US08840780B2
A device for processing a hydrocarbon resource may include a hydrocarbon processing container configured to receive the hydrocarbon resource therein and having a pair of opposing ends with an enlarged width medial portion therebetween. The device may also include a radio frequency (RF) source, and a first spirally wound electrical conductor surrounding the hydrocarbon processing container and coupled to the RF source. The device may further include a second spirally wound electrical conductor carried within the hydrocarbon processing container. The first spirally wound electrical conductor may be configured to generate magnetic fields with the hydrocarbon processing container that are parallel with an axis thereof.
US08840772B2
The present teachings are directed to a method of converting water and a carbon-containing compound, such as CO2, into a hydrocarbon through a process of absorbing sunlight on a light-absorbing component to photoelectrochemically oxidize water and reacting the products from that water oxidation reaction over a catalyst with the carbon-containing compound to produce the desired hydrocarbon compound.
US08840770B2
Techniques for electrodepositing selenium (Se)-containing films are provided. In one aspect, a method of preparing a Se electroplating solution is provided. The method includes the following steps. The solution is formed from a mixture of selenium oxide; an acid selected from the group consisting of alkane sulfonic acid, alkene sulfonic acid, aryl sulfonic acid, heterocyclic sulfonic acid, aromatic sulfonic acid and perchloric acid; and a solvent. A pH of the solution is then adjusted to from about 2.0 to about 3.0. The pH of the solution can be adjusted to from about 2.0 to about 3.0 by adding a base (e.g., sodium hydroxide) to the solution. A Se electroplating solution, an electroplating method and a method for fabricating a photovoltaic device are also provided.
US08840769B2
A catalyst precursor resin composition includes an organic polymer resin; a fluorinated-organic complex of silver ion; a monomer having multifunctional ethylene-unsaturated bonds; a photoinitiator; and an organic solvent. The metallic pattern is formed by forming catalyst pattern on a base using the catalyst precursor resin composition reducing the formed catalyst pattern, and electroless plating the reduced catalyst pattern. In the case of forming metallic pattern using the catalyst precursor resin composition, a compatibility of catalyst is good enough not to make precipitation, chemical resistance and adhesive force of the formed catalyst layer are good, catalyst loss is reduced during wet process such as development or plating process, depositing speed is improved, and thus a metallic pattern having good homogeneous and micro pattern property may be formed after electroless plating.
US08840768B2
A preparation method for molecular recognition sensor by electrodeposition is provided. The preparation method is as following: forming molecularly imprinted polymeric micelles by self-assembly of ionic type photosensitive copolymers; forming a film on the surface of an electrode by electrodepositing the molecularly imprinted polymeric micelles at a constant potential; crosslinking the electrodeposited micellar film via ultraviolet light irradiation; extracting the template molecules from the crosslinked film to obtain electrode modified by the molecularly imprinted polymeric micellar film; and connecting the modified electrode with a sensor device and a computer to construct a molecular recognition sensing system capable of specifically detecting the template molecules.
US08840767B2
A low maintenance reference electrode has a liquid junction body with a multiplicity of micron-sized capillary channels extending through the body for transporting electrolyte to a test solution. A viscosity-increasing agent thickens the electrolyte to limit its flow to a rate on the order of microliters/day so that a few milliliters of electrolyte suffice to provide an extended electrode life.
US08840763B2
Embodiments disclosed herein generally relate to a method for seasoning a sputtering target in-situ with a substrate to be processed. New semiconductor compounds containing oxygen, nitrogen, and an element such as zinc, cadmium, tin, indium, and gallium are beginning to replace silicon as the material for active channels in TFTs. The new semiconductor compounds may be deposited by a reactive sputtering process. During the sputtering process, reactive gas reacts with the metal from the sputtering target and deposits on the substrate. Some of the reactive gas may react at the surface and lead to a buildup of a compound at the target surface. Because oxygen and nitrogen are quite reactive, an oxide or nitride compound may develop at the target surface. The oxide or nitride may be removed by seasoning the sputtering target. The seasoning may occur while the substrate is within the processing chamber.
US08840756B2
The present invention relates to the field of paper and relates to a sheet including a high-definition high-contrast multitone watermark having areas of pronounced brightness. Such watermark is particularly obtained by means of a part (4) including a surface (5) having a raised area and perforations (6). The perforations (6) are such that making the cross-section thereof, at a given distance from the draining surface, directly depends on said distance. The present invention also relates to the method for manufacturing said part that is used for forming one such watermark, to the part itself, and to the use of said part when forming a watermark.
US08840744B2
A method of preventing a handheld electronic device from slipping in relation to a smooth hard surface having a low coefficient of friction is disclosed. The method includes forming a decorative layer from a label stock; forming a contoured surface on an anti-slip layer; bonding the decorative layer and the anti-slip layer together to form an anti-slip skin; and adhering the anti-slip skin to the handheld electronic device. The contoured surface prevents the handheld device from slipping on the hard surface.
US08840743B2
Method for fabricating a balloon catheter including providing an inner tubular member having a distal section and a distal end with a lumen extending therein and forming a balloon having a distal leg with a first segment having a first diameter and a first wall thickness and a second segment having a second wall thickness. The second diameter is greater than the first diameter and the first wall thickness is greater than the second wall thickness. The distal end section of the inner tubular member can be positioned in the balloon and bonded to the first segment while reducing the diameter of the second segment. Method also provided for fabricating a multilayer balloon catheter including removing at least a portion of an outer layer from the distal leg of the balloon.
US08840740B2
Described herein is a novel method and apparatus for preventing spark propagation from a hydraulic joint to a surrounding medium, such as a fuel source. The hydraulic joint includes a fitting and a tube. A tip seal may be placed about the edge of the hydraulic fitting or a sleeve may be placed about the joint, each resulting in an independent mechanical barrier between the joint and surrounding medium, thereby preventing spark propagation to the surrounding medium.
US08840731B2
A composition for machine dishwashing that includes a one copolymer obtainable by copolymerization of N-vinylamide, vinyl acetate, polyether, and alkoxylate.
US08840729B1
An air conditioning drain cleaning system with an automated blow-out cycle to clean out an evaporator pan drain pipe. The system has a pneumatic valve assembly, a controller, a float level switch assembly and a plurality of air lines in a manifold for actuating the pneumatic valve assembly and blowing out the drain pipe. The controller directs the system to initiate or repeat a blow-out cycle until the drain pipe is clear. The pneumatic valve assembly bisects the drain pipe to selectively close the pipe for cleaning with a pair of high pressure air shots, one shot toward each pipe end to dislodge a clog. The float level switch assembly signals the controller if the condensate level in the drain pan drops. If the condensate level does not drop, the controller initiates a further blow-out cycle at increased pressures until the line is clear.
US08840725B2
Embodiments of the present invention provide a recursive liner system that facilitates providing more uniform flow of gases proximate the surface of a substrate disposed within an apparatus for processing a substrate (e.g., a process chamber). In some embodiments, a recursive liner system may include an outer liner having an outer portion configured to line the walls of a process chamber, a bottom portion extending inward from the outer portion, and a lip extending up from the bottom portion to define a well; and an inner liner having a lower portion configured to be at least partially disposed in the well to define, together with the outer liner, a recursive flow path therebetween.
US08840721B2
The present invention provides a method of producing low-resistivity silicon single crystal containing a dopant at a relatively high concentration by adding a large amount of the dopant to silicon melt when the silicon single crystal is pulled up, with suppressing occurrence of dislocation in the crystal. Specifically, the present invention provides a method of manufacturing silicon single crystal by bringing silicon seed crystal into contact with silicon melt and pulling up the silicon seed crystal while rotating the crystal to grow silicon single crystal whose straight body section has a diameter of φ mm below the silicon seed crystal, the method comprising: the dopant-adding step of adding a dopant to the silicon melt during growth of the straight body section of the silicon single crystal, while rotating the silicon single crystal at a rotational speed of ω rpm (where ω≧24−(φ/25)).
US08840716B2
It is an object of the present invention to provide an ink set which makes it possible to obtain recorded images that have a broad color reproduction range and a high saturation, as well as glossiness without conspicuous graininess caused by dot expression, and which in particular makes it possible to achieve an extreme suppression of graininess caused by dot expression in cases where the ink set is used on media that have a coating layer, and to obtain recorded images with extremely superior coloring characteristics in cases where the ink set is used on ordinary paper. The present invention provides an ink set comprising at least a yellow ink (Y), magenta ink (M), cyan ink (C) and red ink (R), wherein the L* values in the CIE-stipulated Lab display system of aqueous solutions of the respective inks diluted 1000 times by weight are in the following ranges: (Y): at least 89 but no more than 94, (M): at least 76 but no more than 93, (C): at least 74 and no more than 87, (R): at least 55 and no more than 74.
US08840699B2
An air filter media construction or arrangement is disclosed. The air filter media construction or arrangement includes strips of media comprising corrugated sheets secured to facing sheets and forming inlet and outlet flutes secured to one. A preferred projection/receiver arrangement is described. Methods of assembly and use are also provided.
US08840687B2
A method of making a multi-layer current collector comprises forming a first layer from a first formulation over each major surface of a current collector substrate, and forming a second layer from a second formulation over each of the first layers, wherein one of the first formulation and second formulation is a graphite formulation and the other of the first formulation and second formulation is a carbon black formulation.
US08840686B2
A method for encapsulating a thin-film lithium-ion type battery, including the steps of: forming, on a substrate, an active stack having as a lower layer a cathode collector layer extending over a surface area larger than the surface area of the other layers; forming, over the structure, a passivation layer including through openings at locations intended to receive anode collector and cathode collector contacts; forming first and second separate portions of an under-bump metallization, the first portions being located on the walls and the bottom of the openings, the second portions covering the passivation layer; and forming an encapsulation layer over the entire structure.
US08840685B2
An improved capacitor, and method for making the capacitor, is described. The capacitor has an anode and a dielectric on the anode. A cathode layer is on the dielectric wherein the cathode layer comprises at least one conductive layer and an insulative adhesion enhancing layer.
US08840683B2
A method for forming an industrial textile product by spiral winding an array of machine direction (MD) yarns to form a system having a defined width, and then connecting the MD yarns in the cross machine (CD) direction with resin. This method is a replacement for conventional weaving or knitting of substrates which can be used as forming, press or dryer fabrics in papermaking, and other industrial applications. Devices for forming the product are also described.
US08840682B2
Present invention relates to an oxidizing composition for keratin fibers especially for human hair with improved lightening effect and therefore, improved coloring and bleaching effects are easily achieved of the compositions applied after mixing with the said composition. Present inventors have surprisingly found out that a composition comprising at least one oxidizing agent and additionally at least one alkalizing agent, at least one carbonate source and at least one urea derivative delivers an improved and homogeneous lightening performance and leaves hair in an improved cosmetically acceptable conditioned status.
US08840675B2
A minimal invasive hip arthroplasty device is provided. The device includes a long nail portion, a lag screw portion, distal locking screws, and a resurfacing head. The long nail portion is inserted into a shaft body of a femur from a top portion of the femur and disposed in the femur. The lag screw portion engages and anchors at the long nail portion through a lag screw hole, and the lag screw portion is inserted into a neck of the femur. The distal locking screws queue through the shaft body of the femur perpendicularly and fix the long nail portion to the femur further. The resurfacing head includes a cup portion configured to cover a head of the femur and a fixing pin portion configured to be inserted into the head and the neck of the femur and engaging the lag screw portion through a resurfacing head hole.
US08840673B2
A multi-component elbow joint assembly incorporated into reconditioned end surfaces established between an upper humerus bone and opposing lower radius and ulna bones. The assembly includes a first component anchored into the upper humerus reconditioned end surface and exhibits a first exposed support surface. A second component is anchored into the lower reconditioned bone end surface of at least one of the radius and ulna bones and exhibits a second exposed support surface. An intermediate component is supported in at least one of eccentric or rotational fashion between the first and second anchored components.
US08840667B1
Implementations of devices for use in cervical spinal operations. Implementations may include a template including a central hole therethrough and two or more screw holes therethrough. The central hole may be configured to be inserted over a handle of a trial. The template may be configured to place a first of the two or more screw holes over a rostral vertebra and to place a second of the two or more screw holes over a caudal vertebra. Implementations may also include a template including a central hole therethrough and two or more screw holes therethrough. The central hole may be configured to couple over an inserter. The template may be configured to place a first of the two or more screw holes over a rostral vertebra and to place a second of the two or more screw holes over a caudal vertebra.
US08840662B2
A method for percutaneously replacing a heart valve of a patient. In some embodiments the method includes the steps of percutaneously delivering a replacement valve and an expandable anchor to a vicinity of the heart valve in an unexpanded configuration; expanding the anchor to a deployed configuration in which the anchor contacts tissue at a first anchor site; repositioning the anchor to a second anchor site; and deploying the anchor at the second anchor site.
US08840657B2
A self expanding stent (10) formed from a resilient wire. The resilient wire comprises a zig zag form including an odd number of struts (12) such as seven struts and a bend (14) between each strut. There is first loop (18) of the resilient wire at the terminal end of a first strut and a second loop (18) of the resilient wire at the terminal end of a last strut. The stent as formed is substantially planar but in use is formed into a substantially cylindrical form (20) by being stitched onto a tubular body of a biocompatible graft material with at least the first strut and the last strut overlapping.
US08840655B2
A medical system for treating an internal tissue opening can include a closure device and associated delivery device. The delivery device can include an actuating assembly configured to partially deploy the closure device by a first movement, and deploy a second portion of the closure device by a second movement. The delivery device can also include a release assembly to selectively release or disconnect the closure device from the delivery device. The delivery device can include a tip member coupled to the distal end of a catheter. The tip member can include a first passageway and a second passageway being in a spaced apart arrangement. A guidewire can be received into the first passageway to facilitate positioning of the delivery device. The second passageway can house and facilitate delivery of the closure device.
US08840654B2
Method and apparatus for optically stimulating neurons of a plurality of auditory nerve pathways of a person to provide auditory sensations for the person by generating a plurality of pulsed light signals having one or more successive pulses. The spectrum of a detected audio signal is divided into M channels. In some embodiments, an N-of-M coding strategy is employed, where, for any given time frame, only N of the M channels are selected and illuminated to stimulate the auditory nerves. In some embodiments, the M channels are organized into bins, where, for any given time frame, only a maximum number of channels are illuminated per bin. This limits the number of illuminated channels-per-length of cochlea and therefore prevents localized heating of the cochlea and reduces power consumption of the device.
US08840653B2
A two-piece clamping element comprises two separate, i.e., non-integral, opposing first and second clamping jaws forming a laterally open cavity to receive a pin or rod-shaped element. Each clamping jaw has a bore aligned with one another to receive a screw, wherein a pivot bearing is arranged opposite said cavity allowing the two opposing clamping jaws to come in contact to one another. The pivot bearing comprises at least one set of complementary part-cylindrical bearing surface portions. An anti-rotation pin extends between the two jaw members.
US08840640B2
Various embodiments of a device are shown and disclosed for closing a vascular access puncture site following percutaneous diagnostic or therapeutic interventional procedures. The vascular closure device includes an improved plug that is configured to be positioned adjacent to the hole in the vasculature. The plug may be shaped to prevent the plug from moving away from the hole in the blood vessel due to pulsatile pressure from the blood. In one embodiment, the plug may include a plurality of projections that extend outward from the plug and contact surrounding tissue in the tissue puncture tract to prevent the plug from moving away from the hole in the blood vessel.
US08840639B2
An endoscopic forceps is provided and includes a housing having a handle assembly including a movable handle having a mechanical interface disposed thereon. An end effector assembly connected to a distal end of the shaft includes a pair of first and second jaw members movable relative to one another from an open to a clamping position. A drive assembly includes a resilient member. A lock assembly is pivotably coupled to the housing and in operative communication with the movable handle. The lock assembly is movable with the handle assembly. The mechanical interface moves along the lock assembly when the movable handle is moved proximally causing the lock assembly to rotate about the pivot point and into communication with the resilient member such that the resilient member is prevented from moving distally against the bias provided therefrom such that the first and second jaw members remain in the clamping position.
US08840635B2
Improved lancet configurations and protective lancet endcap configurations are disclosed. In example forms, one or more flexing cantilevers project from the lancet body for coupling with a cooperating receiver of a lancing device. A gripping handle extends from a sterility cap for ease of removal from and replacement over the lancet tip. A lancet body has a smoothly curved wave contour with at least one crest and at least one trough for engagement with a cooperating receiver of a lancing device.
US08840633B2
A lancet device includes a housing with a cantilever spring extending therein and defining a lancet having a puncturing end on the cantilever spring. An actuator extends within the housing through an opening at the forward end. The actuator includes an interfering engagement with the cantilever spring. Movement of the actuator into the housing through the forward end pivots the cantilever spring against its relaxed condition and then releases the engagement with the cantilever spring, thereby permitting the cantilever spring to pivot the lancet structure to an extended position with the puncturing end extending through the forward opening, and to return to the relaxed condition retracting the puncturing end back within the housing.
US08840629B2
A system for performing surgery on a joint. The system includes a robotic subsystem and a navigation subsystem. The navigation subsystem provides the robotic subsystem, during the surgery, with information relating to positions of the bones associated with the joint thereby enabling separate tracking of the bones when the bones move during the surgery. The robotic subsystem includes a base, a plurality of arms, and a cutting tool. The navigation subsystem may include a plurality of locating devices.
US08840624B2
A phacoemulsification probe includes a first portion for interconnecting the probe with a phacoemulsification machine. A probe tip has a first end connected with the first portion and a second end curved up to a predetermined angle. The probe tip defines a channel therein for aspirating material through the probe tip from a surgical region.
US08840623B2
A joint between two bone segments is fused by passing an elongated, rectilinear bone fusion device over a guide pin across the joint and into tight engagement within bores formed in the bone segments, to thereby restrict movement of the elongated bone fusion device across the joint. The elongated, rectilinear bone fusion device also provides bony in-growth within the bores along the exterior surface of the bone fusion device.
US08840616B2
Methods and apparatus for performing knee arthroplasty, including, but not limited to, bicruciate retaining knee arthroplasty, are described herein. Methods and apparatus for preparing a distal femur for a femoral implant as well as methods and apparatus for preparing a proximal tibia for a tibial implant are described. These methods and apparatus, in at least some embodiments and uses, facilitate decreasing the complexity of knee arthroplasty procedures such as bicruciate retaining procedures, while maintaining, if not improving on, the safety, accuracy and/or effectiveness of such procedures.
US08840613B2
Methods of reducing device drag on implantable articles are disclosed herein. The methods include coating the contact surfaces of implantable articles with bioabsorbable lubricating coatings.
US08840612B2
An intraosseous device is disclosed that can be positioned to straddle a bone fracture to stabilize the fracture and provide structural support for the bone and the surrounding areas. The device includes wire assemblies that are deployable on each side of the fracture to anchor the device within the bone. For the device, an elongated tube is formed with a plurality of slots at each tube end. A central member is mounted inside the tube and moveable members are positioned inside the tube, one at each tube end. Wires connect the moveable members to the central member. A rod cooperates with each moveable member and is rotatable to draw each moveable member inwardly toward the central member. This forces each wire to bow and displace a central wire portion through a corresponding slot and into contact with the bone's inner wall to anchor the device in the bone.
US08840611B2
A clamping device for an external fixation system includes a post component having a yaw axis, a first clamp secured to the post component and rotatable about the yaw axis, and a second clamp secured to the post component and rotatable about the yaw axis relative to the first clamp. The device includes a tightening component configured in a manner that an action of tightening the tightening component simultaneously locks both the first and second clamps in a gripping arrangement and substantially eliminates their relative rotation about the yaw axis. Interdigitating components can be spaced apart by high spring rate biasing elements that so as to allow for smooth adjustment of the clamping device components relative to each other until the appropriate position is achieved and until after a sufficiently high clamping load has been applied.
US08840609B2
A jaw heating element of a handpiece of a thermal tissue operating system is tested on an ongoing basis by supplying a test heater power signal to the jaw heating element between individual thermal tissue operations. Voltage and current through the jaw heating element is sensed and the resistance of the jaw heating element is calculated. If the calculated resistance is outside a range of predetermined acceptable values, an error condition is indicated.
US08840607B2
A steerable laser probe may include a handle, an actuation structure of the handle, a housing tube, a flexible tube, an optic fiber, and a wire having a pre-formed curve. The flexible tube may be disposed within the housing tube wherein a distal end of the flexible tube projects out from a distal end of the housing tube. The optic fiber may be disposed within an inner bore of the handle, the housing tube, and the flexible tube. The wire may be disposed within the housing tube.
US08840606B2
An endovascular laser treatment device designed to be used with an optical fiber to treat venous diseases such as varicose veins is provided. The device includes a spacer that positions the distal end of the optical fiber away from the inner wall of the blood vessel during delivery of laser energy to provide an even distribution of thermal energy around the vessel, thereby avoiding vessel perforation and incomplete vessel collapse.
US08840597B2
The present invention relates to an absorbent fabric for medical treatment or menstruation, and more particularly, to a convenient and sanitary absorbent article to be used as a tampon, a blood-absorbing fabric for surgery, etc. The present invention provides an absorbent article for medical treatment or menstruation, wherein a flat absorbent article is provided with removal means and is formed into a cylindrical shape. The flat absorbent article is formed by forming an absorbent layer on a liquid passage layer. The removal means is arranged to cover the liquid passage layer and the absorbent layer of the flat absorbent article in the widthwise direction, and a portion of the removal means is outwardly exposed from the flat absorbent article in the widthwise direction of the flat absorbent article. The flat absorbent article is wound in the lengthwise direction and thus is formed into a cylindrical absorbent article, thereby fixing the removal means in the cylindrical absorbent article.
US08840590B2
A safety pen needle assembly is provided herein which includes a tubular carrier (12) having a distal end, a proximal end and a transverse engagement wall (30) located between the proximal and distal ends. The engagement wall includes an aperture (32). A needle (16) is further provided having a distal end, for injection into a patient, and a proximal end, along with a needle hub (14). The needle is fixed to the needle hub so as to move therewith, and the needle hub is disposed in the carrier distally of the engagement wall. The assembly also includes a shield (18) for selectively covering the distal end of the needle. A first biasing element (20) is provided for urging the needle hub from a first hub position where the needle extends through the aperture of the engagement wall to a second hub position where the proximal end of the needle is located distally of a proximally-facing outer surface of the engagement wall. In addition, a second biasing element (22) is provided for urging the shield from a first shield position where the distal end of the needle is not covered by the shield to a second shield position where the distal end of the needle is covered by the shield.
US08840583B2
A retractable syringe, comprising a needle having a tip and a base, a needle collar coupled to the needle, the needle collar including at least one groove disposed in a bottom portion of the needle collar and extending from the portion of the needle collar nearest to the base of the needle toward the tip of the needle, a fitting coupled to the needle collar and including a sealing element disposed between a first portion of the fitting and the needle collar, a barrel unit, the barrel unit designed for coupling to the fitting, a plunger unit having a piston on a first end of the plunger unit, the plunger unit and piston being positioned in the barrel unit, an extractor element coupled to the first end of the plunger and having a proximal end adjacent to the plunger and a distal end, the extractor element designed for coupling to the needle collar and encompassing at least a portion of the at least one groove.
US08840581B2
Components for a medical infusion fluid handling system, such as an APD system, in which one or more lines (such as solution lines), spikes or other connection ports may be automatically capped and/or de-capped. This feature may provide advantages, such as a reduced likelihood of contamination since no human interaction is required to de-cap and connect the lines, spikes or other connection ports. For example, a fluid handling cassette may include one or more caps that cover a corresponding spike and include a raised and/or recessed feature to assist in removal of the one or more caps from the cassette. A solution line cap may include a hole and recess, groove or other feature to engage with a spike cap and enable removal of the spike cap.
US08840580B2
A gas supply system appropriate for an abdominal cavity and a luminal cavity is provided. The gas supply system reduces a pressure of gas, supplied from a source of gas for supplying gas of a predetermined kind, to a predetermined pressure value upon which gas, whose pressure is reduced, is controllably lowered to a first pressure value appropriate for a body cavity of a first kind of a specimen to allow gas to be supplied to the body cavity of the first kind. In the meantime, gas, supplied from the source of gas, is lowered to a second pressure value appropriate for a body cavity of a second kind of the specimen to allow gas to be supplied to the body cavity of the second kind.
US08840576B2
Thus this invention relates to a device, preferably hand held, designed for the installation of an adjustable tension, stretchable, brace that allows equal tension throughout the entire width of the brace during installation. The device of the invention is used in conjunction with pins that are positioned at either end of the brace and are removed when the brace is secured in position.
US08840572B2
A system is provided by applying pressure to a portion of a body of an individual in a chamber having an aperture along a vertical axis for receiving the portion of the body of the individual. A pressure sensor is coupled to the chamber for measuring a pressure inside the chamber. A negative feedback control system, calibrates, adjusts and maintains the pressure inside the chamber.
US08840568B2
A device for the medical treatment is provided which includes not only a function for applying turning force to a guide wire but also a function for inserting an end portion of the guide wire into an opening of a catheter and therefore is excellent in workability. In one form, a device for the medical treatment includes a guide wire connecting section capable of being connected to a guide wire to apply turning force to the guide wire, and a catheter connecting section to which a catheter can be connected and which can relatively move toward and away from the guide wire connecting section.
US08840565B2
A test battery method and system for use in assessing auditory function (e.g., the screening or diagnosis of impairments, fitting of hearing aids, etc.) is provided which performs one or more auditory tests including, for example, an acoustic reflectance test. Such an acoustic reflectance test may be a reflectance tympanometry test that includes a feedback system to control static pressure in the ear canal. Such acoustic reflectance tests may be used alone or in combination with one or more other auditory tests. Further, for example, such a battery of tests may include middle-ear muscle reflex tests in combination with one or more other auditory or hearing tests.
US08840554B2
Disclosed are systems and methods for reconstructing a three-dimensional ultrasound image. The method may include generating a two-dimensional image having various directivities in a frequency space based on plane wave data; manipulating the generated two-dimensional image to generate three-dimensional image data; and reconstructing a three-dimensional ultrasound image by performing an inverse fast Fourier transformation on the three-dimensional image data. The method may further include using a fast Fourier transformation, a lookup table, back-projection, filtering, de-noising, compressed sensing, and/or the projection-slice theorem.
US08840550B2
A system and method allows diagnosis of a patient for physiological abnormality such as a neurological deficiency. An involuntary reflex cough event is induced within the patient that activates the nucleus ambiguus and medial motor cell column of the patient and stimulates involuntary cough activated paraspinal muscles in the pelvis of the patient. An electromyogram (EMG) is obtained from the involuntary cough activated paraspinal muscles while inducing involuntary reflex cough and determining its duration. The intra-abdominal pressure (IAP) is determined and the IAP is correlated with the EMG duration of the involuntary cough event within a processing device to diagnose a physiological abnormality such as a neurological deficiency within the patient.
US08840546B2
A system for illuminating a body orifice includes: a frustoconical optical waveguide speculum includes a distal end, a proximal end wider than the distal end, an at least partially circumferential body wall having a bore passing between the proximal and distal ends of the speculum; and a base that couples to the speculum and receives a light source such that the speculum is configured to propagate light from the light source along the body wall. In a preferred embodiment, the body wall defines between an inner and outer surface of the body wall a fluidic channel configured to delivery fluid to the distal end of the speculum and a suction channel configured to drain fluid from distal end of the speculum.
US08840539B2
This embodiment suggests new approach for Endovascular Ventricular Assist Device, using the mathematical objective & principle of superposition allow design and calculation of the body response to VAD pump located in the Aorta. This new approach allows minimal invasive Endovascular VAD that result in similar relief to the heart as partial VAD. Using special power transfer technique will allow wireless power transformation into the aorta. This methods and technique should dramatic reduce VAD barrier.
US08840538B2
An apical ring for coupling a conduit of a ventricular assist device to a heart has an annular disk with a central aperture for receiving the conduit. A collar is axially aligned with the central aperture and has a cylindrical shape interrupted by a gap between first and second ends of the collar. The collar has a fixed section joined to the annular disk and has a cantilever section extending from the fixed section to the first end of the collar. A tightener selectively drives the first end toward the second end to close the gap in order to retain the conduit within the collar. The cantilever section includes a relief slot that is expandable for extending a circumferential length of the cantilever section in response to interacting with the conduit when the gap is closed.
US08840535B2
Method and apparatus for centrifugal blood component separation including temperature sensing in each of a plurality of separation cells. The temperature of unit of bloods over time is recorded. If the temperature of any of the units exceeds a pre-determined maximum, portions of the blood separation device may be cooled. A controller may determine which of the units to process first, generally proceeding from the warmest unit to the coolest. The order of unit processing may be changed during processing. The detected temperature may be used to calibrate a pressure sensor used to predict the volume of a component separated from a composite fluid by predicting the volume of the composite fluid from sensed pressure and predicting the volume of other separated components from sensed movement of the other components to collection bags.
US08840532B2
A method of strap control and an apparatus including a combined strap-length adjuster and strap keeper is disclosed for use with strap-length adjuster comprising two rings. The strap-length adjuster includes openings that permit the attachment of a tether to the strap keeper. The arrangement allows the tether to not interfere with the positioning or movement of the straps, and maintains the straps close to the strap-length adjuster and prevents slippage of the strap through the strap-length adjuster.
US08840530B2
An article of athletic equipment for a wearer with a foot and a leg including a knee joint includes an article of footwear operable to secure to the foot. The equipment also includes a knee coupling member that is operable to secure to the leg about the knee joint. The knee coupling member is operable to extend superiorly and inferiorly about the knee joint. Moreover, the equipment includes a biasing member that is coupled to the article of footwear and the knee coupling member. The biasing member biases the article of footwear relative to the knee coupling member to bias the foot toward plantarflexion relative to the leg to increase proprioception of the foot relative to the leg.
US08840528B2
A portable neck exercising device comprising an adjustable frame that can be securely and removably positioned between two sides of a door frame, a set of pulleys attached to the frame, a head band, and flexible tensioning bands attached to the head band, threaded through the pulleys, and removably connected to the frame using various tensions, such that a user can variably exercise their neck muscles by moving their head, neck, and torso in a variety of directions.
US08840525B2
Provided is a control apparatus for an internal combustion engine, which quietly restarts the engine with a reduced torque shock when a re-acceleration request is made by a driver. A control apparatus for an internal combustion engine, for controlling a clutch provided between the internal combustion engine and an automatic transmission, includes: an accelerator opening-degree detection unit for detecting a pressing amount of an accelerator; a fuel-supply stopping unit for stopping fuel injection to the internal combustion engine when the accelerator is not pressed down; and a clutch direct-coupling ratio control unit capable of arbitrarily changing a power amount transmitted by the clutch from engagement for direct coupling to disengagement of the clutch, in which, when the accelerator is pressed down while the clutch is disengaged in a fuel-supply stop state, the clutch is engaged in a slipping manner so that internal combustion engine rpm becomes equal to or higher than target cranking rpm to restart the internal combustion engine.
