US07947551B1
An embodiment of the disclosure includes a method of forming a shallow trench isolation structure. A substrate is provided. The substrate includes a top surface. A trench is formed to extend from the top surface into the substrate. The trench has sidewalls and a bottom surface. A silicon liner layer is formed on the sidewalls and the bottom surface. A flowable dielectric material is filled in the trench. An anneal process is performed to densify the flowable dielectric material and convert the silicon liner layer into a silicon oxide layer simultaneously.
US07947550B2
A semiconductor device may include, but is not limited to, first and second well regions, and a well isolation region isolating the first and second well regions. The first and second well regions each may include an active region, a device isolation groove that defines the active region, and a device isolation insulating film that fills the device isolation groove. The first and second well regions may include first and second well layers, respectively. The well isolation region may include a well isolation groove, a well isolation insulating film that fills the well isolation groove, and a diffusion stopper layer disposed under a bottom of the well isolation groove. The first and second well layers have first and second bottoms respectively, which are deeper in depth than a bottom of the device isolation groove and shallower in depth than the bottom of the well isolation groove.
US07947547B2
A semiconductor device fabrication method by which CMOS transistors with low-resistance metal gate electrodes each having a proper work function can be fabricated. A HfN layer in which nitrogen concentration in an nMOS transistor formation region differs from nitrogen concentration in a pMOS transistor formation region is formed. A MoN layer is formed over the HfN layer and heat treatment is performed. Nitrogen diffuses from the MoN layer into the HfN layer in which nitrogen concentration is low and a work function is set by the HfN layer according to nitrogen concentration which depends on the nitrogen content of the HfN layer before the heat treatment and the amount of nitrogen that diffuses into the HfN layer. On the other hand, nitrogen hardly diffuses from the MoN layer into the HfN layer which originally has a certain nitrogen content, and a work function is set by the HfN layer according to nitrogen concentration in the HfN layer before the heat treatment. By controlling the nitrogen content of each layer and the amount of nitrogen that diffuses, a low-resistance metal gate electrode having a predetermined work function can be formed in each of the nMOS transistor formation region and the pMOS transistor formation region.
US07947544B2
An object is to provide a film deposition apparatus in which the amount of leakage from the outside of the chamber to the inside of the chamber is reduced. Even if leakage occurs from the outside of the chamber to the inside of the chamber, oxygen and nitrogen included in an atmosphere that surrounds the outer wall of the chamber are reduced as much as possible and the atmosphere is filled with a noble gas or hydrogen, whereby the inside of the chamber is kept cleaner at 1/100 or less, preferably, 1/1000 or less of oxygen concentration and nitrogen concentration than those in the air. Since the space with high airtightness is provided adjacent to the outside of the chamber, the chamber is covered with a bag and a high-purity argon gas is supplied to the bag.
US07947539B2
A method of manufacturing a thin film transistor array panel includes forming gate lines including gate electrodes on an insulation substrate; forming a gate insulating layer, semiconductor layer, and etch stop layer on the gate lines; etching and patterning the etch stop and semiconductor layers at the same time using photolithography; ashing and partially removing a photoresist film pattern used in the patterning of the etch stop and semiconductor layers; etching the etch stop layer exposed by removed portions of the photoresist film pattern to form etch stop members; depositing ohmic contact and data metal layers onto the etch stop members, etching the ohmic contact and data metal layers at the same time using photolithography to form data lines having source and drain electrodes, and ohmic contact members below the source and drain electrodes; forming a passivation layer on the data lines and drain electrodes; and forming pixel electrodes on the passivation layer.
US07947535B2
A thin package system with external terminals and a leadframe is provided. An external bond finger defining template is provided and used to form external bond fingers on the leadframe. A die is provided and attached to the leadframe. At least portions of the die and the external bond fingers are encapsulated, and the leadframe is removed.
US07947529B2
Microelectronic die packages, stacked systems of die packages, and methods of manufacturing thereof are disclosed herein. In one embodiment, a method of manufacturing a microelectronic device includes stacking a first die package having a first dielectric casing on top of a second die package having a second dielectric casing, aligning first metal leads at a lateral surface of the first casing with second metal leads at a second lateral surface of the second casing, and forming metal solder connectors that couple individual first leads to individual second leads. In another embodiment, the method of manufacturing the microelectronic device may further include forming the connectors by applying metal solder to a portion of the first lateral surface, to a portion of the second lateral surface, and across a gap between the first die package and the second die package so that the connectors are formed by the metal solder wetting to the individual first leads and the individual second leads.
US07947519B2
An organic light emitting diode (OLED) display. The OLED display includes: a lower electrode formed on a layer on an insulating substrate having a thin film transistor. The lower electrode is electrically connected to the thin film transistor. An auxiliary electrode is formed on the same layer as the lower electrode, and a pixel defining layer is formed on edges of the lower electrode, thereby defining an opening which exposes a portion of the lower electrode. An organic layer is formed on the portion of the lower electrode exposed by the opening, and an upper electrode is formed on an entire surface of the insulating substrate and electrically connected to the auxiliary electrode. An edge of the auxiliary electrode may have a taper angle of at least 90°.
US07947518B2
This invention discloses that photolithography can be made compatible with the production of electronic devices containing sensitive materials, if the sensitive materials are over-coated with an ultra-thin layer of non-reactive materials (e.g. inorganic oxides) before undergoing photolithographic patterning. This protecting layer isolates the sensitive materials from solvents and etching reactants used in photolithographic patterning, and does not need to be removed from the sensitive materials after patterning is completed. This invention enables photolithography to be applied to the production of electronic devices containing sensitive materials, facilitating the development of commercially viable production processes for these devices.
US07947511B2
Ultrasensitive detection of a chemical substance (analyte) by mass spectrometry is achieved by employing a molecular tag that yields an intense parent ion and then an intense daughter ion in a multi-stage mass spectrometer.
US07947509B2
The invention relates to optoelectronic systems for detecting one or more target particles. The system includes a reaction chamber, a specimen collector, an optical detector, and a reservoir containing cells, each of the cells having receptors which are present on the surface of each cell and are specific for the target particle to be detected, where binding of the target particle to the receptors directly or indirectly activates a reporter molecule, thereby producing a measurable optical signal.
US07947505B2
The present invention provides a method for testing quickly and easily the manner in which an antithrombotic agent inhibits the acceleration of blood coagulation when a platelet agonist causes acceleration of blood coagulation. The invention is a test method wherein a system in which an anticoagulant is added to a portion of blood sampled from a patient being administered an antithrombotic agent (X system blood), and a system in which an anticoagulant and adenosine diphosphate or collagen are added to a portion of the abovementioned blood (Y system blood) are simultaneously measured by thromboelastograph; and the efficacy of the antithrombotic agent is assessed by comparing the R values of the X system blood and the Y system blood. If the R value of the Y system blood is not found to differ significantly from the R value of the X system blood, the drug is judged to be working. Adenosine diphosphate and collagen can be used as the anticoagulant. The present invention provides a heretofore unknown method for easily assessing the efficacy of an antithrombotic agent.
US07947504B2
The determination (test, diagnosis) of pancreatic cancer can be performed with high accuracy by detecting a fucosylated sugar chain (N-glycan) present in a specific site of the human haptoglobin and using an amount of the fucosylated sugar chain as a tumor marker for pancreatic cancer.
US07947499B2
The present invention is of a method of dynamically generating human embryoid bodies which can be used for generating lineage specific cells and cell lines. Specifically, the present invention can be used to generate ESC-differentiated cells for cell-replacement therapy.
US07947487B2
Method for making multifunctional particles. The method includes flowing a first monomer stream loaded with a fluorescent entity along a microfluidic channel and flowing a second monomer stream loaded with a probe adjacent to the first monomer stream along the microfluidic channel. The monomer streams are polymerized to synthesize particles having a fluorescent, graphically encoded region and a probe-loaded region.
US07947484B2
A method of producing biogas by anaerobic digestion of organic matter may include adding cobalt, iron, and hydrochloric acid to an organic matter; bringing the organic matter in contact with biogas-producing bacteria; and digesting the organic matter under anaerobic conditions in a reactor while producing biogas and a digested sludge. A device for producing biogas may include a reactor being adapted for containing the organic matter in the form of a sludge while the sludge is digested. The device includes a feeding device for adding cobalt, iron, and hydrochloric acid to the organic matter, and an agitator for mixing the added cobalt, iron and hydrochloric acid with the organic matter. An additive, which is adapted for being added to a device for producing biogas by anaerobic digestion, may include cobalt, iron, and hydrochloric acid in an aqueous solution.
US07947473B2
The present invention relates generally to the production, purification, and isolation of human growth hormone (hGH). More particularly, the invention relates to the production, purification, and isolation of substantially purified hGH comprising non-naturally encoded amino acids and hGH from recombinant host cells or culture medium including, for example, yeast, insect, mammalian and bacterial host cells. The process of the present invention is also useful for purification of hGH linked to polymers or other molecules.
US07947465B2
Bodily fluid is analyzed for the presence of drugs of a selected panel of drugs in a simultaneous assay in which sample of the fluid is incubated with additional amounts of all drugs of the panel, antibodies specific to each of the drugs of the panel, and microparticles, the microparticles being divided into subsets, one subset for each drug in the panel and each subset distinguishable from the others. The incubation is performed in a liquid medium in which competitive binding occurs, the drugs in the sample competing with those added to the assay medium for binding to the antibodies. In one procedure, the added drugs are pre-coupled to the microparticles while the antibodies are not, and the incubation is followed by further incubating the microparticles with labeled ligands that have affinity for the antibodies. In an alternative procedure, the added drugs are not coupled to the microparticles but are pre-labeled, while the antibodies are pre-coupled to the microparticles, and the assay proceeds without further incubation. In both alternatives, the microparticles are ultimately recovered from the assay medium and from any unbound species, and the recovered microparticles are analyzed by flow cytometry to obtain indications of the presence of the various drugs in the sample in an inverse manner by detection of the label, each drug differentiable from the others by the distinguishing features of the microparticles.
US07947461B2
A colloidal silica particle containing a light-absorbing substance, comprising a colloidal silica particle and a light-absorbing substance distributed over the colloidal silica particle, wherein the light-absorbing substance is chemically bound to or adsorbed on a silica component.
US07947460B2
The present invention is directed to methods for predicting or diagnosing a hazelnut-induced systemic reaction, and for methods for treating such a reaction.
US07947459B2
Described is a novel family of cell surface serpentine transmembrane antigens. Two of the proteins in this family are exclusively or predominantly expressed in the prostate, as well as in prostate cancer, and thus members of this family have been termed “STEAP” (Six Transmembrane Epithelial Antigen of the Prostate). Four particular human STEAPs are described and characterized herein. The human STEAPs exhibit a high'degree of structural conservation among them but show no significant structural homology to any known human proteins. STEAP-2 is a 454 amino acid protein characterized by a predicted molecular topology of six transmembrane domains and intracellular N- and C-termini, suggesting that it folds in a “serpentine” manner into three extracellular and two intracellular loops.
US07947455B2
Systems, methods, compositions and apparatus relating to genome selection are disclosed.
US07947452B2
The invention relates to the use of oligonucleotides from the nucleotide sequences coding for the amino-terminal region of the surface component (SU) of envelope proteins of PTLV viruses in order to perform methods of detecting every PTLV strain or PTLV-related viruses, e.g. for the detection of novel PTLV variants or viruses comprising sequences related to PTLV SUs. The invention also relates to primer pairs which are used to perform said detection methods and the novel PTLV variants thus detected.
US07947444B2
The present invention relates to single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the leptin promoter, and to methods for the identification of animals carrying specific alleles of these SNPs that are associated with circulating leptin levels, feed intake, growth rate, body weight, carcass merit and carcass composition. The present invention provides oligonucleotides that can be used as primers and/or probes to amplify and/or detect these SNPs, and provides methods for selecting and grouping animals, in particular bovines, according to genotype.
US07947439B2
The present invention relates to a method of detecting whether a target animal is Bovine Viral Diarrhea Virus (BVDV) positive or negative by determining whether a gp48 protein-specific reagent binds to a gp48 Bovine Viral Diarrhea Virus protein or protein fragment, which retains antigenic specificity, from a target animal's tissue sample.
US07947436B2
This invention relates, in part, to unique and newly identified genetic polynucleotides involved in the process of bone remodeling; variants and derivatives of the polynucleotides and corresponding polypeptides; uses of polynucleotides, polypeptides, variants and derivatives; and methods and compositions for the amelioration of symptoms caused by bone remodeling disorders. Disclosed in particular are, the isolation and identification of polynucleotides, polypeptides, variants and derivatives involved in osteoclast activity, validation of the identified polynucleotides for their potential as therapeutic targets and use of the polynucleotides, polypeptides, variants and derivatives for the amelioration of disease states and research purposes.
US07947432B2
After forming a lower layer film, an intermediate layer film and a first resist film on a substrate, a first resist pattern is formed by performing first exposure. Then, after a first intermediate layer pattern is formed by transferring the first resist pattern onto the intermediate layer film, a second resist film is formed thereon, and a second resist pattern is formed by performing second exposure. Thereafter, a second intermediate layer pattern is formed by transferring the second resist pattern onto the intermediate layer film. After removing the second resist film, the lower layer film is etched by using the second intermediate layer pattern as a mask, so as to form a lower layer pattern.
US07947422B2
The invention relates to a fluorine-containing compound represented by the formula 1, where R1 is a methyl group or trifluoromethyl group, each of R2 and R3 is independently a hydrogen atom or a group containing (a) a hydrocarbon group having a straight-chain, branched or ring form and having a carbon atom number of 1-25 or (b) an aromatic hydrocarbon group, the group optionally containing at least one of a fluorine atom, an oxygen atom and a carbonyl bond, l is an integer of from 0 to 2, each of m and n is independently an integer of 1-5 to satisfy an expression of m+n≦6, and when at least one of R1, R2 and R3 is in a plural number, the at least one of R1, R2 and R3 may be identical with or different from each other.
US07947406B2
A polymer electrolyte having a repetitive structure represented by the following formula (1): wherein B represents a single bond or a bivalent group, A represents a bivalent aromatic group, Y represents —SO2—, —SO— or —CO—, R1 represents a substituent, n1 represents an integer of from 0 to 3, L represents a perfluoroalkylene group, and M represents an ionic group.
US07947402B2
Provided is a fuel cell system including: a cartridge in which fuel is stored; a power unit producing power by using the fuel supplied from the cartridge; and a port to which an electronic device is connected, wherein the port comprises: a first channel which is a channel for receiving start-up power from the electronic device and supplying produced power to the electronic device; a second channel via which a signal indicating attachment of the fuel cell system to the electronic device is transmitted to the electronic device when the fuel cell system is attached to the electronic device; and a third channel for grounding.
US07947401B2
The present invention relates to a preheating arrangement in a fuel cell apparatus, the fuel cell apparatus comprising at least a fuel cell unit, the fuel cells of which include an anode side and a cathode side and an electrolyte therebetween and in which fuel cell apparatus there is at least a fuel inlet into the anode side and an oxygen-containing gas inlet into the cathode side as well as a de-sulphuring unit and a fuel modifying unit and an afterburner for combusting the exhaust gases of the anode and/or cathode sides. According to the invention, a separate fuel channel has been arranged for the afterburner for introducing fuel to the afterburner at least during the start-up phase of the fuel cell apparatus and that at least a portion of the exhaust gases formed in the combustion of the separately fed fuel is arranged to be directed during the start-up phase of the fuel cell apparatus from the afterburner for heating at least the de-sulphuring unit and/or the fuel modifying unit.
US07947392B2
The present invention relates to primary and secondary electrochemical energy storage systems, particularly to such systems as battery cells, which use materials that take up and release ions as a means of storing and supplying electrical energy. The present positive electrode composition comprises a nanocrystalline bismuth fluoride compound, which comprises Bi+3, and has a maximum energy density of 7170 Wh/l−1.
US07947391B2
A rechargeable battery is provided such that the positive electrode comprises lead dioxide, the negative electrode zinc, iron, lead or cadmium, and the electrolyte is alkaline. Upon discharge, the lead dioxide is reduced to lead oxide, the metal is oxidized to an oxide, and the electrolyte remains unchanged. The reactions are reversed when the battery is charged.
US07947388B2
A battery pack includes battery terminals operable to be electrically coupled to one or more batteries. The battery pack also includes a printed circuit board electrically coupled to the battery terminals. The printed circuit board is operable to receive operating power from the one or more batteries and/or provide operating power to one or more external devices. The printed circuit board could provide power to a transmitter and/or one or more sensors in a process control system. The printed circuit board could also include a transmitter or other industrial instrument. The battery pack further includes a removable carrier attached to the printed circuit board. The removable carrier is operable to be inserted into and removed from a housing in order to insert the apparatus into the housing and remove the apparatus from the housing. The housing could, for example, represent a cylindrical casing forming part of a pipe.
US07947387B2
In an ECU, a coolant fan performs cooling operation such that a control DUTY value is limited by a control DUTY value according to tolerable noise level of the cooling fan based on a vehicle speed in a case in which the temperature in the high-voltage battery is lower than a predetermined limitation for highest temperature. In a case in which the temperature in the high-voltage battery is higher than the predetermined limitation for highest temperature, the cooling fan performs the cooling operation by using an energy storage device cooling operation requirement value and an IPU cooling operation requirement value such that performance in the high-voltage battery is not affected. By doing this, a temperature controlling apparatus for batteries in which it is possible to cool the battery and solve temperature difference among a plurality of batteries can be provided.
US07947386B2
A solid oxide fuel cell module of the invention, a fuel cell using the same and a manufacturing method thereof are provided. The solid oxide fuel cell module is easily manufacturable, economical, easily sealable and high in current density. A support is made of a first catalytic material. A first fluid flow part has flow passages formed inside the support. A second fluid flow part has a plurality of pillars protruded from an outer surface of the support and flow passages formed between the pillars. An electrolyte layer is coated on the outer surface of the support excluding top surfaces of the pillars. A coating layer is made of a second catalytic material and formed on a top surface of the electrolyte layer excluding the pillars. Also, a current collecting layer is coated on the top surfaces of the pillars.
US07947383B2
An organic electroluminescent device having a pair of electrodes and at least one organic layer including a light-emitting layer interposed between the pair of electrodes, in which the organic layer contains at least one compound represented by formula (I): wherein Z1 and Z2 each independently represent a nitrogen-containing heterocycle coordinated with the platinum through a nitrogen atom; Q1 and Q2 each independently represent a group bonded with the platinum through a carbon atom, an oxygen atom, a sulfur atom, a nitrogen atom or a phosphorous atom; Q1 and Q2 each represent a structure different from each other; L1 and L2 each independently represent a single bond or a linking group; and n represents 0 or 1.
US07947382B2
The present invention relates to polymers which contain novel structural units of the formula (I). The materials according to the invention exhibit improved efficiency and a longer lifetime on use in a polymeric organic light-emitting diode.
US07947381B2
The present invention provides parts of a rotation machine which effectively prevent particulates, such as silica, iron oxide, and other particles, contained in a gas to adhere to the rotating machines which work with the gases containing the particulates. An intermediated metal-plated film and a plated film containing fluorocarbon polymer particles provided on the intermediate metal-plated film are deposited on the surfaces of moving blades used in a steam turbine. The plated film containing the fluorocarbon polymer particles includes fluorocarbon polymer particles made of any of Ni-based metals and a plated matrix, and some of the fluorocarbon polymer particles are exposed at the surfaces of the plated matrix.
US07947379B2
An aqueous dispersion including (A) at least one base polymer selected from the group consisting of an ethylene-based co-polymer and a propylene-based co-polymer; (B) at least one polymeric stabilizing agent; and at least one filler; wherein the polymeric stabilizing agent is different from the at least one base polymer and is compatible with the at least one base polymer and the at least one filler, and wherein the dispersion has filler in the range of greater than 0 to about 600 parts per hundred parts of a combined amount of the at least one base polymer and the polymeric stabilizing agent is disclosed.
US07947378B2
A process for fabricating a medical assembly having a medical device at least a portion of which is formed of inorganic material is provided. The medical assembly is suitable for substantially long-term implantation in a host animal. The process includes modifying a surface of the medical device to form a hydrophilic adhesion-promoting surface. The hydrophilic adhesion-promoting surface is coated with an alginate solution comprising alginate and the alginate is reacted with alkaline earth metal cations.
US07947376B2
Polydiorganosiloxane polyoxamide, linear, block copolymers and methods of making the copolymers are provided. The method of making the copolymers involves reacting a diamine with a polydiorganosiloxane precursor having oxalylamino groups. The polydiorganosiloxane polyoxamide block copolymers are of the (AB)n type.
US07947375B2
An interlayer dielectric film is made from an organic/inorganic hybrid film. The organic/inorganic hybrid film has a main chain in which a first site of siloxane and a second site of an organic molecule are alternately bonded to each other.
US07947373B2
A coating composition and related coated substrates are disclosed. The coating composition of the present invention includes a first dielectric layer having a thickness ranging from 380 Å to 430 Å; a first metal layer over the first dielectric layer having a thickness ranging from 60 Å to 130 Å; a first primer layer over the first dielectric layer having a thickness ranging from 10 Å to 30 Å; a second dielectric layer over the first primer layer having a thickness ranging from 880 Å to 1020 Å; a second metal layer over the second dielectric layer having a thickness ranging from 100 Å to 180 Å; a second primer layer over the second metal layer having a thickness ranging from 10 Å to 30 Å; and a third dielectric layer over the second primer layer having a thickness ranging from 240 Å to 520 Å.
US07947371B2
Metal oxide composites containing highly dispersed single-walled carbon nanotubes were prepared using sol-gel methods and shown to be electrically conducting.
US07947367B2
A fiber is obtainable from or comprises an ethylene/α-olefin interpolymer characterized by an elastic recovery, Re, in percent at 300 percent strain and (1) cycle and a density, d, in grams/cubic centimeter, wherein the elastic recovery and the density satisfy the following relationship: Re>1481−1629(d). Such interpolymer can also be characterized by other properties. The fibers made therefrom have a relatively high elastic recovery and a relatively low coefficient of friction. The fibers can be cross-linked, if desired. Woven or non-woven fabrics can be made from such fibers.
US07947359B2
The present invention provides a laminated nonwoven fabric wherein the nonwoven fabric is a laminated one formed by integrating, through compressive bonding, a stacked nonwoven fabric structure comprising an upper and a lower thermoplastic synthetic filamentary fiber layer that have a fiber diameter from 7 μm or more to 20 μm, and an intermediate layer composed of thermoplastic synthetic fine fibers that have a fiber diameter of 5 μm or less, the laminated nonwoven fabric having an intimately mixed structure in which a portion of the fine fibers is intruded into at least one face side of the filamentary fiber layers with an intrusion index of 0.36 or more to bond, surround or interlace the filamentary fibers, a basis of weight of from 10 g or more to 250 g/m2, and a bulk density of 0.20 g/cm3 or more.
US07947357B2
A method of placing a logo on an article or substrate by placing a contrast sheet behind the logo and a blocking sheet therebetween to prevent a shadow effect. The contrast sheet and blocking sheet may be hidden within the hem of an article.
US07947350B2
A film label comprising a film layer with printed material on the front or back surface, where the back surface may be covered with an overprint coating. The overprint coating protects any reverse-printed material, and may be colored or patterned, or both. One exemplary pattern is achieved by alternating coating weights to create a series of lands (i.e., raised areas) and groove (i.e., lower areas). The grooves help move entrapped air and gasses from the back side of the label, and may help water in a water-based adhesive wick away. The pattern can be a series of sinusoidal waves, curves, straight lines, or a variety of other patterns. The coating may also be used on opaque labels to assist in drying the label adhesive.
US07947334B2
An alkali-free accelerator for sprayed cementitious composition, such as concrete, is prepared by dissolving aluminium sulphate in water and amorphous aluminium hydroxide in water optionally containing amine, and adding at least one stabiliser which is glycolic acid, and optionally at least one defoaming agent.
US07947331B2
A method for making a thermal interface material includes the steps of: (a) providing an array of carbon nanotubes formed on a substrate, the carbon nanotubes having interfaces defined therebetween; (b) providing a transferring device and disposing at least one low melting point metallic material above the array of carbon nanotubes, using the transferring device; and (c) heating the low melting point metallic material and the array of carbon nanotube to a certain temperature to make the at least one low melting point metallic material melt, then flow into the interspaces between the carbon nanotubes, and combine (e.g., mechanically) with the array of carbon nanotubes to acquire a carbon-nanotube-based thermal interface material.
US07947321B2
A method for improving the functional and organoleptic properties of a product is described. The method involves modifying the particles within the product to meet certain particle morphology parameters.
US07947318B2
A method for maintaining produce in a near “just harvested” state during transport in a truck trailer by limiting the formation of Ethylene, scrubbing the atmosphere to remove any that does form, and by exhausting the atmosphere of any residual Ethylene. The system will also limit the amount of Oxygen and Carbon Dioxide to preset limits, and exhaust the excess.
US07947305B2
The present invention aims at providing a fat-soluble drug composition having improved absorbability of the fat-soluble component in the living body and being stable as a formulation, specifically a fat-soluble drug composition for capsules. The present invention relates to a fat-soluble drug composition comprising a fat-soluble component and an emulsifier, wherein the emulsifier contains diacetyltartaric and unsaturated fatty acid esters of glycerol and a glycerol ester of unsaturated fatty acid.
US07947303B2
A supplement to be administered enterally to maintain or restore the intestinal intestinal barrier of the critically or chronically ill and people with malnutrition is described.This contains as solution, in each case based on a daily dose, a) glutamine and/or glutamine precursors in an amount in the range from 15 to 70 g, b) at least two representatives from the group of substances having antioxidant activity, and c) short-chain fatty acids and/or precursors of short-chain fatty acids in an amount of from 0.5 to 10 g.
US07947302B2
Medical devices, and in particular implantable medical devices, may be coated to minimize or substantially eliminate a biological organism's reaction to the introduction of the medical device to the organism. The medical devices may be coated with any number of biocompatible materials. Therapeutic drugs, agents or compounds may be mixed with the biocompatible materials and affixed to at least a portion of the medical device. These therapeutic drugs, agents or compounds may also further reduce a biological organism's reaction to the introduction of the medical device to the organism. In addition, these therapeutic drugs, agents and/or compounds may be utilized to promote healing, including the formation of blood clots. Various materials and coating methodologies may be utilized to maintain the drugs, agents or compounds on the medical device until delivered and positioned.
US07947286B2
Filovirus subunit protein immunogens are produced using a recombinant expression system and combined with one or more adjuvants in immunogenic formulations. The subunit proteins include GP95, GP-FL, VP40, VP24, and NP derived from Ebola Virus and Marburg Virus. Adjuvants include saponins, emulsions, alum, and dipeptidyl peptidase inhibitors. The disclosed immunogenic formulations are effective in inducing strong antibody responses directed against individual Filovirus proteins and intact Filovirus particles as well as stimulating cell-mediated immune responses to the Filoviruses.
US07947281B2
The present invention is related to the obtaining of chimeric chains coding for proteins capable of inducing, in the recipient, a serotype-specific and protective humoral immune response against the infection by the Dengue virus, thus eliminating the effects of the serotype-nonespecific viral immunoenhancement that causes hemorrhagies and clinical complications described for this kind of pathology. These chimeric chains of nucleic acids are composed by the specific combination of fragments belonging to the gene of a mutated protein from Neisseria meningitidis with dehydrogenase activity and fragments that codify for a region of the envelope (E) protein from the Dengue virus which, when inserted to an expression vector, give rise to chimeric proteins with particular properties. The resultant chimeric molecules from this invention are applicable to the pharmaceutical industry for the obtaining of vaccine preparations and diagnostic means of high serotype-specificity to be used in humans.
US07947271B2
Receptor coupling agents, including multivalent constructs comprising anti-TNF receptor binding moieties, for treating cancer and inhibiting tumor volume in a subject are disclosed.
US07947270B2
The invention relates to a multifunctional enzyme that can be derived from crustaceans or fish. The enzyme has at least one of a chymotrypsin, trypsin, elastase, collagenase and exo peptidase activity, and a molecular weight between about 20 kd and about 40 kd as determined by SDS PAGE. Preferably, the multifunctional enzyme has substantial anti cell-cell adhesion activity. Preferably, the multifunctional enzyme has substantial homology with the krill multifunctional enzyme. These enzymes are useful for treating viral infections such as herpes outbreaks, fungal, bacterial or parasitic infections, including the primary and secondary infections of leprosy, colitis, ulcers, hemorrhoids, corneal scarring, dental plaque, acne, cystic fibrosis, blood clots, wounds, immune disorders including autoimmune disease and cancer. Additionally, the invention relates to a method of purifying the multifunctional enzyme, and to a preparation of essentially purified multifunctional enzyme.
US07947268B2
A vaccine for the prevention of anthrax, including a live, attenuated Salmonella and at least one nucleotide sequence encoding anthrax protective antigen (PA) or a fragment thereof and a nonlethal mutated form of anthrax lethal factor (LF) or a fragment thereof. In another implementation, the vaccine is constituted for the prevention of anthrax and at least one additional pathogen, as including a live, attenuated Salmonella and at least one nucleotide sequence encoding at least a fragment of a nonlethal mutated form of anthrax lethal factor (LF) and at least one nucleotide sequence encoding at least a fragment of an antigen of an additional pathogen. Vaccines of such types can be administered to stimulate antibody response in a subject, whereby the antibody response confers immunity to the subject.
US07947267B2
The present invention provides compositions and methods for treating and/or preventing age related macular degeneration and other conditions involving macular degeneration or choroidal neovascularization. Certain of the compositions comprise a poxvirus complement control protein or a complement binding fragment or variant thereof. Other compositions comprise a poxvirus complement control protein linked to a moiety that binds to a component present on or at the surface of cell or noncellular molecular entity, e.g., a component present in the eye of a subject at risk of or suffering from age related macular degeneration or a related condition or choroidal neovascularization. Certain of the methods comprise administering a poxvirus complement control protein or complement binding fragment or variant thereof to a subject.
US07947265B2
A fusion protein comprising GM-CSF and IL-15 is described. The fusion protein has unexpected immune suppressive properties and is useful in a variety of therapeutic applications.
US07947256B2
This invention relates to new carbocyanine fluorophores comprising a biomolecule targeting moiety containing 1-6 aromatic moieties, wherein the targeting moiety is designed to attach to biocompatible molecules to form in vivo optical imaging agents.
US07947253B2
The present invention relates to compounds that selectively bind to cells undergoing perturbations and alterations of their normal plasma membrane organization, such as cells undergoing apoptosis or activated platelets. The invention further provides methods for utilizing said compounds in medical practice, for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes.
US07947250B2
The present invention is a process for the conversion of aluminum oxide hydroxide (AlOOH) to aluminum oxide. About 30 to 70 wt-% of AlOOH, about 30 to 70 wt-% ammonium hydrogencarbonate NH4HCO3 and 0 to 20 wt-% water are combined to produce a mixture. This mixture is then cured at a temperature from about 30° to about 90° C. to convert at least 5% of the AlOOH to a ammonium hydroxycarbonate (dawsonite-type) intermediate and then the dawsonite-type intermediate is decomposed at a temperature from about 130° to 320° C. to produce aluminum oxide. The aluminum oxide can be further calcined at 500° to 800° C. to produce a gamma-theta phase alumina.
US07947249B2
The present invention relates to fine hollow powder with a titanium oxide shell, obtained by spray drying an exfoliated titania sol, and thin flaky titanium oxide powder obtained by pulverizing the fine hollow powder, and also to processes for producing the same. The present fine hollow powder and thin flaky titanium oxide powder have a distinguished dispersibility and are useful for additives to cosmetics, pigments, paints, etc., and the present fine hollow powder also has a distinguished flowability and is useful for seed particles for flow measurement.
