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Today's world automobile market is highly competitive. Quality of automobile is considered even more important and thus efforts are being made to improve the quality of automobile parts in order to survive in such competitive market. Despite rapid development of inspection devices using the vision system, there are few inspection systems for automobile parts. The reason is because the inspection with only one camera is nearly impossible, since automobile parts are three-dimensional and large. The seat frame, one of the typical automobile parts, has various models and is assembled using more than 20 subparts. This paper suggests a flexible assembly inspection system of seat frame through the following procedures: first, the inspection method is standardized so that the system can cope with not only some currently existing models but also latent models in the future. Second, 6 cameras are used for inspecting seat frame assembly; 4 cameras are for measuring accuracy, and 2 for right and left-hand sides. Third, a simple pattern matching method is proposed for checking the position of assembly parts. Finally, slit beam method is proposed for checking the existence of assembly parts. Especially, it is very effective to inspect assembly of automobile parts with 3D shape and complex background image. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Micro-slit-beam radiation therapy (MRT) using synchrotron-generated X-ray beams allows for extremely high-dose irradiation. However, the toxicity of MRT in central nervous system (CNS) use is still unknown. To gather baseline toxicological data, we evaluated mortality in normal mice following CNS-targeted MRT. Male C57BL/6 J mice were head-fixed in a stereotaxic frame. Synchrotron X-ray-beam radiation was provided by the SPring-8 BL28B2 beam-line. For MRT, radiation was delivered to groups of mice in a 10 × 12 mm unidirectional array consisting of 25-μm-wide beams spaced 100, 200 or 300 μm apart; another group of mice received the equivalent broad-beam radiation therapy (BRT) for comparison. Peak and valley dose rates of the MRT were 120 and 0.7 Gy/s, respectively. Delivered doses were 96-960 Gy for MRT, and 24-120 Gy for BRT. Mortality was monitored for 90 days post-irradiation. Brain tissue was stained using hematoxylin and eosin to evaluate neural structure. Demyelination was evaluated by Klüver-Barrera staining. The LD 50 and LD 100 when using MRT were 600 Gy and 720 Gy, respectively, and when using BRT they were 80 Gy and 96 Gy, respectively. In MRT, mortality decreased as the center-to-center beam spacing increased from 100 μm to 300 μm. Cortical architecture was well preserved in MRT, whereas BRT induced various degrees of cerebral hemorrhage and demyelination. MRT was able to deliver extremely high doses of radiation, while still minimizing neuronal death. The valley doses, influenced by beam spacing and irradiated dose, could represent important survival factors for MRT., (© The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Japan Radiation Research Society and Japanese Society for Radiation Oncology.)