US08840516B2
A dynamic damper device includes a planetary gear mechanism including plural differentially rotatable rotating elements, an elastic member that couples a rotating shaft rotated by being transmitted with a power with a first rotating element of the planetary gear mechanism, speed control devices that are coupled with second rotating elements different from the first rotating element and control rotation speeds of the second rotating elements, and a torque control device that is coupled with the first rotating element and controls torque acting on the first rotating element. Accordingly, the dynamic damper device achieves an effect that vibration can be appropriately reduced.
US08840511B2
A vehicle drive device configured with an input member coupled to an internal combustion engine, a rotary electric machine, an output member coupled to wheels, and a power transfer mechanism that drivably couples the input member, the rotary electric machine, and the output member. An oil collecting portion is configured to collect oil supplied by rotation of the power transfer mechanism, The collected oil falling passage is configured to cause the oil collected by the oil collecting portion to flow downward to be supplied to a portion of a facing wall surface located above a cylindrical member. A communication oil passage communicates between the gap and the inside housing space is formed at a portion of abutment between the subject support bearing and the support projecting portion.
US08840510B2
A speed reduction mechanism includes: a speed reduction unit that includes an input member formed of an external gear that makes circular motion about a rotation axis with an eccentric amount, and a rotation force applying member formed of an internal gear that is in mesh with the input member; and a lubricating oil supply unit that supplies lubricating oil to a bearing of the speed reduction unit. The lubricating oil supply unit includes an oil tank arranged outside of the rotation force applying member, an oil delivery passage that delivers the lubricating oil to the oil tank, and a first oil introduction passage that introduces the lubricating oil from the oil tank to the bearing. The lubricating oil is delivered to the oil delivery passage through pumping action of the input member based on the circular motion.
US08840507B2
An apparatus has a first motor for moving an actuator, a first brake for selectively braking the motor, a second brake that is engaged, the second brake dissipating torque spikes in the system, and a gear attaching the first motor to the actuator to cause the actuator to move and to the second brake whereby the torque spikes overcome stiction in the engaged brake so that the torque spike is dissipated in the engaged brake.
US08840503B2
A hydrostatic mechanical transmission according to the disclosure includes: a hydrostatic transmission which transmits power generated in an engine using a pump and a motor; a main transmission unit which transmits the engine power to a final driving unit through a driving shaft; a complex planetary gear which synthesizes and transmits the engine power transmitted from the hydrostatic transmission and the main transmission unit; and an automatic manual sub-gearshift which receives the synthesized engine power from the complex planetary gear so as to perform a transmission function and transmits the engine power to the final driving unit.
US08840500B2
An electro-mechanical drive unit connectable with multiple power sources for launching and propelling a vehicle includes an output member, a stationary member, a gear-train, and a torque-transmitting device. The drive unit also includes a compound planetary gear arrangement having a first, second, third, and fourth junction points. The power sources include a first motor/generator and a second motor/generator. The second motor/generator is operatively connected to the compound planetary gear arrangement at the first junction point via the gear-train and the output member is operatively connected to the compound planetary gear arrangement at the second junction point. Additionally, the first motor/generator is operatively connected to the compound planetary gear arrangement at the fourth junction point. Furthermore, the torque-transmitting device is engageable to ground the third junction point to the stationary member.
US08840499B2
A series-parallel hybrid vehicle which uses two planetary gear mechanisms, the first one (4) dedicated to low vehicle speeds and the second (5) dedicated to high vehicle speeds. The two planetary gear mechanisms include pilot shafts (3rd shafts) which are alternatively coupled to an electric generator (3); output shafts which drive the wheels (9) through a differential (6); and input shafts which receive power from an engine (1). An electrical motor (2) drives the wheels in parallel with the two planetary gear mechanisms. A flywheel (85), less than 1% of the vehicle weight, is coupled to the generator (3) to store kinetic energy of the vehicle during decelerations. The planetary gear mechanisms makes possible higher efficiency at low vehicle speeds where decelerations are frequents. The energy storage performance of the flywheel equals that of ultra-capacitors.The system provides improvements regarding over torque protection and power-train arrangement.
US08840497B2
A pulley device for a belt or chain tensioning or guide roller includes a pulley, a rolling bearing, and a spacer configured to support the rolling bearing and having a transverse mounting surface disposable against an external element. An attachment member includes a threaded portion with an outer diameter and a retaining ring is disposed on the attachment member and retains the attachment member axially relative to the spacer. The ring has an inner diameter lesser than the outer diameter of the threaded portion in a free state and opening such that the ring is radially deflectable. Preferably, the spacer has a recess extending from the mounting surface defined by a frustaconical surface tapering outwardly toward the mounting surface and a shoulder extending inwardly from the frustoconical surface, the ring being deflectable radially inwardly by the recess so as to be disposed generally against the shoulder of the recess.
US08840495B2
In one aspect, the invention is directed to a belt tensioner for tensioning a belt, comprising a pivot shaft that is fixedly mountable with respect to an engine block of an engine, a tensioner arm rotatably mounted to the pivot shaft for pivoting about a tensioner arm axis in a first direction and in an opposing second direction, a pulley rotatably mounted to the tensioner arm for rotation about a pulley axis, and a tensioner spring positioned to bias the tensioner arm in the first direction, wherein the tensioner spring has a first end and a second end, wherein the first end is engaged with the tensioner arm, and a micro adjustment mechanism that is operatively connected to control the position of the second end of the tensioner spring so as to control the tension in the tensioner spring.
US08840485B2
A modular golf club includes a plurality of components that are removably coupled so that the physical attributes of the golf club head may be tuned. The inventive golf club head includes a body member and at least one of a removable sole member and a removable face member.
US08840481B2
A power transmitting part for transmitting power has an annular main body section and a transmitting section. The transmitting section has a first protruding section extending outward in a radial direction from the main body section and a second protruding section extending toward a first side in an axial direction from a circumferential-direction-facing edge portion of the first protruding section.
US08840479B2
The invention relates to a communication device between an audiovisual information playback system (1) and at least one electronic game machine (2), each electronic game machine comprising a viewing means (200), a means (210) for interacting with the user and a means of payment (220), characterized in that each electronic game machine (2) is connected to the playback system (2) via a network interface (21) and an associated LAN (3), and comprises specific means (20, 21, 22) for managing a means of payment, a viewing means and an interactive means, in order to enable, on the electronic game machine (2), the selection and payment of at least one selection stored on the playback system (2), with a view to playback thereof on the playback system, the specific means (22) of managing payment means and the specific means (21) of managing viewing means and the interactive means being triggered by the activation means of the electronic game machine (2).
US08840468B1
A fantasy league weighted aggregation system that accepts user selections and fantasy league data, applies a weighting to at least one or more players if a weighting exists, for example based on ratio of entry fees for leagues, etc., and displays an aggregate view of the combination based on the weighting. The aggregate view includes a plurality of player strength categories associated with each player such as a list of players for, favorable to, unfavorable to, neutral to and against the first user, the second user or the third user. Other embodiments may display a coarse grained favorable and unfavorable aggregate view. The system may also calculate a range of optimal scores for particular players according to a strategy to improve a standing in at least one league while minimizing loss of standing across multiple leagues or using other strategies.
US08840467B2
When a mobile terminal obtains a container upon movement of a display range, a processor increases points in a storage unit. When the mobile terminal opens a container obtained by movement of the display range or as a present from another mobile terminal, the processor opens the container at predetermined success percentages, and writes an item obtained from the opened container in the storage unit. When the mobile terminal presents a container without opening it, the processor transmits screen data indicating a present to the other mobile terminal. The processor converts an item in the storage unit into points to increase the points in the storage unit based on an operation of the user of the mobile terminal.
US08840460B2
A method is described of providing a game for use with a gaming machine that is arranged to select symbols, present the selected symbols on a display and award an award if a winning outcome occurs. The method comprises receiving identification data for a player and displaying representations of game play of the game, wherein at least one character is depicted as one or more graphic objects. At least one attribute of the character may be amended if a triggering event occurs during game play. The amended attribute may be stored for retrieval in a subsequent game session by the player, wherein the stored amended attribute is associated with the identification data for the player.
US08840458B2
In accordance with the present invention, a gaming device such as a slot machine calculates a speed of game play, and in turn determines a pay schedule based on the speed of game play. In some embodiments, a count is adjusted throughout a multiple play session based on point values associated with symbols on the reels of a slot machine, and payouts are awarded in accordance with (i) a finishing count, and/or (ii) a “virtual average speed”.
US08840452B2
The present invention relates to an air conditioner for a vehicle, which has a mode door of a single plate member including a first door portion that closes at least two vents, a second door portion that closes one vent, and bridge portions that connect the first door portion and the second door portion with each other, thereby opening and closing a plurality of vents by the single mode door, reducing the number of components, weight and manufacturing costs by simplifying the entire structure of the mode door because it uses the single plate member, reducing the size of the air conditioner, preventing bad smells caused by inhabitation of molds and being reusable due to the use of the single plate member, and preventing the door from being caught because the plate member has bent portions formed at end portions thereof.
US08840447B2
An abrasive article for polishing a surface of a workpiece. The abrasive article includes a plurality of polishing islands arranged to interact with a workpiece to maintain a substantially constant contact area. Abrasive features are associated with at least some of the plurality of polishing islands. The abrasive features apply cutting forces to the work piece during motion of the abrasive article relative to the workpiece.
US08840446B2
An inner ring for a carrier head has an inner surface configured to circumferentially surround the edge of a substrate positioned on the substrate mounting surface, an outer surface, and a lower surface to contact a polishing pad. An outer ring for a carrier head has an inner surface circumferentially surrounding the inner ring, an outer surface, and a lower surface to contact the polishing pad.
US08840440B2
A holder for a floating balloon having a variety of protrusions or holes form to or through which a floating balloon can be tied, and a slit to allow a first end and a second and to be separated apart so that the holder can be attached to a variety of objects or human body parts.
US08840435B2
The invention relates to an electrical connector (1) with an inner housing (2), an outer housing (3) and a locking arrangement (L). In order to provide a control mechanism for a correct insertion of the inner housing (2) into the outer housing C(3), the invention provides that the electrical connector (1) has an indicator sleeve (18), whose insertion into the outer housing (3) is blocked by the locking arrangement (L), if the inner housing (2) is incompletely inserted into the outer housing (3).
US08840430B2
Systems and methods (900) for providing an electrical connector (101, 700) in an electronic device (100). The electrical connector comprises a connector body (350) comprising a planar layer of insulator material having a first face (470) opposed from a second face (370), and a peripheral wall extending around a periphery of the connector body. The electrical connector further comprises one or more conductive posts (401, 403, 405, 407), each having an electrical contact at a first end, and a spring anchor (311, 313, 315, 317) at an opposing end. The connector body comprises one or more elongated cavity structures, each comprising a recess (613) molded into the second face. Conductive spring members (301, 303, 305, 307), each comprised of an elongated cantilevered beam element, are secured by one of the spring anchors within one of the cavity structures. An outer seal (360) is provided, coextensive with the peripheral wall.
US08840428B2
To electromagnetically-shield an L-shaped terminal in a compact and reliable manner while easily and securely fixing the L-shaped terminal, there is employed an insulating split inner housing having an L-shaped terminal receiving portion including an electric-contact-portion-side receiving portion covering an electric contact portion of the L-shaped terminal connected to a shielded wire and a wire-connection-portion-side receiving portion covering a wire connection portion of the L-shaped terminal, the electric-contact-portion-side receiving portion is covered by a conductive shield shell, the wire-connection-portion-side receiving portion is covered by a conductive housing connected to the shield shell and to a shield portion of the shielded wire, and the L-shaped terminal is insulated by the inner housing from the shield shell and the conductive housing.
US08840419B2
A communication connector comprises a connector body and a tab operating mechanism. The connector body has a locking tab at a front top portion thereof and is fitted to a case at a rear portion thereof, wherein the case is provided with a pivot portion. The tab operating mechanism includes a press member and spring means. The press member is pivotally mounted to the pivot portion of the case. The spring means is disposed between the case and the locking tab for engaging with the locking tab from a lower position. With the present invention, the spring means can assist the locking tab 11 to return to its normal position, while the press member can limit the locking tab within an angle for protecting the locking tab from being overly bent by improper external force. Such features make the present invention a robust and reliable communication connector.
US08840413B2
A hermetic adapter includes an adapter body, a hermetic seal disposed between the adapter body and a pin, a contact connected to the pin which is disposed within a dielectric, the dielectric being disposed within the adapter body. A sealing ring is press-fit into the adapter body and includes a sharp edge configured to deform a surface of an external adapter to which the hermetic adapter is attachable.
US08840412B2
A waterproof connector includes a plate-like cable having a plurality of conductor parts, a connector housing having a rectangular insertion opening, a sealing member through which the plate-like cable is inserted and that seals between the insertion opening and the plate-like cable, and a holder that covers an outer periphery of an opening end part of the connector housing, that has a lock part which engages with the opening end part, and that holds the plate-like cable. A plurality of bosses are protruded on the holder and are inserted into a plurality of connector side through holes formed in the opening end part and a plurality of cable side through holes formed in the plate-like cable. A back end surface of the sealing member abuts against the plurality of bosses.
US08840411B2
It is the object of the present invention to provide a connector 10 which provides a stable connection that is resistant to the rocking motion of a connecting object in insertion direction, longitudinal pitch direction, or the direction of the thickness of the connector, while maintaining the low-profile level so as to prevent the deflection of the connecting object even when the connector is mounted on a flexible board e.g., an FPC.
US08840408B2
A board terminal has a flat-plate shaped connection portion to be connected to an electric component at one end and an insertion portion to be inserted in and soldered to a through-hole of a printed circuit board at the other end and is formed in a crank shape by being provided with a support plate portion protruding in a plate thickness direction of the connection portion between the connection portion and the insertion portion. Also, the insertion portion is formed in a location on only one side in a width direction of the support plate portion.
US08840401B2
A method of obtaining advice pertaining to a fitness-related activity performed by a user is provided. A user accesses a central site via a network, such as the Internet, then visits a physical location associated with a fitness-related activity. Information identifying the location is provided to the central site. The user then receives live advice pertaining to the fitness-related activity from a personal advisor, via the network from the central site. Fitness-related activities for which advice is provided include, for example, use of exercise equipment, consumption of foods or beverages, and engagement in other activities having an impact on a user's physical, mental or spiritual well-being.
US08840397B2
A device for producing a thin-walled elongate body from thermoplastic material includes a removable sleeve (25) and a bush (33), the casing of the removable sleeve (25) and the bore (31) in the bush (33) are arranged eccentrically with respect to the axis of symmetry of the core and, by rotation relative to one another, a displacement of the core can be achieved both in terms of magnitude and also in relation to a deflection angle.
US08840395B2
A hot runner nozzle having an electrical heating element includes a connector for producing an electrical connection to a connection line, terminal contacts for the heating element terminating in an insulation body for the connector that separates the terminal contacts from one another electrically. The connection line has contact elements that are electrically contactable with the terminal contacts of the heating element. The insulation body is arranged at least in part in a receiving sleeve of the connector, that the connection line may be fixed in or on the receiving sleeve such that the contact elements of the connection line electrically contact the terminal contacts of the heating element, and that a first end of the receiving sleeve that faces towards the heating element wraps around the insulation body and has on this first end two opposing feet that face outward and that are attached to the heating element.
US08840391B1
The invention disclosed herein is a device to prevent damage from molten plastic to electrical wiring, heater bands and insulation of an injection molding machine. Specifically, the device consists of a flat metal disc with an aperture in the center which attaches to the distal end of the nozzle housing of an injection molding machine. When the nozzle of the injection molding machine extends through the aperture of the flat metal disc to inject molten plastic into a mold, the flat metal disc prevents molten plastic from entering the nozzle housing and damaging the electrical wiring, heater bands and insulation of the injection molding machine.
US08840389B2
An extrusion device, in particular for plastic materials comprising: an extrusion head (2) having a nozzle (2a) for ejection of at least one plastic material (M1, M2); a first duct (5) formed in said head (2) for feeding a first plastic material (M1) to said ejection nozzle (2a); a second duct (β) formed in said head (2) for feeding a second plastic material (M2) to said ejection nozzle (2a); and a selection element (8), disposed in the vicinity of said ejection nozzle (2a) and able to be switched between a first operating condition at which it closes the second duct (6) to enable feeding of the first plastic material (M1) through the first duct (5), and a second operating condition at which it closes the first duct (5) to enable feeding of the second plastic material (M2) through the second duct (6).
US08840388B2
A system includes a dispensing station and top and bottom mold portion paths. The dispensing station is configured to dispense materials into one or more hemispherical cavities of a plurality of top mold portions and a plurality of bottom mold portions. The plurality of top mold portions are conveyed at a first speed along the top mold portion path, and the plurality of bottom mold portions are conveyed at a second speed along the bottom mold portion path. The dispensing station can include at least one nozzle coupled to a six-axis robotic member that is configured to move at variable speeds.
US08840386B2
Various mold apparatuses and methods for forming a polymer with induction heat energy are provided. In one embodiment of the present invention, a mold apparatus for forming polymer includes a mold having a top mold portion and a top mold surface that is magnetic. The bottom mold portion of the mold includes an induction heating unit that is at least partially embedded in the bottom mold portion that provides induction heat energy to the mold. The mold apparatus is constructed and arranged to dissipate greater than about 50% of the induction heat energy in the top mold portion. The induction heating unit of the bottom portion of the mold provides rapid heating to the top mold surface to provide high surface quality polymer parts and a shorter molding cycle time while utilizing less energy.
US08840383B2
An apparatus for constructing a high pressure fluid pump having a piston housing, a pump head connected to and supported by the piston housing, and a pump pedestal for supporting the pump head and the piston housing is provided. The pump head receives water at low pressure and, in combination with the piston housing, produces fluid through a flow channel at high pressure. The combination of piston housing and pump head contains a valve which, in response to a suction on one side of the valve, allows water at low pressure to pass through the valve into a receiving chamber, and, in response to a high pressure fluid in the receiving chamber, enables fluid at a high pressure to pass through the valve and eventually to an output port while closing off the input path. The pump can have an aluminum pump head structured to withstand high pressure fluid impact.
US08840373B2
A gas turbine rotor is provided with a longitudinal stack of blade supporting disks each including a medial web and a radially outer rim. The disks are spaced from one another by axial gaps. The disks include recesses in the forward and aft major surfaces thereof proximal to the juncture of the webs and rims thereof. Annular spacers received with the recesses in the disks span the axial gaps and provide a load path for the axial compressive preloading of the disks and the transmission of torque along the disk stack.
US08840371B2
A cooling system for use in regulating a temperature of a component is described herein. The cooling system includes a plurality of flow control assemblies that are defined across a sidewall of the component for channeling a cooling fluid across a surface of the sidewall. The plurality of flow control assemblies are configured to adjust a plurality of fluid flow characteristics of the cooling fluid. The plurality of flow control assemblies includes a first flow control assembly configured to adjust a first fluid flow characteristic, and at least a second flow control assembly configured to adjust a second fluid flow characteristic that is different than the first fluid flow characteristic.
US08840365B2
A turbocharger is provided herein. The turbocharger includes a housing and an adjustable core at least partially circumferentially surrounded by the housing, the adjustable core having a turbine rotor coupled to a compressor rotor via a shaft. The turbocharger further includes an adjustment mechanism coupled to the adjustable core configured to adjust an axial position of the housing relative to the adjustable core in response to adjustment commands.
US08840363B2
An airfoil in a gas turbine engine includes an outer wall, a cooling fluid cavity, and a plurality of cooling fluid passages. The outer wall has a leading edge, a trailing edge, a pressure side, a suction side, and radially inner and outer ends. The cooling fluid cavity is defined in the outer wall, extends generally radially between the inner and outer ends of the outer wall, and receives cooling fluid for cooling the outer wall. The cooling fluid passages are in fluid communication with the cooling fluid cavity and include zigzagged passages that include alternating angled sections, each section having both a radial component and a chordal component. The cooling fluid passages extend from the cooling fluid cavity toward the trailing edge of the outer wall and receive cooling fluid from the cooling fluid cavity for cooling the outer wall near the trailing edge.
US08840362B2
According to an embodiment, at least one first outer ring has an annular outer ring cavity to which external cooling steam is supplied. A radial direction cooling hole connecting with the outer ring cavity is formed in the stator blades connected to the first outer ring. An annular inner ring cavity connecting with the radial direction cooling hole is formed in a first inner ring constituting one diaphragm together with the first outer ring. Cooling steam blowing holes connecting an annular wheel space and the inner ring cavity are formed. The annular wheel space is formed between the first inner ring and a rotor wheel adjacent to the first inner ring.
US08840359B2
A rotor assembly, including at least one driven member, e.g., a compressor rotor, and at least one driving member, e.g., a turbine. At least one rotating thermal insulator rigidly attached to either the driven member or the driving member. A coupling feature that includes mating geometric surfaces on the driven member and the driving member, wherein the geometric surfaces are configured to allow radial sliding, relative centering, torque transmission, and axial constraint between the driven member and the driving member.
US08840352B2
A pipe handling catwalk is provided for moving tubulars or pipe to and from a work floor of well drilling or service rigs. The catwalk includes a variable height V-door for guiding pipe to the work floor. The V-door is made of a series of sequential pivotally attached segments that can extend from, and retract into, the catwalk at an angle relative to the catwalk along a guide track disposed at an end of the catwalk.
US08840350B2
In accordance with exemplary embodiments, a system for isolating magnesium components from fastener devices is provided to prevent corrosion. The system comprises an isolation member of a metal other than magnesium and configured within a hole for receiving the fastener formed in a magnesium component. A compressible sealing washer having a first diameter is positioned over the hole and an isolation washer having a second diameter being less than the first diameter, and consisting of a similar metal as the isolation member, is placed over the compressible sealing washer. The fastener passes through the isolation washer, the compressible sealing washer and the isolation member within the hole, where is it tightened to compress the compressible sealing washer between the isolation member and isolation washer forming a water-tight seal around the hole to resist corrosion of the magnesium component.
US08840349B2
An adjusting screw configured to be adjustable by multiple different tools is described. An example adjusting screw includes a cylindrical body portion having a first end, a second end, and an outer curved surface. The example adjusting screw also includes a first raised portion on the first end and offset from a longitudinal axis of the cylindrical body and a second raised portion on the first end and offset from the longitudinal axis of the cylindrical body and opposing the first raised portion. Each of the first and second raised portions is configured to engage a first socket to turn the cylindrical body about the longitudinal axis. Additionally, the first and second raised portions are configured to engage a second socket larger than the first socket to turn the cylindrical body about the longitudinal axis.
US08840334B2
A tiltable linkage mechanism including a first plate, a second plate, a swinging plate, a first hinge, a second hinge and a third hinge is provided. The first plate includes an upper surface, the second plate includes a bottom surface facing the upper surface of the first plate and a position limiting structure disposed on the bottom surface. The position limiting structure further has two opposite clamping surfaces. The first plate and the second plate pivotally connect with each other through the first hinge. The swinging plate and the first plate pivotally connect with each other through the second hinge. The swinging plate and the second plate pivotally connect with each other through the third hinge which is disposed in the position limiting structure. The third hinge has an end portion that can slide between the two clamping surfaces. In this way, when the second plate tilts from the first plate, the second plate rotates about the first hinge, the swinging plate rotates about the second hinge, and the end portion of the third hinge slides within the position limiting structure.
US08840329B2
A conveyance device including a drive roller that feeds a sheet medium from a media roll having the sheet medium wound in a roll that can rotate on a center axis of the roll, a drive roller that supplies the sheet medium from the media roll, a roll rotating unit that rotates the media roll and rewinds the supplied sheet medium, and first and second brake devices that apply a load to rotation of the media roll and are disposed to the roll rotating unit, wherein the first brake device is controlled to apply the load when not energized.
US08840324B2
A blade drive device includes: a board including an opening; a blade movable between a position receding from the opening and a position covering at least a portion of the opening; a first actuator including a first rotor rotatable about a first axis and a first stator, and being capable of driving the blade; a second actuator including a second rotor rotatable about a second axis and a second stator, and being capable of driving the blade; first and second positioning portions respectively positioning the first and second actuators; and a first biasing member respectively biasing the first and second actuators toward the first and second positioning portions.
US08840323B2
In a parallel optical communication module, an array of opto-electronic devices secured with respect to a mount and an array of optical elements of an optical device that is also secured with respect to the mount are unconstrained against relative movement due to thermal expansion of the mount and optical device. The mount and optical device can be made of materials having similar coefficients of thermal expansion. As thermal expansion in the mount causes the opto-electronic devices to move, similar thermal expansion in the optical device causes the optical elements to move to a similar extent. This co-movement of the opto-electronic devices and optical elements to similar extents promotes continued maintenance of optical alignment between opto-electronic elements and corresponding optical elements.
US08840322B2
An connector assembly (100) includes an insulative housing (1) having a main portion (11) and a tongue portion (12) extending forwardly from the main portion, a cavity (121) defined in the tongue portion; a plurality of terminals (2) retained in the insulative housing; an optical module (3) accommodated in the cavity, said optical module having a base portion and a plurality of lenses combined with the base portion; and a biasing member (4) having a holder (40), an elastic element (43) accommodated in the holder and at least one post assembled to the holder and urged by the elastic element so as to push the optical module forwardly.
US08840321B2
An cable assembly (100) includes an insulative housing (1); a first terminal module (21) and a second terminal module (22) assembled to the insulative housing, the first terminal module (21) having first terminals (212a) and first additional terminals (212b), the second terminal module (22) having second terminals (222a) and second additional terminals (222b); a photoelectric conversion device (93) electrically connected with the first terminals and the second terminals; and a cable (6) including fiber wires (63) and copper wires (61), the fiber wires optically connected to photoelectric conversion device, the copper wires electrically connected to the first additional terminals and the second additional terminals.
US08840307B2
According to the invention, there is provided a connecting rod bearing constituted by a half bearing, which has a main cylindrical portion, crush reliefs and a transitional region. The crush relief is formed so that a depth from a virtual inner circumferential surface at a position of an end surface of the half bearing in a circumferential direction is larger than a depth from the virtual inner circumferential surface at a position where the crush relief connects with the transitional region. Further, a plurality of circumferential grooves are provided in the main cylindrical portion to continuously extend in the circumferential direction throughout an entire length of the main cylindrical portion in the circumferential direction, and are continuously provided also in the transitional region.
US08840306B1
A container comprised of an inner bag having a chamber for holding an item and a top through which the item can be placed in the chamber; an odor containment section attached to the inner bag; an odor containment flap positioned inside of the inner bag and adapted to be folded over the item when the item is held in the chamber of the inner bag; and an outer bag that surrounds the inner bag and the odor containment section, with the top of the inner bag extending beyond a top of the outer bag. Generally, the container is used to contain or minimize the odors emitted by organic materials such as, food, plant matter, or feces.
US08840301B2
A diverse and redundant resistance temperature detector (“D&R RTD”) is provided. The D&R RTD is utilized in obtaining temperature readings in environments, such as fluids and gasses, by measuring electrical characteristics of the D&R RTD that are influenced by the temperature. Furthermore, the D&R RTD's are arranged such that a plurality of measurements can be obtained, which provides sufficient diversity and redundancy of the measurements for enhanced diagnostics to be performed, such as optimization for fast dynamic response, calibration stability, in-situ response time testability, and in-situ calibration testability.
US08840300B2
Certain embodiments disclosed herein are directed to a sensor comprising a support member, a sample sensor coupled to the support member and comprising a sample support electrically coupled to a first set of interconnects, and a reference sensor coupled to the support member and comprising a ring coupled to a second set of interconnects, in which the ring is positioned adjacent to and surrounding at least a portion of the sample support of the sample sensor.
US08840296B2
A light guide plate and manufacture methods thereof are provided. The light guide plate includes a plate body, an optical adhesive layer, and a light entrance structure layer. The plate body has a light exit surface and a light entrance surface. The light entrance surface is connected to a side of the light exit surface and intersects the light exit surface with an angle. The optical adhesive layer is attached on the light entrance surface while the light entrance structure layer is attached to the optical adhesive layer. The light entrance structure layer includes a substrate and a light-cured or thermal-cured structure. The light-cured or thermal-cured structure is made of light or thermal curable material and firmly formed on a structured surface of the substrate through a light or thermal curing process.
US08840289B2
The present invention provides a headlamp assembly including a light pipe and reflex reflector integration utilizing a single bulb to illuminate both the reflex reflector and the light pipe, simultaneously. The headlamp assembly includes a single light source, a light pipe and a reflex reflector positioned adjacent one another allowing the light source to provide light to both the reflex reflector and the light pipe. The reflex reflector includes a reflecting element and a cutout to allow light to pass though the reflex reflector into the reflecting element. The reflex reflector is adapted to transform light from white to amber thereby creating the side marker function. The headlamp assembly further includes a reflector behind the light source to direct light into the light pipe. The automotive headlamp assembly provides an automotive headlamp assembly that includes a reflex reflector light and a light pipe while reducing cost and decreasing weight.
US08840288B2
A vehicle window assembly includes a vehicle structure, a window panel and a light source. The vehicle structure defines a viewing aperture. The window panel is mounted to the vehicle structure and covers the viewing aperture. The window panel has a peripheral edge surrounding a first window surface and a second window surface opposite the first window surface. The first window surface includes an etched section. The light source is mounted to the vehicle structure adjacent to a portion of the peripheral edge of the window panel such that light from the light source is directed to the portion of the peripheral edge of the window panel. The light travels in a lateral direction through the window panel selectively illuminating the etched section.
US08840268B2
An LED beacon has a plurality of LEDs for emitting light of the same or different colors mounting along an upright member within an optical system. To provide a beacon illuminating selectively in one or more colors, the plurality of LEDs are in different groups of two or more LEDs, at least one LED in each group being of a different color. Each group of LEDs are mounted together circumferentially spaced from each other around a central axis. Each of the LEDs when activated projects light there from through the optical system provided by a collimating lens and a condensing, coupling lens. The optical system provides enhanced illumination distributed in a cylindrical beam emanating from the collimating lens. By selectively activating LEDs of the same colors or different color at different times different sequences or patterns may be generated.