US07947247B2
Methods of preparing single walled carbon nanotubes are provided. An arrangement comprising one or more layers of fullerene in contact with one side of a metal layer and a solid carbon source in contact with the other side of metal layer is prepared. The fullerene/metal layer/solid carbon source arrangement is then heated to a temperature below where the fullerenes sublime. Alternatively, a non-solid carbon source may be used in place of a solid carbon source or the metal layer may simply be saturated with carbon atoms. A multiplicity of single walled carbon nanotubes are grown on the fullerene side of the metal layer, wherein at least 80% of the single walled carbon nanotubes in said multiplicity have a diameter within ±5% of a single walled carbon nanotube diameter D present in said multiplicity, said diameter D being in the range between 0.6-2.2 nm.
US07947246B2
A carbon material suitable for the preparation of electrodes for electrochemical capacitors is obtained by single-stage carbonization of biopolymers with a large content of heteroatoms. Neither addition of an activating agent during carbonization nor subsequent gas phase activation is necessary. Several biopolymers which are available by extraction from seaweed are suitable precursors. Alternatively, the seaweed containing such biopolymers is carbonized directly.
US07947240B2
Systems and methods of capturing and sequestering carbon dioxide, comprising mixing a substantially non-aqueous solvent and an alkali such that the solvent and alkali form a solvent suspension, mixing water and a flue gas containing carbon dioxide with the solvent suspension such that a reaction occurs, the reaction resulting in the formation of a carbonate, water and heat.
US07947238B2
An oxidation catalyst for the treatment of exhaust gas emissions, such as the oxidation of unburned hydrocarbons (HC), and carbon monoxide (CO) and the reduction of nitrogen oxides (NOx) from a diesel engine and methods of exhaust gas treatment are disclosed. More particularly, a washcoat composition is disclosed comprising at least two washcoat layers, a first washcoat comprising palladium supported on ceria-zirconia and ceria-zirconia-alumina and a second washcoat containing one or more of platinum and palladium and one or more hydrocarbon storage components. An undercoat may also be included in the catalyst. Also disclosed are method of exhaust gas treatment and diesel exhaust gas treatment systems that include the oxidation catalyst and a downstream soot filter.
US07947236B2
A device for separating heavier and lighter fractions of a fluid sample is provided, the device including a container and a unitary separator located therein, the separator having an overall density between the heavier and light fractions. The separator is capable of moving between the fractions upon centrifugation, and sealing the fractions from one another when centrifugation ends.
US07947231B2
A honeycomb structure includes a plurality of pillar-shaped honeycomb fired bodies each having a large number of cells longitudinally disposed in parallel with one another with a cell wall therebetween. The plurality of pillar-shaped honeycomb fired bodies are combined with one another by interposing an adhesive layer. A catalyst supporting layer is included in the adhesive layer which abuts one end face side of the honeycomb structure, while substantially no catalyst supporting layer is included in the adhesive layer which abuts another end face side of the honeycomb structure.
US07947227B2
A nitric oxide delivery system, which includes a gas bottle having nitrogen dioxide in air, converts nitrogen dioxide to nitric oxide and employs a surface-active material, such as silica gel, coated with an aqueous solution of antioxidant, such as ascorbic acid. A nitric oxide delivery system may be used to generate therapeutic gas including nitric oxide for use in delivering the therapeutic gas to a mammal.
US07947224B2
A microorganism-collecting chip, for efficiently collecting microorganisms from a test sample and accurately detecting and quantifying the collected microorganisms, comprises a filter for removing contaminants and a filter for trapping microorganisms. A microorganism-collecting kit comprises the foregoing microorganism-collecting chip and a suction filtration unit, which may be a negative pressure tube provided at an opening with a rubber stopper. The microorganism-collecting chip has a liquid specimen injection container for injecting a liquid specimen and a hollow needle capable of penetrating the rubber stopper mounted at the opening of the negative pressure tube. The liquid specimen injected into the liquid specimen injection container is suction-filtered with a pressure of the negative pressure tube. Contaminants are removed with the filter for removing contaminants, and microorganisms are trapped on a filter for collecting microorganisms. The microorganisms trapped on the filter for collecting microorganisms are then detected and quantified by using a unit including the filter for collecting microorganisms.
US07947220B2
A pre-assembled orthopaedic implant adapted for improved gas sterilization. The implant includes a first component adapted for assembly with a second component such that a mating surface of the first component is in close proximity with a mating surface of the second component. At least one gas conduit associated with the mating surface of the first component facilitates a sterilizing gas to penetrate into and dissipate from the interface defined by the mating surfaces.
US07947218B2
A cooling device including an air source, preferably a fan, that provides air flow and a shroud for directing air flow from the air source at an object, particularly a coil of material, preferably a metal or metal alloy having a temperature greater than the ambient room temperature. The cooling device provides cooling efficiency by directing the air from the air source at an increased velocity to a desirable area or areas on an end surface of the object, thereby increasing heat transfer from the object. The cooling device shroud includes an air directing surface that influences the direction of air flow across the object in a desired pattern. Methods for preparing cooling devices and for cooling objects are also described.
US07947216B2
A spout opening cleaner for cleaning smelt spouts of recovery boilers and the like includes an actuation arm and self-aligning cleaning head. The cleaning head employs open bail designs for enabling continued flow of smelt during a cleaning cycle.
US07947215B2
An experiment is conducted in advance, for finding a temperature of a cooling plate attained as a result of balancing between a temperature of a substrate after heat treatment and a temperature of the cooling plate at the time of cooling of the substrate. Then, before heat treatment of a first substrate, the cooling plate is moved to a position above a hot plate, the cooling plate is heated to that temperature, and thereafter heat treatment of the substrate is started.
US07947214B1
This process is a fused glass powder process for making ceramic billets for semiconductor dopants. The powder process uses a unique combination of steps for packing, compacting and heat treating the powders. The resulting billets may be tailored in composition to provide a variety of densities, rigidities and B2O3 evolution rates. Further, the resulting wafers have a large diameter to meet the needs of semiconductor production.
US07947210B2
The present invention provides a tampon pledget having a shaped tip. The present invention further provides a method for forming a tampon pledget having a shaped tip. The method includes a cooling step after the formation of the shaped tip, which results in the minimization and/or prevention of deformation of the shaped pledget tip during the remainder of processing up until the end use by a consumer.
US07947205B2
A method and apparatus for efficiently removing a dissimilar material as part of a recycling process, which are free of problems in the terms of worker safety and the work environment, are provided. With the apparatus of the present invention, a working unit is operated to move a blade unit while pressing a plastic product from the outside thereof to punch out the dissimilar material.
US07947204B2
A method for compression molding of poly(arylene ether) powder comprises introducing a powder comprising unheated poly(arylene ether) powder to compaction equipment comprising a compression mold and subjecting the powder in the compression mold to a pressure sufficient to produce an article having a density greater than the unheated poly(arylene ether) powder wherein the pressure is applied at a temperature less than the glass transition temperature of the poly(arylene ether) powder.
US07947202B2
Disclosed are polymer nanoparticle compositions comprising a film comprising an at least partially electrically conductive oligomer, polymer, or copolymer, and at least one nanoparticle at least partially disposed therein, wherein the at least partially electrically conductive oligomer, polymer, or copolymer is in electrical communication with the nanoparticle. Also disclosed are methods of making and using the polymer nanoparticle compositions.
US07947198B2
The present invention aims at providing a chemically stabilized inorganic phosphor which emits orange light or red light at wavelengths longer than the conventional rare-earth activated sialon phosphor and which has a higher luminance.The solving means resides in an inorganic phosphor design represented by a composition formula MaAbDcEdNeOfXg and containing: an M element (M is one kind or two or more kinds of element(s) selected from Mn, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb, and Lu); a divalent A element (A is one kind or two or more kinds of element(s) selected from Mg, Ca, Sr, and Ba); a trivalent E element (E is one kind or two or more kinds of element(s) selected from B, Al, Ga, and In); a tetravalent D element (D is one kind or two or more kinds of element(s) selected from Si, Ge, and Sn); nitrogen; oxygen (including an oxygen absent condition); and another X element (including an X absent condition); wherein the parameters a, b, c, d, e, f, and g included in the equation are adjusted to and set at particular regions to provide an inorganic phosphor which emits orange light at wavelengths of 570 nm or longer or red light at wavelengths of 600 nm or longer with excellent color rendering property.
US07947196B2
An ion exchangeable mixture containing a polymeric compound consisting of an ion exchange resin, an acrylamide mixture containing at least one bisacrylamide and at least one acrylamide, and a copolymer obtained by reacting the polymeric compound with the acrylamide mixture, and a method of producing the same are provided. The ion exchangeable membrane produced by using the ion exchangeable mixture has significantly smaller electric resistance than conventional ion exchangeable membranes, and has excellent selective permeability because the ion exchangeable membrane is electrically charged. The ion exchangeable membrane can be produced under very mild production conditions, and thus can be produced very easily. Furthermore, the ion exchangeable membrane can be also formed into film during a crosslinking reaction in a solvent of water, and thus is advantageous in that the ion exchangeable membrane can be freely produced into desired sizes, shapes and forms.
US07947195B2
The present invention discloses a polishing slurry, wherein said polishing slurry comprises a carrier and functionalized alumina grains. The polishing slurry, which comprises functionalized alumina grains having desirable dispersibility, has desirable stability and is able to lower the defect rate of the substrate surface, improve the surface quality, decrease the total metal loss and enlarge the variation range of the technical parameters.
US07947193B2
Halide brine solutions that contain a dissolved salt of an alkali metal halide or alkali earth metal halide, and an anticorrosion agent comprising an alcohol diglycinate are described. The halide brine solutions may be used to treat transportation surfaces for deicing, anti-freezing, and dust suppression, among other applications. For example, methods of treating a transportation surface with a deicing composition to slow the formation of ice and snow on the surface are described. These methods may include providing the deicing composition that includes an aqueous solution of magnesium chloride, and an ethanoldiglycinate disodium salt. The deicing composition may be sprayed on the transportation surface in an amount effective to slow the formation of ice and snow on the surface.
US07947192B2
A material for high-temperature region piezoelectric device that can be used at a high temperature zone exceeding 400 DEG C, having a resistivity whose temperature dependence is slight. The material is characterized by having a composition selected from the group consisting of RE3Ga5−xAlxSiO14 (wherein RE represents a rare earth, and 0
US07947188B2
A method for manufacturing a thin film magnetic head includes a step for forming an MR layered body; a step for forming a first sacrificial layer made of material removable by wet etching, and subsequently, forming a cap layer on the upper surface of the first sacrificial layer; further, a step for patterning the MR layered body and the cap layer and then filling part of the removed areas of the MR layered body and the cap layer with a bias magnetic layer and the remaining with insulating layers; a step for removing the cap layer by dry etching and, subsequently, removing the first sacrificial layer by wet etching; and a step for forming a second shield layer above the MR layered body and the bias magnetic layer.
US07947183B2
A method and a device for purifying water from contaminant trace species, especially arsenic, by co-precipitating trace species during oxidation and precipitation of iron compounds with subsequent separation. The co-precipitation is improved by contacting the water with an iron-containing material prior to oxidation to increase the iron content of the water. Arsenic and other trace species harmful to health may be removed from water effectively and in a simple manner, thus being able to comply with the more restrictive limits of arsenic in drinking water.
US07947175B2
The present invention is a system for continuous, single-pass countercurrent tangential chromatography having multiple single-pass modules. A single-pass binding step module is used for binding product from an unpurified product solution with a resin slurry. A single-pass washing step module is used for washing impurities from the resin slurry. A single-pass elution step module for eluting an output of the washing step module is used as purified product solution. A single-pass regeneration step module is used for regenerating the resin slurry. In the current invention, the resin slurry flows in a continuous, single-pass through each of the single-pass modules, and one or more of the single-pass modules comprise two or more stages with permeate flow directed countercurrent to resin slurry flow within that single-pass module. The present invention replaces conventional column chromatography and may be made disposable.
US07947172B2
The waterborne vessel, in one embodiment, utilizes an underwater tunnel through which passes flowing water, an ozone gas generator, an ozone plus hydroxyl radical gas generator and a source of atmospheric oxygen. A manifold mixer mixes pressurized water independently with the ozone, the ozone plus hydroxyl radical gas and the atmospheric oxygen to produce corresponding oxygenated water mixtures. Each of these oxygenated water mixtures are fed via a conduit system into the confined flow of water passing through the tunnel. A diversion channel with reverse flow channel permits super saturation of diverted flow from the primary underwater tunnel channel to provide super saturated oxygenated water with ozone plus hydroxyl radical gases and atmospheric oxygen water mixtures. A decontamination method is also provided.
US07947163B2
Selectively accelerated or selectively inhibited metal deposition is performed to form metal structures of an electronic device. A desired pattern of an accelerator or of an inhibitor is applied to the substrate; for example, by stamping the substrate with a patterned stamp or spraying a solution using an inkjet printer. In other embodiments, a global layer of accelerator or inhibitor is applied to a substrate and selectively modified in a desired pattern. Thereafter, selective metal deposition is performed.
US07947152B2
Doctor blade for the paper industry, comprising a scraping plate (1) and holding means (p) for the scraping plate which in turn are held by a frame (a) the ends of which are securely fastened (2) by two fastening points (pf) to a stationary structure (f), characterized in that it comprises: a) mechanical means for adjustable fastening (3) between at least one end (2) of the frame and the stationary structure (f) in such a way that the distance (d) between the two fastening points (pf) can be varied by the user; and b) means for incorporating an additional mass (5) in adjustable quantities.
US07947130B2
Semiconductor processing compositions for use with silicon wafers having an insulating layers and metallization layers on the wafers comprising water and one or more Troika acids which is also referred to as α,α-disubstituted trifunctional oximes or α-(Hydroxyimino) Phosphonoacetic acids, their salts, and their derivatives.
US07947126B2
A method for preparing an organic pigment dispersion, such as a flush pigment or ink product, comprises steps of introducing into a twin screw extruder a stable, water-borne pigment dispersion, an organic medium, and a destabilizing agent; mixing together the stable, water-borne pigment dispersion, the organic medium, and the destabilizing agent to produce a pigment flush phase and a water phase; and removing at least a part of the water phase. A twin-screw extruder for carrying out the flushing method has an addition and flushing zone, a water removal zone, and a zone for rinsing the crude organic pigment dispersion or flush with water and removing the rinse water. Additional materials may be added to form a finished pigmented product such as an ink product, masterbatch, or toner.
US07947121B2
A method for receiving fluid from a natural gas pipeline, the fluid comprising gaseous hydrocarbons, liquid hydrocarbons, water and optionally solids, the method comprising: (a) in a slug catcher (10), receiving the fluid comprising gaseous hydrocarbons, liquid hydrocarbons, water and optionally solids from at least one pipeline (20a, 20b, 20c) (b) in the slug catcher (10), separating at least a portion of the gaseous hydrocarbons from the rest of the fluid to leave a liquid mixture or a liquid/solid mixture; (c) directing at least a portion of the liquid mixture or liquid/solid mixture to a separation vessel (14), preferably a three-phase separation vessel; and (d) in the event of a surge of liquids and optionally solids to the slug catcher (10), directing at least a portion of the liquid mixture or the liquid/solid mixture from the slug catcher (10) to a surge vessel (12).
US07947116B2
A method for separating a hydrogen-rich product stream from a feed stream comprising hydrogen and at least one carbon-containing gas, comprising feeding the feed stream, at an inlet pressure greater than atmospheric pressure and a temperature greater than 200° C., to a hydrogen separation membrane system comprising a membrane that is selectively permeable to hydrogen, and producing a hydrogen-rich permeate product stream on the permeate side of the membrane and a carbon dioxide-rich product raffinate stream on the raffinate side of the membrane. A method for separating a hydrogen-rich product stream from a feed stream comprising hydrogen and at least one carbon-containing gas, comprising feeding the feed stream, at an inlet pressure greater than atmospheric pressure and a temperature greater than 200° C., to an integrated water gas shift/hydrogen separation membrane system wherein the hydrogen separation membrane system comprises a membrane that is selectively permeable to hydrogen, and producing a hydrogen-rich permeate product stream on the permeate side of the membrane and a carbon dioxide-rich product raffinate stream on the raffinate side of the membrane. A method for pretreating a membrane, comprising: heating the membrane to a desired operating temperature and desired feed pressure in a flow of inert gas for a sufficient time to cause the membrane to mechanically deform; decreasing the feed pressure to approximately ambient pressure; and optionally, flowing an oxidizing agent across the membrane before, during, or after deformation of the membrane. A method of supporting a hydrogen separation membrane system comprising selecting a hydrogen separation membrane system comprising one or more catalyst outer layers deposited on a hydrogen transport membrane layer and sealing the hydrogen separation membrane system to a porous support.
US07947114B2
A process for the production of a carbon membrane comprising: (i) reacting a mixture of cellulose and hemicellulose with an acid; (ii) casting the mixture to form a film, (iii) drying said film; and (iv) carbonizing said film.
US07947107B2
An apparatus for reducing a metalliferous material in a fluidized bed includes a vessel for containing the fluidized bed, a mechanism for supplying the metalliferous material, a solid carbonaceous material, an oxygen-containing gas, and a fluidizing gas into the vessel for forming the fluidized bed in the vessel. The oxygen-containing gas supply mechanism includes one or more than one oxygen-containing gas injection lance having a lance tip with an outlet that is positioned for injecting the oxygen-containing gas in a downward flow into the vessel within a range of plus or minus 40° to the vertical.
US07947104B2
The invention describes a new method for treating sludge, which can result in the production of high nitrogen organically-augmented inorganic fertilizer that incorporates municipal sludges or biosolids or organic sludges that can compete with traditional fertilizers such as ammonium phosphate, ammonium sulfate and urea on the commodity fertilizer marketplace. The method takes advantage of the thixotropic property of dewatered biosolids or organic sludge to create a pumpable paste-like material from the biosolids or organic sludge that is then treated with an oxidizer to reduce odorant effects and an acid. This mix is then interacted with concentrated sulfuric and or phosphoric acids and an ammonia source or alternatively a hot or molten melt or salt of ammonium sulfate/phosphate to form a fertilizer mix. The present invention controls the heat, atmospheric pressure and retention time of the fertilizer mix in the reaction vessel. When a fertilizer melt is formed ammoniation is subsequently completed by the specific use of vaporized ammonia. The invention can also be an add-on to commercial production of ammonium salts. The fertilizer produced by the present invention contains more than 8 wt. % nitrogen and preferably 15 wt. % nitrogen. The invention is oriented to be tailored to the biosolids production for individual municipal waste treatment plants in order to keep the fertilizer manufacturing plants of the present invention small with a minimization of logistics and liability.
US07947085B2
Evacuation devices for evacuating the socket of a prosthetic limb, and prosthetic limb systems employing such vacuum devices. The evacuation devices each preferably include at least an electrically powered vacuum pump and a power source. Such evacuation devices can be attached at various locations on or in a prosthetic limb. Because the electrically powered pump does not require manual manipulation to create vacuum, it is substantially easier to use than a manual pump. Due to the small size and small power source required by such an electrically powered pump, an evacuation device may be readily incorporated into a prosthesis.
US07947080B2
Methods and apparatus for treating disc herniation provide a conformable device which assumes a first shape associated with insertion and a second shape or expanded shape to occlude the defect which typically follows partial discectomy. The device may take different forms according to the invention, including patches size to cover the defect or plugs adapted to fill the defect. In a preferred embodiment, however, the device is a gel or other liquid or semi-liquid which solidifies to occlude the defect from within the body of the disc itself. In another preferred embodiment, a mesh screen is collapsed into an elongated form for the purposes of insertion, thereby minimizing the size of the requisite incision while avoiding delicate surrounding nerves. Such a configuration also permits the use of instrumentation to install the device, including, for example, a hollow tube or sheath adapted to hold the collapsed screen, and a push rod to expel the collapsed device out of the sheath for use in occluding the disc defect. A device according to the invention may further include one or more anchors to assist in permanently affixing the device with respect to the defect.
US07947077B2
The invention relates to a method for producing a composite material, to a composite material produced according to said method and to the use of said material.
US07947073B2
Bioresorbable medical implants are designed to have different resorption rates over time or over the topography of the implants. The resorption of the medical implants are controlled by including layers having differing resorption rates. The layers resorb sequentially over time through sequential exposure to body fluids. A resorption-controllable medical implant includes a series of two or more layers. The first layer includes a first bioresorbable material. The second layer includes a second bioresorbable material and resorbable particles of a first kind dispersed within the second bioresorbable material. Additional layers of bioresorbable material alone or including resorbable particles may be added to slow or speed resorption and achieve desired control over the resorption of the implant. Resorbable particles can be added in differing amounts or kinds in various segments of the implant to provide topographically differing resorption rates.
US07947072B2
Expandable heart valves for minimally invasive valve replacement surgeries are disclosed. The valves are rolled into a first, contracted configuration for minimally invasive delivery and then unrolled or unfurled at the implantation site. One- and two-piece stents may be used in conjunction with a plurality of flexible leaflet-forming membranes. The one-piece stents may include an annulus anchoring section, a sinus section with the membranes attached over sinus apertures, and a rigid outflow section. The two-piece stent may include a primary stent to provide a tubular base at the annulus, and a secondary stent having the membranes that couples within the primary stent. Lockout tabs to secure the stents in their expanded shapes are provided. Also, alignment structure may be provided to ensure concentric unfurling. Anchoring barbs at the stent edges or in the stent body secure the valve within the annulus. Methods of implantation are also provided.
US07947064B2
The disclosure relates to systems and methods of spinal stabilization. Embodiments include methods of delivering a rod having a non-circular cross-sectional profile using a wire having an accommodating non-circular cross-sectional profile to inhibit movement of a rod relative to the wire. A surgical system can comprise a first sleeve advanced via a first incision to a vertebra, a second sleeve advanced via a second incision to another vertebra, a wire having a non-circular cross-sectional profile advanced via a third incision to the vertebrae and passed through the collars of bone fastener assemblies to extend from a fourth incision. A rod or a segment of a rod having a corresponding non-circular cross-sectional profile may be aligned with the wire and advanced and coupled with the vertebrae to stabilize the spine. After the rod is securely seated in the collars, the wire may be withdrawn from the body.
US07947063B2
A facet support assembly including at least one rod including an upper portion rigidly fixed to a spinal fastener, and a lower portion configured to support an inferior articular process, wherein when the spinal fastener is secured to a pedicle of a lumbar vertebra, the lower portion of the at least one rod abuts against and supports the inferior articular process of the same lumbar vertebra.
US07947062B2
Forming a proximal anastomosis on an aortic wall includes method and instrumentation and apparatus for forming an aortic puncture and inserting into the vessel through the puncture a fluid-impervious sealing element with a protruding retainer. An anastomosis of a graft vessel over the puncture is partially completed with the retainer of the sealing element protruding through the partial anastomosis. The retainer facilitates removal of the sealing element from the partial anastomosis prior to completion of the procedure.
US07947050B2
A medical system and an integrated drape assembly for a medical system is provided. The medical system comprises a surgical instrument that carries a distal tool configured for performing a medical procedure on a patient, a drive unit configured for controlling the movement of the surgical instrument within at least one degree-of-freedom, a coupling mechanism through which the surgical instrument is operably coupled to the drive unit, and an integrated drape assembly having a drape insert through which the coupling mechanism is coupled to the surgical instrument, a sterile drape covering the coupling mechanism. The drape assembly may comprise a coupling element mounted within the drape insert. The coupling element may be configured for coupling a driver element of the medical system to a driven element of the medical system.
US07947049B2
A device for injecting an intraocular lens (IOL) into an eye, the device having an injector body including a lumen and an open tip wherethrough the IOL is expressed from the device. An IOL loading bay is located in the passageway wherein the IOL is positioned and compressed. In a first aspect of the invention, the passageway diameter increases from a point adjacent the loading bay to the open tip to reduce compressive force on the IOL as it travels through the lumen. In another aspect of the invention, the plunger tip has a shape and diameter which has a close, sliding fit with the shape and diameter of the passageway to reduce the chance of the IOL becoming wedged between the plunger tip and the passageway wall as the plunger tip engages and advances the IOL through the passageway.
US07947048B2
A screwdriver serves for handling a screw in the body of a person or an animal. The screwdriver has a handle, and a stem permanently connected to said handle. An outer tube surrounds the stem. A locking mechanism has a locking element engaging into a locking point in at least three different axial displacement positions of said outer tube. The locking element is prevented from moving further in an axial direction at a locking position by a barrier, which barrier can be overcome only by rotating said outer tube and said stem relative to one another about a longitudinal axis.
US07947047B2
The invention provides a medical screwdriver having a sleeve that can be coupled to the medical screwdriver without the need to align the sleeve to the medical screwdriver. The medical screwdriver includes a body portion having a receiver, a drive shaft, a sleeve, and a coupling connecting the sleeve to the receiver. The sleeve surrounds at least a portion of the drive shaft when coupled to the receiver. The coupling comprises an end of the sleeve and the receiver of the body portion. The end of the sleeve and the receiver are designed so that the end of the sleeve can be coupled with the receiver of the body portion without rotationally aligning the end of the sleeve to the receiver of the body portion and so that the sleeve is prevented from rotating in a direction of rotation during use.
US07947032B2
A needleless luer access connector is disclosed having a septum disposed in a housing. The septum has a proximal portion with a cross section, a medial portion with a cross section smaller than the cross section of the proximal portion, and a distal portion. A longitudinal slit extends through the septum from the proximal portion to the distal portion. The septum and housing are designed so that septum will not be rotated or removed from the housing when the connector is accessed by a male luer taper. In addition, the septum and housing are designed to bias the slit at the distal portion closed and so a male luer connector does not have to extend completely through the distal portion to open the slit at the distal portion. Finally, the septum and housing are designed to minimize the amount of dead space in the connector when accessed with a male luer taper.
US07947029B2
An underpants type disposable diaper cover capable of firmly holding an absorbent pad.In an underpants type disposable diaper cover comprising a front body part (F) and a back body part (B) which are formed in such a manner as to be continuous with each other at a crotch portion and both side portions, thereby creating a waist opening (23) and a pair of right and left leg openings, and an absorbent pad (10) which is detachably attached to an inner surface thereof, a plurality of waist portion-elastic members (24) are spaced, reaching from one side to the other side, in a longitudinal direction along the waist opening (23) in the front and back body parts (F, B), a plurality of curved elastic members (26, 28) are spaced without intersecting each other in each of the front and back body parts (F, B), which extend from an upper level with respect to a middle level in a longitudinal direction on one side in a lateral direction, to an upper level with respect to a middle level in the longitudinal direction on the other side in the lateral direction, and extend so as to be curved toward the crotch portion with increasing closeness to a central portion in the lateral direction; and a curved portion of at least one of the curved elastic members (28) is configured in the front body part (F) as to pass on both sides with respect to an upper end portion of the attached absorbent pad.
US07947012B2
An aspiration catheter includes an elastically deformable distal tip transformable between an orthogonal configuration and an oblique configuration to selectively and controllably appose the tip with thrombus or other matter to be aspirated. A core wire is slidably disposed in a core wire lumen within the catheter and is operably connected to the catheter distal tip. The core wire is controlled from the catheter proximal end to transform the distal tip between orthogonal and oblique configurations.
US07947007B2
A bubble trap for removing bubbles from blood flowing through an extracorporeal circuit includes device body possessing blood inlet and outlet ports, and a negative-pressure chamber at the upper part of the device body that is adapted to be connected to a gas evacuator at a gas outlet port so that a negative-pressure state can be kept therein. Two communication passages provide communication between the gas outlet port and the device body. On the first communication passage, a liquid-repellant or water-repellent filter is provided in a manner crossing the passage. On the second communication passage, a valve member is arranged. Within the device body, a buoyant float is provided. A mechanism is provided to remove bubbles from the blood by the cooperation of the float and the valve member.
US07947006B2
A hip distractor includes a pair of distractor members and a support configured to be fastened to a surgical table. The support includes at least two mounts for coupling to a pair of joints that couple the distractor members to the support. Another hip distractor includes a pair of distractor assemblies that are configured to apply a distraction load to a patient. Each of the assemblies includes a joint for coupling the corresponding assembly to a surgical table. The joint permits vertical and horizontal angular adjustment of the corresponding assembly. A method of distracting a hip includes coupling a patient's legs to a pair of distractor assemblies and simultaneously adjusting a vertical angle and a horizontal angle of at least one of the distractor assemblies.
US07947001B1
A spatial profile of structural and elastic parameters along a lumen of a hollow organ is determined based on obtaining the functional dataset of pressure P, balloon volume V, and balloon linear coordinate X while continuously moving the balloon along the lumen. A comprehensive characterization of elastic properties of the tissue and geometrical parameters of the lumen are then determined using a previously obtained calibration curve of balloon pressure vs. balloon volume when the balloon is expanded freely. As opposed to prior art devices for measuring tissues elasticity at one or several distinct locations by having deploying a balloon locally, the present invention describes a device in which the balloon is continuously moved through the lumen of the hollow organ whereby allowing elasticity determination over a significant portion or the entire length of the organ. The relationship between P, V, and X is then described by a family of constant pressure curves F(Pi=const,V,X), in the constant pressure method; or by family of constant volume curves F(P,Vi=const,X), in the constant volume method. The handheld device of the invention supports evaluation using either method. Repeating the test at different levels of balloon pressure or volume allows obtaining of a family of curves characterizing linear distribution of wall compliance along the lumen. Methods and devices of the invention can be used to evaluate cervix, urethra, esophagus, intestines, blood vessels, and other organs.
US07947000B2
The present invention is directed to a novel shape-transferring cannula system, which provides access to tortuous and unsupported paths. The shape-transferring cannula system and method enables exploration of hollow body structures, and creates a custom-contoured access port for insertion and removal of, for example, diagnostic, surgical, or interventional instruments to and from a site within the body to which the physician does not have line-of-sight access.
US07946995B1
A system and method of determining the status of an adverse cardiac condition of a medical patient based on circadian variation of one or more hemodynamic parameters are provided. In some embodiments, the system and method calculate a first average value of a series of first values during a first time period, a second average value of a series of second values during a second time period, and a difference between the first average value and the second average value. The method provides an indication of an adverse cardiac condition when the difference is less than a predetermined threshold.
US07946983B2
An object of the present invention is to easily start to operate a body-insertable apparatus which is introduced into a subject and executes a predetermined function. In a capsule endoscope 3 of the invention, a magnetic switch 14 is arranged in a tubular capsule casing 16 of the capsule endoscope 3 in a direction substantially perpendicular to a longitudinal axis t direction of the capsule casing 16. A movable electrode of the magnetic switch 14 is brought into contact with a fixed electrode of the magnetic switch by a magnetic induction action by a magnetic field generated by a magnet 6, which is applied to the magnetic switch 14 from the outside of the capsule endoscope 3 in a direction substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis t direction of the capsule casing 16. As a result, electric power can be supplied from a power source unit to a function executing unit.
US07946982B2
a minimal incision maximal access system allows for maximum desirable work space exposure within the incision along with maximum access to the operative field utilizing a minimum incision as small as the width of the working tube. Instead of multiple insertions of dilating tubes the design is a streamlined single entry device to avoid repetitive skin surface entry. The system offers the capability to expand to optimum exposure size for the surgery utilizing retractors depending from a bi-hinged frame having internal or external controls to control the angle and separation of the retractors. Interchangeable retractor blades can be attached to the frame. Both retractor blades are independently controlled as to displacement and angle.
US07946965B2
A hand-held walking stilt comprising a base that contacts a walking surface, where the base has a foot stand to support a user's foot a set distance above the walking surface, where the foot stand defines an opening for a pole. The base also has at least one base flange extending into the opening. There is also a pole adapted to extend through the opening in the foot stand, and to extend above the base away from the walking surface, with the pole having at least one pole flange that interconnects with the base flange to hold the base and the pole together.
