are becoming more prevalent, fueled of course by increasing Internet use. As the number and type of electronic transactions increase, so to does the need to verify the identity of participants in these transactions. Electronic commerce provides a good example. In a typical electronic commerce scenario, a user uses a web browser running on their computer to access a merchants web page via the Internet. Once the user has accessed the web page, they can typically browse product offerings, select products for purchase, and then purchase the selected products. The purchasing step often requires the user to supply identifying information, e.g., name and address, and a charge account number against which the transaction can be charged.
Unlike an off-line transaction, however, the merchant has no ability to verify the identifying information supplied in the electronic commerce scenario. In other words, in an electronic commerce transaction, the merchant cannot verify that the user is who they say they are, or therefore that the charge account belongs to the user making the purchase. In fact, the Gartner Group estimates that in 2001 1.14% of the $61.8 billion in online transactions involved fraud. The resulting $776.34 million dollars in losses is 5-20 times the losses for off-line sales transactions. With U.S. households predicted to spend $184 billion on-line by the year 2004, such losses clearly present a serious problem that is only going to get worse.
Fear of fraud, however, may prevent on-line sales from rising to predicted levels. The Gartner group estimates that 1 in 20 on-line customers are victims of credit card fraud. As a result, Jupiter Media reports that 60% of users avoid using their credit card in online transactions. Further, fraud losses often fall on the merchant, even though the merchant currently has no way to verify the identity provided by the user. Thus, both users and merchants need greater protection from fraud.
In response, many major credit card associations have promulgated new authentication mandates to reduce the massive losses resulting from online credit card fraud. While these mandates do not necessarily provide an increased ability to verify the identity of the user, they do shift the liability for fraud to card issuers. Accordingly, card issuers need to reliably authenticate their users when the users are involved in an online transaction.
Essentially, the new mandates allow merchants to request that the issuer authenticate the transaction, i.e., verify the identity of the user. The issuer can then, for example, verify the account number and some form of personal identifier, such as a Personal Identification Number (PIN), presented by the user. Once verified, the issuer will authenticate the transaction; however, the issuer is also liable if it turns out that the user is not who they are supposed to be.
Unfortunately for issuers, verification methods currently available still fail to match that of off-line transactions. In an off-line transaction, there is strong two factor authentication. The first factor being the actual presence of the card (card present), the second factor being the ability to verify that the person is who they say they are, e.g., via a signature, PIN, photo identification, etc. The combination of physical card presence and evidence of identification can provide sufficient authentication to reduce fraud to acceptable levels. But in the online environment, the first factor—card present verification—is often not available. Therefore, it is difficult even with the new authentication mandates to achieve a satisfactory level of authentication.
Physical, or actual, card present detection should be discerned from a card present detection generated in compliance with some of the new mandates. For example, in some of the new mandates, the user provides their account number, which is verified. The user is then requested to supply a PIN. If the PIN verifies correctly, then a "card present" indication is generated; however, the actual presence of the card was not in fact verified. In other words, these new mandates at best provide a surrogate card present verification that is inferior to an actual card present verification.
Smart cards, i.e., cards with a special integrated circuit embedded in them, and smart card readers are currently available to address the card present issue in online transactions. A smart card reader can be purchased and connected with a user's computer. During an online transaction, the user can then insert the smart card into the smart card reader, which can then authenticate the smart card.
There are, however, several drawbacks to smart card technology. For example, the user must become educated about how to use the smart card. The user is also often required to purchase a smart card reader and attempt to interface the reader with their computer. Alternatively, the user may be forced to pay extra for a computer with a smart card reader already attached or installed. The cost of an exemplary smart card reader can be, for example, $40. And once interfaced with the user's computer, software must typically be downloaded into the smart card reader, which again requires some education of the user regarding how to download and configure the software. Thus, adoption of smart card technology has been slow, e.g., as low as 1% market penetration or lower, and therefore not very effective at reducing fraud.

Systems and methods for enrolling a token in an online authentication program


A motor is provided. The motor includes a cooling system configured to cool a stator having a core wound around by a coil, wherein the cooling system includes oil holders installed on a side under the stator in an inner space of a motor housing and provided to allow oil to be collected up to a level capable of allowing at least some of a lower end section of the stator to be immersed for cooling.

As is known, eco-friendly vehicles including a pure electric vehicle (EV), a hybrid electric vehicle (HEV/PHEV), and a fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) are all electric vehicles driven by electric motors.
The eco-friendly vehicle is equipped with a motor which is a driving source for driving a vehicle, and an inverter which converts direct current (DC) current from a high voltage power source into alternating current (AC) current and applies the AC current to the motor, thereby driving and controlling the motor.
As described above, in the eco-friendly vehicle, a driving force for driving a vehicle is generated using a motor.
In the case of the motor, which drives an eco-friendly vehicle, that is, a driving motor, high efficiency and high power density are required.
The driving motor efficiency is known to be about 90% in recently developed eco-friendly cars, and much of the remaining 10% is lost as heat.
Such a loss of heat may cause the motor system, including a stator and a rotor, to exceed a specified allowable motor temperature. Here the allowable motor temperature is a preset allowable temperature that may prevent the temperature of the motor system to be exceeded in order to prevent a demagnetization phenomenon of permanent rotor magnets, damage by overheating of stator coils, or the like.
When the temperature of the motor system exceeds the allowable motor temperature, the damage by overheating of the stator coils or the like, the demagnetization of the permanent rotor magnets, damage of rotor molding, or the like may occur.
Therefore, in order to meet a demand necessary for miniaturization, high output, and high efficiency of the motor, which are continuously required, it is essential to have a stable thermal management system.
Since a large amount of heat is generated from the coils and the like when driving the motor, cooling of the main parts such as the coils and the like is essential. In this sense, cooling of an interior permanent magnet synchronous motor (IPSM), which is widely used as a driving motor of the vehicle, plays a major role in enhancing the efficiency of the motor and protecting core parts (a permanent magnet, coils, and the like).
When the temperature of the permanent magnet becomes at least a certain level, the demagnetization of the permanent magnet may occur and the strength of the magnetic force may become weak, thereby greatly affecting the efficiency of the motor.
As a result, in order to prevent the motor system from reaching an over temperature state exceeding the allowable temperature of the motor, or the demagnetization occurring in the permanent magnet of the motor, thermal management of the motor system is necessary. In this sense, a thermal management system is required to be provided.
Thermal management systems for motors, in particular, cooling systems, may be classified into air cooling system, water cooling system, and oil cooling system according to the coolant; and may be classified into a splash lubrication system using a motor rotation and a forced lubrication system using an electric oil pump (EOP) according to the injection method.
In addition, the motor cooling system may even be classified into a direct cooling method and an indirect cooling method. In recent years, the direct cooling method has been widely used due to a demand for high cooling performance. Cases where injection cooling of the forced lubrication system using oil pressure of the EOP and cooling of a shaft splash lubrication system are used at the same time are also being increased.
Furthermore, various studies for cooling optimization are being actively conducted on improving motor and housing shapes, improving cooling injection structures, or developing cooling supporting structures.
However, in a driving motor of a vehicle using direct cooling by oil, a certain part of the motor may be burned out caused by over temperature due to the uneven distribution of cooling oil. Meanwhile, since temperature sensing in all areas of the motor is not possible even though over temperature protection logic is applied, there is still a risk that certain overheated areas may be burned out.
Damage by overheating of the motor parts appears at a vulnerable cooling portion, and in general, a lower end portion of the stator, where the cooling oil does not reach well, becomes the vulnerable cooling portion.
Accordingly, there is a need for an efficient cooling technology that allows the oil to be evenly distributed along with the real-time temperature modeling technology by area.
In conventional art, some of the oil sprayed into the motor parts such as the stator and the like through holes of an injection pipe in an inner space of the motor housing is allowed to be collected in a lower side of the inner space of the housing, whereby a lower end portion of the stator is allowed to be immersed into the oil collected in the lower side of the inner space of the housing. Accordingly, cooling of the lower end portion of the stator, which is in a state of being immersed into the oil, may be achieved.
However, when the motor is tilted during driving of the vehicle, the lower end portion of the stator may not be immersed into the oil, and cooling may not be achieved. As a result, a problem due to poor cooling may occur.
The foregoing is intended merely to aid in the understanding of the background of the present invention and is not intended to mean that the present invention falls within the purview of the related art that is already known to those skilled in the art.


A trackball device in which the exposed top of a trackball (30) can be moved to pivot a pair of coding shafts (32L, 32T) about perpendicular axes, with control signal generators that detect such pivoting used to control a function such as a cursor on a screen. The control signal generator associated with each coding shaft includes a multi-toothed pinion (44L, 44T) fixed to the coding shaft and a deflectable rod (70L, 70T) lying between a pair of teeth of the pinion. When the coding shaft and pinion turn, the deflectable rod is deflected until the pinion tooth passes by it and the rod springs back to its original vertical position, where the next tooth can again deflect it. A rod deflection sensor detects every rod deflection and its direction to provide signals indicating the direction and extent of turning of the trackball. The trackball, coding shafts and other parts lie in a housing (22). A flat flexible cable (28) projects through a slit in the housing and lies on the bottom wall of the housing. A cable portion or span within the housing has exposed contacts that engage terminals of electronic components such as the deflection rod sensors.