US08840257B2
An antireflection film, including an optical element, formed on an optical surface of an optical member and preventing reflection of a light beam incident on the optical surface. It has a maximum reflectance P1 in a first wavelength region and a maximum reflectance P2 in a second wavelength region at a wavelength side longer than the first wavelength region, and satisfies a relation of P1>P2, as a spectral reflectance property when a light beam is incident on the optical surface at a 0 degree incident angle. It also shifts a wavelength range where the reflectance is a specific value or less, to a wavelength longer than the second wavelength region, the reflectance in the second wavelength region decreases, and the reflectance in the first wavelength region increases so that a luminance difference is small between a ghost in the first wavelength region and the second wavelength region.
US08840256B2
A foreign substance removal unit includes an optical member, disposed in an optical path, which is rectangular-shaped and in which an optical effective area for a light flux to pass through is set, and a piezoelectric element including a piezoelectric member, and a driving electrode, and a sensor electrode formed on a surface of the piezoelectric member. The piezoelectric element is stuck to a surface of the optical member outside the optical effective area and along one side of the optical member. The sensor electrode is formed on the surface of the piezoelectric member to be positioned within a range of the optical effective area in a side direction of the optical member to which the piezoelectric element is stuck.
US08840250B1
An augmented reality environment allows interaction between virtual and real objects. Various surfaces within the environment such as walls, tables, countertop, chairs, floor, ceiling, and so forth may be used as projection surfaces. Qualified projection surfaces are determined, and an initial projection surface is selected for use from these. This selection may take into account user preferences, user orientation, types of image to be projected, and so forth. Other qualified projection surfaces may have visual indicators projected thereon, indicating relative suitability for use as a projection surface.
US08840248B2
An image processing apparatus includes: an acquisition unit configured to acquire a tomogram of an eye portion of a patient to be examined; an information acquisition unit configured to acquire information of a predetermined portion and position information of a predetermined tissue structure from the tomogram; and a calculation unit configured to calculate an evaluation value based on a relationship between the information of the predetermined portion and a position of the predetermined tissue structure.
US08840245B2
An individual spectacle lens design for a progressive spectacle lens exhibiting an individual vertical position of the distance and/or the near reference points, which can be variably adjusted, is calculated. A starting design exhibiting a predefined vertical position of the distance and/or the near reference points is determined; the individual spectacle lens design is calculated having the desired, individual vertical position of the distance and/or near reference points. The calculation of the individual spectacle lens design includes calculating the target value for the spatial distribution of at least one optical property of the individual spectacle lens by a mapping and a transform, where the starting design has a corresponding target value.
US08840240B2
A paper conveyance device for a printing device is disclosed that includes a detector and first, second, and third conveyance mechanisms. The first conveyance mechanism includes a tractor that conveys continuous paper along a paper feed direction. The second conveyance mechanism is disposed between the first conveyance mechanism and a print head and includes feed and pressure rollers. The third conveyance mechanism is disposed downstream from the print head and includes feed and pressure rollers. The detector detects the paper feed distance of the first conveyance mechanism and the rotation of the feed roller of the second conveyance mechanism, and adjusts the paper feed distance of the first conveyance mechanism based on the detected paper feed distance. A paper feed distance per unit time of each of the second and third conveyance mechanisms is greater than a paper feed distance per unit time of the first conveyance mechanism.
US08840235B2
The inventions relates to a print head for printing optical structures on a substrate comprising an ejection device for ejecting at least one droplet of a printing ink towards the substrate and a curing device for curing the at least one deposited droplet, wherein the curing device comprises at least one UV-LED (ultraviolet emitting light-emitting diode).
US08840233B2
An ink jet recording-targeted non-aqueous ink composition contains pigment, polyvinyl chloride, and a solvent represented by the formula 1, wherein R1 represents an alkyl group having one to eight carbon atoms, and R2 and R3 each represent any one of a methyl group and an ethyl group.
US08840231B2
Compositions, systems, and methods for providing smudge resistant and durable ink-jet images having good optical density are provided. Specifically, a system for printing durable ink-jet ink images can comprise a first ink-jet pen containing an ink-jet ink and a second ink-jet pen containing a fixer composition. The ink-jet ink can comprise a first liquid vehicle and a colorant. The fixer composition can comprise a second liquid vehicle, and from 0.5 wt % to 5 wt % of a cationic copolymer of an epihalohydrin and an amine. Upon overprinting or underprinting the fixer composition with respect to the ink-jet ink on a substrate, a durable image can be formed.
US08840229B2
A continuous inkjet method includes modulating a liquid jet having a wavelength λ, and causing first and second droplets to break off from the liquid jet and travel along a path. The second droplet has a break off length that is longer than the break off length of the first droplet. The first and second break off lengths have a difference of at least one wavelength λ in response to stimulation pulses. A charge differential is produced between the first and second droplets. The trajectories of the first and second droplets are caused to diverge so that one of the first and second droplets is collected and the other of the first and second droplets is deposited on a surface. A transition in droplet creation is identified between stimulation cycles that produce the first and second droplets. A skip cycle is introduced between the stimulation cycles.
US08840225B2
A liquid ejection head includes a housing having a first outer surface; a liquid ejection substrate disposed at a first portion of the first outer surface and having ejection ports for ejecting liquid; and a wiring member disposed on a second portion of the first outer surface so as to be next to the liquid ejection substrate and electrically connected to the liquid ejection substrate. The ejection ports are covered by a cap that is in contact with the wiring member and a portion, except the second portion, of the first outer surface around the liquid ejection substrate; and the second portion is recessed relative to the portion, except the second portion, of the first outer surface around the liquid ejection substrate.
US08840202B2
A silverware basket for a dishwasher appliance is provided. The silverware basket is selectively mountable to a door of the dishwasher appliance, a rack assembly of the dishwasher appliance, or both. The silverware basket has a profile that is complementary to a contour of the door. The storage capacity of the silverware basket can be increased or maximized by matching the profile of the silverware basket to the contour of the door.
US08840198B2
A method for operating a hydraulic vehicle braking system that has an anti-lock control unit is disclosed. The system includes a brake master cylinder having an electromechanical brake booster. As the pressure level of the vehicle braking system decreases during an anti-lock control, in which all vehicle wheels are controlled, the boosting force of the brake booster is reduced in an anti-lock control of this type.
US08840191B2
An automotive machine (1) for producing carriageways by stabilizing insufficiently stable soils or by recycling road surfaces includes a machine chassis (4), a working drum (20) mounted to pivot in relation to the machine chassis (4), a combustion engine (32) supported by the machine chassis, and at least one mechanical power transmission device (36) transferring the drive power from the engine to the working drum (20).
US08840185B2
An automobile seat with a massage device (3) with at least one massaging element (3a) to stimulate and/or massage the neck and/or shoulder area which includes a seat back (1) and a headrest (2). The massage device (3) is connected with the seat back (1) on its upper section (1a) facing the headrest (2), and may be adjusted relative to the seat back without having to adjust the headrest.
US08840177B2
An infant high chair catch apparatus comprises a body adapted to be secured to an infant high chair and to provide a relatively planar surface surrounding the chair that prevents objects dropped from the high chair from falling onto the floor or other surface on which the high chair is located. A flexible support frame provides a bias force to maintain the body portion in an extended configuration, and the body is coupled to the chair via support struts. In some embodiments a support strut is attached to each of the legs of a high chair. The apparatus can further comprise a collar that can be cinched up against the chair. The apparatus can be fashioned of waterproof or water resistant material to prevent liquids from contacting the surface below the chair.
US08840175B2
The present invention is a convertible multifunction overbed table and chair, or more specifically, the present invention is a medical furnishing that serves as an adjustable overbed table in a first configuration and a wheeled transport chair in a second configuration. The present invention may also serve as a medical staff work station, provide storage of patient records and medical charts, storage for the patient's personal effects, personal mirror, IV stand, catheter bag stand, secure storage for portable oxygen, and serve as a patient walker.
US08840174B2
An open roof construction for a vehicle is provided, comprising a stationary roof, a roof opening provided therein, a movable panel for opening and closing said roof opening and two stationary guides positioned along opposite longitudinal edges of the roof opening for guiding two guide shoes provided close to the forward edge of the movable panel. The guides each comprise at least a vertically extending guide part for a guiding cooperation with a corresponding vertically extending guide shoe part. The guide shoes are attached to the movable panel in a substantially vertically and horizontally adjustable manner by means of substantially transversally extending adjustment screws. In a position of the movable panel fully closing the roof opening the adjustment screws are covered by the stationary guides as seen in a transverse direction. The vertically extending guide parts of the stationary guides are provided with openings for, in said position, allowing access to the adjustment screws by means of an appropriate tool.
US08840168B2
A product line of vehicle floor trays each are molded from a polymeric material to substantially conform to respective ones of a plurality of differently shaped foot wells of different vehicle makes and models. In an embodiment, the trays each have a reservoir in their central panels for collecting meltwater and the like, and baffles which retard the movement of the collected fluid.
US08840157B2
An adaptive device for aiding a person with a medical condition is provided. The adaptive device is attached to a hand or limb and includes a platform. A bumper is positioned on the platform to aid in the positioning and securing of the device. A holder extends from the platform, either perpendicularly or at an angle to the platform. The holder is configured to receive an item to aid the individual in everyday tasks. The device also includes securing members, which may be straps that are connected to the device to further aid in securing the device to the user. Additionally, the device may include cushions or other comfort members on the bumper, platform, and/or holder.
US08840155B2
An annular seal assembling jig 1 is used when assembling an annular seal 3 to a spherical body 2 of a ball joint. The jig 1 is equipped with a plurality of split tables 7 which constitutes one table 6, a slider 5 fixed to the split table 7 and is capable of sliding freely along a guide rail 5a, a coil spring 82 which biases the slider 5 to the other split table 7 side, and a claw portion 72a provided to each split table 7, so as to catch the annular seal 3 placed on the table 6, from an inner side of the annular seal 3.
US08840154B2
A motor vehicle door lock having a locking device (4, 5, 6), at least one actuating element (7) and a catch (1, 2), and having a coupling unit (8) between the actuating element (7) and the catch (1, 2), in which the locking device (4, 5, 6) when in the “locked” position can be unlocked by a first traveling movement (unlocking traveling movement) of the actuating element (7) and the catch (1, 2) can be opened by a second traveling movement (opening traveling movement) of the actuating element (7), wherein the locking device (4, 5, 6) has a drive element (4) which acts directly upon the coupling unit (8).
US08840136B2
A front pillar trim mounting structure has a front pillar (10), a front pillar trim (30), an airbag (60), and an assist grip (70). The front pillar is provided in the front portion of a vehicle. The front pillar trim (30) covers the front pillar (10) from the inner side of the vehicle. The airbag (60) is located between the front pillar (10) and the front pillar trim (30). The assist grip (70) is attached to the front pillar (10), and is installed on a vehicle inner surface of the front pillar trim (30). The front pillar trim (30) has a first front pillar trim (40), a second front pillar trim (50), and an engagement mechanism (54). The assist grip (70) is installed on the first front pillar trim (40). The second front pillar trim (50) is provided with an opening where the first front pillar trim (40) is installed. The engagement mechanism (54) detachably connects the second front pillar trim (50) to first front pillar trim (40). The engagement mechanism (54) is configured to allow the second front pillar trim (50) to move with respect to the front pillar (10) by releasing the second front pillar trim (50) by an expansion pressure of the airbag (60) at a time of inflation of the airbag (60), so that a gap for deployment of the airbag (60) is formed between the second front pillar trim (50) and the front pillar (10).
US08840135B2
An airbag device for a vehicle, a method for transferring an airbag of the airbag device into a compact state, and a vehicle with the airbag device are provided. The airbag device includes an airbag that, on an activation of the airbag device, is configured from a compact state into an expanded state. The airbag has a head region, a thorax region, and a pelvis region. In the expanded state of the airbag, the head region is configured for protection of a head of an occupant situated on a vehicle seat, the thorax region is configured for protection of an upper body of the occupant, and the pelvis region is configured for protection of a pelvis of the occupant. The airbag is configured as a single-chamber side airbag. The airbag device further comprises a gas generator for generation of gas.
US08840127B2
A pedal drive system for a bicycle includes a front spiral cone pulley and a rear pulley. The front spiral cone pulley is attached to a crank arm, and the rear pulley is attached to a rear wheel on a bicycle in some embodiments. A power cable, or tension linkage, extends between the front spiral cone pulley and the rear pulley. The front spiral cone pulley is angularly moveable relative to the first crank arm such that the radial position of the point of engagement between the power cable and the front spiral cone pulley may be selectively manipulated for controlling the gear ratio between the front spiral cone pulley and the rear pulley. In some embodiments, the rear pulley is also a spiral cone pulley.
US08840117B2
A static sealing element (1) includes an elastic tapered washer (10) the deformation of which enables a force to be transmitted, a casing (18) to establish the seal, and two supporting washers (27 and 28) which transmit the forces originating from the elastic washer (10) to the curved edges (20, 21) of the casing (18) so as to exert on them a pressure which maintains the seal. The casing (18) made thus be manufactured from a ductile material, but one which is less deformable than the customary elastomers.
US08840115B2
A seal system for a reciprocating cylinder includes a buffer seal, a rod seal, and a wiper seal. The buffer seal includes a dynamic seal lip and a static lip extending from a hinge portion. The hinge portion of the static lip allows fluid to escape past the outer diameter of the seal when the rod is retracted thereby releasing any pressure build-up between the rod seal and buffer seal. The axial face portion of the dynamic seal lip includes axially extending notches therein. The notches prevent the buffer seal from sticking to the axial wall of the groove and provide a consistent path for the fluid to energize the annular groove between the static and dynamic lips during the extension phase which is necessary for the function of the seal. The back-up ring is an integrated part of the buffer seal, used to provide superior extrusion resistance. The rod seal includes an annular seal body having a dynamic seal lip angularly extending radially inwardly and axially from the seal body, and a static lip angularly extending radially outwardly and axially from the seal body. An axial face portion of the dynamic seal lip and the static lip each include radially extending notches therein. The notches prevent the seal from sticking to the axial walls of the groove the rod seal is installed in and provides a consistent path for the fluid to energize the annular groove created by the static and dynamic lip during the extension phase. The back-up ring is an integrated part of the rod seal, used to provide superior extrusion resistance.
US08840110B2
A sheet conveying device is provided with a housing including a contact portion, a sheet conveyance path, a drive roller, a driven roller, and a support member. The driven roller is made of a resin material, and is provided with a roller portion, and a pair of shaft portions. The support member is made of a metal material and rotatably supports the driven roller. The support member includes a pair of ring portions through which each of the shaft portions is inserted, and a pair of arm portions extending in one direction from the paired ring portions and supported on the housing. The driven roller is rotated with the drive roller in a state that a downstream outer portion of the ring portion in the conveying direction is contacted with the contact portion of the housing.
US08840099B2
A binding apparatus performs a binding process by bonding the end side of the sheet bundle, and is provided with a notch cutter that forms a notch in the end side used in the sheet binding process in the middle of the sheet conveyance path of the binding apparatus. The notch-forming unit includes a pair of sheet conveyance guides for forming a part of the sheet conveyance path, a cutter provided in a rotatably supported bracket, and a biasing means for applying a force to the cutter to face the sheet conveyance path formed by a pair of the sheet conveyance guides at all times.
US08840098B2
A portable workpiece stopping device, attachable to a work surface relative to a primary tool, permitting a repetitive same-length operation to be performed on any number of workpieces, and which allows for interruption of the operation without affecting the essential positioning of the stopping device relative to the primary tool. The stopping device comprises a base plate selectively attachable to a work surface, a rotation plate rotatably coupled to the base plate, an alignment plate adjustably coupled to the rotation plate, a stop plate fixedly coupled to the alignment plate, and a support shelf adjustably coupled to the stop plate. The stopping device can be selectively transitioned from an obstructing position, which blocks the end of a workpiece pressed against the stop plate, thereby allowing the repetitive same-length operation to be performed, to a non-obstructing position which provides for unfettered positioning of any workpiece relative to the primary tool.
US08840089B2
An electric fence including a web of galvanized, high-tensile strength steel wires coupled to and between a pair of posts, the web including a plurality of substantially horizontally extending wires arranged substantially parallel to one another, and a plurality of substantially vertically extending wires arranged substantially parallel to one another and extending to and between each of the horizontally extending wires to form a plurality of wire rectangles, each rectangle having a desired size.
US08840079B2
A projecting apparatus having an adjusting function includes a projector having an adjusting side; and an adjusting device disposed at the adjusting side and including a rotatable base pivoting on the projector, a moving mechanism disposed on the projector, a fixed mechanism comprising a fixed base, and a fixed component disposed on the fixed base, and an adjusting component connected to the fixed component and the moving mechanism. When the adjusting device is adjusted, the adjusting device drives the projector to rotate about an axial center of the rotatable base.
US08840076B2
A connecting device is used in combination with a heat exchanger. The heat exchanger has orthogonally oriented first and second mount members. The connecting device includes a body having opposed first and second sidewalls. A first sidewall extension is integrally connected to and extends orthogonally with respect to the first sidewall, and includes a first planar mount surface. A second sidewall extension is integrally connected to and extends orthogonally with respect to the second sidewall. The second sidewall extension is oppositely facing with respect to the first sidewall extension and includes a second planar mount surface. A mounting wall extension is integrally connected to and extends orthogonally with respect to the first and second sidewall extensions and includes a third planar mount surface. The first, second and third planar mount surfaces are oriented coplanar with respect to each other and are connected to the first mount member using brazing joints.
US08840075B2
Systems, assemblies, and devices for mounting an exercise apparatus to a door. More particularly, an exercise system is mounted to opposing corners of a door and directed diagonally across a door. A bracket engages the door corner and is oriented to directed tension members of the exercise system at a diagonal across a front surface of the door. The bracket includes a door mount for coupling the bracket to four surfaces of the door. The bracket includes an exercise device mount adapted to couple to tension members, pulleys, or other exercise devices. The exercise device mount defines a mounting axis that is non-parallel and non-perpendicular relative to a top edge surface of the door.
US08840063B2
A front structure of an aircraft fuselage comprising landing gear pivoting about a main shaft and a stay shaft. The front structure also comprises a first reinforcing frame and a second reinforcing frame, the main shaft and the stay shaft being respectively connected to the first and second frames, and a device for the mechanical connection and transfer of forces connecting the stay shaft and the main shaft and transferring to the main shaft a portion of the forces induced by the wheels of the landing gear onto the stay shaft, the second frame and said device being perpendicular to one another.
US08840060B2
An actuating device is provided for a locking system which locks one of half-shells of a jet engine nacelle with respect to the other half-shell. The actuating device includes a fixed body in which an actuating rod is translationally and rotationally mounted with respect to the rod's longitudinal axis, and the fixed body has a track cooperating with a follower projecting from the actuating rod. In particular, the actuating rod includes a first end equipped with a handle and a second end connected to the locking system. The track has a middle part running parallel to the longitudinal axis, a first end part and a second end part formed on each side of the middle part, each of the end parts running perpendicular to the longitudinal axis.
US08840059B2
This assembly comprises a first component (9), a second component (3), and a connecting device (19) for connecting these two components together, this device (19) being of the type that maintains the integrity of the surface of said second component (3), and the assembly being noteworthy in that said connecting device (19) comprises a structural skin (21) fixed to said first component (9) and a porous material (23) attached to this structural skin and fixed by contact to said second component (3).
US08840058B2
A system and method to control fuselage torque of an aircraft. The system includes a tail boom having a first surface that creates a high-pressure region in a downward rotorwash and a second surface that creates a low-pressure region in the downward rotorwash. The difference in pressure regions creates a lateral force that opposes the fuselage torque.
US08840056B2
A method for operating a reel-to-reel system of a storage device with a first reel, a second reel, a first motor and a second motor, the first motor drives the first reel and the second motor drives the second reel. The system transports a tape supplied by one of the two reels and taken up by the other reel. A tape velocity and tape tension between the first and reels, and a longitudinal displacement are determined. An estimated state vector depends on the tape velocity, tape tension and longitudinal displacement. A reference state vector depends on a predetermined reference tape velocity and a predetermined reference tape tension. A first control signal and a second control signal are generated dependent on the estimated state vector and the reference state vector. The first motor is controlled by the first control signal and the second motor is controlled by the second control signal.
US08840048B2
An injection valve for injecting fluid has a housing with an injection valve cavity. The injection valve has a needle being axially moveable within the cavity. The needle has a needle body with a valve needle cavity and a separation element being fixedly arranged within the needle cavity and being adopted to divide the valve needle cavity into a first and second fluid volume. The separation element has at least one fluid passage with a predetermined passage opening to hydraulically connect the first fluid volume with the second fluid volume. The valve needle has a sealing element being arranged to predetermine the first fluid volume and preventing a fluid injection in a closing position and permitting the fluid injection in further positions. In addition, the valve needle has at least one spring element being preloaded and acting on the sealing element towards a maximum axial expansion of the valve needle.
US08840043B2
A rotary atomization coating device is provided with a rotary atomizing head including a paint storage and adapted to atomize paint supplied to the paint storage and to discharge the paint onto a work, and a paint supplying nozzle adapted to supply the paint to the paint storage. The rotary atomizing head includes a plurality of bell cups. Each of the bell cups includes, at a front face thereof, a paint discharging face adapted to thin the paint by a centrifugal force. The rotary atomizing head includes a plurality of paint supplying holes corresponding to the respective bell cups. The paint supplying holes are adapted to supply the paint from the paint storage to the respective paint discharging faces. A plurality of grooves extending along a radial direction of the rotary atomizing head are formed at circumferential portions of the respective paint discharging faces.
US08840039B2
A fluid spray dispenser (2) having a fluid reservoir (20) for holding a fluid to be dispensed, a spray head (23) for dispensing the fluid and a porous medium (24) through which the fluid passes from the reservoir (20) to the spray head (23). The porous medium (24) has an effective pore size and/or permeability that decreases towards the spray head (23). Means and methods of creating the pore size and/or permeability gradients are discussed.
US08840035B1
The invention may be described as a rail bridge joint, associated guard plate assembly, and a bridge assembly incorporating same.
US08840031B2
A smart card is provided, the smart card including: a first processor; a second integrated circuit; a smart card interface configured to provide communication in accordance with a smart card communication protocol; a determination circuit configured to determine whether the first processor or the second integrated circuit should be coupled with the smart card interface based on received communication data; a converter circuit coupled to the second integrated circuit and configured to convert received communication data between the smart card communication protocol and a further communication protocol wherein the smart card interface is coupled with the second integrated circuit.
US08840029B2
A system and method for authentication of secure products is disclosed. The security feature contains a first component in the form of an emitter capable of emitting light in response to external pump light. The security feature also contains a second component in the form of a taggant that absorbs light in a spectrally narrow range compared to the broader excitation spectrum of the first material. In this manner the emitter and taggant work in combination with one another to create an emission response significantly dependent on the illumination wavelengths and unique to the specific combination of the components. The emitter and taggant can be in the form of a mixture. Further the emitter and taggant may be applied in close proximity to one another, such as within two separate coating layers on a suitable substrate.
US08840019B2
A method and system for performing financial transactions. The method includes receiving by a mobile device, credit/debit card data belonging to a user of the mobile device. The credit/debit card data is registered with a financial transaction server and the user is authenticated. A USSD message comprising details associated with the user and a financial transaction is transmitted to a USSD server and a financial transaction server. In response, a random code representing the user and the credit/debit card data is received by the mobile device and a barcode is generated based on the random code. The bar code is presented to a merchant barcode scanner. The barcode is scanned, decoded, and transmitted to the financial transaction server. The decoded barcode is compared to the random code to perform a verification process associated with the financial transaction, the user, and credit/debit card data.
US08840018B2
Systems and methods for controlling access to wireless gaming devices and networks are provided. For example, access is controlled through one or more levels of security checks, such as a hard security check instead of or in addition to a soft security check. In a hard security check, the user employs an apparatus such as a card or other physical token that can be used to access the wireless gaming device. Such an apparatus may communicate information that identifies the user to the device or may simply be used to produce a signal without which the device is locked to users. The apparatus may further emit a time varying signal to enhance security.
US08840014B2
The present invention relates to an identification code processing system, an identification code processing method thereof, and an apparatus for supporting the same. The present invention supports various multi-codes for a specified object to be generated using a terminal and additional information of the object to be collected, integrated, and shared by applying the generated multi-codes online and offline. A terminal recognizes a base identification code of an object, and generates and stores or transmits multi-codes on the basis of base identification information included in the base identification code. In addition, a service apparatus classifies and stores the multi-codes transmitted by the terminal, and supports the multi-codes to be circulated in at least one network device and to be regenerated as multi-codes including various additional information.
US08840008B2
A one piece container or scoop adapted for holding and serving food products and the like is provided. The container generally comprises front and rear wall panels foldably joined to a bottom wall panel. Side edge portions of the front and rear wall panels are adhesively bonded in a generally overlapping relationship to form a sidewall having opposed side seams. Lines provided on one or both of the front and rear wall panels aid in ensuring that the scoop is properly aligned with and formed around a forming head. Other marker lines are provided as visual indicators to ensure that the intended amount of overlap is achieved between the front and rear wall panels. Internal tabs extending upwardly from the bottom wall may be provided in order to seal the bottom of the scoop. Such tabs are configured so as to require not glue or adhesive.
US08840007B2
The invention relates to a compound sealing method for glass plates, which is characterized by realizing the air-tight joint between compounded glass plates in a preset position by using a metal brazing technology. The invention provides a brand new technological method for the compound sealing between glass plates. The method has the advantages of firm connection in sealing positions, high air tightness, favorable thermal shock resistance and the like, and the annealing of toughened glass are avoided because of a lower brazing temperature used, thereby providing convenience to the processing of toughened vacuum glass, toughened insulated glass and other toughened compound glass products.
US08840002B2
An adjuster has a cylindrical shape and is rotatably supported in a housing of a fastener-driving tool about an axis parallel to one direction. The adjuster has an outer circumferential surface provided with one of a first recessed portion and a first protruding portion. A bumper is movable in the one direction and another direction opposite the one direction according to a rotation of the adjuster. An urging member has one of a second recessed portion and a second protruding portion. One of the second recessed portion and the second protruding portion is constantly in contact with the outer circumferential surface and is engaged with the one of the first recessed portion and the first protruding portion.
US08840001B2
An apparatus for breaking off the head of a glass ampoule that is composed of a cylindrical body, a neck forming a predetermined breaking point and a head, comprising an incline extending in an inclined manner to the axis of the ampoule to be inserted toward the same, a first support surface is disposed on the side of the incline causing a break-off of the head in the region above the bottom of the ampoule to be inserted at a radius of the ampoule from the axis of the apparatus and a second support surface is disposed on the opposite side beneath the neck of the ampoule at a distance from the axis of the apparatus that corresponds to the radius of the ampoule, during a relative movement of the apparatus to the ampoule in the direction of the axis thereof the incline breaks off the head at the neck.
US08839999B2
A self-aligning tractor axle mounted tank system for vertically mounting a tank to a tractor is provided comprising; an integrated hub and spindle, a housing connected to the spindle so that the spindle can rotate with respect to the housing, and at least one housing bracket connected to the housing and adapted to mount a tank frame assembly, wherein the housing bracket is configured to align the tank frame assembly with the housing during vertical mounting. Additionally, an integrated hub and spindle assembly is provided comprising; a spindle connected to a hub, and a bearing housing connected to the spindle so that the spindle can rotate with respect to the bearing housing. Furthermore, a process for mounting a self-aligning tank to the rear axle of a tractor is provided.
US08839992B2
Described is a fluid dispensing container having a bottle and fluid withdrawing assembly for liquids, such as liquid cleaners and the like. The bottle has an integral dip tube formed therein connecting at a landing below the top of the bottle neck, fluidly connecting the inside of the bottle with the top opening of the bottle. A fluid dispensing mechanism, such as a pump or trigger-sprayer, is attached to the top of the bottle to take fluid up through the integral dip tube and dispense the fluid accordingly. The fluid dispensing mechanism may be aligned to allow a direct connection between integral dip tube and the fluid dispensing mechanism at a landing below the bottle opening. The fluid dispensing mechanism may be attached to the bottle with a snap-fit connection.
US08839985B1
Described herein is a coffee cup plug that includes a combination cup/container sleeve and plug assembly. The coffee cup plug includes a sleeve for disposable beverage containers as well as a detachable plug. The plug includes a fold line such that when the plug is detached from the sleeve and folded the folded plug is configured to be inserted into a dispensing aperture formed in the lid of the cup/container. This Abstract is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope and meaning of the claims.
US08839977B2
A strap receivable water kettle cap includes a cap coupleable to a water kettle. The cap has a side wall forming an elongate slot and a bottom to which a rotary ring is mounted. The rotary ring has an upper portion forming a diameter reduced vertical wall. The vertical wall and the side wall of the cap form therebetween a receiving space for receiving strap in a winding fashion. The vertical wall forms an extension and retention section, and the strap extends through and is retained by the extension and retention section. The strap further extends through the slot of the side wall of the cap to have end extension sections of the strap projecting outside the cap. The tips of the end extension sections of the strap are processed to form a closed terminal. The strap can be selectively retracted back into the receiving space inside the cap.
US08839975B2
A container and lid includes: a container body having an opening; a lid body configured to cover the opening of the container body; a lid skirt at a periphery of the lid body, the lid skirt having a tooth slot therein; and a container tooth at a periphery of the container body configured to extend into the tooth slot of the lid skirt.
US08839964B2
A display fixture includes a substantially vertical backer mounted to a wall of a gondola and a shelf unit mounted to the backer and being centrally located on the backer. The shelf unit includes a substantially vertical back wall, a pair of side walls and a plurality of shelves extending between the pair of side walls and coupled to the back wall. Each of the plurality of shelves includes a shelf surface and a lip. The lip is substantially normal to the shelf surface and the shelf surface is at an angle relative to the back wall. The relative angle between the shelf surface and the back wall is greater than 90 degrees.
US08839961B2
An object of the present invention is to provide a biosensor comprising a hydrogel capable of immobilizing a physiologically active substance thereon, which can be produced conveniently by use of a safe material, and a method for producing the same. The present invention provides a method for producing a biosensor, which comprises bringing a polymer containing an activated carboxyl group into contact with a substrate surface coated with an organic layer having an amino group to thereby bind the polymer to the organic layer.
US08839959B2
A component sorting and wasting device is provided with a plurality of waste boxes having respective IDs and arranged at predetermined locations for receiving components to be wasted therein and a component mounting mechanism being capable of picking up components from a component supply device in mounting the picked-up components on circuit boards and of sorting and wasting each of components which are recognized as being unable to be mounted on the circuit boards, in one of the waste boxes selected for the component to be wasted.