US07946961B2
An exercise apparatus including a video display. In certain embodiments the apparatus includes an integrated platform. Memory within the apparatus contains a library of instructional exercise programs, such as yoga, Pilates, body toning and stretching routines. The apparatus may also connect to a network, such as the Internet to stream and/or download additional exercise programs. A user interface enables the user to select from available programs, which are shown on the video display. Audio for the programs may be provided via speakers or though headphones, which may be rechargeable and/or wireless.
US07946960B2
A system for predicting athletic ability is disclosed. The system includes at least one device for measuring at least a first athletic parameter and a second athletic parameter, and a computer for calculating a performance score based upon the first athletic parameter and the second athletic parameter. The performance score is predictive of athletic ability. Methods of predicting athletic ability based upon a plurality of athletic parameters are also disclosed.
US07946959B2
A training script device is described that conveniently allows a user to create a training script defining one or more steps of a workout routine, where each step may include an activity, a duration for performing that activity, and an intensity at which the activity is to be performed. Further, one or more steps of the training script can be self-starting in response to performance data detected by sensors of training script device executing the training script. This conveniently frees the athlete from having to continuously monitor the status of his or her workout activities. Still further, the training script device conveniently allows a user to transfer training scripts to other training script devices, so that athletes can share successful training scripts.
US07946949B2
A transmission is disclosed having an input member, an output member, four planetary gear sets, a plurality of coupling members and a plurality of torque transmitting devices. Each of the planetary gear sets includes first, second and third members. The torque transmitting devices may include clutches and brakes.
US07946946B2
A preloaded differential includes may take the form of a hold-out ring type locking differential having a preloaded thrust assembly that may be insertable in the differential as a one-piece unit. The preloaded thrust assembly includes a pair of thrust members each having complimentarily shaped protruding and recessed portions that interlock after assembly to prevent rotation of the thrust members relative to one another. Further, one or more conical, disc-shaped springs may be located between the thrust members to bias the thrust members directly against side gears positioned within the differential to reduce or prevent radial movement of the side gears. In one embodiment, the thrust members include a friction and thrust contact surface that directly contacts the side gears and the springs are located within a region formed by the interlocking features of the thrust members.
US07946925B2
A dynamic damper in which the inner diameter (D2) of a first hole part formed at the axial one end part of a body part overlapped with a weight part in the radial direction is set smaller than the inner diameter (D3) of a second hole part formed at the axial other end part of the body part not overlapped with the weight part in the radial direction and tightened with a band member (D3>D2). The outer diameter (D1) of a drive shaft to be press-fitted into the first and second hole parts is set larger than the inner diameter (D2) of the first hole part and the inner diameter (D3) of the second hole part (D1>D3>D2).
US07946922B2
A gaming where a hosts search for and select particular events they desire to manage; where players can wager on specific events with potentially no financial loss; and where vendors can engage in interactive advertising to increase sales. The host manages the game by setting up the odds and establishing other rules of play. Where hosts are also vendors, they may offer prizes in exchange for credits from the players. Players place their wagers on a particular outcome of the event. Both the host and the player may gain additional credits for clicking or viewing an advertisement displayed on the webpage. If the desire outcome occurs, the player's wager is accounted for by the host and the credits can be applied to the purchase of prizes offered by the host. Those who lose may receive communications from the vendor, with permission from the operator of the website, to offer its goods or services.
US07946917B2
A gaming machine comprising a non-physical contact data interface is described. The non-physical contact data interface may be capable of reading loyalty program data from a loyalty program instrument without contact between the loyalty program instrument and the non-physical contact data interface. The non-physical contact data interface may be one of a bill validator, a bar-code reader and a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag reader. The loyalty program instrument may be a substrate including at least one of a 1-D bar-code printed on the substrate, a 2-D bar-code printed on the substrate, a symbol printed on the substrate, alpha-numeric character printed on the substrate, a RFID tag embedded in the substrate, a RFID tag printed on the substrate and combinations thereof. The loyalty program instrument may be used to store an index to a record in a database or a portable data file.
US07946914B2
A mechanical wheel casino game of chance using a freely moving internal indicator such as a ball within a housing to randomly move and bounce into one possible outcome segment in a set of possible outcome segments. The expected value is controlled through a combination of geometrical and mathematical considerations. The set of possible outcome segments randomly picked and placed at the bottom of the wheel so that as the wheel stops, the freely moving, bouncing ball lands in one of the possible outcome segments. The segment the ball lands in is sensed and the award associated with the landed in segment is paid out to the player. A periodic testing method determines whether mechanical bias exists in the casino game of chance.
US07946903B2
A play system includes a toy vehicle and a playset for use therewith. A toy vehicle includes a chassis having a bottom surface that is at least partially magnetic and a plurality of wheels rotatably mounted to the chassis. A playset includes a base, a launch ramp mounted to the base and having an upper end and a lower end that includes an upwardly-inclined section terminating in a jump lip, and a magnetic element selectively positionable within a predefined range of positions relative to the jump lip.
US07946896B2
Disclosed herein is an electrical connector set-screw. The electrical connector set-screw includes a body part and a head part. The body part includes a threaded section and a channel. The threaded section extends between a first end and an opposite second end of the body part. The channel extends through a portion of the body part. The channel is spaced from the first end and the second end of the body part The head part is connected to the body part. The head part includes a top section and an integral locking section. The top section is configured to be received by a tool. The integral locking section extends through the channel.
US07946894B2
A conductive cover or shield for reducing crosstalk between a plurality of connectors arranged adjacent one another. A cover having a non-conductive interior surface and a conductive outer surface. The non-conductive surface is adhered to the exterior surface of a connector or a plurality of IDC towers for preventing crosstalk between adjacent connectors. Also, the cover can be form fitted and secured to the connectors, specifically, adhering to the corners to insulate any loose wires.
US07946889B2
A circuit board edge connector includes an insulative housing and two opposing mating ends with a plurality of conductive terminals supported by the housing and extending between the two ends. One end of the connector mates with an opposing connector and the other end has a slot disposed therein that receives the mating edge of a printed circuit card or board. The terminals at the end of the connector extend outwardly in a cantilevered fashion and they terminate in free ends that contact conductive pads on the edge of the circuit card. A preload cap is provided that includes two parts that interfit with each other and with the circuit card mating end of the connector. These preload caps engage the terminal free ends and impart a preload to the terminals so that the circuit card may be easily inserted into the connector slot and the caps are subsequently removed from the connector.
US07946874B2
A waterproof structure includes an inner housing, a family sealing member, an outer housing, a projection. The family sealing member is positioned on the inner housing. The outer housing is positioned adjacent to the family sealing member, and presses the family sealing member against the inner housing. A plurality of contact receiving cavities are further provided and positioned in the inner housing, while a plurality of insertion holes are positioned in the family sealing member. Each insertion hole includes a circular cross-section, and corresponding to the plurality of contact receiving cavities respectively. A plurality of through holes are positioned in the outer housing and correspond to the plurality of insertion holes, respectively. Each through hole penetrate though the outer housing in the contact inserting direction, and the projection is provided in each of the plurality of through holes.
US07946870B2
Separable insulated connector systems for power distribution systems wherein the interfaces of the mating connectors are modified to reduce mating and separation force.
US07946866B2
A device for preventing electrical shock from a device with electrical interfaces. A shutter or other barrier associated with the device that physically prevents access or contact to one of the electrical interfaces while another electrical interface is in use.
US07946853B2
In one embodiment, a compliant contactor is provided which includes a center conductor and an outer conductor with a spacer therebetween. The outer conductor has a mating end adapted to be capable of flexibly contacting an outer conductor mating surface prior to the center conductor contacting a center conductor mating surface.
US07946850B2
A dental restorative composition comprising: (A) polymerizable monomer(s) having at least one phosphorus-containing acidic moiety and at least one ethylenically unsaturated group; (B) polymerizable monomer(s) having a molecular weight of 100-250, at least one hydroxyl group, and at least one ethylenically unsaturated group; (C) polymerizable monomer(s) having a molecular weight of 270-900, at least two ethylenically unsaturated groups and no acidic functional group; (D) photo-initiator(s); and (E) filler(s) each having a mean particle size of more than 0.005 microns and less than 70 microns. The weight ratio of (A+B):(C) ranges from 30:70 to 90:10, the concentration of (A) is 10-50 wt. %, the concentration of (B) is 15-60 wt. %, and the composition has a shear bond strength of at least 10 MPa to both dentin and enamel. Also provided is a method for filling a dental cavity with the composition without first treating the dental cavity with an etchant, a primer and/or an adhesive.
US07946849B2
Endodontic fibers including a biocompatible polymer vehicle permeable to medicaments, or combinations of medicaments, and method of using such endodontic fibers are described. Such fibers can be used, for example, in a method for the local delivery and sustained release of medicaments to intracanal treatment sites.
US07946842B2
A transfer chain for a preform heater, the heater intended for a machine for blow-molding containers, each container being formed from a preform. The transfer chain is intended for a preform heater (31) of the kind in which a preform support element is mounted on an articulated chain with a member for rotating the preform during its travel in the heater. The member for rotating the preform includes a shaft (77) which is fastened to an element (75) of the articulated chain (60) and carries a pinion (62) compelled to roll along a rolling track (63, 65) fastened to a frame (79) when the articulated chain is driven by a motor unit.
US07946839B2
An apparatus comprises a forming device for forming objects, a moving arrangement arranged for moving said objects along a path directed from said forming device towards an exit area, passage arrangement for an operating fluid, said passage arrangement being arranged for allowing said objects to be moved towards said exit area at least in a preset portion of said path. A method comprises forming objects, moving said objects along a path directed towards an exit area, and acting on said objects with an operating fluid at least in a preset portion of said path, so as to allow said objects to be moved towards said exit area.
US07946837B2
In an embodiment, an imprint lithography apparatus is disclosed that includes a support structure configured support an imprint template, the imprint template having a neutral plane which substantially bisects the imprint template, and an actuator located in a position such that, when the imprint template is supported by the support structure, the actuator is located between the support structure and a side of the imprint template, wherein the actuator is configured to meet the imprint template at a location which is displaced from the neutral plane of the imprint template.
US07946832B2
A dual chamber mixing pump is disclosed with two pump chambers. The chambers are defined in part by a piston having proximal and distal ends and recessed sections disposed at both ends. The pump utilizes one common driving mechanism to axially rotate and laterally reciprocate the piston to provide continuous pumping of two fluids entering through two inlets and exiting through two outlets with reduced pulsations. Alternating pulses of the two chambers and joining of two outlets provide a common outlet stream which has small segments of alternating fluid from each inlet. Such segmented streams can become more thoroughly mixed through normal flow characteristics of the downstream flow path, providing more effective mixing.
US07946816B2
The present application further describes a turbine blade that may include an airfoil, a tip shroud that is positioned at one end of the turbine blade, a coolant passage that extends through the airfoil to the tip shroud, and a continuous cooling cavity that is defined within the tip shroud and that is in fluid communication with the coolant passage. The continuous cooling cavity may form a labyrinth cooling circuit within the tip shroud.
US07946814B2
A method for cleaning the blades of a wind turbine using precipitation. The method includes determining the presence or absence of precipitation. In response to the determination of the presence of precipitation, adjusting the rotor speed to increase the speed of the blades and/or adjusting the variable pitch drive to increase the pitch of the blades. The combination of the increased blade speed and/or the increase blade pitch and the presence of precipitation facilitate the removal of debris from the blades by the precipitation.
US07946804B2
An axial fan unit includes two or more impellers accommodated in a housing. Each impeller has a plurality of blades disposed about a center axis and is rotated by an associated motor. The rotation of the impellers creates a flow of air generally flowing along the center axis. A plurality of ribs are disposed between the impellers and connected to the housing. The ribs support an associated motor. At least one of an air-inlet side edge and an air-outlet side edge of each rib is inclined with respect to a direction that is perpendicular or substantially perpendicular to the center axis, such that it gets closer to one of an air-inlet side end and an air-outlet side end of the axial fan unit as it moves away from the center axis.
US07946796B2
A particle spreader system for efficiently evenly distributing particles (i.e. grain, seed, etc.) within a storage bin. The particle spreader system generally includes a manifold including a plurality of discharge openings and a lower opening, a plurality of gates attached to the manifold, wherein the gates incrementally adjust about the discharge openings and a plurality of chutes attached to the manifold, wherein the plurality of chutes extend outwardly from the plurality of discharge openings. The manifold suspendedly attaches to an inlet of a storage bin, wherein the manifold receives a mass of particles via the inlet and wherein the gates regulates a flow of the mass of particles through the discharge openings.
US07946794B2
Of application in processes of assembly by screwing between a plastic piece and a supporting base, for example a bodywork, from which a fastener stands out perpendicularly. It is constituted by a circular base and a hexagonal body traversed by a central drilled hole which passes through and has a main segment and an expansion in which are some slightly arched internal protuberances which constitute the fastening means for connection of the nut to the fastener after a slight rotation of or pressure from the former and it determines the fastening and provisional positioning of the plastic piece with respect to the supporting base prior to its screwing. During the screwing operation the cutting effect which the metal fastener applies on the plastic walls of the drilled hole gives rise to a thread.
US07946793B2
Apparatus for drilling holes through concentric pipes is provided. The apparatus clamps on the exterior pipe and contains drilling assemblies that may be used for drilling sequentially or simultaneously two colinear holes.
US07946791B2
An arrangement of sheet-pile wall components includes two sheet-pile wall sections. The ends of the two sheet-pile wall sections are arranged. Their locks are hooked into two lock profiles of a connecting profile which is hooked via a third lock profile into the lock of an anchorage. The respective other ends of the sheet-pile wall sections are secured such that each of the two sheet-pile wall sections partially encloses a region. At least one of the lock profiles and the lock of the sheet-pile wall component of the anchorage in engagement therewith are configured in such a way that the lock profile of the connecting profile and the lock in engagement therewith are hooked one inside the other and grip around one another. As viewed in cross section, they bear on one another and are supported against one another by at least three points in at least one installed position.
US07946789B2
A method for selectively generating electrical power uses waste water gravity flow to generate electrical power. An electrical power generator is driven to generate electrical power in response to the waste. A portion of the electrical power generated by the at least one electrical power generator can be stored and tapped later to supplement the output of the electrical power generator. A portion of the waste water flow can be stored and tapped later to supplement the waste water flow.
US07946788B2
In a road construction machine (1) for the treatment of road surfaces with a milling drum (3) height-adjustable with regard to the milling depth, with a leveling device (4) with at least one controller (6a, 6c) which receives set values for the milling depth and/or the slope of the milling drum (3), and with at least one exchangeable sensor (A, B, C) or with several switchable sensors for registering the current actual value of the milling depth and/or the slope of the milling drum (3) relative to a reference surface, where the controller (6a, 6c) effects a milling depth control and/or a slope control for the milling drum (3) conditional on pre-determined set values and the currently measured actual values of the at least one sensor (A, B, C) by returning an adjustment value for achieving or maintaining the set value during the milling operation, where the leveling device (4) is provided with an indication and setting device (2) for indicating and setting operating parameters for the at least one sensor (A, B, C), it is provided that the indication and setting device (2) of the leveling device (4), in addition to an indication and setting unit (2a, 2c) provided for the at least one sensor (A, C) currently in use, is provided with an additional indication and setting unit (2b) for a selectable sensor (B) that is to be exchanged for the sensor (A, C) currently in use.
US07946786B1
Barrier elements provide security from terrorist threats by ability to withstand both vehicle collisions and explosive blasts. Each barrier element is prefabricated to include a massive block of durable material, in some embodiments segmented, with at least one tunnel extending at least partially between respective cavities in two opposite sides of the block. Each barrier element also includes at least one beam that is preferably made of steel and extends through one such tunnel. Multiple blocks are positionable slidably on top of the ground side-against-side with their beams coupled longitudinally to one another at least approximately end-to-end. Retainer means can be used to block coupling means from entry into the tunnels. Forces from a vehicle collision or an explosive blast can cause barrier elements to rotate relative to one-another when the couplings between beams hinge or bend as the durable material that interferes with the rotation breaks away.
US07946782B2
An angularly adjustable coupler is provided having first and second ends that are in an angularly adjustable mating engagement. The first end has a longitudinal axis and a base with an optionally concave and serrated surface, and can comprise a collared clamp for connecting to a pylon. The second end has a longitudinal axis and a base with an optionally convex and serrated surface, and can comprise a receiver for connecting to a pyramidal adapter. The concave portion of the first end and the convex portion of the second end are complementary to each other. A connector is provided to connect the first and second ends in a selected angular alignment about a fixed axis of rotation. The range of angular alignment of the first and second components spans approximately 50 degrees about the fixed axis of rotation.
US07946781B2
An assembly for connecting a component having a base to a surface includes a fastener and a retainer having a clamp portion for capturing a shank of the fastener, and for aligning the fastener and an optional gasket with the base. The retainer automatically separates from the fastener when the fastener is tightened, and may include a recovery feature to allow recovery of the retainer after separation. A method for facilitating connection of a component and gasket to a surface includes inserting a threaded fastener into a base of the component, capturing the fastener within a clamp portion of a retainer, and positioning a surface of the retainer adjacent to the base. A tab portion of a gasket or the base can be inserted into a slot in the retainer to thereby secure the retainer to the base prior to connecting the component to the surface.
US07946770B2
A hydrodynamic bearing device has favorable bearing performance and long endurance life. A thrust bearing part of the hydrodynamic bearing device has a second thrust surface. In the second thrust surface, a dynamic pressure generating groove area having a plurality of dynamic pressure generating grooves is formed in at least a part thereof in a radial direction. The action of dynamic pressure of lubricating oil increases the pressure in a thrust bearing clearance between an end of a flange part of an axial member and the second thrust surface, to support the axial member in an axial direction in a non-contact manner. The dynamic pressure generating groove area of the second thrust surface is formed by press working. The difference in height between the inner and outer peripheral edges of the surface of the dynamic pressure generating groove area regulated between or equal to 0 and 2 μm.
US07946762B2
A thermocouple for use in a semiconductor processing reactor is described. The thermocouple includes a sheath having a measuring tip at one end and an opening at the other end. A support member having bores formed along the length is disposed within the sheath. A pair of wires formed of dissimilar metals are disposed within the bores, and one end of the wires is fused together to form a junction. The wires extend along the length of the bores. As the wires exit the bore, they are spatially or physically separated to prevent a short circuit therebetween. The ends of the wires exiting the bore are also free to thermally expand in the longitudinal manner, thereby reducing or eliminating the potential for the wires to fail due to grain slip.
US07946760B2
In one embodiment, the invention is a method and apparatus for dynamic measurement of across-chip temperatures. One embodiment of a method for measuring temperatures across an integrated circuit chip includes generating a plurality of surface images of the integrated circuit chip, deriving power values across the integrated circuit chip from the surface images, computing the temperatures across the integrated circuit chip in accordance with the power values, and outputting the temperatures.
US07946751B2
Embodiments of the present invention provide a method for continuous flow production of mixed fluids. The mixed fluids can comprise a mixture of different fluids or a mixture of the same fluid having different input properties such as temperature. In general, two streams of fluid of varying temperature are supplied to a mixer. The flow rate of each of the input fluids can be regulated to produce a mixed fluid at a desired flow rate and temperature. As an example, mass flow controllers can regulate the flow rates of a hot and cold stream of de-ionized water to produce a stream of de-ionized water at a desired flow rate and temperature.
US07946750B2
A composition for and a method of promoting the flow of a concrete slurry through a conduit is provided. The composition is preferably a liquid polymer mixture including water and polyacrylamide polymers. The composition, when mixed with a suitable quantity of water, is useful, in a method of priming a pump, and in pumping concrete slurry, and improves the flow of the slurry through a conduit.
US07946747B2
A backlight unit is disclosed. The backlight unit includes a light source unit generating light, a beam profile changer at the side of the light source unit, a reflective plate under the beam profile changer, and an optical film positioned on the beam profile changer and the reflective plate. The beam profile changer includes an incident surface facing the light source unit and an emitting surface positioned in a direction parallel to the incident surface. The reflective plate includes a first reflective surface having a first reflective area and a second reflective surface having a second reflective area. The second reflective surface is inclined from an end of the first reflective surface to an upward direction.
US07946745B2
A system for mounting a headlight on a motor vehicle comprising a rigid housing closed by a protective glass. The system comprising: a first connecting element fixed to the headlight, a second connecting element fixed to the motor vehicle, the first and second connecting elements being assembled so as to slide one in the other. The first and second connecting elements are curved and mounted at least partially about a center of rotation of the headlight providing rotational movement of the headlight.
US07946739B2
A hand protective cooking apparatus, usually referred to an Oven Mitt and/or Pot Holder, including a combination of sound, light and video electric generating devices, including a power source, grouped as an electronic assembly secured into the body of the hand protective cooking apparatus. Sound, light and video combinations generated by the hand protective cooking apparatus, may entertain, inform, advertise and illuminate. A programmed sound chip, radio, MP3 player, television and Walkie-Talkie maybe embedded in the electronic assembly. Furthermore, the hand protective cooking apparatus has thematically integrated sounds, visuals, fabric design and a removable attached greeting card to strengthen the entertaining, informational, advertising, promotional, souvenir and gift value.
US07946734B2
A low upright cutoff classification acorn style luminaire is described. The acorn style luminaire has a globe which has a top positioned thereon and which is mounted to a pole. Integrated within the luminaire is the lamp support and lamp, the lamp substantially surrounded and enclosed by a reflector. The interior surface of the globe has a plurality of substantially vertically extending prisms along a curved surface thereof, the prisms working in conjunction with the reflector to provide cutoff classification for the acorn style luminaire.
US07946730B2
The invention is a replacement for a conventional incandescent or halogen light bulb. Besides providing regular illumination, it has advantages over a conventional bulb while maintaining the bulb's decorative function, such as visual effects associated with the bulb's envelope or shade. The invention comprises a connector equivalent to a standard light bulb base, at least one light emitting diode (LED), and a driving circuit hosted on a module such as a printed circuit board and adapting the supply voltage to the requirements of the LED. Compensation for the effects of temperature may be included. The invention may also include other circuitry to support various enhanced features such as novel decorative features or control over the brightness, color, or other characteristics—all potentially varying over time or being controlled remotely.
US07946729B2
An LED-based light for replacing a conventional fluorescent tube in a fixture is provided. The LED-based light includes an elongate light transmitting rod defining a bore and at least one LED positioned at one or both ends of the rod and oriented to produce light longitudinally into a portion of the rod radially outward of the bore. At least one connector is physically coupled to an end of the rod and electrically coupled to the at least one LED. The at least one connector is adapted for physical and electrical connection to the fixture. In operation, the directional light produced by the at least one LED is dispersed by way of reflection, refraction, and/or diffusion while traveling longitudinally through the rod to reduce the appearance of bright spots.
US07946722B2
A direct backlight module comprises a first frame, at least two light sources, and a back board. The back board is fixed to the first frame and comprises at least two back slices connected to each other. Each of the at least back slices slips out from the back board.
US07946717B2
A projection optical system including a first optical system configured to form a second image conjugate to a first image and a second optical system configured to include a reflective optical element which reflects light from the second image and to project a third image conjugate to the second image onto a projection surface is provided, wherein the first optical system has a Petzval sum with a sign opposite to a sign of a Petzval sum of the second optical system.
US07946715B2
A light source includes an discharge lamp including a first electrode and a second electrode emitting light by discharge between them, a drive unit performing a steady operation which supplies steady energy to the first and second electrodes and an initial operation which supplies energy to the first and second electrodes with an operation different from the steady operation before performing the steady operation, a determination unit determining states of the discharge lamp and a data storage unit storing plural initial power feeding conditions provided corresponding to states of the discharge lamp as examples of the initial operation and plural steady power feeding conditions provided corresponding to the states of the discharge lamp as examples of the steady operation, in which the drive unit performs the initial operation in any one of conditions selected from the plural initial power feeding conditions according to a determination result by the determination unit and performs the steady operation in any one of conditions selected from the plural steady power feeding conditions according to a determination result by the determination unit.
US07946714B2
There is provided a projector unit which can facilitate the design of lenses and project a distortionless and clear image and which comprises a projection optical system in which an optical axis of a projection lens does not coincide with a center of a rectangular image plane of an optical modulator for forming a projected image which corresponds to an image that is projected onto a screen, wherein the optical modulator is disposed in such a manner as to be tilted so that the optical axis of the projection lens and a center normal of the image plane of the optical modulator intersect each other.
US07946711B2
An illumination device includes a light source part for emitting light with an intensity distribution approximately uniform in a first direction and a fly-eye lens into which the light is entered. The light source part and the fly-eye lens are arranged such that the first direction is inclined with respect to vertical and horizontal directions of arrangement of lens cells in the fly-eye lens. Since illumination light is entered into the fly-eye lens in a state of inclining with respect to the fly-eye lens, the number of superimposition patterns on the fly-eye lens is increased and illuminance non-uniformity in illumination light is suppressed.
US07946692B2
A device and method of controlling fluid flow are provided. The method includes providing a moving fluid including a fluid flow characteristic; providing a fluid control device including a fluid control surface, the fluid control surface including a pattern; causing the fluid to contact the fluid control surface of the fluid control device; and causing the fluid to interact with the fluid control surface of the fluid control device using the pattern of the fluid control surface that, when activated, causes adjacent fluid drops to merge or coalesce while the fluid is in contact with the pattern of the fluid control device such that the fluid flow characteristic of the fluid after interacting with the fluid control surface of the fluid control device is different from the fluid flow characteristic of the fluid before interaction with the fluid control surface of the fluid control device.
US07946688B2
A recording head includes a recording element substrate having a discharge port facilitating discharging a liquid droplet, an energy generating element configured to generate energy for liquid discharge, and a supply opening facilitating supplying the discharge port with a liquid. The recording head also has a support member having a supply path formed by laminating a plurality of plate-shaped members including an opening portion. The support member supports the recording element substrate and includes a chamber communicating with the supply path and adapted to hold air.
US07946687B2
A thermal bend actuator comprising: (a) a pair of electrical contacts positioned at one end of the actuator; (b) an active beam connected to the electrical contacts and extending longitudinally away from the contacts, the active beam defining a bent current flow path between the contacts; and (c) a passive beam fused to the active beam. When a current is passed through the active beam, the active beam heats and expands relative to the passive beam, resulting in bending of the actuator. The active beam comprises a resistive heating bar having a relatively smaller cross-sectional area than any other part of the current flow path. Heating of the active beam is concentrated in the heating bar.
US07946684B2
A method of manufacture of printers and printheads formed of a number of modules mounted on a chassis. The modules and chassis are formed with a number of alignment features which engage with one another to form elastic interference couplings. By arranging a number n of such couplings for each module, the variance in positional error of each module with respect to the chassis can be made significantly less than the alignment error of the alignment features themselves, by the process of Average Elastic Alignment. The elastic interference couplings can advantageously be made to form a sealed coupling for the supply of ink from the chassis to each module.
US07946678B2
In the case where a multipass printing and an interlace printing are used together, the present invention enables outputting an image of good quality independently of the relation between the number of passes in the multipass printing and increase in the resolution in the sub-scanning direction through the interlace printing. Data processing is executed while pixels of inputted image data are made to correspond to two or more rasters in the sub-scanning direction, so that the dots are arranged in these rasters at a substantially equal rate, in the case where the number of print scannings to be executed multiple times is not an integral multiple of the number of rasters.
US07946675B2
Provided is a liquid ejecting apparatus including: a liquid ejecting head that ejects liquid from nozzle openings by driving of an ejection driving portion; a driving signal generation portion that generates a driving pulse for driving the ejection driving portion; a liquid receiving portion that is disposed so as to oppose a nozzle forming face of the liquid ejecting head and receive ink ejected from the nozzle openings; and an ejection inspecting portion that detects an electrical variation occurring between a conductive portion of the liquid ejecting head and the liquid receiving portion when liquid is ejected toward the liquid receiving portion from the nozzle openings in a state where an electric voltage is applied between the conductive portion and the liquid receiving portion, thereby inspecting whether or not liquid has been ejected from the nozzle openings. The driving signal generation portion generates a normal driving pulse which is used for processes other than an ejection inspection process by the ejection inspecting portion and an ejection inspection driving pulse which is different from the normal driving pulse and is used for the ejection inspection process by the ejection inspecting portion.
US07946673B2
A method of preparing an inkjet printhead, prior to generating an image onto a receiving medium, the printhead containing a substantially closed ink duct comprising an inlet opening and a nozzle, said duct being operationally connected to an electro-mechanical transducer, the method including the steps of arranging that the duct is filled with ink; generating a pressure wave in the ink, the pressure wave causing a deformation of the transducer which generates an electrical signal as a result; analyzing the electrical signal, and deciding on the basis of the analysis whether the inkjet printhead is ready to proceed with the printing of the image. The inkjet printer is also modified to perform the present method.
US07946670B2
An inkjet printer includes a replaceable ink cartridge. The ink cartridge stores ink to be printed. The ink cartridge includes a quality assurance (QA) integrated circuit (IC) containing cartridge data. A controller unit is configured to read the cartridge data from the QA IC and then sets the print speed of the printer using the cartridge data.
US07946664B2
A shelf unit includes a back wall having first and second end sections. First and second side walls extend outwardly from and in general perpendicular relation to the end sections of the back wall. Each side wall includes at least one first slot. The back wall and first and second side walls are formed from a first board made of a corrugated material. At least one first shelf formed from a second board made of a corrugated material extends between the first and second side walls. The first shelf has opposing end sections which project through the first slot of each side wall for securing the first shelf to the first and second side walls without the need of associated fasteners. The first slot has the same shape as a cross-sectional shape of the first shelf.
US07946662B2
A track shoe connecting link 25 has shaft holes 31, 32 at both end portions. In the track shoe connecting link 25, a plurality of insertion holes 39 are formed between the shaft holes 31, 32, and window holes 40, 41 are formed so as to correspond to each insertion hole 39. A bolt 43 is inserted through each of the insertion holes 39 and a nut 44 is screwed onto a distal end of the bolt 43 in each of the window holes 40, 41. Accordingly, the track shoe connecting link 25 is fixed to a track shoe 26. The area of the window hole 41 that is adjacent to the second shaft hole 32 is greater than the area of the window hole 40. Accordingly, the rigidity of the track shoe connecting link 25 becomes smaller toward the second shaft hole 32.
US07946661B1
A guard for a crawler type land vehicles having a frame, a final drive on each side of the frame, the final drive including a spindle housing with a flange bolted to the frame and a sprocket hub rotationally supported on the spindle housing, a track sprocket on the sprocket hub, the spindle housing and hub establishing a small gap to form a mechanical shield to protect a rotational seal within the space enclosed by the spindle housing and sprocket hub, the guard being adapted to be assembled radially outward of the mechanical shield, the guard having a circular shell member for bolting to an inside face of the sprocket hub and extending axially in one piece across substantially all of the distance between the spindle flange and the sprocket hub, the guard shell having an internal circumferential groove, a circular radial flange for mounting in the space between the spindle flange and the sprocket hub, the guard shell being diametrally split whereby it can be radially assembled around the spindle flange with the radial flange closely fitting within the groove to form a stepped gap for excluding debris including strand material from a zone within the guard shell.
US07946660B2
An electronic compressed-air system includes a compressed-air supply part having a compressor and a consumer part having load circuits. The load circuits are supplied with compressed-air via solenoid valves. At least one load circuit is provided with a pressure reservoir. The pressure in the load circuits is monitored by pressure sensors, whose signals are evaluated by an ECU that controls the solenoid valves. The load circuits include service-brake circuits having a compressed-air reservoir, secondary load circuits and a high-pressure circuit, wherein the solenoid valves of the service-brake circuits and the solenoid valves of the secondary load circuits are open in a de-energized normal state and the solenoid valve of the high-pressure circuit is closed in the de-energized normal state.
