US08260157B2
Disclosed is an image forming apparatus including a body housing in which an opening is formed for providing removal/mounting access of a removable cartridge; a door member for selectively closing the opening. The removable cartridge includes a cartridge status chip in which predetermined information relating to the removable cartridge is recorded. The door member of the image forming apparatus and the removable cartridge may each be provided with respective contact terminal or terminals that engage when the door member is closed with the removable cartridge received in the body housing of the image forming apparatus. The controller of the image forming apparatus uses the electrical continuity information of the contact terminal or terminals in order to determine the closure status of the door member and to control the operation of the image forming apparatus accordingly.
US08260153B2
The singularity problem of the constant modulus algorithm (CMA) equalizer may be overcome by implementing the CMA equalizer as a two-stage equalizer, with the first stage being a modified version of a CMA equalizer and the second stage being a conventional CMA equalizer. The first stage may be made up of four sub-equalizers, of which only two of the sub-equalizers are independent, i.e., uncorrelated to each other. This first stage equalizer may compensate for PMD. The second stage equalizer is a conventional CMA equalizer made up of four sub-equalizers that are adjusted independently. This second stage equalizer may compensate for polarization-dependent loss (PDL) and any residual CD that is not fully compensated for by a CD compensator before the two-stage equalizer. Advantageously, as the determinant of the first stage never approaches zero, the singularity problem of a conventional CMA single-stage-only equalizer is avoided by the two-stage equalizer.
US08260150B2
An wave division multiplexed (WDM) optical transmitter is disclosed including a directly modulated laser array and a planar lightwave chip (PLC) having a plurality of OSRs that receive outputs of the laser array and increase the extinction ratio of the received light. An optical multiplexer receives the outputs of the OSRs and couples them to a single output port. The multiplexer has transmission peaks through its ports each having a 0.5 dB bandwidth including the frequency of a laser in the array. The optical multiplexer may be embodied as cascaded Mach-Zehnder interferometers or ring resonators.
US08260143B2
A transceiver architecture for wireless base stations wherein a broadband radio frequency signal is carried between at least one tower-mounted unit and a ground-based unit via optical fibers, or other non-distortive media, in either digital or analog format. Each tower-mounted unit (for both reception and transmission) has an antenna, analog amplifier and an electro-optical converter. The ground unit has ultrafast data converters and digital frequency translators, as well as signal linearizers, to compensate for nonlinear distortion in the amplifiers and optical links in both directions. In one embodiment of the invention, at least one of the digital data converters, frequency translators, and linearizers includes superconducting elements mounted on a cryocooler.
US08260141B2
A system for enabling reconfiguration of a Wavelength Division Multiplexed (WDM) optical communications network. A plurality of channel transmitters are provided for generating respective optical signals within corresponding wavelength channels of the network. A broadband light source generates a broadband continuous wave light having a bandwidth corresponding to a channel band of the network. A wavelength selective switch includes a first switch port connected to receive optical signals from the channel transmitters. A second switch port is connected to receive the broadband continuous wave light from the broadband light source. The wavelength selective switch is configured to comb the broadband continuous wave light into a plurality of narrowband lights respectively corresponding with wavelength channels of the network. A common-OUT port of the wavelength selective switch outputs a WDM signal for transmission through a downstream fiber span of the network. The wavelength selective switch is controlled to switch optical signals from the first switch port to the common-OUT port as active wavelength channels, and further to switch narrowband lights corresponding to inactive channel wavelengths to the common-OUT port. Consequently, a spectral loading of the WDM signal is independent of the number of active wavelength channels.
US08260137B2
The invention relates to receiving of a modulated light signal from a lighting device, particularly from a solid state lighting (SSL) device. It is an object of the present invention to provide a receiver and a receiving method which are primarily designed to operate efficiently for light (wave) signals that adhere to specific constraints. In order to achieve this object, the invention provides a receiver for a modulated light signal which is keyed with a code sequence of a predefined number of chips, comprising —a light sensor adapted to receive the modulated light signal and to convert it into an electrical signal, —sampling means adapted to take several consecutive samples of the electrical signal during a chip period, and —processing means adapted for calculating for each sample of a chip period an inner product with the chip.
US08260133B2
Systems and methods are described that provide a distributed restoration signaling protocol for shared mesh restoration with standbys for transparent optical networks.
US08260117B1
Techniques are provided for selecting which videos to recommend to users by predicting the degree to which recommending each video will satisfy certain goals. To make the predictions, a trained machine learning engine is fed both collaborative filtering parameter values and content-based filtering parameter values. In the case of video-to-video recommendations, the collaborative filtering parameter values may be based on a video pair that includes a video in which a user has already demonstrated an interest. The machine learning engine generates a machine-learning score for each video. The machine learning scores are used as the basis for selecting which videos to recommend to a particular user.
US08260116B2
An embodiment of the receiver of the invention includes an output unit to output program data to a recording appliance so as to record a copyright-protected service, a first copyright protective mechanism and a second copyright protective mechanism to protect copyright. The receiver further includes a system manager to detect whether or not a copyright protective mechanism of a recording appliance connected to the output unit is present and switch over between the first and second copyright protective mechanisms in accordance with the detection result to output the program data to the output unit.
US08260112B2
A method for generating additional information for guaranteeing seamless playback of data streams includes generating data stream information for each of two or more data streams, which includes packet data to which information on an arrival time of the respective packet data is added. The data stream information includes seamless playback information, which indicates whether a corresponding data stream is to be seamlessly reproduced after playback of a preceding data stream, and/or seamless time control information for controlling an output time of the corresponding data stream to be seamlessly reproduced. Therefore, data streams can be seamlessly reproduced without interruption between the data streams, by using data stream information which includes seamless information and/or seamless time control information including reference time, an offset value and/or a gap length value. Additionally, even if data streams are edited, the data streams can be seamlessly reproduced by just modifying data stream information.
US08260103B2
A multimode optical fiber has an equivalent modal dispersion value (DMDinner&outer) of less than 0.11 ps/m for (Δλmax×D)>0.07 ps/m as measured on a modified DMD graph. The modified DMD graph accounts for chromatic dispersion to ensure that the multimode optical fiber has a calculated effective bandwidth EBc greater than 6000 MHz-km when used with multimode transverse sources.
US08260102B2
D-shaped POFs are used to form a 2-to-1 optical coupler. The D-shaped POFs are produced via an extrusion process that is relatively inexpensive to perform and that can be performed with relatively high manufacturing throughput. The D-shaped POFs are bonded together to form a coupler end face having a generally circular cross-sectional area. The coupler end face is interfaced with an end face of a main POF that is generally circular in cross-sectional shape. The resulting D-shaped 2-to-1 optical POF couplers have relatively low insertion loss and relatively high optical coupling efficiency.
US08260100B2
A light guiding layer comprises an optical incoupling structure (3) on which light from a light source (7) is incident, said optical incoupling structure (3) having a slanted surface (15) configured to give the light a first directional distribution by reflecting the light in a first general direction, by total internal reflection within the layer, towards a reflecting structure (5). The reflecting structure (5) is configured to give the light a second directional distribution by reflecting the light in a second general direction towards the optical incoupling structure (3), and at least a part of the light reflected in the second general direction is transmitted through the slanted surface (15) of the optical incoupling structure (3). A display unit, a segmented backlight, a luminaire, and a method is also disclosed.
US08260088B2
An image processing apparatus includes a sensor unit configured to include a plurality of line sensors to read image data having a plurality of channels; a correcting unit configured to correct the image data read by the sensor unit to obtain a plurality of frames of image data in which reading positions on an original image by adjacent line sensors among the plurality of line sensors are shifted by less than a pixel in a main scanning direction or/and a sub-scanning direction; and a high-resolution converting unit configured to perform interpolation by using the plurality of frames of image data obtained by the correcting unit so as to obtain monochrome image data having resolution higher than resolution of the line sensors.
US08260084B2
Binary image stitching based on grayscale approximation. In a first example embodiment, a method for automatic binary image stitching of first and second binary images includes several acts. First, the first and second binary images are converted into first and second thumbnail grayscale images. Each thumbnail grayscale image is a lower resolution than its corresponding binary image by a scaling factor. Next, a thumbnail transform is calculated between the first thumbnail grayscale image and the second thumbnail grayscale image. Then, a full-size transform is calculated as a function of the thumbnail transform and the scaling factor. Next, the stitched binary image is created by projecting the first binary image onto the second binary image using the full-size transform and combining overlapping portions of the first and second binary images.
US08260083B2
An image processing method is provided. The method includes detecting a predetermined face area from an input image; converting the input image into Lab coordinates; determining whether coordinate areas having angles corresponding to an angle of the detected face area exist on a Lab color system and searching the input image for the coordinate areas according to a result of the determining; and blurring the detected face area and the found coordinate areas. An image processing apparatus and digital photographing apparatus using the method and apparatus are also provided. Accordingly, reduction of the resolution of a whole image may be prevented by processing only a face area, instead of the whole image, to result in a soft face area image quality. A deterioration in quality of portions which are not supposed to be blurred may be prevented by blurring only a skin color area of the face area.
US08260082B2
Correction of color defects in a pupil represented in a digital image is disclosed. For example, a location in the pupil within the digital image is identified, and a target color to be corrected is computed based at least upon an analysis of pixels within a first region in which the location resides. Defect pixels in a second region in which the location resides are identified, the defect pixels being identified as having a pixel color similar to the target color. The defect pixels are color-corrected. For pupils that appear all white, appropriately configured pupil images are inserted therein.
US08260080B1
Methods, systems and apparatus, including computer program products, for processing an image. A first tone value is determined for a location within the image based upon attributes of pixels within a first neighborhood surrounding the location. The first tone value specifies a local weight for a first tone adjustment in the image. A second tone value is determined for the location based upon attributes of pixels within a second neighborhood surrounding the location. The second tone value specifies a local weight for a second tone adjustment in the image. The image is adjusted at the location using the first and second tone adjustments according to the local weights specified by the first and second tone values, respectively.
US08260077B2
A method for eliminating image blur, includes: performing motion detection on two successive images of a video signal to generate a motion index; and adjusting the luminance of the two successive images according to two transfer functions determined by the motion index, respectively.
US08260076B1
A system for filtering an image using a bilateral filter includes a receiver and a bilateral filter. The receiver is for receiving an image having a plurality of pixels. The bilateral filter is run in constant time and comprises a pixel value range determinor and a spatial filter. The pixel value range determinor is configured to determine a range of pixel values of the plurality of pixels. The spatial filter is configured to spatially filter at least one of the plurality of pixels. The spatial filter is further configured to perform over a plurality of pixel values in the range of pixel values.
US08260073B2
A method of selectively sharpening an image may include, for at least some pixels in the image, determining a frequency content associated with a pixel value in the image. The pixel may be linearly sharpened if the frequency content exceeds a threshold. The pixel may be non-linearly sharpened if the frequency content does not exceed the threshold. In some implementations, the non-linear sharpening may include wavelet decomposition of the image and enhancement of decomposed components.
US08260070B1
An optimized method and system to generate a compressed image utilizing custom probability tables are described. The system may include a input module to receive a digital image, a sample generator to generate a representative sample image from the input image, a custom probability tables generator to generate custom probability tables and an entropy coder to encode the input image utilizing the custom probability tables. The custom probability tables generator may be configured to generate custom probability tables utilizing the representative sample image.
US08260064B2
An image processing method includes receiving an image including a writing, detecting a position of the writing in the received image, detecting a position of a character image in the received image, performing character recognition on the detected character image, comparing the position of the detected writing with the position of the detected character image to associate the writing with a result of the character recognition, translating the result of the character recognition so as to be recognizable as a translation of the result of the character recognition associated with the writing, generating an image of the translation result associated with the writing, so as to be output in a format different from a format of an image of a translation result that is not associated with the writing, and outputting the image of the translation result associated with the writing.
US08260056B2
The invention teaches a method of positioning a first image having a first image format into a second image comprising multiple image blocks and having a second image format. A straight boundary of at least one image block in the second image is identified. The first image is positioned into the second image by aligning an edge of the first image with the identified straight boundary. Alternatively, a block row or column of the first image can be aligned with the straight boundary but then in such a way that an edge of the first image parallel to the block row or column is aligned with a boundary of a row or column of image blocks in the second image. This image positioning reduces any bleeding artifacts and the number of bits required for representing the image during encoding.
US08260055B2
Methods and apparatus for identifying primary media content in a post-production media content presentation are disclosed. An example computer-implemented method to detect primary media content included in a secondary media content presentation disclosed herein comprises determining a first image corresponding to the secondary media content presentation, the first image comprising a plurality of image subregions, each image subregion representative of an inter-frame variation associated with a corresponding subregion of the secondary media content presentation, selecting a region of the first image comprising a plurality of connected image subregions of the first image together exhibiting a first type of inter-frame variation, and when a shape of the selected region of the first image corresponds to a predefined shape, processing a region of the first captured image corresponding to the selected region of the first synthetic image to identify the primary media content.
US08260054B2
A method for matching an image-form textual string in an image to a regular expression is disclosed. The method includes constructing a representation of the regular expression and generating a candidate string of characters from the image-form textual string. The method further includes ascertaining whether there exists a match between the image-form textual string and the regular expression, the match is deemed achieved if a probability value associated with the match is above a predetermined matching threshold.
US08260051B2
An image processing apparatus including an input part configured to input document data of a document, an extracting part configured to automatically extract partial image data from the document data, a storage part configured to store the document data and configuration data of the document data, a registering part configured to associate the document data with the partial image data and register the document data and the associated partial image data in the storage part, a generating part configured to generate push-type data based on the configuration data, and a transmitting part configured to transmit the push-type data.
US08260038B2
Aspects of the present invention include systems and methods for forming generative models, for utilizing those models, or both. In embodiments, an object model fitting system can be developed comprising a 3D active appearance model (AAM) model. The 3D AAM comprises an appearance model comprising a set of subcomponent appearance models that is constrained by a 3D shape model. In embodiments, the 3D AAM may be generated using a balanced set of training images. The object model fitting system may further comprise one or more manifold constraints, one or more weighting factors, or both. Applications of the present invention include, but are not limited to, modeling and/or fitting face images, although the teachings of the present invention can be applied to modeling/fitting other objects.
US08260018B2
The present invention relates to methods and devices for analyzing x-ray images. In particular, devices, methods and algorithms are provided that allow for the accurate and reliable evaluation of bone structure and macro-anatomical parameters from x-ray images.
US08260014B2
A system is disclosed that is configured for microcalcifications (mcc) detecting by forming a plurality of true mcc clusters and a plurality of normal clusters, gathering spot and cluster features from said clusters, extracting linear structure features, and using said spot, cluster and linear structure features in mcc detector algorithm training.
US08260011B2
A method, system, and computer readable medium for detecting a face in a video stream including receiving a sequence of input color images; and for each input image, calculating a greyscale image of the input color image, creating a one-bit motion image based on the current and a previous greyscale image, calculating a normalized color image of the input color image, calculating a motion color probability image, providing at least the grayscale image and the motion color probability image to a face detector, and executing face detection by determining a presence of a face based on first features in the grayscale image and second features in the motion color probability image.
US08260004B2
The present disclosure relates to a method for the quantitative determination of surface properties, wherein a spatially resolved image of a surface to be analysed, which contains a large number of measured values, is recorded. In a first method step, the measured values are analysed in order to determine those surface areas which have a specific physical property. A result value of this physical property is then determined, wherein this result value is characteristic of the values of the physical property of all those surface areas of the image determined by analyzing the image. According to the disclosure, the result value is displayed against the size of the determined surface areas.
US08260002B2
A video analytics system and associated methodology for performing low-level video analytics processing divides the processing into three phases in order to efficiently use SIMD instructions of many modern data processors. In the first phase, pixels of interest are gathered using a predetermined mask and placed into a pixel matrix. In the second phase, video analytics processing is performed on the pixel matrix, and in the third phase the pixels are scattered using the same predetermined mask. This allows many pixels to be processed simultaneously, increasing overall performance. A DMA unit may also be used to offload the processor during the gathering and scattering of pixels, further increasing performance. A network camera integrates the video analytics system to reduce network traffic.
US08259999B2
An apparatus for detecting movement direction of object, includes a converging lens, an image sensor and an image processor. The converging lens has an axial chromatic aberration between a first and a second rays in different wavelengths. The image sensor is for receiving and converting the first and second rays into first and second electronic image signals associated with the object. The image processor is configured for analyzing whether the object is closer to an object plane associated with the first ray or closer to an object plane associated with the second ray when the object moves to different positions, and determining the movement direction of the object based on the analyzed positions of the object relative to the object plane associated with the first ray and the object plane associated with the second ray.
US08259983B2
Disclosed is a speaker system for installation within a ceiling, wall, or other structure. The speaker system includes at least one pair of woofers housed by a woofer housing. The two woofers of each pair are oppositely arranged relative to one another so that the vibrations generated by each during operation are essentially neutralized or eliminated. Attached to the woofer housing is a mounting frame to which is attached a driver, such as a tweeter, a combination tweeter and midrange, or another woofer. This driver is perpendicularly arranged to a woofer pair. When installed, the woofers are positioned within the ceiling or other structure in which the system is installed.
US08259980B2
An adjustable tweeter assembly is provided to allow a tweeter to be directionally oriented to a selected position. The assembly includes a base, a bowl, and a cup, which are nested together so that the bowl is sandwiched between the base and the cup for movement therebetween. The tweeter is mounted in the bowl which can be rotated and pivoted relative to the cup and to the base. A fastener extends through the cup, the bowl, and the base, and through a leaf spring so as to provide a compressive or clamping force between the base, the bowl, and the cup. The tweeter is rotatable 360° and pivotal approximately 90°.
US08259978B2
A sound box (10) accommodating a loud speaker (20) mounted in a housing (30) of electronic device (100) is described. The sound box (10) comprises a metal element (12) and a rubber element (14). The metal element (12) defines a receiving space (123) for accommodating the louder speaker (20), and the metal element (12) has a planar wall (122) surrounding the receiving space (123). The rubber element (14) can be formed with the planar wall (122).
US08259977B2
An connector assembly for use in, for example, a hearing aid, the assembly having a first connector and a second connector adapted to be detachably attached and being able to transport both sound and electric signals. The invention also relates to an assembly comprising the connector assembly and having a first part comprising an electrical input and a sound providing receiver as well as both an audio output and an electrical output. The two outputs are connected to a second element, normally for positioning inside an ear canal of a person, the second element having a receiver for receiving the electrical signal from the first elements and providing a corresponding sound which is mixed with the sound output by the second element, the mixed sound being output from the second element. The receiver of the first element may be a woofer, and the receiver of the second element may be a tweeter.
US08259970B2
Provided is an adaptive remastering apparatus and method for a rear channel, which emphasizes only signals of the rear channel while maintaining signals of other channels of a multi-channel audio signal. According to the adaptive remastering apparatus and method for a rear channel, virtual rear left and right channel audio signals are generated by multiplying a predetermined gain by ambient signals extracted from front left and right channel audio signals and are combined with input rear left and right channel audio signals, thereby increasing powers of signals of the rear channel.
US08259963B2
A microphone assembly is provided that includes a condenser transducer element having a displaceable diaphragm and a back-plate. The displaceable diaphragm and the back-plate are arranged to form a capacitor in combination. A preamplifier circuit has an input stage, the input stage comprising a P-type field effect transistor. The displaceable diaphragm and the back-plate are operatively connected between a source input and a gate input of the P-type field effect transistor.
US08259960B2
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for redeeming otherwise closed and concealed information contained in audio signals. This includes both the primary reference signal, and a plurality of redundant duplicate signals, substantially identical in all respects to the primary reference signal except in relation to magnitude and phase, for the purpose of unfolding, or opening the audio signal content into layers that result in an omni-directional acoustic signal, representing the sound as it would behave in nature. The audio reproduction system uses an in-phase circuit and a separate phase layering technique circuit to drive independent multiple mixed channels, to produce an open, substantially complete sound from a discrete audio signal, for the purpose of enabling a substantially complete audio signal to be formed, or to transform existing incomplete audio signals into a substantially complete audio signal.
US08259955B2
In a fan noise canceling system, a feedforward signal generated when a fan speed change occurs and a feedback signal read by a sensor are sent to a signal amplifying unit for signal amplification, and the amplified signals are then sent to a signal converting unit for converting into a digital signal. A hybrid controller receives and corrects the digital signals sent thereto, and conducts rapid convergence algorithm to derive a reverse digital signal. The reverse digital signal is sent back to the signal converting unit for converting into a reverse analog signal, which is then sent to the signal amplifying unit for power amplification and generating a control signal to drive a loudspeaker to produce a reverse acoustic wave, which cancels out wave of fan noise to effectively reduce fan noise without adversely affecting the heat dissipation effect of the fan.
US08259953B2
Electro dynamic transducers can fail due to either excessive voice coil excursion, causing mechanical clipping, or by overheating of the voice coil causing degradation of the materials. The disclosed invention relates to protection against excess voice coil temperature in such transducers. The current through the transducer voice coil and the voltage across its terminals, are measured. The resistive part of the impedance of the transducer is then estimated based on the measurements of current and voltage. When the resistive impedance for the given type of transducer is well known at one temperature it is then possible to calculate the temperature when the resistive impedance changes. The estimated voice coil temperature is then fed to a signal attenuator or controller, which attenuates the output signal to the transducer.
US08259952B2
A vehicle entertainment system and method that alternately configures an input of the entertainment system as a differential input that is decoupled from a ground point, or as ground referenced input that is coupled to a ground point. A noise detector determines a noise signal value for a ground switch module that alternately changes a switch state between a coupled state that couples the common connection to the ground point, and a decoupled state that decouples the common connection from the ground point, based upon the noise signal value being greater than a threshold.
US08259949B2
A processing system to serve as a source device for protected digital content comprises a processor and control logic. When used by the processor, the control logic causes the processing system to receive a digital certificate from a presentation device. The processing system then uses public key infrastructure (PKI) to determine whether the presentation device has been authorized by a certificate authority (CA) to receive protected content. The processing system may also generate a session key and use the session key to encrypt data. The processing system may transmit the encrypted data to the presentation device only if the presentation device has been authorized by the CA to receive protected content. Presentation devices and repeaters may perform corresponding operations, thereby allowing content to be transmitted and presented in a protected manner. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US08259945B2
A portable server has an antenna and radio communicating portion having a receivable distance of several m to several tens of m and an authentication antenna and authentication radio communicating portion having a receivable distance of several mm to several cm, which is extremely shorter than the receivable distance of the radio communicating portion. When an authentication button is operated by a user and when another apparatus is arranged within a range of the receivable distance of the authentication radio communicating portion, the authentication radio communicating portion performs authentication processing with the other apparatus through the authentication antenna and registers authentication data resulting from the authentication with a memory. The radio communicating portion connects to the authenticated other apparatus through an antenna based on the authentication data and performs data communication. The invention is applicable to a radio communication system including a mobile terminal.
US08259940B2
This invention relates to a method for broadcasting digital data to a targeted set of reception terminals in which said data are previously scrambled by a series of control words transmitted in a conditional access control message.This method comprises the following steps: on transmission, particularise said access control message using a reversible function F for which the inverse function F−1 is executable only in terminals in the targeted set, and on reception, redetermine the original access control message in each terminal in the targeted set using said inverse function.
US08259934B2
An encryption chaining mode takes plaintext block N, generates encryption key N by combining, preferably by XOR, encryption key N-1 and plaintext block N-1 and encrypts plaintext block N using an encryption algorithm with encryption key N to output ciphertext block N. Encryption key for the first plaitnext block is generated by XOR-ing a random Initialization vector and a random intialization key K. In a preferred embodiment, initialization key K is subkeys resulting form a key schedule algorithm and encryption key N-1 is only one of the subkeys. Encryption key for the first plaintext block is generated by XOR-ing a random Initialization vector and one subkey resulting form a key schedule algorithm. Also provided is a corresponding decryption method, an encryption device, a decryption device.
US08259929B2
Various methods, apparatuses, and systems in which a back up power supply is provided to a network interface device are described. In one embodiment, an apparatus includes a network interface device (NID) located outside a building and a power supply unit located inside the building. The power supply unit has one or more ports that couple via a phone line to the NID to provide a power signal to the NID. The apparatus further includes a direct current (DC) back up power unit located in the NID. The DC back up power unit provides back up power to the NID. The NID is configured to periodically switch between receiving the power signal from the power supply unit and the DC back up power unit even when no fault condition exists in the power supply unit.
US08259922B2
An apparatus and methods are disclosed for use by organizations that have PBXs at a plurality of sites. The invention pertains to cell phone calls from an to his or her “home” private branch exchange. For example, an employee who works at the Chicago branch office might call the Chicago office's PBX to invoke a feature such as setting up call forwarding, retrieving voice mail, etc. In the illustrative embodiment, such calls might be automatically and transparently directed to another PBX when it is advantageous to do so (e.g., for the purposes of security, reducing toll charges, because of unavailability of a particular PBX, etc.) Factors that might be used to determine whether to re-direct a call and to which PBX to re-direct a call include the day and time of the call, the network that the cell phone is currently connected to, etc.
US08259898B2
A method and a CT system are disclosed for predicting specific cardiac cycle phases within the scope of a CT examination, wherein signal profiles of the heart are continuously recorded during the examination over a plurality of cardiac cycles, wherein times of successive cycle positions with the same characteristics are determined with the aid of the signal profiles and the successive cycle lengths of the cardiac cycles are determined with the aid of the determined times, wherein typical patterns in successive cycle lengths over a first number of past and successive cardiac cycles are sought after and a current or future cycle length is determined by recording cycle patterns in a second, smaller number of cycle lengths including their typical successive cycle length within the first number of current past cycle lengths, and predicting, using probabilistic methods, the cycle length that follows the last determined cycle pattern on the basis of the cycle patterns currently determined during the CT examination.
US08259893B2
A method for underwater packaging of radioactive materials includes creating a vacuum in a cavity of a cleaning device to automatically cause a portion of the cleaning device to move upward to actuate the cleaning device from an open position to a closed position; mounting the cleaning device inside a safe containment area of a transportation and/or storage device; placing the transportation and/or storage device in a pool after filling the safe containment area with water; loading a radioactive material into the safe containment area; closing the transportation and/or storage device using at least one cover; extracting the transportation and/or storage device from the pool; draining the water inside the safe containment area; and creating a pressure differential in the safe containment area to dry the safe containment area, wherein the pressure differential causes the cleaning device to automatically actuate from the closed position to the open position.
US08259892B2
A container including a support having at least one first longitudinal support surface defining a longitudinal housing for receiving a nuclear fuel assembly, and a door having a second longitudinal support surface. The door is movable between a position of holding the nuclear fuel assembly between the two longitudinal surfaces and a released position in which the assembly is free with respect to the support. The container includes means for adjusting the transversal separation between the first and second surfaces in the holding position of the door.
US08259887B2
A method for detecting a specific timing from a synchronization channel is described. A signal with a known sequence is received. Two or more correlation values between the received signal and the known sequence are calculated at two or more positions. The two or more correlation values are compared. A determination is made whether the position of the known sequence has been shifted based on the comparison. A specific timing of a synchronization channel is detected based on the determination.
US08259881B2
A level of interference affecting signal components of received communication signals is estimated and used to weight the signal components. The signal components in a each of a number of groups of signal components are weighted based on respective interference estimates to thereby adjust signal components for colored interference, which may vary significantly between different groups of signal components. Each group of signal components may include a single component or components within a relatively narrow sub-band of the communication signals, such as a coherence bandwidth of an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) signal.
US08259877B2
The invention concerns controlling automatic gain control for a digital signal receiver. The method includes receiving a digital feedback signal for controlling an amplifier and processing the digital feedback signal to deliver a driving signal to an analog amplifier. Processing the digital feedback signal comprises regulating the evolution of the driving signal so that it is maintained constant during a predetermined period of time after every change.
US08259876B2
A system for tuning a radio receiver includes a radio receiver configured to provide a downconverted digital error signal, a digital synthesizer circuit configured to generate a first local oscillator control signal, a digital automatic frequency control (AFC) circuit configured to generate a second local oscillator control signal, wherein the digital synthesizer circuit is enabled to generate the first local oscillator control signal when the digital AFC circuit is disabled, the first local oscillator control signal corresponds to an estimate of a desired local oscillator frequency, the digital AFC circuit is enabled to generate the second local oscillator control signal when the digital synthesizer circuit is disabled and the second local oscillator control signal corresponds to the desired local oscillator frequency.
US08259875B2
A technique for determining a frequency offset between components of a communication network based on a Constant Amplitude Zero Auto-Correlation (CAZAC) sequence is described. A method implementation of this technique comprises a provision of a set of correlation signals at different frequencies, with each correlation signal being indicative of a specific frequency offset hypothesis and comprising the CAZAC sequence. Once a synchronization signal comprising the CAZAC sequence is received, this synchronization signal is correlated with each of the correlation signals to obtain a correlation result for each frequency offset hypothesis. In a next step, at least one of the frequency offset hypotheses is selected based on a comparison of the correlation results. The frequency offset may then be determined based on the at least one selected frequency offset hypothesis.
US08259870B2
A system and method is provided for improved and efficient decoding of a received data sequence. The invention can perform the decoding using a LogMap function for a set of N inputs, where N is greater than 2.
US08259869B2
A receiving system and a method of processing broadcast signal are disclosed herein. The receiving system includes a signal receiving unit, an equalizer, an inner decoder, a reliability adjustor, and an outer decoder. The signal receiving unit receives a broadcast signal and demodulates the received broadcast signal, wherein the broadcast signal comprises a data group including mobile service data and multiple known data sequences. The equalizer uses the known data sequences to channel-equalize data group included in the demodulated broadcast signal. The inner decoder matches mobile service data within the data group, which are inputted in a block-size for turbo-decoding, with mobile service data being symbol-decoded and fed-back, thereby performing trellis-decoding. The reliability adjustor adjusts a reliability level of the mobile service data based upon positions within the data group of the trellis-decoded mobile service data. The outer decoder performs symbol-decoding on the mobile service data outputted from the reliability adjustor.
US08259866B2
A method and apparatus for decoding encoded data bits of a wireless communication transmission are provided. A set of a-priori bit values corresponding to known bit values of the encoded data bits may be generated. Decoding paths that correspond to decoded data bits that are inconsistent with the a-priori bit values may be removed from the possible decoding paths to consider, and decoding the encoded data bits by selecting a decoding path from remaining decoding paths of the possible decoding paths that were not removed.
US08259864B2
Certain embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a Fourier-Quadratic (FQ) method for channel estimation that may help improve error rate performance of existing techniques, with only moderate increase in computational complexity. The proposed FQ scheme according to certain embodiments may provide a viable solution to the difficult channel estimation problem encountered in the Vehicular B channel with a long delay spread. Furthermore, a robustness of the proposed FQ channel estimation scheme to accommodate errors in a channel delay profile and to errors in a channel power profile is demonstrated through simulations.
US08259862B2
A receiver capable of decoding a symbol based on information on a previous symbol, the symbol and a next symbol in a Gaussian frequency shift keying (GFSK) communication system is provided. The receiver includes a discriminator to generate a symbol for each bit in a bit sequence, a first lookup table (LUT) to store a number of bit patterns and mapping patterns, wherein each of the bit patterns is in the form of a set of consecutive bits in the bit sequence and corresponds to a respective one of the mapping patterns, and wherein each of the mapping patterns includes a set of entries and each of the entries results from an operation of attribute values at a sample time in the waveform of a symbol, a calculator to receive a set of consecutive symbols from the discriminator and calculate a distance value between the set of consecutive symbols and each of the mapping patterns, and a comparator to identify one of the mapping patterns with a minimum distance value by comparing among the distance values from the calculator.
US08259857B2
Systems and methods for increasing communication throughput by superimposing multiple signal components in the same bandwidth are disclosed. Cochannel interference is reduced by using signal separation algorithms. The signal separation algorithms may use both a priori information about the superimposed signals and measured channel parameters. In addition, error correction encoding and interleaving may be used to reduce signal power and obviate the need for ideal signal separation.