US08839951B2
An a card holder for holding a transaction card, such as a gift card, upon a card holding panel that pivots or flips to reveal the gift card in response to operation of a pull element. The holder may include multiple pages in addition to the card holding panel. The pull element is linked to a cover panel that, when opened, also causes the card holding panel to open.
US08839950B2
A packaging includes a first section comprising an upper section configured to secure an upper portion of a writing instrument within the packaging; a lower section configured to secure a writing end of the writing instrument within the packaging; and an intermediate section configured to allow a user to grasp entirely a middle portion of the writing instrument; and a second section configured to secure at least one additional writing instrument, wherein the first section is adjacent to the second section.
US08839940B2
A self-locking type shutter device is provided. The device is arranged in a financial self-service equipment, so as to open or close a cash depositing/withdrawing port (1) of the financial self-help service equipment. The device comprises a frame (3) integrally welded, a gate (2) and a power transmission mechanism. The gate (2) is arranged on the frame (3) by a first rotation shaft (4) and can rotate around the first rotation shaft (4). The power transmission mechanism is fixed on the frame (3), so as to provide the gate (2) with rotation power. The power transmission mechanism comprises a motor (5) and at least one unidirectional folding linkage mechanism (70). The device can be self-locked via the unidirectionally folding linkage mechanism (70).
US08839934B2
A clutch for coupling an internal combustion engine in a torque-transmitting fashion and decoupling an internal combustion engine is disclosed. The internal combustion engine has a partial drive train that includes an electric machine. The clutch includes at least one adjustable element with which in conjunction with coupling means can be opened counter to a closing force generated by closing means. Locking means interacts with the adjustable element and has an adjustable locking element. The locking means interacting with the adjustable element in such a way that the coupling means are held open without an opening force having to be applied for this purpose by an adjustment means, or in such a way that the opening force which has to be applied by the adjustment means to hold the coupling means open is reduced.
US08839930B2
A device for controlling a rotating shifting element of an automatic transmission for a start/stop operation. The shifting element is actuated by an axially moving piston which is biased, in a disengaging direction, by a spring and biased, in an engaging direction, by hydraulic pressure supplied to a pressure space. At least one spring-loaded latch, which is able to move in the radial direction, is arranged in the pressure space. The spring-loaded latch, when the combustion engine is operating, rotates with the piston and acts upon the piston such that if the engine stops, the previously engaged shifting element is locked by spring force and, as the pressure decreases, the shifting element disengages, at most only slightly, and when the engine is re-started, the locking action is again released by centrifugal force, in opposition to the spring force, so that the piston remains engaged during the hydraulic pressure build-up in the pressure chamber.
US08839926B2
An actuator decoupler for selectively coupling and decoupling a driving part and a driven part of an actuation system is disclosed. The driving part can be coupled to the actuator decoupler, and the actuator decoupler can be coupled to the driven part via at least one coupling pin. In a selectively coupled state, the driven part can be at least one of rotationally and longitudinally fixed to the actuator decoupler and, thereby, the driving part. The actuator decoupler can be decoupled from the driven part through the use of a preloaded energy mechanism configured to disengage the at least one coupling pin from the driven part. Thereby, the actuator may be responsive to a jam in the actuation system to selectively decouple the driven part from the actuator decoupler and the driving part so that the driven part has freedom to translate at least one of rotationally and longitudinally.
US08839920B2
A regenerative shock absorber that include a housing and a piston that moves at least partially through the housing when the shock is compressed or extended from a rest position. When the piston moves, hydraulic fluid is pressurized and drives a hydraulic motor. The hydraulic motor, in turn, drives an electric generator that produced electric energy. The electric energy may be provided to a vehicle, among other things. The regenerative shock absorber may also provide ride performance that comparable to or exceeds that of conventional shock absorbers.
US08839916B2
A control method for a parking release apparatus of a shift-by-wire shifting device can improve the commercial value of a vehicle by improving safety of the vehicle and preventing robbery, by interfering with or preventing an attempt of abnormally and manually releasing a parking state of the vehicle when there is no problem in the electric system of the vehicle, using a part provided to be manually operated in the parking release apparatus such that a P-stage state and an N-stage state can be manually switched when a problem, such as discharge, occurs in the electric system, in the vehicle equipped with a shift by wire apparatus.
US08839914B2
An elevator system capable of an efficient evacuation using an elevator in case of a fire, and capable of confirming an evacuee remaining status in a case that an evacuation operation using the elevator is discontinued. An evacuation-call response-order setting section sets a priority order of a response to an evacuation special call registered in an evacuation special call registration section, based on fire occurrence information received by a fire situation reception section. A responding floor is selected based on the priority order. The evacuation operation running section controls an operation of the elevator so as to direct a car to the responding floor selected in this manner. In a case that the evacuation operation availability determination section determines that the evacuation operation is not available, the evacuation operation terminating section causes an evacuation special call remaining floor display section to display a remaining evacuation special call registration floor.
US08839913B2
A near-optimal scheduling method for a group of elevators uses advance traffic information. More particularly, advance traffic information is used to define a snapshot problem (24) in which the objective is to improve performance for customers. To solve the snapshot problem (24), the objective function is transformed into a form to facilitate the decomposition of the problem into individual car subproblems (26). The subproblems (26) are independently solved using a two-level formulation, with passenger to car assignment (28) at the higher level, and the dispatching of individual cars (30) at the lower level. Near-optimal passenger selection and individual car routing (38) are obtained. The individual cars are then coordinated through an iterative process (40, 42) to arrive at a group control solution that achieves a near-optimal result for passengers.
US08839898B2
In an electric three-wheeled vehicle, a centrifugal clutch transmits rotary driving power to a counter shaft when the revolution speed of a motor exceeds a prescribed value. The clutch is coaxially located at one end of a motor output shaft. A counter shaft is located inside the outside diameter of the motor in a side view of the vehicle. The motor output shaft, counter shaft, and axles are arranged from a vehicle forward side in the order of mention. The axis center of the counter shaft is located below a line connecting the axis center of the motor output shaft and the axis center of the axle in a side view of the vehicle.
US08839887B2
A carbide composite material that includes a continuous ductile phase; and at least one discrete carbide region surrounded by the continuous ductile phase, each discrete carbide region may comprise an integrally bridged plurality of cast and/or sintered carbide particles, and each discrete region may have a nodular particle morphology.
US08839879B2
An anvil assembly for a tool includes an anvil having a body with an outer periphery and a head formed on a distal end of the body. The anvil assembly also includes a sleeve surrounding at least a portion of the outer periphery of the body. The sleeve has a distal end against which a tool element is abutted when the tool element is coupled to the head.
US08839878B2
A device (10) for collecting debris from a ground surface (18). A flexible generally planar member (17) has openings (16) therethrough. When the device is laid on and forwardly moved over the ground surface (18) debris on the ground surface passes upwardly through the openings, over inclined pick-up portions (42) of the device and thence onto collection surfaces (25) of the device. The device has transversely extending openings (88) spaced in the lengthwise direction on inclined surfaces (68) of the pick-up portions (42) whereby under forward movement of the device (10) in use, debris is accumulated in the recesses (88). Debris accumulated in the recesses (88) tends to be retained therein during deceleration of the device (10).
US08839869B2
A downhole tool for use in a well is configurable as a frac plug, a caged ball frac plug or a bridge plug. The tool has a mandrel with a threaded neck. The mandrel has an expandable sealing element disposed thereabout. An adapter, which may be selected from multiple configurations of adapters, is threaded to the neck of the mandrel. The adapter may comprise a sleeve, or a cap with one open end and one closed end. The adapter has threads on an outer surface thereof to which a threaded setting mandrel may be attached. The setting mandrel when actuated will move the tool to a set position in the well and once the tool is moved to the set position the threads on the adapter will shear so that the setting mandrel may be retrieved. The tool will thus remain in the hole and will act as either a frac plug, a caged ball frac plug or a bridge plug depending upon the configuration of the selected adapter.
US08839859B2
A method for removing water from a wellbore fluid may include the steps of contacting a wellbore fluid with a water absorbing polymer, where the wellbore fluid includes an aqueous fluid, allowing the water absorbing polymer to interact with the wellbore fluid for a sufficient period of time so that the water absorbing polymer absorbs at least a portion of water in the aqueous fluid, and separating the water absorbing polymer containing the absorbed water from the wellbore fluid.
US08839854B2
A top drive system for wellbore operations and method for facilitating rotation thereof. The system includes a main body and a motor, preferably a salient pole motor. A motor shaft extends from the motor and a gear system is driven by the shaft and interconnected with a drive shaft. The gear system has a housing and a bearing retainer integral with the housing and is driven by the motor apparatus so that driving the gear system drives the drive shaft.
US08839852B2
An excavator is provided, in which the excavator includes a head that is slidably mounted on a leader, and a position fixture assembly slidable along the leader via the head. The position fixture includes a support plate including a groove in it top surface, with a first rod slidable within the groove. The position fixture also including a locking unit that serves to engage a base member, allowing the base member to be elevated when the head is elevated.
US08839848B2
A cabinet temperature control system comprises a cabinet and an underground temperature control unit. The cabinet comprises an air discharging chamber and an air introducing chamber which are in communication with each other inside the cabinet. The underground temperature control unit comprises an air discharging chamber and an air introducing chamber which are in communication with each other inside the underground temperature control unit. The air discharging chamber of the cabinet and the air introducing chamber of the underground temperature control unit, and the air discharging chamber of the underground temperature control unit and the air introducing chamber of the cabinet, are in communication with each other respectively, so that the cabinet and the underground temperature control unit form an air circulating circuit. The underground temperature control unit further comprises a radiator arranged in the air circulating circuit. The system also has fans controlled by a control module.
US08839844B1
A method of forming a mold for use in the casting of a steel railway freight car truck component is provided. A cope mold is formed by providing a near net shape oversize impression of a cope pattern of a product to be cast in a flask. A cope pattern of the product to be cast is then placed on the flask forming a spacing between the cope pattern and the oversize impression. A resin coated sand is then blown to form a sand layer between the oversized impression in the flask and the cope pattern. The resin sand is set to form a mold of a thickness between the oversized impression in the flask and the cope pattern of the product to be cast. The drag mold is formed in a similar manner.
US08839842B2
Example insulated dividers, such as curtain-doors and temporary walls for dividing areas of a building, include features that make the dividers particularly suited for food and drug related environments that demand cleanliness and require dividers to be periodically washed down to remove microorganisms and other contaminants. Some example dividers include a touch-and-hold fastener to hold a flexible insulated pad within an internal space of a pliable hollow panel. In some examples, the insulated pad is made of polyester batting with loops of fiber to which the hook portion of the touch-and-hold fastener can engage. In some examples, both the insulated pad and the touch-and-hold fastener are completely contained within the hollow panel so that neither the pad nor the fastener provides an exposed external surface for harboring microorganisms. In some examples, the pliable panel's outer peripheral edge is hermetically sealed by thermal bonding, heat sealing, welding and/or ultrasonic joining.
US08839840B2
A roller shade assembly for a shade made from a relatively heavy and/or stiff material is described. The roller shade assembly includes a cylindrical member that is attached to the shade. A control mechanism rotates the cylindrical member for winding the shade upon the cylindrical member. Thus, winding the cylindrical member in one direction causes the shade to retract, while unwinding the cylindrical member in an opposite direction causes the shade to extend. In order to maintain the shade in alignment as the shade is retracted and extended, the roller shade assembly includes a pair of opposing retaining members that may have a disc-like shape. The retaining members may be positioned adjacent to the vertical edges of the shade and have an effective diameter larger than the diameter of the shade when fully wound and retracted. In one embodiment, the roller shade assembly can further include fixed edge guides for further maintaining the shade in alignment.
US08839836B2
A device for applying at spaced positions (P1, X) over a moving web of material (S) superposed strips of a first (A) and a second (B) includes a first (10, 12) and a second (20, 22) cutting unit arranged cascading with respect to each other. Each unit includes a rotary knife (10, 20) that can be fed with the respective material (A, B) and an anvil roll (12, 22) which cooperates with the respective knife (10, 20) to cut the abovementioned strips of material (A, B). The anvil rolls (12, 22) of the two units are arranged facing each other, movable of concordant motions with respect to each other and configured in such a manner to transfer the strips of the first material (A) from the first anvil roll (12) over the second anvil roll (22) superimposing them to the strips of the second material (B). The second anvil roll (22) then provides for passing over the moving web of material (S) the strips of the first (A) and second material (B) superimposed to each other.
US08839835B2
Apparatuses and methods for producing an absorbent article are provided. Generally, the apparatuses and methods allow for continuous delivering of a plurality of web material to downstream equipment during a manufacturing process. In some embodiments, the apparatuses and methods allow for simultaneously unwinding, splicing, and lamination of multiple rolls of web material rotatably mounted to a frame and delivering the web material to various downstream manufacturing processes.
US08839826B2
A device for storing and/or dosing a solvent for dissolving a substance that is to be used in liquid form has a container, a mounting mechanism for mounting the container on a vessel, preferably a reagent vessel from the laboratory sector, and an opener for opening the container.
US08839825B2
In a bead wire winding and forming device, a guide mechanism guiding a bead wire to a former is supported to be movable in a tangential direction of the former and includes a movable body capable of clamping and unclamping the bead wire, a guide body supported on the movable body to be swingable in a plane parallel to a rotational axis of the former and having a guide portion for guiding the bead wire in the tangential direction of the former, and a restriction member for allowing the swing motion of the guide body when the movable body is at a retracted position but for restricting the swing motion of the guide body when the movable body is at an advanced position.
US08839813B2
A faucet handle and control module includes: a control handle and three joints. Each joints is respectively disposed between the protruding portion of the control handle and the engaging member, each joint has an insertion aperture. each insertion aperture having a different cross-sectional shape, two insertion apertures of the two joints having an assembly aperture at one end, the assembly aperture engaging with the screwing member of the control handle, these two joints having a securing aperture connected to the insertion aperture, and the securing aperture engaging with a securing member.
US08839795B2
The invention relates to a face and mouth muscle stimulator formed by an approximately oblong, oval body (1) to be placed in the mouth, having an open central part and side ends (2) that are wider than the upper and lower mid-zones (3) which are provided with V-shaped recesses (4) at the position of the frenulum. Optionally, the invention can include fixed or removable projections (5) positioned on the stimulator or on attachments (8). The invention can also include a sheet (6) provided with holes (7) for the connection of elements such as bottles or pacifiers or provided with a horizontal groove (11) for the incorporation of a bite splint (12) coupled at the front (2b) thereof using T-shaped flanges (13). Alternatively, the body (1′) can have a V-shaped configuration formed by vertical walls (20 and 30) in order to be positioned in the inner space of the lower jaw, including perpendicular projections (40 and 50) by way of horizontal bite planes.
US08839793B2
An adjustable mandibular advancement device has an upper plate for covering upper teeth of a human and a lower plate for covering lower teeth of the human. A magnetic closure mechanism is provided in the device in order to hold the upper plate in contact with the lower plate when the device is positioned in a person's mouth. The magnetic closure mechanism includes one or more magnets in the upper plate and one or more magnets in the lower plate. The magnets are positioned so that when the upper plate and lower plate are in contact, the lower plate pulls the person's lower teeth and lower jaw forward and down in order to reduce obstruction of an airway during sleep or physical activity such as sport. An adjustment mechanism between the plates allows the position of the lower plate relative to the upper plate to be adjusted.
US08839792B2
An elastomeric condom device including a tubular portion to cover the shaft of the penis, the tubular portion having a first thickness; a pouch portion to cover the scrotum, the pouch portion having a second thickness; and a middle portion provided between the tubular and pouch portions, the middle portion having a thickness that is at least double the thickness of the thickest of the first and second thicknesses. The middle portion includes an opening for insertion of the penis and scrotum, the opening defined by an elastic ring of heavier construction than the middle portion, wherein when the condom is in place over the male genitalia the elastic ring is positioned around the base of the penis and the scrotum at the torso of the body.
US08839790B2
Methods of use of a nasal insert to support smoking cessation, and methods of use of a nasal insert to reduce or eliminate snoring, and a method of use of a nasal insert to reduce the severity or to eliminate obstructive sleep apnea, and a method of use of a nasal insert to gain smoother, easier breathing through the nose. The nasal insert comprises a body having an inner surface which defines an air passageway surrounded by an outer surface of soft, flexible material. The nasal insert body can have a first portion and a second portion where the outer surface of said nasal insert body is configured to the nasal cavity.
US08839786B2
An apparatus for supplying a breathing gas at a pressure level that at least in some phases is above ambient pressure includes a blower device including an impeller and a housing device to receive the impeller. A suspension device is structured to support the blower device. The suspension device includes a variable suspension characteristic.
US08839782B2
Embodiments of the present invention relate generally to carriers that may simultaneously carry and warm receptacles of food products or other goods (e.g., baby wipes) and methods of the same. More particularly, embodiments relate generally to carriers that respectively comprise a body and a heating element. The body comprises a pouch that is configured to receive a receptacle containing a food product or other good and a heating element configured to perform an exothermic reaction to heat the same without the aid of an electric power source. The pouch comprises thermal insulation to enhance the heat-retention capabilities thereof.
US08839777B1
A bowstring silencer for mounting to a bowstring, buss cable or the like, includes a central body portion and a pair of arm portions that extend in opposite directions from the central body portion. A locking flange is associated with one of the arm portions and is adapted to extend through an opening in the central body portion when the silencer is installed. The first and second arm portions extend asymmetrically with respect to the central body portion prior to attachment to a bowstring, buss cable or the like, and extend at least generally symmetrically after attachment thereto.
US08839772B2
An accessory mounting system for mounting a first object to a second object is provided. The system can be used to mount a quiver to an archery bow, or an archery or hunting accessory. The system can include a primary element having a projection that fits into an aperture defined by a secondary element. The secondary element can include a base, an engagement member and an actuator. The base can define at least a portion of an aperture. To the base, the engagement member can be moveably mounted to clampingly engage the projection when in the aperture. The actuator can be configured to actuate the engagement member, thereby fixedly mounting the secondary element to the projection. A related method of use also is provided.
US08839769B2
A fuel supply system of an internal combustion engine includes: a pressure adjustment device provided on a fuel flow path that connects a fuel pump and an injector; a return flow path for returning a fuel discharged from the pressure adjustment device to a fuel tank; a fuel property sensor disposed in the return flow path; a fuel pump control portion that actuates the fuel pump at a predetermined programmed timing, when the internal combustion engine is in a stopped state; and a fuel property determination portion that determines a fuel property of the fuel in the fuel tank by using an output value of the fuel property sensor, when the fuel pump is actuated during the stopped state of the internal combustion engine.
US08839763B2
A compression ignition dual fuel engine utilizes individual fuel injectors to inject both gaseous and liquid fuels into each engine cylinder. Each of the fuel injectors includes two electrical actuators that control pressure in a respective liquid control chamber and gaseous control chamber to control the opening movement of check valves to facilitate liquid and gaseous fuel injection events, respectfully. The control fluid for liquid injection events is liquid, whereas the control fluid for the gaseous injection event is gaseous. The used liquid fuel drained from each fuel injector is returned for recirculation and subsequent injection, whereas the used gaseous fuel that drains from the fuel injector is supplied to the intake manifold for burning as circumstances permit.
US08839751B2
An internal combustion engine (1) having a device (2) for changing the relative angular position of a camshaft (3) with respect to a crankshaft of the internal combustion engine, wherein the device (2) includes a drive element (4) driven by the crankshaft and a housing element (5). The drive element (4) together with the housing element (5) rotates about an axis (a) during operation of the internal combustion engine and the device (2) is at least partially surrounded by a casing (6) of the internal combustion engine (1). In order to improve the oil exchange in the housing bell of the internal combustion engine, and to prevent deposition of particles in the housing bell, the housing element (5) is provided with at least one fluid-conveying element (7), wherein the fluid-conveying element (7) is intended and suitable for conveying fluid.
US08839748B2
A heat exchanger for a vehicle includes: a heat releasing unit that is stacked with a plurality of plates and that forms connection flow channels to intersect at the inside thereof to inject other working fluids and that exchanges a heat of working fluids that pass through the respective connection flow channels, a bypass unit that is formed in the heat releasing unit to form a plurality of inflow holes and exhaust holes that inject and exhaust the working fluids to the respective connection flow channels and that connects the inflow hole and the exhaust hole that is connected to one of the respective connection flow channels, and a valve unit that is mounted within the heat releasing unit to correspond to the inflow hole that forms the bypass unit and that is selectively opened or closed using a deformation force of bimetal that is deformed according to a temperature of a working fluid that is injected into the inside thereof to inject the working fluid into the heat releasing unit and the bypass unit.
US08839747B2
A composite power cycle engine may include a fuel injector that injects fuel into air that is or is to be supplied into a combustion chamber, a high temperature medium injector that injects a high temperature medium into the combustion chamber to increase pressure of the combustion chamber, a low temperature medium injector that injects a low temperature medium into the combustion chamber to reduce pressure of the combustion chamber, and a piston that may be disposed in the combustion chamber to slidably move therein and that transforms gas expansion or contraction energy into kinetic energy, wherein the high temperature medium injector or the low temperature medium injector increases or reduces the pressure of the combustion chamber so as to generate power.
US08839741B2
A litter box cleaning kit includes a litter shovel having a nonporous bottom section for collecting non-solid waste, a curved section having a plurality of openings for collecting and sifting solid waste, a bag holder for positioning disposal bags in an open configuration and a caddy for storing each of the shovel, bag holder and disposal bags.
US08839739B2
A masking apparatus is provided for masking a workpiece, for example a turbine blade, to protect portions thereof from the deposition of coating material thereon during selective application of a coating material to other portions of the workpiece. The masking apparatus includes an enclosure formed of a first mask half body defining a first cavity half and a second mask half body defining a second cavity half. The first mask half body and the second mask half body mate in assembly to form a workpiece cavity it which the workpiece may be enclosed.
US08839730B2
A drift control system including at least one drift control device for use with a small boat to effect the direction and speed of drift of the small boat against the forces of wind and current comprising a rudder-like member adjustably coupled to the small boat by a mounting assembly including a first mounting bracket coupled to the small boat and a second mounting bracket rotatably coupled to the first mounting bracket by a coupling member and attached to the rudder-like member, and an adjustable locking assembly to selectively secure the rudder-like member in one of a plurality of positions relative to the small boat to effect the direction and speed of drift of the small boat against the forces of wind and current.
US08839729B2
The apparatus and method of the present invention provide a crewmember with the ability to retrieve the halyard and shackle at the head of a mast of a contemporary sailing vessel from the deck. A clamshell device containing a magnetized component is pre-installed on the halyard shackle and a related magnetically active cylinder is attached to a companion non-loaded halyard running just beside the loaded halyard. The clamshell is attached at the top of the shackle just below the halyard that is attached to the shackle.
US08839728B2
An undergarment includes at least one piece of fabric that forms the undergarment. The undergarment has leg openings. The fabric includes edges that surround the leg openings, whereby at least one of the edges surrounding the leg openings has a plurality of fibers and at least some of the fibers have free ends terminating at the at least one of the edges surrounding the leg openings. A bead of a cured polymer is disposed over the at least one of the edges surrounding the leg openings. The cured polymer bead forms a finished edge that is stretchable for adjusting to movement of the fabric.
US08839717B2
A process for printing a web substrate in contacting engagement with an external surface of a central roll of a contact printing system is disclosed. The process comprises the steps of: a) providing the central roll with a plurality of discrete cells disposed upon an outer surface thereof; b) contactingly engaging at least two primary fluids internal to the central roll to form a first secondary fluid; c) fluidically displacing the first secondary fluid into a first portion of the plurality of discrete cells from a position internal to the central roll; and, d) displacing the first secondary fluid from each of the first portion of discrete cells onto the web substrate.
US08839711B2
A beverage preparation machine has at least one pinch valve (1) in the fluid line system, wherein the pinch valve (1) has at least two fluid passage lines (20, 21) and is designed to execute valve and/or control functions on the fluid passage lines (20, 21). The operating mechanism of the pinch valve (1) is set up for coupled activation of the valve and/or control functions and a drive with a stepper motor (25) is provided.
US08839708B2
An armed vehicle (10) with improved structure includes a hull (11), which, in use, is suited to house one or more men, devices for the movement on the ground, and an armed turret (30), which is positioned on top of an upper part of the hull (11). The armed vehicle (10) includes an interface structural element (11s), which is cold-added; the interface structural element (11s) constitutes an interface element between the hull (11) and the armed turret (30).
US08839704B2
A system that may be used as an initiation disruption system (IDS) according to one embodiment includes an explosive charge; a plurality of particles in a layer at least partially surrounding the explosive charge; and a fire suppressant adjacent the plurality of particles. A method for disabling an object according to one embodiment includes placing the system as recited above near an object; and causing the explosive charge to initiate, thereby applying mechanical loading to the object such that the object becomes disabled. Additional systems and methods are also presented. A device according to another embodiment includes a plurality of particles bound by a binder thereby defining a sidewall having an interior for receiving an explosive; and a fire suppressant adjacent the plurality of particles and binder. Additional systems and methods are also presented.
US08839698B2
A wrench includes a generally elongate shaft defining an axis and having a first end and a second end opposite the first end. The wrench also includes a handle assembly that is attached to the shaft. The handle assembly terminates in a magnetic mount that is configured to magnetically engage a working surface. The magnetic mount has a passage for receiving the shaft therethrough. The passage is sized and dimensioned to allow the shaft to pivot within the passage and with respect to the magnetic mount.
US08839688B2
A switchable free-wheel arrangement for a CVT transmission of a motor vehicle. Clamping bodies held in a cage are disposed between an outer ring and an inner ring. Each clamping body can be pressed with a relatively high force against the inner ring by an energy accumulator. The clamping bodies can be set up in the release direction or in the clamping direction by a switching mechanism. The energy accumulator generates a relative small setup force for setting up the clamping bodies. The energy accumulator includes two torsion springs disposed on the clamping body. It can, however, also have the shape of a helical spring that surrounds the clamping bodies and engages therein in special helical spring grooves.
US08839687B2
The reciprocating piston mechanism with an extended piston offset is provided. The mechanism is of the type that contains at least one cylinder having a longitudinal axis, at least one piston that has a pivot pin and is slidingly installed in the cylinder, a crankshaft, which is offset at a distance from the longitudinal axis of the cylinder, a rocker arm/lever assembly pivotally mounted on a crankpin of the crankshaft. The mechanism is also provided with a connecting rod that connects the piston to one arm of the rocker arm/lever assembly. The other arm of the rocker arm/lever assembly has a roller that is guided in a confined pathway and works as a fulcrum of the lever and a stabilizer/rudder at the same time.
US08839686B1
An apparatus for testing an implement having an elongate shaft with a head end and a grip end, with a head attached to the head end. The apparatus may include a wind tunnel with a test cell adapted to receive the head of the implement and permit a range of unrestricted movement of the head within the test cell. The test cell includes an inlet and outlet for air flow and a portal or opening in a wall of the cell to which an elongate conduit is attached. The conduit extends in a direction substantially normal, or radial, to the direction of airflow. The conduit is adapted to receive the shaft of the implement, with the grip end of the implement extending beyond the far end of the conduit and into a clamp. The clamp is adapted to hold the grip end of the shaft in a fixed position.
US08839685B2
A syringe for use with a dosing device with a receiver for a syringe cylinder and an axially displaceable plunger receiver for a syringe plunger with a syringe cylinder, which has a floor with an outlet on the bottom, a cylindrical plunger run area on the inside and has means for being held in the receiver on the top, a syringe plunger, which has a circumferential plunger seal for sealing on the plunger run area on the perimeter and a coupling piece for insertion into the plunger receiver on the top and stop means between the syringe cylinder and the syringe plunger, which restrict the displacement of the syringe plunger towards the floor so that the syringe plunger with the plunger seal can only approach to a certain distance from the floor.
US08839680B2
Methods and apparatus for estimating a condition of a seal of a rotary valve are disclosed. An example method includes determining a seal wearing cycle of a flow control member of a rotary valve. The seal wearing cycle includes movement of the flow control member between a first position in contact with a seal and a second position. The example method further includes determining a torque of an actuator operating the flow control member for the seal wearing cycle and estimating a condition of the seal based on the torque.
US08839678B2
A test apparatus configured to test connectors is provided. The test apparatus may include a fixture that holds a first connector and an actuator that holds a mating second connector. The actuator may axially displace the second connector in and out of engagement with the first connector. A compliance mechanism, which may be coupled to the fixture or the actuator, may provide one of the connectors with compliance in order to facilitate alignment of the connectors during engagement and disengagement thereof. The compliance mechanism may allow movement of one of the connectors perpendicularly to the actuation axis and/or angular movement about the actuation axis while preventing axial movement within the compliance mechanism. Accordingly, forces associated with engagement and disengagement of the connectors measured by a load cell may more closely resemble actual forces experienced by a user during use of the connectors.
US08839665B2
A malfunction determination apparatus for a cooling apparatus that cools an internal combustion engine by circulating a coolant through an interior of the internal combustion engine, using an electric pump, after the internal combustion engine is started includes: a detection portion that detects the coolant temperature; and a determination portion that determines a malfunction has occurred in a thermostat, if a state in which the detected coolant temperature remains below a first threshold temperature after the electric pump begins operating, following start of the internal combustion engine, continues for at least a pre-determined time. The thermostat is a thermostat for switching from a first passage for circulating the coolant without passage via an interior of a radiator of the cooling apparatus to a second passage for circulating the coolant via the interior of the radiator, as the coolant temperature rises.
US08839660B2
A hydrogen sensor assembly is disclosed. A sensor is disposed within a slotted sleeve and a spiral shaped sensor housing surrounds the sensor within the sleeve. The spiral shape applies a centrifugal force to the fluid stream. This results in separation of liquid water from the fluid stream. The sleeve forms an internal inner perimeter of the spiral housing. The sensor housing includes a first opening to facilitate a fluid communication between the sensing element and a fluid stream through the slotted sleeve.
US08839659B2
A network of nanowires may be used for a sensor. The nanowires are metallic, each nanowire has a thickness of at most 20 nm, and each nanowire has a width of at most 20 nm. The sensor may include nanowires comprising Pd, and the sensor may sense a change in hydrogen concentration from 0 to 100%. A device may include the hydrogen sensor, such as a vehicle, a fuel cell, a hydrogen storage tank, a facility for manufacturing steel, or a facility for refining petroleum products.
US08839655B2
A test stand encompasses a dynamometer, which is supported to oscillate about a main axis, from which a lever arm extends perpendicularly. For calibrating a force-measuring device, which is coupled to the lever arm, provision is made for a pneumatic cylinder as reference force-generating device. The reference force can be measured by a load cell and can be applied to the lever arm via a yoke. The force-measuring device, which is to be calibrated, the pneumatic cylinder, the load cell, and the yoke are disposed on the same side of the dynamometer and act on the same lever arm.