US07946658B2
A self propelled irrigation system has a drive tower on which a drive wheel is mounted to a rotating member of a drive mechanism with an axis of the wheel obliquely angled relative to a drive axis of the rotating member such that the wheel is tilted out of a plane normal to the drive axis. A hub has its oppositely facing sides arranged to support the wheel in such an orientation, and may therefore be mounted between the drive mechanism and wheel of a conventional irrigation system in which the wheel and drive axes were previously coincident. The tilt of the wheel causes an intentional wobble under rotation of the hub so that the wheel's point of engagement with the ground wanders back and forth during repeated passage of the drive tower over a particular path, thereby reducing a rut forming or deepening tendency of the irrigation system.
US07946656B2
A retention assembly, comprises a carbide bolster comprising a cavity formed in its base end. A shaft comprises an inserted end disposed within the cavity. The shaft is disposed within a hollow shank which comprises a first end contacting the bolster and a loaded end in mechanical communication with the shaft. Wherein, the inserted end is brazed to an inner surface of the cavity.
US07946654B2
An air insert is designed for a proper fit into a cushion pelvic loading area that has sloped walls for positioning and properly supporting the human pelvis. The air insert may be segmented, or pre-contoured by the manufacturer, so as to be designed for a proper fit into the PLA. The seat cushion and the insert will provide comfort and support to the users.
US07946648B2
The invention relates to a panel device for a sliding roof arrangement of a vehicle, having a panel element for closing a gap between a frame of the sliding roof arrangement and an externally-guided sliding cover when the latter is situated in a ventilator position, having a holding element in which the panel element can be at least partially held, having an actuating element which deploys the panel element relative to the holding element in a first direction, and having force absorbing means, by means of which a force which acts in a second direction perpendicularly on a side of the panel element and perpendicularly to the first direction can be absorbed.
US07946647B2
A device for covering a recess (4) formed in a covering strip (5) has a flap (3), which is rotatable about a longitudinal axis, and a bearing arrangement for holding the flap (3) in bearing regions on the end side. There are journals (15, 16) with resilient fork limbs (18, 19) on the end side, wherein at least one fork limb (18, 19) is designed with a latching lug (20) on the end side. Furthermore, bearing sleeves (7, 8) are formed which each have a journal-receiving space (9) which extends in the direction of the longitudinal axis of the flap (3) and into which a journal (15, 16) can be fitted until it engages behind an edge side of the bearing sleeve (7, 8) by way of a latching lug (20).
US07946643B2
A tonneu cover assembly mountable to a open top truck bed of a pick up truck for covering the bed. The cover assembly includes a pair of side rail caps that are attachable to the side rails of the bed by a clamping system. A pair of door panels are hingedly mounted on respective side rail caps. The door panels are rotatable between a closed position where the bed is covered and open positions permitting access to the bed. A pair of actuators are connected to respective door panels and are operable to rotate the door panels between the closed and open positions. The actuators may operate to rotate one door more quickly than the second when opening the doors, and then reverse the speed of the doors when closing them enabling correct engagement between the inward sides of the doors. A quick release mechanism is provided to decouple a door from an actuator in case of a failure.
US07946641B2
A floor structure on a driver side of a vehicle where a control pedal, such as a brake pedal, adapted to be depressedly operated by a driver seated in a driver seat arranged at a front of a passenger compartment. The floor structure has a heel-placement zone which is provided on an approximately horizontal floor portion located rearward of a depressing point of the control pedal, and formed to have a frontward region adapted to allow a short person seated in the driver seat place his/her heel thereon and a rearward region adapted to allow a tall person seated in the driver seat place his/her heel thereon. The heel-placement zone includes an inclined surface portion formed in at least part thereof in such a manner as to rise relative to a surrounding area of the floor portion and has an upper surface extending obliquely upwardly and frontwardly. The floor structure can adjust a driving posture easily and adequately with a simple structure to allow a driver seated in the driver seat to adequately operate the control pedal.
US07946640B2
An instrument panel comprising a synthetic resin base material and a skin material covering and integrated with the surface of the synthetic resin base material. The instrument panel may be disposed ahead of a seat within a driving cab in a vehicle. A metal support is integrally formed in the synthetic resin base material and insert-molded in such a state that a part of the metal support is protruded from the synthetic resin base material. The site protruded from the synthetic resin base material has a frame fixing section, which can be fitted and fixed to the cab frame of the vehicle. In such an the instrument panel, even upon exposure to vibration or impact, neither drop of various mounted instruments nor damage to the instrument panel takes place. Further, in mounting various instruments, the necessary number of components can be reduced, and stable mounting of instruments can be realized.
US07946639B2
A server system lifting device includes a bearing area foldable at a midline. The bearing area includes a front portion and a rear portion that are defined by the midline. A plurality of handles are coupled to the bearing area. The plurality of handles includes two front handles coupled to opposite sides of the front portion of the bearing area and two rear handles coupled to opposite sides of the rear portion of the bearing area. The midline extends between the opposite sides. The bearing area is characterized by a width greater than or equal to a width of a server system chassis and a length such that the two forward handles are forward of a center of gravity of the server system chassis, and the two rear handles are posterior to the center of gravity, when the midline is approximately aligned with the center of gravity.
US07946638B2
A motion assisted manure fork having a handle, a fork head having a plurality of tines, a leverage assembly and a motor assembly that imparts a sinusoidal motion to the plurality of tines. The fork head includes a frame having a neck dimensioned to receive one end of a handle and a plurality of tines. The plurality of tines has an inner tine section, and an outer tine section on each side of the inner section with a hinge positioned between the inner tine section and each of the outer tine sections. The fork head also has an angle of inclination, which divides the plurality of tines into an upper portion of tines at a first angle to the handle and a lower portion of tines at a second angle to the handle. A support member extends across the plurality of tines, which includes a plurality of supports positioned between the tines to provide strength to the fork head during use. The outer tine sections are attached to and extend from the frame, while the inner tine section is not fixedly attached to the frame except by the hinge.
US07946635B2
An apparatus for reinforcing door jambs to prevent forced entry through the doorway by strengthening the composite materials of the door jamb with the addition of the apparatus, which is attached with threaded fasteners that go through the door jamb and are anchored into the framing studs. The device is made of 14 gauge ASTM, A-36, Mild Steel with holes through which the latching and locking mechanisms of the door may pass, as well as smaller beveled holes to pass screws through to attach the device to the door jamb and framing studs. The device is also formed so as to facilitate latching mechanism closure. This device can also be used to assist in the repair of damaged door jambs by holding together the damaged portions once they are placed back in position.
US07946634B2
The object of the present invention is a vehicle door latch, whose basic version contains a locking mechanism (1, 2) with at least one operating lever (3) for the locking mechanism (1, 2) and a motor drive (4, 5, 6, 7) for opening the locking mechanism (1, 2). According to the invention, the motor drive (4, 5, 6, 7) directly acts upon the locking mechanism (1, 2) solely via the operating lever (3).
US07946628B2
A fitting (58) is inserted into an opening (56) in a wall (50). The fitting (58) includes a ring portion (64) where it extends through the opening (56). It also includes one or two end portions (66, 68) that extend axially outwardly from the ring portion (64). The ring portion (64) has an inside diameter (76) that is smaller than the inside diameters of the end portion or portions (66, 68). The fitting (58) is positioned within the wall opening (56). Then, an expansion tool is moved through the interior of fitting (58) for the purpose of expanding the ring portion (64). The ring portion (64) is expanded to such an extent that it makes a tight fit with the opening (56). Also, the degree of expansion may result in a cold working of the wall material surrounding the opening (56). The expansion tooling only expands the ring portion (64) and does not exert a substantial expanding force on the end portions (66, 68).
US07946618B2
An airbag device includes: a bag body that is deployed by internal pressure rising as a gas is supplied into the bag body; and a gas pressure adjustment portion that is provided on the bag body so as to be able to release the gas from the inside of the bag body during a deployed state of the bag body, and that is set so that the amount of the gas released from the bag body in the deployed state to an inward side in a vehicle width direction is larger than the amount of the gas released from the bag body in the deployed state to an outward side in the vehicle width direction.
US07946616B2
A side airbag apparatus deployed between a vehicle compartment sidewall and a vehicle occupant. The airbag has an upper chamber, a lower chamber, and a middle chamber formed between the upper and lower chambers. The middle chamber is deployed prior to the timing of deployment of the upper and lower chambers.
US07946615B2
An attachment structure comprises a top ceiling, a cover member to cover a window glass from the inside of a vehicle compartment, an airbag which is stored along an upper edge portion of the window glass in its non-operation state and inflates downward through a gap which is formed between the window glass and the side end portion of the top ceiling which is pressed down by the airbag receiving a gas pressure from an inflator; and support members to support the cover member longitudinally at a position which is on an outside of the inflating airbag. Accordingly, the proper inflation of the airbag can be provided despite of the cover member at the window.
US07946601B2
A composite suspension trailing arm for heavy commercial vehicles includes an axle locating portion integral with the trailing arm, a chassis mounting feature to mount the trailing arm to a chassis component of a vehicle and a spring mounting feature integral with the trailing arm. The axle locating portion is located between the chassis mounting feature and the spring mounting feature. The composite material is made of a matrix material and a reinforcement material.
US07946600B2
In a torsion beam wheel suspension system, a stabilizer bush made of resilient material is received in a hollow interior of a torsion beam that connect intermediate points of a pair of trailing arms, and retains an intermediate part of the stabilizer to the torsion beam. A bracket including a pair of vertical walls opposing lateral sides of the stabilizer bush is attached to a part of the torsion beam to prevent the lateral shifting of the stabilizer bush without any part of the bracket or stabilizer bush restraining the torsional deformation of the stabilizer or torsion beam. The vertical walls may be spaced apart from the stabilizer bush. The structure is not costly and does not cause any complication or difficulty in the assembly work of the rear wheel suspension system. The bracket may have dual purposes of retaining the stabilizer bush and supporting a dynamic damper.
US07946594B2
A drill chuck locked through an inclined wedge surface, comprising a drill body, plural jaws, a nut, an outer sleeve, a control sleeve, a poking claw and a wedge block type lock ring. The wedge block type lock ring is rotatably fitted around the drill body to drive the nut to rotate, with a wedge lock and an elastic member biasing the wedge block pivotally connected therein, wherein the wedge block has an inclined wedge surface to be locked frictionally with the locking surface of the drill body; the control sleeve is connected with the outer sleeve to drive the wedge block type lock ring to rotate; the poking claw rotates simultaneously with the control sleeve between a first position where the poking claw is out of contact with the wedge block and a second position where the poking claw contacts the wedge block.
US07946590B2
A face seal for a gas turbine engine comprises a seal body that has a contact face to engage a rotating surface. The contact face is defined as an area extending radially between an inner diameter of the seal body and an outer diameter of the seal body at one seal end. A ratio of the outer diameter to the inner diameter is at least 1.054.
US07946583B2
System for directing media from one an input media path to one of multiple output paths using a rotary diverter. The rotary diverter is a cylinder mounted for rotation at a crossover point, where input media paths and output media paths cross. The rotary diverter includes a funnel-shaped section longitudinally cut through the cylinder, the sides of the funnel-shaped section lying at an acute angle. A relatively narrow output end of the funnel-shaped section lies toward the apex of the angle, and a relatively wide input end lies opposite the apex. The input end is thus configured to receive media, and the output end is configured to output media. The rotary diverter can accept input media from one input media path, or from several paths, given the wide input section.
US07946575B2
A medium feeding unit for use in an image forming apparatus includes: a cassette frame to load a printable medium; a guiding member disposed inside the cassette frame to move in a widthwise direction of the printable medium, and to guide the printable medium; and a stopper disposed rotatably to the cassette frame to regulate movement of the guiding member.
US07946570B2
A printer as an image forming apparatus controls to discharge the tab sheets that became no longer necessary when the type of tab sheets supplied is changed. Thus, the printer controls to discharge the tab sheets that became no longer necessary while printing a unit number of copies for a printing job.
US07946560B2
A hook block for a crane includes a sheave housing containing sheaves, extended portions with a hole through each, and a housing frame with a locking surface; a cross beam has multiple brackets each with a hole; a bracket has a plurality of surfaces corresponding to a plurality of angles of relative position between the sheave housing and the first cross beam, wherein the plurality of surfaces correspond to the locking surface and form a gap therebetween at each of the plurality of angles; a shaft rotatably captured within the holes of the extended portions of the housing and of the multiple brackets; and a locking bar sized to be placed in the gap between the locking surface and any of the plurality of surfaces to immobilize movement of the sheave housing relative to the cross beam.
US07946558B2
A plug valve has a valve body, a cage fitted within the valve body and a rotatable plug housed within a cylindrical cavity in the cage, for controlling fluid flow through the valve. The cage has first and second opposed flat side surfaces, each side surface has a port for receiving a replaceable flow-path insert in a fluid-tight seal. In one embodiment, the plug also includes at least one inset seal for sealing the at least one of the ports when the plug is in a closed position to inhibit leakage through the valve at low fluid pressures.
US07946551B1
A keyboard, mouse, and wrist support arrangement with a pivotable transverse member, first and second elongate rails in combination with slide rails for slidably receiving the first and second elongate rails for retaining the pivotable transverse member for extension and retraction and for pivoting about a lateral pivot axis, a keyboard support plate retained relative to the pivotable transverse member, and a keyboard wrist support retained relative to the keyboard support plate. A mouse support plate, which can be independently moveable in relation to the keyboard support plate, can be retained relative to the pivotable transverse member, and a mouse wrist support retained relative to the mouse support plate.
US07946544B2
A structure is described that has an open and closed configuration. In the open configuration, the structure is free standing and is able to support weight. In the closed configuration, the structure is flat. The structure is formed of two elements that are interlocked at their corners in a manner that allows them to pivot with respect to each other. Chamfered surfaces on the sides of the elements provide stops limiting the motion between the elements. Several structures may be combined to form composite products.
US07946542B1
A laptop stand for a vehicle is rotatably secured to a post on or near the floor of the vehicle. It is usually mounted between a driver and a passenger seat on a custom bracket. Two handles can be loosened to quickly rotate both a base support rod and a cradle support rod to desired positions, either for the driver's use or the passenger's use. A tilt and a forward/backward adjustment is located under the cradle. A height adjustment is located on the base support rod.
US07946541B2
The invention relates to a pipe/cable enclosure for pipes and cables of a medical diagnostic device, said enclosure surrounding the pipes/cables running from the diagnostic device to a partition wall and having at least one folding wall element with folds which, in the assembled state, is disposed folded at the folds around the pipes/cables, thus surrounding the pipes/cables.
US07946537B2
A system for detecting a moving hot bearing or wheel is provided. The system includes a summer for combining an input signal representative of radiation emitted by the moving hot rail car bearing with a feedback signal. The system also includes an integrator to accumulate an error resulting from the combination of the input signal and the feedback signal. The system further includes a feedback loop to feedback output of the integrator to the summer.
US07946513B2
The present invention regulates the delivery of feedstock to the fragmentation zone in a gravity-fed comminuting machine and reduces the ejection of feed materials by means of a rotating cylinder located at an offset position above the rotor. Rotationally mounted on an axis parallel to and above, but offset from, the axis of the rotor, this cylinder serves primarily as a striking surface, or anvil. The continual rotation of the anvil, in the opposite rotational direction as the rotor and with much slower rotational speed, assists in agitating the feed material, alleviating the problems of feed chute obstructions and feed aggregation. The cylinder forces the feed materials into contact with the rotor teeth through continuous rotation and provides a novel tooth design to improve efficacy and reduce wear.
US07946507B2
The sprinkler head location indicator is a shallow dish adapted for placement on the shaft of a pop-up sprinkler head. The dish is concave upward and has a small pilot hole formed through its center. A plurality of radially extending guidelines is formed on the bottom surface of the dish, the guidelines having hash marks at uniform intervals to form scale markings. The guidelines are severed radially to a uniform length forming flexible segments and the dish is pushed up the shaft to the ground flange of the sprinkler head. The flexible segments bend against the sprinkler head shaft, thereby retaining the dish on the shaft.
US07946498B2
A memory module with display functions and a display unit thereof are provided. The memory module includes a first circuit board, a memory chip, a display unit and a controller. The memory chip is disposed on the first circuit board. The display unit is disposed on the first circuit board. The display unit has the same package type as the memory chip. The controller is disposed on the first circuit board. The controller is configured to control the memory chip and provide information about the memory chip to the display unit, such that the display unit is capable of displaying information about the memory chip.
US07946496B2
The invention is related to an RFID applicator that may include a peeler member (140) including a peel end (142), the peeler member being configured to cause an RFID label (102) to peel away from a web (110) when the web passes around the peel end; a label tamp assembly (150) configured to receive the RFID label and to move the RFID label into contact with an item (104) on which the RFID label is to be applied; and a label reject assembly having an extendable path altering mechanism (500) located proximate to said peel end, configured to advance from a retracted position to an extended position to alter a path of the web around said peel end, and wherein said extendable path altering mechanism is positioned and dimensioned to inhibit an RFID label from peeling away from said web.
US07946490B2
An apparatus and method for manipulating images is disclosed. In one embodiment according to the invention, a method for manipulating images comprises: displaying for manipulation at a browser-based user interface a graphical representation of at least a portion of an image held at a remote image store; providing an internet communications link coupling the user interface to a remote image processor; transferring information about manipulations applied to the graphical representation between the user interface and the remote image processor; and causing the remote image processor to access the remote image store and apply, to at least a portion of the image held in the store, manipulations emulating those applied to the graphical representation. In another embodiment according to the invention, there is disclosed a method for applying a personalized image to a financial account access means corresponding to a financial account of a customer. The method comprises: associating financial data, corresponding to the financial account of the customer, with a customer image identifier in a financial account association table maintained securely from a user interface; associating the customer image identifier with user image selection data based on user selections made on the user interface in relation to a graphical representation of at least a portion of an original image held in an image store; and applying the personalized image to the financial account access means, the personalized image being based on the user image selection data associated with the customer image identifier.
US07946489B2
An electronic-ink based writing/drawing and display device employing an addressable display assembly including a layer of electronic ink including a bi-stable non-volatile imaging material. The device includes an integrated circuit structure having a storage element for storing instructions, programs and data, including graphical input data provided by an activator module. The integrated circuit structure also includes a programmed processor in communication with the storage element. The activator module is mounted beneath the surface of the addressable display assembly to (i) determine graphical indicia to be selected and/or displayed on the addressable display assembly, (ii) allow graphical indicia being displayed on the addressable display assembly, to be modified in real-time by a user of the device, and (iii) allow graphical indicia to be displayed on the addressable display assembly while graphical input data is being provided to the programmed processor by said activator module, so that the user is enabled to write and/or draw on the surface of the addressable display assembly while graphical indicia is being displayed thereon.
US07946487B2
A method for authenticating a pharmaceutical product, the pharmaceutical product being associated with packaging having disposed thereon or therein coded data including a number of coded data portions, each coded data portion being indicative of an identity of the pharmaceutical product and at least part of a digital signature of at least part of the identity. The method includes having a computer system receive indicating data from a sensing device, the sensing device being responsive to sensing of the coded data to generate indicating data at least partially indicative of the identity of the pharmaceutical product and the signature part. The computer system determines the identity at least one determined signature part and uses these to authenticate the pharmaceutical product.
US07946484B2
An imaging optical code reader is adapted for use in producing video displays and for use in motion detection surveillance using video compression and narrow band width communication links. An optical system including a plane parallel plate may be employed to change the system focal distance.
US07946482B2
The present invention provides an electronic money paying-in system that can easily update information used for an electronic money paying-in process. As the present invention is provided with an electronic money management server for acquiring a paying-in amount that has been input to an electronic money charger and also sending a paying-in processing command for adding the paying-in amount to an electronic money balance on an IC card to the IC card via the electronic money charger, it needs to store information used for processing of depositing electronic money like the paying-in processing command only in the electronic money management server and it can easily update the information used for an electronic money paying-in process just by performing maintenance on the server. Therefore, as the information used for an electronic money paying-in process can be easily updated, maintenance operation can be easily performed on the electronic money charger.
US07946471B2
A brazing composition for the brazing of superalloys including a base material with at least one initial phase is provided. The initial phase has a solidus temperature that is below the solidus temperature of the base material and, above a certain temperature, forms with the base material and/or with at least one further initial phase at least one resultant phase, the solidus temperature of which is higher that the solidus temperature of the initial phases. Heat treatment takes place in two stages, wherein the temperature of the second heat treatment is preferably 800-1200° C. The brazing composition may likewise be of the type MCrAlX, and the power particles of the initial phase may be in the form of nanoparticles.
US07946460B2
An interactive type of a balancing device comprises a backpack body, a balancing device, left and right shoulder straps whose top end and tail end can be connected with or detachably connected with the balancing device respectively. The balancing device is consisted of a lower assembly and an upper assembly connected with the backpack body and supported by the lower assembly. The left and right shoulder straps move along a rotating assembly of the upper assembly. The lower assembly connected with the backpack body is consisted of a baffle plate and a moveable device which is installed in a hollow part of an interlayer of the baffle plate. The upper assembly and lower assembly can be used at the same time or be used by itself.
US07946459B1
A simple-to-use adornment device, and method, employed by a user close-at-hand for personal safety enhancement. It contains a personal alarm or remote control device while maintaining a capability for immediate alarm/remote activation to summon assistance. It has a jewelry appearance or comprises a modular casing to which exchangeable decorative elements can be attached. Since it improves the aesthetic look of an associated alarm/remote, users are more likely to wear it habitually and experience enhanced personal safety and well-being as a result thereof. Inner and outer members with asymmetrical keyed guides are in sliding relation to one another to form the casing with one-way assembly, and a cord/chain connected to the members maintains their association with one another even when disassembled. Openings in each member are aligned to provide activation button access. Optional features include an interior resilient spacer, a cover, a clasp, and sheet pockets associated with the outer member.
US07946456B1
A hair bow maker includes a first jaw and a second jaw. The first and second jaws are hinged to each other on one end. A plurality of teeth are formed on an inside surface of the first and second jaws. A first slot is formed through the first jaw and a second slot is formed through the second jaw. An elastic strap is retained in one of the first and second jaws to close the other ends thereof. A second embodiment of the hair bow maker includes a torsion spring, which forces the other ends of the first and second jaws together. A third embodiment of the hair bow maker includes a guide plate extending upward from each end of the first jaw, which receive the second jaw. A fourth embodiment of the hair bow maker includes two jaw members and a flat torsion spring.
US07946455B2
A metering device is provided for metering at least one medium. The metering device includes a medium storage unit and a pumping system connected to the medium storage unit. The medium storage unit or the pumping system has a venting valve which is elastically held in the closed position. The metering device also includes a control member associated with the venting valve in such a way that the control member opens the venting valve as a result of a pumping movement of the pumping system.
US07946450B2
A container for dispensing a product is provided, the container including an outer casing body having a cavity; a dispensing tray adapted for sliding movement within the cavity of the outer casing body between a closed and locked position and a dispensing position, the dispensing tray having an internal storage compartment for storage of a plurality of units of a product to be dispensed, a dispensing window, and a stop for engaging the outer casing body to prevent removal of the dispensing tray from the cavity; and a locking mechanism for releasably locking the dispensing tray in the cavity, the locking mechanism including protrusions projecting from the outer casing body into the cavity and positioned adjacent to a moveable flap formed in the outer casing body, and recesses carried by the dispensing tray and positioned to engage the protrusions when the dispensing tray is in the closed and locked position.
US07946449B2
The present invention relates to a blister pack device for dispensing a dosage unit from a blister pack. The blister pack has at least one blister and a lid foil. The device comprises a first arm and a second lever arm hingedly connected to each other, the first arm comprises an aperture through which the dosage unit can be ejected. The lever arm comprises a protruding member for pressing out a dosage unit from the blister when the lever arm is lowered down onto the blister positioned on the first arm. The protruding member comprises a first section for applying a pressing force on the dosage unit inside the blister to initiate the breaking of the lid foil of the blister pack and a second section for distributing the pressing force over the dosage unit and for ejecting the dosage unit.
US07946429B2
A sorting apparatus (1) has a first conveyor (2) with a plurality of cups (4) to receive products such as fruit (3). Moving substantially parallel with the first conveyor (2) is at least a second conveyor (5) having a plurality of discrete product holding compartments or pockets (6). The second conveyor (5) can move in the same or opposite direction to that of the first conveyor (2). The first conveyor (2) is operated so that products (3) are selectively discharged from the first conveyor (2) into respective compartments (6) until a required number of the products having a prescribed characteristic have been received and that pocket (6) can then be moved to the product transfer or emptying point. The characteristic of the product (3) can be for example type, weight, quantity, colour, shape, surface quality and/or density.
US07946425B2
This invention is directed toward an airtight, refrigerated cosmetics handbag that can be used as a stand alone product or inserted into other, larger handbags. The handbag has a pocket in the top panel into which frozen gel packs can be inserted, so that heat-sensitive cosmetics are cooled from the top. The exterior of the handbag is constructed of heat-shielding and/or heat reflective materials. The inside of the handbag additionally comprises means by which the cosmetics can be retained in a safe but compact form, and, optionally, a bi-directionally modifiable valve through which excess air can be removed subsequent to the cosmetics being placed in the handbag. The handbag can be manufactured in a variety of sizes and shapes, and, preferentially, from recycled materials.
US07946421B2
A strip containing a prescription of individual dosages of medicine includes a plurality of packets connected in a series. The plurality of packets includes at least one filled packet that includes a plurality of medications. The strip has a first end, a second end, and an ending group. The ending group includes a subset of the plurality of packets and is adjacent the second end. An indicator is associated with the ending group, wherein the indicator can inform a user that the ending group is adjacent the second end of the strip.
US07946403B2
A disengagement/disconnect assembly for disengaging a generator from a gear box may include an inner ball screw having an angled threading on an outer surface thereof and surrounding and operatively engaged to a rotating generator drive shaft to cause rotation of the inner ball screw. The inner ball screw may be attached to an engagement member having undercut and interlockable teeth engaged to corresponding teeth of an engagement member of the gear box. An outer ball screw may surround and normally rotate with the inner ball screw. A helical ball track may be formed between the inner and outer ball screws. A brake may be provided for slowing or stopping rotation of the outer ball screw so that the inner ball screw rotates relative to the outer ball screw along the ball track and slides axially away from the gear box thereby disengaging the generator from the gear box drive shaft.
US07946401B2
A multi-disk clutch having a plurality of interengaging disks movable along a longitudinal clutch axis and a resetting device for the mutual release of adjacent disks along a release distance, with the release distance being bounded by an abutment device. The abutment device includes at least one contact section of a clutch part movable along the longitudinal clutch axis and at least one contact section of an axially fixed clutch part, with the moving clutch part and the axially fixed clutch part having different thermal coefficients of expansion and with the contact sections at both sides cooperating such that the bounding of the release distance varies in dependence on the temperature, with at least one of the contact sections having a sloping surface.
US07946397B2
A disc brake is provided with an actuator acting on a brake application device, which brake application device is used for applying at least one brake pad to a brake disc. The brake application device has a brake-internal hydraulic arrangement and is configured in a self-energizing mode. The brake pad is supported on the brake application device at a wedge angle and the wedge angle of the brake pad is adjusted by the hydraulic arrangement of the brake application device.
US07946393B2
The invention relates to an elevator unit including an elevator car which is movable in an elevator shaft and is equipped with a braking device and a catching device encompassing catching elements. The elevator unit further includes a system for detecting signals used for determining an absolute position of the elevator car, a control circuit for detecting signals used for determining the speed or deceleration of the elevator car, and a circuit for evaluating the signals of the detection system and the control circuit. Based on the input signals, the evaluation circuit evaluates whether the speed of the elevator car lies within a predefined interval in the determined position and causes the braking device to be actuated via a first output of the evaluation circuit and/or the catching device to be triggered via a second output of the evaluation circuit according to the result of the evaluation.
US07946391B2
A hydraulic elevator for an elevator shaft having guide rails for an elevator cab. The hydraulic elevator has no machine room and includes an assembly disposed between the guide rails and a tank, a pump mounted in the tank, a motor mounted in the tank for driving the pump, and a control valve unit mounted on the tank and in working relationship with the pump. One of the pump and the motor is disposed above the other of the pump and the motor. The hydraulic elevator further includes a hydraulic drive mounted on the tank, the hydraulic drive being configured to move the elevator cab by a cable; and an emergency operating and monitoring device disposed outside of the elevator shaft and connectable to the control valve unit by a measuring line.
US07946385B2
A process for the production of an acoustically resistive structure that can be inserted in an alveolar structure so as to obtain a coating for the acoustic treatment, whereby the acoustically resistive structure includes at least one porous layer (34) and at least one reinforcement structure (36) assembled by gluing, the process including: applying an amorphous-type adhesive on the at least one reinforcement structure (36), perforating or micro-perforating the reinforcement structure (36) after the application of the amorphous-type adhesive, and applying the at least one porous layer against the face of the reinforcement structure (36) that is coated with amorphous-type adhesive.
US07946377B2
The subframe contains a framework which is cast as a single part and has profiled hollow members for the longitudinal and cross members. The cross members are connected to each other via supporting pillars at the corners, or are integrally formed on the supporting pillars. Arms which protrude outward are integrally formed on the supporting pillars or on the longitudinal and cross members, the end sides of which arms have connecting bearings toward the vehicle body. A differential is held on the two cross members, the differential having one mounting on the front cross member and two mountings on the rear cross member. The longitudinal members have a curved passage opening for the drive shafts of the differential. Mountings for wheel guiding links are arranged on the outside of the longitudinal member.
US07946369B2
A structure for mounting a radiator to a front-end module carrier includes an insulator, a bracket body, at least one guide rib on the front-end module carrier, and a screw-fastening boss on the front-end module carrier. The bracket body defines a space for the insulator to be disposed therein. The bracket body also includes at least one guide portion, and a flange defining a fastening hole for a screw to be inserted therein. The screw is also inserted to the screw-fastening boss. The guide rib guides the guide portion during insertion of the bracket body to the front-end module carrier. The guide portion may define a vertical wall with a first, narrow end and a second, relatively wider end. The front-end module carrier may also have a boss rib connected to the screw-fastening boss.
US07946366B2
A vehicle driving apparatus includes a rotating electrical machine; a power transmitting gear mechanism; and a case in which the rotating electrical machine and the gear mechanism are housed in series in an axial direction of the rotating electrical machine, wherein a low rigidity region, which is a region of the case having low rigidity located at an outer periphery of the rotating electrical machine, is covered by a silencer supported on a high rigidity region of the case having a higher rigidity than the low rigidity region.
US07946365B2
This control method for a fuel cell vehicle includes: a target motor output power obtaining step which obtains a target motor output power corresponding to an accelerator opening degree; and a high output power control step which controls operations of a first DC-DC converter and a second DC-DC converter, such that an output voltage of a power source becomes equal to or larger than a predetermined voltage that is required for securing a desired motor output power, when the target motor output power is larger than a predetermined output power threshold value.
US07946360B2
A system for drilling a lateral hole departing from a main well. The system comprises a motor assembly (415) including a motor (412) to generate a rotating torque, an axial thruster (411) to generate an axial force, a blocking system (410) to fix the motor and the axial thruster downhole. The motor assembly further includes a drive shaft (414) to transmit the rotating torque. The system further comprises a first and second connector (402, 404) for transmitting the rotating torque and the axial force from the motor assembly to a drill string assembly. The first connector is connectable to the drill string assembly so as to transmit the axial force only to the drill pipe (401), and to transmit the rotating torque to a further drive (405) shaft positioned within the drill pipe. The second connector (402) is connectable to the drill string assembly so as to transmit both the axial force and the rotating torque to the drill pipe (401).