A miniature (e.g. 12 mm long and wide) trackball control device includes a ball with an exposed top that can be manually moved to turn the ball about horizontal axes. Two coding shafts that are rotatably mounted about perpendicular horizontal axes, each turns in proportion to rotation of the ball about its corresponding axis. A control signal generator detects rotation of each coding shaft to generate control signals. In one application, the control signals move a cursor up and down or from side to side on a screen, such as a screen of a portable telephone.
Various designs have been proposed for signal generators that generate signals indicating the amount and direction of rotation of each of two coding shafts. Some factors in the choice of a signal generator are its reliability, whether or not it consumes electricity in its standby or rest state, and its complexity and cost. The ease of connection of the signal generators to an electronic device that uses the signals such as an electronic display on which the cursor image moves, is also important.
In many applications it is desirable to provide an entry switch or button which the user presses in order to enter a choice, as to enter a choice when a cursor has reached a particular position on the screen by manipulation of the ball. This can be accomplished by depressing the ball to operate a switch.
A trackball control device of low cost and reliable design would be of value, especially if the signal generators for detecting rotation of the coding shafts and the connection of the signal generator with another electronic device such as a display, were of reliable and low cost design.


An image forming apparatus includes: an image forming apparatus main body that includes an image forming unit and a sheet conveyance unit; a unit that is at least a part of the image forming unit or the sheet conveyance unit and is openably/closably provided with respect to the image forming apparatus main body; an open-close cover that is openably/closably provided with respect to the image forming apparatus main body; a connection unit that connects the unit to the open-close cover; a connection release unit that releases connection between the unit and the open-close cover by the connection unit; a pressing unit that presses the unit in a closing direction with respect to the image forming apparatus main body; and a prohibition unit that prohibits release of connection by the connection release unit.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus such as a copier, a facsimile machine or a printer.
2. Related Art
In a known technique regarding an image forming apparatus, the apparatus has an image forming apparatus main body including an image forming unit and a sheet conveyance unit, a unit which is at least a part of the image forming unit or the sheet conveyance unit and is openably/closably provided with respect to the image forming apparatus main body, and an open-close cover openably/closably provided with respect to the image forming apparatus main body.

Image forming apparatus with an open-close cover


The present invention relates to an induction heating cooker including a synchronization circuit for a plurality of inverters, comprising: a first inverter including a first switching circuit unit for applying a first power source to a first heating coil, and a first control unit for controlling the first switching circuit unit; and a second inverter including a second switching circuit unit for applying a second power source to a second heating coil, and a second control unit for controlling the second switching circuit unit, wherein the first inverter further includes a first insulated signal transfer unit for controlling an operation of the second switching circuit unit, and the first control unit may match an operating frequency of the second switching circuit unit with an operating frequency of the first switching circuit unit by using the first insulated signal transfer unit.

Generally, an induction heat cooking apparatus is an electric cooking apparatus that performs a cooking function by applying a high frequency current to a working coil or a heating coil to allow an eddy current to flow to heat a cooking container while a line of strong magnetic force generated by the high frequency current passes through the cooking container.
In a basic heating principle of the induction heat cooking apparatus, as a current is applied to a heating coil, a cooking container which is made of a magnetic substance generates heat due to induction heating, and the cooking container is heated by the generated heat as described above to cook items disposed therein.
An inverter used for an induction heat electric apparatus switches a voltage applied to a heating coil to allow a high frequency current to flow through the heating coil. The inverter is configured to drive a switching element formed of an insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) to allow the high frequency current to flow through the heating coil to form a high frequency magnetic field at the heating coil.
When two heating coils are provided in the induction heat cooking apparatus, two inverters are required to simultaneously operate the two heating coils. However, when one container is heated at the same time using two inverters, inconsistency between operating frequencies and phases of operation of the two heating coils may occur.
In this case, there is a problem that noise is generated due to inconsistency of the operating frequencies and an output deviation occurs due to a phase deviation, in the induction heat cooking apparatus.


The invention provides FGFR fusion proteins, methods of making them, and methods of using them to treat proliferative disorders, including cancers and disorders of angiogenesis. The FGFR fusion molecules can be made in CHO cells and may comprise deletion mutations in the extracellular domains of the FGFRs which improve their stability. These fusion proteins inhibit the growth and viability of cancer cells in vitro and in vivo. The combination of the relatively high affinity of these receptors for their ligand FGFs and the demonstrated ability of these decoy receptors to inhibit tumor growth is an indication of the clinical value of the compositions and methods provided herein.

Fibroblast growth factors (FGFs) and their receptors (FGFR) are a highly conserved group of proteins with instrumental roles in angiogenesis, vasculogenesis, and wound healing, as well as tissue patterning and limb formation in embryonic development. FGFs and FGFRs affect cell migration, proliferation, and survival, providing wide-ranging impacts on health and disease.
The FGFR family comprises four major types of receptors, FGFR1, FGFR2, FGFR3, and FGFR4. These receptors are transmembrane proteins having an extracellular domain, a transmembrane domain, and an intracytoplasmic domain. Each of the extracellular domains contains either two or three immunoglobulin (Ig) domains. Some FGFRs exist in different isoforms which differ in specific segments of the molecule, such as FGFR1-IIIb and FGFR1-IIIc, which differ in the C-terminal region of the third Ig domain. Transmembrane FGFRs are monomeric tyrosine kinase receptors, activated by dimerization, which occurs at the cell surface in a complex of FGFR dimers, FGF ligands, and heparin glycans or proteoglycans. Extracellular FGFR activation by FGF ligand binding to an FGFR initiates a cascade of signaling events inside the cell, beginning with the receptor tyrosine kinase activity.
To date, there are 23 known FGFs, each with the capacity to bind one or more FGFRs (Zhang et al., J. Biol. Chem., 281:15, 694-15,700 (2006)). Several FGFs can bind to and activate each of one or more FGFRs, often with large differences, for example, order of magnitude differences in their affinities for the different FGFRs. Many FGFs bind their respective FGFRs with very high affinities, some in the picomolar range. Heparin is required for the binding of FGFs to FGFRs under some circumstances (Ornitz et al., Mol. Cell Biol. 12:240 (1992)). For example, the mitogenic response to FGF-2 (also known as basic FGF (bFGF)) mediated by FGFR1 has been shown to depend on the presence of heparin (Ornitz et al., Mol. Cell Biol. 12:240 (1992)).
Previously proposed therapeutic approaches using specific antibodies to block FGF function do not address the issue of redundancy within the FGF family in activating multiple FGFRs, since cancers or other proliferative cells may express upregulated levels of more than one FGF or FGFR. Antisense oligonucleotide or related siRNA therapies have potential problems with specificity, serum half-life, and intracellular delivery. Gene transfer therapies, including those using adenovirus, have raised issues of patient safety and a number of clinical gene therapy studies have been halted due to patient death. Small molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitor therapies suffer from issues of target specificity, toxicity, and manifestations of drug resistance. To date, no drug which targets an FGFR signaling pathway has been approved for treating any human disease.

FGFR2 fusion proteins comprising C-terminal deletion mutants of FGFR2-IIIC


An architecture, system and associated method and apparatus for securely communicating authentication data to a communication device. In one embodiment, the method includes modulating a spectral source's radiation using the authentication data, wherein the spectral source's radiation is adapted to operate as a first transmission medium for carrying the authentication data, the first transmission medium being containable within an enclosure that inhibits passage of the spectral source's radiation (i.e., spectrally opaque enclosure). The modulated authentication data is transmitted via the first transmission medium to the communication device disposed in the spectrally opaque enclosure.

Mobile radio device communication is typically effectuated on an open and shared channel and, accordingly, all transmissions to and from the device have the possibility of being monitored and modified. A principal difficulty with such radio channels is how to establish a secure communication environment between two devices. Two main processes are commonly involved: authentication and key exchange. Authentication establishes the identities of the communicating parties to permit trust that the data received is from the intended device (usually via a common shared secret). Key exchange involves the transmission of data between the communicating parties in order to establish secret keys for encryption. Given the open nature of broadcast radio transmissions, it should be appreciated that the transmission of secret keys on an open network is susceptible to eavesdropping and man-in-the-middle attacks.

System and method for authentication and key exchange for a mobile device via spectrally confined wireless communications


A locating system for an archive having multiple objects stored therein includes an RFID reader device having an RFID reader to detect and read RFID tags on the objects. A central processing unit includes a database to store information on each object in the archive, a location engine operating system in communication with the RFID reader device, and a data structure to store a relative position of each object in the archive relative to each other object in the archive. A method of locating an object within an archive containing multiple objects includes carrying an RFID reader device through the archive. The RFID reader device queries each RFID tag for the identifier associated with the RFID tag and determines whether each identifier is an old identifier stored in a memory or a new identifier not stored in the memory. If one or more of the identifiers is a new identifier, a linkage is defined between each object associated with a new identifier and each other object within the range of the RFID reader device. Each linkage is saved in a data structure and each new identifier is stored in the memory.