US08839650B2
A lock assembly (210) including a body (220), at least one locking member (223, 240) and a length of lock material with two free ends and at least one leg (212) attached to one of the free ends, each leg configured to be engaged by a respective locking member. The locking members are separately actuable such that each leg (212) may be removed from the lock body independent of any other legs. A bracket assembly (300) for connecting a lock assembly (210) to a bicycle or the like. The bracket includes a bracket body (310) with a strap (330) that is secured via a pivotal buckle (340). The bracket body (310) includes at least one flange (320, 322) configured to slidably engage a groove (250, 252) provided along the lock assembly (210).
US08839636B2
A refrigerant circuit of a heat pump water heater has a compressor, a four-way valve, a water heat exchanger, a heat storage transfer pipe contained in a heat storage water tank, an expansion valve, and an air heat exchanger and forms a refrigerating cycle by sequentially connecting them. A water circuit of the heat pump water heater has a water inlet pipeline that supplies water to the water heat exchanger, a hot water tank, and a water outlet pipeline that allows the water heat exchanger to communicate with the hot water tank, in which water is supplied to the heat storage water tank through a heat storage water tank water feed pipe branching from the water inlet pipeline by opening a heat storage water tank water feed opening/closing valve) and the water in the heat storage water tank can be discharged through the heat storage water tank water discharge pipe (by opening a heat storage water tank water discharge opening/closing valve).
US08839635B2
The absorption chiller-heater apparatus of present invention utilizes a portion of direct heat, used to heat water, for providing the refrigeration effect. The external heat input required for providing refrigeration is minimal; hence, the efficiency of the apparatus is increased by 30-40% over the conventional systems. Further, as the quantum of the external heat source required for a new cycle is reduced, the size of the high temperature generator required, is smaller, which results in lower capital costs. The apparatus provides chilled water which can be used for various industrial purposes. The absorption chiller-heater reduces CO2 emissions and utilizes a single arrangement to produce both heating and refrigeration effect. Thus, additional electrical and heat input or separate components are not required.
US08839633B2
Vehicle air comfort systems and methods. The systems and methods may comprise: (1) a plurality of flow tunnels for passage of a heat-transfer fluid; (2) a thermoelectric cooler in thermal communication with the flow tunnels for thermally conditioning the heat-transfer fluid in the flow tunnels; (3) an air inlet for receiving unconditioned air; (4) a thermal exchange assembly for facilitating thermal exchange between the thermally conditioned heat-transfer fluid and the unconditioned air to result in conditioning of the air; and (5) an air outlet for outputting the conditioned air into the vehicle.
US08839624B2
A combustion device for a gas turbine that includes a portion having first and second walls that defines an inside of the combustion device, a zone between the first and second walls and an outside of the combustion device. A plurality of first passages connect the inside of the combustion device to the zone between the first and second walls and a plurality of second passages connect the zone between the first and second walls to the outside of the combustion device. A plurality of chambers are defined within the zone between the first and second walls, each chamber being connected with one first passage and at least one second passage. Each chamber defining a Helmholtz damper.
US08839618B1
A buoyancy engine is provided for use in a saltwater environment. The engine includes a gas filled housing and a buoyancy chamber in the housing. An elastomeric membrane is positioned between the buoyancy chamber interior and the housing interior. A semi-permeable membrane is provided between the buoyancy chamber interior and the saltwater environment. Two electrodes can be positioned with both electrodes in the buoyancy chamber or with one electrode being positioned in the buoyancy chamber and the other being positioned in the saltwater environment. A controller is joined to at least one of the electrodes for controlling an electrical potential between the two electrodes. A power source provides power to the controller.
US08839613B2
An exhaust system for an engine is disclosed herein. The exhaust system includes a catalytic converter, a heat collector downstream from the catalytic converter, and a heat transfer system receiving waste exhaust heat via a thermosyphon evaporator for storage and/or use in a cabin heating system. In this way, waste heat is utilized to provide better cabin heating, particularly at engine cold start.
US08839612B2
A method for operating an exhaust system of an internal combustion engine, wherein nitrogen oxide (NOx) is reduced by use of a SCR catalytic converter and wherein the ageing state of the SCR catalytic converter is monitored, characterized in that during a temporally limited phase having a high proportion of nitrogen oxide (NOx) in the exhaust gas, a conversion of said SCR catalytic converter is acquired and evaluated and the ageing state of said SCR catalytic converter is suggested therefrom.
US08839607B2
Methods and systems are provided for expediting catalyst heating and generating vacuum by controlling an EBV to direct exhaust through an ejector arranged in parallel with the EBV. A position of the EBV may be controlled to achieve a desired exhaust backpressure for current engine operating conditions and stored vacuum level. Compensation for the effect of EBV position on engine airflow may be provided by adjustment of other parameters such as intake throttle position and spark timing.
US08839588B2
A bracket system including a bracket for use with a deck or boardwalk system. The bracket has an upper portion and a lower portion at least partially spaced away from the upper portion. The bracket is configured to receive a portion of the deck or boardwalk system between said upper and lower portions. The bracket further includes a fastener extending between the upper and lower portions and configured to urge the upper and lower portions toward each other to thereby press against the portion of the deck or boardwalk system therebetween to secure the bracket to the portion of the deck or boardwalk system.
US08839576B1
An multi-layered roof skylight is provided that allows for natural light to enter through the peak of a gabled roof, while blocking ultraviolet light and offering an optional means to vent hot air and gases from inside the structure. The skylight comprises a first and second polycarbonate base layer attached to a structure's roof, wherein a polycarbonate roof cap is disposed thereabove and over the peak of the roof. The layers are sandwiched together by a line of fasteners on each side of the roof, while a first and second venting layer may further be provided between the base layers and the cap to allow air to vent therethrough. The cap is an angled member or one that has a defined shape incorporating vents in its design. Further provided is a method of installing the vented skylight on a gabled roof.
US08839569B2
A modular datacenter facility is constructed with a set of building modules of different types of functionality to form an entire datacenter facility having a standardized pre-approved architectural design and layout. All instances of a particular type of building module will have approximately a same floor plan and architectural design. An initial set of building modules can be built upon a parcel of land, and then as needs of space and additional capacity of the modular datacenter facility increase, then at a future point in time additional building modules of the different types can be rapidly added to the initial set of building modules. The building modules of the different types use one or more connecting corridors architected into at least a first type of building module and corresponding aligned doorways between both building modules to interconnect two building modules adjacent and abutted to each other.
US08839563B2
The present invention is directed to a door panel preferably for a sliding door assembly. The door panel includes an inner frame and a sheet stock substantially covering the inner frame. The inner frame includes a geometry that cooperates with a geometry of a door accessory for operable connection of the door accessory directly to the inner frame.
US08839560B2
This power unit includes a base plate fixed with an annular coil part, and a slot-shaped insertion hole formed at the base plate and extending in a radiating direction to the annular coil part. After a lead wire of the annular coil part is inserted into the insertion hole from one side of the base plate at which the annular coil part is provided, the lead wire is extended in the radiating direction along the insertion hole. Next, the lead wire is led out to the other side of the base plate. Covers having semicircular shapes in cross section are provided to the ends of the insertion hole.
US08839558B2
A sealing assembly for sealing a gap between a swing door and a floor comprises a sealing member installed to be able to rotate from a closed position to an open position, an elastically deforming member made of an elastomer composition engaged to the sealing member, and a seal driving member to rotate the sealing member from the closed position to the open position when the door is opened. The elastically deforming member is deformed when the sealing member rotates from the closed position to the open position, and the sealing member returns from the open position to the closed position by elastic force of the elastically deforming member when the door is closed.
US08839553B2
A kit for a planter is disclosed that has a polygon shape and has a selected number of sides and a same selected number of corners. The kit includes a selected number of bottom corner brackets, a selected number of corner beads, a selected number of top corner brackets, a selected number of top frame corner brackets, and a selected number of pairs of spacer runners that each correspond to the selected number of corners. The kit also includes a planter tub sized to fit within a planter body. The brackets and spacer runners are configured to be connected together to form a skeleton to which boards can be attached to form the planter body.
US08839550B2
A rodent station for capturing or trapping mice, rats or other rodents may provide one or more rodent entry points and is sized to receive one or more rodent suppression devices, such as conventional snap traps, ramp traps, glue boards, etc. The rodent station may present a high contrast entrance that is relatively darker than the station enclosure. The station opening size may be adjustable to accommodate both mice and/or rats. An interior receptacle for station maintenance records or other printed material may also be included.
US08839546B2
A barrel clip of unitary plastic construction is used to securely clip onto the barrel of a firearm and simultaneously is able to hook the firearm to a non-human support such as a fence when, during hiking and/or hunting, there is a need for the hiker and/or hunter to be hands free and out of contact with his/her firearm. This lightweight, inexpensive inventive barrel clip helps prevent clogging and dirtying of the firearm barrel. Further it does not cause damage to the environment in which it is used. It is easily stored in a pocket, on the barrel of the firearm, or clipped onto some convenient item being taken on the hike and/or hunt.
US08839538B2
A tube container with an integral accessory panel includes a tube container formed from a selected tube material. The tube container includes a product dispensing end, an intermediate sealing portion, and a filling end opposite the product dispensing end. The sealing portion is adapted to be sealed subsequent to filling the tube container with a selected product. An accessory panel, integrally formed from the selected tube material, is provided between the intermediate sealing portion and the filling end of the tube container.
US08839534B2
The disclosure provides a monolithic floor for use with a hot slag bucket. The monolithic floor improves the lifespan of the bucket when used with hot slag by reducing warpage caused by heating and cooling and thus significantly reduces the cost of owning and operating the hot slag bucket.
US08839532B2
An article of footwear may include an upper incorporating a knitted component. An inlaid strand extends through the knitted component. A combination feeder may be utilized to inlay the strand within the knitted component. As an example, the combination feeder may include a feeder arm that reciprocates between a retracted position and an extended position. In manufacturing the knitted component, the feeder inlays the strand when the feeder arm is in the extended position, and the strand is absent from the knitted component when the feeder arm is in the retracted position.
US08839528B2
A method of controlling and enhancing the nucleation of product in a freeze dryer, wherein the product is maintained at a predetermined temperature and pressure in a chamber of the freeze dryer, and a predetermined volume of ice fog is created in a condenser chamber separate from the product chamber and connected thereto by a vapor port. The ice fog has a predetermined pressure that is greater than that of the product chamber, and is rapidly conveyed through the vapor port into the product chamber for even distribution therein to create uniform and rapid nucleation of the product in different areas of the product chamber.
US08839524B2
A chef knife is provided. The chef knife includes a blade and a handle. The blade has a length and a spine, wherein the spine of the blade defines a flat surface running the entire length of the blade. The spine of the blade protrudes outward from the handle, such that the spine rises above the top surface of the handle. The blade has a cutting edge, wherein the cutting edge extends below and under the handle. The blade has a depth, which depth increases from the point of the blade to the heel of the blade. Under the condition that the knife is oriented in the cutting position, the handle is angled downward with respect to the plane defined by the flat surface of the spine and the handle is angled upward with respect to the plane defined by a main portion of the cutting edge.
US08839523B2
A safety knife comprises a knife body (10), a blade carrier (16) movable within the knife body (10) between a retracted position and an extended position, biasing means (24) urging the blade carrier (16) towards its retracted position, latch means to latch the blade carrier (16) in its extended position, and a weight (36) movable along a passage (32) relative to the knife body (10) and engageable with release means (40) to release the latch means.
US08839521B2
Described is a hand held hair cutting apparatus that includes a razor blade holder with four finger holes extending through the holder. A razor blade, either straight or arched, can be attached to one edge of the holder. allowing the razor to be easily changed. Placing fingers through the holes in the holder allows a user to securely hold tool using four fingers. The apparatus can also be configured with three finger holes and a finger rest for end finger.
US08839506B2
A tool for pushing a wire termination head holder towards a connector holder, the tool including a first arm and a second arm; a first assembly mechanically coupling the head holder to the first arm, and a second assembly mechanically coupling the head holder to the second arm, wherein a relative movement of the first and second arms causes both of the first and second assemblies to push the head holder towards the connector holder.
US08839504B2
A method in one approach includes forming a first layer of a nonmagnetic material over two sides of a structure, the first layer being substantially absent from above a top of the structure; depositing an overlayer of an etchable, nonmagnetic material over the first layer and the top of the structure; and etching the overlayer for substantially removing the overlayer from above the top of the structure, wherein a substantial portion of the overlayer remains along the two sides of the structure after the etching. Additional systems and methods are also presented.
US08839486B2
The present invention relates, amongst other things, to a punch-in element having a hollow head part of larger transverse dimension and a hollow shaft part of smaller transverse dimension which projects away from one side of the head part, wherein a ring-like sheet metal contact surface is formed at the said side of the head part and surrounds the shaft part, with a plurality of ribs at the outer periphery of the shaft part which extend in the axial direction along the shaft part from the sheet metal contact surface to close to the free end of the shaft part. A pre-installation component, a component assembly and a method is also claimed.
US08839482B2
Disclosed is a method of assembling a metal clamp and body springs of a wiper blade for vehicles, and an assembly. The method includes forming a plurality of through holes at major sides of the body springs, forming a plurality of protrusions corresponding to the through holes at a major side of the clamp such that the protrusions extend outward from the major side of the clamp, inserting the protrusions of the clamp into the respective through holes of the body springs, fixing the protrusions, which are located in the respective through holes, in the respective through holes by pressure welding or riveting such that the clamp is mounted to the body springs.
US08839480B2
Disclosed is a brush holder having a hollow, box-like upper structure with interior contours conformable to the shape of the ferrule and heel of a paintbrush. The lower structure of the brush holder comprises a hollow, primarily longitudinal staff, said staff affixed at its top end to the brush holder. The lower, open end of the staff comprises a circular opening with interior female threads. By use of an extension pole having compatible male threads at one end, a workman, after insertion of a paintbrush into said brush holder, may engage the threads of the brush holder with the threads of the extension pole until a firm and secure attachment is achieved. In this manner, there is provided a greater range of brush contact for applying paint to an otherwise hard-to-reach surface.
US08839479B2
Orbital surface cleaning apparatus (400) are presented. An orbital surface cleaning apparatus (400) can include a driver motor (410) coupled to a plate (130) having offset distributed weights (133). As the plate (130) rotates, the offset weights (133) cause oscillations of the apparatus (400) cleaning head. A driver motor (410) capable of 80 RPM can induce over 1700 RPM oscillations.
US08839476B2
An oral care apparatus includes: a care member; an orientation detection unit; an area estimation unit; a light source that emits light having a predetermined wavelength to which plaque reacts; a photoelectric conversion unit that receives light and converts the received light into an electric signal; an image capture unit that causes the light source to irradiate the care area with light, and that obtains image data, based on the electric signal of light reflected from the care area that is converted by the photoelectric conversion unit; a plaque detection unit for detecting an amount of plaque in the care area, based on the image data obtained by the image capture unit; and a storage unit for storing, in a memory, the care area estimated by the area estimation unit and the amount of plaque in the care area detected by the plaque detection unit in association with each other.
US08839464B2
A garment pocket configured to carry, in a concealed and readily-accessible state, a handgun or other object is disclosed. The garment pocket has a receiving zone where the handgun or other object can be carried. The relative position of the receiving zone can be adjusted for the comfort of the wearer or to increase the concealment of the handgun or object in the receiving zone. In addition, a guard can be positioned on the outer surface of the pocket to prevent objects outside of the pocket from protruding into the receiving zone.
US08839462B2
A glove worn within a conventional baseball mitt to protect the wrist and hand. The glove generally comprises a fitted glove of soft leather with a plurality of attached non-springy, shock absorbing cushions including a radioulnar cushion extending proximally one to three inches up the forearm from a first end at the wrist crease to a second end and in width a distance sufficient to cover the palmar side of the wrist, and a carpal cushion extending distally from the wrist crease a distance sufficient to cover the carpometacarpal joint of the hand and in width a distance sufficient to cover the carpometacarpal joint of all five digits, including the carpal cushion including a line of reduced padding, typically compressive stitching, extending from the first wrist crease edge to the distal edge which edge may be arcuate to provide additional protection and conform to the shape of the ball glove.
US08844050B1
Systems and methods are disclosed for providing personnel communications management within an enterprise or group of related enterprises during crisis situations. In particular, the systems and methods provide event management, shared situational awareness, personnel status tracking, and unified crisis notification management to multiple users.
US08844049B2
A method for coupling protected digital data object, for example an application program, and a specified computer, which allows for, if desired, individual components of the computer to be modified. A cryptographic key is generated on the basis of current components of a computer in order to decrypt an encrypted, computer-specific authorization code for executing a protected digital data object on the computer. The computer-specific authorization code is encrypted with a key based on original components of the computer. The key can be determined from the current components of the computer even if they are different from the original components of the computer.
US08844040B2
The present invention provides a system and method of managing traffic traversing an intermediary based on a result of end point auditing. An authentication virtual server of an intermediary may determine a result of an end point analysis scan of a client. Responsive to the determination, the traffic management virtual server can obtain the result from the authentication virtual server. Further, the traffic management virtual server may apply the result in one or more traffic management policies to manage network traffic of a connection of the client traversing the intermediary. In some embodiments, the authentication virtual server may receive one or more expressions evaluated by the client. The one or more expressions identifies one or more attributes of the client. The traffic management virtual server can also determine a type of compression or encryption for the connection based on applying the one or more traffic management policies using the result.
US08844032B2
A method and system for application-based monitoring and enforcement of security, privacy, performance and/or other policies on a mobile device includes incorporating monitoring and policy enforcement code into a previously un-monitored software application package that is installable on a mobile device, and executing the monitoring and policy enforcement code during normal use of the software application by a user of the mobile device.
US08844031B1
In one embodiment, a method includes accessing event information and payment information associated with an event listing on an event management system, and calculating a spam risk score for the event listing.
US08844030B2
An anti-virus protection system and method including receiving an address of a data server from a user, writing and transmitting a request message including the address received from the user, receiving the data from the data server, and determining whether the data contains malignant virus. Thus, a malignant web site is scanned/filtered by minimally using a restrictive memory and central process unit (CPU) resource of a mobile device, and a user uses a mobile device whose security is ensured even through a user moves to another country.
US08844025B2
Example embodiments disclosed herein relate to a storage device. The storage device may include a mechanism that monitors for receipt of cached authentication data from a host computing device upon resuming operation from a standby mode of the host computing device. The storage device may further include a mechanism that unlocks the storage device in response to receipt of the cached authentication data from the host computing device. In addition, the storage device may include a mechanism that monitors for receipt of re-authentication data and a mechanism that locks the storage device when a predetermined period of time has passed since resuming operation from the standby mode without receipt of the re-authentication data. Related computing devices, methods, and machine-readable storage media are also disclosed.
US08844024B1
Computer-implemented methods and systems for using tiered signing certificates to manage the behavior of executables are disclosed. In one example, a method for performing such a task may include: 1) identifying an executable file, 2) identifying a signing certificate associated with the executable file, 3) identifying, within the signing certificate, a privilege level associated with the executable file, and then 4) managing behavior of the executable file in accordance with the privilege level associated with the executable file. Corresponding methods and systems for generating tiered signing certificates for executable files are also disclosed.
US08844018B2
Example methods and apparatus to enhance security in residential networks and residential gateways are disclosed. A disclosed example apparatus includes a transceiver to receive an Internet protocol (IP) packet, a first packet processing module associated with a protected IP address, the first packet processing module to be communicatively coupled to a first network device, a second packet processing module associated with a public IP address, the second packet processing module to be communicatively coupled to a second network device, and a packet diverter to route the received IP packet to the first packet processing module when the IP packet contains the protected IP address and to route the IP packet to the second packet processing module when the IP packet does not contain the protected IP address.
US08843997B1
A Resilient Trust Network (RTN) is a set of servers that provide: an application integration platform for developing and publishing services and user interface for services, building derived services, subscribing to services, and embedding services into host applications, and building composite applications composed from multiple diverse services. The RST can also provide a platform for defining security requirements and accessing shared trust services that implement those requirements for services regardless of where or how those services are used.
US08843996B2
An authentication method of a storage device includes requesting an EID (Encoded IDentifer) to the storage device by an authentication device for authenticating the storage device, receiving the EID by the authentication device, restoring original ID information by decoding the received EID, and verifying individual ID information corresponding to use of the storage device included in ID information by using ID authentication information received from the storage device, wherein the ID information includes multiple pieces of individual ID information corresponding to the use of the storage device.
US08843992B2
The present invention faces the problem of network scenarios where there is no user differentiation, and where sessions established through an IP Multimedia Subsystem always proceed in the same way regardless user categories and regardless whether a user has accessed through a fixed or a mobile network. To this end, the present invention provides for a new method for dynamically configuring a Proxy Call Session Control Function of the IP Multimedia Subsystem from a Policy Control Rules server responsible for installing control rules to authorize media flows at an entity in the bearer layer. This entity in the bearer layer may be a Policy and Charging Enforcement Point of a PCC architecture, whereas the Policy Control Rules server may be a Policy and Charging Control Rules of the PCC architecture.
US08843986B2
Transport stream, data processing device and digital television for intermittently updating firmware
A transport stream (TS) includes a plurality of first download data blocks (DDBs), a plurality of second download data blocks, and a download information indication (DII). Each download data block includes a first processing method tag and a first content data. The first processing method tag is for indicating a first data processing method, and the first content data forms a part of a firmware after having been processed according to the first data processing method. Each second DDB includes a second processing method tag and a second content data. The second processing method tag is for indicating a second data processing method different from the first data processing method, and the second content data forms another part of the firmware after having been processed according to the second data processing method. The DII includes information for controlling the first DDBs and the second DDBs.
US08843977B2
An exemplary method includes receiving, by a media content delivery subsystem from an end-user media content processing device via a network, a request to record a live transmission of a media content instance, recording, by the media content delivery subsystem, the live transmission of the media content instance, and transmitting, by the media content delivery subsystem, data representative of the recorded live transmission of the media content instance to the end-user media content processing device via the network for local storage by the end-user media content processing device. In certain embodiments, the recording includes generating at least one media data file containing the data representative of the recorded live transmission of the media content instance, and the transmitting includes transferring the at least one media data file from the media content delivery subsystem to the end-user media content processing device via the network.
US08843969B2
An in-flight entertainment system includes a server and a server/client interface. The server/client interface interfaces with the server and a display unit to retrieve a specified data block requested by the display unit, where the server/client interface sends a command to a storage device controller of the server to retrieve the specified data block from a storage device under the control of the server. The server/client interface operating based on its own control logic.
US08843966B2
A system and method is presented of personalizing the organization of a product set, automating the organizing and displaying of content.
US08843963B2
An interactive television system with programming-related links is provided. The system may include user television equipment on which interactive program guide and non-program-guide applications may be implemented. Information that is displayed in a display screen for a non-program-guide application may be related to programming. A display screen or overlay for programming that is related to the information may be displayed when a user selects the displayed information. The display or overlay for the programming may include advertisements, video, graphics, options, or programming descriptions. The display screen or overlay may have been displayed by the program guide application.
US08843950B2
A television includes an image capturing unit to capture images in front of the television. Faces in the captured images are recognized to generate a face recognition result. When a condition for switching television programs is determined to be met according to the face recognition result, one or more program tables are searched to find a currently aired television program that is suitable for the current audience. The television is switched to a channel playing the found television program.
US08843949B2
An information processing apparatus includes: importance calculation means configured to calculate an experience importance degree of content for a user based the basis of a relationship among a reaction analysis result obtained by performing predetermined analysis on a reaction (attitude) of the user to the content at the time when the user experiences the content, an environment analysis result obtained by performing predetermined analysis on an external environment of the user at the time when the user experiences the content, a signal analysis result obtained by performing predetermined analysis on a video signal or voice signal of the content, and a language analysis result obtained by performing predetermined language analysis on language information described about the content; and determination means configured to, if the experience importance degree of the content calculated by the importance calculation means is high, determine the content as recommendation content to be recommended to the user.
US08843948B2
Methods and apparatus to detect carrying of a portable audience measurement device are disclosed herein. An example portable audience measurement device includes a housing; a media detector in the housing to collect media exposure data; an attachment mechanism coupled to the housing to secure the housing to a person; and a sensor to detect a status of the attachment mechanism to enable determination of whether the device is being carried by the person.
US08843944B2
Determining a class of an object is disclosed. A pointer of the object is obtained. One or more bits that are not implemented as address bits are extracted from the pointer. The one or more bits are interpreted as an identifier of the class of the object. The class of the object is determined to correspond to the identifier.
US08843922B2
A virtual-machine generating apparatus includes a configuration-information storage unit that stores hardware resources and hardware configuration information in association with unique information of virtual machines. When accepting resources as many as the number of virtual machines to be newly introduced, the apparatus determines whether the resources identical to the accepted resources are stored in the configuration-information storage unit. When it is determined that the identical hardware resources are stored, the apparatus performs a process of copying an OS of the virtual machines having the identical resources, as many times as the number of those having the resources determined as being stored in the configuration-information storage unit.
US08843919B1
Method and system are disclosed for restoring multiple instances of a software application to a predetermined baseline state. The method/system of the invention creates a baseline template from a single correct or “golden” installation of the software application. The baseline template may then be deployed to restore previously used instances of the software application to a baseline state.
US08843918B2
A deployable template structure is described. In an embodiment, the deployable template structure includes sections for virtual machines deployable, filters, and component configuration settings. A deployable template may provide multiple instance definitions for a single system.
US08843914B1
Systems and methods are disclosed that facilitate the updating of target host computing devices based on versioning information. A set of host computing devices are provisioned with a local computing device management component. Each local computing device management component periodically transmits a request to a host computing device management component to determine whether version information associated with the respective host computing device corresponds to version filter information. Based on a processing of the version filter information with the current version information of the host computing device, the host computing device management component can facilitate the implementation of updates to the requesting host computing device.
US08843911B2
Apparatus, systems, and methods for a compiler are described. One such compiler generates machine code corresponding to a set of elements including a general purpose element and a special purpose element. The compiler identifies a portion in an arrangement of relationally connected operators that corresponds to a special purpose element. The compiler also determines whether the portion meets a condition to be mapped to the special purpose element. The compiler also converts the arrangement into an automaton comprising a plurality of states, wherein the portion is converted using a special purpose state that corresponds to the special purpose element if the portion meets the condition. The compiler also converts the automaton into machine code. Additional apparatus, systems, and methods are disclosed.
US08843909B2
A method for transforming a procedural program having procedural language code into an object-oriented distributed software program is provided. A procedural program is transformed into intermediate client-server code. The intermediate client-server code is partitioned into an N-tier application program.
US08843905B2
The present invention transmits upgrade information as appropriate from a server apparatus to one or more manufacturing apparatuses for performing a predetermined semiconductor process on processing target substrates. A server apparatus is provided with an upgrade information receiving portion that receives upgrade information, which is information for upgrading an execution software program for controlling the manufacturing apparatus; a state information storage portion in which state information, which is information relating to a state of the manufacturing apparatus, is stored; a transmission judging portion that judges whether or not to transmit the upgrade information to the manufacturing apparatus, using the state information; and a transmitting portion that transmits the upgrade information to the manufacturing apparatus to which the transmission judging portion has judged to transmit the upgrade information.
US08843903B1
The inventions relate generally to layered computing systems that provide public access to the content of the layers. Also disclosed herein are prioritization schemes usable in a layered computing system, including prioritization by layer type, by assigned priority weights, by access type, by sub-layers and by read-write indicators. Processes may further be associated to layers from which they originate, and priority given to associated layers thereby. Association may also be provided for installer services, thereby depositing an applications updates into its layer. Layers may also contain file reference information including exclusion or inclusion entries indicating what files may be written thereto. Paths recorded in layers may also embed variables to true paths on a layered system. Detailed information on various example embodiments of the inventions are provided in the Detailed Description below, and the inventions are defined by the appended claims.
US08843897B2
A system and method can support compliance tests with annotation based standards using an expectation library. The expectation library can convert one or more descriptive assertions into a structured data model, wherein the one or more descriptive assertions describe one or more annotations. Furthermore, the expectation library can parse a source file that contains the one or more annotations based on the structured data model. Additionally, the expectation library can obtain information related to the one or more annotations of the source file from the structured data model.
US08843896B2
Using metamodels during context-sensitive analyzes of reusable components of computer software applications, including identifying entry and exit paths into and from a reusable component within a metamodel of a computer application development environment, determining during a static analysis of a computer software application that navigation will proceeds along a path corresponding in the metamodel to such an entry or exit path, retaining, if an entry path, an identifier of an invoking node along the path within the computer software application, and, if an exit path, for each terminal node along each of a plurality of paths from the reusable component within the computer software application, comparing an identifier of an invoking node preceding the terminal node with the retained invoking node identifier, and determining, if the invoking node identifiers match, that the path among the plurality of paths is a correct path for a current context of the static analysis.
US08843883B2
A system, method, and framework resulting therefrom, for a model-driven dashboard for business performance management, which includes capturing business dashboard model requirements at a business model level by providing at least one user-customizable model for capturing functionality of a dashboard, and after the user defines the functionality of the dashboard using the at least one user-customizable model, automatically generating code for a deployable dashboard application.
US08843881B2
A set of importers accept a variety of formats of 2D and 3D content (source asset) for computer games in the format created by the artists' authoring tool. The source asset is standardized and normalized and is stored as a strongly typed object in a content object model. An object from the content object model can be deserialized to a file for debugging. The object can be converted to a managed object to which game code can be written. An executable object is generated from the object created during game development automatically.
US08843862B2
Methods and apparatuses for designing logic are described. In one embodiment, a directive which specifies a numeric format for data in a data processing operation in a logic design is determined. The directive is used as a minimum format, rather than an exact or required format to create or change at least a portion of a representation of logic in the logic design to perform the data processing operation. Other methods are disclosed, and systems and machine readable media are also disclosed.
US08843861B2
The application is directed towards facilitating the debugging of suspected errors in a proprietary component when the proprietary component is incorporated into a larger electronic design. Various implementations provide for the generation of a reference model for an integrated circuit design, where the reference model includes the proprietary component and sufficient information about the rest of the design to allow for the debugging of the proprietary component over a period of verification where the error in the proprietary component is suspected.
US08843854B2
A method for executing a menu in a mobile terminal is disclosed, wherein the method includes displaying a first icon on a touch screen of the mobile terminal, receiving a first multi touch gesture pattern on the first icon, and displaying at least one second icon upon recognition of the first multi-gesture pattern, the at least one second icon a sub icon of the first icon.