US07946346B2
A plume of combined gases are infused into hydrocarbon-bearing formations, “inert” as the major gas and “reactive” as the minor gas, where the minor gas reacts with hydrocarbons to fully saturate hydrocarbons with supercritical fluid, which migrate hydrocarbons out of formations, even at great distances from the regulated fuel cell source. Coal, tar sands, petroleum-contaminated soil, and/or oil wells that have lost gas pressure can also be desorbed by this in-situ method.
US07946345B2
The present invention relates to methods and compositions for carrier fluids comprising water-absorbent fibers. One embodiment of the present invention provides a method of treating a portion of a subterranean formation, comprising providing a slurry wherein the slurry comprises a servicing fluid, particulates, and a degradable, water-absorbent material wherein the degradable, water-absorbent material acts to help keep the particulates from settling out of the slurry; and, introducing the slurry into the portion of the subterranean formation. Another embodiment of the present invention provides a slurry suitable for use in subterranean operations comprising a servicing fluid, particulates, and a degradable, water-absorbent material wherein the degradable, water-absorbent material acts to help keep the particulates from settling out of the slurry.
US07946344B2
An assembly for producing oil and/or gas through a well traversing stacked oil and/or gas bearing earth layers comprises a series of expandable packers and integrated perforating gun and sandscreen assemblies mounted on a production tubing such that each integrated perforating gun and sandscreen assembly is located adjacent an oil and/or gas bearing earth layer and at least one expandable packer is located between a pair of adjacent oil and/or gas bearing earth layers, and at least one inflow opening arranged in the wall of the production tubing adjacent to each sandscreen assembly. The integrated perforating gun and sandscreen assemblies are installed in a single run into the well such that uncontrolled fluid and/or sand influx into the well before installation of the sandscreens and expandable packers is avoided.
US07946342B1
A method for oil recovery whereby an exothermic water reactant (EWR) encapsulated in a water soluble coating is placed in water and pumped into one or more oil wells in contact with an oil bearing formation. After the water carries the EWR to the bottom of the injection well, the water soluble coating dissolves and the EWR reacts with the water to produce heat, an alkali solution, and hydrogen. The heat from the EWR reaction generates steam, which is forced into the oil bearing formation where it condenses and transfers heat to the oil, elevating its temperature and decreasing the viscosity of the oil. The aqueous alkali solution mixes with the oil in the oil bearing formation and forms a surfactant that reduces the interfacial tension between the oil and water. The hydrogen may be used to react with the oil at these elevated temperatures to form lighter molecules, thus upgrading to a certain extent the oil in situ. As a result, the oil can flow more efficiently and easily through the oil bearing formation towards and into one or more production wells.
US07946334B2
A sprue former of the type used to produce a casting mold includes a generally hollow body or a body having hollow sections. The body includes an inlet forming member and at least one first interface member. The inlet forming member is configured to provide an inlet cavity in the casting mold to enable casting material to enter the casting mold. The first interface members are configured to couple to casting patterns. The casting patterns represent items to be cast. The body can also includes a reservoir forming member and at least one connecting member coupling the reservoir forming member to the inlet forming member.
US07946317B1
A funnel assembly includes a perimeter wall that has a frusto-conical shape and has an upper edge and a lower edge wherein a diameter of an interior bounded by the perimeter wall decreases from the upper edge to the lower edge. Each of the upper and lower edges defines openings into the interior. The perimeter wall has an aperture extending therethrough. A tool is extendable through the aperture to engage a drain bolt of an oil pan. The aperture is spaced from the upper and lower edge.
US07946305B1
A method for stabilizing a beach umbrella includes the steps of configuring a one or more bags, each having a reclosable top opening, and having attachment cords at the upper and lower ends of each bag, filling the bags with a medium such as sand or water, and suspending the bags from the umbrella by affixing each either to the pole or above the junctures of the canopy struts and the pole, or at the junctures of the longer and shorter canopy struts.
US07946301B1
A laser powered cleaning system for cleaning pollutants and debris from both sides of automobile windshields and windows. The system includes an electromagnetic interior block having a top surface having a plurality of focused laser beams, and a magnetic exterior block having a top surface including a reflective surface. The windshield or window is situated between the interior and exterior blocks which pass over the window for cleaning. A power cord connected to an adapter plugs into an automobile power outlet for supplying power. A safety sensor is integrally coupled to the interior block for actuating the system when safe. The system is fixable onto a windshield or window within a door of an automobile. An on-off switch actuates the fixed system.
US07946299B2
A spray cleaning device having an atomizing unit with at least one gas passage and at least one cleaning fluid passage converging into a atomizing area. The gas flowing though the gas passage and the cleaning fluid flowing through the cleaning fluid passages combine to form a mixture at the atomizing area. The accelerating unit has an acceleration passage for spraying the mixture onto a substrate surface. The gas passages are preferably angled with respect to the cleaning acceleration passage.
US07946298B1
A device and method for cleaning a bell cup after its removal from a rotary paint atomizer. The device preferably includes an enclosure within which the bell cup is retained during the cleaning operation. Pressurized cleaning fluid is introduced into the enclosure where it flows over the bell cup and removes paint therefrom. The enclosure may be connected to the nozzle end of a paint spray gun that can be used to deliver the pressurized cleaning fluid thereto.
US07946297B1
A hair extension holder including a main body and a cover. The main body has a recess formed therein that is adapted to receive a hair extension bundle. The cover is operably attached to the main body such that the cover is movable with respect to the main body. A recess is defined between the cover and the main body that is adapted to receive a plurality of hairs.
US07946291B2
A pressure-assisted breathing system comprises a pressure-generating circuit for maintaining a positive pressure within the system, and a patient interface device coupled to a patient's respiratory system. A respiratory circuit is positioned between the pressure-generating circuit and the patient interface device and a nebulizer is coupled to the respiratory circuit.
US07946276B2
A fuel injector is disclosed. The fuel injector includes an injector valve needle and a valve actuation assembly including a stator, an armature, and a valve, the valve in fluid communication with the injector valve needle. A stator protection device is positioned between the stator and at least a portion of the armature. The stator protection device is configured to prevent contact between the stator and the armature.
US07946265B2
A supply control apparatus controls advancing supply, which is supply of working fluid to advancing chambers, and retarding supply, which is supply of the working fluid to retarding chambers. The supply control apparatus alternately and repeatedly executes the advancing supply and the retarding supply in such a manner that a rotational torque, which drives a camshaft, changes at a phase of cycle that is opposite from a phase of cycle of a variable torque, which changes with time and is applied to the camshaft, at time of limiting a phase of the camshaft relative to a crankshaft within a target phase range.
US07946260B2
A coupler, such as a piston pin, is pivotally coupled to a piston such that the piston can pivot about a first axis relative to the coupler. A connecting rod is coupled to the coupler for pivoting about a second axis. The relative positions of the first and second axes can be shifted by pivoting an eccentric portion of the coupler to thereby vary the compression ratio of a piston cylinder within which the piston slides. The coupler comprises a pivot member engager portion that is selectively shifted from first to second positions to vary the compression rates in response to shifting of a pivot member. The pivot member engager is shifted from first to second positions as the piston approaches the bottom dead center position. The pivot member and pivot member engager disengage from one another as the piston travels away from the bottom dead center position.
US07946229B2
A rail road freight car truck has a truck bolster and a pair of side frames, the truck bolster being mounted transversely relative to the side frames. The mounting interface between the ends of the axles and the sideframe pedestals allows lateral rocking motion of the sideframes in the manner of a swing motion truck. The lateral swinging motion is combined with a longitudinal self steering capability. The self steering capability may be obtained by use of a longitudinally oriented rocker that may tend to permit resistance to self steering that is proportional to the weight carried across the interface. The trucks may have auxiliary centering elements mounted in the pedestal seats, and those auxiliary centering elements may be made of resilient elastomeric material. The truck may also have friction dampers that have a disinclination to stick-slip behavior. The friction dampers may be provided with brake linings, or similar features, on the face engaging the sideframe columns, on the slope face, or both.
US07946223B2
A skewer shield includes a shielding body adapted for placement on a cooking grill, and a skewer engaging portion extending upwardly from the shielding body. The skewer engaging portion has a top resting edge on which food-ladened skewers can be rested in such a manner that the shielding body of the skewer shield prevents the handle ends of the skewers from heating up.
US07946220B2
A method for regulating a cooking process of a cooking product in an oven of a steamer, during which the moisture in the oven coming from the cooking product is at least periodically determined over time by a moisture sensor. During a measuring phase there is no introduction of steam into the steam oven and the moisture sensor is evaluated. For a given cooking process with fixed times for the supply of steam, on the basis of the moisture sensor evaluation during the measuring phase, the end of cooking is determined. Prior to the measuring phase and during a steam phase, steam is introduced into the oven, the steam supply being terminated following the steam phase and prior to the measuring phase during a ventilating phase. During the ventilating phase the steam concentration in the oven is greatly reduced.
US07946219B2
A coffee machine has a housing, a dispenser head on the housing for pouring brewed coffee into a cup below the dispenser head, a horizontally open steam/hot-water dispenser fixed on the housing adjacent the dispenser head, and a container adapted to hold a supply of milk and having a cover. A connection conduit opening into a chamber on the cover and can fit with the steam/hot-water dispenser to receive steam or hot water therefrom. An air-suction conduit opens into the chamber, and a milk-suction conduit extends from the chamber down into the milk in the container. A discharge conduit carried on the container and opening into the chamber can shift into a working position directed into the zone to feed a mixture of steam or hot water and air and/or milk into the cup below the dispenser head.
US07946213B2
A gimbaled weapon system (GWS) is disclosed having a sighting system, a control unit, a weapon cradle for receiving a weapon, and an operator interface for the GWS located remotely from the weapon cradle and the sighting system. The weapon cradle is co-located with the sighting system as a unit in the GWS. The GWS also includes a first elevation drive for elevating the weapon cradle, a first azimuth drive for rotation the weapon cradle in azimuth, and a second elevation drive elevating the sighting system independently of the elevation of the weapon cradle by the first elevation drive. The sighting system includes a sighting device incorporating a laser range finder, a visible spectrum video camera and a thermal spectrum video camera.
US07946207B1
Methods and apparatus for countering a projectile according to various aspects of the present invention may operate in conjunction with a countermeasure system. The countermeasure system may comprise a beam source adapted to generate an electromagnetic beam. The countermeasure system may further include a beam control system adapted to aim the electromagnetic beam at the projectile according to a fire control solution. The beam heats at least a portion of the projectile to a disruption temperature to deflagrate the projectile.
US07946201B2
A locking system for a multitool where multiple discrete lock members are attached to a handle and the lock members can be individually engaged to lock and unlock tool members from a retained to an extended position and vice versa within the handle of a multitool.
US07946198B2
In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, a combination ratcheting and helical driver is disclosed. In the unlocked position the hand tool coverts downward linear force into rotary motion. In the locked position the hand tool operates as a ratcheting driver. The locking device locks the helical drive shaft of the hand tool in a retracted position such that the helical drive shaft is substantially positioned within the handle body. A locking main body is adjacent to a chuck assembly. The locking main body selectively combines with a shoulder abutment adjacent to the handle assembly to lock the helical drive shaft in the retracted position.
US07946196B1
Rotation and positioning of a rotary index table supported from a base is effected using a cam supported from a conveyor and cam follower lock, with the conveyor and cam follower lock being mounted on a carriage set for radial movement on the base inwardly and outwardly with respect to the axis of rotation of the rotary index table, and a plurality of cam followers depending from the rotary index table.
US07946185B2
A converter pulse width shaping circuit (6) according to the present invention is provided between a waveform shaping apparatus (4) and an erroneous output preventing apparatus (5) that are provided between a flow rate detecting portion (1) and a flow rate metering mechanism (3). When high frequency pulse signals of a frequency not lower than a predetermined value are successively input, the converter pulse width shaping circuit (6) combines those high frequency pulse signals to convert them to a low frequency pulse signal, which is then output to the erroneous output preventing apparatus (5) having a low-cut function. In the present invention, a vortex flow meter is made up of a converter (2) including the converter pulse width shaping circuit (6) described above.
US07946184B2
A magneto-inductive flow measuring device providing, in addition to flow information for a medium, also information concerning electrical conductivity of the medium. For a highly accurate determination of the electrical conductivity, the invention provides the following solution: a temperature measuring unit is provided, which makes available information concerning the temperature of the medium. On the basis of the measured temperature, a control/evaluation unit ascertains a correction value for electrical conductivity and makes available a correspondingly corrected value for the electrical conductivity.
US07946177B2
A method of detecting a deviation angle in a single-crystal metal structure is disclosed. The single-crystal metal structure has a crystallographic orientation, a length, a first side, a second side, and a first axis extending through the structure. The method comprises determining the length of the single-crystal metal structure along the first axis, transmitting a signal through the single-crystal metal structure from the first side, the signal oriented to propagate along the first axis, receiving the signal, determining a time-of-flight for the signal to traverse the length from the first side to the second side, determining a speed of the signal based on the time-of-flight and the length, and comparing the speed of the signal to a reference speed to detect the deviation angle.
US07946173B2
An angular velocity sensor has a stable characteristic in which a vibration element has a small variation in the driving efficiency even when carbon dioxide gas is generated by the reaction with oxygen gas in a package including therein the vibration element. To realize this, the angular velocity sensor has a mixed gas of inert gas and oxygen gas in the package so that the mixed gas in the package has a pressure higher than the atmospheric pressure.
US07946160B2
A portable emissions measurement adapter device (PEMAD) for a vehicle exhaust system having an first exhaust pipe coupled to a second exhaust pipe defining an air inlet opening therebetween, includes an elongated tube having a first and a second end and adapted to fit through the second exhaust pipe to sealingly mate with the first exhaust pipe at the first end. The second end is adapted for operative connection to an emissions testing unit. No modification of the production vehicle is required to use the PEMAD.
US07946151B2
A humidity sensing device for determining the amount of humidity in at least one primary fluid stream that is passed to a fuel cell stack is provided. The sensing device includes an outer housing and an inner housing. The outer housing is positioned within at least one conduit such that the outer housing and the conduit coact with each other to generate at least one secondary fluid stream from the primary fluid stream. The inner housing is positioned within the outer housing such that the inner housing is configured to receive the secondary fluid stream and to measure an amount of water present in the secondary fluid stream to determine the amount of humidity in the primary fluid stream.
US07946148B2
A method for manufacturing-side calibration of a measuring device for capacitive fill level measurement of a medium, wherein at least one probe unit of the measuring device is activated with an electrical, alternating voltage of a predeterminable frequency. As a function of the frequency of the activating signal, a conductivity range is determined, within which the fill level measurement is essentially independent of a change of the electrical conductivity of the medium; for such conductivity range, at least a first reference matching between a predeterminable, first fill-level value and a first capacitance value belonging to the first fill-level value is produced; and the first reference matching between the first fill-level value and the first capacitance value is recorded. Additionally, the invention relates to a corresponding measuring device.
US07946147B2
In a tube expanding apparatus of a damper tube supporting a thrust force of a punch applied to the damper tube by a stopper at a time of retaining one end of the damper tube by the stopper, inserting the other end of the damper tube to a die, inserting the punch to the other end of the damper tube so as to propel, and expand the other end of the damper tube while carrying out an ironing operation, the apparatus is provided with a stopper releasing means for releasing the stopper at a time when a load in an axial direction applied to the damper tube due to an elongation by the ironing work of the damper tube increases over a critical load which is previously determined to be a smaller load than an expected buckling load in the damper tube.
US07946144B2
A lock cylinder which can be fitted into a part of a lock assembly of a door or other operable panel. There is provided a lock cylinder (114; 214; 314; 414; 514; 614; 714) adapted for fitment into the lock housing (12), the lock cylinder comprising a key-operated locking part and an actuator (50), the lock cylinder having a predetermined profile for most of its length, and a securing part (70; 72,74; 76,78; 80,82; 170,172; 270,272; 370) projecting from the predetermined profile. The securing part is adapted to lie underneath a part of the lock assembly in use, such as a face plate of an operating handle of the lock assembly, so that the securing part prevents unauthorised removal of the lock cylinder through the face plate.
US07946141B2
A self-scrambling combination includes a frame that supports at least two tumbler rings and an activating slide. The tumbler rings are marked with characters used for a combination for the lock. The lock is openable only when the tumbler rings are located in an open position related to the combination. The activating slide moves a locking bar between a locked position and an unlocked position. A scrambling mechanism is attached to the activating slide and rotates the tumbler rings from the open position to another position upon movement of the activating slide to move the locking bar from the unlocked position to the locked position. The frame can be used as the door of a lockbox and an attached key lock controls the setting of the combination for the lock. The self-scrambling combination lock can be used for a briefcase or valise lock with an additional spring closing the lock.
US07946139B2
A water level control for a washing machine provides an integrated unit that may replace standard mechanical water level controls with a microprocessor-based circuit that may provide for more sophisticated water management in a standard washing machine using a non-microprocessor cycle timer.
US07946131B2
The subject invention is directed to a method for producing a raw material or materials that can be used by themselves or in combination with other ingredients to make glass of high quality at high efficiencies and short production times. The raw materials are capable of high reactivity in a glass melting furnace and therefore will allow glass to be produced either at lower temperatures or shorter residence times at the same temperatures as compared with known methods.
US07946130B2
In the process of producing a glass, a glass melt is formed from an initial glass batch, an inorganic or organic peroxide is include in the glass melt as a refining agent in an amount suitable for refining, and then the glass melt is refined at a refining temperature equal to or greater than a decomposition temperature of the inorganic or organic peroxide. The inorganic peroxides used in the glass-making process only include cations that are already present in components of the initial glass batch. The organic peroxides used in the glass-making process are chosen so that the organic residue remaining in the melt after release of oxygen is decomposed to volatile water and CO2.
US07946121B2
An air conditioner includes a refrigerant circuit, a refrigerant quantity calculating section, and a refrigerant quantity judging section. The refrigerant circuit is configured by the interconnection of a compressor, an outdoor heat exchanger, and an indoor heat exchanger. The refrigerant quantity calculating section uses a relational expression between the refrigerant quantity in each portion of the refrigerant circuit when the refrigerant circuit is divided into a plurality of portions and an operation state quantity of constituent equipment or refrigerant flowing in the refrigerant circuit in order to calculate the refrigerant quantity in each portion from the operation state quantity of constituent equipment or refrigerant flowing in the refrigerant circuit. The refrigerant quantity judging section uses the refrigerant quantity in each portion calculated by the refrigerant quantity calculating section in order to judge the adequacy of the refrigerant quantity in the refrigerant circuit.
US07946116B2
A turbocharger comprises a variable nozzle device and an exhaust housing being mechanically and/or thermally decoupled from the variable nozzle device. Additional optional advantageous features are provided, including various axial and radial clearances and various sealing elements.
US07946111B2
An apparatus and a method for PM purification, where good PM purification performance can be achieved. The PM purification apparatus includes (a) a honeycomb support having an outer periphery-side region and an inner-side region, which carries a PM oxidation catalyst and in which the PM oxidation catalyst loading per unit volume of support in the outer periphery-side region is greater than the PM oxidation catalyst loading per unit volume of support in the inner-side region, (b) a center electrode passing through the center part of the honeycomb support and extending to the exhaust gas flow upstream side, and (c) an outer peripheral electrode disposed on the outer periphery of the honeycomb support and electrically insulated from the center electrode by the honeycomb support. The PM purification method can be performed using the PM purification apparatus.
US07946103B2
A band wearable by a user connectable or connected to a watchcase or a decorative item, comprising a plurality of separable units and means for releasably connecting at least some of the units together to form the band, wherein two adjacent said units are releasably lockable together, and wherein the releasable connection means comprises operable means manually actuable or depressible by a finger of the user to disconnect said adjacent units from each other.
US07946096B2
A system for wrapping loads includes a moving machine and a wrapping head equipped with a reel of film for covering a load, the wrapping head including sleeves which can be positioned on pegs of an external supporting frame for parking the head in a store, and blocks with slots in which pins of the moving machine can be vertically inserted to lift and move the wrapping head.
US07946088B1
System and method for reinforcing structures includes basalt textile 20 connected to surfaces of the structure 100 with fiber anchors 30. Textile spreads forces and increases ductility of structure. Textile may connect multiple structural elements together, including walls, floors, columns, beams, and roofs. Textile is covered with mortar 50 customized to match color and texture of structure by use of locally obtained grit, aggregate, or colorant. Basalt fiber textile is preferred to avoid degradation of textile from alkaline components of mortar 50.
US07946087B1
A roof drain sump box (10) is utilized for positioning a roof drain (12) on a flat roof. The sump box is formed with a horizontally oriented flat plate (20) with a central opening (22) making a peripheral flange (24). The central opening has a width less than a distance between building roof joists providing attachment of the sump box onto the flat roof top of a building without altering the building structure. An angular transition portion (46) is integrally formed with the flange contiguous with the central opening. A vertically oriented downwardly depending step (48) is formed integrally with the angular transition portion and a horizontally oriented flat sump deck (50) is integrally formed with the step. The sump deck, is coplanar with the flange, and incorporates a roof drain opening (52) to receive the roof drain (12). The sump deck is positioned sufficiently below the flat plate permitting water to flow uninhibited into the roof drain without ponding.
US07946086B2
A system for constructing masonry block walls having spaced-apart pilasters and panels supported by and extending between the pilasters. In certain embodiments, the pilasters are constructed from stacks of pilaster blocks which are secured together using at least one vertical, post-tensioned reinforcing member, without the use of grout to connect the reinforcing members to the pilaster blocks. The pilasters are constructed from at least two laterally spaced-apart stacks of pilaster blocks positioned on opposite sides of the wall. The panels are constructed from courses of panel blocks, and do not require the use of mortar to connect adjacent blocks. The pilasters provide an arrangement in which a panel can supported in an upright position by virtue of one end portion being positioned between two stacks of blocks of a first pilaster and the opposite end portion of the panel being positioned between two stacks of blocks of a second pilaster.
US07946082B2
A structure support apparatus for anchoring and supporting a structure upon a roof includes a bowed plate having a dome-shaped convex portion formed in the center of the bowed plate projecting from the concave side toward the convex side of the bowed plate. A screw hole is formed in the dome-shaped convex portion, penetrating the center of the bowed plate, and the structure is supported by the apex of the dome-shaped convex portion.
US07946081B1
A cover assembly for an eaves trough that is connected to a structure for receiving water from the structure includes an elongate body having a plurality of apertures extending therethrough and an upper fastening structure that connects the body to the structure. The elongated body at least partially overlies the structure and the eaves trough to prevent debris from entering an interior of the eaves trough. The apertures overlie the eaves trough such that water travels from the structure onto the body and through the apertures to the interior of the eaves trough. The upper fastening structure has a longitudinally extending first channel member that is connected to the structure, and an upper engaging member disposed on the body near a first longitudinal edge thereof. The upper engaging member is releasably engageable with the first channel member to releasably secure the first longitudinal edge of the body to the structure.
US07946080B2
A passive lock assembly is suitable for use with a door mounted to a door frame. The passive lock assembly includes a housing, a bolt, an actuator, and a stop member. The housing is mounted on the door. The bolt extends from the housing and is moveable between an extended position and a retracted position. The actuator is supported by the housing and is operably connected to the bolt. Additionally, the actuator is moveable to move the bolt between the extended position and the retracted position. The stop member is pivotably connected to the housing and pivotable between a first position and a second position. In the first position, the stop member engages an engagement surface of the actuator to obstruct movement of the actuator and prevent movement of the bolt to the retracted position, and in the second position, the stop member does not obstruct movement of the actuator.
US07946068B2
A trigger system for a paintball marker has a string attached to the trigger actuator. The string is held taut between the actuator and the trigger guard. The actuator is a lever attached to the string and in contact with a micro-switch that allows the release of compressed air to propel a paintball.
US07946066B2
A sign holder holding an end of each of two signs includes a first wall, a second wall spaced from the first wall, and a connecting wall located between the first and second walls and secured thereto. A first sign holding section is defined by first portions of the first and second walls and is located on a first side of the connecting wall. A second sign holding section is defined by second portions of the first and second walls and is located on a second side of the connecting wall. A channel is defined on the second wall for engaging an associated bracket used to mount the sign holder on a support.
US07946053B2
A measuring tape device has a hook piece. The hook piece is used for preventing the tape from slipping off from an object of measure. The hook piece consists of a hook body and an anti-slip piece; the hook body consists of a pulling part and a connecting part; the pulling part is a flat surface, the connecting part extends out from one side of the pulling part in the direction that is perpendicular to the pulling part; the anti-slip piece is adhered onto the inside surface of the pulling part; and magnetic pieces are attached to the outside surface of the pulling part. Therefore, during the measuring process, both the anti-slip piece and the magnetic pieces may help keeping the hook plate of the measuring tape attaching to the object of measure and hence the tape does not slip off from the object of measure easily.
US07946052B2
A concrete column form aligning apparatus is useful for homeowners building decks, sheds or other structures or commercial builders making bridges, parking garages or other structures having column forms. The aligning apparatus comprises a plurality of platforms configured to engage a circumference of the concrete column form each having a securing device to fix and center each platform around the circumference of the concrete column form. Each of the apparatuses have at least one attachment bracket affixed at a predetermined angle, where the attachment brackets on each form linearly aligned at the proper angle with respect to the other attachment bracket on the other platform. A connector mechanism may be secured in the attachment bracket be using joining pieces at a designated length that secures and aligns the forms at the proper position.
US07946040B2
A chainsaw includes: a body case 20 in which an engine for driving the chainsaw is accommodated; and a top handle 41 provided on an upper side of the body case 20. A fuel tank 7 for storing fuel of the engine is integrally provided to the top handle 41. A carburetor 6 is also provided to the top handle 41. The fuel tank 7 is disposed near the carburetor 6.
US07946037B2
In a microchemical device including a plurality of flow channels which feed liquids from at least one fluid supply device into a plurality of reaction zones, each of the plurality of flow channels has a plurality of minute flow channel members each of which has a cross sectional area smaller than that of the reaction zone. Thereby, the fluids are evenly fed into each of the microreaction members. Thus, a microchemical device capable of homogenizing a substance generated on respective reactions can be realized.
US07946036B2
A manifold for a heat exchanger includes a header radially surrounding and in spaced relationship to an axially extending distributor conduit. The distributor conduit is formed by bending the sheet along the leading edge, and the header is formed by bending a remainder of the sheet including a trailing edge about an axis in radially spaced relationship to the distributor conduit. The cross sections are completed and closed by placing the leading and trailing edges into contact with, and sealing the edges to the sheet.
US07946033B2
A method of manufacturing a lead terminal for an accumulator by plastic deformation on a cold-working apparatus that has a shaping station (2) and at least one deformation station (30. 40, 50, 60, 80) by shaping, at the shaping station, a slug (7) that has a longitudinal extension along a longitudinal axis such as to provide base (9) and contact (8) parts for the terminal and a size commensurate with the size of the terminal end piece to be manufactured; transferring the slug (7) to the deformation station (30, 40. 50, 60, 80); carrying out a first deformation of the slug (7) for inner and outer shaping of its base part (9); and carrying out a second deformation of the slug (7) for performing at least a further inner and outer shaping of the base part (9), the deformations being performed sequentially as progressive deformation steps.
US07946027B2
An apparatus for correcting the shape of an inner surface of a stator includes a deviation sensor for measuring the shape of the inner surface of the stator fixed inside an inner surface of a housing of a rotating electric machine, a personal computer for calculating a direction of deformation and the amount of deformation of the shape of the stator inner surface based on the measured shape of the stator inner surface as well as a direction of heating and the amount of heat to be input when heating an outer side surface of the housing based on the calculated direction and amount of deformation of the shape of the stator inner surface, and a gas burner for heating the outer side surface of the housing based on the direction of heating and the amount of heat to be input calculated by the personal computer.
US07946018B2
An assembly apparatus for assembling a ball screw device includes a support block, a nut arranged in a longitudinal direction, a nut reception base that arranges the nut so that its axial direction towards vertical direction of the assembly apparatus and that supports the nut so as to elevate the nut with respect to the support block, a temporary shaft inserted into an inner diameter side of the nut arranged on the nut reception base and rotatably supported by the support block, an inclined face provided at a forward end portion of the temporary shaft, for guiding balls into the nut raceway groove and a pushing mechanism that has elasticity in the radial direction of the temporary shaft and that pushes balls which are fed into the nut raceway groove by a forward end portion protruding from the outer circumferential face of the temporary shaft.
US07946013B2
Provided is a driving jig for a closing cap which makes it possible to drive a closing cap straight into a bolt installation hole (11) formed in a track rail (1) and which allows this driving operation to be quickly repeated on a plurality of bolt installation holes (11). The jig includes a driving piston (73) and a guide holder (72) for maintaining the driving piston (73) in a predetermined attitude with respect to the track rail (1). The driving piston (72) has a pressing portion (75) coming into contact with an upper surface of the closing cap (70), and a hammering portion (74a) to be hammered by a tool. The guide holder has a cylinder (72a) in which the driving piston (73) slides, and has, at an opening at one end of the cylinder, a guide groove (77) into which an upper portion of the track rail is loosely fitted and which is orthogonal to an axial direction of the cylinder. The guide holder is provided with a receiving opening (72b) through which the closing cap protruding beyond the track rail is received into the cylinder.
US07946008B2
A method of manufacturing a piezoelectric vibrator comprises forming a gettering metal film on a surface of a piezoelectric vibrator piece and forming a frequency-adjusting weight, separate from the gettering metal film, on the piezoelectric vibrator piece. The piezoelectric vibrator piece is then placed in a hermetic container after which the hermetic container is hermetically sealed. A laser beam is irradiated on the metal film to heat the same to getter gas contained inside the hermetic container, and after completion of gettering, the laser beam is irradiated on the frequency-adjusting weight to adjust the frequency of vibration of the piezoelectric vibrator piece.
US07946007B2
A blocking device adapted to act on at least one lace or strand, the blocking device including a body, a first cavity defining a first pathway for the strand, the device including a first blocking member, a first guide for guiding the first blocking member relative to the body, and first elastic member to bias the first blocking member in a direction to press the strand against a surface of the pathway, the device functioning by cooperation of a first blocking member with the first pathway for blocking the strand by a wedging effect. The first cavity is open, so as to enable the strand to be inserted and disengaged in a direction other than that of the pathway.
US07946002B2
A connecting device which has an excellent appearance, produces no frictional sound between a connecting device main body such as a swivel hook main body and a belt attaching member and can be assembled easily and securely. The connecting device includes a neck portion standing from a proximal portion of a main body of the connecting device and an engagement head which is expanded in an outward direction form a center of an axis line such that a diameter thereof can be reduced, the engagement head being provided at a front end of the neck portion. A belt attaching member is connected to the main body rotatably around the neck portion. A through hole which the engagement head can be engaged with by insertion is formed in part of the belt attaching member. In the through hole, a small-diameter hole portion having a smaller diameter than the diameter of the engagement head and a large-diameter hole portion having a large diameter than the diameter of the engagement head are connected via a stepped portion. The large-diameter hole portion has a ring-like member which allows the neck portion to be inserted therethrough. The ring-like member has a cylindrical wall portion which is accommodated in the large-diameter hole portion and a ring-like engaging portion provided at an end of the wall portion and extended toward a center thereof. An inside diameter of the engaging portion is equal to an outside diameter of the diameter of the engagement head when it is reduced.
US07946001B2
A hose clamp includes a clamping band, a clamping device and a positioning arrangement, wherein the positioning arrangement has at least one positioner with a base and a claw for being pressed into a hose wall. The claw has a portion protruding inwardly from the base in a pressing direction, wherein the claw has an end which forms with the inwardly protruding section an obtuse angle (α).