This disclosure relates generally to systems for detecting the position of an item. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to a method and a system for using Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags to determine the position of an item.
There are many contexts in which it is useful or even necessary to know the position of an item in the physical world. For example, logistics systems need to track the movements of goods through warehouses, and assembly robots need to determine the position of cars as they move down the assembly line. Applications of such knowledge are nearly countless, because knowing the position of objects is a fundamental requirement for interacting with the physical world.
One technique for determining the position of a physical object is to modify the object to so that it is able to track its own position, and to report its position through a wired or wireless connection. While this technique is useful for some applications, it does not lend itself to all such applications. The tracking apparatus may be bulkier than the item that is being tracked, thereby making it difficult or impossible to use in the particular environment in which the object may be located. The item or the tracking apparatus must contain a wireless communications system and a power supply, which further increases bulk, or be tethered through a physical connection. Moreover, it is expensive to modify an object in this way.
Another technique is to use a video camera to survey a scene, and to use object recognition software to identify and determine the location of objects within the scene. However, this technique is expensive and requires line of sight access to the camera.
A relatively inexpensive technique for determining the position of an object in the physical world is to attach a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag to the object. RFID tags are relatively small, relatively inexpensive, and passive RFID tags do not require a power source. Each RFID tag has a unique identifier that can be read wirelessly by RFID tag readers. RFID tag readers do not require a direct line of sight to tags to be able to read them and typically has a range of few feet for the most popular and inexpensive passive tags. However, typical RFID tag readers cannot pinpoint the exact location of the object. Rather, they simply report the presence or absence of a tag in their field of sensitivity.
Conventionally, if an item having an RFID tag is to be located, the RFID tag reader would have to be transported around the area in which the item is thought to be in order to find the item. Alternatively, the area would be divided in sections, with each section having an RFID tag reader. The sections are sized such that any item within the area is always within range of one of the RFID tag readers. The problem with this method is that RFID tag readers are much more expensive than RFID tags, making this method for an expensive solution to implement, particularly for large archives.
Another problem with both of these conventional methods is that they assume that the user is familiar with the distribution of sections in the area. So even if the general location is known, for example the item is located in section H7, the user would still need to find where the section H7 is in the area. This is especially difficult for large areas/archives or archives that do not follow a simple way of classifying the sections. Further, even after the user finds the section of the area/archive that contains the item, he or she must still perform a sequential search in that section to locate the item. This is a time consuming operation for archives divided in large sections.

Locating system for items having RFID tags


There is provided a system and method for detection of cancerous cells from an organ tissue. The system includes a plurality of cells obtained from the organ tissue, a light source for directing light through the plurality of cells and an image sensor for detecting and measuring optical transmission characteristics of the plurality of cells. The proposed method includes modeling the measured optical transmission characteristics using a statistical algorithm and calculating a figure of merit (FOM) for each of the plurality of cells for enhancing identification accuracy of cancerous cells, wherein the FOM is calculated from pole coefficients and locations corresponding to the plurality of cells.

Background description includes information that may be useful in understanding the present invention. It is not an admission that any of the information provided herein is prior art or relevant to the presently claimed invention, or that any publication specifically or implicitly referenced is prior art.
It is crucial for diagnosing diseases such as cancer at an early stage. Although the symptoms of cancer are not apparent at the initial stage, if cancer spreads, effective treatment is a grueling task and, generally, the patient's survival rate is very low. When diagnosed at an advanced stage, more than 90% of women with breast cancer have been found to survive the disease for 10 more years compared to less than 20% of women surviving for 5 years. Approximately 93% of patients diagnosed with colon cancer and detected at an early stage have 5-year survival rates compared to those diagnosed at a later stage. A similar increase in survival rate is found for other types of cancer when detected early. Accordingly, in the past two decades, extensive research has been carried out to develop various means that aid in the efficient classification of normal and cancer cells. The classification of normal and cancer cells is very important because it assists in early detection of cancer and thereby helps cancer patients to receive better treatment and improve their chances of survival.
Considering traditionally employed methods, Mukhopadhyay et al. used the Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) technique for detecting cancer at an early stage. The signals obtained from elastic scattering spectroscopy from the normal and cancer cells are processed using the EMD technique. The optical signal response is decomposed into a set of finite numbers of band limited signals known as the intrinsic mode function (IMF). The area parameter of each IMF obtained for normal and cancer cervical tissues is used as a tool for discriminating the tissues. The results show that the algorithm is efficient in sorting normal and cancerous tissues. However, EMD has limitations in discriminating the components in narrowband signals. Li et al. applied a genetic algorithm (GA) combined with linear discriminant analysis (LDA) as a signal processing technique in the detection of nasopharyngeal cancer. The spectra obtained from surface-enhanced Raman Spectroscopy for malignant and benign tissues are analyzed using the GA-LDA method. The alterations in the features of the Raman spectra of normal and cancer tissues are used for differentiating the tissues. The GA-LDA algorithm is utilized to look for the dominant features of the spectra. The algorithm, although it worked efficiently for cancer tissue discrimination based on feature selection, has limitations. The algorithm has to be run more than 100 times to select the appropriate spectral bands. The overall accuracy of the diagnostic model is 76.9%. Li et al. used the same (GA-LDA) technique for detecting bladder cancer. As mentioned earlier, the downside of this technique is that the algorithm is executed more than 100 times and Raman variables are searched for characterizing bladder cancer in each run.
Duraipandian et al. reported the use of GA along with partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) with double cross-validation (dCV) for the feature selection from Raman spectra of normal and cancerous cervical tissues. The results show a diagnostic accuracy of 83% in discriminating cancerous and normal cervical tissues. Franceschini et al. applied a projection image transformation algorithm for processing images of breast tissues. The optical images processed by this technique enhance the features that show the inhomogeneity in normal and cancerous tissues. The spatial resolution of the optical method used in this work is 1 cm but they can detect tumors of smaller size if the images have good optical contrast. Salomatina et al. have investigated the optical differences between cancerous and normal skin cells. They have utilized a sphere spectrophotometer to conduct the absorption and transmittance measurements. Optical properties such as absorption and scattering coefficients of the normal and cancer skin are obtained from the measured quantities using a quasi-Newton inverse algorithm and the Monte Carlo technique. The efficiency of the quasi-Newton inverse algorithm is that it requires many fewer iterations (less than 10) to reach convergence. The optical parameters obtained are statistically acceptable if the probability value is less than 0.05, which means the optical properties of the normal and cancer tissues differ by more than 95%.
The Prony technique, introduced in 1795 by Gaspard de Prony to describe gas expansion, is a well-known signal analysis technique. It has wide application in signal processing in the biomedical field. In biomedical signal processing, the Prony technique is prominently used for the characterization of tumors, for cancer detection and for power spectrum estimation of DNA sequences. Hauer employed the Prony method for determining the modal components of the signal response obtained from a Western U.S. power system. The signal components extracted using the Prony technique—in combination with Fourier techniques and frequency domain approaches—are used for dynamic modeling of the power system. The results show that the Prony algorithm gave a good fit with a reasonable SNR value for the high noise signal. The Prony method is used for finding low frequency oscillations in power systems. Xiao et al. compared the Fourier Transformation (FFT) technique and the Prony technique in their study identifying low frequency oscillations in power systems and concluded that Prony is a competent technique compared to FFT. The simulation results show that the technique is efficient for identifying low frequency oscillations in real grids.
Chuang et al. applied the Prony analysis technique on a synthesized signal that represents the backscattered signal from radar targets. Further, the Prony algorithm is used to deduce natural resonances of the targets. The resonances obtained using the Prony method are used for target detection and discrimination. It was concluded that the results obtained through the Prony method in the absence of noise are more reliable than those from the numerical search procedure. The lengthy computation time in numerical search methods is greatly overcome by using Prony's method. Marple et al. discussed the use of Prony's method to detect and classify acoustic transient signals obtained from subaquatic sonar sensors. The energy component coupled to the pole amplitude and damping constants of the estimated model is used as a key for transient detection and for extraction of features used in classification. The results show that the technique worked very well even in the presence of noise in the signal.
Furthermore, the Prony algorithm is widely used in biomedical signal processing for tumor detection. Huo et al., in an attempt to model breast tumors, reported the use of the Prony method. The tumor in the breast is represented as a concealed dielectric target. When it is subjected to a short EM pulse, it backscatters a signal that includes complex natural resonances (CNR), which is equivalent to the poles of the tumor. The Prony method gives the poles and residues from the time domain backscattered signal. The complex natural resonance can be correlated with the morphological and intrinsic composition of the tumor. Hence, the optical and electrical properties can be used to detect and identify tumors. Li et al. utilized an approach similar to for characterizing breast tumors based on 2D-FDTD simulation. The time-domain response of the tumors is obtained through FDTD simulation and is analyzed using the Prony technique for characterizing the tumors. The results are promising in characterizing breast tumors when used in combination with imaging diagnosing methods such as ultrasound imaging, confocal microwave imaging and so on.
Wang et al. discussed the use of the Prony technique for extraction of poles from noisy data for tumor characterization. The results show that the poles extracted using the Prony technique gave accurate results even when the detected signal was mixed with a limited level of noise. Bannis et al. employed the Prony technique for breast cancer tumor detection from a scattered field electromagnetic (EM) signal. The poles extracted from the scattered EM signal are used as a tool for breast cancer detection. In another work to study the effect of the chest wall on breast tumor detection, the Prony algorithm was utilized for poles extraction. Gale et al. utilized the Prony method for estimating parameters of a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) signal obtained from blood plasma for the early detection of cancer. Roy et al. suggested a method to estimate the power spectral density of a DNA sequence. In this approach, the simulation results from Prony's all-pole model efficiently distinguished the coding and noncoding regions of a DNA sequence.
Conventional cancer screening techniques based on clinical studies are mostly invasive. Furthermore, these techniques require large amounts of samples, biomarkers, antigens, and antibodies. Biomarkers are molecules that are present in blood, urine, stool, tissues, or other bodily fluids that indicate normal or abnormal processes in the body. Cancer biomarkers include substances produced by the cancer cells or by other cells reacting to the cancer cells in the body. These biomarkers are helpful in detecting and diagnosing cancer cells. However, an important downside of these techniques is that repeated biopsies are required if the false positive rate is high. As a result, the emphasis on the development of reliable, label-free methods is growing inside the research community.
A non-invasive discrimination method of cancer cells from normal cells in a corresponding adherent culture has been introduced utilizing their cell morphology. The analysis of the corresponding intracellular distribution phase-shift data has been used to develop cancer index as an indicator to be utilized to distinguish the cancer from normal cells. On the other hand, cancer and normal cells were discriminated based on their biomechanics characteristics. The cellular properties were probed at the single cell level using atomic force microscopy (AFM). The corresponding elastic properties were measured with a proper designed indentation experiments. The extracted Young's modulus that represents the cellular deformability can be used quantitatively to distinguish the normal form cancer. Chromatography-mass spectrometry based on gas or biomarkers has been used for the metabolomics profiling of cells. With the help of multivariate analysis, a panel of metabolites revealed that was possible to discriminate cancerous from normal cells.
Electrically, a set of extracted parameters from the measured capacitance-voltage profiles has been used to recognize cancer from normal cells. The normal cells exhibit higher dielectric constants compared to cancer cells from the same tissue. On another study the electrical impedance spectroscopy has been employed to classify between normal and cancerous mammalian cells. Set of features allowed the classification of the samples in normal or cancerous with 4.5% of false positives and no false negatives. The interactions between cell compositions and light were used to discriminate and identify several types of cancer and normal cells. Empirically, the cancer cells exhibit higher transmittance intensity when compared to normal ones from the same tissue type. Artificial intelligence and deep learning techniques and method have proven to show an outstanding performance and capabilities in resolving recognition and classification problems. A combined deep learning approach in conjunction with expert trained data system was very powerful tool to identify cancer from gene expression data. Moreover, it can also contribute towards the understanding the complex nature of cancer based on large public data as well.
Accordingly, there exists a need for a system or method for early detection of cancerous cells from an organ tissue, which overcomes the drawbacks of the above elaborated traditional methods.