US08843851B1
In general, in one aspect, the invention relates to a method for providing online support to a user of a client application. The method includes: initiating a wizard including dialogs for completing a task; displaying a dialog to the user; enabling, based on a network connection being available, a help threshold associated with the dialog; determining, by a computer processor, that the help threshold is exceeded after enabling the help threshold; sending, in response to the help threshold being exceeded, an availability request to an external support server; receiving, after sending the availability request, a confirmation of an available support specialist; displaying an indication to the user that support is available; receiving a support request from the user; opening a chat dialog in response to receiving the support request; and initiating, using the chat dialog, a chat session between the user and the available support specialist.
US08843850B2
A display control and information management system seamlessly integrates layered and slotted formatted data from local and remote sources to provide a highly versatile information display. The system permits selective control of display and display features so that complex data and data flows can be seamlessly accessed with enhanced cognition of salient information by a user.
US08843825B1
A media sharing and display application and system comprising a method of sharing and persistently displaying photographs and short video clips, shared between close friends and family members or any group of people is described. The system, in one embodiment, is composed of desktop software, mobile device applications, an integrated server-based online service, and a website where online services are accessed. The system creates a user experience for both sharing and persistently displaying digital photos and videos on another person's computer or mobile device.
US08843819B2
A document analysis, commenting, and reporting system provides tools that automate quality assurance analysis tailored to specific document types. As one example, the system may implement state machines that evaluate document structure instances to determine whether the document structure instances conform to pre-defined syntaxes. The state machines may include error states and final states, and messages may be associated with the error states for display when a state machine reaches the error state.
US08843814B2
A computer implemented system and method in a client-server environment, is provided for document research, aggregation, and compilation. The system and method includes a server having a search module configured to generate a search interface displayable to a client communicably coupled to the server, and responsive to instructions received via the search interface, to search and sort selections of interest within a plurality of source documents. A customized report module is configured to generate a custom report interface displayable to the client, and responsive to user selection instructions received via the custom report interface, to extract and aggregate the selections of interest into a customized report. Format modules are configured to respectively enable source documents in mutually distinct formats such as the PDF, PPT, and XLS formats, to be searched, sorted, and aggregated by the search module and customized report module. A service tracking module is configured to automatically track client requests and service provider activity to facilitate billing for services rendered.
US08843808B2
An apparatus comprising an array controller and a frame buffer. The array controller may be configured to read/write data to/from a drive array in response to one or more input/output requests. The frame buffer may be implemented within the array controller and may be configured to perform (i) a first data integrity check to determine a first type of data error and (ii) a second data integrity check to determine a second type of data error. The frame buffer may log occurrences of the first type of error and the second type of error in a field transmitted with the data. The field may be used to determine a source of possible corruption of the data.
US08843805B1
In general, techniques are described for efficiently and transparently partitioning a physical address space of a DRAM part lacking dedicated error protection circuitry to supply addressable error protection bytes for use in detecting and/or correcting bit errors elsewhere present in the physical address space. In one example, a network device includes a DRAM and a memory controller that receives a write command to write data to the DRAM. An address translation module of the memory controller logically partitions the DRAM to define a plurality of physically addressable sections that includes an error protection section for storing error protection bits and one or more data storage sections. The memory controller defines a contiguous logical address space representing the data storage sections. A DRAM controller of the network device communicates with the DRAM to store the data to one of the data storage sections in accordance with the contiguous logical address space.
US08843804B2
A method begins by a processing module storing data files utilizing a dispersed storage error coding function that includes a pillar width parameter and a decode threshold parameter. The method continues with the processing module determining whether to adjust the pillar width parameter based one or more memory performance characteristics. When the pillar width parameter is to be decreased, the method continues with the processing module identifying one or more pillars within a memory to delete to produce one or more identified pillars, identifying encoded data slices of one or more of the data files stored in the one or more identified pillars to produce identified encoded data slices, and deleting the identified encoded data slices.
US08843799B2
A serial processing method and a parallel processing method of bit rate matching and apparatuses thereof are disclosed in the present invention. The serial processing method includes: receiving a system bit data stream, a check 1 data stream and a check 2 data stream, performing interleaving processing on the system bit data in the received system bit data stream, and caching in a first buffer cache of a storage; simultaneously performing interleaving processing on the corresponding data in the received check 1 data stream and the received check 2 data stream, and caching the data on which the performing interleaving processing is performed in a second buffer of the storage; and reading valid data from the storage and implementing the rate matching.
US08843792B2
A control channel may be used to transmit control information, such as Downlink Control Information (DCI), to a mobile device from a network component, such as a base station or a base node. The mobile device may use a blind decoding scheme to detect DCIs. A DCI may be falsely detected by the mobile device. According to some embodiments, data that has been decoded by a blind decoder, from buffer data for a candidate control channel, is re-encoded. The re-encoded data is compared to buffer data for the control channel. The decoded data is treated as control information dependent on the comparison of the re-encoded data with the buffer data. In some embodiments, comparing the re-encoded data to the buffer data includes generating a metric as a function of a degree of similarity between the re-encoded data and the buffer data. The metric may be compared to a threshold.
US08843785B2
Mechanisms, in a processor chip, are provided for obtaining debug data from on-chip logic of the processor chip while the processor chip is in a secure mode of operation. The processor chip is placed into a secure mode of operation in which access to internal logic of the processor chip to control the internal logic of the processor chip, by mechanisms external to the processor chip, is disabled on a debug interface of the processor chip. A triggering condition of the processor chip is detected that is a trigger for initiated debug data collection from the on-chip logic. Debug data collection is performed from the on-chip logic to generate debug data. Data is output, by the processor chip to an external mechanism, on the debug interface based on the debug data.
US08843784B2
A method for handling media errors during a read operation on a data storage device. The method comprises detecting that a first file and a second file are duplicates, wherein the first file is stored on a first storage device. Metadata is written to the first storage device in association with the first file, wherein the metadata identifies the location of the second file that is a duplicate of the first file. Later, an application program requests a first read operation to read the first file. In response to a media error that results from the first read operation, the method reads the metadata associated with the first file to identify the location of the second file, performs a second read operation to read the second file instead of the first file, and provides the second file to the application program in satisfaction of the requested first read operation.
US08843783B2
Handling failure of a primary group at a first data center that is part of plurality of data centers providing triangular asynchronous replication, includes creating a data mirroring relationship between at least one storage volume at a second data center having a synchronous backup group that is part of the plurality of data centers and at least one storage volume at a third data center having an asynchronous backup group that is part of the plurality of data centers and resuming work at the second data center. Handling failure of a primary group at a first data center may also include synchronizing the at least one storage volume at the second data center with the at least one storage volume at the third data center prior to resuming work at the second data center.
US08843781B1
A method and system is used in managing drive error information. An error is detected in connection with a drive. Error data associated with the drive error is collected in response to detecting the error. The error data is stored on the drive. The error data being sufficiently complete to allow a comprehensive evaluation of the error.
US08843779B1
A disk drive including a disk surface including a first backup location, and a second backup location, a head actuated radially over the disk surface to write data to the disk surface, a memory configured to store a signature, and control circuitry coupled to the head. The control circuitry can be configured to receive a command to write data to the disk surface, insert the signature into the data, write the data to the disk surface, and alternately writing a spare copy of the data to the first backup location and to the second backup location based on a value of the signature.
US08843772B2
Systems and methods are disclosed that may be implemented to dynamically allocate relative power consumption between a group of multiple information handling system nodes that share a common (e.g., capacity-limited) power supply or source of power. The relative power consumption of the multiple information handling system nodes may be adjusted based on real time power consumption of each of the individual information handling system nodes, as well as the need for additional power by one or more of the individual information handling system nodes. A group of multiple information handling system nodes may dynamically communicate power usage characteristics in a distributed manner between themselves to implement a peer-to-peer acknowledgement architecture, or alternatively may communicate power usage characteristics to a centralized power manager.
US08843767B2
A method for providing security for plaintext data being transferred between units in a computer system includes steps of dividing a memory into a series of addressable locations, each of the addressable locations having an address at which can be stored version information, a data authentication tag, and ciphertext corresponding to the plaintext. The system retrieves the ciphertext, the version information, and the data authentication tag, and generates encryption keys for decrypting the information stored at the address. If the data authentication tag indicates the plaintext data are valid, then the system provides the decrypted plaintext to the requestor, or encrypts new plaintext data and stores the corresponding ciphertext with new authentication and version information at the first address.
US08843765B2
A device generates a content key that depends upon device security state information. For example, the device may retrieve a first content key and a security state, and then derive a content key using the first content key and the security state. Accordingly, if the security state is incorrect, then the generated content key is incorrect, and the device cannot decrypt content provided to the device.
US08843749B2
Described are a system and method for presenting security information about a current site or communications session. Briefly stated, a browsing software is configured to receive a certificate during a negotiation of a secure session between a local device and a remote device. The certificate includes security information about a site maintained at the remote device. The security information is displayed to a user of the browsing software in a meaningful fashion to allow the user to make a trust determination about the site. Displaying the security information may include presenting a certificate summary that includes the most relevant information about the certificate, such as the name of the owner of the site and the name of the certificating authority of the certificate.
US08843740B2
A first device with a changing identity establishes a secure connection with a second device in a network by acting as its own certificate authority. The first device issues itself a self-signed root certificate that binds an identity of the first device to a long-term public key of the first device. The root certificate is digitally signed using a long-term private key, where the long-term public key and the long-term private key form a public/private key pair. The first device provides its root certificate to the second device in any trusted manner. The first device can then create a certificate for one or more short-term identities acquired by the first device and sign the newly-created certificate using the long-term private key. The first device can authenticate itself to the second device by sending the newly-created certificate to the second device.
US08843735B2
An apparatus for providing link layer security in a Physical Layer Transceiver (PHY) is disclosed. In one embodiment, the apparatus may comprise analog circuitry configured to interface with a data transmission medium, digital circuitry configured to interface with a Media Access Controller (MAC); and a crypto engine coupled to the digital circuitry. Single interface and multiple interface schemes are provided to control both PHY and crypto functions. Embodiments are disclosed where the PHY controls the crypto device, and where the crypto device controls the PHY.
US08843732B2
Memory channel training parameters are function of electrical characteristics of memory devices, processor(s) and memory channel(s). Training steps can be skipped if the BIOS can determine that the memory devices, motherboard and processor have not changed since the last boot. Memory devices contain a serial number for tracking purposes and most motherboards contain a serial number. Many processors do not provide a mechanism by which the BIOS can track the processor. Described herein are techniques that allow the BIOS to track a processor and detect a swap without violating privacy/security requirements.
US08843695B2
A serial memory device having a non-volatile memory array including a plurality of memory blocks, one or more said plurality of blocks being capable of being placed in a locked or an unlocked state upon receiving designated lock or unlock signal sequences is provided. The unlock signal sequences comprises at least two sequential signal sequences: a first unlock sequence, which has 1 to 7 signal bits, is applied to one of address input pins or a logic low enabled write-protection input pin and a second unlock sequence follows the first unlock signal sequence and is applied to a serial data access pin. The memory device further comprising a control logic circuit block coupled to a write-protection circuit block to provide means to identify the designated lock and unlock signal sequences and to set a protection state in a security area.
US08843694B2
Systems and methods are provided for using page buffers of memory devices connected to a memory controller through a common bus. A page buffer of a memory device is used as a temporary cache for data which is written to the memory cells of the memory device. This can allow the memory controller to use memory devices as temporary caches so that the memory controller can free up space in its own memory.
US08843690B2
An apparatus having a memory and circuit is disclosed. The memory may (i) assert a first signal in response to detecting a conflict between at least two addresses requesting access to a block at a first time, (ii) generate a second signal in response to a cache miss caused by an address requesting access to the block at a second time and (iii) store a line fetched in response to the cache miss in another block by adjusting the first address by an offset. The second time is generally after the first time. The circuit may (i) generate the offset in response to the assertion of the first signal and (ii) present the offset in a third signal to the memory in response to the assertion of the second signal corresponding to reception of the first address at the second time. The offset is generally associated with the first address.
US08843679B2
To enable signal transmission at a high data rate while securing backward compatibility.A source device 110 and a sink device 120 are connected by an HDMI cable 200. The source device 110 is compatible with both current HDMI and new HDMI. The number of differential signal channels for transmitting digital signals such as video data is three in the current HDMI, but is six in the new HDMI, for example. In a case where the cable 200 is compatible with the new HDMI, and the sink device 120 is compatible with the new HDMI, a control unit 113 of the source device 110 controls a data transmitting unit 112 to operate in a new HDMI operating mode. In a case where the control unit 113 determines that at least the sink device 120 is compatible only with the current HDMI, or at least the cable 200 is compatible with the current HDMI, the control unit 113 controls the data transmitting unit 112 to operate in a current HDMI operating mode.
US08843670B2
Methods and apparatus that enable a community of devices having differing underlying protocols to stream media data such as video or audio data. In one exemplary embodiment, this invention enables IEEE 1394-compliant (“FireWire” enabled) devices to communicate across an Ethernet infrastructure, such as one enabled by the Ethernet AVB Standard(s). This enhances connectivity, and also supports obviating one or more physical ports within the device(s). In another embodiment, or more wireless transports are utilized.
US08843669B2
An invention is disclosed for offloading operations, such data transfers, of a guest partition to a host partition. A guest operating system is presented with virtualized resources rather than physical resources—e.g. a guest virtualized processor, guest virtualized memory space, and a guest virtualized direct memory access (DMA) controller. The guest partition can detect the guest operation system attempt to initiate a data transfer, and can instruct the host partition to perform the data transfer. The guest partition need not perform the data transfer using the guest virtual resources. The host partition can perform the data transfer to a remote computing as instructed by the guest partition without copying the data to the host virtualized memory space. The host partition can provide a message to the guest partition indicative of a status of the data transfer.
US08843659B2
This invention permits all FCoE (Fiber Channel over Ethernet) frames to be transferred from one FCoE network adapter to another without having to traverse through a Fiber Channel Forwarder (FCF) device. After the FCF is determined not to be present, a logical End-To-End connection is established between Peer FCoE Adapters. This invention permits an FCoE message originating at an FCoE network adapter to be sent to an FCoE receiving adapter across “Ethernet” links and switches, or via a single “Ethernet” link (Point-To-Point) but without having to pass through FCF devices.
US08843658B2
Disclosed is a method, a communication system, and a communication device for transmitting data to a first subscriber, within the framework of a connection signaling from a first primary service communication device of the first subscriber to a second primary service communication device, a primary address information message associated with the first primary service communication device and a secondary address information message associated with a first secondary service communication device of the first subscriber is transmitted to the second primary service communication device. The transmitted address information messages are identified and stored via the primary service communication device. For the transmission of data to be transmitted to the first subscriber, the stored secondary address information message is transferred from the second primary service communication device to a second secondary service communication device, and is transmitted based on the transferred secondary address information message during transmission to the first secondary service communication device.
US08843649B2
A communication device establishes a trusted relationship with one or more remote communication devices by capturing ambient information with both communication devices, which is sent to a comparison system that compares them. The ambient information is used as authorization information. Upon a satisfactory comparison of the ambient information captured by the communication devices, the communication device is notified and a trusted relationship may be established between it and the remote communication device. Once the trusted relationship has been established, a personal area network can be established between the communication devices.
US08843645B2
Described herein is a method and system for preventing Denial of Service (DoS) attacks. An intermediary device is deployed between clients and servers. The device receives a first packet of an application layer transaction via a transport layer connection between the device and client. The device records a last activity time for the transport layer connection based upon the timestamp of the first packet. The device receives subsequent data packets and determines whether the data in the packets completes a protocol data structure of the application layer protocol. If the device determines that the subsequent packet completes the protocol data structure, the last activity time is updated. If the device determines that the application layer protocol remains incomplete, the device retains the last activity time and determines that the duration of inactivity for the transport layer connection exceeds a predetermined threshold. The device may subsequently drop the connection.
US08843642B2
Described is a technology by which a gesture made with a source device (e.g., a cellular telephone), such as a throwing or pointing motion, is used to automatically set up a connection with another device to which the gesture is directed. Audio signals output during the gesture, e.g., such as at the start and end of the gesture, are detected by candidate (listening) devices. The device having the least time difference between detection of the start and end signals is the device that is generally best aligned with the throwing or pointing motion, and thus may be selected as the target device. Once selected, a connection such as a network connection may be set up between the source device and the target device for further communication, such as for application data exchange.
US08843640B2
A search for another information processing apparatus and a predetermined access point is automatically performed. When a result of the search is the other portable information processing apparatus, a process of automatically performing data communication with the other information processing apparatus is performed. On the other hand, when the result of the search is the access point, a process of automatically performing data communication via the access point is performed.
US08843629B2
Method, apparatus, and computer program product embodiments of the invention are disclosed for response criteria employable, for example, in connection with device discovery within wireless networks. In an example embodiment of the invention, a device receives a request that conveys one or more registered unique identifiers that indicate device capabilities. The request conveys response criteria referencing the registered unique identifiers. The device determines recognition of one or more of the referenced registered unique identifiers. The device determines possession of device capabilities indicated by the recognized registered unique identifiers. And, the device determines to dispatch a response to the request that is contingent upon the recognition and the possession.
US08843623B2
Methods, apparatuses, computer program products and other means are provided for systems that are configured to use remote connections to, for example, provide proactive support monitoring by running scripts (such as, e.g., diagnostic tests) and/or collecting data (such as diagnostic test result data) from one or more customer machines. The collected data can be received at a centralized location. The collected data can be analyzed by one or more other machines, used by a support team, sold to clients, and/or used in any other manner. For example, technical problems discovered from diagnostic test results data may be fixed by a support team before the symptoms of the problems are experienced by at least some of the customer's machines. Some embodiments may also be configured to perform fact based decision making.
US08843621B2
Embodiments of the present invention relate to an approach for using electronic feeds (e.g., online news feeds, social media resources/websites, etc.) to predict potentially harmful events and take preemptive measures/actions to minimize and/or avoid loss. In a typical embodiment, a set of electronic feeds (e.g., news feeds and/or social networking website feeds) is accessed. A query is then issued against the set of feeds based on a set of search criteria pertaining to a possible event having a potential to adversely affect the networked computing environment. A set of results is received in a computer memory medium of the networked computing environment. It may then be determined whether at least one property of the set of results (e.g., a quantity of ‘hits’) meets one or more predetermined event criteria (e.g., a predetermined threshold).
US08843618B2
In some embodiments, the invention involves collecting service health information from a plurality of cloud service provider associated with a customer. Once the service health information is collected, aggregating information from multiple providers, when necessary, and providing a service health report to the customer. The customer has agreements with both the service providers and information collector to receive a level of service health information regarding services provided. The information collector may have agreements with the service providers to retrieve or receive the requested service health information for the customers via a pre-agreed upon protocol. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US08843611B2
A method for transmitting a WS message and an apparatus for processing a WS message, the method includes providing data in the form of a WS message, addressing the WS message to a plurality of receiving nodes, and transmitting the addressed WS message to the plurality of receiving nodes.
US08843606B2
A method, apparatus, and system for managing load in a server are provided. The server performs events for a plurality of electronic communication devices, each of the devices enabled to transmit to the server, at a respective given time and at a respective given frequency, a request to perform a respective event. The server receives the requests and determines that its load is above a threshold load value during a given time period when the requests arrive. In response, for a subset of the devices, the server transmits a delay time to each electronic communication device in the subset. The delay time causes each device in the subset to change the respective given time to a respective new time comprising the delay time added to the respective given time such that a next request is transmitted from each device in the subset to the server at the respective new time.
US08843593B2
There is provided a communication apparatus including an identification data generation portion to generate identification data, an identification data storage portion to store the identification data generated by the identification data generation portion, a basic data reception portion to receive basic data from an information processing server through a given communication path, the basic data containing prescribed first data specifying service data generated in the distribution server and containing data to be used in an IC chip capable of con tactless communication with a reader/writer, and prescribed identification data, and a data acquisition portion to acquire the service data generated based on the basic data in the distribution server from the distribution server if the prescribed identification data matches with the identification data stored in the identification data storage portion.
US08843592B2
In a distributed network, there are different data rates on different connections between a central computer system and remote terminal. The central system comprises one or more supersets of data to be distributed to the remote terminals by extracting subsets of data from the superset/s of data. The subsets of data are distributed to selected groups of remote terminals based on an infrastructure load. In this way, data is adaptively distributed.
US08843590B2
An application program interface (API) is operably associated with application programs executing on an electronic device and enables the application programs to retrieve, store, and display content. The API enables application programs to communicate with other application programs and to send/retrieve content to/from other application programs. In addition, the API is configured to perform various event accounting functions. A gateway communicates with an electronic device application program via the API and is configured to retrieve content from a content server in response to receiving requests from the application programs. The gateway is configured to serve content retrieved from the content server to the electronic device, as well as to other servers and/or devices. Methods, apparatus, and computer program products are provided for dynamically selecting advertisements for use within user-requested content wherein the advertisements are stored locally within a user client device.
US08843588B2
A method and related apparatus determine, at a serving entity, whether a memory resource of the serving entity is insufficient for storing service provision-related information required for service provision from the serving entity to a served entity. Then the serving entity transmits, after the determination, the service provision-related information to the served entity based on a result of the determination; and a method (and related apparatus) provides for receiving, at a served entity, the service provision-related information, holding the received service provision-related information, and transmitting, from the served entity to the serving entity, the held service provision-related information.
US08843587B2
An application retrieves a published calendar from an online calendar application. The application formats the published calendar according to user status states such as “free” or “busy.” The application can also alternatively assign user status information from the published calendar to users status state levels such as “free,” “tentative,” “out of office,” “busy,” and “remotely available.” The application matches calendar owner information to a contact from a contact list of the application in order to link the formatted calendar to the contact. The application presents the linked calendar for scheduling.
US08843584B2
Content information is received from a first client. The content information is derived from a video stream being played on the first client device. The content information is matched to a content fingerprint. A set of instructions associated with the matched content fingerprint is determined. The determined set of instructions is sent to a second client device that is associated with a user of the fist client device for execution.
US08843581B2
A live object pattern is described that enables a distributed cache to store live objects as data entries thereon. A live object is a data entry stored in the distributed cache which represents a particular function or responsibility. When a live object arrives to the cache on a particular cluster server, a set of interfaces are called back which inform the live object that it has arrived at that server and that it should initiate to perform its functions. A live object is thus different from “dead” data entries because a live object performs a set of function, can be started/stopped and can interact with other live objects in the distributed cache. Because live objects are backed up across the cluster just like normal data entries, the functional components of the system are more highly available and are easily transferred to another server's cache in case of failures.
US08843565B2
Electronic messaging communications, including Instant Messaging messages, are organized into particular categories, as selected by the users providing the messages. This enables messages of a particular category to be displayed at a recipient of the messages, while other messages are masked from view. It also facilitates the capturing of certain related messages to the exclusion of others.
US08843564B2
A system and method for automatically determining whether or not original message text should be included in a reply electronic message is provided. In one broad aspect, the original message text is included in the reply electronic message as a function of the original message. In a first example, the original message text is included as a function of a domain name of an originating address. In a second example, the original message text is included as a function of maintained information used for determining if original message text should be included in reply electronic messages. In a third example, the original message text is included as a function of an indicative encoding inside the original electronic message. In a fourth example, the original message text is included as a function of maintained information used for detecting address aliases. In another broad aspect, the original electronic message is encoded with an indicative encoding as to whether or not a reply electronic message should include the original message text.
US08843561B2
A method, apparatus, and computer instructions are provided for a common cluster model for configuring, managing, and operating different clustering technologies in a data center. The common cluster model supports peer cluster domains and management server cluster domains. Each cluster domain may have one or more cluster nodes. For each cluster domains, one or more cluster resources may be defined. These resources may depend on one another and may be grouped into a resource group. A set of cluster domain and cluster resources logical device operations are provided to configure, manage, and operate cluster domains and its associated resources.
US08843550B2
A system for controlling multiple multipoint control units (MCUs) with a single apparatus is disclosed. The system utilizes a Virtual MCU (VMCU) to communicate with a plurality of MCUs. A user initiates a reserve conference command with the VMCU. If sufficient resources are available, the reservation is made and connection numbers are assigned. When the time for the conference arises, an MCU is assigned to the conference. The participants are then connected to the conference. By using a single VMCU to schedule and coordinate multiple MCUs, the system is able to efficiently schedule a large number of conferences. This greater efficiency in scheduling may allow users to schedule conferences without the advance notice that is usually required.
US08843544B2
Embodiments of the present invention provide an approach for aggregating Internet addresses (e.g., Uniform Resource Locators (URLs)) in a networked computing environment. In a typical embodiment, a set of URLs is received (e.g., by a system/engine). Upon receipt, a composite URL comprising at least portions of each received URL is generated and associated with a newly generated web page. The received set of URLs are displayed on the web page in a list, or the like, that may be sorted according to a set of criteria.
US08843540B2
A circuit and a method for implementing Fast Fourier Transform (FFT)/Inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT) are provided. The method includes: determining the number m of iterations, depth d1 of the first and second Random Access Memories (RAMs), depth d2 of a Read Only Memory (ROM); storing the first and second n/2 parts of the input data to be Transformed into the second and first RAMs respectively; performing the iterative butterfly operations m times; in the first iteration, reading the first and second RAMs in a reverse bit order, writing the results of the even-numbered butterfly operations into the first RAM, writing the results of the odd-numbered butterfly operations into the second RAM; during the second to the (m−1)th iterations, reading the first and second RAMs in a normal bit order, wherein the way to write back to the RAM is the same as that of the first time; in the m-th iteration, reading the first and second RAMs in a normal bit order, wherein the location in the RAM to be written back is the same as the location for reading.
US08843512B2
Concepts and technologies are described herein for presenting results with visual cues. A differencing tool is executed by a client or a server computer. The differencing tool is configured to generate or receive queries for querying data, and to obtain results satisfying the queries. The differencing tool further is configured to generate views for presenting the results. The views can include representations of data corresponding to the results. The differencing tool also can store history files including data that indicates values associated with one or more iterations of the results.
US08843504B2
Updating images in an image database includes determining an updated image that is among a plurality of images in the image database, extracting a plurality of image features of the updated image and storing a plurality of image feature values that correspond to the plurality of image features, and associating the plurality of image features of the updated image with a search engine, including adding an array comprising the plurality of image feature values to an index of the search engine.
US08843497B2
The present disclosure is directed to a computer system and method performed by a selectively programmed data processor for providing data to a Web page such that items are presented to the user in a way that imitates a real world shopping experience. Various aspects of the disclosed technology also relate to systems and methods for calculating product or category associations using associative relation extraction. Additional aspects of the disclosed technology relate to automatic topic discovery, and event and category matching.
US08843496B2
A method in one example implementation includes obtaining a plurality of host file inventories corresponding respectively to a plurality of hosts, calculating input data using the plurality of host file inventories, and then providing the input data to a clustering procedure to group the plurality of hosts into one or more clusters of hosts. The method further includes each cluster of hosts being grouped using predetermined similarity criteria. In more specific embodiments, each of the host file inventories includes a set of one or more file identifiers with each file identifier representing a different executable software file on a corresponding one of the plurality of hosts. In other more specific embodiments, calculating the input data includes transforming the host file inventories into a matrix of keyword vectors in Euclidean space. In further embodiments, calculating the input data includes transforming the host file inventories into a similarity matrix.
US08843482B2
A method for providing selected content items to a user. The selection of content items is based on metadata pre-assigned to content items, typically authored content metadata, and on metadata generated and associated afterwards, called derived content metadata. Additionally, the selection of content items can be based also on context metadata, particularly derived context metadata. Derived metadata are automatically generated on the basis of derivation rules corresponding to algorithms to be applied to, e.g., the content of content items, authored content metadata and context metadata. User profiles can be used for improving the selection quality. A method is also disclosed for building and maintaining user profiles based on machine learning techniques.
US08843467B2
A method and system for providing information to a user of a device on a local network is provided. This involves obtaining information about current user activity on the local network, obtaining contextual information about current user activity on the local network and obtaining additional information interrelated to the contextual information and the user activity information. Then correlations are identified between the additional information, the contextual information and the user activity information. The correlations are used in forming a query to search for information related to the current user activity, to provide to the user.
US08843463B2
A method of providing content (130) associated with a weight-value, the content (130) previously provided to a current computer associated with a current user (116) that is represented by a first node (106) in a social network (101). The method comprises the steps of: i) enabling the current computer (216) to display the content (130), in dependence of the weight-value, ii) obtaining an input of the current user (116), iii) updating the weight-value of the content (130), in dependence of the input of the current user (116), iv) determining a receiving computer associated with a second node (107) in the social network (101), and v) providing the content (130) to the receiving computer. Corresponding computers, computer program and computer readable medium are also described.
US08843462B2
The present principles provide systems and methods for displaying associations between data files and logical assets including the data files. Upon user-selection of a representation of a logical asset, a method in accordance with an aspect of the present principles includes determining associations between data files and the logical asset and displaying a listing of data files associated with the logical asset. Conversely, the method may also include presenting a listing of logical assets associated with a user-selected data file upon determination of logical assets associated with the data file. Moreover, another aspect of the present principles permits bi-directional navigation capability between a logical asset associations view and a physical asset associations view.
US08843461B2
An encrypted file storage solution consists of a cluster of processing nodes, external data storage, and a software agent (the “File System Watcher”), which is installed on the application servers. Cluster sizes of one node up to many hundreds of nodes are possible. There are also remote “Key Servers” which provide various services to one or more clusters. The preceding describes a preferred embodiment, though in some cases it may be desirable to “collapse” some of the functionality into a smaller number of hardware devices, typically trading off cost versus security and fault-tolerance.
US08843455B2
A request for a font file including a first font table and a second font table is received. A first entropy encoder is selected, based on characteristics of the first font table, front among a plurality of entropy encoders. A second entropy encoder is selected, based on characteristics of the second font table, front among the plurality of entropy encoders. The first entropy encoder is applied to the first font table. The second entropy encoder is applied to the second font table. Compressed data corresponding to the first and second font tables are combined to generate a compressed font file. The compressed font file is transmitted.
US08843451B2
For block level backup, a full image level backup is created of a file system from production storage at a production server to random access storage at a backup server. A mounted image is created from the full image that exposes a block level representation of the file system of the production server for read operations in a file level format. File enumeration is performed on the mounted image for files. Block level read operations are monitored while the files are being enumerated. During monitoring, blocks that are read for the read operations are marked as meta-data blocks. Blocks that are not marked as meta-data blocks are identified as data blocks. The data blocks are migrated to sequential storage, while leaving the meta-data blocks on the random access storage, wherein the data blocks form a backup image.