US07945998B2
A handle for a rotating tool extension is disclosed. The handle includes a body member having a central portion with first and second end portions. The body member is positionable along an axis of rotation of the rotating tool extension and includes a bore formed in the body member extending therethrough along the axis of rotation. A liner may be at least partially disposed within the bore, and may be at least partially removable from and insertable within the bore. A rotating tool extension is at least partially inserted within the liner. Alternatively, the body member may include at least one roller bearing member contacting at least a portion of the rotating tool extension during rotation of the extension. The handle and extension may be provided as a combination and also as a kit.
US07945984B2
The invention relates to a cleaning rotor (1) having a longitudinal axis (L), a base part (5), which extends concentric to the longitudinal axis (L), a head part (3) and a strut element (9) that extends between the base part and the head part. Said strut element (9) extends in a helical manner about the longitudinal axis (L). The invention is characterized in that at least one supporting part (7) is placed between the base part (3) and the head part (3) while extending parallel to the longitudinal axis (L). The strut element (9) is supported on the supporting part (7) and is concave over its length.
US07945982B2
A mop structure includes an adjusting sleeve sheathed to a mop tube, and the mop tube slidably connected to a slide bushing includes a slide bushing thread secured with a corresponding adjusting sleeve thread. A pull handle is pivotally connected to the slide bushing and turned up and down the slide bushing. A water squeeze head at a lower end of the mop tube includes at least two water squeeze rollers on opposite sides of the water squeeze head to define a gap. An upper edge of each link arm is pivotally connected to the pull handle, and a lower edge includes a hooking bracket. A cleaning element includes two hooking holes for receiving a hooking bracket of each link arm. The cleaning element is driven by the pull handle and the link arm, passed through the gap, and squeezed by the water squeeze rollers.
US07945971B2
A hair-gathering hat construction comprises a hair-gathering aperture, which hat construction essentially comprises a crown portion, a brim portion, and hat cinching structure for cinching the crown and brim portions against the head of a user for effecting a proper fit. The crown portion defines a head-receiving opening and comprises inferior and posterior crown sections. The inferior crown section is peripherally discontinuous at the posterior crown section for defining an upper hair-receiving notch. The brim portion defines certain head-receiving structure and comprises a superior brim section, a posterior brim section, and brim flaps. The superior brim section extends from the inferior crown section at a crown-to-brim junction. The superior and posterior brim sections define a lower hair-receiving notch. The upper and lower notches together define a hair gathering aperture. The brim flaps form annular head-receiving structure when juxtaposed one another. The cinching structure retains the brim flaps in juxtaposed relation.
US07950063B2
An electronic system provides secure and authorized access to data or a user interface on at least one first computer for operating machines from at least one second computer. The data or the user interface on the first computer can be accessed exclusively from the second computer, in that the second computer has an authorization device which stores the access data for personnel with access authorization, and in that access to the data or the user interface on the first computer is preceded by a display apparatus connected to the first computer showing a display which reveals the identified personnel with access authorization from the second computer.
US07950052B2
A system, method, and interface for segregating a network controller and a security gateway is provided. A security gateway-network controller interface is established between a security gateway and a network controller. One or more application interfaces are carried over the security gateway-network controller interface. An admission policy interface may be maintained on the security gateway-network controller interface that allows establishment of dynamic access control lists for admission policies applied on specific secure tunnels. Additionally, a security association-international mobile subscriber identity interface may be maintained on the security gateway-network controller interface that facilitates ensuring an IMSI used during a registration process matches an identity used to establish a tunnel. Thus, a subscriber validation mechanism is provided over the security gateway-network controller interface that couples the network controller and the security gateway.
US07950051B1
A password management system generates passwords for users. The system registers the passwords with applications in network elements in a communication network. The system indicates the passwords to the users who use the passwords to access the applications. The system generates new passwords before the old passwords expire. The system registers the new passwords with the applications and indicates the new passwords to the users before the old passwords expire. The users use the new passwords to access the applications. The system may also register network addresses with the applications for the users.
US07950049B2
Exemplary embodiments provide a method and system for providing a hybrid meta-directory for recording a grant of privileges. In one embodiment method and system aspects of the exemplary embodiment include: assigning a privilege identifier to each privilege stored in a privilege repository; in response to a granting of one of the privileges to a target user, storing the privilege identifier assigned to the granted privilege in an authoritative source domain record for the target user; and in response to receiving a query of the authoritative source domain based on a user ID, retrieving a list of privileges granted to the corresponding target user based on the privilege identifiers associated with the user ID.
US07950047B2
Embodiments are directed towards detecting and reporting use by a domain of a message authentication mechanism, such as DomainKeys (DK), and/or DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM), and enabling subsequent blocking of messages based, in part, on its usage. When a message is received by an inbound message server, a message source is determined for the message. In one embodiment, the message source is a domain name associated with the sender of the message. Statistics are recorded about the message, including the message source, whether the message is suspect, includes a forged source identifier, employs DK/DKIM message authentication, and the like. The reports may ten be sent to various message sources to enable them to determine the extent of use of DK/DKIM message authentication, and to selectively block, re-direct, or forward the messages based, in part, on the use of DK/DKIM message authentication mechanism.
US07950045B2
Disclosed techniques provide enhanced security for a communications network. Access terminal devices intended for operation via the network are expected to have security agent functionality, e.g. in the form security agent software loaded into or otherwise enabled on each of the access terminal devices. Registration procedures include verification that such an agent is present/enabled on an access terminal and that the agent currently implemented on the terminal device provides adequate security for the communications network against malicious traffic from that device.
US07950026B1
A virtual execution environment for software applications and other code objects. In one implementation, the present invention allows for virtual execution of applications by transparently capturing the rendered output of natively executed applications, and delivering the output to other processes on the same platform or to remote devices in a platform agnostic manner.
US07950020B2
A method and apparatus is disclosed herein for secure operating system switching. In one embodiment, the method comprises identifying a second operating system of a plurality of operating systems that is to be active next; causing a memory access controller to enable exclusive access to a portion of memory for the second operating system once the second operating system becomes active; and causing the second operating system to become active.
US07950015B2
A method, computer program product, and data processing system for providing an improved directory service for storing information about hardware and software components is disclosed. The directory service stores not only the information that other hardware and software components require to locate, and make use of, the components listed in the directory, but is also able to dynamically construct ‘meta services’ that fulfill a client's functionality requirements.
US07950014B2
Aspects of the subject matter described herein relate to detecting the ready state of a user interface element. In aspects, a synchronization object is created to indicate when a user interface element is ready. Data is then loaded into the user interface element. After the data is loaded, an indication is made via the synchronization object that the user interface element is ready. After this occurs, a thread waiting on the synchronization object may interact with the user interface element with confidence that the user interface element is ready.
US07950007B2
A computer implemented method, data processing system, and computer usable program code are provided for maintaining a computer network. Resources and services affected by a change to a resource are identified in response to receiving a request for the change. A determination of an optimal time for the change is made based on a policy associated with the service. The change is deployed with a deployment engine.
US07949972B2
Systems, methods and computer program products for exploiting orthogonal control vectors in timing driven systems. An exemplary embodiment includes running an initial logic synthesis run on the system, identifying critical inputs to a logic cone related to the run, identifying orthogonal vectors in the logic cone, adding vectors to the logic cone, obtaining logical solutions and selecting a solution from the logical solutions.
US07949970B1
Techniques are provided for fast reduction of a system model, such as fast parasitics reduction of an electrical design. Delta loops, which comprise three nodes connected by three edges, may be identified. The netlist can be annotated with the number of delta loops to which an edge belongs and a delta loop identifier. Delta loops that share an edge may be assigned the same identifier. Identifying delta loops may be based on the intersection of binary search trees that are based on the netlist. In one embodiment, a cost of removing a node from the netlist is determined. Based on the annotations to the edges connected to a node under consideration for removal, the total number of delta loops that are shared by pairs of edges is determined. Based, at least in part, on the total number of common delta loops, a cost is determined of removing the node.
US07949969B2
System and method for developing an ASIC. A software program may be stored which includes program instructions which implement a function. The software program may be executed on a processing system at a desired system speed and may be validated based on the execution. A first hardware description of at least a portion of the processing system may be stored and may specify implementation of at least a portion of the processing system. A second hardware description may be generated that corresponds to a first portion of the first hardware description. The second hardware description may specify a dedicated hardware implementation of a first portion of the software program executing on the processing system. Generation of the second hardware description may be performed one or more times to fully specify the ASIC. An ASIC may be created which implements the function of the software program.
US07949968B2
An improved method, system and computer-readable medium for constructing binary decision diagrams for a netlist graph is disclosed. The method comprises traversing a netlist graph in a depth-first manner. At least one binary decision diagram is built for one input of a node of the netlist graph using a binary decision diagram for the other input of that node as a don't-care condition.
US07949958B2
Optical disc players are today connectable to the Internet, and may contain local storage capability, e.g. HDD. Additional post-production content can be downloaded and locally stored. It is difficult to include downloaded additional post- production material in menus for keeping a menu always consistent with the actually available data. Ideally, the menu should reflect the available data even if certain content is deleted or replaced with e.g. another version. A ‘linked-list’ approach for menu pages generates a dynamic menu structure. The menu consists of basic menu pages, which are retrieved from the disc, and additional pages that are downloaded together with the additional content. Page ranges may be reserved for e.g. audio, video or subtitles. The linked-list is implemented by an implicit link from each page to the next higher or lower page number.
US07949957B2
An edit selection control. The edit selection control can include a drop down list box coupled to a list of entries of full textual length; an edit box coupled to the drop down list box within the edit selection control and configured to display a selected one of the entries; and, list management logic coupled to the edit box and programmed to accept through the edit box as an alternative selection to the list of entries, a manually specified entry. Importantly, the edit selection control can have a structure configurable for embedding within a markup language document.
US07949952B2
A system for providing user representations in real-time collaboration application participant lists reflecting external communications, together with user representations in external communication applications indicating current real-time collaboration session participation. A participant list in a collaboration session represents other participants with whom the local user has recently or frequently communicated in a visually separate area. User representations associated with messages, entries, or the like, and contained in applications external to the collaboration application are displayed in a way that visually indicates the user's current participation in a collaboration session.
US07949946B2
The present invention extends to methods, systems, and computer program products for the facilitating the layout and composition of graphics. Embodiments of the present invention allow declarative input for creation and modification of layout compositions and also allows adjustments or modifications made to layout compositions. Layout compositions may be created, adjusted, and modified by input through a markup language or by user-commands and gestures. Relationships and associations among nodes and among line segments and connections between nodes which are embodied within a composition or created by an auto layout are preserved both during and after adjustments and modifications.
US07949940B2
A data entry restriction program capable of rejecting invalid structured documents out of structured documents of a general-purpose format with great flexibility. When a structured document is entered, a data entry restriction apparatus compares the structure of the structured document with flexibility requirements (step S1). When the structured document does not meet the flexibility requirements, the data entry restriction apparatus records error information in association with the sending client of the document (step S2). After the error information associated with the client exceeds prescribed limits, the data entry restriction apparatus rejects structured documents from the client (step S3). Structured documents which meet the flexibility requirements and the data entry restriction apparatus has accepted are entered into a data processing apparatus and analyzed (step S4).
US07949933B2
A semiconductor integrated circuit device includes a first memory cell coupled to a first WL and one of a pair of BLs for information bits, a second memory cell coupled to the first WL and one of a pair of BLs for parity bits, a third memory cell coupled to a second WL and the other of the pair of BLs for information bits, a fourth memory cell coupled to the second WL and the other of the pair of BLs for parity bits, column switches which connect the pair of complementary BLs for parity bits to a pair of data lines for parity bits, and a logic correction circuit connected to one of the pair of data lines for parity bits. The logic correction circuit executes a parity bit rewrite operation.
US07949931B2
A method for error detection in a memory system. The method includes calculating one or more signatures associated with data that contains an error. It is determined if the error is a potential correctable error. If the error is a potential correctable error, then the calculated signatures are compared to one or more signatures in a trapping set. The trapping set includes signatures associated with uncorrectable errors. An uncorrectable error flag is set in response to determining that at least one of the calculated signatures is equal to a signature in the trapping set.
US07949929B2
A controller for controlling an access of a non-volatile memory having an error-correcting code area and a data area is provided. The controller includes an error-correcting module and a first inverting circuit electrically connected to the error-correcting module for inverting data and error-correcting codes corresponding to the data. When the controller both writes all 0xFF data in the data area and writes all 0xFF error-correcting codes in the error-correcting code area, the first inverting circuit inverts the all 0xFF data and the all 0xFF error-correcting codes into all 0x00 data and all 0x00 error-correcting codes, respectively.
US07949927B2
In a method of detecting an error pattern in a codeword transmitted across a noisy communication channel, a codeword is detected. A syndrome is then generated by applying a generator polynomial to the codeword. The generator polynomial is adapted to produce a distinct syndrome set for each of “L” (L>1) different error patterns potentially introduced in the codeword during transmission across the communication channel. A type of an error pattern within the codeword is detected based on the syndrome or a shifted version of the syndrome, and then a start position of the error pattern within the codeword.
US07949926B2
A method and apparatus for selecting interleaver sizes for turbo codes is provided herein. During operation information block of size K is received. An interleaver size K′ is determined that is related to K″, where K″ from a set of sizes; wherein the set of sizes comprise K″=ap×f, pmin≦p≦pmax;fmin≦f≦fmax, wherein a is an integer and f is a continuous integer between fmin and fmax, p takes integer values between pmin and pmax, a>1, pmax>pmin, pmin>1. The information block of size K is padded into an input block of size K′ using filler bits, if needed. Encoding is performed using the original input block and the interleaved input block to obtain a codeword block using a turbo encoder. The codeword block is transmitted through the channel.
US07949920B2
A technique for reducing the overhead of daisy chain test mode in divide-and-conquer testing using intermediate test modes that do not span all cores or all flip-flops in the core. The partial residual test mode spans across a subset of the cores and allows to bound the number of cores that a full residual test mode may span across. The interaction of the cores among one another at the top-level is analyzed and the minimum number of flip-flops in a core that must participate in a intermediate test mode is selected. Algorithms are devised to analyze the interactions among the cores and build data structures which are used for identifying intermediate test modes. Using a reconfigurable scan segment architecture, intermediate test modes are implemented that are designed to work with all known test compression solutions. Since the length of the longest scan chain in an intermediate residual test mode is much smaller than the length of the longest scan chain in the full residual test mode, there is a substantial improvement in test application time as well as test peak power.
US07949916B1
Scan chain circuitry is provided for performing scan chain testing of integrated circuits. The integrated circuits being tested may include programmable logic. The scan chain circuitry may include scan chain cells. Each scan chain cell may have a first logic circuit that receives a scan enable signal. When the scan enable signal is asserted, the scan chain cells may be connected to form a scan chain for test data loading and unloading. Each scan chain cell may also include a second logic circuit. The second logic circuit in each scan chain cell may receive a test enable signal. Signal transitions may be created at the output of scan chain cells by loading the scan chain cells with data, deasserting the scan enable signal while the test enable signal is asserted, and applying a clock. At speed delay fault tests may be performed using the scan chain circuitry.
US07949914B2
A system is described having a JTAG diagnostic unit and a serial wire diagnostic unit. A watcher unit is connected to a data connection shared between the diagnostic units. Special patterns detected upon the shared data connection serve to switch between diagnostic modes with respective ones of the diagnostic units becoming active.
US07949899B2
An electronic apparatus testing method is provided. The method includes the step of: reading a product ID of the electronic apparatus when the electronic apparatus is connected to a control apparatus; determining the device type ID from the product ID, wherein the product ID comprises basic information of the electronic apparatus, determining the script files of the functions of the electronic apparatus in the testing table according to the device type ID; obtaining the script files from a data storage and running the script files to test functions of the electronic apparatuses, sending a control instruction to the corresponding measuring device of the function to control the measuring device test the function during the process of running the script files; and displaying test results through a display of the control apparatus.
US07949896B2
A storage system includes a controller that controls switching from a system before switching to a system after switching. The controller includes a check unit that checks whether a connection between the system before switching and the system after switching is enabled, or not, a determination unit that determines whether switching from the system before switching to the system after switching is enabled, or not, a fail-over information migration unit that migrates fail-over information included in the system before switching to the system after switching, a user data migration unit that migrates user data in the system before switching to the system after switching, and a switching execution unit that enables the system after switching to receive I/O from a host.
US07949890B2
Described are the architecture of such a system, algorithms for time synchronization during a multiway conferencing session, methods to fight with network imperfections such as jitter to improve synchronization, methods of introducing buffering delays to create handicaps for players with faster connections, methods which help players with synchronization (such as a synchronized metronome during a music conferencing session), methods for synchronized recording and live delivery of synchronized data to the audience watching the distributed interaction live over the Internet.
US07949886B2
An exemplary power supply system and method for a motherboard includes a power circuit providing power for a south bridge, and a controller having first and second transistors. An input terminal of the power circuit is connected to a power supply. An output terminal of the power circuit is connected to a reset pin of the south bridge. A first terminal of the first transistor is configured for receiving a control signal from the south bridge. A second terminal of the first transistor is connected to a first terminal of the second transistor. A second terminal of the second transistor is connected to the reset pin of the south bridge. Each of the first and second transistors has a third terminal grounded.
US07949885B2
A power supply device supplies power to an image forming apparatus. The image forming apparatus includes a load and a control unit. The load requires power, and is controlled by the control unit. The power supply includes a capacitor and a power-supply unit. The capacitor is charged by an external power source, and dischargably stores therein power. The power-supply unit provides power supply from the capacitor to the load and the control unit before voltage of the external power source drops below a threshold level where malfunction of the image forming apparatus occurs. After the voltage recovers to the threshold level, the power-supply unit stops the power supply from the capacitor.
US07949880B2
A method, system and apparatus for secure password validation can include a local authentication process configured for coupling both to local authentication data and to a remote authentication process. The system also can include a comparator disposed in the local authentication process and programmed to detect an extended password string in the local authentication data. Finally, the system can include a remote authentication handler disposed in the local authentication process and programmed to outsource password validation to the remote authentication process responsive to the comparator detecting an extended password string retrieved for a supplied user identifier. Preferably, the remote authentication handler can be a remote procedure call to the remote authentication process.
US07949876B2
A method, a router and a host are introduced for providing secure communication with limited use of processing intensive cryptographic means. Strong cryptographic keys are first used between the host and the router to sign messages therebetween, thereby ensuring that a first communication between the host and the router is secure. The router generates a secret key and forwards it to the host, the secret key being encrypted at the router and decrypted at the host by use of the strong cryptographic keys. Further communication between the host and the router is signed by use of the secret key.
US07949875B2
For the authentication of messages communicated in a distributed system from an originator to a destination a keyed-hashing technique is used according to which data to be authenticated is concatenated with a private (secret) key and then processed to the cryptographic hash function. The data are transmitted together with the digest of the hash function from the originator to the destination. The data comprises temporal validity information representing the temporal validity of the data. For example the setup key of a communication is therefore only valid within a given time interval that is dynamically defined by the communication originator. After the time interval is exceeded the setup key is invalid and cannot be reused again.
US07949872B2
An authentication requesting device which includes a battery connecting section to be connected to a battery and a receiving section to be supplied with power from an external power source when connected to the external power source, and executes an authentication process for authenticating a battery connected to the battery connecting section, where the authentication requesting device is arranged to change the authentication process depending on whether or not the receiving section is being supplied with power from the external power source.
US07949871B2
A Secure Service Network (SSN) in which at least two participants having a relationship are connected to a physical network by way of Secure Service Gateways and share information defined by one or more Service Definitions allowing for the creation of a secure Virtual Service Connection (VSC) between the participants in which the VSC is specific to the activity being performed and the participants provisioned for that activity. SSN enables the creation of a secure virtual network topology on any network transport that allows participants to exchange documents and transact business over the network real time, where all activity inherits a business and security infrastructure that is independent and in addition to the applications, devices, web services, users using the network.
US07949864B1
Systems and methods of balanced adaptive body bias control. In accordance with a first embodiment of the present invention, a method of balanced adaptive body bias control comprises determining a desirable dynamic condition for circuitry of an integrated circuit. A first dynamic indicator corresponding to the desirable dynamic condition is accessed. Second and third dynamic indicators of the integrated circuit are accessed. A first body biasing voltage is adjusted by an increment so as to change the first dynamic indicator in the direction of the desirable dynamic condition. A second body biasing voltage is adjusted based on a relationship between the second dynamic indicator and the third dynamic indicator.
US07949862B2
Address control section includes an encoding section to generate higher-order address information made by compressing a predetermined higher-order bit part from predetermined higher-order and lower-order bit parts included in an instruction address, and a restoring section to restore the higher-order bit part from the higher-order address information. Branch instruction predicting section includes a history memory section that stores the higher-order bit part and the lower-order bit part corresponding to a branch address of a processed branch instruction at either one of a plurality of storing places determined from the higher-order bit part and the lower-order bit part corresponding to a branch address of a processed branch instruction.
US07949861B2
In one or more embodiments, a processor includes one or more circuits to flush instructions from an instruction pipeline on a selective basis responsive to detecting a branch misprediction, such that those instructions marked as being dependent on the branch instruction associated with the branch misprediction are flushed. Thus, the one or more circuits may be configured to mark instructions fetched into the processor's instruction pipeline(s) to indicate their branch prediction dependencies, directly or indirectly detect incorrect branch predictions, and directly or indirectly flush instructions in the instruction pipeline(s) that are marked as being dependent on an incorrect branch prediction.
US07949857B2
An improved method, device and system are presented for selecting a predetermined number of unused registers in a processor. The method includes partitioning registers in a processor into subsets; searching each subset for an unused register; determining whether every subset includes an unused register; if so, selecting an unused register from each subset; if not, partitioning the registers into new subsets with each subset having a different combination of registers; searching each of the new subsets for an unused register; determining whether each of the new subsets includes an unused register; if so, selecting an unused register from each new subset; and if not, searching each register serially to find the predetermined number of unused registers.
US07949849B2
A file system can be provided in a capture system to efficiently read and write captured objects. In one embodiment, such a file system includes a plurality of queues to queue captured objects to be written to a disk, each queue being associated with one of a plurality of object types, and each queue containing captured objects of the type associated with each queue. A scheduler can be provided to select one of the plurality of queues, and a block manager to select a partition of a disk, the partition being associated with the object type of the captured objects in the selected queue. A disk controller configured to write contiguous blocks of data from the selected queue to the selected partition is connected to the block manager to enable writing to a disk.
US07949846B2
A method and system for allocating storage space on a storage device to a requesting entity. The storage device includes a set of extents. An allocation map is maintained in computer memory. The allocation map has a plurality of map blocks, the map blocks each having a plurality of map entries. The map entries include respective logical extent identifiers, physical extent information and obsolete indicators. An invalid extent logical identifier represents a free extent and a valid extent identifier represents a prior allocated extent. An obsolete indicator marks a map entry as either current or obsolete. In one technique an extent allocation request is received from the requesting entity. A first map block is selected having a first map entry marked as obsolete. A second map block is selected having a second map entry not marked as obsolete. Physical extent information is copied from the second map entry to the first map entry. The logical extent identifier is assigned to the first map entry. The first map entry is marked as current and the second map entry is marked as obsolete. The storage allocation system includes a disk storage device having a set of extents. A requesting entity is configured to request allocation of one of the extents. An allocation map is maintained in computer memory. An allocator is configured to allocate one of the extents on the disk device to the requesting entity.
US07949845B2
Host system data files are written directly to a large erase block flash memory system with a unique identification of each file and offsets of data within the file but without the use of any intermediate logical addresses or a virtual address space for the memory. Directory information of where the files are stored in the memory is maintained within the memory system by its controller, rather than by the host. Each data file is uniquely identified in a file directory, which points to entries in a file index table (FIT) of data groups that make up the file and their physical storage locations in the memory.
US07949838B1
A memory management system includes a memory controller module configured to receive a frame of data. The frame of data includes a plurality of data words that generate boundary indicators based on at least one of a start of the frame and an end of the frame. The plurality of data words inserts the boundary indicators into the frame of data. The memory is configured to store the frame of data, including the data words and the boundary indicators, during transmission of the frame of data between a host and a storage device.
US07949832B2
In one embodiment, a system comprises a plurality of agents coupled to an interconnect and a cache coupled to the interconnect. The plurality of agents are configured to cache data. A first agent of the plurality of agents is configured to initiate a transaction on the interconnect by transmitting a memory request, and other agents of the plurality of agents are configured to snoop the memory request from the interconnect. The other agents provide a response in a response phase of the transaction on the interconnect. The cache is configured to detect a hit for the memory request and to provide data for the transaction to the first agent prior to the response phase and independent of the response.
US07949821B2
Methods and apparatus are disclosed, such as those involving a flash memory device. One such method includes storing data on memory cells on a memory block including a plurality of word lines and a plurality of memory cells on the word lines. The word lines comprising one or more bottom edge word lines, one or more top edge word lines, and intermediate word lines between the bottom and top edge word lines. The data is stored first on memory cells on the intermediate word lines. Then, a remaining portion, if any, of the data is stored on memory cells on the bottom edge word lines and/or the top edge word lines. This method enhances the life of the flash memory by preventing a premature failure of memory cells on the bottom or top edge word lines, which can be more prone to failure.
US07949812B1
A wireless network device includes a first communication module to communicate with at least one of first devices and a second communication module to communicate with at least one of second devices. An arbitration module receives a request for communication from the first communication module, detects when the second communication module is communicating in a locked mode, and denies request for communication from the first communication module when the second communication module is communicating in the locked mode. Transmission or reception of a packet in the locked mode is not interrupted to avoid loss of the packet. The arbitration module grants the request for communication from the first communication module when the second communication module is communicating in the locked mode and when granting the request for communication from the first communication module does not require stopping the second communication module from communicating in the locked mode.
US07949804B2
To display, on an external display device, an image with a higher resolution than a screen's resolution of a display belonging to a mobile information communication apparatus. This is achieved only by additionally providing an interface means between the external display device and the mobile information communication apparatus and further additionally providing some functions to a display data generating means originally belonging to the mobile information communication apparatus.A mobile information communication apparatus comprising a data processing means for sending plotting command/data to a display control means that controls the pixels of a display panel belonging to the mobile information communication apparatus; wherein an interface means is provided which receives the plotting command/data generated by the data processing means and sends, based on plotting command/data, an external display signal to the external display device; and wherein the data processing means and the interface means are configured to send, from the interface means, a higher-resolution external display signal.
US07949793B1
Method and apparatus for interfacing a programmable circuit and a processor is described. In one example, data output from the programmable circuit is packetized to form at least one packet. The at least one packet is provided to the processor via a streaming interface. The data is extracted from the at least one packet. A function is executed on the processor using the data as parametric input. Return data is then packetized by the function in response to the parametric input to produce at least one return packet. The at least one return packet is send towards the programmable circuit via the streaming interface. The return data is extracted from the at least one return packet and provided to the programmable circuit.
US07949785B2
A private virtual dynamic network is provided for computing devices coupled to public networks or private networks. This enables computing devices anywhere in the world to join into private enterprise intranets and communicate with each other. In one embodiment, the present invention provides a separate private virtual address realm, seen to each user as a private network, while seamlessly crossing public and private network boundaries. One implementation of the present invention uses an agent to enable an entity to participate in the network without requiring the member to add new hardware or software.
US07949779B2
A plurality of content providers provide multiple resources to multiple clients. At least some of said resources are to be served to clients from a shared content delivery network (CDN) formed by a plurality of repeater servers. Each content provider provides at least some resources via one or more content sources associated with that content provider. Amounts of data transmitted by the CDN on behalf of each of the plurality of content providers are monitored. Based at least in part on said monitoring, requests for resources are selectively delivered at a lower transmission rate. The lower transmission rate is achieved by generating pauses or delays in the transmission.
US07949772B2
There is disclosed an interface block for providing application access to the underlying protocol engine at several different layers. These layers are preferably the application core layer, the transaction layer, and the transport layer.
US07949760B2
A system and method for serving an application to different types of client devices. The application is served from a J2EE-compliant application server, to clients operating a variety of communication protocols (e.g., HTTP, Telnet). The application is developed according to a single application model, but can be served to heterogeneous clients. The application communicates via a request/response format (e.g., HTTP), thereby requiring clients communicating via other formats or protocols (e.g., Telnet byte streams) to connect to the application via one or more other components of the application server. Illustratively, the application server includes a Telnet resource adapter for maintaining persistent communication connections with Telnet clients, and an EJB (Enterprise Java Bean) configured to discretize continuous Telnet data streams into discrete application requests.
US07949757B2
In a network, a user can configure host-level policies usable for load balancing traffic to servers of a domain. A global server load balancing (GSLB) switch provides load balancing to the servers, and is configured with the GSLB host-level policies. Users can define a host-level policy (alternatively or additionally to a globally applied GSLB policy) and apply the host-level policy to hosts in domains configured on the GSLB switch. Thus, the user can enable different policies for different hosts. This allows the user to have the flexibility to control metrics used for selection of a best address for querying clients, as well as the metric order and additional parameters used in the GSLB process, at the host level.
US07949746B1
A system in which a user (e.g., equipment operator) can readily configure a logging system to log desired information regarding a network platform (e.g., one or more pieces of network equipment), rather than restricting the user to select just one of a plurality of logging levels defined programmatically by the platform manufacturer. The system will provide the user with an interface through which the user can readily define one or more logging levels and, for a given logging level, the particular information that the system is to log. Particular information to be logged may include particular messages that would pass to, from, through, or within the platform, particular parameters of those messages, particular platform status or platform settings, and so forth.
US07949744B2
System and method for synchronizing the configuration of distributed network management applications
A change management system to synchronize the configuration of network management applications. Traditional network management systems are maintained by hand-entering device lists into individual network management applications with no common-ties between the different applications. Whenever a network management application is changed or upgraded, it frequently becomes necessary to insure that the upgrade is populated throughout the network in order for devices to talk to one another in an error free way. The present invention is a system and method that automates the change management process in a real-time using a two-way communications model that permits a central database to affect changes on all or some network management applications/systems in the field, while also allowing those same field systems to affect the central database thereby reducing the time required for updating and monitoring a system when device changes take place.
US07949726B2
A system and method designed to optimize the delivery of information on demand via wired or wireless connections. Dynamic information such as weather data can be delivered as compressed text, images, charts, buoy data, radar, GRIB files, and many more formats. Numerous continuously updated products can be delivered to a user of a client application on demand by the push of a button. The user can generate a batch folder having a list of data products to download. The data list in the batch folder can be requested from a server using a single command. The system and method can be configured to immediately connect to a server via a wireless connection or email, including satellite phone and HF/Pactor Radio, and downloads the requested data. After the download the client can be configured to automatically display the requested data.
US07949725B2
A system includes a server and at least a client. The sever transfers a code data to the client. The client receives the code data from the server and decodes the code data. The client includes a requesting unit configured to request a code data stored in the server, a first receiving unit configured to receive the code data from the server, a decoding unit configured to decode the code data which is received from the server and a display unit configured to display an image data which is generated by the decoding unit. In addition, the server includes a second receiving unit configured to receive the request from a client, a selecting unit configured to select the code data which is requested from the client, a transferring unit configured to transfer the code data which is selected by the selecting unit, wherein the code data is a part of at least code data of JPM file.