US08259855B2
An equalizing structure and method for a wireless communication system receiving device. Two or more transmit signals transmitted in parallel from one or more transmitters are received in received signal vectors representing two or more received data streams, the signals including information modulated onto carrier signals according to a modulation scheme, all possible transmit signals being represented by candidate constellation values in the signal constellation of the modulation scheme. A processor calculates an estimate for a constellation value of a received signal and determines a number of candidate constellation values in the vicinity of the estimated constellation value in the signal constellation. A metric value calculator calculates metric values based on the received signal vectors and the product of channel estimation values with candidate signal vectors. A maximum likelihood detector detects one of the candidate signal vectors having a minimum Euclidean distance to a respective received signal vector as a most likely transmit signal vector based on the metric values.
US08259852B2
Certain aspects of a method and system for satellite communication are disclosed. Aspects of one method may include a receiver that handles digital video broadcasting. The receiver may be enabled to dynamically vary spacing between one or more pilots within at least one frame based on a determined symbol rate. The size of each of a plurality of received programs may be determined and the spacing between one or more pilots may be dynamically varied based on the determined size of each of the plurality of received programs.
US08259850B2
A UWB transmission apparatus that, in a system using a mixture of amplitude and phase modulation schemes, can support both of the amplitude and phase modulation schemes, while preventing the signal powers of amplitude-modulated signals from degrading. In this UWB transmission apparatus, if the modulation mode is of QPSK, a mapping part (121) selects one of four signal points on the IQ plane in accordance with a 2-bit data, and outputs information related to the I- and Q-components of the selected signal point to a QPSK/ASK modulated signal forming part (122). If the modulation mode is of ASK, the mapping part (121) selects the origin point on the IQ plane when the data being ‘0’ and selects one of four signal points on the IQ plane, similarly to the case of QPSK modulation, when the data being ‘1,’ and outputs information, which is related to the selected signal point, to the QPSK/ASK modulated signal forming part (122).
US08259838B2
A signal transmitter apparatus generates three phase-shifted signals by shifting three transmission signals by predetermined phase shift amounts so that the phase shift amounts of the transmission signals are different from each other by 120 degrees. The signal transmitter apparatus generates three combined transmission signals and outputs the three combined transmission signals to the three transmission conductors, respectively, by combining each of pairs of the phase-shifted signals such that an inverted signal of a first phase-shifted signal is combined with a second phase-shifted signal, when each of the pairs of the phase-shifted signals includes the first and second phase-shifted signals among the three phase-shifted signals and phase shift amounts of the first and second phase-shifted signals are different from each other by 120 degrees. The signal receiver apparatus generates three receiving signals based on received three combined transmission signals, and detects the decoded signals of the transmission signals based on the receiving signals.
US08259826B2
A receiving apparatus according to the present invention has a plurality of synchronizing circuits which is provided corresponding to different preamble signals of a reception signal and operate simultaneously at the time of receiving the preamble signals so as to output synchronous signals, a correlation value comparing section which compares correlation values of the synchronous signals output from the plurality of synchronizing circuits, and a synchronizing section which determines whether the received signal is for the subject apparatus based on a comparison result from the correlation value comparing section.
US08259820B2
A low power communication encoding method is provided. A first piece of encoded information and a second piece of encoded information are generated based on a comparison of a current transmission record and a previous transmission record. Then transmission data is selected based on which of the first and second pieces of encoded information will result in transmitting a fewer number of logical lows. Ultimately, the transmission data is transmitted on an open drain data line.
US08259817B2
In one embodiment, a method that includes receiving plural representations of a single video signal, wherein each includes a respective sequence of latticed pictures, wherein each latticed picture in each of the plural representations originates from a corresponding respective picture of the video signal; processing the plural representations; separating the processed plural representations into plural segments, each segment consisting of a respective sequence of processed latticed pictures from one of the processed plural representations; arranging the plural segments in successive segments distributions intervals (SDIs) according to a first temporal order and a second temporal order, the successive SDIs to be provided in a video stream; and promoting one or more of the processed latticed pictures among one or more of the plural segments, the promotion corresponding to an increase in picture importance.
US08259807B2
A method of encoding a block of data. A first plurality of data in the block of data is assigned a worth based on a first algorithm. A second plurality of data, which is lower in frequency than the first plurality of data, in the block of data is assigned a worth according to a second algorithm. The block of data is assigned a worth based on the worth of the first plurality of data and the second plurality of data. The worth of the block of data is then compared to a threshold value, and subsequently one or more data values of the block of data are adjusted based on the comparison.
US08259788B2
A computer may be remotely accessed. At a first location, display commands are generated. The display commands are covered into a compressed video data stream. Each display element (5) is checked if it is encoded (52). If object is encoded, it is transcribed into MPEG (54). The image is adjusted for display (56) and compression (58). Additional steps of motion determination (60), change detection (62), compression depth and frame determination (66, 68) are executed. Then the data is transmitted to a second location. The display commands are decompressed and displayed as an image at the second location.
US08259784B2
An apparatus is disclosed, the apparatus comprising: a broad-band continuous-time adjustable weight summing cell for summing an input signal and a feedback signal into an intermediate signal in accordance with a weight factor for the feedback signal; a broad-band continuous-time delay cell for receiving the intermediate signal and outputting the feedback signal; a broad-band variable gain amplifier for amplifying the feedback signal into an output signal in accordance with a gain factor; and an adaptation circuit for adjusting the weight and the gain factor in accordance with the output signal and a timing defined by a clock signal so as to minimize an interference form a previous data to a present data embedded in the output signal.
US08259783B2
A method of determining as to whether a received signal includes an information signal is provided. The method provided includes determining a covariance matrix from a received signal and transforming the covariance matrix into a transformed covariance matrix, wherein the transformation is configured such that the transformed covariance matrix is a non-diagonal matrix in case the received signal includes the information signal, wherein the non-diagonal matrix includes non-zero non-diagonal matrix elements. The method provided further includes determining a first function using at least one of the non-zero non-diagonal matrix elements of the transformed covariance matrix, determining a second function using at least one matrix element of the transformed covariance matrix, wherein the second function is different from the first function, and determining as to whether a received signal includes an information signal based on a comparison of a value of the first function and a value of the second function.
US08259782B2
A method and device for estimating a Gaussian white noise power in a channel and a receiver are provided. The method includes performing a multi-path search on a received signal to find out paths of the signal; performing a noise estimation on one of the paths to acquire a total noise power of the path; performing an inter-path interference noise estimation on N paths spaced apart from the path by an integral number of chips to obtain an inter-path interference noise power of a single path of the signal, where N is an integer greater than or equal to 1; and subtracting the inter-path interference noise power from the total noise power to obtain the Gaussian white noise power. Through the technical solution of the disclosure, the Gaussian white noise power in a channel is obtained with a higher accuracy, so that the performance of equalization is enhanced.
US08259779B2
A wireless network (20) with at least a first radio communication unit (24) and a second radio communication unit (26) transmits and receives signals with minimal interference from the surrounding environment of the first unit (24) and second unit (26). The first radio communication unit (24) determines frequencies (54) having power level above a threshold (52), and creates a list of these frequencies (50) to be transmitted to the second radio communication unit (26). The second radio communication unit (26) places notches (140) in its transmission band (88) based on frequencies (54) in the list (50), reserved frequencies (132), and local frequencies (92) having signal energy above a threshold (90). When transmitting a signal (42), the second radio communication unit (26) avoids transmitting in frequencies that have notches (140).
US08259771B1
A laser-sustained plasma light source with a bulb for enclosing a relatively cool gas environment, and an electrode disposed at least partially within the gas environment. A power supply applies a potential to the electrode, where the power supply is sufficient to create a corona discharge at the electrode within the gas environment, and the power supply is not sufficient to produce an arc discharge within the gas environment. The corona discharge thereby produces a relatively heated gas environment. A pump laser source focuses a laser beam within the gas environment, where the laser beam is sufficient to ignite a plasma in the relatively heated gas environment, but is not sufficient to ignite a plasma in the relatively cool gas environment.
US08259766B2
A laser diode drive circuit includes: a duty control amplifier (23) that controls the duty ratio of a main signal for laser control in accordance with a duty control signal; and an AND gate (22) that outputs the duty control signal to the duty control amplifier (23), and outputs a duty control signal that controls the duty ratio of the main signal to be 0% in the duty control amplifier in accordance with a shutdown signal of a laser diode. With this structure, there is no need to input the main signal having the duty ratio controlled to a logic circuit that becomes unstable. Thus, outputs from a semiconductor laser can be shut down, and the output duty can be controlled in a stable manner.
US08259765B2
An external-cavity laser module includes a package defining an enclosure, the package including a base having a surface internal to the enclosure, a thermoelectric cooler within the enclosure, the thermoelectric cooler including an upper carrier plate and a lower carrier plate, the lower carrier plate being placed on the internal surface of the base and the thermoelectric cooler (TEC) being configured to stabilize the temperature of the upper carrier plate at a substantially constant temperature. The laser module further includes a laser assembly housed within the enclosure, including a gain medium for emitting an optical beam into the external cavity and an end mirror. Variations of the environmental temperature with respect to the thermally stabilized temperature cause mechanical deformations of the TEC upper carrier plate that is in thermal coupling with the laser assembly. The mechanical deformations in turn induce variations in the optical path length of the laser cavity. Thermal bridge of the gain medium to the environmental temperature is achieved by the use of a thermal bridge element for conducting heat either from or to the gain medium.
US08259764B2
A method and apparatus is disclosed for operating a laser output light beam pulse line narrowing mechanism that may comprise a nominal center wavelength and bandwidth selection optic; a static wavefront compensation mechanism shaping the curvature of the selection optic; an active wavefront compensation mechanism shaping the curvature of the selection optic and operating independently of the static wavefront compensation mechanism. The method and apparatus may comprise the nominal center wavelength and bandwidth selection optic comprises a grating; the static wavefront compensation mechanism applies a pre-selected bending moment to the grating; the active wavefront compensation mechanism applies a separate selected bending moment to the grating responsive to the control of a bending moment controller based on bandwidth feedback from a bandwidth monitor monitoring the bandwidth of the laser output light beam pulses. The active wavefront compensation mechanism may comprise a pneumatic drive mechanism.
US08259755B2
Methods and apparatus are provided for data communication between a transmitter and receiver over a plurality of serial links, which cause the transmitter to send serialized groups of bits down each lane, in such a way that the first bit of each group (each lane) is guaranteed to arrive in the correct order at the receiving end. Various embodiments of the present invention include declaring a budget for the maximum skew between lanes. In such embodiments, subsequent to determining the skew budget between lanes, the data to be transmitted is divided into groups of N bits, where N is any convenient number larger than M times S, with M being the number of lanes and S being the budgeted skew, in bit times.
US08259754B2
A combined line termination arrangement (1) for an access system supporting broadband transmission mode and narrowband transmission mode, the combined line termination arrangement (1) comprising a common interface device (4) having a common port (6) for receiving or transmitting a signal in said transmission modes and being connected to a first line card (2) and second line card (3). The common interface device further comprises a first switching means (10) for selectively closing and/or opening coupling paths to said first and second line cards and at least one bi-directional low pass filter (8) for and one bi-directional high pass filter (9) selective filtering the broadband and the narrowband signals to and from respective line terminations (LT1, LT2).
US08259747B2
A wireless communication network comprising a plurality of paging controllers capable of communication with a plurality of base stations within a coverage area of the network, wherein at least one of the plurality of paging controllers is capable of, if a mobile station within a paging area requests to enter idle mode, assigning a temporary paging identification to the mobile station, and transmitting the temporary paging identification to a base station in communication with the mobile station, wherein the temporary paging identification is used by the base station to determine an index of a paging opportunity or frame in a paging cycle to transmit a paging message for the mobile station.
US08259744B2
An apparatus for use with a shared access communication channel is disclosed. The chipping rate of a first group of terminals is determined. Transmissions on the shared access communication channel are encoded using first pseudorandom noise (PN) code and a phase shift at the first chipping rate and an orthogonal spreading code having a chipping rate less than the first chipping rate. The apparatus may receive a feedback channel assignment and may receive an indication of a change in timing on the assigned feedback channel.
US08259736B2
In a method for selecting a path through a network of nodes from a source device to a destination device, per hop behaviors (PHB) of the nodes is identified and a path entropy for a plurality of candidate paths through the network between the source device and the destination device are derived based upon the PHBs of the nodes. In addition, one of the plurality of candidate paths is selected to communicate data from the source device to the destination device based on the path entropies of the plurality of candidate paths.
US08259732B2
A data communication having at least one data flow is established over a wireless interface between a radio network and a user equipment node (UE). A medium access control (MAC) layer located in a radio network node receives data units from a higher radio link control (RLC) layer located in another radio network node. Some or all of a header of a RLC data units associated with the one data flow is analyzed at the MAC layer. Based on that analysis, the MAC layer determines a priority of the data unit relative to other data units associated with the one data flow. The MAC layer schedules transmission of higher priority data units associated with the one data flow before lower priority data units associated with the one data flow. The priority determination does not require extra priority flags or signaling.
US08259729B2
One or more flow control modules, implemented on various types of network topologies, provide a number of functionalities for controlling the flow of IP packets (such as TCP/IP packets) over a network connection. The flow control modules may be implemented within a sender and/or receiver or may be deployed into a network as a separate device without requiring significant additional resources.
US08259728B2
Methods and systems for a fast drop recovery for a TCP connection are disclosed. Aspects of one method may include a receiving device on a network receiving an out-of-order data. The receiving device may then signal to a transmitting device on the network, which sent the out-of-order packet, to enter a congestion alleviation mode without waiting for a delay period. The network packet transfer may be via TCP protocol, for example. The delay period may comprise a retransmission time-out period if the receiving device does not save isles. If the receiving device does save one or more isles, the delay period may be a period associated with delayed ACK. The signal may comprise a TCP option and/or an available TCP flag. The signal may also comprise, for example, three duplicate ACKs. Other similar signals may be used for networks that use other protocols than TCP. Upon receiving out-of-order data, the receiving device may, for example, send the signal and then assert a signal-sent flag if it is not already asserted. When a new packet is received in order, the signal-sent flag may be de-asserted.
US08259722B1
A network router includes interfaces to receive packets, a routing engine that executes a routing protocol to maintain routing information specifying routes through a network, a packet forwarding engine forward the packets to the interfaces in accordance with the routing information, one or more advertising engine service cards comprising a packet inspection engine and an advertising engine control unit, and a set of dynamic filters that identify packets for inspection by the packet inspection engine based on characteristics of the packet. The filters direct any matching ones of the packets from the packet forwarding engine to the packet inspection engine within the advertising engine service card, and the packet inspection engine analyzes the packets to extract information from the packets based on configured advertising engine policies. The advertising engine control unit outputs commands to dynamically add and delete filters from the set of dynamic filters.
US08259716B2
In an Ethernet network comprising link partners coupled via an Ethernet link, an energy efficient Ethernet network communication control policy may specify a power level mode. Power level control data may be communicated between a PHY and a MAC via an MII, MDIO or a bus that is not specified by 802.3. A device above a MAC layer device may comprise hardware, software and/or firmware that may communicate the control policy to the PHY layer device and/or MAC layer device. Control data may be inserted within an inter-packet gap, a data packet preamble and/or a Q ordered set and/or may be sent via an out-of-band signal. A response to the control data may be sent via an in band path and/or out of band path. Link partners may enter and/or exit a power mode, for example, a low power idle and/or a sub-rate mode based on the communicated control data.
US08259709B2
A method and arrangement for controlling a multimedia communication session between a first terminal and a second terminal, the session being divided into a circuit-switched part and a packet-switched part. A notification on an event occurring in one of said circuit-switched and packet-switched parts is received in a common session server. The session server then reports to the other part of the communication session about said event, such that said other part can be controlled in response to said event.
US08259700B2
A method for transmitting an uplink Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) by a Long Term Evolution (LTE) User Equipment (UE). The UE receives information indicating an SRS transmission, generates an SRS, and transmits the SRS in two OFDM symbol in a half-frame or frame, if the information indicates that a period of SRS transmission is 2 ms.
US08259685B2
A first wireless base station providing a first wireless zone encodes a first signal to be transmitted to the first wireless zone at a first coding rate, and transmits the signal at a first transmitting power to the first wireless zone. A second wireless base station belonging to the first wireless zone and providing a second radio zone encodes a second signal common with the first signal at a second coding rate, and transmits the signal at a second transmitting power to the second wireless zone.
US08259669B2
Pilots are transmitted on demand on a reverse link and used for channel estimation and data transmission on a forward link. A base station selects at least one terminal for on-demand pilot transmission on the reverse link. Each selected terminal is a candidate for receiving data transmission on the forward link. The base station assigns each selected terminal with a time-frequency allocation, which may be for a wideband pilot, a narrowband pilot, or some other type of pilot. The base station receives and processes on-demand pilot transmission from each selected terminal and derives a channel estimate for the terminal based on the received pilot transmission. The base station may schedule terminals for data transmission on the forward link based on the channel estimates for all selected terminals. The base station may also process data (e.g., perform beamforming or eigensteering) for transmission to each scheduled terminal based on its channel estimate.
US08259662B2
A method and apparatus for dynamically assigning persistent resources in a wireless communications system is provided. A method comprises transmitting a first boundary indication to a mobile station, and transmitting a position indication to the mobile station, wherein the position indication corresponds to a network resource assigned based on a network resource request, the position indication is relative to the first boundary indication. The method also comprises transmitting a second boundary indication to the mobile station in response to detecting a change in a position of a boundary, and transmitting a first transmission to the mobile station using a network resource corresponding to the position indication or receiving a second transmission from the mobile station using a network resource corresponding to the position indication, wherein the position indication is relative to the second boundary indication. The first boundary indication is based on a position of the boundary.
US08259659B2
Methods and apparatus that enable a wireless network to detect and manage impending congestion events caused by a plurality of mobile devices attempting to access the network in a brief space of time. In one embodiment, the network comprises a 3g (UMTS) cellular network, and includes a congestion management and avoidance entity that preemptively triggers a collision mode upon detecting an impending congestion event. This mode advantageously reduces processing burden on the base station by causing the mobile devices (UEs) to halt current access attempts, and invoke a multiple access scheme (e.g., wait a random amount of time before attempting further access attempts). The comparatively early detection and avoidance of collisions reduces the mobile device's power consumption, while addressing congestion events early in the wireless communication process so as to maintain optimal network conditions.
US08259656B2
A method of transmitting/receiving control information of a data channel for enhanced uplink data transmission is disclosed, by which efficient radio resource allocation is enabled. The present invention includes the acquiring control information of data channel for enhanced uplink data transmission; composing a Medium Access control (MAC) Protocol Data Unit (PDU) including the control information; and transmitting the MAC PDU via a first physical channel for user data transmission.
US08259644B2
A method and apparatus for transmitting and receiving data in a Base Station (BS) of a communication system are provided. A controller determines a location of a Mobile Station (MS), and determines a transmission/reception scheme for data transmission and reception to/from the MS according to the location of the MS. A transceiver transmits and receives data to/from the MS using the determined transmission/reception scheme. Preferably, the MS is located in any one of a cell's inner region and a cell's outer region, the cell's inner region has a radius which varies according to interference between adjacent cells, and the cell's outer region is a region defined by excepting the cell's inner region from the entire cell region.
US08259643B2
A mobile station capable of communicating via an uplink transmission to at least one base station in a Multiple Input Multiple Output wireless network can map codewords to a plurality of layers. The mobile station includes a plurality of transmit antenna and a controller coupled to the plurality of transmit antenna. The controller is configured to map at least one codeword to a plurality of layers. The codeword includes a plurality of code blocks. The controller is configured to generate the plurality of code blocks from a transport block such that the number of code blocks generated correspond to an integer multiple of a number the plurality of layers.
US08259631B2
An apparatus and method for Time-Varying Cyclic Delay Diversity (TV-CDD) in a wireless communication system are provided. The method includes, if there is a signal of an antenna path to be transmitted, determining if a current time corresponds to a preamble zone within a frame and, if the current time corresponds to the preamble zone within the frame, shifting a partial antenna path signal forward compared to a reference timing and shifting a remaining partial antenna path signal equally or backward compared to the reference timing.
US08259626B2
A telecommunication system, method, and terminal, the terminal having a telecommunication session message generation unit adding to at least one generated telecommunication session message a message validity information item indicating whether or until when the telecommunication session message or another telecommunication session message identified in the telecommunication session message is valid.
US08259612B2
A method of routing multicast traffic in a computer network is disclosed. The method comprises associating a plurality of multicast group addresses on a network device with respective multicast routing topologies. A network device and a network are also disclosed.
US08259610B2
A mobile communication device includes a first wireless transceiver that receives a first inbound RF signal and that transmits a first outbound RF signal based on a first power supply signal. A second wireless transceiver receives a second inbound RF signal and that transmits a second outbound RF signal based on a second power supply signal. A processing module generates at least one power mode signal based on first transmit power control data received via the first inbound RF signal. A power management circuit adjusts a first power consumption parameter of the first power supply signal and a second power consumption parameter of the second power supply signal based on the at least one power mode signal.
US08259604B2
Satellite communication methods and systems are disclosed. Various embodiments employ dummy bursts to monitor the communication channel between a user terminal and a hub. In some embodiments, dynamic link adaptation can also be employed to optimize channel performance. In some embodiments, the link margin can be estimated based on the signal quality of a traffic or dummy burst that is received at the hub and compared with a threshold value. If the link margin is less than a first/low threshold then the hub can instruct the terminal to change any of various communication parameters according to a predetermined algorithm to mitigate channel fading. If the link margin is greater than a second/high threshold then the hub can instruct the terminal to change any of various communication parameters according to a predetermined algorithm to reduce overcompensation for channel fading.
US08259601B2
Under adaptive frequency reuse technique, mobile stations in a cellular orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) system are served by different radio resource regions with appropriate frequency reuse patterns to mitigate inter-cell interference and improve system capacity. In a first novel aspect, the mobile stations measure interference statistics and obtain interference measurement results. The mobile stations report the obtained interference measurement results to serving base stations. The serving base stations determine adaptive frequency reuse patterns based on the received interference measurement result. In a second novel aspect, a radio resource control element receives the interference measurement results, determines frequency reuse patterns and configures radio resource allocation based on the received interference measurement results. In a third novel aspect, the base stations obtain the interference measurement results and schedule the mobile stations to be served with appropriate radio resource regions.
US08259592B2
A wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) includes a mobility management function and a multihoming function. The mobility management function may implement the Media Independent Handover (MIH) protocol and the multihoming function may implement the Shim6 protocol. The mobility management function may communicate link status information to the multihoming function. Based on the link status information, the multihoming function may accelerate or decelerate a link failure detection procedure, may modify a list of possible paths for consideration for a path exploration procedure, and/or may determine to initiate a path exploration procedure. The multihoming function may communicate to the mobility management function that additional communications resources are required. In response, the mobility management function may activate an inactive radio interface. Subsequent path exploration procedures may include the exploration of paths that may be established over the activated radio interface.
US08259588B2
A gateway is described that performs processing of communications by employing a series of service interceptors. The interceptors can be registered in the gateway by using a configuration file. Once registered, the interceptors can be invoked in a particular sequence for the requests coming into the gateway. Each interceptor can deny the request, allow the request, abstain from processing the request and pass the request to the next interceptor specified by the sequence. The interceptors can also modify the various data associated with the request. There can be dependencies between multiple interceptors. In addition, new custom interceptors can be created and registered at the gateway to process incoming requests.
US08259586B2
In general, this disclosure describes techniques of selecting routes for network packets through a computer network based, at least in part, on electrical power procurement arrangements of devices in the computer network. As described herein, there may be a plurality of routes through a computer network from a first device to a second device. Each of these routes may include one or more devices that consume electrical power. A route selection device may make a determination regarding how network packets are to be routed among these routes based, at least in part, on arrangements made to procure the electrical power consumed by the devices along the routes. After the route selection device makes this determination, the route selection device may cause network packets to be routed among these routes in accordance with this determination.
US08259583B2
The adaptive CQI-based HSDPA flow control method selectively eliminates flow control to greatly improve scheduler performance and increase the overall system throughput at low traffic load in a 3G High Speed Downlink Packet Access system. The method utilizes channel quality information (CQI) to predict potential handover conditions and adjusts the degree of flow control applied to classes of users to tune buffer levels accordingly. By regulating buffer levels, the adaptive HSDPA flow control method improves scheduler performance and significantly reduces handover data loss, thereby enhancing the effective Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) throughput.
US08259580B2
A wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) determines (1) whether the WTRU is transmitting as much scheduled data as allowed by a current Serving_Grant, (2) whether the WTRU has enough power to transmit at higher data rate, and (3) based on a same power offset as a currently selected E-DCH transport format combination (E-TFC), whether total E-DCH buffer status (TEBS) would require more than predetermined period to be transmitted with the current Serving_Grant×a ratio of active processes to a total number of processes. If criteria (1)-(3) are met, the WTRU sets the happy bit to “unhappy.” If MAC-i/is is configured, the WTRU evaluates criteria (2) by identifying an E-TFC that has a transport block size at least x bits larger than a transport block size of the currently selected E-TFC, and determining whether the identified E-TFC is supported based on a same power offset as the currently selected E-TFC.
US08259574B2
Aspects of the invention pertain to transmitting packet data across a computer network. The packets may be sent via one or more distinct routes from a source to a destination. Each route may employ multiple routers disposed along the network. Non-colliding routes are determined by transmitting pairs of probe packets along the routes. A first probe packet has a maximal length, and a second probe packet has a minimal length. Depending on the order of arrival of the probe packets, the system determines whether two transport layer ports at the destination device collide. If there is a collision, then the system searches for a set of non-colliding ports. Once the non-colliding ports are determined, application data may be sent as packets along the different routes to those ports.
US08259573B2
A user management server device (a) registers a contents transmission request when receiving the contents transmission request to an electronic device from a terminal device, (b) determines whether the contents transmission request to the electronic device is registered when there is an inquiry from the electronic device, and (c) transmits the contents transmission request to the electronic device as a response to the inquiry when the contents transmission request to the electronic device is registered. The electronic device makes an inquiry to the user management server device of whether the contents transmission request to the device itself is registered, and when receiving the contents transmission request as the response to the inquiry, transmits the contents specified by the contents transmission request.
US08259565B2
This disclosure is directed to techniques for video call setup in a mobile video telephony network. In general, the call setup techniques reduce call setup delays by preemptively retransmitting NSRP packets before expiration of the timeout period ordinarily required for receipt of an NSRP ACK packet from the remote terminal. The retransmitted NSRP packets may be retransmitted during idle periods in which the modem layer in the sending mobile terminal has received no other data for transmission of the remote mobile terminal, thereby taking advantage of idle bandwidth. Multiplex data received by the modem can be locally buffered at the modem layer for retransmission. In this manner, retransmission does not require regeneration of the original call setup messages nor multiplexing. Instead, the previously generated and multiplexed data is buffered at the modem layer for retransmission to reduce processing overhead within the mobile terminal.
US08259564B1
This disclosure describes techniques for protecting an endpoint of a label switched path. In one embodiment, a system includes an ingress router, a primary egress router, backup router, and a point of local repair (PLR) router. The ingress router, the PLR router, and the first egress router form a first label switched path. The backup router provides protection for the primary egress router such that the backup router provides routing services for the first egress router when the first egress router is not available. The primary egress router and the backup router share an anycast IP address. The backup router advertises a route to reach the primary egress router, but upon receiving a packet intended for the primary egress router, the backup router identifies the destination of the packet and forwards the packet to the destination instead of the primary egress router along a different route.
US08259562B2
Systems and method for providing redundancy of communications and/or inline power to a powered Ethernet device are disclosed. A redundancy device is configured to receive in-line data and/or power from a plurality of Ethernet relay uplinks and to monitor communications between the relay uplinks. One of the relay uplinks is established as an active state uplink and passes data and/or power to the power device. Responsive to a switchover communication from a redundant uplink, the redundancy device establishes the redundant uplink as the active uplink, thereby passing data and/or power from the redundant uplink to the power device. The relay uplinks may use packet-based communication to sense when there is a failure in a link, and replace a failed device with a redundant device.
US08259555B2
A disclosed optical pickup includes an aberration correction unit with a phase shifter surface. On the phase shifter surface, rectangular or staircase-like steps are formed in a concentric manner around an optical axial center, in certain regions where a light beam passes through. The steps have different heights in the optical axial direction. A light beam having a wavelength of 405 nm is directly transmitted through the steps so that a phase difference is applied for correcting spherical aberration that occurs on a first optical recording medium. A light beam that passes through an annular region without any steps is focused on a second optical recording medium. A light beam that passes through an outside region is focused by an object lens on the second optical recording medium, and is not focused on the first optical recording medium.
US08259554B2
An optical head device includes a diffraction grating which diffracts a part of the light beam which is selectively emitted from a semiconductor laser having two luminous points and is divided along a tangential direction of the track of the optical disk, a relationship of arrangement of the second and third regions corresponds to a relationship of the optical axes of the first and second light beams on the diffraction grating, the second region is located at a position crossing an optical axis of the first light beam, a phase difference between phases of the first and third regions is 180°, a phase difference between phases of the third and fourth regions is 180°, and the third region has a width which is not larger than amount of a position deviation of ±first-order diffracted light of the second light beam from zeroth-order diffracted light.
US08259548B2
To identify the type of a loaded disc, there is provided an optical disc device, comprising: a light source driven by a drive signal with a high frequency signal superimposed; a detector for detecting return light emitted from the light source; and a controller for controlling the amplitude of the high frequency signal to be superimposed on the drive signal, the optical disc device being configured to read data from an optical disc loaded therein by a signal outputted from the detector, wherein: the controller causes the light source to irradiate the loaded optical disc with light in a condition in which a high frequency signal different from a high frequency signal for data reading is superimposed on the drive signal; and the controller identifies a type of the loaded optical disc based on the return light from the loaded optical disc.
US08259533B2
A method for determining an ultrasonic detecting cycle is provided. Firstly, an initial detecting cycle T is set. Then, a first sensing wave is generated. Then, a first time-of-flight value is calculated corresponding to the first sensing wave. After the first sensing wave has been generated for the initial detecting cycle T, a second sensing wave is generated. Then, a second time-of-flight value is calculated corresponding to the second sensing wave. Afterwards, the second time-of-flight value is compared with the first time-of-flight value. If a difference between the second time-of-flight value and the first time-of-flight value is smaller than a threshold value, the initial detecting cycle T is determined as the ultrasonic detecting cycle.
US08259485B2
A multilayer structure is provided that includes a base and a multilayer circuit disposed above the base. The multilayer circuit includes memory elements, each including a switching layer, and conductive lines leading from the base to the memory element. The total resistance of the switching layer of a memory element is varied based on the total resistance of conductive lines leading from the base to the memory element.
US08259484B2
A multi-chip package with die having shared input and unique access IDs. A unique first ID is assigned and stored on die in a die lot. A set of die is mounted in a multi-chip package. Free access IDs are assigned by applying a sequence of scan IDs on the shared input. On each die, the scan ID on the shared input is compared with the unique first ID stored on the die. Upon detecting a match, circuitry on the die is enabled for a period of time to write an access ID in nonvolatile memory, whereby one of the die in the multi-chip package is enabled at a time. Also, the shared input is used to write a free access ID in nonvolatile memory on the one enabled die in the set. The unique first IDs can be stored during a wafer level sort process.
US08259475B2
There is provided a circuit for discharging AC power including: a first rectifier rectifying AC power inputted from an AC power line; an electro-magnetic interference (EMI) removing unit installed between the AC power line and the first rectifier to suppress EMI of the AC power; a discharging signal generator generating a discharging signal from the AC power; and a discharging unit including a discharging resistor for discharging a voltage charged in the EMI removing unit according to the discharging signal, whereby standby power consumption may be reduced when the AC power is inputted and the voltage charged in a capacitor for removing EMI may be discharged to meet a predetermined safety standard when the AC power is blocked.
US08259467B2
A method of fabricating a multi-piece board includes: adhering a first frame element connected to multiple piece portions to a second frame element, the first frame element forming a board main portion of a multi-piece board, the first frame element and the second frame element forming a frame portion of the multi-piece portion, thereby yielding the multi-piece board; mounting multiple electronic components on the piece portions, respectively; separating the piece portions from the frame portion; separating, from the first frame element, the second frame element adhered thereto; and adhering the second frame element to a first frame element of another board main portion.