System and parametric method for cancer discriminations


A steering system steers wheels of a vehicle through a shift of a steering shaft. The steering system includes: an electric motor; transmission device that transmits an output of the electric motor to the steering shaft; and a malfunction detector that detects a malfunction of the transmission device based on a rotational angle of the electric motor and a shift distance of the steering shaft.

The present disclosure relates to a steering system driving wheels of a vehicle.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2008-105604 discloses a steering system provided with a power steering mechanism. The power steering mechanism includes an electric motor, a rotation transmitter that transmits the rotation of the motor to a steering nut, and a motion converter that converts the rotational motion to a linear shift of the steering shaft. The rotation transmitter includes a pair of toothed pulleys, and a toothed belt disposed over the pulleys. The steering shaft has a rack portion that engages with a pinion gear rotating in cooperation with the rotation of the steering wheel. As a result, the steering shaft moves along the axis by the steering force applied to the steering wheel and the driving force of the electric motor.
In such a steering system, the target value of an electric current to be supplied to the electric motor is determined based on the steering torque of the steering wheel, and the current to be supplied to the electric motor is feedback controlled so as to approach the target value. At the same time, the steering speed of the steering wheel and the rotational speed of the electric motor are detected. In the case where the rotational speed of the electric motor is high when compared with the steering speed of the steering wheel, such a difference is determined to be an abnormal state, such as slip of the toothed belt.


One embodiment in accordance with the invention is a method that includes detecting a failure in a ring network and transmitting a multicast message across the ring network that includes information regarding the failure. Additionally, a new ring master of the ring network is designated. Furthermore, a ring port coupled to the failure is blocked.

Some computer networking environments can include routers and switches that forward data and information between different computers and networks. One type of computer networking environment is an Ethernet ring topology where communication switches are arranged in a ring configuration. It is understood that a full ring Ethernet topology has a spatial property where there are two paths for any two switches to communicate. However, to prevent a packet from infinitely looping in the ring, one of the ports in any one switch in the ring is kept logically disabled or blocked for data traffic since there is no concept of source or destination stripping in an Ethernet ring. Additionally, each Ethernet switch in the ring performs MAC (Media Access Control) address learning, which acts as a topology discovery function. The learned MAC addresses are not only that of the switches in the ring, but can also include the devices that can be connected behind the ring switches. This means potentially the ring switches may learn thousands of MAC addresses.
It is understood that a failure can occur within the Ethernet ring topology. For example, a link between two ring switches can fail or a switch of the ring can malfunction or fail. If such a ring failure occurs, it is typically desirable to restore data connectivity as quickly as possible between any two devices in the ring through an alternate path. This restoration of data connectivity can be referred to as convergence of the ring. Typically, the amount of time to convergence in the ring is dependent on the time taken by each of the following four stages.
Specifically, the first stage involves the detection of a link status change due to link/switch failure or link/switch coming back up in the ring. The second stage usually involves communicating the link change to all the ring members. The third stage commonly involves recomputing the Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) state along with reprogramming all STP states for all the VLANs (virtual local area networks) that may be connected to the ring trunk ports. Note that this step involves computing the STP state of the ring ports for each of the VLANs. As such, the amount of time consumed in order to perform this step is proportional to the number of VLANs supported on the ring ports and also involves updating the hardware for each of the VLANs.
The fourth stage commonly involves purging the learned MAC addresses so that connectivity is maintained since a topology change has occurred. This ensures that the traffic is not forwarded in the wrong path and there is no "black-holing" of traffic. The amount of time consumed in this stage is proportional to the number of MAC addresses learned. Note that this stage can be especially time consuming, as there are typically a large number of learned MAC addresses on the ring ports that are usually trunk ports.
The invention may address one or more of the above issues.

Method, apparatus, and system for improving ethernet ring convergence time


A T-shaped gauge and acetabular cup navigation system and acetabular cup aligning method using the T-shaped gauge, which can measure anantomical landmarks of the pelvis at the same time, calculate an anterior pelvic plane from the measured value, calculate a transformed anterior pelvic plane by converting the anterior pelvic plane in comparison with a pelvic reference frame, and set a direction vector of an acetabular cup on the transformed anterior pelvic plane, thereby exactly inserting the acetabular cup into the acetabulum without regard to movement of the pelvis.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an acetabular cup navigation system for calculating an insertion direction of an acetabular cup inserted into the pelvis for total hip replacement surgery, and more particularly, to a T-shaped gauge and acetabular cup navigation system and acetabular cup aligning method using the T-shaped gauge for exactly calculating an insertion direction of an acetabular cup, which will be inserted into the pelvis, by measuring anatomical landmarks of the pelvis at once and measuring pelvis coordinates changed during surgery in real time.
2. Background of the Related Art
In a conventional artificial joint surgery for replacing hip joints with artificial joints, the artificial joints could not be inserted into the hip joints in an exact orientation (or angle) because the orientation (or angle) of the the artificial joints inserted into the hip joints is defined by a doctor's experiences and a mechanical gauge provided by an artificial joint manufacturer. Furthermore, as patients' pelvis sizes and shapes are different according to the patents' body conditions, the artificial joints cannot be inserted into the hip joints in the exact orientation (or angle). If the artificial joints are inserted into the hip joints in a deviated orientation from the normal orientation, the patent who undergoes artificial joint surgery has to experience surgery again so that the artificial joints are located at an exact orientation of the hip joints.
Therefore, to address the above problem, a navigation system for surgery of hip joints is induced so that the doctor can obtain information of alignment of artificial joints inserted into the hip joints in real time during the surgery. The navigation system is used to match the artificial joints to the patient's pelvis based on three-dimensional image of the patient's pelvis part obtained through a CT scan. For example, for total hip replacement surgery, the navigation system is used to determine a orientation of an acetabular cup inserted into the acetabulum of the pelvis based on an anterior pelvic plane formed by three points, which are called as anterior superior iliac spines and pubis part.
In order to operate the artificial joints using the conventional navigation system, there is a need for a registration of making a transformation matrix of the exact position of the pelvis for the surgery of the artificial joints using image information of the patient's pelvis obtained by the CT scan. To carry out the above process, a fiducial marker is inserted into the patient's pelvis before surgery to measure the corresponding position, or points of several tens are measured at the pelvis part of a cut part during the surgery. Moreover, the CT scan may have an adverse influence on the patient's health and is very expensive as using radial rays at a corresponding region of the patient's body to be operated surgically to obtain the three-dimensional image.
Meanwhile, to solve the disadvantages of the CT scan, directly before the surgery of the artificial joints, using a measuring device, the three anatomical landmarks of the pelvis are measured on the skin corresponding to the patient's pelvis position, and then, the surgery of the artificial joints is performed based on the three anatomical landmarks.
However, as the measuring device measures the three anatomical landmarks respectively, the measured anatomical landmarks have a relatively measuring deviation by the hypodermic fat. Therefore, the artificial joint surgery using the measuring device may considerably deteriorate accuracy to exactly insert the acetabular cup into the acetabulum, and the patient who has been operated has to be operated again to correct the orientation of the artificial joints.