US07949723B2
A unique real time tuning (RTT) process is employed for obtaining the desired optimum device parameter adjustments. The RTT parameter adjustment process is utilized with IP phone or other device chipsets as desired. In one embodiment, RTT provides a graphical user interface to a digital signal processor (DSP), or the like, on the device chipset allowing for observation, evaluation and control of the device parameters in real time. The real time exchange of the device parameter information between the device and an external workstation, e.g., a personal computer or the like, is provided by a User Datagram Protocol (UDP) that runs on a controller on the device, e.g., an ARM processor or the like. In this example, the unique combination of the RTT, UDP and DSP cooperate advantageously to implement, in accordance with the principles of the invention, the desired observability, and control to designers to tune the device, e.g., IP Phone, in real time to specified hardware, plastics, audio requirements required by existing standards or the like.
US07949715B2
There is provided a method, a system and a program product for delivering on-target messages needed for a user, without omissions. A method for delivering a plurality of delivery messages in a delivery message database to one or more clients, comprising the steps of: delivering one or more delivery messages for a first delivery which are extracted from the delivery message database to at least one of the one or more clients, monitoring reading statuses of each of the one or more delivery messages for the first delivery, generating correlation data indicating a correlation between the plurality of delivery messages based on a result of monitoring the reading statuses, and delivering one or more delivery messages for a second delivery which are not included in the one or more delivery messages for a first delivery and are extracted from the delivery message database based on the correlation data.
US07949703B2
Disclosed is a group admission system having a client and a server that belongs to a closed group within which contents are available. The client determines whether it is permissible to request to join the group to be a member device thereof based on the number of groups that the client is in and the maximum number of groups that the client is permitted to be in. If permissible, the client transmits a registration request to the server with information unique to the client. The server determines whether to permit the client to join the group by registering with the server based on the number of member devices registered with the server and the maximum number of member devices registerable with the server. If it is permitted, the server registers the unique information, and transmits group identification information to the client. The client receives and stores the group identification information.
US07949699B1
A programmable integrated circuit device such as a programmable logic device can be configured as a finite impulse response (FIR) filter capable of operating in decimation mode. The device includes at least one user-configurable random access memory block, and that user-configurable random access memory is configured as coefficient memories and data sample memories. The memories are large enough to hold up to all of the coefficients of the filter and a plurality of data samples at one time. Because the data samples and coefficients need not be shifted through the filter at the programmable logic device clock rate, overclocking of the filter is not necessary. The filter can run at a clock rate which is the same as the input data rate, while taking advantage of the available random access memory to mimic a shift register.
US07949684B2
In accordance with embodiments, there are provided mechanisms and methods for creating, exporting, viewing and testing, and importing custom applications in a multi-tenant database environment. These mechanisms and methods can enable embodiments to provide a vehicle for sharing applications across organizational boundaries. The ability to share applications across organizational boundaries can enable tenants in a multi-tenant database system, for example, to easily and efficiently import and export, and thus share, applications with other tenants in the multi-tenant environment.
US07949678B2
A method and system for facilitating access to content on an electronic device is provided. Facilitating access involves maintaining a temporal log of metadata for content accessed by one or more users, segregated based on time slots; searching the log to detect a pattern related to the metadata for one or more times slots; and constructing a temporal usage profile based on the pattern. The temporal usage profile may be used for recommending appropriate content to a user at an appropriate time.
US07949674B2
A computer-implemented method for providing a search result is disclosed. The method comprises, making a presentation of a dataset with structured data; and storing metadata items that define the dataset from a data superset that is stored in a first database with structured data. The method also comprises converting the metadata items to a search request, submitting the search request to a search engine to search for documents located in second database; capturing the search result; and making a presentation of the search result.
US07949665B1
Methods, apparatuses, and computer-readable media for rapidly traversing movable storage media during file content examination for malicious computer code. An embodiment of the inventive method comprises the steps of: accessing an enumerated list of electronic files (220) stored on a movable storage medium (420); identifying at least one batch of electronic files (320) stored on the movable storage medium (420); associating each electronic file stored on the movable storage medium (420) within the batch of electronic files with a physical file location on the movable storage medium (310); creating a sorted list electronic files by the file's physical location on the movable storage medium (330); and examining the identified batch of electronic files on the movable storage medium (420) according to the sorted list (340).
US07949658B2
Computer-readable media, systems, and methods for enabling a rich client search experience. In embodiments, a description is received from a data store. The description includes fields of information existing on the data store that are capable of being searched. A user interface is built based on the description and the user interface provides a user with a mechanism for searching the data store. And the user interface is presented to the user. The description is definable by the data store using a data-driven extension, allowing the data store to express schema and query capability information to a client and allowing the client to dynamically customize the user interface based upon the schema and query capability information expressed by the data store.
US07949654B2
Methods, systems and computer products perform cost estimate to determine an efficient approach to answer a query according to one of several unified query plans. One unified query plan involves querying an unstructured database, referencing a unified index, and probing a structured database based on matches discovered in the unified index. The results of the unstructured database query are used to lookup entries in a unified index associated with the structured database. Then the structured database is probed by querying only the subset of the structured database gleaned from the unstructured database query.
US07949653B2
In order to make real time and the avoidance of risk compatible according to the contents of processing by an application, an index ID applying module applies an index computed utilizing streams before and after stream data to the stream data, computes the index again according to a stream that varies every moment, applies an index computed based upon the index of the stream data to the result of the processing of the stream data according to a predetermined procedure and outputs it. An application that receives the result of the processing and the index of the result of the processing switches processing depending upon the index.
US07949648B2
A subject-specific search engine utilizes a smart web crawler and includes a capability of filtering out sites not relevant to the particular subject. As the smart crawler traverses the Internet, sites are filtered, and only sites found relevant are indexed and stored in a database for later searching. Sites may be filtered an arbitrary number of times for relevance, and such filtering may, for example, comprise automated, lexicon-based filtering; manual filtering, using a human editor; or both.
US07949647B2
Search assistance is provided to users that submit search queries to search engines. In one implementation, a partial search query input by a user to a search engine is received. The partial search query is predicted to be a navigational query. A web address is selected based on the predicted navigational query. A search assistance list that includes the selected web address is generated. The search assistance list is displayed to the user in response to the received partial search query. In another implementation, a plurality of suggested search queries is determined for the received partial search query. A suggested search query of the plurality of suggested search queries having a highest relevance to the user is determined. A search assistance list is generated and displayed to the user. The suggested search query having the highest relevance to the user is prominently displayed in the search assistance list.
US07949640B2
A method is provided for loading data from a source database to a target database that includes at least one table. Prior to loading the data from the source database into the target database, at least one referential integrity constraint and/or at least one consistency requirement regarding the data is automatically identified. A subset of the data that satisfies the at least one referential integrity constraint and/or consistency requirement is then automatically identified. The identified subset of the data is then loaded into the target database as a unit of work.
US07949639B2
The present invention provides a method for updating data sources. The method may include identifying a plurality of data sources, identifying a plurality of overlapping attribute segments to use for comparing the data sources, calculating a factor as a function of each of the plurality of overlapping attribute segments, and using the factors to update a first group of values in the second data source to reduce bias. Further, at least a first data source is more accurate than a second data source.
US07949637B1
A system for managing data includes providing at least one logical device having a table of information that maps sections of the logical device to sections of at least two storage areas. Characteristics of data associated with a one section of the logical device may be evaluated. The section of the data may moved between the at least two storage areas from a first location to a second location according to a policy and based on the characteristics of the data. A copy of the data may be retained in the first location and a list maintained that indentifies the copy of the data in the first location. The system provides for garbage collection processing for memory management.
US07949631B2
Building database statistics for use by a query optimizer is beneficial but may over utilize system resources. Accordingly, the frequency that statistics are rebuilt is controlled in order to minimize the effect of the system. In particular, the staleness of the data and the time since the last statistics collection are used to determine whether or not to re-collect statistics. Even for relatively stale data, statistics are not rebuilt until a predetermined time period has passed.
US07949628B1
The described embodiments contemplate a system, method and computer-readable medium with computer-executable instructions for managing an information technology network. The novel system includes a network of data sources and a federated configuration management database capable of communicating with the data sources. The data sources also may be federated. The federated configuration database management identifies among the data sources. The system also includes a core database that is capable of communicating with the federated configuration management database. The core database defines relationships of the data sources with a business practice.
US07949624B2
A system includes a coordinator configured to generate a first offer representing a possible solution to a problem being solved. The coordinator is configured to generate the first offer using a first model. The system also includes multiple cooperators each configured to receive the first offer and to determine if a sub-problem associated with the problem can be solved based on the first offer and using a second model. Each cooperator is also configured to identify an infeasibility and communicate the infeasibility to the coordinator when the sub-problem cannot be solved based on the first offer. The coordinator is further configured to receive the infeasibility, generate a second offer by reducing a deviation between the first offer and a consensus of the cooperators, and provide the second offer to the cooperators. The consensus of the cooperators is based on a level of the first offer that each cooperator can achieve.
US07949623B2
Initially a method for communication between a management information system, in which a field content is stored, and an execution system are disclosed, wherein the field content in Job Definition Format is transmitted from the management information system to the execution system, then a method for communication between a source system, in which a field content is stored in a file in Job Definition Format, and an executing system, wherein the field content in Job Definition Format is transmitted by the source system to the execution system, and eventually a communication module, through which a field content in Job Definition Format can be transmitted to an execution system, wherein in order to simplify communications between management information systems or source systems and execution systems in job format, and to render them less error prone, the field content is initially adapted according to a rule specified for the management information system, or the source system, and the execution system is adapted to specified rules and subsequently transmitted to the execution system, or the field content is adapted according to such method before transmission.
US07949607B2
An image forming apparatus which enables a user to continue an operation using an application without restarting the application, by the image automatically accessing a license server to update a license for the application when the license becomes expired while the user is performing the operation. A notification notifying the application of invalidity of the license is issued when it is detected that the license for the application has become invalid during execution of the application. The application suspends the execution of the application in response to the notification.
US07949606B1
Intellectual property is sold to buyers through a kiosk. The kiosk provides users with the ability of located desired content on a seller's computer. When a user located the desired intellectual property, a payment transaction is initiated. When the payment transaction is complete, the seller transmits the intellectual property to the kiosk. The kiosks also preferably include production facilities that transfer the owner's intellectual property onto a permanent medium and/or presentation facilities that present the owner's intellectual property on a one-time basis.
US07949604B2
This invention relates to an information providing system which is designed to be able to realize secondary utilization of broadcasting contents, along with copyright of the broadcasting contents being protected. A broadcasting receiving and picture recording device 5-1 records broadcasting contents that a broadcasting device 4 broadcasted, and a terminal 6-1 edits the broadcasting contents which were recorded, and generates corresponding metadata. The metadata is transmitted from the terminal 6-1 to a metadata delivery server 2 through Internet 1, and registered. The metadata delivery server 2, on the basis of utilization availability information of broadcasting contents which is held in advance, in case that the broadcasting content that the metadata targets can be utilized, registers the metadata. The registered metadata is delivered through the Internet 1 on the basis of a request of a terminal 6-2. This invention is applied to an information providing system which delivers the metadata.
US07949600B1
Systems and methods for facilitating payment of a computerized transaction. One method according to an embodiment of the invention includes providing a money transfer system; receiving at the money transfer system an electronic payment request; assigning, by the money transfer system, a unique transaction number to the payment request; determining by the money transfer system a preliminary total amount required from the buyer; determining by the money transfer system a grand total amount; communicating information from the money transfer system to the seller computer system; receiving at the money transfer system a payment notification; communicating a message to the seller computer system that payment associated with the unique transaction number has been received at a payment location; and effecting completion of the electronic payment request by making payment via the money transfer system to the seller.
US07949599B1
A trading system matches a passive order to buy or sell an item at a price with an aggressive order to hit or lift the item at that price. A workup is initiated during which other parties can submit additional orders at the passive order price. A further order may be submitted during workup with a better price. If the amount at the better price equals or exceeds a threshold value and it can be traded at the better price, the workup is terminated and a new workup initiated at the better price.
US07949593B2
The present invention is a system and method of providing a repurchase facility for securities, bonds, and/or debt. The present invention is directed to a method for enhancing the liquidity of a tradable security, other than by an agency of Government trading in the Government security. The method comprises holding an issue of a security, determining when the security is being squeezed, and offering to the market a first portion of the holding during the squeeze to enhance the liquidity of the market for the security.
US07949587B1
An image of a negotiable instrument may be communicated from a user to a financial institution using a messaging application so that funds associated with the negotiable instrument may be deposited into a user's bank account. A user may launch an instant messaging application and establish a communications session with a predetermined account at the financial institution to communicate the image. The image may be stored in a file or created by a capture device under control of the instant messaging application. The image file may be processed and verified by the financial institution, where it may be deposited in an account associated with the user.
US07949584B2
A computer implemented data processing system and method administers a deferred variable annuity contract during the accumulation phase for a relevant life. The annuity contract has a payment base value, a contract value, and benefit payments. A maximum annual benefit payment withdrawal amount available without reducing the payment base value is calculated by multiplying the payment base value by a factor including a deferral bonus percent, which is a function of a number of years deferred by the relevant life until taking a first lifetime benefit payment.
US07949579B2
This invention relates to an expense reporting system for viewing and manipulating a user's financial transaction data and a method for associating financial transaction data with a user's project data. The system includes a user's financial transaction data hosted in a data storage unit, addressable on a network, and accessible by a remote user on a user interface unit having a user input means and a display; and an expense reporting module having a graphical user interface (GUI) that allows a user to define project category data and associate representations of the user's financial data with the user-defined project category data.
US07949577B1
A computer system and method for managing commissions, including: a storage device containing a database having commission data and a periodic extract of sales transactions stored therein; a user interface for inputting the commission data into the database and viewing the commission data stored in the database; and a processor for calculating commissions for sales representatives and agents associated with a business enterprise based on the commission data, and forwarding the calculated commissions to a payroll department within the business enterprise; wherein the processor executes: a first software module for retrieving billing, inventory, corporate, and affiliated sales information for the sales representatives, and for calculating the commissions based on a predetermined rules set; and a second software module for retrieving billing and affiliated sales information for the agents, and for calculating the commissions based on the terms of a contract between the agent and the business enterprise.
US07949576B2
A category recommendation method includes maintaining a category database including an internal identifier and an internal category to which the internal identifier belongs; externally receiving a foreign identifier and a foreign category where the foreign identifier belongs to from an outside; extracting a query associated with the foreign identifier; and recommending at least one of the internal categories stored in the category database by using the query as a category corresponding to the foreign identifier.
US07949567B2
An example integrated interface apparatus for a point-of-sale system and an example point-of-sale system including the integrated interface apparatus have been disclosed. The integrated interface apparatus includes a base member, a vertical arm member, a display device and a data input device. The base member is configured to be disposed on a counter. The vertical arm member is operatively connected to the base member. The vertical arm member includes a terminal attachment member and a side attachment member below the terminal attachment member. The display device is operatively connected to the terminal attachment member and the data input device is operatively connected to the side attachment member.
US07949560B2
A system and method for providing print advertisements is presented. A target audience is assembled from characteristics about readers. Advertising content is targeted to the target audience. The characteristics of the target audience are analyzed against the advertising content to identify potential advertisers. At least one of the potential advertisers is selected. At least one print advertisement for the selected advertiser is included on the document.
US07949548B2
The present invention is a tool including a spatial database and a data warehouse used to track portfolio sites that are affected by weather events, such as hurricanes, earthquakes, wildfires, hail, tornados, or manmade events. A spatial database provides rich spatial geometry features using earth longitude and latitude as a 2-D reference system in spatial system. A insurer portfolio site, which is defined by longitude and latitude data, includes portions that are represented as a point. A weather event is represented as polygon in the spatial database. Based on user configured threshold values, it may be determined when a point falls inside, or on a boundary, of a polygon to identify a site that is affected by that weather event and corresponding reports may be generated, including maps identifying the affected sites and total insured value calculations for the affected sites, in order to gauge risk.
US07949543B2
The disclosed methods, systems, and computer-program products allow a credit or charge card issuer to promote healthcare information technology (HIT) products to physician card members that are affiliated with a healthcare organization, such as a preferred-provider organization (PPO). In an embodiment, the PPO endorses at least one HIT product, such as an electronic medical record (EMR), and the PPO identifies the endorsed HIT product to a transactional card provider. The transactional card provider then identifies at least one supplier of the endorsed HIT product and negotiates a discount on the endorsed HIT product when purchased from identified HIT supplier using a financial transaction instrument issued by the transactional card provider. The financial transaction instrument may be provided to the physician card member, who may purchase the endorsed HIT product from the identified supplier at the negotiated discount.
US07949542B2
A computer-implemented method for graphically illustrating an entity and generating a text-based report therefrom includes providing a visual base representation of an entity. The base representation includes a plurality of elements at least one of which is modifiable, where the elements are each associated with a plurality of attributes. A visual diagram of a particular entity is built based upon the base representation of the entity. In this regard, at least one visual element is added to the base representation, where the added visual elements are modifiable. Accordingly, the diagram includes the elements of the base representation and the elements added to the base representation. After determining attributes associated with the added elements, a text-based report is generated from the diagram, where the report is generated based upon the elements of the diagram and the associated attributes, and where the report is automatically generated from the diagram without user input.
US07949535B2
A system and method is provided for easily detecting a fraudulent user who attempts to obtain authentication using voice reproduced by a reproducer. A personal computer is provided with an audio data obtaining portion for picking up ambient sound around a person as a target of user authentication using voice authentication technology during a period before the person utters, and a fraud determination portion for calculating an intensity level showing intensity of the picked-up ambient sound per predetermined time for each of sections into which the period is divided and for determining that the person is a fraudulent user who attempts to obtain authentication using reproduced voice, when, of two of the calculated intensity levels, the intensity level of the later section is larger than a sum of the intensity level of the earlier section and a predetermined value.
US07949531B2
A conversation controller outputs a reply sentence according to a user utterance. The conversation controller comprises a conversation database and a conversation control unit. The conversation database stores a plurality of plans. Each plan has a reply sentence and one or more pieces of next plan designation information for designating a next candidate reply sentence to be output following the reply sentence. The conversation control unit selects one of the plans stored in the conversation database according to a user utterance and outputs a reply sentence which the selected plan has. Then, the conversation control unit selects one piece of the next plan designation information which the plan has according to a next user utterance and outputs a next candidate reply sentence on the basis of the selected piece of the next plan designation information. Some plans have a plurality of reply sentences into which one explanatory sentence is divided.
US07949519B2
The acoustic signal transmission method is based on generating a synthesized sound electrical signal by electrically synthesizing an audible sound signal and another signal different than the audible sound signal at the sending side, and transmitting the synthesized sound electrical signal, and extracting the another signal different than the audible sound signal from the synthesized sound electrical signal at the receiving side. Here, generation of the synthesized sound electrical signal is made by using a data hiding technique, for example. Accordingly, the acoustic signal represented by the synthesized sound electrical signal can be heard by human ears in the same way as the audible sound signal, and the synthesized another signal cannot be detected by human ears. Here, the synthesized sound electrical signal can be transmitted as a sound wave in air space, as electrical signal through a transmission line or as radio signals such as infrared and electromagnetic waves.
US07949507B2
A diabetes care management system for managing blood glucose levels associated with diabetes comprising a computing device and an insulin delivery device. The computing device generally includes (i) a memory comprising one or more optimal blood glucose values, one or more self care values of a patient, one or more measured blood glucose values, and one or more scaling factors for weighting the impact on a future blood glucose value and that are customizable to an individual patient to predict the effect on the blood glucose of self care actions performed by the individual patient; (ii) a microprocessor, in communication with the memory, programmed to (A) determine the one or more scaling factors from one or more physiological parameters including body mass, metabolism rate, fitness level or hepatic or peripheral insulin sensitivity, or combinations thereof, and (B) calculate a further value, the further value being based on the self care values, and on the one or more optimal blood glucose values, and on the one or more scaling factors; and (iii) a display configured to display information according to the further value; and (iv) a housing, wherein the memory and the microprocessor are housed within the housing, thereby providing a hand-held, readily transportable computing device. The insulin delivery device may deliver insulin in response to information associated with the further value.
US07949500B2
This invention combines the modeling capabilities of causal models, business process models, and dimensional reporting to allow the locating of root causes of problems. The causal models let the user explore the effects of other parts of the system have on the process in question through accessing dimensional reports. By recording and annotating the problem solving flow, and deriving characteristics of the problem solved, future users can be assisted in other problem solving sessions. Ad-hoc reports created to aid in the problem solving can be attached in the causal model and process model for future use.
US07949498B2
Methods, systems and computer program products for estimating changes in an object represented by first and second multidimensional datasets. The first dataset is a reference dataset and the second dataset is an altered dataset. Discrete data samples of the first dataset are processed to form a piecewise continuous representation thereof. An error function is computed for comparisons between discrete data samples in the second dataset and the piecewise continuous representation of the first dataset. An alteration of the second dataset relative to the first dataset that minimizes the error function is determined.
US07949495B2
A process variable transmitter with diagnostics based on power spectral density (PSD) analysis of a process variable sensor signal is provided. In one embodiment, the process variable transmitter is a pressure transmitter and the diagnostics are used to diagnose impulse line obstruction or impending obstruction. Other diagnostics are also useful such as diagnosing primary element degradation. The sensor signal is digitized and the digitized signal is transferred into the frequency domain. The power of the frequencies on the sensor signal is examined to provide the enhanced diagnostics. In one aspect diagnostics are generated directly with the sensor PSD data. In another aspect, the PSD analysis is used to tune a filter in order to enhance traditional diagnostic algorithms.
US07949483B2
A method and apparatus provide for reduced cost and complexity in managing an intelligent motor in an architecture in which information is transferred between a power management device and the intelligent motor. The information may be used by an embedded processor of the motor to provide diagnostics and/or prognostics of the motor, machinery operating in conjunction with the motor, and/or a process in which the motor may be configured to operate. The power management device may remotely determine motor current information that is used by the intelligent motor to self-diagnose the intelligent motor using the motor current information.
US07949471B2
A method and a system is disclosed for determining cetane values from constant volume combustion chamber apparatuses capable of producing pressure versus time combustion profiles having a fast combustion region and a slow combustion region, where data from the two regions is used to compute cetane values for middle distillate fluid samples using a series expansion equation.
US07949470B2
To process subterranean survey data, measurement data is collected by a receiver positioned in deep water, where the collected measurement data is responsive to signals emitted by at least one signal source located at or near an air-water interface of the body of water. The measurement data is processed to reduce a predetermined signal component.
US07949462B2
Upon no detection of the closing abnormality where the EGR valve does not become in the totally closed state (when the flag Fa is value ‘0’), the engine is controlled using the target fuel injection amount obtained from the correction of the basic fuel injection amount toward the increase direction, in the case that the engine is operated together with the recirculation of the exhaust in the preset high-load operation range (when the flag Fi is ‘1’). Upon detection of the closing abnormality (when the flag Fa is value ‘1’), the engine is controlled using the target fuel injection amount obtained from the correction of the basic fuel injection amount toward the increase direction, in the case that the engine is operated together with the recirculation of the exhaust in the whole range that the engine is operable together with the recirculation of the exhaust.
US07949448B2
Disclosed is a calibration apparatus for an airbag inflator resistance. The calibration apparatus for an airbag inflator resistance includes: an airbag inflator unit for applying a deployment signal for deployment of an airbag; a resistance detection unit for detecting a change in the resistance of the airbag inflator connector; and a control unit for self-cleaning the airbag inflator connector in accordance with the resultant resistance detected by the resistance detection unit. The calibration apparatus is effective in preventing malfunction of an airbag warning light and ensuring reliability by preventing an increase in resistance due to the contamination of the airbag inflator by the self-diagnosing and self-cleaning effect using an electric current.
US07949430B2
A legged robot subjected to a force is controlled by determining an instantaneous capture point where the robot will step with a swing leg to reach a balanced home position, the balanced home position being a state in which the Center of Mass remains substantially over the Center of Pressure and the robot is able to maintain its balance indefinitely. The capture point can be determined using a Linear Inverted Pendulum Plus Flywheel (LIPPF) model of the robot. The LIPPF model includes a flywheel with a mass and a rotational inertia, and a variable length leg link. A torque profile is applied to the flywheel and a set of capture points is determined based on this torque profile An experimentally determined error value can be added to a capture point that is determined based on the model to account for differences between an actual robot and the model.
US07949421B2
A multi-needle type embroidery sewing machine and a computer-readable storage medium including a computer program for the multi-needle type embroidery sewing machine that may enable convenient selection and replacement of thread information. The multi-needle type embroidery sewing machine may include a plurality of needle bars, a needle bar thread information storage device, a needle bar selection device that enables the selection of a suite of needle bars selected from the plurality of needle bars, and a control device for changing needle bar thread information that corresponds to a needle bar in the selected suite of needle bars.
US07949416B2
A method for controlling a multivariable system according to one non-limiting embodiment includes receiving a plurality of limits, receiving a first quantity of goals each having a desired value, and receiving sensor feedback. The method further includes estimating a basepoint in response to the first quantity of goals, the plurality of limits, and the sensor feedback, wherein the basepoint includes a set of values corresponding to an equilibrium point at which a predetermined amount of enabled limits are met and a second quantity of goals are fulfilled according to a goal prioritization scheme. Actuator requests are transmitted to a controlled system in response to the estimated basepoint. Predicted values from a mathematical model are compared to the sensor feedback, and the estimated basepoint is selectively adjusted in response to a difference between the predicted values and the sensor feedback in order to reduce the difference.
US07949414B2
Processing a work piece by first scanning the work piece. The work piece is modeled to determine its weight, outer perimeter and/or how the work piece could be divided into portions of specific areas and perimeters based on desired portion weights of desired areas and perimeters. The modeled work piece and/or the modeled portions are compared with the one or more desired perimeter configurations. The deviation of the modeled outer perimeter size of the work piece and/or portions from the desired perimeter configuration(s) is calculated. Based on such calculations, one or more steps in processing the work piece and/or portions therefrom is carried out. Such one or more steps may include modeling the work piece again, using different modeling criteria or options, if the calculated deviation is outside an acceptable range.
US07949404B2
An implantable medical device system is provided with multiple medical devices implanted in a patient's body and a wireless mesh communication network providing multiple communication pathways between the multiple medical devices. A communication pathway between a first and a second implanted device of the multiple medical devices can comprise one or more of the other implanted multiple medical devices.
US07949402B2
The invention provides a system for treating chronic pain including a lead configured and adapted to be percutaneously implanted into an epidural space of a spinal cord, a stimulation generator that delivers electrical stimulation to the spinal cord through the lead to precisely locate the treatment area, and an ablation generator that delivers ablation energy to the treatment area through the same lead to inhibit the chronic pain. The invention also provides a method for treating chronic pain, including providing a lead, inserting the lead percutaneously into the epidural space, locating the treatment area by probing the epidural space while the lead sends electrical stimulation signals, and then ablating the treatment area.
US07949397B1
Methods and devices are provided for influencing an amount of food ingested. The methods include applying stochastic resonance stimulation to a stomach to influence a nervous system response using an implantable stimulation device. In one embodiment, a device includes electrodes in communication with a gastric wall capable of delivering stimulation therapy, and a controller adapted to apply stochastic resonance stimulation to a stomach to influence a response of stomach receptors and/or interstitial cells of Cajal. In some embodiments, the implantable device is configured to apply a suprathreshold signal in addition to the stochastic resonance stimulation. In some embodiments, the implantable device is configured to apply an electrical signal in other areas of the nervous system besides the stomach. In some embodiments, the implantable stimulation device is an implantable cardiac stimulation device capable of providing therapy to a heart.
US07949386B2
A method for performing computer-assisted orthopaedic surgery includes the steps of: (1) producing and displaying three-dimensional geometrical models of first and second bones, the first and second bones forming a joint; (2) identifying a zone of impingement between the first bone and the second bone on at least one of the bones; and (3) generating and displaying a color map of at least one surface of at least one bone, the at least one surface being within the zone of impingement, the color map including different colors representing different depths of bone to be removed in order to achieve an increased range of motion between the first and second bones.
US07949384B2
PRF shift MRI data is acquired. The PRF shift MRI data may include signals affected by both a desired PRF shift and an undesired PRF shift. Thus, example systems and methods describe manipulating the PRF shift MRI data to make it substantially free of the effects of the undesired PRF shift, which facilitates displaying certain MRI images based on the desired PRF shift.
US07949377B2
A method and apparatus for improved battery performance of user equipment in a wireless network having multiple radio resource control (RRC) states, the method comprising the steps of: monitoring, at the user equipment, application data exchange; determining when no application on the user equipment is expected to exchange data; and initiating, from the user equipment, a transition to a less battery demanding radio resource control state or mode.
US07949371B1
A communication device, such as a mobile phone, which implements a voice communication mode, a digital mirror mode, and a color caller ID mode, wherein the image retrieved from the camera is displayed in an inverted manner when the digital mirror mode is implemented, and upon receiving a phone call, a specific color corresponding to the caller of the phone call is output from the communication device when the color caller ID mode is implemented.
US07949369B2
A computer apparatus, a wireless network transmission system and its transmission method are disclosed. The computer apparatus comprises a power supplier, a first circuit architecture, a second circuit architecture and a power controller. A power is provided by the power supplier. The main functionality of the computer apparatus is provided by the first circuit architecture. The second circuit architecture includes a controller, a storage unit and a communication unit. The power controller is electrically connected to the power supplier to provide the power to the first circuit architecture or the second circuit architecture. The first circuit architecture includes the second circuit architecture. The power provided by the power controller is supplied to the first circuit architecture while the computer apparatus is in operating state. The power provided by the power controller is supplied to the second circuit architecture while the computer apparatus is in power-off state. The communication unit is then utilized for wireless transmission.
US07949360B2
An apparatus that adaptively allocates transmission power for beam-forming combined with orthogonal space time block codes in a distributed wireless communication system, the apparatus including: sub-arrays for beam-forming, which are geographically distributed and each of which includes a plurality of distributed antennas placed in random groups. A central processing unit provides predetermined combinable power allocation schemes according to subsets in a plurality of the sub-arrays, identifying performances of the schemes by using information on large-scale fading of each of the sub-arrays fed back from a receiving party, setting a subset having best performance as an optimal subset according to the identified performances, and performing power allocation according thereto.
US07949356B2
Communicating among stations in a network includes providing repeated beacon transmissions from at least some of the stations including a first station. The first station is assigned to a first level. Any stations that can reliably receive transmissions from the first station are assigned to a second level. Any stations not assigned to any of the preceding levels that can reliably receive transmissions from the preceding level are assigned to each of one or more higher levels. Timing information at each station in a given level is synchronized according to transmissions received from at least one station in the preceding level.
US07949344B1
A system is described. The system includes a fixed microwave path pair between a first site and a second site and an additional microwave path between the first site and a third site. A transceiver portion of the first site and a transceiver portion of the second site are configured to transmit on the fixed microwave path pair on TDD-FDD reversed paired frequencies. The transceiver portion of the first site is configured to transmit to the transceiver portion of the third site on one frequency of the paired frequencies using the side lobe radiation of an antenna at the first site.
US07949341B2
A method for an antenna architecture that handles World band cellular and broadcast channels may be provided. The method may comprise receiving at a first radio frequency integrated circuit (RFIC) integrated within a mobile terminal, first signals via a first antenna, where the first signals comprise signals within at least one of a 2100 MHz band and a 1900 MHz band. The method may further comprise receiving at a second RFIC integrated within the mobile terminal, second signals via the first antenna, where the second signals comprise signals within at least one of a 1900 MHz band, a 1800 MHz band, a 900 MHz band and a 850 MHz band. Additionally, third signals may be received via the first antenna at a third RFIC integrated within the mobile terminal, where the third signals comprise signals within a VHF/UHF broadcast band.
US07949340B2
A system and method for determining the positioning of mobile-appliance location determining sensors in a mobile-appliance communications network by estimating the positioning accuracy of the sensors.