US08259466B2
An apparatus is provided and includes a housing, including a housing mating device, through which an installation path for an assembly is defined with a space in which a first part is positioned, a backplane body having opposing faces on which a second part and a backplane mating device are respectively disposed, and a hub, in which a hub mating device is defined, and from which a two-stage mating device extends, the two-stage mating device including first and second elastically coupled stages. The hub and the backplane body are coupled to form the assembly and the assembly is installed/removed in/from the space with the second stage of the two-stage mating device elastically hooked by the housing mating device or released from the housing mating device and the first and second stages of the two-stage mating device biasing the hub and the backplane body to remain coupled.
US08259454B2
An electronic component includes a base insulative layer having a first surface and a second surface; at least one electronic device having a first surface and a second surface, wherein the electronic device is secured to the base insulative layer; at least one I/O contact located on the first surface of the electronic device; and a frame panel defining an aperture, wherein the electronic device is disposed within the aperture, and the frame panel is a multi-functional structure having a first region comprising a first material, wherein a surface of the first region secures to the base insulative layer; and a second region comprising a second material, wherein the first material and the second material differ from each other and have differing adhesability to the base insulative layer.
US08259453B2
Disclosed herein is a card device including a semiconductor package section having memory functions and a substrate section joined to the semiconductor package section by superposition and mounted by a variety of electronic components. The semiconductor package section includes a card-side connector section having card-side terminals for inputting and outputting information signals, and package-side terminals at a location at which the semiconductor package section is joined to the substrate section by superposition. The substrate section includes substrate-side terminals at a location at which the substrate section is connected to the semiconductor package section by superposition. The substrate section is electrically joined to the semiconductor package section by making use of the package-side terminals and the substrate-side terminals. The superposition junction between the semiconductor package section and the substrate section is provided with such an offset that the card-side connector protrudes out off the card device.
US08259447B2
The present invention provides a display apparatus including a display panel, and a plurality of adjustment mechanisms respectively arranged for a plurality of areas on a rear surface of the display panel and configured to adjust a temperature of the display panel for each of the areas, each of the plurality of adjustment mechanisms including a heat radiating unit mounted on a rear surface of the display panel and configured to form a gas flow passage on the rear surface of the display panel, and a changing unit configured to change a flow rate of a gas flowing into the gas flow passage in accordance with a temperature of an area on the rear surface of the display panel which corresponds to the heat radiating unit.
US08259441B2
An extracting and installing structure for electrical device is disclosed, which comprises: a base for receiving an electrical device; a first chute; a linkage rod, configured with a first protrusion and capable of sliding inside the first chute in a first direction; and a rotatable tenon, configured with a second chute and an interlocking end as the second chute is provided for the first protrusion of the linkage rod to inset therein and the interlocking end is fitted inside an interlocking element of the base; wherein, when the linkage rod is driven to rotate the rotatable tenon, the rotatable tenon is going to force the electrical device to move in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction.
US08259426B2
Variable frequency motor drives and control techniques are presented in which filter capacitor faults are detected by measuring filter neutral node current and/or voltages and detecting changes in the fundamental frequency component of the measured neutral condition at the fundamental frequency of the input power and/or based on input current unbalance.
US08259424B1
One embodiment features an electrical circuit comprising: a high-voltage input configured to receive a high voltage into the electrical circuit; a low-voltage input configured to receive a low voltage into the electrical circuit; a thin-oxide circuit comprising a thin-oxide metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET); and a protection circuit configured to protect the thin-oxide circuit from the high voltage, wherein the protection circuit comprises a thick-oxide MOSFET clamp circuit, and an adaptive voltage reference circuit configured to provide an adaptive reference voltage, wherein the thick-oxide MOSFET clamp circuit is biased by the adaptive reference voltage.
US08259421B2
The voltage of a detection resistor connected to the drain of a low-side switching device is normally a negative voltage, but a positive voltage appears when a countercurrent occurs in an abnormal state. A current comparator monitors the voltage of the detection resistor, transmits high output to an AND circuit whole the voltage of the detection resistor is a negative voltage to maintain the output voltage of the current comparator in a low state when an output signal of a driver can be transmitted to the low-side switching device, and allows the output voltage of the current comparator in a low state when the voltage of the detection resistor becomes a positive voltage, thereby forcibly turning off the low-side switching device.
US08259417B1
A disk drive head stack assembly has a flexible printed circuit (FPC) including a flex cable and a flex stiffener. The flex stiffener includes a terminal region support portion that is attached to the actuator body, a flex cable guide portion, and a stiffener bend. The stiffener bend is between and connects the terminal region support portion and the flex cable guide portion. The flex cable includes a guided portion that is in contact with the flex cable guide portion. A flex cable terminal region is attached to the terminal region support portion. The stiffener bend is about a stiffener bend axis that is perpendicular to the actuator pivot axis.
US08259413B2
A system according to one embodiment includes a write pole having an end region positioned towards an air bearing surface, a first flare point, and a second flare point positioned between the air bearing surface and the first flare point; and a shield positioned above the write pole, wherein a cross sectional area of the write pole at a point between the first and second flare points along a plane passing through the write pole and oriented about parallel to the air bearing surface is greater than a cross sectional area of the end region of the write pole along a plane oriented parallel to the plane passing through the second flare point. Additional systems and methods are also presented.
US08259409B2
A spin torque oscillation magnetoresistive sensor for measuring a magnetic field. The sensor uses a change in precessional oscillation frequency of a magnetization of a magnetic layer to determine the magnitude of a magnetic field. The sensor can include a magnetic free layer, a magnetic pinned layer and a non-magnetic layer sandwiched therebetween. Circuitry is connected with these layers to induce an electrical current through the layers. Spin polarization of electrons traveling through the device causes a spin torque induced precession of the magnetization of one or more of the layers. The frequency of this oscillation modulates in response to a magnetic field. The modulation of the oscillation frequency can be measured to detect the presence of the magnetic field, and determine its magnitude.
US08259407B1
A system for controlling a rotational speed of a platter in a storage device. The system includes a mode selection module configured to select a mode operation for the storage device, in which the mode of operation includes at least i) a read/write mode in which data is to be read from or written to the platter, ii) a standby mode during in which data is not to be read from or written to the platter, or iii) a shutdown mode. The system further includes a speed control module configured to control the rotational speed of the platter based on the selected mode of operation for the storage device.
US08259401B2
An optical assembly has a lens element having a plurality of radially extending tabs and a mounting structure having a plurality of retaining members. The retaining members extend in a direction substantially parallel to an optical axis defined by the mounting structure and are positioned complementary to the radially extending tabs of the lens element. A portion of the mounting structure is in an interference fit with the a portion of the lens element.
US08259399B2
A lens optical system includes a first optical system which includes, in order from an object side to an image side along an optical axis, a first lens group having a positive refractive power and including a first reflection member to redirect an optical path of light representing an object from a first direction toward an image sensor, a second lens group having a negative refractive power, a third lens group having a positive refractive power, a fourth lens group having a positive refractive power, and a fifth lens group having a positive refractive power. During zooming from a wide mode to a tele mode, the first lens group and the fifth lens group are fixed, the second lens group moves toward the image side, the third lens group and the fourth lens group move toward the object side, and the fourth lens group performs focusing.
US08259398B2
Disclosed are high numerical (NA) catadioptric objectives without a central obscuration, and applications thereof. Such objectives can operate through a wide spectral bandwidth of radiation, including deep ultraviolet (DUV) radiation. Importantly, refractive elements in the catadioptric objectives can be manufactured from a single type of material (such as, for example, CaF2 and/or fused silica). In addition, the elements of such catadioptric objectives are rotationally symmetric about an optical axis. The catadioptric objectives eliminate the central obscuration by (1) using a polarized beamsplitter (which passes radiation of a first polarization and reflects radiation of a second polarization), and/or (2) using one or more folding mirrors to direct off-axis radiation into the pupil of the catadioptric objective. An example catadioptric objective is shown in FIG. 2.
US08259396B2
A double-sided microlens array is applied to a laser beam shaping and homogenizing device of a laser system. The double-sided microlens array is able to shape the energy distribution of an incident laser beam to a square and flat-top beam with the average uniformity of energy and comprises a base plate, a plurality of first micro lenslets and a plurality of second micro lenslets. The first micro lenslet and the second micro lenslet have the convexes with the same figures and comply with the classification of an optical diffractive element, the first micro lenslets and the second micro lenslets are disposed on the first surface and the second surface of the base plate, which are corresponding to each other in order to tightly line up the arrangements of arrays. The first micro lenslets and the second micro lenslets are correspondingly misalignment.
US08259391B2
The present invention relates to an amplification device comprising an amplifying medium (2) of parallelepiped shape and pumping means comprising lamps (5) emitting first radiation in a frequency range useful for the amplification and second radiation capable of degrading the amplifying medium. It is characterized in that lamps (5) are integrated into a jacket (3) that absorbs at least some of the second radiation.
US08259390B2
An optical amplifier apparatus includes an optical amplifier including an amplification medium doped with an active substance, the amplification medium excited in order to amplify light; a semiconductor optical amplifier arranged after the optical amplifier; a driver for supplying a driving current with respect to the semiconductor optical amplifier in order that the semiconductor optical amplifier has an amplification characteristic with respect to an input light, the amplification characteristic including a gain non-saturated region and a gain saturated region; and an input-light level adjuster for adjusting an out put light of the optical amplifier to the input light level of the semiconductor optical amplifier, the input light level being set up between the gain non-saturated region and the gain saturated region.
US08259382B2
A method of projecting images uses an array of pixels having curved reflective surfaces.
US08259368B2
When attribute information cannot be generated from received data, image processing methods and image processing parameters are set unequivocally independently of the received data. If the same image processing methods and image processing parameters are set, processing that does not match the purpose of output or user's favor in terms of image quality may be executed. Hence, if the received data is not PDL data and does not include any interpretable attribute information, a reception print mode is checked. If “character priority” is selected for the reception print mode, attribute flag data of a character attribute is generated. If “photo priority” is selected, attribute flag data of a photo attribute is generated. If “auto” is set, automatic generation of attribute flag data is performed. When attribute flag data cannot be generated, detailed settings are checked to generate attribute flag data of a character attribute or photo attribute.
US08259366B2
An image reading apparatus includes a drive source, a speed change mechanism provided in a transmission unit that transmits a driving force from the drive source to a scanning drive unit. The speed change mechanism is configured to change a transmission ratio of the transmission unit by selectively bringing one of first and second couplings into a connected state. The image reading apparatus further includes a selector configured to selectively bring one of the first and second couplings into the connected state, a detector configured to detect the connected state of the second coupling, and a controller configured to control a scanning position of the reading unit based on the transmission ratio changed via the second coupling after the detector detects the connected state of the second coupling after the selector changes selection from the first coupling to the second coupling.
US08259364B2
An image sensor includes: a light transmissive member extending in a direction orthogonal to a direction of conveying the document; a reference portion provided outside the conveying region where a document is conveyed with respect to the orthogonal direction and having a transmittance lower than a transmittance of in the conveying region of the light transmissive member; and a light source unit. The image sensor further includes: a lens unit converging the light transmitting through the document and the reference portion; a light receiving unit that receives the light transmitted through the lens unit and outputs an electric signal; an amplifying unit that amplifies the electric signal of the document corresponding to the conveying region and outputs an image signal of the document; and a controlling unit configured to control an amplification factor of the amplifying unit based on the electric signal corresponding to the reference portion.
US08259363B2
An image processing apparatus includes an image reading unit that reads an image, the image comprising an image printed on a printing sheet, and a first demarcation line added by a writing tool and demarcating a region of the image, a demarcation line extracting unit that extracts the first demarcation line from the image read by the image reading unit, and an image extracting unit that extracts the region of the image demarcated by the first demarcation line from the image as an extracted image.
US08259357B2
An error diffusion process section performs an error diffusion process on a pixel value of each of processing object pixels and outputs the processed pixel value to an output selection section. A blue noise mask process performs a blue noise mask process on a pixel value of each of processing object pixels and outputs the processed pixel value to the output selection section. The output selection section selects and outputs the pixel value outputted from the error diffusion process section when a segmentation class signal indicates a character (text) area or a halftone dot area, namely an edge area, and selects and outputs the pixel value outputted from the blue noise mask process section when a segmentation class signal indicates an area other than the character area or the halftone dot area, namely non-edge area.
US08259351B2
A system, method and apparatus for controlling a device to operate to an operation position specified by a value of a first coordinate on a target, even if a target is misaligned. The system includes a first printer driver in a host apparatus that generates a command with an operation position of a color measurement carriage of a color measurement driving device specified as a value of a logical coordinate system on paper and a second printer driver in the printer that converts the value in the command from the logical coordinate system to a real coordinate system, incorporates the command with the value of the real coordinate system specified into print data, and transmits print data to the color measurement driving device.
US08259350B2
A print defect management device that supports job-specific print defect management automatically assesses print job pages to determine the severity of image quality defects likely to occur on one or more selected printers. Views of identified troubled pages may be rendered to include approximations of color and image quality defects based on the original page image data, and each printer's color rendition data and defect data, thereby allowing troubled pages for one or more selected printers to be viewed prior to printing. Suggested changes may be automatically or manually applied. Once satisfied with the image quality of print job pages rendered for a specific printer, a user may submit the print job to the same printer, thereby assuring that the user's image quality expectations are met in the printed product. The device may support job-specific print defect management with both local and/or remote printers via LAN, WAN and/or Internet based connectivity.
US08259339B2
An image forming apparatus includes a memory that stores therein a control program, a central processing unit that executes the control program stored in the memory, a print engine controlled by the central processing unit, and a unit that is selected from a plurality of units. An identification signal generating unit generates identification data indicating a type of the unit. An exclusive OR unit allocates an exclusive OR data of an address data for the central processing unit to access the memory and the identification data to the memory.
US08259334B2
Systems and techniques for printing on a workpiece. In one implementation, a data pump is used to create a packet of image data for a print head assembly. The data pump includes multiple state machines to receive image data from an image buffer on a computer, and a serializer to gather image data from each of the state machines. Each of the state machines is configured to send image data to the serializer at a different instance in time. The serializer is configured to arrange the gathered image data according to when the serializer received the image data from each of the state machines. The data pump also includes an optical fiber communication interface to connect with a communication channel.
US08259331B2
A system for designing cells in a document production environment may include a computing device and a computer-readable medium in communication with the computing device. The computer-readable medium may include one or more programming instructions for identifying a plurality of jobs associated with the document production environment. Each job may include one or more functions. The computer-readable medium may include one or more programming instructions for generating a representation for each unique job, creating one or more workflows, assigning the workflow to one of a plurality of cells, determining whether one or more of the cells is complex, and splitting at least one workflow within a complex cell. Each cell may include one or more devices.
US08259324B2
A printer/storage integrated system, capable of using both printer and storage device from host devices with a single connection setting, is provided. A controller is connected with a first network with which host devices are connected, and a second network with which a printer and a storage device shared by the host devices are connected. The controller includes a communication relay unit which receives a control instruction or data transmitted from a host device over the first network, determines whether the destination of the control instruction or the data is either the printer or the storage device based on information included in the header of a communication protocol of the fourth layer or higher used in the transmission, and transfers the control instruction or the data to the printer or the storage device determined as the destination over the second network.
US08259312B2
A printing process is preset for each page of a print job such that the printing process is halted when a page needs off-line processing, and the printing process is resumed in response to an operation to resume the printing process. After the print job is started, a CPU determines for each page whether off-line processing is specified to be performed. If the current page is specified to be subjected to off-line processing, the printing process is halted. If an operation to resume the print processing is detected, the printing process is resumed. Thus, after the print job is started, a user can make a confirmation in terms of the printing state of the printer before printing for the particular page is started.
US08259310B2
A position detection apparatus includes an imaging system, an illumination system including a rotary table having first and second aperture stops, both of which can be positioned on the pupil plane of the illumination system, a first image sensor that detects the image of the mark formed by the imaging system, a second image sensor that senses an image of the aperture stop for the imaging system and that of the first aperture stop, and a controller. The controller corrects the first aperture stop so as to reduce the adverse influence of a displacement of the first aperture stop, based on sensed images of the aperture stop for the imaging system and the first aperture stop. Based on the detected position of the image of the mark, the apparatus detects the position of an object to be detected using the illumination light having passed through the corrected first aperture stop.
US08259306B2
A device and method for three-dimensional (3-D) imaging using a defocusing technique is disclosed. The device comprises a lens having a substantially oblong aperture, a sensor operable for capturing light transmitted from an object through the lens and the substantially oblong aperture, and a processor communicatively connected with the sensor for processing the sensor information and producing a 3-D image of the object. The aperture may have an asymmetrical shape for distinguishing objects in front of versus in back of the focal plane. The aperture may also be rotatable, where the orientation of the observed pattern relative to the oblong aperture is varied with time thereby removing the ambiguity generated by image overlap. The disclosed device further comprises a light projection system configured to project a predetermined pattern onto a surface of the desired object thereby allowing for mapping of unmarked surfaces in three dimensions.
US08259304B2
A new broadband discrete spectrum light source comprising a gain medium placed in a feedback cavity is disclosed. A design for a feedback cavity including reflectors having raised-edge reflectivity is presented. Bandwidth enhancement is achieved by selectively enhancing the intensity of the discrete emission lines near the band edges of the gain medium spectrum. The bandwidth of a broadband discrete spectrum light source is further enhanced by digitally applying a spectral correction to each detected signal according to a predetermined correction profile. A combined effect of using a broadband discrete spectrum light source and applying spectral correction to the detected signal in an imaging system such as a Spectral Domain Optical Coherence Tomography (SD-OCT) imaging system, results in a desired spectral profile and a bandwidth necessary to achieve higher depth resolution for obtaining high quality diagnostic images.
US08259293B2
An avalanche photodiode is disclosed. The avalanche photodiode includes a substrate of a first conductivity type. A first well of a second conductivity type is formed within the substrate. A second well of the second conductivity type is formed substantially overlying and extending into the first well. A heavily doped region of the first conductivity type is formed substantially overlying and extending into the first well, the junction between the heavily doped region and the second well forming an avalanche multiplication region. A guard ring is formed from a first conductivity material positioned substantially about the periphery of the multiplication region at least partially underlying the heavily doped region. An outer well ring of the second conductivity type is formed about the perimeter of the deep well and the guard ring.
US08259284B2
An exposure apparatus of the present invention includes a vacuum container accommodating a structure, a vacuum pump configured to increase the degree of vacuum achieved inside the vacuum container, a radiation unit configured to perform a heat exchange through radiation for the structure, a temperature detecting unit configured to detect the temperature of the structure, and a control unit configured to control the radiation unit based on the detected temperature, wherein the radiation unit is arranged at a position determined so that the radiation unit does not interfere with a heat exchange achieved through radiation between the vacuum pump and the structure.
US08259281B2
A LCD device includes color LEDs, a light-mixing optical guide plate and a main optical guide plate for guiding lights from the color LEDs, a LCD panel for receiving lights from the main optical guide plate, a housing for supporting the LCD panel, light-mixing optical guide plate and main optical guide plate in block, and a heat sink for dissipating the heat transferred from the LEDs. On the rear surface side of the light-mixing optical guide plate, a heat receiving member is provided having a higher heat receiving capability than the rest of the housing.
US08259268B2
Provided are a polarizer having high in-plane uniformity and high heat resistance, and a liquid crystal display (LCD) using the polarizer and having the following characteristics: the LCD is excellent in mass productivity, has the contrast ratio being improved, and has high image quality. The LCD includes: a pair of substrates at least one of which is transparent; a liquid crystal layer placed between the pair of substrates; an electrode group for applying an electric field to the liquid crystal layer, the electrode group being formed on at least one substrate of the pair of substrates; multiple active elements connected to the electrode group; and an alignment control film placed on at least one substrate of the pair of substrates, in which the molecules of a dichroism pigment aligned on at least one surface of the alignment control film and the dichroism pigment are cross-linked with a crosslinkable monomer.
US08259262B2
Provided is a liquid crystal display apparatus including: a liquid crystal panel including a pair of substrates; a liquid crystal layer sandwiched by the pair of substrates; plural electrodes formed on at least one of the pair of substrates; and a pair of polarizers provided in respective outsides of the pair of substrates; and a back light unit provided in a rear of the liquid crystal panel, in which one of the pair of polarizers, which is provided at a side of the back light unit, includes at least two types of layers which cause polarization, and in which the two types of layers include a first layer provided on a side of the liquid crystal layer and a second layer provided on a side of the back light unit, the first layer being a negative uniaxial polarizer layer, the second layer being a positive uniaxial polarizer layer.
US08259248B2
An electrooptic device includes first insulating layer between a semiconductor layer of a transistor and scanning line. The first insulating layer has a contact hole for electrically connecting the gate electrode and the scanning line, the contact hole having a first portion located beside the semiconductor layer of the corresponding transistor in plan view and that extends in the direction in which one of the scanning lines or the data lines extend and a second portion that overlaps with part of the corresponding data line and that extends in a direction in which the other of the scanning lines data lines extend.
US08259243B2
A controllable device for phase modulation of coherent light with modulator cells comprising liquid crystal molecules is provided which realizes a large number of phase steps per modulator cell and whose switching delay is shorter than 1 ms. The device can include a spatial light modulator with a modulator matrix having regularly arranged controllable LC modulator cells, a light source which illuminates the modulator matrix, and control means for controlling the phase modulation in the LC modulator cells. The modulator matrix can be configured to comprise a controllable λ/2 plate disposed between two non-controllable λ/4 plates; the controllable LC modulator cells can be PSS liquid crystal; each LC modulator cell is controllable locally with a positive or negative voltage value, depending on the actual phase values to be written; and the control means generate a globally constant phase offset for the phase values to be written in every other frame.
US08259223B2
An imaging module includes an imaging substrate mounting an imaging device thereon, a substrate holding plate, a holder. The substrate holding plate includes four substrate securing portions for securing the imaging substrate that are located opposing to four corners of the imaging substrate, respectively, an opening portion surrounded by the four substrate securing portions, and four holder securing portions that are located outwardly from the four substrate securing portions in a longitudinal direction thereof, respectively. The holder is formed integrally with a lens support barrel configured to support a lens unit at an inside thereof, and has plate securing portions configured to secure the holder securing portions at positions opposed to the holder securing portions of the substrate holding plate, respectively. The imaging module causes little residual compressive stress left in the imaging substrate, so that it can acquire high-resolution images.
US08259219B2
A detection system for an image capture device includes an image detecting unit, a calculation unit, a selection unit and a switching unit. The image detecting unit provides a plurality of focus modes suitable for different ambient light conditions, and acquires image parameters. The calculation unit determines exposure time suitable for the current ambient light conditions based on the acquired parameters. The selection unit selects a suitable detection mode based on the determined exposure time. The switching unit switches the image capture device to the selected suitable detection mode.
US08259209B2
Provided is an optical device having image capturing means that converts an optical image of an object to an electric signal, and an optical element arranged before the image capturing means. In the optical device, an insulation member is arranged at a position facing the optical element in a way to be movable in a substantially entire area of a light entering surface of the optical element, and an electric control unit is provided for at least electrostatically charging or neutralizing the insulation member.
US08259207B2
A CCD image sensor includes a photo-diode region segmented by an element separation region; and a CCD register connected with the photo-diode region through a transfer gate. The photo-diode region includes a plurality of tapered portions, and each of the plurality of tapered portions is formed to become wider in a direction of the transfer gate.
US08259189B2
An electronic camera includes an image sensor having a plurality of pixels and a control section that sets an imaging sensitivity at a time of imaging. Each of the pixels includes a first light receiving element that generates a first image signal, a second light receiving element that generates a second image signal higher in the sensitivity than the first image signal under a same condition, and an output circuit capable of adding the first image signal and the second image signal. The control section specifies an output signal of each of the pixels from the first image signal, the second image signal, and an additional image signal of the first image signal and the second image signal in accordance with an SN ratio at the imaging sensitivity.
US08259188B2
Upon applying a demosaicing process to a photographic image, a display image is generated from the photographic image to which the demosaicing process is applied, and an instruction indicating a reference region on the display image, and an adjustment instruction of parameters for a development process are input. Then, an image region having a high correlation with the reference region is extracted as a similar region, and display images of the reference region and similar region are generated by applying the parameters for the development process to the photographic image before the demosaicing process, which corresponds to the reference region, and that before the demosaicing process, which corresponds to the similar region.
US08259181B2
An image quality assessment method and an image quality assessment apparatus are provided. In the image quality assessment method, the contrast of a measurement pattern displayed on the display apparatus, the brightness of the background, and the resolution are adjusted, and thereby the luminance characteristic of the measurement pattern is detected. Accordingly, the image quality of a display apparatus can be assessed using the number of waves determined from the luminance characteristic and the modulation transfer function (MTF) of the waves. Therefore, image quality assessment can be performed objectively by the display apparatus.
US08259178B2
Disclosed herein are systems, computer-implemented methods, and tangible computer-readable media for synthesizing a virtual window. The method includes receiving an environment feed, selecting video elements of the environment feed, displaying the selected video elements on a virtual window in a window casing, selecting non-video elements of the environment feed, and outputting the selected non-video elements coordinated with the displayed video elements. Environment feeds can include synthetic and natural elements. The method can further toggle the virtual window between displaying the selected elements and being transparent. The method can track user motion and adapt the displayed selected elements on the virtual window based on the tracked user motion. The method can further detect a user in close proximity to the virtual window, receive an interaction from the detected user, and adapt the displayed selected elements on the virtual window based on the received interaction.
US08259176B2
According to an aspect of the present invention, it is possible to visually show both of information which is originally visually recognizable and information which is originally not seen that have been provided from equipment on the same image, so that it is possible to grasp the content of information and the source of providing the information corresponding to or in association with each other. Furthermore, it is possible to view information difficult to visually recognize together with visually recognizable information, and it is possible to clearly grasp, in addition to information which can be visually obtained at the place where a user currently stays, information related to the visually obtained information, from an image visually indicating the association.
US08259169B2
Accurately and quickly calculated is a calibrating parameter for detecting an eye-gaze coordinate, of an operator, in an input image from a capturing unit worn on a user.An eye-gaze detecting device (100) detects an eye-gaze coordinate of a user in an input image from a capturing unit (104) wearable on the user, and includes: an eye movement detecting unit (101) detecting an eye movement of the user; a calibration object detecting unit (105) (i) receiving the input image, (ii) determining whether or not there is an object available as a calibration object in the input image, and (iii) providing a position coordinate indicating a position of the object in the case where the available object is determined to be included in the input image; a voice instructing unit (108) providing an instruction to the user to look at the calibration object indicated in the position coordinate; a calibration parameter calculating unit (106) calculating a calibration parameter with a use of the eye movement information of the user receiving the instruction and the position coordinate of the calibration object; and a calibrating unit (102) calibrating the eye movement information to the eye-gaze coordinate with a use of the calculated calibration parameter.
US08259168B2
An optical fingerprint recognition system has a finger board. The finger board has a plurality of micro-structures, and a plate face of the finger board is to be in contact with a finger, and the other plate face of the finger board has an image capturing element and at least one light emitting element disposed thereon. The image capturing element and the light emitting element are separated from the finger board for a distance. When the light emitting element emits a light ray towards the finger board, the light ray is guided by the plurality of micro-structures to be uniformly distributed in the finger board, so as to facilitate the image capturing element to capture the light ray applied on the finger, thus improving the recognition rate of the fingerprint.
US08259162B2
Provided is a method of decoding a stereoscopic image data stream. In the method, a plurality of monoscopic image data regions are determined from among image data regions of a stereoscopic image data stream; a composition time stamp (CTS) of each of the monoscopic image data regions is extracted; and, if there are colliding image data regions having the same CTS from among the monoscopic image data regions, monoscopic image data is extracted from a monoscopic image data region of a main stream of the colliding image data regions.
US08259155B2
During a video conference between a local endpoint and a remote endpoint, a display at the local endpoint may be configured to provide perspective-dependent views to local video conference participants. A local endpoint may receive a plurality of video streams and identify a first video stream that provides a first view of a remote participant and a second video stream that provides a second view of that participant taken concurrently from a different angle. A display at the local endpoint may display the first video stream at a first viewing angle that only allows the first view of the remote participant to be seen from a first region. The display may also concurrently display the second video stream at a second viewing angle that only allows the second view of the remote participant to be seen from a second region different than the first region.
US08259154B2
A mobile terminal including a camera configured to capture a first video image of a user using the mobile terminal, a wireless communication unit configured to wirelessly communicate with at least one other terminal, an audio output module configured to output currently played music, a display configured to display at least one of the first image of the user using the mobile terminal and a second video image of a user using said at least one other terminal during a video communication call operation between the mobile terminal and the at least one other terminal, a user input unit configured to input a key signal requesting a music video be created, and a controller configured to create a music video file including at least one of the first video image and the second video image together with the currently played music if the key signal requesting the music video be created is input during the video communication call operation.
US08259153B1
A Video Phone Kiosk system for providing audio and video phone calls, video mail, greeting cards, and custom, targeted, income generating advertising as well as establishing a platform for the deployment of additional pay and enhanced services that can be added to the video phone kiosk or customize with expanded service delivery of the video phone kiosk to address specific vertical markets, such as senior citizens, shopping, cultural, social, travel, medical, financial and investments. The advantage over public pay phones and kiosks lies in the fact that the video phone kiosk can generate income on a near continuous basis through the use of additional non-telephony specific pay services and an attractor that displays forms of advertising and entertainment which can be updated remotely and targeted to specific market or demographic.
US08259140B2
A method is provided to control an image display apparatus having a display panel in which a plurality of display devices are arranged in matrix with a plurality of column wires and a plurality of row wires. The method includes the steps of outputting a selection electric potential to a row wire to be driven, and generating a modulated pulse based on image data and outputting the modulated pulse to the column wires.
US08259137B2
A method of browsing images in a loop on an electronic device includes displaying a scroll interface. The scroll interface defines coordinates with a scale in pixels by a display. An initial coordinate value is located at a middle portion of the scroll interface. The scroll interface defines 2F index views. The index views have at least one row, and an interval of two adjacent index views is defined as S. Each index view has an index number. The display displays G images. The index number corresponds to the image number. The scroll interface is moved along a first direction. The scroll interface is adjusted by M, a natural number, multiplied by S pixels to reposition the display for being adjacent to the initial coordinate value, and the display displays images with the image numbers corresponding to the index numbers from X to X+G−1.
US08259136B2
A method of controlling a mobile terminal and which includes displaying contents on a display screen of the terminal, receiving a signal indicating a portion of the display screen on the mobile terminal has been designated, and executing, via a control unit, a preset function corresponding to an output mode of information contained in the designated portion of the display screen.
US08259124B2
A dynamic highlighting system initially applies a high-level highlight to occurrences of one or more keywords in a search result that fades to a low-level highlight effect. The system receives search results from a search engine and identifies occurrences of keywords in the search results. The system applies a first highlight effect to identified occurrences of the keywords and displays the search results incorporating the highlighted keywords. Upon detecting the occurrence of a highlighting change event, such as the expiration of a timer, the system applies a second highlight effect to the displayed search results. The second highlight effect may include removing the highlight or displaying a muted highlight effect. Thus, the dynamic highlighting system provides an initial noticeable highlight that fades to a level that is still noticeable but is less likely to distract the user from other elements of the user interface.
US08259114B2
A system and method for visualizing a plural dimensional data. One of a plurality of potential visualization formats is selected in a processor for each dimension of a plural dimensional data set. The selected visualization format is used to display the associated dimension on an electronic display. User interface elements are provided to navigate between elements of the plural dimensional data set within the displayed visualization format.
US08259111B2
A method, computer program product, and system are provided for processing data in a graphics pipeline. An embodiment of the method includes processing one or more vertices of a geometric primitive with a vertex shader function and generating new primitive information for the one or more processed vertices with a geometry shader function. The geometry shader function receives one or more processed vertices from the vertex shader function and emits a single vertex associated with the new primitive information. Each emitted vertex from the geometry shader function can be stored in a memory device. Unlike conventional graphic pipelines that require a memory device for data storage during the vertex and geometry shading processes, the present invention increases efficiency in the graphics pipeline by eliminating the need to access memory when the vertex and geometry shaders process vertex information.