T-shaped gauge and acetabular cup navigation system and acetabular cup aligning method using the same

Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology


A reporting method for a network state includes: an intermediate node receiving a data packet; the intermediate node marking the data packet according to the current network state; and the intermediate node forwarding the marked data packet. A detecting method for a network state includes: a sink node receiving a data packet; the sink node parsing the data packet to obtain the marking information about the network state; and the sink node determining the network state according to the marking information. A reporting device corresponding to the reporting method, a detecting device corresponding to the detecting method, and a detecting system comprising the reporting device and the detecting method are also provided.

Wireless sensor network is a totally new information acquiring and processing technology, and has a wide application prospect in industry, military, environment, healthcare and other fields. However, as a distributed computing platform, node resources such as Central Processing Unit (referred to as CPU) speed, storage space, power and bandwidth are very limited, and the working environment of the wireless sensor network is unpredictable, a variety of external interference factors (such as temperature, vibration, electromagnetic field, etc.) are likely to cause failures such as RF conflicts, clock asynchrony, battery depletion, signal loss, software errors, and so on occurred in the network, which greatly reduce the reliability of sensor nodes, weaken or fail intended functions in the wireless sensor network. Various abnormal situations in the network will be diagnosed in a timely manner, searching for reasonable tolerance control solutions that guide the normal operation of the network, which has great significance in improving the reliability and robustness of the wireless sensor network.
Currently, the structure of wireless sensor network is more and more complicated, its function becomes perfect, and the degree of automation becomes higher and higher. How to prolong its life as far as possible is a relatively popular topic in recent years. The life of the wireless sensor network is mainly decided by the life of the node. However, the wireless sensor network often runs in an unattended, inaccessible by humans, harsh or even dangerous, remote environment, due to many unavoidable factors, the nodes have a variety of failures, which reduces or loses the intended functions of the wireless sensor network, and even causes serious damage and even paralysis of the entire network.
Biologists used the wireless sensor network in 2002 to finely observe the habits of petrels on a certain island. 30 sensor nodes were deployed on the island, and after the network ran for 20 days, more than half of the nodes failed completely, obviously, the failure rate of the nodes is very high. Failure rate of sensing components (modules) of the humidity sensor nodes and the nodes within the network is very high. In view of this, the design of the wireless sensor network must take failure diagnosis of the nodes, especially failure diagnosis of the node sensor components, into consideration.
The current wireless network diagnostics technology is mainly inserting additional control information data packets into the network, depending on these data packets, the network state is detected in real time, and this method uses the active inquiry mode, generally, particular nodes in the network send the control information data packets to each node, and after the nodes receive the control information packets, they feed back their own state to the particular node, after the particular node determines the current network state according to the received feedback, therefore, this active inquiry mode brings relatively great communication expenses to the network. Especially, in the case that the network state changes frequently, these additional communication overheads increase network traffic load.
So far, there is no effective solution for the problem of relatively heavy network burden caused by the method of determining the network state through the active inquiry mode in the related art.

Reporting method, detection method, device and system for network state


A planar thin film magnetic head comprises an insulating substrate, a pair of insulating pedestals formed on the substrate, a top magnetic yoke having a central portion disposed over the substrate and having opposite ends supported on each of the pedestals. A conductor is provided over the top yoke central portion, and an insulating layer is disposed between the conductor and the top magnetic yoke. A bottom magnetic yoke is disposed over the conductor and has a gap in a central portion and opposite ends in contact with the top yoke ends.

It is recognized that planar recording heads, having coils formed generally parallel to a recording media, exhibit performance improvements in comparison to heads in which the coils are mounted perpendicular to the recording medium. For example, the higher field gradients produced during a reading operation by a perpendicular head results in a distortion of the detected bit recorded on the recording medium. This distortion appears as negative signals on the leading and trailing edges of the main positive signal, or undershoot components. These undershoot signals distort the detected main signal and degrade a measured signal-to-noise ratio. Undershoot components are avoided with planar heads.
Furthermore, conventional thin film heads with vertical coils require very small throat height tolerances to maintain satisfactory output, while planar heads are less sensitive to throat height tolerance. Also, planar heads have lower normalized inductance than heads with vertical coils, which improves the signal-to-noise ratio.
A prior art planar head 1 is shown in FIG. 1. A planar top yoke 2 and insulator layer 3 are formed on a substrate 4. Magnetic return studs 5, preferably made of Permalloy (approximately 80Ni:20Fe), are formed in contact with the yoke 2 and sequential process steps form coils 6 and additional insulator layers 7. Bottom yoke pieces 8 are formed in contact with the tops of the return studs 5. Finally poles 9 are formed between the bottom yoke pieces 8, forming a gap 10. When an electric current is directed to the coils 6 by leads (not shown), a magnetic flux is generated in the top yoke 2, return studs 5, bottom yoke pieces 8 and poles 9. The flux impinges on a magnetic medium 11 to record data pulses and the data signals are read by sensing the flux emanating from the medium. For this reason, the yoke portions of magnetic head are sometimes referred to as magnetic flux guides.
Such prior art planar recording heads exhibit, however, certain performance disadvantages. For example, the return studs 5 formed of many layers display low magnetic permeability which reduces the magnetic efficiency of the head, resulting in reduced signal amplitudes. Further, the studs 5 have a magnetic anisotropy that is parallel to the substrate, which direction is perpendicular to the direction of the flux induced in the studs during writing and reading. This perpendicular orientation of the stud anisotropy with the induced flux undesirably results in noise and low efficiency of the head. The process to make conventional planar heads also includes many plating steps, e.g., with Permalloy, which makes the process difficult to control.

Planar recording head having formed yokes


A refractometer comprising an optical pattern-beam projection system for projecting a pattern,light beam onto the fundus of a tested eye to measure refractive power of the tested eye, and an optical light-receiving system for receiving the pattern light beam reflected at the fundus to compute the refractive power of the tested eye. A deflecting member is inserted into an optical path of the optical pattern-beam projection system for deflecting the pattern light beam with respect to an optical axis of the optical pattern-beam projection system and then projecting the deflected pattern light beam onto the fundus.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a refractometer that is equipped with an optical pattern-beam projection system which projects a pattern light beam onto the fundus of a subject's eye to measure the refractive power of the eye and an optical light-receiving system which receives the pattern light beam reflected at the fundus and computes the refractive power of the eye.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a conventional refractometer, a ring-shaped pattern light beam for measuring the refractive power of a tested eye is projected by an optical pattern-beam projection system. The ring-shaped pattern light beam is reflected at the fundus and received as a pattern image with a light receiving element. In this way, the refractive power of the tested eye is measured.
In a refractometer such as this, when a tested eye has normal vision (.+-.0 diopter), a pattern image 1' with a ring shape and a predetermined size is projected on a light receiving element, as shown in FIG. 9. When a tested eye has farsightedness, the pattern image is larger than that in normal vision. Also, when a tested eye has nearsightedness, the pattern image is smaller than that in normal vision.
The center positions P1 and P2 of the width of the pattern image 1' projected on the light receiving element are detected by the peak positions of a light quantity distribution. Based on the detected peak positions P1 and P2, the inter center distance L of the pattern image 1' (i.e., distance between P1 and P2) is computed to obtain the refractive power of a tested eye.
However, in the conventional refractometer, for example, when a vein or scar 2 exists at the measured position of the inter center distance on the pattern light beam 1 projected on the fundus of a tested eye, as shown in FIG. 10, a portion corresponding to the scar 2 is obtained as a peak position, and a center position P1' shifted from an actual center position P1 is detected. For this reason, there arises the problem that normal vision is measured as astigmatism by mistake.