US08843450B1
A method for restoring associated with a collaborative software application is disclosed. A virtual file system exposing backup data of a collaborative software application stored in a backup data storage is created. A selection of a portion of the backup data to be restored to the collaborative software application is received via an interface associated with the virtual file system. The selected portion of the backup data is caused to be granularly restored to the collaborative management system without restoring one or more unselected portions of the backup data. A write capability of the virtual file system is used to modify a portion of the restored data in response to a write operation by the collaborative software application.
US08843447B2
A resilient distributed replicated data storage system is described herein. The storage system includes zones that are independent, and autonomous from each other. The zones include nodes that are independent and autonomous. The nodes include storage devices. When a data item is stored, it is partitioned into a plurality of data objects and a plurality of parity objects are calculated. Reassembly instructions are created for the data item. The data objects, parity objects and reassembly instructions are spread across nodes and zones in the storage system according to a policy for the data item. When a zone is inaccessible, a virtual zone is created and used until the intended zone is available. When a read request is received, the data item is prepared from the lowest latency nodes according to the reassembly instructions, and a virtual zone is accessed in place of a real zone when the real zone is inaccessible.
US08843446B2
A data center for data backup and replication, including a pool of multiple storage units for storing a journal of I/O write commands issued at respective times, wherein the journal spans a history window of a pre-specified time length, and a journal manager for dynamically allocating more storage units for storing the journal as the journal size increases, and for dynamically releasing storage units as the journal size decreases.
US08843442B2
Systems and methods for publishing datasets are provided herein. According to some embodiments, methods for publishing datasets may include receiving a request to publish a dataset to at least one of an internal environment located within a secured zone and an external environment located outside the secured zone, the request comprising at least one selection criteria, selecting the dataset based upon the at least one selection criteria, the dataset being selected from an index of collected datasets, and responsive to the request, publishing the dataset to at least one of the internal environment and the external environment.
US08843432B2
A non-transitory computer-readable medium stores a program that causes a computer, which has a memory device storing a set of measured values that included a set of positive case measured values and a set of negative case measured values, to execute a process. The process includes extracting randomly, a positive case measured value group and a negative case measured value group from the set of measured values; generating based on the positive case measured value group and the negative case measured value group, a prediction equation that predicts the objective variable for a prediction algorithm; first calculating a first predicted value group; second calculating a second predicted value group; first identifying a first coincident-case count of predicted values; second identifying a second coincident-case count of predicted values; computing a weighted correct answer percentage; and outputting a computation result obtained at the computing.
US08843431B2
Traditional methods of prediction of the likelihood of churning in a given market such as wireless telecommunications are improved by inclusion of social network analysis to predict churning by members of a population in response to churning by any given individual member of that population. A sphere of influence of individual members of the population on other members of the population are modeled and analyzed through a plurality of degrees of separation and quantitatively evaluated by a number of relational algebraic joins in which at least one such join includes weights to assert a diminishing influence with number of degrees of separation.
US08843430B2
In one aspect, a recommendation system offers item recommendations to users based on one or more items known to be liked by the users. An item may be recommended to a user if a similarity indicator for the item, established by determining how much more likely than expected the user will like the item based on the user liking another item, exceeds a predetermined threshold. Multiple items may be recommended to a user based on relative similarity indicators.
US08843415B2
In one embodiment the present invention includes a method of performing a secure transaction in a software system, such as a software service system, for example. Embodiments of the invention include encoding symmetric keys for securing transactions between a service consumer and service provider. Asymmetric keys are also used for providing additional security during transactions. In one embodiment, license tokens and capability tokens are encoded and passed between a service consumer and service provider for allowing a consumer secure access to authorized services.
US08843414B2
Techniques for managing media objects are provided. The techniques include providing an algorithm configured to generate an identifier (ID) based on content of a first media object. The ID is then generated for the first media object. The ID allows the first device to identify the first media object to a second device. The second device is configured to use the ID to determine if a second media object associated with the ID is accessible to the second device. Also, the determination is made notwithstanding source information for the first and second media objects or digital rights restrictions imposed on the first and second media objects, where the first media object and second media object include substantially identical content.
US08843410B2
Systems and methods for providing supply chain financing that include receiving a request to finance an asset of a borrower, where the asset is associated with goods provided by a supplier to a buyer under the control of a supply chain/logistics entity. Attributes of a trade ecosystem of the supplier and/or the buyer are evaluated to determine whether to finance the asset. Financing of the asset is then established based upon the analyzed attributes of the trade ecosystem, where the terms of the financing permit control over movement of goods before and/or after default of the terms of the financing. Information associated with movement of the goods is monitored and analyzed to determine adjustments to at least one of the financing terms based on the information associated with movement of the goods.
US08843403B2
Methods and computer systems are provided managing and valuating inventory. In one embodiment, a computer system may assign every item of goods which is entering a working process to an identifier. The computer system may then track the goods in the working process. Further, the computer system may update a given identifier when the goods assigned to this identifier enter another stage in the working process, assign at least one price to each stage in the working process, determine the content of one or more identifiers, and calculate a price for goods in the working process.
US08843401B2
Improved methods, systems, graphical user interfaces and computer program code for presenting representations or information concerning digital products are disclosed. The representations of digital products can serve to promote certain digital products at an online digital product distribution site. Information concerning a particular digital product can be rapidly accessible from a displayed page at an online digital product distribution site referencing a plurality of different digital products. According to one aspect, digital product information can be presented in an overlay window that can be initiated by a user and present relevant information concerning a digital product. Advantageously, digital product information can be quickly presented to a user without having to navigate to a new page of an online distribution site.
US08843398B2
The present invention extends to methods, systems, and computer program products for transferring digital receipt data to mobile devices. A point-of-sale (“POS”) system generates digital receipt data as part of a sales transaction. The point-of-sale (“POS”) system and a mobile device, possibly also along with a receipt data server, interoperate with one another to transfer digital receipt data generated to the mobile device. In some embodiments, the point-of-sale (“POS”) system transfers digital receipt data for a sales transaction to the receipt data server. An identifier, such as, for example, an application identifier or transaction identifier, is stored along with the digital receipt data to match the digital receipt data with the mobile device. The mobile device subsequently uses the identifier to access the digital receipt data from the receipt data server. In other embodiments, the point-of-sale (“POS”) system transfers digital receipt data directly to the mobile device.
US08843393B2
A method and system for displaying targeted advertisements. The method includes executing a monitoring application on a mobile device, the mobile device configured with a sensor. The method includes detecting a start of a user purchase decision making process via a sensor reading, wherein the sensor reading includes at least one of: a search query, a user command for the mobile device, a user geographical location, a local time, a user phone call, a user local environment, and a user behavior history. The method includes selecting a relevant ad based on the start of the user purchase decision making process and the sensor reading. The method includes displaying the selected ad to the user during the user purchase decision making process.
US08843386B2
A data processing system may be implemented as a program product embodied on a processing system readable medium for implementing a method for using mobile code for implementing a service in a global ecosystem of interrelated services in an enterprise. The enterprise may include a group of network domains, where each of the network domains further includes a group of servers; at least one service container running on each of the servers; and a group of interrelated services, where each of the interrelated services may run on any of the at least one service container. The program product may include instructions for loading mobile service code for implementing a service on a code server, where the code server is accessible to at least some of the servers in the enterprise; instructions for determining information related to the service, where the information related to the service includes configuration information and a proxy reference for the service, the proxy reference including a codebase containing an address for a code server holding the mobile service code of a proxy for the service; and instructions for launching the service in a network domain.
US08843383B2
A shipping insurance service application has an electronic marketplace platform interface, a shipping insurance module, and an insurance provider module. The electronic marketplace platform interface communicates with at least one electronic marketplace application. The shipping insurance module provides a shipping insurance policy to a seller of the corresponding electronic marketplace application and processes a claim from the seller of the corresponding electronic marketplace application based on the shipping insurance policy. The carrier module obtains the shipping insurance policy from an insurance provider among a plurality of insurance providers.
US08843376B2
Speech-enabled web content searching using a multimodal browser implemented with one or more grammars in an automatic speech recognition (‘ASR’) engine, with the multimodal browser operating on a multimodal device supporting multiple modes of interaction including a voice mode and one or more non-voice modes, the multimodal browser operatively coupled to the ASR engine, includes: rendering, by the multimodal browser, web content; searching, by the multimodal browser, the web content for a search phrase, including yielding a matched search result, the search phrase specified by a first voice utterance received from a user and a search grammar; and performing, by the multimodal browser, an action in dependence upon the matched search result, the action specified by a second voice utterance received from the user and an action grammar.
US08843375B1
Methods, systems and apparatus for editing audio clips. A computer-implemented method includes displaying in a user interface, a first audio clip including a first plurality of time instants and a second audio clip including a second plurality of time instants; displaying a first transition point identifier associated with the first audio clip to designate a portion from a beginning of the first audio clip to the first transition point identifier that is playable; displaying a second transition point identifier associated with the second audio clip to designate a portion from the second transition point identifier to an end of the second audio clip that is playable; and generating a combined audio clip comprising the portion from the beginning of the first audio clip to the first transition point identifier and the portion from the second transition point identifier to the end of the second audio clip.
US08843373B1
The present invention provides a communication monitoring and analysis method and system. More specifically, the present invention provides a method for analyzing problems within a communication network and further identifying sources of such problems based on voice sample substitutions. The voice sample substitutions used may correspond to canned speech samples used to highlight possible communication network problems.
US08843371B2
The instant application includes computationally-implemented systems and methods that include managing adaptation data, the adaptation data is at least partly based on at least one speech interaction of a particular party, facilitating transmission of the adaptation data to a target device when there is an indication of a speech-facilitated transaction between the target device and the particular party, such that the adaptation data is to be applied to the target device to assist in execution of the speech-facilitated transaction, and facilitating acquisition of adaptation result data that is based on at least one aspect of the speech-facilitated transaction and to be used in determining whether to modify the adaptation data. In addition to the foregoing, other aspects are described in the claims, drawings, and text.
US08843370B2
Adjusting model parameters is described for a speech recognition system that combines recognition outputs from multiple speech recognition processes. Discriminative adjustments are made to model parameters of at least one acoustic model based on a joint discriminative criterion over multiple complementary acoustic models to lower recognition word error rate in the system.
US08843357B2
An electrical connection defect simulation test method is provided. The electrical connection state simulation test method includes the steps as follows. A device under test is provided, wherein the device under test includes a plurality of pin groups each having a plurality of signal pins. A zero-frequency signal is transmitted from a signal-feeding device to each of the signal pins to simulate an open condition. An open test is performed on each of the signal pins. The signal pins of the device under test are connected to a relay matrix. The relay matrix is controlled to make any two of the signal pins in one of the pin groups electrically connected to simulate a short condition. A short test is performed on any two of the electrically connected signal pins. An electrical connection state simulation test system is disclosed herein as well.
US08843353B2
Embodiments of the present technology integrate seismic data and geologic concepts into earth model building. More specifically, exemplary embodiments provide new ways to build an earth model based on information in the seismic data and geologic concepts to use as a context to interpret the seismic data and/or to add to the earth model in regions where the seismic data is missing (e.g., either no data or no data resolvability). In some embodiments, a deterministic framework is generated for an earth models through deterministic identification of discrete geobodies. A hybrid deterministic-geostatistical earth model is generated by filling stratigraphic gaps in a deterministic framework using geostatistical information and/or seismic inversion, in accordance with some embodiments.
US08843345B2
Described herein are systems and methods that can employ a motion detection algorithm to determine whether a sensor has experienced a motion event or a no motion event. The sensor can be any sensor that can be used to identify and/or characterize motion. Upon receiving a signal from the sensor, moments of the signal can be calculated. Then, the moments can be compared to determine whether the signal is Gaussian. If the signal is a Gaussian signal, the algorithm determines that the signal is due to a no motion event. If the signal is a non-Gaussian signal, the algorithm determines that the signal is due to a motion event.
US08843342B2
A continuous scanning method employs one or more moveable sensors and one or more reference sensors deployed in the environment around a test subject. Each sensor is configured to sense an attribute of the test subject (e.g., sound energy, infrared energy, etc.) while continuously moving along a path and recording the sensed attribute, the position, and the orientation of each of the moveable sensors and each of the reference sensors. The system then constructs a set of transfer functions corresponding to points in space between the moveable sensors, wherein each of the transfer functions relates the test data of the moveable sensors to the test data of the reference sensors. In this way, a graphical representation of the attribute in the vicinity of test subject can be produced.
US08843340B2
Track information generating devices, methods, and programs acquire a self-contained navigation track of a vehicle indicated by time-series pieces of self-contained navigation information, and acquire a GPS track of the vehicle indicated by time-series pieces of GPS information. The devices, methods, and programs compare the self-contained navigation track with the GPS track to correct the self-contained navigation information so as to reduce a difference between the self-contained navigation track and the GPS track.
US08843326B1
A method, apparatus and computer-readable storage medium are provided for defining a load envelope, such as a three-dimensional load envelope, that envelopes a plurality of load cases. In the context of a system, the system includes a coordinate system redefinition module configured to define three mutually orthogonal axes in a space representative of at least three load components and a surface facet definition module configured to identify load cases on a surface of the load envelope and to define a plurality of surface facets, such as surface triangles, that collectively define the load envelope. Each surface facet includes a plurality of vertices that are formed by load cases identified to be on the surface of the load envelope.
US08843324B2
The present invention provides a method to calibrate a NIR analyzer to measure monomer concentrations at one or more locations in a reactor system. The regression coefficients for the NIR analyzer are transferable between reactors using the same process (solution polymerization to solution polymerization) and may be used to control the reaction, or calibrate flow meters on line.
US08843317B1
A method, apparatus and non-transitory computer readable storage medium, in one embodiment, associating at least one wireless device and at least one user, requesting audio information from at least one remote source by said at least one wireless device, receiving said audio information from said remote source, broadcasting an audio identifier to said at least one wireless device, using said audio information, authenticating said association between said at least one wireless device and at least one transport, based on said audio information, determining at least one characteristic of said at least one user based on at least one of at least one user search history and at least one user preference selection and determining at least one probable route of said at least one transport based on said at least one characteristic and at least one of at least one route history and at least one input destination.
US08843315B1
This present invention is a spatial data processing system and method that allows the automatic, rapid, scalable analysis and transformation of large amounts of travel behavior data (e.g., tracking data points) into individual “points-of-interest” and discrete trips stored in a spatial database. Each trip has a point-of-interest as a starting and ending location, and contains multiple positions (e.g. latitude and longitudes) which define the travel path of the user/device during that time period.
US08843310B2
This invention relates to a navigation device (200) comprising: a processor (210) for generating, from map data, a digital map for display to a user; a store (230) for said map data and data defining the location of points of interest on said digital map; and a display (240) for displaying said digital map to said user; characterised in that the navigation device (200) further comprises: a short-range radio transceiver (265) for receiving signals from and transmitting signals to computer systems that are each associated with a respective point of interest; and a wireless network control module (490) that is configured to energise said short-range radio transceiver (265) for the exchange of signals if a determined current location of said navigation device (200) is within wireless communications range of a point of interest. A method is also disclosed.
US08843306B1
A method and apparatus for displaying an aircraft fix. A fix for an aircraft is identified, wherein the fix is a location of the aircraft. A fix identifier is displayed in a plan view display, wherein the fix identifier indicates a location of the fix on a map background in the plan view display. A fix formation identifier is displayed in the plan view display, wherein the fix formation identifier indicates a direction from a navigational aid to the fix.
US08843298B2
An engine control system which may be used in automotive vehicles includes first correlation data representing correlations between performance parameters associated with different types of performances of a combustion engine and uncorrelated common factors existing among the performance parameters and second correlation data representing correlations between the common factors and combustion parameters associated with combustion states of fuel in the combustion engine. The engine control system determines target values of the common factors using the first correlation data and also determines target values of the combustion parameters using the second correlation data. The engine control system determines command values as a function of the target values of the combustion parameter and outputs them to actuators which control combustion states of fuel in the engine for achieving desired levels of the performances of the combustion engine. This enables the performance parameters to be controlled independently of each other without any interference.
US08843290B2
Apparatus and methods for calibrating dynamic parameters of a vehicle navigation system are presented. One method may include determining whether reference position data of a vehicle is available, and measuring composite accelerations of the vehicle. The method may further include generating distance and turn angle data based upon a wheel speed sensors data, computing distance and turn angle errors based upon the independent position data, and associating the distance and turn angle errors with composite accelerations. A second method presented includes calibrating an inertial navigation sensor within a vehicle navigation system. The second method may include determining reference position data and Inertial Navigation System (INS) data, aligning an IMU with the vehicle, and aligning the IMU with an Earth fixed coordinate system. The second method may further include computing the vehicle alignment with respect to a horizontal plane, and determining calibration parameters for distance sensors associated with the vehicle.
US08843284B2
A method for controlling a manual transmission of a vehicle includes providing a manual transmission comprising a shift fork actuator and a shifter assembly comprising a shift lever, a shift knob disposed on the shifter lever, a shift lever position sensor and a shifter tactile sensor. The tactile sensor may be used to determine when pressure is applied to the shift knob of the shifter assembly and, when pressure is applied to the shift knob, vehicle operating parameters are monitored. A predicted gear selection is determined based on the monitored vehicle operating parameters. An operator gear selection is then determined based on the shift lever position sensor when the shift lever is moved. The operator gear selection is compared to the predicted gear selection and, when the predicted gear selection is the same as the operator gear selection, the manual transmission is shifted to the predicted gear selection.
US08843268B2
The present invention relates to a motor vehicle having a steering wheel, the motor vehicle including a first display, integrated into the steering wheel, for the variable representation of information; a first touchscreen, situated over the first display, for the input of commands; a second display, integrated into the steering wheel and separated spatially from the first display, for the variable representation of information; and a second touchscreen, situated over the second display, for the input of commands.
US08843266B2
The complex movements performed by the various components carrying a bucket that performs earth moving work are monitored by means of ultrasound devices relating lengths and angles obtained during a calibration step and instant measurements in a processing unit in order to output either a visual indication of the position of the bucket or signals for automatic control of a digging or other earth-moving operation.
US08843263B2
The present invention provides an onboard system for determining vehicle emissions. The emissions are determined in real-time and may be transmitted to a remote terminal for storage and/or analysis. Data is supplied solely to an emissions unit from a vehicle diagnostic system: the vehicle diagnostic system receives vehicle data from vehicle systems and sub-systems.
US08843249B2
A device for verifying guidance orders includes a passivation device for implementing comparisons between guidance orders from at least three different equipments in order to generate a passivated guidance order. For example, one of the guidance orders may be an auxiliary guidance order used to compare to the other two primary guidance orders so that the primary guidance order that is closest to the auxiliary guidance order is selected as the passivated guidance order. The passivated (e.g., validated) guidance order is transmitted to a flight control system of the aircraft.
US08843239B2
A thermostat management system facilitates an automatic pairing of a thermostat with a thermostat communication account. The thermostat management system receives a public network address associated with a computer device on a private network accessing the thermostat management account. The system retrieves the thermostat metadata including a public network address associated with a registration of the thermostat with the thermostat management system. The public network address registered with the thermostat metadata is provided by a router on the private network and therefore should match the public network address used by computer devices on the private network. The thermostat management account is paired with the thermostat if the thermostat has the same public network address as the computer device accessing the thermostat management account. Pairing the thermostat management account to the thermostat allows the thermostat management account to communicate with the thermostat over the public network through the thermostat management system.
US08843238B2
Systems and methods for limiting power consumption by a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) subsystem of a building are shown and described. A feedback controller is used to generate a manipulated variable based on an energy use setpoint and a measured energy use. The manipulated variable may be used for adjusting the operation of an HVAC device.
US08843217B1
Apparatus and method for triggering nerve-action potentials (NAPs) in each of a plurality of cochlear neurons in a cochlea of a person and in each one of a plurality of vestibular neurons in a vestibular organ of the person in order to provide auditory and balance sensations for the person, the method including generating a first plurality of light signals that stimulate a NAP in the selected cochlear neuron; delivering the first plurality of light signals to the selected cochlear neuron from within the cochlea; generating a second plurality of light signals that stimulate a NAP in the selected vestibular neuron; delivering the second plurality of light signals to the selected vestibular neuron from within the vestibular organ; and selectively controlling the first and second plurality of light signals to optically stimulate the selected cochlear and vestibular neuron in order to trigger NAPs of the selected cochlear and vestibular neuron.
US08843205B2
Methods and systems are disclosed for determining an amplitude of one or more stimulation signals corresponding to a subject signal for use by a stimulating medical device having a first group of stimulation channels mapping to a second group of electrodes, respectively. Such a method, for example, includes: obtaining the subject signal; filtering the subject signal with a first plurality of band-pass filters (BPFs) having substantially contiguous pass-bands, respectively, to obtain a first set of one or more signals; selecting at least one of the stimulation channels based on the first set; filtering the subject signal with a second plurality of BPFs having significantly overlapping pass-bands, respectively, to obtain a second set of one or more signals; and determining at least one stimulation amplitude for the at least one selected stimulation channel, respectively, based on the second set of signals.
US08843203B2
An implantable medical device delivers neurostimulation therapy to a patient according to a parameter set. A parameter set may consist of a number of programs that are delivered substantially simultaneously. When programming the implantable medical device for the patient, a clinician programmer may maintain a session log for the patient that includes a listing of programs delivered to the patient and rating information provided by a clinician and the patient for programs of the list. The listing may be ordered according to the rating information in order to facilitate the selection of programs for a parameter set. A program library that may include particularly effective programs organized according to a directory structure may be stored in a memory. One or both of the implantable medical device and a patient programmer may store usage information that provides an objective assessment of therapy use by the patient, and allows a clinician to later improve the therapy based on the usage information.
US08843197B2
A method for trending heart failure measures cardiogenic impedance (CI) and obtains signals representing estimates for or direct measurements of at least one of cardiac volume and pressure of the heart when the CI measurements were obtained. The method identifies correction factors based on the signals and applies the correction factors to the contractility estimates. A system for trending heart failure includes a contractility module to determine contractility estimates from CI measurements taken along at least a first vector through a heart, and a collection module to receive signals representing estimates for or direct measurements of at least one of cardiac volume and pressure of the heart when the CI measurements were obtained. The system further includes a factor module to identify correction factors based on the signals and a correction module to apply the correction factors to the contractility estimates.
US08843191B2
Disclosed are a method for measuring temperature distribution, which measures temperature distribution not only in fat tissue but also in mixed tissue containing high-water content tissue and fat tissue, and a method for imaging temperature distribution. In the disclosed method, a water signal, which is dependent on the water components of the tissue to be measured, and a fat signal, which is dependent on the fat components of the tissue to be measured, are acquired by means of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Fatty acid signals are acquired by separating out the fat signal into various fatty acid components. The temperature of high-water content tissue is measured on the basis of the correlation between the water signal and the water temperature, and the temperature of fat tissue is measured on the basis of the correlation between each of the various fatty acid signals and the fat temperature.
US08843190B2
Surface selective photoacoustic (PA) medical imaging is introduced. Surface selective PA imaging is responsive to surface features and does not image sub-surface features, in contrast to conventional PA imaging. The surface PA signal can be considerably larger than the bulk PA signal, for an air-coupled (or gas-coupled) acoustic transducer. Distinguishing these two signals based on time of arrival at the transducer can further distinguish the two signals. This approach provides numerous advantages. Non-contact imaging simplifies and expedites imaging, and can serve as a replacement for visual inspection by physicians. Applications include skin screening and endoscopy.
US08843187B2
Systems and methods for minimizing or eliminating transient non-glucose related signal noise due to non-glucose rate limiting phenomenon such as ischemia, pH changes, temperatures changes, and the like. The system monitors a data stream from a glucose sensor and detects signal artifacts that have higher amplitude than electronic or diffusion-related system noise. The system replaces some or the entire data stream continually or intermittently including signal estimation methods that particularly address transient signal artifacts. The system is also capable of detecting the severity of the signal artifacts and selectively applying one or more signal estimation algorithm factors responsive to the severity of the signal artifacts, which includes selectively applying distinct sets of parameters to a signal estimation algorithm or selectively applying distinct signal estimation algorithms.
US08843181B2
Methods and apparatus are directed to mobile devices utilizing motion and/or position sensors for improving operating performance and/or power efficiency. In one example, a method for reducing power consumption in a mobile device includes receiving movement information, establishing movement data based on the movement information, determining if the mobile device is stationary using the movement data; and reducing the frequency of searching for a base station when the mobile device is stationary. In another example, a mobile device which reduces power consumption based upon movement data includes an RF front end, a receiver coupled to the RF front end, a data demodulator coupled to the receiver, a searcher, coupled to the RF front end and the receiver, which searches for base stations, and a processing unit coupled to the searcher, wherein the processing unit controls the searcher based upon the stationarity of the mobile device.
US08843176B2
This private branch exchange includes a first communication portion acquiring connection target specifying information related to a connection target from a portable terminal, a second communication portion allowing telephone communication between a fixed telephone corresponding to the portable terminal and the connection target, and a control portion making a call to the connection target on the basis of the connection target specifying information and ringing the fixed telephone corresponding to the portable terminal from which the connection target specifying information has been acquired.
US08843173B2
A portable device and a method for providing a voice recognition service are disclosed. The portable device includes a mechanical vibration sensor configured to sense vibrations having a magnitude equal to or larger than a threshold and generate an electrical signal, a motion sensor configured to sense a motion of the portable device, an audio sensor configured to receive a voice command, a sensor hub configured to control a plurality of sensors including the motion sensor and the audio sensor, and a main processor configured to execute an application and control the portable device. When the portable device is placed in standby mode, upon receipt of the electrical signal from the mechanical vibration sensor, the sensor hub is configured to switch from inactive state to active state and activate the motion sensor.
US08843146B2
A method of controlling a communications channel, comprising: receiving a real time digital signal; processing the real time digital signal to provide a control signal; and controlling the base station in response to the control signal. Where the processing comprises in succeeding time slots determining whether predefined signal content is present in the real time digital signal, increasing or decreasing a first value when predefined signal content is present and, respectively, decreasing or increasing the first value when predefined signal content is not present, and changing the control signal when the first value reaches a first target value. The method also relates to controlling a base station for a headset, where the base station and headset communicates via a wireless connection and where the base station communicates with a PC via a wired interface e.g. a USB interface.
US08843145B2
Provided are a method and a device for data transmission in a multiple carrier wave system. With respect to a carrier wave that includes a first guard band, a data band, and a second guard band on a frequency domain, at least one guard physical resource unit (guard PRU) is allocated to at least one of said first guard band and said second guard band, said guard PRU is mapped to a contiguous resource unit (CRU), and data are transmitted via the CRU to which said guard PRU is mapped. The CRU to which said guard PRU has been mapped is mapped to a contiguous logical resource unit (CLRU). The index of the CRU to which said guard PRU has been mapped and the index of the CRU to which the PRU of said data band has been mapped may be continuous.
US08843138B2
A method and an apparatus for controlling transmission power in a femto base station is provided. The method includes: predicting femto base station interference to be given from an adjacent femto base station to a terminal; predicting macro base station interference to be given from a macro base station to the terminal; determining transmission power for the terminal; and transmitting a downlink signal to the terminal on the basis of the transmission power, wherein the femto base station interference is predicted on the basis of a distance between serving femto base station and the adjacent femto base station and the transmission power of the adjacent femto base station, and the macro base station interference is predicted on the basis of a distance between serving femto base station and the macro base station and the transmission power of the macro base station.
US08843134B2
A method for reducing a delay in a wireless communications system resulting from a handoff while mitigating a risk of premature termination of wireless communications, the method includes comparing data indicative of actual use of the wireless communications systems to at least one predetermined criteria. If the comparing determines a sector pairing in the wireless communications system to be statistically significant for purposes of recommending at least one search window setting, at least one value related with a distance associated with the sector pairing may be used to automatically determine a corresponding signal delay. If the corresponding signal delay exceeds a prior determined signal delay, a recommended search window setting may be determined using the corresponding signal delay.
US08843132B2
Systems, methods, computer software for providing access to wireless communication services are provided. The invention, in one embodiment, can involve storing a network address on a mobile device and sending a request for network operator data from the mobile device to a mobile virtual network operator server associated with the network address. In response, network operator data is received, and, based on the received network operator data, a network operator is selected. Communications are thereafter conducted using the selected network operator. In some situations, bids are received from multiple network operators for rates at which communication services using each network operator can be obtained. Preferences among the network operators are identified using the received bids, and the preferences are used to select the network operator for the mobile device to use in conducting communications.
US08843129B2
A subscriber station can efficiently determine an accessible base station by scanning a subset of base stations based on an optimized list received from a serving base station. The subscriber station includes a white list that contains information regarding a number of closed subscriber group (CSG) base stations to which the subscriber station is subscribed. The subscriber station can transmit a request message that includes one or more of: indication of whether the detected identifier of the femto base station is in the whitelist or not; and its location information. In response, the base station can send a message that includes the nearby femtocells and whether the femtocell is accessible or inaccessible to the subscriber station. The femto base station can be designed to be in transmission off mode when none of its subscribers is in its coverage. The serving base station can select a set of the accessible femtocells to the subscriber station, and request the selected femtocells to monitor an uplink signaling of the subscriber station so that the femtocell can be awaken when the femtocell is in transmission off mode or be aware that the subscriber station is in proximity, if the uplink signaling is detected.
US08843127B2
An approach is provided for providing optimized privacy in cognitive radio information sharing. A cognitive radio privacy optimization platform determines cognitive radio connectivity information provided by at least one device. The cognitive radio privacy optimization platform also processes and/or facilitates a processing of the cognitive radio connectivity information to determine a quality, an amount, or a combination thereof of the cognitive radio connectivity information. The cognitive radio privacy optimization platform further determines at least one service class for providing cognitive radio connectivity to the at least one device based, at least in part, on the quality, the amount, or a combination thereof of the cognitive radio information.
US08843126B1
A programmable device generates a test signal indicative of a RF signal and receives a processed test signal indicative of the test signal after processing thereof by one of a RF transmission system and a RF receiving system. The programmable device performs a comparison between the processed test signal and calibration data, and generates a report based on the comparison. A hardwire signal router provides the test signal to one of the RF transmission system and the RF receiving system, and provides the processed test signal to the programmable device. The router includes a first switching mechanism and a second switching mechanism operating in a coordinated fashion to define one of a first state for testing the RF transmission system and a second state for testing the RF receiving system.
US08843121B2
Various methods and apparatuses associated with the serving of data from a wireless mobile phone, including a wireless mobile phone, are described herein.
US08843120B2
A method and apparatus for a computer and telecommunication network which can receive, send and manage information from or to a subscriber of the network, based on the subscriber's configuration. The network is made up of at least one cluster containing voice servers which allow for telephony, speech recognition, text-to-speech and conferencing functions, and is accessible by the subscriber through standard telephone connections or through internet connections. The network also utilizes a database and file server allowing the subscriber to maintain and manage certain contact lists and administrative information. A web server is also connected to the cluster thereby allowing access to all functions through internet connections.