US08259107B2
A virtual plane surface PL is divided into a plurality of square regions such that the closer distance to a virtual camera VP a square region is located at, the smaller areas the square region is divided into. Distance information 41 indicative of distances of respective vertices composing each of the square regions from the virtual plane surface PL is read from the internal main memory 11e. Further, coordinate points of positions, which are distanced from respective vertices, which compose polygonal shape regions included in each of the square regions, by distances indicated by the read distance information in a direction perpendicular to the virtual plane surface PL, are used as polygon vertices, which define polygons, whereby the polygons corresponding to the curved surface SF are generated. From each of the square regions, substantially a common number of polygons are generated. In this manner, appropriate polygon information of the curved surface SF which is capable of securing a drawing quality can be generated.
US08259097B2
A backlight assembly, a display device including the backlight assembly and a control method thereof are provided. The backlight assembly includes: a DC converter which converts input alternating current (AC) power into direct current (DC) power at various levels; a light source unit which has at least one point light source; and a power supply unit which receives the DC power output by the DC converter, converts the DC power into output power having a preset reference current level and supplies the output power to the light source unit.
US08259093B2
One frame period of image data is divided into a plurality of subframes and driven. A first subframe included in one frame and a second subframe following the first subframe are output at opposite polarities. The image data is output while switching a phase mode between a first mode of driving the first subframe at positive polarity and the second subframe at negative polarity and a second mode of driving the first subframe at negative polarity and the second subframe at positive polarity.
US08259092B2
The present invention provides a method for writing motion recognition, wherein a sound signal generated when a writing apparatus is contacting and moving on a writing surface is acquired. According to the occurrence of the sound signal, the writing apparatus can be determined whether it is on the writing surface or not. In another embodiment, the present invention further provides a method for writing trajectory recognition, wherein the foregoing method and character recognition techniques are combined to convert a writing trajectory into a character. In addition, the present invention further provides a writing apparatus and a recognition system, wherein a device is installed in the writing apparatus for collecting sound signal generated during the writing process and a processing unit which adapts the foregoing method is used to recognize the motion trajectory of the writing apparatus so as to form the corresponding character.
US08259091B2
A handheld electronic device including a main body, a first magnetic member and a stylus is provided. The main body has a containing slot and the first magnetic member is disposed at one side of the containing slot. The stylus is suitable for being inserted in the containing slot and includes a stylus body and a second magnetic member. The second magnetic member is disposed on the stylus body or embedded in the stylus body. When the stylus is contained within the containing slot, the stylus is kept within the containing slot due to magnetic force generated by the first magnetic member and the second magnetic member.
US08259089B2
An electronic device includes a light-emitting board, a touch sensor film and a signal connection part. The light-emitting board includes a driving substrate, and a semiconductor device disposed on a surface of the driving substrate. The touch sensor film includes a film disposed over the light-emitting board, and a touch conductor pattern formed on the film to sense an external touch event for generating a touch signal to drive the semiconductor device. The signal connection part electrically connects the touch sensor film and the light-emitting board to each other to transmit the touch signal from the touch sensor film to the light-emitting board.
US08259086B2
A touch panel capable of calculating touch position coordinates of an indicator with high accuracy in a desired detection time even if a large number of detection wire groups are provided. An oscillator circuit selects one of detection wires and selected by a circuit or the like according to a command from a detection control circuit and oscillates. A circuit counts an output signal from the oscillator circuit up to a first count value. A circuit measures a period of the count. A circuit determines that there is a touch when it detects the detection wire of which the measured period is equal to or higher than a threshold value and sends the detection wire giving a maximum value equal to or higher than the threshold value to a circuit as a touch detection wire. The circuit causes the circuit or the like to select the touch detection wire and the detection wires adjacent thereto on both sides, the circuit counts up until the count value becomes a second count value larger than the first count value, and the circuit measures the count period. The circuit performs interpolation on the basis of the count value obtained by subtracting a background capacitance value from a measured value obtained by the circuit, to thereby determine the touch coordinates.
US08259083B2
The present invention relates to a mobile device having a backpanel touchpad, and more particularly, to a technique for enabling cursor movements and execution instructions on a frontpanel display screen to be inputted through a touchpad positioned at a backpanel of a mobile device. Accordingly, a touchpad is disposed on a back side of a mobile device, so that the mobile device can be controlled through a contact point at which a user's finger is naturally positioned when a user holds the mobile device with a user's hand. Further, a backpanel touchpad is operated, so that a display screen is not covered with the user's finger.
US08259082B2
A portable communication device has a touch screen display that receives tactile input and a microphone that receives audio input. The portable communication device initiates a query for media based at least in part on tactile input and audio input. The touch screen display is a multi-touch screen. The portable communication device sends an initiated query and receives a text response indicative of a speech to text conversion of the query. The portable communication device then displays video in response to tactile input and audio input.
US08259078B2
Disclosed herein are liquid-crystal display (LCD) touch screens that integrate the touch sensing elements with the display circuitry. The integration may take a variety of forms. Touch sensing elements can be completely implemented within the LCD stackup but outside the not between the color filter plate and the array plate. Alternatively, some touch sensing elements can be between the color filter and array plates with other touch sensing elements not between the plates. In another alternative, all touch sensing elements can be between the color filter and array plates. The latter alternative can include both conventional and in-plane-switching (IPS) LCDs. In some forms, one or more display structures can also have a touch sensing function. Techniques for manufacturing and operating such displays, as well as various devices embodying such displays are also disclosed.
US08259067B2
An apparatus including an image sensor is disclosed. The apparatus includes a polarization filter, an image sensor, and a processor connected to the image sensor. The polarization filter is adapted to filter out light polarized in a first direction from a first scene. The image sensor is adapted to capture the filtered light, and the image sensor includes support circuits to convert the captured filtered light to image data. The processor is adapted to process the image data to detect features of the first scene. The polarization filter filters out noise component of the image, thus increasing contrast. In another embodiment, a mosaic polarization filter is used to capture a scene in a first image including light from the scene having first polarity and to capture the scene in a second image including light from the scene having first polarity. The two images can be analyzed to determine various characteristics of the scene.
US08259056B2
A back light boost converter includes an analog circuit, an enable controller, a logic device, and a digital PWM controller. The analog circuit generates a switch signal and a feedback signal based on a first pulse signal. The enable controller generates an enable signal based on an LED on ratio signal, an LED on cycle signal, a duty cycle signal, and a frequency signal. The logic device generates a second pulse signal based on the feedback signal and the enable signal. The digital PWM controller outputs the first pulse signal with increasing duty cycles in a plurality stages.
US08259053B2
An array substrate and a liquid crystal display (LCD) device having the array substrate are provided in one or more embodiments. For example, the array substrate may include a pixel electrode, a coupling electrode and an opposite electrode. The pixel electrode may include a first sub-electrode having a plurality of first electrode bars receiving a first voltage and a second sub-electrode having a plurality of second electrode bars. The plurality of first electrode bars and the plurality of second electrode bars may be spaced apart from each other. The coupling electrode may be electrically connected to a portion of the plurality of first electrode bars, may have a plurality of opposite electrode bars and may overlap a portion of the plurality of second electrode bars to form coupling capacitor. The opposite electrode may be disposed between the plurality of first electrode bars and the plurality of second electrode bars to receive a second voltage different from the first voltage.
US08259048B2
A display with high resolution and reduced flicker of image. The driving method of this invention, or the field sequential driving method, divides one frame of image into a plurality of subframes, i.e., divides the period of one image frame into a plurality of subframe periods; displays red, green and blue images during the corresponding subframe periods; and, when these color images are to be displayed, turns on the corresponding red, green and blue backlights successively to feed light to the display section.
US08259047B2
A liquid crystal display device for improving picture quality includes a common electrode formed on a first substrate, gate lines and data lines formed on a second substrate bonded to the first substrate by a sealing member with liquid crystals disposed therebetween, thin film transistors connected to the gate lines and to the data lines, pixel electrodes formed in subpixel regions, each pixel electrode having a long side in a direction of the gate lines and having a short side in a direction of the data lines fanout lines for supplying a driving signals from the driving chips to the data lines, first conductive spacers formed between the fanout lines connected to different driving chips, for supplying a common voltage to the common electrode, and second conductive spacers formed between the fanout lines connected to the same driving chip, for supplying the common voltage to the common electrode.
US08259038B2
A display device (10) includes an upper substrate (first substrate) (2), a lower substrate (second substrate) (3), and a conductive liquid (16) that is movably sealed in a display space (S) formed between the upper substrate (2) and the lower substrate (3). In the display device (10), a signal electrode (first electrode) (4) made of a material that is electrochemically inert to the conductive liquid (16) is placed in the display space (S). Moreover, a scanning electrode (second electrode) (5) and a reference electrode (third electrode) (6) are provided on the lower substrate (3).
US08259037B2
A plasma display and a driving apparatus thereof with an improved energy recovery circuit configured to reduce resonances between a plurality of capacitors. Accordingly to an embodiment of the present invention, a plasma display has an energy recovery circuit that includes an energy recovery capacitor. The energy recovery circuit is configured to form a first path between the energy recovery capacitor and a display electrode to change a voltage at the display electrode in a sustain period. The energy recovery capacitor includes a plurality of capacitors configured to be charged concurrently, and the energy recovery circuit is configured to form a second path between the plurality of capacitors. A product of an inductance formed on the second path and a capacitance formed on the second path is greater than twice a product of an inductance formed on the first path and a capacitance formed on the first path.
US08259029B2
A mobile telecommunications apparatus includes a portable media device adapted to receive electronic data through a network, the portable media device comprising a first antenna adapted to receive electromagnetic signals of a particular frequency, the frequency is at least one of a radio frequency and a television (TV) frequency, and a headset in electrical communication with the portable media device and adapted to receive the electronic data through the network, the headset includes a switch coupled to the first antenna, a second antenna coupled to the switch, and a headset speaker comprising at least one of a mono headset speaker and a stereo headset speaker, the switch is adapted to combine operation of the first antenna and the second antenna into a dual operation diversity receiver. The network may comprise a Digital Video Broadcasting over Handheld (DVB-H) network.
US08259022B2
An apparatus comprising a parallel plate waveguide (PPWG) comprising two plates separated by a distance that supports a multimode wave, and a transmitter configured to emit a wave having a frequency from about one hundred Gigahertz (GHz) to about ten terahertz (THz) and to couple to one mode of the PPWG. Also disclosed is an apparatus comprising two plates substantially parallel to one another and separated by at least about five millimeters (mm), and an antenna coupled to the two plates and configured to transmit or receive a wave having a frequency from about one hundred GHz to about ten THz. Disclosed is a method comprising polarizing an electromagnetic beam in the first transverse electric (TE1) mode with respect to a PPWG comprising two plates, adjusting the diameter of the electromagnetic beam based on the separation between the plates, and sending the electromagnetic beam into the PPWG.
US08259021B2
According to an embodiment of the present invention, an electromagnetic radiation apparatus includes a ground plane and an integrally formed antenna structure. The integrally formed antenna structure may include a radiation plate perpendicular to or with an angle larger than 45 degrees to the ground plane and a shielding structure configured to restrict radiation of the radiation plate.
US08259014B2
A multi-loop antenna structure and a hand-held electronic device using the same are provided. The multi-loop antenna structure includes a high-frequency radiating body, a low-frequency radiating body, a feeding connecting part and a grounding connecting part. The feeding connecting part electrically connects one terminal of the high-frequency and the low-frequency radiating body to a feeding point. The grounding connecting part grounds the other terminal of the high-frequency and the low-frequency radiating body. The feeding connecting part forms a first folded loop antenna with the high-frequency radiating body and the grounding connecting part for resonating at a first frequency band. The feeding connecting part forms a second folded loop antenna with the low-frequency radiating body and the grounding connecting part for resonating at a second, a third and a fourth frequency band. The first folded loop antenna and the second folded loop antenna are folded for forming a three-dimensional structure.
US08259009B2
In a case in which three or more movable objects, each of those detecting the relative position with respect to another movable object, are able to communicate with each other: a reference movable object obtains observation data and transmits the observation data to non-reference movable objects; one non-reference movable object calculates the relative position with respect to the reference movable object by performing interferometric positioning using the observation data obtained by the observation data obtaining means and data including observation data received from the reference movable object, and also transmits data including an integer bias calculated as interferometric positioning results to another non-reference movable object and receives reliability determination results regarding the interferometric positioning; and the another non-reference movable object receives data including the integer bias from the one non-reference movable object and determines the reliability of the interferometric positioning.
US08259006B2
A method for interleaved pulsed-Doppler processing. Radar energy management and associated processing techniques take advantage of spatial degrees of freedom available on modern, short range, wide angle, volume search ESA radar systems. The method creates an advantage in Doppler resolution when compared to currently utilized Doppler processing techniques. An Electronically Scanned Array (ESA) radar system includes one or more processors that may be programmed to read and execute instructional commands including transmit a plurality of synchronized, coherent pulsed transmit beams having substantially repeatable gain and phase pattern characteristics; electronically steer the plurality of transmit beams in a respective, sequential plurality of spatially diverse directions in a temporally-interleaved manner; sequentially collect a respective plurality of receive beams in a respective plurality of time vs. range buffers; determine a range-Doppler output at a selected, common receive position in each of the plurality of buffers.
US08259003B2
In conventional pulse compression processing, sidelobes from strong return signals may hide correlation peaks associated with weaker return signals. Example embodiments include methods of mitigating this near/far interference by weighting a received return signal or corresponding reference signal based the return signal's time of arrival, then performing pulse compression using the weighted signal to produce a correlation peak that is not hidden by sidelobes from another return. Multi-frequency processing can also be used to reduce the pulse width of the transmitted pulses and received return signals, thereby mitigating near/far interference by decreasing the overlap between signals from nearby targets. Weighting can be combined with multi-frequency pulse transmission and reception to further enhance the fidelity of the processed correlation peak. Weighting and multi-frequency processing also enable higher duty cycles than are possible with conventional pulse compression radars.
US08259002B2
Systems and methods for radar altimeter antenna performance monitoring via reflected power measurements are provided. In one embodiment, a single antenna radar altimeter comprises: an antenna; a circulator coupled to the antenna; a transmitter coupled to the circulator; a receiver coupled to the circulator; wherein the circulator provides coupling of the transmitter and the receiver to the antenna while providing isolation between the transmitter and the receiver; a reflected power monitor positioned between the circulator and receiver; and a processor coupled to the reflected power monitor via a first analog-to-digital converter, the processor configured to compute and track reflected power measurement statistics from data generated by the reflected power monitor and provide a performance output indicating when one or more of the reflected power measurement statistics exceed a predetermined deviation threshold.
US08259000B2
The present invention relates to a detecting device for detecting an SSR signal having a characteristic structure. The detecting device comprises filtering means matched to the characteristic structure of the SSR signal, and means for maintaining a false-alarm rate at a substantially constant value. The characteristic structure of the SSR signal comprises either a preamble or an initial pulse and a final pulse separated by a fixed dwell time. The means for maintaining a false-alarm rate at a substantially constant value comprise computing means configured to compute a detection threshold on the basis of a signal supplied by the filtering means, and decision means configured to detect the SSR signal on the basis of the detection threshold and of the signal supplied by the filtering means.
US08258998B2
Device, system and method of protecting aircrafts against incoming threats. For example, a system for protecting an aircraft against an incoming threat includes: one or more electro-optic sensors to substantially continuously search for the incoming threat, and to generate a signal indicating that a possible incoming threat is detected; one or more radar sensors to be activated in response to the signal, and to search for the incoming threat; and a central computer to determine whether or not the incoming threat exists, based on a sensor fusion algorithm able to fuse data received from the one or more electro-optic sensors and data received from the one or more radar sensors.
US08258993B2
A take-up pipe 1 is placed along an upper edge of a window of a building and is rotatably supported by side brackets 2R. An upper end of the screen having a weight bar attached to a lower end thereof, is fixed to the take-up pipe, so that the take-up pipe is rotated in forward and reverse directions by a motor 5 to wind up and down the screen. A light receiving unit 27 to receive a pulsed optical signal applied from a remote controller is mounted on the side bracket and is arranged so that it can be switched to two different orientations where the light receiving directions are symmetric with respect to a vertically downward direction and the phases are different from each other. By virtue of this, irrespective of the installation constraint of the electric roll screen, the remote-control of the electric roll screen can be effected.
US08258988B2
Provided is an encoding apparatus including an encoding unit that converts, based on a first conversion rule group according to which a total value for a base-K symbol sequence is X and a second conversion rule group according to which the total value for the base-K symbol sequence is −X among conversion rule groups for converting an L-bit bit sequence into the base-K symbol sequence (K>2) of N/2 symbol, an M-bit (M≧2*L) bit sequence into the base-K symbol sequence of N symbols. When converting the M-bit bit sequence into the base-K symbol sequence of N symbols, the encoding unit converts a first-half N/2 symbol based on the first conversion rule group and converts a second-half N/2 symbol based on the second conversion rule group.
US08258984B2
A light guide includes a main body and a curved refracting face formed in the main body. As light enters the main body, a bright zone and a secondary bright zone less brighter than the bright zone are formed in the main body. The curved refracting face can be an inner wall face of a curved groove or a cavity disposed in the main body. Through the formation of the curved refracting face, the light in the secondary bright zone can be directed such that, when the light guide is disposed in a thin film keyboard, the brightness of a portion of the keyboard that corresponds to the secondary bright zone has improved brightness.
US08258973B2
A patient care equipment support includes power and data connectors configured to be coupled to power and data connectors of patient care equipment when the patient care equipment is coupled to the equipment support to provide a power coupling and a data coupling between the patient care equipment and the equipment support. The equipment support is transferable between a first device, such as a hospital bed, and a second device, such as an overhead support arm.
US08258970B2
A method of detection of the presence of a contactless communication element by a terminal emitting an electromagnetic field, in which an oscillating circuit of the terminal is excited at a frequency which is made variable between two values surrounding a nominal tuning frequency of the oscillating circuit; a signal representative of the load of the oscillating circuit being interpreted to detect that a reference voltage has not been exceeded, which indicates the presence of an element in the field. A presence-detection circuit and a corresponding terminal.
US08258963B2
A bed includes a frame, a controller coupled to the frame, and a patient position detection system coupled to the frame and coupled to the controller. The patient position detection system has at least three modes of operation of varying sensitivities for determining whether a person supported on the frame has moved by a sufficient amount to activate an alarm.
US08258962B2
Aspects of the invention include multi-mode communication ingestible event marker devices. Ingestible event marker devices of the invention include an ingestible component comprising a conductive communication module and at least one additional non-conductive communication module. The non-conductive communication module may be integrated with the ingestible component or at least a portion or all of the non-conductive communication module may be associated with a packaging component of the ingestible event marker device. Additional aspects of the invention include systems that include the devices and one or more receivers, as well as methods of using the same.
US08258959B2
An environmentally sealed electronic device with an internal activation circuit that does not require a constant interrogation signal to maintain power to its internal circuitry. The electronic device includes sensor circuitry for gathering or sensing data; an internal battery for powering the sensor circuitry; and an internal activation circuit for activating the sensor circuitry. The sensor circuitry may include a temperature sensor, a location sensor, a signal sensor, a sound detector, a motion sensor, or any other device that senses or gathers data. The battery may be any type of energy storage device such as a lithium or alkaline battery. The activation circuit includes a receiver for receiving a radio frequency signal from an external source and a switch for connecting the battery to the sensor circuitry in response to the receiver. The switch is operable to maintain connection of the battery to the sensor circuitry after the radio frequency signal ceases.
US08258958B2
A dual antenna RFID tag which can perform both Near Field (NF) communication and Far Field (FF) communication using a single RF tag is presented. The RFID tag includes an antenna unit and a voltage rectification unit. The antenna unit can perform communications in either or both a first and a second bandwidth. The voltage rectification unit can rectify and boost one or more radio signals received through the antenna unit and generate one or more power voltage impulses corresponding to the radio signals respectively.
US08258956B1
A Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) system that tracks tags in real-time based on EPC codes and on other priority codes written into transponder memory fields of the tags. As an example, a priority code may be written into a memory of an RFID transponder identifying a high-value item or a small high-value item that is likely to be stolen. Based on the use of this priority code, those items can be preferentially tracked as opposed to items of low value or size such that they are unlikely to be stolen. Such use of priority codes and local filtering alleviates the need to go back to large centralized databases associating unique numbers with other parameters and potentially the history of the item.
US08258953B2
The present disclosure describes a system, methods and apparatus for displaying read range of a nomadic Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) reader based on feedback from fixed RFID beacon tags. For instance, the nomadic RFID reader can transmit an interrogation signal within a space that includes a plurality of fixed RFID beacon tags at known locations, and can receive response signals from a group of the fixed RFID beacon tags. Based on known locations of the group of fixed RFID beacon tags, a read range of the RFID reader can be determined. The read range is defined by the group of the fixed RFID beacon tags. The read range of the nomadic RFID reader can then be displayed on a display along with other information about the fixed RFID beacon tags and/or RFID item tags that are within the read range of the nomadic RFID reader.
US08258948B2
A remote starting system for an engine of a vehicle includes a remote start handheld unit. A remote start controller may be positioned at the vehicle for starting the engine based upon the remote start handheld unit and causing the engine to run for a run time period before shutting off the vehicle engine. The remote start controller is resettable based upon the remote start handheld unit to cause the engine to run for an additional run time period while the engine is still running and before shutting off the engine. The remote start handheld unit includes a tactile indicator for providing a tactile indication to a user prior to expiration of the run time period to permit a user to use the remote start handheld unit to reset the run time period while the engine is still running and before shutting off the engine.
US08258941B2
Footwear systems include an article of footwear and a data transmission system engaged with the article of footwear. The transmission system transmits data to a remote system, such as a display system, another data transmission system, a processing system, etc. Such footwear systems further may include activation systems for activating the transmission and/or display systems. The transmitted data may be used for various purposes, such as: (a) identifying a user of the article of footwear; (b) activating targeted advertising or product information; (c) confirming the user's presence at a specific location and/or at a specific time; (d) determining start, finish, and/or intermediate split times for specific user; (e) confirming athletic equipment usage; (f) providing data for a game or reward program; (g) registering the user for an event or competition; or the like.
US08258938B2
A pressure detection unit includes a front-wheel transmitter and a rear-wheel transmitter operatively connected to wheel rims of a front wheel and a rear wheel, respectively. Inflation pressure signals transmitted from the front-wheel transmitter and the rear-wheel transmitter are received by a receiver. The receiver is arranged to be offset outward of a straight line connecting the front-wheel transmitter and the rear-wheel transmitter in the vehicle-body width direction. More specifically, the receiver is arranged in a space surrounded by a front cowl and a side panel, the space being between a coolant reserve tank and a radiator. The single receiver receives the signals transmitted from the front-wheel transmitter and the rear-wheel transmitter.
US08258934B2
A vehicle may include a driver interface and at least once controller operatively arranged with the interface. The at least one controller may be configured to categorize a driver's dynamic control of the vehicle by type, determine a target speed of a road curvature, and determine a speed of the vehicle. The at least one controller may be further configured to determine a threshold distance based on the type, determine a distance between the vehicle and the curvature, and generate an alert for the driver if the distance is less than the threshold and the speed is greater than the target.
US08258927B1
Method and system for inventorying wireless transponders providing anti-eavesdropping anti-collision
The present invention provides one or more powered wireless transponders and/or one or more passive wireless transponder devices communicating with a reader/interrogator and the method of efficiently inventorying these devices without the risk of eavesdropping. A reader transmits a random number and transponders generate their own random number. The transponders whose random number matches all or a part of the random number responds. If a collision occurs, the reader's random number can be changed and retransmitted until almost one transponder response is verified in a tree search algorithm. Specifically, the invention concerns a method for inventorying wireless transponders providing anti-eavesdropping anti-collision.
US08258910B2
A planar transformer suitable for intrinsically safe electronic circuits with a core, a first printed circuit board and a second printed circuit board. The first printed circuit board has a first winding and the second printed circuit board has a second winding. The planar transformer can be produced at a low cost and is compact, but is still suitable for connection to intrinsically safe operating circuits is implemented by at least one gap being asymmetrically split on the first printed circuit board and the second printed circuit board.
US08258887B1
In one embodiment, a circuit comprises a first inductor-capacitor based voltage-controlled oscillator (LCVCO) generating a first periodic signal with a first frequency and a first phase and a second LCVCO generating a second periodic signal with a second frequency and a second phase, and the second phase is offset relative to the first phase by a 90 degrees offset.
US08258885B2
In one embodiment, a method includes generating, by a LCVCO, a first signal having a first phase based on a resonant frequency of a first LC tank; generating, by a second LCVCO, a second periodic signal having a second phase based on a resonant frequency of a second LC tank; determining a phase offset between the first LC tank and the second LC tank based on the first and second signals; generating a first output signal and a second output signal based on the determined phase offset; and adjusting the phase offset such that the phase offset is substantially equal to a predetermined phase offset. In one embodiment, the adjusting comprises modulating a first impedance of the first LC tank based on the first output signal, and/or modulating a second impedance of the second LC tank based on the second output signal.
US08258880B2
Some embodiments disclosed herein relate to techniques for providing a relatively constant oscillation frequency. In some instances, these techniques can make use of a ring oscillator that is powered by an adaptive voltage supply. The adaptive voltage supply provides a temperature-dependent supply voltage to respective delay elements in the ring oscillator, such that the oscillation frequency of the ring oscillator is approximately constant over a predetermined temperature range. For example, if temperature increases, the supply voltage can be increased proportionally, thereby tending to limit variation in the oscillation frequency delivered by the ring oscillator.
US08258867B2
A front-end equalizer and amplifier circuit includes two pairs of fully differential pair transistors, wherein the tail currents of one pair of transistors are connected with ground and connected with each other through the capacitive component to realize the connection between the pair of transistors and the feedback capacitor, the tail currents of the other pair of transistors are connected with ground and connected with each other through the resistive component to realize the connection between the other pair of transistors and the feedback resistor, the output positive and negative ends of each pair of transistors are connected with each other through the inductive component, thus forming the load for connecting the voltage source. The circuit increases the high frequency gain. Its single-stage gain is equivalent to the multi-stage gain. Compared with the traditional multi-stage structure, the present invention decreases the power consumption and area, and improves the reliability.
US08258865B2
A signal generating apparatus comprises an amplifier, which comprises differential input terminals for receiving a first input signal, a common mode output signal adjusting terminal for receiving a second input signal, and an output terminal. The signal generating apparatus may provide two or more differential output signals according to the first input signal, and provide two or more common mode output signals according to the second input signal. The amplifier provides an output signal comprising one of the differential output signals and one of the common mode output signals at the output terminal.
US08258864B1
A pre-amplifier circuit can be cascaded and drive a latch for use in a precision analog-to-digital converter (ADC). The pre-amplifier has a main section and a feedback section connected by feedback resistors that do not produce voltage drops in the main section. Offset is stored on offset capacitors during an autozeroing phase and isolated by transmission gates during an amplifying phase. The offset capacitors drive the gates of feedback transistors that drive output nodes in the main section. Autozeroing sink transistors in the feedback section operate in the linear region while current sink transistors in the main section operate in the saturated region. Kickback-charge isolation transistors may be added for charge isolation. The output may also be equalized by an equalizing transmission gate. A very low power-supply voltage is supported even for high-speed operation with offset cancellation, due to the folded feedback resistor arrangement.
US08258863B2
A chopper-stabilized amplifier (20A) includes an amplifier (3), an input chopper (2A) having a first input (4) receiving an input signal (VIN+), an output (5) coupled to a first input of the amplifier, and a feedback resistor (9) coupled to an output (6) of the amplifier to couple a feedback signal (VFB+) to a second input of the amplifier (3). The input chopper operates in response to a chopping clock (CHOP_CLK). If the amplifier (3) is unacceptably close to a saturation condition, the chopping clock (CHOP_CLK) is disabled to reduce input leakage current (ILEAKAGE) of the chopper-stabilized amplifier.
US08258850B1
A general-purpose Analog Signal Processing System (ASPS) is disclosed. An ASPS can be realized though an array of Configurable Integrator Blocks (CIBs). The CIBs can be identical to each other, and arranged in rows and columns. A CIB can merge multiplication, integration, and sample-and-hold functions into a single programmable circuit block. Within the ASPS, CIBs are interconnected in a manner that allows CIB inputs to be a combination of external signals and outputs of other CIBs, and allows CIB outputs to be combined to produce system (external) outputs or inputs to other CIBs. This networked architecture combined with the basic functionality of each CIB, enables implementation of a broad range of analog signal processing operations. The ASPS can be field programmable. The field programmability permits end users to be able to quickly and inexpensively fabricate customized analog integrated circuits.
US08258847B2
A digital circuit which can operate normally regardless of binary potentials of an input signal is provided. A semiconductor device comprising a correcting unit and one or a plurality of circuit elements, the correcting unit including a first capacitor, a second capacitor, a first switch, and a second switch, wherein the first electrode of the first capacitor is connected to an input terminal, the supply of a first potential to the second electrode of the first capacitor is controlled by the first switch, the supply of a second potential to the second electrode of the second capacitor is controlled by the second switch, and a potential of the second electrode of the first capacitor or a potential of the second electrode of the second capacitor is supplied to the one or the plurality of circuit elements.
US08258845B1
The relative timing of triggering switching events in a circuit block of an IC device is dynamically adjusted in response to fluctuations in device's supply voltage to minimize clock jitter caused by supply voltage noise. A control circuit monitors supply voltage fluctuations, and in response thereto dynamically phase-shifts a clock signal that triggers the switching events so that the switching events occur during relatively quiet time intervals in which fluctuations in the supply voltage are minimal.
US08258842B2
Dead-time detector includes an N-type power switch and a resistor. The N-type power switch includes a first end coupled to the output end of the output-stage circuit for receiving an output voltage, a second end for outputting a dead-time detecting signal, and a control end for receiving a gate-controlling voltage. The resistor is coupled between the second end of the N-type power switch and a voltage source providing a high voltage for keeping the voltage of the dead-time detecting signal when the N-type power switch does not output the dead-time detecting signal representing “ON”. When the output voltage is so lower than the gate-controlling voltage that the N-type power switch is turned on, the N-type power switch outputs the dead-time detecting signal representing “ON”. When the dead-time detecting signal represents “ON”, the output-stage circuit leaves the dead-time state.
US08258839B2
A fractional divider has been provided that allows for division ratios of 1:1 to 1:2N-1 with fine fractional resolution. To accomplish this, a phase blender (which is under the control of a state machine) is used to “blend” or interpolate consecutive phases of a clock signal from a delay locked loop to achieve a low deterministic jitter, while a sigma delta modulator can also be used to maintain low deterministic jitter while achieving the desired frequency resolution.
US08258835B1
A fractional-N frequency synthesizer having a cancellation system for phase discontinuity due to loop gain changes may include a phase detector, a current-changeable charge-pump, a loop filter for providing a tuning signal, a voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) controlled by the tuning signal for providing a VCO output signal, a divider for providing a divided VCO signal, a modulator for generating a modulating signal for fractional-N functionality, wherein the phase detector has a first input for receiving a reference signal oscillating at a reference frequency; a second input for receiving the divided signal; and the phase detector and charge-pump is configured to compare a phase of the first input and a phase of the second input, and generate a charge-pump current on and off, featuring that the cancellation system is implemented inside the modulator having an additional input defined by the changeable charge-pump current values.
US08258829B2
A power switch circuit that ensures suppression of an increase in a transient current. The power switch circuit includes a first transistor, which generates an output voltage in response to a control signal, and a time difference generation circuit, which delays the control signal by performing a logical process with the output voltage of the first transistor and the control signal.