Tool holder devices are provided, which are designed to hold tools having spring clip mechanisms. In one aspect, a tool holder device comprises a guiding portion and a mounting portion. The mounting portion is adapted to engage a spring clip of a tool for mounting the tool. The guiding portion is adapted to guide a spring clip towards the mounting portion as a person slides the tool from the guiding portion to the mounting portion while maintaining contact between the spring clip and the guiding portion.

Carpenters and other tradesmen typically carry various tools and accessories that they frequently use when performing a particular project. Various devices and methods have been developed for carrying tools, wherein the tools are attached to a person's belt or otherwise attached on and around the waistband of the person. With any tool holder design, it is desirable that the tool holder enables a person to readily access the tool from the holder, as well as place the tool in/on the tool holder, without undue burden or difficulty. This is especially desirable for tools that are used on a frequent basis, such as tape measures that are used by tradesmen (e.g., carpenters) for measuring anything from cut lumber to tile, etc.
One conventional technique for carrying tools such as tape measures, chalk lines, etc., is to attach a spring clip to the tool casing so that the tool can be clipped to either a person's belt (or other garment part such as pocket) or to a tool holder device. By way of example, FIGS. 1a and 1b are diagrams illustrating a conventional tape measure (10) having a spring clip device (30). FIG. 1a is a perspective front view of a tape measure (10) and FIG. 1b is a perspective side view of the tape measure (10). Those of ordinary skill in the art understand the different components and operation of such tape measures.
In general, the exemplary tape measure (10) comprises an outer casing (20) and a contoured, retaining spring clip (30) mounted on a side portion of the tape measure casing (20). The spring clip (30) is typically made of metal and shaped to provide spring-like tension. More specifically, the spring clip (30) comprises a resiliently deflectably tongue portion (31) having an end portion (32). The tongue portion (31) is bent under tension to rest against the casing (20) and is moveable in direction of arrow (as shown in FIG. 1a) to permit insertion of some fixed element (belt, etc.) for attachment purposes. As shown in FIG. 1b, the tongue portion (31) comprises a slotted portion (33) to permit removal of a fastener (screw) (34) to allow the spring clip (30) to be removed from the casing (20) if desired.
It has been proven to be difficult and inefficient to use spring clips to attach tools to a person's belt. For instance, with the tape measure (10) described above, a person has to unclip and the clip the tape measure to his/her belt each time the tape measure is used. In fact, the person may have to use both hands to clip the tape measure on his/her belt, pocket or other clothing part, especially when the person's belt is worn tight. This can be extremely burdensome, especially when the person is working on a ladder and needs to use one hand to hold the ladder. If the person's belt is worn loose, the tape measure may accidentally unclip from the belt. Also, the frequent use of the spring clip (30) tends to cause excessive wear to the belt or pocket, or other garment part to which the tape measure is attached.
Another conventional method for holding a tape measure having a spring clip is to clip the tape measure on a clipping device that is attached to a tool pouch. For instance, U.S. Patent Application Publication Ser. No. US 2002/001457, dated Feb. 7, 2002, by Snider, et al, discloses a tape measure holder that is affixed to outer front pockets of a work belt storage pouch, wherein the holder essentially comprises a clipping portion to which the spring clip of a tape measure is attached. One problem with this tape measure holder design is that the clipping portion is typically not readily accessible and the user must look at the clipping portion to align the spring clip with the clipping portion to attach the tape measure. This can be extremely burdensome, especially when the tape measure is frequently used, or when the person is working on a ladder, or when the person is holding materials or tools with his/her other hand.
Another tape measure holder design is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,757,927, entitled "Holder for Suspending Rule Clip or the Like". This patent discloses a rectangular holder for suspending a tape measure, wherein the spring clip of a tape measure is clipped to a laterally extending slot that is disposed adjacent a lower edge the rectangular tool holder. Although this design provides improvements over conventional tape measure holders, it does not provide the advantages of the present invention as described below.
Other tool holders designs include pouches, pockets, compartments, etc, for holding tools such as tape measures. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,100,037 discloses a leather tape measure holder comprising a leather pouch stowage of a tape measure. The holder comprises a strap member with a snap fastener for securing the tape measure in the pouch. These designs are problematic in that it has been proven to be difficult and burdensome to continuously access and store the tools while working.
Accordingly, more efficient and easier methods for mounting tools such as tape measures are highly desired.

Tool holder with guide plate for mounting tools having spring clips


A recombinant BCG vaccine being transformed with an expression vector that has a polynucleotide encoding a foreign antigenic protein, wherein the polynucleotide is a modified one in which the third position of each codon is substituted with G or C without a change of an amino acid. This recombinant BCG vaccine has an excellent expression rate of antigenic protein and, as a result, capable of inducing a sufficient immune response against target infectious disease, cancer, or the like at the same dose as that of the typical BCG vaccine.

A bovine tubercle bacillus attenuated BCG strain (Mycobacterium bovis BCG, hereinafter referred to as "BCG") has been known as the most common live bacteria vaccine because of its safety.
On the other hand, as gene recombinant technologies have been keenly developed and improved for the past ten plus years, there have been many studies for modifying microorganisms such as viruses and bacteria to produce a foreign antigen protein and using them as vaccine vectors for preventing and treating various kinds of infectious diseases and cancers. Regarding BCG, for example, recombinant BCG vaccines targeted to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) have been also reported (J. Immunol. 164: 4968-4978, 2000, J. Virol. 71: 2303-2309, 1997, and Infect Immun. 57: 283-288, 1989).
The BCG strain is considered as a candidate for providing an excellent recombinant vaccine because of its safety and easy supply. However, the conventional recombinant BCG vaccine has not always been sufficient in its capability of inducing immunity to infection, cancer, or the like to be provided as a target. For example, in the case of immunizing a guinea pig with a recombinant BCG vaccine targeted at HIV-1, it should be dosed 10 to 100 times higher than a typical dosage (0.05 to 0.1 mg) of BCG vaccine generally used for human (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 92: 10698-10697, 1995).
On the other hand, in the recombinant vaccine, as means for providing a foreign antigen with high immunogenicity, the optimization of codon is attempted. Those are, the codon optimizations, such as listeriolysin O of Listeria monocytogenes (J. immunol 161: 5594-5599, 1998), HIV-1 Gag (J. Virol. 75: 10991-11001, 200; J. Virol. 74: 2628-2635, 2000), Env (J. Virol. 72: 1497-1503, 1998), tetanus toxin (Vaccine 19: 810-815, 2000), L1 protein of human papilloma virus (J. Virol. 75: 9201-9209, 2001), merozoite surface protein 1 of falciparum malaria protozoan (Plasmodium falciparum) (Infect. Immun. 69: 7250-7253, 2001). However, these codon optimizations are those obtained by humanized codons for each amino acid of antigens. In addition, those recombinant vaccines are also DNA vaccines (naked DNA), so that there is no report at all about effects of the codon optimization in vaccine predominantly composed of other recombinant vector of BCG strain or the like.
The invention of the present application has performed in consideration of circumstances described above, and addresses to provide a recombinant BCG vaccine which is excellent in the expression amount of an antigenic protein and, as a consequence, capable of inducing a sufficient immune response to the target infectious disease, cancer, or the like even though the dosage thereof is almost equal to that of typical BCG vaccine.

Department of Medical Sciences-Ministry of Public Health of Thailand


Materials and methods are provided for treating influenza B infections in humans. Anti-human influenza virus monoclonal antibodies and antigen-binding fragments thereof having a neutralization activity against a human influenza B virus are provided. Methods for producing anti-human influenza B virus monoclonal antibodies are also provided. The antibodies and antigen-binding fragments thereof can be effective against a wide range of influenza B viral strains. Methods of inhibiting or treating a human influenza B infection are provided. The anti-influenza B therapeutics can also be used to manufacture medicaments effective against influenza B infections, to detect human influenza B in a human subject, for use in pharmaceutical compositions, and for use in kits for at least one of the prevention, the treatment, and the detection of human influenza B in a human subject.