US07949335B2
A multi-modal portable communications gateway for operation in an airport environment is disclosed. The multi-modal portable communications gateway may include a communication interface, a controller that controls the operation of the multi-modal portable communications gateway, a controller panel that includes a user interface to enable a user to interact with the multi-modal portable communications gateway, a WiFi antenna that enables reception and transmission of WiFi signals, a cellular antenna that enables reception and transmission of cellular signals, a power supply unit that enables power to be provided to the multi-modal portable communications gateway, wherein the controller signals the power supply unit to shut down based on one or more safety indication, a communication router that receives data from systems in the airport environment through the communication interface, and transmits the data to at least one predetermined location outside an aircraft upon receiving a signal from the controller, and one or more charging port that enables external electronic devices to be connected to the multi-modal portable communications gateway, wherein the power supply unit enables power to be provided to charge batteries of the external devices.
US07949330B2
A method is provided for providing weather data to a vehicle comprising the steps of: (a) receiving a broadcast signal containing weather data referenced to a plurality of cells arranged in a grid corresponding to a geographic map; (b) determining the present location, speed, and direction of the vehicle; (c) calculating a geographic region for which the weather data will affect the vehicle user based upon the current location, speed, and direction of the vehicle; (d) filtering the weather data to yield filtered data comprising at least one of the plurality of cells correlated to the previously calculated geographic region; and (e) formatting the filtered data for display to vehicle occupants.
US07949327B2
The invention of a method and an apparatus for reception of long transmission range Bluetooth signals impaired by multipath are disclosed. The new reception method and apparatus proposed allows to increase the transmission range for data transmission in Bluetooth. The invention proposes the use of a new FDE adapted to SC transmission without a GI or CP. The proposed FDE very successfully mitigates ISI while being very implementation-friendly.
US07949326B2
A system includes a network controller to communicate with a telecommunications network. The network controller is coupled to one or more unlicensed wireless base stations serving one or more unlicensed wireless access areas. Each unlicensed wireless access area is mapped to one or more licensed wireless access areas. The system includes a mobile station to communicate with the telecommunications network using a licensed wireless communication channel serviced by the telecommunications network in a licensed wireless access area, and an unlicensed wireless communication channel in an unlicensed wireless access area. The mobile station is associated with a licensed wireless network identifier and a licensed wireless location identifier when the mobile station is in the licensed wireless access area and is associated with an unlicensed wireless network identifier and an unlicensed wireless location identifier when the mobile station is in the unlicensed wireless access area.
US07949323B1
The present invention provides a local oscillator (LO) leakage controller for use with a receiver. In one embodiment, the LO leakage controller includes a comparison unit configured to process an LO leakage error signal from the receiver to provide a leakage cancellation signal. Additionally, the LO leakage controller also includes a leakage counterbalance unit coupled to the comparison unit and configured to adapt the leakage cancellation signal to the receiver to counterbalance LO leakage in the receiver.
US07949321B2
The back-off of an AGC diversion section can be appropriately controlled. A base station apparatus (10) includes an amplifying part (12) for receiving a first transmission signal, which is generated by being modulated using a first modulation scheme and transmitted, and a second transmission signal, which is generated by being modulated using a second modulation scheme in which the maximum value of the amplitude of the transmission signal that is generated differs from that of the first modulation scheme, and which is transmitted following the first transmission signal, and amplifying these signals at a given amplification factor; a basic value determining part (14a) for determining a basic value that is used to determine the given amplification factor on the basis of the received power of the first transmission signal; an amplification factor correcting part (15) for acquiring correction data for the basic value, which is correction data that is determined on the basis of the amount of difference between the maximum values of the amplitudes of the transmission signals that are respectively generated using the first modulation scheme and second modulation scheme; and an amplification factor determining part (14) for determining the given amplification factor for the second transmission signal on the basis of the basic value and the correction data.
US07949315B2
An integrated circuit (IC) includes an RF transmitter that transmits a transmit signal at a selectable transmit power based on a transmit power control signal and at a selectable data rate based on a transmit data rate signal. A processing module operates to generate the transmit power control signal and generate the transmit data rate signal based on a value of the transmit power control signal.
US07949314B2
Provided is a transmission output control apparatus including: a level control circuit operable to adjust a level of an inputted signal; a power amplifying circuit including a plurality of amplifying stages and being operable to amplify the signal whose level has been adjusted by the level control circuit; an antenna operable to transmit the signal amplified by the power amplifying circuit; a memory unit operable to prestore a plurality of control signals; a control signal generating unit operable to select and extract, from the memory unit, one of the control signals that is in accordance with a transmission level instructed by a base station, and supply the extracted control signal to the level control circuit; and a detection unit operable to detect a signal at a midway amplifying stage of the power amplifying circuit, where a transmission level of the level control circuit is monitored according to an output of the detection unit.
US07949307B2
A frame format is generated which can constrain the PAPR at a lower level without limitation in code selections in a radio communication system. The radio communication system with each radio channel constituted by a control channel and a data channel divides a plurality of the radio channels in a frequency direction for mapping to a radio frame format. A control signal position on the control channel is controlled in the radio frame format for each user or service to reduce peak transmission power or a peak-to-average power ratio of a radio communication apparatus.
US07949304B2
A combined SAIC receiver and a multiple-antenna, receive diversity receiver are employed to reduce interference in a wireless system. The real and imaginary parts of the de-rotated signal for each receive path associated with an antenna are separately filtered and a combined output signal of all receive paths is generated. The weighting coefficients are adjusted based on an error signal produced by comparing the combined output signal with a reference signal. The weighting coefficients are initially set based on an MMSE/LS type of signal processing criteria, where the reference signal is the Training Sequence Code (TSC). Subsequent adjustment/tracking can be accomplished by using known tracking algorithms, e.g. LMS or RLS, or the coefficients can be re-computed using MMSE/LS processing. The reference signal for tracking may be a combination of the TSC and estimated data symbols provided by an equalizer.
US07949300B2
A system and method are disclosed for wireless sharing of audio sounds among a plurality of users. A user of the present invention can communicate his or her audio sounds to other users, who can receive the audio sounds wirelessly and choose to rebroadcast them. Along with the audio sound files users can share information regarding the audio sounds being shared, such as title, artist, collection, genre, year, encoding rate, size, playlist, and other desired information. The user of device can opt to set the device to transmit, re-transmit, broadcast, re-broadcast, receive or not to receive play-list information in addition to the audio sound files and the information regarding the audio sounds themselves.
US07949286B2
A development cartridge and an electrophotographic image forming apparatus using the same are provided. The development cartridge includes a reception unit including at least one auger. A toner supply unit is disposed on the reception unit and connects a toner cartridge with the reception unit. A transfer means transfers the toner supplied from the toner cartridge to the reception unit. The transfer means engages the at least one auger, and includes a plurality of main wings arranged radially about a rotation axis.
US07949281B2
An image forming apparatus includes a charging roller that continuously rotates and uniformly charges a photoconductor for forming an electrostatic latent image thereon, a cleaning roller that contacts a peripheral surface of the charging roller and cleans the charging roller while being driven by rotation of the charging roller, wherein a peripheral surface of the cleaning roller is formed of a melamine resin foam, and a cleaning roller shifting unit that causes the cleaning roller to contact the charging roller for a predetermined time at predetermined intervals of image formation while movably holding the cleaning roller.
US07949274B2
In a fixing apparatus having a first roller which includes a first heater and a second heater arranged in difference ranges from each other in the direction of rotation axis and an auxiliary heater arranged in a range including the ranges where the first and second heaters are arranged in the direction of rotation axis, and a second roller which is heated by a third heater and nips and carries a sheet in cooperation with the first roller, predetermined timing accompanied by start of fixing processing in the fixing apparatus is determined, and when it is determined that the predetermined timing has been reached, the quantity of power supply to the third heater is reduced and power supply to the auxiliary heater is started.
US07949265B2
A toner supply device for supplying toner to a developing device includes: a first toner supply portion for supplying toner to a developing hopper; a second toner supply portion for supplying the stored toner to the first toner supply portion; a first toner supply driver for driving the first toner supply portion; a first residual toner quantity detector for detecting the residual toner quantity in the first toner supply portion; a second toner supply driver for driving the second toner supply portion; a second residual toner quantity detector for detecting the residual toner quantity in the second toner supply portion; and a controller for controlling the drives of the first and second toner supply drivers by switching on and off the drives of the first and second toner supply drivers in accordance with the residual toner quantities detected by the first and second residual toner quantity detectors.
US07949263B2
An image forming apparatus of which maintenance work can always be conducted appropriately independent of time-degradation of the apparatus is provided. In the image forming apparatus of which maintenance work is done in accordance with either a user mode or a service engineer mode, an image forming unit including an image forming station prints an image in accordance with image data, and a main CPU calculates duration of use of the apparatus as an index indicating time-degradation, and determines whether or not the calculated duration of use of the apparatus has reached one year as a predetermined threshold value. Based on the result of determination, a user mode or a service engineer mode is set as a maintenance method for conducting maintenance work.
US07949260B2
An evaluation method of an optical receiver of an optical communication system, including a DPSK (Differential Phase Shift Keying) signal modulated by a specific data series, a delay interferometer for performing delay detection on the DPSK signal, an optical receiver for receiving each of two optical outputs of the delay interferometer and outputting a difference signal, and a spectrum analyzer for measuring a spectrum of an output electrical signal of the optical receiver, comprising monitoring a specific frequency component of the spectrum analyzer and detecting a delay difference and a deviation in optical reception level between the two outputs of the delay interferometer and the optical receiver.
US07949258B2
It is possible to realize remote control in a reflection wave transmission system, and enhance operability for a mobile apparatus having a reflector. The mobile apparatus comprises a reflector and performs reflection wave transmission by carrying data on a reflection wave for unmodulated carrier. A reflection wave reader comprises an infrared light receiving section, receives and decodes a request signal sent as an infrared remote control command, transmits it to the mobile apparatus by an ASK modulated signal and then transmits the unmodulated carrier. The mobile apparatus transmits requested data by reflection wave. The mobile apparatus can be operated from an infrared remote controller and remote control distance can be extended.
US07949254B1
To achieve secure optical communications, a messaging encoding scheme is utilized in which optical communication signals are encoded based upon a known unique code. This encoding methodology allows for the broad transmission across an optical network which will include intended destination. Only the intended destination or destinations will include the necessary unique codes to allow recognition and decoding of the optically encoded message. By providing security in this optical encoding manner, the need for additional message overhead and/or additional systems is thus avoided, thereby providing efficient communication in a secure manner.
US07949253B2
In a camera filter unit having a small longitudinal width, the camera filter unit (1) comprises a filter frame (2) having a cylindrical component (2a) and a filter-holding ring (3), and an optical filter (4). The optical filter (4) is fixed to an internal side of the filter-holding ring (3) in a state of being held from the front and the rear between a protuberance (31) formed in the filter-holding ring (3) and a crimp (33a). The filter-holding ring (3) is fixed to the internal side of the cylindrical component (2a) by a ring-side male thread (32) being screwed into a female thread (22) of the filter frame (2). The filter-holding ring (3) for holding the optical filter (4) is disposed concentrically between the cylindrical component (2a) and the optical filter (4), and the longitudinal dimension of the filter frame (2) can therefore be made smaller than when the member for holding the optical filter is mounted to the cylindrical component (2a) in a state of being aligned with the optical filter (4) in the axial direction.
US07949251B2
A camera includes: an electrical-power-supply-source detection unit that detects, among a plurality of batteries, from which battery supply of electrical power is being received; a battery capacity detection unit that detects a remaining amount in each of the plurality of batteries; and a display control unit that displays, upon a display device, a result of detection by the electrical-power-supply-source detection unit and a result of detection by the battery capacity detection unit.
US07949242B2
A lens cover assembly comprises a lens cover and a water absorption portion. The lens cover has a transparent portion located in a center portion thereof. The water absorption portion is mounted to the lens cover surrounding the transparent portion.
US07949236B2
A home heating radiator using a heat transfer fluid operating in phase change form, includes a reservoir of heat transfer fluid, and electric resistance heat source, for raising the temperature of the heat transfer fluid to a temperature such as to cause a phase change of the fluid, and a heating body where heat transfer takes place with the ambient air, the heating body including a number, n, of channels, communicating in the lowermost part of the reservoir, where n may be equal to 1.
US07949233B2
A method for controlling a heat-dissipating fan for an electronic component includes the steps of: detecting a temperature of the electronic component, and outputting a first control signal corresponding to the temperature thus detected; receiving a load current of the electronic component, and converting the load current into a second control signal; and controlling a rotating speed of the heat-dissipating fan with reference to the first control signal and the second control signal. A device employing the method includes a current detecting module adapted for detecting a load current, a temperature control circuit adapted for detecting a temperature, and a logic circuit unit coupled to the current detecting module and the temperature control circuit and controlling a rotating speed of a heat-dissipating fan.
US07949231B2
The recording medium includes a navigation area and at least one playlist area. The navigation area stores navigation management information for managing the reproduction of at least multiple reproduction path video data from the recording medium. At least one playlist is stored in a playlist area. Each playlist identifies at least one playitem, and each playitem identifies at least one clip of video data.
US07949222B2
There are provided an information storage medium capable of real-time recording/playback of digital moving picture information, and a digital information recording/playback system using this medium. In a medium that records/plays back data including video data and control information, the control information (DA21 in FIG. 4; RTR_VMG in FIG. 30) includes information (VOBU entry in FIG. 31) for accessing a specific portion (VOBU) of the video data.
US07949221B2
The present invention relates to the management of cables extending to and from fiber termination blocks with sliding fiber adaptor modules within a fiber distribution frame. The blocks include a splitter chassis and fiber optic splitters mounted within the chassis.
US07949212B2
Disclosed is an optical waveguide element that includes first and second optical waveguides (11, 12) which are formed to have different waveguide modes of guided lights, whose polarized waves are different. First optical waveguide (11) includes directional coupling region (13) and, second optical waveguide (12) includes incident side waveguide (12a), which has directional coupling region (13) and which is provided in parallel with first optical waveguide (11), and second optical waveguide (12) includes exit side waveguide (12b), which is extended from incident side waveguide (12a) and which is bent in the direction that recedes from first optical waveguide (11).
US07949202B2
A projector including: a sensing section which senses an area including at least a part of a projection image projected onto a projection target area to generate sensing information; a projection target area information generation section which generates projection target area information based on the sensing information; a projection area information generation section which generates projection area information based on the sensing information; an image distortion correction section which corrects distortion of the projection image and generates correction information indicating a degree of the correction; a display area information generation section which generates display area information based on the projection area information and the correction information; and an environmental influence reduction section which performs processing of reducing environmental influence based on the sensing information and the display area information.
US07949193B2
An apparatus and method for efficiently compressing three-dimensional stereoscopic images are provided. The apparatus and method include a search for Global motion between left and right images input through two image input units mounted in a mobile communication terminal. The images are arranged and a difference between the two images is computed. The images are compressed using the difference between the two images and a reference image. Accordingly, because the left and right images are similar, a computation amount can be reduced since the global motion is computed only once.
US07949186B2
A method for classifying or comparing objects includes detecting points of interest within two objects, computing feature descriptors at said points of interest, forming a multi-resolution histogram over feature descriptors for each object and computing a weighted intersection of multi-resolution histogram for each object. An alternative embodiment includes a method for matching objects by defining a plurality of bins for multi-resolution histograms having various levels and a plurality of cluster groups, each group having a center, for each point of interest, calculating a bin index, a bin count and a maximal distance to the bin center and providing a path vector indicative of the bins chosen at each level. Still another embodiment includes a method for matching objects comprising creating a set of feature vectors for each object of interest, mapping each set of feature vectors to a single high-dimensional vector to create an embedding vector and encoding each embedding vector with a binary hash string.
US07949182B2
An image processing system includes: an image capture device operable to capture at least first and second images of an object at different exposures, a storage for at least part of the at least first and second images, a filter for splitting the at least first and second images into respective first and second spatial frequency components, the first frequency component being of lower frequency than the second, a selector for selecting local image intensity data from the second spatial frequency components of a region of the at least first and second images for combination with the first frequency component from the corresponding region of the first image, and a combiner for combining the selected local image data from the second spatial frequency components of the at least first and second images with the first spatial frequency component of the first image to form a final image.
US07949179B2
The present invention is a system for determining the three dimensional shape of an object, having a first measuring means for measuring a first distance and direction from a fixed first observation point to a first group of measurement points on an object, and a second measuring means for measuring a second distance and direction from a movable second observation point to a second group of measurement points on the aforementioned object, at least one point among said second group of measurement points being the same measurement point as at least one point among the aforementioned first group of measurement points, and said second group of measurement points including at least one measurement point not included in the aforementioned first group of measurement points, and further being provided with a calculating means for calculating the traveling velocity vector of the second observation point from the measurement results concerning the aforementioned same measurement point due to the first and second measuring means, correcting the aforementioned second measurement results based upon said traveling velocity vector, and calculating the three dimensional coordinates of the measurement points of the first group and the second group, and a displaying means that displays an image of the object based upon the aforementioned three dimensional coordinates.
US07949172B2
A method for processing an image which has the steps of a) receiving acquired data necessary to obtain an image and estimating a preliminary image; b) selecting at least one image element within the image; c) performing an iterative algorithm for processing the image at least on the at least one image element; d) computing a difference between the processed at least one image element and the at least one image element; and e) repeating the steps c) and d) until the difference is below a predefined threshold.
US07949151B2
A vehicle surroundings monitoring apparatus is provided herein which is capable of determining an object type, particularly capable of determining an animal other than a human being among objects. The vehicle surroundings monitoring apparatus which monitors the surroundings of a vehicle by using an image captured by a camera (2R, 2L) mounted on the vehicle, including an object extraction process unit which extracts an image area of the object from the captured image (steps 1 to 6) and an object type determination process unit which determines the object type according to whether the image area of the object extracted by the object extraction process unit includes a first object area in which the ratio of widths in different directions is within a predetermined range and a plurality of second object areas located below the first object area and smaller in area than the first object area (steps 31 to 37).
US07949148B2
Directional albedo of a particular article, such as an identity card, is measured and stored. When the article is later presented, it can be confirmed to be the same particular article by re-measuring the albedo function, and checking for correspondence against the earlier-stored data. The re-measuring can be performed through us of a handheld optical device, such as a camera-equipped cell phone. The albedo function can serve as random key data in a variety of cryptographic applications. The function can be changed during the life of the article. A variety of other features are also detailed.
US07949130B2
A flexible aes instruction for a general purpose processor is provided that performs aes encryption or decryption using n rounds, where n includes the standard aes set of rounds {10, 12, 14}. A parameter is provided to allow the type of aes round to be selected, that is, whether it is a “last round”. In addition to standard aes, the flexible aes instruction allows an AES-like cipher with 20 rounds to be specified or a “one round” pass.
US07949111B2
A call processing method is disclosed. A first station initiates a call to a second station. Call information associated with the initiated call is evaluated by comparing the call information with information in a fraud database. Completion of the call is prevented if the evaluation results in a finding of fraud. If the evaluation results in no finding of fraud, the call is completed to the second station via a routing path obtained from a routing database. If the call being completed is deemed to be a call of interest, the routing path obtained from the routing database for completing the call is stored.
US07949104B1
Interactive system for responding to conditions after an answering machine has been detected in an automatic telephone number dialing and announcing system so that realistic sounding recorded messages can be delivered without truncation. The system starts by: placing a telephone call to an answering machine; playing a recorded message onto the answering machine: monitoring the machine for echo cancellation sounds (sounds emanating from the answering machine) while simultaneously playing the message; repeating the playing of said message onto the answering machine while monitoring for echo cancellation sounds; and continuing to play the message until there are no echo cancellation sounds whereby the recorded message is launched unto the answering machine and continues playing the message to completion. If there are greater than three occurrences of echo cancellation sounds. Then the system avoids further resetting steps and proceeds to play the recorded message onto the answering machine without further interruption.
US07949103B2
A system and method for creating and distributing messages including dynamic content is provided. In one form, an entity provides a plurality of content segments for use in building a dynamic message. The entity also provides a listing of end users to receive a message and information associated with the user, such as demographic or prior purchasing information. In an alternate form, the service connects to the user in a communication session and collects information from the user directly. The service then uses this information, whether provided by the entity or the end user, as the basis for selection of various content segments which will make up a dynamic message for presentation to the user.
US07949098B2
A method of obtaining recommendations for lowered radiation dose for a type of radiological image, executed at least in part by a computer system, obtains at least one clinical image of at least one patient, taken under a baseline set of exposure conditions, as a basis image. Processing instructions related to image simulation under one or more reduced exposure conditions are obtained. The basis image is processed according to the processing instructions to generate a set of one or more simulation images, each simulation image representative of corresponding reduced exposure conditions. One or more simulation images are displayed to one or more diagnostic practitioners and an evaluation obtained from the one or more practitioners related to at least the quality of the one or more simulation images. At least one recommended reduced exposure condition is generated and electronically stored according to the practitioner evaluation.
US07949091B2
A mammography system using a tissue exposure control relying on estimates of the thickness of the compressed and immobilized breast and of breast density to automatically derive one or more technic factors. The system further uses a tomosynthesis arrangement that maintains the focus of an anti-scatter grid on the x-ray source and also maintains the field of view of the x-ray receptor. Finally, the system finds an outline that forms a reduced field of view that still encompasses the breast in the image, and uses for further processing, transmission or archival storage the data within said reduced field of view.
US07949090B2
An X-ray CT apparatus is provided for reducing the amount of computation at image reconstruction thereby to shorten an image reconstruction time. The X-ray CT apparatus comprises a cradle which moves in a horizontal direction to convey a subject to a photography space, an X-ray detector comprising a plurality of detecting element rows, for obtaining projection data by a helical scan when the cradle is moved under acceleration/deceleration and at a constant velocity, and backprojection processing device for performing a backprojection process on the projection data. When image reconstruction is carried out using the projection data acquired when the cradle is moved under acceleration/deceleration, the backprojection processing device assumes a virtual image reconstruction plane P′ where the cradle is assumed to be moved at the constant velocity, with respect to an image reconstruction plane P of each view and backprojects projection data onto the virtual image reconstruction plane P′.
US07949084B2
An apparatus for passively cooling and retaining molten core material discharged from a damaged reactor vessel during a severe accident in the nuclear plant including: a molten core material retention tank to retain molten core material; a compressed gas tank storing high-pressure inert gas; a cooling water storage tank being installed higher than the molten core material retention tank; and a mixing means. The molten core material retention tank includes an outer retention vessel having at least one coolant hole, a porous protection vessel formed at an inside of the outer retention vessel, and a gravel layer formed between the outer retention vessel and the porous protection vessel. The apparatus can be installed in a reactor cavity without changing the compartment structure of a containment building, and makes it possible to prevent a steam explosion during the cooling process for the ultrahigh-temperature molten core material and to secure the reliability of the cooling process.
US07949069B2
A method, system and apparatus using hybrid automatic repeat-request (HARQ) to enhance a system throughput in a transmit diversity system. Embodiments of the present invention may include a method including receiving a quality-indication signal such as a HARQ from the base station, calculating a complex weighting based on the quality-indication signal, modifying a pre-transmission signal based on the complex weighting to produce a plurality of modified pre-transmission signals, each modified pre-transmission signal from the plurality modified pre-transmission signals being uniquely associated with an antenna element from a plurality antenna elements of a mobile device, and sending the plurality of modified pre-transmission signals from the plurality of antenna elements to produce an effective combined transmitted signal, the complex weighting being associated with a total power of the transmitted signal and at least one from a phase rotation and a power ratio associated with each antenna element from the plurality of antenna elements.
US07949064B2
A method of transmitting a communication signal (FIG. 1) is disclosed. The method includes receiving a data signal (102). The method further includes receiving a codeword index (pre-coder selection) from a remote transceiver. A codeword is selected from a Householder matrix based codebook in response to the index. The data signal is precoded (104) in response to the selected codeword. The precoded data signal is transmitted (100) to the remote transceiver.
US07949061B2
Methods and apparatus are provided for inserting data symbols and pilot symbols in an OFDM (orthogonal frequency division multiplexing) transmission resource utilizing frequency hopping patterns for the data symbols and/or the pilot symbols. Data symbols and pilot symbols are allocated for down link (base station to mobile station) and up link (mobile station to bases station) transmission resources in a two-dimensional time-frequency pattern. For each antenna of a MIMO-OFDM (multiple input multiple output OFDM) communication system, pilot symbols are inserted in a scattered pattern in time-frequency and data symbols are inserted in an identical frequency-hopping pattern in time-frequency as that of other antennas.
US07949058B2
A radio receiver apparatus and a radio transmitter apparatus wherein the energy loss caused by addition of GI is suppressed, while the reception quality is improved. A signal having been subjected to an IFFT process is repetitively transmitted N times with a length of one OFDM symbol interval. At a receiver apparatus receiving the transmitted signals, a leading data extracting part (207) extracts, from the leading data portions of the direct waves of the received signals, portions that are not interfered with by temporally adjacent data. A combing part (209) combines the received signals in such a manner that align the rear end of each repetitively transmitted data portion except the leading data portion with the rear end of the leading data portion extracted by the leading data extracting part (207). The combined signal is then subjected to an FFT process in an FFT part (210).
US07949056B2
A balanced transmission signal Tx (t) (voltage e, −e) is applied to a transmission line (L1, L2), a suppression signal (ec) is generated from a common mode suppression signal source (ec), and the suppression signal (ec) is superposed on respectives of balanced transmission signals via adders (15a, 15b). By pertinently controlling a level of the suppression signal (ec), voltage levels and phases of respectives of the transmission signals transmitted to the transmission lines (L1, L2) are controlled.
US07949054B2
A system, a method and computer-readable media for organizing a bitstream of compressed data that represents an image. The image may be partitioned into independently decodable regions. The portion of the compressed bitstream associated a selected region is decoded. This decoding yields a series of transform coefficients. Areas of the image that surround the selected region are identified, and information associated with these areas is decoded to yield additional transform coefficients. The original series of transform coefficients and the additional transform coefficients are used to reconstruct the selected region of the image.
US07949043B2
According to an embodiment of the present invention, a method is presented for controlling a video image compression system. In this method a video frame of raw video image data is compressed using a processor. Then it is determined whether the processor is limited in its ability to compress video image data. Then, a target frame rate is adjusted based on a current amount of time taken to compress said video frame of raw video image data.
US07949041B2
A transceiver architecture supports high-speed communication over a signal lane that extends between a high-performance integrated circuit (IC) and one or more relatively low-performance ICs employing less sophisticated transmitters and receivers. The architecture compensates for performance asymmetry between ICs communicating over a bidirectional lane by instantiating relatively complex transmit and receive equalization circuitry on the higher-performance side of the lane. Both the transmit and receive equalization filter coefficients in the higher-performance IC may be adaptively updated based upon the signal response at the receiver of the higher-performance IC.
US07949033B2
Method for generating reference signal sequence using grouping is explained. In this method, base sequences are grouped such that each group contains at least one base sequence of each length, so UE(s) can use various length sequences as a reference signal. And in this method, inter cell interference caused by using various length sequence as a reference signal sequence can be minimized by grouping sequences having the high cross correlation relation.
US07949031B2
A semiconductor diode laser having a broad vertical waveguide and a broad lateral waveguide is disclosed emitting laser-light in a single vertical mode and a single lateral mode narrow beam. The vertical waveguide comprises a coupled cavity structure, wherein light, generated in the active medium placed in the first cavity leaks into the second cavity and returns back. Phase matching conditions govern the selection of a single vertical mode. A multi-stripe lateral waveguide comprises preferably a lateral photonic band crystal with a lateral optical defect created by selected pumping of multistripes. This approach allows the selection of a single lateral mode having a higher optical confinement factor and/or a lower absorption loss and/or a lower leakage loss compared to the rest lateral optical modes. This enables a single lateral mode lasing from a broad area field coupled laser array. A laser system comprised of multiple field coupled laser arrays on a single wafer and a set of external mirrors enables an ultra-broad field coupled laser bar emitting a coherent laser light in a single vertical optical mode and a single lateral optical mode. A laser system comprised of multiple ultra-broad field coupled laser bars on different wafers and a set of external mirrors enables an ultra-broad field coupled laser stack emitting coherent laser light in a single vertical optical mode and a single lateral optical mode. This allows realization of ultrahigh power ultrahigh brightness laser systems based on semiconductor diode lasers.
US07949027B2
A semiconductor laser device includes: an n-type cladding layer; a p-type cladding layer; and an optical waveguide portion disposed between the n-type and p-type cladding layers and including spaced-apart active layers. The optical waveguide portion permits lasing in a crystal growth direction of the active layers in at least three modes, including the fundamental mode and two higher order modes. The number of active layers is equal to or greater than the number of extreme points of the electric field of a particular one of the higher order modes. At least one of the active layers is disposed near each extreme point of the electric field of the particular higher order mode, within the optical waveguide portion.
US07949023B2
A semiconductor laser apparatus of the present invention includes: a semiconductor laser chip 1 having an electrode 11 formed on a surface of the semiconductor laser chip 1; a heat sink 3 for the semiconductor laser chip 1; a submount 2 disposed between the semiconductor laser chip 1 and the heat sink 3 and bonded to the semiconductor laser chip 1 and the heat sink 3; and recessed marks 13 formed on the surface of the semiconductor laser chip 1 by partially removing the electrode 11, wherein the semiconductor laser chip 1 is longer in the resonator direction than in a direction orthogonal to the resonator direction, and the recessed marks 13 are disposed within a predetermined distance from each of the front and rear end faces of the semiconductor laser chip.
US07949018B2
In a mode-locked laser-diode-excited laser apparatus: a solid-state laser medium is arranged at a distance of at most twice the Rayleigh range from a saturable absorbing mirror with a depth of absorbing modulation of at least 0.4%; the total intracavity dispersion is smaller than zero and makes oscillating light have such a pulse bandwidth that the saturable absorbing mirror can suppress a background pulses other than soliton pulses repeated with a fundamental repetition period, and the magnitude of the total intracavity dispersion has a predetermined relationship with a pulse width of the oscillating light; and an output mirror is a negative-dispersion mirror being constituted by three or more multilayer mirrors and cavity layers arranged at predetermined intervals between the three or more multilayer mirrors, and causing a mirror dispersion of −3000 fsec2 to −600 fsec2 and realizes a reflectance of 97% to 99.5%.
US07949008B2
An audio application program is isolated from an Internet application program in a cell phone system having a processor. An operating system program, a partition manager process and the audio and Internet application programs are stored in a computer readable memory of the cell phone. The method includes executing the partition manager process, the audio application program and the Internet application program by the cell phone system processor. Executing the partition manager process includes the partition manager process controlling the audio application program executing to be associated with a first executing instance of the cell phone operating system and the Internet application program executing to be associated with a second executing instance of the cell phone operating system, so that the audio application program is isolated from the Internet application program.
US07949001B2
A packet data transmission method of the HSDPA system includes collecting information on the quality of physical channels, a status of the MAC buffer, the priority level of data, the delay of data, and the like, determining the transmission order of data and the size of a data block to be transmitted based on the collected information, and transmitting the data block through the physical layer according to the order of transmissions. Since the HSDPA scheduler takes into account the delay of data, the quality of real-time services can be improved.
US07948999B2
Signaling completion of a message transfer from an origin node to a target node includes: sending, by an origin DMA engine, an RTS message, the RTS message specifying an application message for transfer to the target node from the origin node; receiving, by the origin DMA engine, a remote get message containing a data descriptor for the message and a completion notification descriptor, the completion notification descriptor specifying a local direct put transfer operation for transferring data locally on the origin node; inserting, by the origin DMA engine in an injection FIFO buffer, the data descriptor followed by the completion notification descriptor; transferring, by the origin DMA engine to the target node, the message in dependence upon the data descriptor; and notifying, by the origin DMA engine, the application that transfer of the message is complete in dependence upon the completion notification descriptor.