US08258822B2
An apparatus and a method switch a load through a power transistor. The apparatus includes: a first current generator for generating a current to charge a capacitance of a control terminal of the power transistor during power on of the power transistor; a second current generator for generating a current to discharge the capacitance during power off of the power transistor. The apparatus is equipped with control circuitry having a storage element for storing a voltage value representative of the potential difference between the control terminal and a conduction terminal of the power transistor when the power transistor operates in the saturation region and a discharge circuit for generating an additional current to discharge the capacitance during the power-off process. The additional current is a function of the potential difference of the control terminal and the stored voltage value from the conduction terminal.
US08258821B2
In hard disc drive (HDD) applications, there is often a need for input buffers that can operate at a variety of voltages (i.e., 1.8V, 2.5V, and 3.3V) as well as tolerate high voltages (i.e., 5V). Traditional buffers, however, usually lack the ability to operate at these varying voltages and lack the ability to tolerate high voltages. Here, a buffer is provided that fits this criteria through the use of a switching circuit and an anti-saturation circuit (as well as other circuitry).
US08258820B2
Disclosed is a circuit arrangement for generating a drive signal for a transistor. In one embodiment, the circuit arrangement includes a control circuit that receives a switching signal, a driver circuit that outputs a drive signal, and at least one transmission channel. The control circuit transmits, depending on the switching signal for each switching operation of the transistor, switching information and switching parameter information via the transmission channel to the driver circuit. The driver circuit generates the drive signal depending on the switching information and depending on the switching parameter information.
US08258809B2
A security circuit includes an electrical fuse read only memory (ROM) including a plurality of electrical fuse units. The electrical fuse units are arranged to correspond to bit values of an initial security key before the electrical fuse ROM is programmed.
US08258808B2
A system for testing DC power supply performance includes a control circuit electrically connected to the DC power supply, a test device, and a control device electrically connected to the test device. The control circuit includes a micro controller capable of outputting control signals, a switch control module, and a switch module. The switch control module receives the control signals and powers up according to the control signals. The switch module is electrically connected to the DC power supply input and output terminals respectively, under control of the switch control module. The test device is electrically connected to the switch module and is electrically connected with the DC power supply input and output terminals according to the control signals. The test device reads voltages at the DC power supply input and output terminals which are transmitted to the control device.
US08258806B2
Assessing open circuit and short circuit defect levels in circuits implemented in state of the art ICs is difficult when using conventional test circuits, which are designed to assess continuity and isolation performance of simple structures based on individual design rules. Including circuit blocks from ICs in test circuits provides a more accurate assessment of defect levels expected in ICs using the circuit blocks. Open circuit defect levels may be assessed using continuity chains formed by serially linking continuity paths in the circuit blocks. Short circuit defect levels may be assessed by using parallel isolation test structures formed by linking isolated conductive elements in parallel to buses. Forming isolation connections on a high metal level enables location of shorted elements using voltage contrast on partially deprocessed or partially fabricated test circuits.
US08258795B2
A procedure for checking the operational capability of an electric circuit, which has a sensor module and a diagnosis mechanism with the sensor module including an integrated switching circuit, wherein the sensor module has at least one output terminal connected to the diagnosis mechanism and power supply terminals, and wherein an operating voltage is applied via cables to the power supply terminals. The sensor module is switched to a test mode, in which a communication test signal is emitted from the output terminal. This signal is read in by the diagnostic mechanism and compared with a tolerance band range, in order to verify that the communication with the sensor module is operational. In the event of operational communication, the operational capability of the switching circuit is tested.
US08258793B2
A method for use with a vehicle battery pack, where the method determines a voltage threshold that may prevent the vehicle battery pack from being overcharged. The voltage threshold may be a dynamic threshold that changes or adjusts over time in order to accommodate changing conditions in the vehicle battery pack, the vehicle and/or the surrounding environment. The method may consider one or more battery readings when determining the voltage threshold, including temperature, voltage and/or current readings. According to one embodiment, the method is designed to accommodate high-current, short-duration charging events, like regenerative breaking.
US08258792B2
A method and system for monitoring a voltage of a battery cell or a battery stack. A first monitoring unit has a first plurality of battery monitoring nodes, first and second data ports, a first supply port switchably coupled to the first plurality of battery monitoring nodes, a second supply port switchably coupled to the first plurality of battery monitoring nodes, and a third supply port. A controller is connected to the first monitoring unit. Alternatively, a reference voltage may be connected to the controller or it may be connected to the first monitoring unit.
US08258791B2
A method for electromagnetic exploration includes imparting a first electromagnetic signal into subsurface formations and imparting a second electromagnetic signal into the formations substantially contemporaneously with imparting the first electromagnetic signal. The first and second electromagnetic signals are substantially uncorrelated with each other. A combined electromagnetic response of the formations to the first and second imparted electromagnetic signals is detected. A response of the formations to each of the first and the second imparted signals is determined from the detected response.
US08258787B2
A magnetic resonance system has a patient receptacle and a base body. The patient receptacle has a subframe and a patient bed supported thereon so as to move a patient thereon through the base body. The base body has a basic field magnet system, a gradient system and an RF system that are operable to obtain an analog magnetic resonance signal from the patient. The patient receptacle has a signal conversion device composed of an A/D converter, a modulator, and a transmitter. The base body has a signal conversion device composed of a receiver and a demodulator. The A/D converter receives the magnetic resonance signal and digitizes it. The modulator modulates a carrier signal with the digitized magnetic resonance signal. The transmitter transmits the modulated carrier signal via an air gap to the receive. The receiver receives the transmitted carrier signal. The demodulator extracts the digitized magnetic resonance signal from the received carrier signal by demodulation and supplies it to an evaluation device for continuing evaluation.
US08258785B2
An object of the invention is to obtain a magnetic resonance spectroscopic image to which the MAC summation is applied with high accuracy and in short time, even though a phase characteristic distribution of the MAC has a spatial non-uniformity, in the MRSI measurement using a magnetic resonance imaging apparatus provided with a MAC. Using a non-water-suppressed image signal with high SNR, obtained in the non-water-suppressed measurement (a reference measurement) without water suppression, a correction value for correcting the phase distortion for the MAC summation is calculated on each pixel in each coil. After correcting a phase on each pixel in each coil of a main-scan image signal measured under suppressing water (water-suppressed image signal) using the corrective value, signal adding operation (summation) is performed. Then, a phase correction in a spectrum-axis is to be performed on the summed spectrum signal.
US08258783B2
In a method for detecting a force bearing value and position of a magnetostrictive body, the magnetostrictive body is stretched or shrunk by changes of passing magnetic fluxes or by the internal stress or external pushing or pulling force, such that the peripheral magnetic field surrounding the force bearing point is varied according to the stretching push or shrinking push, wherein its force bearing value or position is calculated by comparing the magnetic field distribution before and after the force bearing.
US08258780B2
Systems and methods for performing a self-test on a sensing device are described in the present disclosure. One implementation, among others, includes a method of performing a self test. In this implementation, the method includes supplying a periodic magnetic field upon a sensing element that is configured to sense a parameter of an object. The method further includes receiving an output from the sensing element indicating the operability of the sensing element. It should be noted that the output is received independently of the parameter of the object.
US08258779B2
The invention relates to a shift rail position sensing system. There is a need for a rapid and accurate shift rail position sensing system. In a transmission shift mechanism shifts are performed by axially moving a shift rail which is slidable in a rail bore in a housing. A rail position sensing system includes a groove formed in the shift rail and a Hall effect sensor. The groove includes a curved bottom surface, a first ramp surface extending from one side of the bottom surface to an outer peripheral surface of the shift rail, and a second ramp surface extending from a second side of the bottom surface to an outer peripheral surface of the shift rail. The Hall effect sensor has a sensor shaft with an axis normal to an axis of the shift rail. The sensor shaft has a sensing tip which adjacent to and spaced apart from the groove, so that the Hall effect sensor is sensitive an entire range of positions of the shift rail.
US08258769B2
A circuit may generate a clock signal with a variable period given by a ratio between an initial switching period and a number of phase circuits through which a current of a multi-phase PWM voltage converter flows. The circuit may include an adjustable current generator driven by a signal representing the number of phase circuits through which the current flows and configured to generate a current proportional to the number of phase circuits through which the current flows, and a tank capacitor charged by the adjustable current generator. The circuit may include a comparator of a voltage on the tank capacitor with a threshold value configured to generate a pulse of the clock signal when the threshold value is attained, and a discharge path of the tank capacitor, the discharge path being enabled during the pulses of the clock signal.
US08258759B2
An anti-islanding implementation that introduces a small, continuously varying phase shift pattern in the output current of an inverter. In grid-connected mode, this phase shift pattern has no impact on the frequency of the inverter's output voltage. However, when islanded, the phase shift will cause the voltage frequency to deviate from nominal. Changes in the output current phase thus correlate well with the voltage frequency, so a covariance index is used to detect an islanding configuration. When this index exceeds a threshold, a larger phase shift pattern is introduced in the output current, large enough to cause the voltage frequency to fall outside the inverter's trip protection window without compromising the inverter's power quality yet ensuring reliable tripping of the inverter.
US08258757B2
A charging method fit for use with and applicable to a rechargeable battery is provided. The charging method involves charging the rechargeable battery to a first preset voltage and then charging the rechargeable battery to a second preset voltage. The charging method includes the steps of: (a) using the first preset current as a charging current, and performing the constant current charging of the rechargeable battery by the first preset current until the rechargeable battery reaches the first preset voltage for the first instance; (b) subtracting a current difference value from the charging current used by the rechargeable battery to reach the first preset voltage in the preceding instance so as to obtain a new charging current, and performing the constant current charging of the rechargeable battery by the new charging current thus obtained until the rechargeable battery reaches the first preset voltage again; (c) repeating step (b) until the new charging current equals a second preset current; and step (d) using the second preset current of step (c) as another new charging current, and performing the constant current charging of the rechargeable battery by the second preset current until the rechargeable battery reaches a second preset voltage for the first instance.
US08258753B2
A secondary battery remaining capacity estimating apparatus basically includes a secondary battery, a charge/discharge determining section, a remaining capacity estimating section, a remaining capacity indicating section and a remaining capacity indication limiting section. The charge/discharge determining section determines if the secondary battery is charging or discharging. The remaining capacity estimating section estimates a remaining electric power capacity of the secondary battery. The remaining capacity indicating section indicates a remaining capacity of the secondary battery based on an estimation value by the remaining capacity estimating section. The remaining capacity indication limiting section limits a decrease of a remaining capacity indicated upon determining that the secondary battery is charging and the estimation value will decrease, and limits an increase of a remaining capacity indicated upon determining that the secondary battery is discharging and the estimation value will increase.
US08258751B2
Methods, systems, and apparatuses for determining battery state of health are provided. A battery that is substantially uncharged is charged with a substantially constant charge current. A time duration of the charging of the battery with the substantially constant charge current is determined. A state of health of the battery is estimated based upon the determined time duration and the constant charge current. The state of health of the battery may be calculated by multiplying the determined time duration with a value of the constant charge current to determine a total accumulated charge, and applying a predetermined factor to the accumulated charge to determine the state of health. The predetermined factor is a fixed percentage of the total charge capacity of the battery that corresponds to the battery type.
US08258749B2
A power regulator includes an initial input, an output, a feedback input, and a comparison circuit. The initial input is configured to receive loop current at an insertion voltage. The output is configured to deliver charging power. The charging power changes at least partially in response to a change in the loop current. The comparison circuit is in electrical communication with the feedback input and is configured to regulate the insertion voltage. A wireless communication device is in electrical communication with the output of the power regulator and is configured to be powered by the charging power.
US08258748B2
A computer-based processing system (e.g., host server) is operable for receiving historical device operation information (power consumption data) collected during operation of the remote battery-operated device in accordance with a first set of operating parameters. The first set of operating parameters enable operation of the battery-operated device in a first operating mode. The processing system calculates an observed battery life for the device based on the received historical power consumption data and a power capacity value representing a power capacity of the battery resident in the device. This observed battery life may be output to a user and used to determine whether the device will meet a predetermined operational life. If not, parameters for the device can be modified and a new projected battery life calculated (simulation), with the new modified parameters controlling power consumption in the device.
US08258747B2
A method and system for identifying individual cell monitoring controllers in an electric vehicle battery pack. Several cell monitoring controllers are serially connected to each other and to a master battery pack controller via a signal line, which is also used for communicating alarm signals between the controllers. The master battery pack controller sends a wake-up signal on the signal line. The first cell monitoring controller in the signal line wiring route receives the wake-up signal and receives an identification number from the master battery pack controller. Only then does the first cell monitoring controller allow the wake-up signal to be passed along to the second cell monitoring controller, which activates and receives its identification number, and so forth. In this way, identical cell monitoring controllers can be used in a battery pack, yet each cell monitoring controller can be uniquely identified by the master battery pack controller.
US08258744B2
An oscillator provided in a charging cable outputs a non-oscillating signal when the potential of a pilot signal is around V(1), and outputs an oscillating signal when the potential of the pilot signal is lowered to V(2). A pull-down resistance element provided in the plug-in hybrid vehicle is connected between a control pilot line and a vehicle earth, and changes the potential of the pilot signal from V(1) to V(2). A switch is connected in series between the pull-down resistance element and the vehicle earth. When the charging cable is connected to the vehicle, the switch is turned off and the pull-down resistance element is separated from the vehicle earth.
US08258742B2
The control device, which is driven by an engine mounted on the vehicle, generates electric power and determines a power generation voltage for supplying the electric power to an electrical load and an electricity storage unit, comprising an electricity storage amount detection unit for detecting an amount of electricity stored in the electricity storage unit, by integrating an input/output current to/from the electricity storage unit a voltage lowering unit for lowering the power generation voltage when a predetermined electricity storage amount is detected by the electricity storage amount detection unit, a time measuring unit for measuring time elapsed after termination of charging/discharging of the electricity storage unit, and a lowering prohibition unit for prohibiting the power generation voltage from being lowered by the voltage lowering unit if the time elapsed after termination of the charging/discharging is longer than or equal to a predetermined time.
US08258741B2
A solar power management system is provided for managing electric energy conversion by a photovoltaic cell module, supplying the converted electric energy to an external load, and storing the converted electric energy in a battery. The solar power management system comprises a multiphase maximum power tracking (MPT) module, a charging circuit, and a voltage conversion module. The multiphase MPT module regulates output current of the photovoltaic cell module to output maximum power within the high limit thereof and obtain improved solar energy conversion efficiency. The voltage conversion module converts the electric energy generated by the photovoltaic cell module into different voltage formats, such as 5.6V DC, 1.0V DC, 0.6˜0.3V DC low voltage, or −1.2V DC negative voltage, to meet different external load requirements. The solar power management system has simple circuitry and can be configured as a system on chip (SoC) at reduced cost while provides very wide applications.
US08258736B2
A method for operation of an internal permanent magnet motor having a rotor includes determining whether a neutral point access signal is received from the rotor and operating the internal permanent magnet motor using sensorless signals corresponding to a rotor position and a rotor speed derived by a first sensorless signal estimation method when the neutral point access signal is received, wherein the first sensorless signal estimation method utilizes the neutral point access signal to generate the rotor position and the rotor speed. The method further includes operating the internal permanent magnet motor using sensorless signals corresponding to a rotor position and a rotor speed derived by a second sensorless signal estimation method when the neutral point access signal is not received, wherein the second sensorless signal estimation method does not utilize the neutral point access signal to generate the rotor position and the rotor speed.
US08258734B2
An energy converter includes magnetic coils of N phases (N is an integer of 3 or more), and a PWM drive circuit for driving the magnetic coils of N phases, wherein the magnetic coil of each phase can be independently controlled by the PWM drive circuit.
US08258728B2
A control unit of a rotary electric machine control system includes a stationary switching module and a transitional switching module. The stationary switching module switches over a control mode from a rectangular wave voltage phase control mode to an overmodulation current control mode by using a current phase of a smoothed current produced by filtering of high harmonic components on an actual current in a stationary operation state. The transitional switching module switches the control mode from the rectangular wave voltage phase control mode to the overmodulation current control mode by using the current phase of the actual current in a transitional operation state. The control mode is switched over by comparing the current phase of the actual current with a transitional switching reference line, which is preset separately from a switching reference line used for comparison with a current phase of the smoothed current.
US08258726B2
A system for cooling a battery mounted on a vehicle using air within a vehicle, independently of the travelling state of the vehicle. The air within a vehicle compartment is guided to a battery mounted on a vehicle to cool the battery. A controller determines a basic fan speed v of the cooling fan based on a battery temperature and an ambient temperature. Further, the controller calculates an increment Δv of the fan speed in accordance with the vehicle speed and the degree of window opening and determines a final fan speed V according to V=v+Δv, to drive the cooling fan. By controlling the fan speed to increase, it is possible to cool the battery even when the base pressure of the inlet-side static pressure of the cooling fan becomes negative pressure compared to when the windows are closed.
US08258725B2
A klystron has a hollow beam electron gun that has a circular planar electron emitting surface. A hollow electron beam is directed from the electron gun through a plurality of drift tubes, resonant chambers and magnetic fields to a collector. The hollow electron beam does not experience significant radial movement and can operate at a lower beam voltage which reduces the required length of the RF interaction circuit and lowers the risks of RF arcing.
US08258724B2
A tunable LC circuit is used to trigger an electron discharge from an accelerator device, such as a Betatron. The circuit includes a coil as a first inductor having a first inductance electrically coupled in series with a capacitor. A second inductor having a variable inductance is electrically coupled, either in series or parallel, to the first inductor. The time to capacitor discharge is governed by: τLC=√{square root over ((L+LTUNE)C)}. Adjusting the inductance of the variable inductor (LTUNE) facilitates continuous adjustment of the discharge time. This is particularly useful when the LC values change in response to external stimuli, such as borehole temperature when a Betatron is used to log borehole features.
US08258723B2
A light-emitting element array has a plurality of three-terminal light-emitting elements such as light-emitting thyristors with anode, cathode, and gate terminals. The anode terminal of each light-emitting element is connected to a driving circuit. The cathode terminal is grounded. The gate terminals of at least some of the three-terminal light-emitting elements are driven from a common buffer, and within this group of three-terminal light-emitting elements, the anode terminals are driven individually. This enables the array of three-terminal light-emitting elements to be driven in essentially the same way as an array of two-terminal light-emitting elements, but without the need for large power transistors between the cathode terminals and ground.
US08258721B2
A remotely controllable track lighting system includes a track mountable to a support structure, such as a wall or ceiling, with lamps that are supported on the track that are individually controlled by a wireless remote. Each lamp on the track may be set to respectively different intensity levels (e.g., high, mid, low, off) or the user can uniformly control the lamps to be set to the same intensity level. Advantageously, all of the lamps may be set, upon initially turning on the lamps or at another time as desired, to their respective previously set intensity levels. The track system may also be powered via a wall switch where initially turning on the lamps via the wall switch advantageously causes all of the lamps to return to their respective previously set intensity levels or the user can move the wall switch off then on within a short period of time (e.g., 3 seconds) to cause all of the lamps to be set high. Other features and variations also are provided.
US08258720B2
A lighting apparatus includes a solid state lamp including one or more solid state lighting elements, and a power circuit including a current limiting device electrically connected to the lamp. The current limiting device configured to impose a maximum threshold on the current delivered to the lamp, wherein the current limiting device functions as essentially a constant current source. The lighting apparatus includes a housing for the power circuit and lamp, as a module unit.
US08258717B2
In order to maintain a stable arc and avoid wear of the projections of electrode tip ends even if the lamp is lighted with a lamp power of at most 70% of the nominal electric power, a high pressure discharge lamp light source device is provided with a power supply device for supplying alternating current to the high pressure discharge lamp in a low electric power lighting mode having a defined current value in the range of 40 to 70% of a nominal electric power consumption, and wherein the power supply device, in the low electric power lighting mode supplies an alternating current with a low frequency which is lower than the steady-state lighting frequency, and supplies a boost current at least two times during a half cycle of the alternating current with a low frequency which is larger than the alternating current with a low frequency.
US08258715B2
A fluorescent lamp includes three transformers, a power supply, a converter, and four lamp tubes. The converter converts a direct current (DC) provided by the power supply into an alternating current (AC) generated in a first transformer and a second transformer for driving the four lamp tubes to emit light. The third transformer is connected to the four lamp tubes to balance working electric potentials of the four lamp tubes.
US08258712B1
An electronic ballast circuit includes a striation reduction circuit that can create an asymmetry in a lamp power signal that powers a gas-discharge lamp. The striation reduction circuit may have first and second circuit paths to cause the asymmetry in the lamp power signal. The first circuit path transmits the AC component signal of an input signal associated with an AC voltage while the second circuit path transmits a DC component signal. A non-linear component in the second circuit path is utilized to generate a harmonic component signal. AC component signal, DC component signal, and harmonic component signal are superimposed onto one another to cause an asymmetry in the lamp power signal that powers the gas discharge lamp.
US08258708B2
The invention relates to a an interactive light system for a clothing rack, particularly for creating attraction lighting for clothes hanging on a rail of the clothing rack. A basic idea of the invention to control light sources integrated in the clothing rack depending on the detection of an object such as a person. This allows implementing a kind of an interactive lighting function, and furthermore attraction functions for shoppers. An interactive light system (10) according to an embodiment of the invention for a clothing rack (12) comprises one or more light sources (14) integrated in the clothing rack (12), one or more sensors (16, 18, 20) adapted to detect an object (22), and a control unit (24) which receives signals (26) from the sensors (16, 18, 20) and is adapted to evaluate the received signals (26) and to generate control signals (28) for the light sources (14) controlling the lighting depending on the evaluation.
US08258707B2
A lighting device (10) comprises a LED (4), a driver (3), and a controller (2) which regularly switches from a drive state to a measuring state and back. In the measuring state, the controller controls the driver such that the driver does not generate any LED current. The LED produces a measuring signal (Sm) indicating a measured light level. The controller processes the measuring signal received from the LED, and makes a decision on the desired light output of the LED. In the drive state, the controller controls the driver such that the average light output produced by the LED corresponds to the desired light output as determined in the measuring state. In a possible embodiment, the driver generates a nominal LED current INOM, and sets the duration (τ1) of the drive state on the basis of the desired light output of the LED as determined in the measuring state.
US08258695B2
A capsular micro light-emitting device, including: a light emitting part having at least a light emitting layer and constituting one pixel; a capsular encapsulation layer for individually encapsulating the light emitting part; and first and second electrodes for applying a voltage to the light emitting part.
US08258687B2
The present invention relates to a coaxial waveguide electrodeless lamp. The lamp is formed in analogy to coaxial waveguide cables, with an outer conductor, a central conductor, and a gas-fill vessel made of dielectric material between the outer conductor and the inner conductor. The gas-fill vessel is substantially hollow and filled with substances that form a plasma and emit light when RF radiation carried by the central conductor and ground conductor interacts with the substances in the gas-fill vessel. The present invention also relates to a leaky waveguide electrodeless lamp. The lamp is formed in analogy to leaky waveguides, with a conductor, a ground conductor, and a gas-fill vessel made of dielectric material butted against the conductor and encompassed by the ground conductor. The leaky waveguide electrodeless lamp emits light from a plasma similar to light-emission action of the coaxial waveguide electrodeless lamp described above.
US08258685B2
Embodiments of the present invention generally provide an apparatus and method for forming a display screen assembly that comprises multiple panel assemblies which are positioned to form a tiled display device that has improved visual characteristics, is easy to assemble and has a reduced manufacturing cost. In general, each panel assembly is formed so that when it is positioned in a display screen assembly the grid pattern, formed by the gap between the illuminated regions in adjacent panel assemblies, can be minimized. In one embodiment, the unwanted visual effect of the grid pattern is mitigated by minimizing and controlling the space, or gaps, formed between the illuminated area in adjacent panel assemblies. Embodiments of the present invention may also provide an apparatus and method for forming a single panel assembly that is used to display an image.
US08258675B2
A detection sensor (10) includes: plural beam-like resonators (30A, 30B), a vibration characteristic of which changes according to adsorption or sticking of a substance having a mass and one end of each of which is fixed; a driving unit (40) that vibrates the resonators; and a detecting unit (40) that detects a change in the vibration in the resonators to detect the substance. The plural resonators have lengths different from one another. When the length of an arbitrary resonator is represented as L, a difference ΔL between the length L and the length of the other resonators is set to satisfy the following condition: 2(ΔL/L)>1/Q (Q represents a Q factor of the resonators). The driving unit vibrates the respective plural resonators at frequencies corresponding to resonant frequencies of the resonators.
US08258673B2
There are disclosed a semiconductor device in which a short circuit between an oscillator and a semiconductor substrate is prevented, the semiconductor device being capable of suppressing an increase of fabrication steps, and a method of fabricating the semiconductor device. The semiconductor device includes: a semiconductor substrate, in which a recessed portion is formed on an upper surface, and a semiconductor layer is exposed to a bottom surface of the recessed portion; an oscillator that has a beam-type movable electrode arranged in the recessed portion, the movable electrode having insulating films arranged on side surfaces and lower surface thereof, and is fixed to the semiconductor substrate at a position apart from the movable electrode; and a beam-type fixed electrode that is arranged in the recessed portion so as to be opposed to the movable electrode, and is fixed to the semiconductor substrate so as to be electrically isolated from the movable electrode.
US08258671B2
A rotor assembly is assembled by providing an elongated rectangular strip of material having a first edge and a second edge defining a width, cutting the elongated rectangular strip to form a first patterned strip having a first side corresponding to the first edge, winding the first patterned strip portion around the perimeter of the rotor core such that the first edge is adjacent to the perimeter and the patterned strip portion forms a continuous laminated ring structure. Two laminated ring structures can be cut from a single strip, thereby reducing waste material and forming a strong structure.
US08258668B2
A stator in which coil conductors of three phases are disposed in a plurality of slots provided in a stator core, wherein the coil conductors are formed by connecting a plurality of slot conductor portions disposed in the slot, a plurality of coil end conductor portions extending in a circumferential direction of the stator core on an outer side of an axial end surface of the stator core, and a plurality of upstanding conductor portions, each of which connects the coil end conductor portion and the slot conductor portion.
US08258666B2
A stator segment for a stator of a ring generator is provided. The stator segment includes a base element and a coil element attached to the base element. The base element includes a connection region, wherein the connection region is adapted for attaching a connecting coil element which connects the stator segment to a further stator segment.
US08258664B2
A hybrid motor for powering a compressor of a chiller system includes a first rotor portion and a first stator portion configured as a permanent magnet motor and a second rotor portion and a second stator portion configured as a reluctance motor. The second rotor portion includes a reluctance-type rotor, and the second stator portion includes electromagnetic windings capable of inducing a rotary magnetic field. The first rotor portion and the second rotor portion are attached to a common drive shaft. The reluctance motor is arranged to generate start-up torque and initiate rotation of the drive shaft until the drive shaft achieves a predetermined rotational speed. The permanent magnet motor is arranged to power the drive shaft between the predetermined rotational speed and a maximum rotational speed.
US08258662B2
Disclosed herein is an assembly structure of a bearing and a holder of a brushless DC motor. The bearing is forcibly fitted into a hollow space formed through the holder. A beveled mouth edge is formed on the upper end of the circumferential inner surface of the holder through which the bearing enters the holder. Therefore, the assembly structure can enhance the workability of the process of assembling the bearing with the holder.
US08258647B2
A vertical axis wind turbine includes an upstanding support structure, a plurality of generators disposed on the support structure, a central shaft in rotatable communication with the generators and positioned along a central axis of the vertical-axis wind turbine, a plurality of struts extending from the central shaft, and a plurality of blades, each blade positioned at an end of a corresponding strut and oriented substantially vertically. The vertical axis wind turbine optionally includes strut ailerons, blade extension elements, or blade ailerons to increase the efficiency and duty cycle of the wind turbine.
US08258646B2
The invention concerns a tower for a wind turbine which tower supports a nacelle with bearings in which a horizontal rotation axis with blades can rotate, the tower comprises a steel wall of circular section, a drive for rotating the nacelle around a vertical axis of the circular section and at the bottom of the tower foundation means for supporting the tower in upright position. In accordance with the invention the foundation means comprises a bearing on a base which bearing supports the tower and a support ring positioned by three or more legs above the base for keeping the tower upright wherein in the support ring rollers or wheels press against the steel wall of circular section.
US08258641B2
There is provided an electrical generation system for producing an alternating electric current with a regulated frequency from motive power with variable speed. The rotor of an alternator is mechanically coupled to the motive power and thus rotates with a variable speed. In order to compensate for the rotor speed variation, the alternator stator is rotated about the rotor such that the relative speed between the stator and the rotor is regulated. The stator speed is controlled such that the frequency of the produced alternating current is regulated.
US08258637B2
A bonding structure that a bonding region can endure a high temperature environment and the bonding can be maintained with high reliability is provided as a bonding material capable of maintaining reliable bonding in high temperature environment in place of solder including Pb. In the bonding structure for a first member and a second member, solder and glass are used to bond the first member and the second member together and the glass seals the solder. Thereby, electrical conductivity is ensured and the outflow of melting solder in high temperatures can be inhibited to improve the durability.
US08258630B2
A semiconductor device includes: a first layer; a second layer above the first layer; first and second multi-layered structures; and a supporter. The first and second multi-layered structures extend from the first layer to connect to the second layer. The supporter extends from the first layer to connect to the second layer. The supporter is between the first and second multi-layered structures. The supporter is separated from the first and second multi-layered structures by empty space.
US08258610B2
Integrated circuit devices have a first substrate layer and a first transistor on the first substrate layer. A first interlayer insulating film covers the first transistor. A second substrate layer is on the first interlayer insulating film and a second transistor is on the second substrate layer. A second interlayer insulating film covers the second transistor. A contact extends through the second interlayer insulating film, the second substrate layer and the first interlayer insulating film. The contact includes a lower contact and an upper contact that contacts an upper surface of the lower contact to define an interface therebetween. The interface is located at a height no greater than a height of a top surface of the second substrate and greater than a height of a bottom surface of the second substrate layer.
US08258604B2
To provide a technique that can improve the data retention characteristic of an MRAM device by improving the resistance against an external magnetic field in a semiconductor device including the MRAM device.A first magnetic shield material is disposed over a die pad via a first die attach film. Then, a semiconductor chip is mounted over the first magnetic shield material via a second die attach film. Furthermore, a second magnetic shield material is disposed over the semiconductor chip via a third die attach film. That is, the semiconductor chip is disposed so as to be sandwiched by the first magnetic shield material and the second magnetic shield material. At this time, while the planar area of the second magnetic shield material is smaller than that of the first magnetic shield material, the thickness of the second magnetic shield material is thicker than that of the first magnetic shield material.
US08258584B2
An offset gate semiconductor device includes a substrate and an isolation feature formed in the substrate. An active region is formed in the substrate substantially adjacent to the isolation feature. An interface layer is formed on the substrate over the isolation feature and the active region. A polysilicon layer is formed on the interface layer over the isolation feature and the active region. A trench being formed in the polysilicon layer over the isolation feature. The trench extending to the interface layer. A fill layer is formed to line the trench and a metal gate formed in the trench.
US08258575B2
A lateral MOSFET formed in a substrate of a first conductivity type includes a gate formed atop a gate dielectric layer over a surface of the substrate, a drain region of a second conductivity type, a source region of a second conductivity type, and a body region of the first conductivity type which extends under the gate. The body region may have a non-monotonic vertical doping profile with a portion located deeper in the substrate having a higher doping concentration than a portion located shallower in the substrate. The lateral MOSFET is drain-centric, with the source region and a dielectric-filled trench surrounding the drain region.
US08258574B2
A semiconductor device including a plurality of decoupling capacitors formed on a semiconductor substrate, and a plurality of decoupling capacitor contact plugs disposed between the semiconductor substrate and the plurality of decoupling capacitors, the plurality of decoupling capacitor contact plugs being electrically connected to the plurality of decoupling capacitors and including an array of first decoupling capacitor contact plugs and second decoupling capacitor contact plugs.
US08258570B2
A semiconductor device includes a first gate insulating film over a first device region, a second gate insulating film over a second device region, a first gate electrode over the first gate insulating film, a second gate electrode over the second gate insulating film, first source and drain regions in the first device region at both sides of the first gate electrode, second source and drain regions in the second device region at both sides of the second gate electrode, and a memory cell memory cell that further includes a tunnel insulating film formed over a third device region, a floating gate formed over the tunnel insulating film, an insulating film formed over the floating gate, a control gate formed over the tunnel insulating film, and third source and drain regions formed in third device region at both sides of the floating gate and the control gate.