The ability of influenza virus to evade immune surveillance through rapid genetic drift and reassortment means that it remains a continuous public health threat. During annual epidemics five to fifteen percent of the worldwide population are typically infected, resulting in three million to five million cases of severe illness and between 250,000 to 500,000 deaths per year (Lambert et al., The New England Journal of Medicine 363:2036-2044; WHO, Influenza (Seasonal) Fact Sheet No. 211). Influenza B virus, like H1 and H3 subtypes of influenza A virus, has caused epidemics in humans (WHO, Influence (Seasonal) Fact Sheet No. 211). In contrast to influenza A, influenza B virus is found almost exclusively in humans and has a much slower mutational rate than that observed for influenza A virus (Carrat et al., Vaccine 25:6852-6862; Nobusawa et al., Journal of Virology 80:3675-3678; Webster et al, The Journal of General Virology 54:243-251). However, co-circulation of two phylogenetically and antigenically distinct lineages, represented by the B/Yamagata/16/88 and B/Victoria/2/87, has caused antigenic variation through genetic reassortment and antigenic drift from cumulative mutations, leading to annual endemics (Hay et al., Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London 356:1861-1870; Lin et al., Virus Research 103:47-52).
The development of vaccines producing broadly reactive antibodies and therapeutic strategies using human monoclonal antibodies (HuMAbs) with global reactivity has recently been gathering great interest. Neuraminidase inhibitors oseltamivir (Tamiflu) and zanamivir (Relenza) have been widely used for the treatment of influenza viral infection. However, they have limited efficacy when administered more than 48 hours after the onset of illness (Aoki et al., The Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy 51: 123-129), and widespread use has resulted in the emergence of resistant viral strains (Kiso et al, Lancet 364:759-765; Lowen et al., Infectious Disorders Drug Targets 7:318-328; Reece, Journal of Medical Virology 79:1577-1586). Therefore, new therapeutic strategies that provide potent and broadly cross-protective host immunity are a global public health priority. Thus, the development of novel antibody-based therapies is of great interest (Marasco et al., Nature Biotechnology 25:1421-1434).
Several human monoclonal antibodies (HuMAbs) with broad neutralizing activities were identified against the hemagglutinin (HA) protein in influenza A viruses, including C6261 and F10, which react with group 1 viruses (Ekiert et al., Science 324:246-251; Sui et al., Nature Structural & Molecular Biology 16:265-273), and CR8020, which neutralizes group 2 viruses (Ekiert et al., Science 333:843-850). Another HuMAb, FI6v3, which neutralized both group 1 and group 2 influenza A viruses, was isolated in 2011 (Corti et al., Science 333: 850-856). Although influenza B virus has a much slower mutational rate than that observed for influenza A virus like H1 and H3 subtypes, it has annually caused epidemics in humans (NPL1: Hay et al., Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London 256:1861-1870; NPL2: Lin et al., Virus Research 103:47-52). For influenza B virus, however, broadly neutralizing HuMAbs, CR8033, CR8071 and CR9114, have firstly reported on September 2012 (NPL3: Dreyfus et al., Science 337: 1343-1348). Accordingly, a need exists for broadly neutralizing HuMAb against the influenza B virus.

Human monoclonal antibodies broadly protective against influenza B virus and methods of using the same

THE RESEARCH FOUNDATION FOR MICROBIAL DISEASES OF OSAKA UNIVERSITY

MEDICAL AND BIOLOGICAL LABORATORIES CO., LTD.

DEPARTMENT OF MEDICAL SCIENCES MINISTRY OF PUBLIC HEALTH


The size of an image file is not influenced even if location information is added or deleted after storing the image file. To achieve this, when an image is stored on a storage medium, whether GPS measurement was successful is determined. If measurement was successful, information indicating the existence of location information is stored in a first area as attribute information compliant with the image file format, the acquired location information is stored in a second area as attribute information, and the image is stored in a predetermined format. If not, information indicating the existence of location information is stored in the first area, predetermined information is stored in the second area, a reserved area having a pre-set size is allocated in a continuous area that follows the second area, and the captured image is stored.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to technology for the addition and deletion of attribute information regarding captured images in an apparatus that has an image capturing function.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, an image processing apparatus has been proposed in which location information is added to an image after the image is captured (e.g., see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2009-027647, which is referred to hereinafter as Document 1).
According to Document 1, an image capture apparatus records a captured image as an image file, and a mobile information terminal that can communicate with the image capture apparatus acquires location information using GPS. The image capture apparatus then receives that location information from the mobile information terminal, and adds the location information to the already-recorded image file as part of its attribute information.
In general, location information as defined by EXIF, which represents image attribute information, exists in the header portion of an image file, and the insertion of location information there increases the size of the header portion, thus requiring subsequent image data to be moved by that amount of increase. Also, even assuming that an area for writing location information has been allocated in advance, since indeterminate values are not defined in location information as defined by EXIF, the allocated data will necessarily be treated as data indicating location information for somewhere in the world.

Image capture apparatus and method of controlling the same


A wall mountable hockey equipment rack is provided having a unitary, molded structure having an open channel and opposing upper support portions for supporting at least one inverted hockey stick therein. The upper support portions include at least one flared surface for supporting the upper curved edge of a hockey stick blade. Along the lower, lateral sides of the device is disposed a pair of cup-like holding members for receiving hockey pucks, equipment tape, and other equipment therein. Along the forward portion of the cup-like holding members is an upstanding equipment hook for supporting suspended items therefrom, such as hockey garments, tied-together ice skates, and other equipment that can be suspended from a hook-like structure. The open channel includes a back wall member having a plurality of fastener apertures therethrough for mounting the equipment rack against a planar wall surface during deployment.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to sport equipment storage racks and, more particularly to a wall mountable sport equipment rack usable for conveniently organizing and storing a plurality of hockey related spots equipment such as, for examples, hockey sticks, hockey pucks, ice skates, hockey related sport garments, and the like.
Sports equipment storage racks for hockey sticks and other types of equipment related to the hockey sport are known in the art and are useful for storing, organizing, and/or displaying hockey related sport equipment.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A first common type or hockey equipment rack of the prior art is generally represented by a wall mountable rack structure having a rear portion that is usually fixed to a vertically oriented support member, such as a wall or column. The rack structure is generally provided with shelves means and/or a plurality of support means that allows a user to support or otherwise releasably mount thereon portions of hockey related sport equipment such as hockey sticks, hockey pucks, hockey skates, hockey related sport garments and the like.
Another type of hockey equipment rack of the prior art is generally represented by a bucket-like member standing upright on a floor, or by a vertically oriented sleeve-like member fixed to a wall portion, and which allows a user to store one or more hockey sticks by simply inserting the shaft of an inverted hockey stick through the upper open end of the member.
Typical examples of the prior art are U.S. Pat. No. 7,441,669 to Dalbey, U.S. Design Pat. No. D579252 to Savoie, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2005/0121403 to Stubbs, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,286,717 to Liesinger. The Dalbey device describes a wall-mounted hockey stick rack with a plurality of aligned stick supports and an enlarged structure. The Savoie device provides a design for a structure having aligned apertures and insert locations for aligned hockey sticks along a wall surface. The Stubbs disclosure provides a wall mounted structure having an open interior for insertion of sticks therein, wherein the sticks are supported in a tilting fashion in one general location. Finally, the Liesinger device comprises a structure having a plurality of tubular object hanger supports aligned along a holder plate.
While these prior art hockey equipment racks generally offer a rack for storing and organizing hockey sticks, hockey skates, hockey pucks, and/or other hockey sport-related equipment, they also entail one or more of the following disadvantages: the rack-style structures having a rear portion attachable to a wall usually occupy a substantial amount of wall surface, while the bucket type rack does not necessarily store hockey sticks in a secure and organized way. Some of the prior art hockey equipment racks generally represent relatively complex structures that are not necessarily simple and economical to manufacture and sell on the market.
Against this background. there exists a need for a new and improved hockey equipment rack that avoids the aforementioned disadvantages. It is submitted that the present invention provides a substantially divergent support structure for hockey equipment, wherein the design elements of the present invention differ substantially from that of the prior art, and consequently it is clear that there is a need in the art for an improvement to existing hockey equipment support rack devices. In this regard the instant invention substantially fulfills these needs.


A memory module has a memory mounted thereon. A support plate supports a circuit board. The circuit board is located facing and separated from the support plate. The circuit board has a first contact. A holder has a recessed housing portion and a first engagement portion. The housing portion is formed to internally house the memory module. The first engagement portion is provided to be inserted into an opening and engage with the opening. The holder is configured to be fixed to the support plate in an attitude in which the housing portion is open toward the circuit board, by the first engagement portion engaging with the opening. A lid is mounted on the holder by being inserted into the housing portion. A conductive portion is provided on the lid. The conductive portion is configured to electrically connect the memory module to the first contact of the circuit board.

The present disclosure relates to an electronic device.
A printer is known in which heads that discharge ink are mounted on a carriage and print is performed while the carriage is moved relative to a cloth that is retained on a platen. A main board is provided inside the printer. At least a CPU, a memory such as a ROM and a RAM, and an input/output terminals etc. are mounted on the main board. Various software programs relating to control of the printer, a model code of the printer, print data, and various parameters etc. are stored in the memory.


Device for aircraft thrust reovery capable of linking a turboshaft engine and an engine strut.