US08843115B2
Method and apparatus for managing system information modification in a wireless communication system
Systems and methodologies are described that facilitate improved management of a system information modification in a wireless communication environment. Various techniques can be utilized as described herein to provide respective users with information indicative of changes to specific blocks or elements within a set of system information, thereby simplifying and accelerating acquisition of new system information after a modification. In a first example, a bitmap is generated and transmitted upon a system information modification that indicates which blocks(s) and/or element(s) of the system information changed in the modification, thereby allowing an associated user to abstain from reading or processing unchanged system information. In a second example, respective block(s) and/or element(s) of the system information can include an internal value tag that indicates to a receiving entity whether the corresponding block(s) or element(s) have changed, thereby allowing a user to discard unchanged block(s) or element(s) without performing further processing.
US08843113B2
There is provided a wireless communication device including a transmission control unit configured to transmit an establishment request for establishment of connection right for wireless connection with a predetermined network, to an information processing device performing a control for establishment of the connection right, wirelessly; and a control unit configured to perform a control for the establishment of the connection right, based on establishment information transmitted from the information processing unit, on the condition that the establishment request has been authenticated by a first authentication device performing a first authentication process related to the wireless communication device, and the establishment request has been authenticated by a second authentication device performing a second authentication process related to the establishment of the connection right.
US08843105B2
A centralized rescue network system can receive an emergency alert message from a mobile device and use data from the message and from other sources to determine an appropriate response resource allocation. The centralized rescue network system may also request and receive additional data from the sending mobile device, other mobile devices, and/or other systems. A response message may be sent to the sending mobile device, other devices and/or systems. The centralized rescue network system can send requests to emergency services providers based on its analysis and processing of the emergency alert message and any other data so that the most efficient use is made of emergency resources.
US08843098B2
The present invention provides a filter that may be used as a reconstruction filter with a built-in balun. One embodiment of the filter includes first and second input nodes for receiving balanced radiofrequency signals and an inductive-capacitive (LC) circuit coupled between the first and second input nodes and first and second intermediate nodes. This embodiment of the filter also includes a coupling circuit that couples the first and second intermediate nodes to an output node. Balanced signals within a filter bandwidth are transmitted from the first and second input nodes to the output node and balanced signals outside the filter bandwidth are substantially shorted to ground.
US08843090B2
A transceiver arrangement includes a first receive path including a first connection and a first receive amplifier, and a second receive path including a second connection, a second receive amplifier, and a frequency conversion device. The transceiver also includes a controllable coupling device configured to couple an output of the first receive amplifier to an input of the frequency conversion device on the second signal path, and a control circuit configured to provide a control signal to the coupling device for selectively combining signals delivered by the first and second receive amplifiers in the correct phase based on a parameter which is derived from a signal present at the first connection or second connection, or both. The parameter derived from the received signal represents whether a signal strength of the received signal or a signal quality of the received signal exceeds a first predetermined threshold.
US08843089B2
Coefficients of a pre-distorter are determined for distortion correction of a signal amplified by a radio frequency amplifier by sampling the signal at the pre-distorter input to generate a plurality of input samples and sampling the signal at the amplifier output to generate a plurality of output samples, each of the output samples corresponding to one of the input samples, calculating a figure of merit for one or more of the input samples on the basis of the one or more input samples, selectively updating a previously selected set of input samples with the one or more input samples on the basis of the calculated figure of merit, whereby to generate an updated selected set and determining the coefficients of the pre-distorter on the basis of the input samples in the updated selected set and the corresponding output samples.
US08843088B2
Included is a radio transmission system comprising a plurality of power amplifiers (PAs); a plurality of Volterra Engine (VE) linearizers corresponding to the PAs; a plurality of feedback loops corresponding to the PAs; at least one digital hybrid matrix (DHM) coupled to the VE linearizers; and an analog hybrid matrix (AHM) coupled to the PAs, wherein the feedback loops are connected to the AHM and the VE linearizers but not to the PAs to reduce the number of feedback loops. Also included is a radio system comprising a plurality of PAs; a Volterra DHM (VDHM) coupled to the PAs; a plurality of feedback loops corresponding to the PAs; and an AHM coupled to the PAs, wherein the feedback loops are connected to the AHM but not to the PAs to reduce the number of feedback loops.
US08843086B2
Apparatus, and an associated method, that facilitates communication of data in a radio communication system that utilizes a slotted communication scheme. Multiple successive time slots are allocable upon which to communicate data to a receiving communication station. At selected intervals, a controller causes the mode of operation of the receiving communication station to be changed to pause operation in a receive mode and, during the pause, to cause operation of the receiving communication station to transmit data, such as control acknowledgments or other responses.
US08843085B2
An impedance tuning and optimization technique is described wherein an impedance interface is dynamically tuned prior to applying transmit power to the circuit. A coupled signal injected into the antenna port is used to optimize the tuning state of a tuning component such that the impedance properties of the circuit are optimized prior to application of transmit power. A coupled or injected signal at an alternate frequency band can be utilized to determine tuning state or parameters at the frequency of interest by first tuning at the frequency of the coupled or injected signal and then accessing a data base containing information that relates tuning parameters across multiple frequency bands for various levels of antenna de-tuning. A time-savings is realized when the tuning circuit is optimized prior to activation or use of the transmit/receive path.
US08843084B2
Apparatus for providing antenna diversity for a radio transmitter/receiver (TR) comprising measuring means for measuring relative received signal strengths in a plurality of antennas in a selectable frequency range, means for selecting the selectable frequency range according to a transmission frequency of the TR, and connecting means for connecting the antenna having the greatest received signal strength to the TR. The apparatus may be combined with a plurality of antennas to form a diversity antenna system, for example for use with a personal radio. The antennas may then be disposed spaced apart on the user's body e.g. by being incorporated into a garment.
US08843079B2
A communication apparatus that identifies a fault of a radio link between a radio terminal and a radio base station includes according to an aspect of the present invention: a statistical information acquisition unit configured to acquire statistical information indicating a state of the radio link between the radio terminal and the radio base station from at least one of the radio terminal and the radio base station; and a fault identification unit configured to identify a fault of the radio link based on an acquired statistical information from among a plurality of faults associated with a plurality of statistical information beforehand.
US08843074B2
When a mobile station to which receive diversity is applied performs measurement of best cell, the method for considering the plurality of antennas in the receive diversity is changed for each cell. The base station determines the method for considering the plurality of antennas for the receive diversity, and reports it to the mobile station as broadcast information or measurement control information.
US08843073B2
Techniques for radio resource measurement (RRM) that support directionality, as well as scheduled media access techniques are described. For instance, a measurement request may be transmitted from a first device to a second device. This measurement request directs the second device to take one or more measurements of a wireless channel. Various characteristics for the one or more measurements may be included in the measurement request. For example, the measurement request may indicate at least one directional parameter and at least one timing parameter for the one or more measurements. In response to the request, the first device receives a measure report that includes measured values for each of the one or more measurements.
US08843070B2
A method for transmitting and receiving interference control signaling in the wireless communication system is provided by the present invention, wherein the transmitting method includes: a base station firstly selecting SPI values of a part of sub-bands in a sub-band set in which the frequency reuse factor is Reuse=n>1 according to SPI value selecting regulation of sub-bands, then forming interference control signaling, and finally transmitting the interference control signaling to all the terminals under the base station through a downlink channel. The SPI values of a part of sub-bands may be either SPI values of kn−1 sub-bands in a sub-band set in which the frequency reuse factor is Reuse=n>1, or SPI values of sub-bands corresponding to Ln−1 transmission power levels in a sub-band set in which frequency reuse factor is Reuse=n>1. Through the present invention, the system overhead can be effectively saved.
US08843060B2
A method and system for managing data between a plurality of electronic devices in a Near Field Communication (NFC) network are provided. The method is performed at a first electronic device. A request is received from a second electronic device to send context data. The context data is then represented in accordance with a context Record Type Definition (RTD). The context RTD is used for defining context data in the NFC network. The context data that is represented in accordance with the context RTD is exchanged with the second electronic device.
US08843059B2
A system for gateway RF diversity using a configurable spot beam satellite including a satellite, a first gateway connected to a first VSAT population through the satellite by a first gateway spot beam and a first user spot beam set, a diversity gateway located outside of the first gateway spot beam for the first gateway, and a diversity control function to command the satellite to connect the first user spot beam set for the first gateway to a diversity gateway spot beam when the first gateway experiences service interruption.
US08843058B2
A mobile relay system for supporting communications between a fixed station and mobile terminals comprising a plurality of mobile relay stations that are associated with each other and provided on a moving platform, wherein each of the plurality of mobile relay stations is capable of facilitating communications with mobile terminals within communication range and at least one of the plurality of mobile relay stations is further capable of facilitating communications with a fixed station within communication range of the at least one of the plurality of mobile relay stations.
US08843055B2
An image forming apparatus capable of improving productivity in a print job mixedly involving single-sided printing and double-sided printing. Sheets are fed one by one to an image forming section. When double-sided printing is to be performed, a sheet having an image formed on the first side thereof by the image forming section is re-fed thereto so as to have an image formed on the second side thereof. When a sheet for double-sided printing exists, which is posterior in page order to a sheet for single-sided printing, an image forming order is changed such that the first side of the sheet for double-sided printing is subjected to image formation prior to the sheet for single-sided printing. When it is predicted that a state will occur in which the sheet for single-sided printing cannot be fed, the image forming order is not changed.
US08843052B2
A slide rail includes an outer rail including a first rail board and a pair of rims projecting from the first rail board, forming first grooves, an inner rail inserted between the first grooves and including a second rail board narrower than the first rail board and a pair of rims projecting from the second rail board, forming second grooves, a large-diameter roller held between the first grooves and attached to a leading side of the second rail board in a direction in which the inner rail is inserted, and a small-diameter roller held between the second grooves and attached to a leading side of the first rail board in a direction in which the inner rail is drawn out. The first and second rail boards include protruding portions extending along the long side and protruding outward.
US08843046B2
An image heater a hollow heating roller having a hole at an axial end portion thereof; a bearing supporting the heating roller; a heat insulating bush fitted between an outer surface of the heating roller and the bearing; a retaining ring for retaining the heat insulating bush in an axial direction of the heating roller, the retaining ring including a projection engaging with the hole; an annular spacer provided between the retaining ring and the heat insulating bush, wherein the spacer includes a connecting portion having a connecting hole, the retaining ring includes a hooking portion engaging with the connecting hole.
US08843022B2
In an image forming apparatus, a drum supporting member has a pair of opposed sidewalls facing in an axial direction of a plurality of photoconductor drums, and supports the plurality of photoconductor drums at insides of the sidewalls. A sheet output tray portion is formed in an upper wall of a casing of the apparatus as a downwardly recessed portion to receive a recording sheet with an image formed thereon. Part of the drum supporting member is disposed in spaces formed inside the casing at both sides of the sheet output tray portion facing in the axial direction of the plurality of photoconductor drums. The part of the drum supporting member overlaps the sheet output tray portion as viewed in the axial direction.
US08843021B2
A sealing system and method for a remanufactured toner cartridge is provided. The remanufactured toner cartridge includes a first fixed portion, a second fixed portion spaced from the first fixed portion, and a seal having a fixed end, a free end, an engaging side, and a non-engaging side. An elongated member is inserted between the first fixed portion and the non-engaging side of the seal, and urges the engaging side of the seal into sealing engagement with the second fixed portion.
US08843020B2
A method of modifying a printer cartridge is disclosed. The modifications increase the versatility of an existing cartridge by enabling the cartridge to be transformed into a universal cartridge. The OEM print cartridges are restricted to use in a few or only one type of printer due to specialized gear side end plates and contact side end plates. End plates contain features or portions, such as bosses, which restrict the number of models of printer that a cartridge may be fit into. The features or portions may be removed by any combination of cutting, modifying, or replacing the gear side end or the contact side end plates. Removing the portions, removes the restrictions imposed by the end plates and allows the print cartridge to been fit into a greater number of printers. The universal cartridge may be used in the printer for which it is originally designed as well as another printer or printer family, thus increasing the versatility of the cartridge.
US08843012B2
A color image forming apparatus to which a plurality of cartridges are detachably mounted, including: main body side positioning portions provided on an apparatus main body; a cartridge supporting member detachably supporting the cartridges having cartridge side electric contacts and cartridge side positioned portions, and movable among a first position for forming images, a second position retracted from the first position, and a third position where the cartridges are pulled out of the main body; a pressing member pressing the positioned portions on the positioning portions; and main body side electric contacts provided on the main body, wherein the electric contacts are directly and electrically connected to the electric contacts when the positioned portions are pressed on the positioning portions by the pressing member.
US08843009B2
An image forming apparatus includes an image forming mechanism, an image bearing member, a transfer member, a transfer member mount, and an image detector. The image forming mechanism forms a first image and a second image on a surface of the image bearing member. The transfer member is disposed facing the image bearing member and contactable thereagainst to form a transfer nip at which the first image is transferred from the image bearing member to a recording medium. The transfer member mount on which the transfer member is disposed accommodates multiple different sizes of transfer member. The image detector detects the second image on the surface of the image bearing member. The image forming apparatus includes a plurality of interchangeable transfer members, only one of which at any given time faces the image bearing member, and a transfer member switching device to switch between the plurality of transfer members.
US08843007B2
An image forming apparatus includes a patch image generation unit which generates a patch image for image density detection disposed between toner images, and a patch density sensor which detects a density of the patch image. In order to prevent the output quality of a printed image from varying with the type of paper use, a correction unit performs correction processing to match a detected density and a target density by comparing the detected density of the patch image detected by the patch density sensor and the target density of the patch image which is set in advance, a toner deposit control unit controls a toner deposit when the image forming unit forms an image based upon image data and when the patch image generation unit generates the patch image, and a paper interval control unit controls an interval between consecutive papers.
US08843006B2
An image forming apparatus including: an image forming unit that forms an image; a carrier that carries and conveys the image; a detecting unit that detects a first adjustment image based on a light reception result of reflection of light projected toward the carrier; and an adjusting unit that adjusts a formation condition of an image to be formed on a sheet based on a result of the detection of the first adjustment image, wherein the image forming unit forms a second adjustment image having a first mark on the carrier, and wherein when the detecting unit detects the second adjustment image based on a light reception result of reflection of light projected toward the carrier, the adjusting unit adjusts a position of the first adjustment image to be formed on the carrier in the orthogonal direction by using a second orthogonal direction length of the first mark.
US08843005B2
A developing device includes a developing chamber; a toner carrier disposed in the developing chamber; a toner supply part configured to supply toner to the toner carrier; a toner amount detecting part configured to change its rotational position according to the amount of toner near the toner supply part to detect the amount of toner remaining in the developing chamber; and a toner flow restricting part configured to block movement of the toner around the toner amount detecting part which is caused by a flow of the toner in the developing chamber generated by the rotation of the toner supply part and the toner carrier.
US08843004B2
An area calculating unit calculates an image area of a toner image formed on a sheet recording member. A behavior detecting unit detects behavior of the recording member fed out of a conveying nip formed by a pair of conveying members. A thickness obtaining unit obtains thickness information of the recording member. An index calculating unit calculates an index value indicating windability of the recording member with respect to the conveying members based on the image area, the behavior, and the thickness information.
US08843000B2
An optical fiber transmission system includes a light emitting source, a plurality of light receiving terminals, and a plurality of optical fibers connecting the light emitting source to the light receiving terminals. The optical fiber transmission system further includes a plurality of controlling modules positioned between the light receiving terminals and the optical fibers. Each of the plurality of controlling modules includes a controller, a signal analyzer, and a reflective member. The signal analyzer and the reflective member are connected to the controller and analyze and reflect optical signals respectively.
US08842998B2
Apparatuses and methods for modulating an optical signal are disclosed. One embodiment is a method comprising: phase modulating a slave laser which is injection locked to a master laser to produce an arcsine phase modulated optical signal, and combining the arcsine phase modulated optical signal with an output optical signal from the master laser.
US08842995B2
A system for delivering optical power over optical conduits includes at least one optical power source delivering multiple optical power forms to multiple outlet nodes in a variety of applications.
US08842988B2
Data center network architectures, systems, and methods that can reduce the cost and complexity of data center networks. Such data center network architectures, systems, and methods employ physical optical ring network topologies, optical nodes, and optical junction nodes to efficiently allocate bandwidth within the data center networks, while reducing the overall physical interconnectivity requirements of the data center networks.
US08842980B2
An imaging device comprising: an imaging device; a blur detection unit; a correction operation unit; a blur correction position calculation unit; a driving unit; a centripetal force addition unit for adding a centripetal force that returns the correction operation unit to a center of the range of movement; and a swing correction mode execution unit for executing image blur correction control of a swing correction mode that suppresses an image blur in a state where the centripetal force addition unit adds a centripetal force of a predetermined level to the correction operation unit in an exposure period in which the imaging element is exposed, and returns the correction operation unit to the center of the range of movement by adding a centripetal force greater than the centripetal force in the exposure period to the correction operation unit in a non-exposure period in which the imaging element is not exposed.
US08842968B2
A reproduction apparatus includes a calculating portion that calculates a packet position corresponding to specified reproduction time based on header information contained in an image and sound file when reproduction time is specified by an operating portion, and a reproducing portion that starts reproduction of image and sound from a packet of the calculated packet position.
US08842963B2
A method and structure for terminating an optical fiber are disclosed that provide an optical fiber termination structure with a small volume and very low return loss, even when the termination is in close proximity to reflective surfaces. In one example embodiment, the optical fiber termination reduces reflections into the one or more cores to a return loss of −70 dB or less regardless of the presence of surfaces proximate the optical fiber termination. At the same time, a length of the optical fiber termination is less than 5 mm and a largest transverse dimension of the optical fiber termination is less than 325 um. The optical fiber termination is useful in fiber sensing applications in general and is particularly effective for terminating a multi-core fiber used in a distributed shape sensing application.
US08842945B2
Three dimensionally integrated semiconductor systems include a photoactive device operationally coupled with a current/voltage converter on a semiconductor-on-insulator (SeOI) substrate. An optical interconnect is operatively coupled to the photoactive device. A semiconductor device is bonded over the SeOI substrate, and an electrical pathway extends between the current/voltage converter and the semiconductor device bonded over the SeOI substrate. Methods of forming such systems include forming a photoactive device on an SeOI substrate, and operatively coupling a waveguide with the photoactive device. A current/voltage converter may be formed over the SeOI substrate, and the photoactive device and the current/voltage converter may be operatively coupled with one another. A semiconductor device may be bonded over the SeOI substrate and operatively coupled with the current/voltage converter.
US08842937B2
Methods for reducing dimensionality of hyperspectral image data having a number of spatial pixels, each associated with a number of spectral dimensions, include receiving sets of coefficients associated with each pixel of the hyperspectral image data, a set of basis vectors utilized to generate the sets of coefficients, and either a maximum error value or a maximum data size. The methods also include calculating, using a processor, a first set of errors for each pixel associated with the set of basis vectors, and one or more additional sets of errors for each pixel associated with one or more subsets of the set of basis vectors. Utilizing such errors calculations, an optimum size of the set of basis vectors may be ascertained, allowing for either a minimum amount of error within the maximum data size, or a minimum data size within the maximum error value.
US08842927B2
A method of encoding an image by transforming a group of prediction units into a frequency domain. A prediction unit may be predicted by using prediction values of the prediction units in the group of prediction units, instead of pixels generated by encoding and then restoring the other prediction units in the group of prediction units. Thus, an encoding compression ratio may be increased as a result of grouping the prediction units.
US08842926B2
A method and apparatus for encoding an image is provided. An image coding unit, including a region that deviates from a boundary of a current picture, is divided to obtain a coding unit having a smaller size than the size of the image coding unit, and encoding is performed only in a region that does not deviate from the boundary of the current picture. A method and apparatus for decoding an image encoded by the method and apparatus for encoding an image is also provided.
US08842916B2
A method for model-based signature profile extraction includes capturing an image of an authentic glyph. An outline model is fit to the image of the authentic glyph, and an authentic signature profile is extracted based on the outline model. A signature profile extracted from an image of another glyph may be compared to the to the authentic signature profile so as to forensically verify authenticity of the other glyph The system for model-based signature profile extraction includes a controller, a capture unit, an outline unit, a profiling unit, and a forensic verification unit. A computer readable medium containing executable instructions is also described.
US08842915B2
A system and method of connectivity-based image processing to identify and extract objects in image data is described. Variations on the method may include iterative local smoothing operations and various algorithmic solutions to improve real-time processing. Variations may also include object extraction processes based on user-provided information about an object in an image.
US08842899B2
A method and apparatus for reconstructing an image and a medical image system are provided. An image reconstruction processing method may include acquiring an initial value with respect to a tomographic image of an object to be inspected, initializing an auxiliary variable, acquiring one or both of a weighted value and an error value, based on a measured value, transforming a measured image signal, updating the auxiliary variable using a transform coefficient used to transform the measured image signal, and updating the measured value using the updated auxiliary variable, and one or both of the acquired weighted value and the error value.
US08842895B2
According to a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) apparatus, a scanning-parameter limit calculating unit creates examination information that represents scanning conditions for collection of magnetic resonance signal data based on scanning parameters set by an operator; a scanning-condition edit/scan positioning unit creates a time chart that indicates the type and a sequential execution order of an event to be executed when collecting magnetic resonance signal data based on the examination information created by the scanning-parameter limit calculating unit, and causes a time-chart display unit to display the created time chart.
US08842893B2
A system and method for a procedure that can be performed on any appropriate subject. Procedures can include assembling any appropriate work piece or installing members into a work piece, such as an airframe, autoframe, etc. Regardless of the subject, generally the procedure can have a selected result that is efficacious. The efficacious result may be the desired or best result for the procedure. The system and method can be used in confirming a selected result that can be efficacious.
US08842889B1
A system, method and computer program product for face recognition in digital images containing portraits or images of human faces. The facial images are detected and pupil coordinates are calculated. A facial image is converted into a black and white image. A rectangle containing the face is identified. Then, pupil coordinates are determined. A rectangle of a pre-defined size is cut out from the image so the pupils are located at pre-defined coordinates. External lighting effects are reduced and an image template is generated by calculating sets of values of different image points.
US08842883B2
Aspects of the present invention include object detection training systems and methods and using object detection systems and methods that have been trained. Embodiments presented herein include hybrid learning approaches that combine global classification and local adaptations, which automatically adjust model complexity according to data distribution. Embodiments of the present invention automatically determine model complexity of the local learning algorithm according to the distribution of ambiguous samples. And, embodiments of the local adaptation from global classifier avoid the common under-training problem for local classifier.
US08842879B2
A video processing device includes a content analyzer that receives a video signal and generates content recognition data based on the video signal, wherein the content recognition data is associated with at least one timestamp included in the video signal. A metadata search device generates time-coded metadata in response to content recognition data and in accordance with the at least one time stamp. A metadata association device generates a processed video signal from the video signal, wherein the processed video signal includes the time-coded metadata.
US08842875B2
Digital watermark encoding—and associated registry transactions—are made transparent to consumers—performed as built-in features of common image processing operations, such as taking a picture, or printing a picture. In one arrangement, a user interacts with buttons and other controls of a graphical user interface on the touchscreen of a printer to author specific experiences that should be triggered by a hardcopy image—such as launching a related video, playing a recorded audio clip, displaying other images in a story narrative to which the hardcopy image relates, etc. The printer then attends to interactions with network infrastructure components needed to give the hardcopy print the user-desired functionality. In another arrangement, the content experience triggered by a printed image is authored automatically, e.g., by reference to data mined from the image's online context (e.g., Facebook photo album). A great variety of other features and arrangements are also detailed.
US08842871B2
Headsets are provided with integrated switch assemblies. An integrated switch assembly can include a switch hidden from view by a housing. The switch can be activated when a user applies pressure to the housing. The housing may include a flexible housing cover that, when depressed, may engage the switch contained within the housing. When engaged, the switch may move or snap to a switch activation position within the housing.
US08842869B2
A method and apparatus for sound source localization using microphones are disclosed. The method includes: receiving signals coming from a sound source through microphones covering all directions; distinguishing the received signals into those signals directly input to the microphones from the sound source (direct signals) and those signals indirectly input to the microphones (indirect signals); identifying a candidate region at which the sound source is present using locations of the microphones receiving direct signals; selecting a point in the candidate region as a candidate location; drawing one or more virtual tangent lines, contacting with the circumference of the apparatus, from the candidate location; placing locations of the microphones receiving indirect signals on the virtual tangent lines; and localizing the sound source on the basis of signals passing through the microphones receiving direct signals and through the virtual locations of the microphones receiving indirect signals.
US08842862B2
The adjustment of a hearing device with regard to a current feedback path is to be designed in a more user-friendly manner. For this purpose, provision is made for hearing aid equipment, in particular a hearing device or a non-programmable device such as a headset, including a measuring device for measuring a feedback path and an operating facility for operating the hearing aid equipment by the wearer. The operating facility allows a measurement cycle to be activated to determine at least one characteristic of the feedback path. The hearing aid wearer can thus make adjustments themselves in terms of the feedback path and therefore does not have to rely on an acoustician.
US08842861B2
A method of processing signals in a hearing aid system (200, 300) comprises the steps of transforming two audio signals to the time-frequency domain, calculating the interaural coherence, deriving a first gain based on the interaural coherence, applying the first gain value in the amplification of the time-frequency signals, and transforming the signals back into the time domain for further processing in the hearing aid. The first gain value as a function of the value representing the interaural coherence comprises three contiguous ranges for the values representing the interaural coherence, where the maximum slope in the first and third range are smaller than the maximum slope in the second range, the first range comprising low interaural coherence values, the third range comprising high interaural coherence values, and the second range comprising intermediate interaural coherence values. The invention further provides a hearing aid system (200, 300) adapted for suppression of interfering speakers.
US08842859B2
A packaged microphone has a base with a top face, a lid coupled to the base and forming an interior, and a MEMS microphone (i.e., a die or chip) secured to the top face of the base within the interior. The packaged microphone also includes a circuit chip secured to the top face of the base within the interior. The circuit chip has a top surface with a top pad, a bottom surface with a bottom pad, and a via. The bottom pad is electrically connected to the base, and the via electrically connects the top pad with the bottom pad. A wire bond is connected between the MEMS microphone and the top pad on the circuit chip. The MEMS microphone is electrically connected to the bottom pad and the base through the via.
US08842855B2
A sound volume control circuit includes: a first operational amplifier; a variable resistor circuit connected between an output and an inverting input of the first operational amplifier and having a plurality of resistance values; an R-2R ladder circuit connected between a voltage source of an input voltage; and a control circuit controlling the variable resistor circuit and the R-2R ladder circuit; wherein when changing a resistance value of the variable resistor circuit from a first resistance value to a second resistance value, so as to change the output voltage in a step size where a difference between the output voltage corresponding to the first resistance value and the output voltage corresponding to the second resistance value is further segmented, the control circuit changes the magnitude of the electric current flowing to the variable resistor circuit by use of the R-2R ladder circuit.
US08842840B2
Systems and methods providing a key management platform that generates and distributes demand-based encryption and decryption keys are described. In one embodiment, among others, a key management system comprises a processor to receive, from a requester system, a request to generate a private encryption key and a public encryption key; receive, from the requester system, identification information identifying a receiver system; generate a first private encryption key and a first public encryption key in response to receiving the request; send the first private encryption key to the requester system; and send the first public encryption key to the receiver system.
US08842839B2
A device is arranged to carry out security-related tasks using one-time pad data. The device has a memory for holding multiple one-time pads, each pad having a different security rating and being intended for use by the device in executing a task to that security rating. Provisioning of the pads with one-time pad data involves carrying out a process for obtaining new secret random data. This process has a security rating with the value of this rating varying according to the nature and parameters of the process concerned. The security rating of the process used to obtain the new secret random data is matched to that of the pad to be provisioned with one-time data, or the other way around, such that the security rating of the process is as least as good as that of the pad to be provisioned.
US08842838B2
Disclosed are an apparatus and method of de-duplicating at least one data file. One example method may include requesting a list of data rows stored in a database to be de-duplicated, receiving the list of the data rows based on a single filekey associated with the at least one data file, copying the at least one data file to a data storage memory, and deleting the data rows entries from a file registry of the database.
US08842825B2
A disclosed data encoding apparatus includes: an arbitrary number of storage units; a data transfer control unit dividing input data into data blocks in accordance with the arbitrary number of storage units and transferring the data blocks to each storage unit; and encoding units having the same number as the storage units, the encoding units encoding the data blocks using a different cryptographic key for each storage unit while the data blocks are transferred by the data transfer control unit, wherein each storage unit stores the data blocks encoded by the encoding units.
US08842822B2
A system and method in accordance with a non-limiting aspect minimizes echo return loss in a communications system. The dial tone is broken on an analog telephone line connected to a hybrid circuit having selectable impedance configurations and that interfaces a digital communications circuit and the analog telephone line. A white noise signal as a test call is inserted through the hybrid circuit onto the analog telephone line corresponding to a selected impedance configuration. The returned white noise signal is used for measuring the echo return loss. The test call is dropped. This process is repeated at different impedance configurations to obtain echo return loss measurements at each of the impedance configurations. The optimum impedance setting configuration is determined based on the results and applied to the hybrid circuit and typically set during a running telephone configuration.
US08842821B2
Methods and apparatus for facilitation communication between a customer requesting accommodation of a particular language and an available agent not proficient in the particular language through use of machine translation are disclosed. The method can include receiving a communication request from the customer, including a request that the communication accommodate the particular language. The method can include determining that the contact handling system is unlikely to accommodate the communication request via an agent proficient in the requested language within a threshold time period. The method can include beginning communication between the customer and an available agent not proficient in the particular language using machine translation to facilitate the communication.
US08842820B2
Routing communications at a communications center includes servicing a first communication concurrently with receiving a second communication, at the communications center. It is determined, using a tangible first processor, whether a sender of the first communication and a sender of the second communication are associated with a common account. The second communication is routed to an agent based on the determining.
US08842817B2
According to various embodiments of the present invention, systems and methods for local number portability in a telecommunication network are disclosed. An embodiment of a method includes submitting a local number portability (LNP) order for the TN directly to a first telecommunications carrier that the TN is to be transferred from, triggering a port of the TN in accordance with the LNP order, and porting the TN from the first telecommunications carrier to the second telecommunications carrier, wherein the second telecommunications carrier is bypassed by the customer during the submitting and the triggering of the LNP order. Other embodiments are also disclosed.