US08258567B2
A two-transistor non-volatile memory cell is formed in a semiconductor body. A memory-transistor well is disposed within the semiconductor body. A switch-transistor well is disposed within the semiconductor body and is electrically isolated from the memory transistor well. A memory transistor including spaced-apart source and drain regions is formed within the memory-transistor well. A switch transistor including spaced-apart source and drain regions is formed within the switch-transistor well region. A floating gate is insulated from and self aligned with the source and drain regions of the memory transistor and switch transistor. A control gate is disposed above and aligned to the floating gate and with the source and drain regions of the memory transistor and the switch transistor.
US08258560B1
This describes color filter arrangements for image sensor arrays that are formed using image sensor pixels with stacked photo-diodes. The stacked photo-diodes may include first and second photo-diodes and may have the ability to separate color signal according to the depth of carrier generation in a silicon substrate. A single color filter may be formed over the stacked photo-diodes to provide full red-green-blue sensing capability. Charge drain regions may also be formed at different depths in the silicon substrate. If the charge drain regions are formed beneath the stacked photo-diodes in the substrate, full red-green-blue color sensing may be achieved without the use of color filters.
US08258559B2
The present invention relates to a technology for reducing dark current noise by discharging electrons accumulated on a surface of an image sensor photodiode. In an N-type or P-type photodiode, a channel is formed between the photodiode and a power voltage terminal, so that electrons (or holes) accumulated on a surface of the photodiode are discharged to the power voltage terminal through the channel.
US08258558B2
Provided are image sensors and methods of manufacturing the same. An image sensor includes a metal line and an interlayer insulation layer on a semiconductor substrate including a readout circuit; an image detection unit on the interlayer insulation layer and including stacked first and second doping layers; a pixel separation unit penetrating the image detection unit, separating the image detection unit by pixel; a first metal contact penetrating the image detection unit and the interlayer insulation layer to contact the metal line; a first barrier pattern protecting the first metal contact from contacting the second doping layer, while exposing the first metal contact to the first doping layer; and a second metal contact in a trench above the first metal contact, wherein the second metal contact is electrically connected to the second doping layer while being isolated from the first metal contact by a second barrier pattern.
US08258555B2
A semiconductor device includes a semiconductor substrate having a conductive type, a source metal layer, a gate metal layer, at least one transistor device, a heavily doped region having the conductive type, a capacitor dielectric layer, a conductive layer. The source metal layer and the gate metal layer are disposed on the semiconductor substrate. The transistor device is disposed in the semiconductor substrate under the source metal layer. The heavily doped region, the capacitor dielectric layer and the conductive layer constitute a capacitor structure, disposed under the gate metal layer, and the capacitor structure is electrically connected between a source and a drain of the transistor device.
US08258549B2
A cell of a semiconductor device includes a substrate portion formed to include at least one p-type diffusion region and at least one n-type diffusion region separated by non-active regions. The cell includes a gate electrode level including a number of conductive features defined to extend in only a first parallel direction. Each of the conductive features within the gate electrode level is fabricated from a respective originating rectangular-shaped layout feature. A width of the conductive features is less than a wavelength of light used in a photolithography process for their fabrication. Some of the conductive features form respective PMOS and/or NMOS transistor devices. A total number of the PMOS and NMOS transistor devices in the cell is greater than or equal to eight. The cell also includes a number of interconnect levels formed above the gate electrode level.
US08258547B2
A restricted layout region includes a diffusion level layout including a number of diffusion region layout shapes that define at least one p-type diffusion region and at least one n-type diffusion region separated by a central inactive region. A gate electrode level layout is defined above the diffusion level layout to include linear-shaped layout features placed to extend in only a first parallel direction. Adjacent linear-shaped layout features that share a common line of extent in the first parallel direction are separated from each other by an end-to-end spacing that is substantially equal across the gate electrode level layout and that is minimized to an extent allowed by a semiconductor device manufacturing capability. A number of PMOS transistor devices is equal to a number of NMOS transistor devices in the restricted layout region. The restricted layout region corresponds to an entire gate electrode level of a cell layout.
US08258541B2
A gallium nitride-based compound semiconductor light-emitting device including a positive electrode having openings, which is excellent in light extraction efficiency. The gallium nitride-based compound semiconductor light-emitting device includes a substrate; an n-type semiconductor layer, a light-emitting layer, and a p-type semiconductor layer, the layers being formed of a gallium nitride-based compound semiconductor and being stacked in this order on the substrate; a positive electrode which is provided so as to contact the p-type semiconductor layer; and a negative electrode which is provided so as to contact the n-type semiconductor layer, where the positive electrode is a positive electrode having openings, and at least a portion of the surface of the p-type semiconductor layer corresponding to the openings are roughened surface derived from spherical particulates.
US08258537B2
Provided is a technique of effectively extracting the beams of light excited in an LED light emitter other than the light beams emitted from a light-emitting region in the direction of a light-extraction surface. A pit with a tapered sidewall is formed in a substrate. A thin-film semiconductor element is attached to the pit. Light beams emitted from a side surface of the thin-film semiconductor element are reflected by the sidewall of the thin-film semiconductor element. Achieved thereby is effective extraction of light beams other than the light beams emitted from the light-emitting region in the direction of the light-extraction surface.
US08258534B2
A light emitting device includes an active layer; at least a portion of the active layer constitutes a gain region. The gain region is continuous from a first end surface and a second end surface. The gain region includes a first portion extending from the first end surface to a first reflective surface in a direction tilted with respect to a normal to the first side surface as viewed two-dimensionally; a second portion extending from the second end surface to the second reflective surface in a direction tilted with respect to a normal to the first side surface as viewed two-dimensionally; and a third portion extending from the first reflective surface to the second reflective surface in a direction tilted with respect to a normal to the first reflective surface as viewed two-dimensionally.
US08258530B2
A light-emitting device includes: a substrate; a light-emitting element is mounted on a first surface of the substrate; at least one uneven heat dissipation pattern is formed on at least one surface of the substrate; and an electrode covers at least a portion of the at least one uneven heat dissipation pattern and is connected to the light-emitting element.
US08258529B2
A light-emitting element includes a semiconductor substrate, a light emitting portion including an active layer sandwiched between a first cladding layer of a first conductivity type and a second cladding layer of a second conductivity type different from the first conductivity type, a reflective portion provided between the semiconductor substrate and the light emitting portion for reflecting light emitted from the active layer, and a current spreading layer provided on the light emitting portion opposite to the reflective portion and including a concavo-convex portion on a surface thereof. The reflective portion includes a plurality of pair layers each including a first semiconductor layer and a second semiconductor layer different from the first semiconductor layer, and the first semiconductor layer has a thickness TA1 defined by formulas (1) and (3), and the second semiconductor layer has a thickness TB1 defined by formulas (2) and (4).
US08258528B2
The disclosed subject matter includes reliable semiconductor light-emitting devices having a favorable light distribution using an LED chip, which can emit light having a different color as compared to that emitted directly by the LED chip. The semiconductor light-emitting device can include an LED chip having an electrode, a phosphor layer located on the LED chip except for the electrode, a bonding wire connected to the electrode, and a light-reflecting resin. The light-reflecting resin can be disposed on a light-emitting surface that is exposed around the electrode and on the electrode including the bonding wire, and can prevent the LED chip from exhibiting a leak of light that is not wavelength-converted via the phosphor layer, while increasing light that passes through the phosphor layer. In addition, the light-reflecting resin can protect the bonding wire from vibration, etc. Thus, the disclosed subject matter can provide reliable semiconductor light-emitting devices having high brightness without substantial color variability and that can emit various colored light(s).
US08258527B2
A small-sized lighting device can achieve wider light distribution patterns. The lighting device can include a semiconductor light emitting element configured to emit light from a first face and a second face thereof. A mounting substrate can be provided on which the semiconductor light emitting element is mounted. Light emitted from the second face can transmit through the mounting substrate, and a first optical system can be provided and configured to impart a first light distribution pattern to the light emitted from the first face of the semiconductor light emitting element. A second optical system can be provided and configured to impart a second light distribution pattern to light emitted from the second face of the semiconductor light emitting element.
US08258517B2
One embodiment exemplarily described herein can be generally characterized as a semiconductor device that includes a lower level device layer located over a semiconductor substrate, an interlayer insulating film located over the lower level device layer and an upper level device layer located over the interlayer insulating film. The lower level device layer may include a plurality of devices formed in the substrate. The upper level device layer may include a plurality of semiconductor patterns and at least one device formed in each of the plurality of semiconductor patterns. The plurality of semiconductor patterns may be electrically isolated from each other. Each of the plurality of semiconductor patterns may include at least one active portion and at least one body contact portion electrically connected to the at least one active portion.
US08258506B2
Provided is a photoelectric conversion device comprising an electrically conductive film, a photoelectric conversion film, and a transparent electrically conductive film, wherein said photoelectric conversion film contains a crystallized fullerene or fullerene derivative, and said crystallized fullerene or fullerene derivative is oriented in the (111) direction perpendicularly to the film surface of said electrically conductive film.
US08258505B2
Provided is a manufacturing method for an organic electroluminescence display apparatus in which processing uniformity is kept during partial removal processing of an electrode layer or an organic compound layer. The organic electroluminescence display apparatus includes: a substrate; and a light-emitting device including an organic compound layer including an emission layer sandwiched between electrodes formed on the substrate, in which: two or more of the light-emitting devices are provided, and the light-emitting devices are stacked in a direction perpendicular to the substrate; at least one of the electrodes and the organic compound layers in the two or more light-emitting devices includes openings; and the openings are positioned so as not to overlap with one another in the direction perpendicular to the substrate.
US08258502B2
A composition includes: (I) an alkenyl functional, phenyl-containing polyorganosiloxane, an Si—H functional phenyl-containing polyorganosiloxane, or a combination thereof; (II) a hydrogendiorganosiloxy terminated oligodiphenylsiloxane having specific molecular weight, an alkenyl-functional, diorganosiloxy-terminated oligodiphenylsiloxane having specific molecular weight, or a combination thereof; and (III) a hydrosilylation catalyst. A light emitting device is made by applying the composition onto a light source followed by curing. The composition provides a cured material with mechanical properties suited for use as an encapsulant for a light emitting device.
US08258491B2
A pattern writing system includes a plurality of control units configured to use different communication standards; a pattern writing unit configured to be controlled by the plurality of control units and write a pattern on a target object by using a charged particle beam; a storage unit configured to receive parameter information from an external slave computer and stores the parameter information; a first interface information circuit group configured to output a received parameter information to at least one of the plurality of control units in conformity with a communication standard on the at least one of plurality of control units; a main computer; and a second interface circuit group configured to receive a request from the main computer, input parameter information been setting in the plurality of control units without passing through the storage unit, convert communication standards of the parameter information input into a communication standard used by the main computer, and output the parameter information whose each communication standard is converted to the main computer.
US08258483B1
Disclosed below are representative embodiments of methods, apparatus, and systems for detecting particles, such as radiation or charged particles. One exemplary embodiment disclosed herein is particle detector comprising an optical fiber with a first end and second end opposite the first end. The optical fiber of this embodiment further comprises a doped region at the first end and a non-doped region adjacent to the doped region. The doped region of the optical fiber is configured to scintillate upon interaction with a target particle, thereby generating one or more photons that propagate through the optical fiber and to the second end. Embodiments of the disclosed technology can be used in a variety of applications, including associated particle imaging and cold neutron scattering.
US08258480B2
Methods and systems for processing an analog signal that is generated by a high energy photon detector in response to a high energy photon interaction. A digital edge is generated representing the time of the interaction along a first path, and the energy of the interaction is encoded as a delay from the digital edge along a second path. The generated digital edge and the delay encode the time and energy of the analog signal using pulse width modulation.
US08258473B2
A method and apparatus for in-situ lift-out rapid preparation of TEM samples. The invention uses adhesives and/or spring-loaded locking-clips in order to place multiple TEM-ready sample membranes on a single TEM support grid and eliminates the use of standard FIB-assisted metal deposition as a bonding scheme. Therefore, the invention circumvents the problem of sputtering from metal deposition steps and also increases overall productivity by allowing for multiple samples to be produced without opening the FIB/SEM vacuum chamber.
US08258471B2
A pattern measurement apparatus and a pattern measurement method are capable of easily distinguishing a line pattern and a space pattern from one another, without being affected by the luminance of the pattern. The pattern measurement apparatus includes: irradiation unit for irradiating a sample with an electron beam; first electron detector and second electron detector arranged with an optical axis of the electron beam in between; image processor for generating image data of the pattern; line profile generator for generating a line profile of the pattern; and controller for causing the image processor to generate the image data of the pattern on the basis of an amount of electrons corresponding to the difference between a signal detected by the first electron detector and a signal detected by the second electron detector.
US08258470B2
An improved ion optical lens designed to increase the amount of ion current delivered into a multi-pole ion detector or transfer device, such as quadrupole mass analyzer, an ion guide, collision cell, etc. A device and method is disclosed that utilizes a tubular entrance lens to introduce ions into or sample ions at a field-free or near field-free region disposed at the junction of two sets of multi-pole assemblies operating with radio frequency potentials shifted 180 degrees out of phase with respect to each other. The method is useful for increasing the transport of ions into as they enter into or exit out of a multi-pole mass analyzer, such as a quadrupole mass analyzer, an ion guide, collision cell, etc.
US08258469B2
A cycling electrospray ionization device includes a driving mechanism and a nozzle. The nozzle is configured to sequentially form liquid droplets of an electrospray medium thereat, and is adapted to establish a traveling path with a receiving unit of a mass spectrometer such that when a potential difference is applied between the nozzle and the receiving unit to lade the liquid droplets with a plurality of electric charges for ionizing analytes to form ionized analytes, the charged droplets are forced to move toward the receiving unit along the traveling path. The nozzle defines a nozzle axis, and is driven by the driving mechanism to proceed with a cycling route about a cycling axis such that the nozzle axis tracks along the cycling route, and such that immediately after leaving the nozzle, the liquid droplets cooperate to form a substantially columnar plume with a cross section substantially surrounded by the cycling route.
US08258467B2
In a time-of-flight spectrum obtained when the overtaking of ions of different kinds has occurred, mass-to-charge ratios M1, M2, and M3 are computed with a predetermined conversion formula by using a plurality of assumed numbers of turns for one peak. Then, the flight times Tf1, Tf2, and Tf3 for an overtakingless measurement are computed by using an inverse conversion formula. If peaks respectively corresponding to the flight times Tf1, Tf2, and Tf3 for an overtakingless measurement exist on an overtakingless time-of-flight spectrum, their intensities i1, i2, and i3 are obtained. Then, the intensity Ia of the original peak is distributed to the mass-to-charge ratios M1, M2, and M3 in accordance with the intensity ratio. The same intensity distribution processing is performed for all or selected plural peaks. The intensities assigned to the same mass-to-charge ratio are integrated. A mass spectrum is created for each of a plurality of overtaking time-of-flight spectra obtained by changing the timing of deviation of ions from a loop orbit, and the plurality of mass spectra are displayed in a window of a display unit so that they can be compared. Thereby, the probability of missing an ion due to the ion deviation timing can be reduced.
US08258465B2
A mass spectrometry apparatus configured to allow a user to designate an upper limit value UL together with a lower limit value, as a peak sorting condition. A data processing section is operable to determine whether respective peak intensities of a plurality of peaks appearing on a mass spectrum fall within an intensity range Ath defined by upper and lower limit values UL, LL, and exclude any peak out of the intensity range Ath. The remaining ions are selected as precursor ions, for example, in descending or ascending order of peak intensity so as to perform an MS2 analysis. The upper limit UL is adequately set to allow the MS2 analysis for a sample component with a low concentration, by priority, while avoiding a sample component exhibiting a high intensity and having no need for the MS2 analysis.
US08258459B2
An optical encoder includes a rotation disc, an annular slit, a light source, an absolute-value-related detecting unit, and a signal processing device. The annular slit includes a first annular slit and a second annular slit which are decentered in a mutually different direction. The light source is configured to irradiate light on the annular slit. The absolute-value-related detecting unit is configured to detect transmitted light or reflected light irradiated from the light source and transmitted or reflected at the annular slit to output a detected signal. The absolute-value-related detecting unit includes a first detecting unit corresponding to the first annular slit and a second detecting unit corresponding to the second annular slit. The signal processing device is configured to detect an absolute rotational angle of the rotation disc based on the detected signal output from the absolute-value-related detecting unit.
US08258452B2
Provided is a light receiving circuit including: a photodiode; a first amplifier including a feedback resistor connected between an input and an output of an inverting amplifier and having an input connected to a cathode of the photodiode; a second amplifier having a configuration similar to that of the first amplifier and having an input connected to an anode of the photodiode; a capacitor element connected between an output of the first amplifier and the input of the second amplifier; and a bias current control circuit that outputs a bias current to the input of the second amplifier according to a current value of the photocurrent, and controls an output voltage signal of the light receiving circuit according to an output of the second amplifier by using the bias current to adjust the sensitivity. The bias current control circuit changes the sensitivity according to the output of the second amplifier.
US08258450B1
The device allows imaging of the flow of proximity multi environmental parameters, like temperature, pressure, force, while simultaneously detecting environmental molecules/chemicals. The device may be housed in a portable camera-like or sheet detection system. Such a system will allow the real time visualization of the chemistry and physics of fluids (air, water, plasmas) in a camera format and create a novel environmental monitoring system.
US08258444B2
A front cover for a vehicle lighting fixture is attached to the front opening part of the vehicle lighting fixture having a lamp body and a light source installed in the lamp body. A part of the surface of the front cover opposed to the light source includes a heating element having a three-dimensional curved surface. The heating element includes a mesh pattern having intersections of a large number of grids formed of conductive metallic filaments and a first electrode and a second electrode formed at both opposed ends of the mesh pattern. The projection shape of the outline of the entire mesh pattern is formed in a rectangular shape having the longitudinal direction, for example, between the first electrode and the second electrode.
US08258436B2
The present invention provides a heating device including a heating compartment for holding an object-to-be-heated, an oven heater for heating the heating compartment, a circulation fan for supplying the heat of the oven heater to the heating compartment as hot air, a drive motor for driving the circulation fan, a grill heater in an upper part of the heating compartment, and a turntable on which the object-to-be-heated is mounted, the turntable being in the bottom of the heating compartment, in which the grill heater is disposed obliquely to a side surface of the heating compartment in a part of the upper part of the heating compartment.
US08258435B2
A combination convection and radiant cooking appliance includes an oven cavity, broil and bake radiant heating elements, a convection cover defining a rear wall of the oven cavity, a back panel, and a dual fan convection heating system mounted between the convection cover and the back panel. Each combination fan/heater of the dual convection heating system includes a multi-speed fan and an associated electric heating element, with the fans being vertically disposed in the oven cavity. Controls are provided to enable a user to select between at least a bake mode, a no preheat convection bake mode, a rapid preheat convection bake mode, a preheat convection bake mode and a convection roast mode.
US08258426B2
Embodiments of the present invention generally provide methods and apparatus for material removal using lasers in the fabrication of solar cells. In one embodiment, an apparatus is provided that precisely removes portions of a dielectric layer deposited on a solar cell substrate according to a desired pattern and deposits a conductive layer over the patterned dielectric layer. In one embodiment, the apparatus also removes portions of the conductive layer in a desired pattern. In certain embodiments, methods for removing a portion of a material via a laser without damaging the underlying substrate are provided. In one embodiment, the intensity profile of the beam is adjusted so that the difference between the maximum and minimum intensity within a spot formed on a substrate surface is reduced to an optimum range. In one example, the substrate is positioned such that the peak intensity at the center versus the periphery of the substrate is lowered. In one embodiment, the pulse energy is improved to provide thermal stress and physical lift-off of a desired portion of a dielectric layer.
US08258418B2
A dome overlay structure for a mobile device keyboard includes a plurality of dome switches, a circuit board disposed beneath the plurality of dome switches with each dome switch electrically coupled to the circuit board, a main overlay disposed over the plurality of dome switches, and a first adhesive dab centrally interposed between the dome switch and the main overlay with a second adhesive dab surrounding the first adhesive dab. Each dome switch has a central portion and a non-central portion. The first adhesive dab can bond the central portion of the dome switch to the main overlay. The second adhesive dab is configured to form a gap between the second adhesive dab and the non-central portion of the dome switch in an unactuated configuration and configured to contact the non-central portion of the dome switch in an actuated configuration.
US08258417B2
A thin, film-form seating switch able to detect whether an occupant sits on the seat or not, wherein, with a spacer (5) in-between, a film-form substrate (3) is disposed on one surface of the spacer and a film-form member (7) on the other surface, a first conductor (13) equipped with a first terminal (9) and a first electrode (11A) conductive with this and a second conductor (19) equipped with a second terminal (15) and a second electrode (17A) conductive with this are fixed to one surface of the film-form substrate, and a third conductor (21A) for letting the first electrode conduct with the second electrode when an occupant is seated is fixed to the film-form member (7). The above arrangement solves a conventional problem that it is troublesome to connect the connection terminals of wires or the like provided on a wiring harness or the like to respective terminals that are separately provided on a film-form substrate and a film-form member.
US08258413B2
A load detection device for a vehicle seat mounted between a floor side mounting mechanism and a seat side mounting mechanism and measuring a load applied by an occupant seated on the vehicle seat, includes a shaft member adapted to be fixed to one of the floor side mounting mechanism and the seat side mounting mechanism, a strain generating member fixed to the shaft member and including a hole into which the shaft member is press-fitted, a strain gauge attached to the strain generating member, the shaft member of which surface hardness is specified to be lower than a surface hardness of the hole and including a scraping projecting portion scraped off by means of the hole in a case where the shaft member is press-fitted to the hole, and an inter space formed between the strain generating member and the shaft member and positioned next to the scraping projecting portion.
US08258410B2
A stacked via structure for reducing vertical stiffness includes: a plurality of stacked vias, each via disposed on a disc-like structure. The disc-like structure includes a platted through hole landing supporting the plurality of stacked vias. The platted through hole landing includes a compliant center zone; and spring-like stiffness-reducing connectors for connecting the compliant center zone of the platted through hole landing.
US08258402B2
The lead-out side end of a drain wire led out from a shield wire and either a conductor exposed to one end of a ground wire, to the other end of which a ground terminal is connected, or a conductor exposed to one end of a ground wire, to the other end of which a connector receiving terminal is connected, are collectively connected together by crimping by using a U-shape cross-sectioned intermediate crimp terminal formed by a pair of opposed barrels, or connected by twisting them together, or connected through a joint bus bar.
US08258400B2
A storage case (300) includes a case body (320) formed by joining a plurality of members (301, 302) with a joint structure (303a, 303b, 304), an opening (16) formed in the case body (320), a closure member (14) capable of closing the opening (16), a seal structure (17) provided between the case body (320) and the closure member (14), and a foreign-matter guide portion (10) provided on an outer surface of the case body (320), aside from the joint structure (303a, 303b, 304), such that the foreign-matter guide portion is located above the seal structure in the vertical direction of the storage case.
US08258397B2
Imperfect filling sometimes occurs when a conductive material is filled into a through-hole formed on a solar cell. A method of manufacturing a solar cell of the invention employs a support wherein a conductive material is filled into a through-hole. Accordingly, it is possible to suppress occurrence of imperfect filling and thereby provide a method of manufacturing a solar cell with enhanced reliability. Moreover, a flat surface is provided on a solar cell of the present invention when a connector electrode is formed on a through-hole and this enables enhanced connection reliability.
US08258394B2
A retractable solar panel system, which includes a plurality of solar panels, and a system for extending and retracting the plurality of solar panels. The plurality of solar panels can be configured to be attachable to a nautical stay, wherein the stay is fixed at one end to a hull of the sailboat and at a second end to a mast of the sailboat.
US08258384B1
A novel maize variety designated X8H549 and seed, plants and plant parts thereof, produced by crossing Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc. proprietary inbred maize varieties. Methods for producing a maize plant that comprises crossing hybrid maize variety X8H549 with another maize plant. Methods for producing a maize plant containing in its genetic material one or more traits introgressed into X8H549 through backcross conversion and/or transformation, and to the maize seed, plant and plant part produced thereby. This invention relates to the maize variety X8H549, the seed, the plant produced from the seed, and variants, mutants, and minor modifications of maize variety X8H549. This invention further relates to methods for producing maize varieties derived from maize variety X8H549.
US08258379B1
Basically, this invention provides for an inbred corn line designated NPCI6621, methods for producing a corn plant by crossing plants of the inbred line NPCI6621 with plants of another corn plant. The invention relates to the various parts of inbred NPCI6621 including culturable cells. This invention also relates to methods for introducing transgenic transgenes into inbred corn line NPCI6621 and plants produced by said methods.
US08258376B1
A soybean cultivar designated 06021638 is disclosed. The invention relates to the seeds of soybean cultivar 06021638, to the plants of soybean cultivar 06021638, to the plant parts of soybean cultivar 06021638, and to methods for producing progeny of soybean cultivar 06021638. The invention also relates to methods for producing a soybean plant containing in its genetic material one or more transgenes and to the transgenic soybean plants and plant parts produced by those methods. The invention also relates to soybean cultivars or breeding cultivars, and plant parts derived from soybean cultivar 06021638. The invention also relates to methods for producing other soybean cultivars, lines, or plant parts derived from soybean cultivar 06021638, and to the soybean plants, varieties, and their parts derived from use of those methods. The invention further relates to hybrid soybean seeds, plants, and plant parts produced by crossing cultivar 06021638 with another soybean cultivar.
US08258370B2
The present invention relates to isolated polypeptides having endoglucanase activity and isolated polynucleotides encoding the polypeptides. The invention also relates to nucleic acid constructs, vectors, and host cells comprising the polynucleotides as well as methods for producing and using the polypeptides.
US08258369B2
An object of the invention is to effectively prepare a fish embryo with a correct chromosomal ploidy by nuclear transplantation in which an exogenous fish nucleus is transplanted in a cytoplasmic recipient. For this object, the invention comprises a step of preparing a fish embryo by transplanting a fish cell nucleus to an unfertilized egg. The step of preparing a fish embryo comprises a step of imposing physical and/or chemical stress to the unfertilized egg after activation. By imposing such stress, the stage of haplosis in a female nucleus which happens at the early stage of a series of developmental steps occurring in an unfertilized egg is suppressed and the correct ploidy of an obtained embryo is at least secured.
US08258367B2
Disposable absorbent article comprising an interior design signal indicating absorbency and an absorbent core including first and second absorbent layers, the first absorbent layer including a first substrate and the second absorbent layer including a second substrate, the first and second absorbent layers further including absorbent particulate polymer material deposited on the first and second substrates and thermoplastic material covering the absorbent particulate polymer material on the respective first and second substrates, the first and second absorbent layers combined together such that at least a portion of the thermoplastic material of the first absorbent layer contacts at least a portion of the thermoplastic material of the second absorbent layer, the absorbent particulate polymer material is disposed between the first and second substrates in an absorbent particulate polymer material area, and the absorbent particulate polymer material is substantially continuously distributed across the absorbent particulate polymer material area.
US08258342B2
A method for making a (meth)acrylamide monomer, comprises reacting a (meth)acrylate ester with an amino-functional compound in an organic solvent in the presence of a transesterification catalyst.
US08258340B2
An object of the present invention is to provide a method for industrially producing β-mercapto carboxylic acids that are useful as synthetic raw materials for medicines and agrochemicals or as additives for polymer compounds from easily available α,β-unsaturated carboxylic acids in high yields and productivity.The present invention is characterized in that a solvent having an amide group and represented by the formula (1) is used when the α,β-unsaturated carboxylic acids are reacted with hydrogen sulfides to produce the β-mercapto carboxylic acids. Particularly, it is more preferable to carry out the reaction at a pH range of 6.0 to 8.5: (In the formula (1), R1 represents any one of a hydrogen atom, an alkoxy group having 1 to 5 carbon atoms, an alkyl group having 1 to 5 carbon atoms, an amino group, and an alkylamino group having 1 to 5 carbon atoms; R2 and R3 each represents independently any one of a hydrogen atom and an alkyl group having 1 to 5 carbon atoms; when both R2 and R3 are not a hydrogen atom, R2 and R3 may together form a ring structure through an alkylene group; and when both R1 and R2 are not a hydrogen atom, R1 and R2 may form a ring structure through an alkylene group).
US08258337B2
The present invention relates to a process for preparing isocyanates and an apparatus suitable for this purpose, and also its use. In the process, an amine and phosgene, both in the gas phase, react in the presence of an inert medium. A number, n, of amine streams are reacted with a number, n +1, of phosgene streams in a reactor. The number n is a positive integer of at least 1. All amine and phosgene streams are introduced into the reactor through annular gaps for mixing.
US08258329B2
This invention provides novel compounds comprising the following anti-inflammatory pharmacore: wherein X, R1 and R2 are defined herein. Also provided are pharmaceutical compositions, kits and articles of manufacture comprising such compounds, methods and intermediates useful for making the compounds, and methods of using the compounds and compositions.
US08258327B2
The invention provides crystalline minocycline base. In particular, three crystalline polymorphic forms, designated Form I, Form II and Form III, of minocycline base are provided. These are characterized by XRD and IR data. Processes for preparing the new polymorphic forms are also provided. For example, Form I is prepared by dissolving and/or suspending amorphous minocycline base in an organic solvent chosen from ethers followed by crystallization from the mixture.
US08258322B2
An improved process is provided for the synthesis of hexahydrodibenzo[b,d]pyran-9-ones, such as nabilone.
US08258305B2
Dopamine transporter inhibitors for use in treatment of movement disorders and other CNS indications
The invention provides a class of dopamine transporter inhibitors of formula (I) (DAT inhibitors), packaged pharmaceuticals comprising such inhibitors, and their uses in treating, or manufacturing medicaments for treating disease conditions including Parkinson's disease, when assessed by one or more of Hoehn and Yahr Staging of Parkinson's Disease, Unified Parkinson Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS), and Schwab and England Activities of Daily Living Scale. Related business methods such as marketing the inhibitors to healthcare providers are also provided.
US08258303B2
Pharmaceutical compositions containing new molecules capable of inhibiting acetylcholinesterase, thus being useful in the treatment of pathologies associated to cholinergic transmission, such as memory related disorders, neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's Disease, Miasthenia Gravis or in the treatment of intoxications induced by chemical agents of central action The production processes of pharmaceutical compositions.
US08258296B2
The present subject matter relates to novel crystalline forms of (1R,2R)-7-chloro-3-[2-(2,4-difluorophenyl)-2-hydroxy-1-methyl-3-(1H-1,2,4-triazol-1-yl)propyl]quinazolin-4(3H)-one represented by Formula II: , pharmaceutical compositions containing these crystalline forms, methods of using these crystalline forms for treating and/or preventing various microbial and/or fungal infections or disorders, and processes for obtaining these crystalline forms. In particular, the present subject matter relates to the specific crystalline Forms I, II, III, IV V, and VI of (1R,2R)-7-chloro-3-[2-(2,4-difluorophenyl)-2-hydroxy-1-methyl-3-(1H-1,2,4-triazol-1-yl)propyl]quinazolin-4(3H)-one.
US08258292B2
Chemically reactive carbocyanine dyes that are intramolecularly crosslinked between the 1-position and 3′-position, their bioconjugates and their uses are described. 1,3′-crosslinked carbocyanines are superior to those of conjugates of spectrally similar 1,1′-crosslinked or non-crosslinked dyes. The invention includes derivative compounds having one or more benzo nitrogens.
US08258290B2
Compositions and methods are provided related to Pseudomonas bacteria. The compositions and methods may be used for diagnosis and therapy of medical conditions involving infection with Pseudomonas bacteria. Such infections include Pseudomonas aeruginosa in the lungs of patients with cystic fibrosis. A compound useful in the present methods may be used in combination with a therapeutic agent or may be linked to a therapeutic agent. Pseudomonas bacteria may be inhibited by blocking colonization, inhibiting virulence factors, arresting growth or killing the bacteria.