The present invention relates to a device for thrust recovery, conceived for linking a turboshaft engine and an aircraft engine strut, so as to ensure transmission of the thrust forces of the turboshaft engine to the structure of the aircraft.
In the text as a whole, the terms xe2x80x9cfrontxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9crearxe2x80x9d refer to the direction of the airflow in the turboshaft engine, from the front to the rear.
Turboshaft engines ensuring propulsion of aircraft are usually mounted under the wings or inside the tail unit, through the intermediary of an engine strut. The link between the. engine and the strut is ensured by two or three linkage devices designed to transmit to the aircraft structure, through the engine strut, the thrust of the engine. These thrusts comprise vertical loads such as the weight of the engine, axial loads resulting from the thrust produced by the engine, lateral loads due in particular to turbulence produced by the wind, and roll loads or torques resulting from the rotation of the engine. The linkage devices must also absorb the dimensional modifications due to axial and radial expansions and contractions of the engine relative to the engine strut.
Generally, at least one of the linkage devices of the turboshaft engine is dedicated, at least partially, to transmission of the thrust forces. This device, usually situated at the rear of the engine, usually comprises a fitting attached to the engine strut, an articulated control bar on the attachment fitting in its central part, as well as two coupling rods linking the ends of the control bar to a structural element of the turboshaft engine, offset towards the front in relation to the attachment fitting. The two coupling rods are oriented almost along the thrust direction of the turboshaft engine.
In order to ensure transmission of the thrust forces even in the event of rupture of a part, the linkage devices fulfilling this function usually comprise a main linkage structure and a security backup linkage structure. The main linkage structure ensures transmission of thrust in normal operating conditions, that is to say when all the parts of the linkage device are intact. The security linkage structure is then inactive. On the other hand, the security linkage structure ensures transmission of thrust between the engine and the aircraft if there is a failure of one of the parts of the main linkage structure.
Document EP-A-0 564 126 describes a device for thrust recovery comprising a main linkage structure and a safety linkage structure. In conventional manner, the main linkage structure comprises an attachment fitting fixed on the engine strut and two coupling rods for transmission of thrust linked to the attachment fitting by a control bar. The security linkage structure comprises two lateral fork shaped yokes on the attachment fitting, in which the extensions of the pivoting axes are received with play through which the coupling rods are articulated on the ends of the control bar.
This thrust recovery device is usually satisfactory. However, it has the inconvenience of having to transit the thrust force along the same pivoting axes both in normal operational conditions and in the case of rupture of one of the parts.
Document EP-A-0 805 108 also describes a thrust recovery device comprising a main linkage structure and a safety linkage structure. The main linkage structure is of the same type as that used in document EP-A-0 564 126. The safety linkage structure comprises a supplementary pivoting axis interposed between the attachment fitting and the control bar, crossing the latter with a predetermined play.
This thrust recovery device has the main inconvenience of becoming non-operational when there is breakage of the control bar. In these conditions, the device no longer ensures recovery of the thrust forces and there is a great risk of losing the engine.
Document EP-A-0 879 759 also describes a thrust recovery device comprising a main linkage structure and a safety linkage structure. The main linkage structure is of the same type as that used in the preceding documents. The safety linkage structure comprises pins formed on the ends of the coupling rods articulated on the control bar. These pins enter with play into longitudinal grooves formed in the lugs integral with the attachment fitting.
This device needs to be dimensioned in order to transmit the thrusts correctly. This results in higher weight in relation to the thrust recovery device described in the preceding document.
The objective of the invention is a device for thrust recovery designed to ensure the link between a turboshaft engine and an engine strut of an aircraft, this device being fitted in such a way that it has reduced mass and dimensions and ensures the transmission of the thrust force even in the event of rupture of any one of the parts constituting it.
According to the invention this result is obtained by means of a thrust recovery device, capable of linking a turboshaft engine and an engine strut of an aircraft, the device comprising:
an attachment fitting able to be fixed to the engine strut, said attachment fitting comprising a central yoke and two lateral yokes;
a control bar containing a central part articulated on the central yoke of the attachment fitting by a first pivoting axis; and
two coupling rods oriented almost along the direction of the turboshaft engine thrust and each comprising a front end able to be articulated on the turboshaft engine and a rear yoke, articulated by a second pivoting axis on a lateral extremity corresponding to the control bar;
said device being characterised in that the rear yoke of each of the coupling rods is also articulated on one of the lateral yokes of the attachment fitting, by a link with play comprising a third pivoting axis.
In this device, the security linkage structure comprises pivoting axes distinct from those which are used by the main linkage structure. In addition, the thrust force recovery is ensured even in the hypothesis of rupture of the control bar, wherever the zone of this rupture is located.
According to a preferred embodiment, the second and third pivoting axes intersect the longitudinal axis the corresponding coupling rod.
Preferably, the lateral yokes of the attachment fittings are male yokes and the rear yokes of the coupling rods are female yokes.
Advantageously, the lateral ends of the control bar the n enter the female yokes of the coupling rods, in front of the lateral yokes of the attachment fittings.
Preferably, the first, second and third pivoting axes are parallel to each other.
In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the central yoke of the attachment fitting is also a female yoke receiving the central part of the control bar.

Device for aircraft thrust recovery capable of linking a turboshaft engine and an engine strut

Abstract: A device for thrust recovery (16) linking a turboshaft engine to an aircraft engine strut comprising an attachment fitting (22) fixed to an engine strut, a control bar (38) articulated on the attachment fittings (22) and two coupling rods (24) linking the control bar (38) to the central engine casing, almost along the longitudinal axis of the latter. Links with play are envisaged between each of the coupling rods (24) and the attachment fitting (22), to ensure transmission of thrust forces in the event of rupture of one of the parts of the device. These links with play comprise pivoting axes (48) which intersect the longitudinal axes of the corresponding coupling rods (24).


A method of processing an image using an electronic device is provided. The method includes displaying at least part of a first image which is obtained through a first image sensor and at least part of a second image which is obtained through a second image sensor through a display unit which is functionally connected to the electronic device, storing the at least part of the first image, storing the at least part of the second image in response to a detecting of a signal, and storing the at least part of the first image and the at least part of the second image to be simultaneously replayed as at least one image.

Generally, a method of photographing an image in a camera device displays image data, which is obtained from the image sensor of each camera, on a display unit, and compresses and encodes obtained image data and stores the image data in a memory if a user gives a command to take a photograph.
An existing camera device or a portable terminal equipped with a camera may include a plurality of cameras, including high pixel cameras or low pixel cameras. The plurality of cameras are mounted on a front side and a rear side of the camera device or the portable terminal. Further, the camera device or the portable terminal including the plurality of cameras, that is, dual cameras, may photograph a front side subject or a rear side subject by independently selecting the front camera and the rear camera. That is, the camera device or the portable terminal including a plurality of cameras may respectively photograph different images, and separately store and manage photographed images.
Further, the camera device or the portable terminal including a plurality of cameras may obtain a plurality of images by operating a plurality of cameras, and compose and store the obtained images by Picture In Picture (PIP) type. Currently, when a plurality of cameras are simultaneously driven, it is difficult to obtain a plurality of natural images. That is, in the photographic mode, the user performs a photographic operation by checking images outputted from the front side or rear side camera, and thus it is difficult to simultaneously check and photograph images which are outputted from a plurality of cameras. Hence, images, which are photographed from respective image sensors, may be photographed in a desired form by controlling respective images sensors in a device including a plurality of image sensors.
Accordingly there is a need for an apparatus and method capable of capturing images while consecutively controlling image sensors by using a timer when a photographic operation is requested in an electronic device equipped with a plurality of image sensors.
The above information is presented as background information only to assist with an understanding of the present disclosure. No determination has been made, and no assertion is made, as to whether any of the above might be applicable as prior art with regard to the present disclosure.

Apparatus and method for processing an image in device


A time-to-digital converter adopted to transform an enabled time of a time signal into an output data and an operation method thereof are provided. The operation method includes the following steps: providing a counter clock signal by a digital phase locked loop according to a reference clock signal; providing a counter result by a counter unit according to the counter clock signal and the time signal; comparing the enabled time of the time signal with a minimum time to provide a comparison result by a comparator unit; and outputting the counter result as the output data according to the comparison result when the enabled time of the time signal is longer than the minimum time.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a data converter and an operation method thereof. More particularly, the invention relates to a time-to-digital converter and an operation method thereof.
2. Description of Related Art
Internet of Things (IOT) is a network, which allows all of ordinary physical objects capable of being addressed independently to carry out interconnections and intercommunications based on information carriers such as Internet and a traditional communication network, wherein IOT is generally a wireless network. In other words, all of articles may be connected to each other by the Internet and informational sensing devices, such as radio frequency identification (RFID), such that intelligent identification and management are fulfilled.
In IOT, the wireless technology is used for detecting changes in the surroundings through a wireless sensor network, wherein the wireless sensor technology provides data corresponding to the changes of the surroundings via a combination of a sensor and a wireless network, such that personnel/devices may determine changes in the surroundings with the data. In addition, with advancement of the wireless communication technology, the technique of transmitting data by a length of an enabled time of a signal is gradually come to maturity, and is less interfered with ambient noises. Accordingly, how to convert an enabled time of a signal into a digital data has become one of major technologies in terms of developing IOT.

Time-to-digital converter and operation method thereof