US08258287B2
The invention relates to interfering RNAs (siRNAs, shRNAs or pre-miRNAs) directed against conserved regions of the mRNA of the N gene encoding the morbillivirus nucleoprotein. The invention also relates to the use of said interfering RNAs for the production of medicaments for use in the treatment or prevention of a morbillivirus infection.
US08258282B2
Provided is an isolated nucleic acid molecule having a right border flanking region, a left border flanking region and a transgene sequence between the right border flanking region and the left border flanking region, wherein the right border flanking region having at least 90% homology with the sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO: 29; the left border flanking region having at least 90% homology with the sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO: 31; and the transgene sequence having a papaya ringspot virus coat protein gene and a promoter operably linked to the papaya ringspot virus coat protein gene. Primers, probes and kit derived from the isolated nucleic acid molecule are proved to be useful for identifying the transgenic papaya line 16-0-1 in a specific, reproducible, sensitive and reliable way.
US08258275B2
Aspects of the present invention relate to chimeric polypeptides including HCV NS3/4A sequences and T-cell epitopes. Embodiments include nucleic acids encoding the chimeric NS3/4A polypeptides, the encoded polypeptides, compositions containing said nucleic acids, compositions containing said chimeric polypeptides, as well as methods of making and using the aforementioned compositions including, but not limited to medicaments and vaccines.
US08258274B2
Canine parvovirus vaccines and diagnostics and methods for their use are provided.
US08258267B2
The invention relates to fully human antibodies, and fragments thereof, that bind to interferon-inducible-protein-10 (IP-IO, CXCL1O), thereby modulating the interaction between IP-IO and its receptor, CXCR3, and/or modulating the biological activities of IP-IO. The invention also relates to the use of such anti-IP-10 antibodies in the prevention or treatment of immune-related disorders and in the amelioration of one or more symptoms associated with an immune-related disorder.
US08258259B2
The following invention is directed to macromolecules having controlled stoichiometry and topology, processes for their production, and applications for their use. The macromolecules have a controlled functional moiety stoichiometry and include at least one dendritic motif having a surface layer formed from at least one surface building unit and at least one subsurface layer formed from at least one building unit, the surface building unit and building units having a hydrocarbon backbone bearing a carbonyl group and at least one amine group; and at least two different functional moieties on the building unit and/or surface building unit; where functional moiety stoichiometry refers to the number and type of functional moieties.
US08258254B2
A biodegradable resin having sufficient heat resistance, molding property and recycling property can be obtained, without losing biodegradability, by introducing a covalently bonded and thermo-reversible cross-linked structure into a biodegradable resin. Heat resistance, molding property, recycling property and biodegradability can be further improved, if necessary, by setting the cleaving temperature of a cross-linked structure in a given range, selecting the kind of a cross-linked structure, and making a three-dimensional cross-linked structure.
US08258242B2
Disclosed are: a compatibilizing agent for a polymer alloy, which can increase the compatibility with a variety of polymers; a polymer alloy using the compatibilizing agent; and master batch for a polymer alloy. Specifically disclosed is a compatibilizing agent which is used for the preparation of a polymer alloy by blending at least one polymer (A) selected from the group consisting of a polyphenylene sulfide, a polyphenylene ether and a polyamide with a polymer (B) of a different type from the polymer (A) at such a ratio that the amount of the polymer (A) blended is the same as or more than that of the polymer (B). The compatibilizing agent comprises a nanosheet-shaped layered titanic acid which is produced by intercalate an organic basic compound between the layers of a layered titanic acid.
US08258238B2
The invention relates to an actuator for converting between mechanical and electrical energy comprising—at least two electrodes; and—an electroactive polymer, comprising aromatic moieties in the chain and flexible moieties in the chain, the polymer further comprising side groups bound to the chain, which side groups are selected from the group consisting of polar side groups and side groups comprising an aromatic moiety. The invention further relates to a novel electroactive polymer comprising polar side groups bound to the chain.
US08258237B2
A homogeneous blend comprising from 10% to 90% by weight of a metallocene catalyzed polyethylene (mPE) and from 90% to 10% by weight of styrene-butadiene block copolymers comprising from 5% to 40% by weight of 1,3 butadiene monomer units and from 60% to 95% by weight of styrene monomer units. The blend of the invention is used to make peelable films for food packaging applications.
US08258233B2
The invention provides an adhesive with an aqueous polymer dispersion. The aqueous polymer dispersion comprises a copolymer of a) esters of vinyl alcohol with C2 to C6 monocarboxylic acids, b) α,β-unsaturated C3 to C9 carboxylic acids or vinyl-substituted phosphonic or sulfonic acids, c) polyunsaturated monomers, and optionally d) non-polar, copolymerizable monomers and e) copolymerizable monomers that carry polar functional groups, where the ratio of c:b ranges from 1:10 to 1:400. The adhesive has high adhesion strength, stable viscosity during high-speed automatic application process and, is optionally, remoistenable with water or becomes water-soluble. The adhesive may be advantageous used as wood adhesive, remoistenable adhesive, label adhesive, bottle adhesive, and the like.
US08258219B2
Disclosed is a coating composition for a wiper blade, which includes a silicone-based wax, a silicone oil and a solid lubricant so that the silicon-based wax in a liquid phase dissolved in the silicone oil coexists with the solid lubricant for extended time periods. Also, a wiper blade is provided, which has a rib including a coating layer formed from the coating composition, so that upon operation of the wiper blade, components of the coating layer dissolve out of the surface of the coating layer and are then transferred onto a windshield due to friction between the wiper blade and the windshield, thereby forming on the surface of the windshield a water repellent film which is hard and has outstanding durability.
US08258207B2
Blends of carbon black or other fillers is described. The blends of carbon black or other fillers are preferably pre-blended prior to introducing the blend into a product such as an elastomeric or polymeric product.
US08258202B2
Disclosed are antimicrobial coating compositions. These coating compositions comprise (a) a film-forming resin; (b) a porous solid comprising pores having anti-microbial metal ions disposed therein; and (c) an onium compound.
US08258193B2
The invention provides a process for removal of HCN and NH3 from synthesis gas, the process comprising the steps of: (a) contacting feed synthesis gas comprising HCN with a HCN hydrolysis sorbent in the presence of water, thereby obtaining synthesis gas comprising NH3; (b) contacting the synthesis gas comprising NH3 with an acidic cation exchange resin in the presence of water to remove NH3, thereby obtaining purified synthesis gas.
US08258191B2
A topical skin barrier for protecting and promoting healing of skin, and for providing comfort to a patient, comprises a semi-solid hydrocarbon and a water-absorbing compound. The topical skin barrier effectively adheres to skin, affords protection from moisture and waste, and provides transparency in use. Methods of in vitro evaluation are for (i) a composition's protection from moisture and waste, and (ii) a composition's adhesion to skin.
US08258189B2
The invention relates to compositions obtained by the reaction of an alcohol having a variable nature and that can be modified beforehand by the addition of alkylene oxide, and of a substrate characterized by an oxetane pattern and at least one hydroxyl function.
US08258179B2
A crystalline form of a (3S)-aminomethyl-5-hexanoic acid prodrug and methods of preparing a crystalline form of a (3S)-aminomethyl-5-hexanoic acid prodrug, and methods of using a crystalline form of a (3S)-aminomethyl-5-hexanoic acid prodrug are provided.
US08258178B2
An object of the present invention is to provide organic solvent extracts of red algae laurencia sp., compounds isolated and identified therefrom, and an agent for preventing attachment of barnacles comprising them.The present invention relates to a barnacle attachment preventive agent consisting of at least one selected from the group consisting of Laurencin, Thyrsiferol, Magireol A, Omaezallene, Hachijojimallene A and organic solvent extracts of red algae laurencia sp.
US08258168B2
Compounds corresponding to the formula (I) as defined in the disclosure, as well as methods for making such compounds, intermediates employed in such methods, pharmaceutical compositions containing the compounds of the invention, and methods of treatment using them.
US08258163B2
Methods and compositions for agonizing a type-2 orexin receptor (OX2R) in a cell determined to be in need thereof, including the general method of (a) administering to a subject a cyclic guanidinyl OX2R agonist and (b) detecting a resultant enhanced wakefulness or increased resistance to diet-induced accumulation of body fat, or abbreviated recovery from general anesthesia or jet lag.
US08258159B2
Novel compounds inhibiting the integrin α2β1/GPIa-IIa receptor are disclosed. Also disclosed are pharmaceutical compositions containing the compounds, as well as methods of their therapeutic use. The compounds disclosed are useful, inter alia, as inhibitors of integrin α2β1/GPIa-IIa-mediated activity.
US08258153B2
The invention features methods, kits, and compositions for the treatment of ophthalmic disorders. The compositions include a corticosteroid in combination with a non-steroidal immunophilin-dependent immunosuppressant.
US08258147B2
The invention encompasses protectant agents including uracil or a metabolite thereof that effectively prevent and/or treat the cutaneous toxicities and dermatological side-effects associated with chemotherapeutic agents. Additionally, and surprisingly compositions including uracil or a metabolite thereof are effective for treating or preventing various dermatoses.
US08258146B2
An object of the present invention is to provide a liquid composition wherein minoxidil can be dissolved at a relatively high concentration (the saturating amount or above), stimulation of skin and stickiness is suppressed without containing an organic solvent, and excellent effects of percutaneous absorption is achieved. The present invention provides a liquid composition comprising (i) minoxidil, (ii) bile acid or a salt thereof, and (iii) an aqueous medium in an amount of 30% by weight or more of the weight of the composition.
US08258142B2
The present invention provides substituted 8-[6-amino-3-pyridyl]xanthines such as the following: and pharmaceutical compositions that are selective antagonists of A2B adenosine receptors (ARs). These compounds and compositions are useful as pharmaceutical agents.
US08258140B2
The invention concerns bicyclic compounds of Formula I wherein , R1, R2, L1, L2, J, Y, k, n, p and r are as defined in the description. The present invention also relates to processes for the preparation of such compounds, pharmaceutical compositions containing them and their use in the treatment of androgen-receptor associated conditions, particularly prostate cancer.
US08258139B2
The invention relates to a medicament or a method for treating mental disorders, in detail, ADHD comprising lurasidone, or a combination of lurasidone and a D4 receptor agonist.
US08258138B2
The present invention provides a compound of formula (I) or its salts or pharmaceutically acceptable derivatives wherein R1, R2, R3, X1, and A are defined herein. The compounds are useful as potassium ion channel inhibitors.
US08258128B2
The present invention relates to novel aza-thia-benzoazulene derivatives of formula I as defined in the claims, their preparation, the use of these novel compounds for the preparation of pharmaceutical compositions, the use of these novel compounds and compositions for managing arthritis and arthritis-related conditions as well as in the treatment of pain in animals and humans. More particularly, the present invention relates to pharmaceutical, preferably veterinary compositions and methods for reducing inflammation and pain associated with acute inflammation of body parts, particularly joints, due to injury or due to arthritic conditions or other disease conditions.
US08258123B2
The present invention relates to novel uses of C-19 steroid compounds, in particular C-19 steroids having an androsten-17-(OR4)-3-one structure for cosmetic and further uses, wherein R4 is hydrogen or an unsubstituted or substituted alkyl, aryl, acyl or any group leading to hydroxyl upon biological metabolization or chemical deprotection. The present invention particularly relates to selected C-19 steroids displaying properties of high binding affinity to androgen receptor to block dihydrotestosterone from binding, while at the same time providing anabolic effects, which is useful for certain applications, particularly for influencing or controlling problems of the skin and its skin-associated body structures like cellulite, wrinkles, adipose fat tissues, hair follicles or hair growth; for influencing or controlling gland function and activity such as the sebaceous gland and other glands affecting the skin and/or perspiration. The present invention also describes a composition comprising a combination of such a compound and dimethyl isosorbide.
US08258122B2
New inhibitors of the p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase having the general formula (I) are disclosed herein, as well as processes for their preparation, pharmaceutical compositions comprising them, and their use in therapy.
US08258112B2
Disclosed herein are sequences, molecules and methods used to suppress the expression of HD genes encoding for huntingtin protein in primates including Macaca mulatto and Homo sapiens. These sequences, molecules and methods aid in the study of the pathogenesis of HD and can also provide a treatment for this disease.
US08258101B2
This invention relates to new peptide-based compounds and their use in therapeutically effective treatments as well as for diagnostic imaging techniques. More specifically the invention relates to the use of such peptide-based compounds used as targeting vectors that bind to receptors associated with angiogenesis, in particular the αvβ3 integrin receptor. Such contrast agents may thus be used for diagnosis of for example malignant diseases, heart diseases, inflammation-related diseases, rheumatoid arthritis and Kaposi's sarcoma. Moreover such compounds may also be used in therapeutic treatment of these diseases.
US08258100B2
Amphipathic lytic peptides are ideally suited to use in a ligand/cytotoxin combination to specifically inhibit cells that are driven by or are dependent upon a specific ligand interaction; for example, to induce sterility or long-term contraception, or to attack tumor cells, or to selectively lyse virally-infected cells, or to attack lymphocytes responsible for autoimmune diseases. The peptides act directly on cell membranes, and need not be internalized. Administering a combination of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) (or a GnRH agonist) and a membrane-active lytic peptide produces long-term contraception or sterilization in animals in vivo. Administering in vivo a combination of a ligand and a membrane-active lytic peptide kills cells with a receptor for the ligand. The compounds are relatively small, and are not antigenic. Lysis of gonadotropes has been observed to be very rapid (on the order of ten minutes.) Lysis of tumor cells is rapid. The two components—the ligand and the lytic peptide—may optionally be administered as a fusion peptide, or they may be administered separately, with the ligand administered slightly before the lytic peptide, to activate cells with receptors for the ligand, and thereby make those cells susceptible to lysis by the lytic peptide. The compounds may be used in gene therapy to treat malignant or non-malignant tumors, and other diseases caused by clones or populations of “normal” host cells bearing specific receptors (such as lymphocytes), because genes encoding a lytic peptide or encoding a lytic peptide/peptide hormone fusion may readily be inserted into hematopoietic stem cells or myeloid precursor cells.
US08258098B2
The present invention relates to combinations of aplidine or aplidine analogues with other titumoral agents, and the use of these combinations in the treatment of cancer, in particular in the treatment of lung cancer, breast cancer, colon cancer, prostate cancer, renal cancer, melanoma, multiple myeloma, leukemia and lymphoma.
US08258091B2
An oil composition contains 1 to 50 percent by weight of a glycerol monoether compound represented by following Formula (1): R1O—(C3H6O2)n1—H (1) wherein R1 represents an alkyl or alkenyl group which may be substituted, and “n1” denotes a number of repeating glycerol units ranging from 1 to 3; and 1 to 50 percent by weight of a polyglycerol monoether compound represented by following Formula (2): R2O—(C3H6O2)n2—H (2) wherein R2 represents an alkyl or alkenyl group which may be substituted, and “n2” denotes a number of repeating glycerol units ranging from 4 to 20. The oil composition is usable as a foamable cleansing agent that is mild to the skin, exhibits superior detergency for removing oily cosmetics, and is usable even when the skin is wet.
US08258084B2
Spray dried emulsifier compositions are described, which have desirable emulsifying and wetting characteristics. Among other advantages, the solid particulate emulsifier compositions greatly reduce transportation costs and simplify the logistics and environmental concerns associated with shipping large volumes of solvent-containing liquids. The emulsifier comprises (1) a carboxylic acid terminated fatty amine condensate or (2) a modified tall oil or (3) a blend of (1) and (2) that is converted to its alkali or alkaline earth metal salt and spray dried.
US08258083B2
A method for fracture stimulation of a subterranean formation includes providing a thermoset polymer nanocomposite particle precursor composition comprising a polymer precursor mixture, dispersed within a liquid medium, containing at least one of an initiator; at least one of a monomer, an oligomer or combinations thereof, said monomer and oligomer having three or more reactive functionalities capable of creating crosslinks between polymer chains; at least one of an impact modifier; and nanofiller particles substantially dispersed within the liquid medium; subjecting the nanocomposite particle precursor composition to suspension polymerizing conditions; subjecting the resulting nanocomposite particles to heat treatment; forming a slurry comprising a fluid and a proppant that includes the heat-treated nanocomposite particles; injecting the slurry into a wellbore; and emplacing the proppant within a fracture network in the formation.
US08258068B2
The present invention relates to a sintered product elaborated from a starting charge containing 75-99% of zircon, in mass percentage based on the oxides and having the following average weight chemical composition, in mass percentages based on the oxides 60%≦ZrO2≦72.8%, 27%≦SiO2≦36%, 0.1%≦B2O3+GeO2+P2O5+Sb2O3+Nb2O5+Ta2O5+V2O5, 0.1%≦ZnO+PbO+CdO, B2O3+GeO2+P2O5+Sb2O3+Nb2O5+Ta2O5+V2O5+ZnO+PbO+CdO≦5%, 0%≦Al2O3+TiO2+MgO+Fe2O3+NiO+MnO2+CoO+CuO≦5%, other oxides: ≦1.5%, for a total of 100%. Notably used in a glass furnace.
US08258056B2
A method of lithography patterning includes forming a first material layer on a substrate; forming a first patterned resist layer including at least one opening therein on the first material layer; forming a second material layer on the first patterned resist layer and the first material layer; forming a second patterned resist layer including at least one opening therein on the second material layer; and etching the first and second material layers uncovered by the first and second patterned resist layers.
US08258055B2
An embodiment of the disclosure includes a conductive bump on a semiconductor die. A substrate is provided. A bond pad is over the substrate. An under bump metallurgy (UBM) layer is over the bond pad. A copper pillar is over the UBM layer. The copper pillar has a top surface with a first width and sidewalls with a concave shape. A nickel layer having a top surface and a bottom surface is over the top surface of the copper pillar. The bottom surface of the nickel layer has a second width. A ratio of the second width to the first width is between about 0.93 to about 1.07. A solder material is over the top surface of the cap layer.
US08258053B2
In sophisticated semiconductor devices including transistors having a high-k metal gate electrode structure, disposable spacers may be provided on the encapsulating spacer element with a reduced width so as to not unduly increase a lateral offset of a strain-inducing material to be incorporated into the active region. For this purpose, a multi-layer deposition may be used in combination with a low pressure CVD process.
US08258052B2
A method of manufacturing a silicon carbide semiconductor device according to the present invention includes the steps of (a) forming an implantation mask made up of a plurality of unit masks on a silicon carbide semiconductor layer, and (b) implanting predetermined ion in the silicon carbide semiconductor layer at a predetermined implantation energy by using the implantation mask. In the step (a), the implantation mask is formed such that a length from any point in the unit mask to an end of the unit mask can be equal to or less than a scattering length obtained when the predetermined ion is implanted in silicon carbide at the predetermined implantation energy and the implantation mask can have a plurality of regions different from each other in terms of a size and an arrangement interval of the unit masks.
US08258047B2
A method for depositing nanowires is disclosed. The method includes depositing multiple nanowires onto a surface of a liquid. The method also includes partially compressing the nanowires. The method also includes dipping a substrate into the liquid. The method further includes pulling the substrate out of the liquid at a controlled speed. The method also includes transferring the nanowires onto the substrate parallel to a direction of the pulling.
US08258046B2
A processing method for a workpiece which includes a first modified region forming step of forming first modified regions along first division lines and second division lines near the front side of the workpiece, a second modified region forming step of forming second modified regions at intersecting regions between the first division lines and the second division lines at predetermined positions between the back side of the workpiece and the first modified regions formed in the workpiece by performing the first modified region forming step, and a dividing step of applying an external force to the workpiece after performing the first and second modified region forming steps to thereby divide the workpiece along the first division lines and the second division lines into individual chips.
US08258045B2
A device processing method for improving the die strength of a device divided from a semiconductor wafer. The device processing method includes a chamfering step of applying a pulsed laser beam having an absorption wavelength to the device along the periphery of the device to thereby chamfer the periphery of the device, wherein the pulse width of the pulsed laser beam to be applied in the chamfering step is set to 2 ns or less, and the peak energy density is set in the range of 5 to 200 GW/cm2.
US08258033B2
A nonvolatile semiconductor memory device includes: a substrate; a plurality of gate electrodes provided on the substrate, extended in a first direction parallel to an upper surface of the substrate, arranged in a matrix in an up-to-down direction perpendicular to the upper surface and a second direction, and having a through-hole respectively extended in the up-to-down direction, the second direction being orthogonal to both the first direction and the up-to-down direction; an insulation plate provided between the gate electrodes in the second direction and extended in the first direction and the up-to-down direction; a block insulation film provided on an interior surface of the through-hole and on an upper surface and a lower surface of the gate electrodes and being contact with the insulation plate; a charge storage film provided on the block insulation film; a tunnel insulation film provided on the charge storage film; and a semiconductor pillar provided in the through-hole and extended in the up-to-down direction.
US08258032B2
A power semiconductor device that realizes high-speed turnoff and soft switching at the same time has an n-type main semiconductor layer that includes lightly doped n-type semiconductor layers and extremely lightly doped n-type semiconductor layers arranged alternately and repeatedly between a p-type channel layer and an n+-type field stop layer, in a direction parallel to the first major surface of the n-type main semiconductor layer. A substrate used for manufacturing the semiconductor device is fabricated by forming trenches in an n-type main semiconductor layer 1 and performing ion implantation and subsequent heat treatment to form an n+-type field stop layer in the bottom of the trenches. The trenches are then filled with a semiconductor doped more lightly than the n-type main semiconductor layer for forming extremely lightly doped n-type semiconductor layers. The manufacturing method is applicable with variations to various power semiconductor devices such as IGBT's, MOSFET's and PIN diodes.
US08258029B2
A non-volatile memory cell capable of storing two bits of information having a non-conducting charge trapping dielectric, such as silicon nitride, layered in association with at least one electrical dielectric layer, such as an oxide, with a P-type substrate and an N-type channel implanted in the well region of the substrate between two source/drain regions is disclosed. The N-type channel achieves an inversion layer without the application of bias voltage to the gate of the memory cell. A method that implants the N-type channel in the P-type substrate of the cell wherein the N-type channel lowers the un-programmed or programmed voltage threshold of the memory cell to a value lower than would exist without the N-type channel is disclosed. The N-type channel reduces the second bit effect such that the window of operation between the programmed and un-programmed voltage thresholds of the bits is widened.
US08258028B2
Deep trench isolation structures and methods of formation thereof are disclosed. Several methods of and structures for increasing the threshold voltage of a parasitic transistor formed proximate deep trench isolation structures are described, including implanting a channel stop region into the bottom surface of the deep trench isolation structures, partially filling a bottom portion of the deep trench isolation structures with an insulating material, and/or filling at least a portion of the deep trench isolation structures with a doped polysilicon material.
US08258021B2
In transistor structures such as thin film transistors (TFTs) in an array of cells, a layer of semiconducting oxide material that includes a channel is protected by a protective layer that includes low-temperature encapsulant material. The semiconducting oxide material can be a transition metal oxide material such as zinc oxide, and can be in an active layered substructure that also includes channel end electrodes. The low-temperature encapsulant can, for example, be an organic polymer such as poly(methyl methacrylate) or parylene, deposited on an exposed region of the oxide layer such as by spinning, spin-casting, evaporation, or vacuum deposition or an inorganic polymer deposited such as by spinning or liquid deposition. The protective layer can include a lower sublayer of low-temperature encapsulant on the exposed region and an upper sublayer of inorganic material on the lower sublayer. For roll-to-roll processing, a mechanically flexible, low-temperature substrate can be used.
US08258020B2
A method of forming a vertical interconnect for a memory device. The method includes providing a substrate having a surface region and defining a cell region, a first peripheral region, and a second peripheral region. A first thickness of dielectric material is formed overlying the surface region. A first bottom wiring structure spatially configured to extend in a first direction is formed overlying the first dielectric material for a first array of devices. A second thickness of a dielectric material is formed overlying the first wiring structure. The method includes forming an opening region in the first peripheral region. The opening region is configured to extend in a portion of at least the first thickness of dielectric material and the second thickness of dielectric material to expose a portion of the first wiring structure and to expose a portion of the substrate. A second bottom wiring material is formed overlying the second thickness of dielectric material and filling the opening region to form a vertical interconnect structure in the first peripheral region. A second bottom wiring structure is formed from the second wiring material for a second array of devices. The second bottom wiring structure is separated from the first bottom wiring structure by at least the second thickness of dielectric material and spatially configured to extend in the first direction. The first wiring structure and the second wiring structure are electrically connected by the vertical interconnect structure in the first peripheral region to a control circuitry on the substrate.
US08258018B2
Performing electrolysis plating to a wiring is made possible, aiming at the increasing of pin count of a semiconductor device. Package substrate 3 by which ring shape common wiring 3p for electric supply was formed in the inner area of bonding lead 3j in device region 3v of main surface 3a is used. Since a plurality of first plating lines 3r and fourth plating lines 3u for electric supply connected to common wiring 3p can be arranged by this, the feeder for electrolysis plating can be arranged to all the land parts on the back. Hereby, it becomes possible to perform electrolysis plating to the wiring of main surface 3a of package substrate 3, and the back surface.
US08258011B2
The method relates to production of a set of chips mechanically interconnected by means of a flexible connection. The chips, integrated on a substrate, each comprise a receiving area. The chips of the set are connected in series in the receiving areas by a connecting element. The chips are then released, the connecting element forming a flexible connection.
US08258003B2
Provided is a manufacturing method of a compound semiconductor solar cell. The method includes; preparing a substrate on which a back electrode is disposed, and sputtering a metal target to form a copper indium gallium selenium (CIGS) thin film on the back electrode under an indium (In) deposition gas atmosphere.
US08257999B2
A growth method is proposed for high quality zinc oxide comprising the following steps: (1) growing a gallium nitride layer on a sapphire substrate around a temperature of 1000° C.; (2) patterning a SiO2 mask into stripes oriented in the gallium nitride <1 100> or <11 20> direction; (3) growing epitaxial lateral overgrowth of (ELO) gallium nitride layers by controlling the facet planes via choosing the growth temperature and the reactor; (4) depositing zinc oxide films on facets ELO gallium nitride templates by chemical vapor deposition (CVD). Zinc oxide crystal of high quality with a reduced number of crystal defects can be grown on a gallium nitride template. This method can be used to fabricate zinc oxide films with low dislocation density lower than 104/cm−2, which will find important applications in future electronic and optoelectronic devices.
US08257992B2
A method of fabricating a pixel array is provided. A first metal layer is formed over a substrate. The metal layer is patterned to form a plurality of data lines and a plurality of drain patterns adjacent to each data line. The data lines and the drain patterns are separated from each other. An oxide semiconductor layer and a first insulation layer covering the oxide semiconductor layer are formed over the substrate. A second metal layer is formed on the first insulation layer and patterned to form a plurality of scan lines intersected with the data lines and the drain patterns. By using the scan lines as a mask, the oxide semiconductor layer and the first insulation layer are patterned to form a plurality of oxide semiconductor channels located under each scan line. Each oxide semiconductor channel is located between one data line and one drain pattern.
US08257982B2
A method and a system for jointly determining the content of a first chromophorous and fluorescent compound and a second chromophorous compound in a biological tissue (30). The determination of the content of the chromophorous and fluorescent compound (33) is carried out by optical measurement of the differential absorption of this chromophorous and fluorescent compound (33) and the determination of the content of the second chromophorous compound (34) is carried out by optical measurement of the fluorescence of the chromophorous and fluorescent compound (33). Optical radiations (11-14) are utilized which are suitably chosen in combination with at least one operation of filtering these radiations suited to using single detection (21) and measurement element for the two determinations.
US08257980B2
The invention relates to sensory pigments for use in foods, packagings, pharmaceutical products, paper and electronic products. Said pigments are characterized by the fact that a chemically reactive polymer layer that is 5 to 500 nm thick is applied to metallic particles, metal particles or particles containing at least one metal-oxygen compound, said particles being preferably platelet or fiber-shaped, and a layer of chromophore particles that are between 1 and 100 nm in size is applied to the polymer layer, said particles having a color that is visible to the human eye and that changes after contact with an analyte.
US08257979B2
A method for evaluating the composition of an MEA for a fuel cell. The method includes soaking the MEA in an unsaturated organic compound for a predetermined period of time, and then allowing the MEA to dry. The method then includes staining the MEA with osmium tetroxide (OsO4) in a closed container. The stained MEA is then encased in an epoxy. Thin sections of the encapsulated MEA are then prepared, and the sections are viewed through a transmission electron microscope. The stained MEA will show dark regions where the ionomer and carbon particles are located and lighter regions that are epoxy filled pores.
US08257967B2
A system for the rapid characterization of multi-cardiovascular risk factor analyte fluids, in one embodiment, includes a light source, a sensor array, and a detector. The sensor array is formed from a supporting member, in which a plurality of cavities may be formed. A series of chemically sensitive particles, in one embodiment, are positioned within the cavities. The particles may produce a signal when a receptor, coupled to the particle, interacts with the cardiovascular risk factor analyte and the particle-analyte complex is visualized using a visualization reagent. Using pattern recognition techniques, the analytes within a multi-analyte fluid may be characterized. In an embodiment, each cavity of the plurality of cavities is designed to capture and contain a specific size particle. Flexible projections may be positioned over each of the cavities to provide retention of the particles in the cavities.
US08257962B2
An extracellular potential measuring device includes a plate portion having a first surface and a second surface opposite to the first surface, and an electrode provided on the second surface of the plate portion. In the plate portion, a pocket having an opening which opens to the first surface is formed, and a through-hole communicating to the second surface from the pocket. The through-hole communicates from a position which is closer to the opening than a deepest point of the first pocket. The electrode is provided around of the opening of the through-hole. In this device, even if a cell to be examined does not reach the deepest point of the pocket, a cell membrane of the cell can tightly attaches onto the through-hole securely without a clearance. Hence, culture solution inside the through-hole is isolated from culture solution over an upper surface of the plate portion, thereby allowing electrochemical changes caused by activities of the cell to be detected efficiently with a detector electrode.
US08257961B2
A fermentation process uses substantially pure oxygen. The oxygen is the only reactive gas which is injected into a fermentation vessel. The oxygen is moved through the vessel solely by its own pressure. The process can be used with both mechanically-agitated and air-lifted fermenters. The mechanically-agitated fermenter includes an analyzer for measuring oxygen concentration in the exhaust line, and adjusting the flow of fresh oxygen into the vessel accordingly. In the air-lifted fermenter, an analyzer measures the oxygen concentration in the head space of the vessel, and operates valves which either recycle the gas from the head space, or vent that gas to the outside, according to the measured concentration. A stream of nitrogen is periodically injected into the vessel to drive out carbon dioxide and other gases, to control the pH of the fermentation medium. The present invention substantially improves the efficiency of a commercial fermentation process.
US08257960B2
The present invention relates to novel microorganisms having the efficiency of removing an offensive odor from organic waste and the use thereof. More particularly, the novel microorganisms have the effects of preventing or removing the offensive odor from organic waste, killing insects and fungi, preventing decomposition, and promoting digestion and fermentation. The inventive microorganisms have the effects of preventing or removing the offensive odor from organic waste and killing noxious insects and plant pathogenic fungi, can be used as feed additives and antibiotic substitutes, and also are useful for the preparation of fermented healthy foods.
US08257950B2
The present invention provides an improved method for the bisulfite conversion of DNA, and facilitates the analysis of cytosine methylation of genomic DNA. Novel combinations of denaturing solvents, new reaction conditions and new purification methods provide surprisingly efficacious methods for bisulfite conversion of DNA relative to prior art methods. The converted DNA may subsequently be analyzed by many different methods.
US08257948B1
Glucosyl stevia compositions are prepared from steviol glycosides of Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni. The glucosylation was performed by cyclodextrin glucanotransferase using the starch as source of glucose residues. The short-chain glucosyl stevia compositions were purified to >95% content of total steviol glycosides. The compositions can be used as sweetness enhancers, flavor enhancers and sweeteners in foods, beverages, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals.
US08257943B2
The present invention provides a process for producing a dipeptide or a dipeptide derivative using a phosphate donor, a substance selected from the group consisting of adenosine-5′-monophosphate, adenosine-5′-diphosphate and adenosine-5′-triphosphate, one or more kinds of amino acids or amino acid derivatives, and as enzyme sources, a protein having polyphosphate kinase activity, or a culture of cells having the ability to produce the protein or a treated matter of the culture, and a protein having the activity to ATP-dependently form the dipeptide or dipeptide derivative from one or more kinds of amino acids or amino acid derivatives, or a culture of cells having the ability to produce the protein or a treated matter of the culture.
US08257923B2
The present invention provides for a method of detecting the presence of inflammatory bowel disease in gastrointestinal tissues or cells of a mammal by detecting increased expression of LY6 genes in the tissues or cells of the mammal relative to a control.
US08257916B2
A method for detecting integrated HPV DNA is described herein. This method comprises obtaining first and second samples, obtaining first and second information, and detecting, based on the first and second information, the HPV DNA integrated into the genome of a cell derived from a subject. The second sample comprises DNA derived from the cell, which is treated with an enzyme having exonuclease activity. The first information is related to the amount of HPV DNA in the first sample, and the second information is related to the amount of HPV DNA in the second sample.
US08257914B2
Methods for detecting BoNT/A activity in a sample, methods for screening molecules able to compete with BoNT/A receptor binding, methods for reducing BoNT/A activity in a human and methods of marketing a neurotoxin capable of selectively binding to FGFR3 to a governmental or regional regulatory authority.
US08257912B2
The invention relates to a method of photolithography comprising the steps of: providing a substrate and forming a layer of a photoresist on the substrate, performing a first exposure in which a predetermined part of the layer of photoresist is irradiated through a mask having a pattern for forming a latent image of said pattern in the layer of the photoresist, performing a pretreatment on the layer of the photoresist to remove a predetermined part of the latent image before performing the fixation. The method provides an improved process window. The invention further relates to a photoresist for use within the method of the invention.
US08257907B2
Negative-working imageable elements have an imageable layer comprising a free radically polymerizable component, an initiator composition capable of generating radicals sufficient to initiate polymerization of the free radically polymerizable component upon exposure to imaging radiation, a radiation absorbing compound, one or more polymeric binders, and at least 5 weight % of core-shell particles comprising a hydrophobic polymeric core and a hydrophilic polymeric shell that is covalently bound to the polymeric core. The hydrophilic polymeric shell has one or more zwitterionic functional groups. These elements can be imaged such as by IR lasers to provide lithographic printing plates.
US08257902B2
New photoresist compositions are provided that are useful for immersion lithography. Preferred photoresist compositions of the invention comprises two or more distinct materials that can be substantially non-mixable with a resin component of the resist. Particularly preferred photoresists of the invention can exhibit reduced leaching of resist materials into an immersion fluid contacting the resist layer during immersion lithography processing.
US08257899B2
The present disclosure provides processes for the preparation of unsaturated polyesters. In embodiments, a process of the present disclosure includes reacting an organic diol with a cyclic alkylene carbonate in the presence of a first catalyst to thereby form a polyalkoxy diol, optionally adding thereto a further amount of cyclic alkylene carbonate in the presence of a second catalyst, and subsequently polycondensing the resulting mixture with a dicarboxylic acid in combination with an anhydride.
US08257898B2
Disclosed is a method of manufacturing a toner, wherein a liquid drop forming part including a storage part configured to store a toner composition liquid in which a toner composition including at least a resin and a coloring agent is dispersed or dissolved, a thin film on which a nozzle facing the storage part is formed, and a vibration generating part configured to vibrate the thin film via the toner composition liquid in the storage part are used, wherein plural storage chambers partitioned by a partition wall(s) are formed in the storage part and a width of each storage chamber in a direction of arrangement of the plural storage chambers and a width of each storage chamber in a direction orthogonal to the direction of arrangement of the storage chambers are formed to be one-half or less of a wavelength λ of a sonic wave generated in the storage part.
US08257897B2
A toner set includes a plurality of toners, at least one toner but less than all toners of the toner set including binder, colorant and fluorescence agent and remaining additional toners including binder, colorant and free of fluorescence agent. At least a first toner grouping and a second toner grouping of the toner set form a combination, the first and second groupings of the combination exhibiting a substantially same color under ambient light conditions upon image formation. The first toner grouping and the second toner grouping of the combination contain a different amount of the fluorescence agent, wherein upon exposure to activating energy, the fluorescence agent fluoresces to cause a visible change in the color of a pattern formed in an image by the first toner grouping as compared to the second toner grouping.
US08257892B2
Embodiments relate generally to an imaging member that facilitates removal of the imaging member coating layers disposed over the imaging member and environmentally or “green” methods for using the same. More specifically, the present embodiments disclose an electrophotographic photoreceptor that includes a specifically formulated undercoat layer that allows easy removal of the photoreceptor layers disposed on top of the undercoat layer. The present embodiments provide a simple yet efficient method for reclaiming recycling or remanufacturing electrophotographic photoreceptors.
US08257891B2
To provide an electrophotographic photoconductor including: a substrate; a charge generating layer; and a charge transporting layer, the charge generating layer and the charge transporting layer being disposed over the substrate, wherein the charge transporting layer contains a charge transporting material represented by General Formula (I) below and an additive represented by General Formula (II) below: where R1, R2 and R3 each independently denote any one of a hydrogen atom, a halogen atom, an alkyl group which may contain a substituent, and an alkoxy group which may contain a substituent, where R4 and R5 each denote a tertiary butyl group, and R6 and R7 each independently denote one of an alkyl group which may contain a substituent, and an aryl group which may contain a substituent.
US08257890B2
A photoconductor that includes a first layer, a supporting substrate thereover, a photogenerating layer, and at least one charge transport layer of at least one charge transport component, and wherein the first layer is in contact with the supporting substrate on the reverse side thereof, and which first layer is comprised of a crosslinked mixture of a glycoluril resin and a self crosslinking acrylic resin.
US08257886B2
A method for fabricating a phase shift mask includes obtaining a layout of a mask region which sets up alight transmitting region; obtaining a layout of a phase shift region placed in a border portion of the mask region by disposing a shadow core region for light-shielding in a middle portion of the mask region; forming phase shift patterns following the layout of the phase shift region on a light transmitting substrate; and forming a shadow core layer pattern which exposes a portion of the substrate corresponding to the light transmitting region between the phase shift patterns and covering and light-shielding the portion of the substrate corresponding to the shadow core region, and a mask fabricated by the method.
US08257881B2
A fuel cell plate assembly is disclosed that comprises a first plate having a plurality of protuberances formed in a bottom of flow channels formed thereon, wherein the protuberances abut a bottom of flow channels formed on a second plate when the first plate and the second plate are disposed adjacent one another.
US08257875B2
A system for communicating measurement data from each fuel cell or a group of fuel cells in a fuel cell stack, including a plurality of fuel cells and a plurality of stack plates, where one stack plate is between each fuel cell and on each end of the stack. The system includes a plurality of embedded smart plates where each embedded smart plate is mechanically and electrically coupled to at least one of the plurality of stack plates, and where each embedded smart plate includes optical transceivers on a top side and a bottom side of the smart plate. The system further includes at least one aggregator device having at least one optical transceiver to initiate a series of communications between the embedded smart plates to determine the location and data collected by each of the smart plates.
US08257869B2
An electrode for an electrochemical element reversibly absorbing and releasing lithium ions including: a current collector having a higher first convex portion and a lower second convex portion on at least one surface thereof; a columnar body including an active material formed in such a manner as to rise obliquely on the first convex portion and the second convex portion of the current collector.
US08257868B2
A molten salt composition is disclosed containing two or more types of molten salt MTFSI whose anion is an imide anion TFSI and whose cation is an alkali metal M exhibits a lower electrolyte melting point and a wider operating temperature range than a simple salt does. This brings about various advantages such as a wider range of materials that are chosen for use in batteries and the like.
US08257867B2
Nanocomposite materials comprising a metal oxide bonded to at least one graphene material. The nanocomposite materials exhibit a specific capacity of at least twice that of the metal oxide material without the graphene at a charge/discharge rate greater than about 10C.
US08257864B2
Powder milling techniques, tin-based alloys formed thereby, and the use of such alloys as electrode compositions for lithium ion batteries are provided. The alloys include tin and at least one transition metal but contain no silicon. The powder milling is done using low energy roller milling (pebble milling).
US08257861B2
A sealed battery including: an electrode assembly 11 having multiple positive electrode substrates exposed at one end and negative electrode substrates exposed at the other end; and collectors 181 and collector receiving parts 183 that are resistance-welded on both sides of the multiple positive or the multiple negative electrode substrates or both, grooves 23 being formed around the resistance-welded portion of at least one of the collector 181 and the collector receiving part 183. Due to the spattered particles 26 generated during the resistance-welding being captured within the grooves 23, few particles burst into the inside of the electrode assembly 11 or into the outside.
US08257860B2
A battery module including a plurality of unit batteries, a pair of end plates located at outermost sides of the plurality of unit batteries and connecting rods disposed at first and second edges of at least one of the end plates, the first and second edges being opposite edges, wherein the connecting rods fix the pair of end plates to the plurality of unit batteries, and the connecting rods are spaced apart at different intervals along the first and second edges of the at least one end plate.
US08257844B2
A low-coupling perpendicular magnetic recording media comprising a magnetic storage layer and at least one low saturation magnetization layer. The magnetic storage layer has a saturation magnetization between about 400-900 emu/cm3 and the at least one low saturation magnetization layer has a saturation magnetization below that of the magnetic storage layer.
US08257840B2
The present invention provides a security functional thin film and a security product containing such a thin film. The security functional thin film is of an amorphous structure, and possesses soft magnetic characteristics. Large Barkhausen effect can be detected along the in-plane preferred direction of magnetization; and the Large Barkhausen effect significantly attenuates, or no such signal can be detected, in a direction perpendicular to the in-plane preferred direction of magnetization. The thin film has a thickness of 20-300 nm, and the thin film also possesses element encoding characteristics that can be authenticated by experts. The security functional thin film of the present invention can be fabricated by magnetron sputtering web coating process. The security product provided by the present invention has a security information layer formed of the security functional thin film, and can be combined with other security characteristics for use in fabricating security materials such as security threads, security tapes, paper security strip-like inserts, or security labels, and others. Compared with conventional anti-counterfeiting technologies, the instant security functional thin film has more hidden security information, and facilitates enhancement of safety performance of security products.
US08257837B2
An organic light-emitting device in which at least one organic layer including a light-emitting layer is sandwiched between an anode and a cathode and a phosphorescent compound in the light-emitting layer emits light. The light-emitting layer contains a polymer compound including a structural unit derived from a polymerizable compound (A) represented by the following general formula (1) where R1-R24 are as defined herein:
US08257836B2
This invention relates to electroluminescent 4,9-di-substituted pyrenes that are useful in electroluminescent applications. It also relates to electronic devices in which the active layer includes such a pyrene composition.
US08257834B2
A process for joining a stainless steel part and a silicon nitride ceramic part comprising: providing a stainless steel part, a SiN ceramic part, a Mo foil and a Fe foil; placing the SiN ceramic part, the Mo foil, the Fe foil, and the stainless steel part into a mold, the Mo foil and the Fe foil located between the SiN ceramic part and the stainless steel part, the Mo foil abutting the SiN ceramic part, the Fe foil abutting the stainless steel part and the Mo foil; placing the mold into a chamber of an hot press sintering device, heating the chamber and pressing the stainless steel part, the SiN ceramic part, the Mo foil, and the Fe foil at least until the stainless steel part, the SiN ceramic part, the Mo foil and the Fe foil form a integral composite article.
US08257833B2
A composite element is provided. The composite element includes a ceramic component defining a cavity having a first end and a second end, and a metallic component comprising a head and a body. At least a portion of the body of the metallic component is disposed in the cavity, and the head of the component is disposed on the first end of the cavity. A cross-sectional area of a portion of the body is greater than an area of the first end. In addition, the ceramic and metallic components are interlocked. Methods of making a composite element and of making a clearance sensor part are also provided.
US08257826B1
An example of a nanoballoon thermal protection system includes a refractory ceramic foam having carbide balloons. The foam has a closed cell structure not allowing liquid to penetrate through the foam. Each of the carbide balloons is hollow and has a diameter greater than 0 nm and less than 900 nm. Each of the carbide balloons includes a refractory carbide. In addition, a vehicle with thermal shield includes a surface and a first and second nanoballoon closed cell foam coatings. Each of the foam coatings has a melting point temperature greater than 1000° C. and a density less than 85%. Each of the foam coatings has hollow balloons having a diameter less than 900 nm. Each of the foam coatings includes a closed cell structure not allowing liquid to penetrate through the respective coating. Methods for manufacturing a nanoballoon system and a nanoballoon thermal protection system are also disclosed.
US08257820B2
A circuit subassembly, comprising: a conductive layer, a dielectric layer formed from a thermosetting composition, wherein the thermosetting composition comprises, based on the total weight of the thermosetting composition a polybutadiene or polyisoprene resin, about 30 to about 70 percent by weight of a magnesium hydroxide having less than about 1000 ppm of ionic contaminants, and about 5 to about 15 percent by weight of a nitrogen-containing compound, wherein the nitrogen-containing compound comprises at least about 15 weight percent of nitrogen; and an adhesive layer disposed between and in intimate contact with the conductive layer and the dielectric layer, wherein the adhesive comprises a poly(arylene ether), wherein the circuit subassembly has a UL-94 rating of at least V-1.
US08257817B2
An exercise grid includes four running strips and four crossing strips. Each running strip connects with each crossing strip at an intersection to form a grid. The running and crossing strips comprise firm rods positioned between pliable intersections. The firm rods positioned between pliable intersections facilitates folding of the grid at the intersections for transport. Placement of the grid on a playing surface allows one to perform various drills using the spaces between the running and crossing strips.
US08257815B2
The vacuum insulator includes an internal structure; a filler for filling empty spaces of the internal structure; and an envelope having an upper envelope composed of a metal layer and a polymer layer formed on the metal layer to surround an upper surface of the internal structure, and a lower envelope composed of a metal layer and a polymer layer formed on the metal layer to surround a lower surface of the internal structure, the metal layer of the upper envelope and the metal layer of the lower envelope being opposite to each other, wherein in a certain area along outlines of the upper envelope and the lower envelope, the metal layer of the upper envelope and the metal layer of the lower envelope between which a film composed of a Low density polyethylene LDPE and a Linear-Lowdensity polyethylene LLDPE is inserted, are adhered by heat, and in an area excluding the certain area, the metal layer of the upper envelope and the metal layer of the lower envelope are adhered by polyurethane.
US08257812B2
The present invention provides a low-noise plastic intercooler pipe. In preferred embodiments, the present invention preferably provides a low-noise plastic intercooler pipe having a multi-layered structure including: a skin layer including a thermoplastic etherester elastomer (TEEE) and a soundproof core layer including glass bubbles.
US08257810B2
An intermediate transfer belt that includes a core shell component wherein the core is, for example, comprised of a metal oxide, and the shell is comprised of silica, and which shell contains or includes a hydrophobic agent.
US08257807B2
A double-layer container includes an outer layer and an inner layer, both of which are formed by molding. The outer layer includes a 3-D pattern. The 3-D pattern has at least two pattern units each having at least one first groove which communicates with at least one through hole. The through hole is defined through the outer layer. At least one first slot is defined between the pattern units. The inner layer is fixed to an inner surface of the outer layer and the material of the inner layer is filled in the first groove via the through hole to form a first decoration portion.
US08257801B2
A photoalignment compound is represented by the following Chemical Formula 1, wherein “x” represents an integer in a range of 1 to 4, each of R1 and R2 represents —(CH2)n—, “n” represents an integer in a range of 1 to 6, at least one of the (—CH2—)s in R1 is replaceable with R3 represents —(CH2)mCH3, “m” represents an integer in a range of 1 to 12, each hydrogen atom of R3 is replaceable with F or Cl, R4 represents an amino group, aniline group, carboxy group, hydroxyl group, cyano group, alkylene group, or functional groups being represented by the following Chemical Formulas 2, 3, 4, or 5, each hydrogen atom of Chemical Formula 1 is replaceable with —O(CH2)kCH3, —(CH2)kCH3, F, or Cl, and “k” represents an integer in a range of 1 to 3, or 0.
US08257799B2
A method for forming a thin film using radicals generated by plasma may include generating radicals of a reactant precursor using plasma; forming a first thin film on a substrate by exposing the substrate to a mixture of the radicals of the reactant precursor and a source precursor; exposing the substrate to the source precursor; and forming a second thin film on the substrate by exposing the substrate to the mixture of the radicals of the reactant precursor and the source precursor. Since the substrate is exposed to the source precursor between the formation of the first thin film and the formation of the second thin film, the rate of deposition may be improved.
US08257796B2
A process for applying a coating to a substrate and broadcasting solid decorative or protective materials onto the liquid surface of the coating before it completely cures or dries, wherein the coating is a multi-component curable composition which is reactive upon admixing of the components and wherein the composition comprises at least a first amine functional adduct and at least one compound reactive with amines.
US08257793B2
A patterned roller, and a method of making the patterned roller, is provided. A patterned roller may be made by first forming a first mold having a negative pattern by etching pits in a flat mold surface with an etching process. Then, a second mold is formed having a positive pattern, by pouring a first curable material into the first mold, curing the first curable material, and removing the first curable material from the first mold. Then the patterned roller having the negative pattern is formed by coating a roller with a layer of a second curable material, pre-curing the second curable material to provide a viscous but not hardened surface, and rolling the roller over the second mold to create the negative pattern in the second curable material. The second curable material is then cured. Any of the curable materials may be coated after curing, preferably with metal, to reduce sticking in subsequent steps. The patterned roller may be used to create a pattern of microlenses in a third curable material. A substrate is coated with the third curable material. The patterned roller is rolled over the third curable material to transfer the pattern to the third curable material. The third curable material may then be cured.
US08257787B2
A method for continuous High Internal Phase Emulsion (HIPE) foam production. A HIPE is produced then extruded onto a carrier sheet positioned on a belt surface.
US08257761B2
Fermentation product for adding to a food product, a food supplement or a diabetic food supplement. The product is obtained by fermentation of a medium containing pomegranate juice wherein the yeast Saccharomyces boulardii and Lactobacillus plantarum are used for the fermentation. The fermentation product contains 0.25% to 4% of one or more polyphenols, relative to the total weight of the ferment at the end of the fermentation process and before any optional other transformation, and the sugar content of the fermentation product, measured as percentage of glucose and of fructose, amounts to a maximum of 2% relative to the total weight of the ferment after the end of the fermentation process and before any optional other transformation.
US08257750B2
Compositions and methods for inhibiting gastrointestinal absorption of phosphate in a subject are provided. Such compositions are composed of enteric-coated, sustained-release calcium carbonate, which find application in the prevention or treatment of hyperphosphatemia.
US08257749B2
A process reduces the insect, arthropod or pest content in land mass by providing molecular iodine in the land mass in a concentration in aqueous material in the land mass of at least 10 parts per million. The molecular iodine may be added in gaseous or liquid or solid state, and may be formed in situ in the land mass using available water in the reaction.
US08257748B2
Described are compositions containing a mixture of (a) particulate calcium hypochlorite and (b) an amount of aluminum hydroxide that is sufficient to increase the UN-burn time of the composition by a factor of at least 2.5 compared to that of the calcium hypochlorite, the composition having an available chlorine content of at least 35 weight percent. Further described are solid compositions of (a) granular calcium hypochlorite having a UN Packing Group oxidizer classification of II, and (b) an amount of aluminum hydroxide such that the composition is classified as a Packing Group III Division 5.1 oxidizer or as a non-Division 5.1 oxidizer, the composition having an available chlorine content of at least 40 weight percent. Further described are formed articles prepared from the above-described compositions.
US08257739B2
A solid composition of a low-solubility drug and a concentration-enhancing polymer has a portion of the drug in a semi-ordered state.
US08257734B2
The present invention relates to new adjuvants and the uses in pharmaceutical compositions, like in vaccines. In particular, the present invention provides new compounds useful as adjuvants and/or immunomodulators for prophylactic and/or therapeutic vaccination in the treatment of infectious diseases, inflammatory diseases, autoimmune diseases, tumors, allergies as well as for the control of fertility in human or animal populations. The compounds are particularly useful not only as systemic, but preferably as mucosal adjuvants. In addition, the invention relates to its uses as active ingredients in pharmaceutical compositions.
US08257733B2
The present invention provides combination therapy methods of treating proliferative diseases (such as cancer) comprising a first therapy comprising administering to an individual an effective amount of a taxane in a nanoparticle composition, and a second therapy which may include, for example, radiation, surgery, administration of chemotherapeutic agents, or combinations thereof. Also provided are methods of administering to an individual a drug taxane in a nanoparticle composition based on a metronomic dosing regime.
US08257731B2
An apparatus for promoting the clotting of blood and controlling bleeding comprises a receptacle for retaining molecular sieve material in particulate form therein. A pad for controlling bleeding comprises a mesh structure and a rigid or semi-rigid support attached to the mesh structure to facilitate the application of pressure to the pad and the wound. A bandage applicable to a bleeding wound comprises a mesh structure and a flexible substrate attached to the mesh structure, the substrate being a cloth or plastic member that may be adhesively attached to cover a wound. In any embodiment, at least a portion of the receptacle or mesh structure is defined by a mesh having openings therein, and at least a portion of the particulate molecular sieve material is in direct contact with blood.
US08257727B2
The present invention relates to a medical device comprising a biocompatible medical coating adhered thereto, wherein the coating comprises at least one of a non-crosslinked, water soluble salt of: (i) alginic acid, (ii) hyaluronic acid or (iii) chitosan, wherein the coating is readily dissolvable in at least one mammalian body fluid.
US08257726B2
A system and compositions including zotarolimus and paclitaxel are disclosed, as well as methods of delivery, wherein the drugs have effects that complement each other. Medical devices are disclosed which include supporting structures that include at least one pharmaceutically acceptable carrier or excipient, which carrier or excipient can include one or more therapeutic agents or substances, with the carrier including at least one coating on the surface thereof, and the coating associated with the therapeutic substances, such as, for example, drugs. Supporting structures for the medical devices that are suitable for use in this invention include, but are not limited to, coronary stents, peripheral stents, catheters, arterio-venous grafts, by-pass grafts, and drug delivery balloons used in the vasculature. These compositions and systems can be used in combination with other drugs, including anti-proliferative agents, anti-platelet agents, anti-inflammatory agents, anti-thrombotic agents, cytotoxic drugs, agents that inhibit cytokine or chemokine binding, cell de-differentiation inhibitors, anti-lipaedemic agents, matrix metalloproteinase inhibitors, cytostatic drugs, or combinations of these and other drugs.
US08257725B2
An apparatus and system for delivering a lipophilic agent associated with a medical device including: a medical device, a first lipophilic agent capable of penetrating a body lumen, wherein the transfer coefficients of the first lipophilic agent is by an amount that is statistically significant of at least approximately 5,000, wherein the first lipophilic agent is associated with the medical device, wherein the first lipophilic agent/medical device is placed adjacent to said body lumen, and wherein a therapeutically effective amount of the first lipophilic agent is delivered to a desired area within a subject. Furthermore, the invention relates to a method for improving patency in a subject involving placement of a medical device in a body lumen for treating and/or preventing adjacent diseases or maintaining patency of the body lumen.
US08257714B2
The present invention provides compositions and methods for the prevention and treatment of primary and metastatic neoplastic diseases and infectious diseases, for stimulating an immune response in a subject, and for use as an alternative to interleukin-12 (IL-12) treatment. In particular, the present invention provides Apicomplexa-related proteins (ARPs) that have immune stimulatory activity and thus have uses in the treatment and prevention of cancer and infectious diseases and in immune modulation. Compositions comprising an ARP are provided. Methods of use of an ARP for the prevention and/or treatment of cancer and/or infectious diseases, for use as an alternative to interleukin-12 (IL-12) treatment, and for eliciting an immune response in a subject, are also provided.
US08257711B2
The present invention provides immunogenic peptides comprising the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1, 2, 13, 32, and peptides comprising the above-mentioned amino acid sequences in which 1, 2, or several amino acids are substituted or added, and having cytotoxic T cell inducibility, and also provides drugs for treating or preventing tumors comprising these peptides. The peptides of this invention can be used as vaccines.
US08257703B2
IgM can be obtained in the form of a pentamer by placing the genes encoding the H, L, and J chains on the same vector to transform appropriate host cells. The gene encoding the J chain may be introduced by co-transfection. When no J chain is expressed, the IgM is produced as a hexamer. The transformants obtained according to the present invention achieve a high yield of IgM. The present invention also provides methods which enable separation and quantification of polymeric IgM.
US08257693B2
The present invention provides a composition comprising prebiotic and probiotic components and is used to reduce elevated levels of nitrogenous waste products and to promote a healthy bowel microenvironment.
US08257692B2
The present invention relates to a polypeptide possessing a CDase activity, characterized in that it is derived from a native CDase by addition of an amino acid sequence with the proviso that said polypeptide has no UPRtase or Thymidine Kinase activity.
US08257678B2
Systems and methods for the formation of carbon-based nanostructures are generally described. In some embodiments, the nanostructures may be formed on a nanopositor. The nanopositor can comprise, in some embodiments, at least one of metal atoms in a non-zero oxidation state and metalloid atoms in a non-zero oxidation state. For example, the nanopositor may comprise a metal oxide, a metalloid oxide, a metal chalcogenide, a metalloid chalcogenide, and the like. The carbon-based nanostructures may be grown by exposing the nanopositor, in the presence or absence of a growth substrate, to a set of conditions selected to cause formation of carbon-based nanostructures on the nanopositor. In some embodiments, metal or metalloid atoms in a non-zero oxidation state are not reduced to a zero oxidation state during the formation of the carbon-based nanostructures. In some cases, metal or metalloid atoms in a non-zero oxidation state do not form a carbide during the formation of the carbon-based nanostructures.
US08257672B2
An improvement in the method for preventing re-emissions of mercury from a wet flue gas desulfurization (FGD) system by addition of an additive to the FGD scrubber liquor which interacts in the system scrubber with mercury present in the flue gas to curtail the mercury re-emissions; the mercury re-emissions are reduced to substantially zero by use of an additive selected from one or more members of the group consisting of a dithiol, a dithiolane, and a thiol having a single thiol group and either an oxygen or a hydroxyl group.
US08257671B2
A method of leaching copper sulfide ore includes leaching copper from copper sulfide ore using a sulfuric acid solution comprising iodide ion and iron (III) ion surplus to the iodide ion as a leaching solution; reducing iodine in a solution obtained after the leaching step to less than 1 mg/L by an activated carbon treatment; and oxidizing iron (II) ion or newly added iron (II) ion in a solution obtained after the iodine reduction step by using iron oxidizing microbes to recover iron (III) ion.
US08257670B1
Disclosed are monodisperse gold nanoparticles (GNPs) manufactured by a facile, environmentally favorable process. Such a “green” synthesis process according to an embodiment of the invention effects the production of highly monodisperse, stable, catalytically active, and water-soluble GNPs in a considerable size range and advantageous yields. The production is accomplished inter alia through a single-step/single-phase method using dextrose as a reducing agent and as a capping agent in a buffered aqueous solution at moderate temperature. Disclosed also is a process for the direct embedment/integration of GNPs into biological systems such as the Escherichia coli bacterium without additional capping ligand or surface modification processes.
US08257665B2
A dual inlet microchannel device and a method for using the device to perform a flow-through kinetic assay are described. A microplate having an array of the dual inlet microchannel devices and in particular their specially configured flow chambers is also described. Several embodiments of the dual inlet microchannel devices and specially configured flow chambers are also described.
US08257664B2
A dispensing apparatus includes a probe that sucks or discharges a liquid; a pressure generating unit that generates a pressure necessary for the probe to suck or discharge the liquid; and a pressure measuring unit that measures the pressure generated by the pressure generating unit and applied to the probe. The apparatus also includes a setting unit that sets a correction coefficient used when correcting a physical amount based on characteristics of the dispensing apparatus using a result of the measuring by the pressure measuring unit; a storage unit that stores therein information including the correction coefficient set by the setting unit; and a correcting unit that corrects the physical amount using the correction coefficient stored in the storage unit.
US08257661B2
Processes and systems for utilizing products from DME synthesis in converting oxygenates to olefins are provided that include removing a DME reactor effluent from a DME reactor, wherein the DME effluent includes DME, water, and methanol; separating carbon dioxide gas from the DME reactor effluent in a liquid gas separator to produce a degassed effluent stream. The processes and systems can include feeding the degassed effluent stream to an oxygenate to olefin reactor to produce an olefin containing effluent, wherein the olefin containing effluent further includes oxygenates. Alternatively, the processes and systems can include providing the degassed effluent stream to a DME column to produce a DME feedstock and a solvent stream, wherein the solvent stream includes methanol and water; feeding the DME feedstock to an oxygenate to olefin reactor to produce an olefin containing effluent, wherein the olefin containing effluent further includes oxygenates; and contacting at least a portion of the olefin containing effluent with the solvent stream in a solvent contacting zone to produce an olefin containing raffinate stream and an oxygenate containing extract.
US08257659B2
An inlet face for an aftertreatment device that prevents and/or eliminates face-plugging for a passageway where the inlet face is disposed. The inlet face includes a particular end surface disposed on an outer surface at the end of a substrate. The end surface includes at least one of a three-dimensional topographical configuration disposed at the end of the substrate, a chemical coating applied on the end of the substrate, or both a three-dimensional topographical configuration disposed on the end of the substrate and a chemical coating applied on the three-dimensional topographical configuration. As one example, the inlet face can be helpful in preventing carbonaceous fouling, which can result from engine exhaust material, such as carbon soot and other engine exhaust by-products.
US08257655B2
The present invention relates to a gas detecting arrangement having a gas cell which includes a cavity, a gas-cell-related light source, a gas-cell-related light detector and a controlling and computing unit wherein the unit is adapted fro initiating activation of the light source and also to evaluate the presence and/or the concentration or a gas and/or a gas mixture enclosed in the cell cavity in response to light-detector-related signals received from the light detector.
US08257648B2
The present invention provides a method and apparatus for controlling a concentration of descenting particles within a temporary structure. The temporary structure comprises a plurality of sidewalls and a roof interconnecting the sidewalls. A plurality of selectively openable and closeable upper windows and lower vents are disposed in the sidewalls. The lower vents are disposed at a location below the upper windows. An ozone generator is disposed within and coupled to the temporary structure to produce descenting particles that are controlled within a hunting zone of the temporary structure to be between about 0.04 and 0.1 ppm.
US08257641B1
Exemplary embodiments provide core-sheath nanofibers produced by coaxial electrospinning, fuser members comprising core-sheath nanofibers, and methods for forming core-sheath nanofibers that can include a core solution comprising a high performance polymer and sheath solutions comprising a solvent-soluble fluoropolymer or solvent-insoluble fluororesins and a sacrificial polymeric binder.
US08257638B2
A suction table 9 is disposed at a cutting action position for a polarizing film F, and holding blocks 9a and 9b, which are different in height from each other, are disposed in proximity to each other along a transport direction on a surface of the suction table 9 to form a suction groove 14. Nip rollers 11 and 12 are disposed on front and rear sides of the suction table 9 to nip opposed ends of the polarizing film F. Further, the suction table 9 suction-holds the polarizing film F in a state that the polarizing film F is inclined with the suction groove 14 located below a portion to be cut. In this state, a laser device 10 scans the polarizing film F along the suction groove 14 to cut the polarizing film F in a width direction.
US08257636B2
A method and apparatus for reforming a portion of a blow molded plastic container includes directing energy from a heater onto the portion of the container so as to heat the portion while leaving the remainder of the container relatively unheated. The heated portion of the container is then engaged by a reforming tool having an embossed or imprinted characteristic on a contact surface of the reforming tool so as to reform the portion of the container and form a three-dimensional feature thereon which is not reproducible without using the method and/or apparatus of the present invention. Alternatively, the heated portion of the container is engaged by a reforming tool having a transferable element on a contact surface of the reforming tool so as to reform the portion of the container and transfer the transferable element to the portion of the container.
